Gallus, C. CORNELIUS

Gallus, C. CORNELIUS, a Roman poet, born at Forum Julii (mod. Fréjus), in Gaul, about 66 B.C. He lived at Rome in intimate friendship with Virgil, Asinius Pollio, Varus, and Ovid, and was appointed by Augustus prefect of Egypt, but fell deservedly into disfavour and was banished, whereupon he ended his disgrace with his own sword about the year 26 B.C. Gallus was reckoned the founder of the Roman elegy, from his four books of elegies upon his mistress Lycoris, of which but a few slight fragments have come down to us. His name was adopted by W. A. Becker as the title of his well-known picture of Roman domestic life: Gallus, Römische Szenen aus der Zeit Augusts (1838). See Völker, Commentatio de C. Galli vita et scriptis (1840-44).