Krey—John of Salisbury and the Classics. 
971 
draws too from the Eclogues, and he ranks the wisdom of the 
rural shepherd as far superior to that of the men of his own 
time—“Unde apud Virgilium compos sui pastor, et sapientibus 
et viris nostri temporis doctior, ait” adding a quotation from 
the Eclogues. These are hut instances of the constant use 
which he makes of these works. The whole Polycraticus fairly 
teems with Virgilian allusions and expressions. 
Next to Virgil, Lucan occupies the second place in the af¬ 
fections of John for the ancient epics. This writer, whose 
Pharsalia Otto of Freising is said to have carried as a diversion 
on his journey to Pome, was a general favorite with the 
scholars of the twelfth century. The Pharsalia, John relates, 
was used along with the Aeneid as a text hook full of ethical 
teachings, hut he does not rank Lucan with Virgil. 1 On the 
contrary, he accepts Quintilian’s estimate of him “Immit enim 
poeta doctissimus; si tamen poeta dicendus est, qui vera nar- 
ratione rerum ad historicos magis accedit * * * ” and 
calls him “poeta gravissimus” and “Mathematicus” 2 but his 
many and long quotations from this work show that he ap¬ 
preciated it none the less. 
Statius, the other popular epic poet of the time is not so great 
a favorite with John, for he quotes him only ten times. 
These quotations, however, are taken from all the hooks of the 
Thebais and as but few of them can be found in the mediaeval 
text-books it would seem that the Thebes, at least, was not en¬ 
tirely unknown to John. His familiar use of titles like “apud 
Statium,” “Papinius” and “Photinus,” in introducing quota¬ 
tions from this source indicates that he knew Statius quite 
well. 3 
That other much discussed poet, Ovid, who so greatly shocked 
some of the more orthodox and aged scholars of the Middle 
Ages, was treated by John as an ethical teacher. With the 
ultra-fastidious condemnation of this writer, John is not all 
^igne, p. 854. 
2 Ibid, p. 441. 
3 Ennius and Accius, however, who are also quoted, were probably not 
known to John for the quotations from both of these can be traced back 
directly to other sources. 
