Cornell University Library 
 PA 3002.L88 
 
 A history of Greek and Roman classical I 
 
 3 1924 022 688 877 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tliis book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924022688877 
 
A HISTORY 
 
 GREEK AND ROMAN 
 
 CLASSICAL LITEEATUEE. 
 
 BT 
 
 REV. A. LOUAGE, C. S. C, 
 
 PBOFBBSOB OF A170IENT CLAfiSIOAL LITEBATUBE AT NOTBE-DAME 
 inTIVEBSnT, INDIANA. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 
 
 649 AHD 551 BROADWAY. 
 
 isjra. 
 
Entered, aceordiBg to Act of GongresB, in the year 1878, 
 
 By p. APPLETON & CO., 
 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Waehingtou. 
 
PEEFAO E. 
 
 Having to teach the class of ancient literature at 
 the University of Notre-Dame, I in vain looked for a 
 text-book for my pupils and for myself, and could not 
 find any thing which would answer either my purpose, 
 or the programme, such as I had conceived it. I found, 
 among the books composing the classical department of 
 the library, two volumes, in octavo, by K. "W. Browne, 
 on Greek and Koman classical literature. This work, 
 which is deserving of much praise, was too extensive, 
 and not systematic enough, in order to be given as a 
 text-book. The " Classical Dictionary " of Anthon, 
 and the one of Lempriere, both works of much eru- 
 dition, would not answer my purpose either. I then 
 set to work, and, taking the divisions of Browne, I 
 collected information from the three writers named 
 above, and also from some bibliographical articles 
 found at the head of some editions of classical books, 
 accepted as text-books in all the colleges of this coun- 
 try, and composed the present compendium, which I 
 
4 PREFACE. 
 
 give as a "Manual," and which contains the history 
 of ancient Greek and Eoman classical literature. 
 
 The quality whicli I hope will be found in this 
 work, and which, in my estimation, is the most im- 
 portant, is exactness. The indulgence of the reader is 
 requested for many deficiencies in the style. Our 
 main desire is to be useful, and to secure for our 
 eflEbrts the blessing of God. 
 
 S. BT. D. B. 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 PART I. 
 
 GKEEK CLASSICAL LITEKATUKE. 
 
 PASS 
 
 Preliminaries, 11 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 FIRST PERIOD OF THE mSTORT OF TBE OLASSIOAL_ LITERATURE 
 OF GREECE. 
 
 Chapter I. — Greek Pobtbt before Homer. 
 Orpheus, Eumolphus, Thamyris, Olen, Chryaothemis, Fhilammon 
 
 —The Muses 16 
 
 Ceapter n. — ^Epic Poetrt. 
 Homer — Is he the author of the " Hiad " and the " Odyssey ? " . 17 
 
 Chapter m. 
 Argument of the "Hiad," 20 
 
 Chapter IV. — ^Didactic Poetry. 
 Hesiod, Arctinus of l^etus, Lesches of Lesbos, Agiaa of Troezen, 
 
 Eumelus of Corinth, Strasinus of Cyprus, .... 26 
 
 Chapter V. — Elegiac and Iambic Poetry. 
 Callinus of Epheaus, Tyrtseus, Archiloohus of Paros, Simonides 
 of Amorgos, Mimnermus of Smyrna, Theognia, Xenophanes of 
 .^lea, Phocylidea of Miletus, Hipponax of Ephesus, .^sop— 
 Music at that Period in Greece — Terpander, , , , ,28 
 
6 ■ CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter VI. — ^Lyrio Poetry. Piei, 
 
 EumeluB, Alcman, Arion, Alcseus, Sappho, Erinna, Stesichorus, 
 
 Ibycns, Anacreon, Simonides, Bacchylides, Corinna, Pindar, . 31 
 
 Chapter VII. — Prose Writers : Laws, History. 
 Periander, Pittacus, Thales, Solon, Cleobulus, Bias, Chilo, Cad- 
 mus, Acusilaus, Hecateus, 
 
 89 
 
 Chapter VIII. — ^Pkosb, Philosophy. 
 Pherecydes of Syros, Thales, Anaximander, Anaxlmenes, Diogenes, 
 
 Anaxagoras, Heraelitus, Archelaus, Pythagoras, Xenophanea, 42 
 
 BOOK n. 
 
 SECOND PERIOD OF TBB BISTORT Of TEE CLASSICAL LITEBA- 
 TURE OF GREECE. 
 
 Chapter I. — ^Dramatic Style: its Infancy. 
 The Age of Plsistratus — The Drama — Nature of Dramatic Poetry — 
 
 Thespis, Phrynicus, Chserilus, Pratinas, .... 48 
 
 Chapter II. — ^Dramatic Style: its Perfection. 
 JSschylus, Sophocles — Their compositions, 61 
 
 Chapter III. — Edripides and the Last Tragic Writers of This 
 
 Period — The Theatre. 
 Euripides, Ion, Achseus, Agathon, Chseremon, Theodectes — The 
 
 Theatre in Greece, . . .67 
 
 Chapter IV. — Comedy. 
 Susarion, Epicharmus, Posidippus, Phormis, Dinolochus, Chionides, 
 
 Cratinus, Eupolia, Crates, Aristophanes, .... 64 
 
 Chapter V. — Prose, History. 
 Pherecydes of Leros, Charon, HellanieuB, Xanthus, Herodotus, . 1% 
 
 Chapter VI. — Prose, History. 
 Thucydides, Xenophon, Ctesias, Philistus, Theopompus, Ephorus 
 
 the historian of Alexander 78 
 
CONTENTS. >i 
 
 Chapter VII. — ^Prose, ELOttUENCE. p^qj, 
 
 Corax, Tisias, Gorgias, Antiphon, Andocides, Lysias, Isocrates, 
 laseus, ^schinea, Lycurgus, Demosthenes, Hyperides, Dinar- 
 chus, Semades 86 
 
 Chapter VIII. — ^Pbose, Philosophy. 
 The Sophists — Diogenes of Apollonia, Anaxagoras, Farmeiiides, 
 Zeno, Melissus, Empedooles, Socrates — The Cyrenaio School : 
 Aristippus — The Meqario School: Euclid of Megara — The 
 Cynic School : Antisthenes, and Diogenes the Cynic — The Old 
 Academy : Plato, Spensippus, Xenocrates, Polemo — The Peri- 
 patetic School : Aristotle, Theophrastus — The Stoic School : 
 Zeno — The Skeptical School : Pyrrho — The Epicurean 
 School : Epicurus, 99 
 
 PART II. 
 
 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITBRATUKE. 
 Preliminaries, 109 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 TME FIRST MBA. 
 Chapter I. — Prose and Poetry. 
 First Essays in Prose and Poetry before Livius Andronicus — ^First 
 Songs — Satumian Verse — Historical Records — " Fescennine 
 Songs"— "The LudiOsoii," lU 
 
 Chapter II. — Dramatic Style in the First Era. 
 Livius Andronicus, Cneius Nsevius, Ennius, 117 
 
 Chapter III. — Comedy. 
 T. Maccius Plautus, Csecilius Statins, P. Terentius Afer, L. Afra- 
 nius, P. Licinius Tegula, Lavinius Luscius, Q. Trabea, S. 
 Turpilius, 122 
 
 Chapter IV. — Saiibio Draua, Satibe. 
 M. Facuvius, L. Attius, C. Lucilius, . ... . . .130 
 
8 CONTENTS. 
 
 Chapter V. — ^Pbose, Histokt. p^aa 
 
 Q. Fabius Fictor, L. Cincius Alimentus, Acilius Glubrio, M. Forcius 
 Cato Censorinus, Hemina, Fabius Masimua Servilianus, Fau- 
 nius, Vennonius, F. Sempronius Asellio, C. Julias Gracchanus, 
 S. Fabius Fictor, Calpumius Fiso Censorius, ^milius Scaurus, 
 Rutilius Rufus, SuUa, Maoer, C. Quadrigarius, Valerius Antlas, 
 Cornelius Sisenna, ^lius Tubero, 134 
 
 Chapieb YI. — Fbose, Floquekce, Gbaidiabiaiib. 
 
 M. Antonius Crassus, L. Liciniua Crassus, Q. Hortensius, Lenseus, 
 
 Servius Clodius, .^lius Stilo, Valerius Cato 138 
 
 BOOK n. 
 
 TBH GOLDEN AGE— ERA OF OIOEBO AND AUOmTUS. 
 ChAPTEB I. — ^FOETET. 
 
 Section I. — Writers of Mimes : Decius Laberius, C. Matius, Publius 
 
 Syrus, . . .143 
 
 n. — Elegiac Poetry: C. Valerius Catullus, Albiua TibuUus, 
 
 S. Aurelius Fropertius, C. Cornelius Gallus, . . 144 
 III. — E^rammaiic and Didactic Poetry : C. Cilnius Maece- 
 nas, 0. Valgius Rufus, L. Varius Rufus, iEmilius Ma- 
 cer, Ovidius Naso, Gratius Falisous, Pedo Albinova- 
 nus, A. Sabinus, H. Manilius, .... 149 
 
 IV. — Epic Poetry: Lucretius Carus, P. VirgUius Maro, . 164 
 \.-rDidaclic and Lyric Poetry : Horatius Flaocus, . . 163 
 
 Chaptee n. — ^Frose, Eloquence. 
 M. Tullius Cieero, Asinius FoUio, Terentius Varro, . . . 169 
 
 Chapter HI. — Frose, History. 
 
 L. Lucceius, L. Licinius LucuUus, Cornelius Nepos, C. Julius Caesar, 
 C. Sallustius Crispus, Trogius Pompeius, T. Livius Fatavinus, 
 tt. Nitruvius FoUio, Atteius Fhilologus, Staberius Eros, Q. Cse- 
 ciliuB Epirota, C. Julius Hyginus, Verrius Flaccus, Q. Corni- 
 fioius, P. Nigidius Figulus, 1V6 
 
CONTENTS. 9 
 
 BOOK m. 
 
 THE SILVER ABE. 
 
 Chapter I. — Poktrt. 
 
 pAes 
 
 Section I. — Fables : Phsedrus, 188 
 
 11. — Satires: Aulus Persius Flaccus, Decius Junius Juvenal, 190 
 III. — Hpic Style: M. Annaeus Lucanus, C. Silius Italicus, 0. 
 
 Valerius Flaccus, P. Papinius Statins, Domitian, . 192 
 
 rV. — Epigrams: M. Valerius Martialis, .... 19? 
 
 Chapter II. — ^Prose, History. 
 
 Velleius Paterculus, Valerius Maximus, C. Cornelius Tacitus, Sue- 
 tonius Tranquillus, Q. Curtius Kufus, L. Annaeus Floras, . 199 
 
 Chapter III. — ^Prose, Philosophers and Grammarians. 
 
 M. Annseus Seneca, L. Anneeus Seneca, C. Plinius Secundus (the 
 Elder), C. Plinius Caecllius Secundus (the Younger), M. Fabius 
 Quintilianus, Aurelius Cornelius Celsus, Scribonius Largus De- 
 signatianus, Fomponius Mela, L. Junius Moderatus Columella, 
 Sextus Julius Frontinus, Aulus Gellius, Appuleius, Petronius, 
 Lactantius, 204 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Theocritus, Lucian, Plutarch, St. John Chrysostom, . . . 21? 
 
PART I. 
 GKEEK CLASSICAL LITEEATUEE. 
 
 PRELIMINA BIES. 
 
 The classical literature of Greece first engages at- 
 tention because it is the oldest in Europe, and has been 
 the source from which Eome derived its mental cul- 
 ture. Greece must be viewed in two different aspects : 
 first, in its oneness as a nation ; second, in its siibdi- 
 visions into different races. In every thing which re- 
 lates to Greece, we find a tendency to union, and an 
 insurmountable principle of disunion and division of 
 races. Each writer has common sympathies, but each 
 one also exhibits in his productions the character of 
 his race. Differences are found between the loni- 
 ans, -iEolians, Dorians, and Sicilians. The lonians 
 show a refined and energetic mind, and reach perfec- 
 tion in every department of literature but the lyric. 
 The Dorians and the .^olians show more disposition 
 to enthusiasm, and among them poets are found who 
 will win the crown in lyric poetry, and in the dithy- 
 rambic chorus ; but perfection in the chorus has been 
 attained only by the Attic or Ionian dramatists. 
 
 Greek literature has been imitated but not equalled. 
 Greek literature is admirable, not only as presenting a 
 
12 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 picture of the human intellect in its highest state of 
 perfection, but also for its moral value. Each writer 
 writes not for personal glory, but in the discharge of a 
 duty, in the performance of a mission — ^that of stirring 
 the religious and national feelings of the Greeks. 
 
 The. history of the classical literature of Greece 
 should comprise only the history of the period when 
 that literature reached its perfection, and consequently 
 the period of the Pisistratidse ; but we will here con- 
 sider also the period of the infancy of that literature, 
 and divide this study into two books. In the first book 
 we will examine the history of the infancy of the 
 Greek literature, until the period of the Pisistratidse, 
 about 650 years b. o. ; and, in the second book, we will 
 consider the period which is called that of the Pisistra- 
 tidse, which extends itself until the supremacy of Mace- 
 don completes the destruction of the autonomy of 
 Greece, about 300 years b. o. 
 
 Language being the material of literature, it will 
 be necessary to say something about the formation of 
 the Greek language. 
 
 Two families separated in the plains of Armenia : 
 the Semitic occupied the south of Asia and the north 
 of Africa ; the Indo-European spread itself in the west- 
 ern part of Asia, and along the shores of the Black 
 and Caspian Seas, penetrating into the northern part 
 of Europe. To the Indo-European race we are in- 
 debted for the vocabulary and grammatical structure 
 of the languages of civilized Europe ; to the Semitic 
 we owe the alphabet, and the means of committing 
 ideas to writing. But while the Semitic race possessed, 
 far earlier than the Indo-European, a phonetic alphabet 
 
PKELIMINAEIES. 13 
 
 of such power and perfection as to satisfy the require- 
 ments of both races, and to be capable of expressing 
 and representing every sound, its comparative supe- 
 riority ends here. The varied structure of the Indo- 
 European languages, the power of combination in their 
 elements, the perfection of their grammatical prin- 
 ciples, endow them with greater capacity for forming 
 a widely-diffused and extended literature. 
 
 In the Semitic languages the roots are few in num- 
 ber, and composed of only two or three letters, and the 
 formation of words, by means of prefixes and affixes, 
 is simple and in most cases similar ; hence, although 
 there are weight and dignity, there is an absence of 
 that variety of sound, which, in the classical languages, 
 falls so agreeably on the ear. 
 
 Doubtless the Greeks were distinguished by a vast 
 amount of mental energy and subtlety of discrimina- 
 tion ; but it is clear that the accommodating structure 
 of the Indo-European languages was a powerful instru- 
 ment to mould and educate their mental powers. 
 
 The ear, even of the uninitiated, is struck with the 
 harmonious variety perceptible in the Greek language, 
 and its fitness at once for the loftiest strains of heroic 
 and dithyrambic poetry, the sweet pathos of the lyric 
 muse, the rhythmical character of oratorical prose 
 composition, and the simple familiarity and elegant 
 perspicuity of narrative and conversation. 
 
 The Pelasgi were the tribes which settled earliest 
 in Greece. They were allied to the Iranian tribes in 
 the north of India, and consequently that element in 
 the Greek language which exhibits an affinity for the 
 Sanscrit, is the Pelasgic, and hence the numerous re- 
 
]4 GREEK CLASSICAL LITEEATURE. 
 
 semblances in words and inflections which are found 
 to exist between the two languages. The Hellenes, 
 who occupied, according to the testimony of several 
 writers, and especially of Herodotus, a portion of Thes- 
 saly, penetrated farther into Greece, and mixed them- 
 selves with the inhabitants of the country ; and the 
 Hellenic element, being added to the other, caused the 
 older Pelasgian language to be looked upon as bar- 
 barous, when the Hellenes, who were an Ionian race, 
 became the possessors of Attica. This element of the 
 Greek language is said to have had an affinity to the 
 Persian. 
 
 The names given to the differMit tribes of Greece 
 have been differently explained; probably the way of 
 explaining their origin, by making them come from 
 the appellations of the chiefs, is not an accurate one. 
 We may find a more plausible explanation, drawing 
 them from circumstances of place, etc. : thus, the word 
 Dorian comes from Tor, or Taurus, which signifies 
 mountain. The Dorians were the inhabitants of the 
 mountainous districts ; that race emigrated afterward 
 into Peloponnesus. The word Ionian comes from 'Hmp 
 (shore). The lonians settled along the sea-shore, and 
 the word ^olians comes from AloKeii (mixture) — the 
 ^olian being composed of the Hellenic and Pelasgic 
 element. 
 
 Some authors pretend that the Semitic races had a 
 written language long before the Indo-European races, 
 and attribute to that circumstance the absence of liter- 
 ature, at least of poetry, among them. It might, with 
 as much plausibility, be attributed to the soft nature 
 .of those people. 
 
BOOK I. 
 
 FmST PERIOD OF THE HISTORY OF THE GLASSICAi 
 LITERATURE OF GREECE. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 GEEEK POETEY BEFOEE HOMEE. 
 
 PoETET is the earliest species of literature ; it is the 
 natural outpouring of the heart. Prose requires more 
 intellectual development. In grief or joy we like to 
 sing. The first verses were hymns to the divinity. 
 Poetry, at the beginning, realized the definition of 
 Strabo : 
 
 'H •jToirjTUcij watra vfivrjnie^. 
 
 The first developments of Greek poetry were im- 
 mediately connected with religion ; and that worship, 
 the enthusiastic devotion of which was embodied in 
 poetry, was the worship of If ature. The Greeks were 
 inhabiting a land well suited to nurture and foster 
 the fancy and imagination. 
 
 The legend of Linus, which is found in the " Lam- 
 entations of the Bards," nnder the heading of "At 
 Alve" symbolized the withering and perishing of Na- 
 ture's life and vigor. Hesiod says of Linus : 
 
16 6BEEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 IIdvre<; fiev 0p7)vov<nv iv eiKceirlvaK tc xo/joZ? re, 
 'Apxp/ievoit 8e Alvov koI \iff0vTe9 KoKeovtri. 
 
 The other hymns were distinguished by the cry of 
 joy, " l^ Ilaifjov" Poetry also sympathized with the 
 joys and sorrows of domestic life, and it is clear what 
 were the engrossing subjects of these strains ; they must 
 have been the praises of the gods, the melancholy le- 
 gends interwoven with the popular mythology, the ex- 
 ploits of warriors and heroes, the joys of love and wine. 
 
 The names of the first bards and minstrels who 
 occupied a high place in the respect and veneration 
 of the people, are: Orpheus, Eumolpus, Thamyris, 
 Musseus, Chrysothemis, Philammon, Olen, and some 
 others. Their compositions are reported to have re- 
 ferred to the worship of Apollo, " the god of the sun." 
 The first four were Thracians, and very likely had set- 
 tled near Mount Helicon, and the names attributed to 
 the Muses, or goddesses of song, owe their origin to 
 the settlements inhabited by these bards, and other 
 poets of that remote period. 
 
 The most celebrated of these poets is Orpheus, who 
 sang the praises of Dionysus Zagraeus (not Bacchus, the 
 god of wine). The worship of this Dionysus Zagraeus 
 was of a pure character. 
 
 Those poets belong to the age of fable. It would be 
 impossible to determine now whether the fragments 
 which remain, and are attributed to them, come really 
 from them, and even whether they ever existed or not. 
 It is probable that Eumolpus, for instance, which means 
 beautiful singer, owes his existence to family vanity. 
 
EPIC POETRY. 
 
 17 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 EPIC POETET. 
 
 Homer. — Homer was born in Asia Minor, probably 
 near Sroyrna, on the banks of the Meles — hence the 
 name of Melesigenes given to him — about nine cen- 
 turies before the birth of our Lord. The authors can- 
 not agree in regard to the time of his birth. Although 
 seven towns claim the honor of being the birthplace 
 
 of Homer, we may hold our assertion as a good one, 
 for, according to K. O. Miiller, there is no such dis- 
 crepancy in these traditions as at first sight appears. 
 Smyrna was a colony of Athens, and it has been the 
 mother city of Chios, Colophon, Salamis, Rhodes, 
 
18 GBEEK CLASSICAL LITERATUEE. 
 
 and Argos. The name of " Homer " ('OfMiRO's) means 
 hostage, or, 'O fi^ op&v (the one not seeing). 
 
 Homer is the first who composed one of those won- 
 derful works, an epic poem, of which few examples are 
 found in the whole circle of the world's literature. 
 
 As far as we can ascertain. Homer travelled with 
 Mentes, a Leucadian merchant, whose name the poet 
 handed down to posterity in the " Odyssey ; " he visited 
 Greece, and the Greek colonies of Asia Minor, became 
 the tutor of the children of Chiros, and died on the 
 island of Irus, at a very old age. On his way to Greece 
 he landed, sick, on the island of Irus. Some fisher- 
 men's boys asked him the riddle : 
 
 "A<T(T eXafiev, \nr6/iea6a, a S' ovk eKofiev, ^ep6fie<r0a. 
 
 On this Suidas gravely remarks that he did not die of 
 vexation because he could not guess the riddle, but of 
 the disease under which he labored when he landed. 
 He was buried on the island. The inhabitants in- 
 scribed on his tomb the following elegy : 
 
 "EvdaSe rrjv lephv Ke^aXrjv Kara <ya'ia KoKwrrei, 
 'Avhpmv rjpdyatv KOcrfii^Topa 6eiov"0/j,r]pov. 
 
 Since his time it has been believed, always and 
 everywhere, that he was the author of the two poems, 
 the " Iliad " and the " Odyssey." Only, at the time 
 of the Ptolemies, some grammarians of the school of 
 Alexandria pretended that Homer was not the au- 
 thor of the two poems, but that the " Hiad " and the 
 " Odyssey " had been composed by different authors. 
 The question was considered as a paradox, and gradu- 
 ally died away. 
 
EPIC POETKY. 19 
 
 At the end of the seventeenth century, Hedelin 
 and Perrault pretended that the two poems were the 
 work of many poets, or bards, and that Homer was not 
 the author thereof. Heyne accepted that opinion, and, 
 in 1T95, Wolf gave his " Prolegomena," by which he 
 tried to establish the same theory. His arguments were 
 the following : The two poems cannot be the work of 
 Homer — 1. Because they were not and could not be 
 written ; 2. Since they were recited, it is not probable 
 that they were composed in longer portions than could 
 have been recited on a single occasion. 
 
 We might concede that Homer did not write his 
 poems, though it is doubtful (Nitzsch), and that con- 
 cession does not solve the question against Homer. In 
 regard to the second argument, we may say that the 
 poems may have been committed to memory, and the 
 custom of the Greeks' listening to six or seven trage- 
 dies on the same day, at the celebration of their festi- 
 vals, shows that Homer might have given the whole 
 of each poem upon any of those occasions. 
 
 In order to solve the question, we must study the 
 work itself. Evidently these poems are the work of 
 one man, if we find in them — 1. General similarity of 
 style ; 2. Unity of plan ; 3. Consistency in the char- 
 acters. But such is the case ; then Homer is the au- 
 thor of the two poems. 
 
 1. In both we find the Homeric verse, which is 
 peculiar to that writer ; the similes, the same dramatic 
 power. The words are the same ; the new words scat- 
 tered in the "Odyssey" were needed; the changes 
 in the finals come from the changes in the language, 
 which may be accounted for by reason of the differ- 
 
20 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATUBE. 
 
 ence of time at which the two poems were written. 
 The " Odyssey " is evidently posterior to the " Hiad." 
 
 2. The unity of plan is perfectly observed in both 
 poems, as we may judge by the exposition of the argu- 
 ment of the " Hiad " in the following chapter. 
 
 CHAPTEE in. 
 "akgument of the "il 
 
 The poet proposes to sing of Achilles's wrath, and 
 its terrible consequences to the Greeks. When the 
 poem opens, more than eight years of the war are sup- 
 posed to have passed away. Chryseis, who has been 
 allotted to Agamemnon as his portion of the Theban 
 spoils, is the daughter of a priest of ApoUo ; her father 
 proposes to ransom her, but is refused. Apollo, in or- 
 der to avenge the cause of his serviant, afflicts the army 
 with pestilence. Achilles calls a council, at which 
 Agamemnon consents to restore Chryseis, but declares 
 that he will take in her place Briseis, the favorite of 
 Achilles. Hence a fierce quarrel arises between the 
 heroes, and Achilles refuses to take part in the war. 
 He then entreats Thetis to prevail on Zeus to avenge 
 his wrongs ; she accedes to this request of her son, and 
 her prayer is granted. 
 
 Zeus, mindful of his promise to Thetis, deceives 
 Agamemnon in a dream. A council of war is called, 
 in which Thersites attacks Agamemnon for his con- 
 duct toward Achilles, and a battle is determined upon. 
 
AEGUMENT OF THE "ILIAD." 21 
 
 This fumislies an opportunity for enumerating the 
 forces, both of the Greeks and the Trojans. 
 
 The armies now meet, and Paris challenges Mene- 
 laus ; Helen is to be the prize of the victor. Menelaus 
 is victorious, but Paris is rescued by Aphrodite, and 
 conveyed to the apartments of Helen. Agamemnon 
 then demands the fulfilment of the conditions. 
 
 Zeus sends Athene to renew hostilities, by causing 
 some one to violate the truce. In the disguise of Lao- 
 doQus she persuades Pandarus to shoot at Menelaus ; 
 he is wounded, and the battle begins. 
 
 The battle continues, and Diomede is the hero of 
 it. "Wounded at first by Pandarus, he afterward slays 
 him. He pursues Aphrodite, and wounds her in the 
 wrist ; afterward he attacks Ares, whom he drives 
 from the field. 
 
 As Athene is the patroness of the invincible war- 
 rior Diomede, Helenus sends Hector to Troy to advise 
 a procession to the temple of the goddess. This gives 
 him an opportunity of visiting Paris, and exhorting 
 him to return to the field, and also of having an inter- 
 view with his wife Andromache. 
 
 Another single combat is proposed, and this time 
 Hector is the challenger. Ajax is selected by lot as 
 the Greek champion. They fight, and, night coming 
 on, the heralds separate them. A council is held at 
 Troy, in which Antenor advises the surrender of Helen, 
 but Paris will not consent. The Greeks fortify their 
 camp. 
 
 Zens forbids the gods to interfere, and, taking his 
 seat on Ida, he weighs in a balance the fates of the 
 two nations, and by his decree fortune favors the Tro- 
 
22 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 jaus. They assault the Greek camp. Her6 and Athene 
 set off in disobedience to the divine command, but ai-e 
 stopped by a message from Zeus. Night puts an end 
 to the assault, but Hector prepai-es for a renewal of it 
 in the morning. 
 
 Agamemnon calls a council, and complains of the 
 false promises of Zens ; in his despair he proposes to 
 return to Greece. Nestor advises him to conciliate 
 Achilles by restoring Briseis ; some chiefs are sent to 
 Achilles, but their proposals are treated with scorn. 
 
 Agamemnon cannot sleep, and resolves to seek 
 counsel from Nestor and Menelaus. During that night 
 Diomede and Ulysses go to the Trojan camp, slny Co- 
 lon and Khesus, whose chariot and horses they capture. 
 
 Morning breaks, and Discord excites the Greeks to 
 battle. Atrides distinguishes himself; Diomede, Ulys- 
 ses, and Machaon, are wounded and leave the field. 
 Achilles then sends Patroclus to inquire who is 
 wounded. Nestor urges him to induce Achilles to 
 return, oi*, if not, to send him, Patroclus disguised in 
 his own armor. 
 
 The evil fortune of the Greeks still continues. Hec- 
 tor enters the camp, and the Greeks fly to their ships. 
 
 Poseidon sides with the Greeks, but Zeus continues 
 to support the Trojans. Many heroes are slain. Hec- 
 tor leads the assault, upbraids Paris with his effemi- 
 nacy, and hurls defiance at Ajax. 
 
 Nestor goes to see the bloody field ; there he meets 
 Agamemnon, who rebukes him for forsaking the field. 
 Her6 borrows Aphrodite's cestus, and, vanquished by 
 love, Zeus sleeps. During that time Poseidon helps 
 the Greeks. 
 
AEGtJMENT OF THE "ILIAD." 23 
 
 The Greeks rally and rout the Trojans. Zens 
 awakes, reproaches Her6, and sends Iris to warn Po- 
 seidon from );he field of battle. He declares that the 
 Greeks shall suffer until the wrath of Achilles is ap- 
 peased. Apollo then puts the Greeks to flight. Hec- 
 tor tries to burn their fleet, but Ajax saves it. 
 
 Achilles gives his armor to Patroclus, and sends 
 him to the field. The Trojans, being deceived, fiy. 
 Patroclns pursues them, and performs wonderful feats 
 of valor. At length Apollo smites him on the back, 
 his head grows dizzy, his armor falls from him, and he 
 is killed by Hector. On dying, Patroclus foretells 
 Hector's death. 
 
 Menelaus defends the body of Patroclus; Hector 
 takes his arms and puts them on. Zeus declares that 
 he shall never return in them to Troy. Zeus now re- 
 lents, and sends Athene to assist the Greeks. Mene- 
 laus apprises Achilles of the death of Patroclns, and 
 bears the body from the field. 
 
 The groans of Achilles, a,t his friend's death, alarm 
 Thetis. She comforts him, and furnishes him with a 
 new suit of armor. He goes to the fight, and, at his 
 very shout, confusion seizes the Trojans. They think 
 of retiring to Troy, but Hector refuses. Achilles's 
 new shield is described. Reconciliation between Aga- 
 memnon and Achilles unconditional. Achilles goes 
 to battle. 
 
 Zeus permits the gods to engage in the battle, 
 -lEneas meets Achilles, and is saved by Poseidon, and 
 afterward Hector is saved by Apollo. Achilles sacri- 
 fices twelve prisoners to the manes of Patroclus. The 
 deities on both sides engage in the hottest of the battle. 
 
24 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATtJEE. 
 
 Priam urges Hector to retire, but he refuses, and is 
 killed ; stripped of his armor. 
 
 The funeral rites are performed in honor of Pa- 
 trocluB, and games are celebrated. 
 
 Achilles still wreaks his vengeance on the corpse 
 of Hector, The aged Priam begs his son's body, and 
 Achilles, by the advice of Thetis, accepts the ransom. 
 The funeral of Hector concludes the poem. 
 
 The same unity is found in the " Odyssey." 
 
 Some have supposed that there was an interpola- 
 tion at the end of each poem. In the "Iliad," the 
 subject being the wrath of Achilles, it seems natural 
 that the poem should be finished as soon as that wrath 
 has, been pacified; but the episode of Priam asking 
 for the corpse of his son is natural, and adds to the 
 beauty of the work. Homer could not leave the reader 
 under a painful impression. 
 
 The subject of the " Odyssey " being the return of 
 Ulysses, the poem should be over when Ulysses arrives 
 at Ithaca ; but, can we consider it as a fault that the 
 poet has shown, before finishing, the restoration of the 
 hero to his throne and the punishment of the suitors ? 
 
 3. In regard to the consistency of the characters : 
 some of them are found in both poems, and they are 
 strikingly consistent with each other. The characters 
 of Achilles, Agamemnon, Menelaus, Nestor, Ajax, 
 Diomede, Ulysses, Hector, Priam, Paris, Helen, Hec- 
 uba, and Andromache in the " Iliad," those of Telem- 
 achus, Penelope, Euryclea, Nausicaa, and Eumseus, 
 in the " Odyssey," are perfectly drawn and consistent 
 throughout. Then, Homer is the writer of both poems. 
 If not, we must admit that in a short space of time two 
 
ARGUMENT OF THE "ILIAD." 25 
 
 men existed who, contrary to any thing that has ever 
 heen seen in the world, wrote an epic poem ; or, we 
 must admit another thing more improbable, that the 
 lays of many bards, living at different epochs, being 
 united, have produced the most wonderful literary 
 work. 
 
 In conclusion, we might admit that Homer used 
 for the compositions of his works many legends, com- 
 posed in Asia Minor, about the gods and their inter- 
 ference in the Trojan war, and composed the " Iliad " 
 and the " Odyssey," and that these poems, learned by 
 heart and repeated by singers, were at length collected, 
 and, with* few interpolations, set in order under Pi- 
 sistratus. 
 
 A few words from St. Augustine may properly be 
 placed here : " Homer," said he, " will have no tem- 
 ples, nor games, nor sacrifices in Christendom ; but his 
 statue is yet to be seen in the palaces of kings, and his 
 name will remain in honor among the nations to the 
 world's end. He stands, by prescription, alone and 
 aloft on Parnassus, where it is not possible now that 
 any human genius should stand with him, the father 
 and the prince of all heroic poets, the boast and the 
 glory of his own Greece, and the love and admiration 
 of all mankind." 
 
 "Whatever may be the opinion which we form about 
 the reality of the Trojan war, we must admit that 
 Homer cannot be accepted as an historian ; but, the 
 picture which he gives of the manners and creed of his 
 epoch is extremely precious. Homer did not compose 
 the fifty hymns attributed to him, neither the Batra- 
 chomyomachy nor the Margites. 
 
26 GKEEK CLASSICAL LITEKATUEE. 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 DID ACTIO POETET. 
 
 Hesiod. — He was bom at Ascra, in Boeotia ; by de- 
 scent he was an Asiatic Greek. The same sadness and 
 gloom which distinguish the climate of Ascra from 
 that of the coast of Asia, mark the poetry of Hesiod. 
 The romantic ideal of the Homeric age gives place to 
 the stem reality of common life and daily duty. His 
 description of the lot of humanity is less brilliant, but 
 more true. Impressed with a sense of the social evils 
 of his time, Hesiod looks for a remedy ; his purpose is 
 didactic and moral. Hesiod lived some time after Ho- 
 mer, about 900 years b. o. He borrowed much from 
 the great epic poet. 
 
 His works are — 1. "Epya Kal 'H/j,ep<u (" Works and 
 Days "). Its leading subject is the various occupations 
 and duties of life, in its several relations, with a con- 
 clusion consisting of a calendar for the use of agricul- 
 turists and navigators. 2. A " Theogony, or a History 
 of the Origin of the "World and the Genealogies of the 
 Gods ; " a work important and interesting in a mytho- 
 logical point of view. 3. " The Ecese " {MeyaXal 'Holai), 
 " ^ 017}, such as were," a formula with which many of 
 the descriptions were introduced. This work contained 
 the history of the favorites of the gods. 4. KaraXoyo'; 
 TvvaiK&v (" The Catalogue of "Women "), a book dis- 
 tinct from "The Ecese," and containing the geneal- 
 ogies of celebrated women of the heroic age. 5. Aa-irk 
 'HpaKkkovi (" The Shield of Hercules "). This last 
 
DIDACTIC POETRY. 27 
 
 work is probably a composition belonging to another 
 poet. These last three poems formed one work, at- 
 tributed to Hesiod, and called "The Heroogony. " 
 The last part, or " The Shield of Hercules,"^is a frag- 
 ment attached to it by some unknown rhapsodist. It 
 is the only part remaining of " The Heroogony ; " few 
 fragments of the other parts have been preserved. 
 
 Hesiod is admired for the elegance of his diction, 
 and the sweetness of his poetry. It may be said of 
 him, what he was saying of a poet, yXvKepij peet avB^ 
 (his voice flows sweet). Like Homer he wrote in the 
 Ionic dialect, with some JEolisms intermingled. 
 
 Homer and Hesiod are the principal poets of the 
 epic cycle; for, although we have spoken of Hesiod as 
 a didactic poet, a great part of his writings possess the 
 epic character. We will give here the names of sev- 
 eral writers who belong to the same era, but whose 
 works are lost. They are : 
 
 Arctinus of lliletiis. — He has been called a disciple 
 of Homer. His poem consisted of 9,100 verses. He 
 related the events of the Trojan war, following the 
 death of Hector. 
 
 Lesches of Lesbo& — ^He lived, like Arctinus, at the 
 time of Archilochus, in the eighteenth Olympiad, 708. 
 He composed the " Little Iliad " (IXiai MiKpd) 
 
 Agias of Iroezen. — ^He lived in Y40, and the ancients, 
 referring to his poem, say : "O to^ voo-tou? ypayfrd^ ; 
 hence we conclude that the title of his work was 
 "NoffTol," which work contained the history of the 
 return of the Achseans from Troy. 
 
 Eumelus of Corinth. — He lived in the third Olym- 
 piad, aild wrote a history of Qorinth in heroic verpe. 
 
28 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Strasinns of Cyprus. — We have a few verses of a 
 poem from that writer, which was entitled Ta Kvirpla 
 eirt} (" The Cyprian Epics"). 
 
 The number of poems in the epic style written at 
 that time amounts to thirty, relating mostly to the 
 Trojan war, the history of Thebes, and the exploits 
 of Hercules. 
 
 CHAPTEE Y. 
 
 ELEGIAC AND IAMBIC POETET. 
 
 AuTHOES do not agree about the etymology of the 
 words " elegy " and " iamb." The first deviation from 
 the heroic hexameter took place two hundred years 
 after Homer. Callinus of Ephesus was the first who 
 gave the elegiac stanza. It was used for monumental 
 and other inscriptions, " etrirfpafifiaTar wherever brev- 
 ity of expression required terseness and conciseness. 
 This metre, used only for treating subjects breathing 
 a melancholy, and also a warlike and patriotic, spirit, 
 soon degenerated, and Archilochus gave, in that same 
 metre, the earliest specimens of what is called in mod- 
 ern times " the Anacreontic," celebrating the delights 
 of wine and revelry. 
 
 The poets who wrote in the elegiac form, and whose 
 works are almost entirely lost, were : 
 
 CaUinns of Ephesus. — He lived about 720 b. o. 
 
 TyrtsBus. — He was born at Athens in 685. "We have 
 from this poet, who had been sent, through derision by 
 the Athenians, as a commander to the Spartans, several 
 
ELEGIAC AND IAMBIC POETRY. 29 
 
 fragments remaining of his elegies. They are written 
 in the Ionic dialect, and are full of enthusiastic and 
 patriotic feelings. His anapaestic marches were written 
 in Doric ; of these only one single fragment came down 
 to us. For all the fragments from Tyrtseus you may 
 see the " Anthologia." 
 
 Archilochus of Faros. — He lived in 688. He was re- 
 garded by the ancients as one of the greatest poets that 
 Greece ever produced. Cicero classes him with Ho- 
 mer, Sophocles, and Pindar. His best composition 
 was a hymn in honor of Hercules. He must be blamed, 
 however, for the bitterness and vindictive spirit which 
 characterize his verses, and the indecency which per- 
 vades them. Many fragments of his compositions may 
 be found in the " Anthologia." 
 
 Simonides of Amorgos. — There have been two poets 
 of the name of Simonides. The one mentioned here 
 lived in 664, and was called the 'Ia/i^oypdcj)o<;. We 
 have only one fragment from his writings. It is a 
 satiric piece, simple and elegant, entitled "Ilepl Fv- 
 vaiK&v." 
 
 HimnemiTis of Smyrna, — He lived at the time of So- 
 lon, 594. 
 
 The Athenian Tlieogiiis was bom in 583. We have 
 many fragments of his elegies, in all 1,392 verses, which 
 were popular songs exercising a great influence at the 
 time. Theognis was the poet of the old aristocracy, 
 which was crumbling away before the growing power 
 of the wealthier commons, led by some influential citi- 
 zen, called in Greece " tyrant." Theognis lived at the 
 time of the thirty tyrants. 
 
 The last two were Xenophanes of Slea, the founder 
 
30 GREEK CLASSICAL LITEKAT0BB. 
 
 of tlie ^leatic school of philosophy (540), and Pho- 
 cylides of Miletus, whose compositions are all introduced 
 by the words, " And this, too, is Phocylides." 
 
 Kal ToSe ^caKvXlZeco. Aipioi kukoI, ovk 6 fiiv, os S' ov, 
 ndvTe'i irXriv UpoKXeovi, Kal IIpoKKer]^ Aepio^. 
 
 The iambic verse was invented by Archilochus of 
 Paros. One characteristic of iambic verse is rapidity; 
 it is well suited tor repartee and satire. 
 
 " ArcMocum proprio rabies armavit iambo," 
 
 says Horace ; and again — 
 
 " In celeres iambos misit furentem." 
 
 The iambic verse became one of the elements of the 
 Attic drama, Archilochus was not only an iambic 
 poet— we have seen that he wrote elegies. He is also 
 the inventor of the 'EttcoSo?, so well imitated by Hor- 
 ace. We may see that Greek poetry is progressing in 
 the development of its form, and reaching maturity in 
 lyric poetry. The first writers in iambic poetry were, 
 besides Archilochus and Simonides, of whom we have 
 spoken : 
 
 Hipponax of Ephesns, the inventor of the choliambic 
 or lame iambic, because the last foot was a spondee; and 
 Mso^, born in 620, according to some authors, whose 
 fables exist and are much known : he was probably a 
 slave, and lived at the time of Croesus, and at the court 
 of that prince. Anthon pretends that ^sop did not 
 write fables ; compositions of that nature were written 
 by many poets, who handed them down by tradition, 
 and they were collected afterward^ as it has been done 
 
LYRIC POETBY. 31 
 
 by Demetrius Phalereus, in 150, and by Babrins, in 
 150 B. 0. It is useless to relate here the narrative of 
 Plutarch concerning the death of ^sop, since we may 
 seriously doubt whether JEsop has ever existed.* 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 LTEIO POETET. 
 
 Ltbio poetry is the outpouring of the human heart, 
 when inspired either by religion or love. The former 
 characterizes the lyric of the Dorians, the latter that 
 of the JEolians. The choral lyric of the Dorians was 
 eminently fitted for solemn and sacred subjects ; for 
 accompanying the dignified march of the priests, and 
 the cheerful dance of the assistant band of youths and 
 
 * Mnsic was imperfectly known in Greece. The word dp/iovtic^ 
 (harmony) did not mean at that time what it meant since ; it was 
 simply the art of melody, that is, the singing with two voices 
 separated by one octave, the natural distance between the pitch 
 of a female voice and of a male voice. Until 648 they had only 
 the lyre tetrachord, making the distances one-fonrth. Terpander, 
 a native of Lesbos, was the inventor of the real science of har- 
 mony, and introduced in the lyre three more chords. This new 
 compass was called Aid waaCiv through all the sounds. He is the 
 first who adapted melodies to the national lays of the Lace- 
 daemonians. 
 
 M^Aof TTpSrof TTEptlBtiKe toiq noi^jiaai, 
 KoJ rodf AaKeSaciiOvlav v6/iovg ifiehmol^e, 
 
 Terpander may be considered as the founder of Greek mu- 
 sical science, and he flourished just at the time when lyric poetry 
 was developing itself. 
 
32 GREEK CLASSICAL LITEBATUEE. 
 
 yrrgins, while the ^olian measures and dialect were 
 more suitable to express human sentiment and passion. 
 The deities, in whose honor choral odes, accompanied 
 with music and dancing, were sung, were Apollo and 
 Bacchus. The earliest choral song was the " Paean," 
 a song of joy, as it is evinced by the exclamation "Irj" 
 which precedes it. 
 
 The other choral songs were: (yo/wi) the nomes, 
 lyric hymns in honor of Apollo; {inrofyxrjiidTd) the 
 hyporchemes, songs accompanying the pantomimic 
 dances, which bore the same name ; {Trapdevia) the 
 parthenia, modest songs sung by young virgins ; (irpo- 
 a-oBia) hymns sung as the procession of priests marched 
 toward the altar; (Bi.6vpafi^o<;) the dithyramb was a 
 poem in honor of Dionysus. It has been the germ of 
 the choral element in Attic tragedy. The authors do 
 not agree about the etymology, but probably it comes 
 from Aloi and Bvpa-oi. The thyrsus was emblematic 
 of Dionysus wrapped in ivy. 
 
