-//
$ 3>y
FROM THE LIBRARY OF
REV. LOUIS FITZGERALD BENSON, D. D.
BEQUEATHED BY HIM TO
THE LIBRARY OF
PRINCETON THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY
SOB
/S03Y
HISTORY
ROMAN LITERATURE:
INTRODUCTORY MS3ERTATI
THE SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE
LATIN LANGUAGE.
EDITED BY THE
REV. HENRY THOMPSON, M.A.,
CURATE OE WRING TON, SOMERSET; FORMERLY SCHOLAR OF ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE,
CAMBRIDGE.
(Tbtro Coition, ilrbiscb anb G-nlargrb.
LONDON AND GLASGOW:
RICHARD GRIFFIN AND COMPANY,
PUBLISHERS TO THE UNIVERSITY OE GLASGOW.
PREFACE.
In the advertisement to the volume of this Enclycopaedia
which contains the History of Greek Literature it has been
stated that the plan of that volume would be that of the
others. That plan was, in brief, to make the subject complete,
so far as an Encyclopaedia could attain completeness, by adding
to the articles in the former edition such as should appear
necessary for the purpose; and to translate all passages requisite
for giving the general reader an intelligible view of the subject.
The present editor has endeavoured to achieve this object
by considerably enlarging and improving, from sources which
have arisen in the interim, the papers on Latin Poetry which
he contributed to the first edition ; by adding another on the
Latin prose writers, subsequent to the time of the Antonines,
writers of whom no mention had been made in that work ; and
by prefixing a dissertation on the History of the Latin Language.
He has also appended biographical notes to the valuable paper
of Dr. Arnold on Eoman History ; added to each article biblio-
graphical notices from approved authorities ; and left, he
believes, no passage untranslated which it was of importance
to render into English. He has, however, assumed that the
volume will be chiefly read by those who are not wholly unac-
quainted with Latin writers. The articles by Mr. Newman
and Mr. Ottley have undergone revision and amplification by
their authors. One important improvement, for which the
editor confidently expects the gratitude of all readers, is the
paper contributed by that eminent scholar, Mr. JNTeale, on
Ecclesiastical Poetry. The time is happily gone by when no
genius or excellence could be acknowledged in productions
which were not cast in a certain arbitrary mould; when all
viii PREFACE.
architectural beauty was limited to the " five orders," and all
poetry to the writers " nielioris awi et notae." The Eccle-
siastical poets are now acknowledged to be worthy the study
of scholars ; and perhaps there is no individual of our country
who has been more instrumental in effecting this happy result
than the distinguished author of the article on that subject
which enriches this volume. To have treated the Latin prose
writers on theology, jurisprudence, or other sciences, great as
are the merits of some, and the archaeological value of all, would
have extended this volume beyond all proper limits : but the
poets of the Church, as the authors of a new literature, having a
life and spirit of its own, were entitled to a record in this
history. And, although the article on this subject is purely
literary, the theological student will find it interesting, as
affording a view of the doctrinal purity of the ancient Catholic
Church, and the contrasted character of late additions totheFaith.
The Illustrations to the present volume will, the editor
believes, be deemed an important improvement. A list of them,
with the authorities whence they are derived, is appended. A
chronology, the result of a careful collation, is also added.
The editor, it will be seen, has ventured to continue his
scepticism on the existence of such a ballad literature as has
been claimed for the Romans by Niebuhr, and by his " popular
expositor," Mr. Macaulay, whose magnificent Lays of Ancient
Home have given a world-wide interest to the subject. If the
editor were at issue with these eminent scholars on any question
of fact, he might well indeed distrust himself. But he has not
been guilty of any such presumption. The facts are patent.
The opinion he makes bold to entertain is only an inference.
It is unquestionable that there did exist a rude narrative Latin
minstrelsy : but was it of such an order as a Percy or a Scott
would have preserved for its poetical merit ?
Mr. Macaulay inclines to the affirmative, on the ground that
every other nation has possessed a ballad literature — a fact
admitted in this work.1 But this supposes a certain amount
of the imaginative faculty existing in every community. It is
matter of fact that, in this faculty, the Eomans were altogether
1 Page 11.
PREFACE. ix
deficient. Had they possessed it, they would surely have
welcomed the importation of Greek literature after a very
different fashion. The old ballads might have been despised,
but an original school would still have succeeded. In England,
where there had been a noble ballad literature, the revival of
learning, though it operated extensively, produced no such
servility as resulted from the first intercourse of Latium
with the Greek poets — Spenser and Sidney were kindled, not
moulded, by the contact. ! Moreover, the old ballads never
lost their ground till the nation became influenced by France ;
and even then, the pulse of the cold and correct Addison
quickened at " Chevy Chase," and Percy's " Relicks " were
received with an enthusiasm that broke the chilling spell which
.French drawing-rooms had laid on the Muse of England. No
country has owed more to Greece than Germany : and she has
richly paid her debt ; but not in Greek coinage. On the con-
trary, a more original literature than the German cannot
exist ; and the classical student, when he enters on it, seems
transported to another world. The Italian literature had a
powerful influence on that of Spain ; yet it was but a new cos-
tume, not an internal and organic change ; and the native
school had its readers and its writers. But had not Homer sung,
we should have had no iEneid, nor anything approaching one.
" Nsevius," says Mr. Macaulay, " seems to have been the
last of the ancient line of poets." If he were so, the ballad
literature of Rome has been a serious loss to us. But surely
this has not been demonstrated. Nsevius wrote after the Greek
literature began to operate on the Eoman mind. His dramas
appear to have been essentially Greek ; and, if he adopted the
Saturnian measure in his epic, it was moulded, rude as it was,
on the principles of Greek prosody, not of Latin rhythm, as
the Saturnians of the old balladists are said to have been.
Nsevius was probably as distinct from the balladists as Pompo-
nius from the Atellane poets of old time. His great popu-
1 Milton might seem an eminent instance of the originality compatible
with a close adherence to classical models. But as he had for his poem
sources, and those of the sublimest kind, which the ancients had not, his
example is not here insisted on.
x PREFACE.
larity in the Augustan day is suggestive. Copies, it seems,
were unnecessary to preserve what every Roinan knew by
heart. 1 If, therefore, Nsevius was but one, though the last,
of the balladists, how happened it that he was the only one
remembered and cherished by a people so devoted to national
renown as the Romans ? As a matter of fact, the Greek lite-
rature did not universally induce a contempt of native
antiquity. There was, in the most literary period of Rome, a
school which almost made antiquity the criterion of excellence ;
which held that the Muses themselves had inspired the early
documents of the city ; and which praised, on account of their
venerable age, verses which few, if any, could understand.
Either JN"a3vius did not belong to the balladists, or, if he did,
it will not be easy to solve the phenomenon that those who
had preserved his poetry in their memories should have allowed
that of his fellow-minstrels to perish. For, be it remembered,
the philarchaic school was not a growth of the Augustan age :
on the contrary, the spirit of that period sought its extinction ;
and, in a great measure, effectually.
The old ballads then, in all probability, perished from the
mind of the people, because they had no inherent poetic
vitality ; as Naevius was treasured by the multitude, because,
though rude, he had Greek life and energy. In truth, the
poetic element was wanting in the Roman idiosyncrasy. Even
• the language had no word for the idea — word- and idea were
I equally Greek, for vates properly signified prophet, not poet ;
and the latter meaning was secondary, inasmuch as the old
[ prophets gave their predictions in verse.
While, then, the editor makes no doubt of the existence of
Roman ballads, detailing in some instances narratives which,
as Mr. Macaulay has manifested, were capable of high poetic
development in the hands of imaginative writers, yet he sees no
evidence that such ballads told their story in any other form
than the baldest and driest — being metrical only for the con-
venience of memory : and he therefore adheres to the view which
1 This seems the most natural reading and interpretation. See
p. 17. But take the words how we will, the popularity of Nsevius is
necessarily their burden.
PREFACE. xi
lie expressed in the first edition of this work, long before the
publication of Mr. Macaulay's book, of dating the true begin-
ning of all Roman literature from intercourse with Greece.
Closely connected with the subject of early Eoman poetry is
that of the metre in which it is supposed to have been written.
Much has been said by recent writers on the Saturnian verse ;
and the opinions of Niebuhr on this subject will be found dis-
cussed in the 4-ith and following pages of this work. The
dictum of that great historian, on a question of this kind,
would be entitled to an almost reverential regard ; but when
he adduces the authorities from which he derives his con-
clusion, that conclusion may be examined, without pre-
sumption, by scholars of the multitude. The editor will take
this opportunity of amplifying a note to page 44, which
appears to him to contain a large proportion of the controversy.
The term Saturnius, then, like Sat ura, seems to have possessed
two quite distinct applications. In both of these, however,
it simply meant " as old as the days of Saturn ;" and, like the
Greek 'tlyvyios, was a kind of proverbial expression for something
antiquated. Hence, (1.) the rude rhythmical effusions which
contained the early Eoman story might be called Saturnian, not
with reference to their metrical law, but to their antiquity ; and,
(2.) the term Saturnius was also applied to a definite measure,
on the principles of Greek prosody, though rudely and loosely
moulded — the measure employed by Xrevius, which soon
became antiquated, when Ennius introduced the hexameter;
and which is the met rum Saturnium recognised by the gram-
marians. The editor regrets that it has been only since the
preliminary dissertation was written, aud since the rest of the
volume was printed, that he became acquainted with Dr.
Donaldson's learned work, Yarronianus. He has, however,
revised the dissertation since ; and it will be seen, by references
to Dr. Donaldson's work, where that eminent scholar has been
consulted. He alludes to it now, however, for the purpose of
shewing how vague and unsatisfactory are the attempts, even of
the most accomplished scholars, to elicit a rhythmical verse from
the old Latin remains. Dr. Donaldson scans all the epitaphs
of the Scipios ; and makes the following remarks on them : —
xii PREFACE.
" The metre in which these inscriptions are composed is
deserving of notice. That they are written in Saturnian verse
has long been perceived; Niebuhr, indeed, thinks that they
c are nothing else than either complete nenias, or the beginning
of them.' (EL K. i. p. 253.) It is not, however, so generally
agreed how we ought to read and divide the verses. For
instance, Niebuhr maintains that patre in a, 2,1 is, ' beyond
doubt, an interpolation ;' to me it appears that it is necessary
to the verse. He thinks that there is no ecthlipsis in apice,
c. 1 ;2 I cannot scan the line without it. These are only samples
of the many differences of opinion which might arise upon these
short inscriptions." 3
" Only samples !" and what samples ! Is it conceivable that
the word patre would have been cut on the stone, if it had been
an interpolation ? And what kind of verse can this be, which
one critic finds it necessary to abridge by a word of two
syllables, before he can scan it, while another cannot scan it
unless those two syllables are present ? Could there be
" many differences of opinion " on "these short inscriptions,"
if they were really subject to a metrical law ? Again, in the
epitaph on L. Cornelius Scipio the Elder, Dr. Donaldson
scans : —
Consul, censor, aidilis | qui fuit apud vos ;
while, in that on the Younger Cornelius, he gives us —
Consdl, censor, aidiles | hie fuet apud yos :
Surely both cannot be right. Is either ?
Dr. Donaldson gives "the old Latin translation of an
1 The epitaph on L. Cornelius Scipio.
2 Epitaph on the Flamen Dialis, P. Scipio. This inscription, it is true, is
virtually called Carmen by Cicero (de Senect. xvii) who applies that term
to the epitaph of Atilius Calatinus, similar in expression. But that very
similarity shews that the word is to be rendered formula, as it frequently
signifies. So Livy speaks of Duellius reciting the " Carmen rogationis,"
the legal formula, which was scarcely in verse. Indeed it is given by the
historian, and nothing can appear less metrical. The formal differences
between the epitaphs of the Flamen and Atilius are of themselves an
argument that the inscriptions are not in verse.
3 Varronianus, vi., 20.
PHEFACE. xiii
epigram, which was written, probably, by Leonidas of Tarentum,
at the dedication of the spoils taken at the battles of Heraclea
and Asculum (b. c. 280, 279) ; and which," he adds, "should
be scanned as follows : —
Qui £ntedhac invicti | fuvere viri [ pater dptime Olympi ||
Hos e'go in pugna vici ||
Victusque sum ab isdem ||
He then subjoins : " Xiebuhr suggests (iii. note 341) that the
first line is an attempt at an hexameter, and the last two an
imitation of the shorter verse ;* and this remark shows the
discernment which is always so remarkable in this great
scholar. The author of this translation, which was, probably,
made soon after the original, could not write in hexameter
verse ; but he represented the hexameter of the original, by a
lengthened form of the Saturnius, and indicated the two
penthemimers of the pentameter, by writing their meaning in
two truncated Saturnians, — taking care to indicate, by the
anacrusis, that there was really a break in the rhythm of the
original pentameter, although it might be called a single line,
according to the Greek system of metres."
The first of these lines is, probably, a corrupted hexameter ;
for the removal of one word leaves it a pure one.2 This word,
antedhac, is, in all probability, an interpolation. It is just
what a transcriber, ignorant of the law of the verse, would have
interpolated, to make, as he might think, a better sense.
"Whether the rest be " two truncated Saturnians " or not, quite
certain it is that it is a pure hexameter I
(Hos ego in pugna vici, victusque sum ab isdem)
for the absence of the synalcepha is not worth regarding at
such an early period, especially with Greek authority in abun-
1 The pentameter.
2 A pure one, because the first syllable of fuvere for fuere is not only
long, but, what is most important in the present controversy, the v, the
representative of the digamma, is inserted, apparently, for the express pur-
pose of making it so. (See Digamma in the volume on Greek Literature,
p. 359, and Priscian's observations there quoted.) Were the line an accen-
tual Saturnian, it is manifest that there would be no necessity for departure
from the ordinary form, as the accent would not thereby be affected.
xiv PREFACE.
dance. Surely, it must be evident to every reader unbeset by
hypothesis, that, to say the least, if the first line is " an attempt
at an hexameter," the last is no less. Dr. Donaldson inclines
to press Mr. Macaulay into the controversy ; but clearly on
insufficient grounds : for Mr. Macaulay acknowledges no Latin
Saturnians which are not prosodiacal.1 All we possess from the
pen of Naevius are plainly so.
While making these observations, the editor would gratefully
express his deep respect for the talent and scholarship of Dr.
Donaldson, and his high sense of the value of his philological
writings. The Varronianus deserves the gratitude of all who
are interested in these studies ; and it has been a great satis-
faction to the present writer, on revising his dissertation, to
find his general views confirmed by so high an authority,
especially on the subject of the Etruscan language ; the affinity
of which to the Indo- Germanic dialects will, he believes, one
day be demonstrated. Mr. Pococke's remarkable work, India
in Greece, -after allowing for many things which are fan-
ciful,— scarcely to be avoided by one who had established so
much, — is yet conclusive for a very extensive prevalence of
Sanscrit and its dialects on the shores of the Mediterranean ;
and the editor regrets that The Early History of Borne, promised
by that author, should not have been available for these pages.
The editor hopes that the improvements of this portion of
the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana may not be unworthy the
memory of the accomplished scholar, under whose auspices the
original work was conducted, the late Eev. Edward Smedley.
With this brief mention of one who, in no ordinary degree,
blended "true religion" with "useful learning," deep, exten-
sive, and varied scholarship with pure and practical Christianity,
he commends this volume to the public.
H. T.
Rectory, Wrington,
July 26, 1852.
1 "That it " [the Saturnian] "is the same with a Greek measure used by
Archilochus is indisputable" — Preface to " Lays of Ancient Rome," p. 19,
ed. 1848.
CONTENTS.
Page
PREFACE vii
INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE SOURCES
AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE . xxix
LATIN POETRY.
Part L— THE EARLIER POETIC LITERATURE OF THE
ROMANS .3
Ballad Poetry 4
Satyric Drama ......... 7
Regular Drama 14
Livius Andronicus . 14
Comedy 16
N?evius 16
Plautus 17
New Comedy . . 19
Afranius 22
Terence 23
Tragedy 28
Ennius 28
Pacuvius 29
Attius 29
Satire 32
Ennius . 33
Lucilius 35
Varro 39
Epopceia 42
Nsevius .......... 43
Ennius 47
xvi CONTENTS.
Page
Didactic Poetry ......... 51
Lucretius 51
Cicero 53
Catullus 54
Epigram 57
Catullus 58 ;
MSS., Editions, &c, of the Ante- Augustan Poets . . . 62
Part II.— THE AUGUSTAN AGE OF LATIN POETRY . 65
Biography of Horace 65
"Writings of Horace 71
Odes 71
Imitations 72
Iambics or Epodes ........ 73
Ethics and Criticism 74
Carmen Saaculare 102
Epistles to Augustus and the Pisos 103
Chronology of his writings 76
Virgil 78
Eclogues 78
Georgics 83
JSneid 91
Minor poems 95
Alpinus 84
Bibaculus 85
Fundanius 85
Pollio 85
Varius 86
Valgius 86
Cassius of Parma 90
Anser 98
Cornificius 98
Tibullus 100
Propertius 101
Lyric Poetry 102
Dramatic Degeneracy 106
Closet Drama 109
Mimes Ill
Laberius * 113
Publius 115
CONTENTS. xvii
Pfljre
Matins 116
General view of Augustan Poetry . . . . . . 117
Ovid's Catalogue of Poets . . . . . . .118
Gratius 119
Manilius . . 119
Phrcdrus 120
Ovid .121
Character of his Poetry . 125
Maecenas 128
His literary character 129
MSS., Editions, &c, of the Augustan Poets . . . .131
Part III.— DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY 135
Causes of the Decline of Latin Poetry 185
Demoralization of the Romans 136
Exhaustion of Greek Literature 137
Germanicus . . . . 138
Didactic and Epic Poetry 139
Columella 140
Lucan . 140
Polla Argentaria . 143
Seneca 143
Pomponius Secundus 145
Virginius .......... 145
Maternus ........... 146
Memor ........... 146
Varro ........... 146
Seneca s Epigrams ........ 147
Satire 147
Cornutus 149
Persius 150
Palremon 150
Caesius Bassus 152
Petronius 153
Sosianus . . . » . . . . . . 158
Turnus 159
Lenius 159
Silius 159
Juvenal 15ft
[r. l.] 6
ii CONTENTS.
Page
State of Koman Literature 161
Nero 161
Poetry under the Vespasians 164
Salejus Bassus 165
Valerius Flaccus 166
Domitian and his times 167
Sulpicia 168
Satire . 168
Vopiscus 168
Statius the Elder 169
Statius the Younger 170
Stella 171
Martial 172
Canius 174
Theophila 174
Decianus 174
Licianus 174
Parthenius 174
Varus 174
Silius Italicus . . 174
Pliny the Younger 175
Voconius 176
Paullus 177
Pompeius Saturninus 177
Octavius 177
Arrius 177
Secundus 177
Sentius Augurinus . . . 177
Capito 177
Apollinaris 177
Bruttianus 178
Lucius 178
Unicus 178
Vestritius Spurinna 178
Review of the Flavian Age 178
Domitian 178
Nerva 179
Trajan 179
Valerius Pudens 181
Hadrian 181
CONTENTS. Xix
Page
^EliusVerus 183
Verus Antonius 183
Age of the Antonines . . 183
Paullus 185
Annianus 185
Serenus Sammonicus . . . . . . . .185
Clodius Albinus 185
Sammonicus the Younger 186
Septimius 186
Terentian 186
The Gordians 187
Balbinus 187
Gallienus 187
Numerian .......... 187
Aurelius Apollinaris 188
Nemesian 188
Calpurnius 189
Tiberian 189
Effects of Christianity on Poetry 190
Cyprian 190
Tertullian 191
Lactantius 192
Fortunatus 192
Symposius 193
Pentadius 193
Flavius 193
Porphyry the Less . . . . . . . . 194
Juvencus ......... 194
Commodian ... ... 195
Victorinus 195
S.Hilary 195
Damasus 195
Callistus 195
Matronianus 195
Severus 195
Ambrosius . . . . . . . . .195
Avienus 195
Avianus 196
State of the Poetical Mind under the Byzantine Emperors
and their Western Colleagues 197
62
CONTENTS.
Pagre
Valentinian . . .198
Gratian 198
Ausonius 198
Arborius 199
Paullinus 199
Delphidius 201
Proculus 201
Alcimus . 201
Alethius 201
Tetradius 201
Crispus 201
Theon 201
Dionysius Cato 201
Claudian 202
Marnercus . 204
Prudentius 204
Rutilius 204
Poetry of the Sixth Century 205
Phocas 205
Flavius Merobaudes . . . , . . . . 205
Priscian 205
Marcianus Capella 205
Prosper Tyro 205
Sidonius Apollinaris 205
MSS., Editions, &c., of the Post- Augustan Poets . . . 207
ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETEY.
First Period.— THE DECOMPOSITION 216
Commodianus . . . . . . . . .216
Juvencus 217
S. Hilary 219
S.Ambrose 220
Prudentius 222
S. Paulinus 228
Sedulius 228
Dracontius 231
CONTEXTS.
xxi
Page
Arator 232
S. Gregory the Great 232
Victor 234
Avitus 234
Proba Falcoiiia 235
Second Period.— THE RESTORATION 236
Fortunatus 236
Venerable Bede ......... 240
Paulus Diaconus 241
Charlemagne 241
S. Theodulph 241
Robert II. 242
Hartman 242
S. Peter Damiani 242
S. Fulbert 243
Hildebert 244
Marbodus 244
S. Bernard 245
Bernard de Morley 245
S. Notker Balbulus 246
Adam of S. Victor .246
Thomas of Celano 250
James de Benedictis . . . . . . . .251
S. Thomas Aquinas 252
Editions of the Ecclesiastical Latin Poets .... 254
Ox the Measures Employed by Medieval Poets . . 256
LATI]ST PEOSE WBITEKS.
CICERO 271
Character of his Philosophical Writings 283
New Academy 285
Carneades 286
Philo and Antilochus 290
Mixed Philosophy of Cicero 290
Rhetorical Works 295
xxii CONTENTS.
Page
Moral and Physical Writings 298
Poetical and Historical Works 303
Orations 303
Character of his Style 307-
Roman Eloquence 309
Orators before Cicero 310
Ciceronian Age 310
Decline of Roman Oratory 310
MSS., Editions, &c, of Cicero's Works 312
CICERONIANISM 321
THE HISTORIANS OF ROME :—
Theopompus 329
Clitarchus 329
Theophrastus 330
Hieronymus 330
Timaeus 330
Diodes 330
How much of the Early Roman History is probably of
domestic origin . 330
Q. Fabius Pictor 332
Cincius Alimentus . 332
M. Porcius Cato 334
L. Calpurnius Piso 335
L. Caelius Antipater . . . . . . . ..335
Other earlier Historians 336
Lucius Sisenna 336
Polybius 337
Exaggerated reputation of Roman Literature . . . 340
Sallust 341
Caesar 343
Livy 345
Speeches of Livy 350
On the reputation of Livy 351
Contrast between the early and later Grecian writers of
History 352
Dionysius of Halicarnassus 354
Diodorus Siculus 356
Dion Cassius 357
CONTENTS. xxiii
Tage
VeUeiua Paterculus 360
Tacitus 361
Cornelius Nepos ......... 364
Plutarch 365
Suetonius 365
Florus 366
Valerius Maximus 367
Reflections on the duty of a historian .... 367
MSS., Editions, &c, of the Historians of Rome . . . 370
STATE OF ROMAN LITERATURE IN THE TIME OF
THE EMPEROR TRAJAN 377
Reciters 378
Decay of learning 380
Pliny the Elder 380
Stoic Philosophy 3S3
Sophists 385
Effects of the Christian Religion 386
Of the government of Trajan ....... 386
Pliny the Younger 388
Editions of the works of Pliny the Elder and of Pliny
the Younger 390
LITERATURE OF THE AGE OF THE ANTONINI . . 393
Marcus Aurelius 393
Lucianus 394
Pausanias ........... 401
Julius Pollus 402
Aulus Gellius 403
Galenus .......... 404
Other Medical "Writers 406
Lucius Apuleius . . . . . . . . .406
Athena3us 410
Maximus Tyrius 411
M. Fabius Quinctilianus 414
Ancient Oratory . . . . . . . .416
Editions, &c, of the Works of Roman Authors of the Age of
the Antonini 421
xxiv CONTENTS.
Page
POST-ANTONINIAN PROSE WRITERS 426
History 427
Lost Biographies 428
Historia Augusta 428
iElius Spartianus . 429
Vulcatius Gallicanus 429
Trebellius Pollio 429
Flavius Yopiscus 429
Lampridius 429
Capitolinus 430
Septimius 430
Dares 430
Aurelius Victor 430
Eutropius 430
Rufus 431
Ammianus Mar cell iuus 431
Orosius 432
Sulpicius Severus 432
Oratory 432
Panegyrici Veteres . . . . . . .432
Claudius Mamertinus Major 432
Eumenius 432
Nazarius 433
Mamertinus Minor . 433
Drepanius 433
Rhetoricians 433
Letter Writers 435
Symmachus 434
Cassiodorus 435
Philosophy 435
Macrobius 435
Boethius 436
Editions, &c, of the Post-Antoninian prose-writers . . 438
ROMAN LITERARY CHRONOLOGY . ... 449
INDEX 453
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
»■
Page
Vignette. Xa Musee Royale xxv
The Tiber. From a Statue in the Vatican . .... lxxv
Terence. From an antique bust. G. F. Sargent . . .23
Author reading his Plat at a Roman Entertainment. From
a marble cinerarium in the British Museum. G. F. Sargent. 26
Lucius Accius, or Attius. From an antique bust at Rome,
engraved by Johannes Antonius 29
Masks. From a Mosaic at Hadrian's Villa 31
Ennius. From a bust found in the tomb of the Scipios, near
Porta Capena in Rome 47
Lucretius. From an antique gem, engraved for the Batavian
edition of his works in 1725 51
Cicero. Visconti, Iconographie Romaine ..... 53
Catullus. From an antique bust . . . . . . . 55
Musical Entertainment. From a painting at Herculaneum . 63
xxvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Page
HoRAca From an antique "beryl, in the collection of Lord Grey.
VTorlidge. 65
Maecenas. From a colossal bust, Visconti, Iconographie Romaine 68
Brundusium 69
Augustus. Visconti, Mus. Pio. Clementino. . . . . 70
Tivoli. Temples of Vesta and the Sibyl 77
Virgil. From a gem, engraved for the edition of his works edited
by Sir H. Justice in 1757 73
Virgil. Visconti, Iconographie Romaine 87
Tomb of Virgil. Bartoli, gli. Ant. Sepolc 95
SURRENTUM 96
Tibullus. From an antique bust 100
Propertius. From an antique bust 101
The Coliseum. Piranesi 107
Comic Actor in the Mimes. From a marble statue in the British
Museum. G. F. Sargent 110
Remains of the Flaminian Circus. Overbeke, Les Restes de
l'ancienne Rome 116
Obelisk of Augustus. Overbeke, Les Restes de l'ancienne Roni3 120
Ovid. The portrait from a medal in the Rondanini Collection.
G. F. Sargent 121
Mausoleum of Augustus. Overbeke, Les Restes de l'ancienne
Rome 126
Maecenas. From a marble basso-relievo, Visconti, Iconographie
Romaine 128
Remains of the Villa of M^cenas 130
Vignette. From a painting at Herculaneum, Antiquites d' Her-
culaneum, gravees par F. A. David 133
Remains of the Palace of the Cjesars on Mount Palatine.
The modern building is the church of S. Maria Liberatrice.
The three columns are the remains of the Temple of Jupiter
Stator. Venuti, Antichita di Roma 135
Tiberius Cesar and Livia Augusta. Museum Florentinum . 136
Drusus Germanicus. From a medal in the Florentine Museum 139
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xxvii
Page
Lucan. From a medal engraved for the Venetian edition of his
works in 1668 141
Seneca. From an engraving by Vorstermans . . . .143
The Tarpeian Rock. Overbeke, Les Restes de l'ancienne Rome 147
Persius. From a basso-relievo in marble 150
Juvenal. From an antique bust 159
NERO and Popp^ea. Museum Florentinum 162
Baths of Nero. Venuti, Antichita di Roma . . . .163
Titus. Museum Florentinum 164
Arch of Titus 165
Vespasian. Museum Florentinum 165
Domitian. Museum Florentinum 167
Martial. From an antique gem 172
Nerva. Visconti, Iconographie Romaine 179
Hadrian. Visconti, Iconographie Romaine , . . . . 181
Antoninus Augustus Pius. Fromacoin in the Hunterian Museum 184
Numerian. Visconti, Iconographie Romaine . . . .188
Constantine the Great. Visconti, Iconographie Grecque . . 194
Apollo Belvedere 206
Vase. Bacchanals. Real Museo Borbonico 210
Arch of Constantine. Overbeke, Les Restes de l'ancienne
Rome 213
St. Jerom 216
St. Ambrose 220
Gregory the Great 235
The Veneraele Bede 236
Charlemagne . . 241
Medleyal Musical Instruments. Gerbertus Martinus de Cantu
et Musica Sacra 253
Cicero. Visconti, Iconographie Romaine 271
Temple of Peace. The modern building is the Church of S.
Francesca Romana. Venuti, Antichita di Roma . . .272
Temple of Fortuna Virilis 274
Pompey the Great. Visconti, Iconographie Grecque . . .277
xxviii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Page
Temple op Minerva. Built by Pompey. Overbeke, Les Restes
de l'ancienne Rome 293
Pantheon. A Temple of Agrippa 301
Roman Orators 309
The Forum 311
Vignette. Mural painting at Herculaneum 317
Erasmus 321
Dea Roma. Museum Florentinum 329
Fountain of Egeria. Antonelli's Views in Rome . . . 331
Cato the Censor. From a gem in the Ursini collection . . 334
Sallust. From a marble bust in the Farnese Palace . . . 342
Julius CiESAR. Visconti, Iconographie Romaine . . . . 342
Livy. From an antique bust 345
Halicarnassus. L'Univers pittoresque 355
Tacitus. From an antique gem 361
Plutarch. From an antique gem engraved for Reiski's German
edition of his works 365
Lady writing with a Style. Museo Borbonico . . .369
Trajan. Visconti, Iconographie Romaine 377
Pliny the Younger. From a marble bust 388
Column of Trajan. Overbeke, Les Restes de l'ancienne Rome . 389
Antoninus Pius. Rossi, Raccolta di Statue .... 393
Marcus Aurelius. From an antique bust. Visconti, Icono-
graphie Romaine 394
Lucian. From a marble bust 395
Galen. Visconti, Iconographie Grecque 404
Ruins of Rome 428
Column of Marcus Aurelius. Overbeke, Les Restes de l'ancienne
Rome 437
Boy Reading. Panofka, Bilder Antiken Lebens . . .445
Vignette. Mural Painting, Pompeii 452
A Roman Greeting 453
Jupiter with Statue of Victory. Hope's Costumes of the
Ancients .... 462
INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION
ON THE
SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE.
BY THE
REV. HEXET THOMPSON, M.A.
I.ATB SCHOLAR OF ST JOHX'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE;
CUBATE OF SVRi>GTON, SOMERSET.
INTRODUCTOKY DISSERTATION.
It would be foreign to the purposes of this work to enter in
is volume largely upon ethnological questions ; and those coll-
ected with Italy are singularly obscure and complicated. The
ibject has been treated with laborious and erudite research by a
ultitude of writers, who have come to the most discordant
inclusions. It is here adverted to only because the intricacy
hich belongs to it is necessarily derived to the history of a
nguage which resulted from a confluence of the various races of
aly in that central region termed Latium, or from the prepon-
jrating influence, within that region, of certain dominant corn-
unities existing without it. To define with certainty the several
ibutaries by which the mighty stream of Latin speech was supplied,
id to trace with accuracy their several sources and channels, is
isolutely impossible ; and were this not evident from the scantiness
f documents, it would be so from the extravagance or discordance
f the hypotheses which learned men have devised for the solution
fthe problem. While, therefore, we refer the reader who desires
) be acquainted with what has been advanced on the subject, to
le principal writers who have treated it,1 we prefer to wild and
He theorising a simple statement of such phenomena as are either
istorically ascertained, or reasonably probable.
It is quite obvious then that the Latin language consists of two
lements at least — the more influential and prevalent being the
Eolic dialect of the Greek. The Eev. F. E. J. Yalpy, in his late
ery curious and interesting work, " Yirgilian Hours," professes to
1 Niebuhr, in his Roman History and Lectures. Lanzi, Saggio di Lingua
Strusca. Arnold, Roman History. Muller, Etrusker. Dunlop, History of Roman
literature. And Klenze, " zur Geschichte der altitalischen Volkstamme."
xxxii INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE
derive every word in the iEneid from a Greek primitive. Pew
scholars, perhaps, will be convinced of his universal success, though i
many may be disposed to allow that there is more Greek in Latin I
than they imagined ; and some may think his hypothesis even I
probable, while all will admire his acuteness and ingenuity, and,
gratefully acknowledge the light which he has cast on the principles
which govern the more abstruse and secret laws of classic etymology.
Could we indeed believe that every word in a long poem like the
iEneid was actually of Greek derivation, there would be no difficulty
in allowing the same of the whole substance of the language.1 But
without for the present either affirming or disputing this point, it isj
evident that the Latin language, in literature at least, contained three
classes of words. Of these, I. some were simple transplantations
Triple from the Greek, apparently after an extensive intercourse subsisted
ofStLathi10n with Magna Graacia, or even Greece itself : such are Greek proper
names, altered only in inflections ; and such substantives as
thesaurus, atlileta, emblema, pJiilosopliia, ephippium, triclinium, See. ;
the coinage of Latin literary currency from Greek bullion being much
encouraged and practised.2 II. Some were obviously Greek, yet such
as entered the language naturally, and were part of its essential
elements : to these such proper names as Ajax, Ulysses (or Ulixes),
jEscnlapius, Hercules, &c, may be referred; together with such
words as fama, triumplms, anchora, vestis, macliina, dexter, ago,
lego, &c, &c, which form a large proportion of the language.
III. But there still remains a class of words, which, if really of
Greek origin, are evidently derived by a very different process.
The maternal likeness is completely obliterated ; and the inquirer
who would establish the relation must content himself with the
indication of minute lineaments, in which few will be able to
discover the parentage. Such are meta, lorica, clypeus, infula, &c,
to which Mr. Valpy has assigned Greek primitives, but the
derivation of which is evidently a very different matter from that
of either of the former classes.
1 Mr. Valpy has siDce published u a Manual of Latin Etymology," in which he
has advocated the universal descent of Latin from Greek.
2 " Et nova fictaque nuper habebunt verba fidem, si
Graeco fonte cadant, pared detorta." — Hor.Art. Poet. 52.
SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. xxxiii
As the Latin literature arose out of the commerce of Latium
with Greece, the first class of these words appears even in the
earliest literary fragments which have reached us ; no subsequent
writers having drawn more unscrupulously on Greek sources than
JEnnius and Lueilius. But, in investigating the formation of the
language, the consideration of this class may be altogether laid
aside, as its origin and history are palpable. There will remain Only two
therefore only the two others for examination. challenge
Latium lay between the territories of races which we, in the inquiry-
popular phraseology of antiquity, may designate Greeks and
barbarians. The countries to the south were principally Greek
settlements, though the Oscan language was extensively spoken in
[that region ; while the northern neighbours were of different
descent. It is to these sources respectively, that the second and
third classes of words composing the Latin language appear to be
traceable. Of the Italian nations dwelling to the north of Latium,
[the most conspicuous are the Etrurians, Umbrians, and Oscans or
Opicans ; the two last of which were related, and are by some
^writers identified. The Sabines, too, who were early incorporated
with the .Romans, were of kindred origin with the Oscan people.
Whether the Siculi, Itali, or Vituli, were subdued by the Casci or
Prisci, an Oscan tribe, and whether there is any foundation for
the well-known legend of iEneas and his Trojans, are investi-
gations which belong rather to the history of the country than that
of the language. It is sufficient to observe that Latium, situated
as it was between the territories of the Greek and barbarian,
or semi-barbarian tribes, over-run by both in turn,1 and at
last peopled by different races,2 naturally acquired a language
partaking the idiom of its neighbours. It is evident, also, that
peace and its arts were chiefly cultivated by the Greek portion of
the people, while the remainder were principally distinguished for
military prowess. The terms of husbandry and rural and domestic
occupation are mostly Greek : aratrum, bos, ovis, agnus, sus, aper,
equus, canis, sero, ager, sglva, vinum, lac, met, sal, oleum, &c.
1 " Latium colonis saepe mutatis tenuere alii aliis temporibus, Aborigines,
Pelasgi, Arcades, Siculi, Aurunci, Rutuli." — Plin. Hist. Nat. iii. 5.
2 " Quum populus Romanus Etruscos, Latinos, Sabinosque miscuerit, et
mum ex omnibus sanguinem ducat, corpus fecit ex membris, et in omnibus unus
»t"— Flor. iii.
[r. l.] c
xxxiv INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE
Those of warfare, on the contrary, cannot be convincingly deduced
from the Greek, and possibly are not Greek at all : arma, tela,
cassis, ensis, hasta, gladius, areas, sagitta, jaculum, balteus, ocrea,
clypeus, &c. Hence it has been concluded, that the tin- Greek
element (as the German writers call it) was introduced by victorious
invaders. This view also is countenanced by the tin- Greek terms,
referring to government and laws : as rex, civ is, testis, jus, lis,
vas, &c. &c. It also appears that the Greek was the primitive
constituent of the Latin. The simplest ideas are Greek : as sum,
sto, sedeo, cubo, salio, maneo, video, tango, ago, fero, volo, gigno,
gnosco, memini, &c. The parts of the body are sometimes, but not
always, evidently Greek.1 This general view is aptly elucidated by
the English language, the agricultural and rural terms of which are
Saxon, as field, plough, ox, sheep, &c. ; while the legal are mostly
Norman, as court, judge, law, parliament, &c. The conquerors, on
this theory, did not come by sea, since maritime terms are usually
Greek, as navis, prora, remits, &c.
It must, however, be admitted, that a portion at least of the
Italian population which was not Greek, was yet of Greek connec-
tion. In one point of view, Mr. Valpy's etymologies are strikingly
remarkable. That he should have been able to make out, with any
degree of plausibility, the entire identity of the Latin language with
the Greek, is at least proof that there must be a Greek element in
many of the Latin words, which do not belong to what we should
call the Greek division of the language. And, indeed, there is no
eminent Italian tribe, to which a Greek origin has not been
ascribed by some writer or other. The enigmatical Pelasgians
were as rife in Italy as on the opposite coast ; and Greek colonies
swarmed along the maritime parts, whose influence on their more
inland neighbours cannot but have been considerable. Olivieri is
even of opinion that at one time the Greek language prevailed
through the length and breadth of Italy.2 If this was ever the
case, it must have been such during Lanzi's "second epoch,,, "the
mythological," or period when events belong to history, although
1 Words relating to religion are commonly un-Greek. These may come from
the Etruscans.
2 " Essendo Tltalia da ogni lato piena di Greci, chi mai creder potra clie altra
lingua si usasse in Italia fuor clie la greca?" — Oliv., saggi dell' Accad. di Oort,
II. 56 (apud Lanzi, saggio di Lingua Etrusca, I. i. 10).
J
SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. Xxxv
mingled with fable : for liis first is before any records exist ; in his
third, the Italian dialects, as migrations became fewer, and tribes
more settled, began to assume the character of languages ; so that
in this period the Latin language became distinct, though it was
not cultivated ; and in his fourth it attained full development and
cultivation, and, in literature at least, absorbed all the others.
On the manifestly Greek portion of the Latin language it is
unnecessary to dilate. The two languages are sufficiently well
known to all persons of literature to need any detailed proof of 2SSm5?
their substantial identity. The alphabet is essentially the same. £atlJ> with
Pliny tells us of a Delphic table of brass, extant in his time in the
Palatine, dedicated to Minerva, with the inscription, in Soman
letters, " Nausicrates Tisamenu Athenaios anethece."1 The primi-
tive alphabet of the Eomans contained only sixteen letters,
ABCDEIKLMNOPQEST. C was commonly used
for G, agreeably to its position, which corresponded with that of T;
B stood for Y ; P for F. According to Tacitus, Dionysius, and
Hyginus,2 this alphabet was brought from Arcadia by Evander.3
The declensions of substantives in both languages may be reduced
to three ; and their identity is obvious, from the facility with which
any word of either language falls into its proper declension in the
other. The genders in both are three ; and the three declensions
are in both repeated in the adjectives ; the first declension serving
to designate the feminine in both, and the second, the masculine
and neuter. The third declension in both embraces the three
igenders. In both, all neuters plural, substantive and adjective,
end in a; and all neuters are alike in the nominative, accusative,
;and vocative. In both, the pronouns are all but identical.
125, ea, id, is as, f) (ea), 6; o being constantly Latinised by i, as
in the genitive of the third declension, and the d being an
old addition, as in Cnaivod for Cnceo. Nos and vos are found
1 Plin. Nat. Hist. vii. 53. The copies have the inscription in Greek letters;
jbut this manifestly renders the passage unmeaning ; the purport of which is to
show that Greek was formerly written in what was nearly the Roman character in
Fliny's time.
2 Pliny says : " In Latium eas attulerunt Pelasgi" — Hist. Nat. vii. 56*. Diony-
sius says : Atyovrai ('A^/caSes) 8e na\ ypa/uL/uLaToou kW-qviitoov xpr^uiv els ''IraXiav
tpwToi tiicLKOfxiaai.— I. 36. See Tac. Ann. ix. 14 ; Hyg. Fab. 277.
3 See the nature of the Roman alphabet discussed by Dr. Donaldson, Yarro-
nianus, ch. vii.
c2
xxxvi INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE
in the Greek duals v&i and o-$oh. The irregular formation:
coincide. Thus in both languages ego gives me-, and, although
tu (rvy Mo\.) gives te, not se, the difference is trifling ; while
the t actually goes as far as the dative in the iEolic Greek,
The auxiliary verb sum, however apparently differing, is really
identical with eljxi. The prefixed s is a characteristic variety of
the language, as in virep, super ; e£, sex ; and numerous
instances.1 The u, which letter is peculiar to the Latin, is substi-
tuted for all manner of Greek vowels. Thus wins comes from els
(Jews, whence the German ein) ; and hence we should have elym
sumi, or, by aphaeresis, sum ; as ko-ri, est. By applying this
principle to the present tense of the verb, the identity is palpable.
elfxi, sum. clfj.es, (iEol.) sumus.
els, es. f'crre, est is.
earl, est. evn, (iEol.) sunt.
Ero is the iEolic form for so-opai (ecru). So the iEolians said iroip
for irais, whence the Latin pier. The other forms in this verb not
derivable from elpl, come from </>vo> ; as fid, fueram, &c. The
Latin regular verbs resemble the Greek more in their roots than
their inflexion ; yet the substantial identity may still be traced.
The aphseresis explains many forms ; as legit, Xeyer^ai ; legunt,
\eyovT-i (iEol.) or \lyovTai. So, too, the dialectical insertion of r ;
as arrays, stores ; o-rijuai, stare. Stans for cnas is no variation, as
is evident from the genitive aravros. The reduplication of the
perfect is often found, as pungo, pupugi ; tundo, tutudi ; and
although usually dropped, like the Saxon ge in the English, a trace
of its existence is perceptible in the lengthened syllable, as in legi
from lelegi ; veni from veveni. The prepositions and numerals are
almost the same in both languages.
But the substantial identity of the two tongues does not merely
rest here. Beside the s, which is so commonly prefixed to Greek
words, particularly as a substitute for the aspirate, the digamma,
which was especially characteristic of the iEolic dialect, greatly
influenced Latin words. Thus ovis is from ots (iEol. oFls) ; vinum
from oluos (iEol. foivos) ; ver from eap, rjp (iEol. Ffjp). Again, as
the iEolians changed 6qp into <pi)p, the Latins made it /era; and as
1 Mostly, it is true, in the place of the aspirate ; hut not always ; as in ottos,
(ukos, iEol.), succus.
SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. xxxvii
he iEolians changed d into /3 and X, so from 8\s and duKpvua, the
Latins made bis and lacruma or lacrlma. H being changed by the
/Eolians into a, from (prjMi v\r) (7Eol. vXFa), we have famay (sulva)
vylva ; which last word contains three of the peculiarities of Latin
derivation. Transposition, a well-known property of the iEolic
dialect (as in Zeus, 2devs ; frvykr), adevyXa), is common in Latin; as
from fjLoptprj, forma ; from 6'^Aoj (iEol. Fox^s), vulgus. Neither is
the Latin language exceptional to the general etymological rule, that
jin derivations vowels may be neglected ; for, though some vowels
fanswer to others, as e to u, and o to % yet often the transition takes
iplace where there is no established affinity ; as \Oyxn, lAncea.
From these particulars the mode of derivation from Greek into
Latin may be generally understood and applied. Where these
principles of exposition will not avail us, we must look to the
;supposed un-Greek element of the Latin language. One argument
for the existence of such an element has been not merely the
number of words which cannot be conveniently reduced to a Greek
form, but also the consonantal sounds, E and J, which have no
existence in the Greek. The former of these seems to have been
especially Sabine. It will be found, however, that, even in this
portion of the language, the Greek maintains a considerable
influence. In examining the structure of the Etruscan, Umbrian,
and Oscan languages, we shall virtually investigate all that is not
directly Greek in the Latin. It is our imperfect acquaintance with
these languages which alone leaves the question of an un-Greek
element a problem.
In our review of Latin poetry, remarks will be found on the
supposed influence of Etruscan literature on that of Rome.1 Mean-
time we may observe that the language of Etruria could not possibly Etruscan
, . . . \ _ language.
be other than influential. I he Etruscans, in the early times ot
Homan history, were the most powerful and extensive of the Italian
races ; they even had given a royal line to Eome. The regal
insignia, the early constitution, the religious discipline, were
Etruscan. The education of the Eoman aristocracy in Etruria
must have still more extensivcl) augmented the effect of the
Etruscan language on that of Latium. It will be important, then, to
examine, so far as that is possible, what the language of Etruria was.
Of this we have numerous specimens ; they are, however,
1 Page 12.
INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE
EtruFcnn
language.
generally very brief, being merely contained on coins, gems,
paterae, sepulchres, &c. ; in which last case the Etruscans present
an honourable though unfortunate contrast to the prolixity of
modern mourners. The most conspicuous and important monu-
ment of the language is a stone pillar discovered at Perugia in
1822, bearing an inscription, of which we append a copy : — !
Broad side. Narrow side.
Eulat, tanna. larexul felthinas
amefachr. lautn. felthinas. e atena xuc
st. la. aphunas. slel. eth. caru. i enesci ip
texan. phusleri. tesns. teis. a spelane
rasnes. ipa. ama. hen. naper thi 2 phulumch
XII. felthina. thuras aras pe fa spelthi
ras. cemumlescul. xuci. en renethi est
esci epl. tularu ac feithina
aulesi felthinas arxnal cl ac ilune
ensi. thii thils cuna cenu e turunesc
pic. phelic larthals aphunes unexea xuc
clen thunchulthe i enesci ath
phalas chiem phusle felthina umics aphu
hintha cape municlet masu nas penthn
naper srancxl thii phalsti f a ama felth
elthina but naper penexs ina aphun
masu acnina clel aphuna fel thuruni ein
thinam lerxinia intemame xeriunac ch
r cnl felthina xias atene a thii thunch
tesne eca felthina thuras th ulthl ich ca
aura helu tesne rasne cei cechaxi chuch
tesns teis rasnes chimths p e
cl thutas cuna aphunam ena
hen naper cicnl harcutu^e.
1 From Miiller's Etrusker. But the inscription as given by Dr. Donaldson,
after Micali and Vermiglioli, differs in two particulars. 1. The words are differently
divided. This is a question of criticism ; for, as we shall presently observe, the
apparent divisions of words in Etruscan are nearly arbitrary. 2. V is written for
F, Z for X, K for C. This is from the different value assigned by different
scholars to the Etruscan characters.
2 This, Donaldson.
SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. xxxix
It is obvious, at first sight, that the words are divided at ^"J^e
the end of the lines, without any regard to syllabication ; and, it
may be added, it is a well-known peculiarity of ancient Italian
(inscriptions that the breaks do not correspond always with the
flivisions of the words ; — a circumstance which greatly increases the
difficulty of decyphering. Nothing can seem more entirely removed
from Greek or Latin. Whether the Etruscan language be really
alien from both we proceed to inquire.
Herodotus is express for the derivation of the Etruscans, or
Tyrrhenians, as the Greeks called them, from Lydia. In this
opinion he is supported by the Etruscan traditions,1 and by all
'antiquity, till we come to the times of Dionysius of Halicarnassus,
who disputes the tradition, on the ground of its non-appearance
in the work of Xanthus, the Lydian chronicler. How far this
negative evidence should be permitted to weigh is a question rather
for the political than the literary historian. Niebuhr accepts it, on
account of " the complete difference of the two nations in language,
usages, and religion,"2 mentioned by Dionysius. But such a
distinction might well have existed so many ages after the migra-
tion, and after both nations had experienced, so many vicissitudes.
Moreover, the distinction itself is questionable. Neither will
Dionysius allow the Etruscans to have been Pelasgians, but con-
siders them aboriginal Italians. The testimony of Greeks on
questions of language is very dubious. They studied no tongue
but their own ; and nothing but the splendour and influence of the
Roman empire, the necessity of acquiring its language, and the
profound deference which its literature exhibited to the models of
Greece, preserved the Latin itself from being pronounced wholly
barbarous, instead of partly ; from which latter imputation even all
these considerations failed to rescue it.3 When, therefore, Hero-
dotus informs us that the Pelasgian language was " barbarous," we
are not obliged to believe him further than that the Greeks did
not understand that language in his time ; which would have
1 See Tac. Ann. xiv. 14.
2 Lectures on Rom. Hist. See Dion. Hal. Roman. Antiqq. i. 30.
3 'Pco/xaZbt 5e cpooi/rju fX€V ovr aKpav fidpfiapov, ovt aTrrjpTior/jievcjos 'EAAaSa
(pOeyyoi/Tcu, /jliktyju 5e iiva e| afxcpo7u} ris iarlv 77 ir\eicou AioAis. — Dion. Hal.
A.R.\. 90.
xl INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE
language. applied equally to the Latin. Neither does he speak confidently.
Certain it is that when Dionysius affirms that the Etruscan
language differed from every other, he is not borne out by the littL
that can be interpreted of its remains. It is true that it recede;
far more widely from the Latin than the other dialects ; nor doe:
the Perugian inscription exhibit the smallest similarity to Latin or
Greek in the form of its words ; but there is scarcely an Etruscan
word, of which the meaning is ascertainedj which is not traceable to
one of those languages ; while even the Perugian stone exhibits the
Greek and Latin peculiarity of cases (felthina, felthinas, felthinam I
aphunas, aphunam), and several of the words closely resemble
Umbrian words, which have an acknowledged affinity with the
Latin. Niebuhr mentions avil fil, which he translates vixit annos,
as an instance of the entire difference of the Etruscan from thi
Latin and Greek. These words are found sometimes together, some-
times singly, on funeral monuments, and always before a number,
the compass and variety of which leaves no doubt that it indicates
the age of the deceased. But there is no necessity of translating
these words in the precise terms of Niebuhr. Both are
probably abridged,2 like the Mb. and Ob. on modern tombstones,
and the vix. and ann. on ancient. Moreover, it is acknowledged
that no abbreviation was more common in Etruscan than the
omission of vowels ; and Lanzi's 452nd example is marked in full,
aivil. ril,3 where the former word is manifestly a compound of
alfuv, or cevum (anciently aivom), and might have stood for cevilis
(as juvenilis, senilis, &c), or somewhat analogous. As regards
Ril, "it is true that this word does not resemble any synonym in
the Indo-Germanic languages ; but then, as has been justly observed
by Lepsius, there is no connection between annus, eroy, and idr,
and yet the connection between Greek, Latin, and German is
universally admitted."4 Dionysius, doubtless, would not have
recognised in the word Aecse. which is inscribed over the repre-
sentation of a horse, the Greek tniros or Latin equus ; and, probably,
1 "Wvriva 5e yXooacrav Uaav ol TltXao-yo), ovk e^w arptKecos cfrreif €t Be
Xpz&v iari reKfxaipofxcvov Xeyeiv i\<mv ol Uekacryol fidpfiaprr
yXwaaav Uures. — Herodot. Clio, 57.
2 Avi occurs occasionally, which of course, a further abbreviation.
3 Lanzi, Saggio, iii. 19. 4 Donalds. Varron. v. S.
SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. xli
he most expert of modern philologists would have been equally Stroma
-unsuccessful in investigating the meaning of that word, had not the
mdoubted key existed on the gem. Yet the derivation is agreeable
0 every rule of analogy. The n is changed into k, and the aspirate
tlropped, in the iEolic dialect. Hence "Ikkos. The vowel, as all
etymologists acknowledge, is unimportant in derivation. The
/owels a e, therefore, in the place of i, present no difficulty. All
he rest is strictly agreeable to the clearly-ascertained rules of
Etruscan word-building. A double consonant was never used by the
Etruscans, at least in writing ; and the terminations os in Greek,
ind us in Latin, were regularly by them exchanged for e. Hence
lece would be a regular Etruscan conversion of the Greek "ttttos.
But the s still remains to be accounted for. The insertion of this
etter, however, is strictly analogical. The Etruscans wrote Lusna,
dsna, Thasna, Aspa, for Luna, Annia, Thannia, Appia.1 Nor is
;he word equus, unlike as it is to the Greek and Etruscan, of any
Dther parentage. "Ikkos would become icus or ecus in early Latin ;
For the Eomans, like the Etruscans, did not anciently double
their consonants. The change of c into qu is scarcely to be
accounted any at all. At all events, it was most frequent; as
Quirites from Cures, Quirinus from Curis, &c. &c. The position of
;he Etruscan towards the other languages of Italy, and towards the
jrreek, was, probably, not unlike that of the French2 towards the
)ther languages of Latin parentage, and towards the Latin itself;
ar less resembling the mother than did the other daughters, and
iherefore retaining far less of the common family expression. A
Frenchman is fully as unintelligible to an Italian as he is to a
Russian ; yet the French and Italian languages have scarcely a word
vhich is not of common derivation. And thus the Etruscan language
nay have been, as indeed it would appear, of Greek descent,3 and
.jatin kindred, though not so appearing to a Greek or Roman who
lad not studied it.
1 So ahesnes in the Umbrian for ahenea. In old Latin casmoence was used for
amcence, osmen for omen, &c. — Varro, vi. 76.
2 Aecse differs not more from equus than joiw from dies. Yet the latter relation
} demonstrate beyond a doubt. From dies we have diurnwn [spatium] ; hence,
Homo, giorno, joumee, jour.
3 We may observe that the Etruscan works of art bear a close resemblance to
xlii INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE
Etmscan That the Eomans regarded the Etruscans as barbarians x arose.
language. °
no doubt, from the dissimilarity of the languages ; as, in other
respects, the Etruscans could boast of an earlier cultivation, and
were to Home, at one period, so far as that was possible, what
Greece itself was at another.2
We will now endeavour briefly to trace the character, so far as
the limits of this work allow, of this mysterious language.
According to Tacitus, the Etruscans derived their alphabet from
Demaratus of Corinth;3 but, whencesoever they received it, it is
unquestionably of Greek derivation. They appear, however, ta
have had fewer sounds than the Greeks. Thev had but eighteen
letters (for the K and C we consider equivalent). They rejected,
the hard mutes, B, G, D, for which they substituted P, K, T,
Z and 0 were also rejected.4 They retained the digamma. They;
wrote commonly fiovo-Tpo^rjbov, beginning from the right to the
left. All the letters were reversed when the writing ran from left
to right. Vowels were frequently, but not always, omitted in
writing ; and there was no settled orthography ; — two circumstances
which have greatly contributed to the difficulty of investigating the
language. When words ran into each other in popular pronunciation
they were often written as one — a practice familiar also to the Latin.
The Etruscan article appears to have been Tus (or Tu), Ta, Tu ;
these before vowels became simply t ; or, where the vowel wai
aspirated, sometimes tit. Over a representation of Mercury we find
Turms ; evidently Tu Herms, or perhaps Tu Hermes, as the latter
vowel is probably omitted. Were the Greek masculine article to, to
"Epfirjs would assuredly, if contracted at all, become Sovppijs. Thana
the Greek, and that Greek persons and legends are represented on them. Tin
following inscription, found on a vase at Cervetri, the ancient Agylla, is manifestly
in hexameter verse :
Mi ni kethuma, mi mathu maram lisiai thipurenai :
Ethe erai sie epana mi methu nastav helephu.
We give Dr. Donaldson's arrangement of the words, hut the rhythm does no
depend on it.
1 " Fite causa mea, Lydi barhari." — Plant. Curcul. 1. ii. 63.
"An vos, Tu6ci ac barbari, auspiciorum Pop. Rom. jus tenetis, et interpretcs esse
comitiorum potestis?" — Tib. Gracch. apud Cic. de Div. ii. 4.
2 See under " Etrurian Literature" in Ante- Augustan Poetry, p. 12 of thii
volume. 3 Ann. xi. 14.
4 Some critics, however, as we have seen, consider the letter commonly take:
s
SOUltCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. xliii
tands for Ta Ana, the name written by the Eomans Annia ; the i Etnwean
'"is possibly pronounced in Etruscan, though not written. Tular
tands for Tu TJlar {pilar, locus ollarum ; as Bostar, locus bovium).
lence possibly Rasena (the name by which the Etruscans called
hemselves ]) may be identical with TYPS^Not, the Greek name :
ru -Rasexa).
The principal masculine terminations appear to have been a and
the latter very frequent in proper names, and, as we have
iemarked, corresponding to the Greek os, or Latin us. /and u are
ometimes found ; 2 and ih, as Larth, Arnth ; if these be not
abbreviations. The feminine termination was probably a, but is
arely written ; thus Minei, Phasti, Rauntu, may be rendered Helenea
EAei/aa, or 'EXe'^), Eaustia, Eantua. So Capv for Capua. A common
leuter termination was u. The genitive of e was es, us, u or ei; that
if a appears to have been as (purely Greek), ai (old Latin), or e (new
liatin ; the Etruscans rarely using diphthongs. The dative of e
or X to be a Z. We give the Etruscan alphabet, in which all the languages of
taly, with slight variation, except (as it would seem) the Latin, were originally
rritten.
Lat. Etr.
Lat.
Etr.
A A A
N
*i n
C > 0 X 01
P
1
E 3^ 3
R
qa<j
T U]
S
M \z
PH Q e £j B (D 8
T
T f K
H B %
U
V Y
TH © <>
X
* =1
I I
CH
*
L 4 >/
B
Z
^ 1 Not pure
| Etruscan.
d J
1 Dion. Hal. i. 30.
2 Probably contracted forms : as Marcani for Marcanie. The Latin vocative
i, as ^ftfom, is a contracted form for ie.
xliv INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE
Etruscan was u added : answering to the Latin o, which the Etruscans had
language. °
not. Also si is sometimes apparently a dative termination, like
the (f)i of the Greek. We find the accusative puiam (Fviav, Jiliam,
or puellam l). The ablative is thought to have been formed by the
addition of ac, me, or sa. But it is more probable that at least
the two latter of these were prepositions affixed, as mecum, tecum, Sec.
So nomneper in the Umbrian, which termination is also found in the
Etruscan naper. The plural nominative ended in ai, like the old Latin;
contracted, perhaps, occasionally, into a ; unless this be an instance
of the vowel omitted. So Rasena. The genitive was probably urn. \
Idibus was in Etruscan Itipes, and on a patera we find chusais,
probably a dative plural from chusa, a libation. This is as much as
can be said with any probability of the Etruscan declensions.
Lanzi confuses this part of his subject by mingling with it Umbrian
inflexions, which, however, closely resemble the Etruscan, as we
shall presently have occasion to observe.
The following are some specimens of proper names : a gem, with
a figure holding &harpe, or crooked sword, in one hand, and a head
in the other, is marked Pherse, manifestly for Perseus ; on another,
five chiefs in council have their names circumscribed Tide, Phidnices,
Ampldiare, Atresthe, Parthanapae ; who are, no doubt, five of '
the seven anti-Thebans, Tydeus, Polynices, Amphiaraus, Adrastus,
and Parthenopseus. We find Pele for Peleus; Atre for Atreus,
Menle for Menelaus ; Achmiem for Agamemnon ; Elchsntre for )
Alexander (Paris) ; Addle, Achele, and Aciles for Achilles ; Uluxe
for Ulysses (where we have the same deviation from the original
'ohvo-o-evs as in Latin) ; Aivas (At fas) for Ajax (where the Greek
type is retained) ; Theses and These for Theseus. The names of
divinities are mostly of Greek or Latin character : Jupiter was
TUta (Dis, Ditis), or Tina, probably for Tinia, as sometimes
1 This interpretation is rejected by Miiller, Etrusk. Beileg. zu. B. ii. k. 4. 16.
There is little doubt, however, that Lanzi's 191st inscription/' Mi Kalairu phuius,"
is to be rendered u Sum Calairi filii." Dr. Donaldson gives EI/jlI KaXaipov Fvios.*
But the termination us is genitive in Etruscan : besides, in inscriptions of this
kind, the genitive seems more commonly used, as Mi Larthias. See infra. Nor
is Lanzi's interpretation of thui by Jilt a to be rejected merely because it sometimes
stands at the beginning of words, as by Miiller, ubi supra.
* Varronianus, ch. v.
SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. xlv
bund (Zeus, Ztjuos) ; Venus, TJialna l (Ta Halna, or, perhaps, Etruscan
lalina, the vowel being omitted in writing, tj akiva), or Turan
Ta Uran, rj ovpavia) ; Diana, Thana (Thiana, i omitted as before,
r Theana, from 0e6s, as Diana from Dius) ; Vulcan, Sethlans ;
Apollo, Jplu, Epul, Epure, or Apidu; Bacchus, Fkupluns ; 2 Minerva,
/fene?fa, Menirva, or Menerve ; Mercury, Mircurios,3 or Turms
,Tu Herms, 6 "Kpn^s) ; Hercules, Ilerkle, or Herkole ; Neptune,
Wethuns ; Pluto, Mantus ; Proserpine, Mania ; the two last mani-
estly Latinised, but exhibiting the same root as Manes ; which is
tlso found in the Etruscan Summanus (sub Manibus), the god of the
light. As this treatise is purely philological, we do not enter on
;hose parts of Etruscan divinity which present no comparative
etymologies. The terminations al, isa, ena, about which much has
oeen written, but nothing decided, appear to be patronymics,
1 Dr. Donaldson makes Thalna Juno, whom he also designates, after Strabo,
Kupra. Cuprus meant good in the Sabine language,* whence Cupra should seem
to be Dea bona, as indeed Dr. Donaldson acknowledges ; and therefore Cybele or
Proserpine. On a patera + representing the birth of Minerva, the word Thalna is
inscribed against a goddess whose symbols are the dove and myrtle-branch. Thana
may possibly have been used for Juno, the derivation favouring it.
2 See Donalds. Varron., v. 10. Lanzi makes Bacchus Tinia ; but the juvenile
figure with a thunderbolt, which he takes for Bacchus, may be Vejovis. In the
patera representing the birth of Bacchus, the word Tinia9 which Lanzi there
refers to Bacchus, is clearly inscribed over Jupiter, while Bacchus himself has no
inscription. The worship of this deity was imported from Greece ; (see Livy,
xxxix. 8) and, though extensive, was " superficial " J in Etruria. Vertumnus, the
e;od of the changes of the year, and its productions, consequently of wine, seems
to have anciently supplied the place of Bacchus to the Etruscans. The Latinised
Etruscan termination tumnus, tumna, we may here observe, may possibly be
identical with dominus, domina; as Vertumnus, vertendi dominus ; Voltumna,
volgi domina. But it is generally supposed that umnus is equivalent to 6/j.ei/os,
or e/mevos. It is remarkable, however, that, in proper names of divinities, the
t generally precedes. Another etymology is suggested by the lines of Propertius, —
At mihi, quod formas unus vertebar in omnes,
Nomen ab eventu patria lingua dedit :
as though' the derivation were from verto and unus. If so, umne, or une was
probably one.
3 Words containing the o are late, or not pure Etruscan.
Yarro de Ling. Lat. v. 159. t Lanzi, Tav. x. 1,
X Oberflachlich, Muller, Etrusk. III. iii. 12.
xlvi INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE
Etruscan metronymics, or derivatives. Thus as aivil (ad avum pertinens)
seems to have the same character as juvenilis, senilis, &c, (ad
juventutem, senectutem pert mens), soZarthal or Lar thiol (ad Lartem,
or Lartldam, pertinens) appears to have the form of Martialis (ad
Martem per linens). The Latin terms cervical, tribunal have a like
substantive reference to other substantives. Isa and ena may
correspond to the to-cra and wrj of the Greeks in signification, as
they undoubtedly do in form — Tarchisa seems the feminine o
Tarchun (Tu Archun, 6 apx<*>v),1 as /3ao-i\io-o-a from fiao-ikevs. Of
numerals, it seems likely that clan or clen stood for primus ; eter
(erepos) is almost certainly alter or secundus ; and other numerals
appear to have answered to the Latin words. Eestus, on the wrord
Quinquatrus, observes, that the Tusculans called the 3rd, 6th, and
7th days from the Ides, Triatrus, Sexatrus, and Sepiimatrus, and
the Paliscans called the 10th Decimatrus? But the words are,
doubtless, Latinised.
We have but slight means of ascertaining the character of the
Etruscan verb. Under statues, the form mi LartJiias, or mi cana
Larthias, is found. El/*i, with the genitive of the person represented,
was a common inscription on Greek statues : so that mi Larthias
may be rendered eifu AapOias, sum Lartice. Cana is equivalent to
xava, interpreted by Hesychius Koa^a-is* a word synonymous with
ayaX/xa, which is often used by the Greeks for an image. Tece, on
the statue of Metellus, appears equivalent to 6rj<€ (t'OrjKe, for
dvi6r]K€, a form common in Greek votive inscriptions). Turce seems
used for donavit, the first portion of the word being equivalent to
the Greek dcop, in a language which used t for d, and u for o?
1 Tarchon, according to antiquity, was a son or brother of Tyrrhenus, the founder
of the Etruscan nation. But it is remarkable that Verrius Fhiccus and Caecina
call him Archon, in passages which Miiller corrects into Tarchon.* The correction,
however, was not needed. The reading results from the omission of the Etruscan
article. It is, however, right to state that Tarchun, according to Miiller, is the
Etruscan form of Tuppr)v6s. Yet in Flaccus and Ccecina the two names are
distinguished.
2 Fest. in voc. See Varro de L. L. vi. 14.
3 Niebuhr would have Turce to mean Tuscus ; a good derivation as to analogy,
but scarcely applicable to the context.
* Etrusker. Einleit. ii. 1.
SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE.
xlvii
! The following Etruscan words, gleaned from ancient authors, gems, l
■(terse, funeral monuments, Sec, will sufficiently show how far
lie authority of Dionysius is to be respected in regard to the
[ barbarism " of the language : and serve to qualify the bold
issertion of Niebuhr, that this authority is " but too strongly con-
tained by all our inscriptions, in the words of which no analogy
vith the Greek language, or with the kindred branch of the Latin,
;an be detected, even by the most violent etymological artifices ; " ■
md elsewhere: <;Wemaysay with certainty that the Etruscan
las not the slightest resemblance to Latin or Greek, nay, not to
my one of the languages known to us, as was justly remarked
)y Dionysius."2 True indeed it is that the Etruscan, as viewed in
.he gross, appears to bear little relation to other languages ; but
.vherever it has been possible to detect its meaning, its connection
.vith Latin and Greek is commonly apparent.
A.ecse — equus, (fo<:os).
Agalletor — puer, (dydWo/jLai).
Andas — Boreas.
Antar — aquila, (aeros).
Aracos — accipiter, (*Vpa£, Upanos).
Arimoi — simiae.
Arse — ignem, (ardeo).
Ateson — arbustum.
Atentu — habeto, (teneto).
Aukelos — aurora.3
Cana — decus, imago, (xwa).
Canthce— deposuit, (KaTtdrjKe).
Capra — capra.
Capys — falco, (ko./jlttt(o).
Carescara — xaPL<JT^Pia"
Cassis — cassis.
Cehen, probably evtKtv.
Cfer — puer. (p and q are constantly
interchanged ; cf is the Etruscan
q. So Cfenle — Quinlius. The
derivation may be from tcFopos;
or from Ko'Cp for iroip, iEol. for
ireus.)
Chausais — inferiis, (xoaais, iEol.)
Esar — Deus ; and Nesar.
Eter — secundus, alter, (erepos).
Eth, etfe — ivi.
Falandum — ccelum.
Februum — purificatio.
Fis, fia — Alius, filia.
Gapos — currus.
Hister — histrio, (la-rccp),
Ituo — divido.
Itus — idus.
Lanista — carnifex, (lanio).
Lar — Dominus.
Leine, line. (An inscription on
sepulchres, possibly leniter, sc.
ingi-edere, or it may be loculus :
\t)vos).
Lupu — loculus, (Aoirds),
Lusna — luna.
Mantisa — additamentum.
Mi— sum, (iifii).
Nanos— erro.
Nepos — prodigus, (nepos).
Peithesa — fides, (7rei'0a>, whence too
fido).
1 Rom. Hist., Tuscans or Etruscans.
2 Lectures on Rom. Hist. v.
This word is evidently Grecised. The authority is Hesychius.
xlviii
INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE
Etruscan
language.
Oscan
language.
Phanu — fanum.
Votum. (No satisfac-
tory Gr. or Lat. etymo-
logy. Lanzi's o(p\j](ns is
very forced.)
Phruntac — fulguriator.
Puia — filia (Lanzi), (Fvid).
Eil. (Apparently a contracted form
of some word signifying years.
Etym. uncertain.)
Subulo — tibicen.
Suthil 1
Suthur J
Tapi — sepultura, (racpr]).
(TUiT7)piOV.
Tece — posuit, (e^fce).
Tunur — honori, (Tu unur, t£ honori).
Turses — mcenia, (turris).
Tuthines — quicunque, (o'1[tol] rives).
Threce — Te0e*/ce.
Thui, or thuia — filia, (Ovta, 7/ [to] via),
Thupitaisece — viroTedeiKe.
Verse — verte. (Propertius, who gives
a long account of Vertumnus
(iv. ii.) and the various occasions
from which his name was popu
larly derived, makes no doubt <
the etymology a vertendo, or o j
the root being Etruscan.)
The Opican or Oscan language was extensively spoken over the
middle and southern portions of Italy ; Latium itself was included
in Opica by Aristotle.1 It was the language of the Samnites,
Campanians, Lucanians, Bruttians : it was spoken by the Mamer-
tines of Messana ; and the Sabine language, though not the same,
had mingled with it : 2 and the Samnites, who were of Sabine
1 Tov t6ttov\ tovtov ttjs '07n/cr/s, bs KaXrirai Aoltlov. — Aristot. apud Dionys.
Halic. Rom. Antiq. i. 72.
2 " Sabina usque radices in Oscam linguam egit.,, The following Sabine words,
collected from various authorities, will show the affinity of the language to the
Latin, and (partially) to the Greek : —
Alpus
albus.
Herna
saxa.
Ausum
aurum.
Idus
idus.
Cascus
antiquus.
Lepesta
vas vinarium.
Catus
acutus.
Lixula
circulus.
Ciprus (or
cuprus)
bonus.
Nar
sulfur.
Creperus
dubius.
Sal us
salus.
Cumba
lectica.
Scesna
ccena.
Cupencus
sacerdos.
Strena
sanitas.
Curis
hasta.
Tebse
colles.
Embratur
(a Latin
imperator
Terenus (j4pf)v)
tener.
word corrupted).
Tesqua
locasentibus repleta.
Fasena
arena.
Trabea
trabea.
Februum
purgaraentum.
Trafo
traho.
Fcedus
licedus.
Vefo
veho.
Fircus
hircus.
Verna
verna.
From the above examples it is evident that an h for an /, or an r for an s, would
often convert a Sabine word into Latin, and the forms and character of the words
suggest a dialectical Latin.
S|OUBCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE, xlix
descent, spoke it.1 It was thus brought into immediate contact oscan
»vith Borne. The Atellane plays, of which notice will be found in "^
our chapters on Latin poetry, were acted in this language ; and,
eing intended for popular amusement, could scarcely have been
cry unintelligible at Rome. Some German scholars, as Munk 2
ml Klenze,3 have contended that the Atellane plays were always
Sn Latin; contrary to the express testimony of Strabo, who, as we
^hall see when we come to that part of our subject, speaks of Oscan
Mays acted in his time periodically at Rome. To this competent
witness it is not sufficient to reply, as Munk has done, that the
Oscan language was unintelligible at Rome in the time of Augustus,
3ii the ground that, as Horace and Quinctilian 4 attest, even the
Learned were unable to interpret the old Latin ; and that the
tBantine table contains a Latin translation of the Oscan, for the use
f the Romans, who did not understand the latter. True enough
t may be that the Oscan language was unintelligible to the learned
f the Augustan day ; but this is anything but an a fortiori
argument for its unintelligibility to the vulgar. The literary and
conversational Latin was quite an artificial language, and probably
3iffered more from the Latin of the common people than did the
Oscan itself. As to the Bantine table, the argument from that
altogether fails, as the Latin and Oscan are not antigraphs, as is
shown by Klenze himself. The main ditference between the Oscan
land the Latin was dialectical ; a difference, however, progressively
enlarged by the great opposition in the habits of the races by whom
they were respectively spoken. The Oscan language comprises the
larger portion of the un-Greek element, as it is called, of the
Latin ; and, whether this term be just or otherwise, certain it is
that the Oscan receded considerably from the Greek. This was
natural in a people whose minds and occupations appear to have
been as opposite as possible, even to a proverb, to the intellectual
character of the Greeks ; for the term 0_plcus was used emphatically
for ignorance of Greek, and antipathy to it.5 The Oscans were dull*
1 Liv. x. 20. - De Fabb. Atcll.
8 Zur Geschichte tier Altitalischen Yolkstammc.
4 Hor. Epist. II. i. 56. Quinct. I. vi. 40.
5 Aul. Cell, xi. 16 1 xiii. 9. So Juv. iii. 206 :—
Jamque vetus Grcecos servabat cista libellos,
Et divina Opici rodebant carmina mures.
[R.L.] d
1 INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE
Oscan sensual, and, emphatically, barbarous. Indeed the word Opicm
in Latin implies something more than barbarus. "Nos quoqu
Grscci barbaros, et spurcius nos quam alios, Oplcos [al. Ojncorum]'
appellatione fcedant" says Cato.1 Eestus derives the name of
the nation ab oris fceditate; a ludicrous etymology, but exhibiting
the common idea of contempt and disgust with which the Oscans
were regarded by educated Eomans. With such sentiments,
and with the profoundest veneration for Greek taste and litera-
ture, which the Oscans did not care to understand, the Eomans,
as matter of refinement, continually receded further from Oscan
forms.
The principal monuments of this language now remaining to us
are, some vases from Nola in the museum at Berlin ; an inscription
found at Messana, in Greek letters ; another found in Campania ;
several at Herculaneum and Pompeii ; a stone table in the ruins of
Abella, in Oscan letters ; and one of brass at Oppidum, in Latin
letters. This last is the most important, and is commonly known
by the name of the Bantine table.
The Oscan alphabet did not materially differ from the Etruscan
in form, nor from the Latin in amplitude, when the Latin
alphabet was employed, as was often the case, in writing this ,
language.2 But, in the latter instance, the Q was wanting. Vowels,
as in Etruscan, were sometimes omitted ; but the writing, when in
Latin or Greek Letters, was commonly from left to right ; and the
orthography, if we may apply the term, was coarser and more
careless than the Etruscan ; as might be expected from an illiterate
1
Ap. Plin.
N. H.
xxix. 27.
2 The principal differences were as follow :-
Lat.
Osc.
Lat.
Osc.
A
N
P
n
PH
8 6
R
84
TH
\J
Z
X
I
r "i
N
\A
I
SOURCES AM) FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. li
iation. The words were even strangely run into each other, as i
> frequent in the writings of uneducated people : hence arise
Efficulties in the interpretation. Nevertheless, by the light of the
patin, some idea may be formed of the language.
The Bantine table is, perhaps, the least unintelligible of the Oscan
tocuments. As a specimen, we give a part of the 3rd chapter, as
t is called by Grotefend, with his version : those of other scholars,
s Klenze and Dr. Donaldson, differ, as might be expected. Some
if these variations we shall notice.
Pr. sva3 profucus,1 pod post exac Bansre fust, sva3 pis
Porro si pnrtexuerit, quod posthac Bantise fuerit, si quis
p eizois com atrud[iac]ud acum herest, avti pru
haec cum fraudulento homine2 agere volet, atque pro
ledicatud manimasepum eizazune egmazum, pas exaiscen
ompensato mancipium idem exquirere, cujus ex istis
igis scriftas set, nep him pruhipid mais zicolois X.3
?gis scripts sit, neque eum repetat magis (quani) judiciis X.
esimois. Sva3 pis contrud exeic pruliipust, molto etanio
xmtinuatis. Si quis contra in isto repetierit, multa justa
sstudn. (D in svoe pis ionc meddis moltaum herest, licitud ;
sto n. M. et si quis eum magistratus multare volet, liceto ;
mpert mistreis4 alteis eituas moltas moltaum licitud.
ina cum magistris altis aerarii multae multare liceto.
; From this passage it will be seen that there is considerable
)bscurity in the remains of the Oscan tongue which antiquity has
pared to us. The principles of this language, so far as they are
mown, we shall consider in conjunction with those of the Umbrian,
o which it bears a close affinity. A vocabulary would almost
1 Klenze renders Prcetor sire prcefectus. Grotefend takes preefucus for
ircvfucust, prate wucrit, from fuco, to disguise.
\€hmatrudiacud should perhaps be rendered fraud uloitcr ; so compreiratud,
mritim; hut Dr. Donaldson gives atrud ud, and renders atro . . . . o,
concluding, apparently, that a whole word is lost. The letters iac are less distinct,
ndeed, hut seem quite unmistakable.
3 Klenze renders ne quern proJiibcat mayis siculis decern.
4 Klenze renders ampert mistreis by per minutrot.
d 2
lii
INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE
require the transcription of the Oscan remains ; a task equally
unsuited to our objects and our dimensions.
One of the most ancient and genuine races of Italy was the
Umbrian.1 Their city Ameria dates 381 years before Home. Their
territory extended at one time over a part of Etruria. Their
language, therefore, must be regarded as one of the constituents of
the Latin. We have larger means of investigating the nature of this
tongue than we possess in regard to the Etruscan and Oscan. In
the year 1444, nine brazen tables were discovered in a subterranean
vault in the neighbourhood of the ancient theatre at Gubbio, the
ancient Eugubium or Iguvium. Two of these were conveyed, in the
year 1540, to Venice, and have never been recovered ; the remaining
seven are still in existence. Of this number, two are in Latin
characters ; the remainder in Umbrian, which do not differ im-
portantly from the Etruscan alphabet. These last are earlier than
the others, and are referred by Lepsius to about the end of the fourth
century u.c. ; the others he places about the middle of the sixth
century. In this period the language had undergone alteration,
owing, doubtless, in part, to the advancing influence of the Latin;
we may, therefore, consider it under the designation of Old and
New Umbrian.
The declensions of substantives and adjectives are tolerably
well ascertained. The Eirst contains the feminine nouns, and is as
follows :
1 " Umbrorum gens antiquissima Italiae existimatur, ut quos Ombrios a Grsecis
putent dictos, quod inundatione terrarum iuibribus superfuissent. Trecenta eorun
oppida Tusci debellasse reperiuntur." — Plin. Nat. Hist. iii. 19.
SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE.
liii
TJmbrian
language.
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liv
INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE
Umbrian
language.
The identity of this declension with the first of the Latin, an
with the corresponding declension of the Greek, is palpable,
Where it differs from the former, it falls back npon the latter.
The genitive is purely Greek. The ai of the Oscan dative
singular, and the e of the Umbrian, are the original at and rji of
the Greek, afterwards contracted into a and rj. The ais of th
Oscan dative plural, and the es of the Umbrian, are the Greek
and 77s- by similar analogy. The v in the Oscan form is the Gree]
digamma.
The Second declension corresponds to that of the Latin in us and
Greek in os for masculines, and Latin in urn and Greek in ov for
neuters. The masculines sometimes undergo a change in the
nominative, as by the rejection of the penultimate u : as Ikuvins foi
Ikuvinus, an Eugubian. When, after this process, t and s concur,
they coalesce in z. So pihatus, pihats, pihaz. In the later Umbrian,
this az becomes os. When t and I or r concur, the termination w
is rejected, and an e is interposed. Katlas (catulus), katli kate<
So in the Oscan, Bantins for Bantinus, Pumpaians for Pumpaian
(Pompejanus), hurz for hurtus, &c. Thus from dypos the Lati
agrus, agr, ager. The neuter declension (in urn, om, im) onl;
differs from the masculine in having the nominative, accusative,
and vocative alike in both numbers, and forming those cases in
the plural in a or u.
e
;
UMBRIAN".
Old.
i
New.
SINGULAR.
ISTom.
pupel? Ikuvins
(the Eugubian
people)
popel?
Gen.
puples Ikuvines
popler
Dat.
puple
pople
Voc.
puplel
pople?
Ace.
puplum
poplom
Abl.
puplu
poplu
OSCAN.
Terminations.
^ el, m. (Famel)
us, m. (Ziculus)
Bantins (for Bantinus)
^um, n. (sakaraklum)
eis (Abellaneis)
ui (Abellanui)
om (dolom)
ud (Abellanud)
SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE.
lv
UMBRIAN
Umbrian
OSCAN". language
Old.
New.
Terminations.
Noni.
VToc.
1 puplus
PLURAL.
poplor ]
J us, m. (Abellanus)
I u, n. (teremenniu)
leu.
Dat.
Vbi.
puplum
>- puples
poplom
popl-er, -ir,
um (Abellanurn)
reis (mistreis)
. J uis (Abellanuis), or
] ois (in more modern
Vcc.
pupluf
poplof?
L forms)
J uf (tribarakkiuf. Qro-
L tefend)
The characteristic termination of the Third declension is i ; but
:there are many rules which dispense with it, unnecessary to
ntroduce here, when we are merely investigating the sources of
the Latin language. This declension comprehends all the genders :
the neuter nominative, accusative, and vocative are alike, as in
Greek and Latin. The other nouns are thus declined :
'Nom.
Voc. I
Gen.
Dat.
Ace.
Abl.
UMBRIAN.
Old. New.
SINGULAR.
ukar (for ukri), a hilL "|
The Lat. arx, Gr. l-ocar
a.Kpa J
ukres ocrer
ukre ocre
ukreni ocrem
ukri ocr-i, -e, -eL
OSCAK
Terminations.
im
id
Xom. 1 m. f. m\
Voc. ] J n- arvia
a.
> ukres, -is
ukres
arvia, arviu
Gen.
Dat.
; Abl.
Ace. ukref
ocrer
arvio
term, om (peracniom)
ocres, -is, -eis is (ligis, legibus?)
ocr-ef, -if, -eif eis
The Fourth Umbrian declension corresponds to the fourth of the
Latin. It contains the three genders. The nominative ends in u.
There is no example of this case, however, in the word here selected.
Manu (?) signifies hand.
lvi INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE
nbrian
lguage.
UMBRIAN"
Old.
New.
SINGULAR.
Norn.
Gen.
manus
manor
Dat.
manu
mano
Ace.
manum
manom
Abl.
niani
mani
There are two other forms, manve and manf, the reference of
which is uncertain ; but they are probably dative and accusative.
plural. OSCAK
> term, us, as berus Feikoss. Grotef.
Abl. J J
Ace. m. „ uf, as kastruvuf
11. „ a, as berva ; term, o, as pequo.
The following, in the form of the Fifth and last Umbrian declen-
sion, embraces all the genders : —
UMBRIAN.
OSCAN".
Old.
New.
SINGULAR.
NTom.
Voc?
}
kvestur (quaestor)
questur
kvaistur, medix, med-
dix, meddiss
(magistratus)
Terminations.
Gen.
kvestures
questurer
eis (medikeis)
Dat.
kvesture
questure
ei (medikei)
Ace.
kvesturu
questuru
im (medicim, N. 0.)
Abl.
kvesture
questure
id (prsesentid, N. 0.)
PLURAL.
(We are here obliged to collect examples from different nouns.)
Nom. tuderor (from tuder)
Gen. fratrum fratrom (from f rater)
I)at- \ fratrus fratrus
Abl. J
Beside these forms, there are, in Umbrian, two locative cases, as
they are called, which are the same in all declensions : but they
rather seem to have affinity with the Greek postfixes 0i or o-t, as
SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. lvii
'pavoOi, 'ikioOi, 'A6f]VT](TL ; and oe or (e, as olWcV, MapaBcovahe, X^aC€* uSSS
9r]va(€ : so tutemem Ijovinemem, "in the whole of the Eugubian
rritory," or, "in the city of Eugubium," as before; tutamem Ijovina-
em, "to," or "into," &c. The termination /m is used in the plural,
id in the sense of rest only. The m is sometimes rejected ; but
e laws of its rejection are unimportant here.
The numerals, as far as known, are unu, one ; dur, two ; thus
clined :
Masc.
Fern.
Neut.
Nom.
dur (N. U.)
tuva1?
Dat.
duir „
tuves 1
Ace.
duf
tuf
tuva
Abl.
tuve
tuves
Tri, three, thus declined :
Masc. and Fern. Neut.
ISTom. tri trijal
Ace. tref, tre, trif, treif trija
Abl. tris
Four is petur (jreropes for Teo-aapes, iEol.1) ; six, se ; nine, nurpier;
m, desert? Of the personal pronouns (Umbrian and Oscan), we
;ave mehe (N. U.), mihi ; tiom, or tio (N. U.), tin (0. U.), te;
fe, tibi ; seso, sese ; titer, tuus ; vestra, vestra. The demonstrative
■onouns are erek, ere (0. U.), erec, ere, eront (N. U.), idik (0. 0.),
ic (X. 0.), answering to the Latin is; esto, to iste ; eso (N. U.),
mm (N. O.), to hie; ero, to Me; eno and ho, only found in
onjunctional and adverbial forms ; poe, poi, or poei (N. U.), qui ;
ie p, both in Umbrian and Oscan, answering to the Latin q ; (so
hipumpe, quicunque). In the Greek dialects, in like manner,
and k are interchanged : so 71-77, 7700-09, nolos, *a, kuo-os, koIos.
lence, too, \vkos, lupus, o-kvKov, spolium, &c. In this respect the
)scan was often nearer than the Latin to the Greek.
The auxiliary verb es (esse, that) is thus conjugated, as far as
e have examples :
1 Hence petorritum. 2 Hence, Dsen, Zen, Zehn, Germ.
lviii INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION.
UMBRIAN
Old.
New.
Pres. Ind.
3rd. sing, est
3rd. sing, est
3rd. pi. sent, sont, isunt
Pres. Pot.
3rd. sing, si
2nd. sing, sir, si, sei
3rd. pi. sins
Inf.
eru
erom
'he auxiliary verb fu (fuisse, cfrvvai)
is thus found :
Pres. Pot.
3rd. sing, fuia
Fut. Ind.
3rd. sing, finest
(Lanzi refers to this tense the
forms eront, erihont, erahunt,
erefont, erarunt, ererunt. The
German philologists regard
them as pronouns.)
Fut. Perf. Ind.
3rd. sing, fust
fust, fus
3rd. pi. furent
2nd. sing, futu
Imp.
3rd. sing, futu
2nd. pi. fututu
The following fragments of verbs give some, though an imperfect,
idea of their conjugation. They are arranged according to the
analogous conjugations in Latin. The active and passive are
distinguished by the corresponding Latin affixed :
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[SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. lxi
The Umbrian prepositions (which the Oscan closely resemble) are, Umbrian
ith their Latin exponents, as follows : O is old Umbrian ; N, new. dnguagc
r (0.), ad Pustin, pusti (0.), posti (N.), pro
<]he, eh, eso, sese, tefe (N.), e, ex Pre, ante, pro (pro? in composition)
Sine, eno, in Sei (ST.), ab (the se of composition,
3is, ets as in seyrego)
3utra (0.), hondra (N.), infra Subra (N.), surur, supra
Karu (0.), coram Sopa, sub
Slum, ku (0.) \ Tra (0.), traf, trahaf, traha (K),
y cwfth
2Jom, co (N.) J trans
Per, pro. (Generally post-fixed, as Tu (0.), to (N\), ab. (It seems the
pupluper, pro populo.) word which enters penitos, divi-
Perse, persei, persi (N.), nepil nihcs, ccelitus, &c, which words
(Pune (0.), ponne, poni (N.), pcwe ? are compounded quite after
iPus (0.) "1 . the Umbrian fashion.)
jPost (N.) J Upetu, ob, propter
The compositional prepositions are an (0.), dra or in ; amh, ampr
(0.), amir (N.), ambi, d/xc/u ; «A (O.), a, aha, (N.), a, ab ; anter(0.),
ander (N.), inter ; era, in ; w/?, ws (0.), os (N.), ob, obs, os ; ^?n^
(0.), pro ; pur, por (as in porricio) ; re, re ; sub, sub ; vem, t?6w, ve,
perhaps as ve in vecors.
An Umbrian vocabulary would involve the transcription of the
Eugubian tables ; a task altogether irrelevant to the object of a
treatise on the history and sources of the Latin language. By
extracts from those tables, we shall, perhaps, give a better idea of
the Umbrian language, and its connection with Latin and Greek.
The interpretation is, in great measure, conjectural. It must be
remembered that Tota Ijovina may be rendered civitas Iguvina.
From the Yth table (0. U.) :
Jupater Sabe tephe estu vitlu vuphru sestu : purti
Jupiter Sabe ! tibi istum vitulum rubrum sisto : vitulum
(jropraKa)
phele trijuper teitu trijuper vuphru naratu : pheiu
lactentem : pro tribus dictis(?) pro tribus rubris die : facio
(fellantem) (narrato)
Juve patre vubijaper Natina Fratru Atieriu.
Jovi patri pro vubia Arnatina Fratrum Ateriatium.
lxii INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE
Umbrian From the YIth table (X. U.) :
Di Grabovie tiom esu bue peracrei ' pihaclu ocrepei
Di Grabovi! macte esto bove opinio piaculo pro arce
(riofiepos eao) pera^pw (pro sacrificio, Lanzi
Fisiu totaper Ijovina erer nomneper erar
Fisio pro tota Iguvina (terra) pro marium nomine pro fceminarum
(eorum) (earum]
nomneper.
nomine.
Di Grabovie salvom seritu ocrer Fisier totar Ijovinar
Di Grabovi! salvam servato arcis Fisii [et] totius Iguvina?
(terras'
nome nerf arsmo veiro pequo castruo frif salva seriti
regionem opes . . arma1 viros pecus oppida * salva servato
(vop.bv) (nervos) (castra)
futu fons paser pase tua ocri Fisi tote Ijovine erer
sis bonus, favens pace tua arci Fisio toti Iguvinse marium
(cpverco) (pacificus)
nomne erar nomne.
nomini fceminarum nomini.2
From this investigation it would appear that, from the Alps to
the Strait of Messina, the languages spoken when Eome arose were
either purely Greek or of kindred origin and form. The roots are
discoverable in Greek or Sanscrit, in which latter tongue philologists
have traced unquestionable analogy, both in substance and form, to
the old Italian dialects. Latium, as a point where the territories of
several races met, would naturally exhibit a compounded language ;
and, if the universal tradition be true which represents Eome in its
infancy as the asylum of fugitives from all parts, the language of
that city might be expected to prove more miscellaneous even than
1 According to Dr. Donaldson, however, arsmus is sacerclos.
2 i. e. maribus et foeminis. So noraen Latinum, &c. Dr. Donaldson renders
illius nomini, hujus nomini, the meaning of which is not very clear. But er
and ar, as we have seen, are the terminations of the gen. sing, of the 2nd and 1st
declensions respectively, and answering therefore to the masculine and feminine.
We should have used the pronoun Me in both places, if the genitive singular had
admitted the distinction of genders.
SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. lxiii
ihat of the province. But, as all the elements were kindred, it umbrian
asily subsided into a compact and uniform texture, particularly ******
jvhen it became refined, enriched, and polished by an ampler infusion
)f Greek.
In investigating the early Latin, we are met by several difficulties. Latin
JT he orthography is altogether unsettled ; the specimens, when tran- dDgU
scribed, have suffered in the process ; the language itself, as might
pe expected, is fluctuating. The earliest specimen we possess is
he Hymn of the Fratres Arvales, dug up at Eome in the year 1778.
This poem was attributed to the times of Eomulus. Though of
the highest antiquity, it was not, probably, inscribed on the stone
which contains it till the time of Iieliogabalus ; it is scarcely
ipossible, therefore, that it should not be much corrupted. The
■eader will perceive in it several letters which did not belong to the
primitive alphabet. There is no division in the words ; the division
which we give, however, is that which is generally received : —
ENOS . LASES . IWATE
NEVE . LVERVE . MARMAR . SINS . INCVRRERE IN PLEURES .
SATVR . FVFERE . MARS . LIMEN . SALI . STA . BERBER .
SEMVNES . ALTERNET . ADVOCAPIT . CONCTOS
ENOS . MARMOR . IVVATO .
TRIVMPE . TRIVMPE . TRIVMPE . TRIVMPE . TRIVMPE.
Each of these lines is repeated thrice ; and the uncertainty of the
orthography is manifested in the repetition. For Luerve is
substituted Lu^e ; for Marmar, Marma; for Sins, Sens; for
Pleores, Pleoris and Pleorus ; for Pufere, Purere ; for
j Semunes, Simunis ; for Limen, Lumen; for Sali, Sale; for
Marmor, Mam or. The interpretation is very uncertain. Perhaps
no two scholars are actually agreed on it. We subjoin that of
i Klaus er : —
AGE, NOS, LARES, JUVATE,
NEVE LUEM, MARS, SINAS INCURRERE IN PLURES.
SATUR FURERE, MARS. PEDE-PULSA LIMEN.1 STA VERBERE.
SEMONES ALTERNI ADVOCABITE CUNCTOS.
AGE NOS, MAMURI/2 JUVATO.
1 Better perhaps, limini insili. Dr. Donaldson gives, lumen solis sta : " put
a stop to the scorching heat of the sun."
2 There is no question that Mamurius was celebrated in the end of the Salia.i
Hymn : but perhaps, both there and here, the name signified Mars ; when,
lxiv INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE
Latin Lanzi renders pleores by fiores, and satur fufere by ador fieri;
anguage. jjimen san sia ne makes jpestem (Xvfirjv) sails siste. But the whole
is necessarily very uncertain and obscure. The Salian Hymn, which
dates nearly up to the same period, and a few words of which have
been preserved by Varro,1 was extant in the time of Quinctiliai
who informs us that it was scarcely understood by the priests whi
sung it ; 2 and Horace declares it was unintelligible to him, and
ridicules the antiquaries of his day who affected to praise what they
could not understand. 3 It is nothing wonderful, therefore,
that correct interpretations of these early and corrupt remain
should be absolutely impossible.
Royal laws. The next example is given by Festus, under the verb plorassii
It is taken from the royal laws, and perhaps is as old as the second
:
i
however, it became less understood, a legend was contrived to explain it. According
to this, Mamurius was the artificer of the shields made to imitate the (incite, .
that it might not be stolen from the temple ;
" Cui Numa munificus, ' Facti pete praemia,' dixit :
1 Si mea nota fides, irrita nulla petes.''
(Jam dederat Saliis — a saltu nomina ducunt —
Armaque, et ad certos verba canenda modos.)
Turn sic Mamurius : ' Merces mihi gloria detur,
Nominaque extreme* carmine nostra sonent.'
Inde sacerdotes operi promissa vetusto
Praemia persolvunt, Mamuriumque vocant." — Ov. Fast. iii. 383.
To whom thus generous Numa : " Ask of me
Thy meed ; my word was never pledg'd in vain."
(The bard had given the Salian company
Their arms, and language of their sacred strain.)
Spake then Mamurius : " Guerdon me with fame,
And let my name conclude your solemn lays."
The priests assent, and ratify the claim,
And still their songs resound Mamurius' praise.
1 De Ling. Lat. vi. 1 & 3. " Romanorum prima verba poetica." — vii. 26, 27
The longest fragment is the following, which scholars have attempted to explain
but with so much obscurity and uncertainty, that we shall not endeavour to follow
them ; especially as the passage has no doubt suffered greatly by transcription
" Cozenlodoizeso omina vero ad patula coemisse jam cusianes dionusceruses
dunzianus vevet."
2 " ^aliorum carmina vix sacerdotibus suis satis intellccta." — Quinct. I. iii. 4.
3 Ep. ad Aug. 86.
SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. lxv
Icentury of Kome. We give it, with an interlinear modern version, Latin
. language.
where requisite : —
Sei parentem puer verberit, ast oloe plorasit, puer diveis
Si verberaverit, ille ploraverit diis
parentum sacer esto : si nurus, sacra diveis parentum esto.
diis
Here we possess at once what is evidently Latin, and intelligible.
The term plorasit belongs to the analogy of the TJmbrian fust, i. e.
ficsit, for fuerit. But it may be doubted whether this passage has
not been considerably modernised, especially as a treaty between
the Komans and Carthaginians, of much later date, was with
difficulty intelligible by the learned in the time of Polybius.1 Several
other specimens of very early Eoman laws exist, but their very
intelligibility sufficiently proves that they have been modernised by
those who have quoted them ; and they are consequently of little
value for the purpose of philological illustration.
The laws of the Twelve Tables, which have been amply quoted, The Twelve
I have been left for the most part more in their original words, and
! consequently are more illustrative of the progress of the language.
| They belong to the beginning of the fourth century of Rome. The
passages, though not lengthy, are numerous, and some portion of
each table is extant. T\7e subjoin a law from the Xth table : —
Qui coronam parit ipse pecuniae ve 2 ejus virtutis ergo
ipsi(?)
arduitor et ipsi mortuo parentibusquejus, dum intus positus escit
addatur parentibusque ejus erit,
forisque fertur sefraudesto, neve aurum adito. Ast sicui auro
sine fraude esto addito sicubi
dentes vincti escint, im cum ilo sepelire ureve sefraudesto.
erint, eum illo urereve sine fraude esto.
1 Polyb. iii. 22.
2 " "Who gains a crown to himself or to his property; " i. e. as Lanzi explains it,
who gains a crown by any meritorious act of his own, or by means of his
property, e. g. of his horses at the public games.
3 s for ?*, as usual in the Italian languages, and the C added.
[r. l.] e
lxvi INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE
Latin The next authority, but more important, because uncorrupted by
language. ...
transcription, is a Senatus consultum, assuring the Tiburtines that
the Senate did not distrust, and had not distrusted, their loyalty. It
was found inscribed on a bronze table at Tivoli, in the XYIth cen-
tury. It is now lost, but has been transcribed by Niebuhr fron
Gruter's copy, as follows :
1. L. Cornelius Cn. F. Praetor Senatum consuluit a.d. III. nonas
Maias sub aede Kastorus ;
2. Scribendo adfuerunt A. Manlius A. F. Sex. Julius, Lucius Post
humius S. P.
3. Quod Teiburtes verba fecerunt, quibusque de rebus vos purga-
vistis, ea Senatus
4. Animum advortit, ita utei sequom fuit ; nosque ea ita audi-
veramus
5. Ut vos deixsistis vobeis nontiata esse ; ea nos animum nostrum
6. Non indoucebamus ita facta esse propter ea quod scibamus
7. Ea vos merito nostro facere non potuisse ; neque vos dignos
esse,
8. Quei ea faceretis, neque id vobeis neque rei poplicae vostrae
9. Oitile esse facere ; et postquam vostra verba senatus audi vit,
Utile
10. Tanto magis animum nostrum indoucimus, ita utei ante
11. Arbitrabamur de eieis rebus af vobis peccatum non esse
12. Quonque de eieis rebus Senatuei purgatei estis, credimus vosque
Quumque
13. Animum vostrum indoucere oportet, item vos populo
14. Eomano purgatos fore.
This is an extraordinary advance, being indeed far less archaic in
its form than some later specimens.
We come next to the inscription on the column of Duillius in the
Capitol. The original monument was erected to commemorate
his naval victory over the Carthaginians, u.c. 494 ; but that which
at present exists is a restoration, probably of the time of Claudius.
It seems, however, to have been carefully done, and presents
perhaps a better specimen of archaic Latin than any we have
SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. lxvii
.' adduced. It is imperfect, and the italics show the parts supplied Latin
i x • language,
by Lipsius : —
Lecionm wtfxiinosque macestratos . . . casteris exfociunt
Legiones magistratus castris effugiunt
( i. e.y effugant,
effugere faciunt)
Macellam pucnandod cepet ; enque eodem raacestratod prospere
pugnando cepit ; in que magistratu
rem navebos marid consol primos ceset, clasesque navales
navibus mari consul primus gessit, classesque
primos ornavet cumque eis navebous clases Poenicas omnes
primus ornavit iis navibus classes Punicas
paratisumas copias Cartaciniensis presented maxumod
paratissimas Carthaginienses praesente maximo
Dictatored olorum in altod marid ipucnandod vicet . . . . e
Dictatore illorum alto mari pugnando vicit
nav eis cepet cum soceiis septemr l triresmosque naveis
naves cepit sociis septiremes triremesque naves
X X depreset. Aurom captom numei © © © D C C.
depressit. Aurum captum nuinmi MMM DCC,
Our next authorities are more valuable, as being inscriptions of
the time. The mausoleum of the Scipios was discovered in 1780.
The first of these inscriptions dates rather earlier than the original
inscription on the Duillian column, and it is the earliest original
Eoman philological antiquity of assignable date which we possess.
But the other epitaphs on the Scipios advance to a later period, and
it is more convenient to arrange them all together. The earliest of
these inscriptions then runs thus : —
Cornelius Lucius Scipio Barbatus Cnaivod patre prognatus,
Cnaeo
fortis vir sapiensque ; quojus forma virtutei parisuma fuit. Consol
cujus virtuti parissima Consul
1 "We supply csmos.
e2
lxviii INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE
Latin Censor Aidilis quei fuit apud vos. Taurasia, Cisauna, Samnio
iEdilis qui Taurasiam, Cisaunam, Samnium
cepit; subicit omne Loucana opsidesque abdoucit.
subegit omnem Lucaniam obsidesque abduxit.
The next inscription, which dates about u. c. 500, is more
archaic than the foregoing : —
Hone oino ploirume cosentiont E * duonoro optumo
Hunc unum plurimi consentiunt Eomani bonorum optimum
fuise viro, Luciom Scipione. Filios Barbati Consol Censor
fuisse virum, Lucium Scipionem. Filius Consul
Aidilis hie fuet a 2 Hec cepit Corsica Aleriaque urbe.
iEdilis fuit Hie Corsicam Aleriamque urbem.
Dedet Tempestatebus aide mereto.
Dedit Tempestatibus sedem merito.
We come next to the end of the sixth century of Eome. The
epitaph is that of the son of Scipio Asiaticus.
L. Corneli L. P. P. n. Scipio. Quaist.
Lucius Cornelius Lucii Filius Publii nepos Quaestor
Tr. Mil. annos gnatus XXIII. mortuus. Pater
Tribunus Militum natus
regem Antioco subegit.
Antiochum
The epitaph on the younger Cornelius is as follows :
L. Cornelius Gn. F. Gn. N. Scipio magna sapientia
Cnsei Pilius Cnsei Nepos
multasque vii'tutes astate quom parva posidet hoc
quum possidet
(t. e. quamquam) (or possedit)
saxsum. Quoiei vita defecit non honos honore. Is hie situs
saxum. Cui honeste.
quei nuncquam victus est virtutei. Annos gnatus XX
qui nunquam virtute. natus
Roiuaui or Rornanoi. 2 Apud vos.
SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. lxix
. eis mandatus. Ne quairatis honore quei minus sit Latin
terris. quaeratis honorem qui
anda . . J
There is a difficulty in the grammatical construction, owing,
perhaps, to the unsettled condition of the language. Lanzi con-
Ijstrues sapientia as the archaic accusative governed by posidet,
which the undoubted accusative virtutes appears to sanction. But
ihow, then, are we to construe hoc saxsum, which would appear to
be the accusative after posidet ?
The remaining epitaphs of the Scipios are in clear, intelligible
Latin. That of Cn. Scipio Hispanus concludes with four elegiac
verses.
The Lex Silia de publicis ponderibus, passed tj. c. 510, and the
'Lex Papiria de Sacramento, belonging to the following year, cited
by Festus, are almost Augustan Latin ; but they have, no doubt,
been modernised.
The Senatus Consultum de Bacchanalibus, passed in u.c. 568,
iand found at Terra di Teriolo, in Calabria, in 1640, is quite in its
original state. It is, however, perfectly intelligible, and can
scarcely be said to differ from classical Latin, except in orthography.
We subjoin it entire, as it is a very complete and important
specimen of the language.
SCTUM DE BACCHANALIBUS.
Line 1. [Q.] Marcius L. F.S.Postumius L.F. Cos. senatum consol-
uerunt N. Octob. apud aedem
nonis
2. Duelonai. Sc. arf. M. Claudi M. F. L. Yaleri
BellonaB. Scribendo adfuerunt
P. F. Q. Minuci C. F. de Bacanalibus quei foideratei
3. esent ita exdeicendum censuere : neiquis eorum Sacanal
Bacchanal
habaise velet ; sei ques
qui
1 Mandatus.
lxx INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE
Latin 4. esent quei sibei deicerent necesus ese Bacanal habere, eeis
language. x
necessum
utei ad pr. urbanum
5. Eomam venirent, deque eeis rebus ubei eorum v tr a
verba
audita esent utei senatus
6. noster decerneret, dum ne minus senatoribus C. adesent
[quom e] a res cosoleretur.
7. Bacas vir ne quis adiese velit ceivis Romanus neve
Bacchas adiisse
nominus Latin [ i ] neve socium
sociorum
8. quisquam nisei pr. urbanum adiesent, isque de senatuos
sententiad dum ne
9. minus senatoribus C. adesent quom ea res cosoleretur jou-
sisent. Censuere
10. sacerdos ne quis vir eset magister neque vir neque mulier
quisquam eset,
11. neve pecuniam quisquam eorum comoinem habuise velet
neve magistratum,
12. neve pro magistratuo neque virum neque mulierem
quiquam fecise velet,
quisquam
13. neve post hac inter sed conjourase neve comvovise neve
se
conspondise
14. neve conpromesise velet, neve quisquam fidem inter sed
dedise velet ;
15. sacra in oquoltod ne quisquam fecise velet, neve in poplicod
occulto
neve in
16. preivatod neve exstrad urbem sacra quisquam fecise velet,
nisei
17. pr. urbanum adieset isque de senatuos sententiad dum
ne minus
18. senatoribus C. adesent quom ea res cosoleretur iousisent.
censuere
SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. lxxi
19. Homines pious V. oinversei virei atque mulicres sacra ne Latin
. . language.
universi
:piisquam
20. fecise velet neve interibei virei pious duobus raulieribus
interea
lous tribus
21. arfuise velent nisei de pr. urbani senatuosque sententiad
adfuisse
utei suprad
22. scriptum est haice utei in coventionid exdeicatis ne minus
conventione
trinum
23. noundinum senatuosque sententiam utei scientes esetis eorum
24. sententia ita fuit : sei ques esent quei arvorsum ead fuisent
qui adversum
quam suprad
25. scriptum est eeis rem caputalem faciendam censuere,
atque utei
26. hoce in tabolam ahenam inceideretis ; ita senatus aiquom
censuit ;
27. uteique earn figier joubeatis ubei facilumed gnoscier potisit
facillime possit
atque
28. utei ea Bacanalia sei qua sunt exstrad quam sei quid ibei
sacri est
29. ita utei suprad scriptum est in diebus X quibus vobeis
tabelai datai
30. erunt faciatis utei dismota sient in agro Teurano.
Tauriano.
The Latin Bantine inscription is attributed by Klenze,1 with
sufficient historical grounds, to the middle of the seventh century of
Eome.
We present what he calls the two first chapters, with the
conjectural supplements in italics.
Line 1. ... e . in poplico joudicio nesep
1 Philologische Abhandlungen, Das Altromische Gesetz.
lxxii INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE
Latin 2. ... o . neive quis mag. testimonium poplice eidem sinito
language. _ .
denontian
3. . . . dato neive is in poplico luuci 1 praetextam neive soleas
habeto neive quis
4. mag. prove mag. prove quo imperio potestateve erit ^eiquomqui
comitia conciliumve habebit eum sufragium ferre nei sinito
5. sei quis joudex queiquomque ex liace lege plebeive scito factus
erit senatorve fecerit gesseritve quo ex hac lege
6. minus Jiant qua fieri oportet quceve fieri oportuerit oporte^
bitque non fecerit sciens d. m.2 seive advorsus hance legem
fecerit
7. gesseritve sciens d. m. ei multa esto eamque pequniam quei
volet magistratus exsigito ; sei postulabit quei petet pr. recu-
peratores
8. dato .... facito(\ue eum sei ita pareat condumnari popul
facitoque joudicetur sei condemnatus
9. fuei'it ut pequnia redigatur ad Q3 urban, aut bona ejus
poplice possideantur facito. Seiquis mag.4 multam inrogare volet
10. apud populum dum minoris partus5 familias taxsat liceto
eique omnium rerum siremps6 lexs esto quasei sei is hacce lege
11. condemnatus fuerit.
We have thus traced the monuments of ancient Eome into the
times of literature. The principal difference which they present
from the cultivated Latin are the Oscan ablative in id, od, ed, and
an accusative, which afterwards became the regular ablative. This
latter peculiarity has been thought to have been perpetuated in the
colloquial language, and to have re-appeared in the Italian. Of the
Latin language, considered apart from its literature, we have slight
means of judging during the Augustan period, and for some
centuries after. The African writers produced a distinctive dialect ,
but this is no more to be regarded a natural phase of the language
than the Latinisms of our Caroline wTriters are a specimen of the
current English of their day. The agminaiim, diutule, longule,
mundule, postremissimus, poenissime, cacldnnabilis, famigerabilis, o:
1 Luci, luce, interdiu. 2 dolo malo. 3 Quoestorem.
4 magistratus. 'r) partis. G Eadem.
SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE, lxxiii
kpuleius, and his affected use of nouns of multitude (totum ejus Latin
W . language.
mritium Jill ares sunt, &c.) are, perhaps, to be compared with the
'ocile, conducible, Sec, of our own Isaac Barrow. But the abundant
se of the termination alls, the substitution of de or a with the
.blative for the genitive, the formation of verbs in are, as gypsare,
diare, &c, may be regarded as invasions of the vulgar tongue on
he literary, or as indications of a degenerating language. Ordi-
larily, a literature would be the best criterion of its language ; but
;his rule is by no means applicable to the Latin, which was
iltogether an artificial tongue, cultivated by literary men on the
model of the Greek, and very different from the colloquial dialect.
There was a " lingua nobilis, classica, urlana" and a "lingua jplebeia,
vulgaris, rustica" The latter, corrupted by the Gothic invasions,
and by the native languages of the other parts of the empire, which
it only partially supplanted, became eventually distinguished from
the Lingua Latina (which was now cultivated, even by the learned,
only in writing) by the name of " Lingua Bomana." It accordingly
differed in different countries. The purest specimens of the old
Lingua Eomana are supposed to exist in the mountains of Sardinia
and in the country of the Grisons.
Some examples of the corrupted language shall conclude this
portion of our subject.
The following inscription of the Yth century is not dissimilar
in style from those which remain to us from the infancy of the
language :
Hie requiescit in pace domna Bonusa quix ann. XXXXXX et
domina quae vixit
Domno Menna quixitannos .... Eabeat anatema a Juda
Dominus qui vixit annos Habeat anathema
si quis alterum omine sup. me posuerit. Anatema
hominem super Anathema
abeas da trecenti decern et octo patriarche qui chanones
habeas de trecentis patriarchis canones
esposuerunt et da sea Xpi quatuor Eugvangelia.
exposuerunt de Sanctis Christi Evangeliis.
We have next an instrument written in Spain, under the govern-
lxxiv INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE
Latin ment of the Moors, in the year 742, a fragment of which we tak
from Lanzi. The whole is given by P. Du Mesnil, in his work o
the Doctrine of the Church.
Non faciant suas missas nisi portis cerratis ; sin peite
seratis ; sin (minus), solvan
decern pesantes argenti. Monasterie quae sunt in e
nummos Monasterise
mando . . . faciunt Saracenis bona acolhensa sine vexation
faciant vectigalia ?
neque forcia ; vendant sine pecho tali pacto quod non
aut vi tributo
vadant foras de nostras terras,
nostris terris.
The following is the oath of fealty taken by Lewis, King
Germany, in a.d. 842 :
Pro Deo amur et pro Christian poblo et nostro comu
Dei amore Christiano populo nostra commu
salvament dist di enavant in quant Dis saver et podi
salute de isto die in posterum quantum Deus scire posse
me dunat; si salverat eo cist meon fradre Karlo et in
donat ; sic (me) servet ; ei, isti meo fratri Carolo,
adjuaha et in cadhuna cosa si cum om per dreit
adjumento qualicunque causa sic quomodo homo per rectum
(i. e. jure)
son fradra salvar distino ; quid il mi altre si
suo fratri salvare destino ; quod ille mihi ex altera (parte) sic
fazet; et abludher nul plaid nunquam prendrai, qui
faciet ; ab Lothario nullum consilium unquam accipiam, quod
meon vol cist meon fradre Karlo in damno sit.
mea voluntate isti meo fratri Carolo damnum
We have already stepped beyond the limits of what is strictly
the Latin tongue, aud especially of the Latin literature.
SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE.
IVe have, however, afforded a continuous,
ursory, view of the subject.
lxxv
though necessarily Latin
After this period the separate
anguages of Europe developed themselves gradually, and the Latin,
•hough grievously corrupted, became exclusively the language of
arning, as it remained at the revival of letters, and as, in renovated
burity, it has since continued. So long as it remained a complete
and distinct language, it was in part iEolic Greek, and in part
appears to have been supplied from languages of kindred origin ;
chough whether these idioms were filially or collaterally related to the
Greek, it would be impossible to affirm ; more probably, however,
they were the latter. This view sufficiently accounts for those
semblances which have enabled Mr. Yalpy to trace every
Latin word with more or less of plausibility to a Greek primitive ;
and for those diversities which are the natural result of a long
suspended intercourse between portions of the same race.
Tee Tfber, from a Statue in the Vatican
LATIN POETRY.
EEY. HENRY THOMPSON, M.A.
LATE SCHOLAR OF ST. JOHX's COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; CURATE OF WRINGTON, SOMERSET.
[H. L.]
ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETS.
LIVIUS ANDRONICUS . FLOURISHED ABOUT U.C.
[515.
NiEVIUS U.C. I
ENNIUS LIVED U.C. 515 — 585.
PLAUTUS .... FLOURISHED ABOUT U.C. 550.
C^CILIUS U.C.'I
AFRANIUS U.C. >580.
TERENCE U.C.J
pacuvius lived u.c. 534 — 624.
ATTIUS .... FLOURISHED ABOUT U.C. 600.
LUCILIUS U.C. 630.
LUCRETIUS U.I
CATULLUS
u. c. 1
U70.
U.C.J
LATIN POETRY.
PART I.
THE EARLIER POETIC LITERATURE OF THE ROMANS.
The history of Latin Poetry presents a phenomenon in literature
wholly without parallel. The Komans were, from their origin, a
people of activity and intelligence, of strong passions, and romantic
patriotism ; and their history and early fictions are so crowded with
poetical incident, that some writers have not scrupled to assert that
the great historian who records them assumed heroic ballads for
the basis of his history. Yet, unlike many nations less favourably
circumstanced, they remained for five centuries without a poet of emi-
nence. Even when the Muse of Greece had unveiled to them her awful
and dazzling beauties, they seemed less to catch the fame of poetry
than to learn the art, and to consider their compositions excellent,
only in proportion as they were excellent imitations. In their
admiration of the beautiful picture which the Grecian genius had
produced, they lost sight of the great original, Nature ; and their
compositions, accordingly, present, in general, correctness and pre-
cision, but are destitute of that life, light, and colouring which the
presence of Nature alone can awaken on the canvas. The most
original of all their poets himself recommends, as indispensable to
the poet, the unremitted study of the Greek writers, as of
perfect and infallible models ; l and his own practice abundantly
evinces the sincerity of his respect for the precept. Overlooking
the real peculiarities of his own original genius, Horace himself
entertained no higher idea of originality than to make it consist in
the importation of a new form of poetry from Greece : and affected
on this ground to despise, as a servile herd of imitators, those who
only copied for the second or third time.2 Indeed, an imitator, as
1 Hor. De Art. Poet. 268. 2 1 Ep. xix. 19, seqq.
B 2
4 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
the Eomans understood the word, only implied one who imitated
Latin authors ; the imitation of Greek in no way detracting, in
their ideas, from the originality of a composition, but rather being,
in some respect at least, implied in its excellence. The history of
Latin Poetiy, accordingly, is the history of the action of the Greek
mind on the Roman : every production anterior to that contact
having been either lost, or evidencing the poetical incapability of
Roman intellect unkindled by the torch of Greece.
The beginnings of the Roman State were unfavourable to
literary pursuits of any kind. Plutarch1 and Dionysius of
Halicarnassus,2 indeed, tell us that Romulus was educated at Gabii
in Greek literature and science ; but, even allowing this prince a
historical existence, most certain it is that nothing resembling the
effects of education in a sovereign appears either in his own
conduct or in the character of his subjects. On the contrary, we
learn from Dionysius 3 that he committed the cultivation of
sedentary and (what he called) illiberal arts to slaves and foreigners;
and " such employments," adds the historian, " were long held in
contempt by the Romans, whose only occupations were agriculture
and war." Yet a specimen of the poetry, if it deserve the name,
attributed to his day, has descended to us in the hymn of the
Hymn of the Fratres Arvales ; of which, and of the Salian hymn which suc-
Arvaiel ceeded it, we have already spoken : and of both which productions
it is only necessary to observe in this place that, so far as they can
be comprehended, they appear meagre in the extreme,
other The triumphal songs, of which frequent mention is made by
Hymns, Livy,4 appear to have been merely the rude, extemporaneous
effusions of military licence amidst the hilarity of a triumph, and
never to have been considered in the light of compositions ; the
examples of them given by Suetonius,5 at a time when the lan-
guage was highly cultivated, give us no reason to regret the loss
of earlier specimens ; and, even in these, Dionysius of Halicarnassus
discovers a resemblance to Grecian practices;6 and the style and
nature of the sacred hymns may be sufficiently gathered from what
has just been said concerning those of Romulus and Xuma.7 Cicero
informs us,8 out of Cato's " Origines" that it was the custom of
the Romans, many ages before the time even of that philosopher,
to commemorate the valiant or virtuous achievements of their
1 In Romulo. 2 Antiq. Rom. i. 84.
3 Antiq. Rom. ii. 28. 4 Liv. iii. 29 ; iv. 20, 53 ; v. 49 ; vi. 10.
5 Suet. Jul. 49, 51. These rude carols not infrequently rather reflected on
the triumphant general than celehrated the triumph, as in this reference.
6 Antiq. Rom. vii. 72.
' See infra, Livy's description of a hymn by Livius Andronicus, sung to Juno
five hundred years later.
8 Tusc. Quffist. i. 2, and iv. 2. Cf. Val. Max. ii. 1, 60 ; Cic. Brut. 19.;
Varro apud iSon. Marcell. ii. 70 ; Hor. iv. od. 15.
BALLAD POETRY. 0
Countrymen in songs, accompanied on the flute, in their entertain-
ments : and on one occasion he regrets the loss of these ballads.1 Ballads.
But how far there was any real cause of regret, we may tolerably
well estimate from what is actually known of the state of Eoman
Poetry when it first had any sensible existence, and when it was
sufficiently bald, though formed on the perfect models of Greece.
ISo little groundwork is there for the theory of Niebuhr,2
that the exploits of the Eoman worthies were contained in a
series of rhapsodies, and much less that they formed, as he
conjectures, the subject of a regular Epic poem. The " Lays
of Ancient Borne" represent with great exactness what the
primitive poetry of Eome would have been, had she possessed a
Macaulay. But there is no evidence that the sentiment of her
early ballads was better than their mechanism ; though the subjects,
taken from a rude and unformed state of society, doubtless
possessed that character of wild poetry which belongs to such a
period, and which we recognise in the early books of Livy. It
was, most probably, a rude kind of ballad, sung at harvest homes
and other rustic festivals, which gave rise to that law of the twelve
tables, to which Cicero alludes in order to show that the early
ages of Eome were not so totally destitute of cultivation as was
generally believed : 3 " Si quia pipulo occentasit, carmenve conclisit,
quod infamiam faxit Jlagitiumve alteri, fuste feritor.' The follow-
ing is Horace's account of the rise and progress of this species of
poetry :4
Agricolse prisci, fortes, parvoque beati,
Condita post frumenta, levari tes tempore festo
Corpus, et ipsum aniraum spe finis dura ferentem,
Cum sociis operum, pueris, et conjuge fida,
Tellurem porco, Sylvanum lacte piabant,
Floribus et vino Genium memorem brevis aevi.
Fescennina per liunc inventa licentia moreni Fescennme
Versibus alternis opprobria rustica fudit ;
Libertasque recurrentes accepta per annos
Lusit amabiliter, donee jam ssevus apertam
In rabiem verti ccepit jocus, et per honestas
Ire domos, impune minax : doluere cruento
Dente lacessiti ; fuit intactis quoque cura
1 Brut. 19. These were the "laudationes," as the "naeniae" (poems of a similar
character, and sometimes, perhaps, perpetuated as " laudationes '*) were the lays
sung at the funerals of eminent men. Niebuhr supposes the epitaphs of the Scipios
to belong to this class. That these inscriptions are metrical, he argues from the
inequality of the lines. Yet he presently observes, when it suits his purpose to
alter the arrangement, " Stone-cutters are inaccurate in everything, but most of all
in dividing their lines." There is nothing resembling metre in the inscriptions
themselves. We shall, however, return to this subject presently.
2 Nieb. Romisch. Gesch. i. pp. 178 — 354, &c.
3 Tusc. Quaest. iv. 2. Cf. Hor. ii. sat. i. 82.
4 Ep. ad Aug. 139. Cf. Virg. Georg. ii. 385, seqq. ; Tibull. I. vii. 35—40 ;
II. i. 55. seqq.
ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
Ludi
Scenici.
derivation
of Satura,
Conditione super communi : quinetiam lex
Pcenaque lata, malo quae nollet carmine quenquam
Describi. Vertere modum, formidine fustis
Ad bene dicendum delectandumque redacti.
With little rich and blest, our hardy hinds
Refreshed their toilworn frames and patient minds
At harvest homes ; and with their consorts true,
Their children, and their mates in order due,
Offered to Sylvan milk, to Earth a swine,
To life's indulgent Genius flowers and wine.
Hence born, Fescennine liberty exprest
In verse alternate coarse and rustic jest :
For many a circling year the rugged sport
Play'd harmlessly ; at length the hard retort
Began with furious and unbridled rage
War with illustrious families to wage :
Then writhed the bitten 'neath the bloody fang :
Then winced the unhurt who feared the impending pang :
Then law and penalty forbad to claim
Poetic licence with a neighbour's fame.
Awed by the rod, they grew to change their tone,
Content to rally and amuse alone.
In the three hundred and ninety-second year of the city, and in
the consulship of C. Sulpitius Peticus and C. Licinius Stolo, a
pestilence raged in Eome.1 The Senate, after exhausting their
whole ritual of superstitions without success, had recourse to that
nation from which they obtained almost all their sacred rites, and
all their arts of divination; — Etruria. It was then that scenic
entertainments (ludi scenici), for dramatic they could not be called,
were first exhibited in Rome. Poetry had so little connexion with
these, that they did not so much as embrace dumb show, but con-
sisted merely of dances to the flute. The Eoman youth were
pleased with these exhibitions, and imitated them, accompanying
the action with raillery. The Fescennine carols (so called from
Fescennium, a town of Etruria2), which were, for the most part, as
scurrilous and obscene as they were rude and inharmonious, and
which seem to have borne great analogy to the Greek phallics, sank
into disrepute, or were only retained as part of nuptial ceremonies,
on which they long remained faithful attendants. Frequent repeti-
tion advanced the scenic exercises of the Eomans to their first essay
towards a regular production, which was called a Salura, and was
accompanied with appropriate music.
The derivation of this word has been a point of controversy with
the learned. Not to mention any other authors who have treated
1 Liv. vii. 2.
2 Of the Faliscans, says Niebuhr, not the Etruscans : he appeals to Virg. JEn.
vii. 695, where, however, the Faliscans are distinctly classed among the Etruscan
people.
