better than _Catalecton_; either would mean "a collection of poems."
Some give _Catalepton_ (= "trifles," like Aratus' work +ta
kata lepton+). Ribbeck thinks _Catalecta_ originally included the
_Priapea_, _Epigrammata_, and _Dirae_, but came to be restricted to
the fourteen short pieces given in our MSS. under that title. Some of
these, _e.g._ No. 5, are spurious. Quint. viii. 3, 28 vouches for No.
2. Virgil's friends, Tucca and Varius, are addressed in 1 and 9, and
10 (on Siron's villa) refers to an event in Virgil's life. In the vein
of Catullus are 3, 4, and 8, the last being an extremely close parody
of Catullus, c. 4. (2) _Priapea_, three in number. (3) _Dirae_,
spurious. (4) _Ciris_. The writer's reference to himself in l. 2,
'Irritaque expertum fallacis praemia volgi,' shows that Virgil is not
the author. (5) _Culex_. That Virgil wrote a poem with this title is
attested by Suetonius, Statius, and Martial; _e.g._ Mart. viii. 56, 19,

'Protinus Italiam concepit et arma virumque
qui modo vix Culicem fleverat ore rudi.'

The poem in its present form is accepted by Ribbeck, but it does not
correspond exactly to the account given by Donatus of the contents.
(6) The _Copa_ Ribbeck accepts as genuine, but other critics find in
it characteristics rather of Ovid or of Propertius. (7) The _Moretum_,
though found in MSS., is not mentioned by Donatus or Servius, a strong
argument against its being genuine.

BUCOLICA.--These ten poems are called in the MSS. _Eclogae_ ("selected
pieces"), and were composed B.C. 43-39. Probus, 'Scripsit Bucolica
annos natus xxviii., Theocritum secutus.'

Servius, 'Tunc ei proposuit Pollio ut carmen bucolicum scriberet, quod
eum constat triennio[49] scripsisse et emendasse.'

They were doubtless published separately as they were written, and
afterwards collected into a volume with _Ecl._ 1 (Tityrus) coming
first. Cf. _Georg._ iv. 565,

'Carmina qui lusi pastorum, audaxque iuventa,
Tityre, te patulae cecini sub tegmine fagi.'

The present order is certainly not the chronological order.

_Ecl._ 1 was written B.C. 41 as a thanksgiving to Augustus (see p.
150).

_Ecl._ 2 cannot be earlier than the end of 43 when Pollio was made
governor of Gallia Transpadana, and possibly should not be put earlier
than the summer of 42. The poem is written on his favourite slave
Alexis (see Serv. _ad loc._).

_Ecl._ 3 was probably written soon afterwards. Virgil refers in l. 84
to his intimacy w