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TWENTIETH   CENTURY  TEXT-BOOKS 


CLASSICAL    SECTION 

EDITED    BY 

JOHN    HENRY   WRIGHT,        HARVARD  UNIVERSITY 
BERNADOTTE   PERRIN,          YALE  UNIVERSITY 
ANDREW  FLEMING  WEST,    PRINCETON  UNIVERSITY 


AUGUSTUS. 

Bust  in  the  Museum  of  Fine  Arts.  Boston. 


TWENTIETH   CENTURY  TEXT-BOOKS 


A    HISTORY    OF 
ROMAN    LITERATURE 


BY 


HAROLD  N.  | FOWLER,  PH.D. 

PROFESSOR   IN   THE   COLLEGE   FOR   WOMEN 
OF   WESTERN    RESERVE    UNIVERSITY 


NEW  YORK  AND   LONDON 

D.    APPLETON    AND    COMPANY 

1905 


HISTORr  I 


COPYRIGHT,  1903 
BY  D.   APPLETON   AND    COMPANY 


Published  May,  1903 


PRINTED    AT    THE    APPT/ETON   PRESS, 
NEW   YORK,   U.  S.  A. 


n 


PKEFACE 


THIS  book  is  intended  primarily  for  use  as  a  text-book 
in  schools  and  colleges.  I  have  therefore  given  more 
dates  and  more  details  about  the  lives  of  authors  than  are 
in  themselves  important,  because  dates  are  convenient  aids 
to  memory,  as  they  enable  the  learner  to  connect  his  new 
knowledge  with  historical  fact's  he  may  have  learned  be- 
fore, while  biographical  details  help  to  endow  authors  with 
something  of  concrete  personality,  to  which  the  learner 
can  attach  what  he  learns  of  their  literary  and  intellectual 
activity. 

Extracts  from  Latin  authors  are  given,  with  few  excep- 
tions, in  English  translation.  I  considered  the  advisability 
of  giving  them  in  Latin,  but  concluded  that  extracts  in 
Latin  would  probably  not  be  read  by  most  young  readers, 
and  would  therefore  do  less  good  than  even  imperfect 
translations.  Moreover,  the  texts  of  the  most  important 
works  are  sure  to  be  at  hand  in  the  schools,  and  books  of 
selections,  such  as  Cruttwell  and  Banton's  Specimens  of 
Roman  Literature,  Tyrr ell's  Anthology  of  Latin  Poetry, 
and  Gudeman's  Latin  Literature  of  the  Umpire,  are  readily 
accessible.  I  am  responsible  for  all  translations  not  ac- 
credited to  some  other  translator.  In  making  my  trans- 
lations, I  have  employed  blank  verse  to  represent  Latin 
hexameters  ;  but  the  selections  from  the  ^Eneid  are  given 
in  Conington's  rhymed  version,  and  in  some  other  cases  I 
have  used  translations  of  hexameters  into  metres  other 
than  blank  verse. 


310533 


VI  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

In  writing  of  the  origin  of  Eoman  comedy,  I  have  not 
mentioned  the  dramatic  satura.  Prof.  George  L.  Hen- 
drickson  has  pointed  out  (in  the  American  Journal  of 
Philology,  vol.  xv,  pp.  1-30)  that  the  dramatic  satura 
never  really  existed,  but  was  invented  in  Eoman  literary 
history  because  Aristotle,  whose  account  of  the  origin  of 
comedy  was  closely  followed  by  the  Koman  writers,  found 
the  origin  of  Greek  comedy  in  the  satyr-drama. 

The  greater  part  of  the  book  is  naturally  taken  up 
with  the  extant  literary  works  and  their  authors ;  but  I 
have  devoted  some  space  to  the  lives  and  works  of  authors 
whose  writings  are  lost.  This  I  have  done,  not  because  I 
believe  that  the  reader  should  burden  his  memory  with 
useless  details,  but  partly  in  order  that  this  book  may  be 
of  use  as  a  book  of  reference,  and  partly  because  the  men- 
tion of  some  of  the  lost  works  and  their  authors  may  im- 
press upon  the  reader  the  fact  that  something  is  known  of 
many  writers  whose  works  have  survived,  if  at  all,  only  in 
detached  fragments.  Not  a  few  of  these  writers  were  im- 
portant in  their  day,  and  exercised  no  little  influence  upon 
the  progress  of  literature.  Of  the  whole  mass  of  Eoman 
literary  production  only  a  small  part — though  fortunately 
in  great  measure  the  best  part — now  exists,  and  it  is  only 
by  remembering  how  much  has  been  lost  that  the  modern 
reader  can  appreciate  the  continuity  of  Eoman  literature. 

The  literature  of  the  third,  fourth,  and  fifth  centuries 
after  Christ  is  treated  less  fully  than  that  of  the  earlier 
times,  but  its  importance  to  later  European  civilization 
has  been  so  great  that  a  summary  treatment  of  it  should 
be  included  even  in  a  book  of  such  limited  scope  as  this. 

The  Bibliography  will,  I  hope,  be  found  useful.  It  is 
by  no  means  exhaustive,  but  may  serve  as  a  guide  to  those 
who  have  not  access  to  libraries.  The  purpose  of  the 
Chronological  Table  is  not  so  much  to  serve  as  a  finding- 
list  of  dates  as  to  show  at  a  glance  what  authors  were  liv- 
ing and  working  at  any  given  time.  In  the  Index  the 


PREFACE  vii 

names  of  all  Latin  writers  mentioned  in  the  book  are  to 
be  found,  together  with  references  to  numerous  topics  and 
to  some  of  the  more  important  historical  persons. 

Besides  the  works  of  the  Roman  authors,  I  have  con- 
sulted the  general  works  mentioned  in  the  Bibliography 
and  numerous  other  books  and  special  articles.  I  have 
made  most  use  of  Teuffel's  History  of  Roman  Literature, 
Schanz's  Rdmische  Litter  aturgescJiichte,  and  Mackail's  ad- 
mirable Latin  Literature. 

My  thanks  are  due  to  my  colleague,  Prof.  Samuel  Ball 
Platner,  who  read  the  book  in  manuscript  and  made  many 
valuable  suggestions,  and  to  Professor  Perrin,  who  read 
not  only  the  manuscript,  but  also  the  proof,  and  suggested 
not  a  few  desirable  changes. 

HAKOLD  K  FOWLEB. 
CLEVELAND,  OHIO. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  PAOK 

I.— INTRODUCTION— EARLY  ROMAN  LITERATURE— TRAGEDY  1 

II.— COMEDY 17 

III. — EARLY  PROSE — THE  SCIPIONIC  CIRCLE — LUCILIUS  .       .  32 

IV. — LUCRETIUS 47 

V. — CATULLUS — MINOR  POETS 56 

VI.— CICERO 65 

VII. — C.ESAR — SALLUST — OTHER  PROSE  WRITERS    ...  83 

VIII. — THE   PATRONS   OF  LITERATURE — VlRGIL  ....  97 

IX.— HORACE    .        .        . 114 

X. — TIBULLUS — PROPERTIUS — THE  LESSER  POETS        .       .  128 

XI.— OVID .        .        .143 

XII.— LIVY— OTHER  AUGUSTAN  PROSE  WRITERS      .       .       .156 

XIII. — TIBERIUS  TO  VESPASIAN 169 

XIV.— THE  FLAVIAN  EMPERORS— THE  SILVER  AGE  .        .       .194 

XV. — NERVA  AND  TRAJAN 211 

XVI. — THE      EMPERORS     AFTER     TRAJAN — SUETONIUS — OTHER 

WRITERS 226 

XVII. — LITERARY  INNOVATIONS 235 

XVIII.— EARLY  CHRISTIAN  WRITERS 244 

XIX. — PAGAN  LITERATURE  OF  THE  THIRD  CENTURY  .        .        .  253 

XX. — THE  FOURTH  AND  FIFTH  CENTURIES        ....  259 

XXI. — CONCLUSION 278 

APPENDIX  I. — BIBLIOGRAPHY.        .        .        .        .        .        .       .  285 

APPENDIX  II. — CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 297 

INDEX                                                                                          ,  303 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTKATIONS 


FACING 
PAGE 


AUGUSTUS,  bust  in  the  Museum  of  Fine  Arts,  Boston,  Frontispiece 
CICERO,  bust  in  the  Vatican  Museum,  Rome         ....      65 

CJSSAR,  bust  in  the  Museum  at  Naples 83 

VIRGIL  AND  TWO  MUSES,  mosaic  in  the  Bardo  Museum,  Tunis     .    113 

iz 


BOOK  I 
PERIOD   OF  THE  REPUBLIC 


CHAPTER  I 

INTRODUCTION— EARLY  ROMAN  LITERATURE -TRAGEDY 

Importance  of  Roman  literature — The  Romans  a  practical  people 
— The  Latin  language — Political  purpose  of  Roman  writings — 
Divisions  of  Roman  literature — Elements  of  a  native  Roman  litera- 
ture— Appius  Claudius  Caecus — Imitation  of  Greek  literature — L. 
Livius  Andronicus,  about  284  to  about  204  B.  c. — Gnaeus  Naevius, 
about  270-199  B.  c.— Q.  Ennius,  239-169  B.  c.— His  Tragedies— 
The  Annales— M.  Pacuvius,  220  to  about  130  B.  c.— L.  Accius,  170  to 
after  100  B.  c. — The  Decay  of  Tragedy — The  Roman  theatre,  actors 
and  costumes. 

ROMAN  literature,  while  it  lacks  the  brilliant  originality 
and  the  delicate  beauty  which  characterize  the  works  of 
importance  the  great  Greek  writers,  is  still  one  of  the 
of  Roman  great  literatures  of  the  world,  and  it  possesses 
literature.  an  imp0rtance  for  us  which  is  even  greater 
than  its  intrinsic  merits  (great  as  they  are)  would  natu- 
rally give  it.  In  the  first  place,  Roman  literature  has 
preserved  to  us,  in  Latin  translations  and  adaptations, 
many  important  remains  of  Greek  literature  which  would 
otherwise  have  been  lost,  and  in  the  second  place,  the 
political  power  of  the  Romans,  embracing  nearly  the  whole 
known  world,  made  the  Latin  language  the  most  widely 
spread  of  all  languages,  and  thus  caused  Latin  literature 
to  be  read  in  all  lands  and  to  influence  the  literary  devel- 
opment of  all  the  peoples  of  Europe. 

1 


.,::  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

Romans. were  a  practical  race,  not  gifted  with 
,  but  with  great  ability  to  organize 
their  state  and  their  army  and  to  accomplish 
Tactical*11      whatever  they  determined  to  do.     They  had 
come  into  Italy  with  a  number  of  related 
tribes  from  the  north  and  had  settled  in  a  place  on  the 
bank  of  the  Tiber,  where  they  were  exposed  to  attacks 
from  the  Etruscans  and   other  neighbors.     They  were 
thus  forced  from  the  beginning  to  fortify  their  city,  and 
live  close  together  within  the  walls.     This  made  the  early 
development  of  a  form  of  city  government  both  natural 
and  necessary,  and  turned  the  Roman  mind  toward  polit- 
Attention  to    *ca^  °rganization.     At  the  same  time,  the  at- 
poiiticai  and     tacks  of  external  enemies  forced  the  Romans 
military          to  pay  attention  to  the  organization  and  sup- 
port of  an  army.     So,  from  the  time  of  the 
foundation  of  their  city  by  the  Tiber,  the  Romans  turned 
their  attention  primarily  to  politics  and  war.     The  effect 
upon  their  language  and  literature  is  clearly  seen.     Their 
language  is  akin  to  Greek,  and  like  Greek  is  one  of  the 
Indo-European  family  of  languages,  to  which  English  and 
the  other  most  important  languages  of  Europe 
language*        belong.     It  started  with  the  same  material  as 
Greek,  but  while  Greek  developed  constantly 
more  variety,  more  delicacy,  and  more  flexibility,  Latin  is 
fixed  and  rigid,  a  language  adapted  to  laws  and  commands 
rather  than  to  the  lighter  and  more  graceful  kinds  of 
utterance.     Circumstances,  aided  no  doubt  by  the  natural 
bent  of  their  minds,  tended  to  make  the  Romans  political, 
military,  and  practical,  rather  than  artistic. 

Roman  literature,  as  might  be  expected  after  what  has 
just  been  said,  is  often  not  the  spontaneous  outpouring  of 
literary  genius,  but  the  means  by  which  some  practical 
ends  or  purposes  are  to  be  attained.  Almost  from  first  to 
last,  the  writings  of  Roman  authors  have  a  political  pur- 
pose, and  the  influence  of  political  events  upon  the  liter- 


INTRODUCTION  3 

ature  is  most  marked.  Even  those  kinds  of  Eoman  liter- 
ature which  seem  at  first  sight  to  have  the  least  connec- 
Poiiticai  tion  with  political  matters  have  nevertheless 
purpose  of  a  political  purpose.  Plays  were  written  to 
Koman  enhance  the  splendor  of  public  festivals  pro- 

vided by  office  holders  who  were  at  the  same 
time  office  seekers  and  hoped  to  win  the  favor  of  the  peo- 
ple by  successful  entertainments ;  history  was  written  to 
teach  the  proper  methods  of  action  for  future  use  or  (some- 
times) to  add  to  the  influence  of  living  leaders  of  the  state 
by  calling  to  mind  the  great  deeds  of  their  ancestors ;  epic 
and  lyric  poems  were  composed  to  glorify  important  per- 
sons at  Eome,  or  at  least  to  prove  the  right  of  Eome  to 
the  foremost  place  among  the  nations  by  giving  her  a  lit- 
erature worthy  to  rank  with  that  of  the  Greeks. 

The  development  of  Eoman  literature  is  closely  con- 
nected with  political  events,  and  its  three  great  divi- 
Divisions  of  sions  correspond  to  the  divisions  of  Eoman 
Eoman  political  history.  The  first  or  Eepublican 

literature.  Period  extends  from  the  beginning  of  Eoman 
literature  after  the  first  Punic  war  (240  B.  c.)  to  the  battle 
of  Actium  in  31  B.  c.  The  second  or  Augustan  Period, 
from  31  B.  c.  to  14  A.  D.,  is  the  period  in  which  the  insti- 
tutions of  the  republic  were  transformed  to  serve  the  pur- 
poses of  the  monarchy.  The  "  Golden  Age  "  of  Eoman 
literature  comprises  the  last  part  of  the  Eepublican 
Period  and  the  whole  Augustan  Period,  from  81  B.  c.  to 
14  A.  D.  The  third  or  Imperial  Period  lasts  from  14 
A.  D.  to  the  beginning  of' the  Middle  Ages.  The  first 
part  of  this  period,  from  14  to  117  A.  D.,  is  called  the 
"  Silver  Age."  In  the  first  period  the  Eomans  learn  to 
imitate  Greek  literature  and  develop  their  language 
until  it  is  capable  of  fine  literary  treatment,  and  in  the 
latter  part  of  this  time  they  produce  some  of  their 
greatest  works,  especially  in  prose.  The  second  period, 
made  illustrious  by  Horace  and  Virgil,  is  the  time  when 


4  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

Roman  poetry  reaches  its  greatest  height.  The  third 
period  is  a  time  of  decline,  sometimes  rapid,  sometimes 
retarded  for  a  while,  during  which  Roman  literature 
shows  few  great  works  and  many  of  very  slight  literary 
value.  Throughout  the  first  and  second  periods,  and  even 
for  the  most  part  in  the  third  period,  Latin  literature  is 
produced  almost  entirely  at  Rome,  is  affected  by  changes 
in  the  city,  and  reflects  the  sentiments  of  the  city  popula- 
tion. It  is  therefore  proper  to  speak  of  Roman  literature, 
rather  than  Latin  literature,  for  that  which  interests  us  is 
the  literature  of  the  city  by  the  Tiber  and  of  the  civiliza- 
tion with  which  the  city  is  identified,  rather  than  works 
written  in  the  Latin  language. 

The  beginning  of  a  real  literature  at  Rome  was  made 
by  a  foreigner  of  Greek  birth,  and  naturally  took  the  form 
Elements  of  °^  an  irritation  of  Greek  works.  This  would 
native  undoubtedly  have  been  the  case,  even  if 

Roman  ^he  first  professional  author  had  been  a  native 

Roman,  for  the  Romans  had  for  some  time 
been  in  close  touch  with  the  Greeks  of  Italy,  and  Greek 
literature  presented  itself  to  them  as  a  finished  product, 
calling  for  their  admiration  and  inciting  them  to  imitate 
it.  Nevertheless  there  were  in  existence  at  Rome  in  early 
times  materials  from  which  a  native  literature  might  have 
arisen  if  the  Greek  influence  had  not  been  so  strong  as  to 
prevent  their  development.  The  early  Romans  sang  songs 
at  weddings  and  at  harvest  festivals,  chanted  hymns  to 
the  gods,  and  were  familiar  with  rude  popular  perform- 
ances which  might  have  given  rise  to  a  native  drama. 
The  words  of  such  songs  and  performances  were  of  course, 
for  the  most  part  at  least,  rhythmical,  but  few  if  any 
of  them  were  committed  to  writing  until  much  later 
times.  The  art  of  writing  was,  however,  known  to  the 
Romans  as  early  as  the  sixth  century  B.  c.,  for  the  Greek 
colonies  on  the  coast  of  Italy  must  have  had  trade  con- 
nections with  the  Romans  at  a  very  early  time,  and  wri- 


INTRODUCTION  5 

ting  was  thoroughly  familiar  to  the  Greeks  by  the  time 
Eome  was  two  centuries  old. 

From  early  times  the  Romans  kept  lists  of  officials, 
records  of  prodigies,  lists  of  the  dies  fasti,  i.  e.,  of  the 
days  on  which  it  was  lawful  to  conduct  public  business, 
and  other  simple  records.  The  twelve  tables  of  the  laws 
are  said  to  have  been  written  in  451  and  450  B.  c.,  and 
these  had  some  influence  on  Roman  prose,  for  they  were 
the  first  attempt  at  connected  prose  in  the  Latin  lan- 
guage. No  doubt  other  laws  and  probably  also  treaties 
were  written  in  Latin  and  preserved  at  an  early  date. 
Funeral  orations  called  for  some  practise  in  oratory,  but 
probably  not  for  careful  preparation,  and  certainly  not 
for  composition  in  writing  in  the  early  days  of  Rome. 
The  first  Roman  sp'eech  known  to  have  been  written  out 
for  publication  is  the  speech  delivered  in  280  B.  c.,  by 
Appius  tne  aged  Appius  Claudius  Caecus,  in  which 

Claudius  he  urged  the  rejection  of  the  terms  of  peace 
Caecus.  offered  by  Pyrrhus.  This  speech  was  known 

and  read  at  Rome  for  two  centuries  after  the  death  of 
its  author.  A  collection  of  sayings  or  proverbs  was  also 
current  under  the  name  of  Claudius,  and  he  was  actively 
interested  in  adapting  more  perfectly  to  the  Latin  lan- 
guage the  alphabet  which  the  Romans  had  received  from 
the  Greeks,  and  i-n  fixing  the  spelling  of  Latin  words. 

All  this  is,  however,  not  so  much  literature  as  the 
material  from  which  literature  might  have  developed  if 
Rome  had  been  removed  from  the  sphere  of  Greek  influ- 
ence. Since  that  was  not  the  case,  these  first  steps  toward 
a  national  literature  led  to  nothing,  though  they  show 
that  the  Romans  had  some  originality,  and  help  us  to 
understand  some  of  the  peculiarities  of  Roman  literature 
as  distinguished  from  its  Greek  prototype.  Still  Roman 
literature  is  a  literature  of  imitation,  and  the  beginning 
of  it  was  made  by  a  Greek  named  Andronicus,  who  was 
brought  to  Rome  after  the  capture  of  Tarentum  in 


6  ROMAH  LITERATURE 

272  B.  c.  when  he  was  still  a  boy.  At  Eome  he  was  the 
slave  of  M.  Livius  Salinator,  whose  children  he  instructed 
in  Greek  and  Latin.  When  set  free,  he  took  the  name  of 
Lucius  Livius  Andronicus,  and  continued  to 
I.  Livius  teach.  As  there  were  no  Latin  hooks  which 

Andronicus. 

he  could  use  in  teaching,  he  conceived  the 
idea  of  translating  Homer's  Odyssey  into  Latin,  thereby 
making  the  beginning  of  Latin  literature.  His  transla- 
tion of  the  Odyssey  was  rude  and  imperfect.  Andronicus 
made  no  attempt  to  reproduce  in  Latin  the  hexameter 
verse  of  Homer,  but  employed  the  native  Saturnian  verse 
(see  page  7),  probably  because  it  seemed  to  him  better 
fitted  to  the  Latin  language  than  the  more  stately  hexam- 
eter. After  the  first  Punic  war,  at  the  Ludi  Romani 
in  240  B.  c.,  Andronicus  produced  and  put  upon  the  stage 
Latin  translations  of  a  Greek  tragedy  and  a  Greek  com- 
edy. In  these  and  his  later  dramas  he  retained  the  iam- 
bic and  trochaic  metres  of  the  originals,  and  his  example 
was  followed  by  his  successors.  He  also  composed  hymns 
for  public  occasions.  Of  his  works  only  a  few  fragments 
are  preserved,  hardly  more  than  enough  to  show  that 
they  had  little  real  literary  merit.  But  he  had  made  a 
beginning,  and  long  before  his  death,  which  took  place 
about  204  B.  c.,  his  successors  were  advancing  along  the 
lines  he  had  marked  out. 

Gnaeus  Naevius,  a  freeborn  citizen  of  a  Latin  city  in 
Campania,  was  the  first  native  Latin  poet  of  importance. 

He  was  a  soldier  in  the  first  Punic  war,  at 

Nffivius  ^e  en(^  °^  w^^c^'  while  still  a  young  man, 

he  came  to  Eome,  where  he  devoted  himself 
to  poetry.  He  was  a  man  of  independent  spirit,  not 
hesitating  to  attack  in  his  comedies  and  other  verses  the 
most  powerful  Eomans,  especially  the  great  family  of  the 
Metelli.  For  many  years  he  maintained  his  position,  but 
at  last  the  Metelli  brought  about  his  imprisonment  and 
banishment,  and  he  died  in  exile  in  199  B.  c.,  at  about 


N^VIUS  7 

seventy  years  of  age.  His  dramatic  works  were  numer- 
ous, both  tragedies  and  comedies,  for  the  most  part  trans- 
lations and  adaptations  from  the  Greek,  but  alongside  of 
these  he  produced  also  plays  based  upon  Koman  legends. 
These  were  called  fabulce  prmtextce  or  prcetextatw,  "  plays 
of  the  purple  stripe,"  because  the  characters  wore  Ko- 
man costumes.  In  one  of  these  plays,  the  Romulus  (or 
in  two,  if  the  Lupus  or  "Wolf"  is  not  the  Romulus 
under  another  title),  he  dramatized  the  story  of  Eomulus 
and  Eemus,  and  in  another,  the  Clastidium,  the  defeat 
(in  222  B.  c.)  of  the  Insubrians  by  M.  Claudius  Marcellus 
and  Cn.  Cornelius  Scipio.  In  his  later  years  he  turned 
to  epic  poetry  and  wrote  in  Saturnian  verse  the  history  of 
the  first  Punic  war,  introduced  by  an  account  of  the 
legendary  history  of  Rome  from  the  departure  of  JEneas 
for  Italy  after  the  fall  of  Troy.  This  poem  was  read  and 
admired  for  many  years,  and  parts  of  it  were  imitated  by 
Virgil  in  the  ^ffineid.  Naevius  also  wrote  other  poems, 
called  Satires,  on  various  subjects,  partly,  but  not  entirely, 
in  Saturnian  metre.  Of  all  these  works  only  inconsider- 
able fragments  remain.  They  show,  however,  that  Nae- 
vius  was  a  poet  of  real  power,  and  that  with  him  the 
Latin  language  was  beginning  to  develop  some  fitness 
for  literary  use.  His  epitaph,  preserved  by  Aulus  Gellius, 
will  serve  not  only  to  show  the  stiff  and  monotonous 
rhythm  of  the  Saturnian  verse,  but  also,  since  it  was 
probably  written  by  Nasvius  himself,  to  exhibit  his  proud 
consciousness  of  superiority : 

Immortales  mortdles  si  foret  fas  flere 
Flerent  divae  Camenae  Naemum  poetam. 
Itdque  postquam  est  Orel  trdditus  thesauro 
Obliti  sunt  Romdi  loquier  lingua  Latiina. 

If  it  were  right  that  mortals  be  wept  for  by  immortals, 
The  goddess  Muses  would  weep  for  Naevius  the  poet. 
And  so  since  to  the  treasure  of  Orcus  he's  departed, 
The  Romans  have  forgotten  to  speak  the  Latin  language. 


8  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

Naevius  had  a  right  to  be  proud.  He  had  made  liter- 
ature a  real  force  at  Eome,  able  to  contend  with  the  great 
men  of  the  city ;  he  had  invented  the  drama  with  Eoman 
characters,  and  had  written  the  first  national  epic  poem. 
In  doing  all  this  he  had  at  the  same  time  added  to  the 
richness  and  grace  of  the  still  rude  Latin  language.  But 
great  as  were  the  merits  of  Naevius,  he  was  surpassed  in 
every  way  by  his  successor. 

Quintus  Ennius,  a  poet  of  surprising  versatility  and 
power,  was  born  at  Eudias,  in  Calabria,  in  239  B.  c. 
While  he  was  serving  in  the  Eoman  army  in 
Sardinia,  in  204  B.  c.,  he  met  with  M.  Porcius 
Cato,  who  took  him  home  to  Eome.  Here 
Ennius  gave  lessons  in  Greek  and  translated  Greek  plays 
for  the  Eoman  stage.  He  became  acquainted  with  several 
prominent  Eomans,  among  them  the  elder  Scipio  Africa- 
nus,  went  to  ^Etolia  as  a  member  of  the  staff  of  M.  Ful- 
vius  Nobilior,  and  obtained  full  Eoman  citizenship  in 
184  B.  c.  His  death  was  brought  on  by  the  gout  in 
169  B.  c. 

The  works  of  Ennius  were  many  and  various,  includ- 
ing tragedies,  comedies,  a  great  epic  poem,  a  metrical 
Various  treatise  on  natural  philosophy,  a  translation 

works  of  of  the  work  of  Euhemerus,  in  which  he 
Ennius.  explained  the  nature  of  the  gods  and  declared 

that  they  are  merely  famous  men  of  old  times, l  a  poem 
on  food  and  cooking,  a  series  of  Precepts,  epigrams  (in 
which  the  elegiac  distich  was  used  for  the  first  time  in 
Latin),  and  satires.  His  most  important  works  were  his 
tragedies  and  his  great  epic,  the  Annales. 

The  tragedies  were,  like  those  of  Naevius,  translations 
of  the  works  of  the  great  Greek  tragedians  and  their  less 
great,  but  equally  popular,  successors.  The  titles  and 

1  Even  if  this  work  and  some  treatises  on  grammar  should  be 
ascribed  to  a  later  Ennius,  which  is  not  proved,  the  works  of  the 
great  poet  were  sufficiently  various. 


ENNIITS  9 

some  fragments  of  twenty-two  of  these  plays  are  preserved, 
from  which  it  is  evident  that  Ennius  sometimes  trans- 
His  lated  exactly  and  sometimes  freely,  while  he 

dramatic  allowed  himself  at  other  times  to  depart 
works.  from  his  Greek  original  even  to  the  extent 

of  changing  the  plot  more  or  less.  For  the  most  part, 
however,  the  invention  of  the  plot,  the  delineation  of 
character,  and  the  poetic  imagery  of  his  plays  were  due  to 
the  Greek  dramatists  whose  works  he  presented  in  Latin 
form.  To  Ennius  himself  belong  the  skillful  use  of  the 
Latin  language,  the  ability  to  express  in  a  new  language 
the  thoughts  rather  than  the  words  of  the  Greek  poets, 
and  also  such  changes  as  were  necessary  to  make  the 
Greek  tragedies  appeal  more  strongly  to  a  Roman  audi- 
ence. It  is  impossible  to  tell  from  the  fragments  just 
what  changes  were  made,  but  the  popularity  of  the  plays, 
which  continued  long  after  the  death  of  Ennius,  proves 
that  the  changes  attained  their  object  and  pleased  the 
audience.  The  titles  of  two  fcibulm  prcetextce  by  Ennius 
are  known,  the  Sdbine  Women,  a  dramatic  presentation  of 
the  legend  of  the  Rape  of  the  Sabines,  and  Ambracia,  a 
play  celebrating  the  capture  of  Ambracia  by  M.  Fulvius 
Nobilior.  His  comedies  seem  to  have  been  neither  numer- 
ous nor  especially  successful. 

The  most  important  work  of  Ennius  is  his  great  epic 

in  eighteen  books,  the  Annales,  in  which  he  told  the 

legendary  and  actual  history  of  the  Romans 

^he  .  from  the  arrival  of  ^Eneas  in  Italy  to  his 

Annales.  .  .     ,  . 

own  time.     In  this  work,  as  in  his  tragedies, 

he  may  be  said  to  have  followed  in  the  way  pointed  out 
by  Nsevius,  but  the  Annales  mark  an  immense  advance 
beyond  the  Bellum  Punicum  of  Nsevius.  The  monoto- 
nous and  unpolished  Saturnian  metre  could  not,  even  in 
the  most  skillful  hands,  attain  the  dignity  or  the  melo- 
dious cadences  appropriate  to  great  epic  poems.  Ennius 
therefore  gave  up  the  native  Italian  metre  and  wrote  his 


10  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

epic  in  hexameter  verse  in  imitation  of  Homer.  This  was 
no  easy  matter,  for  the  laws  of  the  verse  as  it  existed  in 
Greek  could  not  be  applied  without  change  to  Latin,  but 
Ennius  modified  them  in  some  particulars  and  thus  fixed 
the  form  of  the  Latin  hexameter,  at  the  same  time  estab- 
lishing in  great  part  the  rules  of  Latin  prosody.  Only 
about  six  hundred  lines  of  the  Annales  remain,  and  many 
of  these  are  detached  from  their  context,  yet  from  these 
we  can  see  that  Ennius  had  much  poetic  imagination, 
great  skill  in  the  use  of  words,  and  great  dignity  of  dic- 
tion. The  line  At  tuba  terribili  sonitu  taratantara  dixit 
shows  at  once  his  ability  to  make  the  sound  of  his  words 
imitate  the  sound  he  wishes  to  describe  (in  this  case  that 
of  a  trumpet)  and  his  liking  for  alliteration.  This  last 
quality  is  found  in  many  Koman  poets,  but  in  none  more 
frequently  than  Ennius. 

The  Annales  continued  to  be  read  and  admired  even 
after  the  time  of  Virgil,  though  the  ^Eneid  soon  took 
rank  as  the  greatest  Eoman  epic.  Some  of  the  lines  of 
Ennius  breathe  the  true  Roman  spirit  of  military  pride 
and  civic  rectitude,  as 

Moritms  antiquis  res  stat  Romana  mrisque,1 
or  Quern  nemo  ferro  potuit  super  are  nee  auro^ 

or  Nee  cauponantes  lellum  Bed  ~belligerentes* 

Among  the  existing  fragments  are  several  which  seem  to 
have  suggested  to  Virgil  some  of  the  passages  in  the 
jfflneid,  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  Virgil  found  Ennius 
worthy  of  imitation. 

1  Ancient  customs  and  men  cause  the  Roman  republic  to  prosper. 

2  Whom  no  one  with  the  sword  could  overcome  nor  by  bribing. 

*  This  line  occurs  in  a  context  which  is  worth  translating.  "  I 
do  not  ask  gold  for  myself,  and  do  not  you  offer  me  a  ransom :  not 
waging  the  war  like  hucksters,  but  like  soldiers,  with  the  sword,  not 
with  gold,  let  us  strive  for  our  lives.  Let  us  try  by  our  valor  whether 
our  mistress  Fortune  wishes  you  or  me  to  rule." 


PACUVIUS  .  11 

We  may  learn  something  of  the  character  of  Ennius 
from  a  passage  of  the  Annales  in  which  he  is  said,1  on 
the  authority  of  the  grammarian  L,  ^Elius  Stilo,  to  be 
describing  himself:  "A  man  of  such  a  nature  that  no 
thought  ever  prompts  him  to  do  a  bad  deed  either  care- 
lessly or  maliciously  ;  a  learned,  faithful,  pleasant  man, 
eloquent,  contented  and  happy,  witty,  speaking  fit  words 
in  season,  courteous,  and  of  few  words,  possessing  much 
ancient  buried  lore  ;  a  man  whom  old  age  made  wise  in 
customs  old  and  new  and  in  the  laws  of  many  ancients, 
both  gods  and  men;  one  who  knew  when  to  speak  and 
when  to  be  silent." 

Ennius  was  the  first  great  epic  poet  at  Eome.  After 
him  epic  poetry  was  neglected,  until  it  was  taken  up 
Continued  again  a  hundred  years  later.  Tragedy,  how- 
production  of  ever,  the  other  branch  of  literature  in  which 
tragedies,  Ennius  chiefly  excelled,  was  cultivated  with- 
but  not  of  out  interruption,  for  it  had  become  usual  to 


produce  tragedies  at  the  chief  festivals  of  the 
city  and  on  other  public  occasions,  and  new  plays  were 
therefore  constantly  in  demand.  But  as  gladiatorial 
shows  grew  more  frequent  and  more  magnificent,  tragedy 
declined  in  popularity,  though  tragedies  continued  to  be 
written,  and  even  acted.  The  development  of  Eoman 
tragedy  is,  however,  contained  within  a  few  generations, 
the  professional  authors  of  tragedies  about  whom  we  have 
any  information  are  few,  and  their  works  are  lost,  with 
the  exception  of  such  fragments  as  have  happened  to  be 
quoted  by  later  writers.  It  is  therefore  best  to  continue 
the  account  of  Eoman  tragedy  now,  even  at  the  sacrifice 
of  strict  chronological  order. 

The  successor  of  Ennius  as  a  writer  of  tragedies  was  his 
^nephew,  Marcus  Pacuvius,  who  was  born  at  Brundusium  in 
220  B.  c.,  but  spent  most  of  his  life  at  Eome.  As  an  old 

1  Aulus  Gellius,  xii,  4. 


12  ROMAN   LITERATURE 

man  he  returned  to  southern  Italy,  and  died  at  Tarentum 
about  130  B.  c.  He  was  a  painter,  as  well  as  a  writer  of 
tragedies,  and  it  may  be  due  to  his  activity 
Pacuvius  as  a  P^ter  that  his  plays  were  comparative- 
ly few.  The  titles  of  twelve  tragedies  are 
known,  in  addition  to  one  fabula  prcBtexta,  the  Paulus, 
written  in  honor  of  the  victory  of  L.  ^Emilius  Paulus  over 
King  Perseus  in  the  battle  of  Pydna  (168  B.  c.).  These 
plays  are  all  lost,  and  the  existing  fragments  (about  400 
lines)  are  unsatisfactory.  Cicero  considered  Pacuvius 
the  greatest  Roman  tragic  writer,  and  Horace  speaks  of 
him  as  "learned."  Probably  this  epithet  refers  to  his 
careful  use  of  language  as  well  as  to  his  knowledge  of  the 
less  popular  legends  of  Greek  mythology.  The  extant 
fragments  show  more  ease  and  grace  of  style  than  do  those 
of  Ennius,  and  great  richness  of  vocabulary.  Some  of 
the  words  used  are  not  found  elsewhere,  and  seem  to  have 
been  invented  by  Pacuvius  himself ;  at  any  rate  they  did 
not  come  into  ordinary  use.  Of  the  real  dramatic  ability 
of  Pacuvius  we  can  not  judge,  but  his  literary  skill  is 
evident  even  from  the  poor  fragments  we  have.  We  may 
therefore  believe  that  Cicero's  favorable  judgment  of  him 
was  in  some  measure  justified. 

The  last  important  writer  of  tragedies,  and  probably 
the  greatest  of  all,  was  Lucius  Accius,  of  Pisaurum,  in 
Unibria.     He  was  born  in  170  B.  c.,  and  one 
Accius  °^  kis  ^rs^  tragedies  was  produced  in  140  B.  c., 

when  Pacuvius  produced  one  of  his  last. 
Accius  lived  to  a  great  age,  but  the  date  of  his  death  is 
not  known.  Cicero,  as  a  young  man,  was  well  acquainted 
with  him,  and  used  to  listen  to  his  stories  of  his  own  early 
years.  The  shortness  of  the  life  of  Eoman  tragedy,  and 
the  rapidity  with  which  Roman  literature  developed,  mav 
be  seen  by  observing  that  Cicero,  the  great  master  oi 
Latin  prose,  knew  Accius,  whose  birth  took  place  only 
thirty-four  years  after  the  death  of  Livius  Andronicus, 


LUCIUS  ACCIUS  13 

Of  the  plays  of  Accius  somewhat  more  than  700  lines  are 
preserved,  and  about  fifty  titles  are  known.  The  frag- 
ments are  for  the  most  part  detached  lines,  but  some  are 
long  enough  to  let  us  see  that  the  poet  had  a  vigorous 
and  graceful  style,  and  a  vivid  imagination.  Like  most 
of  his  predecessors,  Accius  wrote  various  minor  poems, 
and  was  interested  in  the  development  of  the  Latin 
language.  He  proposed  a  number  of  innovations,  inclu- 
ding some  changes  in  the  alphabet,  but  these  last  were  not 
adopted  by  others.  Besides  his  tragedies  translated  from 
the  Greek,  he  wrote  at  least  two  fdbulm  prcetextce,  the 
Brutus,  in  which  he  dramatized  the  tale  of  the  expulsion 
of  the  Tarquins,  and  the  ^Eneadce,  glorifying  the  death 
of  Publius  Decius  Mus  at  the  battle  of  Sentinum  in  295 
B.  c.  Even  in  his  regular  tragedies  he  departed  occasion- 
ally from  the  original  Greek  so  far  as  to  show  his  own 
power  of  invention,  though  these  plays  were  for  the  most 
part  mere  free  translations.  One  of  the  longer  fragments,1 
in  which  a  shepherd,  who  has  never  seen  a  ship  before, 
describes  the  coming  of  the  Argo,  may  give  some  idea  of 
Accius's  skill  in  description  : 

So  great  a  mass  glides  on,  roaring  from  the  deep  with  vast 
sound  and  breath,  rolls  the  waves  before  it,  and  stirs  up  the  whirl- 
pools mightily.  It  rushes  gliding  forward,  scatters  and  blows  back 
the  sea.  Now  you  might  think  a  broken  cloud  was  rolling  on, 
now  that  a  lofty  rock,  torn  off,  was  being  swept  along  by  winds  of 
hurricanes,  or  that  eddying  whirlwinds  were  rising  as  the  waves 
rush  together  ;  or  that  the  sea  was  stirring  up  some  confused  heaps 
of  earth,  or  that  perhaps  Triton  with  his  trident  overturning  the 
cavern  down  below,  in  the  billowy  tide,  was  raising  from  the  deep 
a  rocky  mass  to  heaven. 

With  Accius,  Eoman  tragedy  reaches  its  height.  Con- 
temporary with  him  were  C.  Titius  and  C.  Julius  Caesar 
Strabo  (died  87  B.  c.),  both  of  whom  were  orators  as  well 

1  Quoted  by  Cicero,  De  Deor.  Nat.  II,  35,  89. 


14  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

as  tragic  poets.    Of  their  works  only  slight  traces  remain. 
After  this  time  tragedies  were  written  by  literary  men  as 
a  pastime,  or  for  the  entertainment  of  their 
tragedy  friends,  and  some  of  their  plays  were  actu- 

ally performed.  The  Emperor  Augustus  be- 
gan a  play  entitled  Ajax,  Ovid  wrote  a  Medea,  and  Varius 
(about  74-14  B.  c.)  was  famous  for  his  Thyestes,  but  none 
of  these  works  has  left  more  than  a  mere  trace  of  its  ex- 
istence. The  tragedies  of  Seneca  (about  1-65  A.  D.)  were 
rather  literary  exercises  than  productions  for  the  stage. 
With  the  growth  of  prose  literature,  especially  of  oratory, 
on  the  one  hand,  and  the  increased  splendor  of  the  gladi- 
atorial shows  on  the  other,  tragedy  ceased  to  be  a  living 
branch  of  Roman  literature. 

Before  passing  on  to  the  treatment  of  comedy,  it  would 
be  well  to  try  to  picture  to  ourselves  the  Roman  theatre  and 

the  manner  of  producing  a  play.  In  the  early 
The  Koman  -,  „  T  •  •  *  n  •  .-, 

theatre  ^s       Lrvius  Andronicus  there  was  no  per- 

manent theatre  building,  and  the  spectators 
stood  up  during  the  performance,  but,  as  time  went  on, 
arrangements  for  seating  the  audience  were  made,  and 
finally,  in  55  B.  c.,  a  stone  theatre  was  erected.  Stone 
theatres  had  long  been  in  use  in  Greece,  and  in  course  of 
time  they  came  to  be  built  in  all  the  large  cities  of  the  Ro- 
man empire.  The  Roman  theatre  differed  somewhat  from 
the  Greek  theatre,  though  resembling  it  in  its  general  ap- 
pearance. The  Roman  stage  was  about  three 
The  stage.  ^ 

or  lour  teet  high,  and  long  and  wide  enough 

to  give  room  for  several  actors,  usually  not  more  than  four 
or  five  at  a  time,  one  or  two  musicians,  a  chorus  of  indefi- 
nite number,  and  as  many  supernumeraries  as  might  be 
needed.  These  last  were  sometimes  very  numerous,  when 
kings  appeared  with  their  body-guards,  or  generals  led  their 
armies  or  their  hosts  of  prisoners  upon  the  stage.  At  the 
back  of  the  stage  was  a  building,  usually  three  stories  high, 
representing  a  palace.  In  the  middle  was  a  door  leading 


THE  ROMAN  THEATRE  15 

into  the  royal  apartments,  and  two  other  doors,  one  at 
each  side,  led  to  the  rooms  for  guests.  At  each  end  of 
the  stage  was  a  door,  the  one  at  the  right  leading  to  the 
forum,  the  other  to  the  country  or  the  harbor.  Changes 
of  scene  were  imperfectly  made  by  changing  parts  of  the 
decoration.  In  comedies,  the  background  represented  not 
a  palace,  but  a  private  house  or  a  street  of  houses. 

In  front  of  the  stage  was  the  semicircular  orchestra  m 
arena,  in  which  distinguished  persons  had  their  seats. 
The  orchestra  Tnis  semicircle  was  flat  and  level.  The  front 
and  the  of  the  stage  formed  the  diameter.  From  the 

oavea.  curve  of  the  orchestra  rose  the  cavea,  consist- 

ing of  seats  in  semicircular  rows,  rising  from  the  orchestra 
at  an  angle  sufficient  to  enable  those  who  sat  in  any  row 
to  see  over  those  who  sat  in  front  of  them.  The  theatre 
had  no  roof,  but  in  the  luxurious  times  of  the  empire,  and 
even  before  the  end  of  the  republic,  a  covering  of  canvas 
or  silk  was  stretched  like  a  tent  between  the  spectators 
and  the  sun. 

In  the  early  days  of  the  Eoman  drama,  the  actors  did 
not  wear  masks,  but  before  the  end  of  the  republic  masks 
were  introduced.  These  were  useful  in  the 
costumes  large  theatres  of  the  time,  as  they  added  to 
the  volume  of  the  actor's  voice,  and  since  the 
expression  of  the  actor's  face  could  be  seen  by  only  a 
small  proportion  of  the  spectators,  little  was  lost  by  hiding 
it  with  a  mask.  The  masks  themselves  were  carefully 
made,  and  were  appropriate  to  the  different  characters. 
The  costumes  were  conventional,  kings  wearing  long 
robes  and  holding  sceptres  in  their  left  hands,  all  tragic 
actors  wearing  boots  with  thick  soles  to  raise  them  above 
the  stature  of  the  chorus,  and  all  comic  actors  wearing 
low  shoes  without  heels.  The  actors  were,  as  a  rule  at 
least,  slaves,  but  the  profits  of  the  profession  were  so  great 
that  a  successful  actor  can  have  had  but  little  difficulty 
in  buying  his  freedom. 


16  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

In  Roman  tragedies,  as  in  their  Greek  originals,  the 
dialogue  was  carried  on  in  simple  metres,  mostly  trochaic 

and  iambic,  and  a  chorus  of  trained  singers 
[   san&  between  the  acts,  but  probably  took 

little  part  in  the  action  of  the  play.  The 
songs  of  the  chorus  were  composed  in  more  elaborate 
metres  than  the  dialogue,  and  were  sung  to  the  accom- 
paniment of  the  flute.  In  Roman  comedy  there  was  no 
chorus,  but  parts  of  the  play  were  sung  as  solos  or  duets. 
These  were  called  cantica^  while  the  dialogue  parts  of  the 
comedy  were  called  diverbia. 

Plays  were  performed  at  Rome  on  various  occasions 
when  the  people  were  to  be  entertained,  and  the  aediles  and 
Brilliancy  of  other  officials  and  public  men  vied  with  each 
dramatic  per-  other  in  showing  their  wealth  and  in  court- 
formances.  jng  popularity.  We  must,  therefore,  imag- 
ine, that  when  a  play  was  performed  in  the  latter  part  of 
the  republican  period  the  actors,  chorus,  and  supernumer- 
aries were  dressed  in  the  richest  and  most  gorgeous 
costumes,  and  everything  possible  was  done  to  add  to  the 
spectacular  effect  of  the  performance,  while  the  audience, 
excited  by  the  scene  and  the  action,  lost  no  opportunity 
of  cheering  their  favorite  actors,  or  hissing  those  who 
failed  to  please. 


CHAPTEE  II 

COMEDY 

Comedy  imported — Plautus,  about  254  to  184  B.C. — Plots  of 
Roman  comedies — Extant  plays  of  Plautus — Degree  of  originality  in 
Plautus — Statius  Caecilius,  birth  unknown,  death  about  165  B.  c. — 
Other  comic  writers — Terence,  about  190  to  159  B.  c. — Plays  of 
Terence — Plautus  and  Terence  compared — Turpilius,  died  103  B.  c. — 
Fabula  togata — Titinius,  about  150  B.  c.  (?) — Titus  Quinctius  Atta, 
died  77  B.C. — Lucius  Afranius,  born  about  150  B.C. — Fescennine 
verses — Fabulae  Atellanae — Pomponius  and  Novius,  about  90  B.  c. — 
Mimes — Decimus  Laberius  and  Publilius  Syrus,  about  50  B.  c. 

COMEDY,  like  tragedy,  was  an  imported  product,  not 
an  original  growth,  at  Eome.  There  had,  to  be  sure, 
Comedy  an  been  improvised  dialogues  of  more  or  less 
imported  dramatic  nature  even  before  Livius  Androni- 
produot.  cug?  i^  these,  about  which  a  few  words  will 
be  said  later,  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  origin  of 
Roman  comedy,  which  is  an  imitation  of  the  new  Attic 
comedy  as  it  existed  at  Athens  after  the  time  of  Alex- 
ander the  Great,  being  at  its  best  from  about  320  to  about 
280  B.  c.  No  plays  of  the  new  Attic  comedy  are  preserved 
in  the  original  Greek,  but  there  are  fragments  which  sup- 
plement the  knowledge  we  derive  from  the  Latin  imi- 
tations. The  poets  of  the  new  comedy,  Menander,  Phile- 
mon, Diphilus,  and  others,  avoided  historical  and  polit- 
ical subjects  and  drew  their  comedies  from  private  life, 
finding  in  petty  intrigues,  interesting  situations,  and 
unexpected  complications,  some  compensation  for  the 
general  meagreness  of  the  plot.  This  kind  of  play  was 

17 


18  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

called  at  Eftme  fabula  palliata,  because  the  actors  wore 
the  pallium,  or  Greek  costume.  Another  kind  of 
comedy,  in  which  Roman  characters  and  scenes  were 
represented,  though  even  in  this  kind  of  plays  the  plots 
were  derived  from  Greek  originals,  was  called  fabula 
togata,  because  the  actors  wore  the  Roman  toga.  Of  this 
latter  kind  of  plays  only  a  few  fragments  are  preserved, 
and  it  seems  never  to  have  been  so  popular  as  the  fabula 
palliata. 

Livius  Andronicus,  Ennius,  and  Pacuvius,  all  pro- 
duced comedies  at  Rome,  as  did  other  writers  of  trage- 
dies, but  of  these  works  only  scanty  fragments  remain. 
Three  writers,  Plautus,  Caecilius,  and  Terence,  devoted 
themselves  exclusively  to  comedy,  and  it  is  from  the 
extant  plays  of  the  eldest  and  the  youngest  of  these, 
Plautus  and  Terence,  that  most  of  our  knowledge  of 
Roman  comedy  is  derived. 

Titus  Maccius  Plautus  (Elatfoot)  was  born  at  Sarsina, 
a  town  of  Umbria,  about  254  B.  c.  He  went  to  Rome 
while  still  a  boy,  and  seems  to  have  earned  so 
1  much  as  a  servant  or  assistant  of  actors,  that 


he  was  able  to  leave  the  city  and  engage  in 
trade  at  some  other  place.  His  business  venture  was  a 
failure  ;  he  lost  his  money,  and  returned  to  Rome,  where 
he  hired  himself  out  to  a  miller,  in  whose  service  he  was 
when  he  wrote  his  first  three  plays.  His  first  appearance 
with  a  play  was  probably  about  224  B.  c.  Further 
details  of  his  life  are  unknown.  He  died  in  184  B.  c., 
at  the  age  of  about  seventy  years.  He  was,  therefore,  a 
younger  contemporary  of  Livius  Andronicus  and  Naevius, 
but  older  than  Ennius  and  Pacuvius. 

Of  the  plays  of  Plautus  twenty  are  extant,  besides 
extensive  fragments  of  another.  His  total  production  is 
said  to  have  been  one  hundred  and  thirty  plays,  though 
some  of  these  were  probably  wrongly  ascribed  to  him. 
The  plots  of  his  plays,  as  of  those  of  Terence,  are  usually 


PLAUTUS  19 

founded  upon  a  love  affair  between  a  young  man  of  good 
family  and  a  girl  of  low  position  and  doubtful  character. 
The  plots  and  '-^ne  voung  man  *s  aided  by  his  servant  or 
characters  of  a  parasite,  but  his  father  is  opposed  to  his 
Roman  having  anything  to  do  with  the  girl.  The 

girl's  mother  or  mistress  usually  aids  the  lov- 
ers, but  often  has  to  be  won  over  by  money,  which  the 
young  man  and  his  servant  have  to  get  from  his  father. 
Sometimes  the  characters  mentioned  are  duplicated,  and 
we  have  two  pairs  of  lovers,  two  irate  fathers,  two 
cunning  slaves,  etc.  Other  typical  characters  are  the 
procurer,  the  parasite,  the  boastful  soldier,  and  a  few 
more,  who  help  to  bring  about  amusing  situations,  and 
serve  as  the  butt  of  many  jokes.  In  the  end,  the  lovers 
are  usually  united,  and  the  girl  turns  out  to  be  of  good 
birth,  often  the  long-lost  daughter  of  one  of  the  older 
men  in  the  play.  Sometimes  other  plots  are  chosen,  atf 
in  the  AmpMtruo,  which  is  founded  on  the  story  that 
Jupiter,  when  he  visited  Alcmene,  used  to  take  the  form 
of  her  husband  Amphitryon,  and  the  fun  of  the  play  is 
caused  by  the  confusion  between  the  real  husband  and  the 
disguised  god.  In  a  few  plays  the  plot  is  less  decidedly  a 
love  plot,  but,  as  a  general  rule,  the  Roman  comedies  had 
love  stories  for  their  foundation.  There  is,  however,  room  • 
for  considerable  variety,  as  may  be  seen  by  a  brief  sketch 
of  the  contents  of  the  extant  plays  of  Plautus. 

The  Amphitruo,  bringing  the  "Father  of  gods  and 
men "  into  comic  confusion  with  a  mortal,  and  under 
The  extant  very  suspicious  circumstances  at  that,  is  a 
plays  of  burlesque,  full  of  rather  broad  fun  and  amu- 

sing situations,  perhaps  the  most  interesting 
of  all  Latin  comedies.  In  the  Asinaria,  the  Casino,,  and 
the  Mer cator,  father  and  son  are  rivals  for  the  affection 
of  the  same  girl.  Of  these  three,  the  Casina  is  the  worst 
in  its  indecency,  while  the  other  two  lack  interest.  These 
plays,  however,  like  all  the  comedies  of  Plautus,  are  full 


20  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

of  animal  spirits,  plays  on  words,  and  clever  dialogue. 
The  Aulularia,  or  Pot  of  Gold,  has  a  plot  of  little  inter- 
est, but  is  famous  for  the  brilliant  and  lifelike  presenta- 
tion of  the  chief  character,  the  old  miser  Euclio.  The 
Captivi,  one  of  the  best  of  the  plays,  has  for  its  subject 
the  friendship  between  a  master  and  his  slave.  There 
are  no  female  characters,  and  the  piece  is  entirely  free 
from  the  coarseness  and  immorality  which  disfigure  most 
of  the  others.  The  Trinummus,  or  Three-penny  Piece, 
has  also  friendship,  not  love,  as  its  leading  motive, 
though  it  ends  with  a  betrothal.  This  play  also  is  free 
from  coarseness,  and  gives  an  attractive  picture  of  the 
good  old  days  when  friend  was  true  to  friend.  The 
Curculio  is  interesting  chiefly  through  the  cleverness 
of  the  parasite,  who  succeeds  in  making  the  rival  of 
his  employer  furnish  the  money  needed  to  obtain  the 
girl.  The  Epidicus,  the  Mostellaria,  and  the  Persa,  also 
owe  their  interest  to  the  tricks  and  rascalities  of  the  para- 
site or  the  valet.  The  Cistellaria,  only  part  of  which 
is  preserved,  contains  a  love  affair,  but  has  for  its  chief 
interest  the  recognition  between  a  father  and  his  long- 
lost  daughter.  The  Vidularia,  too,  which  exists  only 
in  fragments,  leads  up  to  a  recognition,  this  time  be- 
tween a  father  and  his  son.  The  Miles  Gloriosus,  a  play 
of  very  ordinary  plot,  is  distinguished  for  the  some- 
what exaggerated  and  farcical  portrait  of  the  braggart 
soldier.  So  the  Pseudolus  is  a  piece  of  character  draw- 
ing, in  which  the  perjured  go-between,  Ballio,  is  the  one 
important  figure.  In  the  Bacchides  the  plot  is  more 
intricate  and  interesting,  and  the  execution  more  bril- 
liant, but  the  life  depicted  is  that  of  loose  women  and 
immoral  men.  The  Stichus  has  little  plot,  but  several 
attractive  scenes.  Two  women,  whose  husbands  have 
disappeared,  remain  faithful  to  them,  and  are  rewarded 
by  having  them  return  with  great  wealth.  The  Pcenulus 
is  chiefly  interesting  on  account  of  passages  in  the  Cartha- 


PLAUTUS  21 

ginian  language,  which  have  for  centuries  attracted  the 
attention  of  linguists.  In  the  Truculentus,  a  country- 
man comes  to  the  city  and  changes  his  rustic  manners  for 
city  polish.  The  scenes  are  witty  and  effective,  but  the 
plot  is  weak.  In  the  Men&chmi,  twin  brothers  come  to 
the  town  of  Epidamnum,  and  their  likeness  to  each  other 
causes  most  laughable  confusion.  This  is  the  original  of 
Shakespeare's  Comedy  of  Urrors  and  many  other  modern 
plays  of  similar  plot.  The  Rudens,  or  Cable,  has  for 
its  subject  the  restoration  of  a  long-lost  daughter  to 
her  father  and  her  union  with  her  lover,  but  is  distin- 
guished from  the  other  plays  of  Plautus  by  the  evident 
love  of  nature  and  the  fresh  breath  of  the  sea  and  open 
air  that  breathe  through  it,  making  it  one  of  the  most 
attractive  of  his  comedies. 

How  much  of  the  plots  of  these  plays  can  be  attributed 
to  Plautus  himself  it  is  hard  to  tell.  In  some  instances 
Degree  of  nearly  all  the  details  seem  to  be  Greek,  and 
originality  probably  the  plays  in  which  this  is  the  case 
in  Plautus.  are  simply  free  translations  with  just  enough 
changes  to  make  them  easily  understood  at  Rome.  In 
other  cases,  as  in  the  Stichus,  the  play  as  we  have 
it  seems  to  be  made  up  of  scenes  only  loosely  strung 
together,  arranged  apparently  rather  for  a  Roman  au- 
dience which  cared  chiefly  for  spectacular  effect  and  stage 
by-play  than  for  a  Greek  audience  accustomed  to  weigh 
and  criticize  the  excellence  of  the  plot.  In  some  instances, 
too,  the  Latin  play  is  known  to  be  made  up  of  scenes  taken 
from  two  Greek  plays  and  put  together  in  order  to  pro- 
duce a  single  piece  of  more  action  than  either  of  the  orig- 
inals. The  importance  of  the  work  of  the  Latin  play- 
wright varies  therefore  considerably.  There  are,  however, 
numerous  passages  containing  references  to  details  of 
Roman  life,  which  must  be  in  great  measure  original  with 
the  Roman  writer ;  there  are  many  plays  on  Latin  words 
which  could  not  be  introduced  in  a  mere  translation  from 


22  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

a  foreign  language ;  and  in  other  respects  also  the  come- 
dies show  Koman  rather  than  Greek  qualities.  We  must 
therefore  attribute  to  Plautus  a  considerable  share  of 
originality,  and  the  metrical  form  of  his  plays  is  naturally 
due  to  him  alone. 

The  following  passage,  whatever  it  may  owe  to  the 
Greek  original,  doubtless  owes  part  of  its  unusual  liveli- 
ness to  Plautus : l 

Sceparnio.  But,  O  Palaemon,  holy  companion  of  Neptune,  who 
art  said  to  be  a  sharer  in  the  labors  of  Hercules,  what's  that  I  see  ? 
Dcemones.  What  do  you  see  ?     Seep.  I  see  two  wom- 
™        ,          en  folk  sitting  all  alone  in  a  boat.     How  the  poor 
women.  things  are  tossed  about !     Ah !  ha !     Bully  for  that ! 

The  current  has  turned  the  boat  from  the  rock  to 
the  shore.  No  pilot  could  have  done  it  better.  I  think  I  never 
saw  bigger  waves.  They  are  safe,  if  they  have  escaped  those  bil- 
lows. Now,  now's  the  danger !  Oh !  It  has  thrown  one  of  them 
out.  But  she's  in  shallow  water ;  she'll  swim  out  easily.  Whew ! 
Do  you  see  how  the  water  threw  that  other  one  out?  She's  come 
up  again ;  she's  coming  this  way.  She's  safe ! 

A  second  passage2  will  give  an  idea  of  the  style  of 
some  of  the  dialogue  of  Plautus.  The  speakers  are  a  boy, 
Paegnium,  and  a  maid-servant,  Sophoclidisca : 

Sophoclidisca.  Paegnium,  darling  boy,  good  day.  How  do  you 
do  ?  How's  your  health  ?  Pcegnium.  Sophoclidisca,  the  gods 

bless    me !      Soph.    How   about   me  ?     Pceg.   That's 
Bantering 
talk  as  the  gods  choose ;  but  if  they  do  as  you  deserve, 

they'll  hate  you  and  hurt  you.  Soph.  Stop  your  bad 
talk.  Pag.  When  I  talk  as  you  deserve,  my  talk  is  good,  not  bad. 
Soph.  What  are  you  doing?  Pceg.  I'm  standing  opposite  and 
looking  at  you,  a  bad  woman.  Soph.  Surely  I  never  knew  a  worse 
boy  than  you.  Pceg.  What  do  I  do  that's  bad,  or  to  whom  do  I 
say  anything  bad  ?  Soph.  To  whomever  you  get  a  chance.  Pceg. 
No  man  ever  thought  so.  Soph.  But  many  know  that  it  is  so. 
Pceg.  Ah !  Soph.  Bah !  Pceg.  You  judge  other  people's  charac- 
ters by  your  own  nature.  Soph.  I  confess  I  am  as  a  pimp's  maid 

1  Rudens,  160-173.  2  Persa,  204-224. 


STATIUS  CLECtLIUS  23 

should  be.  Pag.  I've  heard  enough.  Soph.  What  about  you? 
Do  you  confess  you're  as  I  say?  Pceg.  I'd  confess  if  I  were  so. 
Soph.  Go  off  now.  You're  too  much  for  me.  Pceg.  Then  you 
go  off  now.  Soph.  Tell  me  this  :  where  are  you  going  ?  Pceg. 
Where  are  you  going  ?  Soph.  You  tell ;  I  asked  first.  Pceg.  But 
you'll  find  out  last.  Soph.  I'm  not  going  far  from  here.  Pceg. 
And  I'm  not  going  far,  either.  Soph.  Where  are  you  going,  then, 
scamp  ?  Pceg.  Unless  I  hear  first  from  you,  you'll  never  know 
what  you  ask.  Soph.  I  declare  you'll  never  find  out  to-day,  un- 
less I  hear  first  from  you.  Pceg.  Is  that  so?  Soph.  Yes,  it  is. 
Pceg.  You're  bad.  Soph.  You're  a  scamp.  Pceg.  I've  a  right  to 
be.  Soph.  And  I've  just  as  good  a  right.  Pceg.  What's  that  you 
say?  Have  you  made  up  your  mind  not  to  tell  where  you're 
going,  you  wretch?  Soph.  How  about  you?  Have  you  determined 
to  conceal  where  you're  bound  for,  you  scoundrel  ?  Pceg.  Hang 
it,  you  answer  like  with  like.  Go  away  now,  since  it's  settled  so. 
I  don't  care  to  know.  Good-by. 

Statins  Caecilius,  an  Insubrian  by  birth,  probably  came 
to  Rome  as  a  slave — that  is,  a  captive — at  some  time  not 
far  from  200  B.  c.  Here  he  became  a  writer  of  comedies, 

was  set  free  by  his  master,  and  lived  in  the 
Cgecilius.  same  house  with  Ennius.  He  died  about  165 

B.  c.  The  titles  of  some  forty  plays  by  Caecil- 
ius are  known ;  but  the  extant  fragments  are  too  short 
to  afford  much  information  as  to  his  style,  his  ability,  or 
the  contents  of  his  plays.  As  many  of  the  titles  of  his 
pieces  are  known  also  as  titles  of  plays  by  Menander,  it  is 
clear  that  Caecilius  presented  plays  of  the  Greek  new  com- 
edy in  Latin  form.  He  appears  to  have  followed  the  Greek 
originals  rather  more  closely  than  Plautus,  and  to  have 
cultivated  elegance  of  style  rather  than  brilliant  dialogue. 
Other  comic  writers  of  the  same  time  were  Trabea,  Atilius, 

Aquilius.  Licinius  Imbrex,  and  Luscius  Lanu- 
Other  writers  .H  '  . 

of  comedies,      vmus,  oi  whose  works  few  fragments  exist, 

and  who  are  mentioned  here  merely  to  show 
that  there  were  writers  of  comedies  at  Rome  between 
Plautus  and  Terence.  No  one  of  them,  however,  seems  to 
3  3 


24  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

have  possessed  the  originality  and  exuberant  wit  of  Plau- 

tus,  or  to  have  attained  the  elegance  and  polish  of  Terence. 

Publius  Terentius  Af  er,  called  Terence  in  English,  was 

born  at  Carthage  and  brought  to  Kome  as  a  slave.     He 

can  not  have  come  as  a  captive  to  Eome,  for 
Afe/"  kis  birth  took  place  between  the  second  and 

third  Punic  wars,  at  a  time  when  the  Ro- 
mans were  waging  no  war  in  Africa.  He  was  the  slave  of 
the  senator  Terentius  Lucanus,  by  whom  he  was  carefully 
educated. and  soon  set  free.  From  him  he  derived  his 
name  Terentius,  and  he  was  called  Afer  on  account  of  his 
African  origin.  He  became  intimate  with  Scipio  Afri- 
canus  the  younger,  his  friend  Laelius,  and  others  of  the 
most  cultivated  and  prominent  men  of  Rome.  It  was 
even  said  by  some  that  the  plays  of  Terence  were  really 
written  by  Scipio,  while  others  thought  Laelius  was  their 
author.  This  goes  to  prove  that  Terence  was  intimate 
with  Scipio,  Laelius,  and  the  rest,  and  may  be  regarded  as 
an  indication  of  his  age ;  for  if  he  was  much  older  than 
Scipio  he  would  hardly  have  been  charged  with  passing 
off  Scipio's  work  as  his  own.  If  he  was  of  the  same  age 
as  Scipio  he  was  born  in  185  B.  c.,  and  in  that  case  was 
only  nineteen  years  old  when  the  Andria,  his  first  play, 
was  produced  in  166.  It  is  therefore  likely  that  he  was  a 
few  years  older  than  Scipio,  and  was  born  about  190  B.  c. 
After  he  had  produced  six  comedies  he  went  to  Greece  in 
160  B.  c.  to  study,  and  died  in  the  next  year  either  on  his 
way  back  to  Rome  or  in  Greece.  His  popularity  with 
the  most  cultivated  men  of  Rome  testifies  to  his  good 
breeding  and  agreeable  manners.  Suetonius  tells  us  that 
he  was  of  moderate  height,  slender  figure,  and  dark 
complexion,  that  he  had  a  daughter  who  was  afterwards 
married  to  a  Roman  knight,  and  that  he  left  property 
amounting  to  twenty  acres.  The  six  plays  of  Terence  are 
all  preserved  to  us,  together  with  the  dates  of  the  first 
performance  of  each. 


TERENCE  25 

The  Andria,  produced  at  the  Ludi  Megalenses,  166  B.  c., 
is  adapted  from  the  Andria  of  Menander,  with  additions 
from  his  PerintMa.  A  young  man,  Pamphilus,  is  in  love 

with  a  girl  from  Andros,  but  his  father,  Simo, 

The  Andria.  .  . '  ' 

has  arranged  a  marriage  for  him  with   the 

daughter  of  a  neighbor,  Chremes.  Pamphilus's  servant, 
Davus,  succeeds  in  breaking  off  the  match,  and  the  girl 
from  Andros  is  finally  found  to  be  a  daughter  of  Chremes. 
Pamphilus  and  his  beloved  are  united,  and  a  second  young 
man  comes  forward  to  marry  the  other  daughter. 

The  Hecyra  (Mother-in-law),  first  produced  at  the  Ludi 
Megalenses,  165  B.  c.,  is  adapted  from  the  Greek  of  Apollo- 

H  dorus.  Pamphilus  is  a  young  man  who  has 

recently  married  Philumena,  for  whom  he 
has  no  affection.  He  goes  on  a  journey  to  attend  to  some 
property,  and  Philumena  returns  to  her  mother.  Upon 
Pamphilus's  return,  a  child  born  to  Philumena  in  his 
absence  is  shown  to  be  his,  and  he  and  Philumena  are 
reconciled.  This  play  was  unsuccessful,  and  deservedly 
so,  as  it  is  the  least  interesting  Latin  comedy  extant. 

The  Heauton  -  Timorumenos  (Self-tormentor),  after 
Menander's  play  of  the  same  title,  was  produced  at  the 
The  Heauton-  Ludi  Megalenses  in  163  B.  c.  Menedemus 
Timomme-  has  by  his  harshness  driven  his  son  Clinias, 
ncs-  who  is  in  love  with  Antiphila,  to  take  service 

in  a  foreign  army.  He  therefore  torments  himself  on 
account  of  remorse,  and  he  confides  his  troubles  to 
his  friend  Chremes,  whose  son,  Clitipho,  is  in  love  with 
Bacchis.  When  Clinias  comes  back  from  the  wars,  he 
and  Clitipho  get  Chremes  to  receive  Antiphila  and  Bacchis 
in  his  house,  in  the  belief  that  Clinias  is  in  love  with 
Bacchis,  and  that  Antiphila  is  her  servant.  Finally  Anti- 
phila is  found  to  be  the  daughter  of  Chremes  and  is  be- 
trothed to  Clinias.  Clitipho  gives  up  the  spendthrift 
Bacchis.  The  comic  personage  of  the  play  is  the  slave 
Syrus,  who  helps  the  young  men  to  get  the  money  they 


26  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

need.     The  character  of  Chremes  is  well  drawn,  but  the 
action  of  the  play  is  weak. 

The  Eunuchus,  produced  at  the  Ludi  Megalenses  in 
161  B.  c.,  is  adapted  from  the  "  Eunuch  "  of  Menander,  with 
additions  from  the  "  Flatterer "  of  the  same 
Eunuohus  author.  The  plot  is  complicated  and  inter- 
esting, involving  a  love  affair  between  Thais 
and  Phaedria,  who  has  a  soldier  as  his  rival,  and  a  second 
love  affair  between  Pamphila,  who  had  been  brought  up 
as  foster  sister  to  Thais,  and  Phaedria's  brother,  Chaerea. 
In  order  to  approach  Pamphila,  Chaerea  disguises  himself 
as  a  eunuch.  In  the  end  Pamphila's  brother  Chremes 
appears,  proclaims  her  free  birth,  and  sanctions  her  mar- 
riage to  Chaerea.  The  characters  are  well  drawn,  Chaerea, 
perhaps,  the  best  of  all,  and  the  action  is  amusing. 

The  Phormio,  first  performed  at  the  Ludi  Eomani,  in 
161  B.  c.,  is  adapted  from  the  Greek  of  Apollodorus.    Two 

brothers,  Chremes  and  Demipho,  have  gone 
The  Phormio.  .  i        •         t,   • 

on  a  journey,  leaving  their  two  sons,  Phaedria 

and  Antipho,  in  charge  of  a  slave,  Geta.  Antipho  marries 
a  poor  girl  named  Phanium,  from  Lesbos,  and  Phaedria 
falls  in  love  with  a  slave  girl,  whose  owner  sells  her  to 
some  one  else,  but  agrees  to  give  her  to  Phaedria  if  he 
brings  the  sum  of  thirty  minae  in  one  day.  The  two  fathers 
return,  and  the  parasite,  Phormio,  from  whom  the  play 
takes  its  name,  now  has  to  get  the  money  for  Phaedria  and 
to  secure  the  consent  of  Demipho  to  the  marriage  of  An- 
tipho and  Phanium.  He  gets  the  money  from  Demipho 
by  telling  him  that  he  will  himself  marry  Phanium  for 
thirty  minae,  but  just  at  the  right  moment  Phanium  is 
found  to  be  the  daughter  of  Chremes,  and  her  marriage 
with  Antipho  is  accepted  by  all  parties.  The  plot  is  well 
carried  out,  and  the  two  old  men  and  their  sons  are  well 
portrayed. 

The   Adelphm   (Brothers),  after  Menander's  play  of 
the  same  name,  with  additions  from  a  play  by  Diphi- 


TERENCE  27 


lus,  was  first  performed  at  the  funeral  games  of 

ius  Paulus,  in  160  B.  c.     Demea  had  two  sons,  and  gave 

his  brother,  Micio,  one  of  them,  named  ^Es- 
Adelphoe.  chinus,  keeping  the  other,  Ctesipho,  him- 

self. Micio  is  a  bachelor,  and  treats  ^E&chi- 
nus  with  the  greatest  indulgence,  whereas  Demea  is  very 
strict  toward  Ctesipho,  but  the  result  is  about  the  same. 
Ctesipho  falls  in  love  with  a  harpist,  whom  ^Eschinus, 
to  please  his  brother,  carries  off  from  her  master. 
^Eschinus  himself  is  engaged  in  an  affair  with  the 
daughter  of  a  poor  widow.  The  girl  is,  however,  of 
good  Attic  parentage,  and  ^schinus  has  promised  to 
marry  her.  In  the  end  this  marriage  takes  place,  Ctesi- 
pho gets  his  harpist  and  Micio  is  persuaded  to  marry  the 
widow. 

The  plays  of  Terence  are  written  in  a  style  far  more 
advanced,  more  refined,  and  more  artistic  than  those  of 

Plautus,  but  they  show  much  less  originality, 
Terence  and  wjtj  and  vigor  piautus  wrote  at  a  time 

compared.  when  Greek  culture  was  already  known  to 
the  Eomans,  but  when  it  was  less  thoroughly 
appreciated  than  later,  and  he  wrote  not  for  any  one  class 
of  Eomans,  but  for  the  people.  The  language  of  Plautus 
is  therefore  the  language  of  every-day  life  as  it  was  spoken 
by  the  average  Eoman;  his  wit  is  of  the  kind  that 
appealed  to  ordinary  men,  and  his  plays  have  much 
action,  that  the  common  man  might  enjoy  them.  Plautus 
took  Greek  plays  and  made  them  over  to  suit  the  average 
Eoman.  The  position  of  Terence  was  different.  In  his 
day  a  cultivated  class  of  Eomans  existed,  who  knew  Greek 
literature  well,  who  admired  and  loved  Greek  culture,  but 
were  none  the  less  patriotic  Eomans.  These  men  wished 
to  introduce  all  that  was  best  in  Greece  into  Eome.  So 
far  as  literature  was  concerned,  they  wished  to  make  Latin 
literature  as  much  like  Greek  literature  as  possible,  and 
therefore  encouraged  imitation  rather  than  originality, 


28  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

purity  and  grace  of  language  rather  than  vigor  of  thought 
or  expression.  These  were  the  men  among  whom  Terence 
lived,  and  whose  taste  influenced  him  most.  His  plays 
contain  few  indications  that  they  are  written  for  a 
Koman  audience  (except,  of  course,  that  they  are  written 
in  Latin),  but  are  Greek  in  their  refinement  of  language, 
gentle  humor,  and  polished  excellence  of  detail.  There  is 
less  variety  of  metre  than  in  the  plays  of  Plautus,  as,  in- 
deed, there  is  less  variety  of  any  kind,  for  Terence  relies 
for  his  effect,  not  upon  variety,  but  upon  finished  ele- 
gance. He  is  the  earliest  Latin  author  who  tries  to  equal 
the  Greeks  in  stylistic  refinement,  and  few  of  those  who 
came  after  him  were  as  successful  as  he. 

Many  of  the  qualities  of  the  style  of  Terence  are  lost 
in  translation ;  but  something  of  the  air  of  ease,  natural- 
ness, and  good  humor  that  pervades  his  plays  is  seen  in 
the  short  scene  in  the  Phormio,  in  which  Demipho  asks 
Nausistrata,  the  wife  of  Chremes,  to  persuade  Phanium  to 
marry  Phormio.1 

Demipho.  Come  then,  Nausistrata,  with  your  usual  good  nature 
make  her  feel  kindly  toward  us,  so  that  she  may  do  of  her  own 
accord  what  must  be  done.  Nausistrata.  I  will.  De.  You'll  be 
aiding  me  now  with  your  good  offices,  just  as  you  helped  me  a 
while  ago  with  your  purse.  Na.  You're  quite  welcome  ;  and  upon 
my  word,  it's  my  husband's  fault  that  I  can  do  less  than  I  might 
well  do.  De.  Why,  how  is  that  ?  Na.  Because  he  takes  wretched 
care  of  my  father's  honest  savings  ;  he  used  regularly  to  get  two 
talents  from  those  estates.  How  much  better  one  man  is  than 
another!  De.  Two  talents,  do  you  say?  Na.  Yes,  two  talents, 
and  when  prices  were  much  lower  than  now.  De.  Whew !  Na. 
What  do  you  think  of  that?  De.  Oh,  of  course —  Na.  I  wish 
I'd  been  born  a  man,  I'd  soon  show  you —  De.  Oh,  yes,  I'm  sure. 
Na.  The  way —  De.  Pray  do  save  yourself  up  for  her,  lest  she 
may  wear  you  out  ;  she's  young,  you  know.  Na.  I'll  do  as  you 
tell  me.  But  there's  my  husband  coming  out  of  your  house. 

1  Phormio,  784  ff.     Translated  by  M.  H.  Morgan. 


FABULA  TOGATA  29 

The  comedies  of  Plautus  and  Terence  have  served  as 
the  originals  for  almost  countless  plays  in  later  times,  and 

through  them  the  Greek  comedy  has  survived 

until  our  own  day.  There  were  other  Latin 
writers  of  comedies  derived  from  the  Greek  after  Terence, 
most  noted  of  whom  was  Turpilius,  who  died  in  103  B.  c., 
but  of  their  works,  which  were  unimportant,  little  remains. 
Of  the  fabula  togata,  Roman  comedy  in  Roman  dress,  little 
need  be  said.  It  never  attained  great  popularity,  and  it 
lasted  but  a  comparatively  short  time.  The  first  writer  of 
Fabula  comedies  of  this  sort  was  Titinius.  About 

togata.  one  hundred  and  eighty  lines  of  fragments 

Titinius,          and  fifteen  titles  of  his  plays  are  preserved, 
Atta,  from  which  we  can  learn  little  about  the 

quality  of  his  works.  He  seems  to  have  writ- 
ten a  little  later  than  Terence.  Titus  Quinctius  Atta  has 
left  to  us  the  titles  of  eleven  plays  and  about  twenty- 
five  lines  of  fragments.  Little  is  known  of  him  except 
the  date  of  his  death,  77  B.  c.  Lucius  Afranius,  the  last 
and  most  important  writer  of  this  kind  of  comedies,  was 
born  probably  not  far  from  150  B.  c.  Forty-two  titles  and 
more  than  four  hundred  lines  of  fragments  now  remain  to 
attest  his  activity.  The  scenes  of  the  plays  are  laid  in 
the  smaller  towns  of  Italy,  and  the  characters  belong  for 
the  most  part  to  the  lower  social  classes.  In  these  respects 
Afranius  seems  to  have  differed  little  from  Titinius  and 
Atta,  but  his  plays  had  apparently  less  local  color  than 
theirs,  and  thus  approached  more  nearly  the  character  of 
the  fabula  palliata  as  developed  by  Terence. 

Three  other  kinds  of  dramatic  composition  deserve 
brief  mention,  though  little  now  remains  of  them  and  their 

literary  importance  was  never  very  great. 
Verses111  ^G  Fescennine  Verses,  named  from  the  town 

of  Fescennium  in  Etruria,  were  originally  sung 
at  rustic  festivals  and  weddings  and  consisted  of  jokes  and 
sarcasms  directed  by  the  country  folk  at  each  other. 


30  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

They  never  became  regular  stage  performances,  and  gradu- 
ally lost  their  dramatic  qualities,  until  they  were  nothing 
more  than  wedding  songs.     The  Fabulos  Atellance,  named 
from  the  Oscan  town  of  Atella,  in  Campania, 

Atellanee  ^a(^  some  sor^  °^  a  pl°t»  carried  out  with  more 
or  less  dramatic  unity.  The  characters  were 
conventional — Maccus,  the  fool,  Pappus,  the  old  man, 
Bucco,  the  talker  and  liar,  Dossenus,  the  clever  man  and 
boaster,  and  the  like — and  the  whole  performance  was  a 
popular  burlesque  comedy,  somewhat  like  our  Punch  and 
Judy.  This  sort  of  performance  was  introduced  at  Eome 
after  the  conquest  of  Campania,  in  211  B.  c.,  and  Roman 
youths  of  good  family  took  the  parts  for  amusement. 
Somewhat  later,  the  custom  arose  of  performing  an 
Atellan  piece  at  the  end  of  a  tragedy.  The  performers 
were  now  regular  actors,  and  presently  the  FabulcB  Atel- 
lancB  became  a  regular  branch  of  literature,  the  chief 
writers  of  which  were  Lucius  Pomponius,  from  Bononia, 
and  Novius,  both  of  whom  nourished  in  the  time  of  Sulla, 
about  90  B.  c.  Few  fragments  of  their  works  remain.  The 
Atellan  plays  continued  to  be  performed  even  after  the 
beginning  of  the  empire,  but  the  words  became  less  and 
less  important,  and  the  performance  became  mere  panto- 
Mimes  mime.  Another  kind  of  burlesque  perform- 
ance was  the  Mime,  which  was  introduced  into 
Rome  from  the  Greek  cities  of  Italy  and  Sicily.  It  had 
less  consistent  plots  than  comedy,  and  was  more  popular 
in  its  character.  Though  doubtless  introduced  at  Rome 
as  early  as  comedy  itself,  it  hardly  appears  as  a  branch  of 
literature  until  about  the  time  of  Cicero,  when  mimes 
serve  as  afterpieces  at  tragic  performances.  In  imperial 
times  mimes  were  performed  independently.  The  chief 
authors  of  mimes  were  Decimus  Laberius  (105-43  B.  c.), 
a  Roman  knight,  and  Publilius  Syrus,  a  slave  from  Antioch, 
both  belonging  to  the  time  of  Caesar,  about  the  middle  of 
the  first  century  B.  c.  No  mimes  are  extant,  nor  is  their 


MIMES  31 

loss  to  be  greatly  regretted,  for  their  humor  was  generally 
coarse,  their  plots  often  indecent,  and  their  literary  quali- 
ties of  a  low  order.  Some  of  the  fragments  of  the  mimes 
of  Laberius  show,  however,  considerable  merit,  and  in 
those  of  Publilius  so  many  sensible  precepts  and  wise 
utterances  were  embodied  that  a  collection  of  his  sayings 
was  made,  part  of  which  is  preserved  to  us. 


CHAPTER  III 

EARLY  PROSE-THE  SCIPIONIC  CIRCLE-LUCILIUS 

Greek  influence  upon  Roman  prose — Fabius  Pictor,  216  B.  c. — Cin- 
cius  Alimentus,  210  B.  c. — Cato,  234-149  B.  c. — Cato's  works — Orators 
— Jurists — Latin  annalists — Scipio  Africanus  the  younger,  185-129 
B.  c.— The  Scipionic  circle— Lucilius,  180(?)-126  B.  c.— Satire— Satires 
of  Lucilius — Literature  in  the  fifty  years  before  Cicero — Poetry — His- 
tory— Learned  works — General  writers — Jurists — Oratory — Rhetoric 
addressed  to  Herennius — Great  development  of  prose  in  this  period. 

TRAGEDY  and  comedy  began,  reached  their  full  devel- 
opment, and  decayed  in  the  short  period  of  a  century  and 
a  half  between  the  first  play  of  Livius  Andronicus  and 
the  death  of  Accius.  It  was  therefore  advisable  to  give  a 
connected  account  of  dramatic  literature  at  Rome  for  this 
entire  period,  and  to  reserve  for  separate  treatment  the 
beginnings  of  prose  literature,  which,  though  less  rapid 
in  its  growth,  had  a  far  longer  life  and  was  a  much  truer 
expression  of  the  national  genius. 

The  rudiments  of  a  strictly  native  prose  literature,  the 
twelve  tables  of  the  laws,  the  various  lists  and  records, 
Greek  an<^  ^e  sPeecnes  delivered  on  public  and  pri- 

influence  vate  occasions,  mark  the  lines  along  which 
upon  Roman  Roman  prose  was  destined  to  advance — his- 
tory, jurisprudence,  and  eloquence.  But 
Roman  prose,  like  Roman  poetry,  came  under  the  influ- 
ence of  Greek  literature  as  soon  as  the  Romans  began  to 
pay  any  attention  to  literary  style.  It  was  when  the  con- 
quest of  southern  Italy  brought  Rome  into  closer  contact 
than  before  with  the  cities  of  Magna  Graecia  that  Livius 


EARLY  PROSE  33 

Andronicus  was  brought  to  Eome,  and  it  was  in  the  years 
immediately  after  the  first  Punic  war  that  he  produced 
the  first  Latin  plays  in  imitation  of  Greek  originals.  To 
about  the  same  or  a  little  later  time  belong  the  earliest 
Roman  prose  writers.  Some  of  these  men,  regarding  the 
Latin  language  as  too  imperfect  for  use  in  prose  literature, 
wrote  in  Greek,  recording  the  events  of  Roman  history 
for  the  enlightenment  of  foreigners  and  of  educated 
Romans.  Such  was  Quintus  Fabius  Pictor,  a  man  of 

much  distinction  at  Rome,  who  was  sent  by 
Pictor 1U  ^e  s^e  to  consult  the  oracle  at  Delphi  after 

the  battle  of  Cannae  in  216  B.  c.  He  wrote  in 
Greek  prose  a  history  of  Rome  from  the  days  of  ^Bneas  to 
his  own  times,  selecting  the  same  subject  chosen  by  his 
contemporary  Ennius  for  his  Annales  in  Latin  verse. 
This  work  of  Fabius  Pictor  was  very  soon  translated  into 
Latin,  and  remained  one  of  the  chief  sources  from  which 
later  historians,  such  as  Livy,  derived  their  information. 

Lucius  Cincius  Alimentus,  who  was  praetor  in 
Alimentus  command  of  a  Roman  army  in  the  second 

Punic  war,  wrote  Roman  history  in  Greek 
prose,  as  did  also  Publius  Cornelius  Scipio,  the  son  of  the 
elder  Africanus,  Aulus  Postumius  Albinus,  and  Gaius 
Acilius,  about  the  middle  of  the  second  century  B.  c. 
Their  works,  being  in  Greek,  had  little  direct  influence 
on  Latin  literature,  but  show  how  powerful  the  Greek 
influence  was  among  the  cultivated  men  at  Rome  in  the 
years  following  the  second  Punic  war.  This  influence 
was  not  confined  to  literature,  but  affected  dress,  manners, 

ways  of  thinking — in  short,  all  sides  of  life — 
Sfluenoe.  especially  among  the  upper  classes.  The 

Greeks  of  this  time  were  no  longer  the  hardy 
citizen-soldiers  of  the  old  days  of  Marathon  and  Ther- 
mopylae, but  were  now  distinguished  for  culture,  refine- 
ment, and  scholarship,  too  often  accompanied  by  effemi- 
nacy, luxury,  and  dishonesty.  Not  by  any  means  all  the 


34  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

Komans  were  ready  to  profit  by  contact  with  Greek  civili- 
zation, with  its  mixture  of  good  and  bad  qualities,  and 
there  was  naturally  a  party  at  Rome  which  opposed  every- 
thing Greek,  and  wished  to  preserve  the  old  Eoman 
simplicity.  The  most  important  man  of  this  party  was 
Cato. 

Marcus  Porcius  Cato  was  born  at  Tusculum,  in  234 

B.  c.,  and  died  in  149  B.  c.     Throughout  his  life  he  was 

active  in  public  affairs.      He  was   quaestor 

01  (199  B<  c')'  consul  (195  B-  c-)> 


and  censor  (184  B.  c.),  and  in  all  his  offices 
showed  his  honesty,  efficiency,  singleness  of  purpose,  and 
sincere,  though  somewhat  narrow-minded,  patriotism.  He 
believed  that  the  influence  of  Greek  art,  literature,  philos- 
ophy, and  ways  of  life  was  bad,  though  in  his  old  age  he 
learned  the  Greek  language,  and  studied  Greek  literature. 
In  a  letter  to  his  son,  he  says  :  "  I  shall  speak  about  those 
Greeks  in  their  proper  place,  son  Marcus,  and  tell  what  I 
discovered  at  Athens,  and  that  it  is  good  to  look  into 
their  literature,  but  not  to  learn  it  thoroughly.  I  shall 
convince  you  that  their  race  is  most  worthless  and 
unteachable."  l 

Cato  was  opposed  to  the  prevailing  tendencies  in  litera- 
ture —  the  tendencies  which  were  destined  to  prevail  —  but 

in  spite  of  that  he  was  one  of  the  most  pro- 
orator8  *  ductive  literary  men  of  his  time.  His  active 

political  life  gave  him  many  occasions  for 
public  speaking,  in  the  senate  or  before  the  people,  and 
he  spoke  often  in  courts  of  law,  either  in  suits  of  his  own 
or  as  an  advocate  for  others.  One  hundred  and  fifty  of 
his  speeches  existed  in  Cicero's  time,  and  some,  at  least, 
were  read  and  admired  long  after  Cicero.  About  eighty 
scattered  fragments  now  exist,  some  of  which  belong  to 
political,  others  to  legal  speeches.  These  show  vigor 

1  Quoted  by  Pliny,  N.  H.  xxix,  7,  14. 


EARLY  PROSE  35 

and  terseness  of  expression,  a  sort  of  dry  humor,  and 
straightforward  freedom  of  speech,  but  no  elegance  of 
style. 

Cato's  most  important  work  was  the  Origines^  in  seven 
books,  the  first  Eoman  history  in  Latin  prose.     In  style 

and    method    this   work   was    very   uneven, 
llie  Origines.  .  " 

Sometimes   events   were    narrated    in  brief, 

annalistic  fashion,  at  other  times  Cato  devoted  much 
space  to  details.  One  book,  from  which  the  whole  work 
derived  its  name,  told  of  the  origins  and  early  history  of 
the  various  towns  of  Italy.  The  work  treated  of  Eoman 
and  Italian  history  from  the  earliest  times  to  Cato's  own 
day,  and  in  the  latter  part  Cato  took  pains  to  give  his 
own  actions  at  least  as  much  prominence  as  was  their  due, 
even  inserting  in  his  narrative  the  speeches  he  had  deliv- 
ered on  various  occasions.  In  the  form  of  letters  to  his 
son,  Cato  composed  treatises  on  agriculture,  the  care  of 
health,  eloquence,  and  the  art  of  war.  He  also  wrote  a 
series  of  rules  of  conduct  in  verse,  and  made  a  collection 
of  wise  and  witty  sayings. 

Of  all  his  works  the  only  one  extant  is  a  treatise  On 
Agriculture.  Born  and  brought  up  in  the  small  town  of 
The  treatise  Tusculum,  and  full  of  admiration  for  the 
On  Agricul-  simple  virtues  of  the  early  Romans,  Cato  saw 
with  deep  disapproval  the  tendency  of  the 
men  of  his  own  day  to  give  up  agriculture  for  commercial 
and  financial  occupations.  "  It  would  sometimes  be  better 
to  seek  gain  by  commerce,  if  it  were  not  so  dangerous ; 
and  likewise  by  money-lending,  if  it  were  so  honorable. 
For  our  ancestors  held  this  matter  thus,  and  put  it  in  the 
laws  in  this  way,  that  a  thief  be  punished  by  a  double 
fine,  a  money-lender  by  a  fourfold  one.  From  this  one 
can  see  how  much  worse  citizen  they  considered  a  money- 
lender than  a  thief.  And  when  they  praised  a  good  man, 
it  was  a  good  farmer,  a  good  colonist.  They  thought  that 
a  man  was  most  amply  praised  who  was  praised  in  this 


36  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

way.  Now  I  think  a  merchant  is  energetic  and  diligent 
in  seeking  gain;  but,  as  I  said  above,  he  is  exposed  to 
danger  and  ruin.  But  from  farmers  both  the  bravest 
men  and  most  energetic  soldiers  arise,  and  the  business 
they  follow  is  most  pious  and  surest,  and  least  exposed  to 
envy ;  and  those  who  are  occupied  in  that  pursuit  are 
least  given  to  evil  thoughts." 1  In  other  parts  of  the  book 
Cato  gives  in  short,  simple  sentences,  practical  rules  to 
be  followed  by  the  farmer.  "  Be  sure  to  do  everything 
early.  For  this  is  the  way  with  farming :  if  you  do  one 
thing  late,  you  will  do  all  the  work  late."  This  style  of 
short,  sharp  sentences,  is  characteristic  of  Cato.  He  de- 
spises all  appearance  of  literary  polish,  as  if  he  wished  to 
show  that  the  arts  of  elegance  cultivated  by  most  other 
Eoman  writers  were  unnecessary  and  undesirable. 

Cato  was  one  of  the  most  famous  orators  of  his  time, 
but  his  competitors  were  many,  among  them  some  of  the 
Other  orators  mos^  n°ted  men  of  Eome.  Most  of  these  orators 
were  men  of  natural  ability,  whose  eloquence 
was  trained  in  the  school  of  public  life  and  owed  its  effect 
in  great  measure  to  the  weight  of  the  speaker's  dignity  or 
the  glory  of  his  deeds.  Their  speeches  are  lost,  and  the 
reputation  they  had  survives  only  to  remind  us  that  dur- 
ing and  after  the  second  Punic  war  Roman  eloquence 
was  growing  in  power,  preparing,  as  it  were,  for  the  bril- 
liant oratory  of  the  Gracchi  in  the  second  half  of  the 
second  century  B.  c.,  and  the  superb  productions  of  Cicero 
in  the  century  to  follow.  Among  orators  of  Cato's  time 
should  be  mentioned  Quintus  Fabius  Maximus  Cunctator, 
five  times  consul,  censor,  and  dictator,  the  conqueror  of 
Hannibal,  then  Quintus  Caecilius  Metellus,  consul  in  206 
B.C.,  Marcus  Cornelius  Cethegus  (died  in  196  B.  c.),  Pub- 
lius  Licinius  Crassus  (died  183  B.  c.),  and  Scipio  Africanus 
the  elder  (died  183  B.  c.). 

1  De  Re  Rustica,  i. 


EARLY  PROSE  37 

In  the  field  of  jurisprudence  there  was  considerable 
activity  in  the  days  of  Cato.     Publius  Julius  (consul  201, 

died  174  B.  c.)  and  his  brother  Sextus  (consul 

198  B.  c.)  published  the  most  systematic  work 
on  jurisprudence.  This  work  was  called  Tripertita,  and 
was  for  centuries  regarded  with  reverence  as  the  beginning 
from  which  grew  the  great  system  of  Roman  law.  Scipio 
Nasica  (consul  191  B.C.),  Lucius  Acilius,  Quintus  Fabius 
Labeo  (consul  183  B.  c.),  and  Cato's  son  (born  about  192, 
died  in  152  B.  c.)  were  all  distinguished  jurists,  whose  in- 
terpretation of  the  Twelve  Tables  and  whose  wisdom  in 
regard  to  legal  matters  are  mentioned  with  praise  by  later 
writers.  Their  writings  have  perished,  but  the  results  of 
their  studies  were  incorporated  in  the  later  works  on 
Eoman  law. 

The   annalists  who  wrote  in  Greek,  such  as  Fabius 
Pictor,  were  followed,  soon  after  the  middle  of  the  second 

century  B.  c.,  by  several  writers  whose  works 
annalists  differed  from  theirs  chiefly  by  being  written 

in  Latin.  They  derived  their  general  views 
and  methods,  as  well  as  some  of  their  facts,  from  earlier 
Greek  historians,  such  as  Ephorus  and  Timaeus.  The 
first  of  these  Latin  annalists  was  Lucius  Cassius  Hemina, 
who  wrote  a  history  of  Rome  to  his  own  time.  Somewhat 
more  important  was  Lucius  Calpurnius  Piso  Frugi,  who 
was  consul  in  133  B.  c.  His  annals  covered  the  same 
ground  as  those  of  Hemina,  and  are  said  to  have  been 
written  in  an  artless,  somewhat  rude  style.  A  similar 
lack  of  elegance  seems  to  have  belonged  to  the  works  of 
the  other  annalists  of  this  time.  Evidently  the  Romans 
had  not  yet  learned  to  write  artistic  prose.  Yet  this  is  the 
period  when,  under  the  guidance  of  Greek  teachers,  the 
Romans  were  paying  more  attention  than  ever  before  to 
grammar  and  rhetoric,  purity  of  language,  and  nicety  of 
expression. 

