Calpurnius Siculus in the Flavian poets

This contribution has two aims. The first is to systematically refute E. Courtney’s argumentation that Calpurnius Siculus imitated the Flavian poets (and Juvenal) rather than the other way around. The second, enabled by the first, is to undertake a first exploration of the reception of Calpurnius by the Flavian poets. It turns out that much revolves around the bucolic genre, which all the poets treat as constituted by both Virgil and Calpurnius. Statius and Silius understandably focus on the relation with epic, whereas Martial is mostly concerned with the poetics of a ‘small’ genre and with the need for patronage. Calpurnius’ Neronian panegyric, however, is scarcely used for panegyric of Domitian, either by Martial or by Statius in the Silvae.