CAECUS VALERIUS, a Roman poet, of whose personal history little is known. He was contemporary with Martial, who addressed one of his epigrams to him, in which he urges him to exchange literary for legal pursuits as more likely to lead to fortune. He seems to have been a native of Padua, though, from the names Settus Balbus found appended to some MS. copies of his works, some writers have attempted to show that he was born at Setia in Latium. The time of his death is equally uncertain. From the somewhat vague sentence of Quintilian "Multum in Valerio Flacco nuper amissimus," it may be inferred that he died about the year 88 A.D., while still a youth. Flaccus' only known work, the Argonautica, is rather imitated than translated from the Greek of Apollonius. Though it abounds in episodes and digressions, sometimes wearisome and amid which the action of the plot is altogether lost sight of; it nevertheless contains many passages of fine description and poetical sentiment; and it has been remarked that those parts of the work are best in which he disregards his original model and works out scenes and incidents of his own invention. His diction is pure, though strange words sometimes occur, and ordinary words are sometimes found with unusual meanings. The sense is likewise occasionally obscured by the useless display of erudition in which Flaccus delighted, by the frequency of remote allusion, and the employment of far-fetched and unnatural similes. Altogether, Flaccus is an author much more admired than read. He appears to have been wholly unknown to the scholars of the middle ages. His works were first brought to light by Poggio Bracciolini, who discovered a MS. copy of part of the work in 1416 in the monastery of St. Gall. Of the numerous editions which have appeared since that date, the best is that of Peter Burman, Leyden, 1724. The Argonautica has been translated into English by Nicholas Whyte, 1565, under the title, "The story of Jason, how he gotte the golden fleece, and how he did begyle Media;" out of Latin into English; into Italian by Pindemonte, Verona, 1776; into German by Wunderlich, Erfurt, 1805; and into French by De Lamalle, Paris, 1811.