Listed 37 sub titles with search on: Biographies for wider area of: "NORTHERN ITALY Area ITALY" .
MEDIOLANUM (Ancient city) LOMBARDIA
Elpidius or Helpidius (Elpidios), one of the physicians of Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths, A. D. 493--526, whom he attended in his last illness. (Procop de Bello Goth. lib. i. p. 167, ed. Hoschel.) He was a Christian, and in deacon's orders, and probably a native of Milan. There is extant a letter to him from king Theodoric (ap. Cassiod. Vrariar. iv. 24), and four from Ennodius (Epist. vii 7, viii. 8, ix. 14, 21; ap. Sirmondi Opera, vol. i.)
AREZZO (Town) TOSCANA
Cilnii, a powerful family in the Etruscan town of Arretium, who seem to have been usually firm supporters of the Roman interests. They were driven out of their native town in B. C. 301, by the party opposed to them, but were restored by the Romans. The Cilnii were nobles or Lucu-mones in their state, and some of them in ancient times may have held even the kingly dignity (Comp. Hor. Carm. i. 1. 1, iii. 29. 1, Serm. i. 6. 3). Till the fall of the republic no separate individual of this fallily is mentioned, for the "Cilnius" of Silius Italicus (vii. 29) is a poetical creation, and the name has been rendered chiefly memorable by C. Cilnius Maecenas, the intimate friend of Augustus. It appears from sepulchral inscriptions that the Etruscan form of the name was Cfenle or Cfelne, which was changed by the Romans into Cilnius, much in the same way as the Etruscan Lecne was altered into Licinius.
ASCULUM PICENUM (Ancient city) MARCHE
Judacilius, a native of Asculum in Picenum, was one of the chief generals of the allies in the Social War, B. C. 90. He first commander in Apulia where he was very successful: Canusium and Venusia, with many other towns, opened their gates to him, and some which refused to obey him he took by storm; the Roman nobles who were made prisoners he put to death, and the common people and slaves he enrolled among his troops. In conjunction with T. Afranius (also called Lafrenius) and P. Ventidius, Judacilius defeated Cn. Pompeius Strabo; but when the latter had in his turn gained a victory over Afranius and laid siege to Picenum, Judacilius, anxious to save his native town, cut his way through the enemy's lines, and threw himself into the city with eight cohorts. Finding, however, that it could not possibly hold out much longer, and resolved not to survive its fall, he first put to death all his enemies, and then erected a funeral pyre within the precincts of the chief temple in the city, where he banquetted with his friends, and, after taking poison, he laid himself down on the pile, and commanded his friends to set it on fire. (Appian, B. C. i. 40, 42, 47, 48; Oros. v. 18.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
COMO (Town) LOMBARDIA
23 - 79
Pliny the Elder or Caius Plinius Secundus: Roman officer and encyclopedist, author
of the Natural history.
Youth
Caius Plinius Secundus -or, to use his English name, Pliny- was born
in 23 or 24 at Novum Comum (modern Como), a small city in the region known as
Gallia Transpadana. We do not know much about his family, except for the fact
that he had a sister, and that his father was wealthy enough to be a member of
the equestrian class, which means that he possessed at least 400,000 sesterces
(100,000 normal day wages).
As a result, Pliny was able to study, and in the 30's he was in Rome.
In his Natural history, the encyclopedia that he was to write forty years later,
he recalls several incidents of which he had been an eyewitness. For example,
when he describes the statue known as the Apoxyomenos of Lysippus, he tells this.
It was dedicated by Marcus Agrippa in front of his Baths. Tiberius
also much admired this statue [...] and removed the Apoxyomenos to his bedroom,
substituting a copy. But the people of Rome were so indignant about this that
they staged a protest in the theater, shouting 'Bring back the Apoxyomenos!' And
so despite his passion for it, Tiberius was obliged to replace the original statue.
[Natural history 34.62; tr. J.F. Healy]
Was the boy present during in the theater? We can not be certain,
but it is certainly possible.
Like all Roman boys, Pliny had to study rhetoric, which is essentially
the art to speak in public. However, since a speech is only convincing when the
speaker looks reliable, there was a lot more to rhetoric than only speaking: it
was a complete program of good manners and general knowledge. After 37, Pliny's
teacher was Publius Pomponius Secundus, who was regarded as the best tragic poet
of his age, and sometimes stayed at the imperial court of Caligula and Claudius.
Pliny considered Caligula's wife a parvenue.
I have seen Lollia Paulina [...] celebrating her betrothal covered
with alternating emeralds an pearls, which glittered all over her head, hair,
ears, neck and fingers, to the value of 50 million sesterces. She was ready, at
the drop of a hat, to give written proof of her ownership of the gems.
[Natural history 9.117; tr. J.F. Healy]
Pomponius gave Pliny the connections that were needed to make a career,
and is probably responsible for his pupil's odd style of writing.
Officer
In 45, when he was twenty-one years old, Pliny left Italy
and went to Gallia Belgica, where he served as military tribune. This administrative
office was a very common step in the career of a young men of the senatorial or
equestrian order, especially when they aspired to a position in the government
of the empire. Pliny, however, developed a liking of the military, and was soon
promoted to prefect of a cavalry unit. He was a fighting officer. His unit was
stationed at Xanten (Castra Vetera) in Germania Inferior on the lower Rhine. One
day, he must have lost the bridle of his horse, because after many centuries,
it was found back by archaeologists.
In 47, the new commander of the army of the lower Rhine, Gnaeus Domitius
Corbulo, arrived, and invaded the country of the Frisians and Chauci along the
Wadden Sea. It is possible that the two men already knew each other, because Corbulo's
sister had been married to Caligula. However this may be, Pliny's unit took part
in this campaign. Later, he recalled Lake Flevo, which the Romans had had to cross
before they reached the country of the Frisians and Chauci:
The shores are occupied by oaks which have a vigorous growth rate,
and these trees, when undermined by the waves or driven by blasts of wind, carry
away vast islands of soil trapped in their roots. Thus balanced, the oak-trees
float in an upright position, with the result that our fleets gave often been
terrified by the 'wide rigging' of their huge branches when they have been driven
by the waves -almost deliberately it would seem- against the bows of ships riding
at anchor for the night; consequently, our ships have had no option but to fight
a naval battle against trees!
[Natural history 16.5 tr. John Healy]
The campaign was successful. The Frisians and Chauci surrendered,
and Corbulo was already building a fortress for a garrison, when he received an
order that he had to return. We do not know why the emperor Claudius issued this
order, but it is probable that he did not want to get involved in a war in Germany
when the conquest of Britain had not been completed.
Pliny seems to have stayed in the Rhine army for some time, because
in 50/51, he took part in the campaign against the Chatti, a tribe that lived
opposite Mainz. His commander was his former teacher Publius Pomponius Secundus.
It was a remarkable campaign, not in the least because the Romans discovered in
the Germanic villages several old slaves, who turned out to be former Roman soldiers
taken captive in the battle in the Teutoburger forest, forty years before. During
this campaign, Pliny visited the thermal sources at Wiesbaden and the sources
of the Danube.
In these years, Pliny wrote his first book, a short treatise on spear
throwing from horseback, now lost. It has been assumed that he had seen how the
Germans threw spears, and wanted to learn this technique to his fellow Romans.
In 52, he was Italy. He was probably escorting Pomponius to Rome. Pliny was present
when the emperor Claudius organized a very special spectacle:
I have seen Agrippina, the wife of the emperor Claudius, at a show where he was
presenting a naval battle, seated by him, wearing a military cloak made entirely
of gold cloth.
[Natural history 33.63; tr. J.F. Healy]
This naval battle took place on the Fucine lake, and Pliny tells us
that Claudius had drained this large lake by digging a channel through a mountain.
The author of the Natural history was impressed by the operations, which had been
carried out in darkness. In these years,
Pliny wrote a second book, The Life of Pomponius Secundus. Probably,
the teacher had died, and the pupil felt he owed this book as an act of homage
to Pomponius. From a literary point of view, this was an important work, because
the Romans had not yet developed the biographical genre.
Pliny returned to the Rhine army, and wrote a long history of the
Germanic wars in twenty volumes. His nephew Pliny the Younger tells about his
uncle:
He began this during his military service in Germany, as the result
of a dream; in his sleep he saw standing over him the ghost of Drusus, who had
triumphed far and wide in Germany and died there. He committed his memory to my
uncle's care, begging him to save from the injustice of oblivion.
[Letters, 3.5.4; tr. B. Radice]
It is not known when Pliny published this work, but it is intriguing
that he states that Drusus, the father of the emperor Claudius, had to be saved
from oblivion. Is this a silent commentary on Claudius' unambituous Germanic policy?
Did Pliny try to influence the new emperor Nero, hoping that he would renew Drusus'
program to move the frontier from the Rhine to the Elbe?
In these years, Pliny also met Titus Flavius Vespasianus, the son
of another Titus Flavius Vespasianus. Both men were to rule as emperors: father
Vespasian from 69 to 79, his son Titus from 79 to 81.
In 59, Pliny returned to Italy, thirty-six years old. A remarkable
man, already: the author of three books, and a bachelor. A serious man, who had
trained himself to live with the minimum of sleep, and wanted the world to benefit
from his knowledge. He may have had some ambitions when he arrived in Rome, and
could expect an appointment as procurator. However, things turned out differently.
Jona Lendering, ed.
This text is cited July 2003 from the Livius Ancient History Website URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
Scholar
When Pliny returned to Rome
in 59, he was thirty-six years old, a reliable officer in search for a new occupation.
A procuratorship would have been possible. However, this did not happen. We do
not know why. Of course, his patron Pomponius was dead, but Pliny was a veteran
officer and had published two important books on military matters and a biography,
so it is not exaggerated to say that he was "someone". He did not really need
a patron to proceed his career.
The real reason must have been a change in the political climate.
Claudius was by now dead, Nero was in the fifth year of his reign, and other rules
applied. Under the old emperor, historians had been welcome, but Nero was more
interested in musicians, singers, dancers, and other performers. 59 was the year
in which Nero disgraced himself by giving a recital - something a member of a
royal family simply was not supposed to do. This was not the kind of court in
which the serious veteran could play a role.
Perhaps, Pliny understood that worse was to come. A performing emperor
was not only a disgrace to his high office, but also a danger to the quality of
government. There were rumors that Nero had murdered his mother. Pliny must have
known that he was not the man to cope with this type of situation. He retired
from public life -after all, he was a wealthy man- and devoted his talents to
the study of literature. The result is described by Pliny the Younger: three books.
The scholar - three volumes divided into six sections on account of their length,
in which he trains the orator from his cradle and brings him to perfection.
Problems in grammar - eight volumes; this he wrote during Nero's last years when
the slavery of the times made it dangerous to write anything at all independent
or inspired.
A Continuation of the History of Aufidius Bassus - thirty-one volumes.
[Pliny the Younger, Letters, 3.5.5-6; tr.B. Radice]
As the younger Pliny seems to admit, these were not "independent or
inspired" works. The scholar was a haphazard collection of incidents and suggestions,
which was quoted ironically by the great rhetorician Quintilian, and forgotten.
The same fate befell the works of the man who had taught Pliny rhetoric, Pomponius
Secundus. The style of writing of Pliny and his master were considered strange,
and we may assume that the Problems in Grammar suffered the same fate. The Continuation
of the History of Aufidius Bassus must have dealt with the years after 47 (the
year in which Pliny had taken part in the campaign against the Chauci), and was
not finished when Nero died.
Meanwhile, Pliny had become uncle. His sister Plinia had given birth
to a son, Caius Caecilius Secundus (62). Unfortunately, the boy's father Lucius
Caecilius died soon after, and Pliny, who had no wife and children, would adopt
his nephew (posthumously). As was usual, the young men would adopt his uncle's
name and become known as Caius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, or, to use his English
name, Pliny the Younger. He was educated in his uncle's Roman house.
