Laevius
Roman poet and writer
Laevius (died c. 80 BC) was a Latin poet, of whom practically nothing is known. He is sometimes identified with the Laevius Melissus mentioned by Suetonius.
Quotes
edit- Te Andromacha per ludum manu
lasciuola ac tenellula
capiti meo, trepidans libens
insolita plexit munera.- With her hands Andromacha, for sport,
those tender, playful little hands,
eager and excited, for my head
wove you, extraordinary gift. - From Erotopaegnia (tr. Kenneth Quinn)
- With her hands Andromacha, for sport,
- Corpore (inquit) pectoreque undique obeso ac
Mente exsensa tardigenuclo
Senio obpressum.- Of chest and body wasted everywhere;
Of mind devoid of sense and slow of pace;
With age o’ercome. - From Alcestis, quoted by Aulus Gellius, XIX, vii, 3 (tr. J. C. Rolfe)
- Of chest and body wasted everywhere;
- Venus <o> amoris altrix,
genetrix cupiditatis,
mihi quae diem serenum
hilarula praepandere cresti,
opesculae tuae ac ministrae.- O Venus, who keeps love alive,
mother of longing and desire,
it is you who favors me,
your little maid servant,
and spends out a clam day
in front of me. - From Pterygion Phoenicis, quoted by Charisius, 288K (tr. C. F. Heffernan)
- O Venus, who keeps love alive,
About
edit- The grammarians too were so highly esteemed, and their compensation was so ample, that Lutatius Daphnis, whom Laevius Melissus, punning on his name, often called the “darling of Pan,” is known to have been bought for seven hundred thousand sesterces and soon afterwards set free.
- Suetonius, De Grammaticis, III (tr. J. C. Rolfe)
Bibliography
edit- Emil Bährens, Fragmenta Poetarum Romanorum (Leipzig, 1886), p. 287
- W. W. Merry, Selected Fragments of Roman Poetry, 2nd ed. (Oxford, 1898), pp. 182–5
- H. W. Garrod, The Oxford Book of Latin Verse (1912), no. 51
- Kenneth Quinn, The Catullan Revolution (1959), p. 15
- C. F. Heffernan, The Phoenix at the Fountain (1988), p. 35
