Note 6 — Chapter VIII

contrasts the defeat of M. Popillius Laenas in 138 b.c. with the subsequent successes of Scipio. In another fragment Lucilius charges Scipio with affectation for pronouncing the word 'pertaesum' as if it were 'pertisum6.' He is also mentioned as one of those whose criticism Lucilius dreaded7. These and other passages must have been written in the lifetime of Scipio—i.e. before 129 b.c. Thus, if the date assigned for the birth of Lucilius is correct, he must have served in the Numantine War at the age of fourteen or fifteen, he must have been admitted into the most intimate familiarity with the greatest man of the age, and must have composed some books of his Satires, and thus introduced a new form of literature, before the age of nineteen. L. Müller in his edition of the Fragments adduces other considerations for rejecting the dates given by Jerome, such as the allusions to the career of Lupus (whom he supposes to be the same as the Censor of 147 b.c.) and to the war with Viriathus. He holds also that the words of Horace—