Licinius Macer Calvus

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Gaius Licinius Macer Calvus (82 BC - c. 47 BC) was an orator and poet of ancient Rome.

Son of Licinius Macer and thus a member of the gens Licinia, he was a friend of the poet Catullus, whose style and subject matter he followed. Calvus' oratical style opposed the "Asian" school in favor of a simpler Attic model: he characterized Cicero as wordy and artificial. Twenty-one speeches are mentioned, including several against Publius Vatinius.

Calvus was apparently short, since Catullus alludes to him as salaputium disertum (eloquent Lilliputian).

F. Plessis published fragments of Calvus in 1896.

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