264 Papers on a Latin Acrostic Inscription engraved 
leader of an unsuccessful and disastrous expedition against the Arabians. 
Another Ait1us Gaxuus is said to have held the same post after him in the 
reign of Aucustus, but to have been confounded, even by the Latins, 
sometimes with Aquitius GaLLus, sometimes with Cx. Cornetius GaLwus. 
Little is known of his history. 
But Cyeus Cornetius Gaxtus, the elegiac poet, a friend of. Virei1, 
Portuio, and other great men of that age, a native of Forum Julium 
(either Friuli in Italy or Frejus, probably the latter), greatly assisted Oc- 
ravius in reducing Egypt to a Roman province, and distinguished himself 
by the defence of Parewtonium, a city on the coast of Egypt, which had 
been taken by Octavius, against the attack of M. Antonius. After the 
death of M. Anrony and of Creopatra, he was appointed Prefect of 
Egypt, as a reward for his services, and from motives of policy. His having 
taken this command at the close of the war, and by judicious measures esta- 
blished the peace of the country, may have occasioned the epithet serenificus. 
The circumstances mentioned respecting Cx. Cornetius Gaus, accord 
remarkably with what is said in the exordium of this inscription. The 
Muses, Patztas, and Apoitto, wished to celebrate GaLius, but were dis- 
gusted by the falsehoods, quarrels, and treachery of men, and fled. So it 
is said, that Virert had celebrated him in his fourth Georgic, but that Av- 
custus caused the lines to be omitted by the poet, who substituted the fable 
of Anistmus and the bees. The P. pe La Rue, and after him M. Amar 
Durivier, appear to disbelieve this account, as shewing a degree of sub- 
mission unworthy of Virei ; but it can hardly be supposed that he would 
refuse to comply with the command of such a patron. They contend, also, 
that it is not probable that Aucusrus would have suppressed these lines, 
while those about GaLus, in the tenth Eclogue, were allowed to remain, 
Two good reasons may account for this: first, what is there said of GaLLus 
is not so much te his glory, proving only his weak fondness for Lycoris, 
who is said by some to be the same with Cyrueris, the freed slave of Vo- 
LuMmNius, and who followed M. Antony; but who, if, as Heyne thinks, 
she was not the same, at all events had deserted Gattus, and attached 
herself so much to some other military man, as to have accompanied him 
through a snowy region and a severe campaign : 
© Perque nives alium perque horrida castra secuta est.”—Virg. Ecl. 10. v. 23. 
and, secondly, the Eclogue had been published more than ten years before 
the recall of Gattus, and therefore could not be suppressed; whereas 
