Life
Gaius Cornelius Gallus, son of Gnaeus Cornelius Gallus, was a Roman equestrian born in 69 BCE at the Forum Iulii (modern Fréjus) in Gallia Narbonensis. Marcus Cicero refers to him as a close friend (familiaris meus, Fam. 10.32), and Vergil offers him thanks and praise in the Eclogues, both attesting to his prominence in Rome’s literary and political circles.
During the war between Octavian and Antony, he sided with the former and fought against the latter’s forces in Egypt, where, after Antony and Cleopatra were deposed, he became its first governor (praefectus Aegypti). He fell into disgrace in 26 BCE after setting up monuments to himself in Egypt, which was likely seen as a threat to Octavian’s consolidation of power. His lands were confiscated and he suffered from damnatio memoriae and was forced into exile. He chose instead to commit suicide.
Works
Before the war, he published a set of elegies (Amores, in four books), and, influenced heavily by Euphorion of Chalcis and the neoteric poets (like Catullus), translated and adapted Greek poetry into Latin.
His Amores, of which only scant fragments exist, was dedicated to Lycoris, the pseudonym for Cytheris, a Greek mime and freedwoman of Volumnius.
For centuries, the only line of his was a quote found in the Libellus of Vibius Sequester discussing the Scythian river:
uno tellures dividit amne duas
It divides two lands with one stream
However, in 1979, a papyrus was found at Qasr Ibrim which contained ten lines of elegy. The fragment mentions Lycoris, Gallus’ pseudonymous beloved, which strongly suggest Gallan authorship. A minority of scholars has raised doubts, but most accept the attribution.
Legacy
Gallus is properly credited with being the originator of a distinctly Roman love elegy, a conceived cycle of elegaic poetry typically centered around a pseudonymous beloved. His innovations set the pattern for Tibullus, Propertius, and Ovid, the latter of whom directly credits Gallus. He is also a frequent addressee in Propertius’ elegies. Despite his influence, Quintilian labels his work as “rather harsh” (durior) and lacking the charm of later elegists.
Text Online
All Latin fragments found at PHI Latin Texts
