Titus Pomponius Atticus, b. 110 bce as the son of a cultured eques of a family claiming descent from *Numa Pompilius, was later adopted by a rich uncle (Q. Caecilius), whose wealth he inherited. He was a friend of *Cicero from boyhood (Cicero's brother Quintus married Atticus' sister), and Cicero's Letters to Atticus, probably published in the reign of *Nero (though parts were known to some before), are the best source for his character, supplemented by an encomiastic biographical sketch by his friend Nepos (see cornelius nepos). In 85 Atticus left Italy after selling his assets there, in order to escape the civil disturbances he foresaw. He lived in Athens until the mid-60s (hence his cognomen), among other things studying Epicurean philosophy (see epicurus), to which however he never wholly committed himself. Henceforth he combined a life of cultured ease (otium) with immense success in various business activities and an infallible instinct for survival.
Article
Marcus Pomponius Porcellus (not 'Marcellus') (early 1st cent.
Article
R. A. Kaster
Scholar whose commentary on *Horace is extant (ed. Holder, 1894), though only in a redaction dating to the 5t (?) cent. The commentary, which touches lightly on Realien and concentrates on grammar and rhetoric, seems intended for school-use; it incorporates the work of earlier commentators, including *Helenius Acro.
Article
John Wight Duff and Barbara Levick
Publius [?Calv]isius Sabinus Pomponius Secundus (Quint.Inst. 8. 3. 31; 10. 1. 98), was *suffect consul 44 ce after governing *Crete and *Cyrene. Endangered by prosecution in 31, he survived (Tac.Ann. 5. 8). He was uterine brother of Caesonia, *Gaius (1)'s wife. His brother Quintus (suffect consul ce 41), who favoured the restoration of the republic after Gaius' death, perished as an accomplice of L. *Arruntius Camillus Scribonianus in 42. *Pliny (1) the Elder, who saw the handwriting of the *Gracchi in his possession (HN 13. 83), wrote his biography (Pliny, Ep. 3. 5), calling him ‘consular poet’ and ‘bard and most distinguished citizen’ (HN 7. 80; 13. 83). He wrote Aeneas, a praetexta (see fabula). In 47 his verses on the stage drew insults from the crowd (Tac.Ann. 11. 13). Legate (see legati) of Upper Germany (see germania), he checked the *Chatti in 50, winning triumphal ornaments (see ornamenta)—to be rated less highly than his literary achievement (ibid.
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Peter G. M. Brown
Marcus Pomponius Bassulus (probably time of *Trajan or *Hadrian). His epitaph from Aeclanum (CIL 9. 1164) says he translated *Menander (1) and wrote original comedies (probably not staged).
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Peter G. M. Brown
Lucius Pomponius of *Bononia (fl. 89 bce, according to Jerome); author of fabulae Atellanae, which he and his contemporary *Novius made literary. We have seventy titles and nearly 200 lines. Ps.-Acro on Hor. Ars P. 288 lists him as an author of praetextae and togatae, perhaps wrongly. *Pomponius Porphyrio on Ars P.
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Leofranc Holford-Strevens
Pomponius Rufus, of unknown date, in whose Collecta*Cornelia (1) declared ‘My jewels are my children’ (Val. Max. 4. 4. pr.), is sometimes identified with C. *Sempronius Gracchus' friend and diehard supporter M. Pomponius (Cic.Div. 2. 62; Vell. Pat. 2. 6. 6, Val. Max. 4. 7. 2);BibliographyHLL 1.
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M. Winterbottom
Marcus Porcius Latro, Augustan rhetor from Spain. His contemporary and close friend L. *Annaeus Seneca (1) vividly describes (Controv. 1 pr. 13–24) his obsessive nature and extraordinary memory. Though not at home in court (Quintilian 10. 5. 18), he was ranked among the four best declaimers of the period (Controv. 10 pr. 13). Among much quoted by Seneca is the extended passage forming (the incomplete) Controv. 2. 7. Latro was admired and exploited by Ovid (Controv. 2. 2. 8) and criticized by M. *Valerius Messalla Corvinus (ibid. 2. 4. 8). He committed suicide, perhaps in
Article
Christian James Fordyce and Edward Courtney
A literary history of Rome in trochaic septenarii; notable are two lines which date the coming of the Muse to Latium in the Second *Punic War (probably a reference to *Naevius), and twelve on *Terence and his relations with the so-called *Scipionic Circle (the hostile tone suggests that Licinus was a Gracchan). An elegiac epigram clearly based on Hellenistic literary themes is a representative of the beginnings of the influence of *Hellenistic poetry at Rome.
