GRATIUS

Form: better Grattius

Faliscus. A Roman poet, contemporary with Ovid. He was the author of a poem on the chase (Cynegeticon), of which only the first book has been preserved, and that mutilated towards the close The fragment consists of some 535 hexameters, in which the subject is treated with much talent in an even and classical style, but with considerable dryness in many parts. Grattius has been styled Faliscus because, in one passage, he apparently indicates that the Falisci were his countrymen.