Turnus
a Roman satyric poet. According to the old scholiast upon Juvenal, who quotes two lines from one of his pieces, he was a native of Aurunca, of servile extraction (libertini generis), the brother of Scaeva Memor the tragedian, and rose to honour and power at court under the Flavian dynasty. He is mentioned in terms of high praise by Martial, by Rutilius, and by Sidonius Apollinaris.
Works
Fragments of a Satire
We possess thirty hexameters, forming a portion of, apparently, a long satiric poem, the subject being an enumeration of the crimes and abominations which characterised the reign of Nero.
Editions
This fragment was first published from a MS. by J. L. G. de Balzac in his " Entretiens" (12mo. Amst. 1663), was copied by Burmann into his "Anthologia Latina" (6.94, or No. 190, ed. Meyer), and by Wernsdorf, into his Poetae Latini Minores (vol. iii. p. lvii. p. 77). The latter employs some arguments which, to a certain extent, bear out his conjecture that the piece ought to be ascribed to Turnus; but the evidence is of a very indirect and uncertain description.
Further Information
Vet. Schol. in Juv. 1.20, 71; Martial, 7.97, 11.10 ; Rutil. Numat. 1.599; Sidon. Apollin. Carm. 9.267; F. A. Wolf, Vorlesungen über Röm. Litt. p. 231; Zumpt, ad Rutil. Numat. l.c.[W.R]