V % \ \ / V t HISTORY OF ROMAN LITERATURE. ’rin ted by Ballantyne and Co. Edinburgh. HI ST OR Y /" OF 'V'tot****. ROMAN LITERATURE, DURING THE AUGUSTAN AGE. BY ;/V JOHN DUNLOP, Esq. X> AUTHOR OF THE HISTORY OF FICTION. VOL. III. LONDON: PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN, PATERNOSTER-ROW. 1828. *)STOK X):, u «■ T 7 J < - . . -rrr- r i. I - l Vi v. v BOSTON COLLEGE LIBRARY CHESTNUT HILL, MASS. 130343 ERRATA. Page 188, last line, for umina read lumina. Page 195, 4th line from bottom, for care read cares. Page 223, line 8, for read rtiv. Page 588, line 21, for et read ut. . HISTORY OF ROMAN LITERATURE, &c VOL. III. A HISTORY OF ROMAN LITERATURE, &c. The Sun of Roman liberty set at Philippi; but it had so long struggled amid sanguine clouds, that the night of despotism which followed was less dreadful than the bloody and disastrous glare it had shed since the days of Sylla. The ruin of the Roman Republic had been pre¬ pared, first , by its extended dominion, which gave 4 AUGUSTUS. its generals at a distance from the capital the disposal of armies ; and secondly , by the dissensions between the higher and lower orders of the state, which af¬ forded an opportunity to each ambitious leader to car¬ ry on his factious designs while assuming the plausi¬ ble pretext of defending the laws from the encroach¬ ments of the hostile party. At length, the total subversion of the Common¬ wealth, by Julius Caesar, showed how much could be accomplished by the support of a faction in the city, and the power of an army, in a remote government, intrusted for a term of years to an aspiring command¬ er. The authority, however, which Caesar had usurp¬ ed, was exerted by him for the reformation of abuses, and the remedy of those disorders to which Rome had so long been subject, and to which, perhaps, he alone was capable of applying a cure. But the measures which he was adopting to confirm his despotic power, and heal the distractions of the state, were quickly arrested by the vengeance of an ill-concerted conspi¬ racy. It is evident that the assassination of Caesar was an unpopular act at Rome, except among the few re¬ maining heads of the old Senatorian party. The armies and provinces were in the hands of his dependents, and Italy was thronged with his discharged veterans; yet the conspirators seem to have looked no farther than the death of Caesar, and to have supposed, that when he was destroyed, the senate and people, with¬ out farther impediment, would resume their ancient forms and privileges. They had formed no definite AUGUSTUS. 5 plan of ulterior operations: the blow which they had struck with the daring of men, was followed up with the imbecility of children , 1 and their country was in consequence overwhelmed with calamities more dread¬ ful than those from which they had vainly hoped to rescue it. There can be little doubt that Caesar had intended his grand-nephew, Octavius, as his successor in the empire ; 2 perceiving, probably, in that precocious youth the germ of those talents, which Sylla had foreseen in himself. Octavius had passed his boyhood in the fa¬ mily of his uncle; he had accompanied him to Spain, in the expedition against the sons of Pompey , 3 and had been sent by him, about six months before his death, to complete his education in the Greek city of Apollonia. It was there he first heard of the assas¬ sination of his protector ; and he immediately set out for Rome, where he arrived a weakly student from the schools of Greece, in the most difficult and momen¬ tous crisis which had yet occurred in the history of his country. Before he could reach the capital, An¬ tony had sufficient leisure to concert various measures calculated to secure his own power, and to possess him¬ self of the whole public treasure, which had been amassed by Caesar. Octavius, with one object ever in view, but veering about with wonderful dexterity in his professions, perceived, in a short while, that his 1 Animis enim usi sumus virilibus ; consiliis, mihi crede, puerili- bus. Cicero, Epist. ad Attic. Lib. XV. ep. 4. ed. Schiitz, Lips. 18] 6, 2 Dio Cassius, Lib. XLV. 5 Suetonius, In Augusto , c. 8. 6 AUGUSTUS. only chance of success against this formidable oppo¬ nent, was to place himself at the head of the Sena¬ torial! party, by whose aid he nearly ruined his dan¬ gerous rival at Modena. The Consuls, Hirtius and Pansa, having been slain in the memorable combats which were fought under the walls of that city, Oc¬ tavius marched to Pome to demand the first magis¬ tracy of the state at the head of his army. Meanwhile, the reduced strength of Antony was recruited by the forces of Pollio, Plancus, and Lepidus, from Gaul and Spain. After this accession, it became apparent that Antony and Octavius were destined to form the pre¬ ponderating powers in the commonwealth. They met near Bologna, where, along with Lepidus, they esta¬ blished the inauspicious triumvirate, and entered into a sanguinary convention, by which it was agreed to de¬ stroy the legal government—to put their mutual ene¬ mies to death—divide the lands of the richest towns and colonies in Italy among their soldiers—distribute the provinces of the Republic among themselves, and proceed in the following spring against Brutus and Cassius, who still upheld the party of the Common¬ wealth in Greece and Asia. These bloody and illegal designs were all fully accomplished. The former Tri¬ umvirs had wished only to obtain power; their succes¬ sors had resentments to gratify, vengeance to exercise, and lawless troops to satiate. They massacred in cold blood the chiefs of the Republic who had remained in Italy; they overthrew its legions at Philippi; and Sextus Pompey, who, for some time after that fatal AUGUSTUS. 7 combat, maintained by his naval power an image of the Commonwealth in Sicily, at length fell a victim to the jealousy and engrossing ambition of the trium- viral tyrants. But the blood which these usurpers had so pro¬ fusely shed, did not cement their unhallowed alliance. So jarring were their interests, and so unprincipled their motives, that distrust and discord could hardly fail to arise among them. Antony, intoxicated with love, and wine, and power, was long watched by a sober and subtle rival. Various temporary, but inef¬ fectual expedients, were tried to adjust their differen¬ ces, and to heal the mutual jealousies and suspicions, which rankled in their bosoms. Lepidus was deprived of his share of sovereignty, without a blow: One blow hurled Antony from his sumptuous throne, and Octavius passed through the gates of Alexandria to the undisputed empire of the world. When the genius of Octavius had thus successive¬ ly triumphed over his adversaries, and when he re¬ mained without a rival, his counsels, and perhaps even his temper, changed. 5. 24 AUGUSTUS. Gallus, and an offensive poem was made at least the pretext for the exile of Ovid. The patronage of a prince, however liberal and ju¬ dicious, can seldom of itself be sufficient essentially to promote the interests of literature ; but his example spreads among his courtiers and the Great of the land. Accordingly, there never was an age in which the learned were so rewarded and encouraged by states¬ men, politicians, and generals, as that which grateful posterity has stamped with the name of Augustus. Its literature, more than that of any other period, was the result of patronage and court favour, and conse¬ quently we must expect to find in it those excellencies and defects which patronage and court favour are cal¬ culated to produce. Nothing can be more obvious than the advantages which the literature of a nation derives from men of elevated rank aiding its progress, and co-operating to promote its expansion. They re¬ move the contempt which in rude ages has been some¬ times felt for it, and the prejudices which, in more ci- \ vilized states of society, have been frequently enter¬ tained against it. Their influence insensibly extends itself to each department of literature, and their coun¬ trymen learn to judge of everything, and to treat everything, as if they were all animated with a dig¬ nified and patrician spirit . 1 It is to this exalted patronage that Homan literature has been indebted for a large portion of its characteristic greatness, both of expression and of thought. On the other hand. 1 Schlegel’s Lectures on Literature , 3d. AUGUSTUS. 25 those compositions, particularly the poetical, which have been produced by command of a patron, or with a view to merit his approbation, have always an air as if they had proceeded rather from premeditation than feeling or impulse, and appear to have been written, not as the natural expression of powerful emotions, but from the desire of favour, or at best of fame. When an author, too, depends solely on the patronage of exalted individuals, and not, as in modern times, on the sup¬ port of the public, a spirit of servility and flattery is apt to infuse itself into his writings. Yet to this sys¬ tem of adulation we owe some of the sweetest lines of Tibullus, and most splendid passages of Virgil! At the commencement of the reign of Augustus, the old Caesarians, Balbus Matius, and Oppius, men who were highly accomplished, and had been the chief personal friends of the great Julius, still survived, and led the way in every species of learning and elegance. Their correspondence with Cicero, in his Familiar Epistles, exhibits much refinement in the individuals, and in general a highly polished state of society. They had a taste for gardening, planting, and architecture, and all those various arts which contribute to the em¬ bellishment of life. They rewarded the verses of poets, listened to their productions, and courted their society. When Augustus landed in Italy from Apollonia, Bal¬ bus was the first person who came to offer his services, and Matius took charge of the shows which he exhi¬ bited on his arrival at Borne. These ancient friends of the Julian line continued, during the early part of his reign, to frequent the court of Augustus ; and 26 MAECENAS. though not first in favour with the new sovereign, they felt no jealousy of their successor, but lived on the most cordial and intimate terms with Maecenas, who now held, near the person of the adopted son, the enviable place which they had occupied with the fa¬ ther. To this favourite minister of Augustus the honour is due of having most successfully followed out the views of his master for promoting the interests of li¬ terature. Some w T riters have alleged that after the battle of Actium, a deliberate design was formed by Maecenas to soften the heart of Augustus, and that, among the arts which he employed for this purpose, one of the chief was the encouragement of learned men and poets, who should imperceptibly give him lessons of moderation, and incline his heart to justice and cle¬ mency. But this is refining too much; and it seems more probable, that in his patronage of literature, Maecenas merely acted from the orders, or followed the example, of his master . 1 Caius Cilnius Maecenas was descended, it is said, from Elbius Volterrenus, the last king, or rather Lucumon of the Etrurians, who perished in the 445th year of the city, at the battle near the Lake 1 Wieland, in the introduction to his translation of Horace's epistles, has contended at considerable length, but with no great success, that the merits of Maecenas, as a patron of literature, have been much overrated, and that, in his protection of Horace and Vir¬ gil, no uncommon exertion of generosity was displayed. He has been more fortunate in showing, that his voluptuous example tended to corrupt the manners of the superior classes of Roman citizens, and to introduce a higher style of luxury than had before prevailed. BOSTON COLLEGE LiBRAR' ghestnut hill . mass . MAECENAS. Vadimona, which finally brought his country under total subjection to the Romans. His immediate an¬ cestors were Roman knights, who, having been at length incorporated into the State, held high com¬ mands in the army , 1 and Maecenas would never con¬ sent to leave their class to be enrolled among the Senators : but he was proud, (as may be conjectured, from its frequent mention by the poets,) of his sup¬ posed descent from the old Etrurain princes. It is not known in what year he was born, or in what man¬ ner he spent his youth ; but Meibomius 2 conjectures, that he was educated at Apollonia along with Au¬ gustus and Agrippa; and that this formed the com¬ mencement of their memorable friendship. He is not mentioned in the history of his country, till we hear of his accompanying Augustus to Rome, after the battle of Modena. He was also with him at Philippi, and attended him during the whole course of the na¬ val wars against Sextus Pompey, except when he was sent at intervals by his master to Rome, in order by his presence to quell those disturbances, which during this period frequently broke out in the capital. In the battle of Actium he commanded the light Libur- nian galleys, which greatly contributed to gain the victory for Augustus, and he gave chase with them to Antony, when he fled after the galley of Cleopatra. 1 Nec quod avus tibi maternus fuit atque paternus, Olim qui magnis legionibus imperitarint. Horat. Sat. Lib. I. 6. 2 Mcecenas , sive de C. Mcecenatis Vita , Moribus, et Rebus Gestis, JAher Singularis , Lugd. Bat. 1653. 4to. 28 MAECENAS. During the absence of his master in Egypt, Maece¬ nas, in virtue of his office of Prefect, was intrusted with the chief administration of affairs in Italy, and particularly with the civil government of the capital . 1 After Augustus had returned from Egypt without a rival, and the affairs of the Empire proceeded in a re¬ gular course, Maecenas shared with Agrippa the fa¬ vour and confidence of his sovereign. While Agrippa was intrusted with affairs requiring activity, gravity, and force, those which were to he accomplished by persuasion and address, were committed to Maecenas. The advice which he gave to Augustus in the cele¬ brated consultation with regard to his proposed re¬ signation of the empire, was preferred to that of Agrip¬ pa—Maecenas having justly represented that it would not be for the advantage of Pome to be left without a head to the government, as the vast empire now re¬ quired a single chief to maintain peace and order ; that Augustus had already advanced too far to recede with safety ; and that, if divested of absolute power, he would speedily fall a victim to the resentment of the friends or relatives of those whom he had former¬ ly sacrificed to his own security . 2 Having agreed to retain the government, Augus¬ tus asked and obtained from Maecenas a general plan for its administration. His minister laid down for him rules regarding the reformation of the Senate— the nomination of magistrates—the collection of taxes 1 Pedo Albino vanus, Epiced, Mcecen. ~ Dio Cassius. MAECENAS. 