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 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
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 http://www.archive.org/cletails/cu31924026479273 
 
A HISTORY 
 
 CLASSICAL LITEEATURE. 
 
 BY 
 
 E. W. BEOWNE, M.A., Ph. D. 
 
 PEEBEKDAEY OP ST. PAUL'S, 
 AND PKOFESSOR OF CLASSICAL LITERATDRH IN KIHG'S COLLEGE, LONDON. 
 
 2irouBa7oi'_ou5eV in sermone, <})tK6Koya multa, 
 
 CiC. Ep. ad Att. 
 
LOKDOH. PEINTED BY W. 01 OWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STKEET ASD CHAIUNO CROSS. 
 
A HISTORY 
 
 ROMAN CLASSICAL 
 
 LITERATURE. 
 
 E'''w:^BROWNE, M.A., Ph. D. 
 
 PEEBBNDAEY OP ST. PAUL'S, 
 AND PBOFESSOB OF OLASSICAl, LITEEATTJEE IN KINO'S OOI.LEGE, LONDON. 
 
 Meum semper judicium fuit, omnia nostros aut iurenisse per se 
 sapientius qiiam Grseoos ; aut accepta ab illis fecisse meliora, quse 
 quidem digae statuissent in quibus elaborarent. 
 
 Cic. Tmc. Disp. I. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 RICHARD BENTLEY, NEW BURLINGTON STREET, 
 
 PnliUaibcr in ®rUinat|) to l|«r JWajestp. 
 
 1853. 
 
utfd-B-^^ 
 
 jti% ifum^m nil Mi 
 
 /CORNE 
 UNIVERSITY 
 LIBRARY /^ 
 
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PREFACE. 
 
 The history of Eoman Classical Literature, although 
 it comprehends the names of many Ulustrious writers and 
 many voluminous works, is, chronologically speaking, 
 contained within narrow limits. Dating from its earliest 
 infancy, until the epoch when it ceased to deserve the 
 title of classical, its existence occupies a period of less 
 than four centuries. 
 
 The imperial city had been founded for upwards of five 
 hundred years without exhibiting more than those rudest 
 germs of literary taste which are common to the most 
 imcivilized nations, without producing a single author 
 either in poetry or prose. 
 
 The Eoman mind, naturally vigorous and active, was 
 still uncultivated, when, about two centuries and a half 
 before the Christian era,' conquest made the inhabitants 
 
 B.C. 240; A.u.o. 514. 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 of the capital acquainted, for the first time, with Greek 
 science, art, and literature j and the last rays of classic 
 taste and learning ceased to illumine the Roman world 
 before the accession of the Antonines.^ 
 
 Such a history, however, must be introduced by a 
 reference to times of much higher antiquity. The 
 language itself must be examined historically, ^hat is, 
 its progress and its formation from its primitive ele- 
 ments must be traced with reference to the influences 
 exercised upon it from without by the natives who spote 
 the dialects out of which it was composed; and the earhest 
 indications of a taste for poetry, and a desire to cultivate 
 the intellectual powers, must be marked and followed out 
 in their successive stages of development. In this inves- 
 tigation, it vdll be seen how great the dij0B.culties were 
 with which literary men had to struggle under the 
 Eepublic — difficulties principally arising from the physical 
 activity of the people, and the practical character of the 
 Eoman miad, which led the majority to xmdervalue and 
 despise devotion to sedentary and contemplative pur- 
 suits. 
 
 The Eoman, in the olden times, had a high and self- 
 denying sense of duty — he was ambitious, but his am- 
 bition was for the glory, not of himself but his country ; 
 he thus lived for conquest ; his motive, however, was not 
 
 A.D. ]38; A.iJ.c. 891. 
 
PREFACE. Vll 
 
 self-aggrandizement, but the extension of the domination 
 of Rome. When the state came to be merged in the indi- 
 vidual, generals and statesmen sought to heap up wealth 
 and to acquire power ; but it was not so in the Eepub- 
 lican times. Owing to these characteristic features, the 
 Eoman citizen conceived it to be his duty to devote his 
 energies to the public service, he concentrated aU his 
 powers, mental and bodily, upon war and politics:, he 
 despised all other occupations and sources of fame; for 
 he was conscious that his country owed her position 
 amongst nations to her military prowess, and her liber- 
 ties at home to the wise administration of her consti- 
 tution. 
 
 Hence it will be seen, that there never was a period in 
 which literature did not require to be fostered and pro- 
 tected by the patronage of the wealthy and powerful. 
 Even tragedy never captivated the feelings or acquired 
 an influence over the minds of the people at large as it 
 did in Grreece ; it degenerated into mere recitations in 
 a dramatic form, addressed like any other poetry to a 
 coterie. Comedy formed the only exception to this rule. 
 It was the only species of literature which the masses 
 thoroughly enjoyed. Learning was a sickly plant : pa- 
 tronage was the artificial heat which brought it to ma- 
 turity. Accius was patronized by D. Brutus ; Ennius 
 by Lucilius and the Scipios ; Terence by Africanus and 
 Lselius; Lucretius by the Memmii; Tibullus by Mes- 
 sala ; Propertius by ^lius Glallus ; Virgil and his friends 
 
 62 
 
viii PREFAOK. 
 
 by Augustus, Maecenas, and Pollio ; Martial and Quin- 
 tilian by Domitian. 
 
 As the conquest of Magna Grsecia, Sicily, and, finally, 
 of Greece itself, first directed to the pursuit of intellectual 
 cultivation a people, whose national literature, even if it 
 deserved to be so called, was of the rudest and most 
 meagre description, Roman Hterature was, as might be 
 expected, the offspring of the Greek, and its beauties a 
 reflexion of the Greek mind ; and although some portions 
 were more original than others, as being more con- 
 genial to the national character — such, for example, as 
 satire, . oratory, and history — ^it was, upon the whole, 
 never anything more than an imitation. It had, there- 
 fore, all the faults of an imitation. As in painting those 
 that study the old masters, and neglect nature, are nothing 
 more than copyists, however high the finish and elaborate 
 the polish of their works may be ; so in the literature of 
 Eome, we are delighted with the execution, and charmed 
 with the genius, wit, and ingenuity, but we seek in vain 
 for the enthusiasm and inspiration which breathes in every 
 part of the original. 
 
 One faculty of the greatest importance to literary emi- 
 nence was possessed by the Eomans in the highest per- 
 fection, because it may be acquired as well as innate, and 
 is always improved and polished by education. — That 
 faculty is taste — ^the abihty, as Addison defines it, to 
 discern the beauties of an author with pleasure, and his 
 imperfections with dislike. 
 
PKEFAOE. IX 
 
 Of the three periods into which this history is divided, 
 the first may be considered as dramatic. Eloquence, 
 indeed, made rapid strides, and 0. Gracchus may be 
 considered as the father of Latin prose ; but the language 
 was not sufficiently smoothed and poHshed, the senti- 
 ments of the orator were far superior to the diction in 
 which they were conveyed. Jurisprudence also was 
 studied with thoughtfulness and accuracy ; history, how- 
 ever, was nothing more than annals, and epic poetry rugged 
 and monotonous. But the acting-tragedy of the Eomans 
 is almost exclusively confined to this period; and the 
 comedies of Plautus and Terence were then written, which 
 have survived to command the admiration of modern 
 times. Although, at this epoch, the language was 
 elaborately polished and embelHshed with the utmost 
 variety of graceful forms and expressions, it was simple 
 and unconstrained : it flowed easily and naturally, and 
 was therefore full and copious; brevity and epigrammatic 
 terseness are acquired qualities, and the result of art, 
 although that art may be sMlfiiUy concealed. 
 
 The second period consists of two subdivisions, of which 
 the first was the era of^rose, and, consequently, the period 
 at which the language attained its greatest perfection ; 
 for the structure, power, and genius of a language must 
 be judged of by its prose, and not by its poetry. Cicero 
 is the representative of this era as an orator and philoso- 
 pher — Csesar and SaUust as historians. The second sub- 
 division or the Augustan age, is the era of poetry, for in 
 
X PREFACE. 
 
 it poetry arrived at the same eminence wHch prose had 
 attained in the preceding generation. But the age of 
 Cicero and that of Augnstns can only be made subdi- 
 visions of one great period ; they are not separated from 
 each other by a strong line of demarcation ; they are 
 blended together, and gradually melt iato one another. 
 In the former, Lucretius and Catullus were the har- 
 bingers of YirgU, Horace, and Ovid ; and, in the latter, 
 the sun of Cicero, Csesar, and SaUust, seems to set in the 
 sweet narrative of Livy. 
 
 The last period is rhetorical: it has been called "the 
 silver age." It produced Rome's only fabulist, Phaedrus ; 
 the greatest satirist, Juvenal ; the wittiest epigrammatist; 
 Martial ; the most philosophical historian, Tacitus ; the 
 most judicious critic, Quintilian; and a letter-writer, 
 scarcely inferior to Cicero himself, the younger Phny; 
 and yet, notmthstanding these illustrious names, this 
 is the period of the decline. These great names shed 
 a lustre over their generation ; but they did not influence 
 their taste, or arrest the approaching decay of the national 
 genius : causes were at work which were rapidly pro- 
 ducing this effect, and they were beyond their control. A 
 new and false standard of taste was now set up, which 
 was inconsistent with origitial genius and independent 
 thought. Home was persuaded to accept a declamatory 
 rhetoric as a substitute for that fervid eloquence in which 
 she had delighted, and which was now deprived of its 
 use, and was driven from the Forum to the lecture-room. 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 This taste infected every species of composition. Seneca 
 abused his fine talents to teacli men to admire notliing 
 so much as glitter, novelty, and affectation; and, at 
 length, all became constrained, hollow, and artifipial. 
 With the national liberty, the national intellect lapsed 
 into a state of inactivity: a period of intellectual darkness 
 succeeded, the influence which the capital had lost was 
 taken up by the provinces, and thus the way was paved 
 for the inroad of barbarism. 
 
 Such is the outline of this work; and if the reader finds 
 some features, which he considers of great importance, 
 rapidly touched upon, the extent of the subject, and the 
 wish to compress it within a moderate compass, must be 
 offered as the author's apology. In conclusion, the 
 author acknowledges his deep obHgations to those his- 
 torians and biographers whose works he has consulted 
 during the composition of this history. He feels that 
 it would have been presumptuous to offer such a work 
 to the pubHc without having profited by the laborious 
 investigations of Wolf, Bayle, Hermann, Grotefend, 
 Bemhardy, Bahr, Schlegel, Lachmann, Dunlop, Matthias, 
 SchoeU, Krause, Eitter, Nisard, Pierron, ISTiebuhr, 
 Mihnan, Arnold, Merivale, Donaldson, Smith, and the 
 authors of the "Biographic Universelle." 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 FIRST ERA. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 TAOE 
 
 Comparison of the Latin language with the Greek — Eras of Latinity — 
 Origin of the Romans — Elements of the Latin language — Etruscan 
 influence .......... 1 
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 
 The Eugubine Tables — Existence of Oscan in Italy — Bantine Table — 
 Perugian Inscription — Etruscan Alphabet and Words — Chant of 
 Fratres Arvales — Salian Hymn — Other Monuments of Old Latin — 
 Latin and Greek Alphabets compared . . . . .14 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 Satumian Meti'e — Opinions respecting its origin — Early examples of 
 this Metre — Saturnian Ballads in Livy — Structure of the Verse — 
 Instances of Rhythmical Poetry . . . . . .32 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Three periods of Roman Classical Literature— Its Elements rude — 
 Roman Religion — Etruscan influence— Early Histoi-ical Monuments 
 — Fescennine Verses— Fabula; AtellansE —Introduction of Stage- 
 Players — Derivation of Satire -39 
 
XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Emancipation of Livius Andronicus — His imitation of the Odyssey — 
 New kind of Scenic Exhibitions — First exhibition of his Dramas — 
 Nffivius a Political Partizan — His bitterness — His Pmiic War — 
 His nationality — His versification ...... 50 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Naevius stood between two Ages — Life of Ennius — Epitaphs written 
 by him — His taste, learning, and character— His fitness for being a 
 Literary Reformer — His influence on the language — His versifica- 
 tion — The Annals — DiflSculties of the Subject — Tragedies and 
 Comedies — Satirse — Minor Works 66 
 
 CHAPTER VH. 
 
 The New Comedy of the Greeks the Model of the Roman — The 
 Morality of Roman Comedy — Want of variety in the Plots of 
 Roman Comedy — Dramatis Personae — Costume — Characters — 
 Music — Latin Pronunciation — Metrical Licenses — Criticism of 
 Volcatius — Life of Plautus — Character of his Comedies — Analysis 
 of his Plots 77 
 
 CHAPTER VIL 
 
 Statius compared with Menander — Criticism of Cicero --Hypotheses 
 respecting the early hfe of Terence — Anecdote related by Donatus 
 — Style and Morality of Terence — Anecdote of him related by 
 Cornelius Nepos — His pecuniary circumstances and death — Plots 
 and Criticism of his Comedies — The remaining Comic Poets . .99 
 
 CHAPTER Vm. 
 
 Why Tragedy did not flourish at Rome — National Legends not 
 influential with the People — Fabnlse Praetextatse — Roman Religion 
 not ideal-^-Roman love for Scenes of Real Action and Gorgeous 
 Spectacle — Tragedy not patronised by the People — Pacuvius — 
 His Dulorestes and Paulus . . . . . . .124 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 L. Attius — His Tragedies and Fragments— Other Works — Tragedy 
 disappeared with him — Roman Theatres — 'Traces of the Satiric 
 Spirit in Greece — Roman Satire — Luciliiis — Criticisms of Horace, 
 Cicero, and Quintilian — Passage quoted by Lactantius — La^vias a 
 Lyric Poet 138 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Prose Literature — Prose suitable to Roman Genius — History, Juris- 
 prudence, and Oratory — Prevalence of Greek — Q. Fabius Pictor — 
 L. Cincius Alimentus — C. Acilius Glabrio — Value of the Annalists 
 — Important literary period, during which Cato Censorius 
 flourished — Sketch of his Life— ^His character, genius, and style . 149 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 The Origines 6f Cato — Passage quoted by Gellius — Treatise De Re 
 Rustica — Orations — L. Cassius Hemina — Historians in the Days of 
 the Gracchi — Traditional Anecdote of Romulus — Autobiographers 
 — Fragment of Quadrigarius — Falsehoods of Antias — Sisenna — 
 Tubero 165 
 
 CHAPTER XH. 
 
 ■ Early Roman Oratory — Eloquence of Appius Claudius Csecus — 
 Funeral Orations — Defence of Scipio Africanus Major— ^Scipio 
 Africanus Minor ^milianus — Era of the Gracchi — Their Cha-_ 
 racters — Interval between the Gracchi and Cicero — M. Antonius — 
 L. Licinius Crassus — Q. Hortensius — Causes of his early popularity 
 and subsequent failure . . . . . . . .179 
 
 CHAPTER Xm. 
 
 Study of Jurisprudence — Earliest Systematic Works on Roman -Law 
 — Groundwork of the Roman Civil Law — Eminent Jurists — The 
 Scffivolse — Mlixxs Gallus — C. Aqiiilius Gallus, a Law Reformer — 
 Other Jurists — Grammarians 199 
 
 BOOK 11. 
 
 THE ERA OF CICERO AND AUGUSTUS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Prose the Test of the condition of a Language — Dramatic Literature 
 extinct — Mimes — Difference between Roman and Greek Mimes — 
 Laberius —Passages from his Poetr}' — Matius Calvena — Mimiambi 
 Publius Syras — Roman Pantomime — Its licentiousness — Prin- 
 cipal actors of Pantomime 207 
 
XVI CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 PAQK 
 
 Lucretius a Poet rather than a Philosopher — His Life— Epic stnictm-e 
 of his Poem — Variety of his Poetry — Extracts from his Poem — 
 Argument of it — The Epicurean Doctrines contained in it — Morality 
 of Epicurus and Lucretius — Testimonies of Virgil and Ovid — 
 Catullus, his Life, Character, and Poetry — Other Poets of this 
 period 217 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 Age of Virgil fevourable to Poetry — His birth, education, habits, 
 illness, and death — ^His popularity and character — His minor Poems, 
 the Culex, Ciris, Moretum, Copa and Catalecta — His Bucolics — 
 Italian manners not suited to Pastoral Poetry — Idylls of Theocritus 
 — Classification of the Bucolics — Subject of the PoUio — Heyne's 
 theory respecting it ........ . 237 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Beauty of Didactic Poetry — Elaborate finish of the Georgics — Roman 
 love of Rural Pursuits — Hesiod suitable as a Model — Condition of 
 Italy — Subjects treated of in the Greor^cs — Some strildng passages 
 enumerated — Influence of Roman Literature on English Poetry — 
 Sources from which the incidents of the jEneid are derived — 
 Character of jEneas — Criticism of Niebuhi ..... 252 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Libertini — Roman feelings as to Commerce — Birth and infancy 
 of Horace — His early education at Rome — His Military career — 
 He returns to Rome — Is introduced to MsBcenas — Commences the 
 Satires — ^Maecenas gives him his Sabine Farm- His country life^ 
 The Epodes — Epistles — Carmen Seculare— lUness and death . 266 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Character of Horace — Descriptions of his Villa at TivoU, and his 
 Sabine Farm — Site of the Bandusian Fountain — The neighbouring 
 Scenery — Subjects of his Satires and Epistles — Beauty of his Odes 
 — Imitations of Greek Poets — Spurious Odes — Chronological 
 Arrangement .......... 282 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Biography of Mjecenas — His intimacy and influence with Augustus — 
 His character — Valgius Rufiis — Varius — Cornelius Gallus — Bio- 
 graphy of Tibullus— His style — Criticism of Muretus — Propertias' 
 — Imitated the Alexandrian Poets — ^milius Mater . . , 299 
 
CONTENTS. XVll 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Birth and education of Ovid — His rhetorical powers— Anecdote 
 related by Seneca — His poetical genius — Self-indulgent life — 
 Popularity — Banishment — Place of his Exile — Epistles and other 
 Works — Gratius FaUscus — Pedo Albinovanus — Aulus Sabinus — 
 Marcus Manilius 313 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Prose Writers — ^Influence of Cicero upon the Language — His converse 
 with his Friends — His early Life — Pleads his first Cause — Is 
 Quasstor, jEdile, Prsetor, and Consul — His exile, return, and pro- 
 vincial Administration — His vacillating conduct — He delivers his 
 Philippics — Is proscribed and assassinated — His character . . 328 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Cicero no Historian — His Oratorical style defended — Its principal 
 charm — Observations on his forensic Orations — His Oratory essen- 
 tially judicial — Political Orations — Rhetorical Treatises — The object 
 of his Philosophical Works — Characteristics of Roman Philosophical 
 Literature — Philosophy of Cicero — His Political Works — Letters — 
 His Correspondents— Varro ....... 341 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Roman Historical Literature — Principal Historians — Lucceius — 
 LucuUus — Comehus Nepos — Opinions of the genuineness of the 
 Works which bear his Name — Biography of J. Csesar — His Com- 
 mentaries — Their style and language — His modesty overrated — 
 Other Works — Character of Csesar 368 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Life of Sallust — His insincerity — His Historical Works — He was a 
 bitter opponent of the New Aristocracy — Profligacy of that Order — 
 His style compared with that of Thucydides — His value as an His- 
 torian — Trogus Pompeius — His Histbrise Philippicee . . . 385 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Life of Livy — His object in writing his History — Its spirit and 
 character — Livy precisely suited to his Age — Not wilfully inac- 
 curate—His political bias accounted for— Materials which he might 
 have used — Sources of his History — His defects as an Historian — 
 His style— Grammarians — Vitruvius PoUio, an Augustine Writer 
 — Contents of his Work ... ^ ... • 394 
 
xviii CONTENTS. 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 ERA OF THE DECLINE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Decline of Roman Literature — It became declamatory — Biography of 
 Phsedrus — Genuineness of his Fables — Moral and Political Lessons 
 inculcated in them — Specimens of Fables — Fables suggested by 
 Historical events — Sejanus and Tiberius — Epoch unfavourable to 
 Literature — ^Ingenuity of Phsedrus — Superiority of .^sop — The 
 style of Pheedrus classical 409 
 
 CHAPTER H. 
 
 Dramatic Literature in the Augustan Age — Revival under Nero — 
 Defects of the Tragedies attributed to Seneca — Internal evidence of 
 their authorship — Seneca the Philosopher a Stoic — Inconsistent and 
 unstable — ^The sentiments of his Philosophical Works found in his 
 Tragedies — Parallel passages compared — French School of Tragic 
 Poets 424 
 
 CHAPTER in. 
 
 Biography of Persius — His schoolboy days — His friends — His purity 
 and modesty — His defects as a Satirist — Subjects of his Satires — 
 Obscurity of his style — Compared with Horace — Biography of 
 Juvenal — Corruption of Roman Morals — Critical observations on 
 the Satires^-Their Historical value — Style of Juvenal — He was the 
 last of Roman Satirists 434 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Biography of Lucan — Inscription to his Memory — Sentiments ex- 
 pressed in the Pharsalia — Lucan an unequal Poet — Faults and 
 merits of the Pharsalia— Characteristics of his Age — Difficulties of 
 Historical Poetry — Lucan a descriptive Poet — Specimens of his 
 
 Poetry — Biography of Silius Italicus — His character by Pliny 
 
 His Poem dull and tedious — His description of the Alps . , 452 
 
CONTENTS. XIX 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 C. Valerius Flaccus — Faults of the Argonautlca — Papinius Statius — 
 Beauty of his minor Poems — Incapable of Epic Poetry — Domitian — 
 Epigram — Martial — His Biography — Profligacy of the Age in 
 which he lived — Impurity of his Writings — Favourable specimens 
 of his Poetry 466 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Aufidius Bassus and Cremutius Cordus — Velleius Paterculus — 
 Character of his Works — Valerius Maximus — Cornelius Tacitus — 
 Age of Trajan — Biography of Tacitus — His extant Works enu- 
 merated — Agricola — Germany — Histories — Traditions respecting 
 the Jews — Annals — Object of Tacitus — His character^His style . 482 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 C. Suetonius Tranquillus — His Biography — Sources of his History — 
 His great fault — Q. Curtius Ruius — Time when he flourished 
 doubtftd — His Biography of Alexander — Epitomes of L. Annseus 
 Florus — Sources whence he derived them ..... 499 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 M. Annseus Seneca — His Controversise and Suasoriae — L. Annseus 
 Seneca — Tutor to Nero— His enormous fortune — His death and 
 character — Inconsistencies in his Philosophy — A favourite with 
 early Christian Writers — His Epistles — Work on Natural Pheno- 
 mena — Apocolocyntosis — His style 507 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PUny the Elder — His habits described by his Nephew — His industry 
 and application — His death in the eruption of Vesuvius — The 
 Eruption described in two Letters of PHny the Yoimger — The 
 Natural History of Pliny — Its subjects described — Pliny the 
 Younger — His aiFection for his guardian — His Panegyric, Letters, 
 and Despatches — That concerning the Christians — The answer . 515 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 M. Fabius QuintUianus — His Biography — His Institutiones Oratorise 
 — His views of Education — Division of his Subject into Five Parts 
 — Review of Greek and Roman Literature — Completeness of his 
 great Work — His other Works — His disposition — Grief for the 
 loss of his son .......... 534 
 
XX CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 PAGH 
 
 A. Cornelius Celsus — His merits — Cicero Medicorum — Scribonius 
 Largus Designatianus — ^Pomponius Mela — L. Junius Moderatus 
 Columella — S. Julius Frontinus — Decline of taste in the Silver 
 Age — Foreign Influence on Roman Literature — Conclusion . , 544 
 
 Chronological Table 551 
 
PART II. 
 
 ROMAN LITERATURE. 
 
 Book I. — First Era. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 COMPARISON OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE WITH THE GREEK — ERAS OP 
 LATINITY — ORIGIN OF THE ROMANS — ELEMENTS OP THE LATIN 
 LANGUAGE — ETRUSCAN INFLUENCE. 
 
 The various races which, from very remote antiquity, 
 inhabited the peninsula of Italy, necessarily gave a com- 
 posite character to the Latin language. But as all of 
 them sprang from one common origin, the great Indo- 
 European stock to which also the Hellenic family be- 
 longed, a relation of the most intimate kind is visible 
 between the languages of ancient Greece and Rome. 
 Not only are their alphabets and grammatical construc- 
 tions identical, but the genius of the one is so similar to 
 that of the other, that the Romans readily adopted the 
 principles of Greek hterary taste, and Latin, without losing 
 its own characteristic features, moulded itself after the 
 Greek model. 
 
 Latin, however, has not the plastic property which the 
 Greek possesses — the natural faculty of transforming 
 itself into every variety of shape conceived by the fancy 
 and imagination. It is a harder material, it readily 
 takes a polish, but the process by which it receives it is 
 
2 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 laborious and artificial. Greek, like a liquid or a soft 
 substance, seems to crystallize as it were spontaneously 
 into tbe most beautiful forms : Latin, whether poetry or 
 prose, derives only from consummate art and skiD that 
 gracefal beauty which is the natural property of the 
 kindred language. 
 
 Latin, also, to continue the same metaphor, has other 
 characteristic features of hard substances — gravity, soUdity, 
 and momentum or energy. It is a fit language for em- 
 bodying and expressing the thoughts of an active and 
 practical but not an imaginative and speculative people. 
 
 But the Latin language, notwithstanding its nervous 
 energy and constitutional vigour, has, by no means, ex- 
 hibited the permanency and vitality of the Greek. The 
 Greek language, reckoning from the earliest works extant 
 to the present day, boasts of an existence measured by 
 nearly one-half the duration of the human race, and yet 
 how gradual were the changes during the classical 
 periods, and how; small, when compared with those of 
 other European l&inguages, the sum and result of them 
 all ! Setting aside the differences due to race and physical 
 organization, there are no abrupt chasms, no broad Unes 
 of demarcation, between one literary period and another. 
 The transition is gentle, slow, and gradual. The suc- 
 cessive steps can be traced and followed out. The literar}"^ 
 style of one period melts and is absorbed into that of the 
 following one, just like the successive tints and colours 
 of the prism. The Greek of the Homeric poems is not 
 so different from that of Herodotus and Thucydides, or 
 the tragedians or the orators, or even the authors of the 
 later debased ages, but that the same scholar who under- 
 stands the one can analyse the rest. Though separated 
 by so many ages, the contemporaries of Demosthenes 
 could appreciate the beauties of Homer ; and the Byzan- 
 tines and early Christian fathers wrote and spoke the 
 language of the ancient Greek philosophers. 
 
VITALITY OF GREEK. 3 
 
 The Greek language long outlived Greek nationality. 
 The earhest Roman historians wrote in Greek because 
 they had as yet no native language fitter to express their 
 thoughts. The Eomans, in the time of Cicero, made 
 Greek the foundation of a liberal education, and jfre- 
 quented Athens as a University for the purpose of 
 studying Greek literature and philosophy. The great 
 orator, in his defence of the poet Archias, informs us 
 that Grreek literature was read by almost all nations of 
 the world, whilst Latin was still confined within very 
 narrow boundaries. At the commencement of the Chris- 
 tian era Greek was so prevalent throughout the civilized 
 world, that it was the language chosen by the Evan- 
 gelists for recording the doctrines of the gospel. In the 
 time of Hadrian^ Greek was the favourite language of 
 literary men. The Princess Anna Comnena, daughter) 
 of the Emperor Alexis, and Eustathius, the commentator! 
 on Homer, both of whom flourished in the twelfth century I 
 after the birth of Christ, are celebrated for the singular 
 purity of their style ; and, lastly, Philelphus, who Hved 
 in the fifteenth century, and had visited Constantinople, 
 states, in a letter dated a. d. 1451, that although much 
 bad Grreek was spoken in that capital, the court, and 
 especially the ladies, retained the dignity and elegance 
 which characterise the purest writers of the classical 
 ages. " Graeci quibus Hngua depravata non sit, et quos 
 ipsi tum sequimur tum imitamur ita loquuntur vulgo 
 etiam hac tempestate ut Aristophanes comicus ut 
 Euripides tragicus, ut oratores omnes ut historiographi 
 ut philosophi etiam ipsi et Plato et Aristoteles. Viri 
 auhci veterem sermonis dignitatem atque elegantiam 
 retinebant."' 
 
 &gjch was the wonderfal vitality of Greek in its ancient 
 form ; and yet, strange to say, notwithstanding it clung 
 
 See Forster's Essay on Greek Quantity, c. vi. 
 
 B 2 
 
4 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 SO to existence, it seems as ihough it was a plant of such 
 delicate nature, that it could only flourish under a com- 
 bination of favotirable circumstaiices. It pined and 
 withered when separated from the living Greek intel- 
 lect. It Hved only where Greeks themselves Uved, in 
 their fatherland or in their colonies. It refused to take 
 root elsewhere. Whenever in any part of the world a 
 Greek settlement decayed, and the population became 
 extinct, even although Greek art and science, and litera- 
 ture and philosophy, had found there a temporary home, 
 the language perished also. 
 
 The -Greek language could not exist when the foster- 
 ing care of native genius was withdrawn : it then shrunk 
 back again into its original dimensions, and was confined 
 within the boundaries of its original home. When the 
 Greeks in any place passed away, their language did not 
 influence or amalgamate with that of the people which 
 succeeded them. Latin, on the other hand, was propa- 
 gated hke the dominion of Eome by conquest : it either 
 took the place of the language of the conquered nation, 
 or became engrafted upon it and gradually pervaded its 
 composition. Hence its presence is discernible in all 
 European languages. In Spain it became united with 
 the Celtic and Iberian as early as the period of the 
 Gracchi: it was planted in Gaul by the conquests of 
 ■ Julius Caesar, and in Britain (so far as the names of 
 localities are concerned) by his transient expeditions; 
 and lastly, in the reign of Trajan, it became permanently 
 fixed in the distant regions of Dacia and Pannonia. 
 
 It is scarcely correct to term Greek a dead language. 
 It has degenerated, but has never perished or disappeared. 
 Its harmonious modulations are forgotten, and its deHcate 
 pronunciation is no longer heard, but Greek is still 
 spoken at Athens. The language, of course, exhibits 
 those features which constitute the principal difierence 
 between ancient and modern languages ; prepositions and 
 
ITS INDIVIDUALITY. 
 
 particles have supplanted affixes and inflexions, auxiliary 
 verbs supply the gaps caused by the crumbling away of 
 the old conjugations, and literal translations of modern 
 modes of speech give an air of incongruity and barbarism ; 
 but still the language is upon the whole wonderfully 
 preserved. A well-educated modern Greek would find 
 less difficulty in understanding the writings of Xenophon 
 than an EngHshman would experience in reading Chaucer, 
 or perhaps Spenser. 
 
 Grreek has evinced not only vitality, but individuality 
 likewise. Compared with other languages, its stream 
 flowed pure through barbarous lands, and was but little 
 tinged or polluted by the soil through which it passed. 
 There is nothing of this in Latin, neither the vitahty 
 nor the power of resistance to change. Strange to say, 
 although partially derived from the same source, its pro- 
 perties appear to be totally different. Latin seems to 
 have a strong disposition to change ; it readily became 
 polished, and as readily barbarized ; it had no difficulty 
 in enriching itself with new expressions borrowed from 
 the Greek, and conforming itself to Greek rules of taste 
 and grammar. When it came in contact with the lan- 
 guages of other nations, the affinity which it had for 
 them was so strong that it speedily amalgamated with 
 them, but it did not so much influence them as itself 
 receive an impress from them. It did not supersede, 
 but it became absorbed in and was corrupted by, other 
 tongues. Probably, as it was originally made up of many 
 European elements, it recognized a relationship with all 
 other languages, and therefore readily admitted of fusion 
 together with them into a composite form. Its existence 
 is confined within the limits of less than eight centuries. 
 It assumed a form adapted for hterary composition less 
 than two centuries and a half before the Christian era, 
 and it ceased to be a spoken language in the sixth 
 century. 
 
■6 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 As long as the Eoman empire existed in its integrity, 
 and the capital city retained its influence as the patron 
 to whom all hterary men must look for support, and as 
 the model of refinement and civilization, the language 
 maintained its dominion. Provincial writers endeavoured 
 to rid themselves of their provincialisms. At Eome 
 they formed their taste and received their education. 
 The rule of language was the usage of the capital-, but, 
 when the empire was dismembered, and language was thus 
 set free from its former restrictions, each section of it felt 
 itself at Hberty to have an independent language and 
 literature of its own, the classical standard was neglected, 
 and Latin rapidly became barbarized. Again, Latin has 
 interpenetrated or become the nucleus of every language 
 of civilized Europe: it has shown great facilities of 
 adaptation, but no individuality or power to supersede ; 
 but the relation which it bears to them is totally unlike 
 that which ancient Grxeek bears to modem. The best 
 Latin scholar would not understand Dante or Tasso, nor 
 would a knowledge of Italian enable one to read Horace 
 and Yirgil. 
 
 The old Eoman language, as it existed previous to 
 coming in contact with Greek influences, has almost 
 entirely perished. It will be shown hereafter that only 
 a few records of it remain ; and the language of these 
 fragments is very difierent from that of the classical 
 period. Nor did the old language grow into the new 
 like the Greek of two successive ages by a process of 
 development, but it was remoulded by external and 
 foreign influences. So difierent was the old Eoman from 
 classical Latin, that although the investigations of 
 modem scholars have enabled us to decipher the frag- 
 ments which remain, and to point out the analogies 
 which exist between old and new forms, some of them 
 were with difiiculty intelligible to the cleverest and best 
 educated of the Augustan age. The treaty which Eome 
 
ORIGIN OF THE ROMANS. 
 
 made with Carthage in the first year of the Eepublic was 
 engraved on brazen tablets, and preserved in the archives 
 of the Capitol. Polybius had learning enough to trans- 
 late it iato Grreek, but he teUs us that the language of it 
 was too archaic for the Romans of his day.^ 
 
 A wide gap separates this old Latin from the Latin of 
 Ennius, whose style was formed by Greek taste ; another 
 not so wide is interposed between the age of Ennius and 
 that of Plautus and Terence, both of whom wrote in the 
 language of their adopted city, but confessedly copied 
 Greek models ; and, lastly, Cicero and the Augustan poets 
 mark another age, to which from the preceding one, the 
 only transition with which we are acquainted is the style 
 of oratory of Caius Gracchus, which tradition informs us 
 was free from ancient rudeness, although it had not 
 acquired the smoothness and polish of Hortensius or 
 Cicero. 
 
 In order to arrive at the origin of the Latin language 
 it Avill be necessary to trace that of the Romans them- 
 selves. In the most distant ages to which tradition 
 extends, the peninsula of Italy appears to have been 
 inhabited by three stocks or tribes of the great Indo- 
 Germanic family. One of these is commonly known by 
 the name of Oscans ; another consisted of two branches, 
 the SabeUians, or Sabines, and the Umbrians ; the third 
 were called Sikeli,^ sometimes Vituli and Itali. What 
 affinities there were between these and the other Indo- 
 European tribes out of Italy, or by what route they 
 came from the original cradle of the human race is 
 wrapped in obscurity. Donaldson considers that all the 
 so-called aboriginal inhabitants of Italy were of the 
 same race as the Lithuanians or old Prussians. The 
 Oscans evidently, from the name which tradition assigns 
 to them, claimed to be the aboriginal inhabitants. The 
 
 Pol. Hist. iii. 22 ; *ee Donaldson's Vanon. 
 
8 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 name Osci, or Opici, whicli is a longer form of it, is 
 etymologically connected with Ops, the goddess Earthy 
 and consequently their national appellation is equivalent to 
 the Grreek terms avrox^ove^, or yrfyeveiv, the " children of 
 the soil." That the SabeUians andUmbrians are branches 
 of the same stock is proved by the similarity which has 
 been discovered to exist between the languages spoken 
 by them. The Umbrians also claimed great antiquity, 
 for the Greeks are said to have given them their name 
 from (ifi^pos, rain; implying that they were an ante- 
 diluvian race, and had survived the storms of rain which 
 deluged the world. Phny likewise considers them the 
 most ancient race in Italy.^ 
 
 The original settlements of the Umbrians extended 
 over the district bounded on one side by the Tiber, on 
 the other by the Po. All the country to the south was 
 in the possession of the Oscans, with the exception oi 
 Latium, which was inhabited by the Sikeli. But in 
 process of time, the Oscans, pressed upon by the 
 SabeUians, invaded the abodes of this peaceftd and rural 
 people, some of whom submitted and amalgamated with 
 their conquerors, the rest were driven across the narrow 
 sea into Sicily, and gave the name to that island.' 
 These native tribes were not left in undisturbed pos- 
 session of their rich inheritance. There arrived in the 
 north of Italy that enterprising race, famed aHke for 
 their warlike spirit and' their sldll in the arts of peace, 
 the Pelasgians (or dark Asiatics), and became the civiUzers 
 of Italy. Historical research has failed to discover what 
 settlements this wonderful race inhabited immediately 
 previous to their occupation of Etruria. According to 
 Livy's account' they must have arrived in Italy by sea, 
 for he asserts that their first settlements were south of 
 the Apennines, that thence they spread northwards, and 
 
 ' Pljn. N. H. iii. 14. « See Thucyd. ii. 6. " Lib. v. 33. 
 
IMMIGRATION OF THE ETRUSCANS. 9 
 
 that th.e Eliseti were a portion of tliem, and spoke their 
 language in a barbarous and corrupt form. His testi- 
 mony ought to have some weight, because, as a native of 
 the neighbourhood, he probably knew the Ehsetian 
 language. Their immigration must have taken place 
 more than one thousand years before Christ,^ and yet 
 they were far advanced ia the arts of civilization and 
 refinement, and the science of poHtics and social Hfe. 
 They enriched their newly-acquired country with com- 
 merce, and filled it with strongly-fortified and populous 
 cities : their dominion rapidly spread over the whole of 
 Italy from sea to sea, from the Alps to Vesuvius and 
 Salerno, and even penetrated into the islands of Elba 
 and Corsica.'' Herodotus^ asserts that they migrated 
 from Lydia; and this tradition was adopted by the 
 Romans and by themselves.* Dionysius® rejects this 
 theory on the grounds that there is no similarity 
 between the Lydian and Etruscan language, rehgion, or 
 institutions, and that Xanthus, a native Lydian historian, 
 makes no mention of this migration. Doubtless the 
 language is unique, nor can a connexion be traced 
 between it and any family; but their alphabet is 
 Phoenician, their theology and polity oriental, their 
 national dress and national symbol, the eagle, was 
 Lydian, and a remarkable custom alluded to both by 
 Herodotus® and Plautus' was Lydian likewise. 
 
 Entering the territory of the Umbrians they drove 
 them before them into the rugged and mountainous 
 districts, and themselves occupied the rich and fertile 
 plains. The head-quarters of the invaders was Etruria ; 
 the conquered Umbrians Hved amongst them as a subject 
 people, hke the Peloponnesians under their Dorian con- 
 
 ' Miiller, Etrusk. iv. 7, 8. 
 
 ' See authorities quoted by Dennis, Cities of Etruria, i. xxiv. 
 
 ' Lib. i. 94. * Tao. Ann. iv. 55. ' Lib. i. p. 22, 24. 
 
 ' Lib. i. 93. '' Cistell. II. iii. 20. > 
 
10 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 querors, or the Saxons under the Norman nobility. 
 This portion of the Peksgians caEed themselves Easena, 
 the Greeks spoke of them as Tyrseni, a name evidently 
 connected with the Greek TvppK or rvpoK (Latin, Turris), 
 and which remarkably confirms the assertion of Hero- 
 dotus, since the only Pelasgians who were famed for 
 architecture or tower-building, were those who claimed a 
 Lydian extraction, namely, the Argives and Etruscans.^ 
 This theory of the Pelasgian origin of the Etruscans is 
 due to Lepsius,^ and has been adopted by Donaldson ;* 
 and if it be correct, the language of Etruria was probably 
 Pelasgian amalgamated with, and to a certain extent 
 corrupted by, the native Umbrian. 
 
 Pelasgian supremacy on the left bank of the Tiber 
 foxmd no one to dispute it. Let us now turn our attention 
 to the influence of these invaders in lower Italy. As 
 they marched southwards, they vanquished the Oscans 
 and occupied the plains of Latium. They did not, 
 however, remain long at peace in the districts which they 
 had conquered. The old inhabitants returned from the 
 neighbouring highlands to which they had been driven, 
 and subjugated the northern part of Latium. 
 
 The history of the occupation of Etruria, which has 
 been already related, was here acted over again, with 
 only the following alteration, that here the Oscan was 
 the dominant tribe, and the subject people amongst 
 whom they took up their abode were Pelasgians and 
 Sikeli, by whom the rest of the low coimtry of Latium 
 was stUl occupied. The towns of the north formed a 
 federal union, of which Alba was the capital, whilst of 
 the southern or Pelasgian confederacy the chief city was 
 Lavinium, or Latinium. The conquering Oscans were 
 
 ' A Cyclopean or Pelasgian wall, built of polygonal stones, without 
 mortar, exists so far north as Diistembrook, near Kiel, in Schleswig- 
 Ilolstein. 
 
 " Ueber die Tyr. Pel. in Etr. Leips. 1842. ■' Varrouianus, i. sec. 10. 
 
ELEMENTS OP LATIN. 11 
 
 a nation of warriors and hunters, and consequently, as 
 Niebulir remarked, in the language of this district the 
 terms belonging to war and hunting are Oscan, whilst 
 those which relate to peace and the occupations of rural 
 life are Pelasgian. As, therefore, the language of Etruria 
 was Pelasgian, corrupted by Umbrian, so Pelasgian 
 + Oscan is the formula which represents the language of 
 Latium. 
 
 But the Eoman or Latin language is still more com- 
 posite in its nature, and consists of more than these two 
 elements. This phenomenon is also to be accounted for 
 by the origin of the Eoman people. The septi-montium 
 upon which old Eome was built was occupied by different 
 Italian tribes. A Latin tribe belonging, if we may trust 
 the mythical tradition, to the Alban confederacy, had 
 their settlement upon the Mount Palatine, and a Sabine 
 or Sabellian community occupied the neighbouring 
 heights of the Quirinal and CapitoHne. Mutual jealousy 
 of race kept them for some time separate from each 
 other ; but at length the privilege of intermarriage was 
 conceded, and the two communities became one people. 
 
 The Tyrrhene Pelasgians, however, separated only by a 
 small river from this new state, rapidly rising to power 
 and prosperity, were not likely to view its existence 
 without distrust and jealousy. Accordingly the early 
 Eoman historical traditions evidently point to a period 
 during which Eome was subject to Etruscan rule. When 
 the Etruscan dynasty passed away, its influence in many 
 respects stiU remained. The religion and mythology of 
 Etruria left an indelible stamp on the rites and ceremo- 
 nies of the Eoman people. The Etruscan deities were 
 the natural gods of Eome before the influence of Greek 
 poetry introduced the mythology of Homer and Hesiod 
 into her Pantheon. The characters and attributes of 
 these deities were totally different from those of Greece. 
 No licentious orgies disgraced their worship ; they were 
 
12 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 defiled by none of their vices.' Saturn, Janus, Sylvanus; 
 Faunus, and other Etruscan deities, were grave, venerable, 
 pure, and deHghted in the simple occupations of rural 
 life. It was only general features of resemblance which 
 enabled the poets in later ages to identify Saturn with 
 Kronos, Sylvanus with Pan, the prophetic Camense of 
 the Janiculumwith the muses of Parnassus." The point, 
 however, most important for the present considera- 
 tion is that their language likewise was permanently 
 affected. 
 
 The ethnical affinities which have been here briefly 
 stated, and which may be considered as satisfactorily 
 established by the investigations of Niebuhr, MiiUer, 
 Lepsius, Donaldson, and others, are a guide to the affini- 
 ties of the Latin language, and point out the elements of 
 which it is composed. These elements, then, are Umbrian, 
 Oscan, Etruscan, Sabine, and Pelasgian ; but, as has been 
 stated, the Etruscan language was a compound of Oscan 
 a,nd Pelasgian, and the Sabine was the link between the 
 Umbrian and Oscan, therefore the elements of the Latin 
 are reduced to three, namely, Umbrian, Oscan and Pelas- 
 gian. These may again be classified under two heads, 
 the one which has, the other which has not, a resem- 
 blance to the Greek. AU Latin words which resemble 
 
 ' Heyne, Exo. Virg. .^n. iii. 
 
 ' The religion of Rome furnishes many other traces of Etruscan influ- 
 ence : — ex. gr., the ceremonies of the augurs and haruspices were Etruscan, 
 and the htuus, or augur's staff, may be seen on old Etruscan monuments. 
 The Tuscan Fortune, Nortia, the etymology of whose name (ne-verto) coin- 
 cides with that of the Greek 'Arptmos (the imchangeable), had the nails, the 
 emblem of necessity, as her device ; and hence the consul marked the com- 
 mencement of the year by driving a nail. 
 
 The Eoman Hymen, the god of marriage, was Talaasius ; a fact which 
 illustrates one of the incidents in the tradition which Livy (book i. c. ix.) 
 adopts respecting the rape of the Sabine virgins. 
 
 The name Talassius was evidently derived from the Tuscan name 
 Thalna, or Talana, by which was designated the Juno Pronuba of the 
 Romans, and the 'Hprj reXeia of the Greeks. 
 
PELASGIAN ELEMENT. 13 
 
 the Greek are Pelasgian/ all which do not are Oscan and 
 Umbrian. From the first of these classes must of course 
 be excepted those words — such, for example, as Tricli- 
 nium, &c., — ^which are directly derived from the Greek, 
 the origin of which dates partly from the time when 
 Eome began to have intercourse with the Greek colonies 
 of Magna Grsecia, partly since Greek exercised an in- 
 fluence on Eoman literature. It is clear from the testi- 
 mony of Horace that the enriching of the language by 
 the adoption of such foreign words was defended and 
 encouraged by the Hterary men of the Augustan age : — 
 
 Si forte necesse est 
 
 Indiciis monstraxe recentibus abdita rerum 
 Fingere oinctutis non exaudita Oethegis 
 Continget ; dabiturque lioentia sumta pudenter, 
 Et nova fiptaque nuper habebunt verba fidem, si 
 GrsBco fonte cadant, parce detorta. 
 
 E(yr. Ep. ad Pis. 48. 
 
 ' Owing to the existence of the Pelasgian element in Latin, a» well as in 
 Greek, an aflSnity can be traced between these languages and the Sanscrit 
 in no fewer than 339 Greek and 319 Latin words. 
 
14 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 CHAPTEU II. 
 
 THE EUGUBINE TABLES — EXISTENCE OF OSCAN IN ITALY — BANTINE 
 TABLE — PERUGIAN INSCRIPTION — ETRUSCAN ALPHABET AND 
 WORDS — CHANT OF FRATRES ARVALES — SALIAK HYMN-^OTHEK 
 MONUMENTS OF OLD LATIN — LATIN AND GREEK ALPHABETS COM- 
 PARED. 
 
 THE UMBRIAN LANGUAGE. 
 
 In the neighbourhood of Ugnbio,^ at the foot of the 
 Apennines (the ancient Iguvium), were discovered, in 
 A.D. 1444, seven tables, commonly called the Engubine 
 Tables. They were in good preservation, and contained 
 prayers and rules for rehgious ceremonies. Some of 
 them were engraved in the Etruscan or Umbrian charac- 
 ters, others in Latin letters. Lepsius^'has determined, 
 from philological considerations, that the date of them 
 must be as early as from a.u.c. 400,* and that the letters 
 were engraved about two centuries later. A comparison 
 of the two shows, in the Umbrian character, the letter s 
 standing in the place occupied by r in the Latin, and k 
 in the place of g, because the Etruscan alphabet, with 
 which the Umbrian is the same, did not contain the medial 
 letters B, G, D. An analogous substitute is seen in. the 
 transition from the old to the more modem Latin. The 
 names Eurius and Caius, for example, were originally 
 written Fusius and Gains. H is also introduced between 
 
 ' See Donaldson's Varron., c. iii. " Leps. de Tab. Eug., p. 86. 
 
 » B. c. 35 1. 
 
RELATION OF UMBRIAN TO LATIN. 
 
 15 
 
 two vowels, as stahito for stato, in the same way that in 
 Latin aheneus is derived from aes. It also appears that 
 the termination of the masculine singular was o : thus, 
 orto = ortus; whilst that of the plural was or ; e.^., subator 
 = subacti ; screhitor = scripti. This mode of inflexion 
 illustrates the form amaminor for amamini, which was 
 itself a participle used for amamini estis, an idiom analo- 
 gous to the Grreek tetw/* fxevoi Lai. 
 
 The following extract, with the translation by Donald- 
 son,* together with a few words which present the 
 greatest resemblance to the Latin, will suffice to give a 
 general notion of the relation which the Umbrian bears 
 to it: — 
 
 Teio subokau suboko, Dei Grrabovi, okriper Fisiu, tota- 
 per Jiovina, erer nomne-per, erar nomne-per ; fos sei, 
 paker sei, okre Fisei, Tote Jiovine, erer nomne, erar 
 nomne : Tab. VI. {Lepsius). Te invocavi invoco, Jupiter 
 Grabovi, pro monte Fisio, pro urbe Iguvina, pro iUius 
 nomine, pro hujus nomine, bonus sis, propitius sis, monti 
 Fisio, urbi Iguvinse, illius nomine, hujus nomine. 
 
 Alfii 
 
 albns 
 
 white 
 
 Asa 
 
 ara 
 
 altar 
 
 Aveis 
 
 aves 
 
 birds 
 
 Buf 
 
 boves 
 
 oxen 
 
 Ferine 
 
 farina 
 
 meal 
 
 Nep 
 
 nee 
 
 nor 
 
 Nome 
 
 nomen 
 
 name 
 
 Parfa 
 
 parra 
 
 owl 
 
 Peioa 
 
 pious 
 
 pie 
 
 Periklum 
 
 prec'ulum 
 
 prayer (dim.) 
 
 Poplus 
 
 populus 
 
 people 
 
 Puni 
 
 panis 
 
 bread 
 
 Rehte 
 
 recte 
 
 rightly 
 
 Skrehto 
 
 scriptus 
 
 written 
 
 Suboko 
 
 sub -vooo 
 
 invoke 
 
 Subra 
 
 supra 
 
 above 
 
 Tafle 
 
 tabula 
 
 table 
 
 Tuplu 
 
 duplus 
 
 double 
 
 Tripler 
 
 triplus 
 
 triple 
 
 
 ' Varronianus, c. iii. 
 
 
16 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Tota 
 Vas 
 
 (analogous to) totus 
 fas 
 
 a city (a whole or collection) 
 law 
 
 Vinu 
 
 Uve 
 
 Vitlu 
 
 III 
 
 wine 
 
 sheep 
 
 calf.' 
 
 THE OSCAN LANGUAGE. 
 
 The remains which have come down to us of this 
 language belong, in fact, to a composite idiom made up 
 of the Sabine and Oscan. Although its literature has 
 entirely perished, inscriptions fortunately still survive; 
 but as they must have been engraved long subsequently 
 to the settlement of the Sabellians in Southern Italy, the 
 language in which they are written must necessarily be 
 compounded of those spoken both by the conquerors and 
 the conquered. Although Livy^ makes mention of an 
 Oscan dramatic literature, for he tells us that the " Fa- 
 bulse AteUanse " of the Oscans were introduced when a 
 pestilence raged at Rome,* together with other theatrical 
 entertainments, he only speaks of the Oscan language 
 in one passage.* This, however, is an important one, 
 because it proves that Oscan was the vernacular tongue 
 of the Samnites at that period. He relates that Volum- 
 nius sent spies into the Samnite camp who understood 
 Oscan : " Gnaros Oscse Hnguse exploratum quid agatur 
 mittit." 
 
 It is clear that the reason why the Oscan language 
 prevailed amongst this people is, that the dominant 
 orders in Samnium were Sabines. But there is evidence 
 of the existence of Oscan in Italy at a still later period. 
 Niebuhr* asserts that in the Social War* the Marsi 
 spoke Oscan, although in writing they used the Latin 
 characters. Some denarii still exist struck by the con- 
 
 ' See Grotefend, Rud. Ling. Umbr. Hanov. 1835 ; and Lassen. Beitrage 
 zur Eug. Tafeln. Bhein. Mus. 1833. * Liv. vii. 11. 
 
 3 A. u. 0. 361 ; B. c. 393. ■* Liv. x. 20. 
 
 ' Lect. on Kom. Hist. 1. xxxiii. ° a. u. c. 664 ; b. c. 90. 
 
THE BANTINE TABLE. 
 
 17 
 
 federate Italian Government established in that war at 
 Corfininm, on which the word Italia is inscribed, whilst 
 others bear the word Viteliu. The latter is the old 
 Oscan orthography, the former the Latin. One class of 
 these coins, therefore, was struck for the use of the 
 Sabine, the other of the Marsian allies. It is said also 
 that Oscan was spoken even after the establishment of 
 the empire. 
 
 The principal monument of the SabeUo-Oscan is a 
 brass plate which was discovered a.d. 1793. As the 
 word BanscB occurs in the 23rd line of the inscription, 
 it has been supposed to refer to the town of Bantia, 
 which was situated not far from the spot where the 
 tablet was found, and it is therefore called the Bantine 
 Table. In consequence of the perfect state of the central 
 portion, much of this inscription has been interpreted 
 with tolerable certainty and correctness. The affinity 
 may be traced between most of the words and their 
 corresponding Latin ; and it is perfectly clear that the 
 variations from the Latin follow certain definite rules,, 
 and that the grammatical inflexions were the same as ia 
 the oldest Latin. A copy of the Table may be found 
 in the collection of Orellius, and also in Donaldson's 
 " Varronianus."' The following are a few specimens 
 of words in which a resemblance to the Latin will 
 be readily recognized, and also, in some instances, the 
 relation of the Oscan to the other ancient languages of 
 Italy : — 
 
 Comonei Communis 
 
 Perum dolum Per dolum 
 mallom siom malum suum 
 
 Licitud 
 
 Multam 
 
 Maimas 
 
 Cameis 
 
 Senateis 
 
 Pis 
 
 Lioeto 
 
 Mulctam 
 
 Maximas 
 
 Games 
 
 Senatus 
 
 quis 
 
 lok — lone 
 
 Pod 
 
 Valsemon 
 
 hoc — hunc 
 
 quod 
 
 Valetudinem 
 
 ' Pp. 86—89. 
 
18 
 
 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Hipid 
 
 habeat 
 
 Fust 
 
 ftierit 
 
 Pruhipid 
 
 prsehibeat 
 
 Poizad 
 
 penset (AnglioS, 
 
 Pruhipust 
 
 prsahibuent 
 
 
 poize). 
 
 Censtur 
 
 censor 
 
 Fuid 
 
 fuit 
 
 Censazet 
 
 censapit 
 
 Tarpinius 
 
 Tarquinius 
 
 Censaum, &o. 
 
 oensum, &c. 
 
 Ampus 
 
 Ancus 
 
 To these other well-known words may be added, which 
 all philologers allow to be originally Oscan, but which 
 have been incorporated with the Latin — such as, for 
 example, Brutus, Cascus, Catus, Foedus, Idus, Porcus, 
 Trabea; and names of deities, such as Fides, Terminus, 
 Vertumnus, Fors, Flora, Lares, Mamers, Quirinus, &c. 
 
 THE ETRUSCAN LANGUAGE. 
 
 The difficulty and obscurity in which the Etruscan 
 language is involved are owing to the nature of the 
 inscriptions and monuments which have been discovered. 
 Those records, to which reference has aheady been made 
 when speaking of the Umbrian and SabeUo-Oscan, were 
 of a ceremonial or legal character; they therefore con- 
 tained connected phrases and sentences, varied modes 
 of thought and expression. Monuments such as the 
 Eugubine or Bantine Tables contribute not a httle 
 towards a vocabulary of the languages, and still more 
 to a knowledge of their structure and analogies. This, 
 however, is not the case with the Etruscan monuments 
 of antiquity which have been hitherto discovered. They 
 are, indeed, numerous, but they exhibit little variety. 
 They are sepulchral records of a complimentary kind, or 
 titles inscribed on statues and votive offerings. Hence 
 the same brief phraseology continually recurs, and the 
 principal portions of the inscriptions are occupied by 
 proper names. 
 
 The most important, because the largest, Etruscan 
 record which has been hitherto discovered, is one which 
 
PERUGIAN INSCRIPTION. 19 
 
 was found near Perugia, a.d. 1822.^ This inscription 
 contains one hundred and thirty -one words and abbre- 
 viations of words, and of these no fewer than thirty- 
 eight are proper names. Of the rest, a vast number 
 are either frequently repeated, or are etymologically 
 connected. These have not proved suflEcient to enable 
 any philologist (although many have attempted it) to 
 give a satisfactory and trustworthy explanation of its 
 contents. 
 
 A comparison of the Perugian with the Eugubine 
 inscription shows the existence of similarity between 
 some of the words found in both of them ; and this is 
 exactly what we should h priori expect to result from the 
 theory of the Etruscan being a compound of the Pelas- 
 gian and TJmbrian. In the Perugian inscription, words 
 which resemble the Umbrian forms are more numerous 
 than those which seem to have an affinity for the Pelas- 
 gian. Indeed, the language in which it is written 
 appears almost entirely to have lost the Pelasgian ele- 
 ment. The same observation may be made with respect 
 to the Cortonian inscription •? — 
 
 Arses verses Sethlanl tephral ape termnu pigest estu ; i. e. A-v:er- 
 tas ignem Vuloane victimarum came post terminum piatus esto ; 
 or, Avertas ignem Vulcane in cinerem redigens qui apud terminum 
 piatus esto. 
 
 Probably, therefore, both these belong to a period at 
 which the old Umbrian of the conquered tribes had been 
 exercising a long-continued influence in corrupting the 
 pure Pelasgian of the conquerors. 
 
 One example of the Etruscan alphabet is extant. It 
 was discovered in a tomb at Bomarzo, by Mr. Dennis,^ 
 inscribed round the foot of a cup, and probably had been 
 
 Mioali, Tav. cxx. " Orellii Inaor. 1384. 
 
 « Cities of Etruria, i p. 225. 
 
20 
 
 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITEHATUUE. 
 
 a present for a child, 
 and are as follows : — 
 
 The letters ran from left to right. 
 
 ^^ €Vy'€DM'7V>A7>//0^^^ ^3/7-^ 
 
 ph ch th u t s r s p 
 
 m 1 i th h 
 
 It will be seen from this specimen that the Etruscan 
 language was deficient in the letters BrAS'«I''HOfl. 
 
 The following is a catalogue of those Etruscan words 
 which have been handed down to us, together with their 
 Latin interpretation. The list is but a meagre one, but 
 valuable as containing some which have been admitted 
 into the Latin, and as exhibiting many affinities to the 
 Pelasgian : — 
 
 ^sar 
 
 Deus 
 
 Gapos 
 
 Currus 
 
 Agalletor 
 
 Puer 
 
 Hister 
 
 Ludio 
 
 Andar 
 
 Boreas 
 
 Iduare 
 
 Dividere 
 
 Anhelos 
 
 Aurora 
 
 Idulus 
 
 Ovis 
 
 Antar 
 
 Aqiiila 
 
 Itus 
 
 Idus 
 
 Aracos 
 
 Accipiter 
 
 Leena 
 
 Vestimentum 
 
 Arimos 
 
 Bimia 
 
 Lanista 
 
 Oamifex 
 
 Arse Verse 
 
 Averte ignem 
 
 Lar 
 
 Dominus 
 
 Ataison 
 
 Vitis 
 
 Lucumo 
 
 Princeps 
 
 Burros 
 
 ' Pooulum 
 
 Mantisa 
 
 Additamentum 
 
 Balteus 
 
 The. same as in the 
 
 Nanos 
 
 Vagabundus 
 
 (Japra 
 
 Nepos 
 
 Luxuriosus 
 
 Cassis 
 
 Latin. 
 
 Basena 
 
 Etrusci 
 
 Celer 
 
 
 Subulo 
 
 Tibioen 
 
 Capys 
 
 Falco 
 
 Slan 
 
 Filius 
 
 Damnus 
 
 Equus 
 
 Sec 
 
 FUia 
 
 DrouTia 
 
 Principium 
 
 Rilavil 
 
 Vixit annos 
 
 Falandum 
 
 Ccelum 
 
 Toga 
 
 Toga 
 
 The discoveries of Greneral Galassi and Mr. Dennis at 
 the Etruscan city of Cervetri have shown to what an 
 extent the Pelasgian element prevailed in the old Etruscan. 
 Cervetri was the old Caere or AgyUa, which was founded 
 by Pelasgians, maiutained a religious connexion with the 
 Greeks as a kindred race,^ and remained Pelasgian to a 
 
 ' See Etrusc. Alphabet. Lanzi, Saggio di L. E. i. 208. 
 * Herod, i. 167 
 
ETRUSCAN INSCRIPTIONS. 21 
 
 ''■d late period.' In the royal tomb discovered in this place 
 the name of Tarqnin — 
 
 occurs no less than thirty-five times.^ On a little cruet- 
 shaped vase, like an ink-bottle, was found inscribed the 
 syllables Bi, Ba, Bu, &c., as in a horn-book, and also an 
 alphabet in the Pelasgian character.* These characters 
 are almost identical with the Etruscan. Again, General 
 Galassi found here a small black pot, with letters legibly 
 scratched, and fiUed with red paint.'' Lepsius pronounced 
 them to be Pelasgian, divided them into words, and ar- 
 ranged them in the following lines, which are evidently 
 hexametrical -. — 
 
 Mi ni kethu ma mi mathu maram lisiai thipurenai 
 Ethe erai sic epana mi nethu nastav helephu. 
 
 Mr. Donaldson ° has offered some suggestions, with a 
 view to explaining this inscription, and has clearly shown 
 many close affinities to the Grreek ; but there is another 
 which he quotes, and which is pronounced by Midler ° to 
 be pure Pelasgian, which even in its Pelasgian form is 
 almost Greek : — 
 
 Mi kalairu ftiius. 
 hju KoXaipou Fvios. 
 
 It would be impossible in this work to attempt the 
 analysis of all the known Etruscan words, and to point 
 out their affinities to the Pelasgian, the Greek, or the 
 Latin; but a few examples may be given, whilst the 
 reader, who wishes to pursue the subject further, is re- 
 ferred to the investigations of the learned author of the 
 " Varronianus." 
 
 Aifil, age, is evidently from the same root as the Greek 
 aiwv, the digamma, which is the characteristic of the 
 Pelasgian, as it was of the derivative dialect, the ^olic, 
 
 ' Virg. Mn. viii. 597. * Dennis, ii. 44. ' Ibid. ii. 53. 
 
 ■* Ibid. ii. 55. ' Varron., p. 127. " Etrusk. i. p. 451. 
 
22 KOMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 being inserted between tbe vowels. Artms, an agricul- 
 turist, contains the root of apow, to plough. Capys, a 
 falcon, that of capio, to catch. Cassis (originally capsis), 
 that of caput, the head. Litiius, a curved staff, that of 
 obhquus. Toga, that of tego, the dress, which was 
 originally as much the Etruscan costume as it subse- 
 quently became characteristic of the Eoman. Lastly, it 
 is well known that, whereas the Greeks denoted numbers 
 by the letters of the alphabet, the Eomans had a system 
 of numeral signs. This was a great improvement. The 
 Greek system of notation was clumsy, because in reality 
 it only pointed out the order in which each number 
 stands. The Eoman notation, on the other hand, repre- 
 sented arithmetical quantity, and even the addition and 
 subtraction of quantities; and this elegant contrivance 
 the Eomans owed to the Etruscans. Their numerals 
 were as follows : — 
 
 I. n. III. IIII. A. AI. All. AIII. IX. X. . . T. T. . . 
 
 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 40. 50. 
 
 e i> ffi 
 
 100. 500, 1000. 
 
 This system is identical with the Eoman, for A inverted 
 became Y, and T, ®, U, and © became respectively L, 
 C, D, and CIO, for which M was substituted in later 
 times. 
 
 Erom the few examples which have been here given it 
 is evident that the Pelasgian element of the Etruscan was 
 most influential in the formation of the Latin language, 
 as the Pelasgian art and science of that wonderful people 
 contributed to the advancement and improvement of the 
 Eoman character. 
 
 THE OLD LATIN LANGUAGE. 
 
 The above observations, and the materials out of which 
 the old Latin was composed, have prepared the way for 
 some illustrations of its structure and character. The 
 
CHANT OF THE FRATRES ARVALES. 23 
 
 monuments from which, all our information is derived are 
 few in number : the conflagration of Eome destroyed the 
 majority ; the common accidents of a long series of years 
 completed the mischief. Almost the only records which 
 remain are laws, ceremonials, epitaphs, and honorary in- 
 scriptions. 
 
 An example of the oldest Latin extant is contained in 
 the sacred chant of the Fratres Arvales. The inscription 
 which embodied this Litany was discovered a.d. 1778,' 
 whilst digging out the foundations of the sacristy of St. 
 Peter's at Eome. The monument belongs to the reign 
 of Heliogabalus ;^ but although the date is so recent, the 
 permanence of religious formulae renders it probable that 
 the inscription contains the exact words sung by this 
 priesthood in the earliest times. 
 
 The Fratres Arvales were a college of priests, founded, 
 according to the tradition, by Romulus himself. The 
 symbohcal ensign of their office was a chaplet of ears of 
 corn (spicea corona), and their function was to offer prayers 
 in solemn dances and processions at the opening of spring 
 for plenteous harvests. Their song was chanted in the 
 temple with closed doors, accompanied by that peculiar 
 dance which was termed the tripudium, from its contain- 
 ing three beats. To this rhythm the Satumian measure 
 of the hymn corresponds ; and for this reason each verse 
 was thrice repeated. The hymn contains sixteen letters : 
 s is sometimes put for r, ei for i, and jo for f or ph. The 
 following is a transcription of it, as given by OreUius, to 
 which an interpretation is subjoined : — 
 
 Enos 
 
 Lasea 
 
 juvate. 
 
 
 
 
 Nos 
 
 Lares 
 
 juvate. 
 
 
 
 
 Us 
 
 Lares 
 
 help. 
 
 
 
 
 Neve 
 
 luaerve 
 
 Mariner 
 
 sins 
 
 incurrere in pleoris. 
 
 Neve 
 
 luem 
 
 Mars 
 
 sinas 
 
 incurrere 
 
 plus. 
 
 Nor the pestilence 
 
 Mars permit 
 
 to invade 
 
 more. 
 
 ' SchoeU. Hist, de Lit. Eom. i. p. 42 ; Orell. Insc. 2270. 
 '' Circ. A. D. 218. 
 
24 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Satur fivfere Mars limen Salista berber. 
 
 Satiatus furendo Mars lumen Solis sta fervete. 
 
 Satiated with fury, O Mars the light of the sun stop from burning. 
 Semunis altemei advooapit conctos. 
 Semihemones altemi ad vos capite cunctos. 
 Us half-men in your turns to you take aU. 
 
 Enos Manner juvato.' 
 Nos Mars juvato. 
 Us Mars help. 
 
 Triumpe, triumpe, triumpe, triumpe, triumpe. 
 Triumph, &c. 
 
 Of the Salian hymn (Carmen Saliare), another monu- 
 ment of ancient Latin, the following fragments, preserved 
 by "Varro,^ are all that remaLn, with the exception of a 
 few isolated words : — 
 
 (1.) Cozeulodoizeso, omina vero ad patula coemisse 
 Jam cusiones, duontis ceruses dunzianus vevet.' 
 
 This has been corrected, arranged in the Satumian 
 metre, and translated into Latin by Donaldson" as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
 Choroi-aulodos eso, omina enim vero 
 Ad patula' ose misse Jani cariones. 
 Duonus Oerus esit dunque Janus vevet. 
 
 Choroio-aulodus ero, omina enim vero ad patulas aures 
 Miserunt Jani curiones. Bonus Cerus erit donee Janus vivet. 
 
 I will be a flute-player in the chorus, for the priests of Janus have 
 sent omens to open ears. Cerus (the Creator) will be propitious so 
 long as Janus shall live. 
 
 (2.) Divum empta cante, divum deo supplicante. 
 i. e. Deorum impetu canite, deorum deo suppUoiter canite. 
 
 Sing by the inspiration of the gods, sing as suppliants to the god 
 of gods. 
 
 The Leges Regice are generally considered as furnish- 
 ing the next examples, in point of antiquity, of the old 
 Latin language; but there can be Httle doubt that, 
 although they were assumed by the metrical traditions to 
 belong to the period of the kings,^ they belong to a later 
 
 ' De L, L. vii. 26, 27, or vi. 1—3. « Varronianus, vi. 4. 
 
 ' See ex. gr. Liv. i, 26. 
 
LAWS OF THE TWELVE TABLES. 
 
 25 
 
 historical period than the laws of the Twelve Tables. 
 Some fragments of laws, attributed to Numa and Servius 
 TulHus, are preserved by Testus* in a restored and cor- 
 rected form, and, therefore, it is to be feared that they 
 have been modernized in accordance with the orthogra- 
 phical rules of a later age. 
 
 One of these laws is quoted by Livy** as put in force ia 
 the trial of the surviving Horatius for the murder of his 
 sister when he returned, as the tradition relates, from his 
 victory over the Curatii. Another is alluded to by Pliny,* 
 which forbids the sacrificing all fish which have not 
 scales ; but they are given in modern Latin, and can only 
 be restored to their old form by conjecture. 
 
 We may, therefore, proceed at once to a consideration 
 of the Latin of the Twelve Tables, of which fragments 
 have been preserved by Cicero, Aulus GreUius, Festus, 
 Gains, Ulpian, and others. These fragments are to be 
 found collected together in Haubold's " Institutionum 
 Juris Eomani privati lineamenta " and Donaldson's " Var- 
 roniamis."* The laws of the Twelve Tables were engraven 
 on tablets of brass, and pubHcly set up in the Comitium, 
 and were first made pubHc in b.c. 449.° Nor had the 
 Romans any other digested code of laws until the time 
 of Justinian.® The following are a few examples of the 
 words and phrases contained in them : — 
 
 Ni 
 
 nee 
 
 Em 
 
 eum 
 
 Endo jaoito 
 
 injioito 
 
 ^vitaa 
 
 eetas 
 
 Fuat 
 
 sit 
 
 Sontious 
 
 nooens 
 
 Hostis 
 
 Hospes 
 
 Diffensus esto 
 
 dififeratur 
 
 Se 
 
 sine 
 
 Venom-dint 
 
 venum det 
 
 Estod 
 
 esto 
 
 Eacit 
 
 est 
 
 Legassit, &o. 
 
 legaverit. 
 
 The nfext example of the old Latin is contained in the 
 Tiburtine inscription, which was discovered in the six- 
 
 ' S. V. V. PJorare, Occisum, Pellices, Parricidi, QusBstores, &c. 
 ' Lib. i. 26. " H. N. xxxii. 2. * Ch. vi. 
 
 ' Dionys. x. 57. " Liv. iii. 54, a.d. 
 
26 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 teenth century at Tivoli,,tlie ancient libur. It came 
 into the possession of the Barberini family ; but it was 
 afterwards lost, and has never been recovered. Niebuhr' 
 considers (and his conjecture is probably correct) that 
 this monument is a Senatus-consultum, belonging to the 
 period of the second Samnite war.^ The inscription is 
 given at length in the collection of Grruter,^ and also by 
 Niebuhr* and Donaldson.^ The Latin in which it is 
 written may be considered almost classical, the variations 
 from that of a later age being principally orthographical. 
 For example : — 
 
 Tiburtes is written Teiburtes 
 
 Castoris , , Eastorus 
 
 Advertit , , advortit 
 
 Dixistis , , deixsistis 
 
 PublicsB is 'written poplicse 
 
 Utile , , oitile 
 
 Inducimvis , , indoucimus 
 
 A or ab before v , , af. 
 
 This document is followed very closely, in point of time, 
 by the well-known inscription on the sarcophagus of 
 L. Cornelius Scipio* Barbatus, and the epitaph on his 
 son,' which are both written in the old Satumian metre. 
 Scipio Barbatus was the great-grandfather of the con- 
 queror of Hannibal, and was consul in a.u.c. 456, the 
 jElrst year of the third Samnite war. His sarcophagus 
 was found a.d. 1780 in a tomb near the Appian Way, 
 whence it was removed to the Vatican. The epitaph is 
 as foUows : — 
 
 Cornelius Lucius Scipio Barbatus Gnaivod 
 Patre prognatus fortis vir sapiensque 
 Quoius forma virtutei parisuma fuit 
 Consol Censor Aidilis quei fuit apud vos 
 Taurasia Cisauna Samnio cepit 
 Subigit omne Loucana opsidesque abdoucit. 
 
 " Cornelius L. Scipio Barbatus, son of Cnseus, a brave 
 and wise man, whose beauty was equal to his vii^e. He 
 was amongst you Consul, Censor, iEdile. He took Tau- 
 
 ' Nieb; R. H. iii. 264. * a. u. c. 428—50, Arnold ; 423—44, Niebuhr. 
 
 " Page 499. " Rom. Hist. * Varron. vi. 20. « Orell No. 550. 
 
 ' Ibid. No. 552. Meycr'.s Anth. Nos. 1, 2 ; where see also No. 5. 
 
EPITAPH OF LUCIUS SCIPIO. 27 
 
 rasia, Gisauna, and Samnimn ; lie subjugated all Lucania, 
 and led away hostages." 
 
 His son was Consul a.u.c. 495.^ The following in- 
 scription is on a slab which was found near the Porta 
 Capona. The title is painted red (rubricatus) : — 
 
 L. Cornelio L. F. Scipio, Aidiles, Consol, Cesor. 
 
 Hone oino ploirume cosentiunt E. 
 
 Duonoro optimo fuise viro 
 
 Luciom Scipionem. Filios Barbati 
 
 Oonsol Censor Aidiles hie fuet 
 
 Hie cepit Corsiea Aleria que urbe 
 
 Dedet tempestatebus aide mereto. 
 
 " Eomans for the most part agree, that this one man, 
 Lucius Scipio, was the best of good men. He was the 
 son of Barbatus, Consul, Censor, iEdile. He took Corsica 
 and the city Aleria. He dedicated a temple to the 
 Storms as a just return." 
 
 It is not a little remarkable that the style of this 
 epitaph is more archaic than that of the preceding. 
 
 The consul of the year B.C. 260 was C. Duilius, who in 
 that year gained his celebrated naval victory over the 
 Carthaginians; the inscription, therefore, engraved on 
 the pedestal of the Columna Eostrata, which was erected 
 in commemoration of that event, may be considered as a 
 contemporary monument of the language.^ Some altera- 
 tions were probably made in its orthography at a period 
 subsequent to its erection, for it was rent asunder from 
 top to bottom by lightning a.u.c. 580,^ and is supposed 
 not to have been repaired until the reign of Augustus, 
 for the restoration of a temple built by Duilius was begun 
 by that emperor and completed by Tiberius.* The prin- 
 cipal peculiarities to be observed in this inscription are, 
 that the ablatives singular end ra d, as in the words 
 Siceliad, obsidioned; c is put for g, as iu macistratos, 
 
 B. 0. 259. * Orellius, No. 549. ° Liv. xlii. 
 
 ' Tac. Ann. ii. 49. 
 
28 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATOBE. 
 
 leciones; e for i, as in navebos, omavet; o for u, as in 
 Duilios, aurom; classes, mimmi, &c., are spelt clases, 
 niimei, and quinqueremos, triremos, quinresmos, triesmos. 
 This monument was discovered a.d. 1565, in a very im- 
 perfect state, but its numerous lacunce were supplied by 
 GiTotefend. 
 
 About sixty years after tbe date of this epitaph,^ the Se- 
 natus-consultum, respecting the Bacchanals, was passed." 
 This monument was discovered a.d. 1692, in the Cala- 
 brian village of Terra di Feriolo, and is now preserved in 
 the Imperial Museum of Yienna.^ 
 
 There is scarcely any difference between the Latinity • 
 of this inscription and that of the classical period except 
 in the orthography and some of the grammatical inflex- 
 ions. The expressions are in accordance with the usage 
 of good authors, and the construction is not without 
 elegance. Nor is this to be wondered at when it is re- 
 membered that, at the period when this decree was pub- 
 lished, Eome already possessed a written literature. 
 Ennius was now known as a poet and an historian, and 
 many of the comedies of Plautus had been acted on the 
 public stage. 
 
 Having thus enumerated the existing monuments of 
 the old Eoman language and its constituent elements, it 
 remains to compare the Latin and Grreek alphabets, for 
 the purpose of exhibiting the variations which the Latin 
 letters have severally undergone. 
 
 The letters then may be arranged according to the 
 following classification : — 
 
 (Soft P C K or Q, T. 
 
 I Mutes •! Medial B G D. 
 
 I. Aspirates F (V) H — 
 
 Liquids- - - L, M, N, R. 
 SibHants - - S, X. 
 Vowels - - - - - A, E, I, O, U. 
 
 n. c. 568 ; B. c. 186. ' Livy, xxxix. 18. ' Schoell, i. 52. 
 
LATIN AND GREEK ALPHABETS. 29 
 
 Owing to the relation which subsists between P, B, 
 and F or V, as the soft medial and aspirated pronuncia- 
 tion of the same letters, P and B, as well as F and V, in 
 Latin, are the representatives or equivalents of the Grreek 
 F sound (0 and F), and V also sometimes stands in the 
 place of /3. For example (1), the Latin fama, fero, 
 fugio, vir, &c., correspond to the Grreek <i>rifiri, ^ipw, 
 (JKvya) {FyApri^. (3). Nebula, caput, albus, amho, to 
 pe(f)e\'rj, Ke((>a\f], a\06s, a/K^oi. Similarly, duonus and 
 duellum become bonus and bellum; the transition being 
 from du to a sound like the English w, thence to v, and 
 lastly to b. The old Latin c was used as the representa- 
 tive of its corresponding medial G, as weU as K; for 
 example, magistratus, legiones, Carthaginienses were 
 written on the Columna Eostrata, leciones, macistratus, 
 Cartacinienses. The representative of the Greek *■ was 
 c ; thus caput stands for ife^a\i7 : the sound qu also, 
 as might be expected, from its answering to the Greek 
 koppa (Q), and the Hebrew koph (p), had undoubtedly in 
 the old Latin the same soimd as C or K, and, therefore, 
 quatio becomes, in composition, cutio ; and quojus, quoi, 
 quolonia become, in classical Latin, cuju^, cut, colonia. 
 This pronunciation has descended to the modem French 
 language, although it has become lost in the ItaHan. A 
 passage from the " Aulularia" ' of Plautus illustrates this 
 assertion, and QuintOian'' also bears testimony to the 
 existence of the same pronunciation in the time of 
 Cicero. 
 
 The aspirate H is in Latin the representative of the 
 Greek X, as, for example, hiems, hortus, and humi corre- 
 spond to ■xeifiu)!/, xop^o^> X"/^'' whilst the third Greek 
 aspirated mute becomes a tenuis in the mouths of the 
 early Latins, as in Cartaginienses, and the h sound was 
 
 ' Ver. 276. ' Lib. vi. 3, 47. 
 
30 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 afterwards restored when Greek exercised an influence 
 over the language as well as the literature of Eome. 
 
 The absence of the th sound in the old Latin is com- 
 pensated for in a variety of ways ; sometimes by an /, as 
 fera, fores, for 6r]p and 6vpa. 
 
 The interchanges which take place between the T and 
 I), and the liquids L, N, E, can be accounted for on the 
 grammatical principle/ which is so constantly exemph- 
 fied iu the Hteral changes of the Semitic languages, that 
 letters articulated by the same organ are frequently put 
 one for the other. Now D, T, L, N are all palatals, and 
 in the pronunciation of B, also some use is made of the 
 palate. Hence we find a commutation of r and n iu 
 Iwpov, donum ; (ereus, emeus ; of t and I iu Owpri^ and 
 lorica ; d and I iu olfacio and odere facio, "Ulysses and 
 Ocvffaevi; r and d in auris and audio, arfuise, and 
 adfuisse. 
 
 To the remaining Hquid, m, Httle value seems to have 
 been attached ia Latin. In verse it was elided before a 
 vowel ; in verbs it was universally omitted from the first 
 person of the present tense, although it was originally its 
 characteristic, and was only retaiued in sum and inquam : 
 it was also omitted in other words, as omne for omnem f 
 and Cato the Censor was iu the habit of putting dice 
 and facie for dicam (or dicem) and faciam (faciem). 
 
 As the Roman x was nothing more than a double 
 letter compounded of ^ or c and s, as rego, regsi, resd ; 
 dico, dicsi, dixi, the only consonant now remaining for 
 consideration is the sibilant s. The principal position « 
 which it occupies in Latin is as corresponding to the 
 aspirate in Greek words derived from the same Pelasgic 
 roots. Thus m, eg, iS\»/, &c., are represented by sus, 
 sex, silva. This may possibly be accounted for by the 
 
 ' See Bythner's Lyra Prophet. " See epitaph on L. C. Scipio. 
 
cha;nge in vowels and diphthongs. 31 
 
 fact that S is in reality a very powerful aspirate. It is 
 only necessary to try tlie experiment, in order to prove 
 that a strong expiration produces a hissing sound. Those 
 words which in classical Greek are written without an 
 aspirate, such as el, ai^o^, &c., which, nevertheless, have an 
 s in Latin, as si, senex, &c., may possibly have been at one 
 period pronounced with the stronger breathing. The 
 most remarkable change, however, which has taken place 
 with respect to this letter, in the transition from the old 
 to the classical Latin, is the substitution of r for s. Thus 
 Fusius, Papisius, eso, arbos, &c., become Furius, Papi- 
 rius, ero, arbor, &c. 
 
 The following table exhibits the principal changes un- 
 dergone by the vowels and diphthongs : — 
 
 In modern Latin. In ancient Latin. 
 
 E was represented by i, sometimes u, as luci, condumnari, 
 
 I , , u, ei, e, o optume, nomimis, preivatus, 
 
 dedit, senatuos. 
 U , , oi, ou, o quoius, ploiruine, douco, 
 
 hone. 
 M ,, ai Aidilea. 
 
 CE , , oi proilium. 
 
 The vowels were sometimes doubled, asleegi, luuci, baace.' 
 
 In the grammatical inflexions, the principal difference 
 between the old and the new Latin is, that in nouns the 
 old forms were longer, and assumed their modem form by 
 a process of contraction, and that the ablative ended in d, 
 as Gnaivod, sententiad ; consequently the adverbial termi- 
 nation was the same as suprad, bonod, malod. The same 
 termination appears in the form of tod in the singular 
 number of the imperative mood. 
 
 See Bant. Tabls. 
 
32 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 SATURNIAN METRE — OPINIONS RESPECTING ITS ORIGIN — EARLT 
 EXAMPLES OF THIS METRE — SATURNIAN BALLADS IN LIVY — 
 STRUCTURE OF THE VERSE — INSTANCES OF RHYTHMICAL POETRY. 
 
 The origin and progress of tlie Roman language have 
 now been briefly traced, by the help of existing monu- 
 ments, from the earliest dawn of its existence, when the 
 fusion of its discordant elements was so incomplete as to 
 be scarcely intelligible, to the period when even in the 
 unadorned form of public records it began to assume a 
 classical shape. But such an analysis will not be com- 
 plete without some account of the verse in which the 
 earliest national poetry was composed. 
 
 The oldest measure used by the Latin poets was the 
 Saturnian. According to Hermann,' there is no doubt 
 that it was derived from the Etruscans, and that long 
 before the fountains of Grreek literature were opened, the 
 strains of the Italian bards flowed in this metre, until 
 Ennius introduced the heroic hexameter. The gramma- 
 rian Diomedes "^ attributed the invention of it to Nsevius, 
 and seems to imply that the Eoman poet derived the idea 
 from the Grreeks, for his theory is, that he formed the 
 verse by adding a syllable to the Iambic trimeter. Te- 
 rentianus Maurus, as well as Atilius, professed to find 
 
 ' Elem. Doc. Met. iii. 9. ^ P. 212. 
 
EARLY EXAMPLES OF SATUBNIANS. 33 
 
 verses of this kind in the tragedies of Euripides and the 
 odes of Callimachus, and Servius and Oensorimis attempted 
 to analyse the Satumian according to the strict rules of 
 Greek prosody ; but they were obliged to permit every 
 conceivable license, and to make Roman rudeness an ex- 
 cuse for a yiolation of those rules which they themselves 
 had arbitrarily imposed. The opinion of Bentley was, that 
 it was a Greek metre introduced into Italy by Naevius.^ 
 The only argument in favour of the latter theory is the 
 fact that the Satumian is found amongst the verses of 
 Archilochus ; but many circumstances, which shall here- 
 after be pointed out, combine to make it far more probable 
 that the use of it by the Greek poet is an accidental coin- 
 cidence than that the old Roman bards copied it from him. 
 "Whatever be its history, there can be no doubt that, if it 
 did not originate in Italy, its rhythm in very early times 
 recommended itself to the Italian ear, and became the 
 recognized vehicle of their national poetry. A rude 
 resemblance of it is discernible in the Eugubine tables ; 
 it had obtained a more advanced degree of perfection 
 in the ArvaHan chants, and the axamenta'^ or Salian 
 hymns. Examples of it are found in fragments of 
 Roman laws, which Livy^ refers to the reign of Tullus 
 Hostilius, and Cicero* to that of Tarquinius Priscus. The 
 epitaphs of the Scipios are in fact Satumian nsenise. 
 Ennius, whose era was sufficiently early for him to know 
 that Nsevius, instead of being the inventor of a new 
 verse, or the introducer of a Greek one, followed the ex- 
 ample of his predecessors, finds fault with the antiquated 
 rudeness of his Saturnians. 
 
 Scripsere alii rem 
 Versibus quos olim Fauni Vatesque canebant 
 Quom neque Musarum soopulos qiiisquam superarat, 
 Neo dicti studiosus erat. 
 
 ' Ep. Phal. xi. 
 
 ' The term axamenta is derived from the old Latin word axo, to name. 
 
 » Lib. i. 26. ' fto Eab. 4, 13. 
 
 D 
 
34 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Some in such verses wrote. 
 As sung the Fauns and Bards in olden times, 
 When none had scaled the Muses' rocky heights 
 Or studied graceful diction. 
 
 Had the Satumian been introduced from Greece, 
 Enniiis would not have denied to it the inspiration of 
 the Muses, or have doubted that its birthplace was on 
 the rocky peaks of Parnassus, nor would his ear, attuned 
 to the varied melody of Greek poetry, have been un- 
 conscious of its simple and natural rhythm, and have 
 entirely rejected it for the more ponderous and grandi- 
 loquent hexameter. The truth is, the taste which was 
 formed by the study of Greek letters created a pre- 
 judice against the old national verse. As it was not 
 Greek, it was pronounced rough and unmusical, and was 
 exploded as old-fashioned. The well-known passage of 
 Horace represents the prevaiHng feeling, although he 
 says that the Satumian remained long after the intro- 
 duction of the hexameter, and that, even in his own day, 
 when Virgil had brought the Latin hexameter to the 
 highest degree of perfection, a few traces of that old 
 long-lost poetry, which Cicero* wished for back again, 
 might stiU be discovered : — 
 
 Greecia capta ferum victorem cepit at artes 
 Intulit agresti Latio. Sic horridxis ille 
 Defluxit numeruB Satumius, et grave virus 
 Munditise pepulere : sed in longum tamen sevum 
 Manserunt, hodieque manent vestigia ruris. 
 
 Ep. n., ii. 156. 
 
 Some passages of Livy bear evident marks of having 
 been originally portions of Saturnian ballads, although the 
 historian has mutilated the metre by the process of 
 translating them into more niodern Latin. The pro- 
 phetic warning of C. Marcius^ has been thus restored by 
 Hermann with but slight alteration of the words of 
 
 I^ivy : 
 
 ' Brutus, xix. - Liv. xxv. 12. 
 
OLD LAYS RESTORED BY HERMANN. 35 
 
 Amn6n, Troj6gena, CAnnam fuge, ne te alienigen» 
 Cogent in c&mpo D!omed6i mantis cousfirere ; 
 Sed nee credes tu mihi, donee eomplessis sangui 
 Campum, miliaque multa occisa tua tetulerit 
 Is amnis in portum magnum ex terra frugifera. 
 Piseibus avibus ferisque quae inoolunt terras, eis 
 Fuat esca eamis tua ; ita Juppiter mihi fatus. 
 
 The oracle which tradition recorded as having been 
 brought from Delphi respecting the waters of the Alban 
 lake^ was evidently embodied in a Satumian poem, pro- 
 bably the composition of the same Marcius, or one of his 
 contemporaries, such as Fabius Pictor, Cincius Ali- 
 mentus, or AciHus. This lay has also been conjecturally 
 restored by Hermann. 
 
 Bomane aquam Albanam lacu eave contiueri. 
 Cave in mare immanare suopte flumine siris ; 
 Missam manu per agros rigassis, dissipatam 
 Rivis eztinxis, tum tu insistito hostium audax 
 Muris memor, quam per tot annos circum obsides 
 Urbem, ex ea tibi his, quae nunc pandimtur fatis, 
 Victoriam datam ; bello perfecto donum 
 Amplum ad mea victor templa portato ; saera patria 
 Nee curata instaurato, utique adsolitum, facito. 
 
 In later times Livius Andronicus translated the whole 
 Odyssey into Saturnians, and Nsevius wrote in the same 
 metre a poem consisting of seven books, the subject of 
 which was the first Punic war. Detached fragments of 
 both these have been preserved by Aulus GreUius, Priscian, 
 Pestus, and others, which have been collected together by 
 Hermann." 
 
 The structure of the Satumian is very simple, and its 
 rhythmical arrangement is found in the poetry of every 
 age and country. Macaulay* quotes the following Sa- 
 turnians from the poem of the Cid and from the Nibe- 
 lungen-Lied — 
 
 Est&s nuevds a mfo f Cid erto venidas 
 A ml lo dian ; ^ ti ( d4n las 6rej4das. 
 
 Liv. V. 16. * Elem. Doc. Metr. iii. 9. 
 
 ' Lays of Rome, Preface, p. 19. 
 
 D 2 
 
30 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURK. 
 
 Man m6hte mlchel wtinder | v6n Sifride s4gen 
 Wa ich den kfinic vinde | d4s sol m4n rair sdgen. 
 
 He adds also, as an example of a perfect Satumian, the 
 following line from the weU-known nursery song — 
 
 The qu6en was In her p&:lour | e&ting bre^d and h6ney. 
 
 It was the metre naturally adapted to the national 
 mode of dancing, in which each alternate step strongly 
 marked the time,^ and the rhythmical beat was repeated 
 in a series of three bars, which gave to the dance the 
 appellation of tripudium. 
 
 The Saturnian 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|mds o|p6s qui | r6gum || r6gi|4s re|fr6git || 
 
 The metre in its original form was perfectly independent 
 of the rules of Grreek prosody, its only essential requisite 
 was the beat or ictus on the alternate syllable or its re- 
 presentative. The only law to regulate the stress was 
 that of the common popular pronunciation. In fact, 
 stress occupied the pla«e of quantity. Two or three syl- 
 lables, which, according to the rules of prosody would be 
 long by position, might be slurred over or pronounced 
 rapidly in the time of one, as in the following line : — 
 
 Amnfim Trojtigena Cd,nnam [ Mge ne te alienigen^. 
 
 Thus it is clear that the principles which regulated it 
 were those of modem versification, without any of the 
 niceties and delicacies of Greek quantity. 
 
 The anacrusis resembles the introductory note to a 
 musical air, and does not interfere with the essential 
 quaUty of the verse, namely, the three beats twice re- 
 peated, any more than it does in Enghsh poems, in which 
 
 ' Alteruo terram quatiunt pede. — Hor. Od. 
 
INSTANCES OF KHYTIIMICAL VERSE. 37 
 
 octosyllabic lines, having the stress on the even places, 
 are intermingled with verses of seven syllables, as in the 
 following passage of Milton's L' Allegro : — 
 
 Come and trip it as you go 
 
 On the light fantastic toe, 
 
 And in thy right hand lead with thee 
 
 The mountain nymph, sweet Liberty ; 
 
 And if I give thee honour du>, 
 
 Mirth, admit me of thy crew. 
 
 It is remarkable that in the degenerate periods of 
 Latin literature, there was a return to the same old 
 rhythmical principles which gave birth to the Saturnian 
 verse : ictus was again substituted for quantity, and the 
 Grreek rules of prosody were neglected for a rhythm con- 
 sisting of alternate beats, which pervades most modern 
 poetry. 
 
 The empire had become so extensive, that the taste of 
 the people, especially of the provincials, was no longer 
 regulated by that of the capital, and emphasis and accent 
 became, instead of metrical quantity, the general rule of 
 pronunciation. This was the origin of rhythmical poetry. 
 Traces of it may be found as early as the satirical verses 
 of Suetonius or J. Cjesar. 
 
 It is the metre of the little jeu d'esprit addressed by 
 the emperor Hadrian to Floras — ^ 
 
 Ego nolo Florus esse 
 Ambulare per tabemas 
 Latitare per popinas 
 Culius pati rotundos ; 
 
 and also of the historian's repartee — 
 
 Ego nolo CEBsar esse 
 Ambulare per Britannos 
 Scythicas pati pruinas. 
 
 The simple grandeur of such strains as — 
 
 Dies irsB, dies ilia, 
 
 Solvet SBBclum in favilla, &c. 
 
 ' See Meyer, Anthol. Lat. 207, 212. 
 
38 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 and other monMsL. hymns, go far to rescue the old 
 Saturnian from the charge of ruggedness and rusticity 
 ascribed to it by Horace and others, whose taste was 
 formed by Greek poetry, and whose fastidious ears could 
 not brook any harmony but that which had been con- 
 secrated to the outpourings of Greek genius. 
 
 From this species of verse, which probably prevailed 
 among the natives of Provence (the Eoman Provincia) 
 the Troubadours derived the metre of their baUad poetry, 
 and thence introduced it into the rest of Europe. But 
 whatever phases the external form of ancient poetry 
 underwent, the classical writers both of Greece and 
 Rome eschewed rhyme. Even to a modem ear the 
 beautiful effect of the ancient metres is entirely destroyed 
 by it. It was a false taste and a less refined ear which 
 could accept it as a compensation for the imperfections 
 of prosody. 
 
 Although rhyme was introduced as an embellishment 
 of verses framed on the principle of ictus, and not of 
 quantity, at a very early period of Christian Latin htera- 
 ture, it is not quite certain when it came to be added as 
 a new difficulty to the metres of classical antiquity. It 
 is recorded by Gray^ that when the children educated ui 
 the monastery of St. Gall addressed a Bishop of Con- 
 stance on his first visitation with expostulatory orations, 
 the younger ones recited the following doggrel rhymes : — 
 
 Quid tibi fecimus tale ut nobis &cias male 
 Appellamus regem quia nostram fecimus legem. 
 
 .The elder and more advanced students spoke in rhyming 
 hexameters : — 
 
 Nou nobis pia spes fuerat cum sis novus hospes 
 Ut vetus in pejus transvertere tiite velis jus. 
 
 ' Gray's Works, ii. 30—54. 
 
( 39 ) 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 TIIKEE PERIODS OF EOMAN CLASSICAL LITEEATURE — ITS ELEMENTS 
 RUDE ROMAN RELIGION — ETRUSCAN INFLUENCE — EARLY HIS- 
 TORICAL MONUMENTS— FESCENNINE VERSES— FABUL^ ATELLANjE 
 — INTRODUCTION OF STAGE PLAYERS — DERIVATION OF SATIRE. 
 
 The era during which. Eoman classical literature com- 
 menced, arrived at perfection, and declined, may be con- 
 veniently divided into three periods. The first of these 
 embraces its rise and progress, such traces as are dis- 
 coverable of oral and traditional compositions, the rude 
 elements of the drama, the introduction of Grreek litera- 
 ture, and the cultivation of the national taste in accord- 
 ance with this model, the infancy of eloquence, and the 
 construction and perfection of comedy. 
 
 To this period the first five centuries of the republic 
 may be considered as introductory ; the groundwork and 
 foundation were then being gradually laid on which the 
 superstructure was built up; for, properly speaking, 
 Eome had no literature until the conclusion of the first 
 Punic war.^ 
 
 Independently therefore of these 500 years, this period 
 consists of 160 years, extending from the time when 
 Livius Andronicus flourished^ to the first appearance of 
 Cicero in pubHc life.^ 
 
 The second period ends with the death of Augustus.* 
 
 ' A. U. C. 513 ; B. C. 241. ' B. c. 240 ; A. U. C. 514. 
 
 - B. C. 81 : A. D. C. 673. *A. D. 14. 
 
40 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 It comprehends the age of which Cicero is the repre- 
 sentative as the most accomplished orator, philosopher, 
 and prose writer of his times, as weU as that of Augustus, 
 which is commonly called the golden age of Latin 
 poetry. 
 
 The third and last period of Eoman classical literature 
 terminates with the death of Hadrian.^ Ifotwithstand- 
 ing the numerous excellencies which will be seen to dis- 
 tinguish the literature of this period, its decline had 
 evidently commenced. It missed the patronage of Au- 
 ^stus and his refined court, and was chilled by the 
 baneful influence of his tyrannical successors. As the 
 age of Augustus has been distinguished by the epithet 
 " golden," so the succeeding period has been, on account 
 of its comparative inferiority, designated as " the silver 
 age." 
 
 The Eomans, like all other nations, had oral poetical 
 compositions before they possessed any written literature. 
 Cicero, in three places,^ speaks of the banquet being 
 enhvened by the songs of bards, in which the exploits 
 of heroes were recited and celebrated. By these lays 
 national pride and family vanity were gratified, and the 
 anecdotes thus preserved by memory furnished the 
 sources of early legendary history. 
 
 But these lays and legends must not be compared to 
 those of Greece, which had probably taken an epic form 
 long before they furnished the groundwork of the IHad 
 and the Odyssey. In Eoman tradition there are no 
 traces of elevated genius or poetical inspiration. The 
 religious sentiment was the fertile source of Greek fancy, 
 which gave a supernatural glory to the eflfusions of the 
 bard, painted men as heroes, and heroes as deities ; and, 
 whilst it was the natural growth of the Greek intellect, 
 twined itself round the affections of the whole people. 
 
 ' A. D. 138. ■' Brut. 19 ; Tusc. Dis. i. 2 ; iv. 2. 
 
RUDE ELEMENTS OF ROMAN LITERATURE. 41 
 
 Roman religion was a ceremonial for the priests, not for 
 the people ; and its poetry was merely formulae in verse, 
 and soared no higher than the semi-barbarous ejaculations 
 of the Sahan priests or the Arvalian brotherhood. 
 Fabulous legends doubtless formed the groundwork of 
 history, and therefore probably constituted the festive 
 entertainments to which Cicero aUudes; but they were 
 rude and simple, and the narratives founded upon them, 
 which are embodied in the pages of Livy and others, 
 are as much improved by the embellishments of the 
 historian, as these in their turn have been expanded by 
 the poetic talent of Macaulay. 
 
 It is scarcely possible to conceive that the uncouth 
 literature which was contemporary with such rude relics 
 as have come down to modern times should have dis- 
 played a higher degree of imaginative power. A few 
 simple descriptive lines, one or two animating and heart- 
 stirring sentiments, and -no more, would be tolerated as 
 an interruption to the grosser pleasures of the table 
 amongst a rude and boisterous people. The Eomans 
 were men of actions, not of words ; their intellect, though 
 vigorous, was essentially of a practical character : it was 
 such as to form warriors, statesmen, jurists, orators, but 
 not poets, in the highest sense of the word, i. e. if by 
 poetic talent is meant the creative faculty of the imagina- 
 tion. The Eoman mind possessed the germs of those 
 faculties which admit of cultivation and improvement, 
 such as taste and genius, and the appreciation of the 
 beautiftd, and their endowments rendered them capable 
 of attaining literary excellence ; it did not possess the 
 natural gifts of fancy and imagination, which were part 
 and parcel of the Greek mind, and which made them in a 
 state of infancy, almost of barbarism, a poetical people. 
 
 With the Eomans hterature was not of spontaneous 
 growth ; it was the result of external influence. It is 
 impossible to fix the period at which they first became 
 
42 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 subject to this influence, but it is clear that in everything 
 mental and spiritual their neighbours the Etruscans were 
 their teachers. The influence exercised by this remark- 
 able people was not only religious, but moral : its primary 
 object was discipline, its secondary one refinement. If it 
 cultivated the intellectual powers, it was with a view to 
 disciplining the moral faculties. To this pure culture 
 the old Eoman character owed its vigour, its honesty, its 
 incorruptible sternness, and those virtues which are 
 summed up in the comprehensive and truly Eoman 
 word " gravitas." History proves that these qualities 
 had a real existence — that they were not the mere 
 ideal phantasies of those who loved to praise times gone 
 by. The error into which those feU who mourned over 
 the loss of the old Eoman discipline, and lamented the 
 degeneracy of their own times, was, that they attributed 
 this degeneracy to the onward march of refinement and 
 civilization, and not to the accidental circumstance that 
 this march was accompanied by profligacy and effemi- 
 nacy, and that the race which was the dispensers of these 
 blessings was a corrupt and degenerate one. They could 
 not separate the causes and the effects ; they did not see 
 that Eome was intellectually advanced by Greek litera- 
 ture, but that unfortunately it was degraded at the same 
 time by_ Greek profligacy. 
 
 For centuries the Eoman mind was imbued with 
 Etruscan literature ; and Livy' asserts that, just as Greek 
 was in his own day, it continued to be the instrument of 
 Eoman education during five centuries after the founda- 
 tion of the city. 
 
 .The tendency of the Eoman mind was essentially 
 utilitarian. Even Cicero, with all his varied accomplish- 
 ments, will recognise but one end and object of all study, 
 namely, those sciences which wiU render a man useful 
 
 ' Lib. ix. 36. 
 
EARLIEST LITERATURE HISTORICAL. 43 
 
 to his country -.—"Quid esse igitur censes discendum 
 nobis ? . . . Eas artes quae efficiunt ut usni civitati 
 simus ; id enim esse prseclarissimnm sapientise munus 
 maximumque virtutis vel docnmentmn vel officium puto."^ 
 We must, therefore, expect to find the law of literary de- 
 velopment modified in accordance with this ruling prin- 
 ciple. From the very beginning, the final cause of 
 Roman literature will be found to have been a view 
 to utility, and not the satisfaction of an impulsive feel- 
 ing. 
 
 In other nations poetry has been the first spontaneous 
 production. With the Eomans the first literary effort 
 was history. But their early history consisted simply 
 of annals and memorials — ^records of facts, not of ideas or 
 sentiments. It was calculated to form a storehouse of 
 valuable materials for future ages, but it had no impress 
 of genius or thought; its merits were truth and accuracy ; 
 its very facts were often frivolous and unimportant, neither 
 rendered interesting as narratives, nor illustrated by re- 
 flections. These original documents were elements of 
 literature rather than deserving the name of literature 
 itself — antiquarian rather than historical. The earHest 
 records of this kind were the Libri Lintei — manu- 
 scripts written on rolls of Hnen cloth, to which Livy 
 refers as containing the first treaty between Home and 
 Carthage, and the truce made with Ardea and Gabii.^ 
 To these may be added the Annates Maximi, or Com- 
 mentarii Pontijicum, of the minute accuracy of which, the 
 following account is given by Servius.^ " Every year the 
 chief pontiff inscribed on a white tablet, at the head of 
 which were the names of the consuls and other magis- 
 trates, a daily record of all memorable events both at 
 
 1 De Rep. i. 20. " Lib. iv. 7, 13, 20. 
 
 " 111 Virg. Mn. i. 372. See also Cic. Or. ii. 12 ; and Quiuct. Ins. Or. 
 X. 2, 7. 
 
44 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 home and abroad. These commentaries or registers were' 
 afterwards collected into eighty books which were entitled 
 by their authors Annales Maximi." 
 
 Similar notes of the year were kept regularly from the 
 earliest periods by the civil magistrates, and are spoken 
 of by Latin authors under the titles of Commentarii Con- 
 sulares, Libri Proetorum, and Tahulce Censorice. All these 
 records, however, which were anterior to the capture of 
 Eome by the Grauls, 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 care- 
 fully preserved, as adorning and illustrating their nobility; 
 but this heraldic literature obscured instead of throwing 
 a Hght upon history : it was filled with false triumphs, 
 imaginary consulships, and forged genealogies.^ 
 
 The earhest attempt at poetry, or rather versification, 
 for it was simply the outward form and not the inward 
 spirit which the rude inhabitants of Latium attained, 
 was satire in somewhat of a dramatic form. The Fes- 
 cennine songs were metrical, for the accompaniments of 
 music and dancing necessarily subjected their extem- 
 poraneous eifiisions to the restrictions of a rude measure. 
 Like the first theatrical exhibitions of the Greeks, they 
 had their origin, not in towns, but amongst the rural 
 population. They were not, hke Grreek tragedy, per- 
 formed in honour of a deity, nor did they form a portion 
 of a religious ceremonial. Still, however, they were the 
 accompaniment of it, the pastime of the village festival. 
 EeHgion was the excuse for the holiday sport, and amuse- 
 ment its natural occupation. At first they were inno- 
 cent and gay, their mirth overflowed in boisterous but 
 good-humoured repartee; but liberty at length degene- 
 
 ' Cio. Brut. 16. 
 
FESGENNINE VERSES. 45 
 
 rated into license, and gave birth to malicious and libel- 
 lous attacks on persons of irreproachable character.^ As 
 the licentiousness of Greek comedy provoked the inter- 
 ference of the legislature, so the laws of the Twelve 
 Tables forbade the personalities of the Fescennine verses. 
 
 This infancy of song illustrates the character of the 
 Eomans in its rudest and coarsest form. They loved 
 strife, both bodily and mental: with them the highest 
 exercise of the intellect was in legal conflict and po- 
 litical debate ; and, on the same principle, the pleasure 
 which the spectators in the rural theatre derived from 
 this species of attack and defence, approached somewhat 
 nearly to the enthusiasm with which they would have 
 witnessed an exhibition of gladiatorial skiU. The rustic 
 delighted in the strife of words as he would in the wrest- 
 ling-matches which also formed a portion of his day's 
 sports, and thus early displayed that taste, which, in 
 more poHshed ages, and in the hands of cultivated poets, 
 was developed in the sharp cutting wit, the lively but 
 piercing points of Roman satire. 
 
 The Fescennine verses show that the Eomans possessed 
 a natural aptitude for satire. The pleasure derived from 
 this species of writing, as weU as the moral influence ex- 
 ercised by it, depends not upon an assthetic appreciation 
 of the beautiful, but on a high sense of moral duty; and 
 such a sense displays itself in a stem and indignant ab- 
 horrence of vice rather than a disposition to be attracted 
 by the charms and loveliness of virtue. The Eomans 
 were a" stern, not an a;sthetic people, consequently satire 
 is the most original of aU Eoman literature, and the 
 perfect and polished form which it afterwards assumed 
 was entirely their own. They did, indeed, afterwards 
 acutely observe and readily seize upon those parts of 
 Greek literature which were subservient to this end, and 
 
 Hor. Ep. II. i. 139, &c. 
 
46 ROMA\ CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 hence Lucilius, the founder of Eoman satire, eagerly 
 adopted the models and materials which Greek comedy- 
 placed at his disposal, and thus became, as Horace' writes, 
 a disciple of EupoHs, Cratinus, and Aristophanes. 
 
 So permanent was the popularity of these entertain- 
 ments that they even survived the introduction of Greek 
 letters, and received a polish and refinement from the 
 change which then took place in the spirit of the national 
 poetry.^ It has been said, that in these rude elements of 
 the drama, Etruria was the first teacher of Latium, and 
 that the epithet, Fescennine, perpetuates the name of an 
 Etrurian village, Fescennia, from which the amusement 
 derived its origin ; but Niebuhr has shown that Fescennia 
 was not an Etruscan village, and, therefore, that this 
 etymology is untenable. 
 
 The most probable etymology of the word Fescennine 
 is one given by Festus.* Fascinum was the Greek 
 Phallus, the emblem of fertihty; and as the origin of 
 Greek comedy was derived from the' rustic Phallic 
 songs, so he considers that the same ceremonial may be, 
 in some way, connected with the Fescennine verses. If 
 this be the true account, the Etruscans famished the 
 spectacle— aU that which addresses itself to the eye, 
 whilst the habits of Italian rural life supplied the sar- 
 castic humour and ready extemporaneous gibe, which are 
 the essence of the true comic ; and these combined ele- 
 ments having migrated from the country to the capital, 
 and being enthusiastically adopted by young men of 
 more refined taste and more liberal education, afterwards 
 paved the way f^r the introduction and adaptation of 
 Greek comedy. 
 
 If in these improvisatory dialogues may be discerned 
 
 ' Sermon, i. 4, 6. 
 
 ' Virg. Georg. II. 386 ; TibuU. II. i. 55 ; CatuU. 61, 27. 
 
 ' Sub voc. 
 
fabuljE atellan^. 47 
 
 the germ of the Eoman Comic Drama, the next advance 
 in point of art must be attributed to the Oscans. Their 
 quasi-dramatic entertainments were most popular amongst 
 the Italian nations. They represented in broad carica- 
 ture national peculiarities : the language of the dialogue 
 was, of course, originally Oscan, the characters of the 
 drama were Oscan likewise.^ The principal one was 
 called Macchus, whose part was that of the Clown in the 
 modem pantomime. Another was termed Bucco, who 
 was a kind of Pantaloon, or charlatan. Much of the 
 wit consisted in practical jokes Hke that of the Italian 
 PolichineUo. These entertainments were sometimes 
 called Ludi Osci, but they are more commonly known 
 by the title of Fabulse Atellanse, from Aderla,^ or, as 
 the Romans pronounced it, AteUa, a town in Campania, 
 where they were very popular, or perhaps first performed. 
 After their introduction at Eome they underwent great 
 modifications and received important improvements. They 
 lost their native rusticity; their satire was good-natured; 
 their jests were seemly, and kept in check by the laws of 
 good taste, and were free from scurriHty or obscenity.' 
 They seem in later times to have been divided, like 
 comedies, into five acts, with exodia,* i. e. farcical inter- 
 ludes in verse interspersed between them. Nor were 
 they acted by the common professional performers. The 
 AteUan actors^ formed a peculiar class ; they were not 
 considered infamous, nor were they excluded from the 
 tribes, but enjoyed the privilege of immunity from mili- 
 tary service. Even a private Roman citizen might take 
 a part in them without disgrace or disfranchisement, 
 although these were the social penalties imposed upon 
 
 ' Bernhardy's Grundriss, 379 ; Diomedes, Gr. iii. 487 ; Val. Max. ii. 4 ; 
 Festus V. person, fab. 
 « Now St. Arpino. ' Cic. Ep. ad Pap. 
 
 ' Juv. Sat. iii. 172. = V. Schlegel, lect. viii. 
 
48- ROMAN CLASSICAX LITEBATUKE. 
 
 the regular histrio. The Fabulse Atellanse introduced 
 thus early remained in favour for centuries. The dic- 
 tator SyUa is said to have amused his leisure hours in 
 writing them; and Suetonius bears testimony to their 
 having been a popular amusement under the empire. 
 
 As early, however, as the close of the fourth century, 
 the drama took a more artificial form. In the consul- 
 ship of C. Sulpicius Peticus and C. Licinius Stolo,^ a 
 pestilence devastated Rome. In order to deprecate the 
 anger of the gods, a solemn lectisternium was proclaimed ; 
 couches of marble were prepared, with cushions and 
 coverhds of tapestry, on which were placed the statues 
 of the deities in a reclining posture. Before them were 
 placed well-spread tables, as though they were able to 
 partake of the feast. On this occasion a company of 
 stage-players (histriones) were sent for from Etruria, as a 
 means, according to Livy,^ of propitiating the favour of 
 heaven; but probably also for the wiser purpose of 
 diverting the popular mind from the contemplation of 
 their own sufferings. These entertainments were a 
 novelty to a people whose only recognized pubhc sports 
 up to that time, with the exception of the rural drama 
 already described, had been trials of bodily strength and 
 skill. The exhibitions of the Etruscan histriones con- 
 sisted of graceful national dances, accompanied with the 
 music of the flute, but without either songs or dramatic 
 action. They were, therefore, simply ballets, and not 
 dramas. 
 
 Thus the Etruscans furnished the suggestion : the 
 Eomans improved upon it, and invested it with a dra- 
 matic character. They combined the old Fescennine songs 
 with the newly-introduced dances. The varied metres 
 which the unrestrained nature of their rude verse per- 
 
 ' B. c. 360 ; A. u. c. 391. " Livy, vii. 2. 
 
DERIVATION OF SATIRE. 49 
 
 mitted to the vocal parts, gave to this mixed entertaimnent 
 the name of satura (a hodge-podge or pot-poiirri), from 
 which in after-times the word satire was derived. The 
 actors in these quasi-dramas were professed histriones, 
 and no further alteration took place until that introduced 
 by Livius Andronicus. 
 
50 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATUllE. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 EMANCIPATION OF LIVIDS ANDRONICUS— HIS IMITATION OF THE 
 ODYSSEY — NEW KIND OF SCENIC EXHIBITIONS — FIRST EXHIBITION 
 OF HIS DRAMAS — NjGVIUS A POLITICAL PARTIZAN — HIS BITTER- 
 NESS—HIS PUNIC WAR— HIS NATIONALITY— HIS VERSIFICATION. 
 
 LIVIUS ANDRONICUS (FLOURISHED ABOUT B. C. 240). 
 
 V The events already related had by this time prepared 
 
 the Eoman people for the reception of a more regular 
 drama, when, at the conclusion of the first Punic War, 
 the influence of Greek iatellect, which had already long 
 been felt in Italy, extended to the capital. But not 
 only did the Eomans owe to Greece the principles of 
 literary taste, and the original models from which the 
 elements of that taste were derived, but their first and 
 earhest poet was one of that nation. Livius Andronicus, 
 although bom in Italy, educated in the Latin tongue at 
 Eome, and subsequently a naturalized Eoman, is gene- 
 rally supposed to have been a native of the Greek colony 
 of Tarentum. He was a man of cultivated mind, and 
 well versed in the literature of his nation, especially in 
 dramatic poetry. How he came to be at Eome in the 
 condition of a slave, it is impossible to say. Attius 
 stated that he was taken prisoner at Tarentum by 
 Q. Fabius Maximus, when he recovered that city, in the 
 tenth year of the second Punic War. But Cicero shows, 
 on the authority of Atticus, that this date is thirty yeans 
 later than the period at which he first exhibited at 
 
LIVIUS IMITATED THE ODYSSEY. 51 
 
 Eome, and Niebuhr^ considers that tlie reason why he is 
 called a Tarentine captive is, from being confounded with 
 one M. Livius Macatus, mentioned by Livy.* He may 
 perhaps have owed his change of fortune to being made 
 a prisoner of war ; at any rate, he became one of the 
 household of M. Livius Salinator, and occupied the 
 confidential position of instructor to his children, ^he 
 employment as tutors of Greek slaves who, being men of 
 education and refinement, had fallen into this position 
 by the fortune of war, was customary with the wealthy 
 Eomans. By this means there was rapidly introduced 
 amongst the rising generation of the higher classes a 
 knowledge of that language and learning which the 
 Eomans so eagerly embraced and so enthusiastically 
 admired. 
 
 Fidelity in so important a situation generally gained 
 the esteem and affection of the patron. The generous 
 Eoman became a protector of the man of genius rather 
 than his master, and conferred upon him the gift of 
 freedom. Andronicus was emancipated under such cir- 
 cumstances as these, and, according to custom, received 
 the name of his former master, Livius, and his civil 
 and political rank became that of an serarius. He wrote a 
 translation, or perhaps an imitation, of the Odyssey, in 
 the old Saturnian metre, and also a few hymns. Niebuhr 
 supposes that the reason why he has translated or epito- 
 mized the Odyssey in preference to the Iliad is, that it 
 would have greater attractions for the Eomans, in con- 
 sequence of the relation which it bore to the ancient 
 legends of Italy. The sea which washes the coast of 
 Italy was the scene of many of the most marvellous 
 adventures of Ulysses. Sicily, in which, owing to the 
 wars with Hiero and the Carthaginians, the Eomans now 
 began to take a Hvely interest, was represented in the 
 
 Lect. E. H. Ixx. ^ Lib. xxvii. 34 ; xxiv. 20. 
 
 E :Z 
 
52 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Odyssey as abounding in the elements of poetry. Circe's 
 fairy abode was within sight of land — a promontory of 
 Latium bore her name, and one of Ulysses' sons by her, 
 was, according to the legend of Hesiod, Latinus, the 
 patriarch of the Latin name. His principal works, how- 
 ever, were tragedies. The passion of the Eomans for 
 shows and exhibitions, the love of action, and of stirring, 
 business-like occupation, which characterizes them, would 
 make the drama popular, and it would harmonize with 
 the public entertainments, in which they had been accus- 
 tomed to take pleasure from the earliest times, when 
 tradition informs us that the founder of their race 
 instituted the solemn games to the equestrian Neptune, 
 and invited all the neighbours to the spectacle;^ and 
 when Ancus celebrated with unwonted splendour the 
 Grreat Games, and appointed separate seats and boxes 
 for the knights and senators.'' It was probable that 
 Livius Andronicus, coming forward as the introducer of 
 a new era in literature, would study the character as 
 well as the language of his newly-adopted countrymen, 
 and endeavour to please them as well as teach them. 
 In order to become eventually a leader of the public 
 taste, he would at first fall in with it to a certain degree. 
 The process by which he moulded it after the model 
 which he considered the true one, would be gentle and 
 gradual, not sudden and abrupt. The paucity and 
 brevity of the fragments which are extant furnish but 
 little opportunity for forming an accurate estimate of his 
 abiKty as a poet, and his competency to guide and form 
 the taste of a people. Hermann^ has collected together 
 the fragments of the Latin Odyssey which are scattered 
 through the works of Gellius, Priscian, Festus, Nonius, 
 and others, and has compared them with the Homeric 
 passages of which they are the translations. Few of 
 
 ' Liv. i. 9, 35. ^ Ibid. i. 35. ' Elem. Doctr. Metr. iii. 9. 
 
INTRODUCES REGULAR PLOTS. 53 
 
 these, however, are longer than a single line ; and, there- 
 fore, the only opinion which can be formed respecting 
 them is, that although the versification is rough and 
 rhythmical rather than metrical, the language is vigorous 
 and expressive, and conveys, as far as a translation can, 
 the force and meaning of the original. 
 
 Nor do the criticisms of the ancient classical authors 
 furnish much assistance in coming to a decision. Their 
 tastes were so completely Greek, and the prejudices of 
 their education so strong, that they could scarcely confess 
 the existence of excellence in a poet so old as Andronicus. 
 Cicero says in the Brutus,' that his Latin Odyssey was as 
 old-fashioned and rude as would have been the sculptures 
 of Dsedalus, and that his dramas would not bear a second 
 perusal. Horace, however, is not quite so sweeping in 
 his strictures. He confesses that he would not condemn 
 the poems of Livius* to utter oblivion, although he 
 remembers them in connexion with the floggings of his 
 schoolmaster; but he is surprised that any one should 
 consider them pohsSed and beautiful, and not falHng 
 far short of critical exactness. 
 
 A passage in the history of Livy seems to imply that 
 Andronicus ventured upon some deviations from the 
 ancient plan of scenic exhibitions.^ According to him, 
 Livius was the first who substituted, for the rude extem- 
 poraneous effusions of the Fescennine verse, plays with a 
 regular plot and fable. He adds, that in consequence 
 of losing his voice from being frequently encored, he 
 obtained permission to introduce a boy to sing the ode, 
 or air, to the accompaniment of the flute, whilst he 
 himself represented the action of the song by his ges- 
 tures and dancing. He was thus enabled to depict the 
 subject with greater vigour and freedom of pantomimic 
 action, because he was unimpeded by the obUgation to 
 
 '71. 'Ep.Jl. i. 69. »Liv. vii. 2. 
 
54 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 use his voice. Hence the custom began of the actor 
 responding by his gesticulation to the song and music 
 of another, whilst the dialogue between the odes was 
 delivered without any musical accompaniment. 
 
 The passage, of which the above is a paraphrase, is as 
 follows : — " Livius post aliquot annos qui ab saturis 
 ausus est primus argumento fabulam serere (idem scilicet, 
 id quod omnes tum erant, suorum carminum actor) dicitur, 
 quum ssepius revocatus vocem obtudisset, venia petita, 
 puerum ad canendum ante tibiciuem quum statuisset, can- 
 ticum egisse aJiquanto magis vigente motu, quia nihil 
 vocis usus impediebat. Inde ad manum cantari histrio- 
 nibus caeptum, diverbiaque tantum ipsorum voci rehcta." 
 It is evident that this description points out the intro- 
 duction of the principles of Greek art. We are reminded 
 of the hyporchemes in honour of Apollo, in which the 
 gestures of certain members of the chorus represented 
 the incidents related or sentiments expressed by the 
 singer, and also the separation of the choral or musical 
 part from the dialogue Of a Greek tragedy. Nevertheless, 
 the choral or lyrical portion of the drama to which 
 alone this novel practice introduced by Livius applies, 
 found but a small part in a Latin tragedy, if compared 
 with those of the Greeks. In this alone the poet himself 
 sustained a part, whilst the whole of the dialogue 
 (diverbia) was recited by professional performers. 
 
 This new style of dramatic performances, however, 
 does not appear at first to have taken such hold upon 
 the affections of the people as to supersede their old 
 amusements. They admitted them, and witnessed them 
 with pleasure and applause, but they would not give up 
 the old. The young men wished their amusements to 
 be really games and sports ; they were not content to be 
 merely quiet spectators. Extemporaneous effnsions were 
 more convenient for amateurs than regular plays, and 
 joke and jest than tragic earnest. The new custom 
 
FIRST EXHIBITION OP HIS DRAMAS. 55 
 
 introduced by Livius elevated the drama above the 
 region of ribaldry and laughter, but the art and skill 
 requisite confined the work to the professional performer. 
 The young Eomans, therefore, left to the stage-player 
 the regular drama, restored their old amusement as an 
 exodium or after-piece, and did not suffer it, as Livy 
 says, to be " polluted " by the interference of histriones. 
 According to the testimony of Cicero,^ who makes his 
 statement on the authority of Atticus, Livius first 
 exhibited his dramas in the year before the birth of 
 Ennius in the consulship of C. Clodius and M. Tudi- 
 tanus, A.u.c. 514.^ This date is also adopted by Aulus 
 Grellius,^ who places his first dramatic representations 
 about a hundred and sixty years after the death "of So- 
 phocles, and fifty-two years after that of Menander. 
 The titles of his tragedies which are extant show that 
 they were translations or adaptations from the Greek. 
 Amongst them are those of Egisthus, Hermione, Tereus, 
 Ajax, and Helena. From each of the last two one line 
 is preserved, and four lines are quoted by Terentianus 
 Maurus from his tragedy of Ino ;* but the language and 
 metre render it far more probable that they were written 
 by some more modem poet. Two of his tragedies, the 
 Clytemnestra and the Trojan Horse, were acted in the 
 second consulship of Pompey the Great, at the inau- 
 guration of the splendid stone theatre' which he buUt. 
 No expense was spared in putting them upon the stage, 
 for Cicero writes, ia a letter to M. Marius,* that three 
 thousand bucklers, the spoils of foreign nations, were 
 exhibited in the latter, and a procession of six hundred 
 mules, probably riclily caparisoned, were introduced in the 
 
 ' Brut. 72. " B. c. 240. " Noct. Att. See also Quinct. I. 0. x. 2, 7. 
 ■* See Botha, Poetse Seen. Roman. Trag. 
 
 » For the slight differences between a Greek and Roman theatre, the 
 reader is referred to Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities, sub voce. 
 " Ep. ad Fam. vii. 1, 
 
56 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITEKATURE. 
 
 former, whilst cavalry and infantry, cM in various armour, 
 mingled in mimic combat on tlie scene. He considers, 
 however, that this splendour was an offence against good 
 taste, and that the enjoyment was spoHt by the gor- 
 geousness of the spectacle. The taste of Hs patrons, the 
 Eoman people, as well as the testimony of antiquity, 
 render it hig% probable that he was the author of 
 comedies' as well as tragedies. Festus speaks of one, 
 of which he quotes a single hne, for the sake of its philo- 
 logical value. 
 
 CN. N^VIUS. 
 
 Nsevius was the first poet who really deserves the 
 name of Eoman. His countrymen in all ages, as well 
 as his contemporaries, looked upon him as one of them- 
 selves. The probability is, that he was not actually 
 bom at Bome, though even this has been maintained 
 with some show of plausibihty." He was, at any rate, 
 by birth entitled to the municipal franchise, and from 
 his earliest boyhood was a resident in the capital. Nor 
 was he a mere servile imitator, but applied Greek taste 
 and cultivation to the development of Eoman sentiments. 
 A true Eoman in heart and spirit in his fearless attach- 
 ment to liberty ; his stem opposition to all who dared 
 invade the rights of his feUow-citizens ; he was unsparing 
 in his censure of immorality, and his admiration for 
 heroic self-devotion. He was a soldier, and imbibed the 
 free and martial enthusiasm which breathes in his poems 
 when he fought the battles of his country in the first 
 Punic War. His honest principles cemented, in his later 
 
 ' Roman critics divide comedy into Comoedia PalUata, in which the 
 characters, and therefore the costume, were Greek ; and Togata, in which 
 they were Roman. Comoedia Togata was again subdivided into Trabeata, 
 or genteel comedy, and Tabernaria, or low comedy. The Fabulse Prse- 
 textatsB were historical plays, hke those of Shakspeare. 
 
 * Klussman, Frag. Nsev. 
 
NjEvius a political partizan. 57 
 
 years, a strong friendship between him and the upright 
 and unbending Cato/ — a friendship which probably con- 
 tributed to form the political and literary character of 
 that stem old Eoman. 
 
 It is generally assumed that Nsevius was a Campanian ; 
 but the only reason for this assumption is, that A. 
 GeUius* criticises his epitaph, of which Nsevius himself 
 was the author, as full of Campanian pride. 
 
 The time of his birth is unknown, but it is probable 
 that his public career commenced within a very few years 
 after that of Livius. GrelHus fixes the exhibition of his 
 first drama in B.C. 235,* and Cicero places his death in the 
 consulship of M. CorneHus Cethegus and P. Sempronius 
 Tuditanus,* although he allows that Yarro, who places it 
 somewhat later, is the most painstaking of Eoman anti- 
 quarians. It is also certain that he died at an advanced 
 age, for, according to Cicero, he was an old man when he 
 wrote one of his poems. He was the author of an epic 
 poem, the title of which was the Punic War ; but, owing 
 to the popularity of dramatic Hterature, his earHest lite- 
 rary productions were tragedies and comedies. The 
 titles of most of these show that their subjects were Greek 
 legends or stories. It was, therefore, in his epic poem 
 that the acknowledged originality of his talents was 
 mainly displayed. Nsevius was a strong poHtical par- 
 tizan, a warm supporter of the people against the 
 encroachments of the nobihty. In consequence of the 
 expenditure during the war, great part of the population 
 was reduced to poverty, and a strong Hue of demarcation 
 was drawn between the rich and the poor. The estrange- 
 ment and want of sympathy between those two classes 
 were daily increasing. The barrier of caste was indeed 
 almost destroyed, but that of class was beginning to be 
 
 ' Cic. Cat. 14. * Noot. Att. i. 24 ; xvii. 21. 
 
 " A. u. c. 519. * A. u. c. 550 ; B. C. 204. 
 
58 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE; 
 
 erected in its stead. The passing of the Licinian bills' 
 had led to the gradual rise of a plebeian nobility. The 
 OguLiian law'' had admitted patrician and plebeian to a 
 rehgious as weE as political equality, and more than 
 three-quarters of a century had passed away since Appius 
 Claudius the blind^ had given poHtical existence to the 
 freedmen by admitting them into the tribes, and had 
 even raised some whose fathers had been freedmen to the 
 rank of senators, to the exclusion of many distinguished 
 plebeians who had filled curule ofl&ces. The object 
 which he proposed to himself by this policy was un- 
 doubtedly the depression of the rising plebeian nobilaty, 
 and this object was for a time attained ; but the ultimate 
 result was a vast increase in the numbers and the power 
 of those who were opposed to the old patrician nobility, 
 by the formation of a higher class, the only qualification 
 for admission into which was wealth and intelligence. 
 According to the old distinctions of rank it was necessary 
 that even a plebeian shoTild have a pedigree ; his father 
 and grandfather must have been born free. Appius, when 
 chosen for the first time, waived this, and introduced a 
 new principle of political party. Of this anti-aristocratic 
 party Nsevius was the literary representative, and the 
 vehement opponent of privileges derived from the accident 
 of birth. His position, too, was calculated to provoke a 
 man of better temper. He was a Eoman citizen, but, as 
 a native of a municipal town, he did not possess the fall 
 franchise which he saw enjoyed by others around him 
 who were intellectually inferior to himself, and the sense 
 of his political inferiority was galling to him. Accord- 
 ingly he used literature as a new and powerftd instrument 
 to foster the jealousy which existed between the orders 
 of the state. He attacked the principle of an aristocracy 
 of birth in the persons of some members of the most 
 
 ' B. c. 367. ■' B. c. 300. => B. c. 312. 
 
HIS SATIRICAL BITTERNESS. 59 
 
 distinguislied families. He held up Scipio Africanus to 
 ridicule by making him the hero of a tale of scandal, 
 
 Etiam qui res magnas manu gessit seepe gloriose, 
 Cujus facta viva nunc vigent, qui apud gentes solas 
 Prsestat, eum suus pater cum pallio una ab arnica abduxit. 
 
