as in
ancient times the most celebrated. Of the life of this author,
biographers have transmitted no particulars; but we may place his birth
in the reign of Tiberius, before all the writers who flourished in the
Augustan age were extinct. He enjoyed the rays of the setting sun which
had illumined that glorious period, and he discovers the efforts of an
ambition to recall its meridian splendour. As the poem was left (464)
incomplete by the death of the author, we can only judge imperfectly of
the conduct and general consistency of the fable: but the most difficult
part having been executed, without any room for the censure of candid
criticism, we may presume that the sequel would have been finished with
an equal claim to indulgence, if not to applause. The traditional
anecdotes relative to the Argonautic expedition are introduced with
propriety, and embellished with the graces of poetical fiction. In
describing scenes of tenderness, this author is happily pathetic, and in
the heat of combat, proportionably animated. His similes present the
imagination with beautiful imagery, and not only illustrate, but give
additional force to the subject. We find in Flaccus a few expressions
not countenanced by the authority of the most celebrated Latin writers.
His language, however, in general, is pure; but his words are perhaps not
always the best that might have been chosen. The versification is
elevated, though not uniformly harmonious; and there pervades the whole
poem an epic dignity, which renders it superior to the production
ascribed to Orpheus, or to that of Apollonius, on the same subject.

FOOTNOTES:

[721] Reate, the original seat of the Flavian family, was a city of the
Sabines. Its present name is Rieti.

[722] It does not very clearly appear what rank in the Roman armies
was held by the evocati. They are mentioned on three occasions by
Suetonius, without affording us much assistance. Caesar, like our
author, joins them with the centurions. See, in particular, De Bell.
Civil. I. xvii. 4.

[723] The inscription was in Greek, kalos telothaesanti.

[724] In the ancient Umbria, afterwards the duchy of Spoleto; its modern
name being Norcia.

[725] Gaul beyond, north of the Po, now Lombardy.

[726] We find the annual migration of labourers in husbandry a very
common practice in ancient as well as in modern times. At present,
several thousand industrious labourers cross over every summer from