Gratius, Faliscus

, an eminent Latin poet, is supposed to have been contemporary with Ovid, and pointed out by him in the last elegy of the fourth book “De Ponto,” “Aptaque venanti Gratius anna dedit.” We have a poem of his, entitled “Cynogeticon, or, The Art of hunting with Dogs;” which in strictness can only be called a fragment. The style of this poem is reckoned pure, but without elevation; the poet, like others who have adopted the didactic plan, having been more solicitous to instruct than to please his reader. He is also censured by the critics as dwelling too long on fables; and as he is counted much superior to Nemesianus, who has treated the same subject, so he is reckoned in all points inferior to the Greek poet, Oppian, who wrote his Cynogetics and Halieutics under Severus and Caracalla, to whom he presented them, and who is said to have rewarded the poet very magnificently. The first edition of Cynogeticon“was published in 1504, Bonon. folio, along with Nemesianus, and often reprinted; but the best edition is that of London, 1690, in 8vo,” cum Notis perpetuis Thomas Jonson, M. A." ²

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