TThe earliest Latin poetry dates from the First Punic War (264-241 B.C.), and consisted mainly of religious hymns; poems in praise of ancestors, and the playful songs known as scommata (jests). These poets (for example Ennius (239-169 B.C.), the comedian Plautus (250-184 B.C.), who was particularly influenced by Hellenistic New Comedy, Terence (185-159 B.C.), and Lucilius (180-54 B.C.)) promoted the virtues of patriotism, self-respect, endurance and simplicity. However, the most important poets writing in Latin belonged to the Augustan Age - the emperor's devoted panegyrists. Virgil (70-19 B.C.) wrote epic poems of which the greatest is the Aeneid. Horace (65-8 B.C.) and Ovid (43 B.C.-18 A.D.) wrote amatory, lyric poetry, a form which found its consummation in the epigrams of Martial (1st century A.D.).