In the meantime, the political situation was deteriorating. Nero was
becoming more and more of a tyrant and many people were killed, or forced to commit
suicide, as was the fate of Corbulo, the general whom Pliny had served. In 68,
the governor of Gallia Lugdunensis, Caius Julius Vindex, revolted, but the general
of the army of the middle Rhine, Lucius Verginius Rufus (a friend of Pliny), suppressed
the rebellion. However, the Senate declared that Nero was an enemy of the state
and proclaimed Servius Sulpicius Galba, an ally of Vindex, emperor. Nero committed
suicide.
This was the beginning of a terrible civil war. Galba despised the
soldiers of the Rhine army, who first offered the throne to Verginius Rufus (who
refused) and then to the general of the army of the lower Rhine, Aulus Vitellius.
Galba panicked, made mistakes, and was lynched by soldiers of the imperial guard,
which placed a rich senator named Marcus Salvius Otho on the throne, but he was
defeated by the army of Vitellius. He had only just reached Rome, when the news
arrived that in the east, where the Romans were fighting a war against the Jews,
another general had revolted: Vespasian, the father of Pliny's friend Titus. The
armies of the Danube immediately sided with the new pretender and defeated Vitellius'
army. Youth Officer Scholar Procurator and prefect The Natural history Vespasian
Kobenhavn (Ny Carlsberg Glyptoteket)
All this happened in 69. Pliny seems to have been in the city. He
must have heard eyewitnesses about the death of Galba, he must have seen how Vitellius
entered Rome, he must have seen how the Capitol was afire. This must have been
the subject matter of the Continuation of the History of Aufidius Bassus, and
it is likely that Pliny's history influenced the Histories of his younger contemporary
Tacitus.
Procurator and prefect
Because he was befriended with the new emperor and his son Titus,
Pliny suddenly had a spectacular career: he obtained several procuratorships,
which took him through the entire western part of the Roman world. In 70, he was
in Gallia Narbonensis, in 72 in Africa, in 73 in Hispania Terraconensis, and in
75 in Gallia Belgica. During the two first jobs, Pliny was not only responsible
for the emperor's personal possessions and finances, but also for the administration
of justice. During the two last procuratorships, Pliny was responsible for all
taxes of his provinces.
He was never in Rome and can not have done much for the education
of his nephew. A guardian was appointed: Verginius Rufus, the man who in 68 had
refused the throne. To him, there was no chance upon a further career, and he
founded a literary salon. It had several important members, such as the famous
orator Nicetes of Smyrna,
who became the younger Pliny's teacher in Greek and rhetoric.
On his return from Gallia Belgica, where he must have interviewed
people who had witnessed the Batavian revolt (69-70), Pliny must have finished
the Continuation of the History of Aufidius Bassus. Perhaps the work was dedicated
to the emperor, because Pliny now belonged to the emperor's advisory council and
had a function in the imperial palace, the Golden House. We do not know his function,
but the prefecture of the fire brigade (the vigiles) is a possibility. The younger
Pliny, who seems to have been living in the elder Pliny's urban residence, was
impressed:
He would rise half-way through the night; in winter it would often
be at midnight or an hour later, and two at the latest. Admittedly, he fell asleep
very easily, and would often doze and wake up again during his work. Before daybreak
he would visit the emperor Vespasian (who also made use of his nights) and then
go to attend to his official duties. On returning home, he devoted his spare time
to his work. After something to eat (his meals during the day were light and simple
in the old-fashioned way), in summer when he was not too busy he would often lie
in the sun, and a book was read aloud while he made notes and extracts. He made
extracts of everything he read, and always said that there was no book so bad
that some good could not be got out of it.
After his rest in the sun he generally took a cold bath, and then
ate something and had a short sleep; after which he worked till dinner time as
if he started on a new day. A book was read aloud during the meal and he took
rapid notes.
[Pliny the Younger, Letters, 3.5.8-12; tr. B. Radice]
The next stage in Pliny's career was a military function again: he
was made prefect of one of the two Roman navies. It was stationed at Misenum,
and Pliny was responsible for the safety of the entire western half of the Mediterranean.
He must have been a terribly busy man, but he was able to finish an encyclopedia,
the Natural history, which contained all knowledge he had, both from reading and
from autopsy. It was dedicated to his friend Titus, and was
written for the masses, for the horde of farmers and
artisans, and, finally, for those who have time to
devote time to these pursuits.
[Natural history, Preface 6; tr. J.F. Healy]
In August 79, Pliny's sister and her son were staying with him at
Misenum, when the Vesuvius became active. On the twenty-fourth, after he had been
out in the sun and had taken a bath, Plinia drew the admiral's attention to the
umbrella-shaped cloud. Pliny the Younger says:
My uncle's scholarly acumen saw at once that it was important enough
for closer inspection, and he ordered a fast boat to be made ready, telling me
I could come with him if I wished. I replied that I preferred to go on with my
studies, and as it happened he had given me some writing to do.
[Pliny the Younger, Letters 6.16.37 tr. B. Radice]
However, the admiral changed his mind. What had begun in a spirit
of inquiry, became a humanitarian mission. He gave orders for the warships to
be launched, so that the people from the towns around the volcano could be evacuated.
But it was impossible to reach the far side of the bay, and Pliny landed at Stabiae,
where he spend the night with a friend named Pomponianus. However, he died during
the evacuation; the exact cause of his death is unknown, but it seems that he
was asthmatic and overcome by the sulphurous fumes.
In this way the elder Pliny died. His nephew erected a literary epitaph,
when he wrote:
The fortunate man, in my opinion, is he to whom the gods have granted the power
either to do something which is worth recording or to write what is worth reading,
and most fortunate of all is he who can do both. Such a man was my uncle.
[Pliny the Younger, Letters 6.16.3; tr. B. Radice]
Jona Lendering, ed.
This text is cited July 2003 from the Livius Ancient History Website URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
The Natural history
"There is no book so bad that some good can not be got out of it," Pliny the Elder used to say, and he read everything that he could obtain. His nephew Pliny the Younger gives an indication how devoted his uncle was to reading and studying, which was like working to him.Jona Lendering, ed.
This text is cited July 2003 from the Livius Ancient History Website URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
Gaius Plinius Secundus, called the Elder. A Roman representative
of encyclopaedic learning, born A.D. 23, at Novum Comum (Como), in Upper Italy.
Although throughout his life he was almost uninterruptedly occupied in the service
of the State, yet at the same time he carried on the most widely extended scientific
studies to which he laboriously devoted all his leisure hours, and thus gained
for himself the reputation of the most learned man of his age. Under Claudius
he served as commander of a troop of cavalry (praefectus alae) in Germany; under
Vespasian, with whom he was in the highest favour, he held several times the office
of imperial governor in the provinces, and superintended the imperial finances
in Italy. Finally, under Titus, he was in command of the fleet stationed at Misenum,
when in A.D. 79, at the celebrated eruption of Vesuvius, his zeal for research
led him to his death. For a detailed account of this event, as well as of his
literary labours, we have to thank his nephew, the Younger Pliny (Epist. iii.
5; vi. 16).
Besides writings upon military, grammatical, rhetorical, and
biographical subjects, he composed two greater historical works--a history of
the Germanic wars in twenty books, and a history of his own time in thirty-one
books. His last work was the Natural History (Historia Naturalis), in thirtyseven
books, which has been preserved to us. This was dedicated to Titus, and was published
in A.D. 77; but he was indefatigably engaged in amplifying it up to the time of
his death. This encyclopaedia is compiled from 20,000 notices, which he had extracted
from about 2000 writings by 474 authors. Book i. gives a list of contents and
the names of the authors used; ii. is on astronomy and physics; iii.-vi., a general
sketch of geography and ethnography, mainly a list of names; vii.-xix., natural
history proper (vii., anthropology; viii.-xi., zoology of land and water animals,
birds, and insects; xii.-xix., botany); xx.-xxxii., the pharmacology of the vegetable
kingdom (xx.-xxvii.) and of the animal kingdom (xxviii.-xxxii.); xxxiii.xxxvii.,
mineralogy and the use of minerals in medicine and in painting, sculpture, and
the engraving of gems, besides valuable notices upon the history of art. A kind
of comparative geography forms the conclusion.
Considering the extent and varied character of the undertaking,
the haste with which the work was done, the defective technical knowledge and
small critical ability of the author, it cannot be surprising that it includes
a large number of mistakes and misunderstandings, and that its contents are of
very unequal value, details that are strange and wonderful, rather than really
important, having often unduly attracted the writer's attention. Nevertheless,
the work is a mine of inestimable value in the information it gives us respecting
the science and art of the ancient world; and it is also a splendid monument of
human industry. Even the unevenness of the style is explained by the mosaic-like
character of the work. At one time it is dry and bald in expression; at another,
rhetorically coloured and impassioned, especially in the carefully elaborated
introductions to the several books. On account of its bulk, the work was in early
times epitomized for more convenient use. An epitome of the geographical part
of Pliny's encyclopaedia, belonging to the time of Hadrian, and enlarged by additions
from Pomponius Mela and other authors, forms the foundation of the works of Solinus
and Martianus Capella. Similarly the Medicina Plinii is an epitome prepared in
the fourth century for the use of travellers.
About two hundred manuscripts of Pliny are in existence, divided
into two general classes--the vetustiores, all more or less incomplete, but truer
to the original, and the recentiores, which are less fragmentary, but also less
accurate. Of the former the best is the Codex Bambergensis of the tenth century,
containing only bks. xxxii.-xxxvii. The recentiores are all of the same "family,"
going back to a single archetype now lost.
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited July 2003 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Pliny the Elder : Various WebPages
62 - 115
Pliny the Younger or Caius Plinius Caecilius Secundus (62-c.115): Roman senator,
nephew of Pliny the Elder, governor of Bithynia-Pontus (109-111), author of a
famous collection of letters.
The Roman senator Pliny the Younger is one of the few people from
Antiquity who is more to us than just a name. We possess a long inscription which
mentions his entire career, one or two of his houses have been discovered, and
-more importantly- we can still read many of his letters. They are often very
entertaining: he tells a ghost story, gives accounts of lawsuits, guides us through
his houses, describes the friendship of a boy and a dolphin, informs us about
the persecution of Christians, tells about the eruption of the Vesuvius. But we
can also read his correspondence with the emperor Trajan. With the senator Cicero
and the father of the church Augustine, Pliny is the best-known of all Romans.
In this article, we will first describe his career, and then focus
on his governorship of Bithynia-Pontus
(109-111), where he was some sort of interim-manager who had to settle a troubled
province. His opinions and world view will be discussed passingly - you can better
read his letters.
Youth
In 62, a rich Roman knight named Lucius Caecilius and his wife Plinia
of Como (Novum Comum) in
northern Italy became parents of a son, Caius Caecilius Secundus. Unfortunately,
the father soon died, and the young man was (later) adopted by Plinia's brother,
Caius Plinius Secundus. The boy took over his uncle's name and became known as
Caius Plinius Caecilius Secundus. In English, nephew and uncle are usually called
Pliny the Younger and Pliny the Elder.
The younger Pliny was brought up in the houses of his uncle, in Como
and Rome. Pliny the Elder
had been a cavalry officer in the Rhine army and had some literary pretensions.
He had published two books on military matters and had written one of the first
Latin biographies. When he had returned to Italy,
three years before his nephew's birth, he had found his further career obstructed.
We do not know why, but it is easy to believe that there was no room for a military
man at the court of the emperor Nero, who preferred the company of musicians,
singers, dancers, and other performers. Pliny the Elder had started a career as
a scholar, and was preparing a book on Problems in grammar. It was a safe occupation.
During the younger Pliny's youth, the political situation was deteriorating.
Nero was becoming more and more of a tyrant, until in the spring of 68, the governor
of Gallia Lugdunensis, Caius Julius Vindex, revolted. Many senators were sympathetic
to this revolt, but the general of the army of the middle Rhine, Lucius Verginius
Rufus (a friend of Pliny the Elder), suppressed the rebellion. However, the Senate
declared that Nero was an enemy of the state and proclaimed Servius Sulpicius
Galba, an ally of Vindex, emperor. Nero committed suicide.