 The pubHc services of the two Metelli could not shield 
 them from the poet's bitterness, which attributed their 
 consulships not to their own merits, but to the mere will 
 of fate.^ One bitter sentence, " Fato Metelli Rbmae fiunt 
 consules," made that powerful family his enemies. The 
 Metellus, who at that time held the office of consul, 
 threatened him with vengeance for his slander in the fol- 
 lowing verse : — " Dabunt malum Metelli Nsevio poetse ;" 
 and the offending poet was indicted for a libel, in pur- 
 suance of a law of the Twelve Tables,^ and thrown into 
 prison. Whilst there he composed two pieces, in which 
 he expressed contrition; and Plautus^ describes him as 
 watched by two gaolers, pensively resting his head upon 
 his hands : — 
 
 Nam OS columnatum poetse esse inaudivi barbaro, 
 Quoi bini custodes semper totis horis accubant. 
 
 Through the influence of the tribunes he was set at 
 liberty.* As, however, is frequently the case, he could 
 not resist indulging again in his satiric vein, and he was 
 exiled to Utica, where he died,' having employed the last 
 years of his life in writing his epic poem. The following 
 laudatory epitaph was written by himself: — 
 
 Mortales immortales flere si foret fas, 
 
 Flerent Divse Camense Nsevium poetam. 
 
 Itaque postquam est Orcino traditus thesauro 
 
 ObUti sunt Romani loquier Latinft lingviS,. 
 
 If gods might to a mortal pay the tribute of a tear, 
 
 The Muses would shed one upon the poet Nsevius' bier ; 
 
 For when he was transferred unto the regions of the tomb, 
 
 The people soon forgot to speak the native tongue of Rome. 
 
 ' Cic. Verres, i. 10. ' See Arnold's Rome, 1. 289. 
 
 3 Miles Glorios. II., ii. 56. ■* A Gell. iii. 3. 
 ' B. c. 204. See Cic. Brut. 15. 
 
60 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 The best and most admired writers have paid their 
 homage to his excellence. Ennius and Virgil discovered 
 in him such a freshness and power that they unscru- 
 pulously copied and imitated him, and transferred his 
 thoughts into their own poems as they did those of 
 Homer. Horace writes that in his day the poems of 
 Naevius were universally read, and were in the hands and 
 hearts of everybody, and Cicero^ praises him, although 
 he had no taste for the old national Hterature. 
 
 We cannot be surprised at the universal popularity of 
 Nsevius. His stem love of Hberty, his unsparing opposi- 
 tion to aristocratic exclusiveness, was identical with the 
 old Eoman repubHcanisn. His taste for satire exactly 
 fell in with the spirit of the earliest Eoman literature, 
 whilst he depicted with hfe and vigour and graphic skill 
 the scenes of heroism in which the soldier-poet of the 
 first Punic War was himself an actor. His tragedies 
 were probably entirely taken from the Greek, but his 
 come(Hes had undoubted pretensions to originality. The 
 titles of many of them plainly show a G-reek origin ; but 
 probably all more or less presented pictures of Eoman 
 life and manners, and therefore went home to the hearts 
 of the people. This is essential to the complete effective- 
 ness of comedy. Tragedy appeals to higher feelings: it 
 depicts passions and principles of action which are recog- 
 nized by the whole human race ; it may, therefore, enlist 
 the sympathies on the side of those whose habits and 
 manners differ from our own, as it does in favour of those 
 characters which are of a heroic and superhuman mould. 
 Comedy professes to describe real life, and to paint men 
 as they are ; it therefore loses part of its power unless it 
 deals with scenes which the experience of the audience 
 can realize. Thus it is with painting. The high art of 
 the Italian school, which selected for its subjects the 
 holy scenes of rehgion, the heroism of history, and the 
 
 ' Ep. ii. 153 ; Brutus, 19. 
 
HIS POEM ON THE FIRST PUNIC WfR. 61 
 
 creatures of classical poetry, was fostered by the taste 
 of the rich and noble amongst a highly-cultivated and 
 imaginative people. The homely realities of the Flemish 
 painters, with their accurate and hfeKke dehneations, 
 were the dehght of a rude prosaic nation, who could 
 not appreciate a more elevated style or understand ideal 
 beauties unless brought down to the level of every-day 
 Hfe. 
 
 The new form with which Nsevius invested comedy 
 gave him scope for holding up to pubHc scorn the pre- 
 vailing vices and follies of the day. He had also another 
 vehicle for personality in his Ludi or Satirse, as they were 
 termed by Cicero. These were comic scenes, and not 
 regular dramas, somewhat resembling the AteUan farces, 
 without their extemporaneous character. But his great 
 work was his poem on the first Punic War. We cannot 
 judge of its merits by the few fragments which remain ; 
 but the testimony borne to it by Cicero, and the use 
 which, was made of it by Ennius and Virgil, prove that 
 it fully deserved the title of an epic poem. The idea was 
 original, the plot and characters Eoman. The author, 
 although Greek Hteratuxe taught him how to be a poet, 
 dtew his inspiration from the scenes of his native Italy 
 and the exploits of his countrymen. To this poem Virgil 
 owed that beautiful. allegorical representation of the un- 
 dying enmity between Eome and Carthage, and the dis- 
 astrous love of JEneas and Dido. Here was first painted 
 in such touching colours the self-devoted patriotism of 
 Regulus, whom (although love of historic truth refuses 
 to believe the legend) the poet represents as sacrificing 
 home and wife and children to a sense of honour, and as 
 submitting to a torturing death for the sake of his coun- 
 try. Probably many other heart-stirring legends and 
 tales of prowess which had cheered the nightly bivouac 
 of the soldiers and inspirited them in the field, were em- 
 bodied in this popular epic. Not that he disdained any 
 
62 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 more than Virgil the aid of Horner.^ The second book 
 of the IHad suggested to him the enumeration of the op- 
 posing forces at the commencement of the struggle, and 
 the description of the storm, from which Virgil, in his 
 turn, copied in the .^Eneid,^ owes much of its energy to 
 the eighth book of the Odyssey. The expostulation of 
 Venus with the father of gods and men,^ respecting the 
 perils of her son, and the promise of future prosperity to 
 the descendants of jEneas, with which Jupiter consoles 
 her, as well as the address of ^neas to his companions, 
 are imitations of passages from this poem of Nsevius; 
 and Ennius copied so much from him and his prede- 
 cessors as to have provoked the following rebuke from 
 Cicero-.* — " They have written well, if not with all thy 
 elegance, and so oughtest thou to think who have borrowed 
 so much from Neevius, if you confess that you have done 
 so, or, if you deny it, have stolen so much from him." 
 
 The fragments of Nsevius extant are not more numerous 
 than those of Livius, but some are rather longer. The 
 two following may be quoted as examples of simplicity 
 and power : — 
 
 Amborum 
 Uxores noctu Troiad exibant capitibus 
 Opertis, flentes ambse, abeuntes laorymis multis.' 
 
 These few words tell their tale with as much pathos as 
 that admired line in the Andrian of Terence — 
 Kejecit se in eum flens quam familiariter. 
 The following Hues describe the panic of the Carthagi- 
 nians ; nor could any Eoman poet have sketched the pic- 
 ture in fewer strokes or with more suggestive power : — 
 
 Sic Poinei contremiscunt artibus universim ; 
 Magnei metus tumultus pectora possidet 
 CsBSum funera agitant, exequias ititant, 
 Temulentiamque toUunt festam." 
 
 ' Pierron, Hist, de la E. 42. ^ Lib. i. 198. 
 
 ' Cic. Brut. 19 ; Macr. vi. 2. " Brutus, 76. 
 
 * Meyer's Anthol. Lat. " Ibid. 
 
HIS NATIONALITY. 63 
 
 Whoever can forgive roughness of expression for the 
 sake (5f vigorous thought, would, if more had remained, 
 have read with dehght the inartificial although unpo- 
 lished poetry of Nsevius. Without that elaborate work- 
 manship which was to the Eoman the only substitute 
 for the spontaneous grace and beauty of aU that proceeded 
 from the Grreek mind, and was expressed in the Greek 
 tongue, there is no doubt that Nsevius displayed genius, 
 originality, and dignity. The prejudices of Horace in 
 favour of Grreek taste were too strong for him to value 
 what was old in poetry, or to sympathise with the ad- 
 miration of that which the goddess of death had con- 
 secrated.* But Cicero, whilst he attributed to Livius 
 only the mechanic skill and barbaric art of Dsedalus, gave 
 to Nsevius the creative talent and plastic power of 
 Myron. 
 
 Even when Eoman critics were not unanimous in 
 assigning him a niche amongst the greatest bards, the 
 Boman people loved him as their national poet, and 
 were grateful to him for his nationality. They paid him 
 the highest comphment possible by retaining him as the 
 educator of their youth. Orbilius flogged his sentiments 
 into his pupils' memories; and, whilst the niceties of 
 grammar were taught through the instrumentaUty of 
 Grreek by Greek instructors, and poetic taste was formed 
 by a study of the Homeric poems, Nsevius still had the 
 formation of the character of the young Eoman gentlemen, 
 and his epic was in the hands and hearts of every one. 
 
 One more subject remains to be treated of with refer- 
 ence to the Hterary productions of Nsevius, and that is, 
 the metrical character of his poetry. He appreciated that 
 important element of Greek poetic beauty. The varied 
 versification by means of which it appeals at once to the 
 ear, just as physical beauty charms long before we are 
 
 ' II. Epist. i. 49. 
 
64 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 attracted by the hidden power of moral excellence, and 
 external form creates a prejudice in favour of that which 
 is of more intrinsic value, but cannot so readily be per- 
 ceived, so the melody of verse more readily pleases than 
 the beauty of the imagery and sentiments which the 
 verses convey. Naevius, therefore, did not disdain to 
 recommend his original genius by a study of the prin- 
 ciples of Greek versification, and by clothing his thoughts 
 in those, which his ear suggested as being most appro- 
 priate to the occasion. He does not seem to have over- 
 come the difficulties of the heroic metre, although he 
 studied the Homeric poems. 
 
 Probably as the Saturnian, the only natural Italian 
 measure which he found existing, was a triple time, the 
 Eoman ear could not at once adapt itself to the common 
 time of the dactylic measures. The versification of our 
 own country furiiishes an analogous example. The usual 
 metres of English poetry consist of an alternation of 
 long and short syllables ; dactyles and anapaests are of 
 less frequent occurrence and are of more modem intro- 
 duction, and the English ear is even yet not quite ac- 
 customed to the hexametrical rhythm. The dignity of 
 the epic is expressed in the grave march of the iambus ; 
 the baUad teUs its story in the same metre, though in 
 shorter lines ; the joyous Anacreontic adopts the dancing 
 step of the trochee. For this reason, perhaps, Naevius, 
 as a matter of taste, Hmited himself to the introduction of 
 iambic and trochaic metres, and the irregular features of 
 Greek lyric poetry to the exclusion of the heroic hexa- 
 meter. 
 
 It was long before the Eomans could arrive at per- 
 fection in this metre. Ennius was unsuccessful. His 
 hexameters are rough and ^nmusical ; he seems never to 
 have perfectly understood the nature and beauty of the 
 ccesura or pause. The failure of Cicero, notwithstanding 
 his natural musical ear, is proverbial. No one previous 
 
HIS VERSIFICATION. 65 
 
 to Virgil seems to have overcome the difficulty. Versifi- 
 cation seems always to have been somewhat of a labour 
 to the Romans. In the structure of their poetry they 
 worked by rule; their finish was artistic, but it was 
 artificial. Hence the Latin poet allowed himself less 
 metrical liberty than the Glreek, whom he made his model. 
 He seemed to feel that the Greek metres-, which the 
 education of his taste had compelled him to adopt, were 
 not precisely the form into which Latin words naturally 
 fell ; that this deficiency must be supplied by the care 
 with which he moulded his verse, according to the 
 strictest possible standard. One can imagine the extem- 
 poraneous effusions of a Homeric bard ; but to Eoman 
 taste which, in every literary work, especially in poetry, 
 looked for elaborate finish, the power of the improvi- 
 sator, who could pour forth a hundred verses standing 
 on one foot, was a ridiculous pretension.^ 
 
 As a general rule no Eoman poet attaiued facility in 
 versification ; Ovid was perhaps the only exception. In 
 the early period when Eoman poetry was extemporaneous, 
 their national verse was only rhythmical, and now that 
 modem Italy can boast of the faculty of improvisation 
 verse has become rhythmical again. But although 
 Nsevius introduced a variety of Grreek metres to the 
 Eomans, the principal part of his poems, and especially 
 his national epic, were written in the old Saturnian mea- 
 sure : its structure was indeed less rude, and its metre 
 more regular and scientific, but stiU he did not permit the 
 new rules of Greek poetry to banish entirely the favourite 
 verse's " in which in olden times Fauns and bards sung," 
 and which would most acceptably convey to the national 
 ear the achievements of Eoman arms. 
 
 ' Horace, 1 Serm. iv. 10. 
 
66 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 NyEVIUS stood between two AGES— life OF ENNIUS— EPITAPHS 
 WRITTEN BY HIM — HIS TASTE, LEARNING, AND CHARACTER — HIS 
 FITNESS FOR BEING A LITERARY REFORMER — HIS INFLUENCE ON 
 THE LANGUAGE — HISVERSIFICATION — THE ANNALS — DIFFICULTIES 
 OF THE SUBJECT — TRAGEDIES AND COMEDIES— SATIRE — MINOR 
 WORKS. 
 
 ENNIUS (born B. C. 239). 
 
 N^vius appears to have occupied a position between two 
 successive ages ; lie was the last of the oldest school 
 of writers, and prepared the way for a new one. 
 Although a true Eoman in sentiment, he admired Greek 
 cultivation. He saw with regret the old literature of his 
 country fading away, although he had himself introduced 
 new principles of taste to his countrymen. He was not 
 prepared for the shock of seeing the old school superseded 
 by the new. But still the period for this had arrived, 
 and in his epitaph, as we have seen, he deplored that 
 Latin had died with him. A love for old Eoman litera- 
 ture remained amongst the goatherds of the hills and the 
 husbandmen of the valleys and plains, in whose memories 
 lived the old songs which had been the delight of their 
 infancy : it survived amongst the few who could discern 
 merit in undisciplined genius; but the rising generation, 
 who owed their taste to education, admired only those pro- 
 ductions by which their taste had been formed. Grreek 
 Hterature had now an open field in which to flourish : it 
 had driven out its predecessor, although as yet it had not 
 struck its roots deeply into the Eoman mind; a new 
 school of poetry arose, and of that school Ennius was 
 
LIFE OP KNNIUS. 67 
 
 the founder. The principal events in the hfe of 
 Ennius are as follows : — he was bom at the little village 
 of Erudiae, in the wild and mountainous Calabria, b. c. 
 239.* Of ancient and honourable descent,' he is said^ to 
 have begun life in a military career, and to have risen 
 to the rank of a centurion or captain. The anonymous 
 author of the Hfe of Cato, which is generally attributed 
 to CorneHus Nepos, relates that Cato in his voyage from 
 Africa to Eome'' visited Sardinia, and finding Ennius in 
 that island took him home with him. But no reason 
 can be assigned why Ennius should have been there, or 
 why Cato should have gone so far out of his way. If 
 the Censor did reaUy introduce the poet to pubhc notice 
 at Rome, he may have made his acquaintance during his 
 qusestorship in Africa, if Ennius was with Scipio in 
 that province ; or during his prsetorship' in Sardinia, if 
 the poet was a resident in that island. There exists, 
 however, no sufficient data to clear up these difficulties. 
 
 It seems, moreover, strange that Cato should have been 
 his patron, and yet that he should have reproached M. 
 Eulvius Nobilior for taking the poet with him as his 
 companion throughout his ^tolian expedition.* With the 
 exception of this campaign, Ennius resided during the re- 
 mainder of his long life at Rome. Greek and Greek htera- 
 ture were now eagerly sought after by the higher classes, 
 and Ennius earned a subsistence sufficient for his mode- 
 rate wants by tuition. He enjoyed the friendship and 
 esteem of the leading literary societies at Rome ; and at 
 his death, at the age of seventy, he was buried in the 
 family tomb of the Scipios, at the request of the great 
 conqueror of Hannibal, whose fame he contributed to hand 
 down to posterity. His statue was honoured with a 
 
 ' A. n. c. 515. ' Claudian, xxiii. 7. ' SiHus It. 
 
 * B. c. 204. ' B. c. 198. • B. c. 189. 
 
 F 3 
 
68 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 niche amongst the images of that illustrious race. The 
 following epitaph was written by himself: — ' 
 
 Adspioite, O cives, senis Enni imagini' formam 
 Hie vostrum panxit maxima facta patrum. 
 
 Nemo me laorymia decoret, neo funera fletu 
 Faxit. cur 1 volito vivu' per ora virum. 
 
 The epitaph which he wrote in honour of Scipio 
 Africanus has also been preserved : — ^ 
 
 Hie est ille situs, cui nemo civi' neque hostis 
 Quivit pro factis reddere operse pretium. 
 
 It is probable that death alone put a period to his 
 career as a poet, and that his last work was completed 
 but a short time before his decea So popular was he 
 for centuries, and with such care were his poems pre- 
 served, that his whole works are said to have existed 
 as late as the thirteenth century.* 
 
 Literature, as represented by Ennius, attained a higher 
 social and political position than it had hitherto enjoyed. 
 Livius Andronicus was, as we have seen, a freedman, and 
 probably a prisoner of war. Nsevius never arrived at the 
 full civic franchise, nor became anything more than the 
 native of a municipality, resident at Eome. Hitherto 
 the Eomans, although they had begun to admire learn- 
 ing, had not learned to respect its professors. Ennius 
 was evidently a gentleman ; he was the first to obtain for 
 literature its due influence. Thus he achieved for him- 
 self the much-coveted privileges of a Eoman citizen, to 
 which Livius had never aspired, and which Nsevius was 
 never able to attain. Hence Cicero always speaks of 
 him with affection as a fellow-countryman. " Our own 
 Ennius " is the appellation which he uses when he quotes 
 his poetry. Horace also calls him " Father Ennius," a 
 
 ' Meyer, Anthol. Vet. Eom. No. 19. 
 '■ Meyer, No. 16. ' Smith's Diet, of Biograph. s. v. Emiius. 
 
HIS LEARNING AND CHARACTER. 69 
 
 term implying not only that he was the founder of Latin 
 poetry, but also reverence and regard. 
 
 To discriminating taste and extensive learning he added 
 that versatility of talent which is displayed in the great 
 variety of his compositions. He was acquainted with all 
 the best existing sources of poetic lore, the ancient legends 
 of the Roman people, and the best works of the Greek 
 writers ; he had critical judgment to select beautiful and 
 interesting portions, ingenuity to imitate them, and at 
 the same time genius and fancy to clothe them with 
 originality. It was not to be expected that he could be 
 entirely freed from the antiquated style of the old school. 
 The process of remodelling a national hterature, including 
 the very language in which it is expressed, and the 
 metrical harmonies in which it falls upon the ear, is 
 almost Hke reforming the modes of thought, and recon- 
 structing the character of a people. Such a work must 
 be gradual and gentle : a nation's mind will not bend at 
 once to new principles of taste and new rules of art. To 
 attempt a violent revolution would be absurd, and argue 
 ignorance of human nature. The poet who attempted it 
 would fail in gaining sympathy, which is an essential 
 element of success. To cause such a revolution at all 
 requires a strong will and a vigorous manly mind ; and 
 these are precisely the characteristic features of the Ennian 
 poetry. 
 
 If we were to paint the character best adapted to act 
 the part of a Hterary reformer to a nation such as the 
 Romans were, it would be exactly that of Ennius. He 
 was, like his friends Cato the Censor and Scipio Africanus 
 the elder, a man of action as well as philosophical thought. 
 He was not only a poet, but he was a brave and stout- 
 hearted soldier. He had all the singleness of heart and 
 unostentatious simphcity of manners which marked the 
 old times of Roman virtue ; he Hved the life of the 
 Cincinnati, the Cui'ii, and Fabricii, which the poets of the 
 
70 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 luxurious Augustan age professed to admire, but did not 
 imitate. Eome was now beginning to be wealthy, and 
 wealth to be the badge of rank ; yet the noble poet was 
 respected by the rich and great even in his lowly cottage 
 on the Aventine, and found it no discredit to be employed 
 as an instructor of youth, although it had been up to his 
 time only the occupation of servants and freedmen. He 
 was the founder of a new school, and was leading his 
 admirers forward to a new career; but his imagination 
 could revel in the recollections and traditions of the past. 
 To him the glorious exploits of the patriarchs of his race 
 furnished as rich a mine of fable as the heroic strains of 
 Homer, the marvellous mjrthologies of Hesiod, and the 
 tragic heroes of Argos, Mycenae, and Thebes. His early 
 training in Grreek philosophy and poetry, and in the 
 midst of Greek habits in his native village, had not 
 polished and refined away his natural freshness. He was 
 a child of art, but a child of nature still. He had a firm 
 behef in his mission as a poet, an abiding conviction of 
 his inspiration. He thought he was not metaphorically, 
 but really, what Horace calls him, a second Homer,^ for 
 that the soul of the great Greek bard now animated his 
 mortal body; He had all the enthusiasm and boldness 
 necessary for accomphshing a great task, together with a 
 consciousness that* his task was a great and honourable 
 one. 
 
 Owing to this rare union of the best points of Roman 
 character with Greek refinement and civilization, he ren- 
 dered himself as well as his works acceptable to the most 
 distinguished men of his day, and his intimacy and friend- 
 ship influenced the minds of Porcius Cato, Lsehus Fulvius 
 NobUior, and the great Scipio. 
 
 A comparison of the extant specimens of the old Latin 
 with the numerous fragments^ of the poems of Ennius 
 
 ' Ep. ji. i. 6(1. ' Meyer, Anthol. .515—58,'). 
 
HIS XEARNING AND CHARACTER. 71 
 
 which have heen preserved, will show how deeply they 
 were indebted to hiin for the improvement of their lan- 
 guage, not only in the harmony of its numbers and the 
 convenience of its grammatical forms, but also in its 
 copiousness and power. 
 
 It must not, however, be supposed that Ennius is to be 
 praised, not only because he did so much, but because he 
 refrained from doing more, as though he designedly left 
 an antiquated rudeness, redolent of the old Eoman spirit 
 and simplicity. A language in the condition or phase of 
 improvement to which he brought it is valuable in an 
 antiquarian point of view ; but it is not to be admired as 
 if it were then ia a higher state of perfection than it after- 
 wards attained. Elaborate polish may, perhaps, overcome 
 Bfe and freshness, but no one who possesses any correctness 
 of ear or appreciation of beauty can prefer the limping 
 hexameters of Ennius to the musical lines of Yirgil, or 
 his later style to the refined eloquence of the Augustan 
 age. As QuintUian says, we value Ennius, not for the 
 beauty of his style, but for his picturesqueness, and for the 
 holiness, as it were, which consecrates antiquity, just as 
 we feel a reverential awe when we contemplate the huge 
 gnarled fathers of the forest. " Ennium sicut sacros vetus- 
 tate lucos adoremus in quibus grandia et antiqua robora, 
 jam non tantam habent speciem, quantam religionem." 
 
 His predecessors had done little to remould the rude 
 and undigested mass which, as has been shown, was made 
 up of several elements, thrown together by the chances 
 of war and conquest, and left to be amalgamated together 
 by the natural genius^ of the people. Ennius naturally 
 possessed great power over words, and wielded that power 
 skilfally. In reconstructing the edifice he did the most 
 important and most difficult part, although the result of 
 his labours does not strike the eye as perfect and consum- 
 mate. He laid the foundation strongly and safely. What 
 he did was improved upon, but was never undone. The 
 
72 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 taste of succeeding ages erected on his basement an 
 elegant and beautiful superstructure. To Ennius we owe 
 the fact that after his time Latin literature was always 
 advancing until it reached its perfection. It never went 
 back, because the groundwork on which it was built was 
 
 sound. 
 
 Ennius imitated most of the Greek metrical forms ; 
 but he wrote verses like a learner, and not like one 
 imbued with the spirit of the metres which he imitated. 
 He attended to the prosodiac rules of quantity, so far as 
 his observation deduced them from the analogies of the 
 two languages, instead of the old Eoman principle of ictus 
 or stress ; but, provided the number of feet were correct, and 
 the long and short syllables followed each other in proper 
 order, his ear was satisfied: it. was not as yet sufficiently 
 in tune to appreciate those minuter accessaries which 
 embellish later Latin versification. This is the priu- 
 cipal cause of that ruggedness with which even the 
 admirers of Ennius justly find fault. But notwithstand- 
 ing these defects, there are amongst his verses some as 
 musical and harmonious as those of the best poets in the 
 Augustan age. 
 
 His great epic poem, entitled " The Annals," gained 
 him the attachment as well as the admiration of his 
 countrymen. This poem, written in hexameters, a metre 
 now first introduced to the notice of the Eomans, detailed 
 in eighteen books the rise and progress of their national 
 glory, from the earUest legendary periods down to his 
 own times. The only portion of history which he omitted 
 was the first Punic war ; and the reason which he gives 
 for the omission is that others have anticipated him' — 
 alluding to his predecessors Livius and Nsevius. 
 
 The subject which he proposed to himself was one of 
 considerable difficulty. The title and scope of his work 
 
 Cic. Brut. 76. 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF HIS TASK. 73 
 
 compelled him to adopt a strict chronological order 
 instead of the principles of epic arrangement, and to 
 invest the truths which the course of history forced upon 
 his acceptance with the interest of fiction. His subject 
 could have no unity, no hero upon whose fortunes the 
 principal interest should be concentrated, and around 
 whom the leading events should group themselves. But 
 still no history could be better adapted to his purpose 
 than that of his own coimtry. Its early legends form a 
 long series of poetical romances, fit to be sung in heroic 
 numbers, although fi-om being originally unconnected with 
 each other, incapable of being woven into one epic story. 
 Ennius had to unite in himself the characters of the his- 
 torian and the poet — to teach what he believed to be truth, 
 and yet to move the feehngs and deHght the fancy by 
 the embellishments of fiction. The poetical merit in 
 which he must necessarily have been deficient was the 
 conduct of the plot ; but the fi-agments of his poem are 
 not sufficiently numerous for us to discover this deficiency. 
 They are, however, amply sufficient to show that he pos- 
 sessed picturesque power both in sketching his narratives 
 and in portraying his characters. His scenes are full of 
 activity and animation ; his characters seem to Hve and 
 breathe ; his sentiments are noble, and full of a healthful 
 enthusiasm. His language is what that of an old Eoman 
 ought to be, such as we might have expected from Cato 
 and Scipio had they been poets : dignified, chaste, severe, 
 it rises as high as the most majestic eloquence, although 
 it does not soar to the subhmity of poetry. 
 
 The parts in which he approaches most nearly to his 
 great model, or, as he beheved, the source of his inspira- 
 tion, were in his descriptions of battles. Here the martial 
 spirit of the Eoman warrior shines forth ; the old soldier 
 seems to revel in the scenes of his youth. The poem 
 which occupied his decUning years shows that it was his 
 greatest pleasure to record the triumphs of his country- 
 
74 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 men, and to teach posterity how their ancestors had won 
 so many glorious fields. His similes are simply imita- 
 tions; they show that he had taste to appreciate the 
 pecuhar features of the Homeric poem ; but as must be 
 the case with mere imitations, they have not the energy 
 which characterizes his battles. 
 
 As a dramatic poet, Ennius does not deserve a high 
 reputation. A tragic drama must be of native growth, 
 it will not bear transplanting. The Eomans did not 
 possess the elements of tragedy ; the genius of Ennius 
 was not able to remedy that defect, and he could do no 
 more than select, with the taste and judgment which he pos- 
 sessed, such Greek dramas as were likely to be interesting. 
 Probably, however, his tragedies never became popular ; 
 they were admired by the narrow literary circle in which 
 his private life was passed. Those who were familiar 
 with the Grreek originals were dehghted to see their 
 favourites transferred into their native language ; those 
 who were not, had their curiosity gratified, and welcomed 
 even these reflections of the glorious minds of -^schylus, 
 Sophocles, and Euripides. 
 
 But the tribute of admiration which the ancient 
 classical authors paid to Ennius, was paid to him as an 
 epic not as a dramatic poet. Cicero when he speaks in 
 his praise generally quotes from the Annals, only once 
 from a tragedy.^ Virgil borrows lines and thoughts, to- 
 gether with the commencement and conclusion of the 
 same poem ; and, although the fame of Ennius survived 
 the decline of Eoman tragedy, and flourished even in the 
 age of the Antonines,* and his verses were heard in the 
 theatre of Puteoli (Pozzuoli), the entertainment did not 
 consist of one of his tragedies, but of recitations from his 
 epic poem. Nevertheless his tragedies were very numerous, 
 
 ' Andromache. = A. Gellius. 
 
HIS TRAGEDIES, COMEDIES, AND SATIR^E. 75 
 
 and the titles and some fragments of twenty-three remain. 
 They are all close imitations, or even translations, of the 
 Greek. Of fifteen fragments of his Medea which are 
 extant, there is not one which does not correspond with 
 some passage in the Medea of Euripides : the little which 
 we have of his Emnenides is a transcript from the tragedy 
 of -lEschylus ;' and, according to A. GreUius, his Hecuba 
 is a clever translation likewise. 
 
 His favourite model was Euripides : nor is it surprising 
 that he should have been better able to appreciate the 
 inferior excellencies of this dramatic poet, when we re- 
 member that the birth of Latin Hterature was coincident 
 with the decay of that of Greece. CaUimachus died just 
 as Livius began to write.* Theocritus expired when 
 Ennius was twenty-five years old -^ and by this decaying 
 living Hterature his taste must have been partially 
 educated and formed. 
 
 In comedy, as in tragedy, he never emancipated him- 
 self from the trammels of the Greek originals. His 
 comedies were palliatoB ; and Terence when accused of 
 plagiarism defends himself by an appeal to the example 
 of Ennius. Fragments are preserved of four only. 
 
 The poems which he wrote in various metres, and on 
 miscellaneous subjects, were, for that reason, entitled 
 SatiroB or Saturce. Ennius does not, indeed, anticipate 
 the claim of Lucihus to be considered the father of 
 Roman satire in its proper sense ; but still there can be 
 Httle doubt that the scope of these minor poems was the 
 chastisement of vice. The degeneracy of Eoman virtue, 
 even in his days, provoked language of Archilochian bitter- 
 ness from so stem a moralist, although he would not 
 libeUously attack those who were undeserving of censure. 
 ITie salutation which he addresses to himself expresses 
 
 ■ Pierron, Rom. Lit. p. 74. ' b. c. 280. ' b. c. 214. 
 
76 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 the burning indignation which he felt against wicked- 
 ness : — 
 
 Enni poeta salvo qui mortalibua 
 Versus propinas flammeos meduUitus. 
 
 Amongst his minor works were epitaphs on Scipio 
 and on himself, a didactic poem, entitled Epicharmus, a 
 collection of moral precepts, an encomium on his friend 
 Scipio Africanus, a translation in hexameters of a poem on 
 edible fishes and their localities, by Archestratus (Phage- 
 tica), and a work entitled Asotus, the existence of which 
 is only known from its being mentioned by Varro and 
 Festus for the sake of etymological illustration ; by some 
 it is thought to have been a comedy. The idea that he 
 was the author of a piece called " Sabinae " is without 
 foundation. 
 
 Cicero' mentions a mjrthological work (Evemerus), a 
 translation in trochaics of the 'lepa 'Kvwypa^vi of the 
 Sicihan writer who bore that name. It was a work weU 
 adapted to the talent which Ennius possessed of relating 
 mythical traditions, in the form of poetical history. The 
 theory embodied in the original was one which is often 
 adopted by Livy in his early history, and therefore most 
 probably entered into the ancient legends, namely, that 
 the gods were originally mighty warriors and benefactors 
 of mankind, who, as their reward, were deified and wor- 
 shipped. 
 
 ' De Nat. Deor. i. 42. 
 
( 77 ) 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE NEW COMEDY OF THE GREEKS THE MODEL OF THE EOMAN — THE 
 MORALITY OF EOMAN COMEDY — WANT OF VARIETY IN THE PLOTS 
 OF EOMAN COMEDY — DRAMATIS PERSONjE — COSTUME CHARAC- 
 TERS — ^MUSIC — LATIN PRONUNCIATION — METRICAL LICENSES — 
 CRITICISM OF VOLCATIUS — LIFE OF PLAUTUS — CHARACTER OF HIS 
 COMEDIES — ^ANALYSIS OF HIS PLOTS. 
 
 It lias already been shown that the dramatic taste of the 
 Eomans first displayed itself in the rudest species of 
 comedy. The entertaiament was extemporaneous and 
 performed by amateurs, and rhythmical only so far as to 
 be consistent with these conditions. It was satirical, 
 personal, full of burlesque extravagances, practical jokes, 
 and licentious jesting. When it put on a more systematic 
 form, by the introduction of music, and singing, and 
 dancing, and professional actors, stiU. the Eoman youth 
 would not give up their national amusement, and a 
 marked distinction was made in the social and poHtical 
 condition of the actor and the amateur. Itahan comedy 
 made no farther progress, but on it was engrafted the 
 Greek comedy, and hence arose that phase of the drama, 
 the representatives of which were Plautus, CseciUus 
 Statins, and Terence. 
 
 Now the old Attic comedy consisted of either poHtical 
 or literary criticism. In Italy; however, the Fescennine 
 verses, and the farces of AteUa, were not political, neither 
 was there any Hterature to criticise or to parody. But 
 the personalities in which the people had taken pleasure 
 prepared them to enjoy the comedy of manners, embody- 
 ing as it did pictures of social life. The new comedy. 
 
78 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 therefore, of the Gh-eeks furnished a suitable model ; and 
 the comedies of Menander, Diphilus, Apollodorus, and 
 others formed a rich mine of materials for adaptation or 
 imitation. 
 
 Prom them the Eoman poet could derive much more 
 than the " vis comica," in which Caesar complained that 
 they were still so deficient. In the extant fragments of 
 Menander may be found powerftd delineations of human 
 passions, especially of the pains and pleasures of love, 
 melancholy but true views of the vanity of human hopes, 
 elevated moral sentiments, and noble ideas of the divine 
 nature. A vein of temperate and placid gentleness, inter- 
 mingled with amiable pleasantry, pervaded the comedies 
 of Philemon, and his sentiments are tender and serious, 
 without being gloomy. These good qualities recom- 
 mended them to Chrysostom, Eustathius, and other early 
 Christians, by whom so many of their fragments have 
 been preserved. 
 
 There is no doubt that the comic, as weU as the tragic 
 poet of Greece, considered himself as a public instructor ; 
 but it is difficult to say how far the Eoman author recog- 
 nized a moral object, because it cannot be determined 
 what moral sentiments were designedly introduced, and 
 what were merely transcriptions from the original It is 
 plain, however, that Eoman comedy was calculated to 
 produce a moral result, although the morality which it 
 inculcated was extremely low : its standard was merely 
 worldly prudence, its lessons utilitarian, its philosophy, 
 like that of Menander himself. Epicurean, and therefore it 
 did not inculcate an unbending sense of honour, the self- 
 denying heroism of the Stoic school, or that rigid Eoman 
 virtue which was akin to it — ^it contented itself with en- 
 couraging the benevolent affections. 
 
 It did not profess to reform the knave, except by showing 
 him that knavery was not always successful. It taught 
 that cunning must be met with its own weapons, and 
 
PLOTS OF ROMAN COMEDIES. 79 
 
 that the qualities necessary for the conflict were wit and 
 sharpness. The union between the moral and the comic 
 element was exhibited in making intrigue successful wher- 
 ever the victim was deserving of it, and in representing 
 him as foiled by accidents and cross-purposes, because the 
 prudence and caution of the knave are not always on a par 
 with his cimning. It also had its sentimental side, and 
 the sympathies of the audience were enlisted in favour of 
 good temper, affection, and generosity. 
 
 But the new Attic comedy presented a truthful por- 
 traiture of real native life. This was scarcely ever the 
 case with the Eomans ; the plots, characters, localities, 
 and political institutions, were all Greek, and therefore it 
 can only be said that the whole was in perfect harmony 
 and consistency with Roman modes of thinking and 
 acting. The comedies of Plautus probably, as will be 
 seen hereafter, form the only exception. 
 
 It cannot be denied that there is a want of variety in 
 the plots of Eoman comedy;^ but this defect is owing 
 to the political and social condition of ancient Grreece. 
 Greece and the neighboirring countries were divided into 
 numerous independent states ; its narrow seas were, even 
 more than they are now, infested with pirates, who had 
 their nests and lurking-places in the various unfrequented 
 coasts and islands ; and slaves were an article of mer- 
 chandize. Many a romantic incident therefore occurred, 
 such as is found in comedy. A child would be stolen, 
 sold as a slave, educated in all the accomplishments which 
 would fit her to be an Hetcera, engage the affections of 
 some young Athenian, and eventually, fi-om some jewels 
 or personal marks, be recognized by her parents, and re- 
 stored to the rank of an Athenian citizen. 
 
 Again, in order to confine the privilege of citizenship, 
 marriages with foreigners were invalid, and this restric- 
 
 ' See Lecture vii. of A. W. v. Schlegel. 
 
80 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 tion on marriage caused the Hetcera to occupy so promi- 
 nent a part in comedy ; besides love was little more than 
 sensual passion, and marriage generally a matter of con- 
 venience : the Hetserse, too, were often clever and accom- 
 plished, whilst the virtuous matron was fitter for the 
 duties of domestic life than for society. The regulations 
 of the Greek theatre also, which were adopted by the 
 Eomans, caused some restrictions upon the variety of plots. 
 In comedy the scene represented the public street, in which 
 Grreek females of good character did not usually appear 
 unveiled : matrons, nurses, and women of light character 
 alone are introduced upon the stage, and in all the plays 
 of Terence, except the eunuch, the heroine is never seen. 
 
 As the range of subjects is small, so there is a sameness 
 in the dramatis personse : the principal characters are a 
 morose and parsimonious or a gentle and easy father, who 
 is sometimes, also, the henpecked husband of a rich wife, 
 an affectionate or domineering wife, a young man who 
 is frank and good-natured but profligate, a grasping or 
 benevolent Hetsera, a roguish servant, a fawning favourite, 
 a hectoring coward, an unscrupulous procxu-ess, and a cold 
 calculating slave-dealer. 
 
 The actors wore appropriate masks, sometimes partial, 
 sometimes covering the whole face, the features of which 
 were not only grotesque, but much exaggerated and magni- 
 fied. This was rendered absolutely necessary by the 
 immense size of the theatre, the stage of which sometimes 
 measured sixty yards, and which would contain many 
 thousands of spectators; the mouth, also, answered the 
 purpose of a sounding board, or speaking-trumpet to assist 
 in conveying the voice to every part of the vast building. 
 The characters, too, were made known by a conventional 
 costume : old men wore ample robes of white; young men 
 were attired in gay particoloured clothes ; rich men in 
 purple ; soldiers in scarlet ; poor men and slaves in dark- 
 coloured and scanty dresses. 
 
CHARACTERS AND MUSIC. 81 
 
 The names assigned to tlie characters of the Eoman 
 comedy have always an appropriate meaning. Young 
 men, for example, are Pamphilus, " dear to all ;" 
 Charinus, "gracious;" Phaedria, "joyous:" old men are 
 Simo, " flat-nosed," such a physiognomy being consi- 
 dered indicative of a cross-grained disposition : Chremes, 
 from a word signifying troubled with phlegm. Slaves 
 generally bear the name of their native country, as 
 Syrus, Phrygia; Davus, a Dacian; Byrrhia, a native of 
 Pyrrha in Caria ; Dorias, a Dori^ girl ; a vain-glorious 
 soldier is Thraso, from Opaao^, boldness ; a parasite, 
 Gnatho, from yva6o9, the jaw ; a nurse, Sophrona 
 (discreet) ; a freedman, Sosia, as having been spared in 
 war; a young girl is Gly cerium, from yXvKw, sweet; 
 a judge is Crito ; a courtesan, Chrysis, from xjouo-o?, gold. 
 These examples will be sufficient to illustrate the practice 
 adopted by the Comic writers. 
 
 It is very difficult to understand the relation which 
 music bore to the eAibition of Eoman 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 were much larger 
 and more powerful, as well as constructed with more 
 numerous stops and greater compass.' 
 
 riutes were of two kinds. Those played with the right 
 hand (tibiae, dextrse) were made of the upper part of the 
 reed, and like the modern fife or octave flute emitted a high 
 sound : they were therefore suitable to Hvely and cheerful 
 melodies ; and this kind of music, known by the name of 
 the Lydian mode, was performed upon a pair of tibiae 
 dextrse. The left-handed flutes (tibiae sinistrae) were 
 pitched an octave lower : their tones were grave and fit 
 for solemn music. The mode denominated Tyrian, or 
 
 ' Ep. ad Pison. 202. 
 
83 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Sarrane,^ was executed witli a pair of tibiae sinistrse. If 
 the subject of the play was serio-comic, the music was in 
 the Phrygian mode, and the flutes used were impares 
 (unequal), i. e., one for the right, the other for the left 
 hand." In tragedy the lyrical portion was sung to music 
 and the dialogue declaimed. But if that were the case in 
 comedy, it is difficult to imagine what corresponded to 
 the Ijrrical portion, and therefore, where music was used. 
 Quintilian informs us that scenic modulation was a simple, 
 easy chant,* resembling probably intonation in our cathe- 
 drals. Such a practice would aid the voice considerably j 
 and if so, the theory of Cohnan is probably correct, that 
 there was throughout some accompaniment, but that the 
 music arranged for the soliloquies (in which Terence 
 especially abounds) was more laboured and complicated 
 than that of the dialogue.* 
 
 In order to understand the principles which regulated 
 the Eoman comic metres, some remarks must be made 
 on the manner in which the language itself was affected 
 by the common conversational pronunciation. In most 
 languages there is a natural tendency to abbreviation and 
 contraction. As the object of language is the expression 
 of thought, few are inclined to take more trouble or to 
 expend more time than is absolutely necessary for convey- 
 ing their meaning : this attention to practical utility and 
 convenience is the reason fdt all elliptical forms in gram- 
 matical constructions, and also for all abbreviated methods 
 of pronunciation by slurring or clipping, or, to use the 
 
 ' From Tzur, i-iv- 
 
 ^ Colman illustrates the preface to his translation of Terence with an 
 engraving from a bas-reUef in the Famese Palace, in which these flutes are 
 introduced. The original represents a scene in the Andria, and contains 
 Simo, Davus, Chremes, and Dromo, with a knotted cord. 
 
 " I. O. ii. 10. 
 
 * Donatus says, " Diverbia (the dialogues) histriones pronuntiabant ; can- 
 tica (the soliloquies) vero temperabantur modis non a poeta sed a perito 
 artis musicae factis." 
 
LATIN PRONUNCIATION. 83 
 
 language of grammarians, by apocope, syncope, synseresis, 
 or crasis. 
 
 The experience of every one proves how different is 
 the impression which the sonnd of a foreign language 
 makes upon the ear, when spoken by another, from what 
 it makes upon the eye when read even by one who is 
 perfectly acquainted with the theory of pronunciation. 
 Until the ear is habituated, it is easier for an Englishman 
 to speak French than to understand it when spoken. If 
 we consider attentively the manner iu which we speak 
 our own language, it is astonishing how many letters 
 and even syllables are slurred over and omitted: the 
 accented syllable is strongly and firmly enunciated, the 
 rest, especially in long words, are left to take care of 
 themselves, and the experience of the hearer and his 
 acquaintance with the language find no difficulty in 
 supplying the deficiency. This is universally the case, 
 except in careftJ and dehberate reading, and in measured 
 and stately declamation. 
 
 With regard to the classical languages, the foregoing 
 observations hold good. In a slighter degree, indeed, with 
 respect to the Greek, for the dehcacy of their ear, their 
 attention to accent and quantity, not only in poetry but 
 in oratory, and even in conversation, caused them to give 
 greater effect to every syllable, and especially to the 
 vowel sounds. But even in Grreek poetry elision some- 
 times prevents the disagreeable effect of a hiatus, and in 
 the transition from the one dialect to the other, the 
 numerous vowels of the Ionic assume the contracted form 
 of the Attic. 
 
 The resemblance between the practice of the Eomans 
 and that of modern nations is very remarkable ; with 
 them the mark of good taste was ease — ^the absence of 
 effort, pedantry, and affectation. As they principally 
 admired facility in versification so they sought it in 
 pronunciation likewise. To speak vnih. mouthing (hiulce), 
 
 g2 
 
84 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 with a broad accent (late, vaste), was to speak like a clown 
 and not Kke a gentleman (rustice et inurbaniter). Cicero* 
 admired tbe soft, gentle, equable tones of the female voice, 
 and considered the pronunciation of the eloquent and 
 cultivated Lselia as the model of purity and perfection : 
 he thought that she spoke as Plautus or Nsevius might 
 have spoken. Again, he speaks of the habit which Cotta 
 had of omitting the iota; pronouncing, for example, 
 dominus, dom'nus, as a prevalent fashion ; and although 
 he says,^ that such an obscuration argues negligence, he, 
 on the other hand, applies to the opposite fault a term 
 (putidius) which implies the most offensive affectation. 
 From these observations, we must expect to find that 
 Latin as it was pronounced was very different from Latin 
 as it is written; that this difference consisted in abbreviation 
 eij;her by the omission of sounds altogether, or by con- 
 traction of two sounds into one ; and that these processes 
 would take place especially in those syllables which in 
 poetry are not marked by the ictus or beat, or in common, 
 conversation by the stress or emphasis. Even in the more 
 artificial poetry and oratory of the Augustan age, in 
 which quantity was more rigidly observed by the Roman 
 imitators than by the Greek originals, we find traces of 
 this tendency ; and Virgil does not hesitate to use in his 
 stately heroics such forms as aspris for asperis, semustum 
 for semiustum, oraclum for oraculum, maniplus for mani- 
 pulus; and, like Terence, to make rejicere'(relcere) a dac- 
 tyle.^ A number of the most common words, sanctioned 
 by general usage, and incorporated into the language 
 when in its most perfect state, were contractions — such as 
 amassent for amavissent, concio for conventio, cogo from 
 con and ago, surgo from sub and rego, mala for maxilla, 
 pomeridianus from post-mediam-diem, and other instances 
 too numerous to mention. 
 
 ' Cic. de Orat. iii. 45, * Ibid. 41. 
 
 ' Phorm. Prol 18 ; Eel. iii. 96. 
 
METRICAL LICENSES. 85 
 
 But in the earlier periods when literature was addressed 
 still more to the ear than to the eye, when the Grreek 
 metres were as yet unknown, and even when, after their 
 introduction, exact observation of 'Grreek rules was not yet 
 necessary, we find as might be expected these principles 
 of the language carried still farther. They pervade the 
 poems of Livius and Ennius, and the Eoman tragedies, 
 even although their style is necessarily more declamatory 
 than that of the comic writers ; but in the latter we have 
 a complete representation of Latin as it was commonly 
 pronounced and spoken, and but little trammelled or 
 confined by a rigid adhesion to the Greek metrical 
 laws. In the prologues, indeed, which are of the nature 
 of declamation and not of free and natural conversation, 
 more care is visible ; the iambic trimeters in which they 
 are written fall upon the ear with a cadence similar to those 
 of the Greek, with scarcely any license except an occasional 
 spondee in the even places. But in the scenes httle more 
 seems to have been attended to, than that the verse 
 should have the required number of feet, and the 
 syllables pronounced the right quantity, in accordance 
 with the widest license which the rules of Greek prosody 
 allowed. What syllables should be slurred, was left to 
 be decided by the common custom of pronunciation. 
 
 Besides the licenses commonly met with in the poets 
 of the Axigustan age, the following mutilations are the 
 most usual in the poetical language of the age of which 
 we are treating : — 
 
 1. The final s might be elided even before a consonant, 
 and hence the preceding vowel was made short : thus 
 mails became mah', on the same principle that in Augustan 
 poetry audisne was contracted into audin'. Thus the 
 short vowel would suffer ehsion before another, and the 
 following lin e of Terence would consequently be thus 
 scanned : — 
 
 Ut ma. I lis gau|deat aW | en' atq' | ex In | c6mm6|dls. 
 
86 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 2. Vowels and even consonants were slurred over; 
 hence Liberius became Lib'rius ; Adolescens, Ad'lescens ; 
 Vehemens, Vemens ; Voluptas, V'luptas (like tbe French 
 voila, via) ; meum, eum, suum, siet, fiiit, Deos, ego, 
 ille, tace, became monosyllables ; and facio, sequere, &c., 
 dissyllables. 
 
 3. M and D were syncopated in the middle of words : 
 thus enimvero became enVero; quidem and modo 
 qu'en and mo'o, circumventus, circ'ventus. 
 
 4. Conversely d was added to me, te, and se, when 
 followed by a vowel, as Eeliquit med homo, &c., and in 
 Plautus, med erga. 
 
 Observations of such principles as these, 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. Many of those which defy the 
 attempt have become, by the injudicious treatment of 
 transcribers or commentators, wrongly arranged: for 
 example, one of four lines in the Andria of Terence, 
 which has always proved a difficulty, might be thus 
 arranged : — 
 
 Itma I ta cul I quam tant' | at sist ( vecor | dia ; 
 
 instead of the usual unmanageable form — 
 
 Tanta vecordia innata cuiquam ut siet. Andr. iv. 1. 
 
 Volcatius Sedigitus, a critic and grammarian, assigns, 
 an order of merit to the authors of Eoman comedy in 
 the folloAving passage : — 
 
 Multos incertos certare hanc rem vidimus 
 Palmam poetse comioo cui deferant. 
 Eum, me judice, errorem dissolvam tibi ; 
 Ut contra si quis sentiat, nihil sentiat. 
 Csecilio palmam Statio do comico. 
 Plautus secundus facile exsuperat cseteros. 
 Dein Nsevius qui servet pretium, tertius est. 
 Si erit, quod quaiio dabitur Licinio. 
 Post insequi Lioinium facio AtUium, 
 
TITUS MACCIUS PLAUTUS. 87 
 
 In sexto sequitiir hos Ipco Terentiiis. 
 Turpilius septimum, Trabea octavum obtinet ; 
 Nono loco esse facile facio Luscium. 
 Deoimum addo causa antiquitatis Ennium. 
 
 Yolc. Sedig. ap. Oel, lib. xv. 24. 
 
 However correct this judgment may be, Plautus is the 
 oldest, if not the most celebrated of those who have not 
 as yet been mentioned. 
 
 PLATJTUS. 
 
 T. Maccins Plautus was a contemporary of Ennius, for it 
 is generally supposed that he was born twelve years later,* 
 and died fifteen years earlier^ than the founder of the new 
 school of Latin poetry. The flourishing period, therefore, 
 of both coincide. He was a native of Sarsina, in TJmbria, 
 but was very young when he removed to Rome. Very 
 little is known respecting his life ; but it is universally 
 admitted that he was of humble origin, and owing to the 
 prevalence of this tradition we findiPlautince prosapice homo, 
 used as a proverbial expression. The numerous examples 
 in his comedies of vulgar taste and low humour are in 
 favour of this supposition. 
 
 He had no early gentlemanlike associations to interfere 
 with his delineations of Roman character in low life. His 
 contemporary, Ennius, was a gentleman, Plautus was not ; 
 education did not overcome his vulgarity, although it 
 produced a great effect upon his language and style, which 
 were more refined and cultivated than those of his pre- 
 decessors. Plautus must have Hved and associated with 
 the class whose manners he describes, hence his pictures 
 are correct and truthful. 
 
 The class from which his representations of Eoman 
 life was taken is that of the cerarii, who consisted of clients, 
 the sons of freedmen, and the half-enfranchised natives 
 
 A. u. c. 527 ; B. 0. 227. * A. u. c. 670 ; B c. 184. See Cic. Brut. 15. 
 
88 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 of Italian towns. His plots are Greek, his personages 
 Greek, and the scene is laid in Greece and her colonies ; 
 but the morality, manners, sentiments, wit, and humour,' 
 were those of that mixed, half-foreign, class of the inhabit- 
 ants of the capital, which stood between the slave and the 
 free-born citizen. One of his characters is, as was observed 
 by Niebuhr,^ not Eoman, for the parasite is a Greek, not 
 a Eoman character, but then a flatterer, is by profession 
 a citizen of the world, and his business is to conform him- 
 self to the manners of every society. How readily that 
 character became naturalized, we are informed by some of 
 the most amusing passages in the satires of Horace and 
 Juvenal. 
 
 The humble occupation which his poverty compelled 
 him to foUow was calculated to draw out and foster the 
 comic talent for which he was afterwards distinguished, 
 for Varro" teUs us that he acted as a stage-carpenter 
 {operarius) to a theatrical company ; he adds, alsOj that 
 he was subsequently engaged in some trade in which he 
 was unsuccessful, and was reduced to the necessity of 
 earning his daily bread by grinding in a mUl. To this 
 degrading labour, which was not usually performed by 
 men, except as a punishment for refractory slaves, it has 
 been supposed that he owed his cognomen, Asinius, which 
 is sometimes appended to his other names. Eitzschl, 
 however, has most ingeniously and satisfactorily proved 
 that the name of Asinius is a corruption of Sarsinas 
 (native of Sarsina) : he supposes that Sarsinas became 
 Arsinas, that this was afterwards written Arsin, then 
 Asin, and that this was finally considered as the repre- 
 sentative of Asinius. 
 
 This view is further supported by the fact that, in all 
 cases in which the name Asinius is used, the poet is called 
 not Asinius Plautus, but Plautus Asinius, like Livius Pata- 
 
 Lect. Ixx. ' A. GeD. iii. 3. 
 
ROMAN TASTE FOR COMEDY. 89 
 
 vinus, this being the proper position for the ethnic name. 
 Another error respecting the poet's name has been per- 
 petuated throughout all the editions of his works, although 
 it is not found in any manuscript. It was discovered by 
 Eitzschl^ whilst examining the palimpsest MS. in the 
 Ambrosian Library at Milan. He thus found that his 
 real names were Titus Maccius, and not Marcus Accius. 
 The name Plautus was given him because he had flat 
 feet, this being the signification of the word in the 
 Umbrian language. Niebuhr,^ although he does not 
 deny his poverty, gives no credit to the story of his work- 
 ing at a miU. 
 
 The earliest comedies which he wrote are said to have 
 been entitled " Addictus," and " Saturio," but they are 
 not contained amongst the twenty which are now extant. 
 As soon as he became an author there can be no doubt 
 that he emerged from his state of poverty and obscurity, 
 for he had no rival during his whole career, unless Csecilius 
 Statins, a man of very inferior talent, can be considered 
 one. Comedies began now to be in great demand : the 
 taste for the comic drama was awakened; it was pre- 
 cisely the sort of Hterature hkely to be acceptable to an 
 active, bustling, observant people like the Eomans. 
 They Hked shows of every kind, and public speaking, and 
 had always their eyes and their ears open, loved jokes and 
 rude satire and boisterous mirth, and would appreciate 
 bold and fearless dehneations of character, which they 
 met with in their every-day life. The demand for the 
 public games, therefore, began to be quite as great as the 
 supply, and the theatrical managers would take care 
 always to have a new play in rehearsal, in case they 
 should be called upon for a pubhc representation. 
 
 Plautus had no aristocratic patrons, like Ennius and 
 Terence — probably his humour was too broad, and his 
 
 See Smith's Biog. Diet. s. v. ' Lect. pn Rom. Hist. kx. 
 
90 KOMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 taste not refined enough, to please the Scipios and LseHi, 
 and their fastidious associates. Horace finds fault with 
 Plautus because his wit was not sufficiently gentleman- 
 like, as well as his numbers not sufficiently harmonious. 
 Probably the higher classes might have observed similar 
 deficiencies ; with the masses, however, the comedies of 
 Plautus, notwithstanding their faults, retained their ori- 
 ginal popularity even in the Augustan age. The Eoman 
 pubhc were his patrons. His very coarseness would recom- 
 mend him to the rude admirers of the Fescimiine songs and 
 the AteUan Fahulce. His careless prosody and inharmo- 
 nious verses would either escape the not over-refined ears of 
 his audience, or be forgiven for the sake of the fan which 
 they contained. Life, bustle, surprise, unexpected situa- 
 tions, sharp, sprightly, briUiant, sparkling raillery, that 
 knew no restraint nor bounds, carried the audience with 
 him. He allowed no respite, no time for dulness or 
 weariness. To use an expression of Horace, he hurried 
 on from scene to scene, from incident to incident, from 
 jest to jest, so that his auditors had no opportunity for 
 feeling fatigue. 
 
 Another cause of his popularity was, that although 
 Grreek was the fountain from which he drew his stores, 
 and the metres of Grreek poetry the framework in which 
 he set them, his wit, his mode of thought, his language, 
 were purely Eoman. He had Hved so long amongst 
 Romans that he had caught their national spirit, and this 
 spirit was reflected throughout his comedies. The inci- 
 dents of them might have taken place in the streets of 
 Eome, so skilfal was he in investing them with a Eoman 
 dress. 
 
 His style too was truly Latin, and Latin of the very 
 purest and most elegant kind.^ He did not, like Cato 
 and Ennius, carry his admiration for Greek so far as to 
 
 ' Quint. X. 1, 99. 
 
EPIGRAM BY VARRO. 91 
 
 " enrich " his native tongue with new and foreign words. 
 Nor would this feature be without some effect in gaining 
 him the sympathy of the masses. They admire elegance 
 of language if it is elegant simplicity. They appreciate 
 well-chosen and well-arranged sentences, if the words are 
 such as fall familiarly and, therefore, intelligibly on their 
 ears. 
 
 The coarseness of Plautus, however, was the coarseness 
 of innuendo, and even if the allusion was indeHcate it was 
 veiled in decent language. This quahty of his wit called 
 forth the approbation of Cicero.^ But it is difficult to 
 conceive how he could compare him, in this particular, 
 with the old Athenian comedy, the obscenity of which is 
 so gross and palpable, as to constitute the sole blemish of 
 those delightful compositions. 
 
 The foUowiug laudatory epigram written, by Varro is 
 found in the Noctes Atticse of A. G-eUius •? — 
 
 Postquam est mortem aptus Plautus, comoedia luget, 
 
 Scena est deserta dein risus ludu' joousque, 
 
 Et numeri iimumeri simul omnes collaorumarunt. 
 
 The same grammarian paid to his style a compUment 
 similar to that which had been paid to Plato, by saying, 
 that if the Muses spoke in Latin they would borrow the 
 language of Plautus.^ Whatever might have been the 
 faults of the Plautian comedy it maintained its position 
 on the Eoman stage for at least five centuries, and was 
 acted as late as the reign of Dioclesian. 
 
 It does not appear that Plautus ever attained the fuU 
 privileges of a Eoman citizen. Probably he had no 
 powerful friends to press his claims, and therefore enjoyed 
 no more than the Italian franchise to the end of his days. 
 No fewer than one hundred and thirty comedies have 
 been attributed to him, but of these many were spurious. 
 Varro considers the twenty which are now extant genuine. 
 
 ' De Off. i. 29. ' Lib. i. 24. ' Quint, x. 1, 99. 
 
92 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 together with the Vidularia, of which only a few lines 
 remain, and those only in the palimpsest MS. already 
 mentioned. The rest, the titles of which alone survive, 
 are of doubtful authority. 
 
 All the comedies of Plautus, except the Amphitruo, 
 were adapted from the new comedy of the Greeks. The 
 statement that he imitated the Sicihan Epicharmus,^ and 
 founded the Mencechmi on one of his comedies, rests only 
 on a vague tradition. There can be no doubt that he 
 studied also both the old and the middle comedy ; but 
 still Menander, Diphilus, and Philemon furnished him the 
 originals of his plots. The popularity of Plautus was 
 not confined to Eome, either republican or imperial. 
 Dramatic writers of modern times have recognized the 
 effectiveness of his plots, and therefore have adopted or 
 imitated them, and they have been translated iuto most 
 of the European languages. The following is a brief 
 sketch of the subjects of his extant comedies. 
 
 I. Amphitruo. This is the only piece which Plautus 
 borrowed from the middle Attic comedy : the plot is 
 founded on theweU-known story of Jupiter and Alcmena, 
 and has been imitated both by MoHere and Dryden. 
 
 II., III., IV. The Asinaria, Casina, and Mercator, depict 
 a state of morals so revolting that it is impossible to 
 dwell upon them. 
 
 v. In the Aulularia, a very amusing play, a miser 
 finds a pot of gold (aulula), and hides it with the greatest 
 care. His daughter is demanded in marriage by an old 
 man named Megadorus, the principal recommendation to 
 whose suit is, that he is willing to take her without a 
 dowry. Meanwhile the slave of her young lover steals 
 the gold, and, as may be conjectured, for no more of the 
 play is preserved, the lover restores the gold, and the old 
 man, in the joy of his heart, gives him his daughter. 
 
 ' Hor. Ep. ii. I, 58. 
 
BACCHIDES — CAPTIVI — CURCTJLIO — CISTBLLARIA. 93 
 
 This comedy suggested to MoKere tlie plot of L' Avare, 
 tlie best play whicli he ever wrote, and one in which he 
 far surpasses the original. Two attempts have been made 
 to supply the lost scenes, which may be found iu the 
 Delphia and Variorum edition. 
 
 VI. The Bacchides are two twin sisters, one of whom 
 is beloved by her sister's lover. He does not know that 
 there are two, and, misled by the similarity of the name, 
 thinks himself betrayed. Hence arise amusing situations 
 and incidents, but at length an eclaircissement takes place. 
 
 VII. The Captivi for its style, sentiments, moral, and 
 the structure of the plot, is incomparably the best comedy 
 of Plautus. In a war between the JEtolians and Eleians, 
 Philopolemus, an ^tolian, the son of Hegio, is taken 
 prisoner, whilst Plulocrates is captured by the -^tohans. 
 PhUocrates and his slave Tyndarus are purchased by Hegio, 
 with a view to recover his sonby an exchange of prisoners. 
 The master and slave, however, agree to change places ; 
 and thus Philocrates is sent back to his country, valued 
 only as a slave. Hegio discovers the trick and condemns 
 Tyndarus to fetters and hard labour. Philocrates, how- 
 ever, returns, and brings back Philopolemus' with him, 
 and it also turns out that Tyndarus is a son of Hegio 
 whom he had lost in his infancy. 
 
 VIII. The Curculio derives its name from a parasite, 
 who is the hero; and who acts his part in a plot full of 
 fraud and forgery; the only satisfactory point in the 
 comedy being the deserved punishment of an infamous 
 pandar. 
 
 IX. In the CisteUaria, Demipho, a Lemnian, promises 
 his daughter to Alcesimarchus, who is in love with 
 SHenium. The young lady has fallen into the hands of 
 a courtesan, who endeavours to force her into a vicious 
 course of Hfe ; she, however, steadily refuses ; and it is at 
 length discovered, by means of a box of toys (cistella), that 
 she is the illegitimate daughter of Demipho, and had 
 
94 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 been exposed as an infant. .Her virtue is rewarded by 
 her being happily married to her lover. 
 
 X. The Epidicus was evidently a favourite play with 
 the author, for he makes one of the characters in another 
 comedy say that he loves it as dearly as himself.^ The 
 plot turns on the common story of a lost child recognized. 
 The intrigue, which is remarkably clever, is managed by 
 Epidicus, a cunning slave, who gives the name to the 
 play. 
 
 XI. The MosteUaria is exceedingly lively and amusing. 
 A young man, in his father's absence, makes the paternal 
 mansion a scene of noisy and extravagant revelry. In 
 the midst of it the father returns, and in order to prevent 
 discovery, a slave persuades him that the house is 
 haunted. When he discovers the trick he is very angry, 
 but ultimately pardons both his son and the slave. The 
 name is derived from MosteUum, the diminutive of Mon- 
 strum, a prodigy, or supernatural visitor. 
 
 XII. The Mensechmi is a Comedy of Errors, arising 
 out of the exact likeness between two brothers, one of 
 whom was stolen in infancy, and the other wanders in 
 search of him, and at last finds him in great affluence at 
 Epidamnus. It furnished the plot to Shakspeare's play, 
 and hkewise to the comedy of Eegnard, which bears the 
 name of the original. 
 
 XIII. The Miles Grioriosus was taken from the 'AXa^wv 
 (Boaster) of the Grreek comic drama. Its hero, Pyrgopo- 
 Hnices, is the model of all the blustering, swaggering 
 captains of ancient and modem comedy. The braggadocio 
 carries off the mistress of a young Athenian, who follows 
 him, and takes up his abode in the next house to that in 
 which the girl is concealed. Lite Pyramus and Thisbe 
 the lovers have secret interviews through a hole in the 
 party-waU. (The device being borrowed from the 
 
 ' Bacch. ii. 2. 
 
PSEUDOLTJS — PCENULUS. 95 
 
 " Phantom," of Menander.)^ When, they are discovered 
 the soldier is induced to resign the lady by being per- 
 suaded that another is desperately in love with him, but 
 the only reward which he gets is a good beating for his 
 pains. 
 
 XIV. In the Pseudolus a cunning slave of that name 
 procures, by a false memorandum, a female slave for his 
 young master ; and when the fraud is discovered the matter 
 is settled by the payment of the price by a complaisant 
 father. Notwithstanding the simphcity of the plot the 
 action is bustling and ftdl of intrigue ; and from a passage 
 of Cicero,^ it appears that this play and the Truculentus 
 were favourites with the author himself. The procurer 
 in this comedy was one of the characters in which Eoscius 
 especially excelled. 
 
 XV. The Poenulus derives its name from its romantic 
 plot. A young Carthaginian slave is adopted by an old 
 bachelor, who leaves him a good inheritance. He falls in 
 love with a girl, a Carthaginian like himself, who had 
 been kidnapped with her sister, and now belonged to a 
 procurer. The arrival of the father leads to a discovery 
 that they are free-born, and that they are the first cousins 
 of the young man. Thus it comes to pass that the girls 
 are rescued, and the lovers united. The most curious 
 portion of this comedy is that in which Hanno, the father, 
 is represented as talking Pimic ;^ and his words bear so 
 close a resemblance to the Hebrew that commentators 
 
 ' The plot of the Phasma of Menander is as follows : — A woman who has 
 married a second husband has a daughter concealed in the next house, 
 with whom she has secret interviews by means of a communication through 
 the party-wall. In order the better to carry on her clandestine plan, she 
 pretends that she has intercourse with a supernatural being, who visits 
 her in answer to her invocations. Her step-son by accident sees the 
 maiden, and is at first awe-struck, thinking that he had beheld a goddess ; 
 but, discovering the truth, he is captivated with her beauty. A happy 
 marriage, with the consent of all parties, concludes the play. 
 
 « De°Sen. 50. ° Act v. scene i. 
 
96 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 have expressed them in Hebrew characters, and rendered 
 them, after a few emendations, capable of translation/ 
 
 XVI. The tricks played upon a procurer by a slave, 
 aided by a Persian parasite, furnish the slender plot of 
 the Persa. 
 
 XVII. The Eudens derives its name from- the rope of 
 a fishing-net, and, with the exception perhaps of the 
 Captivi, is the most affecting and pleasing of all the 
 twenty plays. The morality is pure, the sentiments ele- 
 vated, the poetic justice complete. A female child has 
 fallen into the hands of a procurer. Her lover in vain 
 endeavours to ransom her, and being shipwrecked, the 
 toys with which she played in infancy are lost in the 
 waves, but are eventually brought to shore in the net of a 
 fisherman. She is thus recognized by her father, and is 
 married to her lover, whilst the procurer is utterly 
 ruined by the loss of his property in the wreck. 
 
 xvin. Stichus is the name of the slave on whom the 
 intrigue of the play which bears this name mainly de- 
 pends. The plot is very simple. Two brothers marry 
 two sisters, and are ruined by extravagant living ; they 
 determine therefore to go abroad and repair their fortunes. 
 After they have been many years absent the ladies' father 
 wishes them to marry again. They, however, steadily 
 refuse, and their constancy is rewarded by the return of 
 their husbands with large fortunes. 
 
 XIX. The Trinummus is a translation from the The- 
 saurus of the Greek comic poet Philemon.^. It de- 
 rived its Latin title firom the incident of the informer 
 being bribed with three nummi.^ An old merchant on 
 leaving home places his son and daughter, together with 
 a treasure which he has buried in his house, und^r the. 
 guardianship of his friend CaUicles. The son squand^s 
 
 ' See Plaut. Ed. Var. pp. 1320 and 2095. « See Prol. 18. 
 
 ' See act iv. scene ii. 
 
TEtTCULENTUS — PROLOGUES. 97 
 
 his father's property, and is even forced to sell his house, 
 which CaUicles purchases. Soon a" young man of good 
 family and fortune makes proposals for the daughter's 
 hand, and CaUicles is at a loss to know how to give her a 
 dowry without saying something ahout the treasure. At 
 length he hires a man to pretend that he has come from 
 the absent father, and has brought one thousand pieces of 
 gold. The return of the father interferes with the plan ; 
 but everything is explained, the daughter is married, and 
 the son forgiven. 
 
 XX. The Truculentus, although the moral picture 
 which it presents is detestable, is remarkably clever, 
 both for the variety of incidents and the graphic delinea- 
 tions of character which it contains. The artful courte- 
 san who dupes and ruins her lovers ; the three lovers 
 themselves — one a man of the town, another an unpoHshed 
 but generous rustic, the third a stupid and conceited 
 soldier; and, lastly, the slave, whose rude sagacity and 
 bluff hatred of courtesans expose him to the imputation 
 of being actually savage (truculentus), are powerfully 
 drawn ; but, notwithstanding its merits, it is not a play 
 which can possibly please the tastes and sentiments of 
 modem times. 
 
 Plautus must not be dismissed without some notice of 
 his prologues. The prologue of the Greek drama prepared 
 the audience for the action of the play, by narrating all 
 the previous events of the story, which were necessary in 
 order to understand the plot. That of the modem stage 
 is an address of the poet to the spectators, praying for in- 
 dulgence, deprecating severe criticism, enlivened frequently 
 by characteristic sketches and satirical observations on the 
 manners and habits of the age. In these features it some- 
 times resembles the parabasis of the old Attic comedy. 
 The prologues of Plautus united all these objects; and 
 whilst they introduced the comedy, their amusing gaiety 
 was calculated to put the audience in good humour and 
 
98 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 secure their applause. The shrewd knowledge which the 
 author displayed in them of the character of his feUow- 
 countrymen claimed their sympathies, and called forth 
 their prejudices in his favour ; whilst their pohsh and 
 finish must have been appreciated by an assembly whose 
 attention had not begun to flag or to weary. Some are 
 long pieces. That of the Amphitruo, which is the longest, 
 extends to upwards of one hundred and fifty Hues. That 
 of the Trinunmius takes the unusual form of a brief 
 allegorical dialogue between Luxury and her daughter 
 Poverty. 
 
( ^99 ) 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 STATIUS COMPARED WITH MENANDER — CRITICISM OF CICERO — HYPO- 
 THESES RESPECTING THE EARLY LIFE OF TERENCE— ANECDOTE 
 BELATED BY DONATUS — STYLE AND MORALITY OF TERENCE — 
 ANECDOTE OF HIM RELATED BY CORNELIUS NEPOS — HIS PECUNIARY 
 CIRCUMSTANCES AND DEATH - PLOTS AND CRITICISM OF HIS COME- 
 DIES—THE REMAINING COMIC POETS. 
 
 CjECILIUS STATIUS. 
 
 Between Plautus and Terence flourished Csecilius Sta- 
 tins, whom Volcatins, as well as Cicero,^ places at the 
 head of the Hst of Eoman comic poets. He was an 
 emancipated slave, and was born at Milan. The time of 
 his birth is unknown, but he died a.u.c. 586, and was 
 therefore a contemporary of Ennius. He did not depart 
 from the estabUshed custom of transferring the comedy 
 of the Grreek stage to that of Rome, and, as far as a judg- 
 ment can be formed from the titles of his forty-five 
 comedies which are extant, they were all " Palliatce." 
 The collection of fragments remaining of his works is a 
 large one, but they are not sufficiently long or connected 
 to test the favourable opinion entertained by the critics 
 of ancient times. 
 
 Aulus GreUius^ enables us to estimate the powers of 
 C. Statins as a translator by a comparison of two 
 passages taken from his " Plocius " with the original 
 of Menander. The result is, that the usual fault of 
 translations is too plainly manifest, namely, the loss of 
 the spirit and vigour. " Our comedies," he remains, " are 
 
 ' De Opt. Gen. Die. i. ° Noct. Att. ii. 23. 
 
 H 2 
 
100 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 written in an elegant and graceful style, and may be 
 read with pleasure; but if compared with the Greek 
 originals, they fall so far short that the arms of Glaucus 
 could not have been more inferior to those of Diomede : 
 the. Greek is full of emotion, wit, and Hveliness ; the 
 Latin duU and uninteresting. " Cicero, likewise, and Varro 
 have pronounced judgment upon his merits and demerits. 
 The sum and substance of their criticisms appear to be, 
 that his excellences consisted in the conduct of the plot,^ 
 in dignity,^ and in pathos,^ whilst his fault was not 
 sufficient care in preserving the purity of Latin style. 
 
 Cicero,* though not without hesitation, assigns the 
 pahn to him amongst the writers of Latin comedy, as he 
 awards that of epic poetry to Ennius, and that of tragedy 
 to Pacuvius.^ He says, on the other hand,* that the 
 bad Latin of CsecUius and Pacuvius formed exceptions to 
 the usual style of their age, which was as commendable 
 for its Latinity as for its innocence. And in a letter to 
 Atticus,* he writes : — " I said, not as Csecihus, Mane ut 
 ex portu in Pirceum, but as Terence, whose plays, on 
 account of their elegant Latinity, were thought to have 
 been written by C. Lselius, Heri aliquot adolescentuH 
 coimus in Pirseum." Horace,* without stating his own 
 opinion, gives, as that commonly received in his day, 
 that CseciHus is superior in dignity (gravitate), Terence 
 in skill (arte). 
 
 The prologue of Terence's comedy of the Hecyra 
 proves that the earlier plays of Caecilius had a great 
 struggle to achieve success. The actor who dehvers it, 
 an old fiivourite with the public, and probably the 
 manager, apologizes for bringing forward a play which 
 had been once rejected (exacta), on the ground that by 
 perseverance in a similar course he had caused the recep- 
 
 ' Varro. * Horace. "Varro. ' De Opt. Gen. Orat. i. 
 
 » Brut. 258. « Lib. vii. 3. =■ Ep. ii. 1. 
 
HYPOTHESES RESPECTING TERENCE, 101 
 
 tion and approval of not one but many of the come- 
 dies of Csecilius which had been nnsuccessfal, and adds, 
 that of those which did succeed, some had a narrow 
 escape. 
 
 p. TERENTIXJS AFER. 
 
 P. Terentius Afer was a slave in the fanuly of a 
 Roman senator, P. Terentius Lucanus. His early his- 
 tory is involved in obscurity, but he is generally supposed 
 to have been born A.u.o. 561/ His cognomen, Afer, 
 points to an African origin, for it was a common custom 
 to distinguish slaves by an ethnical name. Whether 
 there is any sufficient authority for the tradition that 
 he was a native of Carthage is uncertain. He could 
 not, as was rightly observed by FenesteUa,^ have been 
 actually a prisoner of war, because he was both bom and 
 died in the interval between the first and second Punic 
 Wars ; nor, if he had been captured by the Numidians 
 or Gsetulians in any war which these tribes carried on 
 with Carthage, could he have come into the possession 
 of a Eoman General by purchase, for there was no 
 commercial intercourse between these nations and Eome 
 until after the destruction of Carthage. 
 
 Another hypothesis has been suggested, which is by 
 no means improbable.* During the interval which 
 elapsed between the first and second Punic Wars, the 
 Carthaginians were involved in wars with their own 
 mercenaries, the Numidians, and the southern Iberians. 
 Some embassies from Eome also visited Carthage. Te- 
 rence, therefore, may possibly have been taken prisoner 
 in one of these wars, have been purchased by a Eoman 
 in the Carthaginian slave-market, and so have been 
 carried to Eome. What his condition was in the house 
 
 ' B. c. 193. * See Life of Ter. in Ed. Varior. 
 
 3 See Smith's Diet, of Ant. s. v. 
 
102 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 of Lucanus is not known; but it is clear that he had 
 opportunities of cultivating his natural talents, and 
 acquiring that refined and masterly acquaintance with 
 all the niceties and elegancies of the Latin language 
 which his comedies exhibited; and it is probable, also, 
 that very early in life he obtained his freedom. 
 
 His first essay as a dramatic author was " The Andrian," 
 perhaps the most interesting, certainly the most affect- 
 ing, of all his comedies. Terence, an unknown and 
 obscure young man, offered his play to the Ourule -^diles. 
 They, accordingly, we are told, referred the new candi- 
 date to the experienced judgment of Caecilius Statins, then 
 at the height of his popularity. Terence, in humble 
 garb, was introduced to the poet whilst he was at supper, 
 and, seated on a low stool near the couch on which 
 Caecilius was reclining, he commenced reading. He had 
 finished but a few Hnes when Csecilius invited him to sit 
 by him and sup with him. He rapidly ran through the 
 rest of his play, and gained the unqualified admiration 
 of liis hearer. This story is related by Donatus, but 
 whether there is any truth in it is very doubtful. It is, 
 at any rate, certain that " The Andrian " was not brought 
 forward immediately after obtaining this decision in its 
 favour, for the date of its first representation' is two 
 years subsequent to the death of Csecilius. 
 
 Talents of so popular a kind as those of Terence, and 
 a genius presenting the rare combination of all the fine 
 and delicate touches which characterize true Attic senti- 
 ment, without corrupting the native ingenuous purity of 
 the Latin language, could not long remain in obscurity. 
 He was soon eagerly sought for as a guest and a com- 
 panion by those who could appreciate his powers. The 
 great Eoman nobility, such as the Scipiones, the Lselii, 
 the Scsevolse, and the Metelli, had a taste for literature. 
 
 ' B. c. 166 ; A. u. c. 688. 
 
HIS STYLE AND MORALITY. 103 
 
 Like tlie Tyranni in Sicily and Greece, and like some of 
 the Italian princes in the middle ages, they assembled 
 around them circles of literary men, of whom the poHte 
 and hospitable host himself formed the nucleus and 
 centre. 
 
 The purity and graceftdness of the style of Terence, 
 "per qvMra dulces Latini leporis facetice nituerunt,"^ show 
 that the conversation of his accomplished friends was not 
 lost upon his correct ear and quick intuition. To these 
 habits of good society may also be attributed the leading 
 moral characteristics of his comedies. He invariably 
 exhibits the humanity and benevolence of a cultivated 
 mind. He cannot bear loathsome and disgusting vice : 
 he deters the young from the unlawful indulgence of 
 their passions by painting such indulgence as inconsistent 
 with the refined habits and tastes of a gentleman. 
 
 His truthfulness compels him to depict habits and 
 practices which were recognized and allowed, as well by 
 the manners of the Athenians, from whom his comedies 
 were taken, as by the lax morality of Eoman fashionable 
 society. Nor can we expect from a heathen writer of 
 comedy so high a tone of morality as to lash vice with 
 the severe censure which the Christian feels it deserves, 
 however venial society may pronounce it to be. It is as 
 much as can be hoped for, if we find the principles of 
 good taste brought forward on the stage to influence 
 pubhc morals. Even the code of Christian society too 
 often contents itself with rebuking such vice as inter- 
 feres with its own comfort or safety, and stigmatises 
 conduct, not for its immorality, but for its being unbe- 
 coming a gentleman. It is a standard which has its 
 use, but it is not higher than the Terentian. 
 
 And if the plays of Terence are compared with those 
 of authors professing to be Christians, which form part 
 
 ' Valerius Paterc. 
 
104 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 of the classical literature of the English nation, and were 
 nnhlushingly witnessed on their representation by some 
 of both sexes, who, nevertheless, professed a regard for 
 character, how immeasurably superior are the comedies 
 of the heathen poet ! Point out to the young the 
 greater light and knowledge which the Christian enjoys, 
 and the plays of Terence may be read without moral 
 danger. No amount of colouring and caution would be 
 sufficient to shield the mind of an ingenuous youth from 
 the imminent peril of being corrupted by those of 
 Wycherly and Congreve. Pictures of Eoihan manners 
 must represent them as corrupt, or they would not be 
 truthful J but often a good lesson is ehcited from them. 
 When the deceived wife reproachfully asks her offending 
 husband with what face he can rebuke his son because 
 he has a mistress, when he himself has two wives,* one 
 is far more struck with the honour which the strictness 
 of Eoman virtue paid to the nuptial tie, than offended at 
 the lenient view which is taken of the young man's fault. 
 The knaveries and tricks of Davus^ meet with sufficient 
 poetical justice in his fright and his flogging. The very- 
 dress in which the Meretrix, or woman of abandoned 
 morals, was costumed, kept constantly before the eyes 
 of the Eoman youth their grasping avarice, and therefore 
 warned them of the ruin which awaited their victims ; 
 and the well-known passage,^ in which the loathsome 
 habits of this class are described, must have been, as 
 Terence himself says, a preservative of youthful virtue: — 
 
 Nosse omnia hsBC saluti est adolescentulis. 
 
 The Pandar, who basely, for the sake of filthy lucre, minis- 
 ters to the passions of the young, is represented as the 
 most degraded and contemptible of mortals. The Para- 
 site, who earns his meal by flattering and fawning on his 
 rich patron, is made the butt of unsparing ridicule. 
 
 ' Phorm. V. viii. " Andr. v. ii. ' Eunuchus, v. iv. 
 
ANECDOTE RELATED BY NEPOS. 105 
 
 And the timid, simple maiden, confiding too implicitly 
 in the affections of her lover, and sacrificing her interests 
 to that love, and not to Inst or love of gain, is painted 
 in snch colours as to command the spectator's pity and 
 sympathy, and to call forth his approbation when she is 
 deservedly reinstated in her position as an honourable 
 matron. Lastly, her lover is not represented as a profli- 
 gate, revelling in the indiscriminate indulgence of his 
 passions, and rendering vice seductive by engaging man- 
 ners and fascinating qualities ; but we feel that his sin 
 necessarily results from the absence of a high tone of 
 pubHc morality to protect the young against temptation ; 
 and in all cases the reality and permanency of his affec- 
 tion for the victim of his wrongdoing is proved by his 
 readiness and anxiety to become her husband. 
 
 So far as it can be so, comedy was in the hands of 
 Terence an instrument of moral teaching, for it can only 
 be so indirectly by painting men and manners as they 
 are, and not as they ought to be. 
 
 It is said that the patrons of Terence assisted him in 
 the composition of his comedies, or, at least, corrected 
 their language and style, and embellished them by the 
 insertion of scenes and passages. An anepdote is related 
 by Cornelius Nepos,^ which, if true, at once proves the 
 point. He says that Lselius was at his villa near 
 PuteoH during the festival of the Matronalia. On this 
 hoHday the power of the Eoman ladies was absolute. 
 Lsehus was ordered by his wife to come to supper early. 
 He excused himself on the ground that he was occupied, 
 and begged not to be disturbed. When he appeared in 
 the supper-room, he said he had never been so well 
 satisfied with his compositions. He was asked for a 
 specimen of what he had written, and immediately 
 repeated a scene in the " Self-Tormentor "^ of Terence. 
 
 ' Fr. Inoert. 6. '' Satis pol, &c., iv. 4. 1. 
 
106 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Terence, however, gently refiites this story in the pro- 
 logue to the "Adelphi," and gives it a positive con- 
 tradiction in the prologue to the comedy in which the 
 passage occurs. Perhaps he may at first have permitted 
 the report to be credited for the sake of paying a 
 compHment to his patron. 
 
 There is a tradition that he lived and died in poverty, 
 and this tale is perpetuated in the following lines by 
 Porcius Licinius : — 
 
 Nil PubHus 
 Scipio profuit, nihil ei Laelius, nil Furiiis, 
 Tres per idem tempus qui agitabant nobiles faciUume, 
 Eorum ille opere ne domum quidem habuit conductitium 
 Saltern ut esset quo referret obitum domini servulus. 
 
 Nothing did PubUus Scipio profit him ; 
 
 Nothing did LseUus, nothing Furius ; 
 
 At once the three great patrons of our bard. 
 
 And yet so niggard of their bounty to him, 
 
 He had not even wherewithal to hire 
 
 A house in Kome to which a faithful slave 
 
 Might bring the tidings of his master's death. Colman. 
 
 The patrons of Terence, however, never deserved the 
 reproach of meanness. Nor could the comic poet have 
 been very poor. He received large sums for his comedies ; 
 he had funds sufficient to reside for some time in Greece ; 
 and at his death he possessed gardens on the Appian Way 
 twenty jugera in extent. 
 
 A mystery hangs over his death, which took place 
 
 B.C. 158.^ It is not known whether he died in Greece, 
 
 or was lost at sea, together with all the comedies of 
 
 Menander, which he had translated whilst in Greece, or 
 
 whether, after embarking for Asia, he was, as Volcatius 
 
 writes, never seen more : — 
 
 Ut Afer sex populo edidit comoedias 
 Iter hinc in Afiiam fecit, navim cum semel 
 Oonsoendit visus nunquam est. Sic vita vacat. 
 
 One daughter married to a Eoman knight survived him. 
 
 Hier. Chron. OL civ. 3. 
 
PLOT OF THE ANDRIAN. 107 
 
 Six comedies by Terence remain, and it is probable 
 that these are aU that he ever wrote ; they belong to the 
 class technically denominated Palliatce. 
 
 " The Andrian." 
 
 " The Andrian " was exhibited at the Megalensian 
 games, a.tj.c. 588,* when the poet was in his twenty- 
 seventh year. The musical accompaniment was per- 
 formed on equal flutes, right-handed and left-handed 
 {tibiis paribus dextris et sinistris) ; i. e., as the action was 
 of a serio-comic character, the Hvely music of the tibice 
 dextrce was used in the comic scenes ; the solemn sounds 
 of the tibice sinistrce accompanied the serious portion. 
 The manners are Greek, and the scene is laid at Athens. 
 
 The plot is as follows : — Glycerium, a young Athenian 
 girl, is placed under the care of an Andrian, who educates 
 her with his daughter Chrysis. On his death Chrysis 
 migrates to Athens, taking Glycerium with her as her 
 sister, and is driven by distress to become a courtesan.^ 
 Pamphilus, the son of Simo, falls in love with Glycerium, 
 and promises her marriage. Simo accidentally discovers 
 his son's attachment in the following manner : — Chrysis 
 dies, and at her funeral Glycerium imprudently approaches 
 too near to the burning pile. Her lover rushes forward 
 and embraces her, and affectionately expostulates with 
 her for thus risking her life. " Dearest Glycerium !" he 
 exclaims, " what are you doing ? why do you rush to 
 destruction ?" Upon this the girl burst into a flood of 
 tears, and threw herself into his arms. Simo had mean- 
 while betrothed Pamphilus to Plulumena, the daughter 
 of Chremes ; and although he had discovered his son's 
 passion, and Chremes had heard of the promise of mar- 
 riage, he pretends that the marriage with Plulumena 
 shall stiU take place, in order that he may discover what 
 
 ' B. c. 166. 
 
108 ROBtAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 his son's real sentiments are. In this difficulty, Para- 
 philus applies to Davus, a CTinning and clever slave, who 
 advises him to offer no opposition. At this crisis Glyce- 
 rium is delivered of a child, which Davus causes to be 
 laid at the door of Simo. Chremes sees the infant, and, 
 understanding that Pamphilus is the father, refuses to 
 give him his daughter. The opportune arrival of Crito, 
 an Andrian, discovers to Chremes that Grlycerium is his 
 own daughter, whom on a former absence from Athens 
 he had entrusted to his brother Phania, now dead. Con- 
 sequently Grlycerium is married to Pamphilus, and Philu- 
 mena is given to a young lover, named Charinus, who 
 had hitherto pressed his suit in vain. 
 
 " The Andrian " was, as it deserved to be, eminently 
 successful, and encouraged the young author to persevere 
 in the career which he had chosen. The interest is well 
 sustained, the action is natural, and many scenes touch- 
 ing and pathetic, whilst the serious parts are skilfully 
 relieved by the adroitness of Davus, and his cleverness in 
 getting out of the scrapes in which his cunning involves 
 him. Cicero^ praises the funeral scene^ as an example of 
 that talent for narrative which Terence constantly dis- 
 plays. The substance of his criticism is, that the poet 
 has attained conciseness without the sacrifice of beauty ; 
 and whilst he has avoided wearisome affectation, has not 
 omitted any details which are agreeable and interesting. 
 Nothing can be more beautiful than the struggle between 
 the love and filial duty of Pamphilus,^ which ends with 
 his determination to yield to his father's will ; nothing 
 more candid than his confession, or more upright than 
 his earnest desire not to be suspected of suborning Crito. 
 
 "The Andrian" has been closely imitated in the 
 comedy of "The Conscious Lovers," by Sir Eichard 
 Steele ; but in natural and graceful wit, as w^l as in- 
 
 ' De Orat. ii. 81 . ' Act i. scene i. » Act v. scene iii. 25. 
 
PLOT OF THE ETJNUCHXJS. 109 
 
 genuity, the English play is far inferior to the Eoinan 
 original. 
 
 " Eunuchus." 
 
 " The Eunuch " is a transcript of a comedy by Me- 
 nander. Even the characters are the same, except that 
 Grnatho and Thraso together occupy the place of Colax 
 (the flatterer) in the original Greek. It was represented 
 in the consulship of M. Valerius Messala and C. Fannius 
 Strabo.^ The musical accompaniment was Lydian. It 
 was the most popular of all Terence's plays, and brought 
 the author the largest sum of money that had ever been 
 paid for a comedy previously, namely, 8,000 sestertii, a 
 sum equivalent to about 65/. sterling. In vain Lavinius, 
 Terence's most bitter rival, endeavoured to interrupt the 
 performance, and to accuse the author of plagiarism. 
 His defence was perfectly successful, and Suetonius states^ 
 that it was called for twice in one day. 
 
 " The Eunuch " is not equal to some of Terence's plays 
 in wit and humour ; but the plot is bustling and animated, 
 and the dialogue gay and sparkling : it is also unques- 
 tionably the best acting play of the whole. There is no 
 play in which there is a greater iudividuahty of character, 
 or more effect of histrionic contrast. The lovesick and 
 somewhat effeminate Phsedria contrasts well with the 
 ardent and passionate Chserea, the swaggering, bullying 
 Thraso with the pompous, philosophical parasite, who 
 proposes to found a Grnathonic School. Parmeno is quite 
 as crafty, but far more clever, than Davus, and his de- 
 scription of the evils of love is the perfection of shrewd 
 wisdom. 
 
 The plot is as follows : — Pamphila, the daughter of an 
 Athenian citizen, was kidnapped in her infancy, and sold 
 to a Ehodian. He gave her to a courtesan, who educated 
 her with her own daughter Thais. Subsequently Thais 
 
 ' A.D.O. 592; B.C. 167. " In Vita Ter. 
 
110 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 removes to Athens ; and on the mother's death Pamphila 
 is sold to a soldier, named Thraso. The soldier, being 
 in love with Thais, resolves to make her a present of his 
 purchase ; but Thais has got another lover, Phsedria, and 
 Thraso refuses to give Pamphila to Thais unless Phsedria 
 is first turned off. She, thinking that she has discovered 
 Pamphila's relations, and anxious to restore her to them, 
 persuades Phsedria to absent himself for two days, in 
 order that Thraso may present her with the maiden. 
 Meanwhile Chaerea, Phsedria's younger brother, sees 
 PamphUa accidentally, and falls desperately in love with 
 her. He, therefore, persuades his brother's slave, Par- 
 meno, to introduce him iato Thais' house in the disguise 
 of a eunuch, whom Phsedria had entrusted him to convey 
 to her during his absence. This leads to an Sclaircisse- 
 merit. Pamphila is discovered to be an Athenian citizen, 
 and her brother Chremes gives her in marriage to Chserea. 
 
 The most skilful part of this play is the method by 
 which Terence has connected the underplot between 
 Parmeno and Pythias the waiting-maid of Thais, with 
 the main action, their quarrels being entirely instrumental 
 in bringing about the denouement. Of aU the comedies 
 of Terence, the moral tone of this is the lowest and most 
 degrading. The connivance .of Laches, the father of 
 Chserea, at his ions UHcit amour with Thais, presents a 
 sad picture of moral corruption, as the arrangement cooUy 
 made between Phsedria and Gnatho* displays the mean- 
 ness, which evidently was not considered inconsistent 
 with the habits of Eoman society. 
 
 Grrievous as are these blemishes, this comedy must 
 always be a favourite. There are in it passages of which 
 the lapse of ages has not diminished the pungency : 
 take, for example, the quiet satire contained in the con- 
 trast which Chserea draws between the healthful and 
 
 ' Act V. scene ix. 
 
HEAUTONTIMORUMENOS. Ill 
 
 natural beauty of his mistress and the " every-day forms 
 of which his eyes are weary :" — 
 
 Ch. Haud similis virgo 'st virginum nostrarum ; quas matres student 
 Demissis humeris esse, vincto pectore, ut gracUes sient ; 
 Si qua est habitior paulo, pugflem esse aiunt ; deducunt cibum, i 
 Tametsi bona est natura, reddunt curatura junceas : 
 Itaque ergo amantur. 
 
 Pa. Quid tua istsec. 
 
 Oh. Nova figura oris. 
 
 Pa. Papse ! 
 
 Ch. Color verus, corpus solidum et suooi plenum.' 
 
 "The Eunuch" suggested the plot of Sir Charles 
 Sedley's " BeUamira," was translated by La Fontaine, 
 and imitated in " Le Muet " of Brueys. 
 
 " Heautontimorumenos." 
 
 " The Self-Punisher " is a translation from Menander. 
 It was acted the first time with Phrygian music, the 
 second time with Lydian, in the consulship of the cele- 
 brated Ti. Sempronius Gracchus and M. Juventius 
 Thabia.^ This play may be considered as the masterpiece 
 of Terence ; it was a great favourite, notwithstanding its 
 seriousness, and the absence of comic droUery throughout. 
 Steele^ remarks with truth, that it is a perfect picture of 
 human life ; but there is not in the whole one passage 
 which could raise a laugh. It is a good specimen of the 
 refined taste of Terence, who, unlike Plautus, abhorred 
 vulgarity and ribaldry, and did not often condescend even to 
 humour. Its favourable reception, moreover, proves that, 
 notwithstanding the preference which the Eoman people 
 were incHned to give to gladiatorial shows, and the more 
 innocent amusements of buffoons and rope-dancers, and 
 the noisy mirth with which theatrical entertainments 
 were frequently interrupted, they could appreciate and 
 enjoy a skilfully-constructed plot, and that quality which 
 
 ' Act ii. scene iii. ' A. u. c. 590 ; B.C. 163. ' Spect. No. 502. 
 
112 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Terence especially claims for this comedy,' purity of style. 
 The noble sentiment. 
 
 Homo sum, nihil humanum a me alienum puto, 
 
 was received by the whole audience with a burst of 
 applause. 
 
 Plot. — Clinia, the son of Menedemus, falls in love with 
 Antiphila, supposed to be the daughter of a poor Corinthian 
 woman, and, to avoid his father's anger, enters the service 
 of the king of Persia. Menedemus, repenting of his 
 severity, punishes himself by purchasing a farm, and, 
 giving up aU the luxuries of a town Ufe, works hard fronf 
 morning to night. Like Laertes, in the Odyssey, he 
 seeks by occupation to divert his mind from the contem- 
 plation of his son's absence : — 
 
 The mournful hour that tore his son away 
 Sent the sad sire in solitude to stray ; 
 Yet, busied with his slaves, to ease his woe 
 He drest the vine, and bade the garden blow. 
 
 Odys.-xyi. 145. 
 
 CHnia returns from Asia, and takes up his abode at the 
 house of his friend CHtipho, the son of Chremes. This 
 CHtipho has fallen in love with Bacchis, an extravagant 
 courtesan ; and Syrus, an artftd slave, persuades him to 
 pass off Bacchis as the object of Chnia's affection, and 
 AntiphUa as her waiting-maid. Chremes, next day, to 
 whom Menedemus had communicated his grief and re- 
 morse, acquaints him with the return of his son, and re- 
 commends him to pretend ignorance of his amour. By 
 the intrigues and knavery of Syrus, Chremes is induced 
 to pay 10 minse (40/.) to CHtipho for the support of 
 Bacchis. Sostrata, the wife of Chremes, has meanwhile 
 discovered, by a ring in her possession, that Antiphila is 
 her daughter. She had, according to the cruel Athenian 
 practice, given her to the Corinthian in infancy ^hat she 
 
 ' Prol. 46. 
 
AMIABLE AND GENEROUS SENTIMENTS. 113 
 
 might not be exposed ; she had given the ring, the means 
 of her discovery, at the same time. Chnia, therefore, 
 marries Antiphila; and Chremes, although enraged at 
 the imposition of Syrus, forgives him and his son, and 
 Clitipho promises that he will give up Bacchis and marry 
 a neighbour's daughter. 
 
 This play abounds in amiable and generous sentiments 
 and passages of simple and graphic beauty. The whole 
 scene, in which the habits of the poor girl whom CHnia 
 loves is described, is exquisitely true to nature. Her 
 occupation is like that of the chaste Lucretia in the 
 legend : — 
 
 Texentem telam studiose ipsam offendimus, 
 
 Mediocriter vestitam veste lugubri, 
 
 Ejus anuis causa, opinor, quse erat mortua ; 
 
 Sine auro, turn ornatam, ita uti quse omautur sibi ; 
 
 Nulla mala re esse expolitam muliebri ; 
 
 CapiUus passus, prolixus, circum caput 
 
 Bejectus negligenter. Ileaut. II. iii. 
 
 Busily plying of the web we found her, 
 
 Decently clad in mourning, I suppose, 
 
 For the deceased old woman. She had on 
 
 No gold, or trinkets, but was plain and neat. 
 
 And dressed hke those who dress but for themselves. 
 
 No female varnish to set off her beauty ; 
 
 Her hair dishevelled, long, and flowing loose 
 
 About her shoulders. 
 
 The reader cannot but sympathise with the remark 
 of Clitipho, when he has heard this description of 
 virtuous poverty, — " If all this is true, as I believe it is, 
 you are the most fortxmate of men." 
 
 The degraded Bacchis also reads a valuable lesson to her 
 sex, when she shows the blessings of the path of virtue 
 from which she has strayed : — 
 
 Nam expedit bonas esse vobis ; nos, quibuscum est res, non sinunt : 
 Quippe forma impulsi nostra, nos amatores colunt : 
 Hsec ubi immutata est, iUi suum animum alio confenmt. 
 Nisi si prospectum interea aliquid est, desertse vivimus. 
 
 I 
 
114 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Vobis cum uno semel ubi setatem agere deoretum 'st viro, 
 Cujus mos maxume 'st consimilis vostrum, hi se ad vos applicant. 
 Hoc beneficio utrique ab utrisque vero devincimini, 
 Ut nunquam uUa amori vestro incidere possit oalamitas. 
 
 Heaut. II. iv. 
 
 Virtue's your interest : tbose with whom we deal 
 Forbid it to be ours ; for our gallants, 
 Charmed by our beauty, court us but for that ; 
 Which fading, they transfer their love to others. 
 If, then, meanwhile we look not to ourselves. 
 We live forlorn, deserted, and distressed. 
 You, when you've once agreed to pass your life 
 Bound to one man whose temper suits with yours. 
 He too attaches his whole heart to you. 
 Thus mutual friendship draws you each to each ; 
 Nothing can part you, nothing shake your love. 
 
 How beautiful, too, is tlie unselfish devotion of An- 
 tipMla, wlien she artlessly professes to know nothing of 
 other women's feelings, but to know this one thing only, 
 that her happiness is wrapped up in that of her lover ! — 
 
 Nescio aUas; me quidem semper scio fecisse sedulo 
 Ut ex iUius commodo meum oompararem commodum. 
 
 II. iv. 16. 
 
 Phormio. 
 
 The Phormio is a translation or adaptation of the 
 Epidicazomene {the sulyect of the lawsuit) of ApoUodorus : 
 it was entitled Phormio. 
 
 Quia primas partes qui aget, is erit Phormio 
 Parasitus, per quern res geretur maxume.' 
 
 It was acted four times ; on the last occasion in the 
 consulship of C. Pannius Strabo and M. Valerius 
 Messala,^ at the Eoman or Circensian games. 
 
 Plot. — Chremes, an Athenian, although he has a wife at 
 Athens (Nausistrata), marries another at Lemnos under 
 the feigned name of Stilpho. By her he has a daughter. 
 
 ' Prolog 27. * A. V. 0. 5!)2 ; b. c. 161. 
 
THE PHORMIO. 115 
 
 Phanium. When she has attained a marriageable age, 
 Chremes arranges with his brother Demipho that she 
 shall become the wife of his son Antipho. After this, 
 the two old men leave Athens ; and, in their absence, 
 Demipho's son, Phsedria, falls ia love with a minstrel- 
 girl, and the Lemnian wife arrives at Athens, together 
 with her daughter Phanium. There she dies ; and 
 Antipho, seeing Phanium at the funeral, becomes 
 enamoured of her. Not knowing what to do, he takes 
 the advice of Phormio. In the case of a destitute 
 orphan, the Athenian law compelled the nearest of kin 
 to marry her or to give her a portion. Phormio brings 
 an action against Antipho ; the case is proved and he 
 marries Phanium. The old men return, and Chremes, 
 not knowing that Phanium is his own daughter, is 
 desperately angry. Meanwhile, Dorio, the owner of 
 Pamphila, threatens to sell her to some one else unless 
 Phsedria will immediately pay him thirty minse. Geta, 
 a knavish servant of Demipho, procures this money by 
 telHng the old gentleman that Phormio is willing to 
 take Antipho's wife off his hands on condition of receiving 
 thirty mirise. Phanium is eventually discovered and 
 acknowledged, and thus matters are happily concluded. 
 Nausistrata is at first very angry, but relents on the sub- 
 mission of the repentant Chremes. 
 
 This comedy supplied Moliere with a large portion of 
 the materials for " Les Fourberies de Scapin." 
 
 Hecyra. 
 
 This comedy, which, if the inscription may be trusted, 
 is a translation or adaptatiorf from one by Menander, 
 was the least successftd of all the plays of Terence. 
 Twice it was rejected ; on the first occasion, as the pro- 
 logue to its second representation informs us, owing 
 
 I 2 
 
116 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 to "an uuheard-of calamity and impediment."' Tlie 
 thoughts of the public were so occupied by a rope-dancer, 
 that they would not hear a word. Terence feared to risk a 
 second representation on the same day ; but such confidence 
 had he in the merits of the play, that he offered it a 
 second time for sale to the sediles, and it was acted again 
 in the consulship of Cn. Oct^vius and T. Manhus.^ It 
 was acted a third time at the funeral games of L. ^milius 
 Paulus, when it was again rejected. On its next repre- 
 sentation, it was successful ;■ and Ambivius Turpio, by 
 whose theatrical company it was performed, and whose 
 popularity had already caused the revival of some un- 
 successful plays,* undertook to plead its cause in a new 
 prologue. This prologue enters fully into the circum'- 
 stances which caused its rejection. It states that some 
 renowned boxers and expected performances of a rope- 
 dancer caused a great tumult and disturbance, especially 
 among the female part of the audience ; that, at the next 
 representation, the first act went off with applause, but a 
 rumour spread of a gladiatorial combat, the people flocked 
 to a show which was more congenial to their taste, and 
 the theatre was deserted. In conclusion, for the sake of 
 the art of poetry, for the encouragement of himself to 
 buy new plays, and for the protection of the poet from 
 malicious critics, Ambivio entreated the patient atten- 
 tion of the audience ; and the appeal of the old favourite 
 servant of the public was successful. 
 
 The Hecyra is, without doubt, inferior to the other 
 plays of Terence, and probably for that reason has never 
 been imitated in modem literature. It is a drama of 
 domestic life, and yet the plot is deficient in interest, and 
 the scenes want life and variety. 
 Plot. — Pamphilus, at the desire of his father. Laches, mar- 
 
 ' See Prol. i. » b. c. 165 ; a. u. c. 588. ' See Prol. ii. 
 
THE HECYRA. 117 
 
 ries Philumena, the daughter of Phidippus and Myrrhina, 
 but being involved in an amour with Bacchis, has no 
 affection for his wife, and avoids all intercourse with her. 
 Meanwhile, Bacchis, offended at his marriage, shows such 
 ill-temper, that his affection is weaned from her and 
 transferred to Philumena. Pamphilus then goes to 
 Imbrus, and on his return is surprised with the news 
 that Philumena has left his father's house, and subse- 
 quently discovers that she has given birth to a son. He 
 refuses, consequently, to receive her as his wife ; but as he 
 loves her to distraction, he promises her mother that he . 
 wiU keep her shame secret. As he wiU neither live with 
 his wife nor assign any reason, Bacchis is suspected of 
 being the cause. But she clears herself from the sus- 
 picion. Myrrhina, however, recognises upon her finger 
 a ring belonging to her daughter. This leads to the 
 denouement. Pamphilus had one night when intoxicated 
 met Philumena, and offered her violence. He had forced 
 a ring from her finger and given it to Bacchis. He, 
 therefore, with joy, acknowledges the child as his own, 
 and restores his injured wife to his affections. 
 
 The comedy derives its title, Hecyra (the mother-in- 
 law), from the part taken by Sostrata, the mother of 
 Pamphilus. Laches, unable to account for the conduct 
 of Philumena and his son, is firmly persuaded that his 
 wife Sostrata had taken a prejudice against her daughter- 
 in-law, and Pamphilus, notwithstanding his dutiful affec- 
 tion for his mother, cannot avoid being under a similar 
 impression. Sostrata, in order to remove this suspicion, 
 offers with noble generosity to leave the house in order 
 that Philumena may return. 
 
 This amiable rivalry of maternal devotion on the one 
 hand, and filial respect on the other, constitutes the most 
 interesting portion of the comedy ; and Terence has thus 
 endeavoured to rescue the relation of mother-in-law from 
 the prejudice which, too often deservedly, attached to it. 
 
118 roman classical literature. 
 
 Adelphi. 
 
 This comedy was acted at the funeral games of L. 
 iEmilius Paulus Macedonius, the conqueror of Perseus, 
 in the consulship of L. Anicius Grallus and M. Cornelius 
 Cethegus.^ The music was Sarrane or Tyrian, the grave 
 character of which was suitable to the solemnity of the 
 occasion. The cost of the representation was borne by 
 Q.. Fabius Maximus, and P. C. Scipio Africanus, the 
 sons of the deceased. 
 
 Plot. — Demea, a coimtry gentleman and a strict disci- 
 plinarian, has two sonSj-iEschinus and Ctesipho. -^schinus, 
 the elder, is adopted by his uncle Micio, a bachelor of in- 
 dulgent temper and somewhat loose principles, who Hves 
 a town Hfe at Athens. Whilst Ctesipho is brought up 
 strictly in the country, iEschinus is educated with too 
 great indulgence, and pursues a course of riot and extra- 
 vagance. One night, in a moment of drunken passion, 
 he offers violence to Pamphila, a young maiden, weU bom 
 but poor ; for which outrage he makes amends by a pro- 
 mise of marriage. Ctesipho soon after falls in love with 
 a minstrel-girl whom he accidentally meets ; and.^schinus, 
 to save his brother from his father's anger, conceals his 
 amour and takes the discredit of it upon himself At 
 last he assaults the pandar to whom the girl belongs, 
 takes her away by force, and gives her to his brother. 
 The affair comes to Demea's ears, who severely reproves 
 Micio for ruining his son by injudicious indulgence. 
 Matters are at length explained, and the marriage be- 
 tween ^schinus and Pamphila takes place, the minstrel- 
 girl is assigned to Ctesipho, and the price for her paid. 
 The old bachelor, Micio, marries Sostrata, the mother of 
 Pamphila, and, according to the usual rule of comedy, all 
 the inferior persons of the drama are made happy. 
 
 ' A. u.c. 693; B.C. 161. 
 
MORAL OF THE ADEI,PHI. 119 
 
 Lax as the morals are whicli Micio refrains from cor- 
 recting, his conduct illustrates a valuable principle in 
 education; that — 
 
 There is a way of winning more by love 
 
 And urging of the modesty than fear. 
 
 Force works on servile humours, not the free. 
 
 Ben Jonson. 
 
 Nor are the evils Hkely to arise from indifference to 
 moral principle left entirely without an antidote. A wise 
 and not indiscriminate indulgence is upheld by Demea ; 
 and, at the conclusion of the play, he announces his de- 
 liberate change of character, but, at the same time, points 
 out the pernicious errors of that kindness and indulgence 
 which proceeds from impulse and not from principle. 
 
 Dicam tibi : 
 Ut id ostenderem, quod te isti facilem et festivum putant. 
 Id non fieri ex vera vita, neque adeo ex sequo et bono ; 
 Sed assentando atque indulgendo et largiendo, Micio. 
 Nunc adeo, si ob earn rem vobis mea vita invisa, .Machine, est, 
 Quia non justa, injusta, prorsus omnia omnino obsequor ; 
 Missa facio ; efiundite, emite, facite, quod vobis lubet. 
 Sed ai id voltis potius, quae vos propter adulesoentiam 
 Minus videtis, magis impense cupitis, consulitis parum, 
 Hsso reprehendere et corrigere quam, obsecundare in loco ; 
 Ecce me qui id faciam vobis. 
 
 Now, thereforg, if I'm odious to you, son. 
 
 Because I'm not subservient to your humour 
 
 In aU things, right or wrong ; away with care ; 
 
 Spend, squander, and do what you will. But if; 
 
 In those affairs where youth has made you bhnd, 
 
 Eager, and thoughtless, you wiU suffer me 
 
 To counsel and correct you, and in due season 
 
 Indulge you, I am at your service. Colman. 
 
 This twofold lesson is by no means a useless one to 
 parents, not to purchase the affection of their children by 
 injudicious indulgence like Micio, nor, on the other hand, 
 like Demea, to strain the cord too tight, and thus tempt 
 their children to pursue a course of deceit, and to refuse 
 their confidence to their natural advisers and guardians 
 
120 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 The most beautifal feature, however, of the play is the 
 picture which it gives of fraternal affection. This was 
 the last comedy of the author. It furnished Moliere 
 with the idea of his "Ecole des Maris," and Baron 
 with great part of the plot of "L'Ecole des Peres." 
 ShadweU was also indebted to it for his " Squire of 
 Alsatia," and Grarrick for his comedy of " The Gruardian." 
 
 The following comparison of the two great Eoman 
 comic poets by a French critic is a just one : — 
 
 " Ce poete (Terence) a beaucoup plus d'art, mais il me 
 semble que I'autre a plus d'esprit. Terence fait beaucoup 
 plus parler qu agir ; I'autre fait plus agir que parler : et 
 c'est le veritable caractere de la comedie, qui est beau- 
 coup plus dans Taction que dans le discours. Cette 
 vivacite me paroit donner encore un grand avantage a 
 Plaute ; c'est que ses intrigues sont bien variees, et ont 
 toujours quelque chose qui surprend agreablement ; au Heu 
 que le theatre semble languir quelquefois dans Terence, 
 a qui la vivacite de Taction et les nceuds des incidens et 
 des intrigues manquent manifestement." 
 
 If Terence was inferior to Plautus in life and bustle 
 and intrigue, and in the powerfiil deliaeation of national 
 character, he is superior in elegance of language and re- 
 finement of taste : he far more rarely offends against 
 decency, and he substitutes delicacy of sentiment for 
 vulgarity. The justness of his reflections more than 
 compensates for the absence of his predecessor's humour : 
 he touches the heart as well as gratifies the intellect. 
 
 If he was deficient iu vis comica it is only the defect 
 which Caesar attributed to Eoman comedy generally; and 
 Cicero, who thought that Roman wit was even more 
 piquant than Attic salt itself, paid him a merited com- 
 phment in the following line : — 
 
 Quicquid come loquens atque omnia dulcia dioens. 
 
 It has been objected to Terence that he superabounds 
 
APRANITJS ATILIXJS. 121 
 
 in soliloquies;^ but it is not surprising that he should have 
 deKghted in them, since no author has ever surpassed 
 him in narrative. His natural and unaffected simphcity 
 renders him the best possible teller of a story : he never 
 indulges in a display of forced wit or in attempts at 
 epigrammatic sharpness; there are no superfluous touches, 
 although his pictures are enhvened by sufficient minute- 
 ness ; his moral lessons are conveyed in familiar proverb- 
 like suggestions, not in duU and pedantic dogmatism. 
 
 The remaining comic poets will require but brief 
 notice. L. Afranius was a contemporary of Terence, and 
 flourished about b. c. 150. His comedies were aU of the 
 lowest class of fahulce togatoe (tabernarise) ; and he was 
 generally allowed by the critics to possess great skill in 
 accommodating the Greek comedy to the representation 
 of Roman manners : — 
 
 Dicitur Afrani toga convenisse Menandro. 
 
 Ew. Ep. II. i. 57. 
 
 His style was short and eloquent {perargutus et dis- 
 ertus),^ but he was a man of low tastes and profligate 
 morals -^ and, therefore, although from Hving amidst the 
 scenes of vulgar vice which he dehghted to paint his 
 characters were true to nature, they were revolting and 
 disgusting. His immorahty, probably, as much as his 
 talent, caused him to continue a favourite under the most 
 corrupt times of the empire. Fragments and titles of 
 many of his comedies have been preserved. 
 
 The name of Atilius is made known to us by Cicero, 
 who mentions him three times. In a letter to Atticus,* 
 he calls him a most crabbed poet {poeta durissimus), and 
 quotes the following line from one of his comedies : — 
 
 Suam cuique sponsam, mihi meam ; suum ouique amorem, mihi meum. 
 
 ' Warton, in the Adventurer. » Cic. Brut. 167. " Quint, x. i. 100. 
 
 ' Lib. xiv. 20. 
 
132 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITEEATURE. 
 
 In the treatise " De Finibus,'"- he speaks of him as 
 the author of a bad translation of the Electra of So- 
 phocles, and refers to the testimony of Licinius, who 
 pronounces him as " hard as iron " — 
 
 Ferreum scriptorem ; verum opinor ; scriptorem tamen 
 Ut legendus sit ; 
 
 and, lastly, in the " Tusculan Disputations,"" he gives the 
 title of one of his plays — MuKr^vvo^ (the Woman-hater). 
 Of his birth and private history nothing has been re- 
 corded. 
 
 P. Licinius Tegula is generally supposed to have been 
 one of the oldest of the Latin comic writers, having 
 flourished as early as the beginning of the second century 
 B. c. The few fragments which remain of his works 
 afford no opportunity of determining how far he deserved 
 the place assigned to him in the epigram of Volcatius. 
 
 Lavinius Luscius is severely criticised by Terence in 
 his prologues to the Eunuchus, Heautontimorumenos, and 
 Phormio, although he is not mentioned by name. Te- 
 rence, however, defends the severity of his strictures, on 
 the ground that Luscius was the first aggressor. In the 
 first of the above-mentioned prologues, we are informed 
 that he translated well ; but, by unskilful alterations and 
 adaptations of the plots, made bad Latin comedies out of 
 good Grreek ones : — 
 
 bene vertendo at desoribendo male 
 
 Ex Graecis bonis Latinas fecit non bonas. 
 
 Two plays of Menander are mentioned as having been 
 thus ill-treated — the Phasma (Phantom), and the The- 
 saurus (Treasure). How he spoilt the plot of the former 
 is not stated ; but, in the version of the Thesaurus, Te- 
 rence convicts Luscius of a legal blunder. A young 
 prodigal has sold his inheritance, on which his father's 
 
 ' Lib. i. 2. * Lib. iv, ii. 
 
Q. TRABEA SEXTUS TURPILIUS. 123 
 
 tomb stands, to an old miser. The father, foreseeing 
 the consequence of his son's extravagance, had, before 
 his death, bid him open the tomb after the expiration of 
 ten years. He does so, and finds a treasure. The old 
 man claims the treasure as his own, and the young man 
 brings an action to recover it. The mistake of which 
 Luscius was guilty, was, that in the conduct of the 
 cause he made the defendant open the pleadings instead 
 of the plaintiff. 
 
 Of the works of Q. Trabea no fragments remain except 
 the short passages quoted by Cicero,^ and the time at 
 which he flourished is unknown. There is an anecdote 
 which relates that Muretus presented to Jos. Scaliger a 
 translation in Latin verse from a poem of Philemon, pre- 
 served by Stobseus, which he pretended was by Trabea. 
 Scaliger was imposed upon ; and, in his notes on Varro, 
 quoted the verses of Muretus as the work of Trabea. 
 When he discovered the trick, he suppressed them in the 
 Latin editions of his notes, and revenged hinaself on 
 Muretus by a UbeUous epigram.^ 
 
 The last of these dramatic writers who remains to be 
 mentioned is Sextus TurpiHus. A few fragments, as well 
 as the titles of some of his plays, are still extant. All 
 the titles are Grreek, and, therefore, probably his comedies 
 were Fabulce PalliatcB. He flourished during the second 
 century b. c, and died, according to the Eusebian Chro- 
 nicle, at the commencement of the first century.^ 
 
 ' De Fin. ii. 4 ; Tusc. Dis. iv. 31. " Diet. Univ. s. v. 
 
 " See Smith's Diet of Antiq. s. v. 
 
124 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 WHY TRAGEDY DID NOT FLOURISH AT ROME — ^NATIONAL LEGENDS 
 NOT INFLUENTIAL WITH THE PEOPLE — FABUL^ PRjETEXTATjE — 
 ROMAN RELIGION NOT IDEAL — ROMAN LOVE FOR SCENES OF REAL 
 ACTION AND GORGEOUS SPECTACLE — TRAGEDY NOT PATRONISED 
 BY THE PEOPLE — PACUVIUS — HIS DULORESTES AND PAULUS. 
 
 From what has been already said, it is sufficiently clear 
 that the Italians, like all other Indo-European races, had 
 some taste for the drama, but that this taste developed 
 itself in, a love for scenes of humorous satire. Whilst, 
 therefore, Eoman comedy originated in Italy, and was 
 brought to perfection by the influence of Greek literature, 
 Eoman tragedy,^ on the other hand, was transplanted 
 from Athens, and, with the exception of a very few cases, 
 was never anything more than translation or imitation. 
 
 In the century, during which, together with comedy, 
 it flourished and decayed, it boasted of five distinguished 
 writers — Livius, Nsevius, Ennius, Pacuvius, and Attius, 
 The only claim of Atilius to be considered as a tragic 
 poet is his having, been the translator of one Greek 
 tragedy. But, in after ages, Eome did not produce one 
 tragic poet unless Varius can be considered an exception. 
 His tragedy, Thyestes, enjoyed so high a reputation 
 amongst the critics of the Augustan age, that Quintihan, 
 whose judgment generally agrees with them, pronounces 
 
 ' See on this subject Lange, Viiid. Trag. Eom. Leips. 1823. 
 
WHY TRAGEDY DID NOT FLOURISH. 125 
 
 it as able to bear comparison with, tlie productions of the 
 Greek tragic poets. It was acted on one occasion, 
 namely, after the return of Octavius from the battle of 
 Actium, and the poet received for it 1,000,000 sesterces 
 (about 8,000^.).' The tragedies attributed to Seneca 
 were never acted, and were only composed for reading 
 and recitation. 
 
 Some account has already been given of Livius, Nsevius, 
 andEnnius, because their poetical reputation rests rather on 
 other grounds than on their talents for dramatic poetry. 
 But, before proceeding with the lives and Avritings of 
 Pacuvius and Attius, it will be necessary to examine the 
 causes which prevented tragedy from flourishing at 
 Rome. 
 
 In endeavouring to account for this phenomenon, it is 
 not sufficient to say, that in the national legends of the 
 Hellenic race were embodied subjects essentially of a 
 dramatic character, and that epic poetry contained in- 
 cidents, characters, sentiments, and even dramatic ma- 
 chinery, which only required to be put upon the stage. 
 Doubtless, the Grreek epics and legends were an inex- 
 haustible source of inspiration to the tragic poets. But 
 it is also true that the Romans had national legends 
 which formed the groundwork of their history, and were 
 interwoven in their early literature. These legends, 
 however, were private not public property ; they were 
 preserved in the records and pedigrees of private families, 
 and ministered to their glory, and were therefore more 
 interesting iq the members of these houses than to the 
 people at large : they were not preserved as a national 
 treasure by priestly families, like those of the Attic 
 Eumolpidse, nor did they twine themselves around the 
 hearts of the Eoman people, as the venerable traditions of 
 Greece did around those of that nation. The Romans 
 
 ' Hor. Serm. i. 9, 23 ; Ep. Pis. 55 ; Mdrt. Ep.viii. 18. 
 
126 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 did not live in tliein — they were embalmed in their poets 
 as curious records of antiquity or acknowledged fictions — 
 they did not furnish occasions for awakening national 
 enthusiasm. Although, therefore, they existed, they 
 were comparatively powerless over the popular mind as 
 elements of dramatic effect. 
 
 They were jealously preserved by illustrious houses, 
 furnished materials in a dry and unadorned form to the 
 Annalists, and were embellished by the graphic power of 
 the historian, but it is not probable that they ever con- 
 stituted, in the same sense as the Grreek legends, the folk- 
 lore of the Eoman people. In themselves, the lays of 
 Horatius and of the lake Eegillus were sufficiently stir- 
 ring, and those of Lucretia, Coriolanus, and Virginia suffi- 
 ciently moving, for tragedy, but they were not famiHar to 
 the masses of the people. 
 
 A period at length arrived in which there was a still 
 further reason why Eoman national legends, however 
 adapted for tragedy they might be abstractedly, had not 
 power to move the affections of the Eoman populace. It 
 ceased to have a personal interest in them. The masses 
 had undergone a complete change. The Eoman people 
 of the most flourishing Hterary eras were not the de- 
 scendants of those who iaaintained the national glory in 
 the legendary period. Not only were almost all the 
 patrician famihes then extinct, but war and poverty had 
 extinguished the middle classes and miserably thinned the 
 lower orders. The old veterans of pure Eoman blood 
 who survived were settled at a distance from Eome in 
 the different military colonies. Into the vacancy thus 
 caused had poured thousands of slaves, captives in the 
 bloody wars of Graul and Spain, and Grreece and Africa. 
 These and their descendants replaced the ancient people. 
 Many of them received liberty and franchise, and some 
 by their talents and energy arrived at wealth and station. 
 But they could not possibly be Eomans at heart, or con- 
 
NATIONAL TRADITIONS NOT INFLUENTIAL. 127 
 
 sider the past glories of their adopted country as their 
 own. They were bound by no ties of old associations to 
 it. The ancient legends had no especial interest in their 
 eyes. It mattered little whether the incidents and cha- 
 racters of the tragedy which they witnessed were Greek or 
 Roman. It was to the rise of this new element of popu- 
 lation, and the displacement or absorption of the old race, 
 that the decHne of patriotism was owing — the careless 
 disregard of everything except daily sustenance and daily 
 amusement,' which paved the way for the empire and 
 marked the downfall of liberty. From this cause, also, 
 resulted in some degree the non-influential position which 
 national traditions occupied at Eome ; and tragedy, though 
 for a time popular, could not maintain its popularity. 
 Thus it entirely disappeared ; and, when it revived, it 
 came forth, not as the favourite of the people, but under 
 the patronage of select circles, and took its place, not 
 Hke Athenian tragedy as the leading hterature of the age, 
 but simply as one species of literary composition. 
 
 A people made up of these elements held out no tempt- 
 ation to the poet to leave the beaten track of his pre- 
 decessor, the imitations of Grreek tragedy. They were 
 stepsons of Eome, as Scipip ^milianus called the mob, 
 who clamoured at his saying that the death of Tiberius 
 Grracchus was just: — 
 
 Mercedibus emptse 
 Et viles operas quibus est mea Roma noverca. 
 
 Petron. v. 164. 
 
 The poet's real patrons had been educated on Greek 
 principles ; and hence, Greek taste was completely tri- 
 umphant over national legend, and the heroes of Eoman 
 tragedy were those who were celebrated in Hellenic story. 
 The Eoman historical plays (Prsetextatse), which ap- 
 
 ' Juv. Sat. X. 80. 
 
128 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 preached most nearly towards reaUzing the idea of a 
 national tragedy, were graceful compliments to distin- 
 guished individuals. They were usuaEy performed at 
 pubHc funerals ; and as, in the procession, masks repre- 
 senting the features of the deceased were home by persons 
 of similar stature, so incidents in his life -formed the 
 subject of the drama which was exhibited on the occasion. 
 
 The list of Fahulce Prcetextatce, even if it were perfect, 
 would occupy but narrow limits : nor had they sufficient 
 merits to stand the test of time. They survive hut in 
 name, and the titles extant are but nine in number : — 
 
 The Paulus of Pacuvius, which represented an incident 
 in the life of L. ^Emihus Paulus.^ 
 
 The Brutus, ^neadse, and MarceUus of Attius." 
 
 Iter ad Lentulum, a passage in the Hfe of Balbus.* 
 
 Cato. 
 
 Domitius Nero by Maternus, in the time of Vespasian. 
 
 Yescio by the Satirist (?) Persius. 
 
 Octavian by Seneca, in the reign of Trajan. 
 
 Nor must it be forgotten, in comparing the influence 
 which tragedy exercised upon the peoples of Athens and 
 Rome, that with the former it was a part and parcel of the 
 national religion. By it, not only were the people 
 taught to sympathise with their heroic ancestors, but 
 their sjnnpathies were hallowed. In Greece, the poet 
 was held to be inspired — poetry was the voice of deified 
 nature — ^the tongue in which the natural held communion 
 with the supernatural, the visible with the invisible. 
 With the Eomans, poetry was nothing more than an 
 amusement of the fancy ; wdth the Greeks it was a divinely- 
 originating emotion of the soul. 
 
 Hence, in Athens, the drama was, as it were, an act 
 of worship, — it formed an integral part of a joyous, yet 
 serious rehgious festival. The theatre was a temple ; the 
 
 Liv. xxii. 49. * Oic. Att. xvi. 2, 5. » Cic. Pam. x. .32. 
 
ROMAN RELIGION NOT IDEAL. 129 
 
 altar of a deity was its central point ; and a band of 
 choristers moved in solemn march and song in honour of 
 the god, and, in the didactic spirit which sanctified their 
 ofiice, taught men lessons of virtue. Not that the audi- 
 ence entered the precincts with their hearts imbued with 
 holy feelings, or with the thoughts of worshippers ; but 
 this is always the case when rehgious ceremonials 
 become sensuous. The real object of the worship is by 
 the majority forgotten. But still the Greeks were 
 habituated unconsciously to be affected by the drama, as 
 by a development of religious sentiments. With the 
 Bomans, the theatre was merely a place of secular amuse- 
 ment. The thymele existed no longer as a memorial of 
 the sacrifice to the god. The orchestra, formerly con- 
 secrated to the chorus, was to them nothing more than 
 stalls occupied by the dignitaries of the state. Dramas 
 were certainly exhibited at the great Megalensian games, 
 but they were only accessories to the rehgious character 
 of the festival. A holy season imphes rest and relaxa- 
 tion — a holiday va. the popular sense of the word — and 
 tiheatrical representations were considered a fit and proper 
 species of pastime ; but as rehgion itself did not exercise 
 the same influence over the popular mind of the Romans 
 which it did over that of the Greeks, so neither with the 
 Romans did the drama stand in the place of the hand- 
 maid of rehgion. 
 
 Again, their rehgion, though purer and chaster, was not 
 ideal like that of the Greeks. Its freedom from human 
 passions removed it out of the sphere of poetry, and, there- 
 fore, it was neither calculated to move terror nor pity. 
 The moral attributes of the Deity were displayed in stem 
 severity ; but neither the behef nor the ceremonial sought 
 to inflame the heart of the worshipper with enthusiasm. 
 Rome had no priestly caste uniting in one and the same 
 person the character of the bard and of the minister of 
 religion. In after ages, she learned from the Greeks to 
 
130 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 call the poet sacred, but the hoHness which she attrihuted 
 to his character was not the earnest beHef of the heart. 
 The Eoman priests were civil magistrates, religion, there- 
 fore, became a part of the civil administration, and a 
 political engine. It mattered Httle what was believed as 
 true. The old national faith of Italy, not being firmly 
 rooted in the heart, soon became obsolete: it readily 
 admitted the engrafting o£ foreign superstitions. The 
 old deities assumed the names of the Grreek mythology : 
 they exchanged their attributes and histories for those 
 of Grreek legend, and a host of straaige gods filled their 
 Pantheon. They had, however, no hold either on the 
 belief or the love of the people : they were mythological 
 and unreal characters, fit only to furnish subjects and 
 embellishments for poetry. 
 
 Nor was the genius of the Eoman people such as to 
 sympathise with the legends of the past. The Eomans 
 Hved iu the present and the fature, rather than in the 
 past. The poet might call the age in which he hved 
 degenerate, and look forward with mournful anticipations 
 to a still lower degradation, whilst he looked back ad- 
 miringly to bygone times. Through the vista of past 
 years, Eoman virtue and greatness seemed to his ima- 
 gination ma^fied: he could lament, as Horace did, a 
 gradual decay which had not as yet reached its worst 
 point : — 
 
 .^tas parentum pejor avis tulit 
 Nos nequiores mox daturos 
 Progeniem vitiosiorem. Od. III. vi. 46. 
 
 But the people did not sympathise with these feelings : 
 they dehghted in action, not in contemplation and re- 
 flection. They did not look back upon their national 
 heroes as demigods, or dream over their glories : they were 
 pressing forward and extending the firontiers of their 
 empire, bringing under their yoke tribes and nations 
 which their forefathers had not known. If they re- 
 
ROMAN LOVE FOR REAL SCENES. 131 
 
 garded their ancestors at all, it was not in the Hght of 
 men of heroic stature as compared with themselves, but 
 as those whom they could equal or even surpass : they 
 lived in hope and not in memory. 
 
