Cic. ad Fam. xii. 18, 2 (written B.C. 46), ‘Equidem sic iam obdurui ut ludis Caesaris nostri animo aequissimo viderem T. Plancum, audirem Laberi et Publili poemata.’
Contemporaries of Laberius were the satirist Abuccius, and Egnatius, who wrote a didactic poem de rerum natura.
M. FURIUS BIBACULUS.
According to Jerome, Bibaculus was born B.C. 103, but, as he laughs at the old age of the grammarian Orbilius (114-c. 17 B.C.), authorities put the date twenty years later.
Jerome yr. Abr. 1914, ‘M. Furius poeta cognomento Bibaculus Cremonae nascitur.’
Sueton. Gramm. 9, ‘[Orbilius] vixit prope ad centesimum aetatis annum, amissa iam pridem memoria, ut versus Bibaculi docet,
“Orbilius ubinam est, litterarum oblivio?”’
Bibaculus wrote poems against the monarchical party; these are referred to as iambi by Quintilian, x. 1, 96.
Tac. Ann. iv. 34, ‘Carmina Bibaculi et Catulli referta contumeliis Caesarum leguntur: sed ipse divus Iulius, ipse divus Augustus et tulere ista et reliquere.’
Two epics, Aethiopis and Bellum Gallicum (on Iulius Caesar’s exploits), are probably referred to by Hor. Sat. i. 10, 36,