The first edition of Martial, Book x, was probably published in 95 A.D. If Sulpicia married Calenus at the age of 18-25, her birth will therefore fall between 55 and 62 A. D.
464. Cp. Mart. x. 38. 4-8.
465. Cp. Mart. x. 38. 9-11. It is, of course, possible that mariti is a euphemism.
466. Mart. x. 35. 1.
467. See Ap. Sid. loc. cit.
468. Sulp. Sat., lines 4, 5.
469. Raph. Volaterr. comment. urban. (fol. lvi. 1506 A.D.), 'hic (sc. at Bobbio) anno 1493 huiuscemodi libri reperti sunt. Rutilius Namatianus. Heroicum Sulpici carmen.' The first edition was published in 1498, with the title Sulpitiae carmina quae fuit Domitiani temporibus: nuper a Georgio Merula Allexandrino, cum aliis opusculis reperta. queritur de statu reipublicae et temporibus Domitiani. The MS. is now lost.
470. Cp. line 62. Domitian's edict seems to have threatened the security of Calenus. In the lines which follow, Domitian's death and overthrow are foretold. The poem, therefore, if genuine, must have been published soon after Domitian's assassination in 96, though it may have been composed in part during his lifetime.
471. The work is generally rejected as spurious. Bachrens (P. L. M. v. p. 93, and de Sulpiciae quae vocatur satira, Jena, 1873) holds that the work is contemporary with Ausonius. Boot (de Sulpiciae quae fertur satira, Amsterdam, 1868) goes further, and regards the work as a renaissance forgery. He is followed by Bücheler. But there is no reason to doubt the existence of the Bobbian MS. The metrical difficulties can be remedied by emendation palare for palari (43) is a solecism, but many verbs are found in both active and deponent forms, and palare may be a slip, or even an invention by analogy. captiva (52) does not = the Italian cattiva or the French chétive. The most that we can say is that the work shows no resemblance to any extant contemporary literature. That does not necessarily prove it to be of later date. The problem cannot be answered with certainty. On the whole, to us the difficulty of supposing it to be a late forgery seems greater than the difficulty of supposing it to be by Sulpicia.
472. An exception must be made of the Silvae of Statius.