The  man  about  whom  the  best  literary  life  of  the  city 


38  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

centred  was  Scipio  Africanus  the  younger,  who  lived  from 
185  to  129  B.  c.  He  was  the  son  of  the  distinguished 
Lucius  ^Emilius  Paulus,  whose  victory  at 
Pydna,  in  168  B.  c.,  had  destroyed  the  last 
foreign  power  capable  of  making  serious  resistance  to 
the  Koman  legions,  and  he  had  been  adopted  by  the  son 
of  the  elder  Scipio  Africanus.  He  was  himself  a  distin- 
guished soldier,  for  as  a  simple  officer  (tribunus  militum) 
he  had  saved  the  Eoman  army  in  Africa,  after  which  he 
had  been  made  consul  and  commander  of  the  army  which 
brought  the  third  Punic  war  to  a  close  by  the  capture  and 
destruction  of  Carthage  (146  B.  c.).  It  might  have  been 
expected  that  he  would  take  an  active  part  in  the  govern- 
ment, especially  as  in  his  time  the  state  needed  the  help 
of  her  best  citizens.  But  Scipio  seems  to  have  felt  that 
the  internal  troubles,  which  beset  the  state  now  that 
all  external  dangers  were  over,  were  too  serious  to  be 
cured.  He  used  his  influence  for  good  wherever  he  was 
able,  but  made  no  systematic  attempt  to  correct  the 
abuses  of  the  government,  which  led  at  last  to  the  revo- 
lutionary disorders  of  the  days  of  the  Gracchi  (133-121 
B.  c.).  Instead  of  being  a  party  leader,  he  occupied  a  posi- 
tion somewhat  apart  from  the  aristocratic  and  the  popular 
parties,  lending  his  influence  and  his  eloquence  to  the 
causes  that  seemed  to  him  good,  and  in  this  way  preserv- 
ing a  reputation  for  independence  and  good  judgment. 
His  patriotism  was  undoubted,  and  his  influence  as  great 
as  that  of  any  man  in  Eome. 

Scipio  had  been  carefully  educated,  and  employed  his 
leisure  in  literary  and  intellectual  pursuits.  He  was  not 
an  author  himself,  except  in  so  far  as  he 
published  his  speeches,  which  were  much  ad- 
mired, but  he  loved  to  be  surrounded  by  men 
of  letters,  to  profit  by  their  conversation,  and  lend  them 
the  support  of  his  social  position  and  influence.  His 
somewhat  older  friend,  Gaius  Laelius,  who  was  consul  in 


GAIUS  LUCILITTS  39 

140  B.  c.,  shared  his  literary  tastes,  though  he,  too,  re- 
frained from  publishing  other  works  than  speeches.  From 
167  to  150  B.  c.  a  thousand  Greeks  of  prominent  position 
in  their  native  country  were  kept  as  hostages  in  Italy. 
Among  these  was  the  historian  Polybius,  who  was  assigned 
a  residence  in  Eome,  and  who  became  a  member  of  the 
circle  of  literary  friends  who  surrounded  Scipio  and 
Lselius.  The  Stoic  philosopher  Panaetius,  who  afterward 
became  the  head  of  the  Stoic  school,  was  another  Greek 
belonging  to  the  Scipionic  circle.  The  influence  of  Panae- 
tius  upon  Eoman  philosophy  was  great,  as  was  that  of 
Polybius  upon  the  writing  of  Eoman  history.  But 
Latin  writers  also  gathered  about  Scipio.  Among  them 
were  Terence  (see  page  24),  the  most  polished  writer  of 
comedies ;  Hemina  and  Piso,  the  annalists ;  Gaius  Fannius, 
a  nephew  of  Laslius,  who  was  consul  in  122  B.  c.,  and 
achieved  distinction  as  an  orator,  besides  writing  a  his- 
tory of  Eome ;  Sempronius  Asellio,  whose  history  of  his 
own  times  was  continued  at  least  to  91  B.  c. ;  Lucius 
Furius  Philus,  consul  in  136  B.  c.,  orator  and  jurist,  and 
many  others.  Among  them  all,  the  most  original  genius 
was  the  father  of  Eoman  satire,  Gaius  Lucilius. 

Lucilius  was  born,   probably  in  180  B.  c.,  at  Suessa 
Aurunca,  in  Campania.     He  was  a  member  of  a  wealthy 

equestrian  family,  and  when  he  went  to  live 
LucUius          a^  R°me  ^e  kept  himself  free  from  the  cares 

of  business  as  well  as  of  politics,  devoting 
himself  to  social  life  and  to  literature.  He  lived  as  a 
wealthy  bachelor,  not  holding  himself  aloof  from  the 
pleasures  of  the  capital,  but  not  indulging  in  excesses. 
Most  of  his  life  was  passed  in  the  city,  but  in  134  B.  c.  he 
followed  Scipio  to  the  war  in  Spain,  and  in  126  B.  c., 
when  all  who  were  not  Eoman  citizens  were  obliged  to 
leave  Eome,  he  made  a  journey  to  Sicily,  from  which  he 
did  not  return  until  124  B.  c.  He  died  at  Naples  in 
103  B.  c. 
4 


4:0  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

The  name  satire  (satura)  may  be  derived  from  the 
lanx  satura^  a  dish  full  of  all  sorts  of  fruits,  and  as 
applied  to  poems  by  Ennius  (see  p.  8),  desig- 
nates poems  of  mixed  contents.  Perhaps  all 
the  poems  of  Ennius,  except  his  dramas  and  his  great  epic, 
may  have  been  classed  together  as  satires.  At  any  rate, 
Lucilius  is  the  first  writer  who  gave  to  satire  the  definite 
character  it  has  possessed  ever  since  his  time.  He  made 
his  poems  the  vehicle  for  the  expression  of  sharp  and 
biting  attacks  upon  persons,  institutions,  and  customs  of 
his  day,  for  genial  and  humorous  remarks  about  the  failings 
of  his  neighbors,  and  for  much  information  about  him- 
self. Ever  since  Lucilius,  satire  has  been  at  once  sharp 
and  humorous,  bitter  and  sweet.  This  kind  of  poetry, 
which  takes  the  form  of  dialogue,  familiar  conversation, 
or  letters,  is  not  Greek,  but  is  the  invention  of  him  who 
must  be  regarded  as  the  most  original  of  all  Koman  poets. 
The  Satires  of  Lucilius  were  contained  in  thirty 
books,  each  book  containing  several  satires.  The  subjects 
treated  were  of  all  sorts — the  faults  and  foi- 
The  Satires  bleg  of  individuals  the  defects  of  works  of 
01  Lucilius. 

literature,  the  ridiculous  imitation  of  Greek 
manners  and  dress,  the  absurdities  of  Greek  mythology, 
the  folly  of  expensive  dinner  parties,  the  author's  journey 
to  Sicily,  Latin  grammar,  the  proper  spelling  of  Latin 
words,  and  Scipio's  journey  to  Egypt  and  Asia.  The  per- 
sonality of  the  writer,  his  mode  of  life,  and  his  views  on 
all  subjects  were  so  clearly  brought  before  his  readers 
that  the  Satires  were  a  complete  autobiography.  They 
were  written  for  the  most  part  in  hexameters,  the 
metre  which  was  adopted  by  all  later  Eoman  satirists,  but 
some  of  them  were  in  iambic  senarii  and  trochaic  septe- 
narii,  others  in  elegiacs.1  They  were  not  written  at  one 

1  A  brief  description  of  some  of  the  feet  and  metres  most  fre- 
quently used  by  Roman  poets  may  be  useful.  These  were,  with  the 
exception  of  the  Saturnian  verse  (see  p.  7),  borrowed,  with  certain 


GAIUS  LUCILIUS  41 

time,  but  their  composition  was  continued  at  intervals 
through  many  years,  for  Lucilius  was  not  a  professional 
poet,  but  a  man  of  letters  who  expressed  himself  in  verse 
whenever  he  felt  inclined.  His  form  of  expression  was 
unconventional,  resembling  conversation  (in  fact  he  called 
the  poems  sermones,  "  conversations  "),  with  free  use  of 
dialogue.  Careful  literary  finish  was  not  attempted,  and 
Horace,  whose  satires  are  imitations  of  those  of  Lucilius, 
blames  the  older  poet  for  carelessness.  But  the  easy  and 

modifications,  from  the  Greek.     The  most  usual  feet  are  the  iambus 

(v^— ),  the  trochee  (— ^),  the  spondee  ( ),  the  dactyl  (—  ^>*J),  the 

anapaest  (w^— ),  and  the  choriambus  (—^^—).     The  dactylic  hex- 
ameter consists  of  six  feet,  each  of  which  is  either  a  dactyl  or  a  spon- 
dee, though  the  sixth  is  always  a  spondee  and  the  fifth  almost  always 
a  dactyl.    An  illustration  of  this  is  the  line  from  Lucilius, 
Maior  erat  natu  ;  non  omnia  possumus  omnes, 
the  rhythm  of  which  is  retained  in  this  translation : 

He  was  the  elder  by  birth ;  not  all  of  us  all  things  can  compass. 
The  iambic  senarius  consists  of  six  iambics,  as 

Hominem  inter  vivos  quaeritamus  mortuom. 

(Plautus,  Menaechmi,  240.) 

Among  the  living  we  do  seek  a  man  who's  dead. 
This  is  a  common  metre  in  the  dialogue  parts  of  dramas.     It  is 
one  foot  longer  than  the  line  in  English  blank  verse.     The  trochaic 
septenarius,  also  a  common  metre  in  the  drama,  consists  of  seven 
trochees  and  an  additional  long  syllable.     The  English  line 

Do  not  lift  him  from  the  bracken  ;  leave  him  lying  where  he  fell 
gives  an  idea  of  the  rhythm. 

The  elegiac  distich  consists  of    an  hexameter    followed  by  a 
so-called  pentameter,  that  is,  a  line  made  up  of  six  dactyls  or  spon- 
dees, with  the  omission  of  the  last  half  of  the  third  and  of  the  sixth 
feet.     This  is  illustrated  and  described  by  Coleridge  in  the  lines, 
In  the  hexameter  rises  the  fountain's  silvery  column. 
In  the  pentameter  aye  falling  in  melody  back. 
In  the  iambic  and  trochaic  metres  other  feet  are  often  substituted 
for  the  iambus  and  the  trochee,  but  without  change  of  rhythm. 

Some  of  the  other  metres  will  be  explained  or  illustrated  as  they 
occur. 


42  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

natural  tone  of  the  poems  must  have  more  than  made  up 
for  any  lack  of  polish. 

The  extant  fragments  amount  to  more  than  eleven 
hundred  lines,  but  are  for  the  most  part  short  and  dis- 
connected. In  one,1  Lucilius  seems  to  accept 
fragments  w^  pleasure  an  invitation  to  dinner  "  with 
good  conversation,  well  cooked  and  sea- 
soned " ;  in  another,2  he  reproves  the  luxury  which  leads 
to  greed  of  gain :  "  For  if  that  which  is  enough  for  a 
man  could  be  enough,  it  would  be  enough.  Now,  since 
this  is  not  so,  how  can  we  think  that  any  riches  can  sat- 
isfy my  soul  ?  "  Again,3  he  describes  a  miser  as  one  who 
has  no  cattle  nor  slaves  nor  any  attendant,  but  keeps  his 
purse  and  all  the  money  he  has  always  with  him.  "  He 
eats,  sleeps,  and  bathes  with  his  purse ;  the  man's  whole 
hope  is  in  his  purse  alone.  This  purse  is  fastened  to  his 
arm."  One  of  the  longest  fragments4  is  a  description  of 
virtus  (virtue) : 

Virtue,  Albinus,  is  being  able  to  pay  the  true  price  for  the 
things  in  and  by  which  we  live ;  virtue  is  knowing  to  what  each 
thing  leads  for  a  man.  Virtue  is  knowing  what  is  right,  useful, 
honorable  for  a  man,  what  things  are  good,  what  bad  likewise, 
what  is  useless,  base,  dishonorable ;  virtue  is  knowing  the  limit 
and  measure  in  seeking  anything ;  virtue  is  giving  to  riches  their 
true  value;  virtue  is  giving  to  honor  what  is  really  due  to  it;  is 
being  an  enemy  and  opponent  of  bad  men  and  morals,  on  the 
other  hand  a  defender  of  good  men  and  morals,  regarding  them 
as  of  much  importance,  wishing  them  well,  living  as  their  friend ; 
moreover,  considering  the  advantages  of  one's  country  first,  of 
one's  relatives  second,  of  ourselves  third  and  last. 

Other  fragments  contain  direct  attacks  upon  individuals, 
but  these  which  have  been  quoted  serve  to  give  an  idea 
of  the  freedom  of  speech,  good  sense,  and  serious  purpose 
of  the  first  great  satirist. 

1  iv,  Frg.  8,  Mtiller.  2  v,  Frg.  33,  Miiller. 

8  vi,  Frg.  16,  Muller.  4  libr.  incert.,  Frg.  1,  Miiller. 


THE  TIME   BEFORE  CICERO  43 

The  life  of  Lucilius  fell  in  a  period  of  many  changes. 
As  a  boy,  he  saw  the  Koman  power  established  in  the  east, 

before  he  reached  middle  life  he  witnessed  the 
in  the  fifty  destruction  of  Carthage,  then  he  lived  through 
years  before  the  troublous  years  before  and  after  the  death 

of  Tiberius  Gracchus  in  133  B.  c.,  and  that  of 
his  brother  Gaius  in  121  B.  c.,  and  in  the  year  before  his 
death  he  saw  the  consulship  in  the  hands  of  Gaius  Marius. 
It  was  not  until  the  long  struggle  between  Marius  and 
Sulla  was  over  that  any  measure  of  tranquility  returned 
to  the  Koman  state.  Then  came  the  Golden  Age  of 
Koman  literature.  But  for  fifty  years  before  the  time  of 
Cicero  circumstances  at  Rome  were  not  favorable  to  liter- 
ary production  of  every  kind.  Lucilius,  Accius,  Afranius 
and  a  few  other  poets  lived  on  until  about  the  end  of  the 
second  century  B.  c.,  but  there  was  little  new  life  in  poetry. 
Gnaeus  Matius  translated  the  Iliad,  and  Laevius  Melissus 
imitated  some  of  the  lighter  Greek  poems.  The  epic 

poem  of  Hostius  on  the  Istrian  war  and  that 

of  Aulus  Furius  from  Antium  (Furius  Antias) 
on  an  unknown  subject  have  left  hardly  any  traces.  It  is 
not  worth  while  to  mention  in  detail  the  occasional  love 
songs  and  epigrams  written  by  various  authors.  *  Aside 
from  Lucilius  and  the  dramatists  already  mentioned, 
there  are  no  poets  of  note  in  this  period. 

In  history,  the  production  was  greater  and  more  im- 
portant.    Fannius  and  Asellio  were  emulated  by  Coalius 

_.  Antipater,  whose  history  of  the  second  Punic 

History.  '  . 

war  was  of  some  importance,  and  he  was  fol- 
lowed by  Quintus  Claudius  Quadrigarius,  who  wrote  a  his- 
tory of  Rome  in  at  least  twenty-three  books,  coming  down 
to  the  year  82  B.  c.  Another  more  voluminous  but  less 
trustworthy  historian  was  Valerius  Antias,  who  wrote  an- 
nals in  at  least  seventy-five  books.  His  date  is  uncertain, 
but  he  seems  to  have  lived  early  in  the  first  century  B.  c. 
Two  other  historians  of  the  latter  part  of  this  period  were 


44  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

Lucius  Cornelius  Sisenna  (119-67  B.  c.),  who  wrote  a  his- 
tory of  his  own  times  in  an  antiquated  style,  and  Gaius 
Licinius  Macer,  whose  annals,  beginning  with  the  earliest 
times,  were  probably  continued  until  near  the  date  of  his 
death  (66  B.  c.).  The  dictator  Sulla  (138-78  B.  c.)  wrote 
memoirs,  which  must  have  possessed  great  historical  value. 
Gaius  Sempronius  Tuditanus  (consul  in  129  B.  c.)  was  not 
only  an  annalist,  but  also  an  antiquarian.1 

Important  writers  on  legal  subjects  were  Publius 
Mucius  Scaevola  (consul  in  133  B.  c.)  and  his  brother 

Publius  Licinius  Crassus  Mucianus  (consul 
Jurists. 

in  131  B.  c.),  but  more  important  than  either 

was  Quintus  Mucius  Scaevola  (consul  in  95  B.  c.),  whose 
systematic  treatment  of  Roman  law  served  as  the  founda- 
tion for  all  later  works  on  the  subject.  Quintus  Scaevola 
was  also  distinguished  as  an  orator. 

Throughout  the  period  from  the  third  Punic  war  to 

1  Lucius  ^Elius  Praeconinus  Stilo,  of  Lanuvium,  Stoic  philosopher, 
philologist  and  rhetorician,  was  the  first  to  give  regular  lessons  in 
Latin  literature  and  eloquence  and  to  apply  the  historical  method  to 
the  study  of  the  Latin  language.  He  was  born  not  far  from  154  B.  c., 
and  lived  well  into  the  first  century  B.  c.  His  contemporary,  Quintus 
Valerius  Soranus  (from  Sora),  also  wrote  on  Latin  literature,  the  study 
of  which  was,  in  his  case,  joined  with  that  of  Roman  antiquities. 
Volcacius  Sedigitus,  of  whose  personality  nothing  is  known,  wrote  a 
didactic  poem  on  the  history  of  Latin  literature  about  90  B.  c.  Besides 
these,  numerous  works  on  grammar,  philology,  antiquities,  agriculture, 
and  other  subjects  were  written  by  various  authors,  whose  names  arc 
in  many  cases  lost,  but  whose  works  served  as  quarries  from  which 
Varro  and  other  writers  derived  their  treasures  of  learning. 

Many  prominent  Romans  played  some  part  in  the  progress  of  litera- 
ture. So  Publius  Rutilius  Rufus  (born  about  158  B.  c.,  consul  in  105, 
died  about  75)  studied  the  Stoic  philosophy,  published  speeches,  juris- 
tic writings,  and  an  autobiography  in  Latin,  and  wrote  a  history  in 
Greek,  while  Quintus  Lutatius  Catulus  (born  about  152  B.  c.,  consul 
in  102,  died  in  87)  published  orations  and  epigrams.  Among  the 
letters  written  and  published  in  this  period  none  were  more  admired 
than  those  of  Cornelia,  mother  of  the  Gracchi. 


THE  TIME  BEFORE  CICERO  4:5 

the  dictatorship  of  Sulla — and,  in  fact,  until  the  death  of 
Cicero — nearly  every  public  man  at  Rome  was  an  orator, 

and  many  of  them  published  their  speeches. 

In  the  times  of  the  Gracchi,  Rome  contained, 
perhaps,  more  excellent  speakers  than  at  any  other  period, 
among  whom  none  equalled  in  force,  brilliancy  and  ora- 
torical power  the  great,  though  unsuccessful,  statesman 
and  patriot  Gaius  Gracchus  (154-121  B.  c.),  who  far  sur- 
passed his  elder  brother  Tiberius  (163-133  B.  c.)  in  elo- 
quence, though  he,  too,  was  an  orator  of  distinction. 
After  the  Gracchi  the  most  distinguished  orators  were 
Marcus  Antonius  (143-87  B.  c.)  and  Lucius  Licinius 
(140-91  B.  c.),  the  first  of  whom  excelled  in  vigor  and 
liveliness  of  delivery,  the  second  in  wit,  elegance  and 
variety  of  composition.  These  orators  were  not  merely 
men  with  natural  ability  to  speak,  but  were  carefully 
trained  in  accordance  with  the  precepts  of  Greek 
rhetoric. 

Of  all  the  works  mentioned  so  far  in  this  chapter,  only 
one — Cato's  treatise  On  Agriculture — has  come  down  to 

us  entire,  and  only  the  satires  of  Lucilius 
These  works  are  ]£nown  ^o  us  ^y  numerous  fragments. 

The  other  works  and  their  authors  have  left 
little  more  than  their  names.  There  is,  however,  one 
work,  now  usually  ascribed  to  Cornificius,  an  author  of 
whom  nothing  is  known,  which  is  preserved  entire.  This 

is  the  Rhetoric  Addressed  to  Herennius,  which 
Herennium  was  Preserve(^  because  it  was  falsely  included 

among  Cicero's  works.  The  treatise  goes 
over  much  the  same  ground  as  Cicero's  youthful  essay  On 
Invention,  which  is  evidently  intended  to  be  little  more 
than  a  new  and  improved  edition  of  the  earlier  work. 

The  importance  of  the  period  immediately  preceding 
the  time  of  Cicero  can  not  be  judged  by  the  extant  litera- 
ture, but  must  be  estimated  by  the  number  of  works  and 
authors  mentioned  by  later  writers  and  the  qualities 


46  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

assigned  to  them.  It  is  at  once  evident  that  poetry  made 
little  progress,  while  prose  writing  of  all  kinds  advanced 
Great  with  rapid  strides.  It  is  only  natural,  there- 

progress  fore,  that  the  age  of  Cicero  should  be  the 
of  prose.  most  brilliant  period  of  Latin  prose,  and  that 
the  highest  general  development  of  poetry  should  be  re- 
served for  the  Augustan  age.  Yet,  even  the  Augustan 
age  can  only  equal,  not  surpass,  the  immortal  poems  of 
two  of  Cicero's  contemporaries,  Lucretius  and  Catullus. 


CHAPTEE  IV 

LUCRETIUS 

The  Ciceronian  period — Lucretius,  99  (?)-55  (?)  B.  c. — Philosophy 
at  Rome — The  poem  of  Lucretius — Its  purpose,  contents,  and  style. 

IT  was  in  the  dictatorship  of  Sulla,  81  B.  c.,  that  Cicero 
made  his  first  appearance  as  an  orator,  and  almost  from 
The  age  of  that  time  until  his  death,  in  43  B.  c.,  he  was 
Cicero  a  time  the  most  prominent  orator  and  man  of  let- 
of  unrest.  ^ers  jn  ROme.  It  is  hut  right  that  in  the 
history  of  literature  this  period  of  nearly  forty  years  is 
called  the  age  of  Cicero.  In  political  and  external  mat- 
ters this  was  a  time  of  great  unrest.  Sulla's  dictator- 
ship, which  seemed  to  put  an  end  to  strife,  served  only  to 
strengthen  the  power  of  the  senate,  not  to  diminish  its 
ahuses ;  the  increase  of  the  slave  population  of  Italy  still 
continued  to  drive  the  freehorn  farmers  to  Eome  to  swell 
the  number  of  the  city  rabble;  the  slaves  themselves 
broke  out  into  open  war ;  the  provinces  were  discon- 
tented on  account  of  the  extortions  of  their  governors ; 
the  Cilician  pirates  became  so  powerful  that  their  sup- 
pression was  a  matter  of  some  difficulty ;  Mithridates 
aroused  a  war  in  the  east,  and  was  overcome  only  by 
great  exertion;  while  in  Eome  itself  the  conspiracy  of 
Catiline  and  the  struggle  between  Pompey  and  Caesar 
clearly  foreshadowed  the  end  of  the  republic. 

This  period  was  at  the  same  time  one  of  great  mate- 
rial prosperity  at  Eome.  In  spite  of  disturbing  influences, 
wealth  increased,  interest  in  art  and  literature  was  wide- 

47 


48  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

spread,  and  there  was,  alongside  of  much  vulgar  extrava- 
gance and  display,  a  steady  growth  in  culture  and  refine- 
Wealth.  and  men^-  By  ^ne  beginning  of  this  period  the 
culture.  Latin  language  had  become  a  proper  medium 

Progress  of  of  expression  in  prose  and  verse,  though  its 

natural  qualities  of  rigidity  and  precision 
made  it  always  better  adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  com- 
mander, orator,  jurist,  and  historian  than  to  the  lighter 
and  more  varied  uses  of  the  poet.  Among  the  poets  of 
the  time,  some  followed  in  the  footsteps  of  Ennius,  while 
others  imitated  the  poems  of  the  Alexandrian  Greeks, 
characterized  by  mythological  learning,  elegance  of  exe- 
cution, and  emptiness  of  contents.  Of  this  latter  school 
Catullus  was  the  only  one  who  rose  to  greatness,  breathing 
into  his  verse  the  fire  of  poetic  genius,  while  Lucretius 
stands  out  as  the  one  great  and  commanding  figure  among 
the  poets  who  continued  the  technical  traditions  of  Ennius. 
Of  the  life  of  Lucretius  little  is  known.  Jerome, 
under  the  year  95  B.  c.,  says  :  "  Titus  Lucretius,  the  poet, 

was  born,  who  afterwards  was  made  insane 
Lucretius  ^J  a  love  potion,  and,  when  he  had  in  the 

intervals  of  his  madness  written  several 
books,  which  Cicero  corrected,  killed  himself  by  his  own 
hand  in  the  forty-fourth  year  of  his  age."1  Donatus,  in 
his  Life  of  Virgil?  says  that  Lucretius  died  on  the  day 
when  Virgil  was  fifteen  years  old,  i.  e.,  October  15,  55 
B.  c.  This  does  not  agree  with  the  statement  of  Jerome. 
Cicero,  in  a  letter  written  in  February,  54  B.  cv3  mentions 
the  poems  of  Lucretius,  but  says  nothing  about  correct- 
ing or  editing  them.  This  is  the  only  contemporary  ref- 
erence to  Lucretius  or  his  work.  Kow  the  great  poem  of 
Lucretius  was  evidently  never  entirely  finished  by  its 
author,  who  was  therefore  probably  dead  when  Cicero 

1  Jerome,  in  Eusebius'  Chronicle,  year  1922  of  Abraham,  i.  e.,  95  B.  c. 

2  Vita  Vergilii,  2.  3  Ad  Quintum  Fratrem,  II,  xi,  4. 


LUCRETIUS  49 

wrote  this  letter.  The  date  (55  B.  c.)  for  his  death  is  thus 
corroborated.  The  date  of  his  birth  must  remain  uncer- 
tain, but  it  was  probably  not  far  from  99  B.  c.  Jerome's 
statement  that  Lucretius  was  insane  and  committed  sui- 
cide is  not  in  itself  improbable.  His  work  shows  him  to 
have  been  a  man  of  passionate  and  intense  feelings,  and 
gives  some  ground  for  the  belief  that  in  the  course  of  his 
life  he  was  subjected  to  great  emotional  strain.  Of  his 
friends  and  his  daily  life  we  know  nothing.  His  poem  is 
dedicated  to  Memmius,  who  is  generally  supposed  to  be  the 
Gaius  Memmius  who  was  propraetor  in  Bithynia  in  57  B.  c. 
The  only  work  of  Lucretius  is  a  didactic  poem  of  six 
books,  in  hexameter  verse,  On  the  Nature  of  Things 
Philosophy  (D&  ^erum  Natura),  in  which  he  expounds 
known  to  the  the  doctrines  of  Epicurus.  The  Eomans  had 
Romans.  been  for  many  years  acquainted  with  Greek 
philosophical  teachings,  especially  with  those  of  the  Stoic 
and  Epicurean  schools.  The  Stoic  doctrines  had  been 
taught  by  one  of  the  most  eminent  philosophers  of  the 
second  century  B.  c.,  Pansetius,  the  friend  of  the  younger 
Scipio  Africanus,  and  were  clearly  congenial  to  the 
Roman  temperament ;  for  the  Stoics  taught  that  virtue  is 
the  highest  good,  that  nothing  else  is  worth  striving  for, 
and  that  the  ordinary  pleasures  of  life  are  mere  interrup- 
tions of  the  philosopher's  peace.  The  Epicurean  doc- 
trine, that  pleasure  is  the  highest  good,  was  popular  only 
with  those  who  wished  to  devote  themselves  to  selfish  and 
physical  enjoyment,  for  the  higher  aspects  of  the  doc- 
trines of  Epicurus  were  not  understood.  As  early  as  161 
B.  c.  the  senate  had  passed  a  vote  banishing  philosophers 
and  rhetoricians  from  Eome,  and  six  years  later,  when 
three  famous  philosophers — Diogenes  the  Stoic,  Critolaus 
the  Peripatetic,  and  Carneades  of  the  Academic  school — 
came  to  Rome,  they  aroused  so  much  interest  that  the 
senate  decided  to  remove  them  from  the  city  as  soon  as 
possible.  Greek  philosophy  was,  then,  not  a  new  thing  at 


50  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

Rome,  but  the  poem  of  Lucretius  is  the  first  systematic 
presentation  of  the  Epicurean  doctrines. 

The  purpose  of  the  poem  is  to  free  men  from  supersti- 
tion and  the  fear  of  death  by  teaching  the  doctrines  of 
The  reason  Epicurus.  This  is  a  most  serious  purpose, 
for  writing  and  Lucretius  is  thoroughly  in  earnest.  If 
in  verse.  ^e  a(j0pts  the  poetic  form,  it  is  in  order  to 
make  his  presentation  of  the  doctrines  more  attractive, 
in  the  hope  that  it  will  thus  have  greater  influence. 
This  point  of  view,  and  at  the  same  time  the  poet's  sense 
of  the  difficulty  of  his  theme  and  his  power  to  cope  with 
it,  is  clearly  expressed  in  the  following  passage : 

Come  now,  and  what  remaineth  learn  and  hear 

More  clearly.     Well  in  my  own  mind  I  know 

The  doctrine  is  obscure ;  but  mighty  hope 

Of  praise  has  struck  my  heart  with  maddening  wand, 

And  with  the  blow  implanted  in  my  breast 

The  sweet  love  of  the  Muses,  filled  with  which 

I  wander  with  fresh  mind  through  pathless  tracts 

Of  the  Pierides,  untrod  before 

By  any  mortal's  foot.     'Tis  sweet  to  go 

To  fountains  new  and  drink  ;  and  sweet  it  is 

To  pluck  new  flow'rs  and  seek  a  garland  thence 

For  my  own  head,  whence  ne'er  before  a  crown 

The  Muses  twined  for  any  mortal's  brow. 

'Tis  first  because  I  teach  of  weighty  things 

And  guide  my  course  to  set  the  spirit  free 

From  superstition's  closely  knotted  bonds  ; 

And  next  because  concerning  matters  dark 

I  write  such  lucid  verses,  touching  all 

With  th'  Muses'  grace.     Then,  too,  because  it  seems 

Not  without  reason  ;  but  as  when  men  try 

In  curing  boys  to  give  them  bitter  herbs, 

They  touch  the  edges  round  about  the  cups 

With  yellow  liquid  of  the  honey  sweet, 

That  children's  careless  age  may  be  deceived 

As  far  as  to  the  lips,  and  meanwhile  drink 

The  juice  of  bitter  herb,  and  though  deceived 


LUCRETIUS  51 

May  not  be  harmed,  but  rather  in  such  wise 
Gain  health  and  strength,  so  I  now,  since  my  theme 
Seems  gloomy  for  the  most  part  unto  those 
To  whom  'tis  not  familiar,  and  the  crowd 
Shrinks  back  from  it,  have  wished  to  treat  for  thee 
My  theme  with  sweetly  speaking  poetry's  verse 
And  touch  it  with  the  Muses'  honey  sweet.1 

The  arrangement  of  the  poem  is  as  follows :  Book  i 
sets  forth  the  atomic  theory,  invented  by  Democritus  and 
Arrangement  ne^  by  Epicurus,  that  the  world  consists  of 
and  contents  atoms — infinitely  small  particles  of  matter — 
of  the  poem.  an(j  yoi^  i.  e<?  empty  space.  The  theories  of 
other  Greek  philosophers,  such  as  Heraclitus,  Empedocles, 
and  Anaxagoras,  are  refuted.  In  Book  ii  it  is  explained 
how  the  atoms  combine  to  form  the  various  things  in  the 
world,  because  as  they  fall  through  space  they  depart 
from  a  straight  line  and  come  in  contact  with  each  other. 
It  is  also  shown  that  the  atoms,  although  infinite  in  num- 
ber, are  limited  in  variety.  In  Book  iii  the  mind  and  the 
soul,  or  principle  of  life,  are  shown  to  be  material  and  to 
die  when  the  body  dies.  Religion  and  the  fear  of  death, 
which  Lucretius  regards  as  a  result  of  religion,  are  attacked. 
Since  the  soul  dies  with  the  body,  there  is  no  reason  to 
fear  death,  because  after  death  we  shall  feel  no  lack  of 
anything,  shall  have  no  troubles,  but  shall  be  as  if  we  had 
not  been  born,  or  as  if  we  lay  wrapped  in  dreamless  sleep : 

So  death  to  us  is  naught,  concerns  us  not, 
When  the  soul's  nature  is  as  mortal  known.2 

Book  iv  shows  how  the  impressions  made  upon  our  senses 
are  caused  by  minute  images  detached  from  the  objects 
about  us.  We  see,  for  instance,  because  minute  images 
of  the  object  seen  strike  our  eyes.  Dreams  and  love  are 
also  treated  in  this  book.  In  Book  v  the  origin  of  the 
earth,  sun,  moon,  and  stars  is  described,  the  beginning  of 

1  Book  i,  921-947.  s  iii,  830  f. 


52  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

life  is  explained,  and  the  progress  of  civilization,  from  the 
time  when  men  were  savages,  is  depicted.  Some  passages 
in  this  book  anticipate  in  a  measure  the  modern  doctrine 
of  the  survival  of  the  fittest.  Since  our  world  was  not 
created,  but  came  into  being  naturally  by  the  combina- 
tions of  atoms,  it  will  also  come  to  an  end  at  some  time 
by  the  separation  of  the  atoms.  In  Book  vi  various 
striking  phenomena  are  treated,  such  as  thunder,  light- 
ning, earthquakes,  tempests,  and  volcanoes.  The  book 
ends  with  a  description  of  the  plague  at  Athens,  derived 
from  the  account  of  Thucydides. 

Since  the  main  purpose  of  the  poem  is  to  free  men 

from  religion  and  the  fear  of  death  by  showing  that  all 

things,  including  the  soul,  came  into  being 

doctrine  ari^  are  ^°  Pass  awav  w^hout  any  action    of 

the  gods,  ethical  doctrines  are  not  systematic- 
ally treated.  Lucretius  accepts,  however,  the  Epicurean 
dogma  that  pleasure  is  the  chief  good,  athe  guide  of 
life," 1  but  the  pleasure  he  has  in  mind  is  not  the  common 
physical  pleasure,  but  the  calm  repose  of  the  philosopher : 

Oh  wretched  minds  of  men,  oh  blinded  hearts ! 
Within  what  shades  of  life  and  dangers  great 
Is  passed  whate'er  of  age  we  have !     Dost  thou 
Not  see  that  nature  makes  demand  for  naught 
Save  this,  that  pain  be  absent  from  our  frame, 
That  she,  removed  from  care  at  once  and  fear, 
May  have  her  pleasure  in  the  joys  of  mind? a 

Again,  in  the  splendid  praise  of  Epicurus,  which  opens  the 
fifth  book,  he  says  that  we  may  live  without  grain  or  wine, 

But  well  one  can  not  live  without  pure  heart.8 

The  only  Greek  philosophers,  besides  Epicurus,  of 
whom  Lucretius  speaks  in  terms  of  praise  are  Democritus, 
from  whom  Epicurus  borrowed  the  atomic  theory,  and 

1  Book  ii,  172.  2  ii,  14  ff.  3  v,  18. 


LUCRETIUS  53 

Empedocles.  Perhaps  Lucretius  imitates  in  his  work  the 
poem  of  Empedocles,  which  bore  the  same  title.  At  any 
rate,  Empedocles  was  a  man  of  exalted  modes  of  thought 
and  dignified,  poetic  expression,  qualities  which  would 
naturally  awaken  admiration  in  the  mind  of  Lucretius. 
His  reading-  That  Lucretius  was  well  acquainted  with  the 
observation,'  great  works  of  Greek  literature  and  with  the 
and  love  of  writings  of  Naevius,  Ennius,  Pacuvius,  Lucil- 
ius,  and  Accius,  is  evident  from  direct  refer- 
ences to  them  or  imitations  of  them.  But  he  was  not 
merely  a  student  of  books.  His  power  of  observation  and 
his  love  of  nature  are  shown  in  many  passages,  as  where 
he  describes  the  raging  winds  and  rivers,1  the  life  and 
motion  of  an  army,2  the  striking  features  of  the  island  of 
Sicily,3  the  echo  in  the  mountains,4  or  pleasant  repose 

under  a  shady  tree  on  the  grass  by  the  river 
Two  famous         .  -,     5 
passages. 

The  poem  opens  with  an  invocation  to 

Venus,  which  is  justly  famous.     The  first  lines  are  : 

Goddess  from  whom  descends  the  race  of  Rome, 
Venus,  of  earth  and  heaven  supreme  delight, 

Hail,  thou  that  all  beneath  the  starry  dome — 

Lands  rich  with  grain  and  seas  with  navies  white — 

Blessest  and  cherishest !     Where  thou  dost  come 
Enamelled  earth  decks  her  with  posies  bright 

To  meet  thy  advent ;  clouds  and  tempests  flee, 

And  joyous  light  smiles  over  land  and  sea.6 

Another  famous  passage  is  the  beginning  of  Book  ii, 
which  has  been  translated  into  English  hexameters  as 

follows : 

Sweet,  when  the  great  sea's  water  is  stirred  to  its  depth*  by  the 

storm  winds, 
Standing  ashore  to  descry  one  afar  off  mightily  struggling; 

1  Book  i,  271-294.  2  ii,  323-332  and  ii,  40-43.  3  i,  716-725. 

4  ii,  573-579.        6  ii,  29-33.        6  i,  1-9,  translation  by  Goldwin  Smith. 


54  BOM  AN  LITERATURE 

Not  that  a  neighbor's  sorrow  to  you  yields  dulcet  enjoyment ; 
But  that  the  sight  hath  a  sweetness,  of  ills  ourselves  are  exempt 

from. 

Sweet  'tis  too  to  behold,  on  a  broad  plain  mustering  war-hosts 
Arm  them  for  some  great  battle,  one's  self  unscathed  by  the  danger ; 
Yet  still  happier  this :  To  possess,  impregnably  guarded, 
Those  calm  heights  of  the  sages  which  have  for  an  origin  Wisdom ; 
Thence  to  survey  our  fellows,  observe  them  this  way  and  that  way 
Wander  amid  Life's  paths,  poor  stragglers  seeking  a  highway ; 
Watch  mind  battle  with  mind,  and  escutcheon  rival  escutcheon; 
Gaze  on  that  untold  strife,  which  is  waged  'neath  the  sun  and  the 

starlight, 
Up  as  they  toil  on  the  surface  whereon  rest  Riches  and  Empire.1 

Lucretius  was  perfectly  aware  that  his  subject  was  not 
an  easy  one  to  treat  in  verse,  but  was  confident  of  his  own 
power.  His  work  shows  that  his  confidence  was  justified. 
Yet  even  he  could  not,  in  explaining  the  details  of  the 
philosophy  of  Epicurus,  move  always  in  the  upper  realms 
of  poetry.  The  result  is  that  the  poem  is  un- 
even. In  parts  it  rises  to  heights  hardly  at- 
tained by  any  other  Latin  author,  but  in  other  parts  long 
passages  are  dull  and  monotonous.  Yet  even  in  these 
parts  the  verses  have  a  serious,  dignified  music,  the  lan- 
guage is  carefully  chosen,  and  the  subject  is  treated  with 
consistency,  clearness,  and  vigor.  In  the  more  animated 
portions  of  his  work,  Lucretius  speaks  almost  like  an  in- 
spired prophet.  His  thought  hurries  his  lines  along  with 
increasing  impetus,  until  their  flow  seems  almost  irresist- 
ible. Strength,  rapidity,  and  power  are  the  most  striking 
features  of  his  style.  Minor  elements  are  frequent  asso- 
nances of  various  kinds,  such  as  alliteration,  repetition,  the 
use  of  two  or  more  words  from  one  root,  and  the  like,  elab- 
orate similes,  and  occasionally  the  form  of  direct  address. 
With  all  these,  the  style  is  characterized  by  an  austere 
dignity. 

1  Book  ii,  1-13,  translated  by  C.  S.  Calverley. 


LUCRETIUS  55 

In  his  discussion  of  the  development  of  the  universe, 
and  especially  in  the  part  dealing  with  living  creatures, 
Anticipation  man,  and  the  progress  of  civilization,  Lucretius 
of  modern  expresses  conclusions  not  unlike  some  of  those 
science.  reached  in  our  own  day  by  modern  science. 

But  his  processes  are  not  scientific.  He  reasons,  to  be 
sure,  from 'concrete  facts  to  theories  and  from  theories 
again  to  concrete  facts,  but  the  method  of  his  reasoning 
is  unlike  that  of  modern  science.  Lucretius,  like  other 
philosophers  of  ancient  times,  having  once  accepted  a  the- 
ory which  explains  certain  phenomena,  makes  his  theory 
the  rule  by  which  all  phenomena  are  to  be  measured  and  in 
accordance  with  which  they  are  to  be  understood.  It  is 
interesting  to  note  that  Lucretius,  following  Democritus 
and  Epicurus,  anticipates  to  a  certain  extent  the  modern 
atomic  theory,  the  theories  of  the  evolution  of  species,  of 
the  survival  of  the  fittest,  and  of  the  continual  progress 
of  mankind  from  a  condition  of  savagery  to  civilization, 
but  his  conclusions  are  reached,  not  by  the  patient  toil  of 
modern  scientific  research,  but  by  abstract  theorizing,  to 
which  his  poetic  imagination  gives  vividness  and  almost 
convincing  power. 

The  greatness  of  Lucretius  as  a  poet  has  always  been 
recognized  by  critical  readers ;  but  he  has  never  been  a 
popular  author.  His  subject  is  too  abstruse  and  his  style 
too  austere  and  dignified  to  appeal  to  the  taste  of  the 
masses,  which  probably  accounts  for  the  fact  that  his  poem 
has  come  down  to  us  through  only  one  copy,  from  which 
all  the  existing  manuscripts  are  derived. 


CHAPTEE  V 

CATULLUS-MINOR   POETS 

Catullus,  about  84-54  B.  c. — His  life — The  book  of  poems — The 
longer  poems — The  shorter  poems — Minor  poets — GIISBUS  Matius — 
Laevius — Sueius — Gaius  Licinius  Calvus,  87-47  B.  c. — Gaius  Helvius 
Cinna — Varro  Atacinus,  82  to  after  37  B.  c. — Publius  Valerius  Cato 
— Marcus  Furius  Bibaculus — Gaius  Memmius,  propraetor  in  57  B.  c. 
— Ticidas — Quintus  Cornificius — Cornelius  Nepos — Marcus  Tullius 
Cicero — Quintus  Cicero. 

THE  greatest  lyric  poet  of  the  Ciceronian  period  is 
Gaius  Valerius  Catullus.  The  exact  dates  of  his  birth  and 

death  are  uncertain.  According  to  Jerome 
Catullus  ^6  was  born  in  87  B.  c.,  and  died  in  57  B.  c., 

at  the  age  of  thirty  years.  But  in  one  poem 1 
he  refers  to  Pompey's  second  consulship  (55  B.  c.),  and  in 
two  others  2  he  mentions  Caesar's  expedition  to  Britain  (55 
B.  c.).  It  is  therefore  evident  that  his  death  can  not  have 
taken  place  in  57  B.  c.  But  as  his  poems  contain  no  refer- 
ences to  any  event  later  than  55  or  54  B.  c.,  it  is  reason- 
ably certain  that  he  died  not  much  after  the  latter  date. 
As  he  is  known  to  have  died  young,  his  birth  may  be 
assigned  to  about  85  B.  c.,  or  perhaps  a  year  or  two  later. 
His  birthplace  was  Verona,  and  his  family  was  wealthy 
and  of  good  position.  He  went  to  Rome  while  still  hardly 
more  than  a  boy,  and  began  to  write  love  poems  soon  after 
taking  the  toga  virilis,  that  is  to  say,  at  the  age  of  seven- 
teen. Rome  was  then  a  brilliant  capital,  in  which  Greek 

1  c.  cxiii,  1.  2.  2  cc.  xi  and  xxix. 

56 


CATULLUS  57 

culture,  with  all  its  intellectual  vivacity  and  all  its  vices, 
had  taken  firm  root.  The  family  connections  of  the  young 
Catullus,  whose  father  was  a  friend  of  Julius  Caesar,  intro- 
duced him  to  the  aristocratic  society  of  the  capital,  and 
his  personal  qualities  doubtless  contributed  to  make  him 
a  prominent  figure  among  the  gay  youth  of  the  city. 

About  61  B.  c.  began  his  passionate  love  for  the  bril- 
liant but  dissolute  woman  whom  he  has  immortalized  in 

his  poems  under  the  name  of  Lesbia.  Her 
Lesbia.  *  /•«-•.  -,  -.  , 

real  name  was  (Jlodia,  and  when  he  met  her 

she  was  the  wife  of  Quintus  Csecilius  Metellus  Celer.  For 
a  time  she  seemed  at  least  to  return  the  love  of  her  young 
adorer,  but  almost  immediately  after  her  husband's  death, 
which  took  place  in  59  B.  c.,  she  is  reproached  by  Catullus 
for  faithlessness.  In  the  spring  of  57  B.  c.,  Catullus  went 
to  Bithynia  as  a  member  of  the  staff  of  the  propraetor  C. 
Memmius,  and  by  this  time  his  connection  with  Clodia 
seems  to  have  been  at  an  end.  In  the  spring  of  56  B.  c., 
Catullus  returned  to  Rome,  after  visiting  the  tomb  of  his 
brother,  who  had  died  in  the  Troad.  From  this  time  on 
his  poems  are  still  in  part  poems  of  love,  but  they  lack  the 
passionate  fire  of  the  lines  addressed  to  Lesbia.  Most  of 
the  poems  belonging  to  the  last  years  of  his  life,  when 
they  contain  personal  allusions,  are  inspired  rather  by  the 
political  events  of  the  time  than  by  love. 

The   poems  of   Catullus,  as  they  have  been  handed 
down  to  us,  form  a  small  book  of  2,280  lines.     They  are 

not  arranged  chronologically,  but  rather  ac- 
Poems°0k  °f  cording to  contents  and  style.  The  first  sixty 

are  short  poems  in  various  lyric  metres,  and 
have  to  do  with  the  poet's  love,  with  his  friends  and 
enemies,  and  with  the  experiences  of  his  life.  These  are 
followed  by  seven  longer  poems  in  imitation  of  Alex- 
andrian originals,  and  the  rest  of  the  collection  consists  of 
short  pieces,  all  in  elegiac  verse.  This  arrangement  is 
doubtless  due  to  some  editor,  not  to  Catullus  himself,  but 


58  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

gives  the  book  a  certain  artistic  unity  which  would  be 
lacking  if  the  poems  were  arranged  in  chronological  order. 
A  few  quotations  from  Catullus  which  can  not  be  identified 
with  passages  in  the  extant  poems  are  found  in  the  works 
of  other  writers,  but  they  are  so  few  as  to  indicate  that 
nearly  all  he  ever  wrote  is  contained  in  the  existing  book. 

In  the  longer  poems  Catullus  shows  himself  a  con- 
summate master  of  language  and  versification  and  a  skill- 
ful imitator  of  the  Alexandrian  poetry  most 
e  i^halamia  P°Plllar  among  the  younger  literary  men  of 
his  time.  The  first  epithalamium,  or  wedding 
song,  composed  for  the  marriage  of  Manlius  Torquatus 
and  Vinia  Arunculeia,  is  written  in  lyric  metre  of  short 
lines.  It  is  supposed  to  be  sung  as  the  bride  is  escorted 
to  her  new  home,  the  first  part  by  a  chorus  of  maidens, 
the  second  by  youths.  Such  songs  were  traditional  among 
the  Greeks  as  well  as  among  the  Eomans,  and  there  is 
little  originality  in  the  subject  or  its  general  treatment, 
but  the  brilliant  versification  and  the  charming  tender 
passages  it  contains  make  this  the  most  attractive  of  all 
the  longer  poems  of  Catullus.  The  second  epithalamium, 
in  hexameter  verse,  was  apparently  composed  for  no 
special  occasion.  A  chorus  of  youths  and  a  chorus  of 
maidens  sing  responses,  calling  upon  Hymenaeus,  the  god 
of  marriage,  and  describing  by  allusion  the  passage  of  the 
bride  from  maidenhood  to  wifehood.  So  the  maidens 
compare  her  to  a  flower  that  has  grown  in  a  secluded 
garden,  and  the  youths  compare  her  to  a  vine  that  twines 
about  an  elm. 

The  third  of  the  longer  poems,  the  sixty-third  of  the 
whole  collection,  is  the  only  existing  Latin  poem  in  the 
difficult  and  complicated  galliambic  metre.  It  describes 
the  madness  of  the  youth  Attis,  who  mutilates  himself  and 
gives  himself  up  to  the  service  of  the  goddess  Cybebe. 
The  despair  of  Attis  when  he  recovers  from  his  madness 
and  yearns  for  his  country,  his  friends,  and  his  past  happi- 


CATULLUS  59 

ness,  is  depicted  with  admirable  power,  and  the  ecstatic 
worship  of  Cybebe  is  most  vividly  portrayed.  The  longest 
poem  of  all  describes  in  hexameter  verse  the 
lone  Ot0g^s  marriage  of  Peleus  with  the  sea-goddess  The- 
tis. This  is  not  in  any  sense  a  lyric  poem, 
but  an  epyllion,  or  little  epic.  It  contains  passages  of 
great  beauty,  but  offers  little  opportunity  for  the  display 
of  the  peculiarly  lyric  genius  of  Catullus,  and  is,  on  the 
whole,  the  least  successful  of  his  poems.  This  is  followed 
by  The  Lock  of  Berenice,  a  translation  of  a  poem  of  the 
same  name  by  the  Alexandrian  Callimachus.  Queen  Bere- 
nice had  cut  off  a  lock  of  her  hair  in  accordance  with  a 
vow  when  her  husband  returned  safe  from  war.  The  lock 
disappeared  from  the  temple  in  which  it  had  been  offered, 
and  the  astronomer  Conon  discovered  it  as  a  new  constel- 
lation in  the  heavens.  The  lock  of  hair  is  supposed  to 
speak  and  to  yearn  for  its  former  place  upon  the  forehead 
of  the  queen.  In  the  preface  to  this  poem,  which  is  ad- 
dressed to  the  orator  Hortensius  Hortalus,  Catullus  speaks 
in  beautiful  lines  of  the  death  of  his  brother : 

Oh,  is  thy  voice  forever  hushed  and  still  ? 

Oh,  brother,  dearer  far  than  life,  shall  I 
Behold  thee  never  ?    But  in  sooth  I  will 

Forever  love  thee,  as  in  days  gone  by  : 

And  ever  through  my  songs  shall  ring  a  cry 
Sad  with  thy  death,  sad  as  in  thickest  shade 

Of  intertangled  boughs  the  melody, 
Which  by  the  woful  Daulian  bird  is  made, 
Sobbing  for  Itys  dead  her  wail  through  all  the  glade.1 

The  Lock  of  Berenice  is  followed  by  a  conversation  with 
a  door,  which  hints  at  several  immoral  stories.  The  last 
of  the  longer  poems  is  an  elegy  on  the  death  of  the  poet's 
brother,  joined  with  the  praises  of  his  friend  M'.  Allius 
and  of  his  beloved.  This  poem  is  remarkable  for  the 

1  Translated  by  Theodore  Martin. 


60  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

number  of  digressions  it  contains,  and  in  this,  as  in  its 
general  tone,  it  is  an  imitation  of  the  Alexandrian  style. 

The  seven  poems  just  described  contain  many  beautiful 

passages,  but  they  show  us  Catullus  chiefly  as  the  learned, 

skillful,  and  successful   imitator  of    Alexandrian   Greek 

models.     His  real  genius  appears  in  the  shorter  poems, 

which  deal  with  the  feelings  of  his  own  heart. 

In  these  also  he  is  an  imitator,  so  far  as  his 
poems. 

metres  are  concerned,  but  the  feelings  are  his 
own,  and  he  expresses  them  in  words  that  burn.  No 
translation  can  do  justice  to  the  sharp,  quick  strokes  of 
his  invectives  or  to  the  passionate  outpourings  of  his  love. 
One  of  his  favorite  metres  is  the  "  hendecasyllable "  or 
eleven  syllable  verse,  which,  by  its  quick  movement,  helps 
to  create  an  impression  of  great  swiftness  of  thought  and 
flashing  outbursts  of  emotion.  At  the  same  time,  the 
numerous  diminutive  suffixes  employed  give  a  light  and 
graceful,  almost  playful,  tone  to  the  verse.  Some  of  the 
lines  directed  against  those  whom  Catullus  hated  or  de- 
spised, are  scurrilous  and  indecent ;  but  that  is  the  fault 
of  the  age  rather  than  of  the  poet  himself.  In  general 
the  thoughts  and  emotions  expressed  range  from  passion- 
ate love  to  violent  invective,  while  through  many  of  the 
poems  there  runs  a  vein  of  half  satirical  playfulness. 
Some  of  the  qualities  of  Catullus'  poetry  may  be  made 
clear,  by  translations  of  a  few  of  the  short  poems.  The 
first  shows  at  once  his  passionate  love  for  Lesbia,  and 
something  of  his  half -satirical  humor : 

My  Lesbia,  let  us  live  and  love, 

Nor  let  us  count  it  worth  above 

A  single  farthing  if  the  old 

And  carping  greybeards  choose  to  scold. 

The  suns  that  set  and  fade  away 

May  rise  again  another  day. 

When  once  has  set  our  little  light 

We  needs  must  sleep  one  endless  night. 


CATULLUS  61 

A  thousand  kisses  give  me,  then 

A  hundred,  then  a  thousand,  when 

I  bid  you  give  a  hundred  more  ; 

When  many  thousands  o'er  and  o'er 

We've  kissed,  we'll  mix  them,  so  that  we 

Shall  lose  the  count,  and  none  shall  be 

Aroused  to  evil  envious  hate 

Through  knowing  that  the  sum's  so  great.1 

A  well-known  and  especially  attractive  poem  is  the 
playful  lament  for  the  sparrow : 

Let  mourning  fill  the  realms  of  Love  ; 
Wail,  men  below  and  Powers  above ! 
The  joy  of  my  beloved  has  fled, 
The  Sparrow  of  her  heart  is  dead — 
The  Sparrow  that  she  used  to  prize 
As  dearly  as  her  own  bright  eyes. 
As  knows  a  girl  her  mother  well, 
So  knew  the  pretty  bird  my  belle, 
And  ever  hopping,  chirping  round, 
Far  from  her  lap  was  never  found. 
Now  wings  it  to  that  gloomy  bourne 
From  which  no  travellers  return. 
Accurs'd  be  thou,  infernal  lair ! 
Devourer  dark  of  all  things  fair, 
The  rarest  bird  to  thee  is  gone  ; 
Take  thou  once  more  my  malison. 
How  swollen  and  red  with  weeping,  see, 
My  fair  one's  eyes,  and  all  through  thee.a 

Like  most  educated  Eomans,  Catullus  had  a  great  love 
for  the  country.  His  joy  in  returning  to  his  country  seat 
on  the  peninsula  of  Sirmio  forms  the  subject  of  a  charm- 
ing little  poem : 

Gem  of  all  isthmuses  and  isles  that  lie, 

Fresh  or  salt  water's  children,  in  clear  lake 

Or  ampler  ocean ;  with  what  joy  do  I 
Approach  thee,  Sirmio !     Oh !  am  I  awake, 

1  c.  v.        2  c.  iii.    Translated  by  Goldwin  Smith  in  Bay-Leaves. 


62  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

Or  dream  that  once  again  mine  eye  beholds 
Thee,  and  has  looked  its  last  on  Thracian  wolds  ? 

Sweetest  of  sweets  to  me  that  pastime  seems, 
When  the  mind  drops  her  burden,  when — the  pain 
Of  travel  past — our  own  cot  we  regain, 

And  nestle  on  the  pillow  of  our  dreams! 
'Tis  this  one  thought  that  cheers  us  as  we  roam. 

Hail,  O  fair  Sirmio !     Joy,  thy  lord  is  here ! 

Joy  too,  ye  waters  of  the  Golden  Mere ! 
And  ring  out,  all  ye  laughter-peals  of  home !  * 

Of  the  lesser  poets  of  the  Ciceronian  period  little  need 
be  said.  Their  works  are  lost,  but  for  scattered  frag- 
ments, except  in  so  far  as  a  few  anonymous  poems  are  to 
be  ascribed  to  this  period.  The  writers  of  mimes,  Deci- 
mus  Laberius  and  Publilius  Syrus,  have  already  been  men- 
Matius,  tioned  (p.  30).  Gnaeus  Matius,  who  appears 

Lsevius,  to  belong  to  this  time,  wrote  mimiambics  in 

Sueius.  the  manner  of  Herondas  and  other  Alexan- 

drian poets — lively  reproductions  of  scenes  of  ordinary 
life — in  choliambic  verse,  that  is,  iambic  trimetres,  the 
last  foot  of  which  is  a  spondee;  Laevius  wrote  sportive 
love-poems  (Erotopcegnia) ;  and  Sueius  composed  idylls, 
two  of  which,  the  Moretum  and  the  Pulli,  are  known  by 
name,  besides  a  book  of  annals.  Matius  also  made  a  free 
translation  of  Homer's  Iliad. 

More  important  in  their  own  day  were  two  friends  of 
Catullus,  Gaius  Licinius  Calvus  and  Gaius  Helvius  Cinna. 
Calvus,  who  lived  from  87  to  47  B.  c.,  was  a 
distinguished  orator  and  politician,  who  de- 
voted his  leisure  hours  to  poetry.  His  poems 
included  epithalamia,  elegies,  epigrams,  and  at  least  one 
mythological  epyllion,  entitled  lo.  Cinna  appears  to  have 
come,  like  Catullus,  from  northern  Italy,  but  of  his  life 
little  is  known  beyond  the  fact  that  he  was  with  Catullus 
on  the  staff  of  Memmius  in  Bithynia.  His  chief  work  was 

1  c.  xxxi.    Translated  by  C.  S.  Calveiiey. 


MINOR  POETS  63 

a  poem  entitled  Smyrna,  which,  although  it  was  of  mod- 
erate length,  occupied  him  for  nine  years.  The  subject 
was  the  unnatural  love  of  the  maiden  Smyrna  for  her 
father  and  the  birth  of  their  son  Adonis.  The  poem  was 
so  learned  and  obscure  as  to  be  almost  incomprehensible, 
and  was  similar  in  this  respect  to  the  Alexandra  of  the 
Alexandrian  Lycophron.  The  admiration  expressed  by 
Catullus  for  this  work  shows  how  highly  the  younger  Ro- 
man poets  esteemed  successful  imitations  of  even  the  worst 
faults  of  their  Alexandrian  models. 

A  poet  who  continued  the  national  traditions  of  En- 
nius  and  also  imitated  the  Alexandrians  was  Publius  Te- 

rentius  Varro,  called  Varro  Atacinus.  He  was 
Atacinus  ^orn  a^  ^tax,  ^n  GaHia  Narbonensis,  in  82 

B.  c.  He  wrote  a  poem  in  hexameters  on  Cae- 
sar's war  with  the  Sequani,  and  some  satires,  probably  in 
the  manner  of  Lucilius.  In  his  thirty-fifth  year  he  is 
said  to  have  turned  to  the  study  of  the  Greek  poets,  and 
it  is  probably  about  this  time  that  he  translated  into  Latin 
hexameters  the  Argonautica  of  the  Alexandrian  epic  poet 
Apollonius  Rhodius.  A  geographical  poem,  probably  en- 
titled Chorographia,  and  a  series  of  elegiac  poems  in  the 
Alexandrian  manner  probably  belong  to  the  time  after  the 
year  37  B.  c.  The  few  fragments  of  his  poems  show  that 
he  was  a  poet  of  more  than  ordinary  gifts. 

The  intellectual  leader  of  the  school  of  poets  who 
found  their  inspiration  in  the  works  of  the  Alexandrians 

was  the  grammarian  and  teacher,  P.  Valerius 
CaJo™  Cato,  whom  Furius  Bibaculus  calls  "  Cato 

the  grammarian,  the  Latin  Siren,  who  alone 
reads  and  makes  poets."  Cato's  influence  was  exerted  to 
lead  his  followers  to  imitate  their  Greek  models  carefully, 
to  perfect  their  Latin  style,  and  probably  to  introduce  the 
new  metres  into  Latin  poetry.  His  own  writings  were 
grammatical  treatises,  poems,  and  a  revision  and  correc- 
tion of  the  works  of  Lucilius.  The  poem  entitled  Dirce, 


64  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

which  is  contained  in  manuscripts  of  Virgil,  and  really 
consists  of  two  distinct  poems,  Dirce  and  Lydia,  has  been 
ascribed  with  some  probability  to  Cato.  In  the  first  poem 
the  writer  curses  a  veteran  named  Lycurgus,  who  has  de- 
prived him  of  his  property  and  his  beloved  Lydia  ;  in  the 
second  he  addresses  a  touching  farewell  to  Lydia,  who  has 
remained  in  the  country.  Other  poets  of  this  period  are 

M.    Furius    Bibaculus,  who    wrote   satirical 
Other  poets. 

verses,   Gaius    Memmius,  the   propraetor  of 

Bithynia  in  57  B.  c.,  Ticidas,  Quintus  Cornificius,  and  Corr 
nelius  Nepos — all  of  whom  belonged  to  the  new  school 
and  imitated  the  Alexandrians.  Nepos  we  shall  meet 
again  among  the  prose  writers.  Others  also,  whose  chief 
activity  was  in  other  fields,  wrote  poetry  occasionally. 
Among  these  Cicero  and  his  brother  Quintus  may  be  men- 
tioned. 

The  names  of  these  lesser  poets  are  of  little  impor- 
tance to  us,  but  it  is  worth  while  to  mention  them  to  call 
attention  to  the  fact  that  poetry  was  cultivated  by  many 
of  the  younger  men  in  the  Ciceronian  period.  Through 
their  eiforts  the  various  styles  and  metres  of  the  Greek 
poets,  especially  those  of  the  Alexandrian  period,  were 
made  familiar  to  the  Komans,  and  thus  the  way  was  pre- 
pared for  Horace,  Virgil,  and  Ovid  in  the  Augustan  age. 


CICERO. 
Bust  in  the  Vatican  Museum,  Rome. 


CHAPTER  VI 

CICERO 

Cicero,  106-43  B.  c. — His  importance — His  life — Periods  of  his  lit- 
erary activity — His  works — The  orations — Philosophical  works — Let- 
ters— His  character. 

MAKCUS  TULLIUS  CICEKO,  orator,  statesman,  and  phi- 
losopher, is  the  great  commanding  figure  of  the  literary 
period  which  is  designated  by  his  name.  With  him  Latin 
prose  reaches  a  height  never  before  attained  and  never 
afterward  surpassed.  The  cooler  and  more 
critical  judgment  of  our  northern  natures 
and  later  age  may  find  his  eloquence  too  ex- 
uberant, and  our  scholars,  trained  in  the  study  of  the  Greek 
philosophers,  may  deny  him  the  title  of  an  original  thinker, 
but  no  one  can  fail  to  appreciate  the  power  of  his  utter- 
ance, the  clearness  of  his  exposition,  or  the  lucid  elegance 
of  his  diction.  He  found  the  Latin  language  the  chief 
dialect  of  Italy,  the  speech  of  a  great  and  mighty  city ;  he 
made  it  the  language  of  the  world  for  centuries. 

To  write  the  life  of  Cicero  in  all  the  known  details 
would  be  to  write  the  history  of  Rome  during  the  entire 
period  of  his  manhood.  The  historian  of  literature  must 
content  himself  with  a  mere  sketch.  Cicero  was  born  at 
Education  Arpinum,  a  small  town  in  the  hills  of  eastern 
and  early  Latium,  on  the  third  of  January,  106  B.  c. 
years.  rp^e  ^own  was  a]so  the  birthplace  of  Marius, 

whose  fame  no  doubt  fired  the  imagination  of  the  young 
Cicero  and  helped  to  rouse  his  ambition.    His  father  de- 

65 


66  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

termined  to  give  him  the  Best  possible  education  and  sent 
him  to  Rome,  where  he  knew  the  two  great  orators,  M. 
Antonius  and  L.  Crassus,  and  also  the  aged  M.  Accius  and 
the  Greek  poet  Archias.  Since  legal  knowledge  was  a 
necessary  part  of  an  orator's  education,  he  studied  with  the 
jurist  Q.  Scaevola  (p.  44),  and  the  Augur  of  the  same  name. 
He  also  paid  attention  to  philosophy,  studying  with  the 
Epicurean  Phaedrus,  the  Academic  philosopher  Philo,  who 
was  a  pupil  of  Clitomachus,  and  the  Stoic  Diodotus. 
His  teacher  of  rhetoric  was  Molo,  of  Rhodes,  and  he  also 
received  instruction  from  the  rhetorician  M.  Antonius 
Gnipho  and  the  actors  Roscius  and  ^Esopus.  He  acquired 
a  great  reputation  as  an  advocate  by  several  speeches, 
especially  by  his  defense  of  Quinctius  (81  B.  c.)  and  Ros- 
cius of  Ameria  (80  B.  c.) ;  but  his  health  failed,  and  at  the 
same  time  he  wished  to  perfect  his  education.  He  there- 
fore left  Rome  and  spent  two  years  (79-77  B.  c.)  in  Greece 
and  Asia.  At  Athens  he  studied  under  the  Academic 
Antiochus,  the  Epicurean  Zeno,  his  old  teacher  Phaedrus, 
and  the  instructor  in  oratory,  Demetrius.  In  Asia  he  be- 
came acquainted  with  the  florid  Asian  style  of  eloquence, 
and  at  Rhodes  he  studied  again  under  his  former  teacher 
Molo,  who  exerted  himself  to  chasten  the  exuberance  of 
his  style,  which  had  been  encouraged  by  the  Asiatic  ora- 
tors. At  Rhodes  he  also  became  acquainted  with  the 
famous  Stoic  Posidonius. 

In  77  B.  c.  he  returned  to  Rome  and  continued  his 
career  as  an  orator.     It  was  soon  after  his  return  that  he 

married  Terentia,  a  lady  of  noble  birth,  with 
career  *  whom  he  lived  for  thirty-two  years.  In  75 

B.  c.  he  began  his  official  career  as  quaestor 
of  Lilybaeum  in  Sicily,  an  office  which  he  filled  with  great 
credit.  He  was  elected  aedile  in  69  and  praetor  in  66  B.  c. 
In  63  B.  c.  he  was  chosen  consul,  with  Antonius  as  his  col- 
league, and  truthfully  claimed  that,  although  he  was  a 
novus  homo,  a  man  who  had  no  family  influence  or  prestige 


CICERO  67 

to  aid  him,  he  had  obtained  each  of  the  important  offices 
of  the  state  at  the  earliest  legally  admissible  age.  In 
The  his  consulship  the  conspiracy  of  Catiline  oc- 

conspiraoy  curred,  which  Cicero  suppressed  with  relent- 
of  Catiline.  ]ess  Yigor,  although  it  was  supposed  to  be 
favored  by  some  of  the  most  powerful  men  in  Rome,  in- 
cluding Crassus  and  Caesar.  The  conspirators  were  not 
sentenced  to  death  by  regular  legal  process,  but  the  sen- 
ate decreed  that  the  consul  should  defend  the  safety  of 
the  state,  and  Cicero  gave  the  order  for  their  execution. 
To  this  year  belong  the  four  speeches  against  Catiline. 

In  60  B.  c.  the  first  triumvirate   was  formed.     The 

triumvirs  found  the  influence  of  Cicero  unfavorable  to 

their  plans,  and  encouraged  his   enemy,  P. 

Cicero's  Clodius  Pulcher,  who  had  been  adopted  into 

banishment.  .  '  r. 

a  plebeian  family  and  been  elected  tribune  of 

the  people,  to  propose  a  bill  that  any  one  who  had  put  a  Ro- 
man citizen  to  death  without  due  process  of  law  be  ban- 
ished. Cicero,  finding  that  he  could  not  defend  himself 
with  success,  withdrew  from  Rome,  and  his  banishment  was 
decreed.  He  remained  in  exile  from  April,  58  B.  c.,  until 
August,  57  B.  c.,  when  he  was  recalled  and  received  with 
great  honors. 

In  53  B.  c.  he  was  elected  to  fill  the  place  in  the  col- 
lege of  augurs  made  vacant  by  the  death  of  the  younger 
Crassus.     In  51  and  50  B.  c.  Cicero  was  again 
absent  from  Rome,  as  proconsul  of   Cilicia. 
On  his  return  he  found  Caesar  and  Pompey  in 
open  strife.     Cicero  had  never  been  a  party  man.     He  was 
always  a  sincere  patriot,  full  of  pride  in  the  glorious  past 
of  his  country,  and  more  than  ready  to  do  his  duty,  and 
now,  when  he  could  not  fail  to  see  that  both  parties  were 
ruled  by  selfish  ambition  rather  than  by  disinterested  pa- 
triotism, it  was  hard  for  him  to  attach  himself  to  either. 
After  some  hesitation,  he  joined  the  party  of  Pompey  and 
the  senate,  and,  in  49  B.  c.,  followed  Pompey  to  Epirus, 


68  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

but  was  not  present  at  the  battle  of  Pharsalus.  After 
Pompey's  defeat  he  waited  at  Brundusium  until  Caesar  al- 
lowed him  to  return  to  Rome  in  47  B.  c.  Here  he  lived  in 
retirement,  devoting  himself  to  literary  pursuits.  In  46 
B.  c.  he  divorced  his  wife,  Terentia,  and  married  his  young 
ward,  Publilia,  from  whom  he  parted  the  following  year. 
The  year  45  B.  c.  was  saddened  by  the  death  of  his  only 
daughter,  Tullia.  The  death  of  Caesar,  in  44  B.  c.,  recalled 
Cicero  for  a  short  time  to  public  life,  but  he  seems  to  have 
left  the  city  in  April  and  to  have  spent  some  months  at  his 
various  villas.  In  July  he  decided  to  visit  Athens,  where 
his  son  was  studying,  but  after  he  had  reached  Sicily  he 
heard  that  he  was  needed  at  Rome,  gave  up  his  plan,  and 
returned  to  the  capital.  Here  he  took  a  leading  part  in 
the  opposition  to  Antony,  against  whom  he  delivered  the 
fourteen  orations  known  as  the  Philippics.  When  the 
triumvirs  came  to  terms  with  one  another,  Cicero  was  in- 
cluded by  Antony  among  those  whose  death  he  demanded. 
After  moving  first  to  Tusculum,  and  then  to 
Formiae,  he  went  aboard  a  ship  at  Caeta,  but 
turned  back  to  land,  resolved  to  die  in  his  native  country. 
On  his  way  between  his  villa  and  the  sea  he  was  overtaken 
by  a  party  of  Antony's  soldiers  and  killed,  on  the  seventh 
of  December,  43  B.  c.  His  head  and  hands  were  cut  off 
and  exposed  upon  the  rostra  in  the  Roman  forum. 

Cicero's  oratorical  and  literary  activity  falls  naturally 
into  four  chronological  divisions :  his  earlier  years,  to  the 
Periods  of  beginning  of  his  career  as  a  political  orator 
Cicero's  (81-66  B.  c.) ;  the  period  of  his  greatest  pow- 

literary  er?  lasting  until  just  before  his  banishment 

activity.  (66-59  B.  c.) ;  from  his  return  from  banish- 

ment until  his  departure  for  Cilicia  (57-51  B.  c.) ;  and 
from  his  return  from  Cilicia  until  his  death  (50-43  B.  c.). 

To  the  first  period  belong  several  speeches  delivered  in 
different  kinds  of  lawsuits,  the  most  remarkable  of  which 
are  the  seven  orations  in  the  suit  against  Verres  (70  B.  c.) 


CICERO  69 

for  extortion  and  misgovernment  in  Sicily.  At  the  ear- 
nest request  of  the  Sicilians,  Cicero  undertook  the  prose- 

cution. The  first  speech,  the  Divinatio  in 
eriod™  CcBcilium^  was  delivered  to  determine  wheth- 

er Cicero  or  Q.  Csecilius  Niger,  who  had 
been  quaestor  under  Verres  in  Sicily,  should  conduct  the 
prosecution.  The  first  speech  in  the  prosecution  itself 
settled  the  case.  Cicero  had  prepared  all  the  evidence 
and  summoned  the  witnesses,  and  instead  of  giving  the 
defence  an  opportunity  for  delay,  brought  forward  his 
overwhelming  evidence  at  the  beginning,  after  a  mere  in- 
troduction. Hortensius,  Verres'  advocate,  gave  up  the 
defence  after  hearing  the  evidence,  and  Verres  was  ban- 
ished. The  five  remaining  orations,  called  the  Actio  8e- 
cunda  in  Verrem,  were  published  by  Cicero  in  order  that 
the  facts  might  be  universally  known,  but  were  never  de- 
livered in  court.  They  show  not  only  that  Cicero  was  at 
this  time  a  consummate  master  of  eloquence,  but  also  that 
his  diligence  in  the  collection  and  preparation  of  his  ma- 
terial was  remarkable.  In  addition  to  his  speeches,  Cicero 
wrote  in  this  period  several  translations  from  the  Greek, 
which  are  lost,  and  also  a  handbook  of  oratory,  the  De 
Inventione,  in  two  books.  This  work  was  written  when 
the  author  was  only  twenty  years  old,  and  is  based  upon 
the  treatise  addressed  to  Herennius  (p.  45).  In  it  Cicero 
treats  of  the  various  divisions  of  oratory  and  their  uses. 
The  work  is  greatly  inferior  to  his  later  rhetorical  writings. 
The  second  period  opens  with  the  superb  oration  For 
the  Manilian  Law  or  De  Imperio  Gncei  Pompei  (66  B.  c.), 

in  which  Cicero  advocates  the  appointment 
00  °^  P°mPey  with  extraordinary  powers  to  carry 


on  the  war  against  Mithridates.  The  four 
brilliant  and  vehement  speeches  Against  Catiline  belong 
to  the  year  of  Cicero's  consulship,  63  B.  c.  To  the  same 
year  belongs  the  witty  and  able  speech  For  Mtircena,  in 
which  Cicero  defends  Muraena  against  a  charge  of  bribery. 


70  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

The  delightful  speech  For  the  Poet  Archias  was  delivered 
in  62  B.  c.  in  support  of  the  poet's  claim  to  the  Eoman 
citizenship.  Throughout  this  period  Cicero's  time  and 
energy  were  so  fully  occupied  with  affairs  of  state  and 
with  the  suits  in  which  he  was  engaged  as  to  leave  him 
little  leisure  for  purely  literary  production.  In  60  B.  c., 
however,  when  the  troubles  that  led  to  his  banishment 
were  thickening  about  him,  he  made  a  metrical  version  of 
the  astronomical  poems  of  Aratus,  portions  of  which  are 
preserved  in  his  later  work  On  the  Nature  of  the  Gods, 
and  wrote  a  poem  in  three  books  On  His  Consulship, 
which  is  lost. 

The  speeches  of  the  third  period  were  delivered  for 
the  most  part  in  private  cases,  though  one  of  them,  On  the 

Consular  Provinces    (B.  c.  56),   urging    that 
eriod "          Caesar  retain  his  proconsulship  of  Gaul  and 

that  Gabinius  and  Piso  be  recalled  from  Syria 
and  Macedonia,  is  political,  while  political  considerations 
have  an  important  place  in  several  others.  In  the  year  55 
B.  c.  the  dialogue  On  the  Orator  (De  Oratore)  was  written, 
in  which  the  two  great  orators  of  the  generation  before 
Cicero,  Lucius  Crassus  and  Marcus  Antonius,  discuss  the 
proper  qualities  of  an  orator.  The  dialogue  is  supposed 
to  have  taken  place  shortly  before  the  death  of  Crassus 
(91  B.  c.).  The  lesser  parts  are  taken  by  some  of  the 
younger  statesmen  of  the  day,  and  in  the  beginning 
Cicero's  teacher,  the  augur  Scsevola,  appears.  This 
is  one  of  the  most  attractive  of  Cicero's  works.  The 
technical  discussions  are  enlivened  by  anecdotes  and  con- 
versation, and  the  whole  dialogue  has  a  grace  and  spright- 
liness  not  often  found  in  Latin  prose.  The  dialogue  On 
the  State  (De  Re  Publica),  in  six  books,  was  published 
before  51  B.  c.  Only  about  one  third  of  this  is  preserved 
in  a  fragmentary  condition,  and  for  many  centuries  the 
entire  work  was  lost  with  the  exception  of  the  Dream  of 
Scipio  (Somnium  Scipionis),  from  the  sixth  book.  The 


CICERO  71 

discussion  of  the  state  was  followed  by  a  dialogue  On  Laws 
(De  Legibus),  which  was  begun  apparently  in  52  B.  c.,  but 
was  never  finished.  In  this  period  we  find  Cicero  turning 
his  attention  to  technical  works  on  rhetoric  and  also  to 
philosophy. 

The  last  period  was  for  the  most  part  a  time  of  quiet 
literary  work  for  Cicero.  Only  after  Caesar's  death  did  he 
return  to  public  life.  In  46  B.  c.  he  thanked 
Caesar,  in  the  oration  For  Marcellus,  for  al- 
lowing Marcellus,  who  had  been  consul  in 
51  B.  c.,  to  return  to  Rome ;  later  in  the  same  year  he 
pleaded  the  case  of  Quintus  Ligarius  in  the  speech  For 
Ligarius,  and  in  45  B.  c.  he  spoke  in  behalf  of  Deiotarus, 
tetrarch  of  Galicia,  who  had  been  accused  of  treachery  to 
Caesar  (For King  Deiotarus),  but  these  are  the  only  speeches 
of  this  period  except  the  fourteen  Philippics,  directed 
against  Antony,  all  of  which  belong  to  the  short  time 
between  the  second  of  September,  44  B.  c.,  and  the 
twenty-second  of  April,  43  B.  c.  In  these  Cicero  shows  his 
old  energy  and  fire,  but  not  quite  his  earlier  power.  The 
name  Philippics  was  given  to  these  speeches  almost  from 
the  very  first,  and  was  in  fact  authorized  by  Cicero  him- 
self, who  welcomed  the  parallel  between  himself,  arousing 
and  encouraging  the  Eomans  against  Antony,  and  Demos- 
thenes urging  the  Athenians  to  oppose  Philip.  But  these 
orations  were  the  work  of  a  few  months ;  by  far  the  greater 
part  of  the  years  after  50  B.  c.  was  occupied  with  other 
things.  In  the  three  years  46-44  B.  c.  appeared  the  rhetor- 
ical writings  Brutus,  the  Orator,  the  Divisions  of  Oratory, 
the  essay  On  the  Best  Kind  of  Orators,  and  the  long  series 
Rhetorical  °^  phil°s°phical  dialogues  and  treatises,  the 
and  most  important  of  which  are  the  De  Finibus 

philosophical   Bonorum  et  Malorum,  a  discussion  of  the  dif- 
ferent theories  respecting  the  highest  good, 
in  five  books ;  the  Academics,  two  books  of  which  are  pre- 
served ;  the  Tusculan  Disputations,  in  five  books,  treating 


72  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

of  the  chief  essentials  for  happiness ;  the  treatise  On  the 
Nature  of  the  Gods,  in  three  books ;  and  the  three  books 
On  Duties  (De  Officiis),  to  which  should  be  added,  on 
account  of  their  beauty  of  style  and  sentiment,  the  Cato 
Maior  (On  Old  Age)  and  the  Lcelius  (On  Friendship)). 

Cicero's  extant  works  comprise  fifty-seven  orations  and 
fragments  of  twenty  more,  seven  rhetorical  treatises,  thir- 
teen philosophical  treatises,  including  those  On  the  State 
and  On  Laivs,  and  about  eight  hundred  and  sixty  letters, 
among  which  are  ninety  addressed  to  him  by  his  corre- 
spondents. Among  the  lost  works  are  a  few  historical 
writings  and  several  translations  from  the  Greek. 

Cicero's  chief  ambition  was  to  be  a  great  orator,  and  he 
spared  no  pains  to  attain  his  end.  Eichly  endowed  by 
nature,  he  was  not  content  to  employ  his 
orator  **  natural  gifts  without  careful  cultivation.  He 
studied  the  orators  of  earlier  times,  especially 
the  great  masters  of  Greek  eloquence,  made  many  transla- 
tions from  the  Greek  for  the  sake  of  perfecting  his  style, 
and  was  a  diligent  student  of  rhetorical  theories.  His 
conception  of  the  proper  qualities  of  the  orator  was  high 
and  noble.  In  the  essay  De  Oratore,  he  makes  Crassus  say : 

Wherefore,  if  one  wishes  to  define  and  embrace  the  proper 
power  of  an  orator  in  all  its  extent,  that  man  will  be,  in  my  opinion, 
an  orator  worthy  of  this  great  name,  who  can  speak  wisely,  in  an 
orderly  and  polished  manner,  from  memory,  and  even  with 
some  dignity  of  action,  upon  whatever  subject  arises  that  needs  to 
be  set  forth  in  speech.1 

And  again : 

I  assert  that  by  the  moderation  and  wisdom  of  the  perfect 
orator  not  only  his  own  dignity,  but  the  welfare  of  very  many 
persons  and  of  the  entire  commonwealth  is  preserved.3 

In  short,  the  orator  should  be,  in  Cicero's  opinion,  not 
only  a  great  and  practised  speaker,  but  a  man  of  varied 

1  De  Oratore,  i,  15,  64.  2  Ibid.,  i,  8,  34. 


CICERO  73 

learning,  and  at  the  same  time  a  man  of  the  highest  char- 
acter. This  was  the  ideal  he  set  before  himself  and  strove 
throughout  his  life  to  attain.  Certainly  it  was  no  low 
ideal,  nor  was  the  man  who  strove  to  attain  it  a  character 
to  be  despised. 

Cicero's  oratorical  style  is  always  careful  and  finished, 
but  is  far  from  that  monotonous  smoothness  which  study 
often  gives  to  the  speech  of  those  who  are  not 
ky  nature  gifted  orators.  In  the  narrative 
parts  of  his  speeches  he  is  clear,  straightfor- 
ward, and  lucid;  in  his  arguments  he  is  logical,  in- 
cisive, and  full  of  force ;  in  his  appeals  to  the  feelings  of 
his  hearers  he  is  vivid,  quick  and  powerful,  sometimes, 
according  to  the  demands  of  the  occasion,  violent  or 
pathetic.  The  elaborate  periodic  structure  of  his  sen- 
tences is  varied  by  many  short  questions  or  exclamations, 
and  the  habitual  dignity  of  his  utterance  is  softened  and 
enlivened  by  frequent  touches  of  wit,  humor, 
and  irony.  So  in  his  defence  of  Quintus 
Ligarius,  who  had  served  in  the  senatorial  army  in  Africa, 
although  he  knew  that  Caesar,  before  whom  the  case  was 
argued,  was  perfectly  acquainted  with  the  facts,  he  began 
his  speech  as  follows  : 

A  new  charge,  Gaius  Caesar,  and  one  never  heard  of  before  this 
day,  my  relative,  Quintus  Tubero,  has  brought  before  you :  that 
Quintus  Ligarius  was  in  Africa ;  and  Gaius  Pansa,  a  man  of  excel- 
lent character,  trusting,  perhaps,  in  his  friendship  with  you,  has 
dared  to  confess  that  it  is  true.  Therefore  I  know  not  where  to  turn. 
For  I  had  come  prepared,  since  you  could  not  know  it  by  yourself, 
and  could  not  have  heard  it  from  any  one  else,  to  take  advantage 
of  your  ignorance  for  the  salvation  of  the  unfortunate  man.1 

After  this  ironical  introduction,  which  serves  to  make 
his  opponents  seem  ridiculous,  Cicero  appeals  to  Caesar's 
well-known  clemency  before  proceeding  to  his  argument. 

1  Pro  Ligario,  1. 


74  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

In  his  own  political  life  Cicero  constantly  showed  his 
.reverence  for  the  dignity  of  the  Eoman  people,  the  estab- 
lished forms  of  government,  and  the  tradi- 

t*°nS  ^^  gP6at  deeds  °^  the  earlier  days  of 
Eome.  The  same  feeling  is  evident  in  nearly 
all  his  orations.  Eeferences  to  the  Eoman  people,  the 
majesty  of  the  Eoman  people,  the  Eoman  empire,  the  dig- 
nity of  the  senate,  the  customs  or  institutions  of  the  an- 
cestors, are  found  on  almost  every  page.  The  oration  On 
the  Manilian  Law  is  not  merely  a  panegyric  of  Pompey 
and  an  argument  for  giving  him  new  and  greater  powers, 
but  at  the  same  time  a  hymn  of  praise  to  the  glory  of  the 
Eoman  republic  and  the  virtues  of  the  men  of  old : 

Our  ancestors  often  engaged  in  wars  because  our  merchants  or 
ship-owners  had  been  somewhat  unjustly  treated  ;  what,  pray, 
should  be  your  feelings  when  so  many  thousands  of  Roman  citi- 
zens have  been  slaughtered  by  one  edict  and  at  one  time  ?  Be- 
cause our  envoys  had  been  too  haughtily  addressed  it  pleased  your 
fathers  that  Corinth,  the  light  of  all  Greece,  be  blotted  out;  will 
you  let  that  king  go  unpunished  who  has  slain  an  ex-consul  and 
envoy  of  the  Roman  people,  after  subjecting  him  to  imprisonment, 
and  scourging,  and  all  kinds  of  torture  ?  They  did  not  endure  it 
when  the  liberty  of  Roman  citizens  was  curtailed;  will  you  be 
negligent  when  their  lives  have  been  taken  ?  They  followed  up 
the  verbal  violation  of  the  right  of  embassies ;  will  you  desert  the 
cause  of  an  ambassador  slain  with  all  torments  ?  Be  on  your  guard, 
lest,  just  as  it  was  most  honorable  for  them  to  hand  down  to  you 
so  great  and  glorious  an  empire,  so  it  be  most  disgraceful  for  you 
to  fail  to  guard  and  preserve  what  you  have  received.1 

Here  the  orator's  effort  is  to  arouse  his  hearers  to  main- 
tain the  dignity  and  glory  of  the  republic,  whose  greatness 
is  brought  home  to  their  minds  by  the  references  to  the 
deeds  of  their  ancestors.  This  passage  is  also  a  good  ex- 
ample of  the  effective  use  of  repeated  contrasts. 

In  the  speech  For  the  Manilian  Law  Cicero  addresses 

1  Pro  Lege  Manilla,  5,  11. 


CICERO  75 

the  assembled  Koman  people  on  a  political  question  of 
immediate  and  great  importance.  His  tone  is  exalted 
and  earnest,  his  eloquence  stirring  and  inspiring.  The 
same  qualities  are  found  in  all  the  political  orations,  and 
in  many  of  the  private  speeches,  delivered  in  cases  in- 
volving the  life  of  the  accused  or  Cicero's  own  character. 
Gentler  -^n  sPeecnes  dealing  with  less  urgent  matters 

and  more  the  tone  is  more  gentle  and  the  effect  more 
graceful  graceful.  Quotations  from  the  poets  are  nu- 
merous, and  the  rhythmical  structure  of  the 
sentences  is  more  marked  than  in  the  stirring  and  excited 
passages  of  the  political  harangues.  The  oration  For  the 
Poet  Archias  is  the  best  example  of  Cicero's  less  stirring 
and  more  graceful  oratory.  After  establishing  by  a  brief 
statement  the  fact  that  Archias  had  a  valid  claim  to  the 
citizenship,  Cicero  devotes  the  remainder  of  his  speech  to 
the  praise  of  literary  pursuits  : 

These  studies  nourish  youth,  delight  old  age,  adorn  prosperity, 
furnish  a  refuge  and  solace  in  adversity,  gladden  us  at  home,  are 
no  hindrance  abroad,  spend  the  nights  with  us,  are  with  us  in  our 
foreign  travels,  and  at  oar  country  seats.1 

In  this  oration  Cicero  appears  as  the  man  of  letters 
whose  literary  interest  was  not  bounded  by  the  career  of 
the  politician  or  the  orator,  and  who,  in  spite  of  political 
successes  and  disappointments,  was  to  achieve  greater 
fame  as  an  author  than  any  other  writer  of  Latin  prose. 

Few  passages  are  more  striking  or  characteristic  in 
the  orations  of  Cicero  than  those  in  which  he  turns  to 
address  directly  either  the  opposing  party  in 
address  ^e  case  or  ^s  advocate.  In  these  passages, 

which  vary  in  length  from  a  brief  exclama- 
tion to  an  elaborate  invective,  the  stinging  words  shoot 
forth  with  quick  and  passionate  directness.  One  of  the 
longer  passages  of  this  kind,  in  which  additional  force  is 

1  Pro  Archia  Poeta,  7,  16. 


76  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

lent  to  the  words  by  the  suggestion  that  they  are  uttered 
by  the  culprit's  own  father,  is  the  following  : 

Here  you  will  even  dare  to  say,  "Among  the  judges,  that  one 
is  my  friend,  that  one  a  friend  of  my  father."  Is  not  every  one, 
the  more  closely  he  is  connected  with  you  in  any  way,  the  more 
ashamed  of  you  for  being  subject  to  a  charge  of  this  kind  ?  He  is 
your  father's  friend.  If  your  father  himself  were  a  judge,  what, 
in  the  name  of  the  immortal  gods,  could  you  do  when  he  said  to 
you:  "  You,  the  praetor  of  the  Roman  people  in  a  province,  when 
you  had  to  carry  on  a  naval  war,  excused  the  Mamertines  for  three 
years  from  supplying  the  ship  which  they  were  bound  by  treaty 
to  supply ;  for  your  private  use  a  freight  ship  of  the  largest  size 
was  built  at  public  expense  by  those  same  Mamertines;  you  ex- 
acted money  from  the  cities  under  the  pretext  of  the  fleet ;  you  dis- 
missed rowers  for  bribes;  you,  when  a  pirate  vessel  had  been  cap- 
tured by  the  quaestor  and  the  lieutenant,  removed  the  leader  of 
the  pirates  from  the  sight  of  all ;  you  could  put  under  the  heads- 
man's axe  men  who  were  said  to  be  Roman  citizens,  who  were 
known  as  such  by  many ;  you  dared  to  take  pirates  to  your  house, 
and  to  bring  the  pirate  captain  to  the  court  from  your  own  dwelling ; 
you,  in  that  splendid  province,  in  the  sight  of  our  most  faithful 
allies,  of  most  honorable  Roman  citizens,  lay  for  days  together  on 
the  shore  at  festive  banquets  at  a  time  when  the  province  was  in 
fear  and  danger;  during  those  days  no  one  could  find  you  at  your 
house,  no  one  could  see  you  in  the  forum;  you  brought  to  those 
banquets  the  wives  of  allies  and  friends;  among  women  of  that 
sort  you  placed  your  youthful  son,  my  grandson,  that  his  father's 
life  might  offer  him  examples  of  wickedness  at  the  age  which  is 
especially  unsteady  and  lacking  in  fixed  principles ;  you,  the  prse- 
tor,  were  seen  in  the  province  in  a  tunic  and  purple  cloak ;  you,  for 
the  gratification  of  your  passion  and  lust,  took  away  the  command 
of  the  ships  from  a  lieutenant  of  the  Roman  people  and  gave  it  to 
a  Syracusan ;  your  soldiers  in  the  province  of  Sicily  were  in  want  of 
food  and  grain ;  owing  to  your  luxury  and  avarice  a  fleet  of  the 
Roman  people  was  captured  and  burned  by  pirates ;  in  your  pra3- 
torship  pirates  sailed  their  ships  in  that  harbor  which  no  enemy 
had  ever  entered  since  the  foundation  of  Syracuse ;  and  these  dis- 
graces of  yours,  so  many  and  so  great,  you  did  not  care  to  hide  by 
concealment  on  your  part,  nor  by  making  men  forget  them  and 


CICEEO  77 

keep  silent  about  them,  but  you  tore  away  to  death  and  torture  even 
the  captains  of  the  ships,  without  any  cause,  from  the  embraces  of 
their  parents,  your  own  friends,  nor  in  seeing  the  grief  and  tears 
of  those  parents  did  any  memory  of  me  soften  you;  to  you  the 
blood  of  innocent  men  was  not  only  a  pleasure,  but  even  a  source 
of  profit."  If  your  father  should  say  this  to  you,  could  you  ask 
pardon  from  him  ?  could  you  entreat  him  to  forgive  you  ? 1 

These  few  examples,  perhaps  not  the  most  striking  to 
be  found  in  the  great  body  of  his  orations,  may  give  some 
idea  of  the  variety  of  Cicero's  oratory.  In  his  youth  the 
Eoman  orators  were  divided  into  two  parties  on  the 
question  of  style ;  the  elder  men,  chief  among  whom  was 
Hortensius,  favored  the  Asian  style,  with  its  wealth  of 
rhetorical  adornment,  while  the  younger  men,  the  Atticists, 
as  they  called  themselves,  aimed  at  extreme  simplicity, 
taking  Lysias  as  their  model.  Cicero  perceived  that  a 
middle  course  was  best.  His  natural  tendency  was  toward 
exuberance,  but  he  tempered  it  by  careful  study.  He 
does  not  avoid  rhetorical  adornment,  but  he  seldom  uses 
it  to  excess.  Like  Demosthenes,  whom  he  regarded  as 
the  greatest  of  the  Greek  orators,  he  varies  his  style  to 
suit  the  occasion,  and,  like  him,  he  stands  forth  as  the 
greatest  orator  of  his  nation. 

In  his  philosophical  writings  Cicero's  purpose  was  to 
be  useful  to  his  fellow  citizens  by  making  them  acquainted 
with  the  results  of  Greek  speculative  thought. 

