Hostius
Sign in to saveHostius an ancient Roman poet. He is most famous for writing the lost poem Bellum Histricum, which was at least two books long. It is uncertain which Istrian war was the subject of this poem, but scholars generally consider the second war (129 BC) is more likely, as the first (178–7) had already been treated by Ennius in his Annales. Only seven fragments of Hostius' poem survive, but it was probably in the panegyric style which was common in the Hellenistic period.
Recent publications · Crossref
5 total works indexed
- The Fragmentary Latin Poets
· 1993 · cited 1x
- 5
· 1993
- 3
· 1993
- 6 et 6a
· 1993
- Hostius
· 1993
via Crossref · CC0
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- Ancient Rome
- Place of birth
- Ancient Rome
- Occupation
- poet
- Languages spoken
- Latin
- Genre
- epic poem
Show 5 more facts
- described by source
- Pauly–Wissowa
- date of birth
- 0150-00-00
- writing language
- Latin
- name in native language
- Hostius
- date of death
- 0150-01-01
Sources (1)
via Wikidata · CC0
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Encyclopedic overview
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Hostius an ancient Roman poet. He is most famous for writing the lost poem Bellum Histricum, which was at least two books long. It is uncertain which Istrian war was the subject of this poem, but scholars generally consider the second war (129 BC) is more likely, as the first (178–7) had already been treated by Ennius in his Annales. Only seven fragments of Hostius' poem survive, but it was probably in the panegyric style which was common in the Hellenistic period.
Based on a reference to a doctus avus ("learned ancestor") in a poem by Propertius, many scholars believe that his lover Cynthia – whose real name was apparently Hostia – was descended from Hostius. Edward Courtney doubts this, arguing that the girl addressed in the poem is not Cynthia.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Hostius” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.