 Lives of the Poets from the Lives of the Twelve Caesars by Gaius Seutonius Tranquillus. Tranquillus Terentius Offer, a native of Carthage, was a slave at Rome, of the Senator Terentius Lucanus, who struck by his abilities and handsome person, gave him not only a liberal education in his youth, but his freedom when he arrived at years of maturity. Some say that he was a captive taken in war, but this, as Finestella informs us, could by no means have been the case, since both his birth and death took place in the interval between the termination of the Second Punic War and the Commencement of the Third. Nor, even supposing that he had been taken prisoner by the Numidian or Gatellian tribes, could he have fallen into the hands of a Roman general, as there was no commercial intercourse between the Italians and Africans until after the fall of Carthage. Terence lived in great familiarity with many persons of high station, and especially with Scipio Africanus and Caeus Deleus, whose favor he is even supposed to have purchased by the foulest means. But Finestella reverses the charge, contending that Terence was older than either of them. Cornelius Nepos, however, informs us that they were all of nearly equal age, and Porcius intimates a suspicion of this criminal commerce in the following passage. While Terence plays the wanton with the great, and recommends himself to them by the matricious ornaments of his person, while with greedy ears he drinks in the divine melody of Africanus's voice, while he thinks of being a constant guest at the table of Furius and the handsome Leilius, while he thinks that he is fondly loved by them, and often is invited to Albinum for his youthful beauty, he finds himself stripped of his property and reduced to the lowest state of indigence. Then, withdrawing from the world, he betook himself to Greece, where he met his end dying at Strumfalos, a town in Arcadia. What availed him the friendship of Sipio, of Leilius or Furius, three of the most affluent nobles of that age? They did not even minister to his necessities so much as provide to him a hired house, to which his slave might return with the intelligence of his master's death. He wrote comedies, the earliest of which, the Andrea, having to be performed at the public spectacles, is given by the Adelis. He was commanded to read at first before Cacelius. Having been introduced while Cacelius was at supper and being meanly dressed, he is reported to have read the beginning of the play seated on a low stool near the great man's couch. But after reciting a few verses, he was invited to take his place at table, and having subbed with his host, went through the rest to his great delight. This play and five others were received by the public with similar applause, although Volcaeus, in his enumeration of them, says that the Hakira must not be reckoned among these. The eunuch was even acted twice in the same day and earned more money than any comedy, whoever was the writer, had ever done before, namely, eight thousand cisterces, besides which a certain sum accrued to the author for the title. But Varro prefers the opening of the Adelphi to that of Menander. It is very commonly reported that Terence was assisted in his works by Leilius and Scipio, with whom he lived in such great intimacy. He gave some currency to this report himself, nor did he ever attempt to defend himself against it, except in a light way, as in the prologue to the Adelphi. Amquod is ti dhankat malavi, hominus nohilis, hank ajurei, asudek unascriberi, quad ili maledictim, vehemens existamant, emlodom hek dosit maximam, cum ilis plassit, kivobis universis e popiloplassant, quorum opera in bello, in otio, in negatio, suo quiskwa tempore usis est sine supurbia. For this, which Malus tells that certain noble persons assist the bard and ride in concert with him, that which they deem a heavy slander, he esteems his greatest praise, that he can please those who in war, in peace, as counsellors, have rendered you the dearest services, and ever borne their faculties so meekly, common. He appears to have protested against this imputation with less earnestness, because the notion was far from being disagreeable to Leilius and Scipio. It therefore gained ground and prevailed in after times. Quintus Memius, in his speech in his own defence, says Publius africanus, who borrowed from Terence a character which he had acted in private, brought it on the stage in his name. Nepos tells us he found in some book that C. Leilius, when he was on some position at Putioli, on the Callens, the 1st of March, being requested by his wife to rise early, begged her not to suffer him to be disturbed, as he had gone to bed late, having been engaged in riding with more than usual success. On her asking him to tell her what he had been riding, he repeated the verses which are found in the Houten Timorominus. Satispol Proterve, Missiri Promessa, Houten. 