‘Turgidus Alpinus iugulat dum Memnona, dumque
diffingit Rheni luteum caput.’
Acron ad loc., ‘Bibaculum quemdam poetam Gallum tangit.’
Cf. Hor. Sat. ii. 5, 40,
‘Seu pingui tentus omaso
Furius hibernas cana nive conspuet Alpes.’
Acron ad loc., ‘Furius Bibaculus in pragmatia belli Gallici: Iuppiter hibernas,’ etc.
It is probably from this epic that Macrob. Saturn. vi. 1, 31-4, quotes passages imitated by Virgil. So, ‘Furius in primo annali “Interea Oceani linquens Aurora cubile.”’ (Cf. Virg. Aen. iv. 585.)
Bibaculus also wrote a prose work Lucubrationes. (Pliny N.H. xxiv. praef.)
CAESAR.
(1) LIFE.
The main facts of C. Iulius Caesar’s life are found in a compendious form in the Life by Suetonius. The ancient authorities, who are unanimous in stating that at the time of his death (15th March, B.C. 44) Caesar was in his fifty-sixth year (Sueton. Iul. 88, Appian B.C. ii. 149, Plut. Caes. 69), must have placed his birth in B.C. 100. But if this date were correct Caesar must have held the various magistracies two years before the legal time—a fact nowhere mentioned, and in itself improbable; it is therefore natural to hold that he was born in B.C. 102 (Mommsen, R.H. iv., p. 15, note). His birthday was 12th July (Macrob. Saturn. i, 12, 34).