Anser (poet)

Last updated

Anser was a minor poet of ancient Rome who lived in the 1st century BC. He is mentioned by Ovid as a writer of love poetry associated with Catullus, Calvus and Cinna. [1] According to the 4th-century AD grammarian Servius, he was a "very bad poet" who wrote in praise of the triumvir Mark Antony and was a detractor of Virgil. None of his work is known to have survived.

Contents

Cicero and Ovid

The earliest writer to mention the name Anser is Cicero (Philippic 13.11), who in 43 BC speaks of some Ansers who were supporters of Mark Antony. In the quotation below, Cicero is saying that Sextus Pompeius (Pompey the Great's son) should be allowed to reclaim his father's property which had been seized by Antony:

"The Alban and Formian [2] villas he will recover from Dolabella; the Tusculan villa he will also recover from Antonius. And these Ansers who are joining in the attack on Mutina and in the blockade of Decimus Brutus will be driven from his Falernian villa." [3]

More than 50 years later Ovid (Tristia 2.435), in a list of writers of risqué Latin love poetry, mentions a poet Anser in association with Catullus and Catullus's friend Calvus:

Cinna quoque his comes est, Cinnaque procacior Anser
"Cinna is a companion to these (i.e. Catullus and Calvus), and Anser, who was (even) more risqué than Cinna"

Putting this evidence together with the information given by Servius (see below) that the poet Anser was a supporter of Mark Antony, it is conjectured by many scholars that he was one of the Ansers mentioned by Cicero, and that he was perhaps gifted an estate in the Falernian region in Campania by his patron.

Virgil and Servius

Commenting on Virgil's Eclogue 7, 21, the 4th century AD grammarian Servius says: "Many people have supposed there is an allegory in this eclogue, so that Daphnis is Caesar, Corydon Virgil, and Thyrsis, who is defeated, one of Virgil's detractors, namely either Bavius or Anser or Maevius, very bad poets."

He makes a second mention of the poet in his comment on Virgil's Eclogue 9, 35–36, in which a young herdsman Lycidas says this about his skill in poetry:

nam neque adhuc Vario videor nec dicere Cinna
digna, sed argutos inter strepere anser olores
"For I do not yet seem to make songs worthy of Varius or Cinna,
but to make a noise like a goose (anser) among melodious swans".

Commenting on this line, Servius wrote: "He is alluding to a certain Anser, a poet of Antony's, who used to write praises of him (i.e. of Antony), and for this reason Virgil criticised him." [4]

Some commentators have therefore suggested that the character Lycidas in Eclogue 9 represents Anser. [5] Others, however, have cast doubt on Servius's claim, on the grounds that Servius is often unreliable. [4] [6]

Others again, even if they do not identify "Anser" with Lycidas, question whether there was ever a person who was actually named "Anser", or whether it was just a generic dismissal of a bad poet. [7] However, the evidence from Cicero and Ovid seems to indicate that there really was a poet called Anser and that it was a genuine name.

Propertius

Propertius (2.34.83–84), in a passage apparently imitating the lines from Eclogue 9 quoted above, also contrasts a swan and a goose, commenting on the latter's indocto carmine'unlearned song'. However, the textual problems of these lines make it impossible to be confident about Propertius' exact text or meaning, [8] and different scholars have expressed differing views about which poet is meant by the swan and which by the goose. [9]

Notes

  1. Grishin, A. A. (2008). "Ludus in undis: an acrostic in Eclogue 9". Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, 104, 237–240; p. 239.
  2. Yonge reads "Firmian".
  3. Translated C. D. Yonge (1903).
  4. 1 2 Cucchiarelli, A. (ed.) (2012). Publio Vergio Marone: Le Bucoliche, p. 466.
  5. Karakasis, Evangelos (2011). Song Exchange in Roman Pastoral. Trends in classics. Vol. 5. Walter de Gruyter. p. 199. ISBN   978-3110227062. ISSN   1868-4785.
  6. Clausen (1994). A Commentary of Virgil: Eclogues, pp. 279–280.
  7. Peirano, Irene (2012). The Rhetoric of the Roman Fake: Latin Pseudepigrapha in Context. Cambridge University Press. p. 110. ISBN   9781139560382.
  8. Cairns, F. (2003). "Varius and Vergil: Two Pupils of Philodemus in Propertius 2.34?". In Vergil, Philodemus, and the Augustans (pp. 299-322). University of Texas Press.
  9. O'Rourke, D. (2011). "The representation and misrepresentation of Virgilian poetry in Propertius 2.34". American Journal of Philology, 132(3), 457–497, p. 491.

