Note 1559 — SULPICIA.

Cætera. From the high compliment paid to her chastity and poetical powers by Martial, it is probable that Sulpicia had composed many poems before the present Satire. From the metre Martial chooses for his complimentary effusion, and from the testimony of the old Scholiast, it is probable these verses were in Hendecasyllabics; or at all events in some lyrical metre. There was a poetess named Cornificia in the time of Augustus, who wrote some good Epigrams. She was the sister of Cornificius, the reputed enemy of Virgil (vid. Clinton, F. H., in ann. B.C. 41), but as she was not a lyrical poetess, Sulpicia claims the palm to herself.