And when thy sage, thy patriot cares
Have form'd the train of Rome's affairs,
With lofty rapture reinflam'd, diffuse
Heroic thoughts, and wake the buskin'd muse.
FRANCIS'S HORACE.
But after all, the question put by Maternus, is, can any of their orations be compared to the Medea of Ovid, or the Thyestes of Varius? Those two tragedies are so often praised by the critics of antiquity, that the republic of letters has reason to lament the loss. Quintilian says that the Medea of Ovid was a specimen of genius, that shewed to what heights the poet could have risen, had he thought fit rather to curb, than give the rein to his imagination. Ovidii Medea videtur mihi ostendere quantum vir ille præstare potuisset, si ingenio suo temperare, quam indulgere maluisset. Lib. x. cap. 1.
The works of Varius, if we except a few fragments, are wholly lost. Horace, in his journey to Brundusium, met him and Virgil, and he mentions the incident with the rapture of a friend who loved them both:
Plotius, et Varius Sinuessæ, Virgiliusque
Occurrunt; animæ quales neque candidiores
Terra tulit, neque queis me sit devinctior alter.