AS  he  himS6lf  SayS: 

As  I  sought  and  pondered  much  and  long  by 
what  means  I  could  be  of  use  to  as  many  men  as  possible,  that  I 
might  never  cease  to  care  for  the  welfare  of  the  republic,  nothing 
greater  occurred  to  me  than  if  I  should  make  accessible  to  my  fellow 
citizens  the  paths  of  the  noblest  learning.2 

With  this  end  in  view  he  wrote  his  treatises,  for  the 
most  part  in  the  dialogue  form,  after  the  manner  of  Plato, 
in  which  he  set  forth  the  doctrines  of  the  Greek  philoso- 

1  In  Verrem,  ii,  v,  52.  2  De  Divinatione,  ii,  1. 


78  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

phers  on  the  most  important  subjects,  such  as  the  chief 
end  of  life,  the  means  of  attaining  happiness,  duty,  the 
nature  of  the  gods,  and  the  like,  laying  the  chief  stress 
upon  what  he  believed  to  be  true  and  correct.  He  lays  no 
claim  to  great  originality  of  thought,  but  only  to  inde- 
pendence of  judgment.  In  general,  he  regards  himself  as 
a  disciple  of  the  Academic  school,  which  did  not  claim  to 
establish  absolute  truth,  but  to  show  what  was  most 
probable.  He  uses,  however,  the  works  of  Stoic  and  even 
of  Epicurean  philosophers,  whenever  they  express  views 
in  accordance  with  his  own,  as  well  as  when  he  wishes  to 
refute  their  teachings.  He  is  not  entirely  consistent  in 
all  his  writings,  but  his  high  moral  sense,  his  belief  in  the 
divine  government  of  the  world,  and  his  hope  of  im- 
mortality are  the  foundations  of  his  philosophy.  His 
style  in  these  writings  is,  as  befits  his  subject,  dignified 
and  serene,  but  enlivened  by  the  occasional  interruptions 
incident  to  the  dialogue  form. 

To  the  professional  student  of  ancient  philosophy  these 
treatises  are  of  great  importance  chiefly  because  of  the 
Importance  information  they  contain  concerning  the 
of  Cicero's  writings  and  doctrines  of  Greek  philoso- 
philosophical  phers  whose  works  have  been  lost;  to  the 
works.  student  of  literature  they  offer  admirable 

examples  of  learned  works  in  popular  form,  with  all  the 
charm  of  exquisite  literary  workmanship;  and  their  in- 
fluence upon  later  ages  was  so  great  that  no  one  who 
is  interested  in  the  progress  of  human  thought  can  dis- 
regard them.  St.  Augustine,  and  many  other  writers  of 
the  early  Christian  Church,  acknowledge  their  indebted- 
ness to  them ;  they  are  the  foundation  of  the  specula- 
tive thought  of  the  middle  ages  ;  and  it  is  in  great  meas- 
ure due  to  their  influence  that  the  Latin  language  has 
remained,  almost  to  our  own  day,  the  great  medium  for 
the  expression  of  philosophical  and  scientific  speculation. 
Cicero  made  "  the  paths  of  the  noblest  learning  "  acces- 


CICERO  79 

sible  not  only  to  his  Roman  fellow  citizens,  but  to  count- 
less generations  of  men  of  all  lands.  His  noble  purpose 
was  accomplished  more  grandly  than  he  ever  hoped  or 
dreamed.  Let  those  who  will,  accuse  him  of  shallowness 
and  superficiality;  mankind  owes  him  an  immeasurable 
debt  of  gratitude. 

Cicero's  orations  have  served  as  models  for  many  gen- 
erations of  orators,  his  rhetorical  treatises  may  be  re- 
garded as  the  foundation  of  nearly  all  later  theories  of 
style,  his  philosophical  works  exerted  an  influence  which 
permeated  the  thought  of  centuries.  It  remains  to  speak 

of  his  letters.  These  are  in  some  respects 
letters*  *ke  most  interesting  of  his  writings,  because 

they  show  the  feelings  of  the  man  as  he 
disclosed  them  to  his  intimate  friends,  they  make  us  ac- 
quainted with  the  personal  relations  between  the  promi- 
nent Romans  of  the  time,  and  shed  many  rays  of  light 
upon  the  dark  pages  of  contemporary  history.  The  first 
of  the  extant  letters  is  da.ted  in  68  B.  c.,  the  last  July  28, 
43  B.  c.  The  collection  was  made  by  Cicero's  friends,  and 
edited  probably  by  his  freedman,  Tiro,  and  his  publisher 
and  most  intimate  friend,  Atticus.  They  fall  into  four 
groups ;  sixteen  books  addressed  to  various  persons  (Ad 
Familiar  es),  three  books  to  Cicero's  brother  Quintus  (Ad 
Quintum  Fratrem),  sixteen  books  to  Atticus  (Ad  Atticum), 
and  two  books  to  Brutus  (Ad  Brutum).  There  were 
originally  nine  books  of  letters  to  Brutus,  but  only  the 
eighth  and  the  ninth  are  preserved. 

The  letters  differ  greatly  in  importance,  in  length,  and 
in  interest.  Some  are  mere  greetings  or  brief  introduc- 
tions, while  others  are  carefully  composed  treatises ;  some 
are  expressions  of  Cicero's  inmost  feelings  to  his  inti- 
mate friends,  while  others  are  business  notes  or  occasional 
letters  to  men  with  whom  he  was  on  a  less  familiar  foot- 
ing; some  are  addressed  to  the  great  leaders  of  the  po- 
litical parties,  others  to  comparatively  obscure  persons; 


80  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

some  are  on  literary  subjects,  others  on  private  business, 
and  still  others  on  matters  that  pertain  to  the  history  of 
the  world.  The  style  and  language  vary  with 
the  contents  of  the  letters,  but  are  in  gen- 
eral less  careful  than  in  any  of  Cicero's  other 
writings.  The  language  is  evidently  that  of  common 
speech  rather  than  of  literary  composition.  In  the  letters 
written  during  his  exile  Cicero  betrays  unmanly  discour- 
agement, and  breaks  out  into  pitiful  lamentation,  just  as 
in  many  of  his  orations  he  betrays  great  vanity,  and  extols 
overmuch  his  own  courage  and  patriotism  in  the  matter  of 
the  Catilinarian  conspiracy  ;  but  these  letters  are  the  con- 
fidential utterances  of  momentary  feelings,  not  the  delib- 
erate expressions  of  the  man's  character,  and  we  must 
not  forget  that  Cicero  was  an  Italian,  a  man  of  easily 
aroused  emotions,  whose  vanity  might  overflow  or  whose 
grief  might  break  forth  without  affecting  his  real  earnest- 
ness or  steadfastness.  One  of  the  briefer  letters  to  Atti- 
cus  is  the  following,  written  from  Thurium,  in  April,  58 
B.  c.,  soon  after  Cicero's  banishment  began : 

Terentia  thanks  you  frequently  and  very  warmly.  That  is  a 
great  comfort  to  me.  I  am  the  most  miserable  man  alive,  and  am 
being  worn  out  with  the  most  poignant  sorrow.  I  don't  know 
what  to  write  to  you.  For  if  you  are  at  Rome,  it  is  now  too  late 
for  me  to  reach  you ;  but  if  you  are  on  the  road,  we  shall  discuss 
together  all  that  needs  to  be  discussed  when  you  have  overtaken 
me.  All  I  ask  you  is  to  retain  the  same  affection  for  me,  since  it 
was  always  myself  you  loved.  For  I  am  still  the  same  man;  my 
enemies  have  taken  what  was  mine,  they  have  not  taken  myself. 
Take  care  of  your  health.1 

A  letter  to  Marcus  Terentius  Yarro,  written  in  46 
B.  c.,  among  the  troubles  of  the  civil  war,  shows  Cicero 
consoling  himself  with  literature  : 

From  a  letter  of  yours,  which  Atticus  read  to  me,  I  learnt 
what  you  were  doing  and  where  you  were ;  but  when  we  were 

1  Ep.  ad  Atticum,  iii,  5,  Shuckburgh's  translation. 


CICERO  81 

likely  to  see  you,  I  could  gain  no  idea  at  all  from  the  letter.  How- 
ever, I  am  beginning  to  hope  that  your  arrival  is  not  far  off.  I 
wish  it  could  be  any  consolation  to  me !  But  the  fact  is,  I  am 
overwhelmed  by  so  many  and  such  grave  anxieties,  that  no  one 
but  the  most  utter  fool  ought  to  expect  any  alleviation ;  yet,  after 
all,  perhaps  you  can  give  me  some  kind  of  help,  or  I  you.  For 
allow  me  to  tell  you  that,  since  my  arrival  in  the  city,  I  have 
effected  a  reconciliation  with  my  old  friends — I  mean  my  books ; 
though  the  truth  is  that  I  had  not  abandoned  their  society  because 
I  had  fallen  out  with  them,  but  because  I  was  half  ashamed  to  look 
them  in  -the  face.  For  I  thought,  when  I  plunged  into  the  mael- 
strom of  civil  strife,  with  allies  whom  I  had  the  worst  possible  rea- 
son for  trusting,  that  I  had  not  shown  proper  respect  for  their 
precepts.  They  pardon  me;  they  recall  me  to  our  old  intimacy, 
and  you,  they  say,  have  been  wiser  than  I  for  never  having  left  it. 
Wherefore,  since  I  find  them  reconciled,  I  seem  bound  to  hope,  if 
I  once  see  you,  that  I  shall  pass  through  with  ease  both  what  is 
weighing  me  down  now,  and  what  is  threatening.  Therefore,  in 
your  company,  whether  you  choose  it  to  be  in  your  Tusculan  or 
Cuman  villa,  or,  which  I  should  like  least,  at  Rome,  so  long  only 
as  we  are  together,  I  will  certainly  contrive  that  both  of  us  shall 
think  it  the  most  agreeable  place  possible.1 

Cicero's  letters  give  us  a  more  complete  insight  into 
his  private  character  than  could  be  gained  from  his  other 

writings.  He  was  a  faithful  and  affectionate 
character  friend,  a  genial  companion,  a  good  husband 

and  father,  and  a  devoted  patriot.  In  his 
political  career  he  exhibited  a  lack  of  that  insight  which 
enables  the  great  statesman  to  foresee  inevitable  changes, 
and  therefore  he  strove  to  preserve  the  old  system  of  gov- 
ernment at  a  time  when  its  usefulness  had  passed  away. 
He  could  not  sympathize  thoroughly  with  Pompey  and 
his  party,  still  less  with  the  revolutionary  policy  of  Caesar. 
The  result  was  indecision  and  apparent  fickleness,  but  his 
indecision  was  not  so  much  that  of  weakness  as  of  the 
inability  to  choose  between  what  he  must  have  regarded 

1  Ep.  ad  Familiares,  ix,  1,  Shuckburgh's  translation. 


82  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

as  two  evils.  When  he  saw  his  duty  clearly  before  him, 
as  in  the  year  of  his  consulship,  he  did  not  flinch,  and 
again,  when  Antony  was  arrayed  in  arms  against  the  state, 
he  stood  forth  boldly  as  the  defender  of  the  republic.  He 
showed  his  courage  and  firmness  also  when,  in  50  B.  c., 
after  Pompey's  flight  from  Italy,  he  exposed  himself  to 
Caesar's  displeasure  by  refusing  to  come  to  Rome  except 
as  an  avowed  parti zan  of  Pompey.1  In  all  the  relations 
of  life  he  was  honorable  and  conscientious,  and  in  the 
field  of  literature  he  stands  among  the  great  men  of  the 
world. 

1  Ep.  ad  Atticum,  ix,  18. 


CAESAK. 
Bust  in  the  museum  at  Naples. 


CHAPTER  VII 

CJ3SAR— SALLUST-OTHER  PROSE  WRITERS 

Caesar,  102  (?)-44  B.  c.— Hirtius,  <?-43  B.  c.— Oppius,  died  after  44 
B.  c. — Continuations  of  Caesar's  Commentaries — Sallust,  86-35  B.  c.— 
Cornelius  Nepos,  before  100  B.  c.  to  after  30  B.  c.— Varro,  116-27  B.  c. 
— Atticus,  109-32  B.  c.— Hortensius,  114-50  B.  c.— Calidius,  died  47 
B.  c.— Calvus,  87-47  B.  c.— Brutus,  78  (?)-42  B.  c.— Cornificius,  ?-41 
B.  c. — Quintus  Cicero,  102-43,  B.  c. — Tiro — Nigidius  Figulus,  died  45 
B.  c. — Aurelius  Opilius — Antonius  Gnipho — Pompilius  Andronicus — 
Santra— Servius  Sulpicius  Rufus. 

WHAT  has  been  said  of  Cicero  applies  with  at  least 
equal  force  to  Caesar — the  story  of  his  life  belongs  to  the 
history  of  Rome  rather  than  to  that  of  literature.  We 
must  therefore  content  ourselves  with  a  brief  sketch. 

Gaius  Julius  Caesar  was  born,  according  to  the  common 
account,  in  100  B.  c.,  but  the  real  date  is  probably  two 
years  earlier.  He  was  of  patrician  birth,  and 
early  life  ^is  family  claimed  descent  from  Ascanius,  or 
lulus,  the  son  of  ^Eneas.  Marius,  his  uncle 
by  marriage,  made  him  a  priest  of  Jupiter  at  the  age  of 
not  more  than  fifteen.  While  still  little  more  than  a  boy 
he  married  Cornelia,  the  daughter  of  Cinna,  and  barely 
escaped  the  proscription  of  Sulla  when  he  refused  to 
divorce  her.  The  young  Caesar  was  thus,  in  spite  of  his 
patrician  birth,  identified  with  the  popular  party.  In  67 
B.  c.  he  was  quaestor  in  Farther  Spain,  in  65  B.  c.  he  be- 
came curule  aedile,  in  which  office  he  distinguished  him- 
self by  the  magnificence  of  his  public  games  and  exhi- 
bitions, and  in  63  B.  c.  he  was  elected  pontifex  maximus, 

83 


S4:  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

thereby  becoming  for  life  the  official  head  of  the  Roman 
religion. 

In  62  B.  c.  he  was  chosen  praetor,  and  the  next  year 
was  sent  as  propraetor  to  Farther  Spain.  Up  to  this  time 
His  govern-  ne  was  known  chiefly  as  a  dissolute  man  and 
mentin  an  unscrupulous  demagogue.  His  extra  va- 

Spam.  gance  had  involved  him  in  debts  amounting 

to  more  than  a  million  dollars.  But  in  the  government 
of  his  province  he  distinguished  himself  by  military  suc- 
cesses and  excellent  civil  administration,  besides  amassing 
sufficient  wealth  to  pay  his  debts. 

In  60  B.  c.  he  returned  to  Rome,  and  soon  formed  with 
Pompey  and  Crassus  the  agreement  known  as  the  first 
triumvirate,  by  which  he  was  assured  of  the 
triumvirate,  consulship  in  59  B.  c.,  and  the  government 
of  Gaul  for  the  following  five  years.  To 
strengthen  the  alliance  he  married  his  young  and  beauti- 
ful daughter  Julia  to  Pompey.  In  56  B.  c.  he  met  Pompey 
and  Crassus  at  Lucca,  in  the  presence  of  a  great  concourse 
of  senators  and  their  followers,  and  an  agreement  was 
made  that  Caesar  should  continue  to  hold  the  province  of 
Gaul  through  49  B.  c.,  while  Pompey  and  Crassus  were  to 
be  consuls  in  55  B.  c.,  after  which  Syria  and  Spain  were  to 
be  given  to  Crassus  and  Pompey  respectively  for  five 
years.  The  agreement  was  duly  carried  out,  and  in  54  B.  c. 
Crassus  went  to  Syria,  where  he  lost  his  life  after  the 
battle  of  Carrhae,  in  53  B.  c.  In  the  same  year  Pompey's 
wife,  Julia,  died.  Pompey  had  not  gone  to  Spain  to  take 
possession  of  his  province,  but  remained  at  Rome,  and 
soon  became  openly  hostile  to  Caesar.  When  the  Gallic 
war  was  ended,  the  senatorial  party,  with  Pompey  at  its 
head,  demanded  that  Caesar  disband  his  army.  This  he 

refused  to  do  unless  Pompey  also  gave  up  his 
The  civil  war.  r  J 

military  command.     Hereupon  the  civil  war 

broke  out,  Caesar  crossed  the  Rubicon,  the  boundary  of 
his  province,  and  Pompey  fled  to  Greece,  where  he  was 


CAESAR  85 

defeated  in  48  B.  c.,  at  Pharsalus,  then  to  Egypt,  where 
he  was  murdered.  In  46  B.  c.  the  senatorial  party  was 
finally  defeated  in  the  battle  of  Thapsus,  in  Africa,  and 
their  leader,  Cato,  committed  suicide  at  Utica. 

Csesar  now  returned  to  Borne,  where  he  was  made 
imperator  and  perpetual  dictator,  thus  uniting  in  one 
Caesar's  person  all  the  political  power  of  the  state, 

dictatorship  Henceforth  the  forms  of  republican  govern- 
and  death.  ment  were  but  a  thin  mask  disguising  a  real 
monarchy.  In  the  brief  period  of  his  power  Csesar  accom- 
plished the  reform  of  the  calendar,  and  carried  through 
numerous  important  changes  for  the  improvement  of  the 
government,  but  nothing  could  placate  the  hatred  of 
those  who  wished  to  restore  the  rule  of  the  senate,  what- 
ever its  abuses  had  been.  On  the  Ides  of  March  (March 
15),  44  B.  c.,  he  was  murdered  in  the  senate-house  by  a 
band  of  conspirators  headed  by  Brutus. 

Caesar's  extant  writings  are  seven  books  of  Commen- 
taries on  the  Gallic  War,  covering  the  years  58-52  B.  c., 
and  three  books  of  Commentaries  on  the  Civil 

writings  ^ar'  covering  the  vears  49-48  B.  C.     He  also 

wrote  some  poems,  a  book  On  the  Stars,  two 
books  Against  Cato,  and  a  few  grammatical  or  rhetorical 
essays,  all  of  which  are  lost,  as  are  also  his  orations,  which 
were  greatly  admired.  Collections  of  his  letters  existed 
in  antiquity,  but  these  also  have  been  lost,  and  the  only 
extant  letters  of  Caesar  are  a  few  which  are  preserved  in 
the  correspondence  of  Cicero.  Caesar  doubtless  intended 
to  publish  commentaries  on  the  years  between  52  and  49 
B.  c.,  as  well  as  on  his  wars  in  Egypt  and  elsewhere,  but 
did  not  carry  out  his  intention. 

Caesar's  Commentaries  on  the  Gallic  War  were  written 
apparently  in  the  year  51  B.  c.,  when  he  was  still  on  good 
terms  with  Pompey.  The  energy  of  this  pale,  slender, 
delicate  man  sufficed  not  only  to  make  him  the  conqueror 
of  the  warlike  tribes  of  the  north,  and  afterward  of  the 


86  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

trained  armies  of  the  republic,  but  also  to  gain  him  an 
eminent  position  among  the  great  narrative  and  descrip- 
tive writers  of  the  world.  The  Commentaries  were  written 
rapidly,1  for  the  double  purpose  of  showing  what  Caesar  had 
done  to  increase  the  glory  and  power  of  Rome,  and  to  prove 
to  his  detractors  that  his  conquest  of  Gaul  had  not  been  an 
act  of  unprovoked  aggression,  but  had  been  forced  upon 
him  by  circumstances.  The  facts  narrated  are  drawn,  in 
all  probability,  from  the  official  army  records,  supplement- 
ed from  Caesar's  own  recollections,  and  perhaps  from  his 
private  journals.  In  striking  contrast  to  the  transparent 
vanity  which  led  Cicero  to  extol  his  own  merits  on  all 
possible  occasions,  Caesar  keeps  his  personality  in  the 
background,  and  writes  of  himself  always  in  the  third 
person,  as  if  the  deeds  he  narrates  were  those  of  another 
than  the  writer.  This  gives  his  narrative  the  appearance 
of  great  impartiality,  but  the  careful  reader  can  hardly 
fail  to  notice  that  Caesar's  conduct  is  always  put  in  the 
most  favorable  light,  that  his  victories  are  made  as  impor- 
tant as  possible,  and  his  reverses  are  more  lightly  passed 
over.  The  Commentaries  are  not  to  be  regarded  as  accu- 
rate history,  but  rather  as  a  justification  of  Caesar's  actions, 
presented  in  historical  form. 

Caesar's  style  is  clear,  simple,  and  unaffected,  and  free 
from  all  obtrusive  rhetorical  adornment,  but  the  narrative 
of  his  campaigns  is  varied  and  enlivened  by 
style*  *  ^e  inserti°n  °t  descriptions,  speeches,  dia- 

logues, and  all  sorts  of  interesting  details.  He 
frequently  takes  occasion  to  signalize  the  brave  deeds  of 
his  men.  So  in  his  account  of  the  siege  of  Gergovia,  he 
describes  the  heroic  death  of  one  of  his  centurions : 

Marcus  Petronius,  a  centurion  of  the  same  legion,  in  trying 
to  break  down  the  gate,  was  overwhelmed  by  numbers  and  de- 
spaired of  his  life.  When  he  had  already  been  wounded  many 

1  Hirtius,  De  Bello  Gallico,  yiii,  1. 


HIBTIUS  87 

times,  he  said  to  his  comrades,  who  had  followed  him:  "Since  I 
can  not  save  myself  together  with  you,  I  will  at  least  provide  for 
your  safety,  since  through  my  greed  for  glory  I  have  led  you 
into  danger.  When  an  opportunity  is  given  you,  do  you  look  out 
for  yourselves."  At  once  he  rushed  into  the  midst  of  the  enemy, 
and  after  killing  two,  drove  the  rest  a  little  away  from  the  gate. 
When  his  comrades  tried  to  succour  him,  "In  vain,"  he  said,  "do 
you  try  to  save  my  life,  since  my  blood  and  my  strength  are  ebbing 
away.  So  go  away,  while  you  have  the  opportunity,  and  retreat 
to  the  legion."  Thus  fighting  he  soon  fell  and  saved  his  com- 
rades. 

The  history  of  the  Gallic  war  was  published  under  the 
unassuming  title  of  Commentarit,  or  "  notes  " ;  but  such  is 
the  perfection  of  its  simple  style  that  no  one  ever  thought 
of  rewriting  it. 

The  three  books  of  Commentaries  on  the  Civil  War 
show  the  same  qualities  as  those  On  the  Gallic  War,  but  in 
a  less  admirable  degree.  In  one  external 
w^r  x  matter  they  differ  from  the  history  of  the 

Gallic  War,  for  in  the  latter  each  book  con- 
tains the  account  of  a  year's  campaign,  while  the  story 
of  the  first  year  of  the  Civil  War  occupies  two  books. 
The  historical  interest  of  this  work  is  at  least  as  great 
as  that  of  the  books  on  the  Gallic  War,  but  it  does  not 
compete  with  them  in  literary  merit,  and  contains  some 
positive  misstatements.  Probably  the  work  was  written  in 
haste  and  was  never  revised  by  its  author.  This  supposi- 
tion would  account  for  some  of  its  defects.  It  may  have 
been  prepared  for  publication  by  one  of  Caesar's  officers, 
perhaps  by  one  of  those  who  undertook  to  furnish  histories 
of  the  campaigns  which  Caesar  had  left  unrecorded. 

Among  those  who  continued  Caesar's  record  of  his  wars, 
the  best  writer  is  Aulus  Hirtius.  He  was  one  of  Caesar's 
lieutenants  in  Gaul,  and  was  sent  by  him  to  Eome  as  a 
trusted  agent.  In  49  B.  c.  he  was  with  Caesar  in  Eome. 
What  share  he  had  in  the  civil  war  is  not  known,  but  he 
himself  says  that  he  was  not  present  in  the  Alexandrian 
7 


88  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

and  African  wars.  He  was  praetor,  on  Caesar's  nomination, 
in  46  B.  c.,  and  was  consul  in  43  B.  c.,  when  he  was  killed 
Continu  *n  ^e  battle  of  Mutina,  fighting  against  An- 

tions  of  tony.     The  only  work  ascribed  to  him  with 

Caesar's  certainty  is  the  eighth  hook  of  the  Commenta- 

Commenta-       ^  Qn  ^e  Qamc  War,  in  which  he  shows  him- 


self far  inferior  to  Caesar  as  a  writer,  hut  not 
without  some  ability.  The  book  is  well  written,  in  a  style 
evidently  intended  to  resemble  that  of  Caesar.  Whether 
the  book  on  the  Alexandrian  War  was  written  by  Hirtius 
or  by  Graius  Oppius  is  uncertain.  Oppius  was  a  man  of 
equestrian  rank,  a  supporter  and  agent  of  Caesar  at 
Eome.  After  Caesar's  death  he  attached  himself  to  the 
party  of  Octavius,  and  urged  Cicero  to  do  the  same.  He 
appears  not  to  have  lived  long  after  44  B.  c.  The  Alexan- 
drian War  is  written  in  a  style  similar  to  that  of  the 
eighth  book  of  the  Gallic  War.  The  books  on  the 
African  War  and  the  Spanish  War  are  by  unknown  au- 
thors. The  style  of  the  first  is  tasteless  and  turgid,  while 
that  of  the  latter  is  hesitating  and  crabbed.  These  books 
possess  a  certain  literary  interest,  because  they  show  the 
immense  difference  between  Caesar's  literary  ability  and 
that  of  the  average  Eoman  of  his  day. 

Caesar's  inimitable  Commentaries  are  the  records  of 
their  author's  own  deeds,  written  from  the  point  of  view  of 
the  chief  actor  in  the  events  narrated.  They  are  not  the 
results  of  wide  historical  research,  nor  do  they  attempt  to 
give  the  reader  a  broad  general  knowledge  of  the  course 
of  events,  with  all  their  causes  and  consequences.  They 
are  not,  strictly  speaking,  history,  but  a  masterly  presen- 
tation of  the  material  from  which  history  is  made.  The 
earlier  records  of  the  past  by  Eoman  writers,  such  as  Va- 
lerius Antias,  Cornelius  Sisenna,  and  others  (see  page  43), 
were  mere  annals,  deficient  alike  in  careful  research  and 
literary  finish.  The  first  real  historian  of  Eome  was 
Sallust. 


SALLUST  89 

Gains  Sallustius  Crispus  was  born  of  a  plebeian  family, 
at  Amiternum,  in  the  Sabine  country,  in  86  B.  c.  At  some 
unknown  date  he  obtained  the  office  of  quaes- 
tor, and  in  52  B.  c.  he  was  tribune.  In  the 
earlier  part  of  his  life  he  was  dissolute,  and  he  is  said  to 
have  brought  his  father  in  sorrow  to  the  grave.  In  50  B.  c. 
he  was  expelled  from  the  senate  by  the  censors  Appius 
Claudius  and  Lucius  Piso.  In  the  following  year  he  was 
reappointed  quaestor  by  Caesar  and  thus  regained  his  place 
in  the  senate.  In  48  B.  c.  he  was  in  command  of  a  legion  in 
Illyria,  in  the  year  following  he  was  sent  by  Caesar  to  sup- 
press a  mutiny  among  the  soldiers  in  Campania,  and  in  46 
B.  c.  served  as  praetor  in  the  African  war.  At  the  end  of 
the  year  he  was  made  proconsul  of  Numidia,  where  he 
enriched  himself  by  plundering  the  province.  He  then 
bought  a  villa  and  gardens  on  the  Quirinal,  and  devoted 
himself  to  historical  writing  until  his  death  in  35  B.  c. 

Sallust's  works   are  The  Conspiracy  of  Catiline,  The 

Jugurthine  War,  and  the  Histories.     The  first  two  are 

preserved  entire,  but  of  the  Histories,  which 

treated  of  the   events  from   78   to  67  B.  c., 

only  fragments   are   preserved,   in    addition 

to  four  speeches  and  two  letters,  which  were  inserted 

in  the  narrative,  but  were  collected  and  published  for 

use  in   rhetorical  teaching.     The  two  letters  to  Caesar 

and  the  speech  against  Cicero,  published  under  the  name 

of  Sallust,  are  spurious. 

In  his  writings  Sallust  appears  as  an  opponent  of 
the  nobility  and  a  champion  of  the  popular  party.  He 
Character  of  depicts  in  glaring  colors  the  corruption  and 
Sallust's  greed  of  the  senate,  and  describes  in  glowing 
works.  terms  the  successes  and  virtues  of  the  popu- 

lar hero  Marius.  At  times  his  political  bias  leads  him 
even  to  distort  the  truth,  though  the  distortion  is  not  so 
great  as  to  deprive  his  works  of  historical  value.  He  is 
not  content  to  state  the  bare  facts  of  history,  but  exerts 


90  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

himself  to  depict  the  sentiments  and  motives  underlying 
the  actions  of  the  chief  persons  about  whom  he  writes, 
and  even  of  mankind  in  general.  He  prefaces  his  nar- 
rative with  introductions  of  a  philosophical  nature,  some- 
times not  strictly  relevant  to  the  subject  in  hand.  His 
style  is  rhetorical  and  piquant,  and  he  uses  many  archaic 
words,  chosen  in  great  part  from  Cato's  works.  He 
evidently  imitates  the  style  of  Thucydides,  and,  like 
him,  he  introduces  speeches  and  letters  composed  to 
suit  the  occasion  on  which  they  are  supposed  to  have 
been  delivered  or  written.  These  peculiarities  give  his 
works  the  interest  of  individuality,  and  have  caused  them 
to  be  much  admired,  and  also  severely  criticised,  in  an- 
cient and  modern  times.  Some  of  the  qualities  of  Sallust's 
writing  may  appear  in  translations  of  a  few  brief  extracts. 
The  opening  words  of  the  Catiline  are  as  follows : 

All  men,  who  desire  to  excel  the  other  animals,  ought  to  strive 
with  all  their  power  not  to  pass  their  lives  in  silence,  like  the 
cattle  which  nature  has  made  prone  and  obedient  to  their  appetite. 
But  all  our  power  is  situated  in  the  spirit  and  the  body ;  our  spirit 
is  more  for  command,  our  body  for  obedience ;  the  one  we  have  in 
common  with  the  gods,  the  other  with  the  beasts;  wherefore  it 
seems  to  me  more  fitting  to  seek  glory  by  the  resources  of  the 
mind  than  by  physical  strength,  and,  since  the  life  which  we 
enjoy  is  itself  brief,  to  make  the  memory  of  us  as  lasting  as 
possible.1 

His  account  of  the  terror  at  Rome  when  the  greatness 
of  the  danger  from  the  conspiracy  of  Catiline  became 
known,  shows  his  power  of  vivid  description : 

By  these  things  the  state  was  deeply  moved  and  the  face  of 
the  city  was  changed.  From  the  greatest  gaiety  and  wantonness, 
which  long  peace  had  brought  forth,  suddenly  utter  sadness  came 
in ;  people  hurried,  ran  trembling  about,  had  no  confidence  in  any 
place  or  man,  neither  waged  war,  nor  were  at  peace;  each  one 
measured  the  danger  by  his  own  fear.2 

1  Catiline,  1.  2  Ibid.,  31. 


CORNELIUS  NEPOS  91 

The  beginning  of  the  speech  of  Marius  to  the  Romans 
exhibits  Sallust's  rhetorical  style,  his  liking  for  antitheses 
and  for  descriptive  epithets  : 

I  know,  Quirites,  that  not  by  the  same  conduct  do  most  men 
seek  power  from  you  and  use  it  after  they  have  obtained  it,  that 
at  first  they  are  industrious,  humble,  and  moderate,  but  afterward 
pass  their  lives  in  sloth  and  haughtiness.  But  to  me  the  opposite 
seems  right,  for  by  as  much  as  the  entire  state  is  more  impor- 
tant than  the  consulship  or  the  prsetorship,  with  so  much  greater 
care  ought  the  former  to  be  administered  than  these  latter  to 
be  sought.  Nor  am  I  ignorant  how  much  trouble  I  am  taking 
upon  myself  at  the  same  time  with  the  greatest  honor  from  you. 
To  make  ready  for  war,  and  at  the  same  time  spare  the  treasury, 
to  force  to  military  service  those  whom  one  does  not  wish  to 
offend,  to  care  for  everything  at  home  and  abroad,  and  to  do  this 
among  envious,  opposing,  seditious  men,  is  harder,  Quirites,  than 
you  think. 

Artificial  though  the  style  of  Sallust  is,  it  is  interest- 
ing, lively,  often  concise  and  vivid.  It  had  no  little  influ- 
ence upon  the  style  of  subsequent  writers,  especially 
upon  that  of  Tacitus,  the  greatest  of  Roman  historians. 
We  must  remember,  too,  that  the  Catiline  and  the  Jugur- 
tha  were  of  much  less  importance  than  the  lost  Histories. 
In  this  greater  and  more  mature  work  Sallust  may  have 
avoided  some  of  the  faults  of  style  that  appear  in  the 
extant  treatises. 

A  much  less  interesting  writer  than  Sallust  is  Corne- 
lius Nepos.  Like  Catullus  and  several  other  authors  of 
this  period,  he  came  to  Rome  from  the  north. 
His  kirtnplace  was  probably  Ticinum,  on  the 
river  Po.  Little  is  known  of  his  life,  which 
appears  to  have  extended  from  a  little  before  100  B.  c.  to 
a  little  after  30  B.  c.  He  was  a  friend  of  Catullus  and  of 
Cicero's  friend  Atticus,  probably  also  of  other  literary 
men  at  Rome.  His  works  were  all,  with  the  exception 
of  some  love  poems,  historical  and  biographical.  The 
Chronica,  in  three  books,  treating  of  universal  history. 


92  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

was  probably  written  before  52  B.  c.  The  Exempla^  in 
five  books,  was  a  history  of  Eoman  manners  and  customs. 
Three  other  works  were  a  Life  of  Cato  (the  elder),  a  Life 
of  Cicero,  and  a  treatise  on  geography.  His  latest  work, 
published  apparently  between  35  and  33  B.  c.,  was  a  great 
collection  of  biographies  of  distinguished  men  (De  Viris 
Illustribus),  dedicated  to  Atticus.  An  addition  to  the 
life  of  Atticus  was  made  between  31  and  27  B.  C.  This 
work  contained  at  least  sixteen  books,  and  was  divided 
into  sections  of  two  books  each,  so  that  each  section  con- 
tained one  book  on  Romans  and  one  on  foreigners.  The 
sections  treated  of  Kings,  Generals,  Statesmen,  Orators, 
Poets,  Philosophers,  Historians,  and  Grammarians. 

Of  all  the  works  of  Nepos,  there  remain  to  us  only  the 
book  on  foreign  generals,  and  from  the  book  on  Eoman 
Qualities  of  historians  the  lives  of  Cato  the  elder  and  of 
the  works  of  Atticus,  besides  fragments  of  the  letters  of 
Nepos.  Cornelia,  mother  of  the  Gracchi.  The  book 

on  foreign  generals  contains  biographies  of  twenty  Greek 
generals,  a  brief  sketch  of  kings  who  were  also  gen- 
erals, and  biographies  of  Hamilcar  and  Hannibal.  Nepos 
draws  his  facts  from  good  sources,  such  as  Thucydides, 
Xenophon,  Theopompus,  Polybius,  and  the  writings  of 
Hannibal,  but  is  careless  and  uncritical,  and  does  not 
employ  all  the  important  sources  of  information  on  each 
subject.  He  makes  mistakes  in  matters  of  history  and 
geography,  arranges  his  material  badly,  and  gives  to 
trivial  anecdotes  the  space  that  might  better  have  been 
devoted  to  more  important  matters.  His  style,  though 
generally  clear,  is  without  elegance.  The  structure  of 
his  sentences  is  simple,  and  his  subject-matter  is  interest- 
ing. For  these  reasons,  rather  than  on  account  of  any 
literary  merit,  his  Lives  have  been  much  used  as  a  text- 
book for  beginners  in  Latin. 

One  of  the  most  productive  and  learned  writers  of  the 
age  of  Cicero  was  Marcus  Terentius  Varro,  who  was  born 


VAREO  93 

in  116  B.  c.  at  Keate,  in  the  Sabine  country.  He  studied 
at  Kome  under  Lucius  ^Elius  Stilo,  and  at  Athens  un- 
der Antiochus  of  Ascalon.  In  76  B.  c.  he 
was  in  the  army  in  Spain,  in  67  B.  c.  he  dis- 
tinguished himself  in  the  war  against  the  pirates.  Per- 
haps he  continued  to  serve  under  Pompey  in  the  war 
with  Mithridates.  In  the  civil  war  he  was  on  the  side 
of  Pompey,  and  was  forced  to  surrender  to  Caesar  the 
legion  under  his  command.  He  was  afterward  in  Epirus, 
at  Corcyra,  and  at  Dyrrhachium.  After  Caesar's  victory, 
Varro  accepted  the  new  government  and  was  placed  in 
charge  of  the  public  libraries,  He  was  proscribed  by 
Antony  after  Caesar's  death,  but  his  life  was  saved 
through  the  devotion  of  his  friends,  and  he  spent  his 
remaining  years  in  peace,  continuing  his  literary  activity 
until  the  end.  He  died  in  his  ninetieth  year,  27  B.  c. 

Varro's  works  were  many  and  varied.  Some  seventy- 
four  titles  are  known,  and  the  total  number  of  single 
books  amounted  to  about  six  hundred  and 
twenty.  These  included  poems,  works  on 
grammar,  history,  geography,  law,  rhetoric, 
philosophy,  mathematics,  literary  history  and  education, 
miscellaneous  essays,  orations,  and  letters.  Of  all  these 
there  remain  one  complete  work,  On  Agriculture  (De  Re 
Rustica),  in  three  books,  six  (v-x)  of  the  original  twenty- 
five  books  of  the  treatise  On  the  Latin  Language  (De 
Lingua  Latino),  numerous  short  fragments  of  the  Menip- 
pean  Satires  (SaturcB  Menippece),  and  a  few  fragments  of 
some  of  the  other  works.  The  collection  of  maxims  that 
passes  under  Varro's  name  is  probably  spurious. 
Varro's  The  Menippean  Satires  were  written  in 

extant  prose  interspersed  with  verses,  in  imitation 

works.  Of  the  works  of  the  Cynic  Menippus,  who 

lived  about  300  B.  c.,  and  probably  belong  to  Varro's 
earlier  years.  They  treat  of  almost  all  the  relations 
of  human  life  in  a  satirical  vein.  The  extant  verses 


94  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

show  some  ability  in  metrical  composition  and  no  little 
humor.  It  is  evident,  however,  that  Varro  was  not  a 
great  poet,  and  the  loss  of  his  other  poems  is  little  to  be 
regretted.  The  three  books  On  Agriculture  give,  in  the 
form  of  a  dialogue,  a  systematic  treatment  of  agriculture 
proper,  of  stock-raising,  and  of  poultry,  game,  and  fish. 
The  dialogue  is  stiff,  and  the  arrangement  of  the  different 
parts  of  the  subject  artificial.  The  work  is  valuable  for 
the  information  it  contains,  but  its  literary  form  is  unat- 
tractive. The  extant  books  of  the  treatise  On  the  Latin 
Language  are  chiefly  concerned  with  the  derivation  of 
words  and  with  inflections.  Syntax  was  treated  in  books 
xiv-xxv.  Varro's  etymologies  are  often  incorrect,  and  his 
ideas  concerning  inflections  unscientific ;  but  the  work 
contains  much  that  is  of  value  to  the  student  of  the  Latin 
language  and  of  Eoman  antiquities.  The  style  is  dry  and 
often  dull.  In  fact,  this  is  hardly  a  work  of  literature, 
but  rather  a  technical  treatise.  Varro  was  a  man  of  great 
learning  and  prodigious  industry,  but  not  a  literary  artist. 
The  Among  his  lost  works  the  most  important 

Antiquitates  were  probably  the  Human  and  Divine  Anti- 
and  the  quities  (Antiquitates  Rerum  Divinarum  Hu- 

Imagmes.  manarumque),  in  forty-one  books,  and  the  Por- 
traits (Hebdomades,  or  Imagines),  in  fifteen  books.  The 
latter  work  contained  brief  accounts  in  prose  and  verse  of 
seven  hundred  famous  Greeks  and  Komans,  with  their 
portraits.  Varro's  works  were  vast  treasure-houses  of  in- 
formation, but  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  they 
possessed  any  great  literary  qualities. 

The  remaining  prose  writers  of  this  period  may  be 

passed  over  with  a  brief  mention.     Many  of  them  are 

little  more  than  names  to  us,  and  the  works 

of  all  are  lost.     One  of  the  most  interesting 

is  Titus  Pomponius  Atticus  (109-32  B.  c.),  whose  biography 

was  written  by  Cornelius  Nepos.     He  was  a  wealthy  man, 

who  abstained  from  public  life  and  devoted  himself  to 


MINOR  PROSE  WRITERS  95 

literature  by  publishing  the  works  of  others  and  giving 
friendly  aid  to  literary  men  as  well  as  by  writing.  His 
friendship  with  Cicero  has  already  been  mentioned.  His 
works  were  historical,  the  most  important  being  the 
Annals  (Liber  Annalis),  a  chronological  sketch  of  Roman 
history  from  the  foundation  of  the  city  to  the  year  49  B,  c. 
His  other  works  were  biographies  or  genealogies,  and  de- 
scriptive verses  written  to  accompany  portraits  of  dis- 
tinguished men. 

The  orator  Quintus  Hortensius  Hortalus  (114-50  B.  c.) 
is  chiefly  known  through  Cicero.  He  was  the  advocate 
of  Verres  when  Cicero  conducted  the  prose- 
orators  cution,  he  spoke  against  the  Manilian  Law, 
which  Cicero  supported,  and  in  several  suits 
he  was  engaged  by  the  same  client  who  secured  Cicero's 
services.  Hortensius  was  the  chief  representative  of  the 
florid  and  ornamental  "  Asian  "  style  of  oratory  at  Rome. 
Among  the  orators  who  adopted  the  simple  Attic  style, 
the  most  important  were  Marcus  Calidius,  who  was  prae- 
tor in  57  B.  c.  and  died  in  47  B.  c. ;  Gaius  Licinius  Calvus 
(87-47  B.  c.),  who  has  been  mentioned  above  (page  62)  as 
a  poet ;  Marcus  Junius  Brutus,  the  leader  of  the  conspira- 
tors who  murdered  Caesar ;  and  Quintus  Cornificius,  who 
was  also  a  poet  (see  page  64). 

Quintus  Tullius  Cicero  (102-43  B.  c.),  the  brother  of 

Marcus,  was  also  a  literary  man,  though  far  inferior  to  his 

brother.     When  he  was  Caesar's  lieutenant  in 

Gau1' in  54  B<  Ct>  he  wrote  several  tragedies, 
apparently  translations  from  the  Greek,  and 
he  was  also  the  author  of  annals  and  of  an  epic  poem  on 
Caesar's  expedition  to  Britain.  The  only  writings  of 
Quintus  Cicero  now  existing  are  three  letters  to  Tiro  and 
one  to  Marcus  Cicero,  besides  an  Essay  on  Candidature  for 
the  Consulship,  in  the  form  of  a  letter  to  Marcus,  written 
when  he  was  a  candidate  for  that  office  in  64  B.  c.  This  gives 
some  interesting  information  about  the  methods  of  Roman 


96  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

politicians,  but  has  little  literary  interest.  The  first  of  Mar- 
cus Cicero's  Letters  to  Quintus  is  a  similar  treatise  on  the 
government  of  a  province,  written  when  Quintus  was 
beginning  his  third  year  as  propraetor  of  Asia,  59  B.  c. 
Another  writer  closely  connected  with  Cicero 
was  his  freed  man  and  friend  Tiro,  who  wrote 
Cicero's  biography,  made  editions  of  his  speeches  and 
letters,  and  collected  his  witticisms,  besides  writing  on 
grammar  and  inventing  a  system  of  shorthand. 

The  grammatical,  theological,  and  scientific  works  of 
Publius  Nigidius  Figulus,  who  was  praetor  in  58  B.  c.,  and 
Writers  on  died  in  banishment  in  45  B.  c.,  have  little 
special  to  do  with  literature,  and  are  lost.  Nor  is 

subjects.  ^  necessary  to  devote  even  a  brief  space  to 
the  grammatical  and  rhetorical  works  of  Aurelius  Opi- 
lius,  Antonius  Gnipho,  Marcus  Pompilius  Andronicus, 
and  others,  whose  teachings  helped  to  inform  some  of  the 
great  writers  and  orators  of  the  time,  but  whose  works 
have  not  been  preserved.  A  philologist,  historian,  and 
poet,  whose  writings  were  considered  important,  was 
Santra,  who  seems  to  have  been  somewhat  younger  than 
Varro,  but  we  are  now  unable  to  determine  wherein  their 
importance  consisted.  Among  the  jurists  of  this  period 
the  most  distinguished  was  Servius  Sulpicius  Eufus,  two 
letters  from  whom  are  preserved  in  Cicero's  correspond- 
ence (Ad  Familiar  es,  iv,  5,  and  iv,  12).  These  give  a  high 
idea  of  his  style,  but  are  the  only  remains  of  his  writings. 
All  branches  of  knowledge,  so  far  as  they  existed  at  that 
time,  were  treated  by  various  writers,  but  a  discussion  of 
their  lost  works  has  no  place  in  a  brief  history  of  literature. 

The  last  years  of  the  republic  are  made  illustrious  by 
the  great  names  of  Lucretius,  Catullus,  Cicero,  and  Caesar. 
In  the  Augustan  age,  poetry  attained  a  still  greater  height 
of  perfection  with  Virgil  and  Horace,  but  the  age  of  Cicero 
is  the  golden  age  of  Latin  prose. 


BOOK  II 
THE  AUGUSTAN  PERIOD 


CHAPTEK  VIII 

THE  PATRONS  OF  LITERATURE-VIRGIL 

Effect  of  the  Empire  upon  literature — Augustus,  63  B.  C.-14  A.  D. 
— Agrippa,  63-12  B.  c. — Pollio,  67  B.  c.-5  A.  D. — Messalla,  64  B.  c.- 
8  A.  D.— Maecenas,  70  (f)-8  B.  c.— Virgil,  70-19  B.  c.— His  life— The 
Eclogues — The  Georgics — The  JEneid. 

WITH  the  battle  of  Actium  the  Eoman  Eepublic  came 
to  an  end.  Julius  Caesar  had,  to  be  sure,  gathered  all  the 
Effect  of  the  power  of  the  state  into  his  own  hand,  but  he 
Empire  upon  had  held  it  only  a  short  time ;  Octavius — 
literature.  after  27  B.  c.,  Augustus — held  the  full  power 
until  his  death,  and  left  it  unimpaired  to  his  successors. 
The  change  from  a  free  government,  whatever  its  corrup- 
tion and  decay,  to  what  was  really  an  unlimited  monarchy 
could  not  fail  to  have  some  influence  upon  literature. 
Henceforth  the  great  orator  might  hope  to  win  cases  in 
the  courts,  but  he  could  no  longer  change  the  policy  of 
the  nation  ;  the  historian  might  search  the  records  of  the 
past  and  describe  the  deeds  of  those  who  were  no  longer 
living,  but  if  he  wrote  of  the  history  of  his  own  times,  he 
must  have  the  fear  of  the  master  always  before  his  eyes ; 
the  poet  could  sing  of  love  and  wine  and  nature  without 
let  or  hindrance,  but  poems  of  national  and  political  im- 
portance could  hardly  be  written  except  by  those  in  sym- 
pathy with  the  empire.  The  emperor  might  exert  his 

97 


98  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

influence  to  put  down  all  literary  expression  not  agreeable 
to  him  without  encouraging  literature  of  any  kind,  or  he 
might  encourage  certain  kinds  of  literature  and  certain 
writers  without  treating  with  severity  even  those  whose 
works  displeased  him,  or  he  might  at  the  same  time  encour- 
age some  and  suppress  others.  Under  an  imperial  master 
literary  expression  could  not  be  so  free  as  in  the  days  of 
the  republic,  but  the  degree  of  restraint  at  any  time  de- 
pended upon  the  character  of  the  emperor.  It  is  due  to 
the  enlightened  liberality  of  Augustus  that  the  period  of 
his  rule  was  the  most  brilliant  epoch  of  Roman  literature. 
Augustus  (63  B.  C.-14  A.  D.)  had  received  a  careful  edu- 
cation in  his  youth,  and  had  a  genuine  and  intelligent 

admiration  for  literature.      His  own  literary 

Augustus.  ,      ,.  ,  .  ,.,;    , 

productions  comprised  an  epic  poem  entitled 

Sicily,  some  short  epigrams,  an  unfinished  tragedy  entitled 
Ajax,  orations,  memoirs,  and  letters.  Before  his  death  he 
directed  that  an  account  of  his  deeds  (Index  Rerum  Ges- 
tarum)  should  be  engraved  on  bronze  tablets  and  affixed  to 
his  tomb.  He  probably  composed  this  account  himself,  and 
the  copy  of  it  found  inscribed  upon  the  wall  of  the  temple 
of  Augustus  and  Rome  at  Ancyra  (the  Monumentum  An- 
cyranum),  containing  in  simple  and  dignified  language  the 
record  of  his  life,  his  political  measures,  and  his  military 
activity,  shows  the  good  taste  of  the  first  Roman  emperor, 
for  he  who  had  become  the  ruler  of  the  civilized  world 
was  not  led  to  praise  himself  or  speak  in  extravagant 
terms  of  any  of  his  deeds,  but  composed  the  record  of  his 
wonderful  life  in  terms  of  simplicity  so  grave  and  digni- 
fied as  to  inspire  veneration.  It  was  not,  however,  through 
his  own  compositions  but  through  his  influence  that 
Augustus  made  his  name  great  in  the  history  of  literature. 
He  encouraged  Virgil,  Horace,  and  other  poets,  he  attended 
the  recitations  of  authors  who  wished  to  bring  their  new 
works  before  an  enlightened  public,  and  he  surrounded 
himself  with  friends  who  delighted  in  aiding  and  honor- 


PATRONS  OF  LITERATURE  99 

ing  those  whose  genius  could  give  glory  to  their  patrons 
and  add  lustre  to  the  empire. 

Among  these  friends  of  literature  was  Marcus  Vipsa- 
nius  Agrippa  (63-12  B.  c.),  who  caused  the  first  map  of 

Agrippa  the  W°rld  t0  be   S6t  UP  ln  the  Porticus  Polse 

and  was  himself  the  author  of  geographical 

works.  More  important  was  Gaius  Asinius  Pollio  (67  B.  c.- 
5  A.  D.),  who  established  the  first  public  library  in  Eome. 
Pollio  His  examPle  was  followed  by  Augustus,  who 

established  two  libraries,  one  in  the  porch  of 
Octavia,  the  other  in  the  temple  of  the  Palatine  Apollo, 
under  the  care  of  the  learned  Varro.  Pollio  was  a  soldier, 
statesman,  and  orator,  but  also  wrote  tragedies  and  a  history 
of  the  years  60-42  B.  c.,  in  which  he  criticized  boldly  the 
statements  of  Julius  Caesar,  the  adoptive  father  of  Augus- 
tus. Pollio  was  the  first  to  hold  and  encourage  public 
and  private  recitations  of  new  literary  works.  Less  closely 
connected  with  the  emperor  was  Marcus  Valerius  Messalla 

Messalla          (64  B*  C'~8  A'  D<)'  who  had  original]y  been  a 
partizan  of  Brutus,  but  had  made  his  peace 
with  Augustus.     He  was,  like  Pollio,  an  orator,  but  occu- 
pied himself  also  with  antiquarian  -  and  grammatical  re- 
searches, and  in  his  earlier  years  made  translations  from 
the  Greek  and  wrote  Greek  prose  and  verse.     His  house 
was  a  gathering  place  for  the  younger  poets  of  the  period. 
But  of  all  the  patrons  of  literature  under  Augustus, 
the  most  distinguished  was  Gaius  Maecenas,  the  friend  of 
Augustus,  of  Virgil,  and  of  Horace.     He  was 
born  about  70  B.  c.,  and  died  in  8  B.  c.   A  mem- 
ber of  an  ancient  and  noble  Etruscan  family,  he  had  been 
carefully  educated,  and  developed  the  most  refined  liter- 
ary taste.     His  attractive  and  winning  personality  made 
him  of  great  service  to  Octavius  in  his  negotiations  with 
Antony  and  Sextus  Pompey,  and  after  the  power  of  Au- 
gustus was  established  Maecenas  was  the  close  friend  and 
constant  adviser  of  the  emperor.     In  spite  of  his  fine  liter- 


100  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

ary  taste,  he  was  without  talent  as  a  writer,  and  his  works, 
both  prose  and  verse,  were  severely  criticized  by  his  con- 
temporaries and  by  later  readers.  It  is  little  to  be  regretted 
that  his  writings,  like  those  of  the  other  patrons  of  litera- 
ture who  have  been  mentioned,  are  lost.  And  yet  the 
name  of  Maecenas  will  always  occupy  an  honored  place  in 
the  history  of  literature,  for  it  was  he  who  made  possible 
the  poems  of  Virgil  and  Horace. 

The  greatest  of  Eoman  poets  is  Virgil.  Publius  Ver- 
gilius  Maro  was  born  of  humble  parents,  at  Andes,  a 
village  in  the  territory  of  Mantua,  October 
15,  70  B.  c.  His  parents  can  not  have  been 
poor,  for  they  gave  him  a  good  education,  first  at  Cremona, 
then  at  Milan,  and  later  at  Eome.  He  was  trained  chiefly 
in  rhetoric  and  philosophy,  but  the  only  teacher  whose  in- 
fluence seems  to  have  been  lasting  was  the  Epicurean 
philosopher  Siro.  For  oratory  Virgil  developed  no  taste. 
After  the  battle  of  Philippi  (42  B.  c.)  the  triumvirs  recom- 
pensed their  veterans  by  a  distribution  of  farm  lands, 
and  Virgil's  farm  was  given  to  a  new  owner.  At  that 
time  Asinius  Pollio,  who  had  admired  Virgil's  poetry  and 
had  encouraged  him  to  write  the  Bucolics  or  Eclogues, 
was  governor  of  the  region  beyond  the  Po,  and  through 
his  influence  the  poet  was  reinstated  in  his  property.  But 
in  the  following  summer  a  new  distribution  of  lands  was 
made,  and  Pollio  was  no  longer  governor  of  the  province. 
Virgil  was  dispossessed,  and  had  to  take  refuge  at  the  villa 
of  his  teacher  Siro.  Through  the  influence  of  Cornelius 
Gallus  and  Maecenas,  Augustus  was  led  to  recompense  the 
poet  for  his  loss,  and  from  this  time  Virgil  was  in  close  rela- 
tions to  the  imperial  circle.  Hereafter  he  lived  at  Rome  and 
on  an  estate  near  Naples,  which  he  received  from  Augustus. 
In  37  or  36  B.  c.  and  the  following  years  he  wrote  the 
Georgics  in  honor  of  Maecenas,  and  the  jffineid,  written  at 
the  request  of  Augustus,  was  begun  in  29  B.  c.  When  the 
poem  was  finished  and  the  poet  had  reached  his  fifty- 


VIRGIL 

first  year,  he  went  to  Athens,  in  tending  *^ 
years  to  the  final  revision  of  his  work,  and  then  to  give  him- 
self up  to  the  study  of  philosophy.  But  at  Athens  he  met 
with  Augustus,  who  was  on  the  point  of  returning  to  Rome 
from  the  East  and  invited  him  to  join  the  imperial  party. 
Virgil  was  already  ill  from  exposure  to  the  heat  during  a 
visit  to  Megara,  but  accepted  the  invitation.  On  the  voy- 
age his  illness  increased,  and  a  few  days  after  his  arrival  at 
Brundusium  he  died,  September  21, 19  B.  c.  He  was  buried 
at  Naples,  where  he  had  passed  most  of  his  later  years. 

Virgil's  undisputed  works  are  three :  the  Eclogues, 
called,  on  account  of  their  pastoral  nature,  the  Bucolics ; 
the  Georgics ;  and  the  ^Eneid.  The  Eclogues  are  a  series 
of  ten  idylls  in  imitation  of  the  poems  of  the  Greek  poet 
Theocritus.  The  Greek  word  "  idyll "  means  "  little  pic- 
ture," and  since  all  Virgil's  idylls,  except  the  fourth,  and 
most  of  those  of  Theocritus,  depict  the  life  of  herdsmen 
in  the  country,  the  word  is  generally  applied  to  pastoral 
poems.  Virgil's  Eclogues  are  little  pictures  of  pastoral 
life,  but  contain  many  allusions  to  the  poet's 
Works'8  own  circums^ances  and  to  his  friends  and 

patrons,  Pollio,  Gallus,  Varus,  Maecenas,  and 

?\e  Augustus.     Pastoral  poems,  written  for  the 

Eclogues.  .          .  . 

cultivated  circle   of  an  imperial   court,  are 

necessarily  artificial,  and  to  this  rule  the  Eclogues  are  no 
exception.  Yet  the  charm  of  their  diction,  the  polish  of 
their  verse,  the  genuine  love  of  nature  and  appreciation  of 
rural  life  which  they  display,  have  given  these  poems  a 
well-deserved  place  among  the  most  famous  productions 
of  Roman  literature.  In  the  Eclogues  Virgil  is,  even  more 
than  in  his  other  poems,  dependent  on  Greek  originals. 
Not  only  scattered  lines,  but  whole  passages  are  almost 
literal  translations  from  the  idylls  of  Theocritus,  and  less 
noticeable  adaptations  from  other  poets  also  occur.  Some- 
times Virgil's  version  is  less  beautiful  than  the  original 
poem  from  which  he  borrows,  and  some  of  the  most 

S- 


ROMAN  LITERATURE 


.  .ajifnired  passages  are  not  his  own  inventions  ;  but  even  in 
the  Eclogues,  the  earliest  of  his  authentic  works,  written 
when  he  was  about  thirty  years  of  age,  amid  the  distress 
that  accompanied  his  ejection  from  his  little  property, 
Virgil  succeeds  in  making  from  his  Greek  originals  new 
and  great  poems  of  genuinely  Roman  character.  From 
first  to  last  Virgil  is  a  national  poet. 

The  poem  which  stands  first  in  the  series,  but  which 
was  not  the  first  in  order  of  composition,  has  the  form  of 
a  dialogue  between  two  herdsmen,  Meliboeus  and  Tityrus. 
In  it  the  poet  expresses  his  gratitude  to  Augustus,  whom 
he  calls  a  god.  The  poem  begins  : 

Melibcsus.  Stretched  in  the  shadow  of  the  broad  beech,  thou 
Rehearsest,  Tityrus,  on  the  slender  pipe 
Thy  woodland  music.     We  our  fatherland 
Are  leaving,  we  must  shun  the  fields  we  love  : 
While,  Tityrus,  thou,  at  ease  amid  the  shade, 
Bidd'st  answering  woods  call  Amaryllis  "fair." 

Tityrus.  O  Meliboeus  !  'tis  a  god  that  made 
For  me  this  holiday  :  for  a  god  I'll  aye 
Account  him  ;  many  a  young  lamb  from  my  fold 
Shall  stain  his  altar.     Thanks  to  him,  my  kine 
Range  as  thou  seest  them  :  thanks  to  him,  I  play 
What  songs  I  list  upon  my  shepherd's  pipe.1 

In  the  dialogue  that  follows,  Tityrus,  who  represents 
Virgil  himself,  speaks  of  his  visit  to  Rome  and  his  meet- 
ing with  Augustus  : 

There,  Melibceus,  I  beheld  that  youth 

For  whom  each  year  twelve  days  my  altars  smoke. 

Thus  answered  he  my  yet  unanswered  prayer, 

"Feed  still,  my  lads,  your  kine,  and  yoke  your  bulls."3 

The  fourth  Eclogue,  addressed  to  Pollio,  and  written  in 
the  year  of  his  consulship  (40  B.  c.),  celebrates  in  pro- 

1  Eel.  i,  1-10.    The  selections  from  the  Eclogues  are  given  in  the 
translation  by  C.  S.  Calverley.  2  Ibid.,  42-45. 


VIRGIL  103 

phetic  and  lofty  language  the  birth  of  a  child.  As  the 
child  grows  the  world  is  to  become  better,  until  the  golden 
age  of  peace  and  good-will  among  men  shall  come  again. 
This  poem  was,  curiously  enough,  long  supposed  to  be  an 
inspired  prophecy  of  the  coming  of  Christ.  Who  the  child 
really  was  is  uncertain,  but  there  is  some  evidence  that 
Gaius  Asinius  Gallus,  Pollio's  son,  is  meant.  The  lofty 
tone  is  struck  with  the  very  opening  of  the  poem : 

Muses  of  Sicily,  a  loftier  song 

Wake  we !     Some  tire  of  shrubs  and  myrtles  low. 

Are  woods  our  theme  ?     Then  princely  be  the  woods. 

Come  are  those  last  days  that  the  Sibyl  sang ; 

The  ages'  mighty  march  begins  anew. 

Now  comes  the  virgin,  Saturn  reigns  again ; 

Now  from  high  heaven  descends  a  wondrous  race. 

Thou  on  the  new-born  babe — who  first  shall  end 

That  age  of  iron,  bid  a  golden  dawn 

Upon  the  broad  world — chaste  Lucina,  smile : 

Now  thy  Apollo  reigns.     And  Pollio,  thou 

Shalt  be  our  Prince,  when  he  that  grander  age 

Opens,  and  onward  roll  the  mighty  moons : 

Thou,  trampling  out  what  prints  our  crimes  have  left, 

Shalt  free  the  nations  from  perpetual  fear. 

While  he  to  bliss  shall  waken ;  with  the  Blest 

See  the  Brave  mingling,  and  be  seen  of  them, 

Ruling  that  world  o'er  which  his  father's  arm  shed  peace.1 

But  the  atmosphere  of  the  Eclogues  is  generally  that 
of  the  country,  and  the  form  that  of  dialogue,  with  com- 
petitive songs  by  the  herdsmen.  The  opening  lines  of  the 
fifth  Eclogue  may  serve  as  an  example.  The  characters 
are  Menalcas  and  Mopsus  : 

Men.  Mopsus,  suppose  now  two  good  men  have  met — 
You  at  flute-blowing,  as  at  verses  I — 
We  sit  down  here,  where  elm  and  hazel  mix. 

1  Eel  iv,  1-17. 


104  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

Mop.  Menalcas,  meet  it  is  that  I  obey 
Mine  elder.     Lead,  or  into  shade — that  shifts 
At  the  wind's  fancy — or  (mayhap  the  best) 
Into  some  cave.     See,  here's  a  cave,  o'er  which 
A  wild  vine  flings  her  flimsy  foliage. 

Men.  On  these  hills  one — Amyntas — vies  with  you. 

Mop.  Suppose  he  thought  to  out-sing  Phoebus'  self  ? 

Men.  Mopsus,  begin.     If  aught  you  know  of  flames 
That  Phyllis  kindles,  aught  of  Alcon's  worth, 
Or  Codrus'  ill-temper,  then  begin ; 
Tityrus  meanwhile  will  watch  the  grazing  kids. 

Mop.  Ay,  I  will  sing  the  song  which  t'other  day 
On  a  green  beech's  bark  I  cut ;  and  scored 
The  music  as  I  wrote.     Hear  that,  and  bid 
Amyntas  vie  with  me. 

Men.  As  willow  lithe 

Yields  to  pale  olive ;  as  to  crimson  beds 
Of  roses  yields  the  lowly  lavender, 
So,  to  my  mind,  Amyntas  yields  to  you.1 

The  Eclogues  were  published  not  later  than  38  B.  c. 
In  29  B.  c.  the  four  books  of  the  Georgics  were  completed. 

One  of  the  most  important  tasks  of  the  new 
The  Georgios,  .    . 

government,  now  that  the  civil  strife  was 

ended,  was  to  ensure  the  continuance  of  tranquility  by 
settling  the  veterans  in  the  country  and  encouraging  agri- 
culture, which  had  been  sadly  neglected  in  Italy  for  many 
years.  It  was  therefore  with  a  practical  end  in  view  that 
Maecenas  suggested  to  Virgil  the  composition  of  a  poem 
on  agriculture.  This  was  a  subject  which  Virgil  was  espe- 
cially qualified  to  treat  with  success,  and  the  poem,  to 
which  he  devoted  seven  years,  is  the  most  perfect  of  his 
works.  It  is  a  very  free  imitation  of  the  Works  and  Days 
of  Hesiod,  and  contains  many  passages  derived  from  Ara- 
tus  and  other  Greek  poets,  but  in  its  composition  and  its 
poetic  beauty  it  is  independent  of  all  but  Virgil's  own 
genius.  It  is  dedicated  to  Maecenas.  The  first  book  treats 

1  Ed.  v,  1-18. 


VIRGIL  105 

of  the  tilling  of  the  soil,  the  beginning  of  agriculture,  the 
instruments  needed  by  the  farmer,  the  tasks  appropriate 
to  the  different  seasons,  and  the  signs  of  the  weather,  end- 
ing with  a  splendid  passage  describing  the  portents  at  the 
time  of  Caesar's  death,  and  a  prayer  that  Augustus  may 
put  an  end  to  the  wars  and  disorders  of  the  times.  This 
passage  is  closely  connected  with  the  preceding  lines  in 
which  the  signs  of  the  weather  given  by  the  appearance  of 
the  sun  are  described.  It  begins  : 

And  last,  what  evening  brings,  and  when  the  wind 

Bears  placid  clouds,  and  also  with  what  thoughts 

The  wet  south  wind  is  moved,  of  all  these  things 

The  sun  will  give  thee  signs.     Who  dares  to  say 

The  sun  is  false  ?     He  even  warns  ofttimes 

That  strife  unseen  and  treason  are  at  hand 

And  hidden  wars  are  swelling  to  break  forth. 

He  even,  pitying  Rome  for  Caesar's  fall, 

In  pitchy  darkness  veiled  his  shining  head; 

The  impious  age  feared  endless  night.     Yet  then 

Earth  also  and  the  waters  of  the  sea 

And  obscene  dogs  and  evil-omened  birds 

Gave  signs.     How  often  did  we  see  boil  forth 

From  bursting  furnace  of  the  Cyclopes 

The  waves  of  ^Etna  o'er  the  fertile  fields 

And  roll  her  balls  of  flame  and  molten  rocks ! 

Germania  heard  through  all  the  sky  the  sound 

Of  arms ;  the  Alps  with  unused  tremblings  shook. 

Then,  too,  by  many  through  the  silent  groves 

A  mighty  voice  was  heard,  and  pallid  forms 

In  wondrous  wise  appeared  in  dusky  night, 

And  dumb  beasts  spake  (oh,  horror!),  and  the  streams 

Stood  still,  and  earth  yawned  open,  and  the  sad 

Carved  ivory  wept  within  the  sacred  fanes, 

And  sweat  poured  forth  from  statues  wrought  of  bronze. 

Eridanus,  the  king  of  rivers,  rushed 

Whirling  the  woods  along  on  eddies  mad, 

And  through  the  fields  bore  stables  with  the  herds.1 

1  Georgics,  i,  461-483. 


106  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

The  second  book  treats  of  the  culture  of  trees  and  of 
the  vine,  and  includes  a  description  of  the  properties  of 
different  kinds  of  soil.  Among  its  beautiful  passages  one 
is  the  praise  of  Italy,1  another  the  description  of  the  bless- 
ings of  the  farmer's  life,  beginning — 

0  blessed  farmers,  if  they  only  might 

Their  blessings  know !     For  whom  the  bounteous  earth 
Herself,  afar  from  strife  of  clashing  arms, 
Pours  forth  an  easy  livelihood.* 

The  third  book  is  devoted  to  the  care  of  horses  and 
cattle.  A  beautiful  passage,  near  the  beginning  of  the 
book,  expresses  the  poet's  love  for  his  native  Mantua  and 
his  homage  to  Augustus.  The  first  lines  of  this  passage 
are  as  follows : 

1  first,  if  life  be  granted,  coming  back, 
Will  lead  the  Muses  from  Aonian  heights 
To  my  own  land ;  I  first  will  bring  to  thee, 
My  Mantua,  Idumaean  palms,  and  in 

Thy  verdant  mead  will  build  a  marble  fane 
Beside  the  water,  where  the  mighty  stream 
Of  Mincius  wanders  slow  with  winding  curves 
And  clothes  with  tender  reeds  the  river  banks. 
There  in  the  midst  for  me  shall  Caesar  stand 
And  hold  the  temple.     Then  to  him  will  I 
As  victor,  clad  in  Tyrian  purple  garb, 
Drive  to  the  stream  a  hundred  four-horse  cars.3 

The  fourth  book  treats  of  the  culture  of  bees.  It  con- 
tains several  passages  of  singular  beauty,  one  of  the  most 
striking  of  which  is  the  description  of  the  life  of  the  hive.4 
The  poem  ends  with  an  epic  description  of  the  visit  of 
Aristaeus,  the  mythical  founder  of  bee  culture,  to  his 
mother,  the  sea-nymph  Gyrene.  This  includes  an  account 
of  the  struggle  of  Aristaeus  with  the  sea-god  Proteus  and 

1  Georgics,  ii,  136  ff.  2  Ibid.,  ii,  458-460. 

8  Ibid.,  iii,  9-18.  4  Ibid.,  iv,  149  ff. 


VIRGIL  107 

the  death  of  Eurydice,  the  wife  of  Orpheus.  A  tradition  ex- 
ists that  the  poem  originally  ended  with  a  passage  in  praise 
of  Gallus ;  but  before  its  publication  Gallus  had  died  in 
disgrace,  and  the  present  ending  was  substituted.  In  its 
final  form  the  close  of  the  Georgics  shows  that  Virgil  was 
already  tending  to  become  an  epic  poet. 

At  the  request  of  Augustus,  Virgil  began,  in  29  B.  c., 
the  composition  of  his  greatest  work,  the  JEneid,  in  which 
he  tells  of  the  mythical  origin  of  the  Roman  race  and  of 
the  greatness  and  glory  of  the  Eome  that  was  to  arise  and 
reach  its  height  under  the  leadership  of  the  Julian  family, 
which  claimed  direct  descent  from  ^Eneas.  As  early  as 

the  sixth  century  B.  c.  the  Sicilian  poet  Stesi- 
The  JEneid.  .  Ai  •          /"£ 

chorus  had  sung  of  the  coming  of  ^Eneas  to 

Italy.  Naevius  and  Ennius  had  connected  JEneas  with  the 
origin  of  Rome,  and  had  fixed  some  of  the  details  of  the 
story.  Upon  the  foundations  thus  prepared  for  him  Vir- 
gil erected  the  splendid  structure  of  his  poem.  In  the 
Eclogues  he  had  followed,  closely  for  the  most  part,  in  the 
footsteps  of  Theocritus ;  the  Works  and  Days  of  Hesiod 
had  served  as  the  prototype  of  the  Georgics,  though  here 
Virgil  was  so  far  from  slavish  imitation  that  his  work 
surpasses  the  Works  and  Days  in  every  respect.  In  the 
jffineid  the  imitation  of  Homer's  iliad  and  Odyssey  is  con- 
stantly evident,  and  certain  passages  are  clearly  derived 
froni  Euripides,  Sophocles,  and  Apollonius  of  Rhodes ;  but 
the  jffineid  is  by  no  means  a  mere  imitation.  In  some 
respects  it  is  far  inferior  to  the  Homeric  poems.  It  lacks 
their  simplicity,  their  rapidity  of  movement,  and  their 
fresh  joyousness  ;  it  can  not  be  compared  with  them  in  nar- 
rative power  or  brilliancy  of  imagery.  In  these  qualities 
Homer  is  unapproachable.  But  as  a  national  epic,  as  the 
expression  in  prophetic  form  of  the  national  greatness  and 
of  the  poet's  deep-seated  passion  for  his  country's  glory 
the  ^Eneid  had  no  prototype,  as  it  has  had  no  successor. 
Virgil  is  not  Homer ;  he  is  reflective,  filled  with  the  deep 


108  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

thoughts  that  centuries  of  speculation  had  implanted  in 
the  serious  minds  of  his  age ;  and  his  great  poem  is  more 
than  a  mere  narrative.  In  execution  the  ^Eneid  is  un- 
even. At  times  it  is  polished  to  the  highest  degree,  at 
other  times  it  falls  to  a  level  hardly,  if  at  all,  above 
mediocrity ;  some  passages  breathe  a  poetic  fervor  unsur- 
passed, while  others  might  almost  as  well  be  written  in 
prose.  So  conscious  was  Virgil  himself  of  the  uneven- 
ness  and  imperfections  of  his  work  that  he  wished  it  to  be 
burned  after  his  death,  and  could  hardly  be  persuaded  to 
leave  its  fate  in  the  hands  of  his  friends.  His  death  came 
before  he  had  perfected  the  poem,  and  its  most  perfect 
parts  show  what  he  wished  it  all  to  be  and  what  it  might 
have  become  had  his  life  been  spared.  Even  though  it  lacks 
the  master's  final  revision,  it  remains  the  greatest  poem  of 
Eoman  times  and  one  of  the  greatest  poems  of  all  ages. 

The  jfflmid  was  to  be  for  the  Komans  what  the  Iliad 
and  the  Odyssey  together  were  for  the  Greeks.  The  first 
six  books  are  modelled  chiefly  on  the  Odyssey.  As  the 
Odyssey  tells  of  the  wanderings  and  adven- 
°  ^ures  °^  Odysseus  before  he  reaches  his  home, 
so  these  books  of  the  ^Eneid  tell  of  the  ad- 
ventures of  ^Eneas  on  his  voyage  from  Troy  to  Italy,  and 
more  than  one  passage  shows  how  constantly  the  Odyssey 
was  in  the  poet's  mind.  The  last  six  books  tell  of  the  strug- 
gles of  ^Eneas  and  his  followers  against  the  warriors  who 
opposed  their  settlement  in  Italy ;  and  here  the  combats 
described  in  the  Iliad  are  imitated,  sometimes  even  in  de- 
tails. In  the  final  struggle  ^Eneas  is  a  second  Achilles,  and 
the  brave  but  unfortunate  Turnus  is  an  Italian  Hector. 

In  the  first  book,  after  a  brief  introduction,  the  poem 
begins  in  the  midst  of  the  story.  The  fleet  of  ^Eneas  is 
off  the  coast  of  Sicily,  when  Juno  causes  the  wind-god, 
^Eolus,  to  rouse  a  storm.  The  Trojan  vessels  are  driven 
on  the  rocks,  and  the  sea  is  stirred  to  its  lowest  depths. 
Then  Neptune,  angered  that  his  waters  are  thus  tossed 


VIRGIL  109 

about  without  his  consent,  rebukes  ^olus,  and  puts  the 
waves  to  rest  : 

He  said,  and  ere  his  words  were  done, 
Allays  the  surge,  brings  back  the  sun  : 
Triton  and  swift  Cymothoe  drag 
The  ships  from  off  the  pointed  crag  : 
He,  trident-armed,  each  dull  weight  heaves, 
Through  the  vast  shoals  a  passage  cleaves, 
Makes  smooth  the  ruffled  wave,  and  rides 
Cairn  o'er  the  surface  of  the  tides. 
As  when  sedition  oft  has  stirred 
In  some  great  town  the  vulgar  herd, 
And  brands  and  stones  already  fly  — 
For  rage  has  weapons  always  nigh  — 
Then  should  some  man  of  worth  appear 
Whose  stainless  virtue  all  revere, 
They  hush,  they  hist  :  his  clear  voice  rules 
Their  rebel  wills,  their  anger  cools  : 
So  ocean  ceased  at  once  to  rave, 
When,  calmly  looking  o'er  the  wave, 
Girt  with  a  range  of  azure  sky, 
The  father  bids  his  chariot  fly.1 

The  Trojans  reach  the  African  coast,  where  ^Eneas 
meets  his  mother,  Venus,  and  is  directed  to  the  city  of 
Carthage,  which  the  Phoenician  princess  Dido  has  just 
founded.  .^Eneas  and  his  comrade,  the  faithful  Achates, 
enter  the  city  wrapped  in  a  cloud,  'which  makes  them 
invisible.  When  they  are  revealed  to  Dido,  she  receives 
them  kindly,  and  takes  them  to  her  palace.  ^Eneas  sends 
to  the  ships  for  his  son  Ascanius,  also  called  lulus,  but 
Venus  substitutes  for  him  the  god  of  love,  Cupid,  who 
fills  Dido's  heart  with  love  for  ^Eneas.  In  the  second 
book  ^Eneas  begins  the  story  of  his  adventures  with  a 
superb  account  of  the  fall  of  Troy,  his  own  valiant  but 
ineffectual  struggle  against  the  Greeks,  and  his  final 


i,  142-156.     The  selections  from  the  ^Eneid  are  given  in 
Conington's  translation. 


110  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

flight.  In  the  third  book  he  continues  his  story  to  the 
time  of  his  arrival  at  Carthage.  The  fourth  book  is 
devoted  to  the  love  and  fate  of  Dido.  ^Eneas  and  Dido, 
with  their  followers,  go  hunting  in  the  forest;  a  storm 
arises,  and  the  two,  separated  from  the  rest,  take  refuge 
in  a  cave,  where  only  the  woodland  nymphs  witness  the 
union  of  their  loves.  Dido  looks  forward  to  a  joint  reign 
over  Trojans  and  Tyrians  alike.  But  ^Eneas  is  warned 
by  Mercury,  at  the  command  of  Jupiter,  to  fulfil  his  des- 
tiny and  sail  to  Italy.  Dido  overwhelms  him  with  loving 
reproaches,  but  in  vain ;  he  remains  steadfast  in  his  obedi- 
ence to  the  divine  will.  Then  Dido  determines  to  die. 
She  erects  a  funeral  pyre,  places  upon  it  the  mementoes  of 
her  former  husband,  Sychaeus,  and  mounts  it  to  end  her 
life.  But  before  she  dies  she  calls  down  curses  upon 
and  his  race : 

Eye  of  the  world,  majestic  Sun, 

Who  seest  whate'er  on  earth  is  done, 

Thou,  Juno,  too,  interpreter 

And  witness  of  the  heart's  fond  stir, 

And  Hecate,  tremendous  power, 

In  cross-ways  howled  at  midnight  hour, 

Avenging  fiends,  and  gods  of  death 

Who  breathe  in  dying  Dido's  breath, 

Stoop  your  great  powers  to  ills  that  plead 

To  heaven,  and  my  petition  heed. 

If  needs  must  be  that  wretch  abhorred 

Attain  the  port  and  float  to  land ; 
If  such  the  fate  of  heaven's  high  lord, 

And  so  the  moveless  pillars  stand; 
Scourged  by  a  savage  enemy, 

An  exile  from  his  son's  embrace, 
So  let  him  sue  for  aid  and  see 

His  people  slain  before  his  face ; 
Nor,  when  to  humbling  peace  at  length 

He  stoops,  be  his  or  life  or  land, 
But  let  him  fall  in  manhood's  strength 

And  welter  tombless  on  the  sand. 


VIRGIL  111 

Such  malison  to  heaven  I  pour, 

A  last  libation  with  my  gore. 

And,  Tyrians,  you  through  time  to  come 

His  seed  with  deathless  hatred  chase : 
Be  that  your  gift  to  Dido's  tomb. 

No  love,  no  league  'twixt  race  and  race. 
Rise  from  my  ashes,  scourge  of  crime, 

Born  to  pursue  the  Dardan  horde 
To-day,  to-morrow,  through  all  time, 

Oft  as  our  hands  can  wield  the  sword, 
Fight  shore  with  shore,  fight  sea  with  sea, 
Fight  all  that  are  or  e'er  shall  be ! l 

These  lines  are  the  poetic  and  mythological  justifica- 
tion for  the  long  and  disastrous  wars  between  Rome  and 
Carthage.  In  the  fifth  book  the  Trojans  reach  Sicily, 
and  celebrate  at  Eryx  funeral  games  in  honor  of  Anchises, 
the  father  of  ^Eneas,  who  had  died  there  the  year  before. 
In  the  sixth  book  they  reach  Cumae,  in  Italy.  ^Eneas 
descends  to  Hades  to  consult  with  the  shade  of  Anchises. 
Here  he  sees  the  fabled  monsters  of  the  lower  regions, 
and  the  shades  of  many  departed  heroes.  Then  there 
pass  before  him  the  forms  of  those  as  yet  unborn.  This 
gives  the  poet  an  opportunity  to  praise  the  great  men  of 
Rome,  among  them  Julius  Caesar  and  Augustus.  Here 
he  sees  the  form  of  the  young  Marcellus,  son  of  Octavia, 
the  sister  of  Augustus.  When  this  book  was  written, 
Marcellus  had  recently  died  in  his  twentieth  year.  Virgil 
read  his  lines 2  on  Marcellus  to  Augustus  and  Octavia,  and 
the  bereaved  mother  was  so  moved  that  she  fainted.  Vir- 
gil's description  of  the  realm  of  the  dead  is  in  some  parts 
unusually  beautiful,  and  is  especially  interesting,  because 
it  stands,  not  only  in  date  but  also  in  many  other  respects, 
midway  between  the  eleventh  book  of  Homer's  Odyssey 
and  Dante's  Divine  Comedy. 

The  last  six  books   of  the   ^Eneid,  recounting  the 

d,  iv,  607-629.  »  Ibid.,  vi,  868-886. 


112  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

struggles   of  the   Trojans  in   Italy,   contain   many  fine 
passages,  but  are  for  the  most  part  less  interesting  to  the 
modern  reader  than  the  earlier  books.     In 
'1  many  parts  they  are  finished  with  most  ex- 


quisite art,  even  showing  that  Virgil's  tech- 
nical ability  increased  as  the  poem  drew  toward  its  close, 
but  many  other  passages  show  the  lack  of  the  final  revi- 
sion. To  the  Roman  the  ancient  legends  of  the  origin  of 
the  Roman  power  must  have  been  of  surpassing  interest, 
but  most  modern  readers  remember,  amid  the  successive 
scenes  of  strife,  only  the  heroic  Turnus,  the  lovely  Lavinia, 
the  warlike  maidens  Camilla  and  Juturna,  and  the  brave 
and  devoted  friends,  Msus  and  Euryalus,  who  were  slain 
when  endeavoring  to  carry  a  message  in  the  night  through 
the  hostile  camp  to  the  absent 


Blest  pair  !  if  aught  my  verse  avail, 
No  day  shall  make  your  memory  fail 

From  off  the  heart  of  time, 
While  Capitol  abides  in  place, 
The  mansion  of  the  ^Eneian  race, 
And  throned  upon  that  moveless  base 

Rome's  father  sits  sublime.1 


The  jffineid  closes  with  the  death  of  Turnus,  the  chief 
opponent  of  the  Trojans  in  Italy.  In  spite  of  its  obvious 
imperfections,  it  is  the  greatest  poem  in  the 
Latin  language  ;  and  no  later  epic  poem  in 
any  language  equalled  or  even  approached  it 
in  excellence  until  the  appearance  of  Dante's  Divine 
Comedy.  It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  throughout 
the  Middle  Ages  Virgil  was  regarded  as  the  impersona- 
tion of  all  that  was  great  in  poetry  ;  nor  is  it  strange  that 
the  poet  whose  verses  breathe  such  an  indescribable,  sweet 
sadness,  who  sings  in  lofty,  inspired  language  of  that 
Roman  greatness  which  was  ever  present  to  the  medi- 

ix,  446-449. 


VIRGIL  AND  TWO  MUSES. 
Mosaic  in  the  Bardo  Museum,  Tunis. 


VIRGIL        .  113 

88val  imagination,  who  describes  the  dwellings  of  the 
dead,  and  who  was  even  believed  to  have  foretold  the 
coming  of  the  Messiah,  should  have  become  in  mediaeval 
legends  the  possessor  of  all  wisdom  and  all  magic  power. 
It  is  natural  that  Dante  chose  Virgil  as  his  guide  through 
hell  and  purgatory,  and  would  gladly  have  admitted  him 
to  paradise  had  his  theology  allowed  him  to  do  so. 


CHAPTER  IX 

HORACE 

Quintus  Horatius  Flaccus,  65-8  B.  c. — Virgil  and  Horace — Life  of 
Horace — The  first  book  of  Satires — The  Epodes — The  second  book  of 
Satires— The  first  three  books  of  Odes— The  first  book  of  Epistles— 
The  literary  Epistles— The  Carmen  Saeculare— The  fourth  book  of 
Odes — Conclusion. 

THROUGHOUT  the  Middle  Ages  Virgil  was  regarded  as 
incomparably  the  greatest  of  Roman  poets.  In  modern 
times  his  greatness  has  been  called  in  question,  and  some 
scholars  have  even  gone  so  far  as  to  deny  that  he  was  a  great 
poet  at  all.  The  difference  is  due,  in  great  measure,  to 
the  fact  that  in  the  Middle  Ages  the  poems  of  Homer, 

Theocritus,  and  the  other  Greek  poets  whom 
Horace"1'  Virgil  imitated,  were  unknown,  and  Virgil  was 

regarded  as  the  great  epic  and  pastoral  poet 
of  antiquity.  That  Virgil  imitated  the  Greek  poets  is 
evident,  but  in  the  last  chapter  enough  has  been  said  to 
show  that  his  poetry  contains  qualities  not  to  be  found  in 
the  works  of  the  Greeks,  and  that  although  his  poems  are 
in  many  respects  not  equal  to  those  of  Homer,  he  must 
still  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  greatest  poets  of  the  world. 
The  increase  of  knowledge  which  has  led  to  the  undue  de- 
preciation of  Virgil  tended  to  make  the  second  great  poet 
of  the  Augustan  period  more  highly  appreciated.  The  odes 
of  Horace,  which  are  the  best  known  and  the  most  popular 
of  his  poems,  are  imitations  of  the  poetry  of  the  Greek 
lyrists,  Alcaeus,  Sappho,  Anacreon,  and  their  followers, 
114 


HORACE  115 

but  the  Greek  originals  are  for  the  most  part  lost,  so  that 
Horace  can  not  suffer  by  comparison  with  them.  More- 
over, modern  taste  is  less  pleased  with  epic  than  with  lyric 
verse,  and  the  delicate,  highly  finished,  and  charming  odes 
of  Horace  appeal  strongly  to  the  cultivated  modern  reader. 
In  his  satires  and  epistles,  too,  Horace,  whatever  his  in- 
debtedness to  Lucilius  and  others,  displays  undoubted 
originality.  It  is,  therefore,  natural  that  he  is  sometimes 
called  the  greatest  of  Eoman  poets.  But  Virgil  wrote  of 
greater  themes  ;  he  was  the  great  national  poet,  who  sang 
in  grand,  prophetic  tones  of  the  greatness  of  Eome  and 
her  destinies,  while  Horace  appealed  to  a  narrower  circle 
of  cultured  readers.  Yet  Horace  is,  in  his  own  field, 
unsurpassed,  and  deserves  all  the  admiration  that  has 
been  accorded  him. 

Quintus  Horatius  Flaccus  was  born  at  Venusia,  in 
Apulia,  near  the  border  of  Lucania,  December  8,  65  B.  c. 
His  father  was  a  freedman,  the  owner  of  a  small  farm,  but 
he  determined  to  give  his  son  the  best  education  possible. 
The  school  at  Venusia  was  unsatisfactory,  and  Horace's 
father  moved  with  his  family  to  Rome,  where  he  gained 
his  livelihood  as  a  coactor  or  collector  of  the  money  offered 

by  bidders  at  auctions.  This  was  a  business 
Horace  some  importance  at  Rome,  and  must  have 

been  lucrative,  for  Horace  attended  the  best 
schools,  where  he  came  in  contact  with  the  sons  of  wealthy 
and  noble  parents.  His  father  exercised  personal  super- 
vision over  the  boy's  education,  accompanying  him  to  the 
school,  and  calling  his  attention  to  what  went  on  about 
him,  pointing  out  the  evil  effects  of  bad  conduct,  and 
giving  him  practical  advice.  In  school,  under  a  strict 
master,  Orbilius,  who  did  not  spare  the  rod,  Horace  read 
the  translation  of  the  Odyssey  by  Livius  Andronicus,  and 
also  the  Iliad,  the  latter,  perhaps,  in  the  original  Greek. 
From  Rome  he  went  to  Athens  to  study  philosophy,  and 
was  there  when  Brutus  arrived  in  44  B.  c.,  after  the  death 


116  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

of  Caesar.  Like  many  another  patriotic  young  Koman,  he 
joined  the  army  of  Brutus,  in  which  he  was  given  the  rank 
of  tribunus  militum.  He  took  part  in  the  battle  of 
Philippi  and  the  flight  that  followed  it.  In  the  distribu- 
tion of  lands  among  the  soldiers  of  the  victorious  armies, 
Horace's  farm  was  confiscated,  and  the  young  man,  whose 
father  had  died  during  his  absence,  returned  to  Rome, 
where  he  obtained,  perhaps  with  the  last  remnants  of  his 
father's  savings,  a  small  position  as  a  clerk  of  the 
quaestors. 

This  position  gave  him  a  livelihood  and  some  leisure 
for  poetry.  Poverty,  he  says,1  drove  him  to  write  verses, 
and  certainly  his  poems  brought  him  prosperity,  for  they 
led  Virgil  and  Varius  to  introduce  him  to  Maecenas  in  the 
spring  of  38  B.  c.,  and  in  the  following  winter  Maecenas 
admitted  him  to  the  circle  of  his  familiar  friends.  Horace, 
with  his  short,  rotund  figure,  his  witty,  genial  conversation, 
and  his  poetic  genius,  became  socially  very  intimate  with 
Maecenas,  without,  however,  being  his  confidant  in  political 
matters.  When  Maecenas  went  to  Brundusium  to  nego- 
tiate an  agreement  between  Augustus  and  Antony,  Horace, 
with  Virgil,  Varius,  Plotius,  and  the  Greek  rhetorician 
Heliodorus,  was  in  his  train.2  In  34  or  33  B.  c.  Maecenas 
gave  him  a  country  seat  in  the  Sabine  hills  not  far  from 
Tibur  (Tivoli),  so  large  that  it  contained  five  farmhouses. 
Here  the  poet  spent  a  great  part  of  his  remaining  years. 
Maecenas  also  introduced  him  to  Augustus,  who  wished  to 
make  him  his  private  secretary,  but  Horace  refused  the 
honor,  probably  because  he  preferred  to  retain  his  free- 
dom. The  emperor  was  not  offended  by  the  refusal,  but 
continued  to  regard  him  as  a  friend.  Honored  by  Augustus 
and  his  circle,  Horace  lived  in  comfort  and  peace.  He  died 
November  27,  8  B.  c.,  and  was  buried  near  the  tomb  of 
Maecenas,  on  the  Esquiline.  He  made  Augustus  his  heir. 

1  Epist.  II,  ii,  51.  »  Sat.  I,  v. 


HORACE  117 

Upon  his  return  to  Eome  after  the  battle  of  Philippi, 
Horace  employed  his  leisure  in  writing  verse.  To  this 
period  belong  the  Epodes  and  the  first  book  of  the  Satires. 
These  poems  were  originally  not  intended  for  publication, 
but  were  read  to  the  author's  friends.  About  35  B.  c. 
ton  Satires  were  collected  and  published.  Horace  him- 
self calls  these  poems  not  Satires,  but  Sermones  or 
"  Talks."  He  even  disclaims  the  title  of  poet,  though 
his  "  Talks  "  are  in  hexameters.  The  first  Satire  is  ad- 
dressed to  Maecenas,  and  serves  to  dedicate  the  entire 
collection  to  the  poet's  chief  patron,  though  its  subject 
The  first  ig  the  general  discontent  of  every  man  with 
book  of  his  own  lot  and  the  foolishness  of  heaping 

Satires.  Up  wealth.     In  general,  the  Satires  are  not, 

as  were  those  of  Lucilius,  attacks  upon  individuals, 
but  rather  criticisms  of  the  follies  and  foibles  of  the 
times.  In  the  second  Satire  the  dangers  to  which  adul- 
terers expose  themselves  are  set  forth ;  in  the  third, 
those  who  carp  at  and  criticize  their  neighbors  are  held 
up  to  ridicule ;  the  fourth  praises  the  wit,  but  criti- 
cizes sharply  the  style  of  Lucilius,  the  defects  of  which 
are  attributed  to  the  rapidity  with  which  Lucilius  wrote 
great  quantities  of  verse.  In  the  same  Satire  Horace  de- 
fends himself  against  the  charge  of  malice,  maintaining 
that  his  verse  is  far  less  malicious  than  private  gossip, 
and  describes  the  way  his  father  took  to  train  him  in 
his  youth : 

But  if  I  still  seem  personal  and  bold, 
Perhaps  you'll  pardon  when  my  story's  told. 
When  my  good  father  taught  me  to  be  good, 
Scarecrows  he  took  of  living  flesh  and  blood. 
Thus,  if  he  warned  me  not  to  spend,  but  spare 
The  moderate  means  I  owe  to  his  wise  care, 
'Twas,  "  See  the  life  that  son  of  Albius  leads! 
Observe  that  Barrus,  vilest  of  ill  weeds  I 
Plain  beacons  these  for  heedless  youth,  whose  taste 
Might  lead  them  else  a  fair  estate  to  waste  " : 


118  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

If  lawless  love  were  what  he  bade  me  shun, 
"Avoid  Scatanius'  slough,"  his  words  would  run: 
"  Wise  men,"  he'd  add,  "the  reason  will  explain 
Why  you  should  follow  this,  from  that  refrain : 
For  me,  if  I  can  train  you  in  the  ways 
Trod  by  the  worthy  folks  of  earlier  days, 
And,  while  you  need  direction,  keep  your  name 
And  life  unspotted,  I've  attained  my  aim  : 
When  riper  years  have  seasoned  brain  and  limb, 
You'll  drop  your  corks,  and  like  a  Triton  swim."  * 

The  fifth  Satire  is  an  account  of  the  journey  to  Brun- 
dusium  in  the  train  of  Maecenas  with  Virgil,  Varius,  and 
others ;  the  sixth,  again  addressed  to  Maecenas,  tells  us 
how  the  poet  became  acquainted  with  the  great  man,  re- 
verts to  his  father's  attentive  care,  and  declares  that 
Horace  has  no  reason  to  be  ashamed  of  his  origin  or  dis- 
contented with  his  lot.  The  seventh  tells  of  a  joke  in  a 
lawsuit  between  Publius  Eupilius  Rex  and  a  banker,  Per- 
sius ;  the  eighth,  of  some  interrupted  magic  rites  before  a 
statue  of  the  god  Priapus ;  and  the  ninth,  of  the  poet's  in- 
effectual efforts  to  get  rid  of  a  bore,  who  stuck  to  him  until 
he  was  dragged  off  to  the  court  by  a  plaintiff.  In  the 
tenth  Satire,  which  serves  as  an  epilogue  to  the  collection, 
Horace  returns  to  his  criticism  of  Lucilius,  maintaining 
that  what  he  had  said  in  the  fourth  Satire  was  really  not 
too  severe,  and  at  the  same  time  he  expresses  his  opinion 
of  some  of  the  other  Roman  poets  and  of  his  own  ability : 

No  hand  can  match  Fundanus  at  a  piece 

Where  slave  and  mistress  clip  an  old  man's  fleece ; 

Pollio  in  buskins  chants  the  deeds  of  kings ; 

Varius  outsoars  us  all  on  Homer's  wings ; 

The  Muse  that  loves  the  woodland  and  the  farm 

To  Virgil  lends  her  gayest,  tenderest  charm. 

