"Scholars led by Paul Schubert of the University of Geneva have translated a poem discovered in the nineteenth century among the papyri at Oxyrhynchus [Egypt]. The poem, written in Greek, deifies Nero’s wife Poppaea Sabina, who is portrayed as a loving spouse as she ascends to the heavenly bodies. Schubert thinks the poem may represent a lost genre of poetry written for members of the imperial family. It is also possible that the piece was part of a longer astrological poem, or it may have been composed to honor the deceased wife of an Egyptian official." (Archeological Headlines)
Whenever I think of the enormous quantity of writings from the ancient world that we know to have been lost -- plays of Aristophanes, Euripedes, Sophocles, Menander; poetry of Ennius; history by Livy and Tacitus; and so much more -- it makes me sad. And the fact of all the mountains of contemporary trivia and trash now being preserved carries an irony that is heavy as lead. So whenever some writing such as the
poem praising Poppaea and Nero is discovered and translated, it lifts my spirits just a little. Perhaps someday they will dig up an ancient library containing all those lost works! (I can dream, can't I?)
