(Marcus) Aristius Fuscus was a friend of the Roman poet

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 ...

, and is mentioned in Satire I.9, Ode 1.22 and elsewhere. Horace addresses Epistle 1.10 to Fuscus and links Fuscus and himself as 'twins' separated by their love for the city and the country, respectively. In Horace's Satire 1.9, Fuscus meets Horace struggling with a boor but fails to save Horace.

Porphyrio ''Porphyrio'' is the swamphen or swamp hen bird genus in the rail family. It includes some smaller species of gallinules which are sometimes separated as genus ''Porphyrula'' or united with the gallinules proper (or "moorhens") in '' Gallinula' ...

calls Fuscus an outstanding ''

grammaticus Grammaticus is the Latin word for grammarian; see Grammarian (Greco-Roman). It is also used to refer to a Roman patrician school. As an agnomen, it may refer to: * Ammonius Grammaticus (4th century), Greek grammarian * Diomedes Grammaticus (4th ...

'' (philologist or grammarian) and a writer of comedies, but

Helenius Acron Helenius Acron (or Acro) was a Roman commentator and grammarian, probably of the 3rd century AD, but whose precise date is not known. Helenius Acron is known to have written on Terence ('' Adelphi'' and '' Eunuchus'' at least) and Horace. These c ...

refers to him as a

tragedian A tragedy is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character or cast of characters. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy is to invoke an accompanying catharsis, or a "pain ...

.'' Klebs E''
Prosopographia imperii romani
(PIR). — ''Berolini'': apvd Georgivm Reimervm, 1896. — Bd. I — Sp. 133. — № 860 An "Aristius Fuscus" also appears in

Ben Jonson Benjamin Jonson ( 11 June 1572 – ) was an English playwright, poet and actor. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence on English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for the satire, satirical ...

's comedy ''

Poetaster Poetaster (), like rhymester or versifier, is a derogatory term applied to bad or inferior poets. Specifically, ''poetaster'' has implications of unwarranted pretensions to artistic value. The word was coined in Latin by Erasmus in 1521. It was f ...

'' (1601).

Notes

1st-century BC Romans Horace {{AncientRome-bio-stub