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Acrostics in Calpurnius Siculus? Some initial suggestions

Daniel Jolowicz

Résumé

So far as I am aware, outside of Isidor Hilberg’s article of 1899 – a catalogue of acrostically-formed words in Latin hexameter poetry, which he regarded as coincidental – only one suggestion of a deliberate acrostic in Calpurnius has ever been published, very recently in 2025. In the present article, I suggest that the hitherto unobserved occurrence of i.n.c.i.p. at Ecl. 1.59-63 is an unfinished form of the Latin verb incipere (whose basic sense is ‘to begin’). I shall argue that it is intentional and meaningful, and adduce four items to corroborate the claim. First is the fact that it occurs within a prophecy, a context in which acrostics are frequently found (and acknowledged as such by ancient authors). Second is the prominent role of the verbs ἄρχεσθαι and incipere in pastoral refrains. Third is that Calpurnius may be alluding to an identical acrostic at the end of Ovid’s Metamorphoses (15.871-5), thereby joining the ranks of poets engaged in acrostic intertextuality. Fourth is the presence of certain cue-words and signposts (including a possible further acrostic: p.i.e.s. at Ecl. 1.47-50) that themselves hint at the presence of an acrostic. All of this has ramifications for the verbal artistry of Calpurnius, as well as for his ideological self-positioning vis-à-vis the new emperor, which I discuss in the conclusion.

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Introduction

  • 1 I would like to dedicate this article to two people. First, to Peta Fowler, who, as my undergraduat (...)
  • 2 In this opening paragraph I have opted to be bibliographically ‘maximalist’ in the hope that, in th (...)
  • 3 Aratus: Jacques (1960); Levitan (1979); Cusset (1995), (2002); Fakas (1999); Danielewicz (2005), (2 (...)
  • 4 Ennius: Cic. Div. 2.111 (quoted below, Section 1); Hendry (1994); De Nonno (2021). Cicero: Hurka (2 (...)
  • 5 Petronius: Crotto (2021a). Apuleius: Gore and Kershaw (2008); Crotto (2021b).
  • 6 Sibyllines: Brocca (2001); Voicu (2007); Luz (2010) 29–33; Katz (2013) 7–10; Biddau (2017). Cf. n.3 (...)

1Studies in acrostics – and related phenomena of telestichs, mesostichs, and other verbal acrobatics – are booming, and show no signs of going to grass.1 The Greek hexameters of Homer, Apollonius of Rhodes, Theocritus, Nicander, Dionysius the Periegete, and Musaeus, as well as the epigrammatists, have all received pockets of attention.2 Amongst Greek poets, however, it is the slender muse of Aratus’ Phaenomena that hogs the limelight: his famous λ(επτη).ε.π.τ.η. gamma acrostic at lines 783-7, which advertises the author’s Alexandrian credentials, was a significant influence on subsequent Greek and Latin practitioners.3 Latin poets in particular took up the baton with gusto: Ennius, Cicero (in his translation of Aratus), Lucretius, Catullus, Tibullus, Propertius, Virgil, Horace, Grattius, Manilius, Ovid, Lucan, the authors of the Laus Pisonis and Ilias Latina, Valerius Flaccus, Silius Italicus, Martial, as well as verse inscriptions, have all attracted notice;4 nor have versified portions within the novels of Petronius and Apuleius emerged unscathed.5 Acrostics are also a frequent occurrence in the Sibylline Oracles and other prophetic contexts (a matter to which I shall return in Section 1, below).6

  • 7 It goes without saying that, in the field of acrostic studies, suggestions range from the sure-fire (...)
  • 8 Wider-ranging discussions of acrostics, including methodological schemata: Damschen (2004); Katz (2 (...)

2There are acrostics to suit all dispositions and tolerance levels: for example, skipped-line; in-line; boustrophedon; signature/onomastic; palindromic and reverse; Greek; incomplete/failed; gamma, delta, and lambda; and syllabic.7 They are now a firmly established feature of the scholarly landscape, which is becoming increasingly well resourced with sophisticated methodologies for detecting and interpreting them, be they, for example, politically charged, in intertextual conversation with one another, or simply relevant in some way to the context of their body-text (all of which phenomena will pertain to my argument).8

  • 9 Hilberg (1899); Silva (2025) on d.u.b.i.a. at Ecl. 5.45-9 (noted by Hilberg). Another exception wou (...)
  • 10 Calpurnius’ ‘acrostics’ in Hilberg (1899): p.i.e.s. (1.47-50) a.p.i.i. (1.66-9), u.n.c.o. (1.86-9), (...)

3 For acrostic pioneers, however, the seven Eclogues of Calpurnius Siculus still represent the wild west. So far as I am aware, outside of Isidor Hilberg’s article of 1899 – a catalogue of complete (rather than unfinished) acrostically-formed words in Latin hexameter poetry, which he regarded as coincidental – only one suggestion of a deliberate acrostic in Calpurnius has ever been published, very recently in 2025.9 This is something of a surprise, given the presence in that author of potentially healthy candidates,10 as well as his manifestly broad intertextual repertoire.

4My purpose in what follows will thus be to stress-test the claim that Calpurnius is a poet capable of playing the acrostic game. I shall do this by investigating one possibility in detail, namely the occurrence of i.n.c.i.p. at Ecl. 1.59-63, which I suggest is an unfinished form of the Latin verb incipere (whose basic sense is ‘to begin’). I shall argue that it is both deliberate and meaningful, and adduce four items to corroborate the claim. First is the fact that it occurs within a prophecy, a context in which acrostics are frequently found (and acknowledged as such by ancient authors). Second is the prominent role of the verbs ἄρχεσθαι and incipere in pastoral refrains. Third is that Calpurnius may be alluding to an identical acrostic at the end of Ovid’s Metamorphoses (15.871-5), thereby joining the ranks of poets engaged in acrostic intertextuality. Fourth is the presence of certain cue-words and signposts (including a possible further acrostic: p.i.e.s. at Ecl. 1.47-50) that themselves hint at the presence of an acrostic. In the conclusion, I discuss the interpretative ramifications of i.n.c.i.p. for the poem, namely the context of new beginnings and the accession of the emperor.

  • 11 See, e.g., Mayer (2006); Karakasis (2011) 35-50, (2021).
  • 12 The four main positions are: the earlier and later Neronian periods, the late first century AD, and (...)
  • 13 Major studies include: Hubbard (1998) 140-212; Karakasis (2011) 213-79, (2016). Baraz (2015). Mayer (...)
  • 14 On Calpurnius as a reader of Ovid, see, e.g., Mayer (2006) 462; Fucecchi (2009); Garthwaite and Mar (...)

5Before embarking on the argument in its details, some context on Calpurnius, and Eclogue 1 specifically, is in order. Calpurnius, the author of seven Eclogues, is often grouped with Nemesianus and the Einsiedeln poet as a post-Virgilian pastoral poet.11 As regards his date, although much of the panegyrical rhetoric plausibly suits a context in which a promising young emperor has acceded to the throne, there is nevertheless reasonable consensus identifying him as a Neronian poet.12 In terms of literary texture, Calpurnius is evidently self-aware of his belated position within the pastoral tradition, and is a strongly Virgilian poet (although not slavishly so).13 There is also a heavy streak of allusion in Calpurnius to Ovid’s oeuvre (including the Metamorphoses), which has an obvious bearing on my suggestion that he is engaging with Ovid’s own i.n.c.i.p. acrostic.14

  • 15 The ‘horned’ nature of Faunus (cornigeri Fauni, 1.15) and the name of Corydon’s beloved, Leuce (1.1 (...)
  • 16 Beron (2021) 54-6 enumerates the parallels.
  • 17 See the discussions of Leach (1973); Slater (1994); Martin (2003); Ventura (2006); Garthwaite and M (...)