 The distinction between the two schools cannot be 
 maintained when treating of convivial poetry, for poems 
 of this kind were written both by JEolians and Do- 
 rians. Those compositions were called axoXia; these 
 songs, which enlivened the banquet, were sometimes 
 joyous and voluptuous, and not unfrequently coarse 
 and licentious. 
 
 We may give, as an example of this species of com- 
 position, the two following stanzas from two scholia 
 of Simonides the Younger : 
 
 Svver&v ioTiv avhp&v 
 UpXv yevea-ffeu r^ Sv<r)(epT) 
 
LYEIC POETRY 33 
 
 Upovorjaai 0Tr(0<s fiif yetnjrai' 
 'AvSpelcav Be, yevofieva eS deadai. 
 
 'Tyialveiv fih> apuTTov dvBpl BvarS) • 
 Aexnepov he, koCKov <^vav yeveadab 
 To rplrov Se, irXovreiv aS6\(o<! • 
 Kal TO Teraprov, fj^av fiera t&v ^iKoav. 
 
 To these compositions we must add {eiriOaXd/iia) 
 the epithalamia, songs which were sung at marriages 
 in honor of the bride. 
 
 The following are the names of the lyric poets of 
 that period. Nine of them were placed by the Alex- 
 andrian grammarians in their canon, and they are 
 designated here by the numbers placed before their 
 names : 
 
 Eomelns, born at Corinth, in 768 ; he was certainly 
 the author of a lyric composition, a prosodion, in honor 
 of Apollo. 
 
 1. Alcman, born in 671, at Sardis ; he was brought 
 as a slave to Sparta. He wrote many parthenia ; in 
 all, he composed six books of poems, but the few frag- 
 ments which remain scarcely allow us to judge how 
 far he deserves the great reputation which he acquired. 
 Some of his verses, however, display a true poetical 
 spirit. (See the " Anthology.") 
 
 Arion was a native of Lesbos ; he lived in 628, and 
 is very likely the inventor of the dithyramb. He 
 drowned himself, his life being threatened by the sail- 
 ors, while he was returning to Corinth 
 
 2. Alcsens was born at Mytilene, in 610. The strug- 
 gle between aristocracy and democracy, which was the 
 curse of Greece at that time, obliged him to leave his 
 
34 GKEEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 country. The few fragments of Alcseus's compositions 
 show a lofty character, a great conciseness of style, and 
 clearness of images. Alcseus was the inventor of the 
 metre that bears his name, one of the most beautiful 
 and melodious of all the lyric measures, Horace im- 
 itated Alcseus in his best compositions. He wrote:. 
 
 1. Hymns, relating legends of the gods ; 2. Songs of 
 love and wine; 3. Party-songs. Horace took from 
 him the subjects of his fourteenth and thirty-seventh 
 odes, first book. 
 
 3. Sappho, a woman of Lesbos, living in 610, of the 
 liveliest fancy and most ardent passions. She was 
 much calumniated, and, very likely, through jealousy. 
 She wrote hymns and epithalamia. She has been im- 
 itated by Horace, in his lighter and softer poems. Her 
 life, like thaf of many other Lesbian women of talent 
 and refinement, was passed in literary pursuits, in the 
 midst of a circle of female friends and pupils of her 
 own sex. Besides elegies and iambics, she wrote nine 
 books of lyric poems, and invented the plectrum. All 
 that has reached us of her compositions consist of: 1. 
 A beautiful ode to Yenus, in the Sapphic measure ; 
 
 2. A second ode in the same measure, and still more 
 beautiful, a description of the tumultuous emotions of 
 love; 3. Various fragments, aU unfortunately very 
 short, found in Aristotle, Plutarch, Athenaeus, and 
 others ; 4. Three epigrams. 
 
 The authors do not agree about her death, but she 
 killed herself by a leap froni the Leucadian promontory. 
 Tlie following is the epigram extant in her honor : 
 
 ^Ewea Ta<; Mova-a<s ^curlv T«/e? • tos oXirycopio^ • 
 'Hv^e Kal ^air^ui Aea^odev rj SiKdrr). 
 
LYRIC POETET. 35 
 
 Erinna, born at Rhodes, in 610 ; she was a friend of 
 Sappho, and a very distinguished poetess, but she wrote 
 rather in the epic style. She has been surnamed the 
 " Bee," on account of the sweetness of her verse. Only 
 four lines remain of her " Distaff." 
 
 4. Stegichonis. — He was born at Himera (Sicily), in 
 632, and died in 660. Some traditions make him a 
 son of Hesiod, and it is easy to explain that apparent 
 anachronism, for, like the Homerides, we have the He- 
 siodides — ^they were the admirers of Hesiod, who af- 
 fected the title of sons of that poet. Stesichorus was 
 the first who adapted epic subjects to lyric verses ; he 
 was the first also who invested the bucolic, or pastoral, 
 with a classical character. He has been imitated by 
 Theocritus, and in later times by Yirgil, who gave to 
 these compositions a didactic form. Stesichorus be- 
 longed to a Dorian family established in Sicily, and, 
 as we may see, the bucolic has a Dorian origin as far 
 as its classical character is concerned, for it is impos- 
 sible to discover who used it for the first time. 
 
 5. IbycuB, a native of Ehegium, born in 540. A 
 tradition relates that he was slain by robbers, and his 
 death avenged by cranes ; nothing is left of his poems. 
 
 6. Anacreon was bom at Teos, in 540, and, soon 
 after his birth, his family migrated to Abdera. He 
 was a sensualist, and his poems, like those of a band 
 of poets who lived at the court of Hipparchus, were 
 all voluptuous and sensualistic. He died at the age 
 of eighty-five years, very likely by accident. 
 
 7. Simonides, born at Ceos, in 556. He was the 
 grandson of the elegiac poet of the same name. He 
 spent many years at the court of Hipparchus, and was 
 
36 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATUEE. 
 
 a good lyric poet, but inferior to Pindar. He is unri- 
 valled for the neatness and elegance of his epigrams ; 
 he composed many epitaphs, some of which have been 
 preserved, and one of them is well known to every 
 reader of Thucydides. Several elegies of Simonides 
 may be seen in the " Anthology ; " they were used as 
 plaintive songs for the death of individuals. In those 
 pieces the poet laments, with heart-felt pathos, the death 
 of persons dear to him ; among these are the beautiful 
 verses concerning Gorgo, who, while dying, utters these 
 words to her mother : " Kemain here with my father, 
 and become, with a happier fate, the mother of another 
 daughter, who may tend thee in thy old age." What 
 may be added to the credit of Simonides is, that he was 
 victorious at Athens, over .^Eschylus, in an elegy in 
 honor of those who fell at Marathon. Simonides was 
 surely a great master of the pathetic. 
 
 8. Bacohylides. — ^He was born also at Oeos, and lived 
 at the court of Hiero, with Simonides and Pindar. His 
 lyrics were much appreciated for their ethical value, 
 ^nd exhibited polish, correctness, and delicacy, but not 
 the fire of fervor of Pindar. Let us take, among sev- 
 eral fragments preserved in the " Anthology," the fol- 
 lowing : 
 
 AvBia fiev r^p Xidof; 
 
 Mavvei 'xpvcrov • 
 ^AvBp&v S' aperqv 
 
 So^iav T6 TTO^KpaTt)'! 
 
 'EXeyXei aXriOeia. 
 
 Corinna was born at Thebes, and was living at the 
 time of Pindar. She was distinguished for her skill 
 in lyric verses, and remarkable for her personal attrac- 
 
LYRIC POETRY. 
 
 31 
 
 tions. While Pindar was still a young man she was 
 his rival, and gained the victory over him no less than 
 five times. She has been surnamed " the Fly " {Mvia). 
 Too few fragments are extant of her writings, in order 
 to form a correct judgment of her abilities as a lyric 
 poetess. 
 
 9. Pindar. — The independent existence of Dorian 
 lyric poetry ceased with this poet. The drama com- 
 menced with ^schylus. Although Pindar belongs to 
 
 the first period, the time in which he lived was well 
 fitted for the development of his genius. Athens and 
 Greece had reached the climax of power, and, of course, 
 of pride. 
 
 Pindar was born at Cynocephalse, a village near 
 Thebes, in 517. He went early to Athens. His tenth 
 " Pythian," written in 602, when he was only fifteen 
 years old, spread widely his reputation. After having 
 
38 GKEEK CLASSICAL LITEBATURE. 
 
 spent four years at the court of Hiero, that great friend 
 of poets, he came back to Greece and lived at Thebes, 
 where he died, at the age of eighty. Pindar is un- 
 doubtedly the greatest lyric poet of Greece. He wrote 
 every kind of lyric songs ; his way of treating a sub- 
 ject was very peculiar ; no one could develop his ideas 
 more beautifully, and his odes contain many moral con- 
 siderations. They are the only compositions extant ; 
 they are admired for sublimity of sentiments, grandeur 
 of expression, energy and magnificence of style, bold- 
 ness of metaphors, harmony of numbers, and elegance 
 of diction. We have, remaining at the present day, 
 forty-five of the "Epinicia," or triumphal odes, to- 
 gether with some few fragments of his other produc- 
 tions. The "Epinicia" are divided into four classes, 
 or kinds, and derive their names respectively from the 
 four great games of Greece. Thus we iave : 1. " Olym- 
 pic Odes," to the number of fourteen ; 2. " Pythian 
 Odes," to the number of twelve ; 3. " Nemean Odes," 
 eleven in number; and, 4. "Isthmian Odes," amount- 
 ing to eight. The following criticism of Pindar is 
 found in Horace : 
 
 "Monte deourrens velut amnis, imbres 
 Quem super notas alnere ripas, 
 Fervet, immensnsque ruit profundo 
 
 Pindarus ore." — Ode iv., 2. 
 
 In the opening of this ode, Horace says that Pin- 
 dar's powers defy imitation or rivalry : 
 
 "Pindarum quisquis studet iemulari, 
 Inle, ceratis ope Dsedalea 
 Nititur peonis, vitreo daturus 
 
 Nomina pouto." — Ode iv., 2. 
 
PKOSE WRITERS: LAWS— HISTORT. 39 
 
 • CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 PEOSE WEITEES '. LAWS — HISTOET. 
 
 PoETET constituted the only literature in the period 
 of mingled rudeness and refinement which lies between 
 barbarism and advanced civilization. It is the natural 
 language of the heart and imagination, and it recog- 
 nizes no artificial limitations. Prose writing, on the 
 contrary, requires a greater ripeness of intellect and 
 language. Some subjects cannot be treated conven- 
 iently in poetry. Prose was gradually introduced as 
 soon as society required more writing for its formation. 
 The essays in prose writing, which were written be- 
 fore Pisistratus, were legislative, historical, and philo- 
 sophical. At the end of the seventh century, revolu- 
 tions were taking place in the main cities of Greece ; 
 monarchies were decaying, and aristocracy struggling 
 against democracy. Serious men turned their atten- 
 tion to the means of remedying those evils, hence the 
 legislators. Still we find that the first laws are written 
 in verses. It was the time of the seven wise men — 
 Thales, Bias, Pittacus, Solon, Cleobulus, Chilo, and 
 Periander — from 665-540. 
 
 The names of those who wrote ordinances and laws, 
 and who belonged to the school of Solon, of whom 
 some worked with him, are : 
 
 Periander (627), who was tyrant of Corinth for forty- 
 four years ; his ordinances display large views, but, ac- 
 cording to Herodotus, he was very cruel. 
 
 Pittacus (652), a native of MytUene. Besides a prose 
 
40 GREEK CLASSICAL LITBEATCRE. 
 
 work in defence of his laws, he wrote six hundred ele- 
 giac verses ; he was for ten years tyrant of Lesbos, and 
 died in 569. Some of his maxims an^ precepts are 
 beautiful. 
 
 Thales was born at Miletus, in 635 ; he became the 
 founder of the Ionian philosophy. Aristotle considers 
 him as the first discoverer of mathematics and physical 
 philosophy. Thales studied that science in Egypt, 
 under the priests of Memphis. Quotations from his 
 writings are found frequently in Aristotle. 
 
 Solon (638). — He was born at Salamis. He became 
 archon and legislator in 594. Solon was distinguished 
 not only as a legislator, but also as a philosopher ; he 
 owes much to his travels. By his exertions he per- 
 suaded the Athenians to take back Salamis, which had 
 been snatched from them by the Megarians. That cir- 
 cumstance made him acquire much influence at Athens, 
 and Solon, finding that much disorder existed there, 
 gave to the Athenians a new constitution, which reme- 
 died the evils suffered, especially by those who were in 
 debt. His system was overthrown at the time of the 
 usurpation of Pisistratus. Nothing is left of his writ- 
 ings in prose. In regard to his poetry, we have some 
 fragments, and the finest is his " Prayer to the Muses." 
 
 Three more names should be added, in order to 
 complete our list : Cleobulus (638), who was tyrant of 
 Ehodes ; Bias (550), the tyrant of Priene (Ionia) ; and 
 Chilos (596), the ephor of Sparta. "We have no writ- 
 ings from them.* 
 
 * It seems but natural that we should say a few words about 
 the great legislator of Sparta, Lyourgus. Although he did not 
 write his laws, still his name must be mentioned, because very 
 
PKOSE WBITERS: LAWS— HISTORY. 41 
 
 In the historical division we have only three names 
 of writers, whose works are not extant. Before them, 
 as we have said, poets were the only historians ; their 
 songs celebrated in verse historical facts, but mingled 
 with fables, and consequently of no reliance. Still, 
 their writings constitute the only materials we have 
 for the history of the period before the seventh century. 
 The three writers of history before Pisistratus were : 
 
 Cadmus, 540. — This Cadmus was a native of Mile- 
 tus, and ought not to be confounded with Cadmus, 
 the son of Agenor, who introduced the alphabet into 
 Greece. He wrote a work on the colonization of Ionia, 
 and the foundation of Miletus. The book is lost. Ac- 
 cording to Socrates, he is the first who bore the title 
 of jro^tcmj?. 
 
 Acusilaus. — This historian was born at Argos, and 
 lived a short time previous to the Persian invasion of 
 Greece. He wrote legends of mythologies and gene- 
 alogies. His writings, except a few fragments, are 
 also lost. 
 
 Hecateus, born at Miletus, in 540. The references 
 
 likely all tlje legislators who came after him have found io Ly- 
 cnrgus's ordinances much nsefnl information. Lycnrgos lived in 
 the ninth century before the Christian era. According to Plu- 
 tarch, he left Sparta in order to avoid suspicion, and visited 
 Crete and Egypt, studied the laws and customs of those coun- 
 tries, and, returning to Sparta, he reformed the legislation of his 
 native place. In order to prevent his countrymen from destroy- 
 ing the result of his labors and efforts, he left Sparta, having 
 made the citizens swear that they would not change any thing in 
 the constitution which he had published, and which tliey had ac- 
 cepted, before his return. Lycurgus never did come back, and 
 Sparta was flourishing as long as it remained faithful to his laws. 
 
42 GBEEE CLASSICAL LITERATUBE. 
 
 to his work show that he was a voluminous writer ; 
 we have only a few fragments from him. He wrote 
 genealogies, and gave much information about geog- 
 raphy ; but little credit can be given to those sources. 
 
 CHAPTEE Vni. 
 
 PEOSE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 Philosophy owed its origin among the Greeks to 
 the Greek mind, and not to foreign influence. 
 
 Pherecydes of Syros (600) was the first philosopher. 
 His system, like all the systems of that time, is con- 
 fused. We have only extracts, and we might say that 
 no system is given, but only unconnected thoughts. 
 Pherecydes says that Zebi, Xp6vo<s, and Fi}, exist from 
 all eternity. It was a good beginning, evidently taken 
 from some biblical reminiscence. But he does not 
 draw any reasonable conclusions. Aristotle says of 
 Pherecydes, that he stands on the boundary-line be- 
 tween mythical poetry and philosophy. "Zeus," he 
 writes, " Chronos, and Chthonia, existed from eternity. 
 Chthonia was called Ge. Zeus then transforms him- 
 self into Eros, the god of Love, wishing to form the 
 world from the original materials made by Chronos 
 and Ge. Zeus makes a large and beautiful garment ; 
 upon it he paints Earth and Ogenos (Ocean), and the 
 horses of Ogenos, and he spreads the garment over a 
 winged oak." This is evidently poetry, although ex- 
 pressed in prose. As we see, there is in him asser- 
 
PBOSE— PHIIjOSOPHY. 43 
 
 tion, and no specalation. His assertion was the germ 
 from which philosophy was developed, but not phi- 
 losophy. Very little is known abont his life, and 
 we know nothing certain in regard to the way that 
 lie died. The first who gave a system of philosophy 
 was Thales. The notion that Greek philosophy is 
 derived from Oriental philosophy has been widely 
 spread and defended, but it cannot be admitted. For, 
 if such were the case, there would be want of unity ; 
 there is no trace of any want of connection, which 
 would necessarily result from the introduction of 
 a foreign element. Besides this first consideration. 
 Eastern philosophy would have taught Greece more 
 perfect notions respecting the personality of the Deity ; 
 would have accustomed the Greek mind to contem- 
 plate the divine power as creative; would have de- 
 fined more clearly the dealings of men with God. 
 These subjects did not form a part of Greek philos- 
 ophy. Deity was little more than an abstract prin- 
 ciple of reason. Matter was as eternal as God. God 
 did not interfere in the concerns or interests of man. 
 As we may see, there is much difference between the 
 philosophies of those two races. 
 
 In investigating the history of Greek philosophical 
 literature, a striking point of resemblance is observable 
 between it and their poetical literature — a resemblance 
 arising out of the national character itself. The Greek 
 philosophy followed this division of the Greek poetry. 
 "We have the Ionian school, the most vivid one, but 
 limiting itself to the study of physical phenomena, the 
 school where imagination is more glowing; and the 
 Dorian school, which is more serious, and examines 
 
44 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 especially the principles of moral philosophy. This 
 school, founded in Magna Grsecia, gave birth to the 
 Aleatic school, established at Alea (Magna Grsecia), by 
 Xenophanes. 
 
 The philosophy of that time may be divided into 
 two parts, dynamical and mechanical. The first at- 
 tributes to the atoms a power of moving and acting, 
 ^vvafiK ; the other refuses that power to the elements 
 of things, and attributes the changes to some external 
 force. To the first school belong Thales, Anaximenes, 
 Diogenes, and Heraclitus ; in the second, we find An- 
 aximander, Anaxagoras, and Archelaus, the teacher 
 of Socrates. The following are the philosophers from 
 whom we haTe fragments, or quotations, or references, 
 and who belong more properly to the history of an- 
 cient literature : 
 
 Already we have spoken of Thales. That philos- 
 opher gave water as the principle of every thing ; but, 
 by water, he understood very likely the chaos, or the 
 material substances in dissolution. 
 
 Anaximander, born in 610, at Miletus, as we have 
 said, was a mechanical philosopher. According to 
 him, the principle (apx^ of every thing is the infinite 
 (to aireipov) ; a mixture (filry/ia) of elements out of 
 which substances are formed by separation, the ho- 
 mogeneous parts being attracted toward each other. 
 The cause of the production of animated beings is the 
 solar heat. 
 
 Anaximenes was also a native of Miletus, where 
 he was bom in 556. He pretended that from air 
 all things were produced. We have no fragments 
 of the writings of those two philosophers, but many 
 
PKOSE— PHILOSOPHY. 45 
 
 references to their systems may be found in the writ- 
 ings of Aristotle. 
 
 Diogenes was a pupil of Anaximenes, and a native 
 of ApoUonia, in Crete. He took the views of his mas- 
 ter, in regard to the primal element of every thing. 
 He wrote several books on cosmology (irepl ^uo-etos). 
 The fragments which remain have been recently col- 
 lected and edited. 
 
 Anaxagoras was also a pupil of Anaximenes. He 
 died at Lampsacus, after a very stormy life. Few frag- 
 ments remain of his writings, which have been more 
 numerous than those of Diogenes; from those frag- 
 ments we may see that Anaxagoras had a good knowl- 
 edge of astronomy. 
 
 Heraclitus was born at Ephesus, in the sixty-nintli 
 Olympiad. He was very obscure in his style, and has 
 been sumamed on that account aKoreivo'i. Heraclitus 
 was a misanthrope by nature ; his philosophy has es- 
 pecially a moral character ; still, it treats of the forma- 
 tion of the world, and belongs to the dynamical school. 
 God is found everywhere. Fire is the original element 
 of the material world. "We have many fragments of 
 his work, Ilepl tfyva-emi. Heraclitus is the first who 
 taught the pantheistic doctrine. His style is, besides 
 being obscure, too concise and broken. 
 
 Archelaus was a pupil of Anaxagoras, whose prin- 
 ciples he accepted, and became the teacher of Socrates. 
 He has been called ^va-iKoi (the ITatural Philosopher). 
 We have little information about his life, and no frag- 
 ment is extant of his writings. 
 
 F]rthagoras was probably a native of Samos, wliere 
 he was born in the forty-ninth Olympiad. He trav- 
 
46 GREEK CLASSICAL LITEBATUEE. 
 
 elled much, and fixed himself at Crotona, in Magna 
 Graecia. He was the first who took the name of Phi- 
 losopher. In politics he was aristocratic, and, by his 
 influence, the aristocratic government was established 
 at Crotona and its vicinity. It was in that place that 
 Pythagoras founded his famous school, which had as 
 many as six hundred pupils, living together, and pre- 
 paring themselves to reach the degree of Esoterics. 
 The government established at Crotona by the influ- 
 ence of Pythagoras was upset, and the philosopher had 
 to fly ; he reached Metapontum, but there he was killed. 
 Many books have been attributed to him by modern 
 Pythagoreans; they are evidently spurious, and the 
 mixture of the ancient and modern Pythagorean doc- 
 trine makes it difficult to determine what the real 
 teaching of Pythagoras was. It is not probable that 
 Pythagoras attributed to number the meaning given 
 to it afterward, going so far as to make number the 
 principle of matter. But it is clear that Pythagoras 
 considered number as the principle of physical as well 
 as moral harmony in the world — and he establishes 
 his system for any kind of sciences or beings — and so 
 number is the essence (pvaid) and principle (apxv) of 
 all things. But, once more, essence is not the sub- 
 stance (wXij) in the sense of Pythagoras. Pythagoras 
 admits the unity of God, and the immortality of the 
 soul ; he taught, but did not invent, the doctrine of 
 metempsychosis. We have no writing from Pythago- 
 ras ; the details concerning his life, his institutes, and 
 his doctrine, have been preserved-by his disciples. 
 
 Xenoplianes. — This elegiac poet, who founded the 
 Eleatic school, was born at Colophon, in 556. Xeno- 
 
PEOSE— PHILOSOPHY. 47 
 
 phanes has exact notions about God and his attributes. 
 He most probably was not a pantheist. Xenophanes 
 asserts that God is the same as the universe, but he 
 also asserts the existence of a material world distinct 
 from God. Did he mean that God was a spiritual 
 substance pervading the material universe ? It is im- 
 possible to deteraiine. The Eleatic school showed a 
 great improvement : 1. In asserting the unity of God ; 
 2. In referring the conclusions of the other systems to 
 the test of reason. We have no writings from Xeno- 
 phanes. 
 
BOOK II. 
 
 SECOiro PERIOD OF THE mSTOET OF THE CLASSICAL 
 UTEEATHEE OF GREECE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 DBAMATIO STTLE — TTS ISFAKCT. 
 
 The period at which Greece began to have a fixed 
 and established national literature was that of Pisis- 
 tratus (529, the time of his death), commonly called 
 the Tyrant of Athens. The administration of the 
 tyrants was the transition from the aristocratic and 
 oligarchic to the democratic government. This was 
 a floorishing time for Greece. Pisistratus's power 
 lasted ten years, and, during that time, the drama made 
 its appearance ; it was rude in its infancy, but prom- 
 ising its future greatness. The union of epic and lyric 
 style formed dramatic poetry. 
 
 The drama is the creation of the Hellenic race ; we 
 do not find it among the Semitic families, and the Ro- 
 mans have imitated the Greeks. 
 
 There are two characteristic features in the Attic 
 drama : First, it is essentially religious. The drama 
 was a ceremonial for the public worship of some di- 
 
DRAMATIC STYLE— ITS INFANCY. 49 
 
 vinity. This character of the drama has been kept 
 always. The believers in a pure faith can scarcely 
 understand a religious element in dramatic exhibitions. 
 They who know that God is a spirit feel that his at- 
 tributes are too awful to permit any ideas connected 
 with the Deity to be brought into contact with the 
 exhibition of human passions. But the imaginative 
 Greek did not experience this difficulty. His gods 
 were either the creatures of his own fancy, or they 
 were human beings like himself, who had, while alive, 
 attained the heroic standard, and after death had been 
 deified. They possessed the same properties, feelings, 
 passions, and moral imperfections, as himself; even the 
 supreme ruler of them all was not omnipotent. His 
 own native land was theirs — they were his fellow- 
 countrymen, as it were. He could bathe in the river, 
 or drink of the fountain, or seek shade in the grove, or 
 climb the hills, which were pervaded by the influence 
 and consecrated by the presence of deity. Parnassus, 
 where the Muses, the authors of all inspiration, resided, 
 was close at hand. The mighty Olympus, the dwelling- 
 place of Zeus himself, he might behold with his own 
 eyes, TJie second character of the drama was the 
 realization of the audience, represented by the chorus, 
 which personified the audience. The chorus was of 
 course supposed to enter into the feelings and fortunes, 
 and express the sympathies, of the audience. 
 
 We find two parts in the drama, the chorus and the 
 dialogue. The first one, which was almost entirely 
 lyric, was Dorian, and the other one was Ionian. This 
 peculiarity has been explained before. Although the 
 chorus \vas an important element of the drama, still 
 
50 GREEK CLASSICAL LITEEATURE. 
 
 the dialogue constituted its essence. How was the 
 dialogue connected with the original chorus ? In or- 
 der to solve that question, let us see the origin of the 
 drama. Aristotle says that tragedy was first a speech 
 delivered between the dances, by the ballet-master 
 dressed in a goat-skin {rpdr/o';). These speeches, or nar- 
 ratives, were first connected with some event in the 
 life of Bacchus. By degrees the subject of these 
 speeches was changed, and this modification was In- 
 troduced by Thespis, the real inventor of tragedy, 550. 
 By degrees also the mysteries of Eleusis were intro- 
 duced, in order to correct the indecencies of Bacchus's 
 -festivities. Thespis introduced a performer who was 
 not the ballet-master. Phrynicua, and after him Chse- 
 rilus, followed him in his modifications (523-511) ; the 
 legends of Bacchus were abandoned, and Phrynicus 
 introduced the satyric element in t^e drama. Pratinas 
 is the one who introduced pure satyric dramas. These 
 three men were the forerunners of the great dramatists, 
 and even Chserilus and Pratinas contended with ^s- 
 chylus in 499. It was then the time of the great 
 tragic writers, but most of the works of the dramatists 
 have been lost. We have but few tragedies from ^s- 
 chylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Chserilus, who was 
 born in 523, may be considered as having probably 
 developed the satyric drama, introduced by his con- 
 temporary Phrynicus, if we may place any confidence 
 in the following verse of an anonymous poet : 
 
 'HvUa fiev ^aatXeiif rjv XoiptKoi ev SarvpoK. 
 
 During forty years Chserilus continued his exhibition 
 of tragedies, and during that time he produced one 
 
DRAMATIC STYLE— ITS PEKFECTION. 51 
 
 hundred and fifty pieces, and gained thirteen victories. 
 Although Chserilus developed the satyric drama, it 
 was not he, but Pratinas, who completed the separa- 
 tion between the tragic and satyric drama. 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 DEAMATIO STTLE — ITS PEEFEOTIOK. 
 
 The time of Pericles (500-425) exhibits the dra- 
 matic style in its perfection. Although the three great 
 dramatists of Greece were imbued with the spirit of 
 Homer, still they were as creative as Homer himself; 
 they were the representatives of the religious belief of 
 their time, and they had of the deity a more divine 
 notion than the great epic poet; Like Homer and 
 Pindar, they represent a poetic era. 
 
 .ffischylus. — He was born in 525, at Eleusis, in At- 
 tica, and was the son of Euphorion. He devoted him- 
 self to poetry at an early age, but did not succeed much 
 until 484 He was vanquished by Sophocles, ^schy- 
 lus was a soldier for several years, and fought at Mar- 
 athon and Salamis, and, in these two "engagements, he 
 distinguished himself for his bravery. The following 
 epigram shows it : 
 
 'AXic^v S' evSoKi/jLOV Mapadwviov a\(70? av e'lirov ' 
 Kal ^aOvxaiTijeK M^Sos i7riaTdfievo<s, 
 
 The Athenians exiled him, under the pretence of 
 impiety. He died by accident; an eagle dropped a 
 
52 GBEEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 tortoise on his head, which was bald, mistaking it for 
 a rock. "We find the following epitaph on his tomb : 
 
 Ala-'xvKov Ev^opiovo'i ^AOrjvaiov roBe Kevdei 
 Mvi]fia Kara^OvfJievov iropv^opoLO PeXas 
 ^AkKriv B' evBoKifiov, k. t. \. 
 
 ^schylns wrote seventy tragedies, of which only 
 seven are extant. They were trilogies ; that is, each 
 subject comprised three tragedies. JEschylus has been 
 called the " Father of Tragedy," on account of the many 
 improvements which he introdu ced on the stage. In phi- 
 losophical sentiments ^schylus is said to have been a 
 Pythagorean, and in his extant dramas the tenets of 
 this sect may be occasionally traced, as, deep venera- 
 tion in what concerns the gods, high regard for the 
 sanctity of an oath and the nuptial bond, and the immor- 
 tality of the soul. Aristophanes, depicting JEschylus, 
 says that his temper was stern, proud, and impatient ; 
 his sentiments, pure, noble, and warlike ; his genius, in- 
 ventive, magnificent, and towering, even to occasional 
 extravagance ; his style, bold, lofty, and impetuous, full 
 of gorgeous imagery and ponderous expression, while, 
 in the dramatic arrangement of his pieces, there re- 
 mained much of ancient simplicity, and somewhat even 
 of uncouth rudeness. He is similar to Dante and 
 Shakespeare, in the peculiar strangeness of his imagi- 
 nations and expressions, ^schylus ranked supreme 
 in tragedy. 
 
 With the portrait thus di;awn by Aristophanes, the 
 opinions of the ancient critics in general coincide. He 
 has been praised especially by Dionysius of Halicar- 
 nassus, Longinus, and by Quintilian. "We must add, 
 
DRAMATIC STYLE— ITS PERFECTION. 53 
 
 however, that the tragic style of ^schylus is far from 
 perfect, and frequently deviates into the epic and the 
 lyric. It is often abrupt, disproportioned, and harsh. 
 The tragedies extant of JEschylus are : 
 
 1. " The Persians." It was the second of a trilogy, 
 in which the poet was celebrating the triumph of Greece 
 over Persia. 
 
 2. " The Seven against Thebes." This tragedy also 
 was the second of a trilogy, where ^schylus exhibits 
 the results of the curse of (Edipus pronounced against 
 his sons, Eteocles and Polynices. In these two trage- 
 dies the poet pours forth a warlike strain ; the per- 
 sonal inclination of ./Eschylus for the life of a hero 
 beams forth in a manner which cannot be mistaken. 
 
 3. " The Suppliants." It was the second of a tril- 
 ogy, and embodied the history of the house of Danaus. 
 This play forms one of the feeblest productions of ^s- 
 chylus ; the chorus in it plays the principal character. 
 
 4. "Prometheus Bound." This piece exhibits a 
 terrible example of the wrath and revenge of Zeus ; 
 all the personages were divinities. It was also the 
 second of a trilogy, of which the first was " Prome- 
 theus the Fire-Bringer," and the third "Prometheus 
 Unbound." 
 
 5. We have here a complete trilogy — " Agamem- 
 non," " Ohcephori," and " Eumenides." These trage- 
 dies embodied the legend of Orestes revenging the 
 death of his father by killing his mother Clytemnestra. 
 The choruses in " Agamemnon " are beautiful, partic- 
 ularly when ^schylus shows the struggle between the 
 duties of a chief and the affections of a father, in ref- 
 erence to the sacrifice of Iphigenia. Orestes is in these 
 
54 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 tragedies an application of the law of blood-guilt ; upori 
 him was devolving the duty of executing vengeance 
 upon the murderer of his father. After the parricidal 
 deed committed by Orestes, no human power can take 
 vengeance upon him, because he is the avenger of 
 blood ; his mother's furies can alone pursue him, and 
 eyen they are powerless when he has visited the shrine 
 of Delphi as a suppliant for purification. As soon as 
 he has received it at the hands of the god, the furies 
 become well-disposed " Eumenides." 
 
 Sophocles. — He was born at Colon os, near Athens, 
 in 495. 'So one surpassed ^schylus for boldness and 
 genius ; no one surpassed Sophocles for perfection of 
 language and composition. This quality procured for 
 him the title of "The Attic Bee." The characters 
 of -^schylus have generally an awful and superhuman 
 vastness ; Sophocles depicts real life ; ^schylus ex- 
 cites terror and admiration, Sophocles excites sym- 
 pathy and affection. He wrote verses at a very 
 early age, and was held in great esteem by his coun- 
 trymen. He received a high military command, 
 but soon showed that he was better qualified for writ- 
 ing verses than leading an army. It is not known how 
 he died. Some verses are found in the " Anthologia," 
 which are contradictory, "We read first : 
 
 'EoySecr^i;?, yTjpaie So(f>6K\ee<s, dvdo'; doiB&v, 
 Olvanrov BaK'Xpv ^OTpvv ipeirTojjLevo^. 
 
 This epigram is from Simonides. It is said elsewhere 
 that Sophocles died in the exercise of his beloved art, in 
 extreme old age, without disease and without suffering : 
 
 KoSm's ereKevTTja-' ov8ev inrofieCva^ icaKov. 
 
DRAMATIC STYLE— ITS PERFECTION. 55 
 
 The first epigram is probably tlie true one. We may 
 rely for this on the saying of Aristophanes, althongh 
 he sometimes exaggerates. The comic poet shows us 
 Sophocles fond of wine and pleasure ; he says in his 
 " Eanae," speaking of him : 
 
 'O B' evKd\o<; /lev evOaBe, euACoXos S' exei. 
 
 In the tragedies of Sophocles is seen the perfection 
 of the Greek drama, and this does not contradict what 
 has been asserted abov.e. Although Aristotle pro- 
 nounces Euripides to be the most tragic of po^ts, and 
 Longinus pronounces him to have been unequalled in 
 his tragic representations of love and madness, yet no 
 tragic poet equalled Sophocles in combining dignity, 
 purity, pathos, and piety, with the most refined genius 
 and the highest poetical talent. Seven tragedies only 
 are extant out of one hundred and thirteen, and we 
 have probably the best ones. They are, in order of 
 merit : 
 
 1. "CEdipus Eex" {OlSlirov: Tvpavvo<i). It would 
 be difficult to conceive a subject more thoroughly tragi- 
 cal than that which forms the basis of this play. The 
 " CEdipus Tyrannus " is considered not only as the 
 chef-d'osuvre of Sophocles, but also as the finest tragedy 
 of antiquity. 
 
 2. " Antigone " (^Avrlrjovrj). The sister of Poly-^ 
 nices, she disobeys Cleon and buries her brother. Her 
 answers to Cleon are sometimes sublime, when Cleon 
 accuses Polynices of hatred toward him. " Oh, no ! " 
 exclaims Antigone, " he was born to love, not to hate." 
 
 Ov TOb <rvve)(6eiv, aXXa ovfi^iKeiv i^vv. 
 
56 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 3. "CEdipus at Oolonos" (OtSwrous ewl Ko\a)v&). 
 This piece exhibits the death and hurial, or rather dis- 
 appearance, of CEdipus. It is rich in description and 
 flatteries addressed to the Athenian people. The words 
 of CEdipus, when talking to his daughter, are almost 
 always ver^' touching. 
 
 4. " Electra." This is the drama of " Orestes," 
 given by -iEschylus under a different name. 
 
 6. " Trachinia " {Tpaxivuu). It is the death of 
 Hercules, in which tragedy the chorus is composed of 
 young females of Trachis. 
 
 6. "Ajax Armed with the Lash" (Aia<} fiaa-Ttyo- 
 ^oposi). The subject of this piece is the madness of 
 Ajax, his death, and the dispute which arises on the 
 subject of his interment. It is a good piece. 
 
 7. " Philoctetes " ($t\oKT^T7;s). "We find in this 
 play the mission of Ulysses to Philoctetes in the island 
 of Lemnos, in order to induce him to come back to the 
 Grecian army. He succeeded with .great difiiculty in 
 accomplishing his object. This tragedy, although very 
 simple in its plot, is marked by a constantly-increasing 
 interest, and the characters are well supported. Soph- 
 ocles, however, might have omitted several details at 
 the beginning, which are hardly acceptable in poetry. 
 
EURIPIDES, ETC.— THE THEATKE. 67 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 EUBIPIDES AND THE LAST TEAOIC WEITEES OF THIS PE- 
 EIOD — THE THEATRE. 
 
 Euripides,- the son of Mnesarchus and Clito, was 
 born in 480, at Phylse, near Athens, on the day of the 
 battle of Salamis. The parents of Euripides must have 
 been of high standing, since Euripides was chosen to 
 discharge the office of cup-bearer in the festival of the 
 Delian Apollo. We read in Athenseus: 
 
 Oiv(y)(povv re iraph rots ap^aloiv ol euyevecrraToi vaiBe^, 
 
 As we see, such office was intrusted only to boys dis- 
 tinguished by their nobility. 
 
 The father of Euripides directed in early life the 
 attention of his son to gymnastic exercises, and Eu- 
 ripides was crowned when he was but seventeen years 
 old in the Eleusinian contest. In acting thus, the fa- 
 ther was determined by an oracle given him while his 
 wife was pregnant of the future dramatist. "We read 
 in Aulus Gellius : 
 
 e? Kkeo's ia-0\bv opovaet 
 
 Koi are^eav lepatv yXuKepr/v %a/3tJ' afi(pi0a\elTai. 
 
 Euripides had a very stormy life. At the age of twenty 
 he became a painter ; but, feeling that he was born a 
 poet, at a very early age also he was writing verses. 
 Few men have been more calumniated. Euripides 
 shared the fate common to all great men at Athens : 
 he went into exile, and found hospitality at the court 
 
58 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 of Archelaus, King of Macedonia. There he provoked 
 the envy of two poets, and was killed by dogs at the 
 age of seventy-five. The following epitaph, written 
 anonymously, is found in the " Anthologia : " 
 
 Ov crov fjLvrjfia toB' e(7T EiipiTriSr], aXKa cri) rovSe, 
 Trj crfj yap Bo^rj iMvrjfw, ToS' dfiirexerai. 
 
 A cenotaph was erected to his memory at Athens, 
 bearing the following inscription : 
 
 Mvrjfia /Mev 'EWa<i a/rracr EvpiirlSov, oarea B' la^ei 
 
 Trj Ma/ceBS)V • ^ yap Be^aro rep/^a filov, 
 IIaTpl<s B' 'EWdBo^ 'EXXA<i 'A6fjvai • ifKelara Bk Movawi 
 
 Tep-^a<i, eK iroW&v KaX rov hrawov e'^ei,, 
 
 Euripides wrote seventy-five dramas, others say ninety- 
 two, and some authors pretend that he composed as 
 many as one hundred and twenty, but only eighteen 
 are extant. 
 
 ^schylus gives supernatural and wonderful char- 
 acters ; Sophocles dignified and heroic, but still natural 
 ones ; Euripides gives the romance of private, every-day 
 life, and his tragedies are pictures of the manners of 
 Athens, and are not exaggerated. He is blamed for 
 having lowered the style of tragedy ; this may be ac- 
 cepted as true, although Aristotle says the contrary, 
 but Aristotle is not impartial. Euripides, besides be- 
 ing a poet, was a good philosopher, and consequently 
 had the warm sympathies of Aristotle. He is blamed 
 also for having lowered the character of women ; this 
 reproach is from Aristophanes, but is not deserved; 
 moreover, the pictures given by Euripides are true, and 
 won for him the popularity of his hearers. It is said 
 
EURIPIDES, ETC.— THE THEATRE. 59 
 
 that he made the divinity interfere too frequently in 
 his plots, but we should consider that Euripides had 
 not, concerning the gods, the opinion of Sophocles and 
 jEschylus. The gods, in his opinion, were little more 
 than mere men. 
 
 His prologues are criticised; in this he may he 
 blamed, for they were long, and rendered the plot mo- 
 notonous. Euripides was an enemy of demagogues, 
 and no wonder ; many traces of his political views are 
 found in " Hecuba," where he attacks democratic prin- 
 ciples under the character of TJlysses, and in " Orestes." 
 His philosophical doctrine is not as pure as that of 
 ^schylus, for we find in his writings such principles 
 as the following one : 
 
 'H yXacra-' o/uofioj^, r] Se i^prjv avcofwro'; • 
 
 making light of the sacredness of an oath. His choral 
 odes and lyric pieces are the most tender and the 
 sweetest of his compositions, and his monodies are un- 
 rivalled. Already, at his time, the chorus had lost 
 much of its prestige and religious character. 
 
 The style of Euripides is, on the whole, not com- 
 pressed enough; although it presents us with some 
 very happily-drawn pictures and ingenious turns of 
 language, it has neither the dignity and energy of 
 ^schylus, nor the chaste grace of Sophocles. Eurip- 
 ides was evidently a forerunner of the new comedy, 
 for which he has a real inclination. The following is 
 a list of his dramas now extant, in the order of merit, 
 according to, as we think, the best critics : 
 
 1. " Hecuba." The subject is the sacrifice of Po- 
 lyxena to the manes of Achilles, and the vengeance of 
 
00 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Hecuba killing the murderer of her son Polydorus. In 
 this play the resignation of Polyxena, and the affection 
 of Hecuba's mother, are the best scenes. This play 
 has been imitated by several of the moderns, especially 
 by Racine, and Yoltaire in his " Merope." 
 
 2. " Medsea " {M7]Sela). We have in this play the 
 vengeance of Medsea upon the unfaithful Jason. She 
 kills the children which she had by him. The sim- 
 plicity and clearness of the action constitute the prin- 
 cipal charm of the play. 
 
 3. " Hippolytus " (IinroKvTo^ ^Te^avo^poi). Phae- 
 dra, the mother of Hippolytus, becomes enamored of 
 her son by the resentment of Yenus, and, unable to 
 satisfy her passion, she dies and leaves to Theseus, her 
 husband, the care of destroying his own son. The play 
 is good, and has been imitated by Kacine in his tragedy 
 called "Phedre." 
 
 4. " Iphigenia in Aulis " (^I^i/^iveia f} ev AvXiBi), and 
 
 5. " Iphigenia in Tauris " (^I^iyiveia t) ev TavpiZi), 
 are two good dramas, of which the subjects are well 
 known, and have been treated partly already by JEs- 
 chylus and Sophocles. In this last tragedy the best 
 scene is the one in which Iphigenia and Orestes, her 
 brother, become known to each other. 
 
 6. "Supplices" (T/eertSe?). The Argive females, 
 prostrated at Eleusis before the temple of Ceres, be- 
 seech Theseus to avenge their husbands killed before 
 Thebes. Instead of a prologue, we have in this play a 
 prayer to Ceres by the mother of Theseus, which is 
 beautiful. 
 
 7. " Ion." This play is remarkable on account of 
 the difficulties of the plan. Ion was the son of Apollo 
 
EUBIPIDES, ETC.— THE THEATRE. CI 
 
 and Creusa. Apollo aims to put Ion in such a position 
 that his mother, not knowing him, intends to poison 
 him, and he, not knowing his mother, endeavors to 
 kill her. There is much resemblance between this 
 tragedy and the " Athalie " of Kacine, The play is 
 very interesting. 
 