SATYRIC DRAMA. 7
it, the Scaligers are divided on it. The word is written variously
in MSS. of authority : Satura, satyra, satira. Some derive it from
the " lanx satura" a dish of various kinds of fruit, and suppose it
to mean an olio ; and in proof of their etymology they adduce the
" leges saturce," l which treated on several subjects; satira, as they
say, being only a more modern orthography of satura, as " maxi-
mus" for the more ancient form " maxumus"2 Others, who
contend that the true orthography is satyra, derive it from o-drvpos,
and make it somewhat analogous to the early satyric drama of
Greece. If this be the right etymology, the early form would still
have been, most probably, satura, which orthography we shall
accordingly adopt.
Whatever be the derivation of the name, the analogy of the thing
to the Greek satyrics does not admit of doubt. We are ready to
allow, with the great critics who have treated this subject at more
extended length than we can do, that its resemblance to such
a drama as the " Cyclops " of Euripides must have been very
slender : but it seems to have borne a close analogy to the satyric
exhibitions of Thespis, and a still nearer to the comic aarvpos of
the Greeks. According to Livy, the saturce were dances mingled
with raillery, which only differed from the old Fescennine carols in
being determinate in respect both of music and verse. Let us
compare with this account what Horace says of the satyri of
Thespis : 3
Carmine qui tragico vilem certavit ob hircum
Mox etiain agrestes satyros nudavit, et asper,
Incolumi gravitate jocum tentavit, eo quod
Illecebris erat et grat& novitate morandus
Spectator, functusque sacris, et potus, et exlex.
He who in tragic contests wont to try
For a poor goat, next to the public eye
Exposed the rustic satyrs, and retainM,
Jesting, his tragic dignity unstain'd.
Fresh from the feast, and by the wine-cup fired,
His lawless audience such new charms required.
The old scholiast certainly considered these satyri to be the same
as the saturce; for, in explaining this passage, he observes : " Ostendit
Saturam natam esse e Tragoediis." One distinction between the
satyri and saturce is particularly insisted on; that, in the latter,
Satyrs were never introduced ; but this has not been proved ; while
we have the testimony of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, that dances of
Satyrs were at least common in the Koman processions.4 Neither is
1 Harris, Philosophical Arrangements, ch. 18.
2 " Medius est quidarn U et I litterce sonus." — Quinct. i. iv.
3 De Art. Poet. v. 220. 4 Antiq. Rom. vii. 72.
Exodia.
b ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
the point of much consequence, as Satyrs were not always intro-
duced in the Greek satyri ; the resemblance between which and the
Eoman satura is acknowledged by Eichstadt, although that author
denies their connection, misled by the testimonies of Horace and
Quinctilian,1 which refer to a poetry altogether different, the satire ;
while Dionysius speaks of the identity of the Eoman and Greek
satyric choruses as an acknowledged fact, which it would be wasting
words to prove.2 It is true that he is treating of what can
scarcely be called dramatic ; yet his language is general. The
" satyrick comedies" written by Sylla 3 were, in all probability,
only the early satura in a more artificial form.
After the introduction of the regular drama by Livius Andronicus,
the Eoman youth, leaving the newly discovered art to its professors,
continued their saturce, connected with the Atellane plays, under the
name of exodia. 'E£6dcov or egodos was the name given by the
Greeks to the part which followed the last peXos of a tragedy ;4
whence these saturce were named exodia, from their being brought
on the stage after the play. A most striking point of resemblance
existed between the exodia and the Greek satyric drama. Dacier,5
who contends against their identity, observes that the actors
performed in the same masks and dresses as in the play, and
continued their characters ; and cites, in proof, the following
passage from Juvenal :
Urbicus exodio risum movet Atellanse
Gestibus Autonoes.
Where it is evident that a serious character was burlesqued.
Similarly, when Suetonius says of Domitian,6 " Occidit et Mvidium
Jilium, quod quasi scenico exodio sub persona Faridis et (Enones
divortium suum cum uxore tract asset" (or, taxdsset.) he evidently
refers, by Dacier's admission, to a serious play, in the exodium of
which the satire alluded to appeared. Now this was precisely the
case with the Greek satyric. Even after tragedy had attained its
zenith, it was customary for the poet to complete his rcrpaXoyla
with a satyric drama, in which the characters of the previous play
were preserved. To this custom Horace alludes in his precepts to
the satyric poet :
1 Hor. I. sat. x. 66. Quinct. x. 1.
2 ^Ot* 5e ovre Atyvoou, ovr 'O/j.fipiKaii', ovt #AAcoj/ tivoov fiapfidpccv tu>p eV
IraXia kcltoikovvtcov evprj/na rj aarvpiKT) iraidia kclI opxyois i\v, ciAA1 'EWr^vccu,
5e'5oiKa, fi^i kclI oxArjpbs efoai ticti 8($|co, \6yois vXeioai nvLcrrova-Bai OMO-
AOrOTMENON IlPArMA ^ov\6^vos.— vii. 72.
3 Plut. Syll. xxxvi.
4 Arist. Poet. 24. e£odos 8e, fispos *6\ov rpayytiias ^€0' ov otfn iari x^Pov
fjt.€\os. De voce. e^oSos et ii-ddiou, videantur Lexica, praesertim Stephani.
5 M£m. de FAcad. des Inscr. torn. ii. 6 Suet. Domit. ix.
SATYRIC DRAMA.
Ne quiciinque Dens, quicunque adhibebitur licros,
Regali conspectus in auro nuper et ostro,
Migret in obscuras humili sermone tabernas,
Aut dum vitat humunj, nubes et inania captet.1
Let not your god or hero, seen of late
In regal gold and purple pall of state,
With mean discourse descend to tavern crowds,
Nor, while he spurns the earth, affect the clouds.
And it is obvious that he is here writing to Bomans, on a Eoman
subject ; for, independently of the testimony of the scholiast above,
he alludes to the Tabernaria, a species of Roman comedy, and
makes a distinction between the knights and the plebeians :
Offenduntur enim quibus est equus, et pater, et res ;
Nee, si quid fricti ciceris probat et nucis emtor,
iEquis accipiunt animis, donantve corona.2
Those who can boast a horse, estate, and sire,
Recoil ; nor what nut-munching clowns admire
Receive with favour, or with honour crown.
It is hardly possible to bring stronger proof that the Eomans had
a satyric drama, and that it was taken from the satyric drama of
the Greeks ; and if this were not the exodium, we have no account
of what it really was. And thus we should have the paradox, that
the Eomans, who imitated every other species of Greek poetry,
except the dithyrambus, to which the language would not rise, had
left this untouched, substituting in its place a composition perfectly
original, and with a name perfectly Eoman, although almost the
same with the Greek appellation of this same neglected species of
poetry.3
We have already alluded to the Atellante Fabidce, or Atellane
plays. These entertainments had, doubtless, a great affinity to the
Horace on
the satyric
drama.
Fabulae
Atellanae.
1 De Art. Poet. 227. 2 De Art. Poet. 248.
3 We subjoin the titles of the principal works in which the history and nature
of the Roman satura are investigated or illustrated : Isaaci Casauboni de Satyrica
Graecorum poesi et Romanorum Satira, Lib. ii. Dissertation sur les Cesars de
Julien, et en general sur les ouvrages satyriques des Anciens, prefixed to
Spanheim's French translation. Dacier's Discours sur la Satire, in the second
volume of the Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions. Josephi Scaligeri
Castigationes ad Mauilium. Julii Csesaris Scaligeri de Arte Poetica, lib. i.
cap. ii. Danielis Heinsii de Satyra Horatiana tractatio. Vulpius de Satyrac Latinae
natura, etc. Dryden's Essay on Satire. Brumoy, Discours sur le Cyclope
d'Euripide et sur le spectacle satyrique des Grecs. Robortelli liber de Satyra.
Heyne de Satyrica poesi Graecorum et Satira Romanorum. Eichstadt de dramate
Graecorum comico-satyrico. Conz liber die Satyre der Romer und liber Juvenal.
Flogel's Geschichte der komischen Litterattur. Rupertus de Satira Romanorum,
prefixed to his Juvenal. See further references in Paehr, Geschichte Romisch.
Litteratur. ii. 121.
10 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
saturte,1 and were acted, like those, as exodia, or afterpieces. They
were, however, in the Oscan language,2 from a town of which people,
Atella, they had been originally introduced; professional actors
were not permitted to take part in them ; and the performers were
not, like common players, degraded from their tribe, or excluded
from military service. They were also permitted to use masks;
and, when the permission had been extended to other actors, the
Atellane players could not be called on to unmask, as was the
custom in other cases. But the style and matter of these pieces
was coarse, though in this respect exceeded by the mime, the consi-
deration of which we defer to a later period of our narration.
The Atellane plays contained certain essential characters, like our
pantomimes, and still more like the modern Italian " Commedie
dell' arte : " Maccus, a heavy stupid old man, the victim of innume-
rable tricks and accidents, like our Pantaloon, and the Italian
Arlecchino ; Bucco, a voracious parasite and buffoon, resembling
our Clown, and the Italian Brighella (these two characters were
called sanniones, as the Italians call the corresponding parties zanni) ;
Pappus, an old, silly, avaricious man, resembling the Italian Panta-
lone ; and Dossennus, a cheat, and " cunning-man," answering to
the Italian "il Dottore." These seem to have been permanent;
but, beside these, Manducus, Pytho-Gorgonius, Lamia, and Mania,
ogres, ogresses, and bugbears, were occasionally introduced. The
plots were rude; the incidents, preposterous.
In the history of these productions and of the satura, in order to
preserve method, we have been obliged to advance very much beyond
the time when the Romans first began to have poets of their own.
Before the time of Livius Andronicus, however, the satura was
below criticism, and the Atellana, if poetry at all, was unwritten, and
not Latin. Until the end of their fifth century, therefore, the Romans
may be said to have been without a poet; none of the compositions
then extant entitling their authors to that lofty name. Cicero, who
1 Their resemblance to the satyri is noticed by Diomedes (iii. p. 487. Ed. Putsch.)
" Atellanae — argumentis dictisque jocularibus similes satyricis fabulis Graecis."
The only difference was in the stock characters. " Latina Atellana a Graeca
satyrica differt, quod in satyrica fere satvrorum personae inducuntur, aut si quae
sunt ridiculae similes satyris, Autolycus, Burrhis : in Atellana, Oscae personae, ut
Maccus. (iii. p. 438, Putsch.) A resemblance of the Atellanes to the Greek
satyricks is noted by Marius Victorinus (De iamb. metr. ii.) "Superest satyricum;
haec apud Graecos metri species frequens est quod genus nostri in
Atellanis habent."
2 Munk (de Fabulis Atellanis) contends that they were always Latin. They
were undoubtedly so, when they became compositions ; but this was much later.
At this time they were extemporaneous. From the testimony of Strabo it appears
distinctly that Oscan plays were occasionally acted at Rome in his time : Twv
(xeu yap OcrKcau €K\€\onr6T<av 7] iStaAe/cros jueVet irapa ro7s 'Pwjuaiots, wcrre
tcai iroi7]fxara (TKrjvofiaTelaOai Kara riva aycova ircxrpiov Kotl /Ai/jLoAoyeladai. — v. 6,
The old Oscan Atellane was probably carried on contemporaneously with the
more regular Latin composition which bore its name.
THE ROMANS, UNPOET1CAL. 11
is as tenacious of the literary excellence of his country as any
author can be, will not believe that the refined ears of Romans could
have been closed so long against the witcheries of the Pythagorean
Philosophy ;J and mentions in evidence a poem of Appius Claudius
the Blind, which appears to have had some affinity with the famous
Golden Verses." But, with this exception, he brings no better
proofs of his position than what we have already mentioned con-
cerning the early lyric poetry of Latium.2 Indeed, he admits that
the Romans received5 the art of poetry late; an expression, which,
though certainly not intended disrespectfully to the poetical genius
of his country men, sufficiently shows how differently the Greeks and
Romans considered a poet ; for, were the passage to be literally
interpreted, it would run, " It was somewhat late when we were
instructed in the art of original invention." (ttol^tlk^v.) Cicero
accounts for this dearth of poets, from the repugnance which the
people manifested towards them ; and tells us that even those
minstrels above alluded to, who, according to Cato, sang the
warlike achievements of their ancestors to the flute, could not
have been approved by that stern magistrate, who rebuked Marcus
Nobilior for taking poets (meaning only Ennius) with him to iEtolia.
This testimony is generally supported by antiquity : poets were
regarded sometimes in the rank of mechanical transcribers, some-
times as intrusive parasites (grassatores), sometimes as vagabonds or
loungers (sjiatiatores).4 But the question really is, what was the cause
which excited this feeling against poetry ? The only answer is, the
unimaginative character of the people. A neglect of other litera-
ture might be accounted for from the political situation of the
Romans ; but contempt of poetry is explicable upon no other hypo-
thesis. The Celts and Scandinavians, the tribes of the Arabian
deserts, even the Indians of North America, and the savage hordes
of New Zealand, although without other literature, still possessed
even regular poetry. War alone was the art in which the Romans
excelled ; and the fact of their inferiority in the arts of civilisation
and literature is conspicuous through the dazzling veil of poetic
light which Virgil has cast around it, in pourtraying their military
glory :s
Excudcnt alii spirantia mollius sera,
Credo equidem : vivos ducent de marmore vultus :
Orabunt causas melius, ccelique meatus
Describent radio, et surgentia sidera dicent :
1 Tusc Quasi iv. 2. a Tuse. Quaest. i. 1,2.
8 " Scriiis Po'tticam nos accepiinus." Similarly Horace, " Scrus enim Greeds
admovlt acumina chart is" &c
4 Festus, voc. scriba. Cato ap. Gell. xi. 2. Fest. VOC. spatiator. The word
grassator can scarcely be taken in the sense of violence. The poet, the same
passage informs us, was classed with him, w qui sese ad convivia applicabat."
5 JEn. vi. 848.
12
ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
Etrurian
Literature.
Greek
Literature.
Tu regere imperio populos, Romane, memento ;
Hse tibi erunt artes : Pacisque imponere morem,
Parcere subjectis, et debellare superbos.
Others shall mould the brass with livelier grace,
And from the marble draw the living face ;
More ably plead, more apt the circling skies
Describe, and when the constellations rise :
But these, O Roman, be thy arts : to sway,
To bend the struggling nations to obey;
The terms of peace victorious to impose,
Spare subjugated realms, and crush disdainful foes.
The subjection of Etruria to the Eoman arms is considered by
many as the primary cause of the civilisation which dawned on the
Eomans at the beginning of their sixth century. But it does not
appear that this event at all familiarised the victors with Etrurian
literature, with which, such as it was, even before this conquest,
they were tolerably well acquainted. Their commerce with the
Etruscans was considerable ; from them, as we before observed,
they derived their sacred rites, and their knowledge of the pretended
art of divination ; and this, if it were not the only literature which
the Etruscans studiously cultivated, seems to have been all for
which the Eomans valued an Etruscan education. " Habeo
auctores" says Livy, speaking of the 444th year of Eome,
" mdgo turn Romanos pueros, sicut nunc Grcecis, ita Etruscis Uteris
erudiri solitos" l Cicero2 and Valerius Maximus3 tell us that
the Senate sent youths4 of the principal families in Eome to
each nation of Etruria, to be instructed in their prophetic discipline.
The poetry of the Etruscans, as far as we can learn, was contemptible
to the last degree ; their ignorance of the drama, in particular, is
sufficiently evident from what has already been said about Etruscan
players in Eome. From them, therefore, the Eomans certainly never
derived their poetry; and, had they done so, the opportunities were
so great and so numerous before the final conquest of Etruria, that
it is most improbable that they would not long before have availed
themselves of them.
Horace indicates the real cause :
Grsecia capta ferum victorem cepit, et artes
Intulit agresti Latio.5
It was Greece, and Greece alone, that was equal to the miracle ;
she wound her chains around her barbarous conqueror, and held him
in a slavery more glorious than his boasted freedom and universal
1 Liv. ix. 36. 2 De Div. i. 41. 3 Val. Max. i. 1.
4 There is a controversy about their number. The copies of Cicero generally
state six ; those of Valerius, ten. Commentators, however, are generally agreed
that Valerius meant to follow Cicero, although it is difficult to decide which text
is corrupted, if indeed both are not. The number of the Etrurian nations was
twelve. 5 Ep. ad Aug. 156.
GREEK LITERATURE. 13
mastery. But by Oracia we are not here to understand Greece
Proper, but Gratia Magna and Sicily; which, being inhabited by
Greeks, first brought, by their subjugation, the Greek writers to the
notice of the Romans. That, from a very early period, the Italian
nations had been acquainted with Greek poetical traditions, is certain.
The Greek heroic names had undergone translation ; l a proof of
familiarity ; and Greek myths were represented on works of art.
Munk, who rejects the connection of adrvpos with satura, neverthe-
less supposes that the latter was derived to the Romans from their
intercourse with Sicily.
The boundaries of Magna Gratia are not accurately ascertained, Magna
nor does it belong to us to attempt settling them here. But the GrsDCla«
south of Italy had for many centuries been peopled with settlers
from Greece, who retained and cultivated the arts and literature of
the mother country. In the 487th year of the city, the Romans
obtained complete possession of this interesting country by the
conquest of Tarentum ; and the intercourse established between the
two nations necessarily introduced literary pursuits at Rome. The
study of poetry, in particular, had not been neglected by the Italian
Greeks. Pythagoras and his school gave their philosophic precepts
in verse : Orpheus of Crotona wrote a poem on the Argonautic
expedition ; Ibycus of Rhegium composed odes ; Alexis of Thurium
wrote two hundred and forty-five comedies ; Stephanus, his son,
was a comedian. Dunlop2 says that this Stephanus (whom he calls
Stefano, apparently taking this part of his work from Tiraboschi,
Storia delta Lett. Ital. lib. i. pt 2. c. 2,) was, according to Suidas,
the uncle of Menander. The words of Tiraboschi are certainly
ambiguous ; but Suidas, in the edition which Tiraboschi. himself
cites, makes Alexis, and not Stephanus, the uncle of Menander.
AXt^i? Qovptos. Teyoi/e Se Trarpcos Mevdvbpov rov kcdplIkov. 3
Tiraboschi and Dunlop make Stephanus a tragedian on the authority
of Suidas ; but the lexicographer adds, tV^e de vlov 2Te<fiavov, ku\
avrbv khmikon. Xenocritus of Locris wrote dithyrambs.
Theano, of the same place, composed lyric poetry ; and Nossis, also
of Locris, wrote epigrams.
The conquest of Magna Gratia was succeeded by an event which Sicily.
contributed in a still greater degree to advance the cause of literature
among the Romans. Two years only after the capture of Tarentum,
arose the first Punic war. The scene of this contest was not, like
that of earlier struggles, in the neighbourhood of their own territory ;
and this circumstance gave them leisure to contemplate the charms
of the Grecian Muse at home, while they were every day unveiling
new beauties in the theatre of the war, Sicily. In that country the
1 e.g. Odysseus, TJlixes ; Aias, Ajax ; Ganymedes, Catamitus; &c. See
Niebuhr, iii. p. 310, iv. lect. xix,
2 Hist, of Rom. Lit. i. p. 63. 3 Suid. VOC. A\e£is.
11
ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
Early
Drama.
Livius
Andronicus.
flowers of Grecian poesy had blossomed with much greater
luxuriance than even on the neighbouring continent, and here was
the cradle of the pastoral and comic Muses. It was here that Stesi-
chorus is supposed to have invented Bucolic Poetry, and certainly
did reduce lyrical compositions to the regular division of strophe,
antistrophe, and epode. It was here that Empeclocles " married to
immortal verse " the " illustrious discoveries " of his " divine
mind ;" 1 that Epicharmus invented Comedy, which was cultivated
by Philemon, Apollodorus, Carcinus, Sophron, and various others :
and that Tragedy found successful votaries in Empedocles, Sosicles,
and Achaeus. It was in Sicily that the Mime was invented, or, at
least, perfected ; Pindar, iEschylus, and Simonides, had resided at
the court of Hiero I., and Theognis of Megara committed his
precepts to elegiacs in Sicily. The Dionysii also were authors, as
well as patrons of literary men. At the time when the Eomans
were in Sicily, it is not improbable that Theocritus was living. On
the conclusion of the peace with Carthage, in the year of the city
512,2 a part of Sicily was ceded by treaty to the Eomans, who had
now leisure and tranquillity to enable them to inquire
Quid Sophocles, et Thespis, et iEschylus utile ferrent.
Many of the inhabitants of the conquered provinces came to
reside at Eome, and imported their arts and cultivation ; and from
this period the history of Eoman poetry assumes a regular and
connected form.
In the consulship of C. Claudius Cento, and M. Sempronius
Tuditanus, the 5I4th year of Eome,3 Livius Andronicus first
advanced the dramatic art from the satura to a regular plot. His
surname evidently proves that he was a Greek ; but whether of
Greece Proper, Italy, or Sicily, is not known. His Eoman name
seems also to intimate that he was the freedman of a certain Livius;
it being the custom of freedmen at Eome, to assume, on liberation,
the name of their former master. It is most probable that he fell
into the hands of the Eomans in their wars in Magna Grcecia or
Sicily, as the Eomans, at that time, had no regular intercourse with
Greece. He is generally asserted to have been the slave of Livius
Salinator, but Tiraboschi can find no better authority for this
statement than the Chronicle of Eusebius ; and as Salinator was
not consul until u. c. 534, he concludes that the master of Andro-
nicus was another of the same family. Attius, the annalist, according
1 See Lucrct. i. 733, 734.
2 Punico bello secundo Musa pennato gradu
Intulit se bellicosam Romuli in gentem feram.
Porcius Licinius ap. Aul. Gell. xvii. 21.
3 Cic. Brut, xviii. Cf. ejusd. Tusc. Disp. i. 1 ; De Senect. xiv. ; Aul. Gell.
xvii. 21.
LIVIUS ANDRONICUS. ]5
to Cicero,1 said that Livius was made captive at Tarentum, thirty
years after the date usually assigned to his first play ; but Cicero
treats this as a gross error. The account which Livy gives of the
introduction of the Drama is curious.2 " Livius," says he, " being,
as was then the case with all, the actor of his own productions,
and having weakened his voice by being frequently recalled on
i the stage, is said to have obtained leave to introduce a boy to sing
his part before the flute-player, and was thus enabled to perform
his compositions with more spirited action, because he was no
longer impeded by the use of his voice. From this circumstance,"
adds the historian, " arose the custom of actors performing to the
singing of others, and only employing their voices in dialogue."
The works of Andronicus have perished, except a few disjointed
fragments ; but if we are to judge by the opinions of Cicero and
Horace, Time might have been more injurious to us. Cicero says
his plays were not worth a second perusal ;3 and Horace, in whose
time the poems of Livius were regularly taught in the schools,
reproves the undiscriminating antiquaries of his day, who exalted
them above the refined productions of a more polished age : — 4
Non equidem insector, delendaque carmina Livi
Esse reor, memini quae plagosum mihi parvo
Orbilium dictare : sed emendata videri,
Pulchraque, et exactis minimum distantia, miror.
Inter quae verbum emicuit si forte decorum, et
Si versus paulo concinnior unus et alter,
Injuste totum ducit venditque poema.
I would not Livius' poetry destroy,
Which sharp Orbilius, when I was a boy,
Flogged into me ; but why men call it fine,
Exquisite, perfect, ne'er could I divine.
If here and there a happy phrase and terse,
Or now and then, perhaps, a well-turned verse
Occur, forthwith the critic puffs the whole.
The names of the plays ascribed to Andronicus are Achilles,
Adon, jEyisthus, Ajax, Andromeda, Antiopa, Centauri, Eqwus
Trojanus, Gladiolus,'0 Helena, Ilermione, Ino, Lydius,h Protesi-
laodamia, (forte JProtesilaus et Laodamia) Seranus, Tereus, Teucer,
Teuthras, Virgo.0 Beside his dramatic works, he made a transla-
tion of the Odyssey in Saturnian metre ; and Livy tells us that a
hymn composed by him in honour of Juno was sung through the
city by twenty-seven virgins in the year 545 (a.c. 207), of which
the historian gives no very favourable account: "Hid tempestate
forsitan laadabile rudibus ingeniis, nunc ablwrrens et inconditum, si
1 Brut, xviii. - LiV# vii. 2. 3 Brut, xviii.
4 Epist. ad Aug. 69, seqq. 5 These were comedies.
16 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
refer atur" l Some, on the authority of Diomedes,2 the Gram-
marian, make Livius the first Latin epic poet ; but for " Livius
we should read " Ennius" or "is" as is found in the best editions.
Livius, according to Suetonius,3 taught Greek at Eome ; that is,
translated Greek words and authors for such as were desirous to
obtain a knowledge of the language ; for the art of grammar was
then unknown to the Eomans. He lived till Cato was a " youth;"4
that is, till he had reached his seventeenth year ; and therefore
could not have died before u.c. 535. But it is evident that
there is no certainty of his having lived until 545 ; as the
hymn sung in that year might have been composed on some
previous occasion.
Comedy. Such were the beginnings of the first epoch of Roman poetry.
We shall now proceed to discuss, separately, the progress of its
different departments during that period, which lasted about two
centuries, and was succeeded by the splendid sera of Augustus.
Nsevius. Cnaeus Nsevius, a Campanian, or, as some rather suppose, a native
of Eome, six years after the representation of Livius' first play,5
became a candidate for dramatic fame, and wrote, as well as Livius,
comedies and tragedies. The names of the former preserved to us
are, Acontizomenos, Agitatoria, Agrypnnntes, Apella, Assitogiola,
Carbonaria, Clastidium, Colax, Corollaria, Cosmetria, Demetrius,
Diobolarii, Figulus, Glaruma, Gymnasticus, Hariolus, Leon, Lupus,
Nautce, Pacilius, Pellex, Pkilemporus, Projectus, Pulli, Quadri-
gemini, Sanniones, Stalagmus, Stigmatius, Tarentilla, Testicular ia,
Tripliallus, Tunicularia. His tragedies were entitled, JEgisthus,
Alcestis, Danae, Dulorestes, Equus Trojanus, Hesiona, Hector, Iplii-
genia, Lyciirgus, Plioenissce, Protesilaodamia, Telephus, and Tereus.
His comic humour seems to have partaken much of the old satyric
spirit, and, like that of the early comic poets of Greece, to have
been fearlessly and liberally directed against the leading characters
of the state. The following lines, preserved to us by Aulus
Gellius,6 were applied, by common scandal, to the elder Africanus: —
Ktiam qui res magnas ssepe gessit gloriose,
Cujus facta viva nunc vigeut, qui apud gentes solus
Praestat, eum suus pater, cum pallio uno, ab arnica abduxit !
He had also, in a comprehensive line, insinuated that the family of
the Metelli did not enjoy the consulship on account of their own
deserts, but in consequence of the evil destiny of Eome : —
Fato Metelli Romae fiunt Consules.
1 Liv. xxvii. 37. 2 Diom. Gram. iii. 3 De Illustr. Gram. i. 1.
4 Cic. Cato Maj. xiv. 5 Aul. Gell. xvii. 21. 6 Noct. Att. vi. 18.
NjEVIUS. PLAUTUS. 1 7
This the Metelli retaliated with a threat, which was afterwards Nwrius.
executed on the poet :
Dabunt malum Metelli Naevio Poetae.
Nsevius was im])risoned, and composed in confinement two of his
comedies, the Hariolus and the Leon ; l and, for the sake of these,
which were a sort of recantation of his former lampoons, he was set
at liberty by the tribunes of the commons. Gellius, in the passage
from whence this information is taken, tells us that the satire of
Naevius resembled that of the Greek poets; and Horace informs
us that the popularity of the poet was so great, and that his works
were so wrell known, that copies of them were neglected, as useless
to perpetuate wThat was in every man's memory : —
Naevius in manibus non est ; at raentibus haeret
Paene recens.2
The readings and interpretations, however, of this passage are
various. Naevius died at Utica. whither he had been banished for Na™*1
. • i -r» • epitaph.
continuing his invectives against the JKoman aristocracy, about
u.c. 550.3 He wrote his own epitaph, haughty and defiant as his
life: —
Mortalea immortales flere si foret fas,
Flerent Divae Camcenae Naevium poetam ;
Itaque, postquam est Orcino traditus thesauro,
Obliti sunt Roma? loquier Latina lingua.
If e'er o'er beings mortal might sorrow those divine,
Then o'er the poet Naevius would weep the heavenly Nine ;
For since the bard was treasured old Orcus' stores among,
At Rome they have forgotten to speak the Latin tongue.
The lawless and unsparing satire of the Old Comedy, intolerable
even in the licentious democracy of Athens, was little likely to
maintain a permanent ascendency at Rome. The example of
Naevius had not been lost ; and his successor, Marcus Attius (or
Maccius) Plautus, carefully evaded the misfortunes which it ap- piautus.
peared would too surely attend ridiculing the public characters of
the day. Some of his productions seem imitated from the later
plays of Aristophanes, or what is generally called the Middle
Comedy of the Greeks ; and in these, probably, public characters
were covertly satirized. Others, again, are formed on the model
of Philemon, Diphilus, and Menander, or the New Comedy.
1 Aul. Gell. i. 24. 2 Ep# ad Aug. 53.
3 His consulibus (M. Corn. Cethego et P. Sempronio Tuditano, u. c. 550)
ut in veteribus commentariis scriptum est, Naevius est mortuus ; quanquam Varro
noster, diligentissimus investigator antiquitatis, putat in hoc erratum, vitamque
Naevii producit longius. — Cic. Brut. xv. The Eusebiau Chronicle places the
event u. c. 553.
[R.L.] c
18 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
Piautus. Plautus, as we learn from Horace,1 was an imitator of Epicharmus ;
but we have no means of ascertaining the merits or success of his
model. There is, however, a Eoman freshness about his plays,
which, notwithstanding their Grecian garb and origin, convinces
the reader that they are, to a great extent, original. And, in-
deed, they are highly valuable as illustrative of the private and
public life of the Eoman people. When we read the plays of
Plautus, and learn from all antiquity how highly they were admired,
we cannot but feel surprise at finding Horace treating them as
works agreeable indeed to their rustic forefathers,2 but perfectly
antiquated in his own more polite and fastidious age. Perhaps,
however, this is more than ought, in fairness, to be deduced from
the words of the poet : —
At nostri proavi Plautinos et numeros et
Laudavere sales ; nimium patienter utrumque,
Ne dicam, stulte, mirati ; si modo ego et vos
Scimus inurbanum lepido seponere dictum,
Legitimumque sonum digitis callemus, et awe.
Our forefathers old Plautus' wit would praise,
And the rude measures of his scenic lays;
Too tolerant in their favours : if the word
Be pardon' d me, I ev'n would say, absurd :
At least, if you and I know dull from bright,
And count and hear poetic tones aright.
This criticism, although it is generally understood to imply the
most unqualified censure on Plautus, in reality only charges his
metres with ruggedness, and his jests with coarseness ; the truth of
which charges will hardly be denied by his most devoted admirers.
And yet the great critic-poet, in this instance, as in some others,
may have been too contemptuous. The rudeness of Plautus's
versification is not merely the result of an uncultivated period ; it is
the effect of intention and art, as is evident from the epitaph com-
posed by the poet for himself : —
Postquam morte datu' st Piautus, Comcedia luget,
Scena est deserta ; dein Risus, Ludu\ Jocusque,
Et numeri innumeri simul omnes collacrumarunt. 3
Since Plautus died, Thalia beats her breast :
The stage is empty : Laughter, Sport, and Jest,
And all the tuneless measures, weep distrest.
Plautus was probably acquainted with the niceties of the senarius,
as Horace doubtless was with those of the heroic hexameter ;
both poets adopted an artificial negligence, as best suited to the
objects they contemplated. The comedies of Plautus are written
1 Ep. ad Aug. 58. 2 De Art. Poet. 270, seqq. 3 Aul. Gell. i. 24.
PLAUTUS. — COMIC VERSE. 19
in a style much too unfettered by the Aristotelian rules of composi- Plautus.
tion, to command the entire approbation of critics of that school ;
but though he is greatly inferior to Terence in felicity of expression
and purity of language, his dramatic flights, not unfrequently,
surpass the loftiest of that most elegant writer. At the same time
it is necessary to observe that the plays of Plautus have apparently
been much corrupted, not only in frequent transcription, but by
actors' readings, and other causes. We have reason to believe that
we possess them all, except the / Id ul aria ; although great numbers
of others have been attributed to him. His " elegance " is highly
commended by Gellius,1 and iElius Stilo said that the Muses, if
they spoke Latin, would speak the style of Plautus.2 Of his life
few particulars are known. He was born at Sarsina, in Umbria,
about tj.c. 500, and died at Koine, u.c. 569, a.c. 184. His origin
was humble. His love of the drama led him to labour as a servant
to the actors, in which occupation he obtained some wealth, which
he afterwards lost by speculations. In consequence, he was obliged
to work in a mill at Eome for his daily bread. In this situation,
according to Yarro, and most others,3 he composed the Saturio, the
Aditus, and another play. The story is confirmed by Eusebius,4 but
is rendered suspicious by the names of the plays, and is discredited
by Niebuhr. It is possible that Plautus may have been confounded
in this, as in other instances, with another comic poet named
Plautius.5
The New Comedy of the Komans was not, in all respects, a copy of Greek and
the Greek; the scene was generally laid at Athens, and the characters comfcdyNeW
were of the middle station of life, as in Menander ; but the artifice
of a double plot was added, and the Latin Muse, in all other com-
positions severer than her sister of Greece, in the drama allowed
herself much greater licences, and those in Comedy were almost
unbounded. It was doubted in the time of Horace whether Comedy
was a poem;6 inasmuch as its subject and style are prosaic, and
it only differs from prose in being metrical. Even in this latter
respect, however, the difference is not very sensible, and the fol-
lowing passage of Cicero will show that the harmony of the comic
verse was not so very perceptible, even in his time : " Comicorum comic
senarii, propter similitudinem sennonis, sic sape sunt abjecti, ut nou- Metre-
nunquam vix in Ms n inner us et versus inteUigi possit ; "' and among
the moderns, Erasmus, Scaliger, Bentley, and Eaber, who have
endeavoured to reduce the metres of Terence to rule, have been
obliged to admit great numbers of exceptions to their theories.
The Latin comic measure, like its model the Greek, consists for the
most part of iambic trimeters acatalectic, and trochaic tetrameters
1 Aul. Gell.vii. 17. a Quinct. x. 1.
3 Varro et plcrique alii. — Aul. Gell. iii. 3. 4 n. 1810.
5 See Aul. Gell, ubi supra. 6 1. Sat. iv. 45. ' Orat. lv.
20 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETEY.
catalectic, although these are much less restricted than the corre-
sponding metres of the Greek stage. Thus the iambic verse admits
in every place, except the last, wherein the characteristic foot is
always preserved, the dactyl, anapaest, spondee, tribrach, pyrrhic,
and proceleusma. The same feet are allowed in the trochaic verse.
The only distinction is that the iambus is never admitted into the
trochaic verse, nor the trochee into the iambic. A principal diffi-
culty, however, arises from many words being scanned in comedy,
as, doubtless, they were pronounced in conversation, in order to
bring this species of composition still nearer the forms of ordinary
life. We shall give some instances from Terence :
Elision of v. Liberi \ us vfen \ dlfuit \ potes \ tds rCan | tea. \
Iamb. Trimb.
vfendi for vivendi, smdfuit for fiilt.
Elision of l. Halet ad | das et i j las quels \ habet \ recte \ feras.
Iamb. Trimb.
ilas for illas.
Elision of d. QuC inter | est hoc | a deo* ex \ hac re \ venit | in men | tern —
ml | hi. Troch. Tetr. Cat.
Qu9 inter, Qui9 inter, for Quid inter.
But even these rules will not explain every verse. Terence is more
remiss in the construction of his verses than Plautus; and the
traces of early rusticity which were said by Horace to exist even
in his days in the literature of his country are no where more
conspicuous than in the versification of the comic poets of Latium.
Praetextse The Eoman drama did not strictly confine itself to Greek subjects.
Togatce Horace commends those authors who had patriotically ventured to
desert the beaten path, and celebrate national topics : —
Nee minimum meruere decus, vestigia Graeca
Ausi deserere, et celebrare domestica facta,
Vel qui Praetextas, vel qui docuere Togatas.1
These plays were tragedies and comedies respectively, of which the
characters were Eoman. Patrick, indeed, in the life of Terence pre-
fixed to his edition of that poet, contends that the Prcetextce were
only comedies of a more serious kind. This idea is very common, and
is advocated by Gyraldus and J. C. Scaliger.2 But, whatever they
may have been called, it is certain that they had not the nature of
Comedy. Gyraldus distinguishes thus between Tragedy and what
he is pleased to call the Prcetextate Comedy. " Prcetexta verb in
hoc a Tragcedid differt, quod in Tragcedid heroes introducuntur, in
Prmtextatd Romance persona, ut Brutus, Decius." According to this
account, the Prcetextce were tragedies on Roman subjects. Probably
they differed not greatly from the historical plays of Shakspeare ;
1 De Art. Poet. 286.
Gvrald. de Comcedid. — Seal, de Com. et Tray. cap. ill.
PRJETEXTiE AND TOGAT^E. 21
and, not being limited by the unities, may have thus come to be
considered a distinct kind of composition from Tragedy. ' The
word Tofjata is used (jenerkalhj to express a Roman play, in oppo-
sition to Palllata, a Greek play; the Pratexta being but the Toga
1 The reader may obtain some idea of their character from the following passage
of Attius's Brutus, preserved by Cicero {Be Divin. i. 22). The interlocutors
are Tarquin the Proud and his diviners.
TARQUINIUS.
Quum jam quieti corpus nocturno impetu
Dedi, sopore placans artus languidos ;
Visu' est in somnis pastor ad me appellere ;
*****
Duos consanguineos arietes inde eligi,
Pecus lanigerum eximia pulchritudine ;
Prseclarioremque alterum immolare me :
Deinde ejusgermanum cornibus connitier
In me arietare, eoque ictu me ad casum dari ;
Exin prostratum terra, graviter saucium,
Resupinum ; in ccelo contueri maximum
Ac mirificum facinus ; dextrorsum orbem flammeum
Radiatum solis liquier cursu novo.
CONJECTORES.
Rex, quae in vita usurpant homines, cogitant, curant, vident,
Quaeque aiunt vigilantes, agitantque, ea si cui in somno accidunt,
Minus mirum est; sed in re tanta haud temere improviso offerunt.
Proin vide, ne quern tu esse hebetem deputes, aeque ac pecus,
Is sapientia munitum pectus egregia gerat,
Teque regno expellat. Nam id quod de so^.e ostentum est tibi,
Populo commutationem rerum portendit fore.
Perpropinqua haec bene verruncent populo ! nam quod ad dexteram
Caepit cursum ab laeva signum praepotens ; pulcerrim&
Auguratum est, rem Romanam publicam summam fore.
TARQUIN.
When, urged by weary night, I gave my frame
To rest, with sleep calming my languid limbs,
A shepherd seem'd in slumber to accost me.
* * * *• *
Two kindred rams were chosen from the flock,
A fleecy treasure of unwonted beauty :
Whereof I slew the fairer on an altar.
Then 'gan his fellow with his horns essay
To butt me, and o'erthrew me on the ground ;
Where as I lay sore wounded in the dust,
I gaz'd on heaven, and there beheld a vast
And wondrous sign : the fiery ray-girt sun
Passed back in strange disorder to his right.
DIVINERS.
Good my liege, it is no marvel if the forms of waking thought,
Care, and sight, and deed, and converse, all revisit us in sleep :
22
ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
of the nobler Romans, and only differing from the ordinary Toga
in being bordered with purple : Toga Piletexta purpura. "When,
however, the term Tog at a is used specifically, it denotes the Tabula
Tabernaria, or Roman Comedy; or, a higher class of comedy
than the Tabernaria, but still purely Roman. The severity of the
Roman character imparted a gravity to the higher class of the
Togata, which made it, according to Seneca,1 a middle ground
between Tragedy and Comedy. There was also a species of
Dramatic play called Rhinthonica (fabula,) from its inventor, Rhinthon, of
terms. Tareiitum. Of this the Ampin \truo of Plautus may aiford the best
idea. It was a kind of tragi-comedy,2 in which heroes and divini-
ties were introduced, after a burlesque fashion, and mingled
with comic personages. Beside these terms, there were others
referring to the internal economy of plays. A comedy which con-
tained much bustle and action was called Motor la ; the reverse
of this was called Stataria ; and where the two were combined,
the composition was called Mixta. The principal writers of the
Co mce dla Togata were Trabea, Lamia, Pomponius, Atta, Titinius,
Afranius. and Afranius, The loss of the writings of the last-mentioned
poet, which were committed to the flames by the misdirected
zeal of Gregory I., is an irreparable calamity to literature. Prom
the character which he possessed among his countrymen, and which
has been so beautifully given in one line by Horace,3
Dicitur Afrani toga convenisse Menandro,
there is reason to believe that his dramas were, at once, excellent
and original ; notwithstanding his admission that he not only
adapted Menander, but occasionally even a Latin poet also ; 4 and it
But we may not pass regardless sight so unforedeemed as this.
Wherefore see lest one thou thinkest stupid as the flocks that graze
Bear a heart with choicest wisdom purified and fortified,
And expel thee from thy kingdom. For the portent of the sun
Shows there is a change impending o'er the people of thy sway.
May the gods avert the omen ! it is near ! the mighty star
From his left to right returning, shows thee clearly as his light
That the Roman people's greatness shall become supreme at last.
This specimen may lead us to regret that nothing more considerable should
have remained of the pnetextate plays. Yet they were few. The names of those
of an earlier date are but five, and one of these is questionable, the Marccllus,
attributed to Attius ; of the others we shall make mention presently.
1 Ep. viii.
2 Faciam ut commixta sit tragicocomcedia ;
Nam me perpetuo facere ut sit comcedia
Reges quo veuiant et Dii, non par arbitror.
Quid igitur? quoniam hie servus quoque parteis habet,
Faciam sit, proinde ut dixi, tragicocornccdia. — Plaut. Prolog, in Amphitr.
Ep. ad Aug. 57.
Macr. Sat. v. 1.
COMIC POETRY.
28
must have been curious to see what the vigorous mind of a Roman Airanius,
dramatist could have produced, when, drawing from the great
model, Nature, he continually corrected and refined his copy from
the elegant proportions of the Attic Thalia. Quinctilian objects to
the morals of his dramas, which, therefore, considering those of
ancient Comedy genei ally, must have been very bad. Stephens has
collected a few scattered fragments of this author; and though little
judgment of the poet can be formed from them, some of them
evince great delicacy and elegance.
We have scanty means of tracing the progress of Comedy between
the times of Plautus and those of Publius Terentius. All the works Terence.
of the numerous comedians who
flourished during that period,
exclusive of a few fragments,
have perished. Their names, and
the titles of then plays, may be
found in Fabricius's Bibliotheca
Latiiia, lib. iv. c. 1. Licinius
Imbrex, Turpilius, and Atilius,
may be mentioned as distin-
guished. Luscius Lavinius is
known to us as the " vetus
poeta" whom Terence chastises
in his prologues. Fabius Dos-
sennus, considered by some
scholars an Atellane writer, is
very satisfactorily shown by
Munk 1 to have been a writer of
the Comcedia FalUata. Caecilius
Statius, like Terence, a slave and
a foreigner, being of Gallic origin,
is the most celebrated of the
minor comic poets ; Yarro gives
his plots the palm;2 Cicero
doubts whether he is not the
best comic poet ; 3 and Quinc-
tilian and Horace bear testimony
to his great popularity.4 Cicero,
however, in other passages, con- Terence.
demns his Latinity.5 But the best
idea to be formed of Caecilius is from certain passages of his Plocium,
an imitation of the UXoklov, or Necklace, of Menander, which Aulus
1 De Fab. Atcll. p. 121, seqq.
3 De Opt. Gen. Orat. i.
5 Ep. ad Att. vii. 3. Brut, lxxiv
- In Parmeno. ap. Non. in roc. Poscere.
4 Quinct. x. 1. llor. Ep. ad Aug. 59.
24 ANTE- AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
Terence. Gellius has cited, together with the originals, for the purpose of
showing the inferiority of this poet, and Latin poets in general, to
the Greek masters.1 If we are to take these passages of Csecilius
as a specimen of the method of imitation of the comic poets, we
shall find it greatly to have resembled Virgil's copies of Homer
or of Theocritus. Whatever may have been the general style or
character of the comedies written during the interval now in
question, it is scarcely possible to believe that Terence could, at
once, have raised this species of composition to the perfection in
which he left it ; several grades probably intervened. Indeed, the
very nature of Comedy had, during this period, undergone alteration;
seeking no longer to please by the mere ridiculous, the Comic
Muse had applied herself to the more worthy and philosophical
task of delineating ordinary life as it is, with its pathetic, no less
than its amusing character. This appears from the following judg-
ment of Yarro : 2 " rj6r} nulli alii servare convenit quam Titlnio,
TerentiOyAttce ; iraOr} Trabea, et Atilius et Ccecilius facile moverunt"
The latter is the style of Comedy in which Terence has chosen
to excel ; although in pathos he was held inferior to those poets.
There is, indeed, no violent excitement of the passions in Terence ;
but, while the writings of Plautus are studiously filled with jests
and witticisms, it is seldom that Terence indulges in anything of
this kind, but is content to raise a laugh naturally from his subject;
employing sometimes a grave and sententious discourse, which
would have been quite incompatible with the Middle Comedy. The
absence of the comic power in Terence is regretted in some verses
attributed to Julius Caesar, from which it would appear that
Menander was not deficient in this respect, and that consequently
Terence was only entitled to half the honour of having reproduced
him in Latin. But these verses concur with all antiquity in
praising the purity of the Terentian style.3 Some lines, attributed to
Cicero, in like manner commend the elegance of Terence's language,
and notice, though without censure, the sober garb in which he
had invested the livelier sentiments of the Greek comedian.4
1 Aul. Gell. ii. 23. 2 Ap. Sosip. Chans, ii.
3 Tu quoque, tu, in summis, 6 dimidiate Menander,
Poneris, et merito, puri sermonis amator.
Lenibus atque utinam scriptis adjuncta foret vis
Comicaf ut sequato virtus polleret honore
Cum Graecis, neque in hac despectus parte jaceres.
Unum hoc maceror et doleo tibi deesse, Terenti.
Jul. Cces. ap. Suet on.
Tu quoque, qui solus lecto sermone, Terenti,
Conversum expressumque Latina voce Menandrum
In medio populi sedatis vocibus effers,
Quidquid come loquens, et omnia dulcia dicens.
TERENCE. 25
The comedies of Terence are altogether translated or adapted Tel
from Menander, Apollodorus, and Diphilus ; and while the poet
keenly resents the charge of borrowing from Roman sources, he no
less boastfully avows his Greek authorities ; an obligation which
he seems to consider, as Latin writers generally did, indispensable
i to excellence, and therefore not detrimental to originality. The
unities, somewhat loosely observed by comedians of the old school,
have never been violated by Terence, except, perhaps, in the
Ileautontimorumenos ; and to this rule he has, apparently, made
important sacrifices. The artifice of a double plot, occasionally
found in Plautus, was carried to its perfection by Terence, whose
skill in its management is in the highest degree admirable. Such,
however, was the state of society at Athens (the scene of a large pro-
portion of the Latin comedies), and such the severity of the laws which,
both there and at Eome, guarded every avenue of satire, that the
comedies remaining to us, those of Terence especially, present little
novelty of character or plot. A parasite and a soldier, a courtezan,
a gentleman, and a slave, are the usual ingredients of the drama ;
the interest of which usually turns on the dexterity of the last, and
the catastrophe on one of the characters turning out to be a free
woman of Athens. It could scarcely be otherwise in the state of
Athenian society, w7here citizen and slave were the only prominent
distinctions, and where no consideration was allowed to women.
Some writers affected one of these characters more than another ;
Dossennus, of w7hom we know very little, was very partial to the
parasite.
A life of Terence is extant which is referred by some critics to
Donatus, and by others to Suetonius. This uncertainty is of no
small importance to the credit of the narrative. If it was written by
the author of the life of Virgil, he was so careless and so credulous,
that its historical authority is contemptible. We fear, however,
that the internal evidence, as far as style is concerned, would fix
the work upon him. There is an anecdote in this biography truly
Donatian. Terence, we are told, on presenting his Andria to the
sediles for representation, was by those respectable magistrates
referred to the judgment of Csecilius. The youthful dramatist
found the veteran at the principal Roman meal. Terence was not,
it seems, attired in a costume sufficiently impressive to prepossess
his critic ; and he was accordingly ordered to accommodate himself
with a siool at the foot of the festal couch, where the stately
favourite of the people was reclining. After reciting a few verses,
however, he was invited by Csecilius to share the pleasures of his
table, and the recitation of the Andria was concluded with great
applause. The Eusebian Chronicle gives the substance of this
story ; 1 most probably, after this author ; but it can scarcely be
1 Olvmp. 155, o.
Terence.
26
ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
true, from chronological considerations, if Csecilius the poet be
meant ;l but some copies have Cserius. Of like value is the relation
of Consetius, quoted by the same author, that he perished on his
return from Greece with one hundred and eight comedies, which he
had translated from Menander; when it is most probable that
Menander wrote only one hundred and nine, and it is not certain
that he wrote so many ; and Terence had already imitated four of
them. Part of the work is certainly the production of Suetonius ;
but whether this is only a short quotation, or the bulk of the
history, is uncertain ; Terence, however, is generally admitted to
have been a Carthaginian, and to have been a slave at Eome, where
he was early liberated. He was intimate with Scipio Africanus the
younger, and the younger Laslius,2 and Furius Publius, who are
accused, with no slight colour of probability, of having assisted
him in the composition of his comedies. It is extremely improbable
that the exquisite purity and elegance of the Terentian Latinity
should be the unassisted production of a Carthaginian slave ; and
Terence himself admits, in the Prologue to his AdeljjJii, that he
received the assistance of persons who were eminently useful in the
state : —
Nam, quod isti dicunt malevoli, homines nobiles
Eum adjutare, assidueque una scribere ;
Quod illi maledictum vehemens esse existumant,
Earn laudem hie ducit maxumam, quum illis placet
Qui vobis universis et populo placent ;
Quorum opera in bello, in otio, in negotio,
Suo quisque tempore usus est sine superbia.
1 The Andria was first acted 588 ; Caccilius died u.c. 586.
2 The elder in both cases, according to Schlegel ; but this will not stand with
chronology.
TRAGEDY. 27
A> to what these malicious folks object, Terence.
That noble men assist him, and write with him ;
What they conceive to be a foul reproach
He deems the highest praise ; since those applaud him
Whom all of you applaud, and all the people;
Whose aid in war, in leisure, and in labour,
Each man has used as suited his occasion.
Similar is the passage in the prologue to the Heautontimoru-
nenos .• —
Turn, qudd malevolus vetus poi;ta dictitat,
Repente ad studium hunc se applicasse musicum,
Amicum ingenio fretum, hand natura sua ;
Arbitrhmi vostrum, vostra existimatio
Valebit.
Then, as to what a sour old poet says,
That he, our bard, has lately learnt his art,
Taught by the genius of his friends, not nature :
Your judgment, your good graces, shall avail
For his defence.
His biographer tells us that Terence was less solicitous to defend
himself against this charge, because he knew that the reputation of
being the authors of his comedies was by no means unacceptable
to his patrons. Prom the same writer we learn that the critic
Santra rather thought him indebted to C. Sulpitius Gallus, a man
of learning ; or to Q. Fabius Labeo, and M. Popilius Lenas, who
were themselves poets. He was born, according to the same
authority, after the second Punic war, and died at Stymphalus, or
Leucadia, in Arcadia, in the consulship of Cn. Cornelius Dolabella
aud M. Fulvius Xobilior, and, consequently, u. c. 594. He was
probably about 34 years of age. Even his personal appearance
is noticed by his biographer : middle height, slender figure, dark
complexion.
AYe have thus traced Latin Comedy to its meridian : the causes of Latin
its decline subsequently we shall more conveniently notice when we defective
advance to the poetry of the Augustan age ; we will merely observe
for the present, that the great Eoman critic, with all his literary
patriotism, could only sum the subject by saying, " In Comcedia
maxime claudicamus." * The verdict is strange : but even Terence
did not reach that Attic perfection which Eoman criticism justly
denies to any other section of the Greeks themselves. His
licentious versification qualified his elegance in the correct and
disciplined ear of Quinctilian.2 The genius of the Eoman people
was earnest and stern ; the language, hard and inflexible ; cir-
cumstances in which they differed widely from the airy and lively
Athenians. It is very probable, therefore, notwithstanding the
positive excellence attained by Eoman poets in this department,
1 Quinct. x. 1. - Ibid.
28 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
.
that their relative success in imitating the Greek models was lei
in Comedy than in other walks of literature.
Tragedy. While Thalia had been improving the first essays of Eoman
genius into regular Comedy, Melpomene was not without her
votaries. As no regular tragic production anterior to the Augustan
age has reached us, we must be content to take our estimate of the
excellence of Eoman Tragedy from the opinion of Eoman critics ;
the fragments extant not being in any instance sufficiently numerous
or connected to enable us to judge of the merits of whole compo-
sitions. Many of them, indeed, breathe a spirit of the purest
poetry ; but the diction is, as might be expected from the age,
harsh and unmodulated. As in Comedy, so in this branch of the
drama, early excellence was followed by premature decay. The
best tragedies, for the most part, had been written before the
language had attained vigorous maturity, and there were causes to
discourage Tragedy subsequently, which we shall hereafter discuss.
Horace accuses the Eoman tragedians of carelessness and inaccuracy,1
while he admits their tragic spirit and the success of their sallies.
Quinctilian speaks highly of Attius and Pacuvius ; 2 and yet allows
that their writings were deficient in the last polish, which, however,
he considers rather the fault of their age than of their talents. The
Thyestes of Yarius, according to this author, was comparable to any
of the Greek tragedies ; and the Medea of Ovid he considers a
remarkable evidence of what that poet could effect, when he pre-
ferred the regulation to the indulgence of his genius.3 A similar
eulogy on these productions is passed by the author of the Dialogue
" de Oratorlbus : " " Nee idlus Asinii aut Messala liber tarn illustris
est quam Medea Ovidii, aut Varii Thyestes" Atilius, whom we
have already noticed as a comedian, translated, or, as Weichert
conjectures,4 travestied, the Elect ra of Sophocles, in a hard, dry
style.5 C. Titius is mentioned as a tragedian by Cicero, but as
more of an orator, even in his tragedies ; 6 he had, however, the
honour to be imitated by Afranius. C. Julius Caesar Strabo
wrote tragedies intituled Teuthras and Adrastus. Other names
will occur in the course of this memoir. The favourite tragedian
of Quinctilian, however, was Pomponius Secundus, whose claims to
priority, while his learning and eloquence were admitted, were yet,
it seems, disputed at that time.7
Ennius. "We have already seen that Livius Andronicus and Nsevius were
tragedians as well as comedians. Ennius, of whom we shall
presently have occasion to make more particular mention, com-
1 Ep. ad Aug. 164—167; De Art. Poet. 289—291. 2 Quinct.x.l. 3 Ibid.
4 The conjecture is rightly reprobated by Bahr. (Gesch. der R. L. § 45, anm. 3.)
Cicero calls the play w male conversa ;" an expression inapplicable to a burlesque.
6 Cic. de Fin. I. 2. Ep. ad Att. xiv. 20. Suet. Caes. 84 (where a reading is
Attius). 6 Brut. 45. ' Quinct. x. 1.
PACUVIUS AND ATTIUS.
29
oosed tragedies, and one comedy, the Paucratiastes; two others, Ennius.
dmphithraso and Ambracia, are attributed to him; he obtained,
lowever, his highest dramatic reputation from his tragedies. But
t does not appear that they were in any respect more original than
the Eoman Comedy. The titles which have reached us of his
tragedies are : — Achilles, Ajax, Alcestis, Alexander, Alcmceon,
Andromache, Andromeda, Athamas, Cresphon, Cressce, Dulorestes,
Wrechtkeus, Eumenides, Hector is Lutra, Hecuba, Ilione, Ipldgenia,
Medea, Melanippa, Nemea, Phoenix, Polydorus, Telamon, Telephus,
Thyestes. These names, and those of almost all the Eoman tragedies,
preserved by Fabricius, (JBiblioth. Lat. lib. iv. c. 1,) prove that
they were commonly translations or imitations from the Greek,
perpetually
Presenting Thebes, and Pelops' line,
And the tale of Troy divine.
In their tragic metres the Komans were much severer than in
their comic. They seem, indeed, to have admitted the same
number of feet in both ; but the iambus occurs much oftener in
tragedy, and the whole verse is modulated in a manner which makes
it always perceptible, and sometimes even harmonious. The
difference which is thus produced between the tragic and comic
senarii is even greater than that which exists between the hexameters
of Virgil and those of the satirists.
As far as we learn, the highest favours of the Tragic Muse were Pafu7JS8
~ o und Attius
reserved for Marcus Pacuvius and Lucius Attius.1 Pacuvius, sister's or Accius. '
son to Ennius, was born at Brundusium,
u. c. 534, and died at Tarentum, u. c. 624.
He was celebrated as a painter as well as a
poet. The names of his plays on Greek
subjects are : — Amphion, Anchises, Antiope,
Armorum Judicium, Atalanta, Chryses, Dido-
restes, Hermiona, Iliona, Medea, Niptra,
Orestes, Peribosa, Teucer. Comedies, inti-
tuled Mercator, Pseudo, Tarentilla, Tunicu-
laria, have also been attributed to him.
Attius was the son of a freedman, born
u. c. 594, and died about 670. The names
of his tragedies on Greek subjects are : —
Achilles, JEgisthns, Agamemnonidce, Alcestis,
Alcmceon, Alphesibcea, Amphitruo, Andro-
meda, Antigona, Antenoridce, Argonautce,
Armorum Judicium, Astyanax, Athamas,
Atreus, Bacchce, Chrysippus, Clytemnestra, De'iphobus, Diomedes,
L. Attius.
1 The Greek "writers give "Attios ; hence most modern scholars have adopted
this orthography. But there is authority in MSS. and inscriptions for both forms.
30 ANTE-ATJGUSTAN LATIX POETEY.
Attius. Epigoni, Epinausunache, Erigona, EripJ/yla, Eurysaees, Ilione,
Hecala, Hellenes, Medea, Jleleager, Melanippa, Myrmidones, Neom
tolemus, Xyctegresia, (Enomaus, Paris, Pelopidce, PJiiloctetes,
Phinidce, PJicenissce, Prometheus, Teleplius, Tereus, Trachinue.1 The
opinion of the critics of Horace's day,- —
Ainbigitur quoties uter utro sit prior, aufert
Pacuvius docti fainain senis, Attius alii,
is just that of Quinctilian : 3 " tieium plus Attio tribuitur ; Pacu-
vium videri doctioeem qui esse docti affectant volunt." Correctness
and eloquence seem to have been the great merits of Pacuvius, and
in these he probably surpassed all other tragedians of his country.
One interesting circumstance is connected with this poet ; his
tragedy of Paulus was the first in Latin on a Eoman subject. Who,
however, was the hero of this play, is not apparent. Attius also
composed tragedies, the subjects of which were Brutus and the
younger Decius; a tragedy called MarceUus is also, as we have
seen, attributed to him.4 Pacuvius and Attius were patronised
severally by the celebrated Laelius and Decimus Brutus. Attius
appears to have been intimate with, and almost a pupil of, Pacuvius.
His first tragedy was performed under the same aediles as the last
of his master.5 He seems to have imitated iEschylus in the lofti-
ness of his style and subjects. He is called by Ovid " animosi Attius
oris,"6 and Paterculus attributes to him "more spirit than the
Greeks possessed ! " " " /// iUis Vivace, in hocpene plus videtur fuisse
SANGUINIS." A similar expression occurs in Persius concerning
this writer, which, though it is not meant in commendation, seems
yet to imply that his fault was turgidity : " VENOSUS liber Atti"3
Two plays are ascribed to him, Mercator, and Nuptia, which,
apparently, were comedies. We shall conclude our observations
on Eoman Tragedy with two extracts from its most celebrated
authors, in which the reader will readily discover the seeds of many
well known passages of modern poets. The first is from Attius, of
whose poetry we have already given a specimen, and is preserved
by Cicero in the second Book of his Treatise on tlie Xature of tlte
Gods. It describes the astonishment of a shepherd who beheld
" the first bold vessel " from the summit of a mountain ; and is
written in iambics : —
■ tanta moles labitur
Fremebunda ex alto, ingenti sonitu et spiritu :
Pra? se imdas volvit : vortices vi suscitat ;
Kuit prolapsa : pelagus respergit ; prorluit.
1 Among the works attributed to Attius are Didascalia (perhaps Dramatic
precepts). Pragmatica. Paierga, and Annales, the nature of which can only be
conjectured from their titles. ': Ep. ad Aug. 55. 3 Quinct. x. 1.
4 Dion. Gram. iii. p. 487, Putsch. 5 Cic. Brut, lxiii.
6 Amor. i. 15. " Lib. ii. 9. s i. 75.
TRAGEDY. 31
Ita, dnm interruptum crcdas nimbum volvicr, Attius.
Puin quod sublime ventis cxpulsum rapi
Saxum, aut procellis, vel globosos turbines
Existere ietos undis concursantibus ;
Nisi quas terrestres Pontus stragcs conciet ;
Aut, forte, Triton, fuscina evertens specus,
Subter radices penitus undanti in freto
Molem ex profundo saxearn ad coelum eruit.
The monster bulk sweeps on
Loud from the deep, with mighty roar and panting.
It hurls the waves before ; it stirs up whirlpools ;
On, on it bounds : it dashes back the spray.
Awhile, it seems a bursting tempest-cloud ;
Awhile, a rock uprooted by the winds,
And whirled aloft by hurricanes ; or masses
Beaten by concourse of the crashing waves :
The sea seems battering o'er the wrecks of land ;
Or Triton, from their roots the caves beneath
Upturning with his trident, flings to heaven
A rocky mass from out the billowy deep.
The next is from Pacuvius, and describes the storm which assailed Pacuvius.
the Greek army on its departure from Troy. It is in trochaics r1
Interea prope jam occidente sole inhorrescit mare ;
Tenebrae conduplicantur, noctisque et nimbum occsecat nigror ;
Flamma inter nubes coruscat, ccelum tonitru contremit,
Grando, mixta imbri largifluo, subita turbine praecipitans cadit ;
Undique omnes venti erumpunt, saevi existunt turbines,
Fervet aestu pelagus.
Now the crested billows whiten as the sun is hasting down ;
Twofold darkness falls around us, night and storm-clouds blind the sight;
'Mid the clouds the levin blazes ; trembles heaven beneath the crash ;
Hail, with torrent rain commingling, bursts in headlong whirlwind down ;
All the winds rush forth about us ; sweeps the wild tornado round ;
Boils the sea with glowing fury. —
<*&M
wm
mi- t
m
ilr^Wf
■^Hfr
u
jht^m
; r7/ V ■' <r ,-4*
__ 4^ Jl 4
^==n lfcnSn '
Imlm
^J>s
*r»j
mj-
c.^s
1 Cic. dc Div. i. 14. Of. ejusd. Be. Orat. iii. 39.
Satire.
32 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
Having concluded, for the present, our remarks on the Koinan
drama, which had now attained its perfection, and declined as other
poetry advanced,1 it may not be deemed impertinent to subjoin
the review of popular opinion on its writers which Horace has
transmitted :
Horace's Naevius in manibus non est, at mentibus haeret
Summary. Paene recens ; adeo sanctum est vetus omne poema :
Ambigitur quoties uter utro sit prior, aufert
Pacuvius docti famam senis, Attius alti ;
Dicitur Afrani toga convenisse Menandro ;
Plautus ad exemplar Siculi properare Epicharmi ;
Yincere Caecilius gravitate ; Terentius arte.2
Satirical compositions have always existed in every nation ;
human excellences and infirmities are alike engaged in promoting
their popularity. The philosopher and the moralist cannot review
the follies and vices which degrade and pollute their species,
without yielding to the expression of virtuous and philanthropic
indignation ; and the malignant passions are gladdened at the
exposure of another's faults. TVe have already seen that, in a
period of the Eoman history when every species of regular poetry
was unknown, the " malum carmen" or libellous verse, was pro-
hibited by a statute. The scenic entertainments were the chief
vehicles of these offensive compositions, as being the most public';
and when these were improved into saturce, the " mala carmina "
were so far from being universally discontinued, that they were
rather more systematically pursued. The introduction of the
legitimate drama turned them into another channel ; and thus we
find Nseviua adapting the satirical vein of the old Greek comedy to
the domestic occurrences of his day. The signal example which
the Cax'ilian family made of this poet, checked, but could not long
arrest the current ; it soon flowed with redoubled strength and
impetuosity in another direction ; and, while it retained the old
name of satura, with which, from long association, it seemed
identified, it so entirely changed its form as to give rise to those
expressions of Horace and Quinctilian, which have led so many critics
to suppose that the old satura was a Eoman invention. As the
English word Satire is generally applied to this poem, we shall, in
future, employ it, to distinguish this composition from the satura,
from which it differed materially in form and excellence, though
possessing the same name.
1 " In Attio circaque eum Romana tragcedia est." — Yell. Pat. i. 17.
2 Ep. ad Aug. 53, seqq. This testimony will be esteemed of more critical
value than that of Volcatius Sedigitus (Ap. Aul. Gell. xv. 24), in whose pompous
and dictatorial verses the comic poets rank as follows : Caecilius, Plautus, Na?vius-
Licinius, Atilius, Terence, Turpilius, Trabea, Luscius. Ennius is added " anti,
quitat is causa" only.
SATIRE. 33
To the Satire the Latin writers constantly assign a Roman origin :
— " Satura tota nostra est"1 — " here, at least, we have drawn
from our own resources. " Yet when we come to examine the
merits of this solitary pretension to originality, we find them
admitting that the same sentiments and modes of thinking had
been common among the Greeks, but then, — they had never
expressed them in hexameter verse ! Such is the proud title to
originality which the Romans acquired by altering the versifica-
tion of the old Greek comedy ! The severity of historical justice
itself might relent in favour of a claim so rarely made, and so
weakly supported. Yet this compels us to assert that the origin-
ality of the Roman Satire rests on a very slender foundation. It
may be traced to the o-LXkos of the Greeks. Nay, Lucilius himself, g*
if we may trust Johannes Lydus, borrowed his form of the Satire,
hexameters and all, from a Greek writer, Rhindon, " tcho first wrote
comedy in hexameters." 2 Lucilius is asserted by Horace to have been
the founder of the New Satire ; and, accordingly, he acknowledges
the earlier poet to be his master and model in this species of com-
position. But, although Lucilius was the first Roman who composed
a regular metrical essay on a satiric subject, the transition from the
dramatic to this almost didactic form did not take place imme-
diately. The Satires of Ennius and Pacuvius have not reached us ; Ennian
those of the latter, indeed, are only mentioned by Diomedes, the Satire-
grammarian : but the accounts which ancient authors have left us
of the Ennian Satire, prove that it was the rude, but natural, result
of the arbitrary proceedings of the Aristocracy, which drove Satire
from the stage. " Carmen" says Diomedes, 3 (i quod ex variis
poematibus constabat, Satura vocabatur ; quale scripserunt Pacuvius
et Ennius." By " varia poemata " Diomedes does not mean, as
Mr. Dunlop understands him,4 a cento, or mixture of extracts from
various authors ; but a miscellany of subjects, and a mixture of
various kinds of metre, wherein dactylic, iambic and trochaic verses
were promiscuously confounded, after the manner of the Mapytrrjs
of Homer. This interpretation is warranted by the few fragments
which remain to us of the Satires of Ennius. They are not,
indeed, sufficiently numerous to enable us to judge of the
nature of the poems whence they are taken ; but we learn from
1 Quinct. x. 1. So Ennius is styled by Horace (I Sat. x. 66.) " Greeds intacii
car minis auctor" — language which has been supposed to apply to Lucilius ; a con-
struction, however, which the context will not admit. Ennius and Lucilius were
both u auctores* being indeed the founders of different kinds of poetry bearing
the same appellation, as we shall see immediately.
2 . . . . tou 'Plvfioova, lbs €^a/uLerpois eypaxpe irpwros KcofjLwBiau' e| ou wpcoTOS
Xafiaiv ras acpopfias AovklKios 6 'Payxcuos 7)pcoLKo7s eireaiv iKu/mai^rjae. He is
considered the same with Rhinthon, the author of the tragi-comedies : and another
reading is 'PivOoova. — Joann. Lydus. de Mag. P.R. 1. 41.
3 Gram. iii. 483. 4 Hist of Rom. Lit. p. 106.
[R. L.] d
Satire.
34 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
Ennius. Aulus Gellius l that iEsop's Eable of "the Lark and her Young"
was versified in one of them, probably introduced in the same
manner as " the Country Mouse and the City Mouse" in Horace ;
Quinctilian also tells us2 that the subject of another was a contest
between Life and Death.3 Prom these slight notices, we may infer
that the dramatic origin of the Satire was perceptible in its altered
form ; as, indeed, it is in several of the satires of Horace. Gellius
subjoins the moral of the Fable, which was written " versibus
quadratis," i. e. in trochaic tetrameters :
Hoc erit tibi argumentuin semper in promtu situm :
Ne quid exspectes amicos, quod tute agere possies.
Learn from my tale this ready saw and true :
Ne'er trust your friends for what yourself can do.
Cicero4 has preserved some verses of Ennius, of exquisite point,
which, in all probability, belonged to his Satires, and which we
subjoin :
Non habeo denique nauci Marsum Augurem,
Nou vicanos Aruspices, non de Circo Astrologos,
Non Isiacos conjectores, non interpretes somnium ;
Non enim ii sunt aut scientia, aut arte divini,5
Sed superstitiosi vates,impudentesque harioli,
Aut inertes, aut insani, aut quihus egestas imperat.
Qui sui quaestus causa fictas suscitant sententias ;
Qui sibi semitam non sapiunt, alteri monstrant viam :
Quibus divitias pollicentur, ab iis drachmam petunt.
De divitiis sibi deducant drachmam : reddant caetera.
I value not a rush your Marsian augurs,
Your village seers, your market fortune-tellers,
Egyptian sorcerers, dream-interpreters ;
No prophets they by knowledge or by skill :
But superstitious quacks, shameless impostors,
Lazy, or crazy, slaves of Indigence,
Who tell fine stories for their proper lucre :
Teach others the highway, and cannot find
A by-way for themselves ; promise us riches,
And beg of us a drachma ; let them give
Their riches first ; then take their drachma out.
If this spirited passage be a sample of the Satires of Ennius,
there is great reason to deplore their loss. But whatever may have
been their intrinsic merits, their absence is materially injurious to
the clear understanding of the merits of his successors.
Luciiian If, however, the loss of the satiric writings of Ennius and
Pacuvius be unfortunate for the illustration of the history of
1 Noct. Att. ii. 29. 2 ix. 2. 3 Quinct. ix. 2. 4 De Div. i. 40. et 58.
5 This line, if a verse, is manifestly corrupt. It has been accordingly thought
by some to be an interruption on the part of the speaker ; but the connexion
seems to forbid this conjecture. The verses themselves are either corrupted, or
admit many licences. They appear to be a mixture of iambics and trochaics.
LUCILIUS. 85
Koman Poetry, that of Lucilius's works is still more so for the Ludliua.
general interests of literature. Careless and incorrect as this
author was held by Horace, that great poet has not hesitated con-
fessedly to imitate his style, and to acknowledge his superiority
even to himself; an acknowledgment which no student of Horace
will refer to diffidence of his own powers. In one respect, indeed,
the resemblance of the two writers is remarkable, if the character
which Horace gives his master be, in any degree, correct.1
Ille velut fidis arcana sodalibus olim
Credebat libris : neque si male cesserat, usquam
Decurrens ali5, neque si bene. Quo fit ut omnis
Votiva pateat veluti descripta tabella
Vita senis.
As friend to friend the secrets of the heart,
He all he felt did to his books impart ;
None other his resource, whate'er befel,
Whether the world dealt ill with him, or well ;
Hence, as in votive tablet fair outspread,
The poet's life may in his page be read.
Horace might have drawn this portrait at his mirror. This poet
has given us a very elaborate judgment on the writings of Lucilius,2
from which it appears that he copied the old Greek comedians in
every thing but metre :3
Eupolis, atque Cratinus, Aristophanesque, poetse,
Atque alii, quorum Comoedia Prisca virorum est :
******
Hinc omnis pendet Lucilius, hosce sequutus,
Mutatis tantum pedibus numerisque.
Although Horace accuses him of inelegance in versification, it
appears from the fragments of his writings collected by the labo-
rious Francis Dousa,4 that he rejected the mixed measures of his
predecessors. The first twenty books of his Satires were in
hexameters, and the rest, with the exception of the thirtieth
and last, which was also in hexameters, were in iambics and
trochaics.5 He is censured by Horace for being as careless as
voluminous : the fragments of his works now extant, though
numerous, are seldom connected ; where they are so, they scarcely
bear out the charge. The great poet, however, seems less to
1 II. Sat. i. 30. 2 I. Sat. iv. et x. 3 I. Sat. iv. 1, seqq.
4 The merits of Dousa are so high that it would be injustice not to retain this
notice. But the works now (1850) deserving to be consulted for the best
acquaintance with Lucilius which can be made are the editions of Corpet, Paris,
1 845, and Gerlach, Zurich, 1846.
5 There is a difference sometimes in the length of the iambic and trochaic
verses, and dactylics are occasionally intermixed ; but the corruption of the text,
and the mistakes of grammarians in assigning the quotations, may account for this
circumstance.
d 2
36 ANTE-AUGUSTAS LATIN POETRY.
condemn Lncilius than to deprecate the excessive admiration of his
writings which was then fashionable among the literati at Eome.
Of two faults Lucilius appears to have been clearly guilty ; cor-
rupting his native tongue with an inordinate admixture of Greek,
(as some modern English writers, in still viler taste, adulterate theirs
with French ;) and separating the syllables of a word by a harsh
and unusual tmesis. The first of these was, absurdly enough, con-
sidered by his admirers as an excellence, and Horace has been not
a little severe on the subject :
* At magnum fecit, quod verbis Graeca Latinis
Miscuit.' 0, seri studiorum ! quine putetis
Difficile et mirum Rhodio quod Pitholeonti
Contigit !
Of Lucilius's philhellenic propensities the passages remaining to us
afford ample proof. We shall instance one or two, in order to
show the validity of the grounds which Horace had for his
censure. Cicero, in his third book "de Oratore" quotes the
following :
Quam lepide Ae£e7s compostse ! ut tesserulse omnes
Arte, paviniento, atque emblemate vermiculato.
And, afterwards :
Crassum habeo generum : ne p7]ropiKwT€p6> tu sis.
xVnother instance is not less remarkable i1
Nunc censes KaWnrXoKauov KaWivcpvpov ill am
* * * ' * « -;.-
Compernam aut varam fuisse Amphitryonis olkoitiu
Alcmenam, atque alias, Ledam ipsam denique nolo
Dicere, tute vide, atque SiavWafiov elige quodvis
Tyro eupatcreiam'2 aliquam rem insignem habuisse,
Verrucam, nsevum picture, den tern eminulum uuum.
This style has been occasionally imitated by Juvenal, the professed
follower of Lucilius. The last mentioned fault of Lucilius has been
thus illustrated and ridiculed by Ausonius :3
Villa Lucani- mox potieris -aea. [for Lucaniaca]
Rescisso discas componere nomine versimi ;
Lucili vates sic imitator eris.
Lucilius, however, with these and all his other faults, was a great
genius and a noble writer, if we can rely on the authority of anti-
quity. Yarro, according to the testimony of Aulus Gellius,4 com-
mends his gracUitas, which expression is explained as conveying
1 Dous. Rel. Luc. xvii. 1.
2 Or, Tvpw evTrarepeiam, as some give it, still mere strangely.
3 Ep. v. ad Theon. 4 vii. 1 4.
LUCILIUS. 37
the complex idea of venustas and sultUitas ; a criticism suited, LudHua.
perhaps, to the time; but, when viewed from a later point of
literary history, when the Latin language had developed its capa-
bilities of refinement, palpably inapplicable. Quinctilian,1 while
he studiously expresses his dissent from those who would place
Lucilius ou the summit of the Latian Parnassus, (as some even then
did not hesitate to do) no less decidedly disclaims the censorious
sentiments of Horace, and praises the learning, freedom, sarcasm,
and wit of the elder satirist. Pliny and Cicero extol his " urbanitas "
and " styli nasus" 2 expressions equivalent to those of Horace :
qil(id SALE MULTO
Urbem defricuit-
and, " Emimctce naris .-" and Aulus Gellius calls him " vir apprime
lingua Latine sciens" 3 The animated description of this poet
which has been left us by one who, indisputably, had a right to
criticise him, is in the memory of every scholar :
IEnse velut stricto quoties Lucilius ardens
Infremuit, rubet auditor, cui frigida mens est
Criminibus : tacita sudant prsecordia culpa.4
Oft as Lucilius waves his ruthless sword,
Guilt-frozen minds glow forth in crimson faces ;
The labouring heart sweats with the secret sin.
The notice of Lucilius by Persius, who, it is said, was excited by
his tenth book to satirical composition, though less solemn, is not
less in character :
Secuit Lucilius urbem ;
Te Lupe, te Muti : et genuinum fregit in illis.5
Lucilius slashed the town ;
And broke his teeth on Lupus and on Mutius.
His acquaintance with the Greek comedians furnished him with the
means of polishing while it sharpened his weapon ; and the pro-
tection which the friendship of Scipio and Lselius afforded him,
enabled him to unmask hypocrisy, and to attack with impunity
vice and folly, however well sheltered in the folds of the Prcetexta.
Yet was he no less the enemy of plebeian vice :
Primores populi arripuit, populumque tributim,
Scilicet uni aequus Virtuti, atque ejus amicis.
What he considered virtue we learn from a passage preserved to us
by Lactantius,6 for the purpose of cavilling at its particulars,
although it is indeed a noble monument of heathen morality, and
the source, as this father admits, from which Cicero derived the
1 Lib. x. 1. 2 Cir.de Orat. ii. ; Plin. praef. Hist. Nat. 3 Noct. Att. xviii. 5.
4 Juv. Sat. i. 165. 5 i. 11-4. G Inst. Div. vi. 5, 6.
33 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
substance of his Officia. Horace himself might not have blushed
to own it :
Virtus, Albine, est pretium persolvere veruni,
Queis in versamur, queis vivimu' rebu', potesse :
Virtus est homini, scire id, quod quaeque habeat res.
Virtus, scire homini rectum, utile quid sit, honestum;
Quae bona, quae mala item, quid inutile, turpe, inlionestum ;
Virtus, quaerendae rei finem scire modumque ;
Virtus, divitiis pretium persolvere posse ;
Virtus, id dare, quod re ipsa debetur honori ;
Hostem esse atque inimicum hominum morumque malorum,
Contra defensorem hominum morumque bonorum ;
Magnificare lios, his bene velle, his vivere amicum ;
Commoda praeterea patriae sibi prima putare ;
Deinde parentum ; tertia jam postremaque, nostra.
Virtue, Albinus, is the power to give
Their due to objects amid which we live ;
What each possesses, faithfully to scan ;
To know the right, the good, the true for man ;
Again, to know the wrong, the base, the ill ;
What we should seek, and how we should fulfil ;
Honour and wealth at their true worth to prize ;
111 men and deeds repudiate, hate, despise;
Good men and deeds uphold, promote, defend,
Exalt them, seek their welfare, live their friend ;
To place our country's interests first alone ;
Our parents' next; the third, and last, our own.
It would be scarcely expected that we should give here anything
like an analysis of the numerous fragments of Lucilius which
remain to us. Most of them are disjointed and corrupt ; but some
are written in the finest spirit of satire : in them the private life
and public religion of the Romans, especially their idolatry and
polytheism, are ridiculed and exposed with the keenest sarcasm.
Lucilius was essentially the writer of human nature and the people ;
though a man of learning, he wrote neither for scholars nor for
the wholly uneducated ;x his language was exuberant and unpo-
lished, but free, undisguised, intelligible ; for the present obscu-
rity of his fragments is no proof of his obscurity in his own day,
but rather the contrary. The unusual words (where not corrupted)
are such, because belonging to popular rather than literary lan-
guage. No writer of obscurities could have attained the popularity
(as distinguished from the celebrity) of Lucilius. Politics and public
morals, public and private character, literature, oratory, and the
drama, were treated by him with a breadth, liveliness, and pun-
gency, which, while they disarmed the severity of the accurate and
learned, made him the darling of the general mind. Picturesque
1 Lucilius, homo doctus et pcrurbanus, diccre solcbat ea qua scriberet neque
ab indoctissimis se ncque a doctissimis legi veUe. — Cic. de Orat. ii. 6 ; see De
Fin. i. 37.
VABRO. 39
descriptions, apologues, and adaptations, artfully introduced, con- Luciiiiii.
tributed their colour and effect : and though the sentiments, like
the language, were not always refined, neither was the age, nor the
audience ; and the indignation of heathen virtue was wont to be
plain-spoken. The loss of Lucilius's satirical writings is more
than a literary misfortune. They would have been all-important
for the illustration of contemporary social life ; and while their
spirit was that of the old Greek comedy, their value as pictures of
society must have equalled, perhaps surpassed, that of the new.
Besides his satires, Lucilius wrote a comedy called Nummularia, to other works
which, according to Porphyrion, the old scholiast on Horace, that of Lucillus-
poet alluded in the line
Pythias, emuncto lucrata Simone talentum.
He wrote also Ejpocle Hymns, and a poem called Serranus. All
these works have perished. Horace tells us that the theme of
some of his poems was his friend, the younger Africa nus, whose
intimacy he cultivated when serving under him at the siege of
Numantia.1 Of his life few particulars are known, though his
poetry was, perhaps, even more than that of Horace, an autobio-
I graphy. He was a Eoman knight, and was born, according to the
Eusebian Chronicle, at Suessa, in the territory of Auruncum, u. c.
606, and died u. c. 651.2
Marcus Terentius Yarro, born at Eeate u.c. 63S, is admitted, by
the common consent of antiquity, to have been the most learned of
all the Eomans : and the titles preserved to us of his works prove
the extent of his information. The doctrines of moral philosophy, Varroni
though personally important to all, were too intimately involved
with the abstractions of the philosophic schools to reach the
generality of readers. Yarro, whose profound acquaintance with
the writings of the philosophers and whose extensive general
reading peculiarly qualified him for the task, undertook to array in
a plain, attractive, and popular dress those wise precepts for the
conduct of life, which before had lain concealed under the cumbrous
attire of dogmatic philosophy. Such are the motives which Cicero
makes him assign for the publication of his Menippean, or cynical,3
Satires ; 4 adding however his own opinion, that, although the work
was diversified, and perfectly elegant, it could only be said to have
1 See Yell. Pat. Hist. ii. 9.
2 01. 158, 2. See references for difference on this chronology in Baehr,
Geschichte der Rom. Litt. ii. 122 ; note 2. The question is also discussed by
Gerlach (Prolegomena in Lucilii Relliquias), who defends the established com-
putation. Clinton inclines to amplify the life of Lucilius both ways.
6 Quas alii cynicas, ipse (Varro) appellat Menippeas.- — .4/'/. Gdl. xi. 18.
4 Acad. i. 2, 3. See the passage, somewhat obscure, treated by Oehler, Com.
in Varr. iv. ; note 3.
Satire.
40 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
entered on philosophy ; and, though it had done much towards in-
citing to philosophical study, it had effected little towards instruction.
Much the same opinion, as regards the latter part of it, is expressed
by Diogenes Laertius of Yarro's prototype Menippus.1 As the
works of both writers are now lost, we must content ourselves with
Yarro's own assertion in Cicero, that he imitated Menippus without
translating him : the probability, however, is in favour of the
superiority of Yarro. Menippus indeed, in common with the Sillo-
graphers, seems to have introduced much more parody than even
the earliest Roman satirists, if his works did not wholly consist of
it. In the absence of better information, the " Mcmr?™?, fj vckvo-
pavTzla'' of Lucian may be consulted, where his style is caricatured.
The satires of Yarro, of which the names are preserved, amount
to one hundred and thirty-seven ; but Oehler diminishes this
number to ninety-six, considering some of the supposed satires
to be referable to other heads. The diversity of their subject
matter may be gathered from the following arbitrary selection of
titles, comprised under the letter A in Fabricius's alphabetical
arrangement. Aborigines , n€p\ avQpumw c^va-ecos. Be Admirandis,
vel Gallus Fundanius. Agatlio. Age modo. 'Ah Aipvrj, vel nepl
aip€o-€G)v. Ajax stramentitius. "AXkos ovtos 'HpaKXrjs. * h\xp.ov
fxerpds, 7T€pl (jjiXapyvplas. Andabatce. Ardhropopolis, nepl ycveSXuiKrjs.
Uepl apxns, vel Marcopolis. Wept dpxaipeo-eav, vel Serranus. Ile/n
aperrjs KTrjcreos, vel Trihodites. Ilepl cKfipodLo-ioov, vel vinalia. Armorum
judicium. Iiep\ app^voTrjros^ vel Tripliallua, Autumedus, vel Mceonius.
Dacier, in his Essay on the Eoman Satires, has collected a few
fragments cited by ancient authors from the Satires of Yarro. But
the most complete collection is that of Oehler (Quedlingb. and
Leipz. 1844). The best judgment to be formed of their nature, at
the present day, may be obtained from the extant Yarronian Satire
of Petronius, the ' AtvokoXokvvtvo-is of Seneca, and the Ccesares and
Mio-oTrvycov of the Emperor Julian. They seem to have embraced
subjects of the most diverse description, political and literary, as
well as philosophical, treated in a satirical vein, in the most
modern sense of the word ; humorous, however, rather than sar-
castic, though not devoid of sarcasm. They were of the most
miscellaneous character in every respect ; and blended prose with
verse of various metre.
There can be no doubt that literature has sustained a severe loss
in the Menippean Satires ; whatever may have been their merit,
they must have been invaluable as illustrations of contemporary
life. But the only fragments which exhibit connexion impress us
with a highly favourable estimate of Yarro's poetical powers. We
subjoin two — the first from the " Marcipor," the other from the
"Prometheus Liber:"
vi. 99.
VARRO. ' 1
j. Varro.
Repente noctis drciter meridie,
Quiim pictus aer fervidis late ignibus
C'u'li chorean astricen ostendcret
* * « *
Nubes aquali frigido velo levcs
Coeli cavernas aureaa subduxcrant,
Aquam vomcntes inferam mortalibus.
» * * *
Vcntique frigido se ab axe eruperant
Pbrenetici Septemtrionum filii,
Secum ferentcs tegulas, ramos, syros.
At nos caduci, naufragi, ut ciconise,
Quarum bipennis fulniinis plumas vapor
Perussit, alte nicesti in terrain cecidimus.
Although these fragments are found separately, we agree With
Oehler in considering them connected portions, and shall translate
them accordingly.
All suddenly, about the noon of night,
"When far the sky, bedropt with fervid fires,
Displayed the starry firmamental dance,
The racking clouds, with cold and watery veil,
Closed up the golden hollows of the heaven,
Spouting on mortals Stygian 1 cataracts.
The winds, the frantic offspring of the North,
Burst from the frozen pole, and swept along
Tiles, boughs, and hurricanes of whelming dust."
Cut we, poor trembling shipwrecked men, like storks
AY hose wings the double-pinioned thunder-bolt
Hath scorched, fell prone in terror on the ground.
li.
Sum ut supernus cortex, aut cacumina
Morientftni in querqueto arborum aritudine.
* * * * *
Atque exsanguibus3 dolore evirescat4 colos.
Mortalis nemo exaudit, sed late incolens
Scytharum inhospitalis campos Vastitas.
*■* •* * *•
Levis mens nunquam somnurnas imagines
Adfatur, non unibrantur sonino pupulse.
I am become like outer bark, or tops
Of oaks, that in the forest die with drought;
My blood is drained; my colour wan with anguish ;
1 So we prefer rendering inferos to Oehler's frigid interpretation, "Infer*
aqua est aqua ex imbri caduca — 7ie?*a&speiend das Wasser auf die Sterblichen."
8 SyrOS, according to Nonius, brooms, an impossible interpretation ; but the
word itself is most probably corrupt. We have considered it as bearing affinity to
avpfxbs, or avp(per6s — " Sweeping whirlwinds.1'
A Probably exsangui, as Scaliger ; sense and metre requiring it.
4 Evirescit ?
Cato.— Dure.
42 ANTE- AUGUSTAN LATIN POETEY.
Varro. No mortal bears me; only Desolation,
That dwells abroad on Scythia's houseless plains.
My spirit n'er parleys with sleep-gender'd forms ;
No shade of slumber rests upon my eyelids.
With the exception of Varro, history furnishes us with the name
of no eminent satirist between the times of Lucilius and Horace.
Publius Terentius Varro of Atax is mentioned by Horace * as having
attempted satire unsuccessfully, in common with " certain others."
These were, perhaps, Saevius Nicanor, mentioned by Suetonius as
the author of a satire; Lenaeus, the freedman of Pompey the
Great, who satirized the historian Sallust; and Valerius Cato,
author of a piece called Indignatio, on the subject of the loss of his
patrimony by the soldiers of Sylla, and some amatory poems, of
which Lydia and Diana were the inspiring muses.2
Valerius Cato appears to have enjoyed some reputation as a poet ; but his
~ name is chiefly remarkable for the extraordinary and undue interest
excited among scholars by a work attributed to him by Joseph
Scaliger, but in the MSS. ascribed to Virgil. The poem is intituled
Dirce ; it is a fierce denunciation of parties who have despoiled the
writer of his property (the case of Valerius as well as of Virgil 3),
and concludes with a lament for the loss of a beloved Lydia.
These circumstances, however, are the only evidence in favour of
Cato's authorship. The Indignatio, with which some suppose the
Dirce identical, was, very probably, no poem. Suetonius calls it
" libellus ;" and almost immediately adds, " scripsit prater gram-
maticos libellos, etiam poemata." Jacobs regards the Dirce as two
fragments of distinct poems ; to the former of which alone the
title properly belongs ; the latter was, he conceives, probably
intituled Lydia. The University of Jena thought the question of
sufficient importance to propound an inquiry into the origin,
integrity, and period of the poem, as the subject for a prize. Much
learning has been expended in the investigation, but to very
little purpose, whether we regard the claims of the poem, or the
light which has been thrown on it. Hermann has satisfactorily
shown that there is very slight internal evidence for attributing
any part of it to Valerius Cato. But indeed the subject, except for
the exaggerated importance given to it by the labours of the learned,
would scarcely merit notice in these pages.4
We shall now return to Naevius, whose dramatic productions we
have already noticed, in order to trace the progress of the Latin
Epoocpia- Epopceia. Whatever the ingenuity and enthusiasm of some adven-
turous modern critics may have conjectured, there is every reason
to believe that this author was the first who composed a regular
1 Horace, i. Sat. x. 46. 2 Suet, de 111. Gram, v., xi. et xv. 3 Ibid. xi.
4 See Hermann's Abhandlnngen und Beitrage zur class. Litt. und Alter-
thumsk. vi., where the subject is abundantly yet compendiously discussed.
X.EV1US. — THE EPOPCEIA. 43
epic in Latin. Naevius patriotically neglected the brilliant fictions Stevius
and luxurious imagery of Greece, to sing in austerer strains the
triumphs of Duillius, and the sufferings of Eegnlus. His poem on
the first Punic war, in which he served, — a poem of which very
inconsiderable fragments remain, was divided into seven books by
C. Octavius Lampadio, the grammarian, as we learn from Suetonius.
Cicero compares this work to the sculptures of Myron, not exact,
but pleasing, and even beautiful; and accuses Ennius of plagiarising
from it in his Annates : and even Virgil himself has not disdained
to have recourse to the imagery of Naevius, as is observed by
Macrobius, who informs us that the latter poet describes the
Trojans tost in a storm ; Venus complaining to Jupiter thereon,
and Jupiter consoling his daughter with the hope of future glories ;
all which circumstances are narrated in the first JEneid. It is to
Naevius, perhaps, that we are indebted for the anti-Punic spirit of
the latter poem ; a spirit which must have considerably died out
of the national mind in the days of Virgil, but which, in those of
Naevius, was the popular passion.
The metre used by Naevius was that called the Saturnian. The ^^
name is supposed to be derived from Saturnus, and to be identical
with Italian, Italy being called Saturnia tetlus. But this metre is
admitted to be of Greek extraction by Terentianus Maurus, and is
proved to be of Greek usage by Bentley.1 It appears, indeed, to have
been invented by Archilochus. Notwithstanding, Mr. Macaulay
inclines to think the coincidence may be fortuitous, and gives some
curious instances in proof that the Saturnian measure is the natural
versification of a rude and simple period in all languages. His
old German and English specimens are as perfect as the different
principles of accentual and temporal versification allow ; his Spanish
examples are only approximations. At the same time, he admits
that the metre may have been early introduced into Latium from
some of the Greek cities of Italy.2 It was, at all events, naturalised
among the Romans from a very early period.
The nearest metrical definition of this famous verse is an iambic
hephthemimer, followed by a trochaic dimeter brachycatalectic. The
latter portion of the verse was preserved with tolerable uniformity.
The former ordinarily admitted every foot admissible into any part of
an iambic verse ; but we have no means of inquiring minutely into
the laws of a metre of which few examples are preserved; laws
which, it is evident, were extremely lax. So lawless, indeed, was
the construction of the Saturnian verse, that Attilius Fortunatianus
asserted that he scarcely knew what verses of Naevius to select as a
specimen.3 " Nostri antiqui (says he), usi sunt eo, non observatd
lege, nee uno genere custodito inter se versus ; sed} prater quam quod
1 Diss, on Epist. of Phalaris. xi. 2 Pref. to Lays of Anc. Rome.
3 De Doctr. Metr. xxvi.
44 a:;te-atjgustan latin poetry.
durissimos fecerunt, etiam alios brevioresy alios longiores inseruerunt,
ut vix invenerim apud Ncevium quos jpro exemplo ponerem"
The great name of Niebuhr seems here to challenge a notice,
which a theory scarcely worthy of it would not otherwise have
claimed at our hands. Contrary to the universal testimony of
antiquity,1 he makes the Saturnian verse altogether accentual, while
yet his accent does not correspond to the long syllable, or even
the arsis, of the true Saturnian verse. " The prevailing character
of the Saturnian verse," he observes, " is that it consists of a fixed
number of feet of three syllables each. The number of feet is
generally four, and they are either bacchics or cretics, alternating
with spondees. Sometimes the cretics predominate, and some-
times the bacchics ; when the verses are kept pure, the movement
is very beautiful ; but they are generally so much mixed that it is
difficult to discern them. This ancient Roman metre occurs
throughout in Eoman poetry down to the seventh century [ah
urhe cond.]. I have collected a large number of examples of it, and
discovered a chapter of an ancient grammarian with most beautiful
fragments, especially from Neevius. I shall publish this important
treatise on the Saturnian verse ; for the grammarian really understood
its nature." 2
It is no disrespect to the memory of the great man whose words
we have given, to say that he was ardent and imaginative ; and he
certainly seems, in this instance, to have been diverted by these
dispositions from that plain track which they sometimes enabled
him to pursue with greater success than might have attended a
colder temperament. It is a strong presumption against his theory
that it will not quadrate with those undoubted Saturnian verses
which antiquity has transmitted to us ; that the examples scattered /
throughout his works are so unlike verses, that any chapter of
Livy might with equal effect be similarly distributed; that the
epitaphs of the Scipios, whereon, as we have seen, his testimony is
self-contradictory, are included in the number of examples ; 3 and
1 We do not except even Servius (ad Virg. Georg. ii. 385) : " Carrninibus
Saturnio metro compositis, quod ad rhythmum solum vulgares componere consue-
verunt" For his text shows that he is speaking of rude extemporaneous effusions ;
and the very term vulyares appears to distinguish their authors from such writers
as Naevius. But it may serve to clear up some part of the confusion in which the
subject is involved. It is probable that the term Saturnius, which was used for old-
fashioned, may have often been employed to designate the rude rhythmical verses of
barbarous times, quite independently of its more restricted and artificial acceptation.
2 Lectures on Hist, of Rom. i. Schmitz's transl. Though Niebuhr uses the
terms of Greek prosody, we must understand him to substitute the acute accent
for the long syllable.
3 The epitaph on C. Lucius Scipio is thus scanned by Niebuhr :
Corneliu' Luciu' Scipio Barbatus
Gnaivo prognatu,1 fortis vir sapie'nsque, &c.
Whereas the second line (if we must so call it) is Cnaivod patre prognatus, &c.
SATURNIAN VERSE. 15
that none of his instances have the smallest affinity with those
ferses which antiquity has preserved to us as unquestionably
Satnrnian. The grammarian of whom he speaks is Charisius.
Niebuhr took a copy of a treatise Be Versu Saturnio, ascribed to
that writer, from a MS. in the Bourbon Museum at Xaples. This
copy is supposed to have perished in a tire which took place in
Niebuhr's house some short time before his death. But a copy
has been since taken by Midler, which has been edited with a fac-
simile by Prorector Gieseler, of Gbttingen. From his pamphlet 1
we glean the following particulars : — 1. The MS. contains several
treatises beside that of Charisius, and several of these are interposed
between the undoubted works of Charisius and the chapter in question,
which is even headed, apparently in the same hand — " Liber s'cti
Columbani" True it is, that these words may indicate the monastery
to which the book belonged, not its author ; still, however, there
is no evidence that the treatise is the work of Charisius. 2. The
treatise contains only two pages, which originally consisted of four
columns ; but the two outer columns have perished ; consequently the
whole is but a fragment. The hand is exceedingly bad, the abbrevia-
tions numerous, and the text, as set forth by Gieseler, confessedly
and palpably corrupt ; although he perhaps has made it out with
all the probability the case admits. 3. The "beautiful fragments"
amount to three, which we append, that our readers may see the
foundation on which Niebuhr's ambitious structure reposes. None
are from Nseyius ; the first is evidently from Lcevius, who is often
confounded with him. Lrevius, however, was a much later poet, about
650 U.C.j author of pieces called Erotopspgnion [liber] and Centauri;
and, being distinctly an imitator of the Greeks, was very unlikely
to have employed the Saturnian verse at all, which doubtless, like
others of the same school, he held in contempt. The name of the
poet is indeed lost, except the two first letters, which are indis-
putably Le ; and the quotation, specifying the Erotopcpgnion, leaves
no doubt of the author. Thus it stands in Gieseler' s edition —
" Yenus, amoris altrix, genetrix cupiditatis, in quam diem plenum
hilarulum prBepundere fas est opitulse tuse ac ministree. Tametsi
neutiquam quid foret ex pavida gravi dura fera asperaque famula
potui de domino accipere superbo." In the MS. we have q for
fuam, [fpnndere for prcppundere (whatever that may mean), oppetulce
clearly for opitulrp. The tametsi neutiquam of Gieseler is no less
clearly ta,n et sine uti qua in the MS. ; the gravi is gravis ; the famula
\sfamultas; the de domino is dominio. The wordjfas Gieseler thinks
may as well be sese ; to which we add, wre think it may as well be
anything else. The following two fragments are from Attius : —
1 Academiae Georgia Augusta Prorector J. C. L. Gieseler, D. cum senatu
successorem in summo magistratu academico Frider. Bergrnanu, D. civibus suis
honoris et officii causa conmiendat. — Gottinga?, 1841.
46 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
I. " Quid istoc gnata unicli est demum . . eel br . . . . prome . . .
to expete . . timida me tecto excies." II. " Sed jam Amphilochum
hue vadere cerno et nobis datur bona pausa loquendi in tempus
obviam." Such are the examples on which a new
theory of the Saturnian verse, in direct opposition to the testimony
of all antiquity, is to be constructed ! 4. Finally, the theory itself
is thus propounded in Gieseler's version : — " Sunt item Saturnii
quinum denum et senum denum pedum, in quibus similiter novum
genus pedum est et ipsum ametron. De quibus nihil prsecipitur
eoque nomen aptius quidem est." Not a very intelligible definition
truly ! but we give the original form — " St' (or SP, or El') item
Saturnii quin' denum e . i . indeni . . . pedum in q'bz similit'
novum genus pedum est eipsu ametron " (perhaps) " de qb. n1
p'cipit' eoq no'e aptior quidem e\" The nomen aptius of Gieseler
should be nomine aptior. We are not obliged to reconcile any
portion of this scrap with rules of grammar — a task too hard for
its learned editor himself. It is surely manifest, that on such a
foundation it is quite incompetent to raise the theory of an
accentual, nonmetrical Saturnian verse, in the poetry of Naevius
and regular writers, in the face too of the positive testimony
afforded by writers well acquainted with it : and the name of
Niebuhr is our only apology for having dwelt on the subject.
A poem, called the Cyprian Iliad, has been attributed to Naevius :
it was a translation from a poem called ra Kinrpia, falsely ascribed
to Homer. Hermann,1 with great probability, imagines that the
grammarians, deceived by the resemblance of names, have ascribed
to this author a work of Lasvius, with whom, as we have seen,
Nsevius has been confounded by Niebuhr himself. Others attribute
this poem to Ninnius Crassus. As this composition was written in
hexameters, it is extremely improbable that it was the production
of Nsevius ; there being little doubt that this measure was intro-
duced in regular poetry by Ennius, who first familiarised his
countrymen with the epic Muse of Greece. That Ennius was the
first who composed Latin hexameters, is no where, indeed, expressly
stated ; but Lucretius intimates that he had made some important
improvements in Latin poetry : —
-Qui primus amceno
Detulitex Helicone perennem fronde coronam,
Per gentes Italas hominum quae clara clueret.2
Hermann, however, relies more on the derision which Ennius cast
upon the Saturnian verses, and contends that this alone is a
sufficient proof that he was the original importer of the hexameter.
Although the logic of the philologist in this conclusion is scarcely
equal to his criticism, there is every reason to believe that the
1 Ap. Gesner. Thes. Ling. Lat. doc. Saturnius. 2 Lucret. i. 13.
ennius. 47
hexameter was not used before the time of Ennius in any com-
position of extent or importance.
It is possible, however, that, out of regular literature, the
hexameter was known to the Eomans. The Oracles of Marcius, Marcian
according to Livy, existed before the battle of Cannae, that is, not oradts-
later than the five hundred and thirty-third year of Eome, or, before
Ennius completed his eighteenth year. These verses are supposed
by some critics to have been written in hexameters, while others con-
tend that their metre was the Saturnian. To us, with all their corrup-
tion, they appear to contain indubitable traces of the former measure -,
but it seems not unlikely that their original form was Greek.
The Epopceia, which Nsevius had successfully originated, was
still more successfully cultivated by Ennius. This illustrious and Ennius.
almost universal poet, to whom we have already had frequent
occasion to refer, was born at Eudiae, in Calabria, in the five hundred
and fifteenth year of Eome. He was a man
of unusual learning and accomplishments.
He boasted that he had three hearts ; a
quaint and enigmatical way of expressing his
familiarity with the Greek, Latin, and Oscan
languages.1 Silius Italicus2 represents him
serving as a centurion under Titus Manlius,
in the war which the Eoman government
carried on against its rebel subjects in
Sardinia. In that island he resided till lie
was brought to Eome by the elder Cato ; who,
as we observed before, censured the Consul Ennius.
Xobilior for his patronage of the same poet.
Tiraboschi suggests a probable account of this inconsistency of Cato,
supposing that he rather honoured Ennius as a warrior than as a
! poet,3 in which latter character he was patronised by the Consul.
1 Certain it is that his military, no less than his poetical, excellence,
i has been the theme of commendation ; according to Claudian,4 he
accompanied the elder Africanus in many of his expeditions: but this
is inconsistent with what other authors relate of the disposal of his
time during the campaigns of that illustrious captain. He was also
intimate with Scipio Nasica, and the two Nobiliores, Marcus and
Quintus, the former of whom, as we have already seen, he attended
in his iEtolian campaign ; and the latter procured him the freedom
of Eome. Cherished and courted as he had been by the great, he
i was left, in old age and exhaustion, like the worn out Olympian
■ courser,1 to which he compares himself, to poverty and neglect.
1 Aul. Gell. xvii. 17. a Plin# xii< 393i
3 Storia della Lett. Ital. part iii. lib. ii. c. 1. 4 Dc Laud. Stil. iii. prsef.
5 Cic. de Senect. v.
48 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETP.Y.
Ennius. But his genius was of a proud and enduring cast ; and in those
sensibilities which, in their violation, have so often proved fatal to
the poet, he seems to have but slightly participated. An exalted
consciousness of the dignity of genius was a possession which
neither years nor destitution could take away; and this so far
supported him under the miseries of both, that he exulted in his
independence on their power. His feelings are strongly pourtrayed
in the epitaph which he composed for himself :
Aspicite, 6 cives, senis Enni imagini' formam.
Hie vestrum panxit maxima facta patrum.
Nemo me lacrymis decoret, nee funera fletu
Faxit. Cur? volito vivu' per c-ra virum.
Ho, countrymen ! old Ennius' form behold,
Who sang your martial sires' achievements bold.
No tears for me ! no dirges at my grave !
I live upon the lips of all the brave.
After his death, which happened u.c. 585, his memory was, it is
said, honoured with a marble statue, erected in the family sepulchre
of the Scipios.1
To the severe injury of the literary world, time has spared us
only detached fragments of the poems of Ermius, the best collections
of which are those made by Columna and Merula, with copious
annotations. From them their author appears to have been what
Scaliger designates him, a poet of splendid genius ; yet, though
the veneration which the Eoman critics, who called him a second
Homer, entertained for this poet, was the most implicit and
unqualified, it is probable that much of his popularity among his
contemporaries is chiefly referable to the novelty of the wonders
which his Muse, opening the exhaustless treasures of Grecian
poesy, disclosed. Ennius, however, arrogated to himself the title
of Homer, whose soul he feigned to have passed into his own body,
after migrating through that of a peacock ; which most unpoetical
metempsychosis has afforded amusement to Horace and Persius.2
Horace, indeed, is bold enough to tell the admirers of the father of
Eoman poetry, that the truth of his Pythagorean dreams is not
always borne out by his productions. Yet it cannot be doubted
that the poetry of Ennius was, in general, lofty and dignified, of
stern and solemn grandeur, although destitute of polish and orna-
ment. Quinctilian has left us a picturesque description of his
style, the correctness of which is avouched no less by the testimony
of antiquity, and the extant fragments of the poet, than by the
judgment of the critic. " We regard Ennius with a kind of
adoration, like groves which have acquired sanctity from antiquity,
1 Cic. pro Arch. Poet. ix. ; Liv. xxxviii. 56 ; Plin. vii. 31.
2 Ep. ad Aug. 50, segq.—S&t. vi. 10.
ENNIUS. 49
where vast and aged trunks are not so remarkable for beauty as for Ennius.
a kind of religious solemnity." ! Even in the fastidious age of
Augustus, Yitruvius was bold enough to say " All whose minds are
imbued with the beauties of literature must have the image of the
poet Ennius, like those of the gods, consecrated in their breasts." 2
The rules of elegant construction, which critics have compiled from
the practice of Virgil and Ovid, were entirely unknown to Ennius,
whose hexameters exhibit nothing beyond the bare measure of that
verse. The harsh elision of the final s is also of frequent occurrence
in his extant writings.
Virgil has imitated no author more liberally than Ennius. It
would not fall within the nature of this work to quote the several
passages ; but the reader, who is desirous of knowing how much
the " Prince of Eoman Poets " borrowed from the elder bard, may
consult, in particular, the two first chapters of Macrobius's sixth
book of the Saturnalia. The title of Ennius's great work was
Annates ; it comprised the history of Koine from its foundation to
the termination of the Histrian war. The first Punic war was omitted,
as Ennius himself affirms, because others had written it : —
scnpsere alii rem
Versibu' quos olim Fauni vatesque canebant,
Quum neque Musarum scopulos quisquam superarat,
Nee dicti studiosus erat ;
hence Cicero takes occasion to observe that he seemed unwilling to
risk a competition with the bards he so much affected to despise.3
Nasvius was certainly pointed at in these verses. The Annates, as
Suetonius informs us,4 were divided into books 5 by the grammarian
Vargunteius, who recited them publicly ; a custom which long
prevailed in Italy, since we learn from Gellius that there was in his
time, at Puteoli, a person who read the verses of Ennius to the
public,6 and who was called an Ennianist (Ennianista). The cast
which this poem of Ennius gave to the Eoman literary and civil
character was extremely powerful, and Seneca affirms 7 that Virgil
was compelled to sacrifice his judgment to the prejudices of an
" Ennian Public " (Ennianus populus), as this author calls the
Eomans. To make an epic interesting to this people, it was always
1 Ennium sicut sacros vetustate lucos adoramus, in quibus grandia et antiqua
roborajam non tantam habent speciem, quantam relligionem. — Lib. x. 1. The
Ovidian character, Ennius ingenio maximus, arte rudis, is as felicitous in matter
as in expression.
2 Qui litterarum jucunditatibus instinctas habent mentes nonpossunt non in
suis pectoribus dedicatum habere, sicut deorum, sic Ennii poetm simulacrum. —
Vitr. ix. prsef. 15. 3 Brut. xix. 4 De 111. Gram. ii.
5 According to Aulus Gellius, 12, or as other copies, 18 ; from Pliny (vii. 27)
we should infer 16.
6 Noct. Att. xviii. 5. 7 Apud Aul. Gell. xii. 2.
[r. l.] e
50 ANTE- AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
necessary that it should be national ; and Virgil, with all his art,
was yet obliged to connect his poem with the Boman fortunes.
Even Ovid, in a work not altogether pretending to the flights of
the Epopoeia, felt the necessity of conciliating his readers by
enlarging on the mythological and historical glories of the Empire.
The influence and popularity of Ennius, therefore, long survived
his diction ; and poets who contemned its rudeness and want of
modulation were yet compelled, by the strength of popular opinion,
to reverence and emulate the grandeur of his genius, and, in their
journey to the temple of Fame, to indulge in very limited excursions
from the track of his steps.
The fragments of the Annals of Ennius are so numerous, and, in
general, so well known, that it would be difficult to select passages,
and almost superfluous, to all purposes of illustration, to quote them.
There is, however, a singularly beautiful fragment of his poem on
the exploits of Scipio, preserved by Macrobius,1 which is less
known, and which we shall here adduce :
-Mundus coeli vastus constitit silentio,
Et Neptunus ssevus undeis aspereis pausam dedit ;
Sol equeis iter repressit unguleis volantibus ;
Constitere anmes perennes : arbores vento vacant.
the universe of heaven stood in silence motionless ;
Stern Neptunus for a season bade the roughening billows pause ;
And the sun refrained the rushing of his pinion-footed steeds ;
Paused the ever-flowing rivers ; not a breath is on the boughs.
Columna supposes that this poem was written in hexameters, except
the procemium or introduction ; as the other few fragments extant
are in that measure. Horace speaks in terms of high commendation
of the Scipio .-2
Non incisa notis marmora publicis,
Per quae spiritus et vita redit bonis
Post mortem ducibus ; non celeres fugse,
Rejectseque retrorsum Hannibalis mines ;
Non incendia Carthaginis impiae,
Ejus qui domita nomen ab Africa
Lucratus rediit, clarius indicant
Laudes, quam Calabrae Pierides.
Not marbles traced with public grief,
Whereby to the departed chief
Life is restored : not foes overthrown,
And Hannibal's fierce threat hurled down ;
Not Carthage proud in ashes laid,
More brightly hath his praise displayed
Who bore his vanquished Afric's name, —
Than the Calabrian's strain of fame.
1 Sat. vi. 4. 2 iv. Od. 8.
LUCRETIUS.
51
The example of Ennius was followed by Hostius, who composed Ennius.
a poem called Annates; and another on the Ilistrian war. The
title Annates was a favourite with Roman poets. It was adopted
by Aulns Furius, of Antium, and Yolusius, the butt of Catullus.
Ennius was also a didactic poet, although so i'ew fragments of Didactic
his essays in this way are extant, that it is impossible to pronounce voeirj.
on their merits. One of his poems was called Phagetica, or Hedp-
pathia—a translation or adaptation from Archestratus — and was a
treatise on eatables. He wrote also epigrams, and poems called
Protrepticus, Proecepta (possibly two titles of the same work),
Asotus, Sotadicus (to which also the same observation will apply),
and some works in prose. But some of the above titles, if not
all, may possibly belong to his Satires. He composed also a
poem called Ptthemerus, a free criticism of the Greek mythology.
But the noblest strain of his didactic muse was his translation of
Epicharmus, On the Nature of Things ; a poem which, apparently,
excited the emulation of Lucretius, whose work was destined to
obscure its fame. # j, *j-_ s*x p^s-/.
Titus Lucretius Cams was born probably at Eome, u. c. 659, Lucretius,
and died at the age of forty-three, on the day when Yirgil assumed
the toga v iritis ; l and, as some affirm, by his own hand.2 As his life
connects the periods, so his poem
forms the link between the old and
new schools of Latin heroics (we use
the word as regards the versification),
between Ennius on the one hand, and
the Augustan poets on the other.
It differs, indeed, from the didactic
poetry of Hesiod and Yirgil, as it is
occupied rather in stating and rea-
soning on philosophical facts, than in
delivering practical precepts. Still,
it is strictly didactic, according to the
derivation of the term. The philo-
sophy of Lucretius, as such, it would
be irrelevant here to discuss ; yet we
may remark that its tendency was to
suppress, rather than to kindle, the spirit of poetry. The doctrine
which removed man from all connexion with a higher state ; which
represented him, by nature, scarcely superior to the brute, and de-
graded by superstition ; which regarded with the severest intolerance
the most beautiful creations of fancy, and which stigmatised, as un-
manly and unphilosophical, some of the most amiable virtues of the
Lucre
1 Donat. in Vit. Virgil, ii. But the authority of Donatus is valueless, and Hcyne
even regards the passage as an interpolation.
2 Hieronym. Chron. Euseb.
E 2
52 ANTE-ATJGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
human breast, could scarcely be expected to develop^ itself success-
fully in poetry. Yet these disadvantages Lucretius completely over-
came. His poetical studies at Athens, and a discriminating judgment,
united, as is rarely the case, with a strong poetical enthusiasm,
which the cold and selfish theories of Epicurus, so far from sup-
pressing, only enlisted in their active service, enabled him to perform
his task. The object of Lucretius appears to have been two-fold ;
to introduce to his countrymen in the most alluring colours what he
conceived to be the important, though repulsive, dogmata of
Epicurus ; and to polish and enrich the Latin language ; for which
latter design his extensive acquaintance with the Greek writers, and
the profound reverence with which he studied them, rendered him
7 eminently qualified. With this view he adopted an antiquated
e* style, as Spenser did at an analogous period of our own poetical his-
tory ; judging, perhaps, that the language, taken in its youth, would
be more flexible, and more susceptible of the character with which
he wished to impress it, than in its nearer advance to maturity. On
this account, although the harmony of the Latin hexameter is far
from perfection in the lines of Lucretius, the language of his poem
is elaborately poetical. He complains, indeed, of the poverty of his
native tongue, and the difficulty of applying it to the illustration of
a subject so new to his readers as the speculations of the Greek
philosophy :
Nee me animi fallit, Graiorum obscura reperta
Difficile inlustrare Latinis versibus esse,
Multa novis verbis prsesertim quum sit agendum ;
Propter egestatem linguae, et rerum novitatem.
But he has completely mastered this difficulty, and almost removed
it from subsequent writers, by enriching the language in a degree
perhaps wholly unparalleled in the history of Latin poetry. The cold
and stiff commendation of Quinctilian, " elegans in sua materia,"1
will be readily exchanged by scholars for the generous eulogium of
Ovid:
" Carmma suhlimis tunc sunt peritura Lucreti,
Exitio terras quum dabit una dies/' 2
Yet the term " difficilis," which the critic applies to Lucre-
tius, is justified by his archaisms, and by the difficulties of his
philosophy, which appear, by Cicero's account, completely to
have overwhelmed Sallustius, the writer of the Empedoclea?
According to St. Jerome,4 the noble poem of Lucretius was composed
during the intervals of an insanity, produced by drinking a philter.
1 x. 1. 2 Amor. i. 15.
3 Virum te putabo, si Sallustii Empedoclea legeris : hominem non putabo. — Cic.
ad Quinct. Frat. ii. II. Orelli supposes tbis Sallustius to be Cnaeus, the client of
Cicero. 4 Chron. Euseb.
CICERO.
53
Of the poetry of Cicero, who followed Lucretius in his didactic Cicero,
career, and who, if we are to believe the same author, corrected his
poem,1 it is usual to speak in terms of
disparagement. It is, however, to be
recollected that the Phanomenu and Prog-
nostica are translations, and from no very
poetical writer. They were written by
Cicero when very young,2 although it is
true that they were approved by him in
bis riper years. They afford a great con-
trast both to the inartificial versification
and poetic fire of his contemporary,
Lucretius. But the poetic powers of Cicero
are to be best determined from the frag-
ments of his historical poems De Consulatu, Cicero
and De Temporibus suis; and these cer-
tainly do not entitle him to the highest honours of the lyre. ]t
is, however, extremely unfair to cite, as a specimen of his general
ability, that well-known line from a poem on the events of his own
time :
0 fortunatam natam me consule Romam !
As well might we judge the genius of Ennius from a similar jingle :
0 Tite, tute, Tati, tibi tanta, tyranne, tulisti.
Voltaire has fallen into the opposite extreme ; 3 and, delighted with
some verses of Cicero's Marius, which unquestionably are highly
spirited, pronounces Cicero at once " one of the first poets of his
age," and balances him against Lucretius ; asserting that it was
totally impossible for him to have been the author of the obnoxious
verse above quoted. The following is the passage of the Marius
alluded to : —
Hie Jovis altisoni subito pennata satelles,
Arboris e trunco, serpentis saucia morsu,
Ipsa feris subigit transfigens unguibus anguem
Semianimum, et varia graviter cervice micantem ;
Quern se intorquentein lanians, rostroque cruentans,
Jam satiata animos, jam duros ulta dolores,
Abjicit efflantem, et laceratum affligit in undas,
Seque obitu a Solis nitidos convertit ad ortus.
1 Bernhardy, after Lachmarm, supposes (Gesch. der Rom. Lit. Anm. 398)
Quintus Cicero, brother of the orator, to be meant. This opinion is derived from an
expression in a letter from the latter, but it rests on a very slender foundation :
Lucr'etii poemata, ut scribis, ita sunt non multis luminibus ingenii, multce tamen
artis. — Cic. ad Quinct. Frat. ii. 11.
2 " Admodum adolescentulo." — Cic. de Nat. Deor. ii. 14.
3 Pref. a la Trag. de Catilina.
54) ANTE- AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
Cicero. The plumed attendant of high-thundering Jove,
Stung by a serpent, rested on a tree,
And his fierce talons through his torturer drove ;
Who writhes his spotted neck in agony,
Struggling, though mangled and half-dead ; but he,
The imperial bird, fares on his vengeful way ;
Rends with red beak his coiling enemy,
Then to the waves the torn and panting prey
Flings forth, and from the west soars to the rising day.
Other poems of Cicero are Pontius Glaucus, mentioned by
Plutarch,1 Haley one > Uxorius, Nilus, Tamelastis, of which we know
only the names ; it being doubtful whether even these are correctly
reported. The Limon (Aet/x<W) appears to have been a book of
epigrams.
The universal neglect or contempt with which the poetry of
Cicero was treated by contemporary and subsequent readers of
Latin literature, is very remarkable. It was alike despised by the
philarchaic school, and by the idolaters of Greek perfection : nor
could this be the result of political prejudices, as all parties
concurred in the most unqualified admiration of his speeches and
philosophical writings, which as models of prose are unsurpassed.2
Plutarch indeed speaks of him as the " best poet of the Bomans" in
his time, but soon obscured by others of higher merit.3 But if the
poetical excellence of Cicero had been eminent, he would not have
been more obscured than Lucretius or Catullus. Nay, it may well
seem that the poetry must have been heavy which even the name of
such a writer could not keep afloat. The brother of Cicero, Quintus
Tullius, who wrote a poem on the Zodiac, seems to have been
a most prolific writer ; for his brother compliments him on having
despatched four tragedies in sixteen days.4 The Electra, the Troas,
and the Erigone, are mentioned at the same time : whether these
were included in the four, it is not possible to say.
Catullus. I Caius (or Quintus) Valerius Catullus was born, according to the
Eusebian Chronicle, at Yerona, u. c. 667. Of his life few particu-
' lars are known. He seems to have loved privacy, and lived for the
most part at his villa at Sirmio, enjoying the society of literary
friends. He visited Bithynia in company with his brother, whose
early loss he passionately deplores. His Lesbia, according to
Apuleius,5 was a real person, whose name was Clodia: she would
1 Vit. Ciceronis, ii.
2 A very remarkable instance of this occurs in Juvenal (Sat. x. 124) :
• Ridenda poemata malo,
1
Quam te, conspicuae divina Philippica famse,
Volveris a primo quae proxima.
See also L. Seneca de Ira, iii. 37. M. Seneca Declam. iii. Dial, de Orat. 21.
3 In Vita, ii. 4 Ep. ad Quinct. iii. 6. 5 Apol. x. See Ov. Trist. II. 428.
CATULLUS. 55
have little deserved the affection of a purer poet than Catullus, and Catullus.
by him she was eventually renounced. According to the Eusebian
Chronicle he died at the age of thirty years ; which is manifestly
untrue, if the date of his birth be correct ; for he alludes to the
consulship of Yatinius,1 and must there-
fore have lived at least ten years longer.
Unlike Lucretius, his contemporary, he
wrote in the style of his own day ; and, by
the excellence, no less than the diversity
of his compositions, may claim honourable
competition with most subsequent poets.
In management of the hexameter, and in
force of description, his Peleus and Thetis
may be compared with the happiest efforts
of Virgil ; he bewails his brother with the
elegance of Ovid and the tenderness of
Tibullus ; and he has touched the lyre of
Sappho with a hand only inferior to that Catullus,
of the great Venusian. In every branch
[of poetical literature in which the Augustan age stood conspicuous
Catullus excelled ; and, had he been assumed as a model by all the
poets of that brilliant period, a greater resemblance to his excellences
could scarcely have been expected than that which is actually found
in the Augustan writers.
The poems of Catullus have been divided into lyric, elegiac, and
epigrammatic ; an arrangement convenient from its generality, but to
which all his poems cannot be with strictness reduced. He appears
to have been the earliest lyric poet of Latium, although Horace
claims that honour for himself. Horace certainly was not ignorant
of the writings of Catullus, as he has mentioned, and, perhaps, has
imitated him ;2 and he must therefore have known that the lyric
1 Carm. 52.
2 It is scarcely possible that all the following resemblances can be referable to
chance : —
Dianam pneri integri
Pueliaeque canamus. — Catull. x. 22.
Dianam tenerae dicite virgines ;
^ Intonsum, pueri, dicite Cynthium. — Hot. lib. i. Od. 21.
Quo tunc et tellus, atque horrida contremuerunt
iEquora, concussitque micantia sidera mundus.
Catull. Pel. et Thet.
6.1
Quo bruta tellus, «f»o vaga flumina,
Quo Styx, et invisi horrida Taenari
Sedes, Atlanteusque finis
Concutitur. — Hot. lib. i. Od. 34.
Soles occide're et redire possunt ;
56 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
measures of Greece had been previously introduced. The meaning
of Horace, probably, is that he himself introduced some new measures
from the Greeks. The Sapphic measure of Catullus is, in one instance,
less strict than that of Horace ; beginning, as sometimes in the
Greek, with a ditrochee instead of a second epitrite : if the verse,
Otium Catulle, tibi molestum est,
be his, which most probably it is not. Certain it is that it
has no natural connexion with the poem of which it is usually
considered part. The ode is a most spirited and beautiful
translation of part of an exquisite poem of Sappho, preserved
to us by Longinus. In all probability, the remainder of the
poem, either not being translated, or the translation having been
lost, has been thus awkwardly supplied by another hand ; or perhaps
it is only a monkish gloss, which has, in frequent transcription,
crept into the text. The Glycpuian verse was used, probably for
the first time in Latin, by Catullus, in his Carmen Steculare, and in
his Ejrithalamium of Manlius and Julia.
In his Elegiac Poems, Catullus is very different from Tibullus and
Propertius, and is still more removed from Ovid. The niceties of
the Latin pentameter, particularly its termination with a dissyllable,
had been observed by previous writers. Catullus has disregarded
their example, and has copied strictly from the Greeks. Of this
species of composition Horace observes,
Versibus impariter junctis querimonia primum,
Post, etiam inclusa est voti sententia compos : l
and the Elegies of Catullus are of both descriptions. The most
considerable part, however, of his writings is the Epigrammatic
division ; not in talent, but in number. There is one, and it is the
highest, beauty of the Greek Epigram, which the Latin writers have
never completely attained, and which is best described by a word
taken from the language in which alone this species of poetry has
been successfully cultivated, — afyfkeia, a word which our simplicity
but inadequately renders. The distinction which has been lumi-
nously drawn between Catullus and Martial by Yavasour is applicable
Nobis, quum semel occidit brevis lux,
Nox est perpetua una dormienda. — Catull. v.
