[842] It will be understood that the terms Grammar and Grammarian have
here a more extended sense than that which they convey in modern use.
See the beginning of c. iv.
[843] Suetonius's account of the rude and unlettered state of society in
the early times of Rome, is consistent with what we might infer, and with
the accounts which have come down to us, of a community composed of the
most daring and adventurous spirits thrown off by the neighbouring
tribes, and whose sole occupations were rapine and war. But Cicero
discovers the germs of mental cultivation among the Romans long before
the period assigned to it by Suetonius, tracing them to the teaching of
Pythagoras, who visited the Greek cities on the coast of Italy in the
reign of Tarquinius Superbus.--Tusc. Quaest. iv. 1.
[844] Livius, whose cognomen Andronicus, intimates his extraction, was
born of Greek parents. He began to teach at Rome in the consulship of
Claudius Cento, the son of Appius Caecus, and Sempronius Tuditanus,
A.U.C. 514. He must not be confounded with Titus Livius, the historian,
who flourished in the Augustan age.
[845] Ennius was a native of Calabria. He was born the year after the
consulship mentioned in the preceding note, and lived to see at least his
seventy-sixth year, for Gellius informs us that at that age he wrote the
twelfth book of his Annals.
[846] Porcius Cato found Ennius in Sardinia, when he conquered that
island during his praetorship. He learnt Greek from Ennius there, and
brought him to Rome on his return. Ennius taught Greek at Rome for a
long course of years, having M. Cato among his pupils.
[847] Mallos was near Tarsus, in Cilicia. Crates was the son of
Timocrates, a Stoic philosopher, who for his critical skill had the
surname of Homericus.
[848] Aristarchus flourished at Alexandria, in the reign of Ptolemy
Philometer, whose son he educated.
[849] A.U.C. 535-602 or 605.
[850] Cicero [De Clar. Orat. c. xx., De Senect. c. v. 1] places the
death of Ennius A.U.C. 584, for which there are other authorities; but
this differs from the account given in a former note.
[851] The History of the first Punic War by Naevius is mentioned by
Cicero, De Senect, c. 14.
[852] Lucilius, the poet, was born about A.U.C. 605.
[853] Q. Metellus obtained the surname of Numidicus, on his triumph over
Jugurtha, A.U.C. 644. Aelius, who was Varro's tutor, accompanied him to
Rhodes or Smyrna, when he was unjustly banished, A.U.C. 653.
[854] Servius Claudius (also called Clodius) is commended by Cicero,
Fam. Epist. ix. 16, and his singular death mentioned by Pliny, xxv. 4.
[855] Daphnis, a shepherd, the son of Mercury, was said to have been
brought up by Pan. The humorous turn given by Lenaeus to Lutatius's
cognomen is not very clear. Daphnides is the plural of Daphnis;
therefore the herd or company, agaema; and Pan was the god of rustics,
and the inventor of the rude music of the reed.
[856] Oppius Cares is said by Macrobius to have written a book on Forest
Trees.
[857] Quintilian enumerates Bibaculus among the Roman poets in the same
line with Catullus and Horace, Institut. x. 1. Of Sigida we know
nothing; even the name is supposed to be incorrectly given. Apuleius
mentions a Ticida, who is also noticed by Suetonius hereafter in c. xi.,
where likewise he gives an account of Valerius Cato.
[858] Probably Suevius, of whom Macrobius informs us that he was the
learned author of an Idyll, which had the title of the Mulberry Grove;
observing, that "the peach which Suevius reckons as a species of the
nuts, rather belongs to the tribe of apples."
[859] Aurelius Opilius is mentioned by Symmachus and Gellius. His
cotemporary and friend, Rutilius Rufus, having been a military tribune
under Scipio in the Numantine war, wrote a history of it. He was consul
A.U.C. 648, and unjustly banished, to the general grief of the people,
A.U.C. 659.
[860] Quintilian mentions Gnipho, Instit. i. 6. We find that Cicero was
among his pupils. The date of his praetorship, given below, fixes the
time when Gnipho flourished.