 8. "Helena" (Exivrf). The action is carried on 
 in the island of Paros. Menelaus jecognizes Helena, 
 who is kept in custody by the king. She is delivered 
 by ,a goddess. 
 
 9. " Orestes " (Opia-Tijsi). The subject of this drama 
 is the judgment of Orestes, and, the decision given by 
 Menelaus is so unexpected by Orestes, that Apollo in- 
 tervenes and saves him. The drama is not well con- 
 ducted, and the denc/wment is unexpected ; but the 
 speech of the defender of Orestes is beautiful. 
 
 10. " Phenissse " i^oivlaaai). This drama contains 
 the death of Eteocles and Polynices. The title comes 
 from the Phoenician women who composed the chorus. 
 Grotius considers this play as the chef-Wmvmre of Eu- 
 ripides, but his opinion has not been accepted as the 
 true one. There are several beauties, like the prologue 
 presented by Jocasta. 
 
 11. " Alcestis." It is a melodrama, the subject of 
 which is the death of Alcestis, in order to prolong her 
 husband's life, and her rescue from hell by Hercules. 
 On the whole, it is a feeble production. 
 
 12. " Andromache " (AvBpo/jMxn)- The subject is 
 the death of the son of Achilles, whom Orestes slays, 
 after having carried off from him Hermione. Eacine 
 has a piece of that name, but better composed. The 
 " Andromache" of Euripides does not appear to us in 
 
02 GKEEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 his piece, as we have known her while she was the wife 
 of Hector. 
 
 13. " Troades {Tpa>aSe<!), or the Female Trojans." 
 This piece describes the distribution of the captive 
 matrons of Troy among the Greeks. The scene is 
 laid in the Grecian camp, under the walls of Troy. 
 There are some fine passages; Hecuba especially is 
 beautiful. 
 
 14. " Bacchse " (Bdiexcu). The arrival of Hercules 
 at Thebes, and the death of Pentheus, torn from his 
 mother and sister, form the subject of this play. The 
 action is defective, having neither unity nor connection. 
 
 16. In the " Heraclidse " the descendants of Her- 
 cules, being persecuted, ask for aid from Athens. There 
 is much to interest in the piece. 
 
 16. " Hercules Furens " ('Hpa/eX^? /iai,v6fievo<;). Af- 
 ter having killed his wife and children, Hercules pro- 
 ceeds to submit himself to certain expiatory ceremonies. 
 The scene is laid at Thebes. 
 
 17. "Electra" (HXetcrpa). The subject of this 
 piece has been already treated by Sophocles under the 
 same name. Euripides is inferior to Sophocles ; how- 
 ever, he has succeeded in embellishing it with inter- 
 esting episodes. 
 
 18. " Cyclops " (iiu/fXw^). It is a satyric drama, 
 but not a comic, for the satyric drama is always tragic 
 among the Greeks. The subject, which is taken from 
 the " Odyssey," is Ulysses depriving Polyphemus of his 
 eye, after having intoxicated him with wine. This piece 
 contains many beautiful passages. The description of 
 the character of the satyrs is very well given. 
 
 The piece called " Khesus " was never written by 
 
EURIPIDES, ETC.— THE THEATRE. 03 
 
 Euripides, but we have from him eighty verses remain- 
 ing of a tragedy called " Phaeton." 
 
 We must add to the list of the dramatic poets the 
 following names : 
 
 Ion. — He was born in Chios, and wrote from twelve 
 to forty tragedies, but Beutley could, collect only the 
 titles of eleven and some fragments. These are too 
 few to form an estimate of the author. 
 
 Achseiis, born at Electria, in 484, exhibited from 
 twenty-fciur to forty-four tragedies. Once he won a 
 prize, and he had for competitors Sophocles and Eu- 
 ripides. Some fragments, and seventeen titles, are 
 extant of his works. 
 
 Agathon. was a native of Athens, and won the prize 
 for the first time in 416. The most celebrated of his 
 works bore the title of "AvOo'j (flower). We have the 
 titles of four of his tragedies. Agathon was a great 
 friend of Euripides. 
 
 A taste and talent for poetry continued for some 
 time in the families of the three great di«matic poets, 
 but it was only a profession, and no longer the result 
 of inspiration. 
 
 Two names are found in the Alexandrian canon 
 besides those already given : they are Chseremon and 
 Theodectes. This last one wrote fifty tragedies, and 
 once won the prize in the dramatic contest. We 
 have some fragments of his works, but the writings 
 of Chseremon are lost. 
 
 NoTB. — The theatre among the Greeks was not exactly on the 
 same plan that is found later, especially in our time. It was dis- 
 posed like an amphitheatre, having seats coming down on one 
 side, and the stage facing them. It was in the open air, and the 
 
64 GKEEK CLASSICAL LITEBATUBB. 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 COMEDY. 
 
 Comedy took its origin from the Phallic song and 
 the dithyrambic chorus. This origin shows sufficiently 
 that it was at the beginning very low and licentious. 
 Comedy is of Sicilian origin, but it soon flourished in 
 
 one of Athens, built on the slope of the Acropolis, could contain 
 thirty thousand people. Among the seats some were reserved 
 for the magistracy (/?ot)X^), and formed the part called Pov7xvtui6v. 
 The part called cfij^iKSv contained the seats for the young men 
 (ifr/IBoi), and the stage had in the front the orchestra. The stage 
 itself extended forward in the orchestra, forming a sort of tri- 
 angle, and the upper angle was the ^v/ii^ (thymele). It was 
 the place where the chorus stood when not performing its solemn 
 dance and song, and the leader of the chorus took his stand there 
 when joining in the dialogue on the stage. The thymele was 
 ornamented with an altar sacred to Dionysus, and therefore 
 symbolical of the religious object of the spectacle. 
 
 The front jftrt of the stage was called Tioyeiov — because the 
 actors stood there while speaking — and the back vrpoaK^iov. In 
 each of these parts there were two entrances, or coulisses, one 
 on each side. Under the orchestra were the stairs of Oharon, 
 whence the dead arose when there was in the piece any evoca- 
 tion from the infernal regions. In the centre there was the royal 
 doorway (J}am?i«lov), whence the principal character of the play 
 always made his entrance. The scenery was almost entirely 
 architectural, but the ancients had also, when necessary, land- 
 scape painting. This part of the decoration was imperfect among 
 them, and deprived their theatre of those effects of perspective 
 which make ours so interesting. The actors were helped, in or- 
 der to be seen and heard, by oothurns and masks. 
 
 In the back part of the theatre was the encyclema (i/cjcd/c^^/ia), 
 for representing scenes which could not be acted before the spec- 
 
COMEDY. 05 
 
 Attica, and there reached perfection. The authors as- 
 sign generally three periods to the history of comedy : 
 the first is the old one, or the period of Aristophanes, 
 going as far as the ninety-eighth Olympiad ; the char- 
 acteristic of the old comedy is personality. From the 
 ninety-eighth Olympiad to the one hundred and twelfth, 
 when Philemon and Menander commence to exhibit, 
 we have the second period, which is usually termed the 
 Latin period — it is the period of Plautus and Teren- 
 tius. The characteristic of the middle comedy is rather 
 philosophical ; it is an attack upon the follies of classes 
 rather than of individuals. The third period com- 
 
 tatora. The enoyclema was a contrivance peculiar to the Greek 
 stage. It was a semicircular machine, representing an interior, 
 and, when the great central doors were thrown open, it was ex- 
 posed to view, or, as some think, wheeled forward through the 
 opening. The following instances are cited by Muller — ^from the 
 tragedies of .^Eschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides — ^in which the 
 encyclema was evidently employed : 
 
 ^SOHTLTJS. 
 
 1. In the "Agamemnon,'' v. 1345, the encyclema represented 
 the apartment containing the bath, the murdered hero, and Oly- 
 temnestra, with the weapon in her hand reeking with blood. 
 
 2. In the "Ohoephori," v. 967. The chamber as before; Ores- 
 tes standing over the corpses of Olytemnestra and ^gisthus. 
 
 80PH00LE8. 
 
 3. In the "Electra," v. 1450, a covered corpse is rolled upon 
 the stage in an encyclema, which ^gisthus supposes to be Ores- 
 tes. He unveils it, and behold it is Olytemnestra! 
 
 4. In the "Antigone," v. 1293. The corpse of Eurydioe is 
 thus exhibited after her suicide. 
 
 5. In the " Ajax," v. 346. The interior of the tent is thus 
 thrown open to the view of the assembled people. 
 
 6. In the "(Edipus Tyrannus,'' v. 1297, the self-blinded mon- 
 
GG GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATUBB. 
 
 menced after tho^e authors, and resembles the one of 
 our time. It is the comedy of manners which we have 
 now, and is only the perfection of the comedy of the 
 second period. It is in the pieces of Aristophanes that 
 we may study the characteristic of the old comedy, he 
 being the only writer from whom we have complete 
 pieces. The old comedy does not resemble the comedy 
 of the third period. The structure is loose and uncon- 
 nected, the plot is incomplete and not uniform, and 
 resembles rather a modern pantomime. It is a union 
 of independent scenes and ludicrous situations, satirical 
 attacks on the vices, and allusions to the follies of the 
 
 arch is thus shown for the first time after his terrible catas- 
 trophe. 
 
 ETTEIPIDES. 
 
 7. In the "Hercules Furens," v. 1030, Hercules is thus dis- 
 covered bound to a pillar, and surrounded by the dead bodies of 
 his wife and children. 
 
 8. In the " Hippolytns," v. 818, the doors of the palace are 
 thrown open, and the corpse of Phaedra is seen after her sui- 
 cide. 
 
 The thymele was sometimes decorated in a more gorgeous 
 way, when solemn sacrifices had to be offered, and then the 
 chorus was in the orchestra. 
 
 The representations were given during the months of Po- 
 seidon, Gamelion, Anthesterion, and Elaphebolion ; they were 
 the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth months of the Athenians, 
 that is, December, January, February, and March. The price of 
 admission was two oboli (three and a quarter pence, or about 
 seven cents). This formed the theorio fund, which was a sacred 
 deposit. 
 
 The state gave to the poets fifty actors, that is, fortyreight 
 choristers and two actors. The chorus was divided into two 
 parts. They entered in files and ranks, marching three abreast. 
 There were never more than three actors. 
 
COMEDY. 67 
 
 day. The humor consists principally in practical jokes ; 
 it also indulged in the most unrestrained personalities. 
 This last character went so far that a law, passed in 
 440, forbade the poets to indulge in personalities ; but 
 this law was abrogated by Alcibiades in 415. Such 
 representations, of course, were pleasing to the fickle- 
 minded public of Athens. 
 
 The old comedy was to the Athenian the represent- 
 ative of many influences which exist in the present 
 day ; it was the newspaper, the review, the satire, the 
 pamphlet, the caricature, the pantomime of Athens. 
 
 Addressed to the thousands who flocked to the 
 thealtre to witness the representation of a new comedy, 
 most of whom were keenly alive to every witty alhi- 
 sion and stroke of satire, and who took a deep interest 
 in every thing of a public nature — because each indi- 
 vidual was personally engaged in the administration 
 of state affairs — the old comedy must have been a pow- 
 erful engine for good or for evil. The comic poets in- 
 dulged in the use of the Parabasis, a sort of mono- 
 logue, often out of the subject. 
 
 The first writer of comedies was Susarion, living at 
 the time of Solon, and born at Megara. Like Thespis, 
 he was accustomed to go with his theatre from one 
 place to another. Horace alludes to that custom when 
 he says : 
 
 "Ignotnm tragic83 genus invenlsse camenra 
 Dicitur, et plaustris vexisse poemata Thespis." 
 
 The following are the names of the first Sicilian 
 comic writers : 
 
 Epichaxmns — who was the first of one hundred and 
 
63 GREEK CLASSICAL LITEBATUEE. 
 
 four comic writers, of whom Posidippus was tlie last, 
 during a period of two hundred and fifty years — was 
 born at Cos, in 540, but he performed at Megara, Sici- 
 ly, and died at the age of ninety-seven. He composed 
 thirty-five comedies, but scarcely more than the titles 
 have been preserved. He was distinguished for ele- 
 gance of composition, as well as originality of concep- 
 tion. Aristotle reproached him with the employment 
 of false antitheses. So many were his dramatic excel- 
 lences, that Plato terms him the first of comic writers. 
 The plays of Epicharmus, to judge from the fragments 
 still left us, abound with apophthegms little consistent 
 with the idea we might otherwise have entertained of 
 their nature from our knowledge of the buffooneries 
 whence comedy sprung ; but Epicharmus was a philos- 
 opher and a Pythagorean. 
 
 Fhormis, a contemporary of Epicharmus, lived in 
 Sicily. We have from him the titles of eight comedies. 
 
 Dinoloclius, a Dorian comic writer, from Agrigen- 
 tum, wrote fourteen comedies, and we have the titles 
 of some of them. 
 
 Among the writers of the old Attic period we may 
 give the following : 
 
 CMonides, from Athens, exhibited eight years before 
 the Persian War, and composed nine plays, which are 
 lost ; but we may judge from the titles that they had a 
 political tendency. 
 
 Cratinus, bom in Attica, in 519, was represented as 
 a genial fellow, fond of wine, and distinguished by the 
 bitterness of his satires. INone of his thirty-eight com- 
 edies remain, but we have the titles. 
 
 Eupolis (446), a native of Athens, was distinguished 
 
COMEDY. C3 
 
 for his broad humor and drollery, and also for the in- 
 genuity of his double meaning. "We have from him 
 the titles of twenty comedies, and some fragments. 
 
 Crates lived in the time of Cratinus. His plays 
 were remarkable also for broad humor and drollery 
 We have the titles of eight out of his fourteen plays. 
 According to Aristotle, he was the first Athenian poet 
 who abandoned the iambic, or satyric, form of comedy, 
 and made use of general stories or fables. Very likely 
 the law alluded to above, and passed in 440, restrain- 
 ing the virulence and license of comedy, had some share 
 in giving his plays this less offensive turn. His style is 
 said to have been gay and facetious, yet the few frag- 
 ments of his writings which remain are of a serious cast. 
 
 Aristophanes, the prince of the old comedy, was born 
 about 444, and probably at Athens. His father, Phi- 
 lippus, had possessions in -iEgina. Aristophanes ex- 
 hibited for the first time in 427 ; he was very popular, 
 but of his private history we know nothing. He prob- 
 ably died at the age of seventy-six, having written 
 fifty-four plays, of which eleven are extant. The fol- 
 lowing epigram is found in the " Anthologia : " 
 
 Al Xdpirei; Tifiev6<; n "Ka^elv, Strep ovj^ ireaelrat 
 Ztjtovo-cu, yjrirxTjv eSpov 'Apiarocjidvov^. 
 
 The titles of his plays are as follows : 
 
 1. " The Banqueters." The poet shows in this piece 
 that gymnastic exercises would be advantageous to the 
 health of the people ; those exercises formed a part of 
 the old education. 
 
 2. " The Acharnians." "When the poet paints the 
 sad evils of war, it was against the policy of Pericles. 
 
70 GBEEK CLASSICAL LITEBATUBE. 
 
 3. " The Knights." This is an attack against dem- 
 agogues, and a beautiful and true picture of the vices 
 and follies of the Athenians is given herein. 
 
 4. " The "Wasps." The object of this comedy is to 
 attack the well-known litigiousness of the Athenian 
 people. 
 
 5. " The Peace." As in the " Achamians," the poet 
 shows the miseries and privations attendant upon a 
 long-protracted war. 
 
 6. "Lysistrata;" 7. "Thesmophoriazusse;" 8. "Ee- 
 clesiazuse." In these three plays, which are the coarsest 
 of Aristophanes's dramas, we have a picture of the vices 
 prevalent among the female sex. 
 
 9. " The Birds." In this play Aristophanes pretends 
 to say that there was no remedy for the corrupt state 
 of Athenian society, except in an entire restoration of 
 the social system. 
 
 10. " Plutus " is a satiric essay upon the danger 
 of riches. 
 
 11. "The Frogs" continues the attack upon the 
 Euripidean tragedy, which was begun in the " Thes- 
 mophoriazusse." 
 
 All the great tragic poets were now dead, and Greek 
 tragedy had arrived at its period of decay. Dionysus, 
 therefore, the god of tragedy, descends to the infernal 
 regions in search of a poet, ^schylus and Euripides 
 contend for the honor of returning to earth. A most 
 amusing contest ensues, in which the peculiar merits 
 and defects of each poet are exhibited, compared, and 
 criticised. The question is for a long time undecided, 
 but, . at last, Euripides is ruined by his dishonest 
 sophistry. He suffers a double defeat, for not only is 
 
COMEDY. 71 
 
 ^schjlus selected to retam to earth, but Sophocles 
 is, during his absence, installed in the tragic throne 
 below. 
 
 The comedy of " The Frogs " is distinguished for 
 the beauty of its choral odes. These sweet and grace- 
 ful poems satisfactorily prove that, while the author of 
 them surpassed in wit all those writers who were emi- 
 nent in his own walk of literature, he equalled in ele- 
 gance of language and lyric talent the tragic poets 
 themselves. 
 
 12. " The Clouds " is the most important of the 
 tragedies of Aristophanes. In it the modem school of 
 subtle and sophistical philosophy was the object of the 
 poet's attack. The philosophy of the day was repre- 
 sented by Socrates. In looking about for a type of the 
 philosopher, Aristophanes naturally fixed upon the one 
 who attracted the largest share of public attention ; 
 who, from the tenor of his life and teaching, had made 
 himself the greatest number of enemies ; and who, for 
 his eccentricities, laid himself most open to comic ridi- 
 cule. Socrates was the most notorious of all who pro- 
 fessed to be public instructors. Besides, he was an 
 admirable subject for caricature ; his ugly face, which 
 was even copied in pottery and earthenware, his absent 
 manners, his wild stare to the right and left as he 
 walked, his bare feet and careless dress, and disregard 
 of the common- practices of Athenian polite life, pointed 
 him out as the very man to represent the professors of 
 that fi,erea>pocro(j>la, or soaring wisdom, which disdains 
 the common concerns of life. 
 
 The comedy of " The Banqueters," which is spoken 
 of first, does not exist any more, but we have many 
 
72 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 quotations and fragments from it. It is to be regretted 
 that some of the comedies of Aristophanes are so lewd 
 that we cannot with decency read them. 
 
 CHAPTEE V, 
 
 PEOSE — HISTOEY HEEODOTUS. 
 
 While the Greets were cultivating poetry, the Se- 
 mitic races — Egyptian, Assyrian, Hebrew — had histor- 
 ical records. The reason is that they were constituted 
 generally in large monarchies, and their rulers had an 
 interest in keeping the records of their glorious deeds. 
 Greece had really no history before Herodotus, who has 
 been called the Father of History. 
 
 Four historians, who came before him, havef mixed 
 history with legend. Many fragments remain from 
 those historians, which have been collected by several 
 German Hellenists, such as Clausen, Sturz, and Creuzer. 
 
 Fherecydes, of Leros, a small island near Miletus, 
 flourished during the Persian "War, and lived eighty- 
 five years. He gave ten boots of family records of 
 Athens. He wa8«auch consulted by the later mythog- 
 raphers, and his numerous fragments must still serve 
 as the basis of many mythological inquiries. 
 
 Charon was bom at Lampsacus, a Milesian colony. 
 He wrote a history of the Persian War, but he was a 
 chronicler rather than an historian. Those early histo- 
 rians have been called also Horographers (flpoypd^oi), 
 as it were, giving an account hour by hour. 
 
PROSE— HISTORY— HEE0D0TU3. 
 
 V3 
 
 HellanicTis, of ilitylene, in the iilaiid of Lesbos, was 
 almost a contemporary of Herodotus. He wrote nu- 
 merous works in the way of chronicles, but nothing 
 complete remains. According to Thucydides, and sev- 
 eral writers who do not belong to the classical pjeriod, 
 il rt'a pas de critique. Some, however, pretend that 
 he was a learned and diligent compiler, and that, so 
 far as his sources went, he was a trustworthy one. He 
 lived eighty-five years. 
 
 Xanthus was a native of Sardis (Lydia). This point, 
 however, is a doubtful one, as also the period when he 
 flourished. Xanthus wrote a history of Lydia, of wjjich 
 some considerable fragments have come down to us. 
 
 nZEODOTTS. 
 
 Herodotus was bom at Halicarnassus. in 4S4. His 
 family, which was one of the most distinguished in the 
 
1i GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 city, was exposed to the persecution of the tyrant Lyg- 
 damis. Herodotus, at a very early age, had to fly to 
 Samos. There he cultivated the Ionic dialect, and there, 
 too, imbibed the Ionic spirit which pervades his history. 
 He joined in an attempt which was made in order to 
 free Samos from the tyranny of Lygdamis.^' The at- 
 tempt proved successful, but soon after Herodotus again 
 left his country and settled in Magna Grsecia, at Thurii. 
 It is there, very likely, that he wrote his work, that 
 he died at a very old age, and was buried, 
 
 Herodotus presents himself to our consideration in 
 three points of view — as a traveller, an observer, and an 
 historian. The extent of his travels may be ascertained 
 pretty clearly from his history ; but the order in which 
 he visited each place, and the time of visiting, cannot 
 be determined. His travels, however, must have occu- 
 pied a considerable period of his life, and he would 
 seem to have first entered upon them in the full strength 
 of body and mind, and after having been completely 
 educated. 
 
 The history of his reading his work at the Olympic 
 games, which has found its way into most modem nar- 
 ratives, has been ably discussed, and, it may be said, 
 has been disproved. 
 
 With a simplicity which characterizes his whole 
 work, Herodotus makes no display of the great extent 
 of his travels ; and he is so free from the ordinary vanity 
 of travellers, that, instead of acting a prominent part 
 in his narrative, he very seldom appears at all in it. 
 Hence, it is impossible to give any thing like an accu- 
 rate chronological succession of his travels. In Greece 
 proper, or on the coasts of Asia Minor, there is scarcely 
 
PROSE— HISTORY— HERODOTUa 15 
 
 any place of importance with which he is not perfectly 
 ■familiar from his own observation, and where he did 
 not make inquiries respecting this or that particnlar 
 point ; we may mention more especially the oracular 
 places, such as Dodona and Delphi. He also visited 
 most of the Greek islands. 
 
 As for his travels in foreign countries, we know 
 that he sailed through the Hellespont, the Fropontis, 
 and crossed the Euxine in both directions. With the 
 Palus Maeotis he was imperfectly acquainted. He far- 
 ther visited Thrace and Scythia. The interior of Asia 
 Minor was well known to him, especially Lydia, and 
 so was also Phoenicia. He visited Tyre for the special 
 purpose of obtaining information respecting the worship 
 of Hercules. Previous to this he had been in I^ypt, 
 for it was in Egypt that his curiosity respecting Her- 
 cules had been excited. 
 
 A second source from which Herodotus drew his 
 information was the literature of his country, especially 
 the poetical portion, for prose had not yet been culti- 
 vated very extensively, as we have just had occasion to 
 observe. With the poems of Homer and Hesiod he 
 was perfectly familiar, though he attributed less his- 
 torical importance to them than might have been ex- 
 pected. He was also acquainted with the poetry of 
 Alcaens, Sappho, Simonides, Pindar, and ^schylus. 
 
 The object of the work of Herodotus is to give an 
 account of the struggles between the Greeks and Per- 
 sians, from which the former, with the help of the 
 lonians, came off victorious. He traces the enmity 
 between Europe and Asia to the mythical times. But 
 he rapidly passes over the mythical ages to come to 
 
^6 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERAT0KE. 
 
 Croesus, King of Lydia, who was known to have com- 
 mitted acts of hostility against the Greeks ; this in- 
 duces him to give a full history of Croesus and the 
 kingdom of Lydia. The conquest of Lydia by the' 
 Persians, under Cyrus, then leads him to relate the 
 rise of the Persian monarchy, and the subjugation of 
 Asia Minor and Babylon. The history of Cambyses, 
 and his expedition into Egypt, induce him to enter 
 into the details of Egyptian history. The expedition 
 of Darius against the Scythians, causes him to speak 
 of Scythia and the north of Europe. The kingdom of 
 Persia now extended from Scythia to Cyrene, and, an 
 army being called in by the Cyreneans against the 
 Persians, Herodotus proceeds to give an account of 
 Cyrene and Libya. In the mean time the revolt of the 
 lonians broke out, which eventually brings the contest 
 between Persia and Greece to an end. An account of 
 this insurrection, and of the rise of Athens after the 
 expulsion of the Pisistratidse, is followed by what prop- 
 erly constitutes the principal part of the work, and the 
 history of the Persian "War now runs on in a regular 
 channel until the taking of Sestos. 
 
 The great structure of the history thus bears a strong 
 resemblance to a grand epic poem. The work, how- 
 ever, has an abrupt termination, and is probably in- 
 complete. The division of the history into nine books, 
 each bearing the name of a muse, was made by some 
 grammarian, for there is no indication in the whole com- 
 position of the divisions having been made by the author 
 himself. The entire work is pervaded by a profoundly 
 religious idea, which distinguishes Herodotus from all 
 other Greek historians. Li order to form a fair judg- 
 
PEOSE—HISTOEY— HERODOTUS. 77 
 
 ment of the historical value of the work of Herodotus, 
 we must distinguish those parts in which he speaks 
 from his own observation, or gives the results of his 
 own investigations, from those in which he merely re- 
 peats what he was told by priests, interpreters, guides, 
 and the like. In the latter case, he was undoubtedly 
 often deceived ; but he never intrudes such reports as 
 any thing more than they really are, and, under the in- 
 fluence of his natural good sense, he frequently cautions 
 his reader by some such remarks as — "I know this 
 only from hearsay ; " or, " I have been told so, but do 
 not believe it." But, whenever he speaks from his 
 own observation, Herodotus is a real model of truth- 
 fulness and accuracy, and the more those countries 
 of which he speaks have been explored by modern 
 travellers, the more firmly has his authority been es- 
 tablished. 
 
 The dialect in which Herodotus wrote is the Ionic, 
 intermixed with epic or poetical expressions, and some- 
 times even with Attic and Doric forms. This pecu- 
 liarity of his language called forth a number of lexi- 
 cographical words of learned grammarians, all of which 
 are lost, with the exception of a few remnants in the 
 Homeric glosses. The excellences of his style do not 
 consist in any artistic or melodious structiu-e of his sen- 
 tences, but in the antique and epic coloring, the trans- 
 parent clearness, the lively flow of his narrative, and 
 his natural and unaffected gracefulness. There is, per- 
 haps, no work in the whole range of ancient literature 
 which so closely resembles a familiar and homely oral 
 narration as that of Herodotus. Its reader cannot help 
 feeling as though he were listening to an old man, who. 
 
V8 GEEEK CLASSICAL LITEEATTTBE. 
 
 from the inexhaustible stores of his knowledge and ex- 
 perience, tells his stories with that single-hearted sim- 
 plicity and naivete, which are the marks and indica- 
 tions of a truthful spirit. 
 
 OHAPTEE VI. 
 
 HISTOET THUCTDIDES XENOPHON CTESIAS. 
 
 Thucydides is the inventor of philosophical history. 
 He was bom at Halimus, near Athens, in 471, and was 
 the son of Olonus and Hegesipyle. Lucian says that 
 Thucydides was present when, at the Olympian games, 
 Herodotus read his history before the assembled Greeks, 
 and that he shed tears ; but this is a fable, very likely, 
 as well as the incident of Herodotus reading his history 
 under such circumstances. It is said that Thucydides 
 was instructed in oratory by Antiphon, and in philos- 
 ophy by Anaxagoras. "We have no trustworthy evi- 
 dence of Thucydides having distinguished himself as 
 an orator, though from his speeches we may conclude 
 that he possessed an oratorical talent. He was, how- 
 ever, employed in a military capacity, and was in com- 
 mand of the Athenian fleet at Thasos, in 424, when he 
 was sent to Amphipolis in order to protect that city 
 against Brasidas, a Spartan general. He arrived too 
 late, and was on that account exiled. It is not known 
 where he went to, but evidently he did not go to any 
 place which was under Athenian dominion. It is very 
 likely that, during the time of his exile, he collected 
 
HISTORY— THUCTDIDES—XENOPHON—CTESIAS. 
 
 ■79 
 
 materials and wrote his work. The exile of Thucydides 
 lasted twenty years. He may have returned to Athens, 
 in 403, and, according to some very reliable accounts, 
 he was assassinated. 
 
 With Thucydides history is solid instruction ; its 
 incidents convey lessons for statesmen, as well as for 
 individuals in any state of life. The example of Thu- 
 cydides has been followed in modern times, but it is a 
 
 TIITJCTl>rDES. 
 
 question whether there has been any who has surpassed 
 him, for thonghtfulness and suggestiveness. Thucyd- 
 ides wrote " The Peloponnesian War ; " he gave only 
 twenty-one years of that war. It has been thought 
 that the eighth book was not from him, because there 
 is no speech in it. This reason is a weak one ; the 
 slight difference which exists between that book and 
 the other ones, allows us only to conclude that Thueyd- 
 
80 OKEEE CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 ides had no time to revise it. For that book cannot 
 be the work of the continnators of Thucydides; neither 
 is it by Xenophonj who took other divisions in his nar- 
 ration ; nor by Theopompus, whose style is quite dif- 
 ferent from that of Thucydides. This writer opens his 
 work with a beautiful sketch of Greek history. The 
 war was a war of races — a contest between the Dorian 
 and the Ionian races. Thucydides, though an Ionian, 
 is impartial. It was also a contest between aristocratic 
 Athens and demagogic Sparta. Thucydides was a par- 
 tisan of aristocracy. He knew by experience whither 
 the mob could lead a government. The authority of 
 Thucydides was, of course, very great. The speeches 
 form the most prominent part of the work. Cicero crit- 
 icises them for their diflSculty and obscurity, but Aris- 
 totle praises them, saying, with reason, that Thucyd- 
 ides did not write his book in order to satisfy the curi- 
 osity of the present age, but for the instruction of pos- 
 terity ; besides, there was as yet no treatise on the art 
 of speaking (oratory). The speeches were character- 
 istic: laconic on the side of the fcjpartans, poetic on 
 the side of the Athenians. Throughout the whole 
 work there is a strict love of truth ; descriptions are 
 avoided. The qualities in which Thucydides has sel- 
 dom been equalled are moral wisdom and political 
 sagacity. The episode of the Corcyrian War, in which 
 he points out the causes of the sedition, is very good. 
 Thucydides confined himself strictly to his subject. In 
 recapitulation these two historians are \eiy good. 
 
 Xenophon, the son of Gryllus, was born at Athens, 
 in 444. He was a soldier in his youth, and saved by 
 Socrates at the battle of Delium (424). At the insti- 
 
HISTOEY— THUCYDID^— XENOPHON— CTESIAS. 81 
 
 gation of Proxenns, lie joined the expedition of Gyms 
 the Younger against Artaxerxea Mnemon. After the 
 defeat of Cyrus in the plain of Canaxa, he retreated, 
 with ten thotisand Greeks, and, after fifteen months, 
 they arrived at Trapezus (Trehizond), being eight thou- 
 sand five hundred in number. Xenophon could never 
 return to Athens; a decree had been issued against 
 him, and he was banished for two reasons — ^he was a 
 friend of Socrates, and a friend of Sparta. Agesilaus 
 was with Xenophon during the Asiatic expedition ; he 
 was recalled to Greece, and Xenophon accompanied 
 him to Sparta, and accepted from that Mng a country- 
 seat, near Scyllus, where he spent a long time, hunt- 
 ing, entertaining his friends, writing some of his works 
 — in one word, living Kke a gentleman. It is not 
 knoflm how, when, or where he died. 
 
 The extant works of Xenophon may be divided into 
 four classes : 1. Historical, comprising " The Anabasis," 
 "The HeUenica," "The Cyropaedia," and "The Life 
 of Agesilaus ; " 2. Didactic, comprising " The Hip- 
 parchicus," the " Treatise on Horsemanship," and that 
 on " Hunting ; " 3. Political, comprising the works on 
 the republics of Sparta and Athens, and " The Reve- 
 nues of Athens ; " 4. Philosophical, comprising " The 
 Memorabilia of Socrates," " The (Economicus," " The 
 Symposium, or Banquet," " The Hiero," and " The 
 Apology of Socrates." 
 
 There are also extant certain letters attributed to 
 Xenophon, but, like many other ancient productions 
 of the same class, they are not genuine. 
 
 1. HJSTOHicAL "WoEKS. — " The Anabasis " QAvd^or 
 o-ts), in seven books, is the work by which Xenophon 
 
82 GREEK CLASSICAL LITEEATDRE. 
 
 is best known. The first book gives the inarch of 
 Cyrus to the neighborhood of Babylon, and ends with 
 his death. The last six books contain the account of 
 the retreat of the ten thousand. The work is written 
 in an easy, agreeable style, and gives a great deal of 
 curious information respecting the country traversed 
 by the Greeks, and the manners of the people. It is 
 full of interest also as being a minute detail by an eye- 
 witness of the hazards and adventures of the army in 
 their difficult march through an unknown and hostile 
 country. 
 
 " The Hellenica " (EXKtjviko) is a Greek history, 
 divided into seven books, and comprising the space of 
 forty-eight years, from the time when the history of 
 Thucydides ends to the battle of Mantinea (862). This 
 book has little merit as a history, for Xenophon does 
 not give the philosophy of the events which he relates 
 like Thucydides. It is in general a dry narration, and 
 contains little to move or affect, with the exception of 
 a few incidents better narrated. 
 
 " The Cyropsedia " (Kvpov TraiSeCa), in eight books, 
 is a kind of political romance, in which the ethical 
 element prevails ; but, since it is based upon the his- 
 tory of Cyrus the Elder, it is commonly ranked among 
 the historical works of Xenophon. Its object is to 
 show how citizens can be formed to be virtuous and 
 brave, and to exhibit also a model of a wise and good 
 governor. It is an agreeable exposition of principles 
 under the form of a history. The dying speech of 
 Cyrus is worthy of a pupil of Socrates. 
 
 " The Agesilaus " (^Ayn<ri\ao<;) is a panegyric of 
 Xenophon's friend, the Lacedsemonian king, and forms 
 
HISTORY— THUCYDIDES—XENOPHON—CTESIAS. 83 
 
 another proof of his Spartan predilections. It is a 
 kind of composition in which failure can hardly be 
 avoided. 
 
 , 2. Didactic Woeks. — "The Hipparchicus " ('Itt- 
 wap'xi/coi;) is a treatise on the duties of a commander 
 of cavalry, and contains many military precepts, es- 
 pecially for the choice of cavalrymen. 
 
 The " Treatise on Horsemanship " (Ittitikt^ was 
 written after " The Hipparchicus." 
 
 " The Cynegeticus " {Kwr]yeTiK6<s) is a treatise on 
 hunting, an amusement of which Xenophon was very 
 fond ; and on the dog, and the breeding and training 
 of dogs, on the various kinds of game, and the mode 
 of taking them. 
 
 3. PoLOTCAL Woeks. — Two treatises on " The Ee- 
 publics of Sparta and of Athens " {AaKeBai/wvlmv iloXt- 
 rela, ^AOrjvaUov UoKvrela). The writer clearly prefers 
 the Spartan to the Athenian institutions. 
 
 4. Philosophical "Woeks. — " The Memorabilia of 
 Socrates " QAvoiivqiioveufuna StuKpaTovs;), in four books, 
 contains a defence of the memory of Socrates against 
 the charge of irreligion, and of corrupting the Athenian 
 youth. Socrates is represented as holding a series of 
 conversations, in which he develops and inculcates 
 moral doctrines in his peculiar fashion. It is entirely 
 a practical work, such as we might expect from the 
 practical nature of Xenophon's mind, and it professes 
 to exhibit Socrates as he taught. It is true that it may 
 exhibit only one side of the Socratic argumentation, 
 and that it does not deal in those subtleties and verbal 
 disputes which occupy so large a space in some of 
 Plato's dialogues. In " The Memorabilia " we have 
 
84 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 as genuine a picture of Socrates as his pupil Xeno- 
 phon could exhibit. 
 
 "The OEconomicus " (PIkopo/uko^) is a dialogue 
 between Socrates and Critobolus, in which Socrates 
 begins by showing that there is an art called CEconomy 
 {OlKovo/jLVKri), which' relates to the administration of a 
 household, and of a man's property. Cicero copied 
 some passages of this book in his treatise on " Old 
 Age." The seventh chapter is on the duty of a good 
 wife. This is one of the best treatises of Xenophon. 
 
 " The Symposium (Sv/jviroa-iov), or Banquet of Phi- 
 losophers," contains a delineation of the character of 
 Socrates. The speakers are supposed to meet at the 
 house of Callias, a rich Athenian, at the celebration 
 of the great Panathensea. Socrates, Critobulus, An- 
 tisthenes, Charmides, and others, are the speakers. The 
 accessories of the entertainment are managed with 
 skill, and the piece is interesting as a picture of an 
 Athenian drinking-party, and of the amusement and 
 conversation with which it was diversified. 
 
 " The Hiero " (lepcov rj Tvpawos;) is a dialogue be- 
 tween King Hiero and Simonides, in which the king 
 speaks of the dangers and diiBculties incident to an 
 exalted station, and the superior happiness of a pri- 
 vate man. 
 
 " The Apology of Socrates " (AiroTMyla ^rnKpaTovi 
 irpoi roii<! BiKoa-Tas;) is not, as the title imports, the de- 
 fence which Socrates made on his trial, but it contains 
 the reasons which determined him to prefer death, 
 rather than to humble himself by asking for his life 
 from his prejudiced judges. This treatise is inferior 
 in style and composition to all the other works of Xeno- 
 
HISXOBT— XENOPHON— THTJCYDIDES— OTESIAS. 85 
 
 phon, and some have supposed, on that account, that 
 it was not from him ; but Diogenes Laertius says pos- 
 itively that Xenophon wrote that apology, and that 
 testimony should be sufficient. 
 
 Xenophon was an accomplished man. As a writer 
 he deserves praise for perspicuity and ease, and for 
 these qualities he has in all ages been justly admired. 
 As an historical writer he is much below Thucydides. 
 He had no depth of reflection, and no great insight into 
 the fundamental principles of society. Xenophon was 
 too business-like to be a poet, too much a citizen of the 
 world to be a patriot, and too practical to be a deep 
 philosopher. In order to complete the list of the his- 
 torical writers of the classical period of Greek litera- 
 ture, we must give the names of — 
 
 1. Ctesias, who was a contemporary of Xenophon, 
 and lived as a private physician at the court of Arta- 
 xerxes Mnemon, and, having a free access to the library 
 of the palace, he collected materials for a history of 
 Persia, and of India, of which works we have but frag- 
 ments. He composed, besides those two books of his- 
 tory, three other works, of which we know little more 
 than the titles. 
 
 2. Fhilistas, a Syracusan, was one of the most cele- 
 brated historians of antiquity, though unfortunately 
 only a few fragments of his works have come down to 
 us. He wrote a complete history of Sicily. 
 
 3. Theopompus, of Chios, a celebrated Greek histo- 
 rian, was born in 378. The titles of his works, none 
 of which have come down to us, are an " Epitome of 
 the History of Herodotus," a " History of Greece," 
 " The History of Philip," and many orations. 
 
86 GREEK CLASSICAL LITEBATUEB. 
 
 4, Ephorus, who was a contemporary of Philip and 
 Alexander, flourished in 340, and was a native of Cumse, 
 in ^olis. The most celebrated of the works of Epho- 
 rus was a " General History," in thirty books ; we 
 have also some fragments. 
 
 We have only fragments of the writings of the his- 
 torians of Alexander the Great, who followed in the 
 train of the monarch, or who were his companions in 
 arms. These were : Anaximenes, Callisthenes, Cli- 
 tarchus, Ptolemseus, Aristobulus, Onesicritns, Near- 
 ehus. Chares, Ephippus, Marsyas, Androsthenes, and 
 Medius. 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 PEOSE ELOQUENCE. 
 
 Eloquence is one of the principal characteristics of 
 Greek literature, whether poetical, historical, or philo- 
 sophical. The heroes of Homer are ail orators. The 
 very philosophers, who despised eloquence and were 
 the rivals of the orators, could not help being eloquent ; 
 and Cicero observes that, what he most admired on 
 reading " Gorgias " was, that Plato, while deriding 
 orators, showed himself the most consummate and ac- 
 complished orator of them all. Eloquence gives a 
 charm to the writings of Herodotus, Thucydides, and 
 Xenophon. But Greek eloquence, in its perfection, 
 owes a large debt of gratitude to Thucydides. It is 
 true that Cicero denies that any rhetorician drew the 
 principles of his art from the speeches'of Thucydides, 
 but the Eoman orator is mistaken in this, case. 
 
PROSE— ELOQUENCE, 87 
 
 Althougli tlie Greeks were by nature orators, as 
 they were poets, oratory as an art is of Sicilian origin. 
 The first treatises {rix!»l peropiic^ were written in 
 Sicily by Corax, Tisias, and especially Gorgias, in the 
 middle of the fifth century before Christ. The writ- 
 ings of these rhetors are lost. Gorgias transported that 
 art to Athens, where a school was soon established, and 
 Alcibiades was one of the first disciples of Gorgias. A 
 great rivalry existed at the beginning between the 
 Sophists, who were then the most celebrated teachers, 
 and the Philosophers. 
 
 Oratory appears to have been much abused daring 
 the Peloponnesian "War. We may, among the orators 
 of that period, who were really distinguished for their 
 talents, give the names of Pericles, Alcibiades, and 
 Cleophon. "With such a public as the one composing 
 the Ecclesia of Athens, it was difficult for an orator to 
 be honest. Eloquence was so much abused at that 
 time, that Aristophanes said that a scoundrel only 
 could succeed as an orator. "Whatever may be the 
 truth of this assertion, we may judge by the rules given 
 by Aristotle, and the remarks of Longinus about the 
 orations of Demosthenes, that it was no less difficult 
 to please the Athenian ear than to be honest. The 
 orator had to be well prepared before appearing in 
 public, and, in order to succeed, he was obliged to have 
 quickness and tact in observing the state of feeling 
 which pervaded the assembly, a comprehensive and 
 retentive memory, a perfect knowledge of human na- 
 ture, and of the resources of the Greek language, and 
 a wide range of political and historical information. 
 
 Greek eloquence arose and flourished during the 
 
88 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 period of Greek liberty. It did not entirely decay 
 until Athenian independence was utterly crushed. 
 Both died together. Freedom has always been favor- 
 able to oratory ; it finds no place under tyranny and 
 absolutism. Hence, while eloquence flourished under 
 the protection of Athenian democracy, Sparta never 
 produced an orator. The canon of Attic orators, as 
 settled in a later age by the Alexandrian grammarians, 
 contains ten names, given in chronological order, as 
 follows : 
 
 Antiphon, born at Ehamnus in Attica, in 479, was 
 a teacher of rhetoric and composer of orations. The 
 democratic party condemned him to death, on account 
 of his oligarchical opinions. Thucydides, a pupil of 
 Antiphon, speaks of his master with the highest esteem, 
 and many of the excellences of his style are ascribed 
 by the ancients to the influence of Antiphon. Anti- 
 phon, as we have said, composed speeches for others, 
 who delivered them in the courts of justice, and, as he 
 was the first who received money for such orations — a 
 practice which subsequently became quite general — ^he 
 was severely attacked and ridiculed. Theunpopularity 
 which was the result of these attacks, together with his 
 own reserved character, prevented his ever appearing 
 as a speaker, either in the courts or in the assembly ; 
 and the only time he spoke in public was in 411, when, 
 on the overthrow of the oligarchical government, An- 
 tiphon was brought to trial for having attempted to 
 negotiate peace with Sparta, and was condemned to 
 death. His speech in defence of himself was the ablest 
 which has ever been made by any man in similar cir- 
 cumstances. Fifteen harangues are extant from the 
 
PROSE— ELOQUENCE. 89 
 
 writings of Antiphon. They are of the kind (}Mrfoc, 
 ^oviKo!), having reference to criminal proceedings, and 
 especially deserve attention as giving an idea of the 
 way of proceeding in the Greek tribunals.* 
 
 Andocides was bom at Athens, in 46V. He was also 
 persecuted by the democratic party, and banished from 
 Athens. As an orator Andocides does not appear to 
 have been held in very high esteem by the ancients, as 
 lie is seldom mentioned. We have three orations from 
 him. Andocides, not having been trained in any of 
 the sophistical schools of his time, his orations have no 
 mannerism, but they are simple, and free from rhetori- 
 cal pomp and ornament. Sometimes his style is dif- 
 fuse, and becomes tedious and obscure. The best of 
 his orations is the one on " The Mysteries " (irepl t&v 
 Mvarripleav), which he pronounced when his enemies 
 accused him of having profaned them. 
 