This was the beginning of a terrible civil war. Galba despised the
soldiers of the Rhine army, who first offered the throne to Verginius Rufus (who
refused) and then to the general of the army of the lower Rhine, Aulus Vitellius
(January 69). Galba panicked, made mistakes, and was lynched by soldiers of the
imperial guard, which placed a rich senator named Marcus Salvius Otho on the throne,
but he was defeated by the army of Vitellius. He had only just reached Rome, when
the news arrived that in the east, where the Romans were fighting a war against
the Jews, another general had revolted: Vespasian. The armies of the Danube immediately
sided with the new pretender and defeated Vitellius' army (December 69). The reign
of Vespasian could begin.
To the Plinii, this was an important change - for the better. The
old officer was a close friend of one of the sons of the emperor, Titus: both
men had been together in Germany. In 70, Pliny the Elder was made procurator and
sent to Gallia Narbonensis, Africa, Hispania Terraconensis, and Gallia Belgica.
He did not return until 76, when he became one of the emperor's personal advisers
and (perhaps) prefect of the Roman fire brigade.
During his absence, the elder Pliny was no longer able to take care
of his nephew, who was eightyears old when his uncle resumed his career. A guardian
was appointed: Verginius Rufus, the man who had refused the imperial purple. He
had been rewarded, but in fact, his career was at a dead end, and he founded a
literary salon. Many important authors visited him, and among them was the famous
orator Nicetes of Smyrna,
who became the younger Pliny's teacher in Greek and rhetoric. His Latin teacher
was Quintilian, professor in Latin rhetoric and one of the most influential authors
of his age.
Pliny had to study rhetoric, because was essential to be able to speak
in public. Since a speech is only convincing when the speaker looks reliable,
there was a lot more to rhetoric than only speaking: it was a complete program
of good manners and general knowledge.
It was impossible to find better teachers. Pliny's style of writing
is, therefore, more polished than that of his uncle. His first literary work was
a tragedy, which he wrote 75 or 76. We do not know what it was about, except that
it was in Greek. It was the beginning of a long love for the theater. Two of his
villa's at Lake Como were called Comedy and Tragedy.
When Pliny was seventeen years old, his uncle died (25 August 79).
His last office was that of admiral of one of Rome's navies, which was stationed
at Misenum near Naples. When
the Vesuvius erupted, the elder Pliny wanted to rescue people and do some scientific
research, but he did not survive. His nephew, who was now adopted, inherited his
uncle's possessions. He had already inherited the country houses and money of
his father, and must have been a rich man. And rich men were, in Antiquity, supposed
to take their responsibility. He had to embark upon a public career.
Becoming senator
At the end of his life, Pliny founded a bath-house in his home town
Como. As was usual in his
age, the building inscription was made as long as possible, because in that way
the founder could show that he was able to read and write, prestigious talents.
Therefore, Pliny mentioned all offices he had occupied.
Caius Plinius Caecilius Secundus, son of Lucius, of the Oufentine
tribe; consul; augur; legatus Augusti pro praetore consulari potestate for the
province of Pontus and Bithynia, sent to that province in accordance with the
Senate's decree by the emperor Nerva Trajan Augustus Germanicus Dacicus, the father
of his country; curator of the bed and banks of the Tiber and sewers of Rome;
prefect of the treasury of Saturn; prefect of the military treasury; praetor;
tribune of the people; quaestor of the emperor; commissioner of the Roman knights;
tribune of the Third Gallic legion; magistrate on the Board of Ten; left by will
public baths at a cost of [lacuna] and an additional 300,000 sesterces for furnishing
them, with interest on 200,000 for the upkeep. He also left to his city capital
of 1,866,666 sesterces to support a hundred of his freedmen, and subsequently
to provide an annual dinner for the people of the city. Likewise in his lifetime
he gave 500,000 sesterces for the maintenance of boys and girls of the city, and
also 100,000 for the upkeep of the library.
[tr. B. Radice, with minor changes]
The first half of this text mentions all offices Pliny occupied, in
antichronological order. However, the very first step of his public career is
not mentioned. When he was eighteen years old (in 80), he spoke as the lawyer
of one Junius Pastor at the so-called Centumviral Court, which dealt with wills
and inheritances. Many years later, he recalled:
I was very young at the time and I was about to plead in the Centumviral Court
against men of great political influence, some of them also friends of the emperor;
any one of these considerations could have shaken my resolve [...], but I carried
on, believing that "the best and only omen is to fight for your country"
[Homer, Iliad 12.243]. I won my case, and it was that speech which drew attention
to me and set me on the threshold of a successful career.
[Letters 1.18.3-4;
tr. B. Radice]
One year later (in 81), Pliny was member of the Board of Ten, which
presided over the Centumviral Court. Probably, he was not only elected because
he had made a remarkable speech, but also because he had influential friends:
Verginius Rufus was one of them, and another one was the emperor, Titus, who had
been a close friend to Pliny's uncle and may have felt that he owed something
to his friend's adoptive son.
In the Roman world, all careers were always more or less the same.
(This pattern is called cursus honorum.) An ambituous young man was supposed to
see all branches of Roman government; the Romans did not appreciate specialism,
but preferred, to use the modern expression, maximum employability. The shared
presidency of the Centumviral Court was a traditional beginner's function, and
so was the next step in Pliny's career: he had to make his tour of duty (82).
Because he belonged to the wealthy equestrian class, he served as a military tribune,
which means that he had an administrative function. His legion was III Gallica,
which was stationed in Syria.
Pliny's only feat of arms was the exposure of malversations among the auxiliary
units.
On his return, contrary winds forced him to stay at Icaria,
one of the islands in the Aegean Sea. Here, he decided to write some poetry with
the sea and the island as theme (now lost). Perhaps he also visited his former
teacher Nicetes of Smyrna,
who lived just around the corner. Pliny must have taken some time to visit the
Greek towns around the Aegean, which was a normal holiday. The Romans still admired
the Greeks.
According to the inscription, he became Commissioner of the Roman
knights, an office that we do not really understand. It can not have been very
important to Pliny's career. In Syria, he had shown that he was a good accountant,
and this was a very rare talent in the Roman world. (You understand why if you
multiply the sum of MDCIV and CCLIV with the quotient of MDCLXVII and MLXI.) When
Pliny was candidate for the office of quaestor, a financial office, he was supported
by the emperor Domitian, who had in the meantime succeeded his brother Titus.
When he was twenty-eight, in 90, Pliny served as quaestor. If he had
died at this moment, it would have been a brilliant career. His father and his
uncle had been knights, but Pliny was now a senator. Of course there were several
ranks in the Senate (former quaestors, former praetors, former consuls...) and
Pliny belonged to the least important senators, but nevertheless: he was a senator,
and he was allowed to wear a toga with a broad purple edge. In the Colosseum,
Pliny was seated on the first rank. However, this was only the beginning of a
brilliant career.
Jona Lendering, ed.
This text is cited July 2003 from the Livius Ancient History Website URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
Titus Livius or Livy
Roman historian, author of the authorized version of the history of the Roman
republic.
Life
The life of Titus Livius (or Livy, to use his more common English
name), is not well known. Almost everything we know about the author of the voluminous
History of Rome from its foundation is derived from a handful of anecdotes recorded
by later authors, who may have found them in a (now lost) book by the Roman biographer
Suetonius called Historians and philosophers. Nevertheless, we know something
about Livy's life, and that is more than we can say about several other important
ancient authors (e.g., Homer).
The Christian author Jerome, an excellent chronographer, states that
Livy was born in 59 BCE and died in 17 CE. There is no evidence to contradict
this piece of information. It makes Livy a near contemporary of the Roman politician
Octavian, who was born in 63, became sole ruler of the Roman empire in 31, accepted
the surname Augustus in 27, and died in 14 CE.
That Livy was born in Patavium (modern Padua)
is clear from Quintilian, the author of a nice book on the education of orators,
who recorded that Livy never lost his Patavian accent.
We know nothing about his parents. Several inscriptions from Padua
mention members of the Livius family, but none of them can convincingly be connected
to the historian. However, we can be confident that he belonged to the provincial
elite and that his family, although not very rich, had enough money to send him
to competent teachers. On the other hand, Livy's difficulties with the Greek language
make it clear that he did not enjoy higher education in, say, Athens,
which a Roman boy from the richest families certainly would have visited. The
History of Rome from its foundation offers no indication that he ever traveled
to Greece.
Padua belonged to a province of the Roman empire that was known as
Gallia Cisalpina. During Livy's youth, its governor was Julius Caesar, and it
is likely that the boy often heard stories about the wars in Gaul. However, he
never got used to military matters. His writings betray that he knew next to nothing
about warfare. This, and his lack of political experience, would normally have
disqualified Livy as a historian, but as we will see, he was able to write a very
acceptable history.
When he was about ten years old, civil war broke out between Caesar
and Pompey the Great. It was decided in 48 during the battle of Pharsalus. Later,
Livy recalled a miraculous incident. His own description is not known, but a century
later, the Greek author Plutarch of Chaeronea
retold the story:
At Patavium, there was a well-known prophet called Caius Cornelius, who was
a fellow-citizen and acquaintance of Livy the historian. On the day of the battle
this man happened to be sitting at his prophetic work and first, according to
Livy, he realized that the battle was taking place at that very moment and said
to those who were present that now was the time when matters were being decided
and now the troops were going into action; then he had a second look and, when
he had examined the signs, he jumped up in a kind of ecstasy and cried out: 'Caesar,
the victory is yours!' Those who were standing by were amazed at him, but he took
the garland from his head and solemnly swore that he would not wear it again until
facts had proved that his arts had revealed the truth to him. Livy, certainly,
is most emphatic that this really happened. [Plutarch, Life of Caesar 47; tr.
R.Warner]
There is another story about his youth. The Roman philosopher Seneca
tells that when Livy was a young man, he wrote philosophical essays. It may be
true, although Livy's writings do not betray a profoundly philosophical mind.
However this may be, anecdotes like these give us the impression that the future
historian was a serious young man, and this is also the impression one gets from
his writings. He lacks irony and humor. On the other hand, he shows a great understanding
of human psychology and has great sympathy with suffering people. We may find
his gravity and earnestness a bit hard to stomach, but Livy had a heart.
After the violent death of Julius Caesar, a new round of civil war
followed. Padua played a minor role and it is possible that the young Livy witnessed
some of the fighting in 44/43. In 31, Caesar's adopted son Octavian was victorious,
and many people had a feeling that now, after eighteen years of fratricide, the
situation in Italy would normalize. Academic studies were resumed. The poet Virgil
wrote his optimistic Georgics and Greek authors like Dionysius of Halicarnassus
and Strabo of Amasia came
to the capital. Livy seems to have shared in this mood, and published the first
five books of his History of Rome from its foundation between 27 and 25.
By now, he was in his early thirties. We don't know anything about
Livy's private life, but an average Roman man would at this age be married and
have children. Quintilian states that the historian had a son, for whom he wrote
a treatise on style, and a daughter, who was married to a teacher of oratory named
Lucius Magius. Pliny the Elder quotes a geographical work written by a son of
Livy.
The History of Rome from its foundation was meant as an example
to the Romans. They had suffered, but that had been due to their own, immoral
behavior. However, a moral revival was still possible, and Livy offered some uplifting
and cautionary tales. It was a serious and important project, and Augustus was
interested in it. Livy did not belong to the inner circle of Rome's first emperor,
nor was he a protege of Maecenas, but the historian and the emperor respected
each other and we know that Augustus once (perhaps after the publication of Books
91-105) made a good-natured joke that Livy still was a supporter of Pompey, the
enemy of Caesar. If this was a reproach at all, it was not serious. Livy remained
close enough to the imperial court to encourage the young prince Claudius to write
history. (The future emperor became a productive author: his histories of Rome,
Carthage and the Etruscans consisted of sixty-nine books.)
Until Livy's death, he wrote on his History of Rome from its foundation.