6Eclogue 1 begins with two brothers, the herdsmen Corydon and Ornytus. Corydon remarks upon the heat and suggests they find some shade (1-7), and Ornytus proposes a forest containing a grove sacred to the woodland god of prophecy, ‘horned Faunus’ (8-12). Corydon’s abstinence from sex with his beloved Leuce means that they can safely enter the shrine of Faunus (13-18), where Ornytus notices a poem recently inscribed on a tall beech tree (19-32).15 This, it transpires, is a prophecy composed by Faunus himself (33-88), in which the god foretells the birth of a new Golden Age and an era of peace, law, and order, ushered in by the arrival of a young emperor. The poem ends with Corydon and Ornytus expressing their awe and praise of Faunus, and a hope that the poem will arrive at augustas aures, ‘august ears’ (89-94). The content bears a number of obvious resemblances to Virgil’s fourth Eclogue (which also heralds the coming of new Golden Age under the birth of a baby boy),16 and is generally argued to be a panegyric for an imperial recipient, usually identified as Nero.17 Its final verses can be read as a hopeful request for literary patronage from the new emperor. What we have, in effect, is panegyric literally etched into a pastoral setting.

  • 18 Text and translation (mildly adapted): Wight Duff and Duff (1934).

7The acrostic occurs in the middle of Faunus’ prophecy, which has promised the coming of a second Golden Age and a cessation of all war and conflict (1.58-68):18

omne procul vitium simulatae cedere pacis
Iussit et insanos Clementia contudit enses.
Nulla catenati feralis pompa senatus
Carnificum lassabit opus, nec carcere pleno
Infelix raros numerabit Curia patres.
Plena quies aderit, quae stricti nescia ferri
altera Saturni referet Latialia regna,
altera regna Numae, qui primus ovantia caede
agmina, Romuleis et adhuc ardentia castris
pacis opus docuit iussitque silentibus armis
inter sacra tubas, non inter bella, sonare.

‘Clemency has commanded every vice that wears the disguise of peace to withdraw and has crushed every maddened sword-blade. No more shall the funereal procession of a fettered senate weary the executioners’ task; no more will crowded prison leave only a senator here and there for the unhappy Curia to count. Peace in her fullness shall come, which, ignorant of the drawn sword, shall renew once more the reign of Saturn in Latium, once more the reign of Numa who first taught the tasks of peace to armies that rejoiced in slaughter and still drew from Romulus’ camp their fiery spirit—Numa who first hushed the clash of arms and bade the trumpet sound amid holy rites instead of war.’

  • 19 See Conte (1992) and the contributions in Kyriakidis and De Martino (2004).
  • 20 The abbreviated form of the acrostic is perhaps also signalled, in its first line, by the ‘crushing (...)
  • 21 See the comments of Beron (2021) ad loc.

8Situated as it is in the first Eclogue, i.n.c.i.p. has an obvious function in signalling Calpurnius’ new poetic undertaking. That the acrostic has a programmatic force in this regard is strengthened by the fact that it begins almost directly at the half-way point, the 27th verse, of Faunus’ 56-verse prophecy – a ‘middle’ zone that Latin poets traditionally load with a denser concentration of messaging.19 However, two potential problems with this acrostic must be acknowledged, if only to be discounted. First, i.n.c.i.p. is itself an incomplete word. As I shall set out in Section 3, this can be explained by the fact that Calpurnius is alluding to an identical acrostic in Ovid’s Metamorphoses.20 Second, it is not coterminous with a defined sense unit, but begins and ends within a clause. This is mitigated by the first line of the acrostic coinciding with the introduction of personified Clementia and her issuing of orders. This is attention-grabbing, given the Neronian associations of that particular virtue, with Seneca also addressing his De Clementia to the young emperor in the first years of his reign.21

  • 22 Robinson (2019a) 35.

9In what follows, I adhere to Matthew Robinson’s principle that, in assessing the ‘legitimacy’ of an acrostic, one of the metrics should be whether it creates ‘a good story’, for which ‘context can be everything’.22 Calpurnius’ i.n.c.i.p., I suggest, forms a legible, contextualised story.

1. The oracular context

  • 23 On Faunus as a god of prophecy, see, e.g., Wiseman (2006); Vuković (2023) 196-8.
  • 24 There is a potential concentration of acrostics and related phenomena in Book 7: see, e.g., Fowler (...)
  • 25 Tibullus: Kronenberg (2018c) on skipped-line a.u.d.i.m.e. at 2.5.16-26 (Sibylline). Virgil: Hejduk (...)
  • 26 See n.16, above.
  • 27 See Cucchiarelli (2023) 196-204 for orientation and further bibliography.
  • 28 Kronenberg (2017), with further development by Adkin (2024).
  • 29 Danielewicz (2005) 324; Katz (2013) 5-6; Adkin (2016); Robinson (2019a) 57-66, quotation at 57.

10Calpurnius’ i.n.c.i.p. acrostic occurs within the prophecy of Faunus. He is chiefly a woodland deity, also endowed with the gift of prophetic speech.23 This oracular tendency is famously showcased in Virgil’s Aeneid, where Faunus prophesies to King Latinus regarding who should marry Lavinia (Aen. 7.96-101).24 It was well recognised in the Graeco-Roman world that acrostics were a feature of oracular utterances (especially Sibylline: see below), and in Latin poetry there are several examples.25 Most significant for our purposes is Virgil, Eclogue 4, a principal model for Calpurnius’ first Eclogue at the verbal and thematic levels.26 It styles itself as a Sibylline prophecy, announcing a newly restored Golden Age under the auspices of Apollo (4.4-11), which coincides with the birth of a boy.27 Leah Kronenberg suggests that the in-line syllabic acrostic d(e).c(a).t(e). at lines 9-11 transliterates Greek δεκάτη, ‘tenth’. This, it is persuasively argued, as well as surrounding the tenth line of the poem, is an allusion to the doctrine of ten cosmic ages, also found in the Sibyllines.28 More worrying is c.a.c.a.t.a. at lines 47-52, which could have the ‘insane and truly grotesque’ effect of turning a ‘golden’ age subversively into a ‘shitty’ age, or even, as Neil Adkin suggests, annotating the fact that newborn babies produce lots of faecal matter.29 Although not subversive, Calpurnius’ i.n.c.i.p. indicates that he was alive to the acrostic potentiality of Virgil’s prophetic poem.

  • 30 Kronenberg (2018c) 508. On acrostics in the Sibylline context, see further Vogt (1967) 90-1; Luz (2 (...)
  • 31 Dionysius of Halicarnassus, citing Varro, reiterates the point (Ant. Rom. 4.62.6).

