69-26 B.C.E.
Poet, Statesman

New Genre. Born in southern France in 69 B.C.E., Gallus became quite involved in Augustus's new administration. He may have helped Vergil win back his expropriated farm. In the 40s he wrote a four-book collection of Amores in which he sings about his beloved Lycoris. All but eleven lines of this work are lost; historians think that he drew on Hellenistic love epigram, scenes from comedy, Hellenistic pastoral poetry, and narrative elegy to form the new genre of love-elegy. After the defeat of Cleopatra and Marc Antony he became the first governor of the new province of Egypt, the first governor to report directly to the emperor rather than the senate. In 26 B.C.E. he committed some indiscretion that upset Augustus so much that Gallus committed suicide. His books were removed from the public libraries and were...