against the emperor. The whole was discovered, and the poet had nothing left but to choose the manner of his execution. He had his veins opened in a warm bath, and as he expired he pronounced with great energy the lines which, in his Pharsalia, he had put into the mouth of a soldier, who died in the same manner as himself.

No single wound the gaping rupture seems,

Where trickling crimson swells in slender streams;
But, from an opening, horrible and wide,

A thousand vessels pour the bursting tide.
At once the winding channel's course was broke,
Where wand'ring life her mazy journey took ;
At once the currents all forgot their way,
And lost their purple in the azure sea.

Such was the death of Lucan, before he had completed his twenty-seventh year. His wife, Polla Argentaria, is said to have transcribed and corrected the three first books of his Pharsalia after his death. It is much to be regretted, Mr. Hayley observes, that we possess not the poem which he wrote on the merits of this amiable and accomplished woman; but her name is immortalized by two other poets of that age. The veneration which she paid to the memory of her husband is recorded by Martial; and more poetically described in that elegant production of Statius, Genethliacon Lucani, a poem said to have been written at the request of Argentaria, laments the cruel fate which deprived her so immaturely of domestic happiness, and concludes with an address to the shade of Lucan. His poem called the Pharsalia, giving an account of the civil wars of Cæsar and Pompey, is unfinished. Opinions are various as to the merit of his poetry. He possesses neither the fire of Homer, nor the melodious numbers of Virgil. If he had lived to a greater age, his judgment and genius would have matured, and he might have claimed a more exalted rank among the poets of the Augustan age. His expressions, however, are bold and animated, his poetry entertaining, though his irregularities are numerous, and to use the words of Quintilian, he is more an orator than a poet. He wrote a poem upon the burning of Rome, now lost. Of his works the " Pharsalia" only remains; the best edition of which is that of Burmann, Leyden, in 1740, 8vo. It has been translated into English by Rowe.

MARCUS VALERIUS MARTIALIS, a famous Latin poet, born at Bilbilis, now Bubiera, in Arragon, was of the order of knights. He went to Rome at the age of twenty-one, and lived there thirty-five years, under Galba and the succeeding emperors, till the reign of Trajan; and having acquired the esteem of Titus and Domitian, he was created tribune. But,

finding that he was neglected by Trajan, he returned to Bilbilis, where he married a wife, and lived with her several years. He commends her much, as being alone sufficient to supply the want of every thing he enjoyed at Rome. She appears likewise to have been a lady of a very large fortune; for he extols the magnificence of the house and gardens he had received from her, and says that "she made him a kind of little monarch." There are still extant fourteen books of his epigrams, they are not excellent. His works were printed first at Venice in 1470. The best edition is the Variorum of 1670.

CLAUDIA RUFINA, a noble British lady, about the year 100, wife of Aulus Rufus Pudens, a Bononian philosopher, and one of the Roman equestrian order. She is said to have been a great associate with the poet Martial, who in many places highly extols her for beauty, learning, and eminent virtues. Of her poetic writings, Balæus mentions a book of Epigrams, an Elegy on her Husband's Death, and other verses on different subjects; besides which, she is said to have written many things in prose.

SERAPIO, a Greek poet, who flourished in the reign of Trajan. He was intimate with Plutarch.

DECIUS JUNIUS JUVENAL, the celebrated Roman satirist, was born about the beginning of the reign of the emperor Claudius, at Aquinum in Campania. He was brought up an orator, studied under Quintilian, and made a distinguished figure at the bar of Rome, where he acquired a most considerable fortune before he commenced poet. It is said that he was above forty years of age when he recited his first essay to a small audience of his friends; but being encouraged by their applause, he ventured a greater publication, which coming to the notice of Paris, Domitian's favourite at that time, though but a pantomime player, whom our satirist had severely insulted, that minion complained to the emperor, who banished him, by giving him the command of a cohort in the army at Pentapolis. After Domitian's death, Juvenal returned to Rome, sufficiently cautioned against attacking living characters and people in power under arbitrary princes; and, therefore, he thus concludes the debate with a friend on this head in his first satire. "I will try what liberties I may be allowed with those whose ashes lie under the Flaminian and Latin ways;" along each side of which the Romans of quality used to be buried. It is believed that he lived to the reign of Adrian, in 128. There are still extant sixteen of his satires, in which he discovers great wit, strength, and keenness in his language; but his style is not perfectly natural; and the obscenities with which these satires are filled render the reading of them dangerous to youth. Of the editions of Juvenal, the best are the Variorum of Grævius, Amst. 8vo, 1684; the Delphin, Par. 4to, 1684; and Casaubon's