Damna tamen celeres reparant coelestia Lunae;
Nos, ubi decidimus
Quo pius TEneas, quo Tullus dives, et Ancus,
Pulvis et umbra sumus. — Hor. lib. iv. Od. $£
Compare also Catull. xi. with Hor. lib. ii. Od. 6. l De Art. Poet. 75.
CATULLUS. — THE EPIGRAM. 57
to the Greek and Roman Epigrammatists severally.1 " Catullum Comparison
quidem, puro ac simplici candor e, et nativd quddam minimeque adscitd with Martial.
excellere venustate forma, quae accedat quam proxime ad Gracos :
Martialem acumine, qnod proprium Latinorum, et peculiar e tunc fieri
ccepit, valere ; adeoque Catullum toto corpore Epigrammatis esse
conspicuuniy Martialem clausula prcecipue atque ultimo fine, in quo
relinquat cum delectatione aculeum spectari." We cannot agree, how-
ever, with this author's " quam proxime" It is true that Catullus
is much less pointed in his epigrams than Martial ; yet their style is
very different from that of the best Greek epigrams. The address
to_the Peninsula of Sirmio is extremely beautiful and simple ; yet
its beauty and simplicity are not those of the Greek Epigram.
A few Greek Epigrams attempt point ; and to these the lighter
poetry of Catullus has some resemblance.
The Epigram was cultivated at an early period of the poetical Epigram.
history of Latium : Ennius, Plautus, Nsevius, Pacuvius, all com-
posed epigrams on themselves, which approximate much nearer to
the Greek than any by Catullus. Those of Ennius and Plautus,
which we have cited above, are formed, in metre as well as style,
on the legitimate Greek model; but even in these there is an
antithesis between icfunera " and " vivus" " numeri " and " in-
numeri" not strictly in the spirit of the epigrammatic dfeXeia.
The Epitaph of Pacuvius has more of this latter quality, although
his iambics are not conformed to the strict canons of the Greeks : —
Adolescens, si properas, hoc te saxum rogat
Uti se adspicias : deinde, quod scriptum est legas.
Hie sunt Poetae Pacuviei Mareei sita
Ossa. Hoc volebam nescius ne esses. Vale.
Young man, although thou be in haste, this stone
Invites thy gaze to what is writ thereon.
Beneath, the bard Pacuvius' relics dwell.
This I would have thee know. Enough. Farewell.
/ ^ The nearest approaches to the Greek were probably made by Varro,
jin the epigrams which he placed under the representations of his
seven hundred worthies in the Hebdomades ; 2 and by Pomponius
1 Vav. de Lud. Diet.
2 It is impossible to notice this extraordinary work of an extraordinary man,
without adverting to the words of Pliny. *. . . . M. Varro, benignissimo invento,
insertis voluminum suorum fcecunditati non nominibus tantum dcc illustrium,
sed et aliquo modo imaginibus, non passxts intercidere figuras, aut vetustatem
cevi contra homines valere, inventor muneris etiam diis invidiosi, quando
immortalitatem non solum dedit, verum etiam in omnes terras misit, ut pro3-
sentes esse ubique et claudi possent." What was the nature of this invention has
been much disputed ; but the passage is one of the most singular testimonies of
antiquity to one of its most remarkable ornaments.
58 ANTE- AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
Catullus. Atticus, in a similar work, intituled Imagines, containing the
portraits of eminent Romans.
When the number of Latin epigrammatists is considered whose
names have been preserved to us, it is astonishing that more
abundant materials for a Latin Anthology should not exist.1 The
names of epigrammatists whose extant works have been collected
may be found in Fabricius, (Biblioth. Lat. lib. iv. c. 1. 6.) The
list embraces many of the most illustrious characters of their
respective ages. The following are the most celebrated, as epi-
grammatists chiefly : Q. Catulus, Porcius Licinius, Yal. iEdituus,
Q, Cornificius, C. Helvius Cinna, M. Furius Bibaculus, C. Ticida,
Laurea Tullius, and C. Licinius Calvus. The last poet and
Catullus were decidedly the favourites of Rome, as sufficiently
appears through Horace's contemptuous sneer —
Siraius iste,
Nil prseter Calvum et doctus cantare Catullum : i
and from a variety of passages in which their names are associated.3
Calvus wrote elegiac amatory verses ; 4 and his epigrams, which did
not spare the heads of either faction of his day, were of the most
animated and caustic character, in both which respects he resembled
Catullus, who was indeed his friend and admirer, if the 48th
poem was, as is commonly supposed, addressed to him. A curious
passage of Aulus Gellius affords some explanation of the paucity of
early epigrams now extant. In the ninth chapter of the 19th
book of his Nodes Atticce, he introduces some Greeks speaking on
1 That of Burmann (Amst. 1759 and 1773) contains 1346 poems; but of these
some are not properly epigrams ; some are fragments of longer poems ; some are
not genuine ; some not classical. The arrangement is that of the subjects.
Meyer's Anthology (Leipz. 1835) contains 1704 poems; but of these 535 only
are of unquestionable antiquity, and of this number are 31 not in Burmann's
collection. The arrangement is chronological.
2 I. Sat. x. 18,
3 Ista meis fiet notissima forma libellis ;
Calve, tua venia ; pace, Catulle, tua. — Propert. ii. 25, 3.
Obvius huic venias, hedera juvenilia cinctus
Tempora, cum Calvo, docte Catulle, tuo. — Ovid, Amor. iii. 9, 61.
Facit versus, quales Catullus ineus, aut Calvus. — Plin. i. Epist. 16.
The same author (iv. Epist. 27) quotes the following passage from Sentius
Augurinus :
Canto carmina versibus minutis,
His, olim quibus et ineus Catullus
Et Calvus.
Lastly, Ovid, having just mentioned Catullus (ii. Trist. 431), adds,
Par fiiit exigui similisque licentia Calvi.
4 Io and Epithalamium were titles of two of his poems.
THE EPIGRAM. 59
the subject of Greek and Latin epigrams, and inquiring, " ecquis Catullus.
nostrorum [Latinoruni] Poetaruui tarn jlueutes carminum deliclas
fecisset ? " to which question they make their own reply : " nisi
Catullus, forte, pauca, et Calvus itidem, pauca. Nam Nceviu*
implicata, et Ilortensius invenusta, et China illepida, et Memmius
dura, ac deineeps omues rudia fecerunt atque absona." This is,
doubtless, meant to be spoken in the spirit of Greek criticism ;
probably, howrever, it affords the most satisfactory explanation of
the disappearance of these numerous authors. Antonius Julianus,
to whom these insulting observations were addressed, was not so
easily to be put down, and begged permission to sing to them some
epigrams of iEdituus, Porcius Licinius, and Quintus Catulus. The
character which Gellius gives of these poems will not be readily
confirmed by scholars : " mundius, venustius, limatius, pressius,
Grcecum Latinumve nihil quicquam reperiri puto" We shall subjoin
the epigrams, in order that our readers may have an opportunity
of estimating what were, confessedly, the best efforts of the most
celebrated Eoman epigrammatists. The first is from ibMituus : —
Dicere quuui conor curam tibi, Pamphila, cordis,
Quid mi abs te quaeram ? verba labris abeunt.
Per pectus miserum manat subito mibi sudor :
Si taeitus, subidus, duplo ideo pereo.
The following verses of the same author are called by Gellius
" non Aercle minus dulces quam prior es : " —
Quid faculam praefers, Pbileros, qu«l nil opu' nobis ?
Ibimus. Hie lucet pectore flamma satis.
Istam non potis est vis saeva exstinguere venti,
Aut iinber ccelo candidu* praecipitans.
At, contra, bunc ignem Veneris, si non Venus ipsa.
Nulla est quae possit vis alia opprimere.
LICINIUS.
Custodes ovium teneraeque propagini& agnum,
Quaeritis ignem? ite hue ; quaeritis? ignis homo est.
Si digito attigero, incendam sylvam simul omnem.
Omne pecus flamma est ; omnia quae video.
Aufugit mi animus, credo, ut solet ; ad Theotimum
Devenit. Sic est, perfugium illud habet.
Quid si non interdixem, ne illuc fugitivum
Mitteret ad se intro, sed magis ejiceret ?
Ibimu' quaesitum. Verum ne ipsi teneamur,
Formido. Quid agam ? da, Venu', consilium.
Between such productions as these and the poems of Catullus, it is
unnecessary to indicate the difference. They do not merit trans-
lation; and the last epigram was unfortunately alleged in the
controversy, as it is Greek in its origin and matter, and Roman
60
ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
only in its clumsiness. A better and more Eoman epigram of the
same author is preserved by Cicero : l —
Constiteram exorientem Auroram forte salutans,
Quum subito a laevii Roscius exoritur.
Pace mihi liceat, ccelestes, dicere vestr&,
Mortalis visus pulcrior esse deo.
It chaneed I stood to greet the uprising Morn,
When on my left I saw bright Roscius shine.
Deem not, celestials, that I speak in scorn,
But mortal charms show fairer than divine.
Those works of Catullus not strictly reducible to the heads under
which the grammarians have classed his productions, are the
Epithalamium of Pelens and Thetis, another epithalamium, composed
on an uncertain occasion, and the poem of Atys. The two former
are lyrical in spirit, though written in hexameters ; but the latter
not only differs from every other poem of Catullus, but has no
. extant parallel in Latin poetry. It is written in the Galliambic
measure, and is the only entire Latin poem extant in that metre.
It is highly animated and impassioned ; and though it bears every
external evidence of translation from the Greek, it is yet sufficiently
removed from resemblance to anything extant in that language to
convey, perhaps, more ideas of originality to a modern reader, than
any other single piece of Latin poetry, if we except particular
productions of Horace.
The Pervigilium Veneris has been ascribed to Catullus, while
some critics assign to it so late a date as the time of Hadrian, and
even later.2 It has been greatly corrupted, but is still a very
beautiful poem, and is well worthy the pen of Catullus. The Ciris,
attributed by some to the same author, is also much corrupted ;
but it combines, with much poetical merit, a considerable resem-
blance to the style of the Peleus and Thetis. The poem is usually
referred to Virgil ; but there are some circumstances which make
it probable that Catullus was its author. The most substantial
difficulty is the dedication to Messala, who was not born until
some years after the epoch usually assigned to the death of
Catullus. But it is not certain that the patron of Tibullus was
meant; neither is it certain that Catullus did not live during
the time of this same Messala. Bayle, who, in his Dictionary,
(art. Catulle) contends against the late epoch assigned by
Scaliger to the death of Catullus, admits that the words of
Martial imply a positive assertion that he was the contemporary
of Virgil,3 and argues only on the supposition that Martial was
1 De Nat. Deor. i. 28.
2 For the conflicting opinions on the authorship of this poem, see Baehr, Gesch.
d. R. L. § 149, and his notes and references.
3 Sic forsan tener ausus est Catullus
Magno mittere " Passerem " Maroni. — Mart. lib. iv. Ep. 14.
Veneris.
Ciris.
CATULLUS, J. CiESAR, CINNA, VARRO, ETC. 61
mistaken. This difficulty, therefore, is not insuperable. Many Catullus.
verses in the Girls are found in Virgil's acknowledged works ; but
we know that Virgil was by no means scrupulous in his use of the
productions of his predecessors. But the principal argument in
favour of Catullus is that Pliny expressly mentions an imitation of
the &cipfiaK€VTpLa of Theocritus by this poet, which is no where to
be found in any of his acknowledged w-orks.1 The poem has been
also ascribed to Gallus and to Valerius Cato.
Although Catullus is the greatest name of what we may call the
transition period, he is by no means solitary. Julius Caesar wrote
a poem called Iter, on his Spanish expedition against the sons of
Pompey, and another " Be Siderum Motu ; " a tragedy, intituled
(Edijjus, and a panegyric on Hercules. C. Helvius Cinna was the
author of Smyrna, a poem much admired by Quinctilian and
Catullus ; a valediction to Asinius Pollio, on his departure for the
Parthian war, called Frotrepticon2 Pollionis ; and some minor
poems. To him Virgil is supposed to allude in the lines —
Nam neque adhuc Varo videor, neque dicere Cinn&
Digna, sed argutos inter strepere anser olores.3
Varro of Atax, whom we have already mentioned as an unsuccessful
satirist, appears to have been more fortunate as a free translator of
the Aryonautics of Apollonius, and the Aratea and Chorographia of
Eratosthenes. He also wrote a poem, Be Bello Sequanico, and some
elegies. Of Hostius, whom we have mentioned as a follower of Ennius,
we only possess a few fragments ; but his name is of interest, as he
is one of the writers from whom Virgil did not disdain to borrow.
" The most elegant poet since the deaths of Lucretius and Catullus,,,
is pronounced by Nepos4 to have been L. Julius Calidus. But,
except from occasional testimonies, wre have no means of forming
any opinion of the merits of these and contemporary poets. These
luminaries wTere extinguished in the absorbing blaze of the Augustan
day. So far, however, as we may probably conjecture, the event
has not left much to regret. The Alexandrine writers appear to
have been the predominant models of the time. A cold correctness,
not further removed from the rough vigour of Ennius, than from
the animated adaptations of Virgil, would therefore be the prevalent
characteristic of the Julian poets. Of the state of the drama at
this period, we shall speak more conveniently when treating the
Augustan.
Such was the state of poetry at Eome when Horace appeared on
its poetical horizon.
1 Nat. Hist, xxviii. 2. 2 Or, Propempticon.
3 Eel. ix . 45. 4 yit. Att. 12.
62
MSS, EDITIONS, &c, OF THE ANTE-AUGUSTAN POETS.
LIVIUS ANDRONICUS.
Livii Audronici Fragmenta, collecta et illustrata ab H. Diintzer. Berlin,
1835.
Sagittarius de Vita et Scriptt. Livii Audronici et aliorum. Altenb., 1672.
N.EVIUS.
Stephanus. Paris, 1564. Almeloveen. Amstel. 1686.
Belli Punici Fraginenta. Hermann (Elem. Doctr. Metr.)
Bothe. Poetaruui Latii Scenicorum Fragmenta.
Klussmann. The entire remains, with life and essay. Jena, 1843.
ENNIUS.
Q. Ennii Poetae vetustissimi. quae supersunt, Fragmenta. Collegit, dispo-
suit, illustravit Hieronymus Columna. Hesselius' improved edition.
Amstel. 1707.
Annalium Fragmenta collata, comparata, illustrata, a P. Merula. Lugd.
Bat. 1595.
PLAUTUS.
MS. Milan palimpsest, 5th cent.
Editio Princeps. Merula. Venetiis, 1472.
Bothe. Lipsiae. 1834.
Weise, Quedlinburg. 1837-8.
Subsidia. — Lessing, von dem Leben und der Werken des Plautus. Berlin,
1838. Geppert, ueber den Codex Ambrosianus, und seinen Einfluss
auf die Plautinische Kritik. Leipzig. 1847.
Ritschl. Parergon Plautinorum Terentianorumque. Lips. 1845.
Bekker. De Comicis Romanorum Fabulis. Lips. 1837.
Translations. Thornton and Warner, 1767 — 1774.
CLECILIUS.
C. Cnecilii Statii deperditarum Fabularum Fragrnenta, edidit L. Spengel.
Monachii, 1S29.
TERENCE.
MSS. Vatican, Bembinus, 5th century. Cambridge.
Vatican, 9th century.
Edit. Princeps. Mediol. 1470.
Bentleii. Cantab. 1726. Edidit Vollbehr. Kiliaj. 1846.
Stallbaum. Lips. 1830.
Zeune. 1774.
Subsidia. Dryden's Essay on Dramatic Poesy. Hurd's Dialogues on
Poetical Imitation, &c. Diderot, Essai sur le Poesie Dramatique,
Spectator, 502.
Translation. Colman.
MSS., EDITIONS, ETC., OF THE ANTE-AUGUSTAN POETS.
63
LUCILIUS.
Corpet. Paris. 1845.
Gerlach. Zurich. 1846.
These are subsidia, as well as editions.
LUCRETIUS.
Edit. Princ. Ferandus. Brixise. 1473.
Gifanius. Antverp. 1566.
Lambinus. 1570.
Pareus. Francof. 1631.
Havercamp. Lugd. Bat. 1725.
Wakefield. Glasg. 1813.
Creech. Oxon. 1818.
Forbiger. Lips. 1828.
Translations. Creech, Oxon. 1682.
Goodm., Lond. 1805.
Busby, Lond. 1813.
Three copies only existing.
CATULLUS.
Ed. Princ. 1472. No mention of place, printer, or editor.
Volpi. Patav. 1710.
Doring. Alton®. 1834.
Lachmann. Berol. 1829.
Subsidia. Mureti. Achillis Statii, Passeratii, Vossii, Commentarii.
Translations. Nott, Lond. 1795.
Lamb, Lond. 1821.
From a painting at Herculaneum.
THE AUGUSTAN AGE.
U. C. 710— U. C. 767. (a.d. 14.)
POETS.
POLLIO.
Valgius.
Virgil.
Propertius.
Horace.
Albinovanus.
Gallus.
PONTICUS.
TlBULLUS.
Ovid.
Varius.
Gratius.
PART II.
THE AUGUSTAN AGE OF LATIN POETRY.
The most brilliant epoch of Eoman poetry coincided, to a great
extent, with the life of Quintus Horatius Flaccus, whose biography,
in a great measure, records its history, and will afford the most
convenient way of treating it.
This great and various genius ^-=r ^-^ Horace's
was born at Yenusia or Yenu- s^^L — ^S^n birth,
sium,1 a town on the frontiers
of Lucania and Apulia, in
the Consulship of L. Aurelius
Cotta and L. Manlius Tor-
quatus;2 consequently in the
689th year of Eome, and sixty-
five years before the vulgar
sera. 3 His father was a freed-
man and a tax-gatherer,4 who
invested his gains in a small
farm,5 where the poet passed
his earliest years, and imbibed
that keen relish for rural plea-
sures, that ardent love of nature,
and that warm admiration of
the simple and hardy rustic
life, which everywhere animate
I his writings. Of his early childhood at this place he gives us and
an anecdote which is partly, no doubt, a poetical fiction, but childhood
possibly may have had some sort of foundation. He had
1 2 Sat. i. 35. 2 3 0d# xxi L Cf Epod> xiii> 8 et j Ep xx> 2J.
3 See Clinton, Fasti Hellenici, a. c. 65.
4 1. Sat. vi. 86. Suet, in Vita. Or, a collector of payments at auctions, if the
reading in Suetonius be exauctionum, not exactionum. This writer also mentions
a prevalent opinion that Horace's father was a drysalter. But the testimony of
Horace himself is quite express for his having been a collector in some way ; and
the passage itself appears interpolated.
5 Some contend that he became " coactor" after his removal to Rome. See
Obbarius, Einleit. zu Horaz. Anm. 6.
[R. L.] F
Horace.
66
AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
Horace.
His
education.
Battle of
Pkilippi.
Virgil.
strayed, lie tells us, in a playful ramble to Mount Yultur, where,
overpowered with fatigue, he fell asleep. Here the wood-
pigeons protected him from the gaze of wild beasts under a heap
of laurel and myrtle, which they accumulated over him.1 When he
was, probably, about twelve years of age, his father removed him to
Eome, and there gave him a liberal education under Orbilius Pupillus
of Beneventum. 2 By him he was instructed in Greek literature,
and had perused the Iliad, as he himself informs us, 3 before he
went to Athens, which had long been a place of fashionable
literary resort for the Eoman youth, to complete his education.
During his abode there the assassination of Caesar, and the
consequent troubles, took place ; and Brutus, on his march to
Macedonia, took with him, among many other young Eomans of
similar pursuits, Horace, who was then in his twenty-third year,
and gave him the rank of Military Tribune : 4 in this office he
sustained some hard service,5 and possibly crossed into Asia. He
freely confesses his cowardice at the battle of Philippi, where he
left his shield, 6 a circumstance which the ancients considered
particularly ignominious. It is possible, however, that Horace
has himself overcharged the picture, wishing, by this stroke
of apparent candour and simplicity, to persuade Augustus that
his connexion with the adverse party was less the result of
political conviction than of the natural activity and restlessness of
a youthful mind, ardent for adventure, and only brave while
thoughtless of danger. That Augustus could totally forget the
circumstances in which Horace had placed himself was not to be
expected ; it might, therefore, have been politic in the poet to set
them in a less unpleasant light ; and with the mention of the event
he has not forgotten to notice the scattering of the brave, and the
prostration of the threatening, before the irresistible arm of Caesar.
About this time, a youth of like age and similar pursuits with
Horace was about to be united with him in the bonds of a life-
long friendship, through the sympathies of a common fate, and
common tastes and studies. Publius Yirgilius 7 Maro was born
at Andes, near Mantua, on the 15th October, u. c. 684. His
father, Yirgilius Maro, was an opulent farmer : who, being, like
the father of Horace, an intelligent person, gave his son a
liberal Greek and Latin education at Cremona and Milan, which
was completed under the poet Parthenius, and the Epicurean
Syron. Prom his father, Virgil inherited the family estate at
Mantua. But before the Triumvirate undertook their expedition
against Brutus and Cassius, they had agreed at Mutina, in order
1 3 Od. iv. 9. 2 Ep. ad Aug. 69. 3 2 Ep. ii. 41.
4 1 Sat. vi. 48. 5 2 Od. vii. 1. 6 o od. vii. 3.
7 Vi.yiliud in the oldest Medicean MSS., and in. the Vatican MS.
HORACE. THE CONFISCATION. G7
to retain their soldiers in allegiance, to give them, in the event of Hcracc.
success, eighteen principal towns of Italy, which had adhered to
the opposite faction ; and among these were Yenusium and
Cremona. Thus, in the distribution which followed the consum- Confiscation
ination of the war, the paternal estate of Horace at the former jJJJjmony of
place was confiscated, ' and the neighbourhood of Mantua to the Horace,
devoted Cremona ensured it a fate scarcely less deplorable from the p^opertius,
lawless soldiery. Virgil was consequently placed in the same andTibuiius.
circumstances with Horace. Tibullus and Propertius shared a
similar fortune ; at least, Propertius certainly bore part in this
extensive calamity. Tibullus deplores a sudden deprivation of his
property,2 which is supposed to refer to this circumstance. That
he had competent resources after this loss, appears from Horace's
address to him, " Dl tibl divitias dederunt ;" although some read
" dederant /"3 but it is not to be supposed that Horace would
have taunted his friend with the possession of riches which he had
lost. It was this competency which enabled Tibullus to live
without dependence on court patronage ; for in no part of his works
has he celebrated Augustus or Maecenas, while he is profuse in his
commendations of his .patron Messala, who had served in the
army of Cassius. By whose intercession Virgil regained his patri-
mony, authors are not agreed. Asinius Pollio, and Maecenas, the
celebrated patron of literature, have the best authorities in their
favour. Pollio, having charge of that district, probably recom-
mended his case to Maecenas ; who was little likely to have been
otherwise acquainted with the son of obscure rustics, as all
Virgil's biographers represent his parents to have been. On this
event his 1st Eclogue was, most certainly, composed. The character
of Tityrus in this poem may not have been intended for Virgil
himself, although some of the ancients so understood it, and
the poet elsewhere appropriates the name :4 it is? however, a
lively picture of the surprise and gratitude of an outcast, who
finds himself suddenly restored to his domestic comforts, and
contrasts strikingly with the desperate melancholy of the house-
less wanderer Melibceus, taking his last survey of the desolated
hearth, with which all his dearest affections were associated.
The removal of Pollio was attended with disastrous conse-
quences to Yirgil. His estate was again seized by the rapa-
cious military, and himself compelled to seek his safety by flight
to Home. The story of his second expulsion is treated in the
IXth Eclogue. He succeeded in again recovering his patrimony,
apparently through the interest of one Varus, of whom he speaks in
1 2 Ep. ii. 51. * 1 Ele£. 1. 19—23. Cf. iv. 1. 183—190.
3 1 Ep. iv. 7. The short penultima of the 3rd pi. perf. ind. act., though rare, is
not unexampled. See Virg. Eel. iv. 60. ^En. iii. 681. Prop. 3 Eleg. xxiv. ult.
4 Eel. vi. 4.
68
AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
Horace
introduced ■
to Maecenas.
the highest strain of commendation in the YIth and IXth Eclogues ;
who this Yarus was, cannot now be determined.1 Perhaps he was
Quinctilius Yarus, whose death Horace deplores in the XXIYth
Ode of the 1st Book, and of whom he there speaks as the especial
friend of Virgil.
Horace made no solicitations to Augustus. Thrown on his
own resources, his habits and pursuits allowed him no other
subsistence than literature. Poverty, whose chilling influence on
the fire of Poetry the great Satirist has so pathetically lamented,2
was his bold and stimulating Muse.3 What were the productions
of her inspiration, or whether any are now extant, is not known ;
the situation of public affairs, however, renders it possible that
the XIYth Ode of the 1st Book, in which he addresses the
Koman State under the allegory of a weather-beaten vessel, was
written under these circumstances. This Ode, however, is by
Canon Tate referred to Horace's 39th year, when the project of
restoring the republic followed the triumph of Augustus over
Antony. Whatever were the merits of his early compositions,
Horace was soon known to Virgil, the similarity of whose situation
almost necessarily interested him in the fate of his brother bard ;
and by him was recommended to Maecenas. He had, however,
the advantage of a still more powerful friend : Varius, " the lofty
bird of Homeric song," as he termed him in his poetical raptures,4
and, in his prosaic moments, "the unrivalled Epic,"5 and whose
tragic excellence has been already noticed, became interested in
his favour, and also mentioned him to Maecenas. Horace has
left us a pleasing and natural account of
his introduction to the literary courtier. 6
In few and broken words he candidly ex-
plained his simple history ; he received a
brief answer, and, in nine months after
his introduction, that lordly monarch of
wits called him to the number of his
subjects. His earliest composition after
this event is, probably, that which stands
first in his works ; at least, he informs
us that his first poem was composed in
honour of Maecenas;7 and this Ode has
the appearance of being written under
such circumstances. It describes the
various pursuits of mankind briefly, but
comprehensively ; it touches on the addic-
tion of each individual to his own ; and it concludes with an
Maecenas.
1 Conf. Ilcvnc. Excurs. ii. ad Bucolica.
2 Juv. Sat. vii. '3 2 Ep. ii. 51. 4 1 Od. vi. 2.
5 1 Sat. x. 44. 6 1 Sat. vi. 54. seqq. ' 1 Ep. i. 1.
HORACE. JOURNEY TO BRUNDUSHM.
G9
animated eulogy on Poetry, describing the author's exclusive Horace.
devotion to its cultivation, and expressing a hope that Maecenas
would class him among the lyric bards. His patron assented; and
the consequent cessation of jealous malevolence is gratefully and
exultiugly celebrated by Horace, in the Illrd Ode of his IVthBook.
Though Maecenas was slow in the formation of our poet's Journey to
acquaintance, he showed himself forward in its cultivation after- Lrumlu>lum
wards ; and very shortly after Horace had been thus noticed, he
accompanied the Minister on his journey to Brundusium, whither
he was sent by Augustus to treat with Antony, who was then
menacing Italy with a renewal of the civil wars. This event must
have taken place at so early a period of Horace's acquaintance
with Maecenas, that some writers have supposed that the poet
celebrated in his Journey to Brundusium a subsequent expedition
Brandusinm.
of a similar nature, which Maecenas undertook two years after,
when Antony landed at Tarentum ; but the name of Coccejus Nerva,
which occurs in the Satire, restricts the subject to the earlier event,
as that person attended only on the former expedition. On this
occasion Horace had an opportunity of enjoying the society of
his friends Virgil, Yarius, and Plotius. The enthusiasm of his
admiration for these illustrious men, and the warmth of his
attachment, so exquisitely expressed in his Satire on the occasion,
are among the many proofs that rivalry in ingenuous studies is
far from being necessarily connected with disingenuous passions ;
70
AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
and that the friendships which result from literary, and especially
poetical, sympathy, are ordinarily the most exalted and permanent
of any. But although Maecenas took every opportunity of
conversing; with Horace, his caution and reserve were still main-
tained : for that at the end of seven years they had not attained
a strictly confidential familiarity, is the least that can be inferred
from what Horace himself then says of the state of their acquaint-
ance ; ! although it must be admitted that the description is
designedly exaggerated. He appears at this time to have been,
what Suetonius tells us he was, a Quaestor's secretary : since he
mentions the desire of the secretaries to see him on a matter
affecting their common interest : —
De re communi scribae magna atque nova, te
Orabant hodie meminisses, Quinte, reverti. 2
The frankness and warmth of the poet, however, at length
prevailed over the caution and formality of the courtier, who
afterwards returned the fidelity of Horace with conduct less
resembling the patron than the friend. He presented him with
an estate in the Sabine territory, which has been commonly thought
to be the same with the Tiburtian villa,3 to which the poet
frequently alludes. The whole history of Maecenas indeed exhibits
aversion to hasty decision, and steadiness of action where he had
once decided.
By Maecenas Horace was recommended to Augustus, with whom,
1 2 Sat. vi. 40. 2 2 Sat. vi. 37.
3 The reasons for distinguishing these places will be found at length in Tate's
Horatius Restitutus, Prel. Diss. Part II. They are plausible, but scarcely
demonstrative. See on Horace's Villa a list of authorities in Obbarius (Einleitung
zu Horaz, Anm. 27), who inclines to think the Tiburtian villa a residence of
Maecenas (Anm. 28).
HORACE. — HIS CHARACTER. 71
according to Suetonius, or the writer of the life ascribed to that Horace,
historian, he lived on terms of the closest familiarity. How far His
he was qualified for the intimacy of princes, he has not left us character.
in doubt. That wonderful versatility, which, in the genius of
Horace, produced such diversified poetical excellence, seems to have
extended to his inclinations. He appears to have enjoyed, with
equal intensity, the tranquillity of literary rural seclusion, and the
social refinements of the court and city. He could pass, even with
delight, from the luxurious table of Maecenas, and the intellectual
conversation of Pollio, Yarius, and Virgil, to his rustic beans and
bacon, and the old wives' tales of his country neighbour Cervius. l
So sensible indeed was he of inconsistency in this respect, that he
has put a severe censure of himself, on this very account, into the
mouth of one of his own slaves.2 And yet he has, perhaps, accused
himself rashly. There is no inconsistency in admiring Eaphael and
Teniers ; and the true poetic mind finds elements of beauty, and
matter of pleasing contemplation, in every phase of human and
inanimate nature. The country, in truth, was the home of Horace's
heart : the city having no further attractions for him than such as
friendship and literature presented ; and when he could enjoy these
by his rural hearth, the proud mistress of the world had parted
with all her charms. On his conduct at the court of Augustus,
his epistles to Sceeva and Lollius form an admirable commentary.
Even in the former of these he admits that a life of obscurity is no
misfortune, although he prefers an honourable intercourse with
the great. Prom the precepts which he affords for the conduct
of every part of life, and from his known familiarity with Augustus,
we may conclude, that, in all his transactions with that prince, he
was neither importunate nor servile ; that, while loaded with
honours, he made no degrading compromise — no unseasonable
solicitation : but either complied with freedom, or dissented with
modesty and respect.
An analysis of the several productions of Horace is foreign to His rvritings.
the nature of this work ; we shall notice therefore such only as
bear on his biography and the literary history of the time. But,
before this is done, it will be convenient to premise a few words
on the departments of poetry which he especially cultivated. We
have already offered a conjecture in explanation of his repeated
claim to the importation of lyric poetry from Greece. To this we
may add the undisguised contempt which he entertained for
Catullus, and the consciousness of his own great superiority.
Indeed, Quinctilian, with an enthusiasm which his subject amply odes.
justifies, designates him "lyricorum fere solus legi digitus" But
Horace, as we observed in the first part of this memoir, had much
1 1 Sat. vii 89} ecqq. - Ibid. ii. 7.
72
AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
more substantial claims to originality than those which he so osten-
tatiously put forth; his metres, the introduction of which he so
proudly vaunts, are Greek, and, as far as may be conjectured from
extant Greek fragments, considerably restricted; but his subjects
breathe all the freshness of original conception. Nor can it be
objected that the loss of their models allows us no criterion of their
excellence ; since many are purely Eoman in sentiment and allusion,
while others are totally unlike what ancient authors lead us to
conclude respecting the strains of the Lesbian lyre. The elegant
negligence of Anacreon, the daring and magnificent sublimity of
Pindar, and the plaintive melancholy of Simonides, alternate in the
odes of Horace ; but it is the spirit alone of these writers that we
recognise ; and it is probable that his imitations of Alcseus and
Sappho were of the same nature. At most, they seem to have
been that kind of happy adaptation, which is not to be found in the
Eclogues of Virgil, and which gives the beauties of an original to an
acknowledged imitation. As an illustration of what we mean, we
will here adduce a fragment of Alcseus, manifestly corrupt, but
which Horace certainly had before his mind when he wrote the
IXth Ode of his 1st Book :
Tet fihis 6 2Seus, e/c 5' bpavoo tU€yas
Xei/naj/, ireirdyacnv 0' vdarwu poai.
Ka/3/3aAAe rbu ^et^wz/1, inl filv ridels
Uvp, eV Se Kipvais olvov acpeiSeoos
Mehixpow avrap ajxcpl tcSpaa
MaXdaKov a/jLiTLTLdei yvacpaWov'
Yet every Eoman must have felt the originality and domestic senti-
ment of Horace's picture, as strongly as we participate in the
social cheerfulness of Cowper's snug and curtained fireside. The
XXXVIIth Ode of the same Book has been partially imitated from
an Ode of Alcseus, beginning :
Nvv XPV fJicdvCKeiv, Kal riua npos (Slav Y
Tllvetv, iireidri K&rBave MvpaiAos'
But the whole spirit of the composition is essentially Eoman, and
the magnificent description of Cleopatra stamps it original. The
XVIIIth Ode of the same 1st Book is, probably, one of the closest
1 If the reading be, as some give it,
X^6va Trpbs @tav
TIaleiv,
the imitation is yet closer. But the term libera marks the occasion, and the
Roman spirit of indignant liberty spurning the riven chain.
HORACE. EPODES. 73
imitations of Alcreus in the whole volume : the first line of it is a Horace.
strict translation from a passage of Alcseus preserved in Athenseus :
MTjSei/ aWo (pvrevcrys irpSr^puu dzi/Speov a/j.Tr€\co'
But the u solum Tiburis" and the "mania Catili" domesticate this
poem with peculiar felicity.
There is another species of poetry of which Horace claims the iambics, or
introduction; the Iambic. The word "iambi" separately taken, hpodcs-
conveyed a very different idea to the ancients from that of the mere
iambic measure ; an idea which the Epodes of Horace express more
clearly than any definition. The lambograpliia formed a distinct
department of poetry ; approaching indeed to the lyric, and yet
distinguished from it by Horace himself.1 The object of Horace in
writing his iambics, as declared by himself, was to express the
spirit of Archilochus without his malignity : 2
Parios ego primus Iambos
Ostendi Latio : nurneros animosque sequutus
Archilochi ; non res, et agentia verba Lycamben.
Yet the bitterness of Archilochus, we may observe in passing, does,
; notwithstanding, occasionally prevail; and Lycambes was not,
perhaps, more keenly assailed than Menas, Msevius, and Canidia ;
[to the last of whom, and her daughter, the poet is thought to
apologise in the XVIth Ode of his 1st Book. Cassius Severus is
even warned to beware of the fate of Lycambes :
Cave, cave ! namque in malos asperrimus
Parata tollo cornua,
Qualis Lycambce spretus infido gener. 3
Catullus and Bibaculus wrote iambics ; still, as Quinctilian informs
us,4 they were not professed iambographers, and perhaps Horace
did not consider their works of this nature sufficiently perfect to
entitle them to notice. But the more probable ground of Horace's
assumption is that he first introduced the epode ; for we learn from
Quinctilian that it did not appear in the iambics of Catullus or
Bibaculus.5 It is true that the Epode Hymns of Lucilius are men-
tioned ; but these were, in all probability, compositions widely
removed from the Horatian Epode ; perhaps written in the Pindaric
fineasures.6 The " Parii iambi " are, therefore, those forms of the
1 2 Ep. ii. 59. 2 Art. Poet. 259.
3 Epod. vi. 11. 4 Inst. Oat. x. 1.
' Such appears to be the meaning of the sentence : " Iambus non sane a
Romanis celebratum est ut proprium opus : a quibusdam interpositus : cujus
acerbitas in Catullo, Bibaculo, Horatio ; quanquam illi epodos intervenire
reperiatur." The word illi seems more applicable to " Horatio n than to " iambo."
There is no epode poem in the works of Catullus, as now extant.
3 'E/T^oai and 5E7r^5ol are very different. The former are stanzas added to
74
AUGUSTAS LATIN POETRY.
Horace. iambic measure which the book of Epodes exhibits. Gesner quotes
a passage from the Enchiridion of Hephaestion which places this
matter beyond a doubt.1 Ela-l de kv rot? TToir^xadi ku\ ol dpprjvUcos
ovtcd KoXovfievot, €7ro)5oi, orav pcyaXcp oti^o) irtpiTTov tl cnKpepeTai,
Ethics and
Criticism.
Tlarep Au/ca,u/3a, iroiov icppdaco roSe ;
Ti eras Traprjeipe (ppevas ;
The quotation is from Archilochus, and is exactly the same metre
with
Ibis Libumis inter alta navium,
Amice, propugnacula.
The epode is not necessarily iambic, but is a name applied to any
metre consisting of a longer and shorter line alternately. Of this
measure Archilochus is the reputed inventor, as is expressly asserted
by Terentianus Maurus : 2
Hoc [epodon] doctum Archilochum tradunt genuisse magistri ;
Tu mihi, Flacce, sat es :
" Diffugere nives : redeunt jam gramina campis,
Arboribusque comse."
Marius Yictorinus is no less explicit : Archilochus primus Epodos
excitavit, alios breviores, alios longiores, detrahens unum pedem seu
colum metro, tit illi subjiceret id quod ex ipso detractum esse videba-
tur. Horatius ejus exemplum sequutus est in ed Ode :
" Solvitur acris hyems grata, vice Veris et Favoni ;
Trahuntque siccas niaehinse carinas."
From these testimonies it appears that the Parian or Archilochian
iambic was the epode : of which Horace was the earliest Latin
writer. Bassus was afterwards celebrated for his iambics, as we
find from Ovid : 3 " Bassus quoque clarus lambo"
The division of Horace's Poems remaining to be noticed is his
Satires, Epistles, and Art of Poetry, which are all referable to one
head, that of familiar and moral discourses or essays. The original
spirit of these productions has gone far towards supporting the
hypothesis, that the old Saturce and the Ennian Satire were wholly
of Roman origin. Without the slightest appearance of dictation or
assumed authority, they contain more real good sense, sound
morality, and true philosophy, than perhaps any single work of
heathen antiquity : and their frequent perusal has a tendency to
the strophe and antistrophe ; the latter, poems in which a shorter verse is added
to the longer. The derivation of both is from e7ra5«, accino.
1 In lib. Epod. Horatii.
2 Terentianus has been made, absurdly enough, to call Archilochus the inventor
of epic poetry ! See Bayle's Dictionary, Art. Archilochus, note (k).
3 Trist. 10.
HORACE. — ETHICAL AND CRITICAL WRITINGS. 75
make the reader satisfied with himself and others, and to produce Horace.
on his part a conduct at once conciliatory towards the world, and
consistent with his own independence and integrity. They are well
described by Persius : —
Omne vafer vitium ridenti Flaccus amico
Tangit, et admissus circum praecordia ludit,
Callidus excusso populum suspcndere nasoJ
Their character has been exquisitely drawn by one who had imbibed
[ a large portion of their spirit : 2
Horace still charms with graceful negligence,
And without method talks us into sense ;
Will, like a friend, familiarly convey
The truest notions in the easiest way.
He, who supreme in judgment, as in wit,
Might boldly censure, as he boldly writ,
Yet judg'd with coolness, tho' he sang with fire;
His Precepts teach but what his Works inspire.
; Another more diffuse and general character of his writings is con-
tained in the following stanzas of De la Motte : —
Qu'Horace connut bien l'elegance Romaine !
II met le vrai dans tout son jour,
Et l'admiration est toujours incertaine
Kntre la pensee et le tour.
Sublime, familier, solide, enjou£, tendre,
Aise, profond, naif, et fin ;
Digne de l'univers ; Funivers, pour l'entendre,
Aime a redevenir Latin.
There is, however, an observable distinction between the Satires
•and the Epistles. The former, as Bahr3 has remarked, possess
;more of the objective character, the latter are more subjective : in
(the former, the poet takes his cue commonly from objects or events
1 around him ; in the latter, he speaks more from himself. The
Epistles, too, are, for the most part, graver and more regular in
their matter, as well as more ornate in their diction. Their form,
and the period of their composition, concur to produce this dis-
tinction. AVe will not do our readers the injustice to withhold the
elegant and truthful criticism of Dean Milman 4 on this portion of Dean
[the works of Horace : — " Of him it may be said, with regard to the JJjJSJJgJl
'most perfect form of his poetry, the Epistles, that there is a period
in the literary taste of every accomplished individual, as well as of
|every country, not certainly in ardent youth, yet far from the
decrepitude of old age, in which we become sensible of the extra-
1 Sat. i. 118. - Essay on Crit. 653.
3 Geschicht. der R. L. II., § 125, 126.
4 Life of Horace prefixed to his edition.
of his
writing!
70 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
Horace. ordinary and indefinable charm of these wonderful compositions. It
seems to require a certain maturity of mind ; but that maturity by
no means precludes the utmost enjoyment of the more imaginative
poetry."
chronology It would scarcely be possible, even if profitable, in a work like the
present, always to adjust the chronology of even the most celebrated
pieces which Eoman antiquity has left us ; but that of Horace's
writings may seem to demand some more especial notice, inasmuch
as it has not only exercised the industry and research of critics,
but some idea of it is absolutely necessary to the due comprehension
and appreciation of these precious remains.
Bentley asserts that Horace not only published each book
separately ; but even that he was never engaged in lyric and satiric
poetry at the same time ; that he never wrote an ode while he was
employed in completing a book of satires, epistles, or epodes. With
respect to the publication, there is every reason to suppose that it
took place in separate books, and that Bentley's arrangement is
substantially correct. Canon Tate, in his " Horatius Restitutus,"
adopts it implicitly. The high authority of Mr. Fvnes Clinton,
while allowing that " the dates of Bentley (which are given upon
conjecture), are, in some cases, at variance with facts," admits the
general exactness of the great critic. " And it is probable," he
adds, " that although these works were originally published in
books, and in the order assigned by Bentley ', yet, in the present
copies, some pieces may have been transposed. 1 But Bentley
entered little into the feelings of a poet, especially a poet of
Horace's cast, in supposing that so various and versatile a genius
could sit down to the composition of a book of odes or satires,
and never deviate from the line which he prescribed. Such an
hypothesis is contradictory to all the history of poetical genius,
and to every external and internal evidence connected with the
writings of Horace. Though Bentley's chronology has been sharply
assailed by continental scholars, the confirmation of the " Fasti
Hellenici " may amply compensate his memory for the severest
attacks. He has, at least, established the order of publication
almost beyond dispute ; and this is not unimportant. His criticisms,
derived from a comparison of external history with the contents of
the Horatian poems, have received confirmation from a quarter which
even his sagacity did not anticipate. Canon Tate has clearly demon-
strated, from a comparison of the first three books of Odes with the
fourth, that the versification is more artificially constructed in the
latter, and that time and practice had produced a more sensitive
ear and a severer taste.
We subjoin a scheme of chronology according to several high
authorities.
1 Fast. Hell a. c. 37.
HORACE. — MODE OF LIFE. 7 7
Bentley. 1 Bi'rnlmnly. Kirchncr. Obbarius. GrototVml. Paaww. Frankc. Mihnan.
lR.it, . . I7.C, 71171.: 718 71!) )..,_ \ 710 715-719 713-714 718-719 719
2 Sat 719-7*21 720-727 s' '~ j 724 7i>:> 724 728-724 719-724 722-724
Epodes .... 722 728 713-724' 718-724: 712-723 715-723 723 713 721 725
1 Od 724 -726 ) f \-v, -oo ")
2 0d 72S 72!) I 734 -^715-736 730-732 724-730 ^tia~ta6 1730-731
3 0d 730-731 J i 786 J
1 Ep 734-735 733 727-739 734-735 733-737 720-734 730-734 735
Carm. Sec, • An* — ai\ * ^^7 737 787 737 737 787 737
4 Od |WM* (aft. 789 730-744 742 738-746 737 737-741 741
2 Ep aft. 740 >_,.-._,„ ( 741-743 ) rt „Ai (733-737 )_.,._., _„0 _._
Ars.Poet. . bef.740 }^3-4b j 744-740 )att '41 j aft. 737 pt-M« - 12 i 16
To return to the subject of our biography. Horace
Seven years had elapsed from his first acquaintance with Maecenas Mode of life.
when Horace composed the YIth satire of his Ilnd book ; he was
then settled in his Tiburtian villa, enjoying poetical and philosophical
leisure, and in possession of more than his wishes. It was in this
dignified retirement that he became " noble in iEolian song," 3 and,
while he was within sight of the waywardness and vanity of man-
Tivoli. — Temples of Vesta and the Sioyl.
kind, was yet too fin above their atmosphere to imbibe its splenetic
contagion, and lose his temper and happiness in the survey ; his
own failings bore their due proportion in the picture ; and, while he
treated them with no more indulgence than those of others, he
1 The dates of Bentley are corrected to what he himself intended, from Clinton,
who shows that he has committed a prochronism of one year. (Fast. Hell.
A. d. 17.) The last year mentioned is that of publication.
- Time of writing. Publication somewhat later. 3 4 Od, iii. 12,
78
AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
Virgil.
Eclogues.
endeavoured, in sowing the fertile soil of his mind, to disencumber
it of whatever weeds might impede its culture. l
While Horace, from circumstances which promised very different
results, was thus enjoying the favour of the
great, and the approbation of the wise, Virgil
was no less studious of the opportunities
which his own good fortune had given him
of enriching his country's literature. His
local situation, added to his mode of living,
had engendered in him a strong perception
of the pleasures of rural life. The beauties
of Theocritus, therefore, were deeply felt by
him, and we have already noticed the 1st
and IXth Eclogues, in which he attempted
to convey their spirit in his native tongue.
Martyn, however, conjectures that the Alexis
and FalcFYiioii were the earliest in point of
Virgil.
composition, from the following passage in the Bajjhds :
Hac nos te fragili donabimus ante cicuta :
Haec nos : " Formosum Condon ardebat Alexin \"
Haec eadem docuit : u Cujuui pecus? an Meliboei?"
He then makes the Dcqj/nils the third in order. His argument is :
"As the poet does not give the least hint here of his having composed
any other, it seems probable that these were the three first Eclogues
which our author composed.5 ' 2 The subject is scarcely of sufficient
importance to demand a formal refutation of Martyn's argument,
which is certainly defective. Suffice it to state that about this
time the Bucolics were completed. We shall prefer taking a
sketch of the Bucolic Muse, as she appeared attired in the Latian
garb by the hand of Virgil.
Xo department of Greek Poetry promised less to the Latin
imitator than the Pastoral. The poems of Theocritus, Bion, and
Moschus, are distinguished by a simplicity equally remote from
epic majesty and sordid rusticity. Every charm of the country
has been rifled to adorn them, and almost every deformity carefully
concealed. If the Eomans were unfortunate in possessing no
Attic dialect for dramatic expression, the want of a Doric was
a still greater obstacle to success in the Pastoral. This dialect at
once removed the reader from the town, while it afforded the
Muse every facility of utterance. The lordly language of Imperial
Borne was ill suited to convey the unpremeditated effusions of
unlettered herdsmen. If Virgil, therefore, has fallen very far short
1 Hor. 1 Ep. xiv. 5.
2 On the order of the Eclogues, see Bahr. Gesch. d. Rom. Lit. §. 187, and
the references.
HORACE. — VIRGIl/s ECLOGUES 79
of his great prototype, the difficulty of his attempt must not be VirgiL
forgotten. Indeed, he appears not insensible of it himself ; and,
by the nature of the language in which he composed, he has been
compelled to abandon his original intention, and to attempt loftier
flights than the nature of Pastoral Poetry strictly justifies.
The Eclogues of Virgil possess one remarkable characteristic :
they are allegories. This at once introduces a great difference
between them and the Theocritean Idyl. The allegorical veil is,
sometimes, allowed to fall, and the shepherds who represent the
Poet and his friends converse like scholars and philosophers. It
has been a great question, whether the Alexis partakes of this Alexis.
figurative character ; many are of opinion that it is merely an
imitation of the 'Epaor?)? of Theocritus ; while others, who discover
Virgil in Corydon, yet believe the poem an offering to friendship.
The latter opinion we consider inadmissible. All the grammarians
identify the poet with Corydon ; but the real name of Alexis is a
matter of considerable doubt. The opinion mentioned by Servius,
that Augustus was intended, scarcely deserves to be noticed. Some
make Alexis to have been Alexander, a slave of Pollio ; but most
probably he belonged to Maecenas. Although it would be perhaps
impossible distinctly to remove this imputation from Virgil,1
Juvenal, most assuredly, did not make any allusion to it in the
following lines, which Dryden has most grossly amplified and
perverted : a
si Virgilio puer et tolerabile deesset
Hospitium, caderent oinnes e crinibus hydri, —
Surda nihil genieret grave buccina.
There are many difficulties in believing this to have been the first of
A irgil's compositions, on the supposition of Alexis being the slave
either of Maecenas or Augustus ; inasmuch as, in that case, it must
1 Donatus observes, " Boni ita eum pueros aniasse putaverunt, at Socrates
Alcibiadem, et Plato suos pueros." — V'tt. Virg. 20. Charity " hopeth all things ;"
but the state of heathen morality, even among the most intellectual and refined,
was such as to allow and indulge abominations which, in any professedly Christian
society, however rude, would cover their perpetrators with infamy : and whatever
may have been the conduct of Virgil, Horace, Catullus, Tibullus, and others,
they have not hesitated to follow Greek examples of this nature in their writ inns.
It is, however, right to observe that the Roman poets generally claimed the
privilege of bad morals on paper, while they renounced it in act. See in particular
Catull. xvii. ; Ovid. Trist. ii. 154 ; Mart. i. 15 ; Plin. Epist. iv. 14 ; and Hadrian's
epitaph onVoconius. Profligate literature was no disgrace, rather otherwise, even when
; a profligate life would have been infamous. The peculiarity of Virgil's case, however,
is, that he makes no such apology for himself, and, indeed, needs it less, perhaps,
than any of his extant contemporaries ; while yet his identity with his "Corydon"
appears, from external evidence, to be indubitable. On this account his memory
bears a stain which those of Horace and Tibullus, who have written as offensively,
have commonlv escaped.
■ Sat. vii. 69.
80 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
Vergil. have been written before we have any account of Virgil's acquaint-
ance with either. That Virgil intended himself by Cory don, was
believed by his contemporary Propertius, who also identifies him
with Tityrus.1 Martial and Apulejus make no doubt of it.2
Foiiio. But the most extraordinary composition of Virgil is his Pollio,
a poem which has been the subject of endless conjecture. The
much litigated and unsettled question, " whom was it intended to
commemorate ? " we shall pass over, as not materially connected
with our subject ; only observing that this honour has been ascribed
to the young Marcellus, to a son of Pollio, to a son of Augustus,
to Asinius Gallus, to Drusus, and, lastly, even to Augustus himself.3
What is principally worthy of notice is, that this poem exhibits a
coincidence with the Sacred Writings too close to be fortuitous.
That the Greeks had acquired, indirectly, some acquaintance with
the histories of the Hebrew Scriptures, is not to be doubted ; as
Hesiod and Ovid, the expounders of their theology, have clearly
discovered it ; and it is probable that Theocritus, at the Court of
Ptolemy, had seen the Sacred Volume, and even borrowed its
phraseology. But, in this poem, Virgil only imitated Theocritus
in the structure of the composition ; for, with one or two exceptions,
there is no similarity in details, which, in Virgil, resemble an
epitome of Scripture prophecies of the Messiah. Though much of
the fabulous history of the early world is corrupted from Holy
Scripture, the Greeks, in general, were ignorant of its source, and
were too much possessed with a contempt for " barbarian" literature
to study, much less to imitate, the Hebrew writers. The universal
contempt entertained for the Jews at Rome made it still less
probable that their literature would meet imitation, or even perusal,
there. An intelligent writer,4 indeed, imagines that he has dis-
covered an avowal, on the part of Virgil, of his intention to avail
himself of the treasures of Hebrew poetry, in the line 5
Primus Idumaeas referarn tibi, Mantua, palmas ;
but to this it is only necessary to reply, that the line cited was not
written until after the Pollio was composed. The inquirer must,
therefore, advance on other ground, than that of supposing that
Virgil accommodated the prophetic Scriptures to his purpose. The
poet has, indeed, given us a clue in our inquiries ; he has asserted
that his prophecies are taken from the verses of the Cumsean
Sibyl. The fable of the Sibyl's interview with Tarquin is well
1 2 Elcg. xxx iv. 73.
2 Mart. viii. 56, v. 16; Apul. Apolog. i. 13.
3 The last opinion is maintained at great length, in a work entitled, M Obser-
vations in Illustration of Virgil's celebrated Fourth Eclogue." London, 1810.
4 Notes on the " Caliph Vathck."
5 Georg. iii. 12.
HORACE. — YIRGIl/s POLLIO. 81
known. The books which she was supposed to have given to the Virgfl.
Komans were destroyed in the conflagration of the Capitol daring
the Marsian war ; emissaries were then despatched by the Senate
throughout Italy, Greece, Asia, and the coasts of Africa, to collect
the best authenticated prophecies of the various Sibyls ; and the
collection thus made was called " Oumaum Carmen'' because it was
compiled to supply the loss of the writing of the Cumivan Sibyl. In
this miscellany it is nothing improbable that prophecies of the great
Person then about to appear should be found ; especially when it
is recollected that Tacitus and Suetonius have borne witness to the
general expectation of such a Person then prevalent in the East.1
It is also remarkable that ^Elian mentions the Jewish sibyl,
together with the CumaBan ; 2 her oracles, therefore, which were,
probably, in substance the same as the prophetical writings, were
likely to be in the collection. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, on the
authority of Yarro, asserts that such of the prophecies as were not
genuine, were written in acrostichs.3 Eusebius has preserved a
pretended acrostich oracle of the Erythraean Sibyl, the initial letters
of which form the words IH20Y2 XPI2T02 '©EOT TI02 2OTHP
2TATP02; but this is, evidently, a forgery on the bare inspection.
We have aap£ used for mankind, ddcoXa for idols, and in one
place the very words of Scripture have been quoted : " Qprjvos r Ik
TTCLVTUtV kdTLU KCU (SpVyfJLOS oboVTCDV." CoilStailtilie, ill his " \6yOS TO)
Tutu ay'iuv o-vWoyco " gives a very elaborate interpretation of the
Pollio, with a Greek translation of the greater part of it, and asserts
that the oracle, whence it was taken, was translated by Cicero into
Latin verse, and annexed to his poems. We have now no trace of
this translation, if it ever existed : but it is a curious circumstance,
that Cicero informs us that the Sibylline oracles did predict a King,
and were written in acrostichs.4 If any name were mentioned in
them, it must have been Cornelius ; as we find from Cicero,5 Sallust,6
Plutarch,7 and Appian, that the pretence which Lentulus adduced
for his connexion with Catiline was a Sibylline prophecy, por-
tending that the Empire of Koine was to be given to three Cornelii ;
that China and Sylla were the two former, and the third was to be
himself. It is by no means improbable that, among the prophecies
copied from the Jewish Scriptures, or gleaned from Jewish tradition,
which were, in all probability, found among the Sibylline writings,
the great subject of prediction was called ^ pg, the power of
God* which would, assuredly, have been translated Cornelius by
the Romans.
1 Tac. V. Hist. ix. Suet. Yespas. iv. ■ Antiq. Rom. iv. 62.
c Var. Hist. xii. 35. 4 De Div. ii. 54. Cf. etiaui Quinct. v. 10.
5 3 Cat. iv. 6 Bell. Cat. 7 Vit. Cie.
8 Christ is called " the power of God " in 1 Cor. i. 24 ; and Kepas mg)
aooTTipias in St. Luke, i. 69. The number three, thus applied, may have been
derived from some Old Testament intimations of the Holy Trinity.
[r. l.] g
82 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
Virgil. The author of the ingenious and elaborate Observations, who
conceives that Yirgil meant to refer the Sibyl's prediction to
Augustus, imagines the whole poem to be a metrical horoscope,
and discovers a clear explanation of every expression and allusion
contained in it, by a reference to the phraseology of astrological
art. How far this author is bigoted to hypothesis, may be
conjectured from his application of the following lines to the sign
Aries :
Ipse sed in pratis Aries jam suave rubenti
Murice, jam croceo mutabit vellera luto.
Two lines before occurs the verse
Robustus quoque jam Tauris juga solvet arator;
and there can be no doubt that the same ingenuity, had this line
followed those above cited, would have given an equally convincing
interpretation of tauris. Any mind unsophisticated by hypothesis
cannot fail to perceive that the poet is describing a time of universal
opulence and rest, when agriculture and commerce should be alike
unnecessary : and when the ram in the meadows (not in the skies,)
should wear his fleece, without the dyer's labour, attired in the
most costly and splendid colours.1
Daphnis. That the Daphnis was composed, like Milton's Lycidas, to
commemorate the death of some real person, is scarcely to be
doubted. That Menalcas represents Virgil is evident from the
conclusion, wherein he states himself to be the author of two of
Virgil's Eclogues. Mopsus, according to Servius, is iEmilius Macer
of Verona, who wrote a poetical history of serpents, plants, and
birds, in imitation of Nicander, and a supplement to the Iliad,
called Antehomerica and Posthomerica. Bernhardy, Bahr, and
others, after Wernsdorf, attribute, however, the epic and didactic
poems to different writers of the same name.2 If Daphnis be a
personification, Julius Caesar is the only person whom the character
can pourtray, as Heyne justly observes : although he believes the
poem to be merely a commemoration of the celebrated Sicilian
shepherd. Servius and Donatus make Daplinis the poet's brother
Flaccus. An uncertain epigrammatist has the following distich :
Tristia fata tui dum fles in u Dapbnidc " Flacci,
Docte Maro, fratrem Dis imruortalibus a?quas.
Oalius. Virgil concluded his Bucolics with an elegant compliment to
1 The reader desirous of prosecuting the subject of Virgil's Pollio is referred
to the following works : Heyne's Virgil ; Cudworth's Intellectual System, book i.
c. iv. sec. 16 ; Martyn's Virgil ; and Blondel, De Sibyllis.
2 Bernhardy, Grundriss der Rom. Lit. Anm. 434 ; Aeussere Geschichte, 83.
Bahr, Geschichte der Rom. Lit. § 83 ; Wernsdorf, Poett. Latt. Minn. torn. iv.
p. 579.
HORACE. VIRGIl/s ECLOGUES. — CALLUS. 83
Cornelius Gallus, a celebrated contemporary poet, born at Forum Virgil.
Julii, in Gaul, about Virgil's own age, and his fellow pupil under
Syron, consoling him for the loss of his Lycoris, whom the old
commentators assert to have been an actress, whose real name was
Cytheris. She was the freed-woman of Volumnius Eutrapelus,
and took the name of Volumnia. As she was familiar with Antony,
the old commentators have supposed that she deserted Gallus to
accompany Antony on his Gallic expedition. Heyne, however,
in his argument of the Gallus, has shown, from chronological
considerations, that this could not be the case. The genuine poems
of Gallus, with the exception of a few fragments, are lost. They
consisted of four books of elegies, called Amoves or Lycoris, and
a translation of Eupkorion, as we learn from Servius. A pretended
edition of the works of Gallus was published by Pomponio Gaurico,
at the beginning of the sixteenth century ; but the fraud was soon
detected in Italy, and Tiraboschi attributes these poems, 1 according
to common report, to a certain Maximinian, who flourished in the
time of Boetius. As an elegiac poet, Gallus ranked very high in
public opinion. Ovid speaks of his fame as universal ; Propertius
and Martial have borne testimony to his excellence ; and Yirgil, in
his beautiful and extraordinary YIth Eclogue, has panegyrised his
Euphorion in the noblest strains of mythological eulogy. Yirgil
had also, according to Servius, celebrated his praises in the
conclusion of his Georgics. Gallus was no less distinguished as
a warrior than as a poet ; he was of great service to Augustus
in the Egyptian war, and assisted in securing the person of
Cleopatra. He was, in consequence, constituted the first prefect of
Egypt. Here he appears to have conducted himself with arrogance
and insolence. He was afterwards condemned to banishment by
the command of Augustus, on suspicion of having conspired against
him ; a sentence which, however, the poet anticipated by a voluntary
death, u. c. 728 ; and Yirgil, at the instance of the emperor,
substituted for his eulogy on Gallus the fable of Aristmts.
The publication of Yirgil's Bucolics created a powerful sensa-
tion in literary Rome. The grammarians tell us that they were
recited on the stage ; 2 and that, on one occasion, when Cicero
was present in the theatre, and heard some verses of the Silenus
recited by Cytheris, he called for the whole eclogue, and, when
he had heard it through, exclaimed, "Magna spes altera Rcma."
This cannot be true, for Cicero was then dead : but we have better
authority for the truth of the honours publicly lavished on Yirgil.
Erom the author of the Dialogue de Oratoribus'6 we learn that, when
some verses of Yirgil were recited on the stage, and the poet
1 Storia, part. iii. lib. iii. sec. 27.
2 Donat. in Vit. Virg. ; Serv. in Eel. vi. 11.
3 Dial, de Orat. xiii.
G 2
84 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
Horace and happened to be present, all the spectators rose, and paid him the
Virgil. same marks of respect which they would have shown to Augustus.
Propertius l has celebrated the conclusion and publication of the
Bucolics, and Ovid2 has foretold their immortality.
Following the chronology of Bentley, which we have in the main
adopted, we must refer the publication of Horace's 1st Book of
Satires to nearly the same date with that of Virgil's Bucolics. We
shall presently have to notice a different opinion. In the Xth
Satire of that Book, Horace gives the following sketch of the
poetical proceedings of the day :
Turgidus A Ipinus jugulat duin Memnona, dumque
Diffingit Rheni luteuni caput, haec ego ludo :
* * ♦ te
* * * *
Arguta meretrice potes, Davoque Chremeta
Eludente scnena, coinis garrire libellos,
Unus vivoruin, Fundani. Pollio reguin
Facta canit pede ter percusso. Forte epos acer
Ut nemo, Varius ducit : inolle atque facetum
Virgilio annuerunt gaudentes rure Caincenae.
If Bentley's chronology be correct, there can be no foundation for
the remark with which Heyne opens his preface to the Georgics :
" Ad Georgica facetum illud ac molle, quod peculiarl aliquo Musarum
munere Virgilio concessum esse Horatius memo rat, proprio quodam
Tiiodo spectare videtur." It may not be irrelevant to estimate the
force of this eulogy on Virgil, by reference to the exposition of
Quiuctilian. "Facetum" says the critic, " non tantum circa ridicula
opinor consistere. Nee enim diceret Flora ti 'its, facetum carminis genus
naturd concessum esse Virgilio. Decoris lianc tnagis et excultce
cujusdam elegantus appellationem puto. Fdeoque m Epistolis Cicero
hoc Bruti verba refert : iue Mi sunt pedes faceti, ac deliciis i?igre-
dU'iiti molles. Quod convenit cum illo Horatiano, molle atque
facetum Virgilio" fyc. 3
Some light may be thrown on the poetical history of the period,
by an examination of this concise review. This, therefore, we
shall take, before we proceed with what more immediately relates
to the subject of our biography.
Aipiuus. Who "Alpinus" was, is a question as yet undecided. Priscian4
mentions an Alpinus who wrote a poem on the exploits of Pompey.
Dacier and Torrentius suppose him to be Aulus Cornelius Alpinus,
who wrote a tragedy, intituled Me union, in imitation of one bearing
the same name by iEschylus, and that he is here sarcastically said
to have murdered the hero, and anticipated the stroke of Achilles.
The Scholiast says that the Memnon was an hexameter poem. The
word Alpinus, however, is generally considered, by commentators,
1 ii. ZA. 2 1 Am. 12. 3 Quiuct. vi. 3. 4 vii. 5.
HORACE. — CONTEMPORARY POETS. S5
to be the designation of the poet's country, the Alps, and, taken Horace and
in this sense, it is applicable to many. Crnqnins, without the "^
shadow of an argument, refers it to Cornelius Gallus. Acron inter-
prets the appellation of Yivalius, which Bentley and Sanadon
conjecture to be a corruption of Bibaculus, of whom they suppose
Alpinus a nickname. M. Furius Bibaculus, to whom we have Bibaculus.
before alluded as the writer of many small pieces, was also the
author of a poem on the Gallic wars, * a verse of which has been
preserved by Horace and Quinctilian ; the former of whom has
noticed the bombastic character of his style :
pingui tentus omaso
Furius " hybernaa cam! nive conspuit Alpes : "
the epithet here applied corresponds to " turgid '?<s ; " and from the
line
Jupiter lnbernas cana, nive conspuit Alpes
it is probable that he derived his appellation Alpinus. He was
born at Cremona. The subject of his poem might, very naturally,
lead him to a description of the Khine. Of Fundanius we know Fimdamus.
nothing beyond what is here recorded ; but we shall have occasion
to notice this passage of Horace presently, which we shall find to
throw some light on the Augustan drama. C. Asinius Pollio, pollio.
here mentioned as a tragedian, was illustrious no less in his
political than his literary character. We have already noticed
the conjecture that he recommended Virgil to Maecenas ; and the
old biographer of that poet tells us that the Bucolics were
completed at his desire. Virgil speaks of him in terms of high
commendation r
Pollio amat nostram, quamvis est rustica, Musam :
* •* * *
Pollio et ipse fecit nova carmina !
where the word " nova" seems to imply unprecedented!!/ beautiful.
And to Pollio is supposed to be addressed the Ylllth Eclogue, in
which the following apostrophe occurs :
En erit, ut liceat totum mihi ferre per orbern
Sola Sopkocleo tua carmina digna cothurno /
His dramas seem only to have been intended for the closet. 3
An anecdote, preserved by M. Seneca, 4 is characteristic of the man
and of his pretensions. Sextilius Hama (or Eta as in some copies),
a poet of more talent than learning, unequal in his compositions,
1 Bernhardt, however, attributes this poem to Aulus Furius of Antium.
Grundriss der Roui. Lit. Anm. 366 and 430.
2 Eel. iii. 84. 3 Weichert de Vario. 143. 4 Suas. vi.
86
AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
Varius.
Horace and and not free from the heavy and foreign character attributed to
\irgii. ^e p0e{s 0f Corduba, invited Pollio, among others, to hear his
recitation of a poem on the proscription of Cicero. The place of
meeting was the house of Messala Corvinus ; and no sooner had
the poet commenced
Deflendus Cicero est, Latiaeque silentia linguae,
than Pollio, turning to Messala, said, " You can do as you please,
Messala, in your own house ; but I shall not stay to listen to one
who considers me silent ;" and, with these words, left the room
abruptly. Although he doubtless referred to his forensic talents,
it is probable that his estimate of his poetical capabilities was not
inferior. Horace, no less than Yirgil, was intimate with Pollio,
and dedicated to him the 1st Ode of the Hd Book, wherein he
recommends him to resume the composition of Tragedies, which
his History of the Civil Wars had interrupted.
The high eulogium here passed on Lucius Yarius Eufus, and
the appellation " Mceonii carminis ales" bestowed on him by Horace
in the YIth Ode of the 1st Book, have been before alluded to, as
well as his tragedy of Thyestes. But the loss of his works is,
perhaps, a less calamity than the literary world ordinarily suppose.
His excellence in the drama, where this branch of poetry was, in
general, so unsuccessfully cultivated, might be comparatively great,
and yet absolutely moderate : and as he was the earliest epic of
any tolerable eminence in the new school, he might easily be
unrivalled where there was no emulation. Antonius lulus, the
author of the Liomedea, had not arisen ; and if it be said that
Yarius was not strictly unrivalled, because there was his contem-
porary, C. Yalgius Eufus, who has received from Tibullus the exag-
gerated panegyric, " aterno propior non alter Homero" the answer
would be easy, even on the supposition that the IYth Book of
Tibullus is genuine, which, as we shall see, there is every reason
to doubt. The judgment of Horace on this subject is infinitely
more valuable than that of Tibullus. Yarius and Yalgius were
both friends of Horace : and he acknowledges the value of their
approbation : but he never, for a moment, admits a competition
of poetical excellence. The elegies of Yalgius might influence the
partialities of Tibullus towards a poet of a similar cast with
himself; and private friendship might extort and excuse an hyper-
bole which his own judgment, and that of an unbiassed public,
could not sanction. A similar observation may be made on the
equally extravagant panegyric which Propertius has passed on
Ponticus, the author of the Thebaid. l Yarius, therefore, at this
time seems to have been undisputed master of the epic, and that,
Incidental
notice of
Yalgius.
* 1 Eleg
HORACE. — CONTEMPORARY POETS.
87
because the honour was by no means warmly contested. Macrobius, Horace and
in the second chapter of the Vlth Book of the Saturnalia, cites some ^""t'11-
verses of Varius, " de Morte" ($c. Julii Csesaris). The following are
the most complete, as a specimen of his style :
Ceii canis umbrosam lustrans Gortynia vallem,
Si veteris potuit cervae comprendere lustra,
Saevit in absentem, et, circum vestigia lustrans,
iEthera per nitidum tenues sectatur odores :
Non amnes illam inedii, non ardua tardant,
Perdita nee serae meminit decedere nocti.
As hound Gortynian, through the umbrageous vale
That scents the wild-deer's covert on the gale,
Prone on the track that speeds with faithful aim,
And tears in fancy the far-distant game :
Nor streams, nor heights, impede : e'en when astray,
Still through the lonesome night she snuffs the tainted way.
He composed a panegyric on Augustus, from which, if we are to Varius,
believe the Scholiast on Horace, that poet took the following lines,
which he inserted in the XVIth Epistle of his 1st Book ;
Tene magis salvum populus velit, an populum tu,
Servet in ambiguo, qui consulit et tibi et urbi,
Jupiter !
These passages, although far too brief and scanty to enable us
to form any clear conception of the genius of Varius, are yet
"Virgil.
promiscuously selected, and contain nothing in favour of the felicity
of his epithets, or the melody of his versification.
The poetical power which the Bucolics discovered, induced
88 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
Virgil. Maecenas, almost as soon as they were finished (about u. c. 717),
to request Yirgil to undertake the Georgics. The neglected state
of agriculture, in consequence of the civil wars, might be the
reason why Maecenas chose this subject for Virgil's Muse : and
indeed this condition of the country is graphically described by the
poet himself: !
Ubi fas versa atque nefas ; tot bella per orbem,
Tarn multse scelerum facies : non ullus aratro
Dignus honos : squalen t abductis arva colonis,
Et curvae rigidum falces conflantur in ensem.
But we must not suppose the statesman to have conceived that the
military settlers could be moved by an exquisite poem to the cul-
tivation of their estates. The fact was, that a more effectual and
more delicate expedient for calling the attention of Augustus to this
important subject could not be imagined ; and in his power lay a
great portion of the remedy.
Gcorgks. Of the character of the Georgics it is unnecessary to speak,
because no reader of this memoir can be ignorant that this poem
is the most elaborate and extraordinary instance of the power of
genius in embellishing a most barren subject, which human
wit has ever afforded. The commonest precepts of farming are
delivered with an elegance which could scarcely be attained by
a poet who should endeavour to clothe in verse the sublimest
maxims of philosophy. Indeed, one consideration alone is sufficient
to show us the excellence of Virgil in this particular — the uniform
failure of his imitators. It is, however, much to be regretted that
he was not free to choose his own subject, as, in all probability,
he would have selected a theme better suited to his muse. It is
said that the poet, while employed on this immortal work, com-
posed many verses every morning ; but, by the evening, reduced
them to a very few ; so that he used to compare himself to a bear
which licks her shapeless offspring into form. 2
According to the computation of Donatus, or the writer of the
Life of Virgil ascribed to him, the poet must have been at Naples,
after six years' attention to the Georgics, when Augustus under-
took the expedition against Antony, which ended in the decisive
victory of Actium. It was on this occasion that Horace is supposed
to have written his magnificent Ode ad Romanos (Epod. xvi.).
His friendship and gratitude towards Maecenas had now obtained
their zenith, when the statesman was suddenly called to attend
his master on his perilous expedition, which bade fair to decide
the possession of the Eoman world. In the 1st Epode, Horace
expresses his fixed resolution to accompany his patron whither-
1 Georg. i. 162.
3 Donat. in Vit. Virg. ix. ; Quinct. Lib. x. 3; Aul. Gell. xvii. 10.
ITOTIACE. PEDO. 89
soever his fortune might lead him : not that he could hope to rrorace and
contribute to his security, but to escape the anxieties of absence. Vir^lU
Whatever may have been the reason, there is good cause to
believe that Maecenas never left Italy. Dio, 1 Tacitus, 2 and Velleius
Paterculus, 3 all assert that at that time the care of the city was
intrusted to him by Augustus. Virgil has given a most elaborate Rattle of
poetical picture of the battle of Actium, without making any mention Aclmm-
of the exploits of Maecenas ; an omission of which he could
scarcely have been guilty, had his patron borne a part in so conspi-
cuous a scene ; and this negative argument derives additional
strength from another of the same kind, drawn from the silence
of Horace respecting Maecenas in his triumphant Ode on the same
occasion (Lib. i. Od. xxxvii.). That Maecenas took part in the
battle of Actium has been attempted to be proved from an elegy
on his death ascribed to Celsus Pedo Albinovanus, which expressly
asserts the fact ; but the meagreness of the composition, and its
historical inaccuracy, have caused it to be rejected by most scholars,
as the production of a later period. Three elegies are remaining
to us, which have been ascribed to this Pedo : that just men-
tioned ; another, which seems to be a continuation of it, called
Maecenas Moi'ibundiis ; and the Comolatio ad Iriviam, which, however,
is also attributed to Ovid. Prom the latter author, whose friend
Pedo was, we learn that he wrote a poem on the exploits of
Theseus. 4 He is coupled by Quinctilian 5 with Pabirius, as not
unworthy of perusal ; and Seneca 8 quotes from him some verses
on the voyage of Germanicus, as a favourable contrast to the
marine pictures of other Latin poets; but really as inferior to
Virgil and Ovid as to the bolder strains of Attius and Ennius.
Prom Martial's testimony he appears to have been an epigram-
matist.7 If he were the same as Celsus (Hor. i. Ep. iii. 15),
which seems doubtful, he was, according to the account of Horace,
an enormous plagiarist. Dacier lays great stress on the following
verses of Propertius, as supporting the hypothesis that Maecenas
was at Actium : 8
Quod mihi si tantum, Maecenas, fata dedissent,
Ut possem heroas ducere in arma manus,
» * * *
Bellaque, resque tui memorarem Caesaris ; et tu
Caesare sub magno cura secunda fores.
Nam quoties Mutinam, et civilia busta Philippos,
Aut canerem Siculae classica bella fugae,
1 Lib. li. 2 Ann> vi> n€ 3 ii#
4 Ep. ex Pont. iv. 10. 5 x. 1. 6 Suasor. 1.
7 v. 5. 82 Eleg. i.
90
AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
Horace and
Virgil.
Cassius of
Parma.
Aut regum auratis circumdata colla catenis,
Actiaque in sacrd currere rostra via,
Te mea Musa illis semper contexeret armis,
Et sumta et posita pace, fidele caput.
But this would equally prove that Maecenas took part in the battle
of Philippi. The IXth Epode has been thought by some to favour
the opinion that Maecenas accompanied Augustus ; and Desprez,
in his notes on that poem, deliberately tells the reader that it was
addressed to Maecenas in his absence on that occasion. The student,
by consulting the poem itself, will find nothing, however, positive
about the situation of Maecenas at that time. To this poem,
to the very elaborate analysis given by Masson, in his Life of
Horace, and to the answer of Dacier, prefixed to his edition of the
poet, the reader desirous of more precise information on this
subject is referred.
Horace was, at this time, about thirty-six years of age ; so that,
if Bentley's chronology of his works be true, the 1st Book of his
Satires had seen the light eight years. Masson, however, refers the
Xth Satire of that Book to this date, relying, principally, on his
account of the death of Cassius of Parma, who was reported,
according to this passage, to have been burned with his books.
Cassius of Parma was put to death at this time at Athens, by the
direction of Augustus, for having espoused the cause of Antony.
We should rather be disposed, as scholars now generally are, to
refer what Horace here says to another Cassius, than disturb the
chronology of Bentley. Whoever he was, it is nothing wonderful
that his books should supply him with a funeral pile, when it is
considered that he was in the habit of composing four hundred
verses every day. Of Cassius of Parma Horace speaks expressly
in his epistle to Tibullus :
Quid nunc te dicam facere in regione Pedana ?
Scribere quod Cassi Parmensis opuscula vincat?
These verses are understood seriously and ironically by different
critics. The word " opuscula" however, is sufficiently descriptive
of his poems, which were chiefly elegies or epigrams. The Scholiasts
on Horace attribute to him tragedies also, and relate that Yarus,
who was sent to execute on Cassius the orders of Augustus,
embezzled his papers, and from them produced the tragedy of
Thyestes. This is the celebrated work which has been before
mentioned, as the production of Varius, of whom we have had
occasion to speak, and who has here been confounded, as in other
places, with Varus. The grammarians, however, as if determined
to deprive Yarius of the credit of this tragedy, have attributed it
to Virgil. l A poem called Orpheus, consisting of nineteen lines,
1 Donat. Vit. Virg. xx. ; Serv. in Eel. iii.
HORACE. VIRGIL. GEORGICS AND yENEID. 91
and which, if genuine, must have been only a fragment of a larger Virgil.
composition, was given to the world by Achilles Statius, as the
work of Cassius of Parma, discovered among the Bruttii. But as
Statius did not condescend to enter minutely on the evidences of
its genuineness, there is every reason to believe that it was a forgery.1
| The poem may be found, with numerous illustrative references, in
the second volume of Wernsdorf's comprehensive and accurate
edition of the Latin minor poets.
To the year following the battle of Actium, the completion of
the Georgics is commonly assigned. At what time the JEtieid The 2Em\d.
was first projected, is uncertain; but Virgil, like our Milton,
appears from a very early period to have had a strong desire of
composing an epic poem, and, like him also, to have been long
undecided on his subject. That he had attempted something of
the kind, before the eclogues were finished, is evident from these
verses in his Sllenus :
Quum canerem reges et prcelia, Cynthius aurem
Vellit, et admonuit, —
and his ambition to produce some work of distinguished excellence
is attested by the ardent exclamation in the opening of the Illrd
Georgic :
Tentanda via est, qua me quoque possim
Tollere humo, victorque viruin volitare per ora.
Even in his Cidex, which he is said to have written at fifteen years
of age, he gives promise of higher things :
Posterius graviore sono tibi Musa loquetur
Nostra, dabunt quuin securos mihi tempora fructus
Ut tibi digna tuo poliantur carmina sensu.
He is said to have begun a metrical chronicle of the Alban
kings, but afterwards to have desisted in consequence of the
harshness of the names. 2 After the completion of the Georgics,
or, perhaps, some short time before, he laid down the plan of a
regular epic on the wanderings of iEneas, and the Roman destinies ;
to form a sort of continuation of the Iliad to the Eoman times, The Tlind
and to combine the features of that poem and the Odyssey. The an
idea was sufficiently noble, and the poem, long before its publication,
or even conclusion, had obtained the very highest reputation. While
Virgil was employed on the JEneid, " quo nullum Latlo clarlus exstat
opus" Propertius wrote with generous admiration :
Cedite, Romani scriptores ! cedite, Graii !
Nescio quid majus nascitur Iliade !
1 Bernhardy attributes it to Antonio Telesio the Neapolitan. (Grundriss der
Rom. Lit. Anm. 320.)
2 Donat. Vit. Virg. viii. ; Serv. in Eel. vi.
92 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
Virgil. Augustus, while absent on his Cantabrian campaign, wrote
repeatedly to Virgil for extracts from his poem in progress ; but
the poet declined, on the ground that his work was unworthy the
perusal of the prince. The correspondence is recorded by Macrobius,
in the 1st Book of the Saturnalia; but its genuineness is very
questionable.
It would be palpably superfluous, in a work of this nature, to
attempt an elaborate criticism on this great poem, familiar from
their childhood to all persons of education. Most scholars are
agreed that it wants the natural freshness and freedom of Homer,
while it exhibits a degree of art, elegance, and majesty never
attempted in any poem, save the Georgics of its author. It may,
however, be pertinent to remark, that, smooth and uniform as its
surface seems, it is really, in great measure, mosaic. That Virgil
should have translated whole passages out of Homer, or even the
Alexandrine writers, is no matter of censure : he and his contem-
poraries would have thought the absence of such " purpurei panni"
a defect ; and the high authorities of Dante, Ariosto, Tasso, Spenser,
Camoens, and Milton ratify their opinion. But the same cannot
be said of plagiarisms from Latin authors. How unscrupulously
he appropriated whole verses of Ennius, of Lucretius, of Lucilius, of
even his friend Varius, and of others, the curious reader may find
in the Vlth Book of Macrobius's Saturnalia, which will abundantly
repay his perusal. It may be right to add that the JEneid is
a most conspicuous evidence of the learning, diligence, and
antiquarian research of its illustrious author.
I1 Availing himself of the pride and superstition of the Eoman
people, which never abounded more than during the Augustan
age, the poet traces the origin and establishment of the " eternal
city " to those heroes and actions which had enough in them of
what was human and ordinary to excite the sympathy of his
countrymen ; intermingled with persons and circumstances of an
extraordinary and superhuman character, to awaken their admiration
and their awe. No subject could have been more happily chosen.
It has been admired too for its perfect unity of action ; for while
the episodes command the richest variety of description, they are
always subordinated to the main object of the poem, which is to
impress the divine authority under which iEneas first settled in
Italy. The wrath of Juno, upon which the whole fate of iEneas
seems at first suspended, is at once that of a woman and a goddess :
the passion of Dido, and her general character, bring us nearer
the present world ; but the poet is continually introducing higher
1 The portion bracketed is taken, with slight alterations, from the article jEneid,
formerly printed in the lexicographical part of the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana.
The writer is unknown to the present editor.
HORACE. — YIKGir/s 2ENEID. 93
and more effectual influences, until, by the intervention of the Virgil
father of gods and men, the Trojan name is to be continued in
the Koman, and thus heaven and earth are appeased.
Hinc genus, Ausonio mixtum quod sanguine surget,
Supra homines, supra ire Deos pietate videbia ;
Nee gens ulla tuos a?que celebrabit honores.
Annuit his Juno, et menteui laetata retorsit.
^F/hid, xii. 841.
The style, for sweetness and for beauty, occasionally, and in the
author's finished passages, surpasses almost every other production
of antiquity. "I see no foundation," says Dr. Blair, "for the
opinion entertained by some critics that the Mneld is to be
considered as an allegorical poem, which carries a constant reference
to the character and reign of Augustus Caesar ; or that Virgil's
main design' in composing the JEueid, was to reconcile the Romans
to the government of that prince, who is supposed to be shadowed
out under the character of .Eneas He had sufficient motives,
as a poet, to determine him to the choice of his subject, from its
being in itself both great and pleasing ; from its being suited to
his genius, and its being attended with peculiar advantages for the
full display of poetical talents. " l
The first six books of the ^Eueid are the most elaborate part
of the poem. The imperfections of the Mneid are alleged to be
want of originality in some of the principal scenes, and defectiveness
in the exhibition of character. That of Dido is by far the most
decided and complete. But Yoltaire has justly observed upon the
strange confusion of interest excited by the story of the wTars in
Italy, in which one is continually tempted to espouse the cause of
Turnus rather than that of .Eneas ; and to which the exquisite
scenes for displaying the tenderness of the poet in narrating the
story of Lavinia, seem to have been his only temptation.]
On his return from the Cantabrian expedition, debilitated by
exertion and disease, it is probable that Augustus wrote to
Maecenas the letter mentioned by Suetonius in his Life of Horace,
in which he offered the poet the office of his private secretary.
"Ante" says he, "ipse sufficiebam scribendis epistotis amicorurn :
nunc occupatissimus et infirm us Ho rati urn nostrum te cupio adducere.
Veniat igitur ab istd parasitica mensd ad lianc rer/iam, et nos in
scribendis epistolis juvabit." Horace declined the offer : and the
emperor, so far from discovering the least resentment, continued
towards him his friendship and familiarity. In the letters which
he afterwards addressed to him, he entreated him to assume the
liberties of an intimate associate, and, with a felicity wThich only the
Greek expression can attempt, courted his acquaintance : " neauesi
1 Lectures on Rhetoric, vol. iii.
94 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
Virgil. ut superbus amicitiam nostram sprevisti, ideo nos quoque avOvnep-
(f)pOVOV[JL€V.,n
For five years after the return of Augustus, Horace continued
to enjoy an uninterrupted tranquillity, in the most perfect conceiv-
able independence, although mingling with the utmost intimacy
among the great and powerful, who sought his society even to
obsequiousness. At the end of this period an event occurred
which forms a prominent feature both in the biography of the
poet, and in the poetical history of the time. Yirgil, who had
just revised and altered the Bucolics and Georgics, with a view
to giving the ultimate polish to the 2Eheid> which he had now com-
pleted, projected a tour in Greece and Asia. With a dread almost
prophetic, and an ardour not disproportionate, Horace addressed
the ship which bore his departing friend :
Sic te Diva potens Cypri,
Sic fratres Helenae, lucida sidera,
Ventorumque regat pater,
Obstrictis aliis, praeter Iapyga,
Navis, quae tibi creditum
Debes Virgilium, finibus Atticis
Reddas incolumem, precor,
Et serves animae dimidium meae ! 2
So speed thee Cyprus' goddess bright,
So Helen's brethren, those twin lords of light ;
So the great sire of every wind,
None, save the soft North-west, for thee unbind —
O bark, I thee implore,
Thy charge, my Virgil, to the Attick shore
In safety waft across the wave,
And thus the half of my existence save !
At Athens Virgil met with Augustus, who was returning from
Samos, where he had wintered after his Syrian expedition, to Home.
Changing his former intention, Yirgil determined to accompany
his patron. On a visit to Megara he was seized with a sudden
indisposition, which his voyage increased, and he died a few days
after his arrival at Brundusium, in his fifty-second year. On his
Death of death-bed he earnestly desired that his JEneid might be burned,
and even left in his will an injunction to that effect. Being,
however, informed by the celebrated Varius and Plotius Tucca,
(the same who is mentioned by Horace, in his journey to Brun-
dusium,) that Augustus would not permit the destruction of his
poem, he left it to them to publish, on condition that they would
make no additions to the text, even for the purpose of supplying
an unfinished verse. How far his executors were faithful to their
1 Or b.i/Qvirep't]<pavov(izv, as some read ; which is perhaps better.
2 Lib. i. Od. iii.
HORACE. DEATH OF VIRGIL.
95
trust, must now be uncertain ; several unfinished verses are Yfrgtt.
extant in the ALneid ; but the terminations of some complete lines
render it not improbable that they have been supplied by another
pen. The biography and the writings of Virgil have, unfortunately,
fallen into the hands of ignorant grammarians and monastics, who
Tomb of Virgil.
have most miserably corrupted both. It is not the object of this
memoir to relate all the absurd legends with which his biographers
have disfigured his history : the curious reader, however, may
derive amusement from the perusal of the article Virgile, in Bayle's
Dictionary, in which several anecdotes concerning the magical
powers of the poet are selected, which probably arose out of his
well-known attachment to the study of natural philosophy. The
corruptions of his writings are chiefly to be found in his minor
poems. Donatus mentions, as his acknowledged works, the Virgil's
Catalecta, the Moretum, the Priape'ia, the Epigrams, the Dirce, and 5J2JS,
the Culex ; and notices a poem called 2Etna, the genuineness of
which he considers doubtful. This poem is to be found, illustrated
with copious dissertations, and notices of the authors to whom it
lias been ascribed, in the fourth volume of Wernsdorfs Poeta
Minores, where it is attributed to Lucilius Junior, a writer of the
time of Nero. To these, Servius adds the Cirina, which is the
same with the Ciris, before noticed as ascribed to Catullus, and the
Copa. The Catalecta are miscellaneous little poems, mostly in
the style of Catullus. One Epigram, intituled Votum pro susceptd
JEneide, will not be ungrateful to the reader :
Virgil.
AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
Si mihi susceptum fuerit decurrere muuus,
O Paphon, 6 sedes quae colis Idalias !
Troius iEneas Romana per oppida digno
Jam tandem ut tecum carmine vectus eat :
Non ego thure modo, aut picta tua templa tabella
Ornabo, et puris serta feram manibus :
Corniger hos aries humiles et maxima taurus
Victima sacratos tinget honore focos ;
Marmoreusque tibi, Dea, versicoloribus alis,
In morem picta stabit Amor pharetra.
Adsis, 6 Cytherea ! tuus te Caesar Olympo,
Et Surrentini litoris ora vocant.
Dweller of Paphos and bright Idaly !
If thou shalt grant my toils auspicious end,
And Troy's iEneas, guided on by thee,
Through Latian towns in worthy strain shall wend :
Not limner's art alone, or fragrant cloud,
Or flowers from holy hands shall grace thy fane;
The horned ram, the bull (thank-offering proud !)
With generous stream thy hallowed hearth shall stain :
Of marble mould, with wings of many a dye,
And painted quiver, Love shall stand for thee :
Then haste ! thy Caesar calls thee from thy sky :
Surrentum calls thee by the glittering sea.
It is scarcely necessary to distinguish the Catalecta from the
Epigrammata. The nature of the Priape'ia, it is obviously unne-
cessary to investigate. The work now extant under that title is,
substantially, Augustan, but the character of Virgil forbids us to
HORACE. VIIiGIl/s CULEX. 97
suppose that his pen has contributed to it in any important VirgiL
degree. The Dirce is a poem attributed, as we have already seen,
to Valerius Cato. The Moretum is a piece of very peculiar
beauty ; and approaches nearer to Theocritus in spirit than any of
the Bucolics. It bears also a remarkable resemblance to Bloomfield's
r's Boy. It is a lively description of a rustic's day, and
takes its name from a kind of salad, called Moretiiniy the making
of which is described in it. The Copa is a Bacchanalian invitation
in the person of a Copa, or Syrian woman, who attended, as a
dancer or singer, on houses of public entertainment — " Autbu~
baiar urn collegia."
Of all the minor poems, however, ascribed to Virgil, the Oulex CuUx.
is, for many reasons, the best deserving notice. Whatever doubts
may be thrown on the genuineness of the others, there seems to be
every reason for believing that this poem, allowing for all its gross
and manifold corruptions, is the work of Virgil. That Virgil wrote
a poem bearing this name cannot be questioned ; for, besides the
testimony of Donatus and Servius, we have the more respectable
evidences of Martial,1 Statius,2 and Lucan,3 for the fact. Donatus
quotes two verses from the poem, and Nonius Marcellus one, which
are found in the extant copies. The poem, however, seems to have
suffered much from alterations and interpolations. Allowing for
these, it must have been a very beautiful production, and by far the
most original effort of Virgil's muse. It opens with a dedication to
Octavius ; who this Octavius was is a matter of uncertainty. In
the Catalecta mention is made of a certain Octavius who died in a
paroxysm of anger occasioned by drinking ; if this person be, as
some commentators suppose, the same to whom the Culex is
addressed, he cannot be the Octavius of whose opinion Horace
speaks so highly in the Xth Satire of his 1st Book, since the
Catalecta wTere, according to Donatus's account, completed wThen
Virgil was fifteen years of age.4 From the dedication, the poet
proceeds to a most glowing description of sunrise, and a goatherd
driving his flock afield : and thence takes occasion to indulge in a
long digression on the happiness of rural life, which, though less
polished, is more winning and pathetic than the corresponding
passage in the Georgics. He has not, indeed, surpassed in intensity
of relish for the country his great model Lucretius ; but he has
amplified him with great taste and independence, and this passage,
taken all in all, is one of the most vivid and delicious in the whole
range of Latin Poetry. From this, Virgil returns to his short
narrative. The noon approaches, and his fustic hero seeks the
shelter of a grove to enjoy his siesta. TVhile he is sleeping, a
1 viii. 56. and xiv. 185. 2 2 Sylv. vii. 74. Id. Pnef. Sylv. lib. i.
3 Suet. Vit. Lucani. 4 Some, however correct, twenty-five.
[R. L.] n
98
AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
VligiL
Anser.
Corniiicius.
serpent is on the point of destroying him, when a gnat, perceiving
his danger, gives notice to him by a timely sting. Enraged with
the insect, of whose benevolent intention he is ignorant, he instantly
crushes him. At night, however, the shade of the gnat appears to
him, and, after a poetical but tedious description of the regions of
the departed, reproaches him for his ingratitude. In this passage
the reader may trace the sketches from which Virgil afterwards
drew his finished pictures of the appearance of Hector, and the
descents of Orpheus and iEneas. The goatherd, on awaking, as
the only compensation in his power, erects a monument to his
benefactor, with an inscription, which concludes the poem :
Parve Culex, pecudum custos tibi tale merenti
Funeris officium vita) pro munere reddit.
Virgil, by his amiable and conciliatory life, had established himself
in the esteem of all the most eminent of his literary contemporaries.
Prom Donatus, however, we learn that Anser declined his acquain-
tance from party considerations, being himself attached to Antony,
in whose praise he composed a poem. This Anser is called by-
Ovid " Cinnajprocacior." l Yet the splendour of Virgil's success
attracted many to perish in the blaze which they sought to extin-
guish. On the appearance of his Bucolics, an anonymous author
published a dull parody, called Aniibucolica ; and one Carvilius
Pictor, in imitation of his worthy prototype Zoilus, composed an
Mrieidomastix. Bavius and Msevius, proverbial names for the
impersonation of united dullness, envy, and calumny, attacked
Virgil ; and Cornificius, also, appears to have written against him.
The works of this poet are compared by Ovid to those of Valerius
Cato : 2 they were, therefore, probably, satirical productions in the
style of the Dira, or amatory pieces, which Cato is said to have
written, and traces of which are to be found, as we have seen, in
the Dirts, as now extant, itself. Virgil is said to have retaliated
on Cornificius under the name of Amyntas, in his Alexis and
Daphiis? But the most triumphant refutation of his adversaries
has been the judgment of posterity. No writer, probably, ever
exercised so wide an influence either in time or space. His works
became forthwith, and still remain, textbooks and schoolbooks ;
they were even translated into Greek ; they were commented on by
a cloud of grammarians ; they were the subject of innumerable epi-
grams ; they were formed into centos ; 4 they were used for the
1 ii. Trist. 435. 2 lb. 436. 3 Scrv. in Eel. ii. and v.
4 CP2NTO, Gr. KeurpcDU, originally a needle, and in a secondary sense a garment
of patchwork (sewed together by needles) ; hence the word is metaphorically
applied to a poem composed of verses or parts of verses taken and put together
from other authors. Tertullian (dc PrCBSCript. 39) seems to imply that the
Medea, the lost tragedy of Ovid, was a cento from Virgil. The nuptial Idyl of
Ausonius (which deserves another epithet than that of "pleasant," bestowed upon
HORACE. — VIRGIL. 99
purposes of divination. Virgil was the model of the Carlo ringian virgii.
poets ; the " Magnus Apollo " of the chivalrous Yon Valdeck ; Dante
it by Mr. Cambridge, and copied from him by Mr. D'Israeli) is the next in
antiquity which is extant. The poet, in his introduction to this M literary folly,"
frivolum et nullius pretiii opvsculum, which he appears to have put together at
the command of the Emperor Valentinian, has given some rules by which similar
compositions may be regulated. After describing it antithetically as de inconnexis
continuum, de diversis unum, de seriis ludicrum, de alieno nostrum, he proceeds
to state that a Cento is formed by taking lines from various places, and applying
them in a new sense. A line may be taken entire or divided, but two lines must
never be taken together. It is observable, however, that Ausonius himself has
not adhered to his own rules. A Cento from Homer on the life of our Saviour
has been ascribed to the learned Athena'i's, better known as the Empress Eudocia.
It has been repeatedly printed, but the silence of Photius, and of many authors
besides, who have mentioned other works of Eudocia, have induced most critics to
deny her claim to this insipid performance (Fabric. Bibl. Gr. i. 357), and it 13
more generally attributed to Pelagius, who lived under Zeno in the fifth century.
That of Proba Falconia (the wife of Anicius Probus, a Praetorian Prsefect under
the Emperor Gratian) on the same subject, from Virgil, is believed to be more
genuine. It may be found in the BILL Pat rum. In the sixteenth century the
Capilupi of Mantua, Laelius and Julius his nephew, were celebrated artizans in
this species of trifling. The best known performance of the first is Cento
VirgUianus de vita Monachorum quos fratres appellant. It was printed at
Basle, in 1556, in an octavo volume entitled Varia doctorum piorumque virorum
de corrupto Ecdesice statu Poemata. To these writers may be added Heinsius,
who has made various attempts of this kind, Spera de Pomerico, and Alexander
Ross in his Virgilius Evangelizans. In our own days the achievements of the
heroic Nelson have furnished a distinguished scholar with a theme, which, under
the title Brontes, he has managed with considerable ingenuity, and parts of
which may be accepted as specimens of this sort of composition in general. In
allusion to Lord Nelson serving under Lord St. Vincent in the Agamemnon, the
poet has the following lines:
Proposuit nobis exemplar1 maximus Heros,2
Res Agamemnonias, victriciaque arma secutus3
Ejus qui4 clarum Vincendo nomen habebat.5
Again, on his commanding the Elephant, at the battle of Copenhagen,
quid illo Cive tulisset
Natura in terris aut Roma beatius unquam,
Si circumducto captivorum agmine et omni
Bellorum pompa, animam exhalasset opimam,6
Cum Gaetula ducem' — nomen quoque monstra dedere^
Roboribus textis9 — portaret bellua luscum : 1
Atque indignantes in jura redegerit Arctos.2
Buonaparte is thus described :
Unus homo tantas3 quem misit Corsica4 strages
Ediderit.5
1 Hor. 1 Ep. ii. 18. 2 JEn. vi. 192. 3 ^n. iii. 54.
4 Hor. 4 Od. viii. 13. 5 Ovid. Met. v. 425. G Juv. x. 278.
" Juv. x. 158. § Ovid. Met. ii. 675. 9 JEn. ii. 186.
1 Juv. x. 153. 2 Claud, de iv. Cons. Hon. 336.
3 JEn. ix. 783. 4 Juv. v. 02. 5 JEn. ix. 783.
H 2
100 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETKT.
Tirgii. exulted in his guidance ; and the later poetry of all Europeans has
done homage to his supremacy. In person, according to Donatus,
Virgil was tall; his complexion was dark, his expression rustic,
his manners shy, and of almost feminine modesty. These particulars
may very well be traditional.
Death and The death of Virgil was shortly succeeded by an event scarcely
TibiSulf. *ess afflicting to Horace and to literary Eome :
Te quoque Virgilio comitem non sequa, Tibulle,
Mors juvenem campos misit ad Elysios,
Ne foret aut elegis molles qui fleret amores,
Aut caneret ford regia bella pede.1
Alb ius Tibullus had been associated with Horace, if not by the
bonds of intimate friendship, yet by the sympathies of liberal
pursuits ; to his candour and discrimina-
tion Horace submitted his ethical writings,
and from Horace he received counsel and
consolation in the sufferings of disap-
pointed love.2 If the Vth Elegy of the Hlrd
Book be genuine, he was born u. c. 711,
the same year as Ovid. But this is very
unlikely, as on this calculation he must
have died at the age of twenty-four. In
consequence, some critics carry the birth
of Tibullus twenty years back from this
date. He was of an equestrian family, and
served under M. Valerius Messala Corvinus
Tibullus. in the Gallic wars. The real name of his
Delia, as we learn from Apuleius,3 was Plania; and it is probable that
Glycera was disguised under that of Nemesis. On his return from
And, lastly, his vain wish to invade Britain is given as follows :
Eia age 6 sollicitos Galli dicamus amores ! 7
Toto namque fremunt condensae litore puppes.s
Uritur interea ripse ulterioris amore.9
Fata obstant, tristique palus inamabilis unda.1
[This note is reprinted from the lexicographical part of the former edition of the
Encyclopaedia Metropolitana. The author is unknown to the present editor, who
only remarks that the Cento of Ausonius, if we are to believe its compiler, was
certainly written at the desire of Valentinian ; and that the evangelical Cento from
Homer seems rather hardly dealt with, when its extraordinary ingenuity is
considered.]
1 Domitii Marsi Epigramma. 2 1 Ep. iv. and 1 Od. xxxiii.
3 Apolog. 106.
6 JEn. iv. 569. ? Eel. x. 6. JEn. viii. 497.
9 ^n. vi. 314. l JEn. vi. 438.
HORACE. — TIBULLUS. — PROEBBTIUS.
101
his third military expedition with his patron Messala, he retired to Ttbuiiqa.
his seat near Pedum, between Praeneste and Tibnr, to enjoy, appa-
rently, after a life devoted to the cares and excitements of passion,
the advantages of that true philosophy, which, teaching him to
regard every morning as his last, made each completed day wear
the welcome appearance of an unexpected friend. It was here that
he polished those beautiful productions, whicli have immortalized his
name ; which breathe, in the refined language of his period, though
inartiiicially, the spirit of unambitious domestic enjoyment, the
pure love of nature and country life, the delights of peace, retire-
ment, affection, and friendship (subjectively, however, rather than
graphically) ; and (as Bernhardy has criticised with no less truth
than beauty) "the quiet peacefnlness of an almost childlike dispo-
sition.5' l It was here that he lived in the society of the most
eminent contemporary poets, and that he died u. c. 735 or 736,
bewailed by the Muse of Ovid. It is tolerably clear, both from
external and internal considerations,
that not all the poetry we possess
under the name of Tibullus is genuine.
The two first books of elegies are un-
disputed ; but the third is doubtful,2
and the fourth almost undoubtedly
spurious ; especially the panegyric
on Messala.
In elegy, which he had wrought
to the highest degree of excellence,
as most modern readers will agree with
Quinctiliaii,3 Tibullus was succeeded
by 8. Aurelius Propertius, who was
born about u. c. 700, at Mevania, in
Umbria.4 He lost his father early,
and was educated for the bar. But, Propertiua.
driven from his country possessions, as has been already mentioned, Propertius.
he came to Borne, where he associated with Maecenas, and the
chief literary men of his time. Pew particulars are known of his
life. The real name of his " Cynthia " was Hostia, as we learn
w Die Tibullische Muse athmet den stillen Frieden ernes fast kindlichen
Genuiths."— Qrundr. der K6m. Lit. § 94.
8 Ovid knew only two mistresses of Tibullus, Delia and Nemesis, (3 Am. IX.) ;
but tbe heroine of the third book is Nesera. Moreover, the author calls himself
Lygdamus ; an assumed name, probably ; but Tibullus, in all likelihood, would
have assumed a name prosodiacally correspondent to his own. The author may-
have been Cassius of Parma, as Oebccke conjectures.
3 " Elcgia quoque Gra^cos provocamus ; cujus mihi tersus ntque clegans maxime
videtur auctor Tibullus ; sunt qui Propertium malint." — Quinct. x. 1.
4 4 Eleg. i. 125. Notwithstanding the direct testimony of the poet himself,
Ameria, Hispellum, and Assisium have been assigned by different critics.
102
AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
Horace.
Carmen
Sceculare.
Lyric
Poetry.
from Apuleius.1 She was a poetess,2 and was probably descended
from the poet Hostius,3 of whom mention has been already-
made. Propertius, though an amatory poet, was permitted to be
read by the Fathers of Trent : a distinction probably granted to his
learning and stiffness, which disfigure his pathos, while they mitigate
his lubricitas. His obscurity, in this point of view, may also have
weighed in his favour. He was the avowed imitator and rival of
Callimachus and Philetas ; and, therefore, is far less original and at-
tractive than Tibullus : though the reputation of his four books of
elegies has been deservedly high, from their first appearance till the
present day. He meditated an epic ; but he felt himself unequal
to the task, and acted on the principle of the sound Horatian
maxim.4 He appears to have died under forty years of age.
Horace was now approaching his fiftieth year, and the loss of
two friends, with whom he had been so long associated, threw back
on his heart a tide of generous affection, which soon flowed towards
his early and benevolent patrons Augustus and Maecenas. The
former, at once to prove his friendship for the poet and his
admiration of his genius, selected him to compose the hymn to be
sung in honour of xVpollo and Diana at the Saecular games. This
poem is, in all respects, extremely valuable ; for not only is it a
composition of high intrinsic excellence, but it is the only consider-
able extant specimen of the lyrical part of the Roman worship. The
hymn of Catullus cannot endure any comparison with it, although
probably written for a similar occasion. The Carmen Scecidare, in
most editions, begins with " Phcebe, sylvarumque potens Diana," and
ends with " Dicere laudes." Some scholars, however, among whom
is Sanadon, take a far more extensive range. They make the poem
consist of three parts, with a sort of prelude or introduction, which
is supplied by the first stanza of the 1st Ode of the Illrd Book.
On the first day, say they, were sung the seven first stanzas of the
Vlth Ode of the IVth Book ; on the second, the XXIst Ode of the
1st Book : and on the third, the poem, commonly reputed the
Carmen Saculare, followed by an Epilogue, which is furnished by
the remaining stanzas of the YItli Ode of the IVth Book. Nearly
the same arrangement is adopted by Anchersen. There is no doubt
that this arrangement produces a very noble and beautiful structure,
and that the fugitive pieces which it has been attempted to collect
into a regular whole have connection with the subject ; there is not,
however, any evidence beyond internal congruity in favour of this
ingenious collocation.
In one sense, the Carmen Saculare is the most valuable pro-
duction of Horace for illustrating the genius of its author. That
the llomans, while they cultivated every other species of the Greek
In Apolog.
See Prop. 3 Eleg. xx; 8.
Prop. 1 Eleg. ii. 27.
3 Eleg. iii. Hor. de Art. Poet. 39.
HORACE. — LYRICS. — CRITICISM. 103
poetry, should have neglected the lyric, is easily explained from the Horace
unpoetical cast of the national character. Though deficient them-
selves in invention, they could appreciate and imitate the more
regulated flights of the Maeonian swan; but when the " Theban
eagle " was
Sailing with supreme dominion
Through the azure deep of air,
lie was, to their eyes, lost in the clouds above which he was
towering. Horace was fully sensible of this ; and although his
brilliant eulogium on Pindar proves how entirely he understood and
felt the beauties of the Theban, he considered a successful effort
to imitate his style and sentiment impossible.1 The attempt,
however, was made by Septimius Titius, supposed to be the same
to whom Horace addressed the YIth Ode of the Ilnd Book, and.
whom he recommended with so much delicacy and elegance to
Tiberius.2 Antonius Eufus was equally venturous.3 But the real
success of these poets may be fairly estimated from the judgment
of Quinctilian, who, as was before observed, considers Horace
almost the only Latin lyrist worth reading. Although, however,
lyrical poetry never flourished in Latium, there were occasions when
it was necessary that it should be cultivated. These were religious
festivals. On the due observation of the ceremonies of religion, the
welfare of the State was supposed greatly to depend ; and, as the
enthusiasm of Koman patriotism is beyond question, it might fairly
be supposed that in their hymns, at least, there would be traces of
inspiration. The fact, however, is otherwise. The Carmen Stecu-
lare of Horace, therefore, is not a composition refined and corrected
on a long series of approved models, but a production possessing
the highest excellences of its class, written amidst a people, who,
with every inducement to cultivate this species of poetry, had
totally failed in it. So pleased was Augustus with this compo-
sition, that he commanded Horace to celebrate in an ode the victory
which Drusus and Tiberius obtained over the Khaeti and Yindelici,4
which poem, together with the book of which it forms a part, was
published by the emperor's order, in the same year, according to
Bentley, with the Carmen Saculare.
Nor was Augustus desirous alone to have his public successes Epistles to
embalmed in the verses of Horace. He read the poet's Epistles and Augustus
Satires, and felt chagrined and discontented because none of them p^os. e
were addressed to himself. " I am angry with you," he writes to
Horace," because you do not especially choose me to converse with
in the principal part of your writings of this nature. Do you fear
1 4 Od. ii. - 1 Ep. iii.
3 Ov. iv. Ep. ex Pont. vi. et Burmanni not. Bahr considers Yalgius Rufus
intended. Gesch. der Rom. Lit. s. 140'.
4 Suet, in Vit. Hor.
104
AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
Horace.
Art of
Poetry, or,
Epistle to
the Pisos.
lest the appearance of my intimacy should injure you with pos-
terity?"1 To this nattering reproof, Horace replied by the 1st
Epistle of the Hnd Book, in which he extricates himself from the
charge of neglect, with that consummate skill and address which
were so peculiarly his own. From this highly valuable composition
we obtain materials for the most correct and methodical investigation
of the whole history of Latin poetry. "We have, in the early part
of this memoir, acknowledged our obligation to Horace in this
respect ; and it is mainly in consequence of this epistle that this
obligation is contracted. We have followed its guidance up to
the Augustan age ; and the present will be the most favourable
opportunity of examining, by its light, what was at that time the
general state of poetry, and, in particular, that of the drama. The
subject and style oiTlie Art of Poetry are so similar to those of the
Epistle to Augustus, that it will be convenient, both for conciseness
and perspicuity, to examine them together.
Dr. Hurd, in his very minute and elaborate commentary on the
two great critical epistles of Horace, supposes that the Epistle to the
Pisos was written with a view to the regeneration of the Eoman
drama exclusively ; that, on this assumption, the poem is reducible to
a regular and consistent plan; and that all which it contains con-
cerning other departments of poetry may easily be referred to that
digressive character which is essential to the freedom of epistolary
writing. No reader will contest the ingenuity of the hypothesis,
or the plausibility of many of the arguments by which it is
supported ; yet it is impossible to rise from the perusal of
Dr. Hurd's observations without feeling that his connexions, in
many instances, are anything but natural. To find an accurate
system in Horace is what is not to be expected ; a conversational
absence of method and a " graceful negligence " have been pointed
out as his distinguishing features, by an author who entered more
fully into the spirit of his essays than perhaps any critic or com-
mentator whatever ; and with respect to the greater number of his
Satires and Epistles, this opinion neither has been, nor can be,
controverted. It does not, therefore, appear probable that Horace
intended, in his Epistle to tlie Pisos, an exception to the general
style of his other epistolary writings : or, if such has been his
intention, never was art more artificially concealed. Later writers,
among whom are Col man, Wieland, Mittermayer, Orelli, have
thought it the intention of Horace to deter the Pisos, or some one
or more of them, from the path of poetry, which they were unquali-
fied to pursue. That some of that family had trodden it, and, in
Pliny's opinion, with success, is evident from a letter of that writer
to Spurinna.2 It has been too much the fashion to neglect or
Suet, in Vit. Ilor.
- v. 17.
HORACE. CRITICISM. 105
despise the old scholiasts, whereas they are often the only sources of Horace,
authentic information. Porphyrion tells us that the Art of Poetry
was principally compiled from the more methodical work of
Neoptolemus : and as this account appears liable to no objections,
the most probable conclusion that can be formed on the subject is
that Horace intended to convey in a popular form the elements
of critical science, as he had already treated those of the science of
.ethics.
But although it may not be universally admitted that Horace had
no other object in writing this epistle than the recovery, if possible,
of the Eoman drama, it might be expected that in a treatise, how-
ever familiar and unmethodical, on poetry, the drama would claim a
very peculiar attention ; and that this attention would in no small
degree be augmented by the extreme degeneracy of that province of
poetry at the time when this treatise was written. Without entering
on an investigation of the causes of the disease, which appear to
have been numerous and complicated, the literary patriot would
point out to his countrymen the means of remedy, by recalling
their atteution to just models, and well-grounded maxims. And
this is exactly what Horace has done. Although all his precepts
are intended for the Roman poet, he admits no other excellence
(except in subject) than that which the Greeks allowed ; and
experience proves that, however controvertible may be the efficiency
of his canons in modern poetry, the Eomans, whose main excellence
wras imitation, succeeded precisely in proportion as they regarded
the laws, which, existing before in the reason of things, or in the
practice of the Greeks, were digested and elucidated by Horace.
While reconducting the dramatist, as well as every other poet, to
the study of those authors from whom the best writers for the
Eoman stage had learned their art, Horace has not been unmindful
of his father's philosophy,1 which taught him to ground his precepts
on example : his rules, though general in their form, glance at
particular beauties and demerits in Eoman authors. The loss of
the great mass of Latin dramatic literature makes it sometimes im-
possible to appropriate his allusions, and, occasionally, perhaps,
to perceive them. A curious passage in Cicero enables us to deter-
mine the scope of one of these with some certainty, The first
judgment which the poet passes on the drama, is on the style of its
versification :
Versions exponi Tragicis res Comica nonvult :
Indignatur item privatis et prope socco
Dignis carminibus narrari cosna thyest;e.
Cicero,2 speaking of the difficulty of understanding the melody of
1 1 Sat. iv. 1 05, seqq. - Orator. It.
106
AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
Horace.
Causes of
Dramatic
degenei acy.
poetry adapted to music, quotes the following line from the Tttyestes
of Ennius :
Quemnam te esse dicam ? qui tarda in senectute —
and adds: " et qua sequuntur ; wm nisi quum tibicen accessit,
orationi sunt soLUTyE simillima.." There is little doubt,
therefore, that in this passage the poet designed to illustrate his
meaning more particularly by reference to this tragedy of Ennius ;
and this observation may serve as a general view of the conduct of
the epistle.
It cannot be distinctly ascertained to whom this epistle was
addressed : but the conjecture of Dacier is probable ; namely, that
Lucius Piso may claim this honour, who was Consul u. c. 738, and
his two sons, Cnaeus and Lucius.
We shall now discuss briefly the causes of what may be called
the total extinction of the drama, in an age when every other
department of poetry had reached the meridian of cultivation. The
want of encouragement afforded to poetry of any kind, which once
operated so powerfully against the interests of the drama, was now
removed ; and it might have been supposed that Naevius and
Caecilius, Attius and Pacuvius, would have been supplanted in an
age when Ennius and Lucilius were superseded by Yirgil and
Horace. The truth is, we can never hope to reason correctly of
the general state of poetry in a nation from that of the drama.
The former varies with the cultivation of the few ; the latter, with
the promiscuous taste of the people. At Athens, where the existence
of a large slave population afforded no inconsiderable leisure to the
meanest citizens, and every citizen was an integral part of the govern-
ment, there were necessarily many opportunities and advantages
for forming a just taste among the people ; and to these we may in
some measure attribute the encouragement which the drama received
at their hands, and the consequent excellence of their dramatists.
In the early ages of Ptoman literature, the case was widely different.
While the Attic husbandman was enjoying Aristophanes and
Menander, the Ptoman nobleman was at his plough. This state of
things had yet its relative advantages for the drama. As the
disregard of literature was nearly universal, there were few literary
patrons for poets to cultivate ; and hence they were almost compelled
to appeal for their fame to a theatrical audience. Plays, therefore,
constituted the principal part of the early Pioman poetry : but their
judges were too easily pleased, too ignorant of the sources whence
the poets drew, and too careless, or indifferent, to allow the drama
to attain that vigorous health and mature proportion which it had
acquired in Greece. When, therefore, in a happier age, literary,
and especially poetical, excellence became the certain path to dis-
tinction and honour, the fluctuating decisions of popular caprice
HORACE. THE DRAMA.
107
were, naturally enough, deserted for the steadier countenance of the Catweaof
learned. In the mean time, while learning had been advancing in SJSISLt.
fthe higher classes, the ferocity of the lower remained unmitigated ;
I or, at best, was tempered only by the vices which naturally arose
out of an unsettled government, a luxurious aristocracy, and an
intercourse with the refuse of mankind from every part of the known
world. The Augustan Eomans were as little civilised as the audiences
of Livius and Ngevius ; but they had lost the virtues of uncivilised
life, and, with these, the power to appreciate and enjoy every thing
[intellectual.1
At no time, indeed, does the Eoman public appear to have
The Coliseum.
entertained a very poignant relish for the drama. Plays were acted
as part of religious ceremonies ; and the people attended them among
the customary exhibitions, of which they were generally the least
attractive, because the least intelligible. Even in the age of Terence,
L The causes of the neglect which the Romans manifested towards the Drama,
especially in the age of Augustus, have been much canvassed. Several probable
hypotheses have been assigned by Tiraboschi, and by Frederick Schlegel, in his
third lecture on the History of Literature. Mr. Dunlop, in his History of Roman
Literature, has some good observations on the same subject ; but he has pillaged
most unreservedly from both.
108 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
causes of the golden period of the Eoman drama, buffoons and gladiators could
degeneracy. a^ any ^me divert the attention of an unlettered and savage audi-
ence from dramatic entertainments. When the Hecyra of Terence
was first brought on the stage,1 the devotion of the mob to boxers j
and rope-dancers would not allow it to be heard through : when it
was produced for the second time, a sudden report of a gladiatorial
combat caused an immediate tumult, and compelled the actors to
retire. It was soon evident, that a dramatist must trust for his
success to something else than the excellence of his poetry or his
plot. As among ourselves,
(pudet haec opprobria nobis
Et dici potuisse, et non potuisse refelli,)
no trash was so paltry that it could not pass with the aid of spec-
tacle; while Thalia and Melpomene themselves would have been ]
hissed from the stage, had they ventured to appear before the
sovereign people without the statutable proportion of spangles and
tinsel. That writers of genius, therefore, would descend to a com-
petition with mountebanks and property-men was not to be
expected ; especially where the result of the contest was so little
equivocal.
There is extant a letter from Cicero to Marius,2 in which the writer
gives an account of the entertainments presented at Rome in the year
of the City 698, 110 years after the second rejection of the Hecyra;
which, as curiously illustrative of the state of the Eoman Drama at
that time, we shall here partially quote. From this it will appear that
the ever-memorable Blue Beard is no more to be compared to a
Eoman spectacle, than Covent Garden theatre to the Coliseum.
" If you ask how the games were got up, I must say, most splen-
didly : not at all, however, to your taste, so far as I may judge
from mine." — " All the pleasure of the audience was engrossed in
the contemplation of the pageantry : pageantry, the absence of which,
I can well conceive, you would not have deeply regretted. What
amusement indeed is afforded by six hundred mules in the
Tragedy of Clytcemnestra ? or thkee thousand targeteers,3 in the
Trojan Horse ? or the ornamented armour of cavalry and infantry
in action ? These things command the admiration of the mob, but
could have afforded no pleasure to you." — "And where is the
pleasure a cultivated mind can derive from seeing a defenceless man
mangled by a powerful beast, or a generous beast transfixed upon a
1 Prolog, in Hecyr. 2 Ep. ad Familiares, vii. 1.
2 Craterarum tria millia. Various corrections have been suggested. Graevius
conjectures the right reading to be cetrarum. The cetra was a kind of buckler
made of elephant's hide, principally in use among the Spaniards and Africans.
We offer, as a slight improvement on the reading of Graevius, cetratorum, sc.
militum.
HORACE. — THE DRAMA* 109
bunting-spear ? " — " On the last day was the battle of the elephants ; causes of
'where there was enough for the mob to admire, but little to be S^jJ}^ ,
pleased with. Indeed there was a feeling of pity, arising from the
persuasion that there is some natural sympathy between that animal
land man."
This passage of Cicero brings the history of the Roman Drama
very near the time of Horace ; it is not matter of surprise, therefore,
ithat, when Folly and Cruelty had taken so entire a possession of
the stage, Virtue and Sense should have failed to resume their
ground. These seem altogether to have departed with Roscius and
iEsopus, the Kemble and Macready of that day, who, by preter-
natural efforts, kept them awhile in nickering vitality. Indeed the
attempt at restoration would have been useless ; for in the age of
Horace the contamination had reached the highest classes, who no
longer sought their pleasure at the theatre in listening to the melody
of versification, or in acquiring noble and beautiful ideas, but in
gazing on camelopards, elephants, horses, processions, and combats,
the exhibition of which would sometimes occupy four hours and
upwards at a time. Sometimes indeed the knights personally
engaged as gladiators,1 and performed in plays.2 The encourage-
ment which Augustus and Maecenas gave to literary merit would
never have been resigned by any sensible poet for the precarious
and worthless applause of an audience whose restless anxiety for the
boxing-match or the bear-baiting might break forth in the midst of
his performance. It is not improbable that this state of the
Augustan stage has lost us a drama from the pen of Horace. No
poet ever felt more deeply the charms of the dramatic Muses ; no
poet ever drew a juster picture of dramatic inspiration ; nor could
our own great enchanter of Macbeth and Hamlet have been described
more accurately than in the following lines : 3
Hie per extentum funem uiihi posse videtur
Ire poeta, meimi qui pectus inaniter angit,
Irritat, mulcet, falsis terroribus implet,
Ut magus : et modo me Tbebis, modo ponit Athenis.
But Horace judged with Aristotle,4 that acting is an essential part closet
of the drama, and, where he could not obtain this, he preferred
relinquishing dramatic writing altogether, to composing for the
closet ; a custom which has been always too prevalent when the
stage is corrupted, and which is often the surest indication of its
corruption. There were no closet dramas in the days of Attius
and Pacuvius, of Shakspeare and Jonson ; but we have abundance of
them now ; and something of the same kind appears in the time of
Augustus. Fundanius, as we have seen, was pronounced by
1 Suet. Aug. xliii. - Dio. Cass. liii. 56.
3 Hor. Ep. ad Aug. 210. 4 Poet, passim.
110
AUGUSTAN LATIN POETUY.
Causes of
Dramatic
degeneracy.
Mimes.
Horace the first, or rather the only, comic poet of his day. The
latter, strictly speaking, he was not ; he must have been, however,
a poet of no inconsiderable comparative excellence : yet it is
remarkable that not only no work of his has reached us, but that
we are in total ignorance who he was : his works therefore were,
in all probability, known to few. But this they could not have
been, had they been publicly acted. They were, probably, there-
fore, not intended for the stage, but were only allowed to circulate
among his friends. And this hypothesis derives confirmation from
the term " lihelli" which Horace bestows on them, an expression
not frequently applied to dramatic productions.
From Horace's mention of Pundanius, and the silence of all
other writers respecting him, there is yet thus much to be gleaned :
either he was a closet dramatist, or, though the best comic poet
of his age, yet he was an author of very limited celebrity. In
either of these cases, the miserably
abject state of the drama is evident ;
for an author of talent would never
write dramas merely for the perusal
of friends, when the stage could
give him justice and reputation : nor
can we think very highly of the
dramatic excellence of a period when
the best comic writer is an author
whose name is scarcely known.
Moreover, the tragedians of the
period, who were not numerous, did
not redeem their paucity by their ex-
cellence. Titius Septimius, as a cul-
tivator of Pindaric lyrics, was likely
enough to have merited Horace's
description,
Tragica descevit ct ampullatur in arte.1
and Puppius, though he drew tears
from his audience, has left us a better
standard of his true powers, in the
sly and quiet laugh which he has
elicited from Horace. 2
In further confirmation of the
hypothesis that the legitimate drama,
insulted on her proper ground, the stage, had taken refuge in the
closet, we may observe that closet Mimes, or Parces, existed in
the time of Julius Caesar. It was usual for the author of these
Comic Actor in the Mimes.
1 1 Ep. iii. 14.
Ibid. i. 07
HORACE. — THE MIME. Ill
pieces to sustain the principal character in them ; yet Decimus CaufSM f)f
I )r'LlT\U.\.l('
Laberius, a Roman knight, who never designed to perform on the degeneracy.
■age, wrote no fewer than forty-three of these. Although mimetic
poetry, like the more regular drama, had decayed before the time
of Augustus, we have postponed the notice of it to this place,
because its history is intimately connected with that depravation
of the stage which could not so conveniently have been noticed
elsewhere.
In that unsettled and fluctuating state of polite learning which
subsided at length into the beautiful and symmetrical fabric of
the Augustan litreature; when the Greek philosophy and refine-
ment, imported by Lucretius and Cicero, were struggling, with
the coarser elements of the Boman idiosyncrasy, although there
I existed no cherishing influence to strengthen and guide their opera-
tions to the production of regular and definite excellence; when neither
the encouragement of a promiscuous audience, nor the patronage
of a literary aristocracy, afforded an outlet to the general fermen-
tation : Poetry, expelled from the stage by Folly, invaded, in
retaliation, the province of Buffoonery itself, and raised the old
extemporaneous farces to the dignity of compositions. It has been
the custom, especially among the late Latin writers, to confound
the Mime with the Atellane play : the difference, however, is not
inconsiderable. Mimes were imported from Sicily and Magna
Graecia ; they were invariably and entirely Latin : they were
performed by professed actors, and not by the Eoman gentry ;
and their whole spirit was so essentially different from that of the
Atellanes, that Cicero almost contrasts the two species of enter-
tainment ; 1 for, in writing to Papirius Fsetus, he complains that
his correspondent had joked with him rather with the coarseness
of the Mime, than the more delicate raillery of the Atellane : —
" Nunc venio ad jocationes tuas, quum tu, secundum (Enomaum Attii,
non, ut olim solebat, Atellanum, seel, ut nunc jit, Mirnum introduxidi"2
True, indeed, it is, that the Atellane, in the period which we are
treating, had risen from its original foreign and shapeless state
into the rank of Latin literature in the more polished composi-
tions of Pomponius and Novius ; to the former of whom Pome
was indebted for sixty of these plays, and to the latter for
forty. 3 But the very reason assigned by Valerius Maximus for
1 ix. Ep. ad Fam. 16.