4.4.1 In faith the rogue Sirius' impudent pretenses. Petra is of opinion that if Terence required any assistance in his compositions he would not have had recourse to Scipio and Leilius, who were then very young men, but rather to Sopisius Galas, an accomplished scholar, who had been the first to introduce his plays at the games given by the consuls. Or to C. Fabius Lobio, or Marcus Popilius, both men of consular rank, as well as poets. It was for this reason that, in alluding to the assistance he had received, he did not speak of his co-ajuders as very young men, but as persons of whose service as the people had full experience in peace, in war, and in the administration of affairs. After he had given his comedies to the world, at a time when he had not passed his thirty-fifth year, in order to avoid suspicion, as he found others publishing their works under his name, or else to make himself acquainted with the modes of life and habits of the Greeks, for the purpose of exhibiting them in his plays, he withdrew from home, to which he never returned. Volkesius gives this account of his death. Sudet afer se popolo dedet comodius, iter hic in aciam facet, navim cum semmel, consenet, visus nun quam est, sic vita vacet. When afer had produced six plays for the entertainment of the people, he embarked for Asia, but from the time he went on board ship he was never seen again. Thus he ended his life. Cue Consequentus reports that he perished at sea on his voyage back from Greece, and that one hundred and eight plays, of which he had made a version from Menander, were lost with him. Others say that he died at Stemphalos in Arcadia, or in Lucadia, during the consulship of Sin Cornius de la Bola and Marcus Fulvius nobiliar, worn out with a severe illness and with a grief and regret for the loss of his baggage, which he had sent forward in a ship that was wrecked, and contained the last new plays he had written. In person Terence is reported to have been rather short and slender, with a dark complexion. He had an only daughter, who was afterwards married to a Roman knight, and he left also twenty acres of garden-ground on the Appian Way, at the Villa of Mars. I therefore wonder the more how porcious could have written the verses. Nihil Publius, Sepio Prefuit, Nihil Etlelius, Nihil Furius, Tres per Edum tempus chi agitibant nobiles faslime, Iorum ilae opera, nedomum, kidum, habituet, conductitayum, saltum et esset, quo referet obitum domini servilis. Terence places him at the head of all the comic writers, declaring in his competalia, Terentio non semilum disis quempium, Terence's equal cannot soon be found. On the other hand, Volcaeus reckons him inferior not only to Neveus, Plotus, and Cichelius, but also to Lucinius. Cicero pays him this high compliment in his limo, Tu quoque, chi solis lecto sermone, Terentii, conversum, expressum che latine voce mandronum, in Medio populi sedatus vocibus offers, quid quid cum loquens, ac omnia dulcia disens. You only, Terence, translated into Latin and clothed in choice language, the plays of Menander and brought them before the public, who in crowded audiences hung upon hust applause, this marked each line and every period charmed. So also, Caeus Caesar, Tu quoque, Tu insumis, O demidiate Menander, Poneras et merito, Puri sermonis amator, Lenebus at cu, at nam, scriptus adjuncta for et vis, comica ut acquato, vertus polaret onare, cum grisus neca inhoc despectus parte jasres, unum hoc mesor, et do leo, tibi dice, Terentii. You too, who divide your honors with Menander, will take your place among poets of the highest order and justly too, such as the purity of your style. Would only that to your graceful diction was added more comic force, that your works might equal and merit the Greek masterpieces, and your inferiority in this particular should not expose you to censure. This is my only regret, in this Terence I grieve to say you are wanting. The Life of Juvenal D. Junius Juvenalis, who was either the son of a wealthy freedman or brought up by him, it is not known which, declaimed till the middle of life more from the bent of his inclination than from any desire to prepare himself either for the schools or the forum. But having composed a short satire, which was clever enough, on Paris, the actor of pantomimes, and also on the poet of Claudius Nero, who was puffed up by having held some inferior military rank for six months only, he afterwards devoted himself with much zeal to that style of writing. For a while, indeed, he had not the courage to read them even to a small circle of auditors, but it was not long before he recited his satires to crowded audiences, and with entire success, this he did twice or thrice, inserting new lines among those which he had originally composed. Quad nundant proceres, dabit