 Lysias was born at Athens, in 458. He lived thirty- 
 two years in the Athenian colony of Thurii, in Italy. 
 He was exiled from that place by the Dorians, and re- 
 turned to Athens. He was also banished from that 
 city, some time after his arrival, by the thirty tyrants. 
 Lysias then went to Megara, and, in 402, returned to 
 Athens, where he died in 378, at the age of eighty. 
 Lysias was one of the most fertile writers of orations 
 that Athens ever produced, for there were in antiquity 
 no less than four hundred and twenty-five orations 
 which were current under his name. Of these orations 
 
 * Besides the Wyoe (povtKol the ancients had two other kinds 
 of puhlio orations — 7i6yoi iTi/ioyopiimi, or discourses prononnoed 
 in the assemhlies of the people ; and Myoi iuaiviicol, or jadiciary 
 discourses. 
 
90 GREEK CLASSICAL LITBRATUBE. 
 
 only thirty-five are extant, and even among these some 
 are incomplete. "We have fragments of fifty -three 
 others. Most of these orations were composed after 
 his return from Thurii. How highly the orations of 
 Lysias were valued in antiquity, may be inferred from 
 the great number of persons who wrote commentaries 
 upon them. The diction of Lysias is perfectly pure ; 
 his language is natural and simple, bat, at the same 
 time, noble and dignified ; it is always clear and lucid. 
 The copiousness of his style does not injure its pre- 
 cision, nor can his rhetorical embellishments be con- 
 sidered as impairing the charming simplicity of his 
 manner of expression. His delineations of character 
 are always striking, and true to life. Bat what char- 
 acterizes his orations above those of all other ancients, 
 is the indescribable gracefulness and elegance which 
 pervades all of them, withoiit in the least impairing 
 their power and energy. 
 
 Isocrates also was born at Athens, in 436. He was 
 called the great master of eloquence. He founded a 
 school of rhetoric, and the princes of eloquence were 
 formed there. Isocrates took a proper view of the aim 
 of eloquence, despised the subtleties of the Sophists, and 
 applied ornaments in a just proportion. Isocrates was 
 never a public man ; he was naturally timid and of a 
 weakly constitution, and, on that account, he abstained 
 from taking any direct part in the political affairs of 
 his country. He resolved to contribute toward the de- 
 velopment of eloquence, by teaching and writing. He 
 established his first school at Chios, and afterward 
 transferred it to Athens. Isocrates killed himself after 
 the battle of Chaeronea, being ninety-nine years old. 
 
PEOSE— ELOQUENCE. 91 
 
 The language of Isocrates is the most refined Attic, 
 and thus formed a great contrast to the pure and nat- 
 ural simplicity of Lysias, as well as the sublime power 
 of Demosthenes. His artificial style is more elegant 
 than graceful, and more ostentatious than pleasing. 
 The carefully-rounded periods, the frequent applica- 
 tions of figurative expressions, are features which re- 
 mind us of the Sophists ; and, although his sentences 
 flow very melodiously, yet they become wearisome and 
 monotonous by the perpetual recurrence of the same 
 over-refined periods, which are not relieved by being 
 interspersed with shorter and easier sentences. In say- 
 ing this, however, we must remember that Isocrates 
 wrote his orations to be read, and not with a view 
 to their recitation before the people. We have from 
 Isocrates twenty-one orations ; eight of them belong to 
 the kind Xoyoi SiKaviKol, five are "Koyoi STjfioyopiKol, three 
 are of a moral kind, and four are eulogies. The most 
 remarkable is the discourse entitled " Panegyrical Ora- 
 tion" {UavTiyvpiKOi), a discourse which was intended 
 to be pronounced before the assembled people. 
 
 Issens was a native of Chalcis, or, as some say, of 
 Athens. Yery little is known about his life, although 
 he established a rhetorical school at Athens, and De- 
 mosthenes is said to have been one of his pupils. Eleven 
 orations are extant from Isseus. They are all on sub- 
 jects connected with disputed inheritances, and Isseus 
 appears to have been particularly well acquainted with 
 the laws relating to inheritance. The oratory of Isasus 
 resembles in many points that of his teacher, Lysias. 
 The style of both is pure, clear, and concise. 
 
 iEschines, the son of Atrometus and Glaacothea, 
 
92 GREEK CLASSICAL LITEKAT0EB. 
 
 was bom in 389, and, in his yonth, lie appears to have 
 assisted his father, who kept a. small school ; he next 
 acted as secretary to Antiphon, then he fried his for- 
 tune as an actor, for which he was provided by Nature 
 with a strong and sonorous voice. After this he left 
 the stage and engaged in military services, in which, 
 according to his own account, he gained great distinc- 
 tion, ^schines afterward came forward at Athens as 
 a public speaker, and the military fame which he had 
 now acquired established his reputation. During the 
 first period of his public career JEschines was, like all 
 other Athenians, zealously engaged in directing the 
 attention of his fellow-citizens to the growing power 
 of Philip, and exhorted them to check it in its growth. 
 In 347 he was sent, along with Demosthenes, as one 
 of the ten ambassadors to negotiate a peace with FhiUp. 
 From this time he appears as the friend of the Mace- 
 donian party, and as the opponent of Demosthenes. 
 
 ^schines and Demosthenes were at the head of 
 two parties, into which not only Athens but all Greece 
 were divided, and their political enmity created and 
 nourished perpetual hatred. The last great event in 
 the public life of ^schines was his prosecution of Ctes- 
 iphon, in the question of the crovra. When ^schines 
 lost his cause, not having obtained one-fifth of the votes 
 of the judges, he was then compelled to leave Athens, 
 being unable to pay the penalty in that case required 
 by the law. ^schines went to Asia Miuor ; he spent 
 several years in Ionia and Oaria, occupying himself 
 with teaching rhetoric, and anxiously waiting for the 
 return of Alexander to Europe. After the death of 
 Alexander he returned to Rhodes, where probably he 
 
PROSE— ELOQUENCE. 93 
 
 died. The conduct of JEscliines lias been censured by 
 the writers of all ages ; but it is impossible to arrive at 
 the complete truth, from the perplexing history of a 
 period, when the principal authorities are two political 
 rivals, whose statements about the matter under con- 
 sideration are often in direct contradiction to one an- 
 other. But, if the integrity of^schines is suspected, his 
 great abilities both as a popular leader and an orator are 
 undisputed ; he was the rival, and, according to Cicero 
 and Quintilian, all but the equal of Demosthenes. In 
 the lucid arrangement of his matter, and iu the ease 
 and clearness of his narrative, he has never been sur- 
 passed ; and, if he falls below Demosthenes in any qual- 
 ity of an orator, it is in powerful invective and vehement 
 passion. The facility and felicity of his diction, the 
 boldness and vigor of his descriptions, carry away his 
 reader now, as they must have carried away his hearers 
 in former times. We have only three orations from 
 ^schines. 
 
 Lycurgus, the namesake of the great Lacedsemonian 
 
94 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATUEE 
 
 lawgiver, was bom at Athens, in 396. He was a dis- 
 tinguished administrator, and he left the reputation of 
 a very honest, unflinching character. The people loved 
 him, and public honors were paid to him after his 
 death. Of the fifteen orations of Lycnrgus, which are 
 mentioned by Plutarch, only one has come down to 
 us. Diodorus of Sicily greatly praises Lycui^us's elo- 
 quence, but Dionysius of Halicarnassus says that he 
 was deficient in ease and elegance. This judgment is 
 true concerning the style of that orator. 
 
 Demosthenes^ the greatest of the Greek orators, was 
 the son of Demosthenes, and was bom in the Attic 
 borough of Paeania, in 385. He raised eloquence to the 
 highest degree of style, reasoning, composition, skill, 
 and vigor. The position of Demosthenes, when he had 
 to interfere in the administration, was a difficult one. 
 Athens had not to fight for its supremacy any more, 
 but for its independence, and patriotism was extinct in 
 some of the orators, especially in ^schines. They 
 were sold to Philip. Demosthenes, on the contrary, 
 showed himself a real patriot. 
 
 His father died when he was young, and his guar- 
 dian took his property from him ; but, by his talent, 
 Demosthenes recovered a great part of it. Demos- 
 thenes studied eloquence with energy, we might say 
 with heroism. The physical disadvantages under which 
 he labored are well known, and the manner in which 
 he surmounted them is often quoted as an example to 
 encourage others to persevere. He was naturally of a 
 weak constitution ; he had a feeble voice, an indistinct 
 articulation, and a shortness of breath. His first office 
 was the one of Ohoregus, and, in the discharge of its 
 
PKOSE— ELOQUENCE. 95 
 
 functions, he manifested his talent for eloquence in the 
 condemnation of Medias, who had assailed him. It 
 was about tlie year 355 that Demosthenes began to 
 obtain reputation as a speaker in the public assembly. 
 It was by his eloquence that he prevented an expe- 
 dition to Euboea, and avoided a war with Persia. For 
 
 DEMOSTQENEB. 
 
 fourteen years he struggled against Philip, and, when 
 that prince attacked the northern cities of Greece allied 
 to Athens, Demosthenes, in his three " Olynthiacs," 
 discovered more plainly the plans of Philip ; but ho 
 could not persuade the Athenians in time, and Olyntii 
 was taken. Philip then interfered openly in the af- 
 fairs of Greece, and was appointed the chief of the Am- 
 phictyonic league. It was the last step toward inva- 
 sion ; Demosthenes pronounced at that time his last 
 " Philippics." * The party of Philip, headed by ^Es- 
 chines, became stronger. It was at this time that the 
 
 * This name has been retained since as synonymous with in- 
 vective discourses. 
 
96 GEEEK CLAgSIOAL LITERATUBE. 
 
 contest for the crown took place. After the death of 
 Philip, Alexander, with reluctance, allowed Demos- 
 thenes to remain at Athens. Having been accused 
 of accepting the bribes of Harpalus, he was exiled, 
 but recalled soon after. After the death of Alex- 
 ander, hearing that Antipater was marching on Ath- 
 ens, he fled to the island of Calauria and poisoned 
 himself. 
 
 We have sixty orations from Demosthenes ; besides 
 these orations we have fifty-six exordia {Upooi/ua 
 Srifi/riyopiKd). His discourses are of three kinds : de- 
 liberative, judicial, and studied or show speeches (\070t 
 iirtBeiKTiKol) ; seventeen belong to the first class, forty- 
 one to the second class, and two to the third. The 
 best are the twelve " Philippics," in which are included 
 the three " Olynthiacs ;" these are deliberative dis- 
 courses. The best in the judicial kind is the discourse 
 entitled "Concerning the Crown" {Ilepl Sre^dvov). 
 Demosthenes had been twice crowned in the theatre 
 during the Dionysiac festival. In the second year of 
 the one hundred and tenth Olympiad, Ctesiphon, who 
 was then president of the Senate, had a decree passed 
 by that body, that, if the people approved, Demos- 
 thenes should be crowned at the approaching Diony- 
 siac festival, in the theatre, as a recompense for the 
 disinterested manner in which he had filled various 
 offices, and for the services which he had constantly 
 rendered the state ; but, before this matter was brought 
 before the people for confirmation, JEschines presented 
 himself as the accuser of Ctesiphon. He charged him 
 with having violated the laws, in proposing to crown 
 a public functionary before the latter had given an ac- 
 
PROSE— ELOQUENCE. 91 
 
 count of the manner in which he had discharged his 
 office, etc. He concUided by demanding that a fine 
 of fifty talents be imposed upon Ctesiphon. On ac- 
 count of political difficulties, the aifair remained for 
 some time pending ; but, eight years later, ^schines 
 again brought forward his accusation. JEschines there- 
 upon pronounced his famous harangue, to which De- 
 mosthenes replied. This speech of Demosthenes is re- 
 garded, and justly so, not only as his ohef-d'eev/vre, but 
 as the most perfect specimen that eloquence has ever 
 produced. Such is the opinion of Dionysius of Hali- 
 carnassus. Modern critics come to the same conclu- 
 sion. The two discourses of the kind \070t iiriSelicTiKoi 
 (studied or set speeches) are evidently spurious. The 
 one, e7nr<i(pic<: Xoyot, is an eloge on the Athenians 
 who had perished at Chaeronea; the other, iptoTiKo^ 
 \6yo<;, is written in praise of the beauty of the young 
 Epicrates. Three things are found in the discourses of 
 Demosthenes, which must have been the cause of the 
 mighty impression made upon the minds of his hearers : 
 1. It was their pure and ethical character — each sen- 
 tence exhibits Demosthenes as a true patriot ; 2. It was 
 his intellectual superiority — the subject is well ar- 
 ranged, the arguments are strong and properlv dis- 
 posed, and the objections clearly refuted ; 3. It was 
 the magic force, of his language, which was at the same 
 time majestic and simple, rich but not bombastic, 
 strange and familiar, solemn but not too much orna- 
 mented, grave and yet pleasing, coueise and fluent, 
 sweet and impressive. 
 
 Hyperides, born at Athens, in 396, was a distin- 
 guished orator, and even may be compared with De- 
 
 6 
 
98 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 mosthenes. There is more wit in his discourses. He 
 also was a victim of political disasters, and was killed 
 by Antipater, at JEgina, where he fled after the battle 
 of Cranon (322). Unfortunately, we have no oration 
 from him. Libanius, however, gives as oiie of his dis- 
 courses one found among the orations of Demosthenes 
 (Jlepi T&v TTpos AXe^avSpov ovvOijk&v), concerning the 
 treaties with Alexander. 
 
 Dinaxchu^ a native of; Corinth, where he was bom 
 in 360. He is the last of the ten orators composing 
 the Attic canon. He went very early to Athens. Evi- 
 dently Dinarchus owes his celebrity to the decline of 
 the art. He wrote one hundred and sixty discourses, 
 but we have only three extant from him. Those three 
 discourses enable us to form an opinion upon the merits 
 of Dinarchus, and we find that the opinion expressed 
 above, when we observed that his celebrity is due to 
 the decline of the art, is quite correct. It is diflicult 
 to say whether Dinarchus had any oratorical talent or 
 not, for there is surely no originality of mind. 
 
 There was living at that time a man who was an 
 orator, but who may be considered as the shame of the 
 art of oratory at that period. It was Demades, who 
 was venal, dishonest, and corrupt in his morals. He 
 became an object of disgust to his friends themselves. 
 Antipater had him put to death in 319. 
 
PBOSE— PHILOSOPHY. 99 
 
 CHAPTEK Vni. 
 
 PBOSE PHILOSOPHY. 
 
 We have seen that philosophy, before Pericles, was 
 more or less materialistic. Three divisions are found 
 in it: 1. The school of Thales, denying the existence 
 of a first cause, and admitting the eternity of matter ; 
 2. The Pythagorean school, trying to explain the phe- 
 nomena, either physical or metaphysical, by mathemat- 
 ical analogies, and not by some mechanical power as be- 
 fore — they admit the existence of a first cause ; 3. The 
 Eleatic school, which was a sort of eclectic school ; it 
 examined the views of its predecessors, and brought 
 them to the test of logical principles. This school be- 
 came spiritualistic. The philosophers who wrote im- 
 mediately before the Socratic period, belonged rather 
 to this school ; among them are Leucippus and Democ- 
 ritus. This last philosopher wrote many books, which 
 have been praised by Cicero for the beauty of their 
 style, but only fragments have come down to us. The 
 philosophers did not give a system which was suf- 
 ficiently adequate; hence skepticism, under various 
 forms, made its appearance, and was found at the bot- ■ 
 torn of the teachings of all those philosophers. 
 
 The Sophists then came, and laid aside the former 
 systems. The starting-point of the sophistical philos- 
 ophy was the famous maxim — Tv&di creavrov. It was 
 a good starting-point, since the former systems had 
 failed to establish a reasonable system of philosophy. 
 The Sophists are better known as the educators of the 
 
100 GEEEK CLASSICAL LIXERAT0KE. 
 
 youth at Athens, and they were accused of corrupting 
 their pupils. To represent the Sophists as wilful and 
 designing impostors, whose object was to corrupt the 
 public morality, is going too far. It is enough to say 
 that they professed to qualify the youth of the leading 
 families to shine, and become influential in a degener- 
 ate state of society ; they did not think that they, 
 should teach their pupils to aspire to higher and nobler 
 views. A low moral standard was set up and admitted, 
 and they did not care to elevate it. Still, this was not 
 general among the Sophists. 
 
 If, now, we turn from the influence of the Sophists 
 on the spirit of their age, and set ourselves to inquire 
 what they did for the improvement of written compo- 
 sitions, we are constrained to set a very high value on 
 their services. The formation of an artificial prose 
 style is due entirely to the Sophists, and, although they 
 did not at first proceed according to a rigid method, 
 they may be considered as having laid a foundation for 
 the polished diction of Plato and Demosthenes. The 
 Sophists of Greece proper, as well as those of Sicily, 
 made language the object of their study, but with this 
 distinction, that the former aimed at correctness, and 
 the latter at beauty of style. The view here taken of 
 the Sophists is the one that is commonly entertained 
 respecting them. According to the common notion, 
 they were a sect; but, according to several writers, 
 they were a class or profession. 
 
 We may hei-e add a few names to the list of the 
 philosophers who belong to the period anterior to the 
 sophistical school : 
 
 Diogenes of Apollpnia, born in Crete, in 498, is some- 
 
PBOSE— PHILOSOPHY. 101 
 
 what spiritualistic. He admits a first cause, but that 
 first cause is the soul of the uniyerse; that soul is 
 spread everywhere, hence all the beings have a soul. 
 He was a disciple of Anaxagoras, and belongs to the 
 school of the dynamical philosophers. According to 
 him, air is the primary element. We have some frag- 
 ments of his book on Nature {Ilepl ^vaem), which was 
 much praised hj the ancients. 
 
 Anaxagoras was a native of Clazomense, where he 
 was born in 500. He admits a first cause — eternal, 
 creative, first motor ; it is the vou?, which differs from 
 ■y^vXV' ^ike cmimus and cmima. He denies the evidence 
 of the senses, as an infallible motive of certitude, hence 
 skepticism. Anaxagoras was very learned, and he had 
 Pericles among his pupils. "We have some fragments 
 of a book on Nature, which was of great merit. They 
 may be seen in Simplicius, a Greek commentator of 
 Aristotle, in the seventh century A. c 
 
 Farmenides was bom at ^lea, in 520, and was a 
 poet and philosopher. He is altogether a materialist, 
 making the soul itself a material substance ; he admits, 
 of course, the eternity of matter. Some fragments 
 have co'me down to us, through Sextus Empiricus and 
 Simplicius, about his poem Ilepl <f)va-ew. It is said by 
 Suidas that he composed several prose writings, but 
 this is surely not exact. He was a friend of Socrates, 
 and Plato gives a dialogue which, he pretends, took 
 place between him and Socrates. 
 
 Zeno, called the ^leatic, who, according to Seneca, 
 reached the highest point of skepticism. We have no 
 writing from him, but we know he was the first who 
 wrote his arguments under the form of dialogues. 
 
102 GBEEK CLASSICAL LITERATUBK 
 
 Melissns was the teacher of Themistocles, and was 
 born at Samos, in 482. He was also a philosopher and 
 a poet. MelissuB was an idealist. 
 
 Empedocles was bom at Agrigentum, about 444, and 
 was a poet, an historian, a philosopher, and especially 
 a surgeon. But little is known of his doctrine, or of 
 his life and death. Generally he is considered as a pan- 
 theist. Deity is every thing ; every thing is an appar- 
 ent form of God. We have some fragments from him, 
 which have been lately published at Leipsic by Sturz. 
 
 Socrates, born at Athens, in 468, was first a sculp- 
 tor, and then a soldier. He studied philosophy, and 
 gave a system which made a complete revolution in 
 philosophy. His life was apparently very useful, and 
 a model, as far as such a word may apply to a case 
 which belongs to paganism. He was attacked by Ar- 
 istophanes, fell into disgrace among the people, was 
 accused of several crimes, and sentenced to death. He 
 was seventy years old when he died. 
 
 Socrates was not a writer. His philosophy may 
 be divided into three parts : 1. Concerning God ; 2. 
 Concerning the immortality of the soul ; 3. His moral 
 theory. Socrates admits one God — first cause," intelli- 
 gent, omnipresent, omniscient, ruling every thing ; the 
 soul is a portion of God, and is immortal. He gives 
 nothing definite about the other life ; our soul being a 
 portion of the Deity, our duty must be to render our- 
 selves independent from- sensual appetites, and, con- 
 sequently to mortify ourselves and to practise virtue. 
 Yirtue, according to Socrates, is synonymous with wis- 
 dom, hence the end of our life is the cultivation of the 
 intellect, and the acquisition of knowledge. 
 
PKOSE— PHILOSOPHY. 103 
 
 The doctrine is known by the writings of his dis- 
 ciples ; it gave rise to the schools which appeared after 
 him, and were called from the places where they had 
 been established. We shall give them briefly, since 
 the present sketch belongs to the history of philosophy 
 rather than to that of ancient literature : 
 
 1. The Cteenaio School. — This school was estab- 
 lished by Aristippus, in 465. It was an Epicurean 
 school. The principle of Aristippus was, that all things 
 were subservient to the use and pleasure of man. Soc- 
 rates had taught that happiness was the chief good, 
 and that it should be sought for in intellectual pleas- 
 ure. Aristippus also accepts, like his master, that 
 happiness is the chief good, but that it should be sought 
 for in sensual pleasures. Diogenes Laertius gives a 
 long list of books whose authorship is ascribed to Aris- 
 tippus, though he also says that, according to several 
 authors, he wrote nothing. Among these are treatises 
 Jlepl IlaiSeUK, Ilep), Aper^, Ilepl Tv)(rri, and many 
 others. Some epistles attributed to him are deservedly 
 rejected as forgeries by Bentley. 
 
 2. The Megabio School. — This school was founded 
 by Euclid, the namesake of the great Alexandrian 
 geometer. The character of his philosophy was mostly 
 logic. Euclid, who was a native of Megara, had a 
 dialectical turn of mind, and was inclined to subtle 
 disputations; he adopted in reasoning the indirect 
 method, that is, the reduGtio ad ahav/rd/wm. Euclid 
 was the author of six dialogues, but no one of them 
 has come down to us. Stilpon and Menedemus were 
 his disciples. 
 
 3. The Oykio School. — The name given to this 
 
104 GEEBK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 school comes very likely from tihe name of the place, 
 Cynosarges, where it was taught. The founder of the 
 Cynic school was Antisthenes, a native of Athens, and 
 a disciple of Socrates. The philosophy taught there, 
 as in the Cyrenaic school, was of a mere ethical char- 
 acter. Antisthenes, bom in poverty, taught a con- 
 tempt for external goods, and, in his outward garb and 
 appearance, he was himself a type and an example of 
 his teaching ; professing poverty as a duty, he carried 
 his contempt for luxury to such an extent that he was 
 reproved by Socrates himself. He could keep but one 
 pupil until his death. This was Diogenes, called the 
 Cynic, and whose life is generally known. Antisthenes 
 was a skeptic in metaphysics, and his principle of mo- 
 rality was that virtue is sufficient for happiness, and 
 that any thing else must be despised. We have frag- 
 ments of the writings of Antisthenes ; they were col- 
 lected in 1842, at Zurich. 
 
 4. The Old Acabemt. — This is the name given to 
 the school of Plato, from Academia {'AKa&/]/j,la), a pub- 
 lic grove or garden in the suburbs of Athens, where 
 Plato established his school. The Academy was di- 
 vided into the Old, the Middle, and the New. The 
 first one accepted purely the doctrine of the master ; 
 the Middle Academy introduced the skeptical doctrine 
 of uncertainty; and the New Academy brought in what 
 has been termed the doctrine of probabilities. 
 
 Plato was born at Athens, in 429. His name was 
 first Aristocles. At the age of twenty he attended the 
 school of Socrates during eight years, and, at the death 
 of that philosopher, he travelled in Egypt, Italy, Sicily, 
 and visited all the philosophical schools of these coun- 
 
PKOSE— PHILOSOPHY. ]05 
 
 tries and of his own ; be then came back to Athens, 
 taught philosophy with success, led an edifjing life, 
 and, after having written many works, all in the form 
 of dialogues, except twelve letters, lie died at the age 
 of eighty-one. 
 
 Cicero and Quintilian profess the greatest admira- 
 tion for him ; he has been called " The Athenian Bee ; " 
 his diction is elegant, melodious, and sweet ; his style 
 
 has been censured by several modem writers, but with- 
 out reason. We cannot say as much for some of his 
 philosophical opinions, but this question belongs to the 
 history of philosophy. 
 
 His works which have come down to us complete 
 may be divided into three classes. The first of these 
 is devoted to the exposition and defence of the doctrine 
 and life of his friend and master, Socrates ; they are : 
 " Phoedrus," " Lysis," " Protagoras," " Parmenides/' 
 " Apology," " Crito," " Gorgias," and " Euthyphron." 
 
106 GREEK CLASSICAL LITEEATURE. 
 
 The second one contains the works written when his 
 logical and dialectic philosophy was fully matured; 
 they are : " Thesetetus," " Meno," " Euthydemus," 
 " Cratylus," " Sophistes," " Politicus," " Philebus," 
 "Symposium," and "Phsedon." The third one is a 
 mixture, where the political element is predominant ; 
 these are: "Oritias," "Timaeus," "The Eepublic," 
 and " The Laws." Xenocrates, a disciple of Plato, 
 has left no writing. 
 
 5. The Peeipatetio School. — This is the school 
 of Aristotle. 
 
 Aristotle was born at Stagira, a town in Ohalcidice, 
 in Macedonia, in 384. At a very , early age he at- 
 tended the school of Plato, and rem;ained his disciple 
 for twenty years. Then he opened a school of his own. 
 Aristotle studied constantly, and was yery sober in his 
 life. He became the instructor of Alexander the Great, 
 and, after having composed very extensive works upon 
 a great variety of subjects, he died at the age of sixty- 
 three. Cicero calls him a man of eloquence, and praises 
 him for his universal science, readiness, and acuteness 
 of invention and fecundity of thought. Plato called 
 him the philosopher of truth. Haying written almost 
 exclusively logical, metaphysidal, and physical works, 
 his style is adapted to that kind of composition. It is 
 as clear as possible for such matters. The authority 
 of Aristotle has been always very great, even up to our 
 own time, although the axiom Magister dixit had died 
 away. We have almost all the works of Aristotle. 
 They may be divided : 
 
 1. Into the logic department. The extant logical 
 writings of that philosopher are comprehended as a 
 
PBOSE— PHILOSOPHY, 107 
 
 whole under the title "Organon" ('Opyavov). This 
 work is composed of six separate treatises : 1. Kwnj- 
 yopla, " The Categories ; " 2. Ilepl 'Ep/irjveUvi, " Of In- 
 terpretation ; " 3. and 4. 'AvdKvnKa irporepa koX va- 
 repa, " The First and Second Analytics ; " 5, ToiriKo, 
 " The Topics," and 6. Ilepl ffo^ioTiK&v i\4r/y(a)v, " Of 
 Sophisms." 
 
 2. In metaphysics, we have the book which bears 
 that name, divided into fourteen parts {rd, p-era ra 
 
 3. In physics. The work also bears the name of 
 " Physics," divided into ten books : 1. The cosmology 
 or general principles of natural science; 2. Concern- 
 ing the heavens {irepl ovpdvoxi) ; 3. On production and 
 destruction ; 4. On meteorology ; 5, On the universe ; 
 6. The history of animals (^epl ^cocov iaropld)', Y. 
 On the parts of animals {irepl ^aicop fwpuuv) ; 8. The 
 generation of animals ; 9. The progression of animals ; 
 10. On the soul. 
 
 4. In the ethic department, we have the " Nicho- 
 machean Ethics," " The Endemean Ethics," and " The 
 Great Ethics," in which are found his treatises on eco- 
 nomics and politics. 
 
 6, In the literary department, we have his books 
 on the arts of rhetoric and poetry. 
 
 "We might add to these schools the Stoic School, 
 established by Zeno ; the Skkptical, or Ptkbhonio 
 School, founded by Pyrrho, a native of ^lis, in the 
 Peloponnesus, whose disciple Timon was a celebrated 
 poet ; and the EpicoitEAiir School, established by Epi- 
 curus, a native of Samos, where he was born, in 342. 
 
 Those schools constitute the main divisions of the 
 
108 GREEK CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 history of philosophy among the ancients. But the 
 study of all their systems belongs to philosophy. We 
 have spoken more at length about Plato and Aristotle, 
 because by the variety, the extensiveness, and the 
 beauty of their writings, they had to be mentioned and 
 appreciated in a literary point of view. 
 
 With Aristotle the era of Greek classical literature 
 may be considered as having arrived at its close ; the 
 independence of Greece had perished, and with it what- 
 ever made the brilliant genius which characterizes clas- 
 sical antiquity. 
 
 Several writers have distinguished themselves after 
 the era in question by the elegance of their works, and 
 some of them are translated in the regular course. We 
 shall speak of them in an Appendix, which may be 
 found at the end of this volume. 
 
PART II. 
 EOMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 P&ELIMINA BIEB. 
 
 The Latin language has not the plastic property 
 which the Greek possesses; it is a harder material, 
 nor did it show the vitality of the Greek. The Greek 
 language outlived the Greek nationality ; but it flour- 
 ished only in Greece itself, and refused to take root 
 elsewhere. Whenever, in any part of the world, a 
 Greek settlement decayed, and the population be- 
 came extinct — although Greek art, science, literature, 
 and philosophy, had found there a temporary home — 
 the language perished also. 
 
 The Latin language, on the contrary, was propa- 
 gated like the dominion of Rome. It is incorrect to 
 call the Greek a dead language, while the Latin is 
 really dead ; it flourished with Rome, and fell with it. 
 The Latin has shown itself a language easy to be al- 
 tered, and even so much changed that the old Roman, 
 placed in contact with classical Latin, is almost en- 
 tirely unintelligible. 
 
 The old Roman language was a compound of Oscan 
 and Felasgian, the languages of the two peoples who 
 
110 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 first occupied Italy. The first is of German origin ; 
 the Oscans came from Lithuania. The second is of 
 Asiatic origin, as we know. The Sabellians and Um- 
 brians, who afterward invaded Latium, were branches 
 of the first family, while the Etruscans were Pelasgians. 
 All the words in Latin which resemble the Greek are 
 Pelasgian, the others are Oscan. 
 
 A few relics exist of the old Oscan language, and 
 these allow us to trace out the formation of the Latin. 
 The oldest monuments are : 1. The Eugubine Tables, 
 written '400 years before the foundation of Rome. 
 They were discovered in 1M4, at the foot of the Ap- 
 ennines, near Eugubio. The letters B, G, D, and E, 
 are not used, but replaced by F, K, T, and S. 2. The 
 Bantine Table, discovered in 1793 ; it consists of a 
 brass plate covered with inscriptions, and, as the word 
 Bansse occurs in the twenty-third line^ it has been sup- 
 posed to refer to the town of Bantia, which was situ- 
 ated not far from the spot where the tablet was found, 
 and it is therefore called the Bantine Table. The af- 
 finity may be traced out between most of the words 
 and their corresponding Latin. 
 
 In regard to the Pelasgian language: A record 
 written in that tongue was found near Perugia, in 
 1822, and it contains one hundred and thirty words. 
 The relation between the Latin and Greek may be 
 found easily, and also some Latin words which belong 
 entirely to the Pelasgian tongue. Many other discov- 
 eries were made in Etruria ; some of them refer to the 
 kings of Rome. 
 
 Examples of the old Latin are numerous. The 
 most interesting of these are : 1. " The Sacred Chants," 
 
PRELIMINABrES. HI 
 
 discovered in 1778, and containing the very words 
 sung by the priests in the early times of Home. The 
 chant was that of the Fratres Arvales, a college of 
 priests established by Eomulus himself. The symbolic 
 ensign of their office was a chaplet of ears of corn, and 
 their function was to offer prayers, in solemn dances 
 and processions, at the opening of spring. 
 
 2. "The Salian Hymn," of which the following 
 fragments, preserved by Varro, are all that remain, 
 with the exception of a few isolated words : 
 
 " Oozolodoizesa, omina vero ad patnla ooemisse, 
 Jans casiones, duonus ceruses dunzianus vevet." 
 
 This has been corrected, arranged in the Saturnian 
 metre, and translated into Latin, as follows : 
 
 " Ohoroi-anlodos eso, omina enim vero 
 Ad patala ose misse Jani cariones. 
 Duonas Oenis eset, dnnqne Janas vevet." 
 
 " Choroio-aulodus ero, omina enim vero ad patulas anres mise- 
 rnnt Jani csriones. Boims Ceras erit doneo Janus vivet." 
 
 [I will be a flate-player in the chorus, for the priests of Janus 
 ha.ve sent omens to open ears. Cerus (the Creator) will be pro- 
 pitious, so long, as Janus shall live.] 
 
 3. " The Leges Regiae " are generally considered as 
 furnishing the next examples, in point of antiquity, of 
 the old Latin language ; but, there can be little doubt 
 that, although they were assumed by the metrical tra- 
 ditions to belong to the period of the kings, they belong 
 to a later historical period than the laws of the Twelve 
 Tables. Some fragments of laws, attributed to Numa 
 and Servius TuUius, are preserved by Festus in a re- 
 stored and corrected form, and therefore it is to be 
 
112 KOMAN CLASSICAL LITEEATUBE. 
 
 feared that they have been modernized in accordance 
 with the orthographical rules of a later age. 
 
 4. Some fragments have been preserved by Cicero, 
 Aulus Gellius, Ulpian, and others, of the Latin of the 
 Twelve Tables. These laws were graven on tablets 
 of brass, and publicly set up in the Comitium, and 
 were first made public in 449 b. c. 
 
 5. The Tiburtine inscription, which was found in 
 the sixteenth century, at Tivoli, comes next. It was 
 in the possession of the Barberini family, but it was 
 afterward lost, and has never been recovered. It was a 
 " Senatus Consult.," written during the second Samnite 
 War. The Latin in which it is written may be consid- 
 ered almost classical, the variations from that of a later 
 age being principally orthographical. For example : 
 
 Tiburtes is written Teiburtes. 
 
 Castoris " Kastorus. 
 
 Advertit " Advortit. 
 
 Dixistis " Deixsistip. 
 
 Publicse " PoplicBB. 
 
 Utile " Oitile. 
 
 Inducimus " Indoucimus. 
 
 A, or ab, before v, " Af. 
 
 6. Several epitaphs exist which were written dur- 
 ing the Carthaginian War, and we may see by degrees 
 the formation of the classical Latin. The following 
 difi'erences only are found : 
 
 In modern Latin. In ancient Latin. 
 
 .£'was represented by *, sometimes u; condumnari. 
 r « K^ », ^.' ^ ^ . i optume, nominus, 
 
 •^ ' ' ' M preivatuB, dedet. 
 
PBELIMINARIES. 113 
 
 In modern Latin, In ancient Latin. 
 
 rr . J i_ • ( quoiuB, douco, 
 
 U was represented by ov, ou, o ; < , , . 
 
 ^ ^ J J 7 ^ houc, ploirume. 
 
 uE " by cd; aidiles. 
 
 (E " by oi ; proilium, for proelium. 
 
 The vowels were at times doubled, as leegi, luuci, baace. 
 
 "We may divide this part into three books. The first 
 era gives the rise and progress of Latin literature. The 
 first five centuries of the Kepublic belong to that pe- 
 riod ; but, properly speaking, Rome had no literature 
 until the conclusion of the first Punic "War. 
 
 The second era ends with the death of Augustus. 
 It comprehends the age of which Cicero is the repre- 
 sentative, and is commonly called the "golden age of 
 Latin poetry." 
 
 The third era terminates with the death of Ha- 
 drian. Many excellences distinguished that era ; but, 
 evidently, its decline had commenced. As the age of 
 Augustus was distinguished by the epithet " golden," 
 so the succeeding period was designated as the " sil- 
 ver" age. 
 
BOOK I. 
 
 THE FIRST ERA. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 FIRST ESSAYS IN PE08E AND POETBT BEFOEE LIYIUS 
 ANDEONIOUS. 
 
 CicEEO says that in ancient times bards were accus- 
 tomed to sing at the banquets. It has been with the 
 Romans as with all' other people : they had oral poet- 
 ical compositions before they possessed any written 
 literature. The oldest measure used by the Latin poets 
 was the Saturnian. According to Hermann there is no 
 doubt that it was derived from the Etrtiscans, and that, 
 long before the fountains of Greek literature were 
 opened, the strains of the Italian bards flowed in this 
 metre, until Ennius introduced the heroic hexameter. 
 The grammarian Diomedes attributed the invention 
 of it to Neevlus, and seems to imply that the Eoman 
 poet derived the idea from the Greets. Several other 
 writers pretend also that the Saturnian verse is of 
 Greek origin. It is true that the Saturnian is found 
 among the verses of Archilochus, but many circum- 
 stances induce us to think, as more probable, that the 
 use of it by the Greek poet is an accidental coincidence. 
 
FEBST ESSATS IN PROSE AKD POETRY. 115 
 
 and that the old Eoman bards did not copy it from 
 him. The Saturnian verse consists of two parts, each 
 containing three feet, which fall upon the ear with the 
 same effect as Greek trochees. The whole is preceded 
 by a syllable in thesis, technically called an anacrusis. 
 For example : 
 
 Sum I m&s o | p§s qjai | rfignm | r6gi | fis re | frfigit. 
 
 The metre in its original form was perfectly indepen- 
 dent of the rules of Greek prosody ; its only essential 
 requisite was the beat, or ictus, on the alternate sylla- 
 ble or its representative. The only law to regulate the 
 stress was that of the common popular pronunciation ; 
 in fact, stress occupied the place of quantity. Two or 
 three syllables, which, according to the rules of pros- 
 ody, would be long by position, might be slurred over 
 or pronounced rapidly in the time of one, as in the 
 following line : 
 
 Amn6m Troj&gena C&nnam | Mgene t^ alieniffencB. 
 
 Thus it is clear that the principles which regulated it 
 were those of modern versification, without the niceties 
 and delicacies of Greek quantity. 
 
 The subjects of those songs were probably myth- 
 ological tales. Most of the poets came from Etruria. 
 The Komans, being men of action, could not cultivate 
 literature, and so, with the Romans, literature was not 
 of spontaneous growth ; it was the result of external 
 influence. It is impossible to fix the period at which 
 they first became subject to this influence ; but it is 
 clear that in every thing mental and spiritual their 
 neighbors, the Etruscans, were their teachers. The 
 influence exercised by this remarkable people was not 
 
116 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 only religious but moral ; its primary object was dis- 
 cipline, its secondary one refinement. To tbis pure 
 culture the old Koman. character owed its vigor, its 
 honesty, and its incorruptible sternness. 
 
 For centuries the Eoman mind was imbued with 
 Etruscan literature. The first written literature of 
 Eome was not poetry, but history written in prose. 
 According to Livy, the first records were written on 
 rolls of cloth ; they were the " Libri Xentei " (treaties 
 between Eome and Carthage), " The Annales Maximi," 
 " The Commentarii Consulares," and " The Tabulae 
 OensoriiB." All these records, however, which were 
 anterior to the capture of Eome by the Gauls, perished 
 in the conflagration of the city. 
 
 Each patrician house also had its private family 
 history, and the laudatory orations, said to have been 
 recited at the funerals of illustrious members, were 
 carefully preserved, as adorning and illustrating their 
 nobility ; but this heraldic literature obscured instead 
 of throwing a light upon history, for it was filled with 
 false triumphs, imaginary consulships, and forged gene- 
 
 The first attempt at written poetry were the " Fes- 
 cennine Songs," composed for theatrical exhibitions. 
 These songs, which were the elements of the priniitive 
 Latin comedy, show that the Eomans possessed a nat- 
 ural aptitude for satire. Like the comedies of Aris- 
 tophanes, which served as models, they were often very 
 obscene ; and no wonder, when we consider the morals 
 of the time. The word " fescennine " comes probably 
 from "fascinum," which is the same word as the 
 Greek "phallos." 
 
DRAMATIC STYLE IN THE FIRST F.BA. n^ 
 
 The first theatrical exhibitions of the Latins, like 
 those of the Greeks, had their origin, not in towns, but 
 among the rural population. At first they were inno- 
 cent and gay, and their mirth overflowed in boisterous 
 but good-humored repartee ; but liberty at length de- 
 generated into license, and gave birth to malicious and 
 libellous attacks on persons of irreproachable character. 
 As the licentiousness of Greek comedy provoked the 
 interference of the legislature, so the laws of the Twelve 
 Tables forbade the personalities of the " Fescennine 
 Songs." " The Ludi Oscii " — which title shows their 
 original element — gave to the comedy a character less 
 lewd and satirical, but made it more farcical, rougher, 
 and clownish. Such was the state of Roman literature 
 until the middle of the third century before Christ ; 
 from that time the drama took a more distinguished 
 character. 
 
 CHAPTEE n. 
 
 DEAMATIC STTLE IN THE FIEST ERA. 
 
 The dramas written at that period were an imita- 
 tion of the Greek, even as regards style ; but it would 
 have been impossible at the time of Livius to make the 
 lyrical portions of the drama occupy such a large por- 
 tion in the Latin drama as it did in the Greek. 
 
 The following writers were the authors, not only of 
 tragedies, but also of comedies. We have from them 
 but fragments. From the first one even we have only 
 the titles of his tragedies, and a few vwses. They must 
 
118 ROMAN CLASSICAL HTERAT0EE. 
 
 be praised, especially for the vast improvement which 
 the Latiu tongue acquired by them : 
 
 Livias Andronicus, born in 240, was a Greek from 
 the colony of Tarentum, and, as it was the custom at 
 that time, he became the tutor of the son of some noble 
 Roman, who gave him his liberty. Livius translated 
 " The Odyssey ; " but, feeling that he had a sort of vo- 
 cation for writing dramas, he turned his attention to 
 that pursuit, and became very popular. He elevated 
 the drama above the regions of ribaldry and folly ; still 
 the Eomans did not entirely abandon their ancient rep- 
 resentations, where buflfoonery was prevalent. As we 
 have said, we have the titles, and a few of the verses, 
 only, of Livius's tragedies. They were all Greek sub- 
 jects, and almost all translations. According to Cicero, 
 the style was very crude ; still Livius was much read 
 at Rome, even during the Augustan period, and Horace 
 complained bitterly of this. Notwithstanding adverse 
 criticisms, Livius deserves praises for the improvement 
 introduced in the theatrical exhibitions, and in the 
 Latin language. 
 
 The representations of Livius were made sometimes 
 with great display. No expense was spared in putting 
 them upon the stage ; and so, according to what Cicero 
 says in a letter to M. Marius, when they exhibited 
 " The Trojan Horse " and " Clytemnestra," a proces-' 
 sion of six hundred mules, probably richly caparisoned, 
 was introduced in the latter, and cavalry and infan- 
 try, clad in various armor, mingled in mimic combat 
 on the scene, while three thousand bucklers, the spoils 
 of foreign nations, were exhibited in the former. 
 