For  me,  this  walk  of  satire,  vainly  tried 

By  Atacinus  and  some  few  beside, 

1  Sat.  I,,  iv,  103-120,  freely  translated  by  Conington. 


HORACE  119 

Best  suits  my  gait ;  yet  readily  I  yield 
To  him  who  first  set  footstep  on  that  field, 
Nor  meanly  seek  to  rob  him  of  the  bay 
That  shows  so  comely  on  his  locks  of  gray.1 

The  Epodes  were  written  in  the  same  period  as  the 

first  book  of  Satires,  and,  like  them,  are  on  various  sub- 

iects.    About  31  B.  c.  Horace  yielded  to  the 

The  Epodes.  „  ,,  ,         ,,.  ,     ,  , 

persuasions  of  Maecenas  and  published  a  col- 
lection of  seventeen  pieces  which  he  had  written  at  vari- 
ous times  since  40  B.  c.  The  first  ten  are  in  the  epodic 
metre,  that  is,  an  iambic  trimeter  followed  by  an  iambic 
dimeter,  as  in  the  lines  : 

Beatus  ille,  qui  procul  negotiis 

Ut  prisca  gens  mortalium, 
Paterna  rura  bobus  exercet  mis, 

Solutus  omni  fenore* 

the  following  translation  of  which  shows  approximately 
the  rhythm  of  the  original : 

Oh  blest  is  he,  wlio  far  from  troubles,  fears  and  cares, 

As  did  the  early  mortal  race, 
With  oxen  of  his  own  through  fields  ancestral  fares, 

And  knows  not  usury's  disgrace. 

The  shorter  line  is  called  an  epode,  or  appendix,  to  the 
longer,  and  it  is  from  this  that  the  collection  of  poems 
gets  its  name.  The  last  seven  poems  of  the  collection 
are  in  various  metres,  though  most  of  these  are  in  alter- 
nating long  and  short  lines.  Horace  himself  calls  these 
poems  Iambics  simply.  In  them  he  imitates  the  Greek 
poet  Archilochus,  but  though  several  of  the  poems  are 
somewhat  aggressive,  they  all  lack  the  intense  and  violent 
tone  of  invective  attributed  by  the  ancients  to  Archi- 
lochus, of  which,  however,  the  extant  fragments  of 

1  Sat.  I,  x,  40-49.  freely  translated  by  Conington. 

2  Epode  ii,  1-4. 
9 


120  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

Archilochus  show  few  traces.  In  one  of  his  Epistles1 
Horace  claims  to  be  the  first  who  introduced  the  iambics 
of  Archilochus  into  Latin  literature,  but  this  is  not 
strictly  true,  for  Catullus  and  his  contemporaries  had 
written  invectives  in  iambics.  Horace  did,  however,  intro- 
duce the  epodic  metre,  and  he  is  also  the  first  to  employ 
his  iambics  to  castigate  the  follies  of  his  time  rather  than 
individuals.  In  subject  the  Epodes  range  from  the  praise 
of  rural  life  (ii)  and  encouragement  to  live  a  life  of  ease 
and  pleasure  (xiii)  to  invectives  against  a  rich  upstart 
(iv)  or  a  woman  who  deals  in  poisons  (v,  xvii),  and  a 
rebuke  of  the  Komans  who  are  eager  to  stir  up  a  civil 
war  (xvi).  The  last  Epode  (xvii)  has  the  form  of  a  dia- 
logue between  the  poet  and  the  poisoner  Canidia,  but  the 
others  are  the  simple  expressions  of  the  poet's  senti- 
ments, often  in  the  form  of  a  letter  or  address  to  a  friend. 
In  this  they  differ  from  the  Satires,  which  have  some- 
thing of  the  dialogue  form,  either  between  two  persons 
mentioned  by  name  or  between  the  poet  and  some 
indefinite  person,  perhaps  the  reader. 

The  second  book  of  Satires,  finished  about  30  B.  c., 
contains  eight  pieces,  most  of  which  are  in  the  form  of  a 
The  second  dialogue  between  the  poet  and  one  other 
book  of  person.  The  most  amusing  is  the  fifth,  a 

Satires.  dialogue   between  Ulysses  and   Tiresias,  in 

which  Tiresias  tells  Ulysses  how  he  can  repair  his  for- 
tunes by  paying  court  to  rich  men  and  getting  them  to 
mention  him  in  their  wills.  This  Satire  is  directed 
against  a  class  of  men  only  too  numerous  in  Eome. 
Others  treat  of  various  subjects,  such  as  the  serious  study 
bestowed  upon  dinners  (viii,  iv),  certain  Stoic  doctrines 
(iii,  vii),  the  criticisms  of  the  earlier  Satires  (i),  or  the 
joys  of  the  farmer's  simple  life  (ii).  In  almost  every 
case,  the  thoughts  and  theories  expressed  are  put  into  the 

1  Epist.  I,  xix,  23. 


HORACE  121 

mouth  of  some  one  other  than  the  poet,  whereas  in  the  first 
book  of  Satires  the  poet  expressed  the  opinions  himself. 
Horace's  Satires  differ  from  those  of  Lucilius  in  being  less 
bitter  and  less  political,  more  carefully  composed  and  writ- 
ten, and  far  more  genial.  The  kindly,  gentlemanly  spirit 
of  the  man  is  everywhere  visible.  His  "  talks  "  are  the 
witty,  amusing  conversation  of  a  man  of  the  world,  often 
dealing  with  serious  subjects,  but  always  in  a  light  and  easy 
way.  They  are  full  of  sententious  remarks,  which  have 
been  frequently  quoted  from  Horace's  time  to  our  own. 

Catullus  and  his  contemporaries  had  imitated  almost 
exclusively  the  poems  of  the  Alexandrians,  of  the  Greek 

poets,  that  is  to  say,  who  flourished  after 
The  Odes.  J.'  TT 

Greece  had  lost  her  independence.     Horace 

in  his  Epodes  went  farther  back  and  imitated  Archilochus, 
and  in  his  Odes,  without  altogether  neglecting  the  Alex- 
andrians, he  follows  for  the  most  part  in  the  footsteps  of 
Alcaeus,  Sappho,  and  Anacreon.  Among  his  odes  are 
several  which  are  in  part  translations  of  extant  fragments 
of  these  poets,  and  it  is  certain  that  if  the  poems  of  the 
early  Greek  lyrists  were  not  almost  entirely  lost,  we  could 
recognize  many  of  them  in  Latin  version  in  the  Odes  of 
Horace.  The  Odes  contain  also  lines  that  remind  one  of 
similar  passages  in  the  poems  of  Euripides,  Bacchylides, 
and  other  Greek  poets,  but  in  form  as  well  as  in  contents 
they  are  for  the  most  part  imitations  of  the  three  great 
early  lyrists.  Most  of  the  Odes  are  divided  into  stanzas 
of  four  lines  each,  and  in  all  such  a  division  is  possible, 
with  perhaps  one  exception.  The  first  three  books  of 
the  Odes  were  published  in  23  B.  c.,  but  their  composition 
belongs  in  part  as  early  as  30  B.  c.  The  first  book  con- 
tains thirty-eight  poems,  the  second  twenty,  the  third 
thirty.  The  first  ode  of  Book  I  serves  as  a  dedication  to 
Maecenas,  and  in  the  odes  immediately  following  nearly 
all  the  metres  employed  in  the  three  books  are  used  one 
after  the  other.  Throughout  the  three  books  variety  of 


122  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

metre  governs  the  arrangement.  The  second  book  opens 
with  an  ode  addressed  to  Pollio,  and  at  the  beginning  of 
the  third  book  are  six  odes  celebrating  in  various  tones 
the  Roman  glory.  The  last  ode  of  Book  III,  beginning 

Exegi  monumentum  cere  perennius, 

I've  reared  a  monument  than  bronze  more  lasting, 

serves  as  an  epilogue  to  the  finished  collection. 

The  subjects  of  the  odes  are  so  various  as  to  touch 
upon  almost  every  circumstance  of  human  life  and  every 
mood  of  human  feeling.  Friendship,  love,  the  gods, 
patriotism,  conviviality,  the  pleasures  of  country  life, 
events  of  the  day,  and  philosophical  thoughts,  all  find 
their  place.  In  tone  the  odes  are  grave  and  gay,  lively 
and  serene,  sometimes  fantastic,  more  often  thoughtful 
or  at  least  reasonable.  More  than  once  the  thought  that 
life  is  short  and  we  should  pluck  its  blossoms  ere  they 
fade  occurs  in  one  form  or  another.  The  workmanship 
of  the  odes  is  wonderful  in  its  perfection.  Horace  is  not 
one  of  those  who  believe  that  perfect  poetry  comes  purely 
by  inspiration,  without  labor.  He  writes  no  word  without 
being  sure  that  it  is  the  best  word  in  its  place.  His 
metres  are  adapted  to  the  thought  he  wishes  to  express, 
and  the  perfection  of  the  metre  makes  even  simple  or 
common  thoughts  beautiful.  The  odes  are  not  the  ardent 
outpourings  of  a  passionate  spirit,  as  are  some  of  the 
poems  of  Catullus,  but  they  are  the  carefully  elaborated 
expressions  of  the  thoughts  and  sentiments  of  a  gentle, 
kindly,  thoughtful,  but  gay  and  humorous  man  of  the 
world.  They  do  not  stir  our  blood,  but  they  arouse  our 
admiration,  satisfy  our  taste,  and  please  us  by  their  tone 
of  cultured  and  refined  sentiment.  The  variety  of  their 
contents  can  not  be  presented  in  selections,  nor  can  all 
the  qualities  of  any  ode  be  adequately  rendered  in  a  trans- 
lation. One  of  the  shortest  but  not  the  least  attractive 
odes  is  the  following,  addressed  to  his  cup-bearer : 


HORACE  123 

Persia's  pomp,  my  boy,  I  hate ; 

No  coronals  of  flowerets  rare 
For  me  on  bark  of  linden  plait, 

Nor  seek  thou  to  discover  where 
The  lush  rose  lingers  late. 

With  unpretending  myrtle  twine, 
Naught  else !     It  fits  your  brows 

Attending  me ;  it  graces  mine 
As  I  in  happy  ease  carouse 

Beneath  the  thick-leaved  vine.1 

The  following  ode  offers  more  variety,  and  is  perhaps 
more  representative : 

One  dazzling  mass  of  solid  snow, 
Soracte  stands ;  the  bent  woods  fret 
Beneath  their  load,  and,  sharpest  set 

With  frost,  the  streams  have  ceased  to  flow. 

Pile  on  great  fagots  and  break  up 
The  ice ;  let  influence  more  benign 
Enter  with  four-years-treasured  wine, 

Fetched  in  the  ponderous  Sabine  cup ; 

Leave  to  the  gods  all  else.     When  they 
Have  once  bid  rest  the  winds  that  war 
Over  the  passionate  seas,  no  more 

Gray  ash  and  cypress  rock  and  sway. 

Ask  not  what  future  suns  shall  bring; 
Count  to-day  gain,  whate'er  it  chance 
To  be ;  nor,  young  man,  scorn  the  dance, 

Nor  deem  sweet  Love  an  idle  thing, 

Ere  Time  thy  April  youth  have  changed 
To  sourness.     Park  and  public  walk 
Attract  thee  now,  and  whispered  talk 

At  twilight  meetings  prearranged. 

1  Od.  I,  xxxviii,  translated  by  Sir  Theodore  Martin. 


124:  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

Hear  now  the  pretty  laugh  that  tells 

In  what  dim  corner  lurks  thy  love, 

And  snatch  a  bracelet  or  a  glove 
From  wrist  or  hand  that  scarce  rebels.1 

After  the  three  books  of  Odes  were  published  in  23  B.  c., 
Horace  returned  to  his  previous  manner  of  composition  in 
hexameters,  but  gave  to  the  collection  of  twenty  poems 

which  he  published  in  20  B.  c.,  the  form  of 
o^E  isties °  ^e^ers  or  Epistles.  These  are  sometimes  real 

letters  to  his  friends,  sometimes  satires  or 
"talks "in  the  form  of  letters.  The  subjects  of  these 
poems  are  as  various  as  those  of  the  Satires,  but  it  is 
evident  that  the  poet  is  turning  more  toward  philosophy. 
He  advises  his  friends  to  take  things  as  they  find  them, 
without  allowing  themselves  to  be  troubled  or  excited 
(vi),  he  teaches  the  Stoic  doctrine  that  virtue  suffices  to 
make  men  happy  (xvi),  he  advocates  calmness  and  the 
avoidance  of  care,  and  urges  Tibullus  (iv,  13)  to  live  as  if 
each  day  were  to  be  his  last.  But  he  also  sings  the  praise  of 
wine  (v,  16  if.)  and  of  the  quiet  life  in  the  country  (x, 
xiv).  In  two  epistles  he  gives  practical  advice  concern- 
ing intercourse  with  persons  of  high  station,  and  various 
practical  suggestions  are  found  scattered  through  the 
other  poems.  In  a  letter  to  Maecenas  (xix)  he  ridicules 
his  imitators  and  mocks  at  his  critics.  The  twentieth 
poem  is  an  address  to  his  book  as  he  sends  it  into  the 
world.  In  it  he  foretells  the  various  fortunes  of  the  book, 
and  at  the  end  he  gives  his  age,  saying  that  he  has  seen 
four  times  eleven  Decembers  in  the  year  of  the  consulship 
of  Lepidus  and  Lollius.  In  these  letters  Horace  reveals 
his  character  more  fully  and  with  a  more  delicate  touch 
than  in  any  of  his  other  works.  The  Odes  are  the  works  by 
which  he  will  always  be  best  known,  and  to  which  he  owes 
his  great  fame  as  a  poet,  but  nowhere  so  fully  as  in  the 

1  Od.  I,  ix,  Calverley's  version. 


HORACE  125 

Epistles  does  he  disclose  his  kindly  and  genial,  yet  serious 
views  of  life  as  they  ripened  with  his  advancing  years. 

In  the  seventh  Epistle  of  the  first  book  Horace  refuses, 
at  least  for  the  present,  an  invitation  of  Maecenas,  on 
the  ground  that  his  health  is  poor  and  that  he  needs  the 
repose  of  the  country  and  the  seashore.  At  the  same 
time  he  explains  the  manner  in  which  he  wishes  his 
relation  to  his  patron  to  be  understood.  He  is  not  a  para- 
site, and  openly  says  that  he  must  retain  his  freedom, 
and  can  not  be  at  the  beck  and  call  even  of  Maecenas. 
In  the  first  Epistle  (lines  4  and  10)  he  refuses  to  write 
more  odes,  because  he  is  no  longer  young  and  is  turn- 
ing toward  philosophy.  The  same  attitude  is  disclosed 
The  second  ^n  ^ne  second  Epistle  of  the  second  book 
book  of  (lines  25  and  141  fi2.).  The  poet  wished  to 

Epistles.  retire  and  pursue  the  study  of  philosophy; 
but  he  had  gained  much  experience  in  literary  matters, 
arid  in  three  letters,  written  probably  between  19  and 
14  B.  c.,  he  records  the  results  of  this  experience.  The 
first  letter  is  addressed  to  Augustus,  the  second  to  Julius 
Florus.  These  two  form  the  second  book  of  the  Epistles. 
The  third  letter,  addressed  to  the  Pisos,  father  and  two 
sons,  was  originally  published  with  the  others,  but  was 

soon  separated  from  them,  and  is  known  as 
Poetic"  ^e  ^rs  P°etica-  This  is  not  a  systematic 

treatise  on  poetry,  but  Horace's  views,  derived 
in  part  from  his  own  experience,  in  part  from  his  reading, 
are  set  forth  in  the  easy  style  of  a  letter  or  talk.  He  in- 
sists that  each  poem  must  have  a  consistent  fundamental 
idea  or  plot,  that  the  characters  of  a  drama  must  speak  as 
befits  their  age  and  station,  and  must  be  drawn  from  life, 
he  advises  care  in  the  choice  of  a  subject,  points  out  that 
nobody  cares  for  mediocre  poets,  and  that  what  is  once 
published  can  not  be  recalled.  Throughout  the  letter  or 
treatise  he  constantly  impresses  upon  his  readers  his  con- 
viction that  good  poetry  is  the  result  of  hard  work.  Many 


126  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

critical  and  historical  remarks  are  scattered  through  the 
Ars  Poetica  as  well  as  through  the  two  other  letters. 

In  spite  of  his  desire  to  give  up  the  writing  of  poetry 
and  to  devote  himself  to  philosophy,  Horace  did  not  finish 
his  career  as  a  lyric  poet  with  the  completion  of  three 
books  of  odes.  In  17  B.  c.  it  was  decided  that  the  Sibyl- 
line books  required  the  celebration  of  the  ludi  sceculares, 
which  were  supposed  to  recur  at  the  end  of  every  sceculum, 
or  period  of  one  hundred  and  ten  years.  An  important 
part  of  the  celebration  was  the  singing  of  a  hymn  in  honor 
of  Apollo  and  Diana.  This  was  to  be  sung  by  a  chorus  of 
boys  and  girls  of  pure  Roman  birth,  both  of  whose  parents 
were  living,  and  whose  mothers  had  married  only  once. 
Horace  was  asked  by  Augustus  to  compose  this  hymn,  and 
could  not  refuse  the  honor,  which  distinguished  him  as 
the  official  poet  laureate  of  the  Roman  Empire.  The 
hymn,  called  the  Carmen  Sceculare,  is  a  some- 
Saecuiare  what  formal  poem,  as  is  fitting  for  the  solemn 
occasion  at  which  it  was  first  sung,  but  it 
shows  real  religious  feeling,  mingled  with  pride  and  con- 
fidence in  the  Roman  greatness.  It  is  the  work  of  a  mas- 
terly artist  and  an  inspired  poet. 

In  addition  to  appointing  him  to  write  the  Carmen 
Sceculare,  Augustus  demanded  of  Horace  a  song,  or  songs, 
in  honor  of  his  stepsons,  Tiberius  and  Drusus.  Horace 
could  not  refuse,  and  composed  odes  in  honor  of  the  vic- 
tories of  Drusus  (IV,  iv)  and  Tiberius  (IV,  xiv),  to  which 
he  added  thirteen  other  poems,  making  a 
book  of  Odes  ^our^n  hook  of  fifteen  odes,  written  appar- 
ently in  the  years  17-13  B.C.  The  fourth 
book  of  Odes  is  in  no  way  inferior  to  its  predecessors  in 
variety  of  form  or  perfection  of  workmanship,  and  it 
contains  a  larger  proportion  of  exalted,  patriotic  poems. 
The  sixth  ode,  addressed  to  Apollo,  seems  to  be  a  pro- 
oemium  to  the  Carmen  Sceculare,  or  at  any  rate  to  have 
some  connection  with  the  ludi  sceculares.  The  fifth  ode,  to 


HORACE  127 

Augustus,  urging  his  return  to  Eome,  and  the  fifteenth, 
also  to  Augustus,  on  the  restoration  of  peace,  celebrate 
the  greatness  of  Eome  as  well  as  its  ruler.  Horace,  as 
well  as  Virgil,  though  in  a  different  way,  was  a  poet  of  the 
Roman  Empire. 

As  we  look  back  upon  the  literary  activity  of  Hor- 
ace, we  find  that  he  turned  at  first  to  satires  in  hex- 
The  literary  ameters  and  epodes  in  the  simple  epodic  me- 
activity  of  tre.  Then  he  enriched  Roman  literature  by 
Horace.  0(jes  [n  imitation  of  the  early  Greek  lyrists, 

to  return  afterward  to  his  original  style  in  the  more  re- 
fined form  of  epistles.  It  was  only  at  the  command  of 
Augustus  that  he  once  more  composed  elaborate  lyrics. 
His  lyric  poems  are  not  natural  outpourings  of  sentiment, 
but  deliberate  attempts  to  add  to  the  beauty  of  Roman 
literature  and  thereby  to  the  glory  of  the  Roman  Empire. 
And  it  is  chiefly  to  these  poems  that  he  owes  his  fame. 
They  are  not  equal  in  merit,  but  they  are  the  most  per- 
fect productions  of  Roman  lyric  poetry.  As  such  they  were 
recognized  in  Horace's  own  lifetime,  and  as  such  they 
have  been  admired  and  loved  through  the  succeeding 
ages,  never  more  than  in  recent  times.  Countless  schol- 
ars, poets,  and  men  of  letters  have  read  them  with  delight, 
and  many  have  been  the  attempts  to  render  their  inimita- 
ble charm  in  translations.  But  their  subtle  beauty  defies 
the  translator's  art.  None  but  Horace  himself  has  been 
able  to  express  his  delicate  feeling  and  poetic  fancy  in 
such  perfect  form.  The  Satires  and  the  Epistles  are  full 
of  brilliant  and  witty  sayings,  of  critical  and  historical 
remarks;  they  throw  much  light  upon  the  social  and 
literary  life  of  the  period,  and  make  us  acquainted  with 
the  character  of  the  poet ;  but  the  Odes  are  "  a  monument 
more  enduring  than  bronze,"  testifying  to  the  genius,  the 
industry,  the  good  taste,  and,  in  some  cases,  to  the  patri- 
otic spirit  of  the  most  perfect  of  Roman  lyric  poets. 


CHAPTER  X 

TIBULLUS-PROPERTIUS-THE  LESSER  POETS 

Roman  society — The  amorous  elegy — Cornelius  Gallus,  70-27  B.  c. 
— Gaius  Valgius  Rufus,  consul  12  B.  c. — Albius  Tibullus,  about  54  to 
about  19  B.C. — Lygdamus,  born  43  B.C. — Sulpicia — Sextus  Proper- 
tius,  about  50  to  about  15  B.  c. — Domitius  Marsus,  about  54  to  about 
4  B.  c. — Albinovanus  Pedo — Ponticus — Macer — Grattius — Rabirius — 
Cornelius  Severus — Gaius  Melissus  and  the  Fabula  Trabeata — Ma- 
nilius — The  Priapea — Poems  ascribed  to  Virgil  and  Ovid. 

DUKIKG  the  last  century  of  the  republic  Rome  had 
grown  from  a  powerful  Italian  city  to  be  the  mistress  of 
the  world,  and  this  growth  of  power  had  been  accompanied 
by  many  changes.  The  wealth  of  the  governing  classes 
had  increased  enormously.  Greek  art  and  Greek  literature 
had  become  familiar  in  the  form  of  original  works  and  of 
Roman  imitations,  and  with  the  increase  of  wealth  and 
luxury  the  growth  of  immorality  went  hand  in  hand.  The 
early  profligacy  of  Caesar  and  Sallust,  and  the  love  of 
Catullus  for  a  married  woman  have  already  been  men- 
tioned. These  were  not  isolated  cases,  but  merely  examples 
of  what  was  only  too  common.  In  fact,  the  man  whose 
life  was  pure  was  an  exception  in  the  latter  days  of  the 
republic.  Nor  were  the  women  of  the  wealthier  classes 
better  than  the  men.  The  Roman  matron, 
of  society  "  *  w^°  was  Betrothed  at  twelve  and  married  at 
fourteen  years  of  age,  naturally  found  herself 
in  many  instances  united  to  a  man  with  whom  she  had  no 
sympathy,  and  whose  distasteful  society  she  gladly  ex- 
changed for  that  of  a  clandestine  lover.  Divorces  were 
128 


ROMAN  ELEGY  129 

numerous,  and  were  accompanied  with  little  disgrace. 
When  Augustus  established  his  power,  he  brought  about 
many  reforms  in  the  government  of  the  city  and  the 
provinces  and  caused  laws  to  be  passed  to  ensure  the  sanc- 
tity of  marriage  and  of  family  life,  but  his  success  in  stem- 
ming the  tide  of  immorality  was  slight.  To  be  sure,  the  life 
of  his  chosen  friends  and  of  the  court  circle  in  general 
was  pure,  and  even  perhaps  puritanical ;  but  the  spirit  of 
the  times  was  so  corrupt  that  even  his  own  family  did  not 
escape.  The  immorality  of  his  daughter  Julia  became  at 
last  so  notorious  that  she  was  banished  from  Eome  and 
ended  her  life  in  exile.  Her  daughter  Julia  resembled 
her  in  character  and  met  with  a  similar  fate.  In  the 
later  years  of  Augustus  banishments  for  moral  reasons 
were  numerous,  but  it  was  impossible  to  bring  order  into 
the  life  of  a  society  in  which  immorality  had  ceased  to  be 
disgraceful. 

It  was  in  and  for  this  society  that  the  Eoman  elegists 
composed  their  poems.  Elegiac  verse  had  been  employed 
in  the  seventh  and  sixth  centuries  B.  c.  by  Mimnermus, 
Tyrtaeus,  Solon,  and  others,  for  the  expression  of  all  sorts 
of  personal  sentiments,  as  well  as  for  political  purposes ; 
but  in  the  Alexandrian  period  it  had  been  appropriated 
almost  exclusively  to  poems  of  love.  This  Alexandrian 
elegiac  poetry  had  been  introduced  at  Eome 
by  some  of  the  contemporaries  of  Catullus, 
and  in  the  Augustan  period  it  attained  a  remarkable 
development.  The  Eoman  elegists  imitate  the  Alexan- 
drians, and,  like  them,  insert  in  their  love  poems  count- 
less mythological  allusions  and  even  mythological  stories. 
The  fashion  demanded  that  the  elegist  J)e  learned  in  Greek 
mythology.  Cornelius  Gallus  received  from  the  Greek 
Parthenius  a  compendium  of  mythological  tales  to  aid 
him  in  selecting  proper  allusions  to  the  myths.  The 
poet's  beloved  is  compared  to  Juno,  Minerva,  or  Venus, 
Antiope  or  Helen ;  the  lover  gazes  upon  his  mistress  as 


130  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

Argus  gazed  upon  lo ;  faithful  wives  are  compared  with 
Penelope  or  Alcestis,  faithless  lovers  with  Ulysses  who  de- 
serted Calypso,  and  Jason  who  left  Medea  for  another 
wife.  These  and  similar  allusions  are  mingled  with 
figures  drawn  from  rustic  life  or  from  war.  The  god 
Amor  and  his  mother  Venus  play  important  parts  in  the 
poems.  Amor  transfixes  the  poet's  heart  with  his  arrows, 
plants  his  foot  upon  the  poet's  neck,  makes  him  his  slave. 
The  poet  sings  of  the  beauty  of  his  mistress,  designating 
her  by  a  fictitious  name,  but  one  which  has  the  same 
length  of  syllables  as  the  real  name  of  the  woman  to 
whom  the  poems  are  addressed.  The  poet  is  usually  poor, 
but  offers  his  songs  as  the  most  valuable  of  offerings,  and 
is  filled  with  indignation  if  his  mistress  seems  to  care  for 
wealth  or  jewels.  No  adornments  are  necessary  for  the  beau- 
tiful woman,  and  love  of  wealth  is  disgraceful.  The  woes  of 
lovers,  false  promises,  faithlessness,  the  troubles  of  the  lover 
who  spends  whole  nights  waiting  at  the  door,  the  torments 
which  love  inflicts  upon  the  heart,  all  these  are  repeated 
over  and  over  again.  So  much  of  all  this  is  conventional 
that  it  is  hard  to  tell  what  part  of  the  contents  of  these 
poems  has  any  truth.  Occasionally  a  line  is  evidently  in- 
tended to  give  information  about  the  writer,  and  in  gen- 
eral it  is  certain  that  the  poems  were  really  addressed  to 
some  particular  person,  but  how  much  of  the  feeling  ex- 
pressed is  genuine,  and  how  much  mere  affectation,  it  is 
impossible  to  determine.  The  details — the  nights  spent 
in  wind  and  rain  before  the  door,  the  quarrels  or  recon- 
ciliations, the  voyages  and  returns — may  or  may  not  be 
founded  upon  real  events  in  the  poet's  life.  Whether 
they  are  to  be  regarded  as  historical  or  not  depends  upon 
their  context;  but  it  is  evident  that  many  details  are 
purely  imaginary. 

The  three  chief  elegists  are  Tibullus,  Propertius,  and 
Ovid.  Of  Ovid,  the  youngest  and  most  voluminous,  and 
pne  of  the  most  gifted  among  the  Augustan  poets,  it  will 


ROMAN  ELEGY  131 

be  better  to  treat  in  a  separate  chapter.  Somewhat  older 
than  Tibullus  and  Propertius  was  Cornelius  Gallus,  whose 
elegies  were  greatly  admired  by  his  contem- 
poraries, but  of  which  hardly  a  trace  remains. 
Gallus  was  born  at  Forum  Julii  (FrSjus),  in  70 
B.  c.  He  was  a  schoolmate  of  Augustus,  commanded  some 
troops  in  the  war  against  Antony,  and  held  the  town  of 
Paraetonium  when  Antony  attacked  it.  He  was  afterwards 
prefect  of  Egypt,  but  indulged  in  offensive  remarks  about 
Augustus,  and  showed  his  pride  by  setting  up  statues  of 
himself  in  various  places  in  Egypt,  and  having  his  name 
carved  upon  the  pyramids.  When  he  was  recalled  in  dis- 
grace by  Augustus  his  creditors  brought  suits  against  him, 
he  was  condemned  to  exile,  and  his  property  was  confis- 
cated. Unable  to  bear  his  troubles,  he  committed  suicide 
at  the  age  of  43  years.  His  greatest  claim  to  remembrance 
is  his  friendship  for  Virgil,  who  expressed  his  gratitude  to 
him  in  the  sixth  and  tenth  Eclogues,  and,  perhaps,  in  the 
original  ending  of  the  Georgics.  The  elegies  of  Gallus,  in 
four  books,  were  addressed  to  Lycoris,  an  actress  of  low 
birth  and  loose  morals,  whose  stage  name  was  Cytheris. 
In  addition  to  his  elegies,  Gallus  wrote  translations  from 
the  Greek  of  Euphorion.  Another  writer  of  elegies  was 
Gaius  Valgius  Rufus,  a  friend  of  Horace,  who 
was  consul  suffectus  in  12  B.  c.  Of  his  elegies 
on  a  boy  named  Mystes  little  remains,  but  they  are  spoken 
of  by  Horace  and  admired  by  the  author  of  a  panegyric  on 
Messalla.  Valgius  also  wrote  some  learned  works,  among 
them  a  treatise  on  medicine  and  a  translation  of  the  rhet- 
oric of  Apollodorus. 

Albius   Tibullus   was  born  near  Pedum,  in  Latium, 
probably  about  54  B.  c.,  and  was,  if  the  "  Life  of  Tibul- 
lus," contained  in  the  best  manuscripts  of  his 
Tibullus.  -,       .          -,  ,    n      »  ,  .  T 

works,  is  to  be  trusted,  of  equestrian  rank. 

He  inherited  a  large  property,  but  lost  the  greater  part  of 
it,  perhaps  in  the  confiscations  of  41  B.  c.     Apparently 


132  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

it  was  restored  to  him  by  Messalla,  of  whom  he  speaks 
with  great  affection.  He  followed  Messalla  to  the  East 
soon  after  the  battle  of  Actium,  but  was  detained  by  ill- 
ness at  Corcyra.  He  also  accompanied  Messalla  in  his 
campaign  in  Aquitania.  Nothing  further  is  known  of  his 
life,  except  his  love  for  Delia,  who  appears  to  have  been  a 
married  woman  of  low  birth  (libertina),  and  for  Nemesis, 
who  is  apparently  identical  with  the  Glycera  mentioned 
by  Horace  (Oct.  I,  xxxiii,  2).  Tibullus  died  about  19  B.  c. 
He  was  a  friend  of  Horace  and  was  admired  by  Ovid, 
but  there  is  no  evidence  that  he  and  Propertius  knew  one 
another. 

Four  books  of  elegies  are  ascribed  to  Tibullus,  but  not 
all  of  these  are  really  his  work.  Apparently  the  collection 
was  made  in  the  literary  circle  of  Messalla,  and  poems  by 
less  noted  members  of  the  circle  were  added  to  those  of 
Elegies  to  Tibullus.  The  ten  elegies  of  the  first  book,  ad- 
Delia  and  dressed  to  Delia  and  to  a  youth  named  Mara- 
Nemesis.  thus,  are  undoubtedly  by  Tibullus,  and  were 
published  during  his  lifetime.  The  six  elegies  of  Book  II, 
addressed  to  Nemesis,  seem  to  have  been  written  several 
years  later.  They  were  left  unfinished  by  Tibullus,  and 
were  published  after  his  death.  The  six  elegies  published 
as  Book  III  are  by  a  poet  who  calls  himself  Lygdamus.  No 
poet  of  that  name  is  known,  and  probably  this 
is  a  pseudonym.  Whoever  the  author  of  these 
poems  was,  he  was  a  member  of  the  circle  of  Messalla,  was 
born  in  43  B.  c.,  and  was  familiar  with  the  poems  of  Tibul- 
lus, Horace,  Propertius,  and  Ovid.  These  elegies  are  ad- 
dressed to  Neaera,  who  was  probably  the  poet's  cousin,  and 
either  married  or  betrothed  to  him.  They  are  greatly  in- 
ferior to  those  of  Tibullus.  They  lack  variety  and  imag- 
ination, and  in  technical  execution  they  want  the  graceful 
charm  for  which  the  genuine  poems  of  Tibullus  are  dis- 
tinguished. The  remaining  poems  ascribed  to  Tibullus 
are  printed  in  most  editions  as  Book  IV,  though  in  the 


TIBULLUS  133 

manuscripts  they  form  a  parfc  of  Book  III.  The  first  of 
these  is  a  Panegyric  on  Messalla,  written  in  honor  of  his 
consulship,  31  B.  c.  This  poem,  which  is  written  in  hexam- 
eters, shows  a  lack  of  taste  and  a  love  of  rhetorical  ex- 
aggeration entirely  foreign  to  Tibullus.  Lygdamus  can 
not  he  its  author,  for  he  was  only  twelve  years  old  at  the 
time  of  Messalla's  consulship.  It  was  doubtless  written 
by  some  member  of  Messalla's  circle,  and  included  in  the 
collection  with  the  poems  of  Tibullus  on  account  of  its 
subject.  The  other  poems  of  Book  IV  have  for  their  sub- 
ject the  love  of  Messalla's  niece  Sulpicia  for  a  young 
Greek  named  Cerinthus.  The  five  elegies 
numbered  viii-xii  are  by  Sulpicia  to  Cerin- 
thus. These  are  very  short  poems — none  having  more 
than  eight  lines — but  they  express  genuine  feeling  in 
beautiful  form,  though  without  delicacy  or  reserve.  The 
seventh  elegy — of  ten  lines — seems  rather  to  be  by  Tibul- 
lus than  Sulpicia.  Elegies  ii-vi  and  xiii  are  apparently  by 
Tibullus,  and  the  epigram  of  four  lines,  with  which  the 
book  closes,  is  of  doubtful  authorship. 

The  elegies  of  Tibullus  are  less  learned  than  those 
of  his  contemporaries.  They  contain  many  mythological 
allusions,  but  these  are  simply  expressed  and  do  not  form 
too  large  a  part  of  the  poems.  The  sentiments  expressed 
are  not  virile  or  powerful,  but  gentle  and  pensive.  Tibul- 
lus loves  the  life  of  the  country  and  hates  war ;  he  feels 
deeply  the  woes  that  oppress  the  lover;  the  thought  of 
death  weighs  upon  him ;  but  love  is  ever  in  his  heart. 
His  poems  are  masterpieces  of  expression  and  versification, 
though  they  lack  the  fire  of  passionate  emotion.  Two 
brief  selections l  from  the  third  elegy  of  Book  I  may  give 
at  least  some  idea  of  the  quality  of  his  sentiment : 

While  you,  Messalla,  plough  th'  ^Egean  sea, 
O  sometimes  kindly  deign  to  think  of  me ; 

1 1,  iii,  1-9,  53-56,  translated  by  James  Grainger. 


134  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

Me,  hapless  me,  Phaaacian  shores  detain, 
Unknown,  unpitied,  and  oppressed  with  pain. 
Yet  spare  me,  Death,  ah,  spare  me  and  retire ; 
No  weeping  mother's  here  to  light  my  pyre ; 
Here  is  no  sister,  with  a  sister's  woe, 
Rich  Syrian  odors  on  the  pile  to  throw; 
But  chief,  my  soul's  soft  partner  is  not  here, 
Her  locks  to  loose,  and  sorrow  o'er  my  bier. 

So  the  poem  begins.  The  poet  laments  his  enforced 
delay  at  Corcyra,  where  he  is  detained  by  illness.  There 
follows  a  list  of  the  bad  omens  that  warned  Tibullus  not 
to  set  out  from  Rome,  then  a  prayer  to  Isis  for  aid.  A 
brief  description  of  the  Golden  Age  is  introduced,  and  the 
poet  prays  that  Jove  may  grant  him  life : 

But,  if  the  Sisters  have  pronounced  my  doom, 
Inscribed  be  these  upon  my  humble  tomb : 
"Lo!  hereinurn'd  a  youthful  poet  lies, 
Far  from  his  Delia  and  his  native  skies, 
Far  from  the  lov'd  Messalla,  whom  to  please 
Tibullus  followed  over  land  and  seas." 

The  remainder  of  the  poem  consists  of  a  description  of 
the  lower  world  and  an  appeal  to  Delia.  No  translation 
can  render  exactly  the  qualities  of  expression  which  make 
Tibullus  one  of  the  greatest  among  the  lesser  Roman 
poets.  It  is  only  after  repeated  reading  of  his  poems  that 
one  learns  to  appreciate  the  lightness  of  touch  and  the 
technical  perfection  of  this  sweet  singer  of  soft  themes. 

Sextus  Propertius  was  born  in  Umbria,  probably  at 
Asisium  (Assisi),  about  50  B.  c.,  for  he  was  younger  than 
Tibullus  and  older  than  Ovid,  whose  birth  was  in  43  B.  c. 
His  family  was  of  some  importance  and  must  have  been 
wealthy,  for  although  Propertius,  whose  father  was  al- 
ready dead,  lost  part  of  his  property  in  the 
us*  confiscations  of  41  B.  c.,  enough  remained  to 
support  him  and  give  him  a  good  education.  His  mother 
took  him  to  Rome,  where  he  studied  law  for  a  short  time, 


PROPERTIUS  135 

but  abandoned  it  for  the  pursuit  of  poetry.  After  the 
publication  of  the  first  book  of  his  elegies,  Propertius  was 
introduced  to  Maecenas,  to  whom  he  afterward  addressed 
two  poems  (II,  i ;  and  III,  ix).  He  appears,  however,  to 
have  been  less  intimate  with  him  than  were  Horace  and 
Virgil.  Propertius  nowhere  mentions  Horace,  and  if 
Horace  refers  to  him  at  all  it  is  without  mentioning  his 
name.  He  was  a  warm  admirer  of  Virgil  and  a  friend  of 
Ovid.  Little  is  known  of  his  life,  and  it  is  only  because 
his  poems  contain  no  allusions  to  events  later  than  16  B.  c. 
that  his  death  is  supposed  to  have  taken  place  about  15 
B.C.  From  two  passages  in  the  letters  of  the  younger 
Pliny,  in  which  a  certain  Passenus  Paullus  is  said  to  be 
descended  from  Propertius,  it  appears  that  the  poet  mar- 
ried and  left  at  least  one  child. 

Propertius  is  a  poet  of  love,  who  expresses  as  few  poets 
have  done  the  tender  emotions  of  the  heart.  His  poems 
are  passionate  and  sensual,  without  the  pen- 
sive  melancholy  of  Tibullus  or  the  frivolity  of 
Ovid.  The  object  of  his  love  is  Cynthia, 
whose  real  name  was  Hostia.  She  was  a  courtesan,  but 
educated  and  refined  in  taste,  beautiful  and  attractive. 
She  it  was  who  inspired  his  first  poems,  and  only  in  the 
last  book  does  she  cease  to  be  the  chief  theme  of  his 
verses.  The  poems  are  handed  down  to  us  in  four  books, 
the  second  of  which  is,  however,  made  up  of  two  incom- 
plete books.  The  appearance  of  the  first  book  made  Pro- 
pertius famous  and  introduced  him  to  the  circle  of  Mae- 
cenas. Naturally  Maecenas  wished  him  to  sing  the  praises 
of  Augustus  and  the  Koman  Empire,  and  from  this  time 
Cynthia  is  no  longer  the  exclusive  subject  of  his  poems. 
In  the  fourth  book  (the  fifth  in  many  editions)  there  are 
four  poems  on  Eoman  antiquities,  in  imitation  of  the  Ama 
( Causes)  of  Callimachus.  Love  is,  however,  throughout  the 
subject  to  which  Propertius  naturally  turns.  His  poems 
are  full  of  learned  mythological  allusions,  and  the  situa- 
10 


136  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

tions  described  or  depicted  are  doubtless  for  the  most 
part  imaginary,  yet  the  passionate  nature  of  the  poet's 
love  is  manifest  through  all  his  learning  and  his  invention. 
Even  though  he  did  not  pass  through  all  the  hopes  and 
fears,  the  changes  of  love  and  hate,  the  joy  and  sorrow, 
the  jealousy  and  the  reconciliations  which  the  poems  de- 
pict with  such  wealth  of  illustration  and  such  beauty  of 
language,  he  knew  as  few  have  known  them  the  varying 
passions  of  the  lover's  heart.  For  the  modern  reader  his 
passion  is  too  sensuous  and  his  erudition  too  obtrusive ; 
but  the  genuine  feeling  expressed  makes  his  poems  beau- 
tiful in  spite  of  occasional  coarseness  and  constant  display 
of  mythological  learning.  Propertius  is  remarkable  for 
the  sonorous  richness  of  his  lines,  and  in  the  technical 
execution  of  his  verse  he  is  careful  and  accurate.  His 
earlier  poems  admit  words  of  three  and  four  syllables 
at  the  end  of  the  pentameter  without  scruple,  but  in 
the  later  poems  the  pentameter  usually  ends  with  a  word 
of  two  syllables,  showing  that  Propertius  was  disposed 
to  follow  Ovid's  rule  in  this  particular.  Like  other 
Koman  poets,  Propertius  is  professedly  an  imitator  of 
the  Greeks.  Those  whom  he  claims  to  imitate  especially 
are  Callimachus  and  Philetas,  both  poets  of  the  Alexan- 
drian period. 

One  of  the  shortest  of  his  poems,  free  alike  from 
coarseness  and  display  of  learning,  is  the  following,  on 
Cynthia's  absence  : 

Why  ceaselessly  my  fancied  sloth  upbraid, 
As  still  at  conscious  Rome  by  love  delay'd? 
Wide  as  the  Po  from  Hypanis  is  spread 
The  distance  that  divides  her  from  my  bed. 
No  more  with  fondling  arms  she  folds  me  round, 
Nor  in  my  ear  her  dulcet  whispers  sound. 
Once  I  was  dear ;  nor  e'er  could  lover  burn 
With  such  a  tender  and  a  true  return. 
Yes — I  was  envied — hath  some  god  above 
Crush'd  me?  or  magic  herb  that  severs  love, 


LESSER  AUGUSTAN  POETS  137 

Gather'd  on  Caucasus,  be  witch 'd  my  flame  ?   • 

Nymphs  change  by  distance ;  I'm  no  more  the  same. 

Oh,  what  a  love  has  fleeted  like  the  wind, 

And  left  no  vestige  of  its  trace  behind ! 

Now  sad  I  count  the  ling'ring  nights  alone ; 

And  my  own  ears  are  startled  by  my  groan. 

Happy !  the  youth  who  weeps,  his  mistress  nigh ; 

Love  with  such  tears  has  mingled  ecstasy : 

Blest,  who,  when  scorned,  can  change  his  passing  heat; 

The  pleasures  of  translated  bonds  are  sweet. 

I  can  no  other  love ;  nor  hence  depart ; 

For  Cynthia,  first  and  last,  is  mistress  of  my  heart.1 

In  an  age  of  great  poets  many  lesser  poets  are  sure  to 
be  found.  Ovid,  in  one  of  his  letters,2  mentions  twenty- 
Lesser  three  poets  of  the  Augustan  age,  and  his  list 
Augustan  is  not  exhaustive.  Little  is  known  of  these 
poets.  lesser  writers,  and  few  of  their  works  are  pre- 
served, even  in  fragments.  Domitius  Marsus,  who  lived 
from  about  54  to  about  4  B.  c.,  and  belonged  to  the  circle 
of  Maecenas,  wrote  a  series  of  epigrams,  entitled  Cicuta 
(poisonous  hemlock),  which  enjoyed  considerable  reputa- 
tion, some  elegies  on  Melaenis,  an  epic  poem  on  the  Ama- 
zons, and  a  treatise  De  Urbanitate  (on  refinement  of  ex- 
pression). Albinovanus  Pedo  was  also  an  author  of  epi- 
grams and  an  epic  poet.  One  of  his  epics,  the  Theseis, 
narrated  the  deeds  of  Theseus,  another  gave  an  account 
of  a  voyage  to  the  ocean,  probably  the  voyage  of  German- 
icus,  in  16  B.  c.  A  fragment  of  twenty-three  lines  con- 
tains a  vivid  description  of  the  stranding  of  some  vessels 
in  the  night,  which  shows  that  the  author  was  a  poet  of 
some  ability.  Of  a  poem  on  hunting  (Cynegeticd)  by 
Grattius,  five  hundred  and  forty-one  hexameters  are  pre- 
served, which  show  little  poetic  merit.  Only  a  few  brief 
fragments  remain  of  a  poem  on  the  Egyptian  war  of 

1 1,  xii.    Elton's  translation.  8  Ex  Ponto,  IV,  xvi. 


138  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

Augustus,  by  Kabirius.  Cornelius  Severus  wrote  a  poem 
on  Eoman  history  (Res  Romance),  and  perhaps  other 
epics.  The  longest  extant  fragment  consists  of  twenty- 
five  lines  on  the  death  of  Cicero,  and  shows  rhetorical 
rather  than  poetic  ability.  Ovid's  friends,  Ponticus  and 
Macer,  and  several  others,  wrote  mythological  epics. 
Iambic  verses  were  composed  by  Bassus,  and  other  poets 
gained  more  or  less  reputation  for  various  kinds  of 
poetry. 

Gaius  Melissus,  a  freedman  of  Augustus,  from  Spo- 
letum,  was  by  profession  a  librarian.  He  was  the  origina- 
tor of  the  fdbula  trabeata,  named  from  the 
trdbea,  the  distinctive  costume  of  the  eques- 
trian rank.  This  was  a  national  comedy,  dif- 
fering from  the  fdbula  togata  of  Titinius  and  Atta  (see 
page  29)  in  the  rank  of  the  persons  represented,  for  the 
fdbula  togata  had  chosen  its  characters  from  the  lower 
classes,  while  the  fdbula  trabeata  was  a  comedy  of  high 
life.  Its  popularity  was  brief,  and  it  disappeared,  leaving 
hardly  a  trace  of  its  existence.  Melissus  also  made  a  col- 
lection of  humorous  tales  (Ineptiai)  in  one  hundred  and 
fifty  books,  and  appears  to  have  been  the  author  of  some 
learned  treatises. 

A  poem  on  astronomy  and  astrology  (Astronomicd), 
ascribed  in   some   of  the  manuscripts  to   an  otherwise 

unknown  Marcus  or  Gaius  Manilius,  is  a  di- 
Manilms.  . 

dactic  poem  of  unusual  merit.     As  preserved 

it  consists  of  five  books,  the  last  of  which  is  incomplete. 
If,  as  is  probable,  a  sixth  book  once  existed,  the  whole 
work  contained  about  five  thousand  lines.  Even  in  its 
present  condition  it  is  the  longest  didactic  Latin  poem 
except  the  De  Rerum  Natura  of  Lucretius.  The  poem  is, 
as  a  whole,  rather  uninteresting,  but  contains  passages  of 
great  vigor,  showing  independence  of  thought  and  re- 
markable power  of  expression.  The  author  has  an  easy 
mastery  of  hexameter  verse,  in  which  he  is  superior  to 


LESSER  AUGUSTAN  POETS  139 

Lucretius ;  but  with  all  his  skill  in  versification,  his  ear- 
nestness, his  learning,  and  his  originality,  he  can  not  en- 
tirely overcome  the  prosaic  nature  of  his  subject.  The 
poem  is  uneven,  at  times  prosaic,  sometimes  rhetorical, 
not  often,  if  ever,  rising  to  lofty  heights  of  poetic  fancy, 
but  serious  and  thoughtful.  A  large  part  of  it  is  occupied 
with  astrology,  and  other  portions  describe  the  heavenly 
bodies.  In  the  introductions  to  the  several  books,  and  in 
digressions,  theories  concerning  the  origin  of  the  world, 
the  nature  of  man,  and  the  power  of  fate  are  introduced, 
showing  that  the  author  accepts  in  the  main  the  Stoic 
doctrines  as  opposed  to  the  Epicurean  teachings  of  Lucre- 
tius. So  he  maintains  that  the  world  is  not  the  product 
of  blind  forces  but  of  a  divine  will  : 

Who  can  believe  that  masses  of  such  size 

Were  formed  from  particles  without  God's  aid, 

And  that  the  world  did  blindly  come  to  pass  ? 

If  mere  Chance  gave  it  us,  let  mere  Chance  rule. 

But  why  do  we  perceive  in  stated  turn 

The  constellations  rise  and,  as  it  were 

By  order  giv'n,  run  through  their  course  prescribed, 

Nor  any  hastening  leave  the  rest  behind  ? 

Why  do  the  selfsame  stars  adorn  the  nights 

Of  summer  ever,  and  the  selfsame  stars 

The  winter  nights  ?     And  why  does  every  day 

Return  the  world  its  form  and  leave  it  fixed  ?  * 

Various  mythological  tales  are  inserted  with  a  view 
to  enlivening  the  poem,  but  the  author  lacks  narrative 
skill.  The  most  elaborate  of  these  episodes,  in  which  the 
story  of  Perseus  and  Andromeda  is  told,2  shows,  how- 
ever, good  descriptive  ability  and  lively  rhetoric.  Ma- 
nilius  is  not  a  great  poet,  but  he  treats,  not  without  suc- 
cess, a  subject  new  to  Roman  poetry,  and  shows  him- 

1  Book  i,  499-507.    The  same  subject  is  continued  through  line 
530. 

3  Book  v,  540-610. 


14:0  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

self  to  be  a  man  of  original  power  of  mind  and  of  serious 

purpose.     With  all  its  defects,  the  Astronomica  has  also 

great  merits. 

Many  Augustan  poets  are  known  by  name  whose  works 

have  perished.     On  the  other  hand,  some  poems  by  un- 
known authors  are  preserved.     A  curious  col- 

Priapea.  ,      , .  „     .    ,  . 

lection  of  eighty  short  poems  m  elegiac  and 

lyric  metres,  all  addressed  to  the  god  Priapus,  or  at  least 
written  with  reference  to  him,  belongs  for  the  most  part 
to  this  period.  Statues  of  Priapus,  the  god  of  gardens 
and  of  fruitfulness  of  all  sorts,  were  set  up  in  public  parks, 
in  orchards,  and  other  places,  and  most  of  the  Priapea^  as 
these  short  poems  are  called,  are  supposed  to  have  been 
inscribed  upon  or  affixed  to  such  statues.  Many  of  the 
poems  are  extremely  indecent,  but  many  are  well  written 
and  witty. 

Far  more  interesting  than  the  Priapea  are  the  poems 
falsely  ascribed  to  Virgil,  and  contained  in  manuscripts 
of  his  works.  Three  of  these  are  "  epyllia," 
or  short  epics,  composed,  like  Virgil's  genuine 
works,  in  hexameter  verse.  The  first,  entitled  Culex, 
"  The  Gnat,"  tells  in  four  hundred  and  fourteen  lines 
how  a  herdsman,  lying  asleep  in  the  noonday  heat,  was 
on  the  point  of  being  killed  by  a  poisonous  serpent,  when 
a  gnat  stung  him,  and,  by  arousing  him  to  his  danger, 
saved  his  life.  As  he  awoke,  the  herdsman  killed  the 
gnat,  whose  soul  afterward  appears  to  him  in  a  dream 
and  reproaches  him.  Finally  the  herdsman  erects  a 
funeral  mound  in  honor  of  the  gnat.  The  poem  is  a 
mock  epic,  intended  to  be  humorous,  but  is  not  very  suc- 
cessful. In  versification  it  shows  great  similarity  to  the 
genuine  works  of  Virgil,  but  also  in  some  respects  to 
those  of  Ovid.  A  poem  entitled  Culex  is  ascribed  to 
Virgil's  youthful  days  by  Martial  and  Statius,  but  the 
metrical  qualities  of  the  existing  poem  show  that  it  can 
not  have  been  written  until  a  later  date.  Either,  there- 


POEMS  ASCRIBED  TO  VIRGIL  141 

fore,  Martial  and  Statius  were  mistaken,  or  this  is  not 
the  poem  to  which  they  refer. 

The  second  piece,  entitled  Ciris^  is  a  little  longer  than 
the  Culex.  This  poem,  evidently  written  by  some  mem- 
Ciris  ker  °f  ^ne  circle  of  Messalla,  tells  the  story  of 

Scylla,  who  caused  the  death  of  her  father, 
Nisus,  and  betrayed  her  native  town,  on  account  of  her 
love  for  Minos,  the  leader  of  an  invading  army.  She  was 
dragged  through  the  water  at  the  stern  of  a  vessel,  but 
the  gods  pitied  her  and  changed  her  into  a  seabird  called 
ciris.  Her  father  was  restored  to  life  and  made  a  sea 
eagle.  The  third  poem,  the  Moretum  (the  word  denotes 

Moretum  a  sor^  °^  sa^a<^  ea^en  ^J  the  peasants),  con- 
tains only  one  hundred  and  twenty-four  lines. 
It  is  a  slight  poem,  idyllic  in  character,  and  admirably 
written.  It  describes  how  a  poor  peasant  and  his  slave,  a 
negress,  make  the  moretum  in  the  early  morning.  This 
poem  is  said  to  be  an  imitation  of  a  Greek  original  by 
Parthenius.  It  is  possible,  though  not  probable,  that  it  is 
Co  a  by  Virgil.  The  fourth  poem  is  the  Copa 

(barmaid),  consisting  of  only  thirty-eight  lines 
of  elegiac  verse.  It  has  to  do  with  the  barmaid  of  a  way- 
side tavern,  and  is  clever  and  interesting,  but  has  none  of 
the  qualities  of  Virgil's  poems.  It  belongs,  however, 
without  doubt,  to  the  Augustan  period.  The  DITCB,  which 
is  also  included  in  the  manuscripts  of  Virgil,  belongs,  as 
has  been  said  (page  63),  to  an  earlier  time,  and  the  JEtna, 
belongs  to  the  subsequent  period.  This  con- 
sists of  six  hundred  and  forty-six  hexameters, 
describing  volcanic  eruptions,  and  attempting  to  account 
for  them.  It  has  little  poetic  merit,  but  shows  that  even 
an  indifferent  poet  could  write  good  hexameters.  The 
remaining  short  poems  ascribed  to  Virgil  are  of  little 
interest  or  importance,  though  one  of  them — a  comic  ode 
in  honor  of  an  old  muleteer — is  an  excellent  parody  of 
the  poem  of  Catullus  addressed  to  his  old  yacht. 


142  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

The  elegy  entitled  Nux  (nut  tree),  and  the  Consolatio 
ad  Liviam  (Consolation  to  Li  via),  both  ascribed  to  Ovid, 
Nux  are  imitations  by  writers  of  a  slightly  later 

Consolatio  time,  and  have  little  merit.  The  Nux  is  the 
ad  Liviam.  complaint  of  a  tree  on  account  of  the  bad 
treatment  it  receives  from  passers-by.  The  Consolatio  ad 
Liviam  purports  to  be  addressed  to  Livia,  wife  of  Augus- 
tus, on  the  death  of  her  son  Drusus,  in  9  B.  o. 


CHAPTER    XI 

OVID 

Ovid,  43  B.  C.-18  A.  D. — His  life — Poems  of  love — Fasti — Metamor- 
phoses— Poems  written  after  his  banishment — His  qualities  and  in- 
fluence. 

PTJBLIUS  OVIDIUS  NASO  was  born  at  Sulmo,  in  the 
country  of  the  Paeligni,  in  43  B.  c.,  on  the  20th  of  March. 

He   belonged  to  a  wealthy  equestrian  fam- 
Life  of  Ovid.       -  .  ,    ,  .   -1  ,  _       ,       , . 

ily  and  received,  along  with  his  elder  brother, 

a  good  education  at  Some,  practising  rhetoric  under 
Arellius  Fuscus  and  Porcius  Latro.  He  also  studied  at 
Athens,  and  at  some  time  traveled  with  the  poet  Macer  in 
Asia  and  Sicily.  After  assuming  the  toga  virilis  he  held 
two  of  the  minor  offices  incidental  to  the  beginning  of 
the  senatorial  career,  and  was  employed  as  arbitrator  in 
private  cases.  But  in  spite  of  his  father's  remonstrances, 
he  withdrew  from  public  life  and  devoted  himself  to  poet- 
ry. This  decision  was,  according  to  his  own  statement, 
due  in  part  to  his  delicate  physique,  but  the  chief  reason 
was  probably  his  love  of  poetry  and  pleasure,  and  his  aver- 
sion to  serious  affairs.  His  social  position  was  excellent. 
He  was  intimate  with  Messalla  and  his  circle,  and  had 
many  friends  among  the  literary  men  of  the  capital.  Vir- 
gil, he  says,  he  only  saw,  but  he  was  intimate  with  Tibul- 
lus,  Propertius,  Ponticus,  and  Bassus.  He  was  married 
three  times.  His  first  wife,  whom  he  married  in  his  early 
youth,  was  "  neither  worthy  nor  useful,"  *  and  he  was  soon 
separated  from  the  second  also,  though  he  charges  her  with 

1  Tristia,  IV,  x,  69. 

143 


144  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

no  fault.  His  third  wife,  of  the  Fabian  family,  remained 
faithful  to  him,  and  he  to  her.  He  had  one  daughter, 
who  in  turn  had  two  children.  His  life  of  ease  and  social 
pleasure  at  Eome  was  brought  to  a  sudden  close  in  8  A.  D. 
by  an  imperial  edict  banishing  him  to  Tomi,  on  the  shore 
of  the  Pontus  (Black  Sea).  "  Two  charges,"  he  writes, 
"  wrought  my  ruin,  a  poem  and  an  error,  but  I  must  be 
silent  about  the  fault  of  one  of  these  acts.  I  am  not  im- 
portant enough  to  renew  thy  wounds,  Caesar,  since  it  is 
more  than  enough  that  thou  hast  suffered  once.  The 
other  part  remains,  in  which,  as  author  of  a  vile  poem,  I 
am  charged  with  being  a  teacher  of  obscene  adultery." 1 
The  poem  referred  to  can  be  no  other  than  the  Ars  Ama- 
toria ;  but  this  was  published  ten  years  before  the  poet's 
banishment.  The  real  cause  of  his  sentence  must  be 
sought  in  the  charge  about  which  he  keeps  silence  through 
fear  of  wounding  Augustus.  Perhaps  he  was  privy  to  an 
intrigue  between  Julia,  the  granddaughter  of  Augustus, 
and  Decimus  Silanus.  Ovid  remained  in  banishment  at 
Tomi  until  his  death,  in  18  A.  D. 

Ovid's  poems  fall  into  three  divisions :  poems  of  love, 
in  elegiac  metre,  the  works  of  his  earlier  years ;  antiqua- 
rian and  mythological  poems  (the  Fasti,  in  ele- 
Ovid's  poems.      .  f  °         r  v  . 

giacs,  and  the  Metamorphoses,  in  hexameters), 

written  before  his  banishment ;  and  the  poems  written,  in 
elegiac  verse,  at  Tomi.  The  exact  chronological  order  of 
the  love  poems  is  hard  to  fix,  as  the  first  series  of  elegies,  the 
Amores,  appeared  in  two  editions,  at  first  in  five  books, 
later  in  three.  The  later  edition  is  preserved.  Most  of  these 
elegies  were  probably  written  between  22  and  15  B.  c.  The 
Heroides,  letters  from  mythical  heroines  to  their  absent 
husbands  or  lovers,  were  written  soon  after  the  Amores, 
then  followed  the  poem  On  the  Care  of  the  Face  (De  Medi- 
camine  Faciei),  then  the  Ars  Amatoria  (The  Art  of  Love) 

1  Tristia,  II,  107  flE. 


OVID  145 

and  the  Remedia  Amoris  (Cures  for  Love).  The  last  two 
seem  to  have  been  published  between  the  beginning  of  1 
B.  c.  and  the  end  of  1  A.  D.,  but  need  not  have  been  entirely 
written  in  the  space  of  those  two  years. 

The  three  books  of  the  Amores  contain  forty-nine 
elegies,  nearly  all  of  which  are  love  poems.     Among  the 

comparatively  small  number  on  other  sub- 
The  Amores.      .  L    •    ±         .• 

jects  the  best  known  and  most  interesting 

are  the  elegy  on  the  death  of  Tibullus  (III,  ix)  and  the 
description  of  a  festival  of  Juno  (III,  xiii).  The  love 
poems  are  in  great  part  addressed  to  Corinna,  who  seems 
to  be  a  mere  figment  of  the  poet's  imagination,  not,  like 
the  Lesbia  of  Catullus,  the  Delia  of  Tibullus,  and  the  Cyn- 
thia of  Propertius,  a  real  person  under  a  fictitious  name. 
Ovid's  love  poems  are  not  expressions  of  his  own  feelings 
for  any  individual,  but  the  means  by  which  he  exhibits  his 
astonishing  facility  in  versification  and  his  lively  imagina- 
tion. From  beginning  to  end  the  poems  show  an  utter 
lack  of  serious  purpose.  All  the  vicissitudes  of  a  long 
love  affair  are  treated  with  equal  lightness  and  grace. 
Corinna  is  ill,  she  goes  away,  she  receives  a  letter,  to 
which  she  replies  unfavorably,  her  parrot  dies,  and  her 
lover  laments  it  in  an  elegy ;  but  nowhere  does  any  real 
feeling  make  itself  manifest.  The  poet  seems  to  wish  to 
give  a  complete  series  of  pictures  of  the  feelings  and  con- 
duct of  a  lover  under  all  possible  circumstances,  and  his 
lively  imagination  plays  lightly  with  all  the  varying  phases 
of  passion,  but  it  is  all  play.  Some  of  the  poems  are  based 
upon  Greek  originals,  many  contain  mythological  allu- 
sions, a  few  are  heavy  with  Alexandrian  learning,  some 
are  harmlessly  sportive,  others  extremely  indecent,  but  all 
alike  are  masterly  in  technical  execution,  and  empty  of  real 
sentiment.  In  these,  his  earliest  poems,  Ovid  is  already 
the  most  brilliant  of  Eoman  elegists.  The  easy  flow  of 
his  verse  is  admirable.  The  rules  that  each  distich  must 
form  a  complete  sentence,  or  at  least  express  an  independ- 


146  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

ent  thought,  and  that  each  pentameter  must  end  with  a 
word  of  two  syllables,  give  great  uniformity  to  the  cadence 
of  the  verses,  but  in  spite  of  this  the  variety  of  expression 
and  the  clever  rhetoric  employed  preserve  the  poems  from 
monotony.  Only  the  sameness  of  subject  and  the  lack  of 
real  feeling  make  the  Amores  tedious  to  the  modern 
reader. 

The  subject  of  the  Amores  is  continued  in  the  Heroi- 
des,  but  in  a  different  form.  Here  the  elegies  are  suppoced 

u  TT     -j       to  be  letters  from  fifteen  famous  women  of 
The  Heroides.  .     .. 

antiquity — Penelope,    Briseis,    Phaedra,    and 

others — to  their  absent  lovers  or  husbands.  The  form 
of  poetic  love-letter  was  known  to  the  Alexandrians  and 
had  been  employed  once  (IV,  iii)  by  Propertius,  but  was 
first  made  popular  at  Eome  by  Ovid,  who  was  also,  appar- 
ently, the  first  to  write  in  the  character  of  mythological 
persons.  Soon  after  the  publication  of  Ovid's  letters  from 
heroines,  replies  to  some,  at  least,  were  written  by  Sabi- 
nus.1  These  replies  are  lost,  but  at  the  end  of  the  Hero- 
ides  we  now  have  three  pairs  of  letters.  Paris,  Leander, 
and  Acontius  write  respectively  to  Helen,  Hero,  and 
Cydippe,  and  each  woman  writes  a  reply.  These  six  let- 
ters are  so  nearly  in  the  style  of  Ovid  that  only  careful 
study  has  led  the  best  critics  to  the  opinion  that  they  are 
not  his  work,  but  clever  imitations  by  some  unknown  con- 
temporary. In  the  Heroides,  as  in  the  six  letters  just 
mentioned,  the  fact  that  the  writers  are  well-known 
mythological  persons  lends  an  interest  and  a  dramatic 
quality  to  the  poems,  which  is  wanting  in  the  Amores,  but 
the  general  character  of  the  work  remains  the  same. 

The  book  On  the  Care  of  the  Face  is  imperfectly  pre- 
served, for  it  breaks  off  after  one  hundred  lines.  The 
introduction  compares  the  highly  developed  culture  of 
the  Augustan  period  with  the  rough  simplicity  of  earlier 

1  Ovid,  Amores  II,  xviii,  27  if. 


OVID  14:7 

times.     The  maids  and  matrons  of  old  may  not  have 
bestowed  any  care  upon  their  personal  beauty,  but  the 

Roman  girls  of  the  present  must  act  differ- 
On  th.8  Csre  i  i  t 
of  the  Face  en^y»  since  even  the  men  are  no  longer  care- 
less of  their  persons.  To  be  sure,  the  charac- 
ter is  more  important  than  personal  beauty,  for  character 
remains  while  beauty  is  fleeting.  Up  to  this  point  the 
poem  is  attractive,  but  the  remainder,  consisting  of  reci- 
pes for  cosmetics,  with  accurate  directions  concerning 
weights  and  measures  of  the  various  ingredients,  is  so  un- 
interesting that  the  loss  of  the  latter  part  of  the  poem  is 
hardly  to  be  regretted. 

The  Art  of  Love  is  one  of  the  most  immoral  poems  in 
existence.     The  first  book  gives  instruction  to  young  men 
to  aid  them  in  finding  and  seducing  desirable 
®    r  mistresses,  the  second  tells  them  how  to  keep 

the  girls'  affection,  and  the  third  instructs 
girls  in  the  art  of  gaining  lovers.  The  love  of  which  Ovid 
writes  is  mere  sensual  passion,  not  the  union  of  souls,  and 
his  three  books  of  systematic  instruction  in  the  arts  of 
seduction  would  be  utterly  tedious  were  they  not  enli- 
vened by  some  striking  descriptive  passages  and  myths,  as 
well  as  by  sententious  lines  of  worldly  wisdom.  A  remark- 
able passage  in  the  first  book1  celebrates  the  praise  of 
Roman  greatness  and  of  Augustus,  in  order  to  lead  up  to 
the  mention  of  a  triumphal  procession ;  and  this  is  men- 
tioned, because  in  the  crowd  of  spectators  the  young  man 
may  scrape  acquaintance  with  a  girl.  Of  the  Roman 
women  at  the  theatre,  Ovid  says : 

Spectatum  veniunt,  veniunt  spectentur  ut  ipsce, 
They  come  to  see,  and  to  be  seen  themselves,  . 

and  many  other  lines  show  keen  observation,  knowledge 
of  humanity,  and  no  little  humor ;  but,  in  spite  of  these 

1  Lines  177  ff. 


148  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

beauties  of  detail,  the  poem  is,  as  a  whole,  so  uninteresting 
that  its  immorality  has  probably  done  little  harm. 

The  Cure  of  Love  offers  various  means  for  freeing  one- 
self from  the  bonds  of  passion.     Activity  and  travel  are 
recommended  ;  the  lover  who  longs  for  free- 
®   l  dom  is  advised  to  consider  the  faults  of  his 


mistress,  and  the  expense  she  causes  him  ;  he 
is  told  to  make  her  show  her  faults  ;  is  urged  to  fall  in 
love  with  another,  to  avoid  reminders  of  the  beloved  when 
she  is  absent,  and  to  shun  poetry,  music,  and  the  dance. 
All  this  is  uninteresting  enough  ;  but  this  poem,  like  the 
Ars  Amatoria,  contains  many  fine  details.  The  Remedia 
Amoris  is  the  last  of  Ovid's  poems  on  the  subject  of  love. 
From  beginning  to  end  his  love  poems  show  the  greatest 
ease  and  fluency  of  expression,  superb  mastery  of  tech- 
nique, much  imagination,  wit,  and  humor,  but  an  almost 
absolute  lack  of  real  feeling  and  serious  purpose. 

With  the  Fasti,  or  calendar  of  Roman  festivals,  Ovid's 
poetry  becomes  more  serious.  When  this  work  was  begun 
Th.  F  ti  can  no^  ^e  Determined,  but  it  probably  occu- 

pied part  of  the  poet's  time  for  several  years. 
The  description  of  the  festival  of  Juno  in  the  Amores 
(III,  xiii)  shows  an  interest  in  religious  ritual,  and  it  may 
be  that  Ovid  conceived  the  idea  of  writing  the  Fasti  even 
before  the  Ars  Amatoria  was  published.  However  that 
may  be,  the  Fasti  never  reached  completion.  The  poem 
as  planned  was  to  consist  of  twelve  books,  one  for  each 
month  of  the  year,  and  was  dedicated  to  Augustus  ;  but, 
when  six  books  had  been  written,  the  work  was  interrupted 
by  Ovid's  banishment.  After  the  death  of  Augustus, 
Ovid  began  a  revision  of  the  poem,  and  prefixed  to  it  a 
dedication  to  Germanicus;  but  the  revision  progressed 
no  further  than  the  first  book.  As  this  book  contains 
references  to  events  as  late  as  17  A.  D.,  the  entire  work 
as  we  possess  it  must  have  been  published  after  Ovid's 
death. 


OVID  149 

Poetic  descriptions  of  festivals,  with  accounts  of  their 
origin,  had  been  written  by  the  Alexandrians,  notably  by 
Callimachus,  and  four  elegies  of  Propertius  (see  p.  135)  had 
introduced  such  subjects  into  Roman  poetry.  Ovid  under- 
took to  treat  systematically  all  the  Roman  festivals,  arran- 
ging them  according  to  the  days  on  which  they  occurred. 
This  arrangement  often  causes  related  myths  to  be  widely 
separated,  and  the  same  myth  to  be  treated  in  several 
places,  thus  destroying  the  poetic  unity  of  the  work.  The 
poet  is  also  obliged  by  his  subject  to  regard  the  astronom- 
ical as  well  as  the  antiquarian  aspects  of  the  calendar,  and 
this  double  interest  destroys  the  harmony  of  the  poem. 
Ovid  was  not  a  careful  student  of  astronomy,  and  the 
astronomical  parts  of  his  work  contain  some  serious  mis- 
takes ;  but  they  are  interesting  on  account  of  their  clear 
descriptions,  their  variety  of  expression,  and  the  myths 
connected  with  the  stars  which  are  introduced.  The  days 
that  mark  important  events  in  Roman  history  are  treated 
with  especial  fulness,  and  the  poet  takes  every  opportu- 
nity for  the  expression  of  patriotic  sentiments,  and  for  the 
praise  of  Augustus  and  the  Julian  family.  The  descrip- 
tions of  festivals  are  lively  and  beautiful  pictures  of 
Roman  life.  Events  of  the  poet's  own  times,  or  of  the 
early,  mythical  period,  are  described  with  great  variety, 
sometimes  in  elaborate  detail,  sometimes  more  briefly,  but 
always  with  easy  and  attractive  grace.  The  causes  or 
origins  of  festivals  and  customs  are  introduced  in  various 
ways ;  sometimes  a  god  appears  and  reveals  them,  some- 
times they  are  narrated  by  a  friend  or  contemporary  of 
the  poet,  or  again  the  poet  tells  them  without  adducing 
any  authority.  The  Greek  myths  narrated  are  derived 
from  some  of  the  many  collections  of  such  material 
familiar  to  the  Romans  of  Ovid's  day ;  and  even  in  the 
matter  of  Roman  legends  Ovid  probably  made  no  original 
researches.  The  grammarian  Verrius  Flaccus  had  com- 
piled a  prose  calendar,  with  explanations  of  the  established 


150  EOMAN  LITERATURE 

customs  pertaining  to  each  day,  and  it  is  probably  from 
this  that  Ovid  derived  much  of  his  antiquarian  lore.  The 
books  from  which  Ovid  derived  his  information  are  lost, 
and  his  work  is  now  one  of  the  chief  sources  from  which 
we  can  gain  knowledge  of  Roman  ritual,  belief,  religious 
antiquities,  and  even  topography,  for  Ovid  frequently 
mentions  the  relative  positions  of  temples  and  other 
buildings.  To  the  student  of  Roman  life  the  six  books 
of  the  Fasti  are  therefore  of  great  importance.  And 
their  importance  is  not  less  to  the  student  of  Roman 
poetry,  for  they  teem  with  beautiful  and  lively  descrip- 
tions and  interesting  stories,  and  the  patriotic  sentiments 
eloquently  expressed  in  several  passages  show  that  Ovid 
was  something  more  than  the  careless,  frivolous  writer  of 
corrupt  love  poems.  In  beauty  of  workmanship,  vivid- 
ness of  description,  and  fluent  grace  of  narrative,  many 
portions  of  the  Fasti  are  equal  to  any  works  of  Roman 
literature,  not  even  excepting  the  Metamorphoses  of  Ovid 
himself. 

The  fifteen  books  of  the  Metamorphoses  are  Ovid's 
greatest  achievement.     When  he  began  the  work  we  do 

not  know,  but,  according  to  his  own  state- 
morphosTs  ment,1  he  had  finished  it  at  the  time  of  his 

banishment,  though  he  had  not  revised  and 
perfected  it  to  his  own  satisfaction.  In  his  grief  he  put 
the  manuscript  in  the  fire  and  burned  it,  but  several 
copies  must  have  been  made,  so  the  work  survived.  The 
opening  lines  of  the  poem  explain  its  purpose : 

Of  forms  transmuted  into  bodies  new 

My  spirit  moves  to  tell.     Ye  gods  (for  ye 

Did  change  them),  lend  my  task  your  favoring  breath, 

And  to  my  times  continuous  lead  the  song. 

This  great  collection  of  myths  became  almost  imme- 
diately, and  has  remained  ever  since,  the  chief  source  of 

1  Tristia,  I,  vii,  13  ff. 


OVID  151 

popular  knowledge  of  mythology.  Poets  and  artists  alike 
have  drawn  their  conceptions  of  the  ancient  gods  and 
heroes  from  Ovid  even  more  than  from  Homer.  The 
myths  selected  are  those  in  which  a  metamorphosis,  or 
change  of  form,  takes  place.  Collections  of  the  same 
sort  had  been  made  by  several  Alexandrian  writers ;  but 
Ovid  was  apparently  the  first  to  arrange  these  stories  in 
continuous  order  from  the  beginning  of  the  world  to  his 
own  time.  The  astonishing  skill  with  which  the  transi- 
tion from  one  tale  to  the  next  is  accomplished,  the  rapid- 
ity and  fluency  of  the  narrative,  the  abundance  of  charm- 
ing descriptive  passages,  and  the  never-failing  variety  of 
expression,  make  this  one  of  the  most  remarkable  of 
poems.  The  number  of  stories  told  is  so  great  that  a 
list  of  them  would  be  tedious,  but  a  brief  mention  and 
characterization  of  some  of  the  more  important  among 
them  will  serve  to  show  the  scope  and  variety  of  the 
work. 

After  describing  the  creation,  Ovid  gives  an  account 
of  the  four  ages  (of  gold,  silver,  bronze,  and  iron)  of 
Contents  of  mankind's  deterioration  and  of  the  flood, 
the  Metamor-  from  which  only  Deucalion  and  Pyrrha  sur- 
phoses.  vived.  The  story  of  Phaethon's  attempt  to 

drive  the  chariot  of  the  Sun  is  told  with  great  animation, 
though  the  poet's  display  of  geographical  knowledge  is 
somewhat  out  of  place.  The  tale  of  the  founding  of 
Thebes  by  Cadmus  is  a  striking  example  of  narrative 
skill.  More  tragical  in  subject,  and  more  dramatic  in 
composition,  are  the  stories  of  Pentheus,  torn  in  pieces 
by  the  maddened  worshipers  of  Bacchus,  led  by  his  own 
mother  and  sisters,  and  of  Athamas,  who  is  driven  mad 
by  Juno  and  kills  his  eldest  son,  while  his  wife  Ino  casts 
herself,  with  her  son  Melicerta,  into  the  sea.  Between 
these  two  stories  are  several  less  dramatic  tales,  among 
them  the  sentimental  idyll  of  Pyramus  and  Thisbe,  which 
is  burlesqued  in  Shakespeare's  Midsummer  Night's  Dream. 
11 


152  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

The  deeds  of  Perseus,  his  rescue  of  Andromeda  from  the 
sea-monster,  their  wedding,  with  the  quarrel  that  arose, 
and  the  turning  into  stone  of  Perseus's  enemies  by  means 
of  the  terrible  Gorgon's  head,  are  narrated  with  vivid 
detail.  The  story  of  Proserpine,  carried  off  by  Pluto  and 
sought  all  over  the  world  by  her  mother  Ceres,  is  enriched 
and  retarded  by  the  insertion  of  all  manner  of  geograph- 
ical, antiquarian,  and  mythological  details.  The  tale  of 
the  pride  and  grief  of  Niobe  is  told  with  tragic  pathos. 
In  telling  of  Medea's  love  for  Jason,  Ovid  imitates  to 
some  extent  the  portrayal  of  her  mental  torments  given 
by  Apollonius  of  Ehodes,1  and  at  the  same  time  displays 
his  own  liking  for  rhetorical  argument.  The  adventures 
of  Cephalus  and  Procris,  Msus  and  Scylla,  Daedalus  and 
Icarus,  and  others,  are  more  simply  told.  The  story  of 
the  Calydonian  boar-hunt  and  the  death  of  Meleager, 
enables  Ovid  to  show  his  ability  in  description,  narrative, 
and  psychological  analysis.  The  charming  idyll  of  the 
pious  and  hospitable  rustics,  Philemon  and  Baucis,  rests 
the  mind  of  the  reader  after  the  preceding  tales  of  vio- 
lence. The  deeds  of  Hercules  follow,  then  the  story  of 
Orpheus,  in  which  are  inserted  numerous  tales,  as  if  told 
by  Orpheus  himself.  The  account  of  the  terrible  death 
of  Orpheus  is  followed  by  the  story  of  Midas,  who  turned 
all  things  to  gold  by  his  touch,  and  whose  ears  were 
changed  into  those  of  an  ass  because  he  declared  Pan  to 
be  a  better  musician  than  Apollo.  The  transformation 
of  Ceyx  and  Alcyone  into  sea-gulls  gives  the  poet  an 
opportunity  to  tell  of  and  praise  conjugal  fidelity.  The 
combat  of  the  centaurs  and  Lapithae  is  told  at  some 
length,  with  too  many  names  and  too  little  unity.  Many 
tales  are  told  in  connection  with  the  Trojan  war.  Among 
these,  the  strife  of  Ajax  and  Ulysses  for  the  armor  of 


1  Argonautica,  III,  750  ff.     Virgil,  ^Jneid,  IV,  522  ff.,  imitates 
Apollonius  more  closely. 


OVID  153 

Achilles  occupies  a  prominent  position,  and  Ovid  shows 
his  rhetorical  tendency  by  introducing  set  speeches  by 
the  two  rivals  in  support  of  their  claims.  With  the  fall 
of  Troy  and  the  escape  of  ^Eneas,  the  poem  begins  to  deal 
with  Eoman  rather  than  Greek  subjects.  The  earlier 
adventures  of  ^Eneas  and  others  after  the  fall  of  Troy 
are,  to  be  sure,  still  derived  from  Greek  sources,  but  the 
stories  of  the  combats  in  Italy  and  of  the  founding  of 
Eome  are  no  longer  Greek.  Near  the  end  of  the  poem 
the  Pythagorean  doctrine  of  the  transmigration  of  souls 
is  set  forth  in  considerable  detail.  Several  Eoman  stories 
follow,  and  at  last  comes  the  account  of  Julius  Caesar's 
ascent  to  the  gods,  and  a  prophecy  of  a  similar  fortune 
for  Augustus.  Then  the  poem  ends  with  the  lines  : 

And  now  my  work  is  done ;  which  not  Jove's  wrath, 
Nor  fire,  nor  sword,  nor  all-consuming  age 
Can  e'er  destroy.     Let  when  it  will  that  day, 
Which  only  o'er  this  body's  frame  has  power, 
Make  ending  of  my  life's  uncertain  space ; 
Yet  shall  the  better  part  of  me  be  borne 
Above  the  lofty  stars  through  countless  years, 
And  ever  undestroyed  shall  be  my  name. 
Where'er  the  Eoman  power  o'er  conquered  lands 
Extends,  shall  I  be  read  by  many  tongues, 
And  through  all  ages,  if  there's  aught  of  truth 
In  prophecies  of  bards,  my  fame  shall  live. 

Certainly  Ovid  had  written  a  most  remarkable  poem. 
At  times  the  lack  of  earnestness  so  noticeable  in  his  earlier 
works  appears  also  in  the  Metamorphoses,  but  frequently 
he  is  carried  along  by  his  subject  to  utterances  of  real 
power  and  pathos.  His  hexameters  have  not  the  swelling 
grandeur  of  Virgil's,  but  they  have  a  fluent  rapidity  and 
easy  grace  that  no  other  Latin  writer  ever  attained.  Nor 
does  any  other  Eoman  poet  equal  Ovid  in  the  art  of  tell- 
ing a  story.  He  is  a  master  of  direct,  simple  narrative 
and  of  clear,  vivid  description,  and  he  excels  also  in 


154  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

dramatic   presentation  and  in  the  analysis    of    human 
thoughts  and  feelings. 

In  the  Metamorphoses  Ovid's  power  is  at  its  height.  His 
later  poems,  written  after  his  banishment,  show  a  constant 
deterioration  in  every  respect,  even  in  technique.  The 
long  series  of  laments  over  his  exile  is  tedious  and  weari- 
some. The  five  books  entitled  Tristia  consist  of  elegies 
addressed  for  the  most  part  to  no  one  person,  while  the 
four  books  of  Letters  from  the  Pontus  (Ex  Ponto)  have 
the  form  of  real  letters  to  the  poet's  friends.  The  second 
book  of  the  Tristia  is  one  long  letter  of  appeal  to  Augus- 
tus. The  short  poem  entitled  IMs  is  an  elaborate  heap- 
ing up  of  curses  and  maledictions  against  an  enemy  to 
whom  the  fictitious  name  of  Ibis  is  given,  and  the  Halieu- 
tica  is  a  fragment  (134  lines)  of  a  poem  on  fishes.  Among 
all  these  poems  those  in  which  Ovid  refers  to  his  own  cir- 
cumstances are  the  most  interesting.  It  is  from  these1 
that  most  of  our  information  about  his  life  is  derived.  In 
some  of  these  elegies  the  tone  of  genuine  feeling,  which  is 
wanting  in  the  earlier  poems,  is  evident : 

When  in  my  mind  of  that  night  the  sorrowful  vision  arises, 

Which  was  the  end  of  my  life  spent  in  the  city  of  Rome, 

When  I  remember  the  night  when  I  parted  from  all  that  was 

dearest, 
Sadly  a  piteous  tear  falls  even  now  from  my  eyes.a 

So  Ovid  sings  of  his  departure  from  Eome.  His  letters 
to  his  wife3  and  the  letter  to  his  daughter  Perilla4  are 
among  the  most  attractive  of  these  poems  of  bitter  exile 
and  grief.  But  even  upon  these  the  bitterness  of  the 
exile's  lot  casts  its  shadow.  A  greater  poet,  or  a  poet  of 
greater  character,  might  have  soared  above  his  grief  and 

1  Especially  Tristia,  IV,  x.  2  Ibid.,  1,'iii,  1-4. 

3  Ibid.,  I,  vi,  III,  iii,  IV,  iii,  V,  ii,  1-44,  xi,  xiv,  Ex  Ponto,  I,  iv, 
III,  i. 

4  Tristia,  III,  vii. 


OVID  155 

disappointment ;  but  Ovid  wearies  us  with  his  continued 
complaints. 

Several  works  by  Ovid  have  been  lost.  The  most 
important  was  probably  his  tragedy  Medea,  which  was 
regarded  as  one  of  the  greatest  of  Koman  tragedies.  Only 
two  fragments  of  this  play  remain,  from  one  of  which  we 
learn  that  Ovid  represented  Medea  in  a  state  of  excite- 
ment bordering  upon  madness.  Of  a  work  in  hexameters 
on  the  constellations,  entitled  Phenomena,  and  a  series 
of  epigrams,  a  few  brief  fragments  remain.  Not  even 
fragments  are  preserved  of  a  bridal  song  (Epithalamium) 
for  Fabius  Maximus,  an  elegy  on  the  death  of  Messalla,  a 
poem  on  the  triumph  of  Tiberius  (January  16,  13  A.  D.),  a 
poem  on  the  death  of  Augustus,  a  medley  on  bad  poets, 
made  up  of  lines  from  Macer's  Tetrasticha,  and  a  poem  in 
the  Getic  language  in  honor  of  the  imperial  family. 

Ovid's  one  defect  as  a  poet  is  his  lack  of  character.  No 
other  Koman  wrote  more  polished  verse,  no  other  em- 
ployed the  Latin  language  more  effectively  for  his  pur- 
poses ;  but  the  want  of  moral  earnestness  and  power  makes 
Ovid,  with  all  his  genius,  the  least  among  the  great 
Koman  poets.  His  weakness  is  most  noticeable  in  his 
earlier  and  later  works,  and  the  Metamorphoses  and  the 
Fasti  are  therefore  the  most  admirable  of  his  poems. 
Ovid  was  read  throughout  the  Middle  Ages,  and  the  myth- 
ological allusions  in  writings  of  the  Renaissance  period 
and  modern  times  are,  for  the  most  part,  traceable  to  him. 
He  was  one  of  Milton's  favorite  authors,  and  several  pas- 
sages in  Paradise  Lost  show  his  influence.  Shakespeare, 
too,  was  acquainted,  directly  or  indirectly,  with  the 
Metamorphoses,  and  numerous  echoes  of  Ovid's  poems  are 
heard  in  the  strains  of  other  English  poets. 


CHAPTER  XII 

LIVY-OTHEB  AUGUSTAN  PROSE  WRITERS 

Livy,  59  B.  C.-17  A.  D. — His  qualities  as  historian  and  writer — Pom- 
peius  Trogus,  about  20  B.C. — Justin,  second  or  third  century  after 
Christ — Fenestella,  52  B.  C.-19  A.  D. — Oratory — Seneca  the  elder,  about 
55  B.  c.  to  about  40  A.  D. — Verrius  Flaccus,  about  1  A.  D. — Festus,  third 
or  fourth  century  after  Christ — Hyginus,  about  64  B.  c.  to  about  17 
A.  D. — Extant  works  under  the  name  of  Hyginus — Labeo  and  Capito— 
Vitruvius,  about  70  B.  c.  to  after  16  B.  c. 

THE  Augustan  period  is  the  golden  age  of  Latin 
poetry.  Prose  reached  its  greatest  height  in  the  age  of 
Prose  Cicero  and  began  to  deteriorate  soon  after 

inferior  to  his  death.  One  reason  for  this  is  the  great 
poetry  of  this  development  of  poetry,  which  led  to  the  in- 
period,  troduction  of  poetic  words  and  phrases  into 
prose ;  another  is  the  fashionable  rhetoric  of  the  day, 
which  aimed  not  at  simplicity  and  clearness,  nor  dignity 
and  grandeur,  but  at  novel  or  striking  expressions,  artifi- 
cial arrangement,  and  subtlety  of  thought.  The  influence 
of  the  rhetorical  schools  is  seen  in  some  of  the  poetry  of 
Ovid  and  Manilius,  but  is  much  more  evident  in  the  prose 
of  this  period  and  the  succeeding  times. 

The  only  great  prose  writer  of  the  Augustan  period  is 

Livy.      Titus  Livius  was  born  at  Patavium  (Padua)  in 

59  B.  c.,  and  died  in  his  native  pl^ce  in  17 

A.  D.     Little  is  known  of  his  life,  but  the  tone 

of  his  writing  indicates  that  he  was  not  poor  and  belonged 

to  a  family  of  some  position.     He  is  said  to  have  written 

philosophical  works,  probably   popular   treatises    in   the 

form  of  dialogues,  and  a  treatise  on  rhetoric  in  the  form 

156 


LIVY  157 

of  a  letter  to  his  son.  These  works  are  lost,  and  can 
never  have  possessed  much  importance  in  comparison  with 
the  great  history  to  which  Livy  devoted  more  than  forty 
years  of  his  life.  About  30  B.C.  Livy  moved  to  Rome, 
where  he  lived  the  greater  part  of  the  time  until  his 
death.  Probably  he  visited  his  native  Padua  more  than 
once,  and  he  travelled  also  to  other  places  in  Italy.  He 
was  a  republican  in  principle,  but  accepted  the  rule  of 
Augustus  without  reserve.  In  fact,  he  was  a  personal 
friend  of  Augustus,  who  called  him  in  jest  a  Pompeian, 
on  account  of  his  criticisms  of  Julius  Caesar  and  his  admi- 
ration for  the  old  republic.  Livy  appears  in  his  work  as 
a  man  of  conservative  tendencies,  content  to  live  under 
whatever  government  happened  to  exist,  provided  it  was 
not  too  oppressive,  willing  to  accept  the  state  religion, 
with  all  its  beliefs  in  signs  and  omens,  while  recognizing 
that  some,  at  least,  of  the  omens  reported  were  inventions. 
His  one  great  enthusiasm  was  for  the  greatness  of  Rome. 
This  sentiment  it  was  which  led  him  to  devote  his  life  to 
the  composition  of  a  great  history  of  Rome  from  the 
earliest  times  to  his  own  day. 

The  title  of  Livy's  history  was  Libri  ab  Urbe  Condita 
(Books  from  the  Foundation  of  the  City).     It  consisted  of 
142  books,  the  first  of  which  was  written  be- 
ffiltor  tween  29  and  25  B.  c.,  while  the  last  twenty- 

two  were  published  after  the  death  of  Au- 
gustus. The  last  book  ended  with  the  death  of  Drusus,  in 
9  A.  D.  Whether  Livy  intended  to  carry  his  work  still 
further  is  unknown.  The  division  into  books  is  Livy's 
own,  but  the  division  into  decades,  or  groups  of  ten 
books,  was  made  later,  though  it  may  perhaps  have 
been  suggested  by  the  original  publication  of  some  of 
the  books  in  groups.  For  the  earlier  parts  of  the  work 
comparatively  little  material  was  available;  consequent- 
ly the  history  of  the  early  years  of  Rome  is  less  de- 
tailed than  that  of  later  periods.  Fifteen  books  carry  the 


158  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

narrative  from  the  foundation  of  the  city  to  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Punic  wars,  a  period  of  nearly  five  hundred 
years,  while  the  war  with  Hannibal  occupies  ten  books, 
and  ten  books  are  devoted  to  the  eight  years  from  the 
death  of  Marius  to  the  death  of  Sulla  (86-78  B.  c.). 

Of  this  immense  work  only  thirty-five  books  are  ex- 
tant :  Books  I-X,  from  the  beginning  into  the  third 
Samnite  War  (753-293  B.  c.),  and  XXI-XLV,  from  the 
second  Punic  War  to  the  Macedonian  triumph  of  Lucius 
^Emilius  Paulus  (218-167  B.  c.).  In  Books  XXI-XLV  nu- 
merous gaps  occur.  The  contents  of  the  remaining  books 
are  known  to  us  through  a  series  of  abstracts  made  not 
directly  from  Livy,  but  from  an  epitome.  Such  an  epit- 
ome existed  as  early  as  the  time  of  Martial,  not  many 
years  after  Livy's  death. 

Livy  derived  his  material  from  earlier  historians,  such 
as  Fabius  Pictor,  Valerius  Antias,  Licinius  Macer,  Clau- 
dius Quadrigarius,  and  Polybius,  following  sometimes 
one  and  sometimes  another,  but  seldom  trying  to  recon- 
Qualities  of  c^e  conflicting  statements  of  his  authorities. 
Livy's  When  they  did  not  agree,  he  usually  accepted 

History.  ^e  statement  that  seemed  to  him  most  prob- 
able. He  did  not  try  to  discover  new  truths  by  the  study 
of  original  sources,  such  as  inscriptions  and  other  monu- 
ments, nor  did  he  make  careful  studies  of  battlefields, 
routes  of  march,  or  the  like.  He  did  not,  as  most  mod- 
ern historians  do,  try  to  establish  facts  by  independ- 
ent research,  but  he  worked  over  the  accounts  of  his  pred- 
ecessors with  the  intention  of  presenting  the  whole  of 
Roman  history  in  an  attractive  literary  form.  In  this  he 
was  so  successful  that  his  history  soon  became  the  one 
source  from  which  all  subsequent  writers  drew  their  infor- 
mation. His  lack  of  military  knowledge  makes  his  de- 
scription of  battles  and  other  military  matters  somewhat 
untrustworthy,  and  the  early  part  of  his  work  suffers  from 
his  inability  to  understand  the  gradual  growth  of  Koman 


LIVY  159 

civilization,  but  such  defects  are  more  than  compensated 
for  by  the  admirable  literary  qualities  of  his  history.  He  is, 
moreover,  truthful,  so  far  as  he  knows  the  truth,  and  any 
incorrect  statements  are  due  rather  to  insufficient  knowl- 
edge than  to  any  desire  to  conceal  or  pervert  the  truth. 
In  his  accounts  of  the  dealings  of  the  Komans  with  other 
peoples  he  is  partial  to  the  Romans,  but  that  is  because 
his  sincere  admiration  for  the  Eoman  greatness  leads  him 
to  believe  that  the  Romans  were  in  the  right  and  acted 
rightly,  and  his  partiality  to  the  Scipios  is  to  be  accounted 
for  in  a  similar  way. 

It  is  evident  from  what  has  been  said  above  that  Livy 
is  far  from  being  a  perfect  historian ;  yet  his  history  is 
true  in  the  main,  and  is  based  upon  broad  knowledge  and 
insight  into  the  underlying  principles  of  human  charac- 
ter and  human  actions.  He  is  less  interested  in  accuracy 
of  detail  than  in  broader  and  more  general  truth  and 
dramatic  presentation.  So  in  the  speeches 
LlVy'h  c  w*kh  which  he  enlivens  his  work,  he  does  not 

pretend  to  repeat  what  the  speakers  actually 
said,  nor  even  in  every  instance  to  put  in  their  mouths 
words  that  express  their  individual  characters,  but  rather 
to  say  in  good  rhetorical  form  what  the  circumstances 
seem  to  him  to  demand.  In  this  he  follows  Thucydides, 
and  his  speeches,  like  those  of  Thucydides,  serve  not 
merely  to  give  variety  to  the  narrative,  but  also  to  bring 
vividly  before  us  and  to  explain  the  circumstances  and 
motives  that  led  up  to  the  actions  narrated.  These 
speeches  are  the  most  brilliant  parts  of  his  work.  In  them 
he  shows  the  fruit  of  his  training  in  the  rhetorical  schools 
and  of  careful  study  of  Demosthenes  and  Cicero ;  but  his 
rhetoric  does  not  end  in  mere  declamation.  The  speeches 
are  not  written  merely  to  exhibit  his  rhetorical  training, 
but  to  explain  and  enlighten. 

