[90]
We have suffered serious loss
in the recent death of Valerius Flaccus. Saleius
Bassus1 showed an ardent and genuinely poetic
genius, but, like that of Serranus, it was not
mellowed by years. Rabirius2 and Pedo3 deserve
to be studied by those who have the time. Lucan
is fiery and passionate and remarkable for the
grandeur of his general reflexions, but, to be frank,
I consider that he is more suitable for imitation by
the orator than by the poet.
1 Nothing is known of this poet save that he is highly praised by Tacitus in his Diblogues, and was patronized by Vespasian. The unfinished Argonautica of Valerius Flaccus survives.
2 A contemporary of Ovid, believed to be the author of a fragment on the battle of Actium, found at Hereulaneum.
3 C. Albinovanns Pedo wrote a poem on the voyage of Germanicus to the north of Germany. A fragment is preserved by Sen. Suas. i. 14.
Quintilian. With An English Translation. Harold Edgeworth Butler. Cambridge. Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press; London, William Heinemann, Ltd. 1922.
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