Septi'mius, Ti'tius
Works
Poetry
Horace, in an epistle (1.3. 9-14) to Julius Florus, at that time in the East along with Tiberius Nero, makes inquiries with regard to the welfare and occupations of a certain
Titius, whom in a tone of serious eulogy or covert ridicule,--for here and elsewhere in these pieces it is difficult to determine whether words of apparent praise do not hide a lurking sneer,--he represents as having boldly ventured to quaff a draught from the Pindaric spring, and as having, moreover, been ambitious to achieve distinction in the impassioned and grandiloquent outpourings of the tragic muse. Acro and Porphyrio agree in declaring that Horace is here laughing at Titius, a poet of no merit; although the latter commentator admits that the expressions might reasonably admit of an opposite interpretation. They add that this personage had attempted to translate Pindar into Latin, and that he had composed lyrics and tragedies, explanations which after all amount to little more than an echo of the text. The Scholiast published by Cruquius states, in like manner, "lyrics carmina et tragoedias scripsit, Augusti tempore," but calls him
Titius Septimius, adding that his works were no longer extant, but that a conspicuous tomb had been reared to his memory below Aricia.
In consequence of this note
Titius is believed by many modern commentators to be the same individual with the
Septimius who is addressed in the sixth ode of the second book, and who is introduced in the ninth epistle of the first book. [SEPTIMIUS, No. 10.] Much learning and ingenuity have been displayed in attacking and defending this position, as may be seen from the dissertation " De Titio Septimio poeta," in the " Poetarum Latinorum Reliquiae" of Weichert, 8vo. Lips. 1830, pp. 365-390 ; see also the remarks of Obbarius on
Hor. Ep. 1.3. 9.
[
W.R]
