Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/451

Rh POLLIO. Charis. i. p. 56, ed. Lind.) The words of Virgil (Eel. iii. 86), " Pollio et ipse facit nova carmina," probably refer to tragedies of a new kind, namely, such as were not borrowed from the Greek, but contained subjects entirely new, taken from Ro- man story. ( Welcker, Die GriecImcJien Tragodien, p. 1421, &c.) Pollio also enjoyed great reputation as a critic, but he is chiefly known in this capacity for the severe judgment which he passed upon his great con- temporaries. Thus he pointed out many mistakes in the speeches of Cicero (Quintil. xii. 1. § 22), censured the Commentaries of Caesar for their want of historical fidelity, and found fault with Sallust for affectation in the use of antiquated words and expressions (Suet, de III. Gram. 10), a fault with which Pollio himself is charged by other writers. He also complained of a certain Patavinity in Livy (Quintil. i. 5. § 56, viii. 1. § 3), respecting which some remarks are made in the life of Livy. [Vol. II. p. 795.] Pollio had a son, C. Asinius Gallus Saloninus, who is spoken of elsewhere. [Gallus, No. 2.] Asinius Gallus married Vipsania, the daughter of Agrippa and Pomponia, the former wife of Tiberius, by whom he had several children : namely, 1. Asinius Saloninus. (Tac. Ann. iii. 75 ) 2. Asinius Gallus. [Gallus, No. 3.] 3. Asinius Pollio, spoken of below [No. 2], Asinius Agrippa, consul a. D. 25 [Agrippa, p. 77, a], Asinius Celer. [Celer.] (Lipsius, ad Tac. Ann. iii. 75.) (The following are the most important authori- ties for the life of Pollio, in addition to those which have been cited above : Cic. ad Fam. ix. 25, x. 31, xi. 9, ad Alt. xii. 2, 3bV 39, xiii. 20 ; Appian, B. C. ii. 40, 45, 82, iii. 46, 74, 97, iv. 12, 27, V. 20—23, 50, 64 ; Veil. Pat. ii. 63, 76, 86 ; Dion Cass. xlv. 10, xlviii. 15, 41 ; and among modern writers, Eckhard, Commeniatio de C. Asi- nio, iniquo optimorum Latinorum auctorum censore, Jen. 1793, and especially Thorbecke, Commeniatio de C. Asinii Pollionis Vita et Siudiis^ Lugd. Batav. 1820.) 2. C. Asinius Pollio, grandson of the pre- ceding, and son of C. Asinius Gallus Saloninus and of Vipsania, the daughter of Agrippa, was consulA.D. 23 withC.Antistius Vetus. (Tac. Ann. iv. 1 ; Plin. H. N. xxxiii. 1. s. 8.) We learn from coins, a specimen of which is annexed, that he was also proconsul of Asia. The ob- verse represents Drusus, the son of the emperor Tiberius and Germanicus seated on a curule chair, with the legend APOT202 KAI TEPMANIKOS KAI2APE2 NEOI 0EOI *IAAAEA*OI ; the re- verse a crown of oak leaves, with the legend TAIil A2INm nOAAinNI ANOTnATn, and within the crown KOINOT A2IA2. Drusus and Ger- POLLIO. 439 COIN OP ASINIUS POLLIO, CONSUL A. D. 23. raanicus are here called Philadelphi, because they were brothers by adoption ; and there was an ob- vious reason why Pollio had these coins struck, inasmuch as Drusus was the half-brother of Pollio by the same mother Vipsania. (Eckhel, vol. vi. pp.210, 211.) 3. Asinius Pollio, the commander of a regi- ment of horse, serving under Luceius Albinus in Mauritania, was slain in A. d. G9, when the troops espoused the side of Vitellius. (Tac. Hist. ii. 59.) 4. AbiNius Pollio Verrucosus, consul a. d. 81. (Dion Cass. Ixvi. 26 ; Fasti.) PO'LLIO, ASI'NIUS, a native of Tralles in Asia Minor, is described by Suidas (s. v. UwAiwv) as a sophist and philosopher, who taught at Rome at the time of Pompey the Great, and succeeded Timagenes in his school. But as Timagenes flou- rished B. c. 55 [Timagenes], we must place the date of Asinius Pollio rather later. Judging from the name of the latter, we may infer that he was a freedman of the great Asinius Pollio. Suidas ascribes to the Trallian the following works : 1. An Epitome of the Atthis of Philochorus, respect- ing which see Philochorus, p. 299,b. 2. Me- morabilia of the philosopher Musonius (Rufus). 3. An Epitome of the Georgics of Diophanes, in two books. 4. A commentary on Aristotle's work on Animals. 5. On the Civil War between Caesar and Pompey. The second of these works how- ever could not have been written by this Pollio, since Musonius lived in the reign of Nero : some writers ascribe it to Valerius Pollio, who lived in the reign of Hadrian, but others to Claudius Pollio, a contemporary of the younger Pliny. The work on the civil war between Caesar and Pompey may perhaps have been a translation into Greek of the history of the great Pollio on the same subject. (Vossius, de Hist. Graecis, p. 197, ed. Westermann ; Fabric. Bibl. Grace, vol. iii. p. 566, with the note of Harles ; Clinton, F. H. vol. iii. p. 550.) PO'LLIO, CAE'LIUS, was commander of the Roman army in Armenia, a. d. 51, and was bribed by Rhadamistus to betray the cause of Mithridates king of Armenia, whom the Romans had placed upon the throne. Notwithstanding his corrupt conduct, he was allowed to remain in Armenia till the first year of Nero's reign, a. d. 54, when he was succeeded by Laelianus. (Tac. Ann. xii. 44, 45 ; Dion Cass. Ixi. 6.) PO'LLIO, CARVFLIUS, a Roman eques, lived in the times of the dictator Sulla, and was celebrated for several new kinds of ornamental furniture, which he invented and brought into use. (Plin. H.N. ix. 11. s. 13, xxxiii. 11. 8.51.) PO'LLIO, CLAU'DIUS, a contemporary of the younger Pliny, who extols his merits in one of his letters (vii. 31). Pliny states that Pollio had written the life of one of his friends: the name is corrupt in the manuscripts ; the best mo- dem editions have Annius Bassus ; but some read Musonius, and therefore suppose that the Memo- rabilia of Musonius, which Suidas ascribes to Asinius Pollio, is the very work alluded to by Pliny. The name however of the philosopher was Musonius Rufus, and not Bassus; and the way in which he is spoken of by Pliny would lead to the conclusion that he was not the celebrated phi- losopher. PO'LLIO, CLAU'DIUS, a centurion, who put Diadumenianus to death. (Dion Cass. lxxviii> 40.) f F 4