1. A contemporary poet and a friend of Ovid, known to us only from two passages of the works
of the latter.
Works
From one of these (Am. 2.18. 27-34) we learn that Sabinus had written
answers to six of the
Epistolae Heroidum of Ovid. Three answers enumerated by
Ovid in this passage are printed in many editions of the poet's works as the genuine poems of
Sabinus. It is remarked in the life of Ovid [Vol. III. p. 72a.] that their genuineness is
doubtful; but we may go
further, and assert with certainty that they written by
a modern scholar, Angelus Sabinus, about the year 1467. The other passage of Ovid, in which
Sabinus is mentioned (
ex Pont. 4.16. 13-16) alludes to one of the
answers already spoken of, and likewise informs us of the titles of two other works of
Sabinus:--
Quique suam Troezena, imperfectumque dierumDeseruit celeri more Sabinus opus.
It has been conjectured by Gläser that the
Troezen here spoken of was
an epic poem, containing a history of the birth and adventures of Theseus till his arrival at
his father's court at Athens, so called from Troezen being the birth-place of Theseus, and
that the
Dierum Opus was a continuation of Ovid's Fasti. As the letter from
Pontus in which the death of Sabinus is mentioned was written in A. D. 15, he probably died
shortly before this year.