Parthenius
（
Παρθένιος). A Greek grammarian and poet, of Nicaea in
Bithynia, who was brought captive to Rome during the war with Mithridates. After his release,
he lived there till the time of Tiberius, esteemed as a scholar and poet, especially as a
writer of elegiac verse. He was acquainted with Vergil, whom he taught Greek, and one of his
poems is said to have been the model for the
Moretum (q. v.); but he was more
closely connected with the elegiac poet, Cornelius Gallus. For Gallus he composed the only
work of his which has survived, under the title,
Erotic Experiences (
Περὶ Ἐρωτικῶν Παθημάτων). This is a collection of thirty-six
prose stories of unhappy lovers, compiled from ancient poets, especially from those of the
Alexandrian school. They are in reality only sketches and were intended to be developed by
Gallus into poems of passion. Apart from the light which the work throws on the Alexandrine
poets, of whose productions it contains fragments, it has a special interest as a precursor of
the Greek novel. Edited by Hirschig in the Didot collection
(Paris, 1856). See
Novels and Romances.