 These are not the elements of character which would 
 lead a people to reahze to themselves the ideal of tragedy. 
 The tragic poet at Athens would have been sure that the 
 same subject which inspired him would also interest his 
 audience — that if his genius rose to the height which 
 their critical taste demanded, he could reckon up the 
 sympathy of a theatre crowded with ten thousand of his 
 countrymen. A Eoman tragic poet would have been 
 deserted for any spectacle of a more stirriug nature — his 
 most affecting scenes and noblest sentiments, for scenes of 
 real action and real life> The bloody combats of the 
 gladiators, the miserable captives and malefactors stretched 
 on crosses, expiring in excruciating agonies, or mangled 
 by wild beasts, were real tragedies— the sham fights and 
 Naumachise, though only imitations, were real dramas, 
 in which those pursuits which most deeply interested 
 the spectators, which constituted their chief duties and 
 highest glories, were visibly represented. Even gorgeous 
 spectacles fed their personal vanity and pride in their 
 national greatness. The spoil of conquered nations, borne 
 in procession across the stage, reminded them of their 
 triumphs and their victories ; and the magnificent dress of 
 the actors — the model of the captured city, preceded and 
 followed by its sculptures in marble and ivory — repre- 
 sented in mimic grandeur the ovation or the triumph 
 of some successful general, whose return from a distant 
 expedition, laden with wealth, realized the rumours which 
 had already arrived at the gates of Eome; whilst the 
 scene, gUttering with glass, and gold, and silver, and 
 adorned with variegated pillars of foreign marble, told 
 ostentatiously of their wealth and splendour.' 
 
 ' See Cic. de Off. ii. 16 ; PUn. H. N. 36, 3, &c. 
 
 K 2 
 
132 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Again, the Romans were a rough, turbulent people, 
 full of physical rather than intellectual energy, loving 
 antagonism, courting peril, setting no value on human 
 life or suffering. Their very virtues were stem and 
 severe. The unrelenting justice of a Brutus, repre- 
 senting as it did the victory of principle over feeling, 
 was to them the height of virtue. They were ready to 
 undergo the extreme of physical torture with Eegulus, 
 and to devote themselves to death like Curtius and the 
 Decii. Hard and pitiless to themselves, they were, as 
 might be expected, the same towards others. They 
 were, in fact, strangers to both the passions, which it 
 was the object of tragedy to excite and to purify, Pity 
 and Terror.^ They were too stem to pity, too unimagi- 
 native to be moved by the tales of wonder and deeds 
 of horror which affected the tender and marvel-loving 
 imagination of the Grreeks. Being an active, and not a 
 sentimental people, they did not appreciate moral suf- 
 fering and the struggles of a sensitive spirit. They were 
 moved only by scenes of physical suffering and agony. 
 
 The public games of Greece at Olympia or the Isthmus 
 were bloodless and peaceftd, and the refinements of poetry 
 mingled with those which were calculated to invigorate 
 the physical powers and develop manly beauty. Those 
 of Eome were exhibitions, not of moral, but of physical 
 courage and endurance : they were sanguinary and 
 brutalizing, — the amusements of a nation to whom war 
 was not a necessary evil or a struggle for national existence, 
 for hearths and altars, but a pleasure and a pastime — ^the 
 means of gratifying an aggressive ambition. The tragic 
 feeling of Greece is represented by the sculptured grief 
 of Niobe, that of Eome by the death-struggles which dis- 
 tort the features and muscles of the Laocoon. It was, if 
 the expression is allowable, amphitheatrical, not theatrical. 
 
 ' Arist. Poet. 
 
TRAGEDY NOT PATRONIZED BY THE PEOPLE. 133 
 
 To such a people the moral woes of tragedy were 
 powerless J and yet it is to the people that the drama, if 
 it is to flourish, m.iist look for patronage. A refined and 
 educated society, such as always existed at Rome during 
 its literary period, might applaud a happy adaptation 
 from the Greek tragedians and encourage a poet in his 
 task, for it is only an educated and refined taste which 
 can appreciate such talent as sHlfid imitation displays, 
 but a tragic drama imder such circumstances could hardly 
 hope to be national. Nor must it be forgotten, with 
 reference to their taste for spectacle, that the artistic 
 accessories of the drama would have a better chance of 
 success with - a people like the Eomans than literary 
 merit, because the pleasures of art are of a lower and 
 more sensuous kind. Hence, ia the popular eye, the 
 decoration of the theatre and the costume of the per- 
 formers naturally became the principal requisites, whilst 
 the poet's ofiice was considered subordinate to the manner 
 in which the play was put upon the stage; and thus the 
 degenerate theatrical taste which prevailed in the days 
 of Horace called forth the poet's well-known and well- 
 deserved criticism.^ 
 
 . It cannot, indeed, be asserted that tragedy was never, 
 to a certain extent, an acceptable entertainment at Rome, 
 but only that it never flourished at Rome as it did at 
 Athens — that no Roman tragedies can, notwithstanding 
 all that has been said in their praise and their defence, 
 be compared with those of Grreece, and that the tragic 
 drama never maintained such a hold on the popular 
 mind as not to be liable to be displaced by amusements 
 of a more material and less iateUectual kind. It was 
 imitative and destitute of originality. It was introduced 
 from without as one portion of the new literature ; it did 
 not grow spontaneously by a process of natural develop- 
 
 ' Epist. II. i. 182. 
 
134 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 ment out of preceding eras of epic and lyric poetry, and 
 start into being, as it did at Athens, at the very moment 
 when the pnbhc mind and taste was ready to receive and 
 appreciate it. 
 
 Three eras, separated from one another by chasms,- 
 the second wider than the first, produced tragic poets. 
 In the first of these flourished Livius Andronicus, Hfse- 
 vius, and Ennius ; in the second Pacuvius and Attius ; 
 in the third Asioius PolKo^ wrote tragedies, the plots of 
 which, as the words of Virgil seem to imply, were taken 
 from Eoman history.'' Varius either wrote, or, as some 
 of the Scholiasts assert, stole, the " Thyestes " from 
 Cassius or Virgil. Ovid attempted a " Medea," of 
 which Quintilian speaks, as being, to say the least, a 
 promising performance ; and even the Emperor Augustus 
 himself, together with other men of genius, tried their 
 hands, though unsuccessfully, at tragedy. The epistle of 
 Horace to the Pisos shows at once the prevalence of this 
 taste, and that general ignorance of the rules and prin- 
 ciples of art required instruction. Ten rhetorical dramas, 
 attributed with good reason to the philosopher Seneca, 
 complete the catalogue of tragedies belonging to this era, 
 but with the exception of these, no specimens remain ; 
 most probably they did not merit preservation. The trage- 
 dies of the older school were of a higher stamp, and they 
 kept their place in the public estimation long enough to 
 give birth to the newer and inferior school. Passages 
 from the old Latin tragedies quoted by Cicero weU 
 deserve the admiration with which he regarded them'; 
 an'd a fragment of the " Prometheus " of Attius is marked 
 by a grandeur and sublimity which makes us regret the 
 almost total loss of this branch of Eoman hterature. 
 
 ' Asinius Pollio is said by Senoca (Oontrov. iv. PrBef.) to have introduced 
 the practice of poets reading their works to a circle of friends. 
 ^ Eel. iii. 86. 
 
LIFE OF PACUVIUS. 135 
 
 PACUVIUS : BORN B. C. 220. 
 
 The era at wWch Eoman tragedy reached its highest 
 degree of perfection was the second of those mentioned, 
 and was simiiltaneous with that of comedy. Both 
 flourished together ; for, whilst Terence was so success- 
 fully reproducing the wit and manners of the new Attic 
 comedy, M. Pacuvius was enriching the Roman drama 
 with free imitations of the Greek tragedians. He was a 
 native of Brundisium, and nephew,^ or, according to St. 
 Jerome, grandson of the poet Ennius. Although born 
 as early as B.C. 320, he does not appear to have attained 
 the height of his popularity until B.C. 154.* During his 
 residence at Eome, where he remained until after his 
 80th year,* he distinguished himself as a painter as well 
 as a dramatic poet, and one of his pictures in the temple 
 of Hercules was thought only to be surpassed by the 
 work of Pabius Pictor.* He formed one of that hterary 
 circle of which Lselius was so great an ornament. The 
 close of his long life was passed in the retirement of 
 Tarentum, where he died in the ninetieth year of his age. 
 A simple and unpretending epigram is preserved by 
 Aulus GelHus," which may probably have been written 
 by himself : — 
 
 Ad\ilescens, etsi properas, te toe saxum rogat 
 Uti ad se aspicias, deinde quod scriptum est, legas. 
 Hio sunt poetaB Paouvi Marci sita 
 Ossa. Hoc volebam, nesoius ne esses. Vale. 
 
 Pacuvius was a great favourite with those who could 
 make allowances for the faults, and appreciate the merits, 
 of the great writers of antiquity, and his verses were 
 
 ' Math. Hist, of Class. Lit. ; Bemhardy, Grand. 366. 
 
 ' Hier. in Eus. Chron. 01. 156, 3. ' Cic. Brat. 64. 
 
 " Plin. N. H. XXXV. 1, 4. = N. A. i. 24 ; Meyer, Anth. xxiv. 
 
136 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 popular in the time of J. Caesar/ and that lover of the 
 old Eoman literature, Cicero, though not hhnd to his 
 faults, is warm in his commendations. He was not 
 without admirers in the Augustan age, and even his 
 defects had zealous defenders in the time of Persius 
 amongst those who could scarcely discover a fault in any- 
 work which savoured of antiquity.^ The archaic rug- 
 gedness of his language^ his uncouth forms, such as 
 axim, tetinerim, egregiissimus, and his unauthorized con- 
 structions like mihi piget, were due to the unsettled state 
 of the Latin language in his days. His strange combi- 
 nations, such as repandirostrum and incurmcervicum, may 
 possibly have been suggested by the study of Grreek, and 
 by his overweening admiration for its facility of com- 
 position. But his polish, pathos, and learning,^ the 
 harmony of his periods,* his eloquence,^ his fluency,, his 
 word-painting,* are peculiarly his own. 
 
 The tragedies of Pacuvius were not mere translations, 
 but adaptations of Greek tragedies to the Roman stage. 
 The fragments which are extant are full of new and 
 original thoughts. His plots were borrowed from the 
 Grreek, but the plan and treatment were his own. The 
 lyric portion appears to have occupied an important place 
 in his tragedies, and displays considerable imaginative 
 power. It is evident that his mind only required 
 suggestions, and was sufficiently original to form new 
 combinations. The titles of thirteen of his tragedies are 
 preserved,' of which the most celebrated were the " An- 
 tiopa" and "Dulorestes" (Orestes in Slavery). Of the 
 former, the only fragment extant is one severely criticised 
 by Persius. The latter was principally founded on the 
 
 ' Cic. de Am. 7. ^ Pers. Sat. i. 77. » Hor. Ep. II. i. 55. 
 
 * Ad Keren, iv, 4 and 11, 23. ' Varro ap. Gel. vii. 14. 
 
 ' Cic. de Div. i. 14 ; Orat. iii. 39. ^See Smith's Diet. 
 
SUBJECT OF THE DTJLORESTES. 137 
 
 " IpMgenia in Tauris " of Euripides/ although the author 
 was evidently inspired with the poetical conceptions of 
 iEschylus. In fact, Pacuvius is less Eucripidean than the 
 other Eoman tragic poets. The very roughness of his 
 style and audacity of his expressions have somewhat of the 
 solemn grandeur and picturesque boldness which distin- 
 guish the father of Attic tragedy. 
 
 The subject of the " Dulorestes " was the adventures of 
 the son of Agamemnon. When driven from the palace 
 of his ancestors, he was in exile and in slavery.^ On the 
 first representation of this play, the generous friendship 
 of Orestes and Pylades called forth the most enthusiastic 
 applause from the audience, who then probably heard the 
 legend for the first time. "What acclamations," says 
 LaeUus,^ "resounded through the theatre at the repre- 
 sentation of the new play of my guest and friend M. 
 Pacuvius, when the king, being ignorant which of the 
 two was Orestes, Pylades aflSrmed that he was Orestes, 
 that he might be put to death in his place, whilst Orestes 
 persevered in asserting that he was the man !" 
 
 One of his plays, " Paulus," was a Fabula prcetextata : 
 its subject was taken entirely from Eoman history, the 
 hero being L. -^m. Paulus, the conqueror of Perseus. 
 Besides tragedies, the grammarians have attributed to 
 him one Satura.* He is said also to have written 
 comedies ; but there is no evidence in favour of any, with 
 the exception of one, entitled " Mercator." 
 
 ' De Pac. Dul. A. Steigl. Leips. 1826. ^ Pierron, p. 162. 
 
 » Cic. de Am. vii. ' Diom. iii. 
 
138 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITEUATURE. 
 
 CHAPTER IX, 
 
 L. ATTITJS — HIS TRAGEDIES AND FRAGMENTS — OTHER WORKS — 
 TRAGEDY DISAPPEARED WITH HIM— ROMAN THEATRES — TRACES 
 OF THE SATIRIC SPIRIT IN GREECE — ROMAN SATIRE — ^LUCILIUS 
 — CRITICISMS OF HORACE, CICERO, AND QUINTILIAN — PASSAGE 
 QUOTED BY LACTANTIUS— L^VIUS A LYRIC POET. 
 
 L. ATTIUS : BORN ABOUT B.C. 170. 
 
 Although born about fifty years' later than Pacuvius,' 
 Attius was almost his contemporary, and a competitor for 
 popular applause. The amiable old poet lived on the 
 most friendly terms with his young rival ; and A, Q-eUius 
 tells us, that after he withdrew from the Hterary society 
 of Eome to retirement at Tarentum, he on one occasion 
 invited the rising poet to be his guest for some days, 
 and made him read his tragedy of " Atreus." Pacuvius 
 criticised it kindly, fairly praised the grandeur of the 
 poetry, but said that it was somewhat harsh and hard. 
 "You are right," replied Attius, "but I hope to improve. 
 Pruits which are at first hard and sour, become soft and 
 meUow, but those which begin by being soft, end in 
 being rotten." Valerius Maximus'' relates that in the 
 assembHes of the poets he refused to rise at the entrance 
 of J. Cassar, because he felt that in the republic of letters 
 he was the superior. If this anecdote is genuine, it does 
 not prove that the aged poet was guilty of unwarrant- 
 able self-esteem, for Caesar must then have been quite a 
 
 Cic. Brut. 64. ^ Lib. iii. 7, U. 
 
TRAGEDIES OF ATTIUS. 139 
 
 youth, and if lie had any claim to reputation as a poet, 
 he was, at any rate, not yet distinguished as a warrior 
 or a statesman. Amongst the great men whose friend- 
 ship the poet enjoyed was Dec. Brutus, who was consul 
 A.u.c. 616.' Nothing more is known respecting his 
 private history, except that his parents were freedmen, 
 and that he was one of the colonists settled at Pisaurum, 
 where, in after times, a farm or estate (fundus Attianus) 
 continued to bear his name. His tragedies were very 
 numerous. He is said to have written more than fifty. 
 Three at least werePrcetextatce, their titles being "Brutus," 
 ** The ^neadse," or " Decius,'"' and " Marcellus." His 
 " Trachinise " and " Phoenissse " were almost translations, 
 the one from Sophocles, the other from Euripides; the 
 rest were free imitations of Grreek tragedies. They were 
 distinguished both for sublimity and pathos; and although 
 he was warmed by the fiery spirit and tragic grandeur of 
 .^schylus, he evidently evinced a predilection for So- 
 phocles.^ His taste is chastened, his sentiments noble, 
 his versification elegant. His language is almost clas- 
 sical, and was deservedly admired by the ancients for its 
 polish as well as its vigour. ' The " Brutus " was written 
 at the suggestion of his friend Decimus. The plot was 
 the expulsion of the Tarquins, the hero Brutus, the heroine 
 Lucretia. He had chosen one of the noblest romances in 
 Eoma^ history. Two passages,* quoted by Cicero, are aU 
 that remain of this national tragedy. In them the tyrant 
 relates to the augurs a dream which had haunted him, 
 and they, at his request, give their interpretation of it. 
 Varro has also preserved the soliloquy of Hercules in the 
 agonies of death, fi*om the Trachinise,* a noble para- 
 
 ' Cic. Brut 64 ; Gell. xiii. 2 ; Brut. 28. 
 
 ^ Cic. de Leg. ii. 21 ; Pro Arch. ii. 
 
 « Bernhardy, 367 ; Hor. Ep. II. i. 56 ; Quint, x. i. 97. 
 
 ■* De Divin. i. 22 ; Bothe, Foot. Seen. fr. p. 191. 
 
 ' Bothe, p. 246. 
 
140 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 phrase of Sophocles. This fine specimen of his genius 
 extends to the length of forty-five lines. In another 
 passage, Philoctetes pours forth his sufferings in lan- 
 guage as touching sis the original Greek ; and in a third, 
 Prometheus, now delivered from the tyranny of Jupiter, 
 addresses to his assembled Titans a strain of indignant 
 eloquence not unworthy of iEschylus.' The following 
 hues from the " Phcenissse " and the " Complaint of 
 Philoctetes," are, though brief, fair examples of his lan- 
 guage and versification : — 
 
 Sol, qui mioantem candido curru atque equis 
 
 Flammam citatis fervido ardore explicas, 
 
 Quianam tarn adverso augurio et inimico omine ' 
 
 Thebis radiatum lumen ostendis tuum ! ^ 
 
 Heu ! quia salsis fluctibus mandet 
 Me ex sublimi vertioe saxi, 
 Jamjam absumor ; conficit animam 
 Vis volneris, ulceris sestus.' 
 
 These are the most important of the numerous frag- 
 ments which are extant of the various tragedies of the 
 lofty Attius.* He has been considered by some as the 
 founder of the Tragcedia Prcetextata. This, however, is 
 not true, for there is no doubt that such dramas were 
 written by his predecessors. Nevertheless, he brought 
 the national tragedy to its highest state of perfection. 
 
 The time was now evidently approaching when the 
 Eomans were beginning to show, that although they did 
 not possess the inventive genius of the Greeks, they were 
 capable of stripping their native language of its rudeness, 
 and of transferring into it the beauties of Greek thought ; 
 that they were no longer mere servile copyists, but could 
 use Greek poetry as furnishing suggestions for original 
 
 ' Tusc. Disp. ii. 10 j Bothe, p. 239. ^ Ibid. p. 238. 
 
 ' Ibid. p. 231. * Hor. Ep. II. i. 65. 
 
OTHER WORKS OF ATTIUS. 141 
 
 efforts. They could not quarry for themselves, l)ut they 
 could now build up Greek materials into a glowing 
 and polished edifice, of which the details were new and 
 the efiect original. 
 
 The metres which Attius used were chiefly the iambic 
 trimeter and the anapaestic dimeter, but his prcetextatce 
 were written in trochaic and iambic tetrameters, the 
 rhyihm of which proves that his ear was more refined 
 than that of his predecessors.^ 
 
 It is not known whether he was the author of any 
 comedies, but he was a historian, an antiquarian, and a 
 critic, as well as a poet. He left behind him a review 
 of dramatic poetry, entitled " Lihri Didascalion," " Eo- 
 man Annals" in verse, and two other works — " Libri 
 Pragmaticon," and " Parerga." The former of these is 
 quoted by Nonius and A. GeUius. He died at an 
 advanced age, probably about a.tj.c. 670, and is thus a 
 link, as it were, which connects the first literary period 
 with the age of Cicero; for the great orator was personally 
 acquainted with him, and at his death must have been 
 about twenty-two years of age. 
 
 With Attius Latin tragedy disappeared. The trage- 
 dies of the third period were written expressly for reading 
 and recitation, and not for the stage. They may have 
 deserved the commendations which they obtained, but 
 the merit and talent which they displayed were simply 
 rhetorical, and not dramatic : they were dramatic poems, 
 not dramas. 
 
 The state of political affairs, which synchronized with 
 the death of Attius, was less congenial than ever to the 
 tragic muse. Eeal and bloody tragedies were being 
 enacted, and there was no room in the heart of the 
 Eoman people for fictitious woes. If it was improbable 
 that a people who delighted in the sanguinary scenes of 
 
 ' See Nieb. Lect. 88. 
 
142 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 the ampliitheatre should sympathise with the sorrows of 
 a hero in tragedy, it was ahnost impossihle that tragedy 
 should flourish when Rome itself was a theatre in which 
 scenes of horror were daily enacted. 
 
 Either then, or not long hefore, the terrible domination 
 of Cuma and Marius had begun. Massacre and violence 
 raged through the streets of Eome, The best and 
 noblest fell victims to the raging thirst for blood. Tlie 
 aged Marius, distracted by unscrupulous ambition and 
 savage passions, died amidst the delirious ravings of 
 remorse, and thus made way for the tyranny of his 
 perjured accompHce Cinna. Still there was no respite 
 or interruption. The cruel Sulla sent his orders from 
 Antenmse to slaughter 8,000 prisoners in cold blood. 
 The massacre had hardly begun when he himself arrived, 
 had taken his place in the senate, and the shrieks of 
 his murdered victims were audible in the house whilst he 
 was cooUy speaking. This was the beginning of horrors: 
 the notorious proscription followed. Besides other vic- 
 tims, 2,600 Eoman knights perished. 
 
 Amidst such scenes as these, the voice of the tragic 
 muse was hushed. Depending for her very existence on 
 the breath of popular favour, she necessarily could not 
 find supporters, and so languished and was silenced. It 
 might appear surprising that hterature of any kind 
 should have Hved through such times of savage bar- 
 barism. But other literature is not dependent upon 
 public patronage : it finds a refiige beneath the shelter of 
 the private dwelling. The literary man finds friends and 
 patrons amongst those who, devoted to the humanities 
 of intellectual pursuits, shuns the scenes of revolutionary 
 strife and the struggles of selfish ambition. Even Sulla 
 himself had a polished and refined taste ; and, when he 
 resigned the Dictatorship, passed those hours of retire- 
 ment in hterary studies which were not devoted to 
 depravity and licentiousness. 
 
ROMAN THEATRES. 143 
 
 The style in which the Eoman theatres were built, 
 indicates that whatever taste for tragedy the Eoman 
 people possessed had now decayed. The huge edifice 
 erected by Pompey, was too vast for the exhibition of 
 tragedy. The forty thousand spectators, which it con- 
 tained, could scarcely hear the actor, still less could they 
 see the expression of human passions and emotions. The 
 two theatres, placed on pivots back to back, so that they 
 could be wheeled round and form one vast amphitheatre, 
 show how an interest in the drama was shared with the 
 passion for spectacle, and provision was thus publicly 
 made for gratifying that corrupt taste which had arrived 
 at its zenith in the time of Horace, and as we have seen 
 interrupted even comedy so early as the times of Terence. 
 
 Satire. 
 
 The invention of satire is universally attributed to 
 the Eomans, and this assertion is true as far as the 
 external form is concerned; but the spirit of satire is 
 found in many parts of the literature of Greece. It 
 animated the Homeric Margites, the poem on woman 
 by Simonides, the bitter lyrical iambics of Archilochus, 
 Stesichorus' attack on Helen, and especially, as Horace 
 says, the old comedy of Eupolis, Cratinus, and Aristo- 
 phanes. Some resemblance may also be discerned between 
 Eoman satire and the Grreek SiUi, poems belonging to 
 the declining period of Greek literature,^ the design of 
 which was to attack vice and foUy with severe ridicule.'' 
 
 ' B. 0. 279. 
 
 ' The etymology of a-iKKoi is unknown. Casaubon derived the word from 
 o-iXXaiVeu', to scoff. The probability, however, is that the substantive is 
 the root of the verb. The invention of the SiUi has been ascribed by some 
 to Xenophanes, the philosopher of Colophon. He was the author of a 
 didactic poem, and his invectives were directed against the absurd and 
 erroneous doctrines of his predecessors. Timon, a sceptical philosopher 
 who lived in the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, was undoubtedly the 
 author of Silli. Some of these are dialogues, in which one of the persons 
 
144 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Satire is, in fact, if Horace may be believed, the form 
 which comedy took amongst a people with whom the 
 drama did not flourish. Ennius was the inventor of the 
 name, but Lucilius^ was the father of satire, in the proper 
 sense, and was at Rome what the writers of the old 
 comedy were at Athens. It subsequently occupied a 
 wider field : Persius and Juvenal confined themselves to 
 its didactic purpose, but Horace made it a vehicle for the 
 narration of amusing adventure, and picturesque descrip- 
 tions of human life. 
 
 The Satires of Lucilius mark an era in Eoman Htera- 
 ture, and prove that a love for this species of poetry had 
 already made great progress. Hitherto, science, litera- 
 ture, and art, had been considered the province of slaves 
 and freedmen. The stern old Eoman virtue despised 
 such sedentary and inactive employment as intellectual 
 cultivation, and thought it unworthy of the warrior and 
 the statesman. Some of the higher classes loved litera- 
 ture and patronised it, but did not make it their pursuit. 
 Cato blamed M. Fulvius Nobilior for being accompanied 
 by poets when he proceeded to his provincial govern- 
 ment,^ and did not until advanced in years undertake to 
 study Grreek.^ C. Lucilius was by birth of equestrian 
 rank, the first Eoman knight who was himself a poet.* 
 He was bom at Suessa Aurunca B.C. 148,° and lived to 
 the age of forty-six years.* At fourteen, he served under 
 
 is Xenophanes, whence perhaps he was erroneously considered the inventor 
 of this kind of poetry. All the SHU of Timon are epic parodies, and their 
 subject a ludicrous and sceptical attack on philosophy of every kind. 
 Fragments of Silli are preserved by Diogenes, LuciUus, and Chrysostom. — 
 Ad. Ale:^. Orat. See also Brunok's Analeota, and Suidas s. vv. a-iKKcdveiv, 
 
 Tt/A(UI/. 
 
 ' Hor. Sat. i. 4, 10. " Cic. Tusc. i. 2. 
 
 ^ Aurelius Victor states (De Vit. Illust. xlvii.) that Cato took lessons in 
 Greek from Ennius. 
 
 ■* Juv. Sat. i. 20. * Hieron. Chron. Euseb. 
 
 " In defence of the chronology of LuciUus' life, see Smith's Dictionary of 
 Biography, .9. v. LuciUus. 
 
CRITICISM OF HORACE. 145 
 
 Scipio, ^t the siege of Numantia/ He was the maternal 
 great-uncle of Pompey, and mimbered amongst his friends 
 and patrons Africanus and Lsehus. His Satires were 
 comprised in thirty books, of which the first twenty and 
 the thirtieth were written in hexameters, the rest in 
 iambics or trochaics. iN'umerous fragments are stUl 
 extant, some of considerable length. The Satires were 
 probably arranged according to their subject-matter ; for 
 those in the first book are on topics connected with 
 religion, whilst those in the ninth, treat of Hterary and 
 grammatical criticism. His versification is careless and 
 unrefined ; very inferior in this respect to that of his pre- 
 decessors. He sets at defiance the laws of prosody, and 
 almost returns to the usage of that period in which the 
 ear was the only judge. 
 
 The prejudices of Horace^ against the ancient Eoman 
 literature render him an unsafe guide in criticism. Even 
 in his own time his attacks were considered by some 
 indefensible ; but his strictness on the style of LucUius 
 are not undeserved ; it was unmusical, afiected, and 
 incorrect. His sentences are frequently ill-arranged, and 
 therefore deficient in perspicuity. His mixture of 'Grreek 
 ■and Latin expressions, without that skill and art with 
 which Horace considered it allowable to enrich the 
 vernacular language, is itself ofiensive to good taste, and 
 is rendered stiU more disagreeable by unnecessary di- 
 minutives and forced alliteration. On these grounds, 
 and on these alone, he merits the contemptuous criticism 
 of Horace. 
 
 ' His real defect was want of facility ; and it is not im- 
 probable that, if prose had been considered a legitimate 
 vehicle, he would have preferred pouring forth in that 
 unrestricted form his indignant eloquence, rather than 
 that, as Horace says, every verse should have cost him 
 
 ' Veil. Paterc. ii. 9. ' See Sat. I. iv. ; I. x. ; I. i. 29, &o. 
 
 L 
 
146 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 many scratchings of the head, and Hting his nails to the 
 quick. Whilst the criticism of Horace errs on the side 
 of severity, that of Cicero^ is somewhat too partial: 
 firstly, because he himself was deficient in poetical 
 facility ; secondly, because in his time there were no 
 models of perfection wherewith to compare the works of 
 Lucilius. The judgment of Quintihan'" is moderate ; and 
 although the taste for poetry was then corrupted by a 
 love of quaintness and rhetorical affectation, the praise 
 is well-merited which he bestows on the frank honesty 
 and biting wit of the Satires of Lucilius. As he took 
 the writers of old Attic comedy for his models, it cannot 
 be a matter of surprise that he occasionally added force 
 to his attacks on vice by coarseness and personality. 
 Like them, if Lucilius found any one who deserved 
 rebuke for his crimes, he did not trouble himself to 
 make general remarks and to attack vice in the abstract, 
 but to illustrate his principles by Hving examples. 
 
 The education of Lucilius had probably been desultory, 
 and his course of study not sufficiently strict to give the 
 rich young Eoman knight the accurate training, the 
 critical knowledge, necessary to make him a poet as well 
 as a satirist. It had given him learning and erudition — 
 it had furnished him with the wealth of two languages, 
 both of which he used whenever he thought they supphed 
 him with a two-edged weapon — ^but it had not sufficiently 
 cultivated his ear and refined his taste. On the other 
 hand, his Satires must have possessed nobler qualities 
 than those of style. He was evidently a man of high 
 moral principle, though stem and stoical, devotedly 
 attached to the cause of virtue, a relentless enemy of 
 vice and profligacy, a gallant .and fearless defender of 
 truth and honesty. He must have felt with Juvenal 
 " difficile est satiram non scribere." He was under an 
 
 ' De Orat. ii. 6 ; De Fin. i. .3. " Inst. Or. x. i. 
 
PASSAGE QUOTED BY LACTANTIUS. 147 
 
 olaligation which he could not avoid. "What cared he 
 for correct tetrameters or heroics or senarii, so that he 
 could crush effeminacy and gluttony and self-indulgence, 
 and restore the standard of ancient morals, to which he 
 looked hack with admiration ! 
 
 This chivah-ous devotion inspired him with eloquence, 
 and gave a dignity to his rude verses, although it did 
 not invest them with the graces and charms of poetry. 
 Nor is it only when he declares open war against cor- 
 ruption that he must have made his adversaries tremble, 
 or his victims, conscience-stricken, writhe beneath his 
 knife. His encomiums upon virtue form as striking 
 pictures ; but in both it is the masterly outline of the 
 drawing which amazes and instructs, not the mere ac- 
 cessory of the colouring. See, for example, the following 
 noble passage with its unselfish conclusion, preserved by 
 Lactantius : ' — 
 
 Virtus, Albine, est pretium persolvere verum 
 
 Queis in versamur, queis vivimu' rebu' potesse. 
 
 Virtus est homini scire id quod quseque habeat res. 
 
 Virtus, scire homini rectum, utile, quid sit honestum, 
 
 Quse bona, quae mala item quid inutile turpe inhonestUm. 
 
 Virtus, quserendae finem rei scire modumque ; 
 
 Virtus, divitiis pretium persolyere posse. 
 
 Virtus, id dare quod reipsa debetur honori, 
 
 Hostem esse atque inimicum hominum morumque malorum ; 
 
 Contra, defensorem hominum morumque bonorum ; 
 
 Maignifioare hos, his bene velle, his vivere amicum ; 
 
 Commoda prseterea patriai prima putare, 
 
 Deinde parentum, tertia jam postremaque nostra. 
 
 Had they been extant, we should have found useful 
 information and instruction in his faithful pictures of 
 Eoman Hfe and manners in their state of moral transition 
 — amusement in such pieces as his journal of a progress 
 from Eome to Capua, from which Horace borrowed the 
 idea of his journey to Brundisium, whilst in his love- 
 poems, addressed to his mistress, CoHyra, we should have 
 
 ' Inst. Div. vi. 6. 
 
 L 2 
 
148 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 traced tlie tender sympathies of hrtmaii nature, which the 
 sternness of stoicism was unable to overcome. 
 
 Besides satire, Lucilius is said to have attempted lyric 
 poetry : if this be the case, it is by no means surprising 
 that no specimens have stood the test of time, for he 
 possessed none of the quahfications of a lyric poet. 
 
 After the death of Lucilius, satire languished. Varro 
 Atacinus attempted it and failed.^ Half a century subse- 
 quently it assumed a new garb in the descriptive scenes 
 of Horace, and put forth its original vigour in the burn- 
 ing thoughts of Persius and Juvenal. 
 
 LjEVIUS. 
 
 This literary period was entirely destitute of lyric 
 poetry, unless Mebuhr is correct in supposing that 
 Laevius flourished contemporaneously with LuciHus.* 
 Nothing is known of his history ; and such imcertainty 
 prevails respecting him that his name is constantly con- 
 founded with those of Livius and Nsevius. It is not im- 
 probable, that some passages attributed to them, which 
 appear to belong to a later literary age, are, in reality, 
 the work of Laevius — ^for example, the hexameters which 
 are found in the Latin Odyssey of Livius. He translated 
 the Cyprian poems, and wrote some fugitive amatory 
 pieces entitled Eroto-psegnia. They seem to have pos- 
 sessed neither the graceful simplicity nor the tender 
 warmth which are essential to lyric poetry, although 
 they perhaps attained as great elegance of expression as 
 the state of the language then admitted. Short frag- 
 ments are preserved by Apuleius and in the Nodes 
 Atticoe of A. GreUius.^ 
 
 ,' Hor. Sat. I. x. 46. * Nieb. Lect. kxxviii. ' Lib. ii. 24 ; xix. 9. 
 
( 149 ) 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 PROSE LITERATURE— PROSE SUITABLE TO ROMAN GENIUS — HISTORY, 
 JURISPRUDENCE, AND ORATORY — PREVALENCE OF GREEK — 
 Q. FABIUS PICTOR— L. CINCIUS ALIMENTUS — C. ACILIUS GLABRIO — 
 VALUE OF THE ANNALISTS — IMPORTANT LITERARY PERIOD DURING 
 WHICH CATO CENSORIUS FLOURISHED — SKETCH OF HIS LIFE — HIS 
 CHARACTER, GENIUS, AND STYLE. 
 
 Prose was far more in accordance witli tlie genius of the 
 Eomans than poetry. As a nation they had little or 
 no ideality or imaginative power, no enthusiastic love 
 of natural beauty, no acute perception of the sympathy 
 and relation existing between man and the external 
 world. In the Greek mind a love of country and a love 
 of nature held a divided empire — they were poets as well 
 as patriots. Eoman patriotism had indeed its dark side 
 — an unbounded lust of dominion, an unscrupulous am- 
 bition to extend the power and glory of the repubhc; 
 but, nevertheless, it prompted a zealous devotion to 
 whatever would promote national independence and 
 social advancement. Statesmanship, therefore, and the 
 subjects akin to it, constituted the favourite civil 
 pursuit of an enlightened Roman, who sought a dis- 
 tinguished career of pubhc usefulness ; and, therefore, 
 that literature which tended to advance the science of 
 social life had a charm for him which no other Htera- 
 ture possessed. 
 
 The branches of knowledge which would engage his at- 
 tention, were History, Jurisprudence, and Oratory. They 
 would be studied with a view to utility, and in a practical 
 
150 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 spirit : they would require a scientific and not an artistic 
 treatment, and, therefore, their natural language would 
 be prose and not poetry. As matter was more valued 
 than manner by this utiKtarian people, it was long before 
 it was thought necessary to embellish prose literature 
 with the graces of composition. The earliest orators 
 spoke with a rude and vigorous eloquence which is always 
 captivating : they wrote but little ; their style was stiff 
 and dry, and very inferior to their speaking. Cato's 
 prose was less rugged than that of his contempormes or 
 even his immediate successors. Sisenna was the first 
 historian to whom gracefulness and polish have been at- 
 tributed; and C. Gracchus is spoken of as a siagle ex- 
 ception to the orators of his age, on account of the 
 rhythmical modulation of his prose sentences — a quaUty 
 which he probably owed not more to a deUcate ear than 
 to the softening influence of a mother's education. Even 
 the prose of that celebrated model of refinement and good 
 taste, C. Lselius, was harsh and unmusical.^ 
 
 Besides the influence which the practical character of the 
 Eoman mind exercised upon prose writing, it must not be 
 forgotten that Eoman literature was imitative : its end 
 and object, therefore, were not invention but erudition; 
 it depended for its existence on learning, and was ahnost 
 synonymous with it. This principle gave a decidedly 
 historical bias to the Eoman intellect : an historical taste 
 pervades a great portion of the national literature. There 
 is a manifest tendency to study subjects iu an historical 
 point of view. It wiU be seen hereafter that it is not 
 like the Greek, origiaal and inventive, but erudite and 
 eclectic. The historic principle is the great characteristic 
 feature of the Eoman mind ; consequently, in this branch 
 of literature, the Eomans attained the highest reputation, 
 and may fairly stand forth as competitors with their 
 
 ' See Nieb. Lect. Ixxix. and Sohol. in Cic. Orell. ii. p. 283. 
 
HISTORY AND JURISPRUDKNCE. 151 
 
 Grreek instructors. Not that they ever entirely equalled 
 them ; for, though they were practical, vigorous, and just 
 thinkers, they never attained that comprehensive and 
 philosophical spirit which distinguished the Greek his- 
 torians. 
 
 The work of an historian was, in the earliest times, 
 recognized as not unworthy of a Eoman. It was not 
 like the other branches of literature, in which the example 
 was first set by slaves and freedmen. Those who first 
 devoted themselves to the pursuit were also eminent in 
 the public service of their country. Fabius Pictor was 
 of an illustrious patrician family. Ciucius Alimentus, 
 Fulvius NobiHor, and others, were of fi-ee and honourable 
 birth. Such were Roman historians until the time of 
 Sulla; for L. OtacHius Pititus, who flourished at that 
 period, was the first freedman who began to write 
 history.' * 
 
 Again, the science of jurisprudence formed an indis- 
 pensable part of statesmanship. It was a study which 
 recommended itself by its practical nature : it could not 
 be stigmatised even by the busiest as an idle and M- 
 volous pursuit, whilst the constitutional relation which 
 subsisted between patron and client, rendered the know- 
 ledge of its principles, to a certain extent, absolutely 
 necessary. Protection from wrong was the greatest 
 boon which the strong could confer upon the weak, the 
 learned on the unlearned. It was, therefore, the most 
 efficacious method of gaining grateful and attached friends; 
 and, by their support, the direct path was opened to the 
 highest political positions. It is not, therefore, to be 
 wondered at that, even when elegant literature was in 
 its infancy, so many names are found of men illustrious 
 as jurists and lawyers. 
 
 ' Suet, de Clar. Rhet. iii. 
 
 ' The fragments of the ancient Roman historians have been collected by- 
 Augustus Krause, and published at Berlin in 1833. 
 
152 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Practical statesmanship, in like manner, gave an early 
 encouragement to oratory. It is peculiarly the literature 
 of active life. The possession of eloquence rendered a 
 man more efficient as a soldier and as a citizen. Great 
 as is the force of native unadorned eloquence, vigorous' 
 common-sense, honest truthfolnfess, and indignant passion, 
 nature would give way to art as taste became more cul- 
 tivated. Nor could the Romans long have the finished 
 models of Grreek eloquence before their eyes, without 
 transferring to the forum or the senate-house somewhat 
 of their simple grandeur and majestic beauty. 
 
 The first efforts of the Roman historians were devoted 
 to the transfer of the records of poetry into prose as their 
 more appropriate and popular vehicle. The national lays 
 which tradition had handed down were the storehouses 
 which they ransacked to furnish a supply of materials. 
 As far as the records of authentic history are concerned, 
 they performed the functions of simple annalists : they 
 related events almost in the style of pubHc monuments^ 
 without any attempt at ornament, without picturesque 
 detail or political reflection. When Cicero compares the 
 style of Fabius Pictor, Cato, and Piso, to that of the old 
 Greek logographers,^ Pherecydes, HeUanicus, and Acu- 
 silaus, the points of resemblance which he instances are, 
 that both neglected ornament, were careful only that 
 their statements should be intelligible, and thought the 
 chief excellence of a writer was brevity. Probably, the 
 subject-matter of the Roman annalists was the more 
 valuable, whilst the Greeks had the advantage in live- 
 liness and skill. Some of the earhest historians wrote in 
 Greek instead of Latin. Even, in later times, such men 
 as Sulla and Lucullus, and also Cn. Aufidius, who 
 flourished during the boyhood of Cicero, wrote their 
 memoirs in a foreign tongue. There was some reason 
 
 ' De Orat. ii. 12. 
 
PREVALENCE OF GREEK. 153 
 
 for this. The language in which the higher classes re- 
 ceived their education was Greek — the tutors, even the 
 nurses, were Greek, as well as the librarians, secretaries, 
 and confidential servants in most distinguished families. 
 Such was the humanizing spirit of Hterature that these 
 distinguished foreigners found an asylum in the house- 
 holds of noble Eomans, notwithstanding the severity with 
 which the law treated prisoners of war. Fashionable con- 
 versation, moreover, was interlarded with Greek phrases, 
 and, in some houses, Greek was habitually spoken. Even 
 so late as the times of Cicero,^ Greek hterature was read 
 and studied in almost every part of the civihzed world, 
 while the works of Latin writers were only known within 
 the circumscribed hmits of Italy. 
 
 Q. Fabius Pictor. 
 
 The most ancient prose writer of Eoman history was 
 Q. Fabius Pictor, the contemporary of Nsevius. He 
 belonged to that branch of the noble house of the Fabii, 
 which derived its distinguishing appellation from the emi- 
 nence of its founder as a painter. The temple of Salus, 
 which he painted, was dedicated b. c. 302, by the dic- 
 tator, C. Junius Bubulcus; and this oldest known specimen 
 of Eoman fine art remained until the conflagration of the 
 temple in the reign of Claudius. It must, therefore, have 
 been subjected to the criticisms of an age capable of form- 
 ing a correct judgment respecting its merits ; and it ap- 
 pears from the testimony of antiquity to have possessed the 
 two essentials of accurate drawing and truthful colouring, 
 and to have been free from the fault of conventional 
 treatment.^ 
 
 The Fabii were an intellectual family as well as a dis- 
 tinguished one: perhaps the numerous records of their 
 exploits which exist were, in some degree, owing to 
 
 Pro Arch. x. * Dion. xvi. 6 ; Nieb. H. K. iii. 356. 
 
154 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 their learning. The ^-andson of the eminent artist was 
 Fabius Pictor the historian. Livy' continually refers to 
 him, and throughout his narrative of the Hannibalian war, 
 he professes impHcit confidence in him on the grounds of 
 his being a contemporary historian'' {mqualem temporibm 
 hujusce belli) ; he is likewise the authority on whom the 
 greatest reliance was placed by Dion Cassius and Appian. 
 Nor did the accurate and faithful Polybius consider him 
 otherwise than trustworthy upon the whole, although 
 he accuses him of partiality towards his countrymen.^ 
 Niebuhr* attributes to Fabius Pictor the accurate know- 
 ledge of constitutional history displayed by Dion Cassius, 
 and acknowledges how deeply we are indebted to him for 
 the information which we possess concerning the changes 
 which took place in the Eoman constitution. It is to 
 his care that we owe the faithfulness of Dion, whilst 
 Dionysius and Livy too often lead us astray. It con- 
 stitutes some justification of his partiahty as an historian, 
 that Philinus of Agrigentum had also written a history 
 of the first Punic war in a spirit hostile to Eome, and 
 that this provoked Pictor to a defence of his country's 
 honour. His work was written in Greek, and its prin- 
 cipal subject was a history of the first and second Punic 
 wars, especially that against Hannibal. It has been 
 held by some, on the authority of a passage in the " De 
 Oratore " of Cicero," that he wrote in Latin as well as ia 
 Greek ; but Niebuhr believes that Cicero is in error, and 
 has confused him with a Latin annalist, named F. Max. 
 Servihanus. The period to which his work extended is 
 uncertain j but the last event alluded to by Livy, on his 
 authority, is the battle of Trasjnnenus,* and the last 
 occasion on which he mentions his name is when he 
 records his return from an embassy to Delphi in 
 
 ' Lib. i. 44, 45 ; ii. 40 ; viii. 30, &c. '' Lib. xiii. 7. ' Pol. i. 14. 
 
 * Lect. E. H. iii. xxvi. » Lib. ii. 12. « Liv. xxii. 7. 
 
L. CINCirS ALIMEWTUS, 155 
 
 the following year.^ Tlie earKer histoiiy of Eome was 
 prefixed by way of introduction ; for his object was not 
 paerely to assist in constructing the rising edifice of 
 Boman literature, but to spread the glory of his country 
 throughout that other great nation of antiquity, which 
 now, for the first time, came in contact with a worthy 
 rival. The Pontifical annals, the national ballads, the 
 annals of his own house, so rich in legendary tales of 
 heroism, furnished him with ample materials ; but he is 
 also said to have drawn largely on the stores of a Greek 
 author, named Diodes, a native of Peparethus, who had 
 preceded him in the work of research and accumulation. 
 
 L. CiNCius Alimentus. 
 
 Contemporary with Fabius was the other annalist of 
 the second Punic war, L. Cincius Alimentus. He was 
 praetor in SicHy"" ia the ninth year of the war, and took a 
 prominent part in it.* The soldiers who fought at Cannse* 
 were placed at his disposal, his period of command was 
 prolonged, and after his return home he was sent as 
 Legatus to the consul Crispirius, on the occasion of the 
 melancholy death of his colleague, MarceUus.^ Some 
 time after this, he was taken prisoner by Hannibal.® 
 Like Fabius, he wrote his work in Greek, and prefixed 
 to it a brief abstract of early Eoman history.' Livy 
 speaks of him as a diligent antiquarian, and appeals to 
 his authority to estabHsh the Etruscan origin of the 
 custom of the Dictator driving a nail into the temple of 
 Jupiter Optimus Maximus.* As his accurate investiga- 
 tion of original monuments gives a credibility to his early 
 history, so his being personally engaged in the war in a 
 high position, renders him trustworthy in the later 
 
 ' Lib. xxiii. ii : B. C. 216 ; a. u. c. 538. " a. u. c. 544 ; b. C. 210. 
 
 ' Liv. xxvi. 23. ■* Ibid. 28. " Ibid, xxvii. 29. 
 
 » Ibid. xxi. 31. ' Dionys. i. 6. " Liv. vii. 3. 
 
156 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 periods. It is also said that, when he was a prisoner of 
 war, Hannibal, who dehghted in the society of hterary 
 men, treated him with great kindness and consideration, 
 and himself communicated to him the details of his 
 passage across the Alps into Italy. 
 
 To him, therefore, and to the opportunities which he 
 enjoyed of gaining information, we owe the credibility of 
 this portion of Livy's history* on a point on which 
 authors were at variance, namely, the number of Han- 
 nibal's forces at this time. Livy appeals to the state- 
 ment of Cincius as settling the question, and says, Han- 
 nibal himself informed Cincius how many troops he had 
 lost between the passage of the Ehone and his descent 
 into Italy. 
 
 His accurate habit of mind must have made his .Annals 
 a most valuable work; and, therefore, it was most im- 
 portant that the variation of his early chronology from 
 that which is commonly received should be explained 
 and reconciled. This task Niebuhr has satisfactorily 
 accomplished. He supposes that Cincius took cyclical 
 years of ten months, which were used previous to the 
 reign of Tarquinius Priscus, in the place of common 
 years of twelve months. The time which had elapsed 
 between the building of Eome and this epoch was, ac- 
 cording to the Pontifical annals, 132 years; The error, 
 therefore, due to this miscalculation would be 132 — w^,^ 
 = 22 years. If this be added to the common date of 
 the building of Eome, B.C. 753 = 01. vii. 2, the result 
 is the date given by Cincius, namely 01. vii. 4.^ 
 
 C. AciLius Glabrio. 
 
 A few words may be devoted to C. Acilius Glabrio, 
 the third representative of the Grrseco-Eoman historic 
 
 ' See, on this subject, Lachmann de Font. Hist. Ti. Liv. 
 ^ See Dr. Smith's Diet, of Antiq. s. v. 
 
VALUE OF THE ANNALISTS. 157 
 
 literature. Very Httle is known respecting him. He 
 was Quaestor a.u.c. 551, Tribune a.u.c. 557, and subse- 
 quently attained senatorial rank ; for GeUius^ relates that, 
 when the three Athenian philosophers visited Eome as 
 ambassadors, Acilius introduced them to the senate and 
 acted as interpreter. His history was considered worthy 
 of translation by an author named Claudius, and to this 
 translation reference is twice made by Livy.^ 
 
 Valuable though the works of these annalists must 
 have been as historical records, and as famishing ma- 
 terials for more thoughtftd and philosophical minds, they 
 are only such as could have existed in the infancy of a 
 national literature. They were a bare compilation of 
 facts, the mere scaffolding and framework of history ; they 
 were diversified by no critical remarks or poHtical reflec- 
 tions. The authors made no use of their facts, either to 
 deduce or to illustrate principles. With respect to style 
 they were meagre, insipid, and jejune. 
 
 M. PoRcius Cato Censoeius. 
 
 The versatility and variety of talent displayed by Cato 
 claim for him a place amongst orators, jurists, ceconomists, 
 and historians. It is, however, amongst the latter, as 
 representatives of the highest branch of prose literature, 
 that we must speak of the author of the " Origines." His 
 life extends over a wide and important period of literary 
 history : everything was in a state of change — morals, 
 social habits, literary taste. Not only the influence of 
 Grreek literature, but also that of the moral and meta- 
 physical creed of Greek philosophy, was beginning to be 
 felt when Cato's manly and powerful intellect was flourish- 
 tag. When he filled the second public office to which 
 the Eoman citizen aspired, Nsevius was stiU living. 
 He was censor when Plautus died ; and, before his own 
 
 ' N. A. vii. 14. * Lib- xxv. 39 ; xxxv. 14, 
 
158 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 life ended, the comedies of Terence had been exhibited on 
 the Roman stage. 
 
 Three poHtical events took place during his lifetime, 
 which must have exercised an important iafluence on the 
 mental condition of the Roman people. When Mace- 
 donia, at the defeat of Perseus,^ was reduced to the con- 
 dition of a Eoman province, nearly a thousand Achseans, 
 amongst whom was the historian Polybins, were sent to 
 Rome, and detained in Italy as hostages during nearly 
 seventeen years. The thirteenth year from that event 
 witnessed the dawn of philosophy at Rome, for previously 
 to this epoch, the philosophical schools of Magna Ghrsecia 
 appear to have been unnoticed and disregarded. • But 
 now'* Cameades the Academic, Critolaus the Peripatetic, 
 and Diogenes the Stoic,* came to Rome as ambassadors 
 from Athens, and delivered philosophical lectures, which 
 attracted the attention of the leading statesmen, whilst 
 the doctrines which they taught excited universal alarm. 
 The following year Crates arrived as ambassador from 
 Attains, king of Pergamus, and during his stay delighted 
 the literary society of the capital with commentaries on 
 the Grreek poets.* It is not surprising that one who 
 Hved through a period during which Greek literature 
 had such favourable opportunities of befiig propagated 
 by some of its most distingilished professors, suficiently 
 overcame his prejudices as to learn in his old age the 
 language of a people whom he both hated and despised. 
 
 M. Porcius Cato Censorius was bom at Tusculum, 
 B.C. 234.° His family was of great antiquity, and num- 
 bered amongst its members many who were distinguished 
 for their courage in war and their integrity in peace. 
 His boyhood was passed in the healthy pursuits of rural 
 Hfe, at a small Sabine farm belonging to his fe,ther ; and 
 
 ' A. V. c. 586 ; B. c. 168. * a. u. C. 599 ; b. c. 155. 
 
 = Cic. de Orat. ii. 37 ; Quint, xii. 1. * Suet, de Gram. 111. 2. 
 
 ° De Senec. 4. 
 
LIFE OF CATO. 159 
 
 his mind, invigorated by stem and hardy training, was 
 early directed to the stndy as well as the practice of 
 agriculture. To this rugged yet honest discipline may 
 be traced the features of his character as displayed in 
 after life, his prejudices as well as his virtues. 
 
 He became a soldier at a very early age, B.C. 217, served 
 in the Hannibalian war, was under the command of 
 Fabius Maximus both in Campania and Tarentum, and 
 did good service at the decisive battle of the Metaurus. 
 Between his campaigns he did not seek to exhibit his 
 laurels in the society of the capital, but, like Curius Den- 
 tatus and Quinctius Cincinnatus, employed himself in the 
 rural labours of his Sabine retirement. 
 
 His shrewd remarks and easy conversation, as well as 
 the skill with which he pleaded the causes of his clients 
 before the rural magistracy, soon made his abilities 
 known, and his reputation attracted the notice of one of 
 his country neighbours, L. Valerius Maccus, who invited 
 him to his town-house at Eome. Owing to the patronage 
 of his noble friend and his own merits, his rise to emi- 
 nence as a pleader was rapid. He was quaestor in 
 in B.C. 206, aedile in B.C. 199, prsetor the following year, 
 and in b.c. 195 he obtained the consulship, his patron 
 riaccus being now his colleague. His province was 
 Spain ;' and, whilst stem and pitUess towards his foes, he 
 exhibited a noble example of self-denying endurance in 
 order to minister to the welfare of his army. At the 
 conclusion of his consulship, he served as legatus in 
 Thrace and Greece; and in b.c. 189 was sent on a civil 
 mission to Pulvius NobHior in iEtolia. 
 
 After experiencing one failure, he was elected censor 
 in B.C. 184 ; and he had now an opportunity of making a 
 return for the obhgations which his earliest patron had 
 conferred upon him, for, by his influence, Maccus was 
 
 ' Liv. xxxiv. 
 
160 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 appointed his collea^e. This office was, above all 
 others, suited to his talents ; and to his remarkable 
 activity in the discharge of his duties, he owes his fame 
 and his surname. 
 
 He had now full scope for displaying his habits of 
 busiuess, his talents for administration, his uncompro- 
 mising resistance to all luxury and extravagance, his 
 fearlessness in the reformation of abuses ; and though he 
 was severe, public opinion bore testimony to his integrity, 
 for he was rewarded with a statue and an inscription. 
 He had now served his country in every capacity, but 
 still he gave himself no rest; advancing age did not 
 weaken his energies ; he was always ready as the cham- 
 pion of the oppressed, the advocate of virtue, the punisher 
 of vice. He prosecuted the extortionate governors of 
 his old province, Spain.^ He pleaded before the senate 
 the cause of the loyal Ehodians. 
 
 He caused the courteous dismissal of the three Greek 
 philosophers, because the arguments of Carneades made it 
 .difficult to discern what was truth.^ Although his pre- 
 judice against Greeks prevented him sympathising with 
 the sorrows of the Achsean exiles, he supported the vote 
 for their restoration to their native land. Neither his 
 enemies nor his country would allow him rest. In his 
 eighty-sixth year, he had to defend himself against a 
 capital charge. In his eighty-ninth, he was sent to 
 Africa as one of the arbitrators between the Cartha- 
 ginians and Massinissa,^ and in his ninetieth, the year in 
 which he died,* his last public act was the prosecution 
 of Galba for his perfidious treatment of the conquered 
 Lusitanians.^ 
 
 ' B. 0. 171. = Plin. H. N. vii. 31. ' a. u. o. 605. 
 
 ' Livy (xxxix. 40) and Niebuhr (Lect. Mx.) state tliat Cato died at the 
 age of ninety; Cicero (Brut. 16, 20, 23) and Pliny, at the age of eighty-five. 
 
 ■■'Valerius Maximus relates the following anecdote of the respect in 
 which this virtuous Roman was held by his countrymen : — At the Ploralia, 
 the people were accustomed to call for the exhibition of dances, accom- 
 
CHARACTER OF CATO. 161 
 
 Cato loved strife, and his long life was one continued 
 combat. He never found a task too difficult, because 
 difficulty called forth all his energies, and his strong wiU 
 and invincible perseverance insured success. His in- 
 herent love of truth made him hate anything conven- 
 tional. As a politician, he considered rank valueless, 
 except it depended upon personal merit, and therefore he 
 was an unrelenting enemy of the aristocracy. As a 
 morahst, he indignantly rejected that false gloss' of 
 modem fashion which was superseding the old plainness, 
 and which was, in his opinion, the foundation of his 
 country's glory. In literature, he distrusted and con- 
 demned everything Greek, because he confounded the 
 sentiments of its noblest periods as a nation with those 
 of the degenerate Grreeks with whom he came in contact. 
 But, at length, his candid and truthftd disposition dis- 
 covered and confessed his error on this point, and his 
 prejudices gave way before conviction. 
 
 Cato, with all his virtues, was a hard-hearted man.' 
 He had no amiabihty, no love, no affection ; he did not 
 love right, for he loved nothing, but he had a burning 
 indignation against wrong. This was the mainspring of 
 his conduct. He did not feel for the oppressed, but he 
 declared war against the oppressor. He never could 
 sympathise with Hving men. In his youth, aU his ad- 
 miration was for the past generation. In his old age, 
 his feeling was that his life had been spent with the past^ 
 and he had nothing in common with the present. 
 
 As is usually the case > with those who Hve during a 
 period of transition, his feelings were so interested in 
 that past by which his character was formed, that he was 
 
 panied with acts of great indecency. Cato on one of these oocaflions hap- 
 pened to be present, and the spectators were ashamed to make their usual 
 demand until he had left the theatre. Martial also alludes to this anecdote 
 in one of his epigrams. 
 ' Hor. Od. ii. i. 
 
 M 
 
162 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 incapable of discerning any good whatever in change and 
 progress. For this reason he dreaded the invasion of 
 refinement and civilization. Accustomed to connect virtue 
 and purity with the absence of temptations, he was 
 prepared to take an exaggerated view of the relation 
 between polish and efieminacy, between a taste for the 
 beautiful and luxury. 
 
 He was a bitter hater of those who opposed his pre-, 
 judices. His enmity to Carthage sprung much more from 
 his antagonism to Scipio, as the leader of the Grreek or 
 movement party, than from fears for the safety of Rome. 
 Scipio said. Let Carthage be ; therefore Cato's wiH was, 
 let Carthage be destroyed. When his hatred of injustice 
 was aroused, as, for example, by the perfidy of S. Sulpicius 
 Galba towards the Lusitanians, he could support the 
 cause of foreigners against a fellow-countryman. His 
 character is ftill of apparent inconsistencies. Although 
 he hated oppression, he was cruel to his slaves ; tyrannical 
 and implacable, simply because he would not brook 
 opposition to his will. His integrity was incorruptible, 
 and yet he was a grinding usurer ; frugal in his habits, 
 and notwithstanding his few wants, grasping and avari- 
 cious ; but it was his love of business that he was grati- 
 fying, rather than a love of money. Trade was with 
 him a combat in which he would not allow an advantage 
 to be gained by his adversary. Virtue did not present 
 itself to Cato in an amiable form. He had but one idea of 
 it — austerity ; and, as his hatred of wrong was not counter- 
 balanced by a love of right, the intensity of his hatred 
 was only kept in check by the practical good sense and 
 utilitarian views which occupy so prominent a place in 
 the Eoman character. Being himself reserved and un- 
 demonstrative, he expected others to be so likewise, and 
 thought it unbecoming the dignity of a Eoman to exhibit 
 tenderness of feeling. On one occasion we are told that 
 he degraded a Eoman knight for embracing his wife in 
 
HIS GENIUS AND STYLE. 163 
 
 the presence of his daughter. His personal appearance 
 was not more prepossessing than his manners, as we 
 learn from the following severe epigram : — ^ 
 
 Tlvppiv, jravSaKerriv, y\avK6iJi[iaT0v, ov8e 6av6vTa 
 UopKiov (is dtdr)v TlepiTe(p6vri be^^Tai. 
 
 With his red hair, constant snarl, and grey eyes, Proserpine would 
 not receive Poroius, even after death, into Hades. 
 
 As, notwithstanding his defects, Cato was morally the 
 greatest man Eome ever produced, so he was one of the 
 greatest intellectually. His genius was perfectly original ; 
 his character was not moulded hy other men ; he had no 
 education except self-education. He had immense power 
 of acquiring learning, and he ransacked every source to 
 increase his stores ; but he was indebted to no man for 
 his opinions — they were self-formed, except those which 
 he inherited, and in which his own independent convic- 
 tions led him to acquiesce. He had the abihty and the 
 determination to excel in everything which he undertook, 
 pohtics, war, rural economy, oratory, history. His style 
 is rude, unpolished, ungraceful, because to him. wit was 
 artifice, and polish superficial and therefore unreal. Tor 
 this reason he did not profit by the inconceivably rapid 
 change which was then taking place in the Latin language, 
 and which is evident from a comparison of the fragments 
 of Cato's works with the polished comedies of Terence. 
 
 His statements, however, were clear and transparent; 
 his illustrations, though quaint, were striking ; the words 
 with which he enriched his native tongue were full of 
 meaning ; his wit was keen and lively, although he never 
 would permit it to offend against gravity or partake of 
 irreverence.^ His arguments went straight to the 
 intellect, and carried conviction with them. 
 
 The character of Cato forms one of the most beautifiil 
 
 ' Plut. Life of Cato. 
 
 ' Cicero tells us (De Orat. ii. 64) that, when censor, he degraded 
 L. Nasica for an unseasonable jest. 
 
 M 2 
 
164 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 passages in the works of Livy :* — " In hoc viro tanta vis 
 animi ingeniique fait, ut, quocixnque loco natus esset, 
 fortunam sibi ipse facturus faisse videretur. Nulla ars, 
 neque privatae, neque pubHcae rei gerendse, ei defuit. 
 TJrbanas rusticasque res pariter callebat. Ad summos 
 honores alios scientia juris, alios eloquentia, alios gloria 
 militaris provexit. Huic versatile ingenium sic pariter 
 ad omnia fuit, ut natum ad id unum diceres, quodcunque 
 ageret. In beUo manu fortissimus, multisque insignibus 
 clarus pugnis ; idem, postquam ad magnos honores per- 
 venit, summus imperator : idem in pace, si jus consuleres, 
 peritissimus ; si causa oranda esset, eloquentissimus. 
 Nee is tantum, cujus Hngua vivo eo viguerit, monu- 
 mentum eloquentise nullum exstet : vivit immo vigetque 
 eloquentia ejus, sacrata scriptis omnis generis. Orationes 
 et pro se multse, et pro aliis et in alios ; nam non solum 
 accusando, sed etiam causam dicendo, fatigavit inimicos. 
 Simultates nimio plures et exercuerunt eum, et ipse exer- 
 cuit eas ; nee facile dixeris, utrum magis presserit eum 
 nobihtas, an ille agitaverit nobihtatem. Asperi procul- 
 dubio animi, et linguae acerbse, et immodice Hberse fait ; 
 sed iQvicti a cupiditatibus animi, et rigidae innocentise ; 
 contemptor gratiae divitiarum. In parsimonia, in patientia 
 laboris, pericuH, ferrei prope corporis animique ; quam 
 neque senectus quidem, quae solvit omnia, fregerit. Qui 
 sextum et octogesimum annum agens causam dixerit, 
 ipse pro se oraverit, scripseritque ; nonagesimo anno Ser. 
 Galbam ad populi adduxerit judicium." 
 
 ' Lib. xxzls. 40. 
 
( 165 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE ORIGINES OF CATO — PASSAGE QUOTED BY GELLIUS — TREATISE 
 DE RE RUSTICA — ORATIONS — L. CASSIUS HEMINA — HISTORIANS IN 
 THE DAYS OF THE GRACCHI— TRADITIONAL ANECDOTE OF ROMULUS 
 — AUTOBIOGRAPHERS — FRAGMENT OF QUADRIGARIUS — FAIiSE- 
 HOODS OF ANTIAS— SISENNA — TUBERO. 
 
 Cato's great historical and antiquarian work, " The 
 Origines," was written in his old age/ Its title wotdd 
 seem to imply that it was merely an inquiry into the 
 ancient history of his country ; but in reality it compre- 
 hended far more than this — ^it was a history of Italy and 
 Eome from the earliest times to the latest events which 
 occurred in his own Hfe-time. The contents of the work 
 are thus described by Cornelius Nepos.^ It is divided 
 into seven books. The first treats of the history of the 
 kings ; the second and third of the rise and progress of 
 the Italian states; the fourth contains the first Punic 
 war ; the fifth the war with Hannibal ; the remaining two 
 the history of the subsequent wars down to the praetor- 
 ship of Servius Galba. 
 
 It was a work of great research and originality. For 
 his archaeological information, he had consulted the 
 records and documents, not only of Eome, but of the 
 principal Italian towns. It is probable that their con- 
 stitutional history was introduced incidentally to the 
 main narrative ; and that the rise and progress of the 
 
 ' About A. D. 0. 600. ' Cato, iii. 
 
166 KOMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Roman constitution was illustrated by the political prin- 
 ciples of the Italian nations. The " Origines " also con- 
 tained valuable notices respecting the history and consti- 
 tution of Carthage/ his embassy having furnished him 
 with ftdl opportunity for collecting materials. It was in 
 fact a unique work : no other Eoman historian wrote 
 in the same spirit, or was equally laborious in the work 
 of original investigation. 
 
 The truthfulness and honesty of Cato must have 
 rendered the contemporary part of the history equally 
 valuable with the antiquarian portion. He could not 
 have been guilty of flattery, he had no regard for the 
 feelings of individuals. Not only he never mentions 
 himself, but except in times long gone by, he never 
 names any one.^ The glory of a victory, or of a gallant 
 exploit, belongs to the general, or consul, or tribune, as 
 the representative of the republic. He does not allow 
 either individual or family to participate in that which 
 he considered the exclusive property of his coimtry. 
 
 Sufficient fragments of the " Origines " remain to make 
 us regret that more have not been preserved ; but though 
 very numerous, they are, with the exception of two, ex- 
 cessively brief. One of these is a portion of his own 
 speech in favour of the Ehodians ;' the other a simple 
 and affecting narrative of an act of self-devoted heroism. 
 A consular army was surprised and surrounded by the 
 Carthaginians in a defile, from which there was no 
 escape. The tribune, whom Cato does not name, but 
 who, as A. GeUius informs us, was Csedicius, went to the 
 consul and recommended him to send four hundred men 
 to occupy a neighbouring height. The enemy, he added, 
 will attack thein, and without doubt they will be slain to 
 a man. Nevertheless, whilst the enemy is thus occupied. 
 
 ' See frag, of book iv. Krause. * C. Nepos in Vita. 
 
 ' Lib. V. Krause, p. 114. 
 
PASSAGE FROM THK ORIGINES. 167 
 
 the army will escape. But, replied the consul, who 
 will be the leader of this band ? I will, said the tribune ; 
 I devote my life to you, and to my country. The tribune 
 and the four hundred men set forth to die. They sold 
 their lives dearly, but all fell. " The immortal gods," 
 adds Cato, for GeUius is here quoting his very words, 
 " granted the tribune a lot according to his valour. For 
 thus it came to pass. Though he had received many 
 wounds, none proved mortal, and when his comrades 
 recognized him amongst the dead, faint from loss of 
 blood, they took him up, and he recovered. But it 
 makes a vast difference in what country a generous action 
 is performed. Leonidas, of Lacedaemon, is praised, who 
 performed a similar exploit at Thermopylae. On account 
 of his valour united Greece testified her gratitude in 
 every possible way, and adorned his exploit with monu- 
 mental records, pictures, statues, eulogies, histories. The 
 Roman tribune gained but faint praise, and yet he had 
 done the same and saved the EepubKc." The most 
 pathetic writer could not have told the tale more effect- 
 ively than the stem Cato. 
 
 Circumstances invest his treatise "De Ee Eustica " with 
 great interest. The population of Eome, both patrician and 
 plebeian, was necessarily agricultural. For centuries they 
 had little commerce : their wealth consisted in flocks and 
 herds, and in the conquered territories of nations as poor 
 as themselves. The Ager Bomanus, and subsequently, as 
 they gained fresh acquisitions, the fertile plains, and 
 valleys, and mountain sides of Italy, supplied them with 
 maintenance. The statesman and the general, in the 
 intervals of civU war or military service, returned, like 
 Cincianatus and Cato, to the cultivation of their fields 
 and gardens. The Eoman armies were recruited from 
 the peasantry, and when the war was over, the soldier 
 returned to his daily labour ; and, in later times, the 
 veteran, when his period of service was completed, be- 
 
168 KOMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURK. 
 
 came a small farmer in a military colony. To a restless 
 nation, who could not exist in a state of inactivity, a 
 change of labour was relaxation; and the pleasures of 
 rural life, which were so often sung by the Augustan 
 poets, were heartily enjoyed by the same man whose 
 natural atmosphere seemed to be either politics or 
 war. 
 
 Besides the possession of these rural tastes the 
 Eomans were essentially a domestic people. The Greeks 
 were social ; they lived in pubhc ; they had no idea of 
 home. Woman did not with them occupy a position 
 favourable to the existence of home-feeHng. The Eoman 
 matron was the centre of the domestic circle ; she was 
 her husband's equal, sometimes his counsellor, and gene- 
 rally the educator of his children in their early years. 
 Hundreds of sepulchral inscriptions bear testimony to 
 the sweet charities of home-life, to the dutiful obedience 
 of children, the devoted affection of parents, the fidehty 
 of wives, the attachments of husbands. Hence, home 
 and all its pursuits and occupations had an interest in 
 the eyes of a Eoman. Tor this reason there were so 
 many writers on rural and domestic economy. From 
 Cato to Columella we have a list of authors whose 
 object was instruction in the various branches of the 
 subject. They are thus enumerated by Columella him- 
 self;' — " Cato was the first who taught the art of agricul- 
 ture to speak in Latia ; after him it was improved by 
 the diligence of the two Sasernse, father and son ; next it 
 acquired eloquence from Scrofa Tremelhus; polish from 
 M. Terentius (Yarro) ; poetic power from Virgil." To 
 their illustrious names he adds those of J. Hyginus, the 
 Carthaginian Mago, Com. Celsus, J. Atticus, and his 
 disciple J. GrrseciuuS. 
 
 The work of Cato, " De Ee Eustica," has come down 
 
 ' Lib. i. i. 12. 
 
THE TKEATISE DE RE RUSTICA. 169 
 
 to US almost in form and substance as it was written. 
 It has not the method of a regular treatise. It is a 
 commonplace-book of agriculture and domestic economy, 
 under 163 heads. The subjects are connected, but not 
 regularly arranged ; they form a collection of useM 
 instructions, hints, and receipts. Its object is utility, 
 not science. It serves the purpose of a farmers' and 
 gardeners' manual, a domestic medicine, a herbal, a 
 cookery-book ; prudential maxims are interspersed, and 
 some favourite charms for the cure of disease in man and 
 beast. Cato teaches his readers, for example, how to 
 plant ozier-beds, to cultivate vegetables, to preserve the 
 health of cattle, to pickle pork, and to make savoury 
 dishes. He is shrewd and economical, but he never 
 allows humanity to interfere with profits; for he re- 
 commends his readers to sell everything which they do 
 not want, even old horses and old slaves. He is a great 
 conjuror, for he informs us that the most potent cvixe for 
 a sprain is the repetition of the following hocus-pocus :* — 
 "Daries dardaries astataries dissunapiter j " or, " Huat 
 hanat huat hista pista sista domiabo damnaustra;" or, 
 "Huat huat huat ista sis tar sis ordannabon dum- 
 naustra." This miscellaneous collection is preceded by 
 an introduction, in which is maintained the superiority 
 of agriculture over other modes of gaining a livelihood, 
 especially over that of trade and money-lending. 
 
 Cato was a conscientious father. He could not trust 
 Greeks, but undertook the education of his son himself. 
 As a part of his system, he addressed to him, in the form 
 of letters, instruction on various topics — historical, phi- 
 losophical, and moral. A very few fragments of this 
 work, unfortunately, remain. In one of them he re- 
 
 ' The hocus-pocus of Cato resembles Latin about as nearly as did the 
 gibberish of the Spanish witches in the days of witch-finding. "In 
 nomine Patrica Aragueaco Petrica agora agora valentia jouando goure 
 gaito goustra." 
 
170 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 commends a cursory view of Greek literature, but not a 
 profound study of it. He evidently considered Greek 
 writings morally dangerous ; but he entertained a stiU 
 greater horror of their mediciae. He had confidence in 
 his own old-fashioned charms and rural pharmacopeia; 
 but he firmly believed, as he would the voice of an oracle, 
 that all the Greek physicians were banded together to 
 destroy the Romans as barbarians. 
 
 Of the orations of Cato, ninety titles are extant, to- 
 gether with numerous fi-agments.' Some of these were 
 evidently judicial, but the majority deliberative. After 
 what has been said of his works, it is scarcely necessary 
 to describe the style of his eloquence. Unless a man is 
 a mere actor, his character is generally exempKfied in his 
 speaking. This is especially true of Cato. He despised 
 art. He was too fearless and upright, too confident in 
 the justice of his cause, to be a rhetorician ; too much 
 wrapt up in his subject to be careful of the language in 
 which he conveyed his thoughts. He imitated no one, 
 and no one was ever able to imitate him. His style was 
 abrupt, concise, witty, full of contrasts ; its beauty that 
 of Nature — ^namely, the rapid alternations of light and 
 shade. Now it was rude and harsh, now pathetic and 
 afiecting. It was the language of debate — antagonistic, 
 gladiatorial, elenchtic. 
 
 Plutarch compares him to Socrates ; but he omits the 
 principal point of resemblance, namely, that he always 
 speaks as if he was hand to hand with an adversary. 
 Even amidst the glitter and polish of the Augustan age, 
 old Cato had some admirers.^ But this was not the 
 general feehng. The intrinsic value of the rough gem 
 was not appreciated. Cicero^ teUs us that, to his 
 astonishment, Cato was almost entirely unknown. The 
 time afterwards arrived when criticism became a science. 
 
 ' Meyer, Frag. Eom. Orat. ' See, ex. gr. Liv. xxxix. 40. » Brutus. 
 
L. CASSIUS HEMINA. 171 
 
 and he was estimated as he deserved to be ; but this 
 admiration for the amtique form was not a revival of the 
 antique spirit : it was only an attempt to compensate for 
 its loss ; it was an imitation, not a reality. 
 
 Such was the literary position occupied by him whom 
 Niebuhr pronounces to be the only great man in his 
 generation, and one of the greatest and most honourable 
 characters in Eoman history.* 
 
 L. Cassius Hemina. 
 
 There was no one worthy to foUow Cato as an his- 
 torian but L. Cassius Hemina. A. Postumius Albinus, 
 consul B. c. 151, was, according to Cicero,^ a learned and 
 eloquent man, and wrote a history of Eome in Greek -^ 
 but it was so inelegant that he apologized on the ground 
 that he was a Eoman writing in a foreign language.* It 
 is probable, also, that he was inaccurate and puerile. He 
 tells us, for example, that Baise was so named after Boia, 
 the nurse of one of JEneas' friends, and that Brutus used 
 to eat green figs and honey.° 
 
 Hemina wrote Eoman annals in five or six books, and 
 published them about the time of the fall of Carthage : * 
 a considerable number of fragments are extant. He was 
 the last writer of this period who investigated the ori- 
 ginal sources of history. His researches went back to 
 very early times ; and he appears to have attempted, at 
 least, a comparison of Greek and Italian chronology, for 
 he fixes the age of Homer and Hesiod in the dynasty of 
 the Silvii, more than 160 years after the siege of T^oy. 
 He relates the original legend of Cacus and the oxen of 
 Hercules, the finding of Numa's coffin, and the cele- 
 bration of the fourth saecular games in the consulship of 
 
 ' Lect. R. H. Ixix. * Brut. » GeU. xi. 8. •* Serv. Mn. ix. 70. 
 » Macrob. ii. 16. " A. u. c. 608. 
 
172 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Lentulus and Mummius.' This was probably the last 
 event of importance previous to the publication of his 
 work. Only two fragments are of sufficient length to 
 enable us to form any judgment respecting his style. 
 Many of his expressions are very archaic, but the story 
 of Cacus is told in a simple and pleasing manner. 
 
 After Bfemina, Eoman history was, for some years, 
 nothing more than a compilation from the old chronicles, 
 and from the labours and investigations of previous 
 authors. Q. Fabius Maximus ServiHanus was consul 
 A. u. c. 612. His Latin style must have been very defi- 
 cient in euphony, if he frequently indulged in such 
 words as litter odsdmum, which occurs in one of the 
 fragments extant. C. Fannius, prsetor a. u. c. 617, Avrote 
 a meagre history^ in not inelegant Latin. Vennonius, 
 his contemporary, was the author of annals which are 
 referred to by Dionysius. To this list of historians may 
 be added C. Sempronius Tuditanus, a poHshed gentleman 
 as well as an elegant writer. ^ 
 
 The days of the Gracchi were very fruitful in his- 
 torians and autobiographers. At the head of them 
 stands L. OseHus Antipater,* a Eoman freedman, an elo- 
 quent orator, and skilful jurist. ' His work consisted of 
 seven books, and many fragments are preserved by the 
 grammarians. He seems to have delighted in the mar- 
 vellous; for Cicero quotes from him two remarkable 
 dreams in his treatise on Divination. He is also 
 frequently referred to by Livy in his history of the 
 Punic wars. 
 
 Contemporaneously with CseHus lived Cn. GeUius, 
 whose voluminous history extended to the length of 
 ninety-seven books at least. Livy seldom refers to him. 
 Probably, in this instance, he acted wisely ; for he seems 
 
 ' A. V. c. 608. ^ Cic. de Leg. ii. 2 ; Brut. 26. ^ Cic. Brat. 25. 
 
 * Ibid. 26. 
 
ANECDOTE OF ROMULUS. 173 
 
 to have been an historian of little or no authority. Two 
 other GeUii, Sextus and Aulus, flourished at the same 
 time. 
 
 PubHus Sempronius AseUio wrote, about the middle of 
 the seventh century of Rome, a memoir of the Numantian 
 war. He was an eye-witness of the scenes which he 
 describes, for he was tribune at Numantia under Scipio 
 Africanus.^ 
 
 The only constitutional history of Eome was the work 
 of C. Junius, who was sumamed Gracchanus, in conse- 
 quence of his intimacy with C. Gracchus. It is certain 
 that this work must have been the result of original 
 research, as there are no remains extant of any history 
 which could have furnished the materials. The legal and 
 political knowledge which it contained was evidently con- 
 siderable, for it is quoted by the jurists as a trustworthy 
 authority.^ 
 
 Servius Fabius Pictor' wrote annals ; but his principal 
 work was a treatise on the Pontifical law, an anti- 
 quarian record of rites and ceremonies. L. Calpumius 
 Piso Frugi Censorius was consul in the year in which 
 Ti. Sempronius Gracchus was killed, and censor the 
 year after the murder of C. Gracchus : * he is occasionally 
 quoted by Dionysius, and twice by Livy, who, on the 
 points in question, consider his authority less trust- 
 worthy than that of Fabius Pictor.° GeUius ^ quotes 
 from him the following traditional anecdote of Pomulus. 
 Once upon a time the King was invited out to supper. 
 He drank very little, because he had business to transact 
 on the following day. Some one at table remarked, if 
 everybody did so, wine would be cheaper. " Nay," replied 
 Eomulus, " I have drank as much as I wished ; if every- 
 body did so, it would be dear." 
 
 ' Gell. ii. 13. ^ See Nieb Lect. V. on Eom. Lit. " Brut. 21. 
 
 ■* B. c. 133. ' Liv. i. 55. " Lib. xi. 14. 
 
174 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Piso was an honest man, but not an honest historian. 
 He acquired the surname Frugi by his strict integrity 
 and simple habits ; but his ingenuity tempted him to 
 disregard historical truth. Mebuhr considers him the 
 first who introduced systematic forgeries into Eoman 
 history. Seeing the discrepancies and consistencies be- 
 tween the accounts given by previous annalists, instead 
 of weighing them together, and adopting those which 
 were best supported by the testimony of antiquity, he 
 either invented theories in order to reconcile conflicting 
 statements, or substituted some narrative which he 
 thought might have been the groundwork of the mar- 
 vellous legend. Niebuhr observes, that he treated history 
 precisely in the same way in which the rationalists 
 endeavoured to divest the Scripture of its miraculous 
 character. 
 
 M. ^mUius Scaurus, P. Eutilius Eufas, and Q. Luta- 
 tius Catulus were the first Eoman autobiographers ; and 
 their example was afterwards followed by Sulla, who 
 employed his retirement in writing his own memoirs in 
 twenty-two books. Scaurus was the son of a charcoal- 
 dealer, who, by his military talents, twice raised himself 
 to the consulship, and once enjoyed the honour of a 
 triumph. A few unimportant fragments of his personal 
 memoirs are preserved by the grammarians. Eutilius 
 was consul a. u. c. 649 : he wrote his own life in Latin, 
 and a history of Eome in Grreek.^ Catulus is praised by 
 Cicero for his Latinity, who compares his style to that of 
 Xenophon.^ 
 
 The other historians, who flourished immediately before 
 the literary period of Cicero, were C. Licinius Macer, 
 Q. Claudius Quadrigarius, and Q. Valerius Antias. 
 
 Macer* was a proHx and gossiping writer : he was 
 
 ' Athenaeus, iv. 168. * Brut. 35. 
 
 ' See Cio. de Leg. i. 2 ; Brut. 67. 
 
HISTORY OF QUADRIGARITJS. 175 
 
 not deficient in industry ; lie spared no pains in col- 
 lecting traditions ; but he had no judgment in selection, 
 and accepted all the Grreek fables respecting Italy without 
 discrimination. Hence he makes some statements which 
 were rejected by annalists of greater authority. Niebuhr^ 
 defends him, and regrets deeply the loss of his annals. 
 He thinks it not improbable that Cicero's unfavourable 
 criticism may have been owing to political prejudice, 
 ffis work was voluminous, and, probably, traced the 
 Eoman history from the commencement to his own 
 times. 
 
 Quadrigarius is much quoted both by Livy and the 
 grammarians. From the fragments extant it is clear 
 that his history commenced with the Gallic wars ; and 
 from a passage in Plutarch's life of Numa,^ he appears to 
 have been actuated by a motive indicative of his truth- 
 ftJuess as an historian. He was not content with fabulous 
 legends, and there were no documents in existence an- 
 terior to the capture of Eome by the Grauls. His work 
 consisted of twenty -three books : it carried the history, 
 as is generally supposed, as far as the death of SuUa,* 
 or, as Niebuhr believed, down to the consulship of 
 Cicero.* The longest fragment extant has been preserved 
 by GeUius, and relates the combat of ManHus Torquatus 
 with the gigantic Gaul. 
 
 The style is abrupt and sententious, and the structure 
 of the sentences loose ; but the story is told in a naive 
 and spirited manner. One can realize the scene as the 
 historian describes it — the awe of the Roman host at the 
 unwonted sight — ^the gigantic stature, the truculent 
 countenance of the Goliath-like youth — ^the unbroken 
 silence, in the midst of which his voice of thunder uttered 
 his defiance — the scorn with which he sneered and put 
 
 Lect. iii. xliv. '' Niima, c. i. See Niebuhr, Lect. III. xli. 
 
 ' A. u. c. 678. ' A. D.c. 691. 
 
176 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 out his tongue when no one accepted his challenge — ^the 
 shame and grief of the nohle ManHus — the struggle — ^the 
 cutting off the monster's head, and the wreathing his 
 own neck with the collar still reeking with hlood. 
 
 It has been suggested that this historian received the 
 surname Quadrigarius because, in the games of the Circus, 
 celebrated after the victory of SuUa, he won the prize in 
 the chariot race. 
 
 No Eoman historian ever made greater pretensions to 
 accuracy than Valerius Antias, and no one was less trust- 
 worthy. Livy, on one occasion,^ accuses him of either 
 negligence or impudent exaggeration ; but there is no 
 doubt that he was guilty of the latter fault. Almost all 
 the places in which he is quoted by Livy have reference 
 to numbers, and in all he not only goes far beyond aU 
 other historians,^ but even transgresses the bounds of pos- 
 sibihty. Livy never hesitates to call him a Har. In all 
 cases he is guilty of • falsehood ; the only question is 
 whether his falsehood is more or less moderate. The 
 following examples are sufficient to convict him. He 
 undertakes to assert that the exact number of the Sabine 
 virgins was 527.^ If one historian states that 60 engines 
 of war were taken, he makes the number 6,000 ;* when all 
 authors, Greek and Latin, unite in asserting that in 
 A. u. c. 553, there was no memorable campaign, he says 
 a battle was fought in which 13,000 of the enemy were 
 slain and 1,300 taken prisoners.^ In another place 10,000 
 slain become 40,000;* and a fine which Quadrigarius states 
 was to be paid by instalments in thirty years, he distri- 
 butes only over the space of ten.' With matter of this 
 unauthentic kind, he filled no less than seventy-five books. 
 
 ' Lib. XXX. 19. 
 
 * There is one instance to the contrary (Li v. xxxviii. 23), in which Quad- 
 rigarius makes the number of the slain 40,000, Antias only 10,000. 
 " Hut. Romulus, 14. ■• Liv. xxvi. 49. > Lib. xxxii. 6. 
 
 " Lib. xxxiii. 10. ' Lib. xxxiii. 30. 
 
SISENNA AND TUBERO. 177 
 
 of which a large portion of passages have been preserved, 
 especially by Livy. 
 
 Hitherto, with one doubtful exception, Latin historical 
 composition was in the hands of the great and noble ; the 
 first historian belonging to the order of the libertinei was 
 L. OtaciUus Pilitus. Suetonius' says, that he was not only 
 originally a slave, but that he acted as porter, and, as was 
 the custom, was chained to his master's door. Nothing 
 is known of his works ; it is probable, therefore, that they 
 were of no merit. 
 
 Two more important names remain to be mentioned 
 amongst the annalists of this period — L. Cornelius Si- 
 senna and Q. ^lius Tubero. Sisenna, according to the 
 testimony of Cicero,'' was bom between b. o. 640 and 
 B. c. 630, and filled the o£&ce of quaestor b. c. 676. He 
 was, according to the same authority, a man of learning 
 and taste, wrote pure Latin, was well acquainted with 
 public business, and, although deficient in industry, sur- 
 passed all his predecessors and contemporaries ia his 
 talents as an historian. Probably his style of writing ap- 
 proached more nearly to that of the new school, although 
 stiU below the Ciceronian standard. The testimony of 
 Sallust is not so favourable, as he considers him not suffi- 
 ciently impartial to ftdfil adequately the duties of a con- 
 temporary historian.' 
 
 No fragments are extant of sufficient length to enable 
 us to form any estimate of his merits, although, on ac- 
 count of the numerous unusual words which occur in 
 his writings, no historian of this period has been more 
 frequently quoted by the grammarians. The probability 
 is that his twenty -three books are of little or no value, 
 as they are never referred to in order to illustrate matters 
 of historical or antiquarian interest. 
 
 Tubero was the contemporary of Cicero, and did not 
 
 De Clar. Rhet. 3. ' Brut. 64 and 88. ' Jug. 95. 
 
 N 
 
178 KOMAN CLASSICAL LITERATUEE. 
 
 write his annals until after Cicero's consulship. Never- 
 theless he must be considered as belonging to the old 
 school, and its last as well as one of its most' worthy- 
 representatives. He was the father of L. Tubero, the 
 legate of Q. Cicero, in Asia. Like Piso he was a stout 
 opponent of the Gracchic policy, and a firm supporter of 
 the aristocracy. A stoic in philosophy, his Hfe was in 
 strict accordance with his creed, and his style of writing 
 is said to have been marked with Catonian rudeness. He 
 describes, in his history, the cruel tortures of Eegulus by 
 the Carthaginians, and relates the story of the wonderM 
 serpent at Bagrada.' He is once quoted by Dionysius 
 and twice by Livy. 
 
 'Gell. vi. 3. 4. 
 
( 179 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 EARLY ROMAN ORATORY — ELOQUENCE OF APPIUS CLAUDIUS CiECUS 
 — FUNERAL ORATIONS — DEFENCE OF SCTPIO AFRICANUS MAJOR — 
 SCIPIO AFRICANUS MINOR jEMILI ANUS— ERA OF THE GRACCHI — 
 THEIR CHARACTERS — DTTERVAL BETWEEN THE GRACCHI AND 
 CICERO— M. ANTONIUS — L. LICINIUS CRASSUS — Q. HORTENSIUS — 
 CAUSES OF HIS EARLY POPULARITY AND SUBSEQUENT FAILURE. 
 
 Eloquence, tlioiigli of a rude unpolished kind, must have 
 been in the very earliest times a characteristic of th6 
 Roman people. It is a plant indigenous to a free soil. 
 Its infancy was nurtured in the schools of Tisias and 
 Corax, when, on the dethronement of the tyrants, the 
 dawn of freedom brightened upon Sicily ; and, just as in 
 modem times it has flourished especially iu England and 
 America, fostered by the unfettered freedom of debate, so 
 it found a congenial home in free Greece and republican 
 Eome. He who could contrast in the most glowing 
 colours the cruelty of the pitiless creditor with the suiFer- 
 ings of the ruined debtor — who could ingeniously connect 
 those patent evils with some defects in the constitution, 
 some inequalities in poHtical rights hitherto hidden and 
 unobserved — would wield at will the affections of the 
 people and become the master-spirit amongst his fellow- 
 citizens. 
 
 Occasions would not be wanting in a state where, from 
 the earliest times, a struggle was continually maintained 
 between a dominant and a subject race, for the use of 
 those arts of eloquence which Nature, the mistress of all 
 art, suggests. The plebeians, in their conflicts with the 
 
 N 2 
 
180 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITKRATURE. 
 
 patricians, must have had some leader, and eloquence, 
 probably to a great extent, directed the selection, even 
 though there was, in reality, no Menenius Agrippa to 
 lead them back from the sacred mountain with his 
 homely wisdom. Cases of oppression, doubtless, inspired 
 some Icilius or Virginius with words of burning indigna- 
 tion, and many a Siccius Dentatus, though he had never 
 learnt technical rhetoric, used the rhetorical artifice of 
 appealing to his honourable wounds and scars in front 
 which he had received in the service of his country, and 
 to disgraceful weals with which his back was lacerated by 
 the Ifish of the torturer. In an army where the personal 
 influence of the general was more productive of heroism 
 than the rules of a long-established discipline, a short 
 harangue often led the soldiers to victory. And, lastly, 
 the relation subsisting between the two orders of patron 
 and chent taught a milder and more business-like elo- 
 quence — that of explaining with facility common civil 
 rights, and unravelling the knotty points of the constitu- 
 tional law. Oratory, in fact, was the unwritten Hterature 
 of active life, and recomniended itself by its antagonistic 
 spirit and its utility to a warlike and utilitarian people. 
 Long, therefore, befoi'e the art of the historian was suffi- 
 ciently advanced to record a speech, or to insert a fictitious 
 one as an embellishment or illustration of its pages, the 
 forum, the senate, the battle-field, the threshold of the 
 jurisconsult, had been nurseries of Eoman eloquence, or 
 schools in which oratory attained a vigorous youth, and 
 prepared for its subsequent maturity. 
 
 Tradition speaks of a speech recorded even before the 
 poetry of Nsevius was written, and this speech was knowa 
 to Cicero. It was delivered against Pyrrhus by Appius 
 Claudius the blind.^ He belonged to a house, every 
 
 ' Appius Claudius Csecus was also author of a moral poem on Pythago- 
 rean principles, which was extant in the time of Cicero (Brutus, 16). 
 
ELOQUENCE OP APPIUS CLAUDIUS CiECUS. 181 
 
 member of which, from the decemvir to the emperor, 
 was bom to bow down their feUow-nlen beneath their 
 strong wills. Such a character, united with a poetical 
 genius, implies the very elements of that oratory which 
 would curb a nation accustomed to be restrained by force 
 as much as by reason. On this celebrated occasion,' the 
 blind old man caused himself to be borne into the senate- 
 house on a litter, that he might confront the wily Cineas 
 whom Pyrrhus had sent to negotiate peace. The Mace- 
 donian minister was an accomplished speaker, and his 
 memory, that important auxiliary to eloquence, was so 
 powerful, that in one day he learnt to address all the 
 senators and knights by name, yet it is said that he was 
 no match for the energy of Appius and was obHged to 
 quit Eome. 
 
 Whilst the legal and poHtical constitution of the Eoman 
 people gave direct encouragement to deliberative and 
 judicial oratory, respect to the illustrious dead furnished 
 opportunities for panegyric. The song of the bard in 
 honour of the departed warrior gave place to the faneral 
 oration (lavdatio). 
 
 Before the commencement of the second Punic war,^ 
 Q. Metellus pronounced the ftmeral harangue over his 
 father, the conqueror of Hasdrubal ; history also speaks 
 of him as a debater in the senate, and his address to the 
 censors is found in the fourth decade of Livy.* This 
 funeral oration was admired even in the time of J. Caisar, 
 and Pliny* has recorded the substance of one remarkable 
 passage which it contained. The period of the second 
 Punic war produced Com. Cethegus. Cicero mentions 
 him in his list of Eoman orators ;° and although he 
 had never seen a specimen of his style, he states that he 
 retained his force and vigour even in his old age. Ennius 
 
 B. c. 280. ' About B. c. 221. ' Lib. xxxv. 8 ; xl. 46j 
 
 « H. N. vii. 43, 44. ' Brut. 14, 19, de Sen. 
 
182 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 also bears testimony to his eloquence in the following 
 Une: — 
 
 Flos delibatus populi, suaviloquenti ore. 
 
 At the conclusion of the second wax, Pabius Cunctator 
 pronounced the eulogium^ of his elder son ; and Cicero, 
 although he denies him the praise of eloquence, states, 
 that he was a fluent and correct speaker. 
 
 Scipio AMcanus Major, on that memorable day when 
 his enemies called upon him to render an account o:^ the 
 moneys received from Antiochus, proved himself a con- 
 summate orator : he disdained to refute the malignant 
 charges of his opponents, but spoke till dusk of the 
 benefits which he had conferred upon his country. Thus 
 it came to pass that the adjourned meeting was held on 
 the anniversary of Zama. Livy has adorned the simple 
 words of the great soldier with his graceful language, 
 but A. Grellius * has preserved the peroration almost in 
 his own words. " I call to remembrance, Eomans," said 
 he, " that this is the very day on which I vanquished ia 
 a bloody battle on the plains of Africa the Carthagioian 
 Hannibal, the most formidable enemy Bome ever en- 
 countered. I obtained for you a peace and an imlooked- 
 for victory. Let us then not be ungrateful to heaven, 
 but let us leave this knave, and at once offer our gratefcd 
 thanksgivings to Jove, supremely good and gresLt." 
 
 The people obeyed his summons — the forum was 
 deserted, and crowds followed him with acclamations to 
 the Capitol. 
 
 Mention has already been made of the stern eloquence 
 of his adversary Cato. He was equally laborious as a 
 speaker and a writer. No fewer than one hxmdred and 
 fifty of his orations were extant in Cicero's time, mosi of 
 which were on subjects of public and poKtical interesi. . 
 
 ' Cic. Cat. 4, 12 ; de Seu. 4 ; Brut. 14, 18. " Noct. Attic, iv. 18. 
 
SCIPIO AFEICANUS ^MILIANUS. 183 
 
 The faihesr of tlie Gracchi was distinguished amongst 
 his contemporaries for a plain and nervous eloquence, but 
 no specimens of his oratory have survived. 
 
 Scipio Afiicanus Minor (-^milianus) was precisely 
 qualified to be the link between the new and the old 
 school of oratory. His soldierlike character displayed all 
 the vigour and somewhat of the sternness of the old 
 Eoman, but the harder outlines were modified by an 
 ardent love of learning. His first campaign was in 
 Greece, under his father .^nuhus Paulus. His first 
 literary fiiendship was f<M?med there with the historian 
 Polybius, which ripened into the closest intimacy when 
 Polybius came as a hostage to Eome. Subsequently he 
 became acquainted with Pansetius, who was his instructor 
 in the principles of philosophy. His taste was gratified 
 with Greek refinement, although he abhorred the effe- 
 minacy and profligacy of the Greeks themselves. In 
 the spirit of Cato, for whom he entertained the warmest 
 admiration, he indignantly remonstrated against the 
 inroad of Greek manners. In his speech in opposition 
 to the law of C. Gracchus, he warned his hearers of the 
 corruptions which were already insinuating themselves 
 amongst the Eoman youth. " I did not beHeve what I 
 heard," he says, "until I witnessed it with my own eyes: 
 at the dancing-school I saw more than five hundred of 
 the youth of both sexes. I saw a boy, of at least twelve 
 years old, wearing the badge of noble birth, who per- 
 formed a Castanet dance, which an immodest slave could 
 not have danced without disgrace." 
 
 The degeneracy of Greek manners had not corrupted 
 his moral nature, or rendered him averse to the active 
 duties of a citizen ; it had not destroyed the frankness, 
 whilst it had humanized the rough honesty, of the 
 Eoman, and taught him to love the beautiful as well as 
 the good, and to believe that the former was the proper 
 external development of the latter. 
 
184 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITEBATURE. 
 
 One iriend, whose influence contributed to form the 
 mind of Scipio, was the wise and gentle Lselius. In 
 other places, as well as in the " de Amicitia," Cicero 
 associates their names together. These distinguished 
 fri%nds were well suited to each other. The sentiments 
 of both were noble and elevated. "Both," as Cicero^ says, 
 "were ' imprirnis eloquentes.'" Their discrepancies were 
 such as draw men of similar tastes more closely together, 
 in those hours which they can devote to their favourite 
 pursuits. Scipio was an active man of business — Lselius 
 a contemplative philosopher : Scipio, a Soman in heart 
 and soul — Lselius, a citizen of the world: Scipio was 
 rather inclined to ostentatious display — Laelius was 
 retiring. The former had a correct taste, spoke Latin 
 with great purity, and had an extensive acquaintance 
 with the literature both of Grreece and his own country.. 
 The attainments of the latter were more solid, and his 
 acquaintance with the mind of Greece more profound. 
 But Lsehus was not equally calculated to occupy a place 
 in history ; and hence, perhaps, although a few fragments 
 of the eloquence of Scipio are extant,^ the remains of that 
 of Lselius extend only to as many lines. Cheerftdness 
 (hilaritas), smoothness (lenitas), and learning distin- 
 guished the speeches of LseHus, whilst spirit, genius, and 
 natural power marked those of Scipio. 
 
 Servius Sulpicius Gralba, whom Cato* prosecuted for his 
 treachery to' the Lusitanians, obtained from Cicero the 
 praise of having been the first Eoman who really under- 
 stood how to apply the theoretical principles of Greek 
 i-hetoric. He is said likewise to have carried away with 
 him the feelings of his auditors by his animated and 
 vehement delivery. How skilfal he was in the use of 
 rhetorical artifice is shown by his parading before the 
 assembly of the people, when brought to trial, his two 
 
 ' Brut. 21. ' Meyer, Orat. Rom. Fragm. ■> b. c. 149 ; a. u. c. 605. 
 
ERA OF THE GRACCHI. 185 
 
 infant sons, and the orphan of his friend Sulpicius Gallus. 
 His tears and embraces touched the hearts of his judges, 
 and the cold-blooded perjurer was acquitted. External 
 artifice, however, probably constituted his whole merit. 
 He had the tact thus to cover a dry and antique style, 
 destitute of nerve and muscle, of which no specimen 
 except only a few words remain. 
 
 AU periods of political disquiet are necessarily favour- 
 able to eloquence, and the era of the Grracchi was espe- 
 cially so. Extensive pohtical changes were now esta- 
 blished. They had been of slow and gradual growth, 
 and were the natural development of the Eoman system ; 
 but they were changes which could not take place without 
 the crisis being accompanied by great political convulsions. 
 In order to understand the state of parties, of which the 
 great leaders and principal orators were the represen- 
 tatives, it is necessary to explain briefly in what these 
 changes consisted. The result of an obstinate and per- 
 severing struggle during nearly four centuries was that 
 the old distinction of patrician and plebeian no longer 
 existed. Plebeians held the consulships and censorship,^ 
 and patricians, Kke the Gracchi, stood forward as plebeian 
 tribunes and champions of popular rights. 
 
 The distinctions of blood and race, therefore, were no 
 longer regarded. Most of the old patrician families were 
 extinct. Niebuhr believes that at this period not more 
 than fifteen patrician "gentes" remained; and the indi- 
 vidual members of those which survived, if they main- 
 tained their position at aU, maintained it by personal 
 influence. The constitutional principle which determined 
 the difference of ranks was property. This Hne of de- 
 marcation between rich and poor was not an impassable 
 one like that of birth, but it had now become very broad 
 and deep, owing to the accumulation of wealth in few 
 
 A. D. C. 560. ■" A. u. C. 622. 
 
186 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 hands ; and thus between these two orders there was as 
 little sympathy as there had been between the patrician 
 creditors and the plebeian debtors in the earHer times of 
 the republic. 
 
 But besides this constitutional principle of distinction 
 there was another of a more aristocratic nature, which 
 owed its erection to pubHc opinion. Those famOies the 
 members of which had held high public offices were 
 termed nobiles (nobles). Those individuals whose families 
 had never been so distinguished were termed new men 
 (nom homines). Thus a man's ancestors were made 
 hostages for his patriotism; and so trustworthy a pledge 
 was hereditary merit considered for ability and fidelity 
 in the discharge of high functions, that only in a few 
 exceptional cases was the consulship, although open to 
 all, conferred upon a new man. One consequence of all 
 these changes was, that the struggle for pohtical dis- 
 tinction became hotter than ever, and the strife more 
 vehement between the competitors for public favour. 
 
 These stirring times produced many celebrated orators. 
 Papirius Carbo, the ultra-liberal and unscrupulous col- 
 league of Tiberius Grracchus, who united the gift of a 
 beautiftd voice to copiousness and fluency ; Lepidus 
 Porciaa, who attained the perfection of Attic gentleness, 
 and whom Tib. Gracchus took as his model; TRm ilins 
 Scaurus, whom Statins libelled as of ignoble birth ; 
 Eutnius Eufas, who was too upright to appeal to the 
 compassion of his judges ;^ M. Jimius Pennus, who met 
 by an insulting ahen act the bill of Gracchus for the 
 enfranchisement of the Italians. 
 
 The Gracchi themselves were each in a difierent degr^ 
 eloquent, and possessed those endowments and accidents 
 of birth which would recommend their eloquence to their 
 countrymen. Gentleness and kindness were the chaa-ae^ 
 
 ' De Oiat. 153. 
 
THE MOTHER Or THE GRACCHI. 187 
 
 teristics of this illustrious race. Their father, by his 
 mild administration, attached to himself the warm 
 affection of the Spaniards. Their mother inherited the 
 strong mind and genius of Scipio. To a sound know- 
 ledge of Greek and Latia literature' and a talent for 
 poetry, she added feminine accomplishments. She danced 
 elegantly, more elegantly, indeed, than according to the 
 strict notions of Roman morality a woman of character 
 need have done. She could also sing and accompany 
 herself upon the lute. To her care in early youth the 
 illustrious brothers owed the development of their natural 
 endowments, and the direction of their generous prin- 
 ciples. Cicero tells us that he had seen the letters of 
 tlds remarkable woman, which showed how much her 
 sons were indebted to her teaching. Greek philosophers 
 aided her ia her work; and the accomphshed LseUus 
 contributed to add grace and polish to the more soUd 
 portions of education. 
 
 Notwithstanding that the pohtical principles which the 
 Gracchi embraced were the same, their characters, or, 
 more properly speaking, their temperaments, widely 
 differed, and their style of speaking was, as might be 
 expected, in accordance with their respective dispositions. 
 Tiberius was cold, deliberate, sedate, reserved. The 
 storms of passion never ruffled the calmness of his 
 feelings. His speaking, therefore, was self-possessed and 
 grave, as stoical as his philosophical creed. His conduct 
 was not the result of impulse, but of a strict sense of 
 duty. Cicero termed him homo sanctissimus, and his 
 style was as chastened as his integrity was spotless. 
 Such, if we may trust Plutarch, was the character of his 
 oratory, for no fragments remain. 
 
 Caius, who was nine years younger than his brother, 
 was warm, passionate, and impetuous : he was inferior to 
 
 SaUust. Cat. 25. 
 
188 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Tiberius morally, as he was intellectually his superior. 
 His impulses were generous and amiable, but he had not 
 that unswerving rectitude of purpose which is the result 
 of moral principle. He had, however, more genius, more 
 creative power. His imagination, lashed by the violencfe 
 of his passions, required a strong curb ; but for that reason 
 it gushed forth as from a natural fountain, and like a 
 torrent carried all before it. On one occasion, to which 
 Cicero alludes,^ his look, his voice, his gestures, were 
 so inexpressibly affecting, that even his enemies were dis- 
 solved in tears. It is said that in his calmer moments 
 he was conscious that his vehemence was apt to offend 
 against good taste, and employed a slave to stand near 
 him vrith a pitch-pipe, in order that he might regulate 
 his voice when passion rendered the tunes unmusical-. 
 His education enabled him to ridhimself of the harshness 
 of the old school, and to gaia the reputation of being the 
 father of Roman prose. But his impetuosity made 
 him leave unfinished that which he had well begun. 
 " His language was noble, his sentiments wise, gravity 
 pervaded his whole style, but his works wanted the last 
 finishing stroke. There were many glorious beginnings, 
 but they were not brought to perfection."' Several 
 fragments remain which confirm the correctness of 
 Cicero's criticism — one of the most beautiful is from his 
 speech against Popilius Laenas, which drove that blood- 
 thirsty tyrant into voluntary exile. 
 
 Oratory began now to be studied more as an art, and 
 to be invested with a more polished garb. The interval 
 between the Gracchi and Cicero boasted of many distin- 
 guished names, such as those of Q. Catulus, Curio, Fimbria, 
 Scsevola, Cotta, P. Sulpicius, and the Memmii. The most 
 illustrious names of this epoch were M. Antonius, 
 L. Licinius Crassus, and Cicero's immediate predecessor 
 
 Orat. iii. 66. ^ Brut. 33. 
 
MARCUS ANTONIUS. 189 
 
 and most formidable rival, Hortensius. Antony and 
 Crassus, says Cicero, were the first Romans who elevated 
 eloquence to the heights to which it had been raised by 
 Greek genius.* From this complaint it may be inferred 
 that, notwithstanding the popular prejudice which existed 
 against Grreek taste, and to which even Cicero himself 
 sometimes conceived himself obliged to yield,^ the leading 
 orators had ceased to take the specimens of old Roman 
 eloquence as their models. Cicero asserts^ that both 
 Antony and Crassus owed their eminence to a dihgent 
 study of Greek literature, and to the instructions of Greek 
 professors. The former, he says, attended regularly 
 lectures at Athens and Rhodes, and the latter spoke 
 Greek as if it had been his mother-tongue. Yet both 
 had the narrow-minded vanity to deny their obligations : 
 they thought their eloquence would be more popular, the 
 one by showing contempt for the Greeks, the other by 
 affecting not to know them. 
 
 M. Antonius. 
 
 M. Antonius entered public life as a pleader, and 
 thus laid the foundation of his brilliant political career ; 
 but he was through life greater as a judicial than as a 
 deliberative orator. He was indefatigable in preparing 
 his case, and made every point tell : he was a great master 
 of the pathetic, and knew the way to the hearts of the 
 judices. He was not free from the prevailing fault of 
 advocates, of being somewhat unscrupulous in his asser- 
 tions ; and the reason which he is said to have given for 
 never having published any of his speeches was, lest he 
 should be forced to deny his words. This statement, 
 however, is refuted by Cicero.* Although he did not 
 hiniself give his speeches to posterity, some of his most 
 
 ' Brut. 36. ^ Pro Rose 25 ; pro Arch. 60 ; in. Verr. iv. 59. 
 
 » Orat. H. i. * Pro Cluent. 50. 
 
190 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 pointed expressions and favourite passages left an in- 
 delible impression on the memories of his hearers : many 
 are preserved by Cicero, who has given ns also a complete 
 epitome of one of them/ In the prime of life, he fell a 
 victim to political fiiry ; and his bleeding head was placed 
 upon the rostrum which was so frequently the scene of 
 his eloquent triumphs. 
 
 L. LiciNius Crassus. 
 
 L. Licinius Crassus was four years younger tha» 
 Antonius, having been bom B.C. 140. It is not known 
 whether he was connected with the distinguished family 
 whose name he bore. He commenced his career at the 
 Eoman bar.^ At the early age of twenty-one, he suc- 
 cessftdly impeached C. Carbo, and in the year b.o. 118, 
 supported the foundation of a colony at Narbo, in Gaul. 
 A measure so beneficial to the poorer citizens increased 
 his popularity as well as his professional fame. He 
 went to Asia as quaestor, and there studied under Metro- 
 dorus the rhetorician. On his way home he' remained a 
 short time at Athens, and attended the lectures of the 
 leading professors. 
 
 Notwithstandiag his knowledge of jurisprudence, and 
 his early eminence as a pleader, the speech which es- 
 tabhshed his reputation was a political one. Under the 
 Eoman judicial system, the prsetor presided in court, with 
 a certain number of assessors (judices), who gave their 
 verdict like our jurymen. These were chosen from the 
 senators. Experience proved that not only in their 
 determination to stand by their order they were gmlty 
 of partiality, but that they had also been open to bribery. 
 The knights constituted the nearest approach which eoiild 
 be found to a rich middle class. C. Grracchus, there- 
 fore, by the "Lex Sempronia," transferred the ad- 
 
 ' De Orat. ii. 48. "B.C. 
 
L. LICINIUS CRASSU5. 191 
 
 Bainistration of justice to a body of three hundred men, 
 chosen from the equestrian order. This promised to be 
 a salutary change ; but so corrupt was the whole frame- 
 work of Eoman society, that it did not prove effectual. 
 The Publkani, who farmed the revenues of the proviaces, 
 were aU Eoman knights. The new judges, therefore, 
 were as anxious to shield the peculations and extortions 
 of their own brethren as the old had been. 
 
 In B.C. 106, L. Servilius Csepio brought in a bill for 
 the restoration of the judicial office to the senators. In 
 support of this measure (the first Lex ServUia), Crassus 
 delivered a powerful and triumphant oration, in which he 
 warmly espoused the cause of the senate, whom he had 
 before as strenuously opposed on the question of the 
 colony to Narbo. This speech was his chef-d'ceuvre} 
 After serving the office of consul,'' in which he 
 seems to have mistaken his vocation by exchanging the 
 toga for the sword, he was raised to the^ censorship.* 
 His year of office is celebrated for the closing the 
 schools of .the Latin rhetoricians by an edict of him- 
 self and his colleague. The foundations of these schools 
 had been laid in the ruins of the Greek schools, when the 
 philosophers and rhetoricians were banished from Eome.* 
 Although the censorial power could suppress the schools, 
 it could not put a stop to the education given there. 
 The professors found a refuge m private mansions ; and 
 thus, protected and fostered by intelligent patrons, con- 
 tinued to fulfil their duties as instructors of youth. How 
 often did literature at Eome have to seek an asylum from 
 private patronage against the rude attacks of public pre- 
 judice ! The reasons for the measure of Crassus are stated 
 in the preamble." These schools were a novelty ; they 
 were contrary to ancient institutions ; they encouraged 
 
 ' De Orat. i. 52 ; Brut. 43. » B. c. 95. = b. c. l 
 
 * B. c. 161 ; A. u. c. 593. ■• A. Gell. xv. ii. 
 
192 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 idle habits amongst the Eoman youth. Cicero defended 
 this arbitrary act on the grounds that the professors 
 pretended to teach subjects of which they were them- 
 selves ignorant ; but Cicero could scarcely find a fault in 
 Crassus. He thought him a model of perfection — ^the 
 first of orators and of jurists.^ He saw no inconsistency 
 in his conduct in the cases of the Narbonne colony and the 
 ServiHan law.' He is lavish in his praises of his wit and 
 facetiousness (lepor et facetiae'), and applies to his malignant 
 and ill-natured jokes the term urbanity. The bon-mots of 
 Crassus were by no means superior to the generality of 
 Eoman witticisms, wluch were deficient in point, although 
 they were personal, caustic, and severe.* The grave 
 Eomans were content with a very little wit : the quality 
 for which they looked in an oration was not playfulness, 
 but skill in the art of ingeniously tormenting. Crassus 
 never uttered a jest equal to that of old Cato, when he 
 said of Q. Helvidius the glutton, whose house was on fire, 
 " What he could not eat he has burned."" 
 
 His conduct with respect to the Latin schools and 
 his self-indulgent life in his magnificent mansion on the 
 Palatine, prove that he had retained the narrow-minded- 
 ness of the old Eomails without their temperance and 
 self-denial, and had acquired the luxury and taste of the 
 Greeks without their liberality. If, however, we make 
 some allowance for partiality, Crassus deserves the 
 favourable criticism of' Cicero.* His style is careful and 
 yet not laboured — ^it is elegant, accurate, and perspicuous. 
 He seems to have possessed considerable powers of illus- 
 tration, and great clearness in explaining and defining : 
 his deHvery was calm and self-possessed, his action 
 sufficiently vehement but not excessive.' He took espe- 
 cial pains with the commencement of his speech. When 
 
 ' De 01. Or. 143, 145. * Pro Oluent. 51. " De Orat. ii. 54. 
 
 " Oio. de Or. ii. 65 ; Plin. H. N. xxxv. 4. ' Macrobius, Sat. 
 
 ° See Brutus, ^asstTO. ' Brutus, 158. 
 
CRASSUS IN THE DE ORATORE. 193 
 
 he was about to speak, every one was prepared to listen, 
 and the very first words which he uttered showed him 
 worthy of the expectation formed. No one better under- 
 stood the difficult art of uniting elegance with brevity. 
 
 From amongst the crowd of orators which were then 
 flourishing in the last days of expiring Eoman Hberty, 
 Cicero selected Crassus to be the representative of his 
 sentiments in his imaginary conversation in the de Oratore. 
 He felt that their tastes were congenial. In this most 
 captivating essay, he introduces his readers to a distin- 
 guished literary circle, men who united activity in public 
 life with a taste for refined leisure. Antony, Crassus, 
 Scsevola, Cotta, and Sulpicius, met at Tusculum to talk 
 of the poHtics of the day. For this especial purpose they 
 had come, and all day long they ceased not to converse 
 on these grave matters. They spoke not of lighter 
 matters until they reclined at supper. Their day seemed 
 to have been spent in the senate, their evening at Tus- 
 culum. Next day, in the serene and sunny climate of 
 Frascati, a scene well-fitted for the calm repose of a 
 Platonic dialogue, Scsevola proposed to imitate the 
 Socrates of Plato, and converse, as the great philosopher 
 did, benfiath the shade of a plane-tree. Crassus assented, 
 suggesting only that cushions would be more convenient 
 than the grass. So the dialogue began in which Crassus is 
 made the mouthpiece to deliver the sentiments of Cicero. 
 
 Like our own Chatham, Crassus almost died on the 
 floor of the senate-house, and his last effort was in support 
 of the aristocratic party. His opponent, PhUippus the 
 consul, strained his power to the utmost to insult him, 
 and ordered his goods to be seized. His last words were 
 "worthy of Iiim. He mourned the bereavement of the 
 senate — that the consul, like a sacrilegious robber, should 
 strip of its patrimony the very order of which he ought 
 to have been a kind parent or faithful guardian. " It is 
 useless," he continued, "to seize these: if you wiU 
 
 o 
 
194 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 silence Crassus, you must tear out his tongue, and even 
 then my liberty shall breathe forth a refatation of thy 
 licentiousness !" The paroxysm was too much for him, 
 fever ensued, and in seven days he was a corpse. 
 
 We must pass over numerous names contained in the 
 catalogue of Cicero, mentioning by the way Cotta and 
 the two Sulpicii. Cotta's taste was pure ; but his delicate 
 lungs made his oratory too tame for his vehement coun- 
 tr3rmen. PubHus Sulpicius had aU. the powers of a 
 tragic actor to influence the passions, but professed that 
 he could not write, and therefore left no specimens behind 
 him. His reluctance to write must have been the result 
 of reserve or of indolence, and not of inability, for 
 nothing can be more tender and touching, and yet more 
 philosophical, than his letter of condolence to Cicero on 
 the death of his beloved daughter.' Servius, like too 
 many orators, and even Cicero himself, at first despised 
 an accurate knowledge of the Roman law. The great 
 Scsevola, however, rebuked him, and reminded him how 
 disgracefal it was for one who desired the reputation of 
 an advocate to be ignorant of law. These words excited 
 his emulation : he ardently devoted himself to the study 
 of jurisprudence,^ and at length is said to have surpassed 
 even Scsevola himself 
 
 Q. HORTENSIUS. 
 
 The last of the pre-Ciceronian orators was Hortensius. 
 Although he was scarcely eight years senior to the 
 greatest of all Eoman orators, he cannot be considered as 
 belonging to the same literary period, since the genius 
 and eloquence of Cicero constitute the commencement of 
 a new era. He was, nevertheless, his contemporary and 
 his rival ; and all that is known respecting his career is 
 derived from the writings of Cicero. 
 
 ' De Fam. iv. 5. ^ Cio. Philip, ix. 5. 
 
QUINTUS HORTENSIUS. 195 
 
 Q. Hortensius was the son of L. Hortensius, prastor of 
 Sicily, B.C. 97. He was bom b.o. 114 ; and, as it was the 
 custom that noble Eoman youths should be called to the 
 bar at an early age, he commenced his career as a pleader 
 at nineteen, and pleaded, with applause and success, 
 before two consuls who were excellent judges of his 
 merits, the orator Crassus and the jurist Scsevola. His 
 first speech was in support of the province of Africa 
 against the extortions of the governor. In his second 
 he defended Nicomedes, king of Bithynia, against his 
 brother, who had dethroned him. When Crassus and 
 Antony were dead, he was left without any rival except 
 Gotta, but he soon surpassed him.^ The eloquence of 
 Cotta was too languid to stand against his impetuous 
 flow, and he thus became the acknowledged leader of the 
 Eoman bar until the star of Cicero arose. They first 
 came in contact when Cicero pleaded the cause of 
 Quintius, and in that oration he pays the highest possible 
 compliment to the talents and genius of Hortensius. 
 
 His political connexion with the faction of Sulla, and 
 his unscrupulous support of the profligate corruption 
 which characterized that administration both at home 
 and abroad, enlisted his legal talents in defence of the 
 infamous Verres ; but the eloquence of Cicero, together 
 with the justice of the cause which he espoused, pre- 
 vailed, and irom that time forward his superiority over 
 Hortensius was established and complete. But the ad- 
 miration which Cicero entertained for his rival had 
 ripened into friendship, which neither the fact of their 
 being retained on opposite sides, nor even difference in 
 politics, had power to interrupt. The only danger which 
 ever threatened its stabihty was some little jealousy on 
 the part of Cicero — a jealousy which must be attributed 
 to his morbid temperament and susceptible disposition 
 
 ' Brut. xcii. 
 
 o 2 
 
196 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 But Hortensius was always a warm and affectionate 
 friend to Cicero, and Cicero was affected with the deepest 
 grief when he heard of the death of Hortensius.* The time 
 at length arrived when identity of political sentiments 
 drew them more closely together ; and it is to this we owe 
 the place which Hortensius so often occupies in the 
 letters and other works of the great Eoman orator. 
 
 Cicero had originally espoused the popular cause ; but 
 his zeal gradually became less ardent, and the Catih- 
 narian conspiracy threw him entirely into the arms of 
 the aristocratic party. At the Eoman bar politics had 
 great influence in determining the side taken by the 
 leading advocates. They were virtually the great law 
 officers of the party in the republic to which they be- 
 longed, and had, as it were, general retainers on their 
 own side. Hence Hortensius generally advocated the 
 same side with Cicero. Together they defended Eabi- 
 rius, Mursena, Flaccus, Sextius, Scaurus, and Milo ; but 
 ' the former seems to have at once acknowledged his infe- 
 riority, and henceforward to have taken but little part in 
 public life. In b.c. 51, he defended his nephew from a 
 charge of bribery ; but the guilt of the accused was so plain 
 that the people hissed him when he entered the theatre.'' 
 The following year he died, at the age of seventy-five, and 
 left behind him a daughter, whose eloquence is celebrated 
 in history. An oration, of which she was the author, was 
 read in the time of Quintilian for the sake of its own 
 merits, and not as a mere compliment to the female sex. 
 Q. Hortensius has been accused of corruption ; and his 
 attachment to a corrupt party, his luxurious habits, extra- 
 vagant expenditure, numerous villas, and enormous 
 wealth, make it probable that this suspicion was not 
 unfounded. He was an easy, kind-hegrted, hospitable, 
 but self-indulgent man. His park was a complete mena- 
 
 ' Ad Att. vi. 6. - Ad Fam. viii. 2. 
 
STYLE OF HIS ELOQUENCE. 197 
 
 gerie ; his fish-ponds were stocked with fish so tame that 
 they would feed fi-om his hand. His gardens were so 
 carefuUy kept that he even watered his trees with wine. 
 He had a taste for both poetry and painting, wrote some 
 amatory verses, and for one picture gave 140,000 sesterces 
 (about 1,100/.). His table was sumptuous; and peacocks 
 were seen for the first time in Eome at his banquets. His 
 cellar was so well supplied that he left 10,000 casks of 
 Chian wine behind him.^ 
 
 Cicero tells us^ that the principal reason of Horten- 
 sius' early popularity and subsequent failure was, that his 
 style of eloquence was suited to the brilliance and liveli- 
 ness of youth, but not the dignity and gravity of mature 
 age. In those days there were two parties,^ who differed 
 in their views as to the theory of eloquence ; the one 
 admired the oratory of the Attic rhetoricians, which was 
 calm, polished, refined, eschewing all redundancies ; the 
 other that of the Asiatic schools, which was florid and 
 ornate. 
 
 Cicero* teUs us that the style of Hortensius' eloquence 
 was Asiatic ; and as the characteristic of his own eloquence 
 is Asiatic diffuseness rather than Attic closeness, and he 
 often seems to consider this quality of Asiatic eloquence 
 least worthy of admiration, it is possible that Hortensius 
 carried it to excess, perhaps even to the borders of affec- 
 tation. In a yauthful orator excess of ornament is par- 
 donable because it is natural ; it gives promise of future 
 excellence when genius becomes sobered and luxuriance 
 retrenched. 
 
 Hortensius, a prosperous and spoilt child of nature, 
 was a young man aU his life : there was nothing to cast 
 a gloom over his gaiety ; and to those of his auditors who 
 possessed good taste this juvenility seemed inconsistent, 
 
 ' Smith's Diet, of Antiq. s. v. ' Brut. 95. 
 
 « Quint, xii. ; oh. x. ; Brut. Orat. ad Br. in many places. 
 * A. Gell. i. 5. 
 
198 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 aoid threw into the shade the finish, polish, and anima- 
 tion which characterized his style. His delivery was pro- 
 bably no less unsuitable to more advanced years. We are 
 told that iEsop and Eoscius used to study his action 
 as a lesson ;' and that one Torquatus sneeringly calledihim 
 Dionysius, who was a celebrated dancer of that day. 
 His defence was clever : " I had rather," he said, " be that 
 than a clumsy Torquatus." But these very anecdotes 
 seem to imply that his dehvery was somewhat foppish 
 and theatrical. 
 
 ' A. GeU. i. 6. 
 
( 199 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 STUDY OF JURISPRUDENCE— EARLIEST SYSTEMATIC WORKS ON ROMAN 
 LAW — GROUNDWORK OF THE ROMAN CIVIL LAW — EMINENT 
 JURISTS — THE SC^VOL^ — JELIUS GALLUS — C. AQUILIUS GALLUS 
 A LAW REFORMER — OTHER JURISTS — GRAMMARIANS. 
 
 Politics and jurisprudence were the subjects on which 
 the Eomans especially pursued independent lines of 
 thought ; but their jurisprudence was the more original of 
 the two. Although the practical development of their 
 political system was entirely the work of this eminently 
 practical people, still in the theory of political science 
 they were followers and imitators of the Greeks. But in 
 jurisprudence the help which they derived from Greece 
 was very sHght. The mere femework, so far as the laws 
 of the Twelve Tables are concerned, came to them from 
 Athens ; but the complete structure was built up by their 
 own hands : and by their skiU and prudence they were 
 the authors of a system possessing such stability, that 
 they bequeathed it as an inheritance to modern Europe, 
 and traces of Eoman law are visible in the legal systems 
 of the whole civilized world. 
 
 Eoman jurisprudence is, of course, a subject of too great 
 extent to be treated of as its importance deserves in a 
 work like the present ; but stiU it is so closely connected 
 with eloquence that it cannot be dismissed without a few 
 words. It has been already stated that ai-ms, politics, 
 and the bar were the avenues to distinction ; and thus 
 
200 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 many an ambitious youth who learned the art of war in 
 a foreign campaign under some experienced general, oc- 
 cupied himself also at home in the forum. Not only was 
 the young patrician conscious that he could not eflB.ciently 
 discharge his first duty to his clients without possessing 
 sufficient ability and knowledge to defend their rights in 
 a court of law, but this was an effectual method of showing 
 his fitness for a pubHc career. Eminence as a juriscon- 
 sult opened a direct path to eminence as a statesman.^ 
 He must be lite PoUio, " Insigne moestis prcesidium reis" 
 as well as " Corisulenti curice."^ 
 
 Hence the complicated principles of jurisprudence and 
 of the Roman constitution became a necessary part of a 
 liberal education. The brilliant orator, indeed, did some- 
 times affect to look down with contempt on such black- 
 letter and antiquarian lore, and stigmatise it as pedantry,' 
 but still common sense compelled the sober-minded to 
 acknowledge the necessity of the study. They saw that 
 in the courts eloquence could only be considered as the 
 handmaid to legal knowledge, even though the saying of 
 Quintilian were true^ — " Et leges ipsw nihil valent nisi 
 actoris idoned voce munitce."* When, therefore, a Roman 
 youth had completed his studies under his teacher of 
 rhetoric, he not only frequented the forum in order to 
 learn the practical application of the oratorical principles 
 which he had acquired, and frequently took some cele- 
 brated orator as a model, but also studied the principles 
 of jurisprudence under an eminent jurist, and attended 
 the consultations in which they gave to their clients their 
 expositions of law. In fact, the young Roman acquired 
 his legal knowledge in the atrium of the jurisconsult, 
 somewhat in the same manner that the law student of 
 the present day pursues his education in the chambers of 
 
 ' Cic. Mursen. 8, 19. ; OfF. ii. 19, 65. •" Hor. Od. II. i. 13. 
 
 ' Cic. pro Murwn. " Inst. Or. xii. 7. 
 
WORKS ON ROMAN LAW. 201 
 
 a barrister. He studied the subject practically and em- 
 pirically rather than in its theory and general principles. 
 
 Almost all the knowledge which we possess is derived 
 from the labours of writers who flourished long after con- 
 stitutional liberty had expired.. 
 
 The earliest systematic works on Eoman law were 
 the Enchiridion or Manual of Pomponius, and the Insti- 
 tutes of Grains, who flourished in the times of Hadrian 
 and the Antonines. Both these works were for a long 
 time lost, although numerous fragments were preserved 
 in the Pandects or Digest of Justinian. In 1816, how- 
 ever, Niebuhr discovered a palimpsest MS., in which the 
 Epistles of St. Jerome were written over the erased Insti- 
 tutes of Grains. But owing to the decisions and inter- 
 pretations of the great practising jurists, to the want of 
 any system of reporting and recording, and to the nume- 
 rous misunderstandings of the Eoman historians respect- 
 ing the laws and constitutional history of their country, 
 the whole subject long continued in a state of confusion : 
 new contradictory theories had been gradually introduced, 
 and old difficulties had not been explained and reconciled. 
 Gian Baptista Vico, in his Scienza Nova, was the first 
 who dispelled the clouds of error and reduced it to a 
 system ; and his example was afterwards so successfully 
 followed by Niebuhr, that modem students can understand 
 the subject more clearly, and have a more comprehensive 
 antiquarian knowledge of it, than the writers of the 
 Augustan age. 
 
 The earhest Eoman laws were the Leges- Regice, which 
 were collected and codified by Sextus Papirius, and were 
 hence called the Papirian Code. But these were rude 
 and Tinconnected — simply a collection of isolated enact- 
 ments. The laws of the Twelve Tables stand next in 
 point of antiquity. They exhibited the first attempts at 
 regular system, and embodied not only legislative enact- 
 
202 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATUEE. 
 
 ments but legal principles.^ So popular were they that 
 when Cicero was a child every Eoman boy committed 
 them to memory as our children learn their catechism,* 
 and the great orator laments that in the course of his 
 lifetime this practice had become obsolete. The explana-i 
 tion of these laws was a privilege confined to the pon- 
 tifical college. This body alone prescribed the form of 
 pleading, and published the days on which the courts 
 were held. Hence, not only the whole practice and ex- 
 position of the law was in the hands of the patricians, 
 but they had also the power of obstructing at their plea- 
 sure all legal busiuess. But in the censorship of Appius 
 Claudius, his secretary, Cn. Flavins, set up, at the sug- 
 gestion of Appius, a Calendar in the Forum, which made 
 known to the public the days on which legal business 
 could be transacted. In vain the patricians endeavoured 
 to maintain their monopoly by the invention of new for- 
 mulae, called Notes, for Tiberius Coruncanius, the first 
 plebeian Pontifex Maximus, who was consul a. u. c. 474, 
 opened a public school of jurisprudence, and in the middle 
 of the next century^ the " Notes " were pubhshed by 
 Sextus jEhus Catus. 
 
 The oral traditional expositions of these laws formed the 
 groundwork of the Eoman civil law. To these were added 
 firom time to time the decrees of the people (plebiscita), 
 the acts of the senate (senatus-consulta), and the praeto- 
 rian edicts, which announced the principles on which each 
 successive praetor purposed to administer the statute law. 
 
 Such were the various elements out of which the whole 
 body of Eoman law was composed; and in such early 
 times was the subject diligently studied and expounded 
 that the latter half of the sixth century A. u. c. was rich in" 
 jurists whose powers are celebrated in history. Besides 
 
 ' De Orat. 44. * De Leg. ii. 23. ' a. u. c. 652. 
 