2 Munk gives a different turn to this passage (de Fab. AtelL 12.5) ; Matthiae
(Epist. Seleett.) interprets with us. But both agree with us in allowing that it
draws a sharp distinction between the Atellane and the Mime.
3 The fragments of Pomponius and Novius, as well as those of Memmius,
(" qui post Xovimn et Pomponium dm jacentem artem Atellaniam suscitavit,"
Macrob. Sat. i. 10), have been laboriously collected by Munk; but there is
nothing in them of sufficient extent to afford a specimen of these authors.
Velleius (ii. (J) calls Pomponius " tensions celebrem, verbis rudem, novltute a se
112
AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
Causes of
Dramatic
degeneracy.
the rank and privilege of actors in the Atellane, which date from
its first existence,1 is the grave character of its humour;2 while,
from all that can be collected from ancient authors, ribaldry and
obscenity were the features of the Mime. Even Martial, who
in these can scarcely be surpassed, avows that the Mimes were
not less licentious than his own epigrams. 3 And Ovid seems to
consider them the very climax of licentiousness, when, apologising
to Augustus for the freedom of his own writings, he contrasts it
with the gross and undisguised impurities of the Mimes : 4
Quid si scripsissem Mimos obsccena jocantes ?
Qui vetiti semper crimen amoris habent ;
In quibus assidue cultus procedit adulter,
Verbaque dat stulto callida nupta viro.
* *■ * * *
Scribere si fas est imitantes turpia Mimos,
Materia? minor est debita poena ineoe.5
From these verses it appears that not only the character, but
the plot of the Mime (which was extremely jejune) was tolerably
constant. The same observation has been already made on the
Roman regular Comedy : but it may be here extended ; for there
seem to have been some characters and situations which entered
into the essence of the Mime, as is the case with our modern
Harlequinades, and was with the ancient Atellane. The principal
of these was Sannio, the prototype, most probably, of the Italian
Zanni ; for the Panmculus, a character which Mr. Dunlop mentions
as a constant ingredient of the Mime, " who appeared in a party-
coloured dress, with his head shaved, feigning stupidity or folly,
and allowing blows to be inflicted on himself without cause or
moderation," seems only to be a creation of that ingenious author.6
It appears that there was a mimetic actor thus called in the time
of Domitian,7 who represented the slave of another actor. Latinus,
in which character he was not treated in the gentlest conceivable
manner ; but there seems to be no reason for considering Panni-
culus other than his actual name, since we know that Latinus was a
real character.8 In all the Mimes there was a principal performer,
inventi operis commendabilem." The " novelty " and " invention," most probably,
consisted in the regular and literary form which Pomponius had bestowed on what
was before wholly barbarous, and mainly, if not entirely, extemporaneous.
1 ii. 4. 4.
2 Klenze (Zur Gcschichte dcr Altitalischcn VolkstUmme) will not believe
Valerius, and adduces many testimonies to the impurity of the Atellancs ; but
these all refer to much later periods than that of which Valerius is speaking. At
the same time the gravity of the early Atellaues was only comparative.
:i iii. Ep. 78. 4 ii. Trist. 497.
5 Ovid. ii. Trist. 575. See Lactant. vi. 20, 30.
6 Hist, of Rom. Lit. vol. i. ' Mart. i. 5 ; ii. 72 j v. 61.
8 Suet. Doinit. xv. et Juv. Sat. i. 3G ; vi. 44.
HORACE. — LABERIUS. 113
to whom the rest acted as foils, and who was generally, as was
before observed, the author of the piece. His part was regularly
composed, but the others assisted him by extemporaneous raillery
and gesticulation ; and, whenever these failed, the actor left the
stage precipitately, and the curtain was drawn. 1 The Planipes
(Mimus), Planipedaria, or Biciniata (Fabula), which some authors
distinguish from the Mime, in reality only differs from it as the
Togata from the PaJliata ; these were names given to Mimes on
Roman subjects; the derivation being from the unbuskined foot,
or simple square garment (ricinium) of the actors. Mimes were
so popular during the early years of the empire, that they had
nearly driven the Atellanes from the stage : whence, perhaps, the
confusion between these kinds of composition.
C. Decimus Laberius, a Roman knight, attached to the old Laberiu
republican government, had, as we have already had occasion to
observe, employed his leisure in the occasional composition of these
rude dramatic sketches.- Julius Csesar, whose object it was to
crush the spirit of the Roman aristocracy, and especially of those
among them whose regrets and affections lingered with former
liberty and independence, offered him 500,000 sesterces to perform
his own Mimes. He complied ; apparently, less on account of the
inducement held out to him than through fear of offending the
dictator. When, however, he had consented to appear on the
stage, the infamy of his concession came on his mind in all its
deformity, and he expressed the bitterness of wounded honour in
an indignant prologue, preserved by Macrobius,3 to whom we are
indebted for this part of our history, in which he contrasted his
1 Cic. Orat, pro Cad., ct ibi Variorum Comm. ': Macr. Sat. ii. 7.
3 Ubi supra. We append this piece, with a translation.
Necessitas, eujus eursiis transversi impetum
Voluerunt niulti ett'ugere, pauci potuerunt,
Quo me detrusit panic extremis sensibus ?
Quern nulla ambitio, nulla umquam iargitio,
Null us timer, vis nulla, nulla auctoritas
Movere potuit in juventa de statu ;
Eeee in seneeui ut facile labefeeit loco
Viri excellentis mente clemente edita
Submissa placide blandiloquens oratio !
Etenim ipsi Di negare cui nihil potuerunt
Hominem me denegare quis posset pati ?
Ergo, bis tricenis annis actis sine notii,
Equea Romauua Lare egressua moo,1
Domum revertar mini us. Nimiriiui hoc die
Uno plus vixi mihi quam vivendum fuit.
Fortuna, immoderata iu bono wque atque iu malo !
Si tibi erat libitum littcrarum laudibus
1 Perhaps, Laribus egressua meis.
114 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
Laberius. former life with the situation in which he was placed by the
dictator's authoritative request, whose persuasive eloquence he
panegyrized in a vein of the richest irony. Not content with this,
he represented, in the course of the piece, a slave flying from the
whip, and exclaiming :
Pond, Quirites, Libertatem perdimus !
And afterwards added
Necesse est multos timeat quern multi timent,
on which the eyes of the whole assembly were immediately turned
on Csesar. The fragments which remain of the Mimes of Laberius
are neither numerous nor copious enough to afford us the
Floris cacumen nostra famse frangere,
Cur, quiim vigebaui membris praviridantibus,
Satisfacere populo et tali cum poteram viro,
Non me flexibilem concurvasti ut carperes ?
Nunc me quo dejicis ? quid ad scenam affero?
Decorem formae, an dignitatem corporis,
Animi virtutem, an vocis jucundse sonum ?
Ut hedera serpens vires arboreas necat,
Ita me Vetustas amplexu annorum enecat :
Sepulchri similis nihil nisi nomen retineo.
Whither hath Fate, whose rushing sidelong sweep
Many have sought to shun, but few avail'd,
Driv'n me, in these my latest hours of life ?
Whom no ambition, no corruption ever,
No fear, no violence, no influence,
Could move in youth from off my stedfast ground, —
How easily in age have I been cast
Down from that eminence by the honey'd speech,
The gentle soft entreaty, speaking forth
The kindly mind of an illustrious man !
Who would endure that I, poor mortal wretch,
Should dare refuse him whom the gods themselves
Presumed not to deny whate'er he claim'd ?
Thus after three-score years of stainless life,
I issue from my doors a Roman knight,
To enter them a mime ! marry, this day,
I've liv'd a day too long. 0 Fortune, Fortune !
Inordinate alike in good and ill !
If 'twas thy pleasure to employ my pen
Against rny fame, why, when the sap flow'd green
Along my limbs, and I could well have pleas' d
The people, and this most illustrious man,
Didst thou not bend me supple to thy purpose ?
Now, whither dost thou hurl me? What can I
Bring to the stage ? fair feature ? stately form ?
Vigour of intellect ? melodious tone ? —
As crawling ivy saps the strength of trees,
So Age consumes me in the embrace of years ;
And, tomb-like, 1 have nothing but a name.
HORACE. — LABEBIUS AND PUBLIUS. 115
means of examining his merits. Aulas Grellius reproaches him Laberius.
with a stiff and pedantic phraseology: ' the fastidiousness, however,
of the Augustan age rejected many words and phrases which, in
reality, were more faithfully conceived in the genius of Greek
composition than the phraseology sanctioned by the authorities of
that philhellenic period. Horace mentions the keenness of his
humour together with that of Lucilius : -
Nernpe incomposito dbri pede eurrere versus
Lucili. Quis tarn Lucili tauter inepte est
U\ non hoc fateatur? At idem, quod sale multo
Urbem defricuit, charta laudator eadem.
Nee tamen hoc tribueus, dederim quoque eivtcra : nam sic
Et Labeii Mimos, at pulchra poeinata, mirer.
Nothing can be more incorrect than to distort this passage into a
censure of Laberius ; it is indeed a high compliment to his comic
and satirical powers, and only distinguishes his Mimes from exact
and elegant poems, which they did not profess to be ; whereas
Lucilius, of whom the poet is writing, assumed higher ground, and
therefore justified higher expectations. The author of the Prologue
in Macrobius was evidently capable of mimetic excellence.
Laberius was reserved for further mortification, Publius, a contest of
Syrian freedman, who had gained a considerable celebrity by ^f^ims
acting Mimes through the towns of Italy, came to Borne, and syrus.
challenged all the professors of the art, whom he severally conquered :
among these was Laberius.3 In the decision, which rested with
Julius Caesar, there can be little doubt that the dictator was
actuated in some measure by revenge. He turned with a smile
to Laberius, and said :
Favente tibi me victus es, Laberi, a. Syro :
and gave Publius the palm, and Laberius a ring of gold, and.
500 sesterces. Publius then insulted Laberius with another verse:
Quicum coutendisti scriptor, hune spectator subleva.
Laberius sought his place among the knights, but' was refused. As
he passed Cicero, the orator said, " I would give you a seat, if
I were not crowded ; " alluding to the number of new senators
created by Caesar, Laberius replied, " I wonder you are crowded,
accustomed as you are to occupy two : " — a taunt levelled at Cicero's
alleged instability.4
All that now remain of the works of Publius are between eight works of
and nine hundred isolated verses, containing apophthegms of great rublius-
beauty, expressed with peculiar felicity, generally each in a
1 Noct. Att. xvi. 7. 2 1 Sat. x. bit
3 Aul. Gell., Noct. Att. xvii. 14. 4 Macr. Sat. II. iii., VII. iii.
i 2
116
AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
Pubiius. single line. The judgment which Seneca passes on them, 1 that
they are better suited to tragedy than low farce, will be readily
acquiesced in by all readers: nor is it easy to understand how
sentiments so noble, so true, and so philosophical, could have
amalgamated with the gross materials of the Mime. The truth
appears to be that tragic genius, discouraged in its proper field,
invaded a province, in which, although adequate development was
impossible, nevertheless applause was certain. 2
Muiius. Contemporary with Laberius and Pubiius was Cneius Matius,
who wrote Mimiambics, which differed from the Mimes of the two
former authors only by being written in scazontics. He also
translated the Iliad into hexameters. 3 After this time the Mime
fell to its former level, and,
in the time of Augustus,
poets had taken an almost
entire leave of the Roman
stage. The pieces of the old
dramatists, however, were
still performed, as those of
Shakspeare are among us ;
the emperor himself loved to
exhibit them in the public
games ; 4 and it was con-
sidered the height of critical
ignorance to impugn the
excellence of any of them ;
an attachment to antiquity
which Horace justly ridi-
cules.5 But if the dramatic
Muses were treated with
neglect, no attentions were
withheld from their sisters.
The literary fermentation, ill
suppressed by the unfavour-
able position of politics, had
only waited the sanction and
encouragement of power to
burst forth : and from those parts of the writings of Horace which
are now under our more immediate attention, wre may conclude that
1 Ep. viii. ; De Tranq. Anini. xi.
2 See Seneca, Ep. cviii. The extant verses of Pubiius Syrua have been edited
by Bentley, together with Terence : and a very copious and elegant edition was
published at Leyden in 1 708, entitled, L. Awnoei Senecce et P. Syri Mimi,
forsan etiam ctiiorum, Si/figvlares Sententice: Studio et Opera Jani Qru&eri.
3 Terent. Maur. The translator of the Iliad is, however, distinguished from
the mimiainbist by Bernhardy. Grundriss der Rom. Lit. 7<».
4 Suet., Augustus, b'0. 5 Ep. ad Aug.
Remains of the Flaminian Circus.
HORACE. LITERARY EXCITEMENT. 117
the situation of Augustus and Maecenas was in no respect preferable General
to that state of literary persecution which Pope paints with such AmraJtaii
pathetic humour in the Prologue to the Satires. All was one amabilis Poetry.
insauia.1 Augustus himself did not escape the infection.3 He
wrote a poem called Sicilla in hexameters, a tragedy intituled
Achilles, another called Ajax, which he destroyed unfinished, some
Fescennine verses on Pollio, and a book of epigrams. lie was well
content, however, to have purchased, at the cost of literary impor-
tunities, exemption from troubles of a graver character, and to
have shifted the battle-ground from Philippi to Parnassus : and
he was pleased to find that, by his encouragement of poetry, he
had not only diverted the public mind from political interests and
recollections, achieved popularity, and even obtained gratitude ;
but that he had also excited a spirit favourable to the continuance
of all these things. A bloodless civil war had replaced the struggles
of political factions ; the followers of antiquity talked not of Brutus
and Gracchus, but of Ennius and Lucilius ; while the partisans of
the modern school spoke less of Julius and Augustus than of Horace
and Virgil. The rude, but strong and heart-inspiring tones of the
old minstrels were contrasted with the less nervous but more tasteful
and polished strains of later artists, favourably or otherwise, as
the fancy of readers led them. The public feeling found exercise in
an institution, which, though it had existed before, was rendered
almost necessary by the temper of the Augustan times, and was
mainly promoted by Asinius Pollio. This was the meeting of a
sort of literary clubs, not unlike Will's Coffee-house in the seven-
teenth century, for the purpose of recitation ; and in this way
authors, poets most especially, frequently gave their works to the
public. In these the modern party achieved a signal triumph.
Such being the character of the time, it is not matter of surprise
that a great many names of poets should have reached us of whom
we know little more, and of whom the knowledge would, probably,
be of little value. A select catalogue, in which Ovid wished
1 Mutavit mentem populus levis, et calet uno
Seribendi studio : puerique, patresque severi
Fronde comas vincti ccenant, et carmina dictant.
* * * ♦ *
Scribimus indocti doctique poemata passim.
Hot. Ep. ad Aug. 107.
Ludcre qui nescit campestribus abstinet armis,
Indoctusque pilae discive trochive quiescit,
Ne spissae risum tollant impune coronae :
Qui nescit, versus tamen audet fingere ! — Quiclni ?
Liber et ingenuus, praesertim census equestrem
Sum mam nummorum, vitioque remotus ab omni.
Hor. Art. Poet. 379.
2 Suet., Aug. Ixxxv. Suidas, voc. Avyovaros. Macr., Sat. zi 4. Plin.,
xxxiv. 10.
118
AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
Ovid's
Catalogue
of Poets.
Domitius
Marsus.
Rabirius.
Cams.
Severus.
Sabinus.
Varro.
Tuticanus.
posterity to place himself, forms the substance of the poet's last
Pontic elegy : to many of the names which compose it we have
before adverted, and we shall here give a brief notice of such
among the rest as appear best to deserve it.
Domitius Marsus was an epigrammatist, and also author of a
poem called Amozonis, on the exploits of the Amazons. His
epigram on the death of Tibullus we have already quoted. It
appears to be a portion of an elegy. Vide Broukhuvs, ad locum.
He is frequently commended by Martial. l Rabirius had celebrated
the civil wars of Augustus and Antony ; 2 if the common reading
be genuine, he has been compared by Yelleius Paterculus to Yirgil.3
A portion of his work De hello Actiaco has been thought to
have been discovered in an Herculanean MS. Some, however,
suppose this poem to be part of Yarius's panegyric on Augustus.
Cams w^as a personal friend of Ovid, to whom the poet wrote
the XIYth of his IYth Book of Pontic Epistles, from which it
appears that he was tutor to the sons of Germanicus. Cornelius
Severus was a poet of considerable celebrity. He wrote a poem
on the wars in Sicily, as appears from Quinctilian; and Ovid
ascribes to him tragedies. A spirited fragment of this poet on
the death of Cicero is cited by M. Seneca, which that writer
pronounces inferior to none of the numerous compositions to which
that occasion gave birth. 4 Quinctilian considers him a better
versifier than poet ; 5 but would have placed him second to Yirgil
or Ovid, had he succeeded as well in the wThole of his Sicilian war,
as he had done in the 1st Book. 6 His work was interrupted by
death. The same critic speaks very highly of his juvenile poems.
He is often cited by the grammarians for instances of enallage of
gender. Sabinus wrote replies to several of Ovid's Epistles.
They are enumerated, ii. Amor., xviii. Three epistles, purporting to
belong to this writer, are found in the editio princeps of Ovid's
Hero'ides; but as they are not to be found now in any MS.,
scholars have ascribed them toAngeloSabino, a scholar of the fifteenth
century. Jahn, however, considers them genuine. The "velivoli
maris vates " is generally supposed to be Terentius Yarro of Atax,
already mentioned. The poet " qui Maeoniam Phaeacida vertit " is
Tuticanus, to whom the XHIth and XIYth Elegies of the IYth
Book of the Pontics are addressed. He was the early and intimate
friend of Ovid, and they had mutually corrected each other's
1 ii. 71. 77. v. 5. vii. 00. viii. 56. xiv. 157.
2 Sen. de lien., vi. 3. 3 ii. 3G.
4 Sen., Suas. vii. 5 x. 1.
6 " Vindicaret lib] jure secundum locum." The context places Ovid imme-
diately before, and therefore it might be thought that second to Ovid was intended.
But the Heroic Epistles are the work named, which could not in any way be
compared with an epic poem. It is not impossible that second to Virgil (though
as a versifier only) may be meant.
HORACE. — AUGUSTAN POETS. GRATIUS. — MANILIUS. 119
writings. He translated the Vllth Book of tlie Odyssey into Latin. Ovid's
Melissus, as we learn from Suetonius,1 was the author of a new kind |Jp{£SJ6
of the Comcedia togata, called " trabeata:' in which characters appear Melissus.
to have been introduced of a higher class than those in the ordinary
comedy. In his sixtieth year he began to write books of Joci,
or Tneptia, which he composed to the amount of upwards of one
hundred and fifty. He was a freedman of Maecenas, and was
appointed by Augustus keeper of one of the public libraries.
Tityrus, of course, is Virgil.
Such are nearly all the particulars now extant concerning these
Augustan authors. One of the number, Gratius, is mentioned by no Gratius
other ancient writer, and appears to have been almost unknown, since allbCUS-
Oppian and Nemesian, who afterwards wrote on the same subject,
speak each of himself as the first bard of hunting. A manuscript
of the Cynegeticon of this poet was found by Sannazaro in France,
and by him was brought to Naples, and there shown to several
eminent literary characters. The poem was first printed at Venice,
in 1534. In the total absence of testimony concerning this writer,
it would be idle to descant on his history or family, which, how-
ever, has been done. The name Paliscus was given him by Caspar
Barthius " e codice suo, quern tamen nemo alius vidit," as Wernsdorf
facetiously observes ; but the line
At contra nostris imbcllia lina faliscis 2
is commonly thought decisive evidence of his country.
Gratius is not the only Augustan poet who has been fated to be
the transmitter of his own fame. Of Manilius, the author of the Maniiius.
Astronomica, we have no contemporary testimony : his very name
is uncertain ; Marcus or Caius, Manilius, Manlius, or Mallius ;
even Quinctilian is silent concerning him : but Pliny is supposed
to allude to him 3 when he mentions with commendation a certain
astronomer of this name, who placed a golden rod on the obelisk of
Augustus in the Campus Martius, to distinguish the divisions of
time by its shadow. But the name is not found in the best copies
of this writer. There are two other passages of Pliny, which have
been referred to Manilius. By some he is thought to have been
the " noble senator " who maintained that the life of the Phoenix
coincided with the cycle of "the great year;"4 while others dis-
cover him in the Manilius Antiochus, who came as a slave to Rome
with Publius Syrus and Staberius Eros, and whom the naturalist
designates by the ambitious appellation, " astrologire conditor." 5
It is probable that most of the copies of the Astronomicon perished
when Augustus destroyed all the books of divination,6 except
the Sibylline, amounting to upwards of two thousand volumes :
1 De 111. Gram. xxi. 2 Cyncget. 40. 3 Nat. Hist, xxxvi. 10.
4 Nat. Hist. x. 2. 5 lb. xxxv. 58. c Suet., Aug. xxxi.
120
AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
Phtrdrus
and to this circumstance is probably to be ascribed the silence of
antiquity concerning this author.
Similar was the fate of Phsedrus,
who is mentioned by Avienus, or,
more properly, Avianus, a fabulist
of whom we shall speak presently ;
and by him only, unless we may
except Martial, who is supposed by
some to have alluded to him in
the XXth Epigram of his Illrd
Book. Seneca was certainly igno-
rant of his writings, for he calls
the JEsopai Xoyot " intent atum
Eomanis ingeniis opus." l We men-
tion Phsedrus here, although his
fables were not published until after
the accession of Tiberius, for the
reason assigned by Spence in his
Poli/meHs? " that he flourished and
formed his style under Augustus,
and his book deserves on all ac-
counts to be reckoned among the
works of the Augustan Age." Of
Phsedrus we know nothing beyond
what he has himself imparted. He
informs us that he was a Thracian,
and the title of his book designates
him Cf Augusti libertus." He appears to have been persecuted by
Sejanus, but for what reason, and in what precise way, is not dis-
coverable. But the nature of his writings, strictly as he disclaimed
all personal allusion,3 was such as to excite suspicion in profligate,
arbitrary, and captious times. He has the merit of being the first
to introduce the apologue systematically into Eoman literature :
and, although /Esop and Greek models claim most of the value of
his matter, his Eoman elegance and grace are his own. In the year
1809, Cassitti published at Naples a collection of thirty-two fables,
which he ascribed to Pha^drus, but which, in the MS. of Niccolo
Perotti, Bishop of Manfredonia in the fifteenth century, whence he
edited them, are called Epitome fabularum JEsopi, Avieni, et PJuedri.
In Perotti's prologue, Ad Pyrrhwn Xepolcm, too, we are informed,
Non sunt hi mei, quos putas, versiculi,
Sed JEsopi sunt, Avieni, ct Phsedri,
The Obelisk of Augustus.
Ilonori ct mentis dicavi illos tuis,
Scepe versictdos interponens meos.
1 De Cons, ad Polyb. c. xxvii. '2 Dial. iii. 3 Prolog, ad Lib. iii.
HORACE. PILEDRUS,
1:21
Angclo Mai, however, found the same thirty-two fables in a MS.
in the Vatican, and edited them as wholly the work of Phaednis, in
1832. The genuineness of these pieces is much debated. Perot ti,
indeed, seems to have had small share in the composition. Many
of them had been translated into German by the Minnesanger,
and adopted by Vincent of Beauvais in his Speculum} The style
shows great affinity with that of the acknowledged writings of
Phsedrus.
It is curious to observe how the Augustan poets, who speak of
themselves and their celebrity in what they conceived to be the most
unlimited expressions, have yet in many instances underrated the
extent and duration of their fame. The priest and the vestal no
longer ascend the Capitol : 2 that Capitol is no longer the seat of
the family of iEueas : 3 but the works of Horace and Virgil are
still the admiration of the world, and their perpetuity appears
secure. Thus, while Ovid seems to have been content to take his
chance with posterity as a single star in a great constellation, he
has, in effect, by his surpassing lustre, cast into obscurity all the
other luminaries, with the sole exception of his Tityrus. Although
the chief celebrity of Ovid, and those circumstances which prin- Ovid,
cipally connect his biography with literary history, did not arise
until after the death of Horace, we shall but slightly transgress our
chronology if we mention them here.
Publius Ovidius Xaso was born of an ancient and noble family in? birth,
at Sulmo,'1 now Solmona, a town of the Pelignian territory, prSsion.
March 20, in the seven hundred and eleventh year of Eome. He
was first educated under Plotius Grippus,5 and afterwards studied
1 Baehr, Gesch. dcr Roui. Lit. §. 177. 2 Hor. 3 Od. xxx.
3 Virg., JEn. ix. 447.
4 Very full particulars of the life of Ovid, as in the case of Horace, may be
collected from the Poet's own writings. In the Xth elegy of the IVth Book
of his Tristia he has written a professed sketch of his life, from which, where it
is not otherwise specified, this account is taken.
5 Vit. in Cod. Pomponii Laeti, itemque in Cod. Farnesiano.
122 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
Ovid. oratory under Marcellus1 Fuscus and Porcins Latro. He was designed
by his father, a Roman knight, for the bar : and, by the talents which
he possessed, and the proficiency which he made in the preliminary
studies, he seems not to have been ill qualified for the profession.
Dcciamations.The elder Seneca speaks highly of his declamations,2 and has pre-
served an extract from one of them, observing " Oratio ejus jam turn
nihil aliud poterat videri quam solutum carmen." This prepon-
derating inclination to poetical pursuits he struggled, at the instance
of his father, to repress : but the lines in which he informs us that
he was worsted in this conflict are sufficient in themselves to show
what must have been the event of a contest between Ovid and the
Muses :
Spontc sua carmen numeros veniebat ad aptos,
Et quod tentabani scribcre, versus erat.
Accordingly, when he found that neither his bodily constitution nor
his mental inclination directed him to the profession for which he
was at first intended, he deserted it altogether, and devoted himself
Poetic to the study of poetry and the society of poets. He mentions at
friends. this time among the number of his intimates, Macer, Propertius,
Ponticus, Rassus the iambographer, and, lastly, Horace himself.
Of these he appears to have been most familiar with Propertius,
who, like himself, had relinquished forensic for poetical pursuits,
and who occasionally read to him his elegies, which naturally
excited the emulation of a breast devoted to poetry and love.
Ovid, like Propertius, had attempted epic poetry : 3 but the failure
of his friend in this species of writing, and his brilliant success in
elegy, appear to have determined his hesitating muse. A critical
Amoves. reader of the Amoves will easily perceive the influence which the
spirit of Propertius exercised in those compositions. They contain
less of Greek sentiment and expression than the poems of Proper-
tius, who was a professed imitator of Callimachus, Philetas, and
Mimnermus ; indeed it is a principal beauty of Ovid's versification
that he has moulded it with a peculiar regard to the natural melody
of his native language : but, with more of originality, they bear a
greater resemblance to the elegies of Propertius than to those of
any other extant writer. In particular, he seems to have been in-
debted to this poet for the idea of his Heroic Epistles, as will appear
from a perusal of Propertius's Epistle of Jrethusa to Lt/cotas.4
When Ovid, agreeably to the custom of the time, first publicly
recited the Amoves, he was, according to his own account, very
young :
Carmina quum primum populo juvenilia legi,
Barba resects mihi bisve semelve fait.
1 AreUitis, apud Senecam. - Contr. x.
;i 1 Am. i. Lib. ii. Eleg. i. ; Prop. 3 Elcg. iii. ct alias. 4 Prop. 4 Elcg. iii.
ovid. 123
They originally occupied five books; but his maturer judgment Ovid,
reduced these to three. Several elegies were afterwards added, as
that on the death of Tibullus, and others, where circumstances are
mentioned which prove them to have been composed at a later
period. Who their heroine, Corinna, was, has never, as yet, been
discovered ; we shall, however, presently have to notice some false
opinions on this subject.
The life of Ovid, like that of most literary characters, exhibits
few prominent incidents. From himself we learn that he was
thrice married. His first marriage took place when he was almost
a boy, and was soon dissolved as a low and unworthy connexion.
His second wife was also divorced, although he makes no charge
against her ; but his third remained with him until his banishment,
in which she was prevented by Augustus from bearing him com-
pany. He studied at Athens, as was customary with the youth
of his time. He bore the judicial offices of triumvir, centumvir,
and decemvir.1 His tragedies, which have been already alluded to,
his second edition of the Amoves, and his Heroic Epistles had seen Heroic
the light, when in his forty-first year he published his Art of Love} j^o/Love.
This poem was the ostensible pretext of his banishment ten years
after : had that event taken place at the first publication of the
work, it would have been little extraordinary, as the tendency of the
poem went directly to subvert all those salutary measures for the
regulation of public morals which Augustus was taking singular
pains to enforce : but Ovid, although, as a Roman knight, he was
subject to a moral examination on the part of Augustus, was never
molested on the ground of the licentiousness of his writings,
until an event occurred, which is hidden in impenetrable mystery,
and the investigation of which has afforded amusement for the
leisure of the learned. On this account, actually, but professedly Banished to
on the ground of the licentious character of his Art of Love, the Tomi-
Emperor banished him to Tomi, a town on the north of the Euxine.
It will be much easier to show what his offence was not than what
it was. The earlier commentators on Ovid, and some of the more
recent, triumphantly appeal to Sidonius Apollinaris in proof that
the cause of Ovid's banishment to Tomos was an intrigue with
Julia, the daughter of Augustus : 3 the verses are these :
Et te, carmina per libidinosa
Notum, Naso tener, Tomosque missum.
Quondam Caesarea? nimis puelloe
Falso nomine subditum Corinnse.
These lines can, at best, prove no more than that Ovid owed his
exile to his licentious verses : and, were it otherwise, the words
" Ca3sarea puella" by no means distinctly indicate the daughter of
1 Fast. iv. 383. 2 Masson, Vit. Ov. •'* Sid. Apoll., xxiii. 157.
124 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
0vid- Caesar : tliey may signify a female menial. But that the conjecture
founded on these verses is incorrect, is evident, were there no
other consideration, from the manner in which Ovid himself per-
petually speaks of the fatal circumstance, which he always represents
as something unintentional and involuntary.1 He was accidentally
witness of some transaction which Augustus wished to be concealed.
This is by some supposed to have been a criminal intimacy between
Augustus and his daughter Julia ; which cannot be true, as Julia
had been banished from Home several years before. Some make
the granddaughter, Julia, the object of the illicit passion of
Augustus : and there are those who conjecture that Ovid had
witnessed some of her debaucheries with other gallants; and this
opinion derives countenance from the fact that she was banished
from Home in the same year with the poet. There are, however,
strong reasons against this belief, which the reader will find in the
elaborate article " Ovide" in Bayle's Dictionary. A modern writer
supposes that Ovid had seen and revealed some part of the
Eleusinian mysteries. It is singular that the transaction should
be involved in so much obscurity, as the cause of Ovid's exile was
no secret at the time.2 After a night of inexpressible distress, which
the poet could never recal without tears, a night spent in taking
leave of his wife, and of two friends who remained with him to the
last (his daughter was in Africa), by early morning he was afloat
on a tempestuous sea, the gloomy image of his future life on the
Getic coast.3
In this banishment from the scene of all his early pursuits and
affections he existed, as we learn from his Tristia and Pontic
elegies, in a state of the greatest misery, with the Muse as his only
friend : though even with her in less familiar intercourse than
before.4 Although he could not resign the study of poetry, he was
dissatisfied with his productions, and, at his departure, committed
the Metamorphoses to the flames.5 The work, although it had not
received its last polish, was complete in its plan ; and had already
passed into the hands of friends, whom he afterwards entreated to
preserve it. His prosecution of the Fasti, six books of which only
have reached us, was also interrupted by this misfortune. Masson
contends from this verse of Ovid that only six were ever written :
Sex ego Fastorum scripsi totideinque libellos :
but his reasoning is at variance with all grammatical construction,
and we are compelled to conclude that time has deprived us of six
othor works books of the Fasti. Beside these works, Ovid composed The
of ovid. Remedy of Love, a Satire on Ibis, and llaUeutica, which have
1 2 Tri?t. 103. 3 Eleg. v. rf passim, 2 4 Trist. x. 99.
3 1 Trist iii. 4 4 Pout. ii. b 1 Trist. vi.
Fasti.
ovid. 125
reached us ; and Epigrams, a Latin and a Geticpoem on the triumphs Ovid.
of Caesar, a satire " in malos poetas," and Phenomena, which are
lost. The Nux, the Medicamina faciei, and the Panegyricm ad
PUonem,1 are at best doubtful. The other poems attributed to
Ovid are manifestly spurious. These are Consolatio ad Idviam
Augustam; Elegia de Philomela; De Pulice, JElegia ; Somnium;
metrical arguments of the books of the JEneid ; De Fetuld. libri iii.;
Catalecta ; Priapeia ; and the following, lately discovered in a MS.
at Bern : Be Pedicuh ; Be Annulo ; Be Medicarnine aurium.
Ovid died of a broken heart after a seven years' banishment, and Ovid's death,
after having vainly employed the interest of his friends with Tiberius
to be recalled. He was, however, treated by the natives with every
attention, and received from them several immunities.2
If Ovid, as a man, was unfortunate, as a poet he cannot be alto-
gether so regarded. He was born at the happiest of times for the
exhibition of his chief excellence, skill in the mechanical structure
of his language. Even in the Julian age he would scarcely have
developed this, nor, if he had, would it have been duly appreciated :
and immediately after his decease a new school had arisen. Of the
mutual adaptation of his time and his genius he was fully sensible :3
and he made good use of his opportunities. When we speak, how- character of
ever, of Ovid's elegance as his principal distinction, it is only hls poetry'
because his success in this respect is so transcendent. He was,
in imaginative power, perhaps, superior to all other Latin poets ;
and Milton hesitates not to affirm that, but for the influence of
1 This poem has heen attributed to Virgil, Lucan, Statius, &c. The authorship
is utterly uncertain. Ovid undoubtedly wrote a poem De nudicaminibus (A. A. iii.
205.) and the internal evidence of that which we possess is in his favour.
2 For a more minute discussion of the history of this poet than can be here
given, see the article in Bayle, above alluded to, and Masson's copious Life
of Ovid, published in Burmann's edition ; and also in a small volume with his
Lives of Horace and the younger Pliny.
3 Prisca juvent alios; ego me nunc denique natum
Gratulor. Haec aetas moiibus apta meis ;
Non quia nunc terrae lentum subducitur aurum,
Lectaque diverso littore concha venit :
Nee quia decrescunt effosso marmore montes :
Nee quia caeruleae mole fugantur aquae :
Sed quia cultus adest, nee nostros mansit in annos
Rusticitas priscis ille superstes avis. — A. A. iii. 1'21.
These times for me ! let others love the old :
I bless my lot, these suit my genius well :
Ml Not that they raise from earth the ductile gold,
Or bring from stranger shores the sumptuous shell ;
Not that Art tames the marble mountains' pride,
And the dark wave before the mole retires ;
But that fair Culture now hath cast aside
The rustic rudeness of our pristine sires.
126
AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
Ovid.
Meta-
morphoses.
Heroides.
Horace.
Devotes
himself to
philosophy.
misfortune on his genius, he would have surpassed Virgil in epic
achievement. The Metamorphoses, * though in part indebted to
Greek originals for form and material, are yet a marvellous work of
fancy. The stories of Phaeton, of Ceyx and Alcyone, of Jason
and Medea, are exuberant with creative force : and the subtle thread
which connects the diverse materials in one harmonious and beautiful •'
whole is not less admirable than the structure itself. The Heroides •
manifest a deep knowledge of human nature, especially female;
while the turns and expressions are everywhere at once natural and
exact ;
What oft was thought, but ne'er so well exprest.
Of all classical writers., Ovid is nearest to the romantic school, of
which he may be called a distant ancestor. Chaucer, Ariosto, and
Spenser, owe him obligations ; andwe are casually reminded of him
even by Fouque.
. Ovid was the only writer of eminence who prolonged the golden
age of Latin poetry beyond the time of Horace : and, were it not
that other causes may be assigned, the inferiority of his later poems/'
"might seem to have been referable to that sudden languor of the.
Latin Muse, which the deaths of Horace and Maecenas, and the
infirmities and subsequent
decease of her patron Au-
gustus produced, and from
which she never recovered. -
The last piece which Horape*>-$
ever wrote was, most pn>
bably, the Ilnd Epistle of his
, Ilnd Book, which he ad-
1 dressed to Julius Florus, a
satiric poet of high excel-
lence,1 and which, in that
case, could not have been
written long before his
death. In it he professes his
'determination to relinquish
the pursuits of poetry for
those of moral philosophy,
especially the suitable contemplation of his advancing end. And,
perhaps, never was death encountered with more genuine philosophy
(in the real sense of the word), than by Horace. He employed his
latter days, exclusively, in a study to which he had devoted a con-
siderable portion of his earlier life, the investigation of moral good,
and the nature of happiness ; an inquiry which he undertook for
the advantages of its results, and not from any motives of ambition
1 Aero., in loc. cit. Of. etiaui Hor., i. Ep. iii.
Mausoleum of Augustus.
HORACE. 1:27
or ostentation; and which he therefore conducted on the principles Hbrtoe.
of right reason and regulated sentiment, without reference to the
subtleties and mechanism of any of the philosophical Bystems then
in vogue. He employed what light had been bestowed on him
faithfully : and by that blessing, which, we now learn from the
higheM authority, is always given to the ingenuous and serious
inquirer after truth, he made a proficiency in the knowledge oi' the
situation and duties of mankind, rarely, if ever, before attained by
unassisted nature ; whose inability to discriminate universally
between good and evil, and the objects to be severally pursued and
avoided, was not unknown to him.1 And hence his writings exhibit
him, although not uninfected with vices which not even religious
ignorance, and the customs of a most depraved society, ean great ly
extenuate ; yet, on the whole, possibly the most moral, and certainly
the .happiest, character of profane antiquity.
Those .who have attempted to assimilate the opinions of Horace
io trie tenets of any one of the philosophical sects, have been
guided rather by detached passages, than by the general tenor of
-his writings, In one place, indeed, where, in writing to Maecenas,
lie gives an account of his method of studying philosophy, he
distinctly disavows his intention to adopt any system, till he
has examined all.3 That, while prosecuting his studies at Athens,
the Epicurean philosophy might have first called his attention to
the general subject, is highly probable : the supreme excellence of
happiness (for such was, after all, the Epicurean fjbovfj) was the leading
principle of Epicurus : and the same principle, refined from the heart-
less selfishness which mingled with it in the Epicurean system, is the
distinguishing mark of what may be called the lloratian philosophy.
That Horace had studied the philosophy of Epicurus, we learn on
his own authority ; :] but nothing is to be inferred with certainty
from the appellation which he gives himself in his epistle to
Tubulins, " Epicuri de grege porcum," as he is not there discussing
his opinions, but rallying himself on his improved condition of
body. The XXXIVth Ode of the 1st Book, in which he professes
to renounce the creed of Epicurus, in consequence of having seen
lightning in a clear sky, is altogether involved in too much
obscurity, both as to its occasion and object, to enable us to
derive from it any plausible conjecture. But in those parts of his
writings which are least liable to cavil, and where he expresses
his opinions without ornament or reserve, we find some part oi' the
doctrines of every philosophical school impugned in turn. The
Stoics, in particular, he takes every occasion of ridiculing with the
liveliest humour;4 and he admits the power of the gods wherever
the subject requires an opinion to be given.5
1 Hor. 1 Sat. iii. 113. » 1 EP. i. - 1 Sat. v.
4 See, in particular, 1 Sat. iii. and 2 Sat. iii. 5 1 Ep. xviii. fin. Ct passim,
►
128
AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
Doath of
Maecenas.
The effects of the philosophy of Horace were put to a severe
trial by the death of his early friend and best patron, Maecenas,
u. c. 746 : nor does it appear that it enabled him to recover the
calamity, as he died a very short
time after. Maecenas had, for a lori£
time, existed in what Pliny calls
a perpetual fever; he was living
in the greatest misery, and yet
regarding death as the greatest con-
ceivable of evils; his sleep was pro-
cured by wine, distant music, and
artificial waterfalls ; yet among all
these appliances, he was, as Seneca
observes, as restless on his down,
as Iiegulus on the rack.1 His
effeminate and luxurious habits
Maecenas. had made pain intolerable: but
it is a most ungenerous and unfounded suspicion that this
effeminacy is covertly satirized by Horace in the character of
Maltliinus. Horace had, on one occasion, declared the impossi-
bility of long surviving his friend ; that one day must bring with
it the fall of both ; 2 and the prediction was very nearly fulfilled.
The last entreaty of Maecenas to Augustus was, " If or at ii Flacci,
ut mei, esto memor" Though Maecenas, as a patron and amateur
of literature, fills a large space in the Augustan period, he has no
claim to notice as a poet. The Prometheus, mentioned by
Seneca,''* was probably no tragedy. The Octavia, in Priscian,4
is probably a corrupt reading. The elegies ascribed to Pedo
Albinovanus have been attributed to him : but with no sufficient
evidence.
Although the account here given of the death of Maecenas, which
we have from Suetonius, is sufficiently clear and intelligible in itself,
some scholars have not been content to leave it in its plain and
obvious meaning ; and notwithstanding they admit that there did
not intervene more than a month between the deaths of the two
illustrious friends, they place that of Horace first. In order to
support this theory, they are obliged to interpret the word " extre-
mis" which, in all other passages, signifies at the point of death,
" extremis indiciis" " extremis verbis" implying that the commen-
dation of Horace was found in the will of Maecenas, where it was
allowed to remain, although its object had ceased to require it.
The only evidence produced for this fact is contemptible to the
last degree, being some pretended verses of Maecenas on the death
1 Dc Prov. iii. 2 2 Od. xvii.
3 Ep. 1.9. It is there called u liber,'1 and the quotation from it is not a verse.
iiorace. 129
of Horace, preserved by Isidore of Seville.1 But as the passage Harjoe.
stands in Isidore, it is not verse : neither is it expressly attributed to
Maecenas ; nor is it said that Flaccus is the same with Horace.
The following is the passage, as it is corrected by Sauadou, to
support the theory of those who contend for the priority of the
death of Horace :
Lugens te, mea vita, nee smaragdos,
Berylloa ncque, Flacce xni, nitentes,
Nee percandida margarita quaero,
Nee quos Thynica lima perpolivit
Annellos, neque iaspios lapillos.
If this be a genuine restoration of the original verses, it manifestly
proves nothing : but others read " Lucentes, mea vita" &c.
The great literary influence of Maecenas was, in part, owing to Literary
his intimacy with Augustus, and his consequent political position ; m^^,
and, in part, to his love of literature and literary men ; in no
degree to any literary excellence of his own : least of all would he
deserve notice as a poet, though he wrote verses, some of which
have been preserved. His style in composition was no less affected
than in dress and manner ; so that his " ringlets "a and " curling-
tongs " 3 were proverbial ; and Augustus rallied him unmercifully,
though scarcely beyond his deserts.4 The distortion and dislocation
which characterised his prose5 would naturally be less conspicuous
in metre ; but he wanted the poetic inspiration. Seneca, indeed,
gives him credit for a lofty and manly genius, which he spoiled by
wilful effeminacy and affectation — and cites, in proof, the verse —
Nee tuuiulum euro ; sepelit Natura relictos.6
I ask no tomb ; Nature entombs her dead.
Yet this has more the air of declamation than of reality or poetry ;
and the verses which describe his true feelings are in the opposite
excess."
Horace, like his friend Virgil, did not escape envy or enmity.
Pentilius, Demetrius, Fannius, Tigellius, and the respectable
duumvirate Bavius and Msevius, assailed his poetical fame ; but he
treated them with more than contempt — he crushed them wrathfully.
Yet his disposition, though warm and hasty, was forgiving and
generous ; 8 and no man was ever more beloved by his friends, or
more deserving of their friendship. In person he was short, and,
in middle life, stout ; his eyes were black, as was his hair, which,
however, became grey when he was about forty.
1 Orig. xix. 32. - Suet. Aug. 86. 3 Dial, de Orat. 26.
4 Macrob. Sat. vi. 4. 3 Senec. Ep. cxiv. ; Quinct. ix., 4, 28.
fi Ep. xeii. 7 lb. Ep. ci.
8 Irasci celerem, tamen ut placabilis essem. — 1 Ep. xx. 25.
[B.L.] K
130
AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY.
Hora?o. Horace was buried next to the tomb of Maecenas, at the
extremity of the Esquiline hill.
We must here leave the history of the most brilliant period of
Eoman poetry with the biography of the character who most clearly
illustrated, and most essentially adorned it. From those readers
who think an undue portion of this work has been assigned to this
subject, we shall shelter ourselves under its interest and extent ;
and the same plea will hold with those, if there be any, who, on the
contrary, think enough has not been said ; for to do entire justice
to a subject of such magnitude, is what a work of this nature
does not profess. For, in the words of Gesner, speaking of
the literary life of Horace alone, " adeo ah omnibus hide sceculn
sategerunt circa Horatii Flacci Eclogas librarii, interpreter , critici,
tit possit homo diligens, cui bibliothecce pateant, facile librum
mediocrem vel sold hujus Poetce enarrandd historid litterarid
implere." :
1 Gesner, Praef. in Horatium.
•..cenas.
131
MSS, EDITIONS, &c, OF THE AUGUSTAN POETS.
HORACE.
MSS. That at Bern is the oldest. For others, see Kirchner. Now. Quaostt.
Horatiana). Nuremb. 1847.
Edit. Princ. 4to. supposed to have been printed by Zarotus at Milan, 1470.
Priority contested by an edition by T. P. Lignamini. There is a folio
without name or date, of equal rarity. The first with date is 1474,
Mediolani, apud Zarotum. In the same year the works were published
at Naples, and the odes and epistles at Ferrara.
Later editions are : —
Cruquii. Lugd. Bat. 1603.
Lambini. Paris. 1605.
Torrentii. Antverp. 1608.
Bentleii. Cantab. 1711.
Dacier and Sanadon.
Gesneri et Zeunii. Lips, et Glasg. 1762-94.
Doring. Lips. 1803.
C. Fea. Romse.
Vandenbourgii. Paris. 1812.
Braunhard. Lips. 1833.
Orelii. Turici. 1843.
Tate. Horatius Restitutus. Lond. 1837.
Obbarii. Jeme. 1848. (The Odes only.)
Milman (illustr. from the antique). Lond. 1849.
Subsidia : —
Masson. Vita Horatii.
Algarotti. Ead.
R. von Ommeren, Horaz als Mensch und als Burger von Rom. Uebersetzt
von Walch. Leipz. 1802. Walckenaer, Histoire de la Vie et des
Poe'sies d' Horace. Paris. 1840. TeufFel, Charakteristik des Horazens.
Leipz. 1842. W. E. Weber, Horaz als Mensch und Dichter. Jena. 1844.
Kirchner, Qua3stiones Horatiana), Leipz. 1847. Grotefend, Schrifts-
tellerische Laufbahn des Horatius. Hanover, 1849. These are some
of the most eminent out of an immense quantity of materials. Each
of the above editions may also be regarded in the number of subsidia.
Translations : —
Francis. The entire works. The best edition is that of Valpy, Lond.
1831, as it not only embraces Francis, but a selection from miscel-
laneous translators.
The Odes. By John Scriven. Lond. 1843.
The best idea to be obtained of Horace, as a lyrist, by the English reader, is
from one ode by Milton and a few by Mrs. Hemans. The Satires and
Epistles of Pope, and some imitations by Swift, afford the best notion
of Horace's ethical and critical writings. But no writer needs to be
studied in his own language more than Horace, of whom no trans-
lation gives any adequate conception.
K 2
132 MSS., EDITIONS, ETC., OF THE AUGUSTAN POETS.
VIRGIL.
MSS. Medicean. Vatican.
Edit. Princ. Sweynheym and Pannartz. Roma?, cir. 1469.
De la Cerda. Madrid. Fol. 1608-1617.
Heinsii. Amstel. 1676.
Masvicii. Leeu warden. 1727.
Burmanni. Amstel. 1746.
Heynii, (edente Wagner) Lips. 1830.
Martyn's Georgicks. London. 1749.
The subsidia to Virgil are mainly found in the editions themselves.
Valpy's Horse Virgiliana3 illustrates the theory of the identity between
the Greek and Latin languages, but is not further illustrative of
Virgil. Heyne contains a complete critical account of the MSS. and
editions, which are far more numerous than can be here particularised.
Translations. Works. Dryden.
^Eneid. Pitt.
Bucolicks and Georgicks. Warton.
Georgicks. Sotheby.
TIBULLUS.
Editt. Prince. Tibulli Opera, cum Ovidii Epistola Sapphus ad Phaonem.
Florentius de Argentina. (Venetiis ?) cir. 1472.
Tibulli, Catulli, Propertii Opera, cum Statii Sylvis. Vindalin de Spira.
Venetiis. 1472.
Vulpius.
Brockhusius. Amst. 1708.
Heyne. Lips. 1798.
Tibullus et Lygdamus. Voss. Heidelberg. 1811.
Tibullus. Lachmann. Berolini. 1829.
Lachmann. Explicuit Dissen. Gotting. 1835.
Subsidia. Ayrmann, Vita Tibulli. Vitemb. 1719.
Spohn de Vita et Carminibus Tibulli. 1819.
De Golbe'ry de Tib. Vit. et Carm. Par. 1824.
PROPERTIUS.
Editt. Prince. 1472. Place uncertain. Folio and 4to.
Broukhusius. Amst. 1702.
Vulpius. Padua. 1755.
Barthius. Lips. 1778.
Burmann. Trajecti ad Rhen. 1780.
Kuinoel. Lips. 1804.
Lachmann. Lips. 1816.
Paldamus. Halle. 1827.
Le Maire. Paris. 1832.
Hertzberg. Halle. 1844-5.
OVID.
Editt. Prince. —
Balthazar Azoguidi. Bononiao. 1471. 1
Sweynheym et Pannarz. Roniac. 1471. J
MSS., EDITIONS, ETC., OF THE AUGUSTAN POETS. 133
Aldine. Venetiis. 1502.
Bersman. Lips. 1582.
Elzevir. Heinsius. Lugd. Bat. 1629.
Variorum. . Lugd. Bat. 1670.
Burmann. Amst. 1727.
Amar. Paris. 1820.
Metam. Gierig. Lips. 1784.
Jahn. Lips. 1817.
Loers. Lips. 1843.
Fasti. Merkel. Berol. 1841.
Tristia. Oberlin. Strasb. 1778.
Amatoria. Wernsdorf. Helmstadt. 1788, 1802.
Jahn. Lips. 1828.
Heroides. Loers. Colon.
Subsidium.— Rosmini, Vita d' Ovidio. The editions are, in a great mea-
sure, subsidia.
Translations are numerous. We select : —
Metam. Edited by Garth. Lond. 1717.
The contributors were Dryden, Addison, Gay, Pope, &c.
Howard. Lond. 1807.
Epistles, several hands :
Otway, Settle, Dryden, Mul grave, &c. 1680.
Fasti. Smedley.
GRATIUS FALISCUS.
Ed. Princ. Logi. Aldus Manutius. Venetiis. Afterwards, Augusta?. 1534.
Burmann. Lugd. Bat. 1731.1 ^ ... T . „.
Wernsdorf. } Poetffi- Lat- Mm-
Translation. — Wase. Lond. 1654.
MANILIUS.
Codd. Gemblacensi3, Lipsiensis.
Ed. Princ. Joannes Regiomontanus. Nuremb. cir. 1472.
Scaliger. Lugd. Bat. 1600.
Bentley. Lond. 1739.
Translation.— Creech. Lond. 1697.
Ed. Princ. Pithcous. 1596.
Orelli. TuricL 1831.
PHiEDRUS.
I
POST-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETS.
PERSIUS
LUCANUS .
PETRONIUS .
SILIUS ITALICUS
JUVENALIS
MARTIALIS
STATIUS .
NEMESIANUS
CALPURNIUS
AVIENUS
AUSONIUS .
CLAUDIANUS
PRUDENTIUS
. DIED
A.D.
63"
A.D.
65 >THE NERONIAN AOE
A.D.
6tJ
r 25i
ABOUT
A. D. «
TO
.100
ABOUT
A.D.
77
rTHE FLAVIAN AGE.
A.D.
82
A.D.
84
DIED
A.D.
96.
FLOURISHED ABOUT A.D. 288.
. A.D. 370.
a.d. 392.
a.d. 398.
Remains of the Palace of the Coosars.
PART III.
DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY.
The literary annals of every people present us with crises, to Causes of the
account for which has been the labour of the learned and the LatinPoetry.
ingenious. Among these, none is more conspicuous than that
which took place on the death of Augustus, and none has excited
a greater zeal and diligence of inquiry into its cause and origin ;
and yet, perhaps, the whole history of Literature does not afford
an instance of a revolution so naturally and easily explained. The
learned and minute Tiraboschi has expended on this subject no
inconsiderable portion of his erudition and philosophy ; he rejects
all the hypotheses of his predecessors, and, like the surgeon
Antistius, who examined the corpse of Julius Caesar, and pro-
nounced but one wound mortal in twenty-three, allows but one of
the causes assignable : this is, the licentious character of the times :
136
DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY.
Demoraliea-
tion of the
Romans.
for the irruption of the barbarians, and the failure of the means of
learning, circumstances which the historian adduces among the
causes which accelerated the fall of lioman Literature, had no
influence in the reign of Tiberius.
But what, it may be asked, produced this licentious character ?
and did it not prevail in a very great degree in the reign of Augustus
himself? That national vice acts powerfully to the prejudice of
excellence in the arts of imagination is an obvious truth ; it is not,
however, a sufficient solution of the present problem. The civil
troubles which, before the accession of Augustus, had desolated
Italy, had compelled the people, by depriving them of the means
and fruits of industry, to subsist by rapine or military violence ;
while the conquests of Lucullus, by opening a readier communica-
tion with the East, had led to the introduction of the luxuries and
vices of that corrupted portion of the globe. l It is true that
Augustus gave considerable attention to the suppression of these
evils ; but, to judge from the writings of the most approved and
popular authors of his
time, his court was very
far from being moral : the
effects of his legislation,
indeed, however salutary
as regards external con-
duct, could not have
been sensible on the
minds of his subjects to
any material extent, before
their operation was effectu-
ally paralysed by the
accession of Tiberius ;
who, although himself a
man of liberal education,
and not a little self-com-
placent on that account,
and even a poet, (since
we learn from Suetonius 2
that he composed a lyrical
monody on the death of
Lucius Caesar, besides
several poems in Greek,) was as little a patron of true learning as
he was of pure morality.
1 Jampridem Syrus in Tiberim defluxit Orontcs,
Et linguam, et mores, et cum tibicine chordas
Obliquas, necnon gentilia tympana secum
Vexit, et ad Circum jussas prostare pucllas. — Juv. Sat. iii. 62.
2 Tib. 70.
Tiberius and Livia.
DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY. 137
It is not easy, however, to see why so much recondite erudition
and metaphysical speculation should be employed in the investiga-
tion of causes which seem incapable of escaping the ordinary
student of history. No such person can be ignorant that the
pursuits of science and literature have, in all countries, been culti-
vated with an ardour jointly proportional to their novelty, and to
the encouragement given them by power. The labours of the early
poets, especially Ennius, had deeply imbued the Eomans with a
desire of inspecting the copious sources from which their treasures
were derived. The study of the Greek literature was, in conse- Exhaustion
i quence, pursued with the greatest enthusiasm : every Greek author [•L?!?ck
v'hs read, and almost every Greek author was imitated. It was
exactly at this juncture, when the excellence of literature began to
be more generally and more acutely felt than at any preceding
period, that the policy of Augustus employed the popular sentiment
in diverting from political speculations what little remained of the
spirit of old Eome. Nothing, therefore, could be more natural,
and, we might say, more necessary, than the literary perfection
which followed. Every department of Greek literature which the
Eomans were capable of appropriating, now attained the highest
excellence which its transplanted state would allow. But as the
Eomans were a people of slender inventive faculties, the resources
of Greece were no sooner exhausted, than the main stimulus to
literary exertion ceased ; and when, about the same period, the
patronage which had given action to this stimulus was removed, it
is nothing astonishing that we should meet with that languor which
is the sure consequence of preternatural excitement, mental as well
as bodily, political as well as individual.
The effect of these circumstances is sufficiently conspicuous even
in the later writings of Ovid. His genius and his habits would not
admit of his using any other vehicle of his feelings than verse ; but
the brilliant and luxuriant invention which created the florid fabric
of the Metamorphoses, and the elegant and elaborate texture of the
Heroic Epistles, decayed when withdrawn from the sunshine of
contemporary fame. Of this decay he was himself perfectly
sensible : l and all the vaunting anticipations of immortality which
he put forth in the peroration of his Metamorphoses, had no power
to excite him to write for posterity while the countenance of Ca3sar
was adverse. And if such could be the effect which the mere
1 Da veniam fesso : studiis quoque fraena remisi :
Ducitur et digitis littera rara meis.
Impetus ille sacer, qui vatum pectora nutrit,
Qui prius in nobis esse solebat, abest.
Vix venit ad partes ; vix sumtae Musa tabellae
Imponit pigras pene coacta manus. — 4 Pont. ii.
The whole of the epistle is a valuable illustration of our present position.
138 DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY.
absence of court favour produced on the vein of a poet of great
genius, extensive reading, patient labour, and devotion to the
opinion of posterity, we might, in the absence of additional facts,
form a tolerably correct estimate of the state of poetry under the
most brutal and flagitious tyranny which the ancient world ever
beheld. The only just subject for wonder is, how it comes to pass
that we meet with any one poet of eminence during the rule of the
first Caesars : nothing but the irresistible energy of genius, it might
be supposed, could impel a man to place his sentiments on paper,
when a look or a gesture might incur the suspicion of a capricious
despot, or furnish lucrative employment to an alert and vigilant
informer. Even those poets who escaped the fearful results of
imperial caprice had little encouragement, at a time in which the
highest authority in the state meditated the removal of the writings
and statues of Virgil from the public libraries, and the entire
suppression of the works of Homer.1
Germanicus. It is worthy of observation, that the earliest conspicuous victim
of the new policy was a poet. The pure faith, the chivalrous
honour, the devoted patriotism of Drtjsus Germanicus, are
themes which can scarcely be mentioned, without a desire to linger
on their contemplation ; yet it belongs to this department of our
work to do no more than mention that he was, as his character
would lead us to suppose, a poet. His principal work was a trans-
lation of Aratus, an author on whom the Eomans were fond of
exercising their metaphrastic abilities.2 The following elegant
epigram is ascribed to his pen :
Thrax puer, adstricto glacie durn ludit in Hebro,
Frigore concretas pondere rupit aquas :
Quumque imae partes rapido traherentur ab amne,
Abscidit, lieu ! tenerum lubrica testa caput.
Orba quod inventuna mater dum conderet urna,
"Hoc peperi flammis, caetera," dixit, "aquis."
A Thracian boy on frozen Hebrus play'd :
The treacherous floor its trustful freight betray'd.
The hurrying waters swept the corse away :
On the sharp ice the fair head sever' d lay.
The mother spake, as to the urn she gave ;
" This for the flame I bore ; all else unto the wave.1'
To him, as a brother of the lyre, Ovid dedicated his Fasti ; and in
this character he is spoken of by the same poet in his epistle to
1 Suet. Calig. 34.
2 This translation has also been attributed to the Emperor Domitian, who, it
is well known, affected the title of Germanicus. " San& recordor," says Heinsius,
" vidisse me Lutetiae pervetustum Arateorum codicem, qui Domitiano Caesari
poema istud adserebat : ut veri omnino simile sit, pro Domitiano Germanicum ob
invidiam nominis in plerisquc exemplaribus esse repositum." — Notte in Valerium
Flaccum, ad init. Bernhardy concurs in this view. Grundr. der R. L. Anm. 200.
So also Rutgers (Varr. Lectt. iii. p. 27G), and Grauert (Rhein. Mus. 1827. iv.)
GERMANICUS.
139
Drusus G-erinanicus.
Suilius.1 His death produced a Monody from the pen of C. Lutorius Germanieos.
Priscus, a Roman knight, which, however, proved fatal to its
author. For, being by the senate
accused of having composed it during
the illness of its subject, the unfor-
tunate poet was condemned to death.
Not unlike was the fate of Cn. Corne-
lius Lentulus Gzetulicus, the consul,
historian, and epigrammatist, of whose
works, however, only three lines,
belonging, apparently, to an astronomi-
cal poem, have been preserved. His
influence with the army rendered him
too formidable for Tiberius to attack; but
Caligula put him to death. His writings,
possibly, may not have been the cause of
his fall; yet history and epigram, at
such a period, were more inflammable
materials than when Horace trembled for his friend Pollio.-
AVith Gennanicus set the sun of the Augustan day. All that we
have to record of classical poetry after him is twilight, or a night
illuminated awhile by a few splendid constellations, but at length
subsiding into the gross and starless darkness of barbarism.
In our sketch of the earlier poetical literature of the Romans, we Didactic and
have already noticed the influence which the Epic and Didactic Eplc Poetr-v-
Muses exercised in Latium, from the time when poetry first began
to possess a sensible existence in the language. There were many
reasons why this should be the case ; their stern and masculine
beauty, their regulated and decorous march, and their faultless and
undistorted proportions, were calculated to give them, in the eyes
of a Roman, attractions far superior to any producible by their less
severe, but less Roman sisters. The success with which they had
been courted by Nsevius excited the emulation of Ennius ; and his
example at once made his countrymen familiar with their beauties,
and jealous of his honours. Virgil, at length, by increasing the
difficulties of future aspirants to their favours, only increased the
motives to emulation. But the main efficient cause which directed
the energies of succeeding poets in these channels, is perhaps to be
sought in the condition of the period, which naturally suggested
to those writers whose prudence bore any proportion to their
genius, the necessity of adopting such arguments as had the least
connection with existing circumstances.3 Claudius, it is true,
1 4 Pont. viii. 2 2 Od. i.
3 Securus licet iEnean, Rutulumque fcrocem
Committas : nulli gravis est percussus Achilles,
Aut multuiu quaesitus Hylas, umamque sequutus.
Jllv. Sat. i. 162.
140
DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY.
Columella.
Lucan.
patronised literature, and even asserted literary pretensions; but
he did not affect to be a poet, nor could poetry, by any possibility,
have attracted his regard. He, therefore, caused no alteration in
the poetical character of the time.
There have not been wanting modern Latin imitations of the
Georgics ; a circumstance which may, in some degree, qualify our
surprise, when we find an ancient author attempting to continue
them. Virgil, in his beautiful episode of the old Corycian horticul-
turist, appears, with consummate art, insensibly led into a digression
on trees and flowers ; and then, suddenly appearing to discover
that he has wandered from the direct track, he exclaims :
Verum haec ipse equidem, spatiis exclusus iniquis,
Praetereo, atque aliis post me memoranda relinquo.1
Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella, of Cadiz, an author
who is generally referred to the time of Claudius, took the hint,
and yielded to the importunate entreaties of his friend Silvinus,
that he would make the Xth Book of his work on Farming, which
was to comprise the art of Gardening, a continuation of the Georgics.
The work is still extant. It very much resembles the labours of
modern Latin poets ; the style, the language, and the imagery of
Virgil are closely copied ; and, whatever may be its merit, it has
received from the critics very high commendation. It cannot,
however, be denied that the poem of Columella is rather a chaste
and elegant study after a great master, than a bold and noble effort
of original genius, kindling at the torch of a kindred spirit.
Columella expressed himself content to be the rival of Virgil ; a
sentiment which, however chargeable with self-complacency, is
modest in comparison of those which were held by almost all con-
temporary and succeeding Epic writers, whose ridiculous ambition
to surpass the most perfect and polished models introduced into
Latin Poetry a character of exaggeration and caricature, which
conspired with the causes before noticed to accelerate the final ruin
of Eoman Literature. The author most deeply imbued with
this pernicious vanity was Lucan, whose rank among Latin Poets
requires us to give a slight sketch of his life, which will also be
serviceable in illustrating the state of public feeling in regard to
Literature, during the period in which he flourished.
Marcus Ann^eus Lucanus,2 the son of Annseus Mella, a
Eoman knight, and Atilla, was born at Cordova in Spain, a.d. 38,
and instructed in philosophy and polite literature by Palsemon,
Virginius, and Cornutus. His talents were conspicuous at an early
age : Seneca, in his Consolation to Helvia, calls him, " Marcum,
blandissimum puerum, ad cujus conspectum nulla potest durare
tristitia." His first poetical effort was a panegyric on Nero at the
Georg. iv. 148.
2 Suet. Vit. Luc.
LUCAX. 141
quinquennial poetical contest, called the Neropia, from its founder, Lucan.
in which he is said to have vanquished the Emperor himself : ■ but
it is well observed by Tiraboschi, that Lucan was dead before the
second celebration of the Neronia ;
and Suetonius, Tacitus, and Dio, are
all agreed on the fact that Nero was
victor in the first.2 Such, at least, is
the order preserved by Suetonius; but
Statius, in his Genethliacon, places
first in order the poem called Iliaca,
or Ilectoris lytra, (kvrpa.y His next
composition was a Satire called Incen-
dium Urbis, on the infamous conduct
of Nero in the conflagration at Eome.
Afterwards he produced a poem called
KaTaKava-fxos, and then his great work, Lucan.
the Pharsalia. He was then recalled
from Athens, where he had been residing, according to the custom
of the Iloman youth, by Nero, who treated him with familiarity,
and bestowed on him the office of Quaestor. Although affecting to
admire the genius of Lucan, it is probable that the Prince was
anxious to maintain a close observation over a young man whose
talents awakened his envy, and whose high spirit and free senti-
ments aroused his fears. The subject of the Pharsalia was
especially critical at that period ; the history of the rise of that
intolerable tyranny under which the nation was groaning, and the
remembrance of times alike free and happy, could not be contem-
plated with safety to the imperial despot. Lucan was not content
with merely placing this exciting picture before the eyes of his
fellow-citizens ; he openly advocated the character and policy
of Pompey ; he as openly execrated the motives and the con-
duct of the civil war ; and, after presenting his readers with a
highly-coloured description of the miseries and horrors which it
originated, he crowned his period with a compliment to Nero,
which, as the Emperor could not fail to perceive, was a tissue of
the bitterest irony.4 " Crimes and atrocities themselves," says the
Poet, " are welcome as the price of Nero ! "
1 "Prima ingenii experimenta in Neronis laudibus dedit, quinquennali rer-
tamine." — Suet. Vit. Luc. This poem is called "Orpheus:" it probably com-
plimented the Emperor on his celebrity as a musician.
2 Tiraboschi, Storia della Lett. Ital.,tom.ii. lib. i. cap. x. sez. 4.
3 Stat. Sylv. ii. 7.
4 Quod si non aliam venturo fata Neroni
Invenere viam, magnoque seterna parantur
Regna deis, ccelumque suo servire Tonanti
Non nisi saevorum potuit post bella gigantum :
Jam nihil, 6 superi, querimur ! Scelera ipsa, nefasque
Ilac mercede placent / — et seqq. — Luc. Pharts. i. 33 .
142
DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY.
Lucan.
Conspire?
against the
Emperor.
Ls executed.
Character
of the
PharsaUa.
Such being, in all probability, the motives of Nero, and such
being the undoubted character of Lucan, it was not to be expected
that a reciprocity even of external courtesies could long subsist
between them. The real sentiments of the latter were no secret to
the Emperor, nor were pains taken to disguise them ; the haughty
spirit of the poet could not brook the observation to which his
conduct was exposed, and he was little anxious to manifest a regard
to it. Envy, indignation, and policy, at length prompted the
Emperor to suppress the writings of Lucan, and to require him
never to write poetry again. The proverbial irritability of the
poetic race, combined with the impetuous temperament of the
particular poet, hurled back the mandate with defiance, in a bitter
Satire on the Emperor and his adherents. At length, in the con-
spiracy of Piso, Lucan assumed a conspicuous part ; and, principally
through the total disregard of secrecy, which he, on this, as on all
other occasions, evinced, that conspiracy was divulged. On his
apprehension his former constancy failed him, and, being required
to surrender his accomplices, he named his innocent mother. But
his death was determined : his only privilege was the choice of the
mode, which he exercised by having the veins of his arms opened.
Breathing the true ruling passion of a poet, his last message to his
father regarded the correction of some verses, and his last words
were a quotation from the PharsaUa, which describes the death of
a soldier under circumstances similar to his own.1 This event took
place a.d. 65.
Independently of its intrinsic merits, on the subject of which
critics are little agreed, the PharsaUa is valuable, as presenting a
faithful picture, both of the disposition of its author, and of the
literary character of the times. To the former of these must be
attributed those historical misstatements and suppressions which
favour the cause of Pompey, and which have afforded ample
materials for ostentatious censure to modern critics; while the
whole character of the poem, turgid, exaggerated, and laborious,
and the commendations indiscriminately bestowed on it by suc-
ceeding poets of high reputation,2 sufficiently indicate the prevalent
1 So Tacitus, Ann. xv. 70. The passage is supposed to be Phars. iii. 635, seqq.
where a soldier is described torn in pieces by a boarding-hook in a naval engagement.
2 It will not be necessary to transcribe the various w Testimonia de Lucano,"
which may be found prefixed to almost any edition of tbis poet. Statius has
written 135 hendecasyllabics of the most extravagant eulogy on Lucan; but three
will comprise their whole essence :
Attollat refluos in astra fontes
Graio nobilior melete Bcetisf
Bcetin, Mantua, provocare noli! /
Similarly Martial, (vii. 21.)
Hoc meruit quum te terris, Lucane, dcdisset,
Mixtus Castaliae Bactis ut esset aquae !
SENECA.
1 13
taste of the period included between the aire of Augustus and the Loom.
final extinction of the Roman literature and language. Quinctilian,
indeed, with his usual superiority to the depraved sentiments of his
age, considers Luean more of an orator than a poet ; yet his
manner of delivering his opinion plainly discovers how little it was
in unison with that of the public.1 Modern critics are seldom
temperate in their views of this writer ; while some regard him as
equal, and even superior, to Virgil, others consider his poem only
as a mass of defects, scarcely relieved by an accidental excellence.
His extravagances have been frequently commented on ; and we
think ourselves discharged from the obligation of retailing the
unmerciful preface of Burmann, and the scarcely less intolerant
observations of Spence. In all criticisms on the Pharsalia, the
incompleteness of the work, and the youth of the writer, who died
at the age of twenty-seven, must be taken into consideration.
Besides the works above mentioned, Luean is said to have Minor Poems
written a book of Saturnalia, ten books of Sylva, a tragedy called ot Luciul-
Medea, and fourteen SaUiece Fabi'he, or dramatic ballets. Some
confound the KaraKavo-fxos with the Urbis Tncendkim; but we are
justified in the distinction made above by the epitaph, or " encomion,',
written on Lucan by Pomponius Sabinus, who recognises two
poems of similar argument :
Hinc " Sylvan," geminevque " Faces," &c.
His wife, Polla Argentaria, also wras a literary character, and is said, roiia
not without some colour of Aigentaria.
probability, to have assisted in
the composition of the PharsaHa.
The uncle of Lucan was the
celebrated Lucius Ann.eus Se-
neca, the question regarding
the genuineness of whose trage-
dies is one of some obscurity.
All the manuscripts uniformly
present the title "L. Annrei
Seneca?." This renders it diffi-
cult to suppose that the work is
not genuine, unless we conceive
that there existed some other
Lucius Annseus Seneca, who
might be its author. But Mar*
tial,2 in speaking of the family,
mentions only two as celebrated ;
Statius mentions none but the philosopher ;
and Quinctilian, also,
1 " Ut dieam quod scntio, magis oratoribus quam poetis ann\imerandii9.'"
-Qui net. x 1. - Mart. i. 62. 3 Encom. Lucani.
144 DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY.
Seneca. who cites a verse from the Medea of Seneca,1 mentions the philo-
sopher only, concerning whom he observes in another place,2 that
he excelled in almost every department of learning, and that his
speeches, poems, epistles, and dialogues, were in the hands of the
public. Again he alludes to a discussion which took place between
Pomponius Secundus and Seneca, relative to an expression of the
tragedian Attius ; 3 and as Pomponius was himself a tragedian, and
a tragedian was the subject of the controversy, it is supposed that
Seneca had a nearer interest in the subject than that of a mere
lover of such literature. The testimony of Martial, it must be con-
fessed, is urged also on the opposite side ; in another place he calls
the family of Seneca, " docti Senecse ter numeranda domus ; " but
in reply to this, it is said, that these words are only equivalent to the
" duosque Senecas, unicumque Lucanum, " of the same author,
which words allude to Lucius and Marcus. This is, after all, the
best testimony that can be adduced against the genuineness of the
tragedies of Seneca. The next is that of Sidonius Apollinaris,4
who very circumstantially distinguishes between the philosopher
and the tragedian :
Non quod Corduba praepotens alumnis
Facundum ciet, hie putes legendum :
Quorum unus colit hispidum Platona,
Inca8sumque suum monet Neronem :
Orchestram quatit alter Euripidis,
Pictum faecibus iEschylum sequutus,
Aut plaustris solitum sonare Thespin.
But the testimony of this author is of very small value. That of
Paulus Diaconus is absolutely of none. His words are, " hujus
(sc. Neronis) temporibus poetse pollebant Romse, Lucanus, Juve-
nalis, et Persius, Senecaque Tragicus ; " 5 there is nothing in this
sentence to show that the philosopher was not meant ; because the
writer is speaking of him only in his poetical capacity. On the
whole, therefore, the evidence of antiquity appears favourable to
the claims of the philosopher. Be the tragedies of Seneca, how-
ever, the production of whom they may, they are poems of great
beauty and unquestionable antiquity ; and though few readers will
be disposed, with Scaliger,6 to consider them equal to any Greek
tragedies, and superior in brilliancy and elegance to Euripides,
fewer will concur in the vituperation of Bernhardy;7 and most
will allow that they contain, notwithstanding their occasional hard-
ness and turgidity, a great deal of fine poetry and sound philosophy.
That they are not the production of modern forgery is clear, since
they have been quoted not only by Quinctilian, as cited above, but
1 Quinct. ix. 2. 2 Id. x 1. 3 Id. v,iii. 3.
4 Carm. x. ad Magn. Fel. 5 Paul. Diac. Misc. Hist. lib. viii.
G Seal. Poet. lib. v. c. 6. 7 Gesch. der Rom. Lit. § 72.
POMPONIUS SECUNDUS. J 15
by Valerius Probus,1 Terentian,2 Luctatius,3 (the Scholiast on Statius,) Seneca.
and Priscian.4 However, we must admit that the Octarria, if
written by the philosopher, could never have been published during
his life, as it is nothing less then a catalogue of the enormities of
Nero, thrown into bold relief by strong poetical colouring.5 It is,
however, dissimilar in style and inferior in merit to the other
tragedies. It might indeed be urged, that instances are not wanting
of poets who defied the imperial displeasure ; but this is little
probable in the case of Seneca, as we shall see when we come to
consider his conduct in regard to Claudius.
With much intrinsic value, the tragedies of Seneca possess an state of the
additional claim to interest, as the only entire productions of the Drama*
Latin Melpomene which have survived the injuries of time and
barbarism. While they serve to confirm the assertion of Horace
concerning the tragic spirit and happy daring of Pioman bards,
they exhibit throughout, in their stiff, rhetorical, declamatory
language, and undramatic character, the strongest evidence that they
were composed for the closet, and that, consequently, at this period,
the legitimate drama of Rome was nearly extinct.
The correspondent of Seneca, Pomponius Secundus, to whom Pomponius
we have before alluded, appears to have been the only person who Secundus-
applied himself earnestly to the reformation of the Eoman stage.
Quinctilian considers him the first of Latin tragedians ; 6 and the
elder Pliny, as we learn from his nephew,7 had written a life of him
in two books. Beside these unexceptionable testimonies to his
excellence, we have the no less valuable authority of Tacitus,8 for
pronouncing him " a man of elegant habits and splendid talents."
What is most important in illustration of his opinions of dramatic
excellence, is an anecdote of him related by Pliny, which proves
that he was an enemy to the prevalent fashion of writing for the
closet. Whenever his friends suggested an improvement, he always
replied, " I appeal to the public." But this example was unsup-
ported ; and accordingly we find no traces of eminent dramatic
success after his time, unless we are to except one Yirginius, who Virginia*.
wrote comedies both on the old and new school, and Mimiambics,
and who is celebrated by the younger Pliny 9 as a paragon of
universal perfection. But Pliny's extravagant commendations, and
1 Val. Prob. Gramm. Inst. lib. i. de syllab. met. pass.
2 Terent. Maur. de met. Bucol. et de met. Hendeeas.
8 Luct. lib. iv. Theb. 4 Prise, lib. vi.
5 We have confined ourselves, in giving a sketch of this question, to ancient
testimony only. Those who wish to prosecute the subject may consult the works
of Justus Lipsius, Heinsius, Erasmus, and Scaliger ; and Brumoy's Theatre des
Grecs. Also Delrio, Syutagm. trag. lat. Proleg. II. ; Klotsch. Prolus. de Annaso
Seneca.
6 Quinct. x. 1. 7 Plin. iii. 5.
8 5 Ann. viii. 9 Plin. vi. 21.
[R. L.] L
146
DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY.
Seneca.
Maternus.
Mem or.
his expression " circa me tantum benignitate niraia excessit,"
coupled with the gross egotism of the writer, and independent of all
other support, justly render this evidence suspicious. Maternus,
as we learn from the author of the Dialogue Be Oratoribus,1 wrote
three tragedies, intituled Cato, Medea, and Thyestes ; and Martial has
this epigram on Scjeva Memor, brother of Turnus the satirist :
Clarus fro-nde Jo-vis, Romani fama cothurni,
Spirat Apellea redditus arte Memor."2
Tano. Varro, also, is thus mentioned by the same author :
Varro, Sophocleo non inficiande cothumo,
Nee minus in Calabra suspiciende lyra.3
Whether " Calabra lyra " alludes to Horace or Ennius, is a question
which must remain undecided until the works of this poet are found.
It seems that he was also a mimographer ; and, apparently, com-
posed a mimetic piece, in imitation of the Phasma of a certain
Catullus mentioned by Juvenal.4 Erom the subjects mentioned,5
Bassus would appear to have been a tragedian ; and Tucca was
so pertinacious an imitator of Martial, that he took to writing
tragedies, because his model had done so.6 The assertion casts
a doubt on itself: for from the same epigram we should con-
clude that Martial had tried his hand in epic, lyric, and satiric
composition, which is far from probable. Martial's tragedies,
therefore, as well as those of Tucca, had, in all probability, no
existence out of this piece of pleasantry. But it is nothing surprising
that dramatic poetry should have died out under the empire of
the Coesars. Bather is it wonderful that any kind of literature should
have survived. The stage had been a difficulty with all Boman
governments ; and now, even in the agonies of its dissolution, it con-
tinued to wound its oppressors, and make itself feared. Tiberius
put to death Mamercus iEmilius Scaurus, in part on account of his
tragedy of Atreus, in which he imagined the poet had alluded to
himself: 7 and, on the alleged ground of the immodesty and seditious
character of the Atellanes, banished the actors from Italy.8 Caligula
did not hesitate to burn an Atellane poet alive in the arena of the
amphitheatre, for a verse which appeared to reflect on him.9 Nero,
notwithstanding, was attacked from the stage •} and it is not unlikely
that the Maternus already mentioned was the sophist recorded by
Dio Cassius 2 as the victim of Domitian's jealousy, on account of the
freedom of his verses.
1 Dial, de Orat. ii. 3.
3 v. 31.
5 Mart, v, 53.
7 Tac. Ann. vi. 29.
9 Suet. Cal. 27.
2 lxvii. 12.
2 Mart. xi. 10.
4 Sat. viii. 186.
8 xii. 04.
8 Tac. Ann. iv. 14.
1 Suet. Nero, 39.
SATIRE.
1 IT
Of the epigrams ascribed to Seneca, it is needless to say more Seneca's
than that they are so exquisitely frigid, that they become sometimes E&*nm§t
amusing, — as the extremes of heat and cold are said to produce
similar sensations. It is scarcely possible to believe that the
doggrel which they contain could ever have fallen from the pen of
the tragedian, and the undoubted author of a work to which we
have before alluded, and which we now come more particularly to
consider, the curious and celebrated ' AttokoXokvvtcdo-ls. But here it
will be convenient to premise a few words on the state of satirical
literature in the age of the first emperors.
The circumstances most favourable to the production of Satire Satire.
are not always the most propitious to its publication. As the
objects of Satire are vice and folly, the wise and virtuous, when
vice and folly predominate, of necessity become satirists, and, even
where nature denies, indignation prompts the verse.1 But the
misfortune is, that, under these circumstances, the satirist can
rarely disclose his opinions with safety ; and this was eminently
the case in the age of the early emperors. Under those capricious
tyrants all literary occupation was unsafe ; but to name an
individual was almost certain destruction.2 The dramatic writers
were not the only poetical martyrs. iElius Saturninus, for
writing satirical verses on the Emperor Tiberius, was hurled from
the Tarpeian rock ; 3 Sextius Yestilius,
and Sextius Paconianus, suffered death on
conviction or suspicion of similar offences;
and Caius Cominius, a Eoman knight,
who had been equally guilty, was with
difficulty saved through the intercession
of his brother.4 Nor was it much less
perilous to attack vice in the abstract ;
the guilty are always disposed to appro-
priate what they know to be merited ;
and if, on any occasion, the conscience
of the Emperor acquitted a poet, there
were those around him whose internal
admonitions were less readily pacified.
It is therefore a remarkable phenomenon
that this period produced any satire at all; and it is little
matter of surprise that the few whose virtuous indignation sur-
1 Juv. i. 79.
2 Pone Tigellinum, tacda lucebis in ilia,
Qua stantes ardent, qui fixo gutture fumant,
Et latum media sulcum deducis arena. — Juv. Sat. i. 155.
Whatever these corrupt and inconstructible lines may signify literally, the
general meaning is sufficiently clear.
3 Dio. Cass. lib. iru.fin. 4 Tac. Ann. vi. 9, 29, 39.
L 2
:U E-ock.
148
DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY.
Satire.
X,Cv7bjrri<;.
passed their worldly prudence were careful, while they gave vent
to the ebullition of revolting integrity, to adopt what they regarded
a safe degree of obscurity. If this was necessary in the time of
Juvenal, as that poet intimates that it was,1 it was incalculably
more so in the period of which we are now treating. Various,
therefore, were the methods resorted to by those who felt them-
selves unable to stem the exuberance of the satiric vein. Lucan
concealed it beneath ironical adulation ; Persius resorted to obscure
and intricate metaphor, and significant personification. During the
life of Claudius, Seneca, although he had personal as well as public
motives of dislike to that weak and unjust prince, suppressed his
real feelings with what may be thought something more, or perhaps
less, than fortitude ; for, in his letter to Polybius, the freedman of
Claudius, written while he was smarting under the Emperor's
displeasure, he calls him " the truly gentle," " whose first virtue is
clemency," " whose memory comprehends all the maxims of the
sages ;" and, at last, " the great and most illustrious deity 1"
But when the base object of his baser adulation was no longer
accessible to its solicitations, he seems to have determined to make
the most ample possible atonement for the expressions wrung from
him by urgent misery and misplaced hope : and he who on earth
was a present god, becomes, in the regions of disembodied spirits,
the kindred associate of pumpkins ! The contrast which the early
part of the reign of Nero presented to that of his brutish predecessor
afforded a favourable opportunity for undisguised expression of
opinion ; and this facility seemed increased in the case of Seneca,
in consequence of his relative situation with regard to the new
monarch. The ' AtvokoXokvvtoso-is, therefore, speaks a plain and
unfettered language ; it is evidently the production of a hand
expatiating and exulting in the removal of its manacle,2 and, as it
is the only satire of this description which these times have
transmitted to us, it would be valuable, even had it no other
merit than curiosity. It is also curious as a specimen of the Yar-
ronian satire, the nature and origin of which we have elsewhere
discussed.
But indeed the ' Attoko\oki>vt(>)<tis is a piece of great intrinsic
merits, not the least of which is its originality, or, at least, its
original air; for, whatever the compositions of Varro may have
been, it bears not the slightest resemblance to any anterior extant
Latin production. The title itself is extremely ingenious, being a kind
of caricature of the dnoBeoxTi?, or awaOauaTcocris, by which it is
intimated that, instead of being translated to the condition and
1 Vide Juv. Sat. i. passim, prcBsertim sub fin.
2 " Ego scio me liberum factum ex quo diem suum obiit ille qui verum pro-
verbium fecerat, aut regem aut fatuum nasci oporterc.,, — Senec. " AttokoXokvvt .
sub init.
8ATIEE. — SENECA. — COENUTUS. 1 19
society of the gods, Claudius was more appropriately conveyed to the Seneca,
paradise of gourdl or pumpkins, things which in life he had most re-
sembled through his grossness and fatuity. The raillery on Geminius,
who pretended to have seen Drusilla, the sister of Caligula, ascend
to heaven ; the council of the gods, and speech of Augustus ; the
expulsion of Claudius from heaven; his funeral dirge; his descent
to the shades, and the discussion which there takes place on the
nature of the punishment suited to him ; and, lastly, his condem-
nation to play for ever with a bottomless dice-box, are all strokes
of a master. It is by no means improbable that this work deter-
mined Nero to remove Seneca at the first favourable opportunity;
since it was obvious that, had the satirist survived him, his own
memory would have been treated as unceremoniously as that of his
predecessor.
Although Seneca had not the fortitude to avail himself, as largely
as he might have done, of the genius and the materials which he
possessed for satire, others were less circumspect. One of the
principal of these was Marcus AnNjEUS Cobnutus, if we regard Cornutus,
consideration and learning; but his writings of this description
must have been very scanty, inasmuch as it has been questioned
whether any such ever existed. But Eulgentius Planciades, as
quoted by Casaubon in his elaborate treatise on this subject,
expressly cites his satire : " Titivillitium : M. Cornutus in Satura
ait : Titivillitii sat cedo tibi." As the preceptor of Persius, it is
not improbable that he first kindled the spirit of satire in the breast
of that poet ; but this conclusion has been too precipitately deduced
from some verses spoken in his person by Persius, to whom they
are supposed to be addressed :
Verba togse sequeris; junctura callidus acri,
Ore tens modico, pallentes radere mores
Doctm, et ingenuo culparn defigere ludo : 1
for " doctm " may simply mean skilful, and, even though it should be
taken participially, it will not hence follow that Persius caught the
satiric fire from any regular production of Cornutus. Indeed Sueto-
nius expressly says of Persius, that it was not until he had completed
his scholastic exercises, and read the Xth Book of Lucilius, that his
taste for satire became conspicuous ; although it will still remain
highly probable that his relish for this poet was the result of habits
of thinking engendered by his preceptor. But whether Cornutus
was as eminent in Satire as in other branches of literary excellence,
must now be for ever uncertain. Unquestionable it is that he was
a man of great talent and erudition. Suetonius2 informs us that
he was a tragedian ; but his greatest reputation was in philosophy.
1 Sat v. 1 4.
2 In Vit. Persii. (This biography is also ascribed to Valerius Probus.)
150
DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY.
Cornutus. Such, however, was the opinion of his universal taste and informa-
tion, that Nero consulted him on the conduct of a poem which he
had just begun on the Roman History. His opinion, unfortunately,
happened to disagree with that of the
Emperor, who rewarded him with ban-
ishment, and (if we may believe Suidas1),
with death. He enjoyed, however, the
satisfaction of seeing his pupil Persius
accomplish his honourable career. To
this eminent satirist the course of our
observations will now conduct us.
Aulus Persius Flaccus,2 descended
of an ancient, though plebeian family,3
was born at Volaterrce, now Yolterra,
in Etruria, tj. c. 787. Such, at least,
is the substance of ancient testimony.4
But some moderns conclude that he
was born at Ltuue Partus, in Liguria,
from the following verses, which, in
Persius.
Persius. truth, relate to the place of his residence :
Mihi nunc Ligus ora
Intepet, liybernatque meum marc, qua latus ingens
Dant scopuli, et multa littus se valle receptat.
" Lunai portum est opera cognoscere, cives." 5
He was, however, himself a Roman knight, and connected with
the first families in Rome. At the age of six years he lost his
father Flaccus ; his mother, Fulvia Sisenna, contracted a second
marriage, which was dissolved by the death of her husband not
many years after. He studied till his twelfth year at the place of
his nativity ; afterwards he removed to Rome, where he prosecuted
Painemon. his studies under Remmius Pal.emon and Virginius Flaccus.
The former of these affected to be a poet. He wrote to please the
vulgar ; 6 but so preposterous was his vanity, that he conceived
that Virgil had been inspired to predict him in the emphatic
hemistich,
Yenit ccce Palaemon.
By a low quibble on the name of Varro, (borrowed, as we must
1 Suid. voc. Kopvovros. 2 Suet. Vit. Persii.
3 " Aus einerangesehenen Ritterfamilie" says Bahr; (Geschicht. der Rom. Lit.
sec. 132). But Casaubon Bays, apparently with more truth, " Plcbeiam [genteni
Persii] fuisse fasti suadent, in quibus nemo, quod sciam, ejus nominis celebratur."
— Casaub. Comm. in Pen.
4 Euseb. Chron. ; Cassiodor. Fast. 6 Sat. vi. 6.
6 Scribat carmina circulis Palaemon : —
Me raris juvat auribus placere. — Mart. ii. 82.
PERSIUS. 1 5 1
admit, from Cicero,) he called that most learned of all the "Romans I
a swine; and affirmed that learning was born, and would perish,
with himself. He was originally a slave ; and his mind appears
never to have been emancipated, as even Tiberius and Claudius
pronounced him utterly unfit for a guardian of youth. At the age
of sixteen, Persius became acquainted with the celebrated Cornutus,
whom we have just noticed, whose faithful disciple and friend he
ever after continued. Hence it was that he intimately cultivated the
acquaintance of many poets and literary men, especially of his
fellow-pupil Lucan, whose admiration of his writings was so
excessive, that, if we are to believe Suetonius, he with difficulty
restrained himself from open commendation when Persius recited.
His life, at least the information we possess respecting it, presents
no prominent occurrence ; he is described by his biographer as
handsome in person, gentle in manners, and even of maiden
modesty ; of temperate habits, and remarkably affectionate to his
relations. At his death, which took place before he attained the
age of thirty, he bequeathed his library and a handsome sum of
money to his preceptor Cornutus ; the philosopher, however,
retained the books only, and sent back the money to the sisters
of his pupil.
That a satirist of the Xeronian period should have been allowed
to descend to his grave in peace, is an event not altogether
unworthy of remark ; but, in the case of Persius, Pate, perhaps,
did no more than anticipate the tyrant ; moreover, the satirist
himself was remarkably cautious and guarded, and even did not
always trust his own circumspection, but submitted his writings,
before publication, to his faithful and judicious preceptor. That he
did not spare the Emperor we know from the consent of all tradition
respecting his IYth Satire, wherein Socrates is described as
inveighing against the vices of Alcibiades. Nothing, however, can
be more cautiously managed than this Satire ; so incapable was it
of self-appropriation, except by conscious guilt, that to have
resented it would have been to confess its truth and poignancy.
On one occasion he showed to Cornutus his 1st Satire, in which he
had ridiculed the literary taste of his times, and in which Nero
was by no means spared, although perhaps not described in the
verse beginning
Auriculas asini Mida rex habet :
an expression, apparently, as little capable of appropriation as any
in the IYth. His preceptor, however, thought otherwise ; and
altered the verse as it now stands,
Auriculas asini quis non habet ?
From this anecdote Bayle,1 in a note, which wTe will not injure
1 Diet. voc. Perse.
152 DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY.
Persius. by abridgment, concludes, as it appears to us, very justly, that the
verses in the 1st Satire said to be quoted from the writings of
Nero, could not have been the production of that prince ; inasmuch
as such conduct on the part of the poet would have been incal-
culably more imprudent than the very questionable passage which
Cornutus compelled him to alter.
It is, doubtless, to this prudent abstinence from the very
semblance of personality that the Satires of Persius are partly
indebted for that intense obscurity which presents so formidable
a counterpoise to their sterling merit. Yet it is impossible always
to acquit their author of partiality for the dark and difficult, even
where he had no prudential considerations to cry " o-kotutov" as
Casaubon tells us his preceptor Cornutus was accustomed to do.
His biographer, no less circumstantial than concise, informs us
that he wrote seldom and slowly ; which latter circumstance proves
that his obscurities cannot be the result of hasty and careless com-
position. Joannes Lydus attributes them to an ambition of
imitating Sophron.1 We are inclined to believe the hypothesis of
Tiraboschi to be no less true thau ingenious, that a vain hope of
excelling Horace misled Persius, just as the desire of surpassing
Virgil seduced his friend Lucan. In an elaborate endeavour to
exceed the conciseness and terseness of his model, he encountered
a danger which Horace himself had perceived and pointed out.2
His difficulties, undoubtedly, have been augmented by time and
transcription, as is evident from the high popularity which he
enjoyed among his contemporaries 3 and immediate successors ;
and although conceits and metaphors which would have been
openly exploded in the age of Horace were studied and applauded
in that of Quinctilian ; yet the great critic, ever superior to the
errors of his time, is to be heard with deference, when he tells us
that Persius, in a single volume, has earned a considerable pro-
portion of real glory : 4 while the testimony of Martial, that the
fame of this little volume exceeded that of Marsus's Amazonis? is
important, when the high opinion which Martial entertained of that
poet is taken into consideration.6
The Satires of Persius, as we now have them, were revised by
CiTsius Cornutus, and edited by C.esius Bassus, the intimate friend of the
author, to whom the Vlth was addressed, and who has been con-
founded with Gavius Bassus, to whom Fulgentius ascribes a satire."
1 De Mag. Rom. i. 41.
- Brevis esse laboro,
Obscurus fio. — De Art. Poet. 25.
3 u Edituni librum continue inirari homines et deripere coeperunt." — Suet.
in Vitd. 4 Quinct x. 1.
1 iv. 28. 6 See page 118. " Voc. Veruina.
Bassus.
PETRONIUS. 153
ThisCsesius has received very high commendation from Quinctilian.1 Perth*
After the well-known declaration respecting Horace, that he was
the only Latin lyric worth perusal, the critic proceeds : " Si quem
adjieere ?elis, is erit Csesiua Bassus, quem nuper vidimus : " but
the succeeding passage is still more curious : " seel emu longe
praecedunt ingenia viventium." For, as far as other testimony is
concerned, we know of no lyrist worthy of being named with
Horace. The few that occur will be mentioned as we advance.
Some unfinished verses at the end of the work of Persius, (which
are supposed to have been the beginning of another satire,) were
cancelled. Besides this work, Persius had composed, when very
young-, a pnetextate play, a book called 'QdoinopiKa , and some
verses on the unfortunate and heroic Arria ; all which produc-
tions his mother, acting by the advice of Cornutus, caused to be
destroyed.
Such are the most important authentic particulars respecting the
state of Satire under the dominion of Nero ; but it will be conve-
nient slightly to transgress the limits of the period which we are
now treating, in order to notice those satirists, the analogy of
whose subjects and genius appears to demand our present atten-
tion. AVe cannot advance to these more systematically than by a
review7 of the slender and obscure particulars which exist respecting
the writings of Petroxifs. That this subject, however, has been retronius,
involved in more difficulty than really belongs to it, we think Ave
shall be enabled satisfactorily to show. Fragments of Petronius
had been printed by Bemardinus de Vitalibus, at Venice, in 1499,
and by Jacobus Thanner, at Leipzig, in 1500 ; but in the year
166$, Petrus Petitus, or, as he styled himself, Marinus Statilius, a
literary Dalmatian, discovered at Traw a MS. containing a much
more considerable fragment, which was afterwards published at
Padua and Amsterdam, and ultimately purchased at Borne for the
library of the King of France, in the year 1703. The eminent
Mr. J. B. Gail, one of the curators of this library, politely allowed
Mr. Guerard, a young gentleman of considerable learning, employed
in the manuscript department, to afford us the following circum-
stantial information respecting this valuable codex, which is classed
in the library under the number 7 9 S 9 . "It is a small folio, two
fingers thick, written on very substantial paper, and in a very legible
hand. The titles are in vermilion ; the beginnings of the chapters
&c, are also in vermilion or blue. It contains the poems of
Tubulins, Propertius, and Catullus, as we have them in the ordinary
printed editions ; then appears the date of the 20th of November,
1-123. Alter these comes the letter of Sappho, and then the work
of Petronius. The extracts are intituled ' Petronii Arbitri satyri
fragment a ex libro quinto decimo et sexto decimo :' and begin thus ;
1 X. 1.
154 DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY.
Petronius. ■ cum ' (and not ' num ' as in the printed copies) c in alio genere
furiarum declamatores inquietantur,' &c. After these fragments,
which occupy twenty-one pages of the manuscript, we have a piece
without title or mention of its author, which is The Supper of
Trimalcio. It begins thus : l Venerat jam tertius dies, id est,
expectatio libera? comae,5 and ends with the following : e nos
occasionem opportunissimam nacti, Agamemnoni verba dedimus,
raptimque tarn plane quam ex incendio fugimus.> This piece is
complete by itself, and does not recur in the other extracts. Then
follows the Moretum, attributed to Virgil, and afterwards the Phoenix
of Claudian. The latter piece is in the character of the XVIIth
century, while the rest of the manuscript is in that of the XV th."
The publication of this fragment excited a great sensation among
the learned, to great numbers of whom the original was submitted;
and by far the majority of the judges decided in favour of its
antiquity. Strong as was this external evidence, the internal is
yet more valuable ; since it is scarcely possible to conceive a forgery
of this length, which would not, in some point or other, betray
itself. Moreover, forgeries are always most common of those
authors, fragments of whose writings are to be found in others,
which thus appear to countenance the fraud. But of the writings
of Petronius, only a few disjointed words and expressions have been
preserved by other authors, and even those have not been copied
into the manuscript, as they most probably would have been, were
it not a genuine monument of antiquity. The very obscurities which
pervade the work are such as might be expected, when we reflect
that it is, avowedly, a very small portion, and that this is the only
copy which has reached our hands. The difficulty of forging a
work like the Satyricon will better appear, when it is considered
that such attempts have been actually made. A Frenchman, named
Nodot, pretended that the entire work of Petronius had been found
at Belgrade, in the siege of that town in 1688. The forged manu-
script was published ; but the contempt which it excited was no
less universal than the consideration which was shown to the manu-
script of Statilius. Another Frenchman, Lallemand, printed a
pretended fragment, with notes and a translation, in 1800 ; but no
scholar was deceived by it.
Assuming therefore, what there seems good reason to assume,
that this work is a genuine, though corrupted, monument of
antiquity ; the next subject for consideration will be the determi-
nation of the author. It seems difficult to imagine how scholars
could ever have adjudged this honour (if any it be) to any other
than Petronius Arbiter, of whom Tacitus l gives the following
singular account: " The days of Caius 2 Petronius were passed in
1 Tac. Ann. xvi. 18.
2 The praenomen of tliis man seems not to have been distinctly known ; there
PETRONIUS. 155
sleep ; his nights in the business and relaxations of life. As Petronius.
others attain fame by exertion, so he acquired it by sloth ; nor was
he, like most spendthrifts, considered a profligate debauchee, but
rather an elaborate voluptuary. The more negligent and free were
his conduct and discourses, the more agreeable was his simplicity
regarded. When he was proconsul of Bithynia, and afterwards
consul, he showed himself vigorous and equal to business ; but,
after this, returning to his vices, or his imitations of vice, he
became one of the few intimates, and steward of the refinements,1
of Nero, who esteemed nothing elegant and polite, but what
Petronius had previously approved. In this situation he incurred
the jealousy of Tigellinus, who beheld in him a rival and a superior
in the science of pleasure : and who, appealing to the cruelty of the
prince, to which all his other vices were subservient, bribed a slave
to report Petronius as the friend of Scevinus : then committing all
his household to prison, effectually deprived him of a defence. It
chanced that, at that time, the Emperor made an excursion into
Campania, and advanced as far as Cuma3, where Petronius lay, who
resolved no longer to endure the suspense of hope and fear. He
did not, however, have recourse to instantaneous death, but,
opening his veins, bound them again from time to time. During
this process he discoursed with his friends, but not on serious sub-
jects, nor with any view to a reputation for fortitude ; and listened,
not to discussions on the immortality of the soul and the opinions
of philosophers, but to light songs and careless verses. Some of
his slaves he emancipated, others he punished ; he walked abroad ; he
took his rest ; that his death, although violent, might appear natural.
Unlike the generality of the victims of Nero, he did not in his will
flatter the prince, or Tigellinus, or any of the men in power ; but,
having described the imperial debaucheries, with the names of those
j who shared them, and every new variety of impurity, he sealed the do-
cument, and sent it to Nero : taking care, however, to break the signet-
1 ring, lest it should afterwards prove dangerous to the innocent."
There is little ancient testimony beside this concerning Petronius ;
he is seldom referred to or quoted ; but it does not appear that
more than one Petronius Arbiter was ever known to antiquity.
Nor is it, indeed, probable, since the name was, most likely, strictly
is little doubt that he is intended by Pliny (lib. xxxvii. c. 2) in the following
passage : " Titus Petronius, Consularis, moriturus, invidia Neronis principis, ut
mensam ejus exhaeredaret, trullam myrrhinam CCC. U.S. einptam fregit."
Plutarch also, in his Treatise " irccs av tls SiaKplveie rbu kSKolkcl tov (pihov,"
names him Titus ; "J/H robs aaoorovs koll Tzo\vre\els els /uLiKpokoyiav K<xl pvrco.piav
\ oveifiifaaiv, obcnrep Nepwycc Titos Ylerpdovios" The Scholiast on Juvenal, how-
ever, terms him Publius. (Schol. in Juv. Sat. vi. 637.)
1 "Arbiter elegantiarum," an expression easier to understand than translate,
and which is well represented by the French Muitre des menus plaisirs. From
this circumstance Petronius derived his name of Arbiter, which at once identifies
him.
156 DECLINE OF IATIN POETRY.
Petronius. personal, as it denoted an office. If the work, therefore, now in
our hands, be really the production of a Petronius Arbiter, there
can be little difficulty in assigning his identity. The whole cast of
the work is exactly what might be expected from a character like
that described by Tacitus : extremely licentious, yet very elegant.
The former part of this opinion will never be controverted : in the
latter we are supported by the majority of scholars and critics ;
although there have not been wanting those who have drawn argu-
ments against the authority of the work from its barbarisms and
false Latinity. But when it is considered that this author has come
down to us in a very mutilated state, and chiefly on the faith of a
single copy, we have reason to conclude that many of the solecisms
and obscurities which disfigure the Satyricon are owing to these
circumstances. Certain it is that the criticisms of Petronius evince
a writer well acquainted, both by taste and study, with the
principles of composition ; and for these he has obtained the
distinguished honour of being placed in the shrine of Aristotle,
Horace, and Longinus, by a critic unexcelled by any :
Fancy and art in gay Petronius please :
The scholar's learning, with the courtier's ease.1
His poem, too, on the civil wars, written for the purpose of
elucidating his critical principles, will bear an advantageous com-
parison with Lucan, and proves him to have understood, as well as
learned, the maxims and uses of literary criticism. Thus the style
and subjects of the Satyricon confirm, alike the belief of its genuine-
ness, and the arguments which assign the identity of its author.
Prom what is recorded by Tacitus, it has been generally supposed
that the document sent by Petronius to the emperor was no other
than that of which we now possess a very small portion. But this
opinion we cannot admit. Por in the statement of Tacitus,
Petronius exposed the prince's minions by name ; whereas all the
names in the Satyricon are significant, and, by consequence,
fictitious. And whatever may have been the indifference which
marked the last days of Petronius, we cannot suppose that nature,
under such circumstances, could have enabled him to compose a
work in sixteen books, to which extent, as the manuscript informs
us, the Satyricon actually reached. In the absence of data, we can
assign to this work no object, nor can we very satisfactorily inves-
tigate its main subject, so brief and unconnected are the portions
which remain. It is, apparently, a romance ; but, whatever we
are to consider it, perhaps there is no work of antiquity, the
corruptions and imperfections of which are so little to be regretted.
That the work was intituled Satyrica, and not Satyricon, appears
1 Pope, Essay on Grit. 667.
u FRAGMENTUM SATIRE IN M.IIONKM." 157
the most probable supposition. Satyricon Hbri, when the distinction retronius.
of books was lost, easily became Satyricon. Fulgentius 1 mentions
two works of Petronius, besides the Satyricon, called Enscius and
Albucia. Concerning these we have no farther information.
Balzac, in his Entretiens Liiteraires, (ep. 4, ch. iv.) first presented
the world with thirty lines of a Satire from an ancient manuscript,
which were thence copied by Burmann into his Antliologia, and
have been generally considered genuine ; though Bernhardy, who
speaks of them with a contempt not easily accounted for,2 regards
them as a forgery of their first editor. The only external evi-
dence of any weight against these verses is Menage's edition of
Balzac ; in which, under the head " Eicta pro antiquis" occurs a
piece of seventy-four hexameters, intituled, " Indignatio in poetas
Neronianoriim temporum, ad nobilissimum Sammauranum Montau-
serii Marcldonem, majoris operis fragmentum" Among these
verses are found the thirty now in question. The discovery of
this edition caused Bahr to renounce his opinion of their antiquity ;
" the remainder of the verses," he says, " are of that quality,
that they can scarcely pass for an ancient production." 3 But
the fact of the contrast between these portions of the poem is
presumptive evidence that they are not by the same author : nor
does there appear any reason why Balzac, if he wished to impose
on the literary world, did not at once assert the antiquity of the
whole. He might very naturally, however, have amused himself
with endeavouring to fill out the genuine fragment. The verses
are an animated and indignant survey of the court and policy of
Nero ; and as they are not to be met with in many collections,
and are eminently illustrative of the poetical character of the period,
our readers may not be displeased to find them here : —
Ergo famem miseram, aut epulis infnsa venena.
Et populum cxsanguem, pinguesque in funus amicos,
Et molle imperii senium sub nomine pacis,
Et quodcunque illis nunc aurea dicitur aetas,
Marmorea3que canent lacrymosa incendia Roma?,
Ut formosum aliquid, nigra? et solatia noctis?
Ergo re bene gesta, et leto matris ovantem,
IVIaternisque canent cupidum concurrere Din's,
Et Diras alias opponere, et anguibus angues,
Atque novos gladios pej usque ostendere letum ?
Saeva canent? obsccena canent, foedosque hymenacos
Uxoris pueri, Veneris monumenta nefandae ?
1 Dc Cont. Yirg. Item in Praef. lib. i. Mythologicon.
2 " Das ihm [Turnus] beigelegte trockne Fragmentum Satira? in Neronem
kbnnte von ihm keine sonderlichc Meinung envecken." — Grundr. der Rom. Lit.
Anm. 472.
3 Nachtrage u. Berichtungen zur Geschicht. d. Rom. Lit. § 138.
158 DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY.
Nil Musas cecinisse pudet, nee nominis olim
Virginei, faniaeque juvat meminisse prioris.
Ah ! pudor extinctus ! doctaeque (infamia !) turbae
Sub titulo prostant ! et queis genus ab Jove summOj
Res horainum supra evectae et nullius egentes,
Asse merent vili, et sancto se corpore foedant !
Scilicet aut Menae faciles parere superbo,
Aut nutu Polycleti, et parca laude beatae,
Usque adeo maculas ardent in fronte recentes,
Hesternique Getae vincla et vestigia flagri.
Quinetiam, patrem oblitae et cognata deorum
Numina, et antiquum castae pietatis honorem,
Proh ! furias et monstra colunt, impuraque turpis
Fata vocant Titii mandata, et quicquid Olympi est
Transcripsere Erebo ! Jarnque impia ponere templa,
Sacrilegasque audent aras, cceloque repulsos
Quondam Terrigenas superis im ponere regnis
Qua licet : et stolido verbis illuditur orbi.
Gaunt famine, banquet-board with poison rife,
"Wan vassals, minions fatted for the knife,
Peace, (prostituted name for power grown old !)
And all our hirelings call the Age of Gold,
And marble Rome in tears and ashes laid,
(Fair sight, and solace of nocturnal shade !)
These in their lays shall venal bards parade?
Flush'd with success of parricidal rage,
Prompt with his mother's Furies to engage,
Furies to Furies, snakes to snakes oppose,
And blot with darker death the realm of woes, —
Him shall they sing? — fierce crime, flagitious joy,
The desecrated rite, the consort boy ? —
The Nine, forgetful of their virgin name
And purity, regard no theme with shame :
For shame is not. — Foul sight ! the learned band,
High Jove's pure daughters, forth as harlots stand ;
Powers above mortal needs and human things
Sell for vile hire their brave imaginings :
At Mcna's frown, at Polycletus' nod,
They hail the slave of yesterday a god :
Love the raw brand that sears the brow with black,
The chain, and scourge-mark fresh upon the back.
Oblivious of their sire and race divine,
And the old honours of their saintly line,
Furies and monsters they adore ; and call
Foul Titius' hideous mandates Fate ; and all
Of heavenly birth to Erebus transpose ;
Rear impious nines, and altars dark as those :
Raise Titans to the heaven whence gods are hurl'd ;
And wordy nonsense gulls a doting world.
As these lines are anonymous, it is impossible to appropriate
them with any certainty. It has been supposed that they are a
Sosianus. portion of a Satire written by Antistius Sosianus, for which
that unfortunate man, as we learn from Tacitus, was condemned to
JUVENAL.
159
death, which was commuted for banishment.1 It seems, however, sosianu*
extremely improbable that any writer, whatever his sentiments
might be, should have avowed them so plainly, at a time when be
must have been aware of the fatal tendency of his avowal. But
although scarcely published under the dominion of Nero, there is a
freshness about these verses which leads to a belief that they must
have been tbe work of a contemporary. They are, moreover,
evidently the production of satiric genius ; and Wernsdorf, there-
fore, not altogether without probability, conjectures them to be the
production of a celebrated satirist named Turnus, who lived under
Nero, and some following emperors. This author, apparently,
was born at Aurunca, the native place of the father of Horn an
Satire; since the expression "magnus Aurunca alumnus ," which,
with good reason, is usually understood of Lucilius, is interpreted,
by the Scholiast on Juvenal, of Turnus.2 Like Horace, he was Turnus.
descended from a freedman ; and, like him also, he became powerful
at court, under Titus and Domitian. He is mentioned in high
terms by Martial,3 and classed with Juvenal by Eutilius Numatianus,
an author whom we shall presently notice.4 Aurunca appears to
have enjoyed an extraordinary fecundity of Satirists; for the
Scholiast on Juvenal, in the passage cited
above, mentions two others of this place,
Lenius and Silius ; the former is, probably,
the same with Lenrcus, whom we have
noticed before ; and of the latter wre only
know, on the authority of the Scholiast,
that he was a contemporary of Juvenal, of
whom we shall now proceed to record
some particulars.
The only authentic information which
we possess respecting Becius Junius
Juvkxalis is to be derived from incidental
passages in his own writings, and from a
sketch, not to be dignified with the title of
a " Life," from the pen of Suetonius or
Frobus.5 In the common editions of this
slight memoir no mention occurs of the
place of Juvenal's birth ; but in the manu-
script of Yossius, Aquinum was assigned ; and this opinion derives
1 Tac. Ann. xvi. "21. ? Schol. in Juv. Sat. i. 20.
3 Mart. vii. .07, and xi. 11. ■* Rutil. Num. Iter. i. 599.
5 There are three other biographical pieces enumerated by Biilir (Gesch. der
Rom. Lit. § 134, Anm. 2); one ascribed to JElius Douatus ; one by an anony-
mous author, edited by Ruperti ; another, edited by Achaintre from a Bolognese
MS. The last appears to be of very recent date. The Life by Suetonius or
Probus, such as it is, is acknowledged by Biihr to be the main source of informa-
tion. (Hauptquelle.)
Juvenal.
Juvenal.
160 DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY.
Juvenal. probability from the Poet's own testimony.1 The year of his birth
was a. D. 59.2 He was either the son or fosterchild of a rich
freedman. Until he reached his middle age (ad mediant fere atatein)
he amused himself with declaiming; less with a view to public
objects than to the gratification of private taste.3 The first occasion
which exercised his satire is a disputed subject among critics,
whose opinions we shall not attempt to record, much less to
examine, but prefer to consider what ancient testimony has left
us. The following are the words of his biographer : " Having
produced a satire of a few verses, not ill- written, on Paris, the
poet and pantomime of Claudius Nero, and the conceited dispenser
of the Emperor's dignities,4 he thenceforward diligently cultivated
that province of literature. At first, however, he did not venture to
entrust his poems even to the smallest auditory. But, after a while,
he recited several times before a crowded audience, and with great
applause ; which induced him to transfer into his recent writings
a passage which he had composed before :
Seek'st thou the patronage of ancient lines?
The courts of Bareas, or of Camerines ?
In vain ! an actor now gives wealth, not they ;
Power, office, rank, are prices of a play.
The biographer then adds a few words, which comprise his whole
history. " A player was at that time in favour at court, and
many of his admirers were daily promoted : Juvenal, therefore,
incurred suspicion as having covertly satirised the times ; (quasi
tempora Jigurate notdsset ;) and, although at the age of eighty
years, was immediately removed from the city, under colour of an
honourable promotion, and sent to command a cohort in the
remotest districts of Egypt ; such a mode of punishment being
considered best adapted to a light and jocular fault. In a very
short time, however, he became a victim to weariness and
melancholy." The chronology of Juvenal's life and writings is
involved in considerable confusion ; which Professor llamsay, of
Glasgow, in his article "Juvenalis" in Smith's Dictionary of
Classical Antiquities, has ably endeavoured to disentangle. To
this, for more exact information, we refer our readers, presenting
them here with the Professor's conclusion : " Without pretending to
embrace the views of this [Franke] or any previous critic to their
full extent, we may safely assume a sceptical position, and doubt
1 Sat. iii. 319. 2 Sat. xiii. 17. 3 Conf. Sat. i. 15.
4 " Ejus semestribus rnilitiolis tumentem." The allusion is to Juv. Sat.
vii. 88.
Ille et militioe multis largitur honorem :
Semestri vatum digitos circumligat auro.
Paris invested with the dignity of six-monthly tribune, of which, see Plin. iv. 4.
NEBO. 101
every point which has been usually assumed as true. The narratives Juvenal.
contained in the different ancient biographies are so vague and
indistinct that they could scarcely have proceeded from a contempo-
rary, or from any one who drew his knowledge from a clear and
copious source ; while the contradictory character of many of the
statements, and the manifest blunders involved in others, prevent
us from reposing any confidence in those particulars in which they
agree, or are not confuted by external testimony. "
To enter on a critical survey of the works of Juvenal, and to
compare them with those of Horace and Persius, would be worse
than unnecessary here. It has been often done by the profoundest
scholars and acutest critics, and seldom, perhaps, with much
influence on individual opinion. Whatever be the relative value of
the Satires of Juvenal, there never was a doubt on their absolute
. excellence. His Yllth Satire, however, deserves our especial VIIth Satire.
notice, as it professes to be a review of the state of literature at
I Eome, in which poetry naturally claims conspicuous regard.
There is no decisive external evidence on the chronology of this state of
Poem ; all that we know is, that it could not have been written L^erature.
earlier than the reign of Domitian, with the exception of the few
lines quoted by the ancient biographer ; but possibly it was not
published till the time of Hadrian. That it was not altogether
written under Domitian appears from an anecdote related in it of
Statius, which took place in the reign of that prince ; and which is
spoken of as evincing the ungenerous character of a policy exploded
by a new and liberal monarch. The ruinous consequences of this
policy to literature, especially to poetry, are depicted with
declamatory, but pathetic, eloquence. Poets of reputation and
popularity are represented applying for the most menial offices, and
the Muse herself in the condition of a mendicant. We will inquire
how far this representation is countenanced by history, in reverting
to the period from which we have digressed, and taking a survey
of the state of poetry during the turbulent reigns of Nero and his
successors. With respect to the former, this has been in some
measure already performed ; we shall here complete our observations
on the subject.
The taste which Nero exhibited for poetry was no less fatal to Nero.
its interests at Eome than the barbarism and brutality of other
princes. Nero, affecting the art himself, regarded all its professors
with more or less jealousy. The example of Cornutus sufficiently
showrs the opinion which he entertained of his own poetical merits,
and the danger of provoking the most distant comparisons. The
quinquennial poetical contest instituted by this prince, which we
have already noticed, might be supposed to have a beneficial
tendency ; but, as the Emperor himself entered the arena, the result
was certain. Competition involved personal danger ; and the only
[R.L.J m
162
DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY.
Nero.
means of averting disastrous consequences were the meanest obse-
quiousness and the profanest adulation. Of the character of thepoetry
produced by this institution, we may form a very tolerable notion
from what is said in the verses ascribed to Turnus, which we have
already given : for, even assuming these to be the forgery of Balzac,
Nero and Poppsea.
they only describe what must necessarily have been the case. The
prize poetry of the Neronian age was, doubtless, impious as there
represented, and dull as those formidable " Gratulationes" of awful
bulk, which a royal birth or marriage formerly elicited from our own
Universities. The policy of Nero, therefore, was not less hostile
to poetry in general than to political or personal satire.
Neither is it probable that this prince himself afforded to the
Latin Muse those advantages which his jealousy forbade her to
accept from others. She was, it is true, of a colder and severer
temperament than her sisters in most nations, nor did she require
from her votaries that ardent and impassioned devotion, without
which it has been impossible for poets in other countries to succeed ;
yet if she was too majestic and tranquil to be approached with
unchastened warmth and irregular pathos, she was too pure for the
worship of the fierce and cruel. As a poet, Nero is called doctus
by Martial ; and, as far as concerns the mechanism of the art, such
he probably was : the pupil of Seneca could scarcely have been
other. But it was the common opinion, and as such is recorded
by Tacitus,1 that he received great assistance from others, whom he
employed to versify his own ideas, as nearly in his own words as
possible, and who sometimes supplied whole verses. The historian,
who had seen his poems, confirms the probability of this belief by
their internal evidence ; informing us that they were deficient in
1 Ann. yiv. 16.
NERO.
103
spirit and energy, as well as in singleness of style. Suetonius 1
admits that such a report prevailed, but denies the truth of it, and
affirms that he had seen the autograph of some of Nero's poems,
which was so much blotted, dashed, and interlined, that it wa<.
evidently, the result of meditation and labour. The common tra-
dition, however, may still be true; he might, as Suetonius asserts
he did, have written verses with ease and fluency ; (an assertion, by
the way, a little at variance with what this author tells us about
the elaborate aspect of the autograph,) but it will not hence follow
that he never employed the assistance of others. Considering the
circumstances of the times, and the critical testimony of Tacitus,
there is every reason to suppose that he did so. Concerning the
subjects of Xero's poetry little can now be collected. He meditated
a poem on the Eoraan History in four hundred books ; he com-
pleted one on the Trojan History ; and from Pliny we learn that, in
one of his poems, he had compared the tresses of his wife Popprea
to amber.2 Suetonius3 mentions also a satire by Xero called
Litscio, against Clodius Pollio, who seems to have richly deserved
the castigation of a purer pen. A similar production, directed
against Afranius Quinctianus, a character equally infamous, is
mentioned by Tacitus.5 The circumstance has not escaped the
acumen of Juvenal.6
"W e may here mention, as poets of this reign, Evodus, called
1 Suet. Nero, lii.
- Nat. Hist, xxxvii. 3.
3 Doin. i.
Quid Xerone pejus ?
Quid thermis melius Neronianis ? — Martial.
"What could be worse than Nero, or better than his baths ?
5 Ann. xv. 40. 6 Sat. it. 106*.
164
DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY.
Nero.
Poetry
under the
Vespasian?.
by Suidas " 6 Savfia^ofjievos els ti)v (PcofJLaLKi]v TToiTjaiv," though not a
line of his works existed in the time of the lexicographer ;
Andromachns of Crete, a physician, who wrote a poem called
Theriaca ; and Petricus, of the same profession, who composed a
piece de Antldoth.
The three succeeding princes, Galba, Otho, and Yitellius, had
neither leisure nor disposition to advance the interests of literature.
The reigns of all together did not occupy two years, but their
sanguinary and tumultuous characters
were eminently pernicious to the arts
and sentiments of peace. Vespasian
endeavoured to counteract the evil con-
sequences of the late commotions, and
his policy was followed up by Titus,
who was himself, as Suetonius informs
us, a poet, and occasionally extemporised.
Pliny also mentions a noble poem by
him, called Acontia, on a meteor which
appeared in his time.1 Some idea may
be formed of the condition of poets and
poetry at this period, from the declaration
of Suetonius with respect to the former
Emperor: prostatites poetas . . . coemit!"
the reading has been disputed, but the
variations are rather attributable to the
extraordinary assertion implied in the
word, which has confounded transcribers, than to want of authority.-
Those who allow the reading interpret it " hired ; " but surely
Suetonius would never have employed an expression unknown,
perhaps, in this sense, to any other Latin author, when he had
the natural and proper word " conduxit " at hand. The truth
appears to be that such persons as had never devoted their
attention to other than literary pursuits, were reduced by the
exigency of the times to dispose of themselves as slaves. Nor
will this appear improbable, when taken in connexion with the
testimonv of Juvenal : -
quiim jam cdebrcs notique jioztce
Balneolum Gabiis, Roma? conducere furnos
Tentarent ; nee feodum alii nee turpe putareut
Praecones fieri.
"When poets of high fame, for food and home,
Hired baths at Gabii. bake-houses at Rome :
Nor thought it humbling to their proud renown,
To act the crier through some paltry town.
1 Hist Nat. ii. '25. u Pia?claro carmine."
Sat. vii. 3, seqq.
SALEJTJS BASSUS.
165
If sucli were the fate of admired and popular writers, we may
well imagine what must have been the condition of inferior brethren
of the lyre.
Arch, of Titus.
To the liberality of Vespasian, Salejus Bassus, a poet who has SaiqiM
received high commendation from Qninctilian and the author of the
Vespasian.
FLaccus.
166 DECLINE OF LATIN POETEY.
dialogue Be Oratoribus,1 and to whom the Carmen ad Pisonem is
attributed by Wemsdorf, was indebted for the sum of five hundred
Valerius sestertia ; and it was to this prince that Caius Valerius Elaccus
dedicated his Argonaidics, a poem which some critics consider
inferior only to the Mneid? although it has reached us in a state of
great corruption, and is recommended neither by originality, brilliancy
of invention, nor melody of versification. Apollonius, Ovid, and
Euripides, have all been laid under contribution to the production
of the work, and the author cannot be denied the merit of having
made them his own. The mythological machinery of Homer and
Hesiod, which probably always had an esoteric sense, was borrowed,
for the most part, in its literal acceptation, by the "Roman poets,
who employed it either to aggrandise their patrons and families, or
to gratify an appetite for the marvellous. Horace perceived this
extravagant passion for supernatural agency, and prescribed a
prudent rule for its limitation,3 which succeeding poets little
regarded, unless we may except Lucan, who preferred other
methods of exciting surprise. To such an immoderate length is
the interposition of deities carried by Valerius, that perhaps not
an instance can be selected from his whole poem wherein an event
occurs, or a design arises, unconnected with the operations or
suggestions of the Court of Olympus. It is impossible to conceive
a scene more ludicrous than that which Orpheus (of course,
especially inspired by his mother,) recounts in the IVth Book,
where Tisiphone pursues Io into Egypt, and Nile overwhelms the
Eury in his waves, while her whips, torches, and serpents, strew the
unpitying flood, and the ruthless goddess is seen imploring mercy,
with her mouth half filled with water and sand. Jupiter, thundering
above, completes the picture. The poem is imperfect : the succes-
sion of Domitian probably interrupted a work begun under more
favourable auspices. That the author did not survive the reign of
this prince is evident from the remark of Quinctilian : 4 " multum in
Valerlo Flacco nuper amisimus ; " an opinion perhaps less grounded
on proved than on promised excellence, as he died young. Of the
biography of this poet little can now be collected. The place of
his birth has been disputed ; he is named in the manuscripts
Setinus, which has been taken to mean a native of Setia, now Sezze,
in Campania. But as he is called by Martial,5 " Antenorei spes et
ah i rune Laris" there is no doubt that he was at least educated at
Padua ; and Setinus was, probably, a family name. From the same
1 Quinct. x. 1. Dial, de Orat. 5, 9, and 10.
2 Dominicus Marius, ad Ov. 1 Amor. xi. Casp. Barth. lvi. Adv. c. xi.
3 Nee dens intersit, nisi digitus vindice nodus
Incident. — De Art. Poet. 191.
