Quintus Valerius Soranus
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Quintus Valerius Soranus (born between c. 140–130 BC,[1] died 82 BC) was a Latin poet, grammarian, and tribune of the people in the Late Roman Republic. He was executed in 82 BC while Sulla was dictator,[2] ostensibly for violating a religious prohibition against speaking the arcane name of Rome, but more likely for political reasons.[3] The cognomen Soranus is a toponym indicating that he was from Sora.[4]
A single elegiac couplet survives more or less intact from his body of work. The two lines address Jupiter as an all-powerful begetter who is both male and female. This androgynous, unitarian conception of deity,[5] possibly an attempt to integrate Stoic and Orphic doctrine, has made the fragment of interest in religious studies.[6]
Valerius Soranus is also credited with a little-recognized literary innovation: Pliny the Elder says he was the first writer to provide a table of contents to help readers navigate a long work.[7]