(b) One Book of ὁδοιπορικά, no doubt referring to his travels with Thrasea.
(c) Some verses on Arria, the wife of Paetus.
‘Scripserat in pueritia Flaccus etiam praetextam Vesciam, et ὁδοιπορικῶν librum unum, et paucos in socrum Thraseae in Arriam matrem versus ... Omnia ea auctor fuit Cornutus matri eius ut aboleret.’
2. Satires. There are six of these (in hexameters), with a prologue (in scazons). Persius wrote slowly, and the Book was left unfinished:
‘Et raro et tarde scripsit. Hunc ipsum librum imperfectum reliquit. Versus aliqui dempti sunt ultimo libro, ut quasi finitus esset. Leviter retractavit Cornutus, et Caesio Basso petenti, ut ipsi cederet, tradidit edendum.’
The prologue, and the first satire (on literary criticism)—the only real satire he wrote—are said to be imitated from Lucilius. The other five are largely Stoic dissertations in verse, and show throughout the influence of Cornutus and Persius’ other Stoic friends. Probus says he attacked Nero’s poetry in Sat. 1.
‘Lecto Lucilii libro x. vehementer satiras componere instituit, cuius libri principium imitatus est ... cum tanta recentium poetarum et oratorum insectatione, ut etiam Neronem ... culpaverit, cuius versus in Neronem cum ita se haberet:
‘Auriculas asini Mida rex habet,’
in eum modum a Cornuto, ipso iam tum mortuo, est emendatus:
‘Auriculas asini quis non habet?’ [1, 121]