AULUS, a Latin poet in the reign of Nero, celebrated for his satires. He was born, according to some, at Volterra in Tuscany; and according to others, at Tigullia, in the gulf Della Specia, in the year 34. He was educated till 12 years old at Volterra; and afterwards continued his studies at Rome under Palamon the grammarian, Virginius the rhetorician, and Cornutus the Stoic philosopher, who contracted a friendship for him. Persius consulted that illustrious friend in the composition of his verses. Lucian also studied with him under Cornutus; and appeared so charmed with his verses, that he was incessantly breaking out into exclamations at the beautiful passages in his satires: an example rarely seen in poets of equal rank. He was a steady friend, a good son, an affectionate brother and parent. He was chaste, meek, and modest: which shows how wrong it is to judge of a man's morals by his writings; for the satires of Persius are not only licentious, but sharp and full of bitterness. He wrote but seldom; and it was some time before he applied himself regularly to it.

Persius was of a weak constitution, and troubled with a bad stomach, which was the cause of his death in the 30th year of his age. Six of his satires remain; in their judgments of which the critics have been much divided, excepting as to their obscurity, Persius being indeed the most obscure of all the Latin poets. As a poet, he is certainly inferior to Horace and Juvenal; and all the labours of Isaac Caulbon, who has written a most learned and elaborate commentary upon him, cannot make him equal to either of them as a satirist, though in virtue and learning he exceeded them both. He was a professed imitator of Horace; yet had little of Horace's wit, ease, and talent at ridicule. His style is grand, figurative, poetical, and suitable to the dignity of the Stoic philosophy: and hence he shines most in recommending virtue and integrity: here it is that satire becomes him. He was too grave to court the muses with facettes: but he had a great soul, susceptible of noble sentiments, which give a grace but to indifferent poetry. His contemporaries thought highly of him. Quintilian allows, that Persius, although he wrote but one book of satires, acquired a great deal of true glory, Multum et verae gloriae quamos uno libro Persius meruit: and Martial says much the same thing, Sapius in libro memoratur Persius uno, &c.