THE SCtEVOL^. 203 
 
 S. ^lius Catus, already mentioned, P. Licinius Crassus, 
 sumamed " tlie Eich," who was consul A. u. c. 549, is 
 mentioned by Livy^ as learned in the pontifical law, the 
 canon law of the ancient Eomans. L. AciHus also wrote 
 commentaries on the laws of the Twelve Tables ; and to 
 these may be added T. ManHus Torquatus, consul a. tj. c. 
 589, S. Fabius Pictor, and another member of the same 
 distinguished family, Q. Pabius Labeo, Cato the Censor 
 and his son Porcius, Catb Licinianus, and lastly P. Cor- 
 nelius Nasica, whose services as a jurist were recognised 
 by the grant of a house at the public expense. 
 
 The most eminent jurists who adorned the next century 
 were the Scsevolse. In their family the profession of the 
 jurisconsult seems to have been hereditary ; of so many 
 bearing that distinguished name, it might have been 
 said that their house was the oracle of the whole state : 
 " Domus jurisconsulti totius.oraculum civitatis."^ Quintus 
 the augur was Cicero's first instructor in the science of 
 law : his cousin Publius enjoyed also a high reputation ; 
 and Quintus, the son of PubHus, who became Cicero's 
 tutor after the death of his elder kinsman, combined the 
 genius of an orator with the erudition of a jurist, and was 
 called by his distinguished pupil " the greatest orator 
 among jurists and the greatest jurist among orators." 
 The compiler of the Digest also quotes as authorities 
 M. Manilius and M. Junius Brutus.^ ManiKus is 
 one of the characters introduced in Cicero's dialogue 
 de Republica : he was consul a. u. c. 604, and is said to 
 have been the author of seven legal treatises ; but of all 
 these, except three, Cicero denies the authority. Brutus 
 was the son of the ambassador of that name who was 
 employed in the war with Perseus, and left a treatise in 
 three books on the civil law.* 
 
 In the next century flourished one -^lius GaJlus, who 
 
 ' Lib. XXX. 1. ' De Or. i. 45. » Dig. I. ii. 39. ♦ De Or. ii. 55. 
 
204 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 was somewhat senior to Cicero, and was the author of a 
 treatise on the signification of law terms. Several of 
 his definitions are given by Festus, and fragments are 
 preserved by A. Grellius,^ and in the Digest. By some he 
 has been considered identical with JElius GaUus, the 
 prefect of Egypt in the reign of Augustus,'' who was the 
 friend of the geographer Strabo; but as there is little 
 doubt that he is quoted by Yarro,* such identify is im- 
 possible, since Varro died b. c. 28, and yet he speaks of 
 GaUus as an aged man. Another distinguished jurist of 
 this era was his namesake C. Aquilius GaUus. He was 
 a pupil of Q. Mucins Scsevola, and surpassed all his con- 
 temporaries in that black-letter knowledge of law, which 
 in olden time was more highly valued than in the more 
 brilliant days of Cicero. Learning then began to be 
 ridiculed and lightly esteemed, and oratorical powers were 
 more admired in proportion as the Eoman mind became 
 more alive to the refinements and beauties of language. 
 
 But Gallus was most eminent as a law reformer. The 
 written law of Rome presented by its technicality the 
 greatest impediments to actions on the unwritten prin- 
 ciples of common right and equity. To obviate this he 
 invented legal fictions, i. e. formulae by which the effects 
 of the statute could be annulled without the necessity of 
 abrogating the statute itself. His practice must have 
 been large, for Pliny mentions that he was the owner 
 of a splendid palace on the Viminal Hill.* In b. c. 67, 
 he served the ofiice of prsetor together with Cicero, and 
 both before and after that he frequently sat as one of the 
 judices. Cicero pleaded before him in the defence both 
 of CsBcina and Cluentius. 
 
 Besides Aqmlius G-aUus, three of the most distin- 
 guished jurists, who were a few years senior to Cicero, 
 
 ' Lib. xvi. 5 ; Dig. L. 16, 157. " B.C. 24, 25. 
 
 ' De Lat. Lin. iv. 2 ; iv. 10 ; v. 7. * H. N. vii. 1. 
 
GRAMMARIANS. 205 
 
 owed their legal knowledge to the instructions of Mucins 
 Scaevola. These were — C. Juventius, Sextus Papirius, 
 and L. Lucilius Balbus, the last of whom is mentioned 
 by Cicero/ and his works are quoted by his eminent pupil 
 Sulpicius Eufas. 
 
 Grammarians. 
 
 Towards the conclusion of this literary period a great 
 increase took place in the numbers of those learned men 
 whom the Romans termed " Litterati,'"^ but afterwards, 
 foUowing the custom of the Greeks, Grammarians, 
 {Grammatici).^ To them literature was under deep 
 obHgations. Although few of them were authors, and all 
 of them men of acquired learning rather than of original 
 genius, they exercised a powerful influence over the 
 pubhc mind as professors, lecturers, critics, and school- 
 masters. By them the youths of the best families not 
 only were imbued with a taste for Greek philosophy and 
 poetry, but also were taught to appreciate the literature 
 of their own country. 
 
 Suetonius places at the head of the class Livius An- 
 dronicus and Ennius ; but their fame as poets ecHpses 
 their reputation as mere critics and commentators. 
 
 The first professed grammarian whom he mentions is 
 Crates Mallotes, who, between the first and second Punic 
 wars, was sent to Rome by Attains. The unfortunate 
 ambassador fell into an open drain and broke his leg, and 
 beguiled the tediousness of his confinement by reading a 
 course of philological lectures. After him C. Octavius, 
 Lampadio edited the works of Nsevius; Q. Vargunteius 
 those of Ennius ; and Laehus, Archelaus, Vectius, and Q. 
 
 ' De Orat. hi. 21. 
 
 ' Cornelius Nepoa ait litteratos quidem vulgo appellari eos qui aliquid 
 diligenter et acute scienterque possint aut dicere aut scribere. 
 ' Sueton. de Illust. Gram. 
 
206 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Philocomus read and explained to a circle of auditors the 
 Satires of Lucilius. 
 
 Most of these grammarians were emancipated slaves : 
 some were Greeks, some barbarians. Ssevius Nicanor 
 and Aurelius Opilius were freedmen: the latter had 
 belonged to the household of some Epicurean philosopher. 
 ComeHus Epicadus was a freedman of Sulla, and completed 
 the Commentaries which his patron left unfinished, and 
 Lenseus was freedman of Pompey the Great. M. Pompihus 
 Andronicus was a Syrian ; M. Antonius Gnipho, though 
 of ingenuous birth, a Gaul. Servius Clodius, however, 
 and L. vElius Lanuvinus were Roman knights. Nor 
 were the labours of these industrious scholars confined to 
 Eome or even to Italy, for Octavius Teucer, Sisceimius 
 lacchus, and Oppius Chares gave instructions in the pro- 
 vince of Gallia Togata. 
 
 To the names already mentioned may be added those 
 of L. ^Hus Stilo, who accompanied L. Metellus Numi- 
 dicus into exile, and Valerius Cato, who not only taught 
 the art of poetry, but was himself a poet. 
 
 We have now traced from its infancy the rise and 
 progress of Eoman literature, and watched the gradual 
 opening of the national intellect. The dawn has gently 
 broken, the light has steadily increased, and is now suc- 
 ceeded by the noon-day brilliance of the " golden age." 
 
( 207 ) 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 THE ERA OF CICERO AND AUGUSTUS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PROSE THE TEST OF THE CONDITION OF A LANGUAGE — DRAMATIC 
 LITERATURE EXTINCT — MIMES — DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ROMAN 
 AND GREEK MIMES — LABERIUS — PASSAGES FROM HIS POETRY — 
 MATIUS CALVENA — MIMIAMBI — PUBLIUS STRUS— ROMAN PANTO- 
 MIME — ITS LICENTIOUSNESS — PRINCIPAL ACTORS OF PANTOMIME. 
 
 During tlie period upon which we are now entering, 
 Eoman literature arrived at its greatest perfection. The 
 time at which it attained the highest point of excellence 
 is fixed by Niebuhr^ about a. u. c. 680, when Cicero was 
 between thirty and forty years old. Poetry, indeed, still 
 continued to improve, as regarded metrical structure and 
 diction, in finish, smoothness, and harmony. There is 
 ex. gr. in these respects a marked difierence between the 
 works of Lucretius and Virgil; but nevertheless the 
 principles of language now became fixed and settled. In 
 fact, the condition of a language must be judged of by its 
 prose ; so must likewise the state of perfection to which 
 its literature has attained. If poetry could be with pro- 
 priety assumed as the standard, the commencement of 
 the empire of Augustus would constitute the best age of 
 Latin literature, rather than the time when the forum 
 
 Lect. R. H. ovi. 
 
208 ROMAN .CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 echoed with the eloquence of Cicero ; but in the two ages 
 of Cicero and Augustus, taken together as forming one 
 era, is comprehended the golden age both of poetry and 
 prose. 
 
 Dramatic literature, however, never recovered from the 
 trance into which it had fallen. The stage had not 
 altogether lost that popularity which it had possessed in 
 the days of Attius and Terence, for jEsopus and Eoscius, 
 the former the great tragedian, the latter the favourite 
 comedian, in the time of Cicero, amassed great wealth. 
 iEsopus Hved liberally,' and yet bequeathed a fortune to 
 his son, and Eoscius is said to have earned daily the sum 
 of thirty-two pounds. 
 
 Notwithstanding, also, the degradation attached to thf 
 social position of an actor, both these eminent artists 
 enjoyed the friendship of Cicero and other great men. 
 They brought to the study of their profession industry, 
 taste, talent, and learning, and these qualities were appre- 
 ciated. -3Esopus was on one occasion encored a countless 
 number of times (jnilliesf by an enthusiastic audience, 
 and Eoscius was elevated by Sulla to the equestrian 
 dignity. But although the standard Eoman plays were 
 constantly represented, dramatic literature had become 
 extinct. No one wrote comedy at all, and the tragedies 
 of Valgius Euftis and Asinius PoDio were only intended 
 for reading or recitation. Nor, as has been already 
 shown, does the Thyestes of Varus really form an excep- 
 tion to this statement. 
 
 The dramatic entertainments which had now taken the 
 place of comedy and tragedy were termed mimes. 
 
 Their distinguishing appellation was derived from the 
 Greek, but they entirely diifered from those compositions 
 to which the Greeks applied that title. The latter were 
 written not in verse but in prose -^ they were dialogues, 
 
 ' Plin. H. N. V. 72. ^ Cic. pro Sen. 
 
 ' Schlegel Lect. viii. ; MiiUer's Dor. iv. 7, 5. 
 
MIMES OF THE ROMANS. 209 
 
 not dramatic pieces, and though they were exhibited at 
 certain festivals, and the parts supported by actors, they 
 were never represented on the stage. Even when 
 Sophron, whose compositions were admired and imitated 
 by Plato,^ raised them to their highest degree of per- 
 fection, 'and made them vehicles of serious moral lessons, 
 mingling together ludicrous buffoonery with grave phi- 
 losophy, their language was only a rhythmical prose, 
 probably somewhat resembhng that in which the cele- 
 brated despatch of Hippocrates^ was written. Some idea 
 may be formed of their nature from the fact that the 
 idylls of Theocritus were imitated from the mimes of 
 Sophron, and that Persius took them for his model in his 
 peculiarly dramatic satires.* 
 
 The Roman mimes were laughable imitations of 
 manners and persons. So far they combined features of 
 comedy and farce ; for comedy represents the characters 
 of a class — farce those of individuals. Their essence was 
 that of the modem pantomime ; mimicry and burlesque 
 dialogue were only accidentally introduced. Their coarse- 
 ness and even indecency* gratified the love of broad 
 humour, which characterized the Roman people. They 
 became successftd rivals of comedy, and thus came to be 
 admitted on the pubhc stage. It is most probable that, 
 like other dramatic exhibitions, they originally grew out 
 of the Fabulse Atellanse, which they afterwards super- 
 seded. But notwithstanding their indecency, their satire 
 upon the Hving, and their burlesque representations of 
 the illustrious dead when exhibited at funereal games, 
 they had sometimes, Hke the mimes of Sophron, a moral 
 character, and abounded in shrewd wisdom and noble 
 sentiments.' Schlegel asserts that there is a great affinity 
 between the Roman mimes and the pasquinades and 
 
 ' Diog. Laert. iii. 18. ''Xen. Hell. i. 23. 
 
 » MuUer's Dorians, Trans, ii. 374. " Or. Tr. ii. 51.9. 
 
 ' Cic. pro Rab. 12 ; de Orat. ii. 59. See also fragm. of Syms' Mimes. 
 
 P 
 
210 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 harlequinades of modern Italy. He conjectures that in 
 them may be traced the germ of the Comedie delV Arte, 
 and states that the very picture of PohchineUo is found in 
 some of the frescos of Pompeii. 
 
 After a time when mimes became estabhshed as 
 popular favourites, the dialogue or written part of the 
 entertainment occupied a more prominent position, and 
 was written in verse like that of tragedy or comedy. In 
 the dictatorship of Julius Caesar, a Eoman knight, named 
 Decius Laberius, became eminent for his mimes. Ee- 
 specting his merits, we have few opportunities of forming 
 a judgment, as the fragments of his writings' are but few 
 and short ; but Horace^ speaks of them in unfavourable 
 language, and finds fault with their carelessness and want 
 of regular plan. He was bom about B.C. 107,' and died 
 B.C. 45, at Puteoli (Pozzuoh). The profession of an 
 actor of mimes was infamous ; but Laberius was a writer, 
 not an actor. It happened, however, that P. Syrus, who, 
 had been first the slave, then the freedmstn and pupil of 
 Laberius, and lastly a professional actor, challenged all 
 his brethren to a trial of improvisatorial skill. Caesar 
 entreated Laberius to' enter the lists, and offered him five 
 hundred sestertia (about 4,000^.). Laberius did not submit 
 to the degradation for the sake of the money, but he was 
 afraid to refase. The only method of retaliation in his 
 power was sarcasm. His part was that of a slave, and 
 when his master scourged him, he exclaimed, " Porro, 
 Quirites, libertatem perdimus !" His words were received 
 with a round of applause, and the audience fixed their 
 eyes on Caesar. On another occasion his attack on the 
 Dictator was almost threatening : — 
 
 Neoesse est multos timeat quern multi timent. 
 
 ' Bothe, Po. So. Lat. fragm. vol. v. 
 
 ^ Sat. i. X. 6. See also Sen. Controv., and Nieb. H. K. ii. p. 169. 
 
 ' Hieron. Eus. Chron. 
 
MIMES OF LABERIUS. 211 
 
 He appears to have been always quick and ready in 
 repaj^ee. When, on being vanquished by his adversary 
 Syrus, the Dictator said to him with a sneer— 
 
 Favente tibi me victuB es Laberi a Syro. 
 
 He replied with the following sad but true reflections : — 
 
 Non possunt primi esse omnes omni in tempore, 
 Summum ad gradum cum olaritatis veneris 
 Consistes ^egre ; et quum descendas decides ; 
 Cecidi ego, cadet qui sequitur, laus est publica. 
 
 Caesar, however, restored to him the rank and equestrian 
 privileges of which his act had deprived him ; but still he 
 could not recover the respect of his countrymen. As he 
 passed the orchestra in his way to the stalls of the 
 knights, Cicero cried out, "If we were not so crowded 
 I would make room for you here." Laberius repHed, 
 alluding to Cicero's lukewarnmess as a pohtical partizan, 
 " I am astonished that you shoidd be crowded, as you 
 generally sit on two stools." The calm and feehng 
 rebuke with which, in the prologue to his mime, he 
 remonstrated against the tyranny of Caesar, is singularly 
 spirited and beautiful : — 
 
 Necessitas, cujus cursus transversi impetum 
 Voluerunt multi effugere, pauci potuerunt, 
 Quo me detrusit psene extremis seusibus ? 
 Quern nulla ambitio, nuUa unquam largitio, 
 NuUus timor, vis nuUa, nulla, auctoritas 
 Movere potuit in juventa de statu ; 
 Ecoe in senecta ut facile labefecit loco 
 Viri excellentis mente clemente edita 
 Submissa placide blandiloquens oratio ! 
 Etenim ipsi Dii negare cui nihil potuerunt, 
 Hominem me denegare quis possit pati 1 
 Ergo bis tricenis actis annis sine nota 
 Eques Eomanus lare egressus meo 
 Domum revertas mimus ; Nimirum hoc die 
 Uno plus vixi mihi quam vivendum fuit 
 Fortuna, immoderata in bono saque atque in malo, 
 Si tibi erat libitum literarum laudibus 
 
 P 2 
 
212 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Floris cacumen nostrse famse frangere, 
 Cur quum vigebam membris prseviridantibus, 
 Satisfacere populo et tali cum poteram viro, 
 Non flexibilem me concur vasti ut oarperes ? 
 Nunc me quo dejicis 1 quid ad scenam affero ? 
 Decorem formae, an dignitatem corporis, 
 Animi virtutem, an vocis jucundee sonum ? 
 Ut hedera serpens vires arboreas necat, 
 Ita me vetustas amplexa annorum enecat, 
 Sepulchri similis nihil nomen retines. 
 
 O, strong Necessity ! of whose swift course 
 
 So many feel, so few escape the force, 
 
 Whither, ah whither, in thy prone career, 
 
 Hast thou decreed this dying frame to bear ? 
 
 Me, in my better days, nor foe nor friend. 
 
 Nor threat, nor bribe, nor vanity could bend ; 
 
 Now, lured by flattery, in my weaker age 
 
 I sink my knighthood and ascend the stage. 
 
 Yet muse not therefore — ^how shall man gainsay 
 
 Him whom the Deities themselves obey ? 
 
 Sixty long years I've Uved without disgrace 
 
 A Roman knight ! — let dignity give place ; 
 
 I'm Csesar's actor now, and compass more 
 
 In one short hour than all my hfe before. 
 
 O Fortune ! fickle source of good and ill. 
 
 If here to place me was thy sovereign will. 
 
 Why, when I'd youth and faculties to please 
 
 So great a master, and such guests as these, 
 
 Why not compel me then, maUoious power. 
 
 To the hard task of this degrading hour ? 
 
 Where now, in what profound abyss of shame. 
 
 Dost thou conspire with Fate to sink my name ? 
 
 Whence are my hopes ? What voice can age supply 
 
 To charm the ear, what grace to please the eye ? 
 
 Where is the active energy and art. 
 
 The look that guides its passion to the heart ? 
 
 Age creeps like ivy o'er my withered trunk, 
 
 Its bloom all blasted and its vigour shrunk ; 
 
 A tomb where nothing but a name remains 
 
 To tell the world whose ashes it contains. 
 
 Cumberland. 
 
 Another poet of this age who composed mimes was 
 C. Matins, sumamed, from his baldness, Calvena. His 
 mimes were termed Mimiambi, because he wrote in the 
 
CAIUS MATIUS AND PUBLIUS 8YRUS. 213 
 
 iambic measure/ and he was also a translator of the 
 Hiad as weU as the author of a work on cookery. His 
 principal merit is said to have been his skill in enriching 
 his native language by the introduction of new words.'' 
 He was somewhat younger than Laberius, and enjoyed 
 the friendship of the greatest amongst his contemporaries. 
 His intimacy with Julius Caesar,^ to whom he was 
 warmly attached,* and afterwards with Augustus,^ gave 
 him great influence ;° but he never took much part in the 
 political strife which embittered his times, nor did he use 
 his influence in order to procure his own advancement. 
 
 His retired habits and love of literary leisure saved 
 him from seeking his happiness in the excitements of 
 ambition. Cicero, who loved him dearly, often mentions 
 him in his letters, and pays a compliment' to his learning 
 and amiability. An interesting letter of his, which is 
 preserved in the collection of Cicero's epistles to his 
 friends,* shows that he possessed an accomplished mind 
 and an affectionate heart. It cannot be supposed, there- 
 fore, that his Mimiambi were debased by the too common 
 faults of coarseness and immodesty. 
 
 PuBLius Syrus. 
 
 PubHus Syrus was, as his name imphes, originally a 
 Syrian slave, and took his prsenomen from the master 
 who gave him his freedom. All that is known respecting 
 his life has already been stated in the account of Laberius. 
 The commendations which his mimes received from the 
 ancients, especially from Cicero,* Seneca," and PHny," 
 prove them to have been much read and admired. The 
 fragments which still remain are marked by wit and 
 
 ' PI. Ep. vi. 21. * A. Gell. xv. 25. " Suet. Cses. 52. 
 
 « Cic. ad Fam. x. 28, » PI. H. N. xii. 2, 6. » Tao. An. xii. 60. 
 
 ' Ad Fam. vii. 15. " Ibid. xi. 28. » Ibid. xii. 18. 
 
 '« Sen. Controv. vii. 3 ; Ep. 8, 94, 108. " PI. H. N. viii. 51. 
 
214 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 neatness, and the shrewd wisdom of proverbial philosophy. 
 Tradition has also recorded a bon-mot of his, which is as 
 witty as it is severe. Seeing once an ill-tempered man, 
 named Mucins, in low spirits, he remarked, " Either some 
 bad fortune has happened to Mucins, or some good 
 fortune to one of his friends." An accurate knowledge 
 of human nature, exhibited in pointed and terse language, 
 most probably constituted the charm of this species of 
 scenic literature. The large collection of his proverbial 
 sayings, entitled P. Syri Sententice, are by no means all 
 genuine ; but the nucleus around which the collection has 
 grown by successive additions is undoubtedly his, and 
 those which are the work of after ages are formed after 
 the model of his apothegms. 
 
 The Eoman pantomime differed somewhat from the 
 mime — ^it was a ballet of action performed by a single 
 dancer. It was first introduced in its complete form in 
 the reign of Augustus ; and Suidas,' misquoting a passage 
 from Zosimus,^ groundlessly attributes the invention to 
 the emperor himself. As the mime bore some resem- 
 blance to the AteUan farces, so the pantomime resembled 
 the histrionic performances introduced by Livius Andro- 
 nicus. In both, the person who recited the words 
 {canticuirif was different from him who represented the 
 characters.^ In the pantomime, the canticum was sung by 
 a chorus arrayed at the back of the stage. Until the 
 times of the later emperors, when vice was paraded with 
 unblushing effrontery, women never acted in pantotoime ; 
 but the exhibition itself was sensual and licentious in its 
 character,* and the actors of it were deservedly deemed 
 infamous, and forbidden by Tiberius to hold any inter- 
 course with Eomans of equestrian or senatorial dignity.^ 
 Nero, however, outraged public decency by himself 
 
 ' S. V. 'OpxT](Tts. " Hist. Rom. i. " PI. Ep. vii. 24. 
 
 * Juv. vi. 66. " Tac. Ann. i. 77. 
 
LICENTIOUSNESS OF PANTOMIME. 215 
 
 appearing in pantomime/ Fortunate was it for the 
 dignity of Eome that the face of the emperor was con- 
 cealed behind a mask which, unlike the performers in the 
 mimes, the pantomimic actors always wore. The players 
 not only exhibited the human figure in the most graceful 
 attitudes, but represented every passion and emotion with 
 such truth that the spectators could without difficulty 
 understand the story. Sometimes the scenes represented 
 were founded upon the Grreek tragic drama ; but for its 
 purifying effect was substituted the awakening of licen- 
 tious passions. 
 
 These were the exhibitions which threw such discredit 
 on the stage — which called forth the well-deserved attacks 
 of the early Christian fathers, and caused them to declare 
 that whoever attended them was unworthy of the name 
 of Christians. Had the drama not been so abused, had it 
 retained its original purity, and carried out the object 
 attributed to it by Aristotle, they would have seen in it 
 not a nursery of vice, but a school of virtue — not only an 
 innocent amusement, but a powerful engine to form the 
 taste, to improve the morals, and to purify the feelings of 
 a people. 
 
 The principal actors of pantomime in the reign of 
 Augustus were BathyUus, Hylas, and Pylades. In the 
 reign of Nero the art was practised by Latinus,^ and 
 Paris, who taught the emperor to dance, and subsequently 
 was put to death by Nero, when he became his rival for 
 popular applause.* But those who attained the highest 
 degree of popularity were another Latinus, and another 
 Paris, who flourished in the reign of Domitian. Both 
 have been immortalized in the epigrams of Martial.* To 
 the former, Martial attributes the power to fascinate such 
 
 ' Suet. Ner. 16, 26. ' Juv. i. 35 ; vi. 44. » Suet. Ner. 54. 
 
 " Lib. ix. 29 ; xi. 13. 
 
216 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 stern and rigid moralists as resembled Cato, the Curii 
 and Fabricii. The epitaph concludes Avith these lines : — 
 
 Vos me laurigeri parasitum dicite Phoebi 
 Boma sui famulum dum sciat esse Jovis. 
 
 Say ye I gained the laurelled Phcebus' love, 
 So that Borne hail me servant of her Jove. 
 
 The latter, by his popularity, acquired great influence 
 at Court; but his profligacy proved his ruin. He in- 
 trigued with the Empress Domitia ; and Domitian con- 
 sequently divorced his wife, and caused Paris to be 
 assassinated. He has furnished a plot and a hero to 
 Massinger's play of the " Roman Actor." The simple 
 and beautiful epitaph written to his memory by Martial 
 is as follows : — 
 
 Quisquis Flaminiam tens, viator. 
 Noli nobile prseterire marmor. 
 Urbis delicise, salesque NUi, 
 Ars et gratia, lusus et voluptas ; 
 Epmani decus et dolor theatri, 
 Atque omnes Veneres, Cupidinesque, 
 Hoc sunt condita, quo Paris, sepulchro.- 
 
 Whoe'er thou art, traveller, stay ! 
 
 Mark what proud tomb adorns the way. 
 
 The town's deUght, the wit of Nile, 
 
 Art, grace, mirth, pleasure, sport and smile : 
 
 The honour of the Eoman stage. 
 
 The grief and sorrow of the age : 
 
 AJl Venuses and Loves Ke here 
 
 Buried in Paris' sepxilchre. 
 
( 217 ) 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 LUCRETIUS A POET RATHER THAN A PHILOSOPHER — HIS LIFE — EPIC 
 STRUCTURE OF HIS POEM — ^VARIETY OF HIS POETRY — EXTRACTS 
 FROM HIS POEM — ARGUMENT OF IT — THE EPICUREAN DOCTRINES 
 CONTAINED IN IT— MORALITY OF EPICURUS AND LUCRETIUS- 
 TESTIMONIES OF VlRGtt AND OVID— CATULLUS, HIS LIFE, CHARAC- 
 TER, AND POETRY OTHER POETS OF THIS PERIOD. 
 
 Lucretius Carus (bobn b. c. 95). 
 
 Lucretius Cabus might claim a place amongst phUoso- 
 phers as well as poets, for his poem marks an epoch both 
 in poetry and philosophy. But his philosophy is a mere 
 reflexion from that of Grreece, whilst his poetry is bright 
 with the rays of original genius. A delineation, there- 
 fore, of his characteristics as a writer of the imagination 
 wiU present the more accurate idea of the place which he 
 occupies amongst Eoman authors. It was no empty 
 boast of his, that, as a poet, he deserved the praise of 
 originality — that he had opened a path through the ter- 
 ritory of the Muses, untrodden before by poet's foot — that 
 he had drawn from a virgin fountain, and culled fresh 
 flowers whence the Muse had never yet sought them to 
 wreathe a garland for the poet's brow.* 
 
 Few materials exist for the compilation of his bio- 
 graphy. From two passages^ in his work, in which he 
 states that his native language was Latin, it is clear that 
 he was bom within the limits of Italy. The date of his 
 birth is generally fixed b. c. 95.^ The prevalence of the 
 
 ' Lib. i. 925 ; iv. 1. ' Lib. i. 831 ; iii. 261. ' Clint. F. H, 
 
218 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Epicurean philosophy, and the additional popularity 
 with which his talents invested the fashionable creed, 
 combined to raise him to the equestrian dignity ; and, 
 consistently with his cold and hopeless atheism — ^his 
 proud disbelief in a superintending Providence — ^he died 
 by his own hand in the prime of life and in the forty- 
 fourth year of his age.^ The story that his work was 
 written in the lucid intervals of a madness produced by 
 a love-potion, as well as his residence at Athens for the 
 purpose of study, rest upon no foundation. 
 
 His poem On the Nature of Things is divided into 
 six books, and is written in imitation of that of Empe- 
 docles, who is the subject of his warmest praise and 
 admiration. Whilst its subject is philosophical and its 
 purpose didactic, its unity of design, the one point of 
 view from which he regards the various doctrines of the 
 master whose principles he adopts, claim for it the rank 
 of an epic poem. 
 
 This epic structure prevents it from being a complete 
 and systematic survey of the whole Epicurean philosophy ; 
 but, notwithstanding this deficiency in point of compre- 
 hensiveness, the exactness and fideHty with which he 
 represents those doctrines which he enunciates, renders 
 him deserving of the credit of having given to his country- 
 men, as far as epic writing permitted, an accurate view 
 of the philosophical system which then enjoyed the 
 highest degree of popularity. 
 
 Although Grreek philosophy furnished Lucretius with 
 his subject, and a Grreek poem served as a model, he also 
 saw and valued the capabilities of the Latin language — 
 he wielded at will its power of embodying the noblest 
 thoughts, and showed how its copious and flexible pro- 
 perties could overcome the hard technicalities of science. 
 Grand as were his conceptions, the language of Lucretius 
 
 ' Hier. Ohron. 
 
VARIETY OF LUCEETIUS. 219 
 
 is not inferior to them in majesty. Without violating 
 philosophical accuracy, he never appears to feel it a re- 
 straint to his muse : his fancy is always Hvely, his imagi- 
 nation has free scope even when his thoughts are fixed in 
 the abstrusest theories, and engaged in the most subtle 
 argumentation.^ 
 
 The great beauty of the poetry of Lucretius is its 
 variety. One might expect subHmity in the philosopher 
 who penetrates the secrets of the natural world, and dis- 
 closes to the eyes of man the hidden causes of its won- 
 derful phenomena. His object was a lofty one ; for, 
 although the irrational absurdities of the national creed 
 drove him into the opposite evils of scepticism and un- 
 belief, his aim was to set the intellect free from the tram- 
 mels of superstition. But besides grandeur and sublimity 
 we find the totally different poetical qualities of softness 
 and tenderness. Eome had long known nothing but war, 
 and was now rent by that worst and most demorahzing 
 kind of war, civil dissension. Lucretius yearned for 
 peace; and his prayer, that the fabled goddess of all 
 that is beautifiil in nature would heal the wounds which 
 discord had made, is distinguished by tenderness and 
 pathos even more than by sublimity. The whole passage 
 is superior to the poetry of Ovid in force although in- 
 ferior in facility. His versification is not so smooth and 
 harmonious as that of Virgil, who flourished in a period 
 when the language had attained a higher degree of per- 
 fection, and the Eoman ear was more educated and there- 
 fore more delicately attuned, but it is never harsh and 
 rugged, and always falls upon the ear with a swelling 
 and sonorous melody. Virgil appreciated his excellence, 
 and imitated not only single expressions, but almost 
 entire verses and passages." 
 
 ' The criticism of Cicero is unjust : — " Lucretii poemata ita sunt non 
 multis luminibus ingenii multse tamen artis." — ^Ep. ad Qu. fratr. ii. 11. 
 ^ See A. GeU. Noct. Att. i. 21. 
 
220 KOMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 As an example of subKmity, few passages can equal 
 that in which he describes the prostration of human 
 intellect under the grievous tyranny of superstition, the 
 dauntless purpose of Epicurus to free men from her op- 
 pressive rule, and to enable him to burst open the portals 
 of Nature's treasure-house, and thus gain a victory which 
 will place him on an equality with the inhabitants of 
 heaven: — 
 
 Humana ante ooulos fede quom vita jaceret 
 
 In terris, oppressa gravi sub Beligione, 
 
 Quae caput a coeli regionibus ostendebat, 
 
 Horribili super aspectu mortalibus instans ; 
 
 Primum Graius homo mortales tendere contra 
 
 Est oculos ausus, primusque obsistere contra ; 
 
 Quern neque fama deflm nee fiilmina neo minitanti 
 
 Murmure compressit coelum, sed eo magis acrem 
 
 IiTitS,t animi virtutem, efiidngere ut arcta 
 
 NatursB primus portarum claustra cupiret. 
 
 Ergo vivida vis animi pervicit et extra 
 
 Frocessit longe flammantia moenia mondi, 
 
 Atque omne immensum peragravit mente animoque ; 
 
 Unde refert nobis victor, quid possit oriri, 
 
 Quid nequeat ; finita potestas denique quoique 
 
 Quauam sit ratione, atque alte terminus hserens. 
 
 Quare Eeligio, pedibus subjecta, vidssim 
 
 Obteritur ; nos exwquat victoria ccelo. Lib. i. 63. 
 
 The idea which the poet here presents to the xniad of 
 his readers is of the same kind with that which pervades 
 the writings of the Greek tragedians : it is that of the 
 limited energies of mortals resolutely strugghng with a 
 superior and almost irresistible power. 
 
 The thrilling narrative of the plague at Athens, with 
 all its physical and moral horrors, is one of the most 
 heart-rending specimens of descriptive poetry. The stem 
 rejection of all fear of death, though based upon a denial 
 of the immortality of the soul, is a noble burst of poetical 
 as well as philosophical enthusiasm ; and the fifth book 
 displays that perfect finish and accompHshed grace which 
 characterizes all the best Roman poets. Amongst the 
 most affecting passages may be enumerated those which 
 
QUOTATIONS FROM LUCRETIUS. 221 
 
 describe the early sorrows of the human race and the grief 
 of the bereaved animal whose young one has been slain in 
 sacrifice/ Two other fine passages are the philosophical 
 explanation of Tartarus, and the panoramic view of the 
 tempest of human desires, seen from the rocky heights of 
 philosophy — a glorious descriptive piece which has been 
 imitated by Lord Bacon. 
 
 The following lines show how beautifully the poet 
 has caught the spirit and feeling of Greek fancy, and how 
 capable the Latin language now was of adequately ex- 
 pressing them : — 
 
 Aulide quo pacto Triviai virginis aram 
 Iphianassai turparunt sanguine fede 
 Ductores Danaum delectei, prima virorum 
 Cui simul infula, virgineos circumdata oomtus, 
 Ex utraque pari malarum parte profusa est ; 
 Et moestum simul ante aras astare parentem 
 Sensit, et hunc propter ferrum celare mijiistros, 
 Aspectuque suo laorumas effundere oiveis ; 
 Muta metu, terram genibus summissa, petebat : 
 Nee miserse prodesse in tali tempore quibat, 
 Quod patrio princeps donarat nomine regem 
 Nam sublata -virum manibusctremebundaque, ad aras 
 Deducta est ; non ut, solenni more sacrorum 
 Perfecto, posset olaro comitari hymenseo ; 
 Sed, casta incerte, nubendi tempore in ipso, 
 Hostia concideret mactatu mcesta parentis, 
 Exitus ut classi feUx faustusque daretur. 
 Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum ! 
 
 By that Diana's cruel altar flowed 
 With, innocent and royal virgin's blood ; 
 Unhappy maid ! with sacred ribands bound. 
 Religious pride ! and holy garlands crowned ; 
 To meet an undeserved, untimely fate. 
 Led by the Grecian chiefs in pomp and state ; 
 She saw her father by, whose tears did flow 
 In streams — ^the only pity he could show. 
 She saw the crafty priest conceal the knife 
 From him, blessed and prepared against her hfe ! 
 She saw her citizens, with weeping eyes. 
 Unwillingly attend the sacrifice. 
 
 Lib. ii. 352. 
 
222 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Then, dumb with grief, her tears did pity crave. 
 
 But 'twas beyond her father's power to save. 
 
 In vain did innocence, youth, and beauty plead ; 
 
 In vain the first pledge of his nuptial bed ; 
 
 She fell — even now grown ripe for bridal joy — 
 
 To bribe the gods, and buy a wind for Troy. 
 
 So died this innocent, this royal maid : 
 
 Such fiendish acts reUgion could persuade. Creech. 
 
 It cannot be denied that there are in the poem of 
 Lucretius many barren wastes over which are scattered 
 the rubbish and dSbris of a false philosophy ; but even in 
 these deserts the oases are numerous enough to prevent 
 exhaustion and fatigue. They recur too frequently to 
 enumerate them all. If the attempt were made, other 
 tastes would still discover fresh examples. 
 
 The following is, in a few words, the plan and struc- 
 ture of the poem : — Its professed object is to emancipate 
 mankind from the debasing effects of superstition by an 
 exposition of the leading tenets of the Epicurean school.' 
 It is divided into six books. In the first, the poet enun- 
 ciates and copiously illustrates the grand axiom of his 
 system of the universe, together with the corollaries 
 which necessarily arise from it. " Nothing is created 
 out of nothing." He commences also the subject- of the 
 atomic theory. In the second book he pursues the sub- 
 ject of creation generally, and the various functions of 
 animal Hfe. The third treats of the nature of the soil. 
 The fourth contains the theory of sensation, especially of 
 sight ; of the relation which thought bears to matter ; of 
 the passions, and especially of the influence of love, both 
 physical and moral. The fifth book is devoted to the 
 history of mankind. The sixth explains the phenomena 
 of the natural world, including those of disease and death. 
 
 The following are the leading Epicurean doctrines em- 
 bodied in the poem : — There are divine beings, but they 
 are neither the creators^ nor the governors of the world.^ 
 
 ' Lib. V. 166. ' Lib. vi. 378. 
 
ARGUMENT OF THE POEM. 223 
 
 They live in the enjoyment of perfect happiness and 
 repose, regardless of human affairs, unaffected by man's 
 virtues and vices, happiness or misery. Neither have 
 they the power any more than the will to interfere in 
 the affairs of the world, for they cannot resist the eternal 
 laws of nature and destiny. Whilst, in deference to the 
 innate sense which revolts at the denial of a God, he 
 acknowledges the existence of divine beings, the proofs 
 which he adduces as derived from his great master are 
 weak and unsatisfactory.^ The corollary of this disbelief 
 in Divine Providence is practical atheism. The ideas 
 which man entertains of God are false, because they are 
 the mere creations of the imagination. Ignorant of the 
 real causes which lead to natural phenomena, he conjures 
 up these as the machinery to account for them.^ The 
 popular beUef is groundless ; and yet the poet believes 
 that if this system is overthrown there is nothing to sup- 
 ply its place, and hence all worship, whether prayer or 
 praise, is grovelling superstition.^ The only true piety 
 consists in calm and peaceful contemplation.* 
 
 To those who argue that unbehef leads to ungodliness, 
 his answer is, that what man calls rehgion has led to the 
 greatest crimes.^ He is not entirely destitute of the 
 rehgious sentiment or the principle of faith, for he deifies 
 Nature* and has a veneration for her laws ; and hence his 
 infidelity must be viewed rather in the Hght of a philo- 
 sophical protest against the degrading results of heathen 
 superstition than a total rejection of the principle of reli- 
 gious faith. 
 
 It is here that Lucretius seems for a while to leave the 
 authority of Epicurus ; and, with the inspiration of a poet, 
 which is hardly consistent with a total absence of vene- 
 ration and faith, to forsake his cold and heartless system. 
 
 ' Lib. vi. 75. ' Lib. v. 83, 1163. ' Lib. v. 1197. 
 
 ' Lib. V. 1202. ' Lib. i. 81. " Lib. i. 71, 147. 
 
234 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Although he asserts that the phenomena of nature are 
 the result of a combination of atoms, that these ele- 
 mentary particles are self-existent and eternal, he seems 
 to invest Nature with a sort of personality. The warm 
 sensibility of the poet overcomes the cold logic of the 
 philosopher. Dissatisfied with the ungenial idea of an ab- 
 stract lifeless principle, he yearns for the maternal caresses 
 of a being endued with energies and faculties with which 
 he can sympathise. He therefore ascribes to Nature an 
 attribute which can only belong to an intelligent agent 
 having ruling power. Nay, he even goes farther than this, 
 and absolutely contradicts the dogmas of the Epicurean 
 school. Even the works of nature are riepresented as 
 instinct with life.^ The sun is spoken of as a being who, 
 by the warmth of his beams, vivifies all things. The 
 earth, from whose womb all things spring, fosters and 
 nurtures all her children. The very stars may possibly 
 be living beings, performing their stated motions in 
 search of their proper sustenance.^ These are, doubtless, 
 the fancies of the poet rather than the grave and serious 
 belief of the philosopher ; but they prove how false, 
 hollow, and artificial is a system which pretends to ac- 
 coimt for creation by natural causes, and how earnestly 
 the human mind craves after the comfort and support of 
 a personal deity. 
 
 The denial of the immortality of the soul is inferred 
 from the destructibihty of the material elements out of 
 which it is composed. It must perish immediately that it 
 is deprived of the protection of the body.' In accordance 
 with this psychical theory, he accounts for the difference 
 of human tempers and characters. Character results 
 from the combination of the elementary principles: — a 
 predominance of heat produces the choleric dispositioas: 
 that of wind produces timidity ; that of air a calm and 
 
 ' See Ritter, iv. p. 89. * Lib. v. 525. ^ Lib. iii. 265, 413. 
 
MORALITY OP EPICURUS AND LUCRETIUS. 225 
 
 equable temper.' But this natural constitution, the 
 strength of the will, acted upon by education, is able, to a 
 certain extent, to modify though it cannot effect a com- 
 plete change. Thus it is that, although moral as well as 
 physical phenomena are produced in accordance with 
 fixed laws, human ills result from unbridled passions, and 
 may be remedied by philosophy. 
 
 Although, if tried by a Christian standard, the Lucre- 
 tian morality is by no means pure,^ yet even where he 
 permits laxity he is not insensible to the moral beauty, 
 the happy and holy results, of purity and chastity.^ Nor, 
 notwithstanding the assertions of Cicero,* can the charge 
 of immorality or of a selfish love of impure pleasure be 
 made against Lucretius or Epicurus. The distinction 
 which the latter drew between lawful and unlawftd plea- 
 sures was severe and uncompromising. The former 
 speaks of the hell which the wicked sensualist always 
 carries within his own breast^ — of the satisfaction of true 
 wisdom," and of a conscience void of ofience.' 
 
 Again, Epicurus was a man of almost Christian gentle- 
 ness. Stoical grossness and contempt of refinement 
 revolted him ; the unamiable severity of that sect was 
 alien to his nature. He was thus driven to the opposite 
 extreme ; and although he was careful to make pure 
 intellectual pleasure the summum honum, his standard 
 laid him open to objections from his jealous adversaries. 
 The zeal with which many distinguished females devoted 
 themselves to his system, and became his disciples because 
 his doctrines and character especially recommended them- 
 selves to the female sex, made it easy for his enemies to 
 Stigmatise them as effeminate, instead of praising them as 
 feminine. With that iUiberality which refused to woman 
 freedom of conduct and a liberal education, his adversaries 
 
 ' Lib. iii. 302. ' Lib. iv. 1072. » Lib. v. 1012 ■* De Fin. ii. 22. 
 5 Lib. V. 1152. " Lib. iii. 988. ' Lib. ii. 7. 
 
226 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 calumniated the characters of his pupils, represented them 
 as unchaste, and their instructor as licentious. Nor did 
 they hesitate even to support these accusations by forgeries.' 
 A careless reception of their calumnies without inves- 
 tigation, added to the general, and perhaps wiliul, misap- 
 prehension which prevailed among the Eomans in the 
 days of Cicero, led to the misrepresentations which are 
 found in his writings. These have been handed down 
 to after ages ; and thus the doctrines taught by Epicurus 
 have been loaded with undeserved obloquy.^ There is, 
 however, no doubt that Epicurism was adopted by the 
 Eomans in a corrupt form, and that it became fashion- 
 able because it was supposed to encourage indifFerentisra 
 and sensuality. It is probable, too, that the denial of 
 immortality contributed much to the depravation and 
 distortion of his system. Nothing so surely demoralizes 
 as destroying the hopes of eternity. Man cannot com- 
 mune with Grod, or soar on high to spiritual things, unless 
 he hopes to be spiritualized and to see God as He is. 
 Whatever the philosopher may teach as to the true 
 nature of happiness, man wiU set up his own corrupt 
 standard, which his passions and appetites lead him to 
 prefer : he will act on the principle " Let us eat and 
 drink, for to-morrow we die." StiU it must be confessed 
 that the views of Epicurus respecting man's duty to God 
 were disinterested — founded on ideas of the Divine perfec- 
 tions, not merely on hopes of reward.' His views of sen- 
 sual pleasures were in accordance with his simple, frugal 
 life, diametrically opposed to intemperance and excess. 
 He taught by example as well as by precept, that he who 
 would be happy must cultivate wisdom and justice, be- 
 cause virtue and happiness are inseparable. He attached 
 his disciples to him by affection rather than l?y admira- 
 tion ; submitted to weakness and sickness with patient 
 
 ' Diog. La. X. 3. ^ Sen. de Benef. iv. 19. ' Diog. La. x. 
 
TESTIMONIES OF VIRGIL AND OVID. 227 
 
 resignation ; and died with a heroism which no Stoic 
 could have surpassed. 
 
 Such was the master whom Lucretius followed, and 
 the school to which he belonged ; and, though the stern- 
 ness of the Roman character breathed into his protest 
 against superstition a bolder spirit of defiance than that 
 of the placid and resigned Grreek, his teaching was equally 
 pure and noble, and he would have proudly disdained to 
 make philosophy a cloak for voluptuous profligacy. Poets 
 who surpassed him in gracefulness, and who were fortu- 
 nate enough to flourish when the Latin language had 
 become more plastic, paid due honour to his greatness. 
 Virgil celebrates the happiness of that man : — 
 
 qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas, 
 
 Atque metus omnes, et inexorabile fatum 
 Subjecit pedibus, strepitumque Acherontis avari.' 
 
 His muse is instinct with Lucretian spirit when he 
 describes with such graphic skill the murrain attacking 
 the brute creation -^ and Ovid exclaims that the sublime 
 strains of Lucretius shall never perish until the day shall 
 arrive when the world shall be given up to destruction. 
 
 Catullus (born b.c. 86). 
 
 Contemporary with the great didactic poet, but nine 
 years his junior in age, flourished C. Valerius Catullus. 
 He was a member of a good family, residing on the Lago 
 di Garda, in the neighbourhood of Verona,^ and his father 
 had the honour of frequently receiving Caesar as his 
 guest.* At an early age he went to Rome, probably for 
 education, but his warm temperament and strong passions 
 plunged him into the licentious excesses of the capital. 
 During this period of his career, passed in the indulgence 
 of pleasure and gaiety, and in the midst of a dissipated 
 
 ' Qeorg. ii. 490. ' Georg. iii. 478. " Plin. xxxvii. 6. 
 
 •» Suet. V. Jul. 73. 
 
228 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 society, he had no more serious occupation than the culti- 
 vation of his literary tastes and talents. The elegant 
 tenderness of liis amatory poetry made him a favourite 
 with the fair sex, for its licentiousness was not out of 
 keeping with the sentiments and conversation prevalent 
 in the Roman fashionable world. It must not be sup- 
 posed that the tone of society amongst the higher classes 
 was pure and moral, Hke that of Cicero and his friends, 
 or that it was not marked by the same licentious freedom 
 which polluted some even of their most graceful poems. 
 
 The poetry of Catullus was such as might be expected 
 from the tenor of his life. The excuse which he made 
 for its character was not a valid one ;' for the line in 
 Hadrian's epitaph on Voconius could not possibly be 
 applied to him : — 
 
 Lasoivus versu, mente pudicus eras.'' 
 
 His mistress, whom he addresses under the feigned name 
 of Lesbia, was really named Clodia.^ It has been said 
 that she was the sister of the infamous Clodius ; but there 
 are no grounds for the assertion. 
 
 A career of extravagance and debauchery terminated in 
 ruin, and though his focfcune had been originally ample, 
 his affairs became hopelessly embarrassed ; and in order to 
 retrieve them by colonial plunder, he accompanied Mem- 
 mius, the friend of Lucretius, when he went as praetor to 
 Bithynia. Owing, however, to the grasping meanness of 
 his patron his expectations were disappointed. He re- 
 turned home " with his purse fall of cobwebs." Still he 
 enjoyed the privilege of visiting those cities of Greece and 
 Asia which were the most celebrated for literature and the 
 fine arts. 
 
 When he went to Asia he visited the grave of a bro- 
 ther who had died in the Troad, and who was buried on 
 
 See Carm. cxvi. '' Anthol. 208. = Apuleius. 
 
CATULLUS AT THE GRAVE OF HIS BROTHER. 229 
 
 the Rhaetian promontory ; and a poem which he ad- 
 dressed on the occasion to Hortalus, the dissipated son of 
 the orator Hortensius, as well as another dedicated to 
 Manlius, bear witness to the warmth of his fraternal 
 affection. The former is a beautiful and touching speci- 
 men of his elegiac style : — 
 
 Multas per gentes et multa per sequora vectus, 
 
 Adveni has miseras frater ad inferias. 
 Ut te postremo donarem munere mortis 
 
 Et mutum nequidquam alloquerer cinerem. 
 Quandoquidem fortuna mihi tete abstuHt ipsum 
 
 Has miser indigne frater adempte mihi ! 
 Nunc tamen interea prisco quse more parentum 
 
 Tradita sub tristes munera ad inferias 
 Acoipe fraterno multum manantia lietu 
 
 Atque in perpetuum frater ave atque vale ! 
 
 On his return to Eome he resumed his old habits, and 
 died in the prime of life, probably B.C. 47, as that is the 
 latest date to which allusion is made in his writings. 
 
 His works consist of numerous short fugitive pieces 
 of a lyrical character; elegies, such as that already quoted; 
 a secular hymn to Diana ; a poem, somewhat of a dithy- 
 rambic character, entitled Atys ; and the Epithalamium 
 of Peleus and Thetis, a mythological poem in heroic 
 verse. His taste was evidently formed on a study of the 
 Greek poets, from whom he learnt not only his beautiful 
 hendecasyllables, but also their modes of thought and 
 expression. He had skill and taste to adopt the materials 
 with which his vast erudition furnished him, and to 
 conceal his want of originality and inspiration. Some of 
 his pieces are translations from the Greek, as, for example, 
 the elegy on the hair of Berenice, which is taken from 
 the Greek of Callimachus, and the celebrated ode of 
 Sappho.' He was one of the most popular of the Roman 
 poets — firstly, because he possessed those quaUties which 
 the literary society of Rome most highly valued, namely, 
 
 ' Carm. li. 
 
330 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 polish and learning ; and secondly, because, although he 
 was an imitator, there is a hving reality about all that he 
 wrote — a truly Eoman nationality. He did not merely 
 disguise the inspiration of Greece in a Latin dress, but 
 invested Eoman life, and thoughts, and social habits with 
 the ideal of Greek love and beauty. For these reasons 
 his fame flourished as long as Eome possessed a classical 
 literature. Two eminent men only have withheld their 
 admiration — Horace in the golden age ; Quintilian in the 
 period of the decHne. The former disparages him as a 
 Ijnrical poet ; the latter almost passes him over in silence. 
 Horace was jealous of a rival who was so nearly equal to 
 himself: he could not bear the remotest chance of his 
 claim beiag disputed to be the musician of the Eoman 
 lyre;^ and he dishonestly declared that he first adapted 
 iEoHan strains to the Eoman lyre,^ notwithstanding the 
 Lesbian character and hendecasyUabic metres of his 
 predecessor. Quintilian could not ^.ppreciate Catullus, 
 because his own taste was too stiff and affected, and spoilt 
 by the rhetorical spirit of his age. 
 
 Catullus had a talent for satire, but his satire was not 
 inspired by a noble indignation at vice and wrong. It 
 was the bitter resentment of a vindictive spirit : his love 
 and his hate were both purely selfish. His language of 
 love expresses the feelings of an impure voluptuary ; his 
 language of scorn those of a disappointed one. He 
 gratified his irritable temper by attacking Caesar most 
 offensively ; but the noble Eoman would not crush the 
 insect which annoyed him ; and although Catullus insulted 
 him personally by reading his lampoons in his presence, 
 not a change passed over his countenance : he would not 
 stoop to avenge himself ; and the imperial clemency dis- 
 armed the anger of the libeller. The strong prejudice of 
 Niebuhr in favour of Eoman antiquity led him to pro- 
 
 ' Od. IV. iii. 23. ' Od. III. XX. 13. 
 
CHARACTER OF HIS POETRY. 231 
 
 nounce Catullus a gigantic and extraordinary genius, 
 equal in every respect to the lyric poets of Greece pre- 
 viously to the time of Sophocles : he beheved him to be 
 the greatest poet Eome ever possessed, except, perhaps, 
 some few of the early ones; but that great man also 
 thought that Virgil had mistaken his vocation in becom- 
 ing an epic instead of a lyric poet/ Catullus certainly 
 possessed great excellences and talents of the most allur- 
 ing and captivating kiad. No genius ever displayed 
 itself under a greater variety of aspects. He has the 
 playfulness and the petulance of a girl, the vivacity and 
 simplicity of a child. He has never been surpassed in 
 gracefulness, melody, and tenderness. No one, unless 
 he possessed the coolness and self-command of a Caesar, 
 could have avoided wincing under the sharp attacks of 
 his wit : he had passion and vehemence, but he had not 
 the grandeur and sublimity either of Lucretius or Virgil. 
 
 Although the pecuhar 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. He 
 had not sufl&cient grasp and comprehensiveness of mind 
 to conduct an epic poem. His knowledge of hxmian 
 nature, confined as it was to one of its phases — the de- 
 velopment of the softer affections — did not admit of sufii- 
 cient variety for so vast a work. His intellectual taste, 
 Hke his moral principles, was too Ol-regulated to construct 
 a well-digested plan, necessary to the perfection of an 
 epic poem; but wherever ingenuity and Hveliness in 
 description, or pathos in moving the affejetions, are 
 required, the poetry of Catullus does not yield to that of 
 OArid or of VirgU. 
 
 The poem, entitled the marriage of Peleus and Thetis, 
 bears some slight resemblance to an heroic poem. Its subject 
 
 ■ Lect. cvi. 
 
232 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 is heroic, for it embodies a legend of the heroic age. The 
 characters of mythology play a part in it, similar to that 
 which they support in the poems of Homer or Virgil. 
 But it is unconnected and deficient in unity ; and the 
 plan is far too extensive for the dimensions by which it 
 is circumscribed. Nevertheless, with aU these faults, it is 
 pleasing on account of the luxuriance of its fancy and 
 the brilliancy of its genius. The most beautiful passage, 
 perhaps, is the episode relating the story of Theseus and 
 Ariadne, which is introduced into the main body of the 
 poem as being woven and embroidered on the hangings 
 of the palace of Peleus. The foUoAving verses are taken 
 from this episode,^ and form part of the complaint of 
 Ariadne for the perfidious desertion of Theseus : — 
 
 Siocine disoedens, negleoto numine Divum, 
 Immemor all ! devota domum perjuria portaa ? 
 Nullane res potuit crudelis flectere mentis 
 Consilium ? tibi nulla ftiit dementia prsesto, 
 Immite ut nostri veUet mitescere pectus ? 
 At non haec quondam nobis promissa dedisti 
 Voce ; mihi non hoc misersB sperare jubebas ; 
 Sed connubia Iseta, sed optatos bymenaeos ; 
 Quae cuncta aSrii discerpunt irrita venti. 
 Jam jam nulla viro juranti foemina credat, 
 NuUa viri speret sermones esse fldeles ; 
 Qui, dum aliquid cupiens animus preegestit apisci, 
 Nil metuunt jurare, nihil promittere parcunt ; 
 Sed simul ac cupidse mentis satiata Ubido est, 
 Dicta nihil metuere, nihil perjuria curant. 
 Certe ego te in medio versantem turbine leti 
 Eripui, et potius germanum amittere crevi, 
 Quam tibi faUaci supremo in tempore deessem. 
 Pro quo dilaceranda feris dabor, ahtibusque 
 Prseda, neque injecta tumulabor mortua terra. 
 Qusenam te genuit sola sub rupe lesena ? 
 Quod mare conceptum spumantibus exspuit undis ? 
 Qusa Syrtis, quse ScyUa vorax, quae vasta Charybdis, 
 Taha qui reddis pro dulci prsemia vitse ? 
 Si tibi non cordi faerant connubia nostra, 
 SsDva quod horrebas prisci prsecepta parentis ; 
 Attamen in vestras potuisti duoere sedes, 
 
 ' Lib. V. 132, 166. 
 
COMPLAINT OF ARIADNE. 233 
 
 Quae tibi jucundo famularer serva labore, 
 
 Candida permulcens liquidis vestigia lymphis, 
 
 Purpurea ve tuum oonstemens veste oubile. 
 
 Sed quid ego ignaris nequioquam conqueror auris, 
 
 Externata malo ? quae nullis sensibus auota) 
 
 Neo missas audire queunt, nee reddere voces.— 132-161. 
 
 And oouldst thon, Theseus, from her native land 
 Thy Ariadne bring, then cruel so 
 Desert thy victim on a lonely strand ? 
 And didst thou, perjured, dare to Athens go. 
 Nor dread the weight of heaven's avenging blow ? 
 Could nought thy heart with sacred pity touch ? 
 Nought make thy soul the baleful plot forego 
 'Gainst her that loved thee ? Ah ! not once were such 
 The vows, the hopes, thy smooth professions did avouch ! 
 
 Then all was truth, then did thy honied tongue 
 Of wedded faith the flattering fable weave. 
 All, all unto the winds of heaven are flung ! 
 Henceforth let never listening maid believe 
 Protesting man. When their false hearts conceive 
 The selfish wish, to aU but pleasure blind, 
 No words they spare, no oaths unuttered leave ; 
 But when possession cloys their pampered mind. 
 No care have they for oaths, no words their honour bind. 
 
 For this, then, I from instant death did cover 
 Thy faithless bosom ; and for this preferred, 
 Even to a brother's blood, a perjured lover ; 
 Now to be torn by savage beast and bird. 
 With no due form, no decent rite, interred ! 
 What foaming sea, what savage of the night. 
 In murky den thy monstrous birth conferred 1 
 What whirlpool guides and gave thee to the Ught, 
 The welcome boon of life thus basely to requite 1 
 
 What though thy royal father's stern command 
 The bond of marriage to our lot forbade. 
 Oh ! safely still into thy native land 
 I might have gone thy happy serving maid ; 
 There gladly washed thy snowy feet or laid 
 Upon thy blissful bed the purple vest. 
 Ah, vain appeal ! upon the winds conveyed. 
 The heedless winds, that hear not my behest : 
 No words his ear can reach or penetrate his breast ! 
 
 The writers of the Augustan age and their successors 
 paid Catullus what they considered the highest compli- 
 
234 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 ment, when they called him learned. Criticism referred 
 everything to the Greek standard. The qualities which 
 they recognised by this epithet were those which they 
 deemed most valuable — ^more so even than originaUty and 
 invention — an extensive acquaintance with the materials 
 of Greek story, an elaborate study of the poets taken 
 as models, a scientific appreciation of the cadences and 
 harmonies of Greek versiJ&cation. They were grateful 
 for the blessings which they were conscious of having 
 derived from mental cultivation ; and the highest praise 
 which they could bestow was to confer upon a poet the 
 title of a learned and accomplished man. 
 
 This period, at which prose reached its zenith, could 
 boast of other poets, also, besides Lucretius and Catullus, 
 whose merits were considerable although they did not 
 satisfy the fastidious taste of the Augustan age. There 
 flourished C. Licinius Calvus,^ C. Helvius Cinna, Valerius 
 Cato, Valgius, Ticida, Furius Bibaculus, and Varro 
 Atacinus. 
 
 The first of these was a lively little man,^ an orator as 
 well as a poet. His speeches were elaborately modelled 
 after those of the Attic orators ; and had his poems dis- 
 played the same poHsh, they might have satisfied Horace^ 
 and his contemporaries, and thus have been preserved. 
 As it is, the fragments which remain are so brief, that it 
 is impossible to say whether his merits were such as to 
 justify Niebuhr in placing him amongst the three greatest 
 poets of his age. His poetry resembled that of Catullus 
 in spirit and morality. It was the fashionable poetry pf 
 the day, and consisted of tender elegy, playful and senfci- 
 mental epigram, licentious love-songs, and bitter per- 
 sonality. 
 
 Cinna,* besides smaller poems, was the author of an 
 
 ' Cic. Brut. 82 ; ad Fam. xv. 21 ; Dial, de Or. 18 ; Quint, xi. 115. 
 ' Cat. liv. ' Sat. I. x. 16. ' Cat. Carm. X. xcv. 
 
OTHER POETS OE THIS PERIOD. 235 
 
 epic, entitled Smyrna ; the subject is unknown : but 
 Catullus, who was his intimate friend, praises it highly, 
 and Virgil modestly declares that, as compared with 
 Varius and Cinna, he himself appears a goose amongst 
 swans.* Valerius Cato was a grammarian as well as a 
 poet. His two principal poems were entitled Lydia and 
 Diana -^ and a fragmentary poem, to which the title DircB 
 or Cursed has been given, has been generally attributed 
 to him on the grounds that the author pours forth his 
 woes to a mistress named Lydia. The argument of the 
 piece is as follows : — The estate of Cato, like that of Virgil, 
 was confiscated and made a military colony ; and smarting 
 under a sense of wrong, he imprecates curses on his lost 
 home. Then the theme changes : his heart softens ; and 
 in sad accents he bewails his separation from his mis- 
 tress, and from all his rural pleasures. This poem was 
 formerly believed to be the work of Virgil, but neither 
 the language nor the poetry can be compared to those of 
 the Mantuan bard ; nor do the sentiments resemble the 
 calmness and resignation with which he bears his mis- 
 fortunes. J. Scaliger, impressed with these considera- 
 tions, transferred the authorship from Virgil to Cato. 
 But there are no sufficient grounds for determining the 
 question. 
 
 Eespecting C. Valgius Eufas all is doubt and ob- 
 scurity. The grammarians quote from him ; PHny* 
 speaks of his learning; Horace^ refers to him as an 
 elegiac poet, and expresses the greatest confidence in his 
 critical taste and judgment. Ticida is mentioned by 
 Suetonius as bearing testimony to the merits of Valerius 
 Cato. Bibaculus was a bitter satirist, who spared not the 
 feehngs of his friend Cato when reduced from affluence 
 to poverty ;* who himself had the vanity to attempt an 
 
 ' Eel. 9. ' Suet, de III. Gram. 2—9. ' Werusdorf, Po. Lat. Mi. 
 
 * H. N. XXV. 2. ' Od. ii. 9 ; Sat. I. x. " Wernsdorf. 
 
236 SOMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 epic poem, and by his vulgar taste provoked the severe 
 criticism of Horace.* 
 
 P. Terentius Varro Atacinus was a contemporary of 
 Varro Reatinus ; and for this reason his works have often 
 been confounded with those of the latter. He was born 
 B.C. 82,^ near the river Atax in Gaul, and hence he was 
 sumamed Atacinus, in order to distinguish him from his 
 learned namesake, who derived his appellation from pro- 
 perty which he possessed at Eeati. Very few fragments 
 of his works are extant,^ although his poetry was of such 
 a character that VirgU deemed some of his lines worthy 
 of plagiarizing.^ His principal work, which is not spoken 
 of in very high terms by Quintilian,^ is a translation of 
 the Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius. Besides this, 
 he wrote two geographical poems, namely, the Chorographia 
 and Libri Navales, a heroic poem entitled Bellum Sequel 
 nicum, on one of the Gallic campaigns of J. Caesar, and 
 also some elegies, epigrams, and saturse.* 
 
 A fragment of the Chorographia is preserved by Meyer,' 
 the concluding lines of which were evidently imitated by 
 Virgil, and also the following severe epigram on Li- 
 cinius : — 
 
 Marmoreo Licinus tumulo jacet, at Cato nullo, 
 
 Pompeius parvo ; Quia putet esse Deos ? 
 Saxa premunt Lioinum, levat altum fama Catonem, 
 
 Pompeium tituli. Credimus esse Deos. 
 
 ' Sat. II. V. 41. " Hieron. in Euseb. Chron. 
 
 ' See Meyer's Anthol. Lat. - Ibid. 77, 78. 
 
 > Lib. X. i. 87. « Hor. Sat. I. x. 46. ' Anthol. 77, 78. 
 
( 237 ) 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 AGE OF VIRGIL FAVOURABLE TO POETRY — HIS BIRTH, EDUCATION, 
 HABITS, ILLNESS, AND DEATH— HIS POPULARITY AND CHARACTER 
 — HIS MINOR POEMS, THE CULEX CIRIS MORETUM COPA AND 
 CATALECTA— HIS BUCOLICS — ITALUN MANNERS NOT SUITED TO 
 PASTORAL POETRY — IDYLLS OF THEOCRITUS — CLASSIFICATION OP 
 THE BUCOLICS — SUBJECT OF THE POLLIO^ — HEYNE'S THEORY 
 RESPECTING IT. 
 
 P. ViiiGiLius Maeo (born B.C. 70). 
 
 The period at which Virgil flourished was singulariy 
 favourable both to the development and appreciation of 
 poetical talent of the most pohshed and cultivated kind. 
 The indulgent hberality of the imperial court cherished and 
 fostered genius : the ruin of republican hberty left the 
 intellect of the age without any other object except 
 refinement ; imagination was not harassed by the cares 
 and realities of life. The same causes contributed to 
 limit the range of prose composition,^ and therefore the 
 field was left undisputed to Virgil and Horace and their 
 friends ; and as the age of Cicero was essentially one in 
 which prose literature flourished, so that of Augustus 
 was the golden age of poetry. Of this age, Virgil stands 
 forth pre-eminent amongst his contemporaries, as the 
 representative. He exhibited all its characteristics, 
 poUsh, ingenuity, and skiU, and to these he superadded 
 dignity and suMmity. The hfe of Virgil, commonly 
 prefixed to his works, professes to be written by Tiberius 
 Claudius Donatus, who lived in the fifth century. If, as 
 
 See, on this subject, Niebuhr's Lectures on Roman History, cvi. 
 
238 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITEKATURE. 
 
 Heyne thought, the groundwork is by him, it has been 
 overlaid with fables similar to those found in the Gesta 
 Eomanorum, and owing their origin to the inventions of 
 the dark ages. From this biography, stripped of those 
 portions which are clearly fabulous, and from other sources, 
 the following particulars respecting him may be derived : — 
 P. Virgilius Maro was born on the ides (the 15th) of 
 October,^ B.C. 70, on a small estate belonging to his 
 father, at Andes (Pietola), a village of Cisalpine Gaul, 
 situated about three Roman miles from Mantua. It has 
 been disputed whether his name was Virgilius or Vergiliusj 
 Most probably both orthographies are correct, as Diana j 
 Minerva, liber, and other Latin words, were frequently 
 written Deana, Menerva, leber, &c.^ 
 
 Virgil was by birth a citizen of Mantua,^ but not of 
 Eome, for the full franchise was not extended to the 
 Transpadani until b.c. 49, although they enjoyed the 
 Jus Latii as early as B.c. 89. The varied stores of 
 learning contained in the Georgics and ^Eneid, abundantly 
 prove that Virgil received a Hberal education. It is said 
 that he acquired the rudiments of hterature at Cremona, 
 where he remained until he had assumed the toga virilis.* 
 This event, if the anonymous life is to be depended upon, 
 took place unusually early ; for it is there assigned to the 
 second consulships of Pompey the Great and Licinius 
 Crassus,' in the first consulship of whom he was born. 
 From Cremona he went to Milan, and thence to Naples, 
 where he studied Greek literature and philosophy under 
 the direction of Parthenius, a native of Bithynia. Muretus 
 asserts that he diligently read the history of Thucydides'; 
 but his favourite studies were medicine and mathematics — 
 an unusual discipline to engage the attention of the fatur6 
 poet, but one which, by its exactness, tended to foster 
 
 ' Mart. Ep. xii. 68. ^ See Quint, de Inst. Or. ' Servius. 
 
 * Scalig. in Euseb. Chron. » b. c. 55. 
 
VIRGIL DEPRIVED OF HIS ESTATE. 239 
 
 and mature that judgment which distinguishes his poetry . 
 The philosophical sect to which he devoted himself was 
 the Epicurean ; and the unfortunate general, P. Quin- 
 tUius Varus, to whom he addresses his sixth Eclogue,* 
 studied this system together with him under Syron. 
 
 After this, it is probable that he came to Eome, but 
 soon exchanged the bustle of the capital, for which his 
 bashful disposition and dehcate health unfitted him, for 
 the quiet retirement of his hereditary estate. Of this he 
 was deprived in B.C. 42, with circumstances of great 
 hardship, when the whole neighbouring district was 
 divided, after the battle of Philippi, amongst the victorious 
 legionaries of Octavius and Antony. The town of 
 Cremona had supported Brutus, and the old repubhcan 
 party, and Mantua, together with its surrounding district, 
 suffered in consequence of its too close vicinity.^ Asioius 
 PolUo was at that time commander of the forces in 
 Cisalpine Gaul. He was grinding and oppressive in his 
 administration; but being himself an orator, poet, and 
 historian, he patronized Hterary men. Congenial tastes 
 recommended Virgil to his notice, and led him to take com- 
 passion on the poet's desolate condition. By his advice, 
 Virgil proceeded to Eome with an introduction to 
 Maecenas. Through him he gained access to Octavius, 
 and either immediately or after the peace of Brundisium^ 
 his little farm was restored to him. 
 
 He now became a prosperous man, was a member of 
 the literary society which graced the table of Maecenas, 
 and basked in the sunshine of court favour. Horace, 
 Virgil, Plotius, and Varius, were united by the closest 
 bonds of friendship with Maecenas, and accompanied him 
 on that cheerful expedition to Brundisium,* when he went 
 thither in order to negotiate a reconciliation between 
 Octavius and Antony. Henceforth VirgU's favourite 
 
 See V. 7. " Eel. ix. 18. " b. c. 40. •• b. c. 38. 
 
240 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 residence was Naples.* Its sunny climate suited his 
 pulmonary weakness far Better than the low and damp 
 banks of his native Mincius (Menzo). He had, besides, 
 a viUa in Sicily, and when at Eome he lived in a pleasant 
 house on the Esquiline, situated near those of his friends 
 Maecenas and Horace. It is difficult to say how Virgil 
 became so rich : patrons were hberal in those days, and 
 he doubtless owed a portion of his affluence to their 
 munificence. The HberaHty of Maecenas is weU-known ; 
 and Martial attributes the prosperity of Yirgil to the 
 favour of "the Tuscan knight."^ Augustus also had 
 great wealth at his disposal, and was profuse in the dis- 
 tribution of it amongst his favourites. 
 
 There is a passage in the Odes of Horace^ which seems 
 to hint that he engaged to a slight extent in mercantile 
 concerns : even if this formed one source of his wealth, 
 the love of gain (studium lucri), and anxiety about the 
 means of living, do not appear to have hindered him from 
 devoting his hours of serious occupation to Hterary 
 labours and the diligent use of his weU-stored hbrary, 
 whilst his leisure was given to the dehghts of social 
 intercourse, for which he was so eminently qualified by 
 his sweet temper and amiable disposition. 
 
 The poet's term of Hfe was not extended far beyond 
 fifty years. He had never been healthy or robust : he 
 sometimes spat blood, and frequently suffered from head- 
 ache and indigestion.* HI health was the only drawback 
 to a Kfe otherwise passed in calm felicity. In the year 
 B. c. 19 he meditated a tour in Greece, intending, during 
 the course of it, to give the final polish to his great epic 
 poem. Grreece and her classic scenes, the favourite haunts 
 of the Muses, the time-honoured contests of Olympia, 
 the living and breathing statues which he beheld in that 
 
 ' Alexander, an Italian abbot, states, on the evidence of two spuriouB 
 verses, that he was governor of Naples and Calabria. 
 
 ^ Ep. viii. 56. ^ Carm. xv. 12. * Hor. Sat. I. v. 49. 
 
DEATH OP VIRGIL. 241 
 
 home of art, evidently inspired tlie beautifiil imagery 
 which adorns the introduction to the third Greorgic. He, 
 however, only reached Athens : there he met Augustus, 
 who was on his way back from Samos, and both returned 
 together. On the occasion of this voyage, Horace wrote 
 that tender ode^ in which he affectionately calls him " the 
 half of his soul : — " 
 
 Navis quae tibi creditum 
 
 Debes Virgilium, finibus Attiois 
 Eeddas incolumem precor 
 
 Et serves animae dimidium me89. 
 
 On the way he was seized with a mortal sickness, which 
 was aggravated by the motion of the vessel, and he only 
 Hved to land at Brundisiiun. The powers of nature, 
 already enfeebled, were now totally exhausted, and he 
 expired on the 22nd of September. He was buried 
 rather more than a mile from Naples, on the road to 
 PuteoH (Pozzuoli). A tomb is stiU pointed out to the 
 traveller which is said to be that of the poet. 'Not is 
 this improbable; for, although it is not situated on the 
 present high-road, it is quite possible that the original 
 direction of the road may have been changed.^ His 
 epitaph is said to have been dictated by himself in his last 
 moments : — 
 
 Mantua me gerniit ; Calabri rapuere ; tenet nunc 
 Parthenope. Cecini Pascua, Eura, Duces.* 
 
 Virgil was deservedly popular both as a poet and as a 
 man. His rivals in literature could not envy one so 
 unassuming and inoffensive his well-merited success, but 
 loved him as much as they admired his poetry. The 
 
 ' Uarm. i. 3. 
 
 '; There has been much di.scussion respecting the precise place of his 
 burial. (See Oramer's Anc. It. ii. 174.) Addison, in opposition to the 
 popular belief, thought it almost certain that it stood on that side of the 
 town which looks towards Vesiivius. (Remarks on Italy, p. 164 ; sec. ed.) 
 
 ' Meyer, Anthol. 95. 
 
 R 
 
242 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 emperor esteemed him, the people respected him. " Wit- 
 ness," says Tacitus,' " the letters of Augustus, — ^witness 
 the conduct of the people itself, which, when some of his 
 verses were recited in the theatre, rose en masse, and 
 showed the same veneration for Yirgil, who happened to 
 he present among the audience, which they were wont to 
 show to Augustus." He was exceedingly temperate in 
 his manner of Hving ; so pure-minded^ and chaste in the 
 midst of a profligate and Hcentious age, that the Neapo- 
 litans gave him the name of Parthenias (from vapBevo^, 
 a virgiu), unselfish, although surrounded by selfishness, 
 kind-hearted, and sympathising. His talents and popu- 
 larity never spoiled his natural simplicity and modesty, 
 as his moving in the polite circles of the capital never 
 could entirely wear off his rustic shyness and unfashionable 
 appearance. 
 
 He was constitutionally pensive and melancholy, and 
 so distrustful of his own poems, that Augustus could not 
 persuade him to send an unfinished portion of the J^]neid 
 to him for perusal. "As to my Mnesus," he writes to 
 the emperor,' when absent on his Cantabrian campaign, 
 " if I had anything worth your reading I would send it 
 with pleasure, but the work is only just begun, and I 
 even blame my folly for venturing upon so vast a task. 
 But you know that I shall apply fresh and increased 
 diHgence to carrying out my design." It was with real 
 reluctance that he subsequently read the sixth book to 
 the Emperor and Octavia. In his last moments he was 
 anxious to bum the whole manuscript ; and iu his wiU he 
 directed his executors, Varius and Tucca, either to improve 
 it or commit it to the flames.* He was open-hearted and 
 generous, but not extravagant in the expenditure of his 
 wealth, for he bequeathed to his brother, his friends, and. 
 the Emperor a considerable property. 
 
 ' Dial, -de Caus. Corrup. El. 13. « Hor. Sat. I. v. 41. 
 
 " Macrob. Saturn. I. suhfine. * Plin. N. H. vii. 30. 
 
HIS MINOR POEMS. 243 
 
 It is said that Virgil's earliest poetical essay was an 
 epic poem, the subject of which was the Eoman wars ; 
 but that the impossibility of introducing Eoman names 
 in hexameter verse caused him to desist from the task 
 almost as soon as he had commenced it. The minor 
 poems, which are still extant, were probably his first 
 works. These are the Culex, Ciris, Moretum, Copa, 
 and the shorter pieces in lyric, elegiac, and iambic 
 metres,^ commonly known by the title of Catalecta. The 
 " Oulex" (Grnat) is a bucohc poem, with something of 
 a mock-heroic colouring, of which the argument is as 
 follows :^ — A shepherd, overcome with the heat, falls 
 asleep beneath the shade of a tree, and a venomous 
 serpent from a neighbouring marsh stealthily approaches. 
 A gnat flies to his rescue, and stings him on the brow. 
 The shepherd, awoke by the smart, crushes his rescuer, 
 but sees the serpent and HUs it. The ghost of the gnat 
 appears, reproaches him with his ingratitude, and de- 
 scribes the adventures he has met with in the regions 
 of the dead. The shepherd erects a monument in his 
 honour, and indites the following epigram : — 
 
 Parve culex, pecudum custos tibi tale merenti 
 Funeris officium vitse pro munere reddit. 
 Poor insect, thou a shepherd's Ufe didst save ; 
 Thou gavest a Ufe, he gives thee but a grave. 
 
 The " Ciris," which some have attributed to Corn. 
 GaUus, is the Greek legend of Scylla, who was changed 
 into a fish, and her father Nisus into an eagle. Great 
 
 ' See Meyer's Anthol. 85—111. 
 " A litle noursling of the humid ayre, 
 A gnat unto the sleepie shepheard went ; 
 And, marking where his ey-lids twinckhng rare 
 Shewd the two pearles, which sight unto him lent, 
 Through their thin coverings appearing fayre, 
 His Utle needle there infixing deep, 
 Warnd him awake, from death himselfe to keep. 
 
 Spenser, 
 
 r2 
 
244 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 use has been made by Spenser of this poem in the con- 
 versation between Britomart and her nurse Griauce, and 
 also in Grlauce's incantations/ The " Moretum" was 
 intended to trace the employments of the agricultural 
 labourer through the day ; but it only describes the com- 
 mencement of them, and the preparation of a dish or olla 
 podrida of garden herbs called moretum. It contains an 
 ingenious description of a cottager's kitchen garden. The 
 " Copa" is an Elegiac poem, not unlike in jovial spirit 
 the scoHa or drinking-songs of the Greeks : it represents 
 a female waiter at a tavern, begging for custom by a 
 tempting display of the accommodations and comforts 
 prepared for strangers. It describes the careless enjoy- 
 ments of rural festivity : the simple luxuries of grapes 
 and mulberries, the fragrant roses, the cheerful grass- 
 hoppers, and timid Httle lizards of Italy. Nor are the 
 excitements of the dice, the joys of wine, the blandish' 
 ments of love unsung. Dull care is banished far, and the 
 enjoyment of the present hour in(3uloated :: — 
 
 Pereant qiii crastina curant 
 Mors aurem vellens Vivite, ait, venio. 
 
 Amongst the lyric poems of Virgil is a very elegant 
 one on the villa of his instructor in philosophy, Syron. 
 
 The poems which first estabhshed his reputation were 
 his Bucolics or Eclogues. This latter title was given them 
 in later times, implying either that they were selections 
 from a greater number of poems or imitations of passages 
 selected from the works of Greek poets.^ 
 
 The characters in Virgil's Bucolics are Italians, in all 
 their sentiments and feelings, acting the imreal and 
 assumed part of Sicilian shepherds. In fact, the Italians 
 
 ' Faery Queene, book iii. c. ii. 3. See Dunlop, iii. 
 
 ^ Spenser, adopting the incorrect orthography and etymology of Pe- 
 trarch, writes the word JIglogue, and derives it from atyoji/ \oyoi — tales of 
 goats or goatherds. 
 
ITALIAN RURAL MANNERS. 245 
 
 never possessed the elements of pastoral life, and there- 
 fore could not naturally famish the poet with originals 
 and models from which to draw his portraits and cha- 
 racters. They were a simple people, but their simphcity 
 was rather Ascrsean than Arcadian : the domestic habits 
 and virtues of rural life in Italy were not unlike those of 
 Bceotia, as described by Hesiod. Virgil, therefore, wisely 
 took him as his model, and produced a more natural 
 picture of Italian manners in his Georgics than in his 
 Eclogues. The denizens of the little towns had the 
 manners and habits of municipal life : their cultivation was 
 the artificial refinement of town life, and not the natural 
 sentiments of the contemplative shepherd. Those who 
 lived in the country were hard-working, simple-minded 
 peasants, who gained their hvehhood by the sweat of 
 their brow — ^honest, plain-spoken, rough-mannered, and 
 without a grain of sentimentality. Pastoral poetry 
 owes its origin to, and is fostered by, sohtude : its most 
 beautiful passages are of a meditative cast. The shepherd 
 beguiles his loneliness by communing with his own 
 thoughts. His sorrows are not the hard struggles of 
 life, but often self-created and imaginary, or at least 
 exaggerated. When represented as Virgil represents 
 them in his Bucolics, they are in masquerade, and the 
 drama in which they form the characters is of an alle- 
 gorical kind. The connexion with Italy is rather of an 
 historical than a moral nature : we meet with numerous 
 allusions to contemporary events, but not with exact 
 descriptions of Italian character and manners. As, there- 
 fore, we cannot reahze the descriptions we can neither 
 sympathize nor admire. Menalcas and Corydon and 
 Alexis, and the rest, are as much out of place as the 
 gentlemen and ladies in the garb of shepherds and 
 shepherdesses in English family pictures. Even the 
 scenery is Sicilian, and does not truthfully describe the 
 tame neighbourhood of Mantua. So long as it is re- 
 
246 aOMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 membered that they are imitations of the Syracusan poet 
 we miss their nationaUty, and see at once that they are 
 imtruthful and out of keepiag ; and Virgil sujffers in our 
 estimation because we naturally compare him with the 
 original whom he professes to imitate, and we cannot but 
 be aware of his inferiority: but if we can once divest 
 ourselves of the idea of the outward form which he has 
 chosen to adopt, and forget the personality of the cha- 
 racters, we can feel for the wretched outcast exiled from 
 a happy though humble home, and be touched by the 
 simple narrative of their disappointed loves and childlike 
 woes ; can appreciate the delicately- veiled compliments 
 paid by the poet to his patron ; can enjoy the inventive 
 genius and poetical power which they display ; and can 
 be elevated by the exalted sentiments which they some- 
 times breathe. We feel that it is all an illusion ; but we 
 willingly permit ourselves to be transported from the 
 matter-of-fact realities of a hard and prosaic world. 
 
 YirgU in his Eclogues was too much cramped by fol- 
 lowing his Greek original to present us with true pictures 
 of Italian country life; although the criticism of his 
 friend Horace with justice attributes to his rural pieces 
 delicacy of touch and graceful wit : — 
 
 molle atque faoetum 
 Virgilio amnuerunt gaudentes rare Camoense.' 
 
 The Idylls of Theocritus are transftisions into appro- 
 priate Greek of old popular Sicihan legends which had 
 taken root in the country, and had become part and 
 parcel of the national character. His subjects are not 
 always strictly pastoral, for his characters are sometimes 
 reapers and fishermen.^ His language, characters, sen- 
 timents, scenery, habits, incidents, are all Sicilian, and 
 therefore all are in perfect harmony. The characters of 
 
 Sat. I, X. 44. ' Id. X. and xxi. 
 
CLASSIFICATION OF THE BUCOLICS. 247 
 
 Theocritus have a specific individuality, and are therefore 
 different from each other; those of Virgil are generic, 
 the representatives of a class, and therefore there is little 
 or no variety. But stiU Virgil's defects do not detract 
 much from the enjoyment experienced in reading his 
 Bucolic poetry. The Aminta of Tasso, the Pastor Fido 
 of Guarini, the Calendar of Spenser, the Lycidas of 
 Milton, the Perdita of Shakspeare, the pastorals of 
 Drayton, Drummond, and Florian, are equally open to 
 objection, and yet who does not admire their beauties ? 
 
 The BucoUcs may be arranged in two classes. Those 
 in the first are composed entirely after the Greek model, 
 and contain the following poems ; — 
 
 I. The first, in which the poet, representing himself 
 under the character of Tityrus, expresses his gratitude for 
 the restoration of his property, whilst MeHbceus, as an 
 exiled Mantuan, bewails his harder fortune. 
 
 II. The second, which is generally supposed to have 
 been the first pastoral written by him, and is principally 
 
 • copied from the Cyclops of Theocritus. 
 
 III. The third is an imitation of the fourth and fifth 
 Idylls of Theocritus, and, as well as the seventh, repre- 
 sent improvisatorial trials of musical skill between shep- 
 herds. 
 
 V. The fifth, in which two shepherds pay the last 
 honours to a departed friend, the one singiug his epitaph, 
 the other his apotheosis. Scahger^ has with good reason 
 supposed that this poem allegorized the murder and 
 deification of Julius Caesar. It has been often imitated 
 by modern poets : the most beautiful imitations are 
 Spenser's Lament for Dido, Milton's Lycidas, Drayton's 
 sixth Eclogue, and Pomfret's Elegy on Queen Mary. 
 
 VIII. The eighth, which is imitated from the second 
 and third Idylls of Theocritus, consists of two parts ; and, 
 
 ' In Euseb. Chron. 
 
248 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 from the subject-matter of the second portion, is entitled 
 " Pharmaceutria" (the Enchantress). Two shepherds, 
 Damon and Alphesiboeus, rival Orpheus in their musical 
 skill, for, whilst they sing, heifers forget to graze, lynxes 
 are stupified, and rivers stop their course to Hsten. It 
 was addressed by Virgil to his kind patron PoUio, whilst 
 employed iu his expedition to lUyricum.* Damon, per- 
 sonifying an unsuccessful lover, laments that a rival has 
 been preferred to himself. Alphesiboeus, in the character 
 of an enchantress, goes through a formula of magical in- 
 cantations in order to regain the lost affections of Daphnis. 
 In this poem a refrain, or intercalary verse, recurs after 
 intervals of a few hues. In the song of Daaffon, the 
 refrain is — 
 
 Incipe Msenalios mecum, mea tibia, versus. 
 
 In that of his.opponent — 
 
 Ducite ab urbe domum, mea carmina, ducite Daphuim. 
 
 IX. In the ninth, two shepherds converse together on 
 the troubles which have befallen their neighbourhood, 
 and one of them is represented as conveying a present of 
 a few kids to court the favour of the new possessor. 
 
 The second class are of a more origiaal kind. 
 
 IV. The fourth, entitled PoUio, which is the most 
 celebrated of them all, bears no resemblance to pastoral 
 poetry. In the exordium, the poet invokes the Muses of 
 Sicihan song ; but he professes to attune their sylvan strain 
 to a nobler theme. The melancholy Perusian war had 
 been brought to a termination. The reconcihation of 
 Anthony and Octavius had been effected by the treaty of 
 Brundisium, and all things seemed to promise peace and 
 prosperity. The contrast was indeed a bright one, after 
 the havoc and desolation which war had spread through 
 Italy. The peace ratified with Sextus Pompey at PuteoU 
 
 ' B. c. 39. 
 
SUBJECT OP THE FOURTH ECLOGUE. 249 
 
 opened the long-closed granaries of Sicily, and plenty- 
 succeeded to famine. The enthusiasm of the poet hailed 
 the return of the fabled golden age — ^the reign of Saturn. 
 The songs which the old bards of Italy professed to have 
 learnt from the Cumsean Sibyl, and to which legendary 
 tradition attributed a prophetical meaning, seemed to 
 point to the new era which now dawned on the Eoman 
 empire. 
 
 The belief of the civilized world was undoubtedly at 
 this time concentrated on the expectation of some great 
 event, which should bring peace and happiness to man- 
 kind. The divine revelation which God's people enjoyed 
 taught them now to expect the advent of the Messiah ; 
 whilst traditions, probably derived through corrupting 
 channels from the true light of prophecy, taught the 
 heathen, though more vaguely, to look for the coming of 
 some great one. The prophetic literature of the East 
 might have travelled to Europe ; and the divine pro- 
 phecies of Isaiah, and the other sacred writers, may have 
 been incorporated by native bards in Italian legends. 
 
 Bishop Lowth even supposed that the SibyLine pre- 
 dictions derived their origin from a Greek version of 
 Messianic prophecies.^ A belief in the inspiration of the 
 Sibyls prevailed in the early ages of Christianity, and the 
 Emperor Constantine in one of his orations^ quotes from 
 them, and paraphrases VirgU's PoUio as an evidence 
 to the truths of the Gospel. 
 
 Some of the fathers of the Church attributed to them 
 supernatural power ; and the Italian painters, acting under 
 the patronage of the Eoman Church, honoured the four 
 Sibyls as participators in a knowledge of the Divine 
 counsels. Ambrose^ allows that they were inspired, but 
 by the spirit of evil. Jerome* believes that this power 
 
 ' PrEBl. de Saor. Po. He. xxi. p. 289. 
 2 Orat. ad Sanctos, 19, 20 ; apud Eiiseb. 
 ■" In I Cor. ii. * Adv. Jor. lib. i. 
 
350 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 was given to them by God as A reward for virginity ; and 
 Augustine^ thinks that they predicted many truths con- 
 cerning Jesus Christ. Justin'* adopts a legend which 
 would account for the similarity between the Sibylline 
 oracles and Hebrew prophecy. He says that the Cumsean 
 Sibyl, celebrated by Virgil, was bom at Babylon, and 
 was the daughter of Berosus, the Chaldean historian. 
 
 If Virgil, in the fourth eclogue, correctly paraphrased 
 the Sibylline poems, two parallelisms between them and 
 the prophecies of Isaiah are remarkably striking : — ^ 
 
 Jam redit et Virgo, redeunt Saturnia regna ; 
 Jam nova progenies ooelo demittitur alto — 
 Te dues, si qua maaent sceleris vestigia nostri, 
 Irrita pei-petua solvent formidine terras — 
 Paoatumque reget patriis virtutibxis orbem. — ^v. 6. 
 
 Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son. — Is. vii. 14. 
 
 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, 
 upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to 
 estabhsh it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even 
 for ever. — Is. ix. 7. 
 
 At tibi prima, puer, nuUo munuscula cultu, 
 Errantes hederas passim cum baccare tellus, 
 Mixtaque ridenti colocasia fimdet acantho. — v. 18. 
 
 The wilderness and the solitary place shaU be glad for them ; and 
 the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as a rose. — Is. xxxv. 1. 
 
 Many theories have been proposed respecting the child 
 to whom allusion is made in this eclogue, not one of 
 which was satisfactory to Gribbon ;* but the following is 
 adopted by Heyne as the most probable. The peace 
 of Brundisium was cemented by the marriage between 
 Antony and Caesar's half-sister Octavia. She was the 
 widow of MarceUus, and appeared likely to give birth 
 to a posthumous child. To this child yet unborn, the 
 poet applies all the blessings promised by the Sibyl- 
 
 ' Contra f aust. i. 13, 2. ' Orat. Parsen. ' See notes to Pope's Messiah. 
 * Decl. and Fall. c. xx. vol. iii. p. 269. 
 
IMITATION BY MILTON. 251 
 
 line oracles, and predicts that, under his auspices, the 
 peace and prosperity already inaugurated shall be con- 
 firmed. 
 
 VI. In the sixth, Virgil represents allegoricaUy, under 
 the character of Silenus the tutor of Bacchus, his own 
 instructor Syron ; and thus makes it the vehicle of a short 
 account of the Epicurean philosophy. It was not long 
 since the same subject had been treated of at greater 
 length by the eloquent Lucretius; and it is said that 
 when Cicero heard dt recited by the mime Cytheris, 
 he was so struck with admiration as to exclaim that he 
 was "Magnae spes altera Eomse." This eclogue is parodied 
 by Gray in the Saturday of his Shepherd's Week. 
 
 X. The tenth can scarcely be distinguished from any 
 other amatory poem, except that the heroic metre is not 
 so usual in that species of poetry as the elegiac. The 
 loves of the poet GaUus are sung ; Arcadia is fixed upon 
 as the place of his exile ; and the lay is said to be set to 
 the music of the oaten-pipe of Sicily : but this eclogue 
 has no other claim to be entitled a bucoHc poem. 
 
 One passage in this eclogue, which suggested the foUow- 
 ing beautiful lines in Milton's " Lycidas," illustrates the 
 truth that poetry often derives additional beauty from 
 the fact of its being a successful imitation : — 
 
 Quse nemora aut qui vos saltus habuere, puellse 
 Naiades, indigno cum Gallus amore periret? 
 Nam neque Pamassi vobis juga nam neque Pindi 
 Ulla moram fecere, neque Aonia Aganippe. Eel. x. 9. 
 
 Where were ye, Nymphs, when the remorseless deep 
 
 Closed o'er the head of your loved Lycidas ? 
 
 For neither were ye playing on the steep, 
 
 "Where your old bards, the famous Druids, he. 
 
 Nor on the shaggy top of Mona high. 
 
 Nor yet where Deva spreads her wizard stream. 
 
 Milton's Lycidas. 
 
252 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 BEAUTY OF DIDACTIC POETRY — ELABORATE FINISH OF THE GEOHGICS 
 — ROMAN LOVE OF RURAL PURSUITS — HESIOD SUITABLE AS A 
 MODEL — CONDITION OF ITALY — SUBJECTS TREATED OF IN THE 
 GEORGICS — SOME STRIKING PASSAGES ENUMERATED — INFLUENCE 
 OF ROMAN LITERATURE ON ENGLISH POETRY-^SOURCES FROM 
 WHICH THE INCIDENTS OF THE ^NEID ARE DERIVED — CHARACTER 
 OF jENEAS— CRITICISM OF NIEBUHR. 
 
 Didactic poetry is of all kinds the least inviting. As its 
 professed object is instruction, there is no reason why 
 its lessons should be conveyed in poetical language — ^its 
 purpose could, in fact, be better attained in prose. Pre- 
 tending, therefore, to poetry, it demands great skill, 
 elaborate finish, and such graces and embelHshments as 
 will conceal its dry character, and recommend it to the 
 reader's attention. 
 
 The beauty of a didactic poem depends only partially 
 on the just views and correct discrimination which it 
 evinces, and principally on the beauty of the language, 
 the picturesque force, and pleasing character of the de- 
 scriptions, and the interest that is thrown into the epi- 
 sodes. In fact, the accessaries are the parts most admired, 
 and extracts brought forward as specimens of this kind 
 of poetry are invariably of this kind. Poetry naturally 
 deals with the beauties and terrors of external nature — 
 with the emotions and passions, whether of a tender or 
 violent kind — ^the sober practical rules of Hfe are scarcely 
 within its sphere. True it is that when all Hterature was 
 poetical, the precepts of moral and physical philosophy, 
 
ELABORATE FINISH OF THE GEORGICS. 253 
 
 aoid even the dry commands of laws and institutions, were 
 embodied in a metrical form; but wben literature 
 divides itself into poetry and prose, the subjects ap- 
 propriated to each become spontaneously separate Hke- 
 wise. For this reason, the Greorgics of VirgU especially 
 display his abihty as a poet, his correct taste, the " luna3 
 labor," the pains which he took in poUshing and correct- 
 ing. In none of his poems can we form a better idea of 
 the description which he gives of his patient toU, when 
 he says, that " like the she-bear he brought his poetical 
 offspring into shape by constantly licking them."' The 
 majesty of the language elevates the subject, and divests 
 it of so much of the homeliness as would be inappropriate 
 to poetry, and yet at the same time it is not too grand 
 or elevated. 
 
 The following criticism of Addison^ is by no means 
 too favourable : — " I shall conclude this poem to be the 
 most complete, elaborate, and finished piece of all an- 
 tiquity. The -lEneis is of a nobler kind ; but the Greorgic 
 is more perfect in its kind. The ^neis has a greater 
 variety of beauties in it ; but those of the Greorgic are 
 more exquisite. In short, the Greorgic has aU. the per- 
 fection that can be expected in a poem written by the 
 greatest poet, in the flower of his age, when his invention 
 was ready, his imagination warm, his judgment settled, 
 and all his faculties in their fall vigour and maturity." 
 
 Eome offered a favourable field for a poet to undertake a 
 poem on the labours and enjoyments of rural Hfe. Agricul- 
 ture was always there considered a hberal employment : 
 tradition had adorned rustic manners with the attributes of 
 simphcity and honesty, and divested them of the ideas of 
 coarseness usually connected with them. The traditions 
 of those ages of national freedom and greatness, to which 
 the enthusiasm of the poet delighted to carry back the 
 
 ' A. Gell. N. A. xvii. 10. " Misc. Works, vol. i. 
 
254 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 thoughts of his readers, had connected some of the noblest 
 names of history with rural labours. Curius and Cin- 
 cinnatus were called from the plough to defend and save 
 their country ; and after their task was performed they 
 returned with delight to it again. Cato, the representative 
 of the old and respected generation, and other illustrious 
 men, had written on the pursuits and duties of rural Hfe. 
 Agriculture was never connected vpith ideas of debasing 
 and iUiberal gain, such as attached to trade and commerce. 
 The poet, moreover, had a model ready at hand, after 
 which to construct his work. It was Greek, and there- 
 fore sure to be acceptable upon the recognized principles 
 of taste. It described a species of rural life, hard, frugal, 
 and iudustrious, very much like that led by the agripul- 
 turists of Italy. It painted a standard of morals, which 
 even the Hcentious inhabitants of a luxurious capital could 
 appreciate, though they had degenerated from it. The 
 discriminatiug judgment of Virgil saw that the rural Hfe 
 of Italy could really be represented, in the same way in 
 which Hesiod had painted that of Bceotia, and he wisely 
 determined — 
 
 To sing through Roman towns Ascraean strains. 
 
 There exists, however, precisely that difference between 
 the Greorgics of Virgil and their model that might be ex- 
 pected. The Hesiodic poem belongs to a period when 
 poetry was the accidental form — ^instruction the essential 
 object ; and, therefore, the teaching is systematic, precise, 
 detailed, homely, sometimes coarse and unpoHshed. Vir^ 
 looks at his subject from the poetical point of view. His 
 precepts are often put, not in a didactic but a descriptive 
 form ; they are unhesitatingly interrupted by digressions 
 and episodes, more or less to the point ; and out of a vast 
 mass of materials such only are selected as are suitable to 
 awaken the sensibilities. 
 
 The state of Italy also contributed to enlist a poet's 
 
CONDITION OF ITALY. 255 
 
 sympathies in favour of the niral classes, and to devote 
 his pen to the patriotic task of reviving the old agricul- 
 tural tastes. War had devastated the land ; the peasant 
 popidation had been fearfully thinned by nuHtary con- 
 scriptions and confiscation ; wide districts had been de- 
 populated and left destitute of cultivation. Instead of 
 the sword being beat into a ploughshare and the spear 
 into a pruning-hook, the ItaHan peasant had witnessed 
 the contrary state of things. The poet laments the sad 
 change which now disfigured the fair face of Italy : — 
 
 nou ullus aratro 
 DignuB tonos, squalent abductis arva colonis, 
 Et ourvsB rigidum falces oonflantur in ensem. 
 
 Geo. i. 507. 
 
 The credit of having proposed this subject to Virgil is 
 given to his patron Maecenas ; and to him, consequently, 
 the Georgics are addressed : but the poet doubtless gladly 
 adopted the suggestion. When and where it was com- 
 menced is uncertain, but the finishing stroke was put to 
 it at Naples^ some time after the battle of Actium.^ Al- 
 though the " Works and Days " of Hesiod is professedly 
 his pattern, still he derives his materials from other 
 sources. Aratus supphes him with his sighs of the 
 weather, and the writers de Re Rustica with his prac- 
 tical directions. His system is indeed perfectly Itahan ; 
 so much so, that many of his rules may be traced in 
 modem Italian husbandry, just as the descriptions of 
 implements in Hesiod are fi-equently found to agree with 
 those in use in modern Greece. 
 
 ' The first book treats of tillage, the second of orchards ; 
 the subject of the third, which is the noblest and most 
 spirited of them, is the care of horses and cattle ; and the 
 fourth, which is the most pleasing and interesting, de- 
 scribes the natural instincts as well as the management 
 of bees. 
 
 ' G. iv. 660—564. ' G. ii. 171. 
 
256 EOMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 But the great merit of the deorgics consists in their 
 varied digressions, interesting episodes, and subHme 
 bursts of descriptive vigour, which are interspersed 
 throughout the poem. To quote any of them would be 
 imnecessary, as Virgil and his translations are in every- 
 one's hands. It will be sufficient to enumerate some of 
 the most striking. These are — 
 
 I. The Origin of Agriculture, G. i. 125. 
 II. The Storm in Harvest, i. 316. 
 
 III. The Signs of the Weather, i. 351. 
 
 IV. The Prodigies at the Death of Julius Caesar, 
 
 I. 466. 
 V. The Battle of Pharsalia, i., 489. 
 VI. The Panegyric on Italy, ii., 136. 
 VII. The Praises of a Country Life, ii., 458. 
 VIII. The Horse and Chariot Eace, iii., 103. 
 
 IX. The Description of Winter in Scythia, iii., 349. 
 
 X. The Murrain of Cattle, iii., 478. 
 XI. The Battle of the Bees, iv., 67. 
 
 XII. The Story of Aristaeus, iv., 317. 
 XIII. The Legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, iv., 453. 
 
 Eoman poetry was more generally understood and 
 more diUgently studied in the most poHshed days of 
 Enghsh hterature, than the yet scarcely discovered stores 
 of Greek learning. Want of originality was not con- 
 sidered a blemish in an age the taste of which, notwith- 
 standing all its merits, was very artificial ; whilst the ex- 
 quisite polish and elegance which constitute the charm of 
 Latin poetry, recommended it both for admiration and 
 imitation. Hence Enghsh poets have been deeply in- 
 debted to the Eomans for their most happy thoughts, and 
 our native hterature is largely imbued with a Virgihan 
 and Horatian spirit. This circumstance adds an especial 
 interest to a survey of Eoman hterature as the fountain 
 from which welled forth so many of the streams that have 
 
THE iENEIiy. 257 
 
 fertilized our poetry. The Greorgics have been frequently 
 tak6n as a model for imitation, and our descriptive poets 
 have drawn largely from this source. Warton* con- 
 sidered Philips' " Cyder" the happiest imitation ; and 
 " The Seasons" of our greatest descriptive poet, 
 Thomson, is a thoroughly Virgihan poem. Many 
 striking instances of Virgihan taste might be adduced, 
 especially the thunderstorm in " Summer," and the 
 praises of Great Britain, in " Autumn." 
 
 From the letter already quoted as preserved by Ma- 
 crobius, it is clear that the -lEneid was commenced when 
 Augustus was in Spain,^ that it occupied the whole of 
 VirgU's subsequent Ufe, and was not sufficiently corrected 
 to satisfy his own fastidious taste when he died. Au- 
 gustus intrusted its pubhcation to Varius and Tucca, 
 with strict instructions to abstain from interpolation. 
 They are said to have transposed the second and third 
 books, and to have omitted twenty-two hnes^ as being 
 contradictory to another passage respecting Helen in the 
 sixth book.* Hence in many early manuscripts these 
 verses are wanting. 
 
 The idea and plan of the ^neid are derived from the 
 Homeric poems. As the wrath of AchiUes is the main- 
 spring of aU the events in the Ihad, so on the anger of 
 the offended Juno the unity of the ^neid depends, and 
 with it all the incidents are connected. Many of the 
 most splendid passages, picturesque images, and forcible 
 epithets are imitations or even translations from the ■ 
 IKad and Odyssey. The war with Tumus owes its 
 grandeur and its interest to the IHad — the wanderings of 
 ^neas, their wild and romantic adventures to the Odyssey. 
 Virgil's battles, though not to be compared in point of 
 vigour with those of Homer, shine with a reflected light. 
 
 ' See Dunlop, H. of R. h. Hi. s- v. Virg. " b. c. 27. 
 
 ' ^n. ii. 567— 589. •* Ibid. vi. 511. 
 
 S 
 
258 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 His Necyia is a copy of that in the Odyssey. His 
 similes are most of them suggested by those favourite 
 embellishments of Homer. The shield of -lEneas' is an 
 imitation of that of Achilles. The storm and the speech 
 of ^Eneas'' are almost translations from the Odyssey.^ 
 
 The thoughts thus borrowed from the great heroic 
 poems of Greece, Virgil interwove with that ingenuity 
 which distinguishes the Augustan school by means of the 
 double character in which he represented his hero. The 
 narrative of his perils by sea and land were enriched by 
 the marvellous incidents of the Odyssey ; his wars which 
 occupy the latter books had their prototype in the Ihad. 
 Greek tragedy, also, which depicted so frequently the 
 subsequent fortunes of the Greek chieftaias,* — the nu- 
 merous translations which had employed the genius of 
 Ennius, Attius, and Pacuvius — were a rich mine of poetic 
 wealth. The second book, which is almost too crowded 
 with a rapid succession of pathetic incidents, derived its 
 interesting details — ^the untimely fate of Astyanax, the 
 loss of Oreusa, the story of Sinon, the legend of the 
 wooden horse, the death of the aged Priam, the subsequent 
 fortunes of Helen — ^from two Cychc poems, the Sack of 
 Troy and the Httle Ihad of Arctinus. For the legend of 
 Laocoon he was indebted to the Alexandrian poet, 
 Euphorion. The class of Cyclic poems entitled the 
 voarol suggested much of the third book, especially the 
 stories of Pyrrhus, Helenus, and Andromache. The 
 fourth drew its fairy enchantments partly from Homer's 
 Calypso, partly from the love adventures of Jason, 
 Medea, and HypsypUe in the Argonautica of the Alex- 
 andrian poet, ApoUonius Rhodius, which had been iatro- 
 duced to the Romans by the translation of Varro. 
 
 The sixth is suggested by the eleventh book of iiie 
 Odyssey and the descent of Theseus in search of Pirithous 
 
 ' ^En. viii. 626. ^ Ibid. i. » Book v. ■■ Macrob. Saturn, v. 13. 
 
VIEGIL INDEBTED TO OLD LATIN POETS. 259 
 
 in the Hesiodic poems. But notwithstanding the force 
 and originality — the vivid word-painting which adorns this 
 book — it is far inferior to the conceptions which Greek 
 genius formed of the unseen world. In the ^neid the 
 legends of the world of spirits seem but vulgar marvels 
 and popular illusions. Tartarus and Elysium are too 
 palpable and material to be believed; their distinctness 
 dispels the enchantment which they were intended to 
 produce ; it is daylight instead of dim shadow. We 
 miss the outlines, which seem gigantic from their dim and 
 shadowy nature, the appalling grandeur to which no one 
 since ^Eschylus ever attained, except the great Italian 
 poet who has never since been equalled. 
 
 To this rich store of Greek learning Italy contributed 
 her native legends. The adventures of ^neas in Italy — 
 the prophecy, of which the fulfilment was discovered by 
 lulus — the pregnant white sow— the story of the Sibyl — 
 the sylph-like Camilla — were native lays amalgamated 
 with the Grreek legend of Troy. Macrobius,^ in three 
 elaborate chapters, has shown that Virgil was deeply 
 indebted to the old Latin poets. In the first he quotes 
 more than seventy parallel turns of expression from 
 Ennius, Pacuvius, Attius, Nsevius, Lucilius, Lucretius, 
 CatuUus, and Varius, consisting of whole or half lines. 
 In the second he enumerates twenty-six longer passages, 
 which Virgil has imitated from the poems of Ennius, 
 Attius, Lucretius, and Varius, amongst which are por- 
 tions of "The Praises of Eural Life," and of "The 
 Pestilence."^ In the third he mentions a few (amongst 
 them, for example, the weU-known description of the 
 horse^) which were taken by Virgil from the old Eoman 
 poets, having been first adopted by them from the 
 Homeric poems. The following passages are a few of 
 
 ' Saturn, vi. 1, 2, 3. , „ .. 
 
 » Compare De Nat. Rer. ii. 24 ; vi. 136, 1143-1224; with Georg. u 461, 
 467, &c. ; iii. 478, 505, 609, &o. ' Iliad, Z. 506 ; Ma. xi. 492, 
 
260 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 these examples, of what would in modern times be con- 
 sidered plagiarisms, but which the ancients admitted 
 without reluctance : — 
 
 Qui coelum versat stellia fulgentibus aptum. Ennius. 
 
 Axem huinero torquet stellis fulgentibus aptum. 
 
 V. Mn. vi. 797. 
 
 Est locus Hesperiam quam mortales perhibebant. 
 
 Est locus Hesperiam Graii cognomine dicunt. 
 
 JEn. i. 530. 
 
 Unus homo nobis ounotando restituit rem. 
 
 Unus qui nobis ounotando restituis rem. ^n. vi. 846. 
 
 Quod per amoenam urbem leni fluit agmine flumen. 
 
 arva 
 
 Inter opima virum leni fluit agmine Tybris. 
 
 ^n. ii. 781. 
 
 Hei mihi qualis erat quantum mutatus ab illo. 
 Hei mihi qualis erat quantum mutatus ab illo. 
 
 JEn. ii. 274. 
 
 discordia tetra 
 
 Belli ferratos postes portasque refregit. 
 
 Belli ferratos rupit Satumia postes. ^n. vi. 622. 
 
 The variety of incidents, the consummate skill in the 
 arrangement of them, the interest which pervades both 
 the plot and the episodes, fuUy compensate for the want 
 of originality — a defect of which none but learned readers 
 would be aware. What sweeter specimens can be found 
 of tender pathos than the legend of Camilla, and the 
 episode of Nisus and Euryalus ? where is the turbulence 
 of uncurbed passions united with womanly unselfish 
 fondness, and queen-Hke generosity, painted with a more 
 masterly hand than in the character of Dido ? Where, 
 even in the Ihad, are characters better sustained and 
 more happily contrasted than the weak Latinus, the 
 soldier-like Turnus, the simple-minded Evander, the 
 feminine and retiring Lavinia, the barbarian Mezentius, 
 who to the savageness of a wild beast joined the natural 
 instinct, which warmed with the strongest affection for 
 
CHARACTER OP ^NEAS. 261 
 
 his son. The only character of which the conception is 
 somewhat unsatisfactory is that of the hero himself: 
 ^neas, notwithstanding his many virtues, fails of com- 
 manding the reader's sympathy or admiration. He is 
 fuU of faith in the providence of Grod, submits liimself 
 with entire resignation to His divine will — ^is brave, 
 patient, dutiful — but he is cold and heartless, and, if the 
 expression is allowable, unchivaLrous. In his war with 
 Turnus, he is so decidedly in the wrong, and the cha- 
 racter of his injured adversary shines with such lustre 
 and is adorned with such gallantry, that one is inchned 
 to transfer to him the interest and sympathy which 
 ought to be felt for the hero alone. This is undoubtedly 
 a fault, but it is counterbalanced by innumerable excel- 
 lences. 
 
 In personification, nothing is finer than Virgil's por- 
 traiture of Fame, except perhaps Spenser's Despair. In 
 description, the same genius which shone forth in the 
 Georgics, embeUishes the ^neid also; and both the 
 objects and the phenomena of nature are represented in 
 language equally vivid and striking. 
 
 Notwithstanding the question has been much dis- 
 cussed, it is most probable that the opinion of Pope 
 was correct respecting the pohtical object of the ^neid. 
 He affirmed that it was as much a party -piece as Dryden's 
 Absalom and Achitophel ; that its primary object was to 
 increase the popularity of Augustus ; its secondary one 
 to flatter the vanity of his countrymen by the splendour 
 and antiquity of their origin. Augustus is evidently 
 typified under the character of ^neas : both were cautious 
 and wise in council, both were free from the perturbations 
 of passion ; they were cold, unfeehng, and uninteresting. 
 Their wisdom and their poUcy were calculating and 
 worldly-minded. Augustus was conscious, as his last 
 
 ' Spence's Anecdotes. 
 
2()2 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 words show, that he was acting a part ; and the contrast 
 between the sentiments and conduct of ^neas, wherever 
 the warm impulses of affection might be supposed to have 
 sway, hkewise create an impression of insincerity. The 
 characteristic virtue which adorns the hero of the Mneid, 
 as the epithet " Pius " so constantly appHed to him 
 impHes, was fihal piety ; and there was no virtue which 
 Augustus more ostentatiously put forward than dutiful 
 affection to Julius Caesar who had adopted him. 
 
 Other characters which are grouped around the central 
 figure are allegorical likewise — Cleopatra is boldly sketched 
 as Dido, the passionate victim of unrequited love. Both 
 displayed the noble, generous qualities, and at the same 
 time the uncontrolled self-will of a woman, who neither 
 had nor would acknowledge any master except the object 
 of her affections : the fortunes of both were similar, for 
 their brothers had become their bitterest enemies, and 
 the fate of both alike was suicide. 
 
 Turnus, whose character, as has been already stated, 
 is far more chivalrous and attractive than that of -^neas, 
 probably represented the popular Antony ; and as the 
 latter violated the peace ratified at Brundisium and 
 Tarentum, so the former is represented as treacherous to 
 his engagements with jEneas. It has even been thought, 
 and the view has been supported by many ingenious 
 arguments, that lapis is a portrait of the physician of 
 Augustus.' 
 
 Virgil is especially skilful in that species of imitation 
 
 which consists in the appropriate choice of words, and the 
 
 assimilation of the sound to the sense. A series of dac- 
 
 tyles expresses the rapid speed of horses, and the stUl 
 
 more rapid flight of time : — 
 
 Quadrupedante putrem Sonitu quatit ungula campum. 
 
 .Ml. viii. 591. 
 
 Sed fugit interea fugit irreparabile tempus. Geo. iii. 284. 
 ' See, on this subject, Dunlop's Hist. iii. 151. 
 
IMITATIONS OP SOUND. 2G3 
 
 Dignity and majesty are represented by an unusual use 
 of spondees : — 
 
 , quae Divum incedo regina. ^n. i. 50. 
 
 penatibus et magnis Dis. -lEre. viii. 679. 
 
 Accelerated motion by a corresponding change of 
 metre : — 
 
 jamjam lapsura cadentique 
 
 Imminet assimilis ^«. vi. 602. 
 
 Effort by a hiatus : — 
 
 Ter sunt conati imponere Pelio Ossam. 
 
 Abruptness, or the fall of a heavy body, by a mono- 
 syllable : — 
 
 Insequitur oumulo prseruptus aqusB mons. ^©i. i. 109. 
 procumbit humi bos. ^n. v. 481. 
 
 Many other examples might be adduced' of that which, 
 if it were an artifice, would be a very pleasing one, but 
 which rather proceeds from the natural impulses of a 
 lively fancy and a delicately-attuned ear. 
 
 Dunlop has weU observed, that Virgil's descriptions 
 are more like landscape-paiating than any by his pre- 
 decessors, whether Greek or Eoman, and that it is a 
 remarkable fact that landscape-paiating was first intro- 
 duced in his time. Pliny, in his Natural History,^ informs 
 us that Ludius, who flourished in the hfe-time of 
 Augustus, invented the most dehghtful style of painting, 
 compositions introducing porticoes, gardens, groves, hills, 
 fish-ponds, rivers, and other pleasing objects, enhvened 
 by carriages, animals, and figures. Thus, perhaps, art 
 inspired poetry. 
 
 No one has ever attempted to disparage the reputation 
 of Virgil as holding the highest rank amongst Eoman 
 poets, except the Emperor Caligula, J. Markland, and the 
 
 ' See Clarke's Homer, II. iii. 363, note. ° H. N. xxxv. 10. 
 
264 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 great historian Niebuhr. The latter does not hesitate to 
 say that the flourishing period of Roman poetry ceased 
 about the time of the deaths of Csesar and Cicero.' 
 Doubtless Eoman national poetry then ceased, and was 
 succeeded by the new era of Grreek taste ; but still the 
 poems of the new school were equally majestic and 
 pathetic, and, though less natural, owed to their Greek 
 originals incomparably greater pohsh, grace, and sweet- 
 ness. 
 
 It is difficult to understand the low opinion which 
 Niebuhr entertained of Virgil, and the superiority which 
 he attributes to Catullus. He not only declares that he 
 is opposed to the adoration with which the later Eomans 
 regarded him, but he denies his fertihty of genius and 
 inventive powers. Although he acknowledges that the 
 ^neid contains many exquisite passages, he pronounces 
 it a complete failure, an unhappy idea from beginning to 
 end. It is evident that he looked at the Mneid. with the 
 eye of an historian, and that his objections to it were 
 entirely of an historical character. 
 
 Wrapped up in Eoman nationality and Italian tradi- 
 tions, he did not forgive Virgil for adulterating this pure 
 source of antiquarian information with Grreek legends. 
 He assumes, correctly enough, that an epic poem, in 
 order to be successful, must be a living narrative of 
 events known and interesting to the mass of a nation, and 
 at the same time confesses that, whilst the ancient Italian 
 traditions had already fallen into oblivion. Homer was at 
 that time better known than Nsevius. Surely, then, if 
 Virgil had drawn from Italian sources exclusively, he 
 would have omitted much that would have added interest 
 to his poem in the opinion of his hearers, and would not 
 have comphed with the epic conditions which Niebuhr 
 himself lays down. Besides, if the traditions of Nievius 
 
 ' Lect. cvi on R. H. 
 
CKITICISM OF NIEBUHR. 265 
 
 were Italian, were not many of the Greek and Italian 
 traditions which form the framework of the ^neid iden- 
 tical ? Naevius must have drawn largely from the Cyclic 
 poems ; and Niebuhr allows that Virgil copied these parts 
 of his poem from Nsevius.' He asserts his conviction 
 that Virgil's shield of ^neas had its model in Nsevius, 
 in whose poem ^neas or some other hero had a shield 
 representing the wars of the giants ; and yet no one can 
 doubt that the shield of Nsevius must have been suggested 
 by the Homeric and Hesiodic poems. Servius also 
 believed that Virgil borrowed from the poem of Naevius 
 the plan of the early books of the ..^neid. ^ 
 
 Some of Virgil's minor poems are undoubtedly very 
 beautiftd. ;' but it is absurd to say that even the greatest 
 elegance in fugitive pieces of such a stamp can outshine 
 the noble and sublime passages interwoven throughout 
 the whole structure of the ^Eneid. The dispraise of 
 Niebuhr is as exaggerated as the fulsome compliment 
 paid by Propertius to the genius of his fellow-country- 
 man : — 
 
 Oedite, Romani scriptores, oedite Graii, 
 Nescio quid majus nasoitur Iliade. 
 
 Eleg. ii. 27. 
 
 ' Introd. Lect. iv. ° Serv. ad .En. i. 98 ; ii. 797 ; iii- 10. 
 
 » Meyer, Anthol. 85, 93, &c. 
 
266 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE UBEBTINI — ROMAN FEELINGS AS TO COMMERCE — BIRTH 
 AND INFANCY OF HORACE — HIS EARLY EDUCATION AT ROME 
 — HIS MILITARY CAREER — HE RETURNS TO ROME — IS INTRO- 
 DUCED TO M^CENAS — COMMENCES THE SATIRES — MAECENAS 
 GIVES HIM HIS SABINE FARM — HIS COUNTRY LIFE — THE 
 EPODES — EPISTLES — CARMEN SECULARE — ILLNESS AND DEATH. 
 
 HoRATius Flaccus (born B. C. 65). 
 
 Ltric poetry is the most subjective of all poetry, and the 
 musician of the Eoman lyre^ was the most subjective of 
 all Latin poets : hence a complete sketch of his life and 
 delineation of his character may be deduced from his 
 works. They contain the elements of an autobiography ; 
 and, whilst they constitute the most authentic source of 
 information, convey the particulars in the most lively and 
 engaging form. 
 
 At the period of Horace's birth, the Lihertini, or freed- 
 men, were rapidly rising in wealth, and, therefore, in 
 position. The Eoman constitution excluded the senato- 
 rial order from commercial pursuits, and would not even 
 permit them to own vessels of any considerable burden, 
 lest they should be made use of in trade. The old 
 Eoman feeling was even more exclusive than the law. 
 There were certain trades in which not only none who 
 had any pretensions to the rank of a gentleman, but 
 even no one who was free-born could engage without 
 degradation. Cicero^ considers that money-lending, ma- 
 
 Od. IV. iii. 23. * De Off. i. 42. 
 
ROMAN FEELINGS AS TO COMMERCE. 267 
 
 nufactures, retail trade, especially in delicacies which 
 minister to the appetite, are all sordid and ilhberal. He 
 does not even allow that the professions of medicine 
 and architecture are honourable, except to such as are of 
 suitable rank. Agriculture is the only method of money- 
 making which he pronounces to be without any doubt 
 worthy of free-bom men. 
 
 Devoted to the duties of public hfe either as soldiers 
 or citizens, the Eomans did not comprehend the dignity 
 of labour. High-minded and unselfish as it may appear 
 to think meanly of employments imdertaken simply for 
 the sake of profit and lucre, the political result of this 
 pride was unmixed evil. Commerce was thus thrown 
 into the hands of those whose fathers had been slaves, and 
 who themselves inherited and possessed the usual vices of 
 a slavish disposition. 
 
 The middle classes were impoverished, and, as the un- 
 avoidable consequence of a system in which social position 
 depended upon property, were rapidly sinking into the 
 lowest ranks of the population. Here then was a gap to 
 be filled up — the question was by what means? Had 
 Eoman feeling permitted the free-bom citizen to devote 
 his energies to labour and the creation of capital, he 
 would have risen in the social scale, would have occupied 
 the place left vacant, and would have brought with him 
 those sentiments of chivalrous freedom which there can 
 be no doubt distinguished Rome in earher times, and ad- 
 vanced her in the scale of nations. Thus the circulation 
 would have been complete and healthy, and the national 
 system would have received fresh life and vigour in its 
 most important part. Instead of this, however, slaves 
 and the sons of slaves rose to wealth : not such slaves as 
 those who, well educated and occupying a high or, at 
 least, a respectable position in the conquered Greek 
 states, were appreciated by their conquerors, became their 
 friends and intimates, because of their worth and intellec- 
 
268 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 tual acquirements, imbued their masters with their own 
 refinement and taste, and were intrusted with the educa- 
 tion of their children, but slaves who had formed the 
 masses of degraded nations. These were driven in hordes 
 to Eome. They swarmed in all the states of Italy and 
 Sicily. Many of them were not deficient in ability and 
 energy, and therefore they rose ; but they had httle or no 
 moral principle. Their children intermarried with the 
 lower classes of the citizens ; their blood infected that of 
 the higher European races which flowed in their veins ; and 
 thus the masses of Eome became a mixed race, but not 
 mixed for the better. The character changed ; but it 
 changed because the old race had perished, and a new 
 race with new characteristics occupied its place. 
 
 Under such circumstances, the Libertini became a 
 powerful and important class, both socially and pohtically : 
 they were the bankers, merchants, and tradesmen of 
 Eome. 
 
 Of this class, the father of Horace was one of the most 
 respectable. His business was that of a coactor, or agent 
 who collected the money from purchasers of goods at 
 public auctions. He was a man of strict integrity, 
 content with his position, and would not have thought 
 himself disgraced if his son had followed his own 
 calling.^ He had made by his industry a small fortune, 
 sufficient to purchase an estate near Yenusia (Yenosa), 
 on the confines of Lucania and Apuha, but not sufficient 
 to free him from the appellation of " a poor man."* 
 
 Here, on the 8th of December (vi*" id. Decembr.), 
 B.C. 65, Q. Horatius Elaccus was bom ; and on the banks 
 of the obstreperous Aufidus,^ the roar of whose waters 
 could be heard far off,* Horace passed his infant years, 
 and played and wandered in that picturesque neigh- 
 
 ' Sat. I. vi. 86. " Ibid. I. vi. 71. ' Od. III. xxx. 10. 
 
 ' Ibid. IV. ix. 2. 
 
INFANCY OF HORACE. 269 
 
 bourhood. The natural beauties" amidst which he was 
 nursed, probably did much to form and foster his poetic 
 tastes. He himself relates, in one of his finest odes,^ an 
 adventure which befel him in his childhood, and which 
 reminds the reader of the beautiful nursery baUad of the 
 Children in the Wood : — 
 
 Me fabulosse Vulture in Appulo 
 Altricia extra Kmen Apulise 
 Ludo fatigatumque somno 
 Fronde nova puerum palumbes 
 
 Texere (mirum quod foret omnibus, 
 Quicumque celsee nidum Aoherontise, 
 Saltusque Bantinos, et arvum 
 Pingue teuent humilis Ferenti), 
 
 Ut tuto ab atris corpore viperia 
 Dormirem et ursis ; ut premerer sacra 
 Lauroque coUataque myrto 
 Non sine Dis animoBus infans. 
 
 Fatigued with sleep and youthful toil of play, 
 When on a mountain's brow reclined I lay. 
 Near to my natal soil, around my head 
 The fabled woodland doves a verdant foliage spread ; 
 
 Matter, be sure, of wonder most profound 
 To all the gazing habitants around, 
 Who dwell in Acherontia's airy glades. 
 Amid the Bantian woods, or low Ferentum's meads, 
 
 By snakes of poison black and beasts of prey, 
 That thus in dewy sleep unharmed I lay ; 
 Laurels and myrtle were around me piled. 
 Not without guardian gods, an animated child. 
 
 Francis. 
 
 He remained amongst his native mountains untU his 
 eleventh or twelfth year, when his father, wisely wishing 
 to secure for him the benefits of a liberal education, 
 which the neighbouring village school of Flavins did not 
 furnish, removed with him to Eome.^ Thus he quitted 
 Venusia for ever, of which place many passages in his 
 works prove that he retained very vivid recollections.^ 
 
 ' Od. III. iv. 9. ' Sat. I. vi. 71. 
 
 ' See ex. gr. Ep. II. 41 ; Od. III. vi. 37 ; Sat. II. ii. 112. 
 
270 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 At Eome he was placed under the instruction of 
 OrbUius PupiUus, a grammarian, who had been formerly 
 in the army, and had migrated from Beneventum to the 
 capital. He was celebrated as a schoolmaster, but still 
 more for his severity, for he was commonly called the 
 flogging OrbiUus (Plagosus OrbiUus).' With him, 
 young Horace read in his own language the poems of 
 Livius Andronicus and Ennius ; and in the Grreek, the 
 Iliad of Homer, whose divine poetry he soon learnt to 
 enjoy." 
 
 Whilst his father took this care of his intellectual 
 education, he enabled him by dress and a retinue of slaves 
 to associate on terms of equality with boys far above him 
 in rank and station -^ and, what was still more important, 
 he kept him under his own roof, and thus secured for his 
 son the benefits of home influences, sage and prudent 
 advice, and the watchful care of the parental eye.* For his 
 father's Hberality, good example, and constant attention, 
 Horace expresses the deepest gratitude,^ and to him he 
 acknowledges himself indebted for all the good points of 
 his character. The practical nature of this indulgent 
 and devoted father's instruction — ^how he delighted to 
 teach by example rather than by precept — is simply told 
 by Horace himself^ in one of his satires. 
 
 Before he arrived at man's estate, it is probable that 
 he lost his wise adviser, for he never mentions his father 
 except in connexion with the years of his boyhood. 
 Perhaps this is the reason why, in his earher poetry, his 
 genial freedom so often degenerated into licentiousness, 
 and his love of pleasure tempted him to adopt the dis- 
 solute manners of a corrupt age. His moral sense was 
 accurate and just— he could see what was useful and ap- 
 prove it ; he could censure the vices of his contemporaries — 
 
 ' Ep. II. i. 70. * Ibid. ii. 41. ' Sat. I. vi. 76. 
 
 " Ibid. vi. ' Ibid. vi. « Ibid. iv. 103. 
 
MILITARY CAREER OF HORACE. 271 
 
 but he had lost that wise counsel which had hitherto 
 preserved him pure. 
 
 Athens was at that period the University of Eome. 
 Thither the Roman youth resorted to learn language, 
 art, science, and philosophy : — 
 
 Inter sylvas Aoademi quserere verum.' 
 To seek for truth in Academic groves. 
 
 Horace commenced his residence there at a great 
 political crisis, and the pohtics of Rome created a vivid 
 interest in the young students at Athens. He had not 
 lived there long, when JuHus Caesar was assassinated ; and 
 many of his feUow-students, as was natural to youthful 
 and ardent minds, zealously embraced the republican 
 party. Horace, now twenty-two years of age, joined the 
 army of Brutus, and served under him until the battle of 
 Philippi in the rank of a mihtary tribune.^ He must 
 have already become distinguished, since nothing but 
 merit could have recommended the son of a freedman to 
 Brutus for so high a military command. But the event 
 proved that he had sadly mistaken his vocation, for he 
 was totally unfit for the position either of an officer or a 
 soldier. 
 
 With the rest of the vanquished he fled from the field 
 of Philippi ; and in a beautifal and affectionate ode* 
 to Pompeius "Varus, he confesses that he even threw 
 away his shield ; nor was he one of those who rallied, 
 although his friend was carried back again into the 
 bloody conflict by the tide of war. So at any rate he 
 himself tells the story. It may have been, however, that 
 his vanity prompted him to pretend a resemblance in 
 this respect to his favourite Alcseus, or perhaps, he wished 
 to address a piece of courtly flattery to the conqueror. 
 Varus was one of his earliest friends : together they had 
 spent days of study and of festivity ; and when troublous 
 
 ' Ep. II. ii. 43. ' Sat. I. vi. = Od. II. vii. 
 
272 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 times had separated them, nothing can exceed the wild 
 and tumidtuous joy with which Horace looks forward to 
 a reunion with his friend. 
 
 On his return to Borne he found that his father was 
 dead, and his patrimony confiscated.' In order to obtain 
 a HveHhood, he purchased a clerk's place under the 
 quaestor.* For its duties he must have been totally unfit, 
 for he hated business^ and loved pleasure and literary 
 ease. But on the income of this ofi&ce, and the kindness 
 of his friends, he lived a life of frugality and poverty.* 
 It is possible that even then he gained some profit from 
 his poems, for he-says,^ "Audacious poverty drove me to 
 write verses." Perhaps when he became more prosperous, 
 he resigned his place, for he does not mention it in the 
 account he gives to Maecenas of the usual daily avocations 
 of his careless and sauntering Hfe.* 
 
 Soon, however, his fortunes began to brighten. His 
 talents recommended him, when about twenty-four years 
 of age, to VirgU and Varius.'' They were then the leading 
 poets at Eome ; and Maecenas, the pohshed but somewhat 
 effeminate friend of Augustus, was the powerful patron 
 of genius and the head of hterary society. These two 
 poets were warmly attached to Horace, whose affection 
 for them was equally strong,^ and to them he owed his 
 introduction to the favourite of the emperor.® He felt 
 rather timid at the interview: Maecenas spoke to him 
 with his usual reserved and curt manner, took no notice 
 of him for nine months, and then sent for him and en- 
 rolled him in the number of his friends. Thenceforth 
 Horace enjoyed uninterruptedly his friendship and 
 intimacy — of the affectionate nature of which many 
 evidences may be found in those poetical pieces which 
 Horace addressed to him. 
 
