viginti, et libros circa
septingentos sive bibliothecam suam omnem. Verum a Cornuto sublatis
libris, pecuniam sororibus, quas heredes frater fecerat, reliquit.'

'Decessit ad octavum miliarium via Appia in praediis suis ... vitio
stomachi anno aetatis xxviii.'

His character was lofty and disinterested:

'Fuit morum lenissimorum, verecundiae virginalis, formae pulchrae,
pietatis erga matrem et sororem et amitam exemplo sufficientis. Fuit
frugi, pudicus.'

(2) WORKS.

1. His early works, which Cornutus caused to be destroyed at his
death, were:

(_a_) A praetexta, called _Vescia_ (?).

(_b_) One Book of +hodoiporika+, no doubt referring to his
travels with Thrasea.

(_c_) Some verses on Arria, the wife of Paetus.

'Scripserat in pueritia Flaccus etiam praetextam Vesciam, et
+hodoiporikon+ librum unum, et paucos in socrum Thraseae in Arriam
matrem versus ... Omnia ea auctor fuit Cornutus matri eius ut
aboleret.'

2. _Satires._ There are six of these (in hexameters), with a prologue
(in scazons). Persius wrote slowly, and the Book was left unfinished:

'Et raro et tarde scripsit. Hunc ipsum librum imperfectum reliquit.
Versus aliqui dempti sunt ultimo libro, ut quasi finitus esset.
Leviter retractavit Cornutus, et Caesio Basso petenti, ut ipsi
cederet, tradidit edendum.'

The prologue, and the first satire (on literary criticism)--the only
real satire he wrote--are said to be imitated from Lucilius. The other
five are largely Stoic dissertations in verse, and show throughout the
influence of Cornutus and Persius' other Stoic friends. Probus says he
attacked Nero's poetry in _Sat._ 1.

'Lecto Lucilii libro x. vehementer satiras componere instituit, cuius
libri principium imitatus est ... cum tanta recentium poetarum et
oratorum insectatione, ut etiam Neronem ... culpaverit, cuius versus
in Neronem cum ita se haberet:

'Auriculas asini Mida rex habet,'

in eum modum a Cornuto, ipso iam tum mortuo, est emendatus:

'Auriculas asini quis non habet?' [1, 121]

ne hoc Nero in se dictum arbitraretur.'

_Sat._ 1, 99-102 is said to be a travesty of Nero's poetry.

Very few passages, however, are quoted by the Scholiasts as modelled
on Lucilius.

Persius refers to Lucilius and Horace in 1, 114-8:

'Secuit Lucilius urbem,
te, Lupe, te, Muci, et genuinum fregit in illis;
omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico
tangit, et admissus circum praecordia ludit,
callidus excusso popul