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.”’