90 ^ 1/ —the establishment of schools—the government of provinces—the levy of troops—the equalization of weights and measures'—the suppression of tumultuous assemblies, and support of religious observances. His measures on all these points, as detailed by Dio Cas¬ sius, show consummate political wisdom and know¬ ledge in the science of government. Maecenas had often mediated between Antony and Augustus, and healed the mutual wounds which their ambition inflicted. But when his master had at length triumphed in the contest, the great object of his at¬ tention was to secure the permanence of the govern¬ ment. For this purpose, he had spies in all corners, to pry into every assembly, and to watch the motions of the people. By these means, the imprudent plots of Lepidus 1 and Muraena were discovered and sup¬ pressed, without danger or disturbance; and at length no conspiracies were formed. At the same time, and with a similar object, he did all in his power to render the administration of Augustus moderate and just; and as he perfectly understood all the weaknesses and virtues of his character, he easily bent his disposition to the side of mercy. While he himself, as Prefect of the city, had retained the capital in admirable order and subjection, he was yet remarkable for the mild¬ ness with which he exercised this important office, to which belonged the management of all civil affairs in the absence of the Emperor, the regulation of build¬ ings, provisions, and commerce, and the cognizance of all crimes committed within a hundred miles of the 1 Velleius Paterculus, Hist. Homan. Lib. II. c. 88. 30 MAECENAS. capital. Seneca, who is by no means favourable in other respects to the character of Maecenas, allows him a full tribute of praise for his clemency and mild¬ ness: “ Maxima laus ilii tribuitur mansuetudinis; pe- percit gladio, sanguine abstinuit; nec ulla alia re quid posset, quam licentia, ostendit .” 1 So sensible was Augustus of the benefits which his government derived from the counsels and wise ad¬ ministration of Maecenas, and such his high opinion of his sagacity, fidelity, and secrecy, that everything which concerned him, whether political or domestic, was confided to this minister. Such, too, were the terms of intimacy on which they lived, that the Em¬ peror, when he fell sick, always made himself be car¬ ried to the house of Maecenas : So difficult was it to find repose in the habitation of a Prince! During the most important and arduous periods of his administration, and while exercising an almost unremitting assiduity, Maecenas had still the appear¬ ance of being sunk in sloth and luxury. Though he could exert himself with the utmost activity and vi¬ gilance, when these were required, yet, in his hours of freedom, he indulged himself in as much ease and softness as the most delicate lady in Pome . 2 He was moderate in his desire of wealth or honours ; he was probably indolent and voluptuous by nature and in¬ clination ; and he rather wished to exhibit than con¬ ceal his faults. But the thundering applause, which, 1 Epist . 114. ed. Lips. 1805. 2 Velleius Paterculus, Lib. II. c. 88. .MAECENAS. 31 we are told by Horace, resounded through the thea¬ tre, when he first appeared in that place of public resort, after a long and severe indisposition , 1 evinces that his manners succeeded in gaining him popularity among his fellow-citizens. Dio Cassius also informs us, that he was beloved by those round the person of Augustus, to whose jealousy and envy he was more immediately exposed. That air of effeminate ease, which he ever assumed, was perhaps good policy, in reference both to the Prince and people. Neither could be jealous of a minister, who was apparently so careless and indifferent, and who seemed occupied chiefly with his magnificent villas and costly furni¬ ture. He usually came abroad with a negligent gait, and in a loose garb. When he went to the Theatre, Forum, or Senate, his ungirt robe trailed on the ground ; and he wore a little cloak, with a hood like a fugitive slave in a pantomime. Instead of being followed by lictors or tribunes, he appeared in all pub¬ lic places attended by two eunuchs . 2 He possessed a magnificent and spacious villa on the Esquiline Hill, to which a tower adjoined , 3 commanding a view of all the hills of Rome and the surrounding country, in 1 Horat. Od. Lib. II. 17. 2 Senec. Epist. 114. 5 It was inhabited by Tiberius for some time after his return to Rome from his long exile at Rhodes, (Sueton. In Tiber, c. 15.) From the summit of this tower the miserable Nero, who had en¬ larged the villa of Maecenas to an imperial palace, is said to have surveyed the conflagration of Rome, enjoying the sight, and singing in a stage dress the destruction of Ilium. (Sueton. In Nerone, c. 38.) 32 MAECENAS. different directions, as far as Tibur, Tusculum, and Prseneste. The inner walls of this villa were of foreign marble, the ceiling glittered with gold, and the floors were of corresponding splendour. All the apartments were richly furnished. The tables were particularly costly, and of various forms. Having a passion for gems and pearls, Maecenas had many jewellers and engravers in his employment, and his cabinet was adorned with all sorts of trinkets and precious stones, which his freedman Thalation had engraved and had set in gold . 1 Each chamber was likewise stored with precious oint¬ ments, and with every species of balsam, perfume, and essence, which might be refreshing or agreeable to the senses. The Gardens of Maecenas , 2 which surrounded the villa, were among the most delightful in Home or its vicinity. The ground which was given to him by Augustus, to lay out in gardens, was previously the most unhealthy spot in the city. It had formerly been a burying place, where the bodies of slaves, and of those who had squandered their estates, were con¬ fusedly interred . 3 The air, in consequence, was un¬ wholesome, and noxious to the whole town. But Mae- 3 Meibomius, De Vit. Mcecen. c. 21. 2 Montfaucon, with many other antiquaries, place the site of Maecenas’ gardens between the Church of Santa Martina dei Monti and the Aggere Tarquinio ; but the Abate Venuti, perhaps with more probability, thinks that they occupied the space which was af¬ terwards in great part covered with the vast fabric of the Baths of Titus, and where now stands the Church of St Pietro ad Vincula. 3 Horat. Sat. Lib. I. 8. A MAECENAS. 33 cenas converted this cemetery into a spot the most sa¬ lubrious and delightful; adorning it with every spe¬ cies of rare and exotic plants, and forming walks, along which were placed statues of the most exquisite sculp¬ ture. Here, seated in the cool shade of his green spreading trees, whence the most musical birds con¬ stantly warbled their harmonious notes, he was ac¬ customed to linger, and pay at idle hours his court to the Muses— Pieridas Phcebumque colens in mollibus liortis, Sederat argutas garrulus inter ayes. 1 In one corner of this garden stood a temple to Pri- apus, where Maecenas often resorted with his friends, who there recited, or inscribed on the u^alls, the verses which they had composed in honour of the productive god. These poems were written in the style supposed to be suitable to the divinity whom they celebrated . 2 3 Hence was formed the collection which derives its name from Priapus, and to which Tibullus, and even Virgil, are said to have contributed. Being fond of change and singularity, the style of Maecenas’ entertainments varied. They were some¬ times profuse and magnificent, at others elegant and private; but they were always inimitable in point of taste and fancy. He was the first person who in¬ troduced at Borne the luxury of young mules’ flesh ; s 1 Pedo Albinovanus, Eleg. 2 Convenientes poetse pro re et loco carniina aftigebant.—Lib Gyrald. De Poet. Lat. Dialog. IV. 3 Pliny, Hist. Nat . Lib. VIII. c. 43. VOL. HI. C 34 MAECENAS. his table was served with the most delicious wines, among which was one of Italian growth, and most ex¬ quisite flavour, called from his name Maecenatianum ; l and hence, too, the luxurious Trimalchio, who is the Magister Convivii in the Satyricon of Petronius Ar¬ biter, is called Maecenatianus, from his imitating the style of Maecenas’ entertainments. His sumptuous board was thronged with parasites, whom he also frequently carried about to sup with his friends , 2 and his house was filled by musicians, buf¬ foons, and actors of mimes or pantomimes, with Ba- thyllus at their head. These were strangely inter¬ mingled in his palace with tribunes, clerks, and lie- tors. But there, too, were Horace, and Varius, and Yalgius, and Virgil! Of these distinguished poets, and of many other literary men, Msecenas was, during his whole life, the patron, protector, and friend. Desert in learning never failed, in course of time, to obtain from him its due reward; and his friendship, when once procured, con¬ tinued steady to the last. Poets, however, seem al¬ ways to have enjoyed a preference ; and the first place in his favour was justly held by those who rank¬ ed highest of their number. Had he not loved and cherished Virgil, posterity would perhaps have been 1 Pliny, Hist, Nat. Lib. XIV. c. 6. 2 Summus ego, et prope me Viscus Thurinus, et infra (Si memini) Varius, cum Servilio Balatrone Vibidius, quos Maecenas adduxerat umbras : Nomentanus erat super ipsum; Porcius infra, Ridiculus totas simul absorbere placentas. Horat, Sat. Lib. IT. 8. MAECENAS. 35 deprived of the chief works of the Mantuan bard, and would have known him only by his imitative Eclogues— Ipse per Ausonias iEneia carmina gentes Qui canit, ingenti qui nomine pulsat Olympum, Maeoniumque senem Romano provocat ore, Forsitan illius nemoris latuisset in umbra Quod canit, et sterili tantum cantasset avena, Ignotus populis, si Maecenate careret. . It was Virgil who first introduced Horace to the notice of Maecenas; and, though at first he paid no great attention to a young poet, as yet little distin¬ guished by his w T orks, and chiefly known as having fought in the republican ranks at Philippi, he admit¬ ted him at length among the number of his domestic friends—selected him as a companion in all his expe¬ ditions, whether of business or pleasure—procured for him the favour of the Emperor, and at length gave him the most substantial proofs of regard, by presenting him with a villa at Tibur, and obtaining for him a grant of a farm in the eastern district of the Sabine territory. Varius, who was the first tragic writer of his age, and, till the appearance of the iEneid, was accounted the greatest epic poet of Home, and next in rank to Homer ; x as also Domitius Marsus, the best epigrammatist since the time of Catullus , 2 were be- 1 Et tamen baud uni patefecit limina vati, Nec sua Virgilio permisit numina soli Maecenas : Tragico quatientem carmina csestu Evexit Varium— Panegyr . In Pison. 2 Quid Varios Marsosque loquor, ditataque vatum Nomina ? magnus erit quos numerare labor. Martial, Lib. VIII, Ep. 56. MAECENAS. friended and enriched by Maecenas. Propertius, like¬ wise, in his elegies, repeatedly acknowledges him as his protector, as the encourager and guide of his stu¬ dies, and as the statesman to whose party and princi¬ ples he had uniformly and steadily adhered . 1 Of the other writers and learned men whom he patronised, it will be sufficient to mention the names of the poets, C. Valgius and Plotius Tucca; of Areius, the Plato¬ nic philosopher; Fuscus Aristius, the grammarian; Heliodorus, the rhetorician ; and Furnius, an elegant as well as faithful historian, whom Augustus raised to the consular dignity . 2 To these and many more the palace of Maecenas was an asylum, where they were not only maintained and protected, but became the friends and companions of their illustrious host. They were introduced by him to his Prince as per¬ sons deserving of notice and royal munificence ; they accompanied him to the banquets of the Great, and followed him in many excursions, both of pleasure and business. When he went to Brundusium, to nego¬ tiate a treaty between Augustus and Antony, he was attended on his journey by Horace, Varius, Virgil, and Heliodorus. Among the distinguished men who frequented the house of Maecenas, a constant harmony seems to have subsisted. They never occasioned uneasiness to each other; they w r ere neither jealous nor envious of the favour and felicity which their rivals enjoyed. The noblest and most affluent of the number were without insolence, and the most learned without presumption. 1 Eleg. Lib. III. el. 7. 2 Meibomiua, De Mcecenat. Vit. c. 18. 37 MAECENAS. Merit, in whatever shape it appeared, occupied an honourable and unmolested station— —— Dornus hac nec purior ulla est Nec magis his aliena malis: nil mi officit unquam, Ditior hie, aut est quia doctior: est locus uni Cuique suus— (Horat. Sat.) As Maecenas extended such liberal patronage to the learned, it is not surprising that the greatest pro¬ ductions of the Augustan age should have been in¬ scribed by their authors with his name, in testimony of their respect and gratitude. At the head of these glorious works stand the Georgies of Virgil, and Satires of Horace. Among books less known, or which have now perished, were several works of Cassius Severus; a Treatise on Gardening, by Sabinus Tiro; Augustus’ Memoirs of his own life; and the Elegy attributed to Albinovanus, which is inscribed to his memory. Maecenas is better known to posterity as a patron of literature than as an author; but, living in a poeti¬ cal court, and surrounded with poets, it was almost impossible that he should have avoided the contagion of versification. He wrote a tragedy, called Octavia, a poem, entitled De Cultu , and some Fhaleucian and Galliambic verses. All these have perished, except a few fragments cited by Seneca and the ancient gram¬ marians. To judge from these extracts, their loss is not much to be regretted; and it is a curious problem in the literary history of Rome, that one who read with delight the works of Virgil and Horace should himself have written in a style so obscure and affected. The Roman critics have collected examples of uncom- 38 MAECENAS. mon inversions in language from their poets and ora¬ tors, which have found a place in their works of rhe¬ toric ; and Quintilian refers to many arrangements of words in the poems of Maecenas, which he thinks not allowable even in verse. The effeminacy of his man¬ ners appears to have tainted his language: though his ideas were sometimes happy, his style was loose, florid, and luxuriant and he always aimed at wind¬ ing up his periods with some turn of thought or expression which he considered elegant or striking. These conceits were called by Augustus his perfumed curls (Calamistri); and in one of that Emperor’s let¬ ters, which is still preserved in Macrobius, he parodies the luxuriant and sparkling style affected by his mi¬ nister. Some idea of the mode of composition employed by Maecenas, at least in his smaller poems, may be form¬ ed from the following lines, in which he describes a river, with the woods on its banks, and the boats sail¬ ing on it, in a manner almost unintelligible:— 1 “ Oratio ejus,” (says Seneca, in whose time all the works of Mae¬ cenas were extant,) “ rnque soluta est, quam ipse discinctus. Non tam insignita illius verba sunt, quam cultus, quam comitatus, quam domus, quam uxor ? Magni ingenii vir fuerat, si iilud egisset via rectiore, si non vitasset intelligi, si non etiam in oratione difflueret. Videbis itaque eloquentiam ebrii liominis involutam, et errantem, et licentiae plenam.” And again.—“ Hoc istae ambages composition^, hoc verba transversa, hoc sensus, magni quidem saepe, sed enervati dum exeunt, cuivis manifestum facient.” ( Epist . 114.) And in an¬ other epistle he says : “ Ingeniosus vir ille fuit, magnum exemplum Romanae eloquentiae datums, nisi ilium encrvasset felicitas, immo castrasset.” (Epist 19.) MAECENAS, 39 Amne sylvisque ripa comantibus, Vides, ut alveum lintribus arent, Versoque vado remittant hortos. 