Part 40 (1/2)
380. Or _de laude Pisonis_. See Baehrens, _Poet. Lat. Min._ iii. 1. For the question of authors.h.i.+p see p. 159.
381. It was long believed that there were eleven, but the last four eclogues of the collection are shown by their style to be of later date, and there can be little doubt that the MSS. which attribute them to Nemesia.n.u.s of Carthage are right. We know of a Nemesia.n.u.s who lived about 290 A.D. and wrote a _Cynegetica_, a portion of which survives.
Comparison with these four eclogues shows a marked resemblance of style.
382. Verg. _Ecl._ vii. 1:
forte sub arguta consederat ilice Daphnis, compulerantque greges Corydon et Thyrsis in unum, Thyrsis oves, Corydon distentas lacte capellas, ambo florentes aetatibus, Arcades ambo, et cantare pares et respondere parati.
Calp. ii. 1:
intactam Crocalen puer Astacus et puer Idas, Idas lanigeri dominus gregis, Astacus horti, dilexere diu, formosus uterque nec impar voce sonans.
The conclusion is borrowed from Vergil, _Ecl._ iii. 108:
non nostrum inter vos tantas componere lites.
et vitula tu dignus et hic et quisquis amores aut metuet dulces aut experietur amaros.
claudite iam rivos, pueri; sat prata biberunt.
Calp. ii. 95-100:
'iam resonant frondes, iam cantibus obstrepit arbos: i procul, o Doryla, rivumque reclude ca.n.a.li et sine iam dudum sitientes irriget hortos'
vix ea finierant, senior c.u.m talia Thyrsis, 'este pares ...'
383. Cp. also v. 50 sqq.
384. See Baehrens, _Poet. Lat. Min._ vol. iii. p. 60. The first poem is unfinished, the award of Midas being missing.
385. Bucheler, _Rhein. Mus._ xxvi. p. 235.
386. So Bucheler, loc. cit. _respexit_ is a mere conjecture: _corrumpit_, the MS. reading, is meaningless, and no satisfactory alternative has been suggested. The lines may merely refer to Apollo, but _et me_ suggests strongly that Ladas retorts, 'I, too, have Caesar's favour.' Cp. _L._ 37, where _hic vester Apollo est!_ clearly refers to Nero.
387. In a MS. at Lorsch, now lost; but used by Sechard for his edition of Ovid, Basle, 1527.
388. In Parisinus 7647 (Florileg.). Sec Baehrens, _P. L. M._ i. p. 222.
389. Tac. _Ann._ xv. 48 'facundiam tuendis civibus exercebat, largitionem adversum amicos et ignotis quoque comi sermone et congressu.'
390. Schol. Vall, _ad Iuv._ v. 109 'in latrunculorum lusu tam perfectus et callidus, ut ad c.u.m ludentem concurreretur.'
391. Cp. ll. 190 sqq.
392. Cp. ll. 190 sqq.
393. Baehrens, _Fragm. Poet. Rom._ p. 281.
394. Priscian, _Gr. Lat._ i. 478.
395. Persius derides a certain Labeo (i. 4) and a writer named Attius (i. 50) for his translation of _Iliad_. On this last pa.s.sage the scholiast says, 'Attius Labeo poeta indoctus fuit illorum temporum, qui Iliadem Homeri foedissime composuit.' The names are found combined in an inscription from Corinth, Joh. Schmidt, _Mitt. des deutsch. archaol.
Inst. in Athen_, vi (1882), p. 354.