Quintus Caecilius Epirota (1st Century BC) was a freeman of
Atticus, a grammarian, and the first person to initiate the public teaching of
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 ...
’s poetry.
Life
Atticus had employed Epirota to teach his daughter, but he became suspicious about the tutor’s attitude towards her, and dismissed him. Epirota then found a patron in
Gaius Cornelius Gallus
Gaius Cornelius Gallus (c. 70 – 26 BC) was a Roman poet, orator and politician.
Birthplace
The identity of Gallus' purported birthplace, '' Forum Iulii'', is still uncertain, and it is based on the epithet "Foroiuliensis" that Jerome gave to h ...
, and after the latter’s fall set up his own independent teaching school.
Works
Epirota is best known as the first person to discuss his contemporary, Virgil, in public and in Latin. As
Suetonius Tranquillus records, he was “the first to hold extempore discussions in Latin, and the first to begin the practice of reading Vergil and other recent poets”.
[A Wallace, Virgil’s Schoolboys (Oxford 2013) p.4]
See also
*
Abelard
Peter Abelard (; french: link=no, Pierre Abélard; la, Petrus Abaelardus or ''Abailardus''; 21 April 1142) was a Middle Ages, medieval French Scholasticism, scholastic philosopher, leading logician, theologian, poet, composer and musician. This ...
*
Cornelius Epicadus
*
Parthenius of Nicaea Parthenius of Nicaea ( el, Παρθένιος ὁ Νικαεύς) or Myrlea ( el, ὁ Μυρλεανός) in Bithynia was a Greek grammarian and poet. According to the '' Suda'', he was the son of Heraclides and Eudora, or according to Hermippus ...
*
Verrius Flaccus
Marcus Verrius Flaccus (c. 55 BCAD 20) was a Roman grammarian and teacher who flourished under Augustus and Tiberius.
Life
He was a freedman, and his manumitter has been identified with Verrius Flaccus, an authority on pontifical law; but for c ...
References
Further reading
*S F Bonner, ''Education in Ancient Rome'' (Berkeley 1977)
External links
Epirota, Nurse of Baby Bards*
Lives of Eminent Grammarians:16
{{DEFAULTSORT:Caecilius Epirota, Quintus
Grammarians of Latin
1st-century BC educators
Latinists