CALPURNIUS, TITUS, Roman bucolic poet, surnamed SICVLVS, probably flourished during the reign of Nero. Eleven eclogues have reached us under his name, of which the last four, from metrical considerations and express ms. testimony, are now generally attributed to Nemesianus (q.v.) who lived in the time of the emperor Carus and his sons (latter half of the 3rd century A.D.) . We gather from the poems (in which he is obviously rep resented by "Corydon") that Calpurnius was in poor circum stances and was on the point of emigrating to Spain, when "Meli boeus" came to his aid and helped him to a post at Rome. The time at which Calpurnius lived has been much discussed, but the ref erences to the emperor seem to point to the time of Nero. Meli boeus has been variously identified, but what is known of Cal purnius Piso fits in with what is said of Meliboeus by the poet. His claim is further supported by the poem De Laude Pisonis (ed. C. F. Weber, 1859), which there is considerable reason for attributing to Calpurnius.' Further, the similarity between the two names can hardly be accidental ; it is suggested that the poet may have been adopted by the courtier, or that he was the son of a freedman of Piso. The attitude of the author of the Laus towards the subject of the panegyric seems to show less intimacy than the relations between Corydon and Meliboeus in the eclogues, and there is internal evidence that the Laus was written during the reign of Claudius (Teuffel-Schwabe, Hist of Rom. Lit. § 3o6,6).
The two short hexameter poems in an Einsiedeln ms., obviously belonging to the time of Nero, if not written by Calpurnius, were imitated from him.
Although there is nothing original in Calpurnius, he is "a skilful literary craftsman." Of his models the chief is Virgil, of whom (under the name of Tityrus) he speaks with great enthusiasm; he is also indebted to Ovid and Theocritus. Calpurnius is "a fair scholar, and an apt courtier, and not devoid of real poetical feeling. The bastard style of pastoral cultivated by him, in which the de scription of nature is made the writer's pretext, while ingenious flattery is his real purpose, nevertheless excludes genuine pleasure, and consequently genuine poetical achievement. He may be fairly compared to the minor poets of the reign of Anne" (Garnett).