a Roman lyric poet (Terent. Maur. p. 2427, ed. Putsch.; Serv. ad Virg. Aen. 2.15; Hieron. Epist. ad Paulin. 7), who exercised his muse chiefly, it would appear, in depicting the charms of the country, and the delight of rural pursuits. With the exception of one or two incidental notices in Sidonius Apollinaris (Epist. ad Polem. Carm. ix. ad Fel.), and the passage in St. Jerome referred to above, he is known to us from the grammarians alone, unless, indeed, we adopt the conjecture of Gronovius that in the Ode of Statius (Stat. Silv. 4.5) addressed to Septimius Severus, we ought to substitute Serenus for Severus. The age in which he flourished is uncertain, since it depends upon the epoch which we assign to Terentianus Maurus, with whom he seems to have been nearly contemporary. (Terent. Maur. pp. 2424, 2427, ed. Putsch.)
His chief work, at least that which is most frequently mentioned, is quoted by Nonius (c. v. n. 35) under the title of Opuscula Ruralia, by Terentianus Maurus (p. 2427, ed. Putsch.), as Opuscula Raris, by others simply as Opuscula, and must have been divided into two or more books (Non. 100.14.5). Another piece, unless indeed it was included in the Opuscula, was named Falisca, from containing a description of a farm which he possessed in the country of the Falisci, and from this the author is designated as Poeta Faliseus (Terent. Maur. p. 2423, ed. Putsch.). It was composed in a peculiar measure invented by himself, consisting of three dactyls and a pyrrhichius, which is hence termed Metrum Faliscum by Servius (Centimetr. p. 1824, ed. Putsch.) and Victorinus (p. 2578 ed. Putsch.). Of this we have a specimen in the lines :--
Quando flagella jugas, ita juga, Vitis et ulmus uti simul eant, Nam nisi sint paribus fruticibus, Umbra necat teneras Amineas.
Wernsdorf has endeavoured to prove that the Moretum, found among the Catalecta Virgiliana, belongs in reality to Serenus, but the hypothesis rests upon no sure nor even plausible evidence.
The scanty remains of Serenus, of which the longest fragment, the commencement of a sort of hymn to Janus, extends to five lines only, afford examples of several uncommon metres, and will be found collected in Wernsdorf, Poet. Lat. Min. vol. ii. p. 279. The dissertation commencing in p. 247 of the same volume contains every thing that has been ascertained or conjectured with regard to his name, his history, and his writings. See also Burmann, Anthol. Lat. 1.27, 3.57, or No. 191, 192, ed. Meyer.
[W.R]