11Calpurnius is, moreover, sensitive to the tradition of acrostics in the Sibylline Oracles more generally. These texts, in all of their pagan, Jewish, and Christian incarnations, integrate acrostics into their compositional procedures, and Kronenberg has described the Sibyl as ‘the original acrostic poet’.30 Cicero is explicit on this matter (De Div. 2.111-12):31

non esse autem illud carmen furentis cum ipsum poema declarat (est enim magis artis et diligentiae quam incitationis et motus), tum vero ea, quae ἀκροστιχίς dicitur, cum deinceps ex primis versuum litteris aliquid conectitur, ut in quibusdam Ennianis: ‘Quintus Ennius fecit’. id certe magis est attenti animi quam furentis. atque in Sibyllinis ex primo versu cuiusque sententiae primis litteris illius sententiae carmen omne praetexitur. hoc scriptoris est, non furentis, adhibentis diligentiam, non insani.

  • 32 Translation: Falconer (1923).

‘Moreover, that this poetry is not the work of a crazed person is made clear both by their careful composition (for it is a work of art and care rather than of inspiration and passion) and by what are called “acrostics”, when something is derived sequentially from the letters of the first verse, as in certain lines of Ennius: “Quintus Ennius wrote it”. That surely is more characteristic of an alert mind than of a crazed one. And in the Sibyllines, starting from the first verse of each prophecy, the whole poem is bordered by the first letters of that prophecy. This is the work of a writer, not a crazed person; of one doing careful work, not of a madman.’32

  • 33 Some of the oracles reproduce vertically the entire first verse of a prophecy, i.e. an extended gam (...)

12Indeed, the Sibyllines are wedded to the acrostic form, as their prophetic voice admits: ‘I will tell [these things] in acrostics and show the name via the initial letter’ (ἀκροστιχίοις ὀνομήνω | γράμματος ἀρχομένου καὶ τοὔνομα δηλώσαιμι, Sib. Or. 11.17-18).33

  • 34 Preceding the Sibyl’s prophecy of a future war in Italy at Virg. Aen. 6.77-99, Aeneas requests that (...)
  • 35 OLD s.v. 1. The pagina is endowed with a littera (line 22), perhaps also hinting at the significanc (...)

13I shall discuss the verbs incipere and ἄρχεσθαι in Section 2 below, but here I register the possibility that Calpurnius’ i.n.c.i.p. glosses and acknowledges the oracular relevance of line-initial letters as articulated by the Sibyl (γράμματος ἀρχομένου). Moreover, in his Mirabilia, the Hadrianic freedman Phlegon of Tralles preserves a Sibylline oracle in which the Sibyl speaks of her prophecies as being ‘on my leaves’ (ἐν πετάλοισιν ἐμοῖς, 10.2b.38). Calpurnius may thus be engaging playfully with the notion that the prophecy of Faunus, being etched into the bark of a tree, cannot be blown away, in contrast to Sibylline prophecies that are entrusted to an arrangement of leaves and thereby exposed to disturbance by the wind (as, for example, in Aeneid 6).34 This suggestion is strengthened by the fact that Faunus’ prophecy is metatextually described at line 20 as being a pagina (‘a column or page of writing’).35

14Calpurnius’ engagement with Virgil’s fourth Eclogue, and the connection between (Sibylline) vatic speech and acrostics, corroborate the likelihood that Calpurnius’ i.n.c.i.p. is designedly placed within Faunus’ oracular utterance – a context in which acrostics are frequent and indeed expected.

2. The verbs incipere and ἄρχεσθαι in a pastoral context

  • 36 Of course, the verb ἄρχεσθαι has programmatic significance in Greek poetry since the opening line o (...)
  • 37 See the bibliography at n.13, above.
  • 38 Karakasis (2016) 15.
  • 39 Id. 1.64, 70, 76, 79, 84, 89, modulating to ἄρχετε βουκολικᾶς, Μοῖσαι, πάλιν ἄρχετ ἀοιδᾶς at 1.94, (...)
  • 40 See Burris (2004).
  • 41 Hunter (1999) 87.

15The verb incipere, and its Greek equivalent ἄρχεσθαι (‘begin’), have special significance in pastoral poetry, a genre that Calpurnius is self-consciously navigating.36 As scholars have demonstrated, Calpurnius’ poetry is in large part an exercise in generic self-exploration and belatedness.37 Eclogue 1 in particular has been read by Evangelos Karakasis as an attempt by the poet to establish himself as the ‘father of “bucolic panegyric”’.38 This is closely comparable to the project undertaken by the Hellenistic pastoral poet Theocritus. In Idyll 1, the shepherd Thyrsis sings a song about the mythical pastoral inhabitant, Daphnis. It begins with a refrain that, with a minor modulation, recurs fourteen times: ‘Begin, dear Muses, begin the pastoral song’ (ἄρχετε βουκολικᾶς, Μοῖσαι φίλαι, ἄρχετἀοιδᾶς).39 Refrains discharge various structural, thematic and dramatic functions,40 but commentators note in particular the foundational force of the verb ἄρχεσθαι in this refrain, in that it self-consciously establishes the poem as inaugurating a new genre.41

  • 42 [Mosch.] Ep. Bion. 8, 13, 19, 26, 36, 45, 50, 57, 64, 69, 85, 98, 108, 113.
  • 43 Ecl. 8.21, 25, 28, 31, 36, 42, 46, 51, 57.
  • 44 Virg. Ecl. 3.58, 5.10-12, 9.32, 10.6; Calp. Ecl. 2.27, 4.73, 4.78; Nemes. 1.3-8; Eins. 1.20-1.
  • 45 On Idyll 1 as the first poem in the ancient Theocritean collection, see Hunter (1999) 60.

16Later pastoral poets are attuned to this. Ps.-Moschus’ Lament for Bion contains, again, fourteen instances of the refrain, ‘Begin, Sicilian Muses, begin your grieving song’ (ἄρχετε Σικελικαί, τῶ πένθεος ἄρχετε, Μοῖσαι).42 Virgil’s eighth Eclogue mimics these refrains: ‘Begin with me, my flute, the Arcadian songs’ (incipe Maenalios mecum, mea tibia, versus).43 Across all Latin pastoral poets, including Virgil, Calpurnius, the Einsiedeln poet, and Nemesianus, the verb incipere signals and invokes the performance of pastoral song (most often via the second-person singular imperative incipe), and indeed does so pointedly at the opening of Nemesianus’ first Eclogue.44 Calpurnius’ i.n.c.i.p., situated in the opening Eclogue of the collection, may thus also function as a response to Theocritus’ ἄρχετε, likewise positioned in the opening Idyll of the collection.45

  • 46 See Cucchiarelli (2021) ad loc. on the interpretative crux as to whether the baby himself should sm (...)

17Virgil’s fourth Eclogue again requires special mention, owing to its highly marked use of the verb incipere. It is prophesied that the good times ‘will begin’ (incipient) during Pollio’s consulship (4.12). More striking, however, is the double imperative incipe in the final quatrain of the poem, where the newborn baby boy is urged to ‘begin’ to recognise his mother with a smile (incipe, parve puer … incipe, parve puer, 4.60, 62).46 Calpurnius’ i.n.c.i.p. may therefore gloss the prophetic context and pointed use of the verb incipere in Virgil, Eclogue 4, a poem of which he was manifestly a close reader.

3. Ovid’s i.n.c.i.p. (Met. 15.871-5)

  • 47 Two lexical overlaps can be noted: opus (Met. 15.871; Ecl. 1.61) and ferrum (Met. 15.872; Ecl. 1.63 (...)
  • 48 There is also acrostic i.n.c.i.p.e. at Met. 10.454-9 and telestich i.n.i.t.i.o. at Met. 6.437-42, t (...)
  • 49 See the bibliography gathered at n.14, above.
  • 50 See the bibliography gathered at n.8, above.

