Gaius Albinovanus Pedo, sometimes mistakenly called C. Pedo Albinovanus, was a Roman

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

who flourished during the Augustan age.

Works

Albinovanus Pedo was a member of the gens Albinovana. He wrote a ''Theseis'', referred to in a letter from his friend

Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...

epigram An epigram is a brief, interesting, memorable, sometimes surprising or satirical statement. The word derives from the Greek (, "inscription", from [], "to write on, to inscribe"). This literary device has been practiced for over two millennia ...

s which are commended by Martial and an epic poem on the exploits of Germanicus. He had the reputation of being an excellent ''raconteur'', and

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 ...

awards him qualified praise as a writer of epics. All that remains of his works is a fragment preserved in the ''Suasoria'' of the rhetorician

Seneca the Elder Lucius Annaeus Seneca the Elder ( ; – c. AD 39), also known as Seneca the Rhetorician, was a Roman writer, born of a wealthy equestrian family of Corduba, Hispania. He wrote a collection of reminiscences about the Roman schools of rhetoric, ...

, from a description of the voyage of Germanicus (AD 16) through the river Ems to the Northern Ocean, when he was overtaken by the storm described by

Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. Tacitus’ two major historical works, ''Annals'' ( ...

. The cavalry commander spoken of by the historian is probably identical with the poet.

, ''

Annales Annals are a concise form of historical writing which record events chronologically, year by year. The equivalent word in Latin and French is ''annales'', which is used untranslated in English in various contexts. List of works with titles contai ...

'' i. 60 Three elegies were formerly attributed to Pedo by Scaliger; two on the death of

Maecenas Gaius Cilnius Maecenas ( 13 April 68 BC – 8 BC) was a friend and political advisor to Octavian (who later reigned as emperor Augustus). He was also an important patron for the new generation of Augustan poets, including both Horace and Virgil. ...

(''In Obitum Maecenatis'' and ''De Verbis Maecenatis moribundi''), and a ''consolatio'' addressed to

Livia Livia Drusilla (30 January 59 BC AD 29) was List of Roman and Byzantine empresses, Roman empress from 27 BC to AD 14 as the wife of Augustus, the first Roman emperor. She was known as Julia Augusta after her formal Adoption ...

to console her for the death of her son Drusus (''Consolatio ad Liviam de Morte Drusi'' or ''Epicedion Drusi'', usually printed with Ovid's works); but it is now generally agreed that they are not by Pedo. The ''Consolatio'' has been put down as late as the 15th century as the work of an Italian imitator, there being no manuscripts and no trace of the poem before the publication of the ''

editio princeps In Textual scholarship, textual and classical scholarship, the ''editio princeps'' (plural: ''editiones principes'') of a work is the first printed edition of the work, that previously had existed only in manuscripts. These had to be copied by han ...

'' of Ovid in 1471. There is an English verse translation of the elegies by Edward Hayes Plumptre (1907).

References

Sources

* E. Bahrens, ''Poetae Latini Minores'' (1879) and ''Fragmenta Poetarum Latinorum'' (1886) * Moritz Haupt, ''Opuscula'', i. (1875) * Oskar Haube, ''Beitrag zur Kenntnis des Albinovanus Pedo'' (1880). {{DEFAULTSORT:Albinovanus, Caius Pedo Golden Age Latin writers Latin writers known only from secondary sources 1st-century Romans 1st-century Roman poets Tullii