Bibaculus

• a Roman cognomen; e. g. of the poet M. Furius; of the praetor L. Furius, Liv. 22, 49, 16.

A Latin poet, born at Cremona about B.C. 103. He appears to have composed a turgid poem entitled Aethiopis, on the legend, very probably, of the Aethiopian Memnon; and also another on the mouths of the Rhine. The latter is thought to have formed part of an epic poem on Caesar's wars in Gaul. Both works are lost, and we have only a couple of fragments remaining. Horace (Sat. ii. 5, 40) ridicules a laughable verse of his, in which Iupiter is represented as spitting snow upon the Alps: Iupiter hibernas cana nive conspuet Alpes. This line occurred in the beginning of a poem which he had composed on the Gallic War. Quintilian (x. 1, 96) enumerates Bibaculus among the Roman iambic poets, and in another part of his work (viii. 6, 18) gives this same line, citing it as an instance of harsh metaphor. To render his parody more severe, Horace substitutes Furius himself for the monarch of the skies, and, to prevent all mistake, applies to the former a laughable species of designation, drawn directly from his personal appearance, pingui tentus omaso, “distended with his fat paunch.”