Shakespeare's funerary monument Socrates in genius, a Maro in art," comparing Shakespeare to Nestor the wise King of Pylus, to the Greek philosopher Socrates, and to the Roman poet Virgil (whose last name, or "cognomen" was Maro). The second reads "The earth buries him, the people mourn him, Olympus possesses him," referring to Mount Olympus, the home of the Greek gods. The English poem reads: As modernized by Katherine Duncan-Jones: Stanley Wells is one of the few biographers to comment on the poem, saying that it "somewhat cryptically calls on the passer-by to pay tribute to his greatness as a writer", and admitting
Lucius Afranius (poet) Lucius Afranius (poet) Lucius Afranius was an ancient Roman comic poet, who lived at the beginning of the 1st century BC. Afranius' comedies described Roman scenes and manners (the genre called "comoediae togatae") and the subjects were mostly taken from the life of the lower classes ("comoediae tabernariae"). They were considered by some ancients to be frequently polluted with disgraceful amours, which, according to Quintilian, were only a representation of the conduct of Afranius. He depicted, however, Roman life with such accuracy that he is classed with Menander, from whom indeed he borrowed largely. He imitated the style of Gaius