‘Cibi vinique minimi, libidinis pronior ... cetera sane vita et ore et animo tam probum constat, ut Neapoli Parthenias volgo appellatus sit, ac si quando Romae, quo rarissime commeabat, viseretur in publico, sectantes demonstrantesque se suffugeret in proximum tectum.’
(2) WORKS.
Minor Poems.—According to Donatus, these were: ‘In Balistam ... deinde Catalecton et Priapia et Epigrammata et Diras, item Cirim et Culicem, cum esset annorum xvi.’ Servius omits the boyish production ‘in Balistam,’ and adds the ‘Copa.’ The ‘Aetna,’ mentioned with doubt by Donatus, is, of course, not by Virgil. (1) Catalecta.-This seems better than Catalecton; either would mean “a collection of poems.” Some give Catalepton (= “trifles,” like Aratus’ work τὰ κατὰ λεπτόν). Ribbeck thinks Catalecta originally included the Priapea, Epigrammata, and Dirae, but came to be restricted to the fourteen short pieces given in our MSS. under that title. Some of these, e.g. No. 5, are spurious. Quint. viii. 3, 28 vouches for No. 2. Virgil’s friends, Tucca and Varius, are addressed in 1 and 9, and 10 (on Siron’s villa) refers to an event in Virgil’s life. In the vein of Catullus are 3, 4, and 8, the last being an extremely close parody of Catullus, c. 4. (2) Priapea, three in number. (3) Dirae, spurious. (4) Ciris. The writer’s reference to himself in l. 2, ‘Irritaque expertum fallacis praemia volgi,’ shows that Virgil is not the author. (5) Culex. That Virgil wrote a poem with this title is attested by Suetonius, Statius, and Martial; e.g. Mart. viii. 56, 19,
‘Protinus Italiam concepit et arma virumque
qui modo vix Culicem fleverat ore rudi.’
The poem in its present form is accepted by Ribbeck, but it does not correspond exactly to the account given by Donatus of the contents. (6) The Copa Ribbeck accepts as genuine, but other critics find in it characteristics rather of Ovid or of Propertius. (7) The Moretum, though found in MSS., is not mentioned by Donatus or Servius, a strong argument against its being genuine.
Bucolica.—These ten poems are called in the MSS. Eclogae (“selected pieces”), and were composed B.C. 43-39. Probus, ‘Scripsit Bucolica annos natus xxviii., Theocritum secutus.’
Servius, ‘Tunc ei proposuit Pollio ut carmen bucolicum scriberet, quod eum constat triennio[49] scripsisse et emendasse.’
They were doubtless published separately as they were written, and afterwards collected into a volume with Ecl. 1 (Tityrus) coming first. Cf. Georg. iv. 565,
‘Carmina qui lusi pastorum, audaxque iuventa,
Tityre, te patulae cecini sub tegmine fagi.’
The present order is certainly not the chronological order.