CALVUS, GAIUS LICINIUS MACER

born 82 BC died c. 47 BC Roman poet and orator who, as a poet, followed his friend Catullus in style and choice of subjects. Calvus was a son of the annalist Licinius Macer. As an orator he was the leader of a group who opposed the florid Asiatic school, taking the simplest Attic orators as their model. Of his speeches, 21 are mentioned, the most famous being those delivered against Publius Vatinius, tribune in 54 BC. Only 20 meagre fragments of his poetry survive. Verse fragments are in Fragmenta poetarum Latinorum (1927); prose fragments are in Oratorum Romanorum Fragmenta, 2nd ed. (1955).