 ' Ep, II. ii. 49. " Suet, in Vita. ' Ep. II. liv. 17. 
 
 " Sat. I. vL 114. » Ep, II. ii. 51. « Sat. I. vi. 
 
 ' B. c. 41. » Sat. I. V. 39. » Ibid. vi. 55. 
 
HORACE BEGINS THE SATIRES. 273 
 
 As Maecenas rose in influence and favour with Au- 
 gustus, he also procured the advancement of his friend. 
 When he was sent by Augustus on the deUcate mission 
 of effecting a reconciliation with Anthony, Horace ac- 
 companied him ;^ and it is not impossible that his ship- 
 wreck off Cape Palinurus occurred when he was sailing 
 with Mgecenas on his expedition against S. Pompey. 
 
 At this period of his life he commenced the composition 
 of his first book of Satires.^ The knowledge of human 
 life which he had begun to acquire when he lived, as it 
 were, upon the town, and became acquainted with the 
 manners, habits, and modes of thinking of the masses, 
 was "afterwards cultivated, refined, and matured by inter- 
 course with the best literary society: His observant 
 mind found ample materials for satire at the table of the 
 courtly Maecenas, and amidst the brilliant circle by which 
 he was surrounded. In this, his first publication, he also 
 introduces himself to the reader's notice, draws a hvely 
 picture of his youth, and describes the life which was 
 congenial to his tastes, and which his change of circum- 
 stances permitted him to lead. 
 
 But it must not be supposed that he wrote nothing at 
 that time except satire. Some of his odes, which display 
 the strength of youthful passions and the loosest mo- 
 rality, were probably written as separate fugitive pieces, 
 and circtdated privately amongst his friends. The ode 
 to Canidia narrates a circumstance in the early part 
 of his poetical career. The Epodes breathe the spirit of 
 the satirist rather than of the lyric poet ; and therefore the 
 coarsest of them^ also, may belong to the same period,* 
 although the book which bears that name was not com- 
 
 ' Sat. I. V. 
 
 » According to Bentley, he composed them in the twenty-sixth, twenty- 
 seventh, and twenty-eighth years of his age ; according to Clinton, in the 
 twenty-fifth, twenty-sixth, and twenty-seventh. 
 
 " Ex. gr. viii. xi. xii. * See Od. I. 16. 22. 
 
 T 
 
274 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 pleted and published as a whole until some years subse- 
 quently. 
 
 The bitterness of some of the Epodes is more suitable 
 to his years of adversity, and the hard struggles by 
 which the temper is soured, than to that life of ease and 
 comfort which patronage enabled him to lead. Then his 
 temper resumed its wonted placidity, whilst his moral 
 taste was refined ; his Archilochian iambics became less 
 cutting, and his ideas less gross ; personal invective was 
 laid aside, and his indignation was only aroused by the 
 prospect of poHtical troubles and the horrors of civil com- 
 motions. 
 
 Maecenas accompanied his friendship with substantial 
 favours. He gave him, or procured for him by his 
 influence, the pubHc grant of his Sabine farm. It was 
 situated in a beautiful valley near Digentia (Licenza). 
 Being about fifteen miles from Tibur (Tivoh), it was suf- 
 ficiently near the capital to suit the fickle poet, who when 
 there often regretted the luxury, and gossip, and bril- 
 hant society of Eome, and, when at Eome, sighed for the 
 fiTigal table, the quiet retirement, the rural employment 
 of his country abode. The rapid alternation of town and 
 country life, which the possession of this estate enabled 
 Horace to enjoy, gives a pecuhar charm to his poetry. 
 The scene is ever changing : his mind reflects the tenor 
 of his life ; simple pictures of rural life, and the elegant 
 refinements of polished society, relieve one another, and 
 prevent dulness and satiety. The property was neither 
 extensive nor fertile, but it was sufficient for his mode- 
 rate wants and wishes, which are so beautifoUy expressed 
 in his sixth Satire — a poem which has found many modem 
 imitators. 
 
 At Eome, Horace occupied a house on the pleasant and 
 healthful heights of the Esqmline. Here he resided 
 during the winter and spring, with the exception of occa- 
 sional sojourns at Baise, or other places of fashionable 
 
HIS COUNTRY LIFE. 275 
 
 resort, on the southern coast of Italy. Summer and 
 autumn he passed at his Sabine farm, where he was a 
 great favourite with his simple neighbours, and where he 
 found all that he ever wished for, and even more. 
 
 Modus agri non ita magnus, 
 Hortus ubi, et teoto vicinus jugis aqiise fons, 
 Et paulum sUtbb super his.' 
 
 He coveted not his neighbour's field,^ even though it dis- 
 figured his own. He never prayed that chance might 
 throw in his way a buried vase of silver.* The calm of 
 his hfe contrasted favourably with the homdred affairs — 
 not so much his own as of other people — which tormented 
 him at Eome ;* the importunities of his friends that he 
 would use his influence in their behalf with Maecenas ;° 
 the growing envy to which his good fortune subjected 
 him :° his only cares were to store up provisions for his 
 frugal maintenance during the year,' so that he might 
 Hve in sweet forgetfulness of how he Uved.^ His days 
 were divided between the books of the aacients,* the phi- 
 losophy of Plato, and the hvely scenes of Menander." 
 
 The pleasing labours of the ferm served him by way of 
 exercise, although his town habits and awkwardness, and 
 perhaps his short and stout figure, panting and perspiring 
 under the heat and exertion, sometimes provoked good- 
 humoured laughter." At times, although he confessed 
 how dangerous was the siren voice of sloth, he would spend 
 hours of musing idleness on the margin of his favourite 
 stream, Hstening to its murmurs, and to the music of the 
 shepherd's reed as it echoed through the Arcadian glen." 
 The evenings were devoted to social converse with honest 
 and virtuous friends, from which scandal and gossip were 
 
 ■ Sat. II. vi. 1. ' Ibid. 8. • » Ibid. 10. 
 
 * Ibid. vi. 33. * Ibid. 38. ° Ibid. 47. 
 
 ' Ep. I. 18. ° Sat. II. vi. 62. ' Ibid. vi. 61. 
 
 '» Ibid. iii. 11. " Ep. I. iv. 15 ; xx. 24 ; Suet. V. H. 
 
 ■' Ep. I. xiv. ; Od. I. xvii. 
 
 T 2 
 
276 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 banished ; the conversation usually turning on moral and 
 philosophical discussion/ whilst its seriousness was occa- 
 sionally reheved by witty anecdotes and pointed fables, of 
 which those of the town and country mice, and of the mad- 
 man who, when cured, complained that his friends had 
 destroyed all the happiness of his dreamy life, furnish ex- 
 amples. At these petits soupers, which he called " suppers 
 of the gods," the guests drank as much or as Httle as they 
 pleased of his old wine, and enjoyed perfect freedom from 
 the absurd laws which Roman custom permitted the 
 chairman {arbiter bibendi) on such occasions to impose. 
 
 Sometimes, when the heat of summer was intense, he 
 retired to the lofty Prseneste (Palestrina), where the cli- 
 mate was always cool and refreshing.^ At some period of 
 his life, also, he became possessed of a villa at Tibur 
 (Tivoh), of which the shady groves and roaring waterfalls 
 furnished him a dehghtful refreshment after " the smokCj 
 and magnificence, and noise of Eome." Here he wrote 
 many of his Satires, and thus achieved the reputation as a 
 satirist of which he had laid the foundation already ; and 
 was enabled to boast that, though earnestly desirous of 
 peace with the world, it were better not to provoke him ; 
 that he who dared to offend him should smart for it, and 
 be the laughing-stock of the whole city.^ 
 
 The composition and arrangement of the second book 
 of Satires probably occupied the thirtieth, thirty-first, and 
 thirty-second years of the poet's life,* and it was not pub- 
 Hshed untn the foUowing year. This date will allow time 
 for the expiration of more than seven or eight years since 
 his intimacy with Maecenas commenced.^ The Satires 
 were followed by the pubHcation of the Epodes, very soon 
 after the battle of Actium,* for the ninth is evidently an 
 epinician ode on the occasion of that victory. Many of 
 
 ' Sat. II. vi. 65. " Od. III. 4. » Sat. II. i. 45. 
 
 * Clinton, Fasti ; b. c. 35, 34, 33. » Sat. 11. vi. 
 
 ° B. C. 31. 
 
THE EPODES. 277 
 
 them contain noble sentiments, patriotic advice, burn- 
 ing indignation against the Oriental self-indulgence of 
 Antony,^ the servihty of Eome, its civil strife, and the 
 degeneracy of the age ; and remind us that, before Horace 
 became an Epicurean and a courtier, he had fought 
 against a tyrant in the ranks of freedom." The first 
 Epode was written just before the battle of Actium ; the 
 second and third at the period when he first exchanged 
 the life of a fashionable man about town for that of a 
 country gentleman. We see in one the dehght which 
 he derived from the consciousness that his estate was 
 his own ; that he had no pecuniary embarrassments any 
 longer ; his anticipations of the happiness to be enjoyed 
 in the regularly-recurring labours of rural Hfe ; in the 
 absence of all care ; in the kind-hearted anticipations of 
 humble domestic felicity ; the superiority of a healthful 
 meal to all the luxuries that wealth could purchase. In 
 the other, notwithstanding all these professions of senti- 
 ment, he shows that his refined urbanity is shocked by 
 the grossness of rural habits. His delicate nose can- 
 not endure the smell of garlic : to him it is nothing 
 less than poison, such as Canidia or Medea might have 
 used. It is more deadly than the malaria of Apulia, or 
 the envenomed robe steeped in the blood of Nessus. Nay, 
 in the same spirit Johnson said that " He who would 
 make a pun would pick a pocket," he does not scruple to 
 affirm that a garhc-eater would commit parricide. 
 
 The seventh Epode is a burst of indignant expostula- 
 tion against the fratricidal madness which, at the bidding 
 of an unprincipled woman, armed Eomans against each 
 other in that tragical episode, the Perugian war, when 
 the first struggle took place between the civihans and the 
 soldiers for political influence and power. In the Epodes 
 the spirit is that of the satirist exaggerated. The out- 
 
 ' Ex. gr. ix. xvi. * See Ep. VII. ix. 
 
278 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 ward form which he had modelled by a careful study of 
 the Archilochian verse, prepared him for the ciiltivation of 
 that poetry in which he stands pre-eminent. It was the 
 state of transition through which he passed before he 
 became a lyric poet. 
 
 With their pubKcation concludes the first period of 
 Horace's Hteraxy life. It was now flowing on calmly 
 and peaceably, undisturbed by anxiety either abou1> him- 
 self or his country. Although the civil wars were not 
 yet ended, or the peace of the world solemnly and finally 
 proclaimed until the temple of Janus was closed,^ the 
 course of Octavius to universal empire lay plain and open 
 before him. Rome was at his feet, and owed to him its 
 safety and prosperity. 
 
 Pubhc and private well-doing developed a new phase 
 of Horace's genius. His muse soared to heights which 
 had only been attempted by Pindar and the other Greek 
 lyric poets. It cannot, of course, be supposed that he 
 lived to the age of thirty-five years tdthout having Avrit- 
 ten many of those odes, which are so ftdl of a youthful 
 sprightliness and burning passion ; but it is certain that 
 many more were written, and the first three books pub- 
 Hshed, during the period of eight years included between 
 his thirty-fifbh and forty-second years ;^ some when he was 
 approaching, others when he had passed, his eighth lustre. 
 In these three books it is probable that Horace intended 
 all the products of his lyric muse should be comprised : 
 to this purpose the last ode of the third book* seems to 
 point. He considered his work done ; and he was not 
 insensible to the successful manner in which he had ac- 
 complished it. With conscious pride, and in a prophetic 
 spirit, he exclaimed — 
 
 Exegi monumentum asre perennius. 
 
 He intended his beloved friend and patron, Maecenas, 
 
 ' B. c. 29. » CUnton, F. H. " Lib. iii. 30. 
 
FIRST BOOK OF THE EPISTLES. 279 
 
 to be the subject of his last, as he was of his first, song. 
 His introductory satire — the commencement of his pub- 
 lished works — was addressed to him ; the last ode in the 
 book^ (except that final one which proclaims his task 
 finished) is a noble farewell, breathing the language of 
 affectionate compHment ;* and in the introduction to his 
 new work, the labour of his maturer years, the fruit of 
 careftd juclgment respecting men and things, he states 
 his determination to finish his career as a poet, and to 
 devote his last verses to his patron. 
 
 A few years after the first three books of the Odes 
 Horace published the first book of the Epistles. Bentley 
 assigns the appearance of these finished and elaborate 
 compositions to B.C. 19, Clinton to B.C. 20. The Carmen 
 Seculare, which appeared B.C. 17, on the occasion of the 
 celebration of the Secular Games, and the fourth book 
 of the Odes, which waspubhshed B.C. 13, were written at 
 the personal request of the Emperor. He wished him to 
 celebrate the victories gained over the Vindelici by his 
 step-sons, Tiberius and Drusus. His comphance with the 
 wishes of Augustus was a graceful return for the regard 
 and affection which the letters of the Emperor show that 
 he felt for the poet.' The warm admiration which these 
 odes express, the praises which are lavished in them upon 
 Augustus and his step-sons Tiberius and Drusus, may 
 seem inconsistent Avith the poet's former repubHcanism ; 
 but who could withstand the proffered friendship, the 
 winning courtesy, the good-tempered condescension of 
 his patron ? 
 
 Besides, the experience of the past years must have 
 forced him conscientiously to beheve that the reign of 
 Augustus was indeed a blessing to his country, and that 
 his countrymen were totally unfit for real Hberty, as they 
 showed themselves quite content with the empty shadow 
 
 ' Lib. iii. 29. * Ep. I- i. 1—10. ' See Vit. Hor. Suet. 
 
280 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 of the constitution. He felt peace and repose were to be 
 purchased by almost any sacrifice except that of honour- 
 able principle; that not only all the enjoyments of life 
 were secured to himself to an extent equalling, if not sur- 
 passing, the wishes of his contented spirit, but that a 
 similar measure of happiness was pretty generally dif- 
 fused. He could not sympathise with political ambition, 
 which had been the fruitftd source of civil anarchy, and 
 it was only the ambitious who had any cause to be dis- 
 satisfied. Doubtless the older he grew the stronger was 
 the obligation which he felt to him who, by the lofty 
 position which he had attained, had apparently prevented 
 even the possibility of revolution or change. It is cer- 
 tain that the second book of the Epistles, and that ad- 
 dressed to the Pisos, which is commonly called the Art 
 of Poetry, were written and pubhshed during the last 
 years of his Hfe ; but the date cannot be exactly deter- 
 mined. He had long bid adieu to the excitements of 
 politics ; nor do these, his latest works, exhibit traces of 
 his fondnes for discussing questions of moral science, or ' 
 for the profounder speculations of natural philosophy. 
 He limits himself to the neutral ground of Hterature ; and 
 writes only as a writer whose judgment would be undis- 
 puted, because his works in their several departments had 
 actually formed the taste of his contemporaries. 
 
 In November, b.c. 8, a.tj.c. 746, Horace was seized 
 with a sudden attack of illness, and died in the fifty-seventh 
 year of his age. His old friend Maecenas had expired 
 but a few months before. They were buried near one 
 another on the slope of the EsquiHne. His death was so 
 sudden that he was unable to write a will ; he had but 
 just time before he expired to nominate, according to a 
 common custom, the Emperor his heir. 
 
 Horace was never married ; he was too general an ad- 
 nairer, and his tastes and habits were too much those of a 
 bachelor to appreciate the happiness of a wedded Ufe. In 
 
HORACE A VALETUDINARIAN. 281 
 
 this respect his feelings resembled those of the voluptuous 
 and selfish society of his times. He was of small and 
 slight figure/ but afterwards he grew corpulent.* The 
 vigour which he enjoyed in early youth* was diminished 
 by ill health, he became prematurdy grey,* and a passage 
 in one of his Odes seems to imply that he was a valetudi- 
 narian at forty.^ 
 
 ' Ep. I. XX. « Suet. Ep. Aug. in Vita. » Ep I. vii. 26 : 3. 
 
 * Ep. I. XX. ' Od. II. iv. 22. 
 
282 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATUKE. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 CHARACTER OF HORACE — DESCRIPTIONS OF HIS VILLA AT TIVOLI, 
 AND HIS SABINE FARM — SITE OF THE BANDUSIAN FOUNTAIN 
 — THE NEIGHBOURING SCENEET— SUBJECTS OF HIS SATIRES 
 AND EPISTLES— BEAUTY OF HIS ODES — IMITATIONS OF GREEK 
 POETS — SPURIOUS ODES — CHRONOLOGICAL ARRANGEMENT. 
 
 The life of Horace is especially instructive, as a mirror 
 in whicli is reflected a faithful image of the manners of 
 his day. He is the representative of Eoman refined 
 society as Virgil is of the national mind. He who under- 
 stands Horace and his works can picture to himself the 
 society in which he lived and moved. One cannot sym- 
 pathize with Petrarch, when lie says " Se ex nullo poeta 
 Latino evasisse meliorem quam ex Horatio," or exclaim 
 with the devoted Maecenas, 
 
 Ni te visoeribus meis Horati 
 Plus jam diligo, tu tuum sodalem 
 Ninnio videas strigosiorem — 
 
 but still it is scarcely possible not to feel an affection for 
 him. Notwithstanding his selfish Epicureanism, he pos- 
 sessed those elements of character which constitute the 
 popularity of men of the world. He was a gentleman in 
 taste and sentiments. He would not have denied himself 
 any gratification for the sake of others ; but he would not 
 willingly have caused any one a moment's uneasiness, nor 
 was he ever ungrateful to those who were kind to him. 
 He was a pleasant friend and a good-humoured associate, 
 adroit in using the language of compliment, but not, a 
 
CHARACTER OF HORACE. 283 
 
 flatterer, because he was candid and sincere. He changed 
 his politics, but he had good cause for so doing. The 
 circumstances of the times famished ample justification. 
 His morals were lax, but not worse than those of his 
 contemporaries : all that can be said is, that he was not 
 in advance of his age. His principles will not bear com- 
 parison with a high moral standard ; but he had good 
 qualities to compensate for his moral deficiencies. He 
 looked at virtue and vice from a worldly, not a moral 
 point of view. With him the former was prudence, the 
 latter foUy. Vice, therefore, provoked a sneer of derision, 
 and not indignation at the sin or compassion for the 
 sinner, and for the same reason he was incapable of 
 entertaining a holy enthusiasm for virtue. 
 
 Grood-tempered as a man, he nevertheless showed that 
 he belonged to the genus irritahile vatum. He was jealous 
 of his poetical reputation. Not, indeed, towards his con- 
 temporaries, but towards the poets of former ages. He 
 either could not or would not see any merit in old Eoman 
 poetry. His prejudice cannot be ascribed only to his 
 enthusiasm for Greek literature, for he did not even 
 appreciate the excellences which the old school of poetry 
 had in common with the Greeks. Party spirit had some- 
 what to do with it, for a feud on the subject divided the 
 literary society of the day,^ and hence Horace took his 
 side warmly and uncompromisingly. 
 
 But the principal cause was jealousy— unless he ignored 
 Lucilius and Catullus, he could not claim to have been 
 the first follower of Archilochus of whom Eome could 
 boast ; or, as the representative of Eoman lyric poetry, 
 to have first turned his lyre to iEohan song. 
 
 The scenes in which Horace passed his Ufe are so 
 interesting to every reader of his works, that a few words 
 
 ' This feud continued until the time of Persius. (See Sat. I. 141, and 
 Gifford's note.) 
 
284 ROMAN CLASSICAL lilTERATURE. 
 
 respecting his villa at Tivoli and his Sabine farm will 
 not be out of place here. Tibur^ is situated on one of the 
 spurs of the Apenuines, about fifteen or sixteen miles 
 from Eome, on the left bank of the Anio (Teverone). 
 The river winds gently by the town, separating it from 
 the villa of Horace, and then, falling in a sheet of water 
 over an escarped rock, disappears beneath a rocky cavern. 
 Its roaring echoes are heard far and wide, and justifies 
 the epithet {resonans), which Horace gives to the dwelling 
 of Albunea, the Tiburtine Sibyl. The villa commanded 
 fine views, and a garden sloped down from it to the 
 river's bank. From its grounds was visible the palace of 
 Maecenas : on the opposite shore the wooded Sabine hills 
 sheltered it from the north ; and the domain of the poet's 
 friend, Quintilius Varus, formed its western boundary. 
 
 About fifteen miles north-east of Tibur, nestling 
 amongst the roots of Mount Lucretilis, lay the Sabine 
 farm. Fragments of white marble, and mosaic, which have 
 been foimd there, show that, notwithstanding the simple 
 frugality, which Horace delights to describe, it was built 
 and embelhshed with elegance and taste. From the 
 mountain side, which- rises behind the house, trickles a 
 clear stream, the source of which is now called Fonte 
 Bello, and which afterwards becomes the river Digentia 
 (Licenza), and waters the beautiful valley of the sloping 
 Ustica ( Ustiece Cuhantis). This rUl, the parent of Horace's 
 fiivourite river, the embellisher of that " riant angle of 
 the earth," is interesting as being probably the fountain 
 of Bandusia, " more transparent than glass,"^ with whose 
 fresh and sparkling waters the poet tempered his wine. 
 
 M. de Chaupy^ assumes that the Bandusian fountain, 
 mentioned by Horace, was situated near the birthplace 
 of Horace, on the Lucano-Apulian border. His opinion 
 
 ' See De Chaupy, Eustace, Milman, &o. ' Od. III. 13. 
 
 " D6couverte de la Maison d'Horace, torn. iii. p. 364. 
 
THE BANDUSIAN FOUNTAIN. 285 
 
 rests on the words of a grant made by Pope Pascal II. to 
 the abbot of the Bantine monastery ; and Mr. Hobhouse* 
 considers this document as decisive in ascertaining its 
 position. It is decisive as to the existence of a Bandusian 
 fountain near Yennsia ; but it must be remembered that 
 Horace never saw it after the days of his childhood, when 
 his paternal estate passed away from him for ever, whilst 
 he speaks of his Bandusian fountain as near him, when 
 he writes and promises to sacrifice a kid to the guardian 
 genius of the spring. What, then, is more probable than 
 the suggestion of Mr. Dunlop,'' that the same pleasing 
 recollections of his early years, which inspired him to 
 relate his touching adventure, led him to " name the 
 clearest and loveliest stream of his Sabine retreat after that 
 fountain which lay in Apulia, and on the brink of which 
 he had no doubt often sported in infancy ?"^ He has, in 
 one of his odes, alluded to this affectionate desire to per- 
 petuate reminiscences of home — a desire which is illus- 
 trated by the topographical nomenclature which has been 
 adopted by colonists of every age and country. 
 
 Mr. Dennis, however, in a letter written at Licenza,* in 
 sight of the pleasant shades of M. Lucretihs, although he 
 makes no doubt of the Bandusian fountain being in the 
 neighbourhood, does not identify it with the Ponte BeUo. 
 He asserts that, although he has traced every streamlet 
 in the neighbourhood, the only one which answers to the 
 classical description is one now called " Fonte Blandusia." 
 It rises in a narrow glen which divides the Mount Lu- 
 cretUis from Ustica, which probably derives its modern 
 name Valle Rustica from a corruption of the classical 
 appellation. As you ascend the glen it contracts into a 
 ravine with bare cliffs on either side ; the streamlet with 
 difficulty winds its way between mossy rocks {musco dr- 
 
 ■ niust. to Childe Haxold, p. 42. ' Hist, of Eom. Lit. iii. 213. 
 ' Od. I. vii. 29. ■* See Milman's Hor. p. 97. 
 
286 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 cumlita saxa), overshadowed with dense woods which 
 effectually exclude the heat of the blazing Dog-star. The 
 water issues from a rock, and trickles into two successive 
 natural basius; " The water is indeed splendidior vitro ; 
 nothing, not even the Thracian Hebrus, can exceed it in 
 purity, coolness, and sweetness: "its loquacious waters 
 still bubble ;" the very ihces still overhang the hollow 
 rocks whence it springs. 
 
 A reference to Horace's description^ will prove to the 
 modem traveller through this classic region with what 
 fidehty and accuracy the poet has described the natural 
 features of the scenery. The mountain chain is continu- 
 ous and unbroken (continui monies), save by the well- 
 wooded and therefore shady valley of the Digentia, 
 which intersects it in such a direction that — . 
 
 Yeniens dextrum latus aspiciat sol, 
 LsBvum deoedens ournx fugiente vaporet. 
 
 Another valley meets it, and on an exposed height, at 
 the point of junction, stands Bardela, in Horace's time 
 Mandela, and well described by him as rugosus frigore 
 pagus? Corn grows on the sunny field (apricum pratum) 
 which slopes from the farm to the river : the ruins of 
 other dweUings mark the spot occupied by five domestic 
 hearths, and sending five honest representatives to the 
 municipal council of the neighbourhood : — 
 
 ■ habitatmn quinque foois, et 
 
 Quinque Ijonos solitum Variam dimittere patres.° 
 
 A comparison of the truthful and descriptive verses 
 of Horace identify the spot which he loved. Nature is 
 the same now as it was then ; but human skill and per- 
 severance have adorned with the purple clusters of the 
 
 ' Ep. T. xvi. 5. See also Eustace's Class. Tour. ' Ep. I. xviii. 105. 
 ' Ep. I. xiv. 2. 
 
THE SATIRES. 287 
 
 vine that " little corner of the world" which Horace 
 said would bear pepper and frankincense more quickly 
 than grapes.* 
 
 The Satires of Horace occupy the position of the 
 comedy of manners and the fashionable novel. They are 
 much more appropriately described by the title Sermones 
 (discourses) which is also given to them. They are, in 
 fact, desultory didactic essays, in which the topics are 
 discussed just as they present themselves. In them is 
 sketched boldly but good-hum.ouredly a picture of 
 Roman social life with its vices and follies. His object 
 was (to use his own words)- — 
 
 Ut omnis 
 Votiva pateat veluti descripta tabelia 
 "Vita. Sat. II. i. 32. 
 
 Vices, however, are treated as follies ; and the man of 
 wit and pleasure seldom uses a weapon more keen than 
 the shafts of ridicule : — 
 
 Omne vafer vitimn ridenti Flaoous amico 
 Tangit et admissus circum prsecordia ludit. 
 
 Persitis, S. i. 116. 
 
 Arch Horace, ■while he strove to mend. 
 Probed all the foibles of his smiling friend ; 
 Played lightly round and round the peccant part, 
 And won unfelt an entrance to his heart ; 
 Well skilled the follies of the crowd to trace. 
 And sneer with gay good humour in his face. 
 
 Oifford.' 
 
 There is nothing of the political bitterness of LucUius,^ 
 the love of purity and honour which adorns Persius, or 
 the burning indignation which Juvenal pours forth at 
 the loathsome corruption of morals. Horace had been a 
 politician and a warm champion of Hberty ; but the 
 struggle was now over, both with himself and his 
 
 ' Ep. I. xiv. 23. 
 
 ' See also Pope's imitation of this passage, Essay on Satire, part iii. 
 
 ' See Persius, Sat. I. 114. 
 
288 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 country. Ease and tranqtdUity were insured to both by 
 the new regime ; and his contented temper disposed him 
 to acquiesce in a state of things which gave Eome time 
 to rest from the horrors of civil war, and did not interfere 
 with the independence of the individual. Hence the 
 circumstances of the times, as well as his own temper, 
 rendered his Satires social and not political. Ludlius 
 wrote when the strife between nobles and people was still 
 raging, and the latter had not as yet succumbed. He, 
 therefore, breathed the spirit of the old Athenian comic 
 poets whom he followed and emulated; and the war of 
 pubHc opinion furnished him with topics similar to those 
 which were discussed in the repubhcan commonwealth of 
 Athens. 
 
 Circumstances also influenced, in some degree, the tone 
 of Horace's strictures on the habits of social Ufe. Im- 
 moral as society was, its most saUent features were 
 luxury, frivoHty, extravagance, and effeminacy. Vice 
 had not reached that appalling height which it attained 
 in the time of the emperor who succeeded Augustus. 
 Deficient in moral purity, an Epicurean and a debauchee, 
 nothing would strike him as deserving censure except 
 such excess as would actually defeat the object which he 
 proposed to himself — ^namely, the utmost enjoyment of 
 Hfe. The dictates of prudence, therefore, would be his 
 highest standard and his strongest check. He saw that 
 public morals were already deteriorated, and threatened 
 to become worse; but though they were bad enough 
 to provoke derision, they did not shock or revolt one 
 who was, and who professed to be, a man of the world. 
 Had Horace lived in the time of Persius or LuciHus, 
 even his satire would probably have been pointed and 
 severe. 
 
 Often his satires are only accidentally didactic; he 
 contents himself with graphic delineations of character 
 and manners, and leaves them to produce their own 
 
SATIRES AND EPISTLES. 289 
 
 moral effect upon the reader. In one^ he holds up the 
 superstition of the Eomans to ridicule by a minute 
 narrative of the absurd ceremonies performed by Canidia 
 and another sorceress in their incantations. In another," 
 amusingly describes the annoyance to which he was 
 exposed by the importunities of a gossiping trifler. In 
 the journey to Brundisium he seems to have had no view 
 beyond entertainment ; although two incidents give him 
 an opportunity of exposing the pomposity of a municipal 
 official and the superstitious foUies of a country town.' 
 In others, his subjects are the scenery and neighbour- 
 ing society of his Sabine valley ;* the way in which he is 
 wont to spend his day when at Eome ; his own auto- 
 biography;^ a laughable trial in Asia;' an essay on 
 cookery;' and a candid exposure of his own faults and 
 inconsistencies. Not that he is forgetful of his moral 
 duties as a satirist. He exposes to merited contempt the 
 prevailing iniquities of the day. The meanness of legacy- 
 hunting; the absurdity of pretension and foppery; the 
 foUy of an inordinate passion for amassing wealth ;' the 
 dangers of adultery f the unfairness of uncharitably mis- 
 interpreting the conduct of others.*" 
 
 Such are the varied subjects contained in the Sermones 
 or Satires of Horace. The Epistles are still more desultory 
 and unrestrained. Epistolary writing is especially a 
 Eoman accomplishment. The Eomans thought their 
 correspondents deserved that as much pains should be 
 bestowed on that which was addressed to them as on 
 that which was intended for the public eye ; and, in ad- 
 dition to the careful polish of which Cicero set the 
 example, Horace brought to the task the embellishment 
 of poetry. In the Epistles, he lays aside the character of 
 
 ,,,-,.1 Sat. I. 8, 
 
 « Ibid. 
 
 9. 
 
 -Ibid 
 
 . V. 
 
 
 *Sat. 
 
 II. 
 
 vi. 
 
 •»Sat. I. vi. 
 
 « Ibid. 
 
 vii. 
 
 'Sat. 
 
 II. 
 
 iv. 
 
 »Sat. 
 
 I. 
 
 1. 
 
 "Ibid 2. 
 
 '» Ibid. 
 
 3. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
290 BOMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 a moral teacher or censor. He treats his correspondent 
 as an equal. He opens his heart unreservedly : he gives 
 advice, but in a kind and gentle spirit, not with sneering 
 severity. The satire is delivered ex cathedrd ; the epistle 
 with the freedom with which he would converse with an 
 intimate friend. 
 
 The subjects of the first books are moral, those of the 
 second critical. The Ars Poetica is but a poetical epistle 
 addressed to the Pisos, who had been bitten by the pre- 
 vaihng mania for tragic poetry. The usual title claims 
 a far greater extent of subject than the poet intended. 
 It is not a treatise on poetry, but simply an outhne of 
 the history of the Greek drama, and the principles of 
 criticism applicable to it. It harmonizes well with the 
 literary subjects treated of in the second book of the 
 Epistles, and might well be included in it. It is, indeed, 
 longer and more elaborate : a synopsis of so extensive a 
 subject required more careful treatment; but it is im- 
 possible to form a correct estimate of the taste and judg- 
 ment which it displays, unless it is considered as nothing 
 more than an epistle. 
 
 The versification of these compositions is more smooth 
 than that of the Satires, but only in proportion to the 
 superior neatness of the style generally. In neither does 
 the metrical harmony rise to the height of poetry, pro- 
 perly speaking. Doubtless this was the poet's deliberate 
 intention. It cannot be supposed that he who could so 
 successfully introduce all the beautiful Greek lyric metres, 
 and in some cases improve the delicacy of their structure, 
 was incapable of reproducing the rhythm of the Greek 
 hexameter. He felt that in subjects belonging to the pro- 
 saic realities of hfe, and hitherto treated with the con- 
 versational facility of the iambic measure, some appearance 
 of negligence and even roughness could alone render the 
 stately hexameter appropriate, and therefore tolerq,ble. 
 But, admirable as the Satires are for their artistic and 
 
BEAUTY OF THE ODES. 291 
 
 dramatic power, and the Epistles for their correct taste, 
 lively wit, and critical elegance, it is in his inimitable 
 Odes that the genius of Horace as a poet is especially 
 displayed. They have never been equalled in beauty of 
 sentiment, gracefulness of language, and melody of versi- 
 fication. They comprehend every variety of subject 
 suitable to the lyric muse. They rise without effort to 
 the most elevated topics — ^the grandest subjects of history, 
 the most gorgeous legends of mythology, the noblest 
 aspirations of patriotism : they descend to the simplest 
 joys and sorrows of every-day life. At one time they 
 bum with indignation, at another they pour forth 
 accents of the tenderest emotions. They present in turn 
 every phase of the author's character : some remind us 
 that he was a philosopher and a satirist ; and although 
 many are sensuous and self-indulgent, they are full of 
 gentleness, kindness, and spirituality. 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. Numerous as the instances are in which he has 
 imitated them, and introduced by a happy adaptation 
 their ideas, epithets, and plirases, his imitations are not 
 mere plagiarisms or purple patches — they are made so 
 completely his own, and are invested with so much 
 novelty and originality, that, when compared with the 
 original, we receive additional gratification fi-om discover- 
 ing the resemblance. The sentiments which are para- 
 phrased seem unproved ; the expressions which are trans- 
 lated seem so appropriate, and harmonize so exactly with 
 the context, that a poet, whose memory was stored with 
 them, would have been guilty of bad taste if he had 
 substituted any others. Greek feehngs, sentiments, and 
 imagery, are so naturally amalgamated with Eoman 
 manners, that they seem to have undergone a trans- 
 
 u 2 
 
292 • ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 migration, and to animate a Eoman form. The following 
 are some of the most striking parallelisms :^ — 
 
 Sunt quos currioulo, &o. Carm. 1, 3, seg. 
 
 'AeXXtHToScoi' /lev tikoe ev(j)pai- 
 
 vovfTLv iTTTTiov TtjLUxl KoX (rTe<l>avor 
 
 Tovs 8' cv TToKvxpvcrois 6a\diwis jSiora- 
 
 ri/meTOi hi xai ris fV oibfi oKiov 
 
 vat 6oa t7&s SiaaTci)(av. Find, Frdgm. 
 
 Jam te premet nox, fabulseque Manes, 
 Et domus exilia Plutonia : quo simul mearis, 
 Nee regna vini sortiere talis, &o. 
 
 Carm. 1, 4, 16, seq. 
 
 Kardavota'a 8e Keicr', ovheirorrf iivafuxruva alBtv 
 f<r(r€T oi8ejroT els varepov. oil yap irehe-j^fis ^p6ha>v 
 tS>v c'k Hiepias. aXX' a(j)avjjs Kjjv AiBa bS/iois 
 ^oiracrcis Tred* d/uivpSiv vexvav eKirenorafieva. 
 
 Sapph. Fragm. 
 
 Vides, ut ulta stet nive candidum 
 Soracte, nee jam sustineant onus 
 Silvse laborantes, geluque 
 Plumina constiterint aouto 1 
 Dissolve frigus, ligna super foco 
 Large reponens ; atque benignius 
 Deprome quadrimum Sabina, 
 O Thaliarche, merum diota. 
 
 'Yet /«» 6 Zevs, «(c 8" opav^ pxyas 
 Xetp^v weirayatriv 8" vharav pool. 
 
 Carm. 1, 9, seq. 
 
 "KxL^^tXKe rhv ■)(fip.&v, iin p.iv Ti£eis 
 irvp, eu 8e xipvais olvov d<j>fiSeas 
 lic\iXp6v airap dpun Kopaa 
 pxiK6aKi>v a/unnBei yvaKJmKKov. 
 
 AlccEi Fragm. 
 
 Quern virum aut heroa lyra vel acri 
 Tibia sumis celebrare, CUo 1 
 Quern Deum ? cujus recinet jocosa 
 
 Nomen imago, &c. Carm. 1, 12, seq. 
 
 'Ai'a^uj)6ppj,yyes vfivoi 
 Tiva 6tov, riv fjpaa, riva 8' avbpa KtKahf)(rofKV. 
 
 Find. 01. 2, J. 
 
 ' See Prof. Anthon's Horace, Donaldson's Pindar, &c. 
 
IMITATIONS OP THE GREEK. 293 
 
 O navis, referent in mare te novi 
 Fluotus 1 O quid agis 1 fortiter occupa 
 Portum. Nonne vides, ut 
 Nudum remigio latus, 
 Et malus celeri sauoius Africo 
 Antennseque gemant 1 ac sine funibus 
 Vix durare carinse 
 Possint imperiosiuB 
 ^quor ? Ocmn. I, 14, seq. 
 
 To fiev yap evBfV Kv/ia nvXivSerat, 
 To 8' evdev- afi/ies 6' dv to fiiaaov 
 vai <f)opriiif6a crvv fuXalva, 
 Xeifiatvi iM>)(devvTes fuydiKcf KciKcop- 
 Trap fuv yap avrkos laToirfSav €X"> 
 \ai(f>os 8« ndv ^aStjXov rj&i). 
 Km XaKtScf jupydXat (cot airo 
 XaXacrt 8' Syiaipai, .... Alc(Bi Fragm. 
 
 NuUam, Vare, sacra vite prius severi^ arborem. 
 
 Garm. I, 18, sej. 
 
 M)j8ci' SKKo (j>VTeiiTrjs irporcpov bcvSpeov afiirfXa. 
 
 Alccei Pragm, 
 
 Vitas hinnuleo me similis, Chloe, 
 Quserenti pavidam montibus aviis 
 Matrem, non sine vano 
 Aurarum et silvee metu. Carm. I, 23, seq. 
 
 "Ate vefipbv veoOriKea yaXaBrjvov, os ev v\t] 
 KepoecroTjs dirokeifjiBels imo pjfrpos iirrarjBri. 
 
 Anacr. Fragm, 
 
 O Venus, regina Gnidi Paphique, 
 
 Sperne dUectam Cypron, &c. Carm. I, 30, seq. 
 
 Kvjrpov i/iepTav \iirol(Ta Kai Tld<})ov irepippvrav. 
 
 Alcman. Fragm, 
 
 Quid dedicatum poscit ApoUinem 
 Vates 1 quid orat, de patera novum 
 
 Fundens liquorem 1 &c. Carm. I, 31, seq. 
 
 Tt 8' epScDV, (j)[Kos (ToL Te, 
 
 KapTepo^povra KpovLSa, 
 
 (j)ikos 8c Moiaats, Ev6vp.la Te 
 
 litKav etrjv, tout' aiTrj/it o-f. Find. Fragm. 
 
294 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Nunc est bibendum, nunc pede libero 
 
 Pulsanda tellus, &c. Carm. 1, 37. seq. 
 
 NOv xPV f^viTKeiv, Koi nva npos ^lav 
 
 iriveiv, inftSfi Kardave MipcriKos. Ahcei Fragm. 
 
 Nullua argento color est avaris 
 Abdito terris, inimice lamnse 
 Crispe Sallusti, nisi temperato 
 
 Splendeat usu. Carm. 2, 2, sej. 
 
 OuK fpafuu irokvv iv iieydpai tAovtou KaTaKpinjfais fX"" 
 oXX' eovTtov, ev re Tradeiv Koi dKovtrai, <j>i\ois e^apKtmp, 
 
 Find. Nem. 1, 45. 
 
 Saevius ventis agitatur ingens 
 
 Pinus. Carm. 2, 10, 9, seq. 
 
 Oil Bpvov oil fia\ax>}v avefws rrore, ras fie /leyiaras 
 ij bpvas rj irXardvovs o'fie x'^l*'" Kordyeiv. 
 
 Lucian. in Anthol. 
 
 Eheu fiigaces, Postume, Postume, 
 Labuntur anni : nee Pietas moram 
 Rugis et instanti Senectse 
 Adferet, indomitseque Morti. 
 
 Carm. 2, 14, seq. 
 AXX' oKiyoxpdvtov ytyveTai, aajrep Svap, 
 Tj^ri TifiTjeafra- to fi' apydKeov /cat ap^p^ov 
 yrjpas virkp KerjtoKrjs avrix imcpxpepaTcu. 
 
 Mimnerm. Fragm,. 
 
 Quid brevi fortes jaoulamur sevo 
 
 Multa ? Carm. 2, 16, 17. 
 
 • Q, Kei/ol ^porav, 
 
 ot To^ov ivreivovTis as Kaipov wepa. 
 
 Eurip. Suppl. 754. 
 
 Nihil est ab omni 
 
 Parte beatum. Carm. 2, 16, 27. 
 
 OvK eo'Tiv ovSev Sid tcXovs ciSaiiMvovv. 
 
 Eurip. Suppl. 281. 
 
 Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. 
 
 Carm. 3, 2, 13. 
 TeSva/ievm yap KoKov tVl irpopd^oun. rrea-ovra 
 aubp' dya66v nep\ ?) naTplhi. p,apvdp(Vov. 
 
 Tyrtcei Fragm . 
 
IMITATIONS OF THE GREEK. 
 
 Mors et fugacem persequitur virum. 
 
 'O 8' a3 Qdvaros eKix* xal tov ^yojiaxov. 
 
 295 
 
 Carm. 3, 2, 14. 
 
 Simonides. 
 
 jEtas parentum, pejor avis, tulit 
 
 Nos nequiores, mox daturos 
 
 Progeiiiem vitiosiorem. 
 
 Carm. 3, 6, 46, seq. 
 
 Oirjv )(pviTeioi iraripfs yeveijv ikinovTO 
 XfipoTfpriv ! v/x«Ti St KaKarepa Tf^dfcBe. 
 
 Arati Phainum. 123. 
 
 Pulchris excubat in genis. 
 
 ''Os €v fidkoKois wapeialf 
 vfdviSos ivvv)(tveis. 
 
 Carm. iv. 13, 8. 
 Soph. Antiy. 779. 
 
 Dis misceut superis. 
 
 Nube candentes humeros amictus. 
 
 Erycina ridena. 
 
 Officinas Cyclopum. 
 
 Nitidum caput. 
 
 Duplicis Ulixei. 
 
 Superiq parem. 
 
 Aptuin equis Argos. 
 
 Ditesque Myceuas. 
 
 Nil desperaudum. 
 
 Deorum nuntium, 
 
 'Adavarois ep.ix^ev. 
 
 Pindar. Isthm. 2, 42. 
 
 Ne^eXi; tlKvfievos &pMvs. 
 
 Horn. H. €, 186. 
 
 tiKop^iSrjS 'A<j)po8lTri. 
 
 Som. II. V, 424. 
 
 'H(l)aioToio Kafiivois. 
 
 Callim. Fragm. 129. 
 
 Amapdv eOeipav. 
 
 Simonid. (^Anth. Or.) 
 
 AittKovs ayrip. 
 
 Eurip. Blies. 392. 
 
 Aat/iOKt Tcror. 
 
 H(mh. 11. i, 438. 
 
 *'Apy€os limo^oToto. 
 
 Horn. II. 0, 287. 
 
 yivKrjvas Tos 7ro\v)(pi(rovs. 
 
 Sopliocl. Elect. 9. 
 
 "AeKwrov oiSeV. 
 
 Eurip. Fragm. 
 
 "AyycXov aBavarav. 
 
 Horn. Ilymii, in Mtrc. 3. 
 
296 
 
 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Marinsa filium Thetidis. 
 Carpe diem. 
 Difficile bile. 
 Melior patre. 
 Mordaces solicitudines. 
 Dulce ridentem. 
 Dulce loquentem. 
 Fuuera densentur. 
 Fulgentes oculos. 
 Bellum lacaymosiua. 
 Vacuum aera. 
 
 Loquaces lymphae. 
 Fulmine caduco. 
 
 Vis consili expers. 
 
 Plagitio additis damnum. 
 
 Aquse augur comix. 
 
 Lentus amor. 
 
 Aquosa Ida. 
 
 Obliquum meditantis ictum. 
 
 Gelu acuto. 
 
 rials £Klas BcriSof. 
 
 Eurip. Androm. 108. 
 
 Katpbv Xa|3c. 
 
 j^sch. Sept. adv. Th. 65. 
 
 XoXov apyaKioio. 
 
 ffom. n. K, 107. 
 
 Tlarepav afielvoves ev'j^6fieff fivai. 
 Horn. 11. S, 405. 
 
 Tvw^opovs fieKeSavas. 
 
 Eesiod. 'Epy, 66. 
 
 reXao'ar IfUpocv. 
 
 Sappho. 
 
 'Afiii (pavottras. 
 
 Sappho. 
 
 Ovrj<TKov iva(r(rvTfpoi. 
 
 Horn. II. d, 383. 
 
 Ou^ra fiappaipovra. 
 
 Horn. 11. y, 397. 
 
 ndXc/uii' 8aKpv6evTa. 
 
 E<m. B, i, 737. 
 
 'Ep^fias 8t' aWepos. 
 
 Pmd. 01. a, 10. 
 
 AaXov vdaop. 
 Karat/SdTTjs Kcpavvos. 
 
 JEsch. Pr. V. 359. 
 
 'Pap-Tj dpoBrjs. 
 
 Eurip. Fragm. 
 
 Tlpos al(T\vv!] KaKov. 
 
 Ewrip. Bhes. 102. 
 
 'YfTop^ivTis Kopmnj. 
 
 Euphorion. 
 
 BpaSwa 'Ax\)poiiTa, 
 Sappho. 
 
 noXvTTtSa/cos 'iSi/j. 
 
 fibro. n. I', 157. 
 
 ^o^pia T atfrtrovre. 
 
 Horn. 11. p.', 148. 
 
 XtoTOS o^fias. 
 
 Find. Pyth. a, 39. 
 
SPURIOUS ODES. 
 
 297 
 
 Dulci fistula. 
 Testudinis aurees. 
 MagnsB lingusB. 
 Morti atrse. 
 Aureo plectro. 
 Supremum iter. 
 Nescios fari infantes. 
 Nootilucam. 
 Purpureo ore. 
 Mens trepidat metu. 
 
 VKvKvs avXos. 
 
 Find. 01. i, 114. 
 
 Find. Pyth. d, 1. 
 
 MeyaXT/y yXa>o"inys, 
 
 Sophocl. Antig. 12. 
 
 Me'Xui/oi BavaTow. 
 
 Brnn. II. ^, 834. 
 
 Xpvcrca TrXafcrpoj. 
 
 Find. Nem. i, 44. 
 
 YiTTcLTTiv 6h6v. 
 
 Eurip. Alcest. 686. 
 
 NlJTTtU TiKVa. 
 
 Horn. n. /?, 311. 
 
 NuKTlXofiTT^r. 
 
 Simonides. 
 Hop^vpiov aiTO OTopaTos. 
 
 Acijuarl iroXXet. 
 
 Soph. ^d. Tyr. 
 
 The two following' odes have been attributed to Horace, 
 but there is no doubt that they are spurious. It was 
 pretended that they were discovered in the Palatine 
 Library at Eome by Pallaviciiii : no MS., however, of 
 Horace, containing them, has ever yet been found : — 
 
 AD ItTLIUM PLORUM. 
 
 Discolor grandem gravat uva ramum 
 Instat Autumnus ; glacialis anno 
 Mox Hiems volvente aderit, capiUis 
 
 Horrida canis. 
 Jam Ucet Nymplias trepide fugaces 
 Insequi lento pede detinendas ; 
 Et labris captse, simulantis iram, 
 
 Oscula figi. 
 Jam licet vino madidos vetusto 
 De die laetum recitare carmen ; 
 Flore, si te des, hilarem licebit 
 
 Sumere noctem. 
 
 Meyer, Anthol. Rom. 114, 115. 
 
298 
 
 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Jam vide curas aqiiilone spai'uas ! 
 Mens viri fortis sibi constat, utrum 
 Serius leti citiusve tristis 
 Advolat aura. 
 
 AD LIBRUM SDCM. 
 
 Dulci libello nemo sodalium 
 Forsan meorum carior extitit ; 
 De te merenti quid fidelis 
 OfBcium domino rependes 1 
 Te Koma cautum territat ardua ; 
 Depone vanos invidiaa metus ; 
 Urbisque, fidens dignitati, 
 Per plateas animosus audi. 
 En quo fiirentes Eumenidum choros 
 Disjecit almo fulmine Jupiter ! 
 Huic ara stabit, fama cantu 
 Perpetuo celebranda orescet. 
 
 According to Bentley, the works of Horace were written 
 in the following chronological order : — 
 
 Satires 
 
 Epodes - 
 Odes - 
 
 Book I. in his 26th, 27th, and 28th years. 
 
 Epistles 
 Odes - - 
 Secular Hymn 
 Epistle to the Pisos 
 Epistles 
 
 II. 
 
 I. 
 
 II. 
 
 III. 
 
 "■} 
 
 31st, 32nd, and 33rd years. 
 34th and 35th years. 
 36th, 37th, and 38th years. 
 40th and 41st years. 
 42nd and 43rd years. 
 46th and 47th years. 
 
 49th, 60th, and 51st years. 
 
 uncertain. 
 
( 2^9 ) 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 BIOGRAPHY OF M^CENAS — HIS INTIMACY AND INFLUENCE WITH 
 AUGUSTUS — HIS CHARACTER — VALGIUS RUFUS — VARIUS — 
 CORNELIUS GALLUS — BIOGRAPHY OF TIBULLUS — HIS STYLE — 
 CRITICISM OF MURETUS — PROPERTIUS — IMITATED THE ALEX- 
 ANDRIAN POETS — jEMILIUS MACER. 
 
 C. CiLNIUS MAECENAS. 
 
 In a literary history it is impossible to omit some account 
 of one, who, although his attempts at poetry were very 
 contemptible, exercised, by his good taste and munificence, 
 a great influence upon hterature, and to whom the 
 Hterary men of Rome were much indebted for the use 
 which he made of his confidential friendship with Au- 
 gustus. 
 
 C. Cihiius Maecenas was a member of an equestrian 
 fanuly, which, though it derived its descent from the old 
 Etruscan kings,^ does not appear to have produced any 
 distinguished individuals. His birth-year is unknown, 
 but his birth-day was the ides (13th) of April.'' We 
 have no information respecting the origin of his intimacy 
 with Augustus. Probably his cultivated taste, his ex- 
 tensive acquaintance with Greek and Eoman hterature, 
 his imperturbable temper, and love of pleasure, first 
 recommended him as an agreeable companion to Oc- 
 tavius. 
 
 ' Horn. Od. I. i. ' Od. IV. ii. 
 
300 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 His good sense, activity, and energy in business, and 
 decisive cliaracter, qualities in wliich his irresolute and 
 desultory patron was signally deficient, enabled him 
 rapidly to improve the acquaintance into intimacy. It 
 is said by Dion Cassius^ that Augustus obtained from 
 Maecenas a complete plan for the internal administration 
 of his newly-acquired empire, and that in it were dis- 
 played sound judgment and political wisdom. It is 
 probable that there is some exaggeration in this state- 
 ment ; but that, without being a great man, he was in 
 these respects a greater man tlian Augustus, who, there- 
 fore, when he required his support, could lean upon him 
 with safety. And yet his weaknesses were such as to 
 prevent any feeling of jealousy, or appearance of supe- 
 riority, from endangering his friendship with the emperor. 
 His love of pleasure, and of the quiet and careless enjoy- 
 ments of a private station, proved, as it turned out, a 
 blessing to his country. His heart was so full of the 
 delights of refined and intellectual society — of palaces and 
 gardens, and wit and poetry, and collections of art and 
 virtu— that there was no room in it for ambition. His 
 careless and sauntering indolence was openly displayed 
 in his lounging gait and his toga trailing on the ground. 
 No one could possibly suspect such a loiterer of sufficient 
 energy or application to be a politician and an intriguer. 
 Such being his character, tastes, and habits, he felt no 
 temptation to abuse his influence with Augustus. He 
 did not covet honours and office, because he knew they 
 must bring trouble and distraction, perhaps peril with 
 them. He exercised his power, which was undoubtedly 
 great, to promote that luxurious, yet refined elegance, in 
 which he himself delighted, and to secure the welfare of 
 his literary friends. He had wealth enough to gratify 
 his utmost wishes. Augustus, therefore, had nothing 
 
 ' Lib. Mi. 14, &c. 
 
INFLUENCE OF MAECENAS. 301 
 
 more to confer on him which he valued, except personal 
 esteem and regard. 
 
 The confidence which the Emperor reposed in him is 
 shown by his employing him in some affairs of great 
 delicacy : first, in arranging a marriage with Scribonia ; 
 and, subsequently, on two occasions, in negotiating with 
 Antony.' In B.C. 36, he accompanied Octavius into 
 Sicily ; but was sent back in order to undertake the 
 administration of Eome and Italy ■} and, during the cam- 
 paign at Actium,^ Maecenas was again vicegerent, in 
 which capacity he crushed the conspiracy of the younger 
 Lepidus. So unlimited was his power, that he was even 
 intrusted with the signet of Octavius, and with authority 
 to open, and even to alter, if necessary, all letters which 
 he wrote to the senate during his campaign ; and when 
 the victorious general, on his return to Eome, consulted 
 with him and Agrippa as to the expediency of re- 
 estabUshing the repubhc, Maecenas, in opposition to the 
 recommendation of Agrippa, dissuaded him from taking 
 that step. The moral influence also of Msecenas over 
 Augustus is very striking. So long as it continued, we 
 see nothing of that heartless cruelty, that disregard of 
 the happiness of others, which deformed the early life of 
 the Emperor : if he was heartless, he at least did that as 
 a matter of taste which a better man would have done 
 on principle ; and if he was stiU selfish, he sought fame 
 and glory by the wise counsels of peace rather than by 
 the brilliant triumphs of war : he concihated friends instead 
 of crushing enemies. 
 
 The intimacy between Msecenas and the Emperor con- 
 tinued for at least ten years after the battle of Actium : 
 then an estrangement commenced j and in B.C. 16, he 
 was deprived of his ofl&cial position, and Taurus was 
 intrusted with the administration of Eome and Italy. 
 
 ' B. c. 40. " Tac. Ann. vi. ii. " b. c. 31. 
 
302 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Scandalous stories liave been told about his wife Terentia 
 and tbe Emperor, in order to account for the interruption 
 of their intimacy ; but no special causes are necessary to 
 account for an event so common. The words of Tacitus' 
 are a sufficient solution of the problem : — " Idque et 
 Msecenati acciderat ; fato potentise, raro sempitemse, an 
 satias capit, aut iUos, cum omnia tribuerunt, aut hos, cum 
 jam nihil reHquum est, quod cupiant." He retained the 
 outward appearance of the imperial friendship, although 
 he had lost the reality. He went to court on the birth- 
 day, but ceased to be of the Emperor's council. His hfe 
 was passed in the voluptuous retirement of his palace on 
 the Esquihne, which he had built for himself. This hiU 
 was not generally considered wholesome : probably the 
 feet that it had been a burial-ground^ created a prejudice 
 against it ; but the loftiness of the site chosen, as well as 
 of the building itself (molem vicinam nubibus), and the 
 breeze which played freely through the lovely garden, 
 with which it was surroimded, rendered it salubrious. 
 All the most briUiant society of Eome was found at his 
 table ; and many of the best of them received stiQ more 
 substantial marks of his favour.^ VirgU, Horace, Pro- 
 pertius, and Varius, were amongst his friends and constant 
 associates. 
 
 Maecenas was a low-spirited invalid;* latterly he could 
 not sleep, and endeavoured in vain to procure repose by 
 listening to soft music.^ In his last distressing illness 
 he generally resided at his Tiburtine villa, where the 
 murmuring falls of the Anio invited that sleep which was 
 denied him elsewhere. He died B.C. 8, and was buried 
 on the Esquihne. Though married, he left no children, 
 and bequeathed his property to the Emperor, whom he 
 besought in his will not to forget his beloved Horace. 
 
 ' Annal. iii. 30. ' Hor. Sat. i. 8, 7. » Mart. viii. 56. 
 
 ' Plin. vii. 51 ; Hor. C. ii. 17. * Sen. de Prov. iii. 9. 
 
CHARACTER OP M^CENAS. 303 
 
 His taste as a critic was evidently far superior to his 
 talents as a writer. Few fragments of Lis writings 
 remain ; and all ancient critics are tmanimons in the con- 
 demnation of his style. Augustus' laughed at his affected 
 jargon of mingled Etruscan and Latin. Quintihan^ quotes 
 instances of his absurd inversions and transpositions ; 
 and Seneca' shows, by an example, its unintelligible ob- 
 scurity.* He was a sensuaHst and a voluptuary,' and an 
 unfaithful husband ; and yet he was devotedly fond of 
 his wife, the beautiful but ill-tempered Terentia, who 
 had a great influence over him. He would divorce her 
 one day only to restore her to conjugal rights on the 
 next ; and Seneca said that, though he had only one wife, 
 he was married a thousand times. He abhorred cruelty 
 and severity, and would not let it pass unrebuked even 
 in the Emperor ; and although he made a boast of effe- 
 minacy, he was ready to devote himself heartily to 
 business in case of emergency. In fact, he was a fair 
 specimen of the man of pleasure and society: Hberal, 
 Mnd-hearted, clever, refined, but luxurious, self-indulgent, 
 indolent, and volatile, Avith good instincts and impulses, 
 but without principle. 
 
 C. Valgius Eufus. 
 
 Amongst the poets of the Augustan age, whose writ- 
 ings were much admired by their contemporaries, but have 
 
 ' Suet. 26. " Lib- i^- 4, 28. 
 
 ' The three passages quoted by Quintilian show a wanton awkwardness 
 in arrangement, almost inconceivable : — 
 
 Sole et Aurora rubent plurima 
 
 Inter sacra movit aqua fraxinos : 
 
 Ne exequias quidem unus inter miserrimos 
 
 Viderem meas. 
 The last of these he considers especially offensive, because he seems to be 
 trifling with a melancholy subject. 
 * Sen. Ep. 114. ' Tac. Ann. i. 54. 
 
304 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 uot stood the searching test of time, was Valgius Eufus. 
 Of his hfe no records remain ; but he probably belonged 
 to that class of authors of whom PHny says, " Quibus 
 nos in vehiculo, in balneo, inter coenam, oblectamus otium 
 temporis." They were hght and pleasing, calculated to 
 amuse an idle half-hour, or to relieve the tedium of a 
 journey. They answered the purpose of the raihoad Hter- 
 ature of our own days. These writers had a correct taste, 
 and a critical discernment of poetical beauty, rather than 
 a genius for poetical composition. Probably their per- 
 sonal characters had something to do with their reputa- 
 tion : they were members of a hterary coterie ; they hved, 
 thought, and felt together; they defended each other 
 against malicious criticism ; and the bonds of friendship 
 by which they were united tempted the greater poets 
 to regard their effiasions with kind but undue partiality. 
 Valgius Eufus was a great favourite of Horace," but only 
 a few short isolated passages are extant of his poems.^ 
 QuintUian'' attributes to him a translation of the rhetorical 
 precepts of ApoHodorus. Seneca^ mentions him by name : 
 Phny^ praises his erudition. The testimony borne to his 
 transcendent merits as an epic poet, in the Panegyric 
 of Messala, need scarcely be trusted, because it is -almost 
 certain that this piece is spurious.' 
 
 Varius. 
 
 Of L. Varius Eufus also, who was one of the constant 
 guests at Maecenas' table, scarcely anything is known. 
 Horace^ tells us that he was unequalled in epic song, 
 when Virgil had as yet only turned his attention to rustic 
 poetry. The high praise bestowed upon his Thyestes by 
 Quintilian has already been mentioned. To him, together 
 
 ' Epp. iv. 14 ; vii. 4. ' Sat. I. x ; Od. ii. 9. 
 
 ' Weichert, Poet. Lat. Rell. ' Lib. iii. i. 18. 
 
 » Ep. xli. i. ' H. N. XXV. 2. ' Tib, Op. iv, i. 180. 
 
 8 Sat. I. X. 44. 
 
C. CORNELIUS GALLUS. 305 
 
 with Virgil, we have seen that Horace owed his introduc- 
 tion to Augustus, and all three were of the party which 
 accompanied Maecenas to Brundisium. The titles of two 
 of his poems are extant, — I. De Morte. II. Panegyric 
 on Augustus. Of the former, four fragments are preserved 
 by Macrobius, all of which Virgil has deemed worthy 
 of imitation. Of the latter, two lines, containing a de- 
 licate compUment to Augustus, are extant, which Horace 
 has introduced entire into one of his Epistles.^ The 
 passage by no means satisfies modern taste, which has 
 been formed by the hexametrical rhythm of Virgil; 
 but Seneca praises his style as free from the usual faults 
 of Latin declamatory poetry — mere bombast on the one 
 hand, and excessive minuteness on the other. Niebuhr 
 conjectures that his Thyestes was too declamatory ; and 
 that, hie the later Eoman tragedies of Seneca and others, 
 it was not an imitation of the Attic drama, but of the 
 degenerate tragedies belonging to the Alexandrian 
 period. 
 
 C. CoENELius Gallus (born B.C. 66 or 69). 
 
 Gallus was more distinguished as a general than as a 
 poet. Except a single Hne from one of his elegies, not a 
 vestige of his poetry remains ; for the short pieces attri- 
 buted to him'* are undoubtedly not genuine. He owes 
 his fame, probably, to the kind verdict of his contempo- 
 raries ; whose friendship and amiable affection for each 
 other appear never to have been endangered by the 
 shghtest spark of jealousy. 
 
 Bom at Frejus, of low parentage, he was a feUow- 
 student in philosophy with VirgiP and Varius — a friend- 
 ship thus commenced which continued through life. The 
 patronage of Asinius PoUio* brought him into notice as a 
 
 ' Ep. i. 16. See Schol. ' Meyer's Anthol. » Eel. vi. 64. 
 
 ■* Cio. ad Fam. i. 32. 
 
306 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 poet at the early age of twenty. He was one of tlie first 
 to attach himself to the cause of Octavius ; and, being 
 appointed commissioner for allotting the lands to the 
 military colonies, he had the opportunity of befriending 
 Virgil and the plundered Mantuans. At Actium he 
 commanded a brigade, burnt Antony's ships in the 
 harbour of Parsetonium, was one of the eapturers of 
 Cleopatra, and was rewarded by Octavius with being made 
 first prefect of Egypt. How so valuable a servant lost 
 the Emperor's favour is uncertain. Ovid hints that his 
 crime was one of words not of deeds : — 
 
 Linguam nimio non tenuisse mero. 
 
 He was recalled, his property confiscated, and himself 
 exiled. He had not strength of mind to bear his fall, 
 and he committed suicide in the forty-first or forty -third 
 year of his age.^ 
 
 No judgment respecting his merits can be formed 
 from the contradictory criticism of the ancients. Ovid 
 awards to him the pahn among the elegiac poets,^ and 
 Virgil is said to have sung his praises in his fourth 
 Georgic, but afterwards to have omitted the passage and 
 substituted for it the story of Aristaeus ; whilst QuintiUan' 
 appHes the epithet durior to his versification. Perhaps 
 the latter attached too much importance to the grace and 
 sweetness of diction, but neglected the beauty of the 
 sentiments ; whilst the former might have been too partial 
 in his sympathy with a fellow-exile. He was the author 
 of four books of elegies, in which, under the feigned 
 name of Lycoris, he sings his love for his mistress 
 Cytheris. He also translated the Grreek poems of Eu- 
 phorion. 
 
 ' Dion Cass. liii. 23. ' Trist. iv. 10, 5. 
 
 ' Lib. X. i. 93 ; i. 5, 8. 
 
mistresses of tibullus. 307 
 
 Albius Tibullus. 
 
 Tibullus was bom of an equestrian family, probably in 
 B. c. 54. He was a contemporary of Virgil and Horace ;' 
 and like them, during tbe troubles of the civil wars, suf- 
 fered the confiscation of his paternal estate, which was 
 situated at Pedum near Tibur. After the conclusion of 
 the struggle a portion was restored to liim — small, indeed, 
 but sufficient to satisfy his moderate wants and contented 
 disposition. 
 
 Disincliiied, as well by his love of qidet, to the labours 
 and perils of a military Hfe, as he was by the tenderness 
 and softness of his character to the horrors of war, 
 circumstances, nevertheless, forced him involuntarily to 
 undertake a campaign. Messala was his patron, to 
 whom he was evidently under great obHgations.^ When, 
 therefore, he was sent by Octavia to queU an insurrection 
 in Aquitania, Tibullus accompanied him. This campaign 
 and the successes of Messala furnished the poet with 
 subjects for his muse.^ Tibullus also fiiUy intended to 
 continue his services to Messala in the east, during the 
 following year; but iUness compelled him to stop at 
 Corcyra, whence he returned to Eome.* 
 
 The mistresses whose beauty, inconstancy, and cruelty 
 Tibullus celebrates in his elegies were, unlike those of 
 Horace, real persons. Delia's real name is said to have 
 been Plautia or Plania;^ who Nemesis was is not known. 
 These are the only two mentioned by himself or alluded 
 to by Ovid f but Horace addresses an ode to him on his 
 passion for a mistress whom he names Grlycera. Pro- 
 bably he is speaking of one of TibuUus's mistresses under 
 a feigned name, in accordance with his habitual practice, 
 for the names introduced by him in his poems, generally 
 speaking, bear no appearance of reahty. They are, with 
 
 ' See Hor. Od. i. 33 ; Ep. i. 4. » El. i. ' El. i. and iv. 
 
 * El i ' Nieb. Lect. cvii. ' Amorum iii. 9. 
 
 X 2 
 
308 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 very few exceptions, suggested by his study of Greek 
 lyric poets. Chloris, Lycoris, Neobule, Lydia, Thali- 
 arclius, Xantlias, Pholoe, are all Greek characters trans- 
 lated to Eoman scenes, and made to play an artificial 
 part in Eoman life. Cinara' was, perhaps, a real person, 
 as Bassus, the Novii, Msevius, and Numida, vmdoubtedly 
 are. Sometimes, when his object is satire, he speaks of 
 the subject of his irony imder a name somewhat resem- 
 bling the real one; as, for example, when he ridicules 
 Maecenas under the name of Malthinus,^ Salvidianus 
 Eufus under that of Nasidianus,' and lampoons Gratidia 
 the sorceress as Canidia. But in the poetry of TibuUus, 
 as ia that of Catullus and Propertius, the same names are 
 found in each of a series of poems. Apuleius* asserts 
 that the real name of the Lesbia of Catullus was Clodia ; 
 that of the Cynthia of Propertius, Hostia, and that she 
 was a native of TivoU. 
 
 The style and tone of thought of Tibullus are, like his 
 character, deficient in vigour and manhness, but sweet, 
 smooth, poHshed, tender, and never disfigured by bad 
 taste. He does not deserve the censure of Niebuhr, who 
 stigmatises bim as a " disagreeable poet, because of his 
 doleful and weeping melancholy and sentimentality, 
 resulting from misunderstanding the ancient elegies of 
 Minmermus."^ 
 
 After his return from Corcyca, Tibullus passed the 
 remainder of his short life iu the peaceful retirement of 
 his paternal estate. He died young, shortly after Virgil, 
 if we may trust to an epigram, ascribed to Domitius 
 Marsus, contained in the Latin Anthologia : — ® 
 Te quoque Virgilio comitem non sequa, Tibulle, 
 
 Mors juvenem campos misit in Elysios, 
 Ne foret, aut elegis molles qui fleret amores, 
 Aut caneret forti regia bella pede. 
 
 ' Od. iv. 1, 3, 4, 13. ; Ep. i.-7, 27, 14, 33. « Sat. I. ii. 
 
 ' Sat. II. viii. * Apol. p. 279. » Leot. on R. H. 107. 
 
 • Meyer's AnthoL Vet. Lat. Ep. No. 122. 
 
CRITICISM OF MURETUS, 309 
 
 The poems commonly ascribed to Tibullus consist of 
 four books, but only two are genuine, and of these, the 
 second was published posthumously. Two lines in the 
 third book, which fix the date of the poet's birth in the 
 consulship of Hirtius and Pansa,* have generally been con- 
 sidered as spurious, because such a date is inconsistent 
 with the rest of the chronology ; but Voss rejected the 
 whole of that book : and there is no question but that 
 the spirit and character of the Elegies, as well as the 
 harmony of the metre, are very inferior to those of the 
 preceding poems. The same inferiority marks the fourth 
 also, with the exception of the smaller poems, which bear 
 the names of Sulpicia and Corinthus. These, as Niebuhr 
 correctly observed, display greater energy and boldness 
 than Tibullus possessed, and are the productions of some 
 poet much superior to him. 
 
 That elegant scholar and judicious critic, Muretus,^ has 
 well attributed to him, as his chief characteristics, sim- 
 plicity, and natural and unaffected genius : — " Ilium 
 {i. e. Tibullum) judices simplidus scripsisse quse cogitaret ; 
 hunc {i. e. Propertium) diligentius cogitasse quse scriberet. 
 In nio plus naturae, in hoc plus curse atque iadustrise 
 perspicias." 
 
 Sextus Atjrelius Propertius. 
 
 Very little is known respecting the life and personal 
 history of Propertius beyond the few facts which may be 
 gleaned from his poems. He was a native of the border 
 country of Umbria, and was probably born not earlier 
 than A. u. c. 703,^ or later than 700.* This period will 
 suflELciently agree with the statement of Ovid respecting 
 their relative ages.* His family had not produced any 
 distinguished member, but possessed a competent estate. 
 Like Virgil and TibuUus, he was a sufferer by the conse- 
 
 ' B. 0. 45 ; A. D. C. 709. * Sctol. in Propert. ' Clinton. 
 
 ■* Niebuhr. ' Trist. iv. 10, 45. 
 
310 EOMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 qiiences of war ; for the establishment of a military colony 
 reduced him from comfort to straitened circumstances.* 
 
 Like most young Eomans of genius and education, he 
 was intended for the bar ;* but poetry had greater charms 
 for him than serere studies, and he became nothing more 
 than a literary man. He inhabited a house in the now 
 fashionable quarter of the Esqmline, and was on intimate 
 terms with Gallus, Ovid, Bassus, and Virgil. Cynthia, 
 his amour with whom inspired so large a portion of his 
 elegies, was not only a beautiful but an accomplished 
 woman. She was his first love ; and it appears to have 
 been some time before she yielded to his solicitations,^ 
 nor was she even then always faithful to him.* She 
 could write verses and play upon the lyre,® and was a 
 graceful dancer.* She owed to him, says Martial, her 
 immortality; whilst he owed to his love for her the 
 inspiration which immortalized himself : — 
 
 Cynthia, facundi carmen juvenile Properti, 
 Aocepit famam neo minus ilia dedit. 
 
 The date of the poet's death is unknown, but the pro- 
 bability is that he died young. 
 
 Although Propertius was a contemporary and friend of 
 the Augustan poets, he may be considered as belonging 
 to a somewhat different school of poetry. His taste, like 
 theirs, was educated by a study of Grreek Hterature ; but 
 the Greek poets whose works he took for his model be- 
 longed to a later age. Horace, Virgil, and Tibullus 
 imitated and tried to rival the Greek classical poets of the 
 noblest ages : they transferred into their native tongue 
 the ideas of Homer, Pindar, and the old lyric poets. 
 Their taste was formed after the purest and most perfect 
 models. Propertius, on the other hMd, was content 
 with a lower flight. He attempted nothing more than to 
 
 ' Prop. IV. i. 128, and ii. 25. ^ Ibid. IV. i. » Ibid. II. xiv. 15—18. 
 * Ibid. I. 1, 2 ; x. ii. 16. " Ibid. I. ii. 27. « Ibid. II. iii. 17. 
 
STYLE OF PROPEKTIUS. 311 
 
 imitate the graceful but feeble strains of the Alexandrian 
 poets, and to become a second CaUimachus or Philetas/ 
 Roman perseverance ia the pursuit of learning, and the 
 spirit of investigation in the wide field of Greek Htera- 
 ture, had raised up this new standard of taste, which was 
 by no means an improvement upon that which had been 
 hitherto estabHshed. 
 
 The imitations of Propertius are too studied and ap- 
 parent to permit him to lay claim to great natural genius. 
 Nature alone could give the touching tenderness of 
 Tibullus or the facihty of Ovid — ^ia both of which, not- 
 withstanding his grace and elegance, he is deficient. The 
 absence of original fancy is concealed by minute atten- 
 tion to the outward form of the poetry which he ad- 
 mired. His pentameters are often inharmonious, because 
 they adopt so continually the Gcreek rules of construction ; 
 awkward Grreek idioms, and a studious display of his 
 learning, which was undoubtedly great, destroy that 
 greatest charm of style, perspicuity. 
 
 According to Quintilian,^ the critics of his day some- 
 what overrated his merits, for they could scarcely decide 
 the question of superiority between him and Tibullus. 
 This, however, is to be expected in an age of afiected 
 rhetoric and grammatical pedantry, when nothing was 
 considered beautiful in poetry except that which was in 
 accordance with the arbitrary rules of cold criticism. 
 They appreciated his correctness, and did not miss the 
 warm heart of his rival. His poetry is not so polluted 
 with indeHcacy as that of Ovid, but still it is often sensual 
 and Hcentious. 
 
 It is worthy of remark that the fourth elegy of the third 
 book, entitled " Arethusa to Lycotas," deprives Ovid of 
 the credit of being the inventor of the elegiac epistle. 
 
 ' Prop. IV. i. 63. " Inst. Orat. x. 1. 
 
312 KOMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 ^MILIUS MaCER. 
 
 The poem of ^milius Macer is only known through 
 two verses in the Tristia of Ovid/ which state that it 
 treated of birds, serpents, and medicinal herbs : — 
 
 Ssepe suas voluores logit mihi grandior sevo 
 Quseque necet serpens, quae juvet herba Macer. 
 
 He was bom at Verona, and died in Asia, a.d. 16 ; 
 and the passage already quoted proves that he was older 
 than Ovid. 
 
 His poem was a paraphrase or imitation of the Theriaea 
 of Nicander — a physician-poet, who flourished in ^toha 
 during the reign of Ptolemy Epiphanes. Quintilian 
 couples his name with that of Lucretius ; and awards him 
 the praise of elegance, but adds that his style is deficient 
 in dignity. 
 
 ' Trist. IV. X. 33. 
 
( 313 ) 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 BIRTH AND EDUCATION OF OVID — HIS BHETOEICAL POWERS — 
 ANECDOTE RELATED BY SENECA — HIS POETICAL GENIUS— SELF- 
 INDULGENT LIFE — POPULARITY — BANISHMENT — PLACE OF HIS 
 EXi;,E— EPISTLES AND OTHER WORKS — GRATIUS FALISCUS — 
 PEDO ALBINOVANUS— AULUS SABINUS — MARCUS MANILIUS. 
 
 OviDius Naso (born B.C. 43). 
 
 Ovid, as he himself states/ was born at Sulmo (Sulmone), 
 a town of the Pehgni (Abruzzi), ninety miles distant from 
 Eome. The year of his birth was that in which the 
 consuls Hirtius and Pansa fell in the field of Mutina 
 (Modena). His family was equestrian, and had been so 
 for some generations. His father Hved to the age of 
 ninety ; and, as his mother was then ahve, it is probable 
 that she also attained an advanced age. He had a bro- 
 ther exactly twelve months older than himself. Their 
 common birthday was the first of the Quinquatria, or 
 festival of Minerva (March 20th). 
 
 Whilst stijl of tender age, the two boys were sent to 
 Eome for education, and placed under the care of eminent 
 instructors. The elder studied eloquence, and was 
 brought up to the bar ; but he died at the early age of 
 twenty. Ovid himself also, for a time, studied rhetoric 
 under AxeUius Fuscus and Porcius Latro, and the results 
 of his study are visible in his poems -^ for example, in the 
 speeches of Ajax and Ulysses.^ 
 
 ' Trist. iv. 10. * See Cic. Brat. 446. ^ Metam. xiii. 
 
314 EOMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Seneca has left an interesting account o^ his rhetorical 
 powers.' " I remember," he says, " hearing Naso de- 
 claim, in the presence of Arellius Fuscus, of whom he 
 was a pupU ; for he was an admirer of Latro, although 
 his style was different from his own. The style of Ovid 
 could at that time be termed nothing else but poetry in 
 prose : still he was so dihgent as to transfer many of his 
 sentiments into his verses. Latro had said — 
 
 Mittamus arma in hostes, et petamus. 
 
 Naso vsTote — 
 
 Arma viri fortis medios mittantur in hostes 
 Inde jubete peti. 
 
 He borrowed another idea from one of Latro's Suasorian 
 orations : — 
 
 Non vides ati immota fax torpeat et exagitata reddat ignes t 
 
 Ovid's paraphrase of this illustration is — 
 
 Yidi ego jactatas mota face crescere flammas, 
 Et rursus, nullo concutiente, mori. 
 
 When he was a student he was thought to declaim 
 weU." 
 
 On the affecting theme of a husband and wife, who had 
 mutually sworn not to survive each other, Seneca asserts 
 that he surpassed his master in vpit and talent, and was 
 only inferior in the arrangement of his topics. He then 
 quotes a long passage, in which Ovid analyses the prin- 
 ciples of love, with a skill and ingenuity well worthy of 
 one who, as a poet, made love the subject of his song, 
 and with a purity of sentiment which, it were to be 
 vpished, had dignified the sweetness of his verses. Ovid 
 preferred suasorioe and ethical themes to controversice ;* for 
 all argument was irksome to him. In oratory he was 
 
 ' Controv. ii. 10. " See distinction between these in ch. viii. 
 
ANECDOTE RELATED BY SENECA. 315 
 
 very careful in the use of words : in his poetry he was 
 aware of his faults, but loved them too weU to correct 
 them. He then adds the following amusing and charac- 
 teristic anecdote : — Being once asked by his friends to 
 erase three Hnes, he consented on condition that he him- 
 self should be at liberty to make an exception in favour 
 of three. He accordingly wrote down three which he 
 wished to preserve ; his friends those which they wished 
 to erase. The papers were examined, and both were 
 found to contain the same verses. Pedo Albinovanus 
 used to say that one of these was — 
 
 Semibovemque virum semivirumque bovem. 
 
 The other— 
 
 Egelidum Borean, egelidumque Notum. 
 
 Hence it is apparent that judgment was not wanting, 
 but the inclination, to correct. He defended himself by 
 sayiug that an occasional mole is an improver of beauty. 
 The former of these miserable conceits is not now to be 
 found in his poems. The latter occurs in the Amoves, 
 but it is usually read — 
 
 Et gelidum Borean, egelidumque Notum ; 
 
 or — 
 
 Et gelidum Borean, prsecipitemque Notum. 
 
 The father of Ovid, who took a utilitarian view of hfe, 
 is said to have discouraged the cultivation of his poetical 
 talents, and to have stigmatised the service of the Muses 
 as barren and unprofitable. Even Homer himself, he was 
 wont to say, left no property behind him. Ovid endea- 
 voured to comply with his father's wishes, he deserted 
 Helicon, and tried to write plain prose. It was aU ia 
 vain ; his words spontaneously flowed into numbers, and 
 whatever he tried to say was poetry. His natural genius 
 and facility displayed itself when he was quite a boy ; for 
 he had not yet put on the toga virilis. When he 
 
 ' Amor. II. xi. 10. 
 
316 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 assumed tliis badge of mature age, it was bordered with a 
 broad purple stripe, which marked the patrician order ; 
 but being unambitious and indolent, he never took his 
 seat in the senate, although he filled several magisterial 
 and judicial offices. 
 
 His rank, fortune, and talents enabled him to cultivate 
 the society of men of congenial tastes. He became 
 acquainted with the best poets of his day. Macer and 
 Propertius would recite their compositions to him. Pon- 
 ticus and Bassus were guests at his table. He had heard 
 the lyrics of Horace read by himself. Virgil he had only 
 seen ; and the untimely death of Tibullus prevented him 
 from making the acquaintance of that poet. He was ex- 
 tremely young when his juvenile poems became very 
 popular, and he wrote far more than he published ; for he 
 burnt whatever displeased him; and, when sentenced to 
 exile, in disgust he committed the Metamorphoses to the 
 flames. 
 
 He himself confesses his natural susceptibility and 
 amorous temperament; but claims the credit of never 
 having given occasion to any scandal. He was three 
 times married. His first wife was unsuitable, and proved 
 unworthy of him, and accordingly he divorced her. His 
 second he divorced also, although no imputation rested on 
 her virtue. Prom his third, whom, notwithstanding his 
 fickleness and infidelity, he sincerely loved, he was only 
 separated by exile. She was one of the Pabian fanuly, 
 and bore him one daughter. 
 
 Epicurean in his tastes, and a sceptic, if not a disbe- 
 liever in a fature state, he Hved a life of continual self- ' 
 indulgence and intrigue. He was a universal admirer 
 and as universal a favourite among the female sex in the 
 voluptuous capital ; for the tone of female morals was in 
 that age low and depraved, and the women encouraged 
 the licentiousness of the men. Although his favourite 
 mistress, whom he celebrated under the fictitious name of 
 
BANISHMENT OF OVID, 317 
 
 Corinna, is unknown, and all the conjectures concerning 
 her identity are groundless, there is no doubt that she 
 was a lady of rank and fortune. 
 
 Ovid was popular as a poet, successful in society, and 
 possessed all the enjoyments which wealth can hestow. 
 He had a villa and estate in his native Sulmo, a house on 
 the Capitoline hill, and suburban gardens celebrated for 
 their beauty. At some period of his Hfe he travelled 
 with Maoer into Asia and Sicily ; and, in his exile, recalls 
 to mind with sorrowful pleasure the magnificent cities 
 of the former, and the sublime scenery and classic haunts 
 of the latter.^ This sunny life at length came to an 
 end. The last ray of happiness, which he speaks of as 
 beaming on him, was the intelligence that his beloved 
 daughter Perilla, who was twice married, made him a 
 grandfather a second time. When his hair became 
 tinged with white, and he had reached his fiftieth year, 
 he incurred, by some fault or indiscretion, the anger 
 of Augustus, and was banished to Tomi (Tomoswar or 
 Baba). 
 
 The cause of his banishment is involved in obscurity. 
 It was not unknown at Eome ; but in his exile he refrains 
 from alluding to it, except in dark allusions, out of fear 
 of giving additional offence to the emperor.^ He speaks of 
 it as an indiscretion {error), not a crime {scelus, f acinus^); as 
 something which he had accidentally witnessed,^ perhaps 
 had indiscreetly told — a circumstance which deeply and 
 personally affected Augustus, and inflicted a wound which 
 he was unwilling to tear open afresh. He hints also that 
 he fell a victim to the treachery of friends and domestics,^ 
 who enriched themselves by his ruin. 
 
 There have been many conjectures* on this difficult 
 
 > Ep. ex Ponto, ii. 10. ' Trist. IV. x. 100. 
 
 " Ibid. rV. X. 90, and III. i. 52. * Ibid. I. ii. 107. 
 » Ibid. iv. 10, 101 ; Ep. ex Pont. P. ii. vii. 
 " See Class. Museum, iv. 13. 
 
318 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITEEATUBE. 
 
 point. Some have imagined an intrigue with the elder 
 Julia, the profligate daughter of Augustus ; but this is 
 scarcely consistent with the manner in which Ovid himself 
 speaks of his fault ; and besides this, JuUa was banished 
 to Pandataria eight years before. The banishment of the 
 younger Jxdia to Trimerus, about the same time with that 
 of Ovid, would make it far more probable that his fall 
 was connected with that of this equally profligate princess. 
 Tiraboschi supposed that he had surprised one of the 
 royal family in some disgraceful act ; and some have even 
 imagined that he might have witnessed such conduct on 
 the part of the Emperor himself. Dryden beheved that 
 he accidentally saw Livia in the bath ; and the author of 
 the article in the Biographic TJniverseUe, as well as 
 SchoeU,^ surmise that he was in some way imphcated in 
 the fortunes of Agrippa Posthumus, and thus incurred 
 the hatred of Livia and Tiberius. 
 
 Whatever the cause may have been, the punishment 
 was a cruel one, except for a crime of the deepest dye, 
 and would never have been inflicted by the gentle Au- 
 gustus so long as he was under the salutaay influence of 
 Maecenas and his party. But in his old age he submitted 
 to the banefiil rule of the dark Tiberius and the im- 
 placable Livia. Any pretext, therefore, sufficed to remove 
 one, who, from some cause or other, had excited their 
 enmity. The alleged reason was the immorality of his 
 writings ; but they are not more immoral than those of 
 Horace ; and, besides, the worst of them had been pub- 
 lished ten years before. Nor was the morality of the 
 Emperor himself of such a character as to lead him to 
 punish so severely a licentious poet in a hcentious age. 
 The exclusion of his works from the Palatine* Hbrary'was 
 a merited and more appropriate visitation. Nevertheless, 
 this was made the pretext for a banishment, the misery 
 
 ' Hist. Abreg. de la Lit. Eom. " Trist. III. i. 65. 
 
SITUATION OF TOMI. 319 
 
 of which, was solaced by the empty mockery of the reserv- 
 ation of his civil rights. 
 
 Tomi was on the very frontiers of the Eoman empire, 
 inhabited by the Getse, who were rude and uncivilized. 
 The country itself, a barren and treeless waste, cold, damp, 
 and marshy, producing naturally scarcely anything but 
 wormwood, and yielding scanty crops to the unskilled 
 toil of ignorant cultivators, was rendered stiU more desolate 
 by frequent incursions of the neighbouring savage tribes, 
 who used poisoned arrows, and offered up as sacrifices 
 their prisoners of war.^ Ovid, who, with all his faults, 
 was affectionate and tender-hearted, was torn from all 
 the voluptuous blandishments of the capital, from the 
 sympathies of congenial spirits, who could appreciate his 
 talents, and from the arms of his weeping wife^ amidst 
 the voice of w ailin g and of prayer, which filled every 
 corner of his desolate dweUing. The blow fell suddenly 
 upon him like a thunder-clap,* and so stupified him, that 
 he could make no preparations for his voyage. The 
 season of his departure was the depth of winter, and he 
 was exposed to some peril by a tempest in the Ionian Grulf. 
 The climate of his new abode was as inclement as that of 
 Scythia. Not only the Danube, but even the sea near 
 its mouth, was for some extent covered with ice : even the 
 wine froze into blocks, and was broken in pieces before it 
 could be used. He Hved in exile only ten years ; constant 
 anxiety preyed upon his bodily health ; he suffered lan- 
 guor, but no pain ; he loathed all food ; the Uttle that he 
 ate would not digest ; sleep failed him ; his body became 
 pale and emaciated, and so he died. The Tomitse showed 
 their respect by erecting a tomb to his memory. 
 
 In the midst of such a contrast between the present 
 and the past, no wonder that his complainings appear 
 almost pitiful and unmanly, and his urgent petitions to 
 
 ' Ex Ponto, IV. ix. 82. '' Trist. I. iii. ' Ibid. V. ii. 
 
320 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Augustus couched in too fulsome a strain of adulation. 
 No wonder that he painted in the most glowing colours 
 the story of his woes and privations. Yet he was desti- 
 tute neither of patience nor fortitude : he rehed on the 
 independence and immortality of genius ; and although 
 the enervating effect of a luxurious and easy life and a 
 dehcate constitution, rendered him a prey to grief, and 
 he gradually pined away, still he had strength of mind 
 to reHeve his sorrows by devotion to the Muse, and he 
 suffered with tranquillity and resignation. Poetry was 
 his resource during his stormy voyage. Poetry gained 
 him the affection and esteem of his new fellow-citizens, 
 notwithstanding their barbarism,^ and procured him the 
 honour of a tomb. 
 
 All the extant poems of Ovid, with the exception of 
 the Metamorphoses, are elegiac. It was the metre then 
 most in vogue. All the minor poets, his contemporaries, 
 wrote in it. One of his earhest works is the " Amores," 
 a collection of elegies, most of which are addressed to his 
 favourite mistress Corinna. Some of them, however, 
 were composed subsequently to his Epistles and Art of 
 Love.^ An epigram which is prefixed, states that there 
 were originally five books, but that the author subse- 
 quently reduced them to the present number, three. 
 Licentiousness disfigures these annals of his amours ; but 
 they teem with the freshness and buoyancy of youth, and 
 sparkle with grace and ingenuity. 
 
 The twenty-one Epistolce Heroidum, i. e.. Epistles to and 
 from Women of the Heroic Age, are a series of love-letters : 
 their characteristic feature is passion ; the ardour of which 
 is sometimes interfered with by too laboured conceits and 
 excessive refinement. They are, in fact, the most polished 
 efforts of one whose natural indolence often disinclined 
 him from expending that time and pains on the work of 
 
 ' Ex Pont. IV. ix. 97. ' See II. xviii. 19. 
 
THE ART OF LOVE. 321 
 
 amending and correcting, which distinguished Virgil. 
 Their great merit consists in the remarkable neatness 
 with which the sentiments are expressed, and the sweet- 
 ness of the versification; their great defect is want of 
 variety. The subject necessarily Umited the topics. The 
 range of them is confined to laments for the absence of 
 the beloved object, the pangs of jealousy, apprehensions 
 of inconstancy, expressions of warm affection, and descrip- 
 tions of the joys and sorrows of love. 
 
 With the exception of the Metamorphoses, the Epistles 
 have been greater favourites than any of the works of 
 Ovid. Some were translated by Drayton and Lord Hervey. 
 The beautiftd translation, by Pope, of the epistle from 
 Sappho to Phaon, is familiar to aU ; and his touching 
 picture of the struggle between passion and principle, in 
 the letter of Eloisa to. Abelard, owes a portion of its 
 inspiration to the Epistles of Ovid. 
 
 Love in the days of Ovid had nothing in it chivalrous 
 or pure — ^it was carnal, sensual. The age in which he 
 lived was morally polluted, and he was neither better nor 
 worse than his contemporaries. Great and noble as was 
 the character of the Eoman matron, the charms of an 
 accompHshed female education were almost as rare as 
 at. Athens. She had sterling worth; but she had not 
 often the power to fascinate those numbers who con- 
 sidered woman the minister to the pleasures of man. 
 She was wise, self-sacrificing, patriotic, courageous — a 
 devoted mother, an affectionate wife — and a man of heroic 
 mould valued as she deserved such a partner of his 
 fortunes'. But those who sought merely the allurements 
 of passion looked only for meretricious pleasure and 
 sensual enjoyment. Hence grossness is the characteristic 
 of Ovid's Art of Love. The instructions contained in 
 the first two books which are addressed to men are fit 
 only for the seducer. The blandishments in the third 
 are suited only to the abandoned of the other sex. 
 
322 EOMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 The Art of Love was followed by the llemedies of Love 
 in one book : " Let him," he says, " who taught you to 
 lave, teach you also the cure ; one hand shall inflict the 
 wound and minister the bahn. The earth produces 
 noxious and healthful herbs ; the rose is often nearest 
 neighbour to the nettle."^ 
 
 His Metamorphoses were just finished, and not yet 
 corrected,'' when his fall took place. When in his despair 
 he burnt it, fortunately for the world some copies trans- 
 pired. Afterwards he prayed that they might be pre- 
 served to remind the readers of the unhappy author. 
 The 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 from 
 earth to heaven, and his metamorphosis into a star. 
 This poem is Ovid's noblest effort : it approaches as near 
 to the epic form as is possible with so many naturally un- 
 connected episodes. In many parts, especially his de- 
 scriptions, we do not merely admire his natural facility 
 in making verses, but picturesque truthfulness and force — 
 the richest fancy combined with grandeur and dignity. 
 Amongst the most beautiful portions may be enumerated 
 the story of Phaeton, including the splendid description 
 of the palace of the Sun ;^ the golden age ;* the story 
 of Pyramus and Thisbe ;^ the cottage home and the 
 rustic habits of Baucis and Philemon,* Narcissus at 
 the fountain;' the powerfully-sketched picture of the 
 cave of Sleep,* Daedalus and Icarus,* Cephalus and 
 Procris," and the solUoquy of Medea." In this poem, 
 especially, may be traced that study and learning by 
 which the Eoman poets made all the treasures of Greek 
 literature their own. In fact, a more extensive know- 
 
 ' Rem. Am. 43. * Trist. i. vi. 30. ' Metam. ii i. 
 
 ' Ibid. i. 89. = Ibid. iv. 55. « Ibid. viii. 628. 
 
 7 Ibid. iii. 407. ' Ibid. xi. 592. » Ibid. viii. 152. 
 
 " Ibid. vii. 661. " Ibid. vii. 11. 
 
THE FASTI, TRISTIA, AND EPISTLES FROM PONTUS. 323 
 
 ledge of Greek mythology may be derived from it than 
 from the Greeks themselves, because the books which 
 were the sources of his information are unfortunately 
 no longer extant. 
 
 The " Fasti " is an antiquarian poem on the Eoman 
 calendar. Originally it was intended to have formed twelve 
 books, one for each month of the year, but only the first 
 six were completed : — ^ 
 
 Sex ego Fastorum scripsi totidemque libellos 
 Oumque suo finem mense volumen habet. 
 
 It is a beautiful specimen of simple narrative in verse, 
 and displays, more than any of his works, his power of 
 telling a story, without the slightest effort, in poetry as 
 well as prose. As a profound study of Greek mythology 
 and poetry had furnished the materials for his Meta- 
 morphoses and other poems, so in this he drew principally 
 from the legends which had been preserved by the old 
 poets and annalists of his own country. 
 
 The five books of the Tristia and the four books of the 
 Epistles from Pontus were the outpourings of his sor- 
 rowful heart during the gloomy evening of his days. 
 Without the brilliancy, the wit, and the genius, which 
 beamed forth from his joyous spirit in the time of his 
 prosperity, without the graceful and inspired querulous- 
 ness of the ancient models, they are, nevertheless, con- 
 ceived in the spirit of the Greek elegy — they utter the 
 voice of complaining, and deserve the Horatian epithet 
 of miserabiles? It was natural to him to give utterance 
 to his hope and despair in song : he had sported like a 
 gay insect in the sunshine of prosperity. He was too 
 fragile, delicate, and effeminate to bear the storm of ad- 
 versity — ^his butterfly spirit was broken; but, with aU 
 his faults, that broken heart was capable of the tenderest 
 emotions, and his letter to his daughter Perilla^ is full of 
 
 Trist. ii. v. 549. ' Hor. Od. I. 33. » Lib. iii. 7. 
 
 Y 2 
 
324 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 purity and sweetness. The carelessness of one who 
 would not take the trouble to correct, and who was con- 
 scious of his dangerous facility", is compensated for by the 
 commiseration which his natural complaints excite, and 
 for the powerful descriptions which occasionally enliven 
 the monotony inseparable from grief. 
 
 His minor poems consist of an elegiac poem, " Nux," 
 in which a nut-tree bewails its hard fate and the ill- 
 treatment which it receives ; a long and bitter satire, 
 entitled Ibis, on some enemy, or, perhaps, some faith- 
 less friend ; a poem on Cosmetics (Medicamina faciei) ;' 
 another on Fishing (Halieutica) -^ and an address of con- 
 dolence to Livia Augusta. None, however, of these last 
 three are universally admitted to be genuine. Other 
 works which were the offspring of his prolific genius 
 have perished. During his exile he acqiiired sufficient 
 knowledge of the Cretan language to write some poems 
 in it ; and these were as popular with the barbarians as 
 his Latin works were at Eome. Lastly, he was the 
 author of the Medea ; a tragedy of which Quintilian says, 
 that it shows of what grand works he was capable, if he 
 had been wUling to curb instead of giving reins to the 
 luxuriance of his genius.^ Two lines only are extant ; 
 but we can judge of the conception which he formed 
 of the character, of Medea from the epistle in the 
 " Heroides," and her eminently tragic soliloquy in the 
 Metamorphoses . 
 
 Ovid was a voluptuary, but not a heartless one. The 
 age in which he lived was as immoral as himself, and far 
 more gross ; he was, therefore, neither a corrupter nor a 
 seducer. His poetry was popular, not only because of 
 its beauty, but because it was in exact accordance with 
 the spirit of the times. His wit was sometimes contrary 
 to good taste, but it was not forced and unnatural. He 
 
 ' Ar. Am. iii. 205. ' Plin. H. N. xxxii. 54. » In. Or. x. 98. 
 
GRATIUS AND ALBINOVANUS. 325 
 
 was betrayed into the appearance, not the reality of affect- 
 ation, by a luxuriance which required pruning, for which 
 he had neither patience nor inclination. He stored 
 himself with the learning of the ancients, and caught 
 their inspiration ; but their severe taste was to him a 
 trammel to which he was too self-willed and self-com- 
 placent to submit. The prevalent taste for elegiac poetry 
 pointed out the style which was suited to his cahbre ; for 
 one cannot help feeling that his genius was incapable of 
 mastering the gigantic proportions of a true epic, and, 
 notwithstanding the favourable criticism of Quintihan, oif 
 soaring to the sublimity of tragedy. 
 
 Gratius Faliscus. 
 
 The Cynegetica of Gratius, commonly, though without 
 any reason, surnamed Faliscus, may claim a place beside 
 the Haheutica of Ovid, on account of its subject, but not 
 on the score of genius, poetry, or language. Nothing is 
 known respecting this author, except that Ovid speaks of 
 him as a contemporary.' The poem is heroic, and con- 
 sists of 536 lines : its style is hard and prosaic ; it 
 describes the weapons and arts of the chase, horses and 
 hounds ; but the science is rather Greek than Itahan, and 
 the information contained in it is principally derived from 
 Xenophon.^ 
 
 Pedo Albinovanus. 
 
 Another poet of the Ovidian age was his trusty friend, 
 C. Pedo Albinovanus. He was of equestian rank,^ and, 
 unlike most of his contemporaries, an epic poet.* Ovid 
 in Ills Epistles from Pontus,* which are addressed to him, 
 apphes to him the epithet, " Sidereus," either because he 
 had written an astronomical poem, or because his subHme 
 language soared into the starry heavens. Martial speaks 
 
 ' Ep. ex Pont. iv. 16, 33. " See Bemhai-dy, Gr. 440. ' Bern. 409. 
 
 * Quint. X. 1. ' Ibid. iv. 16, 6. 
 
336 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 of him as having written epigrams which extend to the 
 length of two pages.* A fragment of an epic poem, 
 describing the voyage of Germanicus related by Tacitus, 
 is preserved by Seneca.^ Three elegies are usually 
 ascribed to him ; but their style is that of more modem 
 times, and the authority for their genuineness very 
 suspicious. 
 
 A. Sabintjs. 
 
 Another contemporary of Ovid was A. Sabiuus ; and 
 all that is known respecting him is derived from two 
 passages in the works of the former poet.^ In one of 
 these,* he teUs us that Sabinus wrote answers to six of 
 the epistles of the Heroides. None of these, however, 
 are extant. The three which profess to be written by 
 him, entitled Ulysses to Penelope, Demophoon to Phyllis, 
 and Paris to (Enone, are the work of Angelus Sabinus,® 
 a philologer and poet of the fifteenth century. 
 
 Two other works are attributed to him by Ovid in a 
 passage in which he speaks of his death.* One of these, 
 entitled Troezen, was probably an epic poem, of which 
 Theseus was the hero ;' the other, Dierum Opus, was a con- 
 tinuation of Ovid's Fasti. Other elegiac poets flourished 
 at this period, such as Proculus and Montanus ; but their 
 poetical talents were of too commonplace a character to 
 deserve special mention. They confer no obligation on 
 literature, and contribute nothing towards the illustra- 
 tion of the literary character of their times. 
 
 M. Manilius. 
 
 The astronomical and astrological poem of ManiHus 
 furnishes a series of those historical problems, which have 
 never yet been satisfactorily solved. The author has 
 
 ' Ep. ii. 77. ^ Ann. ii. 23 ; Suasor. I. ' Ex Pont. iv. 16, 13. 
 
 ' Amor. ii. 18, 27. = Bernhardy, 451. « Ep. ex Pont. iv. 16, 13. 
 
 ' Smith's Diet. Glaser. im Rhein. Mus. N. F. i. 437. 
 
POEM OP MANILIUS. 327 
 
 been in turn confounded witli every one whom Eoman 
 records mention as bearing tbat name, and in all cases 
 with equally little reason. No one knows when he 
 flourished, where he Hved, and of what place he was a 
 native. Bentley determined that he was an Asiatic; 
 Huet that he was a Carthaginian. Internal evidence 
 renders it most probable that he hved in the reign of 
 Tiberius ;^ and yet neither he nor his poem are ever men- 
 tioned by any ancient author. His work was never 
 discovered until the begraning of the fifteenth century ; 
 probably it had never been pubHshed, but only a few 
 copies had been made, some of which have been marvel- 
 lously preserved. 
 
 The philosophical principles of the poem are those of 
 a Stoical Pantheism. As one principle of life pervades 
 the whole universe, there is a close connexion between 
 tilings celestial and things terrestrial. In consequence of 
 this relation, the astrologer can determine the course of 
 the latter by observation of the heavenly bodies. Together 
 with all the assumptions and absurdities of astrology are 
 miagled extensive knowledge of the state of astronomical 
 science in his day : gleams of truth shoot like meteors 
 athwart the darkness. The subject which he has chosen 
 is as unpromising for poetical effect and embeUishment 
 as that of Lucretius ; but he does not handle it so suc- 
 cessfully : he has neither the boldness of thought, the 
 dignity of language, nor the imaginative grandeur which 
 marked the old poet-philosopher. The poem is incom- 
 plete ; and probably owes some of its roughness and 
 obscurity to its never having been corrected for pub- 
 lication. 
 
 ' Lib. i. 798—897 ; iv. 763. 
 
338 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PROSE WRITERS— INFLUENCE OF CICERO UPON THE LANGUAGE— 
 HIS CONVERSE WITH HIS FRIENDS— HIS EARLY LIFE — PLEADS 
 HIS FIRST CAUSE— IS QU.SSTOR, ^DILE, PR^TOR, AND CONSUL 
 — HIS EXILE, RETURN, AND PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION— 
 HIS VACILLATING CONDUCT — HE DELIVERS HIS PHILIPPICS — 
 IS PROSCRIBED AND ASSASSINATED — HIS CHARACTER. 
 
 As oratory gave to Latin prose-writing its elegance and 
 (Jignity, Cicero is not only the representative of the 
 flourishing period of the language, blit also the instru- 
 mental cause of its arriving at perfection. Circumstandes 
 may have been favourable to his influence. The national 
 mind may have been in that stage of progress which 
 only required a master-genius to develop it ; but still it 
 was he who gave a fixed character to the language, who 
 showed his countrymen what eloquence especially was 
 in its combraation of the precepts of art and the prin- 
 ciples of natural beauty ; what the vigour of Latin was, 
 and of what elegance and polish it was capable. 
 
 His age was not an age of poetry ; but he paved the 
 way for poetry by investing the language with those 
 graces which are indispensable to its perfection. He 
 freed it from all coarseness and harshness, and accus- 
 tomed the educated classes to use language, even in their 
 every-day conversation, which never called up gross ideas, 
 but was fit for pure and noble sentiments. Before his> 
 time, Latin was plain-spoken, and therefore vigorous ; 
 but the penalty which was paid for this was, that it was 
 sometimes gross and even indecent. The conversational 
 
PHILOSOPHICAL CONVERSATION. 329 
 
 language of the upper classes became in the days of 
 Cicero in the highest degree refined : it admitted scarcely 
 an offensive expression. The truth of this assertion is 
 evident from those of his writings which are of the most 
 familiar character — ^from his graphic Dialogues, in which 
 he describes the circumstances as naturally as if they 
 really occurred ; from his Letters to Atticus, iu which he 
 lays open the secret thoughts of his heart to his most 
 intimate friend, his second self. Cicero purified the 
 language morally as well as aesthetically. It was the 
 licentious wantonness of the poets which degraded the 
 pleasures of the imagination by pandering to the passions, 
 at first in language delicately veiled, and then by open 
 and disgusting sensuality. 
 
 It is difficult for us, perhaps, to whom religion comes 
 under the aspect of revelation separate from philosophy, 
 and who consider the philosophical investigation! of moral 
 subjects as different from the rehgious view of morals, to 
 form an adequate conception of the pure and almost holy 
 nature of the conversations of Cicero and his distin- 
 guished contemporaries. To them philosophy was the 
 contemplation of the nature and attributes of the Supreme 
 Being. The metaphysical analysis of the iutemal nature 
 of man was the study of immortality and the evidence for 
 another hfe. Cato, for example, read the Phsedo of 
 Plato iu his last moments in the same serious spirit in 
 which the Christian would read the words of inspiration. 
 The study of ethics was that of the sanctions with which 
 God has supported duty and enlightened the conscience. 
 They were the highest subjects with which the mind of 
 man could be conversant. For men to meet together, as 
 was the habitual practice of Cicero and his friends, and 
 pass their leisure hours in such discussions, was the same 
 as if Christians were to make the great truths of the 
 (lospel the subjects of social converse. 
 
 Again, if we examine the character of their lighter 
 
330 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 conversations when they turned from philosophy to 
 literature, — ^it was not mere gossip on the popular litera- 
 ture of the day — it was not even confined to works written 
 in their native tongue — it embraced the whole field of 
 the hterature of a foreign nation. They talked of poets, 
 orators, philosophers, and historians, who were ancients 
 to them as they are to us. They did not then think the 
 subject of a foreign and ancient literature dull or pedantic. 
 They did not consider it necessary that conversation 
 should be trifling or frivolous in order to be entertaining. 
 Nor was the influence which Cicero exercised on the 
 literature of his day merely extensive, but it was per- 
 manent. The great men of whom he was the leader 
 and guide caught his spirit. His influence survived 
 until external pohtical causes destroyed eloquence, and 
 its place was supplied by a cold and formal rhetoric : it 
 was felt almost until the language was corrupted by the 
 admixture of barbarisms. It may be discerned in the 
 soldier-hke plaumess of Caesar, iu the Herodotean narrative 
 of Livy, and its sweetness without its diffaseness occa- 
 sionally adorns the reflective pages of Tacitus. 
 
 . It is difficult in a limited space to do justice to Cicero, 
 even as a Hterary man : such was his versatihty of 
 genius, such his indefatigable industry, so vast the range 
 of subjects which he touched and adorned. Of course, 
 therefore, it is impossible to do more than rapidly glance 
 at the leading events of his political career, or at his 
 public character, since his history is, in fact, a history of 
 his stirring and critical times. 
 
 M. TuLLiBs Cicero (born b.c. 106). 
 
 On the banks of the noiseless and gently-flowing^ Liris 
 (Garigliano), near Arpinum, the birthplace of Marius,* 
 
 ' Hor. Od. I. xxxi. 
 
 ^ Cicero, notwithstanding his opposite politics, admired Marius, to whom 
 he was distantly related, and thought it an honour to have been boni near 
 
EARLY LIFE OF CICERO. 331 
 
 lived a Roman knight named M. Tullius Cicero. A com- 
 petent hereditary estate enabled him to devote his time 
 to literary pursuits. He had two sons : the elder, who 
 bore his father's name, was bom January 3rd, B.C. 106. 
 The other, Quintils, was about four years younger. As 
 both, and Marcus especially, displayed quick talents and 
 a Uvely disposition, and gave promise of inheriting their 
 father's taste for learning, he migrated to Rome, when 
 Marcus was about fourteen years of age. The boys 
 were educated with their cousins, the young Aculei.' 
 Q. iEUus'' taught them grammar; learned Ghreeks in- 
 structed them in philosophy ; and the poet Archias exer- 
 cised them in the technical rules of verse, although he 
 did not succeed in giving them the inspiration of poetry. 
 Quintus prided himself on his poetical skill ; and a poem 
 by him, on the twelve zodiacal signs, is stiU extant.* 
 Cicero also had in his boyhood some poetical taste ; and 
 there is great elegance in the translations from the Greek 
 which we meet with in his works. He wrote a poem 
 in hexameters, entitled " Pontius Grlaucus," as a sort of 
 juvenile exercise, which was extant in the time of Plu- 
 tarch ; and also one when he was a young man, in praise 
 of Marius. 
 
 After assuming the toga virilis at sixteen years of age, 
 M. T. Cicero attended the forum diligently ; and, by care- 
 fully exercising himself in composition, made the elo- 
 quence of the celebrated orators whom he heard his own, 
 whilst from the lectures and advice of Q. Mucins Scsevola, 
 he acquired the principles of Roman jurisprudence. 
 
 He served but httle in the armies of his country : his 
 
 Arpinum. He quotes a saying of Pompey's (Cic. de Leg. ii. 3), that Ar- 
 pinum had produced two citizens who had preserved Italy. Valerius 
 Maximus thinks that Arpinum, in this respect, enjoyed a smgulai- 
 privilege :— Couspicuaj fehcitatis Arpinum unicum, sive Utterarum glorio- 
 sissimum contemptorem, sive abundantissimum fontem intueri velis. 
 > De Orat. ii. 1. ' Brut. 56. ' Meyer, Anthol. Eom. 66. 
 
832 EOMAN CLASSICAL LITERATUKE. 
 
 only campaign^ was made iinder the father of Pompey 
 the Great in the Social war. Ihmiig the remainder of 
 this period, Moio, the Ehodian rhetorician, instructed 
 him in oratory, whilst Diodotus the Stoic, Phsedrus the 
 Epicurean, and Philo, who had presided over the New 
 Academy at Athens, were his masters in philosophy. 
 The various schools, the principles of which he thus 
 imbibed, led to the eclecticism which characterises his 
 philosophical creed. The bloody era of the Marian 
 and Sullan war was passed by him in study : he did not 
 interfere in politics, and the fruits of his retirement arfe 
 extant in the treatise de Inventione Rhetorica. 
 
 At twenty-five, he pleaded his first cause,^ and in the 
 following year defended S. Eoscius of Ameria ; but his 
 constitution was not strong enough to bear great exertion. 
 His friends, therefore, induced him to travel, and he de- 
 termined to pass some time at Athens.^ There was also 
 another reason for this recommendation. His courageous 
 defence of Eoscius had provoked the enmity of Chry- 
 sogonus, a creature of Sulla, and it was therefore dan- 
 gerous for him to remain at Eome. He was accompanied 
 by his brother Quintus,* and found Pomponius Atticus 
 residing there, who afterwards became his most intimate 
 friend. Prom Athens he travelled to Asia and Ehodes, 
 employing his time in the cultivation of oratory, his 
 principal study at Athens having been philosophy. From 
 Asia he returned to Eome^ with improved health and 
 invigorated constitution; where he found a powerful 
 rival as an orator, in Hortensius, who was then at the 
 zenith of his popularity. 
 
 As soon as he was old enough,* he was elected quaestor, 
 and the province of Sicily was allotted to him. In the 
 exercise of this office, the 'unusual mildness and integrity 
 
 ' B. c. 89. " Pro Quint, b. c. 81. » b. c. 79. ■■ De Fin. 5, 1. 
 
 ^B. c. 77. " B.C. 76; set. 31. 
 
CICERO iEDILE, PR^TOE, AND CONSUL. 833 
 
 of his administration endeared him to the provincials; 
 whilst the judgment with which he regulated the supplies 
 of corn from this granary of Eome, gained him equal > 
 credit with his fellow-countrymen. It was during his 
 stay in Sicily that his love of antiquarianism was gratified 
 by the discovery of the tomb of Archimedes.^ On his 
 return home ^ he resumed his forensic practice ; and, in 
 B.C. 70, was the champion of his old friends the SiciHans, 
 and impeached Verres, who had been praetor of Syracuse, 
 for oppression and mal-administration. In the following 
 year^ he was elected curule sedile by a triumphant 
 majority. In the celebration of the games which be- 
 longed to the province of this magistrate, he exhibited 
 great prudence by avoiding the lavish expenditure in 
 which so many were accustomed to indulge, whilst, at 
 the same time, no one could accuse him of meanness and 
 illiberaHty. 
 
 In the year b.c. 67, he obtained the prsetorship, and, 
 notwithstanding the judicial duties of his office, defended 
 Cluentius. Hitherto his speeches had been entirely of 
 the judicial kind. He now for the first time distiaguished 
 himself as a deliberative orator, and supported the 
 Manihan law, which conferred upon Pompey, to the dis- 
 comfiture of the aristocratic party, the command in chief 
 of the Mithridatic war. 
 
 The great object of his ambition now was the consul- 
 ship, which seemed almost inaccessible to a new man. 
 As all difficulties and prejudices were on the side of the 
 aristocratic party, his only hope of surmounting them 
 was by warmly espousing the cause of the people. 
 
 CatiUne and C. Antonius, who were his principal com- 
 petitors, formed a coalition, and were supported by Caesar 
 and Orassus ; but the influence of Pompey and the popular 
 party prevailed, and Cicero and Antony were elected. 
 
 ' T. Q. V. 3. ' B. c. 74. " B. c. 69. 
 
334 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 He entered upon his office January 1, B.C. 63. At 
 this period, perhaps, the moral qualities of his character 
 are the highest, and his genius shines forth with the 
 brightest splendour. 
 
 The conspiracy of Catiline was the great event of his 
 consulship : a plot which its historian does not hesitate to 
 dignify with the title of a war. Yet this war was 
 crushed in an unparalleled short space of time ; and a 
 splendid triumph was gained over so formidable an 
 enemy, by one who wore the peaceful toga, not the 
 habiHments of a general. The prudence and tact of the 
 civilian did as good service as the courage and decision of 
 the soldier. The applause and gratitude of his feUoW- 
 citizens were unbounded, and all united in hailing him 
 the father of his country. One act alone laid him open 
 to attack, and in fact eventually caused his ruin. There 
 is no doubt that it was unconstitutional, although. under 
 the circumstances it was defensible, perhaps scarcely to 
 be avoided. This act was the execution of Lentulus, 
 Cethegus, and the other ringleaders, without sentence 
 being passed upon them by the comitia. The senate, 
 seeing that the danger was imminent, had invested Cicero 
 and his colleague with power to do all that the exigencies 
 of the State might require {videre ne quid respuhlica detri- 
 menti caperef) ; and although it was Cicero who recom- 
 mended the measure and argued in its favour, it was the 
 senate who pronounced the sentence, and assumed that, as 
 traitors, the conspirators had forfeited their rights as 
 citizens. 
 
 The grateful people saw this clearly ; and when MeteUus 
 Celer, one of the tribunes, would have prevented Cicero 
 from giving an account of his administration at the close 
 of the consular year, he swore that he had saved his 
 country, and his oath was confirmed by the acclamations 
 of the multitude. This was a great triumph ; and in 
 sadder times he looked back to it with a justifiable self- 
 
ACQUITTAL OF CLODITJS. 335 
 
 complacency.' He now, as though his mission was 
 accomplished, refused all pubHc dignities except that of a 
 senator : but he did not thus escape peril ; he soon exposed 
 himself to the implacable vengeance of a powerful and 
 unscrupulous enemy. The infamous P. Clodius Pulcher 
 intruded himself in female attire into the rites of 
 the Bona Dea, which were celebrated in the house of 
 Caesar. Suspicion fell upon Csesar's wife, and a divorce 
 was the consequence.^ Clodius was brought to trial 
 on the charge of sacrilege, and pleaded an alibi. Cicero, 
 however, proved his presence in Rome on the very 
 day on which the accused asserted that he was at Inter- 
 amnum.. 
 
 Although the guilt of Clodius was fuUy estabhshed, 
 his influence over the corrupt Roman judices was power- 
 ful enough to procure an acquittal. Henceforward he 
 never could forgive Cicero, and determined to work his 
 ruin. He caused himself to be adopted in a plebeian 
 family ; and thus becoming qualified for the tribunate was 
 elected to that magistracy, B.C. 59. No sooner was he 
 appointed, than he proposed a biU for the outlawry of 
 any one who had caused the execution of a citizen with- 
 out trial. Cicero at once saw that this blow was aimed 
 against himself. He had disgusted Caesar by his po- 
 litical coquetry ; the false and seMsh Pompey refused to 
 aid him in his trouble ; and, spirit-broken, he fled to Brun- 
 disium,' and thence to Thessalonica. He had an inter- 
 view with Pompey before his flight, but it led to no 
 results.* He had sworn to help him as long as he felt 
 that there was danger lest he should join Caesar's party ; 
 but when he saw that his foes were successful, he de- 
 serted him. 
 
 In his absence his exile was decreed, and his town and 
 country houses given up to plunder. It cannot be denied 
 
 ' In Pis. iii. ; ad Fam. v. 2. » b. c. 61. " b. c. 58. " Ad Att. x. 4. 
 
336 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATUEE. 
 
 that during his banishment he exhibited weakness and 
 pusillanimity : his reverses had such an effect upon his 
 mind that he was even supposed to be mad.' His great 
 fault was vanity, of which defect he was himself conscious, 
 and confessed it -^ and disappointed vanity was the cause 
 of his affliction. He could bear anything better than the 
 loss of popular applause ; and on this occasion, more than 
 any other, he gave grounds for the assertion, that " he 
 bore none of his calamities like a man, except his death." 
 Rome, however, could not forget her preserver ; and in 
 the following year he was recalled, and entered Eome 
 in triumph, in the midst of the loud plaudits of the 
 assembled people.^ Still, however, he was obliged to 
 secure the prosperity which he had recovered by political 
 tergiversation. The measures of the triumvirate, which 
 he had formerly attacked with the utmost virulence, he 
 did not hesitate now to approve and defend. 
 
 After his return* he was appointed to a seat in the 
 College of Augurs ; a dignity which he had anxiously 
 coveted before his exile, and to obtain which, he had 
 offered almost any terms to CiBsar and Pompey.^ The 
 following year, much against his will, the province of 
 Cilicia was assigned to him. Strictly did the accuser of 
 Verres act up to the high and honourable principles 
 which he professed. His was a model administration : a 
 stop was put to corruption, wrongs were redressed, jus- 
 tice impartially administered. Those great occasions on 
 which he was compelled to act on his own responsibihty, 
 and to listen to the dictates of his beautiful soul, " seine 
 sch'one seele,"^ his pure, honest, and incorruptible heart, 
 are the bright points in Cicero's career. The emergency 
 of the occasion overcame his constitutional timidity. 
 
 In the year B.C. 49, he returned to Eome, and finding 
 
 • Ad Fam. x. iv. 4 ; ad Att. iii. 13. " Pro Planco, 26. 
 
 ' In Pis. xiii. ; Post red. xv. * b. c. 53. ' Att. ii. 5. 
 
 " Niebuhr. 
 
VACILLATING CONDUCT OF CICERO. 337 
 
 himself in a position in which he could calmly observe 
 the cnrrent of affairs, and determine unbiassed what part 
 he should take in them, or whether it was his duty to 
 take any part at all. His weak, wavering, vacillating 
 temper, again got the mastery over him. He would not 
 do anything dishonest, but he was not chivalorous enough 
 to spurn at once that which was dishonourable. Caesar 
 and Pompey were now at open war, and he could not 
 make up his mind which to join.' He felt, probably, + 
 that the energy, abUityj and firmness of Csesar, would be 
 crowned with success ; and yet his friends, his party, and 
 his own heart were with Pompey, and he dreaded the 
 scorn which would be heaped upon him if he forsook his 
 political opinions. His were not the stern, unyielding 
 principles of a Cato ; but the fear of what men would say 
 of him made him anxious and miserable. The struggle 
 was a long one between caution and honour, but at length 
 honour overcame caution. He made his decision, and 
 went to the camp of Pompey ; but he could never rally 
 his spirits, or feel sanguine as to the result. He im- 
 mediately saw that PharsaHa decided the question for 
 ever, and consequently hastened to Brundisium, where he 
 awaited the return of the conqueror. It was a long time 
 to remain in suspense ; but at last the generous Csesar 
 relieved him from it by a full and free pardon. 
 
 And now again his character rose higher, and his good o 
 qualities had room to display themselves. There were 
 no longer equally-balanced parties to revive the discord 
 which formerly (hstracted his mind, nor were the circum- 
 stances of the times such as to demand his active inter- 
 ference in the cause of his country ; but he was as great 
 in the exercise of his contemplative faculties as he had 
 been in the brightest period of his political hfe. The 
 same faults may, perhaps, be discerned in his philosophical 
 
 ' See Letters to Att. passim. 
 
338 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 speculations : the same indecision which rendered him in- 
 capable of being a statesman or a patriot caused him to 
 adopt in philosophy a sceptical eclecticism. Truth was 
 to him as variable as political honesty ; but he is always 
 the advocate and supporter of resignation, and fortitude, 
 and purity, and virtue. 
 
 He had hitherto suffered as a public man : he was now 
 bowed down by domestic affliction. A quarrel with his 
 wife Terentia ended in a divorce :* such was the facility 
 with which at Eome the nuptial tie could be severed. 
 His second wife was his own ward — a young lady of large 
 fortune ; but disparity of years and temper prevented this 
 connexion from lasting long. In B.C. 45 he lost his 
 daughter TulHa. The blow was overwhelming : he 
 sought in vain to soothe his grief in the woody solitudes 
 of his maritime villa at Astura, and it was long before 
 the bereaved father found consolation in philosophy. 
 
 The political crisis which ensued upon the assassination 
 of Caesar alarmed him for his own personal safety, he, 
 therefore, meditated a voyage to Greece : but being wind- 
 bound at Ehegium, the hopes of an accommodation be- 
 tween Antony and the senate (a hope destined not to be 
 realized) induced him to return. Antony now left Eome, 
 and Cicero delivered that torrent of indignant and elo- 
 quent invective — ^his twelve Philippic orations." He was 
 again the popular idol — crowds of applauding and admir- 
 ing fellow-citizens attended him to the Forum in a kind 
 of triumphant procession, as they had on his return from 
 exile. But soon the second triumviate was formed. 
 Each member readily gave up friends to satisfy the ven- 
 geance of his colleagues, and Octavius sacrificed Cicero. 
 
 The story of his death is a brief and sad one. He was 
 enjoying the literary retirement of his Tusculan villa 
 when his friends warned him of his approaching fate. 
 
 ' B. c. 46. " B. 0. 43. 
 
DEATH OF CICERO. 339 
 
 He was too great a philosopher to fear death ; but too high- 
 principled and resigned to the Divine will to commit sui- 
 cide. Still he scarcely thought life worth preserving : " I 
 will die," he said, " in my fatherland, which I have so often 
 saved." However, at the entreaty of his brother, to whom 
 he was affectionately attached, he endeavoured to escape. 
 He first went across the country to Astura, and there em- 
 barked. The weather was tempestuous, and as he suffered 
 much from sea-sickness, he again landed at Graeta. A 
 treacherous freedman betrayed him, and as he was being 
 carried in a litter he was overtaken by his pursuers. He 
 would not permit his attendants to make any resistance ; 
 but patiently and courageously submitted to the sword of 
 the assassins, who cut off his head and hands and carried 
 them to Antony. A savage joy sparkled in the eyes of 
 the triumvir at the sight of these bloody trophies. His 
 wife, Fulvia, gloated with inhuman dehght upon the 
 pallid features, and in petty spite pierced with a needle 
 that once eloquent tongue. The head and hands were 
 fixed upon the rostrum which had so often witnessed his 
 unequalled eloquence. All that passed by bewailed his 
 death, and gave vent to their affectionate feelings. 
 
 Although it is impossible to be blind to the numerous 
 faults of Cicero, few men have been more maligned and 
 misrepresented, and the judgment of antiquity has been, 
 upon the whole, generally unfavourable. He was vain, 
 vacillating, inconstant, constitutionally timid, and the 
 victim of a morbid sensibility ; but he was candid, truth- 
 ful, just, generous, pure-minded, and warm-hearted. His 
 amiability, acted upon by timidity, led him to set too high 
 a value on public esteem and favour ; and this weakened 
 his moral sense and his instinctive love of virtue. That 
 he possessed heroism is proved by his defence of Eoscius, 
 although the favourite of the terrible SuUawas his adver- 
 sary. He was not entirely destitute of decision, or he 
 would not so promptly have expressed his approbation of 
 
 z 3 
 
340 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Caesar's assassins as tyrannicides. He had resolution to 
 strive against his over-sensitiveness, and wisdom to see that 
 mental occupation was its best remedy ; for in the midst of 
 the distractions and anxieties of that eventful and critical 
 year which preceded the consulship of Hirtius and Pansa an 
 almost incredible number of works proceeded from his pen.* 
 
 4- There are many circumstances to account for his poli- 
 tical inconsistency and indecision. He had an early pre- 
 dilection for the aristocratic party ; but he saw that they 
 were narrow-minded and behind their age. All the 
 patricians, except Sulla and his small party, were on the 
 popular side. He was proud of his connexion with 
 Marius ; and his friend Sulpicius Eufas, whom he greatly 
 admired, joined the Marians. For these reasons, Cicero 
 was inconsistent as a politician. Again, during periods 
 of revolutionary turbulence, moderate men are detested 
 by both sides ; and yet it was impossible for a philosopMc 
 temper, which could cahnly and dispassionately weigh the 
 merits and demerits of both, to sympathise warmly with 
 either. Cicero saw that both were wrong : he was too 
 temperate to approve, too honest to pretend a zeal which 
 he did not feel, and, therefore, he was undecided. 
 
 1 Again, having a large benevolence, and a firm faith in 
 
 virtue, he was unconscious of guile himself, and thought 
 no evil of others. He therefore mistook flattery for sin- 
 cerity, and comphments for kindness. He was vain ; but 
 vanity is a weakness not inconsistent with great minds, 
 and in the case of Cicero it was fed by the unanimous 
 voice of pubHc approbation. 
 
 As an advocate his dehght was to defend, not to 
 accuse.^ In three only of his twenty-four orations did 
 he undertake the ofiice of an accuser. 
 
 ' Gentle, sympathising, and affectionate, he lived as a 
 
 patriot and died as a philosopher. 
 
 ' He wrote during that year the De Officiis, De Divinatione, Be Fato, 
 Topica, and the lost treatise De Gloria, besides a vast number of Letters. 
 " Pro Mursena, 3. 
 
( 341 ) 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 CICEBO NO HISTORIAN — HIS ORATORICAL STYLE DEFENDED — ITS 
 PRINCIPAL CHARM — OBSERVATIONS ON HIS FORENSIC ORATIONS 
 — HIS ORATORY ESSENTIALLY JUDICUL — POLITICAL ORATIONS 
 — RHETORICAL TREATISES — THE OBJECT OF HIS PHILOSOPHICAL 
 WORKS — CHARACTERISTICS OF ROMAN PHILOSOPHICAL LITERA- 
 TURE—PHILOSOPHY OF CICERO — HIS POLITICAL WORKS — 
 LETTERS — HIS CORRESPONDENTS — VARRO. 
 
 Such were the life and character of Cicero. The place 
 which he occupies in a history of Eoman Uterature is that 
 of an orator and philosopher. It has been aheady stated 
 that he had some taste for poetry: ia fact, without 
 imagination he could scarcely have been so eminent as 
 an orator ; but though the power which he wielded over 
 prose was irresistible, he had not fancy enough to give 
 a poetical character to the language. 
 
 Nor had he, notwithstanding the versatility of his 
 talents, any taste for historical investigation. He de- 
 lighted to read the Grreek historians, for the same purpose 
 for which he studied the Attic orators, merely as an 
 instrument of intellectual cultivation ; but he was igno- 
 rant of Eoman history, because he took no interest in 
 original research. His countrymen^ expected from him 
 an historical work, but he was unfit for the task. It is 
 plain from his " Republic," how little he knew as an 
 antiquarian. 
 
 The greatest praise of an orator's style is to say that 
 he was successful. The end and object of oratory is to 
 
 ' De Leg., introduction. 
 
343 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 convince and persuade^— to rivet the attention of the 
 hearer, and to gain a mastery over the minds of men. 
 If, therefore, any who study the speeches of Cicero in the 
 closet find faults in his style, they must remember that 
 the very faults themselves were suited to the object 
 which he was carrying into execution. During the 
 process of raising the public taste to the highest 
 standard, he carried his hearers with him : he was not 
 too much in advance ; he did not aim his shafts too high ; 
 they hit the head and heart. Senate, judges, people 
 understood his arguments, and felt his passionate appeals. 
 Compared with the dignified energy and majestic vigour 
 of the Athenian orator, the Asiatic exuberance of some 
 of his orations may be fatiguing to the sober and chas- 
 tened taste of the modem classical scholar ; but in order 
 to form a just appreciation, he must transport himself 
 mentally to the excitements of the thronged Forum — ^to 
 the senate composed, not of aged, venerable men, but 
 3tatesmen and warriors in the prime of life, maddened 
 with the party spirit of revolutionary times — ^to the 
 presence of the jury of jvdices, as numerous as a deli- 
 berative assembly, whose office was not merely calmly to 
 give their verdict of guilty or not guilty, but who were 
 invested as representatives of the sovereign people with 
 the prerogative of pardoning or condemning. 
 
 Viewed in this hght, his most florid passages will 
 appear free from affectation — ^the natural flow of a speaker 
 carried away with the torrent of his enthusiasm. The 
 melodious rise and fall of his periods are not the result 
 of studied effect, but of a true and musical ear. Un- 
 doubtedly, amongst his earlier orations are to be found 
 passages somewhat too declamatory and inconsistent wit^ 
 the principles which he afterwards laid down when his 
 taste was more matured, and when he undertook to write 
 scientifically on the theory of eloquence. Nor must it be 
 concealed that some of the staid and stem Eomans of his 
 
THE CHAUM OF CICERONIAN ORATOEY. 343 
 
 own days were daring enougli, notwithstanding his 
 popularity and success, to find the same fault with him. 
 " Suorum temporum hoimnes," says Quintilian, "in- 
 cessere audebant eum ut tumidiorem et Asianum^ et 
 redundantem et in repetitionibus nimium et in salibus 
 aliquando frigidum et in compositione fractum et ex- 
 sultantem et pene viro molHorem." 
 