 Cneios Nseviiu, born in 235, was probably a Boman 
 
DRAMATIC STYLE IN THE FIRST ERA. 119 
 
 by birth, but he was surely a Roman by character and 
 affection. He wrote an epic poem on the first Punic 
 War ; but, owing to the popularity of dramatic liter- 
 ature, his earliest productions were tragedies and com- 
 edies, and the titles which we have, show that they were 
 mere Greek legends or stories. Still Naevius was not 
 a simple imitator, for he had a style of his own, and 
 was original. He wrote several satires, and offended 
 personages of high rank, and, on that account, he was 
 exiled to TJtica, where he died. The following epitaph 
 was written by himself: 
 
 " Mortales immortales flere si foret fas, 
 Flerent Divinso Oamenea NsBviam poetam. 
 Itaque postquam est Orcino traditus thesanro 
 Obliti sunt Komani loquier Latina lingua." 
 
 Naevius has been praised by all the writers of the 
 Augustan era. Besides his tragedies, he wrote com- 
 edies and satires, but the few fragments which remain 
 do not allow us to judge him. We must abide by the 
 opinion of the ancients. Ennius and Yirgil discovered 
 in him such a freshness and power that they unscru- 
 pulously copied and imitated him, and transferred his 
 thoughts to their own poems, as they did those of Ho- 
 mer. We know by Horace that, in his time, Naevius's 
 poems were universally read, and were in the hands 
 and hearts of everybody. Cicero praises him, although 
 he has no taste for the old national literature. Virgil 
 has imitated his poem on the Punic War, in the fourth 
 book of his " -iEneid," when he relates the adventures 
 of ^neas and Dido. 
 
 Before N"8evius, the Satumian was the only Italian 
 measure which was extant. He, as a master of taste. 
 
120 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 introduced the iambic and trochaic metres ; but he ex- 
 cluded absolutely the heroic hexaipeter, and it was long 
 before the Romans could arrive at perfection in this 
 metre. The fragments of Nsevius extant are not nu- 
 merous, and we will give only the following lines de- 
 scribing the panic of the Carthaginians. The picture 
 is well drawn : 
 
 " Sic Poinei contremiscunt artibns universim ; 
 Magnei metus tumultas pectora possidet, 
 Ooesum funera agitant, exseqiiias ititant, 
 Temnlentiamque tollunt festam." 
 
 Ennius was born in Calabria in 239, and was the 
 first literary man who, on that account, was honored 
 with the title of Eoman citizen. Ennius prepared the 
 new era of literature, and he is admired especially for 
 his picturesqueness and " holiness " — this word means 
 his antiquity. He was a model for his successors, and 
 Cicero always calls him " Our Ennius," while Horace, 
 speaking of him, says, " Father Ennius." He was an 
 epic, dramatic, and comic writer. It seems that En- 
 nius was distinguished in arms as well as in letters. 
 He was protected by the elder Scipio Africanns, whom 
 he accompanied in most of his campaigns. Horace 
 accuses him of having been intemperate in drinking, 
 and this gave him the morbus a/rtiGulari« (goiit)j of 
 which he died, at the age of seventy. Honors, due to 
 his character and talents, were paid to him after his 
 death. The following epitaph, written by himself, 
 shows his overweening conceit, and the high estima- 
 tion of his own talents, which formed a principal defect 
 in his character : 
 
DRAMATIC STYLE IN THE FIRST ERA. 121 
 
 " Adspicete, O oives, senis Enni imagini' formam. 
 Hio Tostrum panxit maxima facta patrum. 
 Nemo me lacrymis decoret, nee funera fletu 
 Faxit.— cur? Volito vivu' per ora virlim." 
 
 To judge by the fragments of his works, Ennius 
 greatly surpassed his predecessors, not only in poetical 
 genius, but in the art of versification. By his time, in- 
 deed, the best models of Greek composition had begun 
 to be studied at Eome. Ennius particularly professed 
 to have imitated Homer ; but it is, however, the Greek 
 tragic writers whom he has chiefly imitated, and in- 
 deed it appears, from the fragments that remain, that 
 all his plays were rather translations from the dramas 
 of Sophocles and Euripides, on the same subjects which 
 he liad chosen, than original tragedies. 
 
 Ennius composed satires, but the fragments of these 
 are too short and broken to allow us even to divine 
 their subject. The great work, however, of Ennius, 
 and of which we have still considerable remains, was 
 his " Annals, or Metrical Chronicles," devoted to the 
 celebration of Roman exploits, from the earliest period 
 to the conclusion of the Istrian War. These "Annals " 
 were partly founded on those ancient traditions and 
 old heroic ballads mentioned by Cicero and Cato as 
 having been sung at feasts by the guests. The work 
 has been divided into eighteen books, by some gram- 
 marian, long after Ennius's death. In his fourteenth 
 book, Ennius speaks of the war prosecuted by the con- 
 sul Scipio against Antiochus, -who was excited to wage 
 war against the Romans by the general Hannibal. 
 Scipio arrives at Ilium, and we find iix Enqi^s the fol- 
 lowing apostrophe ; 
 6 
 
122 EOMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 " O patria 1 O divum domus Ilium, et inoluta bello 
 Pergama I "... . 
 
 The following lines, containing the enthusiastic excla- 
 mation of the soldiers, are equally beautiful : 
 
 " Qnai neque Dardaneeis campeis potuere perire, 
 Nee quom capta capei, nee quom eombusta eremari." 
 
 The poem of Ennius, called " Phagetica," is curi- 
 ous, as giving us much information about the luxury 
 of the Eomans in this early age. Unfortunately, we 
 know it only from the " Apologia " of Apuleius. It 
 was a didactic poem on edibles, particularly fish. 
 
 The most curious point connected with the literary 
 history of Ennius is his prose translation of the cele- 
 brated work of Euhemerus, called 'lepd, 'Avcvypa^. 
 The translation, as well as the original work, is lost. 
 Some fragments, however, have been saved by St. Au- 
 gustine and Lactantius. It is clear from them that 
 there prevailed a considerable spirit of free-thinking 
 among the Komans in the days of Ennius. The frag- 
 ments of Ennius were published, in 1564, in a book 
 called "Eragmenta Veterum Poetarum Latinorum." 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 COMEDY. 
 
 The Koman critics divided comedy into Comoedia 
 Palliata, in which the characters and costumes were 
 all Grreek, and ComcBdia Togata, and also Praetextata, 
 in which they were Koman. The Comoedia Togata 
 
COMEDY. J23 
 
 was again divided into Trabeata, or genteel comedy, 
 and Tabernaria, or low comedy. 
 
 Comedy, even at the time of Plautus, was as low 
 as the Greek, for it copied the Greek models, and gave 
 also the picture of real life at home. Our modem 
 comic writers have imitated this form, corrected and 
 freed from its lewdness and low standard. In almost 
 every one of the pieces there is a sameness in the 
 d/ra/matis personm / the principal characters are a mo- 
 rose and parsimonious, or a gentle and easy, father, who 
 is sometimes also the henpecked husband of a rich wife ; 
 an affectionate and domineering wife; a young man, 
 who is frank and good-natured, but profligate ; a grasp- 
 ing or benevolent Hetsera, a roguish servant, a fawn- 
 ing favorite, a hectoring coward, an unscrupulous pro- 
 curess, and a cold, calculating, slave-dealer. 
 
 The names assigned to the characters of the Roman 
 comedy have always an appropriate meaning. Young 
 men, for instance, are Pamphilus (dear to all), Charinus 
 (gracious), Phcedria (joyous) ; old men are Simo (flat- 
 nosed), such a physiognomy showing generally a cross- 
 grained disposition ; Chrem.es forms a word signifying 
 troubled with phlegm. Slaves generally bear the names 
 of their native country, thus : Syrus, from Phrygia ; 
 Danus, a Dacian ; Byrrhia, a native of Pyrrha in Caria ; 
 Dorias, a Dorian girl ; a vain-glorious soldier is Thraso, 
 from Bpcurof, boldness ; a parasite, Gnatho, from yvd£o^, 
 the jaw; a nurse, Sophrona, discreet; a freedman, So- 
 sia, as having been spared in war ; a young girl, Gly- 
 cerium, from yXvicdii, sweet ; a judge is Crito ; a cour- 
 tesan, Chrysis, from y(pvab<s, gold. These examples will 
 be suflBcient to understand the practice adopted by the 
 
424 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 comic writers. It is very difficult to understand the 
 relation wliich music bore to the exhibition of Koman 
 comedy. It is clear that there was always a musical 
 accompaniment, and that the instruments used were 
 flutes ; the lyre was only used in tragedy, because in 
 comedy there was no chorus, or lyric portion. The 
 flutes were at first small and simple ; but, in the time 
 of Horace, they were much larger and more powerful, 
 as well as constructed with more numerous stops, and 
 greater compass. It is sometimes difficult to translate 
 the comic writers. This is owing, first, to the license 
 which they were accustomed to use freely, and by 
 which we may see that the language was not spoken 
 as it was written. Besides this, many letters were 
 dropped or slurred, hence dormvus for domirma, cmdm 
 for midisne, vhiptas for vohi^tas, etCvero for emvm vera, 
 circventus for cvrcvm/oeniMS. Sometimes they added 
 d to me, te, and se, when followed by a vowel ; rdiqidt 
 med homo for me homo, and also med erga for 7/ie erga. 
 The pronunciation of English may give an idea of what 
 the pronunciation of Latin was among the comic poets. 
 
 The above observations enable us to reduce all the 
 metres of Terence, and nearly all of Plautus, to iambic 
 and trochaic, especially to iambic senarii and trochaic 
 tetrameters. Some grammarian assigns the order of 
 merit to the authors of Roman comedy first to Statins, 
 then to Plautus. We think that we are not obliged to 
 accept this classification, and that Plautus comes before 
 Statius by antiquity and by merit. 
 
 T. Kaccios Flautas was born in Umbria, in 210, 
 in the town of Sarcini. He was a contemporary of 
 Ennius, and very young when he removed to Eome. 
 
COMEDY. 125 
 
 His name means, in the Umbrian or Osean language, 
 '' flat teet." He turned his attention early to the stage, 
 and made much money, which he soon lost in commer- 
 cial undertakings. Then he worked for his livelihood, 
 and composed most of his plays at that time. The fol- 
 lowing laudatory epigram, written by Yarro, is found 
 in the " Noctes Atticae " of Aulus Gellius : 
 
 " Postqnam est mortem aptas Flantas, comoedia Inget, 
 Scena est deserta, dein risus indn, jocnsqne, 
 Et nnineri innmneri simnl omnes collacramaroDt." 
 
 We have twenty comedies extant by him, though 
 he composed many more. In each plot there is suf- 
 ficient action, movement, and spirit ; but, if we con- 
 sider them in the mass, there is too great uniformity 
 in his fables. They hinge for the most part on the 
 love of some dissolute youth for a courtesan, his em- 
 ployment of a slave to defraud the father, and the final 
 discovery that his mistress is a free-bom citizen. The 
 Latin style of Plautns excels in briskness of dialogue, 
 as well as in purity of expression ; but it has been ex- 
 tolled too much by some grammarians, and especially 
 by Yarro. This writer says of Plautns what he said 
 of Plato, that, if the Muses spoke in Latin, they would 
 borrow the language of Plautns. 
 
 We may admit that Plautns wonderfully improved 
 and refined the Latin language, from the rude form in 
 which he found it. The chief excellence of Plautns is 
 generally reputed to consist in the wit and comic force 
 of his dialogue ; and the censure of Horace, reproving 
 the ancient Romans, who admired "Plautinos sales," 
 seems an unjust criticism. The fact is, that the Plau- 
 tian comedy maintained its position on the Boman 
 
126 KOMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 stage for at least five centuries, and was acted as late 
 as the reign of Diocletian. The wit of Plautns often 
 degenerated into buffoonery, but he was writing for 
 the theatre, and not for the reader. 
 
 The following are the names of his extant comedies : 
 
 1. " Amphitryo ; " 2, 3, 4. "Asinaria," " Casina," and 
 " Mercator ; " 5. " The Aulularia ; " 6. " The Bacchi- 
 des ; " T. " The Captivi ; " 8. " The Curculio ; " 9. "The 
 Cisteilaria ; " 10. « The Epidicus ; " 11, " The Mostel- 
 laria;" 12. "The Menaechmi;" 13. "The Miles Glo- 
 riosus ; " 14. "The Pseudolus ; " 15. " The Poenulus ; " 
 16. " The Persa ; » lY. " The Endens ; " 18. " Stichus; " 
 19. "The Trinumus;" 20. "The Trucnlentus." The 
 
 2, 3, 4, depict a state of morals so revolting that it is 
 impossible to dwell upon them, The^e plays are al- 
 most as lewd as those of Aristophanes, in which that 
 writer falls into the same defect. . 
 
 Moliere has imitated " Amphitryon " in a piece of 
 the same name, and which is one of the mostimmoral 
 among the comedies of that French writer. His comedy 
 " The Miser " (L'Avare) is an imitation of " The Au- 
 lularia," but surely Moliere is superior to Plautus in 
 the picture of his " Miser." Shakespeare has imitated 
 and surpassed " The Mensechmi," or " Comedy of Er- 
 rors," arising out of the exact likeness between two 
 brothers. The plays which were the favorites of Plautus 
 were " The Pseudolus " and " The Truculentus." In 
 both cases the plot is simple, but the action is bustling 
 and full of intrigue. "The Miles Gloriosus" is one 
 of the best pieces of Plautus, and one which has been 
 especially imitated^ The prologues of Plautus deserve 
 a special mention, and are very skilfully composed; 
 
COMEDY. 127 
 
 they introduce the comedy, and their amusing gayety 
 puts the audience in goodrhumor, and secures their 
 applause. 
 
 Cscilins Statins. — This comic writer, who was born 
 in Milan, and died- in 586 from the foundation of Rome, 
 flourished between Plautus and Terentius. We have 
 forty-five titles of his comedies, but few fragments; 
 they were all Palliatse. The collection of the frag- 
 ments, although a considerable one, is not sufficient to 
 test the favorable opinion entertained by the critics of 
 ancient times. Cicero speaks of his Latin as being 
 bad; Horace, without giving his opinion completely, 
 says, however, that Statins was superior in dignity 
 (gravitate), and Terence in skill (arte). 
 
 P. Terentius Afer, according to some traditions, was 
 born at Carthage, in 192. He was a slave, who taught 
 in the house of Terentius, hence his name ; his cogno- 
 men Afer indicates his origin from Africa. Terence 
 wrote six comedies, and then left Italy and went to 
 Greece, where he died, at the age of thirty-four years. 
 Most of his plays are taken from the Greek stage, still 
 he is somewhat original. The plots of Terence are 
 judiciously laid, the incidents are selected with taste, 
 arranged with art, and painted with exquisite beauty. 
 He has been considered, in the delineation of charac- 
 ters, as surpassing all the comic poets of Eome. Ter- 
 ence gave to the Roman tongue its highest perfection, 
 in point of elegance and art. He has been called by 
 Caesar, "Pnri sermonis amator;" and Cicero says, 
 "Quidquid come loquens, ac omnia dulcia dicens." 
 The narrative in his plots possesses a beautiful and 
 picturesque simplicity. In regard to what we might 
 
128 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATUEE. 
 
 call the poetical style of Terence, it has been gen- 
 erally allowed that he has used very great license in 
 his versification. The language of Plautus is more 
 rich and luxuriant than that of Terence, but is far 
 from being so uniform or bo chaste. The main pur- 
 pose of Plautus was to excite laughter, and conse- 
 quently we find in him, as is natural, more wit, more 
 vivacity of action, and more variety of incidents which 
 inflame curiosity ; but, in every other i-espect, Terence 
 is superior to him. 
 
 The following is a list of the six plays of Terence : 
 1. "The Andrian;" 2. "The Eunuch;" 3. "The 
 Heautontimorumenos ; " 4. " Phormio ; " 5. " Hecyra ; " 
 and 6. " Adelphi." 
 
 It would be, perhaps, diflicult to determine which 
 is the best of these comedies, for all are good. We 
 will here give the plot of the first piece, and this will 
 allow us to judge all the pieces of Terence : 
 
 Glycerium, a young Athenian girl, is placed under 
 the care of an Andrian, who educates her with his 
 daughter Chrysis. On his death Ohrysis migrates to 
 Athens, taking Glycerium with her and her sister, and 
 is driven by distress to become a courtesan. Pamphi- 
 lus, the son of Simo, falls in love with Glycerium, and 
 promises her marriage. Simo discovers his son's at- 
 tachment in the following manner : Chrysis dies, and, 
 at her funeral, Glycerium approaches too near the fu- 
 neral-pile; her lover rushes forward and takes her 
 away, when the girl bursts into a flood of tears and 
 throws herself into his arms. Simo had, meanwhile, 
 betrothed Pamphilus to Philumena, the daughter of 
 Chremes, and, in order to discover his son's real senti- 
 
COMEDY. 129 
 
 nients, he pretends that the marriage with Philumena 
 shall take place at once ; Davus, a slave, advises Pam- 
 philus to offer no opposition. At this crisis, Glycerium 
 is delivered of a child, which Davus causes to be laid 
 at the door of Simo. Chremes, understanding all, re- 
 fuses to give his daughter. The opportune arrival of 
 Crito, an Andrian, discovers that Glycerium is Chre- 
 mes's daughter, who had been intrusted to his brother 
 Phania, now dead, when he (Chremes) left Athens. 
 Consequently, Glycerium is married to Pamphilus, and 
 Philumena is given to a young lover (Charinus), who 
 had hitherto pressed his suit in vain. The talent of 
 Terence for narrative is displayed in this piece, es- 
 pecially in the scene near the funeral-pile. Moliere 
 has borrowed iimch from Terence. The remaining 
 comic poets will require but brief notice. 
 
 L. A&aniuB wrote many comedies of the lowest class 
 — Fabulffi TabernarisB. He was a man of low tastes 
 and profligate morals. We have fragments, and many 
 titles, of his compositions. 
 
 Cicero quotes several times the name of Atilins — • 
 whom he calls Poeta Durissimus — and he gives one 
 line from one of his comedies. 
 
 P. Liciniufl Tegula left few fragments. 
 
 Lavinins Lusoins, another comic writer, is severely 
 criticised by Terence, but we have nothing from him. 
 
 Q. Trabea is qxioted several times by Cicero, and it 
 is all that remains of his writings. 
 
 S. Turpilius is the last writer, from whom we have a 
 few fragments, and the titles of some of his plays. 
 
130 BOMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 GHAPTEE rV. 
 
 SATIEIC DRAMA — BATDEE. 
 
 Teagedt could never prevail in Borne until the 
 whole Koman population had almost been changed by 
 the gradnal accession of slaves and prisoneiB, brought 
 there from every place, but especially from the East. 
 The Komatt character could hot appreciate tragic com- 
 position, and the people were not cultivated enough 
 nor peaceful enough. Besides, we have seen that the 
 tragedy was for the Greeks a real religioua perform- 
 ance, and that it never had that character in Home. 
 The ilomans could never have seen in those plays any 
 thing but a secular amusement, to which they always 
 preferred bloody games and gorgeous displays on the 
 stage— any thing which could satisfy their character- 
 istic ambition, and their thirst for blood. We have in 
 this first period only five writers of tragedies. We 
 have spoken already of Livins AndronicuSj Nsevius, 
 and Ennius, whose poetical character was more di- 
 dactic than tragic. The two others are Pacuvius and 
 Attius. These five writers copied Greek models,' for 
 we have no tragedy extant of the kind — Fabulae Prse- 
 textatae. Seven titles only may be given for all the 
 Latin tragic writers. 
 
 Iff. FacuTius was born at Brundisinm, in 220, and 
 was a nephew of Ennius. Very little is known of his 
 life, but he died at Tarentum, at the age of ninety 
 years. We have from him the titles of twenty trage- 
 dies, of which few fragments remain. We may judge 
 
SATIKIC DRAMA— SATIEE. 131 
 
 him by the sayings of Cicero, Horace, and Qnintilian. 
 Cicero says : " Omnes apnd hnnc ornati elaboratiqne 
 sunt versus." Horace and Qnintilian praise especially 
 his learning. Qnintilian, comparing him with Attins, 
 says : " Virinm Attio pins tribuitur, Pacuviam videri 
 doctiorem, qui esse docti affectant, volunt ; " and Hor- 
 ace, when speaking of the public opinion entertained 
 concerning Attins, says : 
 
 " Ambigitnr qnoties nter ntro sit prior, anfert 
 Pacuvins docti famam senis, Attins altL" 
 
 Among his tragedies the best was, according to these 
 critics, " Biona," whose first husband was Polydorus. 
 From that piece Shakespeare took his play of " Ham- 
 let." From no one play of Pacuvins are there more 
 than fifty lines preserved, and these very much de- 
 tached. It does not appear that his tragedies had 
 much success or popularity in his own age. 
 
 L. AttiTis was born about 170. According to Cicero, 
 his style was harsh, but he was held in great estima- 
 tion by his countrymen for the force and eloquence of 
 his productions. We have seen the opinion of Horace 
 and Qnintilian about him. Attins wrote at least fifty 
 tragedies ; none remain entire, but we have many 
 iragments. 
 
 The following lines from " The Phenissae " and 
 " The Complaint of Philoctete," are, though brief, fair 
 examples of his language and versification : 
 
 "Sol, qui micantem candido cnrra atqne eqnia 
 Flammam citatis fervido ardore explicas, 
 Qniaaam tarn odyerso angorio et inimico omine 
 Thebis radiatmn Inmen ostendis taom I " 
 
132 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITBEATUBE. 
 
 " Heu !_q.uis salsis fluotibns mandet 
 Me ex snblimi vertice saxi, 
 Jairp^m absumor ; conficit aniraam 
 Vis Tolneris, ulceris sestus." 
 
 These quotations are fonnd in the " Tusculanes." The 
 titles of some of the tragedies of Attius show that he 
 treated some subjects entirely Koman — like " Brutus," 
 " Decius," and " Marcellus." Yarro has preserved 
 from him the " Soliloqiiy of Hercules," in his " Tra- 
 chiniae," an imitation of Sophocles, forty-five lines. It 
 is probably the best piece of Attius. 
 
 In the genus. Satire — which is really a Koman in- 
 vention, and the result of their passion for comedy — 
 we have but one writer before Horace. 
 
 C. Lucilius was a Koman knight, born in 149, at 
 Suena. In his youth he was a soldier, and, during all 
 his life he enjoyed the greatest intimacy with the best 
 military men of his time. Unfortunately, his writings 
 are so mutilated that few particulars of his life and 
 manners can be gleaned from them. He wrote thirty 
 books of satires, and from the fragments Which are ex- 
 tant we may judge the poet. 
 
 The time when he lived was very good for a satiric 
 writer, for it was the time of transition between the 
 austere way of living of the Komans, and the introduc- 
 tion of foreign luxury and exaggerated refinement. 
 The chief characteristic of Lucilius was his vehement 
 and cutting satire. He is called by Macrobins, " Acer 
 et violentus poeta." His Latin, according to Horace, 
 was sufficiently pure, but his versification was rugged 
 and prosaic. Horace compares his poetry to a muddy 
 and troubled stream ; but, from the opinion of Quin- 
 
SATIRIC DRAMA— SATIRE. 133 
 
 tilian, we may judge that this is exaggerated. For 
 Qaiutilian, while blaming those who considered Lu- 
 cilius as the greatest of poets, does not coincide with 
 the opinion of Horace when he says : " Ego quantum 
 ab illis, tantum ab Horatio dissentio, qui Lucilium 
 flnere lutulentum, et esse aliquid quod toUere possis, 
 putat." 
 
 LuciliuB, it is true, has occasionally nsed too much 
 license, as, when he barbarously separated the sylla- 
 bles of a work, like in the following line : 
 
 " Villa I/ucani — ^mox potieris «co." 
 
 The satires of Lucilius must have possessed nobler qual- 
 ities than those of style. The poet was a man of high 
 moral principle, and devotedly attached to the cause 
 of virtue, a relentless enemy of vice, and a gallant and 
 fearless defender of truth and honesty. Like Juvenal, 
 he felt " difficile est non satiram scribere." No won- 
 der, then, that we find him eloquent when he speaks 
 of virtue, as in the following passage preserved by 
 Laetantius : 
 
 " Virtus, Albine, est pretium persolvere verum 
 Qaeis in versamur, queis vivimu' rebu' potesse, 
 Virtus est homini scire id quod quaeque liabeat res. 
 Virtus, scire homini rectum, utile, quid sit honestum, 
 QusB bona, quae mala, item quid inutile tnrpe inhonestnm. 
 Virtus, quserendse finem rei scire modamque ; 
 Virtus, devitiis pretium persolvere posse. 
 Virtus, id dare quod reipsa debetur honori, 
 Hostem esse atque inimicum hominum morornqne malorum; 
 Contra, defensorem hominum morumque bbnorum ; 
 Magnificare hos, his bene velle, his vivere amicum ; 
 Oommoda preeterea patriai prima putare, 
 Deinde parentum, tertia jam postremaqne nostra." 
 
134 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITEBATUKE. 
 
 CHAPTEK V. 
 
 PE0 8E HI8TOEY. 
 
 "WJE have many fragments extant from the writers 
 of history belonging to this first era. We might say 
 that all their imtings have been preserved in the com- 
 positions of the historians of the following centuries. 
 Since we have no complete work from any of them, 
 we will but give the names, and add a few brief re- 
 marks upon each of them. 
 
 Q. Pahiufi Pictor, who lived in the time of Naevius, 
 was the first Eoman who wrote an historical account 
 of his country. Livy called him "scriptorum anti- 
 qnissimus." We have but few fragments of his writ- 
 ings, and quotations in Dionysius Halicamassus, Plu- 
 tarch, and Livy. Evidently he accepted as truths the 
 many fabulous events, and, no wonder, since he had 
 but the obscure traditions of those primitive ages. 
 Livy copied him too much. The name of Pictor was 
 given to his grandfather, who was a celebrated painter, 
 and who decorated the Temple of Salus, dedicated 302 
 B. c. That temple could be seen in the time of Clau- 
 dius, when it was burned. The book of Fabius was 
 written in Greek; its loss is not to be regretted. 
 
 L. CinciuB Alimentus was a contemporary of Fabius. 
 He is quoted by Livy, and Aulus Gellins, as having 
 written in Greek a history of Rome, and a treatise, 
 " De Re Militaria." The two books are lost. 
 
 Acilins Glubrio was bom in 210 B. o. He also wrote 
 a history in Greek, which was translated into Latin 
 
PEOSE— HISTORY. 135 
 
 by Claudius, and referred to often by Livy. The book 
 is lost. 
 
 M. Porcins Cato Censorinns. — This great man was 
 bom at Tusculnm, in 232, of an humble family; he 
 was the grandfather of M. Cato TJticensis. After many 
 years spent on a farm, where he led a perfect life, in 
 the pagan acceptation of that word, he was induced to 
 go to Rome, where.he commenced bis public career. 
 CatOy as a military man, as an administrator, and as a 
 counsellor, had a career very useful and very brilliant. 
 We might enter here into many particulars referring 
 to his life, but we have to consider Cato in this sketch 
 as a literary man only. His name of Censorinus arises 
 from hiszeal for the keeping of the laws at Home, and 
 from his efforts in order to prevent the Eomans from 
 departing from their ancient customs. He wrote many 
 books, but we have only one extant, and very likely 
 this is not complete, since we do not find in it some 
 references pointed out by Livy. The work we have is 
 " De Re Kustica," a mere treatise on husbandly, writ- 
 ten without order, in one hundred and sixty-two chap- 
 ters, for his son. The style is familiar, and, among 
 many other things, we find in it the notions of the most 
 virtuous Roman about slaves. When they are old and 
 sick, Cato classes them : " Ferramenta vetera, servum 
 senem, servum morbosum, et si quid alind supersit 
 vendat." 
 
 Cato wrote one hundred and fifty orations, which 
 were extant in the time of Cicero, and were much 
 praised by him. He wrote a book on niilitary dis- 
 cipline, but the one whose loss is most to be deplored 
 is his work, in six books, " De Originibus." It was a 
 
136 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 history of the kings of Kome, often quoted by Cor- 
 nelias Nepos, who has giyen us the substance of it. 
 He also wrote a book on medicine, the fruit of his ex- 
 perience. His " Apophthegmata " are spoken of by 
 Cicero, in his book " De Oiiiciis." He also wrote a 
 " Carmen de Moribus," which carmen, it seems, was 
 not written in verse. A book, containing the " Ori- 
 gines " of Cato, was published in 1498, under the title 
 " Antiquitates Yariae," but it contained only spurious 
 fragments. We may judge of the appearance of Cato 
 by the following epigram : 
 
 Hvppov, iravhaKerqv, yKavKOfi/juiTOV, ovBe ffavovra 
 nSpKiov ew aiB7}v Hepae^wi Sej(eTai. 
 
 Which we may translate : " With his red hair, con- 
 stant snarl, and gray eyes, Proserpine would not re- 
 ceive Porcius, even after death, into Hades." Of the 
 orations of Cato ninety titles are extant, and numerous 
 fragments. His style was abrupt, concise, witty, and 
 full of contrast. 
 
 After Cato we have many historians of whose works 
 fragments only are extant. We may give the names 
 of Hemina, who wrote five or six books of Roman an- 
 nals, in which many fables were found. After him, 
 Fabios Maximos Servilianns (150), Fannins, and Venuo- 
 nius, wrote annals, the fragments of which show that 
 their Latin was not very elegant. 
 
 P. Sempronins Asellio wrote a memoir on the Nu- 
 maritian War. 
 
 C. Julius Oraccliaiius wrote a constitutional history 
 of Rome. The work is lost, but it is often quoted by 
 the jurists as a reliable authority. 
 
PROSE— HISTORY. I37 
 
 S. Fabins Fictor, and Calpumins Fiso Censorins, also 
 wrote annals, but Livy called Piso a liar. Piso was an 
 honest man, but not an honest historian. Cicero speaks 
 of him in his discourse " Pro Archia Poeta," where he 
 also gives the names of ^Smiliiis Scaums, and Butilius 
 Rufos. Rutilius wrote autobiographies, and his ex- 
 ample was followed by Sulla, who gave his memoirs in 
 twenty-two books. All these historians, from whom 
 we have but quotations, are praised by Cicero for their 
 latinity. 
 
 The last historians before the second era were Ma- 
 cer, C. Quadrigarius, and Valerius Antias. They col- 
 lected traditions, and wrote valuable books, whence 
 Livy has taken many documents. These three writers 
 are not praised for their style; that of Quadrigarius 
 especially is abrupt and sententious. No Koman his- 
 torian ever made greater pretensions to accuracy than 
 Antias, and no one was less trustworthy. Livy never 
 hesitates to call him a liar, and he is right, for he has 
 been guilty of many falsehoods. 
 
 Two more important names remain to be mentioned 
 among the annalists. They were Cornelius Sisenna, 
 often quoted by Sallust, and Mliaa Tabero, quoted once 
 by Dionysius and twice by Livy. 
 
138 KOMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 CHAPTEK VI. 
 
 PKOSE ELOQUENCE GEAMMAEIAHS. 
 
 Eloquence must have been an early characteristic 
 of the Roman people — ^it is a plant indigenous to a free 
 soil. There was political eloquence in a city where 
 there was a constant struggle between the various 
 classes of the people. There was in the army a mili- 
 tary eloquence, to excite the heroism of the . soldiers. 
 Cicero speaks of a discourse, composed before Nsevius 
 had written any poetry ; it was the discourse of Appius 
 Claudius against Pyrrhus. Cicero had read it. Some 
 funeral orations also, of these early times, existed in 
 the time of Cicero. The one of Metellus, at the com- 
 mencement of the second Punic War, is quoted by 
 Livy, fourth book. Livy has preserved also the ora- 
 tion of Scipio Africanus Major, defending himself be- 
 fore the senate after the defeat of Hannibal. We have 
 spoken of Cato, who was a real orator ; the father of 
 the Gracchi was also very distinguished. Scipio Afr 
 ricanus, Minor, the son of Paulus w^Emilianus, and his 
 friend Lselius, were two great orators. We have some 
 fragments of their discourses. 
 
 The period of the Gracchi (150) produced many 
 orators. These were Papirius Carbo, ^milius Scau- 
 rus, Eutilius Eufus, and the Gracchi themselves ; also 
 their mother, who was the daughter of Scipio. Cicero 
 speaks of her letters, which were extant in his time, as 
 being models of eloquence. Several fragments only 
 remain of all the writings of these orators. 
 
PEOSB— ELOQUENCE— GRAMMABUNS. 139 
 
 Between the GraccM and Cicero we had : 
 M. Antonius Crassos, who fell a victim to political 
 fury. Cicero has quoted some of his most admired 
 passages. 
 
 L, Licinins Crassas, born at Home, in 140, was £rst 
 a lawyer, but he became a political orator. His mas- 
 terpiece is his oration " Pro lege Servilia," in order to 
 return to the senate the judicial oflSce which had been 
 taken from it by the " Lege Semproniana." He was 
 what may be called the most ornamental speaker that 
 had hitherto appeared in the Forum. Though not 
 without force, gravity, and dignity, these were happily 
 blended with the most insinuating politeness, urbanity, 
 ease, and gayety. He was master of the most pure and 
 accurate language, and of perfect elegance of expres* 
 si on, without any affectati«n or unpleasant appearance 
 of previous study. Great clearness of language dis- 
 tinguished all his harangues, and, while descanting on 
 topics of law or equity, he possessed an inexhaustible 
 fund of argument and illustration. Some persons con- 
 sidered Crassus as only equal to Autonius ; others pre- 
 ferred him, as the more perfect and accomplished 
 orator. As a public speaker, Crassus was remarkable 
 for his diffidence in the opening of a speech — a diffi- 
 dence which never forsook him — ^and, after the prac- 
 tice of a long life at the bar, he was frequently so much 
 agitated in the exordium of a discourse as to grow pale, 
 and tremble in every joint of his frame. 
 
 Cicero selected him to be the representative of his 
 sentiments in the " Oratore." He felt that their tastes 
 were congenial. Crassus almost died on the floor of; 
 the senate-house; he took the defence of the aristo- 
 
140 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITEKATURB. 
 
 cratic party, and his opponent was Philippus, the con- 
 sul. TJie controversy grew very warm, and Crassus 
 fell in a paroxysm. This was too much for him ; fever 
 ensued, and in seven days he was a corpse. 
 
 He had the school for rhetoricians shut up because 
 he found that it was introducing, with Greek manners, 
 Greek corruption ; but he has been blamed for that 
 measure. We have two orations only from him. 
 
 Q. Horten^us was born at Eome, of a plebeian family, 
 in 114:. He was for some time the prince of orators, 
 until the star of Cicero arose. They first came in con- 
 tact in the cause of Quintius, and, later, in that of Ver- 
 res ; of course, Hortensius was beaten. But the two 
 orators were afterward very good friends, having iden- 
 tical views in politics. Hortensius had a daughter who 
 wrote discourses, and one of -them was read in the time 
 of Quintilian for the sake of its own merits. 
 
 The diction of Hortensius was noble, eloquent, and 
 rich ; his voice strong and pleasing, and his gestures 
 carefully studied. The eloquence of Hortensius would 
 seem, in fact, to have been of that showy species called 
 Asiatic, which flourished in the Greek colonies of Asia 
 Minor. This glowing style of rhetoric, though de- 
 ficient in solidity and weight, was not unsuitable in a 
 young man, being further recommended by a beautiful 
 cadence of periods, and attended by the utmost ap- 
 plause. But Hortensius, as he advanced in age, did 
 not correct this exuberance, nor adopt a chaster elo- 
 quence; and this luxury and glitter of phraseology, 
 which, even in his earliest years, had occasionally ex- 
 cited ridicule and disgust among the graver fathers of 
 the senatorial order, being totally inconsistent with his 
 
PROSE— ELOQUENCE— GKAMMAKIANS. 141 
 
 advanced age aud consular dignity, which required 
 something more serious and composed, his reputa- 
 tion, in consequence, diminished with the increase of 
 years. 
 
 Hortensius, who was most extravagant in his life, 
 owes perhaps to the friendship of Cicero the acqui- 
 sition of some celebrity, for he was very vain, and re- 
 mained a young man all his life. There was only one 
 oration extant from him in the time of Quintilian. 
 
 Toward the conclusion of this literary period a great 
 increase took place in the numbers of those learned 
 men whom the Romans termed " literati," but who af- 
 terward were called, according to the Greek custom, 
 " grammatici " (grammarians). Few of them were au- 
 thors, but, owing to their learning, they exercised a 
 powerful influence over the public mind as professors, 
 critics, and school-masters. We may mention the names 
 of Lensns, a freedman of Pompey the Great ; of Servius 
 Clodius, a Eoman knight ; and also of ^lius Stilo, and 
 Valerius Cato, who was a poet. 
 
 We have traced the rise and progress of Roman 
 literature ; the dawn has gently broken, the light has 
 steadily increased, an4 is succeeded by the noonday 
 brilliance of the Golden Age. 
 
BOOK II. 
 
 THE GOLDEN AGE.— ERA OF CICEKO AND AUGUSTUS. 
 
 Ddeiwg this period Koman literature attained the 
 highest point of perfection ; this time was ahove 680 
 years from the foundation of Kome, when Cicero was 
 between thirty and forty years old. Poetry still con- 
 tinnes to improve dnring this period, for we find much 
 difference between the verses of Lncretins and those 
 of Yirgil, in regard to metrical structure and diction. 
 The dramatic literature disappeared, and was replaced 
 by the Mimes, a sort of entertainment which acquired 
 much popularity. There was a great diflFerence be- 
 tween the Greek mimes and the Latin ones. The 
 Greek mimes were without ver^e ; they were dialogues, 
 not dramatic pieces, and were never exhibited on the 
 stage. The Koman mimes were laughable imitations 
 of manners and persons, and so combined features of 
 comedy and farce. It was a pantomime, where mim- 
 icry and burlesque dialogue were accidentally intro- 
 duced. After a time the dialogue occupied a more 
 prominent position, and was written in verse. We 
 have, during the Golden Age, two writers of mimes 
 who acquired much celebrity. 
 
POETRY. 143 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 POETET. 
 
 Section I. — Writers of Mimes. 
 
 Decius LaberioB. — He was a Eoman knight, but, al- 
 though the profession of an artist was infamous for a 
 man of his rank, he could not resist the temptation, 
 and became an actor and an author. He wrote forty- 
 three mimes ; we have but the titles and a few frag- 
 ments of them. We may judge by them of the qual- 
 ities of Laberius ; he was very sarcastic, very witty, 
 very prompt and happy in his answers. He showed 
 also much boldness in several circumstances. His 
 style was very good. 
 
 In order to judge of his quickness and readiness in 
 repartee, we have but to quote the following verses. 
 While, one day, he had been vanquished by his adver- 
 sary Syrus, Caesar said to him with a sneer : 
 
 "Favente tibi me, victus es, Llberi, a Syro." 
 
 He replied with the following sad but true reflections : 
 
 " iNon possnnt primi esse omnes oinni in tempore, 
 Summnm ad gradum cam claritatis veneris 
 Consistes eegre ; et qunm descendas decides ; 
 Cecidi ego, cadet qui seqnitnr, lans est pnblica." 
 
 C. Uatius was called Calvena on account of his 
 baldness. His mimes were called Mimiambi, because 
 he wrote in the iambic measure. He was especially 
 remarkable for his skill in the introduction of new 
 
144 EOMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 words. We can judge him only by the quotations of 
 Cicero, as none of his pieces are extant. 
 
 Fublius Syrus was a slave from Syria, and was freed 
 by Publius, hence his double name ; he wrote many 
 mimes, but we have none left. What remains from 
 Syrus are eight or nine hundred maxims, very seldom 
 exceeding one line, but containing reflections of un- 
 rivalled force, truth, and beauty, on all the various re- 
 lations, situations, and feelings of human life. Those 
 maxims were a sort of store of commonplaces and pre- 
 cepts of morality, which they could introduce appro- 
 priately in their extemporaneous performances. 
 
 The mimes, soon after Augustus, were replaced by 
 Pantomimes, exhibitions which threw a great discredit 
 on the stage, on account of their being sensual and 
 licentious. Even under the reign of Augustus, the 
 pantomime was already popular. 
 
 Section II. — Elegiac Poetry. 
 
 C. Valerixu CatnUus was bom at Verona, in 86. He 
 came very early to Eome, where he led a profligate 
 life, and died when he was but thirty years old ; some, 
 however, say when he was forty-one years of age. His 
 poems, which are numerous, are chiefly employed in 
 the indulgence and consummation of his loves, .They 
 have been divided in lyric, elegiac, and epigrammatic. 
 He seems to have been the earliest lyric poet of Latium, 
 although Horace claims the same honor. Much of his 
 poetry appears to have been lost. 
 
 Many of his amatory trifles are quite unrivalled in 
 the elegance of their playfulness, and no author has 
 
POETKY. 145 
 
 excelled him in the purity and neatness of his style, 
 the delightful ease and simplicity of his manner, and 
 his graceful turn of thought "and happiness of expres- 
 sion. Some of his productions breathe the highest 
 enthusiasm of the art, and are colored with a singular 
 picturesqueness of imagery, Catullus was well versed 
 in Grreek literature, and he translated many of the 
 shorter and more delicate pieces of the Greeks. Here is 
 an example ; it is a translation of an elegy of Sappho : 
 
 " Ille mi par e^e Deo videtur, 
 Ille, si fas est, superare divos, 
 Qui sedens adyersus, identidem te 
 Spectat et audit. 
 
 " Dulce ridentem : misero quod omnis 
 Eripit sensus mihi ; nam simul te, 
 Lesbia, aspexi, nihil est super mi 
 Voce loquendum. 
 
 "Lingua sed torpet; tenues sub artus 
 Flamma dimanat ; sonitu suopte 
 Tinniunt aures ; gemina teguntur 
 Lumina nocte." 
 
 In all his verses, whether elegiac or heroic, we per- 
 ceive his imitation of the Greeks. His Hellenisms are 
 frequent, and his images, similes, metaphors, are all 
 Greek. "We have seen a translation; let us give a 
 specimen of his own composition in the elegiac style. 
 He wrote it after having visited the grave of his 
 brother, buried in Asia : 
 
 "Multas per gentes, et multa per seqnora vectus, 
 Adveni has miseras, frater, ad iiiferias. 
 Ut te postremo donarem munere mortis 
 Et mutijm ngquidqijaifl ^loqugrer p^erem, 
 7 
 
146 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATUKB. 
 
