FLACCUS, CaiusValerius, a Roman poet of the first century of the empire, of whose personal history little or nothing is known, He has been identified, but on wholly insufficient grounds, with the Flaccus, a poet friend of Martial, to whom the 77th epigram of the 1st book is addressed, and hence described as a native of Padna, and in needy circumstances. In the subscription of the Vatican MS. the names Setinus Balbus are appended, whence it is probable that he was born at Setia in Campania. The sole notice of him found in classical authors is a short sentence of Quintilian (Inst., x. 1, 90), “Multum in Valerio Flacco nuper amisimus,” whence we gather that he must have died before 90 A.D., though it does not follow, as is commonly stated, that he was cut off by an untimely death. If we turn for information to his only known work, the Argonautica, we learn from the dedication, which is addressed to Vespasian, that it was written during the siege or shortly after the fall of Jerusalem, 70 a.d. The Argonautica is an epic on the quest of the golden fleece The poem is unfinished, the eighth book terminating abruptly with the request of Medea to accompany Jason on his homeward voyage. It is a free imitation and in parts a translation of the work of Apollonius of Rhodes, which had already been made familiar to the Romans by the popular version of Varro Atacinus. Various estimates have been formed of the genius of Flaccus, and some competent critics, such as Scaliger, Heinsius,and Weichart, have ranked him above his original. His diction is pure, his style correct, his versification smooth though monotonous, and he has some descriptive power, as is shown in the storm of the eighth book, and the picture of the dragon lulled to sleep by Medea’s charms. On the other hand, he ...