All that is known or that can be conjectured with plausibility in regard to this writer may
be comprehended in a very few words. From the expressions of his friend Martial (1.62, 77), we learn that he was a native of
Padua; from the exordium of his piece, we infer that it was addressed to Vespasian, and
published while Titus was achieving the subjugation of Judea; from a notice in Quintilian, Dod
well has drawn the conclusion that he must have died about A. D. 88.
The lines (5.5), Phoebe, mone, si Cymaeae mihi
conscia vatisStat casta cortina domo, whatever may be their import, are not in
themselves sufficient to prove, as Pius and Heinsius imagine, that he was a member of the
sacred college of the Quindecimviri; and the words Setinus Balbus,
affixed to his name in certain MSS., are much too doubtful in their origin and signification
to serve as the basis of any hypothesis, even if we were certain that they applied to the poet
himself, and not to some commentator on the text, or to some individual who may at one time
have possessed the codex which formed the archetype of a family.
Works
Argonautica
The only work of Flaccus now extant is an unfinished heroic poem in eight books, on the
Argonautic expedition, in which he follows the general plan and arrangement of
Apollonius Rhodius, whose performance he in some passages literally translates, while in
others he contracts or expands his original, introduces new characters, and on the whole
devotes a larger portion of the action to the adventures of the voyage before the arrival of
the heroes at the dominions of Aetes. The eighth book terminates abruptly, at the point
where Medeia is urging Jason to make her the companion of his homeward journey. The death of
Absyrtus, and the return of the Greeks, must have occupied at least three or four books
more, but whether these have been lost, or whether the author died before the completion of
his task, we cannot tell.
The Argonautica is one of
those productions which are much praised and little read. A kind but vague expression of
regret upon the part of Quintilian (10.1), " Multum in Valerio Flacco nuper amisimus," has
induced many of the older to ascribe to Flaccus almost every conceivable merit; and, even in
modern times, Wagner has not hesitated to rank him next to Virgil among epic bards of Rome.
But it is difficult to discover any thing in his lays beyond decent mediocrity. We may
accord to him the praise of moderate talents, improved by industry and learning, but we
shall seek in vain for originality, or the higher attributes of genius. He never startles us
by any gross offence against taste, but he never warms us by a brilliant thought, or charms
us by a lofty flight of fancy. His diction is for the most part pure, although strange words
occasionally intrude themselves, and common words are sometimes employed in an uncommon
sense; his general style is free from affectation, although there is a constant tendency to
harsh conciseness, which frequently renders the meaning obscure; his versification is
polished and harmonious, but the rhythm is not judiciously varied; his descriptions are
lively and vigorous, but his similes too often farfetched and unnatural. He has attained to
somewhat of the outward form, but to nothing of the in ward spirit, of his great model, the
Aeneid.
Editions
Valerius Flaccus seems to have been altogether unknown in the middle ages, and to have been
first brought to light by Poggio Brocciolini, who, while attending the council of Constance
in 1416, discovered in the monastery of St. Gall [see ASCONIUS] a
MS. containing the first three books, and a portion of the fourth.
The Editio Princeps was printed very incorrectly, from a good MS., at Bologna, by Ugo
Rugerius and Doninus Bertochus, fol. 1472; the second edition, which is much
more rare than the first, at Florence, by Sanctus Jacobus de Ripoli, 4to, without date, but
about 1431. The text was gradually improved by the collation of various MSS. in
the editions of Jo. Bapt. Pius, Bonon. fol. 1519; of Lud. Carrio, Antv. 8vo.
1565-1566; of Nicolaus Heinsius, Amst. 12mo. 1680; and above all in that
of Petrus Burmannus, Leid. 4to., 1724, which must be regarded as the most
complete which has yet appeared; although those of Harles, Altenb. 8vo. 1781; of
Wagner, Gotting. 8vo. 1805; and of Lemaire, Paris, 8vo. 1824, are
more convenient for ordinary purposes. The eighth book was published separately, with
critical notes and dissertations on some verses supposed to be spurious, by A.
Weichert, Misn. 8vo. 1818.
Translations
We have metrical translations,--into English by Nicholas Whyte, 1565, under the title
The story of Jason, how he gotte the golden flece, and how he did begyle Media; out
of Laten into Englische ;--into French by A. Dureau de Lamalle, Paris,
1811 ;--into Italian by M. A. Pindemonte, Verona, 1776;--and into German
by C. F. Wunderlich, Erfurt, 1805.