histrio, tu camarinos, et barrius, tu nobilum bagna atriacurus, prefectos pelopia facet, filomina trabunos. Behold, an actor's patronage affords a sure a means of rising than a lords, and wilt thou still the camarinos court, or the halls of barrius resort, when tribunes filopia can create, and filomela prefix, who shall rule the state. At that time the player was in high favor at court, and many of those who fond upon him were daily raised to post of honor. Juvenal therefore incurred the suspicion of having covertly satirized occurrences which were then passing, and although eighty years old at that time he was immediately removed from the city, being sent into honorable banishment as a prefect of a cohort which was under orders to proceed to a station at the extreme frontier of Egypt. That sort of punishment was selected, as it appeared severe enough for an offense which was venial, and a mere piece of drullery. However, he died very soon afterwards, worn down by grief and weary of his life. The Life of Perseus Alice Perseus Flakus was born on the day before the knowns of December, 4th December, in the consulship of Fabius Persecus and El Vitelius. He died on the 8th of the Calens of December, in the consulship of Rubius Marius and Asinius Gallus. Though born at Volterra in Atruria, he was a Roman knight, allied both by blood and marriage to persons of the highest rank. He ended his days at an estate he had at the eighth milestone on the Appian Way. His father, Flakus, who died when he was barely six years old, left him under the care of guardians, and his mother, Fulvia Salena, who afterwards married Fousius, a Roman knight, buried him also in a very few years. Perseus Flakus pursued his studies at Volterra till he was twelve years old, and then continued them at Rome, under Remius Pelamon, the Grimarian, and Virginia's Flakus, the Retreatician. Arriving at the age of twenty-one, he formed a friendship with Aeneas Cortunus, which lasted through life, and from him he learned the rudiments of philosophy. Among his earliest friends were Caceus Bassus and Culpurnius Tatura, the latter of whom died while Perseus himself was yet in his youth. Servilius Numanus he reverenced as a father. Through Cornutus he was introduced to Aeneas as well as to Lucan, who was of his own age, and also a disciple of Cornutus. At that time Cornutus was a tragic writer. He belonged to the sect of the Stoics, and left behind him some philosophical works. Lucan was so delighted with the writings of Perseus Flakus that he could scarcely refrain from giving loud tokens of applause while the author was reciting them, and declared that they had the true spirit of poetry. It was late before Perseus made the acquaintance of Seneca, and then he was not much struck with his natural endowments. At the house of Cornutus he enjoyed the society of two very learned and excellent men, who were then zealously devoting themselves to philosophical inquiries, namely Claudius Agriturnus, a physician from Lachidaemon, and Petronius Aristocrates of Magnesia, men whom he held in the highest esteem, and with whom he vied in their studies as they were of his own age, being younger than Cornutus. During nearly the last ten years of his life he was much beloved by Thracias so that he sometimes travelled abroad in his company, and his cousin Aria was married to him. Perseus was remarkable for gentle manners, for a modesty of mounting debaschfulness, a handsome form, and an attachment to his mother, sister, and aunt, which was most exemplary. He was frugal and chaste. He left his mother and sister twenty thousandth cisterces requesting his mother in a written codicil to present to Cornutus, as some say, one hundred cisterces, or as others, twenty pounds of wrought silver, besides about seven hundred books, which indeed included his whole library. Cornutus, however, would only take the books, and gave up the legacy to the sisters whom his brother had constituted his heirs. He wrote seldom and not very fast, even the work we possessed he left incomplete. Some verses are wanting at the end of the book, but Cornutus thoughtlessly recited it as if it was finished, and on Cassius Bassus requesting to be allowed to publish it he delivered it to him for that purpose. In his younger days Perseus had written a play, as well as an itinerary, with several copies of verses on Thracias's father-in-law and Aria's mother, who had made away with herself before her husband. But Cornutus used his whole influence with the mother of Perseus to prevail upon her to destroy these compositions. As soon as his book of satires was published all the world began to admire it and were eager to buy it up. He died of a disease in the stomach in the thirtieth year of his age, but no sooner had he left school and his masters than he set to work with great vehemence to compose