Throughout  his  work  Livy  appears  as  the  enemy  of 
extremes.  His  admiration  for  Pompey  does  not  lead  him 


160  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

to  become  hostile  to  the  ruling  family;  he  is  opposed 
alike  to  royalty  and  to  unbridled  democracy.  At  the 
same  time  he  treats  his  subject  with  sympathy  and 
warmth  of  feeling,  and  makes  the  ethical  side  of  history 
prominent,  seeking  to  present  in  a  strong  light  such  ac- 
tions as  may  serve  as  models  for  conduct,  not  merely  to 
give  a  record  of  events. 

Livy  is  unrivalled  as  a  narrator  and  a  painter  in  words. 
His  style  is  clear  and  straightforward,  although  his  periods 
are  often  long  and  sometimes  made  complicated  by  the  in- 
sertion in  the  sentence  of  numerous  subordinate  ideas,  often 

expressed  in  the  form  of  participles.     As  is 
Livy's  style. 

natural  for  one  who  wrote  when  Koman  poetry 

was  at  its  height,  he  introduces  poetical  words  which  are 
foreign  to  the  prose  of  Cicero  and  Caesar,  and  some  of  his 
phrases  show  poetic  coloring.  But  his  Latin  is  pure,  and 
it  is  difficult  to  see  what  Asinius  Pollio  meant  by  accu- 
sing him  of  "  Patavinitas  "  or  Paduanism.  In  later  prose 
writers  the  striving  for  poetic  effect  becomes  a  disagree- 
able mannerism,  but  such  traces  of  poetry  as  are  found  in 
Livy  are  not  the  result  of  conscious  effort,  but  of  the  lit- 
erary atmosphere  of  the  time.  His  style  is  not  every- 
where of  uniform  excellence  ;  for  it  is  inevitable  that  in 
such  a  long  historical  work  the  different  qualities  of  the 
subject  and  the  advancing  age  of  the  writer  affect  the 
mode  of  presentation,  but  there  is  no  part  of  the  work  in 
which  the  style  is  dull  or  without  charm.  It  is  perhaps 
at  its  best  in  the  books  dealing  with  the  Punic  wars. 

Livy's  work  was  even  in  his  lifetime  regarded  as  the 
most  perfect  example  of  historical  writing.  The  younger 
Pliny  tells  us  that  a  citizen  of  Cadiz  travelled  all  the  way 
to  Rome  merely  to  see  Livy,  and  when  he  had  seen  him 
returned  at  once  to  Cadiz,  feeling  that  the  other  sights  of 
Rome  were  of  no  further  interest.  Livy's  influence  upon 
later  Roman  writers  was  of  the  utmost  importance,  and 
his  work  has  served  as  a  model  for  more  than  one  histo- 


LIVY  161 

rian  in  more  recent  times.  His  enthusiasm  for  what  is 
good  and  noble,  his  admiration  for  the  great  men  of  Rome, 
and  his  worship  of  Rome  itself,  give  to  his  work  some- 
thing of  the  exalted  character  that  belongs  to  a  hymn 
of  praise  or  a  panegyric.  His  great  history  served,  like 
Virgil's  ^ffineid,  to  give  permanent  literary  expression  to 
the  greatness  of  the  past  days  of  the  Roman  common- 
wealth. 

It  would  occupy  too  much  space  to  try  to  give  speci- 
mens of  all  the  varieties  of  Livy's  style  and  composition. 
His  descriptions  of  battles,  among  which  that  of  the  de- 
feat of  Antiochus  at  Magnesia 1  deserves  special  mention, 
are  masterpieces  of  painting  in  words,  even  when  they 
betray  his  lack  of  military  knowledge,  and  his  summaries 
of  the  characters  of  important  persons  are  admirable.  The 
introduction  to  the  history  of  the  war  with  Hannibal,  with 
the  description  of  the  siege  of  Saguntum,  the  hesitation 
at  Rome,  and  the  scene  in  the  Carthaginian  senate,  is  un- 
surpassed. The  speech  of  Hanno,  who  alone 
speech  of  among  the  Carthaginian  senators  wished  to 
preserve  peace  by  relinquishing  Saguntum 
and  delivering  Hannibal  into  the  hands  of  the  Romans,  is 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  of  the  many  striking  passages 
in  this  wonderful  history  : 2 

You  have  sent  to  the  army,  adding,  as  it  were,  fuel  to  the  fire,  a 
youth  who  burns  with  the  desire  of  ruling,  and  who  sees  only  one 
way  to  his  end,  if  he  lives  girt  with  arms  and  legions,  sowing 
from  wars  the  seed  of  wars.  You  have  therefore  nourished  this  fire 
with  which  you  are  now  burning.  Your  armies  are  now  surround- 
ing Saguntum,  which  the  treaty  forbids  them  to  approach ;  pres- 
ently the  Roman  legions  will  surround  Carthage  under  the  leader- 
ship of  those  same  gods  by  whom  in  the  last  war  the  broken 
treaties  were  avenged.  Do  you  not  know  the  enemy,  or  yourselves, 
or  the  fortune  of  the  two  peoples  ?  Your  good  general  refused  to 
admit  to  his  camp  envoys  who  came  from  allies  in  behalf  of  allies ; 

1  xxxvii,  39  ff.  *  xxi,  10. 


162  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

they,  nevertheless,  though  refused  admittance  where  even  the  en- 
voys of  enemies  are  not  forbidden  to  enter,  have  come  to  us ;  they 
demand  restitution  in  accordance  with  the  treaty ;  that  there  may 
be  no  deceit  on  the  part  of  the  state,  they  ask  that  the  author  of 
the  wrong  and  the  accused  person  be  delivered  up.  The  more 
gently  they  act,  the  more  slowly  they  begin,  the  more  persistently, 
I  fear,  they  will  rage  when  once  they  have  begun.  Place  before 
your  eyes  the  JEgates  islands  and  Eryx  and  what  you  suffered  by 
land  and  sea  for  twenty-four  years.  And  that  leader  was  no  boy,  but 
his  father  Hamilcar  himself,  a  second  Mars,  as  his  partisans  will 
have  it.  But  we  had  not  kept  our  hands  off  from  Tarentum,  that  is 
from  Italy,  in  obedience  to  the  treaty,  as  now  we  are  not  keeping 
them  off  from  Saguntum.  Therefore  the  gods  overcame  men,  and 
in  the  question  at  issue,  which  people  had  broken  the  treaty,  the 
event  of  war,  like  a  just  judge,  gave  the  victory  to  that  side  on 
which  right  stood.  It  is  against  Carthage  that  Hannibal  is  now 
moving  up  his  screens  and  towers;  he  is  shakiug  the  walls  of 
Carthage  with  his  battering-ram.  The  ruins  of  Saguntum  (may  I 
prove  a  false  prophet !)  will  fall  upon  our  heads,  and  the  war  be- 
gun against  the  Saguntines  must  be  carried  on  against  the  Romans. 
"Shall  we  then  give  up  Hannibal?"  some  one  will  say.  I  know 
that  in  his  case  my  influence  has  little  weight  on  account  of  my 
enmity  to  his  father ;  but  I  have  been  glad  that  Hamilcar  is  dead, 
because  if  he  were  living  we  should  already  be  at  war  with  the 
Romans,  and  I  hate  and  detest  this  youth  as  the  fury  and  fire- 
brand of  this  war,  as  one  who  ought  not  only  to  be  given  up  as  an 
expiation  for  the  broken  treaty,  but  if  no  one  demanded  him, 
should  be  carried  away  to  the  uttermost  shores  of  sea  and  land, 
removed  to  such  a  distance  that  his  name  and  fame  could  not 
reach  to  us  nor  he  disturb  the  condition  of  our  quiet  state.  I  make 
this  motion :  That  ambassadors  be  sent  at  once  to  Rome,  to  give 
satisfaction  to  the  senate ;  other  envoys  to  announce  to  Hannibal 
that  he  withdraw  his  army  from  Saguntum,  and  to  hand  Hannibal 
himself  over  to  the  Romans  in  pursuance  of  the  treaty ;  I  move  a 
third  embassy  to  restore  their  property  to  the  Saguntines. 

This  speech,  composed  with  powerful  rhetoric  and 
placed  in  a  dramatic  setting,  serves  not  only  to  bring 
before  our  eyes  the  fruitless  errand  of  the  Roman  envoys 
at  Carthage,  but  to  emphasize  the  justice  of  the  Roman 


163 

cause  and  to  predict  the  ultimate  success  of  the  Romans, 
on  whose  side  the  gods  that  watch  over  treaties  were 
enlisted.  It  is  an  example  of  Livy's  oratorical  composi- 
tion, of  his  dramatic  power,  of  his  desire  to  show  that 
historical  events  are  the  result  of  moral  causes,  and  of  his 
conviction  that  the  Roman  power  was  founded  upon  right 
and  justice. 

Livy's  great  work  was  the  first  complete  history  of 
Rome  composed  in  fine  literary  form.  The  time  was 
ripe  for  such  a  work.  The  Roman  people  had  spread  its 
power  over  the  whole  civilized  world,  and  the  peace  and 
order  established  by  Augustus  made  it  natural  that  men 
should  wish  to  read  the  history  of  the  long  struggles  of 
the  republic  that  led  up  to  the  present  peace  of  the 
empire.  Livy's  history,  therefore,  appealed  directly  to  a 
large  circle  of  readers.  But  in  extending  its  power  over 
the  world,  the  Roman  people  had  come  in  contact  with 
various  nations,  and  it  was  natural  that  the  history  of 
those  nations  should  be  of  interest  to  the  Romans.  The 
task  of  writing  this  history  was  undertaken  by  Pompeius 
Trogus.  By  descent  he  was  a  Yocontian,  of  the  prov- 
ince of  Gallia  ISTarbonensis,  but  his  grandfather  had 
received  the  Roman  citizenship  from  Pompey,  and  his 

father  had  served  under  Caesar  in  Gaul. 
Trog-us.  Pompeius  Trogus  himself  is  mentioned  as  a 

writer  on  zoology,  but  his  most  important 
work  was  his  universal  history  entitled  Histories  Philip- 
piece,  in  forty-four  books.  Trogus  began  with  the  history 
of  the  Oriental  empires,  Assyria,  Media,  and  Persia,  pass- 
ing from  the  Persians  to  the  Scythians  and  the  Greeks. 
The  greater  part  of  his  work  was  taken  up  with  the 
account  of  the  Macedonian  Empire  founded  by  Philip, 
and  of  the  kingdoms  that  arose  from  it  after  the  death  of 
Alexander  the  Great.  The  history  of  each  of  these  king- 
doms is  continued  to  its  absorption  in  the  Roman  Empire. 
It  is  from  this  part  of  the  work  (Books  VII-XL)  that  the 


164  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

whole  received  its  title.  The  forty-first  and  forty-second 
books  contained  the  history  of  the  Parthians,  the  forty- 
third  told  of  the  beginnings  of  Eome  and  treated  of 
affairs  in  Gaul,  and  the  forty-fourth  book  contained  the 
history  of  Spain,  ending  with  the  victory  of  Augustus 
over  the  Spaniards. 

The  history  of  Trogus  is  not  preserved  in  its  original 

form,  but  only  in  a  brief  summary  made  in  the  second  or 

.  f  third  century  after  Christ  by  an  otherwise 

summary.        unknown  Marcus  Junianus  Justinus.     It  is 

evident  that  Trogus  was  not  an  original  in- 
vestigator, and  his  work  was  probably  little  more  than 
a  translation  of  a  Greek  original,  perhaps  by  Timagenes 
of  Alexandria,  who  came  to  Eome  in  the  time  of  the  civil 
wars.  Nevertheless,  the  work  was  important,  as  it  was 
based  on  good  authorities.  It  never  became  so  popular  as 
Livy's  history,  but  it  was  evidently  much  used  by  later 
writers,  and  Justin's  summary  was  much  read  in  the 
Middle  Ages.  Of  the  style  of  Trogus  it  is  difficult  to 
judge,  but  so  far  as  it  can  be  appreciated  in  Justin's 
abridgment,  it  was  clear  and  lively,  with  a  good  deal  of 
rhetorical  adornment.  Even  the  abridgment  is  a  valu- 
able work  on  account  of  the  importance  of  its  contents. 

Several  other  historians  of  the  Augustan  period  are 
known  by  name,  but  their  works  are  lost  and  have  left 

few  traces.     The  most  important   of  these 

writers  was  probably  Fenestella,  who  lived 
from  52  B.  c.  to  19  A.  D.  He  wrote  Annals  in  at  least 
twenty-two  books,  and  probably  also  a  variety  of  works  on 
antiquarian  subjects. 

The  oratory  of  this  period  was  far  inferior  to  that  of 
the  age  of  Cicero.  It  was  for  the  most  part  without 
Orator  serious  purpose,  and  the  productions  of  the 

orators  were  little  more  than  school  exercises 
to  show  their  skill  and  serve  as  models  for  their  pupils. 
Messalla,  Pollio,  and  some  others  continued  the  earlier 


SENECA  THE  ELDER  165 

style  of  oratory  in  the  Augustan  age,  but  they  found  few 
imitators  or  successors.  Among  other  early  Augustan 
orators  was  Titus  Labienus,  who  wrote  a  history  as  well 
as  speeches.  He  was  so  bitterly  opposed  to  the  rule  of 
Augustus  that  his  works  were  burned  by  decree  of  the 
senate.  Cassius  Severus  made  in  his  speeches  and  wri- 
tings such  violent  attacks  upon  the  aristocracy  that  he 
was  banished  by  Augustus,  and  his  property  was  con- 
fiscated under  Tiberius.  He  died  in  great  poverty  at 
Seriphus  in  32  A.  D.  Other  orators,  whose  speeches  were 
almost  exclusively  school  exercises,  were  Marcus  Porcius 
Latro,  Gaius  Albucius  Silus,  Quintus  Haterius,  Lucius 
Junius  Gallio,  and  the  two  Asiatic  Greeks,  Arellius 
Fuscus  and  Lucius  Cestius  Pius.  Little  or  nothing  is 
known  about  any  of  these  men  except  what  is  derived 
from  the  works  of  Annseus  Seneca,  the  father  of  the 
philosopher  Lucius  Annseus  Seneca  and 

oeneca  tne  * 

elder.  grandfather   of    the   epic    poet    Lucan.     Of 

the  life  of  the  elder  Seneca  little  is  known. 
He  was  born  at  Corduba,  in  Spain,  probably  as  early  as 
55  B.  c.,  and  spent  part  of  his  life  in  Eome.  He  lived  to 
a  great  age,  for  his  only  extant  work  was  written  as  late 
as  37  A.  D.  This  is  a  series  of  recollections  of  famous 
orators  and  rhetoricians,  written  at  the  request  of  the 
author's  sons,  Novatus,  Seneca,  and  Mela.  It  originally 
contained  ten  books  of  Controversies,  or  arguments,  and 
one  book  of  Suasorice,  or  speeches  advising  some  par- 
ticular course  of  conduct.  The  most  important  parts 
of  the  work  are  the  introductions,  which  contain  much 
information  on  the  history  of  oratory.  The  ten  books  of 
Controversies  treated  of  seventy-four  subjects,  the  book  of 
Suasorice  of  seven.  The  beginning  of  the  SuasoricB  is 
now  lost,  and  of  the  Controversies  only  thirty-five  are  pre- 
served. The  subject-matter  is  throughout  insipid  and 
dull.  Such  things  are  discussed  as  this :  "  A  man  and 
his  wife  swore  that  if  anything  happened  to  one  of  them 


166  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

the  other  would  die.  The  man  went  on  a  journey  and 
sent  a  message  to  his  wife  that  he  was  dead.  The  wife 
threw  herself  down  from  a  high  place.  She  was  brought 
to  herself  again,  and  her  father  ordered  her  to  leave  her 
husband.  She  refused."  The  utterances  of  the  masters 
of  rhetoric  on  such  matters  as  this  are  given  by  Seneca, 
whose  prodigious  memory  made  him  able  to  repeat  them 
almost,  if  not  quite,  in  the  original  words.  The  most 
interesting  single  theme  is  the  sixth  Suasoria,  in  which 
the  question  is  answered  whether  Cicero  should  beg 
Antony  to  spare  his  life.  The  answers  given  contain  sev- 
eral judgments  on  Cicero,  among  them  those  of  Asinius 
Pollio  and  Livy.  But  the  folly  and  emptiness  of  the 
sort  of  oratorical  study  with  which  Seneca  makes  us 
acquainted  can  not  fail  to  impress  every  reader.  Seneca 
himself  expresses  his  disgust.  His  remarkable  memory 
enabled  him  to  hand  down  to  later  ages  specimens  of  the 
oratorical  teaching  which,  even  in  the  Augustan  age, 
began  to  corrupt  Latin  style.  Seneca's  own  style  is  not 
far  removed  from  that  of  Cicero's  time,  and  Seneca, 
though  he  wrote  under  Caligula,  probably  acquired  his 
style  in  the  early  part  of  the  Augustan  period.  The 
specimens  he  has  preserved  show,  however,  that  the 
influential  teachers  of  his  early  days  had  far  less  taste 
than  he. 

Among  the  learned  writers  on  special  subjects  one  of 
the  most  important  was  Verrius   Flaccus,  of  whose  life 

little  is  known,  except  that  he  was  chosen  by 
Verrius  .  rr  • 

Flacous.  Augustus   to  educate    his   grandsons    Uaius 

and  Lucius,  and  that  he  died  in  old  age 
during  the  reign  of  Tiberius.  Of  his  numerous  works  on 
grammatical  and  antiquarian  subjects  one  only,  On  the 
Meaning  of  Words  (De  Verborum  8ignificatu),  is  partially 
preserved  in  an  abridgment  by  Pompeius  Festus,  who 
seems  to  have  lived  in  the  third  or  fourth  century  after 
Christ.  Only  part  of  this  abridgment  remains,  but  this 


VITRUVIUS  167 

is  important  for  the  information  it  contains  concerning 
Eoman  antiquities  and  early  Latin  words.  A  further 
abridgment  of  Festus  was  made  in  the  eighth  century 
by  Paulus,  and  even  this  is  of  value,  though  it  is  a 
mere  skeleton  of  the  original  work  of  Verrius  Flaccus. 
Another  scholar  was  Gaius  Julius  Hyginus,  a  freedman 
of  Augustus  and  librarian  of  the  Palatine  library.  His 
life  extended  from  about  64  B.  c.  to  about  17 
A.  D.  He  composed  works  on  agriculture, 
history,  geography,  and  antiquities,  besides  commentaries 
on  Virgil  and  on  China's  poem  to  Asinius  Pollio.  Of  all 
these  works  nothing  remains ;  but  two  works  under  the 
name  of  Hyginus  are  extant.  One  of  these  is  a  treatise 
on  astronomy,  including  myths  relating  to  the  stars, 
the  other  a  mythological  handbook  entitled  Fabulce,  to 
which  a  series  of  genealogies  is  appended.  The  hand- 
book is  valuable  chiefly  because  the  myths  told  in  it  are 
taken  from  Greek  tragedies  for  the  most  part,  and 
through  them  we  learn  the  plots  of  many  lost  works  of 
Greek  authors.  These  extant  works  are,  however,  not  by 
the  librarian  Hyginus,  but  by  a  later  writer,  who  lived 
probably  in  the  second  century  after  Christ.  Of  the 

legal  writings  of  Marcus  Antistius  Labeo 
Labeoand  &  .  f  . 

Capito.  an(^  Gams  Ateius  Capito  nothing  remains. 

Each  was  the  head  of  a  school  of  writers 
and  teachers  on  legal  subjects.  Labeo  tried  to  explain 
changes  and  growth  in  legal  matters,  as  well  as  in 
grammar,  by  the  principle  of  analogy  or  likeness,  while 
Capito  regarded  anomaly  or  difference  as  more  impor- 
tant. 

A  work  of  no  literary  excellence,  but  of  great  value 

on  account  of  the  information  it  contains,  is  the  treatise 

Vitr    '  ®n  Architecture  (De  Architecture^,  in  ten 

books,  by  Vitruvius  Pollio.     Vitruvius  was  a 

practical  architect,  who  built  a  basilica  at  Colonia  Fanes- 

tris  and  had  charge  of  the  construction  of  machines  of 

12 


168  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

war  under  Augustus.1  His  books  appear  to  have  been 
written  between  16  and  13  B.  c.,  and  dedicated  to  Augus- 
tus. They  form  the  only  systematic  treatise  on  architec- 
ture preserved  to  us  from  antiquity,  and  are  for  that 
reason  of  the  greatest  importance  to  architects  and 
archaeologists.  The  style  is,  however,  inelegant  and 
obscure,  though  its  obscurity  is  due  in  part  to  the  neces- 
sary employment  of  technical  expressions.  Vitruvius  was 
evidently  a  man  of  no  great  literary  education  or  ability, 
however  able  he  may  have  been  as  an  architect. 

The  age  of  Augustus  is  marked  by  the  highest  devel- 
opment of  Eoman  poetry.  Virgil,  Horace,  Tibullus,  Pro- 
pertius  and  Ovid  are,  each  in  his  own  way,  the  greatest  of 
the  Roman  poets.  Only  Catullus  and  Lucretius  can  be 
compared  with  any  one  of  them.  The  only  great  prose 
writer  of  the  period  is  Livy.  His  style  is  still  pure,  and 
is  certainly  very  charming ;  but  even  Livy  departs  some- 
what from  the  dignity  and  beauty  of  the  sermo  urbanus, 
the  Latin  of  Cicero  and  Caesar.  The  extracts  preserved 
by  Seneca  show  that  the  rhetorical  teaching  of  the  time 
was  artificial  and  tasteless,  and  was  leading  the  way  to 
decline,  to  the  so-called  silver  Latin  of  the  imperial 
epoch. 

1  This  is  the  generally  accepted  date,  but  it  is  possible  that  Vitru- 
vius may  have  lived  somewhat  later. 


BOOK   III 

THE  EMPIRE  AFTER  AUGUSTUS 


CHAPTER  XIII 

TIBERIUS  TO  VESPASIAN 

The  emperors  (Tiberius,  14-37  A.  D.  ;  Caligula,  37-41  A.  D.  ;  Claudius, 
41-54  A.  D.  ;  Nero,  54-68  A.  D.) — Pheedrus,  about  40  A.  D. — Germani- 
cus,  15  B.  C.-19  A.  D. — Velleius  Paterculus,  30  A.  D. — Valerius  Maxi- 
mus,  about  47  B.  c.  to  about  30  A.  D. — Celsus  about  35  A.  D. — Votienus 
Montanus,  died  27  A.  D. — Asinius  Gallus,  40  B.  C.-33  A.  D. — Mamercus 
Scaurus,  died  34  A.  D. — Publius  Vitellius,  died  31  A.  D. — Domitius 
Afer,  14  B.  C.-59  A.  D. — Cremutius  Cordus,  died  25  A.  D. — Aufidius  Bas- 
sus — Remmius  Palaeraon — Julius  Atticus — Julius  Gracchinus — Marcus 
Apicius— Philosophers — Lucius  Annaeus  Seneca,  about  1  A.  D.  to  65 
A.  D. — Persius,  34-62  A.  D. — Lucan,  39-65  A.  D.— Calpurnius,  about  60 
A.  D. — Pomponius  Secundus,  about  50  A.  D. — Petronius,  died  66  A.  D. — 
Quintus  Curtius,  about  50  (?)  A.  D. — Columella,  about  40  A.D. — Mela, 
about  40  A.  D. — Other  writers. 

WITH  the  death  of  Augustus  the  greatest  period  of 
Koman  literature  comes  to  an  end.  From  this  time  its 
Literature  history  is  a  record  of  decay,  not  regularly 
after  progressive,  to  be  sure,  and  not  always  mani- 

Augustus.  fested  in  the  same  way,  but  almost  constant, 
and  hardly  interrupted  even  by  the  appearance  of  a  few 
writers  of  genuine  ability.  With  the  establishment  of 
peace  throughout  the  Roman  Empire,  and  with  the  ease 
and  security  of  travel  from  province  to  province,  men 
from  all  parts  of  the  empire  came  to  Eome  for  a  time  and 
returned  to  their  homes,  after,  perhaps,  imbibing  some- 

169 


170  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

thing  of  the  culture  of  the  capital,  while  others  took  up 
their  residence  permanently  in  the  imperial  city.  Some 
men  of  each  class  devoted  themselves  to  literature.  The 
elder  Seneca  belongs  to  one  of  these  classes,  the  younger 
Seneca  certainly  to  the  latter.  The  influence  of  the  pro- 
vincials upon  Koman  literature  could  not  fail  to  be  great. 
In  the  hands  of  Spaniards  like  the  Senecas,  Latin  could 
hardly  remain  the  city  speech,  sermo  urbanus,  of  the  time 
of  Cicero.  The  evil  influence  of  even  the  best  rhetorical 
teaching  of  the  time  of  Augustus  has  already  been  men- 
tioned, and  as  time  went  on  the  rhetorical  teaching  be- 
came constantly  worse.  Moreover,  the  circumstances  of 
the  empire,  and  especially  of  the  city  of  Rome,  were  not 
favorable  to  the  growth  of  literature.  The  peace  that 
followed  the  unrest  of  the  civil  wars  had  led  in  the  time 
of  Augustus  to  great  literary  activity,  but  the  continued 
peace  in  the  subsequent  years,  when  men's  minds  were  no 
longer  moved  by  the  remembrance  of  stirring  events, 
tended  to  deaden  the  imagination  and  to  dry  up  the 
springs  of  literary  life.  In  the  early  part  of  the  first  cen- 
tury after  Christ  there  are  few  important  writers  either 
in  Greek  or  Latin.  In  the  city  itself  the  character  of  the 
emperor  had  a  powerful  effect  upon  literature. 

Tiberius  (14-37  A.  D.)  was  a  pupil  of  the  Greek  rhetor- 
ician, Theodorus  of  Gadara,  and  was  familiar  with  Greek 
an<^  katin  literature.     He  wrote  Greek  verses 


Th  r  lations 

of  the  in  the  learned  Alexandrian  manner,  a  Latin 

emperors  to  poem  on  the  death  of  Lucius  Caesar,  and  au- 
hterature.  tobiographical  memoirs  in  prose  ;  but  his  own 
literary  interest  did  not  make  him  a  patron  of  literature. 
His  suspicious  nature  caused  him  to  seek  out  and  punish 
all  real  or  imaginary  allusions  to  himself  in  the  works  of 
contemporary  authors,  with  the  natural  result  that  author- 
ship became  a  pursuit  too  dangerous  to  be  popular. 
Caligula  (37-41  A.  D.)  had  some  ability  as  a  speaker,  and 
wished  to  be  considered  an  orator,  but  his  insanity  led 


TIBERIUS  TO  VESPASIAN  171 

him  to  wish  to  destroy  the  works  of  Homer,  and  to  re- 
move the  works  and  the  busts  of  Virgil  and  Livy  from 
the  public  libraries,  on  the  ground  that  one  of  them  was 
without  genius  or  learning  and  the  other  was  diffuse  and 
careless.  Although  he  did  not  systematically  repress 
literature,  his  brief  reign  was  certainly  not  favorable  to 
its  cultivation.  Claudius  (41-54  A.  D.),  who  came  to  the 
throne  at  the  age  of  fifty  years,  was  a  dull  and  learned 
pedant.  He  began  to  write  a  history  from  the  death  of 
Caesar,  but  stopped  at  the  end  of  the  second  book,  owing 
to  the  objections  of  his  mother  and  grandmother.  He 
then  wrote  a  history  in  forty-one  books,  probably  begin- 
ning with  the  bestowal  of  the  title  of  Augustus  upon 
Octavian  (27  B.  c.),  and  continuing  for  forty-one  years. 
He  also  wrote  a  history  of  the  Etruscans  in  twenty 
books,  and  a  history  of  Carthage  in  eight  books.  Of  all 
these  works  nothing  remains.  Some  idea  of  his  style 
may  be  derived  from  two  inscriptions  found  at  Lyons 
and  Trent.  The  first  is  a  speech  delivered  in  the  sen- 
ate in  48  A.  D.,  advocating  the  extension  to  the  Gallic 
nobility  of  the  ius  honorum,  or  right  to  hold  offices,  the 
second  a  decree  renewing  the  grant  of  citizenship  to  the 
inhabitants  of  the  regions  in  the  Khsetian  Alps  about 
Trent,  and  regulating  their  affairs.  In  both  cases  the 
style  is  confused  and  entirely  without  elegance  or  merit. 
Claudius  also  wrote  a  defense  of  Cicero  against  Asinius 
Gallus,  the  son  of  Asinius  Pollio,  who  had  maintained 
that  Pollio  was  the  greater  orator.  The  addition  by 
Claudius  of  three  letters  to  the  Latin  alphabet  shows  his 
interest  in  linguistic  matters,  but  was  without  permanent 
effect.  Under  this  ruler  literature  revived  somewhat 
after  the  persecutions  under  Tiberius.  Nero  (54-68  A.  D.), 
the  pupil  of  Seneca,  wrote  various  short  poems  and  an  epic, 
entitled  Troica,  on  the  Trojan  War.  His  jealousy  caused 
him  to  be  the  enemy  of  other  poets,  but  he  paid  little 
attention  to  literary  attacks  upon  himself.  On  the  whole, 


172  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

literature  was  not  repressed  during  his  reign,  though 
after  the  discovery  of  the  conspiracy  of  Piso,  in  65  A.  D., 
his  wrath  fell  upon  philosophers  and  men  of  letters. 

The  literature  of  the  times  of  Tiberius  and  Caligula  is 
less  important  than  that  of  the  following  years.  The 
only  poet  of  importance  is  Phaedrus,  a  f reed- 
man  of  Augustus,  who  wrote  fables  in  iambic 
verse.  These  are  for  the  most  part  not  original  with 
Phaedrus,  but  are  the  so-called  fables  of  jEsop,  tales  of 
Oriental  origin,  which  migrated  in  writing  or  in  oral  form 
to  Europe.  The  Greeks  thought  them  the  inventions  of 
^Esop,  but  modern  investigations  have  proved  that  they 
belong  to  the  migratory  folk-lore  of  India.  After  the 
first  book  of  his  fables,  Phaedrus  introduces  fables  and 
tales  of  his  own  among  those  ascribed  to  jEsop.  The 
whole  collection  now  consists  of  ninety-three  fables, 
divided  into  five  books  ;  but  it  originally  contained  a 
greater  number,  especially  in  Books  II  and  Y.  The  fables 
are  still,  many  of  them,  at  least,  familiar  to  most  children. 
Such  are  the  stories  of  the  Wolf  and  the  Lamb,  the  Frog 
who  tried  to  be  as  big  as  an  Ox,  the  Fox  and  the  Crane, 
and  many  others.  Phaedrus  tells  the  fables  in  well-com- 
posed verses,  but  sometimes  overdoes  his  love  of  brevity 
so  as  to  be  obscure.  He  also  points  out  the  moral  of  his 
tales  too  plainly,  leaving  nothing  to  the  imagination  of 
.his  readers.  His  language  is  the  simple  and  easy  L^tin 
of  the  early  Augustan  period,  without  the  rhetorical 
nourishes  popular  in  the  following  years.  Yet  it  is  evi- 
dent from  references  in  the  prologue  to  the  third  book 
that,  although  Sejanus  was  powerful  after  the  appearance 
of  the  first  two  books,  the  third  was  written  after 
his  fall,  that  is  to  say,  after  31  A.  D.  Probably  Phae- 
drus wrote  at  least  as  late  as  40  A.  D.  Of  his  per- 
sonal history  little  is  known.  He  was  born  in  Pieria, 
in  Macedonia,  but  went  to  Italy  and  probably  to  Eome, 
at  an  early  age.  Something  in  the  first  two  books  of 


VELLEIUS  PATERCULUS  173 

fables  brought  down  upon  the  poet  the  wrath  of  Sejanus, 
but  how  serious  its  effects  were  is  not  known.  The  Euty- 
chus  to  whom  the  third  book  is  addressed  is  probably  the 
charioteer  who  was  an  important  personage  in  the  last 
years  of  Caligula.  Particulo  and  Philetes,  whom  Phae- 
drus  addresses  in  the  epilogue  and  the  last  fable  of  the 
fifth  book,  are  unknown.  The  Fables  of  Phsedrus  have 
been  much  used  as  a  text-book,  because  they  are  interest- 
ing to  young  readers  and  are  written  in  simple,  classical 
Latin. 

A  poem  belonging  to  the  first  years  after  the  death  of 
Augustus  is  the  Aratea,  by  Germanicus,  the  son  of  Drusus 
(15  B.  C.-19  A.  D.).  This  is  a  translation  and 
mameus.  a(japtation  of  the  Phenomena  of  Aratus,  and 
shows  that  the  author  was  not  only  a  talented  writer  of 
hexameters,  but  also  a  well-educated  astronomer.  This 
poem  contains  725  lines.  Of  a  poem  on  the  stars  and 
constellations  in  their  relation  to  the  weather  and  the 
like,  entitled  Prognostic^  only  a  few  fragments  remain. 
Besides  these  astronomical  poems  of  Germanicus,  the  last 
book  of  Manilius  (see  p.  138)  belongs  to  this  period.  So 
also  do  some  of  the  poems  wrongly  ascribed  to  Virgil  and 
Ovid,  and  for  that  matter,  the  later  poems  of  Ovid  himself. 
The  only  prose  writers  of  the  years  before  Claudius 
whose  works  are  extant  are  Velleius  Paterculus,  Valerius 
Maximus,  and  Celsus.  Gaius  Velleius  Pater- 
Gulus  was  an  officer  who  had  served  under 
Tiberius ;  he  was  tribunus  militum  in  1  A.  D. 
and  praetor-elect  in  14  A.  D.  The  latest  date  mentioned 
in  his  Roman  History  is  the  consulship  of  Vinicius,  30  A.  D. 
The  dates  of  his  birth  and  death  are  unknown.  The  Ro- 
man History  consists  of  two  books,  the  first  of  which  is 
imperfectly  preserved.  Velleius  does  not  confine  himself 
strictly  to  Eoman  affairs,  but  begins  his  work  with  a  brief 
sketch  of  the  foundation  of  the  Greek  cities  in  Italy. 
The  early  part  of  the  work  is  a  mere  summary,  but  more 


174  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

details  are  introduced  as  the  narrative  approaches  the 
author's  own  times  ;  yet  it  is,  even  in  the  latter  part,  by 
no  means  an  exhaustive  history.  Throughout  the  work 
Velleius  introduces  his  own  opinions  and  is  governed  by 
his  own  prejudices ;  his  history  is  therefore  not  especially 
trustworthy.  His  praise  of  Tiberius  is  so  excessive  that 
it  can  not  be  excused  even  as  the  enthusiasm  of  a  veteran 
for  his  old  general,  and  the  almost  equally  exaggerated 
praise  of  Sejanus  is  without  the  shadow  of  excuse.  A 
noteworthy  peculiarity  is  that  Velleius  pays  attention  to 
the  history  of  Greek  and  Eoman  literature,  which  would 
hardly  be  expected  in  so  short  a  work.  The  style  is  clumsy, 
but  shows  a  desire  for  rhetorical  effect.  The  vocabulary 
is  that  of  the  Augustan  age,  but  the  pretentious  rhetoric 
and  the  evident  striving  for  variety  are  characteristic  of 
the  later  time.  The  chief  interest  of  Velleius  is  in  the 
character  of  the  persons  of  whom  he  writes,  and  his  whole 
work  has  something  personal  about  it  which  distinguishes 
it  from  a  mere  record  of  events.  In  the  early  part  of  the 
work  he  follows  good  authorities,  though  he  often  dis- 
agrees with  Livy,  perhaps  on  account  of  Livy's  republican 
sympathies.  In  the  latter  part  of  the  history  he  is  un- 
trustworthy, owing  to  his  servile  partiality  for  Tiberius 
and  those  connected  with  him. 

The  nine  books   of  Memorable  Doings  and  Sayings 

(Facta  et  Dicta  Memorabilia),  by  Valerius  Maximus,  were 

written  not  far  from  30  A.  r>.,  and  dedicated 

Valerius  ^o  Trtx^g.  Of  the  writer  little  is  known 
Maximus. 

except  that  he  accompanied  Sextus  Pompeius 

to  Asia,  about  27  B.  c.  He  was,  then,  born  probably  as 
early  as  47  B.  c.,  and  can  hardly  have  lived  long  after  the 
completion  of  his  books.  Many  of  the  anecdotes  contained 
in  his  work  are  interesting,  but  the  style  is  artificial,  pom- 
pous, and  dull.  The  most  servile  flattery  is  given  to 
Tiberius,  Julius  Caesar,  and  Augustus.  The  anecdotes 
cover  a  wide  range  of  subjects — religion,  ancient  customs, 


OTHER  PROSE  WRITERS  175 

all  varieties  of  character,  fortune,  old  age,  remarkable 
deaths,  and  many  more.  Naturally,  the  work  contains 
some  valuable  information,  but  this  is  thinly  distributed 
through  the  nine  books.  The  work  was,  however,  popular 
in  the  Middle  Ages,  and  is  preserved  in  many  manuscripts. 
A  book  on  words,  especially  names  (De  Prcenominibus,  etc.), 
contained  in  the  manuscripts  of  Valerius  Maximus,  is  by 
some  unknown  author  and  is  of  little  value. 

Aulus  Cornelius  Celsus  wrote  an  encyclopedia,  which 

contained  treatises  on  agriculture,  medicine,  the  art  of 

war,  oratory,  jurisprudence,  and  philosophy. 

Celsus.  par^  at  ieagtj  Of  this  great  work  was  written 

under  Tiberius,  but  other  parts  may  have  been  written 
later,  for  there  is  no  definite  indication  of  the  date  of  the 
author's  birth  or  death.  Only  the  treatise  on  medicine 
(Books  VI-XIII  of  the  entire  work)  is  preserved.  This 
shows  that  Celsus  was  well  versed  in  the  medical  science 
of  his  day,  and  that  medical  science  had  at  that  time 
reached  a  high  degree  of  perfection.  Celsus  writes  in  a 
simple,  straightforward  style,  without  the  artificial  rhet- 
oric or  the  poetic  phraseology  common  among  post- 
Augustan  prose  writers.  His  work  was  deservedly  popular 
among  those  who  wished  for  scientific  knowledge  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  was  one  of  the  first  books  printed  after  the 
invention  of  the  printing-press,  and  was  used  as  a  text- 
book for  medical  students  until  recent  times.  Whether 
the  other  parts  of  the  encyclopedia  were  as  good  as  the 
treatise  on  medicine  can  not  now  be  determined.  The 
treatise  on  agriculture  is  mentioned  with  respect  by  Co- 
lumella,  but  Quintilian  speaks  slightingly  of  Celsus,  per- 
haps on  account  of  defects  in  the  rhetorical  parts  of  his 
work. 

The  names  of  several  orators  of  this  period  are  handed 
down,  chiefly  in  the  reminiscences  of  the  elder  Seneca. 
The  most  noteworthy  are,  perhaps,  Votienus  Montanus, 
who  was  banished  by  Tiberius  and  died  in  27  A.  D.  ; 


176  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

Asinius  Gallus  (40  B.  C.-33  A.  D.)  the  son  of  Asinius  Pol- 
lio ;  Mamercus  Scaurus,  who  was  forced  by  Tiberius  to 
Prose  writers  commit  suicide  in  34  A.  D. ;  Publius  Vitellius, 
whose  works  who  brought  about  the  condemnation  of  Piso 
are  lost.  for  ^he  murder  of  Germanicus  in  19  A.  D.,  and 

who  died  in  31  A.  D.  ;  and  Domitius  Afer,  from  Nemausus 
(14  B.C.-59  A.D.),  who  held  important  offices  under  Tiberius, 
Caligula,  and  Nero.  Among  these  orators,  Domitius  Afer 
was  most  prominent  as  a  speaker  in  court,  while  Mon- 
tanus  was  a  teacher  of  oratory  and  a  declaimer.  Histo- 
rians whose  works  are  lost  were  Aulus  Cremutius  Cordus 
and  Aufidius  Bassus.  The  former  published  under  Au- 
gustus a  historical  work  in  which  he  praised  Brutus  and 
spoke  of  Cassius  as  "  the  last  of  the  Komans."  For  this 
his  books  were  burned  by  decree  of  the  senate  in  25  A.  D., 
and  he  committed  suicide  by  starving  himself.  Bassus 
wrote  a  contemporary  history  in  rhetorical  style,  probably 
embracing  the  reigns  of  Augustus  and  Tiberius,  and  pos- 
sibly the  end  of  the  republic.  Among  the  grammarians 
of  this  time,  the  most  important  was  Quintus  Kemmius 
Palaemon,  whose  grammar  (Ars  Grammaticd)  was  much 
used  by  the  later  writer  Charisius.  There  were  also  several 
writers  on  special  subjects,  such  as  Caepio  and  Antonius 
Castor,  who  wrote  on  botany,  Julius  Atticus  and  Julius 
Gracchinus,  who  wrote  on  vine  culture,  and  Marcus  Api- 
cius,  who  wrote  on  cookery,  though  the  extant  cook-book 
ascribed  to  him  is  a  work  of  the  third  century.  These 
names  show  that  even  under  Tiberius  prose  writing,  al- 
though not  so  important  as  at  other  times,  was  not  en- 
tirely neglected. 

Philosophy  was  much  cultivated  at  Rome  in  this  time, 
as  it  had  been  for  at  least  a  century,  but  the  philosoph- 
Philoso  h  *ca^  teachers  under  Tiberius  and  Caligula 
wrote  for  the  most  part,  when  they  wrote  at 
all,  in  Greek.  Among  them  were  the  Sextii  and  Sotion, 
whose  activity  was  in  the  later  years  of  Augustus  and  the 


SENECA  177 

earlier  years  of  Tiberius,  Lucius  Annaeus  Cornutus,  and 
Gains  Musonius  Eufus,  both  of  whom  were  banished  by 
Nero  in  65  A.  D.  These  men,  and  others  of  less  note, 
whose  doctrines  were  chiefly  Stoic,  exercised  great  influ- 
ence upon  Eoman  thought,  but  as  their  teachings  were 
chiefly  oral  and  their  written  works  were  in  Greek,  they 
must  be  passed  over  with  a  brief  mention  by  no  means 
commensurate  with  their  real  importance.  Sotion  was 
one  of  the  teachers  of  the  younger  Seneca,  the  most  im- 
portant writer  of  the  time  of  Nero,  while  Cornutus  was 
the  teacher  of  the  satirist  Eacsius,  and  Musonius  of  the 
powerful  ethical  preacher  Epictetus. 

Lucius  Annaeus  Seneca,  the  son  of  the  rhetor  Seneca, 
whose  work  on  the  oratorical  teachers  of  the  period  of 
Augustus  and  the  subsequent  years  has  al- 
rea(ty  been  mentioned,  was  born  at  Corduba,  in 
Spain,  about  the  beginning  of  the  Christian 
era,  but  was  educated  in  Rome,  where  he  studied  under 
Sotion,  the  Stoic  Attains,  and  a  follower  of  the  Sextii, 
Papirius  Fabianus,  besides  attending  schools  of  rhetoric. 
His  mother,  Helvia,  was  a  lady  of  noble  birth,  whose  sis- 
ter married  Vitrasius  Pollio,  who  was  for  some  years  gov- 
ernor of  Egypt.  Seneca  appears  to  have  spent  some  time 
in  Egypt  with  his  aunt,  through  whose  influence  he 
obtained  the  quaestorship  after  his  return  to  Rome,  at 
some  time  between  42  and  37  A.  D.  A  speech  which  he 
delivered  in  the  senate  nearly  caused  his  death  by  arous- 
ing the  jealousy  of  Caligula  in  39  A.  D.  In  41  A.  D.  he 
was  banished  to  Corsica  through  the  influence  of  Messa- 
lina,  on  the  charge  of  too  great  intimacy  with  Julia  Li- 
villa,  Caligula's  younger  sister.  Such  stories  were  circu- 
lated about  all  the  members  of  the  imperial  family,  and 
we  have  now  no  means  of  knowing  whether  there  was 
any  truth  in  the  charge  against  Seneca  and  Livilla. 
Probably  the  real  reason  for  Seneca's  banishment  was  his 
connection  with  the  faction  of  Agrippina.  At  any  rate, 


178  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

Agrippina  recalled  him  from  Corsica  eight  years  later, 
after  the  execution  of  Messalina,  obtained  for  him  the 
praetorship,  and  made  him  tutor  to  her  son  Domitius 
Nero.  His  influence  over  his  young  pupil  was  so  great 
that  when  Nero  came  to  the  throne,  Seneca,  with  the  aid 
of  his  friend  Afranius  Burrus,  commander  of  the  prae- 
torian guards,  directed  the  imperial  government.  He 
restrained  the  ferocity  of  Nero  and  checked  the  ambition 
and  vengefulness  of  Agrippina.  Owing  to  his  influence 
the  early  years  of  Nero's  reign  were  long  remembered  as 
a  period  of  rest  and  peace  at  Eome.  But  Seneca  ob- 
tained and  held  his  influence  in  great  measure  by  yield- 
ing consent  to  Nero's  wishes,  even  when  they  were 
opposed  to  his  better  judgment  or  his  conscience.  He 
was  probably  privy  to  the  murder  of  Claudius,  by  which 
Nero  became  emperor,  there  is  no  indication  that  he 
opposed  the  murder  of  Germanicus  in  55  A.  D.,  and  he 
probably  had  some  connection  with  the  murder  of  Agrip- 
pina in  59  A.  D.  It  is  natural  that  in  spite  of  his  remark- 
able intellectual  and  social  gifts,  he  was  unable  to  main- 
tain his  moral  ascendency  over  the  emperor.  With  the 
death  of  Burrus,  in  62  A.  D.,  Seneca's  power  was  broken. 
He  recognized  the  fact,  withdrew  so  far  as  he  could  from 
the  life  of  the  court,  and  in  64  A.  D.  offered  to  give  up  his 
great  wealth.  But  his  retirement  did  not  save  him  from 
Nero's  cruelty,  and  in  65  A.  D.  he  was  accused  of  sharing 
in  the  conspiracy  of  Piso  and  compelled  to  commit 
suicide. 

Seneca's  philosophy  did  not  forbid  him  to  have  a 
share  of  worldly  wealth  and  honors.  At  the  height  of 
his  prosperity  he  was  immensely  wealthy,  possessing 
estates  in  Italy  and  abroad,  and  having  money  out  at 
interest  as  far  away  as  Britain.  His  total  wealth  was 
estimated  at  more  than  $15,000,000.  He  held  all  the 
regular  offices,  attaining  the  consulship  in  57  A.  D.  Of 
his  private  life  little  is  known.  He  was  twice  married. 


SENECA  179 

His  first  wife  bore  him  at  least  two  sons,  one  of  whom 
died  shortly  before  his  father's  banishment.  His  second 
wife,  Pompeia  Paulina,  whom  he  married  in  57  A.  D., 
wished  to  commit  suicide  at  the  time  of  her  husband's 
death,  but  was  prevented  by  Nero. 

Seneca  was  an  extremely  voluminous  writer,  and 
though  many  of  his  works  are  lost,  those  that  remain  still 
exceed  in  bulk  the  extant  works  of  almost  any  other 
ancient  writer.  They  comprise  tragedies, 
philosophical  treatises,  a  satire  on  the  death 
of  Claudius,  and  a  few  epigrams.  The  exact 
dates  of  individual  works  can  be  established  only  in  com- 
paratively few  instances,  and  no  attempt  will  be  made 
here  to  treat  them  in  chronological  order.  Since,  how- 
ever, it  is  probable  that  the  tragedies  are  works  of  his 
earlier  years,  they  may  be  mentioned  first.  Nine  of  these 
are  extant.1  The  subjects  are  all  derived  from  Greek 
mythology,  and  had  all  been  used  as  the  subjects  of  trage- 
dies by  Greek  dramatists.  No  originality  of  plot  is  there- 
fore to  be  expected  in  Seneca's  tragedies.  Nor  is  there 
any  great  originality  of  treatment.  Seneca  imitates 
Euripides  and  some  of  the  later  Greek  tragic  poets,  not 
simply  translating  their  work,  yet  inventing  few  if  any 
new  situations,  and  differing  from  the  Greek  dramatists 
chiefly  in  his  greater  realism  and  his  declamatory  rhet- 
oric. In  fact,  his  tragedies  are  a  succession  of  speeches, 
hardly  interrupted  by  choral  songs,  which  differ  from  the 
speeches  of  the  actors  chiefly  in  metre.  In  themselves 
these  tragedies  are  feeble  imitations  and  perversions  of 
their  Greek  prototypes,  though  in  them,  as  in  his  other 
works,  Seneca  shows  great  mastery  of  language  and  vigor 
of  expression  ;  but  their  real  importance  to  the  modern 

1  Hercules  Furens,  Troades  (or  Hecuba),  Phoenissae  (or  Thebais, 
two  disconnected  scenes  from  Theban  myths),  Medea,  Phaedra  (or 
Hippolytus),  CEdipus,  Agamemnon,  Thyestes,  and  Hercules  (Etaeus. 
The  Fabula  Prcetexta  entitled  Octavia  is  not  by  Seneca. 


180  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

reader  is  due  to  their  great  influence  upon  the  English 
dramatists  of  the  sixteenth  century  and  upon  the  whole 
course  of  the  French  classical  drama.  At  a  time  when 
Latin  was  far  more  familiar  than  Greek  these  tragedies 
were  regarded  as  the  highest  expression  of  ancient  dra- 
matic art,  and  were  studied  and  imitated  by  the  drama- 
tists of  the  modern  nations. 

The  best  known  among  them  is,  perhaps,  the  Medea. 
In  this  play,  as  in  the  Medea  of  Euripides,  the  part  of 
The  Medea  ^e  my^  ^s  treated  in  which  Jason  deserts 
his  wife  Medea  to  marry  Creiisa,  daughter  of 
Creon,  king  of  Corinth.  Medea  sends  her  two  sons  to 
Creiisa  to  give  her  a  poisoned  robe,  which  causes  her 
death  and  that  of  her  father  Creon.  Then  Medea,  in 
order  to  pain  Jason,  kills  the  two  children.  The  follow- 
ing passage  is  taken  from  Medea's  reply  to  her  nurse,  who 
urges  her  to  flee  when  the  news  is  brought  that  Creon  and 
Creiisa  have  been  killed  by  the  poisoned  robe  she  had  sent : 

Shall  I  fly  ?    I  ?    Were  I  already  gone 

I  would  return  for  this,  that  I  might  see 

These  new  betrothals.     Dost  thou  pause,  my  soul  ? 

This  joy's  but  the  beginning  of  revenge. 

Thou  dost  but  love  if  thou  art  satisfied 

To  widow  Jason.     Seek  new  penalties ; 

Honor  is  gone  and  maiden  modesty — 

It  were  a  light  revenge  pure  hands  could  yield. 

Strengthen  thy  drooping  spirit,  stir  up  wrath, 

Drain  from  thy  heart  its  all  of  ancient  force, 

Thy  deeds  till  now  call  honor  ;  wake,  and  act, 

That  they  may  see  how  light,  how  little  worth, 

All  former  crime — the  prelude  of  revenge  ! 

What  was  there  great  my  novice  hands  could  dare  ? 

What  was  the  madness  of  my  girlhood  days  ? 

I  am  Medea  now,  through  sorrow  strong. 

Rejoice,  because  through  thee  thy  brother  died  ; 

Rejoice,  because  through  thee  his  limbs  were  torn, 

Through  thee  thy  father  lost  the  golden  fleece  ; 

Rejoice,  that  armed  by  thee  his  daughters  slew 


SENECA  181 

Old  Pelias  1     Seek  revenge  !     No  novice  hand 

Thou  bring'st  to  crime  ;  what  wilt  thou  do  ;  what  dart 

Let  fly  against  thy  hated  enemy  ? 

I  know  not  what  my  maddened  spirit  plots, 

Nor  yet  dare  I  confess  it  to  myself  ! 

In  folly  I  made  haste — would  that  my  foe 

Had  children  by  this  other  !     Mine  are  his. 

We'll  say  Creiisa  bore  them  !     'Tis  enough  ; 

Through  them  my  heart  at  last  finds  full  revenge. 

My  soul  must  be  prepared  for  this  last  crime. 

Ye  who  were  once  my  children,  mine  no  more, 

Ye  pay  the  forfeit  for  your  father's  crimes. 

Awe  strikes  my  spirit  and  benumbs  my  hand  ; 

My  heart  beats  wildly ;  mother-love  drives  out 

Hate  of  my  husband ;  shall  I  shed  their  blood — 

My  children's  blood?     Demented  one,  rage  not, 

Be  far  from  thee  this  crime !     What  guilt  is  theirs? 

Is  Jason  not  their  father? — guilt  enough! 

And  worse,  Medea  claims  them  as  her  sons. 

They  are  not  sons  of  mine,  so  let  them  die ! 

Nay,  rather  let  them  perish  since  they  are ! 

But  they  are  innocent — my  brother  was ! 

Fear'st  thou  ?     Do  tears  already  mar  thy  cheek  ? 

Do  wrath  and  love  like  adverse  tides  impel 

Now  here,  now  there  ?     As  when  the  winds  wage  war, 

And  the  wild  waves  against  each  other  smite, 

My  heart  is  beaten  ;  duty  drives  out  fear, 

As  wrath  drives  duty.     Anger  dies  in  love.1 

Seneca's  philosophical  writings  fall  naturally  into 
three  divisions :  the  formal  treatises  on  ethical  subjects, 
Seneca's  the  twenty  books  of  Ethical  Letters  (Epis- 
phiiosophical  tulcB  Morales),  addressed  to  Lucilius,8  and 
writings.  the  Studies  of  Nature  (Qucestiones  Natura- 
les),  in  seven  books.  The  last-mentioned  work,  addressed 
to  Lucilius,  and  written  between  57  and  64  A.  D.,  is  by  no 

1  Lines  893-944.     Translated  by  Ella  Isabel  Harris. 

2  This  Lucilius  has  been   supposed,   though  without    sufficient 
reason,  to  be  the  author  of  the  ^tna  (see  p.  141). 


182  EOMAN  LITERATURE 

means  a  complete  treatise  on  nature.  Two  books  treat 
of  astronomy,  two  of  physical  geography,  and  four  of 
meteorology;  for  Book  IV should  properly  be  divided  into 
two  books,  one  on  physical  geography,  the  other  on 
meteorology.  These  subjects  are  treated  from  the  point 
of  view  of  the  Stoics,  without  any  original  investigation 
by  Seneca,  who  derives  his  information  entirely  from 
books.  The  work  was  very  popular  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
but  is  of  no  scientific  value.  Seneca's  chief  interest  was 
in  ethics,  and  he  uses  the  phenomena  of  nature  as  texts 
for  his  ethical  views.  The  formal  treatises  on  ethics  dis- 
cuss such  subjects  as  Anger  (De  Ira,  in  three  books), 
The  Shortness  of  Life  (De  Brevitate  Vitce),  Clemency  (De 
Clementia),  The  Happy  Life  (De  Vita  Beata),  Consola- 
tion (De  Consolatione,  three  independent  treatises  ad- 
dressed to  different  persons),  and  The  Giving  and  Receiv- 
ing of  Favors  (De  Beneficiis,  an  elaborate  treatise  in 
seven  books).  The  Letters  treat  of  similar  subjects  in  a 
somewhat  less  formal  way.  These  works  show  that 
Seneca  had  studied  with  great  diligence  the  works  of 
previous  writers  on  such  subjects,  especially  those  of  the 
Stoics,  though  the  writings  of  Epicureans  had  been  by 
no  means  neglected.  The  moral  teaching  is,  in  the  main, 
sound  and  wise,  but  there  is  little  originality  of  thought. 
The  style  is  vigorous  and  effective,  though  artificial  and 
rhetorical ;  but  these  latter  qualities  were  so  natural  to 
Seneca,  in  common  with  other  writers  of  his  day,  that 
they  do  not  detract  from  the  sincerity  of  the  sentiments 
expressed.  Seneca  is  the  most  complete  exponent  of  the 
Stoic  philosophy  as  it  developed  at  Eome.  He  is  not  so 
much  a  speculative  thinker  as  a  giver  of  practical  advice 
for  the  conduct  of  life.  Like  most,  if  not  all,  the  Eoman 
Stoics,  he  is  a  preacher  and  teacher ;  and  as  such  he  is  of 
the  highest  interest  and  importance.  His  works  were 
much  read  in  his  own  time  and  in  the  years  immediately 
following,  though  Quintilian  and  others  who  wished  to 


PERSIUS  183 

revive  the  Latin  of  Cicero  found  fault  with  their  style. 
Their  popularity  continued  unabated  for  centuries,  and 
their  high  moral  tone  led  to  the  belief  that  Seneca  was  a 
Christian.  This  belief  was  strengthened  by  the  composi- 
tion, at  a  comparatively  early  date,  of  a  series  of  fourteen 
letters  supposed  to  have  been  exchanged  between  Seneca 
and  the  Apostle  Paul.  These  letters  are,  however,  obvi- 
ously forgeries,  and  possess  no  literary  merit.  Seneca's 
influence  did  not  die  with  the  death  of  the  ancient  civil- 
ization, but  has  continued  even  to  our  own  times,  and  is 
very  marked  in  the  writings  of  Ealph  Waldo  Emerson. 

In  the  Apocolocyntosis  Seneca  appears  as  a  political 
satirist.  The  title  may  be  translated  PumpTcinification^ 
for  the  word  is  made  from  the  Greek  apo- 
cyntotis°CC  "  thesis,  with  the  word  for  "pumpkin"  sub- 
stituted for  the  word  meaning  "  god."  This 
joke  does  not,  however,  appear  in  the  pamphlet  itself. 
The  Emperor  Claudius,  who  had  just  died,  is  supposed  to 
arrive  at  Olympus  and  claim  admittance  among  the  gods. 
The  gods  hold  a  meeting,  at  which  Augustus  speaks 
against  the  admission  of  Claudius,  who  is  finally  sent  off 
to  Hades,  where  he  is  met  by  those  whom  he  has  unjustly 
put  to  death.  This  is  the  only  extant  specimen  of  a  com- 
plete Menippean  Satire,  a  work  written  in  prose  for  the 
most  part,  but  containing  also  metrical  portions.  For 
that  reason  it  has  a  certain  interest,  but  its  literary  merit 
is  slight.  Nor  are  Seneca's  epigrams  of  any  great  impor- 
tance. They  are  merely  such  verses  as  any  cultivated 
man  of  letters  like  Seneca  can  write  when  the  occasion 
offers. 

The  age  of  Seneca  produced  no  great  poets,  and  few 

whose   works   have   survived.     The   earliest   of   these   is 

Aulus    Persius    Flaccus,   who    was  born   at 

Volaterrse,  December  4,  34  A.  D.,  and  died  at 

the  age  of  twenty-eight,  November  24,  62  A.  D.     At  the 

age  of  twelve,  Persius  left  his  native  town  for  Eome, 

13 


184:  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

where  he  attended  various  schools,  among  them  that  of 
the  grammarian  Remmius  Palaemon.  At  the  age  of  six- 
teen he  attached  himself  to  the  Stoic  Cornutus  and 
became  an  enthusiastic  adherent  of  the  Stoic  school.  He 
was  acquainted  with  many  of  the  distinguished  men 
of  the  time,  among  them  Seneca  and  the  epic  poet 
Lucan.  He  was  related  to  Arria,  the  wife  of  Paetus 
Thrasea,  and  his  intimacy  with  Thrasea  and  his  family 
doubtless  strengthened  his  interest  in  the  Stoic  philoso. 
phy;  for  Thrasea  was  one  of  the  many  noble  Romans 
who  found  in  the  Stoic  doctrines  some  moral  support 
amid  the  vice  and  corruption  of  their  degenerate  times. 
Persius  belonged  to  a  family  of  equestrian  rank,  and  at 
his  death  left  a  large  property.  His  library  he  left  to 
Cornutus,  who  edited  his  poems,  consisting  of  six  Satires. 
Persius  had  written  some  notes  of  travel  and  a  tragedy 
of  the  kind  called  prc&texta,  but  these  were  not  published. 
In  the  first  satire  he  attacks  the  literary  production  of 
the  time,  and  the  prevailing  love  of  notoriety.  This  is  a 
real  satire,  in  imitation  of  those  of  Lucilius  or,  rather,  of 
Horace.  In  the  remaining  poems  Persius  discourses  on 
subjects  drawn  from  the  doctrines  of  the  Stoics.  The 
second  satire  treats  of  prayer,  the  third  of  the  contra- 
diction between  our  conduct  and  what  we  know  is  right, 
the  fourth  of  self-knowledge ;  in  the  fifth  Persius  grate- 
fully praises  Cornutus,  who  had  trained  him  in  Stoic 
philosophy,  and  passes  on  to  describe  true  freedom,  which 
delivers  men  from  the  tyranny  of  the  passions;  in  the 
sixth  he  addresses  his  friend,  the  poet  Cassius  Bassus, 
speaks  of  his  own  pleasant  life  in  retirement  at  Luna,  and 
discusses  the  true  use  of  this  world's  goods. 

The  poems  of  Persius  were  much  admired  by  his  con- 
temporaries, and  later  generations,  even  throughout  the 
Middle  Ages,  read  them  and  wrote  commentaries  upon 
them.  This  admiration  was  due  to  the  moral  and  ethical 
contents  of  the  poems,  though  the  style  also  no  doubt 


LUCAN  185 

pleased  the  perverted  taste  of  the  poet's  own  times.  But 
neither  the  contents  nor  the  style  merits  admiration. 
Quality  of  Persius  was  a  young  man  of  little  originality, 
the  poems  who  expressed  in  his  poems  only  what  he 
of  Persius.  hac[  learned  from  his  teachers.  The  Stoic 
doctrines  he  teaches  are  trite,  even  the  examples  he 
cites  being  derived  from  books,  not  from  his  own  experi- 
ence ;  and  the  style  has  all  the  faults  of  the  period.  Per- 
sius had  studied  Horace  with  diligence,  and  his  poems 
are  full  of  Horatian  words  and  phrases,  but  they  have 
nothing  of  the  grace  and  charm  of  Horace.  Persius  aims 
at  striking  expressions  and  novelty  of  form.  He  there- 
fore avoids  as  much  as  possible  all  that  is  natural, 
employs  unusual  words  in  unnatural  order,  and  succeeds 
in  being  obscure  without  being  profound.  Few  authors 
have  so  undeservedly  gained  long-enduring  reputation. 

A  far  abler  poet  was  Marcus  Annaeus  Lucanus,  the 
nephew  of  Seneca.  He  was  born  at  Corduba  in  39  A.  D., 
but  was  taken  to  Eome  when  only  eight 
months  old.  There  he  was  well  educated, 
especially  in  rhetoric,  and  acquired  a  reputation  as  a 
declaimer  in  Greek  and  Latin.  One  of  his  teachers  was 
the  philosopher  Cornutus,  and  among  his  friends  was 
Persius,  whom  he  admired  greatly.  He  went  to  Athens 
to  complete  his  education,  and  was  called  back  to  Eome 
by  Nero,  who  made  him  one  of  his  circle  of  friends.  In 
60  A.  D.  he  wrote  a  poem  in  praise  of  Nero,  which  led  to 
his  political  advancement.  But  Nero's  favor  was  short- 
lived, either  because  Lucan  was  guilty  of  some  impolite- 
ness in  public  declaiming,  or  because  Nero  was  jealous  of 
his  reputation  as  a  poet,  and  forbade  him  to  write  or 
recite.  Lucan  joined  the  conspiracy  of  Piso,  and  was 
forced  to  commit  suicide,  April  30,  65  A.  D. 

Lucan  wrote  several  works,  chiefly  in  verse,  but  the 
only  one  extant  is  an  epic  poem  in  ten  books,  entitled 
De  Bello  Civili  (On  the  Civil  War),  ordinarily  called 


186  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

Pliarsalia,  in  which  he  tells  the  story  of  the  civil  war 
to  the  time  when  Caesar  was  besieged  at  Alexandria. 
The  narrative  is  prosaic  and  somewhat  dull, 
Pharsalia  ^u^  ^e  ^e^um  *s  relieved  hy  vivid  descrip- 
tions and  really  eloquent  speeches.  The 
chief  historical  source  is  Livy,  though  other  writers  seem 
to  have  been  consulted.  Some  inaccuracies  detract  from 
the  historical  value  of  the  poem.  The  diction  is  in  the 
main  Virgilian,  though  it  is  evident  that  Lucan  had 
studied  Horace  and  Ovid.  Geographical  and  mytholog- 
ical lore  is  sometimes  needlessly  displayed,  and  the  au- 
thor's rhetorical  training  and  ability  are  too  evident.  In 
Books  I-III  Lucan  is  still  friendly  to  Nero,  whom  he  nat- 
ters in  Book  I,  33-66,  though  throughout  the  entire  work 
Caesar,  the  founder  of  the  empire,  is  the  constant  object, 
of  the  poet's  hostility.  In  the  first  three  books  Pompey 
is  the  hero,  and  Cato  and  Brutus  are  spoken  of  with 
admiration.  The  opposition  to  Caesar  does  not,  however* 
in  Lucan's  case,  indicate  hostility  to  the  empire  and  a 
desire  to  return  to  the  republican  form  of  government ; 
in  fact,  Lucan's  participation  in  the  conspiracy  of  Piso, 
which  had  for  its  purpose  the  overthrow  of  Nero  and  the 
substitution  of  a  good  emperor  in  his  place,  shows  that 
he  accepted  the  imperial  form  of  government  as  the  only 
one  possible.  As  a  specimen  of  Lucan's  spirit,  and  of  the 
speeches  which  lend  brilliancy  to  his  pages,  we.  may  take 
the  address  of  Cato  to  the  Eoman  soldiers  of  Pompey's 
army  in  Egypt  after  Pompey's  death,  when  the  army  was 
on  the  point  of  joining  Caesar : 

So  for  no  higher  cause  you  waged  your  wars? 

You,  too,  youths,  fought  for  masters,  and  you  were 

No  Roman  force,  but  only  Pompey's  band? 

Since  not  for  royalty  you're  toiling  now, 

Since  for  yourselves,  not  for  your  leaders'  gain 

You  live  and  die,  since  not  for  any  man 

You  seek  to  gain  the  world,  since  now  for  you 


MINOR  POETS  187 

'Tis  safe  to  conquer,  you  shrink  back  from  wars, 
And  seek  a  yoke  to  press  your  empty  necks, 
And  know  not  how  to  live  without  a  king ! 
Yet  now  you  have  a  cause  worth  risk  for  men. 
Your  blood  could  be  for  Pompey  shed  in  streams, 
And  do  you  now  refuse  your  country's  call 
For  lives  and  swords  when  liberty  is  nigh? 
Of  three  lords  Fortune  now  has  left  but  one. 
O  shame !     The  royal  palace  of  the  Nile 
And  Parthian  soldier's  bow  have  more  than  you 
Upheld  the  Roman  laws.     Go  now,  despise 
The  merit  Ptolemy  by  arms  has  won  I 
Degenerate  soldiers !     Who  will  think  that  e'er 
Your  hands  were  red  with  any  battle's  blood? 
He  will  believe  you  quickly  turned  your  backs 
In  flight  before  him;  he  will  think  that  you 
Fled  first  from  dire  Philippi's  Thracian  field. 
So  go  in  safety !     You  have  saved  your  lives, 
In  Caesar's  judgment,  not  subdued  by  arms, 
Nor  yet  by  siege.     O  base,  unmanly  slaves! 
Your  former  master  dead,  go  to  his  heir ! 
Why  will  you  not  earn  more  than  life  and  more 
Than  pardon?     Let  great  Pompey 's  wretched  wife 
And  let  Metellus'  offspring  o'er  the  waves 
Be  borne  in  chains ;  take  captive  Pompey 's  sons ; 
Let  Ptolemy's  deserts  be  less  than  yours ! 
My  own  head,  too,  whoever  brings  and  gives 
The  hateful  tyrant,  reaps  no  mean  reward. 
Those  men  will  know  by  my  head's  price  that  they 
Served  no  mean  standard  when  they  followed  mine. 
Then  come,  and  by  great  slaughter  gain  deserts. 
Mere  flight  is  a  base  crime. 1 

Lucan  is  certainly  the  chief  poet  of  the  time  of  Nero. 
Less  important  is  Titus  Calpurnius  Siculus,  the  author 
Cai  urnius  °^  seven  Eclogues  in  imitation  of  Virgil  and 
Theocritus.  Formerly  eleven  eclogues  were 
attributed  to  him,  but  it  is  now  evident  that  he  was  the 
author  of  only  seven,  the  remainder  being  probably  the 

1  Pharsalia,  ix,  256-283. 


188  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

work  of  Nemesianus,  who  lived  in  the  first  half  of  the 
third  century.  The  Eclogues  of  Calpurnius  are  close  imi- 
tations of  those  of  Virgil,  but  are  far  inferior  to  their  pro- 
totypes. They  are  attractive,  but  so  much  less  attractive 
than  Virgil's  Eclogues  that  they  are  little  read.  A  poem 
In  Praise  of  Piso  (De  Laude  Pisonis)  is  attributed  with 
great  probability  to  Calpurnius.  The  Piso  whose  praise 
is  sung  is  without  doubt  Calpurnius  Piso,  the  rich  and  in- 
fluential man  who  headed  the  conspiracy  against  Nero  and 
committed  suicide  in  65  A.  D.  This  poem  is  full  of  imi- 
tations of  Virgil,  Ovid,  and  Horace.  The  poem  entitled 

jEtna  (see  p.  141)  and  many  of  the  anony- 
Other  poems.  J  J 

mous  poems  preserved  in  manuscripts,  some 

of  which  are  not  without  merit,  are  to  be  ascribed  to  this 
period.  The  prc&texta  entitled  Octavia,  preserved  among 
Seneca's  tragedies,  undoubtedly  belongs  to  a  slightly  later 
time,  as  Seneca  and  Nero  appear  in  it.  So  far  as  its  style 
is  concerned,  it  might  almost  be  by  Seneca,  though  the 
rhetoric  displayed  is  somewhat  less  effective  than  that  of 
Seneca's  tragedies.  The  play  is  interesting,  chiefly  be- 
cause it  is  the  only  extant  play  of  its  class.  Only  a  few 
unimportant  fragments  remain  of  the  tragedies  by  the 
distinguished  general,  Publius  Pomponius  Secundus. 

A  work  of  unique  interest  is  the  novel  by  Petronius. 
This  author  is  without  much  doubt  identical  with  the 
Gaius  Petronius,  who  was  proconsul  of  Bithynia  and  after- 
wards consul,  whom  Nero  admitted  to  his  friendship  and 
Petronius  regarded  as  the  arbiter  elegantim,  or  judge 
of  good  taste,  but  who  was  accused  by  Tigel- 
linus  in  66  A.  D.,  and  committed  suicide  to  avoid  execu- 
tion. The  novel,  known  as  Satirce,  originally  consisted 
of  some  twenty  books,  and  contained  an  account  of  the 
adventures  of  a  Greek  freedman,  Encolpius,  as  told  by 
himself.  The  adventures  were  strung  together  with  no 
plot,  except  as  the  wrath  of  the  god  Priapus  (a  parody  of 
the  wrath  of  Poseidon  in  Homer's  Odyssey)  may  have 


PETRONIUS  189 

served  as  a  plot  to  some  extent.  The  extant  parts  are 
from  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  books.  The  form  is  that 
of  a  Menippean  Satire,  prose  and  verse  in  combination, 
but  the  longer  parts  are  exclusively  in  prose. 

The  chief  of  these  is  the  Cena  Trimalchionis  (Trimal- 
chio's  Banquet),  the  description  of  an  elaborate  entertain- 
ment given  by  a  rich  and  purse-proud  freed- 
man,  Trimalchio.  (  The  scene  of  the  banquet 
is  laid  at  Cumse,  or  Puteoli.  The  house  is 
large  and  full  of  costly  things,  but  shows  utter  lack  of 
taste.  Trimalchio  himself  is  a  fat  old  fellow,  who  comes 
to  the  dinner  after  all  the  guests  have  been  seated  for 
some  time.  He  informs  them  that  it  was  inconvenient 
for  him  to  come,  but  that  he  did  not  wish  to  disappoint 
them.  At  first  he  plays  checkers  with  an  attendant,  but 
presently  takes  part  in  the  feast  and  the  conversation. 
The  first  course  brought  in  is  a  wooden  fowl  sitting  on 
eggs,  which  prove  to  be  made  of  paste,  and  to  contain 
finely  seasoned  birds.  When  a  silver  dish  falls  on  the 
floor,  Trimalchio  orders  it  to  be  swept  up  with  the  rub- 
bish. Another  course  consists  of  a  great  boar,  out  of 
which,  when  it  is  cut  open  by  a  slave  in  hunting  costume, 
fly  live  thrushes.  Again  a  roast  pig  is  cut  open,  and  sau- 
sages of  all  kinds  fall  out.  The  entertainment  has  other 
than  gastronomical  surprises,  for  a  troupe  of  Homeric 
actors  appear  and  perform  scenes  of  the  Trojan  War, 
speaking  in  Greek.  At  the  end  of  their  performance  a 
boiled  calf  is  brought  in,  and  the  actor  who  takes  the 
part  of  Ajax  hacks  it  with  his  sword  in  imitation  of  the 
attack  made  by  Ajax  in  his  madness  upon  the  cattle  at 
Troy,  and  offers  the  astonished  guests  pieces  of  meat  on 
his  sword  point.  Acrobats  also  come  in,  and  when  one 
of  them  falls  from  a  ladder  upon  Trimalchio,  he  is  at  once 
freed  from  slavery,  lest  it  be  said  that  so  great  a  man  as 
Trimalchio  was  injured  by  a  slave.  Presently  the  ceiling 
rolls  apart,  and  a  great  hoop  is  let  down,  upon  which  are 


190  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

jars  of  perfumes  as  keepsakes  for  the  guests.  All  these 
astonishing  performances  are  made  more  amusing  by  the 
naive  pride  of  Trimalchio,  who  prates  much  of  his  great 
wealth,  and  exhibits  his  ignorance  by  trying  to  make  a 
show  of  learning.  One  of  the  guests  tells  a  ghost  story 
and  another  a  tale  of  an  adventure  with  a  werewolf. 
Further  excitement  is  caused  by  a  fight  between  a  fat 
little  dog  brought  by  Trimalchio's  friend,  the  stone-cutter 
Habinnas,  and  a  large  dog  belonging  to  Trimalchio.  The 
slaves  then  take  part  in  the  banquet,  Trimalchio  has  his 
will  read,  and  all  weep.  After  a  bath,  the  company  passes 
to  a  second  dining-room.  Here  Trimalchio  has  a  furious 
quarrel  with  his  wife,  who  is  jealous  of  a  favorite  slave 
boy.  Trimalchio  finally  has  his  grave-clothes  brought 
in,  and  lies  down  as  if  dead,  ordering  his  horn-blowers  to 
play  funereal  music.  The  noise  is  so  great  that  the  po- 
lice, thinking  something  is  the  matter,  break  into  the 
house,  whereupon  the  guests  escape.  All  this,  with  many 
more  details  of  the  lavish  and  tasteless  expenditure,  the 
pride  of  the  vulgar  Trimalchio,  and  the  absurd  features 
of  the  banquet,  is  described  with  much  satirical  humor. 
The  language  of  the  narrative  is  refined,  evidently  that 
of  a  highly  cultivated  man.  Trimalchio,  however,  and 
some  of  the  other  characters  speak  the  popular  dialect  of 
southern  Italy,  which  contains  many  words  strange  to  lit- 
erary Latin.  Their  speech  is  not  without  mistakes  in  gram- 
mar, and  is  full  of  proverbs,  like  the  speech  of  Sancho 
Panza  in  Don  Quixote. 

Among  the  poems  contained  in  the  novel,  the  longest, 
entitled  De  Bello  Civili  (On  the  Civil  War),  consists  of 
two  hundred  and  ninety-five  hexameters,  in  imitation  of 
Lucan,  with  touches  of  parody ;  the  next  in  length  is  the 
TroicB  Halosis  (Capture  of  Troy),  in  sixty-five  senarii, 
probably  a  parody  of  Nero's  poem  of  the  same  title.  The 
novel  of  Petronius  is,  in  some  places,  extremely  indecent, 
but  is  interesting  on  account  of  the  specimens  of  popular 


MINOR  PROSE  WRITERS  191 

speech  it  contains,  and  still  more,  as  the  only  known 
example  of  the  satirical  novel  in  Latin.  It  is,  moreover, 
full  of  wit  and  humor,  and  shows  keen  observation  and 
much  knowledge  of  human  nature  as  well  as  of  literature. 
The  loss  of  the  greater  part  of  the  work  is  greatly  to  be 
regretted. 

The  only  extant  historical  work  of  this  period  is  the 
History  of  Alexander  the  Great  (De  Gestis  Alexandri 
Magni),  by  Quint  us  Curtius  Eufus,  of  whose 
personality  nothing  is  known,  but  who  seems 
to  have  written  under  Claudius.  The  work 
originally  consisted  of  ten  books,  the  first  two  of  which 
are  lost.  The  style  is  modelled  upon  that  of  Livy,  and  is 
clear  and  simple  for  the  most  part,  though  not  entirely 
free  from  the  affectation  of  elegance  customary  at  the 
time.  Some  of  the  descriptions  and  speeches  are  excep- 
tionally fine.  Curtius  is  not  a  critical  historian,  and  fol- 
lows Greek  authorities  selected  without  much  attention 
to  their  accuracy.  Of  the  other  historical  works  of  this 
.  period  nothing  remains.  The  memoirs  com- 

posed by  various  more  or  less  important  per- 
sons are  also  lost.  Among  them  may  be  mentioned  those 
of  the  Empress  Agrippina  and  of  the  generals  Gnaeus 
Domitius  Corbulo,  who  was  consul  suffectus  in  39  A.  D., 
and  was  put  to  death  by  Nero  in  86  A.  D.,  and  Suetonius 
Paulinus,  who  was  twice  consul,  once  soon  after  42,  and 
again  in  66  A.  D. 

Many  scientific  treatises  were  written  at  this  time,  as 
in  the  previous  period,  but  two  only  are  extant :  the  trea- 
Coiumelia  ^se  ®n  Agriculture  (De  Re  Rustica),  by  Lu- 
cius Junius  Moderatus  Columella,  and  the 
Geography  (Chorographia),  by  Pomponius  Mela.  Colu- 
mella was  born  at  Gades  (Cadiz),  and  served  in  the  army 
in  Syria.  He  possessed  land  in  Italy,  and  in  his  work  he 
has  the  agriculture  of  Italy  chiefly  in  mind.  The  work  is 
divided  into  twelve  books,  and  is  the  most  complete  ancient 


192  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

treatise  on  agriculture  extant — more  complete  than  those 
of  Cato  and  Varro.  It  is  written  in  a  simple  and  dignified 
style,  more  like  the  prose  of  the  Augustan  period  than 
the  artificial  rhetoric  of  most  contemporary  writings.  In 
this  repect  Columella  is  a  precursor  of  the  classical  revival 
under  the  Flavian  emperors.  The  tenth  book,  on  gar- 
dening, is  written  in  hexameters,  to  serve  as  a  fifth  book  of 
Virgil's  Georgics,  because  Virgil  had  hardly  touched  upon 
this  branch  of  his  subject.1  The  entire  work  is  dedicated 
to  Publius  Silvinus,  and  it  was  due  to  a  suggestion  from 
him  and  another  friend  that  the  tenth  book  was  written 
in  verse.  Columella's  verse  is  simple  and  classical,  but 
is  greatly  inferior  to  that  of  Virgil,  and  less  admirable 
than  his  prose.  Mela,  like  Columella,  was  a 
Spaniard.  His  native  place  was  Tingentera. 
His  three  books  on  geography  were  written  soon  after  40 
A.  D.,  and  form  the  earliest  systematic  treatise  on  the 
subject  extant.  The  style  is  far  inferior  to  that  of  Colu- 
mella, for  Mela  writes  in  the  affected  manner  of  his 
times.  The  work  is  enlivened  by  descriptions  of  peoples, 
places,  and  customs,  and  is  valuable  as  a  source  of  in- 
formation, since  it  is  based  upon  good  authorities. 

Historical  explanations  of  five  orations  of  Cicero  by 
Quintus   Asconius   Pedianus  (about  3-88  A.  D.)  are   pre- 
served  in   a   fragmentary   condition.      They 
writers8  show  great  care  and  diligence,  and  are  writ- 

ten in  simple  classical  style.  Of  other 
works  by  Asconius  some  fragments  are  preserved  in  the 
commentary  of  Servius  on  Virgil.  The  works  of  the  ora- 
tors of  this. period  are  all  lost,  as  are  the  legal  writings  of 
Proculus  and  Gains  Cassius  Longinus  (consul  in  30  A.  D.), 
who  continued  the  schools  of  Labeo  and  Capito.  The 
most  important  grammarian  of  this  time  was  Marcus 

1  Verum  hcec  ipse  equidem  spatiis  exclusus  iniquis 
Prcetereo  atque  aliis  post  me  memoranda  relinquo. 

Virgil,  Georgics,  iv,  147  f. 


MINOR  PROSE  WRITERS  193 

Valerius  Probus,  of  Berytus,  to  whom  Jerome  assigns  the 

date  56  A.  D.      He  prepared   and   published  editions  of 

Terence,  Lucretius,  Virgil,  Horace,  and  Eej"- 

Probus .  .  .  , .  .  -, . 

-Sim,  paying  attention  to  various  readings, 
punctuation,  and  the  like,  and  commenting  upon  the 
text.  He  also  wrote  grammatical  treatises,  though  the 
grammar  preserved  under  his  name  is  not  his  work.  His 
only  extant  works  are  a  list  of  abbreviations  and  parts  of 
the  commentaries  on  Virgil. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

THE  FLAVIAN  BMPERORS-THE  SILVER  AGE 

Vespasian,  69-79  A.  D.— Titus,  79-81  A.  D.— Domitian,  81-96  A.  D. 
— Valerius  Flaccus,  died  about  90  A.  D. — Silius  Italicus,  25-101  A.  D. — 
Statius,  about  40  to  about  95  A.  D.— The  father  of  Statius,  about  15- 
80  A.  D. — Saleius  Bassus,  about  70  A.  D. — Curiatius  Maternus,  about  70 
A.  D.— Martial,  about  40  to  about  104  A.  D.— Pliny  the  elder,  23-79  A.  D. 
— Frontinus,  prater  70  A.  D. — Quintilian,  about  35  to  about  100  A.  D. 

THE  death  of  Nero  was  followed  by  a  year  of  disorder, 
in  which  Galba,  Otho,  and  Vitellius  were    successively 
raised  to  the  highest  power,  overthrown,  and 

kille(L      But    the  terr°r    which  had  brooded 
over  Eome  in  the  latter  years  of  Nero's  rule 

passed  away  with  the  coming  of  the  Flavian  emperors. 
Vespasian  (69-79  A.  D.)  and  Titus  (79-81  A.  D.)  were  firm 
but  gentle  rulers.  Both  were  chiefly  known  as  brave 
soldiers  and  able  generals,  but  neither  was  uncultured  or 
without  literary  interests.  Vespasian  wrote  memoirs  and 
Titus  composed  in  76  A.  D.  a  poem  on  a  comet.  Their  in- 
terest in  literature  and  intellectual  pursuits  was,  however, 
exhibited  less  by  their  own  productions  than  in  other 
ways.  Vespasian  was  liberal  to  poets  and  artists ;  he  paid 
attention  to  dramatic  performances ;  he  caused  the  three 
thousand  bronze  tablets  destroyed  in  the  burning  of  the 
capitol  to  be  replaced  by  copies  ;  and  provided  for  the 
payment  of  rhetors,  or  instructors  in  oratory,  by  the  state, 
being  thus  the  first  to  establish  a  system  of  public  educa- 
tion. The  banishment  of  philosophers  and  astrologers 
during  his  reign  was  due  to  the  reactionary  politics  of  the 
philosophers,  not  to  any  opposition  to  philosophy  on  his 
194 


THE  FLAVIAN  EMPEROKS  195 

part.  Domitian  (81-96  A.  D.)  was  a  very  different  charac- 
ter. Before  his  accession  to  the  imperial  power  he  ex- 
hibited a  taste  for  poetry  which  led  the  writers  of  the  day 
to  natter  him  as  if  he  were  one  of  the  greatest  of  poets ; 
but  when  he  became  emperor  he  relinquished  all  literary 
pursuits.  No  works  by  him  are  mentioned  except  a  poem 
on  the  battle  that  took  place  at  the  capitol  in  69  A.  D.  and 
a  treatise  on  the  care  of  the  hair,  a  subject  in  which  he 
was  interested  on  account  of  his  baldness.  Nevertheless 
he  restored  the  libraries  which  had  been  burned,  and  in- 
stituted public  games  in  which  dramatists,  poets,  and 
orators  took  part.  But  his  jealousy  and  cruelty  were 
greater  than  his  literary  interests.  Twice,  in  89  and  93 
A.  D.,  the  philosophers  and  astrologers  were  banished  from 
Eome,  and  though  these  acts  may  be  excused  on  the 
ground  of  political  expediency,  no  such  excuse  can  be 
found  for  the  cruelty  which  led  him  to  persecute  authors 
and  put  them  to  death  on  the  flimsiest  pretexts.  The 
last  years  of  his  reign  were  a  period  of  terror  for  men  of 
letters  even  more  than  for  his  other  subjects. 

Under  Vespasian,  the  mad  terror  of  the  reign  of  Nero 
was  succeeded  by  a  period  of  calm.  In  literature  also 
greater  dignity  and  better  taste  succeeds  to  the  exagger- 
ated rhetoric  of  the  preceding  years.  The  writers  of  the 
Flavian  period — the  so-called  Silver  Age  of  Roman  litera- 
ture— revert  to  the  manner  of  the  great  Augustan  writers. 
Tacitus  alone  develops  a  style  of  marked  originality,  and 
Tacitus  is  the  only  really  great  writer  of  this  period. 
The  others,  foremost  among  whom  are  Quintilian,  Statins, 
and  the  elder  Pliny,  show  learning  and  judgment,  but  not 
genius. 

The  earliest  poet  of  the  Flavian  epoch  is  Gaius  Va- 
lerius Flaccus,  whose  only  known  work  is  an  epic  poem 
entitled  Argonautica,  on  the  adventures  of  Jason  and 
his  comrades  in  quest  of  the  golden  fleece.  A  reference 
to  the  capture  of  Jerusalem  by  Titus  shows  that  the 


196  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

earlier  part  of  the  poem  was  written  not  long  after  70  A.  D., 
and  the  mention  of  the  eruption  of  Vesuvius  proves  that 
it  was  not  completed  until  after  79  A.  D.  The 
Poet  died  shortly  before  90  A.  D.  Further 
than  this  nothing  is  known  of  his  life.  The 
story  of  the  Argonautic  expedition  was  told  in  the 
Argonautica  of  the  Greek  poet  Apollonius  Ehodius  in 
the  third  century  B.C.,  and  Valerius  Flaccus  imitates 
Apollonius  in  his  general  treatment  of  the  subject,  some- 
times even  translating  his  words;  but  he  amplifies  some 
scenes  which  Apollonius  had  treated  briefly  and  adds 
some  new  elements  to  the  tale,  while  on  the  other  hand 
he  omits  much  of  the  superfluous  learning  displayed 
by  Apollonius  and  narrates  briefly  parts  of  the  story 
which  the  Greek  poet  had  told  at  greater  length.  In 
general,  when  Valerius  changes  the  treatment  of  Apol- 
lonius the  change  is  for  the  better.  For  instance,  in  the 
Latin  poem,  when  Jason  reaches  Colchis,  he  finds  ^Eetes 
hard  pressed  by  a  hostile  army,  and  receives  from  him 
the  promise  of  the  golden  fleece  in  return  for  his  assist- 
ance in  the  war.  When  the  enemy  is  defeated  ^Eetes 
breaks  his  promise,  and  Jason  is  thus  justified  in  accept- 
ing the  aid  of  Medea  and  her  magic  arts.  Nothing  of 
all  this  is  to  be  found  in  Apollonius,  and  the  Roman 
poet  has  made  a  decided  addition  to  the  plot  of  the 
story.  Valerius  pays  more  attention  to  character  paint- 
ing than  Apollonius,  and  is  especially  successful  in 
making  the  characters  of  ^Eetes  and  Jason  stand  out  in 
strong  relief.  His  description  of  the  mental  struggles 
of  Medea,  torn  between  her  love  for  Jason  and  her  duty 
to  her  father  and  her  country,  is  far  more  effective  than 
that  of  Apollonius  or  even  than  Virgil's  description  of 
Dido's  love  for  ^Eneas,  which  is  founded  upon  Apollonius. 
In  diction  Valerius  imitates  Virgil,  though  his  style  is 
far  less  simple  and  clear  than  Virgil's,  and  in  the  treat- 
ment of  many  episodes  of  the  poem  he  copies  Virgil's 


SILIUS  1TALICUS  197 

treatment  of  similar  themes;  the  work  shows  also  the 
influence  of  Ovid  and  of  Seneca's  tragedies.  In  its  pres- 
ent condition  the  Argonautica  breaks  off  in  the  eighth 
book,  leaving  the  tale  incomplete;  but  whether  the 
remainder  of  the  poem  is  lost  or  was  never  written  can  not 
be  determined. 

Silius  Italicus,  whose  whole  name  was  Tiberius  Cattius 
Silius  Italicus,  chose  for  the  subject  of  his  epic  a  Eoman 

theme,  the  second  Punic  War.  He  was  born 
itaiious.  in  25  A.  D.  and  starved  himself  to  death  on 

account  of  an  incurable  disease  in  101  A.  D. 
He  is  said  to  have  been  an  informer  (delator)  under  Nero, 
but  rose  to  the  consulship  in  68  A.  D.,  and  was  afterwards 
governor  of  Asia  under  Vespasian.  The  latter  part  of 
his  life  was  spent  in  honorable  retirement  in  Campania. 
Here  he  devoted  himself  to  literature  and  wrote  the 
seventeen  books  of  the  Punica,  in  which  he  tells  the 
story  of  the  second  Punic  War  to  the  decisive  battle  of 
Zama,  in  202  B.  c.  His  historical  information  is  derived 
from  Livy,  and  is  therefore  correct  in  all  essential 
matters.  The  events  of  the  war  are  described  in  chrono- 
logical order.  The  style  is  an  imitation  of  Homer  and 
Virgil,  and  the  imitation  extends  to  more  than  mere 
style,  for  the  traditional  epic  machinery  of  gods,  prophe- 
cies, heroes,  and  the  like,  is  employed  as  freely  as  if  the 
second  Punic  War  were  as  mythical  as  the  adventures  of 
^Eneas.  So  Juno  strives  to  give  Hannibal  the  victory, 
while  Venus  aids  the  Romans.  The  sea-god  Proteus  fore- 
tells the  course  of  the  war  to  a  Carthaginian  fleet,  and 
Hannibal,  with  his  crested  helmet,  his  sword,  and  his 
spear  "fatal  to  thousands,"  rages  about  the  walls  of 
Saguntum  like  Achilles  at  the  siege  of  Troy.  In  short, 
Silius,  having  no  poetic  inspiration  or  imagination  of  his 
own,  uses  in  his  account  of  the  Punic  War  the  methods 
which  had  been  appropriately  applied  to  the  myths  of 
earlier  days  by  Homer  and  Virgil.  As  a  result,  the 


198  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

Punica,  though  written  in  good  hexameters,  is  hopelessly 
dull  and  uninteresting.  The  so-called  Homerus  Latinus, 
or  llias  Latina,  an  epitome  of  the  Iliad  in  one  thousand 
and  seventy  hexameters,  is  attributed  to  the  earlier  years 
of  Silius  Italicus.  It  attained  considerable  popularity, 
but  is  a  work  of  little  merit. 

The  most  eminent  poet  of  this  period  was  Publius 
Papinius  Statius.  He  was  born  at  Naples,  probably  about 
st  tins  ^  A*  D''  kuk  sPen^  most  of  his  life  at  Eome, 

though  he  returned  to  Naples,  probably  in 
94  A.  D.  The  last  date  to  which  reference  is  made  in  his 
poems  is  95  A.  D.  His  father  was  of  a  distinguished  but 
not  wealthy  family,  and  attained  some  distinction  as  a 
poet  and  teacher,  first  at  Naples,  and  later  at  Rome, 
where  Domitian  was  among  his  pupils.  He  had  intended 
to  write  a  poem  on  the  eruption  of  Vesuvius  in  79  A.  D., 
but  was  prevented  by  death,  which  must  therefore  have 
come  upon  him  about  80  A.  D.  From  him  Statius 
received  his  early  education  and  his  first  impulse  toward 
poetry.  Statius  won  prizes  for  poetry  at  the  Augustalia 
at  Naples,  and  at  Alba,  but  failed  to  win  a  prize  at  the 
Capitolia  in  Rome.  This  was  probably  in  94  A.  D.,  and 
his  retirement  to  Naples  may  have  been  due  to  his  dis- 
appointment. He  was  married  to  a  widow  named  Claudia, 
who  had  a  daughter  by  her  former  husband ;  but  Statius 
had  no  children  of  his  own.  Domitian  regarded  him 
with  favor,  gave  him  a  supply  of  running  water  for  his 
country  house  at  Alba,  and  invited  him  to  his  table. 
These  few  details  of  his  life  are  derived  from  his  poems, 
chiefly  from  a  poem  in  honor  of  his  father's  memory, 
which  is  published  as  the  third  in  the  fifth  book  of  the 
Silvce. 

The  chief  work  of  Statius  is  the  Thelais,  an  epic 
poem  in  twelve  books,  the  subject  of  which  is  the  strife 
between  the  two  sons  of  (Edipus,  Eteocles  and  Polynices, 
and  the  legendary  history  of  Thebes  to  the  death  of 


STATIUS  199 

Creon.     This  work  occupied  the  poet  for  twelve  years, 
probably  about  80-92  A.  D.     His  other  extant  works  are 

the  Silvce,  a  collection  of  shorter  poems  on 
statius  various  subjects,  divided  into  five  books, 

and  the  Achilleis.  None  of  the  poems  con- 
tained in  the  Silvce  appears  to  have  been  written  before 
91  or  92  A.  D.,  and  the  fifth  book,  which  has  no  preface 
and  which  contains  some  incomplete  poems,  was  prob- 
ably published  after  the  poet's  death.  The  Achilleis 
was  to  be  an  account  of  the  life  of  Achilles,  embracing 
the  story  of  the  Trojan  War,  but  it  breaks  off  in  the 
second  book,  before  Achilles  reaches  Troy.  The  only 
lost  works  of  Statius  to  which  any  reference  exists  are 
a  pantomime  entitled  Agave,  and  an  epic  on  Domitian's 
German  war ;  but  the  latter  work  was  probably  never 
completed. 