1 x. 1. M Ep. lxxvii.
domitian. 107
writer we learn that Valerius did not find poetry a very lucrative
profession.
In the dedication of the Argonautiosy Domitianus is mentioned Domitbnmd
as capable of celebrating in verse the conquest of Jerusalem. UtlKS'
Whether such a work was ever under-
taken, must now be matter of conjec-
ture ; certain it is, however, that during
the mild sway of his brother, he con-
sulted his popularity by affecting the
patronage and cultivation of poetry.1
The character which history has be-
queathed us of Domitian will enable
us to ascertain the value of his success
far more correctly than all the prepos-
terous adulation of his venal and
cowardly contemporaries. It is melan-
choly to see the great Quinctilian, a
spirit worthy " the most high and palmy Doil .
state of Rome,'5 attaching himself to
this worse than despicable herd ; addressing the tyrant as the greatest,
sublimest, most learned, and perfect of poets ; humouring his childish
vaunt, that he was the son of Minerva ; and crowning the whole bv
representing his literary reputation only eclipsed by his resplendent
virtues ! - We may lament over the terrible degradation which
this infamous page of the great critic displays, but its preservation
dispenses with all prolix commentary on the condition of the times.
But the poetical taste which Domitian affected when a subject,
and which proved a copious theme of contemporary adulation,3
was discarded when its motives ceased to operate. His speeches,
letters, and decrees, were committed to the composition of secre-
taries ; and his sole study was the life and papers of Tiberius.4 In
persecution of the liberal arts he rivalled the worst of his predeces-
sors, the Caesars ; but, as poets were not eminently signalised on these
occasions, we shall have less to observe on this part of his character.
His expulsion of the philosophers from Rome, however, gave
1 Suet. Dom. ii. Tacit. Hist. iv. 86.
- x. 1. Elsewhere, Quinctilian worships Domitian as a god, iii. 7 ; iv. pnvf.
3 Quin et Romuleos superahit voce nepotes,
Queis erit eloquio partum decua ; huic sua Musa?
Sacra fercnt, meliorque lyra, cui substitit Hebrus
Et venit Rhodope, Phcebo miranda loquetur.
Sll. Ital. Ptm. iii. 618.
Tu, quern longe primuni stupet Itala virtus,
Graiaque ; cui gemmae florent, vatumque ducumque
Certatim laurus, &c. — Stat. Adtill. i. 14.
See also Martial, passim. 4 Suet. Dom. \x.
168
DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY.
occasion to a very spirited and elegant satire, which is still extant,
sulpicia. by a noble Roman lady, named Sulpicia. A distich of great
point and truth is ascribed to the pen of the same lady also :
Flavia gens, quantum tibi tertius abstulit hseres !
Poene fuit tanti non habuisse duos.
O Flavian race ! 'twere almost worth the cost,
Thy third to lose, thy others to have lost.
She regarded with disgust and indignant purity the profligacy of
the court and people, and is celebrated as a pattern of conjugal
fidelity and affection, in praise of which she composed verses, which
are highly applauded by Martial. They seem, however, to have
been, at least, of a mixed character ; l and Ausonius openly calls
them licentious.2 By some scholars she has been confounded with
the Sulpicia, whose elegiac correspondence with Cerinthus is
attached to the works of Tibullus ; but the name of her husband
was Calenus, and the learned are generally agreed in referring the
former Sulpicia to the Augustan age.
Satire. ^ does n°t appear that Sulpicia had any reason to repent her
temerity ; yet it is matter of little surprise that Satire was not
greatly cultivated during this period. Juvenal, it is true, had
written : but his works, perhaps, never passed the most confidential
circles in the reign of Domitian, since Quinctilian takes no notice
of them : and Turnus, possessed already of Court patronage, most
Vopifecus. probably reposed on his laurels. Manlius Yopiscus indeed, a
satirist of this period, was, if we are to believe his panegyrist
Statius, a most versatile genius, and managed the lyres of Homer
and Pindar with equal facility ; 3 and Quinctilian, speaking of
satirists, observes, " sunt clari 7wclieque9 et quiolim nominabuntur"*
Suetonius has remarked that the government of Domitian was
characterised by an eccentric mixture of virtues and vices ; 5 an
observation illustrated no less in his conduct with regard to
literature than in other respects. His aversion to all liberal studies
was sufficiently exemplified in his private habits, after his assump-
tion of the purple rendered dissimulation unnecessary; and the
tenour of his political conduct was perfectly consonant with his
domestic manners. He, nevertheless, restored the libraries which
had perished by fire in the civil commotions, collected books from
all quarters, and sent commissioners to Alexandria to transcribe
the works preserved in that inestimable repository of learning. He
instituted a quinquennial contest in honour of the Capitoline Jupiter,
1 Cujus carmina qui bene aestimArit
Nullam dixerit esse neqmorem :
Nullam dixerit esse sandier em. — Mart. x. 35.
2 In Epilog, ad Cent. Nuptialem.
4 Inst Orat. x. 1.
3 1 Sylv. iii. 101.
5 Dom. iii.
STATIUS THE ELDER. 169
in which literary merit was disputed; and he founded at Alba a Vopl
College dedicated to Minerva, the members of which were obliged
to celebrate the Quinquatria, which included dramatic entertainments
and poetical contests. As he did not, like Nero, interfere in these
competitions, their influence on poetry, though slight, was percep-
tible. But little could be expected so long as there was no
individual patronage.
Contentus fama jaceat Lucanus in hortis
Marmoreis. At Serrano, tcnuique Salejo,
Gloria quantalibet quid erit, si gloria tantum est? *
The cases of the Statii and Martial, however, have been instanced The statu,
as exceptions to the ordinary policy of Domitian. We will examine
this assertion in sketching their biography.
Of the writings of P. Papinius Statjus the Elder nothing is statins the
preserved, and our knowledge of their subjects and nature, as well Elder*
as of their author's history, is derived to us from the monody of his
son, which forms the 3rd Poem of the Vth Book of the Sylvce.
Prom this we learn that he was of noble family, and that the
honour of his nativity was contested by Naples and Selle ; by which
latter place wTe can scarcely understand the town so named in
Epirus, since it is represented by the poet as the scene of the death
of Palinurus, which is placed by Virgil at Velia. The ambiguity
is to be ascribed to a silly emulation of the fate of Homer, a
resemblance which, probably, never occurred to any except to the
Statii themselves. Wherever he might have been born, he estab-
lished himself early at Naples, where he frequently engaged in the
quinquennial contest, and, apparently, always with success ; 2 nor
was he less distinguished in the Pythian, Nemean, and Isthmian
games. He opened a school at Naples, which he rapidly filled ;
but there is no evidence that he ever came to Eome, although we
are told by his son that he educated the children of the first
families in the capital. He died at the age of sixty-five.
Concerning the subjects of the prize poetry of Statius it would
be fruitless to conjecture. He had written a poem on the wars
between the Yespasians and Vitellii, and contemplated another on
the recent eruption of Vesuvius. His celebrity and excellence are
certainly not to be estimated by the encomia of his panegyrist, who,
independently of the influence of a sentiment more estimable than
critical sagacity, was rarely a dispassionate judge of poetical merit.
Speaking of this Statius, Maturantius, who is followed by
Gyraldus, observes, 3 " summo Jionore apnd Bomitianum habitus est,
a quo etiam est auro donatus et corona, digno Principe erga
1 Jnv. Sat. vii. 79. See also Martial, viii. 56.
2 Stat. 5 Sylv. iii. 138.
3 In Achilleid. ; item Gyrald. de Poet. Hist. Dial. iv.
170 DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY.
TheStatii. pileceptorem munere." If Statius had received proofs so con-
spicuous of the imperial favour, doubtless his son would have no
less conspicuously published them. And, had he been the tutor of
Domitian, none acquainted with the author of the Thebaid can doubt
that such a circumstance would have been paraded with infinitely
greater pomp than the less tangible favours of Apollo and all the
Muses. Priests, chiefs, and statesmen, in all the splendour of
poetic ornament, are depicted swelling the peaceful triumphs of his
ferule, but not a syllable of the Emperor. If by the " crown " and
"gold " of Maturantius, be meant the prize which Statius gained
at Naples, it was in no sense the Emperor's present ; and if, by
the phrases, " Hinc tibi vota patrum crecli" l and
Mox et Romuleam stirpem, proceresque futuros
Instruis,
Maturantius understood Domitian, it is certain that he made his
statement on a very insufficient foundation. The education of this
prince seems to have been entirely neglected, and his early years
were passed in the most abject and sordid poverty.2 We cannot,
therefore, greatly rely on any story of Court patronage conferred
on the elder Statius.
statius the Lucius Papinius Statius, son of the former, was born, as
Younger. Dodwell conjectures, a.d. 61, at Naples. Before the death of his
father, he had distinguished himself as victor in the Neapolitan
poetical games ; his first essay, however, in the Capitoline contest
proved unsuccessful. But he soon retrieved his honour by three
victories in the Alban Quinqnatria, and, at length, by a conquest
on the very theatre of his first reverse.3 On one occasion he had
the honour of being entertained at the Emperor's table, a distinction
whicfi he has not been backward to record. But the marks of
imperial favour which are said to have procured him the envy of
Martial, and of almost all his contemporaries, were insufficient to
protect him from the most deplorable indigence, since it appears
that he was obliged to sell his tragedy Agave for bread.4 Little,
therefore, can be pleaded here in favour of Domitian's patronage of
learned men. The faithful and affectionate wife of Statius, Claudia,
whose love had given his successes a value not their own, was his
best consolation in adversity. He appears to have retired with her
to Naples, where, according to the computation of Dodwell, he died,
a.d. 96, and at the early age of thirty-five. The story that he was
killed by the Emperor with an iron stylus does not rest on any
respectable authority. As little evidence exists for the tradition that
he was a Christian.
1 Stat. 5 Sylv. iii. 146. 2 Suet. Dom. 1.
3 4 Sylv. ii. b'5j seqq. This is not quite clear from the original passage, but it
is probable, and is adopted by Tiraboschi.
4 Juvenal, Sat. vii. 87.
STATIUS THE YOUNGER, 171
It is remarkable that Statins, although possessing a considerably Btattaithe
extensive literary acquaintance, is not mentioned by any oontem- V,K11- r'
porary author, exoepi Juvenal; eren Quinctilian is silent concerning
him. His merit is a point on which modern criticism is sufficiently
discordant ; if, however, Juvenal speaks truly, his poetry, whether
deservedly or not, was decidedly popular in his day. In his
Thebdid) the work on which he has founded his reputation, he
professes to follow, at a reverential distance, the footsteps of
Virgil.1 This is a rare acknowledgment for a post-Augustan poet;
how far it is confirmed by the internal evidence belongs not to us
to decide. Yet we may remark that the confession is one of less
than doubtful sincerity, since the poet, addressing his friend Junius
Maximus, has the following passage :
Quippe, to fido monitore, nostra
Tbebais, multa cruciata Lima,
Tentat wudacijide Afantuance
Gaudia fames*
The composition of this poem occupied twelve years. It is sup-
posed to have been modelled on the poem of Antimachus, as that
of Valerius Placcus was on the Argonaut ics of Apollonius. His
Aehille'nt, which, as he tells us, was designed as an exercise
previous to a poem on the exploits of Domitian,3 never reached the
end of a second book. Some suppose that he drew Achilles after
his friend Crispinus Bolanus, to whom he addressed the 2nd poem
in the Vth Book of the Sylva ; but this seems founded on a
mistaken interpretation.4 His Sylva are a collection of two-and-
thirty fugitive pieces, in live books, in various styles, and on
different subjects; and, so far from receiving the elaborate polish
which their author bestowed on his Theba$dl were, as we Learn from
their several dedications, for the most part composed in the greatest
haste, and some almost extemporaneously. The 1st Book of these
is dedicated to Artjntius Stella, of Padua, a poet of some Stella.
celebrity, though none of his works have reached us. His principal
reputation rests on a little piece called Columba, similar in style and
subject to the Passer of Catullus, but superior, if we are to credit
Martial,5 to that beautiful little gem. He is said, however, to have
written several other poems on the Sarmatian victories of Domitian,
and on amatory subjects.6 He had an awkward custom of
1 xii. 810, segq.
2 4 Sylv. vii. Yet this poet, who hoped to rival Virgil, dared not attempt the
praises of Lucan in his own metre ! Such is his own declaration : u Ego non
potni majorem tanti auctoris habere reverentiam, quam quod, landes ejus dicturus,
iexametros moos tiniui !" — Prcvf. in lib. ii. Sulvarum.
3 Achill. i. 19. ' * 5 Sylv. ii. 164, B i. 8.
6 Stat. 1 Sylv. ii. P."). tt ibi CO)iU)i. With Wernsdorf. we are unable to find
any sutlicient ancient authority for the assertions of Vossiua and others, respecting
these poems on the Sarmatian victories.
172
DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY.
Stella. compelling his guests to write verses ; to this we owe the poem on his
marriage with Yiolantilla by Statius, which, as the author tells us,
was completed in two days, and which contains two hundred and
seventy-seven hexameters. Although there is as much interest and
originality in this as in most Epithalamia, it is not impossible that
it has been glanced at by Martial in the following epigram :
Lege nimis dura convivam scribere versus
Cogis, Stella ; licet scribere nempe malos.1
Statius was, probably, the object of the same author's spleen, under
the name of Sabellus. Certain it is that wherever Martial has
mentioned this name, it is with more than the allowed proportion
of epigrammatic gall. The conjecture is derived from a comparison
of the 20th Epigram of his lXth Book with the poem by Statius
on the baths of Etruscus. But it is time to say something on
Martial himself.
Martial. M arc us Valerius Martialis (and, as some more recent
authors add, Coauus,2) was born
at Bilbilis, now Calatajud, in Spain,
a.d.43, and educated at Calagurris,
now Calahorra, in the same country.
His father's name is thought to
have been Eronto, and his mother's
Elaccilla. But this seems a mis-
taken interpretation of the 34th
Epigram of the Vth Book. These
were, more probably, the parents of
Erotion. At the age of twenty-one,
during Nero's reign, he came to
Eome, to complete his education
for the bar ; where his epigrammatic
talents afterwards procured him
high reputation, in the reigns of
Titus and Domitian. The same
motives which actuated the latter prince in dissembling his aver-
sion for liberal studies during the life of his brother, appear to
have had some influence, wherever a comparison could occur
advantageous to the memory of his regretted predecessor. Thus
the honours which Martial enjoyed at the hands of Domitian were,
perhaps, really ascribable to the patronage of Titus. Certain it is
that he possessed the "jus trium Hberorum;" that he held the office
of a tribune, and the dignity of a knight ; and that he had a
i ix. 91.
2 Lamprid. Sever. 38. ; Joann. Sarisbrieus. 6, iii. Vincent. Bellov. Spec.
Doctr. iii. 17. But the true reading in Lampridius is perhaps coce, i.e. quoque.
The other writers have copied the corruption.
Martial.
MAKTIAL. 173
country residence at Xomentum. l^ut these advantages appear to Mania;.
have been more specious than substantial, as lie existed in a Btate
of great poverty.1 After a residence of thirty-five years in the
capital, finding little encouragement at the court of Trajan, he
resolved to return to his own country, for which purpose he was
assisted with money by Pliny the younger, to whose vanity he had
judiciously appealed, and who took good care not to conceal the
obligation.- Here he married a rich lady, named Claudia Marcella.
"Whatever favours he may have enjoyed from the imperial hand,
they were certainly not sufficient to prevent him from reproaching,
when dead, the monster whom, living, his prostituted pen had
exalted to the rank of the gods. His opinion of the encouragement
afforded to learning at this time may be clearly collected from
several epigrams written during the life of his patron. In addressing
one Sextus, who, it seems, was anxious to advance himself at Rome
by poetry, he is equally undisguised and discouraging :
Insania ! omnea gelidis quicumque lacernis
Sunt tibi, Nasones Virgiliosque vides.3
Thou ravest ! mark those ragged cloaks and old —
Thy Ovids and thy Virgils there behold.
And to the celebrated Valerius Flaccus he writes :
Picrios differ cantusque chorosque sororum :
JEs dabit ex istis nulla puella tibi.4
Off with the Nine, their tuneful choirs and strains !
No lass of them "will pay thee for thy pains.
The whole epigram is well worth reading. It does not appear that
he enjoyed at Bilbilis the repose which he anticipated ; assailed by
the stupidity and envy of his countrymen, he shortly after yielded
to fate. The exact date of his death is uncertain ; it was not later
than a. D. 104.
The works of Martial now extant are wholly epigrammatic ;
twelve books consist of regular epigrams on miscellaneous subjects ;
one book is called Sped acid a? and alludes to the exhibitions of
Titus and Domitian ; another has the title of Xenia, and, with a
few introductory exceptions, consists entirely of distichs, each
describing some article of ornament or luxury, which it was the
custom of friends to send to each other on festal occasions. A
third book is entitled Jpophoreta, also composed of distichs, cele-
brating the presents usually given to guests to be carried home at
the Saturnalia. Whether wre possess all his writings is uncertain.
1 xi. 4, ft passim. - Plin. lib. hi. ep. ult.
s iii. 38. 4 i. 77.
5 The title is one of usage and convenience, but appears in no MS. Bahr.
Gesch. der Roin. Lit., § 185.
174
DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY.
Martial.
Theophila.
Decianus.
Licianus.
Parthenias.
Varus.
giiina
Italicus.
No poet was ever more extensively acquainted with his brethren
of the lyre than Martial ; and it is not a little remarkable, when
the state of the period is considered, that this fraternity should
have been as numerous as it was. We will mention the principal
names of the poets preserved in his epigrams, annexing such
illustrations as ancient notices afford us.
Canius Rufus, of Cadiz, was, as is to be inferred from Martial,1
a very versatile poet, who found himself at home in epic, elegiac,
comedy, and tragedy. On the same authority, his wife Theophila
was in no respect inferior to Sappho.2 Decianus and Lictanus
were both natives of the Peninsula, and therefore not forgotten by
Martial in his brief catalogue of illustrious authors ; 3 the former
being of Merida in Portugal, and the other a fellow townsman of
the epigrammatist himself. Parthenius, the chamberlain of
Domitian, is frequently mentioned with commendation.4 Varus,
like the Cassius of Horace, wrote two hundred lines every day.5
Such are the very scanty particulars which subsist concerning these
poets, which we have recorded rather with a view to method than
for the sake of any very conspicuous advantage derivable from the
transcription of such names. The catalogue might easily be en-
larged, especially if the names of those poets who have been censured,
as well as commended, by Martial, were to be allowed a niche in
our Biography. But we willingly resign the task of constellating
these luminaries to Fabricius and his editors, who have performed
it with a patience, as well as a diligence, truly admirable. The
learned but incorrect Gyraldus has made a similar assemblage.
Some names, however, there are which must not be so lightly
dismissed. The most conspicuous of these is Silius Italicus,
author of the Punica. This poet was born about A. D. 25 ; and is
by some referred to the age of Nero, in the last year of whose
government he was consul ; but as his poem, so early as the Hid
Book, mentions Domitian as sovereign, he will most conveniently
be noticed here. The place of his nativity has never been settled.
He has been claimed by the Spaniards as a native of their town
Italica, and by the Italians for a similar reason, as bora at
Corfinium, called Italica in the Marsian war. But it is probable
that he derived his name from neither of these places, as, according
to the unanswerable argument of Stephens, Yossius, and other
eminent scholars, the analogy in this case would have given us
Italicensis and not Italicus.6 That he was not a Spaniard may
very fairly be inferred from the omission of his name by Martial,
wherever the poetical worthies of Spain are celebrated ; although
1 iii. 20. 2 vii. G8. 3 i. 42.
4 ii. 1 ; iv. 45 ; v. 6 ; viii. 28. 5 viii. 20.
c See also Aul. Gell. xvi. 13, and Gruter, Inscrip. i. p. 385.
SILTUS ITALICUS. — PLINTC THE LOUNGER, 175
he is frequently mentioned by this poet with high commendation.1 Bilitu
Wherever he may have been born, his usual residence was at Ilallcus*
Naples, where he possessed an estate. In the time of Nero he had
the reputation of an informer; but he afterwards retrieved his
character, by his mild and prudent conduct in the friendship of
Vitellius, his honourable demeanour in the proconsulship of Asia,
and his peaceable and dignified employment of the hours of leisure.
When his age allowed him the privilege of a respite from senatorial
cares, he withdrew to his Campanian retirement, from which not
even the accession of Trajan had power to excite him. An incurable
disease of the eye induced him to terminate his life by starvation,
at the age of seventy-five, about a. d. 100.
The character of Silius is that of a virtuoso, and is completely a
counterpart of Pope's Tlmon. Erat (piXoKakos usque ad emacitatis
reprehensionem.2 He shifted from villa to villa, with a view of
improving the elegance of his abode ; he had a fine library, and a
fine collection of statues. He purchased the estate of Cicero, to
whose writings he was particularly partial, and paid honours to the
memories of both him and Virgil, whose sepulchre at Naples he
had purchased. In consequence, Martial equals him with the
latter; at least, if one reading be correct, in the 51st Epigram of
his Xlth Book. He seems, however, to have inherited a very
small portion of the spirit of either ; and all his readers will
acquiesce in the judgment of Pliny, scribehat carmina majore curd
quam ingenio.
The biographer of Silius (for so we may term Caius Plinius piiny the
C^cilius Secundus, since it is by his pen that the most numerous Youn°er-
and authentic particulars on this subject have been perpetuated)
must not pass wholly unnoticed in this place,3 not only as a person
whose addiction to literature has procured us information on the
state of poetry in his day, but as also a poet himself. Of this
talent, as indeed of all his other universal attainments, he frequently
informs us.4 When he was only fourteen years of age he composed
a Greek tragedy. When detained in Icaria by unfavourable winds,
this island became the subject of his muse, and forth came a volume
of Latin Elegies. He then made trial of heroics ; and, last of all,
he produced his hendecasyllabics, of which he talks perpetually.
It was not immediately that he discovered how so undignified a
metre could be made to comport with that which the world, of
course, expected from a Pliny. Fortunately, however, he stumbled
on an epigram by Cicero, which put him on reflecting that many
1 iv. 14 ; vii. 62. 2 Plin. lib. iii. ep. 7.
3 A biographical sketch of Pliny (who belongs rather to prose than poetry)
will be found in Dr. Arnold's paper in this volume, on the literature of Trajan's
time.
4 Plin. i. 13 ; iv. 6, 14; v. 3, 10, 11, et prcesertim, vii. 4.
176
DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY.
Plinius
Secundus.
Voconius.
illustrious orators had amused themselves in a similar manner. No
sooner did he ascertain such to have been the ordinary practice of
eminent literary men, than he set to work in good earnest, and
produced a volume of hendecasyllabics, some of which, so far as
he leads us to conjecture, appear to have been somewhat coarsely
seasoned, in order to invite comparison with Catullus. The occa-
sion which led to the formation of this work, he has thought right
to record in verse as well as prose. We shall not burden the
reader with the whole passage, which, though short, is sufficiently
tedious ; part, however, may not be unacceptable as an efficient
consolation for the ravages of time.
Quum libros Galli legerem, quibus ille parenti
Ausus de Cicerone dare palmarnque decusque,
Lascivum inveni lusurn Ciceronis, et illo
Spectandum ingenio, quo seria condidit, et quo
Humanis salibus multo varioque lepore
Magnorum ostendit mentes gaudere virorum.
These verses, which their author evidently considered choice,
sufficiently prove that he was ignorant of the commonest technical-
ities of versification, and stand forth conspicuous on the exquisitely
smooth and polished texture of his prose, like the island rocks from
the surface of the still and limpid iEgean. The mind of Pliny
was by no means cast in a poetical mould. He wrote verses
because he conceived it necessary to his literary reputation ; an
idol to which he sacrificed every other passion and prejudice.
What, however, must be our opinion of the poet who could prefer
the perusal of Livy to the spectacle of Vesuvius in eruption ? l
and, still more, who could hope by this avowal to excite the
admiration of Tacitus ?
But though Pliny is certainly not entitled to the highest honours
of the Latin Parnassus, to him w^e are indebted for information
regarding several poets, wThose familiarity he possessed or courted :
for such was his ambition of a literary immortality, that he made
the acquaintance of every literary aspirant in Italy, and has taken
especial pains to inform the world of the fact. His friends were
not equally generous in return, and seemed, for the most part,
insensible of the great honour and distinction which they were
enjoying. The testimony of Pliny, however, as wre have had
previous occasion to observe, must always be taken wTith some
qualification. He was a trader in praise ; and his commendations
were, in general, either speculations or payments ; in the latter he
was liberal, and in the former, adventurous.
This remark premised, we will first proceed to notice Yoconius
Eomanus, who occupies a conspicuous station among the friends
vi. 20.
pliny's poetical friends. 17 7
and correspondents of Pliny ; several biographical particulars of Vocomus.
this writer are recorded in the Xlllth Epistle of his llnd Hook.
The Emperor Hadrian, according to Apulejus, ordered this line to
be engraven on his tomb :
Lascivus versu, mente pudicus crat.
If this account were correct, the modest Nine were not always so
select in their expressions as might be hoped and expected from
ladies of their station and character; for Pliny affirms that his
language was like the Muses themselves composing in Latin.1 But
if he were the same mentioned by Martial, (lib. vii. ep. 28,) under
the name of Voconius Victor, as he is generally supposed to have
been, he did not deserve even the sorry reservation of his Imperial
apologist. Passienus Paullus, a Eoman knight, is recommended Pauiius.
to our notice and interest as the countryman and lineal descendant
of Propertius, and his disciple in the school of elegiac poetry. He
was afterwards an imitator of the lyrics of Horace. Pompeius Pompeius
Saturninus was a genius of that universal character which apper-
tained, by Pliny's account, to many more of his friends ; we are,
however, here concerned with his verses alone, of which this
writer gives us the following description : " Facit versus, quales
Catullus meus aut Calvus. — Quantum illis leporis, dulcedinis,
amaritudinis, amoris inserit ! sane data opera molliusculos, levius-
culosque, duriusculos quosdam : et hoc, quasi Catullus meus aut
Calvus.2 Another poetical prodigy, Octavius, is addressed in the Octaviu*.
Xth Epistle of the Hd Book. Arrius Antoninus wrote Attic Arrius.
Greek better than the Athenians themselves ; 3 but his epigrams were
but indifferently translated by Secundus.4 That the praises of secundus.
Sentius Augurinus should have filled an entire letter will seem sentius
nothing wonderful, when we read the following verses from his pen. Aueurmu-
Canto carmina versibus minutis
His, olim quibus et meus Catullus,
Et Calvus, veteresque : sed quid ad me ?
Unus Plinius est mihi ! priores
Mavult versiculos, foro relicto,
Et quserit quod amet, putatque amari.
Ille Plinius, ille ! Quid Catones ?
I nunc, qui sapias, amare noli !
Titinius Capito celebrated the actions of eminent men.5 Apol- Capita
' linaris is also mentioned by Pliny and Martial in terms of respect, Apo
although, from the prevalence of the name, it is not quite certain
1 Epistolas quidem scribit, ut Musas ipsas Latine loqui credas.
2 i. 16.
3 iv. 3. Non medius fidius ipsas Athenas tarn Atticas dixerim.
4 v. 10. 6 i. 17.
[R. L.] N
173
DECLINE OE LATIN POETRY.
that they, allude to the same person. We scarcely know whether
we are justified in enrolling on our list Lustricus Bruttianus,
since he appears to have written in Greek only ; but that his
epigrammatic powers were not trivial, we may fairly conclude from
the prayer of Martial to Thalia, that she would allow him, provided
Bruttianus condescended to epigrammatize in Latin, to occupy the
second place. Martial, like his friend Pliny, was prodigal of his
panegyrics ; but none acquainted with his character can doubt his
sincerity here. It was the fashion of that age, still more than that
of the Augustan, to imitate the heroes of the brief but pointed
anecdote of Horace :
Frater erat Roma? consulti rhetor, nt alter
Alterius sermone meros audiret honores ;
Gracchus lit hie illi foret, huic ut Mucius ille.1
Review of
the Flavian
age.
Hence authors have appeared ridiculous in the eyes of posterity,
who, probably, but for these extravagant eulogies, might have
attained a respectable situation on the records of fame. It has
been often observed that Pico Mirandola, whose vaunting epitaph
extends his glory to the Antipodes, is scarcely known beyond the
limits of Europe; and thus Lucius, who is termed by Martial
" the glory of his time," 2 and who is, without scruple, equalled
with Horace, is only a shadow and a name : and Unicus, who
yielded in the poetic art to his brother only,3 is now his rival in
obscurity alone. One of the most pleasing pictures which the
elegant pen of Pliny has drawn for us is what might be called the
Old Man's Day, the description of a day with his friend Vestri-
tius Spukenna, who seems to have spent his time in a manner at
once amiable and dignified, and who, we there learn, wrote lyrics
with wonderful beauty, sweetness, and gaiety.4
The advocates of Domitian's liberality in the encouragement of
learning certainly possess an apparent advantage in the imposing
array of poetical names which the writers of that period supply ;
enough, however, appears to have been advanced to prove that,
whatever may have been the cause, it cannot reasonably be sought
in the spirit of the Imperial Government. Were any further
argument on this subject necessary, we might appeal again to Pliny,
who, while he informs us that in one year scarcely a day in the
month of April passed without a poetical recitation,5 at the same
time laments the scantiness of the auditory, and commends the
poets for their resolute contempt of an idle or disdainful public.
The most satisfactory explication of the whole phenomenon is the
impulse afforded to poetical studies by the munificence of the
1 Hor. ii. ep. ii. 87.
3 Mart. xii. 43.
2 Mart. iv. o5.
i. 13.
NERVA. TJIAJAN.
170
Yespasians. The whole reign of Domitian extended only to fifteen Review of
years; a period insufficient to extinguish the hopes, and annul the £5.
ambition, of those who had experienced or witnessed the effects of a
patronage truly princely and worthy the sovereigns of the world.
We shall not find that the succession of a confessedly happier reign
procured for the Muse those advantages which a more tyrannical
system denied. The same hopes and the same objects were no
Longer extended ; and Genius passed from disappointment to decay.
The mild and benignant character of the Government of Nekva Nerva.
promised a favourable opportunity
for the development and prosecution
of the arts and studies of peace;
but the brevity of his reign, which
little exceeded a twelvemonth, frus-
trated his benevolent designs. Nerva
was himself a poet; Pliny the younger
excuses his own light poetry by his
example;1 a circumstance which
acquaints us with the character of
his writings. Nero, as appears from
Martial,2 complimented Nerva with
the title of iC the Tibullus of his
age ; " and although the eulogy
either of Martial or Nero is no very
irrefragable proof of real merit, this
circumstance is not valueless, inasmuch as it affords us certainty that
the works of Nerva were elegiac. Martial 3 mentions his modesty,
and reluctance to publish ; qualities which perfectly harmonize with
all that we know of the character of Nerva.
If Juvenal, in his Vllth Satire, speaks (as many, not without Reign of
probability, suppose) of Trajan, we must regard that prince not
only as a liberal rewarder of poetical merit, but as a diligent inves-
tigator of worthy objects for his patronage. We have, however,
before observed that Hadrian is not improbably the " Caesar " of
this poem. But little reliance can be placed on the historical
fidelity of a poet addressing a prince on whom all his hopes and
objects depended. Enough has been already said on the character
of all similar testimony from the pen of Pliny the Younger. The
following passage, however, is striking, especially as it displays the
view which a contemporary took of the policy of Domitian in this
respect : " How honourably," says Pliny to Trajan, " dost thou
regard the preceptors of eloquence ! what reverence dost thou
entertain for the teachers of wisdom ! How have liberal studies,
beneath thy auspices, recovered their animation, their life-blood,
Nerva.
Trajan.
1 rim. v. .">.
viii. 70; ix. 27.
3 Ubi suprfi.
H 2
ISO DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY.
Reign of and their home ! studies which the barbarism of past days punished
1 raJan- wiUi banishment, when a prince ichose conscience condemned him of every
enormity, drove into exile all intellectual pursuits, well knowing their
hostility to vice, and influenced not more by hatred than by dread of
them. But thou hast granted these pursuits thy embraces, thine eyes,
and thine ears ; for thou performest what they suggest, and lovest
them no less than they witness thine excellence. " ■ " It is sincerely to
be lamented," observes Gibbon, " that, whilst we are fatigued with
the disgustful relation of Nero's crimes and follies, we are reduced
to collect the actions of Trajan from the glimmerings of an abridge-
ment, or the doubtful light of a panegyric' ' 2 There can be little
doubt that a disposition to value and advance the studies of civil-
ization accompanied the good sense and benevolence of Trajan ;
much, however, as has been said on the subject of his literary
patronage, it will be vain to trace it in its effects. Most of the
poets (for it is with them alone that we are here concerned) 'who
adorned his reign of twenty years, had already published under
his predecessors ; Juvenal is the only conspicuous writer of this
description who may be considered an exception ; and even he had
written before. Two causes will sufficiently explain this paradox ;
the example of the prince, and the indolence of the rich. The
patronage of Trajan was afforded to literature in general, less from
an abstract love of the object, than from a conviction of its political
advantages, which, in the case of poetry, are certainly unobtrusive,
and by some philosophers and legislators have been regarded as
doubtful. This monarch was no poet himself, and the first incite-
ment to poetical ambition was consequently wanting. Neither did
the wealthy and influential portion of the citizens second, as far as
it went, the good example of their head ; and poets, weary of
protracted neglect, sank around in despondency and silence.3
Juvenal and Martial, wre know, experienced in this reign the
1 " Quern honorem dicendi magistris, quam dignationem sapientiae doctoribus
habes ! ut sub te spiritum, et sanguinem, et patriam, receperunt studia ! quae
priorum temporum immanitas exsiliis puniebat, quilm sibi vitiorum omnium
comcius Princeps mimical vitiis artes, non odio magis quam reverentia,
relegaret. At tu easdem artes in complexu, oculis, auribus habes : praestas enim
quaecunque praecipiunt, tantumque eas diligis, quantum ab illis probaris." — Plhi.
Paneg. xlvii.
2 Rom. Emp. ch. iii.
3 Ingenium sacri miraris abesse Maronis,
Nee quenquam tanta bella sonare tuba.
Sint Maecenates, non deerunt, Flacce, Marones,
Virgiliumque tibi vel tua rura dabunt.
Mart. viii. 66.
Quis tibi Maecenas, quis nunc erit, aut Proculejus,
Aut Fabius ? quis Cotta iterum ? quis Lentulus alter?
Ju.v. Sat. vii. v. 94.
HADRIAN.
181
bitterest discouragement : indeed it is impossible, that the incessant
projects of aggrandizement which occupied the mind of Trajan
could allow him, however inclined, to bestow any efficient culture
on the arts and studies of peace and leisure. The Capitoline
poetical contest, it appears, was continued. We are indebted to an
inscription still preserved in the town of Guasto, formerly Histonium,
for a very interesting anecdote of a juvenile poet, whose genius
was excited and rewarded by this institution. From this it appears
that Lucius Valerius Pudexs, a boy of that place, only thirteen Valerius
years of age, was crowned victor in the Capitol, a.d. 106, by the ru(Uus
unanimous suffrage of the judges. A statue of brass was erected
to him by his countrymen in the time of Antoninus Pius. Without
detracting in any degree from the honourable and meritorious
distinction of the youthful adventurer, we may be permitted to
observe that his success affords a presumption, either that the
competitors were few or indifferent, or that the honour itself was
slightly regarded.
The character of Hapiuan has been drawn so correctly, so Hadrian.
forcibly, and at the same time so compendiously, by his biographer,
iElius Spartianus, that the words
of this author will be the best
possible comment we can supply
on the effects of his accession.
" Idem severus, lsetus ; comis,
gravis ; lascivus, cunctator ; tenax,
liberalis; simulator, sawus,clemens;
et semper in omnibus varius." 1
From the influence of a mind so
perversely constituted no perma-
nent or substantial advantages
could be expected to accrue to
any department of literature. Yet
was Hadrian a man of great accom-
plishments, and a poet ; his pieces
were, for the most part, amatory ;
and he wrote a poem called
CcUacriani, which, as we learn from his biographer, was extremely
obscure,2 and the title of which, notwithstanding the attempts of
scholars to make it significant, is now become no less mysterious
than its contents. This work was an imitation of Antimachus, a
poet for whom he entertained a very high admiration, and whom
he preferred to Homer, as he did Ennuis to Virgil. He endeavoured
to revive the acted drama ; and fortius purpose granted the services
of the court actors to the public.3 He was liberal of rewards and
.
C. 14.
- Ibid. 16.
:; m. Spart. 19.
182 DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY.
honours to literary professors ; but these afforded small encourage-
ment to merit, so long as he treated their owners with ridicule,
contempt, and indignity, on the ground of his own superior attain-
ments. Indeed, literary pursuits and professions of all kinds were
not more safe than honourable ; for the Emperor, in order to pamper
his own vanity, and mortify the self-complacency of authors, would
often publish rival compositions, the superiority of which it would
have been the most reckless imprudence to deny. Thus Eavorinus,
being reprehended for the introduction of a word which he afterwards
removed, replied to his friends, who reproached him for his obsequi-
ousness, " You advise me ill, if you wish me to doubt the superior
learning of one who has thirty legions at command. " ! A poet
named Florus, however, was less circumspect, and addressed to the
Emperor the following lines :
Ego nolo Caesar esse,
Ambulare perBritannos,
Scythicas pati pruinas.
Hadrian chanced to read the verses in good humour, and took
no other revenge than a prompt repayment, together with similar
interest :
Ego nolo Florus esse,
Ambulare per tabernas,
Latitare per popinas,
Culices pati rotundos. -
But the experiment was dangerous, and, probably, solitary, to say
nothing of its bad taste and want of decent courtesy. The anec-
dote, if authentic, which there is no reason to doubt, furnishes a
curious illustration of the literary relations of prince and people at
the time.
There is still extant an Epitaph by Hadrian on his horse
Borysthenes, which has been edited as follows by Salmasius after
Casaubon,3 and which is illustrative of his style and versification.
Borysthenes A Ian us
Caesareus veredus,
Per aequor et paludes
Et tumulos Etruscos
Volare qui Bolebat,
Pannonios nee ullus
Aproe cum insequentem,
Dente aper albicanti
Ausus fuit nocere,
Vcl extimam saliva
Sparsit ab ore caudam,
Ut solet evenire :
1 C. 1 5. 2 Ubi supra.
3 Vide utiiusque notas ad JE\. Spart. Hadr.
1IADKIAN. 183
Sed integer juvcnta, Hadrian.
Inviolatua artus,
Die sua peremtus
Hie situs est in agro.
Borysthenes, the Alanian,
Imperial Caesar's hunter,
O'er champaign and o'er moorland,
And o'er Etruscan hillocks,
That used to fly so lightly, —
Pannonian hoars when chasing
Whom never boar might venture
With tooth of polished whiteness
To gash as he swept past him,
Or with his foam to sprinkle
One tail-hair of the courser,
As chances oft to happen, —
In prime of youth and beauty,
With every limb unblemished,
On his own day departing,
Beneath this turf reposes.
A more celebrated piece of Hadrian's is his address to his depart-
ing soul, the popularity of which is not easily accounted for ; though,
as a painful illustration of heathen darkness and misgiving at the
most solemn of anticipations, it is far from valueless :
Animula, vagula, blandula,
Hospes comesque corporis,
Quae nunc abibis in loca,
Pallidula, rigida, nudula?
Nee, ut soles, dabis jocos.
Poor soul of mine ! poor fluttering thing !
This body's mate and guest !
Ah, whither art thou hastening,
All pallid, stark, and shivering?
Nor fain, as erst, to jest?
The adopted successor of Hadrian, L. Cejonius Commodus, £UnsVeni&
called by him iELius Verus C^sar, was a great admirer of poetry,
and a poet. The character of his poetry may best be collected
from his favourite authors. Ovid and Appius were the companions
of his pillow, and Martial he styled his Virgil.1 His son, the
Emperor Yerus, was also a poet, although far from eminent.2 Vorns
It might be supposed that, beneath the tranquil and beneficent Antonius.
sway of the Antonines, the Latin Muse, though already feeble and Age of the
expiring, might have rallied her exhausted energies, and stood Antonines.
1 JEl. Spart. Vit. JE\. v.
2 u Melior quidem Orator fuisse dicitur quam Poeta : imo (ut verius dicam) pejor
Poeta quam Rhetor." — Julii Caplt. Verm. Imp. ii.
184
DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY.
Ase of the forth again to the world in the perfect beauty and chaste propor-
Antonmes. ^Q^ Q£ ^ Augustan maturity. "The love of letters, almost
Antoninus Augustus Pius.
inseparable from peace and refinement, was fashionable among the
subjects of Hadrian and the Antonines, who were themselves men
of learning and curiosity. It was diffused over the whole extent
of their empire ; the most northern tribes of Britons had acquired
a taste for Rhetoric ; Homer, as well as Virgil, was transcribed
and studied on the banks of the Ehine and Danube ; and the most
liberal rewards sought out the faintest glimmerings of literary
merit."1 Yet, in the words of the great historian to whom we are
indebted for the above picturesque glance at the literary condition
of this period, " the name Poet was almost forgotten ; " " while a
cloud of critics, of compilers, of commentators, darkened the face
of learning, and the decline of genius was soon followed by the
corruption of taste." 2 This consummation, however, is easily
accounted for. The protracted realities of neglect and penury had
at length dispelled the visions, and chilled the aspirations, of Genius;
which, like Youth, may struggle awhile with unkindness and sorrow,
but which is equally endangered by their premature influence, and
equally irrevocable by subsequent attentions. Had Augustus him-
self occupied the throne of the Antonines, no eminent superiority
could have been expected ; but neither was the kind of encourage-
ment afforded to literature by these princes calculated to foster
imaginative excellence. Poetry, indeed, was utterly neglected ;
the stage had fallen into the hands of the populace, and was a
mere vehicle of impurity ; 3 and the philosophers and orators who
were the objects of Imperial patronage were those who best re-
tained the maxims of their predecessors, not those who reasoned
most freely on their knowledge, or studied to become critics in the
1 Gibbon, Rom. Emp. ch. ii. 2 Ibid.
3 " A theatro separamur, quod est privatum consistorium impudicitice, ubi nihil
probatur quam quod alibi non probatur." — Tertull. de Spectt.
THE ANTONINES AND THKIK SUCCESSORS 1 s~>
subject for themselves. But, without attempting a metaphysical Age of ike
discussion of the causes which induced the rapid decay of poetical Ant"
merit in and after the period of the Antoniues, — a digression which,
however seducing to a writer on this subject, is not expected iu a
brief summary of facts, — the effect is indisputable ; and the names
which we shall now have to record will only be detailed in their
chronological order, without attempting to classify where there is
no connexion.
The state of poetical literature during the sway of the Antonines
may be conveniently gleaned from the following fact : Aulus Grellius,
who appears to have been intimate with all the eminent literati of
his time, speaks with the most extravagant commendation of the Pianos.
poet Julius Faullus, calling him the most learned man whom
he could remember.1 To the same testimony we are indebted for a Anniaxras.
notice of An max is,- who, as we learn from Ausonius,3 composed
Fescennine Carols.
The lethargy which succeeded the decease of Marcus Aurelius
cannot excite surprise. The Emperors were not unfrequently un-
skilled in the national tongue ; rarely patronised literature at all ;
and most rarely of all, poetry.4 Commodus, in one sense, was a
patron of the Muses, as his conduct gave rise to many lampoons.5
Pertinax, indeed, gave the sanction of his presence to poetical reci-
tations.6 Geta affected a high zeal for literary pursuits, and his Seraraa
favourite author was Q. SBBBNUS SaHMONICUS, who wrote a *iminollicu*-
poem on Medicine, still extant.7 But the style of this prince's
acquirements may best be estimated from the questions which he
put to grammarians concerning the noises of animals, and the
strictly literary dinners which he gave, wherein only dishes beginning ciodina
with one letter were allowed.8 Clodius Albim s wrote Georgies, Albums.
and Fabida MUesuB. But encouragement and example appeared
squally fruitless until the reign of Alexander, who attempted a more
vigorous patronage, with somewhat more of the appearance of
success. The language, however, had undergone important cor-
ruptions, and Alexander was not best qualified to remove them.
By an inversion of the fate of Telephus, the speech and literature
1 Noct. Att. i. 22, v. 4, xix. 7. ': Ibid. vii. 7.
3 Praef. in Cent. Nupt.
4 We give the following specimen of Imperial poetry from the pen of Maerinus,
n answer to an epigram written on the occasion of his refusal of the name of
?ius, and his acceptance of that of Felix : —
Si talem Graium rctulissent fata poetam,
Qualis Latinus Gabalus iste fuit,
Nil populus nosset, nil n6sset curia, mag no
Nullus scripsisset carmina tetra mihi ! ! !
Jul. Capit. Meter, xi.
5 Lamprid. Vit. Comm. xiii. 6 Jul. Capit. Port. xi.
7 Jul. Capit. Gord. Jun. ii. s Jul. Capit. Get. v.
186
DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY.
Clodius
Albiiius.
Sammonicus
the younger.
Septimius.
Incidental
notice of
Terentiau.
of Eome were rapidly decaying beneath the influence of the sam
causes which had brought them to the high perfection they hai
once enjoyed. The Greek language was now indeed triumphanl
That Lucretius and Cicero, expounding for the first time th
doctrines of the Greek Philosophy in a language which possessei
no equivalent expressions, should borrow from the rich and variou
stores of Greece, was only to be expected. But what originate!
in necessity was continued through affectation ; and a spirit simila
to that which is now working the ruin of our own language pre
vailed. This spirit was rather sanctioned than checked by Augustus
who considered the naturalisation of a Greek word or phrase ai
acquisition to the language; with more taste indeed, but not les
error, than the Gallicising writers of our own times. Horace him
self was not indisposed to regard the practice with toleration,
A perusal of the letters of Pliny (whose character, certainly, wa
favourable to the diffusion of a corruption propagated by pedantr
and vanity), sufficiently testifies the progress which this destructiv
propensity had made in the course of half a century. Alexander
unhappily, was so addicted to Greek literature that he almos
despised that of Eome; 2 so that his policy, as might be expected
in no manner improved the purity of the language. His favourit
Latin authors were, however, the Poets,3 and these might certainl;
have enjoyed his patronage if willing to claim it, as we know fron
the case of Q. Serenus Sammonicus, son of the poet of that nam
just noticed, and whose poetical abilities recommended him to th
notice of the Court. Bernhardy coujectures that the Poem oi
Medicine, mentioned above, should be ascribed to the younge
Sammonicus.4
The name of Serenus has greatly perplexed literary historians
Crinitus and Henry Stephens make A. Serenus and Q. Septimiu
distinct poets, and Gyraldus adds another Serenus. But Mariu
Victorinus 5 and Sidonius Apollinaris 6 speak of Septimius Serenu
as one person; and some verses are quoted as the work o
Septimius , and Serenus, by the poetical grammarian, Teren
tianus Maurus. But the age of Terentian himself is no
accurately determined, although generally referred to the perio<
which we are now treating. Lachmann and Niebuhr refer him t<
the end of the third century. Vossius and Fabricius conjectun
that he was no other than the Preefect of Syene, mentioned b;
Martial in the eighty-seventh Epigram of the first Book ; and 01
this supposition Wernsdorf, after Gronovius and others, venture!
to identify this Septimius with Septimius Severus, the corresponden
1 De Art. Poet. 52. 2 Lamprid. Alex. ii. et xxviii.
3 Ibid, xxxiv. 4 Grundr. der 11. L. Anm. 424.
5 Gramm. lib. iii. p. 2578, edit. Putschii.
G EpUt. ad Polem.
Tin: GOADIANS. — BALBINUS.— G \l.l.n\i 9. 1 s7
f Statius, and proposes there to read Serenus for Severus. I
tlanl works of Septimiua are some fragments on rustic subject
om several little pieces called Opuscula Ruralia; and to bim is
ttributed, by Wernsdorf, the celebrated Moretum, more commonly
scribed to Virgil. The Falisca, mentioned by the grammarians,
err probably no other than the Opuscula Ruralia, They gave
ieir name to the Faliscan measure, which consists of a dactj
imeter followed bj an iambus. Sammonicus also enjoyed the
ivour of the two first Qordians, father and son, to the latter of
bom he was tutor, and who were themselves poets; the elder0
aving composed, when yet a boy, an Epic in thirty Books, called
toniniad, on the life and exploits of th< Antonines, Poems
ailed Haley ona, Uxorius, and Nilus, and a translation of Aratus
rid Demetrius,1 being a kind of rifaccimento oi' the poetry of
'icero, as Pope remodelled the works of Donne ; while the younger
mused himself with lighter productions.* Their sueeessor,
Ialbinus, colleague of Maximns or Pupienus, is called, by his Baibinus.
iographer, Julius Capitolinus, eminent among the poets of his
\me;s but the praise is of small absolute value. G-ALLIENUS c.aiiionus.
Iso was celebrated for his poetical talents, and gained the palm
oin one hundred eompetitors for an Epithalamium, part of which
as been preserved in his life by Trebellius Pollio. None of the
mperors of this period actually persecuted the Muses except
hilip the Arab, whose savage law is still extant in the Justinian
ode:4 " Poeta* nulla immunitatis prarogativd juvantor" No
nportant consequences, however, resulted from this temporary
improvement in the general character of the imperial government.
'he climate, indeed, was mild and genial, but the soil was poor
n cl stubborn. This assertion is best exemplified by considering
ie age of Cams and his sons, Carinus and Numerianus, by whose
me the action of this improved artificial temperature had forced
lto light a few sickly productions, which it will be requisite to
otice.
The two former of these princes were little addicted to intellec-
lal pleasure; yet their education was liberal, and they were not
lsensible to the excellence of literary pursuits, and the value oi' a
net's praise. The mild and amiable NUMEBIANUS was a poel by \u:lum:i.
hoice and feeling; according to his biographer, Vopiscus,8 he sur-
assed all the poets of his time. This may either allude to his
1 " Cuncta ilia qua Cicero ox Demetrio et Arato," &c.— JuL Cctpit. Q
la'), iii. ; but some for tX Ihiiutrio, road (JU Mario.
Julius Capitolinus passos the following criticism on his writings : u Non
agna, non minima, sod media, ct qua apparoant osso hoiuinis IDgeniotl,
ruriantis, et suum deserentia ingcniullJ.,, — Gord.Jun. it.
3 Jul. Capit. Max. ot Balb. vii.
4 Lib. x. tit. Hi. 3. :' Vopiac. Numer. xi.
1SS
DECLINE OE LATIN POETRY.
Numerian.
Aurelius
Apollinaris.
Nemesian.
abstract reputation, or to his successes in the poetical conte<
which had now been revived, and in which he bore a conspiciu
part. History is seldom identified with just criticism in the mat
of literary sovereigns ; still less car
dependent vassal be expected to p
noimee an impartial decision on
merits of his absolute master. In
present instance, however, there is
violence in the supposition that
historian or the judges recorded an i
prejudiced opinion. The poetry
some of this prince's contemporai
has been spared by the caprice of Til
and renders the possibility of his su
riority perfectly consistent with
usual standard of imperial mediocr:
"We have not the good fortune
possess the iambics of Aithel:
Apollinaris, who celebrated
exploits of Cams, and whom, according to the flourish
Yopiscus,1 Numerian, with a similar poem, " flashed into obsciu
as if with a sunbeam;" but the works of M. Avrelius Olymp:
Nemesian us, of Carthage, author of Halieidica, Cynegeh
Nautica (and possibly a poem, Be Aucupio^ of which
possess two fragments-), whom he fairly vanquished, are pai
extant, and certainly, in this case, dispense with all the difficul
of the hypothesis, that a poetical monarch may be tried by impar
cont emp orary j ud ge s .
Of the Cynegetica of Nemesian only three hundred and tweii
five lines have reached us : whatever judgment may be formed
their merits by modern critics, it is certain that the Empen
triumph was by no means lightly esteemed by his contemporar
Nemesian, indeed, received far greater honours than ever had b
enjoyed by Horace, Virgil, or Ovid ; whatever we are to understi
by the corrupt passage in which his distinctions are recorded, t
were evidently extensive and remarkable.3 To this poet is ascrit
by Wemsdorf, the fragment on the labours of Hercules, usui
1 " Yclut radio solis obtexit."' — Vopisc* Xanter. xi.
- Some read * Ixeutica" for " Nautica,'' in the passage of Yopiscus.
3 "Omnibus colon it* illustrates emicuit." — Vopisc. Numer. xi. Casau
corrects COTOms; it is the most probable reading which has been offered, an
now generally adopted. Mr. Clinton (Fasti Romani, A.D. 283). refers this eulog
and the authorship of the Ilalitutica. ckc. to Numerian. But even his alt
punctuation makes such a reference very awkward, and almost ungrammatical
say nothing of the unquestionable fact, that Nemesian wrote a poem ca
CynegetUM, while there is no external proof that Numerian wrote anythir
the kind.
1 B9
(dnted with the works of Claudian. The property of this trifle
ll no respect important ; but those who think tin' Subject worth
lirther prosecution may read the arguments of the learned critic in
iond volume of his i \finores. The same scholar, on
lie most so! ill and convincing grounds, has restored the four
lldogues commonly assigned to this author to T. Calpubhius Caipumiiu,
Ikci LUS, a pott of t lie same period, and. if we may trust universal
radition, an object of the patronage of Nemesian. Wernsdorf,
| ho seems to have (Exhausted on the illustration of both these
ets all the ample stores of his learning, and all his excursive
vers o( conjecture, stoutly denies the identity of Meliboeua with
I ie author of the Cyneyetica ; his argument, which 18 defended at
&pme length, may he entirely comprised in the faet, that the
[eliboeus of Calpurnius is everywhere represented a- a person of
I teat power and influence at court, which Nemesian is not known
) have been. Tattle, however, is known of the biography of
lemesian; and the few particulars which can be collected rather
livour than oppose the opinion that he was a person of rank and
ltlnence. I litins even conjectures that he was related to the
mperial family.1 Under such circumstances there scarcely appears
ID be sufficient reason for disturbing an ancient and consistent
fadition. But if the claims of Nemesian be unfounded, where is
lelibouis to be sought ? Wernsdorf is not a little perplexed in
isoovering a character of this period equally conspicuous for illus-
rious rank and poetical pre-eminence, and at last fixes on C. JUNIUS
frUEBiANUS, of whose literary qualifications and patronage i-
'opiscus speaks highly, in his introduction to the life of the !J
Emperor Aurelian. "But Melibceus was himself a poet." So
dso was Tiberian ; for Fulgentius Planciades quotes a verse from
til author of this name,- and even eites his tragedy of Promethi
ut there is no evidence whatever to prove that the biographer and
rammarian alluded to the same person.
f The Eclogue* of Calpurnius, eleven in all, are (if we may be
plowed the paradoxical expression) more Virgilian than those of
pirgil. Xot only are they almost a cento of the phrases and
fentiments of that poet, but his misapprehension of Theocritus has
>een implicitly adopted, and even advanced. The injudicious
node of allegorising has been throughout observed ; and this
babies us to glean from them a few unconnected particulars
especting their author. From a needy adventurer he appears to
lave become, by the interest of his patron Melibceus, a person o\
•onsideration at the Imperial Court, principally in consequent
lis poetical merits. It is not improbable that he was the same
1 Comm. ad tit. Cyncg. Nemesian i.
- De Serm. Antiq. voe. Sudus. J Myth. lib. lii.
190
DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY.
Incidental
notice of
Tiijerian.
Effects of
Christianity
on Poetry.
re
lie
with Junius Calpurnius, styled by Vopiscus the Imperial Remem-
brancer; the variation of the prtznomen, being by no means an
insuperable objection, as we have seeu in the instance of Petronius
Whether he is to be identified with the poet whose comedy,)
Pkronesis, is cited by Fulgentius,1 is not so clear. The conjecture,
of Sarpe, that Calpurnius was the Serranus of Juvenal, and thi
friend of Persius, scarcely merits this brief recording notice.
The style of Calpurnius, even more than that of Nemesian, in-
dicates a new era in the poetical history of the Latin language,
The resources of Greece being now exhausted, no object of imita
tion remained but the Latin authors themselves ; a situation w7hich
necessarily placed an uninventive people in a state of rapid deteriora-
tion. The language also had materially degenerated ; and writers
ambitious of reputation were compelled to embrace the expression
of a happier age ; a necessity which produced an appearance of art
and labour, without effectually escaping the infection of colloquial
corruption. Poetry, however, had again become fashionable ; and
the continuance of a virtuous and pacific government might have
cheered with a few forced flowers the bleak winter of the Roman!
poetical history ; but the murder of Numerian, and a reign of
military excitement and tumultuous glory, banished the Latin
Muses for ever from the echoes of Albunea and the haunts of Tibur.
Their reappearance on the shores of the Propontis deserves a moreL
particular consideration.
The effects of Christianity on the poetical spirit have been dis-
cussed under a great variety of forms. The study of truth, r
has been argued, is frequently unfavourable to the action oj
a warm and enthusiastic imagination, the reveries of which it
reprobates and dispels. The poet, to succeed, and his reader, to bel
pleased, must lend themselves for a season to the influence of illu-1
sions, which the earnest contemplation of abstract truth will render
it difficult to create or experience. If Lucretius felt unable to
treat his subject poetically, without invoking the aid of one of
those powers whose agency it was the object of his work to deny,
and if Tasso was sensible that his page required other embellish-
ments than the sober colours of fact, there must, it should seem,
exist a strong incompatibility between the faculties of demonstration
and invention. But, above all other, religious truth must, appa-
rently, be the most adverse to the spirit of poetry. The Christian
poet must discard all the beautiful creations of Mythology ; or,
should he retain them, as in the impious and absurd combinations
of Camoens, he will excite no feeling corresponding to that scarcely
disbelieving awe with which even the most philosophical of heathen
readers must have perused the inspired pages of Homer. To com-
1 Voc. Nasilerna.
EFFECTS OF CHRISTIANITY ON POETRY. 101
bine consistent fiction with religious truth must be the work of a Kfi"r
Milton or a Tasso; a genius that can "breathe empyreal air : " on Poetry,
nor would it be difficult to show that even Milton and Tasso have
been sometimes mastered by the mightiness of their themes.
Such are the arguments most frequently adduced to prove the
deteriorating iniluence of Christianity on the poetical character.
Whatever truth may be contained in the observations themselves,
we are now about to consider a portion of poetical history which
will clearly show that tendencies of an opposite nature have been
quite sufficient to counterbalance all the disadvantages resulting
from the opposition of evangelical fact to poetical fiction. The
conversion of the Empire to Christianity is not more remarkable
as a political than as a poetical era ; the corrupt state of the lan-
guage, and the turbulent condition in which the newly established
religion found the people, being, apparently, the only obstacles to a
complete renovation of Latin poetry. The stupendous miracles of
the Sacred History, the whole administration of the great plan of
human redemption, the sufferings and the triumphs of the Church,
exercised and elevated the original genius of Prudentius ; while
the refinement of taste and intellect, which is always consequent
on the influence of Christianity, astonishes us in a most corrupt
period of the language with the pure and truly classical poetry of
Claudian. To this refinement, and to that elevation which man
receives from communion with the supreme Spirit, — a communion
which, in its highest form, produced the noblest poetry, that of the
Holy Scriptures, would we ascribe the poetical revolution which
1 succeeded the conversion of the Empire.
A consummation of this nature neither was, nor could be,
immediate. Most of the Christian writers, however, from the first
establishment of the religion, had been poets. We have still some
verses by Cyphianus, De scuictce cruris ligno ; and there also exist Cyprian.
five hexameter books against Marcion, a poem on the last judgment,
pieces called Genesis and Sodoma, and a remonstrance with an
apostate Senator, which are all ascribed to the muse of Tertul- Tertuiiian.
lianus. The first Christian Emperor, indeed, although a patron of
learning, was no poet ; * his son Constantius attempted versifica-
tion, but Ammianus Marcellinus speaks very contemptuously of his
productions in this way.2 Yet the influences of a more humanised
1 We have no account of any poetical compositions of Constantino. Porphyry,
the poet, indeed speaks in his panegyric thus : — " Inter belli pacisque virtutes, inter
triumphos et laurcas, inter legum sanctiones et jura, etiam Musis tibi familiaribus
adeo vacas ut inter tot Divinae Majestatis insigna, quibus invictus semper in primis
es, h u jus etiam studii in te micet splendor egregius." But the speaker is a
panegyrist and a poet.
2 " Quiim a rhetorica per ingenium desercretur obtusum, ad versificandum
transgressus, nihil opera? pretium fecit." — Ammian. Marccll. xxi. 16.
192
DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY.
policy were conspicuous in the number of poets who endeavoured
to adorn their respective ages. Of these we shall attempt to give
some account.
Lactantius. The eminent Lucius (Lelius Lactantius Fikmianus, to whom
religion and literature are deeply indepted, will naturally claim the
first notice, although his poetical works are, at most, few, and the
genuineness of all the poems ascribed to him has been questioned.
The Phoenix appears, on all grounds, to be justly ascribable to this
author. The consent of MSS., and the improbability that this
poem should otherwise have been found in company with the
writings of Lactantius, seem reasons sufficient to establish his claim,
in the absence of opposite evidence. Many scholars, however,
have hesitated to confirm this apparently unexceptionable testimony,1
principally on account of the silence of the poet on the subject of
Christianity, and his allusions to the Gentile fables of Deucalion
and Phaethon. It is not, however, a necessary consequence, that a
poetical believer in the Greek Mythology cannot be a Christian;
although it is nothing impossible that the Phoenix may have been
written before the conversion of its author. Certain it is, that the
opening description of the country of the Phomix has been com-
piled at least from indirect Jewish tradition ; and the word magnifies,
for magniiudo, which is the reading of all the MSS., appears to
assign this poem to some African writer, this termination being
then common with the Latin writers of that country, and adopted
elsewhere by Lactantius himself, in the word minuties" The
Carmen de Paschd and the Passio Domini are now generally allowed
to be the productions of a much later writer, Yenantius Hono-
Fortunatus. eius Fortunatus, in whose works they are found. Jerom3
ascribes to Lactantius a work called Symposium, and an hexameter
poem intituled 'OdoinopiKov. The latter is lost. A poem supposed
to be the former, is published in his works. It consists entirely
of a collection of enigmas in dactylic hexameter tristichs. There
is, however, an important variation in the reading of the first line.
Many copies have
Htcc quoque Symposius de carmine lusit inepto :
which, if correct, does not intitule the poem Symposium, but
directly ascribes it to the pen of some Symposius. Fabricius ex-
pressly asserts that all the MSS. prefix the name of Symposius as
the author;4 and Sigebertus Gemblacensis speaks of Symposius the
Epigrammatist.5 "VVernsdorf therefore attributes this collection to
1 Ittig. Biblioth, Patr. ad Clem. Ep. i. ad Corinth. Buchner, ad Hymn, de
Resurrect. Siimondus, notae in Theodulfum.
2 Institt. iv. 12. 3 Cat. Scriptt. Eccless. Firmianus.
4 Bibl. Lat. iv. 1. sec. 7. 5 De Scriptt. Eccless. cap. 132.
SYMPOSIUS. — PENTADIUS. — FLAVIUS, 193
Cjelius FlEMlANUS Symposius, a contemporary of Lactantius, to Symposius.
whose pen we are indebted for two little pieces on Fortune and
Envy respectively. Pentadius, also of the same period, is I'entadius.
supposed to be the author of several Elegies and Epigrams
ascribed by extant MSS. to a writer of that name. The only
peculiarity about the former is, that the last hemistich of the
pentameter verse is always the same with the first of the hexameter.
It would be injustice, however, to this poet not to mention that the
following fragment is attributed to him, although the internal
evidence by no means favours his claim.
Non est, falleris, haec beata, non est,
Quod vos creditis esse, vita non est :
Fulgentes manibus videre gemmas,
Aut testudineo jacere lecto,
Aut pluma latus abdidisse molli,
Aut auro bibere, aut cubare cocco,
Regales dapibus gravare mensas,
Et quidquid Libyco secatur arvo
Non una posituin tenere cella :
Sed, nullos trepidum timere casus.
Nee vano populi furore tangi,
Et stricto nihil sestuare ferro :
Hoc quisquis poterit, licebit illi
Fortunam moveat loco superbus.
'Tis not, — thou thyself deceivest, —
Happiness, what thou believest :
Glittering jewels on thy fingers ;
Ivory l couch, where Languor lingers,
'Mid soft depths of down reclining ;
Golden cup, or purple shining ;
Kingly feast on groaning table ;
Bursting garners, all unable
To confine their Libyan treasures :
Happiness he trulier measures,
AY ho, above men's crimes and errors,
Shares no factions, dreads no terrors ; —
He may hurl, — and he alone, —
Fortune from her haughty throne.
Contemporary with Lactantius was Elavius the grammarian, Flavins.
whose name has been strangely converted by modern critics into
Q. Ehemmius Eannius Palsemon, and thus by some confounded
with the same Palsemon whom we have already noticed, and to
whom the poems of Priscian have been attributed. According to
Jerom,2 he accompanied Lactantius to Xicomedia, at the request of
the Emperor Diocletian, and was celebrated for a metrical treatise
on medicine.
1 "We have taken a liberty with the word testudineo, which does not affect the
spirit of the verses.
2 De Scriptt. Eccless. 30 ; item in Jovinian., lib. ii.
[R.L.] 0
19-1
DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY.
Porphyry
the Less.
A notorious, although by no means gifted, poet of the age of
Constantine was Publilius Optatianus Porphyrius. The
compositions of this author, and the character of his life, do
not make a very laborious search into his chronology expe-
dient ; there is, however, a little confusion on the subject of
dates, which we shall endeavour to rectify without reference to any
of the various hypotheses invented for the solution of this difficulty.
He appears, then, in the year of the Christian era 326, to have
addressed to the Emperor a gratulatory poem on the occasion of the
twentieth celebration of his accession. Before this time, however,
he seems to have dedicated another poem to the Emperor ; for
whose reception of which Porphyry thanked him in a letter still
extant. After these transactions he was banished, but was subse-
quently recalled in the year 328,1 in consideration of a panegyric on
his imperial master. He appears to have been a person of some
note, since he is styled in the Emperor's letter f rater carissimus, and
is thought to have exercised the office of Prcefectus urbis.
The works of Porphyry are conceived with infinite labour. They
are all subjected to some arbitrary law, being either acrostichs, or
representing by metrical interlineations the form of a ship, a shep-
herd's reed, the monogram ^ 9 or some fanciful device. They
have, therefore, as may naturally be supposed, no higher merit than
that of ingenuity. He was probably an epigrammatist, as some
epigrams by an author of tins name are cited by Eulgentius.2
Constantine the Great.
Juvencus. Under Constantine and his sons flourished C. Yettids Aquili-
nus Juvencus, a Spanish priest, whose Hlstoria Evangelica, in four
books of heroic metre, is still extant, remarkable for its minute
fidelity and general purity, but written, like the poem of Silius,
Ilier. chron. eo anno.
2 De Cont. Virgil, et Myth. ii. 4.
A\ [ENUS. 1 95
majore curfi quam ingenio." We scarcely know whether we are
to class among the poets an author of these times, CoHMODJ wi >, Comi
who wrote in accentual hexameters a book of instructions for
Gentiles, Jews, and Christians, still extant, and of course more
jremarkable for piety than elegance. An entire sense is included
in short sentences, the initial letters of which, being joined in their
order, give the titles of the stanzas or divisions. In the age of
Constantius flourished Mauitjs Victorinus, a native of Africa, victorinu.-.
who taught rhetoric at Home, where he became a convert to
Christianity. He wrote a poem on the martyrdom of the Macca-
bees, some hymns, and some poetical commentaries. Hymns also
are ascribed by Jerom to the celebrated Hilaiuus, and some of St. Hilary.
those which are still used in the Latin Church bear his name ;
but, as Dupin conjectures, without sufficient foundation.1 Dama- Damasus.
sus, Bishop of Home, also claims notice as the author of several
poetical pieces on the martyrs, and the Psalms ; some of these are
[still supposed to be extant. The poems commonly attributed to
Damasus are mostly of an epigrammatic form. The life of Julian
;he Emperor was also written in verse by Callistus.2 If we are Caffittus.
:o receive the critical as well as historical testimony of Jerom, we
must suppose Matronianus equal to any of the ancients ; but we Matronianus.
have not the means of criticising for ourselves. In the reign of
^alentinian, Attilius, or C^ecilius Seveiius, wrote a book called sevcrus.
\O8017ropiKov, which appears to have been a kind of Varronian satire.
The celebrated Ambkosius, Bishop of Milan, was the author of The
several hymns still used in the Latin Church ; and part of the con-
troversy between his namesake of Alexandria and Apollinaris was
:onducted in verse. More particular accounts of some of these
'^oets will be found in the ecclesiastical portion of this volume.
But the first eminent poet who flourished after the reign of Avienus.
Oonstantine was Rufus Festus Avienus. The age and country
f this writer have been disputed. Tradition or conjecture has
issigned to Spain the honour of his birth ; but this opinion is
unsupported by written testimony, and even contradicted, if the
nscription found in the Ca2sarean villa refer to this poet, which
here seems small reason to doubt. From this we learn that he
vas the son of Musonius Avienus,3 or the son of Avienus and
jlescendant of Musonius, accordingly as we punctuate the first line;
hat he was born at Vulsinium, in Etruria ; that he resided at
&ome ; that he was twice proconsul ; that he was the author of
aany poetical pieces ; that his wife's name was Placida ; and that
Le had a large family. The same epigram contradicts the notion,
oo precipitately grounded on some vague expressions in his
aitings, that he was a Christian ; for it is nothing else than a
1 Dupiii, Eccles. Hist. vol. iv, tit. " Hilaire."''
'2 Socrates, iii. 21. 3 Festus Musoni soboks prolesque Avicni.
196 DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY.
Avieims. religious address to the goddess Nortia, the Fortune of the Etru-
rians. This conclusion is also deducible from a short metrical
account which Avienus gives of his pursuits in the country, wherein *
he informs us that he employed a portion of every day in prayer to
the gods,1 as well as in poetical pursuits ; and his son Placidus, I
evidently, was not educated in the Christian religion, nor can it be ]
supposed that he would have composed the following epitaph on a
Christian father :
SANCTO PATRI FILIVS PLACIDYS.
Ibis in optatas sedes, nam Jupiter aethrain
Pandit, Feste, tibi, candidus ut venias.
Jamque venis ! tendit dextras chorus hide Deorum,
Et toto tibi jam plauditur ecce polo.
Mount, Festus, to the great desir'd abodes !
Jove opes thy way through his unclouded sky !
Thou com'st ! their hands the council of the gods
Extend, and all applaud thee from on high.
Jerom speaks of Avienus as of a recent writer;2 we can scarcely
therefore, with Crinitus, place him in the reign of Diocletian. The
death of Jerom happened in 420, in his ninety-first year : on the
supposition, therefore, that Avienus flourished about the middle of
that father's protracted life, we have referred him in our chro-
nology to a.d. 370, or the period of Yalentinian, Yalens, and
Gratian.
His writings. The extant and acknowledged works of this poet are versions of
the Qaivoyieva of Aratus and the Hepirjyrjo-is of Dionysius ; and a
portion of a poem Be ord maritimd, which includes (with some
digressions) the coast between Cadiz and Marseilles. The forty-
two fables rendered from iEsop into elegiac verse, and sometimes
ascribed to this author, are now generally assigned to Flavius
incidental Avianus, a contemporary writer. The other poems generally
Avianus. believed to be the work of Avienus are an epistle to Flavianus
Myrmecius, an elegiac piece Be cantu Sirenum, and some verses
addressed to the author's friends from the country. A poem, Be
urbibas Hispanice Mediterraneis, is cited by some Spanish writers as
the work of Avienus;3 but it is generally supposed to be the
forgery of a Jesuit of Toledo. Servius4 ascribes to Avienus iambic
versions of the narrative of Yirgil and the history of Livy ; which
observation of the grammarian, together with a consideration
of the genius and habits of this poet, renders it not altogether
1 " Luce Deos oro," is the reading of the best MSS. But some have u Mane
Deum exoro," &c.
2 In Epist. ad Titum, v. 12.
3 See Nicolaus Antonius, Bibl. Vet. Hisp. ii. 9.
4 Ad. Virg. Mn. x. 272 and 388.
PERIOD OF THE F.AK1A BYZANTINE EMPERORS. L97
improbable that he is the author of a very curious Latin epitome Bpiton
of the Iliad,1 which has reached us, and which throws some light the/ltoA
on the poetical history of the time.
The revival (if so it may be called) of poetical studies under the Stated the
Byzantine emperors and their western colleagues, found the public hSmi.
mind in a very untoward condition. The spirit of slavish imitation
(at no time foreign to the Roman character) had made active pro-
gress between the ages of the Antonines and of Cams, and appears
to have reached its crisis under Theodosius. The preposterous
ambition of surpassing Virgil and Horace, which had long kept
possession of the Roman Parnassus, was exchanged for an equally
preposterous veneration of the great names both of Greek and
Roman antiquity; and a blind consecration of the errors of distin-
guished writers depreciated the homage, as it multiplied the faults,
of their servile successors. Every literary character was a poet, if
the mere composition of verses can confer that sacred title ; while
every poet was a literary character, — ambitious rather of showing
his familiarity with the ancient classics, and his profound and indis-
criminate admiration of all their pages, than of securing his own
fame by the productions of a cultivated imagination. The Parte*
gesis of Avienus, which most critics call a liberal translation, might,
perhaps, more properly, be termed a servile original. Like his
versions of Livy and Virgil, it was less a translation than a meta-
phrase ; the timid performance o( a writer who dreaded to explore
an untrodden path, without the slightest intention of relinquishing
those pretensions to originality, which, in the then corrupt state o\
jpoetical taste, were as easily allowed as asserted.
The prevalent passion for metaphrastic writing received encou-
ragement from the circumstances o( the times. When Homer and
Virgil were less felt than revered, and more read than understood,
it was natural that readers should desire a less laborious introduc-
tion to the destined objects of their admiration than an actual
perusal of the authors. The whole substance o( the Iliad in little
more than a thousand very readable lines, could not, under such
circumstances, fail to be acceptable. Hence the .Epitome of the
Iliad, judicious in its selections, pertinent in its additions, and
not inelegant in its language, attained to high reputation in the
middle ages, was frequently quoted for Homer, and amply I
by poets and fiction-writers ; and indeed remained, until the
revival of learning, the only Homer generally known in the western
world.
Meanwhile the example, no less than the conduct, of the Court,
wTas employed in the encouragement of poetical pursuits ; although
1 This poem is sometimes in "MSS. merely called u Homerna de bello Trojano,"
or, " de destnictione Trojae ; " sometimes it is ascribed to u Pindarua Thebanus ; a
manifest mediaeval doss.
198
DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY.
not without a tincture of that degenerate taste which prefers the
amusements of ingenuity to the excursions of fancy. The compo-
sition of a nuptial cento was not regarded an unworthy employment
vaicntininn by the Emperor Valentinianus. So partial, indeed, was that
prince to these ingenious trifles, that we are still indebted to his
authority for the similar combination of ingenuity and indecency
Gratian. perpetrated by Ausonius. Gratianus was also a poet,1 and
received his education from this celebrated writer, who is supposed
by the ablest critics to have panegyrised his imperial pupil in the
following lines :
Bellandi fandique potens Augustus, honorem
Bis meret; ut geminet titulos, qui prselia Musis
Temperat, et Geticum moderatur Apolliue Martem.
Anna inter, Chunnosque truces, furtoque nocentes
Sauromatas, quantum cessat de tempore belli
Indulget Clariis tantum inter castra Camoenis.
Vix posuit volucres stridentia tela sagittas ;
Musarum ad calamos fertur manus, otia nescit,
Et commutata meditatur arundine carmen.2
Augustus, lord of eloquence and wars,
AViih Phoebus and the Nine combines the Getic Mars.
'Mid Hunnish strife and Sauromatian guile,
At every pause he courts the Muse's smile.
Scarce has he laid the barbed reed aside,
Ere on the verse the tuneful reed is plied ;
He wields alternate, and without repose,
The reed that charms his friends, the reed that wounds his foes.
From the conclusion of this poem Achilles appears to have been
the imperial theme :
Sed carmen non molle modi's : bella horrida Martis
Odrysii, Thressa?que viraginis arma retractat.
Exsulta, iEacide! cclebraris vate superbo
Rursiim ! Romanusque tibi contingit Homerus.
But no soft lay ! the Odrysian Lord of arms
He sings, and fierce Bellona's martial charms.
Joy, son of iEacus ! in stately strain
A Roman Homer gives thee life again !
But we owe a few words to the panegyrist himself.
The most authentic particulars respecting Decius Magnus
Ausonius are to be found in his own writings, and more especially
in the second of his prafatiuncula, wherein he treats the subject
professedly. His father was physician to the Emperor Yalentinian;
he was also a Roman senator, and member of the municipal council
of Bourdeaux, at which place the poet was born, a.d. 309. Had
his education been solely confided to paternal attentions, it is pro-
bable that no record of him in this place would have been necessary,
1 Aurcl. Vict, xlvii. 2 Epigr. i.
Ausonius.
AUSONIUS. PAULLINUS. 199
, as the senior Ausonius, although well read in Greek literature, was
but indifferently acquainted with Latin; but, by the exertions of
his maternal uncle, /Emilius Magnus Ajlbortus, himself a poet, incidental
and the reputed author of an elegy, still extant, ad nympham nimis ArbwinL
cultam, and those of the grammarians Minervius, Nepotian, and
Staphylus, the disadvantages of our poet's circumstances were
abundantly removed. From these eminent men he acquired the
principles of grammar and rhetoric; his success in the latter of
these arts induced him to make trial of the bar; but the former
was his choice, and in 3 (> 7 he was appointed by the Emperor
Yalentinian, as we have already observed, tutor to the young prince
Gratian, whom he accompanied into Germany the following year.
He became successively Count of the Empire, Quaestor, Governor
of Gaul, Libya, and Latium, and first consul. He married Aitusia
Lucana Sabina, daughter of an eminent citizen of Bourdeaux, by
whom he had two sons and one daughter. After his consulship
he appears to have withdrawn from public affairs, and to have lived
on a private estate, where he died, at the age of 83. That he was
a professed Christian can admit of no doubt ; and some of his
Christian pieces are so pious and beautiful that he might have
gained the reputation of somewhat more, had he not disgraced
his pages with language and sentiments unbecoming a pagan of
decency.
The extant poetical works of Ausonius are: — 1. A book ofwritin
epigrams. 2. Epkemeris, or the transactions of a day. 8. Pare** Au*omus-
{al'nu tributes to the memory of deceased friends. A. Professores,
short metrical memoirs of the professors of Bourdeaux. 5. Kpita-
phia Heroin,/, epitaphs of the heroes who fell in the Trojan war,
and some others. 6. Tetrastichs on the characters of the Csesars
as far as Heliogabalus. 7. Ordo Nobilium Urbiutn. 8. A kind of
drama on the seven wise men of Greece. 9. Idyls ; poems of the most
multifarious kind. 10. Eclogues; principally astrological. 11. Epistles.
The poetry of Ausonius, like that of Avienus, is alike distin-
guished by poverty of argument, verbal conceits, profusion of
mechanical ingenuity, and imitation, or rather compilation, of the
ancients. It is valuable, however, to the literary historian : its
variety alone affords us a considerable insight into the state of
poetry in that age; and the station and pursuits of the author
allowed him that familiarity with contemporary poets which has
imparted to his works the character of poetical memoirs. Of this
advantage we shall now avail ourselves.
The most remarkable, on all accounts, among the poetical inti- Bt.Paullimis.
mates of Ausonius was Pontius Patjllinus, the celebrated bishop
of Nola, for such wre shall consider him, until we know on what
authority Gyraldus and Crinitus have grounded their distinction.1
1 See Gvral. deFoct. dial. v. Crinitus, in vita.
200 DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY.
Pauiiinus. This pious and learned person was born in or near Bourdeaux,
about a.d. 353, and was educated by Ausonius, who led him, as he
himself informs us, to the mysteries of the Muses. On account of
the paternal tenderness which Ausonius everywhere expresses
towards his pupil, and the filial respect exhibited in turn by the
grateful Pauiiinus, which sometimes induces them to use the words
pate?\ fdius, &c, it has been supposed that Pauiiinus was the
grandson of Ausonius ; but this opinion is improbable, and desti-
tute of further foundation. He was certainly Consul, and that
previously to his tutor; but, as his name does not appear in the
consular tables, it is probable that he was substituted in the room
of some other. He afterwards was baptised by Delphinus, Bishop
of Bourdeaux ; and, having distributed his estate among the poor,
settled at Barcelona, where he was ordained priest on Christmas-
day, a.d. 393. Prom this retreat his tutor in vain endeavoured
to recal him, and wrote, occasionally, in a strain of disappointed
affection at his silence. These metrical letters received similar
answers, abounding in terms of the most grateful respect and
Christian affection. Pauiiinus afterwards accepted the see of Xola,
and there remained till that city was sacked by the Goths, a.d. 410.
It was probably at this time, and not on the invasion of the
Yandals, which did not take place until forty-four years after, that
the circumstance occurred which Gregory relates, that the bishop,
having expended his whole estate in ransoming prisoners, at length
disposed of his person in exchange for the son of a poor widow,
and was sent into Africa, where his rank being disclosed, he was
immediately restored. Pauiiinus married a lady named Therasia, of
whom he speaks in terms of the highest affection. He enjoyed the
friendship of St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, St. Martin, St. Jerom,
and many of the distinguished churchmen of that period. It is
probable that he was the uncle of another Pauiiinus, author of a
poem still extant, called Eucharisticon.
His writings. The extant poetical works of Pauiiinus are : — 1. Epistles. 2. An
Elegy to Celsus, and other Lyrics. 3. A Sapphic Ode on Nicetas
the Dacian. 4. An Epic Sketch on the Life of John the Baptist.
5. Metrical Version of some Psalms. 6. An Epithalamium.
7. Some birth-day pieces. His hexameter history out of Suetonius
has perished. Ausonius might have been sincere, when, speaking
of the verses of Pauiiinus, he observed,
Ccdimus ingenio, quantum praecedimus sevo :
Assurget Musse nostra Camoena tuae :
since in sentiment, and even in elegance, few will compare his stiff
and puerile compositions with the natural, simple, and unambitious
effusions of his pupil. A specimen of the writings of St. Pauiiinus
will be found in the ecclesiastical division of this volume.
A conspicuous acquaintance of Ausonius was Atticus Tyro
DIONYSUS CATO. 201
Delphidius, whose history he lias briefly sketched among the Deiphidiw.
Professors of Bourdeaux. This poet, at an early age, *
successful competitor in the Capitoline contest, and afterwards i
oandidate Cor the epic laurel. Not content, however, with the
tranquil retreats of tin1 Muses, he embraced, apparently, the i
of Procopius, who rebelled against the Emperor Valens in 365 ;
and, but for the entreaties of his father, At t ins Patera, a celebrated
rhetorician, would certainly have lost his life. He afterwards
taught rhetoric, but with great carelessness; and died in the prime
of life, without the affliction of beholding his wife and daughter
adopt the heresy of Priscillian, for which the former was beheaded.
Ausonius speaks, also, with great warmth of admiration of Pro- Procultm,
cuius,1 who refused to publish his verses; and of Alcimus Alethius,- Ai.-nnu*
a poet, and writer of the life of Julian, but whether in verse does
not appear. The satires of Tetradius he prefers to those of Ten
Lucilius;* and Crispus he ranks with Horace and Virgil;4 but Crtapus.
these eulogies are well understood. Theon, whom some represent Thecm.
as the intimate friend of Ausonius, and on that account charge tin
latter with gross familiarity in his epistles, seems really to have
been only the butt of the poet, who attacked his plagiarisms, his
bad verses, his vitiated elocution, and even his personal defects,
with an irony which, however transparent, not improbably prevailed
on the imbecility of his victim to confide himself to the friendship
of his correspondent, whose bad faith could only be equalled by Ins
bad taste.
A volume, under the title of Dionysii Catonis DlS i una de M<>ri- \
bus, has largely exercised the conjectural powers of the critics. Cat0,
Erasmus, in a preface which he wrote to it, doubts whether it be
not the work of many different hands. Malschius, in his similar
preface, inclines to a belief that the title should run " Dionysius,
Cato deMoribus; " and imagines it to have proceeded from the pen
of one Dionysius, (a common name for slaves in Home,) who sought
to give authority to his own apophthegms, under the great name of
Cato; and whom he supposes, from internal evidence, to have lived
under Trajan and the Antonines. Boxhornius, Cannegieter, and
Barthius have discussed various hypotheses at a length very dis-
proportionate to the slight importance of the subject ; but Withof
has exceeded all in his huge Dissertation, which will be found,
together with those mentioned above, in the reprint of the Edition
of Arntzenius, 175 L Withof argues for the claim of CL Serenus
Sammonicus, whose writings appear to have been familiarly known
to Geta, (SpartianuSj 5,) and Alexander Severus, (Lamjpridius, 30,)
and are honourably mentioned by Spartianus, when he relates the
murder of their author by Caracalla, while at a banquet, cuju* librl
plurimi ad doctrinam extant, {Caracalla, 4.)
1 Epig. xxxiv. - Proff. ii. 3 Epist. xv. ' Proff. xxi.
202
DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY.
The
Isistichct*
Claudian.
These Distic/m, from whatever hand they may proceed, are first
mentioned by the physician Yindicianus, in a letter to the Emperor
Yalentinianus ; and they are plainly not to be attributed either to
Cato the censor, or Cato of Utica, since the names of Virgil, Macer,
Ovid, and Lucan are mentioned in them. Their morality is pagan,
and their style frigid and unpoetical; nevertheless they have
obtained a very undeserved reputation, and have not only been
frequently reprinted with an extensive apparatus of criticism, but
have been translated into a variety of languages. Maximns Pla-
nudes, a monk of Constantinople, clothed them in Greek at the
beginning of the XIYth centuiy ; and no less a pen than that of
Joseph Scaliger was subsequently engaged on the same unpro-
ductive task. Besides these, there are two other Greek versions.
The Bisticha were printed at Cracow, in Polish and German, in
1561. Corderius and many others turned them into French ; and,
in English, Caxton printed in 1483, The Booke called Catlwn,
translated out of Frenche into Englyssh, in thabbay of Westminstre ;
for a copy of which volume the Duke of Devonshire paid 100
guineas. They occur again in 1557 and 1560 ; and in 1585, we
find Short sentences of the wyz Cato, translated out of Latin into
English by Will Bulloker in tru ortography. John Brinsley, in
1612, did them into English " grammatically. " Sir Richard Baker,
in 1636, produced Cato variegatus ; and John Hoole, in 1659,
printed them "with one row Latin and another English." Ben-
jamin Eranklin published a new English translation at Philadelphia,
in 1735 ; and although he attributes it in his preface to a nameless
writer, the version very probably was his own; and in 1759, they
appeared at Amsterdam, in Greek, English, German, Dutch, and
French.1]
By the gradations which we have described, under the cherishing
influence of Christian sentiments and imperial protection, the
spark of poetry, which long had smouldered unperceived amidst the
wrecks of barbarism and contest, had awakened into a flame, which
neither the rude breath of war, nor the chilling influences of igno-
rance, could utterly extinguish. Since the fatal day of Allia, never
had the Empire suffered such reverses, as when the Augustan Muse
revisited the light at the potent call of Claudius Claudianus.
This highly-gifted person was born at Alexandria, in Egypt,2 and
possibly died there. Few other particulars of his life have been
preserved. He was in favour with the eminent statesmen of his
day, and especially with his hero, Stilico ; and it is much to the
1 The paragraph between brackets is reprinted from the article Distich, in the
lexicographical part of the Encyclop. Metr., 1st. edit. It is by the late
Rev. Edward Smedley ; and is here introduced as pertinent to the subject and period.
2 Spain and Florence have claimed the honour of Claudian's nativity. But if
his own testimony is of any value, he was certainly born in Egypt ; and Suidas
calls him ' AAe£cu>5peus.
CLAUDIANUS. — MAM EJECTS. — PRUDENTIUS. 2 08
honour of Honorius and Arcadius, the emperors under whom lie CkndSan.
lived, that a statue of brass was erected to him. The following
inscription, discovered at Home, is supposed to have been the
dedication on the pedestal :
CL. CLAVDIANI. V. C.
CL CLAVDIANO V C TR1
BVNO ET NOTARIO INTER CETERAS
VTGENTES ARTES PRAEGLORIOSI88IMO
POETARVM LICET AD MEMORIAM BEU
PITERNAM CARMINA AB EODEM
BCRIPTA SVFFICIANT ADTAMEN
TESTIMONU GRATIA OB IVDICII SVI
FIDEM DD NN ARCADIYS ET JIONoKIVS
FELICISSIMl AC DOCTISSIM]
[MPERATORES SEN AT V PETENTE
STATVAM IN FORO 1)1 VI Th'AIAM
EKIGI COLLOCAKIQ IVSSEKVNT.
EIN ENI BIPriAIOIO NOON
KAI MOYCAN OMHPOY
KAATAIANON PHMH KAI
BACIAHC E0ECAN.
TO CLAUDIUS CLAUDIANUS,
A MOST ILLUSTRIOUS MAN ; ]
TRIBUNE AND IMPERIAL SECRETARY;
AMONG OTHER HIGH LITERARY CLAIMS,
BY EAR THE MOST GLORIOUS OF POETS.
THOUGH THE POEMS COMPOSED BY HIM
SUFFICE TO ETERNIZE HIS MEMORY,
YET, AS A TRIBUTE TO THE FIDELITY OF HIS JUDICIOUS COUNSEL,
THE MOST FORTUNATE AND MOST LEARNED EMPERORS
ARCADIUS AND HONORIUS,
AT REQUEST OF THE SENATE,
HAVE COMMANDED THIS STATUE TO BE ERECTED,
AND PLACED IN THE FORUM OF TRAJAN.
ROME AND HER KINGS SET CLAUDIAN HERE ; COMBINED
IN HIM WERE HOMER'S MUSE AND MARO'S MIND.
The poems of Claudian, for the most part, consist of what might
be called epic sketches, did not their elaborate polish forbid us to
use the term ; but their brevity will scarcely admit them to the
dignity of the Epopo}ia. These are: — 1. The Consulship of Oly-
brius and Probinus. 2. The War with Rufinus. 3. The Third,
Fourth, and Sixth Consulships of Honorius. 4. Epithalamia.
5. The War with Gildo. 6. The Consulship of Theodorus. 7. The
1 On this rendering of the abbreviation V. C, see the next page.
204
DECLINE OF LATIN POETJIY.
Mamercus.
War with Eutropius. 8. The Consulship of Stilico. 9. The Gothic
War. 10. A Panegyric on Serena. 11. The Rape of Proserpine.
12. The War with the Giants. Besides these, there is preserved a
collection of Idyls, Epistles, and Epigrams, some of which can
scarcely be genuine, as they are most strictly Christian ; while not
only Augustine and Paulus Orosius i assert that Claudian was a
pagan, but one of his own epigrams, in Jacobum, magistrum equitum,
sufficiently attests his contempt of the Christian religion. It is
probable that these poems are the work of Claudianus Mamer-
cus, of Yienne, of whom Sidonius Apollinaris speaks in terms of
the highest commendation.
Contemporary with Claudian, (and scarcely, perhaps, a less
Pmdentius. illustrious name,) was Quintus Auuelius Prudentius Clemens.
As a more detailed account of this poet will be found in the
treatise on ecclesiastical Latin poetry, we shall only remark in this
place that his merits are very fastidiously overlooked. His style
will certainly bear no comparison with that of Claudian, and
scarcely with that of any of his contemporaries, who all felt them-
selves obliged to attempt the language of a happier period.
Prudentius evidently wrote more for pleasure and for duty than for
fame ; and his Latin may be considered a fair sample of the real
state of the language at the time of the Gothic invasion. But this
defect is abundantly compensated by a vein of the most fertile
poetical enthusiasm, and his lyrics alone entitle him to honourable
mention among Latin poets.
A conspicuous poetical writer of this age was Claudius Euti-
lius Numatianus, (or, as the name is given by Zumpt, Eutilius
Claudius Namatianus,) a native of Gaul, although of what place
cannot be with certainty determined. His father was a man of
rank, and Proconsul of Etruria. In the MSS. the letters V. C. are
added to his name ; by which is generally understood Viri Con-
sularis ; but as his name nowhere appears on the Fasti, and the
passages adduced from his work point rather to the office of Prce-
fectus urbis, Wernsdorf supposes this abbreviation to signify Viri
Clarmimi. Yet it is very possible that the passages alluded to led
the transcriber into the belief that Rutilius had been Consul.
Certain it is that the poet enjoyed the office of Pra>fectus. The
rest of his life is involved in considerable obscurity. His poem,
called Itinerarium, (or, according to Zumpt's edition, Carmen de
reditu suo,) descriptive of his journey to Gaul, was written in 417.
There can be no doubt that he was a pagan when he composed
this work ; his manner of speaking of the monks might possibly,
though improbably, be used by a Christian ; but a Christian of that
time would have been careful to separate their fanaticism from his
Rutilius.
1 Aug. dc Civ. Dei, v. 26. Paul. Oros. vii. o4.
POF.TKY OF THE I'll -Til CENTURY. 205
jreligion. His reflections on the Jews and their sabbath are equally
convincing, Nevertheless, Wernsdorf entertains the Btrange sup-
position, that the Christian poetry of Etutilius came into the hands
I of Theotlulf of Orleans, who mentioned him among other poets of
the church, in the following lines :
Sedulius, Rutilius, Paulinus, Arator, A vitas,
Et Fortunatus, tuque, Juvenoe tonans. — iv. i. 13.
But assuredly Theodulf knew more of his metre than to place
Butilius in such a situation. The name is certainly corrupt, and
should be, most probably, Eutilus.
The excitement which temporary patronage had afforded to genius Poetry of the
was, however, soon withdrawn, and the inundations of barbarism swept ^ th centulT-
from the Roman world the fast-expiring sparks of the poetic fire. The
beginning of the Yth century witnessed the second decline of classical
Roman poetry, and the end of the same period its utter dissolution.
Not, indeed, that there were wanting writers of Latin verses ; but
the language had been almost everywhere extinguished as a native
dialect, and its purity so materially impaired, that the few who
aspired to literary excellence wrote the language of a departed age.
Few words will sum the poetical history of this era, which is
rather a barren catalogue of names than an historical narrative.
To this period, probably, we may refer the grammarian Phocas,
who composed (before Priscian wrote) a metrical Life of Virgil,
introduced by a Sapphic Ode. To it certainly belong Flayixs
Merobaudes, author of Pauegyrieus in Consulatum JEtii, and
some lyric and elegiac poems ; 1 PRISCIAN, the grammarian,
who wrote poems, Be Laude Imp, Anastasii? Be Ponderibus et
Mensuris, Per leges/ s e Biomjsio, and some lyrics; Marciantjs
Capella, author of the Epithalamiurn of Philology and Hermes^
and some epigrams ; Prospeb Tyro, whose beautiful little address
to his wife is still extant ; SlDONlXJS Apollinaris, a writer who
imitated a purer period with some success ; and several ecclesiastical
poets, of whom notices will be found in the next division of this
volume. For the poetical spirit now found refuge in the Church,
where it lingered under peculiar forms long after it had disappeared
from the World : and to this phase of Latin poetry a special
department of this work is now assigned, as it is altogether a
different thing from subsequent classical imitations, and, though
contemporaneous, wholly independent of them, and possessing an
inherent vitality. It was therefore necessary to the completeness
of our subject that mediaeval hymnology should not be passed over.
From this period, however, we may date the extinction of all
1 Edited by Niebuhr, from a palimpsest.
- Edited by Endlicher, from a palimpsest.
206
DECLINE OF LATIN POETRY.
vt^cemur1'6 c^aS8lca^ Latin poetry. A Boetius, a Corippus, i or a Venantius,
' occasionally borrowed light from the contrasting darkness aronnd
him ; a Luxorius imitated coarsely the coarse productions of better
days ; but the Eoman Calliope lay shrouded and sepulchred until
Petrarch and Dante called into existence from her ashes the less
majestic, but not less beautiful, Erato of Tuscany.
1 A poem by this author, called Johannis, was in 1820 discovered at Milan by
M. Mazzuchelli. It is extremely valuable, as it affords information respecting a
period wherein all other history fails. As a poem, it is not undeserving attention.
Corippus also wrote De Laudibus Justini Augusti minoris.
207
MSS, EDITIONS, &c, OF THE POST-AUGUSTAN POETS,
COLUMELLA.
Ed. Princ. Jenson. Venet. 1472. In the " Rei Rusticao Scriptores.''
The Tenth Book, separately. Romao. Cir. 1472.
Scriptores Rei Rust. Gesner, impr. by Ernesti. Lips. 1773.
Schneider. Lips. 1794.
LUCAX.
Ed. Princ. Sweynheym and Pannartz, under superintendence of Andrew,
Bp. of Aleria. Roma?. 1469.
Bersmann. Lips. 1584, 1589.
Grotius. Antwerp. 1614 ; and Lugd. Bat. 1626.
! Cortius. Lips. 1726.
! Oudendorp. Lugd. Bat. 1728.
Burmann. Lugd. Bat. 1740.
Bentley. Strawberry Hill. 1760.
Renouard. Paris. 1795.
Illycinus. Vindol. 1811.
Weber. Lips. 1821—1831.
Weise. Lips. 1835.
The most complete subsidia to this author are supplied by Weber's edition.
Oudendorp and Burmann contain much that is valuable.
PERSIUS.
Ed. Princ. Hahn. Romeo. (But this date not printed.) Cir. 1470.
There are a great number of editions before 1500.
Casaubon. Paris. 1605.1 Re-edited by Duebner. Lips. 1839.
Kbnig. Getting. 1803.
Passow. Lips. 1809.
Achaintre. Paris. 1812.
Orelli. Eclogg. Poett. Latt. Turici. 1833.
Plum. Havn. 1827.
Jahn.1 Lips. 1843.
Heinrich.1 Lips. 1844.
PETRONIUS.
(For the early bibliography of this author see what is said in the account
of him, pp. 153, seqq.)
Burmann. Amst. 1743.
Antonius. Lips. 1781.
These form a complete body of subsidia as well.
208 MSS., EDITIONS, ETC., OP THE POST-AUGUSTAN POETS.
Subsidia : —
Janelli. Codex Perottinus.
Niebuhr. Klein. Historisch. Schrift. i. p. 337.
Weichert. Poett. Latt. Reliqq.
Fder* I Rheinisch* Mus* (Neue FolSe)> voL ii-
VALERIUS FLACCUS.
Ed. Princ. Ugo Rugerius and Doninus Bertochus, fob 1472. Second
Edition. More rare, S. Jacobus de Ripoli, about 1431. Florentiae.
Burmann. Lugd. Bat. 1724. (The most complete.)
Harles. Altenb. 1781.
Wagner. Gotting. 1805.
Lemaire. Paris. 1824.
The Vlllth Book, with critical notes, &c, by Weichert. Misn. 1818.
SILIUS ITALICUS.
Ed. Princ. Andrew, Bp. of Algeria, editor ; Sweynheym and Pannartz,
printers. Romse. 1471. There are three other editions by the same,
1471, 1474, 1480.
Cellarius. Lips. 1695.
Drakenborch. Traj. ad Rhen. 1717.
Ruperti. Gotting. 1795.
JUVENAL.
Edd. Prince. Six are mentioned ; but the following three have claims
which cannot be adjusted.
A folio in Roman characters, without date or name.
A 4 to in Roman characters, without date ; name Ulricus Han. Therefore
printed at Rome.
A 4 to in Roman characters, without name or date of place. 1470.
Supposed to be Vindelin de Spira's.
There are many old editions. The most valuable for practical purposes
are : —
Henninius. Lugd. Bat. 1695.
Ruperti. Lips. 1819.
Achaintre. Paris. 1810.
Weber. Weimar. 1825.
Heinrich. Bonn. 1839.
Subsidia : —
Franke's two dissertations. Lips. 1820 ; and Dorpat. 1827. Hermann,
Disputatio de Juvenalis Satiraa VIImae temporibus. Gott. 1843.
Pinzger, in Jahn's Jahrbucher fur Philologie, vol. xiv. p. 261.
Duntzer, sixth suppl. vol. to the same, p. 373. Dollen, Beitrage zur
Kritik und Erkllirung der Satiren des J. Jun. Juvenalis. Kiew. 1846.
MSS., EDITIONS, ETC., OF THE POST- AUGUSTAN POETS. 200
MARTIAL.
There is a curious MS. of Martial in the Advocates' Library at Edinburgh.
There are three Editiones Principes, all without date and name; one
supposed to be the work of Ulrich Hau. The first dated edition,
thought by some to be the princeps, was printed at Ferrara, 1171
After this there are a good many early editions.
Gruterus. Francofurti. 1602.
Scriverius. Amst. 1629.
Raderus. Col. Agr. 1628.
Schrevelius. Cum notis Variorum. 1670.
Lemaire. Paris. 1825. w The most useful on the whole." — Prof. Ramsay,
Schneidewin. Gren. 1842. (Very complete, and contains an account
of MSS.)
STATIUS.
Editio Princeps Sylvarum. No name or date. About 1470. These
poems are found with Catullus, Tibullus, and Propertius, in 1472,
1475, 1481 ; and with Catullus in 1473. By Domitius Calderinus.
Rom., Arnold Pannartz. 1475.
Markland. Lond. 1728.
Hurd. Lips. 1817.
Sillig. Dresd. 1827.
Ed. Princ. Thebaidos et AchilleYdos. No name or date. Probably about
1470. Many editions in the 15th century.
Ed. Princ. Operum. No name or date. After 1475.
Lemaire, in Latin Classics. Paris. 1825-30.
NEMESIAN.
Ed. Princ. Aldi Hscredes. Venet. 1534.
Poett. Latt. Minn. Burmann. 1731.
Wernsdorf. 1780.
Stern. Gratii Falisci et Olympii Nemesiani carmina venatica cum duobus
fragmentis de aucupio. Hal. Sax. 1832.
CALPURNIUS.
The works of this author are edited with other writers by Logus, Ulitius,
and Havercamp. Also in
Poett. Latt. Minn. Wernsdorf. 1780.
Schniid. Nemesiani et Calpurnii Ecloga?. Mitav. and Lips. 1774. (This
vol. contains the works of Calpurnius only, the Eclogues attributed to
Nemesian being by him.)
Beck. Lips. 1803.
Grauff. Bern. 1831.
Glaser. Gotting. 1842.
[R.L.] P
ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETS.
DECOMPOSITION PERIOD.
COMMODIAN .... FLOURISHED ABOUT A.D. 270
JUVENCUS A.D. 332
S. HILARY A.D. 300
S. AMBROSE . . , A.D. 400
PRUDENTIUS BORN A.D. 348
S. PAULINUS .... FLOURISHED ABOUT A.D. 400
SEDULIUS A.D. 430
DRACONTIUS A.D. 450
ARATOR A.D. 540
S. GREGORY A.D. 600
RENOVATION PERIOD.
FORTUNATUS .
V. BEDE .
S. THEODULPH OF ORLEANS
. DIED
BORN
FLOURISHED ABOUT
CHARLEMAGNE . . ACCEDED TO THE EMPIRE
S. PETER DAMIANI . LIVED FROM A.D. 1002 TO
S. FULBERT OF CHARTRES . FLOURISHED ABOUT
MARBODUS OF RENNES
HILDEBERT OF TOURS
S. BERNARD
ADAM OF S. VICTOR
THOMAS OF CELANO
S. THOMAS AQUINAS
A. D.
A.D.
LIVED FROM A.D. 1091 TO
DIED ABOUT
FLOURISHED ABOUT
DIED
A.D.
A.D.
A.D.
A.D.
A.D.
A.D.
1035-
1057-
A.D.
A.D.
A. D.
A.D.
609
666
750
S00
1072
1020
-1123
-1134
1153
1190
1230
1274
.Arch, of Ccnstantine.
ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY.
In proceeding from the classical to tlie mediaeval times of Latin Medieval
poetry, we must bear in mind, as a fundamental principle, that and new
the language which we shall now consider is not a mere barbarous language,
patois, the corruption of a purer dialect, unworthy of study, and
irreducible to rule. Ecclesiastical Latin Poetry has a language of
its own ; no more to be compared with, or judged by, the dialect of
Virgil or Horace, than Ariosto or Camoens can be. It has rules,
subtle, elaborate, rules, of its own ; it has a grammar of its own ;
its ornaments are original ; its diction unborrowed ; and we venture
fearlessly to say that in strength and freshness it surpasses the Latin
poetry of a more classical age ; poetry whose inspiration, form, metre,
and ornaments were essentially Greek. But, in like manner as the
Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Italian languages, before they
attained to their present status, did necessarily pass through a stage of
214
ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY.
formed
gradually,
and revivify,
hag the
remains of
the old,
by falling
back on the
most ancient
form.
The creation
of the
Church,
necessanl
new,
it cannot be
blamed for
novelty.
barbarism in their formation from the old Latin, so it was with me-
diaeval poetry. If we may use the words without irreverence, it was
sown in dishonour, that it might be raised in glory ; it was sown in
weakness, that it might be raised in power. It could not at once
reject the shackles of metre ; it could not at once arrange its own
accentual laws ; and it took centuries in developing the full power
of the new element that it introduced, namely, rhyme. Great
writers as existed before this was done, we feel that they have
not a language flexible to their thoughts, nor worthy of their works.
And it is a curious thing that, in rejecting the foreign laws in which
Latin had so long gloried, the Christian poets were in fact merely
reviving, in an inspired form, the early melodies of republican
Borne ; — the rhythmical ballads which were the delight of the
men that warred with the Samnites, and the Yolscians, and
Hannibal.
Nothing can be truer than Mr. Trench's words : 1 " But it was
otherwise in regard to the Latin language. That, when the Church
arose, requiring of it to be the organ of her Divine word, to tell
out all the new, and as yet undreamt of ideas, which were stirring in
her bosom ; demanding of it that it should reach her needs, needs
which had hardly or not at all existed, while the language was in
process of formation — that was already full formed, had reached its
climacteric, and was indeed verging, though as yet imperceptibly,
toward decay, with all the stiffness of commencing age already
upon it. Such the Church found it — something to which a new
life might perhaps be imparted, but the first life of which was well
nigh overlived. She found it a garment narrower than she could
wrap herself wTithal, and yet the only one within reach. But she
did not forego the expectation of one day obtaining all w7hich she
wanted, nor yet even for the present did she sit down contented
with the inadequate and insufficient. Herself young and having
the spirit of life, she knew that the future was her own — that she
was set in the world for this very purpose of making all things new
— that what she needed and did not find, there must in her lie
the power of educing from herself — that, however, not all at once,
yet little by little, she could weave whatever vestments were
required by her for comeliness and beauty. And we do observe
the language under the new influence, as at the breath of a second
spring, putting itself forth anewr ; the meaning of words enlarging
and dilating ; old words coming to be used in new significations,
obsolete words reviving, new words being coined — with much in
all this to offend the classical taste, which yet, being inevitable,
ought not to offend, and of which the gains far more than compen-
sated the losses. There was a new thing, and that being so, it
needed that there should be a newT utterance as well. To be
1 Sacred Latin Poetry, p. 5.
INTRODUCTION. 215
offended with this is, in truth, to be offended with Christianity,
which made this to be inevitable."
We shall make no apology for quoting another passage from the
same eloquent writer.1
11 We can trace step by step the struggle between the two prin-
ciples of heathen and Christian life, which were here opposed to
one another. As the old classical Horn an element grew daily weaker
in the new Christian world which now had been founded ; as the
novel element of Christian life strengthened and gained ground ; as
poetry became popular again, not the cultivated entertainment of
the polite and lettered few, a graceful ornament of the scholar and
the gentleman, but that in which all men desired to express, or to
find expressed for them, their hopes and fears, their joys and their
sorrows, and all the immortal longings of their common humanity ;
— a confinement became less and less endurable within the old and
stereotyped forms, which, having had for their own ends their own
fitness and beauty, were yet ordained for the expressing of far other
thoughts and feelings and sentiments, than those which now stirred
at far deeper depths the spirits and the hearts of men. The whole
scheme on which the Latin prosodiacal poetry was formed, was felt
to be capricious, imposed from without ; and the poetry which now It invented
arose demanded — not to be without law; for, demanding this, it its own laws,
would have demanded its own destruction, and not to be poetry at
all ; but it demanded that its laws and restraints should be such as
its own necessities, and not those of quite a different condition,
required."
Thus the Church threw herself on the original genius of the
Latin language : — on the universal recognition of accent, in pre-
ference to the arbitrary and national restrictions of quantity : — her and deve-
hyrnns were intended to be sung, and this again developed the ope
musical powers of sound, and hence principally rhyme : and thus a
new language sprang up under her hands.
We may therefore divide ecclesiastical poetry into two periods :
the first, in which the progress of decomposition was, with what-
ever promise of restoration, painfully going on : the second, when
the new life had actually begun. The first ends with S. Gregory the
Great, who died a.d. 606 ; the second may commence in France with
Yenantius Fortunatus, who lived somewhat earlier.
We will first take a glance at the principal writers of the former
period.
1 Sacred Latin Poetry, p. 11.
St. Jerom.
FIRST PERIOD.— THE DECOMPOSITION.
Commodia-
nu*.
the first
accentual
writer.
It is remarkable that one of the earliest writers of Christian
verse should have completely emancipated himself from the shackles
of metre ; it is perhaps more remarkable that his successors should
not have seen somewhat of the advantages which this new system
opened for them, and should have relapsed into classicalism.
Commodiantjs, by birth an African, who lived about a.d. 270, has
left a poem called Instructiones, the subject of which is an Apology
for Christianity. It is written in hexameters, which are to be
read accentually, without any reference to quantity ; and is divided
into eighty sections, each being headed with a short title,
which forms an acrostich for the verses subordinate to it. No-
thing, in the way of poetry, can be more utterly worthless ; but
there are a few allusions which render it valuable to the Christian
antiquary, and a vein of pious simplicity pervades the whole. The
thirty-eighth section may serve as a specimen : —
JUD^EIS.
I mprobi semper et dura cervice recalces,
V inci vos non vultis, sic exliseredes eritis.
D ixit Esaias incrassato corde vos esse.
A spicitis Legem, quam Moses allisit iratus :
E t idem Dominus dedit illi legem secundam :
I n ilia spem posuit, quod vos subsannati reicitis ;
S ed kleo digni non eritis regno coelesti.
JUVENt i 9. I 1 7
The clue to the author's name is obscurely given in the lasi i
section. The heading is 'Somen Gcwri: the acrostich: — /torA
tveidnem mnaidommoc: i.e., if read backward?, Comntodianus, \
\risti. h Is supposed that Gazaus, derived From gaza^
treasure, is a kind of punning allusion to Commodianus, which may
in like manner be derived from commodum ; and that the title,
mendievs Christ i, pursuing the same train of thought, may have
reference to the Apostle's words. "What things were gain to me,
those I counted loss for CHEIST."
Curs Vettius Aim n. ims Juvencus. — Almost all that is J*
known of him is, that he was a Spaniard, and that he flourished
about A.n. :Y.\:l.x The only work which we can certainly asm
him is the Evangelical History: a heroic poem in four b
harmonising our Lord's Life from His Birth to His
Asivnsion. There have been besides attributed to him : —
(1), A Versification of the Book of Genesis, in heroic metre
1111 lines'), very poor, and certainly of later date. (2). A poem
3ii the jiraises of the Lord, possibly of Juvencus. (3). The
Triumph of Christ in Hell, of which more presently.
The Evangelical History maintains a low mediocrity throughout ; }■}*} ''
bever degenerating into any very miserable poverty, never for a
(moment rising into anything like sublimity. Although Juvencus
jprofesses to give a harmony of Gospel History, he principally
follows 8. Matthew ; and is more concerned with the deeds than
pith the words of our Lord. In one2 passage he is valuable to
Biblical scholars, as agreeing with the Italic version, where it
videly departs from the modern reading, lie keeps Virgil pretty
losely in his eye, and takes fewer licences of quantity than any
)ther Christian poet, a fact which, as we have seen, is at best
equivocal praise. He seems to have been a pious and well read man ;
)ut without a spark of real poetry. Perhaps his Prologue contains
some of his best lines.
1 S. Jerom, in the addition to the Chronicle of Eusebius, says, under the
(32 : "Juveocus Presbyter, oatione Hispaxms, Evangeiia versibus explicat."
Fuvencua himself writes, at the end of his work:
nihi pax Christi tribuit, pax hsecmihi Baecli,
Quam fovet indulgens terra regnator aperta
Constantinus, adest cui gratia digna merenti ;
.vhich proves that the poem must have been written after the defeat of LicuUOS,
,.d. 324.
- S. Matthew, v. 27 — P. The Italic addition, '' Voa aic.cm quscril
msillo crescere, et de majore minores esse," is thus given :
At vos ex minimis opibas transcendero vnltis,
Et sic e rammis lapei comprenditis imoa.
218 ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY.
Juvencus. Immortale nihil mundi compage tenetur,
Non orbis, non rcgna hominum, non aurea Roma,
Non mare, non tellus, non ignea sidera cceli.
Nam statuit Genitor rerum irrevocabile tempus
Quo cunctum torrens rapiet flamma ultima mundum.
Sed tamen innumeros homines sublimia facta,
Et virtutis honos in tempora longa frequentant,
Accumulant quorum laudes nomenque poetae.
* * * *
Nee metus, ut mundi rapiant incendia secum
Hoc opus : hoc etenim forsan me subtrahet igni
Tunc, quum flammivoma descendet nube coruscans
Judex, altithroni Genitoris gloria, Christus.
The Triumph The Triumph of Christ is in a far higher strain, and has some j
n^Uris!6' thing quite Miltonic in its conception. Satan is represented i
convoking an infernal council, when our Lord, having expired o I
the Cross, is about to descend into hell. Resistance is allowed t
be in vain.
Nee mora : cum sonitu postes cecidere solutis
Cardinibus, magnamque dedit collapsa ruinam
Janua, et admittunt concussa palatia Christum.
While Furies and Gorgons are flying in confusion —
Sed gaudent animse sanctse, manesque piorum ;
Primus Adam ante alios palmasad sidera tatus
Exhibet, et Dominum devota est voce precatus :
Expectate venis miseris, O Sancte Redemptor,
Da requiem, finemque malis : fer ad astra redemptos.
Abraham, Moses, Joshua, and a long line of Old Testamen |
Saints salute the Conqueror of Death, while
Regius ante alios vates, notissima proles
Stirpis Iesseae, citharam tangebat eburno
Pectine, et ad numeros una omnes voce prccati
Dulce melos pangunt concordi carmine vates.
Ante alios juvenes, Christum qui nuper ad undas
Tinxerat, hie laetis concentibus agnifer ibat :
Salve Erebi Victor, Domitor salve inclyte mortis,
Destructor scelerum, salve, 0 fortissime Vindex
Amissae vitae; salve, O Spes una salutis,
Aspice plasma tuum, sancte et venerande Creator,
Et post tot gemitus nos due ad regna polorum.
Christ's words of comfort and the resurrection follow in brief
and the poet concludes by telling how, as warriors and kings hang
up their trophies, so our Lord set up his Triumphal Cross, witl
the spoils of his enemies dependent therefrom :
Fronde alia inferni dirempti janua pendet,
Postibus attritis, cum cardinibusque, serisque.
Fronde alia ira Dei, et sibi mens male conscia pendent,
s. HiLAm . 2 1 0
Omnia qua Ohristi ro*eo sunt ter-a cnimv.
Fronde alia Patria primssvi syngrapha pendet
Dilaniate modii mieeria deleUque proi
It must be confessed thai the paraphrases, bo very nee
jliis subject, employed by Juvencua to designate our Loud, are
varied and elegant. Huic Auctor vita turn talia reddil [esos —
rum sir discipulis vita spe$ unica fatur — Beqpioit etemajusti
vita — legum Bed turn servator Jesus incipil — Progreditur
remplo terrarum lumen Iesua — Regnanti* nwiper 8 mint certiuima
8, HILARY, Bishop of Toictiers, passes for the author of several B.H1 i
hymns: many of which are clearly later by many centuries than
[lie middle of the fourth, in which he flourished/ The following uncertainty
is the commencement of the Hymn which seems attributed to KmnsT
him on the best authority :
Lucia Largitor splendide,
Cujus sereno lumine
Post Lapsa nociia tempora
Dies refusua panditur :
Tu verus mundi Lucifer ;
Non is, qui parvi sideris
Ventura lucia nuntiua
Angusto fulget Lumine :
8cd toto solo clarior,
Lux ipse totua et dies,
v Interna nostri pectoris
Illuminana pnacordia.
O glorious Father of the light,
From whose effulgence, calm and bright,
Soon as the hours of night are fled.
The brilliance of the dawn is shed:
Thou art the dark world's truer ray ;
No radiance of that Lesser day,
That heralds, in the nmrn begun,
The advent of our darker ran :
But, brighter than its noontide gleam,
Thyself fall daylight's fullest I
The inmost man-ions of our 1>:
Thou by Thy grace illuminest
1 Notwithstanding the arguments which would prove Juvencua to be the author
oi' this poem, its ascription to him in MSS, its conclusion, so exactly like that
of the Evangelical History,
Hos hominum Christus saevos ahsorhuil h<
Ut neque jam possint ultra damnare fideles,
His eouidem tentare datum, Bed vincere nostrum est,
which equally seems to allude to Constantino, — and in spite of the rceuri* I
one or two uncommon words in both writers, we cannot but think that the entire
difference o\ the rhythm, and the great poetical superiority, clearly show a different
authorship. And the very nature of the idea would incline us to bring the poem
down as late as the fourteenth or fifteenth century. In accordance with this
view, is the singular use o( the word Agntfer, as applied to S. John Baptist,
which appears taken from mediaeval pictures,
- Thus Sir Alexander Ooke : u Saint Hilary, who was Bi-hop of Poictier-
the year 355 I > 368, a man of geniui The rhymes in his w
regular and perfect, as in the Epiphany — Jesus refill sit omnium Fins Redemptor
gentium: Totum genus fidelium Laudea celehrent dramatum/' It ii
rhymes here are so very perfect, that it is impossible, as we shall
that this hymn, and others like it, could have been written by S. Hilary.
220
ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETUY.
S. Ambrose
difficulty of
determining
his true
hymns.
Their
austere
simplicity
S. Am"bros3
If we were able to determine with certainty the genuine Hymns
of S. Ambrose, we should obtain a point of incalculable service
for the investigation of ancient Hymnology : the compositions
which have been attributed to him
are almost countless, and range
from the fourth to the fourteenth
century. Indeed, such was his fame
as a hymnographer, that the words
AmbroBianum and Hymnus were, at
one time, nearly synonymous. Car-
dinal Thomasius, who had perhaps
as good means of forming a judg-
ment as any scholar, considers the
following as most justly attributable
to him. 1. Deus creator omnium.
2. Eterne rerum conditor. 3. Jam
surgit hora tertia. 4. Bis ternas
horas explicans. 5. Yeni, Redemp-
tor gentium. 6. Jam sexta sensim
volvitur. 7. Ter hora trina volvitur.
8. Hie est dies verus Dei. 9. Christe, qui lux es et dies.
10. 0 Rex eterne Domine. 11. Mediae noctis tempus est.
12. Fulgentis auctor aetheris. 13. Deus, qui certis legibus.
14. Splendor Paternae glorias. 15. Eterne lucis conditor. 16. A
solis ortus cardine. 17. Obduxere polum nubila cceli. 18. Squalent
arva soli pulvere multo. 19. Christe, ccelestis medicina Patris.
20. Eterna Christi munera. To this we add, 21. Agnes, beatae
Virginis. Of these we may, from the nature of things, as shown
in the preceding section, exclude those which rhyme regularly — and
(from the consideration of the most clearly authenticated hymns
of S. Ambrose) those which are not metrical. For both these
reasons we may reject the Hymn marked 9, which is clearly a com-
paratively late composition ; and, for want of metre, those numbered
4, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15. Again, 17 and 18 have not the least touch
of S. Ambrose's manner : nor has 19, which also several times
offends against the laws of prosody. We are therefore reduced
to ten hymns, and one of these, 16, is certainly not altogether of
5. Ambrose.
Por a general character of the Bishop's poetry, we cannot do
better than quote Mr. Trench's very able critique. " It is some
little while before one returns with a hearty consent and liking to
the almost austere simplicity which characterises the hymns of S.
Ambrose. It is felt as though there were a certain coldness in
them, an aloofness of the author from his subject, a refusal to blend
and fuse himself with it. The absence too of rhyme, for which the
almost uniform use of a metre, very far from the richest among the
S. AMBROSE.
22]
Latin lyric forms, and one with singularly few resources for pro-
ducing variety of pause or cadence, seems a very insufficient
compensation, adds to this feeling of disappointment. The ear and
the heart seem alike to be without their due satisfaction. Only
after a while does one learn to feel the grandeur of this unadorned
metre, and the profound, though it may have been more instinctive
than conscious, wisdom of the poet in choosing it ; or to appreciate
that noble confidence in the surpassing interest of his theme, which
has rendered him indifferent to any but its simplest setting forth.
It is as though, building an altar to the living God, he would observe
the Levitical precept, and rear it of unhewn stones, upon which no
tool had been lifted. The great objects of faith in their simplest
expression are felt by him so sufficient to stir all the deepest affec-
tions of the heart, that any attempt to dress them up, to array them
in moving language, were merely superfluous. The passion is
there, but it is latent and represt, a fire burning inwardly, the glow
of an austere enthusiasm, which reveals itself indeed, but not to
every careless beholder." l
Perhaps the most sublime hymn of S. Ambrose is the following.
The translation is from the Hymnal of the Ecclesiological Society.
s. Ambrose
Veni, Redemptor gentium :
Ostende partum Virginis :
Miretur onme sseculum :
Talis decet partus Deuni.
Non ex virili seminc,
Sed mystico spiramine,
Verbum Dei factum est caro,
Fructusque ventris floruit.
Alvus tumeseit Virginis :
Claustrum pudoris permanet :
Vexilla virtutum micant :
Versatur in Templo Deus.
Procedit e thalamo suo,
Pudoris aula regia,
Geminae gigas substantia?,
Alacris ut currat viam.
Egressus ejus a Patre,
Regressus ejus ad Patrem :
Excursus usque ad inferos,
Recursus ad sedem Dei.
iEqualis eterno Patri,
Carnis stropheo 2 cingere,
Inflrma nostri corporis
Virtute firmans perpeti.
and sub-
limity.
Come, Thou Redeemer of the earth,
Come, testify Thy Virgin Birth :
All lands admire, — all time applaud :
Such is the birth that fits a God.
Begotten of no human will,
But of the Spirit, mystic still,
The Word of God, in flesh arrayed
The promised fruit to man displayed.
The Virgin's womb that burden gained
With Virgin honour all unstained :
The banners there of virtues glow :
God in His Temple dwells below.
Proceeding from His Chamber free,
The Royal Hall of chastity,
Giant of two-fold substance, straight
His destined way He runs elate.
From God the Father He proceeds,
To God the Father back He speeds :
Proceeds — as far as very hell :
Speeds back — to Light ineffable.
O equal to the Father, Thou !
Gird on Thy fleshly mantle now !
The weakness of our mortal state
With deathless might invigorate.
1 Sacred Latin Poetry.
2 We are inclined, however, to believe that trophceo, because the more difficult,
is also the more genuine reading ; in which case we may translate, <l Gird on Thy
fleshly trophy now."
222
ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY.
S. Ambrose.
Prudentius.
Prsesepe jam fulget tuum,
Lumenque nox spiret novum,
Quod nulla nox interpolet,
Fideque jugi luceat.
Thy cradle here shall glitter bright,
And darkness breathe a newer light,
"Where endless faith shall shine serene,
And twilight never intervene.
In the Hymns of S. Ambrose we have very frequent rhymes, —
not as a necessity, not perhaps as an accurately defined beauty, but
as an almost unconscious development of the new system. Thus
we find
Eterna Chiisti munera
Et Martyrum victorias . . .
Ecclesiarum principes
Belli triumphales daces ....
Terrore victo saecuK
Pcenisque spretis corpons,
all in one hymn. It is curious from that time to observe the
increasing importance attaching itself to rhyme.
Marcus Aurelius Clemens Prldentils, the prince of primi-
tive Christian poets. After all that has been written on his life,
little more is known than that which he himself tells us in his pre-
face to the Cathemerinon. A native of Spain, but of wThat city is
uncertain, he was born a.d. 34 8, l and educated for the law.
iEtas prima crepantibus
Flevit sub ferulis : mox docuit toga
Infectum vitiis falsa loqui, non sine crimine.
He then was magistrate in two cities, probably in Spain :
Bis legum moderamine
Frscnos nob ilium reximus urbium :
and lastly he obtained a military appointment, such as a civilian
might hold (militia civilis, palatini, or proesidialis) under the
Emperor. At length, in his fifty-seventh year, he applied himself
to Christian poetry, with a success unparalleled up to his time and
for long afterwards.
