Fenestella

Roman poet
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Quick Facts
Born:
52 bc
Died:
ad 19
Notable Works:
“Annales”

Fenestella (born 52 bc—died ad 19) was a Latin poet and annalist whose lost work, the Annales, apparently contained a valuable store of antiquarian matter as well as historical narrative of the final century of the Roman Republic. Fenestella was used as a source by the 1st-century-ad historian Pliny the Elder, the 2nd-century biographer Suetonius, and the 4th-century grammarian Diomedes.

Fenestella’s Annales was in at least 22 books and certainly included the year 57 bc, although the exact period it covered is unknown. The few surviving fragments ascribed to Fenestella refer to such varied subjects as the origin of the appeal to the people (provocatio), the use of elephants in the games, the wearing of gold rings, the material for making the toga, and details of the lives of Terence and Cicero.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Encyclopaedia Britannica.