1. Life.
SYRUS.
All we know of him is that he was an enfranchised Syrian slave, a native of Antioch, and wrote for the stage mimes (farces) which were performed with great applause. Mime-writing was also practised at this time by the Knight Laberius, and Caesar is said to have patronised these writers in the hope of elevating their art.
2. Works.
Sententiae (Maxims). We possess 697 lines from his mimes (unconnected and alphabetically arranged), a collection made in the early Middle Ages, and much used in schools. As proverbs of worldly wisdom, and admirable examples of the terse vigour of Roman philosophy, they are widely known, e.g.
Cuivis potest accidere quod cuiquam potest.
CORNELIUS TACITUS, circ. 54-120 A.D.
1. Life.
TACITUS.
The personal history of Tacitus is known to us only from allusions in his own works, and from the letters of his friend the younger Pliny. He was born early in the reign of Nero, probably in Rome; his education, political career, and marriage into the distinguished family of Agricola prove that he was a man of wealth and position. He studied rhetoric under the best masters (possibly under Quintilian), and had, as Pliny tells us (Epist. II. i. 6), a great reputation as a speaker. He passed through the usual stages of an official career and was appointed consul suffectus under Trajan, 98 A.D., when he was a little over forty. From 89 to 93 A.D. he was absent from Rome, probably in some provincial command, and during these years he may have acquired some personal knowledge of the German peoples. In 100 A.D. he was associated with Pliny in the prosecution for extortion of Marius Priscus, proconsul of Africa, of whom Juvenal says (Sat. viii. 120):