manner, though not quite with the felicity, of the Third Georgic, partly with hunting implements ; after which we are dismissed to the chace rather abruptly : “ His ita dispositis hiemis sub tempus aquosae Incipe velocis catulos inmittere pratis, Two fragments of a poem on Fowling (Ixeutica or De Aucupio) were printed in a Dialogue on Birds (1544) by Gibertus Longolius, who asserted that they had been transcribed for him from a copy of a work by Nemesianus existing in a library at Bologna. Wernsdorf, in opposition to Ulitius, thinks them not unworthy of their reputed author: but in any case they need not detain us further. The elder Pliny, in two passages of his Natural History, speaks of a poem by Ovid, entitled Halieutica. A fragment on that subject with Ovid's name attached to it is found in a MS. containing part of Gratius' Cynegetica, and has been frequently printed in editions of Gratius and Nemesianus, or as part of Ovid's works. It would perhaps be too much to assign it to such illustrious parentage, though Haupt thinks otherwise: but it would not disgrace either of the two poets whom we have just been considering. Take a specimen. “At contra scopulis crinali corpore segnis Laxato cadat hamus, et ora patentia linquat.” Another fragment with the same argument was published by Hieronymus Columna in his Commentary on the Fragments of Ennius, having been transcribed from an old MS. by Sertorius Quadrimanus. More ambitious than the former, to which however it is indebted for several lines, it professes in its exordium to be the work of Ovid, who speaks of himself as led to his subject by the scenes of his exile: but though the lines in which the profession is made are not without ability, those who should credit it would be compelled to suppose that Ovid's removal from 4 Book 32, chaps. 2 and 11, Rome had made him forget the quantity of the first syllable of' dirigo, as he ventures to address Glaucus “ Quare si veteris durant vestigia moris, Si precibus hominum flectuntur numine ponti, The date of Serenus Sammonicus is at any rate earlier than that of Nemesianus, though it is questioned whether he is to be identified with a person of that name, "cuius libri," says Spartianus, " plurimi ad doc “ trinam exstant,” who was put to death by Caracalla, or with his son, the preceptor of the younger Gordian, and the valued friend of Alexander Severus. His work, however, De Medicina Praecepta, in 1115 hexameters, is not properly a didactic poem at all, but merely a medical treatise in metre. Those who are fond of classical parallels may compare it with Catius' lecture to Horace: but to others it will seem a product of the second childhood of literature, when subjects, which, since prose composition existed, have always been treated in prose, are set to tune again by the perverse ingenuity of grammarians. The only part which appears to have any poetical pretension is the opening. • Membrorum series certo deducta tenore Firmasti, cunctum teneris expone papyris." “At si cervices durataque colla rigebunt, Still more barren and unpoetical is Prisciani Carmen de Ponderibus et Mensuris, a set of 208 hexameters, the authorship of which is involved in some doubt. The first nine lines will show that, in spite of a preliminary flourish, it is little better than a 'memoria technica,' a device for fixing facts about weights and measures in the memory. “ Pondera Paeoniis veterum memorata libellis Gramma vocant, scriplum nostri dixere priores.” Here at length we may stop. The didactic poetry with which we have been dealing, though far enough removed from the spirit of the Georgics, has at any rate preserved their form. Terentianus Maurus may have been as much of a didactic poet as Sammonicus or the supposed Priscian; but as he chose to exemplify in his work the various metres for which he laid down rules, he can hardly come under consideration in an essay which is intended to illustrate by comparison the didactic poetry of Virgil. Other works which the historians of Latin literature have classed among didactic poems seem to be excluded by different The Phaenomena of Avienus, like the fragments of Cicero and Germanicus, hardly calls for notice independently of Aratus' work. The poem on Aetna has didactic affinities, but its subject is not sufficiently general. The Periegeses of Avienus and Priscian fall rather under the category of descriptive poetry. Columella’s Tenth Book has been mentioned in another place'. reasons. 5 Note on G. 4. 148. INDEX. : a A. Ad prima = apprime, 208 Addere in, 194 Adeo gives a rhetorical prominence to the 273, 323 with dum, 311 tingently to substantives, 169, 216, 232 -, descriptive, converted by Hesiod into substantives, 123 Admordere, 234 Adolescere and similar words, 86, 300, 345 187, 274, 289, 362: of circumstance, Advena, used contemptuously, 91 Aequare, with ablative, 316 Aesculus, as the supporter of a vine, 225 Aestas, of the warm half of the year, 278, 309: of the summer sky, 309 Aestiva, of summer pastures, 292 Aestus, of summer, 176 Aetas for annus, doubtful, 268 Aether and Tellus, whether identical with Aevum, not old age, 103 Agere, of upward or downward growth, 232: Agitare for agere or degere, 249 : other senses of, 277 Agitator aselli distinguished from asinarius, 145 : connexion of with the discovery of Agmen and acies, 223, 282 Agriculture and division of property con- nected, 157 Aius Locutius, 191 Albus and candidus, 259 made characteristic of the golden age, Alcinous, orchards of, 203 Alcon, who, uncertain, 55 Alexis, whether a real person, 29 Alii, answering to pars, 27 Alio ordine, 'unequally,' 173 Alius, alius for alius quam, 186 6 |
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