Statius  was  an  ardent  admirer  of  Virgil,  and  the 
TJiebais  is  an  elaborate  imitation  of  the  JEneid.  Not 
TheThebais  Onl^  Virgil's  language  is  imitated,  but  the 

division  of  the  poem  into  twelve  books,  the 
general  chronological  sequence  of  events,  the  arrange- 
ment by  which  the  scenes  of  combat  begin  with  the 
seventh  book,  and  the  treatment  of  many  individual 
scenes  are  adopted  from  the  ^fflneid.  The  subject  of  the 
Thelais  had  been  treated  by  many  previous  poets,  and 
Statius  could  find  the  story  in  various  mythological  hand- 
books. It  is  therefore  not  certain,  though  not  improb- 
able, that  he  followed  the  version  given  by  Antimachus 
in  his  Thelais,  written  in  the  fifth  century  B.  c.  Statius 
is  not  a  great  epic  poet.  He  lacks  the  sense  of  propor- 
tion and  has  little  dramatic  power,  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  he  evidently  aims  at  dramatic  effect.  He  excels  in 
descriptions  and  similes,  but  devotes  far  too  much  space 
to  each ;  his  similes  especially  become  wearisome.  The 
entire  poem  lacks  the  charm  of  true  poetic  inspiration. 
It  is  learned  and  correct,  but  artificial,  imitative,  and 
14 


200  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

tedious.  One  of  the  briefest  of  the  powerful  descriptions 
in  the  Thebais,  and  one  which  shows  Statius's  liking  for 
what  is  horrible  and  painful,  is  that  of  CEdipus,  when  he 
hears  of  the  death  of  his  sons  and  comes  forth  to  lament 
over  their  bodies : 

But  when  their  father  heard  the  tale  of  crime, 
He  rushed  from  the  deep  shadows  where  he  dwelt, 
And  on  the  cruel  threshold  brought  to  view 
His  half-dead  form ;  his  hoary  locks  unkempt 
Were  vile  with  ancient  filth,  and  stiff  with  gore 
The  hair  that  veiled  his  Fury-driven  head ; 
His  mouth  and  cheeks  were  sunken  deep,  and  clots 
Of  blood  were  remnants  of  his  torn-out  eyes.1 

The  Achilleis  has  much  the  same  good  and  bad  quali- 
ties as  the  Thebais,  and  is  less  wearisome  only  because  it 
The  Aohilleis  ™  ^ess  l°ng-  ^n  the  SilvcB  Statius  shows  to 
and  the  better  advantage.  These  occasional  poems 

Silvse.  were  evidently  written  for  the  most  part  in 

haste.  In  fact  Statius  says  in  his  preface  to  the  first  book 
that  none  of  the  poems  contained  in  it  occupied  him 
more  than  two  days,  and  one  of  these  poems  contains  277 
lines.  The  poems  were  written  chiefly  to  please  some 
noble  or  wealthy  patron,  and  the  subjects  are  in  many 
cases  trivial,  such  as  a  parrot,  a  fine  bath-house,  or  a 
beautiful  tree  belonging  to  the  person  addressed.  Such 
works  call  for  little  poetic  fervor,  but  merely  for  skill  in 
writing  verses,  and  that  Statius  possessed  in  remarkable 
measure.  Nearly  all  the  poems  are  in  hexameters,  only 
six,  among  them  one  in  celebration  of  Lucan's  birthday, 
being  in  other  metres.  There  is  more  or  less  padding  in 
the  poems ;  invocations  of  the  Muses  or  of  gods  take  up 
considerable  space,  and  mythological  allusions  are  need- 
lessly multiplied;  but  these  things  are  excusable  in  a 
poet  who  writes  to  order  to  please  a  patron.  Of  all  the 
poems  of  Statius  the  most  pleasing  is  one  of  only  nine- 

1  Thebais,  xi,  580-585. 


MARTIAL  201 

teen  lines  addressed  to  Sleep,  the  "youth,  most  gentle 
of  the  gods."  The  wakeful  poet  begs  Sleep  to  come,  but 
does  not  ask  him  to  spread  all  his  wings  over  his  eyes,  but 
merely  to  touch  him  with  his  wand,  or  pass  lightly  over 
him.  The  Thebais  and  the  Achilleis  attained  immediate 
popularity,  and  continued  to  be  much  read  and  admired 
in  the  Middle  Ages ;  but  modern  times  have  reversed  the 
former  judgment,  and  such  admiration  as  is  still  accorded 
to  Statius  is  given  him  on  account  of  the  Silvce. 

The  epics  of  Saleius  Bassus  and  of  Statius's  father,  both 
of  whom  wrote  under  Vespasian,  have  disappeared,  as 
Other  oets  ^ave  ^e  tragedies  and  orations  of  Curiatius 
Maternus,  who  lived  at  the  same  time.  The 
lyric  poet,  Arruntius  Stella,  and  the  poetess,  Sulpicia, 
wrote  under  Domitian,  but  their  works  also  are  lost,  for  the 
extant  short  poem  attributed  to  Sulpicia  is  a  product  of 
a  later  time.  The  only  Flavian  poet,  besides  Valerius 
Flaccus,  Silius  Italicus,  and  Statius,  whose  works  remain, 
is  Martial. 

Marcus  Valerius  Martialis  was  born  at  Bilbilis,  in  the 
northeastern  part  of  Spain,  on  the  first  of  March,  about 

Martial  ^  A* D'     ^s  Paren^s'  Fronto  and  Flacilla, 

gave  him  the  usual  grammatical  and  rhetori- 
cal education  at  Bilbilis,  or  some  neighboring  town,  and  in 
64  A.  D.  he  went  to  Eome,  where  he  became  a  client  or 
hanger-on  of  the  family  of  Seneca  and  some  other  impor- 
tant families.  He  may  have  practised  law  for  a  time,  but 
lived  chiefly  from  the  bounty  of  his  patrons.  The  ius 
trium  liberorum  granted  him  by  Titus,  was  ratified  by 
Domitian.  He  received  the  title  of  tribune,  which  carried 
with  it  equestrian  rank.  He  owned  a  small  country 
estate  near  Momentum,  perhaps  a  gift  from  Argentaria 
Polla,  Lucan's  widow ;  and  at  one  time  he  had  a  house 
of  his  own  at  Eome  and  kept  some  slaves.  Still  he 
can  never  have  been  rich,  for  he  complains  constantly 
of  poverty.  In  98  A.  D.  he  returned  to  Spain,  and  died  in 


202  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

his  native  place  not  later  than  104  A.  D.,  for  the  younger 
Pliny,  in  a  letter  written  about  that  date,  speaks  of  his  re- 
cent death. 

Martial's  poems  comprise  fourteen  books  of  epigrams, 
the  last  two  books  of  which,  consisting  of  lines  intended 
to  accompany  xenia  and  apophoreta,  gifts  which  it  was 
customary  to  present  to  friends  at  the  Saturnalia,  were  not 
published  as  books  by  their  author.  One  book  of  Spec- 
tacula  celebrates  the  theatrical  performances  and  other 
shows  in  which  the  Romans  delighted ;  the  remaining 
books  are  Epigrammata,  each  book  revised  and  published 
with  an  introduction  by  the  author.  The  longest  poem 
contains  fifty-one  lines,  the  shortest  consists  of  one  hex- 
ameter. Most  of  the  poems  are  in  elegiac  verse,  but  many 
are  in  hendecasyllables,  and  a  few  other  metres  occur. 
Martial  is  the  master  of  epigram.  His  verses  are  senten- 
tious and  to  the  point,  often  bitter,  not  infrequently  inde- 
cent, but  never  stilted,  dull,  or  unnatural.  In  an  age  of 
many  imitative  poets,  Martial  was  original.  This  does  not 
mean  that  no  traces  of  imitation  are  to  be  found  in  his 
poems,  for  his  obligations  to  Catullus  are  evident  and 
frankly  acknowledged,  while  the  influence  of  Virgil,  Ovid, 
and  Juvenal  is  plainly  to  be  seen ;  but  his  pointed  wit,  his 
candor,  and  his  sententious  brevity  are  his  own.  He  has 
no  lofty  poetic  inspiration,  and  exhibits  no  greater  height 
of  character  than  what  is  needed  to  let  him  see  and  ac- 
knowledge his  own  limitations.  In  spite  of  the  bitterness 
of  many  of  his  verses,  he  seems  to  have  been  a  man  of 
genial  nature.  He  was  a  friend  of  Silius  Italicus,  Quintil- 
ian,  the  younger  Pliny,  and  Juvenal,  but  does  not  mention 
Statius  by  name,  though  his  sneers  at  epic  poets  are  prob- 
ably directed  against  him.  The  younger  Pliny  says  of 
him  :  "  He  was  a  talented,  acute,  and  spirited  man,  whose 
writings  are  full  of  wit  and  gall,  and  not  less  candor." ' 

1  Pliny,  Up.  Ill,  xxi. 


MARTIAL  203 

Martial  is  not  to  be  ranked  among  great  poets,  but  his 
ability  to  express  well-defined  thoughts  in  brief,  senten- 
tious, pointed  words,  has  made  his  epigrams  the  models 
for  all  later  times.  The  following  lines  commemorate 
the  death  of  Arria,  who,  when  her  husband  Paetus  was 
ordered  to  kill  himself,  showed  him  the  way : 

The  poniard,  with  her  life-blood  dyed, 

When  Arria  to  her  Psetus  gave, 
"  'Twere  painless,  my  beloved,"  she  cried, 

"  If  but  my  death  thy  life  could  save."  * 

Another  brief  epigram  is  on  some  fishes,  supposed  to 
be  the  work  of  the  great  sculptor  Phidias : 

These  fishes  Phidias  wrought ;  with  life  by  him 
They  are  endowed;  add  water  and  they  swim.8 

These  lines  also  refer  to  a  work  of  art : 

That  lizard  on  the  goblet  makes  thee  start. 
Fear  not;  it  lives  only  by  Mentor's  art.8 

The  daily  life  of  Eome  is  described  in  the  following 
lines : 

Visits  consume  the  first,  the  second  hour; 

When  comes  the  third,  hoarse  pleaders  show  their  power; 

At  four  to  business  Rome  herself  betakes ; 

At  six  she  goes  to  sleep,  by  seven  she  wakes ; 

By  nine  well  breathed  from  exercise  we  rest, 

And  in  the  banquet  hall  the  couch  is  pressed. 

Now>when  thy  skill,  greatest  of  cooks,  has  spread 

The  ambrosial  feast,  let  Martial's  rhymes  be  read, 

With  mighty  hand  while  Caesar  holds  the  bowl, 

When  drafts  of  nectar  have  relaxed  his  soul. 

Now  trifles  pass.     My  giddy  Muse  would  fear 

Jove  to  approach  in  morning  mood  severe.4 

1 1,  xiii.    These  selections  are  translated  by  Goldwin  Smith  in 
Say  Leaves. 

9  III,  xxxv,  s  III,  xli.  *  IV,  viii. 


204  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

Among  the  many  learned  writers  of  this  period  the 
most  important  is  the  elder  Pliny.     Gains  Plinius  Secun- 
dus  was  born  at  Novum  Comum,  in  northern 
t  6  n  %3  A.  D.     At  an  early  age  he  went  to 


Rome,  where  he  came  under  the  influence  of 
Pomponius  Secundus,  whose  example  may  have  led  him 
to  combine  public  service  with  diligent  study  and  author- 
ship. Pliny's  life  was  passed  in  the  service  of  the  ^tate. 
He  was  an  officer  in  the  cavalry,  serving  in  Germany  and 
perhaps  also  in  Syria  ;  he  was  a  trusted  counsellor  and 
agent  of  Vespasian,  and  held  at  different  times  the  im- 
portant post  of  procurator  or  governor  in  several  prov- 
inces. His  nephew  mentions  especially  his  procuratorship 
in  Spain.  These  various  and  important  official  duties 
did  not,  however,  withdraw  Pliny's  mind  from  his  studies. 
When  he  was  carried  in  the  litter  through  the  streets  in 
the  evening,  after  his  official  duties  were  performed, 
while  he  was  bathing,  and  at  his  meals,  he  read  or  was 
read  to  constantly.  He  believed  that  no  book  was  so  poor 
as  not  to  contain  something  worth  recording,  and  there- 
fore he  took  notes  of  all  he  read.  At  his  death  he  left 
one  hundred  and  sixty  rolls  of  manuscript  notes,  closely 
written  on  both  sides.  With  all  this  reading  Pliny  was 
not  a  mere  bookworm,  but  a  practical  man  of  affairs  and 
an  interested  observer  of  men  and  things  about  him.  His 
zeal  for  knowledge  cost  him  his  life  ;  for  when  the  great 
eruption  of  Vesuvius  took  place,  in  79  A.  D.,  Pliny,  who 
was  in  command  of  the  fleet  at  Misenum,  went  in  a  war 
galley  to  the  neighborhood  of  the  volcano  to  investigate 
the  strange  phenomenon  and  to  aid  those  in  peril,  landed, 
and  finally  succumbed  to  the  ashes  and  noxious  gases. 
The  description  of  this  event  is  the  most  interesting  of 
the  letters  of  his  nephew,  the  younger  Pliny. 

The  result  of  Pliny's  diligence  is  seen  in  his  great 
encyclopaedic  work,  the  Natural  History,  in  thirty-seven 
books.  In  this  he  undertakes  to  describe  the  whole  realm 


PLINY  THE  ELDER  205 

of  nature  in  a  systematic  way.  The  first  book  consists 
of  a  table  of  contents  with  a  list  of  the  authors  con- 
sulted. Then  follow  in  order  the  general 
Histor* UI  mathematical  and  physical  description  of 
the  universe,  geography  and  ethnology,  an- 
thropology, zoology,  botany,  and  mineralogy.  Under  min- 
eralogy the  uses  of  metals  and  stones  are  described,  and 
this  leads  to  a  valuable  history  of  painting  and  sculp- 
ture. The  Natural  History  is  written  for  the  most  part 
in  a  simple,  straightforward  style,  though  with  occasional 
lapses  from  good  taste,  but  it  is  not  a  great  work  of  liter- 
ature. Its  importance  lies  in  the  information  it  contains. 
In  the  first  book,  Pliny  mentions  nearly  five  hundred 
authors  from  whom  his  information  is  derived,  but  as  he 
also  speaks  of  one  hundred  chosen  ones  whose  works  he 
consulted,  it  is  evident  that  his  authorities  fall  into  two 
classes.  Apparently  he  really  consulted  about  one  hun- 
dred, but  recorded  in  the  first  book  the  names  of  other 
writers  to  whom  his  real  authorities  referred.  Pliny  is 
almost  the  only  ancient  writer  who  tries  to  give  much 
information  about  the  sources  of  his  knowledge,  but  it  is 
often  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  even  in  his  case  to  be 
sure  from  what  source  a  particular  statement  is  derived. 
In  general,  it  is  clear  that  Pliny  was  a  careful  worker, 
and  his  statements  can,  as  a  rule,  be  accepted  as  true. 
The  great  work  was  ready  for  publication  in  77  A.  D.  and 
was  sent  to  Titus  with  an  interesting  preface.  But  even 
after  this,  Pliny  continued  to  add  the  results  of  further 
reading  or  observation.  His  death  came  upon  him  in  the 
midst  of  his  work.  Pliny  was  also  the  author  of  several 
other  works,  the  most  important  of  which  were  the 
History  of  the  German  Wars,  in  twenty 
works8  °  books,  and  a  history  From  the  End  of  the 
History  of  Aufidius  Bassus^  in  thirty-one 
books.  Just  what  period  this  work  embraced  is  not  cer- 
tain, but  the  suggestion  that  each  book  treated  of  one 


206  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

year  and  that  the  whole  was  a  history  of  the  years  41-71 
A.  D.  is  not  improbable.  These  works,  as  well  as  Pliny's 
lesser  writings,  are  lost,  but  they  served  at  least  to  supply 
material  to  Tacitus,  who  cites  the  German  Wars,  and 
to  other  historians. 

Of  the  technical  writings  of  this  period  only  two  now 
exist :  the  Stratagems  (Strategemata)  and  the  treatise  on 
Fronthms.  the  Roman  aqueducts  (De  Aquis  Urbis  Romm 
Various  Libri  77),  by  Sextius  Julius  Frontinus,  a 

writers.  man  of  some  distinction,  who  was  praetor  in 

70  A.  D.,  consul  several  times,  and  was  appointed  Curator 
Aquarum,  or  overseer  of  the  water  supply  of  Eome,  in  97 
A.  D.  His  writings  belong  rather  to  the  history  of  tech- 
nical studies  than  to  that  of  literature.  The  names  of 
several  authors  of  memoirs  of  travels,  legal  treatises, 
speeches,  histories,  and  technical  writings  of  various 
kinds  are  known  to  us,  but  their  works  are  lost  or  only 
partially  preserved  as  unsatisfactory  fragments.  The 
schools  of  grammar  and  rhetoric  continued  to  exist,  and 
many  teachers  of  these  subjects  enjoyed  considerable  rep- 
utation. The  greatest  among  them,  and  the  only  one 
whose  work  has  survived  to  modern  times,  is  Quintilian, 
the  last,  and  in  some  respects  the  greatest,  of  the  Span- 
ish writers  of  Eome. 

Marcus  Fabius  Quintilianus  was  born  at  Calagurris, 
in  Spain,  about  35  A.  D.  He  was  educated  at  Rome  under 
the  most  distinguished  teachers  of  the  time,  and  when  his 
education  was  completed  returned  to  his  native  place.  But 
in  68  A.  D.,  Galba,  who  had  been  governor  in  Spain  before  he 
.  became  emperor,  called  Quintilian  to  Rome. 

Here  he  became  a  teacher  of  rhetoric,  and 
received  a  salary  from  the  imperial  treasury.  At  the 
same  time  he  was  a  prominent  barrister,  but  published 
only  one  speech,  though  others  were  published  without 
his  authority  from  shorthand  reports.  He  was  a  man 
of  great  influence,  and  was  even  raised  to  the  consul- 


QUINTILIAN  207 

ship  by  Domitian,  who  had  appointed  him  tutor  of  his 
grandnephews.  After  teaching  for  twenty  years  he  gave 
up  his  school  and  devoted  himself  to  the  composition  of 
his  great  work,  the  Institutio  Oratorio,.  This  was  pub- 
lished about  93  A.  D.  An  earlier  work,  On  the  Reasons  for 
the  Decay  of  Oratory  (De  Causis  Corrupts  Eloquentice), 
is  lost.  Quintilian's  private  life  was  not  free  from  trouble. 
He  married  at  an  advanced  age,  but  his  wife  died  when 
only  eighteen  years  old,  his  younger  son  soon  after  at  the 
age  of  five,  and  his  elder  son  after  a  brief  interval  at  the 
age  of  nine.  When  Quintilian  died  is  not  known,  but  he 
can  hardly  have  lived  long  after  100  A.  D. 

The  title  Institutio  Or  at  or  ia,  given  by  Quintilian  to 
his  work,  designates  it  as  a  text-book  of  oratory.  But  it 
is  no  mere  technical  treatise  on  the  art  of 
speaking.  Quintilian  was  an  enthusiastic 
lover  of  his  profession,  and  believed  that  ora- 
tory was  the  highest  expression  of  human  thought  and 
human  life.  Like  Cato,  he  demanded  that  the  orator  be 
not  merely  a  good  speaker,  but  also,  and  first  of  all,  a 
good  man.  He  must  also  have  a  general  literary  educa- 
tion before  proceeding  to  the  technical  study  of  oratory. 
Owing  to  this  large  conception  of  the  qualities  of  the 
orator,  Quintilian's  great  work  became  a  general  and  very 
important  treatise  on  education.  Its  arrangement  is  as 
follows  :  the  first  book  treats  of  the  elements  of  education 
and  contains  many  interesting  observations  upon  family 
life ;  the  fundamental  principles  of  rhetoric  are  treated 
in  the  second  book,  which  carries  on  the  discussion  of 
the  purposes  and  methods  of  education;  the  next  five 
books  (III-VII)  deal  exhaustively  with  the  matter  of 
oratory  under  the  main  heads  of  invention  and  disposition 
or  arrangement,  and  are  for  the  most  part  strictly  tech- 
nical ;  four  books  (VIII-XI)  treat  of  expression  and  all 
that  is  included  in  the  word  style,  with  a  discussion  of 
memorizing  and  delivery ;  and  the  last  book  (XII),  now 


208  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

that  the  theory  of  oratory  is  expounded,  reverts  to  the 
orator  himself,  and  discusses  the  moral  qualities  and  the 
continuous  self-discipline  which  alone  can  make  the  ora- 
tor great. 

The  technical  part  of  the  Institutio  Oratorio,  is  now, 
since  the  study  of  formal  rhetoric  is  no  longer  an  impor- 
tant part  of  a  liberal  education,  of  little  interest  except 
to  those  who  make  a  special  study  of  Roman  style  and 
educational  theories.  Yet  even  in  these  books  are  many 
wise  utterances  of  permanent  value,  such  as  "  the  price 
of  a  laugh  is  too  high  when  it  is  purchased  at  the  expense 
of  virtue  " ; 1  or,  "  a  joke  at  the  expense  of  the  wretched  is 
inhuman  " ; 2  or, "  it  is  the  spirit  and  the  force  of  mind  that 
make  men  eloquent."3  Such  remarks,  admirably  ex- 
pressed and  inserted  in  fitting  places,  make  the  more 
technical  books  of  Quintilian 's  work  even  now  well  worth 
reading.  But  the  chief  interest  for  the  modern  reader 
lies  in  those  parts  of  the  work  which  have  less  to  do  with 
the  special  training  of  the  orator,  and  are  more  general  in 
their  scope — the  discussion  of  elementary  education  in 
the  first  book,  the  treatise  on  the  larger  and  broader  edu- 
cation of  mature  life  in  the  last  book,  and  the  brief  crit- 
ical survey  of  Greek  and  Latin  literature  in  the  first  chap- 
ter of  the  tenth  book. 

The  theory  of  education  as  presented  by  Quintilian  is 
the  result  of  serious  thought.  It  shows  a  breadth  of 
view,  a  reasonableness,  and  at  the  same  time 
a  loftiness  of  conception  that  give  its  author 
at  once  an  important  position  among  educa- 
tional writers.  The  ethical  or  moral  element  in  educa- 
tion is  especially  emphasized.  Quintilian,  like  many 
others  in  his  day,  felt  that  the  standard  of  morals,  of  lit- 
erature, and  of  oratory  was  lower  than  in  the  days  of  the 
republic.  But  instead  of  mourning  over  the  decay  of 

1  Inst.  Orat.,  vi,  3,  5.        2  Ibid.,  vi,  3,  5.        3  Ibid.,  yii,  7,  2. 


QUINTILIAN  209 

Roman  virtue  and  taste,  Quintilian,  seeing  that  the 
only  cure  lay  in  right  education,  undertook  to  show  the 
way  to  a  restoration  of  the  ancient  excellence.  Tacitus, 
in  his  essay  on  oratory,  mentions  carelessness  of  parents 
and  bad  education  as  the  chief  reason  for  the  decay  of 
eloquence  ;  the  same  ground  had  apparently  been  taken 
by  Quintilian  himself  in  his  lost  essay  on  the  Decay  of 
Oratory,  and  in  the  Institutio  Oratoria  the  attempt  is 
made  to  show  how  deterioration  may  be  stopped  and  the 
old  virtue  restored.  That  others  besides  Quintilian  were 
seriously  interested  in  reform  there  is  no  doubt,  and  if 
their  efforts  met  with  little  success,  it  is  probably  in  part 
because  they  tried  to  restore  the  excellence  of  a  time  that 
was  past  and  were  unable  to  regulate  the  active  forces  of 
the  present. 

As  a  literary  critic  Quintilian  exhibits  the  same  sanity 
that  characterizes  his  educational  theory.  Since  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  best  literature  is  necessary  for  the 
orator,  Quintilian  passes  in  review  the  chief 
Greek  and  Latin  writers,  and  it  is  interesting 
to  observe  that  he  regards  the-  latter  as  the  equals  of  the 
Greeks.  He  has  decided  preferences,  and  gives  to  Cicero, 
whom  he  regards  as  the  equal  of  Demosthenes,  the  fore- 
most place  among  the  Eomans.  Yet  he  recognizes  the 
merits  even  of  those  authors,  such  as  Seneca,  whose  style 
he  least  admires.  In  brief  and  admirably  expressive 
words  he  characterizes  the  style  of  the  chief  writers  of 
Greece  and  Eome,  and  his  judgment  has,  in  almost  every 
case,  remained  the  judgment  of  later  ages.  It  is  inter- 
esting also  to  note  that  the  works  of  nearly  all  those 
writers  whom  he  mentions  as  the  best  have  been  preserved 
to  our  own  time,  which  is  an  additional  proof  that  the 
extant  works  have  been  preserved  for  the  most  part  not 
by  mere  chance  but  on  account  of  their  intrinsic  merit. 
Quintilian's  admiration  for  Cicero  is  evident  in  his  own 
style.  Statius  had  reverted  to  the  style  of  Virgil,  and 


210  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

Quintilian  goes  back  to  Cicero,  discarding  the  rhetorical 
excrescences  of  Seneca  and  his  school.  His  Latin  is  clas- 
sical and  beautiful,  sometimes  equal  to  that 
of  Cicero  himself.  He  is  the  foremost  rep- 
resentative of  the  classical  reaction  of  his  time.  But 
the  reversion  to  an  earlier  style,  whether  in  literature  or 
art,  has  never  been  permanent,  and  Quintilian's  influence, 
great  as  it  undoubtedly  was,  could  not  stop  the  course  of 
that  change  and  decay  which  was  in  the  end  destined  to 
transform  the  Latin  language  and  bring  into  being  the 
Komance  tongues  of  modern  times. 


CHAPTER  XV 

NBBVA  AND  TRAJAN 

Nerva,  96-98  A.  D.— Trajan,  98-117  A.  D.— Tacitus,  about  55  to 
about  118  A.  D.— Juvenal,  55  (?)  to  about  135  A.  D.— Pliny  the  younger, 
61  or  62  to  112  or  113  A.  D. — Other  writers. 

UNDER  Nerva  (96-98  A.  D.)  and  Trajan  (98-117  A.  D.) 
freedom  of  speech  and  literary  utterance,  which  had  been 
banished  under  the  tyranny  of  Domitian,  were  restored. 
Nerva  and  Trajan  were  educated  men.  Noth- 
Nervaand  -^  remajns  of  Nerva's  poems,  which  led 
Martial  to  call  him  "the  Tibullus  of  our 
times,"  and  Trajan's  history  of  the  Dacian  War  is 
also,  unfortunately,  lost.  Trajan's  replies  to  the  letters 
of  the  younger  Pliny  show  that  he  could  write  in  a  clear, 
concise,  and  business-like  manner,  but  exhibit  no  further 
literary  qualities.  He  paid  attention  to  the  education  of 
the  young  and  founded  the  Ulpian  library,  but  was  not  a 
man  of  marked  literary  tastes.  Under  Nerva  and  Trajan 
literature  was  allowed  to  take  its  own  course  without 
hindrance  and  also  without  that  imperial  patronage  which 
sometimes  stifles  free  utterance  quite  as  effectually  as 
severity  or  intimidation.  Nevertheless  there  was  little 
literary  production  of  any  importance.  There  were  many 
writers,  but  most  of  them  have  left  not  even  their  names 
to  posterity.  The  only  authors  of  literary  importance 
under  these  emperors  are  Tacitus,  Juvenal,  and  the 
younger  Pliny. 

Cornelius  Tacitus  l  was  born,  according  to  such  evi- 

1  The  prcenomen  is  uncertain.  The  best  manuscript  (Mediceus  I) 
gives  it  as  Publius,  later  manuscripts  and  Sidonius  Apollinaris  as  Gaius. 

211 


212  EOMAN  LITERATURE 

dence  as  exists,  in  55  or  56  A.  D.  The  place  of  his  birth 
is  not  recorded,  and  nothing  certain  is  known  of  his 
family ;  but  his  education,  his  career,  and  his 
marriage  to  the  daughter  of  Agricola  all  com- 
bine to  indicate  that  he  belonged  to  a  family  of  some  im- 
portance. His  marriage  took  place  in  78  A.  D.,  one  year 
after  the  consulship  of  Agricola.  Tacitus  began  his  offi- 
cial career  under  Vespasian,  continued  it  under  Titus,  and 
reached  the  rank  of  praetor  under  Domitian,  in  88  A.  D. 
Under  Trajan,  in  97  A.  D.,  he  was  appointed  consul  suf- 
fectus,  and  about  112-116  A.  D.  he  was  proconsul  of  Asia. 
His  death  took  place  probably  not  long  after  117  A.  D. 
He  had  a  great  reputation  as  a  public  speaker,  as  is  evi- 
dent from  the  fact  that  in  97  or  98  A.  D.  he  delivered  the 
funeral  oration  over  Verginius  Eufus,  and  it  was  probably 
due  in  great  measure  to  his  eloquence  that  in  100  A.  D.  he 
and  Pliny  accomplished  the  conviction  of  Marius  Priscus, 
proconsul  of  Africa,  for  extortion.  It  was  not  without 
knowledge  of  public  affairs  that  Tacitus  turned  to  the 
writing  of  history,  nor  was  it  without  practical  knowledge 
of  oratory  that  he  wrote  the  dialogue  De  Oratoribus. 

The  works  of  Tacitus  in  the  order  of  composition  are 
the  Dialogue  on  Orators  (Dialogue  de  Oratoribus),  the 
Works  of  dramatic  date  of  which  is  75  A.  D.,  while  the 
Tacitus.  date  of  composition  is  uncertain;  the  Ger- 

The  mania,  published  in  98  A.  D. ;  the  Agricola, 

Dialogus.  written  early  in  the  reign  of  Trajan,  probably 
in  98  A.  D.  ;  the  Histories,  written  under  Trajan,  and 
apparently  not  completed  much  before  110  A.  D. ;  and  the 
Annals,  published  between  115  and  117  A.  D.  The  Dia- 
logue on  Orators  is  an  inquiry  into  the  causes  of  the  de- 
cay of  oratory.  In  form  it  is  an  imitation  of  Cicero's 
famous  dialogue  De  Oratore,  and  the  style  also  imitates 
that  of  Cicero.  In  this  respect  the  dialogue  is  so  unlike 
the  later  works  of  Tacitus  that  his  authorship  has  been 
denied  by  many  scholars.  It  must,  however,  be  remem- 


TACITUS  213 

bered  that  this  is  his  earliest  work,  and  that  the  Ciceronian 
style  was  taught  in  the  school  of  Quintilian  and  no  doubt 
in  other  schools  at  Eome,  so  that  an  imitation  of  Cicero 
was  a  natural  beginning  for  a  young  author.  Moreover, 
there  are  in  the  dialogue  traces  of  the  later  style  of  Taci- 
tus, which  is  distinguished  for  its  epigrammatic  utterances 
and  its  frequent  use  of  innuendo.  The  work  may  therefore 
be  unhesitatingly  ascribed  to  Tacitus.  It  is  an  interesting 
and  attractive  dialogue,  in  which  the  quiet  life  of  the  poet 
is  contrasted  with  the  more  active  career  of  the  orator 
before  the  real  subject — the  reasons  for  the  decay  of  ora- 
tory— is  discussed.  The  conclusion  is  reached  that  ora- 
tory has  declined  partly  on  account  of  the  faulty  rhetor- 
ical education  in  vogue,  but  still  more  because  the  orator 
no  longer  has  under  the  imperial  government  the  influ- 
ence and  power  that  belonged  to  his  predecessors  in  the 
days  of  the  republic. 

The  Agricola  (De  Vita  et  Moribus  lulii  AgricolcB)  is 
a  biography  and  panegyric  of  Gnaeus  Julius  Agricola, 
Tacitus's  father-in-law.  In  the  introduction 
Tacitus  gives  his  reasons  for  having  written 
nothing  during  the  reign  of  Domitian.  The  passage  de- 
serves to  be  quoted,  not  only  as  a  specimen  of  Tacitus's 
style,  but  because  it  places  in  a  clear  light  his  view  of  the 
imperial  government  in  the  first  century.  Throughout 
the  Histories  and  the  Annals  his  attitude  is  the  same, 
and  his  genius  has  imposed  his  view  upon  all  later  times. 
Under  Domitian  two  eminent  Stoics,  Arulenus  Rusticus 
and  Herennius  Priscus,  had  been  put  to  death  and  their 
works  publicly  burned.  Tacitus  mentions  this  and  then 
expresses  himself  as  follows : 

They  thought  forsooth  that  in  that  fire  the  voice  of  the  Roman 
people  and  the  freedom  of  the  senate  and  the  conscience  of  the 
human  race  were  being  consumed,  especially  since  the  teachers  of 
philosophy  had  been  banished  and  every  good  profession  driven 
into  exile,  that  nothing  honorable  might  offend  them.  We  have 


ROMAN  LITERATURE 

indeed  given  a  great  proof  of  our  patience ;  and  just  as  the  ancient 
time  saw  the  utmost  limit  of  liberty,  so  we  have  seen  the  utmost 
limit  of  servitude,  when  even  the  intercourse  of  speech  and  hear- 
ing was  taken  away  by  the  inquisitions.  And  with  our  speech  we 
should  have  lost  even  our  very  memory,  if  we  had  been  as 
able  to  forget  as  to  keep  silent.  Now  at  last  our  courage  has  re- 
turned, but  although  .  .  .  Trajan  is  daily  adding  to  the  blessed- 
ness of  the  times,  .  .  .  and  the  state  has  gained  confidence  and 
strength,  nevertheless  by  the  nature  of  human  weakness  remedies 
are  slower  than  diseases ;  and  just  as  our  bodies  grow  slowly,  but 
are  quickly  destroyed,  so  you  can  oppress  genius  and  learning  more 
quickly  than  you  can  revive  them.  For  the  charm  of  sloth  also 
comes  over  us,  and  the  inactivity  we  hated.at  first  grows  dear  at 
last.  Throughout  fifteen  years,  a  great  part  of  the  life  of  man, 
many  have  fallen  through  chance  mishaps,  and  all  the  most  ener- 
getic ones  by  the  cruelty  of  the  emperor,  and  a  few  of  us  are 
left,  so  to  speak,  as  survivors  not  only  of  the  others,  but  even  of 
ourselves,  since  there  have  been  taken  out  of  our  lives  so  many 
years,  in  which  we  who  were  youths  have  passed  to  old  age  and 
as  old  men  have  almost  reached  the  limit  of  life  itself  without  a 
word.1 

Agricola  was  not  a  great  man  either  in  intellect  or  in 
force  of  character.  Moreover,  he  had  lived  through  the 
reign  of  Domitian  in  safety  by  not  opposing  the  will  of 
the  tyrant.  Naturally  it  was  hard  to  write  a  panegyric  on 
such  a  man  which  should  interest  and  please  the  public. 
But  Tacitus,  by  laying  the  chief  stress  upon  Agricola's 
successful  administration  in  Britain,  which  is  prefaced  by 
an  account  of  the  country  and  of  the  previous  Roman  ex- 
peditions thither,  made  of  his  panegyric  a  genuine  bit  of 
history  with  Agricola,  the  most  prominent  person  in  it. 
Thus  the  reader's  interest  is  kept  alive  and  the  writer's 
purpose  accomplished.  The  work  closes  with  an  eloquent 
and  beautiful  apostrophe  to  Agricola. 

When  he  wrote  the  Agricola,  Tacitus  was  already  plan- 
ning a  great  history  of  his  own  times,  for  which  he  had 

1  Agricola,  2  f . 


TACITUS  215 

at  least  begun  to  accumulate  materials.  In  the  Germania 
(De  Origine  Situ  Moribus  ac  Populis  Germanics)  the 
material  collected  to  serve  as  introductory  to 
the  account  of  the  wars  in  Germany  is  pub- 
lished as  a  separate  work.  The  little  treatise 
is  interesting  as  the  earliest  extant  connected  account  of 
the  country  and  inhabitants  of  northern  Europe.  A  few 
of  the  statements  contained  in  it  are  manifestly  incor- 
rect, but  for  the  most  part,  what  Tacitus  tells  us  agrees 
with  and  supplements  what  we  know  from  other  sources. 
The  essay  is  a  compilation  from  various  earlier  works, 
among  which  Pliny's  History  of  the  German  Wars  was 
no  doubt  the  most  important,  though  Tacitus  probably 
consulted  the  works  of  Caesar,  Velleius  Paterculus,  and 
others,  besides  obtaining  information  from  some  of  the 
many  Romans  who  had  served  in  the  army  in  Germany. 
There  is  no  indication  that  Tacitus  was  ever  in  Germany 
himself.  As  a  literary  production  the  Germania  is  far  in- 
ferior to  the  Agricola,  though  written  at  about  the  same 
time.  In  the  Agricola  Tacitus  expresses  his  own  feel- 
ings for  his  father-in-law,  whom  he  evidently  loved  and 
respected,  while  in  the  Germania  there  is  little  room  for 
feeling  of  any  sort,  and  none  for  emotion.  Yet,  with  all 
the  difference  in  literary  merit,  the  two  works  show  the 
style  of  Tacitus  at  the  same  stage.  There  are  still  some 
remnants  of  Ciceronian  smoothness,  but  these  are  evi- 
dently survivals.  The  tendency  to  use  concise,  even  abbre- 
viated phrases,  to  add  point  to  expressions  by  verbal  an- 
tithesis or  by  inversion  of  order,  and  to  make  his  sentences 
imply  more  than  the  words  actually  express,  is  character- 
istic of  Tacitus's  mature  style  and  is  evident,  though  not 
yet  fully  developed,  in  the  Agricola  and  the  Germania  alike. 
At  least  as  early  as  98  A.  D.  Tacitus  planned  to  write  a 
history  of  his  own  times.  His  original  purpose  was  to  be- 
gin with  the  accession  of  Galba  and  continue  in  chrono- 
logical order.  But  after  completing  the  history  of  the 
15 


216  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

period  from  Galba  to  the  death  of  Domitian  (68-96  A.  D.) 
he  went  back  to  the  death  of  Augustus,  and  wrote  the 
history  of  the  time  to  the  accession  of  Galba 
(1^-68  A.  D.).  He  intended  to  write  the  his- 
tory of  the  reigns  of  Nerva  and  Trajan,  but 
never  did  so.  The  part  of  the  work  first  completed,  treat- 
ing of  the  events  of  the  author's  own  lifetime,  is  entitled 
Histories  (Historice) ;  the  part  written  later,  but  treating  of 
the  earlier  period,  is  usually  called  the  Annals  (Annales), 
though  its  proper  title  is  A b  Excessu  Divi  Augusti,  in  imi- 
tation of  the  title  of  Livy's  history,  Ab  Urle  Condita.  The 
two  together  consisted  of  thirty  books,  of  which  fourteen 
belong  to  the  Histories  and  sixteen  to  the  Annals.  Of  the 
Annals,  the  following  parts  are  preserved:  Books  I-IV 
and  the  beginning  of  Book  V,  from  the  death  of  Au- 
gustus to  the  year  29  A.  D.,  Book  VI,  with  the  exception 
of  the  beginning,  carrying  on  the  story  to  the  death  of 
Tiberius,  and  Books  XI-XVI,  from  47-66  A.  D.,  though 
this  long  fragment  is  mutilated  at  the  beginning  and  the 
end.  The  account  of  the  reign  of  Caligula  is  lost,  as  is 
that  of  the  first  seven  years  of  the  reign  of  Claudius,  and 
of  somewhat  more  than  two  years  at  the  end  of  the  reign 
of  Nero.  Of  the  Histories  only  the  first  four  books  and 
part  of  the  fifth  remain,  and  this  important  fragment  is 
preserved  in  only  one  manuscript.  It  contains  the  his- 
tory of  little  more  than  one  year,  the  memorable  year 
68-69  A.  D.,  in  which  Galba,  Otho,  and  Vitellins,  in  quick 
succession,  gained  the  imperial  power  and  lost  their  lives, 
to  be  followed  by  Vespasian. 

In  the  Annals,  dealing  with  a  period  before  his  own 

recollection,  Tacitus  treats  the  history  of  Eome  and  the 

empire  as  if  it  were  directed  by  the  wishes, 

The  Annals.       ,1          i  •  -,  .  »       ••'*"••  a      * 

the  whims,  and  caprices  01  a  few  individuals. 
He  depicts  the  character  of  Tiberius  and  the  court  of 
Nero  in  vivid  and  lurid  colors.  The  court  intrigues,  the 
judicial  and  private  murders,  the  licentiousness  and  cor- 


TACITUS  217 

ruption  of  the  capital  are  spread  before  us  with  all  the 
power  of  his  brilliant  and  incisive  style.  These  things 
appear  as  the  most  important  matters  in  the  history  of 
the  time.  Modern  scholars  have,  with  the  aid  of  inscrip- 
tions, found  that  the  Eoman  empire  was,  throughout  this 
period,  ably  and  peaceably  administered  by  permanent 
officials,  and  was  little  affected  by  the  terror  that  reigned 
in  the  capital.  But  for  Tacitus,  Eome  was  the  empire. 
The  provinces  were  in  the  dim  distance  and  had  in  his 
eyes  little  historical  importance.  That  his  view  of  history 
is  narrow  and  distorted  is  clear ;  yet  his  genius  has  made 
it  for  centuries  the  only  accepted  view  of  Eoman  history 
under  the  early  emperors.  In  the  Histories,  dealing  with 
his  own  times,  he  sees  things  more  clearly.  The  uprising 
of  the  Batavians  under  Civilis  and  the  war  in  Palestine  are 
treated  with  as  much  detail  as  the  sanguinary  struggles  in 
Eome,  though  here  also  the  influence  of  the  characters 
and  acts  of  individuals  upon  the  irresistible  course  of 
history  is  overrated.  This  view  of  history,  which  makes 
events  depend  too  much  upon  individuals,  joined  with  a 
pessimism  which  sees  hidden  motives  behind  even  inno- 
cent or  indifferent  acts,  is  the  great  defect  of  Tacitus 
as  an  historian.  His  information  is  carefully  collected, 
though,  as  a  rule,  he  neglects  all  mention  of  his  authorities. 
In  preparing  his  account  of  the  Jews  in  the  fifth  book  of 
the  Histories  he  relied  apparently  upon  hearsay  and  upon 
other  untrustworthy  sources  of  information,  without  re- 
ferring to  the  Septuagint  or  to  Josephus,  but  similar  care- 
lessness can  not  be  proved  in  other  parts  of  his  work. 

His  style  is  impregnated  with  the  words  and  phrases 

of  the  classical  writers,  especially  of  Virgil,  and  with  the 

rhetorical  teaching  of  the  Silver  Age,  and  yet 

Tacitus*  ^  *s  thoroughly   individual.     It  is   concise, 

sharp,  and  cutting,  but  often  grandly  poetic 

in   its   eloquence  ;  it   is  apparently  straightforward,  yet 

somehow  often  reveals  a  half-hidden  meaning ;  it  is  care- 


218  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

fully  elaborated,  yet  it  affects  the  reader  with  rugged 
earnestness.  Such  a  style  is  almost  inimitable,  whether 
by  writers  of  Latin  or  by  translators.  It  has  been  compared 
to  that  of  Carlyle,  and  the  comparison  is  worth  mention- 
ing, though  it  should  not  be  pushed  too  far.  Few  proso 
works  contain  more  epigrammatic  sentences  than  those 
of  Tacitus.  Examples  are  :  "  Traitors  are  hated,  even  by 
those  whom  they  advance  " ; l  "  None  grieve  more  osten- 
tatiously than  those  who  are  most  delighted  in  their 
hearts";8  "Princes  are  mortal,  the  state  eternal";3 
"  When  the  state  was  most  corrupt  the  laws  were  most 
numerous  " ; 4  "  New  men  rather  than  new  measures  " ; 6 
"Vices  will  exist  as  long  as  men";6  "Fame  does  not 
always  err  ;  sometimes  it  chooses." 7  Endowed,  as  he  was, 
with  striking  stylistic  ability,  writing,  in  fact,  in  a  style 
which  could  not  fail  to  arouse  the  interest  and  hold  the 
attention  of  his  readers,  it  is  no  wonder  that  Tacitus  suc- 
ceeded in  imposing  upon  the  world  his  views  of  history, 
which  can  be  only  partially  corrected  by  the  careful  study 
and  interpretation  of  fragmentary  records. 

Juvenal  can  hardly  be  separated  from  Tacitus.  Both 
depict  the  life  of  Rome  in  the  same  lurid  light,  and  the 
Juvenal  picture  presented  by  each  agrees  with  that  of 

the  other.  Juvenal's  diatribes  seem  to  illus- 
trate the  statements  of  Tacitus,  and  Tacitus  shows  that 
Juvenal's  violence  is  justified  by  the  facts.  Of  Juvenal's 
life  little  is  known.  His  full  name  is  given  in  some  manu- 
scripts as  Decimus  lunius  luvenalis.  One  vita  or  life 
gives  the  date  of  his  birth  as  55  A.  D.,  which  may  be  cor- 
rect, though  there  is  no  especial  reason  to  regard  it  as  ex- 
act. He  was  born  at  Aquinum,  a  town  of  the  Volscians, 
where  he  held  the  offices  of  duumvir  quinquennalis  and 
of  flamen  Divi  Vespasiani.  He  was  also  at  one  time  a 
military  tribune,  serving  with  the  first  Dalmatian  cohort, 

1  Annals,  i,  58.      2  Ann.,  ii,  77.       8  Ann.,  iii,  6.      4  Ann.,  hi,  27. 
6  Hist.,  ii,  95.        G  Hist.,  iv,  74.        7  Agric.,  9. 


JUVENAL  219 

perhaps  in  Britain.  This  military  service  probably  be- 
longs to  his  youth,  and  the  local  offices  to  his  later  life. 
He  evidently  received  a  good  education,  and  he  appears  to 
have  practised  oratory  for  some  years.  Martial,  who  men- 
tions him  several  times,  speaks  of  him  as  eloquent,  not  as 
poetic  or  satirical.  The  lives  agree  in  stating  that  he  was 
banished,  but  not  in  regard  to  the  time  or  place  of  his 
banishment.  He  came  to  Eome  about  90  A.  D.,  was  still 
there  in  101  A.  D.,  and  probably  spent  part  of  some  of  the 
later  years  in  the  capital.  At  Eome  he  lived  in  the  Su- 
bura,  the  plebeian  quarter,  but  had  access  to  the  houses 
of  rich  nobles.  His  satires  were  written  between  100  and 
127  A.  D.,  and  he  died  about  135  A.  D. 

Juvenal  is  the  harshest  and  most  violent  of  the  four 
great  Eoman  satirists.  Lucilius  was  outspoken  and  some- 
times bitter,  but  aimed  to  correct  while  he 
e  atires.  rebuke(j  ^e  follies  of  his  time ;  Horace  soon 
lost  all  bitterness  and  expressed  good-humored  raillery; 
Persius  derived  his  themes  from  books  and  preached 
Stoic  doctrines;  but  Juvenal  attacks  Eoman  society  in 
fierce  and  biting  verses,  shrinking  from  no  gruesome 
or  indecent  detail,  showing  no  humor  save  of  the  grim- 
mest and  harshest  sort,  and  with  no  hope  of  correcting 
the  evils  he  depicts.  He  has  all  the  variety  of  phrase 
of  the  accomplished  rhetorician,  and  his  lines  have  a 
rolling  grandeur  almost  Virgilian.  He  shows,  indeed, 
the  influence  of  Yirgil  more  than  of  any  other  previous 
writer,  though  traces  of  Homer,  Herodotus,  Plato,  nearly 
all  the  Eoman  poets,  and  among  Eoman  prose  writers 
Cicero,  Valerius  Maximus,  and  Seneca  are  found  in  his 
satires.  The  violence  of  his  satires  is,  however,  not 
directed  against  his  contemporaries.  He  seems  to  have 
in  mind  rather  the  Eome  of  Domitian  than  that  of  Tra- 
jan or  Hadrian,  under  whose  rule  he  wrote.  The  six- 
teen satires  are  divided  into  five  books.  Book  I  (Satires 
i-vi)  was  written  not  earlier  than  100  A.  D.,  and  Book  II 


220  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

(Satire  vii)  not  before  116  A.  D.  These  are  the  most 
powerful,  most  violent,  and  least  agreeable  books.  Book 
III  (Satires  vii-ix)  was  written  about  120,  Book  IV 
(Satires  x-xii)  about  125,  and  Book  V  (Satires  xiii-xvi) 
in  127  A.  D.  In  these  three  books  there  is  less  viru- 
lence, but  also  less  power  than  in  the  first  two.  Old 
age  brought  with  it  a  loss  at  once  of  fierceness  and  of 
strength. 

In  the  first  satire,  Juvenal  gives  his  reasons  for  writ- 
ing as  he  does.     He  is  tired  of  listening  to  endless  epics, 
and  the  corruptions  of  the  time  are  such  that 

Contents  of  « it  ig  Difficult  not  to  write  satire," l  and 
the  Satires.  „„  mi  .,  , 

"  indignation  makes  verse.   '    The  evils  to  be 

attacked  are  enumerated  in  a  series  of  rapidly  sketched 
pictures,  and  the  poet  declares  that  "all  that  men  do, 
their  hope,  fear,  wrath,  pleasure,  joys,  and  gaddings  make 
up  the  medley  of  my  book."3  And  in  the  following 
satires  the  faults  of  men,  the  dangers  of  the  city,  the 
court  of  Domitian,  the  pride  of  wealth,  the  crimes  of 
women,  the  lack  of  honor  paid  to  intellect,  the  worthless- 
ness  of  noble  birth  without  virtue,  unnatural  lust,  the 
shortsightedness  of  human  wishes,  the  wrong  of  setting 
children  a  bad  example,  and  other  striking  features  of 
the  life  of  Eome  are  vividly  presented  and  ruthlessly 
attacked.  One  of  the  most  interesting  satires  is  the 
third,  in  which  the  dangers  of  the  city  are  described.  A 
man  who  is  leaving  Eome  for  a  small  country  town  gives 
reasons  for  his  departure : 

What  should  I  do  at  Rome  ?    I  can  not  lie ; 
I  can  not  praise  a  book  that's  bad  and  beg 
A  copy  of  it ;  I  am  ignorant 
Of  the  motions  of  the  stars ;  I  neither  will 
Nor  can  make  promise  of  a  father's  death.4 

1  Sat.  i,  30.  «  Sat.  i,  79.  3  Sat.  i,  85  f. 

4  Sat.  Hi,  41  ff. 


JUVENAL  221 

The  dirty  streets,  the  water  dripping  from  the  aque- 
duct, the  risk  from  falling  tiles  or  household  vessels,  the 
drunken  brawls  in  the  streets,  the  rich  man  escorted 
home  by  clients  and  slaves  with  naming  torches,  the  dan- 
ger from  robbers — these  and  many  other  details  of  the 
ill  regulated  capital  are  set  before  us.  This  satire  is 
imitated  by  Johnson  in  his  London,  which  has  rightly 
been  called  one  of  the  finest  modern  imitations  of  an 
ancient  poem,  and  the  same  author's  poem  on  The  Vanity 
of  Human  Wishes  is  a  less  accurate,  though  not  less 
admirable,  imitatipn  of  Juvenal's  tenth  satire.  The  clos- 
ing passage  of  the  tenth  satire,  in  which  the  poet  tells 
what  are  the  proper  objects  of  prayer,  is  a  lofty  utterance 
of  human  wisdom.  The  most  savage  of  all  the  satires  is, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  sixth,  in  which  the  crimes  of 
women  are  held  up  to  execration. 

It  is  not  easy  for  the  modern  reader  to  enjoy  Juvenal. 
His  satires  are  full  of  allusions  to  unknown  persons  and 
things  at  Eome  ;  they  abound  also  in  mythological  refer- 
ences and  literary  reminiscences,  and  finally  the  savage 
tone  of  the  earlier  books  is  disagreeable.  Yet  the  power 
of  invective,  the  clearness  and  vividness  of  description, 
the  variety  of  diction,  and  the  beauty  of  versification 
have  combined  to  make  Juvenal  a  much  read  author. 
That  he  is  also  much  quoted  is  due  to  the  epigrammatic 
and  pointed  form  of  many  of  his  phrases.  Hens  sana  in 
corpore  sano, l  Ear  a  avis, 2  Panem  et  cir  censes, 3  Hoc  volo, 
sic  iubeo,*  Quis  custodiet  ipsos  citstodes? 5  are  among  the 
most  familiar  Latin  quotations,  and  many  other  almost 
equally  familiar  expressions  are  derived  from  Juvenal. 
Some  of  these  are  distinguished  for  their  significance 
quite  as  much  as  for  their  form.  Such  are,  for  instance : 
"And  for  the  sake  of  life  give  up  life's  only  end"6  and 

1  Sat.  x,  356.  a  Sat.  vi,  165.  8  Sat.  x,  81. 

4  Sat.  vi,  223.  6  Sat.  vi,  347.  6  Sat.  viii,  84. 


222  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

"  The  greatest  reverence  is  due  a  child" l  It  is  not  with- 
out reason  that  Juvenal  has  exerted  great  influence  on 
human  thought. 

Tacitus  and  Juvenal  resemble  each  other  in  their 
originality  and  vigor*  of  thought  and  expression,  their 
severe  judgment  of  men  and  manners,  and 
their  pessimism.  The  younger  Pliny  con- 
trasts with  them  in  all  these  respects,  and 
his  letters  give  us  an  idea  of  Eoman  life  very  different 
from  that  which  we  derive  from  them.  Gaius  Plinius 
Caecilius  Secundus  was  the  son  of  Lucius  Caecilius  Gilo, 
a  wealthy  nobleman  of  Comum,  but  was  adopted  by  will 
by  his  uncle,  the  elder  Pliny.  He  therefore  changed  his 
name,  which  was  originally  Publius  Caecilius  Secundus, 
and  took  that  of  his  uncle,  retaining  his  original  family 
name,  Csecilius,  only  for  legal  and  formal  use.  He  was 
born  in  61  or  62  A.  D.,  for  he  was  in  his  eighteenth  year 
when  the  eruption  of  Vesuvius  took  place,  August  24, 
79  A.  D.  Gilo  had  died  when  Pliny  was  young,  and  the 
boy  had  become  the  ward  of  Verginius  Rufus,  which  fact 
did  not,  however,  diminish  the  paternal  interest  of  his 
uncle,  with  whom  he  was  at  the  time  of  the  eruption. 
Pliny  began  his  career  as  an  advocate  in  80  or  81  A.  D. 
He  held  various  offices,  was  military  tribune,  quaestor  in 
89-90  A.  D.,  tribune  of  the  people  in  90-91  A.  D.,  praetor 
in  93  A.  D.,  was  one  of  the  prefects  in  charge  of  the  war 
treasury  and  also  of  the  general  treasury,  became  consul 
in  100  A.  D.,  and  succeeded  Sextus  Julius  Frontinus  in 
the  college  of  augurs  in  103  or  104  A.  D.  He  was  gov- 
ernor of  Pontus  and  Bithynia  either  in  111-112  or  112- 
113  A.  D.,  and  died  before  114  A.  D.,  either  in  his  province 
or  soon  after  his  return  to  Italy.  His  life  was  passed 
chiefly  in  the  service  of  the  government,  and  for  the  most 
part  at  Rome.  He  was  married  three  times,  but  had  no 

1  Sat.  xiv,  47. 


PLINY  THE  YOUNGER  223 

children.  He  was  an  orator  of  some  importance,  deliver- 
ing most  of  his  speeches  in  inheritance  cases,  though  he 
was  employed  five  times  in  important  criminal  suits.  He 
recited  his  speeches  before  delivering  them  in  public, 
and  after  delivery  he  published  them,  sometimes  with 
corrections.  He  was  interested  in  poetry,  and  wrote 
poems  of  various  kinds,  but  these,  as  well  as  his  speeches, 
with  the  exception  of  his  panegyric  on  Trajan,  are  lost. 

Pliny's  extant  works  consist  of  nine  books  of  letters 
to  various  persons,  written  between  97  and  109  A.  D.,  a 

panegyric  on  the  Emperor  Trajan,  delivered 
Plmy's  •     -J^QQ  A        wnen  Pliny  was  made  consul, 

letters.  J 

and  seventy-two  letters  to   Trajan,  written 

between  98  and  106,  and  from  September,  111,  to  Janu- 
ary, 113  A.  D.  Trajan's  replies  to  fifty-one  of  these  letters 
are  published,  which  exhibit  his  firm  judgment  and  prac- 
tical common  sense  in  striking  contrast  to  Pliny's  inde- 
cision and  lack  of  independence.  Pliny's  other  letters 
are  more  interesting.  He  describes  the  scenes  in  the 
Roman  courts,  the  gatherings  where  the  audience  was 
bored  by  authors  who  recited  their  works,  he  gives 
detailed  descriptions  of  his  Laurentine1  and  Tuscan2 
villas,  in  two  letters  3  to  Tacitus  he  gives  an  account  of 
the  eruption  of  Vesuvius,  his  uncle's  death,  and  his  own 
feelings.  Incidentally  he  throws  much  light  upon  the 
social  and  family  life  of  the  time.  His  own  character  is 
also  clearly  portrayed.  What  a  young  prig  he  must  have 
been  who  refused  his  uncle's  invitation  to  accompany 
him  to  see,  from  a  nearer  point  of  view,  the  great  erup- 
tion, preferring  to  spend  his  time  over  his  books,  and 
who  even  continued  to  make  extracts  when  awakened  by 
the  terrible  quaking  of  the  earth — and  this  at  seventeen 
years  of  age!  His  vanity  is  beautifully  exhibited  in 
another  letter  to  Tacitus,4  in  which  he  tells  a  story  to 
his  own  credit,  and  hopes  that  Tacitus  will  insert  it  in 


224  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

the  Histories,  and  in  still  another,1  where  he  says  to  the 
most  original  and  inimitable  of  all  Koman  writers  since 
the  Augustan  times,  "  You,  such  is  the  similarity  of  our 
natures,  always  seemed  to  me  most  easy  to  imitate  and 
most  to  be  imitated.  Wherefore  I  am  the  more  pleased 
that,  if  there  is  any  talk  about  literature,  we  are  men- 
tioned together,  that  I  occur  at  once  to  those  who  are 
speaking  of  you."  Other  qualities  appear  no  less  clearly. 
Vain  he  was  and  fond  of  praise,  but  at  the  same  time 
kind  to  his  slaves,  affectionate  to  his  friends,  gentle,  and 
conscientious.  He  seldom  speaks  unkindly  of  any  one; 
and  when  he  utters  a  sharp  criticism,  he  almost  always 
avoids  mentioning  the  name  of  the  person  criticized. 
The  love  of  nature  was  fashionable  at  Eome,  and  Pliny 
may  be  only  following  the  fashion  when  he  writes  of 
natural  scenery,  but  it  is  quite  as  probable  ^  that  he 
really  felt  its  charms.  He  had  a  great  admiration  for 
Cicero,  and  it  was  doubtless  owing,  in  part,  at  fleast,  to 
this  admiration  that  Pliny,  like  Cicero,  published  his 
letters.  There  is,  however,  a  great  difference  between 
the  two  collections.  Cicero's  letters  were  collected  and 
publishecbbyothers,  whereas  Pliny's  were  from  the  begin- 
ning intended  for  publication  and  were  published  at 
various  times  by  Pliny  himself.  They  are  therefore  not 
unpreme^itateH  ^utterances,  but  carefully  prepared  writ- 
ings for  the  "perusal  of_4j^epublic.  Nevertheless  the 
epistolary .  style  is  wS8^wi^^H<L  though  not  without 
some  pedantic  elegance,  and  the  letters  give  us  the  same 
insight  into  Roman  life  under  Trajan  as  do  those  of 
Cicero  into  the  life  of  the  last  years  of  the  republic. 

The  Panegyric  on  Trajan  was  delivered  as  the  official 
expression  of  thanks  on  the  part  ok  Pliny  and  his  col- 
league Cornutus  Tertullus  for  their  elevation  to  the  con- 
sulate. After  the  speech  was  delivered  it  was  revised  and 
enlarged.  It  is  therefore  in  its  extant  form  neither  a 

1  Up.,  VII,  xx. 


PLINY  THE  YOUNGER  225 

speech  nor  an  historical  essay,  but  a  mixture  of  the  two. 

After  an  introduction,  Trajan's  acts  before  his  entrance 

into  Kome  are  recounted,  then  his  entrance 

Panegyric.  into  the  C^J>  and  ^is  manJ  political,  munic- 
ipal, and  financial  measures  for  the  good  of 
the  state.  Trajan's  personal  qualities  are  praised  in  the 
most  fulsome  manner  and  those  of  Domitian  set  forth  in 
the  most  hateful  light.  Then  comes  an  account  of  Trajan's 
second  and  third  consulships,  his  care  for  the  provinces, 
and  his  judicial  acts,  with  traits  of  his  private  life.  The 
speech  or  treatise  ends  with  the  expression  of  thanks  from 
Pliny  and  his  colleague.  The  Panegyric  is  not  an  attrac- 
tive production,  but  it  is  the  chief  source  of  information 
concerning  the  history  of  the  earlier  years  of  Trajan's  rule. 
Though  not  a  great  man  nor  a  great  writer,  Pliny 
was  a  cultivated  gentleman  and  a  useful  citizen.  His 
letters  make  us  acquainted  with  Eoman  life 
writers.  from  a  side  that  Tacitus  and  Juvenal  leave 

practically  untouched.  They  are  therefore 
not  only  interesting,  but,  as  historical  documents,  of  great 
importance.  Besides  Tacitus,  Juvenal,  and  Pliny,  there 
are  no  writers  of  the  time  of  Trajan  who  deserve  more 
than  passing  mention.  The  names  of  numerous  poets 
are  preserved,  chiefly  in  Pliny's  letters,  but  their  works 
are  lost,  and  we  have  no  reason  to  believe  that  they 
merited  preservation.  Orators,  jurists,  and  grammarians 
continued  speaking  and  writing,  and  some  among  them 
attained  eminence,  but  their  works  are  lost  for  the  most 
part,  and  the  technical  treatises  on  grammar  which  are 
preserved  possess  little  interest  for  the  student  of  litera- 
ture. The  same  remark  applies  to  the  treatises  on  sur- 
veying and  on  the  fortification  of  camps  by  Hyginus,  on 
geometry  by  Balbus,  and  on  surveying  by  Siculus  Flaccus. 
The  literature  of  the  period  between  the  death  of  Domi- 
tian and  the  accession  of  Hadrian  is  contained  in  the 
works  of  Tacitus,  Juvenal,  and  Pliny. 


CHAPTEE  XVI 

THE  EMPERORS  AFTER  TRAJAN-SUETONIUS-OTHER 
WRITERS 

Hadrian,  117-138  A.  D.— Antoninus  Pius,  138-161  A.  D.— Marcus 
Aurelius,  161-180  A.  D.— Comraodus,  180-192  A.D.— Septimius  Sev- 
erus,  193-211  A.  D. — Alexander  Severus,  222-235  A.  D. — Gordian  I, 
238  A.  D.— Gallienus,  260-268  A.  D.— Aurelian,  270-275  A.  D.— Tacitus, 
275  A.  D.— Suetonius,  about  70  or  75  to  about  150  A.  D. — Florus,  time 
of  Hadrian — Justin,  time  of  Hadrian  (?) — Licinianus,  time  of  An- 
toninus Pius — Ampelius,  time  of  Antoninus  Pius  (?) — Salvius  Juli- 
anus,  time  of  Hadrian— Sextus  Pomponius,  time  of  Antoninus  Pius — 
Gaius,  about  110-180  A.  D. — Quintus  Cervidius  Scaevola,  time  of 
Antoninus  and  M.  Aurelius — Papinianus,  time  of  Commodus  and 
Septimius  Severus — Terentius  Scaurus,  time  of  Hadrian — Terenti- 
anus  Maurus  and  Juba,  before  200  A.  D. — Aero,  about  200  A.  D. — 
Porphyrio,  about  200  A.  D. — Festus,  early  in  the  third  century. 

IT  was  not  until  the  fourth  century  after  Christ  that  a 
new  capital  of  the  Roman  empire  was  founded  at  Con- 
Latin  stantinople;  but  long  before  that  time  the 
literature  reaj  centre  of  gravity  of  the  empire  was  shift- 
after  Trajan.  ing  toward  tlie  eagt  In  Agia?  Egypt,  and 

Africa,  were  the  great  sources  of  wealth  and  the  great 
masses  of  population.  While  Rome  was  growing  from 
the  position  of  a  small  Italian  town  to  that  of  the  ruler 
of  the  world,  and  even  for  some  time  after  the  establish- 
ment of  the  empire,  the  Romans  had  possessed  a  strong 
national  feeling,  and  Roman  literature,  although  it  began 
with  imitation  of  the  works  of  the  Greeks,  had  been  a 
national  literature.  But  with  the  second  century  a 
change,  which  had  been  in  preparation  since  the  days  of 
Augustus,  became  apparent.  Rome  was  no  longer  the 


LITERATURE  AFTER  TRAJAN  227 

centre  of  the  world  in  all  things,  though  still  the  seat  of 
government.  Men  of  distinction  spent  at  least  a  great 
part  of  their  time  in  the  smaller  towns  of  Italy,  and 
the  leaders  of  thought  and  creators  of  literature  no 
longer  found  it  necessary  to  take  up  their  residence  at 
Eome.  Then,  too,  the  progress  of  Christianity  brought 
with  it  a  new  literature  which  was  not  national,  but 
Christian.  These  causes,  with  others  less  obvious,  but 
perhaps  no  less  potent,  led  to  the  rapid  decay  of  the 
national  literature.  It  is  our  task  from  this  point  to 
trace  the  progress  of  this  decay,  and  at  the  same  time  to 
record  the  rise  of  Christian  literature  in  the  Latin 
language.  Works  of  great  literary  importance  are  few  in 
this  period,  and  the  history  of  literature  can  be  treated  in 
less  detail  than  heretofore. 

The  Emperor  Hadrian  (117-138  A.  D.)  was  a  man 
of  singular  versatility.  He  delivered  and  published 
„  ,  .  speeches  and  wrote  an  autobiography,  works 

on  grammar,  and  even  poems.  He  was 
equally  familiar  with  Greek  and  Latin,  and  it  is  probably 
in  part  due  to  this  fact  that  the  literary  revival  during  his 
rule  was  less  Latin  than  Greek.  He  spent  a  great  part  of 
his  time  away  from  Rome,  and  wherever  he  went  his 
path  was  marked  by  the  erection  of  buildings  for  use 
and  ornament.  He  lived  for  three  years  at  Athens,  where 
he  added  a  new  quarter  to  the  ancient  city.  Greek, 
which  had  for  centuries  been  familiar  to  the  literary  men 
of  Rome,  became  now,  more  than  ever  before,  the  literary 
language  of  the  empire.  It  is  hardly  to  be  wondered  at 
that  Latin  literature  has  under  Hadrian  no  greater 
representative  than  Suetonius. 

Hadrian's  successor,  Antoninus  Pius  (138-161  A.  D.), 
was  no  writer,  but  showed  his  interest  in  literary  and 
intellectual  matters  by  granting  salaries  and  privileges 
to  philosophers  and  rhetors.  Marcus  Aurelius  (161-180 
A.  D.)  was  carefully  instructed  by  Greek  and  Roman  teach- 


228  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

ers.    While  still  a  mere  boy  he  was  greatly  interested  in 
the  Stoic  philosophy ;  but  the  famous  orator  and  teacher 
Fronto  (see  page  235)  obtained  such  great  in- 
nines  fluence  over  him,  that  for  a  number  of  years 

he  devoted  himself  to  rhetoric.  The  cor- 
respondence of  Fronto  with  Marcus  Aurelius  shows  how 
great  was  the  affection  that  existed  between  teacher 
and  pupil,  and  also  how  petty  were  the  rhetorical  teach- 
ings and  investigations  in  which  Fronto  passed  his  life 
and  to  which  he  hoped  his  pupil  would  devote  his  intel- 
lect. Fronto  was,  however,  doomed  to  disappointment, 
for  when  Marcus  Aurelius  was  in  his  twenty-fifth  year 
he  turned  again  to  philosophy.  The  correspondence 
with  Fronto  is  conducted  in  Latin  similar  to  Fronto's 
own,  plentifully  adorned  with  obsolete  expressions  taken 
from  writers  of  the  republican  period.  The  Thoughts  of 
Marcus  Aurelius,  those  ethical  maxims  and  moral  reflec- 
tions which  make  the  Stoic  doctrines  seem  so  much  like 
Christianity,  are  written  in  Greek.  That  Marcus  Aurelius 
regarded  Greek  as  the  proper  language  of  culture,  or  at 
least  of  philosophy,  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  he  estab- 
lished the  schools  of  philosophy  at  Athens  with  regularly 
salaried  professors.  Lucius  Verus,  the  colleague  of  Mar- 
cus Aurelius  until  169  A.  D.,  was  also  a  pupil  of  Fronto, 
and  in  his  letters  to  his  teacher  shows  the  same  faults  of 
style  exhibited  by  Marcus  Aurelius.  He  had  no  influence 
upon  Latin  literature,  and  Commodus  (180-192  A.  D.)  had 
no  interest  in  literature  of  any  sort. 

Pertinax  had  literary  tastes,  but  his  brief  reign  gave 
him  no  opportunity  to  influence  the  course  of  the  national 
literature,  while  his    successor  Didius  Juli- 
emperors.        anus,  who  bought  the  empire  from  the  prae- 
torian guards,  found  after  sixty-six  days  of 
nominal  power  that  his  purchase  brought  him  ruin  and 
death.     Septimius  Severus  (193-211  A.  D.),  although  his 
native  tongue  was  probably  Punic,  was  well  educated  in 


SUETONIUS  229 

Greek  and  Latin  and  wrote  an  autobiography,  but  there  is 
no  indication  that  he  exercised  any  marked  influence 
upon  Roman  literature.  Among  the  later  emperors  were 
few  whose  literary  interests  were  strong,  and  still  fewer 
who  appear  as  authors.  In  the  third  century  Alexander 
Severus  (222-235  A.  D.)  was  seriously  interested  in  Greek 
and  Latin  literature  and  encouraged  literary  production 
by  all  the  means  in  his  power  ;  Gordian  I  (238  A.  D.)  wrote 
a  metrical  history  of  the  Antonines  in  thirty  books,  besides 
various  other  works  in  prose  and  verse,  but  these  are  lost, 
and  his  brief  reign  did  not  enable  him  to  give  imperial  en- 
couragement to  literature;  the  poems  and  speeches  of 
Gallienus  (260-268  A.  D.)  and  the  historical  writings  of 
Aurelian  (270-275  A.  D.)  were  of  little  importance.  The 
Emperor  Tacitus  (275  A.  D.)  exerted  himself  to  spread 
abroad  the  works  of  his  ancestor  the  historian,  and  it  may 
be  due  to  him  that  those .  works  are  in  part  preserved. 
Those  among  the  still  later  emperors  who  had  literary 
interests  made  their  influence  felt  rather  upon  Greek  than 
Latin  literature. 

The  most  important  writer  in  the  reign  of  Hadrian  is 
Gaius  Suetonius  Tranquillus.  tie  was  born  apparently 

between  70  and  75  A.  D.     He  was  a  friend  of 
Suetonius.         X1  T-,,.  ,  -  •          i  •       •     i  • 

the  younger  .rimy,  who  mentions  mm  in  his 

letters.  Pliny  obtained  for  him  a  military  tribuneship, 
which  he  passed  on  to  a  relative.  Pliny  also  assisted  him 
in  the  purchase  of  a  small  estate  and  encouraged  him  to 
publish  some  of  his  writings.  Under  Hadrian  he  held  a 
position  as  secretary,  from  which  he  was  dismissed  in  121 
A.  D.  Of  his  later  life  nothing  is  known,  but  he  probably 
devoted  himself  to  his  literary  labors,  and  as  his  works 
were  numerous,  we  may  assume  that  he  lived  to  an  ad- 
vanced age. 

Only  two  works  of  Suetonius  are  preserved,  the  first 
entire,  but  for  a  small  part  at  the  beginning,  and  of  the 
second  only  a  part,  and  that  much  mutilated.  The 


230  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

Lives  of  the  Twelve  Ccesars  (De  Vita  Ccesarum),  in  eight 
books,  contains  the  lives  of  Julius  Caesar  (Book  I),  Au- 
gustus (Book  II),  Tiberius  (Book  III),  Ca- 
The  Lives  of      ^^  (B()ok  Iy)j   Claudius   (Book   y),  Xero 

(Book  VI),  Galba,  Otho,  Vitellius  (Book  VII), 
Vespasian,  Titus,  and  Domitian  (Book  VIII).  The  work  is 
dedicated  to  Septicius  Clarus,  to  whom  Pliny  the  younger 
dedicated  his  letters,  and  was  published  between  119  and 
121  A.  D.,  for  Clarus  is  addressed  as  prcefectus  prcetorio,  an 
office  which  he  held  only  during  those  years.  The  begin- 
ning is  lost,  for  the  life  of  Caesar  begins  at  the  point  when 
Caesar  was  sixteen  years  old.  Suetonius  is  a  careful  and 
conscientious  writer  and  makes  use  of  various  sources  of 
information,  not  only  published  histories  and  biographies, 
but  also  public  documents,  autograph  letters  of  the  em- 
perors, and  apparently  oral  tradition.  He  lacks,  however, 
the  critical  insight  necessary  for  a  good  historian  and  the 
understanding  of  character  needed  by  a  good  biographer. 
He  collected  his  material  with  impartiality,  avoiding 
neither  what  was  friendly  nor  what  was  hostile  to  the  em- 
perors whose  lives  he  records,  and  arranged  this  material 
as  best  he  could,  with  no  apparent  endeavor  to  trace  the 
development  of  character,  or  even  to  determine  in  all 
cases  the  chronological  sequence  of  events.  Dates  are 
seldom  given,  and  the  work  as  a  whole  presents  rather  the 
material  for  history  than  real  history.  But  this  material 
is  interesting,  and  the  style  is  simple,  straightforward,  and 
clear.  Although  he  wrote  at  a  time  when  affectations  of 
style  were  fashionable,  Suetonius  had  the  good  taste  to 
keep  himself  free  from  them. 

The  second  work  of  Suetonius,  entitled  De  Viris  Illus- 
tribus  (On  Illustrious  Men),  was  a  series  of 
Illustribus       biographies  of  Latin  poets,  orators,  historians, 
philosophers,  grammarians,  and  rhetoricians. 
The  section  on  orators  began  with  Cicero,  that  on  histo- 
rians with  Sallust.     The  greater  part  of  the  section  on 


OTHER  PROSE  WRITERS  231 

grammarians  and  rhetoricians  is  extant,  as  are  the  lives  of 
Terence,  Horace,  and  Lucan  from  the  section  on  poets, 
and  that  of  Pliny  the  elder  from  the  section  on  historians. 
Extracts  from  other  parts  of  the  work  are  preserved  by 
Jerome  and  in  the  scholia  on  various  writers.  Each  sec- 
tion contained  a  list  of  the  authors  discussed,  a  brief 
account  of  their  branch  of  literature,  and  short  lives  of 
the  authors  arranged  chronologically.  In  this  work  also 
the  style  is  simple  and  clear,  but  brevity  is  sought  at  the 
expense  of  literary  excellence. 

Other  works  by  Suetonius,  some  of  which  were  much 
used  by  later  writers  as  sources  of  information,  were  on 
Greet  Games,  Eoman  Games,  the  Eoman 
Other  works.  Year)  Critical  Marks  in  Bookg)  Cicero's  Re- 
public, Dress,  Imprecations,  and  Roman  Laws  and  Customs. 
Some  of  these  were  doubtless  included  in  a  work  entitled 
Praia,  a  sort  of  encyclopaedia  in  ten  books,  which  dealt 
also  with  philology  and  natural  science.  The  works  on 
Greek  Games  and  on  Imprecations  were  apparently  written 
in  Greek,  the  rest  in  Latin.  Suetonius  was  not  a  great 
writer,  but  was  a  diligent  compiler  of  interesting  informa- 
tion. His  extant  works  are  valuable  as  sources  of  in- 
formation rather  than  as  literary  productions,  though 
their  freedom  from  the  affectations  of  the  age  entitles 
their  author  to  some  praise  even  from  a  literary  point  of 
view. 

To  the  time   of  Hadrian  belongs  a  brief  history  of 

Rome  by  Annius  or  Annaeus  Florus.     This  is  not  a  mere 

epitome  of  Livy,  as  it  is  entitled  in  one  of  the 

manuscripts,  but  rather  a  panegyric  on  the 

Eoman  people.     Florus  personifies   the   Eoman    people, 

speaks  of  its  childhood  under  the  rule  of  the  kings,  its 

youth  while  Eome   was  conquering  Italy,   its  manhood 

from  the  conquest  of  Italy  to  the  time  of  Augustus,  and 

then  instead  of  going  on  to  tell  of  its  old  age,  he  says  the 

emperor  restored  it  to  youth.     Florus  writes  in  a  flowery, 

16 


232  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

rhetorical  style,  and  pays  little  attention  to  any  part  of 
history  except  wars  and  battles.  For  these  reasons,  and 
also  because  of  its  brevity,  the  work  was  a  popular  text- 
book in  the  Middle  Ages.  This  Florus  is  probably  iden- 
tical with  a  poet  who  is  reported  to  have  joked  with 
Hadrian,  and  who  has  left  two  rather  attractive  specimens 
of  verse,  one  of  fire  lines  on  spring,  the  other  of  twenty- 
six  lines  on  the  quality  of  life.  A  fragment  of  a  discus- 
sion of  the  question  whether  Virgil  was  greater  as  a  poet 
or  as  an  orator  is  also  preserved  under  the  name  of  Florus. 
If  this  Florus  is  still  the  same  person,  we  learn  from  the 
fragment  that  he  was  unsuccessful  in  competing  for  a 
prize  in  poetry  at  Eome,  traveled  about  in  many  parts  of 
the  empire,  and  finally  settled  as  a  teacher  in  a  provincial 
town,  probably  Tarraco  (Tarragona),  in  the  northeast  part 
of  Spain. 

Historical  writing  was  at  a  low  ebb.  Suetonius  is  far 
the  most  important  historian  of  the  second  century,  and 
he  is  made  important  rather  by  the  dearth 
historical  °^  §°°^  historians  than  by  his  own  merits, 
writings  of  Florus  hardly  deserves  the  name  of  historian, 
the  second  Justin's  epitome  of  Trogus  (see  page  164) 
belongs,  perhaps,  to  the  time  of  Hadrian,  and 
is  important  because  it  has  preserved  much  of  the  sub- 
stance of  the  work  of  Trogus,  but  is  in  no  sense  an 
original  history.  Under  Antoninus  Pius  a  history  of 
Rome  was  written  by  Granius  Licinianus,  but  the  extant 
fragments  show  that  this  was  little  more  than  an  epitome 
of  Livy.  The  Liber  Memorialis,  by  Lucius  Ampelius, 
written  at  about  the  same  time,  is  a  little  handbook  of 
useful  knowledge,  containing  general  information  about 
the  earth,  the  stars,  and  the  winds,  followed  by  a  brief 
sketch  of  the  history  of  various  nations.  It  is  a  mere  com- 
pilation, possessing  neither  historical  nor  literary  value. 

The  study  of  law  was,  on  the  other  hand,  pursued  by 
many  jurists  of  ability,  whose  works  were  much  used  by 


OTHER  PROSE  WRITERS  233 

those  who  gave  to  Roman  law  its  final  form  in  the  reign 
of  Justinian.  Under  Hadrian  the  edicts  of  the  praetors 
and  other  magistrates  were  collected  and 
codified  by  Salvius  Julianus,  a  distinguished 
jurist  of  African  birth,  who  attained  the  position  of 
prcefectus  urM  and  was  twice  consul.  The  Edictum  Per- 
petuum,  as  his  work  is  called,  became  henceforth  the 
basis  of  Roman  law.  Julianus  was  also  the  author  of  in- 
dependent juristic  works.  Sextus  Pomponius,  a  younger 
contemporary  of  Julianus,  wrote  among  other  things  a 
brief  history  of  Roman  jurisprudence,  which  is  incorpo- 
rated in  the  digests.  Among  the  many  jurists  of  the  reign 
of  Antoninus  Pius,  the  most  important  is  Gaius  (about  110- 
180  A.  D.),  whose  introduction  to  the  study  of  law  (Insti- 
tutiones),  clearly  written  in  good  and  simple  language,  is 
for  the  most  part  preserved  in  the  digests,  and  served  as 
the  foundation  of  the  similar  work  written  at  the  com- 
mand of  Justinian.  The  works  of  Quintus  Cervidius  Scae- 
vola,  who  lived  under  Antoninus  Pius  and  Marcus  Aurelius, 
were  also  much  used  by  the  writers  of  the  pandects.  One  of 
the  most  distinguished  jurists  under  Commodus  and  Sep- 
timius  Severus  was  Papinianus,  who  was  put  to  death 
under  Caracalla  (212  A.  D.)  because  he  was  faithful  to  that 
emperor's  brother  Geta. 

The  study  of  grammar  was  diligently  pursued  in  the 
second  century,  and  with  it  went  the  writing  of  commen- 
Grammar  Caries  on  the  classical  authors.  Under  Ha- 
literature,  drian,  Terentius  Scaurus  wrote  a  Latin  gram- 
and  mar,  part  of  which  is  preserved  in  an  abbre- 

phiiosophy.  yiated  form,  as  well  as  commentaries  on 
Plautus,  Virgil,  and  Horace,  fragments  of  which  are 
found  in  the  works  of  later  commentators.  Under  the 
Antonines,  rhetoricians  and  grammarians  were  numerous, 
and  discussions  of  literary  and  grammatical  questions 
formed  a  considerable  part  of  polite  conversation.  Metrical 
handbooks  were  written  by  Terentianus  Maurus  and 


234  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

Juba,  Helvius  Aero  wrote  commentaries  on  Terence, 
Horace,  and  Persius  about  the  end  of  the  second  century, 
and  Pomponius  Porphyrio,  a  grammarian  of  distinction, 
whose  scholia  on  Horace  still  exist,  though  not  in  their 
original  form,  wrote  probably  at  the  end  of  the  second  or 
the  beginning  of  the  third  century.  Festus,  who  made 
an  epitome  of  Verrius  Flaccus  (see  page  166)  probably 
lived  but  little  after  this  time.  Some  of  the  rhetoricians 
of  this  period  probably  continued  to  teach  as  they  had 
themselves  been  taught,  but  the  most  important  among 
them  developed  a  new  school,  which  will  form  the  subject 
of  our  next  chapter.  Philosophy  had  in  the  second  cen- 
tury still  many  followers,  but  there  was  little  literary  pro- 
duction in  Latin.  Dio  Chrysostom,  Plutarch,  Marcus 
Aurelius,  and  Sextus  Empiricus  wrote  in  Greek. 


CHAPTEK  XVII 

LITERARY    INNOVATIONS 

Fronto,  about  100  to  about  175  A.  D.— Gellius,  born  about  125 
A.  D. — Apuleius,  about  125  to  about  200  A.  D. — Innovations  in  poetry 
— The  Pervigilium  Veneris. 

AN  important  figure  in  the  literature  of  the  second 
century  was  Marcus  Cornelius  Fronto,  of  Cirta,  in  Nu- 
midia.  He  was  born  about  100  A.  D.,  studied  under  the  best 
teachers,  and  was  distinguished  as  an  orator  and  teacher 
even  under  Hadrian,  though  his  greatest  influ- 
ence was  exerted  under  the  Antonines.  He 
became  a  member  of  the  senate  under  Hadrian,  and  his 
speech  against  the  Christians  may  have  been  delivered  be- 
fore that  body.  In  143  A.  D.  he  was  consul,  and  was  to 
have  been  proconsul  entrusted  with  the  government  of 
Asia,  but  relinquished  that  office  on  account  of  ill  health. 
He  was  the  teacher  of  Marcus  Antoninus  and  Lucius  Verus, 
both  of  whom  were  much  attached  to  him,  and  as  was 
natural  under  such  circumstances,  he  was  greatly  honored 
and  became  very  wealthy.  Of  his  family  life  we  know 
only  that  he  was  married,  that  his  daughter  Gratia  mar- 
ried Gaius  Aufidius  Victorinus,  and  that  five  daughters 
were  removed  by  death.  The  date  of  his  death  is  un- 
known, but  it  was  probably  shortly  after  175  A.  D.  Parts 
of  Fronto's  correspondence  were  discovered  in  1815,  and 
from  his  letters  we  get  an  idea  of  his  style  and  his  teach- 
ing. The  correspondence  is  with  Marcus  Aurelius,  Lucius 
Verus,  Antoninus  Pius,  and  others,  and  several  essays  are 
included,  which  were  probably  sent  with  the  letters  to 

335 


236  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

Fronto's  correspondents.  One  of  these  essays,  the  Prin- 
cipia  Historice,  compares  the  Parthian  campaigns  of  Verus 
and  Trajan  to  the  advantage  of  Verus.  This  essay  was  in- 
tended to  serve  as  an  introduction  to  a  history  of  the  deeds 
of  Verus  in  the  Parthian  War,  but  the  history  was  never 
written.  What  gives  Fronto's  letters  their  chief  interest  is 
his  teaching  in  regard  to  oratory  and  style.  He  considers 
rhetoric  the  noblest  possible  study,  and  warns  Marcus 
Aurelius  against  surrendering  to  the  charms  of  philoso- 
phy, but  the  chief  end  of  the  study  of  rhetoric  is  to  acquire 
new  and  striking  words  and  phrases.  Fronto  apparently 
despaired  of  acquiring  new  ideas  or  new  points  of  view, 
and  he  saw  that  Latin  literature  could  not  go  on  for- 
ever merely  imitating  the  writers  of  the  Golden  Age,  or 
even  those  of  the  Silver  Age.  He  was  too  much  of  a 
scholar  to  think  of  drawing  from  the  living  spring  of 
common  every-day  speech,  and  therefore  hit  upon  the  ex- 
pedient of  reverting  to  the  early  writers,  such  as  Ennius, 
Plautus,  Accius,  Cato,  Sallust,  and  Gracchus.  His  language 
is  therefore  full  of  old-fashioned  expressions  used  without 
the  simplicity  that  belongs  to  the  early  times.  That  such 
a  writer  as  Fronto  was  highly  respected  and  exerted  a 
powerful  influence  upon  his  contemporaries  is  a  sign  of 
the  depth  to  which  Eoman  literature  had  sunk. 

A  much  younger  man  than  Fronto,  but  like  him,  a  man 
of  books  and  an  admirer  of  archaic  phraseology,  was  Aulus 

Gellius,  who  was  born  probably  about  125 
Gellius  A' D*'  s^u^e(^  under  various  masters  at  Kome 

and  at  Athens,  and  held  some  judicial  posi- 
tion at  Eome.  His  extant  work,  entitled  Nodes  Atticce 
(Attic  Nights),  received  its  title  from  the  fact  that  it 
contains  the  results  of  the  writer's  labors  begun  at  Athens, 
when  he  used  to  read  various  authors  and  make  extracts 
from  them  in  the  night.  These  extracts,  with  a  variety 
of  notes  and  comments,  are  arranged  in  twenty  books,  all 
of  which  are  preserved  except  the  eighth,  of  which  we 


GELLIUS  237 

have  only  the  table  of  contents,  and  the  end  of  the  twen- 
tieth. The  subjects  treated  are  language  and  literature, 
law,  philosophy,  and  natural  history.  Gellius  quotes  no 
contemporary  authors,  but  introduces  them  as  speakers, 
for  parts  of  his  work  have  the  form  of  dialogues.  There 
is  no  order  in  the  arrangement  of  subjects,  but  things 
are  put  down  as  Gellius  happened  to  find  them  in  the 
works  he  read.  No  critical  faculty  is  exhibited,  nor  has 
Gellius  any  marked  literary  skill.  He  is  simply  a  diligent 
compiler,  whose  work  is  interesting  and  valuable  to  us 
merely  because  it  preserves  fragments  of  earlier  works 
now  lost  and  information  about  a  variety  of  subjects. 

The  Latin  of  the  Golden  Age  was  a  more  or  less  artifi- 
cial language  developed  by  the  genius  of  the  great  writers 
from  the  common  language  of  every-day  life. 

Lathf 6S  ^       The  Latin  of  the  Silver  Age  was  a  devel°P- 
ment  from  the  literary  Latin  of  the  Golden 

Age,  not  directly  from  the  popular  speech.  While  liter- 
ary Latin  was  thus  passing  through  various  phases,  the 
popular  speech  was  also  developing  along  its  own  lines, 
and  by  the  second  century  after  Christ  was  very  different 
from  the  literary  Latin  of  the  time  as  well  as  from  any 
Latin,  whether  spoken  or  written,  of  the  Ciceronian  or 
earlier  times.  It  had  already  entered  upon  the  course  of 
change  which  was  in  the  end  to  lead  to  the  birth  of  the 
Romance  languages.  Pronto,  in  his  desire  to  infuse  new 
life  into  the  worn-out  literary  Latin  of  his  day,  went  back 
to  the  writers  before  Cicero  and  adopted  their  words  and 
phrases,  at  the  same  time  exerting  himself  to  arrange 
words  in  unusual  order  with  the  intention  of  giving 
piquancy  to  his  expression.  His  precepts  and  example 
were  followed  by  others,  as,  for  instance,  Gellius,  and  still 
more  clearly,  Marcus  Aurelius  and  Lucius  Verus  as  they 
appear  in  their  letters  to  their  teacher.  But  Fronto,  al- 
though he  had  great  influence  for  a  time,  could  not  turn 
the  stream  of  progress  backward.  If  literary  Latin  was  to 


238  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

develop  anything  new,  it  must  be  by  adopting  something 
from  the  living  speech  of  the  people.  This  course  was 
followed,  in  a  measure,  at  least,  by  Apuleius. 

Apuleius  (the  prcenomen  Lucius  is  doubtful)  was,  like 
Fronto,  an  African,  though  he  may  have  been  of  Koman 
descent.  He  was  born  probably  about  125 
A.  D.,  at  Madaura,  on  the  borders  of  Numidia 
and  Gsetulia.  He  was  educated  at  Madaura,  Carthage, 
and  Athens,  travelled  extensively,  and  was  for  a  time  in 
Eome,  where  he  was  employed  as  an  advocate.  He  mar- 
ried ^Emilia  Pudentilla,  a  wealthy  widow  of  Oea,  in  Africa, 
and  was  accused  by  her  relatives  of  having  led  her  into 
the  marriage  by  means  of  magic  arts.  His  defense  against 
this  charge  is  the  extant  book  De  Magia  (On  Magic) ,  also 
called  the  Apologia.  In  its  present  form  the  book  is  a 
revised  and  enlarged  edition  of  the  speech  in  court.  Apu- 
leius was  evidently  acquitted,  and  he  became  a  man  of 
great  influence  and  reputation.  He  prided  himself  on  his 
versatility,  wrote  and  spoke  both  Greek  and  Latin,  and 
confined  himself  to  no  one  branch  of  literature,  but  was 
orator,  poet,  scientist,  philosopher,  and  novelist,  without, 
however,  displaying  any  great  originality  in  any  direction. 
He  preferred  to  call  himself  a  Platonic  philosopher,  but 
his  chief  activity  was  that  of  a  travelling  orator,  or  sophist, 
who  went  from  place  to  place  giving  public  exhibitions  of 
his  skill  in  composing  and  delivering  interesting  speeches 
on  all  sorts  of  subjects.  He  seems  to  have  spent  most  of 
his  life  in  Africa,  and  he  held  the  office  of  priest  of  the 
province  (sacerdos  provincice)  at  Carthage.  He  was  initi- 
ated into  the  mysteries  of  Isis  and  seems  to  have  been 
one  of  those  who  sought  in  the  mystic  worship  of  foreign 
deities  the  satisfaction  of  their  religious  yearnings  which 
the  Roman  state  religion  did  not  give.  He  seems  to 
have  been  opposed  to  Christianity,  though  he  nowhere 
mentions  it  directly.  His  great  reputation  and  the 
number  of  works  ascribed  to  him  would  seem  to  indi- 


APULEIUS  239 

cate  that  he  lived  to  a  good  age,  but  the  date  of  his 
death  is  unknown. 

The  extant  works  of  Apuleius  are  the  Metamorphoses,  a 
novel  in  eleven  books,  the  Apologia,  a  book  on  spirits,  espe- 
cially the  familiar  spirit  of  Socrates,  De  Deo  So- 
Works  o  cratis,  two  books  on  the  doctrines  of  Plato, 
De  Dogmate  Platonis,  and  a  collection  of  ex- 
tracts from  his  speeches  entitled  Florida.  The  dialogue 
Asclepius,  the  treatise  On  the  World  (De  Mundo),  and  the 
treatise  published  as  the  third  book  on  Plato's  teachings, 
are  not  by  Apuleius.  Of  these  works  the  most  interesting 
is  the  novel  entitled  Metamorphoses,  in  which  are  narrated 
the  adventures  of  a  certain  Lucius  of  Corinth,  who  was 
changed  by  magic  into  an  ass,  and  in  that  form  passed 
through  many  vicissitudes  and  saw  and  heard  many 
strange  things,  until  he  was  finally  restored  to  human  form 
by  the  aid  of  the  goddess  Isis,  to  whose  service  he  afterwards 
devoted  himself.  This  story  is  derived  from  a  Greek 
original  which  appears  in  abbreviated  form  among  the 
writings  falsely  ascribed  to  Lucian,  under  the  title  Lucius 
or  The  Ass.  Apuleius  amplified  his  Greek  original  by  in- 
serting nearly  twenty  stories  that  have  no  connection 
with  the  plot.  These  are  usually  introduced  in  an  un- 
skillful way,  interrupting  the  narrative  and  destroying 
the  unity  of  the  work,  but  they  are  in  themselves  the 
most  interesting  parts  of  the  whole  novel.  The  longest 
and  most  famous  among  them  is  the  charming  story  of 
Cupid  and  Psyche,  beautifully  rendered  by  William  Morris 
in  his  Earthly  Paradise.  This  mystic  love  tale  was  derived, 
like  the  other  tales  inserted  in  the  story  of  Lucius,  from 
a  Greek  original.  It  is  not  an  invention  of  Apuleius,  but 
he  inserted  it  in  his  novel,  and  thus  preserved  it  to  later 
times. 