We do not know its publishing history, but the following is a plausible reconstruction:
| 26 BCE | 1-5 | Early history |
| 24 | 6-15 | Conquest of Italy |
| 19 | 16-30 | Wars against Carthage |
| 14 | 31-45 | Wars in the eastern Mediterranean |
| 11 | 46-55 | Destruction of Greece and Carthage |
| 1 BCE | 56-90 | The Gracchi, Marius, Cinna, and Sulla |
| 5 CE | 91-105 | Pompey, Crassus, and Caesar |
| 8 | 106-115 | Caesar becomes sole ruler |
| 10 | 116-120 | War of Mutina |
| 14 | 121-133 | Wars of the triumvirs and fall of Marc Antony |
| 17 | 134-142 | Reign of Augustus |
Jona Lendering, ed.
This text is cited July 2003 from the Livius Ancient History Website URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks.
AREZZO (Town) TOSCANA
Maecenas . Of the life of Maecenas we must be content to glean what scattered
notices we can from the poets and historians of Rome, since it does not appear
to have been formally recorded by any ancient author. We are totally in the dark
both as to the date and place of his birth, and the manner of his education. It
is most probable, however, that he was born some time between B. C. 73 and 63;
and we learn from Horace (Carm. iv. 11) that his birth-day was the 13th of April.
His family, though belonging only to the equestrian order, was of high antiquity
and honour, and traced its descent from the Lucumones of Etruria. The scholiast
on Horace (Carm. i. 1) informs us that he numbered Porsena among his ancestors;
and his authority is in some measure confirmed by a fragment of one of Augustus'
letters to Maecenas, preserved by Macrobius (Sat. ii. 4), in which he is addressed
as "berylle Porsenae". His paternal ancestors are mentioned by Livy (x. 3, 5)
as having attained to so high a pitch of power and wealth at Arretium about the
middle of the fifth century of Rome, as to excite the jealousy and hatred of their
fellow-citizens, who rose against and expelled them; and it was not without considerable
difficulty that they were at length restored to their country, through the interference
of the Romans. The maternal branch of the family was likewise of Etruscan origin,
and it was from them that the name of Maecenas was derived, it being customary
among the Etruscans to assume the mother's as well as the father's name (Muller,
Etrusker, ii. p. 404). It is in allusion to this circumstance that Horace (Sat.
i. 6. 3) mentions both his avns maternus atque paternus as having been distinguished
by commanding numerous legions; a passage, by the way, from which we are not to
infer that the ancestors of Maecenas had ever led the Roman legions. Their name
does not appear in the Fasti Consulares; and it is manifest, from several passages
of Latin authors, that the word legio is not always restricted to a Roman legion
(See Liv. x. 5; Sall. Cat. 53, &c.). With respect to the etymology of the name
Maecenas, authors are at variance. We sometimes find it spelt Mecaenas, sometimes
Mecoenas; but it seems to be now agreed that Maecenas is right. As to its derivation,
several fanciful theories have been started. It seems most probable, as Varro
tells us (L. L. viii. 84, ed. Millerr), that it was taken from some place; and
which may possibly be that mentioned by Pliny (H. N. xiv. 8) as producing an inland
sort of wines called the vina Maeccnatiana. The names both of Cilnius and Maecenas
occur on Etruscan cinerary urns, but always separately, a fact from which Muller,
in his Etrusker, has inferred that the union of the two families did not take
place till a late period. Be that as it may, the first notice that occurs of any
of the family, as a citizen of Rome, is in Cicero's speech for Cluentius (§ 56),
where a knight named C. Maecenas is mentioned among the robora populi Romoani,
and as having been instrumental in putting down the conspiracy of the tribune,
M. Livius Drusus, B. C. 91. This person has been generally considered the father
of the subject of this memoir; but Frandsen, in his life of Maecenas, thinks,
and perhaps with more probability, that it was his grandfather. About the same
period we also find a Maecenas mentioned by Sallust, in the fragments of his history
(Lib. iii.) as a scribe.
Although it is unknown where Maecenas received his education, it must
doubtless have been a careful one. We learn from Horace that he was versed both
in Greek and Roman literature; and his taste for literary pursuits was shown,
not only [p. 891] by his patronage of the most eminent poets of his time, but
also by several performances of his own, both in verse and prose. That at the
time of Julius Caesar's assassination he was with Octavianus at Apollonia, in
the capacity of tutor, rests on pure conjecture. Shortly, however, after the appearance
of the latter on the political stage, we fnd the name of Maecenas in frequent
conjunction with his; and there can be no doubt that he was of great use to him
in assisting to establish and consolidate the empire; but the want of materials
prevents us from tracing his services in this way with the accuracy that could
be wished. It is possible that he may have accompanied Octavianus in the campaigns
of Mutina, Philippi, and Perusia; but the only authorities for the statement are
a passage in Propertius (ii. 1), which by no means necessarily bears that meaning;
and the elegies attributed to Pedo Albinovanus, but which have been pronounced
spurious by a large majority of the best critics. The first authentic account
we have of Maecenas is of his being employed by Octavianus, B. C. 40, in negotiating
a marriage for him with Scribonia, daughter of Libo, the fatherin-law of Sext.
Pompeius; which latter, for political reasons, Octavianus was at that time desirous
of conciliating. (App. B. C. v. 53; Dion Cass. xlviii. 16.) In the same year Maecenas
took part in the negotiations with Antony (whose wife, Fulvia, was now dead),
which led to the peace of Brundisium, confirmed by the marriage of Antony with
Octavia, Caesar's sister. (App. B. C. v. 64.) Appian's authority on this occasion
is supported by the scholiast on Horace (Sat. i. 5. 28), who tells us that Livy,
in his 127th book, had recorded the intervention of Maecenas. According to Appian,
however, Cocceius Nerva played the principal part. About two years afterwards
Maecenas. seems to have been again employed in negotiating with Antony (App. B.
C. v. 93); and it was probably on this occasion that Horace accompanied him to
Brundisium, a journey which he has described in the 5th satire of the 1st book.
Maecenas is there also represented as associated with Cocceius, and they are both
described as "aversos soliti componere amicos."
In B. C. 36 we find Maecenas in Sicily with Octavianus. then engaged
in an expedition against Sex. Pompeius, during the course of which Maecenas was
twice sent back to Rome for the purpose of quelling some disturbances which had
broken out there. (App. B. C. v. 99, 112.) According to Dion Cassins (xlix. 16),
this was the first occasion on which Maecenas became Caesar's vicegerent; and
he was entrusted with the administration not only of Rome, but of all Italy. His
fidelity and talents had now been tested by several years' experience; and it
had probably been found that the bent of his genius fitted him for the cabinet
rather than for the field, since his services could be so easily dispensed with
in the latter. From this time till the battle of Actium (B. C. 31) history is
silent concerning Maecenas; but at that period we again find him intrusted with
the administration of the civil affairs of Italy. It has indeed been maintained
by many critics that Maecenas was present at the sea-fight of Actium; but the
best modern scholars who have discussed the subject have shown that this could
not have been the case, and that he remained in Rome during this time, where he
suppressed the conspiracy of the younger Lepidus. The only direct authority for
the statement of Maecenas having been at Actium is an elegy ascribed to Albinovanus
on the death of Maecenas, which is certainly spurious; and the commentary of Acron
on the first epode of Horace, which kind of authority is of little value. The
first elegy of the second book of Propertius has also been quoted in support of
this fact, but upon examination it will be found wholly inadequate to establish
it. Yet the existence of Horace's first epode still remains to be accounted for.
Those critics who deny that Maecenas proceeded to Actium have still, we believe,
hitherto unanimously held that the poem is to be referred to that epoch; and they
explain the inconsistency by the supposition that Maecenas, when the epode was
written, had really intended to accompany Caesar, but was prevented by the office
assigned to him at home. In confirmation of this view, Frandsen, in his Life of
Maecenas, appeals to the 35th ode of Horace's first book, addressed to Augustus
on the occasion of his intended visit to Britain, a journey which it is known
he never actually performed. But to this it may be answered that Augustus at least
started with the intention of going thither, and actually went as far as Gaul;
but proceeded thence to Spain. A more probable solution, therefore, may be that
first proposed by the author of this article in the Classical Museum (vol. ii.
p. 205, &c.), that the epode does not at all relate to Actium, but to the Sicilian
expedition against Sext. Pompeius. But for the grounds of that opinion, which
would occupy too much space to be here re-stated, the reader is referred to that
work.
By the detection of the conspiracy of Lepidus, Maecenas nipped in
the bud what might have proved another fruitful germ of civil war. Indeed his
services at this period must have been most important and invaluable; and how
faithfully and ably he acquitted himself may be inferred from the unbounded confidence
reposed in him. In conjunction with Agrippa, we now find him empowered not only
to open all letters addressed by Caesar to the senate, but even to alter their
contents as the posture of affairs at home might require; and for this purpose
he was entrusted with his master's seal (Dion Cass. li. 3), in order that the
letters might be delivered as if they had come directly from Octavian's own hand.
Yet, notwithstanding the height of favour and power to which he had attained,
Maecenas, whether from policy or inclination, remained content with his equestrian
rank; a circumstance which seems somewhat to have diminished his authority with
the populace.
After Octavianus' victory over Antony and Cleopatra, the whole power
of the triumvirate centered in the former; for Lepidus had been previously reduced
to the condition of a private person. On his return to Rome, Caesar is represented
to have taken counsel with Agrippa and Maecenas respecting the expediency of restoring
the republic. Agrippa advised him to pursue that course, but Maecenas strongly
urged him to establish the empire; and Dion Cassius (lii. 14, &c.) has preserved
the speech which he is said to have addressed to Octavianus on that occasion.
The genuineness of that document is, however, liable to very great suspicion.
It is highly improbable that Maecenas, in a cabinet consultation of that kind,
would have addressed Octavianus in a set speech of so formal a description; and
still more so that any one should have been present to take it down, or that Maecenas
himself should have afterwards published it. Yet Suetonius, in his life of Augustus,
confirms the account of Dion Cassius so far as that some such consultation took
place; and the tenor of the speech perfectly agrees with the known character and
sentiments of Maecenas. If, therefore, we should be disposed to regard the part
here attributed by Dion Cassius to Agrippa and Maecenas as something more than
a mere fiction of the historian, for the purpose of stating the most popular arguments
that might be advanced against, or in favour of, the establishment of the empire,
the most probable solution is that the substance of the speech was extant in the
Roman archives in the shape of a state paper or minute, drawn up by Maecenas.
However that may be, the document is certainly a very able one, and should be
carefully consulted by all who are studying the history of Rome during its transition
from a republic to an empire. The regulations proposed for the consolidation of
the monarchical power are admirably adapted to their purpose; whether they were
indispensable, or calculated to secure the happiness of the Roman people, depends
upon the truth or falsehood of the former part of the speech, in which it is contended
that the republic could no longer exist without constant danger of civil wars
and dismemberment.
The description of power exercised by Maecenas during the absence
of Caesar should not be confounded with the praefectura urbis. It was not till
after the civil wars that the latter office was aestablished as a distinct and
substantive one; and, according to Dion Cassius (lii. 21), by the advice of Maecenas
himself. This is confirmed by Tacitus (Ann. vi. 11), and by Suetonius (Aug. 37),
who reckons it among the nova officia. The praefectus urbis was a mere police
magistrate, whose jurisdiction was confined to Rome and the adjacent country,
within a radius of 750 stadia; but Maecenas had the charge of political as well
as municipal affairs, and his administration embraced the whole of Italy. Thus
we are told by Seneca (Ep. 114) that he was invested with judicial power (in tribunali,
in rostris, in omni publico coetu); and also that he gave the watch-word (signum
ab eo petebatur); a function of the very highest authority, and afterwards exercised
by the emperors themselves.
