Kalpurny (poet)

Calpurnius Sicilian (Siculus) (Calpurnius Siculus) - Roman poet of the 1st century (exact dates of life are unknown). The heyday of the creative activity of Kalpurnia is usually associated with the rule of Emperor Nero .

11 eclogs , or idylls (bucolic), preserved in several manuscripts under his name, are associated with the name Kalpurnia. The first seven, stylistically close to Virgil , are really written by Kalpurny. The last four, as was established later, belong to Nemesian , a poet of the third century.

The Eclogs of Calpurnia is a largely imitative work. The "idylls" of Theocritus and the "Eclogues" of Virgil are used by the author extremely widely. However, the general level of poetry of the time was so high that the poems of Kalpurnia retained a certain aesthetic and historical significance to this day. The verses of Kalpurnia contain a lot of flattery for the "young god" - apparently, the emperor. In addition, the poet was the first to introduce a didactic element into the bucolic.

Eclogues of Kalpurnia, beginning in 1471 , were published quite often, usually with the Cynegetica of Grattius and Nemesian. The Russian translation of the second and third eclogs is included in the anthology of Golosovker .

A full translation of all seven eclogs of Kalpurnia was carried out in the Aristei almanac in 2014-2015. team under the scientific supervision of A.V. Podosinova.

Two anonymous bucolic poems found in the library of the Einsiedeln Monastery (Switzerland) in the manuscript of the 10th century adjoin the bukoliki of Kalpurnia both in content and in form. Both poems ("Einsilden Ecologs") are not fully preserved, since the manuscript is badly damaged. Russian translation completed in 2016.

An anonymous panegyric in verse 261 (Laus Pisonis), written by hexameter, which was first published in 1527 in the publication of Ovid's works, has also been preserved; in it, the poet praises Pison (chapter of the conspiracy of 65 against Nero), endowing his image with features similar to the characteristics given by Tacitus. Different opinions were expressed about the authorship of the panegyric; most likely the assumption that ascribes them to Calpurnia; the harmonious, but little original verse and exaggerated cringing were characteristic of this poet. If this is so, then, in all likelihood, “Praise to Python” is the first work of Calpurnius, written at the end of Claudius’s reign, since under Nero it was already unthinkable to exalt Python.