[861] This strange cognomen is supposed to have been derived from a cork
arm, which supplied the place of one Dionysius had lost. He was a poet
of Mitylene.
[862] See before, JULIUS, c. xlvi.
[863] A.U.C. 687.
[864] Suetonius gives his life in c. x.
[865] A grade of inferior officers in the Roman armies, of which we have
no very exact idea.
[866] Horace speaks feelingly on the subject:
Memini quae plagosum mihi parvo
Orbilium tractare. Epist. xi. i. 70.
I remember well when I was young,
How old Orbilius thwacked me at my tasks.
[867] Domitius Marsus wrote epigrams. He is mentioned by Ovid and
Martial.
[868] This is not the only instance mentioned by Suetonius of statues
erected to learned men in the place of their birth or celebrity.
Orbilius, as a schoolmaster, was represented in a sitting posture, and
with the gown of the Greek philosophers.
[869] Tacitus [Annal. cxi. 75] gives the character of Atteius Capito.
He was consul A.U.C. 758.
[870] Asinius Pollio; see JULIUS, c. xxx.
[871] Whether Hermas was the son or scholar of Gnipho, does not appear,
[872] Eratosthenes, an Athenian philosopher, flourished in Egypt, under
three of the Ptolemies successively. Strabo often mentions him. See
xvii. p. 576.
[873] Cornelius Helvius Cinna was an epigrammatic poet, of the same age
as Catullus. Ovid mentions him, Tristia, xi. 435.
[874] Priapus was worshipped as the protector of gardens.
[875] Zenodotus, the grammarian, was librarian to the first Ptolemy at
Alexandria, and tutor to his sons.
[876] For Crates, see before, p. 507.
[877] We find from Plutarch that Sylla was employed two days before his
death, in completing the twenty-second book of his Commentaries; and,
foreseeing his fate, entrusted them to the care of Lucullus, who, with
the assistance of Epicadius, corrected and arranged them. Epicadius also
wrote on Heroic verse, and Cognomina.
[878] Plutarch, in his Life of Caesar, speaks of the loose conduct of
Mucia, Pompey's wife, during her husband's absence.
[879] Fam. Epist. 9.
[880] Cicero ad Att. xii. 36.
[881] See before, AUGUSTUS, c. v.
[882] Lenaeus was not singular in his censure of Sallust. Lactantius,
11. 12, gives him an infamous character; and Horace says of him,
Libertinarum dico; Sallustius in quas
Non minus insanit; quam qui moechatur.--Sat. i. 2. 48.
[883] The name of the well known Roman knight, to whom Cicero addressed
his Epistles, was Titus Pomponius Atticus. Although Satrius was the name
of a family at Rome, no connection between it and Atticus can be found,
so that the text is supposed to be corrupt. Quintus Caecilius was an
uncle of Atticus, and adopted him. The freedman mentioned in this
chapter probably assumed his name, he having been the property of
Caecilius; as it was the custom for freedmen to adopt the names of their
patrons.
[884] Suetonius, TIBERIUS, c. viii. Her name was Pomponia.
[885] See AUGUSTUS, c. lxvi.
[886] He is mentioned before, c. ix.
[887] Verrius Flaccus is mentioned by St. Jerome, in conjunction with
Athenodorus of Tarsus, a Stoic philosopher, to have flourished A.M.C.
2024, which is A.U.C. 759; A.D. 9. He is also praised by Gellius,
Macrobius, Pliny, and Priscian.
[888] Cinna wrote a poem, which he called "Smyrna," and was nine years
in composing, as Catullus informs us, 93. 1.
[889] See AUGUSTUS, cc. lxii. lxix.
[890] Cornelius Alexander, who had also the name of Polyhistor, was born
at Miletus, and being taken prisoner, and bought by Cornelius, was
brought to Rome, and becoming his teacher, had his freedom given him,
with the name of his patron. He flourished in the time of Sylla, and
composed a great number of works; amongst which were five books on Rome.
Suetonius has already told us [AUGUSTUS, xxix.] that he had the care of
the Palatine Library.