It is the more necessary to attend to this distinction, because the
neglect of it has given rise to the notion that Maecenas was never entrusted with
the supreme administration after the close of the civil wars. The office of praefectus
urbis was a regular and continuous one; and we learn from Tacitus that it was
first filled by Messalla Corvinus, who held it but a few days; then by Statilius
Taurus, who, it is plain from Dion (liv. 19), must have enjoyed it for upwards
of ten years at least; and next by Piso, who, Tacitus tells us, was praefectus
for the space of twenty years. (Ann. vi. 11.) But there is nothing in all this
to show that Maecenas might not have been Caesar's vicegerent whilst Taurus filled
the subordinate office of praefectus. Nor are we to infer from the expression,
"bellis civilibus" in the passage of Tacitus (Augustus bellis civilibus Cilnium
Maecenatem cunctis apud Romam atque Italiam praeposuit, (Ann. vi. 1 ), that the
political functions of Maecenas absolutely ceased with the civil wars. His meaning
rather seems to be that, during that period Maecenas combined the duties which
afterwards belonged to the praefectus alone, with those of the supreme political
power. This is shown by the word cunctis, and by the mention of Italy as well
as Rome; to which latter only the praefectura related. In like manner Dion Cassius
(liv. 19), when relating how Maecenas was finally superseded (B. C. 16) by Taurus,
the praefectus, as vicegerent, during the absence of Augustus, expressly mentions
that the jurisdiction of Taurus was extended over the whole of Italy (to men astu
toi Tauroi meta tes alles Ita lias dioikein epitrepsas). When Agrippa, indeed,
could remain at Rome, he seems to have had the preference, as on the occasion
of Augustus's expedition into Sicily in B. C. 21. (Dion Cass. liv. 6.) But when
Agrippa accompanied the emperor, as in his Spanish campaign in B. C. 27, it is
hardly to be doubted that Maecenas exercised the functions of Augustus at Rome.
The 8th and 29th odes of the third book of Horace, which, although we cannot fix
their precise dates, were evidently written after the civil wars, contain allusions
to the political cares of Maecenas. Some of the expressions in them have been
too literally interpreted. In both urbs is used in a sufficiently common sense
for respublica; and though in the latter the word civitatem is taken by the scholiast
to allude to the office of praefecus, yet the phrase quis deceat status points
to infinitely higher functions than those of a mere police magistrate. It may
be observed, too, that both odes refer to the fobreign affairs of the empire.
It must be confessed, however, that we have no means of determining with certainty
on what occsions, and for how long, after the establishment of the empire, Maecenas
continued to exercise his political power; though, as before remarked, we know
that he had ceased to enjoy it in B. C. 16. That he retained the confidence of
Augustus till at least B. C. 21 may be inferred from the fact that about that
time he advised him to marry his daughter Julia to Agrippa, on the ground that
he had made the latter so rich and powerful, that it was dangerous to allow him
to live unless he advanced him still further. (Dion Cass. liv. 6.) The fact to
which we have before alluded of Agrippa being entrusted in that year with the
administration, and not Maecenas, affords no ground for concluding that any breach
had yet been made in the friendship of the emperor and Maecenas. Agrippa, being
more nearly connected with Augustus, would of course obtain the preference; and
such an act of self-renunciation was quite in the character of Maecenas, and might
have even formed part of his advice respecting the conduct to be observed towards
Agrippa. Between B. C. 21 and 16, however, we have direct evidence that a coolness,
to say the least, had sprung up between the emperor and his faithful minister.
This estrangement, for it cannot be called actual disgrace, is borne out by the
silence of historians respecting the latter years of Maecenas's life, as well
as by the express testimony of Tacitus, who tells us (Ann. iii. 30) that during
this period he enjoyed only the appearance, and not the reality, of his sovereign's
friendship. The cause of this rupture is enveloped in doubt. Seneca (Ep. 19) drops
a mysterious hint about Maecenas having taken in his sails too late; whilst Dion
Cassius (liv. 19) positively attributes it to an intrigue carried on by Augustus
with Terentia, Maecenas's wife. It is certain that such a connection existed;
and the historian just cited mentions a report that Augustus's motive for going
into Gaul in B. C. 16 was to enjoy the society of Terentia unmolested by the lampoons
which it gave occasion to at Rome. But, whatever may have been the cause, the
political career of Maecenas may be considered as then at an end; and we shall
therefore now turn to contemplate him in private life.
The public services of Maecenas, though important, were unobtrusive;
and notwithstanding the part that he played in assisting to establish the empire,
it is by his private pursuits, and more particularly by his reputation as a patron
of literature, that he has been best known to posterity. His retirement was probably
far from disagreeable to him, as it was accompanied with many circumstances calculated
to recommend it to one of his turn of mind, naturally a votary of ease and pleasure.
He had amassed an enormous fortune, which Tacitus (Ann. xiv. 53, 55) attributes
to the liberality of Augustus. It has been sometimes insinuated that he grew rich
by the proscriptions; and Pliny (H. N. xxxvii. 4), speaking of Maecenas's private
seal, which bore the impression of a frog, represents it as having been an object
of terror to the tax-payers. It by no means follows, however, that the money levied
under his private seal was applied to his private purposes; and had he been inclined
to misappropriate the taxes, we know that Caesar's own seal was at his unlimited
disposal, and would have better covered his delinquencies.
Maecenas had purchased a tract of ground on the Esquiline hill, which
had formerly served as a burial-place for the lower orders. (Hor. Sat. i. 8. 7.)
Here he had planted a garden and built a house remarkable for its loftiness, on
account of a tower by which it was surmounted, and from. the top of which Nero
is said to have afterwards contemplated the burning of Rome. In this residence
he seems to have passed the greater part of his time, and to have visited the
country but seldom; for though he might possibly have possessed a villa at Tibur,
near the falls of the Anio, there is no direct authority for the fact. Tacitus
tells us that he spent his leisure urbe in ipsa; and the deep tranquillity of
his repose may be conjectured from the epithet by which the same historian designates
it--velut peregrinum otium. (Ann. xiv. 53.) The height of the situation seems
to have rendered it a healthy abode (Hor. Sat. i. 8. 14); and we learn from Suetonius
(Aug. 72) that Augustus had on one occasion retired thither to recover from a
sickness.
Maecenas's house was the rendezvous of all the wits and virtuosi of
Rome; and whoever could contribute to the amusement of the company was always
welcome to a seat at his table. In this kind of society he does not appear to
have been very select; and it was probably from his undistinguishing hospitality
that Augustus called his board parasitica mensa. (Suet. Vit. Hor.) Yet he was
naturally of a reserved and taciturn disposition, and drew a broad distinction
between the acquaintances that he adopted for the amusement of an idle hour, and
the friends whom he admitted to his intimacy and confidence. In the latter case
lie was as careful and chary as he was indiscrimieating in the former. His really
intimate friends consisted of the greatest geniuses and most learned men of Rome;
and if it was from his universal inclination towards men of talent that he obtained
the reputation of a literary patron, it was by his friendship for such poets as
Virgil and Horace that he deserved it. In recent times, and by some German authors,
especially the celebrated Wieland in his Introduction and Notes to Horace's Epistles,
Maecenas's claims to the title of a literary patron have been depreciated. It
is urged that he is not mentioned by Ovid and Tibullus; that the Sabine farm which
he gave to Horace was not so very large; that his conduct was perhaps not altogether
disinterested, and that he might have befriended literary men either out of vanity
or from political motives; that he was not singular in his literary patronage,
which was a fashion amongst the eminent Romans of the day, as Messalla Corvinus,
Asinius Pollio, and others; and that he was too knowing in pearls and beryls to
be a competent judge of the higher works of genius. As for his motives, or the
reasons why he did not adopt Tibullus and Ovid, we shall only remark, that as
they are utterly unknown to us, so it is only fair to put the most liberal construction
on them; and that he had naturally a love of literature for its own sake, apart
from all political or interested views, may be inferred from the fact of his having
been himself a voluminous author. Though literary patronage may have been the
fashion of the day, it would be difficult to point out any contemporary Roman,
or indeed any at all, who indulged it so magnificently. His name had become proverbial
for a patron of letters at least as early as the time of Martial; and though the
assertion of that author (viii. 56), that the poets enriched by the bounty of
Maecenas were not easily to be counted, is not, of course, to be taken literally,
it would have been utterly ridiculous had there not been some foundation for it.
That he was no bad judge of literary merit is shown by the sort of men whom he
patronised--Virgil, Horace, Propertius; besides others, almost their equals in
reputation, but whose works are now unfortunately lost, as Varius, Tucca. and
others. But as Virgil and Horace were by far the greatest geniuses of the age,
so it is certain that they were more beloved by Maecenas, the latter especially,
than any of their contemporaries. Virgil was indebted to him for the recovery
of his farm, which had been appropriated by the soldiery in the division of lands,
in B. C. 41; and it was at the request of Maecenas that he undertook the Georgics,
the most finished of all his poems. To Horace he was a still greater benefactor.
He not only procured him a pardon for having fought against Octavianus at Philippi,
but presented him with the means of comfortable subsistence, a farm in the Sabine
country. If the estate was but a moderate one, we learn from Horace himself that
the bounty of Maecenas was regulated by his own contented views, and not by his
patron's want of generosity. (Carrm. ii. 18. 14, Carm. iii. 16. 38.) Nor was this
liberality accompanied with any servile and degrading conditions. The poet was
at liberty to write or not, as he pleased, and lived in a state of independence
creditable alike to himself and to his patron. Indeed their intimacy was rather
that of two familiar friends of equal station, than of the royally-descended and
powerful minister of Caesar, with the son of an obscure freedman. But on this
point we need not dwell, as it has been already touched upon in the life of Horace.
Of Maecenas's own literary productions, only a few fragments exist.
From these, however, and from the notices which we find of his writings in ancient
authors, we are led to think that we have not suffered any great loss by their
destruction; for, although a good judge of literary merit in others, he does not
appear to have been an author of much taste himself. It has been thought that
two of his works, of which little more than the titles remain, were tragedies,
namely the Prometheus and Octavia. But Seneca (Ep. 19) calls the former a book
(librum); and Octavia, mentioned in Priscian (lib. 10), is not free from the suspicion
of being a corrupt reading. An hexameter line supposed to have belonged to an
epic poem, another line thought to have been part of a Galliambic poem, one or
two epigrams, and some other fragments, are extant, and are given by Meibom and
Frandsen in their lives of Maecenas. In prose he wrote a work on natural history,
which Pliny several times alludes to, but which seems to have related chiefly
to fishes and gems. Servius (ad Virg. Aen. viii. 310) attributes a Symposium to
him. If we may trust the same authority he also composed some memoirs of Augustus;
and Horace (Carm. ii. 12. 9) alludes to at least some project of the kind, but
which was probably never carried into execution. Maecenas's prose style was affected,
unnatural, and often unintelligible, and for these qualities he was derided by
Augustus. (Suet. Aug. 26.) Macrobius (Saturn. ii. 4) has preserved part of a letter
of the emperor's, in which he takes off his minister's way of writing. The author
of the dialogue De Causis Corruptae Eloquentiae (c. 26) enumerates him among the
orators, but stigmatizes his affected style by the term calamistros Maecenatis.
Quintiiian (Inst. Orat. ix. 4. 28) and Seneca (Ep. 114) also condemn his style;
and the latter author gives a specimen of it which is almost wholly unintelligible.
Yet, he likewise tells us (Ep. 19), that he would have been very eloquent if he
had not been spoiled by his good fortune; and allows him to have possessed an
ingenium grande et virile (Ep. 92). According to Dion Cassius (1v. 7), Maecenas
first introduced short-hand, and instructed many in the art through his freedman,
Aquila. By other authors, however, the invention has been attributed to various
persons of an earlier date; as to Tiro, Cicero's freedman, to Cicero himself,
and even to Ennius.
But though seemingly in possession of all the means and appliances
of enjoyment, Maecenas cannot be said to have been altogether happy in his domestic
life. We have already alluded to an intrigue between Augustus and his wife Terentia;
but this was not the only infringement of his domestic peace. Terentia, though
exceedingly beautiful, was of a morose and haughty temper, and thence quarrels
were continually occurring between the pair. Yet the natural uxoriousness of Maecenas
as constantly prompted him to seek a reconciliation; so that Seneca (Ep. 114)
remarks that he married a wife a thousand times, though he never had more than
one. Her influence over him was so great, that in spite of his cautious and taciturn
temper, he was on one occasion weak enough to confide an important state secret
to her, respecting her brother Murena, the conspirator (Suet. Aug. 66; Dion Cass.
liv. 3). Maecenas himself, however, was probably in some measure to blame for
the terms on which he lived with his wife, for he was far from being the pattern
of a good husband. His own adulteries were notorious. Augustus, in the fragment
of the letter in Macrobius before alluded to, calls him malagma maecharum; and
Plutarch (Erot. 16) relates of him the story of the accommodating husband, Galba,
who pretended to be asleep after dinner in order to give him an opportunity with
his wife. Nay, he is even suspected of more infamous vices. (Tacit. Ann. i. 54.)