The  style  of  Apuleius  is  not  the  same  in  his  different 
works.  Everywhere,  to  be  sure,  he  aims  at  striking  effect 
by  means  of  unusual  words  arranged  in  peculiar  order, 


24:0  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

and  of  sentences  curiously  broken  up  into  short  rhyth- 
mical members,  very  different  in  effect  from  the  dignified, 
sonorous  periods  of  Cicero   and  other  clas- 

The  style  of      gical  wrjters.     But  in  the  Metamorphoses  he 
Apuleius.  . 

adopts  many  expressions  irom  the  common 

speech  of  the  people,  whereas  in  his  oratorical  and  philo- 
sophical works  he  reverts,  like  Fronto,  to  the  early 
writers.  Apuleius  and  Fronto,  both  Africans,  are  the 
chief  representatives  of  the  elocutio  novella,  the  new 
rhetoric,  which  broke  with  the  continuous  tradition  of 
classical  Latin  and  tried  to  infuse  new  life  into  Latin  lit- 
erature. Neither  Fronto  nor  Apuleius  was  a  man  of 
great  inventive  genius.  Both  imitated  the  Greek  sophists 
of  their  time,  such  as  Maximus  of  Tyre  and  ^lius  Aristi- 
des,  not  only  in  the  subject  matter  of  their  discourses,  but 
to  some  extent  in  their  style ;  yet  the  fact  that  they 
wrote  and  spoke  in  Latin  and  tried  to  influence  the  course 
of  Latin  literature  gives  them  an  importance  not  pos- 
sessed by  any  of  the  later  Greek  sophists  except  Dio 
Chrysostom  and  Lucian.  Apuleius  was  apparently  more 
gifted  by  nature  than  Fronto,  and  his  works  show  a  sur- 
prising ability  in  the  use  of  language,  which  makes  up  in 
a  measure  for  the  lack  of  originality  in  thought.  Of  his 
extant  works  the  Metamorphoses  is  the  most  important. 
It  not  only  shows  the  qualities  of  the  elocutio  novella 
more  completely  than  any  other  work,  but  it  gives  a 
picture  of  the  life  of  the  times,  with  its  superstitions, 
loose  morals,  robberies,  friendships,  hospitalities,  and 
social  amenities.  Moreover,  it  has  preserved  to  us  many 
€  interesting  tales,  among  them  the  story  of  Cupid  and 
Psyche.  Owing  probably  to  the  supernatural  elements 
in  the  Metamorphoses  and  to  the  fact  that  he  had 
been  accused  of  magical  arts,  Apuleius  came  soon  after 
his  death  to  be  regarded  as  a  mighty  sorcerer,  and  as 
a  sorcerer  he  was  associated  with  Virgil  in  mediaeval 
times. 


PERVIGILIUM  VENBRIS  241 

While  Fronto,  Apuleius,  and  others  were  practising  the 
elocutio  novella  in  prose,  attempts  were  made  to  introduce 
innovations  in  poetry.     Terentianus  Maurus, 

who  wrote  in  verse  a  handbook  on  letters, 
syllables,  and  metres  toward  the  end  of  the 
second  century,  mentions  poetm  novelli,  and  Diomedes,  a 
grammarian  of  the  latter  part  of  the  fourth  century, 
speaks  of  poetce  neoterici,  to  whom  he  ascribes  a  variety  of 
innovations.  The  names  of  several  of  these  poets  are 
mentioned,  but  too  little  is  known  of  them  to  awaken  any 
interest  in  their  personalities.  Their  innovations  seem  to 
have  consisted  largely  of  verbal  juggling,  a  remarkable 
example  of  which  is  seen  in  these  lines : 

Nereides  freta  sic  verrentes  caerula  tranant, 
Flamine  confidens  ut  Notus  Icarium. 

Icarium  Notus  ut  confidens  fiamine,  tranant 
Caerula  verrentes  sic  freta  Nereides. 

Here  lines  three  and  four  are  lines  one  and  two  read 
backward.  Other  examples  are  less  elaborate,  but  show 
the  same  spirit,  the  same  foolish  playing  with  words. 
From  such  things  as  this  no  njew  life  could  be  infused 
into  poetry,  and  most  of  thtfverses  preserved  to  us  from 
the  second  and  even  the  thim-centuries  after  Christ  are 
little  more  than  feeble  echoes  of  tiie-  distant  music  of 
Virgil.  Nevertheless  there  are  already  indications  of 
the  new  mediaeval  spirit,  which  was  not  to  find  its  full 
development  until  the  days  of  the  minnesinger  and 
the  troubadours.  Whether  the  Pervigilium  Veneris 
The  (Night-watch  of  Venus)  belongs  to  the  second 

Pervigilium  century  or  the  third  is  not  certain.  At  any 
Veneris.  ra^e  ft  jg  ^he  most  striking  early  example  of 

the  romantic  sentiment  peculiar  to  mediaeval  and  modern 
times.  The  poem  is  written  for  the  spring  festival  of 
Yenus  Genetrix,  whose  worship  was  revived  and  encour- 
aged by  Hadrian,  It  is  therefore  probable  that  it  belongs 


242  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

to  the  second  century.  It  consists  of  ninety-three  tro- 
chaic septenarii  (the  rhythm  of  Tennyson's  Locksley 
Hall),  a  verse  freely  used  by  the  early  Latin  poets,  hut 
hardly  to  be  found  in  the  first  century  after  Christ.  At 
irregular  intervals  the  refrain  : 

Cras  amet  qui  nunquam  amavit,  quique  amavit  eras 
amet? 

is  repeated.     In  the  beginning  of  the  poem, 

Ver  novum;  ver  iam  canorum;  vere  natus  est  lovis; 
Vere  concordant  amores;  vere  nubunt  allies? 

may  well  have  suggested  to  Tennyson  the  lines : 

In  the  Spring  a  fuller  crimson  comes  upon  the  robin's  breast ; 
In  the  Spring  the  wanton  lapwing  gets  himself  another  crest ; 
In  the  Spring  a  livelier  iris  changes  on  the  burnish'd  dove ; 
In  the  Spring  a  young  man's  fancy  lightly  turns  to  thoughts 
of  love. 

At  the  end  of  the  poem  the  lines : 

Ilia  cantat,  nos  tacemus.     Quando  ver  venit  meum  9 
Quandofiam  ut  chelidon  et  tacere  desinam? 
Perdidi  Musam  tacendo  nee  me  Apollo  respicitf 

sound  like  the  wail  of  the  old  literature,  which  no  spring 
was  to  awaken  to  new  song.  Indeed,  the  Pervigilium 
Veneris  is  almost  as  much  mediaeval  as  classical.  Its 
quantitative  rhythm  coincides  with  the  natural  accent  of 

1  To-morrow  he  shall  love  who  ne'er  has  loved,  and  he  who  has 

loved  to-morrow  shall  love. 
8  It  is  new   spring ;  spring   already  harmonious ;  in   spring  Jove 

was  born. 

In  the  spring  loves  join  together ;  in  the  spring  the  birds  wed. 
3  She  (the  swallow)  is  singing,  we  are  silent.     When  will  my  spring 

come? 

When  shall  I  become  like  the  swallow  and  cease  to  be  silent  I 
I  have  lost  the  Muse  by  keeping  silent,  and  Apollo  cares  not 
for  me, 


PERVIGILIUM  VENERIS  243 

the  words,  it  is  full  of  assonances  that  suggest  both  allit- 
eration and  rhyme,  its  spirit  is  almost  modern  in  its  senti- 
ment ;  and  even  in  its  grammatical  structure,  especially 
in  the  use  of  the  preposition  de>  it  points  forward  to  the 
great  changes  to  come. 

In  prose  and  verse  alike,  the  second  century  after 
Christ  was  a  period  of  innovations.  The  new  methods  of 
Fronto  and  Apuleius  did  not  hold  their  own  for  any 
great  length  of  time,  but  they  serve  as  symptoms  of  the 
decay  of  Latin  speech,  and  may  even  have  hastened  that 
decay  by  turning  men  away  from  the  continued  imitation 
of  the  classic  writers.  The  history  of  classical  Eoman 
literature  may  be  said  to  end  with  Suetonius.  But  some- 
thing of  the  old  spirit  survived  even  into  the  period  of 
the  Middle  Ages  and  affected  strongly  the  literature  of 
the  Christian  church.  For  this  reason  it  is  well  to  give  a 
brief  sketch  of  early  Christian  literature  in  Latin,  and  of 
the  surviving  remnants  of  pagan  literary  activity  in  the 
third  and  fourth  centuries. 


CHAPTER    XVIII 

EARLY  CHRISTIAN  .WRITERS 

Minucius  Felix,  about  160  A.  D. — Tertullian,  about  160  to  about 
230  A.  D.— St.  Cyprian,  about  200-258  A.  D.— Commodianus  249  A.  D.— 
Arnobius,  about  290  A.  D. — Lactantius,  about  300  A.  D. 

THE  Christians  are  mentioned  by  Tacitus,  the  younger 
Pliny,  and  Suetonius,  but  in  such  a  way  as  to  show  that 
The  begin-  their  religion  was  misunderstood  and  their 
ning  of  Chris-  growing  importance  little  appreciated.  But 

tian  litera-       as  time  went  on,  Christianity  and  the  Chris- 
ture  in  Latin,    i  •  i  n 

tians    became    more    and    more    important. 

Various  means  were  tried  to  suppress  them,  for  their 
belief  and  their  practises  were  opposed  to  the  state 
religion  and  seemed  inimical  to  the  state  itself.  Yet  the 
new  religion  continued  to  gain  in  the  number  and  influ- 
ence of  its  converts,  and  in  the  second  century  Christian 
writings  begin  to  appear  in  Latin.  The  new  religion  had 
been  founded  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  empire,  and  its 
first  literary  productions  were  in  Greek,  a  language  which 
continued  for  many  years  to  be  the  chief  medium  of 
expression  for  Christian  thought.  No  sketch  of  the 
development  of  Christianity,  even  in  the  western  part  of 
the  empire,  could  be  given  without  more  than  a  mere 
mention  of  the  early  Greek  Christian  writings ;  but  the 
development  of  Christianity  is  a  subject  quite  outside  of 
the  scope  of  this  book,  which  is  concerned  with  Christian 
literature  only  in  so  far  as  it  was  written  in  Latin.  Nor 
is  it  possible  in  a  book  of  this  kind  to  do  more  than  men- 
tion briefly  the  chief  Christian  writers  and  their  works, 
244 


MINUCIUS  FELIX  245 

leaving  all  discussion  of  their  doctrines  to  the  historians 
of  the  church. 

The  first  Christian  writer  of  Latin  is  Marcus  Minucius 
Felix,  of  whose  life  nothing  is  known  except  that  he  was 

a  barrister  (causidicus)  at  Rome,  that  he  was 
Minucius  ,  -i  -I  •  P  -ijTii  i 

Felix  a  pagan  in  early  liie,  and  that  ne  became  a 

Christian.  His  only  extant  work  is  a  defense 
of  Christianity  entitled  Octavius,  which  was  written 
probably  not  far  from  160  A.  D.  The  introduction  tells 
how  Minucius,  with  his  two  friends  Octavius  and 
Caecilius,  was  walking  by  the  seashore  at  Ostia.  Caecilius 
saluted  a  statue  of  Serapis  which  they  happened  to  pass, 
whereupon  Octavius  rebuked  Minucius  for  letting  his 
friend  remain  in  ignorance  of  the  true  religion.  They 
continue  their  walk,  but  Csecilius  can  not  let  the  rebuke 
of  Octavius  pass.  At  last  the  three  friends  sit  down, 
Caecilius  undertakes  the  defense  of  the  old  religion, 
Octavius  that  of  the  new,  and  Minucius  is  to  be  judge  of 
their  arguments.  Caecilius  argues  that  it  is  absurd  for 
persons  of  little  education,  such  as  are  most  Christians, 
to  think  that  they  can  settle  questions  which  have 
puzzled  the  wisest  philosophers.  The  Eoman  religion 
should  therefore  be  retained,  especially  as  the  power  of 
the  gods  has  often  been  shown.  An  attack  upon  the 
lives  and  ceremonies  of  the  Christians  follows,  which  is 
interesting  as  a  proof  of  the  ignorance  that  prevailed  in 
pagan  circles.  Caecilius  then  attacks  the  Christian  belief 
in  a  future  life,  and  ends  with  a  recommendation  of 
skepticism.  His  speech  is  vigorous  and  even  vehement, 
showing  marked  rhetorical  training.  Octavius  in  his 
reply  takes  up  the  various  points  raised  by  Caecilius  and 
replies  to  them  in  order.  He  lays  the  chief  stress  upon 
the  unity  of  God  and  the  absurdities  of  pagan  polytheism 
and  philosophy.  There  is  no  argument  based  upon  the 
crucifixion  or  the  resurrection  of  Christ,  no  argument 
that  is  strictly  Christian.  There  is  no  appeal  to  faith  or 


24:6  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

to  love,  but  only  to  reason,  and  the  arguments  are  not 
drawn  from  the  Bible,  but  from  the  works  of  pagan 
philosophers,  especially  Cicero's  De  Natura  Deorum  and 
Seneca's  writings,  or  from  the  experiences  of  human  life. 
When  Octavius  has  finished,  Caecilius  declares  that  he  is 
convinced  and  the  friends  separate. 

The  Octavius  is  different  from  other  early  writings  in 
defense  of  Christianity,  inasmuch  as  it  bases  no  argument 
upon  the  Bible  and  makes  no  appeal  to  the  emotions. 
These  peculiarities  are  most  easily  explained  by  the  theory 
that  Minucius  wrote  his  treatise  as  a  reply  to  a  speech  of 
Fronto  against  Christianity,  that  he  put  the  substance  of 
Fronto's  speech  into  the  mouth  of  Caecilius,  and  then,  in 
the  person  of  Octavius,  refuted  it  point  for  point.  In 
style  Minucius  attains  at  times  an  almost  classic  elegance 
and  simplicity,  though  he  shows  the  influence  of  the  rhe- 
torical schools  of  the  Silver  Age  and  is  sometimes  need- 
lessly emphatic.  He  continues  the  tradition  of  the  clas- 
sical school,  with  no  trace  of  the  affectations  or  innovations 
of  Fronto  or  Apuleius.  Apart  from  its  interest  as  the  ear- 
liest specimen  of  Christian  writing  in  Latin,  the  Octavius 
deserves  to  be  read  as  the  most  attractive  Latin  prose 
after  the  time  of  Trajan. 

Minucius  Felix  is  known  to  us  by  only  one  short  work, 
in  which  he  displays  conservative  literary  taste,  cultivated 
imagination,  and  ability  to  conduct  an  argument  calmly 
and  dispassionately.  Tertullian,  a  much  more  important 
figure  than  Minucius  in  the  history  of  the  church,  is 
Tertullian  known  by  a  great  body  of  writings,  in  which 
the  qualities  he  shows  are  almost  the  opposite 
of  those  we  admire  in  Minucius.  Yet  Tertullian  is  an 
interesting  and  powerful  figure  in  the  history  of  literature 
as  well  as  in  that  of  the  church.  Quintus  Septimius 
Florens  Tertullianus  was  born  at  Carthage,  probably  about 
160  A.  D.,  and  may  have  died  about  230  A.  D.  At  any  rate, 
the  period  of  his  chief  activity  was  in  the  reigns  of  Septim- 


TEKTULLIAN  247 

ius  Severus  and  Caracalla.  In  early  life  he  was  a  pagan, 
but  was  converted  to  Christianity,  possibly  through  his 
wife,  who  was  a  Christian.  He  attained  the  position  of 
presbyter  in  the  church.  In  middle  life  he  became  a 
Montanist— that  is,  a  follower  of  Montanus,  an  enthusiast 
of  Ardaba,  in  Mysia,  who  declared  himself  the  Comforter 
promised  by  Christ,  claimed  prophetic  powers,  declared 
that  the  end  of  the  world  was  at  hand,  and  promulgated 
a  variety  of  strict  doctrines  and  rules  for  conduct.  The 
writings  of  Tertullian  are  from  beginning  to  end  contro- 
versial. Some  of  them  are  in  defense  of  Christianity 
against  the  heathen,  while  others  are  directed  against 
those  Christian  beliefs  and  practises  which  he  does  not 
approve.  To  the  second  class  belong  the  writings  in  sup- 
port of  Montanism,  for  Tertullian  was  of  such  a  passionate 
nature  that  an  argument  in  support  of  any  doctrine  neces- 
sarily becomes  an  attack  upon  those  who  hold  any  other 
views.  As  the  chief  advocate  of  Montanism  in  the  west, 
Tertullian  softened  some  of  its  more  obviously  absurd 
doctrines,  but  could  not  modify  them  so  far  as  to  make 
them  acceptable  to  the  church  at  large.  He  was  there- 
fore in  constant  opposition  to  the  church  during  the 
latter  part  of  his  life,  and  at  a  later  time  his  writings 
came  to  be  regarded  as  heretical.  Nevertheless,  his  works 
were  much  read,  and  his  Apologeticus  was  even  translated 
into  Greek. 

Tertullian  exercised  the  greatest  influence  upon  the 
Latin  of  the  church,  for  up  to  his  time  most  speculative 
Christian  writing  had  been  in  Greek,  and  he  was  therefore 
obliged  to  invent  or  adapt  the  suitable  means  for  the  ex- 
pression of  those  thoughts  and  ideas  which  were  unknown 

to  the  pagan  writers.     He  is  justly  regarded 
Tertullian.       as   ^e   f°un(ler   °f   western,  as   opposed  to 

eastern    or    Greek,  theology.      His   style  is 
harsh,  inelegant,  and  sometimes  obscure,  but  vigorous  and 
animated.     His  eloquence  is  that  of  intense  earnestness 
17 


248  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

rather  than  of  careful  training.  His  vocabulary  is  not 
strictly  classic,  but  contains  expressions  taken  from  the 
popular  speech  and  from  Greek,  as  well  as  others  which 
he  seems  to  have  formed  for  himself.  He  has  been  called 
the  Cicero  of  the  church,  but  whatever  the  greatness  of 
his  eloquence,  it  has  little  resemblance  in  quality  to  that 
of  Cicero.  Only  in  a  few  orations  does  Cicero  approach 
the  enthusiastic  earnestness  of  Tertullian,  and  the  pol- 
ished beauty  of  Cicero's  periods  is  utterly  lacking  to  Ter- 
tullian's  rugged  utterance.  His  style  has  more  resem- 
blance in  detail  to  that  of  his  fellow- African  Apuleius,  but 
shows  no  evidence  of  conscious  imitation.  He  uses  short 
sentences,  as  a  rule,  and  even  his  long  sentences  have  no 
periodic  structure ;  he  strives  for  effect  by  means  of  un- 
natural expressions;  he  delights  in  antitheses,  plays  on 
words,  and  even  rhymes.  His  Latin  is  hard  to  read,  but 
his  originality  of  thought  and  his  passionate  earnestness 
of  purpose  compensate  fully  for  his  defects  of  style.  With 
Minucius  Felix  Christian  writing  in  Italy  appears  as  an 
attempt  to  express  Christian  thoughts,  or  at  least  to  de- 
fend the  Christian  religion,  with  all  the  elegance  of 
classical  Latinity.  Tertullian  writes  with  vigor  and  en- 
thusiasm, hampered  by  no  classical  traditions.  The  rela- 
tive importance  of  the  Italian  and  African  schools  may  be 
judged  in  a  measure  by  the  difference  in  extent  between 
the  brief  treatise  of  Minucius  and  Tertullian 's  voluminous 
writings.  For  nearly  two  centuries  the  style  of  Tertullian 
predominates,  being  only  gradually  assimilated  to  the 
classical  norm,  until  St.  Augustine  fixes  the  Latin  of  the 
church  by  forming  a  style  in  which  the  African  elements 
are  subordinate. 

The  beginning  of  this  change  is  seen  even  in  the  wri- 
tings of  Tertullian's  admirer,  St.  Cyprian.  Thascius  Cae- 
cilius  Cyprianus  was  born  of  pagan  parents  about  200  A.  D. 
The  place  of  his  birth  is  unknown,  but  we  are  informed 
that  he  was  an  African.  He  received  a  good  education 


CYPRIAN 

and  became  a  teacher  of  rhetoric.  After  his  conversion 
he  became  a  presbyter,  and  in  248  or  249  A.  D.  was  chosen 
c  .  bishop  of  Carthage,  not  without  opposition. 

From  January  21,  250  A.  D.,  until  the  begin- 
ning of  March  in  the  following  year,  he  lived  in  conceal- 
ment to  escape  the  persecution  of  the  Christians  under 
Decius.  His  avoidance  of  martyrdom  at  this  time  was  se- 
verely criticized,  but  he  defended  it  on  the  ground  that 
his  life  was  necessary  to  the  welfare  of  the  church.  In 
257  A.  D.  a  new  persecution  was  instituted  by  the  Emperor 
Valerian,  and  Cyprian  was  banished  to  Curubis,  but  after- 
wards recalled  to  Carthage  and  confined  to  his  gardens. 
When  ordered  to  appear  before  the  proconsul  at  Utica  he 
fled,  but  returned  to  his  gardens  when  the  proconsul  came 
to  Carthage.  He  was  arrested  September  13, 258  A.  D.,  and 
on  the  following  day  was  tried,  condemned,  and  executed. 
Cyprian's  writings  comprise  thirteen  treatises  and  eighty- 
one  letters,  among  which  are  several  letters  manifestly  by 
other  authors.  Some  of  the  treatises  or  tracts  are  ad- 
dressed to  individuals,  and  some  of  the  letters  are  to  all 
intents  and  purposes  tracts,  so  that  the  division  into  two 
classes  is  not  easy  to  carry  out  consistently.  His  writings 
are  partly  in  defense  of  Christianity  against  paganism, 
partly  for  the  encouragement  of  the  Christians  in  perse- 
cution, and  partly  on  various  points  of  church  discipline. 
His  letters  are  especially  valuable  for  the  light  they  throw 
upon  church  history.  His  doctrines  are  orthodox,  and  his 
writings  were  therefore  not  open  to  the  objections  urged 
against  those  of  Tertullian.  He  was,  however,  an  ardent 
admirer  of  Tertullian,  and  shows  the  constant  influence 
of  his  teachings.  His  style  is  easier  and  simpler  than 
Tertullian's,  always  clear,  and  often  attractive.  Although 
he  lacks  Tertullian's  originality,  he  excels  him  in  ability 
to  express  his  thoughts  so  as  to  appeal  to  the  reader. 

The  earliest  Christian  poet  is  Commodianus.      Of  his 
life  little  is  known,  and  the  statement  that  he  was  born 


250  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

at  Gaza,  in  Syria,  is  based  upon  a  somewhat  doubtful 
interpretation  of  the  title  of  one  of  his  poems.1  In 

early  life  he  was  a  pagan,  but  was  converted, 
Commodi-  an(j  Became  a  bishop.  His  works  consist  of 

a  long  poem  in  defense  of  Christianity  ( Car- 
men Apologeticum)  and  a  collection  of  eighty  short 
poems  called  Instructions  (Instructions  per  Litter  as  Ver- 
suum  Primas)  so  composed  that  the  initial  letters  of  the 
lines  spell  the  titles  of  the  poems.  The  Carmen  Apologet- 
icum, contains  references  which  fix  its  date  in  249  A.  D. 
The  poems  are  remarkable  for  the  earnestness  of  their 
Christian  feeling  and  still  more  for  their  metrical  peculi- 
arities. The  hexameters  are  divided  into  halves,  and  at 
the  end  of  each  half  the  rules  for  quantity  are  observed, 
while  in  the  rest  of  the  verse  those  rules  are  disregarded. 
The  lines  are  not  merely  faulty  hexameters,  but  a  new  and 
original  combination  of  quantitative  verse  and  prose.  In 
the  Carmen  Apologeticum  the  lines  are  arranged  in  pairs, 
so  that  each  pair  forms  a  distich.  The  most  remarkable 
part  of  the  Carmen  Apologeticum  is  the  fantastic  descrip- 
tion of  the  end  of  the  world  with  which  the  poem  closes. 
The  Instructions  are  divided  into  two  books,  the  first 
warning  the  heathen  and  the  Jews  to  lay  aside  their 
errors,  the  second  containing  advice  for  the  various  classes 
of  Christians.  In  spite  of  the  dryness  of  his  style  Com- 
modianus  is  interesting  as  the  earliest  Christian  poet,  and 
the  student  of  language  finds  in  his  poems  many  words  and 
constructions  taken  from  the  common  speech  of  the  people. 
Much  less  interest  attaches  to  the  seven  books  Adver- 
sus  Nationes  (Against  the  Gentiles)  by  Arnobius,  who 
wrote  under  Diocletian  (284-305  A.  D.).  Jerome  says 
that  Arnobius  was  a  distinguished  rhetor  at  Sicca  in 

*The  poem  is  the  last  of  the  Instructions.  The  title  reads: 
Nomen  Gasei  and  the  initial  letters  of  the  lines  read  from  the  last 
to  the  first  from  the  words  :  Commodianus  mendicus  CJiristi.  From 
this  it  is  inferred  that  Commodian  was  Gasceus,  i.  e.,  from  Gaza. 


COMMODIANUS  251 

Africa,  who  opposed  Christianity  for  a  long  time.  When 
he  became  converted  the  bishop  demanded  a  proof  of  his 

faith,  whereupon  he  wrote  a  work  against  the 
Arnobius.  ,       . ,  ,  •-,•,,,-, 

heathen  and  was  received  into  the  church. 

Whether  this  report  is  accurate  or  not,  a  work  is  extant 
under  the  name  of  Arnobius,  entitled  Adversus  Nationes, 
which  shows  by  its  style  that  the  author  had  been  trained 
in  the  practise  of  rhetoric.  The  first  two  books  defend  the 
Christians  against  the  accusations  of  their  enemies,  especial- 
ly the  charge  that  the  misfortunes  of  the  world  were  due 
to  the  progress  of  Christianity  and  the  neglect  of  the  old 
gods.  The  five  remaining  books  proceed  to  show  the  ab- 
surdities of  polytheism  and  the  foolishness  of  the  pagan 
forms  of  worship.  Arnobius  has  little  knowledge  of  the 
Christian  religion  and  little  originality  of  thought.  The 
only  doctrine  peculiar  to  him  is  his  theory  that  the  soul  is 
not  immortal  by  nature,  but  may  become  immortal  through 
the  grace  of  God.  His  style  is  disfigured  by  its  excessive 
vehemence  and  artificial  rhetoric,  which  shows,  however, 
that  the  author  was  carefully  educated.  This  appears  also 
in  his  discussion  of  pagan  philosophy  and  religion,  and  in- 
deed the  chief  interest  attaching  to  the  books  Adversus  Na- 
tiones is  their  testimony  to  the  manner  in  which  an  educated 
pagan  employed  his  education  in  the  service  of  Christianity. 
Lactantius  (Lucius  Caecilius  Firmianus  Lactantius) 
was  a  pupil  of  Arnobius,  according  to  Jerome's  statement, 

and  was  called  by  Diocletian  with  the  gram- 
Laotantius.  .  .  ,     T      .  . 

marian  Flavius  to   teach  Latin  rhetoric  at 

Nicomedia,  in  Bithynia,  a  Greek  city  in  which  teachers  of 
Latin  found  few  patrons.  Lactantius  was  therefore  poor 
and  had  leisure  for  writing.  When  he  was  converted  to 
Christianity  is  not  known,  but  it  can  not  have  been  before 
he  reached  middle  life.  In  his  old  age  he  was  called  by 
the  Emperor  Constantine  to  be  the  tutor  of  his  son  Cris- 
pus.  Nothing  remains  of  writings  by  Lactantius  before 
his  conversion,  but  his  later  works,  both  prose  and  verse, 


252  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

are  numerous.  The  most  important  are  the  seven  books 
entitled  Institutiones  Divince  (Divine  Institutions,  an 
exhaustive  philosophical  work  in  support  of  Christianity 
against  paganism),  after  which  should  be  mentioned  the 
treatises  De  Opificio  Dei  (On  the  Work  of  God,  a  discus- 
sion of  creation  and  the  nature  of  man),  De  Ira  Dei  (On 
the  Wrath  of  God,  dealing  with  the  current  theories  of 
Providence),  a  fanatical  work  on  the  deaths  of  the  persecu- 
tors from  Nero  to  Galerius  (De  Mortibus  Persecutorum),  and 
a  curious  poem  On  the  Phoenix.  The  treatise  De  Opificio 
Dei  is  Christian  only  in  its  general  tendency,  and  con- 
tains no  direct  reference  to  Christianity.  This  is  prob- 
ably because  it  was  written  at  the  time  of  the  persecution 
under  Diocletian  (303  A.  D.).  The  poem  On  the  Phoenix 
(that  fabulous  bird  that  builds  a  nest,  burns  itself  up,  re- 
appears among  the  ashes  as  a  worm,  grows  to  an  egg,  is 
hatched,  and  flies  away  to  renewed  life)  shows  many 
traces  of  Christianity  but  contains  no  direct  reference  to 
the  new  religion.  Lactantius  was  well  educated  in  the 
learning  of  the  pagans,  and  when  he  became  a  Christian 
did  not  forget  what  he  had  learned  before.  His  style  is 
purer  than  that  of  his  Christian  predecessors,  being 
modelled  upon  that  of  Cicero.  For  this  reason  the  name 
"  Christian  Cicero  "  has  been  applied  more  appropriately 
to  him  than  to  Tertullian,  though  in  power  of  eloquence 
Tertullian,  with  all  his  harshness  of  style,  is  the  greater. 

The  second  century,  which  saw  the  birth  of  Christian 
literature  in  Latin,  produced,  as  we  have  seen,  several 
writers  of  real  power,  and  as  the  third  century  opened, 
Christian  literature  gained,  in  the  person  of  Lactantius,  a 
writer  who  possessed  at  the  same  time  elegance  of  style. 
With  Lactantius  the  African  school  of  Christian  writing 
approaches  the  classical  style  of  Minucius  Felix,  and  the 
path  is  made  straight  for  the  writings  of  St.  Jerome  and  St. 
Augustine.  From  this  time  on,  the  real  life  of  Latin  litera- 
ture is  seen  in  Christian  rather  than  in  pagan  writings. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

PAGAN  tLITEBATURE  OF  THE  THIRD  CENTURY 

Terentianus,  about  200  A.  D. — Quintus  Serenus  Sammonicus,  about 
200  A.  D. — Nemesianus,  283  A.  D — Reposianus,  toward  300  A.  D. — Vespa, 
late  in  the  third  century — Hosidius  Geta,  early  in  the  third  century — 
Disticha  Catonis — Marius  Maximus,  about  165-230  A.  D. — jElius  Julius 
Cordus.  about  250  A.  D. — The  Historia  Augusta — Domitius  Ulpianus, 
killed  228  A.  D. — Julius  Paulus,  first  half  of  third  century — Cornelius 
Labeo — Quintus  Gargilius  Martialis — Censorinus,  238  A.  D. — Gaius 
Julius  Solinus — Gaius  Julius  Romanus,  early  third  century — Marius 
Plotius  Sacerdos,  latter  part  of  third  century — Aquila  Romanus — 
^Elius  Festus  Aphthonius,  end  of  third  century — The  panegyrists: 
Eumenius,  Nazarius,  Mamertinus,  Drepanius. 

WHILE  Christian  literature  was  developing  in  the 
third  century  the  pagan  literature  dragged  on  its  senile 
Pagan  poetry  existence.  There  was  little  poetry  that  de- 
of  the  third  served  the  name,  though  skill  in  versification 
century.  wag  no£  uncOmmon.  Terentianus  wrote  in 

verse  his  handbook  of  metres  about  the  beginning  of 
the  century,  and  not  far  from  the  same  time  Quintus 
Serenus  Sammonicus  composed  a  medical  handbook  con- 
taining sixty-three  recipes  in  1,107  hexameters.  He  does 
not  pretend  to  be  a  physician,  but  derives  his  wisdom, 
such  as  it  is,  from  Pliny  and  other  writers.  The  recipes 
are  of  various  kinds,  some  recommending  the  use  of 
herbs  in  a  simple  and  sensible  way,  while  others  pre- 
scribe more  or  less  disgusting  compounds  of  animal  mat- 
ter, and  a  few  are  nothing  more  nor  less  than  magic 
charms.  So  fevers  are  to  be  cured  by  wearing  tied  to 
one's  neck  a  bone  found  within  the  enclosure  of  a  house, 

253 


254  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

and  a  cure  for  another  fever  is  found  in  a  piece  of  paper 
inscribed  in  the  proper  manner  with  the  magic  formula 
abracadabra,  which  is  to  be  worn  round  the  neck  of  the 
patient.  To  the  credit  of  Sammonicus  it  should  be  said 
that  his  knowledge  of  metre  is  greater  than  his  knowl- 
edge of  medicine ;  but  even  that  does  not  raise  his  hand- 
book to  the  level  of  poetry.  A  writer  of  much  better 
quality,  who  even  deserves  to  be  called  a  poet,  is  Marcus 
Aurelius  Olympius  Nemesianus,  who  wrote,  in  the  year 
283  A.  D.,  a  poem  On  Hunting  ( Cynegetica},  325  lines  of 
which  are  preserved,  and  who  is  also  the  author  of  four 
eclogues  formerly  attributed  to  Calpurnius  (see  page  188). 
The  discussion  of  dogs,  horses,  hunting-nets,  and  the  like 
in  the  Cynegetica  can  hardly  be  called  poetry,  but  the 
eclogues,  though  written  in  close  imitation  of  Calpurnius, 
who  was  himself  an  imitator  of  Virgil,  show  some  genu- 
ine poetic  spirit.  There  is  also  some  poetic  beauty  in  the 
poem  on  the  love  of  Mars  and  Venus,  by  Reposianus,  writ- 
ten toward  the  end  of  the  third  century,  but  not  so  much 
can  be  said  in  praise  of  Vespa's  metrical  argument  between 
a  baker  and  a  cook  (Indicium  Cod  et  Pistoris  ludice 
Vulcano)  as  to  the  relative  merits  of  their  callings,  or  of 
the  epigrams  and  "echo  verses"  of  Pentadius.  These 
last  consist  of  elegiac  distichs  so  written  that  the  first 
words  of  the  hexameter  are  repeated  or  "  echoed  "  at  the 
end  of  the  pentameter.  Such  verse  has  little  relation  to 
poetry,  but  shows  that  there  was  still  an  interest  felt  in  the 
technique  of  metrical  writing.  That  the  study  of  the  classic 
writers,  especially  of  Virgil,  was  diligently  cultivated,  is 
shown  by  the  existence  of  poems  composed  entirely  of  Vir- 
gilian  lines  and  fragments  of  lines.  A  remarkable  extant 
specimen  of  such  work  is  the  short  tragedy  Medea,  prob- 
ably written  by  Hosidius  Geta,  near  the  beginning  of  the 
third  century.  Several  anonymous  poems  add  little  to 
our  admiration  for  the  poets  of  the  third  century,  but  the 
so-called  Disticha  Catonis  should  be  mentioned  because 


PAGAN  PROSE  IN  THE  THIRD  CENTURY        255 

they  gained  great  and  long-continued  popularity.  They 
are  maxims  of  every-day  wisdom  expressed  in  distichs  of 
two  hexameters.  Such  maxims  are  :  "  Regard  it  as  the 
first  virtue  to  hold  your  tongue ;  he  is  nearest  God  who 
knows  how  to  keep  a  wise  silence  " ;  or,  "  Be  sure  to  tell 
many  of  another's  kindness,  but  keep  silence  about  the 
kindnesses  you  have  done  to  others."  These  distichs 
were  soon  imitated,  and  similar  maxims  in  one  line — mono- 
stichs — were  also  written.  They  are  hardly  poetry,  but 
have  some  interest  because  of  their  popular  nature. 

The  prose  of  the  third  century  possesses  even  less  in- 
terest than  the  verse.  The  only  historians  worthy  of  the 
Pagan  prose  name — Dio  Cassius  and  Herodian — wrote  in 
in  the  third  Greek.  Marius  Maximus  (about  165-230 
century.  A>  D.)  continued  Suetonius's  lives  of  the 

emperors  from  Nerva  to  Heliogabalus,  and  about  the 
middle  of  the  century  ^Elius  Julius  Cordus  wrote  lives  of 
the  more  obscure  emperors.  These  works  are  lost,  but, 
like  those  of  several  other  writers  of  this  period,  were 
used  by  the  authors  of  the  so-called  Historia  Augusta,  a 
collection  of  lives  of  the  emperors  from  Hadrian  to  Nu- 
merianus  (117-284  A.  D.).  These  lives  were  written  by  six 
authors,  four  of  whom,  ^Elius  Spartianus,  Julius  Capi- 
tolinus,  Vulcacius  Gallicanus,  and  Trebellius  Pollio,  wrote 
under  Diocletian  (284-305  A.  D.),  while  the  remaining  two, 
^Elius  Lampridius  and  Flavius  Vopiscus,  belong  to  the 
early  part  of  the  fourth  century.  They  are  all  alike  in 
the  poverty  of  their  style  and  their  liking  for  petty  per- 
sonal details.  The  books  on  the  Praetorian  Edict  by 
Domitius  Ulpianus,  who  was  killed  in  228  A.  D.,  and  by 
his  younger  contemporary,  Julius  Paulus,  as  well  as  other 
juristic  works  of  the  third  century,  were  important  con- 
tributions to  the  development  of  Roman  law,  and  the  at- 
tempt made  by  Cornelius  Labeo  in  his  lost  work  on  the 
Roman  religion  to  explain  the  pagan  cult  would  probably, 
if  it  were  preserved,  be  interesting  as  an  attempt  to  de- 


256  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

fend  the  old  religion  against  skepticism  and  Christianity. 
The  extant  parts  of  the  work  of  Quintus  Gargilius  Mar- 
tialis  on  agriculture,  veterinary  medicine,  the  use  of  heal- 
ing herbs,  and  the  like,  show  that  the  whole  was  a  com- 
pilation from  the  works  of  Pliny  the  elder  and  other 
writers  by  a  man  who  had  sense  and  judgment;  the 
treatise  On  Birthdays  (De  Die  Natali),  written  in  a  lively 
and  easy  style  by  a  grammarian  Censorinus  in  238  A.  D.,  is 
a  compilation  from  Suetonius,  Varro,  and  others,  of  in- 
formation concerning  the  birth  and  life  of  a  man,  astrol- 
ogy, music,  and  some  other  matters  ;  and  the  Collection  of 
Things  Worth  Remembering  (Collectanea  Rerum  Memora- 
Mlium),  by  Gaius  Julius  Solinus,  contains  valuable  infor- 
mation about  early  Eoman  history  (to  Augustus)  and  the 
geography  of  the  ancient  world,  with  especial  attention  to 
oddities  and  peculiarities,  whether  of  the  countries  or  their 
inhabitants ;  but  none  of  these  works  is  of  independent 
literary  importance.  The  grammatical  writings  of  Gaius 
Julius  Romanus,  who  lived  in  the  first  years  of  the  third 
century,  were  much  used  by  Charisius  somewhat  more 
than  a  century  later.  A  grammar  (Ars  Grammatica)  in 
three  books  by  Marius  Plotius  Sacerdos,  written  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  century,  is  extant,  as  is  also  a  brief 
rhetorical  treatise  by  Aquila  Romanus.  The  four  books 
On  Metres  by  ^Elius  Festus  Aphthonius,  written  under 
Diocletian,  are  lost,  but  their  contents  are  in  part  pre- 
served by  Marius  Victorinus.  These  grammatical  works 
are  of  importance  chiefly  for  their  references  to  earlier 
literature. 

None  of  the  prose  works  just  mentioned  exhibits  any 
creative  talent  or  testifies  to  any  new  literary  develop- 
ment. The  only  new  literary  phenomenon  of  the  period 
is  the  rise  of  a  school  of  oratory  in  Gaul,  which  produced, 
to  be  sure,  nothing  of  great  importance,  but  which  shows 
by  its  very  existence  how  far  removed  from  Rome  were 
now  the  centres  of  intellectual  life,  when  the  great  Chris- 


THE  PANEGYRISTS  257 

tian  writers  were  Africans  and  the  pagan  orators  were 
Gauls.  The  Gallic  orators  avoided  the  harshness  and  ob- 
scurity of  the  African  school,  and  wrote  in  smooth  Cicero- 
nian Latin,  with  a  plentiful  flow  of  words  and  a  poor  sup- 
ply of  ideas.  A  collection  of  twelve  panegyrics  has  been 
preserved,  the  first  of  which  is  Pliny's  address 

The  in  honor  of  Trajan,  delivered  in   100  A.  D., 

panegyrists.  .  J.  ' 

while  the  remaining  eleven  are  dated  at  dif- 
ferent times  from  291  to  389  A.  D.  One  of  these  was  deliv- 
ered in  297  A.  D.  by  Eumenius,  a  teacher  of  Greek  descent, 
but  Gallic  birth,  for  the  benefit  of  the  schools  in  his 
native  town  of  Augustodunum  (Autun),  and  three  (per- 
haps four)  of  the  others  are  probably  by  the  same  author. 
Three  of  the  remaining  speeches  are  assigned  to  known 
authors  and  dates.  They  are  by  Nazarius,  in  honor  of 
Constantine  (321  A.  D.)  ;  by  Mamertinus,  in  honor  of  Julian 
(362  A.  D.)  ;  and  by  Latinus  Drepanius  Pacatus,  in  honor 
of  Theodosius  (389  A.  D.).  Two  of  these  orators  belong  to 
the  second  half  of  the  fourth  century,  but  their  speeches 
resemble  the  others  in  the  collection,  all  of  which  are 
full  of  most  exaggerated  praise  of  the  emperors.  These 
speeches  contain  many  references  to  the  history  of  the 
times,  but  must  be  used  with  great  care  by  the  historian, 
since  their  purpose  is  to  praise  the  emperors,  and  not  even 
historical  facts  must  be  allowed  to  cast  a  shadow  upon  the 
imperial  glory.  The  Gallic  school  of  oratory  was  evident- 
ly flourishing  in  the  later  years  of  the  third  century  and 
the  greater  part  at  least  of  the  fourth.  It  was  a  learned 
school,  based  upon  imitation  of  the  ancient  classics,  and 
standing  in  no  close  relation  to  the  living  language  of  the 
times.  The  extant  speeches  show  how  thoroughly  the 
study  of  the  classics  was  carried  on  in  Gaul,  and  at  the 
same  time  how  ready  the  orators  were  to  flatter  emperors 
who  were  pleased  to  listen  to  their  obsequious  praise. 

Now  that  the  chief  centres  of  Latin  literature  are  found 
to  be  in  Gaul  and  Africa,  not  in  Rome  or  even  Italy,  the 


258  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

history  of  Roman  literature  has  apparently  reached  its 
end ;  and  yet  throughout  the  fourth  century,  yes,  even  into 
the  sixth  century,  the  stream  of  old  Roman  tradition  can 
be  traced,  and  in  the  poems  of  Ausonius  and  Claudian  and 
the  De  Consolatione  Philosophic  of  Boethius  classical  litera- 
ture still  survives.  It  is  hard  to  fix  a  date  for  the  begin- 
ning of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  even  harder  to  assign  a 
definite  time  for  the  end  of  classical  Roman  literature. 
The  first  great  independent  and  original  Christian  writings 
in  Latin — those  of  Tertullian — may  be  regarded  as  the  be- 
ginning of  mediaeval  literature ;  but  classical  Latinity  was 
by  no  means  yet  dead.  In  fact,  in  the  fourth  century,  after 
Constantine  had  recognized  Christianity  as  a  state  religion 
on  an  equal  footing  with  the  ancient  belief,  there  was  a 
revival  of  literature.  Christian  writers  wrote  in  the  an- 
cient Roman  manner,  and  secular  writings  by  Christians 
are  not  to  be  distinguished  from  those  of  the  adherents  of 
the  old  religion.  The  religious  writings  of  the  leaders  of 
Christian  thought — St.  Hilary,  bishop  of  Poitiers,  St.  Am- 
brose, bishop  of  Milan,  St.  Jerome  and  St.  Augustine — 
belong  to  the  history  of  the  church  rather  than  to  that  of 
Roman  literature,  and  can  be  mentioned  here  only  in 
passing,  while  the  writings  of  many  lesser  lights  of  the 
church  must  be  altogether  neglected.  There  still  remain, 
however,  many  works  in  which  something  of  the  old  Ro- 
man literary  spirit  survives,  even  after  Rome  herself  has 
ceased  to  be  the  seat  of  empire. 


CHAPTEE  XX 

THE   FOURTH   AND   FIFTH   CENTURIES 

Nonius,  early  in  the  fourth  century — Macrobius,  410  (?)  A.  D. — 
Martianus  Capella,  about  400  A.  D. — Firmicus  Maternus,  354  (?)  A.  D. — 
Marias  Victorinus,  about  350  A.  D. — JElius  Donatus,  about  350  A.  D. 
— Charisius,  about  350  A.  D. — Diomedes,  about  350  A.  D. — Priscian, 
about  500  A.  D. — Servius,  latter  part  of  the  fourth  century — Itinera- 
ries— Notitia,  354  A.  D.— Peutinger  Tablet— Palladius,  about  350  A.  D. 
— Vegetius,  about  400  A.  D. — Aurelius  Victor,  360  A.  D. — Eutropius, 
365  A.  D. — Festus,  369  A.  D. — Julius  Obsequens,  about  360  A.  D. — St. 
Jerome,  331-420  A.  D. — Ammianus  Marcellinus,  about  330-400  A.  D. — 
Sulpicius  Severus,  early  in  the  fifth  century — Orosius,  417  A.  D. — 
Gregorianus,  about  300  A.  D. — Herraogenianus,  about  330  A.  D. — Codex 
Theodosianus,  438  A.  D. — The  Code  of  Justinian,  529  A.  D. — The  Pan- 
dects and  Institutes,  533  A.  D. — Syramachus,  about  345-405  A.  D. — 
Dictys  (L.  Septimius),  second  half  of  the  fourth  century — Dares,  fifth 
century— Hilarius,  about  315  to  367  A.  D.— Ambrose,  about  340-397 
A.  D. — Jerome,  331-420  A.  D. — Augustine,  354-430  A.  D. — Optatianus, 
early  in  the  fourth  century — Juvencus,  early  in  the  fourth  century — 
Avienus,  370  A.  D. — The  Querolus,  about  370  A.  D. — Ausonius,  about 
310  to  about  395  A.  D.— Prudentius  348  to  about  410  A.  D.— Claudian, 
400  A.  D. — Namatianus,  416  A.  D.— Avianus,  about  400  A.  D. — Sedulius, 
about  450  A.  D. — Dracontius,  end  of  the  fifth  century. 

THE  prose  writings  of  the  fourth  century  are,  with  the 
exception  of  theological  treatises,  almost  all  mere  compi- 
lations or  abbreviations  of  earlier  works.  In  the  early 
years  of  the  century  Nonius  Marcellus,  a  Peripatetic  phi- 
losopher of  Thubursicum,  in  Numidia,  wrote  for  his  son 
a  work  in  twenty  books,  De  Compendiosa  Doctrina,  in 
which  he  discusses  many  questions  pertaining  for  the  most 
part  to  early  Latin  literature.  This  work  is  modelled  on 
the  Nodes  Atticce  of  Gellius,  to  which  it  is  vastly  inferior. 
It  is  nevertheless  of  value  as  our  only  authority  for  the 


260  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

titles  of  some  lost  works  and  even  for  extracts  from  them. 
For  similar  reasons  the  Saturnalia,  in  seven  books,  by 
Nonius  Ambrosius  Theodosius  Macrobius,  is  of  some 

Macrobius.  importance.  Macrobius,  who  was  probably, 
Martianus  \\^Q  Nonius,  an  African,  appears  to  be  iden- 
tical with  the  Macrobius  who  was  proconsul 
of  Africa  in  410  A.  D.  The  imaginary  conversations  of 
which  his  Saturnalia  consists  treat  of  Koman  litera- 
ture and  antiquities,  especially  of  the  poetry  of  Virgil. 
Like  Gellius  and  Nonius,  Macrobius  uses  the  works  of  ear- 
lier critics  and  commentators,  and  gives  many  quotations 
from  Greek  and  Roman  authors.  Macrobius  also  wrote  a 
commentary  on  Cicero's  Dream  of  Scipio,  in  which  he 
quotes  many  authors,  especially  Greeks,  but  displays  little 
or  no  originality.  The  encyclopaedia,  in  nine  books,  writ- 
ten about  the  end  of  the  fourth  century  by  a  third  Afri- 
can, Martianus  Capella,  is  of  less  value  than  the  compila- 
tions of  Nonius  and  Macrobius,  though  it,  too,  goes  back 
to  good  authorities,  such  as  Varro. 

The  chief  seat  of  philosophy  in  the  fourth  century 
was  Athens,  and  philosophical  writings  were 
Grammar.7      almost  all  in  Greek.     For  the  most  part  they 
expounded  the  mystical  doctrines  of  Neopla- 
tonism.1      The  grammarian  ^Elius   Donatus,  who  nour- 
ished at  Eome  about  350  A.  D.  and  was  one  of  the  teachers 

1  The  chief  Latin  writer  on  philosophy  was  Firmicus  Maternus, 
whose  eight  books,  Matheseos  (Of  Learning),  published  about  354 
A.  D.,  are  occupied  with  Neoplatonic  astrology.  He  is  to  be  distin- 
guished from  his  Christian  contemporary  and  namesake,  who  wrote 
of  the  Error  of  the  Pagan  Religions.  Gaius  Marius  Victorinus,  who 
also  lived  about  the  middle  of  the  century,  was  an  African  by  birth, 
but  taught  rhetoric  at  Rome.  He  was  the  author  of  philosophical 
works,  chiefly  translations  and  adaptations  from  the  Greek,  but  is 
best  known  by  his  extant  work  on  metres  in  four  books,  and  by  some 
other  extant  grammatical  treatises.  In  his  later  life  he  became  a 
Christian,  and  wrote  commentaries  on  St.  Paul's  epistles,  besides  some 
controversial  tracts. 


THE  FOURTH  AND  FIFTH  CENTURIES          261 

of  St.  Jerome,  wrote  commentaries  on  Terence  and  Virgil 
to  which  he  prefixed  the  lives  of  the  two  poets  from  the 
lost  work  of  Suetonius.  The  work  on  Virgil  is  lost,  and 
the  commentary  on  Terence  contains  in  its  present  form 
many  later  additions.  The  extant  grammars  (Ars  Gram- 
maticd)  of  Charisius  and  Diomedes,  which  have  preserved 
much  of  the  learning  of  earlier  grammarians,  belong  to  a 
very  slightly  later  time.  The  last  and  most  complete  an- 
cient grammar  was  written  under  the  Emperor  Anastasius 
(491-518  A.  D.)  at  Constantinople  in  the  Latin  language 
by  Priscian,  from  Ceesarea,  in  Mauretania.  This  work,  in 
eighteen  books,  is  entitled  Institution**  Grammatica,  and 
contains  a  vast  quantity  of  material  from  the  earlier  lit- 
erature. Much  of  the  grammatical  terminology,  even  of 
the  present  time,  is  derived  from  Priscian.  The  impor- 
tant commentary  on  Virgil  by  Servius  was  written  in  the 
latter  part  of  the  fourth  century,  and  is  preserved  in  two 
forms,  in  one  of  which  numerous  additions  have  been 
made  to  the  original  work.1 

In  360  A.  D.,  Aurelius  Victor  wrote  a  short  history  of 
the  emperors  ( Cwsares)  from  the  time  of  Augustus  to  the 
tenth  consulship  of  Constantius  and  Julian,  i.  e.,  to  the 

1  These  grammatical  works  have  little  literary  value  of  their  own, 
and  owe  their  importance  to  the  fact  that  they  contain  information 
which  is  not  elsewhere  preserved.  The  same  is  true  of  several  hand- 
books of  various  kinds  compiled  in  the  fourth  century.  Such  are  the 
Itineraries,  giving  the  distances  and  routes  between  the  towns  along 
the  Roman  roads,  the  Notitia,  describing  the  regions  of  the  city  of 
Rome,  and  a  historical  handbook  of  Rome  for  the  year  354  A.  D.  pre- 
served most  fully  in  a  manuscript  in  Vienna.  A  few  maps  of  this 
period  also  exist,  the  most  famous  of  which  is  the  Peutinger  Tablet 
(Tabula Peutingeriand),  now  in  Vienna.  A  handbook  of  Agriculture 
(De  Re  Rustica)  by  Palladius,  and  the  Epitome  of  Military  Science 
(Epitoma  Rei  Militaris)  by  Flavins  Vegetius  Renatus,  who  also  wrote 
an  extant  treatise  on  Veterinary  Medicine  (Mulomedicind),  may 
properly  be  mentioned  here,  and  these  works  possess  also  some  slight 
literary  interest. 


262  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

date  of  his  writing.  He  makes  free  use  of  Suetonius, 
and  Ms  style  is  sometimes  an  imitation  of  that  of  Sallust. 
A  second  entirely  distinct  work  attributed 
to  the  same  author  is  a  brief  epitome  of  the 
history  of  the  emperors  to  the  death  of  Theodosius  I  (395 
A.  D.).  Under  Valens  (364-378  A.  D.)  Eutropius  wrote  a 
Breviarium  ab  Urle  Condita,  a  short  sketch  of  Eoman 
history  from  the  beginning  to  the  year  365  A.  D.,  which  is 
distinguished  for  its  simple,  easy  style  and  pure  Latinity, 
but  has  no  independent  value  as  an  historical  work.1 

Much  more  important  is  the  Chronicle  of  St.  Jerome 
(331-420  A.  D.),  a  translation  from  the  Greek  of  Eusebius 
with  important  additions.  The  Chronicle  begins  with  the 
first  year  of  Abraham  (2016  B.  c.).  From  this  point  to  the 
Trojan  War,  Jerome  merely  translates  Eusebius,  from  the 
Trojan  War  to  325  A.  D.  he  translates  Eusebius  and  adds 
much  information  concerning  Roman  history  and  litera- 
ture, and  from  325  to  378  A.  D.  the  work  is  entirely  his 
own.  His  information  concerning  the  history  of  Eoman 
literature  is  derived  chiefly  from  Suetonius  (De  Viris  II- 
lustribus)  and  is  of  the  utmost  importance,  though  the 
dates  given  are  sometimes  wrong,  which  is  not  surprising 
when  one  remembers  the  carelessness  in  respect  to  dates 
exhibited  by  Suetonius  in  his  extant  Lives  of  the  Ccesars. 
Jerome's  Chronicle  was  continued  in  the  fifth  century  by 
Prosper  of  Aquitania  to  the  year  455  A.  D.,  and  further  ad- 
ditions were  made  after  that  time.  The  Chronicle  is  of 
great  importance  to  the  historian,  but  is  itself  merely  the 
dry  bones  of  history.  The  only  real  history  that  the  last 
centuries  of  Roman  literature  produced,  the  only  serious 
and  original  historical  work  after  Tacitus,  is  that  of 

1  In  369  A.  D.  Pestus  wrote  a  handbook  similar  to  that  of  Eutro- 
pius, but  of  less  merit.  The  list  of  prodigies  that  took  place  from 
249  to  12  B.  c.,  compiled  by  Julius  Obsequens  from  an  abridgment  of 
Livy,  probably  belongs  to  about  the  same  time.  Since  a  large  part  of 
Livy's  history  is  lost,  such  works  as  these  are  of  some  value. 


THE  FOURTH  AND  FIFTH  CENTURIES          263 

Ammianus  Marcellinus ;  for  the  summary  of  universal 
history  (Chronicorum  Libri II)  written  by  the  Aquita- 
nian  Sulpicius  Severus  in  the  early  years  of  the  fifth 
century,  and  the  more  pretentious  but  no  more  original 
history  of  the  world  (Historiarum  Adversus  Paganos 
Libri  VII)  by  Orosius  of  Spain,  compiled  soon  after  417 
A.  D.,  are  even  less  important  than  the  handbook  of 
Eutropius. 

Ammianus  Marcellinus  (about  330-400  A.  D.)  was  a 
Greek  of  Antioch,  who  became  a  soldier  in  the  Eoman 
army,  served  in  Asia,  in  Gaul,  and  in  the  Per- 
s*an  camPaign  of  the  Emperor  Julian,  and  was 
at  some  time  in  Egypt,  but  finally  settled  at 
Borne,  where  he  wrote  in  Latin  a  continuation  of  Tacitus 
from  Nerva  to  the  death  of  Yalens  (96-378  A.  D.).  The 
entire  work  consisted  of  thirty-one  books,  thirteen  •  of 
which  are  lost ;  but  the  extant  books  (XIV-XXXI),  treat- 
ing of  the  time  from  353  to  378  A.  D.,  and  dealing  with 
events  in  which  the  author  took  part,  are  especially 
valuable.  Ammianus  is  an  honest  soldier,  who,  to  use 
his  own  expression,  never  knowingly  corrupts  the  truth 
by  silence  or  falsehood,  who  has  no  liking  and  not  much 
understanding  for  court  intrigues,  but  is  intent  upon 
giving  his  readers  a  fair  and  unbiased  account  of  events. 
His  Latin  is  hard  to  understand,  partly  because  he  writes 
it  as  a  foreigner,  but  still  more  because  he  wishes  to 
write  an  ornate  style  and  embellishes  his  work  with  many 
references  to  the  Eoman  classics,  sometimes  quoting  their 
exact  words,  oftener  changing  them  a  little,  as  if  to  show 
his  perfect  familiarity  with  the  earlier  literature.  The 
geographical  digressions  introduced  are  not  original  de- 
scriptions of  what  Ammianus  had  himself  seen,  but  are 
taken  from  Greek  or  Latin  books.  Although  himself  a 
pagan,  Ammianus  shows  no  hostility  to  Christianity,  but 
his  paganism  is  not  very  serious.  He  seems  to  believe 
that  not  all  men  think  alike,  and  that  on  the  whole  it 
18 


264  EOMAN  LITERATURE 

is  well  for  each  to  believe  as  lie  can.  His  pictures  of 
the  life  of  the  times  are  admirable,  and  bring  before  us 
in  a  clear  light  the  corruption  and  degeneration  of  the 
age.  Yet  he  does  not  seem  to  feel  righteous  indigna- 
tion nor  to  understand  that  the  greatness  of  the  Roman 
empire  is  rapidly  passing  away.  His  history  ends  with 
the  disastrous  defeat  of  the  Eomans  by  the  Goths  at  Ha- 
drianople  and  the  death  of  the  Emperor  Valens ;  but  so 
accustomed  was  the  world  to  the  power  of  the  Eoman  em- 
pire that  even  this  terrible  reverse  was  not  recognized  as 
portending  the  end  of  the  ancient  order  of  things.  For  a 
little  while  Theodosius  was  able  to  maintain  the  integrity 
of  the  empire,  but  the  end  was  at  hand.  It  is  not  un- 
fitting that  the  last  Roman  historian,  himself  a  Greek  by 
birth,  ends  his  work  at  a  moment  when  more  than  ever 
before  the  Greek  city  of  Constantinople  was  becoming  the 
refuge  of  what  remained  of  the  old  Roman  civilization. 

The  study  of  law,  which  had  for  centuries  been  among 
the  most  important  pursuits  of  Roman  thinkers,  was  not 

neglected  in  the  last  centuries  of  Roman  life. 

Under  Diocletian  (284-305  A.  D.)  the  imperial 
edicts  were  codified  by  Gregorianus,  and  in  the  reign  of 
Constantine  (323-337  A.  D.)  Hermogenianus  continued  the 
codification  to  his  own  time.  In  438  A.  D.,  under  Theo- 
dosius II,  the  Codex  Theodosianus  was  compiled  by  a  com- 
mission of  jurists,  and  in  the  reign  of  Justinian  a  com- 
mission headed  by  the  distinguished  jurist,, scholar,  and 
man  of  affairs  Tribonian,  gave  to  Roman  law  its  final  form 
in  three  great  works :  the  Code,  published  in  529  A.  D.,  the 
Pandects  or  Digests,  and  the  Institutes,  published  in  533 
A.  D.,  which  have  served  as  the  basis  for  all  later  juris- 
prudence. 

Oratory  found  its  chief  field  of  activity  in  the  Chris- 
tian pulpit  from  the  time  of  Constantine,  but  was  not  con- 
fined to  the  exposition  of  Christian  doctrine.  The  Gallic 
school  of  oratory  continued  to  flourish,  and  indeed  Gaul 


THE  FOURTH  AND  FIFTH  CENTURIES          265 

was  prominent  in  literature  of  all  kinds  during  the  fourth 
and  fifth  centuries.  Among  other  orators  the  most  im- 
portant was  Quintus  Aurelius  Symmachus,  a 
Oratory.  Roman  of  noble  family  and  honorable  char- 
acter, whose  life  extended  from  about  345  to  405  A.  D. 
His  panegyrics  on  Valentinian  I  and  Gratianus  resemble 
the  other  panegyrics  of  the  period,  and  the  fragmentary 
remains  of  later  speeches  delivered  in  the  senate  show  no 
greater  ability.  More  interesting  are  his  letters,  in  which 
he  appears  as  an  imitator  of  the  younger  Pliny,  and  his 
official  reports  as  prefect  of  the  city. 

A  curious  prose  version  of  the  story  of  the  Trojan  War 
was  written  by  Lucius  Septimius,  apparently  in  the  second 
half  of  the  fourth  century.  This  purports  to 
be  a  translation  of  an  ancient  Greek  manu- 
script in  Phoenician  letters  found  in  the 
tomb  of  a  certain  Dictys,  in  Crete.  The  story  of  the  dis- 
covery of  the  manuscript  is  undoubtedly  an  invention, 
but  the  Latin  account  may  be  a  translation  of  a  lost 
Greek  original.  The  style  is  artificial  and  full  of  anti- 
quated expressions.  The  author  most  persistently  imi- 
tated is  Sallust.  A  somewhat  similar  little  work  belong- 
ing to  the  fifth  century  pretends  to  be  a  translation  by 
Cornelius  Nepos  of  a  Greek  account  of  the  Trojan  War 
given  by  a  Phrygian  Dares,  who  fought  among  the  Trojans. 
The  style  is  dry  and  unattractive,  but  the  little  book  was 
much  read  in  the  Middle  Ages.  These  two  works  serve 
to  give  us  some  idea  of  the  kind  of  literature  which, 
alongside  of  the  Greek  novels,  amused  the  leisure  hours 
of  cultivated  persons. 

The  contents  of  the  works  of  the  leaders  of  the  church 
in  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries  can  hardly  be  considered 
Hiiarius  *n  a  h^01"!  °^  Roman  literature,  but  inas- 
much as  their  writings  show  the  continued 
influence  of  classical  Latin,  their  style  and  choice  of  words 
should  be  briefly  mentioned.  The  bitter  controversy  be- 


266  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

tween  the  Arians  and  the  Athanasians  produced  in  the 
fourth  century  a  great  number  of  controversial  writings, 
among  which  those  of  Hilarius  (St.  Hilary),  Bishop  of 
Poitiers,  are  remarkable  for  depth  of  philosophical  thought 
and  care  in  expression.  Hilarius  was  born  between  310 
and  320  A.  D.,  and  was  trained  in  the  Gallic  school  of  elo- 
quence. After  his  conversion  to  Christianity  he  soon 
became  bishop  of  his  native  Poitiers.  His  opposition  to 
Arianism,  which  Constantius  favored,  led  to  his  banish- 
ment, but  he  was  recalled  after  three  years,  in  358  A.  D. 
His  death  took  place  in  367  A.  D.  Besides  his  controver- 
sial writings  he  was  the  author  of  commentaries  on  sev- 
eral books  of  the  Old  and  New  Testaments,  and  perhaps 
also  of  hymns.  His  style  shows  in  some  passages  his 
early  training  in  the  school  of  wordy  and  ornate  Gallic 
oratory,  but  is  chiefly  distinguished  for  its  vigor  and 
passion.  Hilarius  carried  on  the  work  of  adapting  Latin 
to  the  expression  of  Christian  abstract  thought,  which 
had  been  begun  in  Africa  by  Tertullian. 

Ambrosius  (St.  Ambrose),  who  lived  from  about  340 
to  397  A.  D.,  was  probably  born  in  Gaul,  where  his  father 

Ambrosius  was  Pre^ec*»  but  was  °^  Roman,  not  Gallic 
blood.  After  a  careful  education  he  became 
a  barrister,  and  was  soon  raised  to  the  consular  rank  and 
made  governor  of  the  provinces  of  Liguria  and  ^Emilia. 
Thus  he  came  to  Milan,  where  he  was  chosen  bishop  in 
374  A.  D.  He  was  a  man  of  great  tact  as  well  as  firmness, 
who  dared  to  exclude  the  Emperor  Theodosius  from  the 
church,  until  he  had  shown  repentance  for  the  massacre 
at  Thessalonica,  and  to  refuse  the  request  of  the  Empress 
Jusfcina  that  one  of  the  churches  at  Milan  be  set  aside  for 
the  Arians,  but  who  succeeded  in  avoiding  any  breach 
with  the  emperor  in  spite  of  his  independence.  It  was  in 
great  part  due  to  St.  Ambrose  that  Italy  was  kept  from 
adopting  the  Arian  heresy.  His  writings  comprise  letters, 
dogmatic  treatises,  practical  treatises  on  the  conduct  of 


THE  FOURTH  AND  FIFTH  CENTURIES          267 

life,  commentaries  on  the  Scriptures,  funeral  orations  on 
Valentinian  II  and  Theodosius,  and  hymns.  He  is  also 
the  probable  author  of  a  translation  of  Josephus  into 
Latin.  In  his  mystic,  allegorical  interpretations  of  Scrip- 
ture St.  Ambrose  follows  the  Jewish-Stoic  philosopher 
Philo,  who  lived  about  the  time  of  Christ,  and  in  his  trea- 
tise On  Duties  he  imitates  Cicero's  work  of  the  same  title. 
His  intimate  acquaintance  with  other  works  of  the  clas- 
sical period  is  made  evident  both  by  the  general  quality  of 
his  style,  which  is  purer  than  that  of  most  of  his  contem- 
poraries, and  by  many  special  references.  His  hymns  have 
had  great  influence  upon  church  poetry  and  music. 

St.  Jerome  (Hieronymus)  was  born  about  331  A.  D.,  at 
Stridon,  a  town  on  the  borders  of  Dalmatia  and  Pannonia, 
studied  at  Eome  under  Donatus,  then  spent 
ron°  nms)  *  ^wo  years  a^'  Treves,  was  afterwards  at  Aquileia 
for  some  time,  then  sailed  to  Syria.  Here*he 
was  ill  for  a  time,  and  solaced  himself  by  reading  the  clas- 
sics, until  he  was  warned  by  a  dream  to  give  up  profane  lit- 
erature. He  retreated  into  the  wilderness  of  Chalcis,  where 
he  remained  five  years.  In  362  A.  D.  he  returned  to  Koine, 
where  he  had  great  influence  for  many  years,  but  in  386 
he  retired  to  a  monastery  at  Bethlehem.  There  he  re- 
mained until  his  death,  in  420  A.  D.  As  a  controversial 
writer  St.  Jerome  had  great  influence  in  settling  the  doc- 
trines of  the  Catholic  church ;  he  also  wrote  commentaries 
on  various  books  of  the  Bible,  and  numerous  letters  deal- 
ing with  religious  questions.  His  translation  of  the  Bible 
was  a  masterly  performance,  and  is  the  basis  of  the  Latin 
Vulgate,  still  in  use  in  the  Roman  Catholic  church.  He 
compiled  a  brief  work,  De  Viris  Illustrious,  in  which  he 
gave  sketches  of  the  lives  of  Christian  writers,  as  Sue- 
tonius, in  his  work  of  the  same  title,  had  given  the  lives 
of  the  old  Roman  authors.  The  sketches  given  by  Jerome 
are,  however,  much  briefer  than  were  those  of  Suetonius. 
The  translation  and  continuation  of  the  Chronicle  of 


268  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

Eusebius  lias  already  been  mentioned  (see  page  262).  St. 
Jerome  is  one  of  the  ablest  writers  of  the  early  Christian 
church,  and  certainly  the  most  learned  Christian  writer 
of  his  time.  His  style  is  not  exempt  from  the  faults  of 
exaggeration  and  verbal  quibbling  common  in  the  wri- 
tings of  the  age,  but  possesses  much  life  and  earnestness, 
and  is  free  from  the  affectation  of  classicism,  though  it 
shows  the  effect  of  his  prolonged  study  of  the  classics. 

St.  Augustine  (Aurelius  Augustinus)  was  born  in  354 
A.  D.  at  Tagaste,  in  Africa.  His  father  was  a  pagan,  his 

ustine  mother  a  Christian,  and  in  his  early  years 
Augustine  himself  accepted  the  doctrine  of 
Manicheeism,  a  sort  of  mystical  materialism,  which  denied 
all  authority,  and  claimed  to  rest  entirely  upon  reason. 
He  was  a  successful  teacher  of  rhetoric  in  Africa,  at  Eome, 
and  at  Milan,  where  he  came  under  the  influence  of  St. 
Ambrose  and  was  converted.  In  388  A.  D.  he  returned  to 
Africa,  became  presbyter  at  Hippo  in  392,  and  bishop  in 
395  A.  D.  His  death  took  place  in  430  A.  D.  His  nature 
was  many  sided,  and  composed  of  apparently  contradictory 
elements.  He  was  a  mystic  speculator,  a  sharp  reasoner, 
at  one  time  harsh  and  uncompromising,  at  another  full  of 
tenderness,  an  original  thinker  yet  a  believer  in  authority, 
dreamer,  poet,  philosopher,  rhetorician,  and  quibbler  in 
one.  His  writings  are  in  part  speculations  on  theology, 
in  part  ponderings  on  the  soul,  its  nature  and  its  relations 
to  God,  and  in  part  controversial  treatises,  sermons,  com- 
mentaries, and  letters.  The  best  known  among  them  are 
the  Confessions,  in  which  Augustine  gives  many  details  of 
his  life,  and  records  the  doubts  that  perplexed  him, 
and  the  City  of  God  (De  Civitate  Dei),  a  work  of  his  old 
age,  in  which  he  contrasts  the  city  (or  better,  the  state) 
of  this  world  with  the  ideal  city  of  God.  This  work  was 
written  in  reply  to  the  pagans,  who  claimed  that  the  sack 
of  Home  by  Alaric  was  due  to  the  neglect  of  the  ancient 
worship.  It  consists  of  twenty-two  books,  in  the  first  ten 


THE  FOURTH  AND  FIFTH  CENTURIES  269 

of  which  the  "vain  opinions  adverse  to  the  Christian 
religion  "  are  refuted,  while  the  twelve  remaining  are  de- 
voted to  a  presentation  of  Christian  truth,  though  each 
division  contains  many  digressions,  and  in  each  the  part 
of  the  subject  properly  belonging  to  the  other  is  treated 
as  occasion  demands.  In  many  parts  of  this  great  work 
reference  is  made  to  Cicero's  De  Re  Publica  and  other 
philosophical  writings,  and  Augustine's  dialogue  Contra 
Academicos  is  an  evident  imitation  of  Cicero's  Academics. 
Yet  it  can  not  be  said  that  Augustine's  style  is  modelled 
upon  that  of  Cicero.  It  is  rather  a  style  which  had  gradu- 
ally developed  among  Christian  writers,  in  which  the 
periodic  structure  of  the  Ciceronian  age  is  abandoned  for 
the  most  part,  many  words  unknown  to  strictly  classical 
Latin  have  been  introduced,  partly  from  the  popular 
speech  and  partly  by  new  formation  to  express  abstract 
ideas,  not  a  few  Biblical  phrases  are  employed,  and  some 
slight  changes  in  syntax  are  noticeable.  This  is  the  Latin 
of  the  church,  which  has  remained  nearly  as  St.  Augustine 
left  it,  except  in  so  far  as  the  strictly  classical  element 
grew  less  in  the  centuries  preceding  the  Eenaissance. 
For  St.  Augustine  the  "  state "  of  this  world  still  means 
the  Roman  empire,  though  the  eternal  city  had  been 
sacked  by  the  Goths,  but  the  time  seems  to  him  not  far 
distant  when  the  state  of  God  shall  rest  in  the  "  stability 
of  its  eternal  seat."  So  his  language  is  still  Latin ;  but  his 
thoughts  and  sentiments  are  Christian,  not  Roman.  The 
ancient  world  was  still  visible  about  him,  but .  the  life  of 
the  Middle  Ages  had  begun. 

The  fourth  century  produced  a  considerable  number 
of  poets  who  possessed  no  mean  skill  in  versification,  but 
whose  works  have  for  the  most  part  disappeared.  Opta- 
0  tatianus  ^ianus  (Publilius  Optatianus  Porphyrius)  com- 
posed a  poem  in  praise  of  Constantine  in  which 
he  shows  his  ingenuity  by  writing  lines  that  take  the 
shape  of  an  altar  or  an  organ,  contriving  to  make  fifteen 


270  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

successive  hexameters  each  one  letter  shorter  than  its 
predecessor,  making  nineteen  stanzas  of  four  lines  each 
from  the  same  twenty  words,  and  inventing  the  most  com- 
plicated and  elaborate  acrostics  and  the  like.  Such  work 
is  not  poetry,  but  it  shows  skill  in  the  manipulation  of 
words.  It  is  interesting  to  know  that  Constantine  was  so 
pleased  that  he  recalled  the  ingenious  author  from  banish- 
ment. About  the  same  time  Ju venous  (Gaius 
Vettius  Aquilinus  Juvencus)  made  a  version 
of  the  Gospel  story  in  hexameters  after  the  manner  of 
Virgil.  He  shows  intelligent  appreciation  of  the  dignity 
and  beauty  of  his  model,  and  writes  skillfully  and  easily. 
This  Latin  poem  is  the  prototype  of  the  "  Gospel  Harmo- 
nies "  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Avienus  (Euf us  Festus  Avie- 
Avienus  nus)'  °*  Vulsinii,  in  Etruria,  was  a  descendant 

of  the  Stoic  philosopher  Musonius  Eufus  (see 
page  177),  and  was  twice  proconsul — in  Africa  in  366  and 
in  Greece  in  371  A.  D.  He  translated  the  Phenomena  of 
Aratus  into  Latin  verse,  and  tried  to  improve  upon  the 
translations  by  Cicero  and  Germanicus  (see  pages  70  and 
173),  made  a  similar  translation  with  variations  from  the 
Periegesis  of  Dionysius,  described  the  coasts  of  the  Black 
Sea,  the  Caspian,  and  the  Mediterranean  in  iambic  trime- 
ters, and  made  abridgments  of  Livy  and  Virgil  in  the 
same  metre.  These  last  are  lost,  as  is  a  large  part  of  the 
description  of  the  coasts.  Avienus  was  also  the  author  of 
several  short  poems.  He  has  no  little  ability  as  a  maker 
of  verses,  and  has  the  good  taste  to  imitate  Virgil,  but  ex- 
hibits no  poetic  originality.  His  language  is  for  the  most 
part  strictly  classic.  To  about  the  same  time  as  Avienus 
Querolus  belongs  also  a  curious  comedy  entitled  Quero- 
lus  (The  Discontented  Man),  a  free  imitation 
of  the  Aulularia  of  Plautus,  composed  in  a  remarkable 
mixture  of  prose  and  verse. 

The  only  really  interesting  poet  of  the  fourth  century 
is,  however,  Ausonius,  whose  life  extends  through  nearly 


THE  FOURTH  AND  FIFTH  CENTURIES          271 

the  entire  century.  Decimus  Magnus  Ausonius  was  born 
at  Bordigala  (Bordeaux)  about  310  A.  D.  He  became  a 
teacher  of  rhetoric  and  oratory,  and  was  ap- 
pointed tutor  to  Gratian,  the  son  of  the  Em- 
peror Valens.  When  Gratian  became  emperor  he  rewarded 
his  teacher  with  public  offices,  and  raised  him  in  379  A.  D. 
to  the  consulate.  After  Gratian 's  death  (383  A.  D.)  Auso- 
nius retired  from  public  life  and  devoted  himself  to  liter- 
ary pursuits  at  his  native  Bordeaux  until  his  death,  which 
took  place  not  far  from  395  A.  D.  Xearly  all  his  extant 
writings  belong  to  this  period.  The  only  considerable 
specimen  of  his  prose  extant  is  the  oration  in  which  he 
expressed  his  thanks  to  Gratian  for  the  consulship.  In 
this  the  style,  though  somewhat  flowery,  is  not  without 
dignity,  and  the  vocabulary  is  pretty  strictly  classic.  The 
extant  poems  are  of  various  kinds  and  in  various  metres. 
They  include  epigrams,  idylls,  letters,  a  series  of  short 
poems  called  Parentalia,  devoted  to  the  poet's  relatives,  a 
Commemoratio  Professorum  Burdigalensium,  describing 
his  colleagues  at  Bordeaux,  verses  on  the  Roman  emperors, 
on  famous  cities,  and  a  variety  of  other  subjects.  Some 
of  these  show  cleverness  in  the  use  of  language,  but  no 
higher  quality.  Such  are  the  letters  written  partly  in 
Greek  and  partly  in  Latin,  and  the  idylls  so  composed 
that  the  last  word  of  each  line  is  a  monosyllable ;  but 
among  the  poems  are  some  of  considerable  interest  even 
though  their  poetic  qualities  are  not  of  the  highest.  So 
the  Parentalia  and  the  verses  on  the  Bordeaux  professors 
give  the  reader  some  insight  into  the  life  of  an  important 
provincial  city.  It  is  interesting,  too,  to  observe  that  of 
the  seventeen  cities  mentioned  in  the  List  of  Famous 
Cities  five  are  in  Gaul.  To  be  sure,  Ausonius  was  himself 
a  Gaul,  and  may  have  made  his  native  region  unduly 
prominent,  but  other  evidence,  including  the  remains  of 
ancient  buildings,  supports  his  estimate  of  the  importance 
of  the  Gallic  cities.  His  lines  on  Bordeaux,  famous  for 


272  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

its  wine,  its  culture,  its  fertile  soil,  great  rivers,  copious 
water  supply,  and  fine  buildings,  show  his  patriotism  and 
his  skill  in  descriptive  writing.  The  latter  quality  is  con- 
spicuous in  the  most  famous  of  his  idylls,  the  one  entitled 
Moselle  in  which  Ausonius  describes  the  stream  and  the 
valley  of  the  Moselle,  which  he  had  visited  on  some  busi- 
ness not  further  specified.  The  vine-clad  hills  and  grassy 
meadow  lands,  the  roofs  of  villas  that  stand  upon  the 
banks,  the  broad,  clear  river,  calm  and  placid  as  a  lake, 
are  all  brought  before  our  eyes  with  clear,  well-chosen 
words  and  a  masterly  lightness  of  touch.  At  the  same 
time  the  poet's  love  of  nature  and  her  beauties  is  as 
plainly  manifest  as  in  any  poem  of  Wordsworth  or  Wliit- 
tier.  Unfortunately,  Ausonius  proceeds  to  mention  all 
the  different  kinds  of  fish  in  the  Moselle,  and  the  remark- 
able productivity  of  the  river  does  not  add  to  the  attrac- 
tiveness of  the  poem.  Yet  the  poem  is  deservedly  famous 
for  its  beauty  of  expression  and  its  enthusiastic  love  of 
nature.  It  is  also  remarkably  modern  in  its  tone.  Satyrs 
and  Naiads  are  mentioned,  but  only  as  a  modern  poet  might 
mention  them.  Ausonius  is  a  Christian,  and  for  him  the 
pagan  deities  of  the  woods  are  only  beings  which  he 
"might  imagine."  This  poem  shows  as  clearly  as  the 
Pervigilium  Veneris,  though  in  a  different  way,  that  the 
spirit  of  the  Middle  Ages  was  awake. 

Ausonius  was  a  Christian,  but  his  poems  have  no  spe- 
cifically Christian  contents.  The  most  important  specific- 
Prudentius  ally  Christian  poet  of  the  fourth  century  is 
Aurelius  Prudentius  Clemens,  who  was  born 
in  Spain,  at  or  near  Saragossa,  in  348  A.  D.,  studied  and 
practised  oratory,  and  held  important  offices.  His  life 
was  apparently  passed  for  the  most  part  in  Spain,  but  at 
one  time  he  held  a  position  at  the  imperial  court  of  Theo- 
dosius.  The  date  of  his  death  is  probably  about  410  A.  D. 
Prudentius,  like  Ausonius,  employs  hexameters  and  vari- 
ous other  classic  metres,  in  which  he  departs  occasionally, 


THE  FOURTH  AND  FIFTH  CENTURIES          273 

but  not  often,  from  the  rules  of  quantitative  verse.  His 
poems,  both  epic  and  lyric,  are  religious  and  inspired  by 
earnest  faith  and  genuine  enthusiasm.  He  excels  in  nar- 
rative and  description,  in  wealth  and  brilliancy  of  lan- 
guage, but  lacks  the  virtue  of  simplicity.  His  poetry  was 
intended  to  appeal  to  educated  readers,  not  to  the  people, 
and  the  cultured  classes  of  the  time  were  only  too  thor- 
oughly accustomed  to  an  artificial  style.  Yet,  in  spite  of 
his  faults  of  style,  Prudentius  is  the  most  important  Chris- 
tian poet  of  the  fourth  century,  and  among  the  other 
poets  of  the  time  none  equal  him  except  Ausonius  and 
Claudian. 

Claudius  Claudianus,  the  last  important  Eoman  poet, 
was,  like  Livius  Andronicus,  with  whom  Roman  poetry 
Ci  udian  began,  a  Greek  by  birth.  He  was  born  in 
Asia  Minor,  but  lived  so  long  at  Alexandria 
that  he  called  that  centre  of  learning  his  fatherland 
(patria).  In  395  A.  D.  he  went  to  Eome,  where  he  was 
attached  to  the  court  of  Honorius,  from  whom  he  received 
the  rank  of  patrician  and  the  honor  of  a  statue  in  the 
Forum  of  Trajan.  He  remained  at  Rome,  or  rather  at 
Milan,  until  404  A.  D.,  but  about  that  time  returned  to 
Alexandria,  and  married  a  noble  woman  of  the  place, 
being  aided  in  his  suit  by  Serena,  niece  and  adopted 
daughter  of  the  Emperor  Theodosius  and  wife  of  Stilicho. 
Claudian's  poems  all  appear  to  have  been  written  from 
395  to  404  A.  D.,  and  throughout  this  period  he  is  the 
faithful  follower  and  enthusiastic  admirer  of  Stilicho. 
Whether  Stilicho's  death  in  408  A.  D.  relegated  Claudian 
to  obscurity,  or  the  poet  himself  died  at  about  the  same 
time  as  his  patron,  can  not  now  be  determined.  Clau- 
dian's works  comprise  epic  poems  on  the  important  events 
of  his  times,  such  as  the  Gothic  war  and  the  war  against 
Gildo,  mythological  epics,  and  shorter  miscellaneous  poems. 
Among  the  historical  epics  are  included  poems  in  praise 
of  Honorius  and  other  patrons  of  the  poet,  as  well  as  met- 


274:  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

rical  attacks  upon  Kufinus  and  Eutropius.  The  only 
remains  of  his  mythological  epics  are  three  books  of  a  poem 
on  the  Rape  of  Proserpine,  and  somewhat  more  than  one 
hundred  lines  of  a  GigantomacMa.  In  these  poems  Clau- 
dian  shows  the  mythological  and  antiquarian  learning 
which  had  for  centuries  been  characteristic  of  the  Alex- 
andrian school  of  poetry.  That  school  was  already  old 
when  it  was  imitated  by  Catullus  and  his  contempora- 
ries in  the  early  days  of  Roman  poetry,  and  now,  when  Ro- 
man  literature  was  dying,  Alexandria  continued  to  train 
learned  poets.  Had  Claudian  not  gone  to  Italy,  he  would 
doubtless  have  continued  to  write  in  his  native  Greek, 
and  might,  as  a  Greek  poet,  have  rivalled  his  contempo- 
rary Nonnus.  In  his  historical  and  miscellaneous  poems 
also  Claudian  exhibits  much  Alexandrian  learning,  and  at 
the  same  time  shows  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  the 
earlier  Roman  poets,  which  is  somewhat  surprising  in  one 
who  was  educated  in  the  Greek-speaking  provinces  of  the 
east.  It  is  equally  surprising  that  Claudian  uses  the  Latin 
language  with  an  ease  and  grace  not  attained  by  any  of 
his  contemporaries.  His  verse  is  correct,  dignified,  and 
harmonious,  his  diction  pure  and  classical.  In  these  re- 
spects, as  well  as  in  wealth  of  imagery,  brilliancy  of  narra- 
tive, and  skill  in  composition,  he  is  unequalled  by  any 
Roman  poet  after  Statius.  His  historical  poems  must  be 
used  with  caution  by  historians,  for,  although  facts  aje 
not  invented,  they  are  presented  in  a  strong  light,  or  left 
in  obscurity,  according  to  the  effect  they  might  have  upon 
the  reputation  of  the  poet's  friends  or  enemies.  In  the 
exuberance  of  his  praise,  Claudian  equals  the  contempo- 
rary prose  panegyrists,  and  surpasses  the  early  Alexandrian 
and  most  of  the  later  Roman  poets.  Among  his  miscel- 
laneous poems  none  is  so  well  known  in  modern  times,  or 
so  modern  in  tone,  as  the  brief  elegy  of  only  twenty-two 
lines,  on  an  old  man  of  Verona,  who  never  left  his  suburb, 
who  pressed  his  staff  upon  the  same  sand  in  which  he  had 


THE  FOURTH  AND  FIFTH  CENTURIES          275 

crept,  counted  his  years  by  the  changes  of  crops,  not  by 
consuls,  and  saw  the  trees  grow  old  which  he  had  seen  as 
little  sprouts.  The  advantages  of  a  quiet,  humble  life 
have  seldom  been  more  charmingly  set  forth  than  in  this 
poem. 

With  all  his  learning,  skill,  and  genuine  poetic  inspira- 
tion, Claudian  is  still  the  belated  singer  of  a  worn-out 
empire  and  a  dying  civilization.  Eome  was  no  longer  the 
mighty  and  unquestioned  ruler  of  the  world.  The  poet 
whose  chief  task  it  was  to  sing  the  praises  of  Stilicho,  and 
spread  the  glory  of  his  victories,  must  needs  shut  his  eyes, 
so  far  as  possible,  to  the  evident  decay,  but  he  could  not 
simulate  utter  blindness.  In  the  beginning  of  his  poem 
on  the  war  with  Gildo,  Claudian  shows  that  the  feebleness 
and  old  age  of  Rome  were  not  hidden  from  him.  He 
describes  the  personified  city,  the  goddess  Roma,  as  she 
approaches  Olympus  to  beg  for  aid  against  Gildo,  whose 
revolt,  involving  the  loss  of  the  African  grain  supply, 
threatened  to  expose  the  city  to  famine  : 

Her  voice  is  weak,  and  slow  her  steps  ;  her  eyes 
Deep  sunk  within  ;  her  cheeks  are  gone  ;  her  arms 
Are  shrivelled  up  with  wasting  leanness.     On 
Her  feeble  shoulders  hardly  can  she  bear 
Her  tarnished  shield  ;  she  shows  from  loosened  helm 
Her  hoary  locks,  and  drags  a  rusty  spear.1 

Even  the  poet  who  sang  of  Rome's  victories  could 
portray  her  in  such  terms  as  these.     Yet  the  tradition  of 
Roman  greatness  still  survived.     In  the  year 
Namatianus.  Rutiliug  Claudius  Namatianus,  a  Gaul 


who  had  risen  to  the  position  of  prcefectus  urbi  at  Rome, 
was  obliged  to  return  to  Gaul  to  attend  to  his  property, 
which  had  been  laid  waste  by  the  Goths.  The  journey 
was  the  occasion  of  a  poem  in  two  books,  most  of  which 

lDe  Bello  Gildonico,  i,  21-25. 


2Y6  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

is  preserved.  It  is  written  in  elegiacs,  with  much  skill 
and  feeling.  Many  episodes  and  descriptions  are  inserted 
in  the  narrative,  but  no  passage  is  so  striking  as  that  in 
which  the  traveller,  passing  out  from  the  Ostian  gate, 
addresses  the  imperial  city : 

Wide  as  the  ambient  ocean  is  thy  sway, 
And  broad  thy  empire  as  the  realms  of  day; 
Still  on  thy  bounds  the  sun's  great  march  attends, 
With  thee  his  course  begins,  with  thee  it  ends. 
Thy  strong  advance  nor  Afric's  burning  sand, 
Nor  frozen  horrors  of  the  Pole  withstand ; 
Thy  valor,  far  as  kindly  Nature's  bound 
Is  fixed  for  man,  its  dauntless  way  has  found. 
All  nations  own  in  thee  their  common  land, 
And  e'en  the  guilty  bless  thy  conquering  hand ; 
One  right  for  weak,  for  strong,  thy  laws  create, 
And  bind  the  wide  world  in  a  world-wide  State.1 

The  history  of  Roman  poetry  is  virtually  at  an  end  with 
Claudian.  Other  poets  there  were,  but  none  whose  works 
Avianus.  are  living  and  breathing  exponents  of  the 
Seduiius.  ancient  Roman  life.  About  400  A.  D.  Avianus 
Dracontius.  pushed  forty-two  fables  of  ^Esop  in  elegiac 
verse ;  about  the  middle  of  the  fifth  century  the  presbyter 
Seduiius  wrote  several  religious  poems,  in  which  he  shows 
acquaintance  not  with  Biblical  literature  alone,  but  also 
with  the  Latin  classics ;  and  at  the  end  of  the  century  the 
African  poet  Blossius  ^Emilius  Dracontius  wrote  a  didac- 
tic poem  On  the  Praise  of  God,  in  three  books,  a  number 
of  short  epics,  chiefly  mythological,  and  several  other 
poems.  Dracontius  is  not  unskillful  in  his  versification 
and  his  use  of  language,  and  his  poems  prove  that  rhetor- 
ical training  was  still  to  be  found  in  Africa.  Moreover, 
his  knowledge  of  the  Roman  classics  is  as  evident  as  his 
knowledge  of  the  Bible.  But  neither  Dracontius  nor  the 

1  De  Reditu  Suo,  i,  55-66.    Translated  by  A.  J.  Church. 


THE  FOURTH  AND  FIFTH  CENTURIES          277 

other  poets  whose  works  are  preserved  to  us  from  the 
fifth  century  could  do  more  than  help  to  pass  on  to  the 
Middle  Ages  something  of  the  ancient  feeling  for  beauty 
of  form  in  literature.  And  even  that  had  ceased  to  be 
understood  by  the  people. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

CONCLUSION 

The  end  of  the  ancient  civilization — Boethius,  about  480-524  A.  D. — 
Later  literature  no  longer  Roman — Practical  character  of  Roman 
literature— The  first  period— The  Augustan  period— The  period  of 
the  empire — Our  debt  to  the  Romans. 

LONG  before  the  end  of  the  fifth  century  the  power 
of  Rome  was  broken,  and  the  centre  of  what  had  been 
the  Roman  empire  was  at  Constantinople.  The  western 
provinces  were  in  the  hands  of  barbarians,  Angles  and 
Saxons  ruled  in  Britain,  Franks  in  northern  Gaul,  Visi- 
goths in  southern  Gaul  and  Spain,  and  Vandals  in  Africa. 
The  end  Italv  itself  had  been  repeatedly  overrun  by 

of  the  old  hardy  warriors  from  the  north,  and  Rome  had 
civilization,  twice  been  sacked,  by  the  Goths  under  Alaric 
in  410  and  by  the  Vandals  under  Genseric  in  455  A.  D. 
With  the  establishment  by  Theodoric,  in  493  A.  D.,  of  the 
Gothic  kingdom  with  its  seat  at  Ravenna,  the  last  vestige 
of  the  Roman  empire  of  the  West  passed  away.  Hence- 
forth western  Europe  is  the  scene  of  strife  and  disorder, 
through  which  men  were  to  struggle  onward  to  the  new 
order  of  modern  life.  In  the  empire  of  the  East  much  of 
the  old  civilization  survived,  and  throughout  the  Middle 
Ages  the  ancient  culture  still  shed  some  rays  of  light  from 
Constantinople  to  the  darkened  west ;  but  in  western  Eu- 
rope there  was  little  culture,  and  learning  was  for  the 
most  part  shut  up  in  the  walls  of  monasteries. 

The  last  writer  who  seems  to  belong  to  the  old  civili- 
zation is  Boethius.  Anicius  Manlius  Torquatus  Severinus 
278 


CONCLUSION  279 

Boethius  was  a  Eoman  of  noble  birth  and  exalted  station. 
He  was  born  about  480  A.  D.,  and  after  his  father's  death 
was  adopted  by  the  patrician  Symmachus, 
whose  daughter  he  afterwards  married.  In 
500  A.  D.  he  delivered  in  the  senate  a  speech  in  honor  of 
Theodoric,  who  made  frequent  use  of  his  learning  and 
literary  skill.  He  held  important  offices  at  Eome,  received 
the  title  of  patrician,  and  in  510  A.  D.  became  consul  with- 
out a  colleague.  In  522  A.  D.  his  two  sons  were  made 
consuls,  and  the  joyful  father  delivered  an  oration  in 
praise  of  the  Gothic  king  to  whose  favor  they  owed  their 
elevation.  But  that  favor  was  destined  SOOB.  to  pass  from 
Boethius.  The  emperor  of  the  East,  Justin,  tried  to  stir 
up  the  Catholic  Italians  to  revolt  against  the  Arian  Theo- 
doric. Boethius  was  suspected,  arrested,  and  put  to  death 
with  tortures  in  524  A.  D.  The  servile  senate  decreed  his 
death  without  even  the  formality  of  a  trial. 

