a commander of armies, in the
Illyrican and Dalmatic wars.

Tu mihi, seu magni superas jam saxa Timavi,
Sive oram Illyrici legis aequoris; en erit unquam
Ille dies, mihi cum liceat tua dicere facta?
En erit, ut liceat totum mihi ferre per orbem
Sola Sophocleo tua carmina digna cothurno?
ECLOG. viii. ver. 6.

O Pollio! leading thy victorious bands
O'er deep Timavus, or Illyria's sands;
O when thy glorious deeds shall I rehearse?
When tell the world how matchless is thy verse,
Worthy the lofty stage of laurell'd Greece,
Great rival of majestic Sophocles!
WHARTON'S VIRGIL.

Horace has added the orator and the statesman:

Paulum severae musa tragediae
Desit theatris; mox, ubi publicas
Res ordinaris, grande munus
Cecropio repetes cothurno,
Insigne moestis praesidium reis,
Et consulenti, Pollio, curiae,
Cui laurus aeternos honores
Dalmatico peperit triumpho.
Lib. ii. ode 1.

Retard a while thy glowing vein,
Nor swell the solemn tragic scene;
And when thy sage, thy patriot cares
Have form'd the train of Rome's affairs,
With lofty rapture reinflam'd, diffuse
Heroic thoughts, and wake the buskin'd muse.
FRANCIS'S HORACE.

But after all, the question put by Maternus, is, can any of their
orations be compared to the _Medea_ of Ovid, or the _Thyestes_ of
Varius? Those two tragedies are so often praised by the critics of
antiquity, that the republic of letters has reason to lament the loss.
Quintilian says that the _Medea_ of Ovid was a specimen of genius,
that shewed to what heights the poet could have risen, had he thought
fit rather to curb, than give the rein to his imagination. _Ovidii
Medea videtur mihi ostendere quantum vir ille praestare potuisset, si
ingenio suo temperare, quam indulgere maluisset._ Lib. x. cap. 1.

The works of Varius, if we except a few fragments, are wholly lost.
Horace, in his journey to Brundusium, met him and Virgil, and he
mentions the incident with the rapture of a friend who loved them
both:

Plotius, et Varius Sinuessae, Virgiliusque
Occurrunt; animae quales neque candidiores
Terra tulit, neque queis me sit devinctior alter.
Lib. i. sat. 5.

Horace also celebrates Var