Cynegetica (Nemesianus)

The Cynegetica is a didactic Latin poem about hunting by Marcus Aurelius Olympius Nemesianus. The poem is usually dated to 283/284 A.D. - as it refers to the reign of the Roman Emperors Carinus and Numerian (AD 283 - 284).

The following structural division of the poem is proposed by Toohey

The Cynegetica is written in hexameter verse.

Duff and Duff note the following metrical features (some of which are features of later Latin literature):

325 lines of the Cynegetica survive. It is generally agreed that the poem is incomplete.

It is uncertain whether Nemesianus never finished the poem, or whether it was finished but that sections have subsequently been lost. Martin takes the view that the poem was finished, but lost in transmission, referring to the fact that Vospiscus mentions it as a literary achievement (assuming that an unfinished work would not be so mentioned) and by reference to Haupt's textual analysis (based on the fact that the final leaf of a manuscript is filled completely).

It is unknown how long the Cynegetica originally was. Williams cites the length of Oppian's four volume Cynegetica as a precedent for a reasonably long work - although notes that there is no evidence that Nemesianus' Cynegetica was as long. Toohey estimates that Nemesianus' poem was at least 400 lines long, on the basis of the length of its proem.

Toohey notes that the Cynegetica displays the typical features of the tradition of ancient Greek and Latin didactic poetry: an addressee, detailed technical instructions, narrative or mythological panels, the use of hexameter verse and a likely original length of over 400 lines.

Toohey considers that the Cynegetica offers "a literature of escape": i.e. escape from/alternative to the concerns of city and public life and that it is fixated on leisure. In this regard, Toohey sees the Cynegetica's preoccupation with escapism and leisure as an exception to the general themes of didactic poetry of the same period (which he terms the "sixth phase" of didactic poetry) and as representing the extreme end of the didactic tradition (contrasting with Hesiod's concern with work and the participation in social justice at the other end of this spectrum).

There are several extant works of Ancient Greek and Latin literature on the subject of hunting that predate Nemesianus' Cynegetica - some in written in prose, others in verse: Xenophon's Cynegetica (in Greek), Arrian of Nicodemus' supplement to Xenophon's work focusing on Greyhound coursing (also in Greek), Oppian's Cynegetica in four books (in Greek) and Grattius' Latin poem, of which 541 verses survive

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