PUBLIUS

POMPONIUS

See also:

• SECUNDUS, JOHANNES
• PUBLIUS POMPONIUS SECUNDUS

SECUNDUS  , Roman general and tragic poet, lived during the reigns of Tiberius, Caligula and Claudius . He was on intimate terms with the elder Pliny, who wrote a biography of him (now lost) . The chief authority for his life is Tacitus, according to whom Secundus was a man of refine`-ment and brilliant intellect . His friendship with Sejanus and his brother made him politically suspect, and he only escaped death by remaining practically a prisoner in his own brother's house until the accession of Caligula . During his enforced retirement he composed tragedies, which were put on the stage during the reign of Claudius . In A.D . 50 he distinguished himself against the Chatti and obtained the honour of the triumphal insignia . Quintilian asserts that he was far superior to any writer of tragedies he had known, and Tacitus expresses a high opinion of his literary abilities . Secundus devoted much attention to the niceties of grammar and style, on which he was recognized as an authority . Only a few lines of his work remain, some of which belong to the tragedy Aeneas . See O . Ribbeck, Geschichte der romischen Dichtung, iii .

(1892) . and Tragicorum Romanorum fragmenta (1897); Tacitus,

Annals, v . 8, xi . 13, xii . 28; Quintilian, Inst . Orat. x . 1 . 98; Pliny, Nat . Hist. xiv . 5; M . Schanz, Geschtichte der remischen Literatur, ii . 2 (1900); Teuffel, Hist. of Roman Literature (Eng. trans., 19oo), 284, 7 .