satires, from having read the tenth book of Lechilius, and made the beginning of that book his model, presently launching his invectives all around with so little scruple that he did not spare cotemporary poets and orators, and even Lash Nero himself, who was then the reigning prince. The verse ran as follows, Aracullus assini midi rex habit, king Midas has an ass his ears, but Cornutus altered it thus, Aracullus assini quiz non-hehet, who has not an ass his ears, in order that it might not be supposed that it was meant to apply to Nero. The Life of Horus Horatius Flockus was a native of Venetium, his father having been, by his own account, a freedman and collector of taxes, but, as it is generally believed, a dealer insulted provisions, for someone with whom Horus had a quarrel, jeered him by saying, How often have I seen your father wiping his nose with his fist? In the battle of Philippi he served as a military tribune, which post he filled at the instance of Marcus Brutus, the general, and having obtained a pardon on the overthrow of his party, he purchased the office of scribe to a questor. Afterwards insinuating himself first into the good graces of Macanus, and then of Augustus, he secured no small share in the regard of both. And first how much Macanus loved him may be seen by the epigram in which he says, But it was more strongly exhibited by Augustus, in a short sentence uttered in his last moments. Be as mindful of Horatius Flockus as you are of me. Augustus offered to appoint him as secretary, signifying his wishes to Macanus in a letter to the following effect. Hitherto I have been able to write my own epistles to friends, but I have not been able to write my own epistles to friends, but now I am too much occupied, and in an infirm state of health. I wish, therefore, to deprive you of our Horus. Let him leave, therefore, your luxurious table, and come to the palace, and he shall assist me in writing my letters. And upon his refusing to accept the office, he neither exhibited the smallest displeasure, nor ceased to heap upon him tokens of his regard. Letters of his are extant, from which I will make some short extracts to establish this. Use your influence over me with the same freedom as you would do if we were living together as friends. In so doing you will be perfectly right, and guilty of no impropriety, for I could wish that our intercourse should be on that footing if your health admitted of it. And again, how I hold you in memory you may learn that our intercourse is septimious, for I happen to mention you when he was present, and if you are so proud to scorn my friendship, that is no reason why I should lightly esteem yours in return. Besides this, among other droleries, he often called him his most immaculate penis, and his charming little man, and loaded him from time to time with proofs of his munificence. He admired his work so much, and was so convinced of their endurance fame, that he directed him to compose the secular poem, as well as that on the victory of his sepsons, Tiberius and Drusus, over the Vindalici, and for this purpose urged him to add, after a long interval, a fourth book of O's to the former three. After reading his sermons, in which he found no mention of himself, he complained in these terms. You must know that I am very angry with you, because in most of your works of this description you do not choose to address yourself to me. Are you afraid that, in times to come, your reputation will suffer, in case it should appear that you lived on terms of intimate friendship with me? And he wrung from him the eulogy which begins with Come tot sustenius, etante negocius solus, res Italias, armis tuteris, moribus ornus, legibus emendis, in publica comode pecum, si longo somone morotua tempora, Caesar epist II I. While you alone sustain the important weight of Rome's affairs, so various and so great, while you the public wheel with arms defend, adorned with morals and with laws amend, shall not the tedious letter prove a crime that steals one moment of our Caesar's time? Francis. In person Horus was short in fat, as he is described by himself in his satires, and by Augustus in the following letter. Dionysius has brought me your small volume, which little as it is, not to blame you for that, I shall judge favorably. You seem to me, however, to be afraid lest your volume should be bigger than yourself. But if you are short in stature you are corpulent in it. You may therefore, if you will, write in a court, when the size of your volume is as large round as your punch. It is reported that he was immoderately addicted to venery, for he is said to have had obscene pictures so disposed in a bed-chamber lined with mirrors that whichever way he looked, lascivious images might present themselves to his view. He lived for the most part in the retirement of his farm on the