the most voluminous among the Roman writers of heroic verse, was born about A. D. 25. From his early years he devoted himself to oratory and poetry, taking Cicero as his model in the former, and Virgil in the latter. He acquired great reputation as a pleader at the bar, and acted for some time as a member of that body of judicial umpires who were known as the Centumvirs. His life, in so far as we can trace it, presents a course of unbroken prosperity. He was elevated to the consulship in A. D. 68, the year in which Nero perished; he was admitted to familiar intercourse with Vitellius, and subsequently discharged the duties of proconsul of Asia with high renown. After enjoying for a lengthened period the dignities of political and literary fame without incurring the envy which is for the most part the lot of distinguished statesmen and authors, he determined to retire from the busy world, and to pass his old age among his numerous villas, which were abundantly furnished with books and works of art. His two favourite residences were a mansion near Puteoli, formerly the Academy of Cicero. and the house in the vicinity of Naples once occupied by Virgil; and so enamoutred did he become of seclusion, that upon the accession of Trajan he refused to repair to Rome, and pay homage to the new prince. In these happy retreats he passed his time in tranquillity until he had completed his 75th year, when, in consequence of the pain caused by an incurable tubercle (insanabilis clavus) of some kind, he starved himself to death; and it was remarked that as he was the last consul nominated by Nero, so he survived all those who had held that office in the same reign. The only stain upon his character arises from the imputation that lie pandered to the cruelties of the tyrant, by acting as a voluntary accuser; but if this charge was true, his guilt was in a great measure expiated by the blamelessness of his subsequent career. He had two sons, one of whom died when young; the other attained to the consulship before his father's death.
Much discussion has taken place with regard to the import of the word Italicus, which no one has as yet explained in a satisfactory manner. According to the opinion most generally adopted, it was derived from the place of his birth which is imagined to have been either Italica near Hispalis in Baetica, or Corfinium, in the country of the Peligni. Neither of these suppositions will Bear investigation. It is extremely improbable that he was a Spaniard, for Martial, who repeatedly celebrates his praises, nowhere claims him as a countryman, although he frequently alludes with pride to the men of genius whom his native province had produced. On the other hand, although there is no doubt that the allies in the Social War gave the name of Italica to Cortinium, because they intended to make it the metropolis of their league, there is no reason to believe that it retained this title after the conclusion of the struggle. There is also a grammatical objection of some weight; for according both to analogy and to the authority of inscriptions, the local adjective derived from Italica near Hispalis would not be Italicus, but Italicensis. (See also Gel. 16.13.) This however in itself would not be conclusive. (Hispanus, Hispanensis.)
It has been erroneously inferred from a line in Martial (8.66),
that Silius had been thrice consul, but the words imply merely that there had been three consuls in the family - Silius himself, his son, to celebrate whose accession to office the epigram was written, and a third person, perhaps that C. Silius who was consul A. D. 13 (Sueton. Octav. 101), and who may have been the father of the poet : but this is a mere conjecture. Our authorities for this biography are sundry epigrams in Martial (especially 7.62, 8.66, 11.51), and an epistle of the younger Pliny (3.7, or 3.5, ed. Titze). See also Tac. Hist. 3.65.[W.R]
- Felix purpura tertiusque consul,