Bavius and Maevius were two stupid and malevolent critics in the age of Augustus Caesar who belittled and attacked the talents of superior writers. In particular, they attacked the work of Virgil and Horace. Alexander Pope mentions Bavius in his 1732 Dunciad Variorum and explains, in a note, that he was a poet mentioned in Virgil as a critic of Horace's. He reports that John Dennis thought Bavius "and Maevius had (even in Augustus's days) a very formidable Party at Rome, who thought them much superior to Virgil and Horace: For (saith he) I cannot believe they would have fix'd that eternal brand upon them, if they had not been conxcombs in more than ordinary credit." Like the "dunces" in Pope's own Dunciad, little is known of Bavius and Maevius except that they were very dim and spiteful critics. Pope makes Bavius the agent of his goddess of Dulness. He dips the transmigrating souls in Lethe, making them stupid before they are born to become hack writers.
N.b. material in this article is taken from the public domain 1828 edition of Lempriere's Dictionary.
