Marcus Furius Bibaculus (1st century BC) was a

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

neoteric The Neoterikoi (Ancient Greek: '; Latin: ', "new poets") or Neoterics were a series of avant-garde Latin poets who wrote in the 1st century BCE. Neoteric poets deliberately turned away from classical Homeric epic poetry. Rather than focusing on the ...

poet who flourished during the last century of the

Republic A republic, based on the Latin phrase ''res publica'' ('public affair' or 'people's affair'), is a State (polity), state in which Power (social and political), political power rests with the public (people), typically through their Representat ...

Life

According to

Jerome Jerome (; ; ; – 30 September 420), also known as Jerome of Stridon, was an early Christian presbyter, priest, Confessor of the Faith, confessor, theologian, translator, and historian; he is commonly known as Saint Jerome. He is best known ...

, he was born at

Cremona Cremona ( , , ; ; ) is a city and (municipality) in northern Italy, situated in Lombardy, on the left bank of the Po (river), Po river in the middle of the Po Valley. It is the capital of the province of Cremona and the seat of the local city a ...

, in 103 BC; however, scholars believe that this date is much too early and that he seems to be a contemporary of

Catullus Gaius Valerius Catullus (; ), known as Catullus (), was a Latin neoteric poet of the late Roman Republic. His surviving works remain widely read due to their popularity as teaching tools and because of their personal or sexual themes. Life ...

. Like Catullus, he wrote satirical poems in the same style. It is conjectured that he is the friend whom Catullus jokingly satirises in poems 16, 23, and 26.Quinn, L. (1973) ''Catullus: The Poems'', p. 161. He wrote satirical poems after the manner of

, whose bitterness he rivaled, according to

Quintilian Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (; 35 – 100 AD) was a Roman educator and rhetorician born in Hispania, widely referred to in medieval schools of rhetoric and in Renaissance writing. In English translation, he is usually referred to as Quin ...

(''Instit.'' x.i.196), in his iambics. He even attacked

Augustus Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in A ...

(and perhaps

Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (12 or 13 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC) was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war. He ...

), who treated the matter with indifference. He was also author of prose '' Lucubrationes'' and perhaps of an epic poem on Caesar's

Gallic Wars The Gallic Wars were waged between 58 and 50 BC by the Roman general Julius Caesar against the peoples of Gaul (present-day France, Belgium, and Switzerland). Gauls, Gallic, Germanic peoples, Germanic, and Celtic Britons, Brittonic trib ...

(''Pragmatia Belli Gallici'').

Otto Ribbeck Johann Carl Otto Ribbeck (23 July 1827, in Erfurt – 18 July 1898, in Leipzig) was a German classical scholar. His works are mostly confined to criticisms of Latin poetry and to classical character sketches. Biography He was born at Erfurt in S ...

attributes to him one of the shorter poems usually assigned to

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; 15 October 70 BC21 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Rome, ancient Roman poet of the Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Augustan period. He composed three of the most fa ...

. It is doubtful whether he is the person ridiculed by

Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 BC – 27 November 8 BC), Suetonius, Life of Horace commonly known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). Th ...

(''

Satires Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of exposing or ...

,'' ii.5.40) and whether he is identical with the ''turgidus Alpinus'' (''Satires,'' i.10.36), the author of an ''Aethiopis'' dealing with the life and death of

Memnon In Greek mythology, Memnon (; Ancient Greek: Μέμνων, ) was a king of Aethiopia and son of Tithonus and Eos. During the Trojan War, he brought an army to Troy's defense and killed Antilochus, Nestor (mythology), Nestor's son, during a fi ...

and of a poem on the

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

. Some critics, on the ground that Horace would not have ventured to attack so dangerous an adversary, assume the existence of a poet whose real name was Furius (or Cornelius) Alpinus. Bibaculus was ridiculed for his high-flown and exaggerated style and manner of expression. Fragments of his work can be found in L. Müller's edition of Catullus's work in the Teubner Series (1870).

Footnotes

Citations

* This work in turn cites: **Weichert, “De M. Furio Bibaculo,” in his ''Poetarum Latinorum Reliquiae'' (1830)

External links

* 1st-century BC deaths Golden Age Latin writers 2nd-century BC Romans 1st-century BC Romans 1st-century BC Roman poets Bibaculus Year of death unknown Writers from Cremona {{AncientRome-poet-stub

Life

See also

Footnotes

Citations

External links