Related Research Articles

Latin literature includes the essays, histories, poems, plays, and other writings written in the Latin language. The beginning of formal Latin literature dates to 240 BC, when the first stage play in Latin was performed in Rome. Latin literature would flourish for the next six centuries. The classical era of Latin literature can be roughly divided into the following periods: Early Latin literature, The Golden Age, The Imperial Period and Late Antiquity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virgil</span> 1st-century-BC Roman poet

Publius Vergilius Maro, usually called Virgil or Vergil in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: the Eclogues, the Georgics, and the epic Aeneid. A number of minor poems, collected in the Appendix Vergiliana, were attributed to him in ancient times, but modern scholars consider his authorship of these poems to be dubious.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1st century BC</span> Century

The 1st century BC, also known as the last century BC and the last century BCE, started on the first day of 100 BC and ended on the last day of 1 BC. The AD/BC notation does not use a year zero; however, astronomical year numbering does use a zero, as well as a minus sign, so "2 BC" is equal to "year –1". 1st century AD follows.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Di Penates</span>

In ancient Roman religion, the Di Penates or Penates were among the dii familiares, or household deities, invoked most often in domestic rituals. When the family had a meal, they threw a bit into the fire on the hearth for the Penates. They were thus associated with Vesta, the Lares, and the Genius of the pater familias in the "little universe" of the domus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Classical Latin</span> Literary form of the Latin language (75 BC-3rd ct. AD)

Classical Latin is the form of Literary Latin recognized as a literary standard by writers of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. It was used from 75 BC to the 3rd century AD, when it developed into Late Latin. In some later periods, it was regarded as good or proper Latin, with following versions viewed as debased, degenerate, or corrupted. The word Latin is now understood by default to mean "Classical Latin"; for example, modern Latin textbooks almost exclusively teach Classical Latin.

Gaius Memmius was a Roman politician, orator and poet. He is most famous as the dedicatee of Lucretius' De Rerum Natura, and for his appearances in the poetry of Catullus.

Gaius Helvius Cinna was an influential neoteric poet of the late Roman Republic, a little older than the generation of Catullus and Calvus. He was lynched at the funeral of Julius Caesar after being mistaken for an unrelated Cornelius Cinna who had spoken out in support of the dictator's assassins.

<i>Eclogues</i> Poem collection by Virgil

The Eclogues, also called the Bucolics, is the first of the three major works of the Latin poet Virgil.

<i>Appendix Vergiliana</i> Collection of Poems possibly written by Virgil.

The Appendix Vergiliana is a collection of Latin poems traditionally ascribed as being the juvenilia of Virgil.

The Neoterikoi or Neoterics were a series of avant-garde Latin poets who wrote in the 1st century BCE. Neoteric poets deliberately turned away from classical Homeric epic poetry. Rather than focusing on the feats of ancient heroes and gods, they propagated a new style of poetry through stories that operated on a smaller scale in regard to themes and setting.

Siro was an Epicurean philosopher who lived in Naples.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Invidia</span>

In Latin, invidia is the sense of envy, a "looking upon" associated with the evil eye, from invidere, "to look against, to look in a hostile manner." Invidia ("Envy") is one of the Seven Deadly Sins in Christian belief.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Augustan literature (ancient Rome)</span> Period in Latin literature

Augustan literature refers to the pieces of Latin literature that were written during the reign of Caesar Augustus, the first Roman emperor. In literary histories of the first part of the 20th century and earlier, Augustan literature was regarded along with that of the Late Republic as constituting the Golden Age of Latin literature, a period of stylistic classicism.

<i>Eclogue</i> 4

Eclogue4, also known as the FourthEclogue, is a Latin poem by the Roman poet Virgil. The poem is dated to 40 BC by its mention of the consulship of Virgil's patron Gaius Asinius Pollio.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cycnus of Liguria</span> Mythical Greek king, who was turned into the constellation Cygnus

In Greek mythology, Cycnus or Cygnus, was a king of Liguria, a beloved and kin of Phaethon, who lamented his death and was subsequently turned into a swan and then a constellation.

The poem Dirae is one of the poems that make up the Appendix Vergiliana. It is a pastoral poem, told from the perspective of a Sicilian herdsman forced to give up his land to Lycurgus, who is receiving this land as a reward for his participation in the Roman civil wars. The herdsman spends the entire poem cursing the land so Lycurgus cannot benefit from it.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eclogue 3</span>

Eclogue 3 is a pastoral poem by the Latin poet Virgil, one of a collection of ten poems known as the "Eclogues". This eclogue represents the rivalry in song of two herdsmen, Menalcas and Damoetas. After trading insults, the two men decide to have a singing competition, for which each offers a prize. A neighbour, Palaemon, who comes along by chance, agrees to be the judge. The second half of the poem consists of the contest, in which each of the two competitors in turn sings a couplet and the other caps it with another couplet. In the end Palaemon brings the contest to an end and declares it a draw.

Eclogue 7 is a poem by the Latin poet Virgil, one of his book of ten pastoral poems known as the Eclogues. It is an amoebaean poem in which a herdsman Meliboeus recounts a contest between the shepherd Thyrsis and the goatherd Corydon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eclogue 9</span>

Eclogue 9 is a pastoral poem by the Latin poet Virgil, one of his series of ten poems known as the Eclogues. This eclogue describes the meeting of two countrymen Lycidas and Moeris. Moeris has been turned out of his farm and is taking some kid goats to town for the new occupant; young Lycidas is astonished, for he had heard that Menalcas had secured the safety of the district by his poetry, but Moeris replies that, so far from that being so, he and Menalcas himself had barely escaped with their lives: they then proceed to recall passages of Menalcas' poetry. Lycidas wants to continue singing to lighten the journey but the distressed Moeris begs him to cease, promising that they will sing again when Menalcas returns.