Spurius Mummius 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 ...

soldier and writer. He was a

legatus A legate (Latin: , ) was a high-ranking Roman military officer in the Roman army, equivalent to a high-ranking general officer of modern times. Initially used to delegate power, the term became formalised under Augustus as the officer in comman ...

of his brother

Lucius Mummius Lucius Mummius (2nd century BC) was a Roman statesman and general. He was consul in the year 146 BC along with Gnaeus Cornelius Lentulus. Mummius was the first of his family to rise to the rank of consul thereby making him a novus homo. He r ...

Corinth Corinth ( ; , ) is a municipality in Corinthia in Greece. The successor to the ancient Corinth, ancient city of Corinth, it is a former municipality in Corinthia, Peloponnese (region), Peloponnese, which is located in south-central Greece. Sin ...

in 146 BC and 145 BC and a close friend of

Scipio Aemilianus Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus Aemilianus (185 BC – 129 BC), known as Scipio Aemilianus or Scipio Africanus the Younger, was a Roman general and statesman noted for his military exploits in the Third Punic War against Carthage and durin ...

. This friendship garnered his entrance into the Scipionic Circle. Politically, he was an aristocrat. He wrote satirical and ethical epistles, describing his experiences in Corinth in humorous verse. According to the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', these letters, which were still popular a hundred years later, were the first examples of a distinct class of Roman poetry, the poetic epistle.

References

Ancient Roman writers 2nd-century BC Romans 2nd-century BC writers Mummii {{AncientRome-writer-stub