confines of the sabine and the tibbertine territories, and his house is shown in the neighborhood of a little wood not far from Tiber. Some elegies ascribed to him, and a prose epistle apparently written to commend himself to mechenes, have been handed down to us, but I believe that neither of them are genuine works of his, for the elegies are commonplace, and the epistle is wanting in perspicuity a fault which cannot be imputed to his style. He was born on the sixth of the Ides of December, 27 December, in the consulship of Lucius Cata and Lucius Torquatus, and died on the fifth of the Callens of December, 27 November, in the consulship of Caus Marcius Censurinas and Caus Asinius Gallus, having completed his fifty-ninth year. He made a non-Cupatory will, declaring Augustus his heir, not being able from the violence of his disorder to sign one in due form. He was interred and lies buried on the skirts of the Esquilene Hill, near the tomb of mechenes. M. Aeneas Lucanus, a native of Corduba, first tried the powers of his genius in an Encomium on Nero at the Quinquennial Games. He afterwards recited his poem on the Civil War carried on between Pompey and Caesar. His vanity was so immense, and he gave such liberty to his tongue, that in some point he would not be able to do it. In his early youth, after being long informed of the sort of life his father led in the country, in consequence of an unhappy marriage, he was recalled from Athens by Nero, who admitted him into the circle of his friends, and even gave him the honour of the Questorship. But he did not long remain in favour. In his early youth, after being long informed of the sort of life his father led in the country, in consequence of an unhappy marriage, the Questorship. But he did not long remain in favour. Smarting at this, and having publicly stated that Nero had withdrawn, all of a sudden, without communicating with the Senate, and without any other motive than his own recreation, after this he did not cease to assail the Emperor, both with foul words and with acts which are still notorious. So that on one occasion, when easing his bowels in the common privy, there being a louder explosion than usual, he gave vent to the nymistic of Nero. One would suppose it was thundering underground, in the hearing of those who were sitting there for the same purpose, and who took to their heels in much consternation. In a poem also, which was in everyone's hands, he severely lashed both the Emperor and his most powerful adherents. At length he became nearly the most active leader in Piso's conspiracy, and while he dwelt without reserve in many quarters on those who dipped their hands in the blood of tyrants, he launched out into open threats of violence, and carried them so far as to boast that he would cast the Emperor's head at the feet of his neighbours. When, however, the plot was discovered, he did not exhibit any firmness of mind. A confession was rung from him without much difficulty, and humbling himself to the most abject entreaties, he even named his innocent mother as one of the conspiracies, hoping that his want of natural affection would give him favour in the eyes of a paracidal prince. Having obtained permission to choose his mode of death, he wrote notes to his father, containing corrections of some of his verses, and having made a full meal, allowed a physician to open the veins in his arms. I have also heard it said that his poems were offered for sale, and commented upon, not only with care and diligence, but also in a trifling way. THE LIFE OF PLINI Plinius Secundus, a native of Newcomo, having served in the wars with strict attention to his duties in the rank of a knight, distinguished himself also by the great integrity with which he administered the high functions of a procurator for a long period in the several provinces entrusted to his charge. But still he devoted so much attention to literary pursuits that it would not have been an easy matter for a person who enjoyed entire leisure to have written more than he did. He comprised in twenty volumes an account of all the various wars carried on in successive periods with the German tribes. Besides this he wrote a natural history, which extended to seven books. He fell a victim to the calamitous event which occurred in Campania. Four, having the command of the fleet at Mycenum, when Vesuvius was throwing up a fiery eruption, he put to sea with his galleys for the purpose of exploring the causes of the phenomenon close on the spot. But being prevented by contrary winds from sailing back, he was suffocated in the dense cloud of dust and ashes. Some, however, think that he was killed by his slave, having implored him to put an end to his sufferings when he was reduced to the last extremity by the fervent heat. End of the Lives of the Poets End of the Lives of the Twelve Caesars