His poems may conveniently be divided into two classes — the
heroic and the lyric. In the former he possesses no distinguishing
excellence ; he is tame, prosaic, unimpassioned — argues feebly, and
1 The old reading —
" Oblitum veteris Messaliae consulis arguens,
Sub quo prima dies mihi,"
puzzled the commentators, inasmuch as no such consul as Messalia could be found.
lice was seen by Dupin to be a corruption of Me Salice. Salia was consul
in 348.
PEUDENTIUS. E28
reflects in a common-place manner. In his hymns it is that he Pratattas.
lives. His heroic ])oems comprise :
1. The Apotheosii ; a defence of onr Lord's divinity against Hbherofa
various heretics; the Patripassians (1 — 177); the Babellians ]
(178 — 320); the Jews (321 — 551); Judaising Christians and
Gnostics (55$— -952); the Phantasiasts (952 — 1063); and con-
cludes with a spirited allusion to the Insurrection : —
Qui jubct ut redeain, non reddet debile qnicqnam,
Nam si debilitas redit, instauratio non est.
Quod casus rapuit, quod morbus, quod dolor hausit,
Quod truncavit edax senium populante vetcrno,
Omne revertenti reparata in membra redibit.
Debet enim mors victa fidem, ne fraude sepulehri
Reddat eurtum aliquid :
Pel lite corde metum, mea membra, et credite vosmet
Cum Christo reditura Deo : nam vos gerit ille
Et secum revocat : morbos ridete minaces :
Inflictos casus contemnite : atra sepulehra
Despicite : exurgens quo Christus provoeat, ite.
He that commands return, will render back
No mortal weakness: for, where weakness is,
There restoration is not. That which chance
Hath spoiled, or long disease, or grief hath drained,
Or wearing eld hath maimed by slow decay,
Shall all return and all return repaired.
For conquered death is pledged, the tomb's contents
To render undiminished
Away with fear, each member ! Know that all
With Christ shall be restored : lie tends you now,
And He will render back. Then mock disease :
Contemn each fatal chance : despise the tomb :
And where a rising Lord invites you, go.
2. The llama r tig eneia, on original sin, against the Marcionites ;
it contains 966 lines.
3. The Psychomaehia ; an allegorical poem on the contest of
Faith with its various enemies in the soul (915 lines).
4. The Dittochaum ; a series of four-line stanzas on some of the
principal histories of the Old and New Testament.
5. Two books against Symmachus, the distinguished prefect of
the city, and the apologist to Yalentinian, Theodosins, and
Arcadius for Pagan rites.
These poems will always be read as curious relics of that primi-
tive age ; but to that we must confine our praise. Far different is
the case with the two lyrical works of Prudentius, the Cathemerinon
and the Peristephanon,
The Cathemerinon — or, as we might now call it, the Christian His lyric
day — contains the following hymns : — 1. At Cockcrow (100 lines) ; 1X)CI
8. For the Morning (112) j 3.* Before Food (205); 4. After Food
(102); 5. For the kindling of the Paschal Light (164); 6. Before
224
ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY.
Prudentius. Sleep (152) ; 7. For a Fast (220); 8. After a Fast (80) ; 9. An
occasional Hvmn(114); 10. At Funerals (172); 11. Christmas
Day (116); 12. The Epiphany (208). It is manifest that all of
these were far too long to be employed in ecclesiastical services ;
but portions of, and more especially centos from, them have been
and still are employed by the Western Church almost daily. That
at a Funeral is the noblest of all. We will give some extracts from
it, and attempt a translation, in the metre of the original, but
unshackled by rhyme. The poet thus begins : —
Deus, ignee fons animarum,
Duo qui socians elementa
Yivum sirnnl et moribundum
Hominein, Pater, efh'giasti :
Tua sunt, tua, Rector, utraque :
Tibi copula jungitur horum :
Tibi, dum vegetata cohaerent,
Et spiritus et caro servit.
Rescissa sed ista seorsum
Solvunt hominem periinuntque :
Humus excipit arida corpus,
Anirnce rapit aura liquorem.
God, fiery fountain of spirits,
"Who, elements twofold combining,
Both living each mortal createdst,
And tending towards dissolution :
They are Thine, both the one and the other;
Their conjuncture is Thine, while united :
And Thee, while they dwell in coherence,
They serve, both the soul and the body.
For these, when divided in sunder,
Dissolve and dismember the mortal :
And earth giveth rest to the body,
And ether receiveth the spirit.
Hence Prudentius takes occasion to dwell on the different existences
hereafter allotted to different lives here ; and then, in a noble strain
of faith, proceeds : —
Venient cito scecula, quum jam
Socius calor ossa reviset :
Animataque sanguine vivo
Habitacula pristina gestet.
The ages are hastening onward,
When the frame vital heat shall revisit,
And, animate then and for ever,
Shall assume its first loved habitation.
Hinc maxima cura sepulchris
Expenditur : hinc resolntos
Honor ultimus excipit artus,
Et funeris ambitus ornat.
Hence tombs have their holy attendance :
Hence the forms that have seen dissolution
Receive the last honours of nature,
And are decked with the pomp of the burial.
Quidnam sibi saxa cavata
Quid pulehra volunt monumenta,
Nisi quod res creditor illis
Non mortua, sed data somno?
For what mean the tombs that we quarry,
What the art that our monuments boast in,
But that this, which we trust to their keeping,
Is not dead, but reposing in slumber ?
The poet then dwells on the Christian charity displayed in attendance
on funerals, as an act of faith and of hope :
Mors ipsa beatior inde est,
Quod per cruciamina leti
Via panditur ardua justis,
Et ad astra doloribus itur.
Very Death thence becometh more blessed,
Because by the sharpness of dying
The bright path is oped for the righteous,
And we go to the stars by endurance.
PRUDK.Vm s.
225
Jam nulla deinde senectus
Frontis decus invida carpet :
Macies neque sicca lacertos
Succo tenuabit adeso.
Thenceforward old age in its envv
Shall gather yoath'i lovelineei I i
Thenceforward do uckneti oor ioguish
Shall rifle its bloom rind itfl vigour.
■ ::tiue.
Hence comfort is addressed to the mourners ; and the poem ends
with these noble stanzas :
Jam mrcsta quiesce, querela :
Lacrymas suspendite, matres !
Nullus sua pignora plangat :
Mors haec reparatio vitae est.
Nunc suscipe, terra, fovendum,
Gremioque hunc concipe molli :
Hominis tibi membra sequestro,
Generosa et fragmiua credo :
Tu depositum tege corpus :
Non immemor ille requiret
Sua munera Factor et Auctor,
Propriique senigmata vultus.
Sed dum resolubile corpus
Revocas, Deus, atque reformas,
Quanam regione jubebis
Animam requiescere puram ?
Gremio senis abdita sancti
Recubabit, nt est Eleazar :
Quern floribus undique septum
Dives procul aspicit ardens.
Sequimur tua dicta, Redemptor,
Quibus, atra e morte triwnphaiis,
Tua per vestigia mandas
Socium crucis ire latronem.
Patet ecce fidelibus ampli
Via lucida jam Paradisi,
Licet et nemus illud adire,
Homini quod ademerat anguis.
Illic, precor, optime Ductor,
Famulam tibi praecipe mentem
Genitali in sede sacrari,
Q;iam liquerat exul, et errans.
Nos tecta fovebimus ossa
Yiolis, et fronde frcquenti :
Titulumque, et frigida saxa
Liquido spargemus odore.
Each sorrowful mourner, be silent !
Fond mothers, give over your weeping !
None grieve for those pledges as perished :
This dying is life's reparation.
Now take him, 0 Earth, to thy keeping :
And give him soft rest in thy bosom :
I lend thee the frame of a Christian :
I entrust thee the generous fragments.
Thou holily guard the deposit :
He will well, He will surely require it,
Who, forming it, made its creation
The type of His image and likeness.
But until the resolvable body
Thou recallest, O God, and re-formest,
What regions, unknown to the mortal,
Dost Thou will the pure soul to inhabit ?
It shall rest upon Abraham's bosom,
As the spirit of blest Eleazar,
Whom, afar in that Paradise, Dives
Beholds from the flames of his torments.
We follow thy saying, Redeemer,
Whereby, as on death thou wast trampling,
The thief Thy companion Thou wiliest
To tread in thy footsteps and triumph.
To the faithful the bright way is open
Henceforward, to Paradise leading,
And to that blessed grove we have access
Whereof man was bereaved by the serpent.
Thou Leader and Guide of Thy people,
Give command that the soul of thy servant
May have holy repose in the country
Whence exile and erring he wandered.
We will honour the place of his resting
With violets and garlands of flowers,
And will sprinkle inscription and marble
With odours of costliest fragrance.
Prudentius never attained this grandeur on any other occasion.
But the hymns for the Epiphany, for the Cockcrowing, the Occa-
[R.L.] ' Q
226
ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETItY.
rrudentius. sional Hymn, and that Before Sleep, approach nearest to it.
will quote the conclusion of the latter :
Cultor Dei, memento Servant of God, remember
Te Fontis, et lavacri The Font of thy Salvation
Rorem subisse sanctum : Its precious dew shed o'er thee,
Te Chrismate innovatum. And thine was Confirmation.
Yse
Fac, quum, vocante somno,
Castum petis cubile,
Frontem locumque cordis
Cruris figura siguet.
Procul, O procul, vagantum
Porte n ta somniorum :
Procul esto pervicaci
Prastigiator astu.
O tortuose serpens,
Qui mille per mseandros
Fraudesque flexuosas
Agitas quieta corda :
Discede ; Christus hie est :
Hie Christus est : liquesce :
Signum quod ipse nosti
Damnat tuam catervam.
Corpus licet fatiscens
Jaceat recline paulum,
Christum tamen sub ipso
Meditabimur sopore.
Take heed when, slumber calling,
To thy chaste couch thou goest,
That on thy heart and forehead
The Cross's sign thou knowest.
Hence, 0 far hence, ye portents
And dreams of nightly terror :
Hence, O far hence, deceivers
Beguiling into error.
And thou, 0 guileful serpent,
Through many a crafty doubling
Who creepest on to tempt us,
The faithful spirit troubling ;
Depart : here Christ is present :
Here Christ is present : vanish :
The sign thyself confessest
Thy ghostly legions banish !
And though the weary body
Awhile in sleep reclineth,
Round Christ, in very slumber,
Its meditation twineth.
The Peristephanon, i. e., hymns concerning the Crowns of the
Martyrs, is far more valuable as a work of Christian archaeology
than as poetry. There are fourteen : — SS. Hemeterius and Cheli-
donius, containing 100 lines ; S. Laurence (584) ; S. Eulalia (215) ;
the xviij. Martyrs of Saragossa (200); S. Vincent (576);
SS. Fructuosus and his companions (162) ; S. Quirinus (90) ; for
a Baptistery (18); S. Cassian (106); S. Eomanus (1140);
S. Hippolytus (246) ; SS. Peter and Paul (66) ; S. Cyprian (106) ;
S. Agnes (133).
In many of these, it cannot be denied, the poet is insufferably
tedious, and creeps along in his narration ; in several places he
exhibits the grossest bad taste — as where he puts into the mouth of
S. Laurence, just before his condemnation, an harangue of
120 lines, on the analogy between bodily and spiritual diseases.
But here and there, like a glimpse of light amidst smoke, we catch
the true poet. Scarcely any of these hymns has afforded a cento
for the services of the Latin Church. The two finest are that on the
Martyrs of Saragossa, and that on S. Eulalia. The opening of the
former is truly sublime. After referring to the eighteen saints who
had fallen in that city for the name of Christ, the poet proceeds :
PRUDEXTIUS. 2 2 7
Plena magnorum domui Angelorum Prudcntiu?
Non timet inundi fragilis ruinam,
Tot sinu gestans simul offerenda
Munera Christo,
Quiim Deus dextram quatiens coruscani
Nube subnixus veniet rubente,
Gentibus justarn positurus aequo
Pondere libram :
Orbe de magno caput excitata
Obviam Christo properanter ibit
Civitas quseque, pretiosa portans
Dona canistris.
Wherefore this dwelling, full of mighty angels,
Fears not the wide world's universal ruin,
Bearing the pledges that it then may offer
At the Tribunal :
Thus, when the Judge shall shake His flamir;g Right Hand,
As in the storm-cloud and the fire He cometh,
Nations and kindreds, in exactest justice,
Dooming to judgment ;
Then shall each city, from earth's furthest borders,
Hasten to meet Him, bearing her oblation ;
Offering a casket of the precious relics
Left by her martyrs.
The following imitation may convey some idea of the conclusion of
the hymn on S. Eulalia : *
The pile was quenched : the limbs, so late
The sport of cruelty and hate,
In painless quiet lay :
A sound of triumph filled the sky,
As to the holy place on high
She bent her happy way.
It was the time when cold winds blow,
And surly winter reigns :
He covered with a shroud of snow
The Virgin's blest remains.
What are the rites that man can try
To prove the Martyr dear,
To this, when He who rules the sky
Commands the elements on high
To grace their holy bier
Who, ere they laid the body by,
Were His confessors here?
Go ! pluck the violet's flower to-day '
1 This translation, which is rather free, is from M Annals of Virgin Saints."
Masters. 1846.
Q2
Prudentius.
228 ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY.
The golden crocus bring ;
Our winter lacks not such army :
And frost and snow have sped away
Before the buds of spring.
Maidens and youths, their foliage twine,
To deck the Victor Maiden's shrine!
We in the midst with other flowers
Will wreathe the Martyr's crown :
And this dactylic verse of ours
Shall speak her high renown.
If its poor buds must soon decay
The festal wreath may serve to-day !
Thus in our annual wont, 'tis just
To celebrate her sacred dust
In God's abode, beneath whose Throne
The Blessed Martyr found her own :
And she, well pleased by this our rite,
Shall guard her people day and night !
These long quotations are but due to the fame of Prudentius.
s. Pauiinus. S. Paulixus, Bishop of Nola, in the beginning of the fifth cen-
tury, the friend of S. Augustine and S. Jerome, and of Ausonius,
has left a good many poems, of which the most remarkable are those
on the Festival of S. Felix, his patron, his Epistle to Cythaerus,
and his panegyric on Celsus. The following lines may serve as a
specimen of his style :
Nobis ore Dei solator Apostolus adsit;
Nos Evangelio Christus amans doceat.
Nos exempla Patrum. simul et prceconia vatum,
Nos liber Historia> formet Apostolical.
In qua corporeum remeare ad sidera Christum
Cemimus, et gremio nubis in astra vehi,
Et talem coelis reducem spcrare jubemur
Ad ccelos qualem vidimus ire Patri.
Hujns in Advontum modo pendent omnia reran),
Omnis in hunc Regem spesque fidesque inhiat.
Jamque propinquantem supremo tempore finem
Immutanda novis soecula parturiunt.
A certain feeble elegance characterises all the poems of S. Pauli-
nus. Scarcely any of them have ever been used by the Church.
seduiius. Caius Sedulius, by birth a Scot, flourished about a.d. 430 ;
He travelled through France and Italy, and appears to have settled
in Achaia, where, according to a general belief, he died a bishop.1
The works of Sedulius consist of the Carmen PascJ/ale, in Ave
books ; an Elegy ; and a Hymn. The first book of the Carmen
Paschale, after a glance at the History of the Old Testament, con-
trasts Paganism with Christianity. The remaining four are taken
up, like the work of Juvencus, with a Harmony of Our Lord's
1 Nicol. Antonius, Bibiioih. Yet. Hi span., 3, 5, 115, however, stoutly denies
this.
SEDUUUS. 229
Life and Death. But Seduliua, unlike his predecessor in the same Beduiins.
task, was a true poet. Let the following passages serve as proofs.
In the invocation, by which he addresses himself to his task : '
Interea, dum rite viain sermone levamus,
Speaque fideaque meum comitantur in ardaa gressum,
Blandius ad summain taiuloni pervenimus ai rem.
En aigno Bacrata Cruris vexilla coruaeant :
En regis pia castra micant, tuba clamal berilia :
Militibus sua porta patet: qui niilitat, intra! :
Janua vos eterna vocat, quae janua Christus.
Aurea perpetuae capietia prasrnia vita1
Anna, quibus Domini tota virtute geruntur,
Et fix urn est in fronts deens. — Decua anuaque porto :
Militisaque tuae, bone Rex, para ultima reato.
Hie propriaa sedes, hujua mihi maanibua urbia
Exiguam concede domum ; tuns incola Sanctis
Ut merear babitare locia, alboque beat]
Ordinis extremus eonseribi in seeula civis.
Grandia poaco quidem : sed tu dare grandia nosti,
Quern inagis offendit, quisquis sperando tepeseit.
Meantime, while with discourse we charm the way,
And faith and hope accompany, we reach
The highest citadel, and find our goal.
Lo ! where it glows, the Banner of the Cross !
Lo ! where it beams, the royal camp ! The trump
Proclaims our Lord : each soldier knows his gate :
Enter, ye warriors ! The eternal door
Invites you forward : and that door is Christ.
There shall ye all, who light the godlike right,
Whose foreheads wear the godlike sign, receive
The golden guerdon of perpetual life.
That sign, those arms I carry : Thine, O King,
Albeit Thy feeblest soldier, Thine 1 stand.
Give me a dwelling place, a little home
Among Thy chosen mansions; give me there
To merit entrance in Thy holy place,
And midst its citizens inscribe my name.
Great things are they I ask : Thou giv'st great things,
And more he angers Thee, who trifles craves.
Ill the Life of Our Lord, Sedulius is not a mere chronicler oi
facts in verse. He intersperses his own reflections, draws his own
conclusions, and frequently gives a mystical explanation of the his-
toric details to which he alludes. The following passage on the
Nativity seems extremely worthy of quotation (lib. ii. 49) :
Quis fruit ille rubor, Maria? cum Christus ab alvo
Processit splendore novo ? — Velut ipse decoro
Sponsus ovans thalamo, forma speciosus auiceua
Fix natis hominum, cujus radiante rigura
1 Lib. i. 334.
230 ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY.
Blandior in labiis diffusa est gratia pulcliris.
O facilis foetus ! Ne nos servile teneret
Peccato dominante jugum servilia summus
Membra tulit Dominus ; primique ab origine mundi
Omnia qui propriis vestit nascentia donis,
Obsitus exiguis habuit velamina pannis ;
Quemque procellosi non mobilis unda profundi,
Terrarum non omne solum, spatiosaque lati
Non capit aula poli, puerili in corpore plenus
Mansit, et angusto Deus in prsesepe quievit.
In narration, too, Sedulius far outstrips his competitor. We
give the parallel passages at the commencement of the Temptation :
JUVENCUS.
Horrendi interea sceleris versutia tentans,
Si te pro certo genuit Deus omnibus, inquit,
His poteris saxis forti sermone jubere
Usum triticei formamque capessere panis.
Christus ad haec fatur : Nil me jam talia terrent :
Nam memini scriptum, quoniam non sola tenebit
Vitam credentis facilis substantia panis,
Sed sermone Dei complet pia pectora virtus.
Sedulius.
Insidiis tentator adit, doctusque per artem
Fallaces offerre dapes, Si Filius, inquit,
Cerneris esse Dei, die, ut lapis iste repente
In panis vertatur opem. Miracula tanquam
Hcec eadem non semper ayat, qui saxea terrce
Viscera fruyiferis animans fcecundat aristis
Ft partem de caute creat. Hac ergo repulsus
Voce prius, hominem non solo vivere pane
Sed cuncto sermone Dei. ....
The lines of Juvencus read like the imposed task of a schoolboy :
those of Sedulius like the composition of a poet and a divine.
The Megy contains nothing remarkable. It is an example of the
frigid conceit called Epanalepsis, by which the beginning of the first
and the end of the second line are always identical : thus —
Primus ad ima ruit magna de luce superbus :
Sic homo, cum tumuit, primus ad ima ruit.
The hymn, A Soils ortus cardine, is ABCDarian — that is, the verses
commence with the successive letters of the alphabet. Portions of
it have always been in use in the Western Church. We give the
first part. The version is partly from that published in the "Hymnal"
of the Ecclesiological Society, partly from the " Sarum Hours " of
Mr. Chambers : —
DHACONTIUS.
281
A solis ortiis cardine,
Ad usque terra; liuiitein,
Christum canamns Principcm,
Ortum Maria Viiginc.
Beatus Auetor seculi
Servile coqms induit ;
Ut carne carnem liberans
Ne perderet quos eondidit.
Prom lands that see the sun arise
To earth's remotest bound
The Virgin-horn to day we ling,
The Son of Mary, Christ the I
Blest Author of this earthly frame,
To take a servant's form He came ;
That, liberating flesh by flesh,
Those He had made might live afresh.
Castae parentis viscera
Coelestis intrat gratia;
Venter puellae bajulat
Secreta quae non novcrat.
In that chaste parent's holy womb
Celestial grace finds ready home :
Now teems that maiden's bosom mild
By earthly contact undefiled.
Domus pudici pectoris
Templum repente fit Dei ;
Intacta nesciens virum
Virgo creavit Filium.
Enixa est puerpera,
Quern Gabriel pracdixerat :
Quern matris alvo gestiens
Clausus Joannes senserat.
The mansion of the modest breast
Becomes a shrine where God shall rest :
Inviolate, by man unknown,
She by a word conceived the Son.
That Son, that Royal Son she bore,
Whom Gabriel's voice had told afore ;
"Whom, in his mother yet concealed,
The Infant Baptist had revealed.
Faeno jacere pertulit,
Praesepe non abhorruit,
Parvoque lacte pastus est,
Per quern nee alis esurit.
The cradle and the straw He bore,
The manger did He not abhor,
A little milk His infant fare
Who feedeth ev'n each fowl of air.
Gaudet chorus ccelestium,
Et Angeli canunt Deo,
Palamque fit pastoribus
Pastor, Creator omnium.
The heavenly chorus filled the sky,
The angels sang to God on high :
What time to shepherds, watching lone,
They made Creation's Shepherd known.
Dracontius. All that can certainlybe said of this writer is, that he Dracontius.
was a Spaniard ; — that he flourished in the fifth century ; — that he
offended Guntharius, King of the Vandals, and was thrown into
prison by him ; — and that there he wrote his heroic poem De Deo,
in three books, and his elegy entitled Satisfactio.
The poem De Deo is not without its beauty, though it cannot be
classed with that of Sedulius. There is a much greater laxity of
metre, and (what is not so excusable) a considerable neglect of
caesura, which makes whole paragraphs run on very heavily. The
first book describes the creation of the world and the fall of man,
and concludes, after the sentence of death pronounced on our first
parents, with the symbols of the Resurrection. The various opera-
tions of creation are rather graphically touched ; but the poet never
knows when to have done with a subject. Take, for example, the
creation of the birds : —
232 ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY.
Dracontius. Turn varias fundunt voces modulamine blando,
Et, puto, collaudant Dominum meruisse creari.
Hae niveo candore nitent, has purpura vestit,
His croceus plumae color est, has aureus ornat,
Albentes aliis peunae solidantur ocellis
Atque hyacinthus adest per colla, et pectora fulgens.
Eninet his cristatus apex, has lingua decorat, &c.
It would be curious to discover whether Milton had read the
account, not ill told, of the first meeting of Adam and Eve. There
is not a trace of resemblance, unless the line —
Nescia mens illis, fieri quse causa fuisset,
may be supposed to have suggested —
But who I was, or where, or for what cause,
Knew not.
The second book contains little more than general reflections on
God's omnipotence and justice ; and introduces, in no very logical
sequence, our Lord's Miracles, the Deluge, and the final Judgment.
The third, after treating on God's providence, contrasts heathenism
with Christianity, and dilates on the spread and apostolic preachers
of the Gospel. Neither of these, however, equals the first book.
Arator. Arator, originally in an honourable situation in Justinian's
household, afterwards a sub-deacon of the Eoman Church, has left
a paraphrase, in heroic verse, of the Acts of the Apostles. It is in
two books, and comprises about 1800 lines. It was originally pre-
sented to Pope Vigilius, April 6, 544, and publicly recited by the
poet; in the Church of S. Peter ad Yincula, where it was received
with the greatest applause.
We cannot give much praise to this author, except that his
Latinity is suprisingly classical for the age. He is superior to
Juvencus, but must be characterised in nearly the same terms.
The following lines, from S. Paul's speech to the elders of Ephesus,
may serve as a favourable specimen : —
Ne cedite duris.
Virtuti damnosa quies, nullumque coronat
In stadio securus honor ; sua gloria forti
Causa lahoris erit : rarusque ad praemia miles
Cui pax sola fuit : Victoria semen ab hoste
Accipit, huic virtus. Dominus plantaria vestra
Fcecundare valet : qui per sua dona venire
Ad sua dona facit ; quodque adjuvat ipse ministrat.
The last writer in this stage of Ecclesiastical Latin Poetry
s. Gregory wnom we sna^ mention, is S. Gregory the Great, Bishop of
the Great. Eome, from 591 to 604. Many hymns have been attributed to
S. GREGORY THE GEEAT.
283
him, as to S. Hilary and S. Ambrose, with which he clearly had B,Oi
nothing to do. The following is undoubtedly his : litOw*
Primo dieruin omnium
Quo mundus extat conditus
Vel quo resurgens Conditor
Nos, morte victa, liberat :
Pulsis procul torporibu9
Surgamus omnes ocyiis :
Et nocte qmerauius Deum,
Sicut prophetam novimus,
Nostras preces ut audiat,
Suamque dextram porrigat,
Et expiatos sordibus
Reddat polorum sedibus.
Ut quique sacratissimo
Hujus diei tempore
Horis quietis psallimus
Donis beatis muneret.
On this the day that saw the earth,
From utter darkness first have birth :
The day its Mal.er rose again,
And vanquished Death, and burst our chain,
Away with sleep and slothful ease !
We raise our hands and bend our knees,
And early seek the God of all,
According to the Prophet's call,
That He may grant us that we crave,
May stretch His strong right arm to save,
And, purging out each sinful stain,
Restore us to our home again.
We rise before the holy light,
In these calm hours of holiest night :
And oh, that He to whom we sing
Would now reward our offering !
Jam nunc, paterna claritas,
Te postulamus affatim :
Absit libido sordidans,
Omnisque actus noxius :
Father of life and light ! give heed !
Suppliants we here before Thee plead :
O cleanse from sordid lust the heart;
May every evil act depart :
Ne fceda sit vel lubrica
Compago nostri corporis :
Per quod Averni ignibus
Ipsi crememur acrius.
Ob hoc, Redemptor, qu'jesumus,
Ut probra nostra diluas,
Vitse perennis commoda
Nobis benigne conferas.
Quo carnis actu exsules,
Effecti ipsi cuelibes,1
Ut piaestolamur cernui
Melos canamus gloriae.
That this our body's mortal frame
May know no sin and fear no shame.
Whereby the fires of Hell might rise
To torture us in fiercer wise.
We, therefore, Saviour, cry to Thee
To wash out our iniquity,
And give us, of Thine endless grace,
The blessings of Thy heavenly place.
That we, thence exiled by our sin,
Hereafter may be welcomed in :
That happy time awaiting, now
With hymns of glory here we bow.2
1 This use of the word coelibes, which might easily be thought a mistake for
ccelites, is not uncommon in mediaeval hymnology. So an Ambrosian hymn :
Sed cum Beatis compotes
Simus perennes ccelibes.
It is doubtless derived from that text, u They neither marry, nor are given in
marriage, but are as the Angels of God." (S. Mattb. xxii., 30.)
: also from
The translation is from the "Hymnal " of the Ecclesiological Society, but partly
from Mr. Chambers'3 u Sarum Hours."
234
ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY.
S. Gregory
the Great.
The far greater preponderance of rhymes than in the hymns of
S. Ambrose is here very observable ; the second and third verses
rhyme perfectly, and of the twelve other couplets four rhyme. We
may quote the following short hymn of the same author :
Ecce jam noctis tenuatur umbra,
Lux et aurora rutilans coruscat :
Viribus totis rogitemus omnes
Cunctipotentem,
Ut Deus nostri miseratus omnem
Pellat languorem, tribuat salutem,
Donet et nobis pietate Patris
Regna polorum.
Prsestet hoc nobis Deitas Beata
Patris et Nati pariterque Sancti
Spiritus, cujus reboat per omnem
Gloria mundum.
Darkness is thinning : shadows are retreating :
Morning and light are coming in their beauty :
Suppliant seek we, with an earnest outcry,
God the Almighty,
So that our Master, having mercy on us,
May repel languor, may bestow salvation,
Granting us, Father, of thy loving kindness,
Glory hereafter.
This of His mercy, ever Blessed Godhead,
Father and Son, and Holy Spirit give us :
Whom through the wide world celebrate for ever
Blessing and glory.
Other
writers.
We might easily have named several other writers of Ecclesiastic
verse in this, its first, period ; but their merit is not such as, in so
brief a sketch, to merit particular notice. Tertullian, Cyprian,
Lactantius and Sidonius Apollinaris have been mentioned in the
post-Augustan period. To these we now add : — Claudius
Marius Victor, a professor of rhetoric at Marseilles, who
flourished about 460, and wrote a paraphrase in three (or, accord-
ing to other MSS., four) books, on the first nineteen chapters of
Genesis. S. Alcimus Avitus, Archbishop of Vienne, wrote an
heroic poem in five books — the first treating of the Creation of
the World ; the second, of original sin ; the third, of the Sentence
pronounced after the Fall ; the fourth, of the Deluge ; the fifth,
S. GREGORY THE GREAT.
285
of the Red Sea. Piioba Falcon i \ (best edition froomayer, & Gregory
Halle, 1719) published some Virgilian centos on the History of **• Gr8*t
the Old and New Testament. All these writers (except the last)
may be found in the Foetce Christiani of Fabricius, to which we
have before referred.
Gregory the Great.
*"^i
The "Venerable Bede.
SECOND PERIOD.— THE RESTORATION.
FROM VENANTIUS FORTUNATUS TO THE REVIVAL OF CLASSICALISM.
While the Latin as a spoken language was coming to an end,
a writer arose who may truly be called the earliest in the mediaeval
Fortunatus. school, VENANTIUS Fortunatus, the fashionable poet of the South
of France, and who died Bishop of Poictiers, in 609. A contemporary
of S. Gregory though he were, the wild freshness and life of the
nation in which he wrote burst the trammels of classicalism for
ever. Hitherto we have seen it (to use Mr. Trench's words) in its
weak and indistinct beginnings ; not vet knowing itself or its own
importance ; we mark its irregular application at first — the want of
skill in its use — the only gradual discovery of its fullest capabilities.
The first rhyming hymn in the Latin language is due to Fortunatus ;
and its grandeur has seldom been surpassed by any of his successors.
It is the world-famous Vexilla Beg is prodeunt, of which we quote
the translation published in the " Hymnal " of the Ecclesiological
Society : —
The Royal Banners forward go :
The Cross shines forth with mystic glow :
Where He in flesh, our flesh Who made,
Our sentence bore, our ransom paid.
Where deep for us the spear was dyed,
Life's torrent rushing from His side :
To wash us in the precious flood,
Where mingled water ilowed, and blood.
roiriTN.vi i 9. 237
Fulfilled is all that David told Portonatm
In true prophetic song of old :
Amidst tlie nations God, saith he,
Hath reigned and triumphed from the Tree.
O Tree of Beauty ! Tree of Light !
O Tree with royal purple (light !
Elect upon whose faithful breast
Those holy limbs should find their rest !
On whose dear arms, so widely flung,
The weight of this world's ransom hung,
The price of humankind to pay,
And spoil the spoiler of his prey !
The greater part of the rhymes here — as, for example, the two
first, " Vexilla Kegis prodewnt, Fulget Crucis Mysteriwm," — are only
assonant, but the principle was established.
But a still greater step was made by the mastery which "Fortu-
natus showed over the Trochaic Tetrameter, — a measure which, with
various modifications, was to become the glory of mediaeval poetry.
It is true that Prudentius had once or twice used it, but Fortunatus
was the first to group it into stanzas. Now, the real telling rhyme
of mediaeval poetry is that which is double Trochaic. The
employment of this was of a still later date ; and we can hardly
believe but that Fortunatus purposely avoided it. However that
may be, a stanza like this involved the certain discovery of such
rhyme in the course of time, and the plastic mind of Church writers
would be sure to give it shape.
Crux fidelis, inter omnes arbor una nobilis !
Nulla talem sylva profert More, fronde, germine ;
Dulce lignum dulci elavo dulce pondus sustinens.
The hymn is amply worth translation :
Sing, my tongue, the glorious battle, with completed victory rife,
And above the Cross's trophy, tell the triumph of the strife ;
How the world's Redeemer conquerVl, by surrendering of his life.
God, his Maker, sorely grieving that the first-born Adam fell,
When he ate the noxious apple, whose reward wa* death and hell,
Noted then this wood, the ruin of the ancient wood to quell.
For the work of our Salvation needs wrould have his order so,
And the multiform deceiver's art by art would overthrow ;
And from thence would bring the medicine whence the venom of the foe.
Wherefore, when the sacred fulness of the appointed time was come,
This world's Maker left His Father, left His bright and heavenly home,
And proceeded, God Incarnate, of the Virgin's holy womb.
238 ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY.
F , Weeps the Infant in the manger that in Bethlehem's stable stands ;
And His limbs the Virgin Mother doth compose in swaddling bands,
Meetly thus in linen folding of her God the feet and hands.
Thirty years among us dwelling, His appointed time fulfilled,
Born for this, He meets His Passion, for that this He freely willed :
On the Cross the Lamb is lifted, where His life-blood shall be spilled.
He endured the shame and spitting, vinegar, and nails, and reed ;
As His blessed side is opened, water thence and blood proceed :
Earth, and sky, and stars, and ocean, by that flood are cleansed indeed.
Faithful Cross ! above all other, one and only noble Tree !
None in foliage, none in blossom, none in fruit thy peers may be ;
Sweetest wood and sweetest iron, sweetest weight is hung on thee !
Bend thy boughs, O Tree of Glory ! thy relaxing sinews bend ;
For awhile the ancient rigour, that thy birth bestowed, suspend ;
And the King of heavenly beauty on thy bosom gently tend.
Thou alone wast counted worthy this world's ransom to uphold ;
For a shipwreck'd race preparing harbour, like the Ark of old :
With the sacred blood anointed from the wounded Lamb that roll'd.
Laud and honour to the Father, laud and honour to the Son,
Laud and honour to the Spirit, ever Three and ever One :
Consubstantial, coeternal, while unending ages run.
We add one more, in the metre of the original ; that commencing
Crux benedict a nitet —
That blest Cross is displayed, where the Lord in the flesh was suspended,
And, by His blood, from their wounds cleansed and redeemed His elect :
Where for us men, through His love, become the victim of mercy,
He, the Blest Lamb, His sheep saved from the fangs of the wolf:
Where by His palms transpierced He redeemed the world from its ruin,
And by His own dear Death closed up the path of the grave.
This was the hand that, transfixed by the nails, and bleeding, of old time
Paul from the depth of his crime ransomed, and Peter from death.
Strong in thy fertile array, O Tree of sweetness and glory,
Bearing such new-found fruit midst the green wreaths of thy boughs :
Thou by thy savour of life the dead from their slumbers restorest,
Rendering sight to the eyes that have been closed to the day.
Heat is there none that can burn beneath thy shadowy covert :
Nor can the sun in the noon strike, nor the moon in the night.
Planted art thou beside the streams of the rivers of waters :
Foliage and loveliest flowers scattering widely abroad.
Fast in thy arms is enfolded the Vine ; from whom in its fulness,
Floweth the blood-red juice, wine that gives life to the soul.
MO-LATIN POETRY FORMED.
These hymns are infinitely superior to anything else that Fortu-
natns wrote, and tlu-y have consigned him to immortality.
It is a work of intense difficulty to determine when double rhyme
was introduced into Christian Hymnology. We have a proof! hat, as
late as 535, it was not felt in Italy. The following is an inscription
of that date on a church built by Belisarius at Ravenna :
HailC vir patricius, Velisarius, urbis amicus,
Ob culpa veniaui condidit Ecclemam :
Hanc idcirco pedem, qui sacrani ponia iu aedem,
Ut miseretur eum, saepe precare Dcum.
All these verses, it is true, are crisiati ; but the indifferent use of
male and female rhymes shows that they were rather addressed to
the eye than the ear. Nor are we aware that an earlier example of
consistent and intended double rhymes can be traced in hexameters
than in the poem of Mutius of Bergamo, de rebus Bergamensibus,
which bears date 707 : and Y. Bede seems to be the first author
who used consistent double rhymes in Trochaics.
In the meantime, the neo-Latin poetry was rapidly forming.
Between the time of S. Gregory and that of Y. Bede, many glorious
hymns were composed. Of these we may mention, the Ad Ctenam
Agnl providi, the Dens tuorum mU'itura, the Hymnus diced turba
fratrum, and the Apparebit repentina. The first of these opens as
follows : —
Ad ccenam Agni providi The Lamb's high banquet we await
Et stolis albis candidi, In snow-white robes of festal state :
Post transitum maris rubri And now, the Red Sea's channel past,
Christo canamus principi. To Christ our Prince we sing at last.
Cujus corpus sanctissimum, Upon the altar of the Cross
In ara Crucis torriduin : His Body hath redeemed our loss :
Cruore ejus roseo And tasting there his roseate blood,
Gustando vivimus Deo. Our life is hid with Him in God.
Protecti Paschse vesperc That Paschal eve God's arm was bared ;
A devastante Angelo, The devastating Angel spared :
Erepti de durissimo By strength of hand our hosts went free
Pharaonis imperio. From Pharaoh's ruthless tyranny.
Jam Pascha nostrum Christns est, Now Christ, our Paschal Lamb, is slain,
Qui immolatus Agnus est, The Lamb of God that knows no stain :
Sinceritatis azyma The true oblation offered here,
Caro ejus oblata est. Our own unleavened bread sincere.
The conclusion of the Apparebit repentina is this :
But the righteous, upward soaring,
To the heavenly land shall go,
Midst the cohorts of the angels,
Where is joy for evermo;
240
ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY.
Venerable
Bede.
To Jerusalem exulting
Tliey with shouts shall enter in.
That true " sight of peace " and glory-
That sets free from grief and sin ;
Christ shall they behold for ever,
Seated at the Father's hand;
As in beatific vision
His elect before Him stand.
Wherefore, man, while yet thou mayest,
From the dragon's malice fly;
Give thy bread to feed the hungry,
If thou seek'st to win the sky ;
Let thy loins be straightly girded,
Life be pure, and heart be right,
At the coming of the Bridegroom
That thy lamp may glitter bright.
V. Bede himself was the author of several hymns, too long indeed,
but not without merit.
The following, for the Ascension, is one of the best : the transla-
tion is Mr. Chambers's. It is a cento used by the Anglo-Saxon
church, from a much longer hymn : —
Hymnum canamus gloria?,
Hymni novi nunc personent;
Christus novo cum tramite
Ad Patris ascendit Thronum.
Sing we triumphant hymns of praise;
New hymns to Heaven exulting raise :
Christ, by a new and wond'rous road,
Ascends unto the Throne of God.
Transit triumpho nobili
Poli potenter culmina:
Qui morte mortem absumpserat,
Derisus a mortalibus.
Apostoli tunc mystico
In monte stantes chrismatis,
Cum Matre clara Virgine
Jesu videbant gloriam.
Qnos alloquentes angeli, —
" Quid astra stantes cernitis ?
Salvator hie est," inquiunt,
" Jesus, triumpho nobili.
A vobis ad coelestia
Qui regna nunc assumptus est,
Venturus inde sa?culi
In fine, Judex omnium."
Quo nos precamur tempore
Jesu, Redemptor unice,
Inter tuofl in .-< tbera
Servos benign us aggrega.
In kingly pomp he sweepeth by
The lofty zenith of the sky,
Who late, death's death, for mortals died,
By mortals scorned and crucified.
Behold the apostolic band
Upon the Mount of Unction stand :
With the blest Virgin Mother see
Their Jesu's glorious majesty.
Whom thus the shining Angels greet: —
" Why look ye to yon starry height?
'Tis He, the Saviour ever blest,
Jesus, with lordly triumph graced.
ITe who from hence to Heaven hath gone,
The kingdom taken for His own,
In time's last close again shall come
To all men righteous judge of doom."
Oh, in that hour of dread, we pray,
Jesu, Redeemer, be our stay :
With thine, who meet Thee in the air,
Unite us by Thy kindly care.
S. THKODULPH.
:. !l
I)i;ic(<nuu.
No9tris ibi tunc cordibus There to our hearts, in Heaven's blest gate,
Tuo repletis Spiritu With Thy sweet Spirit .satiate,
Ostende Patrem et sufficit Make known the Father, and our eves
llaec una nobis visio. That only vision shall suffice.
Amen. Amen.
Paulus Diaconus has left one hymn which is curious as having
given rise to the sol-fa nomenclature.
UT quean t laxis REsonare fibril
MIra gestorum FAmuli tuorum,
SOLve polluti LAbii reatum
Sancte Joannes.
The Emperor Charlemagne is the author of a hymn which Charles
hardly yields to any — the world-famous Veni, Creator Spirilus, which
is too well known for quotation ; and S. Theodulph, of Orleans, 8. Theo.
distinguished himself by the glorious poem for Palm Sunday, dulpb*
Gloria laus et honor tibi sit, Hex CJtriste lledemptor.
Charlemagne.
The legend concerning this composition is, that the bishop, being
in prison on a false accusation at Angers, caused it to be sung by
choristers, as the Emperor Louis and his court were on their way
to the Procession of Palms.
Glory, and honour, and laud be to Thee, King Christ the Redeemer,
Children before whose steps raised their hosannas of praise.
Israel's monarch art Thou, and the glorious offspring of David,
Thou that approachest a King, bless'd in the name of the Lord.
Glory to Thee in the highest the heavenly armies are singing :
Glory to Thee on the earth man and creation reply.
Met Thee with palms in their hands that day the folk of the Hebrews :
We with our prayers and our hymns now to Thy presence approach.
They to Thee offered their praise for to herald thy dolorous Passion :
We to the King on His Throne utter the jubilant hymn.
[r. l.] R
S. Theo-
dulph.
Robert II.
Hartxcan.
S. Peter
Damiani.
242 ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY.
They were then pleasing to Thee — unto Thee our devotion he pleasing,
Merciful King, kind King, who in all goodness art pleased.
They in their pride of descent were rightly the children of Hebrews :
Hebrews are we, whom the Lord's Passover maketh the same.
Victory won o'er the world be to us for our branches of palm tree,
That in the conqueror's joy this to Thee still be our song :
Glory, and honour, and laud be to Thee, King Christ the Redeemer,
Children before whose steps raised their hosannas of praise.
Eobert II. of France was the author of the beautiful hymn
which commences
Veni, Sancte Spiritus,
Et emitte ccelitiis
Lucis tuae radium.
Veni, Pater pauperum,
Veni, Dator munerum,
Veni, Lumen cordium.
Consolator optime,
Dulcis hospes animae,
Dulce refrigerium.
The first lyrical application of double rhyme is, we think, due to
Hartman, the celebrated monk of S. Gall, in the Epiphany Hymn,
which commences
Tribus signis Deo dignis
Dies ista colitur ;
Tria signa, laude digna,
Coetus hie persequitur.
We now approach the period when Latin Hymnology attained its
full splendour.
S. Peter Damiani, Cardinal Bishop of Ostia, who lived from
1002 — 1072, left several hymns, two of which are of surpassing
merit. The first is entitled, On the Glories and Joy of Paradise,
and has often been attributed to S. Augustine.
The following are some of the most striking stanzas : we quote
from Mr. Wackerbarth's admirable translation.
I
Winter braming — summer flaming,
There relax their blustering,
And sweet roses ever blooming
Make an everlasting spring,
Lily blanching, crocus blushing,
And the balsam perfuming.
Pasture growing, meadows blowing,
Honey streams in rivers fair,
While with aromatic perfume
Grateful glows the balmy air ;
Luscious fruits that never wither
Hang in every thicket there.
There nor waxing moon, nor waning,
Sun, nor stars in courses bright ;
For the Lamb to that glad city
Shines an everlasting light :
There the daylight beams for ever,
All unknown are time and night.
For the Saints, in beauty beaming,
Shine in light and glory pure,
Crowned in triumph's flushing honours,
Joy in unison secure,
And in safety tell their battles,
And their foe's discomfiture.
S. I''UT.Bi:i!T.
248
Freed from every stain of evil,
All their carnal wan ire done,
For the flesh made spiritual,
And the soul agree in one ;
Peace unbroken spreads enjoyment;
Sin and scandal are unknown.
Stript of changefulnesa, united
To primseval being's spring,
And the present form and essence
Of the Truth contemplating,
Lo ! they quaff the vital sweetness
Of the well of quickening.
Thence departing, aye In samei g( p... ...-
They their lofty state en
Beauteous, keen, and gay, and ooble,
Unexposed to chance's rage ■.
Health is theirs untouched hv sicknetC,
Endless youth unmarr'd by age.
Here they live in endless being:
Passingness has passed away ;
Here they bloom, they thrive, they flourish,
For decay'd is all decay :
Lasting energy hath swallow'd
Darkling Death's malignant sway.
The other, which we quote at full, is the following
O what terror in thy forethought,
Ending scene of mortal life !
Heart is sicken'd, reins are loosenM,
Thrills each nerve, with terror rife,
When the anxious heart depicteth
All the anguish of the strife !
Who the spectacle can image, —
How tremendous ! — of that day,
When, the course of life accomplish'd,
From the trammels of her clay
Writhes the soul to be delivered,
Agonised to pass away !
Sense hath perish'd, tongne is rigid,
Eyes are filming o'er in death,
Palpitates the breast, and hoarsely
Gasps the rattling throat for breath :
Limbs are torpid, lips are pallid,
Breaking nature quivereth.
All come round him ! — cogitation,
Habit, word, and deed are there !
All, though much and sore he struggle,
Hover o'er him in the air :
Turn he this way, turn he that way.
On his inmost soul they glare.
Conscience' self her culprit tortures,
Gnawing him with pangs unknown :
For that now amendment's season
Is for ever past and gone,
And that late Repentance findeth
Pardon none for all her moan.
Fleshly lusts of fancied sweetness
Are converted into gall,
When on brief and bitter pleasure
Everlasting dolours fall :
Then, what late appeared so mighty,
Oh ! how infinitely small !
Christ, unconquered King of Glory !
Thou my wretched soul relieve,
In that most extremest terror,
When the body 6he must leave :
Let the accuser of the brethren
O'er me then no power receive !
Let the Prince of Darkness vanish,
And Gehenna's legions fly !
Shepherd, Thou Thy sheep, thus ransom'd,
To Thy country lead on high ;
Where for ever in fruition
I may see Thee eye to eye !
Amen.
In the eleventh century, S. Fulbert, of Chartres, left several s. Fnlbert
beautiful poems. The following- Hymn for Eastertide is very fine :
Ye choirs of New Jerusalem !
New strains and sweet attune your theme !
The while we keep, from care released,
With sober joy our Paschal Feast.
When Christ, the dragon-fiend o'ercome,
Rose, Lion-Victor, from the tomb :
And while with living voice He cries,
The dead of other ages rise.
Engorged in former years, their prey
Must Death and Hell restore to-day :
And many a captive soul, set free,
With Jesus leaves captivity.
Right gloriously He triumphs now,
Worthv to whom should all things bow :
And joining heaven and earth again
In one republic links the twain.
R 2
244
ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY.
S. Fulbcrt. And we, as these His deeds we sing,
His suppliant soldiers, pray our King,
That in His palace, bright and vast,
"We may keep watch and ward at last.
Long as unending ages run
To God the Father laud be done :
To God the Son our equal praise,
And God the Holy Ghost we raise.
Amen.
The following is of a different kind :
"When the earth with spring returning, vests herself in fresher sheen,
And the glades and leafy thickets are arrayed in living green ;
When a sweeter fragrance breatheth flowery fields and vales along,
Then, triumphant in her gladness, Philomel begins her song :
And with thick delicious warble far and wide her notes she flings,
Telling of the happy springtide and the joys that summer brings.
In the pauses of men's slumber deep and full she pours her voice,
In the labour of his travel bids the wayfarer rejoice ;
Night and day, from bush and greenwood, sweeter than an earthly lyre,
She, unwearied songstress, carols, distancing the feather1 d choir :
Fills the hill-side, fills the valley, bids the groves and thickets ring,
Made indeed exceeding glorious through the joyousness of spring.
None could teach such heavenly music, none implant such tuneful skill,
Save the King of realms celestial, who doth all things as He will.
Hildebert.
Of the many poems of Hildebert, Archbishop of Tours, who
lived from 1057 — 1134, the finest is that of which the following
lines form the conclusion : —
Mine be Sion's habitation,
Sion, David's sure foundation :
Form'd of old by light's Creator,
Reached by Him, the Mediator :
An Apostle guards the portal
Denizen'd by forms immortal,
On a jasper pavement builded,
By its Monarch's radiance gilded.
Peace there dwelleth uninvaded,
Spring perpetual, light unfaded :
Odours rise with airy lightness ;
Harpers strike their harps of brightness :
None one sigh for pleasure sendeth ;
None can err, and none offendeth ;
All, partakers of one nature,
Grow in Christ to equal stature.
Home celestial ! Home eternal !
Home upreared by power Supernal !
Home, no change or loss that fearest,
From afar my soul thou cheerest :
Thee it seeketh, thee requireth,
Thee affecteth, Thee desireth.
But the gladness of thy nation,
But their fulness of salvation,
Vainly mortals strive to show it ;
They — and they alone — can know it,
The redeemed from sin and peril,
They who walk thy streets of beryl !
Grant me, Saviour, with Thy Blessed
Of Thy Rest to be possessed,
And, amid the joys it bringeth,
Sing the song that none else singeth !
Marbodus. Marbodtjs, Bishop of Rennes, a contemporary of Hildebert,
also left a good many poems ; the following is an extract from his
Sequence on the Dedication of a Church : —
These stones, arrayed in goodly row,
Set forth the deeds of men below :
The various tints that there have place,
The multiplicity of grace :
Who in himself that grace displays
May shine with them in endless rays.
S. BERNARD. 2 1 5
Jerusalem, dear peaceful land ! Margins.
These tor thy twelve foundations stand :
Blessed and nigh to Gon U he
Who shall he counted worthy thee !
That CJuardian slumbereth not, nor sleeps,
Who in his charge thy turrets keeps.
King of the Heavenly City blest !
Gnnt that Thy servants may have rest,
This changeful life for ever past,
And consort with Thy saints at last :
That we, with all the choir above,
May sing Thy power, and praise Thy love.
Of the various compositions of S. Bernard, who died in 1153, s. Bernard
the Jesu, dulcis memaria, is the most famous. As a whole, it con-
sists of about 200 lines. We quote the following, the cento given
in the Salisbury Breviary, employing the translation of the Hymnal
Noted, published by the Ecclesiological Society :
Jesu ! — The very thought is sweet !
In that dear name all heart-joys meet ;
But sweeter than the honey fiff
The glimpses of His presence are.
No word is sung more sweet than this :
No name is heard more full of bliss :
No thought brings sweeter comfort nigh
Than Jesus, Son of God Most High.
Jesu ! the hope of souls forlorn !
How good to them for sin that mourn !
To them that seek Thee, oh how kind !
But what art Thou to them that find !
No tongue of mortal can express,
No letters write its blessedness :
Alone who hath Thee in his heart
Knows, love of Jesus! what thou art.
O Jesu ! King of wondrous might !
O Victor, glorious from the fight !
Sweetness that may not be express'd,
And altogether loveliest !
Bernard be Morley, a monk of Cluny, in his extraordinary Bernard de
poem on the Contempt of the World, attained a higher strain than Morley'
any of his contemporaries. The following extract may serve as an
example : —
To thee, O dear, dear country ! O one, 0 only mansion !
Mine eyes their vigils keep ; O paradise of joy !
For very love beholding Where tears are everbanishM,
Thy happy name, they weep : And smiles have no alloy :
The mention of thy glory Beside thy living waters
Is unction to the breast, All plants are, great and small ;
And medicine in sickness, The cedar of the forest,
And love and life, and rest. The hyssop of the wall :
246
ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY.
Bernard de
Morlev.
S. Notker
Balbulus.
With jaspers glow thy bulwarks,
Thy streets with emeralds blaze :
The sardius and the topaz
Unite in thee their rays :
Thy ageless walls are bonded
With amethyst unpriced ;
Thy saints build up its fabric,
And the corner-stone is Christ.
Thou hast no shore, fair ocean !
Thou hast no time, bright day !
Dear fountain of refreshment
To pilgrims far away !
Upon the Rock of Ages
They raise thy holy tower,
Thine is the victor's laurel,
And thine the golden dower :
Thou feel'st in mystic rapture,
O bride that know'st no guile,
The Prince's sweetest kisses,
The Prince's loveliest smile :
Unfading lilies, bracelets
Of living pearl, thine own,
The Lamb is ever near thee,
The Bridegroom thine alone.
And all thine endless leisure
In sweetest accents sings
The ills that were thy merit,
The joys that are thy King's.
Jerusalem the golden !
With milk and honey blest,
Beneath thy contemplation
Sink heart and voice opprest ;
I know not, oh, I know not
What social joys are there,
What radiancy of glory,
What light beyond compare :
And when I fain would sing them
My spirit fails and faints,
And vainly would it image
The assembly of the Saints.
They stand, those halls of Sion,
Conjubilant with song,
And bright with many an angel,
And many a martyr throng :
The Prince is ever in them,
The light is aye serene ;
The pastures of the blessed
Are decked in glorious sheen :
There is the throne of David,
And there, from toil released,
The shout of them that triumph,
The song of them that feast :
And they, beneath their Leader,
Who conquered in the fight,
For ever and for ever
Are clad in robes of white.
But in the eleventh century a new kind of poem found its way
into the Church, which thenceforth gave full employment to eccle-
siastical bards. S.Notker Balbulus, a monk of St. Gall, who died
in 10] 2, was the first author of Sequences, or hymns sung between
the Epistle and the Gospel in the Mass. These are of two kinds —
those more properly called Proses, though the name was afterwards
applied to both, the metre of which has been expounded by
the author in his Sequentlarum Collection (though to enter into their
laws would lead us too far from our immediate subject,) and the
more regular and rhythmical kind.
Of the former, the following, which we give in the original, may
serve as an example ; we note the corresponding lines with cor-
responding letters :
Sancti Spiritus adsit nobis gratia,
a Quae corda nostra sibi faciat habitacula
a Expulsis inde cunctis vitiis spiritalibus.
b Spiritus alme, illustrator omnium,
b Horridas nostrne mentis purga tenebras :
C Amator sancte sensatorum semper cogitatuum,
c Infunde unctionem tuam clemens nostris sensibus.
d Tu purificator omnium flagitiorum, Spiritus,
d Purifica nostri oculum interioris hominis,
J.H. Parker, 1852.
ADAM OF S. VICTOR, 2 17
€ Ut vidcri supremus Genitor possit a nobis, g ^otkci
t Mundi cordis queni soli ecrncre possunt oculi. Balbulus.
/ Prophetaa tu inspir&sti, ut pneconia Christi prscinuisseiit inclyta:
/ Apostolos confortasti, uti tropxum Christi per totum mundum vehercnt.
g Quando machinam per Verbum suura fecit Deus eceli, terra, marium,
g Tu super aquas, foturus eas, numen tuum expandisti, Spiritus.
h Tu aniinabus viviticandis aquas fa?eundas :
h Tu aspiraudo das spiritales esse homines.
i Tu divisum per linguas mundum et ritus adunasti, Domine.
I Idolloatras ad cultum Dei revoeas, magistrorum optime.
k Ergo nos supplicantes tibi exaudi propitius, Sancte Spiritus,
k Sine quo preces omnes cassa creduntur, et indigna Dei auribus,
I Tu qui omnium Bfficulorum sanctos tui nominis docuisti instinctu amplec-
tendo, Spiritus.
/ Ipse hodie Apostolos Christi donans munere insolito et cunctis inaudito seculis
Hanc diem gloriosam fecisti.
The following, VxctinuB Paschali, which we give from the Hymnal
Noted, is one of the most famous :
To the Paschal Victim, Christians, bring the sacrifice of praise.
The Lamb the Sheep hath ransomM ; Christ, the undented, sinners to his God
and Father hath reconciled.
Death and Life, in wond'rous strife, came to conflict sharp and sore : Life's
Monarch, He that died, now dies no more.
What thou sawest, Mary, say, as thou wentest on thy way.
I saw the Slain One's earthly prison : I saw the glory of the Risen : —
The witness-Angels by the cave : — and the garments of the grave.
The Lord, my hope, hath risen : and He shall go before to Galilee.
We know that Christ is risen from death indeed : — Thou victor Monarch, for
Thy suppliants plead. Amen. Allelulia !
In the more regular and rhythmical kind of Sequences, Adam of Adam of s.
S. Victor has the preeminence. We quote Mr. Trench's admirable >lctor*
critique : —
" Very different estimates have been formed of the merits of
Adam of S. Victor's hymns. His greatest admirers will hardly
deny that he pushes too far, and plays over much with, his skill in
the typical application of the Old Testament. So, too, they must
own that sometimes he is unable to fuse with perfect success his
manifold learned allusion into the passion of his poetry." " Nor less
must it be allowed that he is sometimes guilty of concetti or plays
upon words, not altogether worthy of the solemnity of his theme.
Thus, of one martyr he says,"
Sub securi stat securus ;
of another,
Dum torretur, non terretur;
of the Blessed Virgin,
O dulcis vena venise ;
of Heaven,
O quain beata curia
Quae cui'ce prorsus nescia.
248
ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY.
Adam of
S. Yictor.
Sometimes he is fond of displaying feats of skill in versification, of
prodigally accumulating, or curiously interlacing his rhymes, that
he may show his perfect mastery of the forms which he is using,
and how little he is confined or trammelled by them.
" These faults, it will seen, are indeed, most of them, but merits
pushed into excess. And even accepting them as defects, his pro-
found acquaintance with the whole circle of the theology of his
time, and eminently with its exposition of Scripture — the abundant
and admirable use, with indeed the drawback already mentioned,
which he makes of it, delivering as he thus does his poems from the
merely subjective cast of those, beautiful as they are, of S. Bernard ;
the exquisite art and variety with which for the most part his verse
is managed, and his rhymes disposed, their rich melody multiplying
and ever deepening at the close, — the strength which often he con-
centrates into a single line, — his skill in conducting a narration —
and most of all, the evident nearness of the things which he cele-
brates to his own heart of hearts — all these, and other excellences,
render him, as far as my judgment goes, the foremost among the
sacred Latin poets of the middle ages."
The three following hymns may give an idea of his manner :
The first is a Sequence for Easter :
Hail the much-remembered day !
Night from morning flies away,
Life the chains of death hath burst :
Gladness, welcome ! grief, begone !
Greater glory draweth on
Than confusion at the first.
Flies the shadowy from the true ;
Flies the ancient from the new :
Comfort hath each tear dispersed.
Hail, our Pascha, that wast dead !
What preceded in the Head
That each member hopes to gain ;
Christ our newer Pascha now,
Late in death content to bow,
When the spotless Lamb was slain.
Christ the prey hath here unbound
From the foe that girt us round ;
Which in Samson's deed is found,
When the lion he had slain :
David, in his Father's cause,
From the lion's hungry jaws,
And the bear's devouring paws,
Hath set free His flock again.
He that thousands slew by dying,
Samson, Christ is typifying,
Who by death o'ercame his foes :
Samson, by interpretation,
Is " their Sunlight : " Our Salvation
Thus hath brought illumination
To the Elect on whom He rose.
From the Cross's pole of glory
Flows the must of ancient story
In the Church's wine vat stored :
From the press, now trodden duly,
Gentile first-fruits gathered newly
Drink the precious liquor poured.
Sackcloth worn with foul abuses
Passes on to royal uses ;
Grace in that garb at length we see,
The Flesh hath conquered misery.
They by whom their Monarch perished
Lost the kingdom that they cherished,
And for a sign and wonder Cain
Is set, who never shall be slain.
Reprobated and rejected
Was this stone that, now elected,
For a trophy stands erected
And a precious cornerstone :
Sin's, not Nature's, termination,
He creates a new Creation,
And, Himself their colligation,
Binds two peoples into one.
Give we glory to the Head,
O'er the members love be shed !
ADAM OF S. VICTOR.
Z49
The second is on the Four Evangelists : — ■
Faithful flock, in whose possessing
Is your Heavenly Father's blessing,
GUdneet, in His lore progressing,
From EzekieTs Vision draw :
John the Prophet's witness sharing,
In the Apocalypse declaring,
" This I write, true record bearing
Of the things I truly law."
Round the Throne, 'midst Angel natures.
Stand four holy living creatures,
Whose diversity of features
Maketfa good the Seer's plan :
This an Eagle's visage knoweth :
That a Lion's image showeth :
Scripture on the rest bestoweth
The twain forms of Ox and Man.
These are they, the symbols mystic
Of the forms Evangelistic,
Whose four Gospels, dews majestic,
Still the Church's portion be :
Matthew first, and Mark the second :
Luke with these is rightly reckoned :
And the loved Apostle, beckoned
By the Lord from Zebedee.
Matthew's form the man supplieth,
For that thus he testifieth
Of the Lord, that none denieth
Him to spring from man He made :
Luke's the ox, in figure special,
As a creature sacrificial,
For that he the rites judicial
Of Mosaic law displayed.
Mark the wilds as lion shaketh,
And the desert hearing quakeih,
Preparation while he maketh
That the heart with God be right:
Adam of
B. Victor.
John, love's double wing devising,
Earth on eagle plumes despising,
To his God and Lord aprii
Soars away in purer light.
Symbols quadriform uniting
They of Christ are thus inditing :
Quadriform His acts, which writing
They produce before our eyes :
Man, — whose birth man's law obeyeth :
Ox, — whom victim's passion slayeth :
Lion, — when on death He preyeth :
Eagle, — soaring to the skies.
These the creature forms ethereal
Round the Majesty imperial
Seen by prophets ; but material
Difference 'twixt the visions springs :
Wheels are rolling, — wings are flying, —
Scripture lore this signifying ; —
Step with step, as wheels, complying,
Contemplation by the wings.
Paradise is satiated,
Blossoms, thrives, is fecundated,
With the waters irrigated
From these streams that aye proceed :
Christ the fountain, they the river,
Christ the source, and they the giver
Of the streams that they deliver
To supply His people's need.
In these streams our souls bedewing,
That more fully we ensuing
Thirst of goodness, and renewing,
Thirst more fully may allay :
We their holy doctrine follow
From the gulf that gapes to swallow,
And from pleasures vain and hollow
To the joys of heavenly Day.
The third is for the Festival of any Saint :
The Church on earth, with answering love,
Repeats the Church's joys above ;
And while her annual feasts she keeps,
For feasts that never end she weeps.
In this world's valley, dim and wild,
The mother must assist the child ;
And angel guards, in meet array,
Keep watch and ward around our way.
The world, the flesh, and spirits ill,
Array their wars against us still ;
And when their phantom hosts move on,
The Sabbath of the heart is gone.
And storms confused above us lower
Of hope and fear, and joy and '
And scarcely even for one half hour
Is silence in God's house below.
That distant city, oh how blest,
Whose festival no foes infest !
How gladsome is that royal court
Where care and fear have no resort !
Nor languor here, nor weary age,
Nor fraud, nor dread of hostile rage ;
But one the voice, and one the song,
And one the heart of all the throng.
250 ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY.
Thomas of Of other writers of Sequences we may name Thomas of Celano,
Ceiano. the author of the most magnificent of Ecclesiastical poems, the
Dies ira?. Dies Irce. Of this it has been well said :
" Of all the Latin hymns of the Church this is the best known ;
for, as Daniel has truly remarked — "Even they, who have no acquaint-
ance with the Hymns of the Latin Church, at least know this. If
there be any one so lost to all human feeling as not to understand
the sweetness of sacred song, let him read this hymn, whose
words are so many thunders." Its introduction in Faust may
have helped to bring it to the knowledge of some who would not
otherwise have known it ; or, if they had, would not have be-
lieved its worth, but that the sage and seer of this world had thus
stood sponsor to it, and set his seal of recognition upon it.
" The sublime use which Goethe has made of it in that drama will
be remembered by all. To another illustrious man this hymn was
eminently dear. How affecting is that incident recorded of Sir
Walter Scott, by his biographer, — how, in the last days of his life,
when all of his great mind had failed, or was failing, he was yet
heard to murmur to himself some lines of this hymn, which had been
an especial favourite with him in other days. Nor is it hard to
understand or explain the wide and general popularity which it has
enjoyed.
" The metre so grandly devised, of which we remember no other
example, fitted though it has here shown itself for bringing out
some of the noblest powers of the Latin language — the solemn
effect of the triple rhyme, which has been likened to blow following
blow of the hammer on the anvil — the confidence of the poet in
the universal interest of his theme, a confidence which has made him
set out his matter with so majestic and unadorned a plainness, as
at once to be intelligent to all, — these merits, with many more, have
continued to give the Dies Irce a high place, indeed one of the
highest, among the masterpieces of sacred song."
The following translation is that of Mr. Irons :
Day of wrath ! O Day of mourning ! Lo, the Book, exactly worded !
See ! once more the Cross returning — Wherein all hath been recorded ; —
Heav'n and earth in ashes burning! Hence shall judgment be awarded.
O what fear man's bosom rendeth, When the Judge His seat attaineth,
When from heav'n the judge descendeth, And each hidden deed arraigneth,
On whose sentence all depcndeth ! Nothing unavenged remaineth.
Wondrous sound the Trumpet flingeth, What shall I, frail man, be pleading —
Through earth's sepulchres it ringeth, Who for me be interceding —
All before the throne it bringeth. When the just are mercy needing?
Death is struck, and nature quaking — King of majesty tremendous,
All creation is awaking, Who dost free salvation send us,
To its judge an answer making ! Fount of pity ! then befriend us !
JAMES DE BENEDICT!-.
25]
Think, kind Jcsu ! — my salvation
Cans' d Thy wond'rous incarnation :
Leave me not to reprobation !
Faint and weary Thou hast sought me,
On the Cross of suffering bought me ; —
Shall such grace be vainly brought me?
Righteous Judge of Retribution,
Grant thy gift of absolution,
Ere that reckoning-day's conclusion ;
Guilty, now I pour my moaning,
All my shame with anguish owning ;
Spare, O God, thy suppliant, groaning.
Thou, the sinful woman savedst —
Thou the dying thief forgavest ;
And to me a hope vouchsafest !
Worthless arc my pmyefl and lighing, p
Yet, good Lord, in grace compl
Rescue me from fired undying I
With Thy favour' d sheep, O place me !
X(.r among the goats abase me ;
But to thy right hand upraise me.
AVhile the wicked are confounded,
Doom'd to flames of woe unbounded,
Call me ! with Thy saints surrounded.
Low I kneel, with heart-submission ;
See, like ashes, my contrition —
Help me, in my last condition !
Ah ! that day of tears and mourning !
From the dust of earth returning
Man for judgment must prepare him ;
Spare ! O God, in mercy spare him !
Lord of mercy, Jesus blest,
Grant them thine eternal rest ! — Amen!
James de Benebictis, or Jacopone^ as he was familiarly called, James de
among his other poems left the celebrated Stabat Mater* We
employ Mr. Wackerbarth's translation :
Benedictis.
See the mother stands deploring,
By the cross her tears out-pouring,
Where her Son expiring hangs ;
For her gentle spirit groaning,
Anguish-smitten and bemoaning,
Rend the sword's most cruel pangs.
Grant, O mother, love's out-springing,
Me to feel thy sorrows wringing,
Bid me share thy cup of woe :
Make my heart for ever fervent,
Christ my God's adoring servant,
That his pleasure I may do.
Oh how downcast and distressed,
Was the mother ever blessed
Of the sole-begotten One,
Who lamented and who grieved,
Mother mild, as she perceived
Torments rack her heav'nly Son,
Bid me bear, O Mother blessed,
On my heart the wounds impressed,
Suffered by the Crucified ;
And thy Son's most bitter passion,
Rack'd in so remorseless fashion
All for me, with me divide.
Who could keep from tears of anguish,
Could he s*ee Christ's mother languish
Thus in grief and suffering wild ?
Who his agony could smother,
Could he see his gentle mother
Sorrowing with her holy child ?
For his people sacrificed
She beheld Christ agonised,
And beneath the scourger's rod, —
She beheld her offspring blessed
Die forsaken and distressed,
As He gave His soul to God.
With thee weeping in communion,
With the Crucified in union,
Long as life within me plays.
By the cross with thee remaining,
Joined with thee in grief and plaining,
Such the boon thy servant pray9.
Queen of Virgins, heav'n-adorned,
Let me not of thee be scorned,
Let me share thy grief and woe.
Jesu's death my study making,
In His agony partaking,
Make me all His tortures know.
252
ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY.
James de
Bcnedictis.
S. Thomas
Aquinas.
All His bitter torments feeling,
In the Cross my spirit reeling,
In His blood my senses drown ;
That, all glowing with affection,
I may find in thee protection
When to judgment He comes down.
In the Cross salvation yield me,
And in Jesu's passion shield me,
Cherish me with mercy's aid.
When my earthly frame shall perish,
Grant around my soul to flourish
Eden's joys that never fade.
Amen.
After S. Thomas Aquinas, who died in 1274, the fount of
mediaeval poetry seems to have begun to dry. The following is
one of his most famous hymns :
Of the glorious Body telling,
O my tongue, its mystery sing,
And the Blood, all price excelling,
Which for this world's ransoming,
In a generous womb once dwelling,
He shed forth, the Gentile's King.
Given for us, for us descending
Of a Virgin to proceed,
Man with man in converse blending,
Scattered He the Gospel seed :
Till his sojourn drew to ending,
Which He closed in wondrous deed.
At the last Great Supper seated,
Circled by His brethren's band,
All the Law required, completed
In the meat its statutes planned,
To the Twelve Himself He meted
For their food with his own hand.
Word made flesh, by word He truly
Makes true bread His flesh to be :
Wine Christ's blood becometh newly
And if senses fail to see,
Faith alone the true heart duly
Strengthens for the mystery.
Such a sacrament, inclining,
Worship we with reverent awe :
Ancient rites their place resigning
To a new and nobler law :
Faith her supplement assigning
To make good the sense's flaw.
Honour, laud, and praise addressing
To the Father and the Son,
Might ascribe we, virtue, blessing,
And eternal benison :
Holy Ghost, from both progressing,
Equal laud to Thee be done !
Of later poems we may quote a very elegant German Sequence,
of the fourteenth or fifteenth century : 0 beala beatorum.
Blessed Feasts of Blessed Martyrs,
Saintly days of saintly men,
With affection's recollections,
Greet we your return again.
Worthy are they worthy wonders
To perform, the conflict o'er :
We with meetest praise and sweetest
Venerate them evermore.
Faith unblenching, Hope unquenching,
Dear-loved Lord, and simple heart ;
Thus they glorious and victorious
Bore the martyr's happy part.
Carceration, trucidation,
Many a torment fierce and long,
Fire, and axe, and laceration
Tried and glorified the throng.
While they passed through divers tortures,
Till they sank by death opprest,
Earth's rejected were elected
To have portion with the Blest.
By contempt of worldly pleasures,
And by mighty battles done,
Have they merited with angels
To be knit for aye in one.
Wherefore made coheirs of glory,
Ye that sit with Christ on high,
Join to ours your supplications,
As for grace and peace we cry :
That this naughty life completed,
And its many labours past,
We may merit to be seated
In our Lord's bright home at last.
CONCLUSION.
253
Such was the remarkable phase of Latin poetry designated by the
term ecclesiastical — maintaining vitality, richness, and its own
peculiar features, alike through the decay ami artificial revival of
the classical school, and in no degree affected by either. Deeply
interesting as is the subject to the theologian, it is only in a literary
point of view that it demands notice in this work.
The much-vaunted intellectual liberality and comprehensive spirit
of our times has no brighter evidence of its pretensions than that
scholars are learning to enjoy Damian and De Celano without
losing ear or heart for the melody and sublimity of Horace and
Virgil.
EDITIONS OE ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETS,
COMMODIANUS.
The most convenient edition for the English reader is that (containing also
Minucius Felix) of Davies, Cambridge, 1712. It has Rigaltius's notes
and his own ; but very much praise cannot be given to either.
JUVENCUS.
There have been at least thirty editions of Juvencus. The most remark-
able are — the Princeps, without date or note of place, but about 1490 ;
it contains also the Psychomachia of Prudentius, the verses of S. Cyprian
de ligno Cruris, &c. : the Aldine of 1501, containing the other Christian
poets; with Sedulius, Cologne, 1537, a convenient edition: that of
Reusch, Frankfort, 1710 ; and the noble one of Arevalus, Rome, 1792,
PRUDENTIUS.
The best editions of his works are : — The Princeps, without note of place or
time, but to be known by the colophon at the end. which speaks of
the booh (in the singular) against Symmachus ; those of Deventer,
1472 and 1495 ; that of Nebrissensis, 1512 ; that of Antwerp, by Plantin.
1564; that by Wertz, 1613; the Delphin, 16S7 (Chamillard was
editor) ; that of Arevalus, Rome, 17S8 ; the Variorum of Valpy, 1824 ;
and that of Obbarius. A convenient pocket-edition is that of
Amsterdam, 1631.
SEDULIUS,
Between forty and fifty editions of his works have been published, very
frequently together with those of Juvencus. The best are : — The
Editio Princeps. published at Paris, without date, but to be known by
its colophon, Quint o Calendas Martias ex ofhcina Ascensiana, apud
Parrhisios ; that of Saragossa, 1515, with the paraphrase of Nebris-
sensis; that of Gnmer, Leipsic, 1747; and that of Arevalus, Rome,
1794.
DRACONTIUS.
There have been about fifteen editions. The Princeps, which contained
several other works of early Christian poets, was published in Paris in
1560 : the best are those of Carpsov, Helmstadt, 1794, and of Arevalus,
Rome, 1791.
ARATOR.
The best editions are : — The Princeps, the same with that of Juvencus ;
the Aldine, of 1501 ; that of Basle, 1537 ; and that of Fabricius, which
is extremely convenient for all the Christian Poets, Basle, 1564.
EDITIONS OF ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POBTS. 255
THE PRINCIPAL HYMNOLOGIES, &a, ARK THE FOLLOWING
1. Hyuini de Tempore et de Sanctis. Ed. Joannes Wimph< i]
Argent orat. 1519.
2. Sequentiarum luculenta Expositio. Per Joannem Adelphum.
gentorat. 1519.
3. Hyrnni et Sequential cum diligenti interpretatione. Ed. Bermannufl
Torrentinus. Colonic, 1513, 1536.
4. Elucidatorium Ecclesiasticum. Auctore Jodoco Clichtovceo. Parisus,
1515,1556. Basil. 1517, 1519. Venet. 155;"). Colon. 1782. The
first part contains an exposition of the Hymns ; the second, of the
Sequences.
5. Hymnarium. [Inter opera Cardin. Thomasii. Tom. 2. Ed. VezzosL 1747.
6. Anthologie Christlicher Gesiinge. Von A. J. Rambach. Altona, 1817.
7. Thesaurus Hymnologicus. Ed. H. A. Daniel. The first part, Halle.
1841, contains the Hymns ; the second, Leipsic, 1844, the Sequencea
In England there have appeared —
1. Hyrnni Ecclesia?, e Breviario Parisiensi. [Ed. J. H. Newman.
Oxon. 1838.
2. Hyrnni Ecclesire, e Breviario Romano, &c. [Ed. J. H. Newman.]
Oxon. 1838. This latter is nearly valueless, as containing the
modernised Roman forms.
3. Sacred Latin Poetry, chiefly lyrical, with notes, &c. By R. C.
Trench. London, 1849.
4. Hymnal e secundum usurn insignis ct prseclarse Ecclesise Sarisbu-
riensis. [Ed. C. Marriott.] Littlemore, 1850.
5. Hyrnni ex Breviariis Gallicanis, Germanis, Hispanis, Lusitanis, de-
sumpti. Ed. Joann. M. Neale. Oxon. 1850.
6. Hymnarium Sarisburiense. Cum rubricis, notis musieis. variifl Le •-
tionibus. Londini : Darling: 1851. [The first part only yet
published.]
7. Sequential ex Missalibus Germanicis, Gallicis, Anglicis, aliisque
medii oevi collectoe. Ed. Joann. M. Neale. Londini : J. W.
Parker : 1852. [Contains a collection of 120 Sequences not
given by Daniel.]
The Hymns cited from the Hymnal Noted arc, by the kind permission
of Mr. Novello, the publisher, taken from these works, published
under the sanction of the Ecclesiological Society.
1. A Hymnal Noted ; Or Translations of the Ancient Hymns of the
Church, set to their proper melodies. Edited by the Rev.
J. M. Neale, M.A., and the Rev. Thomas Helmore, MA.
2. Accompanying Harmonies to the Hymnal Noted. By the Rev,
T. Helmore, M.A.
3. The Words of the Hymnal, in a separate form.
Those quoted from the author's translations of Mediaeval iiymns are 80
taken by permission of the publisher, Mr. Masters.
APPENDIX.
ON THE MEASURES EMPLOYED BY MEDLEVAL POETS.
As a conclusion to the foregoing article, it seems desirable to give a short and
tabular view of the metres which the ecclesiastical writers of the middle ages
most commonly employed. The Labyrinthus of Eberhard is a store-house of
information on the subject. Sir Alexander Croke, in his essay on rhyming
Latin poetry, has availed himself largely of that work. He is very meagre,
however, in his account of every measure except hexameters and pentameters.
I. Hexameters.
1 . Without rhyme :
Alma chorus Domini nunc pangat nomina summi,
Messias, Soter, Emanuel, Sabaoth, Adonai.
2. Leonine (so called either from their kingly superiority to all other kinds,
or from Leonius, a monk of S. Victor's, at Marseilles, about 1135) :
Si veluti quondam scriptor vel scripta placerent
In nova dicendo multi, velut ante, studerent.
Sed sic sub vitio cunctorum corda tenentur
Ut sic qui scribant, quasi delirare videntur.
A variety of this is —
(1.) The double Leonine :
Quod mea verba monent, tu noli credere vento :
Cordis in aure sonent, et sic retinere memento.
(2.) The reciprocal Leonine :
Lux hypergaei studioea ministra diei
Aufert lumen ei, spatium quoque dat requiei.
3. Cristati :
Quam nimis insanus prases fuerit Dacianus,
Ex scelerum gestis illius scire potestis.
Hie apud Hispanos ritus recolendo profanos
Jusserat inquiri si forte queant reperiri
Qui Christum credant, nee ab hoc errore recedant :
Hos graviter plecti praeceperat, aut cito flecti.
APPENDIX. 257
Thc9e verses are almost always metrical, although the last sellable of the media]
rhyme is considered to be lengthened by position : as —
Coelorum, Christe, placeat tibi Rex sonus iste.
Inquit : Digests per te mihi sunt inhonesta.
Nee fari digna, cum sint portents maligna.
The general rule is that the second toot must be either a spondee, or, if a dactyl,
must end its second syllable with a word : e.g. —
Nos simul absque | malis sociaret taeda jugalis.
Else we get a rhyme which is merely so to the eye : as —
Nescio quo raperts, vel qua levitate moveris.
Attonitus super his qua? lingua minet niuliem.
Varieties of Cristati were —
(1.) Comuti — where the final rhyme was on two words :
Clam lacerat ccecos, bona limat, ut invidiae cos.
(2.) Inro'si — where the medial rhyme falls in the middle of a word :
Carolina jam marce|re vides : fesso mihi parce.
(3.) Ci"istat-i of one rhyme :
Est quadrupes Panther, quo nunquam pulchrior alter,
Qui niger ex albo conspergitur orbiculato :
Diversis pastus venatibus et satiatus
Se capit, atque cavo dormit prostratus in antro.
(4.) Epanaleptici ;
Hie docet, hie discit, fugat hie, fugit ille'fugantem,
Hie natat, hie nantem capit, undique terra dehiscit.
4. Trilices, and these of several kinds.
(1.) Tnliccs cristati :
Pelle ferum | contemne merum | Dominum cole verum.
(2.) Trilices Iconini :
a. With caesura :
Stella maris, quae sola paris sine conjuge prolem,
Justitiae clarum specie super omnia solem :
Gemma decens, rosa nata recens perfecta decore,
Mella cavis inclusa fa vis mutata sapore.
j8. Without caesura, and that
(a.) Spondaic :
O miseratrix, O dominatrix, praecipe dictu,
Ne devoremur, ne lapidemur, grandinis ictu*
[r. L.] S
258 ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY.
. (/3.) Dactylic, one of the loveliest of mediaeval measures :
Stant Syon atria conjubilantia, martyre plena,
Cive micantia, Principe stantia, luce serena :
Est ibi pascua mitib us afflux, praestita Sanctis,
Regis ibi thronus, agminis et sonus est epulantis.
Gens duce splendida, concio Candida vestibus albis,
Sunt sine fletibus in Syon aedibus, aedibus almis:
Sunt sine crimine, sunt sine turbine, sunt sine lite
In Syon aedibus editioribus Israelitae.
II. Hexameter and Pentameter.
1. Without rhyme :
Verum quis poterit exponere sufficienter
Quas laudes dederunt plebs proceresque Deo ?
Virtutes etiani Machometis ad astra levabant
Quod sibi par hominum nullus in orbe fuit.
2. Cristati, with single rhyme :
Fit novus in Christ ter inersus gurgite vivo
De quo, Sum xivus fons, ait ille \>ius.
Os terit obliquwwi per verba precantia Christwm,
Quod Christus petra sit, litera ssepe tu\it.
3. Cristati, with double rhyme :
Sicut ad ima redit quicquid locus infimus edit,
Et liber finis non valet esse cinis,
Sic res e sursum vernens petit acthera rursum,
Ut semper maneat quod Deus ipse creat.
4. Leonines :
Et fuit ex auro Thares fabricator eorum,
Cum quibus instituit Rex Ninevita forum.
5. Double Leonines :
Si tibi grata seges est morum, gratus haberis ;
Si virtutis eges, despiciendus eris.
6. Inverted Leonines :
Haec bene qui quserit fugiat solatia mundi :
Finis jucundi turn sibi certus erit.
7. Two hexameters, and a pentameter, Leonine :
Denarios triginta Deo quos inde tulerunt,
In gazam templi, Jesu mandante, dederunt ;
Quos Judam pretio posthabuisse ferunt.
8. Two hexameters, Leonine : a pentameter, cristatus :
Tunc in ea crypta tria sunt hscc dona relicta :
Aurum, thus, myrrha, vestisque Dei benedicta :
Pastores veniunt, ipsaque dona vehunt.
And this list might easily be extended.
APPENDIX. 259
III. Sapphics.
1. Metrical :
Qui pius, prudciis, humilis, pudicus,
Sobrius, castus fuit ct quietus :
Vita duiii praesens vcgetavit ejus
Corporis artus.
2. Accentual, with rhyme : there are many varieties, the most usual is this:
Festum insigne prxsulis amati
Colimus digne : Sane toe Trinitati
Solvere vota surgimus in tota
Devotione.
Festo prsesenti sancto confessore
Sumus intenti : gaudia canore
Carmine damus : tibi jubilamus
Petitione.
3. Accentual, without rhyme :
Dicentes regi, Domine, quid facis ?
Contra teipsum malum operaris
Cum Rodericum sublimari sinis ■
Displicet nobis.
4. A more extraordinary measure is the Sapphic with a redundant syllable,
which is by some considered a trimeter Iambic, followed by an Adonic :
Gloriam Deo in excelsis hodie
Coelestis primum cecinit exercitus :
Pax Angeloruin et in terra vocibus
Vera descendit.
IV. Choriambics.
1, Quasi-metrical:
Sanctorum meritis inclyta gaudia
Pangamus socii gestaque fortia :
Nam gliscit animus promere cantibus
Victorum genus optimum.
2. Accentual:
Sacris solemniis juncta sint gaudia,
Et ex praecordiis sonent praeconia ;
Recedant Vetera ; nova sint omnia,
Corda, voces, et opera.
V. Iambics.
The following are the chief measures out of an almost innumerable variety : —
1. Dimeter caialectic.
(1.) Without rhyme, but metrical :
Fac cum, vocante somno,
Castum petis cubile,
Frontem locumque cordis
Crucis figura signet.
260 ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY.
(2.) Without rhyme or metre, hut simply syllabic :
Nam tempus illud hoc est
Quod Jeremias dicit
Surgendum esse nobis
Primordio in noctis.
(3.) With rhyme :
O mira lex vivendi !
De casu moriendi
Vis oritur nascendi.
Jerusalem, exulta !
2. I>imetei\
(1.) Without rhyme :
Alvus tumescit Virginia,
Claustrum pudoris permanet,
Yexilla virtutum micant,
Yersatur in templo Deus.
(2.) Without rhyme or metre, but simply syllabic :
Medio noctis tempore
Pergens vastator Angelus
Egypto mortem inferens
Delevit prhnogenita.
(3.) With assonant rhymes :
Yexilla Regis prodeunt :
Fulget Cruris mysterium :
Quo carne carnis conditor
Suspensus est patibulo.
(4.) With consonant rhymes :
Chorus novae Jerusalem
Novam meli dulcedinem
Promat, colens cum sobriis
Paschale festum gaudiis.
(5.) With triple rhymes :
Hoc ut praestamus, Domine,
Praesta in tuo nomine,
Sine quo labor deficit,
Qui nihil digne efficif.
(6.) With alternate rhymes :
Lauda, Mater Ecclesia,
Lauda Chris ti clementiam,
Qui septem purgat vitia
Per septiformcm gratiam.
(7.) Stanzas of six lines :
Veni, veni, Emmanuel,
Captivum solve Israel
Qui gcmit in exilio
Privatus Dei Filio :
Gaude, gaude, Emmanuel
Nascetur pro te, Israel !
APPENDIX. 261
(J>.) Stanzas of two lines :
Puer natus in Bethlehem,
Unde gaudet Jerusalem.
(9.) Stanzas of six lines, alternately Iambic dimeter and Trochaic dimeter
catalectic :
Paschalis festi gaudium
Mundi replet ambitum :
Caelum, tellus, et maria
Laeta promant carmina :
Et Alleluia consonis
Modulentur organis.
It is to be observed that, after the Xllth century, the rhymes of dimeter
Iambics are generally double, — it being considered sufficient that the first rhyme
should be assonant, even where the second was strictly consonant : e. g. —
Ortu lucis jam proximo
Hymnum dicamus Dommo,
Apostolis condebztam
Ferentes reverenUam.
As the great majority of the Hymns of the Church are written in dimeter
Iambics, it may be useful to lay down a few plain rules for ascertaining their age.
There will, of course, be exceptions ; and beyond everything, a certain kind of
tact is necessary in determining the date of such compositions ; but the following
rules, so far as they go, will be found of very general application : —
1 . If the Hymn, evidently not renaissance, be metrical, and without rhyme, or
nearly corresponding to these conditions, it is earlier than the time of S. Gregory
the Great.
2. If it be without rhyme, but not metrical, it will probably be of Gotho-
Hispanic origin, and before the VHIth century. The ruder the accentuation,
the more probable this becomes ; and if there be any instances of the use of the
ablative for the accusative, as Intrare sanctd regid for Intrare &anctam regiam,
it is absolutely certain.
3. A Hymn with alternate rhymes, though such do occur as early as the Xth
century, is probably not earlier than the Xlllth or XlVth.
4. Hymns that conclude each verse with the first line of some well-known
Hymn are scarcely earlier than the XVth century.
5. Hymns which rhyme assonantly are probably earlier than the Xlth century,
and the greater striving after assonance the later the Hymn.
6. Hymns which rhyme consonantly, and with double rhymes, are not later
than the Xlllth century.
We proceed : —
(10.) Iambic trimeter brach y catalectic :
Sancti venite, corpus Christi sumite,
Sanctum bibentes, quo redempti, sanguinem.
(11.) Iambic trimeter :
Aurea. luce et decore roseo
Lux lucis omne perfudisti saeculum,
Decorans ccelos inclvto martyrio
H^c sacra die, quae dat reis veniam.
262 ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY.
This stanza, as consisting of twelve syllables, is almost confined to the Festivals
of the Apostles.
(12.) Iambic tetrameter catalectic.
This is scarcely found earlier than the XVIth century, and generally with triple
assonant medial rhymes :
Morosus es et tetricus morborum cinctus choro?
iEgrotus tecum medicus decumbit Crueis thoro :
Non est a Christi vertice ad plantam pedis vena
Quam non per te, O perdhe, major affligit poena.
VI. Trochaics.
These show mediaeval Latin in its full power : it is impossible to do more than
give a list of the most common metres.
1. Tetrameter catalectic.
(1.) Without rhyme :
Hymnus dicat turba fratrum, hymnus cantus personat
Christo Regi concinentes laudes demus debitas.
(2.) With final rhyme :
Gravi me terrore pulsas, vitse dies ultima :
Mceret cor, solvuntur renes, lsesa tremunt viscera,
Tuam speciem dum sibi mens depingit anxia.
(3.) With medial and final rhyme :
Gaude felix Agrippina sanctaque Colonia,
Sanctitatis tuse bina gerens testimonia.
(4.) With cristate and final rhyme :
Fide, voto, corde toto adhseserunt Domino :
Et invieti sunt addicti atroci martyrio.
2. Various combinations of dimeter and dimeter catalectic.
(1.) Hexacole.
a. Terminal rhyme :
Hie praecursor et Propheta,
Immo Prophetarum meta,
Legi ponens terminum :
Mire ccepit per applausum
Ventre matris clausus clausum
Revelando Dominum.
)3. Medial rhyme :
Felix Anna, ex te manna
Mundo datur, quo pascatur
In deserto populus.
Hoc dulcore, hoc sapore
Sustentatur, procreatur,
Ex manna vermiculus.
APPENDIX. 263
y. Inverted :
Tlortum Regis gloria
Celebris memoriae
Es ingressa, Dorothea.
Bene tecum agitur ;
Jesus tecum loquitur ;
Veni, veni, sponsa mea.
(2.) Octacolc.
a. Three rhymes :
Vox clarescat, mens purgetur,
Homo totus emuletur,
Dulci voce conformetur
Pura conscientia :
Patri, Proli, jubilemus :
Pneuma sanctum prsedicemus :
Unam laudem tribus demus
Quos unit essentia.
/3. Two rhymes :
Mitis Agnus immolatur :
Pro captivo liber datur :
Stola Verbi purpuratur
In Crucis altario :
Paradisus reseratur :
Nato stola prima datur :
Annulatus calcitratur
In Patris convivio.
(3.) Decacole.
a. With three rhymes :
Bona pastor, panis vere,
Jesu, nostri miserere :
Tu nos pasce, nos tuere,
Tu nos bona fac videre
In terra viveutium.
Tu qui cuncta scis et vales,
Qui nos pascis hie mortales,
Tuos ibi commensales
Cohaeredes et sodales
Fac sanctorum civium.
&. With two rhymes :
Christi tractus in odore,
Christi languens in amore,
Vires sumens ex languore,
Corde, votis, factis, ore,
Quern amabat coluit.
Hie nee minis nee timore
Mortis fractus, nee labore,
Idolorum ab errore,
Multo quidem cum sudore,
Gentem suam eruit.
264 ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY.
These metres most frequently occur in sequences ; and are there frequently
varied, as in other ways, so more especially by the insertion of two Iambic
trimeter brachycatalectic lines ; thus :
Servi crucis crucem laudent
Per quam crucem sibi gaudent
Vitae dari munera :
Dicant omnes et dicant singuli,
Ave, salus totius saeculi,
Arbor salutifera.
It is also to be observed that, in almost all examples of these metres, the
rhymes which seem single are, at least assonantly, double, — as we observed above
regarding Iambics.
3. Various combinations of Trochaic dimeter catalectic,
(1.) Rhymes consequent :
Ergo pro justitia
Coronatur gloria :
Et laetandum potius :
Sed tamen non possumus.
(2.) Rhymes alternate :
Elementa vicibus
Qualitates variant,
Dum nunc pigra nivibus
Nunc calorem induant.
(3.) Hexacoles :
a. Novi partus gaudium
Sonet vox fidelium,
Quo lumen de lumine,
Prodiens de Virgine,
Purgat Adse vitium
Veteri caligine.
£. Mane prima Sabbati
Surgens Filius Dei,
Nostra spes et gloria,
Victo rege sceleris,
Rediit ab inferis
Sumnia cum victoria.
(4.) Heptacoles :
a. Mundi renovatio
Nova parit gaudia :
Resurgente Domino
Conresurgunt omnia :
Elementa serviunt,
Et auctoris sentiunt
Quanta sint solemnia.
j8. Tempore sub gratiae,
Nondum plena facie,
Roma fide claruit :
Sed errori patuit
Ab imperatoribus,
Et horum erroribus
Profanata languit.
APPENDIX. 265
4. Various combinations of Trochaic dimeter catalectic, and Trochaic
dimeter br achy catalectic.
(1.) The following is the most usual and most beautiful of these :
Coenam cum discipulis, Christc, celebrasti :
Et mortem Apostolis palam munciasti :
Et auctorem sceleris Judam demonstrasti :
Et egressus protinus hortulum intrasti.
In narrative poems the medial rhyme is generally dropped :
Crucem ferre Simoni sciens nil prodesse,
De vi votum efficit, velle de necesse :
Pressum palam cruciant cruces clam impress*,
Palam et clam studuit crucis cultor esse.
The pause at the end of the seventh foot is almost always rigorously observed ;
the violation of the rule produces a very inharmonious effect ; as —
Hora matutina Ma|riae nunciatur
Quod Jesus a Judaeis falsis captivatur.
A very extraordinary variety of this measure is that which employs a hexameter
as the fourth line :
Procuret Omnipotens sibi successorem,
Saltern sibi similem, nollem meliorem,
Qui tollat Bretonibus antiquum dolorem,
Et sibi restituat propriam propriaeque decorem.
(2.) Stanzas such as the following occur in almost innumerable varieties :
Dies est laetitiae
In ortu regali,
Nam processit hodie
Ventre virginali
Puer admirabilis,
Totus delectabilis
In divinitate,
Qui inestimabilis
Est et inefTabilis
In humanitate.
To attempt to particularise these would be utterly beyond our present limits.
5. Trochaic dimeter.
(1.) Couplets: (2.) Triplets:
Nocte quadam via fessus, Dies irae, dies ilia
Torum premens somno pressus Solvet saeclum in favilla,
In obscuro noctis densae Teste David cum Sibylla.
Templum vidi Patavense.
6. Trochaic dimeter br achy catalectic.
(1 .) Without rhyme : (2.) With rhyme :
Ave, maris Stella, Ave Katherina,
Dei Mater alma, Martyr et Regina,
Atque semper Virgo, Virgo Deo digna,
Felix cceli porta. Mitis et benigna.
266 ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETRY.
VII. Dactylics.
1. _!_ | J | J_ | _L
Cur mundus militat sub vana gloria
Cujus prosperitas est transitoria?
Tarn cito labitur ejus potentia
Quam vasa figuli, quae sunt fragilia.
It may be doubted, in many cases, whether such lines were intended to be read
as tetrameter Dactylics, or trimeter Iambics :
Nam ipsi praesules, virtute tepidi,
Saluti gentium custodes positi,
Cum docere debent, fiunt discipuli,
Cum pastores essent, sunt mercenarii.
'--- i -- i - ■
Tuba Domini, Paule, maxima,
De coelestibus dans tonitrua,
Hostes dissipans, civcs aggrega.
L _ | J | _!_
Rorant nubes misericordia,
Pluunt nubes, stillat justitia.
4. Tetrameter catalectic.
Germine nobilis Eulalia,
Mortis et indole nobilior,
Emeritam sacra Virgo suam
Ossibus ornat, amore colit.
VIII. AnapjEsts.
1. Tetrameter catalectic.
(1.) Without rhyme : (2.) With rhyme :
Deus, ignee fons animarum, Quo more vulgaris urtica
Duo qui socians elementa, Jacet haec quoque regia spica ;
Vivum simul ac moribundum Ut bulla defluxit aquosa
Hominem, Pater, effigiasti. Subsedit, ut vespere rosa.
2. Irregular :
Adeste fideles,
Laeti, triumphantes,
Venite, venite, in Bethlehem.
Natum videte
Regem Angelorum.
Venite adoremus, venite adoremus,
Venite adoremus Dominum.
The above may suffice as a very meagre sketch of the principal varieties of
mediaeval rhythm : a complete list would far exceed the space to which the limits
of an Encyclopaedia necessarily confine us.
LATIN PROSE WRITERS.
CICERO.
ROMAN PHILOSOPHY AND ORATORY.
BY
JOHN HENKY NEWMAN, B.D.
FORMERLY FELLOW OF ORIBL COLLEGE OXFORD.
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO.
from u. c. 647 to 711 ; a. c. 107 to 43.
We now turn to consider the political character, oratorical talents,
and philosophical writings of one who has already come before us
in our poetical division.
Marcus Tullius Cicero was born at Arpinum, the native place of
Marius,1 in the year of Home 647, (a.c. 107,) the same year which
gave birth to the Great Pompey. His family was ancient and of
Equestrian rank, but had never taken part in the public affairs of
Rome,2 though both his father and grandfather were persons of
consideration in the part of Italy to which they belonged.3 His
father, being himself a man of cultivated mind, determined to give
his two sons the advantage of a liberal education, and to fit them
:br the prospect of those public employments which a feeble consti-
tution incapacitated himself from undertaking. Marcus, the elder Birth and
of the two, soon displayed indications of a superior intellect, and cducut101
we are told that his schoolfellows carried home such accounts of his
talents, that their parents often visited the school for the sake of
seeing a youth who gave such promise of future eminence.4 One
of his earliest masters was the poet Archias, whom he defended
| afterwards in his Consular year ; under his instructions he made
such progress as to compose a poem, though yet a boy, on the
1 De Legg. ii. 3.
3 De Legg. ii. 1, 3, 16 ; tie Orat. ii. G6.
2 Contra Rull. ii. 1.
4 Plutarch, in Vita.
272
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO.
Early
campaign
v. c. 864.
a. c. 89.
fable of Glaucus, which had formed the subject of one of the
tragedies of JEschylus. Soon after he assumed the manly gown,
he was placed under the care of Scsevola the celebrated lawyer,
whom he introduces so beautifully into several of his philosophical
dialogues ; and in no long time he gained a thorough knowledge of
the laws and political institutions of his country.1
This was about the time of the Social war ; and, according to the
Roman custom, which made it a necessary part of education to
learn the military art by personal service, Cicero took the oppor-
tunity of serving a campaign under the Consul Pompeius Strabo,
father of Pompey the Great. Returning to pursuits more congenial
to his natural taste, he commenced the study of Philosophy under
Philo the Academic, of whom we shall speak more particularly
hereafter.2 But his chief attention was reserved for Oratory, to
which he applied himself with the assistance of Molo, the first
rhetorician of the day ; while Diodotus the Stoic exercised him in
the argumentative subtleties for which the disciples of Zeno were so
celebrated. At the same time he declaimed daily in Greek and
Latin with some young noblemen who were competitors in the same
race of honours with himself.
Temple of Peace.
Of the two professions,3 which, from the existence of external
and internal disputes, are inseparable alike from all forms of
1 Middleton's Life, vol. i. p. 13, 4to ; de Clar. Orat. 89.
2 Ibid. 3 Pro Munena, 14; de Orat. i. 9.
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 27o
government, while that of arms, by its splendour and importance, ciccro.
secures the almost undivided admiration of a rising and uncivilised
people, legal practice, on the other hand, becomes the path to
honours in later and more civilised ages, from the oratorical
accomplishments by which it is usually attended. The date of
Cicero's birth fell precisely during that intermediate state of things,
in which the exclusive glory of military exploits was prejudiced by
the very opulence and luxury which they had been the means of
procuring ; he was the first Eoman who found his way to the
highest dignities of the State with no other recommendation than Choice ol
his powers of eloquence, and his merits as a civil magistrate.1 profession.
The first cause of importance he undertook was his defence of Defence of
Roscius Amerinus ; in which he distinguished himself by his ?JJ^^
spirited opposition to Sylla, whose favourite Chrysogonus was hi* first
prosecutor in the action. This obliging him, according to Plutarch, caufee
to leave Rome on prudential motives, he employed his time in
travelling for two years under pretence of his health, which, he nis travels,
tells us,2 was as yet unequal to the exertion of pleading. At Athens
he met with T. Pomponius Atticus, whom he had formerly known
at school, and there renewed with him a friendship which lasted
through life, in spite of the change of interests and estrangements
of affection so commonly attendant on turbuleut times.3 Here too
he attended the lectures of Antiochus, who, under the name of
Academic, taught the dogmatic doctrines of Plato and the Stoics.
Though Cicero evinced at first considerable dislike of his philoso-
phical views,4 he seems afterwards to have adopted the sentiments
of the Old Academy, which they much resembled ; and not till late
in life to have relapsed into the sceptical tenets of his former
instructor Philo.5 After visiting the principal philosophers and
rhetoricians of Asia, in his thirtieth year he returned to Home, so Retnnu to
strengthened and improved both in bodily and mental powers, that u#0.677.
he soon eclipsed in speaking all his competitors for public favour. A- c- 77-
So popular a talent speedily gained him the suffrage of the Com-
mons ; and, being sent to Sicily as Quaestor, at a time when the Quaestor of
metropolis itself was visited with a scarcity of corn, he acquitted
himself in that delicate situation with such address, as to supply the
clamorous wants of the people without oppressing the province
from which the provisions were raised.6 Returning thence with
greater honours than had ever been before decreed to a Roman
Governor, he ingratiated himself still farther in the esteem of the
Sicilians, by undertaking his celebrated prosecution of Verres; Prosecution
1 In Catil. iii. 6 ; in Pis. 3 ; pro Sylla, 30 ; pro Dom. 37 ; de Harusp. resp. 23 ;
ad.Fam. xv. 4. 2 De Clar. Oral 91.
3 Middleton's Life, vol. i. p. 42, 4to. 4 Plutarch, in Vita.
5 Warburton, Div. Leg. lib. iii. sec. 3 ; and Vossius, de Nat. Logic, c. viii.
sec. 22. 6 Pro Plane. 26; in Ver. v. 14.
[r. l.] t
274
MAHCUS TULLIUS CICERO.
Cicero.
JEdilc.
Praetor.
who, though defended by the influence of the Metelli and the
eloquence of Hortensius, was at length driven in despair into
voluntary exile.
Five years after his Qusestorship, Cicero was elected iEdile, a
post of considerable expense from the exhibition of games con-
nected with it.1 In this magistracy he conducted himself with
singular propriety ; 2 for, it being customary to court the people by
a display of splendour in these official shows, he contrived to retain
his popularity without submitting to the usual alternative of plun-
dering the provinces or sacrificing his private fortune. The latter
was at this time by no means ample ; but, with the good sense and
taste which mark his character, he preserved in his domestic
arrangements the dignity of a literary and public man, without any
of the ostentation of magnificence which often distinguishes the
candidate for popular applause.3
After the customary interval of two years, he was returned at
the head of the list as Praetor ; 4 and now made his first appearance
Temple of Fortuna Virilis.
in the rostrum in support of the Mamilian law, which will be
found in the volume of this Encyclopaedia containing the pubbc
history of Home. About the same time he defended Cluentius.
1 Pro Plane 20 ; in Verr. v. 14.
3 Pro Dom. 58.
2 De Offic. ii. 1 7
4 In Pis. 1.
Middle ton.
KA&CUS TULLIUS CICERO. 275
At the expiration of his Proctorship, be refused to accept a foreign cicero.
province, the usual reward of that magistracy;1 but, haying the
Consulate full in view, and relying on his interest with Csesai and
Pompey, he allowed nothing to divert him from that career of
glory for which he now believed himself to be destined.
It may be doubted, indeed, whether any individual ever rose to
power by more virtuous and truly honourable conduct ; the in- Different
tegrity of his public life was only equalled by the correctness of his estimates
private morals ; and it may at first sight excite our wonder, that byhiscon-
a course so splendidly begun should afterwards so little fulfil its *™j P°™rics
early promise. We have, in our memoir of Ca3sar, contained in the posterity.
volume above cited, traced his course from the period of his Consulate
to his Praetorship in Cilicia, and found each year diminish his influence
in public affairs, till it expired altogether with the death of Pompey.
This surprise, however, arises in no small degree from measuring
Cicero's political importance by his present reputation, and con-
founding the authority he deservedly possesses as an author, with the
opinions entertained of him by his contemporaries as a statesman.
From the consequence usually attached to passing events, a poli-
tician's celebrity is often at its zenith, in his own generation ; while
the author, who is in the highest repute with posterity, may perhaps
have been little valued or courted in his own day. Virtue indeed so
conspicuous as that of Cicero, studies so dignified, and oratorical
powers so commanding, will always invest their possessor with a
large portion of reputation and authority ; and this is nowhere
more apparent than in the enthusiastic joy displayed on his return
from exile. But unless other qualities be added, more peculiarly
necessary for a statesman, they will hardly of themselves carry that
weight of political consequence which some writers have attached
to Cicero's public life, and which his own self-love led him to
appropriate.
The advice of the Oracle,2 which had directed him to make his
own genius, not the opinion of the people, his guide to immortality,
(which in fact pointed at the above-mentioned distinction between
the fame of a statesman and of an author,) at first made a deep
impression on his mind ; and at the present day he owes his repu-
tation principally to those pursuits which, as Plutarch tells us,
exposed him to the ridicule and even to the contempt of his con-
temporaries as " a pedant and a trifler."3 But his love of popu-
larity overcame his philosophy, and he commenced a career which
gained him one triumph and ten thousand mortifications.
It is not indeed to be doubted that in his political course he
was considerably influenced by a sense of duty. To many it may
even appear that a public life was best adapted for the display of
1 Pro Muraena, 20. 2 Plutarch, in Vita.
3 TpaiKos Kal (TXo\a(TTLK6s. Plutarch, in Vita.
t 2
276
MARCUS TULLITJS CICERO.
Cicero.
His
Consulate.
u. c. 600.
a. c. 63.
Want of
political
firmness.
his particular talents ; that, at the termination of the Mithridatic
war, Cicero was in fact marked out as the very individual to
adjust the pretensions of the rival parties in the Commonwealth, to
withstand the encroachments of Pompey, and to baffle the arts of
Caesar. And if the power of swaying and controlling the popular
assemblies by his eloquence ; if the circumstances of his rank,
Equestrian as far as family was concerned, yet almost Patrician
from the splendour of his personal honours ; if the popularity
derived from his accusation of Verres, and defence of Cornelius, and
the favour of the Senate acquired by the brilliant services of his
Consulate ; if the general respect of all parties which his learning
and virtue commanded ; if these were sufficient qualifications for a
mediator between contending factions, Cicero was indeed called
upon by the voice of his country to that most arduous and honour-
able post. And in his Consulate he had seemed sensible of the
call: "Ita est a me Consulatus peractus," he declares in his speech
against Piso, " ut nihil sine consilio Senatus, nihil non approbante
populo Ptomano egerim ; ut semper in Eostris Curiam, in Senatu
Populum defenderim ; ut multitudinem cum Principibus, Equestrem
ordinem cum Senatu conjunxerim.1
Yet, after that eventful period, we see him resigning his high
station to Cato, who, with half his abilities, little foresight, and no
address,2 possessed that first requisite for a statesman, firmness.
Cicero, on the contrary, was irresolute, timid, and inconsistent.3 He
talked indeed largely of preserving a middle course,4 but he was
continually vacillating from one to the other extreme ; always too
confident or too dejected ; incorrigibly vain of success, yet meanly
panegyrizing the government of an usurper. His foresight, sagacity,
practical good sense, and singular tact, were lost for want of that
strength of mind which points them steadily to one object. He was
never decided, never (as has sometimes been observed) took an
important step without afterwards repenting of it. Nor can we
account for the firmness and resolution of his Consulate, unless we
discriminate between the case of resisting and exposing a faction, and
that of balancing contending interests. Vigour in repression
differs widely from steadiness in meditation ; the latter requiring
a coolness of judgment, which a direct attack upon a public foe
is so far from implying, that it even inspires minds naturally timid
with unusual ardour.
1 [" I have, throughout my consulship, so acted, that I have done nothing without
the advice of the Senate — nothing without the approval of the Roman people ;
that I have ever defended the Senate in the rostrum, the people in the Senate
house ; that I have ever associated the populace with the nobles, the equestrian
order with the Senate.'" — Editor.]
2 Ad Atticum, i. 18., ii. 1.
3 See Montesquieu, Grandeur des Romains, ch. xii. 4 Ad Atticum, i. 19.
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO.
277
Cicero.
Pompey the Great.
His Consulate was succeeded by the return of Pompey from the First
east, and the establishment of the First Triumvirate ; which, J^e&L8'
disappointing his hopes of political greatness, induced him to a. o. 60.
resume his forensic and literary occupations. From these he was
recalled, after an interval of four years, by the threatening measures
of Clodius, who at length succeeded in driving him into exile, nis exile
This event, which, considering the circumstances connected with ^c.^"1*
it, was one of the most glorious of his life, filled him with the a. c. 58.
utmost distress and despondency. He wandered about Greece
bewailing his miserable fortune, refusing the consolations which
his friends attempted to administer, and shunning the public
honours with which the Greek cities were eager to load him.1 His
1 Ad Atticum, lib. iii.; ad Fam. lib. xiv. ; pro Sext. 22; pro Dom. 3G; Plutarch,
in Vita. It is curious to observe how he converts the alleviating circumstances of
his case into exaggerations of his misfortune: he writes to Atticus : " Nam quod me
tarn saepe et tarn vehementer objurgas, et animo infirmo esse dicis, qua?so ecquod
tantum malum est quod in mea calamitate non sit? ecquis unquam ex tarn amplo
statu, tarn in bond causa, tantis facultatibus ingenii, consilii, gratiae, tantis prcesidiis
bonorum omnium, concidit ? " [" You frequently and earnestly reprove me, and
call me weak-minded. But tell me, what aggravation of misery is there which
belongs not to my calamity? Has any man ever fallen from so high a position,
in so good a cause, with such ample resources of ability, of judgment, of influence,
with such powerful support of all good men ? " — Editor.] iii. 10. Other persons
would have reckoned the justice of their cause, and the countenance of good men,
alleviations of their distress ; and so, when others were concerned, he himself
thought; pro Sext. 12.
278 MARCUS TULLIUS CICETiO.
Cicero. return, which took place in the course of the following year, re-
instated him in the high station he had filled at the termination of
his Consulate, but the circumstances of the times did not allow him
to retain it. We have elsewhere1 described his vacillations between
the several members of the Triumvirate ; his defence of Yatinius to
please Caesar; and of his bitter political enemy Gabinius, to
ingratiate himself with Pompey. His personal history in the mean-
while furnishes little worth noticing, except his election into the
college of Augurs, a dignity which had been a particular object of
cnic??01 °f ^s ambition. His appointment to the government of Cilicia,
which took place about rive years after his return from exile, was
in consequence of Pompey's law, which obliged those Senators of
Consular or Praetorian rank, who had never held any foreign
command, to divide the vacant provinces among them. This office,
which we have above seen him decline, he now accepted with
feelings of extreme reluctance, dreading perhaps the military
occupations which the movements of the Parthians in that quarter
rendered necessary. Yet if we consider the state and splendour
with which the Proconsuls were surrounded, and the opportunities
afforded them for almost legalised plunder and extortion, we must
confess that this insensibility to the common objects of human
cupidity was the token of no ordinary mind. The singular dis-
interestedness and integrity of his administration, as well as his
success against the enemy, are adverted to in our memoir of
Caesar. The latter he exaggerated from the desire universally
felt of appearing to excel in those things for which nature has
not adapted us.
His return to Italy was followed by earnest endeavours to
reconcile Pompey with Caesar, and by very spirited behaviour when
Caesar required his presence in the Senate. On this occasion he
felt the glow of self-approbation with which his political conduct
seldom repaid him: "credo" he writes to Atticns, " credo hunc
(Csesarem) me non amare ; at ego me amavi : quod mihi jam pridem
usu non venit." a Put this independent temper was but transient.
At no period of his public life did he display such miserable
vacillation as at the opening of the civil war. We find him first
accepting a commission from the Republic ; 3 then courting Caesar ;
next, on Pompey's sailing for Greece, resolving to follow him
thither 5 presently determining to stand neuter; then bent on
retiring to the Pompeians in Sicily ; and, when after all he had
joined their camp in Greece, discovering such timidity and discon-
1 Ilistorv of the Roman Empire, in the Encyclopaedia Metropolitan*.
- [" I believe I have not his (Cmar's) approval ; but I have my own ; which, for
a loiii? time. 1 have not been used to enjoy." — Editor.] Ad Atticuni, ix. 18.
- Ibid. vii. 11, ix. 6, 119, x. 8 and 9, &C,
MA1UTS TULLTUS Cl( ERO. 279
tent, as to draw from Pompey the bitter reproof, " Cupio ad hosh
Cicero transeat, ut iioa timeat."1
On his return to Italy, after the battle of Pharsalia, he had the General
mortification of learning that his brother and nephew were making tSbJtuco?
their peace with Cfiesar, by throwing on himself the blame of their Pharsalia.
opposition to the conqueror. And here we see one of those elevated
points of character, which redeem the weaknesses of his political
conduct ; for, hearing that Csesai had retorted on Quintus the
charge which the latter had brought against himself, he wrote a
pressing letter in his favour, declaring his brother's safety was not
less precious to him than his own, and representing him not as the
leader, but as the companion of his voyage.2
Now too the state of his private affairs reduced him to great Private
perplexity ; the sum he had advanced to Pompey had impoverished l™^"'1'11 "*
him, and he was forced to stand indebted to Atticus for present
assistance.3 These difficulties led him to take a step which it has
been customary to regard with great severity ; the divorce of his Divorcee
wife Terentia, though he was then in his sixty-second year, and JS^nSmea
his marriage with his rich ward Publilia, who was of an age dis- Pubiiim.
proportionate to his own.4 Yet, in reviewing this proceeding, we
must not adopt the modern standard of propriety, forgetful of a
condition of society which reconciled actions even of moral turpitude
with a reputation for honour and virtue. Terentia was a woman
of a most imperious and violent temper, and (what is more to the
purpose) had in no slight degree contributed to his present
embarrassments by her extravagance in the management of his
private affairs.5 By her he had two children, a son, born the year His children.
before his Consulate, and a daughter whose loss he was now fated
to experience. To Tullia he was tenderly attached, not only from Grief at the
the excellence of her disposition, but from her love of polite ^ot7™lia'
literature ; and her death tore from him, as he so pathetically a. c. 46.
laments to Sulpicius, the only comforts which the course of public
events had left him.6 At first he was inconsolable ; and, retiring
to a little island near his estate at Antium, buried himself in the Secedes from
woods, to avoid the sight of man.7 His distress was increased by pubhc llle*
the unfeeling conduct of Publilia ; whom he soon divorced for Divorces
testifying joy at the death of her step-daughter. On this occasion 1>ubllha-
he wrote his Treatise on Consolation, with a view to alleviate1 his
mental sufferings ; and, with the same object, he determined on
dedicating a temple to his daughter as a memorial of her virtues
and his affection. His friends were assiduous in their attentions ;
and Caesar, who had treated him with extreme kindness on his
1 [" I wish Cicero would go over to the enemy, that he may fear us " — Editor.]
Macrobius, Saturnalia, ii. 3. - Ad Atticum, xi. 8, 0, 10 and 12.
:> Ibid. xi. 13. * Ad Fain. iv. 14: Middleton, vol. ii. p. 149.
5 Ibid. 6 Ad Fain. iv. 6*. 7 Ad Atticum, xii. 15, cS:c.
280
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO.
His private
virtues.
Cicero. return from Egypt, signified the respect he bore his character, by
sending him a letter of condolence from Spain,1 where the remains
of the Pompeian party still engaged him. Ceesar had shortly
before given a still stronger proof of his favour, by replying to a
work which Cicero had drawn up in praise of Cato ; 2 but no
attentions, however considerate, could soften Cicero's vexation at
seeing the country he had formerly saved by his exertions, now
subjected to the tyranny of one master. His speeches, indeed, for
Marcellus and Ligarius, exhibit traces of inconsistency ; but for
the most part he retired from public business, and gave himself
up to the composition of those works, which, while they mitigated
his political sorrows, have secured his literary celebrity.
The murder of Csesar, which took place in the following year,
once more brought him on the stage of public affairs ; but, as we
intend our present paper to be an account of his private life and
literary character, we reserve the sequel of his history, including
his unworthy treatment of Brutus, his coalition with Octavius, his
orations against Antonius, his proscription and death, for another
department of our work. On the whole, antiquity may be challenged
to produce an individual more virtuous, more perfectly amiable than
Cicero. None interest more in their life, none excite more painful
emotions in their death. Others, it is true, may be found of
loftier and more heroic character, who awe and subdue the mind
by the grandeur of their views, or the intensity of their exertions.
But Cicero engages our affections by the integrity of his public
conduct, the correctness of his private life, the generosity,3
placability, and kindness of his heart, the playfulness of his temper,
the warmth of his domestic attachments. In this respect his
letters are invaluable. " Here we may see the genuine man with-
out disguise or affectation, especially in his letters to Atticus ; to
whom he talked with the same frankness as to himself, opened the
rise and progress of each thought ; and never entered into any
affair without his particular advice."4
It must, however, be confessed that the publication of this corre-
spondence has laid open the defects of his political character. Want
Vn public life7, of firmness has been repeatedly mentioned as his principal failing ;
and insincerity is the natural attendant on a timid and irresolute
mind. On the other hand it must not be forgotten that openness
and candour are rare qualities in a statesman at all times, and while
the duplicity of weakness is despised, the insincerity of a powerful,
but crafty mind, though incomparably more odious, is too commonly
regarded with feelings of indulgence. Cicero was deficient, not in
Apologies
for his
inconsistency
1 Ad Atticum, xiii. 20. - Ibid. xii. 40 and 41.
3 His want of jealousy towards his rivals was remarkable ; this was exemplified
in his esteem for Hortensius, and still more so in his conduct towards Calvus.
See Ad. Fam. xv. 21. 4 Middleton, vol. ii. p. 525, 4 to.
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 281
honesty, but in moral courage ; his disposition too was conciliatory Cicero,
and forgiving ; and much which lias been referred to inconsistency,
should be attributed to the generous temper which induced him to
remember the services rather than the neglect of Flancius, and to
relieve the exiled and indigent Verres.1 Much too may be traced
to his professional habits as a pleader; which led him to introduce
the licence of the Forum into deliberative discussions, and (however
inexcusably) even into his correspondence with private friends.
Some writers, as Lyttleton, have considered it an aggravation of
Cicero's inconsistencies, that he was so perfectly aware of what was
philosophically upright and correct. It might be sufficient to reply,
that there is a wide difference between calmly deciding on an
abstract point, and acting on that decision in the hurry of real
life ; that Cicero in fact was apt to fancy (as all will fancy when
assailed by interest or passion) that the circumstances of his case
constituted it an exception to the broad principles of duty. As he
eloquently expresses himself in his defence of Plancius : "Neque
enim inconstantis puto, sententiam, tanquam aliquod navigium, et
cursum, ex Eeipublicse tempestate moderari. Ego vero hsec didici,
hsec vidi, hsec scripta legi ; ha3C de sapientissimis et clarissimis
viris, et in hac Eepublica, et in aliis civitatibus, monumenta nobis
litera3 prodiderunt ; non semper easdem sententias ab iisdem, sed
quascunque Iieipublicse status, inclinatio temporum, ratio concordise
postularet, esse defendendas." 2
Thus he seems to consider it the duty of a mediator alternately 3
to praise and blame both parties more than truth allows, if by these
means it be possible either to flatter or to frighten them into
an adoption of temperate measures.
But the argument of the objectors proceeds on an entire miscon- The
ception of the design and purpose with which the ancients prosecuted ofhthe°phy
philosophical studies. The motives and principles of morals were ancients,
not so seriously acknowledged as to lead to a practical application ^ccuiative
of them to the conduct of life. Even when they proposed them in lhan
the form of precept, they still regarded the perfectly virtuous man
as the creature of their imagination rather than a model for imitation
— a character whom it was a mental recreation rather than a duty
1 ProPhanc.; Middlcton, vol. i. p. 108.
2 C. 39. [" Nor do I regard it as any mark of inconsistency to regulate my opinions
and my course, like a vessel, l>y the condition of the political weather. All that
I have learned, witnessed, and read — all that has been recorded of the wisest and
most illustrious men, both in our state and in other political communities, has
taught me that the same man is not always to defend the same opinions, but
rather those which the position of the state, the bias of the times, and the
interests of peace may require." — Editor.]
3 Ad Fam. vi. 6, vii. 3. 'I5ta avu€/3ov\ev€u 6 Kuttpwv, ttoKKcl fxzv Kaicrapi
ypd^xcv, iroWa ffavrov Tlo[XTrr]'iov Seofxevos, irpaiiuooi/ endrepov nal irapajxvQovfx^vos.
— Plutarch, in vita Cic. See also in Vita Pomp.
282 MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO.
Cicero. to contemplate ; and if an individual here or there, as Scipio or
Cato, attempted to conform his life to his philosophical conceptions
of virtue, he was sure to be ridiculed for singularity and
affectation.
Even among the Athenians, by whom philosophy was, in many
cases, cultivated to the exclusion of every active profession, intel-
lectual amusement, not the discovery of Truth, was the principal
object of their discussions. That we must thus account for the
ensnaring questions and sophistical reasonings of which their
disputations consisted, has been noticed in our article on Logic ; l
and it was their extension of this system to the case of morals,
which brought upon their Sophists the irony of Socrates, and the
sterner rebuke of Aristotle. But if this took place in a state of
society in which the love of speculation pervaded all ranks, much
more was it to be expected among the TComans, who, busied as
they were in political enterprises, and deficient in philosophical acute-
ness, had neither time nor inclination for abstruse investigations ;
and who considered philosophy simply as one of the many fashions
introduced from Greece, " a sort of table furniture,' ' as Warburton
well expresses it, a mere refinement in the arts of social enjoyment.2
This character it bore both among friends and enemies. Hence
the popularity which attended the three Athenian philosophers,
who had come to Eome on an embassy from their native city ; and
hence the inflexible determination with which Cato procured their
dismissal, through fear, as Plutarch tells us,3 lest their arts of
disputation should corrupt the Eoman youth. And when at
length, by the authority of Scipio,4 the literary treasures of Sylla,
and the patronage of Lucullus, philosophical studies had gradually
received the countenance of the higher classes of their countrymen,
we still find them, in consistency with the principle above laid
down, determined in the adoption of this or that system, not so
much by the harmony of its parts, or by the plausibility of its
reasonings, as by its suitableness to the profession and political
introduction station to which they respectively belonged. Thus because the
philosophy Stoics were more minute than other sects in inculcating the moral
to Rome. anf[ social duties, we find the Juriscomulti professing themselves
followers of Zeno ; 5 the orators, on the contrary, adopted the
disputatious system of the later Academics ; 6 while Epicurus was
the master of the idle and the wealthy. Hence, too, they confined
the profession of philosophical science to Greek teachers; considering
them the sole proprietors, as it were, of a foreign and expensive
1 In the Philosophical division of the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana.
2 Lactantius, Inst. iii. 16.
3 Plutarch, in Vita Caton. See also de Invent, i. 36.
Paterculus, i. 12, &c. Plutarch, in Vita Lucull. et Syll.
5 Gravin. Origin. Juriscivil. lib. i. c. 44.
6 Quinct. xii. 2. Auct. Dialog, de Orator. 31.
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. &88
luxury, which the vanquished might have the trouble of furnishing, Cicero,
but which the conquerors could well afford to purchase.
Before the works of Cicero, no attempts worth considering had First
been made for using the Latin tongue in philosophical subjects. SFttoeLatSi
The natural stubbornness of the language conspired with B om&n !:,!l-
haughtincss to prevent this application.1 The Epicureans, indeed, phical
had made the experiment, but their writings were even affectedly subJcct8-
harsh and slovenly,2 and we find Cicero himself, in spite of his
inexhaustible flow of rich and expressive diction, making continual
apologies for his learned occupations, and extolling philosophy as
the parent of every thing great, virtuous and amiable.3 Cicero's °
Yet, with whatever discouragement his design was attended, he i\hU°s°-
ultimately triumphed over the pride of an unlettered people, and writings.
the difficulties of a defective language. He was possessed of that
first requisite for eminence, an enthusiastic attachment to the
studies he was recommending. But occupied as he was with the
duties of a statesman, mere love of literature would have availed
little, if separated from the energy and range of intellect by which
he was enabled to pursue a variety of objects at once, with ecpially
persevering and indefatigable zeal. " He suffered no part of his
leisure to be idle, or the least interval of it to be lost ; but what
other people gave to the public shows, to pleasures, to feasts, nay
even to sleep and the ordinary refreshments of nature, he generally
gave to his books, and the enlargement of his knowledge. On days
of business, when he had any thing particular to compose, he had no
other time for meditating, but when he was taking a few turns in his
walks, where he used to dictate his thoughts to his scribes who
attended him. We find many of his letters dated before daylight,
some from the senate, others from his meals, and the crowd of his
morning levee." 4 Thus he found time, without apparent incon-
venience, for the business of the State, for the turmoil of the courts,
and for philosophical studies. During his Consulate he delivered
twelve orations in the Senate, Rostrum or Forum. His Treatises
de Oratore and de Republicd, the most finished perhaps of his com-
positions, were written at a time when, to use his own words, " not
a day passed without his taking part in forensic disputes." 6 And
in the last year of his life, he composed at least eight of his philo-
sophical works, besides the fourteen orations against xVntouy, which
are known by the name of Philippics. Being thus ardent in the
cause of Philosophy, he recommended it to the notice of his
1 De Nat. Deor. i. 4 ; de Off. i. 1 ; de fin. Acad. QikTSt., &c.
2 Tusc. Quaest. i. 3 ; ii. 3 ; Acad. Qiuest. i. 2 ; de Nat. Deor. i. 21 ; de
Fin. i. 3, &c. ; de Clar. Orat. 35.
