[Sidenote: Lesser Augustan poets.] In an age of great poets many lesser poets are sure to be found. Ovid, in one of his letters,[75] mentions twenty-three poets of the Augustan age, and his list is not exhaustive. Little is known of these lesser writers, and few of their works are preserved, even in fragments. Domitius Marsus, who lived from about 54 to about 4 B. C., and belonged to the circle of Mæcenas, wrote a series of epigrams, entitled _Cicuta_ (poisonous hemlock), which enjoyed considerable reputation, some elegies on Melænis, an epic poem on the Amazons, and a treatise _De Urbanitate_ (on refinement of expression). Albinovanus Pedo was also an author of epigrams and an epic poet. One of his epics, the _Theseis_, narrated the deeds of Theseus, another gave an account of a voyage to the ocean, probably the voyage of Germanicus, in 16 B. C. A fragment of twenty-three lines contains a vivid description of the stranding of some vessels in the night, which shows that the author was a poet of some ability. Of a poem on hunting (_Cynegetica_) by Grattius, five hundred and forty-one hexameters are preserved, which show little poetic merit. Only a few brief fragments remain of a poem on the Egyptian war of Augustus, by Rabirius. Cornelius Severus wrote a poem on Roman history (_Res Romanæ_), and perhaps other epics. The longest extant fragment consists of twenty-five lines on the death of Cicero, and shows rhetorical rather than poetic ability. Ovid’s friends, Ponticus and Macer, and several others, wrote mythological epics. Iambic verses were composed by Bassus, and other poets gained more or less reputation for various kinds of poetry. Gaius Melissus, a freedman of Augustus, from Spoletum, was by profession a librarian. [Sidenote: The Fabula Trabeata.] He was the originator of the _fabula trabeata_, named from the _trabea_, the distinctive costume of the equestrian rank. This was a national comedy, differing from the _fabula togata_ of Titinius and Atta (see page 29) in the rank of the persons represented, for the _fabula togata_ had chosen its characters from the lower classes, while the _fabula trabeata_ was a comedy of high life. Its popularity was brief, and it disappeared, leaving hardly a trace of its existence. Melissus also made a collection of humorous tales (_Ineptiæ_) in one hundred and fifty books, and appears to have been the author of some learned treatises.