541
hexameter lines of Grattius's poem about hunting are preserved in a manuscript of c. 800 AD. The work describes various kinds of
game, methods of hunting, and the best breeds of horses and dogs, 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
luxuria.
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
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 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
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
Buolica of
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. 6, 293, ii. p. 34, iv. pt. ii. p. 790, 806, v. pt. iii. p. 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==