Calpurniana

Abstract

The edition of the Eclogues of Calpurnius Siculus (along with the Laus Pisonis and the Laus Caesaris) published in 1954 by M. Raoul Verdiere (Collection Latomus, vol. xix) represents the latest contribution to Calpurnian studies, but it has not, in many respects, assisted the interpretation of this author, for the editor, dazzled by some of M. Leon Herrmann's more subtle but yet improbable hypotheses, has loaded his introductory material and notes with wild conjectures and eccentric opinions, thus dismaying and dissatisfying the reader. Of previous editions those of J. C. Wernsdorf (Poetae Latini Mmores, vol II, Altenburg, 1780) and of CH. Keene (London, 1887) are the most useful. Below are discussed several points which still seem to require exegesis or deserve reconsideration.