CALPURNIUS SICULUS, TITUS

flourished AD 60 Roman poet, author of seven pastoral eclogues. Very little is known of Calpurnius' life; his name Siculus may indicate Sicilian origin or may be a conventional indication of his literary debt to the Sicilian Theocritus, originator of pastoral poetry. Again, he may have been the son of a freedman of Gaius Calpurnius Piso (the leader of the conspiracy against Nero in AD 65); a panegyric poem (Laus Pisonis) addressed to Piso is extant, and this may well be by Calpurnius Siculus. The Eclogues are in the tradition of Virgil, whose influence on Calpurnius is pervasive. Although they contain some contemporary subject matter and references, they add nothing new to the development of Latin literature.