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J. H. D. Scourfield
Two short anonymous prayers of uncertain date to Mother Earth and to all herbs; the second may show Christian influence. Attempts to read these texts as iambic senarii have resulted in much misguided conjecture.
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Lindsay Watson
Priape(i)a are poems about the phallic god *Priapus, addressed to him, spoken by him, or invoking him. The genre is well represented in Hellenistic and later *epigram, but the range of topics is limited. It was enriched and developed by the Romans, whose Priap (i)a are distinguished from Greek exemplars by their focus on the god's aggressive, anally-fixated, sexuality, by the absence of any discernible religious sentiment, and by the almost invariable treatment of Priapus as a figure of fun. There are notable specimens by *Horace (Sat. 1. 8), *Tibullus (1. 4), and *Martial, and in the *Appendix Vergiliana. The main Latin material is assembled in the corpus of eighty poems known as the Carmina Priapea or Corpus Priapeorum, believed by most recent authorities to be the work of one poet, who has been dated to the Augustan period, to ce 100, and various points in between. The collection is distinguished by its extreme obscenity, genuine wit, fierce mockery of the ridiculous or grotesque, clever use of verbal borrowings and *parody, amusing tension between the sophistication of the literary form and the crudity of the subject-matter, and elegant variations on a number of recurrent themes.
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R. H. Robins
Priscian was the most prolific and important member of the late Latin grammarians. His grammatical works have been edited by Heinrich Keil (Grammatici Latini 2, 3), and they amount to over 1,000 printed pages in all.
Born in Mauretania, Priscian spent most of his life as a teacher of Latin in *Constantinople (Byzantium), then the capital of the eastern Roman empire. His surviving works include the Institutio de nomine et pronomine et verbo, the Praeexercitamina, a set of grammatical exercises based on each first line of the twelve books of the Aeneid, and the Institutiones grammaticae. The Institutio was an important authority for the teaching of Latin in the early Middle Ages before the much longer and more comprehensive Institutiones (974 printed pages) became widely known in and after the Carolingian age.
This work comprises eighteen books, the first sixteen setting out, after a brief introduction to orthography, the eight Latin word classes (parts of speech) in great detail. Books 17 and 18 provide an account of the syntax of Latin, the first systematic treatment of Latin syntax of which we have knowledge.
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Sigrid Schottenius Cullhed
Faltonia Betitia Proba (fl. late 4th century) was a Roman poet, writer of a Christian cento (Lat. for patchwork), which circulated in the Eastern and Western Empire toward the end of the 4th century. The work consists of 694 verses culled from Virgil’s Eclogues, Georgics, and Aeneid, narrating episodes from Genesis, Exodus, and the four Gospels. The narrative sections are interspersed with proems, interludes, and epilogues pervaded by a confessional and devotional theme. The declared intention of the poet is to relate the “mysteries of Virgil” (arcana . . . vatis, v.12) and to show that Virgil “sang about the pious feats of Christ” (Vergilium cecinisse . . . pia munera Christi v. 23). This makes Proba one of the first Roman poets to have actively appropriated Virgil as a Christian prophet.There are over a hundred manuscripts containing Proba’s cento, the oldest of which date back to the 8th century, and a large number of early modern editions. Thanks to Giovanni Boccaccio’s De mulieribus claris (1374), Proba became important in the querelle des femmes as an example of an educated woman.
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R. O. A. M. Lyne and S. J. Heyworth
Sextus Propertius, born between 54 and 47 bce, at *Asisium, where his family were local notables (4.1. 121 ff.). His father died early, and the family property was diminished by Octavian's confiscations of 41–40 bce (4.1.127 ff.; see augustus; proscription). In the two last poems of book 1 the poet notably identifies with the side vanquished by Octavian at *Perusia in 41 bce. It is the first sign of a political independence that continues throughout his life, despite the presence in his work of poems addressed to *Maecenas. As the Augustan regime toughened, Propertius' modes of irreverence become more oblique, but irreverence towards the government is maintained none the less: see e.g. 2. 7, 2.15. 41 ff., 3. 4. -5, 4. 9.Propertius' first book was probably published before Oct. 28 bce; the latest events mentioned in books 2, 3, and 4 belong to the years 26, 23, and 16 respectively. Propertius was certainly dead by 2 bce (Ov.
