The language of the narrative is that of the educated classes of the time, and is in close agreement with the style of Seneca the younger. The diction of Trimalchio and his fellow-freedman is the South Italian popular speech of the time, filled with grammatical mistakes and provincialisms, and rich in proverbial expressions. The longest poems in the work are: (1) Troiae halosis (ch. 89), 65 senarii, supposed to be a parody of Nero’s poem of the same name; (2) De bello civili (ch. 119-124), 295 hexameters, in which Lucan’s style is imitated and sometimes parodied. Cf. ll. 26-7,
‘Et laxi crines et tot nova nomina vestis,
quaeque virum quaerunt,’
with Lucan, i. 164-5,
‘Cultus gestare decoros
vix nuribus rapuere mares’;
and ll. 51-2,
‘Praeterea gemino deprensam gurgite plebem
faenoris illuvies ususque exederat aeris,’
with Lucan, i. 181,
‘Hinc usura vorax, avidumque in tempora faenus.’
CALPURNIUS SICULUS.
Eleven eclogues used to be attributed to T. Calpurnius Siculus, but only the first seven are his work, the last four being written by M. Aurelius Olympius Nemesianus in the second half of the 3rd century A.D. A MS. now lost gave before Ecl. 1, ‘Titi Calphurnii Siculi bucolicum carmen ... incipit’; and before Ecl. 8, ‘Aurelii Nemesiani poetae Carthaginiensis ecloga prima incipit.’