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VALERIUS, PUBLIUS

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Originally appearing in Volume V27, Page 860 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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VALERIUS, PUBLIUS , surnamed PUBLICOLA (Or PUPLICOLA), " friend of the See also:people, the colleague of See also:Brutus in the consulship in the first See also:year of the See also:Roman See also:republic (509 B.C.). According to See also:Livy and See also:Plutarch, his See also:family, whose ancestor Volusus had settled in See also:Rome at the See also:time of See also:King Tatius, was of See also:Sabine origin. He took a prominent See also:part in the See also:expulsion of the Tarquins, and though not originally chosen as the colleague of Brutus he soon took the See also:place of Tarquinius Collatinus. On the See also:death of Brutus, which See also:left him See also:sole See also:consul, the people began to fear that he was aiming at kingly See also:power. To See also:calm their apprehensions he discontinued the See also:building of his See also:house on the See also:top of the Velian See also:Hill, and also gave orders that the See also:fasces should be lowered whenever he appeared before the people. He further introduced two See also:laws to protect the liberties of the citizens, one enacting that whosoever should See also:attempt to make himself a king might be slain by any See also:man at any time, while another provided an See also:appeal to the people on behalf of any See also:citizen condemned by a See also:magistrate (lex Valerie de provocation: see ROME, See also:History, II. " The Republic "). He died in 503, and was buried at the public expense, the matrons See also:mourning him for ten months. Livy ii. 6-8; See also:Dion. Halic. iv. 67, v.

12-40; See also:

Life by Plutarch. VALERIUS See also:FLACCUS, See also:GAIUS, Roman poet, flourished under See also:Vespasian and See also:Titus. He has been identified on in-sufficient grounds with a poet friend of See also:Martial (i. 61. 76), a native of See also:Padua, and in needy circumstances; but as he was a member of the See also:College of Fifteen, who had See also:charge of the Sibylline books (i. 5), he must have been well off. The subscription of the Vatican MS., which adds the name Setinus See also:Balbus, points to his having been a native of.See also:Setia in See also:Latium. The only See also:ancient writer who mentions him is See also:Quintilian (Instil. Orat. x. 1. 90), who laments his See also:recent death as a See also:great loss, although it does not follow that he died See also:young; as Quintilian's See also:work was finished about A.D. 90, this gives a limit for the death of Flaccus.

His work, the Argonautica, dedicated to Vespasian on his setting out for See also:

Britain, was written during the See also:siege, or shortly after the See also:capture, of See also:Jerusalem by Titus (70). As the eruption of See also:Vesuvius (79) is alluded to, it must have occupied him a See also:long time. The Argonautica is an epic in eight books on the Quest of the See also:Golden Fleece. The poem is in a very corrupt See also:state, and ends abruptly with the See also:request of See also:Medea to accompany See also:Jason on his homeward voyage. It is a disputed question whether part has been lost or whether it was ever finished. It is a See also:free See also:imitation and in parts a See also:translation of the work of See also:Apollonius of See also:Rhodes (q.v.), already See also:familiar to the See also:Romans in the popular version of See also:Varro Atacinus. The See also:object of the work has been described as the glorification of Vespasian's achievements in securing Roman See also:rule in Britain and opening up the ocean to See also:navigation (as the Euxine was opened up by. the Argo). Various estimates have been formed of the See also:genius of Flaccus, and some critics have ranked him above his See also:original, to whom he certainly is See also:superior in liveliness of description and delineation of See also:character. His diction is pure, his See also:style correct, his versification smooth though monotonous. On the other See also:hand, he is wholly without originality, and his See also:poetry, though free from glaring defects, is artificial and elaborately dull. His See also:model in See also:language was See also:Virgil, to whom he is far inferior in See also:taste and lucidity. His tiresome display of learning, rhetorical exaggeration and ornamentations make him difficult to read, which no doubt accounts for his unpopularity in ancient tines.

The Argonautica was unknown till the first four and a See also:

half books were discovered by See also:Poggio at St See also:Gall in 1417. The editio princeps was published at See also:Bologna (1474). Recent See also:editions by G. Thilo (1863), with See also:critical notes; C. Schenkl (1871), with bibliography; E. Bahrens (1875), with critical introduction; P. See also:Langen (1896), with Latin notes, and See also:short introductions on the style and language; See also:Caesar Giarratano (1904) ; see also J. See also:Peters, De. V. F. Vita et See also:Car-mine (189o) ; W. C.

Summers, Study of the Argonautica (1894).

End of Article: VALERIUS, PUBLIUS

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