red the suspicion of having covertly satirized occurrences
which were then passing, and, although eighty years old at that time
[950], he was immediately removed from the city, being sent into
honourable banishment as praefect of a cohort, which was under orders to
proceed to a station at the extreme frontier of Egypt [951]. That (538)
sort of punishment was selected, as it appeared severe enough for an
offence which was venial, and a mere piece of drollery. However, he died
very soon afterwards, worn down by grief, and weary of his life.

THE LIFE OF PERSIUS.

AULUS PERSIUS FLACCUS was born the day before the Nones of December [4th
Dec.] [952], in the consulship of Fabius Persicus and L. Vitellius. He
died on the eighth of the calends of December [24th Nov.] [953] in the
consulship of Rubrius Marius and Asinius Gallus. Though born at
Volterra, in Etruria, he was a Roman knight, allied both by blood and
marriage to persons of the highest rank [954]. He ended his days at an
estate he had at the eighth milestone on the Appian Way. His father,
Flaccus, who died when he was barely six years old, left him under the
care of guardians, and his mother, Fulvia Silenna, who afterwards married
Fusius, a Roman knight, buried him also in a very few years. Persius
Flaccus pursued his studies at Volterra till he was twelve years old, and
then continued them at Rome, under Remmius Palaemon, the grammarian, and
Verginius Flaccus, the rhetorician. Arriving at the age of twenty-one,
he formed a friendship with Annaeus Cornutus [955], which lasted through
life; and from him he learned the rudiments of philosophy. Among his
earliest friends were Caesius Bassus [956], and Calpurnius Statura; the
latter of whom died while Persius himself was yet in his youth.
Servilius (539) Numanus [957], he reverenced as a father. Through
Cornutus he was introduced to Annaeus, 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 Persius Flaccus, 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 Persius made the
acquaintance of Seneca, and then he was not much struck with his natural
endowments. At the house of Cornut