Not all the rhetoricians cited by Seneca were identical to Latro in their tastes. In the prefaces to the books of "Controversiae" Seneca took pains to identify their distinguishing characteristics and was by no means entirely dismissive of those who fell short of his Latronian ideal. At one point he refers to a "primum tetradeum", meaning the four most distinguished declaimers he had known. One should note the inclusion, in this distinguished group, alongside Latro, Gallio and Albucius Silus, of Arellius Fuscus, about whose style he expresses serious reservations in his second preface, for its unevenness and, in particular, with regard to the descriptive passages ("explicationes") characteristic of it, which he considered 'brilliant, but laboured and involved, with a decorative finish too contrived, and word-positioning too effeminate, to be tolerable for a mind preparing itself for such holy and courageous teachings.' But there was no denying the distinction of the school of Arellius Fuscus, whose pupils included the philosophical writer Fabianus and the poet Ovid, so it is understandable why, even in the judgement of a severe critic, he had to be ranked so highly. Albucius, too was influential, the author of a textbook which Quintilian was to cite several times. The elder Seneca's declamatory anthology in fact presents a far-reaching critical investigation of the rhetorical substrata underlying the mannerist 'Silver Age' literature in which, after Ovid, the younger Seneca's sententious philosophical disquisitions and dramatic art and, in the next generation, Lucan's fiery and agitated epic poetry stand out as among the most striking examples.