1 Or from the verses addressed to Horace, in which he declares that he is so grieved for the absence of the poet, that he has become careless, even concerning those gems for which he once had such an inordinate passion: Lugens, O mea vita, te, Smaragdos Beryllos neque, Flacce, nec nitentes Nuper, Candida Margarita, qusero, Nec quos Thynica lima perpolivit Anellos, nec Jaspios Lapillos. One good and energetic line of his composition is preserved and applauded by Seneca: \ Nec tumulum euro, sepelit natura relictos. 2 Maecenas continued to govern the state, to patronise good poets, and write bad verses, for a period of twenty years. During this long space of time, the only in* terruption to his felicity was the conduct of his wife Terentia. This beautiful hut capricious woman was the sister of Proculeius, so eminent for his fraternal love, as also of Licinius Murasna, who conspired against Augustus; and she is supposed by some, though I think erroneously, to be the Licymnia whom Horace celebrates for her personal charms and accomplish¬ ments, and for the passion with which she had in¬ spired his patron. The extravagance and bad temper 1 Sencc. Epist. 114, 2 Id. Ep. 92. Fin. 40 MAECENAS. of this fantastical, yet lovely woman, were sources of perpetual chagrin and uneasiness to her husband. Though his existence was embittered by her folly and caprice, he continued during his whole life to be the dupe of the passion which he entertained for her. He could neither live with nor without her; he quarrelled with her, and was reconciled, almost every day, and put her away one moment, to take her back the next, which has led Seneca to remark, that he was married a thousand times, vet never had but one wife. w Terentia vied in personal charms with the Em¬ press Livia, and is said to have gained the affections of Augustus. She accompanied her husband and the Emperor on an expedition to Gaul, in the year 738, which, at the time, was reported to have been under¬ taken in order that Augustus might enjoy her society without attracting the notice or animadversions of the capital. 1 Maecenas was not courtier enough to appear blind to the infidelities of Terentia, or to sleep for the accommodation of the Emperor, as the Senator Galba is said to have slumbered for the minister. The umbrage Maecenas took at the attentions paid by his master to Terentia, is assigned by Dio Cassius as the chief cause of that decline of imperial favour, which Maecenas experienced about four years previously to his death. For although he was still treated externally with the highest consideration, though he retained all the outward show of grandeur and interest, and still continued to make an yearly present to the Emperor on the anniversary of his birth-day, he was no longer 1 Dio Cassius, Lib. LIV. MAECENAS. 41 consulted in state affairs as a favourite or confident. Others have supposed, that it was not the intrigue of Augustus with Terentia which diminished his influ¬ ence, but a discovery made by the Emperor, that he had revealed to his wife some circumstances concern¬ ing the conspiracy in which her brother Muraena had been engaged. Suetonius informs us, he had felt some displeasure on that account; but Muraena’s plot was discovered in the year 732, and the decline of Maecenas’s political power cannot be placed earlier than 738. The disgust conceived by masters when they have given all, and by favourites who have nothing more to receive, or are satiated with honours, 1 may partly account for the coldness which arose between Augustus and his minister. But the declining health of Maecenas, and his natural indolence, increasing by the advance of years, afforded of themselves sufficient causes for his gradual retirement from public affairs. His constitution, which was naturally weak, had been impaired by effeminacy and luxurious living. He had laboured from his youth under a perpetual fe¬ ver; 2 and for many years before his death, he suffer¬ ed much from watchfulness, which was greatly aggra¬ vated by his domestic chagrins. Maecenas was fond of life and enjoyment; and of life even without en- 1 Idque et Msecenati acciderat; fato potentise raro sempiternse : an satias capit, aut illos, ciim omnia tribuerunt, aut hos, cum jam nihil reliquum est quod cupiant.—Tacit. Annul. Lib. III. c. 30. 2 “ Quibusdam,” says Pliny, “ perpetua febris est, ut C. Msece- nati: eidem triennio supremo nullo horse momento contigit som- nus r—Hist. Nat . Lib, VII. c, 51. * 42 MAECENAS. joyment. 1 Hence, he anxiously resorted to different remedies for the cure or relief of this distressing ma¬ lady. Wine, soft music sounding at a distance, and various other contrivances, were tried in vain. 2 At length, Antonius Musa, the imperial physician, who had saved the life of Augustus, but accelerated the death of Marcellus, obtained for him some alleviation of his complaint, by means of the distant murmuring of falling water. The sound was artificially procured at his villa on the Esquiline Hill. But during this stage of his complaint, Maecenas resided principally in his villa at Tibur, situated on the banks of the Anio, and near its celebrated cascades. The chief falls of the Anio were heard at the villa, but there were also a number of jets, formed by the streams which flow r ed down the hill on which the palace of Maecenas stood aloft. “ Maecenas’ villa,” says Eus¬ tace, “ stands at the extremity of the town, on the brow of the hill, and hangs over several streamlets, which fall down the steep. It commands a noble view of the Anio and its vale beneath, the hills of 1 He confesses, in some verses preserved by Seneca, that he would wish to live even under every accumulation of physical cala¬ mity :— Debilem facito manu, Debilem pede, coxa; Tuber adstrue gibberum, Lubricos quate dentes : Vita dum superest, bene est. Hanc mihi, vel acuta Si sedeam cruce, sustine. Senec. Epst. 101. 2 Seneca, De Providentid, Lib, III. MAECENAS. 43 Albano and Monticelli, the Campagna, and Rome itself, rising on the borders of the horizon. A branch of the river pours through the arched gallery and vaulted cellars, and shaking the edifice as it passes along, rushes in several sheets down the declivity.” 1 This was indeed a spot to which Morpheus might have sent his kindest dreams; and the pure air of Tibur, with the streams tumbling into the valley through the arches of the villa, 2 did bestow on the worn-out and sleepless courtier some few moments of repose. 3 Rut all these resources at length failed. The ner¬ vous and feverish disorder, with which Maecenas was afflicted, increased so dreadfully, that for three years before his death he never closed his eyes. In his last will, he recommended Horace, in the most affection- ate terms, to the protection of the Emperor: “ Horatii Flacci, ut mei, memor esto.” He died in 745, in the same year with Horace, 4 and was buried in his own 1 Classical Tour } Vol. II. c. 7, 8vo ed. 2 Meantime unnumber’cl glittering streamlets play’d, And hurled everywhere their waters sheen, That as they bicker’d ceaseless through the glade, Though restless still themselves, a lulling murmur made. 5 The villa of Maecenas has been recently converted into an iron foundery .—Mementos of a Tour in Italy , in 1821-2. 4 It has been disputed whether Horace or Maecenas died first. It was long the commonly received opinion, that Maecenas had pre¬ deceased Horace, and that the words, “ Horatii Flacci, ut mei, memor esto,” had been, as Suetonius informs us, addressed by him person- 44 MAECENAS. gardens on the Esquiline Hill. He left no child, and in Maecenas terminated the line of the ancient Etru¬ rian Princes. But he bequeathed to posterity a name, immortal as the arts of which he had been through life the generous protector, and which is deeply in¬ scribed on monuments, that can only be destroyed by some calamity fatal to civilization. Maecenas had nominated Augustus as his heir, and the Emperor thus became possessed of the Tiburtine Villa, in which he passed a great part of the conclu¬ ding years of his reign. The death of his old fa¬ vourite revived all the esteem which Augustus had once entertained for him; and many years after¬ wards, when stung with regret at having divulged the shame of his daughter Julia, and punished her offence, he acknowledged his irreparable loss, by ex¬ claiming, that he would have been prevented from acting such a part had Maecenas been still alive. So difficult was it to repair the loss of one man, though he had millions of subjects under his obedience. “ His legions,” says Seneca, “ being cut to pieces, he re¬ cruited his troops—his fleet, destroyed by storms, was soon refitted—public edifices, consumed by the flames, were rebuilt with greater magnificence ; but he could find no one capable of discharging the offices which ally, and while on his death-bed, to Augustus. The more modern opinion is, that Horace died before Maecenas, and that these words had not been addressed to Augustus, but had been inserted in the testament of Mascenas, and were not erased during the short time that he survived his poetical friend. POLLIO. 45 had been held by Maecenas, with equal integrity and ability.” During the Augustan age, poets and learned men were protected by persons of every character—not less by the proud, overbearing, energetic Follio, than the mild and voluptuous Maecenas. Though of humble birth, Cains Asinius Follio was one of the most remarkable men, and most distin¬ guished patrons of literature, during the age in which he lived ; and when we consider the brilliant part which he acted as a military commander, politician, and man of letters, it is singular we have so few re¬ mains of his writings, and such brief records of his actions. Follio was born in the 675th year of the city, and he had consequently reached the age of thirty before the liberties of his country were subverted. During the times of the republic, he so well performed the parts of a citizen and patriot, that in one of Cicero’s letters he is classed with Cato for his love of liberty and virtue. 1 But in pursuing this line of conduct, he offended some of the partizans of Pompey, and was forced, as he afterwards alleged, to espouse the part of Caesar, in order to shield himself from their resent¬ ment. 2 He became a favourite officer of Julius Caesar, whom he served with inviolable fidelity, and ever en- 1 Quintus filius mirus civis ! ut tu Catonem vel Asinium dicas. 2 Cicero, Epist . Famil. Lib. X. 31. 46 POLI.IO. tertained for him the most devoted attachment. A short while before the dictator’s death, he was sent to Spain at the head of a considerable army, to crush the party which Sextus Pompey had recently formed in that province ; hut he was not very successful in his prosecution of this warfare . 1 After the assassination of Caesar, he offered his army 'and services to the Se¬ nate ; and in his letters to Cicero, made the strongest professions of love of liberty, and zeal for the interests of the commonwealth, declaring that he would nei¬ ther desert nor survive the republic . 2 The hypocrisy of these protestations was evinced almost as soon as the letters in which they were contained had reached the capital; for his old fellow-soldier, Antony, having retreated into Gaul after his defeat at Modena, Pol- lio joined him from Spain, with all the troops he commanded. He farther contrived to disunite the fickle Plancus from his colleague, Decimus Brutus, and to bring him over with his army to the enemies of the republic. By these measures, he contributed more, perhaps, than any other of his contemporaries to extinguish all hopes of the restoration of the com¬ monwealth, and to throw the whole power of the state into the hands of the triumvirate. Having thus been chiefly instrumental in ruining the cause of liberty, that proud spirit of freedom, or ferocia , as Tacitus calls it, which he afterwards assumed, and his resto¬ ration of the Atrium libertatis , which stood on the Aventine Hill, must have been looked on as a farce 1 Dio Cassius, Lib. XLV. 2 Cicero. Epist . Famil Lib. X. 33. POLLIO. ' 47 by his fellow-citizens, and has been considered by pos¬ terity as little better than imposture. Pollio was present at the formation of the trium¬ virate, which took place in a small island of the Reno, a stream that passes near Bologna. Amid other sa¬ crifices of friends and relatives then made by the heads of political parties, Pollio gave up his own father-in- law to the resentment of his new associates. He is said, however, to have repressed by his authority many disorders of the times, and to have mitigated, so far as was in his power, the cruelty of the triumvirs. In the year 713, which was that of his first consulship, a quarrel having arisen between Augustus and Lu¬ cius Antonius, the brother of the triumvir, concern¬ ing the settlement of the veterans in the lands allot¬ ted them, Pollio occupied the north of Italy for the Antonian party. His spirit and valour had acquired him such reputation among the soldiery, that while his friend Munatius Plancus, though of higher birth and rank, was deserted by his troops, Pollio was ena¬ bled to make head against Agrippa and Augustus, with not less than seven legions, and to retain the whole Venetian territory in the interests of Antony. In order to subsist his forces, he laid heavy contribu¬ tions on the towns, and exacted them with the utmost rigour. The Paduans, in particular, who had been always attached to the cause of liberty and the repub¬ lic, smarted severely under his displeasure and ava¬ rice. He stripped their city of everything that was valuable, whether public or private, and proclaimed a 48 POLL 10. reward to the slave who should discover the conceal¬ ment of his master. The contest between Lucius Antonins and Augus¬ tus was followed by the treaty of Erundisium, by which a new division of the empire was made among the triumvirs ; and according to this distribution, the province of Dalmatia was included in the department of the empire allotted to Marc Antony. This rug¬ ged country, not yet completely subdued by the Ro¬ mans, had been constantly in the view of Pollio, while he commanded on the north-east coast of Italy. A massacre committed by the natives on a Roman colony, formed a pretext for its invasion. With the consent of Antony, if not by his express orders, Pollio led the army, which he had now commanded for five years, to quell the insurrection. He quickly dispersed the tu¬ multuary bodies of natives which had assembled to oppose him; he took their capital, Salona, (now Spa- latro,) and returned triumphant to Rome. This triumph closed his military and political career. The cause of Antony, which Pollio had supported both by his able conduct and the reputation of his name, had now sunk so low in Italy, that it could no longer be maintained against his rival with any re¬ gard to safety, interest, or character. He declined, however, to follow Augustus to the battle of Actium ; and to the solicitations which were used, with the view of inducing him actively to espouse his interests, Pollio is said to have replied, “ Mea in Antonium majora merita sunt, illius in me beneficia notiora; 7 POLLIO. 49 itaque discrimine vestro me subtraham, et ero prseda victoris.” 1 From this period till his death, (which happened at his Tusculan villa in 755, when he had reached the age of eighty,) Pollio withdrew almost entirely from public affairs. He was naturally of a bold, as¬ suming, and overbearing temper: He affected a stern predilection for the forms and manners of the ancient republic; and having amassed an enormous fortune during the proscriptions, he never sought to ingratiate himself with Augustus. Accordingly, though he was respected and esteemed, he was not beloved by the emperor. During the contest with Lucius Antonius, several stinging epigrams were directed against him by Augustus. Pollio was well able to retort; but he did not choose, as he himself expressed it,—“ in eum scribere qui potest proscribere.” 