Boethius  was  a  prolific  writer.  He  translated  from 
the  Greek  various  philosophical  and  mathematical  trea- 
tises, to  some  of  which  he  added  commentaries,  and  the 
importance  of  the  Aristotelian  logic  during  the  Middle 
Ages  is  in  great  measure  due  to  him ;  he  also  wrote  a 
bucolic  poem,  which  is  lost,  and  several  treatises  on  points 
of  Christian  doctrine  ;  but  the  work  by  which  he  is  now 
best  known,  and  to  which  he  owes  his  reputation  as  the 
The  Conso-  ^as^  Roman  author,  is  the  treatise  On  the  Con- 
lation  of  solation  of  Philosophy  (De  Consolatione  Phil- 
Phiiosophy.  osophice),  which  he  wrote  in  prison  while 
waiting  for  his  condemnation.  This  work  consists  of  five 
books,  and  has  the  literary  form  of  a  satura — that  is,  the 
prose  is  interrupted  and  varied  by  the  insertion  of  passages 
in  verse.  These  metrical  passages,  although  their  rhythms 
and  diction  are  excellent,  do  not  show  the  same  depth  of 
thought  as  the  prose  portions.  This  is  explained  by  the 
fact  that  the  prose  portions  of  the  treatise  are  derived  in 
great  measure  from  the  Protrepticus  of  Aristotle,  while 
19 


280  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

the  verses  are  more  entirely  the  work  of  Boethius  himself. 
It  is  not  likely  that  Boethius  employed  the  Protrepticus 
directly,  but  he  probably  had  before  him  some  work  in 
which  Aristotle's  teachings  had  been  modified  by  the 
eclecticism  of  the  later  Platonists.  Everywhere  noble 
sentiments  are  expressed,  but  without  the  slightest  indi- 
cation of  Christianity,  or  of  any  specific  religion.  The 
names  of  the  pagan  deities  are  used,  but  Boethius  believes 
in  them  no  more  than  did  Milton  or  the  numerous  writers 
of  the  eighteenth  century  in  whose  works  their  names 
occur.  The  attitude  of  Boethius  is  throughout  that  of  a 
cultivated  and  intellectual  man  who  seeks  for  consolation 
when  in  trouble  not  in  faith,  but  in  reason.  In  the  begin- 
ning of  the  work  he  laments  his  hard  fate,  when  Philos- 
ophy appears  before  him  in  the  form  of  a. woman,  and  a 
dialogue  ensues,  in  which  the  unimportance  of  what  is 
ordinarily  termed  good  or  bad  fortune,  the  nature  of 
Providence,  the  divine  order  of  the  world,  chance,  free 
will,  and  similar  subjects,  are  discussed.  The  style  is  the 
artificial,  ornate  style  of  the  time,  held  in  check  by  the 
logical  sequence  of  the  argument.  Boethius  was  a  Chris- 
tian, but  in  his  adversity  he  turned  to  philosophy  for 
consolation,  and  his  philosophy  is  no  more  Christian  than 
is  that  of  Cicero.  Yet  his  teachings,  though  not  belong- 
ing to  any  one  religion,  are  essentially  religious.  It  is  not 
wonderful  that  the  Consolation  was  much  read  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  and  has  continued  to  find  many  readers  in 
later  times. 

There  were  still,  in  the  sixth  century,  men  who,  like 
Boethius,  could  find,  amid  the  disorders  of  the  times,  the 
Later  litera-  leisure  and  the  taste  for  study ;  and  the  only 
ture  no  kind  of  study  possible  was  that  of  the  ancient 

longer  literature.     But  Boethius  is  the  last  in  whom 

the  ancient  thoughts  and  feelings  appear  clad 
in  literary  form.  Throughout  the  Middle  Ages  some  of 
the  classical  writers,  especially  Virgil,  were  read  and  copied 


CONCLUSION  281 

in  monasteries,  and  those  laymen  who  received  a  clerkly 
education  learned  Latin  as  the  only  language  (except  the 
more  distant  and  difficult  Greek)  in  which  a  literature 
existed ;  but  Latin  was  then,  as  now,  a  language  of  the 
past,  even  though  it  was  still  used  for  literary  purposes, 
and  the  ancient  civilization  was  far  less  understood  than 
now.  Writings  in  Latin  after  Boethius  belong  not  to 
Roman  literature,  but  to  the  literature  of  the  church  and 
to  that  of  the  various  nations  of  Europe. 

The  date  of  the  beginning  of  Roman  literature  can  be 
fixed  almost  to  a  year,  for  there  was  no  Roman  literature 
before  Livius  Andronicus.  At  that  time  Latin  imitations 
of  Greek  works  were  introduced  to  add  to  the  attractions 
of  public  entertainments  and  to  make  the  young  ac- 
The  first  pe-  quainted  with  the  history  of  the  past.  As 
riodofKoman  the  republic  grew  in  power,  literature,  still  in 
literature.  imitation  of  the  Greek,  but  expressing  more 
and  more  completely  the  Roman  character,  developed  in 
all  directions,  but  especially  in  prose.  The  orators  culti- 
vated perfection  in  speech  that  they  might  move  the 
judges,  the  senate,  or  the  people ;  historians  hoped  that 
the  records  of  the  past  would  have  a  practical  effect  upon 
the  deeds  of  the  future,  or  they  aimed,  like  Caesar  in  his 
Commentaries ,  to  further  their  own  immediate  ends ;  and 
Cicero  adapted  Greek  philosophy  to  Roman  readers  in 
order  that  the  republic  might  have  wise  and  good  citizens. 
The  practical  purpose  of  the  lyric  poetry  of  Catullus  and 
his  contemporary  poets  is  less  evident,  though  even  lyric 
verse  may  serve  political  ends,  and  yet  there  seems  to 
have  been  in  the  careful  imitation  of  learned  Alexandrian 
works  a  deliberate  educational  purpose.  Certainly  in  all 
branches  of  literature  except  lyric  poetry  throughout  the 
republican  period  a  practical  purpose,  and  usually  a  polit- 
ical purpose,  is  almost  invariably  to  be  found.  Literature 
as  developed  by  the  Greeks  seemed  to  the  Romans  to  pos- 
sess practical  utility,  and  the  great  works  of  the  repub- 


282  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

lican  period  were  created  by  practical  men  to  aid  in  the 
attainment  of  their  ends. 

In  the  Augustan  period  the  practical  purpose  of  litera- 
ture is  even  more  evident  than  in  the  earlier  years.  In 
the  transition  from  the  republic  to  the  monarchy  it  was 

desirable  that  the  minds  of  men  should  not 
The  Augustan  .  .  ,  .,,  ,.,.  ,  ... 

period.  "e  ^°°  mucn  occupied  with  politics,  and  liter- 

ature was  naturally  encouraged  by  Augustus 
as  an  outlet  for  intellectual  energy  which  might  other- 
wise have  turned  to  political  matters.  It  was  also  desir- 
able that  the  Julian  family  be  connected  as  closely  as  pos- 
sible with  the  beginnings  of  Eome,  and  how  could  that  be 
done  better  than  by  such  a  poem  as  the  JEneid  ?  The  im- 
mediate practical  purpose  of  Virgil's  Georgics  is  evident. 
The  poems  of  Horace,  too,  are  in  part  openly  intended  to 
increase  the  popular  prestige  of  the  imperial  house,  and 
the  mere  fact  that  the  poet  was  known  to  be  the  friend 
of  the  emperor  would  add  as  much  to  the  glory  of  the  one 
as  of  the  other.  The  greatness  of  poetry  in  this  period  is 
due  directly  to  the  encouragement  of  Augustus,  and  his 
encouragement  had  a  practical  purpose.  That  prose,  espe- 
cially oratory,  declined  at  this  time  is  due  to  the  fact  that 
the  orator  was  no  longer  the  great  power  in  the  state. 

Under  the  empire  the  influence  of  literature  upon  poli- 
tics disappeared.  Oratory  no  longer  led  to  the  highest 
power,  poetry  must,  under  some  emperors  at  least,  be  care- 
ful not  to  overstep  prescribed  limits,  and  history  could 
not  safely  record  all  facts  with  their  causes  and  results. 
Even  philosophical  speculation  was  not  safe  if  it  led  to 
practical  conclusions  adverse  to  the  government.  It  was 
precisely  those  branches  of  literature  which 
might  be  used  for  political  purposes  that  the 
imperial  government  could  hardly  fail  to  dis- 
courage directly  or  indirectly,  and  those  were  the  branches 
in  which  the  practical  Eomans  naturally  excelled.  There 
were,  to  be  sure,  emperors  who  encouraged  literature,  but 


CONCLUSION  283 

their  encouragement,  leading  to  flattery  and  artificial  elo- 
quence, was  little  likely  to  raise  the  quality,  even  though 
it  increased  the  quantity,  of  literary  production.  With 
its  practical  importance  Eoman  literature  loses  its  vigor. 
Aside  from  Tacitus  and  Juvenal,  hardly  a  single  powerful 
and  vigorous  author  appears  in  the  imperial  period  until, 
with  the  growth  of  Christianity,  literature  again  acquires 
practical  importance.  That  literature  maintained  for  so 
many  years  a  relatively  high  degree  of  excellence  is  due 
to  the  constant  influence  of  Greece,  which  counteracted 
to  some  extent  the  forces  that  tended  to  destroy  all  liter- 
ary life.  Thus  Roman  literature  lingered  on  until  after 
the  breaking  up  of  the  Roman  empire. 

Only  a  small  part  of  the  great  bulk  of  Roman  litera- 
ture is  preserved  to  us,  but  that  part  includes  the  greatest 
works  of  the  best  period.  Those  are  worthy  subjects  of 
study  for  their  beauty  of  form,  their  clearness  of  thought, 
their  power,  their  vigor,  and  their  ethical  qualities.  The 
productions  of  the  imperial  period  are  inferior  in  quality 
to  those  of  the  republican  and  the  Augustan  times,  though 
their  quantity  is  proportionate  to  the  duration  of  the  em- 
pire ;  but  these  works  also  are  proper  subjects  of  study, 
for  they  also  express  the  character  of  the  Romans. 

Three  ancient  peoples  have  impressed  themselves 
strongly  upon  the  nations  of  Europe  and  America — the 
Hebrews,  the  Greeks,  and  the  Romans.  To  the  first  we 
owe  the  foundations  of  our  religion,  to  the  second  the  be- 
ginnings of  all  arts  and  sciences,  to  the  Romans  we  are 
indebted  for  the  adaptation  of  the  arts  and  sciences,  of 
philosophy,  and  even  of  religion  to  civilized 

th^ Romans.  life*  The  names  of  our  months  are  Roman, 
and  our  calendar  is,  with  slight  necessary 
changes,  that  established  by  Julius  Caesar.  The  laws  of 
continental  Europe  and,  though  to  a  less  degree,  of  Eng- 
land and  the  United  States,  are  based  upon  Roman  law  as 
finally  established  under  Justinian.  The  so-called  Gothic 


284:  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

architecture,  which  arose  in  France  in  the  Middle  Ages 
which  is  still  the  prevailing  style  of  our  churches,  can  be 
traced  back  step  by  step  to  Roman  buildings,  and  though 
Roman  architecture  was  dependent  upon  that  of  Greece, 
it  was  through  Rome  that  western  Europe  learned  to  use 
the  column,  the  arch,  and  the  vault.  The  beautiful  archi- 
tecture of  the  Renaissance  is  a  conscious  imitation  of  that 
of  Rome.  The  Romans,  too,  in  the  early  centuries  of  the 
Christian  church,  did  their  full  share  to  systematize  Chris- 
tian belief,  to  reconcile  it  with  philosophy,  and  to  estab- 
lish a  reasonable  form  of  church  government.  The  results 
of  their  labors  are  inherited  directly  by  the  Roman  Catho- 
lic church,  and  indirectly  or  partially  by  Protestants. 
There  is  hardly  a  side  of  modern  life  which  is  not  more 
or  less  affected  by  ancient  Rome  ;  while  the  dignity,  the 
sturdy  manhood,  the  stoical  disregard  of  fortune,  the 
patriotism,  and  the  vigorous  earnestness  expressed  in  Ro- 
man literature  have  a  powerful  influence  in  developing 
what  is  best  in  modern  manhood.  Roman  literature  will 
continue  to  be  an  important  object  of  study  as  long  as 
men  still  feel  their  obligations  to  the  past,  or  are  capable 
of  learning  from  the  example  and  precepts  of  other  ages. 


APPENDIX  I 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

[This  is  not  intended  to  be  an  exhaustive  bibliography,  but  is  merely  an 
attempt  to  refer  the  student  to  some  of  the  best  and  most  available  sources  of 
information.  Books  in  foreign  languages,  and  editions  with  notes  in  foreign 
languages,  are  mentioned  only  in  exceptional  cases  and  for  special  reasons. 
Further  bibliographical  information  is  to  be  found  in  the  larger  histories  of 
Roman  literature,  in  Engelmann's  Bibliotheca  Scriptorum  Classicorum,  the 
monthly  lists  in  the  Classical  Review,  and  the  Guide  to  the  Choice  of  Clas- 
sical Books,  by  J.  B.  Mayor,  London,  1879,  D.  Nutt;  with  its  New  Supple- 
ment, 18Q6.] 

GENERAL  WORKS 

C.  T.  Cruttwell.    History  of  Roman  Literature,  London,  1877, 

Griffin. 
J.  W.  Mackail.    Latin   Literature,   London,   1895,  Murray; 

New  York,  Scribner's. 
G.  A.  Simcox.    History  of  Latin  Literature,  London  and  New 

York,  1883,  Long-mans,  2  vols. 
G.  Middleton  and  T.  R.  Mills.    Handbook  to  Latin  Authors, 

London  and  New  York,  1896,  Macmillan. 
W.  Y.  Sellar.     The  Eoman  Poets  of  the  Republic,  Oxford,  2d 

ed.  1889 ;  Poets  of  the  Augustan  Age  (Virgil),  Oxford,  1891; 

Horace  and  the  Elegiac  Poets,  Oxford,  1892. 
R.  Y.  Tyrrell.     Latin    Poetry,  Boston,   1895,  Houghton  & 

Mimiii. 
G.  F.  Aly.    Geschichte  der  romischen  Litteratur,  Berlin,  1894, 

R.  Gaertner. 
G.  Bernhardy.    Grundriss  der  romischen  Litteratur,  5th  ed. 

Halle,  1872. 
W.  S.  Teuffel.     Geschichte  der  romischen  Litteratur,  5th  ed. 

revised  by  L.  Schwabe,  Leipzig,  1890,  Teubner ;  translated 

by  G.  C.  W.  Warr,  2  vols.,  London,  1891,  Bell.     [Especially 

good  for  bibliography.] 

285 


286  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

M.  Schanz.  Romische  Litteraturgeschichte,  Munich,  2d  ed. 
1898-1901,  Beck.  3  vols.  (to  Constantine) ;  vol.  iv  (to 
Justinian)  in  preparation. 

0.  Ribbeck.  Geschichte  der  romischen  Dichtung.  3  vols. 
Stuttgart,  1887-'92. 

C.  Lamarre.  Histoire  de  la  Litterature  latine  depuis  la  Fon- 
dation  de  Rome  jusqu'a  la  Fin  du  Gouvernement  Repub- 
licain ;  Paris,  1901,  Delagrave.  4  vols.  [Vol.  iv  contains 
selections  from  Latin  literature  in  the  original  and  in 
French  translation.  The  literature  of  the  imperial  period 
is  to  be  treated  in  subsequent  volumes.] 

G.  Michaut.  Le  Genie  latin.  Paris,  1900,  Fontemoing.  [In- 
teresting and  suggestive.] 

A  useful  series  of  books  called  "  Ancient  Classics  for  English 
Readers  "  contains  Caesar,  by  Anthony  Trollope ;  Catullus, 
Tibullus,  and  Propertius,  by  James  Davies-,  Cicero,  by 
W.  L.  Collins  \  Horace,  by  Theodore  Martin ;  Juvenal,  by 
E.  Walford ;  Livy,  by  W.  L.  Collins ;  Lucretius,  by  Mai- 
lock  ;  Ovid,  by  A.  Church  ;  Plautus  and  Terence,  by  W. 
L.  Collins ;  Pliny,  by  A.  Church  and  W.  J.  Brodribb ; 
Tacitus,  by  W.  B.  Donne ;  and  Virgil,  by  W.  L.  Collins. 
These  are  not  translations,  but  essays  illustrated  by  ex- 
tracts. Published  in  America  by  the  J.  B.  Lippincott  Co. 

COLLECTIONS 

[This  list  contains  the  titles  of  collections  referred  to  below.    Many  other 
collections  exist,  the  titles  of  which  are  to  be  found  in  larger  bibliographies.] 

Poetae  Latini  Minores,  ed.  Baehrens.  5  vols.  Leipzig,  1879- 
'83,  Teubner  series. 

Fragmenta  Poetanun  Romanorum,  ed.  Baehrens,  Leipzig, 
1886,  Teubner  series. 

Corpus  Poetarum  Latinorum,  ed.  J.  P.  Postgate-,  parts  i,  ii, 
(vol.  i),  and  iii.  London,  1893-1900,  Bell. 

Patrologia  Latina,  ed.  Migne,  Paris.  [221  vols.  containing 
the  works  of  ecclesiastical  writers  of  Latin  from  the  Apos- 
tolic times  to  those  of  Pope  Innocent  III.] 

Corpus  Scriptorum  Ecclesiasticorum  Latinorum.  [A  series  of 
ecclesiastical  writings,  published  by  the  Imperial  Academy 
at  Vienna,  begun  in  1866  and  not  yet  completed.] 


APPENDIX  I  287 

Scaenicae  Romanorum  Poesis  Fragmenta,  ed.  O.  Ribbeck.  2 
vols.  Leipzig,  1897-'98,  Teubner  series.  [Vol.  i,  Tragi- 
corum  Romanorum  Fragmenta  ;  vol.  ii,  Comicorum  Ro- 
manorum Fragmenta.] 

Grammatici  Latini,  ed.  H.  Keil,  Leipzig,  1857-'80,  Teubner, 
7  vols. 

Historicorum  Romanorum  Relliquiae,  ed.  H.  Peter,  vol.  i, 
Leipzig,  1870,  Teubner. 

Historicorum  Romanorum  Fragmenta,  ed.  H.  Peter,  Leipzig, 
1883,  Teubner  series. 

Scriptores  Historiae  Augustae,  ed.  H.  Peter,  Leipzig.  2  vols. 
Teubner  series. 

Anthologia  Latina,  ed.  F.  Bucheler  and  A.  Riese,  Leipzig, 
1870-'97.  2  vols.  Teubner  series. 

XII  Panegyric!  Latini,  ed.  Baehrens.  Leipzig,  1874,  Teubner 
series. 

Oratorum  Romanorum  Fragmenta,  ed.  Meyer.    Paris,  1837. 

EDITIONS  AND  TRANSLATIONS 
Accius.    Text  in  Fragm.  Poet.  Rom.,  vol.  i,  and  Scaen.  Rom. 

Poes.  Fragm.,  vol.  i. 
^STNA.    Text  in  Corp.  Poet.  Lat.,  part  iii,  and  Poet.  Lat. 

Min.,  vol.  ii.    Text  with  notes  and  translation  by  Robinson 

Ellis,  Oxford,  1901. 
AMBROSIUS  (St.  Ambrose).    Text,  Patrologia  Latina,  vols. 

xiv-xvii. 
AMMIANUS  MARCELLINUS.    Text.    Gardthausen,  Leipzig.    3 

vols.     Teubner  series. 
AMPELIUS.    Text.     Wolfflin  in  Halm's  Florus,  Leipzig,  1854, 

Teubner  series. 
ANDRONICUS.    See  LIVIUS. 
APHTHONIUS.    Text  in  Grammat.  Lat.,  vol.  vi. 
APULEIUS.    Text  with    Latin   notes.    Hildebrand,  Leipzig, 

1842.    2  vols. 

Translation.     Sir  George  Head,  London,  1851 ;  anony- 
mous, in  Bohn's  Library. 
ARNOBIUS.     Text.     Reifferscheid,  vol.  iv  of  Corp.  Script. 

Eccl.  Lat.    Also  in  Patrol.  Lat.,  vol.  v. 
ATTA.    Text  in  Scaen.  Rom.  Poesis  Fragm.,  vol.  ii. 
ATTICUS.    Text  in  Hist.  Rom.  Fr. 


288  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

AUGUSTINUS  (St.  Augustine).  Text.  Patrol.  Lat.,  vols.  xxxii- 
xlvii;  De  Civitate  Dei,  Dombart,  Leipzig,  1877,  2  vols., 
Teubner  series ;  Confessiones,  Raumer,  Giitersloh,  1876, 
Bertelsmann. 

AUGUSTUS.  Monumentum  Ancyranum,  Mommsen,  3d  ed. 
Berlin,  1883,  Weidmann  ;  W.  Fairley  (with  English  trans- 
lation), Philadelphia,  1898,  the  University  of  Philadel- 
phia. 

Fragments,  Weichart,  Grimma,  1845. 

AURELIUS  (Marcus  Aurelius).    See  FRONTO. 

AUSONIUS.    Text.    Peiper,  Leipzig,  1886,  Teubner  series. 

AVIANUS.  Text.  Poet.  Lat.  Min.  vol.  v ;  critical  text  and 
notes.  R.  Ellis,  Oxford,  1887. 

AVIENUS.    Grit.  text.    Holder,  Innsbruck,  1887,  Wagner. 

BOETHIUS.    Text.    Peiper,  Leipzig,  1871,  Teubner  series. 

Translation.  H.  R.  James,  London,  1897,  Elliot  Stock ; 
Fox,  in  Bonn's  Library. 

CJESAR.  Text.  Kubler,  Leipzig,  1893-1897,  Teubner  series. 
3  vols. 

Translation.  W.  A.  McDevitte,  Bohn's  Library.  Text 
and  notes.  The  Gallic  War,  Allen  &  Greenough,  Boston, 
Ginn  &  Co. ;  The  Civil  War,  Perrin,  New  York,  Univer- 
sity Publishing  Co.  Many  other  school  editions  exist. 

CALPURNIUS.  Text.  Poet.  Lat.  Min.,  vol.  iii ;  with  NEMESI- 
ANUS,  Text  and  Latin  notes,  Schenkl,  Leipzig  and  Prague, 
1885. 

CAPELLA.    See  MARTIANUS. 

CATO.    De  Agricultura.    Text  and  Latin  notes,  Keil,  Leipzig, 
1884r-'94,  Teubner.     [Two  vols.  with  VARRO,  Res  Rusticae.] 
Other  works.     Text  and  Latin  notes.    Jordan,  Leipzig, 
1860,  Teubner. 

CATONIS  DISTICHA.    Poet.  Lat.  Min.,  vol.  iii. 

CATULLUS.  Text.  Mueller,  Leipzig,  1885,  Teubner  series. 
[With  TIBULLUS,  PROPERTIUS,  the  fragments  of  LAEVIUS, 
CALVUS,  CINNA,  and  others,  and  the  PRIAPEA  ] ;  crit.  text 
with  appendices,  R.  Ellis,  3d  ed.,  Oxford,  1878. 

Annotated  edition.    Merrill,  Boston,  1893,  Ginn  &  Co. 
Commentary.    R.  Ellis,  2d  ed.,  Oxford,  1889. 
Translation  (verse).     Theodore  Martin,  Edinburgh  and 
London,  1875,  Blackwood. 


APPENDIX  I  289 

CELSUS.    Text.    Daremberg,  Leipzig,  1859,  Teubner  series. 
Translation.    J.  Grieve,  London,  1756. 

CENSORINUS.  Text.  Hultsch,  Leipzig,  1867,  Teubner  series  ; 
crit.  text,  J.  Cholodniak,  St.  Petersburg,  1889. 

CHARISIUS.    Text  in  Gram.  Lat.,  vol.  i. 

CICERO.  Text.  Baiter  and  Kayser,  Leipzig,  1860-'69,  B. 
Tauchnitz,  11  vols. ;  Muller,  Klotz,  and  others,  Leipzig, 
Teubner  series,  10  vols.  [Editions  of  separate  works  and 
selections  are  numerous.] 

Correspondence,  arranged  according  to  its  chronological 
order,  with  commentary  and  introductory  essays.  R.  Y. 
Tyrrell  and  L.  C.  Purser,  Dublin  and  London,  1855-1901. 
7  vols  [vol.  i  in  2d  ed.] 

Translation.  Orations,  C.  D.  Yonge,  4  vols. ;  On  Ora- 
tory and  Orators,  with  Letters  to  Quintus  and  Brutus,  J.  S. 
Watson ;  On  the  Nature  of  the  Gods,  Divination,  Fate, 
Laws,  a  Republic,  and  Consulship,  C.  D.  Yonge  and  F. 
Barham ;  Academics,  De  Finibus,  and  Tusculan  Questions, 
C.  D.  Yonge;  Offices,  or  Moral  Duties,  Cato  Major,  an 
Essay  on  Old  Age,  Laelius,  an  Essay  on  Friendship,  Scip- 
io's  Dream,  Paradoxes,  Letter  to  Quintus  on  Magistrates, 
C.  R.  Edmonds ;  Letters,  E.  Shuckburgh,  4  vols.  Bonn's 
Library. 

Life.  W.  Forsyth,  London,  1863,  Murray ;  New  York, 
Scribner's. 

CINCIUS  ALIMENTUS.    Text  in  Hist.  Rom.  Rell. 

CIRIS.    Text  in  Poet.  Lat.  Min.,  vol.  ii. 

CLAUDIAN.    Text.    Koch,  Leipzig,  1893,  Teubner  series. 
Translation.    Hawkins,  London,  1817,  2  vols. 

COLUMELLA.  Text  in  Scriptores  Rei  Rusticae,  ed.  Schneider, 
Leipzig,  1794-' 97 ;  De  Arboribus,  text,  Lundstrom,  Upsala, 
1897. 

Translation.    Anonymous,  London,  1745. 

COMMODIANUS.  Text.  Ludwig,  Leipzig,  1877-78,  2  vols. 
Teubner  series. 

CONSOLATIO  AD  LIVIAM.    Text  in  Poet.  Lat.  Min.,  vol.  i. 

CORNIFICIUS  (See  Cicero  ad  Herennium).  Text.  Marx, 
Leipzig,  1894,  Teubner. 

CULEX.    Text  in  Poet.  Lat.  Min.,  vol.  ii. 

CURTIUS  RUFUS.    Text.     Vogel,  Leipzig,  1881,  Teubner  series, 


290  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

CURTIUS  RUFUS.  Translation.  John  Digby,  3d  ed.  corr.  by 
Young,  London,  1747. 

CYPRIAN.  Text.  Hartel,  Vienna,  1868-71,  4  vols.  in  Corp. 
Script.  Eccl.  Lat. 

DARES.    Text.    Meister,  Leipzig-,  1873,  Teubner  series. 

DICTYS.    Text.     Meister,  Leipzig,  1872,  Teubner  series. 

DIOMEDES.     Text  in  Gram.  Lat. 

DIOSCORIDES.    Text  in  Gram.  Lat. 

DIR^E.    Text  in  Poet.  Lat.  Min.,  vol.  ii. 

DONATUS.  Text  in  Gram.  Lat.  and  in  the  introductions  to 
early  editions  of  Terence. 

ENNIUS.  Text  in  Fragm.  Poet.  Rom.  and  Corp.  Poet.  Lat., 
vol.  i. 

EUTROPIUS.    Text.    Riihl,  Leipzig,  1887,  Teubner  series. 
Translation.    See  JUSTIN. 

FENESTELLA.    Text  in  Hist.  Rom.  Fragm. 

FESTUS  (RuFius).    Text.     Wagner,  Prague,  1886. 

FESTUS  (SEXTUS  POMPEIUS).  Text.  Thewrewk,  Budapest, 
1889. 

FIRMICUS  MATERNUS.  Text,  Halm,  Vienna,  1867,  in  Corp. 
Script.  Eccl.  Lat.,  vol.  ii ;  Baehrens,  Leipzig,  1886,  Teub- 
ner series. 

FLORUS.    Text.    Halm,  Leipzig,  1854,  Teubner  series. 

FRONTINUS.  Strategemata.  Text.  Gundermann,  Leipzig,  1888, 
Teubner  series. 

Translation.    R.  Scott,  London,  1811. 
De  Aquis  Urbis  Romae.    Text.    Bucheler,  Leipzig,  1858, 
Teubnei. 

Text  with  translation  and    discussion.     C.  Herschel, 
Boston,  1899,  Dana,  Estes  &  Co. 

FRONTO.    Text.    Naber,  Leipzig,  1867,  Teubner. 

GAIUS.  Text  with  translation  and  notes.  Poste,  3d  ed.,  Ox- 
ford, 1890. 

GELLIUS.    Text.    Hertz,  Leipzig,  1887,  Teubner  series,  2  vols. 
Crit.  Text.    Hertz,  Leipzig,  1894,  Teubner,  2  vols. 
Translation.    Beloe,  London.  1795,  3  vols. 

GERMANICUS.    Text  in  Poet.  Lat.  Min.,  vol.  i. 

GRATIUS.  Text  in  Poet.  Lat.  Min.,  vol.  i ;  Corp.  Poet.  Lat., 
part  iii. 

;HIERONYMUS.    See  JEROME. 


APPENDIX  I  291 

HILARIUS  (St.  Hilary).    Text.    Patrol.  Lat.,  vols.  ix  and  x. 

HIRTIUS.    Text  in  complete  editions  of  Caesar. 

HORACE.    Text  in  Corp.  Poet.  Lat.,  vol.  i ;  Kellar  and  Hduss- 

ner,  2d  ed.  Prague,  1892.    Annotated  editions  are  numerous. 
Translation  (verse).     Theodore  Martin,  Edinburgh  and 

London,    1881,    Black  wood,  2  vols.       Odes  and   Epodes, 

Lord  Lytton,  Edinburgh  and  London,  1869,  New  York, 

1870. 

HYGINUS.    Text.    M.  Schmidt,  Jena,  1872. 
HYGINUS  GROMATICUS.    Text.    Domaszewski,  Leipzig,  1887. 
JEROME.    Text.    Patrol.  Lat.,  vols.  xxii-xxx.    De  Viris  Illus- 

tribus,  Herding,  Leipzig,  1879,  Teubner  series. 
JULIUS.    See  C^SAR. 

JULIUS  CAESAR  STRABO.    Text  in  Orat.  Rom.  Fragm. 
JULIUS  VICTOR.     Text  in  Orelli's  Cicero,  vol.  v,  p.  195,  and 

in  Halm's  Rhetores  Minores,  p.  371. 
JUSTIN.    Text.    Jeep,  Leipzig,  1859,  Teubner  series ;  Hallberg, 

Paris,  1875. 

Translation.     Watson,  London,  1853,  Bonn's  Library, 

[with  CORNELIUS  NEPOS  and  EUTROPIUS]. 
JUVENAL.    Text.    Bucheler,  Berlin,  2d  ed.  1886,  Weidmann 

[with  PERSIUS  and  SULPICIA]. 

Annotated  edition.    Pearson  &  Strong,  Oxford,  1892. 
Translation.     (Prose)  Leeper,  London,  1891,  2d  ed.  Mac- 

millan  [see  also  LUCILIUS]  ;    (verse)  Dryden,  in  Dryden's 

works. 
LACTANTIUS.    Text.    Patrol  Lat.,  vols.  vi  and  vii.    [Some  of 

his  works  have  appeared  in  Corp.  Script.  Eccl.  Lat.    The 

Poem  on  the  Phoenix  is  in  Poet.  Lat.  Min.,  vol.  ii.] 
LAMPRIDIUS.    Text  in  Scriptores  Historiae  Augustae. 
LIVIUS  ANDRONICUS.    Text  in  Fragm.  Poet.  Rom.  and  Scaen. 

Rom.  Poesis  Fragm.,  vols.  i  and  ii. 

LIVY.  Text.  Weissenborn,  Leipzig,  1878,  Teubner  series,  6  vols. 
Crit.  Text.    Madvig  and   Ussing,  Copenhagen,  4th  ed. 

1886  and  later.    4  vols. 

Translation.     Spillan,  Edmunds,  and  McDevitte,  Lon- 
don, Bohn's  Library.     4  vols. 
LUCAN.    Text  in  Corp.  Poet.  Lat.,  part  iii ;   Hosius,  Leipzig, 

1892.    Teubner  series. 

Translation  (verse).    N.  Rowe,  London,  1807.    3  vols. 


292  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

LUCILIUS.    Text  in  Fragm.  Poet.  Rom. 

Translation.    Evans,  London,  Bonn's    Library.     [ JU- 
VENAL, PERSIUS,  SULPICIA,  and  LUCILIUS.] 
LUCRETIUS.    Text.    Munro,  London,  Bell ;   also  in  Harper's 

Classical  Texts. 

Grit.  Text.    Lachmann,  Berlin,  1866.    2  vols. 

Text  and  notes.     Munro,  London,  4th    ed.    1891-'93, 

Bell.     3  vols.,  the  third  of  which  is  a  prose  translation. 
MACROBIUS.    Text.    EyssenTiardt,  Leipzig,  1868,  2d  ed.    Teub- 

ner  series. 

MAECENAS.    Text  in  Fragm.  Poet.  Rom. 
MANILIUS.    Text  in  Corp.  Poet.  Lat,  part  iii. 

Translation.     Creech,  London,  1700.    [Appended  to  LU- 
CRETIUS.] 

MANLIUS.    See  VOPISCUS. 
MARCELLINUS.    See  AMMIANUS. 
MARIUS  VICTORINUS.    Text  in  Gram.  Lat.,  vol.  vi,  Orelli's 

Cicero,   vol.  v,  Halm's  Rhetores  Minores,  and  Patrol. 

Lat.,  vol.  viii. 
MARTIAL.    Text.     Gilbert,  Leipzig,  1886,  Teubner  series. 

Translation  (prose).    Edited  by  H.  G.  Bohn,  London, 

1897.     [Contains  also  metrical  translations  from  various 

sources.] 
MARTIANUS   CAPELLA.    Text.    Eyssenhardt,    Leipzig,  1866, 

Teubner  series. 

MELA.    Text.    Frick,  Leipzig,  1880,  Teubner- series. 
MINUCIUS  FELIX.    Text.    Baehrens,  Leipzig,  1886,  Teubner 

series. 

MORETUM.    Text  in  Poet.  Lat.  Min.,  vol.  ii. 
N^EVIUS.    Text  in  Fragm.  Poet.  Rom.,  Scaen.  Rom.  Poesis 

Fragm.,  vols.  i  and  ii. 
NAMATIANUS.    See  EUTILIUS. 
NEMESIANUS.    Text  in  Poet.  Lat.  Min.,  vol.  iii. 
NEPOS.     Text.     Halm-Fleckeisen,    Leipzig,.   10th    ed.    1889, 

Teubner  series. 

Translation.    See  JUSTIN. 
NIGIDIUS  FIGULUS.    Text  of    fragments  with    Latin  notes. 

Stroboda,  Vienna,  1889. 
NONIUS   MARCELLUS.      Crit.  text  with    comment.     Muller, 

Leipzig,  1888,  Teubner.    2  vols.     Onions,  Oxford,  1895. 


APPENDIX  I  293 

OCTAVIUS.    See  AUGUSTUS. 

OROSIUS.    Zangemeister,  Corp.  Script.  Eccl.  Lat.,  vol.  v,  and 

Leipzig,  1889,  Teubner  series. 

OVID.  Text  in  Corp.  Poet.  Lat.,  vol.  i ;  Merkel-Ewald,  Leip- 
zig, 3d  ed.  begun  1888,  Teubner  series. 

Annotated  editions  of  separate  works  and  of  selections 
are  numerous. 

Translation  (prose).  Bonn's  Library.  Metrical  trans- 
lations by  Dryden  and  others  are  contained  in  Chalmers' 
English  Poets. 

PACUVIUS.    Text  in  Scaen.  Rom.  Poesis  Fragm.,  vol.  i. 
PALLADIUS.    Text  in  Scriptores  Rei  Rusticae,  ed.  Schneider, 

Jena,  1794-'97. 

PERSIUS.  Text  in  Corp.  Poet.  Lat.,  vol.  i ;  Bucheler.  See 
JUVENAL  ;  with  translation  and  commentary,  Conington 
and  Nettleship,  Oxford,  1893. 

Translation  (prose).  See  LUCILIUS  and  JUVENAL  ;  (verse) 
Dryden,  in  his  complete  works  and  Chalmers'  English 
Poets. 

PERVIGILIUM  VENERIS.    Text  in  Poet.  Lat.  Min.,  vol.  iv. 
PETRONIUS.    Text.    Bucheler,  Berlin,  3d  ed.  1895,  Weidmann. 
[With  the  satires  of  VARRO  and  SENECA.] 

Translation.  (Trimalchio's  Dinner).  H.  T.  Peck,  New 
York,  1898,  Harper's. 

PHJEDRUS.  Text  in  Corp.  Poet.  Lat.,  part  iii ;  Riese,  Leipzig, 
1885,  B.  Tauchnitz. 

Translation.  Smart,  London,  1831.  [Also  appended 
to  Eiley's  version  of  Terence  and  Phsedrus  in  Bonn's 
Library.] 

PLAUTUS.  Text.  Goetz  and  Schoell,  Leipzig,  1892-'95, 
Teubner  series,  7  parts. 

Critical  edition.  Ritschl  (2d  ed.  by  Goetz,  Loewe,  and 
Schoell),  Leipzig,  1878-'93,  Teubner,  20  parts. 

Many  annotated  editions  of  separate  plays  exist. 
Translation  (prose).     Riley,  London,  Bohn's  Library; 
(verse)  Thornton  and  Warner,  London,  1767-72. 
PLINY  THE  ELDER.    Text.    Jan  and  Mayhoff,  Leipzig,  2  ed. 
Teubner  series.     6  vols. 

Translation.  With  Notes,  Bostock  and  Riley,  London, 
Bell.  6  vols. 


294  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

PLINY  THE  YOUNGER.  Text.  Keil,  Leipzig,  1873,  Teubner 
series. 

Translation.     Melmoth,  revised  by  Bosanquet,  London, 
1877,  Bell ;  Lewis,  London,  1879,  Triibner. 

PLOTIUS.    See  SACERDOS. 

POMPEIUS  TROGTJS.    See  JUSTIN. 

POMPONIUS.    See  MELA. 

POMPONIUS  (Lucius).    Text  in  Fragm.  Poet.  Rom. 

PRIAPEA.    Text  in  Poet.  Lat.  Min.,  vol.  i,  cf.  vol.  ii. 

PRISCIAN.    Text  in  Gram.  Lat.,  vols.  ii  and  iii. 

PROBUS  (VALERIUS).    Text  in  Gram.  Lat.,  vol.  iv. 

PROPERTIUS.    Text  in  Corp.  Poet.  Lat.,  vol.  i ;  Mueller,  Leip- 
zig, 1880,  Teubner  series.    See  CATULLUS. 
Ed.  Grit.    Postgate,  London,  1880,  Bell. 
Translation  (prose).     Gantillon,  with  metrical  versions 
of    select  elegies  by  Nott  and    Elton,   London,   Bohn's 
Library. 

PRUDENTIUS.    Text.    Patrol.  Lat.,  vols.  lix  and  Ix. 

PUBLILIUS  SYRUS.  Text.  Bickf or  d- Smith,  Cambridge,  1885 ; 
O.  Friedrich,  Berlin,  1880,  Grieben  [with  notes]. 

QUINTILIAN.  Text.  Institutiones  Oratoriae,  Meister,  Leipzig, 
1886-'87,  Freytag. 

Declamationes.    Hitter,  Leipzig,  1884,  Teubner  series. 
Translation.    Institutes  of  Oratory,  J.  S.  Watson,  Lon- 
don, Bohn's  Library.    2  vols. 

EEPOSIANUS.    Text  in  Poet.  Lat.  Min.,  vol.  iv. 

EUTILIUS  NAMATIANUS.    Text  in  Poet.  Lat.  Min.,  vol.  v. 

SACERDOS.    Text  in  Gram.  Lat.,  vol.  vi. 

SALLUST.  Text.  Eussner,  Leipzig,  1888,  Teubner  series. 
[School  editions  of  the  Catiline  and  the  Jugurtha  are 
numerous.] 

Translation.    Pollard,  London,  1882,  Macmillan. 

SAMMONICUS  SERENUS.    Text  in  Poet.  Lat.  Min.,  vol.  iii. 

SEDULIUS.  Text  in  Patrol.  Lat.,  vol.  ix,  and  Corp.  Script. 
Eccl.  Lat.,  vol.  x. 

SENECA  (the  father).  Text.  Mutter,  Leipzig,  1888,  Freytag; 
Kiessling,  Leipzig,  1872,  Teubner  series. 

SENECA  (the  son).  Text.  Philosophical  works.  Haase,  Leip- 
zig, 1852  sqq.,  Teubner  series. 

Tragedies,  Leo,  Berlin,  1879,  Weidmann,  2  vols. 


APPENDIX  I  295 

SENECA  (the  son).    Translation.    On  Benefits,  Minor  Essays, 

and  On  Clemency.    A.  Stewart,  London,  Bonn's  Library. 

2  vols.     Two  Tragedies  (Medea  and  Daughters  of  Troy), 

E.  I.  Harris,  Boston,  1899,  Houghton  &  Mifflin. 

SERVIUS.    Text  with  Latin  notes.     Thilo  and  Hagen,  1878- 

1902,  Teubner.     4  vols. 

SIDONIUS  APOLLINARIS.  Text  in  Patrol.  Lat.,  vol.  Iviii ;  IM- 
johann,  Berlin,  1887  (Monum.  German.  Hist.  Auct.  An- 
tiquiss.,  vol.  viii). 

SILIUS  ITALICUS.  Text.  Bauer,  Leipzig,  1890-'92,  Teubner 
series.  2  vols. 

Translation  (verse).     Tytler,  Calcutta,  1828.    2  vols. 
SISENNA.    Text  in  Hist .  Rom.  Hell.  . 

SOLINUS.  CritText.  Mommsen,  Berlin,  2ded.  1895, Weidmann. 
STATIUS.     Text.     Kohlmann,     Leipzig,     1879-'84,     Teubner 
series.    2  vols. 

Translation   (verse).     Thebaid.     Lewis,  in  Chalmers' 
English  Poets,  vol.  xx ;  Coleridge,  in  his  collected  poems ; 
Achilleis,  Sir  Robert  Howard,  in  his  poems. 
SUEIUS.    Text  in  Fragm.  Poet.  Rom. 
SUETONIUS.    Text.    Roth,  Leipzig,  1875,  Teubner  series. 

Translation.     Thomson,  revised  by  Forester,  in  Bonn's 
Library. 

SULPICIA.    See  JUVENAL. 
SYMMACHUS.    Text.    Seeck,  Berlin,  1883  (Monum.  Germ.  Hist. 

Auct.  Antiquiss.,  vol.  vi,  1). 

TACITUS.  Text.  Nipperdey,  Berlin,  1871-76,  Weidmann.  4 vols. 
[Annotated  editions  of  separate  works  are  many.] 
Translation.      Church  and  Brodribb,  London,  1868- 
'77,  Macmillan.     3  vols. 

TERENCE.    Text.    Dziatzko,  Leipzig,  1884,  B.  Tauchnitz. 
Ed.  Crit.     Umpfenbach,  Leipzig,  1871,  Teubner. 
Annotated  ed.     Wagner,  London,  1869,  Bell.     [Anno- 
tated editions  of  separate  plays  are  numerous.] 

Translation  (verse).     Colman,   London,   1810 ;    (prose) 
Riley,  in  Bohn's  Library  [with  PH^EDRUS]. 
TERENTIANUS  MAURUS.    Text  in  Gram.  Lat.,  vol.  vi. 
TERTULLIAN.    Text.    Patrol  Lat.,  vols.  i  and  ii;   Reiffer- 
scheid  and  Wissowa,  Corp.  Script.  Eccl.  Lat.,  vol.  xx 
[only  vol.  i  of  Tertullian]. 
20 


296  ROMAN  LITERATURE 

TIBULLUS.    Text  in  Corp.  Poet.  Lat.,  vol.  i;  see  also  CA- 
TULLUS. 

Translation.     Cranstoun,  Edinburgh  and  London,  1872, 
Blackwood.     [English  verse  with  notes.] 
TROGUS.    See  JUSTIN. 
VARIUS.    Text  in  Fragm.  Poet.  Rom. 
VARRO  ATACINUS.    Text  in  Fragm.  Poet.  Rom. 
VARRO  (MARCUS).    Text.    De  Lingua  Latina,  Mutter,  Leipzig, 
1833 ;  Spengel,  Berlin,  1885.     De  Ee  Rustica,  Keil,  Leipzig, 
1889,  Teubner  series  [commentary,  1891].     Fragments  of 
Varro's  Menippean  Satires  are   contained  in  Bucheler's 
PETRONIUS,  of  the  lost  grammatical  works  in  Wilmanns, 
De  Varronis  Libris  Grammaticis,  Berlin,  1864,  Weidmann, 
of  the  Antiquitates  in  MerckeVs  edition  of  OVID'S  Fasti, 
Berlin,  1841,  and  poetical  fragments  in  Fragm.  Poet.  Rom. 
VEGETIUS  RENATUS.    Text.    Epitoma   Rei  Militaris,  Lang, 
Leipzig,  2d  ed.  1885,  Teubner  series. 

Mulom  edicina.   In  Schneider's  Script  ores  Rei  Rusticae, 
Jena,  1794-'97. 

VELLEIUS  PATERCULUS.    Text.    Halm,  Leipzig,  1876,  Teubner 
series. 

Translation.    J.  S.  Watson,  Bonn's  and  Harper's  Li- 
braries.   [SALLUST,  FLORUS,  and  VELLEIUS  PATERCULUS, 
with  notes.] 
VIRGIL.    Text.    Ribbeck,  Leipzig,  2d  ed.,  Teubner  series. 

Grit.  Text.    Ribbeck,  Leipzig,  2d  ed.,  Teubner.     4  vols. 
Annotated  editions.     Conington  and  Nettleship,  Lon- 
don,   1865-71,    Bell,  3  vols. ;     Greenough,  Boston,   1895, 
Ginn  &  Co.     [School  editions  of   parts  of  Virgil's  works 
are  numerous.] 

Translation  (verse).    Dry  den,  in  his  complete  works. 
JSneid.     Conington,  London,  1870,  Longmans;   J.  D. 
Long,  Boston,  1879,  Lockwood,  Brooks  &  Co. 

Eclogues.     C.  S.  Calverley,  in  his  collected  works,  Lon- 
don, 1901,  Bell. 

Georgics.    H.  W.  Preston,  Boston,  1881,  Osgood  &  Co. 
VITRUVIUS.    Crit.  Text.    Rose,  Leipzig,  1899,  Teubner  series. 

Translation.     Gwilt,  London,  new  ed.  1860,  Weale. 
VOLCACIUS  SEDIGITUS.    Text  in  Fragm.  Poet.  Rom. 
VOPISCUS.    Text  in  Script.  Hist.  Aug. 


APPENDIX  II 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE 

[When  two  dates  are  given  they  designate  the  birth  and  death  of  the 
author  or  authors  named  in  the  same  line.  The  dates  given  opposite  the 
names  of  emperors,  which  are  printed  in  italics,  refer,  however,  to  their 
reigns,  not  to  their  lives.  When  one  date  is  given  it  designates  a  time  when 
the  activity  of  the  author  or  authors  was  probably  at  its  height.  Interroga- 
tion points  denote  uncertainty.] 


B.C. 
280. 

Before  270-about  204. 
About  269-199. 
About  254-184. 
239-169. 
234-149. 
About  230. 

220-about  130. 

216. 

211. 

210. 

206. 

Before  200-about  165. 

198. 


About  192-152. 

191. 

About  190-159. 

185-129. 

183. 

(D-1S8. 

About  180. 

180  (f)-126. 

(f)-174. 

170-at  least  100. 

163-133. 

About  158-about  75. 

154-121. 

About  154-after  100. 

About  152-87. 


Appius  Claudius  Caecus  (orator). 

Livius  Andronicus. 

Gnasus  Naevius. 

Titus  Maccius  Plautus."" 

Quintus  Ennius. 

Marcus  Porcius  Cato. 

Quintus  Fabius  Maximus  Cunctator  (or- 
ator). 

Marcus  Pacuvius. 

Quintus  Fabius  Pictor. 

Fabulae  Atellanae  introduced. 

Lucius  Cincius  Alimentus. 

Quintus  Cfecilius  Metellus  (orator). 

Statius  Caecilius  (comic  poet). 

Sextus  ^Elius  (jurist). 

Marcus  Cornelius  Cethegus  (orator). 

Cato's  son  (jurist). 

Scipio  Nasica  (jurist). 

Publius  Terentius  Afer  (Terence). 

Scipio  Africanus  the  younger. 

Quintus  Fabius  Labeo  (jurist). 

Publius  Licinius  Crassus  (orator),  Scipio 
Africanus  the  elder. 

Lucius  Acilius  (jurist). 

Gaius  Lucilius. 

Publius  JElius  (jurist). 

Lucius  Accius. 

Tiberius  Gracchus  (orator). 

Publius  Rutilius  Rufus. 

Gaius  Gracchus  (orator). 

Lucius  ^iius  Prasconinus  Stilo. 

Quintus  Lutatius  Catulus. 

297 


298 


ROMAN  LITERATURE 


T>       ^1 

About  150. 


143-87. 
About  140. 
140-91. 
136. 
133. 

131. 

About  130. 

122. 

119-67. 

116-27. 

114-50. 

109-32. 

106-43. 

105-43. 


102  (f)-44. 
102-43. 

Latter  part  of  the  second 
century. 

Before  100-after  30. 
About  99-55  (I). 
(?)-at  least  91. 
95. 
About  90. 


87-47. 
86-35. 

Early  in  the  first  century. 
First  half  of  the  first  cen- 
tury. 


About  84-about  54. 

(?)-at  least  82. 

82-after  37. 

78  (?)-42. 

(f)-77. 

70-27. 

70  (?)-8. 

70-19. 

About  70-after  16. 

67-5  A.  D. 

65-8. 

About  64-about  17  A.  D. 


Lucius  Afranius,  Titinius  (comic  poets), 
Publius  Cornelius  Scipio,  Aulus  Postu- 
inius  Albinus,  Gaius  Acilius. 

Marcus  Antonius  (orator). 

Lucius  Cassius  Hemina,  Gaius  Laelius. 

Lucius  Licinius  Crassus  (orator). 

Lucius  Furius  Philus  (orator  and  jurist). 

Publius  Mucius  Scaevola,  Lucius  Calpur- 
nius  Piso  Frugi. 

Publius  Licinius  Crassus  Mucianus  (ju- 
rist). 

Gaius  Titius. 

Gaius  Fannius  (orator  and  historian). 

Lucius  Cornelius  Sisenna. 

Marcus  Terentius  Varro. 

Hortensius  (orator). 

Titus  Poinponius  Atticus. 

Marcus  Tullius  Cicero. 

Decimus  Laberius. 

Turpilius  (comic  poet). 

Gaius  Julius  Caesar. 

Quintus  Cicero. 

Gnaeus  Matius,  Laevius  Melissus,  Hostius, 
Aulus  Furius,  Ccelius  Antipater,  Quin- 
tus Valerius  Soranus. 

Cornelius  Nepos. 

Titus  Lucretius  Carus. 

Sempronius  Asellio  (historian). 

Quintus  Mucius  Scaevola  (jurist). 

Lucius  Poinponius,  No vius  (writers of  Fdb- 
ulce,  Atellance),  Volcacius  Sedigitus. 

Gaius  Julius  Caesar  Strabo  (tragedian). 

Gaius  Licinius  Calvus. 

Gaius  Sallustius  Crispus. 

Valerius  Antias,  Quintus  Cornificius. 

Sueius,  Gaius  Helvius  Cinna,  Publius 
Valerius  Cato,  Gaius  Memmius,  Ticidas, 
Aurelius  Opilius,  Antonius  Gnipho, 
Marcus  Pompilius  Andronicus,  Santra, 
Servius  Sulpicius  Ruf  us. 

Gaius  Valerius  Catullus. 

Quintus  Claudius  Quadrigarius  (historian). 

Varro  Atacinus. 

Marcus  Junius  Brutus. 

Titus  Quinctius  Atta. 

Cornelius  Gallus. 

Gaius  Maecenas. 

Publius  Vergilius  Maro  (Virgil). 

Vitruvius  Pollio. 

Gaius  Asinius  Pollio. 

Quintus  Horatius  Flaccus  (Horace). 

Gaius  Julius  Hyginus. 


APPENDIX  II 


299 


B.C. 

64-8  A.  D. 
63-14  A.  D. 

63-12  A.  D. 

59-17  A.  D. 

About  55-about  40  A.  D. 

About  54-about  19. 

About  54-about  4. 

52-19  A.  D. 

About  50. 

About  50-about  15. 

(!)-47. 

47-about  30  A.  D. 


(f)-af  ter  44. 
(f>-43. 
(l)-af  ter  43. 
43-(f). 
43-18  A.  D. 
40-33  A.  D. 
About  20. 

15-19  A.  D. 

14-59  A.  D. 
12. 

Second  half  of 
century. 


the  first 


A.  D. 

First  half  of  the  first  cen- 
tury. 


About  1. 
About  1-65. 
About  3-88. 
14-37. 

About  15-80. 
16-59. 
23-79. 
(f)-25. 
25-101. 

sr 


Marcus  Valerius  Messalla. 

Gaius  Octavius  (Caesar  Octavianus  Au- 
gustus). 

Marcus  Vipsanius  Agrippa. 

Titus  Livius  (Livy). 

Seneca  (the  father). 

Albius  Tibullus. 

Doraitius  Marsus. 

Decimus  Fenestella. 

Publilius  Syrus  (writer  of  mimes). 

Sextus  Propertius. 

Marcus  Calidius. 

Decimus  Valerius  Maximus. 

Nigidius  Figulus. 

Gaius  Oppius. 

Aulus  Hirtius. 

Marcus  Tullius  Tiro. 

Lygdamus. 

Publius  Ovidius  Naso  (Ovid). 

Asinius  Gallus. 

Pompeius  Trogus. 

Claudius  Caesar  Germanicus. 

Domitius  Afer. 

Gaius  Valgius  Rufus. 

Sulpicia,  Albinovanus  Pedo,  Ponticus, 
Macer,  Grattius,  Rabirius,  Cornelius 
Severus,  Gaius  Melissus,  the  Priapea, 
the  Consolatio  ad  Liviam,  Titus  Labie- 
nus,  Marcus  Porcius  Latro,  Gaius  Al- 
bucius  Silus,  Quintus  Haterius,  Lucius 
Junius  Gallio,  Arellius  Fuscus,  Lucius 
Cestius  Pius,  Marcus  Antistius  Labeo, 
Gaius  Ateius  Capito. 


Manilius,  the  ^iEtna,  Aufidius  Bassus, 
Quintus  Remmius  Palaemon,  Caepio,  An- 
tonius  Castor,  Julius  Atticus,  Lucius 
Gracchinus,  Marcus  Apicius,  Lucius 
Annaeus  Cornutus,  the  Sextii,  Gaius 
Musonius  Rufus. 

Verrius  Flaccus. 

Lucius  Annaeus  Seneca  (the  son). 

Asconius  Pedianus. 

Tiberius. 

The  father  of  Statius. 

Agrippina. 

Gaius  Plinius  Secundus  (Pliny  the  elder). 

Cremutius  Cordus. 

Silius  Italicus. 

Votienus  Montanus. 

Velleius  Paterculus. 


300 


ROMAN  LITERATURE 


A.  D. 


(fh-82, 


34-62. 

About  35-about  100. 

About  35. 

87-41. 

39-65. 

About  40. 

About  40-about  95. 

About  40-about  104. 

41-54. 

About  45. 

About  50. 

54-68. 

About  55-about  118. 

55  (f)-about  135. 

56 

About  60. 

61  or  63-112  or  113. 

(f)-66. 


69-79. 
About  70. 

About  70  or  75  to  about 

150. 
79-81. 
81-96. 

(?)-about  90. 
96-98. 
Time  of  Nerva  and  Tra- 

jan. 
98-117. 

About  100-175. 
About  110-180. 
117-138. 
Time  of  Hadrian. 


About  125-(f). 

About  125-about  200. 

138-161. 

Time  of  Antoninus. 

Time  of    Antoninus  and 

M.  Aurelius. 
About  160. 
About  160-about  230. 


Publius  Vitellius. 

Cassius  Severus. 

Mamercus  Scaurus. 

Aulus  Persius  Flaccus  (Persius). 

Marcus  Fabius  Quintilianus  (Quintilian). 

Aulus  Cornelius  Celsus. 

Caligula. 

Marcus  Annaeus  Lucanus  (Lucan). 

Phaedrus,  Columella,  Pomponius  Mela. 

Publius  Papinius  Statius. 

Marcus  Valerius  Martialis  (Martial). 

Claudius. 

Gaius  Cassius  Longinus,  Proculus. 

Pomponius    Secuiidus,    Quintus    Curtius 

Rufus,  Suetonius  Paulinus. 
Nero. 

Cornelius  Tacitus. 

Decimus  Junius  Juvenalis  (Juvenal). 
Marcus  Valerius  Probus. 
Titus  Calpurnius  Siculus. 
Gaius  Plinius  Caecilius  Secundus  (Pliny 

the  younger). 
Petronius  Arbiter. 
Gnaeus  Domitius  Corbulo. 
Vespasian. 
Saleius  Bassus,  Curiatius  Maternus,  Sex- 

tus  Julius  Frontinus. 
Gaius  Suetonius  Tranquillus. 

Titus. 

Domitian. 

Gaius  Valerius  Flaccus. 

Nerva. 

Hyginus,  Balbus,  Siculus  Flaccus,  several 

grammarians,  etc. 
Trajan. 

Marcus  Cornelius  Frouto. 
Gaius. 
Hadrian. 
Lucius  Annaaus  (f)  Floras,  Marcus  Juni- 

anus  Justinus  (Justin),  Salvius  Julianus, 

Quintus  Terentius  Scaurus. 
Aulus  Gellius. 
Apuleius. 
Antoninus  Pius. 
Granius  Licinianus,  Lucius  Ampelius,  Sex- 

tus  Pomponius. 
Quintus  Cervidius  Scaevola. 

Marcus  Minucius  Felix. 
Quintus  Septiraius  Florens  Tertullianus 
(Tertullian). 


APPENDIX  II 


301 


A.D. 
161-180. 
About  165-230. 
180-192. 
(f)-212. 
Before  200. 
193-211. 

Second  or  third  century. 
About  200. 

Early  in  the  third  century. 
Third  century. 


About  200-258. 

222-235. 

(D-228. 

238. 

238. 

249. 

About  250. 

260-268. 

270-275. 

275. 

283. 

284-305. 

Time  of  Diocletian. 

About  290. 

297. 

Latter  part  of  the  third 

century. 

End  of  the  third  century. 
About  300. 

Early  part  of  the  fourth 

century. 
Fourth  century. 
About  310-about  395. 
About  315-367. 
321. 

About  330. 
330-400. 
331-420. 
About  340-397. 
About  345-405. 
348  to  about  410. 
About  350. 

354  (?). 

354. 

354-430. 


Marcus  AureUus. 

Marius  Maximus. 

Commodus. 

-ZEmilius  Papinianus. 

Terentianus  Maurus,  Juba. 

Septimius  Severus. 

The  Pervigilium  Veneris. 

Helenius   Aero,    Pomponius    Porphyrio, 

Quintus  Sammonicus  Serenus. 
Hosidius   Geta,   Gaius  Julius    Romanus, 

Julius  Paulus. 
The  Disticha  Catonis,  Cornelius  Labeo, 

Quintus  Gargilius  Martialis,  Aquila  Ro- 

manus, Gaius  Julius  Solinus. 
St.  Cyprian  (Thascius  Ca3cilius  Cyprianus). 
Alexander  Severus. 
Domitius  Ulpianus. 
Gordian  I. 
Censorinus. 
Commodianus. 
^Elius  Julius  Cordus. 
G-allienus. 
Aurelian. 
Tacifas. 

Marcus  Aurelius  Olympius  Nemesianus. 
Diocletian. 
^Elius  Spartianus,  Julius  Capitolinus,  Vul- 

cacius  Gallicanus,  Trebellius  Pollio. 
Arnobius. 

Eumenius  (panegyrist). 
Vespa,  Marius  Plotius  Sacerdos. 


Festus  Aphthonius. 
Lactantius  Firmianus,  Reposianus,  Gre- 

gorianus. 
^Elius  Lampridius,  Flavius  Vopiscus,  No- 

nius, Macrobius,  Optatianus,  Juvencus. 
Itineraries,  Peutinger  Tablet. 
Ausonius. 
St.  Hilary. 

Nazarius  (panegyrist). 
Hermogenianus. 
Ammianus  Marcellinus. 
St.  Jerome. 
St.  Ambrose. 
Sym  machus. 
Prudentius. 
Marius  Victorinus,  ^Elius  Donatus,  Cha- 

risius,  Diomedes,  Palladius. 
Firmicus  Maternus. 
The  Notitia. 
St.  Augustine. 


302 


ROMAN  LITERATURE 


A.D. 

About  360. 

360. 

362. 

365. 

Second  half  of  fourth  cen- 
tury. 

Latter  part  of  the  fourth 
century. 

369. 

370. 

About  370. 

389. 

About  400. 

Early  in  the  fifth  century. 

Fifth  century. 

416. 

417. 

438. 

About  450. 

End  of  the  fifth  century. 

About  500. 

529. 

533. 


Julius  Obsequens. 

Aurelius  Victor. 

Mamertinus  (panegyrist). 

Eutropius. 

Dictys  Cretensis  (L.  Septimius). 

Servius. 

Rufius  Festus. 

(Rufius  Festus)  Avienus. 

The  Querolus. 

Drepanius  (panegyrist). 

Claudian  (Claudius   Claudianus),  Marti- 

anus  Capella,  Vegetius,  Avianus. 
Sulpicius  Serenus. 
Dares. 

Namatianus. 
Orosius. 

Codex  Theodosianus. 
Sedulius. 
Dracontius. 
Priscian. 

Code  of  Justinian. 
Pandects  and  Institutes. 


INDEX 


[This  index  contains  the  names  of  all  Latin  authors  mentioned  in  this  book, 
and  in  addition  the  names  of  some  historical  personages.  Reference  is  also 
made  to  a  number  of  special  topics.  When  several  references  are  given,  the 
chief  reference  to  any  author  stands  first.  The  titles  of  works  are  in  Italics.] 


Accius  (Lucius),  12 ;  13 ;  32 ;  43 ;  53 ; 

236. 

Acilius  (Gaius),  33 ;  (Lucius),  37. 
Aero  (Helvius),  grammarian,  234. 
JSlius  Aristides,  Greek  sophist,  240. 
JSlius  Julius  Cordus,  255. 
jElius(R),  jurist,  37 ;  (Sextus),  jurist, 

37. 

^Esop,  172;  276. 
^Esopus,  actor,  66. 
^Etna,  ascribed  to  Virgil,  141 ;  181 ; 

188. 

Afranius,  comic  poet,  29 ;  43. 
African  school  of  literature,  248 ;  257. 
Agrippa  (M.  Vipsanius),  99. 
Agrippina,  191 ;  177 ;  178. 
Albinovanus  Pedo,  137. 
Albucius  Silus  (C.),  165. 
Alcseus,  114 ;  121. 
Alexander  Severus,  emperor,  229. 
Alexandrian  literature,  48 ;  57 ;  58 ;  60 ; 

62;  64;  121;  129;  136;  274;  281. 
Ambrose  (St.),  266  f. ;  258;  268. 
Ammianus  Marcellinus,  263  f. 
Ampelius  (L.),  232. 
Anacreon,  114 ;  121. 
Anastasius,  emperor,  261. 
Anaxagoras,  Greek  philosopher,  51. 
Andronicus(L.Livius),  5;  6;  12;  14; 

17 ;  18  ;  32 ;  33 ;  115  ;  273 ;  281. 


Andronicus    (M.    Pompilius).     See 

Pompilius. 
Antimachus,  199. 

Antiochus,  Academic  philosopher,  66. 
Antonines,  227 ;  235. 
Antoninus  Pius,  emperor,  227 ;  232 ; 

233 ;  235. 

Antonius  Castor,  176. 
Antonius  (M.),  orator,  45;  66;  70. 
Antonius  (M.),  triumvir,  68 ;  71 ;  82; 

93  ;  99 ;  131. 

Aphthonius  (^Elius  Festus),  256. 
Apollodorus,  Greek  comic  poet,  25; 

26  ;  Greek  rhetorician,  135. 
Apollonius  of  Rhodes,  63 ;  107  ;  152 ; 

196. 

Appius  Claudius  Caecus,  5. 
Apuleius,  237-240;    241;    243;   246; 

248. 

Aquila  Eomanus,  256. 
Aquilius,  comic  poet,  23. 
Aratus,  Greek  poet  on  astronomy,  70 ; 

173;  270. 

Archias,  poet,  66 ;  70 ;  75. 
Archilochus,  Greek  poet,  119 ;  120. 
Arellius  Fuscus,  143 ;  165. 
Aristotle,  279 ;  280. 
Arnobius,  250. 

Arria,  wife  of  Psetus,  184 ;  203. 
Arulenus  Kusticus,  Stoic,  213. 


304 


ROMAN  LITERATURE 


Asconius  Pedianus  (Q.),  192. 

Asellio  (Sempronius),  39 ;  43. 

Atellan  plays,  30. 

Atilius,  comic  poet,  23. 

Atta,  29 ;  138. 

Altai  us,  Stoic,  177. 

Atticus  (Julius),  176. 

Atticus  (T.  Pomponius),  94  f. ;  79 :  80 ; 

91 ;  92. 
Augustine  (St.),  268  f. ;  78 ;  248 ;  252 ; 

258. 
Augustus,  98  ;  14  ;  97  ;  99  ;  100  ;  101 ; 

102;  103;  104;  105;  106;  107;  111; 

116 ;  125 ;  126 ;  127  ;  129  ;  131 ;  135 ; 

138 ;  142 ;  144 ;  147 ;  148 ;  149 ;  153 ; 

154;  155;  157;  163;  165;  168;  169; 

170 ;  171 ;  172;  173  ;  174 ;  176  ;  177 ; 

183 ;  216  ;  231 ;  261 ;  282. 
Aurelian,  emperor,  229. 
Aurelius  Victor,  261. 
Ausonius,  270-272 ;  258;  273. 
Avianus,  276. 
Avienus,  270. 

Bacchylides,  Greek  poet,  121. 
Balbus,  writer  on  geometry,  225. 
Bassus  ( Aufidius),  historian,  176 ;  205. 
Bassus,  poet,  138 ;  143. 
Bassus  (Csesius),  poet,  184. 
Bassus  (Saleius),  poet,  201. 
Boethius,  278-280 ;  258 ;  281. 
Brutus  (M.  Junius),  95;  116;  176; 

186. 
Burrus  (Afranius),  178. 

Csecilius  (Q. Metellus),  36. 

Caecilius  (Statius),  23 ;  18. 

Cagsar  (C.  Julius),  83-87 ;  47 ;  56 ;  57 ; 

67 ;  68 ;  71 ;  73 ;  81 ;  82 ,  88 ;  89 ;  93  ; 

95 ;  96 ;  97 ;  99  ;  105 ;  111  ;  116  ;  128 ; 

153;  157;  160;  163;  165;  168;  174; 

186 ;  215 ;  281 ;  283. 
Caesars,  Twelve,  lives  by  Suetonius, 

230. 

Calidius  (M.),  95. 
Caligula,  170;  166;  172;  173;  176; 

177;  216. 


Callimachus,  Alexandrian  poet,  59; 

135 ;  136  ;  149. 

Calpurnius  Piso  Frugi  (L.),  37  ;  39. 
Calpurnius  Siculus  (T.),  187  f. ;  254. 
Calvus  (Gaius  Licinius),  62;  95. 
Cantica,  16. 

Capella  (Martianus),  260. 
Capito  (C.  Ateius),  167  ;  192. 
Capitolinus  (Julius),  255. 
Caracal  la,  emperor,  233 ;  247. 
Carlyle,  compared  with  Tacitus,  217. 
Carneades,  Academic  philosopher,  49. 
Cassius  Longinus  (C.),  jurist,  192. 
Cassius  Severus,  165. 
Castor  (Antonius),  176. 
Catiline,  47 ;  67 ;  89  ;  90. 
Cato  (M.  Porcius),  34-36 ;  8 ;  45 ;  90 ; 

92 ;  192 ;  207  ;  236 ;  his  son,  37. 
Cato  (P.  Valerius),  63  f. 
Cato  (Uticensis),  186. 
Gatonis  disticha,  254  f. 
Catullus,  56-62 ;  46 ;  48 ;  91 ;  96 ;  120  ; 

121;  122;  128;  129;  141;  145;  168; 

202;  281. 

Catulus  (Q.  Lutatius),  44. 
Celsus  (A.  Cornelius),  175;  173. 
Censoriuus,  256. 
Cestius  Pius  (L.),  165. 
Cethegus  (M.  Cornelius),  36. 
Charisius,  grammarian,  261 ;  176. 
Christian  literature,  227  ;  243 ;  244- 

252  ;  258  ;    265-269  ;    270 ;  272  f.  ; 

276. 
Cicero  (M.  Tullius),  65-82;  12;  30; 

36  ;  45  ;  46 ;  47  ;  48 ;  64  ;  83  ;  85 ;  86 ; 

89  ;  91 ;  92  ;  95  ;  96  ;  138  ;  156  ;  159 ; 

160 ;  164 ;  166 ;  168  ;  170  ;  171 ;  183  ; 

192 ;  209  ;  210 ;  212 ;  213 ;  215 ;  219 ; 

224 ,  230 ;  237  ;  240 ;  246 ;  248  ;  252 ; 

257 ;  260 ;  267 ;  269 ;  270 ;  280 ;  281. 
Cicero  (Q.),  95 f.;  64;  79. 
Cincius  Alimentus,  33. 
Cinna  (C.  Helvius),  62;  167. 
Ciris,  ascribed  to  Virgil,  141. 
Claudian,  273-275 ;  258 ;  276. 
Claudius,  emperor,  171 ;   173 ;   178 ; 

179;  183;  191;  216. 


INDEX 


305 


Clitomachus,  philosopher,  66. 

Code  of  Justinian,  264. 

Ccelius  Antipater,  43. 

Colurnella,  191  f. 

Comedy,  17-31 ;  6 ;  7 ;  8 ;  14 ;  15 ;  16 ; 

32;  its  plots  and  characters,  19. 
Commodianus,  Christian  poet,  249  f. 
Commodus,  emperor,  228,  233. 
Constantino,  emperor,  251 ;  257 ;  258  ; 

264;  270;  271. 

Constantinople,  226  ;  261 ;  278. 
Constantius,  emperor,  261 ;  266. 
Copa,  ascribed  to  Virgil,  191. 
Corbulo  (Gnseus  Domitius),  191. 
Cordus.    See  ^Elius  Julius. 
Corinna,  addressed  in  Ovid's  poems, 

145. 
Cornelia,  mother  of  the  Gracchi,  44 ; 

92. 

Cornelius  Nepos.    See  Nepos. 
Cornificius,  45  ;  64 ;  95. 
Cornutus  (L.  Annaeus),  177 ;  184 ;  185. 
Costumes,  theatrical,  15. 
Crassus  (L.),  66 ;  70 ;  72. 
Crassus  (P.  Licinius),  36. 
Cremutius  Cordus,  historian,  176. 
Critolaus,  Peripatetic  philosopher,  49. 
Culex,  ascribed  to  Virgil,  140  ;  141. 
Curtius  Kufus  (Q.),  191. 
Cynthia,  beloved  of  Propertius,  135 ; 

136 ;  145. 
Cyprian  (St.),  248  f. 

Dante,  111;  112;  113. 

Dares,  265. 

Decius,  emperor,  persecuted  Chris- 
tians, 249. 

Delia,  beloved  of  Tibullus,  132 ;  134 ; 
145. 

Demetrius,  teacher  of  oratory,  66. 

Democritus,  Greek  philosopher,  51 ; 
52;  55. 

Demosthenes,  71 ;  77  ;  159  ;  209. 

Dictys,  265. 

Didius  Julianus,  emperor,  228. 

Digests,  264. 

Dio  Cassius,  255. 


Dio  Chrysostom,  234 ;  240. 
Diocletian,  emperor,  250  ;  251 ;  252 ; 

255  ;  256  ;  264. 

Diodotus,  Stoic  philosopher,  66. 
Diogenes,  Stoic  philosopher,  49. 
Diomedes,  grammarian,  261 ;  241. 
Dionysius,  Greek  writer,  270. 
Diphilus,  Greek  comic  poet,  17  ;  26. 
Dirw,  poem  ascribed  to  Virgil,  63  f. ; 

141. 

Disticha  Catonis,  254  f. 
Diverbia,  16. 
Domitian,  emperor,  195  ;   198  ;  199  ; 

201;    207;    211;    212;    213;    214; 

216;  219;  225. 
Domitius  Afer,  orator,  176. 
Domitius  Marsus,  137. 
Domitius  Ulpianus,  255. 
Donatus,  260 ;  48  ;  267. 
Dracontius,  late  poet,  276. 
Drepanius,  panegyrist,  257. 

Elegy,  128-137. 

Elocutio  novella,  240 ;  241. 

Emerson  (R.  W.),  183. 

Empedocles,  Greek  philosopher,  51; 
52 ;  53. 

Emperors,  their  influence  upon  litera- 
ture, 170  f. ;  194  f. ;  227-229. 

Ennius  (Quintus),  8-10;  11;  12;  18; 
33 ;  40 ;  48  ;  53 ;  107 ;  236. 

Ephorus,  Greek  historian,  37. 

Epictetus,  ethical  preacher,  177. 

Epicurean  doctrines,  49-55 ;  78  ;  182. 

Epicurus,  49 ;  50  ;  51 ;  52 ;  54 ;  55. 

Eumenius,  panegyrist,  257. 

Euphorion,  131. 

Euripides,  107 ;  121 ;  179 ;  180. 

Eusebius,  48  ;  262 ;  268. 

Eutropius,  262. 

Fabianus  (Papirius),  177. 

Fabius  (Q. Labeo),  37. 

Fabius  Pictor,  33  ;  37 ;  158. 
Fabius  Maximus  Cunctator,  36. 
Fabulse  Atellanse,  30. 
Fabulse  palliate,  18 ;  29. 


306 


ROMAN  LITERATURE 


Fabulse  praatextae,  7 ;  9 ;  12 ;  13 ;  179 

184;  188. 

Fabulae  togatae,  18 ;  29 ;  138. 
Fabulee  trabeatae,  138. 
Fannius  (G.),  39 ;  43. 
Fenestella,  historian,  164. 
Fescennine  verses,  29. 
Firmicus  Maternus,  260. 
Festus,  wrote  a  hand-book  of  history 

262. 

Festus  (Pompeius),  166 ;  167 ;  234. 
Flavius,  grammarian,  251. 
Florus,  231. 

Frontinus  (Sextus  Julius),  206. 
Fronto,  235  f. ;   228 ;  237  ;  238  ;  240 ; 

241 ;  243,  246. 
Fundanus,  118. 
Furius.    See  Philus. 
Furius  Antias,  43. 
Furius  Bibaculus,  64 ;  63. 

Gaius,  jurist,  233. 

Galba,  emperor,  194 ;  206  ;  215;  216. 

Galerius,  252. 

Gallic  oratory,  256  f. ;  264  f. 

Gallicanus  (Vulcacius),  255. 

Gallienus,  emperor,  229. 

Gallio  (L.  Junius),  165. 

Gallus  (Cornelius),  131;    100;    101; 

107;  129. 

Gallus  (C.  Asinius),  103  ;  171 ;  176. 
Gargilius  Martialis  (Q.),  256. 
Gellius    (Aulus),    236    f.;    7;     259; 

260. 

Germanicus,  173 ;  176 ;  178 ;  270. 
Geta  (Hosidius),  254. 
Gnipho  (M.  Antonius),  66;  96. 
Gordian  I,  emperor,  229. 
Gracchi,  36 ;  43  ;  44 ;  45. 
Gracchinus  (Julius),  176. 
Gracchus  (Gaius),  45;  43;  236. 
Gracchus  (Tiberius),  45 ;  43. 
Grammar,  93;    96;    166;    176;    225; 

233  f. ;  256 ;  260  f. 
Granius  Licinianus,  232. 
Gratian,  emperor,  265 ;  271. 
Grattius,  137. 


Greek  influence  in  Roman  literature, 
1 ;  4 ;  5 ;  17 ;  21 ;  27  ;  32 ;  37 ;  48 ; 
128  f. ;  179 ;  180  ;  226 ;  283 ;  in  Ro- 
man manners,  33 ;  128  f. 

Gregorianus,  264. 

Hadrian,  emperor,  219  ;  225 ;  227 ;  229 ; 

231 ;  232 ;  233 ;  235 ;  241 ;  255. 
Haterius  (Q.),  165- 
Heliogabalus,  emperor,  255. 
Hemina  (L.  Cassius),  37  ;  39. 
Heraclitus,  Greek  philosopher,  51. 
Herennius  Priscus,  Stoic,  213. 
Herennius,  treatise  addressed  to,  45 ; 

69. 

Hermogenianus,  jurist,  264. 
Herodian,  255. 
Herodotus,  219. 
Herondas,  Greek  poet,  62. 
Hesiod,  107. 

Hieronymus.    See  Jerome. 
Hilary  (St.),  265  f. ;  258. 
Hirtius  (A.),  87  f. 
Historia  Augusta,  255. 
History,  33 ;  43 ;  88 ;  163  f. ;  173 ;  176  ; 

191;  232;  255;  261  ff. 
Homer,   6 ;   62 ;  107 ;  108  ;  109 ;  114 ; 

118 ;  149 ;  171 ;  187 ;  197 ;  219. 
Honorius,  emperor,  273. 
Horace,  114-127 ;  12  ;  41 ;  64 ;  96 ;  98 ; 

99;  100;  139;  168;  185;  186;  188; 

193;  219;  231 ;  233;  234;  282. 
Hortensius  Hortalus,  95  ;  59  ;  69 ;  77. 
ETosidius  Geta,  254. 
Hostius,  43. 

Hyginus  (C.  Julius),  167. 
Elyginus,  writer  on  surveying,  225. 

Institutes  of  Justinian,  264. 
Itineraries,  261. 

Jerome  (St.),  267  f. ;  48 ;  49  ;  56  ;  193 ; 
231 ;  250 ;  251 ;  252 ;  258 ;  261 ;  262. 

(ohnson,  Samuel,  221. 
Josephus,  Greek  historian,  217  ;  267. 

fuba,  grammarian,  234. 
Julian,  emperor,  257,  261,  263. 


INDEX 


307 


Julianus  (Salvius),  jurist,  233. 

Julius  Obsequens,  262. 

Julius  Paul  us,  jurist,  255. 

Jurists,  37  ;  44 ;  96  ;  167 ;   192 ;  225 ; 

233 ;  255  ;  264. 
Justin  (M.  Junianus  Justinus),  164 ; 

232. 

Justin,  emperor,  279. 
Justinian,  emperor,  233  ;  264 ;  283. 
Juvenal,    218-222;    202;    211;    225; 

283. 
Juvencus,  270. 

Labeo,  see  Fabius. 

Labeo  (M.  Antistius),  167  ;  192. 

Labeo  (Cornelius),  255. 

Laberius  (Decimus),  30  f. ;  62. 

Labienus  (T.),  165. 

Lactantius,  251  f. 

Lselius  (C.),  39  ;  24  ;  38. 

Lanipridius  (Julius),  255. 

Lsevius,  62. 

Latin  language,  2 ;  changes  in,  237. 

Latro  (M.  Porcius),  165. 

Lesbia,  57  ;  60 ;  61 ;  145. 

Licinianus  (Granius),  232. 

Licinius  Imbrex,  comic  poet,  23. 

Licinius  (L.),  orator,  45. 

Livius  Andronicus.    See  Andronicus. 

Livy  (T.  Livius).  156-163;  166;  168; 

171 ;  186  ;  191 ;  197- ;  216 ;  231 ;  232 ; 

262 ;  270. 
Lucan  (M.  Annaeus  Lucanus),  185- 

187;  165;  184;  190;  201;  231. 
Lucian,  Greek  writer,  240. 
Lucilius  (Gaius),  39-42 ;  43 ;  45 ;  115  ; 

117;  118;  121;  219. 
Lucilius,  Seneca's  writings  addressed 

to,  181. 
Lucretius  (T.),  47-55  ;  46 ;  96 ;   138  ; 

139;  168;  193. 

Luscius  Lanuvinus,  comic  poet,  23. 
Lycophron,  Alexandrian  poet,  63. 
Lygdamus,  poet,  132  f. 

Macer  (Gaius  Licinius),  44 ;  158. 
Macer,  epic  poet,  138 ;  143  ;  155. 


Macrobius,  260. 

Maecenas  (Gaius),  99;  100;  101;  104; 

116;  118;  119;  121;  124;  135;  137. 
Marnertinus,  panegyrist,  257. 
Manilius,  138  f. ;  15(5 ;  173. 
Marcus    Aurelius,    emperor,    227  f. ; 

233  ;  234 ;  235 ;  236 ;  237. 
Marius  (Gaius),  43 ;  83 ;  91 ;  158. 
Marius  Maximus,  255. 
Marius  Victorinus,  256. 
Martial,  201-203 ;  140 ;  141 ;  158 ;  211 ; 

219. 

Martialis  (Q.  Gargilius),  256. 
Martianus  Capella,  260. 
Masks,  theatrical,  15. 
Maternus  (Curiatius),  201 ;   (Firmi- 

cus),  260. 

Matius  (Gnaeus),  43 ;  62. 
Maximus  of  Tyre,  240. 
Mela  (Pomponius),  192;  191. 
Melissus  (Laevius),  43. 
Memmius  (Gaius),  64 ;  49  ;  57. 
Menander,  Greek  comic  poet,  17 ;  25 ; 

26. 

Menippean  satires,  93  ;  183 ;  189. 
Menippus,  Greek  Cynic,  93. 
Messalla  (M.  Valerius),  99 ;  131 ;  132; 

133;  134;  141;  155. 
Metres,  40 f, ;  6  ;  7 ;  28 ;  121 ;  122;  124; 

129;  136;  140;  144;  153. 
Middle  Ages,  112 ;  243 ;  272 ;  281. 
Milton,  155 ;  280. 
Mimes,  30  f. 

Mimnermus,  Greek  poet,  129. 
Minucius  Felix,  245  f. ;  248 ;  252. 
Molo,  Cicero's  teacher,  66. 
Montanus,  247. 
Montanus.    See  Votienus. 
Monumentum  Ancyranum,  98. 
Moretum,  ascribed  to  Virgil,  141. 
Morris  (William),  the  Earthly  Para- 
dise, 239. 

Mucianus  (P.  Licinius  Crassus),  44. 
Musonius  Eufus  (C.),  177;  270. 

Naevius  (Gnaeus),  6 ;  7 ;  8 ;  9 ;  18 ;  53 ; 
107. 


308 


ROMAN  LITERATURE 


Namatianus  (Rutilius  Claudius),  275. 
Nazarius,  panegyrist,  257. 
Nemesianus,  254 ;  188. 
Nepos  (Cornelius),  91  f. ;  64 ;  94  ;  265. 
Nero,  emperor,  171 ;  176 ;  177 ;  178 ; 

179 ;  185 ;  186 ;  188 ;  191  j  194 ;  195  ; 

197;  216;  252. 

Nerva,  emperor,  211,  216;  255;  263. 
Nigidius  Figulus  (P.),  96. 
Nonius,  259 ;  260. 
Nonnus,  Greek  poet,  274. 
Notitia,  261. 
Novius,  30. 
Numerianus,  emperor,  255. 

Obsequens  (Julius),  262. 

Opilius  (Aurelius),  96. 

Oppius  (Gaius),  88. 

Optatianus,  269  f. 

Orators,  5 ;  34 ;  45  ;  95 ;  164  f. ;  175  f. ; 

225;  256 f.;  264. 
Orosius,  263. 
Otho,  emperor,  194;  216. 
Ovid,   143-155;    14;    64;    130;    132; 

134 ;  135 ;  136  ;  137  ;  138 ;  140 ;  142 ; 

156;  168;  173;  186;  188;  197;  202; 

poems  ascribed  to,  142. 

Pacuvius,  11;  12;  18;  53. 

Paetus  Thrasea,  184;  203. 

Palladius,  261. 

Panaetius,  Stoic  philosopher,  39 ;  49. 

Pandects,  264. 

Panegyrists,  257. 

Papinianus,  jurist,  233. 

Papirius  Fabianus,  177. 

Parthenius,  129. 

Paul   (St.),   alleged    correspondence 

with  Seneca,  183. 
Paulus  (Julius),  255. 
Pentadius,  254. 
Perilla,  Ovid's  daughter,  154. 
Periods  of  Roman  literature,  3  ;  281  ff. 
Persius    (A. Flaccus),  183-185  ; 

177;  193;  219;  234. 
Pertinax,  emperor,  228. 
Pervigilium  Veneris,  241-243  ;  272. 


Petronius  (C. Arbiter),  188-191. 

Peutinger  Tablet,  261. 
Pheedrus,  Epicurean,  66. 
Phffidrus,  poet  of  fables,  172  f. 
Philemon,  Greek  comic  poet,  17. 
Philo,  Jewish-Greek  philosopher,  66; 

267. 
Philosophy,  49;   78;   176 f.;   181  f.; 

260. 

Philus  (L.  Furius),  39. 
Piso  (L.  Calpurnius Frugi),  37 ; 

39. 
Piso  (Calpurnius),  conspired  against 

Nero,  172 ;  178 ;  185 ;  186 ;  188. 
Plato,  219;  239. 
Plautus,  18-23 ;  27 ;  28 ;  29 ;  233 ;  236  ; 

270. 
Pliny  the  elder,  204-206;   195;  215; 

222  ;  231 ;  253  ;  256. 
Pliny    the    younger,    222-225;    160; 

202 ;  204 ;  211 ;  229 ;  230 ;  244 ;  257 ; 

265. 
Plotius,  116;  Plotius  Sacerdos.    See 

Sacerdos. 
Plutarch,  234. 
Pollio  (Gaius  Asinius),  99 ;  100 ;  101 ; 

102 ;  103 ;  118 ;  122 ;  160  ;  166 ;  167 ; 

171 ;  176 ;  (Trebellius),  255. 
Polybius,  Greek    historian,  39;    92; 

158. 

Pompeius  Trogus.    See  Trogus. 
Pompey,  47 ;  56 ;  67 ;  68  ;  69 ;  81 ;  82 ; 

84;  93;  158;  163;  186;  187. 
Pompilius  Andronicus  (M.),  96. 
Pomponius  (L.),  30. 
Pomponius  Secundus  (P.),  188 ;  204. 
Pompouius  (Sextus),  233. 
Ponticus,  poet,  138 ;  143. 
Porcius  Latro,  143. 
Porphyrio  (Pornponius),  grammarian, 

234. 

Posidonius,  Stoic,  66. 
Postumius  Albinus,  33. 
Priapea,  140. 
Priscian,  261. 

Probus  (M.  Valerius),  193. 
Proculus,  jurist,  192. 


INDEX 


309 


Propertius,  134-137 ;   130 ;  131 ;  132 ; 

143 ;  145 ;  146 ;  149 ;  168. 
Prose,    Greek    influence    upon,    32 ; 

progress  in,  46  ;  156. 
Prosper  of  Aquitania,  262. 
Prudentius,  Christian  poet,  272  f. 
Publilia,  Cicero's  wife,  68. 
Publilius  Syrus,  30  f. ;  62. 
Punic  war ;  first,  6 ;  33 ;  158  ;  second, 

33 ;  36 ;  158 ;  third,  38 ;  44. 
Pythagoras,  doctrine,  153. 

Quadrigarius  (Q.  Claudius),  43 ;  158. 
Quintilian,  206-210;   175;   182;  195; 

202;  213. 
Quintus  Curtius  Eufus,  191. 

Eabirius,  138. 

Remmius  Palsemon  (Q.),  176  ;  184. 

Kenatus  (Flavius  Vegetius),  261. 

Keposianus,  254. 

Koman  literature ;  its  importance,  1 ; 
284 ;  its  practical  purpose,  2  f. ; 
211  f.;  its  divisions,  3;  281  ft'.;  na- 
tive elements,  4;  its  progress,  48; 
its  decay,  169;  226 f.;  283;  Greek 
influence,  1 ;  4 ;  5 ;  17 ;  21 ;  27  ;  32 ; 
48;  128 f.;  226;  283;  effect  of  the 
empire,  97. 

Roman  society,  47  f. ;  128  f. 

Romance  languages,  210 ;  237. 

Romans  practical,  2. 

Romans,  our  debt  to,  283. 

Romanus  (C.  Julius),  256;  (Aquila), 
256. 

Roscius,  actor,  66. 

Rutilius  Claudius  Namatianus,  275. 

Rutilius  Rufus  (P.),  44. 

Sabinus,  poet,  146. 
Sacerdos  (Marius  Plotius),  256. 
Sallust,  89-91 ;  88 ;  128  ;  230 ;  236 ;  265. 
Sammonicus  (Serenus),  253  f. 
Santra,  96. 
Sappho,  114;  121. 

Satire,  39;  40;  41;  42;  93;  117  f. 
179;  183;  184;  188  f. ;  219  f. 


Saturnian  verse,  7 ;  6 ;  9. 

Scsevola  (P.),  44 ;  (Mucius),  44 ;  (Q. 

Mucius),  44 ;  66 ;   (the  augur),  66 ; 

70;  (Q.  Cervidius),  jurist,  233. 
Scaurus  (Terentius),  233. 
Scipio  (Cn.  Cornelius),  7 ;  Africanus 

the  elder,  36;  38;    Africanus  the 

younger,  24;  38;  39;  49;  P.  Cor- 
nelius, 33 ;  Nasica,  37. 
Sedigitus  (Volcacius),  44. 
Sedulius,  276. 

Sempronius(Gaius Tuditanus),44. 

Seneca,  the  elder,  165 f.;   168,    170; 

175;  177. 
Seneca,  the    younger,  177-183;    14; 

165 ;  170 ;  171 ;  184 ;  185 ;  188 ;  197 ; 

201 ;  209 ;  210 ;  219. 
Septimius  (L.),  265. 
Septimius  Severus,  emperor,  228 ;  233  ; 

247. 

Septuagint,  217. 
Servius  Sulpicius  Rufus,  96. 
Servius,  commentary  on  Virgil,  261; 

192. 

Severus  (Cornelius),  poet,  138. 
Sextii,  philosophers,  176 ;  177. 
Sextus  Empiricus,  234. 
Shakespeare,  21 ;  151 ;  155. 
Siculus  Flaccus,  225. 
Siliusltalicus,  197f.;  202. 
Sisenna  (L.  Cornelius),  44 ;  88. 
Socrates,  239. 
Solinus,  256. 
Solon,  129. 
Sophocles,  107. 
Soranus  (Q.  Valerius),  44. 
Sotion,  philosopher,  176  f. 
Spartianus  ( JSlius),  255. 
Statius,  198-201 ;  140 ;  141 ;  195 ;  202  ; 

209 ;  274 ;  his  father,  198  ;  201. 
Stella  (Arruntius),  201. 
Stesichorus,  Greek  poet,  107. 
Stilicho,  general,  273  ;  275. 
Stilo  (L.  ^Elius  Praeconinus),  44 ;  11 ; 

93. 
Stoic  philosophy,  49;  78;  120;  124; 

177;  182;  228. 


310 


KOMAN  LITERATURE 


Strabo  (C.  Julius  Caesar),  13. 

Sueius,  62. 

Suetonius  Faulinus,  191. 

Suetonius  Tranquillus  (C.),  229-231 ; 

24;  227;  243;  244;   255;  256;  261; 

262;  267. 

Sulla,  44  ;  47  ;  158. 
Sulpicia,  poetess  of  elegies,  133. 
Sulpicia,  poetess,  201. 
Sulpicius  Severus,  263. 
Syramachus  (Q.  Aurelius),  265;  279. 

Tacitus,  211-218 ;  91 ;  195 ;  206  ; 

222;  223;   225  f.;  244;    262; 

283. 

Tacitus,  emperor,  229. 
Tennyson,  242. 

Terentia,  Cicero's  wife,  66  ;  68. 
Terentianus  Maurus,  233  ;  241 ;  253. 
Terentius  Scaurus,  233. 
Tertullian,  246-248 ;   249 ;   252 ;  258 

266. 

Theatre,  14-16. 
Theocritus,  Greek   poet,   101;   107 

114;  187. 

Theodoric,  278 ;  279. 
Theodorus,  emperor,  257;  266;  267 

272;  273. 

Theodorus,  of  Gadara,  170. 
Theopompus,  Greek  writer,  92. 
Thrasea.    See  Psetus. 
Tiberius,    emperor,    170;    124;    155 

165;  166;  170;  171;  172;  173;  174 

175  ;  176  ;  177 ;  216. 
Tibullus,  131-134 ;  124 ;  130 ;  135  ;  145 

146;  168;  211. 
Ticidas,  poet,  64. 
Timseus,  Greek  historian,  37. 
Tiro,  96 ;  79. 
Titinius,  29 ;  138. 
Titius,  13. 

Titus,  emperor,  194;  195;  201 ;  205. 
Trabea,  comic  poet,  23. 
Tragedy,  11;  6;   7;   8;   12;  14;  17 

32. 
Trajan,  emperor,  211 ;  212 ;  214;  216 

219 ;  223 ;  224 ;  225 ;  236 ;  246  ;  257 


Trebellius  Pollio,  255. 
Tribonian,  jurist,  264. 
Trimalchio,  in  Petronius's  novel,  189 ; 

190. 

Triumvirate ;  first,  67  ;  84. 
Trogus,  163  f. ;  232. 
Tullia,  Cicero's  daughter,  68. 
Turpilius,  comic  poet,  29. 
Twelve  tables,  5 ;  37. 
Tyrtams,  129. 

Ulpian,  255. 

Valens,    emperor,    262;    263;    264; 

271. 

Valentinian  I,  265. 
Valentinian  II,  267. 
Valerian,  emperor,  persecuted  Chris- 
tians, 249. 

Valerius  Antias,  43 ;  88 ;  158. 
Valerius  Flaccus  (C.),  195-197. 
Valerius    Maximus,     174    f.  ;     173 ; 

219. 

Valgius  Rufus,  131. 
Varius,  14;  116;  118. 
Varro  Atacinus,  63 ;  118. 
Varro  (M.  Terentius),  92-94;  44;  96; 

99;  192;  256;  260. 
Varus,101. 
Vegetius,  261. 

Velleius  Paterculus,  173  f. ;  215. 
Verrius    Flaccus,    grammarian,  166; 

149;  167;  234. 

Verus  (L.),  228 ;  235 ;  236 ;  237. 
Vespa,  254. 
Vespasian,  emperor,  194;   195;  197; 

201;  204;  212;  216. 
Victorinus  (C.  Marius),  256;  260. 
Virgil,  100-113;  64;  96;  98;  99;  114; 

115;  116;  118;  127;  131;  135;  140; 

141 ;  143 ;  153 ;  161 ;  167 ;  168  ;  171  ; 

173;  187;  188;  192;  193;  196;  197  5 

202  ;  209 ;  217  ;  219 ;  232 ;  233  ;  240  ; 

241 ;  254 ;  260 ;  261 ;  270  ;  280 ;  282  ; 

poems  ascribed  to,  140  ;  141. 
Vitellius  (P.),  orator,  176. 
Vitellius,  emperor,  194 ;  216. 


INDEX 


311 


Vitruvius,  167  f. 

Volcacius.     See  Sedigitus  and  Galli- 

canus. 

Vopiscus  (Flavius),  255. 
Votienus  Montanus,  orator,  175. 
Vulcacius.    See  Volcacius. 


Whittier,  272. 
Wordsworth,  272. 

Xenophon,  Greek  writer,  92. 
Zeno,  Epicurean,  66. 


THE    END 


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