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Jonathan G. F. Powell
In the classical period, the Roman ear was clearly sensitive to patterns of quantity in formal spoken prose. An effective rhythm could provoke spontaneous applause (Cic. Or. 214). Doubtless Roman orators built up preferences for some rhythmical patterns over others by instinct and by trial and error, but some influence from Greek theory and practice is certain. *Cicero’s rhythmical practice, evident not only in his formal speeches but also in his treatises and even in his private letters, seems to have become a standard which many authors followed more or less consciously, though some rejected it.
Theoretical discussions of prose rhythm in Roman writers are generally much influenced by the Greek rhetoricians, and do not show a perfect analytical grasp of the principles of Latin prose rhythm as shown in the actual practice of authors. Indeed, these principles were not fully worked out in explicit terms until the fundamental work of Zieliński on Cicero’s speeches. Scholarship since then has added considerably to the available data and has refined our understanding of prose rhythm in various ways, but no radically new analysis has gained acceptance.
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Cillian O'Hogan
Aurelius Prudentius Clemens was a Christian Latin poet who wrote in a variety of genres and metres. Born in northern Spain, in 348ce, he had a career in public administration before retiring to write poetry. His major works include the Liber Cathemerinon (poems keyed to the liturgy and religious calendar), Psychomachia (an allegorical epic on the battle between Virtues and Vices for the human soul), and the Liber Peristephanon (lyric poems in praise of the early martyrs of the church). Prudentius was particularly influenced by the works of Virgil and Horace, and aimed in his poetry to combine the form and language of classical Latin poetry with the message of Christianity. The most important Christian Latin poet of late antiquity, Prudentius was extremely influential throughout the Middle Ages.Aurelius Prudentius Clemens (348–after 405ce) was the most important and influential Christian Latin poet of late antiquity. Called by Richard Bentley the ‘.
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John Wight Duff, Elaine Fantham, and Costas Panayotakis
Publilius (not Publius, Wölfflin Philol.1865, 439) was brought to Rome (perhaps from *Antioch (1), *Pliny (1)HN 35. 199) as a slave in the 1st cent. bce. According to *Macrobius (Sat. 2. 7. 6–10 he was freed for his wit and educated by his master and composed and performed his own *mimes throughout Italy. Invited by *Caesar to perform at the games of 46 bce (see ludi) he challenged other mime-writers to improvise on a given scenario and was declared victor by Caesar over his chief rival *Laberius. Only two of his titles are recorded, Putatores (Nonius 2. 133)) and Murmurco (‘The mutterer’?, *Priscian, Inst. K. 2. 532. 25), and no fragments that indicate the action or themes of his mimes. It became a commonplace (*Cassius Severus in L. *Annaeus Seneca (1)Rhetor, Controv. 7. 3. 8, L.
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Edward Courtney
Pupius, Publius, contemporary with *Horace, who called his tragedies ‘tearful poems’ (Epist. 1. 1. 67).
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Stephen J. Harrison
Pyramus and Thisbe are the hero and heroine of a love story mainly known from Ovid, Met., 4. 55–165. They were next-door neighbours in Babylon, and, as their parents would not let them marry, they talked with each other through a crack in the party wall between the houses. Finally, they arranged to meet at Ninus’s tomb. There Thisbe was frightened by a lion coming from its kill; she dropped her cloak as she ran and the lion mauled it. Pyramus, finding the bloodstained cloak and supposing Thisbe dead, killed himself; she returned, found his body, and followed his example. Their blood stained a mulberry tree, whose fruit has ever since been black when ripe, in sign of mourning for them. The story is likely to be derived to some degree from Hellenistic sources, according to which the two lovers may have been transformed into a river and a stream, and can be linked with the eastern Mediterranean and the river Pyramus in Cilicia. Ovid’s narrative, told by the daughters of Minyas who show stereotypically ‘feminine’ romantic interests in Roman terms, may draw on a lost Greek novelistic source, as well as taking elements from the plots of new comedy (young neighbours in love). Ovid’s narrative is highly popular in art, especially in Pompeian wall paintings; it is notably picked up by Shakespeare in the 1590s, in comic form as the subject of the parodic play of the rude mechanicals in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and in tragic form in its adaptation in the suicides of the protagonists in Romeo and Juliet.
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Peter G. M. Brown
Querolus, ‘The Grumbler’, anonymous comedy, also called Aulularia (‘The Pot of Gold’) because of some resemblance to *Plautus' Aulularia, and accepted as Plautine in the Middle Ages. Probably written in Gaul c.
