Minor Latin poets; with introductions and English translations

INTRODUCTIONThere came a day in 45 b.c. when Caesar forcedthe veteran knight Laberius—he was then sixty—toplay in one of his own mimes as a competitor againstthe alien Publilius, who had thro^^^l do\\Ti a dramaticchallenge to all comers. The dictator, while heawarded the prize to the foreigner, restored to theRoman, with ostentatious condescension, the ringwhich outwardly confirmed the equestrian ranksullied by his appearance on the stage. This eclipseof Laberius marked for Publilius an opportunitywhich he knew how to use. Some fresh invention,some originality in treatment capable of catching thepopular favour, may be conjectured as the reasonwhy the elder Pliny calls him " the founder of themimic stage." Of Syrian origin, he had come toRome as a slave, most likely from Antioch.*^ Hiswit secured his manumission, and the gift of understandingRoman psychology was a factor in hisdramatic success. And yet, in contrast ^\'ith fortyfourknown titles of plays by his vanquished rivalLaberius, only two of Publilius' — titles have comedown to us in uncertain form " The Pruners,"Putatores (or, it has even been suggested, Potatores," The Tipplers "), and one conjecturally amended toMurmidon} Perhaps his improvisations were tooprecariously entrusted to actors' copies to guaranteeliterary immortality ; and, in any case, though piecesof his were still staged under Nero, the mimegradually lost its vogue in favour of pantomime.The didactic element in him, however, was destinedto survive. The elder Seneca praises him for" Plin. N.H. loc. cit. Publilium -flochium {Antiochium,0. Jahn, Phil. 26, 11) mimicae scenae conditorem.>>Nonius, 2, p. 133; Priscian, Gramm. Lat. (Keil), 2, 532, 25.