Plotius Tucca

Plotius Tucca ("fl" 35 BC) was a Roman poet and a friend of Virgil's. He was in the circle of friends with Virgil and Maecenas, as indicated by Horace ("Satires"). Virgil regarded him as senior and more admired than he himself was (Hollis 187), and Horace deemed him the preeminent writer of epic poetry of the 30's. According to Donatus's "Life of Virgil," after Virgil's death, Plotius was one of two executors of Virgil's literary remains -- one of two who helped publish the "Aeneid" on Augustus's orders (the other being Varius Rufus).

Plotius's own works are almost entirely lost. While Macrobius quotes one section of Plotius's "de Morte," a poem in hexameter, the full title of the work is unknown. It is possible that it was an epic on the death of Julius Caesar, which would have been pleasing to the court of Augustus and Maecenas, but it is impossible to know. Hollis reports, additionally, that Tucca may have been an Epicurean. Because none of his works have survived, Plotius is known today only in connection with the poetry of Horace and Virgil.

References

*Harrison, Stephen J. "Plotius Tucca." In Hornblower, Simon and Antony Spawforth, eds. "The Oxford Classical Dictionary." Oxford: Oxford UP, 2003. 1200.
*Hollis, A. S. "L. Varius Rufus, De Morte (Frs. 1-4 Morel)". In "The Classical Quarterly, New Series," 27(1),1977. 187-190