Eleven eclogues have been handed down to us under his name, of which the last four, from metrical considerations and express manuscript testimony, are now generally attributed to Nemesianus, who lived in the time of the emperor Carus and his sons (latter half of the 3rd century).
[2] Evidence put forward for this Neronian dating includes the fact that, in Calpurnius's eclogues I, IV, and VII, the emperor is described as a handsome youth, like Mars and Apollo, whose accession marks the beginning of a new golden age, prognosticated by the appearance of a comet, which is argued to be the same that appeared some time before the death of Claudius; he exhibits splendid games in the amphitheatre (probably the wooden amphitheatre erected by Nero in 57); and in the words maternis causam qui vicit Iulis[a] (i.45) there is a reference to the speech delivered in Greek by Nero on behalf of the Ilienses (Suetonius, Nero, 7; Tacitus, Annals, xii.58), from whom the Julii derived their family.
From this it is deduced that Calpurnius was in poor circumstances and was on the point of emigrating to Spain, when a patron (represented in the poems by a certain Meliboeus) came to his aid.
Of his models the chief is Virgil, of whom (under the name of Tityrus) he speaks with great enthusiasm; he is also indebted to Ovid and Theocritus.
The author of the Laus is young, of respectable family and desirous of gaining the favour of Piso as his Maecenas.
[1] Mention may here be made of the fragments of two short hexameter poems known as the Einsiedeln Eclogues, which share similarities with the poetry of Calpurnius.