laudes tibi Vaticani
Montis imago.
Lib. i. ode 20.

When Virgil appeared, the audience paid the same compliment to a man
whose poetry adorned the Roman story. The letters from Augustus, which
are mentioned in this passage, have perished in the ruins of ancient
literature.

[c] Pomponius Secundus was of consular rank, and an eminent writer of
tragedy. See _Annals_, b. ii. s. 13. His life was written by Pliny
the elder, whose nephew mentions the fact (book iii. epist. 5), and
says it was a tribute to friendship. Quintilian pronounces him the
best of all the dramatic poets whom he had seen; though the critics
whose judgement was matured by years, did not think him sufficiently
tragical. They admitted, however, that his erudition was considerable,
and the beauty of his composition surpassed all his contemporaries.
_Eorum, quos viderim, longe princeps Pomponius Secundus, quem senes
parum tragicum putabant, eruditione ac nitore praestare confitebantur._
Lib. x. cap. 1.

[d] Quintilian makes honourable mention of Domitius Afer. He says,
when he was a boy, the speeches of that orator for Volusenus Catulus
were held in high estimation. _Et nobis pueris insignes pro Voluseno
Catulo Domitii Afri orationes ferebantur._ Lib. x. cap 1. He adds, in
another part of the same chapter, that Domitius Afer and Julius
Africanus were, of all the orators who flourished in his time, without
comparison the best. But Afer stands distinguished by the splendour
of his diction, and the rhetorical art which he has displayed in all
his compositions. You would not scruple to rank him among the ancient
orators. _Eorum quos viderim, Domitius Afer et Julius Secundus longe
praestantissimi. Verborum arte ille, et toto genere dicendi
praeferendus, et quem in numero veterum locare non timeas._ Lib. x.
cap. 1. Quintilian relates, that in a conversation which he had when a
young man, he asked Domitius Afer what poet was, in his opinion, the
next to Homer? The answer was, _Virgil is undoubtedly the second epic
poet, but he is nearer to the first than to the third. Utar enim
verbis, quae ex Afro Domitio juvenis accepi; qui mihi interroganti,
quem Homero crederet maxime accedere: Secundus, inquit, est Virgilius,
propior tamen primo quam tertio._ Lib. x. cap. 1. We may believe that
Quintilian thought highly of the man whose judgement he cites as an
authority. Quintilian, however, had in view nothing but the talents of
this celeb