2 His neutrality du¬ ring the war with Antony and Cleopatra, though per¬ mitted by Augustus, would little tend to conciliate his favour; and that prince saw around him so many able ministers, who had uniformly supported his in¬ terests, that he had no occasion to require the assist¬ ance or counsel of Pollio. With exception, therefore, of occasionally pleading in the Forum, Pollio devoted all his time to literary composition, and the protection of literary men. No Roman, of that period, was more capable of enjoying retirement with dignity, or relishing it with taste. ; 1 Velleius Paterculus, Lib. II. c. 86. 2 Macrobius, Saturnalia , Lib. II. c. 4. VOL. III. T) 50 POLL IQ. He possessed everything which could render his re¬ treat delightful—an excellent education, distinguish¬ ed talents, a knowledge of mankind, and a splendid fortune. To all the strength and solidity of under¬ standing requisite to give him weight in the serious or important affairs of life, he united the most lively and agreeable vein of wit and pleasantry. His genius and acquirements enabled him likewise to shine in the noblest branches of polite literature,—poetry, elo¬ quence, and history, in which last department Seneca prefers his style to that of Livy. He had, no doubt, effectually improved the opportunities which the times afforded, of enriching himself at the cost of others ; and no one had profited more by the forfeited estates during the period of the proscriptions: but it should not be forgotten, that whatever fortune he amassed was converted to the most laudable purposes—the for¬ mation of a public library—the collection of the most eminent productions of art, and the encouragement of learning and literary men. Pliny, in his Natural History, informs us, that Pol- lio was the first person who erected a public library at Pome. It was placed in the vicinity of the Att'ium Libertcttis, which he had constructed on the Aventine Hill; and the expense of the establishment was de¬ frayed from the spoils of conquered enemies . 1 From the same author, we have an account of his fine col¬ lection of statues by Praxiteles, and other masters , 2 which he was extremely desirous should be publicly 1 Lib, VII. 30.—XXXV. 2. 2 Id. XXXVI. 5. POLLIO. 51 seen and commended. Among the labours of Praxi¬ teles, are mentioned a Silenus, an Apollo, a Neptune, and a Venus. The specimens of the works of other ar¬ tists exhibited the Centaurs carrying off the Nymphs, by Archesitas—Jupiter, surnamed Hospitalis, by Pamphilus, a scholar of Praxiteles—a sitting Vesta, and, finally, Zetus, Amphion, and Dirce, fastened by a cord to the bull, all formed out of one stone, and brought from Phodes by the directions of Poliio. Still more useful and praiseworthy was the patron¬ age which he extended to men of genius. In youth, his character and conversational talents had rendered him a favourite with the master-spirits of Pome,—- Caesar, Calvus, and Catullus, who shone in his earlier years and in more advanced life, he in turn favoured and protected Virgil and Horace, whose eulogies are still the basis of his fame. Poliio commanded in the district where the farm of Virgil lay; and at the division of lands among the soldiery, was of service to him in procuring the restoration of his property. That distinguished poet composed his eclogues, it is said, by the advice of Poliio; and in the fourth of the number, he has beau¬ tifully testified his gratitude, for the friendship and protection which had been extended to him. The odes 1 De Pollione Asinio, seriis jocisque pariter accommodato, dic¬ tum est, Esse eum omnium horarum.—Quintil, Inst. Orat. Lib. V. c. 4, t -Est enim leporum Disertus pucr ac facetiarum. Catulli Car mum. 52 POLLIO. of Horace show the familiarity which subsisted be¬ tween the poet and his patron ;—the former ventures to give the latter advice concerning the history of the civil wars, on which he was then engaged; and to warn him of the danger to which he might be exposed by treating such a subject. Timagenes, the rhetorician and historian, spent his old age in the house of Pollio: Nor did it deprive him of Pollio’s protection that he had incurred the displeasure of Augustus, by some bitter raillery and sarcasms directed against the imperial family. But while Pollio protected learned men, he seems to have been a severe, and, according to some, a capri¬ cious critic, on the writings both of his own contem¬ poraries, and of authors who had immediately prece¬ ded him. He was envious of the reputation of Cicero, and expressed himself with severity on the blemishes of his style i 1 he called in question the accuracy of the facts related in Caesar’s Commentaries ; 2 he con¬ demned the style of Sallust as vicious and affected ; 3 and he discovered provincial expressions in the noble history of Livy . 4 His jealous love of praise, and spirit of competition, led him to introduce one custom which probably proved injurious to poetry—the fashion of an author reading his productions at private meetings of the most learned and refined of his contemporaries. These recitations, as they were called, led to the desire of writing for the sake of effect, and were less calcu- 1 Seneca, Suasorice , VI. Quint’ll. Inst. Orat. Lib. XII. c. 1. 2 Sueton. In Jul. Ccesar. c. 56. 3 Idem de Illust. Grammat. 4 Quintil. Inst. Orat . Lib. I. c. 5. MESS ALA. 53 lated to improve the purity of taste, than to engender ostentatious display. Messala Corvinus vied with Pollio in his liberal encouragement of men of letters. But while he emu¬ lated him in the acquisition of all the knowledge and accomplishments of the age, as also in the patronage of learning, he was a man of a totally different and far more amiable temper. His disposition, observes Crevier, while contrasting their characters, was as mild and gentle as that of Pollio was hot and violent ; l his sweetness of temper, it is said, influenced even his style, which possessed more grace than energy. History has preserved a number of authentic and interesting, though dispersed, facts concerning the jniddle period of the life of the great Messala. Few particulars, however, are known concerning his early life, or v the dark close of his existence. The mere recital of his names, Marcus Valerius Messala Corvinus, declares the antiquity and nobili¬ ty of his family; but the year of his birth is not as¬ certained. He is said, in the Eusebian chronicle, to have been born in 694 ; but if that date be correct, he would only have reached the age of seventeen when he joined the republican standard at Philippi. He acted, however, a prominent part in that battle, and after it was lost, he was offered the command of the dispersed forces of the commonwealth. It is not, therefore, likely, that he was younger than twenty-one 1 Histoire des Empereurs JRomains depuis Auguste jusqu a Con - stantin . 54 MESSALA. at this period; and his birth consequently ought not to be fixed later than the year 690. In his youth he studied for a short while at Athens, along with the son of Cicero. After his return to Home, his name having appeared in the roll of the proscribed by the nomination of Antony, he fled from Italy, and sought refuge with the army of Brutus and Cassius. Previous, however, to the battle of Philippi, his name, along with that of Varro, was erased from the fatal list, on the plea that he had not been in Home at the time of Caesar’s murder. Varro accepted the proffer¬ ed pardon, and retired to his studies and his books, among which he soon after died in the ninetieth year - of his age; but it was indignantly rejected by Mes- sala, who steadily adhered to the cause of the com¬ monwealth. The night before the battle of Philippi he supped in private with Cassius in his tent. That chief had wished to protract the war, and opposed himself to the general wish which prevailed in the army to hazard the fortunes of the republic on one decisive battle. At parting for the night, he grasped Messala by the hand, and addressing him in Greek, called him to bear witness that he was reduced to the same painful necessity as the great Pompey, who had been reluctantly forced to stake on one throw the safe¬ ty of his country. On the following day, so fatal to the liberties of Rome, Messala commanded one of the best legions in the army of Brutus. After the second defeat at Phi¬ lippi, he escaped to Thasus, an island in the iEgean Sea. He was there invited to place himself at the MESS ALA. head of the remains of the republican party. But Messala probably considered the cause of the com¬ monwealth as now utterly hopeless. He accordingly listened to the persuasions of Pollio, who undertook to reconcile him to the conquerors, and to preserve the lives of those who should surrender under his com¬ mand. Antony passed over to Thasus, and with great appearance of cordiality, received Messala, as well as some of his friends,, in to favour, and in return was put in possession of the stores which had been amassed in that island for the wreck of the republican forces. Having now joined the arms of Antony, he accompanied him in the dissolute progress which he made through the Roman dominions in Asia, when he received the homage of the tributary kings, and settled their disputes. Messala, from his earliest youth, had been a distinguished orator, and in that capacity he sometimes spoke before Antony in favour of an accused tetrarch, or of an injured people. At length, however, the scandalous and infatuated conduct of Antony, and the comparative moderation of Augustus, induced Messala to transfer his services to the latter, whom he continued to support during the remainder of his life. In the naval war with Sex¬ tus Pompey, he was second in command under Agrip- pa, and on one occasion, during his absence, had the supreme direction of the fleet. In the course of this contest, he was also for some time stationed with an army on the Neapolitan shore; and Augustus, ha¬ ving been not only defeated but shipwrecked in one of the many naval engagements which he fought with 56 MESSAL A. ? *• Pompey, sought shelter in the most wretched condi¬ tion in the camp of Messala, by whom he was received as a friend and master, and treated with the tenderest care* The death of Sextus Pompey at length opened both sea and land to his successful adversary, and it was quickly followed by the long-expected struggle for superiority between Antony and Augustus. Messala was consul in 721, the year of the battle of Actium, in which he bore a distinguished part. After that decisive victory, and the firm establish¬ ment of the throne of Augustus, he lived the general favourite of all parties, and the chief ornament of a court, where he still asserted his freedom and dig¬ nity. While at Rome, he resided in a house on the Palatine Hill, which had formerly belonged to Marc Antony ;* but he was frequently absent from the ca¬ pital on the service of the state. War after war was intrusted to his conduct, and province after province was committed to his administration. In some of his foreign expeditions, he was accompanied by the poet Tibullus, who has celebrated the military exploits of Messala in his famed panegyric, and his own friend¬ ship and attachment to his patron in the Elegies. The triumph which Messala obtained in 727, for his victories in a Gallic campaign, completed the mea¬ sure of his military honours; and he filled in succes¬ sion all the most important civil offices of the state. Besides holding the Consulship in 721, he was elect- 1 Cramers Description of Ancient Italy , Vol. I. p. 4 52, MESSALA. 57 ed into the college of Augurs, and was intrusted with the superintendence of the aqueducts, one of those great public works for which Rome has been so justly celebrated. In 736, on occasion of the absence of Augustus and Maecenas from the capital, he was no¬ minated prefect of the city ; but he resigned that situation a few days after his appointment, regarding it as inconsistent with the ancient constitution of his country. He is also believed to have been the per¬ son, who, by command of the conscript fathers, first saluted Augustus in the Senate-house as the father of his country; a distinction which was bestowed in a manner that drew tears from the master of the Ro¬ man world, 1 and a reply, in which he declared, that having attained the summit of his wishes, he had no¬ thing more to desire from the immortal gods but a continuance of the same attachment till the last mo¬ ments of his life. From this period the name of Messala is scarcely once mentioned by any contemporary writer. He sur¬ vived, however, ten or twelve years longer. Tiberius Caesar, who was then a youth, fond of the liberal arts, and by no means ignorant of literature, paid Messala, when in his old age, much deference and attention, and attempted to imitate his style of oratory. 2 To¬ wards the close of his life, he was dreadfully afflicted with ulcers in the sacra spina ; 3 and it is said, that, two years before his death, he was deprived of both 1 Sueton, In August c. 58. 2 Sueton. In Tiber . c. 70. 3 FuncciuSj de Viril. AEtat Ling. Led, pars II. e. 1. § 12* 58 MESS ALA. sense and memory. He at length forgot his own name, 1 and became incapable of putting two words together with meaning. It is mentioned in the Eu- sebian chronicle, that he perished by abstaining from food when he had reached the age of seventy-two; but if he was born in 690, as is supposed, this com¬ putation would extend his existence till the close of the reign of Augustus, which is inconsistent with a passage in the dialogue, JDe Causis Corruptee Elo~ queiitice, where it is said ,—“ Corvinus in medium us¬ que Augusti principatum, Asinius pene ad extremum duravit ” Now, the middle of the reign of Augustus cannot be fixed later than the year 746, when Mes- sala could only have reached the age of fifty-six. His death was deeply lamented, and his funeral elegy was written by Ovid. 2 Though Messala had attained the highest point of exaltation, in an age of the most violent political fac¬ tions, and the most flagrant moral corruption, he left behind him a spotless character; being chiefly known as a disinterested patron of learning, and a steady supporter, so far as was then possible, of the princi¬ ples of the ancient constitution. “ Messala,” says Ber¬ wick, “ had the singular merit of supporting an un¬ blemished character, in a most despotic court, without making a sacrifice of those principles for which he had fought in the fields of Philippi; and the genuine in- 1 Pliny, Hist. Nat. Lib. VII. c. 24. 2 Cui nos et lacrymas, supremum in funere inunus, Et dedimus medio scripta canenda foro. Epist. ex Po?ito, I. 7. MESS ALA. 59 tegrity of bis character was so deeply impressed on all parties, that it attracted a general admiration in a most corrupt age. He was brave, eloquent, and vir¬ tuous : he was liberal, attached to letters, and his pa¬ tronage was considered as the surest passport to the gates of fame, and extended to every man who was at all conversant with letters. This character is sup¬ ported by history, is not contradicted by contempo¬ rary writers, and is sealed by the impartial judgment of posterity. No writer, either ancient or modern, has ever named Messala without some tribute of praise. Cicero soon perceived that he possessed an assemblage of excellent qualities, which he would have more ad¬ mired had he lived to see them expanded and matured to perfection. Messala was his disciple, and rivalled his master in eloquence. In the opinion of the judi¬ cious Quintilian, his style was neat and elegant, and in all his speeches he displayed a superior nobility. In the Dialogue of Orators, he is said to have excelled Cicero in the sweetness and correctness of his style. His taste for poetry and polite literature will admit of little doubt, when we call to mind that he was pro¬ tected by Csesar, favoured by Maecenas, esteemed by Horace, and loved by Tibullus. Horace, in one of his beautiful odes, praises Messala in the happiest strains of poetry, calls the day he intended to pass with him propitious, and promises to treat him with some of his most excellent wine : 4 For, 5 says the poet, 4 though Messala is conversant with all the philosophy of Socrates and the Academy, he will not decline such entertainment as my humble board can 60 MESSALA. supply. 