 Quandoquidem fortana mihi tete abstulit ipsum 
 
 Has miser indigne frater adempte mihi I 
 Kunc tamen interea prisco quee more parentam 
 
 Tradita sub tristes mnnera ad inferias 
 Accipe fratemo multum manantia f etu 
 
 Atque in perpetuum, frater, ave atque vale ! " 
 
 Although the peculiar characteristics of his poetry 
 are chiefly to be found in his lyric and elegiac poems, 
 there are in his longer pieces, which are less known 
 and less admired, passages of singular sweetness and 
 beauty. Catullus had not sufficient grasp And com- 
 prehensiveness of mind to conduct an epic poem. 
 The poem entitled " The Marriage of Peleus and The- 
 tis," bears some resemblance to an heroic poem. The 
 most beautiful passage is the episode relating the story 
 of Theseus and Ariadne, commencing with the follow- 
 ing verses : 
 
 " Siccine discedens, neglecto immine divdm, 
 Immemor ah I devota domum peijnria portas ? 
 Kulla ne res potuit crudelis flectere mentis 
 Consilium 3 tibi nulla fuit dementia prsesto, 
 Immite ut nostri vellet mitescere pectus! " 
 
 There were living at Kome, in the time of Catullus, 
 several poets, who wrote elegiac verses, but whose com- 
 positions are not extant. Yery likely their merits did 
 not satisfy the fastidious taste of the Augustan age, and 
 this is the reason why Horace and his contemporaries 
 did not preserve their writings. They were Licinius 
 Calvus, Helvius Cinna, Valerius Cato, Valgius, Ticida, 
 and Yarro Atacinus. All these poets are mentioned 
 by Yirgil, Pliny, Suetonius, and, in general, by the 
 gramma^ans, 
 
POETEY. 14Y 
 
 Albins Tibnllns, born probably in 54 before Christ, 
 was a contemporary of Virgil and Horace. He was 
 of an equestrian famiily. During the trouble of the 
 civil wars he lost his paternal estate, and owed his for- 
 tune to the favors of Maecenas. He wrote four books 
 of elegies ; the style and tone are, like his character, 
 deficient in vigor and manliness, but sweet, smooth, 
 polished, tender, and never disiigured by bad taste. 
 He does not deserve the censure of Niebuhr, who stig- 
 matizes him as a disagreeable poet because of his dole- 
 ful and weeping melancholy. The characteristics of 
 Tibullus are simplicity, and natural and unaffected 
 genius. His elegies celebrate the beauty, inconstancy, 
 and cruelty of his mistresses. Tibullus died young, 
 shortly after YirgU, if we may trust the following epi- 
 taph, contained in the " Latin Anthology : " 
 
 " Te quoque VirgUio oonsitem non teqna, TibnUe, 
 Mors juvenem oampos miait in ^lysios, 
 Ne foret, aut elegis molles qui fleret amores, 
 Aut caneret forti regia bella pede." 
 
 Some writers pretend, and their opinion is, prob- 
 ably, that two only of the four books of Tibullus's ele- 
 gies are genuine, and these are the third and fourth. 
 
 S. Aorelios Propertius. — ^Yery little is known con- 
 cerning the life and personal history of Propertius. 
 He was born in TJmbria, about 700 from the foundar 
 tion of Home, and, like his contemporaries — ^Virgil, 
 Horace, and Tibullus — ^he was a sufferer from the con- 
 sequences of the civil wars. Propertius cultivated 
 poetry at a very early age but, his imitations from 
 the Greek are too studied, and too apparent, to permit 
 him to lay claim to great natural genius. Nature alone 
 
148 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATUKE. 
 
 could give the touching tenderness of TibuUus, and the 
 facility of Ovid. The absence of original fancy is con- 
 cealed by minute attention to the outward form of 
 poetry. His pentameters are often inharmonious. 
 
 According to Quintilian, the critics of his day some- 
 what overrated his merits, for they could scarcely de- 
 cide the question of superiority between him and Ti- 
 buUus ; but, evidently, the solution is easy. Propertius 
 is far below Tibullus for natural talent and genius. 
 His poetry is not so polluted with indelicacy as that 
 of Ovid, but still it is often sensual and licentious. 
 We have four books of elegies from Propertius, and, if 
 we except those of the fourth book, consecrated mostly 
 to the praises of Augustus. Those found in the first 
 three refer almost always to his mistress Cynthia, and, 
 according to Martial, she owes to him her immortality, 
 while he owes to -his love for her the inspiration which 
 immortalizes him : 
 
 " Cynthia, facundi carmen juvenile Properti, 
 Accepit famam nee minus ilia dedit." 
 
 The date of the poef s death is unknown, but the prob- 
 ability is that he died young, at the age of forty. 
 
 C. Cornelius Gallus was born in 66 before Christ, and 
 was more distinguished as a general than as a poet. 
 Except a single line from one of his elegies, not a ves- 
 tige remains of his pdetry, and the pieces attributed to 
 him are not genuine. No judgment respecting his 
 merits can be formed from the contradictory criticisms 
 of the ancients. 
 
POETEY. 149 
 
 Section III. — Epigrwmmatic mid DidcbcHc Poetry. 
 
 C. Cilnius Maecenas, the first minister of Augustus, 
 the great friend of Virgil and Horace, the protector of 
 savcmts of that period, wrote verses ; but, from the 
 confession of all the critics, his attempts at poetry were 
 yerj contemptible; still, by his good taste and mu- 
 nificence, he exercised a great influence upon literature, 
 and the literary men of Rome were much indebted 
 to him for the use which he made of his confidential 
 friendship with Augustus. Few fragments remain of 
 his epigrams. The following lines will show sufficient- 
 ly, among many defects, his unintelligible obscurity : 
 
 " Sole et Aurora rubent plurima 
 Inter sacra movit aqua fraxinos : 
 Ne exequias quidem unus inter miserrimos 
 Viderem meas." 
 
 C. Vsi^ius Eufus was a great favorite of Horace. We 
 have no records of his life, and of his writings only a 
 few short isolated passages are extant. We find three 
 quotations in Quintilian; Seneca mentions him, and 
 Pliny praises his erudition. 
 
 L. Varins Bnfas was one of the constant guests of 
 Maecenas's table. Scarcely any thing is known of him. 
 The titles of two of hia poems are extant: 1. "De 
 Morte ; " 2. " Panegyric of Augustus." Of the former, 
 four fragments are preserved by Macrobius ; of the lat- 
 ter, two lines have been preserved, and are found in- 
 troduced in the sixteenth epistle of the first book of 
 Horace. 
 
 jEmilius Kacer wrote a poem which is only known 
 through two verses of the " Tristia " of Ovid, which 
 
160 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITEEATXJBE. 
 
 state that it treated of birds, serpents, and medicinal 
 terbs. He was bom at Verona, and died in Asia, 16 
 after Christ. Here are the two verses of Ovid : 
 
 " Ssepe sons voluores legit miH grandior »vo. 
 Qnaeque necet serpens, quae juvet herba Maoer." 
 
 Quintilian compared his poem to the one of Lucretius, 
 and said that Macer was superior in elegance, but that 
 the style was deficient in dignity. 
 
 Ovidius Kaso was bom at Salmo (Abruzzi), on the 
 day of the murder of Cicero, in the year 43 b. c. His 
 family was equestrian, and had been so for some gener- 
 ations. Ovid had a brother, one year elder than him- 
 self; they both went to Rome, when they were young, 
 and studied rhetoric nnder good masters. We may 
 see, by the discourse of AJax and Ulysses, that Ovid 
 was a good rhetorician ; but he felt that he had a vo- 
 cation for poetry, and, although, in order to comply 
 with his father's wishes, he cultivated eloquence, and 
 left aside poetry, still he was a poet against his own 
 will, for whatever he wrote was verse. 
 
 His rank, talent, and fortune, enabled him to culti- 
 vate the society of the literary men of his age, but al- 
 ready Horace and Virgil, and also Tibullns, had gone. 
 Ovid was married three times ; he was twice divorced, 
 but loved his third wife sincerely, who belonged to the 
 Fabian family. Ovid was an Epicurean in his tastes, 
 and a skeptic, and he lived a life of continual self-in- 
 dulgence and intrigue. 
 
 Ovid was popular as a poet, he was successful in 
 society, and he possessed all the enjoyments which 
 wealth can bestow. But this sunny life at length came 
 
POETRY. 151 
 
 to an end ; when his hair became tinged with white, 
 and he had reached his fiftieth year, he incurred by 
 some fault the anger of Augustus, and was banished 
 to Tomi. This place, situated at the mouth of the 
 Danube, in the country of the Getae, has a very un- 
 pleasant and unhealthy climate. Ovid went there in 
 winter, and there lived ten years. He died at the age 
 of sixty-one. 
 
 Most of the poems of Ovid might be considered as 
 elegiac, but his "Metamorphoses," which constitute 
 the best part of his writings, were didactic, and to that 
 style also belongs " The Art of Love." One of his 
 earliest works are his " Amores," a collection of ele- 
 gies, most of which are addressed to his favorite Co- 
 rinna. They form three books. Licentiousness dis- 
 figures these annals of his " Amours ; " some passages 
 even are so lewd that they have never been translated. 
 This work shows a wonderful talent for poetry. The 
 twenty-one "Epistolse Heroidum" (epistles to and 
 from women of the heroic age) are a series of love- 
 letters ; their characteristic feature is passion. Their 
 great merit consists in the neatness of the sentiments 
 expressed, and the sweetness of the versification ; their 
 great defect is the want of variety. 
 
 " The Art of Love " shows the grossness into which 
 love had fallen at the time of Ovid ; it had nothing 
 chivalrous and pure, but it was carnal and sensual. 
 The instructions contained in the first two books, ad- 
 dressed to men, are fit only for the seducer. The third 
 is fit only for abandoned women. " The Remedies of 
 Love " followed " The Art of Love." " Let him," says 
 Ovid, " who taught you to love, teach you also to cure ; 
 
152 SOMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 one hand shall inflict the wound and minister the 
 balm." His "Metamorphoses" consist of fifteen 
 books, and contain a series of mythological narratives 
 from the earliest times to the translation of the soul 
 of Julius Caesar to heaven, and his metamorphosis into 
 a star. 
 
 This poem is Ovid's noblest effort; it approaches 
 very near to the epic form. We admire everywhere 
 his natural facility in versification, his picturesque 
 truthfulness and force, the richest fancy combined with 
 grandeur and dignity. Among the most beautiful por- 
 tions may be enumerated the " Story of Phaeton " in 
 which the description of the palace of the sun is es- 
 pecially remarkable ; " The Golden Age," " Philemon 
 and Baucis," " The Adventures of Pyramus and This- 
 be," " Narcissus at the Fountain," " The Cave of 
 Sleep," " Daedalus and Icarus," " The Soliloquy of 
 Medea." A more extensive knowledge of mythology 
 may be derived from this book than from the Greeks 
 themselves. It is good to notice that the twelve con- 
 cluding books were not reviewed by the author; Ovid 
 left for- Tomi, not having had time to correct his poem, 
 and he had no opportunity afterward to attend to that 
 correction. He therefore thought it necessary to ap- 
 prise his friends in Italy that the work had not re- 
 ceived his last emendationSj and, as an apology for its 
 imperfections, he proposes that the six following lines 
 should be prefixed as a motto to the copies of his 
 " Metamorphoses " which were then circulating in the 
 capital ("Tristia"i., 6): 
 
 " Orba parente suo quicumque volnmina tangis ; 
 His saltern vestra detur in urbe locus. 
 
POETRY. 153 
 
 Quoque magis faveas, non haec sunt edita ab ipso, 
 
 Sed quasi de domini ftmere rapta sni. 
 Quicqnid ia his igitnr vitii mde carmen habebit, 
 
 Emendatums, si liouisset, erat." 
 
 " The Fasti " is an antiquarian poem of the Roman 
 calendar. Ovid completed only the first six books; 
 he intended to have twelve, one for each month. 
 
 " Sex ego Fastomm soripsi, totidem que libellos 
 Oumqne suo finem mense volumen habet." 
 
 It is a beautiful specimen. of simple narrative in 
 verse, and it displays better than any of Ovid's writ- 
 ings his power of telling a story in poetry as well as 
 in prose. 
 
 The five books of the " Tristia," and the four books 
 of "Epistles from Pontus," were the outpourings of 
 his sorrowful heart during the gloomy evening of his 
 days. There is not so much wit and genius as in his 
 former compositions, but they are conceived in the 
 spirit of the Greek elegy. His minor poems consist of 
 an elegiac poem, " Nux," in which he gives the fate 
 of a nut-tree ; a satire, " Ibis," which is a very bitter 
 composition, most likely against some faithless friend ; 
 a poem entitled " Medicamina Faciei," on cosmetics ; 
 another on fishing (" Halientica "), referred to often by 
 Pliny in his " Natural History," and an address of con- 
 dolence to Livia Augusta. Ovid was also the author 
 of a tragedy called " Medsea," which has been analyzed 
 and praised by Quintiliaii, but of which only two verses 
 are extant. To recapitulate, Ovid was a very good 
 elegiac and didactic poet. Four poets lived at the 
 time of Ovid. They were : 
 
154 
 
 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Gratius Faliscus, Fedo Albinovanus, A. Sabinus, and M. 
 Manilius. Tlie first left a poein, in iive Jmndred and 
 thirty-six lines, called " Cynegetica," treating of the 
 chase, hares, and hounds. The stjde is harsh and pro- 
 saic. Of the next two no writings are extant, and the 
 last one (Manilius) wrote an astronomical and astro- 
 logical poem, in which he gives the doctrine of a stoical 
 pantheism. It is an incomplete and poor work. 
 
 Section IV. — J^io Poetry. 
 
 Lucretius Carus was born in the year 95 b. o. Little 
 is known of his life. According to Eusehius he died 
 at the age of forty-four years, by his own hand, in a 
 
 paroxysm of insanity produced by a philter, which Lti- 
 cretia, his wife or mistress, had given him, with no 
 design of depriving him of life or reason, but to renew 
 or increase his passion. 
 
POETRY. 155 
 
 He wrote a poem, in six books, " De Kemm Na- 
 tnra," which we have. It is philosophic and didactic, 
 and contains a full exposition of the theological, phys- 
 ical, and moral system of Epicurus. Notwithstanding 
 the nature of the subject, which gave the poet little 
 opportunity for those descriptions of the passions and 
 feelings which generally form the chief charm in poe- 
 try, Lucretius has succeeded in imparting to his work 
 much of thie real spirit of poetry, and, no doubt, if he 
 had chosen a subject which would have afforded him 
 greater scope for the exercise of his powers, he might 
 have been ranked among the first of poets. In no 
 writer does the Latin language display its majestic and 
 stately grandeur so much as in Lucretius. There is a 
 •power and an energy which we rarely meet with in the 
 Latin poets ; and no one who has read his invocation 
 to Yenus, at the beginning of the poem, or his deline- 
 ation of the demons of superstition, and of the sacrifice 
 of Iphigenia, which we give in part below, or his beau- 
 tiful picture of the busy pursuits of men at the com- 
 mencement of the second book, or the progress of the 
 arts and sciences in the fifth, or his description of the 
 plague which desolated Athens, dm-ing the Pelopon- 
 nesian War, at the close of the sixth, can refuse to 
 allow Lucretius a high rank among the poets — in the 
 epic style — -of antiquity. 
 
 In the whole history of Koman taste and criticism, 
 nothing appears so extraordinary as the slight mention 
 that is made of Lucretius by succeeding Latin authors. 
 This, however, might be caused by the materialism 
 of his philosophy. The works of Lucretius, like one 
 of Virgil's, had not received the finishing touches of 
 
156 BOMAN CLASSICAL LITERATUBE. 
 
 its author at the period of his death. We add the 
 passage alluded to before, and we will notice how beau- 
 tifully the poet has caught the spirit and feeling of 
 Greek fancy, and how capable the Latin language now 
 was of adequately expressing them : 
 
 " Aulide quo pacto Triviai virginis aram 
 Iphianassai turparont sanguine fede 
 Ductores Danaum delectei, prima yirorum 
 Cni simul infala, virgineos circumdate comtns, 
 Ex utraque pari malarnm parte profasa est ; 
 Et msestum simnl ante aras astare parentem. 
 Sensit, et hunc propter ferrnm celare ministros, 
 Aspectuque suo lacrumas effundere civeis ; 
 Muta metu, terram genibus snbmissa, petebat ; 
 Nee miser» prod esse in tali tempore quibat, 
 
 •Qnod patrio princeps donarat nomine regem. 
 Nam sublata virum manibus, tremebnnda que, ad aras 
 Deducta est ; non est, solemni more sacrorum 
 Perfecto, posset claro comitari hymenseo; 
 Sed, casta incerte, nubendi tempore in ipso, 
 Hostia consideret mactatu mnsta parentis, 
 Exitus nt classi felix faustusque daretnr. 
 Tantum religio potuit suadere malornm." 
 
 Ovid, speaking of Lucretius, says that " his sublime 
 strains shall never perish, until the day when the world 
 shall be given up to destruction." 
 
 P. Virgilius Maro was born at Andes, a few miles 
 from Mantua, in the year 70 b. o. His father was a 
 man of low birth, who gradually acquired means to 
 buy a farm. Virgil commenced his studies at Cre- 
 mona, where he remained until he assumed the toga 
 virilis. At the age of sixteen he retired to Milan, and 
 afterward to Naples, where he laid the foundation of 
 his multifarious learning.) 
 
POETRY. 157 
 
 Virgil carefully read the Greek historians, but med- 
 icine and mathematics were the sciences to which he 
 was chiefly addicted. Yery likely from Naples Yirgil 
 did not go to Rome, but went back to his native place, 
 and twice by his talent saved his property. Being 
 constantly in the country, and captivated by the rural 
 beauties of " Tlie Idyllia " of Theocritus, Virgil became 
 ambitious of introducing this new species of poetry into 
 his native land, and he commenced his " Bucolics." 
 
 The situation of Virgil's residence was low and humid ; 
 his delicate constitution induced him, about the year 
 714, when he was thirty years old, to seek for a warmer 
 climate. Virgil first proceeded to the capital, and there 
 liis fortune rapidly increased by the liberality of Mae- 
 cenas, and he did not enjoy less favor with the em- 
 peror than with his minister. It was probably during 
 this period of favor with the emperor and his minister 
 that Virgil contributed the verses in celebration of the 
 deity who presided over the gardens of Maecenas, and 
 
168 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 wrote, though without acknowledging it, the well- 
 known distich in honor of Augustus : 
 
 " Nocte pluit tota, redeunt spectacnla mane ; 
 Divisum imperinm cum Jove Caesar habet." 
 
 It seems that Bathyllus, a contemptible poet of the 
 day, claimed these verses as his own, and was liberally 
 rewarded. Vexed at the imposture, Yirgil again wrote 
 the verses near the palace, and under them : 
 
 " Hos ego versiculos feci, tnlit alter honores ;" 
 
 with the beginning of another line — 
 
 "Sic vos non vobis — " 
 
 four times repeated. Augustus wished the lines to be 
 finished, Bathyllus seemed unable, and Virgil at last 
 proved himself the author of the distich by completing 
 the stanza in the following manner : 
 
 " Sic voB non vobis nidiiicatis aves ; 
 Sic vos non vobis vellera fertis oves ; 
 Sic vos non vobis mellificatis apes 
 Sic vos non vobis fertis aratra boves." 
 
 Virgil retired to Naples in 717, and he dwelt chiefly 
 in the neighborhood of that city for the remainder of 
 his life. He now commenced his " Georgics," by 
 order of Maecenas, and continued for the following 
 seven years closely occupied with this work. 
 
 Then " The -^neid " was commenced in 724, and 
 it occupied him until his death. Having brought " The 
 ^neid " to conclusion, Virgil went to Greece. It was 
 on undertaking this voyage that Horace addressed to 
 him the affectionate ode beginning — 
 
POETBT. 169 
 
 " Sic te Diva potens Oypri," etc. — (I., 3.) 
 
 He soon returned to Italy, and died at Brundisium, in 
 734 ; he was then fifty-one years old. His tomb lies 
 near Naples, on the slope of the Pansilippe, with the 
 following epitaph written by himself : 
 
 " Mantua me genuit, Calaljri rapuere ; tenel nnnc 
 Parthenope. Cecini pascua, rura, duces." 
 
 In his pastoral poetry Virgil was the professed im- 
 itator of Theocritus, but Theocritus surpasses him in 
 the variety of his portraits, and in the minuteness and 
 accuracy of his descriptions. Still, Virgil is superior 
 to Theocritus ; his selections are very judicious and all 
 good ; he refused whatever was gross, and threw aside 
 what was overloaded and superfluous. He made his 
 shepherds more cultivated than even those of his own 
 time. 
 
 " The Georgics," in four books, treat of husbandry 
 in general ; this poem is as remarkable for majesty and 
 magnificence of diction as "The Eclogues" are for 
 sweetness and harmony of versification. It is the most 
 complete, elaborate, and finished poem in the Latin, and 
 perhaps in any language. By his genius the writer 
 has exhibited himself as a poet on topics where it was 
 difficult to appear as such. Virgil has imitated the 
 poem of Hesiod, especially in his first and second book, 
 but Virgil is more natural than Hesiod. 
 
 The great merit of " The Georgics " consists in their 
 varied digression, interesting episodes, and sublime 
 bursts of descriptive power, which are interspersed 
 throughout the poem. To quote any of them would 
 be unnecessary, as Virgil and his translations are in 
 
16Q ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 every one's hands. It will be sufficient to enumerate 
 some of the most striking. These are : 
 
 1. " The Origin of Agriculture," i., 125. 
 
 2. " The Storm in Harvest," i., 316. 
 
 3. "The Signs of the Weather," i., 351. 
 
 4. " The Prodigies at the Death of Julius Caesar," 
 
 i., 466. 
 
 5. "The Battle of Pharsalia," i., 489. 
 
 6. " The Panegyric on Italy," ii., 136. 
 
 7. " The Praises of a Country Life," ii., 458. 
 
 8. " The Horse and the Chariot Eace," iii., 103. 
 
 9. " The Description of "Winter in Scythia," iii., 349. 
 
 10. " The Murrain of Cattle," iii., 478. 
 
 11. " The Battle of the Bees," iv., 67. 
 
 12. " The Story of Aristseus," iv., 317. 
 
 13. " The Legend of Orpheus and Eiirydice," iv., 453. 
 
 The subject of " The ^neid " is the settlement of 
 the Trojans in Italy. This production belongs to a 
 nobler class of poetry than "The Georgics," and ia 
 equally perfect in its kind. It would be absurd to 
 suppose that Yirgil intended to give instructions to 
 princes in the art of settling colonies, or to supply Au- 
 gustus with political rules for the government and 
 legislation of a great empire. He evidently designed, 
 not merely to deduce the descent of Augustus and the 
 Romans from jEneas and his companions, but, by cre- 
 ating a perfect character in his hero, to shadow out the 
 eminent qualities of his imperial patron; to recom- 
 mend his virtues to his countrymen, who would readily 
 apply to him the amiable portrait ; and, perhaps, to 
 suggest that he was the ruler of the world, announced 
 
POETRY. 161 
 
 of old by the prophecies and oracles of the Satttrnian 
 land. It is objected against Yirgil that he has imitated. 
 So he has ; but what he has done was customary in his 
 time — this was allowed — and Yirgil has surpassed his 
 models and is original. For instance, we find passages 
 like the following, copied algiost verbatim, from Ennius, 
 and which in modem times would be considered as 
 plagiarisms, but the ancients admitted them without 
 reluctance : 
 
 Ennitis. "Est locus Hesperiam quam mortales perhibebant." 
 ViBGiL. " Est locus Hesperiam Graii oognomine dicunt." 
 
 ENNnrs. "Qui coslum versat stellis fulgentibus aptmn." 
 ViEQiL. "Axem humero torquet stellis fulgentibus aptum." 
 
 Ennitjs. "Hei mihi qualis erat quantum mutatns ab illo." 
 ViBGiL. "Hei mihi qualis erat quantum mutatns ab illo." 
 
 But, if there be a want of originality, it is fully com- 
 pensated by the variety of incidents, the consummate 
 skill in the arrangement of them, and the interest which 
 pervades both the plot and the incidents. Yirgil has 
 shown himself especially skilful in a species of imita- 
 tion which consists in the appropriate choice of words, 
 and the assimilation of the sound to the sense. Rep- 
 resenting the rapid speed of horses, and the still more 
 rapid flight of time, he says : 
 
 " Quadrupedante putrem sonitu quatit ungnla campum." 
 
 — JEneid viii., 591. 
 
 " Sed fngit interea, fugit irreparabile tempus." 
 
 — Georgics iii., 284. 
 
 An unusual use of spondees represents dignity and 
 majesty : 
 
162 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 " Ast ego, quse divum inoedo regina 1 " ■ — j^heid i., 50. 
 
 A corresponding change of metre answers for an ac- 
 celerated motion : 
 
 " . . . . Jatnjam lapsura cadentique 
 Imminet assimilis . . . . " — JEhmd vi., 602. 
 
 The hiatus expresses the effort : 
 
 "Ter sunt conati imponere Pelio Ossam.'' 
 
 Many other examples might be given of that which 
 was, in Virgil, the natural impulse of a lively fancy 
 and a delicately-attuned ear. 
 
 Besides the compositions we have just spoken of, it 
 is supposed, and with much probability, that Yirgil 
 has written "The Culex," "Ciris," "Moretum," "Co- 
 pa," and other shorter pieces in lyric, elegiac, and 
 iambic metres, commonly known by the name of " Ca- 
 talecta." "The Culex" is a bucolic poem, relating 
 the act of a shepherd killing a gnat that disturbed him 
 in his sleep, and, as soon as the shepherd awoke, he 
 saw near him a snake ready to bite him. The shep- 
 herd, full of remorse and gratitude, raised a tomb to 
 his benefactor, and writes the following epitaph : 
 
 " Parve culex, peoudum custos, tibi tale merenti 
 Funeris offlcium vit» pro mnnere reddit." 
 
 " The Ciris " relates the legend of Scylla changed into 
 a fish, and her father Nisus into an eagle. " The Mo- 
 retum" describes the commencement of a day's em- 
 ployment in the field, and the preparation of a dish of 
 oUor^od/rida, of garden herbs called nwretv/m. " The 
 Copa" represents a female waiter at a tavern, begging 
 for custom by a tempting display of the accommoda- 
 
POETRY. 
 
 163 
 
 tions and comforts prepared for strangers. "We find in 
 that elegiac poem such verses and such doctrine as the 
 following one : 
 
 "Pereant qui cr.istina cnrant 
 Mors aurem vellens, Vivite, ait, venio." 
 
 All these poems are inferior to the great compo- 
 sitions of Virgil ; but, they were written when the 
 poet was young. 
 
 Section V. — Didactic and Lyric Poetry. 
 
 Horatius Flaccus was born at Venusia, or Venu- 
 sinum, in 65 b. c. Ilis father was a freedman, who 
 bought a farm near Venusia, and Horace lived there 
 until he was eleven or twelve years old. Then his 
 
 father brought him to Eome, and gave him a good 
 teacher. Horace studied the ancient Latin poets, and 
 acquired a thorough knowledge of the Greek language. 
 It is probable that soon after he assumed the toga vi- 
 
164 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITEKATUKE. 
 
 rilis. He went then to Athens to pursue his studies. 
 Athens was at that period the university of Rome, and 
 thither the Eoman youth resorted to learn language, 
 art, science, and philosophy. 
 
 " Inter sylvas Aoademi qnserere vermn." 
 
 During the civil war under the Second Triumvirate 
 he joined the army of Brutus, fought at Philippi, and, 
 as he relates it himself, threw away his shield and fled. 
 When he came back to Italy he found that his patri- 
 mony had been taken from him. He then went to 
 Home, and his talents soon acquired for him — with the 
 friendship of Virgil, Msecenaa, and Augustus — :the way 
 to fortune and honors. At Rome Horace occupied a 
 house on the pleasant and healthful heights of the Es- 
 quiline, where he resided during the winter and spring ; 
 the summer and autumn he passed at the Sabine farm, 
 which Maecenas had given him or procured for him. 
 Horace, in that country place, was a great favorite with 
 his simple neighbors, and there he found all that he 
 ever wished for, and even more. 
 
 " Modns agri non ita magnns 
 Hortns ubi, et tecto vioinus jngis aquas fona, 
 Et paulum sylvsB super his." — Satires vi., 1, bk. 2. 
 
 Of course Horace was happy, but the death of his 
 friends Maecenas and Virgil grieved him very much. 
 He himself died soon after Msecenas, in his fifty-eighth 
 year. 
 
 The country was ' the place where his heart abode, 
 and here he displayed all the kindness of his dispo- 
 sition. The character of Horace is clearly developed 
 in his writings. He acknowledged no master in phi- 
 
POETBY. 165 
 
 losophy, and his boast was not a vain one. He was, 
 praetically, an Epicurean. The sterling qualities of 
 Horace were mixed with baser alloy ; still, apart from 
 some frailties excusable at that epoch, we recognize in 
 him most of the virtues which adorn humanity outside 
 of Faith. 
 
 The productions of Horace consist of " Odes," 
 "Epodes," "Satires," and "Epistles." Most of the 
 " Odes " of Horace are Greek imitations, as we may 
 see by the following comparisons : 
 
 "Sunt quos curriculo." —Odes i., 3. 
 
 ^ AeKKonrohtav /jAv riveKs eii^pai- 
 
 vovaiv "iTTrtov rifwX Kal tiTk^avoi • 
 
 Toil's S iv TToXo^oaoK 6dKdfioK ^lord • 
 
 Tepverai hi Kal rit iir olS/i SXiov 
 
 val doa <T&<s SuiaTe[j(a>v. 
 
 — PiNDAB, Fragment). 
 
 "Jam te premet moXjfabnlseqne Manes." 
 
 —Odet i., 4, 16. 
 
 KarOavoiffa Be KeK, oiSeTrore fiva/juxrvva credev 
 eaa-er ovSiiroT et? Harepov, ov yhp weSjj^ets ^poBpmv 
 T&v eic Ilieplcwi. A)OC d<f)av^^ ksv 'AiBa BofWK 
 (})oird<r€i<; weS' afiavp&v veicvmv iKwejroTa/ieva. 
 
 — Sappho, Fragments. 
 
 " Vides ut alta stet nive candidum 
 Soraote, neo jam snstineant onus 
 Sylv89 laborantes, gelnque 
 Flumina constiterint acute ?" — Odes i., 9. 
 
 "Tei fiev 6 Zei><!, Ik 8' opavm neyat 
 Xei/JMV Treirdyeunv S iSarmv poat. 
 
166 KOMAN CLASSICAIi LITEKATUKE 
 
 Kd^^aKKe tov xetf^v, eirl /lev rtOeh 
 
 irvp, ev Si Klpvai<s olvov a^iZiwi 
 /leKiypov * aSrap afi/in, Kopcra 
 ftdkOcucop afimridei fva^dXKpv. 
 
 — Alc^se Fragmenta, 
 
 "Dnloe et decomm est pro patria mori.'' 
 
 —Ode» iii., 2, 13. 
 
 TeOvd/ievcu yap KeCSJbv eiri nrpofiajfoun Treaovra 
 avS/j' arfoJSov ■irepl f) irarplSi, fiapvd/ievov, 
 
 — Ttetei li-agmenta. 
 
 "Mora et fagacem perBcqtiitur virnm." 
 
 — Odes iii, 3, 14. 
 
 'O ^ aS ddvaro^ eKixe xal tov ^tjyo/juixpv. 
 
 — -SniomDES. 
 
 " navis, referunt in mare te novi 
 Fluotus? Oqnidagis? Fortiter occupa 
 Portum. Nonne vides, ut 
 Nudum remigio latus," etc. — Odes i., 14. 
 
 To /lev ydp evdev KVfia Kv^vSerm, 
 
 TO S' ei>6ev ' d/i/ie^ S* dv to pAaaov 
 
 vdi. ^prjfieOa trvv fieKaivn, 
 
 ■XeifiStvb iur)(6evvT€<i /leydXa) KoKmv • 
 
 irkp ijxv y^p ain-Xos la^oireSav ejfei, 
 
 \eu^o^ Be irav ^dSmfKov ijSrj, 
 
 Kal "KoKiBei fieydXai Kar aiiTo 
 
 KaXaai S* Sr/Kvpat, 
 
 . — Axx}.fii li-agmenta. 
 
 The following quotations are mere translations : 
 
 " Nube candentes humeros amiotus." 
 Ne<f>iKy €tKvfiipo<i &fJbov<;. 
 
 — HosfGB, Iliad, i, 186. 
 
POETRY. 
 
 167 
 
 "Apyeoii iiriro^oToio, 
 
 — HoMEB, Iliad, 13', 287. 
 
 IIal<; aXlai; &eriSo<s. 
 — ^EuEiPiDBS, Androm., 108. 
 
 Fvio^opovi; fie\eSS>va<;. 
 
 — Hesiod, 'Epy., 66. 
 
 'AdavdroK efuy(dev. 
 
 — PiNDAH, IstJim., 2, 42. 
 
 AaXbv vSap. 
 KaTai^dTT}<! Kepawo^, 
 
 — ^SOHYLCS, Pr. v., 359. 
 
 " Flagitio additis damnum." 2T/)o? al<r)(wq KaKOV. 
 
 — EtiEiPiDES, Ehe., 102. 
 
 " Obliquura meditantis ictum." Aoj(jia} t ataaovre. 
 
 — HOMEE, II., fl', 148. 
 
 " Aptnm eqnis Argos." 
 
 "MarinEB fllium Thetidis." 
 
 " Mordaces soUioitudines." 
 
 " Dis miscent superis." 
 
 " Loquaoes lymphae." 
 "Fulmine caduoo." 
 
 "Testudinis auresB." 
 " Nescios fari infantes." 
 "Mens trepidat metu." 
 " Funera densentur." 
 " Dulce loquentem." 
 
 Xpvaka (^opfiirf^. 
 
 — ^PlNDAE, Pyth., &, 1. 
 
 Nt^ttm riicva. 
 
 — ^HOMEB, II., p', 311. 
 
 Aeiiw/rX iraKKei, 
 
 — SoPHOOMBB, (Ed. Th/r. 
 
 QvriffKov iiraxravrepoi, 
 
 — Homes, 11, &, 383. 
 
 'ASii <f>a)vol<Ta<;. 
 
 — Sappho. 
 
 We could continue to give sucli quotations, and 
 show that Horace has imitated, and even almost copied 
 passages in Pindar, Alcseus, Sappho, Homer, and the 
 great tragical writers, especially Euripides and Sopho- 
 cles. Where Horace is principally beautiful is in the 
 
168 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITEKATUKB. 
 
 " Odes" in which he describes the pleasures of a coun- 
 try life, or touches on the beauties of Nature. We may 
 give as an example the fourth ode of the third book, 
 from the ninth verse, in which he relates an adventure 
 which befell him in his childhood : 
 
 " Me fabuloasa Vulture ia Apulo 
 Nutricis extra limen Apulise, 
 Ludo fatigatumque somno 
 Fronde nova pnerum palumbes 
 
 " Texere (mirum quod foret omnibus, 
 Quicumque celss nidum Acherontiae, 
 Saltusqae Bantinos, et arvum 
 Pingue tenent humilis Ferenti), 
 
 " tJt tuto ab atris corpore viperis 
 Dormirem et ursis; ut premerer sacra 
 Laurosque oollataqne ui;rto 
 Kon sine Dis animosus infans.". 
 
 " The Epodes " of Horace breathe the spirit of the 
 satirist rather than of the lyric poet ; and, surely, like 
 his " Satires," they were written in his years of adver- 
 sity. It is to be noticed that " The Epodfes " were pub- 
 lished soon after " The Satires," and, naturally, Horace 
 could not have rid himself entirely of the bitter spirit 
 which animated him when he wrote his satiric com- 
 positions. It would, perhaps, be better io call " The 
 Satires " of Horace sermons ; they are, in fact, desul- 
 tory didactic essays, sketching boldly and good-humor- 
 edly a picture of Eoman social life with its vices and 
 follies. 
 
 " The Epistles » of Horace do not differ from « The 
 Satires," except that in the latter composition the poet 
 speaks, as it were, ex cathedra, while in " The Epistles " 
 
PROSE— ELOQUENCE. 1G9 
 
 he discourses with the freedom with which he would 
 converse with an intimate friend. The epistle called 
 " Ars Poetica, or Epistle to the Pisos," is not a treatise 
 on poetry, but simply an outline of the history of the 
 Greek drama, and the principles of criticism applicable 
 to it. It is a very good composition. The versification 
 of " The Epistles " is more smooth than that of " The 
 Satires," but only in proportion to the superior neat- 
 ness of the style generally. 
 
 To resume, the qualities in which Horace excels are 
 his strong good sense, his clear judgment, and the 
 purity of his taste, and it is especially in his " Odes " 
 that his genius as a poet is displayed. They have 
 never been equalled in beauty of sentiment, grace- 
 fulness of language, and the melody of versification. 
 They comprehend every variety of subject suitable to 
 the lyric muse. Not only do they evince a complete 
 mastery over the Greek metres, but also show that 
 Horace was thoroughly imbued with the spirit of Greek 
 poetry, and had profoundly studied Greek literature, 
 especially the writings of Pindar and the lyric poets. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 PEOSE ELOQUEirCE. 
 
 M. Tullius Cicero was born at Arpinum, on the same 
 
 day as Pompey the Great, in 106. His father belonged 
 
 to a patrician family. When he was fourteen years 
 
 old he went to Eome with his brother Quintus, and 
 
 8 
 
170 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 l)oth had very good masters, and, among them the 
 Greek poet Archias. When he was quite young Cicero 
 showed taste for poetry and wrote verses, and even oh- 
 tained on that account the praises of Marius. At six- 
 teen he took the toga, and attended the forum regu- 
 larly, and he studied jurisprudence. He served very 
 
 little in the army, but made a campaign under the 
 father of Pompey the Great. He then studied philos- 
 ophy, and embraced the doctrine of Plato ; at twenty- 
 five he pleaded his first cause, and in the following year 
 defended Roscius, who had been accused of parricide 
 by a favorite of Sylla. In order to strengthen his 
 constitution Cicero then travelled in Greece and in 
 Asia, and, after a few years, came back to Pome with 
 invigorated health, and found Hortensius at the zenith 
 of his glory. 
 
 He was elected quaestor and sent to Sicily at a time 
 
PEOSE— ELOQUENCE. li^l 
 
 when the metropolis was suffering from a great scarcity 
 of grain ; he was then thirty years old, and owed to his 
 eloquence that rapid elevation. Cicero discharged his 
 office nobly. 
 
 On his return home he accused Yerres, and pro- 
 nounced the two orations, *' In Verrem de Signis " 
 and " In Yerrem de Suppliciis," showing that during 
 his administration Yerres had been cruel and dis- 
 honest, and he had him condemned. In the follow- 
 ing year (69), that is, five years after his election as a 
 quaestor, and when his time of office was over, he was 
 appointed curule-sedile, and behaved himself wisely; 
 he found that he could satisfy the people without in- 
 volving himself in the extravagant expenses which were 
 customary among his predecessors. 
 
 In 67 he obtained the prsetorship, a:hd, during that 
 time he made his speech, " Pro Lege Manilla," in favor 
 of Pompey, who then obtained the command of the 
 war against Mithridates. His next ambition was the 
 consulship, which he obtained with Antony, and he 
 signalized himself during that time by crushing the 
 conspiracy of Catiline, on account of which circum- 
 stance he was hailed the father of his country. Having 
 incurred the enmity of Clodius, who accused him of 
 having acted as a dictator in regard to the execution 
 of the accomplices of Catiline, Cicero went into exile 
 voluntarily, and showed in his absence that a vain man 
 is never a man of energy. 
 
 In the year 49 he returned to Rome, and, during the 
 struggle between Caesar and Pompey, tried to remain 
 neutral, but at length joined Pompey, and after the 
 defeat of this general he was pardoned by Caesar, At 
 
172 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITEBATURB. 
 
 that time Cicero had domestic afflictions, and he was 
 twice divorced. After the assassination of Csesar he 
 went to Greece, but came back immediately to Kome, 
 It was the time when the struggle was going on be- 
 tween Octavius and Antony. For a while Antony 
 fled, and Cicero pronounced his fourteen " Philippics " 
 against him ; but Antony came back, and formed a 
 triumvirate with Octavius and Lepidus. Lists of pro- 
 scription were formed, and Cicero was on the list of 
 Antony. He tried to flee, but the state of the weather 
 did not allow him to embark ; he was taken, and died 
 nobly. 
 
 Antiquity may be challenged to produce an indi- 
 vidual so virtuous and so perfectly amiable as Cicero. 
 But the great orator was irresolute, timid, and incon- 
 sistent ; he was continually vacillating from one extreme 
 to the other, always too confident or too dejected, and 
 incorrigibly vain of success. The orations he is known 
 to have composed amount to about eighty, of which 
 fifty-nine, either entire or in part, are preserved. 
 
 Of the rhetorical works of Cicero, the most admired 
 and finished is the dialogue "De Oratore." In the 
 " Oratoriae Partitiones " the subject is the art of ar- 
 ranging and distributing the parts of an oration, so as 
 to adapt them in the best manner to their end. 
 
 In the dialogue " Brutus " he gives a short account 
 of all who had ever been remarkable in Greece or Home 
 for eloquence, down to his own time, " The Topica" 
 is a compendium of " The Topica" of Aristotle. The 
 treatise " De Optimo Genere Oratorum " was originally 
 intended as a preface to the translation of the discourse 
 of Demosthenes, " Pro Corona," la all his works on 
 
PROSE— ELOQUENCE. 173 
 
 rhetoric he accepts the principles of Aristotle, and takes 
 his divisions. The subject is considered in three dis- 
 tinct lights, with reference to the case, the speaker, and 
 the speech : 1. The case, as respects its nature, is defi- 
 nite or indefinite ; with reference to the hearer, it is 
 judicial, deliberative, or descriptive; as regards the 
 opponent, the division is fourfold according as the fact, 
 its nature, its quality, or its propriety, is called in 
 question. 2. The art of the speaker is directed to five 
 points 5 the discovery of persuasives (whether ethical, 
 pathetical, or argumentative), arrangement, diction, 
 memory, and delivery. 3. The speech itself consists 
 of six parts ; introduction (exordium), proposition, di- 
 vision, proof, refutation, and conclusion, or peroration. 
 The oration in which Cicero illustrates this teaching, 
 by example, is the discourse " Pro Milone." 
 
 Cicero's laudatory orations are among his happiest 
 efforts. The best among these orations are: "Pro 
 Lege Manilla," " Pro Marcello," " Pro Ligario," " Pro 
 Archia," and the ninth " Philippic," which is in praise 
 of Servius Sulpicius. But it is in judicial eloquence^ 
 especially on subjects of a lively cast, that his talents 
 are displayed to the best advantage, as in the speeches 
 "Pro Csalio," and "Murena," and against Csecilius 
 and Catiline. The character which he draws of Cati- 
 line (or " Pro Cselio" ) is perfect. 
 
 Among many excellences possessed by Cicero, the 
 greatest is the suitableness of his diction to the genius 
 of the Latin tongue. He has been accused of being 
 too florid, too brilliant, too Asiatic, and opposed to the 
 sublime simplicity of the Greek writers. But we must 
 observe that the Latin language is weak comparatively. 
 
174 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 scanty and inharmonions, and requires mncli skill to 
 render it expressive and graceful. Simplicity in Latin 
 is scarcely inseparable from baldness. Latin is not a 
 philosophical language. In that respect Demosthenes, 
 to Tvhom Cicero may be compared, had a great advan- 
 tage over the Latin orator. The Greek language, on 
 account of its richness, allowed Demosthenes to be 
 more philosophical, and consequently more solid than 
 Cicero, in his speeches ; besides this consideration, the 
 public of Athens was composed quite diflferently from 
 the public assembled in the Boman Forum, in regard 
 to knowledge and literary culture. 
 
 Cicero rather made a language than a style, yet not 
 so much by the invention as by the combination of 
 words.. This is that "cppja dicendi" which gained 
 Cicero the high testimony of Caesar to his inventive 
 power. In regard to his philosophical writings, we 
 have "De Legibns," a treatise on jurisprudence, of 
 which three books only remain ; " De Finibus Bonorum 
 et Malorum," being a discussion of the opinion of an- 
 tiquity on that question; the treatise "Academicse 
 Qusestiones," relates the doctrine of the Academy; 
 the " Tnsculanae Qnsestiones " is a sort of treatise on 
 ethics; "The Paradoxa" contains the discussion of 
 six paradoxes of the Stoics. Then we haVe a treatise 
 on mythology, " De Natura Deorum." The writings 
 "DeOfficiis," "DeSenectute," and "DeAmicitia," are 
 three good treatises on moral duties in the different cir- 
 cumstances of life. The first one was written for his son. 
 We might add to this list a sort of sketch on astronomy, 
 " Somnium Scipionis," and a part of a treatise — " De 
 Eepublica " — of which the object is very patriotic. 
 