18My claim in this section is that Calpurnius’ i.n.c.i.p. constitutes a specific allusion to Ovid’s i.n.c.i.p. at Met. 15.871-5.47 This has interpretative ramifications for both authors, and indeed they are the only two poets in Latin poetry in which this acrostic occurs.48 The case is supported by the fact that Calpurnius clearly knows Ovid’s poetry (as is apparent not least in Eclogue 1),49 and that acrostics (and related phenomena) manifestly allude and respond to previous acrostics.50 As regards acrostic intertextuality as it relates to Calpurnius, a case in point is Gabriel Silva’s recent 2025 article, which suggests that Calpurnius’ d.u.b.i.a. acrostic at 5.45-9 is in dialogue with Aratus’ λ.ε.π.τ.η. phenomenon.

19 Ovid’s i.n.c.i.p. occurs at the end of his epic Metamorphoses, where he announces the completion of the poem as well as the future permanence of the poem and its poet (Met. 15.871-5):

Iamque opus exegi, quod nec Iovis ira nec ignis
Nec poterit ferrum nec edax abolere vetustas.
Cum volet, illa dies, quae nil nisi corporis huius
Ius habet, incerti spatium mihi finiat aevi:
Parte tamen meliore mei super alta perennis
astra ferar, nomenque erit indelebile nostrum,
quaque patet domitis Romana potentia terris,
ore legar populi, perque omnia saecula fama,
siquid habent veri vatum praesagia, vivam.

  • 51 Translation: Miller [rev. Goold] (1916).

‘And now my work is done, which neither the wrath of Jove, nor fire, nor sword, nor the gnawing tooth of time shall ever be able to undo. When it will, let that day come which has no power save over this mortal frame, and end the span of my uncertain years. Still in my better part I shall be borne immortal far beyond the lofty stars and I shall have an undying name. Wherever Rome’s power extends over the conquered world, I shall have mention on men’s lips, and, if the prophecies of bards have any truth, through all the ages shall I live in fame.’51

  • 52 Barchiesi (1997) 195; cf. Hardie (2024) 370: ‘This ending which is also a new beginning is marked b (...)
  • 53 Vos (2023b).
  • 54 Robinson (2019b) 300, on d.e.s.i.n. at Cat. 36.5-9, also discussing the textual problems there.

20The discoverer of the acrostic, Alessandro Barchiesi, is right to label it ‘amusing’: it is an unfinished acrostic, meaning ‘begin’, signalled at the end of the poem (which is in some senses also a ‘middle’), thereby plugging into wider issues of closure and Ovid’s resistance to it.52 Gary Vos develops the case, arguing that the adverb iam in line 871 completes the acrostic, creating a future or subjunctive verb incipiam.53 It may, as Robinson suggests, even allude to an unfinished acrostic in Catullus 36.54

  • 55 Vates can also mean ‘prophet’, ‘seer’: see OLD s.v. 1.

21The connection between Ovid’s i.n.c.i.p. and its prophetic context has not, however, been observed. This context not only strengthens the case for Ovid’s i.n.c.i.p. as a deliberate insertion within a prophecy (see Section 1, above), but also the case for Calpurnius’ allusion to it within a prophecy of Faunus. After all, Ovid is prophesying his future fame, as the last lines of the Metamorphoses make clear: ‘if the prophecies of bards have any truth, through all the ages shall I live in fame’ (perque omnia saecula fama, | siquid habent veri vatum praesagia, vivam, 15.878-9).55 Rather than being a mere advertisement of his having spotted Ovid’s acrostic, Calpurnius’ allusion is thus meaningful: it suggests that he is staking a claim to poetic fame in Ovidian style, in a way that amplifies the more modestly phrased final line of the Eclogue, spoken by Ornytus: ‘perhaps [our patron] Meliboeus will take these verses [Faunus’ prophecy] to the ears of the emperor’ (forsitan augustas feret haec Meliboeus ad aures, 1.94).

4. Cue-words, signposts, and a further acrostic

  • 56 See, especially, the bibliography at n.8, above; Hejduk (2018), (2020) refers to these phenomena as (...)

22Scholarship in recent decades has shown that ancient authors frequently embed hints, cue-words, and signposts (including further acrostics) to indicate that readers should be on the lookout for acrostics and related phenomena; these also function to ‘boost’ the likelihood that the acrostic is intentional.56 In Calpurnius, Eclogue 1, there are several such indications whose cumulative effect suggests that the author wants the reader to pay attention to sequences of letters at the beginning of the line.

23A cluster of three clues lurks in the sentence beginning at the final line of the acrostic (Ecl. 1.63-6):

Plena quies aderit, quae stricti nescia ferri
altera Saturni referet Latialia regna,
altera regna Numae, qui primus ovantia caede
agmina…

‘Peace in her fullness shall come, which, ignorant of the drawn sword, shall renew once more the reign of Saturn in Latium, once more the reign of Numa who first taught the tasks of peace to armies that rejoiced in bloodshed…’

  • 57 See prima in the context of the m.a.r.s. acrostic at Virg. Aen. 7.603, with Hejduk (2018) 85-7 on t (...)
  • 58 Latium… latuisset at Virg. Aen. 8.322-3; cf. Ov. Fast. 1.238 (dicta quoque est Latium terra latente(...)
  • 59 On the language of hiddenness (e.g. the adjective latebrosus) in the context Virgilian acrostics, s (...)
  • 60 On Aratus’ ἐρευθής (‘red’) moon and possible rubrication, see Hanses (2014) 612-13; on ruborem… rub (...)

24First, the ordinal number primus (‘first’) has an obvious function in annotating an acrostic (made up of the first letters of a sequence of verses), as it does elsewhere in Latin poetry.57 Second, the Latialia regna over which Saturn will now rule encodes an etymological pun regarding concealment. Both Virgil and Ovid explain the etymology linking Latium and the verb latere (‘lie hidden’) insofar as Latium was the place where Saturn latuisset (‘lay hidden’).58 It is thus gently amusing that an acrostic lies concealed in the vicinity of Saturn’s hidden kingdoms.59 Third, the ‘bloodshed’ (caede) in which the armies used to rejoice potentially serves double purpose: it annotates the redness of the ‘slender, red’ moon (λεπτὴἐρευθής, Phaen. 784) that occurs within Aratus’ notorious λ(επτη).ε.π.τ.η. acrostic (quoted fully below), and nods to the possible rubrication of line-initial letters on ancient writing materials, as it does in the context of other Aratus-related acrostics in Virgil and Lucan.60

  • 61 E.g. Ov. Her. 5.137 (cornigerumque caput); Fast. 2.268, 3.312, 5.99. See Beron (2021) 156.
  • 62 OLD s.v. cornu 7, whence the quotation; LSJ s.v. κέρας V.3.

