CONTEMPORARY POETS

( a ) Ticidas wrote the Hymenaeus and love-poems on Perilla. For the latter cf. Ovid, Trist. ii. 433-4 and 437-8 (read by Riese immediately after), ‘Quid refer am Ticidae, quid Memmi carmen, apud quos rebus adest nomen no minibus que pudor, et quorum libris modo dis simul at a Perillae nomine nunc legitur dicta, Metelle, tuo?’ ( b ) C. Helvius Cinna was intimate with Catullus, who refers to him in c. 10 as being along with him in Bithynia in B.C. 57. See p. 136 . From the reference to Gallia Cisalpina in Cinna, frag. I (Bährens), we might conclude that he was a countryman of Catullus, ‘At nunc me Cenumana per salicta big is raeda rap it citata nan is.’ In Sueton. Iul. 52, Cinna is spoken of as a partisan of Caesar: ‘Helvius Cinna tribunus pleb is,’ etc.; and he is probably identical with the person mentioned ibid. 85, as put to death in mistake for a man of the same name shortly after the murder of Caesar: ‘Plebs statim a funere ad domum Bruti et Ca ii cum facibus tetendit, atque aegre repulsa, obvium sib i Helvium Cinnam per errorem nominis, quasi Cornel i us is e et, quem graviter pridie con tion a tum de Caesare require bat, occidit caputque eius praefixum hastae circumtulit.’ Cf. especially Plutarch, Brut. 20, ἦν δέ τις Κίννας, ποιητικὸς ἀνὴρ, οὐδὲν τῆς αἰτίας μετέχων, ἀλλὰ καὶ φίλος Καίσαρος γεγονὼς , etc. [38] Weichert ( Poet. Lat. Rell. p. 157) thinks that Plutarch has confused the tr. pleb. with the poet, and that Virgil’s words (below) imply that Helvius Cinna was alive when the Eclogue was written ( B.C. 41-39). The latest authorities, however, identify the two persons. Verg. Ecl. 9, 35, ‘Nam neque adhuc Vario vide or nec dicere Cinna digna, sed argutos inter strepere anser [39] olores.’ Cinna’s works were: 1. Zmyrna , on the incestuous love of Myrrha for Cinyras. Cinna spent nine years on this poem, which was very obscure. Catull. 95, ‘Zmyrna mei Cinnae non am post denique me em quam coeptast nonamque edit a post hiemem.’ Philargyrius ad Verg. Ecl. 9, 35, ‘Fuit autem liber obscurus adeo ut et nonnulli eius aetatis grammatic i in eum scrip ser int magnamque ex eius enarratione sint gloriam consecuti.’ 2. Prop empt icon Poll i on is , written on the occasion of As in i us Pollio’s visit to Greece. 3. Epigrams and Love Poems. —For the latter cf. Ovid, Trist. ii. 435 (on the erotic poets), ‘Cinna quoque his comes est, Cinnaque procacior Anser, et leve Cornific i parque Cat on is opus.’ ( c ) C. Licinius Macer Calvus was the son of the annalist C. Licinius Macer, and was born 28th May, B.C. 82. Cic. ad Q.F. ii. 4, 1, ‘Macer Licinius.’ Valer. Max. ix. 12, 7, ‘C. Licinius Macer, Calvi pater.’ Pliny, N.H. vii. 165, ‘C. Mario Cn. Carbone iii. co . a. d. v. Kal. Iun. M. Caelius Rufus et C. Licinius Calvus eadem die geniti sunt.’ Calvus probably died B.C. 47. Cf. Cic. ad Fam. xv. 21, 4, written to C. Trebonius towards the end of that year. The letter refers to correspondence with Calvus, and criticizes his oratory. See also Cic. Brut. 279 and 283-4; and, for his relations with Cicero, Tac. Dial. 18. Calvus vied with Cicero for the first place in the forum. His best known speeches were in Vatinium , whom he prosecuted at least three times ( B.C. 58-54). Seneca, Controv. vii. 4, 6-8, ‘Calvus, qui diu cum Cicerone iniqui imam litem de principatu eloquentiae habu it, usque eo violent us actor et concitatus fuit, ut in media eius actione surgeret Vat in i us reus et exclamaret: Rogo vos, iudices, num si iste disertus est, ideo me damnari oportet? Idem postea cum videret a client i bus Cat on is, rei sui, Pollionem Asinium circumventum in foro caedi, imponi se supra cippum iu it; erat enim parvolus statura, propter quod etiam Catullus in hendecasyllabis (c. 53) vocat illum “salaputtium disertum.” ... Solebat praeterea excedere subsellia sua et impetu lat us usque in adversariorum partem trans curr ere. Et carmina quoque eius, quamvis iocosa sint, plena sunt in gent is animi... Compositio quoque eius in action i bus ad exemplum Demos then is riget: nihil in ill a placidum, nihil lene est, omnia excitata et fluctuant i a.’ Catullus also refers to Calvus in c. 14, and in c. 96, where he speaks of the ‘mors immatura Quintiliae,’ probably Calvus’ wife. Of the poems about nineteen lines are extant. They included: (1) ludicra (in hendecasyllables); (2) epithalamia ; (3) Io ; (4) ad uxorem ; (5) epigram mat a . For the last cf. Sueton. Iul. 73, ‘C. Calvo post famosa epigram mat a de reconciliatione per amicos agent i ultro ac prior scrips it.’ (6) ‘Calvi de aquae frigidae usu,’ which forms the title of Martial xiv. 196, may have been a didactic poem. Other references to Calvus’ poetry are: Ovid, Trist. ii. 431, ‘Par fuit exigui similisque licentia Calvi, detexit variis qui sua furta mod is’; Propert. iii. 34, 89, ‘Haec etiam docti confe ast pagina Calvi cum caneret miserae funera Quintiliae’; Hor. Sat. i. 10, 16, ‘Illi, script a quibus comoedia prisca viris est, hoc stabant, hoc sunt i mit and i: quos neque pulcher Hermogenes umquam legit, neque simi us iste nil praeter Calvum et doctus cant are Catullum.’ ( d ) P. Terentius Varro At acinus was born B.C. 82 in Gallia Narbonensis near Atax (a river, not a town, as Jerome states). Jerome yr. Abr. 1935 = B.C. 82, ‘P. Terentius Varro vico Atace in provincia Narbonensi nascitur; qui postea xxxv. annum agens Graecas litter as cum summo studio didicit.’ Porphyr. ad Hor. Sat. i. 10, 46, ‘Terentius Varro Narbonensis, qui At acinus ab Atace fluvio dict us est.’ Varro must have died before B.C. 35, when Horace, speaking of satire, wrote, Sat. i. 10, 46, ‘Hoc erat, experto frustra Varrone Atacino atque quibusdam ali is melius quod scribere po em.’ Varro’s works were: 1. Bellum Sequanicum , probably an epic on Caesar’s war with Ariovistus in B.C. 58. 2. Saturae , mentioned only in the above pa age of Horace. 3. Argonautae , a translation from A poll on i us Rhodius in four Books. Probus ad Verg. Georg. ii. 126, ‘Varro qui quattuor libros de Argonaut is edidit.’ Cf. Sen. Controv. vii. 1, 27, ‘Illos optimos versus Varronis (= Apoll. iii. 749-50), “Desierant latrare canes urbesque silebant; omnia noctis erant placid a compost a quiete.” Solebat Ovidius de his versibus dicere, potui e fier i longe meliores, si secund i versus ultima pars abscideretur et sic desineret “omnia noctis erant.”’ [40] Cf. also Quint. x. 1, 87; Ovid, Am. i. 15, 21; Stat. Silv. ii. 7, 77. 4. Chorographia , a geographical work, as the fragments show. 5. Ephemeris .—Serv. ad Verg. Georg. i. 375, ‘Hic locus omnis de Varrone est; nam et Varro et Vergilius Aratum secuti sunt.’ 6. Elegies. —One line is given by Bährens. Cf. Propert. iii. 34, 85, ‘Haec quoque perfecto ludebat Iasone Varro, Varro Leucadiae maxima flamm a suae.’ ( e ) Publilius Syrus was a manumitted slave, a native of Syria, probably of Antioch. Jerome yr. Abr. 1974 = B.C. 43, ‘Publilius mimographus natione Syrus Romae scaenam tenet.’ Pliny, N.H. xxxv. 199, ‘Est et vili ima [creta] qua circum praeducere ad victoriae not am pedesque venalium trans maria advectorum denotare instituerunt maiores talemque Publilium Antiochium ( MSS. lochium) mimicae scaenae conditorem et astrologiae consobrinum eius Manilium Antiochum, item grammaticae Staberium Erotem eadem nave advectos videre proavi.’ An account of Publilius’ manumi ion, and his contest with Laberius in B.C. 45, is given by Macrob. Saturn. ii. 7, 4-8, and is quoted under ‘Laberius,’ p. 97 . Publilius’ works were: 1. Mimi. —Two titles are quoted. 2. Sententiae. —Six hundred and ninety-seven lines from his mimes (unconnected and alphabetically arranged) are preserved from different sources. Most are iambic senarii, some trochaic septenarii. Macrob. Saturn. ii. 7, 10, ‘Publili sententiae feruntur lepidae et ad communem usum adcommodati imae.’ Cicero heard his and Laberius’ plays in B.C. 46. See ad Fam. xii. 18, 2, quoted under ‘Laberius,’ p. 99 . Sen. de tranquill. 11, 8, ‘Publilius, tragic is comic is que vehement i or in gen i is, quotiens mimic as inept i as et verb a ad summam cave am spec tanti a reliquit, inter multa ali a cothurno, non tantum sipario fort i or a, et hoc ait, “Cuivis potest accidere quod cuiquam potest.”’ The lines are, like the above, proverbs of worldly wisdom, and seem to have been used in schools. Jerome Ep. ad Laetam , 107, ‘Legi quondam in scholis puer, “Aegre reprendas quod sin as consuescere.”’ cHAPTER III tHE AUGUST AN AGE.