tten to
C. Trebonius towards the end of that year. The letter refers to
correspondence with Calvus, and criticizes his oratory.

See also Cic. _Brut._ 279 and 283-4; and, for his relations with
Cicero, Tac. _Dial._ 18. Calvus vied with Cicero for the first place
in the forum. His best known speeches were _in Vatinium_, whom he
prosecuted at least three times (B.C. 58-54).

Seneca, _Controv._ vii. 4, 6-8, 'Calvus, qui diu cum Cicerone
iniquissimam litem de principatu eloquentiae habuit, usque eo
violentus actor et concitatus fuit, ut in media eius actione surgeret
Vatinius reus et exclamaret: Rogo vos, iudices, num si iste disertus
est, ideo me damnari oportet? Idem postea cum videret a clientibus
Catonis, rei sui, Pollionem Asinium circumventum in foro caedi, imponi
se supra cippum iussit; erat enim parvolus statura, propter quod etiam
Catullus in hendecasyllabis (c. 53) vocat illum "salaputtium
disertum." ... Solebat praeterea excedere subsellia sua et impetu
latus usque in adversariorum partem transcurrere. Et carmina quoque
eius, quamvis iocosa sint, plena sunt ingentis animi ... Compositio
quoque eius in actionibus ad exemplum Demosthenis riget: nihil in illa
placidum, nihil lene est, omnia excitata et fluctuantia.'

Catullus also refers to Calvus in c. 14, and in c. 96, where he speaks
of the 'mors immatura Quintiliae,' probably Calvus' wife.

Of the poems about nineteen lines are extant. They included: (1)
_ludicra_ (in hendecasyllables); (2) _epithalamia_; (3) _Io_; (4) _ad
uxorem_; (5) _epigrammata_. For the last cf. Sueton. _Iul._ 73, 'C.
Calvo post famosa epigrammata de reconciliatione per amicos agenti
ultro ac prior scripsit.' (6) 'Calvi de aquae frigidae usu,' which
forms the title of Martial xiv. 196, may have been a didactic poem.
Other references to Calvus' poetry are: Ovid, _Trist._ ii. 431,

'Par fuit exigui similisque licentia Calvi,
detexit variis qui sua furta modis';

Propert. iii. 34, 89,

'Haec etiam docti confessast pagina Calvi
cum caneret miserae funera Quintiliae';

Hor. _Sat._ i. 10, 16,

'Illi, scripta quibus comoedia prisca viris est,
hoc stabant, hoc sunt imitandi: quos neque pulcher
Hermogenes umquam legit, neque simius iste
nil praeter Calvum et doctus cantare Catullum.'

(_d_) _P. Terentius Varro Atacinus_ was born B.C. 82 in Gallia
Narbonensis near Atax (a river, not a town, as Jerome states).

Jerome yr. Abr. 1935 = B.C. 82, 'P. Terentius Varro vico