31 The modest Tibullus flattered himself with the pleasing hopes of Messala’s paying him a visit in the country. ‘ Where/ says he, * my beloved Delia shall assist in doing the honours for so noble a guest. 3 The rising genius of Ovid was admired and encou¬ raged by Messala; and this condescension the exiled bard has acknowledged in an epistle to his son Mes- salinus, dated from the cold shores of the Euxine. In this letter Ovid calls Messala his friend, the light and director of all his literary pursuits. It is natural to suppose an intimacy subsisted between Messala and Virgil, and yet no historical circumstance has come to our knowledge sufficient to evince it. The poem called Ciris, which is dedicated to Messala, and has been ascribed to Virgil by some grave authorities, grows more suspicious every day. Tacitus, whose judg¬ ment of mankind is indisputable, and whose decision is not always in the most favourable point of view, seems fond of praising Messala; and in a speech given to Silius, the Consul-elect, he considers him among the few great characters who have risen to the highest honours by their integrity and eloquence. Even Ti¬ berius himself, when a youth, took him for his master and pattern in speaking; and happy would it have been- for the Roman people had he also taken him for his guide and pattern in virtue” Messala was united to Terentia, who had been first married to Cicero, and subsequently to Sallust, the 1 Descende, Corvino jubente Promere languidiora vina. Non illc, quanquam Socraticis madet Sermonibus, te negliget horridus. Od. Lib. HI. 21, MESSALA. 61 historian. After the death of Messala, she entered, in extreme old age, into a fourth marriage, with a Roman senator, who used to say that he possessed the two greatest curiosities in Rome, the widow of Cicero and the chair in which Julius Caesar had been assassinated. Messala left by Terentia two sons, Marcus and Lucius. The eldest of these, who was Consul in 751, took the name of Messalinus ; he highly distinguished himself under Tiberius, when that prince commanded, before his accession to the empire, in the war of Pannonia. 1 Messalinus inherited his father’s eloquence, and also followed the example he had set, in devoted attach¬ ment to Augustus, and the patronage he extended to literature. But during the reign of Tiberius, he was chiefly noted as one of the most servile flatterers of that tyrant. 2 The younger son of Messala assumed the name of Cotta, from his maternal family, and acted a conspicuous, though by no means a reputable, part in the first years of Tiberius. Both brothers were friends and protectors of Ovid, 3 who addresses to Mes¬ salinus two of his epistles from Pontus, which are full of expressions of respect for the memory of his illus¬ trious father. 4 1 Velleius Paterc. Lib. II. c. 112. 2 Tacit. Annal, L. III. c. 18, 34. 3 Adde quod est Frater tanto tibi junctus arnore, Quantus in Atridis Tyndaridisque fuit; Is me nec eomitem nec dedignatus amicum est. E Ponto , Lib. I. ep. 7, 4 Hortator studii causaque faxque mei. Ibid. Ille domus vestrse primis venerator ab annis. E Ponto , Lib. II. ep, 2. TULLUS. Lucius Volcatius Tullus stood in the same rela¬ tion to Propertius, of a patron and friend, as Messala to Tibullus and Ovid. He was nephew of that Lu¬ cius Volcatius Tullus who was Consul in the year 687, and who is mentioned by Cicero in his orations against Catiline, and his letters to Atticus. At the commencement of the civil wars, the elder Tullus es¬ poused the cause of Julius Caesar. His nephew, who was then a youth, followed the same party; and ha¬ ving steadfastly adhered to the fortunes of the adopt¬ ed son, he became Consul along with Augustus in 720, the year preceding the Consulship of Messala and the battle of Actium. After that victory, he was em¬ ployed in various foreign expeditions, and spent much of his time in Greece and Asia Minor. 1 He possess¬ ed, however, a delightful villa in Italy, surrounded with woods, and situated on the banks of the Tiber, betwixt Rome and Ostia, at which he occasionally resided, in great splendour and luxury. 2 If we may believe a flattering poet, he had never yielded, even in youth, to the fascinations of love, but had devoted his whole existence to the service of his country— 1 Propertii Eleg. I. 6. Tu licet abjectus Tiberina molliter unda Lesbia Mentoreo vina bibas opere : Et modo tam celeres mireris currere lintres, Et modo tam tardas funibus ire rates : Et nemus omne satas intendat vertice sylvas, Urgetur quantis Caucasus arboribus : Nec tamen ista meo valeant contendere amori; Nescit. amor magnis cedere divitiis. Propertii Eleg. Lib. I. El. 14. Ad Tullum. TUI J,US. 6 ;> Nam t.ua non rotas unquam cessavit amori, Semper sed armatse cura fuit patriee. 1 Tullus lived to an advanced age, having survived Maecenas, whom he had long rivalled as a patron of literature, and, after his death, almost supplied his place. He is now chiefly known as the friend of Pro¬ pertius, who has addressed to him many of his elegies, expressing devoted attachment, and confiding to him the story of his unfortunate loves. Such were the men by whom literature was chiefly encouraged and protected in the age of Augustus. They were all of them rich and powerful—consuls, statesmen, and warriors—yet now they are only known to us, or at least are only objects of interest, as the persons from whom Virgil obtained the restoration of a few acres of land, of which he had been unjustly deprived, and to whom Horace fled destitute and trembling from the field of Philippi. To them, however, must be gratefully attributed the existence, or at least the perfection, of many works of genius, by which all ages have been glad¬ dened and delighted. Under a republic, the shelter which such men might have afforded, would perhaps have been less required ; but their patronage would also have been less extensive and liberal; and the protection of Cato or Scipio could not have ripened genius to such maturity as the beams of that favour which shone from the Court of Augustus. 1 Propertii Eleg. Lil>. I. G. HOMAN POETRY. 64 On the accession of a prince, the world of letters experienced a revolution corresponding to that which took place in politics after the death of Brutus. Au¬ gustus, on attaining the sovereignty, was anxious to change, not only the spirit of the republic, but also the character of literature and tone of poetry, and to establish in them, as well as in political life, a new monarchical age. Hence, there arose a school of po¬ litics, imbued with the principles of the court, and a school of literature, directed by its taste. It may, perhaps, at first view, appear strange, that the revolution from a republican to a regal form of go¬ vernment, which deadened taste and genius in Greece, should have quickened and purified them in Rome. But when Philip and Alexander established their sovereignty over the whole of Greece, its states, along with freedom, lost their national spirit, and with it their peculiar tone and whole strength of feeling. Thebes and Athens became appendages of the Ma¬ cedonian empire. The Court of Philip was at Pella, and that of Alexander at Babylon. But Rome, though enslaved by one of her own citizens, still continued to be the capital of the world—“ imperii deorumque lo¬ cus.” The yoke, too, was fastened on the Athenians with a strong and open hand ; it was imposed as firmly, indeed, by Augustus as by Philip or Alexan¬ der, but with more address. Philip was a foreigner, who subjected an enemy by his intrigues and his arms ; Augustus was a Roman, who affected to be only the first citizen in the state. When fortune had placed the empire of the world 7 ROMAN POETRY. 65 in the hands of Augustus; when that prince imposed servitude with the appearance of liberty, shut the Tem¬ ple of Janus, and bestowed on his subjects the advan¬ tages of a government, which relieved them from all political perturbation, they viewed with tranquillity, and even satisfaction, the establishment of a power, the dread of which had, for five centuries, been the source of ceaseless inquietude and alarm to their ancestors. They readily accustomed themselves to a yoke, un¬ der which, possessing the image of liberty, they com¬ bined the indulgence of their republican prejudices with the blessings of monarchy. The Prince and his able ministers now regulated the whole external and internal policy of the state ; and there was no longer a field for political exertion, as in the days of the Com¬ monwealth. The peaceful disposition of Augustus, % and the universal sovereignty of Rome, precluded all warfare, except when the incursions of a horde of bar¬ barians were to be repelled in some distant corner of the empire. Neither military affairs nor agriculture af¬ forded their former occupation to the minds of the Ro¬ mans. The free voice of eloquence was hushed. There were no more grand and exciting preparations for wars, whether foreign or domestic, nor shocks of parties, nor struggles for liberty, nor sacrifices for the public weal. The uniformity of an absolute government left nothing but court intrigues, suspicions, accusations, and trials, with other concomitants of regular and tranquil times. Talent and ambition, when excluded from the field of political activity, naturally sought to reap an humbler harvest of glory in the cultivation of poetry, or the YOL. III. E 66 ROMAN POETRY. imaginative arts, in which alone they could now seek for applause with honour and safety. Literature thus became in fact the great sphere for the exertion of talents ; and that intellect, which could no longer shine in the camp, or the forum, was directed to what the Romans considered as subordinate departments— poetry and history. It was with peculiar fondness and redoubled af¬ fection, that the Romans returned in this age to the cultivation of poetry, 1 * which had been neglected during the stormy periods of civil dissension. Cor¬ nelius Nepos, in his Life of Atticus, 3 * 5 says, that he might with truth affirm, that Lucius Calidius was the most elegant poet that age had produced, since the time of Lucretius and Catullus. His name, however, is almost utterly unknown ; and little more celebrity is possessed by his contemporary Cin- na, to whom other writers have assigned the pre-emi¬ nence. But after the formal establishment of the throne of Augustus, a constellation of poets arose, more bright than the Pleiades of Alexandria. No¬ thing, it was now supposed, could so well celebrate and adorn the restoration of peace, and the happy reign of Cassar, as the appearance of great national bards, who might supply the chief deficiency in the lite¬ rature of their country, 3 and create a body of classical 1 Mutavit mentem populus levis, et calet uno Scribendi studio : pueri patresque severi, Fronde comas vincti, ccenant, et carmina dictant. * # * Scribimus indocti doctique poemata passim. Horat. Epist, II. 1. 5 Schlegel’s Lectures , 3d. 2 C. 12. ROMAN POETRY. 67 works, in which the manners of the Romans should be painted and their warlike exploits commemorated, or in which the ancient Italian traditions should he preserved and handed down to posterity. Hitherto the Roman Muse had described Greek manners, and recorded Greek fables. The plays of Plautus and Terence were mere translations from the comic poets of Athens : Lucretius had embodied, in Latin verse, a system of Grecian philosophy, and Catullus filled his light poems with Greek traditions, concerning Atis, and Thetis, and the locks of Berenice. In the early ages of Roman poetry, such subjects answered all the purposes of entertainment and novelty, as well as the most perfectly original composition. Nothing is ever invented, when imitation will serve the pur¬ pose : There is a mine in the breast of man, which must be deeply dug ere its wealth be discovered. But Greek themes had now become trite, and the Greek language was so generally known at Rome, that a tragedy of Euripides, or comedy of Philemon, would no longer have had that novelty in a Latin garb, which they possessed in the age of Scipio, when the readers or audience were unacquainted with the ori¬ ginals. The works, too, of older Latin poets now existed, and afforded materials for imitation. New thoughts were supplied by the formation of a new go¬ vernment, and by the existence of a court, which, though not splendid or ostentatious, displayed a refine¬ ment, and bestowed a polish, unknown since the age when the palace of Ptolemy Philadelphus was the asy¬ lum of learning. The Roman poets, besides, had been 68 VIRGIL. flattered, courted, and enriched, by the politicians and statesmen of the day, to whom national themes were the most acceptable. Much of the poetical style, indeed, was still imitated from the Greeks ; and the sentiments and descriptions were still frequently bor¬ rowed, in consequence of the force of early discipline and education, which exhibited nature to the youthful Roman poet reflected in the writings of the Greeks. But the poetical productions of Rome were no longer mere translations, as in former periods; and the sub¬ jects now selected were frequently Roman wars and Italian traditions. Among the poets who thus led the way in the em¬ bellishment of Italian subjects, though with a portion of Greek imitation, the first in time, as well as digni¬ ty, was PUBLIUS VIRGILIUS 1 MARO, who bestowed on the poetry of his native country a character, soft yet dignified, elegant yet sublime. There exist but few authentic materials from which we can collect any circumstances concerning the life 1 It has been disputed whether the name of this poet should be written Vergilius or Vergilius.—“ De scriptura nominis,” says Heyne, “ digladiati sunt inter se cum veteres turn recentiores grammatici. The letters e and i were frequently convertible in the old Latin language ; and sanction may be found for either mode of spelling, both in MSS. and inscriptions. At the revival of let¬ ters, Politian contended strenuously for Vergilius ; but even his au¬ thority was not sufficient to bring this orthography into general practice. 69 VIRGIL. of tins poet. We possess only some scattered remarks of ancient commentators or grammarians, and a Life by Donatus, of very dubious authority. 