Lugd. Bat. 4to, 1695. Juvenal has been admirably translated into English by Mr. Gifford.

C. VALERIUS FLACCUS, a Roman poet, who flourished in the reign of Vespasian, and died at an early age, in the time of Domitian. From an epigram in Martial, it should seem that he was in no affluent condition; for he advised him as a friend to quit the muses for the more gainful pursuits of the forum. A poem of his on the Argonautic expedition is extant. This poem contains sublime and splendid passages, and is free from the bombast and extravagance of most of the second race of Latin poets, but it is in general deficient in poetic spirit, and is likewise wanting in plan and contrivance. The best edition is that of Burmann, 1724.

PUBLIUS PAPIRIUS STATIUS, a celebrated Latin poet, born at Naples. He was the son of Statius, a native of Epirus, who went to Rome to teach poetry and eloquence, and had Domitian for his scholar. Statius the poet also obtained the favour and friendship of that prince, and dedicated to him his Thebaid in twelve books, and Achilleid in two. He died at Naples about the year 100. Besides the above poems, there are also his Sylvæ, in five books; the style of which is purer, more agreeable, and more natural, than that of the others. His Thebaid, Achilleid, and Sylvæ, are extant; the best editions of which are that of Barthius, 2 vols. 4to.; the Variorum, 8vo.; and that of Markland, 4to. There is an English translation of the first, by Lewis, 2 vols. 8vo.

SULPICIA, an ancient Roman poetess, who lived under the reign of Domitian, and afterwards was so much celebrated and admired, that she has been thought worthy of the name of the Roman Sappho. She wrote some thousands of pieces. The fragment of a satire against Domitian, who published a decree for the banishment of the philosophers from Rome, may be found in Scaliger's Appendix Virgiliana, and other collections, but has usually been printed at the end of the satires of Juvenal, to whom it has been falsely attributed by some. She was the first Roman lady who taught her sex to vie with the Greeks in poetry. Her language is easy and elegant, and she seems to have had a happy talent for satire. She, however, wrote in many other ways, with great applause. Some elegies likewise, attributed to Tibullus, which abound in striking beauties, and are even worthy of the great poet they were erroneously given to, are now restored to Sulpicia. They are addressed to a young man, perhaps Calenus, a Roman knight, who was afterwards her husband, under the name of Cerinthus, which was that of a beautiful slave from Chalcis, mentioned by Horace, and applied only to the handsome. She is mentioned by Martial and Sidonius Apollinaris, and is said to have addressed to her husband, Calenus, a poem on conjugal love. That the Romans should have produced not one poetess before Sulpicia,

to put them more on a level with the Greeks, is matter of no small astonishment. She was certainly a woman of great genius, learning, and beauty.

SALEIUS, a poet of great merit in the age of Domitian, yet pinched by poverty, though born of illustrious parents, and distinguished by purity of manners and integrity of mind.

SERRANUS, a Latin poet of considerable merit, who flourished under Domitian.

TERENTIANUS MAURUS, a Latin poet and grammarian, who flourished under Trajan, Adrian, and the Antonines. He was governor of Syene in Upper Egypt, about A. D. 140. He wrote a poem "De literis, syllabis, pedibus, et metris," published in Milan in 1497; and also in the "Corpus Poetarum Romanorum," Geneva, 1611, 2 vols. 4to.

LITERATURE.