In his way of life Maecenas was addicted to every species of luxury.
We find several allusions in the ancient authors to the effeminacy of his dress.
Instead of girding his tunic above his knees, lie suffered it to hang loose about
his heels, like a woman's petticoat; and when sitting on the tribunal he kept
his head covered with his pallium (Sen. Ep. 114). Yet, in spite of this softness
he was capable of exerting himself when the occasion required, and of acting with
energy and decision (Vell. Pat. ii. 88). So far was he from wishing to conceal
the softness and effeminacy of his manners, that he made a parade of his vices;
and, during the greatest heat of the civil wars, openly appeared in the public
places of Rome with a couple of eunuchs in his train (Senec. l. c.). He was fond
of theatrical entertainments, especially pantomimes; as may be inferred from his
patronage of Bathyllus, the celebrated dancer, who was a freedman of his. It has
been concluded from Tacitus (Ann. i. 54) that he first introduced that species
of representation at Rome; and, with the politic view of keeping the people quiet
by amusing them, persuaded Augustus to patronize it. Dion Cassius (lv. 7) tells
us that he was the first to introduce warm swimming baths at Rome. His love of
ointments is tacitly satirized by Augustus (Suet. Aug. 86), and his passion for
gems and precious stones is notorious. According to Pliny he paid some attention
to cookery; and as the same author (xix. 57) mentions a book on gardening, which
had been dedicated to him by Sabinus Tiro, it has been thought that he was partial
to that pursuit. His tenacious, and indeed, unmanly love of life, he has himself
painted in some verses preserved by Seneca (Ep. 101), and which, as affording
a specimen of his style, we here insert:
Debilem facito manu
Debilem pede, coxa;
Tuber adstrue gibberum,
Lubricos quate dentes
Vita dum superest, bene est,
Hanc mihi, vel acuta
Si sedeam cruce, sustine.--
From these lines it has been conjectured that he belonged to the sect of the Epicureans; but of his philosophical principles nothing certain is known.
That moderation of character which led him to he content with his
equestrian rank, probably arose from the love of ease and luxury which we have
described, or it might have been the result of more prudent and political views.
As a politician, the principal trait in his character was fidelity to his master
(Maecenatis erunt vera tropaea fides,Propert. iii. 9), and the main end of all
his cares was the consolidation of the empire. But, though he advised the establishment
of a despotic monarchy, he was at the same time the advocate of mild and liberal
measures. He recommended Augustus to put no check on the free expression of public
opinion; but above all to avoid that cruelty, which, for so many years, had stained
the Roman annals with blood (Senec. Ep. 114). To the same effect is the anecdote
preserved by Cedrenus, the Byzantine historian; that when on some occasion Octavianus
sat on the tribunal, condemning numbers to death, Maecenas, who was among the
bystanders, and could not approach Caesar by reason of the crowd, wrote upon his
tablets, " Rise, hangman !" (Surge tandem carnifex !), and threw them into Caesar's
lap, who immediately left the judgment-seat (comp. Dion Cass. Iv. 7).
Maecenas appears to have been a constant valetudinarian. If Pliny's
statement (vii. 51 ) is to be taken literally, he laboured under a continual fever.
According to the same author he was sleepless during the last three years of his
life; and Seneca tells us (de Provid. iii. 9) that he endeavoured to procure that
sweet and indispensable refreshment, by listening to the sound of distant symphonies.
We may infer from Horace (Carm. ii. 17) that he was rather hypochondriacal. He
died in the consulate of Gallus and Censorinus, B. C. 8 (Dion Cass. lv. 7), and
was buried on the Esquiline. He left no children, and thus by his death his ancient
family became extinct. He bequeathed his property to Augustus, and we find that
Tiberius afterwards resided in his house (Suet. Tib. 15). Though the emperor treated
Maecenas with coldness during the latter years of his life, he sincerely lamented
his death, and seems to have sometimes felt the want of so able, so honest, and
so faithful a counsellor. (Dion Cass. liv. 9, lv. 7; Senec. de Ben. vi. 32.)
The life of Maecenas has been written in Latin by John Henry Meibom,
in a thin quarto, entitled Liber singularis de C. Cilnii MJaecenatis Vita, Moribus,
et Rebus Gestis, Leyden, 1653. It contains at the end the elegies ascribed to
Pedo Albinovanus, and is a learned and useful work, though the author has taken
an extravagant view of his hero's virtues, and, according to the fashion of those
days, has been rather too liberal of the contents of his commonplace book. In
Italian there is a life by Cenni, Rome 1684; by Dini, Venice 1704; and by Sante
Viola, Rome, 1816; in German, by Bennemann, Leipzig, 1744; by Dr. Albert Lion
(Maecenatiana), Gottingen, 1824; and by Frandsen, Altona, 1843; which last is
by far the best life of Maecenas. In French there is a life of Maecenas by the
Abbe Richer, Paris, 1746. The only life in English is by Dr. Ralph Schomberg,
London, 1766, 12mo. It is a mere compilation from Meibom and Richer, and shows
no critical discrimination.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
MEDIOLANUM (Ancient city) LOMBARDIA
FERMO (Town) MARCHE
Firmanus, Tarutius, a mathematician and astrologer, contemporary with M. Varro
and Cicero, and an intimate friend of them both. At Varro's request Firmanus took
the horoscope of Romulus, and from the circumstances of the life and death of
the founder determined the era of Rome. According to the scheme of Firmanus, Romulus
was born on the 23d day of September, in the 2d year of the 2d Olympiad = B. C.
771, and Rome was founded on the 9th of April, between the second and third hour
of the day. (Plut. Rom. 12; Cic. de Divin. ii. 47.) Plutarch does not say in what
year Firmanus placed the foundation of Rome, but the day is earlier than the Palilia
(April 21st), the usual point from which the years of Rome are reckoned. The name,
Firmanus, denotes a native of Firmum, in Picenum, the modern town of Fermo, in
the Marca d' Ancona, but Tarutius is an Etruscan appellation (Plut. Rom. 5, Quaest.
Rom. 35; Licinius Macer, ap. Macrob. Saturn. i. 10; Augustin. de Civ. Dei, vi.
7), and from his Etruscan ancestors he may have inherited his taste for mathematical
studies.
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ASCULUM PICENUM (Ancient city) MARCHE
Barrus, T. Betucius, of Asculum, a town in Picenum, is described by Cicero (Brut. 46), as the most eloquent of all orators out of Rome. In Cicero's time several of his orations delivered at Asculum were extant, and also one against Caepio, which was spoken at Rome. This Caepio was Q. Servilius Caepio, who perished in the social war, B. C. 90.
RAVENNA (Town) EMIGLIA ROMANA
Aspasius, of Ravenna, a distinguished sophist and rhetorician, who lived about A. D. 225, in the reign of Alexander Severus. He was educated by his father Demetrianus, who was himself a skilful rhetorician; afterwards he was also a pupil of Pausanias and Hippodromus, and then travelled to various parts of the ancient world, as a companion of the emperor and of some other persons. He obtained the principal professorship of rhetoric at Rome, which he held until his death at an advanced age. At Rome he also began his long rhetorical controversy with Philostratus of Lemnos, which was afterwards continued by other disputants in Ionia. Aspasius was also secretary to the emperor, but his letters were censured by his opponent Pausanias, for their declamatory character and their want of precision and clearness. He is said to have written several orations, which, how ever, are now lost. They are praised for their simplicity and originality, and for the absence of all pompous affectation in them. (Philostr. Vit. Soph. ii. 33; Eudoc. p. 66; Suidas, s. v. Aspasios.)
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Demetrianus, (Demetrianos), of Ravenna, the father of the celebrated rhetorician Aspasius, lived in the time of the emperor Alexander Severus, and was no less distinguished as a rhetorician than as a critical mathematician. (Philostr. Vit. Soph. ii. 33. § 1; Suidas, s. v. Adpadios.)
CREMONA (Town) LOMBARDIA
Bibaculus, M. Furius, who is classed by Quintilian (x. 1.96) along with Catullus
and Horace as one of the most distinguished of the Roman satiric iambographers,
and who is in like manner ranked by Diomedes, in his chapter on iambic verse (ed.
Putsch.) with Archilochus and Hipponax, among the Greeks, and with Lucilius, Catullus,
and Horace, among the Latins, was born, according to St. Jerome in the Eusebian
chronicle, at Cremona in the year B. C. 103. From the scanty and unimportant specimens
of his works transmitted to modern times, we are scarcely in a condition to form
any estimate of his powers. A single senarian is quoted by Suetonius (de Illustr.
Gr. c. 9), containing an allusion to the loss of memory sustained in old age by
the famous Orbilius Pupillus; and the same author (c. 11) has preserved two short
epigrams in hendecasyllabic measure, not remarkable for good taste or good feeling,
in which Bibaculus sneers at the poverty to which his friend, Valerius Cato, had
been reduced at the close of life, as contrasted with the splendour of the villa
which that unfortunate poet and grammarian had at one period possessed at Tusculum,
but which had been seized by his importunate creditors. In addition to these fragments,
a dactylic hexameter is to be found in the Scholiast on Juvenal (viii. 16), and
a scrap consisting of three words in Charisius (ed. Putsch.). We have good reason,
however, to believe that Bibaculus did not confine his efforts to pieces of a
light or sarcastic tone, but attempted themes of more lofty pretensions. It seems
certain that he published a poem on the Gaulish wars, entitled Praigmatia Belli
Gallici, and it is probable that he was the author of another upon some of the
legends connected with the Aethiopian allies of king Priam. The former is known
to us only from an unlucky metaphor cleverly parodied by Horace, who takes occasion
at the same time to ridicule the obese rotundity of person which distinguished
the composer. (Hor. Serm. ii. 5. 41, and the notes of the Scholiast; comp. Quintil.
viii. 6.17.) The existence of the latter depends upon our acknowledging that the
"turgidus Alpinus" represented in the epistle to Julius Florus (1. 103)
as "murdering" Memnon, and polluting by his turbid descriptions the
fair fountains of the Rhine, is no other than Bibaculus. The evidence for this
rests entirely upon an emendation introduced by Bentley into the text of the old
commentators on the above passage, but the correction is so simple, and tallies
so well with the rest of the annotation, and with the circumstances of the case,
that it may be pronounced almost certain. The whole question is fully and satisfactorily
discussed in the dissertation of Weichert in his Poet. Latin. Reliqu. Should we
think it worth our while to inquire into the cause of the enmity thus manifested
by Horace towards a brother poet whose age might have commanded forbearance if
not respect, it may perhaps be plausibly ascribed to some indisposition which
had been testified on the part of the elder bard to recognise the merits of his
youthful competitor, and possibly to some expression of indignation at the presumptuous
freedom with which Lucilius, the idol and model of the old school, had been censured
in the earlier productions of the Venusian. An additional motive may be found
in the fact, which we learn from the wellknown oration of Cremutius Cordus as
reported by Tacitus (Ann. iv. 34), that the writings of Bibaculus were stuffed
with insults against the first two Caesars - a consideration which will serve
to explain also the hostility displayed by the favourite of the Augustan court
towards Catullus, whose talents and taste were as fully and deservedly appreciated
by his countrymen and contemporaries as they have been by modern critics, but
whose praises were little likely to sound pleasing in the ears of the adopted
son and heir of the dictator Julius.
Lastly, by comparing some expressions of the elder Pliny (Praef H.
N.) with hints dropped by Suetonius (de Ilustr. Gr. c. 4) and Macrobius (Saturn.
ii. 1), there is room for a conjecture, that Bibaculus made a collection of celebrated
jests and witticisms, and gave the compilation to the world under the title of
Luceubrationes.