25It is significant that the prophecy – the acrostic medium par excellence (see Section 1) – is the utterance of ‘horned Faunus’ (corniger Faunus, 1.15). Horns are a traditional attribute of this god,61 but the presence of the noun ‘horn’ in both Greek (κέρας) and Latin (cornu) is frequent in the vicinity of acrostics, where it puns on the sense of ‘end, tip, wing, corner, or other extremity of anything’ – in this case the edge of a line of verse.62 This is instantiated in Aratus’ passage on weather signs, with its infamous gamma acrostic (Phaen. 783-7):

Λεπτὴ μὲν καθαρή τε περὶ τρίτον ἦμαρ ἐοῦσα
Εὔδιός κ᾿ εἴη· λεπτὴ δὲ καὶ εὖ μάλ᾿ ἐρευθὴς
Πνευματίη· παχίων δὲ καὶ ἀμβλείῃσι κεραίαις
Τέτρατον ἐκ τριτάτοιο φόως ἀμενηνὸν ἔχουσα
νότῳ ἄμβλυνται ἢ ὕδατος ἐγγὺς ἐόντος.

  • 63 Text and translation: Kidd (1997).

‘If slender and clear about the third day, [the moon] will bode fair weather; if slender and very red, wind; if the crescent is thickish, with blunted horns, having a feeble fourth day light after the third day, either it is blurred by a southerly or because rain is in the offing.’63

  • 64 See the bibliography gathered in n.3, above.
  • 65 Virgil: see the bibliography gathered at n.4, above (under Georgics) for the author’s apparent reve (...)

26Not only do further horns cluster around this passage (κερόωσι, 780; κεράων, 788; κεραῖαι, 790), but Aratus guides his readers to the acrostic by telling them, ‘Look first at the horns on either side the Moon’ (σκέπτεο δὲ πρῶτον κεράων ἑκάτερθε σελήνην, 778).64 Latin poets including Virgil, Ovid, and Lucan caught onto the fact that they could use cornu to signpost an acrostic.65 That horns are indices of acrostics is therefore a robust proposition, and Faunus as the ‘horn-bearing’ (corniger) speaker of an oracle makes him a prime suspect for acrostic composition.

  • 66 See Adkin (2016) 25 on the repeated imperative aspice at Virg. Ecl. 4.50, 52, cueing c.a.c.a.t.a.
  • 67 In connection with the adjective sequax, cf. the participle sequentis in Virgil’s signature acrosti (...)
  • 68 See OLD s.v. 8.

27Aratus’ imperative σκέπτεο (‘look’, 778, repeated at 799) also inaugurates a tradition in which visual scrutiny cues the presence of an acrostic.66 This is picked up by Calpurnius’ herdsmen, who emphasise the need to look carefully at Faunus’ prophecy: Ornytus asks Corydon if he can see (aspicis…?) the freshness of the letters carved into the bark (1.21-2), in response to which Corydon tells Ornytus to ‘look more closely’ (fer propius tua lumina, 1.24) and to ‘read through’ (perlege) the prophecy ‘with eagerly following eye’ (oculoque sequaci, 1.31-2).67 The first words of Faunus’ prophecy are corroborative in this regard. His utterance begins, ‘I, who watch over the ridges…’ (qui iuga …. tueor, 1.33). The Latin word iugum, ‘a long narrow stretch of rising ground’, or ‘ridge’, might itself conceivably function as a visual image of acrostics, which appear at the ‘ridge’ of verses.68 If so, ‘horn-bearing Faunus’ is announcing himself as guardian of the acrostic art.

  • 69 On the reception history of Aratean acrostics, see especially Kronenberg (2018b), (2019).
  • 70 The name may allude to the milky-named Galatea at Virg. Ecl. 1.30-1, on which see Beron (2021) 152- (...)
  • 71 See especially Damschen (2004) 103-6; Korenjak (2009); Hilton (2013); Kronenberg (2018a), (2019).

28I have suggested above that Calpurnius is aware of the Aratean tradition of acrostics.69 A further signpost indicates that his knowledge of Greek acrostics is of even older vintage: Homer. Early in the Eclogue, Corydon tells Ornytus that it is because of the refusal of ‘my Leuce’ (mea Leuce, 1.13) to have sex with him that he can with purity enter the shrine of Faunus. Leuce (‘Miss White’), an otherwise rare name unattested in previous pastoral poetry, is the first female beloved named in Calpurnius’ poetry book.70 It is therefore significant that Iliad book 24 opens with acrostic λ.ε.υ.κ.η. (Il. 24.1-5), which, though probably accidental, was playfully seized upon by subsequent Greek and Latin poets who pun on whiteness and light in acrostic contexts.71 Leuce’s role in the Eclogue is, in this regard, telling: it is she who ‘made the shrine of horn-bearing Faunus passable’ (pervia cornigeri fecit sacraria Fauni, 1.15). This can be interpreted as follows, namely that it is a Homeric acrostic, Leuce, who enables the presence of Calpurnian acrostics, insofar as it is Leuce who facilitates the entry of Calpurnius’ herdsmen into the shrine of Faunus, a god with major acrostic attributes (horns and prophetic utterance). Corroboration of Calpurnius’ potential allusion to Homer’s λ.ε.υ.κ.η., as a way of signposting his own acrostic capabilities, may also be found in presence of ‘white [i.e. ‘shining’] Peace’ (candida Pax aderit, 1.54), just prior to Calpurnius’ i.n.c.i.p.

  • 72 See, e.g., Robinson (2019a) 37. This approach requires caution, however, given the potential circul (...)
  • 73 See n.10, above, for my collation of Hilberg’s examples from Calpurnius.

29Finally, there is an increased likelihood of an acrostic being intentional if further acrostics are found in the vicinity.72 Of the several potentially coincidental formations listed by Hilberg,73 one that seems promising is p.i.e.s. (1.46-50):

dum populos deus ipse reget, dabit impia victas
Post tergum Bellona manus spoliataque telis
In sua vesanos torquebit viscera morsus
Et, modo quae toto civilia distulit orbe,
Secum bella geret.

‘While he [the iuvenis, probably Nero], a very god, shall rule the nations, impious Bellona shall yield and have her vanquished hands bound behind her back, and, stripped of weapons, turn her furious teeth into her own entrails; upon herself shall she wage the civil wars which of late she spread over the whole world.’

  • 74 There are a total of 16 examples in Latin verse (of which six are reverse).
  • 75 For ‘propitiate’ and ‘expiate’, see OLD s.v. 1 and 2 respectively.
  • 76 See Beron (2021) 214.
  • 77 I note, but press no further, the possibility of acrostic a.p.i.i. (‘oh, pious men’, or indeed ‘of (...)

30It must be acknowledged that p.i.e.s. is not an uncommon acrostic.74 But the adjective impia, ‘impious’, in the preceding line strengthens the likelihood of acrostic p.i.e.s. (from the cognate verb piare), which would be a second-person singular subjunctive form meaning ‘may you expiate / propitiate’.75 In this passage, the advent of the young ruler spells the end of war, and impia Bellona will be bound and then self-destruct. It is modelled directly on Jupiter’s prophecy in Aeneid 1, where Furor impius is described as sitting in chains (Aen. 1.293-6).76 Past impiety and future propitiation are thus at the heart of this part of Faunus’ prophecy: the acrostic could be a polite injunction to the new emperor to perform expiatory and cleansing rights upon his accession, or alternatively an instruction to the reader to propitiate the new divine princeps.77

Conclusion: i.n.c.i.p. and new imperial beginnings

  • 78 See Vinchesi (2014) 15-20, with further references.
  • 79 Mayer (2006) 457-8 canvasses the scholarship that detects anti-imperial sentiment in Calpurnius.
  • 80 Mitchell (2020a).

