Furius Antias was an ancient Roman poet, born in

Antium Antium was an ancient coastal town in Latium, south of Rome. An oppidum was founded by people of Latial culture (11th century BC or the beginning of the 1st millennium BC), then it was the main stronghold of the Volsci people until it was conqu ...

.Yvette Julien, edition of Aulu-Gelle (Gellius), ''Les nuits attiques'' (''Noctes Atticae''), t. 4, Books 16 to 20, Paris, Les Belles Lettres, 2002, p. 185. Following William Smith, ''Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology,'' (1870), art. Bibaculus, his full name was Aulus Furius Antias and he was the poet Furius whose friendship with

Quintus Lutatius Catulus Quintus Lutatius Catulus (149–87 BC) was a consul of the Roman Republic in 102 BC. His consular colleague was Gaius Marius. During their consulship the Cimbri and Teutones marched south again and threatened the Republic. While Marius marched ag ...

, consul in 102 BC, is attested by

Cicero Marcus Tullius Cicero ( ; ; 3 January 106 BC – 7 December 43 BC) was a Roman statesman, lawyer, scholar, philosopher, and academic skeptic, who tried to uphold optimate principles during the political crises that led to the esta ...

(''Brutus'', ch. 35)
Smith, Dictionary

Gellius Aulus Gellius (c. 125after 180 AD) was a Roman author and grammarian, who was probably born and certainly brought up in Rome. He was educated in Athens, after which he returned to Rome. He is famous for his ''Attic Nights'', a commonplace book, or ...

, ''Noctes Atticae'', 18, 11, defends his

neologism A neologism Greek νέο- ''néo''(="new") and λόγος /''lógos'' meaning "speech, utterance"] is a relatively recent or isolated term, word, or phrase that may be in the process of entering common use, but that has not been fully accepted int ...

s against the critic Caesellius Vindex. Macrobius, ''Saturnalia,'' 6, 1, quotes several lines of Furius's ''Annales'' which would be copied by

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: th ...

Editions

Willy Morel, ''Fragmenta poetarum latinorum epicorum et lyricorum praeter Ennium et Lucilium'', Leipzig, Teubner, 1927. (New ed. Leipzig 1995.) Furius Antias (Aulus Furius Antias) ragmenta in aliis scriptis seruata Bibliotheca Teubneriana Latina.

Studies

W. W. Batstone, "The Fragments of Furius Antias", ''Classical Quarterly'', New Series, 46 (1996), pp. 387–402.

References

Old Latin-language writers Furii 2nd-century BC Romans 1st-century BC Romans 2nd-century BC poets 1st-century BC Roman poets {{AncientRome-bio-stub