3 Lncnllus, 2 ; de Fin. i. 1 — 3 ; Tusc. Quaest. ii. 1, 2. iii. 2; v. 2; de Legg. i.
22—24; de Off. ii. 2 ; de Orat. 41, &c.
4 Middleton's Life, vol. ii. p. 254. 5 Ad Quinct. fratr. iii. 3.
284 MARCUS TULLIUS CICEHO.
Cicero. countrymen, not only for the honour which its introduction would
reflect upon himself, (which itself was with him a motive of no
inconsiderable influence,) but also with the fondness of one who
esteemed it " the guide of life, the parent of virtue, the guardian
in difficulty, and the tranquillizer in misfortune." l Nor were his
mental endowments less adapted to the accomplishment of his
object, than the spirit with which he engaged in the work. Gifted
with versatility of talent, with acuteness, quickness of perception,
skill in selection, art in arrangement, fertility of illustration, warmth
of fancy, and extraordinary taste ; he at once seizes upon the most
effective parts of his subject, places them in the most striking point
of view, and arrays them in the liveliest and most inviting colours.
His writings have the singular felicity of combining brilliancy of
execution, with never-failing good sense. It must be allowed, that
he is deficient in depth ; that he skims over rather than dives into
the various departments of literature ; that he had too great com-
mand of the plausible, to be a patient investigator or a sound
reasoner. Yet if he has less originality of thought than others, if
he does not grapple with his subject, if he is unequal to a regular
and lengthened disquisition, if he is frequently inconsistent in his
opinions, we must remember that mere soundness of thought,
without talent for display, has few charms for those who have not
yet imbibed a taste even for the outward form of knowledge,2 that
system nearly precludes variety, and depth almost implies obscurity.
It was this very absence of scientific exactness, which constituted in
Eoman eyes a principal charm of Cicero's compositions.3
Nor must his profession as a pleader be forgotten in enumerating
the circumstances which concurred to give his writings their peculiar
character. For however his design of interesting his countrymen
in Greek literature, however too his particular line of talent, may
have led him to explain rather than to invent ; yet he expressly
informs us it was principally with a view to his own improvement in
Oratory that he devoted himself to philosophical studies.4 This
induced him to undertake successively the cause of the Stoic, the
Epicurean, or the Platonist, as an exercise for his powers of argu-
mentation ; while the wavering and unsettled state of mind,
occasioned by such habits of disputation, led him in his private
judgment to prefer the sceptical tenets of the New Academy.
Here then, before examining Cicero's Philosophical writings, an
opportunity is presented to us of redeeming the pledge we gave in
1 Tusr. Quccst. v. 2. 2 Dc Off. i. 5. in it.
3 Johnson's observations on Addison's writings may be well applied to those of
Cicero, who would have been eminently successful in short miscellaneous essays,
like those of the Spectators, had the manners of the age allowed it.
4 Orat. iii. 4 ; Tusc. Quaest. ii. 3; de Off. i. 1. prcefat. Paradox. Quinct. de
Tnstit. xii. 2. Lactantius, Inst. iii. 16.
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 288
our memoir of Plato,1 by considering the system of doctrine which ciccro.
the reformers (as they thought themselves) of the Academic school
introduced about 300 years before the Christian era.
We have already traced the history of the Old Academy, and The New
spoken of the innovations on the system of Plato, silently intro- Acadcm>'-
duced by the austere Polemo. When Zeno, however, who was his
pupil, advocated the same rigid tenets in a more open and dogmatic
form,- the Academy at length took the alarm, and reaction ensued.
Arcesilas, who had succeeded Polemo and Crates, determined on Arw
reverting to the principles of the elder schools ; 3 but mistaking the
profession of ignorance, which Socrates had used against the
Sophists on physical questions, for an actual scepticism on points
connected with morals, he fell into the opposite extreme, and
declared, first, that nothing could be known, and therefore,
secondly, nothing should be advanced.4
Whatever were his private sentiments, (for some authors affirm
his esoteric doctrines to have been dogmatic,5) he brought forward
these sceptical tenets in so unguarded a form, that it required all
his argumentative powers, which were confessedly great, to maintain
them against the obvious objections which were pressed upon him
from all quarters. On his death, therefore, as might have been
anticipated, his school was deserted for those of Zeno and Epicurus ;
and during the lives of Lacydes, Evander, and Ilegesinus, who
successively tilled the Academic chair, being no longer recommended
1 History of Greek and Roman Philosophy, in the Encyclopaedia Metropolitans.
- Acad. Qusest i. 10, &c. ; Lueullus, 5; de Legg. i. 20j iii. 3, &c
3 Acad. Qurrst. i. 4, 12, 13; Lueullus, 5 and 23; de Nat. Deor. i. 5 ; de
Fin. ii. 1; de Orat. iii. 18. Angnstin. eontra Acad. ii. 6. Sext. Emp. adv.
Mathcm. lib. vii. 'O 'ApKe(r'i\aos toctovtov aneSei rod Kaiyoro/j.ias riva 8o£av
ayairav kcu vTroiroielcrdaL t&v ttclAcuocv. ware iyKaXelv rods rare crocpiaTas on
TTpoarpl^erai ^.uKparti kcu UXcircoui kclI Uapfxei'iS]] Ka\ 'HpeurAcfTOJ ra irepl ttjs
iiroxvs SoyucLTd kcu rr/s aKaraXri^Las, ovSev fieo/LtcvoiSj aAAa olov avayo:y))V
KaX fiefSaiwcriv avroev els tivdpas ivdo^ovs iroiov/j.euos. — Plutarch, in Colot. '20.
[u Arcesilas was so far from aiming at the reputation of originality while
availing himself of the ancients, that the sophists of that time accused him of
assenting implicitly to Socrates, and Plato, and Parmenides, and 1 leraclitus, in
respect of his opinions on the suspension [of assent] and the incomprehensibility
[of things], as to perfect authorities, and referring to them for confirmation as to
persons of eminence. " — Editor.]
4 " Arcesilas negabai esse quidquam, quoo1 sciri posset, ne illud qnidem ipsnm
quod Socrates sibi reliquisset. Sic omnia latere censebat in occulto, neque esse
qnicquam quod cerni. quod intelligi, posset ; quibus de causis nihil oportere neque
profiteri neque atnrmare quenquam, neque assertione approbate, &C.*1 — Acad.
Quast. i. 12. [k' Arcesilas affirmed that there was nothing that could be known,
not even excepting what Socrates had reserved, lie regarded all things as hid in
obscurity, and nothing as capable of being perceived or understood ; for which
reasons he denied the right of any man to aver or affirm anything, or to confirm
anything by assertion. &C." — Editor.] See also Lueullus, 9 and 18. They were
countenanced in these conclusions by Plato's doctrine of ideas. — Lueullus, 46.
5 Sext. Empir. Pyrrh. Hypot, i. 33. Diogenes Laertius, lib. iv. in Arcesil.
SOO MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO.
Cicero. by the novelty of its doctrines,1 or the talents of its masters, it
became of little consideration amid the wranglings of more popular
cameades. Philosophies. Carneades,2 therefore, who succeeded Hegesinus,
found it necessary to use more cautious and guarded language ; and,
by explaining what was paradoxical, by reservations and exceptions,
in short by all the arts which an acute and active genius could
suggest, he contrived to establish its authority, without departing,
as far as we have the means of judging, from the principle of
universal scepticism which Arcesilas had so pertinaciously
advocated.3
The New Academy,4 then, taught with Plato, that all things in
their own nature were fixed and determinate ; but that, through
the constitution of the human mind, it was impossible for us to see
them in their simple and eternal forms, to separate appearance
from reality, truth from falsehood.5 For the conception we form
of any object is altogether derived from and depends on the sensa-
tion, the impression, it produces on our own minds, (ndSos
evepydas, c^avracria.) Eeason does but deduce from premises ulti-
mately supplied by sensation. Our only communication, then, with
actual existences being through the medium of our own impressions,
Modified we have no means of ascertaining the correspondence of the things
thePNewm ° themselves with the ideas we entertain of them ; and therefore can
Academy, in no case be certain of the fidelity of our senses. Of their fallibility,
however, we may easily assure ourselves ; for in cases in which
they are detected contradicting each other, all cannot be correct
reporters of the object with which they profess to acquaint us.
Pood, which is the same as far as sight and touch are concerned,
tastes differently to different individuals ; fire, which is the same to
the eye, communicates a sensation of pain at one time, of pleasure
at another ; the oar appears crooked in the water, while the touch
assures us it is as straight as before it was immersed.6 Again, in
dreams, in intoxication, in madness, impressions are made upon the
mind, vivid enough to incite to reflection and action, yet utterly at
variance with those produced by the same objects when we are
awake, or sober, or in possession of our reason.7
It appears then that we cannot prove that our senses are ever
1 Lucullus, 6. 2 Augustin. adv. Acad. iii. 17.
3 Lucullus, 18, 24. Augustin. in Acad. iii. 39.
4 See Sext. Empir. adv. Mathem. lib. vii.
5 Acad. Quaest. i. 13 ; Lucullus, 23, 38 ; de Nat. Deor. i. 5 ; Orat. 71.
6 " Tu autem te negas infracto remo neque columbae collo commoveri. Pri-
mum cur? nam et in remo sentio non esse id quod videatur, et in columba plures
videri colores, nee esse plus uno, &c." — Lucullus, 25. [" You say that you are
uninfluenced by the instances of the broken oar and the pigeon's neck. First,
let me ask you why? for, in the case of the oar, I perceive that what appears is
not ; and, in the pigeon, that many colours are apparent, when there is but one,
&c."— Editor.] 7 Lucullus, 16—18 ; 26—28.
MARCUS TULLIUS CIOEBO. 287
faithful ; but \vc do know they often produce erroneous im- acero.
pressions. Here then is room for endless doubt ; for why may they
not deceive us in oases in which we cannot detect the deception ?
It is certain they often act irregularly ; is there any consistency at
all in their operations, any law to which these varieties may be
referred ?
It is undeniable that an object often varies in the impression
which it makes upon the mind, while, on the other hand, the same
impression may arise from different objects. What limit is to be
assigned to this disorder ? is there any sensation strong* enough to
assure us of the presence of the object which it seems to intimate,
any such as to preclude the possibility of deception? If, when we
look into a mirror, our minds are impressed with the appearance of
unreal trees, fields, and houses, how can we ascertain whether the
scene we directly look upon has any more substantial existence than
the former ? *
From these reasonings the Academics taught that nothing was
certain, nothing was to be known (KaruAjiTrroz/). For the
Stoics themselves, their most determined opponents, defined the
KciTaXrjTTTLKi) <fiavTaaia (or impression which involved knowledge,2) to
be one that was capable of being produced by no object except
that to which it really belonged.3
1 " Scriptum est : ita Academicis placer*, esse rerum cjusmodi dissimilitudines
ut alirc probabiles vidcantur, aliae contra ; id autera non esse satis cur alia percipi
posse dicas, alia non posse ; propterea quod multa falsa probabilia sint, nihil autem
falsi perceptum et cognitum possit esse. Itaque ait vehementer erxare eos qui
dieant ab Aeademia sensus eripi, a quibus nunquam dictum sit aut eolorem aut
saporem aut sonum nullum esse ; illud sit disputatum, non inesse in his propriam,
quae nusquam alibi esset, vcri et certi notam." — LucuUus, 32. [" It has been
written thus : the Academics hold that there is in things that dissimilarity, that
some appear probable, others the contrary ; but that this is no sufficient reason
for saying that some may be comprehended, others not ; because many false
impressions are probable, but no false impression can be the object of compre-
hension and knowledge. He affirms, therefore, that those are greatly mistaken
who say that the Academics take away the existence of the senses ; inasmuch
as they have never denied that there are such things as colour, taste, and sound :
but they contend that there is not in these things a peculiar mark of reality and
certainty, not existing elsewhere," — Editor.] See also 13, 24, 31 ; de Nat.
Deor. i. 5.
2 Oi yovv ^.tcoikoI Kard\7]\piu eivai (paai KaTa\7]irTiKf} (pavraaia crvyKaraQecrLr.
— Sext. Empir. Pyrrh, Hupot. iii .25.
3 a Verum non posse comprehendi ex ilia Stoici Zenonis definitione arripuisse
videbantur, qui ait id verum percipi posse, quod ita esset animo impressum ex 60
unde esset, ut esse non posset ex eo unde non esset. Quod brevius planiusque
sic dicitur, his signis verum posse comprehendi, quse signa non potest habere quod
falsum est." — A lyuat in , contra Acad. 2, 5. [" They seemed to have caught their
doctrine of the incomprehensibility of truth from that definition of the Stoic Zeno,
who says that that may be perceived to be true which has been so impressed on
the mind by the cause of its existence, as it could not have been by what was
not the cause of its existence ; which is thus more briefly and simply expressed :
288 MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO.
Cicero. Since then we cannot arrive at knowledge, we mnst suspend our
decision, pronounce absolutely on nothing, nay, according to
Arcesilas, never even form an opinion.1 In the conduct of life,
however, probability 2 must determine our choice of action; and
this admits of different degrees. The lowest kind is that which
suggests itself on the first view of the case ((pavTao-la niOavrj) ; but
in all important matters we must correct the evidence of our
senses by considerations derived from the nature of the medium,
the distance of the object, the disposition of the organ, the time,
the manner, and other attendant circumstances. When the
impression has been thus minutely considered, the fai/rao-ia becomes
7i epiGdfevfjLeprj, or approved on circumspection ; and if during this
examination no objection has arisen to weaken our belief, the
highest degree of probability is attained, and the impression is
pronounced complete (aTrepiWaoroy).3
Sextus Empiricus illustrates this as follows : 4 If on entering a
dark room we discern a coiled rope, our first impression may be
that it is a serpent, — this is the ^avrao-ia iriQavr). On a closer
inspection, however, after walking round it (irepioSevo-avTes) we
observe it does not move, nor has it the proper colour, shape, or
proportions ; and now we conclude it is not a serpent ; here we
are determined in our belief by the nepLcc^vpevrj ^avrao-ia. For
an instance of the third and most accurate kind, viz., that with
which no contrary impression interferes, we may refer to the
conduct of Admetus on the return of Alcestis from the infernal
regions. He believes he sees his wife ; everything confirms it ; but
he cannot acquiesce in that opinion ; his mind is divided (jrtpKnraTai)
from the impression he has of her death ; he asks aXX' fjv iQa-nrov
elaopco Sa/xapr' epijv; (Ale. 114S.) Hercules resolves his difficulty,
and his (pavTCKria becomes Lnrepicnvao-Tos.
The suspension then of assent (eVo^?)) which the Academics
injoined, was, at least from the times of Carneades,5 nearly a
speculative doctrine ; 6 and herein lay the chief difference between
them and the Pyrrhonists ; that the latter altogether denied the
existence of the probable, while the former admitted there was
sufficient to allow of action, provided we pronounced absolutely
on nothing.
that truth inay be comprehended by those marks which falsehood cannot possess."
— Editor.] See also Sext. Empir. adv. Math. lib. vii. -rrtpl pera^okrjs, and of
Lucullus, 6 with 13. » Lucullus, 13, 21, 40.
2 To?s (paivo/Atcpois ovv irpoaexovres Kara rrjy ^lcotiktjp rrjprjaiv ado£d(TT<t>s
fiiovfxtv, eVel pr) 8vvd/j.eda avevepyrjToi Tvavrdiracnv eTvcu. — Sext. Empir. Pyrrh.
Hypot. 1, 11.
3 Cicero terms these three impressions, u visio probabilis ; quae ex circumspec-
tione aliqua et accurata consideratione fiat ; quae non impediatur." — Liicullus, 11.
1 Pyrrh. Hypot. i. 33. 5 Numen. apud Euseb. Prep. Evang. xiv. 7.
6 Lucullus, 31, 34 ; de Off. ii. 2. ; dc Fin. v. 26. Quinct. xii. 1.
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 289
Little more ean be said concerning the opinions of a seet whose ciccro.
fundamental maxim was that nothing could be known, and nothing ,
should be taught. It lay midway between the other philosophies ; which
and in the altercations of the various schools it was at once attacked JJJSJjjJL a
by all,1 vet appealed to by each of the contending parties, if not to school of
countenance its own sentiments, at least to condemn those advocated
by its opponents,1 and thus to perform the oth'ee of an umpire.3
From this necessity then of being prepared on all sides for attack/
it became as much a school of rhetoric as of philosophy,5 and was
celebrated among the ancients for the eloquence of its masters.6
Hence also its reputation was continually varying : for, requiring
the aid of great abilities to maintain its exalted and arduous post,
it alternately rose and fell in estimation, according to the talents of
the individual who happened to till the chair.7 And hence the
frequent alterations which took place in its philosophical tenets ;
which, depending rather on the arbitrary determinations of its
present head, than on the tradition of settled maxims, were
accommodated to the views of each successive master, according as
he hoped by sophistry or concession to overcome the repugnance
which the mind ever will feel to the doctrines of universal
scepticism.
And in these continual changes it is pleasing to observe, that
the interests of virtue and good order were uniformly promoted ;
1 Lucullus, 22, et alibi ; Tuse. Quest ii. 2.
- Sec i striking passage from Cicero's Academics, preserved by Augustin,
contra Acad. iii. 7, ami Lucullus, 18.
3 De Nat. Poor, passim; de Div. ii. 72. "Quorum controversiam Bolebat
tanquam honorarius arbiter judieare Carneades.™ — Tusc. Quast. v. 41.
4 De Fin. ii. 1 ; de Orat. i. 18 ; Lucullus, 3j Tusc. Quaest. v. 1 1 ; Xuincn.
apud Euseb. Pnep. Kvang. xiv. 6, &C. Lactantius, Inst. iii. 4.
5 De Nat Deor. i. 67 j de Fat. 2 ; Dialog, de Orat. 31, 32.
6 Lucullus, vi. 18 ; de Orat. ii. 38, iii. 18. Quint. Inst. xii. 2 ; Plutarch, in
vita Caton. et Cic. Lactantius, Inst. Numen. apud Euseb.
1 " Base in philosophia ratio contra omnia disserendi nullamque rem apcrte
judicandi, profecta a Socrate, irpctita ab Arcesiia, coiijlrmata a Carneade, usque
ad nostram viguit setatem ; quam nunc propemodum orbam esse in ipsa Gruvia
intelligo. Quod non Academia vitio, Bed tarditate hominwm arbitroi contigisse.
Nam si singulas disciplinas percipere magnum est, quanto majus omnea ? quod
faccrc iis uecesse est, quibus propositum est, veri repeiiendi causa, et contra omnea
philosophoa et pro omnibus dicere." — De Nat. Deor. i. 5. [" This principle in
philosophy, of arguing against all propositions, and openly determining nothing,
originated by Socrates, renewed by Arcesilas, and confirmed by Carneades, lias
been in force up to our own day ; but is now, I understand, even in Greece,
almost destitute of an advocate. This, 1 apprehend, is not ascribable to any fault
of the Academy, but to the dullness of individuals. For if it is a great task to
acquire the philosophy of any one school, how much greater to attain those of
all? which, nevertheless, is necessary for those, who, for the investigation of
truth, would be prepared to dispute for and against all the philosophical sects."1
—Editor.]
Ik. L.1 u
290
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO.
Cicero.
Fhilo and
Antiochus.
Mixed
Philosophy
of C'cero.
interests to which the Academic doctrines were certainly hostile, if
not necessarily fatal. Thus, although we find Carneades, in con-
formity to the plan adopted by Arcesilas,1 opposing the dogmatic
principles of the Stoics concerning moral duty,2 and studiously
concealing his private views even from his friends ; 3 yet, by allowing
that the suspense of judgment was not always a duty, that the
wise man might sometimes believe though he could not know ; 4 he
in some measure restored the authority of those great instincts of
our nature which his predecessor appears to have discarded.
Clitomachus pursued his steps by innovations in the same direction;5
Philo, who followed next, attempting to reconcile his tenets with
those of the Platonic school,6 has been accounted the founder of a
fourth academy — while, to his successor Antiochus, who embraced
the doctrines of the Porch,7 and maintained the fidelity of the
senses, it has been usual to assign the establishment of a fifth.
We have already observed, that Cicero in early life inclined to
the systems of Plato and Antiochus, which, at the time he composed
the bulk of his writings, he had abandoned for that of Carneades
and Philo.8 Yet he was never so entirely a disciple of the New
Academy, as to neglect the claims of morality and the laws. He
is loud in his protestations, that truth is the great object of his
search ; — " Ego enim, he says, si aut ostentatione aliqua adductus,
aut studio certandi, ad hanc potissimum Philosophiam me applicavi;
non modo stultitiam meam, sed etiam mores et naturam con-
demnandam puto. . . . Itaque, nisi ineptum putarem in tali disputa-
tione id facere quod, quum de Eepublica disceptatur, fieri interdum
solet, jurarem per Jovem Deosque Penates, me et ardere studio
Veri reperiendi, et ea sentire quae dicerem."9 And, however map-
1 De Nat. Deor. i. 25. Austin, contra Acad. iii. 17. Numen. apud Euseb.
Pimp. Evang. xiv. 6.
2 De Fin. ii. 13, v. 7 ; Lucullus, 42 ; Tusc. Quaest. v. 29.
3 Lucullus, 45.
4 Lucullus, xxi. 24 ; for an elevated moral precept of his, see de Fin. ii. 18.
5 'Avrip eV rais rpialv alpeaeai §ia.Tptyas, eV Te rfj 'A/caSrj/xai'/cp /ecu lie piTrarvriKr}
kol\ 2to»kt7. — Diogenes Laertius, lib. iv. sub fin. [" A man versed in the three
schools — the Academic, the Peripatetic, and the Stoic." — Editor.]
6 " Philo, magnus vir, negat in libris duas Academias esse ; erroremque eorum
qui ita putarunt coarguit." — Acad. Qucest. i. 4. ["Philo, a great man, denies in
his writings that there are two Academies ; and refutes the error of those who
have entertained that opinion." — Editor.']
7 De Fin. v. 5 ; Lucullus, xxii. 43.
8 Acad. Quaest. i. 4 ; de Nat. Deor. i. 7.
9 Lucullus, 20 ; see also de Nat. Deor. i. 7 ; de Fin. i. 5. [" For my own part,
if I have applied myself especially to this philosophy, through any love of
display or ambition of excelling, I not only hold my folly amenable to con-
demnation, but my very character and nature. And, therefore, if 1 did not consider
it absurd, in an argument like this, to do what is sometimes done in political
discussions, I would swear by Jupiter and the gods Penates that I burn with
an earnest desire of discovering the truth, and believe all that I say." — Editor.]
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 291
propriatc this boast may appear, he at least pursues the useful and Cicero,
the magnificent in philosophy j and uses his academic character as
a pretext rather for a judicious selection from each system, than
for an indiscriminate rejection of all.1 Thus, in the capacity of a
statesman, he calls in the assistance of doctrines, which, as an orator,
he does not scruple to deride; those of Zeno in particular, who
maintained the truth of the popular theology, and the divine origin
of augury, and (as we noticed above) was more explicit than the
other masters in his views of social duty. This difference of
sentiment between the magistrate and the pleader is strikingly
illustrated in the opening of his treatise de Legibus ; where, after
deriving the principles of law from the nature of things, he is
obliged to beg quarter of the Academics, whose reasonings he feels
could at once destroy the foundation on which his argument rested.
"Ad llespublicas firmandas, et ad stabiliendas vires, sanandos
populos, omnis nostra pergit oratio. Quocirca vereor committere,
ut non bene provisa et diligenter explorata principia ponantur : nee
tamen ut omnibus probentur, (nam id fieri non potest) sed ut iis,
qui omnia recta atque honesta per se expetenda duxerunt, et aut
nihil ornnino in bonis numerandum nisi quod per seipsumlaudabile
esset, aut certe nullum habendum magnum bonum, nisi quod vere
laudari sua sponte posset."2 And then apparently alluding to the
arguments of Carneades against justice, which he had put into the
mouth of Philus in the third book of his de Republicd, he proceeds;
" Perturbatricem autem harum omnium rerum Academiam, hanc ab
Arcesila et Carneade recentem, exorenim, ut sileat. Nam, si invaserit
in haec, quae satis scite nobis instructa et composita videntur, nimias
edet ruinas. Quam quidem tgoplacare cupio) submovere non audeo" 9
And as, in questions connected with the interests of society, he
thus uniformly advocates the tenets of the Porch, so in discussions
of a physical character, we find him adopting the sublime and
1 u Nobis autem nostra Acadcmiamagnam licentiam dat, ut, quodcunquc maxime
probabile occurrat, id nostro jure liceat defendere."'' — l)e Off. iii. 4. [" Our Academy,
however, grants us considerable licence, so that we may defend, by our own right,
whatever occurs to us as most probable." — Editor.'] See also Tusc. Quacst. iv. 4,
v. 29 ; de Invent, ii. 3.
2 ["All our argument is directed to the consolidation of states, the stability of
their power, the sound condition of their population. Accordingly, I dread any
failure in laying down well-considered and carefully-examined principles : not such,
indeed, as shall meet universal approval (for that is impossible) ; but such as shall
commend themselves to those who hold all upright and honourable objects to be
in themselves deserving pursuit, and regard nothing as good which is not of itself
praiseworthy, or, at least, nothing as eminently good, which is not intrinsically an
object of just commendation." — Editor.]
3 De Legg. i. 13. [" But let us intreat the Academy, — this new Academy I
mean, the school of Arcesilas and Carneades — the disturber of all these things, —
to be silent. For should that school attack our arguments, skilfully as they seem
to us to be framed and arranged, too much havoc would ensue. I would wish,
then, to conciliate the Academy; remove it, I dare not." — Editor.]
U 2
292
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO.
Cicero.
kindling sentiments of Pythagoras and Plato. Here, however,
having no object of expediency in view to keep him within the
bounds of consistency, he scruples not to introduce whatever is
most beautiful in itself, or most adapted to his present purpose.
At one time he describes the Deity as the all-pervading Soul of
the world, the cause of life and motion.1 At another He is the
intelligent Preserver and Governor of every separate part.2 At one
time the soul of man is in its own nature necessarily eternal, without
beginning or end of existence;3 — at another it is represented as
reunited on death to the one infinite Spirit ; 4 — at another it is
to enter the assembly of the Gods, or to be driven into darkness,
according to its moral conduct in this life ; 5 — at another the best
and greatest of mankind are alone destined for immortality 6 —
which is sometimes described as attended with consciousness and
the continuance of earthly friendships ; 7 sometimes, as but an
immortality of name and glory ; 8 more frequently however these
separate notions are confused together in the same passage.9
Though the works of Aristotle were not given to the world till
acquaintance Sylla's return from Greece, Cicero appears to have been a consider-
Irlstotie. able proficient in his philosophy,10 and he has not overlooked the
important aid it affords in those departments of science which are
alike removed from abstract reasoning and fanciful theorising. To
Aristotle he is indebted for most of the principles laid down in his
rhetorical discussions,11 while in his treatises on morals not a few of
his remarks may be traced to the same acute philosopher.12
The doctrines of the Garden alone, though some of his most
intimate friends were of the Epicurean school, he regarded with
aversion and contempt ; feeling no sort of interest in a system
which cut at the very root of that activity of mind, industry, and
patriotism for which he himself both in public and private was so
honourably distinguished.13
Such then was the New Academy, and such the variation of
His
His
abhorrence
of Epicurus.
1 Tusc. Quaest. i. 27 : de Div. ii. 72 ; pro Milon. 31 ; de Legg. ii. 7.
2 Fragm. de Rep. 3 ; Tusc. Quaest. i. 29 ; de Univ.
3 Tusc. Quaest. i. passim ; de Senect. 21, 22 ; Somn. Scip. 8.
4 De Div. i. 32, 49 ; Fragm. de Consolat.
5 Tusc. Quaest. i. 30 ; Som. Scip. 9; de Legg. ii. 11.
6 De Aniic. 4; de Off. iii. 28; pro Cluent. 61 ; de Legg. ii. 17; Tusc.
Quaest. i. 11 ; pro Sext. 21 ; de Nat. Deor. i. 17.
7 Cat. 23. 8 Pro Arch. II, 12 ; ad Fam. v. 21, vi. 21.
9 Pro Arch. 11, 12 ; ad Fam. v. 21, vi. 21.
10 He seems to have fallen into some misconceptions of Aristotle's meaning.
De Invent, i. 35, 36, ii. 14 ; see Quinct. Inst. v. 14.
11 De Invent, i. 7, ii. 51, et passim ; ad. Fam. i. 9 ; de Orat. ii. 36.
12 De Off. i. 1 ; de Fin. iv. 5; ad Atticum.
13 De Fin. ii. 21, iii. 1 ; de Legg. i. 13; de Orat. iii. 17; ad Fam. xiii. 1 ;
pro Sext. 10.
MAKCUS TULLIUS CICERO.
298
opinion, which, in Cicero's judgment, was not inconsistent with the Cicero.
profession of an Academic. And however his adoption of that
philosophy may be in part referred to his oratorical habits, or the
natural cast of mind, yet, considering the ambition which he felt
to inspire his countrymen with a taste for literature and Bcience,1
we must conclude with Warburton,2 that, in acceding to the system
of Philo, he was strongly influenced by the freedom of thought and
reasoning which it allowed to his compositions ; the liberty of
developing the principles and doctrines, the strong and weak parts
of every Grecian school. Bearing then in mind his design of
recommending the study of philosophy, it is interesting to observe
the artifices of style and manner which, with this end, he adopted in
his treatises ; and though to enter minutely into this subject would
be foreign to our present purpose, it may be allowed us to make
some general remarks on the character of works so eminently
successful in accomplishing the object for which they were
undertaken.
Temple of Minerva.
The most obvious peculiarity of Cicero's philosophical discuss- His form of
ions is the form of dialogue in which most of them are conveyed. dial°5uc-
Plato, indeed, and Xenophon had, before his time, been even more
strictly dramatic in their compositions ; but they professed to be
recording the sentiments of an individual, and the Socratic mode of
argument could hardly be displayed in any other shape. Of that
1 De Nat. Deor. i. 4; Tusc. Qusest. i. 1, v. 29; de Fin. i. 3, 4 ; de Off.
i. 1 ; de Div. ii. 1, 2. - Div. Lcgg. lib. iii. sec. 9.
294
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO.
of it,
Cicero. interrogative and inductive conversation, however, Cicero affords
but few specimens ;! the nature of his dialogue ,being as different
from that of the two Athenians, as was his object in writing. His
aim was to excite interest ; and he availed himself of this mode of
composition for the life and variety, the ease, perspicuity, and
vigour which it gave to his discussions. His dialogue is of two
kinds ; according as his subject is, or is not, a controverted point, it
assumes the shape of a continued treatise, or a free disputation ;
in the latter case imparting clearness to what is obscure, in the
former relief to what is clear. Thus his practical and systematic
treatises on rhetoric and moral duty are either written in his own
person, or merely divided between several speakers who are the
organs of his own sentiments ; while in questions of a more
speculative cast, on the nature of the gods, on the human soul, on
the greatest good, he uses his academic liberty, and brings forward
the theories of contending schools under the character of their
Advantages respective advocates. The advantages gained in both cases are
evident. In controverted subjects he is not obliged to discover his
own views, he can detail opposite arguments forcibly and lumi-
nously, and he is allowed the use of those oratorical powers in
which, after all, his great strength lay. In those subjects, on the
other hand, which are uninteresting because they are familiar, he
may pause or digress before the mind is weary and the attention
begins to flag ; the reader is carried on by easy journies and short
stages, and novelty in the speaker supplies the want of novelty in
the matter.
Nor does Cicero discover less skill in the execution of these
dialogues, than address in their design. It were idle to enlarge
upon the beauty, richness, and taste of compositions which have
been the admiration of every age and country. In the dignity of
his speakers, their high tone of mutual courtesy, the harmony of
his groups, and the delicate relief of his contrasts, he is inimitable.
The majesty and splendour of his introductions, which generally
address themselves to the passions or the imagination, the eloquence
with which both sides of a question are successively displayed, the
clearness and terseness of his statements on abstract points, the
grace of his illustrations, his exquisite allusions to the scene or
time of the supposed conversation, his digressions in praise of
philosophy or great men, his quotations from Grecian and Roman
poetry, lastly, the melody and fulness of his style, unite to throw
a charm round his writings peculiar to themselves. To the Roman
reader they especially recommended themselves by their continual
and most artful references to the heroes of the old republic, who
now appeared but exemplars, and (as it were) patrons of that
Beauty of
execution.
See Tusc. Quoest. and de Republ.
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 295
eternal philosophy, which he had before, perhaps, considered as Cioero.
the short-lived reveries of ingenious, but inactive men. Nor is
there any confusion, harshness, or appearance of effort in the intro-
duction of the various beauties we have been enumerating, which
are blended together with so much skill and propriety, that it is
sometimes difficult to point out the particular causes of the delight
left upon the mind.
In proceeding to enumerate Cicero's philosophical writings,1 it
may be necessary to premise that our intention is rather to sketch
out the plan on which they are conducted, than to explain the
doctrines which they recommend ; for an account of which the
reader is referred to our articles on the schools by which they were
respectively entertained.2
The series of his rhetorical works has been preserved nearly w
complete, and consists of the Be Liventione, Be Oratore, Brutus work?-
sive de claris Orator id us, Orator sive de optimo genere Biccndi,
Be partitions Oratorid, Topica de optimo genere Oratonnn. The
last-mentioned, which is a fragment, is understood to have been
the proem to his translation (now lost) of the speeches of Demos-
thenes and iEschines, Be Corona. These he translated with the
view of defending, by the example of the Greek orators, his own
style of eloquence, which, as we shall afterwards find, the critics of
the day censured as too Asiatic in its character ; and hence the
preface, which still survives, is on the subject of the Attic style of
oratory. This composition and his abstracts of his own orations 3
are his only rhetorical works now extant, and probably our loss is
not very great. The Treatise on Rhetoric, addressed to Herennius, Treat
though edited with his works, and ascribed to him by several of KUetonc-
the ancients, is now generally attributed to Cornificius, or some
other writer of the same period.
These works consider the art of rhetoric in different points of
view, and thus receive from each other mutual support and illustra-
tion, while they prevent the tediousness which might else arise
from sameness in the subject of discussion. Three are in the form
of dialogue ; the rest are written in his own person. In all, except
perhaps the Orator, he professes to have digested the principles of
the Aristotelic and Isocratean schools into one finished system,
selecting what was best in each, and, as occasion might offer,
adding remarks and precepts of his own.4 The subject is con-
sidered in three distinct lights ; 5 with reference to the case, the
speaker, and the speech. The case, as respects its nature, is
definite or indefinite ; with reference to the hearer, it is judicial,
1 See Fabricius, Bibliothec. Latin.; Olivet, in Cic. op. omn. ; Middleton's Life.
8 History of Greek and Roman Philosophy, in this Encyclopedia.
3 Quinct. Inst. x. 7. 4 De Invent, ii. 2 et 3 ; ad Fain. i. 9.
5 Confer de part. Orat. with de Invent.
296
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO.
De
Invention e.
Cicero. deliberative, or descriptive ; as regards the opponent, the division
is fourfold — according as the fact, its nature, its quality, or its
propriety is called in question. The art of the speaker is directed
to five points ; the discovery of persuasives, (whether ethical,
pathetical, or argumentative,) arrangement, diction, memory,
delivery. And the speech itself consists of six parts ; introduc-
tion, statement of the case, division of the subject, proof, refutation,
and conclusion.
His treatises Be Inventione and Topica, the first and nearly the
last of his compositions, are both on the invention of arguments,
which he regards, with Aristotle, as the very foundation of the art ;
though he elsewhere confines the term eloquence, according to its
derivation, to denote excellence of diction and delivery, to the
exclusion of argumentative skill.1 The former of these works was
written at the age of twenty, and seems originally to have con-
sisted of four books, of which but two remain.2 In the first of
these he considers rhetorical invention generally, supplies common-
places for the six parts of an oration promiscuously, and gives a
full analysis of the two forms of argument, syllogism and induc-
tion. In the second book he applies these rules particularly to the
tnree subject-matters of rhetoric, the deliberative, the judicial, and
the descriptive, dwelling principally on the judicial, as affording
the most ample field for discussion. This treatise seems nearly
entirely compiled from the writings of Aristotle, Isocrates, and
Hermagoras ;3 and as such he alludes to it in the opening of his
Be Oratore as deficient in the experience and judgment which
nothing but time and practice can impart. Still it is an entertain-
ing, nay useful, work ; remarkable, even among Cicero's writings,
for its uniform good sense, and less familiar to the scholar, only
because the greater part has been superseded by the compositions
Topka. of his riper years. His Toxica, or treatise on common-places, has
less extent and variety of plan, being little else than a compendium
of Aristotle's work on the same subject. It was, as he informs us
in its proem, drawn up from memory on his voyage from Italy to
Greece, soon after Caesar's murder, and in compliance with the
wishes of Trebatius, who had sometime before urged him to under-
take the translation.*
De Oratore. Cicero seems to have intended his Be Oratore, Brutus, and
Orator, to form one complete system.5 Of these three noble works,
the first lays down the principles and rules of the rhetorical art ;
the second exemplifies them in the most eminent speakers of Greece
and Eome ; and the third shadows out the features of that perfect
orator, whose superhuman excellences should be the aim of our
Orat. 19. 2 Vossius, de Nat. Rhet. c. xiii.
De Invent, i. 5, 6 ; de Clar. Orat. 76.
5 De Div. ii. 1.
Fabricius, Bibliothec. Latin.
4 AdFam. vii. 19.
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 297
ambition. The Be Oratore was written when the author was fifty-
two, two years after his return from exile; and is a dialogue
between some of the most illustrious Romans of the preceding
on the subject of oratory. The principal speakers are the orators
Crassus ami Antonius, who are represented unfolding the principles
of their art to Sulpicius and Cotta, young men just rising at the
bar. In the lirst book, the conversation turns on the subject-
matter of rhetoric, and the qualifications requisite for the perfect
orator. Here Crassus maintains the necessity of his being ac-
quainted with the whole circle of the arts, while Antonius confines
eloquence to the province of speaking well. The dispute, for the
most part, seems verbal ; for Cicero himself, though he here sides
with Crassus, yet, elsewhere, as we have above noticed, pronounces
eloquence, strictly speaking, to consist in beauty of diction.
Scaevola, the celebrated lawyer, takes part in this preliminary
discussion ; but, in the ensuing meetings, makes way for Catulus
and Caesar, the subject leading to such technical disquisitions as
were hardly suitable to the dignity of the aged Augur.1 The next
morniug Antonius enters upon the subject of invention, which
Caesar completes by subjoining some remarks on the use of humour
in oratory ; and Antonius, relieving him, finishes the morning
discussion with the principles of arrangement and memory. In the
afternoon the rules for propriety and elegance of diction are
explained by Crassus, who was celebrated in this department of the
art ; and the work concludes with his treating the subject of
delivery and action. Such is the plan of the Be Oratore, the
most finished perhaps of Cicero's compositions. An air of grandeur
and magnificence reigns throughout. The characters of the aged
senators are finely conceived, and the whole company is invested
with an almost religious majesty, from the allusions interspersed to
the miserable destinies for which its members were reserved.
His treatise Be claris Orator lb ns, was written after an interval Do elaru
of nine years, about the time of Cato's death, and is conveyed in ;
a dialogue between Brutus, Atticus, and himself. He begins with
Solon, and after briefly mentioning the orators of Greece, proceeds
to those of his own country, so as to take in the whole period from
the time of Junius Brutus down to himself. About the same time
he wrote his Orator ; in which he directs his attention principally Orator.
to diction and delivery, as in his Be Inventione and Topica he
considers the matter of an oration." This treatise is of a less
practical nature than the rest.3 It adopts the principles of Plato,
and delineates the perfect orator according to the abstract concep-
tions of the intellect, rather than the deductions of observation
and experience. Hence he sets out with a definition of the perfectly
i Ad Atticum, iv. 16. * Orat. 16. :; Orat. 14, 31.
298
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO.
Cicero.
De
partitione
Gratorid.
Moral and
Physical
writings.
De
Jiepublicd.
Recent
discovery of
additional
fragments
of his
Treatises.
eloquent man, whose characteristic it is to express himself with
propriety on all subjects, whether humble, great, or of an inter-
mediate character;1 and here he has an opportunity of paying
some indirect compliments to himself. With this work he was so
well satisfied, that he does not scruple to declare, in a letter to a
friend, that he was ready to risk his reputation for judgment in
oratory on its merits.2
The treatise De partitione Oratorio,, or on the three parts of
rhetoric, is a kind of catechism between Cicero and his son, drawn
up for the use of the latter at the same time with the two preceding.
It is the most systematic and perspicuous of his rhetorical works,
but seems to be but the rough draught of what he originally
intended.3
The connection which we have been able to preserve between the
rhetorical writings of Cicero will be quite unattainable in his moral
and physical treatises ; partly from the extent of the subject, partly
from the losses occasioned by time, partly from the inconsistency
which we have warned the reader to expect in his sentiments. In
our enumeration, therefore, we shall observe no other order than
that which the date of their composition furnishes.
The earliest now extant is part of his treatise Be Lefjibus, in
three books ; being a sequel to his work on politics. Both were
written in imitation of Plato's treatises on the same subjects.4 The
latter of these {De Eepublicd) was composed a year after the De
Oratore,5 and seems to have vied with it in the majesty and interest
of the dialogue. It consisted of a series of discussions in six books
on the origin and principles of government, Scipio being the prin-
cipal speaker ; but Lselius, Philus, Manilius, and other personages
of like gravity taking part in the conversation. Till lately, but a
fragment of the fifth book was understood to be in existence, in
which Scipio, under the fiction of a dream, inculcates the doctrine
of the immortality of the soul. But in the year 1822, Monsignor
Mai, librarian of the Vatican, published considerable portions of
the first and second books, from a palimpsest manuscript of St.
Austin's Commentary on the Psalms. In the part now recovered,
Scipio discourses on the different kinds of constitutions and their
respective advantages ; with a particular reference to that of Home.
In the third, the subject of justice was discussed by Laclius and
Philus ; in the fourth, Scipio treated of morals and education ;
while in the fifth and sixth, the duties of a magistrate were
explained, and the best means of preventing changes and revolutions
in the constitution itself. In the latter part of the treatise, allu-
sion was made to the actual posture of affairs in Rome, when the
1 Orat. 21, 29. 2 Ad Fam. vi. 18.
'■'• See Middleton, vol. ii. p. 147, 4to. 4 De Legg. i. 5.
1 Ang. Mai, praef. in Rciup. Middleton, vol. i. p. 486.
MAUCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 299
conversation was supposed to have occurred, and the commotions Cicero,
excited by the Gracchi.
In his treatise Be Legibus, which was written two years Later
than the former, and shortly after the murder of Clodius, he repre-
sents himself as explaining to his brother Quintus, and Atticus, in
their walks through the woods of Arpinum, the nature and origin
of the laws, and their actual state, both in other countries and in
Kome. The first part only of the subject is contained in the books
now extant ; the introduction to which we have had occasion to
notice, when speaking of his stoical sentiments on questions con-
nected with state policy. Law he pronounces to be the perfection
of reason, the eternal mind, the divine energy, which, while it per-
vades and unites in one the whole universe, associates gods and
men by the more intimate resemblance of reason and virtue, and
still more closely men with men, by the participation of common
faculties, affections, and situations. He then proves, at length,
that justice is not merely created by civil institutions, from the
power of conscience, the imperfections of human law, the moral
sense, and the disinterestedness of virtue. He next proceeds to
unfold the principles, first, of religious law, under the heads of
divine worship ; the observance of festivals and games ; the office
of priests, augurs, and heralds ; the punishment of sacrilege and
perjury ; the consecration of land, and the rights of sepulchre*;
and, secondly, of civil law, which gives him an opportunity of
noticing the respective duties of magistrate and citizens. In these
discussions, though professedly speaking of the abstract question,
he does not hesitate to anticipate the subject of the lost books, by
frequent allusions to the history and customs of his own country.
It may be added, that in no part of his writings do worse specimens
occur, than in this treatise, of that vanity which was notoriously his
weakness, which are rendered doubly odious by the affectation of
putting them into the mouth of his brother and Atticus.1
Here a period of eight years intervenes, during which he com- Academic*
posed little of importance besides his orations. He then published
the Brutus and Orator ; and the year after, his Academicce Quces-
tiones, in the retirement from public business to which he was
driven by the dictatorship of Caesar. This work had originally con-
sisted of two dialogues, which he entitled Catulus and Lucullus,
from the names of the respective speakers in each. These he now
remodelled and enlarged into four books, dedicating them to Varro,
whom he introduced as advocating, in the presence of Atticus, the
tenets of Antiochus, while he himself defended those of Philo. Of
this most valuable composition, only the second book (Lucullus) of
the first edition, and part of the first of the second are now extant.
1 Quinct. Inst. xi. 1.
300
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO.
Cicero. In the former of the two, Lucullus argues against, and Cicero for,
the Academic sect, in the presence of Catulus and Hortensius ; in
the latter, Varro pursues the history of philosophy from Socrates
to Arcesilas, and Cicero continues it down to the time of Carneades.
In the second edition, the style was corrected, the matter con-
densed, and the whole polished with extraordinary care and
diligence.1
DeFinibus. The same year he published his treatise De Flnibus or the chief
good, in five books, in which are explained the sentiments of the
Epicureans, Stoics, and Peripatetics on the subject. This is the
earliest of his works in which the dialogue is of the disputatious
kind. It is opened with a defence of the Epicurean tenets, concern-
ing pleasure, by Torquatus ; to which Cicero replies at length.
The scene then shifts from the Cuman villa to the library of young
Lucullus, (his father being dead,) where the Stoic Cato expatiates
on the sublimity of the system which maintains the existence of one
only good, and is answered by Cicero in the character of a Peri-
patetic. Lastly, Piso, in a conversation held at Athens, enters into
an explanation of the doctrine of Aristotle, that happiness is the
greatest good. The general style of his treatise is elegant and
perspicuous ; and the last book in particular has great variety and
splendour of diction.
We have already, in our memoir of Caesar, observed that Cicero
was about this time particularly courted by the heads of the dic-
tator's party, of whom Hirtius and Dolabella went so far as to
declaim daily at his house for the benefit of his instructions.2 A
visit of this nature to his Tusculan villa, soon after the publication
of the De Flnibus, gave rise to his work entitled Tusculance Quces-
tiones, which professes to be the substance of five philosophical
disputes between himself and friends, digested into as many books.
He argues throughout on Academic principles, even with an affecta-
tion of inconsistency ; sometimes making use of the Socratic
dialogue, sometimes launching out into the diffuse expositions
which characterise his other treatises.3 He first disputes against
the fear of death ; and in so doing he adopts the opinion of the
Platonic school, as regards the nature of God and the soul. The
succeeding discussions on enduring pain, on alleviating grief, on
the other emotions of the mind, and on virtue, are conducted for
the most part on Stoical principles.4 This is a highly ornamental
composition, and contains more quotations from the poets than any
other of Cicero's treatises.
We have already had occasion to remark upon the singular
activity of his mind, which becomes more and more conspicuous as
we approach the period of his death. During the ensuing year,
Tusculan ce
Qua-stiunes,
1 Ad Atticum, xiii. 13, 16, 19.
3 Tusc. Quaest. v. 4, 11.
- Ad Fain, ix. 16, \i
4 Ibid. iii. 10, v. 27.
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO.
301
Dvurum.
which is the hist of his life, in the midst of the confusion and Cicero,
anxieties consequent on Crcsar's death, he found lime to write the
Be Naturd Deo rum, De Divinatione, Be Fatoy Be Senectute, Be
Amiciti&t De Officii*, and Paradoxa, besides the treatise on Rheto-
rical Common Places above mentioned.
Of these the first three were intended as a full exposition of the
opposite opinions entertained on their respective subjects; the Be
Fato, however, was not finished according to this plan.1 His trea-
tise Be Naturd Deorum, in three books, may be reckoned the most Do Natort
magnificent of all his works, and shows that neither age nor disap-
pointment had done injury to the richness and vigour of his mind.
In the first book, Velleius, the Epicurean, sets forth the physical
tenets of his sect, and is answered by Cotta, who is of the Academic
school. In the second, Balbus, the disciple of the Porch, gives an
account of his own system, and is, in turn, refuted by Cotta in the
third. The eloquent extravagance of the Epicurean, the solemn
enthusiasm of the Stoic, and the brilliant raillery of the Academic,
are contrasted with extreme vivacity and humour. While the sub-
limity of the subject itself imparts to the whole composition a
grander and more elevated character, and discovers in the author
Pantheon.
imaginative powers, which, celebrated as he justly is for playful-
ness of fancy, might yet appear more the talent of the poet than
the orator.
De Nat. Dcor. i. 6 ; de Div. i. 4 ; de Fat. 1.
302 MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO.
Cicero. His treatise Be Diiinatione is conveyed in a discussion between
De his brother Guintus and himself, in two books. In the former,
DUnnationc. QumtuSj after dividing Divination into the heads of natural and
artificial, argues with the Stoics for its sacred nature, from the
evidence of facts, the agreement of all nations, and the existence of
gods. In the latter, Cicero questions its authority, with Carneades,
from the uncertain nature of its rules, the absurdity and useless-
ness of the art, and the possibility of accounting from natural
causes for the phenomena on which it was founded. This is a
curious work, from the numerous cases adduced from the histories
of Greece and Borne, to illustrate the subject in dispute.
De Fato. His treatise Be Fato is quite a fragment ; it purports to be the
substance of a dissertation in which he explained to Hirtius (soon
after Consul) the sentiments of Chrysippus, Diodorus, Epicurus,
Carneades, and others, upon that abstruse subject. It is supposed
to have consisted at least of two books, of which we have but the
proem of the first, and a small portion of the second.
De Sencctute In his beautiful compositions Be Senectute and Be dmicitid,
Amidtid ^a^° *ne censor and Lrelius are respectively introduced, delivering
their sentiments on those subjects. The conclusion of the former,
in which Cato discourses on the immortality of the soul, has been
always celebrated; and the opening of the latter, in which Fanniua
and Screvola come to console Laelius on the death of Scipio, is as
exquisite an instance of delicacy and taste as can be found in his
works. In the latter he has borrowed largely from the eighth and
ninth books of Aristotle's Ethics.
De officiis. His treatise Be Officiis was finished about the time he wrote
his second Philippic, a circumstance which illustrates the great
versatility of his mental powers. Of a work so extensively cele-
brated, it is enough to have mentioned the name. Here he lays
aside the less authoritative form of dialogue, and, with the dignity
of the Soman consul, unfolds, in his own person, the principles of
morals, according to the views of the older schools, particularly of
the Stoics. It is written, in three books, with great perspicuity
and elegance of style; the first book treats of the honest urn, the
second of the utile, and the third adjusts the claims of the two,
when they happen to interfere with each other.
Paradox* His Faradoxa Stoicorum might have been more suitably, perhaps,
included in his rhetorical works, being six short declamations in
support of the positions of Zeno ; in which that philosopher's sub-
tleties are adapted to the comprehension of the vulgar, and the
events of the times. The second, fourth, and sixth, are respectively
directed against Antony, Clodius, and Crassus. They seem to have
suffered from time.1 The sixth is the most eloquent, but the argu-
ment of the third is strikingly maintained.
1 Sciopp. in Olivet.
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 303
Besides the works now enumerated, we have a considerable frag- Cicero,
ment of his translation of Plato's Timceus, which he seems to have
finished about this time. His remaining philosophical works, viz. ■
the Hortensius, which was a defence of philosophy ; Be Glor'ui, Be
Consolatione, written upon Platonic principles on his daughter's
death ; Be Jure Civilly Be Virtutibus, Be Aug arils, Chorographia,
translations of Plato's Protagoras, and Xenophon's (Economics,
works on Natural History, Panegyric on Cato, and some miscel-
laneous writings, are, except a few fragments, entirely lost.
His Epistles, about one thousand in all, are comprised in thirty- Epistles,
six books, sixteen of which are addressed to Atticus, three to his
brother Quintus, one to Brutus, and sixteen to his different friends ;
and they form a history of his life from his fortieth year. Among
those addressed to his friends, some occur from Brutus, Metellus,
Plancius, Caelius and others. For the preservation of this most
valuable department of Cicero's writings, we are indebted to Tyro,
the author's freedman, though we possess, at the present day, but
a part of those originally published. As his correspondence with
his friends belongs to his character as a man and politician, rather
than to his powers as an author, we have already noticed it in the
first part of this memoir.
His poetical and historical works have suffered a heavier fate. Poetical and
The latter class, consisting of his commentary on his consulship, jJJJS"*^
and his history of his own times, is altogether lost. Of the former,
which consisted, of the heroic poems Ilalcyone, Cimon, Marius, and
his Consulate, the elegy of Tamelastes, translations of Homer and
Aratus, epigrams, &c, nothing remains, except some fragments of
the Phenomena and Biosemeia of Aratus. It may, however, be
questioned whether literature has suffered much by these losses.
We are far, indeed, from speaking contemptuously of the poetical
powers of one who possessed so much fancy, so much taste, and so
fine an ear.1 But his poems were principally composed in his
youth ; and afterwards, when his powers were more mature, his
occupations did not allow even his active mind the time necessary
for polishing a language still more rugged in metre than it was in
prose. His contemporary history, on the other hand, can hardly
have conveyed more explicit, and certainly would have contained
less faithful, information than his private correspondence ; while,
with all the penetration he assuredly possessed, it may be doubted
if his diffuse and graceful style of thought and composition was
adapted for the depth of reflection and condensation of meaning,
which are the chief excellences of historical composition.
The orations which he is known to have composed amount in all 0ration?.
to about eighty, of which fifty-nine either entire or in part are
1 See Plutarch, in Vita.
304
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO.
Cicero.
General
distribution.
preserved. Of these some are deliberative, others judicial, others
descriptive ; some delivered from the rostrum, or in the senate ;
others in the forum, or before Caesar ; and, as might be anticipated
from the character already given of his talents, he is much more
successful in pleading or in panegyric than in debate or invective.
In deliberative oratory, indeed, great part of the effect depends on
the confidence placed in the speaker ; and, though Cicero takes
considerable pains to interest the audience in his favour, yet his
style is not simple and grave enough ; he is too ingenious, too
declamatory, discovers too much personal feeling, to attain the
highest degree of excellence in this department of the art. His
invectives, again, however grand and imposing, yet, compared with
his calmer and more familiar productions, have a forced and
unnatural air. Splendid as is the eloquence of his Catilinarians
and Philippics, it is often the language of abuse rather than of
indignation ; and even his attack on Piso, the most brilliant and
imaginative of its kind, becomes wearisome from want of ease and
relief. His laudatory orations, on the other hand, are among his
happiest efforts. Nothing can exceed the taste and beauty of those
for the Manilian law, for Marcellus, for Ligurius, for Archias, and
the ninth Philippic, which is principally in praise of Servius
Sulpicius. But it is, in judicial eloquence, particularly on subjects
of a lively cast, as in his speeches for Cselius and Mursena, and
against Cascilius, that his talents are displayed to the best advan-
tage. To both kinds his amiable and pleasant character of mind
imparts inexpressible grace and delicacy; historical allusions,
philosophical sentiments, descriptions full of life and nature, and
polite raillery, succeed each other in the most agreeable manner,
without appearance of artifice or effort. Of this nature are his
pictures of the confusion of the Catilinarian conspirators on
detection ;! of the death of Metellus ; 2 of Sulpicius undertaking
the embassy to Antonius ; 3 the character he draws of Catiline ;4
and his fine sketch of old Appius, frowning on his degenerate
descendant Clodia.5
These, however, are but incidental and occasional artifices to
divert and refresh the mind, as his orations are generally laid out
according to the plan proposed in rhetorical works ; the introduc-
tion, containing the ethical proof; the body of the speech, the
argument, and the peroration addressing itself to the passions of
the judge. In opening his case, he commonly makes a profession
of timidity and diffidence, with a view to conciliate the favour
of his audience ; the eloquence, for instance, of Hortensius, is so
powerful,6 or so much prejudice has been excited against his client,7
In Catil. iii. 3.
Pro c«i. a.
Pro Qui net. and pro Verr. 5.
2 Pro Csel. 10.
:' Philipp. ix. 3.
5 Ibid. b\
' Pro Cluent.
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 305
or it is his first appearance in the rostrum,1 or he is unused to ciccro.
speak in an armed assembly,2 or to plead in a private apartment.3
He proceeds to entreat the patience of his judges ; drops out some
generous or popular sentiment, or contrives to excite prejudice
against his opponent. He then states the circumstances of his
case, and the intended plan of his oration ; and here he is particu-
larly clear. But it is when he comes actually to prove his point, that
his oratorical powers begin to have their full play. He accounts for
every thing so naturally, makes trivial circumstances tell so happily,
so adroitly converts apparent objections into confirmations of his
argument, connects independent particulars with such ease and
plausibility, that it becomes impossible to entertain a question on
the truth of his statement. This is particularly observable in his
defence of Cluentius, where prejudices, suspicions and difficulties
are encountered with the most triumphant ingenuity ; in the ante-
cedent probabilities of his Pro Milone ;4 in his apology for Mursena's
public,5 and Cselius's private life,6 and his disparagement of Verres's
military services in Sicily ;7 it is observable in the address with
which the Agrarian law of Rullus,8 and the accusation of Rabirius,9
both popular measures, are represented to be hostile to public
liberty ; with which Milo's impolitic unconcern is made an affecting
topic ;10 and Cato's attack upon the crowd of clients which accom-
panied the candidate for office, a tyrannical disregard for the
feelings of the poor.11 So great indeed is his talent, that (as we
have before hinted) he even hurts a good cause by an excess of
plausibility.
But it is not enough to have barely proved his point ; he
proceeds, either immediately, or towards the conclusion of his
speech, to heighten the effect by exaggeration.12 Here he goes (as
it were) round and round his object ; surveys it in every light ;
examines it in all its parts ; retires, and then advances ; turns and
returns it ; compares and contrasts it ; illustrates, confirms, enforces
his view of the question, till at last the hearer feels ashamed of
doubting a position which seems built on a foundation so strictly
argumentative. Of this nature is his justification of Rabirius in
taking up arms against Saturninus ;13 his account of the imprison-
ment of the Roman citizens by Verres, and of the crucifixion of
Gavius ;14 his comparison of Antonius with Tarquin ;15 and the
contrast he draws of Verres with Fabius, Scipio, and Marius.16
1 Pro Leg. Manil. 2 Pro Milon. a Pro Deiotar.
4 Pro Milon. 8—10. 5 Pro Muraen. 4. 6 Pro Cael. 6.
7 In Verr. v. 2. &c. 8 Contra Rull. ii. 9.
9 Pro Rabir. 3. :0 Pro Milon. init. et alibi
11 Pro Muraen. 14. 12 De Orat. partit. c. viii. 16, 17.
13 Pro Rabir. 5. 14 In Verr. v. 65, &c. and 64, &c.
15 Philipp. iii. 4. 16 In Verr. v. 10.
[B.L.] X
•306 MAKCUS TULLIUS CICERO.
Cicero. And now, having established his case, he opens upon his oppo-
nent a discharge of raillery, so delicate and good-natured, that it
is impossible for the latter to maintain his ground against it. Or
where the subject is too grave to admit this, he colours his exag-
geration with all the bitterness of irony or vehemence of passion.
Such are his frequent delineations of Gabinius, Piso, Clodius, and
Antonius ;l particularly his vivid and almost humorous contrast of
the two consuls, who sanctioned his banishment, in his oration for
Sextius.2 Such the celebrated account (already alluded to) of the
crucifixion of Gavius, which it is difficult to read, even at the
present day, without having our feelings roused against the merci-
less praetor. But the appeal to the gentler emotions of the soul is
reserved (perhaps with somewhat of sameness) for the close of his
oration ; as in his defence of Cluentius, Murama, Caelius, Milo,
Sylla, Flaccus, and Eabirius Postumus ; the most striking instances
of which are the poetical burst of feeling with which he addresses
his client Plancius,3 and his picture of the desolate condition of the
Vestal Fonteia, should her brother be condemned.4 At other times,
his peroration contains more heroic and elevated sentiments ; as in
his invocation of the Alban groves and altars in the peroration of
the Pro Milone, the panegyric on patriotism, and the love of glory
in his defence of Sextius, and that on liberty at the close of the
third and tenth Philippics. But we cannot describe his oratorical
merits more accurately than by extracting his own delineation of a
perfect orator : " Sic igitur dicet ille, quern expetimus, ut verset
saepe multis modis eandem et unam rem; et haereat in eadem,
commoreturque sententia : saepe etiam ut extenuet aliquid, saepe ut
irrideat : ut declinet a proposito deflectatque sententiam : ut
proponat quid dicturus sit : ut, cum transegerit jam aliquid,
definiat : ut se ipse revocet : ut, quod dixit, iteret : ut argumentum
ratione concludat : ut dividat in partes : ut aliquid relin-
quat ac ncgligat : ut ante praemuniat : ut in eo ipso, in quo repre-
hendatur, culpam in adversarium conferat : . . . . ut hominum
sermones moresque describat : ut muta quaedam loquentia inducat :
ut ab eo, quod agitur, avertat animos ; ut saepe in hilaritatem
risumve convertat : ut ante occupet quod videat opponi : ut
comparet similitudines : ut utatur exemplis : . . . . ut liberius quod
audeat : ut irascatur etiam : ut objurget aliquando : ut deprecetur,
ut supplicet ; ut medeatur ; ut a proposito declinet aliquantulum :
ut optet, ut execretur ; ut fiat iis, apud quos dicet, familiaris.,r '
» 5
1 Pro Red it. in Senat. ; pro Dom. ; pro Sext. Philipp.
2 Pro Sext. 8—10. s Pro Plane. A Pro Fonteio.
5 Orat. 40. [" Our model orator then will often turn one and the same sub-
ject about in many ways ; dwell and linger on the same thought ; frequently
extenuate circumstances, frequently deride them ; sometimes depart from his object,
and direct his view another way ; propound what he means to speak ; define what
he has effected ; recollect himself ; repeat what he has said ; conclude his address
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 307
But by the invention of a style, which adapts itself with singular Cicero,
felicity to every class of subjects, whether lofty or familiar, philo- Character of
sophical or forensic, Cicero answers even more exactly to his own hls ^re-
definition of a perfect orator,1 than by his plausibility, pathos, and
brilliancy. It is not, however, here intended to enter upon the
consideration of a subject so ample and so familiar to all scholars
as Cicero's oratorical diction, much less to take an extended view of
it through the range of his philosophical writings, and familiar
correspondence. Among many excellences, the greatest is its
suitableness to the genius of the Latin language ; though the
diffuseness thence necessarily resulting has exposed it, both in his
own days and since his time, to the criticisms of those who have
affected to condemn its Asiatic character, in comparison with the
simplicity of Attic writers, and the strength of Demosthenes.2
Greek, however, is celebrated for copiousness in its vocabulary and Difference
perspicuity in its phrases ; and the consequent facility of expressing Greek and
the most novel or abstruse ideas with precision and elegance. J^^aees
Hence the Attic style of eloquence was plain and simple, because
simplicity and plainness were not incompatible with clearness,
energy, and harmony. But it was a singular want of judgment,
an ignorance of the very principles of composition, which induced
Brutus, Calvus, Sallust, and others to imitate this terse and severe
beauty in their own defective language, and even to pronounce the
opposite kind of diction deficient in taste and purity. In Greek,
indeed, the words fall, as it were, naturally, into a distinct and
harmonious order; and, from the exuberant richness of the mate-
rials, less is left to the ingenuity of the artist. But the Latin
language is comparatively weak, scanty, and unmusical ; and
requires considerable skill and management to render it expressive
and graceful. Simplicity in Latin is scarcely separable from bald-
ness ; and justly as Terence is celebrated for chaste and unadorned
diction, yet, even he, compared with Attic writers, is flat and
heavy.3 Again, the perfection of strength is clearness united to
brevity ; but to this combination Latin is utterly unequal. From
the vagueness and uncertainty of meaning which characterises its
with an argument ; distribute into parts ; leave and neglect something occasionally ;
guard his case beforehand ; cast back upon his adversary the very charges brought
against him; describe the language and characters of men ; introduce inanimate
objects speaking ; avert attention from the main point ; turn a matter into jest
and amusement; anticipate an objection ; introduce similes ; employ examples;
speak with boldness and freedom ; even with indignation ; sometimes with
invective ; implore and entreat; heal an offence ; occasionally decline a little from
his object ; implore blessings ; denounce execrations ; — in a word, put himself on
terms of familiarity with the people whom he addresses.'" — Editor.]
1 Orat. 29.
2 Tusc. Quaest. i. 1 ; de clar. Orat. 82, &c. ; de opt. gen. Die.
3 Quinct. x. 1.
x 2
308 MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO.
Cicero. separate words, to be perspicuous it must be full. What Livy,
and much more Tacitus, have gained in energy, they have lost in
perspicuity and elegance; the correspondence of Brutus with
Cicero is forcible indeed, but harsh and abrupt. Latin, in short, is
not a philosophical language, not a language in which a deep
thinker is likely to express himself with purity or neatness. " Qui
a Latinis exiget illam gratiam sermonis Attici," says Quinctilian,
" det mihi in eloquendo eandem jucunditatem, et parem copiam.
Quod si negatum est, sententias aptabimus iis vocibus quas habemus,
nee rerum nimiam tenuitatem, ut non dicam pinguioribus, forti-
oribus certe verbis miscebimus, ne virtus utraque pereat ipsa
confusione. Nam quo minus adjuvat serrao, rerum inventione
pugnandum est. Sensus sublimes variique eruantur. Permovendi
omnes affectus erunt, oratio translationum nitore illuminanda.
Non possumus esse tam graciles? simus fortiores. Subtilitate
vincimur ? vaieamus pondere. Proprietas penes illos est certior ?
copia vincamus," 1 This is the very plan on which Cicero has
proceeded. He had to deal with a language barren and dissonant ;
his good sense enabled him to perceive what could be done, and
what it was in vain to attempt ; and happily his talents answered
precisely to the purpose required. Terence and Lucretius had
cultivated simplicity; Cotta, Brutus, and Calvus had attempted
strength ; but Cicero rather made a language than a style ; yet not
so much by the invention as by the combination of words. Some
terms, indeed, his philosophical subjects obliged him to coin ;2 but
his great art lies in the application of existing materials, in con-
verting the very disadvantages of the language into beauties, 3 in
enriching it with circumlocutions and metaphors, in pruning it of
harsh and uncouth expressions, in systematizing the structure of a
sentence.4 This is that "copia dicendi" which gained Cicero the high
1 [" Let him who demands from Latin writers that peculiar charm of the Attic
style grant me the same sweetness of expression, and equal copiousness of language.
If this, as it is, is denied us, then we must express ourselves in such words as we
have, and not introduce confusion, by endeavouring to discuss subtile arguments in
language, which, not to call it too heavy, is yet too strong ; lest both excellences
[perspicuity and elegance] perish by their very commixture. For the less our
language will assist us, the more we must labour to effect by the invention of
matter. Let us aim at extracting from our subject sentiments of sublimity and
variety. Let us appeal to every feeling, and adorn our style with metaphorical
embellishments. We cannot attain the elegance of the Greeks ; let us exceed
them in vigour. Do they excel us in subtilty ? — let us surpass them in force.
Are they superior in exactness? — let us outstrip them in copiousness of detail."
— Editor.] 2 De Fin. iii. 1 and 4 ; Lucull. 6. Plutarch, in Vita.
3 This, which is analogous to his address in pleading, is nowhere more
observable than in his rendering the recurrence of the same word, to which he is
forced by the barrenness or vagueness of the language, an elegance.
4 It is remarkable that some authors attempted to account for the invention
of the Asiatic style, on the same principle we have here adduced to account for
Cicero's adoption of it in Latin ; viz. that the Asiatics had a defective knowledge of
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO.
309
testimony of Cflesar to his inventive powers,1 and which, Wt may cicero-
add, constitutes him the greatest master of composition the world
has ever seen. If the comparison be not thought fanciful, he may
be assimilated to a skilful landscape-gardener, who gives depth and
richness to narrow and confined premises, by taste and variety in
the disposition of his trees and walks.
Such, then, are the principal characteristics of Cicero's oratory; Roman
on a review of which we may, with some reason, conclude that el(Kiuence-
Eoman eloquence stands scarcely less indebted to his compositions
than Soman philosophy. For, though in his De claris Oratoribns
he begins his review from the age of Junius Brutus, yet, soberly
speaking, (and as he seems to allow in the opening of the De
Oratore,) we cannot assign an earlier date to the rise of eloquence
among his countrymen, than that of the same Athenian embassy
which introduced the study of philosophy. To aim, indeed, at per-
suasion, by appeals to the reason or passions, is so natural, that no
country, whether refined or barbarous, is without its orators. If,
however, eloquence be the mere power of persuading, it is but a
relative term, limited to time and place, connected with a particular
audience, and leaving to posterity no test of its merits, but the
report of those whom it has been successful in influencing. " Vulgus
interdum," says Cicero, " non probandum oratorem probat, sed
probat sine comparatione, cum a mediocri aut etiam a malo delec-
tatur ; eo est contentus : esse melius sentit : illud quod est, quale-
cunque est, probat." :
Roman Oracors.
Greek, and devised phrases, &c, to make up for the imperfections of their scanty
vocabulary. See Quinct. \ii. 10. l De clar. Orat. 72.
- De clar. Orat. 5'2. ["Sometimes the multitude bestow their approval on an
310
MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO.
Cicero.
Orators
before
Cicero.
Ciceronian
age.
Decline of
Roman
Oratory
under the
Imperial
Government
The eloquence of Carneades and his associates made (to use a
familiar term) a great sensation among the Eoman orators, who
soon split into two parties ; the one adhering to the rough un-
polished maimers of their forefathers, the other favouring the
artificial graces which distinguished the Grecian style. In the
former class were Cato and Laelius,1 both men of cultivated minds,
particularly Cato, whose opposition to Greek literature was founded
solely on political considerations. But, as might be expected, the
Athenian cause prevailed ; and Carbo and the two Gracchi, who are
the principal orators of the next generation, are related to have been
learned, majestic, and harmonious in the character of their speeches.2
These were succeeded by Antonius, Crassus, Cotta, Sulpicius, and
Hortensius ; who, adopting greater liveliness and variety of man-
ner, form a middle age in the history of Roman eloquence. But it
was in that which immediately followed, that the art was adorned
by an assemblage of orators, which even Greece will find it difficult
to match. Of these Caesar, Cicero, Curio, Brutus, Caelius, Calvus,
and Callidius, are the most celebrated. The splendid talents,
indeed, of Caesar were not more conspicuous in arms than in his
oratory, which was noted for force and purity.3 Caelius, who has
come before us in the history of the times, excelled in natural
quickness, loftiness of sentiment, and politeness in attack ; 4 Brutus
in philosophical gravity, though he sometimes indulged himself in a
warmer and bolder style.5 Callidius was delicate and harmonious ;
Curio bold and flowing ; Calvus, from studied opposition to Cicero's
peculiarities, cold, cautious, and accurate.6 Brutus and Calvus
have been before noticed as the advocates of the dry sententious
mode of speaking, which they dignified by the name of Attic ; a
kind of eloquence which seems to have been popular from the com-
parative facility with which it was attained.
In the Ciceronian age the general character of the oratory was
dignified and graceful. The popular nature of the government
gave opportunities for effective appeals to the passions ; and, Greek
literature being as yet a novelty, philosophical sentiments were
introduced with corresponding success. The republican orators
were long in their introductions, diffuse in their statements, ample
in their divisions, frequent in their digressions, gradual and sedate
in their perorations.7 Under the emperors, however, the people
were less consulted in state affairs ; and the judges, instead of
possessing an almost independent authority, being but delegates of
the executive, from interested politicians became men of business ;
orator who docs not deserve it, and are pleased with one of mean or no talent :
they are sensible that something better exists ; but they are content, and approve
what they have, such as it is." — Editor.']
1 De clar. Orat. 72. Quinct. xii. 1 0. 2 Dc clar. Orat. ; pro Harusp. resp. 19.
3 Quinct. x. 1 and 2. De clar. Orat. 75. 4 Ibid.
5 Ibid, ad Atticum, xiv. 1. 6 Ibid.
' Dialog de Orat. 20 and 22. Quinct. x. 2.
MAKCTS TULLITJS CICERO.
811
literature, too, was now familiar to all classes; and taste began Cicero.
sensibly to decline. The national appetite felt a craving for
stronger and more stimulating compositions. Impatience ua-
manifested at the tedious majesty and formal graces, the parade
of arguments, grave sayings, and shreds of philosophy,1 which
characterised their fathers; and a smarter and more sparkling kind
of oratory succeeded,2 just as in our own country, the minuet of
the last century has been supplanted by the quadrille, and the
stately movements of Giardini. have given way to the brisker and
more artificial melodies of Eossini. Corvinus, even before the time
of Augustus, had shown himself more elaborate and fastidious in
his choice of expressions.3 Cassius Severus, the first who openly
deviated from the old style of oratory, introduced an acrimonious
and virulent mode of pleading.4 It now became the fashion to
decry Cicero as inflated, languid, tame, and even deficient in orna-
ment ; 5 Mecaenas and Gallio followed in the career of degeneracy ;
till flippancy of attack, prettiness of expression, and glitter of
decoration prevailed over the bold and manly eloquence of free Rome.
1 " It is not uncommon for those who have grown wise by the labour of others,
to add a little of their own, and overlook their master/' — Johnson. We have
before compared Cicero to Addison as regards the purpose of inspiring their
respective countrymen with literary taste. They resembled each other in the
return they experienced. a Dialog. 13. s Dialog. 18. 4 Dialog. 19.
5 Dialog. 18 and 22. Quinct. xii. 10.
The Forum.
MSS., EDITIONS, &c, OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO.
I. PHILOSOPHICAL WORKS.
Editt. Prince. : —
Collected Philosophical Works. Sweynheym andPannartz. Roma?, 1471.
De Officiis, De Amicitia, De Senectute, Somnium Scipionis, Paradoxa,
Tusculanoe Quaestiones, without name or date, but known to be
published by Gering, Crantz, and Friburger. Paris, about 1471.
De Legibus, Academica, De Finibus. Gorenz. Lips. 1809-1813. (This
edition was intended to comprise the whole of the Philosophical
works.)
1. Rhetorical Philosophy :—
Ed. Princ. Alexandrinus and iEsulanus. Venet. 1485. Containing De
Oratore, Orator, Topica, Partitiones Oratorise, De Optimo Genere
Oratorum. Reprinted at Venice, 1488 and 1495.
First complete edition. Aldus. Venet. 1514.
Schiitz. Lips. 1804.
Wetzel (Opera Rhetorica Minora). Lignitz, 1807.
Beier and Orelli (Orator, Brutus, Topica, de Optimo Genere Oratorum).
Turici, 1830.
PARTITIONES ORATORIES.
Ed. Princ, Fontana. Venet. (?) 1472.
(Two other undated editions are supposed by bibliographers to be
earlier. One is known to have been printed at Naples by Moravus.)
Gryphius. Lugd. Bat. 1545.
Camerarius. Lips. 1549.
Sturmius. Strasb. 1565.
Minos. Paris, 1582.
Majoragius and Marcellinus. Venet. 1587.
Hauptmann. Lips. 1741.
Subsidium : —
Reuschius de Ciceronis Partitionibus Oratoriis. Helmst. 1723.
DE ORATORE.
The first perfect MS. of this work was found at Lodi, hence called Codex
Laudensis. It is now lost.
Ed. Princ. Sweynheym and Pannartz. At the monastery of Subiaco,
between 1465 and 1467.
Pearce. Lond. 1795.
Wetzel. Brunsv. 1794.
Harles. Lips. 1819 (embracing Pearce).
Muller. Lips. 1819.
Heinischen. Hafn. 1830.
MSS., EDITIONS, ETC., OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 318
Subsidia : —
Erncsti De Pracstantia Librorum Ciceronis de Oratore Proli
Lips. 1736.
Matthias Prolegomen zu Cicero's Gespriiehcn vom Redner. Francof.
1812.
Schott, Commentarius quo Ciceronis de Fine Eloquent isc Sent'
examinatur. Lips. 1801.
Gierig, Von dem iistetischen Werthe der Biicher des Cicero's vom
Redner. Fuld. 1807.
Sckaarschmidt de Proposito Libri Ciceronis de Oratore. Schneefo
1804.
Trompheller, Versuch einer Characteristik der Ciceronisclien BUcher
vom Redner. Coburg, 1830.
BRUTUS.
MS. The Laudensian above mentioned.
Ed. Princ. Sweynheym and Pannartz. Romae, 1469.
Ellendt. Konigsberg, 1826.
ORATOR.
Ed. Princ. same as Brutus.
Meyer. Lips. 1827.
Subsidia : —
Ramus, Brutinac Quaestiones in Oratorem Ciceronis. Paris, 1549.
Perionius, Oratio pro Cic. Oratore contra P. Ramum. Paris, 1547.
Majoragius, In Oratorem Cic. Commentarius. Basil. 1552.
Junius, In Oratorem Cic. Scholie. Argent. 1585.
Burchardus, Animadv. ad Cic. Oratorem. Berolin. 1815.
DE OPT. GEN. ORATORUM.
Ed. Princ, annotante Achille Statio. Paris. 1551 and 1552.
Saalfrank (cum Topicis et Partitionibus). Ratisb. 1823.
TOPICA.
Ed. Princ. without name or date; supposed, Venet. 1472.
The Commentaries of Boethius, G. Valla, Melanchthon, J. Visorius, Hegen
dorphinus, Latomus, Goveanus, Talvus, Curio, Achilles Statius, are
contained in the editions printed at Paris by —
Tiletanus, 1543.
David, 1550.
Vascosanus, 1554.
Richardus, 1557 and 1561.
RHETORICA AD HERENNIUM.
Ed. Prin. in Ciceronis Rhetorica Nova et Vetus. Jenson. Venet. 1470.
Burmann, edited by Lindemann. Lips. 1828.
Subsidia :—
Van Heusde, De ^Elio Stilone. Utrecht, 1839.
Regius, Utrum Ars Rhetorica ad Herennium Ciceroni false inscribatiu
Venet. 1492.
314 MSS., EDITIONS, ETC., OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO.
2. Political Philosophy :—
DE REPUBLICA.
MS. The work was supposed to have been altogether lost, until the year
1822, when Angelo Mai restored about one-fourth of it from a
palimpsest in the Vatican.
Ed. Prine. Mai. Roma?, 1822.
Villemain. Paris, 1S23.
Creuzer and Moser. Francof. 1S26.
Subsidia : —
Wolf. Obss. Critt. in M. Tull. Cic. Oratt. pro Scauro et pro Tullio,
et librorum de Rep. Fragm. 1824.
Zachariii Staatswissenschaftliche Betrachtungen iiber Ciceros neu
aufgefimdenes Werk vom Staate. Heidelb. 1S23.
DE LEGIBUS.
Ed. Princ. in the Philosophical works. Sweynheyin and Pannartz. Roma?,
1471.
Davis. Cantab. 1727. 1728.
Gorenz. Lips. 1809.
Moser and Creuzer. Francof. 1824.
Bake. Lugd. Bat. 1842.
3. Moral Philosophy: —
DE OFFICIIS.
Ed. Princ. with the Paradoxa. Fust and Schoffer. Mainz. 1465 and 1466.
One without date or name, but supposed to be from the press of
Ulrich Zell. Colon. 1469.
Another, generally referred to the following year, supposed to be by
Ulrich Han, of Rome.
Sweynheym and Pannartz. Romse, 1409.
Vindelin de Spira. Venet. 1470.
Eggesteyn. Strasb. 1470.
Heusinger. Brims v. 178 3.
Gernhard. Lips. 1811.
Beier. Lips. 1820-21.
Subsidia :—
Buscher, Ethica? Ciceroniana? Libri ii. Hamb. 1610.
Rath. Cic. de Officiis in brevi conspectu. Hahe, 1803.
Thorbecke, Principia Philosophic Moralis e Ciceronis Operibus.
Lugd. Bat. 1817.
CATO MAJOR (DE SENECTUTE^.
Ed. Princ. :—
This treatise is in the Philosophical works printed by Sweynheym and
Pannartz, but five previous editions had appeared at Cologne. They
are undated. The first three were by Ulrick Zell, the next by Winter
de Hornborch, the last by Arnold Therhoernen.
Gernhard (with the Paradoxa). Lips. 1819.
Otto. Lips. 1830.
BESS., EDITIONS, ETC., OF MAKCTS TUUls CICERO.
L-ELIUS (DE AMICITLU.
Ed Trine. Guldenschatf. Colon.
Ulrieh /ell. Colon.
These have no date, but GuldenschaJFs is the earlier, and both are older
than the edition of the pliilosopliieal works by Sweynheym and
Pannarts,
Gernhard. Lips. 1S25.
Eeier. Lips. 1S28.
I. Metaphysical rniLosorHY : —
ACADEMICA.
Ed. Princ. Sweynheym and Pannartz (in tlie pliilosopliieal works).
Davis. Cantab. 1725.
Gorenz. Lips. 1810.
Orelli. Turiei. 1827.
DE FIXIBUS BONORUM ET MALORUM.
Ed. Prine. without name or date. Believed to be from the press of Ulrieh
Zell. at Cologne, and about 14o7.
Joannes ex Colonia. Venet. 1471.
Davis. Cantab. 1728.
Path. Hal. Sax. 1S04.
Gorenz. Lips. 1813.
Otto. Lips. 1831.
Madvig. Hafn. 1839.
TUSCULAX.E QLLESTIOXES.
Ed. Prine. Ulrieh Han. Roma\ 1469.
There are several other editions in the loth century.
Davis. Cantab. 1709.
Path. Hal. 1805.
Orelli et Variorum. Turiei, IS 2 9.
Kiihuer. Jenae, 18:29.
Moser. Hannov. 1S3G-37 (the most complete).
PAJRADOXA.
Ed. Prine. (with the De Officiish Fust and Sehofter. Main::. 1465.
Reprinted by Fust and Gernshem, 1466.
Published with the De Omciis, De Aniieitia, and De Senectute, by Sweyn-
heym and Pannarts, Romse, 1469.
The same, with the Somnium Seipionis, by Vindelin de Spira.
1470.
There are many editions of the ISth century.
Wetzel. Lignitz. 1808.
Gernhard. Lips. 1819.
forgers. Liurd. Bat. 1826,
316 MSSV EDITIONS, ETC., OF MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO.
5. Theological Philosophy :-
DE NATURA DEORUM.
Ed. Princ. in the philosophical works by Sweynheym and Pannartz.
Davis. Cantab. 1718.
Moser and Creuzer. Lips. 1818.
DE DIVINATIONR
Ed. Princ. as above.
Davis. Cantab. 1721.
Rath. Hal. 1807.
Creuzer, Kayser, and Moser. Francof. 1828.
DE FATO.
Published together with "De Divinatione."
SUBSIDIA ON THE PHILOSOPHY OF CICERO.
Brucker, Historia Critica Philosophise. Vol. II., pp. 1 — 70.
Sibert, Examen de la Philosophic de Ciceron.
(Mem. de TAcad. des Inscr. Vols. XLII. and XLIII.)
Ritter, Geschichte der Philosophic Vol. IV., pp. 76—168.
Waldin, De Philosophia Ciceronis Platonica. Jena. 1753.
Zierlein, De Philosophia Ciceronis. Hal. 1770.
Brieglieb, Programma de Philosophia Ciceronis. Cob. 1784.
Fremling, Philosophia Ciceronis. Lund. 1795.
Hulsemann, De Indole Philosophise Ciceronis. Luneb. 1799.
Gedicke, Historia Philosophise Antiquse ex Ciceronis scriptis. Berol.
1815.
Van Heusde, M. Tullius Cicero (piXonXarwu. Traj. ad Rhen. 1836.
Kuhner, M. Tullii Ciceronis in Philosophiam et ejus partes merita.
Hamb. 1825.
II. SPEECHES.
Ed. Princ. Sweynheym and Pannartz. Romse. 1471.
Valdarfer. Venet. 1471.
Ambergau. Venet. 1472.
There is also an edition without name or date supposed to be the true
Editio Princeps.
Roigny. Paris. 1536.
Grsevius. Amstel. 1695 — 1699. (Variorum Edition.)
Klotz. Lips. 1835.
The editions of separate speeches are very numerous.
MSS., EDITIONS, ETC., OF MAltCUS TULLIUS CICERO. 317
III. LETTERS.
Ed. Princ. Sweynheym and Pannartz. Roma;. 1470.
Jenson. Venet. 1470.
Aldus adnotante Minucio. Venet. 1548.
Schiitz. Hal 1809 — 1812. (This edition omits the letters to Brutus.)
Subsidium : —
Abeken. Cicero in scinen Briefen.
COMPLETE WOPvKS.
Ed. Princ. Minutianus. Mediol. 1498. Lambinus. Paris. 1500.
Manutius and Naugerius. Venet. 1519 Gruter. Hamb. 1618.
—1523. Gronovius. Lugd. Bat. 1691.
Ascensius. Paris. 1522. Verburgius. Amst. 1724.
Cratander. Basil. 1528. Olivet. Genev. 1743—1749.
Hervagius. Basil. 1534. ErnestL Hal. Sax. 1774—1777-
Junta. Venet. 1534—1537. Schiitz. Lips. 1814—1823.
C. Stephanus. Paris. 1555. OrellL TuricL 1826—1837.
CICERONIANISM.
BY THE LATE
EEV. EDWAED SMEDLET, M.A.
FORMERLY FELLOW OF SIDNEY STSSKX COLLKOB, CAMBBXDttB, AN/) AFfBBWAROB
PRBBBNDABX OB LINCOLN.
This article is reprinted from the Lexicographical department of the
former edition of the ''Encyclopaedia Metropolitana," as a kind of appendix
to Mr. Newman's paper, being an illustration of the influence exercised by
the authority of Cicero long after the language had ceased to be written
by those who spoke it.
Erasmus.
CICEROXIANISM.
Towards the latter end of tlie XYth century a literary heresy Ciceronian*
arose in Italy, the supporters of which assumed the name of Cice- lsm#
RONIANS. Their principle was, that in writing Latin no word Ciceronian?.
ought to be used unless it was sanctioned by the authority of
Cicero. The chief scholars of the day ranged themselves on oppo-
site sides, and the controversy was sometimes waged with no slight
acrimony. Among the first who entered the lists may be mentioned
Paolo Cortesi. This learned Tuscan, on transmitting to Politian a Cortesi
collection of letters which he had taken the trouble of amassing, (to
little purpose as his correspondent told him,) avowed himself a
staunch Ciceronian. The reply of Politian may be found in the PoUtwiu
last letter but one of the YHIth book of his Epistles. He asks
Cortesi whether he prefers the smooth visage of the ape, which
after all is but a caricature of the human countenance, to the honest
roughness of the lion and the bull? He condemns the languor
and weakness, the lack of energy, of life, and of originality cf such
sluggish and slumbering imitators, who beg their bread, as it were
by morsels, for the use of the day ; and who, if the author whom
they are in the habit of mangling should not happen to be at hand,
cannot put their words together without some illiterate barbarism.
He urges his friend to study and to digest Cicero as he would any
other fine writer ; but not timidly to swim by him as by a cork, nor
servilely to plant his steps upon the very same track as his leader.
[R.L.] y
324
CICERONIANISM,
Ciceronian-
ism.
Doletus.
Scaliger.
Diis Manibus ; atque ita concionem, sive civitatem, sive Rempub-
licam suam asseruit in libertatem, ac Jovis Optimi Maximi vibratum
in nostra capita fnlmen restinxit, nosque cum illo redegit in gratiam,
nt, persuasionis munificentia ad innocentiam reparati, et a sycophants
dominatu manumissi, cooptemur in civitatem, et, in Reipublic?e
societate perseverantes, quiim fata nos evocarint ex hac vita, in
Deorum immortalium consortio rerum summa potiamur." How
little caricature is used in this extract may be determined by an
inspection of Bembo's Letters. Though secretary to Leo X., and
invested with the purple, he does not scruple, in the History of
Venice \ to make the senate of that state exhort the reigning pontiff,
"Uti fidat Diis immortalibus, quorum vicem gerit in terris ; " in-
stead of "fides" he writes " persuasio ; " instead of "excommu-
nicatio," M ab aqua et igni interdictio : " and, even when addressing
official despatches in the very person of the representative of
St. Peter, he blames the inhabitants of Eecanati for providing
unsound timber for the Casa di Loretto in such terms as these :
" Ne turn nos turn etiam Beam ijpsam (the Virgin Mary) inani
lignorum inutilium donatione lusisse videamini : " and, while exhort-
ing Francis I. to a crusade against the Turks, he invokes him
"per Deos atque homines."
It is not easy to describe the fury with which the Ciceronians
assailed the dialogue of Erasmus. Doletus, the unhappy printer,
whose Lutheranism or Atheism (for his enemies accused him of
both, and with some, of those times, the charges were synonymous)
afterwards brought him to the stake, first attacked Erasmus himself
in a dialogue, Be Imitatione Ciceroniand, in which Sir Thomas More
and Simon de Tilleneuve maintain the dispute; and afterwards
poured his wrath upon Eloridus Sabinius, who had espoused the
other party, and was overwhelmed with prose and verse, with
argument, invective, and epigram. The whole of Italy was in
flame. Sambucus, Sadoletus, Johannes Lascaris, Julius Camillus,
and Paulns Jovius, all entered the lists ; and Erasmus was falsely
accused of undervaluing Cicero, not of exposing Ciceronianism.
It was reserved, however, for the elder Scaliger to produce the
most signal monument of literary bitterness and inconsistency
which the annals of controversy can display. In 1531 he put forth
Oratio adversus Bes. Er. Eloquential Romance vindex, a tract, which
six years afterwards was followed by a second of the same kind.
If Catiline or Cethegus themselves had risen from the dead, Cicero-
nianism could not have encountered rounder terms for their vitupe-
ration than those which are here levelled against Erasmus. He is
called " Eomani nominis vomica ; Eloquentia? scopulum ; Latinae
puritatis contaminator ; Eloquential eversor ; Literarum carnifex ;
omnium ordinum labes ; omnium stiuliorum macula; omnium
. setaium venenum ; mendaciorum parens ; furoris alumnus ; Euria,
CICERONIANISM. 325
cujus scriptis incolumibus Respublica sive Christiana, sive Lateralis, ciceronim-
starc non ])otcst : M finally, he is " Ccenum, Busiris, Vipera generis bnL
liumani, nionstrum, parricida et triparricida." In a Letter written
by his father, which the younger Scaliger afterwards suppressed,
but which may be found in the edition of Thoulouse (xv. addressed
to Ferronius) he condescends to still more unmeasured abuse.
He taxes his meek and modest antagonist, (if he who personally
had never written against him can be called an antagonist) with
the dishonour of his birth: " spurius es," he says, "ex incesto
natus concubitu, sordidis parentibus, altero sacrificulo, altera pros-
tituta."
Erasmus unjustly suspected Cardinal Aleander, against whom he
nursed a strong dislike, to be the author of the first of these
orations. He felt the invective of it acutely ; and it is said that he
collected and burned all the copies which he could get into his
hands. Scaliger afterwards recanted, not his Ciceronianism, but
his ferocious calumnies. He even wrote an epitaph on the death
of him whom he had thus atrociously libelled : but it was a compo-
sition which was little calculated by its merit to appease his injured
ghost, if it could be supposed still to retain the memory of literary
quarrels. Infinite self-gratulation, however, must have resulted to
Erasmus from his satire. Though, at the moment, it diminished
the number of his admirers, and exposed him to the bitterest male-
volence, it nevertheless struck a death-blow at Ciceronianism.
This silly fancy faded away like the romance of the Spaniards
before the pen of Cervantes. A few of the Italian school attempted,
but in vain, to prolong the existence of the expiring sect, as a few
coxcombs after them from time to time have attempted to revive it.
But it was no longer doubted by the great majority of scholars,
that pure Latinity could be drunk from other sources besides that
of Tully ; and that it was a mistaken and illiberal monopoly, which
sought to confine the stream of Koman eloquence in the narrow
bed of a single channel.
The reader who wishes for more on this subject may consult the
various tracts of the authors who have been incidentally mentioned
in our brief notice above. The literary historians of the Cinque-
centi will give him plentiful details. Some of Bayle's remarks Bayie.
(particularly in the lives of Bembo, Majorajius, and Erasmus)
furnish curious anecdotes. Many facts will be found scattered up
and down Jortin's rambling and ill-adjusted, but overflowing Life
of Erasmus ; the whole is neatly and concisely put together in
Burigny's Vie d'Erasme; and Baillet, in Les Jugemeru des &
(lvii.) has stated the chief criticisms upon the Ciceroniauiis itself.
THE
HISTORIANS OF ROME.
BY THE LATE
THOMAS AKNOLD, D.D.
HEAD MASTER OF RUGBY SCHOOL.
Reprinted from the original edition.
THE HISTORIANS OF ROME.
THEOPOMPUS .... FLOURISHED CIRCITER U. C. 400. A.C. 354.
;'. clitarchus u.c. 420. a.c. 334.
v*, THEOPHRASTUS . BORN U.C. 3S1. A.C. 373. DIED U.C. 466. A.C. 2S8.
^. HIERONYMUS "]
> FLOURISHED CIRCITER U.C. 500. A.C. 254.
C, TLM.EUS J
£t DIOCLES, UNCERTAIN, BUT BEFORE SECOND TUNIC WAR.
QUINTUS FABIUS PICTOR . FLOURISHED CIRCITER U.C. 529. A.C. 225.
LUCIUS CIXCIUS ALIMENTUS U.C. 542. A.C. 212.
MARCUS PORCIUS CATO . BORN U.C. 521. A.C. 233. DIED U.C. 606. A.C. 148.
LUCIUS CALPURNIUS PISO . FLOURISHED CIRCITER U.C. 620. A.C. 134.
LUCIUS C.ELIUS ANTIPATER ... . U. C. 633. A.C. 121.
CNJ2US GELLIUS U.C. 630. A.C. 124.
CAIUS LICINIUS MACER "I W£%£% ^.
y u.c. 700. a.c. 54.
LUCIUS ^ELIUS TUBERO J
QUINTUS VALERIUS ANTIAS 1 -,_-
V v.c. 670. a.c. 84.
LUCIUS SISENNA J
POLYBIUS . . . BORN U.C. 548. A.C. 206. DIED U.C. 630. A.C. 124.
CAIUS CRISPUS SALLUSTIUS, BORN U.C. 668. A.C. 86. DIED U.C. 719. A.C. 35.
CAIUS JULIUS CiESAR . BORN U.C. 653. A.C. 101. DIED U.C. 710. A.C. 44.
TITUS LIYIUS . . BORN U.C. 661. A.C. 93. DIED U.C. 737. A.C. 17.
DIONYSIUS HALICARNASSENSIS . FLOURISHED CIRCITER U.C. 749. A.C. 5.
DIODORUS SICULUS U.C. 710. A.C. 44.
APPIANUS A.D. 143.
DION CASSIUS A.D. 229.
VELLEIUS PATERCULUS A. D. 3.
CAIUS CORNELIUS TACITUS . . BORN A.D. 57. DIED CIRCITER A.D. 99.
CORNELIUS NEPOS .... DIED CIRCITER U.C. 729. A.C. 25.
PLUTARCHUS DIED A.D. 119.
CUTS SUETONIUS TRANQUILLUS .... DIED CIRCITER A.D. 120.
LUCIUS ANNJEUS FLORUS .... FLOURISHED CIRCITER A.D. 116.
JUSTINUS A.D. 14S.
VALERIUS MAXIMUS A.D. 23.
Dea Pwcma.
THE HISTORIANS OF EOME.
We propose in the present section to give some account of the
progress of historical writing from the age of Xenophon to that
of Tacitus ; or, which is nearly the same thing, to notice the
characters of the principal writers, whether Greeks or Latins, to
whom we are indebted for our knowledge of the history of Eome.
But before we proceed to speak of those authors, of whose works earliest
enough has been preserved to allow us to judge sufficiently of their JjJfJJ^J
merits and defects, it will be proper to give a brief sketch of those also of Rome.
who are known to us only through the reports of others ; their own
writings, with the exception of some scattered fragments, having been
long since lost. Tiieopompvs of Chios, a scholar of Isocrates, who Theo-
continued the History of Thucydides to the end of the Pelopon- pomims-
nesian war, and in another work gave an account of the actions of
Philip of Macedon, is said by Pliny ; to have been the oldest Greek
writer who made any mention of the affairs of Rome. However,
he merely noticed the capture of the city by the Gauls ; an event
which seems to have excited some interest in Greece, as it was
spoken of not only by Theopompus, but by Aristotle, 2 and by
Heraclides of Pontus, both of whom flourished at the same period.
Clitauciius, the follower and historian of Alexander, named the CUtuehiu.
Ptomans among the different nations who sent embassies to his
1 Histor. Natural, iii. 5.
Plutarch, in Camillo, c. 22.
330
THE HISTORIANS OF ROME.
Theo-
phrustus.
Hieronymus.
Tinnrus.
Diocles.
How much
of the early
Roman
H istory is
probably of
domestic
origin.
master, probably to deprecate his displeasure ; and Theophuastus,
so well known for his lively sketches of Moral Characters, as well
as by his works on plants and minerals,1 is said to have bestowed
some attention on the affairs of Rome. In his History of Plants,
which is still preserved to us, he speaks of an unsuccessful attempt
of the Romans to land on the coast of Corsica ; and this is the first
mention of their name, which is to be found in any original Greek
writer now extant. A few years after Theophrastus, lived Hiero-
nymus of Cardia, who, according to Dionysius,2 first gave a con-
nected sketch of the early history of Rome : and Tim.eus, a Sicilian,
besides treating of the first part of the Roman Annals in his
Universal History, wrote also a separate account of the Italian
campaigns of Pyrrhus. But, according to Plutarch,3 it was not
Hieronymus of Cardia, but Diocles of Peparethus, who first pub-
lished that report of the foundation of Rome, which, having been
adopted by the most ancient Roman annalists, has been exclusively
transmitted to posterity, and has caused all the other traditions to
be forgotten, which once were circulated on the same subject.
Plutarch asserts in plain terms,4 that Q. Fabius Pictor, the oldest
Roman annalist, borrowed his narrative of Romulus from the work
of Diocles ; and Dionysius asserts as plainly,5 that the account of
Fabius was in its turn followed as an authority by Cato and
L. Cincius ; who, together with Fabius, are the most distinguished
of the early Roman historians. If this statement then be true, the
original Roman writers were themselves only the transcribers of
the narrative of a foreigner ; and we cannot be sure that any part
of the story of Romulus is founded on traditions which are un-
questionably of Roman origin.
But a more temperate judgment of the matter will pronounce a
less sweeping sentence. It is exceedingly probable that Fabius
Pictor may have borrowed the story of the birth of Romulus, and of
his personal adventures, either from Diocles or from some other
Greek writer ; because it is exactly the sort of narrative which is
apt to originate in the fancy of an injudicious wrriter of a later age,
and there was no Roman historian older than himself from whom
he could have copied it. The accidents of Romulus's infancy bear
a remarkable resemblance to the Persian tradition of the birth and
early life of Cyrus, to which Herodotus has given celebrity ; and
the stories of Brutus the Trojan in our own country, and of similar
heroes in other countries of modern Europe, prove sufficiently that
circumstantial narratives of the first settlement of a people may be
composed without resting in the slightest degree on any domestic
tradition. But the distinction which Cicero 6 makes between the
1 Pliny, ubi supra.
3 In Romulo, c. 3.
• De Republic^ ii. 2.
2 Dionysius Halicarnass. i. 6.
4 Ibid. 5 i. 7.0.
Ut jam a Fabulis ad Facta veniainus."
Till'. HISTORIANS OF HOME.
S3]
personal adventures of Romulus before the foundation of Rome, and
the institutions which were traced back to the period of his govern-
ment, seems in the main a just one. The first he calls "Fables,"
the second " Facts ; " and although the ignorance of careless
writers has materially disguised those facts, yet the outlines are of
a kind not likely to have been invented by a mere fabulist, but such
' as would have been preserved either in actual public records, or by
, the continued existence in later times of the institutions to which
i they refer. We may be well satisfied that neither Diodes, nor any
other Greek, invented the account of the union between the
Romans and Sabines ; of the division of the people into three tribes,
the Ramnenses, Titienses, and Luceres, and into thirty Curiae ; of
the distinction between the patricians and plebeians ; of the lictors
and other insignia of dignity which were borrowed from Tuscany ;
and of those curious ceremonies which Plutarch describes as
having been practised at the foundation of the city. With regard
to the reigns of the successors of Romulus, we may assert the
genuineness of many facts transmitted to us by the early annalists
Fountain of Egeria
with still greater confidence. The fragments of the laws of Numa
preserved to us by Festus ; the law of murder in the reign of
1 And in all that Numa did, he knew that he should please the gods ; for he
did everything by the direction of the nymph Egeria, who honoured him so much
that she took him to he her husband, and taught him in her sacred grove by the
spring that welled out from the rock, all that he was to do towards the gods and
towards men. — Livy, i. 19, 20. Ovid, Fasti, iii. 2/6.
332
THE HISTORIANS OF ROME.
A
Q. Fabius
Pictor.
L. Cincius
Aliment us.
Tullus Hostilius ; the form of the treaty between Eome and Alba ;
the Jus Feci ale, which Livy seems to have copied from L. Cincius ;
the enlargement of the three original tribes by Tarquinius Priscns ;
and, above all, the account of the Census of Ser. Tullius, and his
dividing the whole people into thirty local tribes, quite distinct
from the tribes in which the citizens of different races had been
classed according to their different blood ; these, and other points
of a similar nature, may be regarded as unquestionably genuine :
while the more popular part of the Eoman story, the personal
characters and exploits of their kings, the events of foreign war,
the causes and merits of domestic revolutions, and, much more,
all the details of particular actions, may be safely ascribed to the
. foolish loquacity of some unwise writer ; or to that dishonest vanity
j which is known to have produced so much falsehood in the memoirs
of private families ; or to the policy of a predominant party, seeking
to give a false colour to the circumstances by which its own
ascendency was established.
It is unfortunate for the Eoman history that Quintus Fabius
Pictor was the first and most popular of the Eoman annalists.
The common account of the events of the first four hundred and
fifty years of the State's existence, is doubtless in the main copied
from him ; and it is quite sufficient to show how great was his care-
lessness, how shallow was his judgment, and how blind was his
partiality. Instead of labouring to separate the few facts which
were preserved to his time by genuine records or unsuspected tradi-
tions, from the mass of idle inventions and misrepresentations with
which they had been overwhelmed, he presented the whole to his
readers in one heterogeneous compound, as if all were to be received
with equal confidence. Instead of searching for such original
records as were still in existence, though not generally made public ;
such as the treaty concluded between Eome and Carthage in the
first year of the Eepublic, and that which Porsenna dictated to the
Romans, when they were forced to surrender their city to him ;
he listened to the memoirs of the Valerian family, and to the
temptations of national vanity, which represented P. Valerius
Publicola as a colleague of L. Brutus in the consulship, and de-
scribed the King of Clusium as abandoning gratuitously a prey,
which was confessed to be already within his grasp. The general
tenor of the story, usually given as the history of Eome, abundantly
confirms that character of Fabius given by Polybius, who describes
him as a writer at once partial and injudicious; warping the truth
in order to enhance the fame of his countrymen ; yet doing this
with so little ability, that the inconsistencies and ignorances of his
narrative often afford their own confutation.
The merits of Lucius Cincius Alimentus were apparently of
a far higher order than those of Fabius. He was praetor in the
LUCIUS CINCIUS ALIMENTUS. 333
year of Rome 542, ! about the middle of the second Punic war ; and L. Ctatai
at one period of that war he became Hannibal's prisoner,2 and Allmcntu"-
learned from his own mouth the amount of the army with which he
had entered Italy, and of the losses which he had sustained since he
crossed the Khone. He is called by Livy,3 a curious investigator
of ancient monuments and records ; and the fragments which are
preserved of his different works seem fully to confirm this character.
Most of these related to various points connected with the anti-
quities and Constitutional history of Home ; such as the Comitia : 4
the power of the Consuls : * the duty of a Lawyer : 6 the Fasti : 7
military affairs? &c. Besides all these, he wrote a regular history
of Home, from the earliest ages down to his own times ; and this,
if we may believe Dionysius of Halicarnassus,9 was composed in
Greek; but as he asserts the same thing of the Annals of Fabius Pictor,
which were clearly written in Latin, it is not improbable that he
mistook in both instances a Greek translation for the original work.
In the fragments of Cincius, which are preserved by Festus, there
are some notices of great value, particularly his account of the
alliance between Home and Latium,10 which he represents in a very
different light from that in which it is exhibited by the common
historians of those times. But it should be remarked, that almost
all these fragments arc quoted from his minor works, which by their
titles were evidently more laboured, and of a less popular character
than his general history. It is not impossible, that in the latter he
may have followed Fabius in repeating the story most adapted to
flatter the pride of his readers, and to which the family memoirs,
contained in the funeral orations of the most distinguished patricians,
had already given a general circulation ; u while in his more scientific
works he had really endeavoured to discover and to state the exact
truth. When Fabius and Cincius wrote, history was still con-
sidered more as a means of giving pleasure, and encouraging
patriotic enthusiasm, than as a severe and impartial record of the
actions and condition of mankind ; and thus Livy and Dionysius,
whose histories bear evident marks of having been got up from
the mere common sources of information, and who, while they read
1 Livy, x\-vi. 23. 2 Ibid. xxi. 38. 3 vii. X
4 Festus, in voce Patricii. 5 Festus, Praetor ad Portam.
G Ibid. Nuncupata Pecunia. * Macrobius, Saturnal. i. 12,
8 Aulus Gellius, xvi. 4. 9 Ibid. i. 6.
1,1 Festus, Prsetor ad Portam.
11 Something of tliis kind may be observed in Cardinal Fleury's Ecclesiagticol
History. In the body of his work he has repeated the common tales which lie
found recorded by former writers, and generally received by the Roman Catholics ;
but in the Essays or Discourses on particular points, which he has prefixed to
some of the volumes, he writes in a totally different spirit ; he is candid, cautious,
and sensible, and has given the fairest account with which we are acquainted of
the subjects on which he treats.
334
THE HISTORIANS OP ROME.
M. Porcius
Cato.
Cato the Censor.
the annals of Cincius, were not likely to study his other works, have
not availed themselves of that more correct information, which his
legal and antiquarian treatises would have afforded them.
Marcus Porcius Cato nourished only a few years later than
Pabius and Cincius. He was born
about sixteen years before the
beginning of the second Punic
war ; l and filled the office of
qurestor in the year of Eome 549,
in the consulship of M. Cethegus
and P. Tuditanus. He was elected
consul nine years afterwards ; and
eleven years later, in the year of
Eome 569, he obtained the cen-
sorship; from which circumstance,
he is usually designated by the
title of Cato the Censor, to dis-
tinguish him from his equally
celebrated great-grandson, Cato
of Utica. After a busy and active
manhood, and having on all occasions testified the strongest aversion
for the arts and literature of Greece, he began in his old age 2 to
study the Greek language, and to devote himself to the investiga-
tion of the antiquities of Italy, for which he found the Greek writers
among his principal authorities. At an earlier part of his life he
had published several speeches, as well as a Treatise on Agriculture ;
but we are at present only considering him as an historian ; and
the work which entitled him to this name was called Origines, or
Antiquities, and consisted of seven books ;3 the first of which con-
tained the History of Eome under its Kings ; the second and third
treated of the origin of all the several States of Italy ; the fourth
and fifth embraced the two first Punic wars ; and the two last
carried on the history of the wars that followed down to the
prsetorship of Ser. Galba, in the year of Eome 602. He died in the
year 604, at the age of eighty-five, in the consulship of L. Marcius
and Marcius Manilius.
Of Cato's merits as a historian it is not very easy to form a
judgment. His learning is spoken of with praise by Cicero,
Cornelius Nepos, and Livy ; but it was not merely learning which
was required, but an ability to weigh the merits of the numerous
writers whose works he read, and to distinguish between that which
was trustworthy in them, and that which was worthless. We are
told that Cato wrote his Origines when he was advanced in years,
and whilst he was prosecuting his study of the Greek writers with
Cicero, cle Claris Oratoribus, 15, 16. 2 Cicero, de Senectute, 8,
3 Cornelius Nepos, in Catonc, 3.
LUCIUS C7ELIUS ANTIPATIK. 885
all the keenness wliieh he derived from the novelty of the pursuit, m Porctai
Under such circumstances he would be likely to attach an excessive '
value to the information which he found in them ; their Greek etymo-
logies of Italian names, however fanciful, would be apt to impose
upon him, from the merits and importance which a language newly
acquired always assumes, and from our fancied ability to see in it a
derivation for many words, the origin of which we had never been
able to ascertain. He relates the story of the sow and her thirty
pigs,1 which .Kneas found on the banks of the Tiber, and whose
number was typical of the number of years which should elapse
before the Trojans should build the town of Alba. We are inclined
to suspect that the Origines of Cato, if we possessed them, would be
little more than a transcript of the History of Fabius, or of those
Greeks from whom Fabius himself borrowed his narrative. But
his particular treatises on various points of the constitution, of
which so long a catalogue may be collected from Festus, were pro-
bably of much greater value ; as he was likely in these to have
relied more on the authority of laws, or of existing usages and
general traditions, and less on the writings of such historians as
Fabius and Diodes of Peparethus.
Next in order of time to Fabius, Cincius, and Cato, may be LCalpurnina
ranked Lucius Calfubnius Piso. He was consul in the year of
Piome 620, when Tiberius Gracchus was murdered; and had been
tribune sixteen years before, and had then brought forward the
first law ever enacted in Pome for the punishment of corruption
and extortion in the provinces.2 His annals seem to have gone
back to the earliest times, as A. Gellius:i quotes from him an
anecdote of the private life of Komulus ; and to have been carried
down at least to the second Punic war.4 Of their merits we know
nothing; Cicero indeed speaks of them rather contemptuously,
but this is on account of what he calls the meagreness of their
style ;* and he takes no notice of their character in more important
particulars.
Lucius C^elius Antipateu, who lived a few years later than l. Ctottni
Piso, is commended in like manner for the eloquence and correct- Antli)Utcr-
ness of his language,0 when compared with that of the earlier
writers; but we are told nothing further concerning him. There
is, however, a passage in Livy7 which conveys a favourable impress-
ion of him, where it is said, that Ca3lius had given three different
accounts of the death of Marcellus ; one, according to the common
tradition ; another, following the statement given by the son of
1 Sex. Aurclius Victor, do Origine Gentia Romans.
2 Cicero, de Claris Oratoiibus, 27. 3 ii. 14.
4 Livy, xxv. 39.
5 " Reliquit Annales, sand exiliter scripto.-." — De Clo.ru Orat. 27.
6 Cicero, de Legibus, i. 2 ; de Oratore, ii. 13. 7 xxvii. 27.
336
THE HISTORIANS OF ROME.
L. Caelius
Autipatcr.
Other early
historians.
L. Sisenna.
Marcellus, when pronouncing his father's funeral oration ; and a
third, which he offers as the true story, the fruit of his own inves-
tigations of the subject. This certainly implies some carefulness
and weighing of testimony on the part of the historian ; and it is
confirmed by the character given of him by Valerius Maximus,1
" that he was an author to be depended upon ;" and by the
circumstance that he, almost singly, as far as appears among the
Eoman annalists, has stated with truth the passage of the Alps, by
which Hannibal entered Italy, when he says that he crossed by the
Cremonis Jugum,2 or Little St. Bernard.
To the names of early historians already mentioned, may be
added those of Caius Sempronius Tuditanus,3 Cn^ius Gellius,
Quintus Claudius Guadrigarius, (who translated his history
from one written in Greek by Acilius,4 and who must have been
a most voluminous author, as Aulus Gellius quotes the 150th Book
of his Annals ;)5 Caius Licinius Macer, Lucius iELius Tubero,
and Quintus Valerius Antias. We may be well assured, that
none of these writers would have deserved much praise if their
works had survived to us ; the exaggerations of Valerius Antias
are well known; those of Claudius, on some occasions, nearly
rival them ; and Licinius Macer and iElius Tubero quote the
IAbri Lintei differently as to the same fact, a circumstance which
implies some carelessness in one or both of them.
The name of Lucius Sisenna, who lived, together with Valerius
Antias,6 under the dictatorship of Sylla, is mentioned with much
more respect. He was the author of a History of the Civil War
between Marius and Sylla ; and is said by Cicero to have far
surpassed every other Eoman historian ; and by Sallust, to have
investigated and described the subject of which he treats, better
and more carefully than any other writer. His work would have
been exceedingly valuable ; as we have unfortunately no contem-
porary account of that eventful period, which intervened between
the third Punic war and the commencement of Cicero's political
career.
One only history of the beginning of the Vllth century of
Borne has reached posterity in a state sufficiently uninjured to
enable us to judge fully and fairly of its merits ; and to this we
shall next call the attention of our readers, fatigued perhaps like
ourselves with the unsatisfactory review of fragments, and the
enumeration of almost forgotten names. Polybius, the son of
Lycortas, was a native of Megalopolis, a city situated within the
1 i. 7. " Capitis, certus Romanae Historiae Auctor."
2 Livy, xxi. 38.
3 A. Gellius, vi. 4. Cicero, de Legibus, i. 2.
4 Livy, xxv. 39 ; xxxv. 14. 5 i. 7.
6 Vclleius Paterculus, ii. Cicero, de Claris Oratoribus, 63. Sallust, Bell.
Jugurtb, (J5.
POLYBIUS. 337
limits of Arcadia, but in its political relations being a member of p0i:
the Achaian confederacy. His father appears to have been ;i man
of ability and patriotism, who exercising* a considerable iniluence in
the councils of his country, endeavoured to preserve the inde-
pendence of Achaia by a manly and free demeanour towards the
Eomans, without provoking their enmity by displaying a fruitless
spirit of opposition. Polybius entered into public life at an early
age, and steadily supported and followed the policy of his father ;
so that his conduct exposed him to the resentment of the Eomans,
when their victory over the last king of Macedon at once disposed
and enabled them to treat every relic of liberty in Greece as an
affront to their supremacy. The party amongst the Achaians,1 who
hoped to win the favour of the Eomans by an excessive servility,
accused their more independent countrymen of being disaffected to
the interests of Rome ; and on this charge, Polybius, with more
than a thousand others, was transported into Italy, and there
detained for about seventeen years. His fellow prisoners were
mostly confined in Tuscany, or in other districts of Italy ; but he
himself,2 through the interest of P. Scipio ifmiilianus, and his
brother, whose fondness for Greek literature had first led to their
acquaintance with him, was allowed to reside at Koine. His
acquaintance with P. Scipio, in particular, grew by degrees into an
intimate friendship ; and when, after the lapse of seventeen years,
those Achaians who had survived their captivity were allowed to
return home, Polybius continued to live with his friend, and was
his companion in the third Punic war,3 when he brought the sieg
of Carthage to a conclusion, and destroyed the city. In the
succeeding year he was an eye witness4 of the miseries brought
upon his countrymen by their last ill-advised contest with the
Eomans; and, on this occasion, he used his influence with the
Eonian officers to preserve untouched the statues of Aratus and
Philopcemen, who were represented by the flatterers of Eome as
having been the enemies of the Eonian power. After the final
settlement of the affairs of Greece by the ten commissioners, whom
the senate, as usual, despatched to determine the future condition
of the conquered country, Polybius was directed to go round the
several cities of Peloponnesus, to endeavour to pacify their mutual
jealousies, and to superintend the first operation of the new consti-
tution, which the Eomans had imposed upon them. The latter
years of his life appear to have been passed in his own country,
where he is said to have died 5 in consequence of a fall from his
horse, at the advanced age of eighty-two, about 124 years before
the Christian aera.
1 Polybius, lib. xxx. c. 10. Pausanias. Acbaica, c 10.
2 Polybius, lib. xxxii. c. 9. 3 Polybius, Fragment, lib. xxxix.
4 Ibid. lib. xl. c. 7, 8. 5 Luciau, Macrobii, p. 917, ed. Paris, 1615.
[R.L.] z
888 THE HISTORIANS OF ROME.
Poiybius. A long life so divided between an active participation in civil and
military duties, and a leisure abundantly favoured with the means
of acquiring; information, was well calculated to form an excellent
historian. The times, too, in which Poiybius lived, presented him
with a most attractive subject ; he had witnessed the progress and
completion of that career of conquest, which bestowed on a nation
of half barbarians the greatest power in the civilised world, and
which had established between the different countries bordering on
the Mediterranean, a mutual connection till then unknown.
Owing to this revolution, Greece could no longer pretend to claim
the highest rank amongst nations ; she was herself reduced to
absolute subjection, while those great oifshoots from her vigorous
root, the kingdoms formed by the successors of Alexander in
Syria and Egypt, were themselves obliged to submit to the control,
or to court the protection, of Borne. That barbarians should thus
have obtained dominion over Greeks, could only be ascribed, in the
fond persuasion of the latter, to that blind power of fortune
against which the greatest human wisdom must struggle in vain.
But Poiybius had learnt to appreciate more truly the causes of the
Roman ascendancy ; and found them perfectly agreeable to the
acknowledged principles which determine the fate of nations. He
saw that the Romans owed their success, in part at least, to the
inherent superiority of their institutions, and the undeviating
singleness of aim which marked their policy. His long residence
at Rome, the acquaintance which 'he had there gained with the
Latin language, and still more his personal intimacy with some of
the most distinguished Romans, enabled him to describe faithfully
to the Greeks the exploits, character, and institutions of their
conquerors ; which other writers among his countrymen, partly
from ignorance, partly from servility, and partly from the fondness
of ordinary minds for splendid fables, had greatly misrepresented.
Perhaps, however, the habit of conversing with men of unculti-
vated minds, who were always looking to him, as to their teacher,
for lessons of moral and political wisdom, produced on the character
of Poiybius its usual effect, in leading him to expatiate with self-
complacency on points which men in general understood as well as
himself, and to mistake very trite and ordinary observations for
truths at once original and striking. Many parts of his work,
however useful they might have been if written in Latin, and
addressed to Roman readers, must have appeared absolutely
ridiculous to a Greek who had received the ordinary education of
his countrymen. His long remarks on the usefulness of geography,
and his tedious way of describing the shapes of different countries,
must have appeared at once needless ami dull to those of his
readers who were familiar with the abundant information, and the
lively sketches of Herodotus. When he stops, in almost every
POLYBIUS. 339
page, to descant upon some common-place axiom of morals or r
politics, we can imagine how impatiently an Athenian would have
turned over the volume, while he recollected with a sigh, those
brief touches of a master's hand, by which Thucydidea has furnished
matter of thought for twenty centuries. Much indeed of his
reflections is really valuable, and even when we are most tempted
to complain of their triteness, we must generally allow their sound-
ness. But the prosing tone which pervades the work detracts
generally from its merit, inasmuch as, by fatiguing and disgusting
the reader, it prevents his memory from grasping readily the facts
contained in the history ; and, by overlaying the narrative with a
mass of cumbrous digression, it adds to the obscurity which the
very nature of the subject necessarily entailed upon it. In an
universal history, such as Polybius attempted to write, it requires
not only great clearness of arrangement, but great liveliness in
the detail, in order to bring out into the most conspicuous light
those points on which the reader's attention ought most to dwell ;
and, by rendering the tamer parts of his journey as engaging as
possible, to keep his mind in sufficient strength and spirits for
observing the relations of the different objects with one another,
and forming to himself a connected notion of the ever changing
scene. Now there never was a writer endowed with less anima-
tion, or with less of a poetic spirit, than Polybius. Though it
appears that he had himself visited the Alps for the purpose of
ascertaining Hannibal's route, yet not one spark of feeling seems
to have been awakened in him by the remembrance of that magni-
ficent scenery ; and the tameness of his description diminishes the
influence of its fidelity. Throughout the whole of his work there
is perhaps no single passage which fixes itself by its excellence on
the reader's memory ; and this one fact is by itself sufficient to
prove, that the mind of Polybius was not of the very highest order.
Great men will leave somewhere or other imprinted on their
writings the traces of their superior power ; and amidst all the
sobriety of narrative and patient investigation of particular facts
which testify their sound sense and judgment, there will break forth
flashes of a comprehensive and magnificent spirit, which show that
the peculiar talent of the historian is directed by the master mind
of a wise and good man. But it would have been too much for
the ordinary condition of humanity, that even Greece should have
produced a second Thucydides.
Yet although Polybius was not a historian of the very highest
class, his merits are still far above mediocrity, and he may be
placed amongst the greatest names of the second order, lie was
sensible, well informed, and impartial ; and he possessed the great
advantage of a practical familiarity with political and military
affairs, which sets him far above the mere garrulous literati of the
z 2
340 THE HISTORIANS OF HOME.
later ages of the Eoman commonwealth. It is well known that
he has preserved the true representation of several events of the
early Eoman history, in which the Eoman annalists seem unani-
mously to have followed a false and partial statement : and to him
alone are wre indebted for our knowledge of the remarkable treaties
concluded between Eome and Carthage, at different times, before
the first Punic war. His impartiality, however, may perhaps be
suspected when he speaks of the exploits of the family of Scipio ;
the account of the concluding scene of the second Punic war, and
the breach of faith imputed to the Carthaginians, have always
seemed to us, to savour very much of the unfairness of Caesar in
his Commentaries, and to present a picture widely different from
that which an unbiassed or unfettered historian would have trans-
mitted to us. Perhaps, indeed, he copied the memorials of the
family of Scipio, without being able, from his close connection with
Scipio iEmilianus, to scrutinise their correctness very closely : and
the same powerful influence seems to have checked and shackled
the free course of his sentiments in much of the latter part of his
history ; nor was it possible for him to write in the language
which justice required of a series of crimes perpetrated by men
still living, and who were in the highest stations of power and
influence at Eome. Yet, if we compare his statements with those
of the Eoman writers themselves, we shall find that he made every
effort to discharge his duty faithfully ; and that it is in the cautious
tone of his history, and not in the perversion of facts, that we may
trace the unavoidable constraint which circumstances imposed on
him. The loss of a considerable portion of the sixth book of his
work, in which he had given some notices of the antiquities of the
Eoman story, may be viewed with unmixed regret ; and the same
may be said of the loss of the greatest part of the subsequent
books, containing the continuation of Hannibal's operations in
Italy, after the battle of Cannae. In these earlier transactions there
was less difficulty in expressing his opinions with perfect freedom ;
nor are we aware of any thing to detract from the high authority
which his narrative of Hannibal's first campaign in his third book
has always deservedly enjoyed.
Exaggerated ^° na^on nas ever possessed a literature the real merit of which
reputation is so disproportionate to its fame as that of Eome. The political
Literature, greatness of the Eomans gave a general prevalence to their lan-
guage ; and those who learnt it and spoke it were naturally inclined
to magnify the excellence of its writers, and to maintain their
equality with those of Greece. At a later period, when the com-
munication between the Greek empire, and the west of Europe,
wa3 almost entirely interrupted, the language and authors of ancient
Eome were regarded with an almost idolatrous veneration, when
compared with the half formed dialects and ignorant writers of
SALLUST. 8 II
Prance, Spain, Italy, and England, during the darkness of the Ki
middle ages. Habit strengthened this admiration, and caused it I
continue to a period when it became misplaced mu\ unreasonable ;
just as men have been known to retain in alter life the same
exaggerated estimate of their teacher's talents, which they had
formed, naturally enough, when contrasting them as boys with
their own imperfect powers and scanty knowledge. Thus the
Italians still affected to look up to the poets of Borne as to models
of excellence, whom it was their greatest glory to imitate, when
they had in fact already equalled, if not surpassed, them. And
even at this day, when almost every nation in Europe might justly
assert the equality of its own literature with that of Kome, we are
still accustomed to talk of the classical writers of Greece and
Rome, as if the two natious ought to be placed on the same level,
and the admiration which the one may justly claim, should be
bestowed in equal measure on the other. From this habit of
regarding the Greeks and the Romans as rivals in excellence, it
followed that for every Greek writer of eminence, some parallel was
sought for among those of Rome. The fame of Herodotus and
Thucydides was not therefore to remain unmatched, and two
Roman historians were to be found who might be put in compe-
tition with them. And as the style, rather than the matter of a
work, was too much the principal object of the criticism of those
times, Sallust and Livy were selected for this high dignity ; and
the conciseness of the former was supposed to point him out as the
rival of Thucydides, while the fluency of the latter suggested the
comparison between him and Herodotus.
