A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

a Roman poet, a contemporary of Virgil, who ridicules him for his vanity. (Eclog. 7.22, 10.10.) According to Servius, Codrus had been mentioned also by Valgius in his elegies. Weichert (Poet. Lat. Reliq. p. 407) conjectures, that this Codrus is the same as the Jarbitas, the imitator of Timagenes, who is ridiculed by Horace (Hor. Ep. 1.19. 15); whereas Bergk believes, that Codrus in Virgil and Valgius is a fictitious name, and is meant for the poet Cornificius. (Classical Museum, vol. i. p. 278.) Juvenal (i. l) also speaks of a wretched poet of the name of Codrus (the Scholiast calls him Cordus), who wrote a tragedy " Theseus." But it is generally believed, that in all the above cases Codrus is altogether a fictitious name, and that it is applied by the Roman poets to those poetasters who annoyed other people by reading their productions to them.

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