According to
Jerome, he was born at
Cremona, in 103 BC; however, scholars believe that this date is much too early and that he seems to be a contemporary of
Catullus. Like Catullus, he wrote satirical poems in the same style. It is conjectured that he is the friend whom Catullus jokingly satirises in poems 16, 23, and 26. He wrote satirical poems after the manner of
Catullus, whose bitterness he rivaled, according to
Quintilian (
Instit. x.i.196), in his iambics. He even attacked
Augustus (and perhaps
Caesar), who treated the matter with indifference. He was also author of prose
Lucubrationes and perhaps of an epic poem on Caesar's
Gallic Wars (
Pragmatia Belli Gallici).
Otto Ribbeck attributes to him one of
the shorter poems usually assigned to
Virgil. It is doubtful whether he is the person ridiculed by
Horace (
Satires, ii.5.40) and whether he is identical with the
turgidus Alpinus (
Satires, i.10.36), the author of an
Aethiopis dealing with the life and death of
Memnon and of a poem on the
Rhine. Some critics, on the ground that Horace would not have ventured to attack so dangerous an adversary, assume the existence of a poet whose real name was Furius (or Cornelius) Alpinus. Bibaculus was ridiculed for his high-flown and exaggerated style and manner of expression. Fragments of his work can be found in L. Müller's edition of Catullus's work in the Teubner Series (1870). ==See also==