1 The strong and almost universal desire of obtain¬ ing a knowledge concerning the life of an author, from whose writings we have derived gratification or instruction, has induced mankind to credit, on slight testimony, many wonderful incidents, which probably never occurred to the objects of their admiration and interest. Owing to this natural curiosity, our ac¬ counts of the lives of several ancient poets have been furnished out with a variety of fictitious and even in¬ credible circumstances ; and the biography of Virgil, more than any other, has been so disfigured by fabu¬ lous relations, that it is now difficult to select the truth from that mass of falsehood with which credulity has loaded it from time to time. It appears that Virgil’s father was a man of low birth, and that, at one period of his life, he was en¬ gaged in the meanest employments. According to some authorities, he was a potter or brick-maker; and, according to others, the hireling of a travelling mer- 1 It bears the name of Tiberius Claudius Donatus, who lived in the fifth century, some time after iElius Donatus, so well known as a judicious commentator on Terence. Heyne thinks that the basis of the Life was laid by Donatus, but that it was altered and interpolated, when transcribed from time to time by the gramma¬ rians and librarians of the convents. It is thus apparently written without any arrangement in the series of events, and many things are recorded which are manifestly fictitious. The monks, indeed, of the middle ages, seem to have conspired to accumulate fables concerning Virgil. 70 VIRGIL. chant, called Magus or Maius. He so ingratiated himself, however, with his master, that he received his daughter Maia in marriage, and was intrusted with the charge of a farm, which his father-in-law had acquired in the vicinity of Mantua. Our poet was the offspring of these humble pa¬ rents ; and was born in the year of Rome 684, at the village of Andes (now Pietola), which lies at a few miles’ distance from Mantua. The cradle of illustri¬ ous men, like the origin of celebrated nations, has been frequently surrounded with the marvellous. Hence, the dream of his mother Maia, that she had brought forth a branch of laurel, and the prodigy of the swarm of bees which lighted on the lips of the infant. The studies of Virgil commenced at Cremona, where he remained till he assumed the Toga Virilis; and to this day the inhabitants of Cremona pretend to show a house, in the street of St Bartholomew, in which Virgil resided when a youth. 1 At the age of sixteen, he removed to Milan, and shortly afterwards to Naples, where he laid the foundation of that mul¬ tifarious learning, which shines so conspicuously in the iEneid, and which he employed with such judg¬ ment, as richly to merit the eulogy of Macrobius,— “ Virgilius quern nullius unquam discipline error in- volvit.” 2 During his residence in this city, he per¬ used the most celebrated Greek writers, being in¬ structed in their language and literature by Parthe- 1 Cremona Literata, II. 401. ap. Fabricius, Bib, Lat. Lib. I. c. 12 2 In Somnium Scipionis, Lib. II, c. 8. VIRGIL. 71 uius Nicenus, 1 well known as the author of a col¬ lection of amatory tales, which he wrote for the use of Cornelius Galius, in order to furnish him with materials for elegies and other poems. Virgil like¬ wise carefully read the Greek historians, particular¬ ly Thucydides, 2 and he studied the Epicurean sys¬ tem of philosophy under Syro, a celebrated teacher of that sect. But medicine and mathematics were the sciences to which he was chiefly addicted ; and to this early tincture of geometrical knowledge may, perhaps, in some degree, be ascribed his ideas of luminous or¬ der and masterly arrangement, and that regularity of thought, as well as exactness of expression, by which all his writings are distinguished. 3 1 Macrobius, Saturnalia, Lib. V. c. 17. 2 “ Fuit autem Virgilius,” says Muretus, “ gravissimi illius rerum scriptoris studiosissimus; ut multis certisque argumentis pervinci facile potest.”— Opera , T. II. p. 312. ed. Rubnken. 3 Virgil, it is well known, was regarded as a wizard during the dark ages. His character as an adept in magic probably originated in his knowledge of mathematics ; in the Pharmaceutria of his eighth eclogue ; in his revelation of the secrets of the unknown world, in the sixth book of the ^Lneid; and in the report, that he had or¬ dered his books to be burnt, which naturally created a suspicion that he had disclosed in them the mysteries of the black art. In whatever way it may have originated, the belief in the magic powers of Virgil appears to have prevailed as soon as mankind lost the re¬ finement of taste which enabled them to appreciate his exquisite productions. The current fictions concerning the magical opera¬ tions of Virgil were first incorporated, about the beginning of the thirteenth century, in the Otia Imperialia of Gervase of Tilbury, Chancellor of the Emperor Otho IV., to whom he presented his ex¬ travagant compilation. The fables of Gervase were transcribed by Helinandus, the monk, in his Universal Chronicle; and similar tales 72 VIRGIL. Donatus affirms, that after Virgil had finished his education at Naples, he went to Rome, where his skill in the diseases of all sorts of animals procured him an appointment in the stables of the Emperor. Sto¬ ries are related concerning his prediction as to the de¬ fects of a colt, which, to all the jockeys of the Augus¬ tan age, appeared to promise remarkable swiftness and spirit; and concerning a query propounded to him, as if he had been a sorcerer, with regard to the parent¬ age of Augustus—all which are evidently inventions of the middle ages, and bear, indeed, much resemblance to a tale in the Cento Novelle Antiche , as also to the stories of the Three Sharpers, and the Sultan of Ye¬ men with his Three Sons, published some years ago, in Mr Scott’s additional volume to the Arabian Tales. It does not seem certain, or even probable, that Vir¬ gil went at all to Rome from Naples. It rather ap¬ pears that he returned to his native country, and to were related in the work of Neckham, De Naturis Rerum, and in the Seven Wise Masters. Such books supplied materials for the old French romances of Vergilius, and the English Lyfe of Vergilius, in which stories are told of miraculous palaces, wonderful lamps, and magical statues, which he constructed. Vergilius, the sorcerer of the middle ages, is identified and con¬ nected with the author of the^Eneid, from several circumstances being related of the former in the Romances, which actually oc¬ curred in the life of the poet, particularly his residence at Naples, and the loss of his inheritance, which he recovered by the favour of the Emperor of Rome. It was also a common opinion, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, as appears from the writings of the poets of that age, that the Mantuan Bard and the Sorcerer were one and the same person. VIRGIL. 73 the charge of his paternal farm : and if, as is gene¬ rally supposed, he intended to describe his own life and character under the person of Tityrus, in the first eclogue, it is evident that he did not visit Rome till after the battle of Philippi, and consequent divi¬ sion of the lands among the soldiery. Some poems which are still extant, as the Culex and Ciris, were at one time believed to have been the fruits of his genius at this early period. AVe are also told, that, in the warmth of his earliest youth, he had formed the bold design of writing, in imitation of Ennius, a poem on the wars of Rome, but that he was deterred from proceeding by the ruggedness of the ancient Ita¬ lian names, which wounded the delicacy of his ear. It seems certain, at least, that previous to the compo¬ sition of his Eclogues, he had made some imperfect attempts in the higher department of heroic poetry. 1 The battle of Modena was fought in 711, and the Triumvirate having been shortly afterwards formed, Asinius Pollio was appointed, on the part of Antony, to the command of the district in which the farm of Virgil lay. Pollio, who was a noted extortioner, le¬ vied enormous contributions from the inhabitants of the territory intrusted to his care; and in some in¬ stances, when the pecuniary supplies failed, he drove the ancient colonists from their lands, and settled his veterans in their place. He was fond, however, of poetry, and was a generous protector of literary men. The rising genius of Virgil had now begun to mani- 1 Eclog , VI. v. 3. 74 VIRGIL. fest itself. His poetic talents, and amiable manners, recommended him to the favour of Pollio; and so long as that Chief continued in the command of the Mantuan district, he was relieved from all exaction, and protected in the peaceable possession of his pro¬ perty. Residing constantly in the country, and captivated with the rural beauties of the Idylliums of Theocritus, Virgil early became ambitious to introduce this new species of poetry into his native land; and, accordingly, he seems henceforth to have bent his chief endeavours to imitate and rival the sweet Sicilian. The eclogue entitled Alexis , which is usually placed second in the editions of his works, is supposed to have been his first pastoral production, and to have been written in 711, the year in which Pollio came to assume the mi¬ litary command of the territory where our poet re¬ sided. 1 It was quickly followed by the Daphnis and Silenus, as also the Palcemon , in which he boasts of 1 It could be easily proved, that Alexis was the favourite slave of Pollio, and not of Msecenas, with whom, at this period, Virgil had formed no acquaintance. “ Mantuanus poeta,” says Apuleius, in his Apologia , “ puerum amici Pollionis Bucolico ludicro laudans, et ab- stinens nominum, sese quidem Corydonem, puerum vero Alexin vo- cat.” The authority of Donatus is to the same purpose :—“ Inter omnes maxime dilexit Cebetem, et Alexandrum, quern secunda Bu- colicorum ecloga Alexin appellat, donatum sibi ab Asinio Pollione. Utrumque non ineruditum dimisit—Alexandrum grammaticum, Ce¬ betem vero et poetam.” The opinion, that Alexis was bestowed on Virgil by Msecenas is founded on some lines of Martial, (Lib. VIII. ep. 56.) who, in an epigram of the sort, was not likely to pay much attention to accuracy in point of fact. VIRGIL. 75 the favour of Pollio, 1 and expresses his gratitude for the patronage that leader had extended to him. But the tranquillity which he enjoyed under the protection of Pollio was of short duration. Previously to the battle of Philippi, the triumvirs had promised to their soldiers the lands belonging to some of the richest towns in the empire. Augustus returned to Italy in the year 712, after his victory at Philippi, and found it necessary, in order to satisfy their claims, to commence a division of lands in Italy on a more ex¬ tensive scale even than he had intended. In that country there were considerable territories which had been originally and legally the patrimony of the state. But extensive tracts of this species of public property had, from time to time, been appropriated by corpo¬ rations and individuals, who were now unwilling to be disturbed in their possessions. Julius Caesar had set the example of reclaiming these farms, and colo¬ nizing them with his soldiers. His successor now un¬ dertook a similar but more extensive distribution. In the middle and south of Italy, however, the lands were chiefly private inheritance, or had been so long retained by individuals, that a claim had been acquired to them by length of possession ; but in the north of Italy, they were for the most part public property, on which colonists had been more recently settled. These were the lands first assigned to the soldiery ; and the district to the north of the Po was in consequence chiefly affected by the partition. Cremona had un- 1 Pollio amat nostram, quamvis sit rustica, musam. 76 VIRGIL. fortunately espoused the cause of Brutus, and thus pe¬ culiarly incurred the vengeance of the victorious party. But as its territory was not found adequate to contain the veteran soldiers of the triumvirs, amongst whom it had been divided, the deficiency was supplied from the neighbouring district of Mantua, in wdiich the farm of Virgil lay. The discontent which this op¬ pressive measure created in Italy, being augmented by the artifices of Fulvia and Lucius Antony, the wife and brother of the triumvir, gave rise to the war which terminated, favourably for Augustus, with the capture of Perugia. Pollio, being a zealous par¬ tisan of Antony, and supporting the party of his bro¬ ther and Fulvia, who unsuccessfully opposed the di¬ vision of the lands, had it probably no longer in his power to protect Virgil from the aggressions of the soldiery. He was dispossessed under circumstances of peculiar violence, and which even threatened danger to his personal safety; being compelled, on one occa¬ sion, to escape from the fury of the centurion Arrius by swimming the Mincius. He had the good fortune, however, to obtain the favour of Alphenus Varus, with whom he had studied philosophy at Naples, under Syro the Epicurean, and who now either succeed¬ ed Pollio in the command of the district, or was ap¬ pointed by Augustus, to superintend in that quarter the division of the lands. Under his protection Virgil twice repaired to Rome, where he was favourably re¬ ceived not only by Maecenas but Augustus himself, from whom he procured the restoration of the pa¬ trimony of which he had been deprived. This hap- VIRGIL. 77 pened in the commencement of the year 714; and during the course of that season, in gratitude for the favours he had received, he composed his eclogue en¬ titled Tityrus , in which he introduces two shepherds, one of whom laments the distraction of the times, and complains of the aggressions of the soldiery, while the other rejoices for the recovery of his farm, and pro¬ mises ever to honour as a god the youth who had re¬ stored it. The remaining eclogues, with exception, perhaps, of the tenth called Gallus , were produced in the course of this and the following year. Virgil had now T spent three years in the composition of pastoral poe¬ try, and in constant residence on his farm, except du¬ ring the two journeys to Home, which he was com¬ pelled to undertake for its preservation. 1 In his pas- i Visconti alleges, ( Icon . Roman.') that at least some of the ec¬ logues were written on the banks of the Galesus, near Tarentum; and he founds this opinion on two lines of Propertius, in which, ad¬ dressing Virgil, he says,— Tu canis , umbrosi subter pineta Galesi, Thyrsin, et attritis Daphnin arundinibus. But I scarcely think this implies more, than that Virgil was a pas¬ toral poet, and resided at the time when Propertius wrote, on the banks of the Galesus. Indeed, were these verses to be taken in their literal signification, they would infer, that the Bucolics were not completed till Virgil had commenced the composition of the iBneid; for the lines of Propertius were written after that period, and canis is in the present tense : Qui nunc JEneee Trojani suscitat arma, Jactaque Lavinis mcenia littoribus. Cedite, Romani scriptores, cedite, Graii; Nescio quid majus nascitur Iliade : Tu canis umbrosi, &c. El. Lib. II. 25. 78 ViltCIL. torals, however, though written on his native fields, we do not find many delineations of Mantuan scenery, or very frequent allusions to the Mincius and its borders. His great object was to enrich his native language with a species of poetry unknown in Latium, and, to promote his success, he chose Theocritus as his model. With few attempts at invention, he pretended to lit¬ tle more than the merit of being the first Roman who had imitated the Sicilian poet, and hence he did not hesitate to borrow, not merely the sentiments and images, but even the rural descriptions of his master. Yet still the scenery on which he so long gazed attracts our interest, and we would anxiously fix the situation of the spreading beech under which he reclined,—of the plain over which the hills cast, at eve, their protracted shadows,—and the green field on which he allegorically designed to construct his marble fane. The farm of Virgil lay on the banks of the river Mincius. This stream, which was of a deep sea-green colour, has its source in the Benacus, or Lago di Garda, whence it flows at the foot of little broken hills, which are covered with vineyards, and passing the romantic castle now called Valeggio, situated on an eminence, descends through a long valley, and then expands over the level ground into two small lakes, the one above and the other just below the town of Mantua. It thence pursues a course of about twelve miles, through a flat but fertile country, till it is received into the Po. The poet’s farm lay on the right or western bank of VIRGIL. 