31Calpurnius’ i.n.c.i.p. suits its context. Eclogue 1 heralds the beginning of a new Golden Age, marked by the restoration of security, justice, and law, unshackled from the civil and military stresses of the previous age and its emperor (usually identified as Claudius). With the passing of Claudius, there was hope that the young emperor (iuvenis, 1.44) would provide a fresh slate, and the idea of Golden Age renovatio was indeed in vogue under Nero (as it frequently was at moments of imperial accession).78 If it is the case that Calpurnius’ i.n.c.i.p. gestures acrostically towards this atmosphere of new beginnings, then this has ramifications for the author’s ideological self-positioning, namely that his panegyric should be taken at face value.79 No subversive ‘acrostic sideswipes’ here, to use Keith Mitchell’s phrase,80 but a panegyrist shooting straight dice.

32I have argued that Calpurnius’ acrostic i.n.c.i.p. is deliberate and meaningful, offering intra­textual and intertextual evidence to support the case. This includes the prophetic context (an oracular utterance of Faunus inscribed on a beech tree, modelled on Virgil’s fourth Eclogue), the significance of the verbs incipere and ἄρχεσθαι in pastoral poetry, the potential allusion to Ovid’s acrostic i.n.c.i.p. at Met. 15.871-5, and lexical signposts that point both to the presence of an acrostic and to annotations of well known Homeric and Aratean acrostic moments, as well as a further possibility (p.i.e.s. at 1.47-50). If correct, this strengthens the case for a new ancient author, Calpurnius Siculus, being added to the history of acrostics in Latin, and enables a deeper appreciation of the verbal and thematic artistry of an often underrated poet.

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Notes

1 I would like to dedicate this article to two people. First, to Peta Fowler, who, as my undergraduate tutor, introduced me to acrostics; it was a pleasure to deliver an earlier version of the paper at a conference held in Oxford, 2023, in Peta’s honour. Second, to my son, Ferris, born in July 2025; his presence here seems especially fitting in an article about a poem – and indeed an acrostic – celebrating new beginnings. A debt of thanks is owed to a number of people whose careful reading and wealth of suggestions have immeasurably improved the resulting article: Denis Feeney, Matthew Robinson, Krešimir Vuković, and the two anonymous readers for the journal, traces of whose comments are evident on every page. Remaining infelicities are of course mine alone. I would also like to extend my gratitude to the editors, Jacqueline Fabre-Serris and Florence Klein, for their encouragement.

2 In this opening paragraph I have opted to be bibliographically ‘maximalist’ in the hope that, in this rapidly expanding subfield, the footnotes serve as a useful compendium of (especially more recent) work on acrostics. Homer: Mosino (2004-2005); Korenjak (2009); Hilton (2013); Kronenberg (2018a), (2019). Apollonius: Stewart (2010); Cusset (2013); McPhee (2017); Adkin (2019a). Theocritus: Clauss (2003). Nicander: Lobel (1928); Reeve (1996-1997); Papadopoulou (2003); Overduin (2015) 59-61; Chernyakhovskaya (2021). Dionysius: Counillon (1981); Reeve (1996-1997); Khan (2004); Lightfoot (2014) s.v. ‘acrostic’; Marcotte (2014); Downie (2017). Musaeus: Stępień (2022). Greek epigram: Di Marzio (2019) on Julia Balbilla; Leventhal (2023) on Christodorus; Kronenberg (2025) 138-40 on Marcus Argentarius. See also, on verse inscriptions, Bernard et al. (2004); Mairs (2017); Agosti (2020); Danielewicz (2021); on papyri, see Agosti (1997); Vecchiato (2016). On Greek acrostics generally, see Vogt (1967); Luz (2010) 1-77.

3 Aratus: Jacques (1960); Levitan (1979); Cusset (1995), (2002); Fakas (1999); Danielewicz (2005), (2015); Habinek (2009) 129-32; Castelletti (2012); Volk (2012) 225-9; Hanses (2014); Trzaskoma (2016); Kronenberg (2018a), (2018b); Broadbent (forthcoming).

4 Ennius: Cic. Div. 2.111 (quoted below, Section 1); Hendry (1994); De Nonno (2021). Cicero: Hurka (2006); Rick (2019). Lucretius: Gale (2019); Kronenberg (2019). Catullus: Hawkins (2014); Robinson (2019a) 64 n.4, (2019b) 300; Tamás (2022); Crotto (2023). Hawkins (2024); Silva (forthcoming). Tibullus: Kronenberg (2018c). Propertius: Hejduk (2023). Virgil’s Eclogues: Clauss (1997); Grishin (2008); Adkin (2015b), (2015c), (2016a), (2016b), (2017c), (2019b), (2024); Biddau (2016); Kronenberg (2017); Danielewicz (2019). Virgil’s Georgics: Brown (1963) 102-5; Haslam (1992); Feeney and Nelis (2005); Somerville (2010); Danielewicz (2013); Katz (2016); Adkin (2017a) (2018); Stok (2017); Hejduk (2018). Virgil’s Aeneid: Fowler (1983); Carter (2002); Feeney and Nelis (2005); Katz (2007); Castelletti (2012b); Adkin (2014), (2015a), (2022b); Laterza (2015); Marrón (2019); Robinson (2019a), (2019b); Hejduk (2020), (2022); Hosle (2020a); Silva (2024); Tamás (2024); cf. Schmid (1983) 334-5 on the ille ego qui verses. Horace’s Satires: Fredericksen (2018); Kearey (2020). Horace’s Epodes: Evans (2023). Horace’s Odes: Morgan (1993); Domenicucci (2003); Klooster (2013); Adkin (2019c), (2022a); Hosle (2020b); Crotto (2023); Hosle (2023). Grattius: Damschen (2004); Gale (2019). Manilius: Bielsa i Mialet (2000a), (2000b); Damschen (2004); Colborn (2013); Gale (2019). Ovid’s Ars: Hanses (2016). Ovid’s Remedia Amoris: Silva (forthcoming). Ovid’s Metamorphoses: Damschen (2004); Robinson (2019a), (2019b); Mitchell (2020a); Del Vecchio (2021); Estévez Sola (2023); Evans (2023); Vos (2023b). Ovid’s Fasti: La Barbera (2006); Mitchell (2020a). Ovid’s Tristia and ex Ponto: Verdière (1983); Smith (2013–2014); Mitchell (2020a), (2020b). Liu (2024). Ovid’s Ibis: Janssens (1981). Lucan: Giusti (2015); Kersten (2017); Hejduk (2020); Tomcik (2021); Wheeler (2021); Tamás (2025). Laus Pisonis: Leventhal (2021); Vos (2023a). Ilias Latina: Hilberg (1899); Kilpatrick (1992); Schubert (2021). Valerius: Castelletti (2008), (2012a), (2014); Adkin (2017b). Silius: Damschen (2004). Martial: Leary (2022). Verse inscriptions: Mastidoro (2003); Feeney and Nelis (2005) 645 n.3, citing Courtney (1995), nos. 28, 39, 40, 42, 44, 128; Biddau (2017); Mairs (2017); Dehon (2019). See also Power (2011) on Volcacius Sedigitus and Furius Bibaculus.

