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 referam Ticidae, quid Memmi carmen, apud quos
rebus adest nomen nominibusque pudor,
et quorum libris modo dissimulata 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
bigis raeda rapit citata nanis.’
In Sueton. Iul. 52, Cinna is spoken of as a partisan of Caesar: ‘Helvius Cinna tribunus plebis,’ 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 Cassii cum facibus tetendit, atque aegre repulsa, obvium sibi Helvium Cinnam per errorem nominis, quasi Cornelius is esset, quem graviter pridie contionatum de Caesare requirebat, 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 videor 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 nonam post denique messem
quam coeptast nonamque edita post hiemem.’
Philargyrius ad Verg. Ecl. 9, 35, ‘Fuit autem liber obscurus adeo ut et nonnulli eius aetatis grammatici in eum scripserint magnamque ex eius enarratione sint gloriam consecuti.’
2. Propempticon Pollionis, written on the occasion of Asinius 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 Cornifici parque Catonis 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. coss. 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 iniquissimam litem de principatu eloquentiae habuit, usque eo violentus actor et concitatus fuit, ut in media eius actione surgeret Vatinius reus et exclamaret: Rogo vos, iudices, num si iste disertus est, ideo me damnari oportet? Idem postea cum videret a clientibus Catonis, rei sui, Pollionem Asinium circumventum in foro caedi, imponi se supra cippum iussit; erat enim parvolus statura, propter quod etiam Catullus in hendecasyllabis (c. 53) vocat illum “salaputtium disertum.” ... Solebat praeterea excedere subsellia sua et impetu latus usque in adversariorum partem transcurrere. Et carmina quoque eius, quamvis iocosa sint, plena sunt ingentis animi ... Compositio quoque eius in actionibus ad exemplum Demosthenis riget: nihil in illa placidum, nihil lene est, omnia excitata et fluctuantia.’
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) epigrammata. For the last cf. Sueton. Iul. 73, ‘C. Calvo post famosa epigrammata de reconciliatione per amicos agenti ultro ac prior scripsit.’ (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 modis’;
Propert. iii. 34, 89,
‘Haec etiam docti confessast pagina Calvi
cum caneret miserae funera Quintiliae’;
Hor. Sat. i. 10, 16,
‘Illi, scripta quibus comoedia prisca viris est,
hoc stabant, hoc sunt imitandi: quos neque pulcher
Hermogenes umquam legit, neque simius iste
nil praeter Calvum et doctus cantare Catullum.’
(d) P. Terentius Varro Atacinus 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 litteras cum summo studio didicit.’
Porphyr. ad Hor. Sat. i. 10, 46, ‘Terentius Varro Narbonensis, qui Atacinus ab Atace fluvio dictus 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 aliis melius quod scribere possem.’
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 passage of Horace.
3. Argonautae, a translation from Apollonius Rhodius in four Books. Probus ad Verg. Georg. ii. 126, ‘Varro qui quattuor libros de Argonautis edidit.’
Cf. Sen. Controv. vii. 1, 27, ‘Illos optimos versus Varronis (= Apoll. iii. 749-50),
“Desierant latrare canes urbesque silebant;
omnia noctis erant placida composta quiete.”
Solebat Ovidius de his versibus dicere, potuisse fieri longe meliores, si secundi 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 flamma 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 vilissima [creta] qua circum praeducere ad victoriae notam 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’ manumission, 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 adcommodatissimae.’
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, tragicis comicisque vehementior ingeniis, quotiens mimicas ineptias et verba ad summam caveam spectantia reliquit, inter multa alia cothurno, non tantum sipario fortiora, 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 sinas consuescere.”’