Although there is nothing original in Calpurnius, he is “a skilful literary craftsman.” Of his models the chief is Virgil, of whom (under the name of Tityrus) he speaks with great enthusiasm; he is also indebted to Ovid and Theocritus. Calpurnius is “a fair scholar, and an apt courtier, and not devoid of real poetical feeling. The bastard style of pastoral cultivated by him, in which the description of nature is made the writer’s pretext, while ingenious flattery is his real purpose, nevertheless excludes genuine pleasure, and consequently genuine poetical achievement. He may be fairly compared to the minor poets of the reign of Anne” (Garnett).
Calpurnius was first printed in 1471, together with Silius Italicus and has been frequently republished, generally with Gratius Faliscus and Nemesianus. The separate authorship of the eclogues of Calpurnius and Nemesianus was established by M. Haupt’s De Carminibus bucolicis Calpurnii et Nemesiani (1854). Editions by H. Schenkl (1885), with full introduction and index verborum, and by C.H. Keene (1887), with introduction, commentary and appendix. English verse translation by E.J.L. Scott (1891); see H.E. Butler, Post-Augustan Poetry (Oxford, 1909), pp. 150 foil., and F. Skutsch in Pauly-Wissowa’s Realencyclopädie, iii. 1 (1897).
(J. H. F.)
[1] Iulis for in ulnis according to the best MS. tradition.
[2] According to Dr R. Garnett (and Mr Greswell, as stated in Conington’s Virgil, i. p. 123, note) the emperor referred to is the younger Gordian (a.d. 238). His arguments in favour of this will be found in the article on Calpurnius by him in the 9th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica and in the Journal of Philology, xvi., 1888; see in answer J.P. Postgate, “The Comet of Calpurnius Siculus” in Classical Review, June 1902. Dean Merivale (Hist. of the Romans under the Empire, ch. 60) and Pompei, “Intorno al Tempo del Poeta Calpurnio” in Atti del Istituto Veneto, v. 6 (1880), identify the amphitheatre with the Colosseum (Flavian amphitheatre) and assign Calpurnius to the reign of Domitian.
[3] It has been variously ascribed to Virgil, Ovid, Lucan, Statius and Saleius Bassus.
CALTAGIRONE, a city and episcopal see of the province of Catania, Sicily, situated 1999 ft. above sea-level, 36 m. S.W. of Catania direct (55 m. by rail). Pop. (1881) 25,978; (1901) town 35,116; commune 45,956. It is well built, and is said to be the most civilized provincial town in Sicily. Extensive Sicel cemeteries have been explored to the north of the town (Not. Scavi, 1904, 65), and a Greek necropolis of the 6th and 5th centuries b.c. has been found to the south-east (ibid. 132). Remains of buildings of Roman date have also been discovered; but the name of the ancient city which stood here is unknown. The present name is a corruption of the Saracen Kalat-al-Girche (the castle of Girche, the chieftain who fortified it).