Flaccus, Gaius Valerius

Very little is known of the Roman poet Gaius Valerius Flaccus' life, but he may have died about ad 90, because Quintilian mourns his recent death in his Institutio oratoria, a work written before ad 96. The ARGONAUTICA, his only surviving work, is an epic poem in hexameter verse, dedicated to the Emperor Vespasian. It describes the famous voyage of the ship Argo in which Jason and other heroes sailed to Colchis to bring the Golden Fleece back to Thessaly. The poem breaks off in Book VIII with Medea begging Jason not to send her back to Colchis. The poet may have died at this point, or the end