5 Petronius: Crotto (2021a). Apuleius: Gore and Kershaw (2008); Crotto (2021b).

6 Sibyllines: Brocca (2001); Voicu (2007); Luz (2010) 29–33; Katz (2013) 7–10; Biddau (2017). Cf. n.30, below.

7 It goes without saying that, in the field of acrostic studies, suggestions range from the sure-fire to rather more elaborate and speculative.

8 Wider-ranging discussions of acrostics, including methodological schemata: Damschen (2004); Katz (2013) 6-13; Hejduk (2018) 73-5, noting the ‘seven reasons why ancient writers would have found acrostics a congenial medium’; Kronenberg (2018a), (2018b), (2019); Robinson (2019a) and (2019b) on Virgil and Ovid; Mitchell (2020a) on Ovid; Adkin (2021) on Virgil. Mitchell (2020a) refers to ‘subversive sideswipes’, Damschen (2004) to ‘intertextuality’, and Kronenberg (2018b) and Adkin (2022a) to ‘conversation’. Older studies: Simon (1899), (1901), (1923); Courtney (1990).

9 Hilberg (1899); Silva (2025) on d.u.b.i.a. at Ecl. 5.45-9 (noted by Hilberg). Another exception would be if Calpurnius is the author of the Laus Pisonis, an unlikely identification, on which matter see the bibliography gathered at Leventhal (2021) 742 n.4; on acrostics (as well as mesostichs and telestichs) in the Laus Pisonis, see n.4 above.

10 Calpurnius’ ‘acrostics’ in Hilberg (1899): p.i.e.s. (1.47-50) a.p.i.i. (1.66-9), u.n.c.o. (1.86-9), d.i.t.i.s. (2.20-4), v.e.n.i.s. (3.2-6), a.v.u.s. (3.36-9), s.u.t.a. (3.22-5), i.r.c.u.s. (4.3-7), i.s.s.e. (4.48-51), n.a.v.e. (4.101-4), a.v.e.h.e.s. (4.102-7), d.a.t.e. (4.137-40), d.u.b.i.a. (5.45-9), i.a.n.i. (5.48-51), r.a.p.e. (5.76-9), a.l.e.o.(s.) (5.88-91(92)), c.i.v.e. (5.112-15), c.a.c.a. (6.36-9), c.a.l.a. (6.38-41), l.a.c.i. (6.40-3), a.c.i.e. (6.41-4), d.i.u.s. (6.67-70), n.a.t.a. (6.73-6), a.u.s.e. (7.22-5), s.e.v.i. (7.24-7).

11 See, e.g., Mayer (2006); Karakasis (2011) 35-50, (2021).

12 The four main positions are: the earlier and later Neronian periods, the late first century AD, and the third century AD under Alexander Severus. See Wiseman (1982); Küppers (1985); Baldwin (1995); Horsfall (1997); Ruggeri (2002); Champlin (2003); Mayer (2006) 453-6; Garthwaite and Martin (2009); Henderson (2013); Vinchesi (2014) 15-20; Karakasis (2016) 1-3; Beron (2021) 30-40; Nauta (2021). Geue (2019) 164-98 argues that Calpurnius deliberately designs his poems to exude a timeless (and anonymous) panegyrical repeatability; Wiseman (2023) offers a riposte to this position.

13 Major studies include: Hubbard (1998) 140-212; Karakasis (2011) 213-79, (2016). Baraz (2015). Mayer (2006) 460-3 is a useful survey, also noting Calpurnius’ ‘anti-Virgilian’ elements; cf. Newlands (1987).

14 On Calpurnius as a reader of Ovid, see, e.g., Mayer (2006) 462; Fucecchi (2009); Garthwaite and Martin (2009); La Bua (2010); Beron (2021) 60-1.

15 The ‘horned’ nature of Faunus (cornigeri Fauni, 1.15) and the name of Corydon’s beloved, Leuce (1.13), will be relevant to my argument in Section 4, below.

16 Beron (2021) 54-6 enumerates the parallels.

17 See the discussions of Leach (1973); Slater (1994); Martin (2003); Ventura (2006); Garthwaite and Martin (2009); Stöckinger (2017); Beron (2021) 48-65. Mayer (2006) 457-9 summarises discussions regarding Calpurnius’ political self-positioning.

18 Text and translation (mildly adapted): Wight Duff and Duff (1934).

19 See Conte (1992) and the contributions in Kyriakidis and De Martino (2004).

20 The abbreviated form of the acrostic is perhaps also signalled, in its first line, by the ‘crushing’ of the swords (contudit, 1.59), as one of the anonymous readers insightfully suggests.

21 See the comments of Beron (2021) ad loc.

22 Robinson (2019a) 35.

23 On Faunus as a god of prophecy, see, e.g., Wiseman (2006); Vuković (2023) 196-8.

24 There is a potential concentration of acrostics and related phenomena in Book 7: see, e.g., Fowler (1983) on m.a.r.s. at 7.601-4; Laterza (2015) on i(am).a.t.a. at 7.53-7; Robinson (2019b) 298-90 on a.u.s.u.m. at 7.178-82; Tamás (2024) on maius opus moveo at 7.45.

25 Tibullus: Kronenberg (2018c) on skipped-line a.u.d.i.m.e. at 2.5.16-26 (Sibylline). Virgil: Hejduk (2018) on i.s.a.i.a.a.i.t. at G. 4.458-65 (Proteus). Ovid: Estévez Sola (2023) on reverse f.i.a.t. at Met. 12.20-3 (Calchas) and reverse in-line f(la).m(en). at 15.440-1 (Helenus). Lucan: Hejduk (2020) on a.s.t.f.i.i.i.s. at 1.64-71 (Sibylline), and others; cf. Wheeler (2021) on c.a.e.d.e. at 7.153-8 (within a description of prophetic omens); Kersten (2017) on q.u.i.e.r.a.s. at 8.245-52. Apuleius: Gore and Kershaw (2008) on m.o.n.s. at Met. 4.33, ll. 1-4 (Apollo).

26 See n.16, above.

27 See Cucchiarelli (2023) 196-204 for orientation and further bibliography.

28 Kronenberg (2017), with further development by Adkin (2024).

29 Danielewicz (2005) 324; Katz (2013) 5-6; Adkin (2016); Robinson (2019a) 57-66, quotation at 57.

30 Kronenberg (2018c) 508. On acrostics in the Sibylline context, see further Vogt (1967) 90-1; Luz (2010) 29-33; Satterfield (2011); Katz (2013) 7-10; Hejduk (2018).

31 Dionysius of Halicarnassus, citing Varro, reiterates the point (Ant. Rom. 4.62.6).

32 Translation: Falconer (1923).

33 Some of the oracles reproduce vertically the entire first verse of a prophecy, i.e. an extended gamma acrostic, e.g. at Phleg. Mir. 10.2a.

34 Preceding the Sibyl’s prophecy of a future war in Italy at Virg. Aen. 6.77-99, Aeneas requests that she not entrust her prophecy to an arrangement of leaves (foliis) which can be blown away by the wind (6.74-6); cf. Stöckinger (2017), who argues that Calpurnius’ first Eclogue alludes to the Sibylline episode of Aeneid 6 to reflect upon whether it is better for prophecies to be written or sung. One might also note the speculative possibility of the Sibyl’s prophecy beginning with acrostic a.b.e.o.o.s.o.s. (6.77-84), conceivably translated as ‘I, a mouth a mouth, go away’, or ‘I am transformed into a mouth, a mouth’: see Katz (2013) 5-6; Adkin (2015) adds a further possibility.

