Titus Calpurnius Siculus

Titus Calpurnius Siculus was a Roman bucolic poet. Eleven eclogues have been handed down to us under his name, of which the last four, from metrical considerations and express manuscript testimony, are now generally attributed to Nemesianus, who lived in the time of the emperor Carus and his sons (latter half of the 3rd century). The separate authorship of the eclogues of Calpurnius and Nemesianus was established by Haupt.

Quotes

• Aurea secura cum pace renascitur aetas
  et redit ad terras tandem squalore situque
  alma Themis positi iuvenemque beata sequuntur
  saecula, maternis causam qui vicit Iulis.
  dum populos deus ipse reget, dabit impia victas
  post tergum Bellona manus spoliataque telis
  in sua vesanos torquebit viscera morsus
  et, modo quae toto civilia distulit orbe,
  secum bella geret: nullos iam Roma Philippos
  deflebit, nullos ducet captiva triumphos;
  omnia Tartareo subigentur carcere bella
  immergentque caput tenebris lucemque timebunt.
  • Amid untroubled peace, the Golden Age springs to a second birth; at last kindly Themis, throwing off the gathered dust of her mourning, returns to the earth; blissful ages attend the youthful prince who pleaded a successful case for the Iuli of the mother town (of Troy). While he, a very God, shall rule the nations, the unholy War-Goddess shall yield and have her vanquished hands hound behind her hack, and, stripped of weapons, turn her furious teeth into her own entrails; upon herself shall she wage the civil wars which of late she spread o'er all the world: no battles like Philippi shall Rome lament henceforth: no triumph o'er her captive self shall she celebrate. All wars shall be quelled in Tartarean durance: they shall plunge the head in darkness, and dread the light.
  • I, 42 (Tr. Duff)
  • See Suetonius, Nero, 7; Tacitus, Annales, xii. 58

• ——— Satis hoc mercedis habeto,
  si laudem victor, si fert opprobria victus.
  • Let sufficient recompense be won herefrom, if the victor take the glory and the vanquished the reproach.
  • II, 22 (Tr. Duff)
  • The British Critic, vol. xii (November 1798), p. 453:

    Let this suffice, if all receive their due,
    Some of just praise, and some of censure too.

• Este pares et ob hoc concordes vivite; nam vos
  et decor et cantus et amor sociavit et aetas.
  • Be equal: live therefore in amity; for beauty and song, love and youth, have made you comrades both.
  • II, 99 (Tr. Duff)

• Mobilior ventis o femina!
  • O woman more inconstant than the wind!
  • III, 10 (Tr. Duff)

• Te sine, vae misero, mihi lilia nigra videntur
  nec sapiunt fontes et acescunt vina bibenti.
  • Without you (poor wretch that I am!), lilies seem black to me, fountains lose their taste and wine as I drink turns sour.
  • III, 51 (Tr. Duff)

• Credere pastores, levibus nolite puellis.
  • Shepherds, put not your trust in fickle maids.
  • III, 90 (Tr. Duff)

• Candidus alter erat levique decentior ovo
  et ridens oculis crinemque simillimus auro.
  • His rival was fair, sleeker than a smooth egg, with laughter in his eyes and the very gleam of gold in his hair.
  • VI, 14 (Tr. Duff)

External links

• J. Wright Duff; Arnold M. Duff, Minor Latin Poets, vol. 2, Loeb Classical Library (1934), p. 209

• T. P. Wiseman, "Calpurnius Siculus and the Claudian Civil War", The Journal of Roman Studies, vol. 72 (1982), pp. 57–67