TITUS PETRONIUS ARBITER, a great critic and polite writer, the favourite of Nero, supposed to be the same mentioned by Tacitus in his Annals, lib. xvi. He was proconsul of Bithynia, and afterwards consul, and appeared capable of the greatest employments. He was one of Nero's principal confidants, and the superintendant of his pleasures. The great favour shown him drew upon him the envy of Tigellinus, another of Nero's favourites, who accused him of being concerned in a conspiracy against the emperor; on which Petronius was seized, and was sentenced to die. He met death with a striking indifference, and seems to have tasted it nearly as he had done his pleasures. He would sometimes open a vein, and sometimes close it, conversing with his friends in the mean time, not on the immortality of the soul, which was no part of his creed, but on topics which pleased his fancy, as of love verses, and agreeable and passionate airs. Of this disciple of Epicurus, Tacitus gives the following character; "he was," says he, "neither a spendthrift nor debauchee; but a refined voluptuary, who devoted the day to sleep, and the night to the duties of his office, and to pleasure." He is much distinguished by a satire which he wrote, and secretly conveyed to Nero; in which he ingeniously describes, under borrowed names, the character of this prince. Peter Petit discovered at Iraw, in Dalmatia, in 1665, a considerable fragment, containing the sequel of Petronius's Trimalcion's Feast. This fragment, which was printed in 1666 at Padua and Paris, produced a paper war among the learned. While some affirmed that it was the work of Petronius, and others denied it to be so, Petit sent it to Rome. The French critics, who had attacked its authenticity, were silent after it was deposited in the royal library. It is now generally attributed

to Petronius. The best editions of Petronius are those published at Venice, 1499, in 4to; at Amsterdam, 1669, in 8vo, cum Notis Var. Ibid; with Boschius's notes, 1677, in 24mo; and 1700, 2 vols. in 24mo. The edition Variorum was reprinted in 1743, in 2 vols. 4to, with Peter Burmann's commentaries. Petronius died in 65 or 66.

PHILO, a Jewish writer of Alexandria, A. D. 40, sent as ambassador from his nation to Caligula. He was unsuccessful in his embassy, of which he wrote an entertaining account; and the emperor, who wished to be worshipped as a god, expressed his dissatisfaction with the Jews, because they refused to place his statues in their temples. He was so happy in his expressions, and elegant in his variety, that he has been called the Jewish Plato; and the book which he wrote on the sufferings of the Jews in the reign of Caius, met with such unbounded applause in the Roman senate, where he read it publicly, that he was permitted to consecrate it in the public libraries. His works were divided into three parts, of which the first related to the creation of the world, the second spoke of sacred history, and in the third the author made mention of the laws and customs of the Jewish nation. The best edition is that of Mangey at London, 2 vols. folio.

QUINTILIAN, the father of the celebrated orator, was also an orator, and wrote one hundred and forty-five declamations. Ugolin of Parma published the first one hundred and thirty-six in the 15th century; the nine others were published in 1563 by Peter Ayrault, and afterwards by Peter Pythou in 1580. There have been also nineteen other declamations printed under the name of Quintilian the orator; but, in the opinion of Vossius, they were written neither by that orator nor his grandfather.

MARCUS AFER, a Roman orator. Some writers have attributed to him the "Dialogue of orators," which has been frequently printed with the works of Tacitus and Quintilian. He died about 83.

MARCUS FABIUS QUINTILIAN, a celebrated teacher of eloquence, was born about the year 42 of the Christian era, during the reign of the emperor Claudius. He is supposed to have descended from a noble family originally Spanish, but that his father, or grandfather, had settled in Rome. The place of his birth is not known, but it seems certain that he was educated in that capital, where he studied rhetoric under Domitius Afer, a celebrated orator. He opened a school at Rome, and was the first who obtained a salary from the state as a public teacher. After he had remained twenty years in his laborious employment, and obtained the applause of the illustrious Romans, not merely as a preceptor, but as a pleader at the bar, Quintilian retired to enjoy the fruits of his labours and industry. In his 3