We must carefully avoid confounding Furius Bibaculus with the Furius
who was imitated in several passages of the Aeneid, and from whose Annals, extending
to eleven books at least, we find some extracts in the Saturnalia. (Macrob. Saturn.
vi. 1; Compare Merula, ad Enn. Ann. p. xli.) The latter was named in full Aulus
Furius Antias. and to him L. Lutatius Catulus, colleague of M. Marius in the consulship
of B. C. 102, addressed an account of the campaign against the Cimbri. (Cic. Brut.
c. 35.) To this Furius Antias are atattributed certain lines found in Aulus Gellius
(xviii. 11), and brought under review on account of the affected neoterisms with
which they abound. Had we any fair pretext for calling in question the authority
of the summaries prefixed to the chapters of the Noctes Atticae, we should feel
strongly disposed to follow G. J. Voss, Lambinus, and Heindorf, in assigning these
follies to the ambitious Bibaculus rather than to the chaste and simple Antias,
whom even Virgil did not disdain to copy. (Weichert, Poet. Latin. Reliqu.)
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MANTOUE (Ancient city) LOMBARDIA
Publius Vergilius Maro, 15 October 70 - 19 BC, known in English as
Virgil or Vergil, Latin poet, is the author of the Eclogues, the Georgics, and
the Aeneid, a narrative poem in twelve books that deserves to be called the Roman
Empire's national epic. Born in the village of Andes (modern Pietole), near Mantua
in Cisalpine Gaul (Gaul "this side", i.e., south of the Alps, present
northern Italy), Vergil received
his earliest schooling at Cremona and Milan. He then went to Rome
to study rhetoric, medicine, and astronomy, which he soon abandoned for philosophy.
In this period, while he was in the school of Siro the Epicurean, Vergil began
writing poetry. A group of minor poems attributed to the youthful Vergil survive
but most are spurious. One, the Catalepton (bagatelles?), consists of fourteen
little poems, some of which may be Vergil’s, and another, a short narrative
poem titled the Culex (the mosquito), was attributed to Vergil as early as the
first century AD. [...]
This extract is cited May 2004 from the Malaspina Great Books URL below, which contains image.
ORTA SAN JIULIO (Town) PIEMONTE
Falconia Proba, a poetess, greatly admired in the middle ages, but whose real name, and the place
of whose nativity, are uncertain. We find her called Flatonia Veccia, Faltonia
Anicia, Valeria Faltonia Proba, and Proba Valeria; while Rome, Orta, and sundry
other cities, claim the honour of her birth. Most historians of Roman literature
maintain that she was the noble Anicia Faltonia Proba., the wife of Olybrius Probus,
otherwise called Hermogeniains Olybrius, whose name appears in the Fasti as the
colleague of Ausonius, A. D. 379; the mother of Olybrius and Probinus, whose joint
consulate has been celebrated by Claudian; and, according to Procopius, the traitress
by whom the gates of Rome were thrown open to Alaric and his Goths. But there
seems to be no evidence for this identification; and we must fall back upon the
testimony of Isidorus, with whose words, " Proba uxor Adelfii Proconsulis," our
knowledge begins and ends, unless we attach weight to a notice found at the end
of one of the MS. copies written in the tenth century, quoted by Montfaucon in
his Diarium Italicum, "Proba uxor Adolphi mater Olibrii et Aliepii cum Constantii
bellum adversus Magnentium conscripsisset, conscripsit et hunc librum".
The only production of Falconia now extant is a Cento Virgilianus,
inscribed to the Emperor Honorius, in terms which prove that the dedication must
have been written after A. D. 393, containing narratives in hexameter verse of
striking events in the Old and New Testament, expressed in lines, half lines,
or shorter portions of lines derived exclusively from the poems of Virgil, which
are completely exhausted in the process. Of course no praise, except what is merited
by idle industry and clever dullness, is due to this patch-work; and we cannot
but marvel at the gentle terms employed by Boccacio and Henry Stephens in reference
to such trash. We learn from the prooemium that she had published other pieces,
of which one upon the civil wars is particularly specified, but of these no trace
remains. The Homerocentones, by some ascribed to Falconia, belong in reality to
Eudoxia.
The Cento Virgilianus was first printed at Venice, 1472, in a volume
containing also the Epigrams of Ausonius, the Consolatio ad Liviam, the pastorals
of Calpurnius, together with some hymns and other poems; this was followed, in
the same century, by the editions published at Rome, 1481; at Antwerp, 1489, and
at Brixia, 1496. The most elaborate are those of Meibomius. Helmst. 1597, and
of Kromayer, Hal. Magd.1710.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Dec 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
PATAVION (Ancient city) PADOVA
Flaccus, C. Valerius. All that is known or that can be conjectured with plausibility
in regard to this writer may be comprehended in a very few words. From the expressions
of his friend Martial (i. 62, 77), we learn that he was a native of Padua; from
the exordium of his piece, we infer that it was addressed to Vespasian, and published
while Titus was achieving the subjugation of Judea; from a notice in Quintilian,
Dod well has drawn the conclusion that he must have died about A. D. 88. The lines
(v. 5),
"Phoebe, mone, si Cymaeae mihi conscia vatis
Stat casta cortina domo,"
whatever may be their import, are not in themselves sufficient to
prove, as Pius and Heinsius imagine, that he was a member of the sacred college
of the Quindecimviri; and the words Setinus Balbus, affixed to his name in certain
MSS., are much too doubtful in their origin and signification to serve as the
basis of any hypothesis, even if we were certain that they applied to the poet
himself, and not to some commentator on the text, or to some individual who may
at one time have possessed the codex which formed the archetype of a family.
The only work of Flaccus now extant is an unfinished heroic poem in
eight books, on the Argonautic expedition, in which he follows the general plan
and arrangement of Apollonius Rhodius, whose performance he in some passages literally
translates, while in others he contracts or expands his original, introduces new
characters, and on the whole devotes a larger portion of the action to the adventures
of the voyage before the arrival of the heroes at the dominions of Aetes. The
eighth book terminates abruptly, at the point where Medeia is urging Jason to
make her the companion of his homeward journey. The death of Absyrtus, and the
return of the Greeks, must have occupied at least three or four books more, but
whether these have been lost, or whether the author died before the completion
of his task, we cannot tell.
The Argonautica is one of those productions which are much praised
and little read. A kind but vague expression of regret upon the part of Quintilian
(x. 1), " Multum in Valerio Flacco nuper amisimus," has induced many
of the older to ascribe to Flaccus almost every conceivable merit; and, even in
modern times, Wagner has not hesitated to rank him next to Virgil among epic bards
of Rome. But it is difficult to discover any thing in his lays beyond decent mediocrity.
We may accord to him the praise of moderate talents, improved by industry and
learning, but we shall seek in vain for originality, or the higher attributes
of genius. He never startles us by any gross offence against taste, but he never
warms us by a brilliant thought, or charms us by a lofty flight of fancy. His
diction is for the most part pure, although strange words occasionally intrude
themselves, and common words are sometimes employed in an uncommon sense; his
general style is free from affectation, although there is a constant tendency
to harsh conciseness, which frequently renders the meaning obscure; his versification
is polished and harmonious, but the rhythm is not judiciously varied; his descriptions
are lively and vigorous, but his similes too often farfetched and unnatural. He
has attained to somewhat of the outward form, but to nothing of the in ward spirit,
of his great model, the Aeneid.
Valerius Flaccus seems to have been altogether unknown in the middle
ages, and to have been first brought to light by Poggio Brocciolini, who, while
attending the council of Constance in 1416, discovered in the monastery of St.
Gall a MS. containing the first three books, and a portion of the fourth. The
Editio Princeps was printed very incorrectly, from a good MS., at Bologna, by
Ugo Rugerius and Doninus Bertochus, fol. 1472; the second edition, which is much
more rare than the first, at Florence, by Sanctus Jacobus de Ripoli, 4to, without
date, but about 1431. The text was gradually improved by the collation of various
MSS. in the editions of Jo. Bapt. Pius, Bonon. fol. 1519; of Lud. Carrio, Antv.
8vo. 1565-1566; of Nicolaus Heinsius, Amst. 12mo. 1680; and above all in that
of Petrus Burmannus, Leid. 4to., 1724, which must be regarded as the most complete
which has yet appeared; although those of Harles, Altenb. 8vo. 1781; of Wagner,
Gotting. 8vo. 1805; and of Lemaire, Paris, 8vo. 1824, are more convenient for
ordinary purposes. The eighth book was published separately, with critical notes
and dissertations on some verses supposed to be spurious, by A. Weichert, Misn.
8vo. 1818.
We have metrical translations,--into English by Nicholas Whyte, 1565,
under the title " The story of Jason, how he gotte the golden flece, and
how he did begyle Media; out of Laten into Englische ;"--into French by A.
Dureau de Lamalle, Paris, 1811 ;--into Italian by M. A. Pindemonte, Verona, 1776
;--and into German by C. F. Wunderlich, Erfurt, 1805.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
PISAURON (Ancient city) MARCHE
Attius, Lucius. An early Roman poet of distinction, who forms a link between the ante-classical and classical periods of Latin literature; for Cicero, when a boy, had met him, and in after-life admired his verse. Attius was, like Horace, the son of a freedman, settled at Pisaurum. He began his career with a tragedy, the Atreus, and was the author of thirty-six more, besides Annales in hexameter verse, a history of Greek and Roman poetry (Didascalia), and two praetextae. His literary characteristics are dignity, vigour, and much rhetorical skill in the choice of words. Considerable fragments of his works remain to us, and can be found in Ribbeck's Tragicorum Romanorum Fragmenta (Leipzig, 1874); and L. Muller's Lucilius (1872). He is the author of the famous maxim of the tyrant, Oderint dum metuant, quoted by Cicero. He is said to have introduced some changes into the received forms of spelling, such as doubling the vowels when long, as in modern Dutch--thus aara, vootum. He died B.C. 94. See Boissier, Le Poete Attius (Paris, 1857).
This text is from: Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities. Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
L. Attius was born at Pisaurum, a Roman colony in Umbria, in 170 B.C. The forms Attius and Accius are equally well-attested; but in the Imperial age the form with tt became predominant; and the Greeks always wrote Attios (Teuffel, Hist. Rom. Lit. § 119, 1). The aged Pacuvius, having left Rome in ill-health, was spending the evening of his days at Brundusium, when Attius, then a young man, passed through that place on his way to Asia. Attius was entertained by Pacuvius, and read to him his tragedy Atreus. The old man found it sonorous and elevated, but somewhat harsh and crude; and the younger poet, admitting the defect, expressed his hope that the mellowing influence of time would appear in his riper work. The excellences which Pacuvius recognised must have been present in the maturer writings of Attius, whom Horace calls altus, and Cicero, gravis et ingeniosus poeta. The harshness of his earlier style was due, perhaps, to a youthful excess of that nervous and impetuous character, as Cicero calls it (de Orat. iii. 58, 217), which afterwards distinguished him, and which Ovid expresses by the epithet animosus. Attius was far the most productive of the Roman tragic dramatists. The extant notices and fragments indicate, according to one estimate, about 37 pieces; according to another, about 50. Two of these were praetextatae;--the Brutus, on the downfall of the Tarquins and the Aeneeadae, dealing with the legend of the Decius who devoted himself at the battle of Sentinum. There are indications that Attius was a student of Sophocles, though Euripides was probably his chief model. Thus the verse in his Armorum indicium (fr. 10), virtuti sis par, dispar fortunis patris, is translated from Soph. Ai. 550 f. Among his other celebrated tragedies were the Atreus, Epigoni, Philocteta, Anstigona, Telephus. Cicero, in his youth, had. often listened to the reminiscences of Attius (Brutus, 28, 107). The poet, who was sixty-four at the date of the orator's birth (106 B.C.), must therefore have lived to an advanced age.
