The Student's Companion to Latin Authors

John Stuart Mill · en
'Hoc quoque te manet, ut pueros elementa docentem
  occupet extremis in vicis balba senectus,'

was early fulfilled. Cf. Iuv. 7, 226,

  'Quot stabant pueri, cum totus decolor esset
  Flaccus et haereret nigro fuligo Maroni.'



CONTEMPORARY POETS:


The following writers were friends of Horace:

(_a_) _C. Valgius Rufus_, consul suffectus B.C. 12, belonged to the
circle of Maecenas (Hor. _Sat._ i. 10, 82).

Valgius' works, of which only a few lines are extant, included (1)
Elegiae. Cf. Hor. _Od._ ii. 9, 9-12,

  'Tu semper urges flebilibus modis
  Mysten ademptum, nec tibi Vespero
    surgente decedunt amores
      nec rapidum fugiente solem.'

(2) Epigrammata, (3) Miscellanies, (4) A translation of Apollodorus'
τέχνη. (See Quint. iii. 1, 18.) (5) A book on herbs.
(Pliny, _N.H._ xxv. 4.) An epic was also expected of him, but whether
written is unknown. Tibull. iv. 1, 179,

  'Est tibi, qui possit magnis se adcingere rebus,
    Valgius; aeterno propior non alter Homero.'

(_b_) _M. Aristius Fuscus_, a poet and grammarian (Porphyr. _ad Sat._
i. 9, 60); _Od._ i. 22, and _Ep._ i. 10, are addressed to him.

(_c_) The _Visci_. Comm. Cruq. _ad Sat._ i. 10, 83, 'Visci duo fratres
fuerunt optimi poetae et iudices critici.'

(_d_) _C. Fundanius_, wrote comedies (Porphyr. _ad Sat._ i. 10, 40).

(_e_) _Servius Sulpicius_, a love poet (Ovid, _Trist._ ii. 441; Hor.
_Sat._ i. 10, 86).

(_f_) _Iulius Florus_ was 'saturarum scriptor' (Porphyr. _ad Hor. Ep._
i. 3, 1). Hor. _Ep._ i. 3 and ii. 2, are addressed to him.

(_g_) _Titius_ wrote Pindaric odes, and tragedies, Hor. _Ep._ i. 3,
9-14.

(_h_) _Albinovanus Celsus_. See Hor. _Ep._ i. 3, 15-7.

(_i_) _C. Iullus Antonius_, B.C. 44-B.C. 2, was a son of the triumvir
M. Antonius. The Schol. on Hor. _Od._ iv. 2, 2, says of him, "Heroico
metro Diomedeam scripsit et nonnulla alia soluta oratione."

(_k_) _Furnius_, an orator; died B.C. 37. He is mentioned by Hor.
_Sat._ i. 10, 86.

Other poets contemporary with Virgil and Horace are:

(_a_) _L. Varius Rufus_ (cf. Verg. _Ecl._ 9, 35). His works were:

(1) Epics (_a_) on the death of Julius Caesar (Macrob. _Saturn._ vi.
1, 39), (_b_) in praise of Augustus. Hor. _Ep._ i. 16, 27-29 is a
quotation from this poem (Acron _ad loc._), and it is probably
referred to in _Od._ i. 6, 1 (to Agrippa),

  'Scriberis Vario fortis et hostium
  victor Maeonii carminis aliti,
  quam rem cumque ferox navibus aut equis
  miles te duce gesserit.'

(2) A tragedy, _Thyestes_, praised by Quint. x. 1, 98, 'iam Varii
Thyestes cuilibet Graecarum comparari potest.'

(3) Elegies: Porphyr. ad Hor. _Od._ i. 6, 1, 'fuit L. Varius et ipse
carminis et tragoediarum et elegiorum auctor.'