HOSTIUS

hostius, roman epic poet, probably flourished in the 2nd century b.c. he was the author of a _bellum histricum_ in at least seven books, of which only a few fragments remain. the poem is probably intended to celebrate the victory gained in 129 by gaius sempronius tuditanus (consul and himself an annalist) over the illyrian iapydes (appian, _illyrica_, 10; livy, _epit._ 59). hostius is supposed by some to be the "doctus avus" alluded to in propertius (iv. 20. 8), the real name of propertius's cynthia, according to apuleius (_apologia_ x.) and the scholiast on juvenal (vi. 7), being hostia (perhaps roscia). fragments in e. bahrens, _fragmenta poetarum romanorum_ (1884); a. weichert, _poetarum latinorum reliquiae_ (1830).