79 the Mincius, about three miles below Mantua, and close to the village of Andes, or Pietola. 1 It extend- 1 From the lines of Dante, in his Purgaiorio E quell’ ombra gentil per cui si noma Pietola piu che villa Mantovana,—(C. 18) it may be inferred, that it was not only the opinion of Dante, but the common tradition of his age, that Pietola occupied the site of the ancient Andes. Eustace, however, though I think on no suffi¬ cient grounds, has placed it at Valeggio, about fifteen miles higher up the river than Mantua. “ On no other part,” says he, “ of the banks of the Mincius are to be discovered either the bare rocks that disfigured the farm of Tityrus,—or the towering crag that shaded the pruner as he sung,—or the vine-clad grotto where the shepherd reclined,—or the bushy cliff, whence the browsing goats seemed as if suspended,—or the lofty mountains which cast their shadows over the plain.” These circumstances, no doubt, occur in eclogues where Virgil is supposed to paint some features of his own little property ; but in an author who professedly borrowed so much, it is difficult precisely to determine what is local or what is general delineation; and more faith is unquestionably due to his descrip¬ tions of the Mincius by name, which he represents as now slowly winding, now forming pools among marshy banks, covered with reeds or bulrushes : These are precisely the characteristics of the stream below Mantua at Pietola, but by no means correspond with its appearance near Valeggio, where, according to Eustace himself, “ its banks are covered with vines and mulberries, and it rushes from a defile between two eminences, and tumbles in foam over rocky layers.” (Classical Tour, vol. I. c. V. p. 213-14, 8vo ed.) But the point seems yet more clearly fixed by some lines at the end of the ninth eclogue. Mceris, who represents Virgil’s grieve, and his companion Lycidas, proceeding from Virgil’s farm to Mantua, remark, when they approach that part of the Mincius where it ex¬ pands into a lake, or, as it were, a wide sea of water, that the half of their walk is now over: Et nunc omne tibi stratum silet aequor ; et omnes, % Adspice, ventosi ceciderunt murmuris aurse : Hinc adeo media est nobis via.— 80 VIRGIL. ed over a flat, between some acclivities to the south¬ west, 1 and the level margin of the stream, 2 —compre¬ hending within its boundaries a vineyard, an orchard, an apiary, and excellent pasture-lands, whence the pro¬ prietor supplied Mantua with cheeses, and victims for the altars of the gods. 3 Some old and decaying beeches stood near the borders of the Mincius. The stream it¬ self, where it bounded the farm of Virgil, was wide- spreading, sluggish, and winding. 4 Its marshy banks were covered with reeds, and numerous swans sailed Now the spot where the stream expands so wide may be accurate¬ ly enough termed half way between Pietola and Mantua; but one travelling in the opposite direction, from Valeggio, has completed three-fourths of his journey before the Mincius assumes the appear¬ ance of a lake, or sea of water. The tradition, too, which is as old as the time of Dante, has con¬ tinued from his age till the present time. About half a mile below Pietola, the old Dukes of Mantua built a pleasure-house, which was called Virgiliana. It was demolished during the war in 1701 ( Voy~ age de Richard ) ; but the farm and gardens still retain the name; and, till the calamities of war again intervened, the Mantuans had planned a public garden at Pietola, with groves and walks ; in the centre of which a temple was to rise, and a statue to be erected, in honour of their immortal poet. (Eustace, Classical Tour , vol. I. c. V. 8vo ed.) 1 Majoresque cadunt altis de montibus umbrae. Ec . 1. 2 Certe equidem audieram, qua se subducere colles Incipiunt, mollique jugum demittere clivo, Usque ad aquam, et veteres, jam fracta cacumina, fagos, Omnia carminibus vestrum servasse Menalcam. Ec. 9. 3 Eclog. 1. v. 34. 4 Propter aquam, tardis ingens ubi flexibus errat Mincius, et tenera praetexit arundine ripas. Georg. Ill, v, 14. 3 VIRGIL. 81 upon its waters, or fed on its moist and grassy mar¬ gin. 1 On the whole, the landscape of Virgil’s farm was tame and insipid, little calculated to excite sublime emotions, or suggest vivid imagery; but he had be¬ held in his earlier days the scenery of Vesuvius ; 2 and even now, if he extended his excursions to some dis¬ tance from the precincts of his domain, he could visit on one side the floods of the rapid and majestic Po, the rex fluviorum , and on the other the Benacus, pre¬ senting at times an image of the tempestuous ocean. The situation of Virgil’s residence was low and humid, and the climate chill at certain seasons of the year. His delicate constitution, and the pulmonary complaints with which he was affected, induced him, about the year 714 or 715, when he had reached the age of thirty, to seek a warmer sky. To this change, it may be conjectured, he was farther instigated by his increasing celebrity, and the extension of his poetic fame. His countrymen were captivated by the per¬ fect novelty of pastoral composition, and by the suc- 1 Et qualera infelix amisit Mantua campum, Pascentem niveos herboso fluorine cycnos. Georg. II. v. 198. 2 We scarce can think that Virgil’s swains Dealt much in goats on Mantua’s plains ; Still less could e’er his shepherds dream Of pendant rocks on Mincio’s stream : From Naples his enliven’d thought Its fondest, best ideas caught. W. Whitehead’s Goafs Beard. VOL. IIT. F 82 VIRGIL. cessful boldness with which Virgil had transferred the sweet Sicilian strains to a language which, before his attempt, must have appeared, from its hardness and severity, but little adapted to be a vehicle for the softness of rural description, or the delicacy of amo¬ rous sentiment, and which had scarcely yet been po¬ lished or refined to the susceptibility of such smooth numbers as the pastoral muse demanded. The Buco¬ lics, accordingly, were relished and admired by all classes of his contemporaries. So universal was their popularity, that the philosophic eclogue of Silenus , soon after its composition, was publicly recited in the theatre by Cytheris, a celebrated mima , who was then the mistress of Antony and Cornelius Gallus, and who, in her earlier years, had touched the heart of Brutus. 1 On quitting his paternal fields, Virgil first proceed¬ ed to the capital. Here his private fortune was con¬ siderably augmented by the liberality of Maecenas f and such was the favour he possessed with his patron, that we find him, soon after his arrival at Rome, introducing Horace to the notice of the minister, 3 and attending him, along with that poet, on a po¬ litical mission to Brundisium. Maecenas and Ho- $ < 1 Cytberidam Mimam cum Antonio et Gallo amavit Brutus.— Aurelius Victor . 2 Risit Tuscus Eques, paupertatemque malignam Repulit, et celeri jussit abire fuga. Accipe divitias, et vatum maximus esto. Martjal, Lib. VIII. ep. 56. * Horat, Sat. Lib. I, 6. VIRGIL. 83 race travelled together from Anxur to Sinuessa, where they were joined by Virgil, who came there ac¬ companied by his two friends Plotius Tucca and Va- rius. There was much mutual joy at this happy meeting, and the whole party seem to have passed to¬ gether a most delightful evening. They proceeded early on the following morning to Capua, where Mae¬ cenas spent the forenoon in playing at tennis; but this exercise being too violent for Horace, who at the time was afflicted with tender eyes, and for Virgil, who laboured under an acrid indigestion in the sto¬ mach, the two poetical friends enjoyed a siesta while their patron was engaged with his game. In the after¬ noon, they were entertained by Cocceius, one of the politicians of the party, at his hospitable and plenti¬ ful villa, which lay upon their road, and then con¬ tinued their journey. Varius left them with much regret at Canusium ; but Virgil appears to have ac¬ companied Maecenas all the way to Brundisium. 1 Nor did Virgil enjoy less favour with the emperor himself than with his minister. It is said, that he never asked anything from Augustus which was re¬ fused : but, though it be affirmed by Donatus, 2 I no more believe, that Augustus consulted him with re¬ gard to his resignation of the government, as a sort of umpire between Agrippa and Maecenas, than that our poet formed the magical statues of Rome, and brazen fly of N aples. It was probably during this period of favour with 1 Herat. Sat. Lib. I. 5. 2 Donat. Vit. Virgil . 84 VIRGIL the emperor and his minister, that Virgil contributed the verses in celebration of the deity who presided over the gardens of Maecenas ; and wrote, though without acknowledging it, that well-known distich in honour of Augustus, of which the merit and rewards were for some time appropriated by another:— Nocte pluit tota ; redeunt spectacula mane ; Divisum imperium cum Jove Caesar habet. During his residence at Rome, Virgil inhabited a house on the Esquiline hill, which was furnished with an excellent library, and was pleasantly situated near the gardens of Maecenas. The supposed site, and even ruins, of his mansion, were long shown to modern tra¬ vellers, whose fancy has supplied the walks, the lau¬ rels, and the fountains: Suffice it now th* Esquilian mount to reach With weary wing, and seek the sacred rests Of Maro’s humble tenement. A low Plain wall remains ; a little sun-gilt heap, Grotesque and wild. The gourd and olive brown Weave the light roof; the gourd and olive fan Their amorous foliage, mingling with the vine, Who drops her purple clusters through the green. Here let me lie, with pleasing fancy soothed!— Here flow’d his fountain, here his laurels grew; Here oft the meek good man, the lofty bard. Framed the celestial song, or, social, walk’d With Horace, and the ruler of the world— Happy Augustus !— 1 1 Dyer’s Ruins of Rome. VIRGIL* Yet, however enviable was Virgil’s present lot, the bustle and luxury of an immense capital were little suited to his taste, to his early habits, or to the deli¬ cacy of his constitution, while the observance and at¬ tention he met with were strongly repugnant to the retiring modesty of his disposition. Such was the po¬ pularity which he derived from his general character and talents, that on one occasion, when some of his verses were recited in the theatre, the whole audience rose up to salute Virgil, who was present, with the same respect which they would have paid to the em¬ peror. 1 And so great was the annoyance which he felt on being gazed at and followed in the streets of Rome, that he sought shelter, it is said, in the near¬ est shops or alleys, from public observation. At the period when Virgil enjoyed so much honour and popularity in the capital, Naples was a favourite retreat of illustrious and literary men,—the “ studio florentes ignobilis oti,” who longed to prosecute in re¬ pose light and agreeable studies. There Virgil re¬ tired about 717, when in the 33d year of his age ; and he continued during the remainder of his life, to dwell chiefly in that city, or at a delightful villa which he possessed in the Campania Felix, in the neigh¬ bourhood of Nola, ten miles east from Naples,—lead¬ ing a life which may be considered as happy, when compared with the fate of the other great epic poets, Homer, Tasso, and Milton, in whom the mind or the vision was darkened. About the time when he first 1 De Causis Corruptee Eloquentia , c. 13. 86 VIRGIL* went to reside at Naples , 1 he commenced his Georgies, by order of Maecenas , 2 and continued, for the seven following years, closely occupied with the composition of that inimitable poem. During this long period, he was accustomed to dictate a number of verses in the morning, and to spend the rest of the day in revising and correcting them, or reducing them to a smaller number,—comparing himself, in this respect, to a she- bear, which licks her misshapen offspring into proper form and proportion . 3 Little is known concerning the other circumstances of Virgil’s life, during the years in which he was em¬ ployed in perfecting his Georgies. He had a dispute, it is said, with his neighbours, the inhabitants of Nola, from whom he requested permission to eonvey a small stream of water into his villa, which was ad¬ jacent to their town. The citizens would not grant the favour, and the offended poet expunged the name of Nola from the following lines of his Georgies :— Talem dives arat Capua, et vicina Vesevo Nola jugo- and substituted the word ora instead of the obnoxious city . 4 1 Illo Virgilium me tempore dulcis alebat Parthenope, studiis florentem ignobilis otl. Georg. Lib. IV. v. 504. 2 Interea Dryadum sylvas saltusque sequamur Intactos, tua, Maecenas, haud mollia jussa. Georg. Lib. III. v. 41. 3 Au. Gellius, Noct. Attic. Lib. XVII. c. 10. 4 Ibid. Lib. VII. c. 20. Fifteen hundred years afterwards, the inhabitants of this town would VlllGIL. 87 Some old commentators inform us, that, in the year 723, Virgil wished to accompany Augustus to the battle of Actium.—“ Scilicet,” says Heyne, somewhat sarcastically, “ quemadmodum Horatius Msecenati comes esse volebat.” The genius of Virgil, being attended with some degree of diffidence, seems to have gained, by slow steps, the measure of confidence which at length em¬ boldened him to attempt epic poetry. He had begun his experiments in verse with humble efforts, in the pastoral line; though, even there, we behold his ar¬ dent Muse frequently bursting the barriers, by which she ought naturally to have been restrained. He next undertook the bolder and wider topic of husbandry; and it was not till he had finished this subject with unrivalled success that he presumed to write the iEneid. This poem, which occupied him till his death, was commenced in 724, the same year in which he had completed the Georgies. After he had been en- not admit Pontanus within their gates, because he arrived a little after they were shut. This second affront to the fraternity of poets drew down on them the imprecations of Sannazzarius, in the fol¬ lowing epigram Infensum musis nomen, male grata petenti Virgilio optatam Nola negavit aquam : Noluit haec eadem Joviano rustica vati Hospitium parvas contribuisse moras. Idcirco nimirum hoc dicta es nomine Nola, Nolueris magnis quod placuisse viris. At tibi pro scelere hoc, ccenosos fusa per agros, Exhauset populos Styx violenta tuos : Jamque quid a nullis abolenda infamia ssecli* Imprecer ? et ccelum desit et unda tibi. 88 VIRGIL. gaged for some time in its composition, the greatest curiosity and interest concerning it began to be felt at Rome. A work, it was generally believed, was in progress which would eclipse the fame of the Iliad ; 1 and the passage which describes the shield of iEneas, appears to have been seen by Propertius. 