 But it is not only the brilliance and variety of ex- 
 pression, and the finely -modulated periods, which con- 
 stituted the principal charm of Ciceronian oratory, and 
 rendered it so effective. Its effectiveness was mainly 
 owing to the great orator's knowledge of the human 
 heart, and of the national peculiarities of his countrymen. 
 Its charm was owing to his extensive acquaintance with 
 the stores of Hterature and philosophy, which liis sprightly 
 wit moulded at wiU, to the varied learning which his 
 unpedantic mind made so pleasant and popular, to his 
 fund of illustration at once interesting and convincing. 
 Even if his knowledge, because it spread over so wide a 
 surface, was superficial, in this case profoundness was 
 unnecessary. 
 
 In a work like the present it is only possible to devote 
 a few brief observations to the most important of his 
 numerous orations, in which, according to the criticism of 
 Quintilian, he combined the force of Demosthenes, the 
 copiousness of Plato, and the elegance of Isocrates. 
 Knowledge of law, far superior to that possessed by the 
 
 ' Poverty and barrenness were most probably instrumental in producing 
 the diffuseness and exuberance of the Asiatic and Rhodian schools. Their 
 literature and philosophy were deficient in matter, and they sought to 
 hide this defect by the external ornaments of language. For a long time 
 Athens, strong in her pure classic taste, successfully resisted this influ- 
 ence ; and in the time of Cicero the tastes of the two schools were in 
 direct opposition. But the flowers of rhetoric are captivatmg : another 
 generation saw the supremacy of rhetoric at Rome ; and the days of Petro- 
 nius Arbiter (Satyr, book ii.) witnessed the migration of Asiatic taste to 
 Athens. 
 
344 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE, 
 
 great orators of the day/ distinguishes his earhest extant 
 oration, the defence of P. Quinctius.^ Hortensius was 
 the defendant's counsel. Nsevius, the defendant, who 
 had unjustly possessed himself of the property of the 
 plaintiff's deceased brother, was a deserter from the 
 Marians, and therefore a protege of SyUa ; but, notwith- 
 standing these disadvantages, Cicero gained his cause. 
 In the masterly defence of S. -Eoscius,* Cicero again 
 defied Sulla. His client was accused of parricide : there 
 was not a shadow of proof, and Cicero saved the life of an 
 innocent man. The noble enthusiasm with which he 
 inveighs against tyranny in this oration strikingly con- 
 trasts with the language, ftdl of sweetness, ia which he 
 describes Eoman rural life. The passage on parricide was 
 too glowing and Asiatic for the taste of his maturer 
 years, and he did not hesitate to make it the subject of 
 severe criticism.* Passing over speeches of less interest, 
 we come to the six celebrated Verrian orations. Of these 
 chefs-d'oeuvre the first only was deHvered.® The others 
 were merely published; for the voluntary exile of the 
 criminal rendered further pleading unnecessary. The 
 first is entitled " Divinatio," i. e., an inquiry as to who 
 should have the right of prosecuting : Csecilius, who had 
 been qusestor to the accused, claimed this privilege, 
 wishing to make the suit a friendly one, and thus quash 
 the proceedings. Nothing can surpass the ironical and 
 sarcastic exposure of this fraudulent attempt to defeat the 
 ends of justice. The noble passages in the succeeding 
 orations of the series are well known ; the sketch of the 
 wicked proconsul's antecedent career ; the graceful eulogy 
 
 ' Cicero tells us (de Orat. i. 57, 58) that Galba, Antony, and Sulpicius 
 were ignorant of jurisprudence ; that the chief requisites were elegance, 
 wit, pathos, &c. For legal knowledge they trusted to jurisconsults. In the 
 oration pro Murcsna, even he himself sneers at a technical knowledge of 
 law. 
 
 ^DeliveredB. c. 81. ' b. c. 80. * De Orat ' b. o. '/O. 
 
PRINCIPAL FORENSIC ORATIONS. 345 
 
 df that pro-vince, in the welfare of which Cicero himself 
 felt so warm an interest ; the tasteful description of the 
 statues and antiquities which tempted the more than 
 Eoman cupidity of Yerres; the interesting history of 
 ancient art which accompanies it ; the burst of pathetic 
 indignation with which he paints the horrible tortures to 
 which not only the provincials, but even Eoman citizens, 
 were exposed. Transports of joy pervaded the whole of 
 Sicily at Cicero's success ; and the Sicilians caused a medal 
 to be struck with this inscription — " Prostrato Verre 
 Trinacria." The oration for Fonteius' is a skUftd 
 defence of an unpopular governor; that in defence of 
 Cluentius^ is one of the most remarkable causes cilebres 
 of antiquity ; and the complicated scene of villany which 
 Cicero's forcible and soul-harrowing language paints, 
 makes one shudder with horror, whilst we are struck 
 with admiration at the clearness of intellect with which 
 he unravels the web of guilt woven by Oppianicus and 
 Sassia. This remarkable oration has been analysed by 
 Dr. Blair.^ 
 
 Again passing over other forensic orations we come to 
 that on which he had evidently expended all his resources 
 of art, taste, and skill, — the speech for the poet Archias.* 
 If possible it is even too elaborate and poHshed for so 
 graceful a theme. Although the object of the advocate 
 was simply to estabhsh the right of his client to Eoman 
 citizenship, the genius of the poet of Antioch furnished an 
 opportunity not to be neglected for digressing into the 
 fields of literature, and for pronouncing a truly academical 
 eulogium on poetry. It is satisfactory to the admirers of 
 Cicero to find that the attack which has been made on the 
 genuineness of this pleasing oration is groundless and 
 unwarrantable.® 
 
 ' B. c. 69. " B. c. 66. ' Belles Lettres, Leot. xxviii. 
 
 * B. c. 61. ' Schroter. Lips. 1818. 
 
346 EOMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 The oration pro Ccelio^ is tlie most entertaining ia the 
 whole collection. It contains a rich fund of anecdote, 
 seasoned with witty observations ; a knowledge of human 
 nature illustrated in a piquant and humorous style, 
 expressed in a tone of the most gentlemanlike yet playful 
 eloquence, and interspersed with passages of great beauty. 
 It presents a marked contrast to the coarse personal 
 abuse which defaces the otherwise powerful invective 
 against L. Piso, which was dehvered in the following 
 year.^ 
 
 The Hst, though many more marvellous specimens are 
 omitted, must be closed with the oration in defence of 
 T. Annius MHo. On this occasion Cicero lost his wonted 
 self-possession. When the court opened, Pompey was 
 presiding on the bench, and he had caused the Porum to 
 be occupied with soldiers. The sight, added, perhaps, to 
 the consciousness that he was advocating a bad cause, 
 struck Cicero with alarm ; his voice trembled, his tongue 
 refused to give utterance to the conceptions which he had 
 formed. The judges were unmoved ; and MUo remained 
 in his self-imposed exile at Marseilles. When Cicero left 
 the court his courage and calmness returned. He penned 
 the oration which is now extant. He had Httle or no 
 proof or evidence to offer, and, therefore, as an argu- 
 mentative work, it is unconvincing ; but for force, pathos, 
 and the externals of eloquence, it deserves to be reckoned 
 amongst his most wonderful efforts. When the exiled 
 Milo read it, he is said to have exclaimed, " 0, Cicero, if 
 you had pleaded so, I should not be eating such capital 
 fish here !" The author himself and his contemporaries 
 thought this his finest oration ; probably its deficiencies 
 were concealed by its eloquence and ingenuity. It 
 appears that the oration which he actually delivered was 
 taken down in writing by reporters, and was extant in 
 
 ' B.C. 56. "B.C. 55. 
 
POLITICAL ORATIONS. 347 
 
 the time of Asconius Pedianus, the most ancient com- 
 mentator on Cicero's orations.' Its feebleness proved the 
 correctness of the judgment of antiquity. 
 
 The oratory of Cicero was essentially judicial : he was 
 himself conscious that his talents lay in that direction, 
 and he saw that in that field was the best opportunity for 
 displaying oratorical power. Even his political orations 
 are rather judicial than dehberative. He was not bom 
 for a poHtician. He possessed not that analytical cha- 
 racter of mind which penetrates into the remote causes of 
 human action, nor the synthetical power which enables a 
 man to foUow them out to their farthest consequences : 
 he had not that comprehensive grasp of mind which can 
 dismiss at once all points of minor importance and useless 
 speculation, and, seizing all the salient points, can bring 
 them to bear together upon questions of practical expe- 
 diency. Of the three qualities necessary for a statesman 
 he possessed only two, honesty and patriotism : he had 
 not political wisdom. 
 
 Hence, in the finest specimens of his political 
 harangues, his Catilinarians and Philippics, and that in 
 support of the Manilian law, we look in vain for the 
 calm practical weighing of the subject which is necessary 
 in addressing a deliberative assembly. This was not the 
 habit of his mind. He was only lashed to action by 
 circumstances of great emergency ; but even then he is 
 stiU. an advocate — all is excitement, personal feeling, and 
 party spirit : he deals in invective and panegyric, and the 
 denunciation of the enemies of his country ; and the parts 
 which especially call forth our admiration differ in nothing 
 from those which we admire in his judicial orations. 
 Nevertheless, so irresistible was the influence which he 
 exercised upon the minds of his hearers, that all his 
 political speeches were triumphs. His panegyric on 
 
 Born about b. o. 2. 
 
348 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Pompey,' in the speech for the Manilian law, carried his 
 appointment as commander-in-chief of the armies of the 
 East. The consequence of the oration de Provinciis 
 Consularibus continued to Caesar his administration of 
 Gaul. He crushed in Catiline one of the most for- 
 midable traitors that had ever menaced the safety of the 
 repubhc. Antony's fall followed the complete exposure 
 of his debauchery in private life, and the factiousness of 
 his pubHc career.^ 
 
 Of the Catilinarians, the first and fourth were deHvered 
 in the senate, the third and fourth in the presence of the 
 people. Every one knows the burst of indignation which 
 the consul, rising in his place, aims at the audacious 
 conspirator who dared to poUute with his presence the 
 temple of the Deity, and the most august assembly of 
 the Eoman people. In less than twenty-four hours 
 Catiline had left Rome, and the conspiracy had become 
 a war. In four words Cicero announced this to the 
 assembled Eomans the day after he had addressed the 
 senate. The third is a piece of self-complacent but 
 pardonable egotism. Success has overwhelmed him — he 
 sees that all eyes are turned upon himself — ^he is the 
 hero of his own story ; stiU he demands no reward but 
 the approbation of his fellow-citizens, and reminds them 
 that to the gods alone their gratitude is due. 
 
 Two days pass away, and, after Caesar and Cicero had 
 spoken, Cicero again addresses the senate, and recom- 
 mends that measure which was the beginning of his 
 troubles, the condemnation of the conspirators. Th^ 
 zeal of the senate made the act their own, but Cicero paid 
 the penalty. The position which Cicero occupies on this 
 occasion invests his speech with more dignity than is 
 displayed in any of the preceding. He is the chief 
 magistrate of the repubhc performing the awful duty of 
 
 ' B. c. 56. ' Phil. ii. 
 
THE PHILIPPIC ORATIONS. 349 
 
 pronouncing a capital sentence on the guilty. The ex- 
 citement of the crisis is subsiding ; and he has the more 
 composure, because he knows that he carries with him the 
 sympathies of the senate and people. 
 
 The Philippics, so named after the orations of Demo- 
 sthenes, are fourteen in number. Cicero commenced his 
 attack^ upon the object of his implacable hatred with a 
 defence of the laws of Csesar, which Antony wished to 
 repeal. He followed it up with the celebrated second 
 oration, in which he demolished the character of Antony ; 
 a speech which Juvenal pronoanced to be his chef-d'oeuvre, 
 but which Niebuhr thought was undeserving of being so 
 highly exalted. He dehvered the remaining twelve in 
 the course of the succeeding year : they were the last 
 monuments of his eloquence ; he never spoke again. 
 The fourteenth is a brilliant panegyric, but nothing 
 more ; the gallant army of Octavius received their de- 
 served applause ; but in this political crisis the orator 
 could not discern or even catch a glimpse of the future 
 destinies of his country. 
 
 In his rhetorical works, Cicero left a legacy of practical 
 instruction to posterity. The treatise " De Inventione," 
 although it displays genius, is merely interesting as the 
 juvenile production of a future great man; and the 
 author himself alludes to it as a rude and unfinished pro- 
 duction.^ Of the Rhetorical Hand-book, in four sections, 
 addressed to Herennius, it is unnecessary to speak, as 
 it is now universally pronounced spurious.^ The De 
 Oratore, Brutus sive de claris Oratoribus, and Orator 
 ad M. Brutum* are the result of his matured experience. 
 They form together one series, the principles are first 
 laid down ; their developments are carried out and illus- 
 trated; and lastly, in the Orator, he places before 
 
 ' Phil. i. ; B. c. 44. ' De Orat. i. 2. 
 
 ' For the arguments on this point see Smith's Diet. i. 726. 
 
 ^ B. C. 55, 40, 45. 
 
350 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 the eyes of Brutus the model of ideal perfection. In 
 his treatment of this subject, he shows a mind imbued 
 with the spirit of Plato : he invests it with dramatic 
 interest, and transports the reader into the scene which 
 he so graphically describes. The conversation contained 
 in the first of these works has been already described, 
 The scene of the second is laid on the lawn of Cicero's 
 palace at Eome : Cicero, Atticus, and M. Brutus are the 
 dramatis personce; and their taste receives inspiration 
 from a statue of Plato which adorns the garden. In the 
 third, Cicero himself, at the request of M. Brutus, paints, 
 as Plato would have done, the portrait of a faultless 
 orator. 
 
 Three more short treatises must be added — (1.) The 
 dialogue, De Partitione Oratoria,^ an elementary book 
 written for his son. (2). The De Optimo Genere Oratorum,^ 
 a short preface to a translation of the Greek oration', 
 JDe Corona. (3). The Topica,^ i. e., a treatise on the 
 commonplaces of judicial oratory. 
 
 Philosophy of Cicero. 
 
 Cicero somewhat arrogantly claims the credit of being 
 the first to awaken a taste for philosophy, and to illu- 
 minate the darkness in which it lay hid by the Hght of 
 Eoman letters.* He did not confess the obHgations 
 under which he lay to his predecessors, because he never 
 could forget that he was an orator.^ He could not deny 
 that Some of them thought justly ; but he denied that 
 they possessed the power of expressing what they thought^ 
 He felt that there was nothing in the philosophical 
 writings already existing to tempt his countrymen to 
 study the subject : they were dry, unadorned, up.- 
 polished. It required an orator to array philosophy in 
 
 ' B. c. 47. ' B. c. 46. " B. c. 43. * Tusc. i. 3. See also ii. 2. 
 
 " De Off. i. I. 
 
ROMAN PHILOSOPHY. 351 
 
 an enticing garb. He proposed, therefore, to assuage his 
 anxieties — to seek repose from the harassing cares of 
 politics' — by rendering his countrymen independent of 
 Greek philosophical literature. 
 
 This was all he proposed to himself: it was all that his 
 predecessor had attempted ; nor did he pretend to origin- 
 ality. The periods which he devoted to the task, and to 
 which all philosophical works belong, were those during 
 which he was excluded from pohtical life. The first of 
 these was the triumvirate of Csesar, Pompey, and Crassus ; 
 the second was coincident with the dictatorship of Csesar 
 and the consulship of Antony. Not only did his con- 
 templative spirit delight in such studies, but, whilst aU 
 the avenues to distinction were closed against him, his 
 ambition sought this road to fame, and his patriotism 
 urged him to take this method of benefiting his country. 
 But as he was not the first who introduced philosophy 
 to the Romans, it will be necessary briefly to sketch its 
 progress up to the time at which his labours commenced. 
 
 Roman philosophy was neither the result of original 
 investigation nor the gradual development of the Greek 
 system. It arose rather from a study of ancient philo- 
 sophical literature than from an examination of philoso- 
 phical principles. The Eoman intellect did not possess 
 the power of abstraction in a sufficiently high degree for 
 research, nor was the Latin language capable of repre- 
 senting satisfactorily abstract thoughts. Cicero was 
 quite aware of the poverty of its scientific nomenclature, 
 as compared with that of Greece. In one treatise,^ he 
 ^,^tes, — " Equidem soleo etiam, quod uno Graeci, si ahter 
 non possum, idem pluribus verbis exprimere." Pliny* 
 and Seneca* assert the same fact. " Magis damnabis," 
 writes the latter, " angustias Eomanas si scieris unam 
 syllabam esse, quam mutare non possim. Quae hsec sit 
 
 ' De Div. II. ii. " De Fin. iii. 2. " Epist. iv. 18. Mbid. Iviii. 
 
352 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 quseris ? to ov." The practical character also of the people 
 prompted them to take advantage of the material already 
 furnished by others, and to select such doctrines as it 
 approved, without regard to their relation to each other. 
 
 The Eoman philosopher, therefore, or rather (to speak 
 more correctly) philosophical student, did not throw 
 himself into the speculations of his age, pursue them con- 
 temporaneously, or deduce from them fresh results. He 
 went back to the earlier ages of Greek philosophy, studied, 
 commented on, and explained the works of the best 
 authors, and adopted some of their doctrines as fixed 
 scholastic dogmas. Consequently, the spirit in which 
 philosophical study was pursued by the Eomans was a 
 literary and not a scientific one. A taste for hterature 
 had been awakened, and philosophy was considered only 
 as one species of hterature, although its importance was 
 recognised as bearing upon the practical duties, the highest 
 interests and happiness of man. The practical , view 
 which Cicero took of philosophy, and the extensive 
 influence which he attributed to it, is manifest from 
 numerous passages in his works,^ and is embodied in the 
 following beautiful apostrophe in the Tusculan Disputa- 
 tions :^ " vitse Philosophia dux ! virtutis indagatrix, 
 expultrixque vitiorum ! Quid non modo nos, sed omnino 
 vita hominum sine te esse potuisset ? Tu urbes peperisti ; 
 tu dissipatos homines in 'societatem vitse convocasti ; tu 
 eos inter se primo domiciliis, deinde conjugiis, turn 
 literarum et vocum communione junxisti ; tu inventrix 
 legum, tu magistra morum et discipHnse fuisti; ad te 
 confugimus, a te opem petirius ; tibi nos, ut antea magna 
 ex parte, sic nunc penitus totosque tradimus." 
 
 It is plain, therefore, that the chief characteristics 
 of Eoman philosophy would be — (1.) Learning, for it 
 consisted in bringing together doctrines and opinions 
 
 Ex. gr. De Div. ii. I ; Brut. 93. ^ See also T. D. ii. 4 ; x. b. v. ii. 
 
DEFECTS IN ROMAN PHILOSOPHY, 353 
 
 scattered over a wide field; (2), generally speaking, an 
 ethical purpose and object, for Eomans woixld be little 
 inclined to value any subject of study which had no 
 ultimate reference to man's pohtical and social relations ; 
 (3), Eclecticism ; for although there were certain schools, 
 such as the Epicurean and Stoic, which were evidently 
 favourites, the dogmas of different teachers were collected 
 and combined together often without regard to con- 
 sistency. 
 
 The defects of such a system are fatal to its claim to 
 be considered philosophical ; for the scientific connexion 
 of its parts is lost sight of, and results are presented iade- 
 pendent of the chain of causes and effects by which they 
 are connected with principles. Such a system must 
 necessarily be iUogical and inconsequential. Even the 
 liberality which adopts the principle, " NuUius jurare in 
 verba magistri," and which, therefore, appears to be its 
 chief merit, was absurd ; and the willingness with which 
 aU views were readily admitted led to scepticism, or doubt 
 whether such a thing as absolute truth had a real 
 existence. 
 
 Grreek philosophy was probably, first introduced into 
 Eome by the Ach^an exiles, of whom Polybius was 
 one.^ The embassy of Carneades the Academic, Diogenes 
 the Stoic, and Critolaus the Peripatetic, followed six years 
 afterwards. In vain the stem' M. Porcius Gato caused 
 their dismissal; for some of the most illustrious and 
 accompHshed Eomans, such as Africanus, LseHus, and 
 Eurius, had already profited by their lectures and 
 instructions.^ Whilst the educated Eomans were gaining 
 an historical insight into the doctrines of these schools, 
 the Stoic Pansetius, who was entertained in the house- 
 hold of Scipio Africanus, was unfolding the mysterious 
 and transcendental doctrines of the great object of his 
 
 ' A u c 692 ; GeU. N. A. xv. 2. " Cic. de Or. ii. 37. 
 
 2 A 
 
854 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 veneration, Plato. But although the Romans could 
 appreciate the majestic dignity and poetical beauty of his 
 style, they were not equal to the task of penetrating his 
 hidden meaning; they were, therefore, content to take 
 upon trust the glosses and commentaries of his expositors.; 
 These inclined to the New Academy rather than to the 
 Old : in its sceptical spirit they compared and balanced 
 opposing probabilities ; and went no farther than recom- 
 mending the adoption of opinions upon which they could 
 not pronounce with certainty. Neither did the Peri- 
 patetic doctrines meet with much favour, although the 
 works of Aristotle had been brought to Rome by the 
 dictator Sulla, partly, as Cicero says, because of the vast- 
 ness of the subjects treated, partly because they seemed 
 incapable of satisfactory proof to unskilled and inexpe- 
 rienced minds.^ 
 
 The philosophical system which first arrested the 
 attention of the Romans, and gained an influence over 
 their minds, was the Epicurean. But it is somewhat 
 remarkable that, although this philosophy was in its 
 general character ethical, a people so eminently practical 
 in their turn of mind should have especially devoted 
 themselves to the study of the physical speculations of 
 this school. The only apparent exception to this state- 
 ment is Catius, but even his principal works, although 
 he wrote one " de Summo Bono," are on the physical 
 nature of things. 
 
 Cicero accoimts for the popularity of Epicureanism by 
 saying that it was easy — ^that it appealed to the blandish- 
 ments of pleasure ; and that its first professors, Amafanins 
 and Rabirius, used none of the refinements of art or 
 subtleties of dialectic, but clothed their discussions in a 
 homely and popular style, suited to the simple and im- 
 leamed. There were many successors to Amafanius ; and 
 
 ' Tusc. iv. 3. ' Ritter, H. of Ph. vol. iv. xii. 2, note. 
 
 ' Tusc. iv. 3. " Ac. Post I. 2. 
 
DISCIPLES 01" STOICISM. 355 
 
 the doctrines whicli they taught rapidly spread over the 
 whole of Italy. Many illustrious statesmen, also, were 
 amongst the behevers in this fashionable creed ; of whom 
 the best known are C. Cassius, the fellow-conspirator of 
 Brutus, and T. Pomponius Atticus, the friend of Cicero. 
 AU the monuments and records, however, of the Epi- 
 curean philosophy, which were published in Latin, have 
 perished, with the exception of the immortal work of 
 T. Lucretius Cams, " De Natura Eerum." 
 
 Nor was Stoicism, the severe principles of which were 
 in harmony with the stern old Eoman virtues, without 
 distinguished disciples : such as were the unflinching M. 
 Brutus, the learned Terentius Yarro, the jurist Scsevola, 
 the unbending Cato of Utica, and the magnificent 
 LucuUus — a Stoic in creed, though not in Hfe and conduct. 
 The part which Cicero's character qualified him to per- 
 form in the philosophical instruction of his countrymen 
 was scarcely that of a guide : he could give them a lively 
 interest in the subject, and reveal to them the discoveries 
 and speculations of others, but he could not mould and 
 form their belief, and train them in the work of original 
 investigation. Not being himself devoutly attached to 
 any system of philosophical beHef, he would be cautious 
 of offending the philosophical prejudices of others. He 
 loved learning, but his temper was undecided and vacil- 
 lating : whilst, therefore, he delighted in accumulating 
 stores of Grreek erudition, the tendency of his mind was, in 
 the midst of a variety of inconsistent doctrines, to leave the 
 conclusion undetermined. Although he Hstened tovarious 
 instructors — Phsedrus the Epicurean, Diodotus the Stoic, 
 and PhUo the Academician — he found the electicism of the 
 latter more congenial to his taste. Its prefefrence of 
 probabiUty to certainty suited one who shrunk from the 
 responsibility of deciding. 
 
 It is this personaUty, as it were, which gives a special 
 interest to the Ciceronian philosophy. The reflexion of 
 
 2 a2 
 
356 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 his personal character which pervades it rescues it from 
 the imputation of being a mere transcript of his Greek 
 originals. Cicero brings everything as much as possible 
 to a practical standard. If the question arises between 
 the study of morals and pohtics and that of physics or 
 metaphysics, he decides in favour of the former, on the 
 grounds that the latter transcends the capacities of the 
 human intellect ;' that in morals and pohtics we are 
 under obhgations from which in physics we are free; that 
 we are bound to tear ourselves from these abstract studies 
 at the call of duty to our country or our fellow-creatures, 
 even if we were able to coimt the stars or measure the mag- 
 nitude of the universe.^ In the didactic method which he 
 pursues he bears in mind that he is deaHng not with con- 
 templative philosophers, or minds that have been logically 
 trained, but with statesmen and men of the world ; he 
 does not therefore claim too much, or make his lessons 
 too hard, and is always ready to sacrifice scientific system 
 to a method of popular instruction. His object seems to 
 be to recommend the subject — to smoothe difiiculties, and 
 illustrate obscurities. He evidently admires the exalted 
 purity of Stoical morality ; and the principles of that sect 
 are those which he endeavours to impress upon his son.^ 
 His only fear is that their system is impractical.* 
 
 Cicero beheved in the existence of one supreme Creator 
 and Governor of the universe, and also in His spiritual 
 nature ;^ but his behef is rather the result of instinctive 
 conviction, than of the proofs derived from philosophy, 
 for as to them, he is, as on other points, uncertain and 
 wavering. He disbeHeved the popular mythical religion ; 
 but uncertain as to what was the truth he would not have 
 that disturbed which he looked upon as a poUtical engine.* 
 Amidst the doubtful and conflicting reasons respecting 
 
 ■ De Rep. i. 18, 19. " De Off. i. 43. " Ibid. 
 
 * De Fin. iv. 9. " Tusc. i. 27, 28 ' De Leg. ii. 13. 
 
SPECULATIVE PHILOSOPHY OP CICERO. 357 
 
 the human soul and man's eternal destiny, there is no 
 doubt that, although he finds no satisfactory proof, he is 
 a believer in immortahty.* It is unnecessary to pursue 
 the subject of his philosophical creed any further, because 
 it is not a system, but only a collection of precepts, not 
 of iavestigations. Its materials are borrowed, its illus- 
 trations alone novel. But, nevertheless, the study of 
 Cicero's philosophical vrorks is invaluable, in order to un- 
 derstand the minds of those who came after him. It must 
 not be forgotten, that not only all Roman philosophy 
 after his time, but great part of that of the middle ages, 
 was Greek philosophy filtered through Latin, and mainly 
 founded on that of Cicero. Cicero's works on speculative 
 philosophy generally consist of: — (1). The Academics, 
 or a history and defence of the belief of the New Academy. 
 (2). The De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum, dialogues on the 
 supreme good, the end of all moral action. (3). The Tus- 
 culancB Disputationes, containing five independent treatises 
 on the fear of death, the endurance of pain, the power of 
 wisdom over sorrow, the morbid passions, the relation of 
 Adrtueto happiness. In these treatises Stoicism predomi- 
 nates, although opinions are adduced from the whole range 
 of Greek philosophy. (4). Paradoxa, in which the six 
 celebrated Stoical paradoxies are touched upon in a hght 
 and amusing manner. (5). A dialogue in praise of phi- 
 losophy, named after Hortensius. (6). Translations of 
 the Timseus and Protagoras of Plato. Of these three 
 last treatises only a few fragments remain. 
 
 His moral philosophy comprehends — (1). The De 
 Officiis, a Stoical treatise on moral obhgations, addressed 
 to his son Marcus, a-t that time a student at Athens. 
 (2). The unequalled little essays on Friendship and Old 
 Age. A few words also are preserved of two books 
 on Glory, addressed to Atticus ; and one which he wrote 
 
 ' De Sen. 21. 
 
358 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 on the Alleviation of Grief when bereaved of his beloved 
 daughter.^ He left one theological work in three parts : 
 the first part is on the " Nature of the Grods ;" the second 
 on the " Science of Divination ;" the third on " Fate," 
 of which an inconsiderable fragment is extant. His office 
 of augur probably suggested to him the composition of 
 these treatises. 
 
 His pohtical works are two in number — the De Re^ 
 publico^ and De Legihus ; both are imperfect. The re- 
 mains of the former are only fragmentary ; of the latter, 
 three out of six books are extant, and those not entire. 
 Nevertheless, sufficient of both remains to enable us to 
 form some estimate of their philosophical character. 
 Although he does not profess originahty, but confesses 
 that they are imitations of the two treatises of Plato, which 
 bear the same name, still they are more inductive than 
 any of his other treatises. His purpose is, hke that of 
 Plato, to give in the one an ideal repubhc, and in the 
 other a sketch of a model legislation ; but the novelty of 
 the treatment consists in their principles being derived 
 from the Roman constitution and the Eoman laws. 
 
 The questions which he proposes to answer are, what 
 is the best government and the best code ; but the Kmits 
 within which he confines himself are the institutions of 
 his country. In the Eepubhc he first discusses, like 
 the Greek philosophers, the merits and demerits of the 
 three pure forms of government; and upon the whole 
 decides in favour of monarchy' as the best. With Aris- 
 totle* he agrees that aU the pure forms are liable to de- 
 generate,* and comes to the conclusion that the idea of a 
 perfect pohty is a combination of all three.* In order to 
 prove and illustrate his theory, he investigates, though it 
 must be confessed in a meagre and imperfect manner, the 
 
 ' B. c. 45. ' B. c. 54. " Lib. i. 26, 35, 45 ; ii. 23. ' Ethics. 
 
 = Lib. i. 27, 28 ; ii. 39. « Lib. i. 29, 35, 45. 
 
THE TREATISE DE LEGIBUS. 359 
 
 constitutional history of Eome, and discovers the monar- 
 cliical element in the consulship, the aristocratic in the 
 senate, and the popular in the assembly of the people and 
 the tribunitial authority. 
 
 The Eomans continued jealously to preserve the shadow 
 of their constitution, even after they had surrendered the 
 substance. Nominally, the titles and offices of the old 
 republic never perished — the Emperor was in name no- 
 thing more than (Imperator) the commander-in-chief of the 
 armies of the repubhc, but in him aU power centred, he 
 was absolute, autocratic, the chief of a mihtary despotism.' 
 Cicero, as the treatise De Legihus plainly shows, saw, 
 with approbation, that this state of things was rapidly 
 coming to pass ; that the people were not fitted to be 
 trusted with liberty, and yet that they would be contented 
 with its semblance and name. 
 
 The method wliich he pursues, is, firstly, to treat the sub- 
 ject in the abstract, and to investigate the nature of law ; 
 and, secondly, to propose an ideal code, Hmited by the prin- 
 ciples of Eoman jurisprudence. Thus Cicero's poHty and 
 code were not Utopian — ^the models on whi^h they were 
 formed had a real tangible existence. His was the system 
 of a practical man, as the Eoman constitution was that of 
 a practical people. It was not like Greek hberty, the 
 reahzation of one single idea : it was like that of England, 
 the growth of ages, the development of a long train 
 of circumstances, and expedients, and experiments, and 
 emergencies. Cicero prudently acquiesced in the ruin of 
 liberty as a stern necessity ; but he evidently thought 
 that Eome had attained the zenith of its national great- 
 ness immediately before the agitations of the Gracchi. 
 
 Both these works are written in the engaging form of 
 dialogues. In the one, Scipio ^miUanus, La3hus, Scsevola, 
 and others, meet together in the Latin hoUdays (Ferise 
 
 See Tac. Annal. I. 
 
60 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 iiatinse), and discuss the question of government. In the 
 ther, the writer himself, with his brother Quintus and 
 Ltticus, converse on jurisprudence whilst they saunter on 
 Httle islet near Arpinum at the confluence of the Liris 
 nd Pibrena. 
 
 We must, lastly, contemplate Cicero as a correspondent, 
 liis intercourse of congenial miuds separated from one 
 nother, and induced by the force of circumstances to 
 igest and arrange their thoughts ia their communication, 
 )rms one of the most dehghtfol and interesting, and at 
 lie same time one of the most characteristic, portions of 
 loman literature. A Eoman thought that whenever he 
 ut pen to paper it was his duty, to a certain extent, to 
 void carelessness and offences against good taste, and to 
 estow upon his friend some portion of that elaborate 
 ttention which, as an author, he would devote to the 
 ubHc eye. In fact the letter-writer was almost address- 
 ig the same persons as the author ; for the latter wrote 
 jr the approbation of his friends, the circle of intimates 
 1 which he Hved : the approbation of the pubhc was a 
 Bcondary object. The Grreeks were not writers of letters : 
 be few which we possess were mere written messages,' 
 ontainiag such necessary information as the interruption 
 f intercourse demanded. There was no interchange of 
 opes and fears, thoughts, sentiments, and feelings. 
 
 The extent of Cicero's correspondence is almost in- 
 redible : even those epistles which remain form a very 
 oluminous collection — more than eight hundred are ex- 
 ant. The letters to his friends and acquaintances (ad 
 i'amiliares) occupy sixteen books ; those to Atticus sixteen 
 lore ; and we have besides three books of letters to 
 Juintus, and one to Brutus, but the authenticity of this last 
 oUection is somewhat doubtftd. It is quite clear that 
 one of them were intended for pubhcation, as those of 
 'liny and Seneca were. They are elegant without stiff- 
 ess, the natural outpourings of a mind which could not 
 
THE LETTERS OF CICERO. 361 
 
 give birth to an ungraceful idea. When speaking of the 
 perilous and critical poHtics of the day, more or less re- 
 straint and reserve are apparent, according to the intimacy 
 with the person whom he is addressing, but no attempt 
 at pompous display. His style is so simple that the 
 reader forgets that Cicero ever wtote or dehvered an 
 oration. There is the eloquence of the heart, not of the 
 rhetoric school. Every subject is touched upon which 
 could interest the statesman, the man of letters, the 
 admirer of the fine arts, or the man of the world. The 
 writer reveals in them his own motives, his secret springs 
 of actions, his loves, his hatreds, his strength, his weak- 
 ness. They extend over more than a quarter of a cen- 
 tury, the most interesting period of his own hfe, and one 
 of the most critical in the history, of his country. The 
 letters to Quintus are those of an elder brother to one 
 who stood in great need of good advice. Although 
 Quintus was not deserving of his brother's affection, M. 
 Cicero was warmly attached to him, and took an interest 
 in his welfare. Quintus was propraetor of Asia, and not 
 fitted for the office ; and Cicero was not sparing in his 
 admonitions, though he offered them with Mndness and 
 dehcacy. The details of his family concerns form not 
 the least interesting portion of this correspondence. 
 There is, as might be expected, more reserve in the letters 
 ad FamiUares than in those addressed to Atticus. They 
 are written to a variety of correspondents, of every shade 
 and complexion of opinions, many of them mere acquaint- 
 ances, not intimate friends ; but whilst, for this reason, 
 less historically valuable, they are the most pleasing of 
 the collection, on account of the exquisite elegance of 
 their style. They are models of pure Latinity. In the 
 letters to Atticus, on the other hand, he lays bare the 
 secrets of his heart ; he trusts his Hfe in his hands ; he 
 is not only his friend but his confidant, his second self. 
 Were it not for the letters of Cicero, we should have had 
 
362 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 but a superficial knowledge of this period of Eoman 
 history, as well as of the inner life of Eoman society. 
 
 An elegant poetic conapliment paid to Cicero by Laurea 
 Tullus, one of his freedmen, has been preserved by Pliny.' 
 The subject of it is a medicinal spring in the neighbour- 
 hood of the Academy. 
 
 Quo tua Romanse vindex clarissime linguae 
 
 Silva loco melius surgere jussa viret 
 Atque Academiss celebratam nomine villam 
 
 Nunc reparat cultu sub potiore Vetus : 
 Hie etiam adparent lymphse non ante repertce 
 
 Languida quse infuso lumina rore levant. 
 Nimirum locus ipse sui Ciceronis honori 
 
 Hoc dedit hac fontes cum patefecit opes 
 TJt quoniam totum legitur sine fine per orbem 
 
 Sint plures oculis quae medeantur, aquso. 
 
 Father of eloquence in Rome, 
 
 The groves that once pertained to thee 
 
 Now with a fresher verdure bloom 
 Around thy famed Academy. 
 
 Vetus at length this favoured seat 
 
 Hath with a tasteful care restored ; 
 And newly at thy loved retreat 
 
 A gushing fount its stream has poured. 
 
 These waters cure an aching sight ; 
 
 And thus the spring that bursts to view 
 Through future ages shall requite 
 I The fame this spot from Tully drew. Mton. 
 
 The correspondents of Cicero included a number of 
 eminent men. Atticus was the least interesting, for his 
 politic caution rendered him unstable and insincere ; but 
 there was Cassius the tyrannicide, the Stoical Cato of 
 Utica ; Csecina, the warm partisan of Pompey ; the orator 
 Csehus Eufns ; Hirtius and Oppius, the literary friends of 
 Caesar ; Lucceius the historian ; Matius the mimiambic 
 poet ; and that patron of arts and letters,^ C. Asinius 
 PoUio. 
 
 See Meyer's Anthol. 67. ' Hor. Od. ii. 1. 
 
ASINIUS POLLIO. 363 
 
 Pollio was a scion of a distinguislied house, and was born 
 at Eome b.c. 76.^ Even as a youth he was distinguished 
 for wit and sprighthness f and at the age of twenty-two 
 was the prosecutor of C. Cato. He was with Caesar at 
 the Eubicon, at PharsaJia, in Africa, and ia Spain ; and 
 was finally intrusted with the conduct of the war in that 
 province against Sextus Pompey. On the establishment 
 of the first triumviate, Pollio, after some hesitation, sent 
 in his adhesion ; and Antony intrusted him with the 
 administration of Grallia Transpadana, including the allot- 
 ment of the confiscated lands among the veteran soldiers. 
 He thus had opportunity of protecting Virgil and saving 
 liis property. In B.C. 40, Octavian and Antony were 
 reconciled at Brundisium by his mediation. A successftd 
 campaign in lU^jrria concluded his mihtary career with the 
 glories of a triumph,^ and" he then retired from pubUc life 
 to his viUa at Tusculum, and devoted himself to study. 
 He enjoyed life to the last, and died in his eightieth 
 year. He left three children, one of whom, Asinius 
 GraUus,* wrote a comparison between his father and Cicero, 
 which was answered by the Emperor Claudius.^ 
 
 In oratory, poetry, and history, Pollio enjoyed a high 
 reputation amongst contemporary critics, and yet none of 
 his works have survived. The solution of this difficulty 
 may, perhaps, be found iu the following circumstances : — 
 1 . His patronage of literary men rendered him popular, 
 and drew from the critics a somewhat partial verdict. 
 His kindness caused Horace to extoF him, and Virgil to 
 address to him his most remarkable eclogue.' 2. His taste 
 was formed before the new literary school commenced. 
 He had always a profound admiration for the old writers, 
 and frequently quoted them. His style probably ap- 
 peared antiquated and pedantic, and, therefore, never 
 
 > Hieron. in Eu3. Ch. ' CatuU. xii. 1. ' b. c. 39. 
 
 ♦ Tac. Ann. i. 12. ' Plin. Ep. vii. 4 ; Suet. 01. 41. ' 
 
 » Sat. I. X. : Carm. ii.l. ' Eel. iii. 86 ; viii. 
 
364 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 became generally popular. A later writer^ says, that he 
 was so harsh and dry as to appear to have reproduced 
 the style of Attius and Pacuvius, not only in his tragedies, 
 but also in his orations. Qmntihan observes,^ that he 
 seemed to belong to the pre-Ciceronian period. Niebuhr, 
 who could only form his opinion upon the slight frag- 
 ments preserved by Seneca, for the three letters in 
 Cicero's collection^ are only despatches, affirms that he 
 seems to stand between two distinct generations,* namely, 
 the hterary periods of Cicero and Virgil. His great 
 work was a history of the civil wars, in seventeen books. 
 He pretended to be a critic, but his criticism was fas- 
 tidious and somewhat ill-natured. He found blemishes 
 in Cicero, inaccuracies in Caesar, pedantry in SaUust, and 
 provincialism (Patavinitais) in Livy. The correctness of 
 his judgment respecting the charming narratives of the 
 great historian has been assumed from generation to 
 generation, yet no one can discover in what this Pata- 
 viniiy consists. It was easier to find fault than to write 
 correctly; for, whilst all the labours of the critic have 
 perished, Cicero, Caesar, SaUust, and Livy, are immortal. 
 Vehemence and passion developed his character. 
 
 StiU'he was one of the greatest benefactors to the 
 literature of his country ; more especially as he was the 
 first to found a pubhc library. Books had already been 
 brought to Eome, and collections formed. JEmihus 
 Paulus had a library — Lucullus had one also, to which 
 he allowed learned men to have access. Sulla enriched 
 Eome with the plunder of the Athenian libraries ; and in 
 his time Tyrannis the grammarian was the possessor of 
 three thousand volumes. Julius Caesar employed the 
 learned Varro to collect books with a view to a national 
 collection, but death put a stop to his intentions.^ PoUio 
 
 ' Dial, de Orat. 21. '^ Lib. x. i. 113. '' Ad Fam. x. 31, 32, 33. 
 
 " Lect. E. H. cvi. * Plin. H. N. vii. 3 ; xxxv. 2, 
 
PUBLIC LIBRARIES. 365 
 
 expended the spoils of Dalmatia in founding a temple to 
 Liberty in the Aventine, and famishing it with a Ubrary, 
 the nucleus of which were the collections of SuUa and 
 Varro. After this time, the work was carried on by 
 imperial munificence. Augustus founded the Octavian 
 library in the temple of Juno, and the Palatine in the 
 palace. Tiberius augmented the latter. Vespasian placed 
 one in the temple of Peace. Trajan formed the Ulpian ; 
 Domitian the Capitoline ; Hadrian a magnificent one at 
 his own villa ; and in the reign of Constantine the number 
 of pubHc libraries exceeded twenty. 
 
 M. Terentius Yarro Eeatinxjs (born b.c. 116). 
 
 On an ancient medal is represented the effigy of Julius 
 Csesar bearing a book in one hand and a sword in the 
 other,^ -with, the legend " Ex utroque Csesar." This 
 device represents the genius of many a distinguished 
 citizen of the republic, and that of Varro amongst the 
 number, for he was a soldier, and at the same time the 
 most learned of his countrymen. He was bom^ at Eeate 
 (Rieti), a Sabine town situated in the Tempe of Italy, 
 in the neighbourhood of the celebrated cascade of Terni. 
 ^lius StUo, the antiquarian, was the instructor of his 
 earher years,^ and from him he derived his thirst for 
 knowledge, and his ardent devotion to original investiga- 
 tion. He subsequently studied philosophy under Anti- 
 ochus, a, professor of the Academic school.* In pohtics 
 he was warmly attached to the party of Pompey, under 
 whom he served in the Piratic and Mithridatic wars. He 
 was also one of his three Legati in Sparn, and did not 
 resign his command imtil the towns in the south of that 
 province eagerly submitted to Csesar. After the battle 
 of PharsaUa, he experienced the clemency of the con- 
 
 ' See Exc. in Delph. Cic. ' b. c. 116. » Cic. Brut. i. 56. 
 
 * Cic. Acad. iii. 12. 
 
366 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 queror, but not soon enough to save his villa from being 
 attacked and plundered.* 
 
 Csesar appreciated Varro's extensive learning, and 
 intrusted to him the formation of the great pubHc 
 library.^ Henceforth he shunned the perils of poUtical 
 life,^ and in the retirement of his villas devoted himself 
 zealously to the pursuit of literature. Nevertheless, he 
 could not escape the unrelenting persecution of poHtical 
 party; for in that proscription to which Cicero fell a 
 victim, his name was in the hst until it was erased by 
 Antony.* Although he was seventy years old, his 
 industry was imabated, and he continued his literary 
 labours until his death, which took place in the eighty- 
 ninth year of his age.* Varro was a man of ponderous 
 erudition and unwearied industry,* without a spark of 
 taste and genius. No Eoman author wrote so much as 
 he did, no one read so much except Pliny ; yet, notwith- 
 standing all this practice and study, he never acquired an 
 agreeable style. He dissected and anatomized the Latin 
 language with all the powers of critical analysis ; but he 
 was never imbued with its elegant pohsh or its nervous 
 eloquence. 
 
 Wherever, a^ in the case of his treatise on agriculture, 
 he had access to sound information and good authority, 
 his habits of arrangement, the clearness with which he 
 classified, and the careful judgment with which he adduced 
 his facts, render his works valuable. Few men have 
 possessed greater powers of combinLng and systematizing : 
 his mind was, as it were, full of compartments, in which 
 each species of knowledge had its proper place, but it was 
 nothing more- Whenever he left the beaten track of 
 other men's discoveries, and indulged in free conjecture 
 or original thought, as in his grammatical works, his 
 
 ' Oic. Phil. ii. 18. ' Cses. B. G. i. 38 ; ii. 17. ' Cic. ad Fam. ix. 13. 
 * B. c. 43, = Plin. N, H. xxix. 4. « Quint, x. i. 95. 
 
M. TEEENTIUS VARRO REATINUS. 367 
 
 learning seems to desert him ; and etymology, which has 
 tempted so many mere conjectures to go astray, led him 
 also into absurdity. 
 
 One of his works, Antiquitates Divinarum Serum, 
 acquires a peculiar interest from the fact of its having 
 been the storehouse from which St. Augustine, who was 
 a great admirer of his learning, derived much of his 
 treatise De Civitate Dei. How this laborious compilation 
 was lost it is impossible to say. We can only lament 
 the accident which deprives us of the work to which 
 especially the author owes his reputation. In the treatise, 
 which together with this forms one work, namely, An- 
 tiquitates Rerum Humanarum, he investigated the early 
 history and chronology of Eome, and fixed the date of 
 the building of the city in the year b.c. 753, a date which 
 is now commonly received by the best historians. 
 
 A catalogue of his numerous books and tracts on 
 almost every subject which then engaged the attention 
 of literary men — on history, biography, geography, 
 philosophy, criticism, and morals — ^would be uninterest- 
 ing, but his principal works were as follows : — 
 
 I. De Re Rustica Libri iii. 
 
 II. De Lingua Latina Libri xxiv., of which only six 
 are extant, and these in a mutilated condition. 
 
 III. Antiquitates Rerum Humanarum, Libri xxv. 
 Antiquitates Rerum Divinarum, Libri xvi. 
 
 IV. Saturce, partly in prose, partly in verse ; consisting 
 of moral essays and dialogues, exposing the vices and 
 foUies of the day, and teaching their lessons rather in a 
 light and amusing than a didactive form. 
 
 V. Poems, of which eighteen short epigrams of no great 
 merit are extant. 
 
 ' See Meyer's Anthol. 78. ' Meyer, Authol. Rom. 34—51 
 
368 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 ROMAN HISTORICAL LITERATURE — PRINCIPAL HISTORIANS — 
 ' "lUCCEIUS — LTJCITLLUS— CORNELIUS NEPOS — OPINIONS ON THE 
 
 "■ genuinenfcss of the works which beak his name — bio- 
 graphy of j. c^sar — his commentaries — their style 
 and language — his modesty overrated — other works 
 
 ^'.—character of ciesak. 
 
 "^ ' Historical Writers. 
 
 In historical composition alone, can the Romans lay claim 
 to origiiiality ; and ia. their historical literature especially 
 is exhibited a faithiiil transcript of their mind and 
 character, i History at once gratified their patriotism, 
 andtits investigations were in accordance with their love 
 of the real and practical. Thus those natural powers 
 which^adi^been eHcited and cultivated by an acquaintance 
 wiih. Grreek literature were applied with a naive simplicity 
 to the narration of events, and embellished them with all 
 the graces of a Tefined style. The practical good sense 
 and political wisdom which the Eoman social system was 
 admirably adapted to nurture found food for reflection : 
 their shrewd insight into character, and their Searching 
 scrutiny into the human heart, gave them a power over 
 their materials ; and hence they were enabled in this 
 department of literature to emulate, not merely imitate, 
 the Ghreeks, and to be their rivals, and sometimes their 
 superiors. The elegant simplicity of Csesar is as at- 
 tractive as that of Herodotus ; not one of the Greek 
 historians surpasses Livy in talent for the picturesque, 
 
CATALOGUE OF ROMAN HISTORIANS. 369 
 
 and in the charm with which he invests his spirited and 
 Hving stories ; whilst for condensation of thought, terse- 
 ness of expression, and poHtical and philosophical acumen, 
 Tacitus is not inferior to Thucydides. 
 
 The suhjects which historical investigation furnished 
 were so pecxdiarly national, and so congenial to the 
 character of the mind of the Romans, that they seem to 
 have cast aside their Grreek originals, and to have struck 
 out an independent Hue for themselves. 
 
 The catalogue of Eoman historians is a proud one. 
 At the head of it stand the four great names of Csesar, 
 Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus; aU of whom, except the last, 
 belong to the Augustan age. It comprehends those of 
 Cornelius Nepos, Trogus Pompeius, Cremutius Cordus, 
 Aufidius Bassus, and Sallust, in the golden age ; Velleius 
 Paterculus, Valerius Maximus, Q. Curtius, Suetonius, and 
 Morus, in the succeeding one: nor must L. Lucceius 
 and L. Licinius Lucullus be passed over without 
 mention. 
 
 L. Lucceius. 
 
 L. Lucceius, the friend and correspondent of Cicero,' 
 was an orator who espoused the party of J. Csesar, «,nd, 
 relying on his influence, became, together with him, a 
 candidate for the consulship.^ Being unsuccessful, he 
 quitted politics for the cahn enjoyment of a Hterary life. 
 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 or published. Cicero* entreats 
 him to speak of the events which he was recording, as 
 weU as of his own character and conduct, with partiahty ; 
 it is, therefore, impossible to trust the encomiums which 
 accompany this request, as they were probably dictated 
 by a wish to purchase his favourable opinion. The 
 
 ' See ad Att. i. 3, 5, 10, 11, 14. ' b. c. 60. 
 
 » Ad Fam. v. 12 ; xv. 21, 6. 
 
 2b 
 
370 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 period of his retirement from public affairs was not of 
 long duration, for he afterwards again engaged in the 
 civil strife which agitated Rome, and joiaed the party of 
 Pompey, who held him in high estimation.^ On his 
 downfall he shared with other Pompeians the clemency 
 of the Dictator. 
 
 L. LiCINIUS LUCULLUS. 
 
 L. Licinius LticuUus,'' the illnstrious but luxurioas 
 conqueror of Mithridates, did not disdain to devote his 
 leisure to the composition of history, although his works 
 are not of such merit as to claim for hiTn a distinguished 
 position among the historians of his country. The 
 stirring events of the Social War tempted him to record 
 them.^ Part of his enormous wealth he had expended on 
 a magnificent library : to the poet Archias he was a kind 
 friend;* and his patronage was hberaUy granted to 
 literary men, especially to those philosophers who held 
 the doctrines of his favourite Academy. Like most of 
 those who combiaed with a love of literature a life of 
 activity ia the public service of his country, he was an 
 orator of no mean abihties.* His love of Greek, and his 
 habits of intercourse with Greek philosophers, led him to 
 write his history in the Greek language, and to select 
 and transcribe extracts from the histories of Cselius 
 Antipater, and Polybius. 
 
 Cornelius Nepos. 
 
 Cornelius Nepos was a- contemporary of Catullus, and 
 lived untn the sixth year of the reign of Augustus.' 
 Ausonius says that he was a Gaul,' Catullus that he was 
 an Italian.^ Both are probably right, as the prevailing 
 
 •AdAtt. ix. I. « Consul, B. c. 74. » Ad Att. i. 19. 
 
 * Oic. pro Arch. ' Cic. Brut. 62. « Ad Att. i. 19 ; Liv. iv. 23 ; x. 9. 
 
 ' Hieron. Chron. Euseb. ' Praef. Epigr. i. 3. 
 
LOST WORKS OF CORNELIUS NEPOS. 371 
 
 opinion is, that he was born either at Verona, or the 
 neighbouring village of Hostilia, in Cisalpine Gaul. 
 Besides Catullus, he reckoned Cicero' and Atticus 
 amongst the number of his friends.^ These circum- 
 stances constitute all that is known respecting his per- 
 sonal history. 
 
 AU his works which are mentioned by the ancients are 
 unfortunately lost ; but respecting the genuineness of that 
 with which every scholar is famihar from his childhood, 
 strong doubts have been entertained. His lost works 
 were, (1.) Three books of Chronicles, or a short abridg- 
 ment of Universal History. They are mentioned by 
 A. GreUius,^ and allusion is made to them by Catullus.* 
 (2.) Five books of anecdotes styled " Libri Exemplorum,"" 
 and also entitled " The Book of C. Nepos de Viris illus- 
 tribtis." (3.) A Life of Cicero,' and a collection of Letters 
 addressed to him.' (4.) " De Historicis," or Memoirs of 
 Historians.* The work now extant which bears his name 
 is entitled "The Lives of Eminent Grenerals." But 
 besides the biographies of twenty generals, it contains 
 short accounts of some celebrated monarchs, hves of 
 Hamilcar and Hannibal, and also of Cato and Atticus. 
 The proemiiim of the book is addressed to one Atticus, 
 and to the first edition was prefixed a dedication to the 
 Emperor Theodosius, from which it appeared that the 
 author's name was Probus. These biographical sketches 
 continued to be ascribed to this xmknown author, until 
 the latter half of the sixteenth century. 
 
 At that time the celebrated scholar Lambinus, Eegius 
 Professor of Belles Lettres at Paris, argued from the 
 purity of the style that it was a work of classical 
 antiquity, and, from a passage in the life of Cato, that the 
 Atticus, to whom it was dedicated, was the well-known 
 
 ' Gell. XV. 28. " Cic. ad Att. xvi. 5. ' Lib. xvii. 21, 3. 
 
 * Lib. i. 3. " A. GeU. vii. 18 ; xxi. 8. ' Ibid. xv. 28. 
 
 ' Laotant. Inst. Div. iii. 15. " C. Nep. Vit. Dion. 3. 
 
 3 B 2 
 
372 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 correspondent of Cicero, and the author no other than 
 ComeHus Nepos. The argument derived from the 
 Latiaity is unanswerable ; that, however, from the life of 
 Cato is a "petitio principii," inasmuch as there is no more 
 evidence in favour of the life of Cato having been written 
 by ITepos, than the other biographies. The hfe of 
 Atticus, which is a complete model of biographical com- 
 position, is ascribed to him by name in some of the best 
 MSS. Of the rest nothing more can be affirmed with 
 certainty, than that they are a work, or the epitome of a 
 work, belongiag to the Augustan age.- 
 
 The strongest evidence which exists in favour of the 
 authorship of C. IsTepos, is that Jerome Magius, a con- 
 temporary of Lambinus, who also pubhshed an annotated 
 edition of the " VitCB Illustrium Imperatorwm," found a 
 MS. with the following conclusion : " Completum est 
 opus ^milii Probi Comehi ISTepotis." These words 
 would seem to assert the authorship of Nepos, and at the 
 same time to admit that Probus was the editor o;- 
 epitomator, and thus support the theory of Lambinus, 
 without accusing Probus of a literary forgery. 
 
 C. Julius C^sar (born b.c. 100). 
 
 o To give a biographical account of Caesar would be, in 
 
 fact, nothing less than to trace the contemporary history 
 of Eome ; for Eoman history had now become the history 
 of those master-minds who seized upon, or were invested 
 by their countrymen with supreme power. Although 
 the rapid and energetic talents of Caesar never permitted 
 him to lose a day, his active devotion to the truly Bomao 
 employments of politics and war left him little time for 
 sedentary occupations. His Hterary biography, therefore, 
 will necessarily occupy but a short space, compared with 
 the other great events of his career. 
 \ C. Julius Caesar was descended from a family of the 
 
BIOGRAPHY OF JULIUS CiESAR. 373 
 
 Julian gem, one of the oldest among the patrician families 
 of Eome, of which all but a very few had by this time 
 become extinct. The Caesar family was not only of 
 patrician descent, but numbered amongst its members, 
 during the century which preceded the birth of the 
 Dictator, many who had served curule offices with great 
 distinction. He was born on the 4th of the ides of July 
 (the 12th), B.C. 100, and attached himself, both by politics 
 and by matrimonial connexion, to the popular party : his 
 good taste, great tact, and pleasing manners, contributed, 
 together with his talents, to insure his popularity. He 
 became a soldier in the nineteenth year of his age ; and 
 hence his works display all the best qualities which are 
 fostered by a military education, and which therefore 
 characterise the military profession — frankness, simpHcity, 
 and brevity. He served his first campaign at the con- 
 clusion of the first Mithridatic war, during which he was 
 present at the siege and capture of Mitylene,' and received 
 the honour of a civic crown for saving the Hfe of a citizen. 
 
 His earliest hterary triumph was as an orator. Cn. 
 DolabeUa was suspected of oppressive extortion in the 
 administration of his province of Macedonia, and Caesar 
 came forward as his accuser. The celebrated Hor- 
 tensius was the advocate for the accused; and although 
 Caesar did not gain his cause, the skill and eloquence 
 which he displayed as a pleader gave promise of his 
 becoming hereafter a consummate orator. The following 
 year he increased his reputation by taking up the cause 
 of the province of Achaia against C. Antonius, who was 
 accused of the same crime as Dolabella ; but he was again 
 tmsuccessfal in the result. 
 
 He subsequently sailed for Ehodes, in order to pursue 
 the study of oratory under the direction of ApoUonius 
 Molon,^ who was not only a teacher of rhetoric, but also 
 
 B. c. 80. ' Suet. Cses. 4 ; Cic. Att. ii. 1. 
 
374 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 an able and eloquent pleader in the courts of law. 
 Cicero' bears testimony to his being a skilful instructor 
 and an eloquent speaker, and received instruction from 
 him when he came to Rome as an ambassador from 
 Rhodes.^ Caesar, on his voyage, was captured by pirates ; 
 but after he was ransomed, he carried his intention into 
 effect, and placed himself for a short time under the 
 tuition of Molon. Afber his return to Eome,^ a pro- 
 position was made to recall from exile those of the pariy 
 of Lepidus, who had joined Sertorius, and he spoke in 
 favour of the measure. Two years subsequently he 
 deHvered funeral orations in praise of his wife Comeha, 
 who was the daughter of Cinna, and his aunt JuHa, the 
 widow of Marius. 
 
 The Catilinarian conspiracy, in which, without reason, 
 he was suspected of having been concerned, furnished 
 him with another opportunity of displaying his ability as 
 an orator. His speech in the senate on the celebrated 
 nones of December, would probably have saved the lives 
 of the conspirators, had not Cato's influence prevailed. 
 Caesar pleaded that it was unconstitutional to put Eoman 
 citizens to death by the vote of the senate, without a 
 trial ; but his arguments were overruled, and the measure 
 which subsequently led to the fall and assassination of 
 Cicero was carried. The following year,* when MeteUus 
 made this a subject of accusation against Cicero, Caesar 
 again supported the same view with his eloquence, but 
 was unsuccessfuL 
 
 Great, therefore, although it is said that his talents as 
 an orator were, he never appears to have convinced his 
 hearers. This may have been owing, not to deJ&ciency in 
 skill, but to the unfortunate nature of the causes which he 
 took in hand, or to the superior powers of his opponents, 
 for there is no doubt that his manner of speaking was 
 
 ' Brut. 91. * B. c. 81. =" B. c. 70. ■■ b. c. 62. 
 
C^SAR PONTIFEX MAXIMUS. 375 
 
 most engaging and popular. Tacitus speaks of him not 
 only as the greatest of authors/ but also as rivalling the 
 most accomplished orators -^ whilst Suetonius praises his 
 eloquence, and quotes the testimony of Cicero himself in 
 support of his favourable criticism.^ 
 
 Hitherto, with the exception of his first campaign, the 
 life of Caesar was of a civil complexion. His literary 
 eminence took the colouring of the pubhc occupations ia 
 which he was engaged. Like a true Eoman, Hterature 
 was subordinate to public duty, and his taste was directed 
 into the channel which was most akin to, and identified 
 with, his life. His intellectual vigour, however, demanded 
 employment as well as his practical talents for business ; 
 and for this reason, as has been seen, he devoted himself 
 to the study of oratory ; and the principal works which as 
 yet obtain for him a place in a history of Eoman Hterature 
 are merely orations. 
 
 His next official appointment opened to him a new field A 
 for thought. In b. c. 63 he obtained the office of Pontifex 
 Maximus, and examined so dUigently into the history and 
 nature of the Eoman behef in augury, of which he was 
 the official guardian, that his investigations were pub- 
 Hshed in a work consisting of at least sixteen books {Lihri 
 Auspidorwm)} In order to fit himself for discharging 
 the duties of his office he studied astronomy, and even 
 wrote a treatise on that science,* entitled " de Astris," and 
 a poem somewhat resembling the Phenomena of Aratus. 
 His knowledge of this science enabled him, with the aid 
 of the Alexandrian astronomers, to carry into ejffect some 
 years * afterwards the reformation of the calendar. 
 
 The works above mentioned are philosophicaUy and 
 scientifically valueless, but curious and interesting ; but 
 we have now to view Caesar in that capacity which was 
 
 ' Gevm. 28. * Aanal. xiii. 3. ' Suet. v. Jul. 55. 
 
 * See Macr. Sat. i. 16. " Ibid. « B. c. 46. 
 
376 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 the foundation of his hterary reputation. He obtained 
 the proviace of Hispania Ulterior -^ and at this post his 
 career as a military commander began. As had been the 
 case during his previous career, so now the almost inces- 
 sant demands on his thoughts and time did not divert 
 him from hterary pursuits, but determined the channel 
 in which his tastes should seek satisfaction, and furnished 
 the subject for his pen. He had evidently an ardent love 
 for Hterature for its own sake. It was not the paltry 
 ambition of showing that he could achieve success, and 
 even superiority, in everything which he chose to under- 
 take, although his versatiHty of talent was such as to 
 encourage him to expect success, but a real attachment to 
 hterary employment. Hence whatever leisure his duties 
 as a nuHtary commander permitted him to enjoy was 
 devoted, as to a labour of love, to the composition of his 
 Memoirs or Commentaries of the GraUic and Civil Wars. 
 
 His comprehensive and hberal mind was also convinced 
 of the embarrassing technicalities which impeded the 
 administration of the Eoman law. Its interpretation 
 was confined to a few who had studied its pedantic mys- 
 teries ; and the laws which regulated the dies fasti and 
 nefasti had originally placed its administration in the 
 hands of the priests and patricians. Appius Claudius had 
 aheady commenced the work of demohshing the fences 
 which to the people at large were impregnable ; and Csesar 
 entertained the grand design of reducing its principles 
 and practice to a regular code.^ His views he embodied 
 in a treatise,^ which, as is often the case with pamphlets, 
 perished when the object ceased to exist for which it was 
 intended. 
 
 It is said that he also contemplated a complete survey 
 and map of the Eoman empire.* But his greatest bene- 
 
 B. c. 61. " Suet. V. Jul. 44. ' A. GeU. i. 22. 
 
 * Merivale's H. of R. ii. 422. 
 
THE COMMENTARIES. 377 
 
 faction, perhaps, to the cause of Eoman literature was the 
 establishment of a public library.' The spoils of Italy, 
 collected by Asinius Pollio, furnished the materials, just 
 as the museums of Paris were enriched by the great 
 modem conqueror from the plunder of Europe; but it 
 was, nevertheless, a great and patriotic work; and he 
 enhanced its utility by entrusting the collection and 
 arrangement of it to the learned Varro as hbrarian. 
 
 Besides the works already named, Caesar left behind 
 him various letters, some of which are extant amongst 
 those of Cicero ; orations, of which, if the panegyrics of 
 Cicero, Tacitus, and Quintilian^ are not exaggerated, it is 
 deeply to be regretted that the titles are alone preserved ;* 
 a short treatise or pamphlet, called Anticato ; a work on 
 the analogy of the Latin language ; a collection of apo- 
 thegms ; and a few poems. 
 
 These are the grounds' on which the claims of the great 
 conqueror to hterary fame rest in the various capacities of 
 orator, historian, antiquarian, philosopher, grammarian, 
 and poet ; but by far the most important of his works is his 
 " Commentaries." " These have fortunately come down to 
 us in a tolerably perfect state, although much stiU. remains 
 to be done before we can be said to possess an accurate 
 edition.* Seven books contain the history of seven years 
 of the Q-alHc war, and three carry the history of the civil 
 war down to the commencement of the Alexandrine. 
 These are the work of Caesar himself. The eighth book, 
 " De Bello Gallico," which completes the subject, and the 
 three supplemental books of the work, " De Bello Civili," 
 which contain the Alexandrine, African, and Spanish 
 wars, have been variously ascribed to the friends of Caesar, 
 A. Hirtius, C. Oppius, and even to Pansa. The claims 
 of the latter, however, are entirely groundless. The 
 
 ' Suet. 44 ; Plin. H. N. vii. 31. 
 
 ' Cic. Brut. 72 ; Tac. Ann. xiii. 3 ; Quint, x. i. 114. 
 
 ' Meyer, Fr. Or. Rom. p. 404. * Nieb. Lect. R. H. xcv. 
 
378 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 marked similarity between tlie style of the eighth book 
 of the Gallic war and that of the Alexandrine war proves 
 that they were written by the same author ; and from 
 the elegance and purity ' of the Latinity, and the con- 
 fidential footing on which the author must have been 
 with Caesar, there is a probability, almost amounting to a 
 certainty, that the History of the Alexandrine War must 
 be the work of A. Hirtius. It may -also be remarked 
 that this opinion is in unison with that of Suetonius.^ 
 
 Hirtius was the only one of the three who united in 
 himself both these important qualifications. C. Oppius 
 was indeed equally in the confidence of Csesar ; he was 
 his inseparable companion.^ But, nevertheless, Oppius 
 was not so highly educated as Hirtius. Niebuhr, there- 
 fore, is probably correct in attributing to him, " without 
 hesitation,"^ the book on the African war. The inteHir 
 gence and information displayed in it are worthy of the 
 sensible soldier and confidential fnend, with whom he 
 corresponded in cipher, and whom he intrusted with 
 writing the introduction to his defence in the " Anticato;" 
 whilst the inferiority of the language ftiarks a less skilful 
 and practised hand than that of the refined Hirtius. 
 The book on the Spanish war is by some unknown authors 
 it is founded on a diary kept by some one engaged in the 
 war; but neither its language nor sentiments are those 
 of a Hberally-educated person.* The Greek term " Ephe- 
 merides " has sometimes been applied to the " Commenta- 
 ries," though Bayle* thought that they were different 
 works. 
 
 ' See Dodwell's Dissert, in Cses. Ed. Var. 
 
 ^ The friendship which existed between these great men furnishes an 
 anecdote (Suet. V. J. C. 72) characteristic of the most amiable feature in 
 Csesar's character, his devoted and hearty attachment to those whom he 
 loved. Once, when they were journeying together, they reached a cottage, 
 in which only one room was to be procured ; Oppius was ill, and Csesar 
 gave up the room to his sick friend, whilst he bivouacked in the open air. 
 
 ' Lect. R. H. xcv. ■> See Niebuhr, Lect. R. H. » Smith's Diet, in loco. 
 
STYLK OF THE COMMENTARIES. 879 
 
 These memoirs are exactly what they profess to be, 
 and are written in the most appropriate style. Few 
 would wish it to be other than it is. They are sketches 
 taken on the spot, in the midst of action, whilst the mind 
 was full : they have aU the graphic power of a master- 
 mind, and the vigorous touches of a master-hand. Take, 
 for example, the delineation of the Gallic character, and 
 compare it with some of the features still to be found in 
 the mixed race, their successors, and no one can doubt of 
 its accuracy, or of the deep and penetrating insight into 
 human nature which generally indicates the powerful and 
 practical intellect. Their elegance and pohsh is that 
 which always must mark even the least-laboured efforts 
 of a refined and educated taste, not that which proceeds 
 from careful emendation and correction. The "Com- 
 mentaries" are the materials for history; notes jotted 
 down for future historians. It is evident that no more time 
 was spent upon them than would naturally be devoted 
 to such a work by one who was employing the iaaction 
 of winter quarters in digesting the recollections stored up 
 during the business of the campaign ; and for this reason 
 few faults have been found with the "Commentaries," 
 even by the most fastidious critics. The very faults 
 which may be justly found with the style of Caesar are 
 such as reflect the man himself. The majesty of his 
 character principally consists in the imperturbable cahn- 
 ness and equability of his temper. He had no sudden 
 bursts of energy, and alternations of passion and in- 
 activity: the elevation of his character was a high one, 
 but it was a level table-land. This calmness and equa- 
 bHity pervades his writings, and for this reason they 
 have been thought to want life and energy; whereas 
 in reality they are only deficient in contrast, and light 
 and shade. The uniformity of his active character is 
 interesting as one great element of his success ; but the 
 uniformity of style may perhaps be thought by some 
 
380 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 readers to diminisli the interest witli wMch his work is 
 read. 
 
 The simple beauty of his language is, as Cicero says, 
 statuesque rather than picturesque. Simple, severe, 
 naked — " omni ornatu orationis tanquam veste detracto ;" 
 and whilst, like a statue, it conveys the idea of perfect 
 and weU-proportioned beauty, it banishes all thoughts 
 of human passion. It was this perfect calm propriety, 
 perhaps, this absence of all orrmmental display, which 
 prevented him from being a successful orator, and his 
 orations from surviving, although he had every external 
 qualification for a speaker ^ — a fine voice, graceful action, 
 a noble and majestic appearance, and a frank and brilliant 
 dehvery. 
 
 The very few instances of doubtful Latinity which a 
 hypercritical spirit may detect are scarcely blemishes, and 
 fewer than might have been expected from the observation 
 of Hirtius,^ " Ceteri quam bene atque emendate, nos etiam, 
 quam facUe ac celeriter eos perscripserit, scimus." When 
 A. PoUio^ called his " Commentaries " hasty, his criticism 
 was fair ; but he was scarcely just in blaming the writer 
 for inaccuracy and credulity. These faults, so far as they 
 existed, were due to circumstances, not to himself. His 
 observing mind wished to collect information with respect 
 to the foreign lands which were the field of his exploits, 
 and the habits of the inhabitants, quite as much as to 
 describe his own tactics and victories. He naturally 
 accepted the accounts given him, even when he had no 
 means of testing their veracity. He is, therefore, not 
 to blame for recording those which subsequent discoveries 
 have shown to be imtrue. 
 
 His digressions of this character yield in interest to no 
 portion of his work ; and though some of his accounts of 
 the Grauls and Germans are incorrect, many were sub- 
 
 ' Brut. 71, 72, 75. " Prsef. to book viii. ' Suet. 56. 
 
Caesar's modesty overrated. 381 
 
 seqnently confirmed by the investigations of Tacitus. 
 The only quality in the character of Caesar which has 
 been sometimes exaggerated is modesty. He does not, 
 indeed, add to his own reputation by detracting from the 
 merits of those who served under him. He is honest, 
 generous, and candid, not only towards them, but also 
 towards his brave barbarian enemies. Nor is he guilty 
 of egotism in the strict literal sense of the term. This, 
 however, is scarcely enough to warrant the eulogy which 
 some have founded upon it. He has too good taste to 
 recount his successes with pretension and arrogance ; but 
 he has evidently no objection to be the hero of his own 
 tale. He skiLftdly veils his selfish, unpatriotic, and 
 ambitious motives ; and his object evidently is to leave 
 such memoirs, that fature historians may be able to hand 
 down the most favourable character of Caesar to posterity. 
 
 Though himself is his subject, his memoirs are not 
 confessions. Not a record of a weakness appears, nor 
 even of a defect, except that which the Eomans would 
 readily forgive, cruelty. His savage waste of human life 
 he recounts with perfect self-complacency. Vanity was 
 his crowning error in his career as a statesman ; and 
 though hidden by the reserve with which he speaks of 
 himself, sometimes discovers itself in the historian. 
 
 The " Commentaries " of Csesar have sometimes been 
 compared with the work of the great soldier-historian of 
 Greece, Xenophon. Both are eminently simple and un- 
 affected; but there the parallel ends. The severe con- 
 tempt of ornament which characterizes the stern Eoman 
 is totally unlike the melUfluous sweetness of the Attic 
 
 writer. 
 
 The " Anticatones "^ were two books in answer to 
 Cicero's panegyric of Cato, which he had written imme- 
 diately after the philosopher's death. Hirtius first, at 
 
 ■ Juv. vi. 338 ; Suet. 56 ; Gell. iv. 16 ; Cip. Div. ii. 9. 
 
382 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 the request of Caesar, wrote a reply, and sent it to Cicero 
 from Narbonne. Although he denied the justice of 
 Cicero's eulogium, he secured the good-will of the orator 
 himself by liberal commendations.^ This prepared the 
 way for Caesar's own pamphlet. 
 
 His philological work, de Analogia, or de Ratione Latine 
 Loquendi, is commended by Cicero^ for its extreme ac- 
 curacy, and was held in high estimation by the Eoman 
 grammarians. Probably, in liveliness and originahty it 
 was far superior to any of their works. Wonderfol to 
 say, it was written during the difficulties and occupations 
 of a journey across the Alps. From the quotations from 
 it, in the writings of the grammarians, we learn that he 
 proposed that the letter V should be written lI, to mark 
 its connexion with the Greek digamma; and that the 
 new orthography, which substituted laorimce for ItiGrumce, 
 maadmus for maxumus, &c., was estabhshed by his au- 
 thority. 
 
 The " Apophthegmata" is said to have been a coUeotion 
 of wise and witty sayings by himself and others, although 
 it is remarkable not a single witty saying of Caesar is on 
 record.* He began it early in life, and was continually 
 making additions to it. 
 
 His poetical attempts consisted of a tragedy entitled 
 " (Edipus ;" a short piece, the subject of which was the 
 praises of Hercules (both of these, as well as the Apo- 
 phthegmata, were suppressed by Augustus) ; " Iter," an 
 account of his march into Spain ; the astronomical poem 
 already mentioned ; and some epi^ams of which three 
 are extant, although their authenticity is somewhat 
 doubtftd.' 
 
 ' Ad Att. xii. 40, 41, 44, 45.; xiii. 37, 40, 48, 50. » Cio. Brut. 72. 
 
 ' See Nieb. L. E. H. xcv. ; Suet. 66 ; Cic. ad Fam. ix. 16. 
 
 ' Meyer's Lat. Anthol. 68, 69, 70. 
 
 ' A. Gellius tells us (xvii. 9) that he was the author of Letters to Oppius, 
 written in cipher, of which he gives the following interesting descrip- 
 tion : — " Erat conventum inter eos clandestinum de commutando situ 
 
CHARACTER OF CiESAR. 388 
 
 The character of Caesar is full of inconsistencies ; but 
 they are the inconsistencies which are natural to man, 
 and are sometimes found in men of a strong will and 
 commanding talents who are destitute of moral principle. 
 His faults and excellences, his capability and talents, 
 were the result of his natural powers — not of pains or 
 study. He was one of the greatest as weU as one of the 
 worst men who ever lived. He was an Epicurean in 
 faith, and yet he had all the superstition which so often 
 accompanies infideUty. His habitual humanity and 
 clemency towards his fellow-citizens were interrupted by 
 instances of stem and pitiless cruelty. He shed tears 
 at the assassination of Pompey, and yet could massacre 
 the TJsipetes and the Tenchteri, and acted like a savage 
 barbarian towards his chivalrous foe Vercingetorix. He 
 delighted in the pure and refined pleasures of literature, 
 and his intimate associates were men of taste and genius ; 
 and yet he was the slave of his sensual passions, and 
 indulged in the grossest profligacy. He was candid, 
 friendly, confiding, generous; but he was attracted by 
 brilliant talents, and the qualities of the head, rather than 
 the affections of the heart. The mainspring of his con- 
 duct as a general and a statesman exhibits a strong wiU 
 and perfect self-rehance ; and in lite manner he owes 
 the energy of his style of writing, and the persuasive 
 force of his oratory, to the influence of no other minds : 
 they are the natural fruit of clear perceptions, a pene- 
 trating intellect, an observing miad capable of taking a 
 wide and comprehensive view of its subject. Men of varied 
 acquirements and extensive knowledge, but of pedantic 
 taste, are said to talk Kke books, the writings of Caesar, 
 on the contrary, are Kke lively and unconstrained con- 
 
 literarum ut inscriptio quidem alia alius locum et nomen teneret sed in 
 legendo locus cuique suus et potestas restitueretur." Suetonius (Vit. Cses, 
 56) describes in the same way the nature of the cipher which he used, and 
 illustrates it by saying that he used to put d for a and so forth. 
 
384 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 versation: they have all the reality which constitutes 
 the great charm of his character. 
 
 He was above affectation, for his was a mind bom to 
 lead the age in which he hved, not- to think with others 
 merely ia deference to established usage and custom ; and 
 although his natural vanity and self-confidence led him 
 to set his own character iu the most favourable light, his 
 vanity was honest : he had no intention wilfuUy to 
 deceive. His wonderful memory fitted him for the task 
 of faithfully recording the events in which he himself 
 was an actor ; and his power of attention and abstraction, 
 which enabled him to write, converse, and dictate at the 
 same time, shows how valuable must be a work on which 
 were concentrated at once all the energies of his pene- 
 trating mind. 
 
( 385 ) 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 LIFE OF SALLUST — HIS INSINCERITY — HIS HISTORICAL WORKS- 
 HE WAS A BITTER OPPONENT OF THE NEW ARISTOCRACY — 
 PROFLIGACY OF THAT ORDER — HIS STYLE COMPARED WITH 
 THAT OF THUCYDIDES— HIS VALUE AS AN HISTORIAN— TROGUS 
 POMPEIUS— HIS HISTORIC PHILIPPICS. 
 
 C. Sallustius Crispus (born B.C. 85). 
 
 C. Sallustius Crispus was fifteen years junior to Csesar : 
 he was born at Amiternum/ in the territory of the 
 Sabines, a.u.c. 669, B.C. 85. He was a member of 
 a plebeian family ; but, having served the ofiices of tribune 
 and quaestor, attained senatorial rank. In a.u.c. 704, 
 he was expelled from the senate^ by the censors Ap. 
 Claudius Pulcher and L. Calpumius Piso.^ It is said 
 that, although he was " a most severe censurer of the 
 licentiousness of others,"* he was a profligate man himself, 
 and that the scandal of an intrigue with Fausta, the 
 daughter of Sxdla and the wife of Milo, was the cause of 
 his degradation. 
 
 Through the influence of Csesar, whose party he es- 
 poused, he was restored to his rank, and subsequently 
 became praetor. He accompanied his patron in the 
 African war, and was made governor of Numidia. 
 Whilst in that capacity, he accumulated by rapacity and 
 extortion enormous wealth,^ which he lavished on ex- 
 
 Matth. H. L. ° Heind. on Hor. Sat. p. 40. ' Dion. Cas. xi. 63, 
 
 * Macrob. Saturn, ii. 9. * Dion, xliii. 9. 
 
 2c 
 
386 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 pensive but tasteful luxury. The gardens on the Quirinal 
 which bore his name were celebrated for their beauty; 
 and beneath their alleys, and porticoes, surrounded by the 
 choicest works of art, he avoided the tumultuous scenes 
 of civil strife which ushered in the empire, and devoted 
 his retirement to composing the historical records which 
 survived him. His death took place B.C. 35. 
 
 Those who have wished to defend the character of 
 Sallust from the charges of immorality, to which allusion 
 has been made, have attributed them to the groundless 
 calumnies of Lenseus, a freedman of Caesar's great rival 
 Pompey. It is not improbable that his faults may 
 have been exaggerated by the malevolence of party-spirit 
 in those factious times ; but there are no sentiments in 
 his works which can constitute a defence of him. If an 
 historian is distinguished by a high moral tone of feeling, 
 this quality cannot but show itself in his writings without 
 intention or design. But in Sallust there is always an 
 affectation and pretence of morality without the reaUty. 
 His philosophical reflections at the commencement of 
 the Jugurthine and Catihnarian wars are empty, cold, and 
 heartless. There is a display of commonplace sentiment, 
 and an expressed admiration of the old Eoman virtue of 
 bygone days, but no appearance of siacerity. The lan- 
 guage may be pointed enough to produce an effect upon 
 the ear, but the sentiments always fail to probe the 
 recesses of the heart. Sallust lived ia an immoral and 
 corrupt age ; and though, perhaps, he was not amongst 
 the worst of his contemporaries, he had not sufficient 
 strength of principle to resist the force of example and 
 temptation. 
 
 It is almost certain that, as a provincial governor, 
 Sallust was not more unscrupulous than others of his 
 class; but wealth such as he possessed could not have 
 been acquired except by extortion and maladministration. 
 As a poHtician, he was equally unsatisfactory : he was a 
 
DEFECTS AND MERITS OF SALLUST. 387 
 
 mere partisan of Caesar, and, therefore, a strenuous oppo- 
 nent of the higher classes as supporters of Pompey ; but 
 he was not an honest champion of popular rights, nor was 
 he capable of understanding the meaning of patriotism. 
 If, however, we make some allowance for the pohtical 
 bias of SaUust, which is evident throughout his works, 
 his histories have not only the charms of the historical 
 romance, but are also valuable pohtical studies. His 
 characters are vigorously and naturally drawn, as though 
 he not only personally knew them, but accurately under- 
 stood them. The more his histories are read, the more 
 will it be discovered that he always writes with an object. 
 He eschews the very idea of a mere dry chronicle of 
 facts, and uses his facts as the means of enforcing a great 
 pohtical lesson. 
 
 For this reason, hke Thucydides, whom he evidently 
 took as his model, not only in style but in the use of 
 his materials, his speeches are his own compositions. 
 Even when he had an opportunity, as in the case of 
 Caesar's and Cato's speeches in the " BellumCatilinarium," 
 he contented himself with giving the substance of them, 
 clothed it in his own language, and embodied in them 
 his own sentiments. According to his own statement, 
 there is one exception to his practice in this respect. 
 He asserts that the speech of Memmius, the tribune 
 of the people,^ is the very one which he dehvered. If 
 this be really the case, it is a most valuable example 
 of the style in which a popular leader addressed his 
 audience. But it is to be feared that this is not strictly 
 and UteraUy true : the style is, indeed, somewhat different 
 from that of the other speeches, but does not exhibit 
 freedom enough to assure us that he has actually reported 
 it as dehvered. It may be only a specimen of that con- 
 summate skill which constitutes the principal charm of 
 
 Jug. c. 30. 
 
 c •' 
 
 l>. \j ,^ 
 
388 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Sallust's manner, and made him a complete master of 
 composition. SaRust never attempted anything more 
 than detached portions of Eoman history. " I have 
 determined," he says, " to write only select portions of 
 Eoman history" (carptim perscribere).^ He himself 
 gives an explanation of his motives for so doing,^ when 
 he complains of the manner in which this department 
 of -hterature was neglected. Wherever a satisfactory 
 account existed, he thought it unnecessary to travel over 
 the same ground a second time. 
 
 His first work, reckoning according to the chronological 
 order of events, is the Jugurthine war, which commenced 
 B.C. Ill, and ended B.C. 106. The next period, com- 
 prehending the Social war and the war of Sulla, extending 
 as far as the consulship of M. ^milius Lepidus, B.C. 78, 
 had already been related by Sisenna, a friend of Cicero.^ 
 Where Sisenna left off, the Histories of SaUust (His- 
 toriarum Libri V.), began, and continued the narrative 
 without interruption until the prsetorship of Cicero.* This 
 work is unfortunately lost, with the exception of some 
 letters and speeches, and a few fragments relating to the 
 war of Spartacus. l^iebuhr^ considers this one of the most 
 deplorable losses in Eoman Hterature ; less, however, on 
 account of its historical importance, than as a perfect 
 model of historical composition. A break of two years 
 ensues, and then follows the " Bellurn Catilinarium," Or 
 history of the Catilinarian conspiracy in the year of 
 Cicero's consulship.* 
 
 This completes the list of those works which are un- 
 doubtedly genuine. No satisfactory opinion has been 
 arrived at respecting the authorship of the two letters to 
 Caesar, " De Bepuhlica Ordinandd ;" and it is now un- 
 hesitatingly admitted, that the declamation against Cicero 
 
 Oat. iv. ^ Bel. Cat. vii. » De Leg. i. 2 ; Brut. 64. 
 
 * B. c. 66. » Lect. R. H. kxxviii. ' b. c. 63. 
 
SOCIAL CONDITION OF ROME. 389 
 
 must have been, as well as its counterpart the declama- 
 tion against Sallust, the work of some rhetorical writer 
 of a later period. The subject of this imaginary dis- 
 putation was naturally suggested by the known fact that 
 Sallust was no friend to Cicero. 
 
 It has already been stated, that Sallust was a bitter 
 opponent of the principles and pohcy of the aristocratic 
 party ; but it must be carefully explained what is meant 
 by that assertion. The object of his hatred was not the 
 old patrician blood of Eome, but the new aristocracy, 
 which had of late years been rapidly rising up and dis- 
 placing it. 
 
 This new nobility was utterly corrupt ; and their cor- 
 ruption was encouraged by the venaHty of the masses, 
 whose poverty and destitution tempted them to be the 
 tools of unscrupulous ambition. Everything at Eome, 
 as Juvenal said in later times, had its price. SaUust adds 
 to the severity of his strictures upon his countrymen by 
 the force of contrast; he represents even Jugurtha as 
 asserting that the repubhc itself might be bought if a 
 purchaser could be found; and paints the barbarian as 
 more honest and upright than his conquerors. The 
 ruined and abandoned associates of Catiline represented 
 a numerous class among the younger members of the 
 upper classes, who, by lives devoted to lawless pleasures, 
 had become ruined, reckless, and demoralized. They 
 were ripe for revolution, because they had nothing to 
 lose: they could not gratify their vicious propensities 
 without wealth ; they had no principles or scruples as to 
 the means of acquiring it ; their best prospects were in 
 anarchy, proscription, and confiscation. The debauched 
 and ruined nobleman, and the vulgar profligate of the 
 lowest class, forgot their mutual differences, and thus a 
 combination was formed, the members of which were the 
 sink and outscourings of society. 
 
 Such degenerate profligacy is an ample justification of 
 
390 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Sallust's hatred towards the new aristocracy; and the 
 object of all his works evidently was to place that party 
 in the unfavourable light which it deserved. In the 
 Jugurthine war he describes the unworthiness of the 
 foreign poHcy of Eome under its maladministration. 
 His " Histories," according to the statement of Niebuhr, 
 describe the popular resistance to the revolutionary 
 policy of SuUa, the profligate leader of the same party ; 
 and in the " Catilinarian War" he paints in vivid colours 
 the depravity of that order of society, who, bankrupt in 
 fortune and dead to all honourable feelings, still plumed 
 themselves on their rank and exclusiveness. Neverthe- 
 less, notwithstanding the truthfulness of the picture 
 which Sallust draws, selfishness and not patriotism was 
 the mainspring of his politics ; and it is scarcely >possible 
 to avoid seeing that he is anxious to set himself off to 
 the best advantage. His hoUowness is that of a vain 
 and conceited man, who measures himself by too high a 
 standard, and appears chagrined and disappointed that 
 others do not estimate him as highly as he does himself. 
 These are the blots in his character as a man and a 
 citizen ; but we must not forget his real merits as an 
 historian. To him must be conceded the praise of 
 having first conceived the notion of a history in the true 
 sense of the term. He saw the lamentable defects in the 
 abortive attempts made by his predecessors;^ and the 
 model was a good one which he left for his successors to 
 follow. It is scarcely too much to suppose, that if it had 
 not been for Sallust, Livy might not have been led to 
 conceive his vast and comprehensive plan. He was the 
 first Eoman historian, and the guide to future historians. 
 Again, his style, although almost ostentatiously elaborate 
 and artificial, and not without affectation, is, upon the 
 whole, pleasing, and almost always transparently clear. 
 
 ' Cat. vii. 
 
STYLE OF SALLUST. 391 
 
 The caution of Quintilian respecting his well-known 
 brevity (" vitanda est ilia Sallustiana brevitas'") is well- 
 timed in his work, as being addressed to orators, for 
 public speaking necessarily requires a more dififuse style ; 
 and it is probable that Quintihan would not appreciate 
 its merits, because he himself was a rhetorician, and his 
 taste was formed in a rhetorical age. Seneca, for the 
 same reasons, finds similar faults, not only with SaUust, 
 but with the favourite literature of his day. " When 
 SaUust flourished, abrupt sentences, unexpected cadences, 
 obscure expressions, were considered signs of a cultivated 
 taste."^ But the brevity of SaUust does not produce the 
 effect of harsh or disagreeable abruptness, whilst it keeps 
 the attention awake, and impresses the facts upon the 
 memory. How powerful and suggestive, for example, 
 how abundant in material for thought, are those few words 
 in which he describes Pompey as " oris probi, animo 
 inverecundo \" There is, however, this difference between 
 the brevity of SaUust and that of his supposed model, 
 Thucydides. That of the Greek historian was natural 
 and involuntary ; that of the Roman intentional and the 
 result of imitation. Thucydides thought more quickly 
 than he could write : his closely-packed ideas and con- 
 densed constructions, therefore, constitute a species of 
 short-hand, by which alone he could keep pace with the 
 rapidity of his intellect. He is, therefore, always vigor- 
 ous and suggestive; and the necessities of the case 
 make the reader readily pardon the difficulties of his 
 
 style. 
 
 The brevity of Thucydides is the result of condensa- 
 tion ; that of SaUust is elliptical expression. He gives a 
 liint, and the reader must supply the rest ; whilst Thu- 
 cydides only expects his readers to unfold and develop 
 ideas which already existed in a concentrated form. 
 
 ' Quint. I. O. X. 1. " Ep. cxiv. 
 
392 
 
 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Sallust requires addition; Thycidides dilution and ex- 
 pansion. Neither does the brevity of Sallust resemble 
 that of Caesar or of Tacitus : the former was straight- 
 forward and business-Hke, requiring neither addition nor 
 expansion, because he wished to make his statements as 
 clearly as they were capable of being expressed, without 
 ornament or exaggeration. He was brief, because he 
 never wished to say more thdn was absolutely necessary, 
 and therefore his brevity is the very cause of perspicuity. 
 The mind of Tacitus was, from its thoughtfulness and 
 philosophical character, the very counterpart of that of 
 Thucydides : his brevity was therefore natural, and the 
 result of the same causes. 
 
 There is one point of view ia which Sallust is iava- 
 luable as an historian. He had always an object to which 
 he wished all his facts to converge : he brought forward 
 his facts as illustrations and developments of principles. 
 He analysed and exposed the motives of parties, and the 
 secret springs which actuated the conduct of individuals, 
 and laid bare the inner hfe of those great actors on the 
 pubHc stage, in the interesting historical scenes which he 
 undertakes to describe. 
 
 Trogus Pompeius. 
 
 Trogus Pompeius was a voluminous historian of the 
 Augustan age, whose father was private secretary to 
 Julius Caesar.^ His work was of such vast extent, and 
 embraced so great a variety of subjects, that it has even 
 been termed by Justin, who pubhshed a large collection 
 of extracts from it, an Universal History. Its title, how- 
 ever, " Historice PhilippicoB," proves the writer's primary 
 object was the history of the Macedonian monarchy, 
 together with the kingdoms which arose out of it at the 
 death of Alexander ; and that all the rest of the informa- 
 
 ' Justin, xliii. 6. 
 
HISTORY OF TROGUS POMPEIUS. 393 
 
 tion contained in it were digressions into whicli he was 
 naturally led, and episodes incidentally introduced into 
 the main stream of the history. 
 
 For the materials contained in his work, which con- 
 sisted of forty-four books, he was indebted to the Greek 
 historians ; but especially to Theopompus of Chios,' from 
 whose principal work he derived the title, " Philippica," 
 as well as the practice of brahching out into long and fre- 
 quent digressions. It is easy to imagine over how vast 
 an area a history of the Macedonian empire was capable of 
 extending. The subjugation of the East by the conquests 
 of Alexander naturally made a rapid sketch of the 
 Assyrian, Median, and Persian empires, an appropriate 
 introduction to the work : the connexion of Persia with 
 Greece and Egypt furnished an opportunity of embody- 
 ing the records of Greek history, and a description of 
 Egypt and its inhabitants. Once embarked in Greek 
 history, the writer pursued it until it became interwoven, 
 through the interference of Philip, with the affairs of 
 Macedon. Alexander and his successors succeed: the 
 campaigns of Pyrrhus briug the Eomans upon the stage ; 
 Carthage and Sicily for a while occupy the scene ; and the 
 main body of the work is completed by a sketch of the 
 gradual consolidation of that vast empire, of which sub- 
 jugated Macedonia became a province. Nor is this all — 
 other less important nations, cities, and states are ever 
 and anon introduced, according as they act their part in 
 the great drama of history. 
 
 ' Born B. c. 378. 
 
394 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITEEATURE. 
 
 CHAPTER XITI. 
 
 LIFE OF LIVY — HIS OBJECT IN WRITING HIS HISTORY — ITS 
 SPIRIT AND CHARACTER — LIVY PRECISELY SUITED TO HIS 
 AGE — NOT WILFULLY INACCURATE — HIS POLITICAL BUS 
 ACCOUNTED FOR — MATERIALS WHICH HE MIGHT HAVE USED 
 — SOURCES OF HIS HISTORY — HIS DEFECTS AS AN HISTORIAN 
 — HIS STYLE — GRAMMARIANS — VITRUVIUS POLLIO AN AU- 
 GUSTAN WRITER — CONTENTS OF HIS WORK. 
 
 T. Livius Patavinus (born b. c. 59). 
 
 The biographical records of many great literary men of 
 Eome are most meagre and unsatisfactory. Modem 
 critics wlio have written their lives have drawn largely 
 upon their own imaginations for their materials ; whilst 
 all the information to be derived from ancient writers is 
 often comprised in a few vag^e allusions and notices. 
 Some of these have been misunderstood, and from others 
 unwarrantable deductions have been derived. These ob- 
 servations are particularly applicable to him who is the 
 only illustrious Eoman historian in the Augustan age. 
 
 Universal tradition assigns to Patavium (Padua) the 
 honour of being the birthplace of Titus Livius ; but not- 
 withstanding the general behef, some doubt has been 
 thrown upon the fact by an epigram of Martial.* He 
 came to Eome during the reign of Augustus, where he 
 resided ia the enjoyment of the imperial favour and 
 patronage.'' He was a warm and open admirer of the 
 ancient institutions of the country, and esteemed Pompey 
 
 ' Ep. I. 62. * Tac. Ann. iv. 34. 
 
BIOGRAPHY OF LIVY. 395 
 
 as one of its greatest heroes; but Augustus, with his 
 usual liberality, did not allow political opinions to inter- 
 fere with the regard which he entertained for the his- 
 torian. Livy had a great admiration for oratory, and 
 advised his son to study the writings of Demosthenes 
 and Cicero.^ At his recommendation the stupid Claudius 
 wrote history -^ and it has even been asserted, though on 
 insufficient authority, that he was his instructor. His 
 fame rapidly spread beyond the limits of Italy, for PHny 
 the younger^ relates that an inhabitant of Cadiz came to 
 Eome for the express purpose of seeing him ; a fact which 
 St. Jerome* expands into an assertion that many noble 
 Grauls and Spaniards were attracted to the capital, far 
 more by the reputation of Livy than by the splendour of 
 the imperial city. 
 
 His great work is a history of Eome, which he modestly 
 terms " Annals," in one hundred and forty-two books, 
 preceded by a brief but elaborately-written preface,* and 
 extending from the earliest traditions to the death of 
 Drusus.* Of this history thirty-five books are extant, 
 which were discovered at different periods.* Of the rest 
 we have only dry and meagre epitomes, drawn up by 
 some uncertain author, and of these two are lost.' Besides 
 his History, Livy is said* to have written books which 
 professed to be philosophical, and dialogues, the subjects 
 of which are partly philosophical and partly historical. 
 Late in life he returned to Patavium, and there died 
 A. D. 18, in the seventy-seventh year of his age." He left 
 one son and one daughter, who married L. Magius, a 
 teacher of rhetoric, of no great talent, who owed his re- 
 putation principally to his connexion with the historian." 
 
 Livy had one great object in view in -writrng his His- 
 
 ' Quint. X. i. 39. » Suet. V. a. 41. » Ep. II. 3. 
 
 " Nisard, ii. 405. " Lib. xliii. 13. ° b. c. 9. 
 
 ' See Smith's Biog. ii. 791. " Viz., 136 and 137. ' Sen. Suasor. 100. 
 
 '» Euseb. Chi'on. " Sen. Proem, to Controv. V. 
 
396 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 tory, namely, to celebrate the glories of his native country, 
 to which he was devotedly attached. He was a patriot : 
 his sympathy was -with Pompey, called forth by the dis- 
 interestedness of that great man, and perhaps by his sad 
 end, after having so long enjoyed imiversal popularity. 
 The character of the historian would lead us to suppose 
 that his attachment was personal rather than poHtical, 
 for the general spirit of his work shows that he was a 
 man of pure mind and gentle feelings. He began his 
 great work about nine or ten years before the Christian 
 era, a period singularly favourable for such a design. The 
 passages in which especially he .deUghts to put forth his 
 powers, and on which he dwells with the greatest zest, 
 show the truth of Quintihan's weU-known criticism, " that 
 he is especially the historian of the affections, particularly 
 of the softer sensibilities."^ A lost battle is misery to 
 him ; he trembles at the task of relating it. Nor does 
 he appear to have been a stem repubhcan. He could 
 admire enthusiastically, and describe with spirit, the noble 
 qualities and self-devotion which the old repubhcan 
 freedom fostered; but his object is rather to paint the 
 heroes, and to give graphic representations of the 
 struggles which they maintained in defence of hberty, 
 than to show any love of Hberty in the abstract, or a predi- 
 lection for any particular form of constitution. To Livy 
 poHtical struggles were no more than subjects for pic- 
 turesque delineations, the moral of which was the elevation 
 of national grandeur, just as successful foreign wars were 
 the records of national glory. Hence he is a biographer 
 quite as much as an historian : he anatomizes the moral 
 nature of his heroes, and shows their inner man, and the 
 motive springs of their noble exploits. This gives to his 
 narratives the charm of an historical romance, and makes 
 up for the want of accurate research and poHtical observa- 
 
 ' Inst. Or. X. 1. 
 
LIVY PRECISELY SUITED TO HIS AGE. 397 
 
 tion. His characters stand before us objectively, like 
 epic heroes ; and thus he is " the Homer of the Eoman 
 people," whilst the charm of his narratives makes him the 
 " Herodotus of Eoman historians." 
 
 Eome was now the mistress of the world : her struggles 
 with foreign nations had been rewarded with universal 
 dominion ; so that when the Eoman empire was spoken 
 of, no title less comprehensive than " the world " (orbis) 
 would satisfy the national vanity. The horrors of civil 
 war had ceased, and were succeeded by an amnesty of its 
 bitter feuds and bloody animosities. Liberty indeed had 
 perished, but the people were no longer fit for the enjoy- 
 ment of it ; and it was exchanged for a mild and paternal 
 rule, under which all the refinements of civilization were 
 encouraged, and its subjects could enjoy undisturbed the 
 blessings of peace and security. 
 
 Eome, therefore, had rest and breathing-time to look 
 back into the past — to trace the successive steps by which 
 that marvellous edifice, the Eoman empire, had been con- 
 structed. She coidd do this, too, with perfect self-com- 
 placency, for there was no symptom of decay to check 
 her exultation, or to mar the glories which she was 
 contemplating. 
 
 Livy, the good, the affectionate, the romantic, was pre- 
 cisely the popular historian for such times as these. His 
 countrymen looked naturally for panegyric rather than 
 for criticism. They were not in a temper to bear one 
 who could remorselessly tear open and expose to view all 
 the faults and blemishes which blotted the pages of their 
 history ; who could be a morose and querulous praiser of 
 times gone by, never to return, at the expense of their 
 present greatness and prosperity. He lived in happy 
 times, before Eome had learnt by sad experience what 
 the tyranny of absolutism reaUy was. He tells his story 
 like a bard singing his lay at a joyous and festive meet- 
 ing, chequered by alternate successes and reverses, pros- 
 
398 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 perity and adversity, but all tending to a happy end at 
 last. These features of his character, and this object of 
 his work, whilst they constitute his peculiar charm as a 
 narrator, obviously render him less valuable as an historian. 
 Although he was not tasteless and spiritless, like Dionysius, 
 he was not so trustworthy. He would not be wiLfaUy 
 inaccurate, or otherwise than truth-teUing ; but if the 
 legend he was about to teU was captivating and interest- 
 ing, he would not stop to inquire whether or no it was 
 true. He would take upon trust the traditions which 
 had been handed down from generation to generation 
 without inquiry; and the more flattering and popular 
 they were, the more suitable would he deem them for 
 his purpose. Without being himself necessarily super- 
 stitious, he would see that superstitious marvels added to 
 the embellishments of his story, and, therefore, would 
 accept them without pronouncing upon their truth or 
 falsehood. 
 
 Wilftd unfairness can never be attributed to Livy : he 
 was prejudiced, but he was not party-spirited. He loved 
 his country and his countrymen, and could scarcely per- 
 suade himself of the possibility of their doing wrong. He 
 could scarcely beheve anything derogatory to the national 
 glory. When (to take a striking example), in the case of 
 the treaty with Porsena, there were two opposite stories, 
 he was led by this partiality to ignore the weU-authen- 
 ticated fact of the capture of Eome, and to adopt that 
 account which was most creditable to his countrymen.* 
 Whenever Eome was false to treaties, unmerciful in vic- 
 tory, or unsuccessftd in arms, he is always anxious to 
 find excuses. His predilections are evidently aristocratic ; 
 and although he states the facts fairly, he wishes his 
 reader to sympathise with the patricians. 
 
 The plebeians of the days in which he hved were not 
 
 ' See Plin. H. N. xxxiv. 39, and Tac. Hist. iii. 72. 
 
STATE OF THE LOWER ORDERS. 399 
 
 the fair representatives of that enterprising class in the 
 early ages of the republic, who were as well bom as the 
 patricians, although of different blood ; the strength and 
 sinews of the state in its exhausting wars — dependent only 
 upon them from stern necessity, because they were ground 
 down to the dust by poverty, and debt, and oppression, 
 but independently maintaining themselves by their own 
 industry, gradually acquiring wealth, rising to the position 
 of a middle class, wumiag their way perseveringly, step 
 by step, to political privileges. 
 
 The lower orders of Eome, in the time of Livy, for the 
 term plebeian, in its original sense, was no longer ap- 
 phcable, were debased and degraded ; they cared not for 
 hberty, or political power, or self-government ; their 
 bosoms throbbed not with sympathy for the old plebeians, 
 who retired to Mount Sacer, and shed their blood for 
 their principles. It was difficult, therefore, for him not 
 to believe that the popular leaders of old times were un- 
 principled men, who sought to repair their fortunes by 
 the arts of the demagogue. In his eyes resistance to 
 tyranny was treason and rebellion.^ But when, as in the 
 story of Yirginia, his gentler affections were enlisted, 
 Livy's heart wanned with a generous admiration towards 
 the champions of the people's rights, and his poHtical 
 predilections gave way to his sensibihties. In treating 
 of history almost contemporaneous, Tacitus confesses his 
 HberaHty. Although it might have rendered him more 
 acceptable at the court of his patron if he had vUified his 
 poHtical foes, yet even imperial favour, acting on the 
 same side as pohtical prejudice, did not tempt him to un- 
 fairness.^ He could see and acknowledge noble qualities 
 and disinterested patriotism, and give credit for sincere 
 motives, even to those who differed in pohtical opinions. 
 
 ' See i. 50 ; iv. 35 ; vi. 27. 
 
 ' Augustus, according to Tacitus (Ann. iv. 3), thought Livy so violent a 
 Pompeian that he once forbade one of his grandsons to read his history. 
 
400 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 From a character such as has been described, much 
 care is not to be expected as to the sources from which 
 historical information was derived. Many original docu- 
 ments mxist have existed in his day, which he evidently 
 never took the trouble to consult. A rich treasure of 
 original monuments relating to foreign and domestic 
 affairs were ready at hand, which might have been ex- 
 amined without much trouble.^ The great Annals of the 
 Pontifex Maximus were digested iuto eighty books ; and 
 these contained the names of the magistrates, all memorable 
 events at home and abroad — even the very days on which 
 they occurred being marked. The commentaries not 
 only of the priests and augurs, but of the civil magis- 
 trates, were kept with exactness and regularity. There 
 is no reason for supposing that the Lihri LinteP were 
 lost in Livy's time, although he quotes from Licinius 
 Macer,^ instead of consulting them himself. Three thou- 
 sand brazen tablets, on which were engraved acts of the 
 senate and the plebeians, extending backwards (says 
 Suetonius*) almost to the building of the city, existed in 
 the Capitol until it was burnt in the reign of Vespasian. 
 The corpus of civil law, which is known to have existed 
 in the time of Cicero,^ was full of antiquarian lore ; and 
 the twelve tables furnished invaluable information, not 
 only on language, but on the manners and habits of 
 bygone times. Nevertheless, the fragments of the Leges 
 Regice and the laws of the twelve tables have been more 
 carefully examined by critics of modem times than they 
 were by Livy, when they existed in a more perfect con- 
 dition. 
 
 Lachmann^ has satisfactorily shown that the assertions 
 of Livy are not based upon personal investigation, but 
 
 ' Cic. Or. ii. 12 ; Quint, x. 2, 7 ; Serv. in ^n. i. 373. 
 " See Arnold's Hist, of Rome. ' Lib. x. 38 ; iv. 7, 23. 
 
 * Vesp. 8. See also Tac. Hist. iii. 71. " Or. i. 43. 
 
 " Com. de Pont. Hist. Liv. 
 
SOURCES OF THE HISTORY OF LIVY. 401 
 
 that he trusted to the annalists, and took advantage of 
 the researches of preceding historians. This is all that he 
 himself professes to do ; and even these professions he does 
 not always satisfactorily perform. He does not appear to 
 have profited by the -Annals of Varro or the Origines of 
 Cato, a work which, according to the testimony of Cicero, 
 must have been invaluable to an historian ; and although 
 the Archaeologia of Dionysius were pubhshed about the 
 time at which Livy commenced his history,^ there is no 
 evidence that he makes use of it ; certainly he never ac- 
 knowledges any obligation to the indefatigable researches 
 of the Greek historian. According to his own confession,* 
 Roman history is total darkness until the capture of Eome 
 by the Gauls ; and although a dim light then begins to 
 break, a twilight period succeeds, which continues until 
 the first Punic war. But it cannot be asserted that he 
 prepared himself for his difl&cult task as he ought, or took 
 advantage of all the means at his disposal to enlighten 
 the obscurity in which his subject was involved. The 
 authorities on which he principally depends for the con- 
 tents of the first Decade were such as Ennius, Fab. Pictor, 
 Cincius, and Piso. It is evident that he also consulted 
 Greek writers. In the third, which contains the most 
 beautiful and elaborate passages of the whole work, he 
 follows Polybius. Nor could he, in this portion of his 
 history, follow a safer one. The Romans, notwithstand- 
 ing aU their practical tendencies, did Httle to promote 
 geographical science. It is amongst the Grreeks that we 
 find the most accurate and indefatigable geographers, such 
 as were Polybius, Strabo, and Ptolemy. 
 
 Polybius prepared himself for the task of narrating the 
 Italian campaign <^ Hannibal by personal inspection. 
 Livy did nothing of the kind. The former travelled 
 
 ' Vide Niebuhr (Leot. on Eom. Lit. vii.), who takes the opposite view. 
 ■' Lib. ii. 21 ; iv. 7 ; vi. 1. 
 
 2 D 
 
402 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 through the Alpine passes ; and his authority was con- 
 sidered so good that Strabo impHcitly followed him. It 
 is to be lamented that, as he was writing to his country- 
 men, he seldom mentions the names of places ; probably 
 he thought they would not be the wiser for the enumera- 
 tion of unknown barbarian names. But his accuracy in 
 dates and distances enables us to trace Hannibal's route 
 with correctness. These prove that the passage of Han- 
 nibal was by the Alpis Grraia, the Little St. Bernard ; a 
 statement which had been made by that veracious' his- 
 torian, Csehus Antipater, and also by Cornehus Nepos.^ 
 It has been since confirrhed by the researches of modem 
 travellers, such as GTeneral Melville, M. de Luc, Cramer, 
 and Wickham. Strange to say, Livy, although following 
 the route marked out by Polybius almost step by step, 
 at length ends it with the Alpis Cottia (M. Grenevre). 
 The absence of names left the fireside traveller at fault. 
 Caesar* had crossed the Alps by that pass ; and, perhaps, 
 Livy named it at a venture, as the most familiar to him. 
 In the succeeding portions of his work, so complete is the 
 confidence which he reposes upon the guidance of Poly- 
 bius, that the fourth and fifth Decades are little more 
 than the history of Polybius paraphrased. 
 
 Niebuhr,* from internal evidence, gives an interesting 
 account of the nlanner in which it is probable that Livy 
 wrote his history. He supposes that, like most of the 
 ancients, he employed a secretary, who read to him from 
 existing authorities the events of a single year. These 
 the historian mentally arranged, and then dictated his 
 own narrative. The work, therefore, was composed in 
 portions ; the connexion of the events of one year with 
 
 ' Val. Max. i. 7 ; ad Att. xiii, 8. 
 
 ' V. Harm. 22. Cornelius Nepos says that the Alpis Graia derived its 
 name from Hercules having passed by that route. Probably the real 
 derivation of the epithet is the root of the German " Grau." 
 
 » Bell. GaU. i. 11. * R. L. Lect. viii. 
 
- DEFICIENCIES OF LIVY. 403 
 
 those of the preceding one was lost sight of, and thus 
 they seem isolated ; and the conclusion of a series of events 
 sometimes unaccountahly synchronizes with the conclusion 
 of a year. 
 
 To his deficiencies in the habit of dihgent and accurate 
 investigation are added others which singularly disqualify 
 him for the task of a faithful historian. He was a reader 
 of books rather than a student of men and thiugs : he took 
 upon trust what other people told him, instead of acquir- 
 iag knowledge in a practical manner. He was ill-ac- 
 quainted with the history of foreign countries. He was 
 not, Hke Csesar, a soldier ; and therefore his descriptions of 
 military affairs are often vague and indistinct, for he did 
 not understand the tactics which he professed to describe. 
 He was not, like Thucydides, a poHtician or a philosopher ; 
 and hence the Httle trustworthy information which we 
 derive from him on questions connected with constitu- 
 tional changes. He did not fit himself, hke Herodotus, 
 by travelling ; and thus he is often ignorant of the locali- 
 ties which he describes, even though they are within the 
 limits of Italy. Hence the difficulties in the way of un- 
 derstanding the route of Hannibal and his army across 
 the Alps, the battle of Thrasimene, and the defeat at the 
 Caudine Forks. He was not a philosopher, a lawyer, or 
 a poHtician : he cotdd embrace with the eye and depict 
 with the hand of an artist everything which was external 
 and tangible ; but he could not penetrate the secret motives 
 which actuate the human will, nor form a clear concep- 
 tion of the fundamental legal and poHtical principles 
 which animated the institutions, and gave rise to the 
 pecuharities, of Eoman constitutional history. 
 
 With respect to the speeches which he attributes to his 
 principal heroes, a greater degree of accuracy cannot be ex- 
 pected, than is found in those of Thucydides. But they do 
 not possess that verisimihtude which is so admirable in 
 those of the Greek historian. As works of art they are fault- 
 
 2d 2 
 
404 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 less, but Livy does not keep in view the principle adhered 
 to by Thucydides, that they should be such as the speakers 
 were likely to have delivered on the occasions in question. 
 His great authority, Polybius, disapproves of imaginary 
 speeches altogether -^ but it must be remembered that, 
 "without some oratorical display, he would not have pleased 
 the Eoman people. The speeches of Thucydides, although 
 they bear the stamp of the writer's mind, are, to a certain 
 extent, characteristic of the speaker, and seem iaspired by 
 the occasion. If a Spartan speaks, he is laconic ; if a 
 general, he is soldier-Hke ; if a statesman or a demagogue, 
 he is lo^cal or argumentative, or appeals to the feehngs 
 and passions of the Athenian people. Consistency pro- 
 duces variety. The speeches of Livy are pleasing and 
 eloquent,* but they are always, so to speak, Liviaa; 
 they are frequently not such as Eomans would have 
 spoken in times when eloquence was rude, though 
 forcible. They partake of the rhetorical and declama- 
 tory spirit, which was already beginning to creep over 
 Eoman literature ; and often, from being unsuitable to 
 time, place, and person, diminish, instead of heightening, 
 the dramatic effect. 
 
 Stich are the principal defects which cause us to regret 
 that, whilst Livy charms us with his romantic narratives 
 and almost faultless style, he is too often a fallacious 
 guide as an historian, and gives, not intentionally or dis- 
 honestly, but from the character of his mind, and the 
 object which he proposed to himself, a false colouring, or 
 a vague and inaccurate outline to the events which he 
 narrates. No one can avoid relishing the liveliness, fresh- 
 ness, and " lactea ubertas," of Livy's fascinating style ; 
 but its principal excellence is summed up in the expression 
 of Quintilian, " clarissimus candor " (brightness and luci- 
 dity).* On the authority of Asinius PolHo, quoted by the 
 
 ' Lib. ii. 56, 10. ^ Quint, x. i. 101. » Lib. x. i. 101. 
 
GRAMMARIANS. 405 
 
 same writer,' a certain fault has been attributed to him, 
 termed " Patavinity," i. e., some peculiar ideas not admis- 
 sible in the pxixest Latin, which mark the place of his 
 nativity. So Httle pains do people take in the investiga- 
 tion of truth, and so ready are they to take upon trust 
 what their predecessors have beheved before them, that 
 generation after generation have assumed that Livy's 
 clear, eloquent, and transparent style is disfigured by 
 what we term provincialisms.* The penetrating mind of 
 Hiebuhr finds no ground for believing the story. If there 
 is any truth in it, he supposes the criticism must have 
 appHed to his speaking, and not to his writing.* His 
 style is always classical, even in the later decades : though 
 proHx and te.utologous, it is invariably marked by idio- 
 matic purity and grammatical accuracy. 
 
 Grammarians. 
 
 The grammarians may be passed over with httle more 
 notice than the simple mention of their names, because, 
 although they contributed to the stock of their country's 
 literature, they added httle or nothing to its hterary 
 reputation. The most conspicuous amongst them were — 
 Atteius Philologus, a freedman and friend of SaUust ; 
 Staberius Eros, who taught Brutus and Cassius; Q. 
 GseciHus Epirota, the correspondent of Cicero ; C. Julius 
 Hyginus, a Spaniard, the friend of Ovid, and curator of 
 the Palatine hbrary ; Verrius Elaccus, the tutor to the 
 grandsons of Augustus ; Q. Comificius, who was augur at 
 the same time with Cicero ; and P. Nigidius Pigulus, an 
 orator and philosopher as well as a grammarian. 
 
 ' Lib. viii. i. 1, 6, 56. 
 
 ' Provincialism is not an accurate term ; for the worst Latin was spoken 
 in Italy, whilst the only Latin spoken in the provinces or conquered de- 
 pendencies was as polished as that of the capital. 
 
 » Lect. B. L. viii. 
 
406 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITEBATORE. 
 
 M. VlTRTJVIUS POLLIO. 
 
 -The distinguislied name of M. Vitruvius PoUio claims a 
 place in a catalogue of tlie Augustan writers. His subject, 
 indeed, belongs to the department of the fine arts ; but 
 his varied acquirements and extensive knowledge, as well 
 as the manner in which, notwithstanding some faults, he 
 treats his subject, shed some lustre upon Eoman htera- 
 ture, and stamps him as one of the didactic writers of his 
 country. 
 
 Little information exists respecting this celebrated 
 architect ; and this circumstance has led to his being con- 
 fotmded with another professor of the same art, L. 
 Vitruvius Cerdo. The name of the latter is thus in- 
 scribed on an arch, which was his work, at Verona:' 
 " Q. Vitruvius L. L. Cerdo, Architectus." That Cerdo was 
 not the author of the treatise extant under the name of 
 Vitruvius, may be satisfactorily proved : — Firstly. The 
 letters L. L. signify that he was Lucii Libertus (the 
 freedman of Lucius), whereas M. Vitruvius PoUio was 
 bom free. Secondly. The arch on which the name ap- 
 pears belongs to an age when the Romans had begun, in 
 defiance of the precepts of PoUio, to neglect the principles 
 of Greek architecture.^ 
 
 Both the place and date of his birth are unknown. 
 According to some authorities he was bom at Verona ; 
 according to others at Formise -^ but he himself asserts 
 that he received a good liberal education ; and the truth 
 of this statement is confirmed by the knowledge which he 
 displays of Greek and Eoman Hterature, and his acquaint- 
 ance with works which treat, not only of architecture, but 
 also of polite learning and even philosophy* — the writings, 
 for example, of Lucretius, Cicero, and Varro. But the 
 great object of his studies was, undoubtedly, professional, 
 and to this he made Hterature a handmaid. 
 
 OreU. Ins. Lat. 4145. « See Smith's Diet, of Biogr., sub v. 
 
 ° Lib. vi. Praef. and Vita Vitr. ed. Bipont. 
 
VITRUVIUS AN AUGUSTAN WRITER. 407 
 
 Vitnivixis served under Julius Caesar in Africa as a 
 military engineer ; and was subsequently employed by one 
 of the emperors, to whom his treatise is dedicated, in the di- 
 rection and control of that department of the pubHc service. 
 By his favour, and the kindness of his sister, he was thus 
 placed in a condition, if not of affluence, at least of com- 
 petency. Who his imperial patron was has been disputed ; 
 but the widely-extended conquests, the augmentation of 
 the empire, the poHtical institutions, and, moreover, the 
 taste for architecture which Vitruvius attributes to him, 
 renders it most probable that it was Augustus, the 
 sovereign who found the city of bricks and left it . of 
 marble. It is clear that his work was written after the 
 death of JuHus Caesar, and not later than that of Titus, 
 for to the former he prefixes the word Divus, whilst he 
 does not mention the CoHseum ; and, although he speaks 
 of Vesuvius,' he is evidently not aware of any eruptions 
 having taken place except in ancient times. Notwith- 
 standing the arguments adduced by W. Newton'' to prove 
 that he wrote in the reign of Titus, it is now universally 
 admitted that Yitruvius was a writer of the Augustan 
 age. The inferiority of his style to that of his contem- 
 poraries, its occasional obscurity and want of method, the 
 not unfrequent occurrence of inelegant, and even barba- 
 rous expressions, notwithstanding his classical education, 
 may be accounted for by what has already been stated 
 respecting the professional object of all his studies. He 
 himself claims indulgence on this score,' and states that 
 he writes as an architect, and not as a Kterary man. So 
 much of its difficulty as arises from conciseness he con- 
 siders a matter for boasting rather than apology. 
 
 In forming an estimate of the Latinity of an author 
 like Vitruvius, it must not be forgotten that our taste is 
 formed by authority and by a study of the best models. 
 
 ' Lib. ii. 6. " Life and Trans, of Vitr. 1791. ' See his Preface. 
 
408 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATUBE. 
 
 Novelty is exceptional, and therefore displeases. But 
 teclinical subjects render not only the introduction of new 
 terms necessary, but even, owing to the poverty of lan- 
 guage, awkward periphrases and obscure phraseology. 
 Nevertheless, upon the whole, the language of Vitruvius 
 is vigorous, his descriptions bold, and seem the work of a 
 true and correct hand, and a practised draughtsman. 
 
 His work consists of ten books, in which he treats of 
 the whole subject in a systematic and orderly manner. 
 
 The following are its principal contents : — ^A general 
 view of the science and of the education suitable to an 
 architect; the choice of sites; the arrangement of the 
 buildings and fortifications of a city;^ an interesting 
 essay on the earliest human dwellings, building materials,* 
 temples, altars,* forums, basihcse, treasuries, gaols, court- 
 houses, baths, palsestrse, harbours, theatres, together 
 with their acoustic principles, and the theory of musical 
 sounds and harmonies.* Private dwelhngs, both in town 
 and country;® decoration;® water, and the means of 
 supply;' chronometrical instruments;' surveying* and 
 engineering, both civil and mihtary. 
 
 His work is valuable as a conspectus of the principles 
 of Grreek architectural taste and beauty, of which he was 
 a devoted admirer, and from which he would not will- 
 ingly have permitted any deviation. But he was evi- 
 dently deficient in the knowledge of the principles of 
 Grreek architectural construction." His taste was pure, 
 too pure, probably, for the Eomans ; for, notwithstanding 
 his theoretical excellence, we have no evidence of his being 
 employed, practically, as an architect, except in the case 
 of the Basihca" at Colonia Julia Fanestris, now Fano, 
 near Ancona. 
 
 ' Lib. i. ' Lib. ii. ' Lib. iii. and iv. * Lib. v. 
 
 * Lib. vi. ' Lib. vii. ' Lib. viii. ' Lib. ix. 
 
 "Lib. X. " See Philolog. Museum, vol. i. p. 536. " Lib. v. i. 13. 
 
( 409 ) 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 ERA OF THE DECLINE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 DECLINE OF EOMAN LITERATURE — IT BECAME DECLAMATORY — 
 BIOGRAPHY OF PH^DRTJS — GENUINENESS OF HIS FABLES — 
 MORAL AND POLITICAL LESSONS INCULCATED IN THEM— SPE- 
 CIMENS OF FABLES — FABLES SUGGESTED BY HISTORICAL 
 EVENTS — SEJANUS AND TIBERIUS — EPOCH UNFAVOURABLE TO 
 LITERATURE — INGENUITY OF PH^DRUS — SUPERIORITY OF 
 iESOP — THE STYLE OF PH^ffiDRUS CLASSICAL. 
 
 With the death of Augustus' commenced the decline of 
 Eoman literature, and only three illustrious names, 
 Pheedrus, Persius, and Lucan, rescue the first years of 
 this period from the charge of a corrupt and vitiated 
 taste. After a while, indeed, poHtical circumstances 
 again became more favourable — the dangers which para- 
 lysed genius and talent, and prevented their free exercise 
 under Tiberius and his tyrannical successors, diminished, 
 and a more Hberal system of administration ensued 
 under Vespasian and Titus. Juvenal and Tacitus then 
 stood forth as the representatives of the old Eoman 
 independence ; vigour of thought communicated itself to 
 the language ; a taste for the subhme and beautiful to a 
 certain extent revived, although it did not attain to the 
 perfection which shed a lustre over the Augustan age. 
 
 > A. D. 14. 
 
410 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 The characteristic of the first literatxtre of this epoch 
 was declamation and rhetoric. As liberty declined, true 
 natural eloquence gradually decayed. When it is no 
 longer necessary or even possible to persuade or convince 
 the people, that eloquence which cahns the passions, wins 
 the affections, or appeals to common sense and the 
 reasoning powers, has no opportunity for exercise. Its 
 object is a new one — namely, to please and attract an 
 audience, who listen in a mere critical spirit : the weapons 
 which it makes use of are novelty and ingenuity ; novelty 
 soon becomes strangeness, and strangeness exaggeration ; 
 whilst ingenuity imphes unnatural study and a display of 
 pedantic erudition — ^the aiming at startling and striking 
 effects — and at length ends in affectation. 
 
 If this was the prevailing false taste under the imme- 
 diate successors of Augustus, it is not surprising that it 
 affected poetry as well as prose ; and that the principal 
 talent of the poet lay in florid and diffuse descriptions, 
 whilst his chief fault was a style overladen with ornament. 
 The tragedies ascribed to Seneca are theatrical declama- 
 tions j the Satires of Persius are philosophical decla- 
 mations ; whilst the poems of Lucan and Silius Itahcus, 
 though epic in form, are nothing more than descriptive 
 poems, and their style is rather rhetorical than poetical. 
 
 Ph^drus. 
 
 Fable had been long known and popular amongst the 
 Eomans before the time of Phaedrus. Livy could not 
 have attributed the well-known one to Menenius Agrippa, 
 unless it had been a familiar tradition of long standing. 
 Fables amused the guests of Horace, and furnished sub- 
 jects to those of Ovid. In this, as in other fields of 
 literature, Eome was an imitator of Greece ; but never- 
 theless the Roman fabulist struck out a new line for 
 himself, and in his hands fable became, not only a moral 
 instructor, but a severe pohtical satirist. Phaedrus, the 
 
BIOGRAPHY OF PH^DRUS. 411 
 
 origmator and only author of Eoman fable, flourished on 
 the common confines of the golden and the silver age. 
 His mode of thought, as well as the events which sug- 
 gested both his original illustrations and his adaptations 
 of the ^sopean stories, belong to that epoch of transition. 
 His works are, as it were, isolated: he has no contem- 
 poraries. Although he was born in the reign of Augustus, 
 he wrote when the Augustan age had passed away. 
 Nevertheless his sohtary voice was hfted up when those 
 of the poet, the historian, and the philosopher were 
 silenced. 
 
 Phsedrus, like Horace, is his own biographer ; and the 
 only knowledge which we have respecting his life is fur- 
 nished by his Fables. In the prologue to the third book 
 he informs us that he was a native of Thrace : " I," he 
 says, " to whom my mother gave birth on the Pierian 
 
 hiU— 
 
 Ego quern Pierio mater enixa est jugo.'' 
 
 And, again, he exclaims, " Why should I, who am nearer 
 to lettered Greece, desert for slothful indolence the honour 
 of my fatherland? when Thrace can reckon up her 
 poets, and ApoUo is the parent of Linus, the muse of 
 Orpheus, who by his song endowed rocks with motion, 
 tamed the wild beasts, and stopped the rapid Hebrus 
 with welcome delay : — " 
 
 Ego literatBB qui sum propior Graeoias, 
 Cur somno inerti deseram patrise decus ? 
 Threissa cum gens numeret auctores auos, 
 Linoque ApoUo sit parens, Musa Orpheo 
 Qui saxa cantu movit, et domuit feras, 
 Hebrique tenuit impetus didci mor4. 
 
 From the title, " Augusti libertus," prefixed to his fables, 
 it is clear that he adds one more distinguished name to 
 that list of freedmen, who were celebrated in the annals 
 of Hterature. Although, in the preface to his work, he 
 modestly terms himself only a translator of iEsop :— 
 
412 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 .^opiis auctor quam materiam repperit 
 Hanc ego polivi versibus senariis.' 
 
 Still, for many of his fables, lie deserves the credit of 
 originality. Probably he enlarged and extended his 
 original plan ; for he afterwards speaks of simply adopting 
 the style and not the matter of the ^sopean fable.* 
 
 He does not appear to have gained much fame or popu- 
 larity ; for he is only twice mentioned by ancient autho- 
 rities, namely, by Martial' and Seneca.* The latter, 
 writing to Polybius, a. favourite freedman of Claudius, 
 encourages him to enter upon the field which Phsedrus 
 already occupied, asserting that fables in the style of 
 ^sop constituted a work hitherto unattempted by Eoman 
 genius (intentatum Eomanis ingeniis opus). Either,, 
 therefore, the fables of Phsedrus were Httle known and 
 appreciated, or Seneca purposely concealed from the 
 Emperor's favourite the fact of their existence, in order 
 to flatter him with the hopes of his thus becoming the 
 first Eoman writer in his style. The persecution to 
 which Hterary men were subject under the worst Em- 
 perors, of which Phsedrus hints obscurely that he was a 
 victim^ — ^the perils to which he would have been exposed 
 by strictures upon persons in power, which, concealed 
 under the veil of fiction, appear now dark and enigmatical, 
 but which might have spoken plainly to the consciences 
 of the actors themselves — ^probably rendered it a wise 
 precaution to conceal his works during his lifetime; 
 hence they would be little known, except to a chosen 
 few, and the few copies made of them would account for 
 the rarity of the extant manuscripts. 
 
 Owing to the deficiency of ancient testimony, the 
 genuineness of the Fables has been disputed; but the 
 purity of style, and the natural allusions to contemporary 
 
 ' Prol. Hb. i. « Prol. lib. iii. ' Lib. iii. 20. 
 
 * Cons, ad PolybiuiE, 27. » Prol. lib. iii. 
 
COLLECTION OP FABLES BT PEROTTO. 413 
 
 events, render it almost certain tliat they belong to the 
 age in which they were supposed to have been written. 
 No one but a contemporary could have written the fable 
 commencing — 
 
 Narrabo memoria quod factum est mea.' 
 
 The prologue to the third book evidently speaks of the 
 author's own calamities ; and the way in which the name 
 of Sejanus is connected with the event, hints, although 
 obscurely, that that prime minister of tyranny was the 
 author of his sufferings. It is scarcely probable that he 
 would have ventured to attack Sejanus during his hfe- 
 time. It may, therefore, be assumed that Phsedrus hved 
 beyond the eighteenth year of the reign of Tiberius, in 
 which year Sejanus died. 
 
 The origiaal manuscript followed in the early editions 
 of Phsednis was discovered in the tenth century : it con- 
 tained ninety-seven fables, divided into five books. But 
 N. Perotto, an archbishop of Manfredonia, in the fifteenth 
 Century, published a miscellaneous collection of Latin 
 fables, and amongst them were thirty-two new fables 
 attributed to Phaedrus, which were not found in the 
 older editions. These were at first supposed to have 
 been written by Perotto himself; but the manifest infe- 
 riority of some poems known to be the work of the 
 archbishop, and the Augustan purity of style which 
 marks the newly-discovered fables, leave Httle doubt of 
 their genuineness. Consequently, they were pubhshed 
 by Angelo Mai as supplementary to those which had 
 already appeared. 
 