This extract is from: A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities (1890) (eds. William Smith, LLD, William Wayte, G. E. Marindin). Cited August 2004 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Macer Aemilius, of Verona, was senior to Ovid, and died in Asia, B. C. 16, three
years after Virgil, as we learn from the Eusebian Chronicle. He wrote a poem or
poems upon birds, snakes, and medicinal plants, in imitation, it would appear,
of the Theriaca of Nicander. His productions, of which not one word remains, are
thus commemorated in the Tristia:
"Saepe suas volucres legit mihi grandior aevo,
Quaeque necet serpens, quae juvet herba,
Macer.'
The work now extant, entitled "Aemilius Macer de Herbarum Virtutibus," belongs
to the middle ages. Of this piece there is an old translation, "Macer's Herbal,
practys'd by Doctor Lynacro. Translated out of Laten into Englysshe, which shewynge
theyr Operacyons and Vertues set in the margent of this Boke, to the entent you
myght know theyr vertues." There is no date; but it was printed by "Robt. Wyer,
dwellynge at the sygne of Saynt Johan evangelyste, in Seynt Martyns Parysshe,
in the byshop of Norwytche rentes, besyde Charynge Crosse."
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Oct 2006 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
AQUILEIA (Town) FRIULI
Crispinus, L. Bruttius Quintius, was consul A. D. 224, and fourteen years afterwards (A. D. 238) persuaded the inhabitants of Aquileia to shut their gates and defend their walls against the savage Maximinus, whose rage when he found his attacks upon the city baffled led to those excesses which caused his assassination. (Capitolin. Max. duo, c. 21; Herodian. viii. 4)
COMO (Town) LOMBARDIA
Fabatus Calpurnius, a Roman knight, accused by suborned informers of being privy to the crimes of
adultery and magical arts which were alleged against Lepida, the wife of C. Cassius.
By an appeal to Nero, judgment against Fabatus was deferred, and he eventually
eluded the accusation. (Tac. Ann. xvi. 8). Fabatus was grandfather to Calpurnia,
wife of the younger Pliny (Plin. Ep. viii. 10). He possessed a country house,
Villa Camilliana, in Campania (Id. vi. 30). He long survived his son, Pliny's
father-in-law, in memory of whom he erected a portico at Comum, in Cisalpine Gaul.
(v. 12). According to an inscription (Gruter, Inscript.), Fabatus died at Comum.
The following letters tire addressed by Pliny to Fabatus, his prosocer fiv. 1,
v. 12, vi. 12, 30, vii. 11, 16, 23, 32, viii. 10.
CREMONA (Town) LOMBARDIA
Hormus, was one of Vespasian's freedmen, and commanded a detachment in Caecina's division B. C. 70. He was said to have instigated the soldiers to the sack of Cremona. After the war his services were recompensed with the rank of eques. (Tac. Hist. iii, 12, 28; iv. 39.)
MEDIOLANUM (Ancient city) LOMBARDIA
Grata, daughter of the emperor Valentinian I. by his second wife, Justina, whom he married, according to Theophanes, A. D. 368. She remained all her life unmarried. She and her sister, Justa, were at Mediolanum or Milan while the remams of her murdered brother, Valentinian II., continned there unburied, and deeply la [p. 301] mented his loss. It is doubtful if they were at Vienna in Gaul, where he was killed, at the time of his death (A. D. 392), and accompanied his body to Milan, or whether they were at Milan. (Socrat. II E. iv. 31; Ambros. de Obitu Valentiniani, 40, &c., Epist. 53)
MODENA (Town) EMIGLIA ROMANA
Fabatus, L. Roscius, was one of Caesar's lieutenants in the Gallic war, and commanded the thirteenth
legion on the Lower Rhine, in the winter of B. C. 54. It was during this winter
that Ambiorix induced the Eburones and Nervii to attack in detail the quarters
of the Roman legions, but in the operations consequent on their revolt Fabatus
seems to have taken no part, since the district in which he was stationed remained
quiet (Caes. B. G. v. 24). He apprised Caesar, however, of hostile movements in
Armorica in the same winter. Fabatus was one of the piaetors in B. C. 49, and
was sent by Pompey from Rome to Caesar at Ariminum, with proposals of accommodation,
both public and private. He was charged by Caesar with counter-proposals, which
he delivered to Pompey and the consuls at Capua (Cic. ad Att. viii. 12; Caes.
B. C. i. 8, 10; Dion Cass. xli. 5). Fabatus was despatched on a second mission
to Caesar by those members of the Pompeian party who were anxious for peace. As
Cicero mentions his meeting with L. Caesar at Minturnae on his return from Ariminum,
and as L. Caesar was the companion of Fabatus, at least on their first journey
to and from C. Caesar, Fabatus, though not expressly named by him, probably met
Cicero at Minturnae also, and communicated Caesar's offers, January 22. B. C.
49 (Cic. ad Att. vii. 13). According to Cicero (ad Att. vii. 14), Fabatus and
L. Caesar, on their return from Ariminum, delivered Caesar's offer to Pompey,
not at Capua, but at Teanum. Fabatus was killed April 14th or 15th, B. C. 43,
in the first of the battles in the neighbourhood of Mutina, between M. Antony
and the legions of the senate (Cic. ad Fam. x. 33).
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Dec 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
Clycon (Glukon), called in some editions of Cicero Glaucon, the physician to the consul, C. Vibius Pansa, who upon his death, after the battle of Mutina, April, B. C. 43, was thrown into prison by Torquatus, Pansa's quaestor, upon a suspicion of having poisoned his wounds. (Sueton. Aug. 11; comp. Tac. Ann. i. 10.) This accusation, however, seems to have been unfounded, as there is extant a letter from M. Brutus to Cicero, in which he earnestly begs him to procure his liberation, and to protect him from injury, as being a worthy man, who suffered as great a loss as any one by Pansa's death, and who, even if this had not been the case, would neverhave allowed himself tobe persuaded to commit such a crime. (Cic. ad Brut. 6.) He is perhaps the same person who is quoted by Scribonius Largus. (De Compos. Medicam. 206.)
PIACENZA (Town) EMIGLIA ROMANA
Gallus, Annius, a Roman general under the emperor Otho in his expedition against the troops of Vitellius, in A. D. 69. He was sent out by Otho to occupy the banks of the Po; and when Caecina laid siege to Placentia, Annius Gallus hastened with a detachment of his army to the relief of the place. When Otho assembled his council, to decide upon the mode of acting, Eallus advised him to defer engaging in any decisive battle. After the defeat of Otho's army in the battle of Bedriacum, Annius Gallus pacified the enraged Othonians. In the reign of Vespasian he was sent to Germany against Civilis. (Tac. Hist. i. 87, ii. 11, 23, 33, 44, iv. 68, v. 19; Plut. Otho 5, 8, 13.)
Flaccus, Valerius. L. VALERIUS FLACCUS, a son of No. 4, one of the triumvirs appointed to conduct 6000 families as colonists to Placentia and Cremona, in B. C. 190, those places having become almost deserted by the late war. (Liv. xxxvii. 46.)
PARMA (Town) EMIGLIA ROMANA
Cassius Parmensis, so called, it would appear, from Parma, his birth-place, is in most works upon
Roman literature styled C. Cassius Severus Parmensis, but erroneously, since there
is no authority whatsoever for assigning the praenomen of Caius or the cognomen
of Severus to this writer.
Horace (Serm. i. 10. 61), when censuring careless and rapid compositions,
illustrates his observations, by referring to a Cassius Etruscus, whom he compares
to a river in flood rolling down a turbid torrent, and adds, that the story ran
that this poet, his works, and book-boxes, were all consigned together to the
flames. Here Acro, Porphyrio, and the Scholiast of Cruquius agree in expressly
declaring that the person spoken of is Cassius Parmensis, and the latter makes
mention of a tragedy by him, called Thyestes, as still extant.
Again, Horace (Ep. i. 4. 3), when writing to Albius, who is generally
believed to be Tibullus, questions him with regard to his occupations, and asks
whether he is writing anything "quod Cassii Parmensis opuscula vincat". Here the
old commentators quoted above again agree in asserting that this Cassius served
as tribune of the soldiers in the army of Brutus and Cassius, that he returned
to Athens after their defeat, that L. Varus was despatched by Augustus to put
him to death, and, after executing the order, carried off his port-folio; whence
a report became current, that the Thyestes published by Varus was really the work
of Cassius stolen and appropriated by his executioner. To this narrative Acro
and the Scholiast of Cruquius add, that he composed in various styles, and that
his elegies and epigrams were especially admired.
These two passages and the annotations upon them have been the foundation
of a lengthened controversy, in which almost all writers upon Roman literature
have taken part. A variety of opinions have been expressed and hypotheses propounded,
many of them supported with great learning and skill. A full account of these
will be found in the essay of Weichert "De Lucii Varii et Cassii Parmensis Vita
et Carminibus", (Grimae, 1836), who, after patient examination, has shewn by many
arguments, that the following conclusions are the most probable which the amount
and nature of the evidence at our disposal will enable us to form:
1. Cassius Etruscus and Cassius Parmensis were two separate personages. It is
the intention of Horace to hold up the first to ridicule, while his words imply
a compliment to the second.
2. Cassius Parmensis was one of the conspirators who plotted the death of Caesar.
He took an active part in the war against the triumvirs, and, after the defeat
and death of Brutus and Cassius, carried over the fleet which he commanded to
Sicily, and joined Sextus Pompeius, with whom he seems to have remained up to
the period of the great and decisive sea-fight between Mylae and Naulochus. He
then surrendered himself to Antonius, whose fortunes he followed until after the
battle of Actium, when he returned to Athens, and was there put to death by the
command of Octavianus. These facts are fully established by the testimony of Appian
(B. C. v. 2) and of Valerius Maximus (i. vii.7), who tells the tale of the vision
by which Cassius was forewarned of his approaching fate, and of Velleius (ii.
88), who distinctly states, that as Trebonius was the first, so Cassius Parmensis
was the last, of the murderers of Caesar who perished by a violent end. The death
of Cassius probably took place about B. C. 30; and this fact alone is sufficient
to prove that Cassius Parmensis and Cassius Etruscus were different persons; the
former had held a high command in the struggle in which Horace had been himself
engaged, and had perished but a few years before the publication of the epistles;
the former is spoken of as one who had been long dead, and almost if not altogether
forgotten.
3. We have seen that two of the Scholiasts on Horace represent that Cassius composed
in different styles. We have reason to believe that he wrote tragedies, that the
names of two of his pieces were Thyestes and Brutus, and that a line of the latter
has been preserved by Varro. In like manner, a single line of one of his epigrams
is quoted by Quintilian (v. 2.24), and a single sentence from an abusive letter
addressed to Octavianus is to be found in Suetonius (Aug. 4); in addition to which
we hear from Pliny of an epistle to Antonius (Plin. H. N. xxxi. 8). Many persons,
and among these Drumann, believe that the letter to be found in Cicero (ad Fam.
xii. 13) is from the pen of Cassius Parmensis, and strong arguments may be adduced
in support of this opinion; but, on the whole, we are led to conclude from its
tone, that it proceeded from some person younger and holding a less distinguished
position than Cassius Parmensis at that time occupied.
We have a little poem in hexameters, entitled Orpheus, in which it is set forth,
that the Thracian bard, although at first an object of ridicule to his contemporaries,
by assiduous study and undeviating perseverance, at length acquired that heavenly
skill by which he was enabled to charm the ears of listening rocks and woods,
and draw them in his train. These verses were first published by Achilles Statius
in his edition of Suetonius, "de Clar. Rhetor." and we are there told
by the editor that they were found among the Bruttii and communicated to him by
a very learned youth, Suetonius Quadrimanus; they were published again by Fabricius
in his notes to Senec. Herc. Oet. 1034, as having been discovered a new at Florence
by Petrus Victorius, and are to be found in Burmann's Anthologia, in Wernsdorf's
Poetae Latini Minores, and many other collections. Various conflicting opinions
were long entertained with regard to the author of this piece, which commonly
bears prefixed the name of Cassius Parmensis or Cassius Severus, but is now proved
to have been written by Antonius Thylesius, a native of Cosenza in Calabria, a
distinguished poet of the sixteenth century.
This text is from: A dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology, 1873 (ed. William Smith). Cited Nov 2005 from The Perseus Project URL below, which contains interesting hyperlinks
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