PEOSE— ELOQUENCE. 175 
 
 As a philosopher Cicero belongs to the old Acad- 
 emy. His merit as a philosophical writer lies in his 
 luminous and popular exposition of the leading prin- 
 ciples of the ancient schools. He wrote in the form 
 of dialogues. Little remains of his historical and poet- 
 ical works, and no regret can be felt for it ; from the 
 fragments which are extant, we may judge that Cicero 
 was not a poet. 
 
 We have about one thousand " Epistles," divided 
 into thirty-six books, sixteen of which are addressed to 
 Atticus, three to his brother Quintus, one to Brutus, 
 and sixteen to his different friends. These letters 
 throw a great light on the history of the time, and give 
 a full insight into the private character of Cicero him- 
 self, who was accustomed at all times to unbosom his 
 thoughts most freely to his friends. 
 
 After Cicero we may give the following names : 
 
 Asinins Follio. — He was born at Rome, in the year 
 76, and was a very distinguished warrior, a companion 
 of Caesar and Anthony, and for a time the governor of 
 Gallia Transpadana. He was also a writer and an 
 orator, but none of his writings remain. He had a 
 satirical spirit, and was often unjust in his criticisms. 
 He was the first one who established a public library, 
 and his example was soon followed, ^milius Paulus, 
 LucuUus, Sulla, and Caesar, had abeady private libra- 
 ries, and Pollio expended the spoils of Dalmatia in 
 founding a temple to Liberty, and furnishing it with a 
 library. All the emperors, from Augustus down to 
 Hadrian, established or enlarged similar institutions. 
 Pollio died at the age of eighty. 
 
 Terentiua Varro was born at Eeate, a Sabine town, 
 
116 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 situated in the Tempe of Italy, in 116 b. o. He was also 
 a warrior, but especially a very learned man. He was 
 the librarian of Csesar. No Roman author wrote so 
 much as he did, and no one read so much, except Pliny 
 the Elder. Yarro wrote five hundted books, but one 
 only, and some fragments of another, remain. The 
 first is " De Ee Rustica," and the other, " De Lingua 
 Latina." What is to be regretted the more is the loss 
 of his book " Antiquitates Kerum Humanarum, et An- 
 tiquitates Eerum Divinarum." The two treatises, form- 
 ing one work, were very useful to St. Augustine for the 
 composition of his work " De Civitate Dei." Varro 
 composed also "Satires," partly in prose and partly in 
 verse, consisting of moral essays and dialogues. We 
 have eighteen short epigrams, of no great merit, of his 
 poems. Varro died at the age of eighty-nine years. 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 PEOSE HI8T0ET. 
 
 In historical composition alone can the Eomans lay 
 claim to originality ; and, in their historical literature 
 especially, is exhibited a faithful transcript of their 
 mind and character. We have in the Augustan age 
 five names which are very illustrious, and we ought not 
 to pass over without mention the names of — 
 
 L, Lucceins, the friend and correspondent of Oicero. 
 His right to be called an historian is founded on his 
 having commenced a history of the social and civil wars, 
 but it was never completed and published. 
 
PEOSE— HISTORY. 177 
 
 L. Licinins Lncnllns was the illustrions bat luxurions 
 conqueror of Mithridates. He devoted his leisure to 
 the composition of history, and wrote in Greek a his- 
 tory of the Marsian War. He was a friend of Cicero, 
 and the great orator inscribed with his name one of 
 his books, namely, the fourth book of his " Academic 
 Questions," in which he made LucuUns define the 
 philosophical opinions of the old Academy. 
 
 The five great names composing the catalogue of 
 Roman historians, during the Augustan period, are : 
 
 Comelins ITepos, who lived in the time of Catullus, 
 was born near Verona, and was also a friend of Cicero. 
 Nothing particular is known about his life. All his 
 works, which are mentioned by the ancients, are lost. 
 They were : 1. Three books of " Chronicles," being a 
 short abridgment of universal history ; 2. Five books 
 of " Anecdotes ; " 3. " The Life of Cicero," including a 
 collection of letters addressed to him ; 4. " De Histo- 
 ricis," or " Memoirs of Historians." The work now ex- 
 tant is entitled " The Lives of Eminent Generals," in 
 which Cornelius gives biographies of twenty generals, 
 and short accounts of some celebrated monarchs. Al- 
 though Cornelius wrote conscientiously, still Pliny ac- 
 cuses him of being inaccurate, and modem critics have 
 found many mistakes and inconsistencies in almost 
 every one of his biographies. As examples: In the 
 life of Miltiades, he confounds Miltiades the son of 
 Cimon, with Miltiades the son of Cypselus ; in the life 
 of Pansanius he confounds Darius and Xerxes ; in the 
 same biography he confounds the victory of Mycale, 
 gained by Xanthippus, with the naval battle gained by 
 Cimon, nine years after, near the river Eurymedon. 
 
1^8 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 In the third chapter of the life of Lysander, Nepos con- 
 founds two expeditions of this general into Asia, be- 
 tween which there elapsed an interval of seven years. 
 In the second chapter of the life of Chabrias, utter con- 
 fusion prevails. At the period when Nepos makes 
 Agesilaus to have gone on his expedition into Egypt, 
 this monarch was busily occupied in Bceotia ; and ISe- 
 pos himself, in his life of Agesilaus, makes no mention 
 of this expedition. The king of Egypt, who was as- 
 sisted by Chabrias, was Tachos and not Nectanabis. 
 In the life of Hannibal, Cornelius makes that general 
 march to Eome directly, while it was not after the vic- 
 tory at Cannae, biit after having permitted the spirit 
 of his army to become corrupted in Campania, that 
 Hannibal directed his march toward Rome. Many 
 other mistakes could be pointed out. In regard to the 
 style and composition, the writings of Nepos are good. 
 C. Julius Cssar was bom in 100 b. o., of a family^ of 
 the Julian gens, one of the oldest among the patrician 
 families of Rome. He became a soldier in the nine- 
 teenth year of his age, and his works display all the 
 best qualities which are fostered by military education 
 — frankness, simplicity, and brevity. Caesar had much 
 taste for eloquence, and he studied rhetoric and oratoiy 
 under a very able teacher, ApoUonius Melos, who was 
 not only a teacher of rhetoric but also an able and elo- 
 quent pleader in the courts of law. Caesar showed his 
 talent for eloquence in several cases, but especially in 
 Catiline's conspiracy, when, without reason, he was sus- 
 pected of having been an accomplice, and had to de- 
 fend himself. In the year 63 he was appointed pontifex 
 maximus, and he examined diligently into the history 
 
PKOSE— HISTORY. 
 
 179 
 
 and nature of the Roman belief of the Auguri. He 
 confined his remarks in a work, consisting of at least 
 sixteen books, called " Libri Auspiciorum," which is 
 lost. He studied astronomy, in order to fit himself for 
 the discharge of his office, and even wrote a book, " De 
 
 JULirS O^SAK. 
 
 Astris." This led him to the reform of the calendar. 
 Then Cassar commenced his military career, during 
 which he composed his "Commentaries," the only 
 work extant from him. He wrote with his own hand 
 seven books, containing the history of the seven years 
 of the Gallic War ; the eighth book was also com- 
 
180 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 menced by him, and was finished by Hirtins, his most 
 faithful companion and secretary. Three other books, 
 also written by Caesar, carry the history of the Civil 
 War down to the Alexandrine. 
 
 These memoirs are exactly what they profess to be, 
 and are written in the most appropriate style. They 
 are sketches taken on the spot, in the midst of the ac- 
 tion, while the mind is full ; their elegance and polish 
 show the least labored efforts of a refined and educated 
 taste. The " Commentaries " are not so much a his- 
 tory as the materials for it. The calmness and equa- 
 bility of Caesar's character pervade his writings ; but 
 these do not, for that reason, lack energy and life. 
 Cicero says that the simple beauty of Caesar's language 
 is statuesque rather than picturesque. The " Com- 
 mentaries " have been sometimes compared to Xeno- 
 phon's writings ; both are eminently simple and unaf- 
 fected, but there the parallel ends. The first is stern, 
 the second is sweet, and both are entirely different. 
 
 Caesar had written other works, which are lost : 1. 
 " The Anticatones," two books of answers to Cicero's 
 panegyric on Cato ; 2. " The Analogia," a sort of 
 grammar of the Latin tongue, highly praised by Cicero ; 
 and, 3. His " Apophthegmata," a collection of wise say- 
 ings. He attempted to write poetry, and we know of 
 4. His " CEdipus," but we have the title only of this 
 composition ; 6. " Iter," an account of his march into 
 Spain. We have spoken already of his astronomical 
 poem. 6. Some " Epigrams," of which three are ex- 
 tant, although theii; authenticity is somewhat doubtful. 
 
 C. SaUnstius Crispus, a native of Amiternum, in the 
 territory of the Sabines, where he was born in 85. He 
 
PROSE— HISTORY. 
 
 181 
 
 was a member of a plebeian family, but he soon raised 
 himself to the highest offices of the state. Sallust was 
 sent away from the senate ; why, it is doubtful. The 
 character of Sallust has been greatly attacked both in 
 regard to morality and honesty. As to the first point, 
 it may be said that he was not any better than his con- 
 temporaries — the age was one of monstrous corruption 
 — but sometimes his name has been mistaken for his 
 nephew's, who bore the same, and was a monster of 
 
 lust. In regard to his honesty, it is to be confessed 
 that he acquired immense wealth in Numidia, where 
 he remained for some time, having been appointed a 
 governor of that province by Cresar, after the defeat 
 of the party of Pompey. That wealth, so ill-gotten, 
 was used at Rome in the enjoyment of the greatest 
 luxurj'. Tlie gardens of the Quirinal, which bore the 
 name of Sallust, were celebrated for their beauty, and 
 the historian, beneath their alleys and porticos, sur- 
 
182 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATUEE. 
 
 rounded by the choicest works of art, avoided the 
 tumultuous scenes of civil war which were rending the 
 state at that time. 
 
 We have from Sallust " The History of the Con- 
 spiracy of Catiline," and of the war against Jugurtha. 
 Sallust evidently regarded fine style as one of the chief 
 merits of an historical work. His style was carefully 
 formed on that of Thucydides. He wonderfully suc- 
 ceeded in imitating the vigor and conciseness of the 
 Greek historian — we mean that he imitated the brev- 
 ity of ideas, rather than of language, for Thucydides 
 is sometimes very diffuse ; but Sallust is abrupt and 
 sententious, and he carried this brevity to a vicious 
 excess. The want of copnlatives produces a monot- 
 onous effect. 
 
 In the style of Sallust there is too much appearance 
 of study, and a want of ease, which is the effect of art. 
 Sallust is a master in drawing his characters, five or six 
 of which are perfect. These are Cato, Caesar, Catiline, 
 Jugurtha, Marius, and Sylla. Sallust sprinkles his 
 narrative with reflections, which are all very just, and 
 merit for him the appellation of the Father of Philo- 
 sophic History in Italy. The discursive nature and 
 inordinate length of his introductions have been ob- 
 jected to, and with reason. 
 
 Besides these two histories, Sallust wrote a general 
 history of the republic — " Historia Rerum in Eepublica 
 Komana gestarum " — of which we have rnany, but too 
 short, fragments. The scholiasts and grammarians 
 have collected as many as seven hundred of them ; the 
 only one of any length is the description of a splen- 
 did entertainment given to Metellus, on his return. 
 
PROSE— HISTORY. 183 
 
 after a year's absence, from his goTernment of Far- 
 ther Spain. 
 
 Trogns Fompeins was a volnminons historian of the 
 Augustan age, whose father was private secretary to 
 Julius Csesar. His work was of such an extent that it 
 has been called by Justinus a universal history ; but the 
 title was " Historiae Philippicse," the object of which 
 was evidently the history of the Macedonian monarchy. 
 The work consists of forty-four books, the fragments 
 of which we have, gathered into eight books by Jus- 
 tinus. They contain " The History of Alexander," un- 
 connected, but interesting and well written. 
 
 T. Livius Fatavinns was born in 69, at Padua (Pa- 
 tavinum). Although it is generally believed that Padua 
 had the honor of being the birthplace of Livy, an epi- 
 gram of Martial (book i., 52) has thrown some doubt 
 upon the fact. Livy came to Rome very early; he 
 wrote some poetry, and gained the favor of Augustus, 
 who lodged him in his own palace. There he could 
 consult for and prepare his work, the composition of 
 which occupied him during twenty years. He soon 
 acquired a great reputation. Late in life he returned 
 to Patavinum, where he died in the year 17 after Christ, 
 at the age of seventy-six years. 
 
 Some writer has said, and we think that he was 
 right, that Livy was the Homer of the Eoman people, 
 on account of the epic color with which he has painted 
 his characters, while the charm of his narrative makes 
 him the Herodotus of Roman historians. The time 
 when Livy was living was the most favorable for writ- 
 ing history. The great work of the formation of the 
 Roman Empire was done. Livy could, owing to the 
 
184 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 peace which reigned for some time, consider and study 
 that grand construction and describe it. 
 
 Livy published his work by portions; it compre- 
 hended the whole history of Home from its foundation 
 to the death of Drusus, the brother of Tiberius, 9 b. c. 
 It consisted of one hundred and forty-two books, but 
 only thirty-five are extant, with some fragments of the 
 others. The first ten books, which we have, carry the 
 history of Kome, from the arrival of ^neas in Italy, 
 to the year 293 b. c, a few years before the war with 
 Pyrrhus. There we have an hiatus of the following ten 
 books. The narrative recommences at the twenty-first 
 book, with the second Punic War, 218 b. o, "We have 
 there the whole history of Hannibal, and consequently 
 the second Punic War, and the beginning of the third. 
 It must be admitted that the best portion of Livy's 
 history has perished, especially the part in connection 
 with the time when he lived. 
 
 The abridgments of the books lost were collect- 
 ed by a learned German — Freinshemius — in the seven- 
 teenth century. This great Latinist, while imitating 
 the style of Livy quite perfectly, reestablished the 
 whole work, with the best documents which he could 
 find. 
 
 Tacitus and Seneca speak in the highest terms of 
 the beauty of Livy's style, and the fidelity of his nar- 
 rative. We may admit that his style is eloquent, his 
 narrative clear, and his power of description great and 
 striking. Some of his narratives are really perfect, 
 like the one of the passage of the Alps by Hannibal. 
 In regard to his fidelity, it cannot be denied that he 
 was deficient in the first and most important requisites 
 
PROSE— HISTORY. 185 
 
 of a faithful historian — a love of trath, diligence and 
 care in consulting authorities, and a patient examina- 
 tion of conflicting testimonies. Livy has made very 
 little use of the documents and inscriptions which 
 were within his reach, such as the brazen column in 
 the Temple of the Aventine Diana, on which was en- 
 graven the treaty of Servius Tullius with the Latins, 
 with the names of the tribes which were members of 
 the league; the treaty of Tarquinius Superbus with 
 Grabii, written on a bull's hide and preserved in the 
 Temple of Dins Fidius, etc. 
 
 Livy does not found his narrative upon contempo- 
 rary records, but avowedly draws his materials from 
 the works of earlier annalists. As long as his guides 
 agree in the main points of their history, he follows 
 them; but, when they openly contradict each other, 
 then he confesses the diflBculty and acknowledges the 
 uncertainty of the history of the first centuries of the 
 city, and passes over these diflSculties without a special 
 notice. There are several proofs that he wrote care- 
 lessly and hastily. He sometimes repeats himself, and 
 sometimes contradicts himself. He is not so much 
 an historian as a poet. The love of Livy for his 
 country may be noticed in the fact that never, in his 
 history, have the Komans been defeated by their op- 
 ponents ! 
 
 Asinius Pollio has accused Livy of being guilty in 
 his writings of paiamnity, and Quintilian agrees, it 
 seems, with Pollio. Biit, in what does this defect 
 lie ? Pollio says that there is something in Livy's ex- 
 pressions which bespeaks a citizen of Patavium, and 
 which would not appear in the style of a native of 
 
186 KOMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Eome. According to Qaintilian, it applies entirely to 
 provincial phrases and words not altogether consonant 
 to the refined urbanity of Rome, which could not so 
 easily be communicated to strangers as the freedom 
 of the city. 
 
 The opinion of Beni, who supposes that — ^because 
 the Patavians were all staunch republicans — ^the pator 
 vi/nity of Livy must have consisted in his political par- 
 tiality to the faction of Pompey ; and the one of Bu- 
 dseus, who thinks that'Livy's patamnity lay in his 
 enmity to the Gauls, who were the natural foes of the 
 Patavians, are without foundation. 
 
 Some, at length, like Morhof and Laurentius Pig- 
 norius, pretend that this patavmity consists in a cer- 
 tain orthography peculiar to the Patavians — as sibe 
 for sihi, quase for quasi — and in the diflFuseness of 
 style to which the Patavians, both ancient and mod- 
 . ern, have been addicted in all their compositions. It 
 is, at any rate, a very small matter. 
 
 TIL Vitruvius Pollio. — We will only mention the work 
 of this writer. It is a complete treatise on architect- 
 ure, consisting of ten books. The subject is treated 
 systematically and in an orderly style. Being a tech- 
 nical subject, it necessitated the introduction of new 
 terms. There is in it much poverty of language, and 
 some of the paraphrases are awkward, and the phrase- 
 ology generally obscure. Still, upon the whole, the 
 language of Yitravius is vigorous, his descriptions bold, 
 and the style generally correct, that is, grammatical. 
 
 Others wrote on architecture, but added nothing to 
 the stock of their country's literature. So it was with 
 the grammarians of the Augustan age, and consequently 
 
PROSE— HISTOET. 18Y 
 
 they may be passed over with the simple mention of 
 their names. The most conspicuous were : Atteias 
 FhilologTU, Staberios Eros, Q. Cacilios Epirota, C. Jnlius 
 Hyginus, the great friend of Ovid, Verrins Flaccos, Q. 
 Cornificius, and P. ITigidius Fignlni, an orator and phi- 
 losopher as well as grammarian. 
 
BOOK III. 
 
 THE SILVER AGE. 
 
 "With the death of Augustus commences the decline 
 of Koman literature, and only three illustrious names 
 — Phsedrus, Persius, and Lucian — ^rescue the first year 
 of this period from the charge of a corrupt and vitiated 
 taste. After several years of tyranny, a more liberal 
 system of administration, under Vespasian, will allow 
 Juvenal and Tacitus to resume the language of the old 
 Eoman independence* The characteristic of the first 
 literature of this epoch was declamation and rhetoric, 
 and this false taste, which destroys true natural elo- 
 quence, affected poetry as well as prose. Even in the 
 tragedies which are ascribed to Seneca, we have but 
 theatrical declamations. 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 POKTET. 
 
 Section I. — Fables. 
 
 Fhsedrns was born in Thracia, and was brought to 
 Home, with other captives, after a victory gained by 
 Octavius, the father of Augustus, over some Thracian 
 
POETKY. 189 
 
 clans. Phsednis was then an infant, and he was reared 
 up among the slaves of Augustus. He calls himself a 
 freedman of Augustus — " Augusti libertus." In regard 
 to the place of his birth we know it by Phsedrus him- 
 self, who, in the prologue of his third book, says : 
 
 "Ego quern Pierio mater enixa est jugo." 
 
 And again he adds : 
 
 " Ego literataa qui sum proprior GraeoisB, 
 Cur somno inerti deseram patriae deous ; 
 Threissa cum gens numeret auotores suos, 
 Linoque Apollo sit parens, Musa, Orpheo 
 Qui saxa cantu movit, et domuit feras, 
 Hebrique tennit impetus dulci mora." 
 
 Phsedrus wrote his " Fables " under the reign of 
 Tiberius, and while Sejanus had the administration of 
 the empire. He has the merit of having first made the 
 Romans acquainted with the fables of ^sop ; but, in 
 the preface to his work, he modestly terms himself only 
 a translator of ^sop : 
 
 " jEsopus auctor quam materiam repperit 
 Hano ego polivi versibus senariis." 
 
 Still, his " Fables " are not mere translations, and 
 Phsedrus undoubtedly deserves the credit of originality 
 for the way in which he has arranged them. Phsedrus 
 wrote five books of fables, containing in all ninety 
 fables, written in iambic verse. He is distinguished 
 for a precision, gracefulness, and nmvete of style and 
 manner, that have never been surpassed. His diction 
 is remarkable for its elegance, though this occasionally 
 is pushed too far into the regions of refinement. 
 
 PhsBdrus was persecuted by Sejanus, and no won- 
 
190 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 der, when we consider the tyranny of that minister, 
 and the meaning of the " Fables " of Phaedrus, for in 
 many of them it is easy to see that the fabulist was re- 
 lating the events of the time under the veil of fables. 
 This is true principally of the fables " The Frogs and 
 the Sun," "The Mules and the Thieves," "The Old 
 Peasant and the Ass," " The Man and the Ass," and 
 " The Wolf and the Lamb." 
 
 Section IL-^Sati/res. 
 
 Aulus Persios Flaccus was born in 34 b. c, at Yola- 
 terrae, in Etrnria. He went to Kome when he was 
 twelve years old, studied seriously, and was the school- 
 mate of Lucan. Persins was a Stoic, and a virtuous 
 pagan. He died at the age of twenty-eight. His works 
 consist of six "Satires," with a prologue, in all six 
 hundred and fifty verses. The chief defect of Persius 
 is an affected obscurity of style, which is so great 
 and so general that there are few scholars who read 
 these performances for the first time whose progress is 
 not arrested at almost every line by some new difliculty. 
 Much of this difiiculty is owing to the peculiar char- 
 acter of the poet's mind, to his affected conciseness, 
 and to the show of erudition which he is so fond of 
 exhibiting. In the following verses we may see the 
 honest sentiments which animated Persius. Even a 
 Christian can read them with admiration : 
 
 " Quin damus id saperis, de magna quod dare lance 
 NoQ possit magni Messalse lippa propago ; 
 Compositum jus fasque animo sanotosque recessus 
 Mentis et incoctnm genei'oso pectna honesto : 
 Hffio cedo, nt admoveam templis, et farre litabo." 
 
POETRY. 191 
 
 Decius Junius Juvenalis (some write Deeimus Ju- 
 nius) was born at Aquinum, in the town which sub- 
 sequently gave birth to the eminent schoolman Thomas 
 Aquinas. The year of his birth is not certainly known, 
 but it is commonly believed that he was bom in the 
 year 40 after Christ. A great portion of Juvenal's life 
 was passed during a period of political horror and 
 misery. For some reason not well known, but prob- 
 ably on account of some allusion made in one of his 
 satires to some favorite of the emperor, Juvenal, when 
 he was eighty years old, was sent, under the false pre- 
 text of taking a delusory command, to Egypt, by ,the 
 Emperor Adrian, and some say that he died there, 
 while some writers pretend that he was called back to 
 Eome, where he died in 128, at the age of eighty-eight 
 years. 
 
 We have sixteen " Satires " from the pen of Ju- 
 venal. If we may judge of the character of a writer 
 by his work, Juvenal was a man of rigid probity, and 
 worthy of living in a better and purer age. His 
 " Satires " breathe everywhere a love of virtue and 
 an abhorrence of vice. He paints in strong colors the 
 hypocrisy and the vices of the pretended philosophers 
 of his time. He found the weapons for attacking them 
 in the resources of his own genius, by the experience 
 which a long acquaintance with the world had gained 
 for him, and by the indignation which warmed his 
 bosom on contemplating the gross corruption of his 
 time. Juvenal has been compared to Horace. He is 
 superior to this last writer in this sense, that he is more 
 of a satirist, for, like Horace, he does not laugh at 
 vices, but speaks with indignation against them ; and, 
 
192 BOMAN CLASSICAL LTTERATUBE. 
 
 besides, the writings of Juvenal are addressed to the 
 encouragement of virtue no less than to the chastise- 
 ment of vice. The style of Juvenal is vigorous and 
 lucid, although he fell into the detect common to the 
 writers of that epoch ; he is declamatory in his style, 
 but not artificially rhetorical. He may be blamed for 
 sometimes using language gross and offensive, but it 
 was on account of the nature of the subject which he 
 was treating. The " Satires " of Juvenal might be 
 recommended to youth, if they did not descend so mi- 
 nutely into the details of vice. 
 
 Section III. — Epic iStyle. 
 
 H. AniuBns Lucaaus^ born at Cordnba, in 39 after 
 Christ, was of a Koman family of equestrian rank. He 
 went early to Rome and studied grammar, rhetoric, and 
 philosophy, embracing the principles of Zeno. Lncan 
 soon discovered his talent for poetry. He was a friend 
 of the Emperor Xero, but, having committed the im- 
 prudence of showing his superiority over him, he of- 
 fended his master, and that was the cause of his death, 
 which took place when he was only twenty-seven years 
 old. The following inscription to his memory has been 
 attributed to Xero : 
 
 " M. AnniBO Laoano, Cordabensi Poetae, 
 Benefi(do Keronis. Fama serrata." 
 
 Besides his " Pharsalia " he composed four poems, 
 viz. : " Combat of Hector and Achilles," " Description 
 of the Burning of Rome," " Saturnalia," and a tragedy 
 called "Medea." They are not now extant. "The 
 Pharsalia " is the history of the war between Cfesar 
 
POETRY. 193 
 
 and Pompey ; it comprises ten books, and very prob- 
 ably it is not finished. This poem contains many 
 vigorous and animated descriptions, and the speeches 
 are characterized by considerable rhetorical merit, but 
 the language is often inflated, and the expressions are 
 extremely labored and artificial. The poem, although 
 of an epic character, should rather be called an histor- 
 ical poem, for the event was not sufficiently removed 
 from Lucan's time to permit him to indulge in those 
 fictions which belong to the essence of the epopee. The 
 principal defect of "The Pharsalia" is the want of 
 unity of action. It is really impossible, on perusing 
 it, to ascertain the object of the poet. His principal 
 heroes are Caesar and Pompey, and Cato and Brutus. 
 In the delineation of these characters Lucan is defec- 
 tive, Pompey is flattered, and Caesar is treated with 
 injustice.. However, Lucan did not succeed ia making 
 the first interesting, Caesar being, after" all, the true 
 hero. Many of the details show a want of taste, but 
 we ought not to forget that Lucan was young. The 
 versification also wants the elegance and melody of 
 Yirgil. Some passages of " The Pharsalia " are beau- 
 tiful ; the description of the passage of the Eubicon, 
 and the death of Pompey, are noble specimens of Lu- 
 can's style. 
 
 The following extract will give a sufficient idea of 
 Lucan's poetry. A parallel is established between 
 Pompey and Caesar : 
 
 "Nee quemqnam jam ferre potest, Caasarve priorem, 
 Pompeiusve parem. Quis jnstins indnit arma? 
 Scire nefas ; magno se judice quisqne tuetnr. 
 Viotria causa dlis placnit, sed victa Catoni. 
 • 9 
 
194 KOMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Nee ooiere pares. Alter vergentibus armis 
 In senium, longoque togas tranquillior usu, 
 Dedidicit jam pace duoem ; famseque petitor, 
 Malta dare in valgus, totus popularibus auris 
 Impelli, plausuqtie sai gaudere theatri, 
 Nee reparare novas vires, maltnmqne priori 
 Credere fortanee : stat magni nominis umbra. 
 Qualis frugifero quercus sublimis in agro 
 Exuvias veteres populi, sacrataque gestans 
 Dona ducum, nee jam validis radicibus hserens, 
 Pondere fixa suo est, nudosque per aera ramos 
 Eflfundens, truneo, non frondibus, efflcit umbram : 
 At quamvis primo nutet easura sub Euro, 
 Tot oiroum sylvse firmo se robore tollant, 
 Sola tamen eolitur. Sed non in Csesare tantum 
 Nomen erat, nee fama ducis ; sed nescia virtus 
 Stare loco, solosque pudor non vinoere bello. 
 Aeer et indoraitus; quo spes, quoque ira vocasset, 
 Ferre manum, et nunquam temerando parcere ferro ; 
 Successiis urgere suos ; instare favore 
 Numinis, impellens quidquid sibi summa petenti 
 Obstaret, gaudensque viam feeisse ruina, 
 Qualiter expressum ventis per nubila fulmen, 
 ^theris impulsi sonitu mundique fragore 
 Emicuit, rupitque diem, populosque paventes 
 Terruit, obliqua perstringens lumina flamma : 
 In sua templa furit, nullaque exire vetante 
 Materia, magnaraque cadens, magnamque revertens 
 Dat stragem late, sparsosque reeoUigit ignes." 
 
 C. Silius Italicus was born most probably in Spain, 
 ' in 25 after Christ, under the reign of Tiberius. He 
 was a very celebrated advocate ; in the year 68 he be- 
 came consul, and soon after was sent to Asia as a pro- 
 consul, and during the* time that he was in office acted 
 very honestly. Silius grew very rich, and, when he 
 was old, he retired from public life. He starved, him- 
 
POETRY. 195 
 
 self to death at the age of seventy-five years, being 
 unable to bear the sufferings which he was enduring 
 on account of a carbuncle. His poems display elabo- 
 rate care rather than genius. The title of the work 
 which we have is " Punica," the dullest and most tedi- 
 ous poem in the Latin language ; it contains seventeen 
 books, and gives the history of the second Punic War. 
 " The JEneis " was his model, and the writings of Livy 
 furnished the materials. The criticism of Pliny is just : 
 " Scribebat carmina majori eura quam ingenio." Al- 
 though it is impossible to read his poem as a whole 
 with pleasure, the versification is harmonious, and, in 
 point of smoothness, sometimes bears comparison with 
 that of Virgil. Silius describes well, and some of his 
 episodes, considered as separate pieces, repay the trou- 
 ble of perusal ; we may point out the description of the 
 Alps as a model. 
 
 C. Valerius Flaccus, who flourished under Vespasian, 
 was born at Rome, and died in 88. His only poem 
 extant is entitled " Argonautica," and is an imitation 
 of the Greek poem of Apollonius Ehodius on the same 
 subject. He did not live to complete the work ; even 
 the eighth book remains unfinished, and, judging from 
 what we have, he planned a poem of the same length 
 as that of Virgil. There are in this work no glaring 
 faults or blemishes. There is some occasional dryness, 
 and a few awkward expressions and paraphrases, but 
 there is no bombast to outrage good taste, nor unmetri- 
 cal cadences to offend the ear ; on the other hand, there 
 is no genius, no inspiration, no thrilling fervor, no 
 thoughts that breathe nor words that burn. He never 
 rises above the dead level ; every thing is in accordance 
 
196 EOMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 with decent and correct propriety ; he descril)es well, 
 and his verses are harmonious. ■ • ' 
 
 P. Fapinius Statins, the Younger, was born at Naples, 
 in 61, and died in the same city when he was 34 years 
 old. Statius possessed a ready facility for versification, 
 which was surpassed by no one in classic antiquity but 
 Ovid, and he was successful as long as he contented 
 himself with being a poet on a small scale. His prin- 
 cipal productions were " The Sylvse," " The Achilleid," 
 and " The Thebaid." " The Sylvse " consist of thirty- 
 two separate pieces, and they contain many poetical 
 incidents which might stand by themselves as fugitive 
 pieces. It matters not how light or trifling the subject 
 may be, he can raise it and adorn it. He writes with 
 equal beauty on the tree of his friend Atedius (Sylvi ii., 
 5), the death of a parrot, of the emperor's lion (Sylv. ii., 
 3), the locks of Flavins Earinus (Sylv. ii., 4), etc. The 
 principal fault of his "Silvse" is too great a display of 
 Greek learning. Every page is full of mythological 
 allusions, which sometimes render his graceful verses 
 dry and wearisome. The qualities which recommend 
 his " Sylvse " do not adorn his epic poetry ; his imagi* 
 nary heroes do not inspire and warm his imagination, 
 and he attempts to compensate for this deficiency by 
 extravagant bombast, and by an attention to the theo- 
 retical principles of art and an elaborate finish. He 
 owes the estimation in which he is held as an epic poet 
 to his relative merit; he was the best of the heroic 
 poets of his day, Statius was evidently a profiiund 
 student, and in two points, that is, in his battles and 
 similes, he has shown himself a successful imitator of 
 Homer. " The Thebaid " is composed of twelve books. 
 
POETRY. 191 
 
 and its subject is the ancient Greek legends respecting 
 the war of the Seven against Thebes. " The Achilleid " 
 was intended to embrace the exploits of Achilles ; but 
 two books only were completed, the second even being 
 unfinished. 
 
 Domitian. — This emperor also wrote verses, and not 
 without merit in regard to language and versification. 
 "We have from him a paraphrase of " The PhaBnomena " 
 of Aratus, falsely ascribed to Germanicus ; it is written 
 with taste, but Domitian had not much talent. 
 
 Section IV. — Epigrams. 
 
 M. Valerins Martlalis was born in Spain, at Bilbilis, 
 in the province of Tarragon, in the year 43. The Em- 
 peror Vespasian having conferred the "jusLatii" on 
 his native place, Martial was by birth a Eoman citizen. 
 He came to Home when he was twenty-two years old, 
 in the twelfth year of the reign of Nero. He was a 
 great favorite of Titus and Domitian, and, although he 
 complains of his poverty, he was rich enough. Martial 
 lived thirty-five years in Kome, and was a flatterer all 
 the time He then returned to his native place, and 
 married a i"ich widow, whom he praised beyond expres- 
 sion in his writings, and, when inclined to regret, he 
 says that she alone is all that Rome ever was to him : 
 
 " Tn desiderium dominas mihi mitius urbis 
 Esse jnbes ; Bomam ta mihi sola facis." 
 
 I^ot withstanding his assertion, Martial regretted much 
 having left Rome. He died in 104, and left twelve 
 hundred " Epigramsj" forming fourteen books. These 
 epigrams are not, with Martial, harmless verses, but 
 they are essentially satirical compositions. His " Epi- 
 
198 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 grams " reveal in a strofig, and too unveiled language, 
 the fearful profligacy of his time. He speaks of it with 
 a cynical delight. This would be a crime in our time, 
 but the prevalence of vice at that epoch produced the 
 obscenity of the poet. This is, however, the only de- 
 fence we may offer for his works, in which the char- 
 acters of vice are emblazoned in such shameless and 
 unnatural deformity. It is diflScult, when we read 
 Martial, to believe what he says, that, although his 
 verses are licentious, his life was virtuous : 
 
 " Lasoiva est nobis pagina, vita proba est." 
 
 We observe in Martial that strange combination of 
 varied wit, poetical imagination, and graceful language, 
 not only with strong passions, but with a delight iu 
 vice in its most hateful form and attributes. All his 
 poems are not thus spiteful and obscene; some are 
 redolent of Greek sweetness and elegance, like the fol- 
 lowing lines accompanying a rose to ApoUinaris : 
 
 " I, felix rosa, moUibusque sertis 
 Kostri cinge comas ApoUinaris ; 
 Quas tu nectere Candidas sad olim, 
 Sic te semper amet Venus, memento." 
 
 Here is another favorable specimen of his poetry : 
 
 " Indignas premeret pestis cnm tabida fauces, 
 Inque ipsos vultus serperet atra lues; 
 Siccis ipse genis flentes hortatus amicos 
 Deorevit stygios Festus adire lacns. 
 Neo tamen obscuro pia poUuit ora veneno, 
 Aut torsit lenta tristia fata fame ; 
 Sanctam Eomana vitam sed morte peregit, 
 Dimisitqne animam nobiliore via. 
 Banc mortem fatis magni prceferro Oatonis 
 Fama potest; hqjus Oeesar amicus erat." 
 
PEOSE— HISTOEY. 199 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 PEOSE HISTOEY. 
 
 Velleius Faterculns was a soldier of equestrian rank 
 under Tiberius, and probably was put to death after 
 the fall of Sejanus. He wrote a short " History of 
 Home," in two books. The first is in a' very imper- 
 fect state, but the second is well preserved. It is a 
 work of much merit; the most striking events are 
 selected, and told in a lively and interesting manner. 
 Unfortunately, Paterculus is partial, prejudiced, and 
 adulatory. He was a man of lively talents, although 
 of superficial education, and his language shows already 
 signs of degeneracy in the Latin tongue. In his style 
 he imitates the concise and energetic manner of Sal- 
 lust. His diction is generally pure and elegant, but 
 he falls into affectations by searching for archaisms 
 and antiquated forms of expression, and by using too 
 frequently moral sentences and figures of rhetoric. Par 
 terculus also draws his characters with a masterly hand. 
 
 Valerias Maximus lived at the same time as Pater- 
 culus, and can scarcely be called an historian. He wrote 
 a collection of anecdotes entitled " Dictorum, Factorum 
 Memorabilium Libri IX." His purpose is a moral one, 
 and he wants to illustrate by examples the beauty of 
 virtue and the deformity of vice. Nothing is known 
 for certain respecting his, personal history. His work 
 is dedicated to Tiberius. He classifies the individuals 
 of whom he treats according to some peculiar vice or 
 virtue, of which they are cited as examples. Yalerius, 
 
200 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 in the whole work, displays very little judgment ; no 
 one ever carried flattery to a greater extent. His man- 
 ner of narration is far from pleasing, and his style is 
 cold, declamatory, and affected. 
 
 C. Cornelius Tacitus was born probably in the year 
 54, but it is not exactly known. He was of equestrian 
 rank, and, under the reigns of Vespasian and Titus, ho 
 was procurator of Belgic Gaul. In the year T8, he 
 
 married the daughter of Agricola. Tacitus discharged 
 several high ofSces in the state. It is not known when 
 Tacitus died, nor whether he left any descendants ; but, 
 no doubt, he survived the accession of Hadrian. 
 
 The works of Tacitus are extensive. "We have from 
 him : 1. A life of his father-in-law, Agricola ; 2. A 
 treatise on " The Manners, Situation, and Nations of 
 the Germans ; " 3. A portion of a voluminous work 
 entitled "Histories;" 4. About two-thirds of another 
 historical work called " Annales ; " and, 5. According 
 to the most probable opinion, a dialogiie on " The De- 
 cline of Eloquence." The brief sketch of the life of 
 
PROSE— HISTOKY. 201 
 
 Agricola is a. beautiful specimen of the vigor and force 
 of expression with which this greatest painter of an- 
 tiquity could throw off any portrait which he at- 
 tempted. The treatise on " The Geography, Man- 
 ners, and Nations of the Germans " (De Situ, Moribus 
 et Populis Germanise), is but little longer than the life 
 of Agricola. Tacitus was never in Germany ; his 
 knowledge is consequently collected from those who 
 had visited it, for the purpose either of war or com- 
 merce. Hence his geographical descriptions are some- 
 times vague and inaccurate, still the salient points of 
 the national manners bear the impress of truth. We 
 have four books of his " Historise," and a portion of 
 the fifth, from the second consulship of Galba to the 
 siege of Jerusalem. According to St. Jerome the work 
 consisted of thirty books ; these books are a vast field 
 of faithful history, and the few blots — which, indeed, 
 are few — come from the too great readiness of Tacitus 
 to accept evidence unhesitatingly. The " Annals " are 
 so called because each historical event is recorded in 
 historical order, under the year in which it belongs. 
 They consist of sixteen books, commence with the 
 death of Augustus, and conclude with that of IS'ero. 
 The only portions extant are the first four books, a 
 part of the fifth, the sixth, a part of the eleventh, and 
 then the twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, and 
 commencement of the sixteenth. They are rather his- 
 tories of each successive emperor than of the Eoman 
 people. Tacitus delineated the lives and deaths of in- 
 dividuals, and showed the relation which they bore to 
 the fortunes of their country. 
 
 Full of obsei-vation and descriptive power, Tacitus 
 
202 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITEEATUKE. 
 
 engages the serious attention of the reader by tlie grav- 
 ity of his condensed and comprehensive style, as he 
 does by the wisdom and earnestness of his reflections. 
 In the style of Tacitus the form is always subordinate 
 to the matter. His brevity is the necessary conden- 
 sation of a writer whose thoughts flow more quickly 
 than his pen can express them. That brevity is neither 
 dry nor harsh; it is enlivened by copiousness, variety, 
 and poetry. He scarcely ever repeats the same idea 
 in the same form ; no author is richer in synonymous 
 words. As for poetic genius, his language is highly 
 figurative ; his descriptions are eminently picturesque. 
 The discourses found in the writings of Tacitus show 
 that he was not only a good historian but also a perfect 
 orator, and that he deserved the praise given him by 
 Pliny the Younger. 
 
 Suetonius Tranquillus was the son of Suetonius Lenis, 
 a tribune in the army which fought at J3edriacum, and 
 was born at the beginning of the reign of Yespasian 
 (71), but the precise date of his birth is not known. 
 He followed at Home the profession of grammarian. 
 Pliny obtained for him the favors of Trajan. Sueto- 
 nius wrote twelve " Biographies " of the flrst twelve 
 Caesars. These were Julius Caesar, Augustus, Tibe- 
 rius, Caligula, Claudius, Nero, Galba, Otho, Vitellius, 
 Yespasian, Titus, and Domitian. His purpose was to 
 delineate their private character, their virtues, and 
 vices. His narrative does not follow a chronological 
 order. The characters are faithfully traced. He, like 
 Plutarch, gathered his materials from several very dif- 
 ferent authorities, but these authorities were better 
 known to him than were to Plutarch those which have 
 
PEOSE— HISTORY. 203 
 
 been used by liim. His style ,is simple, concise, and 
 correct, without ornament or affectation. We have 
 from Suetonius an account of distinguished gramma- 
 rians, and of celebrated rhetoricians. He wrote other 
 books which are not extant. 
 
 Q. Curtius Rufus. — l^o ancient writer speaks of him, 
 and it is only in the twelfth century that lie is men- 
 tioned. From one passage only of his writings we may 
 form some conjecture concerning the time when he 
 lived — it was very likely under Yespasian. His book 
 is entitled " De Rebus Gestis Alexandri Magni." It 
 was divided into ten books, but the first two, the end 
 of the fifth, and the beginning of the sixth, are lost. 
 Freinshemius has done for him what he did for Livy — 
 he has completed the work. The history of Q. Curtius 
 is more of a romance than a history. The speeches 
 which Rufus puts in the mouths of his heroes are mere 
 rhetorical declamations. Giving the history of Alexan- 
 der from documents, Rufus chose those which pleased 
 him the most, not paying attention to the purity of the 
 sources. He shows everywhere his ignorance of mili- 
 tary affairs, of geography and astronomy, and con- 
 founds many things. We might compare the book of 
 Q; Curtius to " The History of Charles XII.," by Vol- 
 taire ; it is done evidently for the purpose not of writ- 
 ing history, but of writing. Surely, if Curtius be not 
 an historian, he is a very interesting writer. His dic- 
 tion is pure and elegant, some of his harangues are mas- 
 terpieces, and he is rich in beautiful descriptions. His 
 style has the defect generally found in the " Silver Age," 
 being too ornamented, and sometimes declamatory. 
 
 L. Aimseus Florus was born either in Spain or in Gaul, 
 
204 EOMAN CLASSICAL LITERAT0EE. 
 
 and he wrote under tli^ reign of Trajan. "We can give 
 nothing more precise concerning the time and the 
 place of his birth. He has left an abridgment of Ko- 
 man history, entitled "Epitome de Grestis Eomano- 
 rum," from the foundation of Eome to the year 725, 
 when Augustus shut the Temple of Janus. It is less 
 a history than a eologium of the Roman people, writ- 
 ten with elesrance, but with affectation. Floras com- 
 mitted many faults in a geographical and chronological 
 point of view. His text has reached us in a very cor- 
 rupt state, and abounds with interpolations. It has 
 been said that the work was from Seneca, but this 
 opinion cannot be accepted ; besides, we know that 
 Seneca belonged to a branch of the Annsean family, 
 and Florus may have been called Seneca, or some mis- 
 take may have been committed by the copyist. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 PEOSE — PHIL0S0PHEE8 AND GEAMMAEIANS. 
 