[891] No such consul as Caius Licinius appears in the Fasti; and it is
supposed to be a mistake for C. Atinius, who was the colleague of Cn.
Domitius Calvinus, A.U.C. 713, and wrote a book on the Civil War.
[892] Julius Modestus, in whom the name of the Julian family was still
preserved, is mentioned with approbation by Gellius, Martial, Quintilian,
and others.
[893] Melissus is mentioned by Ovid, De Pontif. iv 16-30.
[894] See AUGUSTUS, c. xxix. p. 93, and note.
[895] The trabea was a white robe, with a purple border, of a different
fashion from the toga.
[896] See before, c. x.
[897] See CLAUDIUS, c. x1i. and note.
[898] Remmius Palaemon appears to have been cotemporary with Pliny and
Quintilian, who speak highly of him.
[899] Now Vicenza.
[900] "Audiat haec tantum vel qui venit, ecce, Palaemon."--Eccl. iii.
50.
[901] All the editions have the word vitem; but we might conjecture,
from the large produce, that it is a mistake for vineam, a vineyard: in
which case the word vasa might be rendered, not bottles, but casks. The
amphora held about nine gallons. Pliny mentions that Remmius bought a
farm near the turning on the Nomentan road, at the tenth mile-stone from
Rome.
[902] "Usque ad infamiam oris."--See TIBERIUS, p. 220, and the notes.
[903] Now Beyrout, on the coast of Syria. It was one of the colonies
founded by Julius Caesar when he transported 80,000 Roman citizens to
foreign parts.--JULIUS, xlii.
[904] This senatus consultum was made A.U.C. 592.
[905] Hirtius and Pansa were consuls A.U.C. 710.
[906] See NERO, c. x.
[907] As to the Bullum, see before, JULIUS, c. lxxxiv.
[908] This extract given by Suetonius is all we know of any epistle
addressed by Cicero to Marcus Titinnius.
[909] See Cicero's Oration, pro Caelio, where Atracinus is frequently
mentioned, especially cc. i. and iii.
[910] "Hordearium rhetorem."
[911] From the manner in which Suetonius speaks of the old custom of
chaining one of the lowest slaves to the outer gate, to supply the place
of a watch-dog, it would appear to have been disused in his time.
[912] The work in which Cornelius Nepos made this statement is lost.
[913] Pliny mentions with approbation C. Epidius, who wrote some
treatises in which trees are represented as speaking; and the period in
which he flourished, agrees with that assigned to the rhetorician here
named by Suetonius. Plin. xvii. 25.
[914] Isauricus was consul with Julius Caesar II., A.U.C. 705, and again
with L. Antony, A.U.C. 712.
[915] A river in the ancient Campania, now called the Sarno, which
discharges itself into the bay of Naples.
[916] Epidius attributes the injury received by his eyes to the corrupt
habits he contracted in the society of M. Antony.
[917] The direct allusion is to the "style" or probe used by surgeons in
opening tumours.
[918] Mark Antony was consul with Julius Caesar, A.U.C. 709. See
before, JULIUS, c. lxxix.
[919] Philipp. xi. 17.
[920] Leontium, now called Lentini, was a town in Sicily, the foundation
of which is related by Thucydides, vi. p. 412. Polybius describes the
Leontine fields as the most fertile part of Sicily. Polyb. vii. 1. And
see Cicero, contra Verrem, iii. 46, 47.
[921] Novara, a town of the Milanese.
[922] St. Jerom in Chron. Euseb. describes Lucius Munatius Plancus as
the disciple of Cicero, and a celebrated orator. He founded Lyons during
the time he governed that part of the Roman provinces in Gaul.
[923] See AUGUSTUS, c. xxxvi.
[924] He meant to speak of Cisalpine Gaul, which, though geographically
a part of Italy, did not till a late period enjoy the privileges of the
other territories united to Rome, and was administered by a praetor under
the forms of a dependent province. It was admitted to equal rights by
the triumvirs, after the death of Julius Caesar. Albutius intimated that
those rights were now in danger.