 The circumstances of the times in which he hved 
 suggested the moral and prudential lessons which his 
 fables inculcated. The bane of Rome, under the empire, 
 was the pubhc informer {delator), as the sycophant had 
 been the pest of Athens. Life and conduct, private as 
 
 » Lib. iii. 40. 
 
414 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 well as public, were exposed to a complete system of 
 espionage: no one was safe from this formidable inquisition; 
 a man's familiar associate might be iu secret his bitterest 
 enemy. But the principal victims were the rich : they 
 were marked out for destruction, in order that the con- 
 fiscation of their property might glut the avarice of the 
 Emperor and the informers. For this reason, Phsedrus 
 himself professes always to have seen the peril of acquiring 
 wealth — 
 
 Periculosum semper reputavi lucmm. 
 
 And we cannot be surprised that the danger of riches, and 
 the comparative safety of obscurity and poverty, should 
 sometimes form the moral of his fables. 
 
 That of the Mules and the Thieves, which is entirely 
 his own, teaches this lesson : — 
 
 MuH gravati saroinis ibant duo ; 
 Unus ferebat fiscos cum peouniS, 
 Alter tumentes multo saccos hordeo. 
 Ille, onere dives, cels& cervice eminet, 
 Clarumque collo jaotat tintinnabulum ; 
 Comes quieto sequitur et placido gradu. 
 Subito latrones ex insidiis advolant, 
 Infcerque csedem ferro mulum sauciant, 
 Diripiunt nummos, negligunt vile hordeum. 
 Spoliatus igitur cum casus fieret suos, 
 Equidem, inquit alter, me contemptum gaudeo, 
 Nam nihil amisi nee sum Isestis vulnere. 
 Hoc argumento tuta est hominum tenuitas ; 
 Magnse periclo sunt opes obnoxise.' 
 
 " Two mules, laden with heavy burdens, were journeying 
 together : one carried bags of money ; the other, sacks filled 
 with barley. The former, proud of his rich load, carried 
 his head high, and made the bell on his neck sound 
 merrily ; his companion followed with quiet and gentle 
 paces. On a sudden, some thieves rush from an ambus- 
 cade, wound the treasure-mule, strip him of his money 
 bags, but leave untouched the worthless barley. When, 
 
 ' Lib. ii. 7. 
 
LESSONS TAUGHT BY FABLES. 415 
 
 therefore, the sufferer bewailed his sad case — 'For my 
 part,' replied his companion, ' I rejoice that I was treated 
 with contempt ; for I have no wounds, and have lost no- 
 thing.' The subject of this fable proves that poverty 
 is safe, whilst great wealth is exposed to peril." 
 
 The fable of the Man and the Ass teaches a salutary 
 lesson to another class of wealthy men : namely, those 
 favourites of the emperor and his creatures, who owed 
 their wealth to plunder and confiscation. Every day's 
 experience proved that those who battened on the spoils 
 of the oppressed one day became themselves the victims 
 of the same tyrannical system the next. Like that of 
 the prime minister, Sejanus himself, the sun of their 
 prosperity was destined to set, and their ill-gotten spoil 
 to enrich others as unworthy as themselves. Those 
 fortunes were indeed built upon a rotten foundation, 
 which the same system had power to raise up and to 
 overthrow : — 
 
 Quidam immolasset verrem quum sancto Herculi, 
 Cui pro salute votum debebat sua, 
 Asello jussit reliquias poni hordei. 
 Quas aspematus ille sic looutus est : 
 Tuum libenter prorsus appeterem eibum 
 Nisi, qui nutriius illo est, jugulatus foret. 
 ♦ * • * 
 
 Majorem turbam punitorum reperies ; 
 Faucis temeritas est bono, multis malo.' 
 
 " A man, who had sacrificed a boar to Hercules, which 
 he had vowed as a thank-offeriag for his recovery from 
 sickness, ordered the remains of the barley to be given to 
 his ass. The ass rejected it with scorn, and said, I would 
 gladly eat of the food you give me, had not he who was 
 fattened on it had his throat cut. 
 
 " You will find that the majority of those who grow rich 
 by violence and rapine are punished : audacity succeeds 
 with few, but ruins many." 
 
 ' Lib. V. 4. 
 
416 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATUEE. 
 
 The continued succession of tyrannical emperors must 
 have taught their oppressed subjects that they had no- 
 thing to hope for from a change of those who wore the 
 purple. This truth is embodied in the fable of the old 
 Peasant and his Ass : — 
 
 In principatu commutando civium 
 Nil, prseter domini nomen, mutant pauperes. 
 Id esse varum parva haec fabula indicat. 
 AseUum in prato timidus pascebat senez. 
 Is, hostium clamore subito territus, 
 Suadebat asino fagere, ne possent capi. 
 At ille lentus ; quseso, num binas mihi 
 Clitellas impositurum victorem putas ? 
 Senei negavit. Ergo quid refert mea 
 Cui serviam, clitellas dum portem meas?' 
 
 " In a change of princes the poor change nothing but 
 the name of their master. The truth of this is shown by 
 the following Httle fable. A timid old man was feeding 
 his ass in a meadow. Alarmed by the shouts of an ad- 
 vancing enemy he urged the ass to fly for fear they should 
 be taken prisoners. But the ass loitered, and said, ' Pray 
 do you think that the conqueror will put two pack-saddles 
 on my back?' 'ISTo/ repHed the old man. '"What, 
 then, does it matter to me in whose service I am, so long 
 as I have to carry my load ?' " 
 
 The weU-known fable of the Wolf and the Lamb (i. 1) 
 illustrates the unscrupulousness of the informers; and 
 that of the Wolf and the House-dog (ui. 7) teaches how 
 preferable is liberty, even under the greatest privations, 
 to. luxury and comfort purchased by submission to the 
 caprices of a master. 
 
 Of such a kind were the moral and political lessons 
 which Phaedrus enforced in the attractive garb of fables. 
 They were of a general character, suggested by the evils 
 of the times in which he Hved. 
 
 Another class were suggested by historical events : they 
 
 ' Lib. i. 15. 
 
THE FROGS DEMANDING A KING. 417 
 
 were nevertheless severe satirical strictures on individuals. 
 Two may be pointed out as examples which are evidently 
 directed against Tiberius and Sejanus. These are— The 
 Frogs demanding a King (i. 2) ; and the Frogs and the 
 Sun (i. 6). Neither of the fables are original, they are 
 apposite appHcationg of two by jEsop. 
 
 The Eomans/ lite the frogs in the first of these fables, 
 had exchanged their liberty for the slavery of the 
 empire. In Tiberius, now an imbecile dotard, wholly 
 given up to sensual indulgence in his retreat at Capreee, 
 they had a perfect King Log. He was utterly careless 
 of the sufferings of his subjects and the administration 
 of his kingdom. 
 
 To his odious minister, Sejanus, he entrusted the toils 
 of government, to which his own indolence indisposed 
 him. All tyranny and cruelty were ascribed to the 
 ministers ; whilst the effeminate debauchery of the Em- 
 peror rendered him, even in that demoralized age, an 
 object of contempt and insult rather than of abhorrence 
 and fear. L. Sejanus, a kinsman of ^Hus,^ employed 
 bald-headed persons, and children with their heads shaved, 
 in the procession of the Floral games, in order to hold up 
 to scorn and derision the bald-headed Emperor, and he 
 dared not take notice of the insult. The infamous Ful- 
 cinius Trio in his last will declared that Tiberius had 
 become childish in his old age, and that his continued 
 retirement was nothing else but exile.^ Pacuvianus was 
 the author of pasquinades against the Emperor. In the 
 same way Phsedjus describes the frogs as treating " King 
 Log " with scorn, and as defihng him in the most offen- 
 sive manner. 
 
 But after the death of Sejanus a change took place in the 
 Emperor's conduct, though not in his character. He left 
 
 ■ See Nisard, Etudes sur les Poetes Latins, torn. i. 9. 
 ' Dion. Cass. Iviii. 19. ' Tac. Ann. vi. 38. 
 
 2 E 
 
418 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Capreae for a time, and took up his abode in the Vatican, 
 close to the very walls of Eome. He now gave vent to 
 his savage disposition, and displayed the temper of the 
 watersnake in the fable. His natural cruelty was equalled 
 by his activity. " His sharp tooth seized his unresisting 
 victims one after the other : in vain they fly from death ; 
 fear prevents them from uttering a word in defence or 
 expostulation." No longer a vast expanse of sea and land 
 intervened between the tyrant and his victims. There 
 was nothing to delay the pompous and verbose missives 
 of his bloody purposes : his rescripts could reach the con- 
 suls the same day, or at least after the interval of a night : 
 he could behold, as it were, with his own eyes the reeking 
 hands of the executioners, and the waves of blood which 
 deluged every dwelling.^ Vengeance not only feU on 
 the guilty Sejanus and his unoffending family, the vilest 
 and the noblest blood of Rome alike flowed at the 
 tyrant's command. The fable of the Frogs and the Sun 
 was a covert attack upon the ambitious designs of Sejanus. 
 It is sufficiently short to be quoted : — 
 
 Uxorem quandam Sol quum vellet ducere, 
 Clamorem Banae sustulere ad sidera. 
 Convioio permotus, quserit Jupiter 
 Causam querelse. Quaedam turn stagni incola. 
 Nunc, inquit, omnes unus exurit lacus 
 Cogitque miseras arida sede emori ; 
 Quidnam futurum est, si cre^rit liberos 1 * 
 
 " Once upon a time the Sun determined to marry : and 
 the frogs raised a cry of alarm to heaven. Jupiter, moved 
 by their complaints, asked the cause of them. One of the 
 denizens of the pond answered : — Now the Sun by him- 
 self dries up all the lakes, and causes us to die a miserable 
 
 ' HsBC Tiberius non man, ut olim, divisus, neque per langinquos nuntios 
 accipiebat, sed urbem juxta ; eodem ut die, vel noctis interjectu, Uteris 
 consulum rescriberet ; quasi aspiciens undantem per domos sanguinem, 
 aut manus camificum. — Tac. Ann. vi. 39. 
 
 ' Lib. i. 6. 
 
THE FROGS AND THE SUN. 419 
 
 death in our parched-up dwellings. What then will be- 
 come of us if he has children ?" 
 
 Now let us examine the appKcation. The fawning 
 yet ambitious Sejanus had always aspired to ally himself 
 with the imperial family. The first attempt which he 
 made to accomphsh his design was procuring the be- 
 trothal of his daughter to Drusus, the son of Claudius, 
 afterwards emperor. This prince died young, and conse- 
 quently the marriage never took place ;^ but this first 
 opened the eyes of the Romans to the audacious projects 
 of the favourite. Later in his career,^ he, by a similar 
 step, endeavoured to pave his way to the imperial purple. 
 He seduced Livilla, the sister of the amiable Grermanicus, 
 poisoned her husband, divorced his own wife, and asked the 
 sanction of Tiberius to his marriage with the widow of 
 the murdered man. The emperor, with his usual finesse 
 and dissimulation, refused. The demand awoke the sus- 
 picions of the court, and was a commencement of that 
 coohiess between Sejanus and his patron which eventually 
 ended in the fall of the latter. The influence of Sejanus 
 alone was sufficiently baneftd ; what would it be if 
 multipHed by a race of princes descended from him? 
 The mere probabihty of such an event naturally filled 
 Eome with alarm and consternation ; and this Phsedrus 
 endeavoured to encourage by a fable, which, if it had not 
 some such object as this, would scarcely be intelligible. 
 
 The quotations which have been given fi-om the fables 
 of Phsedrus are sufficient, as examples of his ingenuity in 
 imitation and adaptation, as well as of his original genius, 
 whenever he trusts to his powers of invention. Some of 
 his pieces, although, like the rest, they are entitled fables, 
 are, in fact, narratives of real events, and show that he 
 possessed a charming talent for teUing anecdotes, besides 
 skill as a fabulist in the proper sense of the term. His 
 
 Suet. Vit. Claud. 27. ' a. d. 23. 
 
 2 E 3 
 
430 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 style has great merits : it combines the simple neatness 
 and graceful elegance of the golden age with the vigour 
 and terseness of the silver one. Phsedrus has the facility 
 of Ovid, and the brevity of Tacitus. Thus standing in 
 the epoch between two literary periods, he, as far as the 
 humble nature of his walk admits, unites the excellencies 
 of both. ■ Between the age of Horace and Juvenal, Cicero 
 and Tacitus, there was a gap, and a long one, not less 
 than half a century : it was a period m which Eoman 
 genius was slumbering. Phsedrus proves that that sleep 
 was not the sleep of death. Tacitus has partially ac- 
 counted for this cold and dark iuterval. He tells us* — 
 " that although the affairs of the ancient Eoman re- 
 public, whether in prosperity or in adversity, were 
 related by illustrious writers — and even the times of 
 Augustus were not deficient in historians of talent and 
 genius — nevertheless the gradual growth of a spirit of 
 adulation deterred all who were qualified for the task 
 from attemptiug it. Fear, during the Hfe-time of Tibe- 
 rius, Caius, Claudius, and Nero, and hatred, stiU fresh 
 after their deaths, rendered all accounts of their reigns 
 false." 
 
 It was thus, according to him, fear and hatred, and 
 a spirit of fiattery, that silenced the voice of history. 
 Doubtless what he says of history appHes with equal 
 force to poetry and oratory likewise. The same cause 
 which crushed political Hberty rendered the truthfulness 
 of the historian fraught with danger, and all poetry, 
 except it spoke the language of adulation, treason; a 
 crime which was no longer one against the majesty of 
 the people, but was transferred to the person of the 
 emperor. The very term irappriaia (boldness of speech) 
 was a word, the utterance of which was as perilous as 
 to speak of liberty.^ The danger had scarcely passed 
 
 Tao. Ann. I. i. ' Vide Suet. Vit. Calig. 27. 
 
CAUSES UNFAVOURABLE TO LITERATURE. 421 
 
 away when Juvenal, notwithstanding his fearless spirit, 
 wrote : — 
 
 Unde ilia priorum 
 Scritendi quodcunque animo flagrante Uberet, 
 Simplicitas, oujus non audeo dicere nomen. 
 
 Juv. i. 153. 
 
 Where the plain times, the simple, when our sires 
 
 Enjoyed a freedom which I dare not name. 
 
 And gave the public sin to public shame, 
 
 Heedless who smiled or frowned. Gifford. 
 
 But there was a negative as well as a positive cause, the 
 withdrawal of patronage. Literature, in order to flourish, 
 requires the genial sunshine of human sympathy : it needs 
 either the patronage of the great or the favour of the 
 people. In Greece it enjoyed the latter in the highest 
 possible degree ; in Rome, from the time of the Scipios 
 to that of Augustus, it was fostered by the former. Im- 
 mediately after his death patronage was withdrawn, and 
 there was not pubhc support to supply its place. Tiberius 
 was first a soldier ; then a dark and reserved poHtician ; 
 lastly, a bloodthirsty and superstitious sensuaHst. The 
 enjoyments of Caius Caligula were the extravagancies of 
 a madman : although he was responsible for his moral 
 insanity, because he had, by vicious iadulgence, been the 
 destroyer of his moral principle ; and not only did he not 
 encourage literature, but he even hated Homer and Virgil. 
 Lastly, the stupid and dozing Claudius wrote books' as 
 stupid as himself, and was at once the butt and tool of 
 his courtiers. It was not, therefore, until the reign of 
 Nero that Hterature revived ; for, though the bloodiest of 
 tyrants, he had an ambition to excel in refinement, and 
 had a taste for art and poetry. 
 
 In the construction of his fables, Phsedrus displays 
 observation and ingenuity. Nothing escapes his watchful 
 eye which can be turned to account in his httle poems. A 
 
 Suet. Claud. 42. 
 
422 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATUttE. 
 
 rude sketch in charcoal on the wall of a low tavern^ sug- 
 gests to him the idea of the Battle between the Eats and 
 the Weasels. His animals are grouped, and put in atti- 
 tudes, just as a painter would arrange them. His accu- 
 rate eye has noted and registered the habits of the brute 
 creation, and has adapted them to the dehvery of noble and 
 wise sentiments with the utmost ingenuity. But there his 
 genius stops. He is deficient in imagination. He makes 
 his animals the vehicles of his wisdom ; but he does not 
 throw himself into them, or identify himself with them. 
 The true poet is lost in his characters : carried away by 
 the enthusiasm of an inspired imagination, his spirit is 
 transferred into his heroes; — ^you forget his existence. 
 The characters of Phsedrus look and act hke animals, but 
 talk Kke human beings : the moralist and the philosopher 
 can always be detected speaking under their mask and 
 in their disguise. 
 
 In this consists the great superiority of -/Esop to his 
 Eoman imitator. His brutes are a superior race, but 
 they are still brutes. The reader could almost fancy 
 that the fabulist had hved amongst them as one of them- 
 selves — ^had adopted their modes of life, and had conversed 
 with them in their own language. In Phsedrus we 
 have human sentiments translated into the language of 
 beasts — in ^sop we have beasts giving utterance to such 
 sentiments as would be naturally theirs, if they were 
 placed in the position of men. Skilful adaptation and 
 happy delineation are the triumphs of ingenuity and 
 observation : ■ the creative power is that of the imagi- 
 nation. 
 
 The style of Phsedrus, notwithstanding a few pro- 
 vincialisms,^ is pure and classical. He does not often 
 indulge in the use of metaphors, but the few which are 
 met with are striking and appropriate. He is not 
 
 ' Lib. iv. 6. ^ See lib. i. 2, 9 ; ii. 7, 8 ; iii. 6, ! 
 
STYLE OF PHiEDRIJS. 423 
 
 entirely free from some of that far-fetclied affectation 
 which characterises the decline of Eoman Hterature. But 
 his fault is exaggerated conciseness, and the concentra- 
 tion of many ideas within a brief space, rather than the 
 rhetorical ornament, which now began to be admired 
 and popular. His endeavour after brevity led him to 
 use abstract substantives far more profusely than is con- 
 sistent with the practice of the best classical writers. 
 These faults, however, do not interfere with that clear- 
 ness and simpHcity, which, quite as much as the subjects, 
 have rendered the fables of Phsedrus a popular book for 
 the young student, and please even those who have the 
 opportunity of comparing his iambics with the HveUness 
 of Gray, the poHteness of Florian, the philosophy of 
 Lessing, the sweetness of Cowper, and the unequalled 
 versatility of La Fontaine. 
 
424 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 DRAMATIC LITERATURE IN THE AUGUSTAN AGE — REVIVAI 
 UNDER NERO— DEFECTS OF THE TRAGEDIES ATTRIBUTED TO 
 SENECA — INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF THEIR AUTHORSHIP — 
 SENECA THE PHILOSOPHER A STOIC — INCONSISTENT AND UN- 
 STABLE — THE SENTIMENTS OF HIS PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS 
 FOUND IN HIS TRAGEDIES — PARALLEL PASSAGES COMPARED 
 — FRENCH SCHOOL OF TRAGIC POETS. 
 
 Of Roman tragedy in its earliest period, so far as the 
 fragments of it which remain allow a judgment to be 
 formed, an account has already been given ; and if cir- 
 cumstances forbade it to flourish then, stiU less can it be 
 expected that the boldness and independence of Greek 
 tragedy would be found under the empire. Never- 
 theless, there were not wanting some imitators of Greece 
 in this noblest branch of Greek poetry, however un- 
 suitable it was to the genius of the Roman people, and 
 unlikely to be appreciated by them. 
 
 But their productions were rather literary than dra- 
 matic ; they were intended to be read, not acted. They 
 were poems composed in a dramatic form, because Athens 
 had set the example of that form to her devoted imitators. 
 Although, therefore, they contain noble philosophical 
 sentiments, lively descriptions, vigorous conceptions and 
 delineations of character, and passages fiiU of tenderness 
 and pathos, they are deficient in dramatic efiect, and 
 positively offend against those laws of good taste, which, 
 not arbitrarily assumed, but founded on the principles of 
 fJie human mind, regulated the Athenian stage. 
 
REAPPEARANCE OF THE DRAMA. 425 
 
 We have seen that, in the Augustan age, a few writers 
 attained some excellence in tragedy, at least in the opi- 
 nion of ancient critics. Besides Ovid and Varius, whose 
 tragedies have been already mentioned, Asinius PoUio 
 acquired a high reputation as a tragic poet, and Virgil^ 
 declares that he is the only one worthy of being com- 
 pared with Sophocles. 
 
 Sola Sophocleo tua carmina digna cothumo. 
 
 On the revival of letters under that professor of a love of 
 poetry,^ the tyrant Nero, dramatic Hterature reappeared, 
 and perfect specimens are extant in the ten tragedies 
 attributed to Seneca. Various and opposite opinions 
 have been entertained respecting their merits ; but there 
 can be no doubt that the genius of the author never can 
 grasp in their wholeness the characters which he attempts 
 to copy ; they are distorted images of the Greek 
 originals ; the awfal and shadowy grandeur of the god- 
 like heroes of ^schylus stand forth iu corporeal vastness, 
 and appear duldish and unnatural, like the giants of a 
 story-book. The marvels of Greek tragedy and Greek 
 mythology, though merely the unreal conceptions of the 
 imagiaation, do not appear exaggerated, because the 
 connexion between the theory and the result, the causes 
 and the effects, is so skiUully maintauied : but in these 
 Eoman tragedies the legends of Greece appear extrava- 
 gant and absurd ; they are as unreal, and therefore seem 
 as affected, as the classical garb in which Enghsh poetry 
 was arrayed in the age of Anne. The Greeks beUeved 
 in the gods and heroes whose agency and exploits con- 
 stituted the machinery of tragedy — ^the Eomans did 
 not ; and thus we cannot sympathize with them, because 
 we see that they are insincere. The style, moreover, 
 of the tragedies, which bear the name of Seneca, is 
 spoiled by that inflated language and redundancy of 
 
 ' Eel. viii. 10. ' Tac. Ann. xiv. rjS. 
 
426 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 ornament, the constant effect of wHcli is, as Aristotle 
 observes, frigidity. They bear the visible marks of an 
 age in which genius had given place to an artificial 
 and scholastic rhetoric; and the author seems to have 
 been striving not for tragic pathos so much as bril- 
 liant declamation. In the female characters especially, 
 the Eoman tragic poet fails; for, although he can un- 
 derstand heroism, he is unable to accomplish that most 
 difficult of all tasks, the combining it with feminine 
 dehcacy. Perhaps the best and noblest of his coimtry- 
 women did not furnish him with such ideals. The 
 Eoman matron was the counterpart of her warhke lord. 
 The Lucretias, Porcias, Comehas, Arrias, though de- 
 voted and affectionate, were of sterner mould than An- 
 tigone and Deianira. 
 
 The tragedies which bear the name of Seneca have 
 been attributed to L. Annseus Seneca, the philosopher, 
 as early as the time of QuintOian,' who quotes as Seneca's 
 a verse from the Medea. The improbability of this being 
 the case is also diminished by the fact that both Tacitus" 
 and Pliny the Younger* speak of him as a poet. Never- 
 theless, their authorship has been considered a very 
 doubtful question. A passage in an epigram of Martial, 
 in which he speaks of Cordova as the birthplace of two 
 Senecas and one Lucan — 
 
 Duosque Senecas unicuiuque Lucanum 
 Facunda loquitur Corduba — * 
 
 has been interpreted as implying that Seneca the 
 philosopher was a different person from Seneca the 
 tragedian. There can, however, be scarcely any doubt 
 that he was speaking of M. Annseus Seneca the rhe- 
 torician, and his son Lucius the philosopher. Sidonius 
 ApoUinaris,^ the son-in-law of the Emperor Flavins 
 
 ' Inst. Or. ii. 2, 9. ^ Annal. xiv. ' Epist. v. 
 
 * Lib. i. Ep. 6. " Bernhardy, Grund. p. 373. 
 
INTERNAL EVIDENCE OF AUTHOESHIP. 427 
 
 Avitus, and Bishop of Clermont/ in the last years of 
 the Eoman empire, unhesitatingly draws a distinction 
 between them. He enumerates three members of the 
 Cordovan family : — 
 
 Quorum unus oolit hispidum Pktonem, 
 
 Incassumque auum monet Neronem, 
 
 Orcheatram quatit alter Euripidis 
 
 Piotum fseeibus iEschylum sequutus, 
 
 Aut plaustris solitum sonare Thespim 
 
 Pugnam tertius ille Gallicauam 
 
 Dixit Ciesaris. Carm. ix. 231. 
 
 But, notwithstanding the celebrity which Sidonius 
 enjoyed as a poet at the imperial court, his opinion is 
 of no authority when weighed against the internal 
 evidence derived from the tragedies themselves. This 
 renders it almost morally certain, that they are the work 
 of no other writer than Seneca the philosopher. 
 
 Although the Eomans, as being imitators of the 
 Greeks, and not original thinkers, were eclectics in 
 philosophy, their favourite doctrines were those of the 
 Stoics. They suited the rigid sternness of their character : 
 they embodied that spirit of self-devotion and self-denial 
 with which the Eoman patriot, iu the old times of simple 
 repubUcan virtue, threw himself into his public duties ; 
 and Seneca, with all his faults, was a real Eoman ; with 
 all his finesse and artfal poHcy, he retained, in the midst 
 of a debased age and a profligate court, a large portion of 
 the old Eoman character. In life and in death his was 
 a true specimen of the Stoic creed. 
 
 StiU he was by no means a consistent man : his theory 
 was perfect, but his practice often fell short of it. The 
 lessons of morality contained in his philosophical works 
 are excellent, and persuasively enforced, and wear an 
 appearance of honesty and sincerity ; but, nevertheless, 
 in his philosophy, as well as in his life, we can discover 
 
 ' A. D. 472. 
 
428 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 that his moral principles were unstable and wavering. 
 These two features can be traced in his tragedies : they 
 abound in philosophical dogmas and moral sentiments, 
 and they display the same Stoicism mingled with occa- 
 sional habits of inconsistency. Suicide is painted in the 
 most attractive colours : death is met not only with 
 courage, but with the same indifference with which 
 Seneca himself, together with other victims of imperial 
 tyranny, met it in his own day. It is not welcomed, 
 as in the Greek tragedians, as a rehef from the burden of 
 earthly sorrows ; but there is a manifest departure from 
 the Greek model: the natural beauty of that model is 
 violated, and the features of the original character sacri- 
 ficed to Stoical coldness and want of feeling. 
 
 But not only are these tragedies filled with philoso- 
 phical reflections ; even the sentiments enunciated in the 
 acknowledged works of Seneca, in his Essays and Epistles, 
 are transferred to them, and the peculiar turns of expres- 
 sion used by the philosopher are repeated by the poet. 
 A brilliant French author^ has ingeniously brought to- 
 gether and compared parallel passages, which illustrate 
 this similarity of sentiment and style. A few of these 
 are sufficient as examples. Two in the " Phoenissse," in 
 which (Edipus insists on " the hberty of dying," embody 
 the same doctrine as two others, one in the epistles to 
 Lucihus, the other in the treatise on Providence. 
 
 He (says CEdipus) who compels one who is unwilling to die does 
 the same as he who hinders one who is eager for death ; nay, I con- 
 sider the latter treats me the worse of the two. I had rather that 
 death were forced upon me than that the privilege of dying should be 
 torn from me. 
 
 Qui cogit mori 
 Nolentem, in sequo est, quique properantem impedit. 
 Neo tamen in aequo est ; alterum gravius reor, 
 Malo imperari quam eripi mortem mihi. Phamis. 98. 
 
 ' Nisard, Etudes, tom. i. 88, et seq. 
 
PASSAGES COMPARED. 439 
 
 And again the same favourite sentiment appears : — 
 
 I cannot be prevented from dying ; of what availeth all that care of 
 thine t Death is everywhere. Most wisely has God provided for this. 
 There is no one who cannot rob a man of life, but no one can rob him 
 of death ; to this a thousand roads are open. 
 
 Morte prohiberi baud queo. 
 Quid ista tandem cura proflcit tua ? 
 Ubique mors est. Optime hoc cavit Deus. 
 Eripere vitam nemo non homini potest ; 
 At nemo mortem ; miUe ad banc aditus patent. 
 
 Phomis. 146. 
 
 With these are compared the following sentences of 
 the philosopher, in which not only the doctrines, but also 
 the language in which they are expressed, are so strikingly 
 parallel as scarcely to admit of a doubt that the authors 
 are identical : — 
 
 To Uve under compulsion is an evil ; but there is no compulsion to 
 Uve under compulsion. Many roads to liberty lie open on all sides, 
 short and easy. Let us thank God that no one can be retained in 
 Ufe. 
 
 And again, Divine Providence is represented as de- 
 claring to mankind : — 
 
 Before all things I have provided that no one should detain you 
 against your will — an exit is open to you. 
 
 Malum est in necessitate vivere, sed in necessitate vivere necessitas 
 nuUa est. Patent undique ad Mbertatem vice mtiUcF, breves, faciles. 
 Agamus Deo gratias, quod nemo in vitS, teneri potest. — Ep. xii. 
 
 Ante omnia cavi, ne quis vos teneret invitos, patet exitus. 
 
 De Provident, vi. 
 
 How exactly in accordance Avith these sentiments, 
 whether expressed in poetry or prose, is the closing scene 
 of Seneca's life ; the abnost business-Hke way in which 
 he entered upon the road which was appointed to lead 
 him from the dominion of necessity to the enjoyment of 
 liberty — the imperturbable coolness with which he could 
 contemplate the death of his wife, whom he loved with 
 the greatest affection P How calculated, moreover, were 
 
 ' Tac. Ann. xv. 63. 
 
430 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITEKATUEE. 
 
 they to engage the sympathies of his contemporaries ! It 
 was an age in which, amidst its various corruptions, the 
 only virtue which survived was the knowing how to meet 
 death with a courageous spirit, in which many of the best 
 and the noblest willingly died by their own hands at the 
 imperial mandate, in order to save their name from infamy, 
 and the inheritance of their children from confiscation. 
 
 Again, an awful belief in destiny, and the hopeless, yet 
 patient, struggle of a great and good man against this 
 all-ruling power, is the mainspring of Grreek tragedy. 
 This is not transferred into the imitations of the Romans. 
 Its place is suppHed by the stern fatalism of the Stoics. 
 The principle of destiny entertained by the Greek poets 
 is a mythological, even a reHgious one : it is the irresistible 
 will of Grod. God is at the commencement of the chain 
 
 - of causes and effects by which the event is brought about 
 which God has ordained ; his inspired prophets have power 
 to foretell, and mortals cannot resist or avoid. It is 
 rather predestination than destiny. The doctrine impUes 
 an intelligent agent, not a mere abstract principle. 
 
 The fatalism of the Stoics, on the other hand, is the 
 doctrine of practical necessity. It ignores the almighty 
 power of the Supreme Being, although it does not deny, 
 
 . his existence. It strips him of his attributes as the moral 
 Governor of the universe. These doctrines are found 
 both in the philosopher and the tragic poet. Translate 
 the subjoined prose passage into the conventional language 
 of poetry, adopt as a mere matter of embellishment tlie 
 fables of Greek mythology, personify the Stoical principle 
 of necessity by the Greek Fates, and it becomes the Chorus 
 in thS Latin tragedy of CEdipus. Both these passages 
 are quoted by Nisard : — 
 
 Nihil cogor nihil patior mvitus ; nee servio Deo, sed assentior ; eo 
 quidem magis, quod scio omnia certa et in aeternum dicta lege decur- 
 rere. Fata nos ducunt, et quantum cuique restat, jjnmra naseentium 
 hora disposuit. Oausa pendet ex causa ; privata ac publica longvs ordo 
 rerum trahit. Ideo fortiter omne ferendum est ; quia non, ut puta- 
 
PASSAGES COMPARED. 431 
 
 mus, inoidunt cuncta, sed veniunt. Olim constitutum est quid 
 gaudeas, quid fleas ; et quamvis magna videatur varietate singulorum 
 vita distingui, summa in unum venit ; accepimus peritura perituri. 
 
 De Provid. v. 
 I am neither compelled to do or to suffer anything against my will. 
 I am not a slave to God, but I bow to his wiU. The more so because 
 I know that all things are fixed and proceed according to an everlast- 
 ing law. Destiny is our guide, and the hour of our birth has disposed 
 aU the remainder of our hves. Each cause depends upon a preceding 
 one ; a long chain of circumstances links together aU things, both 
 public and private. Therefore we must bear all things with fortitude, 
 since all things come to pass, and do not, as we suppose, happen. Our 
 joys or sorrows have been determined long ago ; and although a great 
 variety of items distinguishes the Hves of individuals, the sum total 
 is the same. Perishable creatures ourselves, that which we have 
 received is perishable hkewise. 
 
 A comparison of the above witli the following passage 
 exhibits a similarity which could only have proceeded 
 from the same mind and the same pen : for it is to be 
 remembered, that though the Eomans were imitators of 
 the Greeks, they did not copy one another ; and through- 
 out the whole field of Eoman hterature no example could 
 be found of a poet transferring to his works the exact 
 sentiments, tone of thought, and turn of expression of 
 another Latin author : — 
 
 Fatis agimur, ceditefatis : 
 
 Non soUicitae possunt curse 
 
 Mutare rati stamina fusi. 
 
 Quicquid patimur, mortale genus, 
 
 Quicquid facimus, venit ex alto ; 
 
 Servatque suae decreta colus 
 
 Lachesis, dura revoluta manu. 
 
 Omnia certo tramite vadunt 
 
 Primiisque dies dedit extremum, 
 
 Non iUa Deo vertisse licet 
 
 Qtoce nexa suis currunt causis. 
 
 It cuique ratus, prece non uUa 
 
 Mobilis, ordo. CEdip. 980. 
 
 We are led by destiny— yield then to its power. Anxious care can- 
 not change the thread spun by the distaff of the Fates. Whatever we 
 mortals do or suffer comes from on high ; and Lachesis observes the 
 decrees of the wheel which revolves beneath her pitiless hand. All 
 things proceed in a fixed path, and the first day of Ufe has determined 
 the last. God has not power to change the chain of causes and effects. 
 Each has its fixed order, which no prayers can alter. 
 
432 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Even the philosopHcal inconsistencies^ traceable in the 
 prose treatises are repeated in the tragedies. In one 
 letter^ he affirms his belief that the soul of Scipio Africanus 
 has ascended into heaven as a reward of his virtue and 
 piety ; in another* he asserts the gloomy doctrine that 
 death is annihilation : " Mors est non esse." In lite 
 manner in the " Troades " the Chorus declares that " the 
 happy Priam wanders amongst pious souls in the safe 
 Elysian shades ;"* and yet, with an inconsistency which 
 the Letters of the philosopher alone account for, another 
 passage in the same tragedy declares that the spirit 
 vanishes like smoke, that after death is nothingness, and 
 death itself is nothing." 
 
 On such internal evidence as this rests the probability, 
 almost amounting to certainty, that Seneca the phi- 
 losopher, and the author of the ten tragedies, are one and 
 the same.^ 
 
 Notwithstanding their false rhetorical taste, and the 
 absence of all ideal and creative genius, the tragedies of 
 Seneca found many admirers and imitators in modern 
 times. The French school of tragic poets took them for 
 their model : Comeitle evidently considered them the 
 ideal of tragedy, and Eacine servilely imitated them. 
 Their philosophy captivated an age which thought that 
 nothing was so sublime as heathen philosophy ; and yet, 
 that same age derived its notions of ancient philosophy 
 
 ' See Nisard. ^ Ixxxvi. ' liv. * v. 156. " v. 393. 
 
 ^ Of the closeness with which Seneca imitated the Greek tragic poets the 
 two following passages wiU serve as specimens : — 
 
 Animam senilem mollis exsolvit sopor. 
 
 (Edip. 788. 
 SfUKph TToXaia (rafjaT evvd^ti ponr/. 
 
 Quis eluet me Tanais. Eippolyt. 715. 
 
 Ot/wjt yap ovT &v''l(rrpov, ovre ^atrtv hv 
 
 vL-^ai Kadapfia (Ed. Tyr. 1227. 
 
FRENCH SCHOOL OF TRAGEDY. 433 
 
 from the Eomans instead of from tlie original Greek 
 sources; and its poetical taste, as far as it was classical, 
 was formed on a study of Eoman dramatic literature, 
 before the excellence of the Attic drama was sufficiently 
 known to be appreciated. 
 
 'Z F 
 
434 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 BIOGRAPHY OF PERSIUS — ^HIS SCHOOLBOY DAYS — HIS FRIENDS— HIS 
 PURITY AND MODESTY — HIS DEFECTS AS A SATIRIST — SUBJECTS OF 
 HIS SATIRES — OBSCURITY OF HIS STYLE — COMPARED WITH HORACE 
 — BIOGRAPHY OF JUVENAL— CORRUPTION OF ROMAN MORALS — 
 CRITICAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE SATIRES — THEIR HISTORICAL 
 VALUE— STYLE OF JUVENAL — HE WAS THE LAST OF ROMAN 
 SATIRISTS. 
 
 AuLus Persius Flaccus (born a.d. 34). 
 
 EoMAN satire subsequently to Horace is represented by 
 Aulus Persius Flaccus and Decimus Junius Juvenalis. 
 Persius was a member of an equestrian family, and was 
 bom, according to the Eusebian Chronicle, a.d. 34, at 
 Volaterrse in Etruria. He was related to tbe best 
 families in Italy, and numbered amongst his kindred, 
 Arria, the noble-minded wife of Psetus. His father died 
 when he was six years old, and his motber, Fulvia 
 Sisenna, married a second time a Eoman knight named 
 Fusius. In- a few years she was again a widow. Persius 
 received his elementary education at his native town; 
 but at twelve years of age he was brought to Eome, and 
 went through the usual course of grammar and rhetoric, 
 under Eemmius Palsemon^ and Virginius Flavus.* The 
 former of these was, like so many men of letters, a freed- 
 man, and the son of a slave. He was, according to 
 Suetonius,^ a man of profligate morals, but gifted with 
 great fluency of speech, and a prodigious memory. He 
 
 ' Jiiv. vi. 451 ; vii. 219. « Suet. Pers. Vit. 
 
 ' De lUust. Gram. 23. 
 
SCHOOLBOY DAYS OF PERSIUS. 435 
 
 was rather a versifier than a poet, and, like so many 
 modem Italians, possessed the talent of improvising. He 
 was prosperous as a schoolmaster, considering the very 
 small pittance which the members of that profession 
 usually earned, for his school brought him in forty 
 sestertia per annum (about 325Z.).^ Virginius Mavus is 
 only known as the author of a treatise on Ehetoric. 
 
 Persius himself gives^ an amusing picture of his 
 schoolboy idleness, his love of play, and his tricks to 
 escape the hated declamation which, in Eoman schools, 
 formed a weekly exercise :^ — 
 
 Ssepe oculos, memini, tangebam parvus olivo, 
 Grandia si nollem morituri verba Catonis 
 Discere uon sano multum laudanda magistro, 
 Quae pater adductis sudans audiret amicis. 
 Jure ; etenim id summum, quid dexter senio ferret, 
 Scire erat iu roto ; damnosa canicola quantum 
 Raderet ; angustae collo non fallier orcae ; 
 Neu quis oallidior buxum torquere flagello. 
 
 Oft, I remember yet, my sight to spoil, 
 Oft, -when a boy, I bleared my eyes with oil ; 
 What time I wished my studies to decline, 
 Nor make great Cato's dying speeches mine ; 
 Speeches my master to the skies had raised, 
 Poor pedagogue ! unknowing what he praised ; 
 And which my sire, suspense 'twixt hope and fear, 
 With venial pride, had brought his friends to hear. 
 
 For then, alas ! 'twas my supreme delight 
 To study chances, and compute aright, 
 What sum the lucky sice would yield in play, 
 And what the fatal aces sweep away ; 
 Anxious no rival candidate for fame 
 Should hit the long-necked jar with nicer aim ; 
 Nor, while the whirUng top beguiled the eye, 
 With happier skill the sounding scourge apply. 
 
 Qifford. 
 
 At sixteen, Persius attached himself to the Stoic phi- 
 losopher Annseus Cornutus, by whom he was imbued 
 with the stern philosophical principles which occupy so 
 
 • Ruperti in Juv. vii. " Sat. iii. 44. ' Quint. I. O. ii. 7 ; x. 5. 
 
 2f2 
 
436 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 prominent a place in his Satires. The friendship which 
 he formed thus early in life continued until the day of 
 his death. The young Lucan was also one of his intimate 
 associates, whose philosophical and poetical tastes were 
 similar to his own, and who had a profound admiration 
 for his writings. He was acquaLuted with Seneca, but 
 had no very great regard either for him or his works. 
 Csesius Bassus, to whom he addressed his sixth Satire, 
 was also one of his intimates.' It redounds greatly to 
 his honour that he enjoyed the friendship of Paetus 
 Thrasea, one of the noblest examples of Eoman virtue.^ 
 Persius died prematurely of a disease in the stomach, at 
 the age of twenty-eight. He left a large fortune to his 
 mother and sister ; and his hbrary, consisting of seven 
 hundred volumes, together with a considerable pecuniary 
 legacy, to his beloved tutor, Comutus. The philosopher, 
 however, disinterestedly gave up the money to the sister 
 of his deceased friend. 
 
 Pure hx mind and chaste in Hfe, Persius was free from 
 the corrupt taint of an immoral age. He exhibited all 
 the self-denial, the control of the passions, and the stem 
 uncompromising principles of the philosophy which he 
 admired, but not its hypocrisy. Stoicism was not, in his 
 case, as in that of so many others, a cloak for vice and 
 profligacy. , ,, 
 
 Although L uctOTJu s was, to a certain extent, his model, 
 he does not attack vice with the biting severity of the 
 old satirist. He rather adopts the caustic irony of the 
 old Grreek comedy, as more in accordance with that style 
 of attack which he himself terms — 
 
 petvdanti splene caohinno.' 
 
 ' Quintilian (I. 0. x. 96) pronounces the lyric poetry of Bassus inferior 
 only to that of Horace ; but only two lines of his poems are extant. He 
 was destroyed by the same eruption in which PUny the elder perished. 
 
 " Tac. Am. xvi. 21. ' Sat. i. 12. 
 
HIS PURITY AND MODESTY. 437 
 
 Nor do we find in his writings the fiery ardour, the 
 enthusiastic indignation, which bum in the verses of 
 Juvenal; but this resulted from the tenderness of his 
 heart and the gentleness of his disposition, and not 
 from any disqualification for the duties of a moral 
 instructor, such as weak moral principle, or irresolute 
 timidity. 
 
 Although he must have been conscious that the dan- 
 gerous times during which his short life was passed ren- 
 dered caution necessary, still it is far more probable that 
 his purity of mind and kindliness of heart disincUned 
 him to portray vice in its hideous and loathsome forms, 
 and to indulge in bitterness of invective which the pre- 
 valent enormities of his times deserved. It may be 
 questioned whether obscenities Hke those of Juvenal, 
 notwithstanding purity of intention, best promote the 
 interests of virtue. It is to be feared that often the 
 passions are excited and the human heart rendered more 
 corrupt by descriptions of vice, whilst the moral lesson is 
 disregarded. 
 
 Persius evidently beUeved that reserve and silence, or 
 those abominations which make the pure-minded shudder 
 with horror, and call up a blush upon the cheek of inno- 
 cence, would more safely maintain the dignity and purity 
 of virtue, than the divesting himself of that virgin 
 modesty (virgineus ille pudor) which constituted the 
 great charm of his character. His uprightness and love 
 of virtuB are shown by the uncompromising severity with 
 which he rebukes sins of not so deep a die ; and the heart 
 which was capable of being moulded by his example, and 
 influenced by his purity, would have shrunk from the 
 fearful crimes which defile the pages of Juvenal. 
 
 The greatest defect in Persius as a satirist, is, that the 
 philosophy in which he was educated rendered him too 
 indifferent to the affairs which were going on in the 
 world around him. Politics had little interest for him : 
 
438 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 he lived within himself a meditative life ; wealth and 
 splendour he despised. His contemplative habits led him 
 to criticise, as his favourite subjects, false taste in poetry 
 and empty pretensions to philosophy. His modest and 
 retiring nature found httle sympathy with the passions, 
 the tumults, the business, or the pleasures which agitated 
 Rome. He was more a student of the closet than a man 
 of the world. Horace mingled ia the society of the 
 profligate : he considered them as fools, aad laughed 
 their foUy to scorn, Juvenal looked down upon the 
 corruption of the age from an eminence where, involved 
 in his virtue, he was safe from moral poEution, and 
 punished it Hke an avenging Deity. Persius, pure in 
 heart and passionless by education, whilst he lashes wick- 
 edness in the abstract, almost ignores its existence, and 
 modestly shrinks from laying bare the secret pollutions 
 of the human heart, and from probing its vileness to the 
 bottom. The amiability, and above all the disinterested- 
 ness, which characterise his Satires, fuUy account for the 
 popularity which they attained immediately on their 
 publication by Cornutus, and the panegyrics of which he 
 was the subject in later times. " Persius," writes Quin- 
 tilian,^ " multum et verse glorise, quamvis uno libro 
 meruit." Many of the early Christian writers thought 
 that his merits fully compensated for the obscurity of his 
 style ; and Grifford^ observes, " The virtue he recom- 
 mends he practised in the fullest extent ; and, at an age 
 when few have acquired a determinate character, he left 
 behind him an estabhshed reputation for genius, learning, 
 and worth." 
 
 The works of Persius are comprised within the com- 
 pass of six Satires, containing, in aU, about 650 lines. 
 And from the expression of Quintilian, already cited, and 
 supported by a passage of Martial, there is reason to 
 
 ' Lib. X. 1. ' Trans, of Juv. and Pers. vol. i. p. Ixvii. Introd. 
 
SUBJECTS OP HIS SATIRES. 439 
 
 suppose that all he wrote is now extant. To his Satires 
 is prefixed a short but spirited introduction in chohambics, 
 i. e. lame iambics, in which, for the iambus in the sixth 
 place, there is substituted a spondee. 
 
 This proemium bears but httle relation to his work ; 
 but he was accustomed to similar irrelevancy ia the para- 
 bases of the old Attic comedy, which he had studied. In 
 his first Satire he exposes and accounts for the false 
 and immoral taste which afiected poetry and forensic 
 eloquence, attacks the coxcombry of pubHc recitation, and 
 parodies the style of contemporary writers, in language 
 which our ignorance of them prevents us from appre- 
 ciating. In the second, which is a congratulatory address 
 to his dear friend Macrinus on his birthday, he em- 
 bodies the subject-matter of the second Alcibiades of 
 Plato ;^ a dialogue which Juvenal also had iu view in the 
 composition of his tenth Satire. In this poem, the de- 
 grachng ideas which men have formed respecting the Deity, 
 the consequent selfishness and even impiety of their 
 prayers, are followed by sentiments on the true nature 
 of prayer, which even a Christian can read with ad- 
 miration : — 
 
 Quin damus id superis, de magna quod dare lance 
 Non possit magni Messalse lippa propago ; 
 Gompositum jus fasque animo sanctosctae recessus 
 Mentis et incoctum generoso pectus honesto : 
 Hseo cedo, ut admoveam templis, et farre litabo." 
 
 No let me bring the immortals what the race 
 Of great Messala, now depraved and base, 
 On their huge charger cannot, — bring a mind 
 Where legal and where moral sense are joined 
 With the pure essence ; holy thoughts that dwell 
 In the soul's most retired and sacred cell ; 
 A bosom dyed in honour's noblest grain — 
 Deep-dyed ; — with these let me approach the fane. 
 And Heaven will hear the humble prayer I make, 
 Though all my ofitering be a barley-cake. 
 
 See Spect. No. 207. " Sat. ii. 71. 
 
440 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 In the third, he endeavours to shame the ingenuous 
 youth out of an idle aversion to the pursuit of wisdom, 
 and contrasts the enjoyments of a well-regulated mind 
 with ignorance and sensuality : the picture which he draws 
 of the fate of the sensualist is very powerful : — 
 
 Turgidus hie epulis atque albo ventre lavatur, 
 Gutture sulfureas lente exhalante mephites ; 
 Sed tremor inter vina subit, calidumque trientem 
 Exoutit e manibua ; dentes crepuere reteoti ; 
 Uncta cadunt laxis tunc pulmentaria labris. 
 Hinc tuba, candelss ; tandemque beatulus, alto 
 Compositus lecto, crassisque lutatus amomis, 
 In portam rigidos calces extendit ; at Ulum 
 Hestemi capite induto subiere Quirites.' 
 
 Now to the bath, fuU gorged with luscious fare. 
 
 See the pale wretch his bloated carcase bear ; 
 
 While from his lungs, that faintly play by fits, 
 
 His gasping throat sulphureous steam emits ! 
 
 Cold shiverings seize him, as for wine he calls. 
 
 His grasp betrays him, and the goblet falls ! 
 
 From his loose teeth the hp, convulsed, withdraws. 
 
 And the rich cates drop through his Hstless jaws. 
 
 Then trumpets, torches come, in solemn state ; 
 
 And my fine youth, so confident of late. 
 
 Stretched on a splendid bier and essenced o'er, 
 
 Lies, a stifi^ corpse, heels foremost at the door ; 
 
 Romans of yesterday, with covered head, 
 
 Shoulder him to the pyre, and — all is said. Oifford. 
 
 One more quotation must be made from this noble 
 Satire, which is alluded to by St. Augustine,'* and in 
 which Persius enunciates the sublime truth, that the 
 most fearfol punishment which can befall the profligate 
 is the consciousness of what they have lost in rejecting 
 virtue: — 
 
 Magne pater divum, ssevos punire tyrannos 
 Haud aha ratione veUs, quum dira libido 
 Moveiit ingenium ferventi tincta veneno ; 
 Virtutem videant intabescantque reUcta ! ° 
 
 Dread sire of gods ! when lust's envenomed stings 
 Stir the fierce natures of tyrannic kings — 
 
 Sat. iii. 98. ' De Civ. Dei, v. ^ Sat. iii. 36. 
 
SUBJECTS OF HIS SATIRES. 441 
 
 When storms of rage within their bosoms roll, 
 
 And call in thunder, for thy just control — 
 
 O, then relax the bolt, suspend the blow, 
 
 And thus, and thus alone, thy vengeance show. 
 
 In aU her charms, set Virtue in their eye. 
 
 And let them see their loss, despair, and — die. Gifford. 
 
 In the fourth Satire, Nero is represented in the cha- 
 racter of Alcibiades; and Plato's first Dialogue, which 
 bears the name of the Athenian libertine, famished the 
 foundation and many of the sentiments. 
 
 The fifth is the most elaborate of all the poet's works. 
 It is addressed to Cornutus, and is in the form of a 
 dialogue between the philosopher and his pupil. The 
 style is more finished than usual, and more adorned with 
 the graces of poetry ; his amiable nature beams forth in 
 all the warmth of a grateful heart ; and although he 
 does not display any original philosophical research, he 
 exhibits great learning, and an accurate acquaintance 
 with the Stoic philosophy. 
 
 If the fifth Satire is the most elaborate, the sixth 
 is, without doubt, the most dehghtftd of the works of 
 Persius. It is addressed to his dear friend Osesius Bassus, 
 and overflows with kindness of heart. The poet speaks 
 of the duties of contentment, and of ministering to the 
 distresses of others ; the hateftdness of envy ; the mean- 
 ness of avarice, beneath whatever disguise it m&j be 
 veiled ; his own determination to use and not abuse his 
 fortune ; whilst there may be traced through the whole a 
 foreboding, yet a cheerful one, that his weary course will 
 soon be run, and that his heir will soon succeed to his 
 possessions.^ 
 
 Such was the character of Persius as mirrored in his 
 Httle volume. The gloomy suUenness of Stoicism was 
 not able to destroy the natural amiability and placid 
 cheerfahiess of his temper. Its darkness affected his 
 
 See especially ver. 61. 
 
442 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 style, but not Ms disposition. The fault which has been 
 universally found with the style of Persius, is difficulty 
 and obscurity. This would be the natural consequence 
 of his Stoical education. The Stoics were proverbially 
 obscure and dark ia their teaching ; and Persius, who had 
 not imbibed all the profoundness of their philosophy, had 
 still caught their language and their manner of expres- 
 sion, and whilst he was infected by their faults he ac- 
 quired also their picturesqueness and Hvehness of illus- 
 tration. Nor does it appear that his style was considered 
 obscure enough by his contemporaries to interfere with 
 its popularity. It is probable that his obscurity is not 
 absolute, but only relative to the knowledge of the lan- 
 guage possessed in modem times. His was the conver- 
 sational Latin of the days in which he Hvedj and as a 
 great change had taken place from the Latin of Cicero 
 and Livy to that of Tacitus and Seneca, doubtless the 
 conversational Latin of Horace, and even of Juvenal, 
 would differ from that of Persius. If this be the case, 
 the Satires of Persius constitute the only example of this 
 Latin, and we have no other by a comparison of which 
 we can explain and iUustrate his modes of expression. 
 "Whatever, therefore, is unusual becomes at once a source 
 of difficulty and obscurity.' The short description which 
 Persius represents his preceptor as giving of his style, 
 supports this assertion : — 
 
 Verba togse aequeris junotura callidus acri 
 Ac teres modico, paJlentes radere mores 
 Doctus et ingenuo culpam defigere ludo.* 
 
 Confined to common life, thy numbers flow, 
 
 And neither soar too high, nor sink too low ; 
 
 There strength and ease in graceful union meet. 
 
 Though poHshed subtle, and though poignant sweet ; 
 
 Yet powerful to abash the front of crime. 
 
 And crimson error's cheek with sportive rhyme. 
 
 Gifford. 
 
 ' See this argument quoted by Gifibrd, ii. xlvii., from H. Frere, v. 14. 
 * Sat. V. 14. 
 
HORACE COMPARED WITH PERSIUS. 443 
 
 As the toga had, since the time of Augustus, been only- 
 worn by the higher orders, whilst the common people 
 were content with the tunica, it is clear that the words 
 verba togae signify the language of pohshed society. One 
 cause, therefore, of the difficulty of the style of Persius 
 may be our want of familiarity with the conversational 
 Latin used in his time by the superior classes. Excessive 
 subtlety may have been mistaken for refinement ; and an 
 affectation of philosophy, and an enigmatic style, may 
 cause obscurity to us which was quite intelhgible to his 
 contemporaries . 
 
 It is evident that Persius had carefully studied, and 
 was quite well acquainted with the Satires of Horace ; 
 but the influence which Horace produced upon his mind 
 went no further than to impress upon his memory certain 
 phrases which he reproduced in a more perplexed form, 
 more in unison with the fashionable Latin, of his day. 
 The expression of Horace — 
 
 naso suspendis adunco 
 Ignotos,' 
 
 becomes, in the Satires of Persius — 
 
 Excusso populum suspendere naso.' 
 
 Si vis me flere, dolendum est 
 Primum ipse tibi.° 
 
 becomes, when paraphrased by his imitator— 
 
 Plorabit qui me volet inourvasse querela.* 
 
 The simplicity of Horace in the words — 
 
 Totus teres atque rotundas 
 Extern! ne quid valeat per Iseve morari,' 
 
 is exchanged for the more involved phrase— 
 
 Ut per IsBve severos 
 Efiiindat junctura ungues.* 
 
 ' Sat I vi. 5. ' Ibid. i. 118. = A. P. 102. ' Sat. L 91. 
 
 'Ibid. Il.vii. 87. » Ibid. i. 65. 
 
444 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 He adopts Horace's wish/ preserving every idea in the 
 
 passage — 
 
 Osi 
 Sub rastro crepet argenti mihi seria dextro 
 Hercule.' 
 
 Horace's acquirements in geometry — 
 
 Scilicet ut possem curve dignoscere rectum,' 
 
 are thus awkwardly rendered — 
 
 rectum disoemis, ubi inter 
 Curva subit.* 
 
 And, not to multiply examples which, whilst they show 
 that Persius was an admirer of Horace, prove that what 
 was pure" natural inspiration in the latter, required effort 
 in the former, the idea of Horace — 
 
 Clamant periisse ^iMforem 
 Cuncti pene patres,' 
 
 is exchanged by Persius for the forced metaphor — 
 
 Ezclamet Melicerta perisse 
 Frontem de rebus." 
 
 Ehetorical affectation infested all the hterature of this 
 age ; we can scarcely, therefore, be surprised to find that 
 it is one of the characteristics of the Satires of Persius. 
 The age of pubhc recitation had already begun, of which 
 Juvenal speaks some years later. When in one place he 
 describes the ardour and enthusiasm which pervaded 
 Eome, on the announcement of a new work by a popular 
 author — '' 
 
 Curritur ad vocem jucundam et carmen amicse 
 Tbebaidos Isetam fecit cum Statins urbem 
 Promisitque diem. 
 
 When Statius fixed a morning to recite 
 His Thebaid to the town with what delight 
 They flocked to him. 
 
 Sat. II. vi. 10. = Ibid. ii. 10. ' Ep. II. ii. 4. * Sat. iv. 12. 
 
 ' Ep. II. i. 80. « Sat. V. 10, 3. ^ Ibid. vii. 82. 
 
BIOGRAPHY OF JUVENAL. 445 
 
 In another,* like Horace, he complains of the annoy- 
 ance of these recitations ; and in a third,^ he considers it 
 one of the causes which rendered the most desolate and 
 solitary country place preferable to Eome. 
 
 The style of writing, therefore, suitable to this prac- 
 tice, was a declamatory one, as the practice itself was in 
 accordance with the oratorical tastes of the Eoman 
 people. 
 
 Juvenal. 
 
 Decimus Junius Juvenalis, according to the few lines 
 of biography generally attributed to Suetonius, was the 
 son, or the adopted son, of a wealthy freedman. He 
 amused himself with rhetoric and declamation until 
 middle life ; but having, on one occasion, written a short 
 satire upon Paris, the pantomime, he was tempted to 
 apply himself to this species of writing. After some 
 time he recited his piece with such success to a large 
 audience, that he inserted it in one of his later com- 
 positions.^ He thus exposed himself to the enmity of 
 the court, because his Unes were supposed figuratively to 
 apply to an actor who was a court favourite, and he was 
 exiled to Egypt, under pretence of being appointed to 
 the command of a cohort. There in a short time he 
 died of grief at the age of eighty. 
 
 The time of his birth is unknown, but he must have 
 flourished in the reign of Domitian, towards the close of 
 the first century after Christ ; and it is generally assumed 
 that he was either born, or resided, at the Volscian town, 
 which subsequently gave birth to the eminent schoolman, 
 Thomas Aquinas." Thus the greater portion of the life 
 of Juvenal was passed, during a period of pohtical horror 
 and misery. The short reign of Vespasian was doubtless 
 a blessing to Eome, but it was only a brief temporary 
 
 ■ Sat. i. 2—13. ' Ibid. iii. 9. ' Ibid. vii. 90, 91. * Ibid. iii. 319. 
 
446 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITEEATURE. 
 
 respite : the dark period of the last ten Caesars saw the 
 utter moral degradation of the people, and the bloodiest 
 tyranny and oppression on the part of their ruler^ If, 
 which is most probable, he lived to see the reigns of 
 Nerva, Trajan, and Hadrian, the spirits of the noble- 
 minded satirist must have revived at seeing again a 
 promise of national glory and prosperity. In the period 
 gone by, rich as it was in material for his pen, it was 
 fatally perilous to give utterance to his burning indig- 
 nation ; but an opportunity, not to be lost, was then 
 offered when emperors ruled, who were distinguished for 
 ability and virtue, when justice and the laws were 
 constitutionally administered, and the empire, wisely 
 governed, enjoyed security and tranquillity. 
 
 The picture of Eoman manners, as painted by the 
 glowing pencil of Juvenal, is truly appalling. The fabric 
 of society was in ruins. The popular reH^on was 
 rejected with scorn, and its place was not occupied by 
 the creed of natural rehgion. Nothing remained but 
 the empty pomp, pageant, and ceremonial. The admi- 
 nistration of the state was a mass of corruption : freed- 
 men and foreigners, full of artfiil cunning, but destitute 
 of principle, had the ear of the sovereign, and filled their 
 coffers with bribes and confiscation. The grave and 
 decent reserve which was characteristic of every Eoman 
 in olden times was thrown off even by the highest 
 classes; and emperors took a public part in scenes of 
 foUy and profligacy, and exposed themselves as cha- 
 rioteers, as dancers, and as actors. Nothing was 
 respected but wealth — nothing provoked contempt but 
 poverty.^ A vote was only valued for its worth in 
 money; that people, whose power was once absolute, 
 would now seU their souls for bread and the Circensian 
 games. 
 
 ' Sat. iii. 137, 148. 
 
PROFLIGACY OF ROMAN MORALS. 447 
 
 Players and dancers had all honours and offices at their 
 disposal. The city swarmed with informers who made 
 the rich their prey : every man feared even his most 
 intimate friend. To be noble, virtuous, innocent, was 
 no protection : the only bond of friendship was to be 
 an accomplice in crime. Philosophy was a cheat, and 
 moral teaching an hypocrisy. The morahsts " preached 
 like Curii, but lived like bacchanals."* The very teacher 
 would do his best to corrupt his pupil: the guardian 
 would defraud his ward. Luxury and extravagance 
 brought men to ruin, which they sought to repair by 
 flattering the childless, legacy-hunting, and gambling; 
 and even patricians would cringe for a morsel of bread. 
 The higher classes were selfish and cruel, grinding and 
 insolent to their inferiors and dependants.^ Gluttony 
 was so disgusting that six thousand sesterces (bOl.) 
 would be given for a mullet; and the glutton would 
 artificially reheve his stomach of its load, in order to 
 prepare for another meal.' Crimes which cannot be 
 named were common : men, for the worst of purposes, 
 endeavoured to make themselves look hke women; and 
 even an emperor personated a female, and was given in 
 marriage to one of his Greek favourites.* The streets of 
 Eome were as dangerous as the Pomptine marshes or 
 the Italian forests, from constant robbery, assault, and 
 assassination. 
 
 The morals of the female sex were as depraved as 
 those of men : ladies of noble and royal blood would 
 have lovers in their pay, and when they had lost the 
 attraction of personal charms, would supply their place 
 by the temptation of gold. One empress pubHcly cele- 
 brated her nuptials with an adulterer in the absence of 
 her lord; another gratified her wantonness by prosti- 
 
 ' Sat. ii. 1. " Ibid. i. and v. ' Ibid. 11. 
 
 ' Tao. Ann. xv. 38. See also Juv. S. 11. 
 
448 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 tution. Even those who were not so profligate aped the 
 manners and habits of men, and would even meet in 
 mock combat; and there was no public amusement so 
 immoral or so cruel as not to be disgraced by the 
 presence of the female sex. Licentiousness led to murder ; 
 and poisoning by women was as common as it was in 
 France and Italy ia the sixteenth century.* 
 
 Times lite these would even have shocked the urbane 
 and gentle Horace : had he then lived, he would probably 
 have thought such vice beyond ridicule, and his tone 
 might have approached more nearly to the thundering 
 indignation of Juvenal. " Society in the age of Horace 
 was becoming corrupt; in that of Juvenal it was in a 
 state of putrefaction."'^ 
 
 In this period of moral dearth the fountains of genius 
 and Hterature were dried up. The orator dared not 
 impeach the corrupt pohtician, or defend the victim of 
 tyranny, when everyone thought the best way to secure 
 his own safety was by trampling on the fallen favoxirite, 
 now CsBsar's enemy. The historian dared not utter his 
 real sentiments. Poetry grew cold without the genial 
 fostering encouragement of noble and affectionate hearts. 
 There was criticism, grammar, declamation, pianegyric 
 and verse writing, but not oratory, history, or poetry. 
 Juvenal, though himself not free from the declamatory 
 affectation of the day, attacked the false hterary taste of 
 his contemporaries as unsparingly as he did their de- 
 praved morality. From Sejanus to Cluvienus he allowed 
 no one to escape. 
 
 But noble as Juvenal's hatred of vice must be allowed 
 to be, and fearless as are his denunciations, we look in 
 vain throughout his poetry for indications of an amiable 
 and kind-hearted disposition. He was not one to recall 
 the lost and erring to a love of virtue, or to inspire a 
 
 'Sat. vi. ^Nisai-d, vol. i. 461. » Sat. vii. 
 
OBSERVATIONS ON THE SATIRES. 
 
 pure and enthusiastic taste for literature. His prejudices 
 were violent ; he could see nothing good in a Greek or a 
 freedman : he hated the new aristocracy with as bitter a 
 hatred as Sallust. As a critic he is ill-natured; as a 
 moralist he is stem and misanthropic. Mark, for 
 example, the gloomy bitterness with which he speaks 
 of old age,' and contrast it with the bright side of the 
 picture, as drawn by the gentle Cicero in his incom- 
 parable treatise. 
 
 Deficient, however, as he was in the softer affections, 
 his sixteen Satires exhibit an enlightened, truthful, and 
 comprehensive view of Eoman manners, and of the in- 
 evitable result of such corruption. Those whose moral 
 taste was utterly destroyed would read and hsten without 
 profit, but they could not but tremble : his words are 
 truth. The conclusion of the thirteenth Satire is almost 
 Christian. It is imnecessary to quote from an author 
 who is in every scholar's memory : it would even 
 occupy too much space to make a fair selection from so 
 many fine passages. The eleventh Satire is the most 
 pleasing, and most partaking of the playfulness of 
 Horace. The seventh displays the greatest versatility 
 and the richest fund of anecdote. The twelfth is the 
 most amiable. The description of the origin of civil 
 society in the conclusion of the fifteenth is full of sound 
 sense and just sentiments ; whilst the way in which he 
 speaks of the insane bigotry of the Egyptians, exhibits 
 his power of combining pleasantry with dignity. But the 
 two finest Satires are those^ which our own Johnson has 
 thought worthy of imitation : one of which (the tenth) 
 Bishop Burnet, in his Pastoral Charge, recommended to 
 his clergy ; and the noblest passage in them is that which 
 describes the faU of the infamous Sejanus.^ Few men 
 could be so weU adapted to transfer the spirit of Juvenal 
 
 Sat. X. suhfln. * Ibid. iii. and i. ' Ibid. x. 56—67. 
 
 ■2 G 
 
460 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 into English as Dr. Johnson. He had the same rude, 
 plain-spoken, tincompromisiag hatred of vice ; and, though 
 not unamiable, did his best to conceal what amiabUity 
 he possessed under a forbidding exterior. He was not 
 without gaiety and sprighthness ; but he concealed it 
 under that stateliness and declamatory grandeur which 
 he attributes to Juvenal. 
 
 The historical value of Juvenal's Satires must not be 
 forgotten. Tacitus Hved in the same perilous times as 
 he did ; and when they had come to an end, and it was 
 not unsafe to speak, he wrote their pubHc history. 
 Juvenal illustrates that history by displaying the social 
 and inner life of the Romans.' Their works are parallel, 
 and each forms a commentary upon the other. When 
 such were the lives of individuals, one cannot wonder at 
 the fate of the nation. 
 
 The style of Juvenal is, generally speakuig, the reflex 
 of his mind : his views were strong and clear ; his style 
 is vigorous and lucid also. His morals were pure in the 
 midst of a debased age : his language shines forth in 
 classic elegance in the midst of specimens of declining 
 and degenerate taste. His style is declamatory, but it is 
 not artificially rhetorical. He could not restrain himself 
 from following the example of Lucihus : he conld not 
 dam up the torrent of his vehement and natural elo- 
 quence. Whether his subject is noble or disgusting, his 
 word-paiuting is perfect : we feel his subhmity — ^we 
 shudder at his fidehty. The nature of the subject causes 
 his language to be frequently gross and offensive; but his 
 object always is to lay bare the deformity of vice, and to 
 
 * The authorities from which we derive our knowledge of the inner life 
 and social habits and affections of the Romans are : — (1.) Ancient monu- 
 ments. (2.) Cicero's speeches and letters ; Horace and the elegiac poets. 
 (3.) The later classic poets, such as Juvenal, Martial, Statius. (4.) Gellius, 
 Petronius, Seneca, Suetonius, the two Phnies. (5.) The grammarians. 
 (6.) Greek authors, such as Plutarch, Lucian, Athenseus, &c. See, on this 
 subject, Bekker's Gallus — Preface. 
 
STYLE OF JUVENAL. 451 
 
 render it loathsome. He never indulges in indecency, in 
 order to pander to a corrupt taste or to gratify a pru- 
 rient imagination. For this reason his pages are less 
 dangerous than those of more elegant and less indecent 
 writers, who throw a veil over indehcacy, whilst they 
 leave those qualities which blind the moral vision and 
 inflame the passions. It must be remembered, also, that 
 neither the dress, manners, nor conversation of ancient 
 Eome were so decent and modest as those of modem 
 times ; and, therefore, Eoman taste would not be so shocked 
 by plain speaking as would be the case in an age of 
 greater social refinement. Juvenal closes the Hst of 
 Boman satirists, properly speaking : the satirical spirit 
 animates the piquant epigrams of his friend Martial ; but 
 their purpose is not moral or didactic: they sting the 
 individual, and render him an object of scorn and disgust, 
 but they do not hold up vice itself to ridicule and 
 detestation. 
 
 2g2 
 
452 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 BIOGRAPHY OF LUCAN — INSORIPTION TO HIS MEMORY — SENTIMENTS 
 EXPRESSED IN THE PHARSALIA-^LUCAN AN UNEQUAL POET — 
 FAULTS AND MERITS OF THE PHARSALLi — CHARACTERISTICS OF HIS 
 AGE — DIFFICULTIES OF HISTORICAL POETRY — LUCAN A DESCRIP- 
 TIVE POET — SPECIMENS OF HIS POETRY — BIOGRAPHY OF SILIUS 
 ITALICUS — HIS CHARACTER BY PLINY — HIS POEM DULL AND 
 TEDIOUS — HIS DESCRIPTION OF THE ALPS. 
 
 M. Ann^us Lucanus (born a.d. 39). 
 
 At the head of the epic poets who flourished during the 
 sUver age stands Lucan. He was a member of the same 
 family as the Senecas, for the celebrated rhetorician of 
 that name was his grandfather, and the Stoic philosopher 
 his uncle. Another of his uncles, also, L. Junius GaUio, 
 is mentioned in the Eusebian Chronicle as a celebrated 
 rhetorician. This Grallio derived his surname from being 
 the adopted son of Jun. Grallio, who, by some, is supposed 
 to have been the proconsul of Achaia, mentioned in the 
 Acts of the Apostles.' 
 
 The father of Lucan, M. Annseus Mela, was a Eoman 
 knight, who made a large fortune as a collector of the 
 imperial revenue. He is supposed by some to have been 
 identical with the geographer Pomponius Mela, who was 
 the author of a brief description, in three books, of the 
 coasts of Europe, Asia, and Africa. The style of this 
 vmter is concise, as is suitable to a mere sketch or 
 abridgment ; and his matter, although derived from other 
 
 ' Ch. viii. V. 12. 
 
BIOGRAPHY OF LUCAN. 453 
 
 sources, and not from personal observation, is accurate 
 and interestiag. The poet was bom at Corduba (Cor- 
 dova), on tbe beautiPol banks of the Bsetis (Gruadalquiver). 
 His birthplace is thus elegantly alluded to by Statins, in 
 a poem addressed to his widow, on the anniversary of his 
 birth :— 
 
 Vatis Apollinei magno memorabilis ortu 
 
 Lux redit, Aonidum turba favete sacris. 
 HsBC meruit, cum te terris Lucane dedisset 
 -Mixtus Castalise Bsetis ut esset aqusB. 
 
 Stat. OenetM. 
 
 Pliny tells us that on his infant lips, as on those of 
 Hesiod, a swarm of bees settled, and thus gave presage 
 of his poetical career ; a tale which owes its origiu 
 entirely to the Greek tradition. Much which rests upon 
 no foundation has been mixed up with the extant lives of 
 Lucan ; for example, the favour shown him, whilst a 
 child, by Nero ; his consequent elevation in his boyhood 
 to the rank of a senator ; and his defeat of the Emperor 
 in a poetical contest at the quinquennial games, insti- 
 tuted by the latter, in which no one entered with any 
 other view than that their royal antagonist might have 
 the credit of a mock victory.' The enmity of the jealous 
 emperor can be accounted for without having recourse to 
 so insane a competition. 
 
 It is probable that Lucan was very young when he 
 came to Eome; that his Hterary reputation was soon 
 estabHshed ; and that Nero, who could not bear the idea 
 of a rival, forbade him to recite his poems, which was 
 now the conmion mode of pubHcation. Nor was he 
 content with silencing bim as a poet, but also would not 
 allow him to plead as an advocate.^ Smarting under this 
 provocation he hastily joined a conspiracy against the 
 emperor's life, and signalised himself by the bitterness of 
 his hatred against his powerful enemy. The ringleader 
 
 ' Suet. V. Neron. 12. ' Tac. Aun. xv. 49. 
 
454 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 of this plot was Piso/ a tragic poet of some talent, a 
 skilful orator, and a munificent man. But he was de- 
 ficient in decision and infirm of purpose : the plot 
 therefore failed. When Lucan's passion cooled he as 
 quickly repented, and was pardoned on condition of 
 pointing out his confederates. In the vain hope of 
 saving himself from the monster's vengeance, he actually 
 impeached his mother. The upright historian contrasts 
 this stain on the poet's character with the courage which 
 Epicharis displayed. This noble vfoman was incapable of 
 treason. Tacitus describes the resolution with which she 
 scorned the question.'' "The scourge, the flames, the 
 rage of the executioners, who tortured her the more 
 savagely, lest they should be scorned by a woman, were 
 powerless to extort a false confession." Lucan never 
 received the reward which he purchased by treachery. 
 The warrant for his death was issued, and he caused his 
 veins to be cut asunder. As the stream of his hfe's 
 blood flowed away, he repeated from his own poem the 
 description of a soldier expiring from his wounds.^ He 
 died in the twenty-seventh year of his age; and the 
 following inscription to his memory has been attributed 
 to Nero : — 
 
 M. Annseo Luoano Cordubensi Poetse 
 Beneficio Neronis. Fama servata. 
 
 The sentiments contained in the PharsaHa, so far as he 
 dared express them, breathe a love of freedom, and an 
 attachment to the old Eoman republicanism. Although 
 the imperial patronage which he at first enjoyed, and, 
 perhaps, the better promise of the commencement of 
 Nero's reign, tempted him to indulge in courtly flattery, 
 stiQ, even at that time, his praises of Uberty evidently 
 came from the heart. As the poem proceeds his senti- 
 ments become more exalted; his virtuous indignation 
 
 ' Tac. Ann. xv. 48. ' Ibid. 57. ' Ibid. iii. 635, or v. 811. 
 
THE PHARSALIA CRITICISED. 455 
 
 gradually rises, until it pours forth a torrent of burning 
 satire on the inhuman tyrant. This poem, the only one 
 of his works which survives, is an epic in ten books ; its 
 subject, the civil war between Caesar and Pompey. It 
 bears evident marks of having been left unfinished, and 
 of not having received the last touches from the hand of 
 the author. It was preceded by four other shorter 
 poems — the first on the Death of Hector ; the second on 
 the Visit of Orpheus to the Infernal Eegions ; the third, 
 on the Burning of Eome; the fourth addressed to his 
 wife PoUa Axgentaria. He also wrote some prose works ; 
 and Martial attributes to him some poems on lighter 
 subjects.^ 
 
 Lucan is an unequal poet : his Pharsalia is defaced 
 with great faults and blemishes ; but at the same time it 
 possesses peculiar beauties. Its subject is a noble one 
 and full of historic interest, and is treated with spirit, 
 brilliance, and animation. Its arrangement is that of 
 annals, and therefore it wants the unity of an epic poem : 
 it has not the connectedness of history, because the poet 
 naturally selected only the most striking and romantic 
 incidents ; and yet, notwithstanding these defects in the 
 plan, the historical pictures themselves are beautifully 
 drawn. The characters of Caesar and Pompey, for 
 example, are master-pieces. Again, some passages have 
 neither the dignity of prose nor the melody of poetry ; 
 whilst others are scarcely inferior to any written by the 
 best Latin poets. This inequality has caused the great 
 diversity of opinions which have been held by critics 
 respecting the merits of Lucan. Some have imjustly 
 depreciated him; others, as groundlessly, have lauded 
 him to the skies. QuintiHan commended his ardent 
 enthusiasm and lucidity of expression,' but quaUfied his 
 praise by adding, that he would be admired by orators 
 
 ' Ep. i. 61. " X. i. 90. 
 
456 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATUEE. 
 
 rather than by poets. Comeille preferred him to Virgil, 
 of whom he was obviously a warm admirer. His poem 
 furnishes materials and reason for this diversity of judg- 
 ment ; but it may safely be asserted that his faults were 
 due to the age in which he Hved, whilst his beauties 
 were the fruits and developments of his own native 
 genius. His principal merit is originality : although he 
 was not great enough to lead the taste of the age, and to 
 rise superior to its false principles, he did not condescend 
 to be a servile imitator even of those poets whose repu- 
 tation was firmly estabhshed. There are many parallel- 
 isms between his poetry and that of Virgil, but they are 
 the paraUeHsms of a student, not of a plagiarist. 
 
 Without adopting the unauthorized assumptions, found 
 in some of his biographers, that he was educated under 
 the immediate superintendence of his uncle Seneca, that 
 Remmius Palsemon taught him grammar, Virginius 
 Flaccus rhetoric, and Cornutus philosophy, it is clear 
 that his taste was formed and his talents drawn out in 
 an age, the characteristics of which were pedantic eru- 
 dition, inflated rhetoric, and dogmatic philosophy. It is 
 clear, also, that even though Seneca was not his tutor, 
 still the conceit and affectation which dimmed the 
 transcendant abilities of the, philosopher, exercised a 
 baneftd influence over the literary taste of his contem- 
 poraries. In the midst of these influences Lucan was 
 educated, and for that reason his poem is disfigured by 
 commonplace maxims, pompous diction, an afiectation of 
 learniag, a rhetorical exuberance which outstripped its 
 subjects, and therefore produces the effect of frigidity. 
 In a poem, the characters and events of which are 
 historical, the real is in too strong contrast to the ideal, 
 hence the effect of both is marred. The fidehty expected of 
 the historian circumscribes the creative power of the 
 poet. To the poet who constructs his work out of the 
 materials of epochs which are beyond the reach of 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF HISTORICAL POETRY. 457 
 
 history, the whole field of the past is open. The only 
 hmits within which he must restrain his genius are those 
 of the probable : within these bounds he may conjure up 
 the most magnificent ideal forms ; he may use the most 
 gorgeous imagery, the most supernatural machinery : the 
 whole wears an air of historic truth; as there are no 
 realities with which his ideal can be compared and tested, 
 truth never appears to be violated. 
 
 But in history, almost contemporaneous with the age 
 of the poet, every circumstance is recorded, every cha- 
 racter well-known and estimated. If an act of bravery 
 is exaggerated into one of superhuman heroism, or one 
 who is known to have been a man, although a great 
 man, recast in the heroic mould, we are struck at once 
 with the falsehood ; and therefore the poet cannot venture 
 on such efibrts of genius. In a train of events, which 
 the page of history enables us to trace from the 
 beginning to the end, no difficulties can occur deserving 
 of supernatural machinery, no dignus vindice nodus ; and 
 thus, in the place of the Olympian Pantheon of Homer 
 and Virgil, Lucan can only deify the popular but un- 
 poetical principle of chance, and personify Fortune. 
 
 This position may appear inconsistent with the charm 
 which confessedly belongs to the modem historical 
 romance; but then it is to be remembered, that the 
 interest we take in the historical portions is purely 
 historical, enlivened by the events grouping themselves 
 round the hero : in fact, the interest of biography is 
 united with that of history. The strictest accuracy, 
 therefore, in matters which fall within the range of 
 history is perfectly compatible. The romantic interest 
 depends on the inner or social Hfe of the characters — 
 which forms no part of history — in which, as there is no 
 standard of comparison, the imagination of the poet is 
 quite free and unfettered. But this is totally different 
 from the plan on which such a poem as the Pharsalia is 
 
458 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 constructed. The vision of the Grenius of Eome which 
 appeared to Csesar at the fatai Enbicon, those which 
 haunt the slumbers of the.Csesareans in the plundered 
 camp of Pompey, and the dream of Pompey, in which 
 the secrets of the infernal regions are laid open by the 
 shade of his departed wife Julia, are the nearest ap- 
 proaches to that invisible world which the imagination 
 of Homer disclosed, and which YirgH reproduced :^ but 
 these are only isolated passages. 
 
 It is impossible to be at once an historian and a poet : 
 in the one character the author must restrain the flights 
 of his imagination ; in the other, he must sacrifice truth. 
 Nor is there any doubt of which character we demand 
 the conservation, when matters of history are concerned. 
 We desiderate truth : we wish moot points to be settled 
 and doubts solved. . AU imaginative pictures we look 
 upon as interruptions, and cast them aside as warping 
 the judgment and giving prejudiced views. Hence, our 
 admiration of Lucan is called forth, not by considering 
 his poem as an epic, but for the sake of isolated scenes, 
 such as the naval victory off Marseilles ; splendid de- 
 scriptions, such as that of the cruelties of Marius and 
 SuUa; felicitous comparisons, that, for example, of 
 Pompey to an aged oak ; and the epigrammatic terseness 
 which gives force, as well as beauty, to his sayings. In 
 a single line, for instance — 
 
 Pauperiorqiie fuit tunc primum Csesare Roma — 
 
 he describes the wealth and avarice of the conqueror, and 
 in the well-known verse — 
 
 Viotrix causa Diis placuit sed victa Catoni — 
 
 he depicts the disinterestedness of Cato. To this may be 
 added, that the subject of the Pharsalia is, although a period 
 of the deepest historical interest, iU adapted to poetry. 
 
 ' Lib. iii. 
 
LUCAN A DESCRIPTIVE POET. 459 
 
 Events so nearly contemporary were fitter for history 
 and panegyric than for poetry ; and although they give 
 scope for descriptive power and bold imagery, they are 
 deficient in that mysterious and romantic character 
 which is required for an epic poem. His imagination 
 was rich — his enthusiasm refused to be curbed. They 
 were such as we might suppose would be nurtured by 
 the warm and sunny chmate of Spain. His sentiments 
 often exhibit that chivalrous tone which distinguish the 
 Spanish poets of modern times. We may discern the 
 nobleness, the liberality, the courage, which once marked 
 the high-bom Spanish gentleman; and the grave and 
 thoughtful wisdom which makes Spanish hterature so 
 rich in proverbs, and which peeps out even from imder 
 the unreal conventionalisms of the contemporary Eoman 
 philosophy. 
 
 Description forms the principal feature in the poetry 
 of Lucan ; it occupies more than one-half of the Phar- 
 salia : so that it might almost as appropriately be termed 
 a descriptive as an epic poem. Description, in fact, con- 
 stitutes one of the characteristic features of Eoman 
 literature in its decline, because poetry had more than 
 ever become an art, and the epoch one of erudition ; and 
 thus a treasure of imagery was stored up suitable for 
 descriptive embellishment. The finest parts of Persius 
 are descriptive : even Martial, brief though his pieces 
 are, dehghts in it ; and facility in this department is the 
 strong point of Silius Italicus, and the sole merit of 
 Valerius Flaccus. Owing to the enthusiasm with which 
 Lucan throws himself into this kind of writing, he 
 abounds in minute detail. He reminds one of the 
 descriptive talent possessed in so eminent a degree by 
 our own Thomson- Not a feature escapes his notice, 
 whether it suggest ideas of the beautiful, the sublime, or 
 the terrible. He is not content, as Virgil is, with a 
 sketch — with broad hghts and shadows ; he dehghts in a 
 
460 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 finished picture; he possesses the power of placing his 
 subject strongly before the eyes, leaving Httle or nothing 
 for the imagination to supply. He omits no means of 
 attaining descriptive truth :^ the inward state of feeling, 
 the character of each passion is presented, not so much 
 in its moral and psychical as in its physical develop- 
 ments ; that which is internal is exhibited in its external 
 symptoms, with the hand of a painter and the skiU of 
 the . physiognomist. Virgil sketches, Lucan paints; the 
 latter describes physically — ^the former philosophically. 
 The following passages, which describe the passage of the 
 Eubicon and the death of Pompey, are noble specimens 
 of Lucan's style : — 
 
 Jam gelidas Csesar oursu superaverat Alpes, 
 Ingentesque animo motus, bellumque futurum 
 Ceperat. Ut ventum est parvi Eubiconis ad undas, 
 Ingens yisa duci patrisB trepidantis imago, 
 Clara per obscuram vultu moestissima noctem 
 Turrigero canos effundens vertice crines, 
 CEBsarie lacera, nudisque adstare laoertis, 
 Et gemitu permixta loqui : Quo tenditis ultra ? 
 Quo fertis mea signa, viri ? si jure venitis, 
 Si cives, huo usque Meet. Tunc perouUt horror 
 Membra ducis, riguere comae, gressumque coercens 
 Languor in extrema tenuit vestigia ripa. 
 
 Csesar ut adversam superato gurgite ripam 
 Attigit, HesperisB vetitis et constitit arvis, 
 Hie, ait, hie, pacem, temerataque jura rehnquo ; 
 Te, Portuna, sequor ; procul hinc jam foedera sunto. 
 Credidimus fatis, utendum est judice bello. 
 
 Now Csesar, marching swift with winged haste. 
 The summits of the frozen Alps had past ; 
 With vast events and enterprises fraught. 
 And future wars revolving in his thought. 
 Now near the banks of Rubicon he stood ; 
 When lo ! as he surveyed the narrow flood. 
 Amidst the dusky horrors of the night, 
 A wondrous vision stood confessed to sight. 
 
 ' B. g. v. 165. 
 
PASSAGES QUOTED. 461 
 
 Her awful head Rome's reverend image reared, 
 Trembling and sad the matron form appeared ; 
 A towering crown her hoary temples bound, 
 And her torn tresses rudely hung around ; 
 Her naked arms uphfted e'er she spoke. 
 Then groaning, thus the mournful silence broke : 
 Presumptuous men ! oh, whither do you run 1 
 Oh whither bear you these my ensigns on 1 
 If friends to right, if citizens of Rome, 
 Here to your utmost barrier are you come ! 
 She said ; and sunk within the closing shade ; 
 Astonishment and dread the chief invade ; 
 Stiff rose his starting hair, he stood dismayed. 
 And on the bank his slackening steps were stayed. 
 
 * # * * « 
 
 The leader now had passed the torrent o'er, 
 And reached fair Italy's forbidden shore ; 
 Then rearing on the hostile bank his head. 
 Here farewell peace and injured laws ! he said : 
 Since faith is broke, and leagues are set aside, 
 Henceforth thou, goddess Fortune, art my bride ! 
 Let fate and war the great event decide. Bowe. 
 
 Jam venerat horse 
 Terminus extremae, Phariamque ablatus in alnum 
 Perdiderat jam jura sui. Tum stringere ferrum 
 Regia monstra parant. Ut vidit cominus enses 
 Involvit vultus ; atque indignatus apertum 
 Fortunse praebere caput, tunc lumina pressit, 
 Continuitque animam, ne quas effundere voces 
 Posset et setemam fletu corrumpere famam. 
 At postquam mucrone latus funestus Achillas 
 Perfodit, nuUo gemitu consensit ad ictum. 
 
 Now in the boat defenceless Pompey sate, 
 Surrounded and abandoned to his fate. 
 Nor long they hold him in their power aboard, 
 E'en every villain drew his ruthless sword : 
 The chief perceived their purpose soon, and spread 
 His Roman gown, with patience, o'er his head ; 
 And when the cursed Achillas pierced his breast. 
 His rising indignation close repressed. 
 No signs, no groans, his dignity profaned, 
 No tear his still unsullied glory stained. 
 Unmoved and firm he fixed him on his seat. 
 And died, as when he hved and conquered, great. 
 
462 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. ' 
 
 C. SiLius Italicus. 
 
 C. Silius Italicus was born in the reign of Tiberius, 
 A.D. 25. The place of his birth is unknown. His sur- 
 name, Italicus, has led some to suppose that he was a 
 native of Italica, in Spain. But it is not probable that, 
 if this were the case, his friend and fellow-courtier 
 Martial, when he compared his eloquence to that of 
 Cicero, and his poetry to that of VirgU,^ called him the 
 glory of the Castalian sisters,^ and felicitated him on his 
 poHtical honours, would have forgotten to claim him as 
 a countryman. Others, with somewhat more show of 
 reason, have imagined that his birthplace was the city of 
 Corfinium, in PeHgnia, which was called ItaUca,^ because 
 it was the head-quarters of the confederates in the Social 
 War ; whilst Stephens mentions a little town in Sicily, of 
 the same name, which might have been his native place.* 
 
 Silius was celebrated as an advocate ; but in that age of 
 affected and rhetorical display, a high reputation does not 
 prove that his eloquence, although it might have dis- 
 played a simikr elegance of language, was more lively 
 and stirring thaa his poetry. He was consul a.d. 68 ; an 
 office which was also filled by his son,* and by another 
 member of his family.' He was afterwards proconsul of 
 Asia ; the duties of which lucrative office he appears to 
 have performed with credit to himself. He was very 
 wealthy ; and, as he grew old, retired from the perils of 
 public life to enjoy his affluence, and the retirement of 
 literary ease in his numerous villas. One cannot be 
 surprised that an orator and a poet especially delighted 
 in the house of Virgil, near Naples, and the Academy of 
 Cicero, of both which he was the fortunate possessor. 
 He lived to the age of seventy-five, and then starved 
 
 ' Lib. vii. 63. " See also iv. 14 ; vi. 64 ; viii. 66 ; ix. 86 ; xi. 49—51. 
 
 ' Strabo, Geog. v. 167. * See notes to Plin. Ep. ed. Var. 
 
 » Mart. Ep. viii. 66. " Suet. v. Octav. 101. 
 
CHARACTER BY PLINY. 463 
 
 himself to death, because he could not bear the pain of 
 disease. " I have just been informed," writes Pliny the 
 Younger, to his Mend Camnius,' "that Silius ItaHcus 
 has put an end to his existence by starvation, at his 
 Neapohtan villa. He had an incurable carbuncle, from 
 the annoyance of which he took refuge in death, with a 
 firm and irrevocable constancy. He enjoyed happiness 
 and prosperity to his dying day, if we except the loss of 
 the younger of his two sons ; but the elder and superior 
 one survived him in the enjoyment of prosperity, and 
 even of consular rank. The belief that he had volun- 
 tarily come forward as a pubhc accuser injured his 
 reputation in the reign of Nero; but, as a friend of 
 ViteUius, his conduct was wise and his behaviour cour- 
 teous. His career in the proconsulate of Asia was an 
 honourable one, for he washed out the stain of his former 
 activity by a praiseworthy abstinence from public affairs. 
 He had no influence with the great ; but then he was safe 
 from envy. All courted him, and were assiduous in 
 pajdng their respects to him ; and as ill-health confined 
 him to his bed, his chamber was thronged with visitors, 
 beyond what might have been expected from his rank 
 and station. Whenever he could spare time for writing, 
 he passed it in learned conversation. His poems display 
 elaborate care rather than genius : sometimes he invited 
 criticism by recitations. Yielding to the suggestion of 
 advancing years, he at length retired from Eome, and 
 resided in Campania; nor had the accession of a new 
 emperor (Trajan) power to entice him from his retire- 
 ment. High praise to the monarch under whose rule he 
 was free to act so ! — high praise to him who had courage 
 to use that freedom ! His love of virtii caused in him a 
 reprehensible passion for buying : he was the possessor of 
 more than one villa in the same localities ; and he so 
 
 ' Ep. iii. 7. 
 
464 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 delighted in the newest purchase as to neglect that 
 which he inhabited before. He had a vast collection of 
 books, besides statues and busts, which he not only 
 possessed, but almost worshipped. He kept Yirgil's 
 birthday more reli^ously than his own, and had more 
 busts of him than of any one else, especially at Naples, 
 where he was in the habit of visiting his tomb, as if it 
 were a temple. In this tranquil retirement he exceeded 
 his seventy-fifth year, his constitution being deHcate rather 
 than weakly. As he was the last consul made by Nero, 
 so he died the last of those whom he had made. It is 
 also worthy of remark that the consul, in whose year of 
 office Nero died, died the last of Nero's consuls. When 
 I caU this to mind, I feel compassion for human frailty : 
 for what is so brief as the longest span of human life !" 
 
 Little interest attaches to the biography of one who 
 owed a life of uninterrupted prosperity to his berag the 
 favourite and intimate of two emperors; the one, a 
 bloodthirsty tyrant — the other, a gross sensualist.' His 
 ponderous work survives — ^the dullest and most tedious 
 poem in the Latin language. Its title is " Punica :" it 
 consists of seventeen books, and contains a history in 
 heroic verse of the second Punic War. The iEneid of 
 Virgil was his model, and the narrative of Livy fur- 
 nished his materials. Niebuhr states that he read 
 through the whole of his works with great care, and that 
 he was quite convinced that he had taken everything 
 from Livy, of whose work his is only a paraphrase.^ The 
 criticism of PHny the Younger is, upon the whole, just : 
 " Scribebat carmina majori cura quam ingenio ;" for, 
 although it is impossible to read his poem with pleasure 
 as a whole, his versification is harmonious; and wiU often, 
 in point of smoothness, bear comparison with that of 
 Virgil. The following passage is quoted by C. Barthius 
 
 ' Nero and Vitellius. ' Introd. Lect. on R. H. viii. 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE ALPS. 465 
 
 as one of the most favourable specimens of his senti- 
 ments and style; and Cenarius, whose praise is extra- 
 vagantly fulsome, gives it the epithet of " Aurea :" 
 
 Ipsa quidem virtus sibimet pulcherrima merces ; 
 Duloe tamen venit ad manes quern gloria vitse 
 Durat apud superos, nee edunt oblivia laudem. 
 
 Some of his episodes, if considered as separate pieces, 
 wiU repay the trouble of perusal ; and the following 
 passage, which Addison thought worthy of translation, 
 may be taken as a fair specimen of his descriptive 
 powers : — 
 
 THE ALPS. 
 
 Cunota gelu canftque seternum grahdine tecta, 
 Atque sevi glaciem oohibent : riget ardua mentis 
 ..Etberii fades, surgentique obvia Phoebo 
 Duratas nescit flammis mollire pruinas. 
 Quantum Tartareus regni pallentis hiatus 
 Ad manes imos atque atrse stagna paludis 
 A supera tellure patet ; tam longa per auraa 
 Erigitur tellus et ccelum intercipit umbrS,. 
 Nullum ver usquam, nullique sestatis honores ; 
 Sola JTigis habitat diris sedesque tuetur , 
 Perpetuas deformis hyems : ilia undique nubea 
 Hue atras agit et mixtos cum grandine nimbos. 
 Nam ouncti flatus ventique fiarentia regna 
 AlpinS. posuere domo caJigat in altis 
 Obtutus saxis, abeuntque in nubila montes. 
 
 Stiff with eternal ice, and hid in snow. 
 
 That fell a thousand centuries ago, 
 
 The mountain stands ; nor can the rising sun 
 
 Unfix her frosts and teach them how to run : 
 
 Deep as the dark infernal waters lie 
 
 From the bright regions of the cheerful sky. 
 
 So far the proud ascending rocks invade 
 
 Heaven's upper realms, and cast a dreadful shade. 
 
 No spring, no summer, on the mountain seen. 
 
 Smiles with gay fruits or with delightful green. 
 
 But hoary winter, tmadomed and bare. 
 
 Dwells in the dire retreat and freezes there, 
 
 There she assembles all her blackest storms, 
 
 And the rude hail or rattling tempests forms ;, 
 
 Thither the loud tumultuous winds resort, 
 
 And on the mountain keep their boisterous court, 
 
 That in thick showers her rooky summit shrouds, 
 
 And darkens all the broken view with clouds. - 4ddison. 
 
 2h 
 
466 ROMAN CLASSICAI, LITEKATURE. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 C. VALERIUS PLACCUS— FAULTS OF THE ARGONAUTICA — PAPESTIUS 
 STATIUS — BEAUTY OF HIS MINOR POEMS — INCAPABLE OF EPIC 
 POETRY — DOMITIAN — EPIGRAM — MARTIAL — HIS BIOGRAPHY — 
 PROFLIGACY OF THE AGE IN WHICH HE LIVED — IMPURITY OF HIS 
 WRITINGS — ^FAVOURABLE SPECEWENS OF HIS POETRY, 
 
 C. Yalebius Flaccus. 
 
 C. Valerius Flaccus flourished in the reign of Ves- 
 pasian; and, according to an epigram of Martial, in 
 which the poet advises his friend to leave the Muses for 
 the drier but more profitable profession of a pleader, he 
 was bom at Patavium^ (Padua). The frequent addition 
 of the surnames Setrnus Balbus have caused it to be 
 supposed that he was a native of Setia, in Campania 
 (Sezzo) ; but it is impossible to form any satisfactory 
 conjecture as to their signification, and the statement of 
 Martial is too definite to admit of a doubt. Quiutilian' 
 asserts that, when he wrote, V. Maccus had lately died : 
 he was, therefore, probably cut off" prematurely about 
 a.d. 88. 
 
 His only poem which is extant is entitled " Argonau- 
 tica," and is an imitation, and, in some parts, a trans- 
 lation, of the Greek poem of ApoUonius Ehodius, on the 
 same subject. It is addressed to the Emperor, and in the 
 
 ' Lib. i. 62, 77. ' Inst. Orat. x. i. 90. 
 
DEFECTS OF THE ARGONAUTICA. 467 
 
 proemium he pays a compliment to Domitian on HLs 
 poetry, and to Titus on his victories over the Jews. 
 
 He evidently did not Hve to complete his original 
 design: even the eighth book is unfinished;' and, from 
 the events stiU remaining to be related, he probably 
 planned an epic poem of the same length as that of 
 Virgil, whose style and versification he endeavoured to 
 imitate. An Italian poet, John Baptista Pius, continijed 
 the subject, by an addition to the eighth book, aind by 
 subjoining two more, the incidents of which were partly 
 borrowed from ApoUonius. 
 
 Of his merits Quintihan speaks favourably- in the 
 passage already alluded to, and says, that in him hterature 
 had sustained a severe loss. The severer criticism of 
 Scaliger is more precise and more judicious : — " Immatura 
 morte prsereptus kcerbum item poema suum nobis re- 
 liquit. Est autem omnino duriusculus, penitus vero 
 nudus Gratiarum comitate." The defects of the Argo- 
 nautica are, in fact, rather of a negative than a positive 
 character. There are no glaring faults or blemishes; 
 none of the affectation or rhetorical artifices which belong 
 to the period . of the decline. There may be a httle 
 occasional hardness, and a few awkward expressions and 
 paraphrases, but there is no bombast to outrage good 
 taste, and no unmetrical cadences to offend the ear. But 
 there is no genius, no inspiration, no thrilling fervour, 
 no thoughts that breathe or words that bum. He 
 never rises above a dead level. Everything is in accord- 
 ance with decent and correct propriety. He has some 
 talent as a descriptive poet: his versification is har- 
 monious, and he attains to those superficial excellencies 
 which are found in the prize poem of a painstaking, 
 ingenious, and well-educated scholar. VirgU was an 
 imitator : that is, his taste, like Eoman taste, universally 
 was formed and trained' by imitation; but his spirit 
 disdained these trammels, and soared to originahty, 
 
 2 H 2 
 
468 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 V. Flaccus is scarcely ever origmal except when he is 
 commonplace: he imitates Virgil successfully, as far as 
 the outward graces of style are concerned; but in the 
 charm of natural simphcity, he always falls short of his 
 great original. 
 
 P. Papinius Statius (born a. d. 61). 
 
 Towards the middle of the first century of the 
 Christian era,' there arrived at Eome, from Naples, a 
 grammarian, named P. Papinius Statius. He opened a 
 school, and soon became so celebrated as a public in- 
 structor, that he became tutor to the young Domitian, 
 whose favour and affection continued after he became 
 emperor. Some of his fame was also founded on gaining, 
 in his boyhood, the prize in many pubhc contests of 
 poetry. Ever}'^.year, between the ages of thirteen and 
 nineteen, he is said to have been crowned. These 
 contests were partly of an improvisatorial character ; and 
 in an age when pubhc readings and recitations were in 
 vogue, and were the means which poets had of gaining fame 
 and patronage, success of this kind was highly valued. 
 The subject of one of his poems is said to have been the 
 conflagration of the Capitol, during the struggle between 
 the ViteUians and the supporters of Vespasian.^ Statius, 
 however, seems to have possessed no higher degree of 
 poetical power, than a happy facility in versification, for 
 he died^ and left no works which have stood the test 
 of time. 
 
 A son, however, inherited poetical talents of the same 
 kind, but of a far higher order than those of his father, 
 and although, for a long time, he was entirely dependent 
 upon his works for the means of Hving, and, notwith- 
 standing thunders of applause, must starve, unless he 
 can sell his play to the manager Paris,'' the sunshine of 
 
 ' A. D. 39. * Silv. V. iii. ' a. d. 86. • Juv. vii. 82. 
 
THE SILViE OF STATIUS. 469 
 
 imperial favour whicli his father had enjoyed, shone upon 
 him.^ He purchased patronage, however, at the expense 
 of grossly flattering the tyrant. This son, who bore the 
 same name as his father, was the author of the Silvae, 
 Thebaid, and Achilleid. He was bom a.d. 61, and died 
 in the prime of Hfe, a.d. 95, at Naples, his native city. 
 As no interesting particulars are recorded respecting his 
 life, and as he is never mentioned by any classical author, 
 except Juvenal,^ it is impossible to say how the opinion 
 arose which was entertained by his admirer Dante, and 
 others, that he was ia secret a defender of the Christians, 
 and also himself a believer.* 
 
 He was a true Italian in the character of his genius. 
 He had a thorough perception of the beauties of nature. 
 His Silvae are full of truthftd pictures. He possessed 
 ready facility in versification, which was surpassed by no 
 poet of classic antiquity except Ovid, and that impro- 
 visatorial power for which his countrymen in the present 
 day are so often celebrated. As long as he was content 
 to be a poet on a small scale, he was eminently suc- 
 cessful. His Sylvse contain many poetical incidents 
 which might stand by themselves as perfect fugitive 
 pieces. Brief effusions suggested by statues* and build- 
 ings,^ verses of compHment® and delicate flattery,' or con- 
 dolence" or congratulation. It matters not how Hght or 
 trifling the subject, he can raise it and adorn it. He 
 writes with equal beauty on the tree of his friend 
 Atedius;' the death of a parrot; of the emperor's 
 Hon ;" the locks of Flavins Earinus ;" the rude freedom of 
 the Saturnalia." It is in these unpretending poems that 
 we see his natural and unaffected elegance, his har- 
 monious ear, and the tmthiubiess of his perceptions. 
 
 ' Silv. iv. 2. ' Lib. vii. 82. ' Vide Vita (Jyraldi, Dial. iv. de Poet. Lat. 
 ' Lib I. i. 3, 5. » Lib. ii. 2. • Ibid. ii. 7. ' Ibid. i. 2. 
 
 » Ibid. ii. 6 ; iit. 3. ' Silv. ii. 5. '« Ibid. 3. " Ibid. 4. 
 
 '« Ibid. iii. 4. 
 
470 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 But the case is totally different when the subject is 
 above him.' He had neither grasp of mind, nor vigour 
 of imagination, to fit him for the task of an epic poet ; '■ 
 and, hence, his gre~at work, the Thebaid, and his other 
 unfinished epic, the Achilleid, are complete failures. 
 
 In his minor poems he seems to trust to the natural 
 powers of his genius; he neither strains at producing 
 effect, nor is he too sohcitous about exact finish and 
 laborious poHsh. Although not improvisatorial, they 
 partake of that character, and have all its freshness 
 combined with the advantage of written and corrected 
 performances. His thoughts are inspired by his subject ; 
 and its reality, which he was capable of appreciating, 
 gives a hfe to his compositions. But the principal fault 
 in his Silvse is too great a display of Grreek learning. 
 Every page is fiiU of mythological allusions, which some- 
 times render his graceful verses dry and wearisome, and 
 must have rendered them acceptable to those only who 
 were well versed in Grreek Hterature: they never could 
 have been universally popular. The qualities which 
 recommend his SUvse do not adorn his epic poetry. His 
 imaginary heroes do not inspire and warm his ima- 
 gination : he is not affected by their personality in the 
 same way in which he is by the lawns, and groves, and 
 forests, and sun, and skies of Italy. 
 
 For this deficiency he attempts to compensate by 
 extravagant bombast, totally out of keeping with the 
 action of the poem, and by an attention to the 
 theoretical principles of art, and an elaborate finish 
 which must have cost h^m many hours of toil. Yet this 
 perseverance is thrown away, and the effect produced by 
 .the contrast between the action and essence of the poem, 
 and the language in wliich it is externally clothed, 
 produces an effect contrary to that which was intended. 
 
 ' Silv. J. 6 ; iv. 9. 
 
STATIUS STUDIED HOMER. 471 
 
 He was a skilful draughtsman, a gorgeous colourist, a 
 pleasing landscape-painter, and a diligent student of the 
 rules of art ; but his genius could not rise to the highest 
 departments of art — ^he could not give the mind or the 
 morale to those characters whose external features he was 
 so apt in delineating. He owes the estimation in which 
 he is held as an epic poet not to his absolute but his 
 relative merit. He was the best of the heroic poets of 
 his day. Statins, notwithstanding his defects, was evi- 
 dently a profound student as well as an admirer of the 
 Homeric poems ; and there are two points in which he 
 has proved himseK a successful imitator. These are his 
 battles and his similes. His descriptions of the former 
 are stirring and dtamatic, and some of his similes wiU 
 bear comparison with the best Latiu specimens of this 
 kind of illustration. When it is remembered that no 
 epic poet has approached more nearly to Homer in the 
 use of the simile than Dante, and that he equals the 
 Greek bard in subHme and picturesque description, it 
 may easily be imagiaed that these were the quahties in 
 the poems of Statins which especially called forth his 
 admiration. 
 
 A few words only are necessary to describe the nature 
 and subject-matter of the poems of Statins. The Silvse 
 consist of thirty-two separate pieces. They are all 
 hexametrical, with the exception of four in hendeca- 
 syUabics,^ one iu Alcaic,^ and one in Sapphic metre.* Each 
 of the five books in which these poems are arranged has 
 a prose dedication to some friend prefixed. The first 
 being addressed to the poet Stella, the common friend of 
 himself and Martial.* The title Silvse was given to 
 these poems, on account of the very quality which 
 constitutes their especial charm. They are the rude 
 
 ' Lib. i. 6 ; ii. 7 ; iv. 3, 9. ^ Ibid. iv. 5. = Ibid. 7. 
 
 ■• See Epig. vi. 21. 
 
472 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITEEATURE. 
 
 materials of thought, springing up spontaneously in aU 
 their wild luxuriance from the rich natural soil of the 
 poet's imagination, unpnmed, untrimmed, ignorant of 
 that cultivated art which an affected and artificial age 
 thought necessary to constitute a finished poem. " Such 
 extemporaneous performances as these," says Quintilian, 
 " are called Silvae : the author subsequently re-examiaes 
 and Corrects his effasions."* The Thebaid is comprised 
 in twelve books, and its subject is the ancient Gh-eek 
 legends respecting the war of the Seven against Thebes. 
 The composition of this work preceded the pubUcation of 
 the Silva). The AchiUeid was intended, doubtless, to 
 embrace aR the exploits of Achilles, but only two books 
 were completed. 
 
 DOMITIAN. 
 
 A paraphrase of the Phsenomena of Aratus belongs to 
 this age. It has been ascribed to Grermanicus, but its 
 real author was Domitian, who, as well as Nero, wrote 
 verses.^ As far as language and versification are con- 
 cerned, it is 'not without merit; but the subject is unsuit- 
 able to poetry.* Domitian had taste, although his talents 
 did not deserve the adulatory commendations of Quinti- 
 Han ;* but he encouraged learned men ; and to his encou- 
 ragement we owe those distinguished contemporary 
 writers who, for one generation, arrested the downward 
 progress of Eoman literature. 
 
 Epigram. 
 
 The Greek Epigram was originally, as the word impUes, 
 simply an inscription. It was therefore short and con- 
 
 ' I. O. X. 3. " See a passage from Nero's Troic*, in Meyer's Aathol. 
 
 " Nevertheless, Aratus enjoyed a large share of popularity. Caesar and 
 Cicero translated his works ; Virgil and Manilius borrowed from them ; 
 Ovid and Maximus Tyrius compared him with Homer ; and St. Paul was 
 acquainted with his Phenomena, and quotes from it (Acts xvii. 28). There 
 is an Ehghsh translation of his works by Dr. Lamb. 
 
 * Lib. 17- i- 2 ; X. i. 19. 
 
LATIN EPIGRAMMATISTS. 473 
 
 cise ; its metre elegiac, as especially suited to the periodic 
 structure of the sentiment, and its characteristic qualities, 
 terseness and neatness. So long as it retained this 
 character it was free from bitterness ; and the principal 
 element of success in this species of composition was 
 tact rather than genius, and a cultivated taste rather than 
 poetical inspiration. Not only were Catullus, Virgil, and 
 Ovid epigrammatists, but some Eoman literati arrived at 
 mediocrity, or even excellence, in epigram who were not 
 capable of becoming great poets. Julius Csesar wrote one 
 on Terence, and perhaps the following neatly-turned lines ; 
 although they have been ascribed to Augustus and Ger- 
 manicus : — 
 
 Thrax puer astricto glacie dum ludit in Hebro 
 
 Pondere concretas frigore rupit aquas ; 
 Dumque imse partes rapido traherentur ab amne, 
 
 Absoidit tenerum lubrica testa caput. 
 Orba quod inveiitum mater duin conderet uma, 
 
 Hoc peperi flammis, cetera, dixit, aquis. 
 
 Lutatius Catulus was the author of a quatrain on 
 Eoscius the comedian ; and the Anthology, amongst 
 numerous others, contains one by Augustus,^ and four of 
 no merit by Maecenas,^ together with those beautiful lines 
 addressed by Hadrian to his soul, which Pope has imitated 
 in his "Dying Christian :" — 
 
 Animiila vagula blandula, 
 Hospes comesque corporis, 
 Quae nunc abibis in loca ? 
 Pallidula rigida nudula 
 Nee ut soles dabis jooos. 
 
 To the original characteristics of epigram the Eomans 
 added that which constitutes an epigram in the modern 
 sense of the term, pointedness either in jest or earnest, 
 and the bitterness of personal satire. Common sense, 
 shrewdness, and an acute observation of human nature 
 
 See Meyer's Anthol. " Anthol. 52, 80, 81—84. 
 
474 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 were thus superadded to Greek gracefulness and elegance ; 
 and the same nation which reduced the wild and unpre- 
 meditated sarcasms of the Greek stage into the symme- 
 trical form of satire, produced also the epigram as written 
 by the pen of Martial. The same characteristics of the 
 Eoman miud which mark satire are visible also in epigram. 
 Epigram is the concentration of satire. The desultory 
 vagueness which is allowable in the latter, the variety 
 of subjects, which are touched upon with irregular and 
 unrestrained freedom, are, in the former, Hmited and de- 
 fined. One idea is selected, and to this all the powers of 
 the writer's acute mind are directed, and made to converge 
 as to a point. It is not often that the harmless elements 
 of Greek wit, such as the pun, or the pleasantry by sur- 
 prise or unexpected turn (although these sometimes oc- 
 cur),^ are found in the Eoman epigram. Smartness is 
 generally connected with severity. The same bitter 
 spirit which dictated the ArchUochian epodes of Horace, 
 which breathes throughout the indignant lines of Juvenal, 
 points the shafts of Martial. The blows, however, which 
 he aimed at vice could not be deadly, because he had no 
 faith in virtue, because he dehghted to grovel in the im- 
 purity which he described. 
 
 M. Valerius Martialis (born a.d. 43). 
 
 All that is known of the life of Martial is derived from 
 his own works ; and this is but httle, for he says nothing 
 of his early years, and did not begin to write until the 
 reign of Domitian. Of his parents he undutifiiUy tells 
 us that they were fools for teaching him to read.^ He was 
 born at Bilbihs, a Spanish town in the province of 
 Tarragon,* of the position of which nothing is known for 
 certain, except' that its site was an elevated one,* over- 
 
 ' Lib. ix. 1.3 ; V. 33 ; iv. 65 } v. 25, is something like an acrotitia. 
 
 ' Lib. ix. Ep. 74. ' Vide Nisard, Etudes, i. 335. " Lib. i. 50. 
 
LIFE OF MARTIAL. 475 
 
 looking the river Salo, which flowed round its walls. It 
 appears to have prided itself on its manufactures in gold 
 and iron ;' to have been particularly famous for its arms -^ 
 and to have been one of the Eoman colonies dignified with 
 the title of Augusta.^ As Vespasian had conferred on the 
 poet's native town, in common with the rest of Spain, 
 the jiis Latii,^ Martial was by birth a Eoman citizen ; 
 and in the days of his popularity obtained this privilege 
 for many of his friends.' His birthday was March 1/ 
 A.D. 43, the third year of the reign of Claudius. 
 
 In the twenty-second year of his age, the twelfth year 
 of the reign of Nero,' he migrated to Eome. He was a 
 great favourite of Titus and Domitian, by whom the 
 "jus trium liberorum " was conferred upon him,* together 
 with the rank of a Eoman knight,* and the honorary 
 title of tribune.'^" In the reign of the latter he was 
 appointed to the office of court poet, and received a pen- 
 sion from the imperial treasury." Hence during the 
 latter part of his residence in Eome it is almost certain 
 that, although not rich, he enjoyed a competency. He 
 had a house in the city, and a little villa at Nomentum 
 given him by Domitian.^^ Nevertheless, he is constantly 
 complaining of his poverty, and thinks that every one 
 grows rich but himself. He laments that poets receive 
 nothing but compliments for their verses, whilst lawyers, 
 and even common criers, gain an ample maintenance : — 
 that " Minerva was a better patron than Apollo ; a fuller 
 stream of wealth flowed through the Forum than from 
 the fountain of Helicon, or the channel of Permessus."^^ 
 He complains that he spends all he has, and either 
 borrows money from his friends, or takes to another the 
 presents he has given him, and querulously asks him to 
 
 'Lib. 
 
 xii. 18. 
 
 *Lib. 
 
 X. 
 
 103. 
 
 ^ Ibid. 
 
 
 *P]in. 
 
 , iii, 
 
 ,3. 
 
 ■> Lib. 
 
 iii. 94. 
 
 «Lib. 
 
 X. 
 
 24. 
 
 ' A. D. 65 
 
 
 "Lib. 
 
 iii. 
 
 94. 
 
 " Lib. 
 
 V. 13. 
 
 "> Lib. 
 
 iii 
 
 . 94. 
 
 " Nisard, 
 
 337. 
 
 ■« Lib. 
 
 vii, 
 
 ,36. 
 
 " Lib. 
 
 i. 77. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
476 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 purchase them back again.' The roof of his villa lets in 
 the rain ; and when his friend Stella sends him some tiles 
 to mend it he reproaches him for not sending also a toga 
 to protect the poor inmate.* 
 
 All this may have proceeded from the discontented 
 feelings which poets and literary men so often indtdge at 
 seeing genius unrewarded, and affluence attending talents 
 which, although if not so high an order, are of more 
 general utility. Perhaps, too, though not absolutely poor, 
 he was straitened in his circumstances, considering his 
 social position and the demands which this entailed upon 
 him. During thirty-five years he Hved at Bome the hfe 
 of a flatterer and a dependent,^ and then returned to his 
 native town.* As Horace, when in his quiet country re- 
 tirement, sometimes regrets the enjoyments of the capital, 
 although when at Eome he sighs for the pleasures of 
 rural hfe, so Martial, when at Eome, longed for Bilbihs, 
 and when he returned to Bilbilis regretted Eome. At 
 this late period of his life he married a Spanish lady, 
 named Marcella, whose property was amply sufficient to 
 maintain him in affluence. Her estate he considers a 
 little kingdom ; her gardens he would not exchange for 
 those of Alcinous ; he praises her bowers, groves, foun- 
 tains, streamlets, fish-ponds, and meadows ; and tells us 
 the climate is so genial that the oHve-groirnds are green 
 in January, and the roses blow twice in the year, Hke 
 those of Psestum.* His wife he praises for her rare 
 genius and sweet manners ; he tells her that no one could 
 discover her provincial origin ; that her equal could not be 
 found amongst the most elegant ladies in the capital ; and 
 when inclined to forget Eome she alone is all that Eome 
 ever was to him : — 
 
 Tu desiderium dominse mihi mitius urbis 
 Esse jubes ; Bomam tu mihi sola faois." 
 
 ' Lib. vii. 16. ' Lib. vii._ 36. » Lib. xii. 31. 
 
 * A. D. 100. ' Lil). xii. 31. ' Lib. xii. 21. 
 
HIS DISTASTE FOR THE COUNTRY. 477 
 
 But, notwithstanding the delicate compHment which 
 he pays to his rich wife — a compliment dictated probably 
 more by his habit of courtly flattery than by sincerity of 
 affection — ^he evidently pined for Eome. He was fitted 
 for crowds and not for solitude : his spirit was not pure 
 enough to commune with itself. His delight had been 
 so long to study the human heart in its worst develop- 
 ments, to drag forth to public view its blackest plague- 
 spots, that he would miss the foul models which he had 
 so long studied. Provincial Kfe was therefore utter dul- 
 ness to him ; his only enjoyment was to reproduce the 
 results of his observations on the life of the capital. 
 Combining in himself the apparently inconsistent cha- 
 racters of the flatterer and the satirist, he needed great men 
 to whom he might look up for patronage and approba- 
 tion, as well as moral wounds to probe and subjects to anato- 
 mize. Eome alone suppHed these ; and when he lost them 
 he lost the intellectual food necessary for his existence. 
 The absence of his accustomed pursuits, and the irremedi- 
 able void thus created, is evident in many of his epigrams. 
 
 The time of his.death is uncertain, as the date of Pliny's 
 elegant epistle to Priscus, in which it is mentioned, can- 
 not be determined.^ But as it is probable that the eleventh 
 book of his Epigrams was published in the year in which 
 he lefb Eome for BUbilis, and as he apologises in the dedi- 
 cation of his twelfth book to Priscus for his obstinate 
 indolence during a period of three years, his death cannot 
 have taken place before a.d. 104. It is, however, gene- 
 rally supposed that his life was not prolonged much be- 
 yond this date. His death may have been hastened by 
 liis distaste for a provincial hfe, and by the malice and envy 
 of his new neighbours.'' 
 
 According to his own account, in an epigram,^ in which 
 he contrasts himself with an eflfeminate fop, his appear- 
 
 1 Lib. iii. 20, 21. ' Prsef. ad lib. xii. * Lib. x. 65. 
 
478 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATUKE. 
 
 ance was rough and unpolished, his shaggy hair refused 
 to curl, his cheeks were well- whiskered, and his voice was 
 louder than the roar of a lioness.^ It is impossible to 
 beheve the assertion which he makes respecting his own 
 moral character, namely, that although his verses are Hcen- 
 tious his life was virtuous, 
 
 Lasciva est nobis pagina, vita proba est.' 
 
 — although measured by the corrupt standard of morals 
 which disgraced the age in which he lived, he was pro- 
 bably not worse than most of his contemporaries. The 
 fearful profligacy which his powerful pen describes in 
 such hideous terms spread through Eome its loathsome 
 infection. As no language is strong enough to denounce 
 the impurities of his page — impurities, in the description 
 of which, the poet evidently revels with a cynical dehght — 
 so they were not merely creatures of a prurient imagina- 
 tion but had a real existence. 
 
 It may be said in extenuation of his crime, that the 
 prevalence of vice produced the obscenity of the poet ; but 
 no more can be said in defence of works iu which the 
 characters of vice are emblazoned in such shameless and 
 unnatural deformity. Had he Uved in better times, his 
 talents, of which no doubt can be entertained, might have 
 been devoted to a purer object ; as it was, his moral taste 
 must have been thoroughly depraved not to have turned 
 with loathing and disgust from the contemplation of such 
 subjects, instead of voluntarily seeking them ; for " out 
 of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." In 
 Martial we observe that paradoxical but stiU not unusual 
 combination of varied wit, poetical imagination, and a 
 
 ' There are two readings of the hne to which allusion is here made, 
 viz. : — 
 
 Nobis filia fortius loquetur, 
 
 and Non nobis lea fortius loquetur. 
 
 The latter is the one adopted. * Lib. i. 5. 
 
BEAUTY OF SOME OF HIS EPIGRAMS. 479 
 
 happy power of graceful expression, not only with strong 
 sensual passions, but with a delight in vice in its most 
 hateful forms and attributes. 
 
 Although the new feature which Martial added to the 
 Greek epigram is such as has been described, and although 
 his pages are polluted and defiled, not all his poems are 
 spiteful or obscene. Amidst some obscurity of style and 
 want of finish, many are redolent of Greek sweetness and 
 elegance. Here and there are pleasing descriptions of the 
 beauties of nature ;^ and, setting aside those which are 
 evidently dictated by the spirit of flattery, many are kind- 
 hearted, as well as complimentary. The few hues which 
 were intended to accompany such trifling offerings of 
 Mendship as the poet could afford to give, and which, 
 doubtless, rendered a flower or a toy doubly acceptable, 
 are equal in neatness to many of the Greek Anthology. 
 When he sends a rose to ApoUinaris, it is accompanied 
 by the following elegant lines : — 
 
 I felix rosa, mollibusque sertis 
 Nostri cinge comas ApoUinaris ; 
 Qaas tu nectere Candidas sed olim. 
 Sic te semper amet Venus, memento.' 
 
 Go, happy rose, and with thy delicate garlands wreathe the locks of 
 my Apolliiiaris ; and remember, so may Venus ever love thee ! to en- 
 twine them when grey : but may it be long ere that time comes. 
 
 The fourteenth book contains numerous ingenious 
 couplets, sent, together with pencases, dice, tablets, tooth- 
 picks, and other Httle presents, at the Saturnalian festival. 
 
 In so vast a collection of pieces it is natural to expect 
 that there would be great inequality, and that some of 
 his wit would be commonplace and puerile. That such 
 was the case, he himself confesses more than once ;' and 
 in one place he states that this inequaUty constitutes one 
 of the merits of his work.* 
 
 ' For example, Hb. iii. 48. ' Lib. vii. 88. » Lib. i. 12 ; vii. 30. 
 
 * Lib. vii. 89. 
 
480 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 He knew that his works were appreciated, not only at 
 Eome, but also throughout the empire :— 
 
 TotQ notus in orbe Martialis 
 Argutis epigrammatou libellis.' 
 
 and this consciousness is some excuse for the vanity 
 which occasionally shows itself,'^ and which does not hesi- 
 tate to account blemishes as beauties. 
 
 The following are favourable specimens of his poetry : — 
 
 Indignas premeret pestis cum tabida fauces, 
 
 Inque ipsos vultus serperet atra lues ; 
 Siccis ipse genis flentes hortatus amicos 
 
 Decrevit Stygioa Festus adire lacus. 
 Neo tamen obscuro pia polluit ora veneno, 
 
 Aut torsit lenta tristia fata fame ; 
 Sanctam Bomana vitam sed morte peregit, 
 
 Dimisitque animam nobiliore via. 
 Haac mortem fatis magai pr8eferre Catonis 
 
 Fama potest ; bujus Caesar amicus erat. 
 
 When the dire quinsey choked his noble breath, 
 
 And o'er his face the blackening venom stole, 
 Festus disdained to wait a lingering death. 
 
 Cheered his sad friends, and freed his dauntless soul. 
 Nor meagre famine's slowly-wasting force, 
 
 Nor hemlock's gradual chillness he endured ; 
 But closed his hfe a truly Roman course. 
 
 And with one blow his liberty secured. 
 The Fates gave Cato a less glorious end. 
 For CsBsar was his foe, Festus was Caesar's friend. ' 
 
 Hodgson. 
 
 Casta suo gladium cum traderet Arria Paeto 
 
 Quem de vi^ceribus traxerat ipsa suis. 
 Si qua fides, vulntis, quod feci, non dolet, inquit ; 
 
 Sed quod tu facies, hoc mihi, Peete, dolet. 
 
 When Arria to her Psetus gave the steel, 
 Which from her bleeding side did newly part ; 
 
 " From my own stroke," she said, " no pain I feel, 
 But, ah ! thy wound will stab me to the heart." 
 
 ' Lib. i. 1. ' Lib. x. 100 ; i. 64 ; iv. 46. 
 
 ' Martial generally condemns suicide ; for instance, " Fortiter iUe facit 
 qui miser esse potest," and " Hunc volo laudari, qui sine morte potest." 
 But, see epigram on death of Otho (Lib. vi. 32). 
 
SPECIMENS OF HIS POETRY. 481 
 
 Dum nos blanda tenent jucundi stagna Lucrini 
 
 Et quse pumiceis fontibus antra calent, 
 Tu colis Argivi regnum Faustine coloni 
 
 Quo te bis decimus duoit ab urbe lapis. 
 Horrida sed fervent Nemesei pectora monstri 
 
 Nee satis est Baias igne calere suo. 
 Ergo sacri fontes et littora sacra vaJete 
 
 Nympbarum pariter Nereidumque domiis ! 
 Herouleos collos gelida vos vincite brumS, 
 
 Nunc Tiburtinis cedite frigoribus. 
 
 While near the Luorine lake, consumed to death, 
 
 I draw the sultry air and gasp for breath, 
 
 Where streams of sulphur raise a stifling heat, 
 
 And thro' the pores of the warm pumice sweat ; 
 
 You taste the cooling breeze where, nearer home, 
 
 The twentieth pillar marks the mile from Rome. 
 
 And now the Sun to the bright Lion turns, 
 
 And Baia with redoubled fury bums ; 
 
 Then briny seas and tasteful springs farewell, 
 
 Where fountain Nymphs confused with Naiads dwell. 
 
 In winter you may all the world despise. 
 
 But now 'tis Tivoli that bears the prize. Addison. 
 
 2 I 
 
482 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 AUFIDIUS BAS3US AND CEEMTJTroS CORDDS — ^VELLEIUS PATEECULUS 
 — CHARACTEK OF HIS WORKS — VALERIUS MAXIMUS — CORNELIUS 
 TACITUS — AGE OF TRAJAN — BIOGRAPHY OF TACITUS — HIS EXTANT 
 WORKS ENUMERATED — AGRICOLA — GERMANY — HISTORIES — 
 TRADITIONS RESPECTING THE JEWS — ANNALS — OBJECT OF TACITUS 
 — HIS CHARACTER — HIS STYLE. 
 
 The earliest prose writers belonging to this epoch were 
 Auiidixis Bassus and Cremutius Cordus. The former 
 wrote a history of the German and civil wars, which was 
 continued by the elder PHny ; of the latter only a few 
 fragments have been preserved by Seneca.* They were 
 published in the reign of Tiberius ; and it is evident that 
 they contained a history of the civil wars, for his praise 
 of Brutus and Cassius was made the pretext for his im- 
 peachment. It is also clear that he treated of contem- 
 porary events ; for the real cause of the emperor's hostility 
 was an attack which hemade upon the favourite Sejanus. 
 In vain he tendered an apology ; and seeing there was no 
 hope of escape he starved himself to death.^ His histories 
 were publicly burned ; but his daughter, to whom Seneca 
 addressed his " Consolatio," concealed some copies, and 
 afterwards published them, with the approbation of 
 Caligula.^ 
 
 M. Velleius Patebculus. 
 
 Together with these flourished M. Velleius Paterculus. 
 He was a soldier of equestrian family, served his first 
 
 ' Suasor. vii. ' a. d. 25 ; Tac. Ann. iv. 34. ' Suet. Calig. 16. 
 
HISTORY OF PATERCULUS. 483 
 
 campaign in Asia, and subsequently, after passing through 
 the various steps of promotion, acted as legatus to 
 Tiberius, in Germany. His services recommended him 
 to the favour of the prince, on whose accession he was 
 made praetor, and proved himself a staunch supporter of 
 him and his favourite minister Sejanus. In the fall of 
 that unworthy man,^ Paterculus was involved, and was 
 most probably put to death. 
 
 The short historical work by which he is known as an 
 author is a history of Rome, and of the nations connected 
 with the fotmdation of the imperial city, in two books. 
 It is dedicated to M. Yinucius, consul ; and as it carries 
 on the history to the death of Livia, the mother of 
 Tiberius, in the year of his consulate,'^ it must have been 
 finished, perhaps almost entirely written within that year. 
 Assuming that it was wise to undertake the task of com- 
 prising within such narrow limits events extending over 
 so large a field, it is not unskilfully performed. The most 
 striking events are selected and told ia a Hvely and 
 interesting manner; but he had one fault fatal to his 
 character as an historian, who professed to treat of his 
 own times. He is partial, prejudiced, and adulatory. He 
 had not courage to be a Thucydides or a Sallust. The 
 perilous nature of the times, the personal obligations 
 under which he was to the emperor, made him a courtier, 
 and from this one-sided point of view he Ariewed con- 
 temporary history. 
 
 He was, however, a man of lively talents though of 
 superficial education: his taste was formed after the 
 model of the Augustan writers, especially Sallust, of 
 whose style, so far as the outward form, he was an 
 imitator. But although he was one of the earhest writers 
 of the so-caUed silver age, his language shows signs of 
 degeneracy. It is, at times, overstrained and unnatural ; 
 
 'a. D. 31. 'a.d. 30. 
 
 2 I 2 
 
484 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 there is the usual affectation of rhetorical effect, and an 
 unnecessary use of uncommon words and constructions ; 
 still, whenever he keeps his model in view, he is scarcely 
 inferior to him in conciseness and perspicuity. The first 
 book of his history is in a very imperfect state ; in fact, 
 the commencement is entirely lost. Only one manuscript 
 of it has been discovered, and even this is now nowhere 
 to be found. 
 
 Valerius Maximus. 
 