 M. Annseus Seneca was born at Cordova, in the year 
 61 B. 0. He was the father of L. Annsens Seneca the 
 Philosopher. He left two works, the composition of 
 which was the employment of his old age. They are 
 the result of his long and successful expeiaence as a 
 teacher of rhetoric. They exhibit wit, learning, in- 
 genuity, and taste to select and admire the best literary 
 specimens of earlier periods. The first work was en- 
 titled " Controversise," and was divided into ten books, 
 
PROSE— PHILOSOPHERS AND GRAMMARIANS. 205 
 
 of which the first, second, seventh, eighth, and tenth, 
 are extant. His other work, " The Suasoriffi," con- 
 tains exercises in deliberative oratory, the subjects of 
 which are taken from the historians and poets. 
 
 L, Annseus Seneca, the son of the former, was born 
 at Cordova, at tlie commencement of the Christian era. 
 His fatlier brouglit him to Eome when he was young, 
 and there he studied rhetoric and philosopliy. He had 
 a very stormy life, under the reign ot Claudius, when 
 he was exiled to Corsica on account of a calumny. 
 
 After eight years he was recalled to Home, to be the 
 preceptor of Nero. The pupil was vicious, and Seneca 
 did not see that it was his duty to try seriously to cor- 
 rect him ; he only endeavored to gain the favor of his pu- 
 pil. Seneca, by usury and legacy-hunting, had acquired 
 one of those enormous fortunes of which so many in- 
 stances are met with in Roman history. He incurred 
 
206 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 subsequently the displeasure of Nero, although, in or- 
 der t6 comply with the wickedness of that monster, he 
 had denied the culpability of Nero in the death of his 
 mother,, and even made the apology of the parricide. 
 He was put to death, or rather he had to kill himself. 
 
 Seneca is the author of twelve ethical treatises, the 
 best of which are entitled " De Providentia," " De 
 Constantia Sapientis," and " De Consolatione." In 
 the treatise " De Providentia " he discusses the ques- 
 tion, "Why, since there is a divine Providence, are 
 good men liable to misfortunes ? " and Seneca finds that 
 there is a legitimate remedy, when the sum of evil is 
 greater than that of good, and that is suicide. Seneca 
 cared little for abstract speculations ;. he valued them 
 only as subordinate to mental and natural philosophy. 
 He delighted in inculcating precepts rather than in- 
 vestigating principles, and, for that reason, his works 
 furnish a rich mine for quotations. Seneca was always 
 a favorite with Christian writers— some of his senti- 
 ments are truly Christian ; there is even a tradition 
 that he was acquainted with St. Paul, and fourteen 
 letters of that apostle have been attributed to him. 
 His " Epistles," of which there are one hundred and 
 twenty-four, are moral essays in an epistolary form, 
 and are the most delightful of his works. 
 
 In his old age, he wrote seven books on questions 
 connected with natural phenomena — " Qusestionum 
 Naturalium Libri VII. ; " but Seneca treats those 6ub- 
 jects like a moralist, and makes them the occasion of 
 ethical reflections. He wrote one satire, " The Funeral 
 Oration of Claudius." Seneca wrote also seven trage- 
 dies; although six of them have been attributed by 
 
PROSE— PHILOSOPHERS AND GRAMMARIANS. 207 
 
 some grammarians to his father, and it has even been 
 said that they were the work of another Seneca — a 
 third one — ^it seems well demonstrated to-day that L. 
 Annseus Seneca the Philosopher was the author of 
 those tragedies. They are : " Medea," " Troades," 
 " Hippolytus," "Agamemnon," "Hercules Furens," 
 "Thyestes," and "Hercules in (Eta." As to these 
 compositions, it is really impossible to find a good 
 tragedy among them. All are defective in plan, and 
 in the management of the pieces; they are all bar- 
 ren of action, and full of declamation. They are mod- 
 elled after Greek tragedies, but are very far from 
 being good copies. They generally embody the ethical 
 philosophy of Seneca. The style of Seneca is the one 
 which characterizes best the style of the " Silver Age." 
 It is faulty, like the style of Juvenal, and Tacitus, and 
 Lucan ; that means that It is beyond the pale of the 
 best Latinity. Quintilian and Aulus Gellius have crit- 
 icised it too severely. Seneca was a good writer, but 
 ' he had the defect, as we have said, common to the 
 writers of his time : he was too declamatory, too fond 
 of sparkle and glitter. He might be compared, for his 
 love of antithesis, to Victor Hugo. 
 
 C. Plinius Seoundus, the Elder, was born in 23, at 
 Verona, or Como. He received his education in Rome, 
 and served in Germany under Claudius ; then he re- 
 turned to Eome, and practised at the bar, filled dififer- 
 ent civil offices, and was subsequently procurator in 
 Spain. A letter of his nephew tells us of his passion 
 for study, and makes us acquainted with the details of 
 his death — which happened at the time of the first erup- 
 tion of Mount Vesuvius, in 79 — and with his works. 
 
208 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Plinius the Naturalist wrote : 1. " The Art of Using 
 the Javelin on Horseback ; " 2. " The Life of Pompo- 
 nius Secundus ; " 3. " A History of the Twenty "Wars 
 carried on by the Komans with the Germans ; " 4. " A 
 Treatise on Eloquence ; " 5. Eight books on " Gram- 
 matical Ambiguity ; " 6. Thirty books of " History ; " 
 and 7. Thirty-seven books on " Natural History." This 
 work is an unequalled monument of studious diligence 
 and persevering industry ; it consists of thirty-seven 
 books, and contains twenty thousand facts connected 
 with Nature and art. There is in it, of course, a con- 
 fused arrangement ; but it is owing to the indefinite 
 state of science, and the mixture of branches which 
 are separate and distinct. Pliny admits too easily 
 many tales which even are absurd, but we find in the 
 work many valuable' truths. The style is always full 
 of vigor and expression, but sometimes too florid and 
 bombastic. The philosophical character of the whole 
 work is pantheistic. Pliny was only fifty-six years old 
 when he died, and, of all his writings, only the " Nat- 
 ural History " has come down to us. 
 
 C. Flinius Csecilins Secundus, the Younger, was sis- 
 ter's son to the elder Pliny. He was born, in 61, at 
 Como, and was eighteen years old when the eruption 
 above mentioned took place. He was well educated, 
 and had for his teacher of grammar Quintilian. His 
 taste for literature was cultivated early, and he wrote 
 verses, although his prose only remains. The works 
 of Pliny are, "The Panegyric of Trajan," and ten 
 books of very valuable letters — valuable on account of 
 the information which they give about the manners 
 and modes of thought of his time, and the politics of 
 
PEOSE— PniLOSOPDERS AND GEAMSIAKIANS. 
 
 209 
 
 the day. Tlioy are most cleliglitful to read, and are 
 not inferior to those of Cicero for liveliness, descrip- 
 tive power, elegance, and simplicity of style. In one 
 
 of them we have a " Biography of Silius Italicus," a 
 very important document. We give it as an example 
 of Pliny's style : 
 
 DE INGENIO, VITA ET MOEIBUS SILH ITALIOI, OTTJUS 0BITU8 DOOET 
 QUzE SIT HUMANE VIT^ EKAGILITA8. 
 
 " Modo nuntiatus est Silius Italicus in Neapolitano suo inedia 
 vitam finisse. Causa mortis, valetudo. Erat illi natus insana- 
 bilis clavus, cujus ta>dio ad mortem irrevocabili constantia de- 
 cucurrit: usque ad supreraum diem beatus et felix, nisi quod 
 rainorem ex liberis duobus amisit; sed majorem melioremque, 
 florentem atque etiam consularem reliquit. La?serat famam suam 
 sub Nerone ; credebatur sponte accusasse. Sed in ViteDii ami- 
 citia sapienter se et comiter gesserat; ox proconsulatu Asiaa 
 gloriam reportaverat : maculara veteris industriaj laudabili otio 
 
210 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERA.TUBB. 
 
 abluerat. Fuit inter prinoipes oivitatis sine potentia, sine invidia. 
 Salutabatur, oolebatnr, multumque in lectnlo jaoens, cubiculo sem- 
 per non ex fortuna frecjuenti. Dootissimis sermonibus dies trans- 
 igebat, quum a scribendo vaoaret. Soribebat carmina majore 
 oura quam ingenio : nonnunquam judicia hominum reoitationibus 
 experiebatur. Novissime, ita suadentibns annis, ab urbe seoessit, 
 seque in Campania tenuit ; ac ne adventu qtddem novi prinoipis 
 inde commotus est. Magna Csesaris laus, sub quo hoc liberum 
 fuit ; magna Ulius qui hac libertate ausus est uti. Erat fMrnTioc* 
 usque ad emacitatis reprehension em. Plures iisdem in loois villas 
 possidebat, adamatisque novis, priores negligebat. Multum ubique 
 librorum, multum statuarum, multum imaginum, quas non habe- 
 bat modo, verum etiam venerabatur ; Virgilii ante omnes, cujus 
 natalem religioslus quam suum celebrabat, Neapoli maxime, ubi 
 monumentum ejus adire, ut templum, solebat. In hac tranquiHi- 
 tate annum quintum et septnagesimnm exoessit, delicato magis 
 corpore quam infirmo. TJtque novissimus a Kerone factus est 
 consul, ita postremus ex omnibus quos Nero consules fecerat, de- 
 cessit. Illud etiam notabile ; ultimus ex Neronianis consularibus 
 obiit, quo consule Kero periit. Quod me recordantem, fragilitatis 
 humansB miseratio subit. Quid enim tarn circumcisum, tarn breve, 
 quam hominis vita longissima ? An non videtur tibi Nero modo 
 fuisse, quum interim ex iis qui sub illo gesserant oonsulatum, nemo 
 jam superest? Quanquam quid hoc miror? Nuper Lucius Piso, 
 pater Pisonis illius qui a Valerio Festo per summum facinus in 
 Africa occisus est, dicere solebat, Neminem se videre in senatu, 
 quern, consul ipse sententiam rogavisset. Tarn angustis terminis 
 tantffl multitudinis vivacitas ipsa concluditur, ut mihi non venia 
 solum dign£e, verum etiam laude videantur illse regise lacrymse. 
 Nam ferunt Xerxem, quum immensum exercitum ocnlis obiisset, 
 illacrymasse, quod tot millibus tam brevis immineret occasus. 
 Sed tanto magis hoc, qnidquid est temporis futilis et caduoi, si 
 non datur factis (nam horum materia in aliena manu), nos certe 
 studiis proferamus ; et, quatenns nobis denegatur diu vivere, re- 
 linquamua aliquid, quo nos vixisse testemur. Scio te stimulis non 
 egere ; me tamen tui charitas evocat, ut currentem quoque in- 
 
 * Serum pulohrarum cupidus. 
 
PROSE— PHILOSOPHERS AND GRAMMARIANS. 211 
 
 stigem, sicut tu soles me. 'XyaS^ d" epig * quum invicem se mu- 
 tuis exhortationibus amici ad amorem immortalitatis eyacuunt. 
 Vale." 
 
 The tenth book is the most important, containing 
 the letters of Pliny to Trajan, and several answers of 
 that prince. Pliny died in 110, at the age of forty- 
 nine years. 
 
 M. Fabius QaintUianTis was born in Spain in 42, and 
 died at Home in 118. He went there early, and was 
 twenty years a teacher of grammar and rhetoric. He 
 had Pliny the Younger as a pupil, and also two grand- 
 nephews of the Emperor Domitian. Quintilian was 
 paid by the state ; he was in good circumstances, al- 
 though he could not at that time be called a rich man. 
 He married twice. 
 
 His countryman Martial, speaking of him as the 
 glory of the Eoman bar, and the head of his profession 
 as an instructor, says : 
 
 " Quintiliane, vagse moderator summe juventse, 
 Gloria Bomanae, Quintiliane, togos." 
 
 Quintilian's great work is entitled " Institutiones 
 Oratorise," in twelve books. It is a complete treatise 
 on the rhetorical art, which embraces a plan of study 
 for the orator from the first elements of grammar. 
 Quintilian here states the results of long experience 
 and deep reflection. He gives signal proofs in it of an 
 excellent judgment, of a refined, critical spirit, of a pure 
 taste, and of extensive and varied reading. This work 
 is preferable to all that we have from Cicero respect- 
 
 * Bona autem oonoertatio, hseo mortalibus. — ^Hesiodus. 
 
212 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITEBATUKE. 
 
 ing the theory of eloquence. Quintilian has formed 
 his style upon that of Cicero, and he writes with an 
 elegance which would entitle him to rank by the side 
 of the present models of the Augustan age, if certain 
 obscure expressions, and some specimens of affected 
 phraseology, did not betray a later writer. His tenth 
 book contains a very precious " History of Ancient Lit- 
 erature." The declamations ascribed to him do not, 
 certainly, belong to Quintilian. 
 
 The disposition of Quintilian was as affectionate 
 and tender as his genius was brilliant and his taste 
 pure. Few passages, throughout the whole range of 
 Latin literature, can be compared to that in which he 
 mourns the loss^of his wife and children. We may 
 judge by the following translation : 
 
 " I had a son," says he, " whose eminent genius 
 deserved a father's anxious diligence. I thought that 
 if — which I might fairly have expected and wished for 
 — if death had removed me from him, I could have 
 left him, as the best inheritance, a father's instructions. 
 But by a second blow, a second bereavement, I have 
 lost the object of my highest hopes, the only comfort 
 of my declining years. What shall I do now? Of 
 what use can I suppose myself to be, as the gods have 
 cast me off? It happened that when I commenced 
 my book on the causes of corrupt eloquence, I was 
 stricken by a similar blow. It would have been best 
 then to have flung myself upon the funeral-pile — which 
 was destined, prematurely to consume all that bound 
 me to life — my unlucky work, and the ill-starred fruits 
 of all my toils, and not to have wearied with new cares 
 a life to which I so unnaturally clung. For what ten- 
 
PROSE— PHILOSOPHERS AND GRAMMARIANS. 213 
 
 der parent would pardon me if I were able to study 
 any longer, and not hate my firmness of mind, if I, 
 who survived all my dear ones, could find any employ- 
 ment for my tongiie, except to accuse the gods, and to 
 protest that no Providence looks down upon the affairs 
 of men ? 
 
 " Their mother had before been torn from me, who 
 had given birth to two sons before she had completed 
 her nineteenth year ; and, though her death was a cruel 
 blow to me, to her it was a happy one. To me the 
 affliction was so crushing that Fortune could no longer 
 restore me to happiness. For not only did the exercise 
 of every feminine virtue render her husband's grief in- 
 curable, but, compared with my own age, she was but 
 a girl, and therefore her loss may be accounted as that 
 of a child. Still my children survived, and were my 
 joy and comfort, and she, since I survived, escaped by 
 a precipitate flight the agonies of grief. In my younger 
 son, who died at five years old, I lost one light of my 
 eyes. I have no ambition to make much of my mis- 
 fortunes, or to exaggerate the reasons which I have for 
 sorrow ; would that I had means of assuaging it ! But 
 how can I conceal his lovely countenance, his endear- 
 ing talk, hia sparkling wit, and (what I feel can scarcely 
 be believed) his calm and deep solidity of mind ? Had 
 he been another's child, he would have won my love. 
 But insidious Fortune, in order to inflict on me severer 
 anguish, made him more affectionate to me than to his 
 nurses, his grandmother, who brought him up, and 
 all who generally gain the attachment of children of 
 that age. 
 
 " Thankful, therefore, do I feel for that sorrow in 
 
214 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 which but a few months before I was plunged by the 
 loss of his matchless, his inestimable mother; one only 
 hope, support, and consolation, had remained in my 
 Quintilian. He had not, like my younger son, just put 
 forth his early blossoms, but, entering on his tenth year, 
 had shown mature and well-set fruit. In him 1 dis- 
 cerned such vigor of intellect, such a zeal for study, 
 which never required pressing, but also such upright- 
 ness, filial affection, refinement, and generosity, as fur- 
 nished grounds for apprehending the thunder-stroke 
 which has fallen. He possessed also those gifts which 
 are accidental: — a clear and melodious voice, a sweet 
 pronunciation, a correct enunciation of every letter 
 both in Greek and Latin; he possessed also the far 
 higher qualities of constancy, earnestness, and firmness 
 to bear sorrow and to resist fear. O dearest object of 
 my disappointed hopes! could I behold thy glazing 
 eyes, thy fleeting, when life began to fail! could I 
 embrace thy cold and lifeless form, and live to drink 
 again the common air ! "Well do I deserve these ago- 
 nizing thoughts, these tortures which I endure ! " 
 
 It is the touching eloquence of one who could not 
 write otherwise than gracefully. 
 
 AureliuB Cornelias Celsus, a physician, who lived 
 probably under the reign of Tiberius, The only work 
 extant from him is a treatise, in eight books, on medi- 
 cine, written in a beautiful Augustan style, and show- 
 ing the learning of Celsus as a physician. The best 
 evidence of the merit of the book of this writer is tha,t, 
 in our days, it is yet a text-book found in the hands 
 of many pupils of medicine. He has been called the 
 Cicero Medicorum. 
 
PROSE— PHILOSOPHERS AND GRAMMARUNS. 215 
 
 Another physician, ScElBONnis Laegus Designati- 
 ANUS, was the author of several works, one of which, a 
 large collection of prescriptions, is extant. 
 
 Fomponius Mela wrote, under the reign of Claudius, 
 a geographical book, " De Situ Orbis Libri III." The 
 book is systematic and learned. The simplicity of the 
 style, and almost Augustan purity of the Latinity, pre- 
 vent so bare a skeleton and list of facts from being dry 
 and uninteresting. 
 
 L. Junius Moderatus Columella wrote a didactic work, 
 " De Ke Eustica," in twelve books, the tenth of which 
 is written in verse; it is rather metrical prose than 
 poetry, but the versification is correct, and the whole 
 work, which is well composed, shows great fluency. 
 Nothing is known of his life. 
 
 Sextus Julius Frontinus deserves a place among the 
 Roman classical writers for his two books now extant. 
 The first is on military tactics, and entitled " Strate- 
 gematica Libri TV." It is a good composition, and 
 a very valuable work to the antiquarian, although of 
 no practical utility to the tactician. Tjjk,e other work, 
 which we have complete, is a descriptive architectural 
 treatise, in two books. Besides those two works, we 
 have fragments of other writings, one of which is on 
 surveying — " Agri Mensores," or " Eei Agrarise Scrip- 
 tores." They were scientific and jurisprudential at 
 the same time. 
 
 Frontinus occupied several offices in the city, un- 
 der the Emperor Vespasian. He was even sent to 
 succeed Cerialis, as governor of Britain, by this same 
 emperor. He died in. the year 106. 
 
 With Frontinus ends the list of the classical writers 
 
216 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 in the Latin language. After him we have many au- 
 thctrs, but few of them could imitate the literature of 
 the Augustan age. The brightest stars which illumi- 
 nated the darkness were Aulus Gellius, Appuleius, Pe- 
 tronius, Lactantius, and the first Christian writers. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Although in the body of our work we have given the names 
 of the principal writers who belong to the period of Oreeh clas- 
 sical literature, still we have deemed it well to insert, by way of 
 appendix, a short notice of a few authors of a much later era, 
 but whose works nevertheless are, on account of their intrinsic 
 merit, justly numbered among the classics, and, as such, read in 
 many schools and colleges. 
 
 As the first of this number we may mention Theocritus, the 
 most celebrate'd of bucolic poets, who flourished at Syracuse, in 
 Sicily, B. 0. 27-0. In his youth he received instructions under able 
 masters. Subsequently he became a friend of Aratus, a Greek 
 poet of Cihoia, and lived part of his time at Alexandria, and the 
 rest at Syracuse. The circumstances of his death are not pre- 
 cisely known, but it has been supposed, without sufficient rea- 
 son, however, that he was strangled by order of Hiero, King of 
 Sicily, in revenge for some pieces of a satirical nature which the 
 poet had written against him. Theocritus is distinguished chiefly 
 for his bucolic poems, all of which were written in the Dorian 
 dialect. 
 
 Fifty-one poems are attributed to him, thirty of which — be- 
 longing to the bucoUc order — are entitled " Idyls," and the re- 
 mainder "Epigrams." Theocritus has had many imitators, both 
 among the ancients and moderns, but in grace and naUmeti of dic- 
 tion he stands yet unrivalled. He is sometimes indeUcate in his 
 expressions, but otherwise his works are faithful copies of nature, 
 10 
 
218 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITEKATUKE. 
 
 characterized by a picturesque description of scenery, and a rich- 
 ness and delicacy of fancy rarely to be met with in any other 
 author. 
 
 Lucian, a distinguished writer, born at Samosata, in Syria, 
 lived several centuries later than Theocritus, but is notwithstand- 
 ing justly entitled to a prominent place among the classic authors 
 of Greek literature. The age in which he flourished is not known, 
 but it is generally believed that he lived about the time of Trajan, 
 although many are of opinion that he was of a much later date. 
 He was at first an advocate at Antioch, but, having relinquished 
 this profession, he devoted himself to literary pursuits, in which 
 he soon attained great celebrity. He had a particular love for 
 travel, and at an early age visited Greece, Asia, and Gaul, and in 
 this last-mentioned country he remained in the capacity of teacher 
 of rhetoric, until he was about forty years of age. After leaving 
 Gaul he visited Italy, and many other countries, particularly the 
 provinces of Greece and Asia Minor, He lived, however, a greater 
 part of his time in Athens, where he died, at a very advanced age. 
 He wrote numerous works on various subjects, the greater part 
 of which were in the form of dialogue. They were nearly all of 
 a satirical nature, and were directed against the prevailing vices 
 and follies of the day. 
 
 That Lucian was endowed with the true spirit of satire, and 
 a fund of humor rarely possessed by any other writer, is fully 
 evinced by his works; and, were we to judge from his style, 
 which was formed upon that of the beat models of Greek genius, 
 we would be led to believe that he flourished in the classic era 
 of Greek literature. 
 
 Plutarch, a native of Cheronea, in Boeotia, was born about 
 the middle of the first century ; the exact period of his birth is 
 unknown. He commenced his studies when quite young, and, 
 as he enjoyed the instructions of excellent teachers, he made 
 rapid progress in the various departments of belles-lettres and 
 mathematics. At a very early age he was employed by his fel- 
 low-citizens in negotiations with the neighboring cities, and this 
 was subsequently the motive of his visiting Bome, where, when 
 his public business did not interfere, he gave lecthres in philos- 
 ophy and eloquence. He did not, however, remain at Bome for 
 
APPENDIX. 219 
 
 any length of time, but returned to Ms native land, where he was 
 incessantly engaged in the services of his countrymen. The works 
 of Plutarch are very voluminous, hut the one for which he is most 
 celebrated is " The ParaUel Lives." This contains short biograph- 
 ical notices of forty-four individuals — the most iDustrious of the 
 ancient Greeks and Romans — in such a manner that a Greek is 
 always compared with a Roman. Besides these he wrote five 
 isolated biographies, and twelve or fourteen others which are 
 lost. These works are no less interesting than instructive, and 
 for the historian they are invaluable, as they contain many facta 
 which cannot bo found in any other history. He is, however, in 
 
 PLUTAEOn. 
 
 these works chargeable with one great defect, viz., an entire neg- 
 lect of all chronological order — a fault which occasions in the 
 mind of the reader only a confused impression of what he has 
 gone over. Besides these, Plutarch was the author of several 
 other works, some of which were of an historical and others of 
 a philosophical nature ; but, as they are comparatively only of 
 minor importance, we shall pass them by without further com- 
 ment. 
 
 St. John Chrysostom.— " The Homily " which St. John pro- 
 nounced in favor of Eutropius is translated in many colleges, and 
 may surely be considered as a masterpiece of eloquence. How- 
 
220 SOMAN CLASSICAL LITERATUEB. 
 
 ever, some passages show bad taste, wMoh we always find in the 
 works of Greek writers who do not belong to the classical period 
 of literature. 
 
 Many names might be added, but we had to confine ourselves, 
 as we have said, within the limits of what may be strictly called 
 classical literature. 
 
 THE END. 
 
D. APPLETON & go: 8 PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 Germania and Agricola of Caius Cornelius 
 Tacitus : 
 
 With Notes for Colleges. By W. S. TYLER, Professor of the Greek 
 and Latin Languages in Amherst College. 12mo, 193 pages. 
 
 Tacitii8'8 account of Germany and life of Agricola are among the most fascinating 
 and instructive Latin classics. The present edition has been prepared expressly for 
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 text, approved by all the more recent editors. 2. A copious illustration of the gram- 
 matical constructions, as well as of the rhetorical and poetical usages peculiar to Taci- 
 tus. In a writer so concise it has been deemed necessary to pay particular regard to 
 the connection of thought, and to the particles as the hinges of that connection. 8. 
 Constant comparisons of the writer with the authors of the Augustan age, for the pur- 
 pose of indicating the changes which had aheady been wrought in the language of the 
 Boman people. 4. An embodiment in small compass of the most valuable labors of such 
 recent German critics as Grimm, Gilnther, Gruber, Kiessling, Dronke, Both, Buperti, 
 and Walther. 
 
 From Pnop. LnrooLH, of Brown VmlnereUiy. 
 
 "I have found the book in daily use with my class of very great service, very practi- 
 cal, and well suited to the wants of students. I am very much pleased with the Life 
 of Tacitus and the Introduction, and Indeed with the literary character of the book 
 throughout. We shall make the book a part of our Latin course." 
 
 The History of Tacitus : 
 
 By W. S. TYLER. With Notes for Colleges. 12mo, 453 pages. 
 
 The text of Tacitus is here presented in a form as correct as a comparison of the best 
 editions can make it Notes are appended for the student's use, which contain not only 
 the grammatical, but likewise all the geographical, archseological, and historical illustra- 
 tions that are necessioy to render the author intelligible. It has been the constant aim 
 of the editor to carry students beyond the dry details of grammar and lexicography, 
 and introduce them to a femiliar acquaintance and lively sympathy with the author and 
 his times. Indexes to the notes, and to the names of persons and places, render refer' 
 «nce easy. 
 
 JB¥<ym Prop. Haokett, qfN&wtoTi Theological Senmicury, 
 
 " The notes appear to me to be even more neat and elegant than those on the ' Ger- 
 nutnia and Agricola.' They oome as near to such notes as I would be glad to write my- 
 Mlf OB a clasBK, as almost any thing that I have yet seen." 
 
-D. APPLETON dt CO:S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 The Works of Horace. 
 
 With EngKsh Notes, for the use of Schools and Colleges. By J. L 
 LINCOLN, Professor of the Latin Language and Literature in 
 Brown University, 12mo, 575 pages. 
 
 The text of this edition is mainly that of Orelli, the most important readings of oQier 
 critics being given in foot-notes. The volume is introduced with a biographical sketch 
 of Horace and a critique on his writings, which enable the student to enter Intelligently 
 on his work. Peculiar grammatical constructions, as well as geographical and historical 
 allusions, are explained In notes, which are just AiIl enough to aid the pupil, to excite 
 him to gain a thorough understanding of the author, and awaken in him a taste for philo- 
 logical studies, without taking all labor off his hands. While the chief aim has been to 
 impart a clear idea of I^tin Syntax as exhibited in the text, it has also been a cherished 
 object to take advantage of the means so variously and richly famished by Horace for 
 promoting the poetical taste and literary culture of the student. 
 
 From an arUde hy Pbop. Bahb, of the Uftifoerstty qf Meidelbergj in the S^delb&rg 
 ArmcUs of Idteraiure. 
 
 "There are already several American edlMons of Horace, intended fbr the use ol 
 schools ; of one of these, which has passed through many editions, and has also been 
 widely circulated in England, mention has been formerly made in this jotirna! ; but that 
 one we may not put upon an equality with the one now before us, inasmuch as this has 
 taken a different stand-point, which may serre as a sign of progress in this department 
 of study. The editor has, it is true, also intended his work for the use of schools, and 
 has sought to adapt it, in all its parts, to such a use ; but still, without losing sight of 
 this purpose, he has proceeded throughout with more independence. In the prepara' 
 tion of the Notes, the editor has fiiithfmly observed the principles (laid down in his pref- 
 ace); the explanations of the poefs words commend themselves by a compressed 
 brevity wMoh limits itself to what is most essential, and by a sharp precision of expres' 
 sion ; and references to other passages of the poe^ and also to grammars, dictionariM, 
 etc., are not wanting." 
 
 Sallust's Jugurtha and Catiline. 
 
 With Notes and a Vocabulary. By NOBLE BUTLER and MINARD 
 STTJRGIS. 12mo, 397 pages. 
 
 The editors have spent a vast amount of time and labor in correcting the text, by a 
 tomparison of the most improved Oerman and English editions. It Is believed that this 
 nill be found superior to any edition hitherto published in this country. In accordance 
 with their chronological order, the "Jugurtha" precedes the "Catiline." The Notes are 
 copious and tersely expressed; they display not only fine scholarship, but (what Is 
 quite as necessary in such a book) a practical knowledge of the diflttcultles which the stu- 
 dent encounters in reading this author, and the aids that he requires. The Vocabulary 
 was prepared by the late WnxzAH H. G. Buti^bb. It will be found an able and iUtlrfta] 
 performance. 
 
D. APPLET ON & CO: 8 PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 Virgil's ^neid. 
 
 With Explanatory Notes. By HENRY S. FRIEZE, Professor of 
 Latin in the State University of Michigan. Illustrated. 12mo, 
 698 pages. 
 
 The appearance of this edition of Virgil's Maeii will, it is believed, 
 be hailed with delight by all classical teachers. Neither expense nor 
 pains have been spared to clothe the great Latin epic in a fitting dress. 
 The type is unusually large and distinct, and errors in the text, so an- 
 noying to the learner, have been carefully avoided. The work contains 
 eighty-five engravings, which delineate the usages, costumes, weapons, 
 arts, and mythology of the ancients with a vividness that can be attained 
 only by pictorial illustrations. The great feature of this edition is the 
 scholarly and judicious commentary furnished in the appended Notes. 
 The author has here endeavored not to show his learning, but to supply 
 such practical aid as will enable the pupil to understand and appreciate 
 what he reads. The notes are just full enough, thoroughly explainiuf 
 the most difficult passages, while they are not so extended as to take all 
 labor ofi' the pupil's hands. Properly used, they cannot fail to impart an 
 intelligent acquaintance with the syntax of the language. In a word, this 
 work is commended to teachers as the most elegant, accurate, interesting, 
 and practically useful edition of the Mnsii that has yet been published. 
 
 Prom JoHH H. BEOinraE, PraaAentqf lEKoanti College. 
 
 "The typography, paper, and binding of Virgil's j^eid, by Prof. Frieze, are all tliat 
 need be desired; while the learned and judicloas notes appended, are very valuable in- 
 deed." 
 
 I^om Priffusvpal of Piedm^mf ( Va.) Academy. 
 
 " I have to thank you for a copy of Prof. Frieze's edition of the j£neid. I have been 
 exceedingly pleased in my examination of it. The size of the type from which the text 
 is printed, and the &ultle88 execution, leave nothing to be desired in these respects. 
 The adherence to a standard text throughout, increaaes the value of this edition." 
 
 ^om D. fl. MooBS, Principal U. Sigh School, Jtutland. 
 
 "The copy of Frieze's 'Tiigil' forwarded to me was dnly received. It is so evi- 
 dently superior to any of the other editions, that I shall unhesitatingly adopt it in mf 
 
D. APPLETON iSb C0:8 PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 Select Orations of M. TuUius Cicero : 
 
 With Notes, for the use of Schools and Colleges. By E. A. JOHN- 
 SON, Professor of Latm ia the "University of New York. 12mo, 
 459 pages. 
 
 This edition of Qcero^s Select Oratioiis possesses some special advantages for the stu- 
 dent which are hoth new and important. It is the only edition which contains the im. 
 proved text that has heen prepared by a recent careftil collation and correct deciphering 
 of the best manuscripts of Gicero^s writings. It is the work of the celebrated Orelll, Mad- 
 vig, and Klotz, and has been done since the appearance of Orelli^s complete edition. The 
 Notes, by Professor Joimson, of the New Tork University, have been mostly selected, 
 with great care, from the best German authors, as well as the English edition of Arnold. 
 
 From Thomas Chase, Tutor in Lati/it in Ha/ma/rd Ufidverai^. 
 "■ An edition of Cicero like Johnson^s has long been wanted ; and the excellence of the 
 text, the illustrations of words, particles, and pronouns, and the explanation of various 
 points of construction and interpretation, bear witness to the Editor's familiarity with 
 some of the most important results of modem st^olwship, and entitle his work to a larg* 
 Bliare of public l^vor.^' 
 
 "It seems to us an Improvement upon any edition of these Oratlonfi that haA been 
 published in this country, and will be found a valuable aid in their studies to the lovcn 
 of classical literature.^ — Troy Da4ly Whig. 
 
 Cicero de Officiis : 
 
 With English Notes, mostly translated from Zchpp and Bonnell. By 
 
 THOMAS A. TEACHER, of Yale College. 12mo, 194 pages. 
 
 In this edition, a few historical notes have been introduced in cases where the Dic- 
 tionary in common use lias not been found to contain the desired information ; the design 
 of which is to aid the learner in understanding the contents of the treattses, the thoughts 
 and reasoning of the author, to explain grammatical difBculties, and inculcate a knowl- 
 edge of grammatical principles. The Editor has aimed throughout to guide rather than 
 cany the learner through difficulties; requiring of him more study, in consequence of 
 his help, than he would have devoted to the book without it. 
 
 From M. L. Stoevbe,' Prqfeaor of (he LaUn Lamguage and lAteratiwre, im, Ftnmnyl' 
 'omvia College. 
 
 "I hare examined with much pleasure Prof. Thacher's edition of Cicero de Offldls, 
 and am comlnced of its excellence. The JTotes have been prepared with great care and 
 good judgment. Practical knowledge of the wants of the student has enabled the Editor 
 to furnish just the kind of assistance required ; grammatical difficulties are removed, and 
 the obscurities of the treatise are explained, the interest of the learner is elicited, and his 
 industry dtected hither than superseded. There can be but one opinion with regard to 
 the merits of the work, and I trust that Professor Thachcr will be disposed to continue 
 kto labors so carefiilly commenced, in this department of classical learning,*' 
 
i). APPLETON <& C0:8 PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 Lincoln^s Livy. 
 
 Selections from the first Five Books, together with the Twenty-First 
 and Twenty-Second Books entire ; with a Plan of Rome, a Map 
 of the passage of Hannibal, and English Notes for the use of 
 Schools. By J. L. LINCOLN, Professor of the Latin Language 
 and Literature in Brown University. 12mo, 329 pages. 
 
 The pnbliihers believe that In this edition of Livy a want is supplied which has been 
 universally felt ; there being previous to this no American edition fhrnished with the re- 
 qmsite aids for the aucccssfiil study of this Latin author. The text is cliiefly that of Al- 
 Bchefsfci, which is now generally received by the best critics. The notes have been pre- 
 pared with special reference to the grammatical study of the language, and the illustration 
 of its forms, constructions, and idioms, as used by livy. They will not be foimd to foster 
 habits of dependence in the student, by supplying indiscriminate translation or unneces- 
 sary assistance; but come to his help only la such parts as it is ^r to suppose he can- 
 not master by his own exertions. They also embrace all necessary Information relating 
 to history, geography, and antiquities. 
 
 Lincoln's Livy has been highly commended by critics, and Is used in nearly all tht 
 colleges In tiie country. 
 
 I¥om Peof. Anderson, of Wat&rviUe CdUege. 
 
 "A careful examination of several portions of your work has convinced me Uiat, for 
 the use of students, it is altogether superior to any edition of Livy with which I am ac- 
 quainted. Among its excellences yon will permit me to name the close attention given 
 to particles, to the subjunctive mood, the constant reference to the grammars, the dis- 
 crimination of words nearly synonymous, and the care in giving the locahties mentioned 
 in the text The book will be hereafter used In our college." 
 
 Beza's Latin Version of the New Testa- 
 ment. 
 
 12mo, 291 pages. 
 
 The now-acknowledged propriety of ^viog students of languages Ikmlliar works for 
 translation-— thus adopting in the schools the mode by which the child first learns to talk 
 — has induced the publication of this new American edition of Beza^s latin Version of 
 the New Testament. Ever since ita first appearance, tliis work has kept its place in the 
 general esteem ; while more recent versions have been so strongly tinged with the pecu- 
 liar views of the translators as to make tiiem acceptable to particular classes only. The 
 editor has exerted himself to render the present edition worthy of patronage by its su- 
 perior accuracy and neatness ; and tiie publishers flatter themselves that the pains be- 
 itowed win insure for it a preference over tther editions. 
 
L. APPLETON i& CO:S PUBLIOATJONS. 
 
 Ceesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War. 
 
 With English Notes, Critical and Explanatory ; a Lexicon, Geographi- 
 cal and Historical Indexes, a Map of Ganl, etc. By Rev. J. A. 
 SPENCER, D. D. 12mo, 408 pages. 
 In the preparation of this Tolume, great care has been taken to adapt it in every re- 
 spect to the wants of the young student, to make it a means at the same time of advan- 
 cing him in a th(ffough knowledge of Latin, and inspiring him with a desire for further 
 acquaintance with the classics of the luiguage. Dr. Bpencor has not, like some commen- 
 tators, given an abundance of help on title easy passages, and allowed the difficult oneg 
 to speak for themselves. His Notes are on those p^ts on which the pupil wants them, 
 and ei^lain, not only grammatical difficulties, but allusions of every kind in the text. A 
 well-drawn sketch of C£esar''s life, a Map of the region in which Ma campaigns were car- 
 ried on, and a Yocabnlaiy, which removes the necessity of using a large dictionary and 
 the waste of time consequent thereon, enhance the value of the volume in no aiball d*> 
 eree. 
 
 Quintus Curtius : 
 
 Life and Exploits of Alexander the Great. Edited and illustrated 
 with English Notes. By WILLIAM HENRY CROSBY. 12mo, 
 S85 pages. 
 
 Curtius'a History of Alexander the Great, fhongi little nsed in the schools of this 
 eountry, in England and on the Continent holds a high place in the estimation of classi- 
 cal instnictora. The interesttog character of its snbjeot, the elegance of its style, and the 
 purity of its moral sentiments, ought to place it at least on a par with OsBsar's Commen- 
 taries or SaDust's Histories. The present edition, by the late Professor of Latin in But- 
 gers CoDegc, is unexceptionable in typography, convenient in form, scholarly and prac- 
 tical in its notes, and altogether an admirable textbook for classes preparing for crf- 
 lega. 
 
 Prmn PEpr. Owen, i^fOie Mw Tarh Free Aammny. 
 
 "It gives me great pleasure to add my testimonial to the many you are receiving in 
 fevor of the beauttfU and well-edited edition of Quintus Curtius, by Prof Wm. Henry 
 Crosljy. It is seldom that a classical book is sntmttted to me for examination, to which 
 I can give so hearty a recommendation as to this. The external appearance is attractive ; 
 the paper, type, and btading, being just what a text-book should be, neat, clear and du- 
 rable. The notes are briei; pertinent, scholar-like, neither too exubermt nor too meagre, 
 but happily exemplUJing the golden mean ao desirable and yet so very dlfflcnlt of at- 
 tainment.*' 
 
D. APPLETON <Sk CO.'S PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 A Latin Grammar for Schools and Colleges. 
 
 By A. HARKNESS, Ph. D., Professor in Brown University. 
 
 To explain the general plan of the work, the Publishers ask the atten- 
 tion of teachers to the following extracts from the Preface : 
 
 1. This Tolume is designed to present a systematic arrangement of the 
 great facts and laws of the Latin language ; to exhibit not only grammat- 
 ical forms and constructions, but also those vital principles which under- 
 lie, control, and explain them. 
 
 2. 'Designed at once as a text-book for the class-room, and a book of 
 reference in study, it aims to introduce the beginner easily and pleasantly 
 to the first principles of the language, and yet to make adequate provi- 
 sion for the wants of the more advanced student. 
 
 3. By brevity and conciseness in the choice of phraseology and com- 
 pactness in the arrangement of forms and topics, the author has endeav- 
 ored to compress within the hmits of a convenient manual an amount of 
 carefully-selected grammatical facts, which would otherwise fill a much 
 larger volume. 
 
 4. He has, moreover, endeavored to present the whole subject in the 
 light of modern scholarship. Without encumbering his pages with any 
 unnecessary discussions, he has aimed to enrich them with the practical 
 results of the recent labors in the field of philology, 
 
 6. Syntax has received in every part special attention. An attempt 
 has been made to exhibit, as clearly as possible, that beautiful system of 
 laws which the genius of the language — that highest of all grammatical 
 authority — has created for itself. 
 
 6. Topics which require extended illustration are first presented in 
 their completeness in general outUne, before the separate points are dis- 
 cussed in detail. Thus a single page often foreshadows all the leading 
 features of an extended discussion, imparting a completeness and vividness 
 to the impression of the learnen, impossible under any other treatment. 
 
 7. Special care has been taken to explain and.illustrate with the requi- 
 site fulness all difiicult and intricate subjects. The Subjunctive Mood — 
 that severest trial of the teacher's patience — ^has been presented, it is 
 hop^, in a form at once simple and comprehensiv*. ♦ 
 
B. APPLETON & C0:8 PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 Arnold^s Greek Course. 
 
 Revised, Corrected, and Improved, by the Rev. J. A. SPENCER, 
 B. D., late Professor of Latin and Oriental Languages in Burling- 
 ton College, N. J. 
 
 FIRST GREEK BOOK, on the Plan of the First Latin Book. 12mo, 254 pages. 
 PRACTICAL IHTTRODUCTION TO GREEK PROSE COMPOSITION. 12mo, 2ST 
 
 pages. 
 SECOND PART TO THE ABOVE. 12mo, 248 pages. 
 GREEK READING BOOK. Containing the substance of the Practical Introduction to 
 
 Greek Construing, and a Treatise on the Greek Particles ; also, copious selections 
 
 from Greek Authors, with Critical and Explanatory English Notes, and a Lexicon. 
 
 12mo, 618 pages. 
 
 A complete, thorough, practical, and easy Greek course Is here presented. The be- 
 ^ner commences with the " First Book," in which the elementary principles of the lan- 
 guage are unfolded, not in abstract language, difficult both to comprehend and to re- 
 member, but as practically applied in sentences. Throughout the whole, the pupil sees 
 just where he stands, and is taught to use and apply what he learns. His progress is, 
 therefore, as rapid as it is intelligent and pleasant. There is no unnecessary verbiage, 
 nor is the pupU^s attention diverted from what is really important by a mass of minor 
 details. It is the experience ot teachers who use this book, that with it a given amount 
 of Greek Grammar can be imparted to a pupil in a shorter time and with far lesa trouble 
 than with any other text-book. 
 
 The "First Book" may with advantage be followed by the "Introduction to Greek 
 Prose Composition." The object of this work is to enable the student, as soon as he can 
 decline and conjugate with tolerable fecility, to translate simple sentences after given ex- 
 amples and with given words; the principles employed being those of imitation and very 
 frequent repetition. It is at once a Syntax, a Tocabulary, and an Exercise-book. The 
 " Second Part " carries the subject fturther, unfolding the most complicated constructiona, 
 and the nicest points of liatin Syntax. A Key is provided for the teacher^s use. 
 
 The " Reader," besides extracts judiciously selected from the Greek classics, contf^ns 
 valuable instructions to guide the learner in tr^islatlng and construing, and a complete 
 exposition of the particles, their signiflcation and government. It is a fitting sequel to 
 the earlier parts of the course, everywhere showing the hand of an acute otitic, an ac- 
 complished scholar, and an experienced teacher. 
 
 From flie Rev. De. Coleman, ProfesBor of Greek cmd Latin^ Prmeeton, J^ J. 
 
 " I can, from the most satisfactory experience, bear testimony to the excellence of 
 your series of Text-Books for Schools. I am in the daily use of Arnold''8 Latin and 
 Greek Exercises, and consider them docidedly Miperior to any other Elementary Works 
 1b tJioM hmguages. "