Calvus, Gaius Licinius

▪ Roman poet

born 82 BC

died c. 47 BC

      Roman poet and orator who, as a poet, followed his friend Catullus (Catullus, Gaius Valerius) in style and choice of subjects.

      Calvus was a son of the annalist Gaius Licinius Macer. As an orator he was the leader of a group who opposed the florid Asiatic school, taking the simplest Attic orators as their model. Of his speeches, 21 are mentioned, the most famous being those delivered against Publius Vatinius, tribune in 54 BC. Calvus is often mentioned as a poet together with Catullus, who shared his literary taste and wrote in similar genres. Calvus is believed to have written an epyllion, or short epic, on Io; an elegy on the death of his wife, Quintilia; and polemical epigrams against political foes, such as Pompey and Julius Caesar. Only 20 meagre fragments of his poetry survive. Verse fragments are in The Fragmentary Latin Poets (1993), edited by Edward Courtney; prose fragments are in Oratorum Romanorum Fragmenta, 2nd ed. (1955).

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