Vale'rius Aedituus
In the ninth chapter of the nineteenth book of the Noctes Atticae a certain rhetorician Julianus, when challenged to point out anything in the Latin language worthy of being compared with the graceful effusions of Anacreon, and other bards of that class among the Greeks, quotes two short epigrams by Valerius Aedituus, who is simply described as " veteris poetae," one by Porcius Licinius, and one by Quintus Catulus. Upon these collectively A. Gellius pronounces "mundius, venustius, limatius, pressius, Graecumve Latinumve nihil quidquam reperiri puto." They unquestionably merit high commendation, but are so evidently derived from some Greek source, that they could scarcely be adduced with fairness as specimens of the Roman lyric muse. Judging from the language and versification we may assign them to a period about B. C. 100. (
Gel. 19.9;
Anthol. Lat. 3.242, 243, ed. Burmann, or Nos. 27, 28, ed. Meyer.)
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