Porci et Socration, duae sinistrae
Pisones, etc.,
belong to the same period.
But not to speak of the fact that the character imputed to Piso, in the phrase 'duae sinistrae,' and in the words 'vappa,' 'verpa,' 'verpus,' applied to him, are in exact accordance with that ascribed to him in the virulent invective of Cicero (In L. Calpurnium Pisonem Oratio), it is difficult to see how the words in xxviii,
Satisne cum isto
Vappa frigoraque et famem tulistis?
could apply to either the climate or the condition of Hispania Citerior at that time. But they closely coincide with the words of Cicero applied to the government by Piso of his province of Macedonia (17-40), 'An exercitus nostri interitus ferro, fame, frigore, pestilentia?' On the other hand, the words in ix,
Visam te incolumem audiamque Hiberum
Narrantem loca, facta, nationes,
would be applicable to the adventures and dangers of Julius Caesar in further Spain in 61 b.c. There is no difficulty in supposing that the two young friends went together on two different occasions on the staff of two different provincial governors. The tone of the two different sets of poems is so different, the one set so bright and happy, the other so savage and bitter, that it is almost inconceivable that they belong to the same time and the same circumstances.