2 Augus¬ tus himself at length became desirous to read the poem, so far as it had been carried ; and, in the year 729, while absent from Rome on a military expedi¬ tion against the Cantabrians, he wrote to the author from the extremity of his empire, 3 entreating to be allowed a perusal of it. Macrobius has preserved one of Virgil’s answers to Augustus:—“ I have of late received from you frequent letters. With regard to my iEneas, if, by Hercules, it were worth your lis¬ tening to, I should willingly send it. But so vast is the undertaking, that I almost appear to myself to have commenced such a work from some defect in judgment or understanding; especially since, as you know, other and far higher studies are required for such a performance.” 4 Prevailed on at length by these importunities, Virgil, about a year after the re¬ turn of Augustus, recited to him the 6th book, in presence of his sister Octavia, who had recently lost her only son Marcellus, the darling of Rome, and the adopted child of Augustus. The poet, probably 1 Nescio quid majus nascitur Iliade. Propert. El. Lib. II. 25. 2 Ibid. 3 Dignatus tenui Caesar scripsisse Maroni. Claudian, Epist. ad Olybrium . 4 Saturnalia, Lib. I. c. 24. VIIIGIL. 89 in the prospect of this recitation, had inserted the affecting passage, in which he alludes to the prema¬ ture death of the beloved youth— O nate, ingentem luctum ne quaere tuorum, &c. But he had skilfully suppressed the name of Marcel- lus, till he came to the line— Tu Marcellus eris—manibus date lilia plenis. It may be well believed, that the widowed mother of Marcellus swooned away, at the pathos of verses which no one, even at this day, can read without tears. It was much the practice among the Homan poets, to read their productions aloud ; and Virgil is said to have recited his verses with wonderful sweetness and propriety of articulation. During the composition of the iEneid, he occasionally repeated portions of it to those friends, w 7 hose criticisms he thought might im¬ prove the passages he rehearsed. Eros, his librarian and freedman, used to relate, when far advanced in life, that in the course of reciting, his master had extem- porally filled up two hemistichs: The one was u Mi- senum iEolidem,” to which he immediately added, “ quo non praestantior alterand the other the half verse following, “ Mre ciere viros,” to which, as if struck with poetic inspiration, he subjoined, “ Mar- temque accendere cantu and he immediately ordered his amanuensis to insert these additions in their pro¬ per places in the manuscript of his poem. Having brought the iEneid to a conclusion, but not 90 VIRGIL. to the perfection which he wished to bestow on it, Virgil, contrary to the advice and wish of his friends, resolved to travel into Greece, that he might correct and polish this great production at leisure, in that land of poetic imagination. It was on undertaking this voyage, that Horace addressed to him the affec¬ tionate ode beginning:— Sic te diva potens Cypri, Sic Fratres Helense, lucida sidera, Ventorumque regat Pater, Obstrictis aliis, prseter Japyga, Navis, quse tibi creditum Debes Virgilium, finibus Atticis Reddas mcolumem, precor, Et serves animse dimidium mese. Virgil proceeded directly to Athens, where he com¬ menced the revisal of his epic poem, and added the magnificent introduction to the third book of the Georgies. He had been thus engaged for some months at Athens, when Augustus arrived in that city, on his return to Italy, from a progress through his eastern dominions. When he embarked for Greece, it had been the intention of Virgil to have spent three years in that country, in the correction of his poem ; after which, he proposed to pass his days in his native country of Mantua, and devote the remainder of life to the study of philosophy, or the composition of some great philosophical poem : The arrival of Augustus, however, induced him to shorten his stay, and to em¬ brace the opportunity of returning to Italy, in the retinue of the Emperor. But the hand of death was VIRGIL. 91 already upon him. From his youth he had been of a delicate constitution; and as age advanced, he was afflicted with frequent headachs, asthma, and spit¬ ting of blood. Even the climate of Naples could not preserve him from frequent attacks of these maladies, and their worst symptoms had increased during his re¬ sidence in Greece. The vessel in which he embarked with the Emperor, touched at Megara, where he was seized with great debility and languor. When he again went on board, his distemper was so increased by the motion and agitation of the vessel, that he expired a few days after he had landed at Brundisium, on the south-eastern coast of Italy. His death happened in the year 734, when he was in the fifty-first year of his age. When he felt its near approach, he ordered his friends, Varius and Plotius Tucca, who were then with him, to burn the iEneid, as an imperfect poem. 1 This command of Virgil, has excited the wonder of posterity. But the great Eoman writers were in¬ debted for their supreme excellence to their notions of perfection. Cicero, as we have already seen, en¬ tertained such lofty ideas of eloquence, that even the periods of Demosthenes did not fill up the measure 1 The ancient classical authorities only say, that Virgil command¬ ed the iEneid to be burned. (Plin. Hist. Nat. Lib. VII. c. 30. Noct. Attic. XVII. 10. Macrob. Satur . I. 24.) Donatus says that he had ordered it to be burned, but adds that, on Varius and Tucca repre¬ senting to him that Augustus would not permit it to be destroyed, he committed it to them for revisal and correction. Moreri relates the story as it is told by Macrobius, Au. Gellius, and Pliny; and Bayle, as usual, reprehends him, because he has not given it ac¬ cording to the version of Donatus. VIRGIL. of his conceptions: and though to us the poem of Virgil may appear almost perfect, his discerning eye, doubtless, perceived a perfection, which was far be¬ yond it . 1 Augustus, however, interposed to save a work, which he no doubt foresaw would at once confer im¬ mortality on the poet, and on the prince who patroni¬ sed him. It was accordingly intrusted to Varius and Tucca, with a power to revise and retrench, but with a charge that they should make no additions ; 2 a com¬ mand which they so strictly observed, as not to com¬ plete even the hemistichs, which had been left im¬ perfect. They are said, however, to have struck out twenty-two verses from the second book, where iEneas, perceiving Helen amid the smoking ruins of Troy, intends to slay her, till his design is prevented by his goddess mother . 3 These lines accordingly were want¬ ing in many of the ancient MSS. but they have been subsequently restored to their place. There was also a report long current, that Varius had made a change, which still subsists, on the arrangement of two of the books, by transposing the order of the second and 1 The Germans have written a number of idle tracts on the question, why Virgil ordered his iEneid to be burned; but the idlest of all is, that of Bartenstein—“ Cur Virgilius moriens iEneida comburi jussit ? Coburg, 1774, 4to,” where the author maintains that he ordered it to be destroyed in a fit of patriotic repentance, on ac¬ count of the injury he had done to the cause of freedom, by flatter¬ ing Augustus, and reconciling the Romans to his dominion. 2 Hieron. Chron. Enseb. ah Olymp. 190. 3 See, on this subject, Catrou, CEuvres de Virgile. Dissert, sur 1e 2d Livre de TEneide . Note 10. VIRGIL. 93 third , 1 the latter having stood first in the original MS. According to some accounts, the four lines, “ Ille ego qui quondam,” which are still prefixed to the jjEneid in many editions, were expunged by Varius and Tucca; but according to others, they never were written by Virgil, and are no better than an interpo¬ lation of the middle ages. Virgil bequeathed the greater part of his wealth, which was considerable, to a brother. The remainder was divided among his patron Maecenas and his friends Varius and Tucca. Before his death he had also commanded that his bones should be carried to Naples, where he had lived so long and so happily. This order was fulfilled under charge of Augustus himself. According to the most ancient tradition, and the most commonly received opinion, the tomb of Virgil lies about two miles to the north of Naples , 2 on the slope of the hill of Pausilippo, and over the entrance to the grotto, or subterraneous passage, which has been cut through its ridge, on the road leading from Na¬ ples to Puteoli. Cluverius 3 and Addison , 4 however, have placed the tomb on the other side of Naples, near the foot of Mount Vesuvius. The geographer has chiefly drawn his arguments from the following verses of Statius: 1 Nisus Grammaticus audisse se a senioribus dicebat, Varium duorum librorum ordinem commutasse, et qui turn secundus erat in tertium locum transtulisse. 2 Euseb. Chron. Donat. Vita. 3 Italia Antiqua . 4 Remarks on several -parts of Italy > &c. See also Forsyth s Remarks on Italy , p. 102. 94 VIRGIL. —En egomet somnum, et geniale secutus Littus, ubi Ausonio se condidit hospita portu Parthenope, tenues ignavo pollice chordas Pulso, Maroneique sedens in margine templi Sumo animum, et magni tumulis adcanto magistri. * * # % & Hsec ego Chalcidicis ad te, Marcelle, sonabam Littoribus, fractas ubi Vesbius egerit iras, iEmula Trinacriis volvens incendia flammis. 1 According to Cluverius’ interpretation of these lines, Statius asserts, that Virgil’s tomb stood on the beach, and at the foot of Vesuvius. But the expressions, on which he rests his opinion, seem to allude solely to the general and most striking features of the country, and not to the particular site of the tomb of Virgil. The poet speaks only in general of the Chalcidic shores, places which experienced the rage of Vesu¬ vius ; and such vague language seems merely to indi¬ cate the neighbourhood of Naples. Gibbon , 2 who had profoundly studied Cluverius, expresses his opinion, that as the common tradition of the country can be reconciled with the verses of Statius, it ought not lightly to be rejected. The belief, which was that of Petrarch, Sannazzarius, and Bembo, may, therefore, still be cherished by the traveller who climbs the hill of Pausilippo, that he has hailed the shade of Virgil, on the spot where his ashes reposed. Notwithstand¬ ing the veneration which the Bomans entertained for the works of Virgil, his sepulchre was neglected 1 Sylv. Lib. IV. 4. ad Marcellum . 2 Miscellaneous Works , Vol. V. p. 419.—See also Cramer’s De¬ scription of Ancient Italy , Vol. II. p. 174. ed. 1826. VlllGIL, 95 before the time of Martial, who declares, that Silius Xtalicus first restored its long-forgotten honours . 1 What is at present called the tomb, is in the form of a small, square, flat-roofed building, placed on a sort of platform, near the brow of a precipice, on one side, and on the other sheltered by a superincumbent rock . 2 Half a century ago, when Moore travelled in Italy, an ancient laurel, (a shoot perhaps of the same which Petrarch planted,) overhung the simple edifice . 3 Within the low-vaulted cell, was once placed the urn, which was supposed to contain the ashes of Virgil. Olaus Wormius , 4 who visited the spot, and plucked three leaves of laurel, as also Pietro 1 Bp. Lib. XI. ep. 51. ed. Langii, 1617.—The Epigrams of Mar¬ tial are differently arranged and numbered in the editions. 2 Eustace’s Classical Tour , Vol. II. c. 11. 3 Moore’s Travels , Letter 65. 4 In Museo, Amst. 1555, ap. Fabricius. Bib. Lat. T. I. c. 12. § 1. In ancient times, these laurels appear to have been most luxuriant. Drummond of Hawthornden has a madrigal to the bay-tree grow¬ ing on the ruins of Virgil’s tomb. An old English traveller, in the middle of the seventeenth century, says, “ Virgil’s tomb is covered almost over with laurel, or bay trees, as if that poet’s laurel were grown into a shady bower, to make a whole tomb of laurel for the prince of poets.” (Lassel’s Voyage of Italy , 1670. See also Blain- ville’s Travels , Vol. III. c. 45.) The contradiction among modern travellers, with regard to this laurel, is very remarkable. “ The laurel,” observes Eustace, " which it is said sprung up at the base, and covered the roof with its luxuriant branches, now flourishes only in the verses of youthful bards, or in the descriptions of early travellers.” Eustace’s Tour was commenced in 1802. Galiffe, who visited the spot fourteen years afterwards, informs us, “ that the keeper of Virgil’s tomb takes great care to cultivate laurels over its roof; and that none of the visitors goes away without plucking 96 VIRGIL. Stefano, an Italian writer in the middle of the six¬ teenth century, mention that they had seen this urn, with the epitaph inscribed on it, which is said to have been written by the poet himself, a few moments be¬ fore he expired— Mantua me genuit; Calabri rapuere ; tenet nunc Parthenope. Cecini pascua, rura, duces. It was a common practice among the Latin poets to write their own epitaphs; and if the above distich be the production of Virgil himself, it is eminently expressive of that modesty, which is universally al¬ lowed to have been one of the many amiable features of his character, and which is by no means observable in the epitaphs composed for themselves by Ennius and Naevius. We have seen, that at Rome he avoid¬ ed all public honours, and was disconcerted by marks of general admiration. But though he loved retire¬ ment and contemplation, though he was of a thought¬ ful and even somewhat melancholy temper, and though he felt not that anxiety for paltry distinctions or tri¬ vial testimonies of honour, which harassed the morbid mind of Tasso, it seems to be a mistaken idea that he was indifferent to glory, as Lonatus and Asconius Pe- dianus have asserted. He was evidently fond of fame, and desirous to obtain the applause of his contem- a leaf.” (Italy and its Inhabitants , Vol. II. p. 86.) The author of Mementos of a Tour in Italy , who came five years afterwards, says: “ In place of the bay, which once so appropriately shaded the grave of the poet, no other verdure appears save the ivy and the shrubs, which creep through the open window.” (Vol. II. p. 122.) 3 VIRGIL, 97 poraries. And while he shunned the vulgar gaze, and shrunk from the pressure of the multitude, he was not, in the hours of retirement, without that proud exulta¬ tion of spirit,—that consciousness of high intellectual endowments, and strong imaginative powers,—which announced to him, that he was called to immortality, and destined to confer immortality on his country: Primus ego in patriam mecum, modo vita supersit, Aonio rediens deducam vertice Musam ; Primus Idumseas referam tibi, Mantua, palmas, Et viridi in campo templum de marmore ponam. 1 From the earliest periods, the mode of life followed by the ancient Italians was agricultural and rustic; and a love of rural retirement was prevalent among their descendants so long as they were not totally corrupted by foreign manners, and Oriental luxury. But the general habits of the Romans were practical and industrious. They resorted to the country chiefly for the purpose of labour and lucrative toil, and not to pass their time in pastoral indolence or contempla¬ tion. The life of a Roman husbandman was rugged and severe: he could not, like the Sicilian shepherd, wear out his days in singing under a rock, holding his mistress in his arms, and viewing at the same' time his flocks feeding, and the Sicilian sea . 2 Hence pas- 1 Georg. Lib. III. 2 My pot yS,v IIsAeTroj, jtoj [ioi %%vcrii ’ATxXctnat ’E»3 1%uv, [iw& 7r^ooiyiti. T U w twvHz 8clXx