Life
Very little is known of Grattius. He is referred to as a contemporary by Ovid, but he is otherwise not mentioned in any extant sources.
Despite the lack of biographical notice, some scholars have tried to guess at Grattius’ origin. The name Faliscus (“a man from Falerii”) was reportedly seen in a now-lost manuscript, though this was likely an extrapolation from the words nostris…Faleriis (“our [city of ] Falerii”); however, the phrase does not necessarily have to indicate origin. Duff and Duff, writing in the Loeb volume on Grattius, conjecture that he was from Sicily, since “he mentions (435–36) that he had frequently seen ailing dogs dipped in the bituminous pools of Sicily.” Clearly Grattius had been to Sicily, but it just as easily could have been the case that we went there for travel.
Work
Grattius’ single surviving work is the Cynegetica (or Cynegeticon), a didactic poem in about 540 hexameters on hunting with and the rearing of dogs. Though similarly titled to Xenophon’s Cynegeticus (Κυνηγετικός in the original Greek), the poem has more in common with Vergil’s Georgics, Hellenistic poetics, and the Augustan program in general. Rather than strictly on technique, Grattius spends quite a few lines on digressions on famous hunters, unusual landscapes, rituals, and a lament for austere living due to excess luxury, themes shared with Vergil and Tibullus.
The Cynegetica does not appear to have been overly influential, though some have seen traces of it in Manilius’ Astronomica and to a lesser extent Nemesianus’ own Cynegetica; influence on the latter is debatable.
Grattius Online
Latin: Phi Latin Texts
Latin: Lacus Curtius
English: Lacus Curtius
