Main description (English)

In C. Symm. I 279 Prudentius, criticizing paganism and emperors’ habit of following pagan gods and their omens for war, echoes Manilius’ Astronomica (I 791): with socio per bella Nerone Manilius refers to Livius Salinator’s consulship colleague, Claudius Nero, whereas the plural Nerones in Prudentius’ Contra Symmachum is used by the poet probably alluding to Hor. Carm. IV 4, 28-29. The first part of Manilius’ verse, with the reference to Livius Salinator and Hasdrubal, however, resembles Sil. Pun. XV 593 and also, for Livius only, Enn. Ann. 299 Sk.: even if the fragments of Ennius’ Annales never mention Nero, it’s possible to argue that there might have been several references to him during the account of the Second Punic War in the Annales, and that Manilius’ and Prudentius’ hexameters could have been shaped on a lost Ennian verse.