35 OLD s.v. 1. The pagina is endowed with a littera (line 22), perhaps also hinting at the significance of individual letters.

36 Of course, the verb ἄρχεσθαι has programmatic significance in Greek poetry since the opening line of Hesiod’s Theogony, but it is also possible that Calpurnius’ i.n.c.i.p. may nod to the godfather of acrostics, Aratus (see n.3, above), the first line of whose Phaenomena begins ἐκ Διὸς ἀρχώμεσθα, as one of the anonymous readers for the journal helpfully suggests.

37 See the bibliography at n.13, above.

38 Karakasis (2016) 15.

39 Id. 1.64, 70, 76, 79, 84, 89, modulating to ἄρχετε βουκολικᾶς, Μοῖσαι, πάλιν ἄρχετ ἀοιδᾶς at 1.94, 99, 104, 108, 111, 114, 119, 122.

40 See Burris (2004).

41 Hunter (1999) 87.

42 [Mosch.] Ep. Bion. 8, 13, 19, 26, 36, 45, 50, 57, 64, 69, 85, 98, 108, 113.

43 Ecl. 8.21, 25, 28, 31, 36, 42, 46, 51, 57.

44 Virg. Ecl. 3.58, 5.10-12, 9.32, 10.6; Calp. Ecl. 2.27, 4.73, 4.78; Nemes. 1.3-8; Eins. 1.20-1.

45 On Idyll 1 as the first poem in the ancient Theocritean collection, see Hunter (1999) 60.

46 See Cucchiarelli (2021) ad loc. on the interpretative crux as to whether the baby himself should smile, or recognise the smile of his mother.

47 Two lexical overlaps can be noted: opus (Met. 15.871; Ecl. 1.61) and ferrum (Met. 15.872; Ecl. 1.63).

48 There is also acrostic i.n.c.i.p.e. at Met. 10.454-9 and telestich i.n.i.t.i.o. at Met. 6.437-42, though it is unclear what significance they would have; on the latter, see Mitchell (2020a) 174 n.28.

49 See the bibliography gathered at n.14, above.

50 See the bibliography gathered at n.8, above.

51 Translation: Miller [rev. Goold] (1916).

52 Barchiesi (1997) 195; cf. Hardie (2024) 370: ‘This ending which is also a new beginning is marked by the acrostic’; Robinson (2019a) 49 on how it ‘provid[es] yet another example of how the Metamorphoses constantly fights against its own closure’; cf. Robinson (2019b) 291-2, 300. On the Epilogue of the Metamorphoses as a ‘middle’, see Hardie (2004) 179-82.

53 Vos (2023b).

54 Robinson (2019b) 300, on d.e.s.i.n. at Cat. 36.5-9, also discussing the textual problems there.

55 Vates can also mean ‘prophet’, ‘seer’: see OLD s.v. 1.

56 See, especially, the bibliography at n.8, above; Hejduk (2018), (2020) refers to these phenomena as ‘boosters’.

57 See prima in the context of the m.a.r.s. acrostic at Virg. Aen. 7.603, with Hejduk (2018) 85-7 on triple prima annotating an acrostic at Ov. Met. 3.710-22. In connection with primus, the noun caput at Ecl. 1.10, 53 is potentially noteworthy; cf. OLD s.v. 16b ‘the first letter of a line of verse’, with Hejduk (2018) 81 on caput annotating an acrostic at Virg. G. 4.525-7.

58 Latium… latuisset at Virg. Aen. 8.322-3; cf. Ov. Fast. 1.238 (dicta quoque est Latium terra latente deo). See Beron (2021) 235-7 for further discussion.

59 On the language of hiddenness (e.g. the adjective latebrosus) in the context Virgilian acrostics, see Carter (2002); Hosle (2020).

60 On Aratus’ ἐρευθής (‘red’) moon and possible rubrication, see Hanses (2014) 612-13; on ruborem… rubet at Virg. G. 1.431-2, see Habinek (2009) 131, also noting rubrication of acrostics at Anth. Lat. 214 Riese; on rubuit at Lucan 5.549, see Tomcik (2021) 237-8. Bloodshed (c.a.e.d.e.) is itself an acrostic at Lucan 7.153-8, discussed by Wheeler (2021). In connection with Aratus, it is also possible that omne (‘all’, which begins the line preceding Calpurnius i.n.c.i.p. at 1.58) and pleno… plena (‘full’, in the central and last lines of the acrostic, 1.61, 63) allude to Aratus’ ‘full’ moon gamma acrostic π(αντα).α.σ.α. (Phaen. 803-6); see Levitan (1979) on this passage.

61 E.g. Ov. Her. 5.137 (cornigerumque caput); Fast. 2.268, 3.312, 5.99. See Beron (2021) 156.

62 OLD s.v. cornu 7, whence the quotation; LSJ s.v. κέρας V.3.

63 Text and translation: Kidd (1997).

64 See the bibliography gathered in n.3, above.

65 Virgil: see the bibliography gathered at n.4, above (under Georgics) for the author’s apparent reverse skipped-line signature M.(a).V.(e).P.(u). at 1.430-4 (cornu at 429, 434). Ovid: see Robinson (2019b) 292-4 on signature telestich n.a.s.o. at Met. 1.452-5 (cornua at 455). Lucan: see Giusti (2015) on palindromic t.e.p.e.t. at 1.218-22 (cornu at 218); Tomcik (2021) on disarranged l.u.n.a./lucanu at 5.546-50 (cornu at 546, 548).

66 See Adkin (2016) 25 on the repeated imperative aspice at Virg. Ecl. 4.50, 52, cueing c.a.c.a.t.a.

67 In connection with the adjective sequax, cf. the participle sequentis in Virgil’s signature acrostic (see n.4, above) and compare Robinson (2019b) 296-7 on the verb persequi as signposting the acrostic n.i.t.i.d.o. at Ov. Met. 8.533-8 (verb at 535).

68 See OLD s.v. 8.

69 On the reception history of Aratean acrostics, see especially Kronenberg (2018b), (2019).

70 The name may allude to the milky-named Galatea at Virg. Ecl. 1.30-1, on which see Beron (2021) 152-3.

71 See especially Damschen (2004) 103-6; Korenjak (2009); Hilton (2013); Kronenberg (2018a), (2019).

72 See, e.g., Robinson (2019a) 37. This approach requires caution, however, given the potential circularity of argument.

73 See n.10, above, for my collation of Hilberg’s examples from Calpurnius.

74 There are a total of 16 examples in Latin verse (of which six are reverse).

75 For ‘propitiate’ and ‘expiate’, see OLD s.v. 1 and 2 respectively.

76 See Beron (2021) 214.

77 I note, but press no further, the possibility of acrostic a.p.i.i. (‘oh, pious men’, or indeed ‘of celery’) at 1.66-9. Likewise telestich o.s.t.i.a. (‘cave’) at 1.7-12.

78 See Vinchesi (2014) 15-20, with further references.

79 Mayer (2006) 457-8 canvasses the scholarship that detects anti-imperial sentiment in Calpurnius.

80 Mitchell (2020a).

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Daniel Jolowicz, « Acrostics in Calpurnius Siculus? Some initial suggestions »Dictynna [En ligne], 22 | 2025, mis en ligne le 01 décembre 2025, consulté le 14 janvier 2026. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/dictynna/4154 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/15a2a

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