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{{Short description|Roman poet fl. 63 BC – 14 AD}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2024}}
'''Grattius''' (or '''Gratius''') '''Faliscus'''  was a [[Latin poetry|Roman poet]] who flourished during the life of [[Augustus]] (63 BC – 14 AD). He is known as the author of a ''Cynegetica'', a poem on hunting.

==Life==
The only reference to Grattius in any extant ancient writer is a passing reference in [[Ovid]], ''Ex Ponto'':<ref>Ovid, ''Ex Ponto'', iv.16.33</ref> 
:''Tityrus antiquas et erat qui pasceret herbas <br>Aptaque venanti Gratius arma daret.''

Some lines by [[Marcus Manilius|Manilius]] have been supposed to allude to Grattius, but the terms in which they are expressed<ref>Astron. 2.43</ref> are too vague to warrant such a conclusion. According to [[Johann Christian Wernsdorf]], who argued from the name, he must have been a slave or a [[freedman]]. The [[cognomen]], or epithet, Faliscus, from which it has been inferred that he was a native of [[Falerii]]<ref name="EB1911">{{Cite EB1911|wstitle=Grattius|volume=12|page=381}}</ref> was first introduced by Barth, on the authority of a manuscript which no one else ever saw, and probably originated in a forced interpretation of one of the lines in the poem, "At contra nostris imbellia lina Faliscis" (5.40). [[William Ramsay (classical scholar)|William Ramsay]] argued that in the context, "nostris" here denotes merely "Italian", in contradistinction to the various foreign tribes spoken of in the preceding verses.

==Cynegeticon==
541 [[hexameter]] lines of Grattius's poem about hunting are preserved in a manuscript of c. 800 AD.<ref>H. J. Rose, ''A Handbook of Latin Literature'' (1966) p. 339</ref> The work describes various kinds of [[game (food)|game]], methods of hunting, and the best breeds of horses and dogs,<ref name="EB1911"/> using a fairly regular hexameter to do so.<ref>H. J. Rose, ''A Handbook of Latin Literature'' (1966) p. 340</ref> Grattius stresses the role of ''ratio'' ([[reason]]) in hunting, seeing it as a civilising endeavour in the tradition of [[Hercules]], as opposed to indulgence in [[Seven Deadly Sins|luxuria]].<ref>P. Tooley, ''Melancholy, Love and Time'' (2004) p. 242-3</ref>

===Contents===
The poem, entitled ''Cynegeticon Liber'', professes to set forth the apparatus (''arma'') necessary for the sportsman, and the manner in which the various requisites for the pursuit of game are to be procured, prepared, and preserved (''artes armorum''). Among the ''arma'' of the hunter are included not only nets, gins, snares (''retia, pedicae, laquei''), darts and spears (''jacula, venabula''), but also horses and dogs, and a large portion of the undertaking (verses 150–430) is devoted to a systematic account of the different kinds of hounds and horses.

The matter and arrangement of the treatise are derived in a great measure from [[Xenophon]], although information was drawn from other ancient sources, such as Dercylus the Arcadian, and [[Hagnon of Tarsus|Hagnon]] of [[Boeotia]].

===Appraisal===
According to Ramsay, the language of the ''Cynegetica'' is pure, and not unworthy of the age to which it belongs, but there is frequently a harshness in the structure of the periods, a strange and unauthorised use of particular words, and a general want of distinctness, which, in addition to a very corrupt text, render it a task of great difficulty to determine the exact meaning of many passages. Although considerable skill is manifested in the combination of the parts – Ramsay continues – the author did not possess sufficient power to overcome the obstacles which were triumphantly combated by Virgil.

It is remarkable that both the second-century poets [[Oppianus]] and [[Nemesianus]] arrogate to themselves the honour of having entered upon a path altogether untrodden. Whether we believe them to be sincere and ignorant, or suspect them of deliberate dishonesty, their bold assertion is sufficient to prove that the poem of Grattius had in their day become almost totally unknown.

===Editions===
The Cynegetica has been transmitted to modern times through the medium of a single manuscript, which was brought from Gaul to Italy by Actius Sannazarius about the beginning of the sixteenth century, and contained also the ''[[Cynegetica (Nemesianus)|Cynegetica]]'' of Nemesianus, and the ''Halieutica'' ascribed to Ovid. A second copy of the first 159 lines was found by [[Jan van Vliet]] appended to another manuscript of the Halieutics.

The ''[[editio princeps]]'' was [[list of editiones principes in Latin|printed at Venice in February 1534]], by [[Aldus Manutius]], in a volume that included the ''Halieutica'' of [[Ovid]], the ''Cynegetica'' and ''Carmen Bucolicum'' of [[Nemesianus]], the [[Eclogues of Calpurnius Siculus|Buolica]] of [[Titus Calpurnius Siculus|Calpurnius Siculus]], and the ''Venatio'' of Hadrianus. This edition was reprinted at Augsburg in July of the same year. The best editions are those contained in the ''Poetae Latini Minores'' of [[Pieter Burmann the Elder]] (vol. i. Lug. Bat. 1731), and of Wernsdorf (vol. i. p.&nbsp;6, 293, ii. p.&nbsp;34, iv. pt. ii. p.&nbsp;790, 806, v. pt. iii. p.&nbsp;1445), whose introductions provide all the requisite preliminary information.

===Translations===
A translation into English verse with notes, and the Latin text, by [[Christopher Wase]], was published at London in 1654, and a translation into German, also metrical, by S. E. G. Perlet, at Leipzig, in 1826.

==See also==
*[[Calpurnius Siculus]]
*[[Didactic poetry]]

==References==
*{{SmithDGRBM|author=WR|article=Faliscus, Gratius|volume=2|page=134}}
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{wikisource|works=or}}
*[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Grattius/home.html Cynegeticon], Latin text from J. Wight Duff and Arnold M. Duff, Loeb Classical Library  ''Minor Latin Poets'', vol. I; and English translation at [[LacusCurtius]].

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Ancient Roman poets]]
[[Category:Golden Age Latin writers]]
[[Category:Ancient Roman writers]]
[[Category:Falisci]]