whose birth is unknown, also lived
during the reign of Nero, and was Consul in the year A.D. 68. He was a
Stoic, and put an end to his own life in the year A.D. 100, when he was
about seventy-five years of age. His poem, the Punica, is an account of
the second Punic War in verse, and is chiefly valuable to the historical
student. He had little inventive power, and takes but a low rank in
poetry.

P. Papinius Statius, the son of the teacher of the Emperor Domitian, was
carefully educated at Rome, and became renowned at an early age for his
poetical talents. He spent the last years of his life at Naples, which
was also the place of his birth, and died there in the year A.D. 96. He
wrote the Thebais, in twelve parts; the Achilleis, in two books; the
Sylvae, a collection of poems; a tragedy, and other works. He seems to
have borrowed much from earlier Greek writers, but was possessed of
considerable poetical fervor.

Claudius Claudianus, who lived under Theodosius the Great and his two
sons, was probably born and educated at Alexandria, but we know little
of his history. He came to Rome about A.D. 395, and, under the patronage
of Stilicho, rose to a high position in the state. The time and place of
his death are unknown. His chief works were, 1. Raptus Proserpinae, an
unfinished poem in three parts; 2. Gigantomachia, another unfinished
work; 3. De Bello Gildonico, of which we possess only the first book;
and, 4. De Bello Getico, in which the poet sings the victory of Stilicho
over Alaric at Pollentia. His poems have a rude vigor which sometimes
strikes the attention, but are chiefly valued for the light they throw
upon the Gothic wars. They are marked by many faults of taste.

Lyric poetry was little cultivated at Rome after the death of Horace;
but satire, which was peculiar to the Romans, reached its highest
excellence under the empire. Juvenal is still the master of this kind of
writing, although he has been imitated by Boileau, Pope, and Johnson;
and his contemporary Persius was also a writer of great power.

Aulus Persius Flaccus was born at Volaterrae, in Etruria, in the year
A.D. 34, of a distinguished family of the equestrian rank. He was
educated at Rome under the best masters, particularly under the Stoic
Cornutus, with whom he lived in close friendship, as well as with Lucan,
Seneca, and the most distinguished men of his time. He died at the early
age of twenty-eight, leaving behind him six satires and a brie