 Valerius Maximus can scarcely be termed an historiaai, 
 although the subject of which he treated is historical. 
 His work is neither one of original research, nor is it a 
 coimected abridgment of the investigation of his pre- 
 decessors. It is a collection of anecdotes, entitled 
 Dictorum Factorumque Memorabilium Libri ix. His 
 object is a moral one; namely, to illustrate by examples, 
 the beauty of virtue and the deformity of vice ; but he is 
 influenced in the selection less by historical truth than 
 by the striking and interesting character of the narrative. 
 The arrangement of the anecdotes resembles that of a 
 commonplace-book, rather than of a history, the only 
 principle observed being, that anecdotes of Eomans and 
 foreigners are kept distract from one another. 
 
 Nothing is known, for certain, respecting his personal 
 history. He himself states^ that he accompanied Sextus 
 Pompeius into Asia ; and, from a comparison of different 
 passages, it is probable that, like VeUeius Paterculus, he 
 flourished and wrote during the reign of Tiberius. His 
 style is prolix and declamatory, and characterized by 
 awkward affectation and involved obscurity. 
 
 C. Cornelius Tacitus. 
 
 For the reasons already stated, Eome, for a long period, 
 could boast of no historian ; but, imder the genial and 
 
 ' Lib. ii. 6, 8. 
 
AGE OF TRAJAN. 485 
 
 fostering influence of the emperor Trajan," not only the 
 fine arts, especially architecture, flourished, but also 
 literature revived. The choice of Nerva could not have 
 fallen on a better successor to his short reign. He was 
 a Spaniard, but his native town was a flourishing Eoman 
 colony: the whole country round about it had expe- 
 rienced the effects of Roman civilization, and the language 
 of all the towns in the south of Spain was Latin. The 
 glories of war ar\d the duties of peace divided his 
 attention. By the former, he gave employment to his 
 vast armies; by the latter, he refined the tastes and im- 
 proved the character of his people. No better testimony 
 can be desired than the correspondence between him and 
 Phny to the mildness and wisdom of his domestic and 
 foreign administration. The influence, also, of his 
 empress, Plotina, and his sister, Marciana, exercised a 
 beneficial influence upon Eoman society ; for they were 
 the first ladies of the imperial court who by their ex- 
 ample checked the shameless licentiousness which had 
 long prevailed amongst women of the higher classes. 
 The same taste and execution which are visible in the 
 bas-reliefs on the column of Trajan adorn the Hterature 
 of his age, as illustrated by its two great lights, Tacitus 
 and the younger Phny. There is not the rich, gracefal 
 ornament which invests with such a charm the writers 
 of the golden age ; but the absence of these qualities is 
 amply compensated by dignity, gravity, honesty, and 
 truthfulness. There is a sohdity iu the style of Tacitus 
 which makes amends for its difficulty, and justifies the 
 intense admiration with which he was regarded by Phny. 
 Truthfulness beams throughout the writings of these 
 two great contemporaries ; and incorruptible virtue is as 
 visible in the pages of Tacitus as benevolence and tender- 
 ness ai-e in the letters of Phny. They mutuaUy influenced 
 
 ■ A. D. 98. 
 
486 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 each other's characters and principles : their tastes and 
 pursuits were similar; they loved each other dearly; 
 corresponded regularly, corrected each other's works, and 
 accepted patiently and gratefully each other's criticisms. 
 If, however, on all occasions, their observations were 
 such as appear in the letters of Pliny, it is probable that 
 their mutual regard, and the unbounded admiration which 
 Phny entertained for the superior genius of his friend, 
 caused them to be rather laudatory than severe. 
 
 The exact date of the birth of Tacitus is not known' ; 
 but from one of the many letters extant, addressed to 
 him by Pliny,' it may be inferred that the former was 
 not more than one or two years senior to his friend. In 
 it he reminds him that iu years they are almost equals, 
 and adds that he himself was a young man when 
 Tacitus had already obtained ■ a briUiant reputation. 
 There is a tradition which assigns the birth of Tacitus to 
 the year of Nero's accession ; but as Phny the Younger 
 was bom a.d. 61, and Nero assumed the imperial purple 
 A.D. 54, this date would make the difference ia age 
 between him and Pliay too great to be consistent with 
 the expressions of the latter. Tacitus was of equestrian 
 rank, and was procurator of Belgic Graul in the reigns 
 of Vespasian and Titus, from whom, as well as from 
 Domitian, he received many marks of esteem. In a.d. 
 78, he married the daughter of C. JuHus Agricola. He 
 was one of the fifteen commissioners appointed for the 
 celebration of the Ludi Seculares, a.d. 88, and was also 
 praetor the same year. In a.d. 97, he served the office of 
 consul. To this magistracy he was elected in order to 
 supply the place of Virginius Eufas, who had died 
 during his year of office, and over him Tacitus pronounced 
 the faneral oration. In a.d. 99, he was associated by 
 the Senate with Pliny* in the impeachment of MariuB 
 
 Plin. Ep. vii. 20. ' Plin. Ep. ii. 1. 
 
EXTANT WORKS OF TACITUS. 487 
 
 Priscus, proconsTil of Africa, for maladministration of his 
 proAonce ; and his friend PHny praises his reply to the 
 acute subtleties of Salvius LiberaUs, the advocate of 
 Marius, as distinguished, not only for oratorical power, 
 but for that which he considers the most remarkable 
 quality of his style, gravity. His words are, " Eespondit 
 Com. Tacitus eloquentissime et quod eximie orationi ejus 
 inest, o-e/xi/tSs."^ It is not known when Tacitus died, nor 
 whether he left any descendants; but there can be no 
 doubt that he survived the accession of Hadrian.^ 
 
 The works of Tacitus which are extant, are : — (1). A 
 Life of his father-in-law, Agricola. (2). A tract on the 
 Manners and Nations of the Grermans. (3). A small 
 portion of a voluminous work, entitled Histories. (4). 
 About two-thirds of another historical work, entitled. 
 Annals. (5). A dialogue on the DecHne of Eloquence is 
 also ascribed to him; and although doubts have been 
 entertained of its genuineness, they do not rest upon any 
 strong foundation. It is impossible to do more than 
 approximate to the dates at which each work of Tacitus 
 was composed. The imminent peril of writing or 
 speaking plainly on events or individuals render it almost 
 certain that none of them could have been pubhshed 
 before the accession of Trajan. Niebuhr^ entertains no 
 doubt that the first edition of the Life of Agricola was 
 pubhshed towards the end of Domitian's reign, and that, 
 subsequently, it was revised and an introduction pre- 
 fixed. But is it not more probable, that although the 
 work was then written, it was not published until after 
 revision ? 
 
 Great as were the moral worth and the amiable gen- 
 tleness of A,gricola, his courage as a soldier, his skill and 
 decision as a general, his prudence and caution as a 
 politician, and, therefore, however deserving he may be 
 
 ' Ep. II. xi. ^ A. D. 117. " Lect. K. H. cxix. 
 
488 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 of the pleasing light in which his character is portrayed, 
 still the life of Tacitus is a panegyric rather than a 
 biography. The near relation in which Tacitus stood to 
 him, the affectionate admiration which Agricola must 
 necessarily have commanded from one who knew him so 
 well, unfitted him for the work of an impartial biographer. 
 The fine points of Agricola's character outshine all its 
 other features ; but we cannot suppose that he had no 
 defects, no weaknesses. These, however, do not appear 
 in the Httle work of Tacitus. His son-in-law either 
 eould not or would not see them. Still the brief sketch 
 is a beautiftd specimen of the vigour and force of 
 expression with which this greatest painter of antiquity 
 could throw off any portrait which he attempted. Even 
 if the likeness be somewhat flattered, the qualities which 
 the writer possessed, his insight into character, his 
 pathetic power, and his affectionate heart, render this 
 short piece one of the most attractive biographies 
 extant.^ 
 
 With what sitnple pathos does he tell us of the obHga- 
 tion which Agricola, like so many other great men, owed 
 to the educating care of his pure-miaded, prudent, and 
 indulgent mother, and the gratitude with which he was 
 wont constantly to speak of that obhgation ! With wha-t 
 affection does he speak of one bound to him, not only by 
 the ties of affinity, but by the stronger ties of a congenial 
 temper and disposition ! In his reflections on his death, 
 there is no affected attempt at dramatic display. The 
 few words devoted to so mournful a subject simply 
 breathe the overwhelmiug sense of bereavement, un- 
 assiiaged by the consolation of being present at his last 
 moments. " Happy wert thou, Agricola, not only 
 because thy Hfe was glorious, but because thy death was 
 well-timed t All who heard thy last words bear witness 
 
 ' Agi'ic. 4. 
 
HIS AGRICOLA AND GERMANY. 489 
 
 to the constancy with which then didst welcome death 
 as though thou wert detemuned manfally to acquit the 
 emperor of being the cause. But the bitterness of thy 
 daughter's sorrow and mine for the loss of a parent is 
 enhanced by the reflection, that it did not fall to our lot 
 to watch over thy dechning health, to solace thy failin g 
 strength, to enjoy thy last looks, thy last embraces. 
 Faithfully would we have Hstened to thy parting words 
 and wishes, and imprinted them deeply on our memories. 
 This was our chief sorrow, our most painful wound. 
 Owing to our long absence from Rome, thou hadst been 
 lost to us four years before. Doubtless, best of parents ! 
 enough, and more than enough, of honour was paid to 
 thee by the assiduous attentiopi of thy affectionate wife ; 
 still the last offices were paid thee amidst too few tears, 
 and thine eyes were conscious that some loved object 
 was absent just as their light was dimmed for ever." 
 To this tribute of dutiful affection, succeed sentiments 
 of noble resignation, joined with a humble conviction 
 of the transitory nature of human talents, and an earnest 
 looking-for of immortality. To us, the biography of 
 Agricola is especially interesting, because Britain was the 
 scene of his glory as a military commander, and of his 
 success in civil administration. His army first pene- 
 trated beyond the Friths of Forth and Clyde into the 
 Highlands of Scotland, and his fleet first circumnavigated 
 the northern extremities of our island. 
 
 The treatise on the geography, manners, and nations 
 of Grermany {De Situ Moribus et Populis Germanice) is 
 but little longer than the Life of Agricola. The inform- 
 ation contained in it is exactly of that character which 
 might be expected, considering the sources from which 
 it was derived. Tacitus was never in Germany, and 
 therefore his knowledge was collected from those who 
 had visited it for the purposes either of war or commerce. 
 Hence his geographical descriptions are often vague and 
 
490 KOMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 inaccurate j a mixture of the marvellous shows that some 
 of his narrative consists in mere travellers' tales, whilst 
 the salient points and characteristic features of the 
 national manners bear the impress of truth, and are sup- 
 ported by the well-known habits and institutions of 
 Teutonic nations. 
 
 He tells of their bards and explains the etymology of 
 the term by the word, Barditum, which signified the 
 recitation of their songs.^ He hints at wild lege&ds and 
 dark superstitions with which the German imagination 
 still loves to people the dark recesses of their forests." 
 He describes their pure and unmixed race, and, conse- 
 quently, the universal prevalence of the national features — 
 blue eyes, red or sandy hair, and stalwart and gigantic 
 frames.^ According to his account, their politioal con- 
 stitutions were elective monarchies, but the monarch was 
 always of noble birth and his power limited;* and all 
 matters of importance were debated by the estate of the 
 people.* In the solemn permission accorded to a German 
 youth to beair arms, and his investiture wi<^ lance and 
 shield, is seen the origin of knighthood;* and in the 
 sanctity of the marriage-tie, the chastity of the female sex, 
 their social influence, and the respect paid to them — the 
 rarity of adultery and its severe punishment, and the 
 total absence of polygamy — we recognize the germ of 
 the distinguishing characteristics of chivalry.' They were 
 hospitable and constant to their hereditary friendships, 
 but stem in perpetuating family feuds ;* passionately fond 
 of gambling, and strict in their regard for delots of 
 honour ;' inveterate drinkers, and their favourite potation 
 was beer i^" they could not consult on important matters 
 without a convivial meeting;" if they quarrelled over 
 their cups, they had recourse rarely to words, usually to 
 
 ' Cap. iii. ' Cap. ix., xxxix., xl., xliii. ' Cap. iv. 
 
 ' Cap. vii. ° Cap. xi. ' Cap. xiii. ' Cap. xviii., xix. 
 
 "Cap. xii; ° Cap. xxiv. '» Cap. xxiii. " Cap. xxii. 
 
HIS HISTORIES. 491 
 
 blows.' Their slaves were in the condition of serfs or 
 villains, and paid to the lord a fixed rent in com, or 
 cattle, or manufactures.'' They reckoned their time by- 
 nights instead of days,^ just as we are accustomed to use 
 the expressions sennight and fortnight. 
 
 After having sketched the manners and customs of the 
 nation as a whole, he proceeds to treat of each tribe 
 separately.* In speaking of our forefathers, the Angli, 
 who inhabited part of the modem territory of Sleswick- 
 Holstein, and whose name is stiU. retained in the district 
 of Angeln, one word which he uses is an English one. 
 The Anglij he says, together with the conterminous 
 tribes, worship Herthus, i. e. Terra.^ Even in these 
 early times he mentions the naval superiority of the 
 Suiones, who were the ancestors of the Normans and 
 Sea-kings. With these he affirms that the continent of 
 Europe terminates, and all beyond is a motionless and 
 frozen ocean.® Truth in these distant cHmes mingles 
 with fable. Daylight continues after the sun has set, 
 but a hissing noise is heard as his- blaziag orb plunges 
 into the sea, and the forms of the gods, and the radiant 
 glories which surround their heads, are -vdsible.' The Hst 
 of marvels ends with fabulous beings, whose bodies and 
 Hmbs are those of wild beasts, whilst their heads and 
 faces are human. 
 
 The earliest historical work of Tacitus is his " Eis- 
 torice," of which only four books and a portion of the 
 fifbh are extant. Their contents extend from the second 
 consulship of Gralba * to the commencement of the siege 
 of Jerusalem. The original work concluded with the 
 death of Domitian.' He purposed also, if his Hfe had been 
 spared, to add the reigns of Nerva and Trajan, as the 
 employment of his old age. " The materials for which," 
 
 ■ Cap. xxii. » Cap. xxv. ' Cap. xi. * From cap. xxviii. 
 
 » Cap. xl. • Cap. xlv. ' Cap. xlvi. » a. d. 69. » a.d. 96. 
 
492 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 he says, " are more plentiful and trustworthy, because of 
 the unusual felicity of an age in which men were allowed 
 to think as they pleased, and to give utterance to what 
 they thought." ' It is plain from the word Divns (the 
 deified) being prefixed to the name of Nerva, and not to 
 that of Trajan, in the passage above quoted, that this 
 work was written after Trajan had put on the imperial 
 purple.* 
 
 According to St. Jerome it originally consisted of thirty 
 books ; and the minuteness with which each event is re- 
 corded in the portion extant renders it highly probable 
 that the original work was as extensive as this assertion 
 would imply. The object which he proposed to himself 
 was worthy of his penetrating mind, from the searching 
 gaze of which even the hypocrisy and dissimulation of a 
 Tiberius were powerless to veil the foul darkness of his 
 crafty nature. He intended " to investigate the political 
 state of the commonwealth, the feelings of its armies, the 
 sentiments of the provinces, the elements of its strength 
 and weakness, the causes and reasons for each historical 
 phsenomenon."* The principal fault which diminishes the 
 value of his history as a record of events, is his too great 
 readiness to accept evidence unhesitatingly, and to record 
 popular rumours without taking sufficient pains to ex- 
 amine into their truth. StiU these blots are but few, 
 scattered over a vast field of faithful history. Perhaps 
 the most lamentable instance is presented in his incorrect 
 account of the history, constitution, and manners of the 
 Jewish people. Wanting either the opportunity or the 
 inclination to consult the sacred books of the nation, he 
 nuxes up vague traditions of their early history with the 
 fables of Pagan mythology; and, like the Greeks and 
 Bomans, gives names to imaginary patriarchs, taken from 
 localities connected with their history. 
 
 'Hist. i. 1. "a.d. 117. "Hist. i. 4. 
 
HIS ACCOUNT OF THE JEWS. 493 
 
 According to his axicount the Jews originally inhabited 
 Crete/ and from Moiint Ida, in that island, received the 
 name of Idsei, which afterwards became corrupted into 
 Judsei. From Crete, when Saturn was expelled by Jove, 
 they took refuge in Egypt ; and thence under two leaders, 
 Juda and Hierosolymus, again migrated to the neigh- 
 bouring coimtry of Palestine. A second tradition attri- 
 butes to them an Assyrian origin ; a third an ^Ethiopian ; 
 a fourth asserts that they were descended from the Solymi 
 which Homer celebrated in his poems.* 
 
 The next tradition which he mentions approaches 
 nearer to the true one. Egypt being afflicted with a 
 plague, the king Bocchoris, by the advice of the oracle of 
 Ammon, purged his kingdom of them, and under the 
 guidance of Moses they began their wanderings. When 
 they were dying on their way for want of water, their 
 leader followed a herd of wild asses, by which he was led 
 to a copious well of water. Thus was their drought 
 relieved; and, after journeying six days, they obtained 
 possession of the land in which they built their capital 
 and temple. Moses introduced new religious rites con- 
 trary to those of other nations. He set up the image of 
 an ass in the Holy of Holies — a statement which after- 
 wards Tacitus virtually contradicts by saying that they 
 allow no images in their temples,^ that they preferred 
 taking up arms to admitting the statue of Caligula into 
 the temple / and that when Pompey took Jerusalem," he 
 found no image of any deity and the sanctuary empty. 
 He adds, that they sacrifice rams in order to show con- 
 tempt to Jupiter Ammon, and oxen, because, under that 
 form. Apis was worshipped by the Egyptians ; that they 
 abstain from pork in remembrance of their having been 
 afflicted with leprosy, to which that animal is subject, and 
 
 Hist. V. 2. "Ibid. iii. » Ibid. v. Mbid. ix. 
 
 > B. c. 62. 
 
494 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 eat unleavened bread as a memorial of their once having 
 stolen food. On the seventh day, which terminated their 
 wanderings, they do no work, and, in like manner, the 
 seventh year they devote to idleness. This sabbath, 
 some assert that they keep holy in honour of Saturn. 
 They believe in the immortality of the soul, and in 
 fature rewards and punishments, and embalm their dead 
 like the Egyptians. Such are the various traditions 
 respecting the Jews which Tacitus incorporates in his 
 Histories. 
 
 The Annals, which were written subsequently to the 
 Histories, were so called, because each historical event is 
 recorded in historical order under the year to which it 
 belongs.^ They consist of sixteen books; commence with 
 the death of Augustus,'' and conclude with that of Nero.* 
 The only portions extant are — ^the first four books, part 
 of the fifth, the sixth, part of the eleventh, the twelfth, 
 thirteenth, fourteenth, fifteenth, and the commencement 
 of the sixteenth book. The Annals are rather histories 
 of each successive emperor than of the Eoman people; 
 but this is the necessary condition of narrating the 
 fortunes of a nation which now possessed only the bare 
 name, and not the realify of constitutional government. 
 The state was now the emperor ; the end and object of 
 the social system his security; and every political event 
 must therefore be treated ia relation to Mm. 
 
 But a history of this kind in the hands of one who 
 had such skill in diving into the recesses of man's heart, 
 who could read so shrewdly and delineate so vigorously 
 human character, who possessed as a writer such pic- 
 turesque and dramatic power, becomes the more interest- 
 ing from its biographical nature, and its philosophieail 
 importance as a moral rather than a political study. 
 It is not, owing to circumstances over which the author 
 
 ' Ann. iv. 71. * a. d, 14. ' a. d. 68. 
 
OBJECT OF TACITUS, 495 
 
 had no control, the history of a great nation, for the 
 Eomans, as a whole, were no longer great. Neither does 
 it paint the rise, progress, and development of consti- 
 tutional freedom, for it had reached its zenith, had de- 
 clined, become paralysed, and finally extinct. But still 
 there existed bright examples of heroism, and courage, 
 and self-devotion, truly Eoman, and instances not less 
 prominent of corruption and degradation. Individuals 
 stand out in bold rehef, eminent for the noblest virtues 
 or blackened by the basest crimes. These appear either 
 singly or in groups upon the stage : the emperor forms 
 the principal figure ; and the moral sense of the reader 
 is awakened to admire instances of patient suffering and 
 determined bravery, or abject slavery and remorseless 
 despotism. 
 
 The object of Tacitus, therefore, was not, Hke that of 
 the great philosophical historian of Grreece, to describe 
 the growth of pohtical institutions, or the implacable 
 animosities which raged between opposite political prin- 
 ciples — the struggles for supremacy between a class and a 
 whole people — ^but the influence which. the eatabhshment 
 of tyranny on the ruins of Hberty exercised for good or 
 for evU in bringing out the character of the individual. 
 Eome, the imperial city, was the all-engrossing subject of 
 his predecessors ; Eomans were but subordinate and ac- 
 cessary. Tacitus delineated the lives and deaths of in- 
 dividuals, and showed the relation which they bore to 
 the fortunes of their country. 
 
 It would have been impossible to have satisfied a 
 people whose taste had become more than ever rhetorical, 
 without the introduction of orations. Those of Ta«itus 
 are perfect specimens of art ; and probably, with the ex- 
 ception of Galgacus,' far more true than those of other 
 Eoma-n historians. Still he made use of them, not only 
 
 Life of Agrioola. 
 
496 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 to embody traditional accounts of what had really been 
 said on each occasion, but to illustrate his own views of 
 the character of the speaker, and to convey his own poU- 
 tical opinions. 
 
 Full of sagacious observation and descriptive power, 
 Tacitus engages the most serious attention of the reader 
 by the gravity of his condensed and comprehensive style, 
 as he does by the wisdom and dignity of his reflections. 
 The purity and gravity of his sentiments remind the 
 reader even of Christian authors. 
 
 Living amidst the influences of a corrupt age he was 
 uncontaminated ; and by his virtue and integrity, his 
 chastened poHtical liberality, commands our admiration as 
 a man, whilst his love of truth is reflected in his character 
 as an historian. Although he imitated, as well as approved, 
 the cautious policy of his father-in-law, he was not desti- 
 tute of moral firmness. 
 
 It derogates nothing from his courage that he was 
 silent during the perilous times in which great part of his 
 life was past, and spoke with boldness only when the 
 happy reign of Nerva had commenced, and the broken 
 spirit of the nation had revived. Like the rest of his 
 fellow-countrymen he exhibited a remarkable example of 
 patient endurance, when the imperial jealousy made even 
 the praise of those who were obnoxious to the tyrant trea- 
 son ; when it was considered a capital crime for Arulenus 
 Eusticus to praise Psetus Thrasea, and Herennius Senecio 
 to eulogise Priscus Helvidius. 
 
 In those fearful times he himself says, that " as old 
 Eome had witnessed the greatest glories of Hberty, so her 
 descendants had been cast down to the lowest depths of 
 slavery; and would have been deprived of the use of 
 memory, as well as of language, if it were equally in man's 
 power to forget as to be sUent."' In such times prudence 
 
 ' Vit. Agric. ii. 
 
STYLE OF TACITUS. 497 
 
 was a duty, and daring courage would have been un- 
 availing raslmess. In his praise of Agricola, and his 
 blame of Psetus, he enunciates the principles which regu- 
 lated his own conduct — that to endanger yourself without 
 the slightest prospect of benefiting your country is mere 
 ostentatious ambition. "Sciant/' he writes, "quibus 
 moris iUicita mirari, posse etiam sub malis principibus 
 magnos viros esse ; obsequiumque ac modestiam, si in- 
 dustria ac vigor adsint, eo laudis excedere, quo plerique 
 per abrupta, sed in nullum reipubhcse usum ambitiosa 
 morte inclanierunt."^ Again, " Thrasea Psetus sibi causam 
 periculi fecit, cseteris Hbertatis initium non praebuit."* 
 
 In the style of Tacitus the form is always subordinate 
 to the matter : the ideas maintain their due supremacy 
 over the language in which they are conveyed. There is 
 none of that striving after epigrammatic terseness which 
 savours of affectation. His brevity, Kke that which 
 characterises the style of Thucydides, is the necessary con- 
 densation of a writer whose thoughts flow more quickly 
 than his pen can express them. Hence his sentences are 
 suggestive of far more than they express : they are enig- 
 matical hints of deep and hidden meaning, which keep 
 the mind active and the attention alive, and delight the 
 reader with the pleasures of discovery and the conscious- 
 ness oi diflB.culties overcome. Nor is this natural and 
 unintentional brevity unsuitable to the cautious reserve 
 with which aU. were tutored to speak and think of political 
 subjects in perilous times. It is extraordinary how often 
 a similarity between his mind and that of Thucydides in- 
 advertently discovers itself — ^not only in his mode of 
 thinking, but also in his language, even in his gram- 
 matical constructions, especially in his frequent substitu- 
 tion of attraction for government, in instances of con- 
 densed construction, and in the connexion of clauses 
 
 Agric. 42. ' Ann. xiv. 12. 
 
 
 
498 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 grammatically different, although they are metaphysically 
 the same. 
 
 Nor is his brevity dry or harsh — it is enlivened by co- 
 piousness, variety, and poetry. He scarcely ever repeats 
 the same idea in the same form. No author is richer in 
 synonymous words, or arranges with more varied skill 
 the position of words in a sentence. As for poetic 
 genius, his language is highly figurative ; no prose writer 
 deals more largely in prosopopoeia: his descriptions of 
 scenery and incidents are eminently picturesque; his 
 characters dramatic; the expression of his own senti- 
 ments and feelings as subjective as lyric poetry. 
 
( 499 ) 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 C. SUETONIUS TKANQUILLUS — HIS BIOGRAPHY— SOURCES OF HIS 
 HISTORY — HIS GREAT FAULT — Q. CURTIUS RUFUS — TIME WHEN 
 HE FLOURISHED DOUBTFUL — HIS BIOGRAPHY OF ALEXANDER — 
 EPITOMES OF L. ANN-EUS FLORUS— SOURCES WHENCE HE DERIVED 
 THEM. 
 
 C. Suetonius Tranquillus. 
 
 C. Suetonius Tranquillus* was the son of Suetonius 
 Lenis, who served as tribunus angusticlavus of the 
 thirteenth legion at the battle of Bedriacum, ia which 
 the Emperor Otho was defeated by Vitellius. The time of 
 his birth is uncertain ; but from a passage at the end of 
 his Life of Nero^ it may be inferred that he was bom very 
 soon after the death of that emperor, which took place a.d. 
 68 ; for in it he mentions that, when twenty years sub- 
 sequent to Nero's death, a false Nero appeared, he was 
 just arriving at manhood {adoleicens). The knowledge of 
 language and rhetorical taste displayed ia the remains of 
 his works on these subjects prove that he was well in- 
 structed in these branches of a Eoman hberal education ; 
 and a letter of the younger PHny,^ whose intimate friend 
 he was, speaks of him as an advocate by profession. 
 This letter represents him as unwilling to plead a cause, 
 which he had undertaken, because he was frightened 
 
 ' See A. Krause de Font, et Auctor. Suet. " Cap. 57. 
 
 » Ep. I. 18. 
 
 2 K 2 
 
500 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 by a dream. It is probable that this anecdote is an 
 authentic one, because so many examples occur in his 
 memoirs of his superstitious belief iu dreams, omens, 
 ghosts, and prodigies.* 
 
 The affectionate regard which PHny entertained for his 
 friend was very great, and led him to form too high an 
 estimate of his talents as a writer and an historian. On 
 one occasion he used his influence at court to procure for 
 him a tribuneship ; which, however, he did not accept.'' 
 On another he obtained for him, from Trajan,^ the "jits 
 trium liberorum," although he had no children. But this 
 privilege, as in the case of Martial, was sometimes granted 
 under similar circumstances. In this letter, which he 
 wrote to the Emperor, he speaks of Suetonius as a man of 
 the greatest probity, integrity, and learning ; and adds, 
 that, after the experience of a long acquaintance, the 
 more he knows of him the more he loves him. 
 
 Subsequently Suetonius became private secretary 
 (Magister Epistolarum) to Hadrian,* but was deprived of 
 the situation. Owing to the only sources of information 
 respecting Suetonius being his own works, and the few 
 scattered notices in the letters of Phnius Secundus, 
 nothing more is known respecting his life. 
 
 A catalogue of his numerous writings is given by 
 Suidas;^ but, with the exception of the Lives of the 
 twelve Caesars, it does not contain his chief extant works. 
 These are notices of illustrious grammarians and rheto- 
 ricians, and the lives of the poets Terence, Horace, 
 Persius, Lucan, and Juvenal. 
 
 Niebuhr^ believed that the history, or rather the 
 biography, of the Caesars was written when Suetonius was 
 still young, before he was secretary to Hadrian, and 
 previous to the publication of the Histories of Tacitus. 
 
 ■ See e. g. Cses. 81 ; Aug. 6. 94 ; Tib. 14, 74 ; CaHg. 5, 57, &c. 
 » See Ep. m. 8. ' Ep. X. 95. * Spart. L. of Had. c. ii. 
 
 » 8. V. TpdyKvWos. " Leot. R. H. cxvi. note. 
 
SOUECES OF SUETONIUS. 501 
 
 If SO, he neither enjoyed the opportimities of consulting 
 the imperial records which his situation at court would 
 have given him, nor of profiting by the accurate guidance 
 and profound reflection of Tacitus. Krause,^ on the 
 other hand, adduces many paraUeHsms between the lan- 
 guage of Tacitus and Suetonius ; and as Tacitus did not 
 publish his earliest historical work before a.d. 117,^ 
 assumes that Suetonius did not write his biographies 
 until after the accession of Hadrian. 
 
 It is very difficult to determine which of these theories 
 is the correct one ; but there can be no doubt that the 
 sources from which he derived his information are quite 
 independent of the authority of Tacitus ; and that the 
 Lives of the Twelve Caesars would have contained all that 
 we find in them, even if the Annals and Histories had 
 never been written. He does not only trust to the works 
 of the Eoman historians, but his exact quotations fi-om 
 acts of the senate and people, edicts, fasti, and orations, 
 and the use which he makes of annals and inscriptions 
 prove that he was a man of diligent research, and that he 
 examined original documents for himself. 
 
 Again, as a writer of biographical memoirs rather than 
 of regular history, and fond of anecdote and scandal, he 
 availed himself largely of such private letters of the 
 Emperors and their dependants as fell in his way, of 
 testamentary documents, and of the information he could 
 collect in conversation. Many of the Hves which he 
 wrote were those of his contemporaries. Some of the 
 events recorded were passing under the eyes of the 
 pubHc, and were matters of notoriety. He himself asserts 
 in three several places' that he received some of the 
 accounts which he gives from the testimony of eye- 
 witnesses. The more secret habits of the Emperors, 
 
 DeSuet.Fontibus. Berl. 1831. 'Ann ii. 61. 
 
 » Cal. 19 ; Nero, 29 ; Tit. 3. 
 
503 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 either truly told or exaggerated by an appetite for 
 scandal, would ooze out. Anecdotes of the reigning 
 Emperor's private life would be eagerly sought for, and 
 be the favourite topic of gossip in all circles of Boman 
 society. Nor would he have any difficulty in prociuring 
 . copious stores of information respecting those Emperors 
 who reigned before he was bom from those of his con- 
 temporaries who were a generation older than himself, 
 and who were spectators of, or actors in, many of the 
 scenes which he describes. As a biographer, there is no 
 reason to doubt his honesty and veracity ; he is indus- 
 trious and careful; he indulges neither in ornament of 
 style nor in romantic exaggeration ; the picture which he 
 draws is a terrible one, but it is fully supported by the 
 contemporary authority of Juvenal and Tacitus. Never- 
 theless, his mind was not of that comprehensive and 
 philosophical character which would qualify him for 
 taking an enlarged view of political affairs, or for the 
 work of an historian. He has no definite plan formed in 
 his mind, without which an historian can never hope to 
 make his work a complete whole; he wanders at will 
 from one subject to another, just as the idea seizes him, 
 and is by no means careful of committing offences against 
 chronological order. 
 
 Niebuhr accuses him of inconsistency in the character 
 which he draws and the praise which he bestows on 
 Vespasian ;* but adds what may, in some sort, be con- 
 sidered a defence, namely, that Vespasian was, negatively 
 speaking, a good, upright, and just man, and that the 
 dark side of his character must be considered in reference 
 to the fearful times in which he reigned. He also 
 mentions, as an example of his deficiencies as an historian, 
 the bad accounts which he has left of his own times, 
 especially of the anarchy which followed Nero's death, 
 
 ' Lib. cxvi. 
 
QUINTUS CURTIUS RUFUS. 503 
 
 and the commencement of the reign of Vespasian. But 
 in his praise it may be said that Suetonius has formed a 
 just estimate of his own powers in undertaking to be a 
 biographer and not an historian ; and it is scarcely fair 
 to criticise severely his unfitness for a task to which he 
 made no pretensions. 
 
 One great fault pollutes his pages. The dark pictures 
 which he draws of the most profligate Emperors, the 
 disgusting annals of their unheard-of crimes, are dwelt 
 upon as though he took pleasure in the description, and 
 loved to waUow in the mire of the foulest debauchery. 
 Truth, perhaps, required that they should not have been 
 passed over in silence, but they might have been lightly 
 toucked, and not painted in detail with revolting faith- 
 fulness. He is often brief, sometimes obscure : in such 
 passages of his narrative we would have gladly welcomed 
 both brevity and obscurity. 
 
 Q. CURTIUS EUFUS. 
 
 The doubts which have always been entertained re- 
 specting the time when the biographer of Alexander the 
 Great flourished, and which no investigations have been 
 sufScient to dissipate, render it impossible to pass him 
 by unnoticed, although he may, perhaps, belong to an 
 age beyond the chronological limits of this work. The 
 purity of his style has, in the opinion of some critics, 
 entitled him to a place among the writers of the silver 
 age ; whilst NiebiJir, judging by the internal evidence, 
 thinks that he must have lived as late as the reign of 
 Caracalla or Septimius Severus. 
 
 No valid argument, however, can be based upon his 
 style, because it is evidently artificial: it is, indeed, 
 infected with a love of declamatory ornament; it is 
 sometimes more like poetry than prose ; it abounds in 
 metaphors, and therefore proves that he lived in a 
 
504 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 rhetorical age; but it is upon the whole an imitation 
 of the Latinity of Livy. This rhetorical character of his 
 stjde gives some value to the opinion of F. A. Wolf, that 
 he was the Q. Curtius Eufus mentioned by Suetonius in 
 his treatise on Illustrious Orators. If so, he was probably 
 a contemporary. 
 
 With respect to internal evidence, reference has been 
 made to two passages as containing allusions to his 
 times. (1). Multis ergo casibus defancta (sc. Tyrus), 
 nunc tamen longa pace cuncta refovente, sub tutela 
 Eomanse mansufetudinis acquiescit.^ (2). Proinde jure 
 meritoque P. B. salutem se principi suo debere pro- 
 fitetur, qui noctis, quam psene supremam habuimus, 
 novum sidus illuxit, hujus hercule, non solis ortus, kicem 
 caliganti reddidit mundo, cum sine suo capite discordia 
 membra trepidarent.^ The former has been considered 
 descriptive of many periods in Eoma,n history : although 
 Niebuhr^ makes the unqualified assertion, that it has no 
 meaning, unless it alludes to the times of Septimius 
 Severus and Caracalla. The latter is equally vague : 
 Niebuhr thinks it might refer to Aurehan ; Gibbon con- 
 siders that it alluded to Gordian. But to how many 
 Emperors might a spirit of eulogistic flattery make it 
 appHcable ! Upon the whole, it is most probable that 
 he Uved towards the close of the first century. 
 
 The biography of Alexander is deeply interesting ; for, 
 although Curtius evidently disdains historic reality,his hero 
 always seems to have a living existence : it is a romance 
 rather than a history. He never loses an opportunity 
 by the colouring which he gives to historical facts of 
 elevating the Macedonian conqueror to a superhuman 
 standard. He has no inclination to weigh the merits of 
 conflicting historical testimonies : he selects that which 
 supports his partial predilections; nor are his talents 
 
 ' Book iv. 20. ' Book x. 9. ' Loot. K. H. cxxviii. 
 
LUCIUS ANN^US FLORUS. 505 
 
 for story-telling checked by a profound knowledge of 
 either tactics or geography, or other objective historical 
 materials, for correct details in which he is too frequently 
 aegligent/ His florid and ornamented style is suitable 
 to the imaginary orations which are introduced in the 
 narrative, and which constitute the most striking por- 
 tions of the work. The sources from which he derived 
 his information are various, the principal one being the 
 account of Alexander's exploits by the Greek historian 
 Clitarchus, who accompanied the Macedonian conqueror 
 in his Asiatic expedition. He is, however, by no means 
 a servile follower; for in one instance he does not 
 hesitate to accuse him of inaccuracy. They were, how- 
 ever, kindred spirits : both would sacrifice truth to 
 romantic interest ; both indulged in the same tale-telling 
 tendency. His work originally consisted of ten books. 
 Two of these are lost, and their places have been suppHed, 
 in a very inferior manner, by Cellarius and Freinsheim. 
 Even in the eight books which are extant, an hiatus of 
 more or less extent occasionally occurs. 
 
 L. Ann^us Floeus. 
 
 Brief as the epitomes are which bear the name of L. 
 Annseus Floras, the style is characterised by the rhetorical 
 spirit of the age to which they belong. They are diffuse 
 and declamatory, and their author is rather the panegyrist 
 of his countrymen than the grave and sober narrator of 
 the most important events contained in their history. 
 This short summary, entitled "Rerum Romanarum Libri 
 IV.," or " Epitome de Gestis Romanorum," is a well- 
 arranged compilation from the authorities extant ; but it 
 is probable that, like aU other Eoman historians except 
 Velleius Paterculus, he derived his materials principally 
 from Livy. Such a dry skeleton of history, however, 
 
 ' See Bernhardy, Grundriss, 550. 
 
506 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 must be uninteresting. Who the author was is by no 
 means certain. Some have supposed him to be the same 
 with Annseus Morus, who wrote three trochaic verses to 
 Hadrian. Titze ^ imagines that it is the work of two 
 authors, one a contemporary of Horace,^ the other be- 
 longing to a later literary period. 
 
 It is generally assumed that the author^ of the 
 Epitomes was either a Spaniard or a Gaul ; and, if we 
 may consider the introduction to the work as genuine, he 
 lived in the reign of Trajan. 
 
 ' Anthol. Lat. ii. 97, Burm. or 212 Meyer. Titze ed. Flor. Prag. 1819. 
 " Ep. i, 3 ; ii. 2. ' Matth. 284. 
 
( 507 ) 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 M. ANN^US SENECA — HIS CONTEOVEESI^ AND SUASORI^ — 
 t. AOTTiEUS SENECA — TUTOR TO NERO — HIS ENORMOUS FORTUNE 
 HIS DEATH AND CHARACTER — INCONSISTENCIES IN HIS PHILO- 
 SOPHY A FAVOURITE WITH EARLY CHRISTIAN WRITERS — HIS 
 
 EPISTLES— WORK ON NATURAL PHENOMENA — ^APOCOLOCYNTOSIS 
 HIS STYLE. 
 
 M. AnnvEUS Seneca. 
 
 The family of the Senecas exercised a remarkable in- 
 fluence over literature ; they may, in fact, be said to 
 have given the tone to the taste of their age. 
 
 M. Annseus Seneca was born at Corduba (Cordova). 
 The precise date of his birth is unknown ; but Clinton 
 places it about b.c. 61. This is not improbable, for he 
 asserts ^ that he had heard all the eminent orators except 
 Cicero, and that he might have enjoyed that privilege 
 also if the civil wars had not compelled him to remain in 
 his native country. After this hindrance was removed 
 by the accession of Augustus he came to Eome, and, as 
 a professional rhetorician, amassed a considerable fortune. 
 Subsequently he returned to Cordova, and married Helvia, 
 by whom he had three sons, of whom L. Annseus Seneca, 
 the philosopher, was the eldest. 
 
 He left behind him two works, the composition of 
 which was the employment of his old age. They are 
 the results of his long and successful experience as a 
 
 Praef. ad Controv. i. 67. 
 
508 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 teacher of rhetoric, the gleanings of his commonplace- 
 book, the stores accrannlated by his astonishing memory, 
 which enabled him to repeat two thousand unconnected 
 words after once hearing them, and to report HteraUy 
 any orations which he had heard delivered. They are 
 valuable as showing how a hoUow and artificial system, 
 based upon the recollection of stock-passages and common- 
 places, had supplanted the natural promptings of true 
 eloquence. They explain the principles and practice of 
 instruction in the popular schools of rhetoric, the means 
 by which the absence of natural endowments could be 
 compensated. They exhibit wit, learning, ingenuity, and 
 taste to select and admire the best literary specimens of 
 earher periods ; but it is plain that matter was now 
 subordinate to form — ^that the orator was content to 
 borrow the phraseology of his predecessors in which to 
 clothe sentiments which he could neither feel nor under- 
 stand. The ear stiU yearned for the language of sincerity, 
 although the heart no longer throbbed with the ardour 
 of patriotism. It is this want of conformity of ideas to 
 words which causes the coldness of a declamatory and 
 florid style. It is a mere representation of warmth ; it 
 disappoints like a mere painted fire. 
 
 The first work of M. Seneca was entitled Controversice : 
 it was divided into ten books, of which, with the excep- 
 tion of fragments, only the first, second, seventh, eighth, 
 and tenth are extant. It contains a series of exercises or 
 declamations in judicial oratory on fictitious cases. The 
 imaginary causes were probably sketched out by the 
 professor. The students composed their speeches accord- 
 ing to the rules of rhetoric : they were then corrected, 
 committed to memory, and recited, partly with a view to 
 practice, partly in order to amuse an admiring audience. 
 The cases are frequently as puerile as a schoolboy's theme, 
 sometimes extravagant and absurd. 
 
 His other work, the Suasorice, contains exercises in 
 
PUBLIC RECITATIONS. 509 
 
 deliberative oratory. The subjects of them are taken 
 from the historians and poets : they are as harmless as 
 tyranny could desire: there is no danger that languid 
 patriotism should revive, or the empire be menaced, by 
 such uninteresting discussions. Nor were they confined 
 to mere students. Public recitations had, since the days 
 of Juvenal, been one of the crying nuisances of the times. 
 The poets began it, the rhetoricians followed, and the 
 most absurd trash was Hstened to with patience, being 
 ushered into popular notice by partial flatterers or hired 
 claqueurs. 
 
 L. AwNiEus Seneca. 
 
 L. Seneca was bom at his father's native town about 
 the commencement of the Christian era. He was brought 
 to Eome when very young, and there studied rhetoric 
 and philosophy. He soon displayed great talents as a 
 pleader j and by his success is said to have provoked the 
 jealousy of Caligula. In the reign of Claudius he was 
 accused by the infamous Messalina of improper iatimacy 
 with Julia, the emperor's niece, and was accordingly 
 banished to Corsica.^ He solaced his exile with the study 
 of the Stoic philosophy ; and although its severe precepts 
 exercised no moral influence over his conduct, he not 
 only professed himself a Stoic, but sincerely imagined 
 that he was one. Eight years afterwards Agrippina 
 caused his recall,'' in order to make him tutor to her son 
 Nero. 
 
 His pupil was naturally vicious ; and Seneca, though 
 wise and prudent, was too unscrupulous a man of the 
 world to attempt the correction of his propensities, or to 
 instil into him high principles. After the accession of 
 Nero,' Seneca endeavoured to arrest his depraved career ; 
 but it was too late : all he could do was to put into his 
 
 ' A. D. 41. ' Tac. Ann. xii. 8. " Ibid. xiii. 2. 
 
510 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 mouth specious words of clemency and mercy. He saw 
 how dangerous was the unprincipled ambition of Agrip- 
 piua; and dreadful though it was to sanction parricide, 
 there was scarcely any other course to" be pursued, except 
 the consenting to her death. "When the deed was done, 
 he had the pitiful meanness to screen the murderer by a 
 falsehood. He .wrote a letter, which Nero sent to the 
 senate, accusing lus mother of treason, and asserting that 
 she had committed suicide.^ 
 
 Seneca had, by usury and legacy-hunting, amassed one 
 of those enormous fortunes, of which so many instances 
 are met with in Roman history. This had aheady ex- 
 posed him to envy,^ and caused his temporary banish- 
 ment to the Balearic isles.^ But after that Burrus was 
 dead, who shared his iufluence over the Emperor, he felt 
 the dangers of wealth, and offered his property to Nero.* 
 The Emperor refused ; but Seneca retired from pubhc life. 
 Being now under the influence of new favourites, Nero 
 wished to rid himself of Seneca ; and although there was 
 no evidence of his being privy to the conspiracy of Piso, 
 it furnished a pretext for his destruction.* In adversity 
 his character shone with brighter lustre. Though he 
 had lived iU, he could die well. His firmness was the 
 result, not of Stoical iudifference, but of Eoman courage. 
 He met the messengers of death without trembling. His 
 noble wife Paullina determined to die with him. The 
 veins of both were opened at the same time. The Httle 
 blood which remained in his emaciated and enfeebled 
 frame refused to flow : he suffered excruciating agony : a 
 warm bath was appHed, but in vain ; and a draught of 
 poison was equally ineffectual. At last he was suffocated 
 by the vapour of a stove, and expired.* 
 
 Seneca lived in a perilous atmosphere. The philosophy 
 
 ' Quint, viii. 5, 18. ^ Ibid. xjii. 42. » a. d. 58. 
 
 * Quint, xiv. 63. » Ibid.- xv. 60. « Ad. 66. 
 
CHARACTER OF SENECA. 511 
 
 in which, he believed was hollow, and, being unsnited to 
 his court life,^ he thought it expedient to allow himself 
 some relaxation from its severity. His rhetorical taste 
 led him to overstate even his own real convictions ; and 
 hence the incongruity of his life appeared more glaring. 
 He was not insincere ; but he had not firmness to act up 
 to the high moral standard which he proposed to himself. 
 In his letters, and his treatise " De Consolatione," addressed 
 to Polybius, he even convicts himself of this defect. He 
 had difl&cult questions to decide, and had not sufficient 
 moral principle to lead him in the right course. He was 
 avaricious ; but it was the great sin of his times. Tacitus 
 is not blind to his weaknesses;'' but he estimates his 
 character with more candour and fairness than Dio.^ He 
 is neither a panegyrist nor an accuser. The education 
 of one who was a brute rather than a man was a task to 
 the discharge of which no one would have been equal. 
 He, therefore, retained the influence which he had not 
 uprightness to command by miserable and siofiil expe- 
 dients. He had great abihties, and some of the noble 
 qualities of the old Romans. Had he Hved in the days 
 of the Eepublic he would have been a great man. 
 
 Seneca was the author of twelve ethical treatises, the 
 best of which are entitled " De Providentid," " De Con- 
 stantid Sapientis," and " De Consolatione." The latter 
 was addressed to his mother Helvia, and written during 
 his exile in Corsica. In the treatise on Providence he 
 discusses the question why, since there is a Divine Pro- 
 vidence, good men are liable to misfortunes. Although 
 the difficulty is explauied by the doctrine that the remedy, 
 " suicide," is always in man's power, it asserts the omni- 
 presence of the Deity, and the existence of a moral 
 Governor of the universe. 
 
 Great as are the inconsistencies in his ethical phUo- 
 
 ' Ep. 108. ' Ann. xiii. ; xiv. 2. ' Lib. Ixi. 10. 
 
512 ROMAN CLASSrCAL LITERATURE. 
 
 sopty (nor could it be otherwise, as his life was always 
 doing despite to his moral sense of right and wrong), his 
 views are generally clear and practical. In this he was 
 a true Eoman ; he cared little for abstract speculation j 
 he did not value, except as subordinate aids, either mental 
 or natural philosophy. He delighted to inculcate p-e- 
 cepts rather than investigate principles. It is for this 
 reason that his works are not satisfactory as a whole, 
 whilst they furnish a rich mine for quotations. The 
 fault which pervades all Eoman philosophy exists iu an 
 exaggerated form in his works : they are ethical digests 
 of didactic precepts ; but there is no system, no develop- 
 ment of new truths. His studies taught him that general 
 principles are the foundations of morals, and that casu- 
 istry is the application of those principles:^ but the 
 Eomans were naturally inchned to be casuists rather 
 than moralists ; and in this preference Seneca went be- 
 yond all his countrymen. He writes hke a teacher of 
 youth rather than as a philosopher ; he inculcates, with- 
 out {H"oof, maxims and instructions, and impresses them 
 by repetition, as though they recommended themselves 
 by their intrinsic truthfulness to the consciences of his 
 hearers. 
 
 Seneca was always a favourite with Christian writers : 
 he is in fact a better guide to others than he was to him- 
 self. Some of his sentiments are truly Christian ; there 
 is even a tradition that he was acquainted with St. Paxd, 
 and fourteen letters to that apostle have been, though 
 without grounds, attributed to him. He may, however, 
 unconsciously have imbibed some of the principles of 
 Christianity. The gospel had already made great and 
 rapid strides over the civilized world, and thoughtful minds 
 may have been enlightened by some of the rays of divine 
 truth dispersed through the moral atmosphere, just as we 
 
 ' Ep. 94, 95. 
 
WORKS OF SENECA. 513 
 
 are benefited by the light of the sun, even when its disc 
 is obscured by clouds. 
 
 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. Although addressed to a 
 disciple named Lucilius, they are evidently written for 
 the public eye : they are rich in varied thought, and the 
 reflections flow naturally and without efibrt. Letters were 
 perhaps the most appropriate vehicle for his preceptive 
 philosophy, because such a desultory style is best adapted 
 to convey isolated and unconnected maxims. They con- 
 tain a free and unconstrained picture of his mind. We 
 see in them how he despised verbal subtleties,^ the ex- 
 ternal badges of a sect or creed, and insisted that the 
 great end of science is to learn how to live and how to 
 die. 
 
 In his old age he wrote seven books on questions con- 
 nected with natural phenomena ( Qucestionum Naturalium 
 Libri vii.). Why he did so it is impossible to say, since 
 he had so often argued against the utility of physical 
 studies.* The declamatory praise which he bestows upon 
 them in this work would lead us to suppose that it was a 
 mere exercise for amusement and relaxation. But in this 
 case he is not so inconsistent as might be supposed — he 
 treats the subject like a moralist, and makes it the occasion 
 of ethical reflections.' 
 
 Once he indulged in the pla5rfulness of satire. He had 
 written a fulsome funeral oration on Claudius, which 
 Nero dehvered in the midst of laughter and derision ; but 
 fortius abject flattery he afterwards made compensation by 
 composing, as a parody on the apotheosis of the stupid 
 Emperor, the Apocolocyntosis, or his metamorphosis into a 
 pumpkin. The pun was good enough but the execution 
 miserable. 
 
 ■ Ep. 45. ' See ex. gr. Ep. 88, 106. 
 
 » See L. vii. c. 30. 
 
 2 L 
 
514 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 In the style of Seneca we see the result of that false 
 declamatory taste of which the works of his father famish 
 specimens. Thought was su^bordinate to expression. 
 The masters of rhetoric were aU in all. His style is too 
 elaborate to please ; it is generally affected, often florid 
 and bombastic : he seems always striving to produce 
 striking effects, either by antithesis or ornament ; of course 
 he defeats his object, for there is no hght and shade. 
 There is too much sparkle and glitter, too little repose 
 and simplicity. 
 
( 515 ) 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 PLINY THE ELDER — HIS HABITS DESCEIBED BY HIS NEPHEW — HIS 
 INDUSTRY AND APPLICATION — HIS DEATH IN THE ERUPTION OF 
 VESUVIUS- — THE ERUPTION DESCRIBED EST TWO LETTERS OF PLINY 
 THE YOUNGER — THE NATURAL HISTORY OF PLINY — ITS SUBJECTS 
 DESCRIBED — PLINY THE YOUNGER — HIS AFFECTION FOE HIS 
 GUARDIAN — HIS PANEGYRIC, LETTERS, Am) DESPATCHES — THAT 
 CONCERNING THE CHRISTIANS — THE ANSWER. 
 
 C. Plinius Secundus. 
 
 Pliny the Elder was bom a.d. 23, either at Verona' or 
 Novo-Comum'' (Como). As he possessed estates at the 
 latter town, and his nephew, the younger PHny, whom 
 he adopted, was undoubtedly born there, it was most pro- 
 bably the family residence and the place of the elder 
 Pliny's nativity. He was educated at Eome ; and serving 
 Claudius in Germany, employed the opportunities which 
 this campaign afforded him in travelling. Afterwards he 
 returned to Eome and practised at the bar ; filled different 
 civil offices, amongst them that of augur, and was sub- 
 sequently appointed procurator in Spain.^ 
 
 Some interesting particulars respecting his life and 
 habits are contained in a letter of the younger Pliny to 
 his Mend Macer,* illustrative of his studies, his temper, 
 his thirst for knowledge, and his strict economy of time. 
 The letter is also valuable for another reason — namely, as 
 giving a catalogue of all the writings of his uncle. " It 
 
 Anon. Life. " Suet. Vit. ; Hieron. Eus. Chron. 
 
 = Matth. H, of L. s. v. " Ep. iii. 5. 
 
 2l 2 
 
516 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 is a great satisfaction to me," he writes, " that you so 
 constantly and diligently read my uncle's works, that you 
 wish to possess them aU, and ask me for a list of them. 
 1 will therefore perform the duty of an index ; and will 
 also tell you the order in which they were written." He 
 then subjoins the following titles: — (1.) The Art of 
 Using the Javehn on Horseback ; composed when he 
 was commander of cavalry in Germany. (2.) The Life of 
 his friend Pomponius Secundus. (3.) A History of aU 
 the Wars, twenty in number, which the Eomans had 
 carried on with the Germans. This was commenced 
 during his German campaign, in obedience to the sugges- 
 tions of a dream : — " There appeared to him whilst sleep- 
 ing the shade of Drusus : commended his memory to his 
 care, and besought him to rescue it from undeserved 
 oblivion." In accordance with his superstitious and cre- 
 dulous temper, he obeyed the call of his supernatural visi- 
 tant. (4.) A treatise on Eloquence, entitled " Studiosus," 
 in three books, but subdivided, on account of its length, 
 into six volumes. In it he traces the education of an 
 orator from the very cradle. (5.) Eight books on Gram- 
 matical Ambiguity, which he wrote during the reign of 
 Nero, a period when imperial tyranny rendered studies of 
 a freer kind too perilous. (6.) Thirty books in continua- 
 tion of the History of Aufidius Bassus, dedicated to the 
 Emperor Titus.^ (7.) Thirty-seven books on Natural His- 
 tory — a work, not only, as PHny the Younger describes 
 it, as full of variety as Nature herself, but, as will be 
 shown hereafter, a treasure-house of the arts, as well as 
 of natural objects. 
 
 " You will wonder," he continues, " how a man occu- 
 pied with official business could have completed so many 
 volumes filled with such minute information. You wiU 
 be still more surprised to learn that he practised some- 
 
 See Prsef. to N. H. 
 
HABITS OF PLINY THE ELDER. 517 
 
 times as a pleader; that he died in his fifty-sixth year; 
 and that the intermediate time was distracted and inter- 
 rupted by the friendship of princes and most important 
 pubhc affairs. But he was a man of vigorous intellect, 
 incredible appUcation, and unwearied activity. Imme- 
 diately after the festival of the Vulcanalia (August 23rd), 
 he used to begin to study in the dead of the night ; in 
 the winter at one o'clock in the morning, at the latest at 
 two, often at midnight. No one ever slept so little — 
 sometimes he would snatch a brief interval of sleep in the 
 midst of his studies. Before dawn he would wait upon 
 the Emperor, for he also used the night for transacting 
 business. Thence he proceeded to the discharge of his 
 official duties ; and whatever time remained he devoted 
 to study. 
 
 " After a light and frugal meal, which, according to the 
 old fashion, he partook of by day, he would in summer, 
 if he had any leisure time, recline in the sun whilst a 
 book was read to him, from which he took notes and 
 made extracts. In fact, he never read any book without 
 making extracts ; for he used to say that no book was so 
 bad but that some profit could be derived from it. After 
 sunset he generally took a cold bath, then a sHght repast, 
 and afterwards slept for a very short time. When he 
 awoke, as if it were a new day, he studied till supper : 
 during which a book was read, on which he made anno- 
 tations as the reading proceeded. I remember that one 
 of his friends interrupted the reader, because he had mis- 
 pronounced a word, and compelled him to repeat it ; upon 
 which my uncle asked, ' Did you understand him ?' and 
 when he answered in the affirmative, he continued — 
 ' Why did you interrupt him ? we have lost more than 
 ten lines ;' — so frugal was he of his time. In summer 
 he rose from the supper-table by daylight, in winter at 
 nightfall ; and this custom was a law to him. 
 
 " These were his habits amidst the toils and bustle of a 
 
518 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 town-life. In the retirement of tte country the bath was 
 the only interruption to his studies. But only the bath 
 itself, — for whilst he was rubbed and wiped dry, he either 
 dictated to an amanuensis or had a book read to him. 
 On journeys, as he was then relieved from aU other cares, 
 study was the only employment of his leisure. He had 
 a precis-writer at his side, with books and tablets, who 
 in the winter wore gloves, so that his master's studies 
 might not be interrupted by the severity of the cold. 
 For the same reason, when at Eome, he always used a 
 sedan. I remember once having been chid by him for 
 walking : ' You might,' said he, ' avoid wasting all this 
 time.' For he thought all time was lost which was not 
 devoted to study. By this intense appHcation he com- 
 pleted so many volumes, and bequeathed to me besides one 
 hundred and sixty rols of commentaries, written in the 
 smallest possible hand and on both sides. He used to 
 say that when he was procurator in Spain, he was offered 
 for a portion of them 400,000 sesterces (about 3,200^.), 
 by Lartius Licinius. *****! cannot help 
 laughing when people call me studious, for, compared 
 with him, I am the idlest fellow in the world." 
 
 Pliny perished a martyr to the cause of science, in the 
 terrijjle eruption of Vesuvius, which took place in the 
 first year of the reign of Titus.^ Had he been as ardent 
 an original observer in all other respects, instead of a 
 mere plodding student, and collector, and transcriber of 
 other men's observations, his works would have been less 
 voluminous but more valuable. The eruption in which 
 he perished was the first of which there is any record in 
 history. It is probable that none of any consequence 
 had occurred before ; and that the lava had never before 
 devastated the smiling slopes and green vineyards which 
 Martial has described.^ The circumstances of his death 
 
 ' A. D. 79. ' Ep. iv. 43. 
 
ERUPTION OF VESUVIUS. 519 
 
 are thus described by his nephew' in two letters to 
 Tacitus : — " He was at Misenum, in command of the 
 fleet. On the 24th of August, about one o' clock p.m., my 
 mother pointed out to him a cloud of unusual size and 
 appearance. He had lain in the sunshiue, bathed, and 
 taken refreshment, and was now studjdng. He forth- 
 with asked for his shoes ; and ascended an eminence from 
 which he could best see the phenomenon. The distance 
 was too great to know for certain from what mountaiii 
 the cloud arose, but it was afterwards ascertained to be 
 Vesuvius. Its form resembled that of a pine-tree more 
 than anything else. It rose into the air in the form of 
 a tall trunk, and then diffiised itself like spreading 
 branches. The reason of this I take to be that it was at 
 first carried upwards by a fresh current of air, which as it 
 grew older and weaker was unable to support it, or per- 
 haps its own gravity caused it to vanish in a horizontal 
 direction. Sometimes it was white, sometimes soHd 
 and spotted, according to the quantity of earth and ashes 
 which it threw up. 
 
 " The phenomenon appeared to him, as a learned man, 
 deserving of closer investigation. He ordered a Hght 
 galley to be fitted out, and gave me permission to ac- 
 company him. I repHed that I preferred studying, and 
 as it chanced he himself had given me something to write. 
 Just as he was leaving the house with his note-book in 
 his hand, the troops stationed at Eetina, a village at 
 the foot of the mountain, from which there was no 
 escape, except by sea, alarmed by the imminent peril they 
 were in, sent to entreat him to rescue them. Notwith- 
 standing this circumstance his determination was im- 
 altered ; but the task which he had commenced with 
 earnestness he went through with the greatest resolu- 
 tion. 
 
 ' Ep. vi. 16, 20. 
 
530 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 " He launclied some quadriremes, and embarked for the 
 purpose of assisting, not Eetina only, but others ; for the 
 beauty of the coast had attracted a large population. He 
 hastened to the spot whence others were flying, and 
 steered a direct course to the point of danger, so fearlessly 
 that he observed all the phases and forms of that sad 
 calamity, and dictated his remarks on them to his secre- 
 tary. Soon ashes fell on the decks, and the nearer he 
 approached the hotter and thicker they became. With 
 them were mingled scorched and blackened pumice-stones, 
 and stones split by fire. Now the sudden reflux of the 
 sea, and the fragments of the volcano which covered the 
 coast, presented an obstacle to his progress, and he hesi- 
 tated for awhUe whether he should not return. At 
 length, when his sailing-master recommended him to do 
 so, he exclaimed, ' Fortune favours the brave — steer for 
 the villa of Pomponianus.' 
 
 " This was situated at Stabise, and was divided from the 
 coast near Vesuvius by an inlet or gulf formed by the 
 sea. His friend, although danger was not yet imminent, 
 yet, as it was within sight, and would be very near if it 
 increased, had put his baggage on board of ship, and had 
 determined on flight if the wind, which was then con- 
 trary, should lull. A fair wind carried my uncle thither. 
 He embraced his trembling friend, consoled and encouraged 
 him. In order to assuage his fears by showing his own 
 unconcern, he caused himself to be carried to a bath : 
 after bathing he sat down to supper with cheerfulness, or, 
 what is almost the same thing, with the appearance of it. 
 Meanwhile from many parts of the volcano broad flames 
 burst forth : the blaze was reflected from the sky, and the 
 glare and brightness were enhanced by the darkness of 
 the night. He, to soothe the alarm of Pomponianus, 
 endeavoured to persuade him that what he saw was only 
 the burning villages which the country -people had de- 
 serted in their consternation. He then retired to rest 
 
ERUPTION or VESUVIUS. 521 
 
 aad slept sotmdly ; for his snoring, which on account of 
 his broad chest was deep and resonant, was heard by 
 those who were watching at the door. 
 
 " Soon the court through which there was access to his 
 apartment was so choaked with cinders and pumice that 
 longer delay would have rendered escape impossible. He 
 was awakened ; and went to Pomponianus and the rest, 
 who had sat up aU night. They then held a consultation 
 whether they should remain in the house or go into the 
 open fields. For repeated shocks of an earthquake made 
 the houses rock to and fro, and seemed to move them 
 from their foundations ; whilst in the air the fall of half- 
 burnt pumice, though light, menaced danger. After 
 balancing the two dangers, he chose the latter course : 
 with him, however, it was a comparison of reasons, with 
 others of fears. They tied cushions over their heads with 
 towels, to protect them from the falling stones. Although 
 it was now day elsewhere, the darkness here was denser 
 than the darkest night, broken only by torches and 
 lights of different kinds. They next walked out to the 
 coast to see whether the sea was calm enough to venture 
 upon it, but it was still a waste of stormy waters. Then 
 he spread a Hnen cloth and lay doAvn upon it, asked for 
 two or three draughts of cold water; and, afterwards, 
 flames, and that sulphureous smell which is the fore- 
 runner of them, put his companions to flight and aroused 
 
 him. 
 
 " He arose by the assistance of two slaves, and imme- 
 diately fell down dead, suffocated as I imagine by the 
 dense vapour, and the functions of his stomach being 
 disordered, which were naturally weak, and hable to 
 obstructions and dif&culty of digestion. On the morning 
 of the third day after his body was found entire, un- 
 injured, and in the clothes in which he died ; its appear- 
 ance was rather that of death than sleep." 
 
 Pliny the Younger was left with his mother at Mi- 
 
522 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 senum ; and in another letter gives an account of the 
 appearance of the eruption at that place :* — 
 
 " After my uncle's departure, I spent some time in 
 study (for that was my object in remaining behind) : I 
 then bathed and supped, and had some broken and rest- 
 less sleep. For many days previously shocks of an earth- 
 quake had been felt ; but they caused less alarm because 
 they are usual in Campania ; but on that night they were 
 so violent that it was thought they would not only shake 
 but overturn everything. My mother burst into my 
 bed-chamber — I was just rising in order to arouse her, in 
 case she should be asleep. We sat down in the court 
 which divided the house from the sea. I know not 
 whether to call this courage or imprudence, for I was 
 only in my eighteenth year. I asked for a volume of 
 Livy, and began to read it leisurely and to make extracts. 
 
 " Well ! a friend of my uncle came in who had lately 
 arrived from Spain, and when he saw us sitting together, 
 and me reading, he rebuked his patience and my ' insou- 
 ciance.' Still I was not the less for that absorbed in my 
 book. It was now seven o'clock, and the dawn broke 
 faintly and languidly. The surrounding buildings were 
 tottering ; and the space in which we were, being hmited 
 in extent, there was great reason to fear their fall. We then 
 resolved to leave town. The populace followed in alarm. 
 
 " When at a sufficient distance from the buildings we 
 halted, and witnessed many a wonderftd and alarming 
 phenomenon. The carriages which we had ordered to be 
 brought out, although the ground was very level, roUed 
 in different directions,, and even stones placed under the 
 wheels could not stop them. The sea ebbed and seemed 
 to be repelled by the earthquake. The coast certraily 
 had advanced, and detained many marine animals on dry 
 land. On the other side of the heavens hung a dark and 
 
 ' Ep. vi. 20. 
 
ERUPTION OF VESUVIUS. 523 
 
 awful GloTid, riven by wreathed and quivering Unes of 
 tiery vapour, in long flashes resembling Hghtning, but 
 larger. Then our friend from Spain exclaimed, with 
 eagerness and vehemence, 'If your relative hves, he 
 doubtless wishes your safety ; if he has perished, he wished 
 you to survive him ! Why then do you delay to escape ?' 
 Our answer was, ' We wiU not think of our own safety 
 so long as we are uncertain of his.' Without any more 
 delay he hurried off, and was soon beyond the reach of 
 danger. Soon the cloud descended to the earth, and 
 brooded over the sea ; it shrouded Caprese, and hid from 
 our eyes the promontory of Misenum. My mother 
 besought, entreated, nay commanded me to fly by all 
 means ; she felt that, weighed down by years and infirmity, 
 she should die contented if she had not been the cause 
 of my death. I, on the other hand, persisted that I 
 would not seek safety except with her. I took her by 
 the hand and forced her to go forward. She obeyed re- 
 luctantly, and blamed herself for delaying me. Ashes 
 now began to fall, though as yet in small quantities. I 
 looked back ; behind us was thick darkness, which poured 
 over the earth like a torrent. ' Let us turn aside from 
 the road,' said I, ' whilst we can see, for fear we should 
 be thrown down and trampled under foot by the crowd 
 in the darkness.' We had scarce time to [think about 
 it] [sit down] when we were enveloped in darkness, not 
 like that of a moonless night, or clouds, but hke that of 
 a room shut up when the lights are extinguished. Then 
 were heard the shrieks of women, the wailings of infants, 
 the shouts of men ; some were calling for their parents, 
 others for their children, others for their wives, whom 
 they could only recognise by their voices. Some be- 
 wailed their own misfortune, others that of their family ; 
 some even from the fear of death prayed for death. 
 Many lifted up their hands to the gods ; still more be- 
 heved that there were no gods, and that the last eternal 
 
524 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 niglit had overwhelmed the world. There were not 
 wanting some to increase the real danger by fictitious and 
 imaginary terrors ; and some brought word that the con- 
 flagration was at Misenum: the false intelligence met 
 with credence. By degrees the light returned ; but it 
 seemed to us not the return of day, but the indication 
 that the fire was approaching. Its progress, however, 
 was arrested at some distance : again darkness succeeded 
 with showers of ashes. Every now and then we got up and 
 shook them off from us, otherwise we should have been 
 overwhelmed and bruised by their weight. I might boast 
 that not a groan or unmanly expression escaped me in the 
 midst of my dangers, were it not that my firmness was 
 founded on the consolatory belief that aU mankind was 
 involved, together with myself, in one common ruin. At 
 length, the darkness cleared up, and dispersed like smoke or 
 mist. Eeal daylight succeeded ; even the sun shone forth, 
 but with a lurid light as when eclipsed. The aspect of 
 everything which met our astonished eyes was changed : 
 ashes covered the ground hke a deep snow. We returned 
 to Misenum, and refreshed ourselves, and passed an 
 anxious night in alternate hopes and fears : tbe latter, 
 however, predominated. The earthquake stiU continued ; 
 and many, in a state of frenzy, made a mockery of their 
 own and their neighbours' misfortunes by terrific prophe- 
 cies." The above letters, though long, have been quoted 
 because they detaU, in the most interesting manner, the 
 circumstances of the elder PHny's death, and at the same 
 time illustrate the simple and graphic power of the 
 nephew's pen. 
 
 The Natural Philosophy of Pliny is, to say the least, an 
 unequalled monument of studious diligence and perse- 
 vering industry. It consists of thirty-seven books, and 
 contains, according to his own account,' 20,000 facts (as 
 
 See Proem. 17. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF PLINY. 525 
 
 he beliered them to be) connected with nature and art : 
 the restdt, not of original research, but, as he honestly con- 
 fessed, culled from the labours of other men. It must, 
 however, be allowed that the confused arrangement is 
 OA¥ing partly to the indefinite state of science, and the 
 consequent mingling together of branches which are 
 separate and distinct.^ 
 
 Owing to the extent and variety of his reading, his 
 credulous love of the marvellous, and his want of judg- 
 ment in ""comparing and selecting, he does not present us 
 with a correct view of the degree of truth to which 
 science had attained in his own age. He does not show 
 how one age had corrected the errors of a preceding one ; 
 but reproduces errors, evidently obsolete and inconsist- 
 ent with facts and theories which had grown up after- 
 wards and replaced them. 
 
 With him mythological traditions appear to have 
 almost the same authority as modern discoveries. The 
 earth teems with monsters, not miracles, or exceptions to 
 the regular order of nature, but specimens of her in- 
 genuity. In his theory of the universe he assumes such 
 causes and principles as lead him to admit, without 
 question, the existence of prodigies, however impossible 
 they may be. They are wonderful because unusual ; but 
 they are effects which might result from the natural 
 causes which he believed to be in operation. His theory, 
 that Nature acted not only by regular laws but often by 
 actual interferences (for this was the character of his 
 pantheism, ii., 5, 7)— his behef that the various germs 
 of created things were scattered in profusion throughout 
 the universe, and accidentally mingling in confusion pro- 
 duced monstrous forms (3)— prepared him to consider 
 nothing incredible (xi. 3) ; and his temper inchned hun 
 to go farther, and to admit almost everything which was 
 credible as true.^ 
 
 ' Proem. 16, 17. I See book ii. 
 
526 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Deficient as the work is in scientific value and philo- 
 sophical arrangement, the author evidently wished to 
 stamp it with a character of practical utility. It is an 
 encyclopaedia of the knowledge which could he brought 
 together from difierent sources; and for such a work 
 there are two important requisites — facility of reference, 
 and the citation of authorities. With this view the 
 whole is preceded by a summary, and to each book is 
 added a table of contents, together with the names of 
 authors to whom he is indebted. 
 
 The work commences with the theory of the universe ;' 
 the history and science of astronomy ; meteorological 
 phenomena; and the geological changes which have 
 taken place on the earth by volcanic and aqueous action. 
 Greography, both physical and poHtical, occupy the four 
 next books.^ Here truth and error are mingled ia dire 
 confusion. Accounts which are based solely on the tra- 
 ditions of remote antiquity are given side by side with 
 the results of modern investigation, and yet no distinc- 
 tion is drawn as to authenticity ; and, owing to his con- 
 fusing together such different accounts, measurements 
 and distances are generally wrong. 
 
 But in the zoological division of the work, which next 
 foUows,^ he gives unrestrained scope to his credulity and 
 love of the marvellous. He tells of men whose feet 
 were turned backwards ; of others whose feet were so 
 large as to shade them when they lay in the sun. He 
 describes beiugs in whom both sexes were united ; others 
 in whom a change of sex had taken place ; others with- 
 out mouths, who fed on the fragrance of fruits and 
 flowers.* Such are some of the marvels of the human 
 race recorded by him. Amongst the lower animals he 
 enumerates horned horses furnished with wings;* the 
 
 ' Book ii. ' Books iii. — vi. ° Books Tii.— xl. 
 
 * Book vii. 4. * Book viii. 30. 
 
NATURAL HISTORY OF PLINY. 537 
 
 Mantichora, with the face of a man, three rows of teeth, a 
 lion's body, and a scorpion's tail -^ the unicorn with a 
 stag's head, a horse's body, the feet of the elephant, and 
 the tail of a boar -^ the basilisk, whose very glance is fatal. 
 The seas are peopled not only with sea-goats and sea- 
 elephants, but with real Nereids and Tritons.^ Mice, 
 according to Ids account, produce their young by Hcking 
 each other ; and fire produces an insect (PyraHs) which 
 cannot Hve except in the midst of the flames. 
 
 Sixteen books* are devoted to botany, both general and 
 medical; and the medicinal properties of the human 
 frame, and of other animal substances, as well as of 
 different waters, are next discussed." An account of 
 minerals and metals concludes the work : and this portion 
 embraces an account of their various uses in the fine arts, 
 intermingled with interesting anecdotes and histories of 
 art and artists. This is the most valuable as well as the 
 most pleasing section of the work. 
 
 He was pre-eminently a collector of stories and anec- 
 dotes and supposed facts, and he was only accidentally 
 a naturahst, because natural history furnished the most 
 extensive variety of marvellous and curious materials. The 
 naturahst, Cuvier,* observed his want of judgment, his 
 credulity, his defective arrangement, and the inappropriate 
 nature of his observations. Notwithstanding aU these 
 faxilts this elaborate work contains many valuable truths, 
 much entertaining information, and the style in which it is 
 written is, when not too florid, fall of vigour and expres- 
 sion. The philosophical belief can scarcely be considered 
 that of any particular school, although tinctured by the 
 prevalent Stoicism of the day; but its pervading character 
 is querulous and melancholy. Beheving that nature is 
 an all-powerful principle, and the world or universe itself, 
 
 ' Book viii. 30. ' Book viii. 31. ^ Book viii. 33. 
 
 ' Books xii.— xxvii. ' Books xxviii. — xxxii. " Biogr. Un. art. Plin. 
 
528 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 instinct with Deity, he saw more of evil than of good in 
 the Divine dispensations : and the result was a gloomy 
 and. discontented pantheism. 
 
 Pliny the Younger — (born a.d. 61). 
 
 C. PUnius Csecilius Secimdus was sister's son to the 
 elder PHny. Most of the information which we possess 
 respecting his life and character is derived from his 
 letters. He was horn at Novo-Comum, on the Lake 
 Larius (Como) ; and as he was in his eighteenth year' at 
 the time of the eruption of Vesuvius, which took place 
 A.D. 79, the date of his hirth must have heen a.d. 61. 
 
 On the death of his father, C. Csecihus, he was adopted 
 by his uncle, and therefore took the name of Plinius. He 
 was educated under the guardianship of Virginius Eufus, 
 who felt for him the affection of a parent. The regard 
 was evidently mutual. " I loved him," writes PUny to 
 Voconius,'* vdth that tenderness which so frequently adorns 
 his letters, especially those to his wife Calphurnia, " as 
 much as I admired him ;" and he thus concludes his letter : 
 " I had wished to vmte to you on many other subjects, 
 but my thoughts are fiiUy occupied on this one subject of 
 contemplation. I see, I think of no one but Virginius. 
 In fancy I seem to hear his voice, to address him, to hold 
 him in my arms. We may perhaps have, and shall con- 
 tinue to have, men equal to him in virtue, but no one 
 equal to him in glory." In beUes-lettres and eloquence* 
 he attended constantly the lectures of Quintihan and 
 Nicetes Sacerdos, of whom favourable mention is made by 
 Seneca.* 
 
 Under the care of such tutors and such an imcle, his 
 literary tastes were cultivated early, and before he had 
 completed his fifteenth year he gave proof of his love of 
 poetry, by writing what he modestly says was called a 
 
 ■ Ep. vi. 20. " Ep. ii. 1. ' Ep. vi. 6. ■* Sen. Suasor, I. 
 
PANEGYRIC ON TRAJAN. 529 
 
 Greek tragedy. This taste for poetry remained to him 
 in after life : once when weather-bound at the island 
 Icaria, he celebrated the event in an elegiac poem. He 
 wrote hexameters, of which he gives a short specimen, and 
 also a birth-day ode in hendecasyllables, and he tells us 
 he wrote with quickness and faciUty.' 
 
 He was called to the bar in his nineteenth year, and 
 attained great celebrity as a pleader.^ He stood high 
 in favour with Trajan ; and filled with distinction high 
 ofl&ces, both military and civil. He was mihtary tribune 
 in Syria ; and, besides being praetor and consul at home, 
 he served as procurator of the province of Bithynia abroad. 
 He was gentle, liberal, refined, and benevolent ; and his 
 zeal for the interests of Hterature, and his wish that the 
 youths of Como might not be forced to resort to Milan 
 for education, but might owe that blessing to their native 
 place,^ led him to offer help in founding a school, in form- 
 , ing a public Hbrary, and in establishing exhibitions for 
 ingenuous students.* He thought, with justice, such acts 
 of munificence nobler than gaudy spectacles and barbarous 
 shows of gladiators. 
 
 His works consist of a Panegyric on Trajan, and a 
 collection of Letters in ten books. The Panegyric is a 
 piece of courtly flattery, for the fulsomeness of which the 
 only defence which can be made, is the cringing and 
 fawning manners of his times. It was written and de- 
 livered in the year in which he was consul.' The Letters 
 are very valuable, not only for the insight which they 
 give into his own character, but also into the manners 
 and modes of thought of his iUustrious contemporaries, as 
 well as the poHtics of the day. Many of them bear 
 evident marks of having been expressly intended for 
 publication. This of course detracts from their value as 
 
 Ep vii. 4. ^ Ep. V. 8. " Ep. iv. 13. * Ep. i. 8. 
 
 ' A. D. 100. 
 
 M 
 
530 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 fresli and trutlxfiil exponents of the writer's thoughts, 
 which all letters ought to be ; but they are most dehghtftd 
 to read, and for liveliness, descriptive power, elegance, and 
 simplicity of style, are scarcely inferior to those of Cicero, 
 whom he evidently took for his model> 
 
 The tenth book, which consists of his despatches to 
 Trajan, together with the Emperor's rescripts, will be 
 read with the greatest interest ; and the notices of pubhc 
 affairs contained in them are most valuable to the historian. 
 The despatch respecting the Christians, written from 
 Bithynia, a.d. 104, and the Emperor's answer," are 
 well worthy of transcription ; both because reference is 
 so often made to them, and because they throw light 
 upon the marvellous and rapid propagation of the Gospel ; 
 the manners of the early Christians ; the treatment to 
 which their constancy exposed them, even under favour- 
 able circumstances ; and the severe jealousy with which 
 even a governor of mild and gentle temper thought it 
 his duty to regard them. "It is my constant practice. 
 Sire, to refer to you aU subjects on which I entertain 
 doubt. For who is better able to direct my hesitation 
 or to instruct my ignorance ? I have never been present 
 at the trials of Christians, and therefore I do not know 
 in what way, or to what extent, it is usual to question or 
 to punish them. I have also felt no small difficulty in 
 deciding whether age should make any difference, or 
 whether those of the tenderest and those of mature years 
 should be treated ahke ; whether pardon should be ac- 
 corded to repentance, or whether, where a man has once 
 been a Christian, recantation shoidd profit him ; whether, 
 if the name of Christian does not imply criminahty, still 
 the crimes peculiarly belonging to the name should 
 be punished. Meanwhile, in the case of those against 
 whom informations have been laid before me, I have pur- 
 
 ' Ep. X. 97 and 98. 
 
DESPATCH RESPECTING THE CHRISTIANS. 531 
 
 sued the following line of conduct. I have put to them, 
 personally, the question whether they were Christians. 
 If they confessed, I interrogated them a second and third 
 time, and threatened them with punishment. If they 
 stm persevered, I ordered their commitment; for I had 
 no doubt whatever that, whatever they confessed, at any 
 rate dogged and inflexible obstiuacy deserved to be 
 punished. There were others who displayed similar mad- 
 ness ; but, as they were Eoman citizens, I ordered them 
 to be sent back to the city. Soon persecution itself, as 
 is generally the case, caused the crime to spread, and 
 it appeared in new forms. An anonymous information 
 was laid against a large number of persons, but they 
 deny that they are, or ever have been. Christians. As 
 they invoked the gods, repeating the form after me, and 
 offered prayers, together with incense and wine, to your 
 image, which I had ordered to be brought, together 
 with those of the deities, and besides cursed Christ, whilst 
 those who are true Christians, it is said, cannot be com- 
 pelled to do any one of these things, I thought it right 
 to set them at liberty. Others, when accused by an 
 informer, confessed that they were Christians, and soon 
 after denied the fact ; they said they had been, but had 
 ceased to be, some three, some more, not a few even twenty 
 years previously. AU these worshipped your image and 
 those of the gods, and cursed Christ. But they aflBrmed 
 that the sum-total of their fault or their error was, that 
 they were accustomed to assemble on a fixed day before 
 dawn, and sing an antiphonal hymn to Christ as God : 
 that they bound themselves by an oath, not to the com- 
 mission of any wickedness, but to abstain from theft, 
 robbery, and adultery; never to break a promise, or to 
 deny a deposit when it was demanded back. When these 
 ceremonies were concluded, it was their custom to depart, 
 and again assemble together to take food harmlessly 
 and in common. That after my proclamation, in which, 
 
 2 M 2 
 
582 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 in obedience to yoiir command, I had forbidden associa- 
 tions, tbey had desisted from this practice. For these 
 reasons I the more thought it necessary to investigate 
 the real truth, by putting to the torture two maidens, 
 who were called deaconesses ; . but I discovered nothing 
 but a perverse and excessive superstition. I have there- 
 fore deferred taking cognizance of the matter until I had 
 consulted you. For it seemed to me a case requiring 
 advice, especially on account of the number of those in 
 peril. For many of every age, sex, and rank, are and 
 will contiuue to be called in question. The infection in 
 fact has spread not only through the cities, but also 
 through the villages and open country ; but it seems that 
 its progress can be arrested. At any rate, it is clear that 
 the temples which were almost deserted begin to be fre- 
 quented ; and solemn sacrifices, which had been long in- 
 termitted, are again performed, and victims are being sold 
 everywhere, for which up to this time a purchaser could 
 rarely be found. It is therefore easy ]to conceive that 
 crowds might be reclaimed if an opportunity for repent- 
 ance were given." 
 
 Trajan to Pliny. 
 
 " In sifting the cases of those who have been indicted 
 on the charge of Christianity, you have adopted, my dear 
 Secundus, the right course of proceeding ; for no certain 
 rule can be laid down which will meet all cases . They must 
 not be sought after, but if they are informed against and 
 convicted, they must be punished; with this proviso, 
 however, that if any one denies that he is a Christian, 
 and proves the point by offering prayers to our deities, 
 notwithstanding the suspicions under which he has 
 laboured, he shall be pardoned on his repentance. On no 
 account should any anonymous charge be attended to, 
 for it would be the worst possible precedent, and is in- 
 consistent with the habits of our times." 
 
THE BEAUTY OF HIS WRITINGS. 533 
 
 Pliny's accurate and judicial mind, his political and 
 administrative prudence, his taste for the beautiful, 
 his power of description, his unrivalled neatness, his 
 slrill in investing Avith a peculiar interest every subject 
 he takes in hand, may be amply proved by a perusal of 
 his Letters. His touches are neither too many nor too 
 few. A mere note of thanks for a present of thrushes' 
 shows as much skill, in its way, as his numerous elabo- 
 rate despatches to the Emperor.^ His brief biographical 
 notice of Silius Italicus contains, in a few short sentences, 
 aU that can be said favourably of the Hfe and character 
 of his correspondent. The sympathy which he felt for 
 his friends, as well as the delicacy of his panegyric, are 
 exhibited in the few lines which he penned to Greminius 
 on the death of the wife of Macrinus ;^ his honesty in the 
 case of the inheritance of Pomponia -^ his legal skill in 
 passages too numerous to specify ; his descriptive power 
 in the narrative of the eruption of Vesuvius,^ in which his 
 uncle perished ; and in the ftdl and minute description of 
 his villa, its rooms, furniture, works of art, garden, and 
 surrounding scenery. 
 
 ' Ep. V. ii. ' Lib. x. " Ep. viii. 5. 
 
 * Ep. V. 1. = Ep. vL 20. 
 
534 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 M, FABIUS QUINTILIANUS — HIS BIOGRAPHY — HIS INSTITUTIONES 
 ORATORIiE — HIS VIEWS ON EDUCATION— DIVISION OF HIS SUBJECT 
 INTO FIVE PARTS— REVIEW OF GREEK AND ROMAN LITERATURE — 
 COMPLETENESS OP HIS GREAT WORK — HIS OTHER WORKS — HIS 
 DISPOSITION — GRIEF FOR THE LOSS OF HIS SON. 
 
 M. Fabius Quintilianus. 
 
 In this peculiarly rhetorical age the most distinguished 
 teacher of rhetoric was M. Fabius Quintilianus. He 
 attempted to restore a purer and more classical taste; 
 and although to a certain extent he was successful, the 
 effect which he produced was only temporary. He was, 
 like Martial, a Spaniard, bom^at Calagurris, the modem 
 Calahorra.^ At an early age he came to Eome, and had 
 the advantage of hearing the celebrated orators Domitius 
 Afer and Julius Africanus, whose eloquence he considered 
 superior to that of their contemporaries.* How long he 
 remained at Eome is uncertain ; but he appears to have 
 gone back to his native country, and then returned to the 
 capital together with the Emperor Galba. 
 
 Although he practised as a pleader, he was far more 
 eminent as an instructor. Domitian entrusted to him 
 the education of his two great-nephews ;* and the younger 
 Pliny was also one of his pupils.^ The Emperor's favour 
 
 ' A. D. 40. ^ Auson. Profess, i. 7. ' Inst. Or. i. 138. 
 
 ' I. O. iv. Proem. » PI. Ep. ii. 14. • 
 
BIOGRAPHY OF QUINTILIAN. 535 
 
 conferred on him that reward to which Juvenal aUudes 
 in the following line : — 
 
 Si Fortuna volet fies de rhetore consul ;' 
 
 and besides this he held one of the professorships which 
 were endowed by Vespasian with 100,000 sestertia per 
 anniun (800Z.)' He thus formed an exception to the 
 larger number of instructors and grammarians who 
 swarmed in Eome, who, depending on the fees of their 
 pupils, earned a precarious subsistence,* and was even 
 able to purchase estates and accumulate property. 
 
 But though more fortunate than many deserving 
 members of his profession, he was not esteemed a wealthy 
 man by the rich and luxurious Eomans of his day ; for 
 his grateful pupil, Pliny, when he presented him with 
 400^. towards his daughter's portion, spoke of him as a 
 man of moderate means.* His expressions are : — " Te 
 porro, animo beatissimum, modicum facultatibus scio." 
 The probability is that he was twice married. His first 
 wife died at the early age of nineteen, leaving two sons, 
 of whom death bereaved him in a few years.' For the 
 instruction of the elder of these, who survived his 
 younger brother for but a short time, he wrote his great 
 work. His second wife was the daughter of one Tutihus, 
 and the fruit of this marriage was an only daughter, 
 who married jSTonius Celer, and to whom the liberal 
 present of PHny was made. For twenty years he dis- 
 charged the duties of his professorship, and then retired 
 from active life ; and died, as is generally supposed, about 
 A.D. 118. His countryman. Martial,^ speaks of him as 
 the glory of the Eoman bar, and the head of his profession 
 as an instructor : — 
 
 Quintiliane, vagse moderator summe juventee, 
 Gloria RomanEe, Quintiliane, togae.'' 
 
 ' Sat. vii. 197. Another professor of rhetoric, Ausonius, was also ele- 
 vated to the consulship by the Emperor Gratian, A. D. 379. 
 
 ' Suet. Vesp. 18. ' Juv. vii. 186. ' Ep. vi. 32. 
 
 ' I vi. Proem. " Epig. i. 62. ' Epig. ii. 90. 
 
536 ROMAN CLASSldAL LITERATURE. 
 
 QtiintiHan's great work is entitled Tnstitutiones Oraiorice, 
 or a complete instruction in the art of oratory : and in 
 it he shows himself far superior to Cicero as a teacher, 
 although he was inferior to him as an orator. The 
 rhetorical works of the great orator will not, in point of 
 fulness and completeness, hear a comparison with the 
 elaborate treatise of Quintilian. When engaged in its 
 composition he had retired from the duties of a pubhc 
 professor, and was only occupied, as he himself states,' 
 with his duties as tutor to the great-nephews of Domitian. 
 He professes to have undertaken the task reluctantly, and 
 at the earnest sohcitations of his friends. He thought 
 that the ground was already preoccupied, both by Greek 
 and Latin writers of eminence. But seeing how wide 
 the field was, and that such a work must treat of all those 
 qualifications without which no one can be an orator, he 
 complied with their entreaties, and dedicated his book to 
 his friend Marcellus Victorius, as a token of his regard, 
 and a useful contribution towards the education of his 
 son. Two rhetorical treatises had already appeared under 
 his name, but not pubHshed by himself. One consisted 
 of a lecture which occupied two days in delivery ; the 
 other a longer course : and both had been taken down in 
 notes, and given to the pubhc, as he says, by his excel- 
 lent but too partial pupils : (boni juvenes, sed nimium 
 amantes mei.)^ 
 
 On the Institutiones he professes to have expended the 
 greatest pains and labour. He traces the progress of the 
 orator from the very cradle until he arrives at perfection.^ 
 He speaks of the importance of earhest impressions, of 
 the parental, especially the maternal care, and illustrates 
 this by the example of ComeHa, to whom the Gracchi owed 
 their eminence ; and brings forward, as instances of female 
 eloquence, the daughters of Lselius and Hortensius. He 
 
 I. 0. Proem, iv. ' I. O. Proem. I. ' Lib. 
 
HIS VIEWS ON EDUCATION. 537 
 
 believes that education must commence, and the tastes 
 be formed, and the moral character be impressed, even in 
 infancy. The choice, therefore, of a nurse is, in his 
 opinion, as important as of early companions, pedagogues, 
 and instructors. 
 
 Both on account of the positive good to be acquired, 
 and the evil resulting from the corrupt state of Eoman 
 society which the boy would thus avoid, he prefers a 
 school to a home education.' As we consider the classical 
 , languages the best preparation for the study of the 
 vernacular tongue^ so he lays down as an axiom that 
 education in Greek literature should precede Latin. 
 Grammar' is to be the foundation of education, together 
 with its subdivisions, declension, construction,* ortho- 
 graphy,' the use of words,^ rhythm, metre, the beauties 
 and faults of style,' reading,* deHvery, action ;' and to 
 these are to be added music and geometry.'" 
 
 Primary education being completed, the yoimg student 
 is to be transferred to the care of the rhetorician." The 
 choice of a proper instructor,''^ as well as his duties and 
 character'^ are described; the necessary exercises, the 
 reading and study of orations and histories are recom- 
 mended," and the nature, principles, objects, and utility 
 of oratory are accurately investigated. In the third 
 book, after a short notice of the principal writers on 
 rhetoric," he divides his subject into five parts,'* namely, 
 invention, arrangement, style, memory, both natural and 
 artificial, and deHvery or action. Closely following 
 Aristotle, he then discusses the three kinds of oratory, 
 the demonstrative, dehberative, and judicial." In the 
 fourth, he treats of the physical divisions of aU orations, 
 
 ' Cap. ii. ' Cap. i. ' Lib. i. passim. * Cap. iii. 
 
 » Cap. vi. = Cap. vii. '' Cap. v. " Cap. viii. 
 
 » Cap. xi. '" Cap. x. " Lib. ii. i. '* Cap. iii. 
 
 " Cap. ii. '■' Cap. iv. aud v. " Cap. xiii. ad fin. 
 
 ■« Lib. i. ii. '' Cap. iii. ad fin. 
 
538 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 namely, the exordium,^ the narration,* excursions or 
 digressions,^ the question proposed,* the division of 
 topics.^ In that part of his treatise which discusses the 
 next division, namely, proofs, Aristotle is his chief guide, 
 as meeting, in his opinion, the universal assent of all 
 mankind. The sixth book analyses the peroration, and 
 also discusses the passions,' moral habits,' ridicule,* and 
 other topics, which complete the subject of invention. 
 The seventh treats of arrangement and its kindred 
 topics ; the eighth and ninth of style and its essential 
 qualities, such as perspicuity,' ornament,'" tropes," am- 
 plification,'^ figures of speech.'^ 
 
 EacOity, or, as we in common with the Eomans, fi-e- 
 quently term it, " copia verborum,^*' is the next division of 
 the subject ; and as original invention has already occupied 
 so large a portion of his work, he now endeavours to 
 guide the student in imitating the excellences of the 
 best Greek and Latin writers ; and teUs him that the 
 next duty, in point of importance, is to profit by the 
 inventions of others." A wide field is thus opened before 
 him, aflEbrding an opportunity for the display of his 
 extensive learning, hi« critical taste, his penetrating dis- 
 crimination, and his great power of illustration." 
 
 He passes over in rapid review the whole history of 
 Greek and Roman literature. His remarks, though 
 brief, are clear and decided, and are marked with an 
 attractive beauty and sound judgment which have stood 
 the test of ages, and recommend themselves to aU who 
 have been distinguished for pure classical taste. So 
 adroit is he in catching the leading features, that the 
 portraits of great authors of antiquity, though only 
 
 ' Lib. iv. i. " Cap. ii. 
 
 ' Cap. iii. iv. 
 
 " Cap. V. 
 
 ' Lib. V. i. — xiv, ° Cap. i. 
 
 ' Cap. ii. 
 
 » Cap. iii. 
 
 » Cap. ii. '» Cap. iii. 
 
 " Cap. vi. 
 
 '* Cap. iv. 
 
 ^ Lib. ix. i. ii. iii. 
 
 "■ Lib. X. i. 
 
 '» Lib. X. ii, 
 
 '° Lib. X. i. and lib. xii. x. xi. 
 
 
 
HIS INSTITUTIONES. 539 
 
 sketches and outlines, stand forth in bold and tangible 
 shape, each exhibiting marked and distinct characteristics. 
 There are few specimens of criticism so attractive, so 
 suggestive, and which lay such hold on the memory, as 
 this portion of the Institutions of Quintilian. Other 
 Siubjects are also briefly handled in the tenth book, such 
 as the necessity of pains and elaborate corrections, in 
 order to form a polished style.' The choice of materials,'' 
 original thought,^ the means of acquiring and perfecting 
 a habit of extemporaneous speaking/ 
 
 The eleventh book is devoted to the subjects of appro- 
 priateness, memory,^ and deHvery.* 
 
 The twelfth opens with what the author designates' as 
 the most grave and important portion of the whole work, 
 well worthy of the dignified character of true Eoman 
 virtue. Its subject is the high moral qualifications neces- 
 saa:y for a perfect orator.' Talent, wisdom, learning, 
 eloquence are nothing, if the mind is distracted and torn 
 asunder by vicious thoughts and depraved passions.' The 
 orator, therefore, must learn by what studies his moral 
 character can alone be formed ;" he must possess that 
 firmness of principle which wiU cause him fearlessly to 
 practise what he knows. " Neque erit perfectus orator 
 nisi qui honeste dicere et sciet et audebit." 
 
 A knowledge of history" and the principles of juris- 
 prudence," he also considers indispensably necessary, not- 
 withstanding the shghting way in which Cicero speaks 
 of the antiquarian learning of the jurisconsults. Some 
 practical rules" are also added as to the time of com- 
 mencing practice in the courts, the rules to be observed 
 in undertaking causes,'* and the cautions to be attended 
 to in preparing and pleading them.'' He deprecates the 
 
 ■Lib.iii.iv. »Cap.v. ^Capivi. ' Cap. vii. 
 
 *Lib xi i = Cap. ii. iii. ' VidePioem. » Cap. i. 
 
 »Cap. i. '"Cap. ii. " Lib. iv. "^ Lib. iii. 
 
 '^ Cap. vi. ' ' Cap. vii. " Cap. viii. ix. 
 
540 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 undertaking such important duties early, although the 
 call to the bar at Eome took place as soon as the manly 
 gown was assumed : tradition spoke of boys clothed with 
 the prsetexta pleading. Cassar Augustus, at twelve years 
 old, pubhcly pronounced a eulogy on his grandmother, 
 as did Tiberius at the early age of nine over the body of 
 his deceased father. ' 
 
 Enough has been said to show the fdlness and com- 
 pleteness with which Quintilian has exhausted his subject, 
 and left, as a monument of his taste and genius, a text- 
 book of the science and art of nations, as well as a 
 masterly sketch of the eloquence of antiquity. 
 
 There have been attributed to Quintilian, besides his 
 great work, nineteen declamations or judicial speeches 
 relating to imaginary suits ; also one hundred and forty- 
 five sketches of orations, the remains of a larger collec- 
 tion consisting of three hundred and eighty-eight. But 
 there is no evidence in favour of their being his, and 
 their style seems to show that they were the work of 
 different authors and different ages. Neither is there 
 any good reason for considering that the treatise on the 
 Causes of Corrupt Eloquence is the same as that to which 
 he alludes in the proemium to the sixth and the con- 
 clusion of the eighth book'' of the Institutions. Indeed, 
 the almost unanimous opinion of scholars assigns it to 
 Tacitus. His works were discovered by Poggius, toge- 
 ther with those of Silius ItaHcus and L. Valerius Flaccus, 
 in the monastery of St. GraU, twenty miles from Con- 
 stance, during the sitting of the celebrated ecclesiastical 
 council. 
 
 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 
 
 ' Suet. V. Ti. " Lib. viii. 6. 
 
HIS GRIEF AT THE LOSS OP HIS SON. 641 
 
 the loss of his wife and children. It is the touching 
 eloquence of one who could not write otherwise than 
 gracefuUy ; and if he murmurs at the divine decrees, it 
 must be remembered that his dearest hopes were blighted, 
 and that he had not the hopes, the consolation, or the 
 teaching of a Christian. " I had a son," he says, " whose 
 eminent genius deserved a father's anxious diligence. I 
 thought that if— which I might fairly have expected 
 and wished for — 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 bereave- 
 ment, 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 surely have been 
 best then to have flung upon the funeral pile — which was 
 destined prematurely to consume aU that bound me to 
 life — my unlucky work, and the iU-starred fruits of aU 
 my toils, and not to have wearied with new cares a life 
 to which I so imnaturally clung. For what tender 
 parent would pardon me if I were able to study any 
 longer, and not hate my firmness of mind, if I, who sur- 
 vived all my dear ones, could find any employment for 
 my tongue except to accuse the gods, and to protest 
 that no Providence looks down upon the affairs of men ? 
 If I cannot say this in reference to my own case, to 
 which no objection can be made except that I survive, 
 at least I can with reference to theirs — condemned to 
 an unmerited and untimely grave." 
 
 " 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 
 
542 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 me to happiness. For not only did tlie exercise of 
 every feminine virtue render her husband's grief incurable, 
 but, compared with my own age, she was but a girl, and 
 therefore her loss may be accounted as that of a child. 
 Stm, my children survived, and were my joy and comfort, 
 and she, since I survived (a thing unnatural, although 
 she wished it), 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 misfortunes, 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 endeaiing talk, his 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 grand- 
 mother who brought him up, and all who usually gain 
 the attachment of children of that age. 
 
 " Thankful therefore do I feel for that sorrow in which 
 but a few months before I was plunged by the loss of his 
 matchless, his inestimable mother ; for my lot was less 
 a subject for tears than hers was for rejoicing. One 
 only hope, .support, and consolation, had remained iu 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 weU-set fruit. I swear by 
 my misfortunes, by the consciousness of my unhappiness, 
 by those departed spirits, the deities who preside over 
 my grief, that in him I discerned such vigour of intellect, 
 not only in the acquisition of learning (and yet in 
 all my extensive experience I never saw it surpassed), 
 such a zeal for study, which, as his tutors can testify, 
 never required pressing, but also such uprightness, filial 
 affection, refinement, and generosity, as furnished 
 
HIS GRIEF AT THE LOSS OP HIS SON. 543 
 
 grounds for apprehending the thunder-stroke which has 
 fallen. For it is generally observed that a precocious 
 maturity too quickly perishes ; and there is I know not 
 what envious power which deflowers our brightest hopes, 
 lest we soar higher than human beings are permitted 
 to soar. He possessed also those gifts which are acci- 
 'dental — a clear and melodious voice, a sweet pronuncia- 
 tion, a correct enunciation of every letter both in Greek 
 and Latin. Such promise did he give of future ex- 
 cellence ; but he possessed also the far higher quaHties 
 of constancy, earnestness, and firmness to bear sorrow 
 and to resist fear. With what admiration did his 
 physicians contemplate the patience with which he 
 endured a malady of eight months' duration ! What 
 consolation did he administer to me in his last mo- 
 ments ! When life and intellect began to fail, his 
 wandering miad dwelt on literature alone. dearest 
 object of my disappointed hopes, could I behold thy 
 glazing eyes, thy fleeting breath ! Could I embrace thy 
 cold and lifeless form, and live to drink again the common 
 air ! Well do I deserve these agonizing thoughts, these 
 tortures which I endure ! " 
 
544 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURK. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 A. CORNELIUS CELSUS— HIS MERITS — CICERO MBDICORUM — SCRI- 
 BONIUS LARGUS DESIGNATIANUS — POMPONIUS MELA — L. JUNIUS 
 MODERATUS COLUMELLA — S. JULIUS FRONTINUS— DECLINE OF 
 TASTE IN THE SILVER AGE — FOREIGN INFLUENCE ON ROMAN 
 LITERATURE — CONCLUSION. 
 
 Such were tlie principal writers who adorned and illus- 
 trated the literature of the sUver age : it remains only to 
 speak briefly of those whose works, although of minor 
 interest, must not be passed over without notice. 
 
 AUBELIUS COKNELIUS CeLSUS. 
 
 Celsus was the author of many works on various 
 subjects, of which one, in eight books, on Medicine is 
 now extant. The place of his birth and the age at 
 which he flourished are unknown, but he probably lived 
 in the reign of Tiberius. He was a man of compre- 
 hensive, almost of encyclopaedic knowledge, and wrote 
 on philosophy, rhetoric, agrictllture, and even strategy. 
 It has been doubted whether he ever practised medicine, 
 or was only theoretically acquainted with the subject; 
 but the independence of his views, the practical as well 
 as the scientific nature of his instructions, are incon- 
 sistent with any hypothesis except that he had himself 
 patiently watched the phenomena of morbid action, and 
 experimented upon its treatment. Above all, his know- 
 ledge of surgery, and his clear exposition of surgical 
 
MERITS OF CELSUS. 545 
 
 operations, necessarily imply that practical experience 
 and reality of knowledge which never could have been 
 acquired from books. 
 
 If we compare the masterly handling of the subject 
 by Celsus with the history of medicine by Pliny ,^ it is 
 easy to distinguish the man of practical and experi- 
 mental science from the collector and transcriber of 
 others' views. His manual of medicine embraces the 
 following subjects: — Diet,^ Pathology,* Therapeutics,* 
 Surgery -^ and without entering into its peculiar merits, 
 a task which could only be performed satisfactorily by 
 a professional writer, the highest testimony is borne to 
 its merits by the fact of its being used as a text-book 
 even in the present advanced state of medical science. 
 
 The study of medicine has a tendency to predispose 
 the mind for general scientific investigations in other 
 departments not immediately connected with it. Hence 
 the medical profession has numbered amongst its 
 members many men of general scientific attainments ; 
 and Celsus was an example of this versatiHty. The 
 taste of the age in which he lived turned his attention 
 also to polite literature ; and to this may be ascribed the 
 Augustan purity of his style, which gained for him the 
 appellation of " Cicero Medicorum." 
 
 ScEiBONius Largus Designatianus. 
 
 The " Cicero of physicians " was followed by Scri- 
 bonius, an obsequious court physician, in the reign of 
 Claudius. He was the author of several works, one of 
 which, a large collection of prescriptions, is extant. In 
 the language of impious flattery he calls the imbecile 
 Emperor a god. He is said to have accompanied him in 
 his expedition to Britain. 
 
 1 H. N. xxix. ' Cap. i. ii. ° Cap. iii. iv. ■• Cap. v. vi. 
 
 ' Cap. vii. viii. 
 
 2 N 
 
546 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 PoMPONius Mela. 
 
 Pomponius Mela may be considered as the repre- 
 sentative of the Eoman geographers. He was a native 
 of Tingentera, a town in Spain, and lived in the reign of 
 Claudius. His treatise is entitled, " De Situ Orbis, 
 Libri iii." It is systematic and learned. The stores 
 of information derived from the Grreek geo^aphers are 
 interspersed with entertaining myths and lively descrip- 
 tions. The knowledge, however, contained in it is all 
 taken from books : it is an epitome of former treatises, 
 and is not enriched by the discoveries of more recent 
 travellers. The simplicity of the style, and the almost 
 Augustan purity of the Latiriity, prevent even so bare a 
 skeleton and list of facts from being dry and uninteresting. 
 
 L. Junius Moderatus Columella. 
 
 The didactic work of Columella gives, in smooth and 
 fluent, though somewhat too diffuse, a style, the ftillest 
 and completest information on practical agriculture 
 amongst the Eomans in the first century of the Christian 
 sera. Pliny is the only classical author who mentions 
 him ; but he refers to him as a competent authority. 
 Columella himself informs us that he was bom at Grades 
 (Cadiz), ^ and resided at Rome,^ but had travelled in Bjria, 
 and COicia.' It is generally supposed that he died and 
 was buried at Tarentum. 
 
 His work, " De Re Eusticd," is divided into twelve 
 books. It treats of all subjects connected with the 
 choice and management of a farm,* the arrangement of 
 farm buildings,^ the propagation and rearing of stock,* 
 the cultivation of fruit-trees,' and household economy.' 
 
 ' Lib. X. 185. '■ Prsef. 20. ' Lib. ii. 10. 
 
 * Lib. ii. ' Lib. i. « Lib. vi. vii. viii. ix. 
 
 ' Lib. iii. iv. v. ° Lib. xii. 
 
SEXTUS JULIUS FllONTINUS. 547 
 
 A calendar is attached to the eleventh book, pointing 
 out the cosmical risings and settings of the constellations, 
 which marked the successive seasons for various labours, 
 and other practical points of rustic astronomy. The 
 tenth book, the subject of which is horticulture, is in 
 hexameters. It never rises quite to the height of poetry : 
 it is rather metrical prose, characterized, like the rest of 
 his work, by fluency, and also expressed in correct versi- 
 fication. The reason which he gives for this variation 
 from his plan is, that it is intended as supplementary to 
 the Greorgics of YirgU, and that in so doing he is follow- 
 ing the great poet's own recommendations. In his pre- 
 face to his friend Silvinus he thus expresses his intention -. 
 — " Postulatio tua pervicit ut poeticis numeris explerem 
 Georgici carminis omissas partes, quas tamen et ipse 
 Virgilius significaverat posteris se memorandas relin- 
 quere." 
 
 Sextus Julius Frontinus. 
 
 Sex. Jul. Frontinus deserves a place amongst Eoman 
 classical writers as the author of two works, both of 
 which are stiU extant. The first, entitled " Stratagema- 
 ticon, Libri iv.," was a treatise on military tactics. The 
 form in which he has enunciated his doctrines is that of 
 precepts and anecdotes of celebrated military commanders. 
 In this way the necessary preparations for a battle, the 
 stratagems resorted to in fighting, the rules for con- 
 ducting sieges, and the means of maintaining discipline 
 in an army, are explained and illustrated in a straight- 
 forward and soldierhke style. 
 
 As the object which he had in view in adducing his 
 anecdotes is scientific illustration rather than historic 
 truth, he is not very particular as to the -sources from 
 which his examples are derived. It is interesting, how- 
 ever, to the antiquarian, if not of practical utility to the 
 tactician, as displaying the theory and practice of ancient 
 
548 ROMAN CLASSICAL LITEKATURE. 
 
 warfare. This subject had in early times been treated 
 of by Cato and Cincins, and afterwards by Hyginus in a 
 treatise on Field Fortification {de Castrametatione), and 
 also in the epitome of Vegetius. 
 
 His other work, which has descended to modem times 
 in a perfect state, is a descriptive architectural treatise, 
 iu two books, on those wonderfbl monuments of Eoman 
 art, the aqueducts. But besides these, fragments remain 
 of other works, which assign Frontinus an important 
 place in the estimation of the student of Eoman history. 
 These are treatises on surveying, and the laws and cus- 
 toms relating to landed property. < They were partly of 
 a scientific, partly of a jurisprudential character, and are 
 to be found amongst the works of the Agri-mensores, or 
 Eei Agrarice Scriptores. The difficulty and obscurity of 
 everything connected with Eoman agrarian institutions 
 is well known ; and every fragment relating to them is 
 valuable, because of the probability of its throwing light 
 upon so important a subject. Niebuhr' saw their value, 
 and pronounced that " the fragments of Frontinus were 
 the only work amongst the Agri-mensores which can be 
 counted a part of classical literature, or which was com- 
 posed with any legal knowledge." These fragments, 
 therefore, may be taken as a favourable specimen of this 
 class of writers ; amongst whom were Siculus Flaccus, 
 Argenius Urbicus, and Hyginus (Grammaticus). 
 
 Of the Hfe of Frontinus himself very few facts are 
 known. Hie was city praetor in the reign of Vespasian,* 
 and succeeded Cereahs as governor of Britain. He made 
 a successful campaign against the Silures* (S. Wales), and 
 was succeeded by Agricola, a.d. 78. He was subse- 
 quently curator aquarum,^ an office which probably sug- 
 gested the composition of his practical manual on 
 
 ' See Smith's Diet, of Antiq. s. v. ' a. d. 70. 
 
 " Tac. Agric. ■* De Ag. 1. 
 
CONCLUSION OF THE HISTORY. 549 
 
 aqueducts. He also had a seat in the college of augurs, 
 in which, after his death,' he was succeeded by the 
 younger PHny. 
 
 With this third epoch a history of Eoman classical 
 literature comes to a close. In the silver age taste had 
 gradually but surely declined ; and although the Eoman 
 language and literature shone forth for a time with 
 classic radiance in the writings of Persius, Juvenal, 
 Quintilian, Tacitus, and the PHnies, nothing could arrest 
 its fall. In vain emperors endeavoured to encourage 
 learning by pecuniary rewards and salaried professor- 
 ships : it languished together with the death of consti- 
 tutional freedom, the extinction of patriotism, and the 
 decay of the national spirit. Poetry had become de- 
 clamation. History had degenerated either into fulsome 
 panegyric, or the fleshless skeletons of epitomes ; and at 
 length Eomans seemed to disdain the use of their native 
 tongue — that tongue which laborious pains had brought 
 to such a height of polish and perfection, and wrote in 
 Greek, as they had in the infancy of the national litera- 
 ture, when Latin was too rude and imperfect to embody 
 the ideas which they had derived from their Greek 
 instructors. 
 
 The emperor Hadrian resided long at Athens, and 
 became imbued with a taste and admiration for Greek ; 
 and thus the literature of Eome became Hellenized. 
 From this epoch the term Classical can no longer be 
 appHed to it, for it did not retain its purity. To Greek 
 influence succeeded the stiU more corrupting one of 
 foreign nations. Even with the death of Nerva the 
 uninterrupted succession of emperors of Eoman or Italian 
 birth ceased. Trajan himself was a Spaniard ; and after 
 him not only bai-barians of every European race, but even 
 
 About A. D. 106. 
 
550 EOMAN CLASSICAL LITERATURE. 
 
 Orientals and Africans, were invested with the imperial 
 purple. The empire also over which they ruled was an 
 unwieldy mass of heterogeneous materials. The literary 
 influence of the capital was not felt in the distant portions 
 of the Roman dominions. Schools were established in 
 the very heart of nations just emerging from barbarism 
 — at Burdegala (Bourdeaux), Lugdunum (Lyons), and 
 Augusta Trevirorum (Treves) ; and, although the bless- 
 ings of civilization and intellectual culture were thus 
 distributed far and wide, still hterary taste; as it filtered 
 through the minds of foreigners, became corrupted, and 
 the language of the imperial city, exposed to the infec- 
 tious contact of barbarous idioms, lost its purity.* 
 
 The Latin authors of this period were numerous, and 
 many of them were Christians ; but few had taste to 
 appreciate and imitate the literature pf the Augustan age. 
 The brightest stars which illuminated the darkness were 
 A. GeUius, L. Apuleius, T. Petronius Arbiter, the learned 
 author of the Satumaha ; the Christian ethical philo- 
 sopher L. CoeUus Lactantius ; and that poet, in whom 
 the graceful imagination of classical antiquity seems to 
 have revived, the flattering and courtly Claudian. 
 
 Macrobius. 
 
( 551 ) 
 
 CHEONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 B.C. 
 
 A._n.c. 
 
 UTERAKY CHRONOLOGY. 
 
 CIVn. CHRONOLOGY. 
 
 
 
 First Era. 
 
 
 753-510 
 
 1-244 
 
 Chant of the Arvalian Brother- 
 hood; Saturnian measure; 
 Salian hymn; Pontifical an- 
 nals ; Libri Lintei. 
 
 Regal period. 
 
 449 
 
 305 
 
 Laws of the Twelve Tables ; the 
 so-called Leges Begiss. 
 
 The Decemvirs deposed. 
 
 390 
 
 364 
 
 _ _ _ 
 
 Eome taken by Gauls. 
 
 364 
 
 390 
 
 Stage-players sent for from 
 
 The year following the 
 
 
 
 Etruria. , 
 
 death of Camillus. 
 
 326-304 
 
 428-450 
 
 The TiVurtine insoiiption 
 
 Second Samnite War. 
 
 280 
 
 474 
 
 ' Atopius Claudius Csbcus ; Ti. 
 Coruncanius. 
 
 The year following the 
 
 
 
 arrival of Pyrrhus. 
 
 264 
 
 490 
 
 - - - 
 
 Commencement of first 
 Punic war. 
 
 260 
 
 494 
 
 The Columna Eostrata ; epi- 
 
 Fifth year of the first 
 
 
 
 taphs on the Scipios. 
 
 Punic war. 
 
 241 
 
 513 
 
 - 
 
 Conclusion op the first 
 Punic war. 
 
 240 
 
 514 
 
 Livius Androaious. 
 
 
 239 
 
 515 
 
 Birth of Ennius. 
 
 
 235 
 
 519 
 
 Cnaeus Nsevius flourished 
 
 The Temple of Janus 
 closed for the second 
 time. 
 
 227 
 
 627 
 
 Birth of Plautus ; funeral ora- 
 tion of Q. Metellus. 
 
 
 219 
 
 635 
 
 Q. Fabius Pictor; L. Cinoius 
 Alimentus ; birth of Pacuvius. 
 
 
 204 
 
 650 
 
 Ennius brought to Eome ; Com. 
 Cethegus ; P. Licinius Crassus. 
 
 
 201 
 
 553 
 
 Speech of Fabius Ounctator ; 
 
 Conclusion of second 
 
 
 
 Sextus .filius Catus. 
 
 Punic war. 
 
 195 
 
 659 
 
 M. Poroius Cato consul ; Licinius 
 
 
 186 
 
 568 
 
 Tegula. 
 Senatus-consultum respectmg 
 
 The year following the 
 
 
 
 the Bacchanals. 
 
 condemnation of L. 
 Scipio. 
 
552 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 B.C. 
 
 A.U.C. 
 
 LITERARY CHRONOLOGY. 
 
 CIVIL CHRONOLOGY. 
 
 184 
 
 183 
 181 
 
 179 
 170 
 168 
 
 166 
 155 
 
 154 
 
 600 
 
 150 
 
 604 
 
 148 
 
 606 
 
 146 
 
 608 
 
 138 
 
 616 
 
 133 
 
 129 
 123 
 
 119 
 
 113 
 111 
 
 570 
 
 671 
 
 573 
 
 575 
 684 
 686 
 
 688 
 
 699 
 
 621 
 
 625 
 631 
 
 635 
 
 641 
 643 
 
 CsBoiUus Statius flourished ; he 
 died A.u.c. 686 ; death of 
 Flautus. 
 
 The (so-called) books of Numa 
 found. 
 
 Attius bom. 
 
 Terence exhibits the Andrian ; 
 
 Sp. CarviUus ; C. Sulpicius 
 
 Gallus ; Lavinius Lusuius ; T. 
 
 ManMus Torquatua. 
 The three Attic philosophers 
 
 visit Eome ; C. Acihus Gla- 
 
 brio ; Orates MaHotea. 
 M. Pacuvius ; Scipio .ffimilianus ; 
 
 Lsehus. 
 L. Afranius ; S. Sulpicius Gal- 
 
 ba. 
 Birth of C. LuciUus ; Cassius 
 
 Hemina; A. Postumius Al- 
 
 binus. 
 
 L. Attius flourished ; Q. F. M. 
 Servihanus ; C. Faonius ; 
 Vennonius ; C. Sempronius 
 Tuditanus. 
 
 M. Junius Brutus ; P. Mucius 
 Scaevola ; L. Csehus Anti- 
 pater ; Cn. S. and A. GeUii ; 
 L. CaJpumius Piso Frugi ; 
 Papirius Carbo ; Lepidus 
 Poroina ; iElius Tubero. 
 
 C. Sempronius Gracchus ; Sei- 
 tus TurpUiuB ; C. Lucihus 
 flourished ; Lseviua (?) ; C. 
 Junius Gracchanus ; M. Julius 
 Pennus. 
 
 L. Licinius Crassus accuses 
 Carbo ; M. Antonius (bom 
 RC. 144). 
 
 Censorship of M. Poroius 
 Cato. 
 
 Deaths of Hannibal and 
 Scipio Africanua. 
 
 Accession of Perseus. 
 
 Defeat of Perseus at 
 Pydna. 
 
 Second year of the third 
 Punic war. 
 
 End of third Punic war; 
 
 Carthage and Corinth 
 
 taken. 
 Dec. Jun. Brutus consul. 
 
 Murder of Tib. Gracchus ; 
 Numantia taken. 
 
 Death of Scipio .ffimili- 
 anus, set. 56. 
 
 War begun with the Cim- 
 
 bri. 
 First year of Jugurthine 
 
 war. 
 
CHRONOLOGTCAL TABLE. 
 
 553 
 
 109 
 
 106 
 
 100 
 
 95 
 
 91 
 90 
 
 87 
 
 86 
 
 84 
 
 82 
 78 
 76 
 
 74 
 
 72 
 71 
 70 
 
 67 
 
 65 
 63 
 
 645 
 
 648 
 654 
 659 
 
 663 
 
 664 
 
 667 
 
 668 
 670 
 
 672 
 676 
 678 
 
 680 
 
 683 
 
 684 
 
 687 
 
 689 
 691 
 
 61 
 60 
 59 
 
 693 
 694 
 695 
 
 PubUus Sempronius Asellio ; 
 
 M. ^miliua Scaurus ; P. 
 
 Rutilius Bufus ; Q. Lutatius 
 
 Catulus. 
 Birth of Cicero - 
 L. ^lius Stilo - - - - 
 Cotta ; the Sulpicii ; Horten- 
 
 sius ; Q. Muoius Sosevola ; 
 
 Lucretius bom. 
 Death of the orator Crassus. 
 0. Licinius Macer ; Q. Claudius 
 
 Quadrigarius ; Q. Valerius 
 
 Antias ; L. LucuUus ; Sulla ; 
 
 Plotius GaUus. 
 M. Antonius killed ; Catullus 
 
 bom. 
 Birth of Sallust - - - - 
 Attius probably died about this 
 
 time, and Latin acting tragedy 
 
 disappeared ; L. Cornelius 
 
 Sisenna. 
 Births of Varro Atacinus and 
 
 Licinius Calvua Valerius Cato. 
 Commencement of Sallust's 
 
 history. 
 Birth of Asinius PoUio. 
 
 Second Eea. 
 
 Eoman prose literature arrived 
 at its greatest perfection ; 
 Cicero thirty-two years of 
 age. 
 
 Cicero accuses Verres; Virgil 
 
 bom. 
 C. Aquilius Gallus ; C. Juven- 
 
 tius ; Sext. Papirius ; L. Lu- 
 
 cilius Balbus. 
 Birth of Horace _ . - 
 
 Pomponius Atticus ; M. Teren- 
 tius Varro Eeatinus ; L. Luc- 
 ceiuB ; Nigidius Figulus ; Or- 
 bilius came to Eome in the 
 fiftieth year of his age (Suet, 
 de 111. Gram. 9) ; Q. Comi- 
 flcius. 
 
 Oration for Archias - - - 
 
 Birth of T. Livius. 
 
 Birth of Cn. Pompeius. 
 Birth of Julius Csesar. 
 
 Commencement of the 
 Social war. 
 
 Massacres by Cinna and 
 
 Marius. 
 Death of Marius. 
 
 Sulla's proscription. 
 Death of SuUa. 
 
 Third Mithridatic war be- 
 gan. 
 
 Murder of Sertorius. 
 Defeat of Spartacus. 
 
 Pompey entrusted with 
 the war against the 
 Pirates. 
 
 First CatiHnarian con- 
 spiracy. 
 
 Consulship of Cicero ; 
 birth of Augustus ; Je- 
 rusalem taken by Pom- 
 
 pey- 
 
 Acquittal of Clodius. 
 First triumvirate. 
 
 2 o 
 
554 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 B.C. 
 
 A.U.C. 
 
 LITERAEY CHRONOLOGY. 
 
 Civn. UHKONOLOGY. 
 
 55 
 
 699 
 
 - 
 
 CsBsar's first invaMon of 
 Britain. 
 
 54 
 
 700 
 
 Julius Csesar ; Lucretius Carus ; 
 
 CBBsar's second invasion 
 
 
 
 C. Val. Catullus ; .ffisopus ; 
 
 of Britain. 
 
 
 
 Q. Eoscius ; Lioinius Calvus ; 
 
 
 
 
 Helvius Cinna ; Tioida ; Biba- 
 
 
 
 
 oulus ; Varro Ataoinus ; Cor- 
 
 
 
 
 nelius Nepos ; A. Hirtius ; C. 
 
 
 
 
 Oppius ; S. Sulpioius Rufus. 
 
 
 52 
 
 702 
 
 Death of Lucretius. 
 
 
 49 
 
 705 
 
 D. Laberius; C. Matius; P. 
 
 J. Csesar appointed Dicta- 
 
 
 
 Syrus. 
 
 tor. 
 
 48 
 
 706 
 
 - — — 
 
 Battle of PharsaJia ; mur- 
 der of Pompey. 
 
 46 
 
 708 
 
 — — — 
 
 OsBsar refowas the calen- 
 dar. 
 
 44 
 
 710 
 
 C. Sallustius Crispus ; Atteius 
 
 •Philologus ; Asinius Pollio. 
 Death of Cicero ; Valgius Rufus ; 
 
 Murder of J. Csesar. 
 
 43 
 
 711 
 
 Second triumvirateformed. 
 
 
 
 birth of Ovid ; death of Lar 
 
 
 
 
 berius. 
 
 
 42 
 
 712 
 
 Horace at Phihppi. 
 
 
 40 
 
 714 
 
 _ _ _ 
 
 Treaty of Brundusium. 
 
 34 
 
 720 
 
 Death of Sallust. 
 
 
 32 
 
 722 
 
 Death of Atticus - _ _ 
 
 War declared against An- 
 tony. 
 Battle of Actium. 
 
 31 
 
 723 
 
 Virgilius Maro (bom b.o, 70) ; 
 
 
 
 Msecenas ; Horatius Placcus ; 
 
 
 
 
 L. Varius ; Albius Tibullus ; 
 
 
 
 
 Cornelius Gallus ; Plotius 
 
 
 
 
 Tuoca; BathyUusj Pylades ; 
 
 
 
 
 Trogus Pompeius. 
 
 
 29 
 
 725 
 
 
 The three triumphs of 
 Octavius ; temple of 
 Janus closed. 
 
 28 
 
 726 
 
 Palatine Ubrary founded ; death 
 of Varro. 
 
 
 27 
 
 727 
 
 — - — 
 
 Octavius receives the title 
 of Augustus. 
 
 25 
 
 729 
 
 J. Hyginus ; S. AureUus Proper- 
 tius; .ffimilius Macer ; Ovidius 
 Naso ; Gratius Faliscus ; Pedo 
 Albinovanus ; A. Sabinus ; T. 
 Livius ; Ateius Capito ; Vi- 
 truvius ; Q. CBeoihus Epirota. 
 
 
 19 
 
 735 
 
 Death of Virgil. 
 
 
 18 
 
 734 
 
 Death of Tibullus. 
 
 
 17 
 
 737 
 
 Carmen seculare of Horatius ; 
 Poroius Latro. 
 
 Ludi saeculares. 
 
 15 
 
 739 
 
 - 
 
 Tiberius and Drusus con- 
 quer the Vindelioi. 
 
 9 
 
 745 
 
 History of Livy terminates. 
 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 555 
 
 B.C. 
 
 A.U.C. 
 
 LITERAEY CaiRONOLOGY. 
 
 CIVIL CHRONOLOGY. 
 
 8 
 
 4 
 
 A.D. 
 4 
 
 9 
 14 
 
 16 
 
 18 
 
 23 
 
 25 
 
 30 
 
 43 
 
 31 
 
 784 
 
 34 
 
 787 
 
 37 
 
 790 
 
 40 
 
 793 
 
 41 
 
 794 
 
 74 
 77 
 
 746 
 750 
 
 758 
 763 
 
 767 
 
 769 
 771 
 
 776 
 
 778 
 
 783 
 
 796 
 
 49 
 
 802 
 
 54 
 
 807 
 
 59 
 
 812 
 
 61 
 
 814 
 
 62 
 
 815 
 
 65 
 
 818 
 
 66 
 
 819 
 
 69 
 
 822 
 
 70 
 
 823 
 
 827 
 830 
 
 Death of Horace 
 
 Death of Asinius Pollio. 
 ExUe of Ovid - - 
 
 Third Era. 
 T. Phsedrus - - - 
 
 C. Asmius Gallus ; deaths of 
 
 Ovid and Livy ; Valerius 
 
 Maximus. 
 Birth of C. Phmus Seoundus - 
 Birth of Sihua ItaUous ; death 
 
 of Cremutius Cordus ; M. 
 
 Annseus Seneca ; A. Comehua 
 
 Oekus ; Arellius Fusous ; 
 
 Valerius Maximus. 
 VeUeius Paterculus writes his 
 
 history. 
 
 A. Persius Flaccus bom. 
 
 Luoan brought to Borne. 
 ExUe of Seneca - - - 
 
 Birth of Martial; Pomponius 
 Mela; L. Junius Coliimella; 
 Eemmius Fannius Palsemon. 
 
 Eecall of Seneca. 
 
 L. AnnEeus Seneca ; M. Annaeus 
 Lucanus ; Comutus ; Persius ; 
 Csesius Bassus; C. SUius 
 ItaUcus ; Q. Curtius Eufus. 
 
 Pliny the Yovmger bom - 
 
 Death of Persius. 
 
 Deaths of Seneca and Lucan. 
 
 Martial came to Rome. 
 
 Saleius Bassus; C. Valerius 
 Flaccus. 
 
 The dialogue De Oratoribus sup- 
 posed to have been written. 
 
 C. PUnius Secundus Major flou- 
 rished. 
 
 The month SextUis named 
 
 Augustus. 
 Birth of our Lord Jesus 
 
 Christ. 
 
 Defeat of Quintilius 
 
 Varus. 
 Death of Augustus. 
 
 Sejanus the imperial fa- 
 vourite. 
 
 Murder of Drusus. 
 
 Fall of Sejanus. 
 Death of Tiberius. 
 
 Cahgula 
 
 Claudius emperor. 
 Expedition of Claudius to 
 
 Britain. 
 
 Accession of Nero. 
 
 Murder of Agrippina. 
 Boadicea conquered by 
 Suetonius PauUinus. 
 
 Accession of Vespasian. 
 Jerusalem taken by Titus. 
 
556 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 
 
 AJ). 
 
 A.U.C. 
 
 LITERAEY CHEONOLOGY. 
 
 CIVIL CHKONOLOGY. 
 
 78 
 
 831 
 
 - 
 
 Agricola Governor of 
 Britain. 
 
 79 
 
 832 
 
 Death of Pliny the Elder - - 
 
 Destruction of Hercu- 
 laneum and Pompeii. 
 
 80 
 
 833 
 
 _ _ _ 
 
 The Cohseum buOt. 
 
 81 
 
 834 
 
 _ _ _ 
 
 Accession of Domitian. 
 
 90 
 
 843 
 
 M. F. Quintihanus; the Philo- 
 sophers expelled by Domi- 
 tian ; Papinius Statius ; Mai-- 
 tiahs. 
 
 
 93 
 
 846 
 
 Death of Agricola. 
 
 96 
 
 849 
 
 _ _ _ 
 
 Assassination of Domitian. 
 
 98 
 
 851 
 
 C. Cornelius Tacitus ; C. Plinius 
 Minor ; Julius Frontinus, 
 
 Accession of Trajan. 
 
 
 
 Suetonius TranquUlus ; An- 
 
 
 
 
 nseus Florus ; Julius Obse- 
 
 
 
 
 quens ; D. Junius Juvenalis. 
 
 
 104 
 
 857 
 
 Pliny's letter respecting, the 
 Christians. , 
 
 
 117 
 
 870 
 
 _ _ _ 
 
 Accession of Hadrian. 
 
 138 
 
 891 
 
 S. Pomponius ; Gains , 
 
 Accession of Antoninus 
 
 Pius. 
 Accession of M. Aureliust 
 
 161 
 
 914 
 
 L. Appuleius ; Minucius Felix ; 
 
 
 
 Tertulhan. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 E E R A T A. 
 
 Page48,/o.{JJ.36 
 
 B.C. 360 read 364. 
 
 391 read 390. 
 
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