A miscellany of mostly imperial verse.
This two-volume anthology covers a period of four and a half centuries, beginning with the work of the mime-writer Publilius Syrus who flourished ca. 45 BC and ending with the graphic and charming poem of Rutilius Namatianus recording a sea voyage from Rome to Gaul in AD 416. A wide variety of theme gives interest to the poems: hunting in a poem of Grattius; an inquiry into the causes of volcanic activity by the author of
Aetna
; pastoral poems by Calpurnius Siculus and by Nemesianus; fables by Avianus; a collection of
Dicta
, moral sayings, as if by the elder Cato; eulogy in
Laus Pisonis
; and the legend of the
Phoenix
, a poem of the fourth century. Other poets complete the work.