The merits of Caius Sallustius Crispus,1 though very s
unequal to the exaltation thus bestowed on them, are yet of a very
1 Sallust was bom b.c. 86, at Amiternum, in the Sabine territory. He was of
a plebeian family, and early obtained the office of qua?stor. At the age of thirty-six
he was ejected from the Senate by the censors, on the ostensible ground of
adultery with Fausta, the daughter of Sylla, and wife of T. Annius Milo; but, not
improbably, because he had attached himself to the faction of Ca±sar, to which the
censors were hostile. In three years he had regained his rank, and became
tribune of the commons, and afterwards praetor. He accompanied Caesar to
Africa, and was appointed governor of Numidia, where he seems to have acted
with injustice and oppression. He returned to Italy, and settled at Rome, where
he lived in privacy to the age of fifty-two. It was in this retirement that his
histories were composed. We possess but a small portion of the works of Sallust.
Five books of histories are ascribed to him ; and they are supposed to have been a
continuation of Sisenna. But it is not unlikely that all Sallust's histories, like
those extant, were those of detached periods and events, and that they were
collected into books by the grammarians. Two epistles, u De Republica
ordinandi," are ascribed to him ; also a " Declamatio in Ciceronem," in reply to a
" Declamatio in Sallustium." Both declamations are supposed to be the work of
rhetoricians. Quinctilian has twice quoted the declamation of Sallust; and
though, it is true, a subsequent forger might have inserted the quotations in his
work, it is to be remembered that Sallust himself was a rhetorical writer. —
Editor.
342
THE HISTORIANS OF RO^IE.
callust.
S alius t.
high order. We can only judge of his character by the two
detached narratives which have come down to us entire ; his
account of the conspiracy of Catiline,
and that of the war with Jugurtha.
Both indeed are strangely tinctured
with the besetting fault of Eoman
literature, a laboured and unnatural
tone, which betrays the forced and
tardy introduction of a taste for letters
among the Eoman people. In this
respect the Eoman and French litera-
ture most strongly resemble one
another ; and the resemblance belongs
to the similarity of the two people in
some striking points of national cha-
racter. Both may be considered as
eminently deficient in imagination ;
both were destitute of any natural
craving for the higher pleasures of
the mind ; both waited with great patience till external circumstances
brought the existence of such pleasures to their notice, and made
them think that it would conduce to their glory to indulge in them.
But genius will not be courted successfully by those who woo her
from such unworthy motives : and thus the Augustan age and that
of Lewis XIV. have produced, for the most part, minds only of the
second and third order ; who will never hold the same rank with the
greatest of other ages and other countries. In this manner the histories
of Sallust seem to have been written as professed literary composi-
tions ; and the writer appears much more to have studied to make
them eloquent and striking, that they might tend to his own glory,
than to have regarded the sober instruction either of his own
generation or of posterity* Hence the ambitious tone of the intro-
ductions to both his narratives, which, to say nothing of their
inconsistency with his own personal character, are ill placed and
empty ; being written in that style of pretended philosophy which
runs into generalisation, in order to escape the unwelcome labour
of informing itself fully with particular facts. Yet, with all this,
there is much in Sallust which deserves high praise. His impar-
tiality is greater than we should expect, when we consider his own
close connection with the faction of Csesar ; he speaks strongly but
truly of the excessive profligacy and oppression of the aristocracy ;
yet he does ample justice to the virtues of Metellus and Cato ;
and his sketch of the character of Sylla seems drawn with entire
fairness. He has been accused of underrating the merits of Cicero
in his account of the conspiracy of Catiline ; but this charge must
have originated from the habit into which men have fallen of
JULIUS C.l'.SAK.
848
estimating Cicero's conduct according to his own excessive pane- Baihist.
gyrics of it; compared with which the language of temperate and
just praise must appear taint and niggardly. It is, on the contrary,
highly honourable to Sallust that he has never joined in the cry of
several of his political associates, in condemning the execution of
Lentulus and his accomplices, as an action at once illegal and
tyrannical. Such a view of the transaction might have been
expected from a partisan of C&sar, when we remember that Caesar
himself had protested at the time against the execution as contrary
to law, and had advised the substitution of perpetual imprisonment
in its room. The value of the work is increased also by its being
a contemporary history ; so that we have none of that ignorance of
laws, customs, and various minute particulars, which occur so
frequently in the compilers of a later age. Nor should the live-
liness of the style be forgotten ; a quality so excellent, that it
more than makes amends for some occasional obscurities, and even
for some affected words and expressions ; inasmuch as it keeps up
the reader's attention, and. thus puts him in a state to study the
work most profitably.
Julius i
With far less literary pretension, yet witli an object equally
personal, and even more injurious to historical excellence, the
I mtaries of Caius Julius Cjbsab1 will next claim ourca^ar.
1 Caesar was a voluminous writer. Of his poetry and oratory, notice! ire given
in the appropriate portions of this work. Several of his lottos are preserved in
Cicero's correspondence. He wrote a treatise intituled i% Anticato," in two
books, in reply to Cicero's panegyric on Cato; another, "Dc Ratione Latine
Loquendi;,1 " Libri Auspicionum," or " Auguralia," a treatise which, a- CsMai was
pontifex maximus, must have boon verv curious ; u Apophthegmata," sayings
deemed by Osear worth preserving, but which, for reasons o( his own, Anuru>tus
suppressed. The Gallic wars were continued by A. Hirtius, or Oppius (for the
authorship is disputed). The Alexandrine, African, and Spanish wars are
attributed to one of those authors. — Editor.
344 THE HISTORIANS OF ROME.
Caesar. attention. We have already expressed our astonishment that they
should ever have gained the reputation of impartiality, or that
they should be quoted as proofs of the modesty of the writer.
From the first page to the last they are a studied apology for his
crimes, and a representation of his talents and victories in the
most favourable light. From his attack on the Helvetii, down to
his rebellion against his own country, he describes himself as
always just and moderate, ever ready to listen to proposals of
peace from his enemies, and forced to conquer Gaul, and to over-
throw the constitution of Eome in mere self-defence. With much
more truth, certainly, yet still with evident exaggeration, he
contrasts his own unwearied activity with the remissness of his
antagonists , diminishes his own losses and aggravates theirs ;
imputes his disasters to accident or treason, while his successes are
the natural result of his own superior plans, and the courage and
discipline of his soldiers. To rely on the fairness of such a
narrative would argue, therefore, but small discernment as to the
criteria of historical evidence ; and to call Caesar a good historian
would only show our ignorance of one of the main qualifications
which history requires. Yet, wherever there is no apparent motive
for disguising or corrupting the truth, the authority of the
Commentaries is most excellent. Unlike the honest ignorance of
some of the writers whom we shall presently notice, and who
would tell the truth whenever they could, Caesar on the other hand
enjoyed such superior means of information, and was so active in
availing himself of them, that it is evident he could tell the truth
whenever he would. Hence arises the great value of the sketches
which he has given us of the political state, natural productions,
manners and customs of Gaul, Germany, and Britain. Owing
also to the same cause, his geographical and topographical details
are beautifully clear and accurate ; and his descriptions of military
movements, of the common usages of the service, of the opera-
tions of sieges, and the construction of bridges, and engines of
war, are replete with information of the most unquestionable
fulness and accuracy. In addition to these merits, his style is
simple and animated, and formed with such rare ability, as to wear
the semblance of unadorned soldier-like frankness and candour,
when the narrative is indeed written with the most artful purposes
of a consummate intriguer and adventurer.
ReFembiance A similar union of intentional misrepresentations, of deep and
hCammen-the extensive information, and of language at once simple and forcible,
taries of may De observed in the Memoirs of the late Emperor Napoleon,
the Memoirs and serves to heighten the resemblance which existed already in
Buona°arte °^ner points between him and Caesar. Both were eminent for an
unwearied activity of body and mind; both followed the same
principle in their military operations, anticipating attack, relying on
LIVY.
8 1 5
the ascendancy of their name and the terror inspired by the daring ResemUance
rapidity of their movements, striking always at the vital points of t/!'t/)n
their enemy's power, and never losing the fruit of past exertions bj
checking themselves too soon in their career of victory, and by
stopping to satisfy themselves with what they had done already, of Napoleon
while there yet remained any thing more to do. Both, though
unsparing of their soldiers' lives, were yet completely masters of
their affections ; and knew how to awaken in the hearts of their
immediate attendants an almost enthusiastic regard. Both also
provoked their ruin by a vanity which found its gratification in
insulting wantonly the feelings of mankind, and which coveted the
ostentations display of power as much as the real possession of it.
In their literary characters, if the titles which remain to us of
Caesar's various works imply in him a greater proficiency in Science,
in critical learning, and in poetry ; yet the Memoirs and Disserta-
tions of Napoleon display a much deeper spirit of reflection on
military and political subjects, and a much more extensive know-
ledge on all points of history, geography, and statistics, than we
can find in the Commentaries of his rival. The narratives of both,
notwithstanding the little strictness of principle which either
possessed, are yet exceedingly valuable ; because, with all their
unfairness, there is necessarily a great number of points on which
nothing was to be gained by a departure from the truth, and on all
which their great ability and perfect information enable us to rely
on their statements with implicit confidence. But it is necessary
that the reader should be constantly on his guard, to observe where
they can have any interest in misleading
him ; and on such occasions he should
recollect that their capability of telling
the truth becomes absolutely a reason
for suspecting their evidence, as it
enables them to conceal it more artfully,
and misrepresent it with greater plau-
sibility.
We are now arrived at the Augustan
age, and we must request the candid
attention of our readers to the remarks
which we are about to offer on the
merits of Livy. We have already 1 on
more than one occasion spoken of this
writer in terms which must have sur-
prised and perhaps offended his admirers ; and though we do Livy.
not feel the slightest doubt of the justice of our censures, yet it is
Livy.
1 History of the Roman Republic, in the "Encyclopaedia Metropolitana," Intro-
ductory Dissertation on the Credibility of Early Roman History, pp. 3 — 8.
346 THE HISTORIANS OF ROME.
Livy. due to an opinion generally entertained to give our reasons for
altogether dissenting from it. Of the family and personal fortunes
of Titus Livius, little, we believe, is known. He was born ■ at
Patavium, or Padua, removed to Borne, where he enjoyed the pro-
tection and regard of Augustus, and died in his native city, in the
fourth year of the reign of Tiberius.2 It is allowed that he was
never actually engaged in military or political affairs, but that he
was a mere man of letters ; and it is clear from the very nature of
his work, that, for almost all the facts contained in it, he must have
relied upon the writings of others. He appears to have been a
man of very upright and amiable disposition, and of very good
natural talents ; but whether it was owing to the wretched educa-
tion of the times, or to the want of a diffusion of knowledge, and
a free intercourse with one another among men of different con-
ditions and employments, scarcely any of the Historians of Kome
are of much value, except those who were themselves, in some
measure, practically acquainted with public business. What the
rhetoricians could teach him, Livy learned with readiness ; and his
natural abilities, aided by their instructions, enabled him to write
with animation, with dignity, and with eloquence ; while his natural
good feeling, where no prejudice interfered with it, has given an
honest and amiable character to most of the moral sentiments
which he expresses. It is said, moreover, that in his account of
the civil wars, he spoke of the party opposed to Caesar and to
Augustus with fairness, and even with regard ; not suffering his
connection with the Emperor to lead him into any unworthy
servility. In fact, the last Books of his History, which embraced
the events of his own times, and of those immediately preceding
them, must have been incomparably more valuable than any part of
his work which has been preserved to us. Living at Kome, and
being often with Augustus himself, he must have heard a great
number of authentic anecdotes, and have gathered various reports
from the mouths of eye-witnesses, respecting the principal actions
of the civil wars. Besides this, every man must know something
of the laws and constitutional forms of his country in his own age ;
nor can he avoid being acquainted with the manners and habits of
thinking which are prevalent around him. Many, therefore, may
write a valuable contemporary history who are quite incompetent to
the task of exploring the condition and the actions of former times,
and of describing faithfully a state of manners and of political
circumstances, which can only be known by long and patient inves-
tigation. But of this part of his duty, Livy appears to have enter-
tained a very imperfect notion. Like those painters, who, when
choosing for their subject some event of the early history of Rome,
1 b.c. 59.— Editor. - a d. 17.— Editor.
Livy. 347
destroy the truth of their pietures by giving to the buildings the Livy.
style and splendour of the Augustan age, so has Livy drawn the
Komans of every period in the costume of his own times ; and the
senators and plebeians of the first years of the Commonwealth are
mere copies of those whom he might have almost seen and heard
himself, in the disorders immediately preceding the rebellion of
Julius Caesar. Doubtless the character of the nobility and commons
of Kome underwent as great changes in the course of years as
those which have taken place in our own country. The Saxon
Thanes and Franklins, the Barons and Knights of the fourteenth
century, the cavaliers and Puritans of the seventeenth, the country
gentlemen and monied men of a still later period, all these have
their own characteristic features, which he who would really write
a History of England must labour to distinguish and to represent
with spirit and fidelity ; nor would it be more ridiculous to paint
the members of a Wittenagemot in the costume of our present
House of Commons, than to ascribe to them our habits of thinking,
or the views, sentiments, and language of a modern statesman.
The fault of which we have just been speaking, together with
most of the others with which Livy's History is chargeable, is to
be ascribed to the great deficiencies of his knowledge. A history
compiled mainly from the writings of others, and embracing a space
of several centuries, was at the time at which he produced it com-
paratively novel ; and men were not yet aware of the prodigious
labour required to execute such a task properly. Livy appears to
have read no more than the principal chronicles or other narratives
which treated of the successive periods of the Eoman story, and to
have consulted them just as his immediate purpose required. This
is the simplest explanation of his omitting all mention of the
famous treaty concluded between Eome and Carthage in the first
year of the Commonwealth, preserved to us, as we have already
noticed, by Polybius. Livy knew that the work of Polybius related
to the sixth century of Eome, and therefore he never thought of
reading it while he was engaged with the events of the third
century. In the same manner he was well acquainted with the
Oiigines of Cato, and the History of L. Cincius ; but he seems to
have been perfectly ignorant of their various legal and antiquarian
treatises, in which their object was really to discover the truth, and
not, as in their narratives, to write an engaging and popular story.
The same cause also will account for his total ignorance of the
real issue of the war between Porsenna and the Eomans. He
followed, no doubt, his ordinary guides, the Chronicles of Fabius,
Cato, Piso, &c. ; without suspecting the existence of such a docu-
ment as the actual Treaty between the two contending parties,
which even a hundred and fifty years afterwards was accessible to
Tacitus and the elder Pliny. With this extreme negligence, some-
348 THE HISTORIANS OF ROME.
Livy. tiling of wilful blindness was probably mingled. He did not wish
to scrutinise too narrowly a series of accounts, all of which tended
to flatter the national pride of his countrymen ; and thus even the
notorious exaggerations of Valerius Antias,1 although exposed by
Livy himself in other parts of his work, are preferred to the
authority of Polybius, in order to represent the victory of the
Metaurus as a full compensation for the defeat of Cannse, even in
the actual numerical loss sustained by the vanquished in the field of
battle. In other instances we are tempted to ascribe his seeming
negligence to a physical impossibility of arriving at certainty ; as
on any other supposition it is almost too monstrous for belief.
When he quotes two different versions of the Libri lintei from two
different writers, without telling us which was the true one,2 we
must charitably believe that the Libri lintei were no longer in exist-
ence, rather than suppose Livy to have been so indolent as not to
have taken the trouble of walking from one part of Rome to
another, in order to consult them with his own eyes. His intimacy
with Augustus must have placed within his reach whatever monu-
ments of ancient times were then remaining throughout Italy ; but
how few are the instances in which he ever refers to any such
authority. Much less did he dream of acquiring any of the acces-
sory knowledge which is so indispensable to an historian. Of
geography ; of the great general truths of political science, such as
the ordinary progress of the state of society, and the various
interests which successively arise to take part in the internal dissen-
tions of a Commonwealth ; of all the great questions of political
economy, Livy was careless and ignorant. Born almost within
sight of the Alps, his knowledge of their topography and scenery
was utterly vague, and often utterly erroneous ; and the marshes,
through which Hannibal had to force his way at the commencement
of his second campaign in Italy, are placed by Livy on the wrong
side of the Apennines, and ascribed to the floods of the Arno.
The whole history of the first four hundred years of Rome he has
related in such a manner as to give it the appearance of being a
mere fiction ; instead of throwing light upon his subject, he has
darkened and confused it, so that it requires no small labour to
extract the truth from the mass of inconsistencies, mistakes, and
exaggerations with which he has overlaid it. He describes Ser.
1 We think we cannot be mistaken in fixing upon Valerius Antias as the writer
whom Livy copied on this occasion. The exaggeration of " fifty-six thousand
men " slain on the part of the Carthaginians (Livy, lib. xxvii., c. 49), instead of
the " ten thousand," which is the number given by Polybius, lib. ii., c. 3, can
surely come from no other than him whom Livy himself describes as " omnium
rerum immodice numerum augenti," lib. xxxiii., c. 10, and who, in like manner,
raises the amount of the Macedonian loss at Cynocephalae from 8000 to 40,000.
- Lib. iv., c. 23.
livy. 349
Tullius as owing his throne at first solely to the election of the i.r,
Senate ; and supposes his object in framing his famous Get i », to
have been to give a decided preponderance to the aristocratical
interest in the ComiHa; at the same time that he represents him
offending the Senate by carrying into effect an Agrarian law ; and
when it is evident that his unpopularity with the Patricians was
the main cause which enabled his son-in-law to deprive him of his
throne and life. In his description of the Census itself, he shows
that its tendency was to establish an oligarchy, founded on properly,
not on birth; whereas the whole tenor of his subsequent narrative
manifests that the government was purely aristocratical, and exclu-
sively in the hands of the Nobles, and not of the rich. Again, in
the Census, we have an account of a military system of arms and of
tactics, totally different from those of the legion; yet, in none of
his descriptions o^ battles, do we find any traces of the institutions
enjoined by Ser. Tullius, but very frequent mention of the weapons
and divisions hi use amongst the Romans in Livy's own age. Now
it is true that the system of Ser. Tullius was overthrown imme-
diately after his death ; and that thus the government, after the
expulsion of Tarquin, was not an oligarchy, nor were the arms and
tactics of the soldiers those of the phalanx ; but neither, again,
were they those of the legion, such as it was in later times ; and
the real story of the variations which they underwent, and of the
constant connection between these changes and the political state of
the Commonwealth (although when we have once discovered it
from other sources, we may trace it here and there in Livy's
narrative), was yet most certainly not understood by himself, nor
does he seem to have formed any definite notions at all upon the
subject.
With such an indistinctness in his views, and with so much
ignorance, it was not possible that Livy should seize the clue of a
multitude of crowded events; that seeing distinctly what was im-
portant and what was not, he should know where to condense his
narrative, and where to be minute ; and should place his readers in
a situation from whence they might easily catch the general outline
of the story, and find it relieved by the shadow into which the less
interesting parts of the picture had been thrown. We will venture
to say, that never was the history of a great war more uninstruc-
tively written than that of the second Punic war by Livy. Amidst
the profusion of his details, the reader is at once wearied and con-
fused ; he wanders about like a traveller lost in an immense forest
of underwood ; thicket succeeds to thicket, and each in itself is gay
and beautiful with its fiowers and its foliage ; but the scenery has
no striking features, and the wood has no certain paths, no elevated
ground, the eminence of which might serve as a central point
wherewith to connect and group the other parts of the landscape.
350 THE HISTORIANS OF ROME.
Livy. Still more intolerable is the tediousness of the last fifteen remaining
Books of his History ; which, without conveying one particle of
valuable information as to the internal state of Borne, or of any
other country, detail with the utmost minuteness every petty action
of all the uninteresting wars in which the Bomans were involved in
Spain, Liguria, Greece, and Asia. The same character may be
given of the ten first Books, which abound in the same minuteness
of detail, and are equally barren of any clear or sensible views of
what was important and what was worthless. In these earlier
Books, indeed, Livy must often, in all probability, have written his
descriptions from his own imagination, just as Dion Cassius copied
some of his from the History of Thucydides. Nothing can be
more impertinent than such pretended embellishments ; and thus
the famous description of the destruction of Alba, which has so
often been praised for its elegance, might indeed have been justly
admired in a novel, but, like all other unauthorised statements, it is
a sure proof of a shallow mind when inserted in a work which
aspires to the name of History,
of the The speeches introduced by Livy, which Quinctilian has so highly
^eeches of ext0Ued, must not be passed unnoticed. It were unfair indeed to
blame an individual author for adopting the general practice of his
age ; and it would have required a mind of a very different order
from Livy's, to have discovered and renounced its absurdity, when
it was sanctioned by custom, and was one of the readiest means of
obtaining popularity. But it would argue no small want of judg-
ment in ourselves, if we were now to consider such idle declamations
with any feelings of similar admiration. None of them are at all
characteristic of their pretended speakers, nor of the age to which
they are ascribed ; but in all, the same author and the same style
are presented to us, inventing arguments in the true method of the
exercises of the rhetoricians, and only anxious to dress them up in
the most harmonious and striking language. "We would only
request those who may think our censure too severe, to read over the
speech ascribed to Menenius Agrippa, in the second Book of Livy,
in which he tells the old fable of the belly and the members to the
dissatisfied Commons, and then compare it with the speech on the
same subject, put into the mouth of the same speaker by Shakspeare,
in his play of Coriolanus. If Livy could have inspired his version
of it with one half of the spirit and character which runs through
every line of that of the English poet, we might have almost for-
given him for inserting a speech written by himself, in a work that
should contain nothing but what was genuine. But Shakspeare,
though unacquainted with the particular history of Eome, well
knew the sort of language which a popular orator in rude times
was likely to address to an exasperated populace ; and this he has
given with his own inimitable liveliness and power. Livy, with
LIVY. 851
very little more knowledge, and infinitely less ability, has written Ufjt
that which cannot possibly be mistaken for the composition of any
other person than himself.
If it be asked to what we must attribute the great reputation Cam* of On
which Livy has so long enjoyed, the question, we think, is capable ,,r"il"' .
• i J ^TT- i i i J reputation
of receiving a very simple answer. History was regarded as a whlel
literary composition by the critics of the Augustan age, and that has (J1JO}"i'
which followed it; and thus the style of a Historian was the point
on which his character mainly depended. Cluinctilian, when bring-
ing forward Livy as a rival to Herodotus, extols him merely for the
unaffected beauty of his narrative, and the inconceivable eloquence
of his speeches, — with the same discernment of the real excellences
of a Historian as he has shown in another passage, where he selects
the pithy conciseness of Thucydides, and the simple sweetness of
Herodotus, as the merits which have entitled them to the highest
place among writers of History. Yet the language of Quinctilian
has been echoed by succeeding critics, who have dilated on the
beauty of Livy's style, and the excellence of his descriptions, as if
these qualities were sufficient to make him a good Historian. He
was, moreover, a writer of the Augustan Age ; and the greater
purity of his Latin, as belonging to that golden period, has procured
for him, in the judgment of Schools and Colleges, a preference over
Tacitus, who was regarded as a writer of the silver age of Latinity.
And when we consider how little the world at large has known of
Greek and Iloman literature, and that it has done little more than
repeat the opinions of those who were called the learned, we shall
not wonder that Livy has acquired a great name ; since his pane-
gyrists have been either those who have not studied him at all, or
those who from the different nature of their pursuits, have been
quite incapable of appreciating his deficiencies as a Historian, and
have dwelt with a natural fondness upon the undeniable beauty of
his style.
It is time, however, that these errors should be dispelled, and
that Livy should be tried in a more just balance, and estimated
after a truer standard. So long as he shall be considered a good
Historian, it will be an ominous sign of the inattention of men in
general to the nature of a Historian's duties, and of the qualifica-
tions which he ought to possess ; it will forbid us to hope that
History will be studied in a wiser spirit than heretofore, or that,
being more judiciously cultivated, it will be made to yield a more
beneficial return. But this is a hope that we are loth to relinquish;
and we would fain do all in our power to promote its accomplish-
ment. This is our apology for the length to which we have now
carried our criticism of Livy ; we know that he is a bad Historian,
and we would fain effect the same conviction in the minds of others.
For this end nothing is necessary but to compare his w7ork in one
852 THE HISTORIANS OF ROME.
Livy. or two careful perusals with that of Thucydides. There would be
seen the contrast between what an excellent Historian should be
and what Livy is : the contrast of perfect knowledge and unwearied
diligence, wTith ignorance and carelessness ; of a familiar and
practical understanding of all points of war and policy, with an
entire strangeness to them; of a severe freedom from every prejudice
and partiality, with a ready acquiescence in any tale that natters
national vanity and pride. Nor would the comparison of the
Speeches of the two Histories be less pointed and instructive. In
the one we should find the genuine and characteristic sentiments
of the times, the countries, and the parties, to which they are
ascribed. The principles of morality and policy which were
avowed or acted upon, and the sort of arguments which might be
successfully used, are given on an authority known to be deserving
of the fullest belief. In the other there is nothing genuine, and
therefore nothing valuable ; the sentiments and arguments are
merely those of an unpractical man of a later age ; they convey no
information ; they cannot be treated as developing the character of
their pretended authors ; they may be " inconceivably eloquent "
in the eyes of a Bhetorican, but to him who estimates History
rightly, it was a waste of time to write them, and, except only so
far as they are specimens of language, it is a waste of time to read
them.
We would not have the above remarks, which we have felt it our
duty to offer, mistaken or misinterpreted. It is solely to the want
of merit in Livy in his province as a Historian that they are
addressed. As an exemplar of purity of diction ; as a consummate
master of all the rhythmical cadences and harmonious combinations
of language ; and as a painter of the beautiful forms which the
richness of his own imagination called up, he may be pronounced
unrivalled in the whole course of literature.
Contrast The chronological order of our criticism has now brought us to
bariV'eandhe Diodorus Sicuius, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus ; and we shall
later Grecian proceed to notice the character of the later Greek Historians
History01 generally, amongst whom these two writers held a conspicuous
place. Nothing, perhaps, is more striking than the contrast
between the early and the later periods of Grecian literature ;
between the extraordinary excellence of Herodotus, Thucydides,
and Xenophon, and the extraordinary worthlessness of Dionysius
of Halicarnassus and Appian. We cannot doubt, indeed, but that
writers of this latter class were sufficiently numerous even before
the age of Alexander ; and even Herodotus exposes many tales
which were circulated by some of his contemporaries, and which
breathe the very same spirit with those to be found so often in the
pages of later Historians. But happily we have no monuments of
early Grecian History, except such as are of the highest value ; so
GRECIAN WRITERS OF HISTORY. 858
that our impression of the period which produced them is naturally Contrast
somewhat more favourable than the reality. Afterward- there
appeared no revival of their excellences ; and as the circumstances later Grecian
of the times became more unfriendly to the formation of great SaSS0*
minds, those who under better culture might have risen above
mediocrity, now sank beneath it ; and those who might have been
awed into silence by the splendour of contemporary genius, were
encouraged to essay their feeble voices amidst the universal weak-
ness of all around them. The times, we have said, were unfavour-
able to the formation of great minds ; not so much from any direct
restraints imposed upon literature by the government (for of this
there seems to have been but little during the reign of Augustus),
but from the removal of those opportunities of practical discipline
to the character, which in the free States of antiquity counter-
balanced, in some measure, the want of education and the diffi-
culties of obtaining knowledge. The army was becoming a distinct
profession ; and every citizen was no longer obliged, as in the
Commonwealths of Greece and Rome, to learn the duties and
acquire the experience of a practical soldier. Those restless political
intrigues, and those better and more honourable calls for action,
which self-defence, or the public good, held out so often to the
citizens of the little Republics of an earlier Age, were now crushed
and silenced ; and the welfare of the great national society to which
he belonged was now to every man the object only of an occasional
and impotent wish, instead of a daily principle of active exertion.
Trade and navigation were uncongenial to the character of the
Romans, and were thus depressed in public estimation ; so that
they held a distinct and subordinate place, and could not operate
with much effect on the general mass of society. Doubtless the
field of literature was open ; and the patronage of the Augustan
Age may be thought eminently favourable to its improvement. But
the ancient notions of literature were very different from those of
the present age. The original names bestowed on places of literary
study, (rxo'Xij, yvfivacriov, and Ludus literarius, names so improperly
applied in the eyes of modern schoolboys, express very strikingly
the feelings of the Greeks and Romans concerning them. Books
were their relaxation from the severer business of life ; and hence,
as is well known, a taste for letters was regarded with jealousy, at
an earlier period of the Roman History, as the mark of an indolent
and trifling mind. But something of the original evil of looking to
literature chiefly as to an amusement, has occasioned at once the
omissions and the faults with which that of the ancients is charge-
able. In the reign of Augustus there was a great demand for
Poetry, for Oratorical compositions, for Criticism, and for enter-
taining narrative ; but little or none for Political Economy, for
legitimate History, for Experimental or Moral Philosophy. There
[a. L.] a a
354 THE HISTORIANS OF ROME.
Contrast was nothing then in the state of the public taste to encourage a
carh-^mdhe writer to attempt works of laborious research, and of deep and
later Grecian extensive thought and knowledge. Fame and profit were to be
History. gained at an easier rate by cultivating the more flowery paths of
literature ; and talents are so independent of wisdom that, where
fame and profit invite them, they are generally sure to direct their
efforts. Nor must we forget the scarcity of books amongst the
causes which account for the badness of the greater part of ancient
History. It was absolutely impossible for many authors to procure
the knowledge which they needed ; books could not be purchased,
on account of the dearness of their price, and they could be con-
sulted oftentimes only in the public libraries of large cities, at a
considerable distance, perhaps, from the spot of the writer's
residence. Nor even to those living at Eome itself, could a public
library ever supply the place of a private one. Indolence would
often tempt a writer to rest satisfied with an imperfect recollection
of a passage, rather than make the exertion of going to another
quarter of the city to ascertain its purport exactly ; and, above all,
he who reads in a public library reads for a particular object, but
does not and cannot indulge in that quiet and leisurely and extensive
study which is only to be enjoyed at home, and which alone fills
the mind with abundant and well-digested knowledge. It was not,
therefore, to be expected that a Greek, coming to Eome in the hope
of arriving at wealth and renown by his literary talents, should
have been able or willing to make himself a really good Historian.
Instead of the arduous task of storing himself with all sorts of
knowledge, political, geographical, and military — instead of the
slow and unostentatious labour of reading and digesting various
authorities, sifting their value, and extracting from them what was
most excellent — a simpler and easier path lay before him, which
would lead him far more surely and speedily to the accomplishment
of his objects. To cultivate his style with assiduity, so as to
render his narrative agreeable ; to exercise himself in the lessons
taught him in the Schools of Khetoric, so as to diversify his story
with ingenious and eloquent Orations ; to learn how to give a
striking and novel appearance to the old common-places of morality,
which were to be interspersed from time to time ; and to express
on all occasions a fitting admiration and reverence for the glory
and greatness of Eome : these were methods better adapted than
any others to lead an author to popularity and patronage, and,
therefore, independently of their own natural attractions, they were
sure to be most generally practised.
Dionysius of We must not be understood to mean that the operation of these
causes was always uniform ; or that there may not have been many
exceptions to that which we still believe to have been the general
rule. But with regard to Dionysius of Halicarnassus, we
nassus.
UIONYSIUS OF HAUC.YKXASSUS.
355
Dionysius of
H allot f-
Halicamassus.
think that his deficiencies were of a nature which no cliange of
circumstances could have removed. He appears not to have pos-
sessed any original capacity, which might have been improved by
culture or experience, but a natural weakness of judgment and
want of vigour, which must always have kept him far below
mediocrity as a Historian. He is prolix, ignorant of political and
military matters, flagrantly partial, and incompetent to apprehend
the real state, manners, and character of the people of whom he
wrote. The eloquence, which is the redeeming charm of Livv's
pages, is uniformly a stranger to those of Dionysins ; the Speeches
which, considered merely as rhetorical compositions, are in Livy so
forcible and beautiful, are in Dionysins utterly vapid. He tells us
in his preface that he spent two-and- twenty years in Eome, and
that having learned the Latin language, and gained an acquaintance
with the Roman writers, he employed the whole of this period in
acquiring the knowledge necessary for his History. This he derived,
as he tells us, partly from the personal communications of those
eminent for their information, and partly from the approved
Chronicles of M. Cato, Q. Fabius, Valerius Antias, Licinius Macer,
jfElius Tubero, Gellius, Piso, and others. To say nothing of the
judgment evinced in this classification of authorities, it is observable
that he does not make any mention of the legal and antiquarian
dissertations of Cato and Cincius, of which we have already spoken,
but merely of their Chronicles ; having, probably, like Livy,
neglected their other works from which so much more of valuable
Siculus.
356 THE HISTORIANS OF ROME.
Dionysiusof information was to be drawn. The tenour of his narrative makes
Susem!" ft Prooakle that those learned Eomans, who assisted his researches,
were of that class who in simplicity believed, or from interested
motives extolled, the private memoirs of the great families of Eome ;
and who sought to flatter the vanity of their patrons by the
invention of fabulous pedigrees, such as those of Cluentius and
Memmius, whose pretended ancestors were Cloanthus and Mnestheus,
the companions of iEneas.
Slni?™3 ^e part of the history of Diodorus Siculus which remains to
us enters but little upon the affairs of Eome. Yet his account of
the first invasion of the Gauls is curious, inasmuch as he agrees
with Polybius in representing the ransom demanded by the Gauls
as actually paid ; and places the pretended victory obtained over
them by Camillus some months later than their evacuation of the
Eoman territory. It is also to a fragment of Diodorus that we
are indebted for the discovery of the manner in which the story
about the death of Eegulus originated, and for the fact, that the
cruelties said to have been committed upon him by the Cartha-
ginians were in reality practised by his own sons upon some
Carthaginian prisoners whom the Senate had put into their custody.
Besides these passages, we find in Diodorus a clear and probable
account of the revolt of the slaves in Sicily, in the early part of
the seventh century of Eome ; and a remarkable narrative of an
insurrection excited by an insolent member of the Equestrian
Order, T. Minucius. It is pleasing to find that he took great pains
to acquire by travelling a correct knowledge of the different
countries described in his work ; and there is a general tone of
honesty and fairness pervading his history, which shows that he
was always inclined to speak the truth whenever he could discover
it. His error lay in his design of writing a universal history ; an
undertaking, no doubt, exceedingly grand and attractive, but
utterly incompatible with the limited length of human life, and
our physical capabilities of acquiring knowledge. By thus attempt-
ing to do too much, he has done nothing as perfectly as he other-
wise might have done it ; nor is he one of those historians on
whose information we can rely with entire confidence, or who, by
the excellence of his work, has introduced any striking improve-
ments into history.
The two writers whom we have last mentioned both flourished
during the reign of Augustus. Instead, however, of observing any
exact chronological order, we shall next speak of the two other
Greek historians who have written most at large on Eoman affairs,
Appian and Dion Cassius. Appianus was a native of Alexandria,
and lived during the reigns of Trajan, Hadrian, and the elder
Antoninus. He spent some time at Eome, where he followed the
profession of an advocate in the Imperial Courts, and was after-
Ap;)ian.
APPIAN. — DION CASSI1 3. 357
wards made Procurator of Egypt. In tie plan of his history he Appian.
has adopted a geographical division of his subject, and has
attempted to trace the course of events by which the several
provinces successively became subject to Borne; after the com-
pletion of this part of his task, he added the History of the Civil
Wan of Koine, from the first disturbances occasioned by Tib.
Gracchus to the battle of Actium, and the establishment of the
imperial power ; concluding the whole with a supplementary book,
in which he gave an account of the revenue derived from the several
parts of the empire, and of the military and naval force which was
kept up in his own time. Unfortunately this last book, which,
from his official situation, was likely to contain much valuable
matter, has entirely perished, together with large portions of the
rest of his work ; we still retain, however, besides some consider-
able fragments, one entire book on the History of Spain, another
on that of Syria, a third on that of Illyria, two on the Punic wars,
one on the long contest with Mithridates, and rive on the civil wars
of Borne, which carry down the story of them as far as the murder
of Sex. Pompeius, u. c. 719. Thus the whole of Appian's existing
history is necessarily a compilation from the writings of others,
without any mixture of information gained from his own personal
inquiries or experience. Such a work, when composed by a man
of low understanding and scanty knowledge, is as worthless as any
history can be, and this is the character which we are obliged to
bestow on the history of Appian. It is true, that amidst the
dearth of better information, even the writings of such an author
as this are to a certain degree valuable, as they contain some facts
which are not to be found elsewhere. We are indebted to him for
a translation of the proclamation issued by the Triumvirs to
announce and to justify their dreadful proscription ; and also for
some curious anecdotes of the proscription itself.
Dion Cassius was a native of Nicsea in Pithynia,1 and flourished Dion
during the latter part of the second, and the first thirty or forty years Cas?ms-
of the third century of the Christian era. His father was a man of
some consideration, who had been intrusted with the command of
the province of Dalmatian and had enjoyed the dignity of Consul
in the last year but one of the reign of Commodus. l)ion Cassius
himself practised for some time as an advocate at Home ; he was
raised to the prsetorship by the Emperor Pertinax,3 and appears to
have been treated with kindness by the Emperor Septimius Severus.
It was in the reign of this latter prince that he commenced the
compilation of his history ; and his own account of the motives
which induced him to undertake it is too curious to be omitted.4
1 Dion Cassius, lxxv. p. 857. edit. Leunclav,
* Ibid. xlix. p. 413. Cassiodorus, Chronicon.
3 Dion Cassius, lxxiii. p. 835. 4 Ibid. p. 8'28.
35 S THE HISTORIANS OF ROME.
Dion He had written and published a small work on the subject of the
Cassms. dreams and prodigies which had encouraged Severas to expect to
obtain the throne ; and he sent a copy of it to Severus, who, after
having read it, returned a very flattering written acknowledgment
to the author. " It was towards evening," says Dion, " when
I received this answer, and I soon retired to rest ; during my sleep
a divine power gave me a charge to compose a history ; and
accordingly I wrote that part (namely, the Life of Commodus)
which the reader has just now completed. When I found that this
was generally approved of, and that Severus himself expressed
himself satisfied with it, I conceived the wish to compile an entire
history of the affairs of Rome, and to embody in this larger work
the portion which I had already written, that I might transmit to
posterity, in one continuous narrative, the whole history from the
first beginning to as late a period as my lot would allow me to
continue it." He then adds, that he employed ten years in collect-
ing his materials, and twelve more in the composition of his work,
residing for that purpose chiefly at Capua,1 as a delightful situation
in which he might enjoy uninterrupted leisure. But when Alex-
ander Severus became emperor, he was called forward into public
life ; was twice appointed consul,- the second time as the colleague
of the emperor himself; and was successively intrusted with the
governments of Africa, Dalinatia, and Pannonia. In this last
situation he rendered himself so odious to the soldiers, by the
strict discipline which he enforced among them, that in the mutiny
in which Ulpian, the Praetorian Prefect, so well known for his fame
as a lawyer, was murdered at Rome, the mutineers demanded of
the emperor that Dion Cassius should in like manner be surren-
dered to their vengeance. This request was steadily rejected ; yet
when Dion was afterwards chosen by Alexander Severus as his
colleague in the consulship, he was advised by his sovereign to
spend his term of office at a distance from Rome, lest his appear-
ance in public, in the capacity of a magistrate, might dangerously
irritate the minds of the soldiers. The latter years of his life were
passed in his native country Rithynia, agreeably, he tells us, to an
intimation of his destiny, which he once received in a dream, when
a vision commanded him to inscribe on the last page of his history
two lines from Homer, describing the removal of Hector from the
battle by the care of Jupiter, and his escape " from the dust, and
from the slaughter, and from the blood, and from the tumult."
In reviewing the history of Dion Cassius, recollecting at the
same time his account of the manner in which he was led to write
it, we cannot but regret that he, like so many others, should have
been ignorant, according to the expression of Hesiod, " how much
the half is better than the whole." Had he been contented with
1 Dion Cassius, lxxvi., p. 860. - Ibiil. lxxx., p. PI 7,
DION CASSIUS. 859
what lie at first accomplished, the history of the reign o( Commodus oka
— or had he only carried on the narrative from that period through r,lSMUS-
the subsequent events o( his own times — he would have deserved an
honourable place amongst impartial and well-informed contemporary
historians. But the unfortunate desire of forming a complete
work, and of giving to the world an entire body of Roman history*
led him to go over ground of which he wanted an adequate know-
ledge* and to repeat, without improving, a story which had been
often told before. He was too little acquainted with the laws and
constitutions of the old commonwealth to describe them accurately,
or to trace with a clear and strong pencil the successive parties
which arose, and the varying characters which they assumed at
different periods. The defects of his knowledge he attempted to
compensate by borrowing morsels of description from some ancient
historian, when he wished to draw a striking picture o( any event ;
or by introducing long speeches of his own composition, such as
those which he ascribes to M. Antonius at the funeral of Caesar;
to Cicero and Q. Full us Calenus in the Senate; and to Mavenas
and Agrippa, when they are supposed to advise Augustus, the one
to retain, and the other to resign, his absolute power. In short,
the early part of his history is as unsatisfactory as the latter books
are really valuable ; so true is it, that a very ordinary man may be
a useful historian of the events of his own times; but that the
story of a remote period can only be profitably told by one of inde-
fatigable industry and most extensive knowledge — one whose powers
of weighing evidence, of selecting what is most important amongst
the facts presented to him, and of placing it in the clearest and most
striking light, are commensurate with his diligence and learning.
In all the four writers whom we have last noticed, we may
observe one prevailing fault besetting them, though not in an
equal degree ; namely, an extreme wordiness both in their narra-
tives and their remarks. The same fault is a source of offence
in the most eminent o( the modern Italian historians, such as
Guicciardini and Davila ; and in both cases it has arisen from the
same cause. Both the Greek and Italian languages are so harmo-
nious, and so naturally eloquent, that they conceal in some measure
from the eyes of the writer the poverty of his thoughts, or the
little substantial good which he is communicating, amidst the
luxuriance of his beautiful sentences. Tims he is tempted to run
on without restraint, and to be careless of the sterling value of his
materials, when they are so easily susceptible of the most delicate
polish, ami can hardly fail to wear an ornamental appearance.
Such languages are productive of serious evils to ordinary writers.
They seem to derive from them a power far beyond their own
nature, and thus they are exposed to the usual fate of those who
are raised to an elevation which they are unfit to occupy ; nor can
Velleius
360 THE HISTORIANS OF ROME.
it be doubted, we think, that this cause has greatly contributed to
the extraordinary prolixity and emptiness of the second and third
rate writers of Greece and modern Italy.
In resuming again the chronological order of our review, and
proceeding to notice the Roman historians subsequent to Livy, the
ratercuius. historical sketch of Yelleius Paterculus next claims our atten-
tion.1 His father had been employed in the army of Tiberius
Csesar in Germany during the reign of Augustus, and he himself
served under the same commander in different capacities for the
space of nine years ; and on the accession of Tiberius to the
imperial throne, he was one of the first persons nominated by him
to be elected to the office of Prsetor, Under these circumstances,
and either enjoying, perhaps, or expecting, still greater marks of
favour, it is natural that he should speak of Tiberius, and of his
minister, Sejanus, in language very unlike that in which more
impartial historians have described them. By the terms, too, in
which he expresses himself with regard to Brutus and Cassius, we
are reminded of that increased courtliness which marked the writers
of Imperial Eome ; and we are led to recollect the story of
Cremutius Cordus, who was tried for treason, because in a history
of the civil wars he had mentioned the conspirators against Caesar
with admiration. But there is more, perhaps, in this of apparent
than of real partiality ; it was an undisturbed practice to call
Brutus and Cassius parricides ; and such terms were a necessary
passport to secure the unmolested circulation of a historian's work.
It does not seem to us, that Paterculus is guilty of that unfairness
which we have noted in the writings of Cresar ; who, seldom
indulging in reproachful epithets against his antagonists, contrives,
by his representation of the facts, to produce a much stronger
impression against them than he could have created in any other
manner ; and who, nevertheless, at the same time, has gained credit
for his pretended moderation and candour. Paterculus, on the
contrary, does not misrepresent the facts ; and if we rub off the
exterior coating of false colouring with which he has a little
disguised their surface, we shall find them in substance mostly
unchanged and uninjured. His work is so mere an outline that it
hardly deserves the name of history ; yet, considered as a sketch, it
is drawn with great force and judgment. His enumeration of the
different Roman colonies, with the dates at which they were
respectively founded, is conceived in a spirit far above most of the
writers whom we have been reviewing ; it is a piece of gratuitous
information which he must have collected himself, without finding
it in the books from which he formed his narrative ; whereas Livy
and Dionysius, and Dion Cassius and Appian, generally content
1 Paterculus was born about n.c. 19, ami was^ probably, put to death in a.d. 31,
among the friends of Sejanus. — Editor.
VELLEIUS PATERCULUS. — TA( I i I .
301
themselves with copying from the chronicles of their predecessors, Vett
and never dream of communicating any information which they do Putcrculu3,
not find made ready for their hands. It is, however, a favourable
circumstance for the fame of Paterculus, that the fate of his work
has been exactly the reverse of that of Livy ; the latter part, which
treats of events nearer his own age, has been preserved, while the
account of the early history of Home from Ilomulus to the second
Macedonian war has been entirely lost. Had this been preserved,
we might have found him as indiscriminate a copyist of foolish and
ignorant authorities as any of his contemporaries ; but as it is, we
cannot compare him with Livy, where Livy probably was most
excellent ; and his superiority over Appian and Dion Cassius is
obtained with little difficulty, not only on account of his earlier
date and his greater ability, but because as a Roman he had so
much more familiar a knowledge of the names, customs, laws, and
family history of his countrymen, and is free therefore from those
mistakes which the Greek writers of Eoman history, with the
exception of Polybius, are continually committing.
At length Ave have arrived at the greatest of the Roman histo- Tacitus
rians, and one of the most eminent among those of every age and
nation, Caius Cornelius Tacitus. i He was born about the
year of Home 810, a.d. 57, about
three-and-forty years after the death
of Augustus. His father is supposed
to have been the same Cornelius
Tacitus whom Pliny 2 describes as
belonging to the Equestrian Order,
and Procurator of the Belgian Gaul.
At an early age he applied himself
to the study of eloquence, with a
view to obtain distinction as an
advocate, the sole capacity in which
an orator might then display his
talents ; and, as he was of a rank
to aspire to political honours, he
served some campaigns in the army,
as the necessary qualification required of every candidate for a magis-
tracy. When he was only one-and-twenty years old, he married the
daughter of the famous Cn. Julius Agricola; he was one of the
'pra3tors ten years afterwards;3 and nine years later, u.c. 850, in I -2. f*
1 We have borrowed this sketch of the Biography of Tacitus from Brotier's
Preface to that Historian, having merely verified his statements by referring
ourselves to the authorities which he has quoted.
2 Histor. Natural, vii. 1G.
s Tacitus, Annal. xL, 11. [He was also one of the quindecemviri of the
Ludi Seculares. — Editor.]
Tacitus.
362 THE HISTORIANS OF ROME.
Tacitus. the first year of the reign of Nerva, he was appointed to the dignity
of Consul. ■ Once after this period his name is mentioned, ■
together with that of the younger Pliny, as the joint and successful
accusers of Marius Priscus, Proconsul of Africa, for multiplied acts
of cruelty and corruption in his Province. But the later years of
his life seem mostly to have been devoted to the composition of
his Histories ; a labour in which he was interrupted by a premature
death, apparently before the close of the reign of Trajan. In point
of external advantages, therefore, no Eoraan had hitherto been so
well fitted for the office of a historian. Practically acquainted with
civil and military affairs, gifted with "a fair fortune, enjoying the
highest public honours, with ample " and undisturbed leisure, and
writing in the reign of a sovereign who had no desire to see the
truth concealed or corrupted, he had all opportunities of acquiring
information, without any temptation to forsake his duty as an his-
torian from motives of hope or fear ; and it could only be a question
whether his own moral and intellectual qualities were such as
worthily to correspond with the favours conferred on him by fortune.
£% These qualities were undoubtedly of a very high order. He
/ observes a fair and temperate tone in his censures even of the worst
characters, and does not allow himself to be hurried away by the
feelings of moral indignation which could not but arise witlrin him,
when contemplating such a tissue of various crimes as that which
it was his business to record. His remarks are alwavs striking,
mostly just, and often profound ; his narrative is clear, sensible, and
animated; he communicates information on subjects to which the
thread of his story does not of necessity lead him, and on which a
mere compiler, who collects at the moment his knowledge for the
task which he has in hand, can never afford to venture. Of this
nature is the valuable sketch of the distribution of the military force
of the empire, and of the state of the government and of the people,
which occurs at the beginning of the fourth Book of his AnnaU.
Such also is the summary view of the progress of the Roman legis-
lation in the third Book of the same work. His delineations of
characters are lively and apparently just ; his sentiments on political
questions fair and judicious. His authority with regard to all points
of Roman History is highly valuable, and for those times with which
he is more immediately concerned, we could hardly desire a better
*jf guide. His faults are to be ascribed to such causes as we have
already noticed as injurious to ancient literature. Not even Tacitus
could overcome the habit of regarding history as a literary composi-
tion, intended to satisfy the expectations of professed critics, and to
promote the literary fame of the writer. We see continually symp-
toms of the ayo)i/tcr/xa Is to 7rapa^p^/za dicoveiv ; the composition
1 Pliny, Epist. ii., 1. ~ Ibid. ep. 11.
TACITUS. 3G3
written with effort, in the hope of gaining a prize. Hence the Tacitus
.excessive ornament of the language; and hence also those idle
; specimens of rhetoric, which are introduced as the pretended speeches
• of different persons mentioned in the history. We remember that
Whitaker, in some one of his works, we believe in hia Review of
Gibbon, endeavours to discredit the authority of Tacitus as an
historian, because he puts a speecli into the mouth of the Emperor
Claudius, on a solemn occasion, very different from that wiiich he
actually delivered. The pretended speech is to be found in the
eleventh Book of the Annals, and is said to have been spoken in the
Senate, when the inhabitants of Transalpine Gaul petitioned to be
rendered eligible to the highest public offices at Rome. Now, it so
happens, that a copy of the real speech of Claudius, engraved on a
large brazen plate, was discovered at Lyons in the year 1528 ; and
we are thus enabled to ascertain exactly how much of the pretended
version of it given by Tacitus is genuine. Whitaker argues that a
historian who would so audaciously insert a fictitious speech of his
own composition into his history, and at the same time represent it
as having been actually spoken, can no longer be relied on with
confidence in any part of his work, although we may not have the
means of proving him to be in error. Brotier, on the other hand,
the learned editor of Tacitus, defends his author in the true spirit
of an ancient critic, by saying that the original speech is " old
fashioned, weak, and little calculated to convince its hearers ; so
that it was the business of Tacitus to make something that should
be more worthy of the occasion, the place, and the majesty of the
Emperor." ■ It is tiresome to reflect how much of this kind of
silliness has been written by classical editors, commentators, and
critics ; and how long it has obstructed the progress of sound ideas
on the subject of ancient literature. But Whitaker is not to be
listened to when he infers that Tacitus is not to be trusted in his
account of facts, because he has ascribed to Claudius a speech which
was never spoken. The introduction of fictitious speeches was one
of the regular ornaments of ancient history, on which much of the
reputation of the author depended. It was never pretended that
they were genuine, nor was any reader likely to be so simple as to
mistake them for such ; so that if the real speech of Claudius had
been familiar to every person in Rome, Tacitus would never have
been blamed for substituting in its place one of his own invention,
but would rather perhaps have been censured for want of original
talent if he had merely inserted in his history a faithful copy of it.
^In the same manner, when we read the speecli of Galgacus, in the -
} Life of Agricola, no one would be so weak as to suppose that any
Roman had taken notes of the Celtic original, and had transmitted
1 Notse et Emcndat. ad lib. xi., c. 24. AnnaL C. Corn. Tacit.
364 THE HISTORIANS OF ROME.
Tacitus. to Home a translation of it ; but at the same time it would be hard
to infer that Tacitus had allowed himself to describe from his own
imagination the facts of the Caledonian war. Our objection to these
fictitious speeches is simply that they are a waste of paper ; that
they are a mere impertinence, occupying a space in the history, and
employing a portion of the writer's time and attention, which ought
, to have been devoted to something better. But the spirit which
could tolerate or demand that such tawdry ornaments as these
should be hung upon the plain magnificence of history, was too
closely connected with another and a worse tendency — that of
Jt shrinking from the fall amount of labour which a conscientious his-
torian should undergo, and of reporting idle tales with respect to
foreign nations, rather than consulting their own accounts of them-
selves. We now allude to that passage in Tacitus which describes
cW. ^ the origin and early history of the Jews ; it certainly betrays much
ignorance or much indolence that he should have contented himself
with retailing the vague and contradictory reports of foreigners,
when he might so easily have learnt their true history, either from
the work of Josephus, or from their original historians themselves,
whose writings, translated into the Greek language, were, as we
know, very generally read throughout a considerable part of the
empire. It would not be fair to attach any particular blame to
Tacitus for a fault of this nature, when it was one which the habits
and feelings of his times so largely encouraged ; but it shows the
radical defects in the views of history entertained by the Romans,
when a man of such rare accomplishments as Tacitus could not
altogether emancipate himself from their influence.
The The prevailing faults which marked the historians of these times
Biographers. are £0 be observed also in the biographers. Three writers of this
class will demand a brief notice — Cornelius Nepos, Suetonius, and
Cornelius Plutarch. Cornelius Nepos, 1 who flourished in the Augustan
age, and was familiarly acquainted with Cicero and Atticus, has left
us a sketch of the life of the latter, which possesses great value;
inasmuch as it is the account of an eminent and amiable man,
written by a contemporary and a friend. We wish that wTe had
many such memoirs of distinguished Romans, as no species of
writing more effectually conveys a full and lively knowledge of the
state of society and opinion at any given period. How much
clearer and more instructive, for example, are the notions of the
XVIIIth century which we derive from Boswell's Life of Johnson,
1 What we possess of Cornelius Nepos is only a small portion of his works, if,
indeed, the lives be his, which, with the exception of that of Atticus, may be
questioned. He wrote Chronica, apparently an epitome of universal history ;
Exempla; De Viris Illustribus, probably the work which we possess ; Epistolm
ad Ciceronem; De Historicis (at least, if he is the author of the life of Dion) ;
and poems. — Editor.
PLUTARCH. — SUETONIUS.
365
than from Smollett's History of England ; and the instance is a Cornelitu
strong one, as no one would place the talents of Boswel] within N'
many degrees of those of the author of Roderick Random and
Humphrey Clinker.
But the praise which we have bestowed on the biographer of
Atticus can by no means be extended to the other two writers whom
we have classed with him. Plutarch, a native of Chaeronea, in Ptataieh.
Bceotia, was probably some few years
older than Tacitus, but is mentioned as
flourishing, like him, during the reign
of Trajan. He was much respected
by the Emperor, and received from
him, according to Suidas, the rank of
Consul, with an extraordinary authority
over all other magistrates in Illyria.
He is said to have died in his native
city, during the reign of Antoninus
Pius. With his moral works we have
at present no concern ; and his Lives
are so generally known by means of
translations, even to those who are
unacquainted with the original, that
it may seem superfluous to offer any
observations upon them. It is sufficient to remark that they
are not contemporary biography ; and must, therefore, have been
compiled from books, and not written from personal knowledge.
And as far as they touch upon the province of history, we may
expect to find in them, in an aggravated degree, those same faults
of imperfect information and carelessness, which we have noticed as
characterising the historians of the same period. With regard to
the more purely biographical part of them, Plutarch does not appear
to have exercised a very nice discrimination in his selection of anec-
dotes ; and many which he reports are improbable ; occasionally,
however, he has fallen in with authorities of a higher kind, and we
are then indebted to him for preserving to us some very curious and
important particulars. He has also the great merit of frequently
mentioning the name of the writer from whom he is copying his
narrative ; and we are thus enabled to judge for ourselves of the
degree of confidence which we should repose in him.
The third biographer whom we proposed to notice was C. Sue- Suetonius.
tonius Tranquillus.1 He also flourished in the reigns of Trajan
Plutarch.
1 Suetonius was " adolescens M twenty years after Nero's death (Suet. Nero, 57).
He must, therefore, have been born about the time of that event, a.d. 68. Hi9
father, Suetonius Lenis, was tribune of the 13th legion ; but the son seems to
have had a distaste for public life in every way, and to have been solely devoted
to literary pursuits. He was the intimate friend of the younger Pliny, who
366
THE HISTORIANS OF ROME.
Suetonius, and Adrian, and was familiarly acquainted with the younger Pliny.
He was the author of several works, none of which, however, have
reached posterity, except the Lives of the twelve Qesars, and two
short books containing Sketches of the Lives of the most eminent
Philologists and Rhetoricians. In his biography of the Cassars, his
narrative of their actions is exceedingly summary, and the largest
space is devoted to a number of miscellaneous particulars, illustra-
tive of their characters and habits. Like Plutarch, he seems to
have collected these from several very different authorities ; but he
had one great advantage over the Greek biographer in the superior
knowledge which he naturally possessed of the laws and usages of
the Eomans ; so that on those subjects his testimony is much more
trustworthy. We do not see any grounds for the charge of malig-
nity which has been sometimes brought against him : on the
contrary, he appears to us to have recorded the virtues and vices of
the Caesars with great impartiality ; and certainly it is not the fault
of Suetonius, if their vices appear to preponderate.
Little need be said of t the few remaining historians, if so they
may be called, who have contributed something to our knowledge
Fiorus. of the affairs of Eome. L. AnnjBUS Plorus, who lived in the
reign of Trajan, has left us a series of detached sketches of the
different wars and civil dissensions in which the Eomans were
engaged from the days of Eomulus to those of Augustus. Such
a work is a mere help to the memory rather than a history ; and is
scarcely a fitter subject for criticism than a chronological table of
events.1
recommended his learning and amiable qualities to the notice of Trajan, and
requested the Emperor to grant his friend the "jus trium libei-orum," which
solicitation was complied with. The correspondence is extant, Plin. Epist. x.,
95,96. Suetonius was u magister epistolarum " to the Emperor Hadrian. Of
this office he was deprived on the same ground as that which caused the deprivation
of many other officials, an alleged intimacy, not perhaps criminal, but inconsistent,
with the Emperor's wife Sahina. during her husband's absence in Britain. We
possess but a small portion of the writings of Suetonius. Besides his lives of the
Ca?sars, his books on the Grammarians and the Rhetoricians, his life of Terence (also,
as we have seen, attributed to Donatus), and those of Horace, Persius, Lucian,
Juvenal, and Pliny the Elder, all which are extant ; he wrote De Ludis Grcvcorum,
DeSpeotacuUt ct Certaminibva Romanoru.m, De Anno Romano, Dc Notis, De
Ciceroni* Rcjmblicd, De Nominibus Propria, Dc Generibus Vestiu-m, De
Vocibm Mali Omirds, De Roma Ejusque Institute ct Moribus, Historic?
Ccvsarum. Stemma 111 natrium Romanorum, De Regibus, De Institutionc
Omriorum, De Rib us Varus, &C, all of which, except a few fragments, are lost.
— Editor.
1 Of the biography of Fiorus nothing is known with any certainty. From the
contemptuous language of Dr. Arnold, a reader unacquainted with Fiorus might
infer that this writer should be classed with Goldsmith or Pinnock, or even lower ;
yet the work of Fiorus is written with literary pretension, and not without
literary merit. His descriptions of Rome under Romulus, Res crat unius atatis,
popmUu virorum: of Samuium, after the conquest, Ita ruinas ij^as urbium
JUSTINUS. — VALERIUS MAXTMUS. 307
JUSTINUS FltONTINUS, Or MARCUS JUNIANUS JUSTINUS, who Justine
dedicates his work to the Emperor Antoninus (if the passage be
genuine), was merely the epitomiser of the larger history of Trogus
Pompeius ; and the merits or faults of the narrative are not, there-
fore, to be attributed to him. It professes to be an universal
history, commencing with the earliest times, and terminating at the
period when the several nations of whom it treats fell under the
power of Rome, Of Rome itself there is only given a sketch of
its origin, according to the common accounts ; and in some
instances, as in the case of Parthia, the account of a nation is
carried down to the reign of Augustus, if it had not been con-
quered at an earlier period. Trogus Pompeius seems to have been
a very common-place compiler ; and, therefore, the merit of his
work is very unequal. A great part of it appears to be copied
from writers of no great ability or accuracy ; but sometimes, as in
the sketch given of the Parthian constitution, the materials must
have been borrowed from a better source ; and we thus occasionally
glean some valuable information, which we could not easily find
elsewhere.
The anecdotes of Valerius Maximus, who wrote in the time of Valerius
Tiberius, afford us some curious particulars ; but the accuracy of Muimu8,
such collections is never to be much relied upon, as the authors
think themselves at liberty to transfer any striking story into their
pages w7hich they may find anywhere recorded, without feeling
bound to examine the evidence on which it rests, or to strip it of any
exaggeration which it may have gathered since its first production.
Here then we shall terminate our review of the Historians of
Rome. We may appear to have dealt out to them an unequal
measure, in bestowing more of our attention on some, and less
upon others, than they may be thought to have deserved. But our Reflections
object has not been to enter into a minute criticism of individual [£athe duty
writers, but chiefly to notice those defects in ancient history, which Historian.
seem to have arisen from general causes, and to be referable to the
peculiar circumstances and opinions of that period of antiquity
with which we have been concerned. We have entered at some
length into this part of our subject, not certainly from any wish to
speak with severity of any individual writer, but because the faults
which we have noticed have exercised a most injurious influence on
modern history ; nor will the mischief be removed till both the
diruit, ut Jtodie Samnium in ipso Samnio requiratur ; and numberless other
touches, remind us of Tacitus. Hannibal's expedition, and the destruction of
Carthage, are not dry outlines, but spirited coloured sketches, evidencing the hand
of a master. These, too, are rather samples than exceptions. The historical
value of Florus is a different question. He adopts without a word of qualification
the most palpable fables, and relates them with no less earnestness than if lie nil
recording the most unimpeachable facts. He is, therefore, only an authority for
what was believed, aud that not by the most intelligent, in his day. — Editor.
368
THE HISTORIANS OF ROME.
Reflections magnitude of the evil and its causes be fully and strongly stated,
o? ahe dUty The influence of which we speak may be traced distinctly through
Historian, the great Italian historians, and those of the XVth or XVIth
centuries, who composed their works in Latin, down to the French
and English historians of the XVIIth, and even of the XVTIIth
centuries. It is to be observed in the habit of regarding history
as a literary composition, and as a source of literary fame to the
author ; in the consequent neglect of plain and useful, but labo-
rious and unostentatious subjects of inquiry, and an excessive
attention to all that was ornamental, whether in matter or style.
It was a habit which encouraged the natural indolence of human
nature, by attaching the highest fame to that which required least
trouble, and undervaluing the labour which it neglected by repre-
senting it as unnecessary and undignified. From this alone could
have sprung that preposterous ambition in any one individual to
write an universal history, or, in modern times, to write the history
of more than one single century. No one would have ever
attempted such a work, if any just notions of the extent of a
historian's labour had been entertained either by writers or readers.
If eloquent narrative or ingenious disquisition may supply the
place of deep and exact knowledge, then indeed we may profess
without difficulty to write histories as extensive as we please in
their range of time and place. But if no man can describe any
period as he ought to do, without obtaining as nearly as possible
the knowledge of a contemporary ; it. is obvious that this know-
ledge can only be gained by a general study of all the existing
memorials of that period ; by a perusal, not only of its annalists
and historians, but of its divines, philosophers, poets, novelists, and
writers of a still more fugitive description, from whom the
physical and moral state of society at any one time, can alone be
adequately learned ; and it is still more obvious, that where those
materials are as numerous as they are in modern times, it is
physically impossible for one man to do more than acquaint himself
with those which relate to one limited period. One sacrifice of
selfishness is thus required in a historian, that he should resign the
detail of many brilliant eras, and satisfy himself with one alone,
and that perhaps not the most attractive ; another, and perhaps a
greater, is also called for, that the quantity of his writing should
not be in proportion to that of his reading ; that he should be
content to toil through many a page, without informing the world
of the amount of his industry, and without deriving any more
visible fruit from it than the increased richness and soundness of
knowledge which will transpire through every portion of his work.
We shall be told, that this is to expect what never will come
to pass ; that he who has taken great pains will always wish to
gain due credit for it ; that he who has bestowed much time in*
DUTY OF A HISTORIAN.
309
ascertaining some unimportant fact, will think it entitled to the same Reflections
share of the reader's attention, which it has demanded of his own. °^he(luty
It may be, indeed, that we shall never see a perfect historian ; but Historian.
the nearest approaches to perfection are ever gained by holding up
to all aspirants an uncompromising standard, and by requiring
them to strain every faculty to the utmost. He who writes for the
instruction of others has entered on no flowery path of selfish
gratification ; but has undertaken a sober and solemn duty ; from
which, as from every other, selfishness must be assiduously
excluded. It is not fame, however brilliant, or any self-satisfaction
in the display of intellectual excellence, which can lawfully be the
object of a historian ; but to do good after his measure, by the
conscientious exercise of those faculties which God has given him ;
while he bears continually in humbling remembrance, the end for
which they were given, and the guilt either of abusing them or
glorying in them.
[R. L.]
B B
370
MSS., EDITIONS, &c, OF THE HISTORIANS OF ROME.
SALLUST.
Ed. Princeps. Romse. 1470.
Corte. Lips. 1724.
Havercamp. Hag. 1742.
Gerlach. Basil. 1823—1831.
Kritz. Lips. 1828—1834.
Translations. Stewart. Lond. 1806.
Murphy. Lond. 1807.
Barclay (Jugurtha).
See Index of Editions and Translations prefixed to Frotsclier's Edition .
CJSSAR
Ed. Princ. Roma?. 1449.
Jungermann. Francof. 1669.
Groevius. Lugd. Bat. 1713.
Cellarius. Lips. 1705.
Davis. Cantab. 1727.
Oudendorp. Stuttgard. 1822.
Morus, edente Oberlin. Lips. 1819.
LIVY.
MSS. 1st. dec. Cod. Parisinus. (10th century.)
— „ Mediceus. (11th century.)
3rd. „ Puteanus.
4th. ,. Bambergensis.
— „ Moguntinus.
5th. „ Laurischamensis.
Ed. Princ. Roma?. Sweynheym and Pannartz. 1469.
2nd Edit. Roma?, Udalricus Gallus. 1469 or 1470.
3rd Edit. Venet. Vindelin de Spira. 1470.
Aldus. Venet. 1518—1533.
Gryphius et alii. Paris. 1543.
Manutius. Venet. 1592.
Gruterus. Francofurti. 1689.
Gronovius in Elzev. varior. 1679. And edited by Clericus. Paris.
1735—1741.
Crevier. Paris. 1735—1742.
Drakenborch. Lugd. Bat. 1738—1746. (The standard edit.)
Stroth and During. Goth. 1796—1819.
Ruperti. Gotting. 1807—1809.
Bekker and Raschig. Lips. 1829.
Subsidia : —
Lachmann. Commentationes de fontibus Historiarum T. Livii.
Gotting. 1822—1828.
Translation : — Baker.
MSS., EDITIONS, ETC., OF THE HISTORIANS oi ROME. 37]
CORNELIUS NEP<
The lives which • under the name of Cornelius Nepos wen
lished, with some variations, under the name of Ormilius Probus, i
contemporary of the Emperor Theodosius, by Jenson, Venet. 1171 :
by Berniirdinus Venetus (uo date) ; and at Milan, though without
name of place, year, or printer, but not later than L496, The
work was ascribed to Ormilius Prcbus entirely, until the Strasbunr
edition of 1506 attributed the Life of Atticus to Cornelius Nepos.
Lambinus, in his edition (Paris, 1 5 G 9 ) first asserted the whole book to
be the work of Cornelius Nepos, Subsequent editions are : —
Schottus. Francof. 1609.
Gebhardus. Amst. 1644.
Bocclerus. Argent. 1648.
Bosius. Jeme. 1675.
Van Staveren. Lugd. Bat. 1773.
Heusinger. Krug. 1747.
Fischer. Lips. 1759.
Harles. Lips. 1806.
Paufla. Lips. 1804.
*Tzschucke. Gotting. 1804.
tTitze. Prag. 1813.
*tLeniaire. Paris. 1820.
*Brerne. Turici. 1820.
fBardili. Stuttgard. 1820.
tDahne. Lips. 1827.
fRoth. Basil. 1841.
fBenecke. Berolin. 1843.
VELLEIUS PATERCULUS.
This author come3 to us on the faith of one MS. only, which Beatua
Rhenanus discovered in the Monastery of Murbach, but which has
since perished. A copy was made by Arnerbachius, a pupil of
Rhenanus, which was collated writh the edition by Orelli.
Ed. Princ. Rhenanus. Basil. 1520.
Lipsius. Lugd. Bat. 1591 and 1607.
Gruter. Francof. 1607.
Ger. Vossius. Lugd. Bat. 1639.
Bocclerus. Argent. 1642.
Thysius. Lugd. Bat. 1653.
Heinsius. Ainstel. 1678.
Hudson. Oxon. 1693.
P. Burmann. Lugd. Bat. 1719.
Ruhnken. Lugd. Bat. 1789. A very valuable edition in respect of sub-
sidia. Reprinted by Frotscher, Lips. 1830 — 1839.
£am- I Lips. 1800.
Krause. ) *
Cludius. Hanov. 1S15.
* Useful working editions.
*t* Containing Subsided, on the question of authorship.
BB 2
372 MSS._, EDITIONS, ETC., OF THE HISTORIANS OF HOME.
Lemaire. Paris. 1822.
Orelli. Lips. 1835.
Kreyssig. Lips. 1836.
Bothe. Turici. 1837.
Subsidia : —
Morgenstern De Fide Hist. Velleji Paterculi. Gedani. 1798.
TACITUS.
Ed. Princ. Viudclin de Spira. Venet. 1470.
(Last six books of Annals, the Histories, Germany, Dialogue de
Oratoribus).
Ph. Beroaldus. Roinae. 1515. (Entire works.)
Beatus Rhenanus. Basil. 1533.
Ernesti, by Oberlin. Lips. 1801.
Brotier. Paris. 1771.
Bekker. Lips. 1831.
Orelli. Turici. 1846 and 1848.
Agricola. —
Walch. Berlin. 1827.
Gerrnania.
Grimm. Gotting. 1835.
Dial, de Orat.
Orelli. Turici. 1830.
For further information on Editions, see Hain's Repertorium and
Schweigger's Handbuch der Classischen Biographic
Subsidia : —
Botticher's Lexicon Taciteum. Berolin. 1830. Lipsii Commentarii
et Excursus.
Translations : —
Greenway (Annals and Germany).
Savile (Histories and Agricola).
Gordon.
Murphy.
SUETONIUS.
Fifteen editions of this writer were printed before a. d. 1500. The oldest
with a date is Romae, 1470.
Casaubon. Paris. 1610.
Schild. Lugd. Bat. 1647.
P. Burmann. Amstel. 1736. With valuable apparatus.
Baumgarten-Crusius, edente C. B. Hase. Paris. 1828.
Subsidia : —
Krause de Suetonii Tranquilli Fontibus et Auctoritate. Berol. 1841.
(See Bahr's Geschichte der Rom. Lit. under Suetonius, for more particulars
of this writer.)
Translations : —
Holland. Lond. 1606.
Thomson. Loud. 1796.
MSS., EDITIONS, ETC., OF THE HISTORIANS OF EtOHE. 873
FLORUS.
Ed. Princ. Gcring, Friburg, and Cranz, at the Sorbonne, 1171, under the
inspection of Gaguin. Two other editions, one in Gothic and one in
Roman letter, dispute the precedency with this. There are six im-
preniona of the fifteenth century.
Camers. Viennre Pannon. 1518. Basil. 1532.
Vinetus. Paris. 1576.
Stadius. Antverp. 1594.
Gruterus and Salmasius. Heidel. 1609.
Freinshemius. Argentorati. 1655.
Graevius. Trajecti ad Rhen. 1680.
Dukerus. Lips. 1832.
Titze. Prag. 1819.
Seebode. Lips. 1821.
JUSTIN.
Ed. Princ. Jenson. Venetiis. 1470. There is another edition without
date or printer's name, probably of the same year.
The editions of this author may be considered successive improvements.
They are : —
Sabellicus. Venet. 1507.
Aldus. Venet. 1522.
Bongarsius. Paris. 1581.
Gravius. Lugd. Bat. 1683.
Hearne. Oxon. 1705.
Gronovius. Lugd. Bat. 1760.
Frotscher. Lips. 1827.
Translations : —
Codrington, 1654; Brown, 1712; Bayley, 1732; Clarke, 1732; Turn-
bull, 1746. All printed in London.
VALERIUS MAXIMUS.
Ed. Princ. Supposed to be a folio in Gothic characters, without date or
printer's name; but known to have been printed by J. Mentelin at
Strasburg, and supposed to be about 1470. Two other editions contest
the honour, viz. — Schoyfer, Mogunt. 1471 ; and Vindelin de Spira,
Venet. 1471. Fourteen distinct editions were published before 1490.
Aldus. Venet. 1502.
Manutius. Venet. 1 534.
Pighiu3. Antv. Plantin. 1657.
Vorstius. Berol. 1672.
Torrenius. Lugd. Bat. 1726.
Kappius. Lips. 1782.
Translation. — Speed. Lond. 1678.
STATE OF
ROMAN LITERATURE
IN THE TIME OF THE EMPEROR TRAJAN.
BS THE I.A.T.
THOMAS ARNOLD, D.D.
iikaii mash h OF RUeBl SCHOOL.
Extracted from the Biography of M. Ulpius T raj anus Crinitus, Con-
tributed by Dr. Arnold to the History of Rome, forming part of the
En cyclopaedia Met ropolitana.
Trajan.
STATE OF EOMAN LITEEATUEE IN THE TIME
OE THE EMPEEOE TEAJAN.
FROM A.D. 98 TO A.D. 117.
We have already expressed our opinion, that the merits of Roman
Roman Literature, even in its most flourishing period, have been J^','.
greatly overrated; and we believe that a review of its condition at of Trajan.
the end of the 1st century of the Christian era might tend to
lessen our wonder at the ignorance which afterwards prevailed
throughout Europe. Our first impression would probably be
highly favourable : wo meet with the names of a great many writers,
whose reputation is even now eminent ; we know that learning
was not only held in honour in the eastern provinces, where it had
been long since cultivated, but that Gaul, and Spain, and Africa,
abounded with schools and orators, and that a taste for literary
studies had been introduced even into Britain. The names of the
most distinguished orators at Eome were familiarly known in the
remotest parts of the empire,1 and any splendid passages in their
speeches were copied out by the provincial students, and sent down
to their friends at home, to excite their admiration, and serve as
models for their imitation. Even the Eoman laws, once so cold
and so disdainful of literature and the fine arts, had in some points
adopted a more conciliating language ; and the profession of a
sophist 2 was a legal exemption from the duties of a juryman in the
1 Dialogus de Oratoribus, viii. - Pliny, Epist. x. GO.
378 ROMAN LITERATURE IN THE TIME OF TRAJAN.
Roman Conventus or circuits of the provincial judges. The age of Trajanus
in^heSeof tnen na(* grea% the advantage over that of Augustus in the more
Trajan. general diffusion of knowledge, while, in the comparison of individual
writers, the eminence which Virgil and Horace attained in poetry
was at least equalled by the historical fame of Tacitus. But although
knowledge was more common than it had been a century before,
still its range was necessarily confined ; nor before the invention of
printing could it possibly be otherwise. Pliny expresses l his
surprise at hearing that there was a bookseller's shop to be found
at Lugdunum, or Lyons ; yet this very city had been for a long
time the scene of public recitations in Greek and Latin, in which
the orators of Gaul contended for the prize of eloquence. Thus,
instead of the various clubs, reading-rooms, circulating libraries,
and book-societies, which make so many thousands in our day
acquainted with every new publication worthy of notice, it was the
practice of authors at Eome to read aloud their compositions to a
large audience of their friends and acquaintance ; and not only
poetry and orations were thus recited, but also works of history.2
Reciters. To attend these readings was often, naturally enough, considered
rather an irksome civility ; they who went at first reluctantly were
apt to be but languid auditors ; and we all know, that, even to those
most fond of literature, it is no agreeable task to sit hour after
hour the unemployed and constrained listeners alike to the eloquence
or dulness, to the sense or folly of another. The weariness then of
the audience was to be relieved by the selection of brilliant and
forcible passages ; their feelings were to be gratified rather than
their understandings ; and amidst the excitement of a crowded hall,
and an impassioned recitation, there was no room for that silent
exercise of judgment and reflection which alone leads to wisdom.
From this habit, then, of hearing books rather than reading them, it
was natural that poetry and oratory should be the most popular
kinds of literature ; and that history, as we have observed in our
notice of the Eoman historians, should be tempted to assume the
charms of oratory, in order to procure for itself an audience. A
detail of facts cannot be remembered by being once heard ; and
many of the most useful inquiries or discussions in history, however
valuable to the thoughtful student, are not the best calculated to
win the attention of a mixed audience, when orally delivered. The
scarcity of books, therefore, inducing the practice of reading them
aloud to many hearers, instead of reserving them for hours of
solitude and undisturbed thought, may be considered as one of the
chief causes of the false luxuriance of literature at Eome in the
reigns of the first emperors, and of its early and complete decay.
We have already noticed the unworthy ideas which the Eomans
1 Pliny, Epist. ix. 11.
2 Ibid. Epist. vii. 17 ; ix. 27. Compare also i. 13 ; vi. 15; viii. 12.
ROMAN LAW AND RELIGION. 379
entertained of its nature, and how completely they degraded it into Rotnsa
a mere plaything of men's prosperous hours, an elegant amusement, toSetSwd
and an embellishment of life ; not a matter of serious use to Tntfan.
individuals and to the State. Works of physical science, and much
more such as tend to illustrate the useful arts, were therefore
almost unknown ; so also were books of travels, details of statistics, The Romans
and everything relating to political economy. Had books of this JJSJJ^^
description been numerous, it would indeed have been strange if idea* of
the lloman Empire had afterwards relapsed into ignorance. The LltL'raU'
nations by whom it was overrun would readily have appreciated the
benefits of a knowledge which daily made life more comfortable,
and nations more enlightened and more prosperous : and the
advantages of cultivating the understanding would have been as
obvious to men of every condition in Eome as they are actually
at the present time in England, Germany, and America. As a
proof of this we may observe, that the only two kinds of really
valuable knowledge which the Romans had to communicate to their
northern conquerors, were both adopted by them with eagerness ;
we mean their law and their religion. The Roman Code found its The Roman
way, or rather retained much of its authority in the kingdoms KeSgfoiL
founded upon the ruins of the empire, and its wisdom imperceptibly
influenced the law of those countries which affected most to regard
it with jealousy and aversion. And the Christian religion, in like
manner, survived the confusion of the fourth and fifth centuries,
and continually exercised its beneficent power in ensuring individual
happiness, and lessening the amount of public misery. If, together
with these, Rome could have offered to her conquerors an enlarged
knowledge of Nature and of the useful arts, and clear views of the
principles of political economy and the higher science of legislation
in general, we need not doubt that they would have accepted these
gifts also, and that thus the corruption to which her law and religion
were exposed would have been in a great measure obviated. For
it is a most important truth, and one which requires at this day to
be most earnestly enforced, that it is by the study of facts, whether importance
relating to Nature or to man, and not by any pretended cultivation 0#2!!L!?udy
of the mind by poetry, oratory, and moral or critical dissertations,
that the understandings of mankind in general will be most
improved, and their views of things rendered most accurate. And
the reason of this is, that every man has a fondness for knowledge
of some kind ; and by acquainting himself with those facts or
truths which are most suited to his taste, he finds himself gaining
something, the value of which he can appreciate, and in the pursuit
of which, therefore, all his natural faculties will be best developed.
From the mass of varied knowledge thus possessed by the several
members of the community arises the great characteristic of a
really enlightened age — a sound and sensible judgment ; a quality
380 ROMAN LITERATURE IN THE TIME OE TRAJAN.
Boman which can only be formed by the habit of regarding things in
in the time of different lights, as they appear to intelligent men of different
Trajan. pursuits and in different classes of society, and by thus correcting
the limited notions to which the greatest minds are liable, when
left to indulge without a corrective in their own peculiar train of
opinions. Want of judgment, therefore, is the prevailing defect in
all periods of imperfect civilisation, and in those wherein the showy
branches of literature have been forced by patronage, while the
more beneficial parts of knowledge have been neglected. Nor is it
to the purpose to say, that the study of facts is of no benefit,
unless we form from them some general conclusions. The disease
of the human mind is impatiently to anticipate conclusions ; so
little danger is there that it will be slow in deducing them, when
it is once in possession of premises from which they may justly be
derived. But, on the other hand, wherever words and striking
images are mainly studied, as was the case in ancient Eome, man's
natural indolence is encouraged, and he proceeds at once to reason
without taking the trouble of providing himself with the necessary
materials. Eloquence, indeed, and great natural ability, may, in
the most favourable instances, disguise to the vulgar the shallowness
which lurks beneath them; but with the mass of mankind this
system is altogether fatal : — learning, in the only shape in which
it presents itself to their eyes, is to them utterly useless ; they have
no desire to pursue it, and, if they had such, their pursuit would
be fruitless. They remain therefore in their natural ignorance ;
not partaking in the pretended cultivation of their age, and feeling
no deprivation when the ill-rooted literature which was the mere
amusement of the great and wealthy is swept away by the first
considerable revolution in the state of society.
Decay of The decay of learning, then, which we are called to account for,
Learning. ^s Qf a^ things the most readily explained. Unsubstantial as it
was, it would have worn out of itself, as it did at Constantinople,
even if no external violence had overwhelmed it. Facts, indeed,
whether physical or moral, are a food which will not only preserve
the mind in vigour, but, increasing in number with every successive
century, furnish it with the means of an almost infinite progress.
But the changes on words and sentiments are soon capable of being
exhausted; the earliest writers seize their best and happiest
combinations, and nothing is left for their successors but imitation
or necessary inferiority. Poetry had fallen sufficiently low in the
hands of Silius Italicus, and history in those of Appian and Dion
Cassius ; the Romans themselves in the reign of Trajanus acknow-
ledged their inferiority to their ancestors in oratory, and in a few
centuries more the vessel was drained out to the dregs. The great
excellence of Tacitus is a mere individual instance, and we might
as well ask, why Eome had produced no historian of equal merit
THE ELDER PLINY, 381
before him as why she produced none such after him. One other PJ2JJ*
great man had died only a few years before the accession of la the time of
Trajanus, whose example, had it been imitated, might have pro- lraJan-
duced a great revolution in the intellectual state of the Roman Pliny the
Empire. We speak of the elder Pliny, the natural historian. The E1(ar'
particulars of his life and death recorded by his nephew,1 no less
than the contents of his own work, display a thirst after real
knowledge, and an active spirit in searching for it, by a personal
study of the great book of Nature, which rose far above the false
views and the literary indolence of his contemporaries. But he
was a splendid exception to the spirit of his age, and there arose
none to tread in his steps. Posterity were contented to read his
writings, rather than improve upon them by imitating his example ;
and his authority continued to be quoted with reverence on all
points of natural history, even down to a period when errors, which
in him were unavoidable, could no longer be repeated without
disgrace.
It may be asked, however, why the example of Pliny was not J^^^Se"1
Mas
1 C. Plinius Sccumlus was born at Verona, or Novum Comum, the modern t|us ^
Como. The preponderance of evidence we should assign to the latter place, as
the family estate was there, and inscriptions found in that neighbourhood refer to
the family, which was one of wealth and consideration. He came to Rome when
young, and with a view to intellectual culture. At the age of twenty-three he
served in the army under L. Pomponius Secundus, by whom he was appointed
commander of a troop of cavalry, and of whom he wrote a memoir. The scientific
bent of his mind was brought to bear upon his military duties; and ho composed a
treatise, Be Jacidationc Equestrt, and the history of the wars in Germany, in 20
books. After six years' service, he returned with his chief to Rome, where he
practised as an advocate. Retreating to his native country, he composed a work
called Studiosus, probably for the more immediate benefit of his nephew. After
this he wrote a grammatical work, in 8 books, intituled Dubius Sci'mo, which
appears to have excited considerable opposition, though it Mas never formally
refuted. Not long before the death of Nero, Pliny was appointed procurator of Spain.
While in this office he lost his sister and brother ; the son of the former was, by the
father's desire, intrusted to his guardianship; and, consequently, in the reign of Ves-
pasian, he returned to Rome, and adopted his nephew. He was on intimate terms
with that Emperor, and with Titus, to whom he dedicated his Historia Natural is,
which, probably, owed its origin to the interest which he had long taken in the
rare animals exhibited in the shows at Rome. His reading was almost perpetual,
and prodigiously extensive. He left to his nephew 160 volumes of commentaries
on various subjects, the results of his incessant studies. Some time before they
had reached this number, Pliny had been offered for them the sum of 400,000
sesterces. The details of the death of Pliny will be found in a most interesting
letter of his nephew to Tacitus. (Ep. vi. 16.) He was in command of the fleet at
Misenum, August 24, a.d. 79, when the great eruption of Vesuvius, which
overthrew the cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii, commenced. Contrary to the
advice of all around him, he set sail for Stabis, to visit his friend Pomponianus,
and to make observations of the phenomenon. He reached this place in safety ;
but on the following morning, when the earthquake rendered it necessary to quit
the house, and lie down in the open air, he died on a sail which had been laid
down for him, suffocated, apparently, by the sulphureous vapour. — Editor,
382 ROMAN LITERATURE IN THE TIME OF TRAJAN.
Roman followed, and why the most valuable parts of human knowledge
mlne^ime of were s0 unhappily neglected. In addition to the cause which we
Trajan. have already mentioned, namely, the scarcity of books, the practice
of recitations, and the consequent discouragement of any com-
positions that were not lively and eloquent, there are several other
circumstances which tended to produce the same effect. The
natural indolence of mankind, and their attachment to the old
beaten track, were powerful obstacles to the improvements that
were most required ; and if so many centuries elapsed in later times
before the birth of Bacon, we need not wonder that no man of
equal powers with Pliny arose at Eome between the age of Trajanus
and the fall of the Western Empire. We must consider also the
general helplessness of mind produced by such a government as
that of Eome ; which, while it deprived men of the noblest field for
their exertions — a participation direct or indirect in the manage-
ment of the affairs of the nation — did not, like some modern
despotisms, encourage activity of another kind, by its patronage
of manufactures and commerce. If we ask, further, why commerce
did not thrive of itself without the aid of the government, and why
the internal trade kept up between the different parts of an empire
so admirably supplied with the means of mutual intercourse was
not on a scale of the greatest magnitude, the answer is to be found
partly in the habits of the nations of the south of Europe, which,
with some exceptions, have never been addicted to much commercial
enterprise, and much more to the want of capital amongst private
individuals, and the absence of a demand for distant commodities
amongst the people at large, owing to their general poverty. The
enormous sums lavished by the emperors, and possessed by some
of the nobility, or by fortunate individuals of the inferior classes,
have provoked the scepticism of many modern readers, as implying
a mass of wealth in the Eoman Empire utterly incredible. They
rather show how unequally property was distributed ; an evil of
very long standing at Eome, and aggravated probably by the
merciless exactions of many of the emperors, who seemed literally
unsatisfied so long as any of their subjects possessed anything.
The Indian trade, which furnished articles of luxury for the con-
sumption of the great, was therefore in a flourishing condition ; but
not so that internal commerce in articles of ordinary comfort,
which in most countries of modern Europe is carried on with such
incessant activity. Where trade is at a low ebb, the means of
communication between different countries are always defective ;
and hence there exists undisturbed a large amount of inactivity
and ignorance, and a necessarily low state of physical science and
the study of nature. So that from all these causes together, there
would result that effect on the intellectual condition of the Eoman
empire which we have described as so unfavourable.
THE STOIC PHILOSOPHY. 383
From this unsatisfactory picture we turn with delight to the Roman
contemplation of a promise and of a partial beginning of moral ^Stoleoi
improvement, such as Home had never seen before. We need not Trajan.
dwell upon the need that there was for such a reform, except to The moral
observe, that there can be no better proof of a degraded state of Empire,
morals than the want of natural affection in parents towards their
offspring ; and that the practice of infanticide,1 or that of exposing
children soon after their birth, together with the fact that Trajanus
found it necessary to provide for five thousand children at the
public expense, and that Pliny imitated his example on a smaller
scale in his own town of Comum, sufficiently show how greatly
parents neglected their most natural duty. It is remarkable, also,
that the younger Pliny, a man by no means destitute of virtue,
could not only write and circulate indecent verses, but deliberately
justify himself for having done so.2 Yet, with all this, the writings The stoic
of Epictetus and M. Aurelius Antoninus, if we may include the ^y'
latter in a review of the reign of Trajanus, present a far purer and
truer morality than the llomans bad yet been acquainted with
from any heathen pen. The providence of God, the gratitude
which we owe him for all his gifts, and the duty of submission to
his will, are prominently brought forward ; while the duties of
man to man, the claims which our neighbours have upon our
constant exertions to do them service, and the excellence of abstain-
ing from revenge or uncharitable feelings, are enforced with far
greater earnestness than in the writings of the older philosophers.
We cannot, indeed, refuse to admire the noble effort of the stoic its
philosophy to release mankind from the pressure of physical evil, excellencCr
and to direct their minds with undivided affection to the pursuit of
moral good. When the prospect beyond the grave was all darkness,
the apparently confused scene of human life could not but perplex
the best and wisest ; sickness, loss of friends, poverty, slavery, or
an untimely death, might visit him who had laboured most steadily
in the practice of virtue; and even Aristotle himself3 is forced with
his own hands to destroy the theory of happiness which he had so
elaborately formed, by the confession that the purest virtue might
be so assailed with external evils that it could only preserve its
possessor from absolute misery. The Stoics assumed a bolder
language, and strove with admirable firmness to convince reluctant
nature of its truth. Happiness, as they taught, was neither
unattainable by man, nor dependent on external circumstances ;
1 Is not the prevalence of infanticide among the Romans indicated by the
observation which Tacitus makes concerning the Jews ? — Hist. v. 5. Augendae
multitudini consulitur. Nam necare quanquam ex agnatis, nefas. And, again, he
says the same thing of the Germans, German. 19 : Numerum liberorum finire,
aut quemquam ex agnatis necare, flagitium hahctur. 2 Epist. iv. 14 ; v. 3.
3 Ethic. Nicomach. i. 10 : "KQXios /xev ovoeirore yevoir av 6 evdaifAoov, ov
jxty fJLaK<ipi6s ye, av YlpiCL(XLKous tu^cus ire pin ear}.
384
ROMAN LITERATURE IN THE TIME OF TRAJAN.
Roman
Literature
in the time of
Trajan.
Its im-_
perfections.
the providence of God had not,1 according to the vulgar complaint,
scattered good and evil indiscriminately upon the virtuous and the
wicked ; the gifts and the deprivations of fortune were neither good
nor evil ; and all that was really good was virtue, all that was
really bad was vice, which were respectively chosen by men at their
own will, and so chosen that the distribution of happiness and
misery to each was in exact proportion to his own deservings.
But as it was not possible to attain to this estimate of external
things without the most severe discipline, the Stoics taught their
disciples to desire nothing at all 2 till they had so changed their
nature as to desire nothing but what was really good. In the same
way, they inculcated an absence of all feelings, in order to avoid
subjecting ourselves to any other power than that of reason. When
our friends were in distress,3 we might appear outwardly to sympa-
thise with their sorrow, but we were by no means to grieve with
them in heart ; a parent should not be roused to punish his son,4
for it was better that the son should turn out ill than that the
father should be diverted from the care of his own mind by his
interest for another. Death was to be regarded as the common lot
of all,5 and the frailty of our nature should accustom us to view it
without surprise and alarm. In itself it must be an extinction of
being,6 or a translation to another state, still equally under the
government of a wise and good Providence ; it could not then be
justly an object of fear, and our only care should be to wait for its
coming without anxiety, and to improve the time allotted to us
before its arrival, whether it were but a day or half a century.
Such were the doctrines of the Stoic philosophers of the age of
Trajanus ; and assuredly it must be a strange blindness or un-
charitableness that can refuse to admire them. He can entertain
but unworthy notions of the wisdom of God who is afraid lest the
wisdom of man should rival it. The Stoic philosophy was unfitted
for the weakness of human nature ; its contempt of physical evil
was revolting to the common-sense of mankind, and was absolutely
unattainable by persons of delicate bodily constitutions ; and thus,
generally speaking, by one-half of the human race, and particularly
by that sex which, under a wiser discipline, has been found capable
of attaining to such high excellence. Above all, it could not
represent God to man under those peculiar characters in which
every aifection and faculty of our nature finds its proper object and
guide. There are many passages in the works of Epictetus and
M. Antoninus in which his general providence and our duties
towards Him are forcibly declared ; still He seems to be at the most
no more than a part of their system, and that, neither the most
1 Epictetus, Enchiridion, 38. 2 Ibid. 7.
;{ Ibid. 22. 4 IWd< 16#
8 M. Antoninus, iii. 3; iv. 32. 43. G Ibid. vii. 32.
THE SOPHISTS. 38o
striking, nor the most fully developed. But in order to make us Roman
like Him, it was necessary that in all our views of life, in our J^JStimeof
motives, in our hopes, and in our affections, God should be all in Trajan.
all; that He should be represented to us, not as He is in him-
self, but as He stands related to us — as our Father, and our
Saviour, and the Author of all our goodness ; in those characters,
in short, under which the otherwise incomprehensible Deity has
so revealed Himself as to be known and loved, not only by the
strongest and wisest of his creatures, but also by the weak and
the ignorant.
One great defect in the ancient systems of philosophy was their
want of authority. It was opinion opposed to opinion, and thus
the disputes of the several sects seemed incapable of ever arriving
at a decision. Plain men, therefore, were bewildered by the con-
flicting pretensions of their teachers, when they turned to seek
some relief from the utter folly and worthlessness of the popular
religion. So that a large portion of mankind were likely to adopt
the advice of Lucian,1 to regard with contempt all the high dis-
cussions of the philosophers relating to the end and principle of
our being, and to think only of the present, bestowing serious
thoughts upon nothing, and endeavouring to pass through life
laughingly. Something, too, must be ascribed, not only to the
discordant opinions of the philosophers, but to their reputed
dishonesty ; and the suspicion which attached to them of turning
morality into a trade. Their temptations were strong, and such as
we have seen even the teachers of Christianity unable often to
resist. In an age of ignorance, just made conscious of its own The
deficiencies, any moral and intellectual superiority is regarded with Sophists.
veneration ; and when the sophists professed to teach men the true
business of life, they found many who were eager to listen to them.
Then followed an aggravation of the evils of popular preaching
under another name : the sophists aspired to be orators as wrell as
moralists; and their success would depend as much on their
eloquence and impressive delivery as on the soundness of their
doctrines. In the eastern part of the empire their ascendancy was
great ; and, if the story of Philostratus be true,2 the philosophers
in Egypt formed as considerable a body, and, during the stay of
Yespasianus at Alexandria, claimed the right of advising princes
as boldly, as the Eomish clergy of a later period have done.
"With these means of influence, and the consequent temptation to
abuse it, the sophists were without that organisation and discipline
which in the Christian church preserved the purity, or checked the
excesses of individual teachers ; and, not being responsible to any
one for their conduct, they were less scrupulous in avoiding censure.
1 Necyomanteia, p. 166. 2 In vita Apollonii Tyanei, v. 27, et scq.
[r. l.] c c
386 ROMAN LITERATURE IN THE TIME OF TRAJAN.
Roman The same want of organisation prevented them from acting in
m the time of concert in the several parts of the empire, and from directing their
Trajan. attention on a regular system to all classes of the community, from
the highest to the lowest. The sophists were no missionaries ; and
poor or remote districts, which could tempt neither their cupidity
nor their ambition, derived little advantage from their knowledge.
Effects of the Under these circumstances, the Christian religion had grown with
KeiTgSn? surprising rapidity, and must have produced effects on the character
and happiness of individuals far greater than the common details
of history will allow us to estimate. If our sole information were
derived from Pliny's famous letter, we must yet be struck with the
first instance in Eoman history of a society for the encouragement
of the highest virtues, those of piety, integrity, and purity, and
embracing persons of both sexes and of all conditions. Such a
project was indeed a complete remedy for the prevailing faults of
the times : it promised not only to teach goodness, but actively to
disseminate it ; and to do away those degrading distinctions
between slaves and freemen, and even between men and women,
which had so limited the views of the philosophers in their plans
for the improvement of mankind. Of all subjects for history, none
would be so profitable as the fortunes of the Christian society ; to
trace the various causes which impeded or corrupted its operations,
and to bring at the same time fully into view that vast amount of
good which its inherent excellence enabled it still to effect, amidst
all external obstacles and internal corruptions. We think that its
friends have not rightly understood the several elements which have
led to its partial failure, while we are certain that its enemies can
never appreciate its benefits. But we must not enter upon this
most inviting field at present. We hasten to conclude this memoir
of Trajanus, after we have briefly noticed the character of his
individual government.
Of the The highest spirit of a sovereign is to labour to bring his govern-
or Xajanui. nient, in every point of view, as nearly as possible to a state of
absolute perfection ; his next highest praise is, to administer the
system which he finds established with the greatest purity and
liberality. This glory was certainly deserved by Trajanus ; and
although he never thought of amending some of the greatest evils
of the times, yet, as far as his people had suffered from the direct
tyranny and wastefulness of former governments, his reign was a
complete relief; and we can easily account for the warm affection
with which his memory was so long regarded in after ages. He
pleased the Eomans by observing many of the forms of a free
constitution; nor ought we to suspect that in so doing he was
actuated by policy only, for he was quite capable of feeling the
superior dignity of the magistrate of a free people to that of a
tyrant; and he most probably spoke from his heart, when, on
GOVERNMENT OF TRAJAN. 387
presenting the sword to the Prscfect of the Praetorian guards, he Roman
desired him to use that weapon in his service so long as he l^theUmeof
governed well, but to turn it against him if ever he should abuse Trajan.
his power.1 There is the same spirit observable in his conduct
during his third consulship : as soon as he had been elected, he
walked up to the chair of the Consul who presided at the Comitia,
and whilst he stood before it, the Consul, without rising from his
seat,2 administered to him the usual consular oath, that he would
discharge his office faithfully. And when his consulship had
expired, he again took an oath,3 that he had done nothing, during
the time that he had held it, which was contrary to law. These
professions of regard to the welfare of his people were well verified
by his actions. His suppression of the informers; his discou-
raging prosecutions under the Leges Majestatis ; his relaxation of
the tax on inheritances ; and the impartiality with which he suffered
the law to take its course against his own procurators when they
were guilty of any abuse of power, were all real proofs of his
sincerity ; and they were not belied by any subsequent measures at
a later period of his reign. The causes which were brought before
himself immediately, he tried with fairness and attention ;4 and it
was on an occasion of this kind, when Eurythmus, one of his
freedmen and procurators, was implicated in a charge of tampering
with a will, and the prosecutors seemed reluctant to press their
accusation against a person so connected with the emperor, that he
observed to them, " Eurythmus is not a Polycletus " (one of the
most powerful of Nero's freedmen and favourites), "nor am I a
Nero." In his care of the provinces, and in his answers to the
questions to him by the younger Pliny when Proconsul of Bithynia,
he manifested a love of justice, an attention to the comforts of the
people, and a minute knowledge of the details of the administration,
which are most highly creditable to him. It is mentioned, too,
that he was very careful in noticing the good conduct of the officers
employed in the provinces ;5 and considered the testimonials of
regard given by a province to its governor as affording him a just
title to higher distinctions at Rome. The materials for the history
of this reign are indeed so scanty that we know scarcely anything
of the lives and characters of the men who were most distinguished
under it, nor can we enliven our narrative with many of those
biographical sketches which, by bringing out individuals in a clear
and strong light, illustrate most happily the general picture of the age.
But C. Plinius Caecilius Secundus, whom Trajanus made Proconsul
of Bithynia, affords one memorable exception; and we gladly seize
1 Dion Cassius, lxviii. 778. Sex. Aur. Victor, in Trajano.
2 Pliny, Panegyric. 64. 3 Ibid. 65.
4 Pliny, Epist. vi. 31. 5 Pliny, Panegyric. 70.
c c 2
388
ROMAN LITERATURE IN THE TIME OF TRAJAN.
Roman this opportunity to bestow some particular notice on one of the
tathetS™ f most distinguished persons who lived in these times.
Trajan. C. Plinius Czecilius Secundus was born at or near Comum,
piinv the about the sixth year of the reign of Nero, or a. d. 61. His
Younger. mother was a sister of C. Plinius, the natural historian ; and as he
lost his father at an early period, he
removed with her to the house of his
uncle, with whom he resided for some
years, and was adopted by him, and,
consequently, assumed his name in addi-
tion to his parental one, Ceecilius. He
appears to have been of a delicate con-
stitution, and, even in his youth, to have
possessed little personal activity and
enterprise ; for, at the time of the
famous eruption of Vesuvius, when he
was between seventeen and eighteen, he
continued his studies at home, and allowed
his uncle to set out to the mountain
without him. In literature, however, he
made considerable progress, according
to the estimate of those times : he
composed a Greek tragedy when he was
only fourteen,1 and wrote Latin verses on several occasions throughout
his life ; he attended the lectures of Quinctilianus,2 and some other
eminent rhetoricians, and assiduously cultivated his style as an elegant
writer and an orator. In this latter capacity he acquired great
credit, and to this cause he was probably indebted for his political
advancement. He went through the whole succession of public
offices from that of Quaestor to the high dignities of Consul and
Augur, and was so esteemed by Trajanus as to be selected by him
for the government of Bithynia, because there were many abuses
in that province which required a man of ability and integrity to
remove them.3 The trust so honourably committed to him he
seems to have discharged with great fidelity ; and the attention to
every branch of his duties, which his letters to Trajanus display, is
peculiarly praiseworthy in a man of sedentary habits, and accus-
tomed to the enjoyments of his villas, and the stimulants of
literary glory at Rome. His character as a husband, a master,
and a friend, was affectionate, kind, and generous ; he displayed
also a noble liberality towards his native town Comum, by forming
a public library there, and devoting a yearly sum of 300,000
sesterces for ever to the maintenance of children born of free
parents who were citizens of Comum. A man like Plinius, of
Piiny zhe Younger.
1 Pliny, Panegyric, vii. 4.
3 Ibid. ii. 14.
3 Ibid. x. 41.
PLINY THE YOUNGER.
3S9
considerable talents and learning, possessed of great wealth, and of Roman
an amiable and generous disposition, was sure to meet with many Lit(h™turc
friends, and with still more who would gratify his vanity by their Trajan.
praises, and apparent admiration of his abilities. But, as a writer,
he has done nothing to entitle him to a very high place in the
judgment of posterity. His Panegyric of Trajanus belongs to a
class of compositions, the whole object of which was to produce
a striking effect, and it must not aspire to any greater reward. It
is ingenious and eloquent, but, by its very nature, it gives no room
for the exercise of the highest faculties of the mind, nor will its
readers derive from it any more substantial benefit than the
pleasure which a mere elegant composition can afford. His Letters
are valuable to us, as all original letters of other times must be,
because they necessarily throw much light on the period at which
they were written. But many of them are ridiculously studied,
and leave the impression, so fatal to our interest in the perusal of
such compositions, that they were written for the express purpose
of publication. In short, the works ot Plinius, compared with the
reputation which he enjoyed among his contemporaries, seem to
us greatly to confirm the view which we have taken of the inferiority
of the literature of this period, and of the unworthy notions
which were entertained of its proper excellence.
Column of Trajan.
390
MSS., EDITIONS, &c.
PLINY THE ELDER.
Ed. Princ. Venetiis. 1469.
Hardouin. Paris. 1723.
Panckoucke. Paris. 1829—1833. 1836—1838.
Sillig. Lips. 1831—1836.
Translation : —
Holland. Lond. 1601.
Subsidia : —
Salmasii Exercitationes Plinianse (on the Polyhistor of Solimus).
Disquisitiones Plinianaa, ab A. Jos. a Turre Rezzonico. Parmse,
1763—1767.
Ajasson de Grandsagne, Notice sur la Vie et les Ouvrages de Pline
l'ancien.
PLINY THE YOUNGER.
Ed. Princ. Venet. 1485.
Gesner (a Schafer). Lips. 1805.
Epistolse, a Cortio et Longolio, Amsdel. 1734.
Translations : —
Lord Orrery.
Melmoih,
LITERATURE OF THE AGE OF THE
ANTONINI.
REA~. J. B. OTTLET, M.A.
UTE FELLOW OF ORILI, fOM.I.GF, OXFORD.
ROMAN AUTHORS OF THE AGE OF THE ANTONINL
LUCIANUS BORN A. D. 124. DIED 204
FAUSANIAS FLOURISHED CIRCITER A. D. 174
JULIUS POLLUX 180
AULUS GELLIUS 130
CLAUDIUS GALENUS .... BORN A. D. 131. DIED CIRCITER 200
LUCIUS APULEIUS FLOURISHED CIRCITER 160
ATHENiEDS 220
MAXIMUS TTRIUS 150
MARCUS FABIUS QCINCTILIANUS .... BORN A. D. 42. DIED 122
Antoninus Pius.
LITERATURE OF THE AGE OF THE ANTONINL
In our historical account of the age of the Antonini,1 no mention
has been made of its literature. "We have, however, seen that the
love of philosophy and studious pursuits was the ruling passion of 3feditations
Marcus Airelius. His Meditations contain as pure a code of of Marcus
moral precepts as could be expected from the genius of Paganism, Aure us*
— teaching the immortality of the soul, not as a separate existence,
but rather as a reunion with the essence of the Deity.2 This work
is too well known to require any very particular notice. Some
Letters of this Emperor are commended by Philostratus as models
of epistolary style, and a part of his correspondence with Cornelius
Fronto was lately found among the manuscripts in the Ambrosian
library at Milan, and published by Angelus Maius in 1815.
As the example of Aurelius 'encouraged literature at Rome, so Literary
his bounty rewarded it in the provinces. His own attachment to of the"3^
the Stoics did not prevent his regarding with an eye of favour the Antonini.
1 In the History of Rome, forming part of the Encyclopaedia Mctropolitana.
2 Lib. iv. c. 9.
394
LITERATURE OF THE AGE OF THE ANTONINI.
Marcus Aurelius.
m. Aurelius. patrons of opposite sects : the disciples of Plato, the Peripatetics,
Stoics, and Epicureans, professors of philosophy and rhetoric, all
taught their dogmas with equal freedom in the schools of Athens ;
and by the generosity of the Antonines,
a salary, equal to three hundred pounds
sterling, was annexed to each Chair of
Science.1 This imperial favour, which
was neither bigoted in its principles, nor
parsimonious in its supplies, naturally
encouraged emulation, and accordingly
we know that many strove, by the ex-
ercise of literary talents, to deserve well
of their contemporaries and of posterity.
But the ravages of time have deprived us
of great part of their labours ; authentic
sources of historical knowledge being few
and imperfect, we are compelled to accept
our information through the medium of
abridgments and compilations. Some
works, however, composed about this time,
have come down to us in tolerable pre-
servation ; and, although there does not appear among them
any master mind whose writings were calculated to influence and
guide the tone of public feeling, or stamp its own character on
the pursuits of the age, still they are not without their value.
The grammarian and philologist are assisted by the labours of
Julius Pollux ; he who directs his inquiries towards the works
of art, which at this period were the ornament of Greece, will
find his researches rewarded in the writings of Pausanias ; while
the student sees an infinite number of subjects connected with
antiquity discussed and illustrated in the curious Miscellany of
Athenseus. Aulus Gellius and Apuleius depart more widely from
the models of pure style than the Greek writers who lived about
the same period, Dio Cassius, Maximus Tyrius, and Lucianus.
Aulus Gellius is obscure ; and in Apuleius, the frequent occurrence
of abstract nouns is a sign of declining Latinity. Of Dio mention
has been already made in a preceding paper on the historians of
Rome, and of Maximus Tyrius we shall have occasion to speak
shortly.
Lucianus. But among all the authors of this time, Lucianus stands un-
questionably first in natural abilities, in originality of character, and
in playfulness of fancy. Though his talents were not of the very
highest order, yet in his own line they were unequalled : his chief
strength lay in ridicule, which, though it is not the test of truth,
may become an useful auxiliary or a formidable foe to it.
1 Sec Gibbon, vol. vii. c. 40, and the authorities there named.
LUCIANUS,
39"
Some of the minor works of Voltaire abound in that vein of Luetanw,
sarcastic humour which forms the great charm of the writings of
Lucianus. The French philosopher seems to have persecuted the
cause of truth with a feeling of personal hostility ; and his raillery
has probably been more effectively
mischievous than the subtle reason-
ings of Hume : but the powers of
Lucianus were by accident, and to a
certain extent,1 effectively useful ;
more useful, perhaps, than the
labours of abler and wiser men. We
say by accident, because, although
in an age of free inquiry, the instru-
ments, which Lucianus employed
with so much dexterity, were pre-
cisely adapted to expose sophistry,
and clear away the rubbish of hea-
then superstition ; yet he had no
design so excellent and so important,
as to establish in their stead the
fabric of truth and religion. While,
therefore, we admire his singular
abilities, wre must condemn the man,
who being by habit and by natural
inclination studious, by profession a philosopher, and by conviction"
a contemner and enemy of the whole system of pagan mythology,
should nevertheless make Christianity the subject only of con-
temptuous allusion,3 rather than of that serious and sober investiga-
tion, which wrere fairly demanded even by the number of its converts,
and the authority of its advocates.
It is much to be wished that Lucianus, in his various works, had
communicated more respecting his private life and history. The
biographical notices, which we find from himself, are scanty, nor
have we any other sources from which this defect may be supplied.
We know, however, wTith certainty, that he was born at Samosata,4 His life,
near the Euphrates ; and since it wras necessary that he should earn
his bread by his owTn industry, he was placed with his mother's
brother,5 who was by profession a statuary. This step wras taken
partly because it was the least expensive, and partly because
Lucianus had already shown natural genius and dexterity in
modelling figures in wrax. Here he commenced inauspiciously, by
breaking a tablet ; and, his master having chastised him with severity,
he quitted his new employment in disgust. The same night he
1 Erasmus. - Dialogi Deorum, passim. 3 In vita Peregriui.
4 Quom. scrib. sit Hist. 5 Somuium.
396
LITERATURE OF THE AGE OF THE ANTONINI.
Lucianus.
period,
and
character.
saw a vision ; — the Goddess of Sculpture and the Goddess of
Polite Literature both appeared before his eyes ; the one covered
with the dust of the quarries, the other fair in person and elegant in
her attire. Each proposed her claims, and stated the advantages
of her respective pursuits ; and when Lucianus determined to
commit himself to the guidance of the Goddess of Literature, the
other deity, like a second Niobe, became turned into stone. These
circumstances form the substance of the treatise Be Somnio ; seu
Luciani Vita : the object of which was to encourage those, whose
poverty appears to doom them to the walks of laborious life, while
natural genius justifies them in aspiring to nobler and more intel-
lectual pursuits. " Though," says Dryden,1 "it is not to be sup-
posed that there is anything of reality in this dream or vision of
Lucian, which he treats of in his works, yet this may be gathered
from it, that Lucian himself having consulted his genius and the
nature of the study his father had allotted him, and that to which
he found a propensity in himself, he quitted the former, and pur-
sued the latter, choosing rather to form the minds of men than
their statues."
The learned Mr. Moyle has taken some pains to adjust the age
of Lucianus ; and, from some notes of time which are preserved in
his works, his birth is fixed to the ] 24th year of Christ, and the
8th of the Emperor Adrian.2 After his determination to abandon
the art of sculpture, he taught3 the art of rhetoric in Gaul, and
practised it at Antioch;4 but his pleadings at the bar not being
attended with success, he betook himself at the age of forty to the
study of philosophy. He travelled in Italy, Greece, and Asia
Minor, mixing in the best society. During the latter part of his
life he became Eegistrar (y7rop.vr}fjLaToypa(j)os) of Alexandria,5 which
post gave him a considerable share in the management of Egypt.6
The manner of his death is doubtful, but he is supposed to have
lived to the age of eighty.
It happens, unfortunately, that as the biographical notices re-
specting Lucianus are scanty, so the nature of his works is not
such as to supply the defect satisfactorily. He appears to have
resembled his favourite Menippus, who was x^€vao"rns T*)* emKrjpov
km €<pTjjjL€pov Tcov duSpconcov f^r}?,7 and there is a passage in Cicero's
Academics, wherein Varro is speaking of his own imitation of the
Menippean satires, which may stand for the character of Lucian's
works in general : " In illis veteribus nostris, quae, Menippum
imitati, non interpretati, quadam hilaritate conspersimus, multa
admista ex intima philosophia, multa dicta dialectice, quae quo
1 Life of Lucian. 2 Moyle's Works. 3 Hercules Gallicus. 4 Suidas.
5 Pro mcrcede conductis. 6 Apologia pro iis qui mercede conducti serviunt.
7 Antoninus, rwv els kavrhv, lib. vi., one who sarcastically mocked the perish-
able and ephemeral life of man.
LUCIANUS. 397
facilius minus docti intelligerent, jucunditate quadam ad legendum Lucianus.
invitati," &C.1 He tells us, indeed, that his object was to combine in8 works,
the playfulness and wit of comedy with the graver lessons of
philosophical discussion. Lucianus, however, was more a satirist
than a philosopher ; and, although he had not the honest indignation
of Juvenal, although, in polite wit and delicacy of taste, he was
inferior to Horace, yet he surpassed them both in facetious humour
and powers of derision. The range of his satire is more extensive,
and its severity more generally intelligible than that of Aristophanes.
Aristophanes was a political wit ; and he who would appreciate his
comedies must possess a minute knowledge of the history of the
times in which he lived ; of the personal character of the dema-
gogues whose administration he attacked ; and of the political
institutions, private habits, and distinguishing peculiarities of the
audience which he addressed. The pleasantry of Lucianus is
accessible without so much preparatory study. He had, without
any real hatred of vice, a quick sense of that part of it which is
ridiculous :2 no one saw more clearly the frailties of human nature,
the " fears of the brave and the follies of the wise : " no one ex-
posed more happily the vanity of those pursuits in which mankind
most eagerly engage,3 the disproportionate sorrow which is suffered
to arise from disappointment, and the secret vexations which fre-
quently accompany success.4 But his lessons, even where they are
good, are imperfect : they do not suggest any higher pursuits, they
do not instil any worthier motive of action, they do not tend to any
useful exertion : the satirist, in his sketches of life and character,
borrows freely the pencil of Democritus, and only qualifies his
pupils to follow that philosopher's employment. It is, indeed, vain
to expect, in the writings of Lucianus, any very high tone of moral
feeling, or to find virtue, even in the pagan sense of the word, por-
trayed with the dignity of Aristotle, or recommended by the
eloquence of Plato. Nevertheless, he had honesty enough to hate 5
the hypocrisy of pretended philosophers,6 the arts of casuistical
rhetoricians, and the subtleties of scholastic logic :7 he had pene-
tration enough to see the absurdity of the whole system of pagan
mythology ;8 and he possessed an inexhaustible fund of wit and
humour, to expose these various subjects to the contempt and
derision of mankind.
1 Prom. es in verbis. A certain portion of playful wit is sprinkled over those
earlier works of mine in which I have imitated rather than explained Menippus.
Many parts of them are drawn from a profound philosophy, many from dialectics,
mixed, however, with pleasantry, in order that some besides the learned might be
invited to peruse them.
2 Aristot. Poetica. 3 Nigrinus, et Navigium seu Vota, et Gallus.
4 Hermotimus, et Necyomantia, et Navigium, et Gallus.
5 Hermotimus et Piscator. 6 Rhetorum Preceptor. 7 Vitarum Auctio.
8 Jupiter confutatus, et de Sacrificiis, et Dialogi Deorum et Concio Deorum.
39 S LITERATURE OF THE AGE OF THE ANTONINI.
Lucianus. But in the cultivation and use of these dangerous and fascinating
talents, truth and falsehood were patronised by turns, as they
afforded materials for the display of ingenuity, or the excitement of
mirth : the plainest ! and most important truths of natural religion
are treated by him with the same levity as the grossest follies of
heathen superstition; the existence of the Deity,2 the duty of
worship, and the administration of a Providence, are involved in the
same ridicule with the characters and actions of the fabulous inhabi-
tants of Olympus. In the dialogue intituled Jupiter Tragcedus, the
cause of natural religion is betrayed by a feeble and frivolous
defence. Whether Lucianus here intended to express his own
sentiments under the character of Damis, is uncertain : he dedicated
his Alexander ', or ^evSo/xai/Tty, to Celsus, who was an Epicurean ;
and, in the same treatise, he calls the founder of that sect " an
instructor really divine, the only one who understood and taught
the system of truth and virtue, and gave freedom to the minds of
his followers : " moreover, 3 the highest honours in the land of the
blessed are allotted to Epicurus and his follower, Aristippus ;
whereas, in the Vitarum Audio, the former is sold for two minae,
and the latter finds no purchaser. From the unsparing ridicule of
this and some other dialogues, 4 Lucianus was accused of being the
enemy of philosophy ; and he attempts to defend himself from this
charge in the Beviviscentes, or Piscator. Here an inquiry is sup-
posed to be instituted, over which the Goddess of Philosophy pre-
sides, and Diogenes, in the name of his brethren, is appointed to
conduct the prosecution. Lucianus argues, on his own behalf, that
false philosophy alone was the object of his sarcasms, and that he
designed to expose the degenerate followers of the ancient sages,
who had corrupted the purity of their doctrines, and who pursued
the good things of this world as eagerly as their less learned neigh-
bours. The court is satisfied, and the dialogue ends with a tale of
considerable drollery and humour.
In the prodigal exercise of his satire, Lucianus does not even
spare himself. His observations addressed to Timocles, on the
folly and domestic wretchedness of those who become inmates of
the families of the rich, as tutors, philosophers, or humble com-
panions, besides being a curious and interesting sketch of the
manners of the times, breathe throughout a spirit of manly inde-
pendence : but when he grew old, and had accepted a place under
Government, he satirises his own apparent inconsistency with as
much serenity as his enemies could wish, and with far more caustic
merriment than they could furnish. Then he adds his own excuse
for his own conduct, and, to speak the truth, a very fair and sensible
apology it is.5
1 Jupiter Tragoedus. 2 De Sacrifices. 3 Verse Historise, lib. ii.
4 Hci'Diotiuius. 5 'Airokoyla ir€p\ tqov eVl uktOc? <jvv6vtuv.
LUCIANUS. 399
As the ruling passion of Lucianus prevented his adopting, Lucianus.
in earnest, any set of philosophical tenets, so also did it affect
his taste in literature. In no other writer do we see more strongly
exhibited that unequivocal mark of exuberant wit and defective
taste, a fondness for parody, a delight in degrading passages of true
poetry, by the apposition of ludicrous and low images ; although he
could write with good feeling and good sense, ' he always seems
impatient of the restraint of serious composition. His sketch of
the character of Demonax 2 is beautifully drawn ; but he soon
betakes himself to relate that philosopher's bon-mots and repartees.
His remarks on the manner in which history should be written are
sensible and just ; he appears to have appreciated duly the inimi-
table excellence of Thucydides ; and he inveighs strongly against
the historians of his own time, for their ignorance of the proper
object of historical composition, their utter disregard of truth, their
base flattery, their false estimate of the comparative importance of
events, and the prolixity and impertinence of their descriptions.
But after a few pages in this rational and serious strain, he proceeds
to expose the lying wonders of historians, and the fictions of poetry,
in another treatise, which is called, in derision, Vera Hlstoria.
Here he relates his being absorbed and buried in the bowels of an
immense pit, his journey to the moon, and his visit to the shades
below. On this occasion, 3 as on many others, Homer comes in
for his full share of ridicule. Lucianus was familiar with the Iliad
and Odyssey ; and, without having enough of poetical taste fully to
appreciate their excellence, he had discernment enough to perceive
their minutest faults. Many of these, which ought to be ascribed
to the age rather than to the poet, are brought into notice with
considerable humour ; and he must be indeed fastidious who has
not sometimes found himself laughing with Lucianus at the expense
of the Mseonian bard.
The style of Lucianus is easy and perspicuous, and the subjects His stylo.
on which he touches are miscellaneous : some of these are, in them-
selves, highly objectionable ; and even where they are not, we find
many coarse and indelicate expressions and allusions, the fault of
wdiich may, with justice, be attributed to the evil moral taste of his
age. The Dialogues of the Bead are entertaining, though they
exhibit little diversity of character, and though their highest strain
of morality inculcates only the pagan precept, " Let us eat and
drink, for to-morrow we die.'7 The Life of Peregrinus Proteus may Peregrmu
be read with interest ; caution, however, is necessary, for, as
Lardner has observed, the treatise contains some misrepresentations,
either wilful or undesigned : Lucianus is the only author who has
1 Xigrinus, et Imagines. 2 Demonactis vita.
3 Contemplantes, Timon, et Dialogi.
400
LITERATURE OF THE AGE OF THE ANTONINI.
Lucianus. made this rambling philosopher a Christian. That Lucianus was an
enemy of Christianity is true, inasmuch as he esteemed all religion
a compound of fraud and folly : he speaks, however, the language of
contempt rather than of enmity ; it does not appear that he perse-
cuted the professors of the true faith with any particular or personal
hostility, nor had he taken much pains to acquaint himself with
their distinguishing tenets.
In 1714, Gesner held a disputation at Jena, to prove that the
PhiiopatHs. treatise entitled Philopatris was not written by Lucianus, because
it shows a more minute knowledge of the doctrines and Scriptures
of the Christians than can be traced in those works which are con-
fessedly genuine. In the account of the death of Peregrinus,
Lucianus says of the Christians, " They worship even now that
great man who was crucified in Palestine, because he introduced
this new system of religion." And again, " These ill-fated men
(ol KaKodciLfjioves) persuade themselves that they shall live for ever,
wherefore they disregard, and in many cases voluntarily seek death.
They live as brethren, having their possessions in common, and
regulating their lives according to the laws of that same crucified
sophist of theirs (rbv avedKokoTna-^evov eKtivov (rcxfiio-Trjv dvTcov) whom
they worship."
But the author of the Philopatris knew much more respecting
the Christians than these passages imply. The dialogue is con-
ducted between Critias and Tisiphon, one being a professed Heathen,
and the other an Epicurean personating a Christian. The design is
partly to represent the Christians as a sect disaffected to govern-
ment, and dangerous to civil society, and partly to expose some of
their peculiar opinions. We find clear allusions to the Book of
Genesis, and several other parts of the Scriptures, ! on the subject
of the Creation, the doctrine of the Trinity, and the ceremony of
Baptism. On these grounds Gesner would reject the Philopatris
from the works of Lucianus ; and Mr. Movie argues on the same
side, from the political events which the dialogue mentions, namely,
the conquest of the Scythians, the reduction of Egypt, and a victory
over the Persians. " These," he says, 2 " can never be applied to
the reign of Antoninus ; nor, indeed, to that of any other emperor,
except of Dioclesian, in whose reign they all met together, in the
same order of time as they are set down, as may easily be seen ;
but more particularly in the Chronicon of Eusebius, who places the
wars with the Scythians, and the reduction of Egypt many years
before the great victory obtained over Narseus, King of Persia, in
the year of Christ 302, and twenty-three years before the Council of
Nice, at which time I do verily believe this dialogue was written."
Nor is the Philopatris the only spurious treatise which has come
down to us in company with the works of Lucianus. The critics
Lard ml r.
2 Vol. i. p. 292.
LUCIANUS. — PAUSANIAS. 401
hrve observed that Demosthenis Encomium is devoid of his Lutianus.
wit, elegance, and perspicuity. The Pseudosophista, i^'t/itivi,
Charidemua, Nero and Ocypus are rejected ; and also the Amorest
by Bourdelotius and kuster. The manner of Lucianus has been
imitated in French by Fontenelle, and in Latin by Erasmus.
The latter was a great admirer of his works, some of which he
translated.
Suidas mentions two persons of the name of Pausanias, one Pausanias.
being a Laconian, and the other a native of Csesarea, in Cappadocia :
the topographer probably was not the former of these ; for his
reflections on the Laconians are severe, and his style approaches the
Tonic rather than the Doric. There is reason to suppose he was
the second mentioned by Suidas ; the same whom Galen calls the
Syrian Sophist, and a disciple of Herodes Atticus. From his works
we know very little of himself or his family : he was alive in the
fourteenth year of Marcus Aurelius : he travelled through Greece,
Macedon, Italy, and part of Asia ; having also visited the Oracle
of Jupiter Ammon, Palestine, and the Dead Sea. Fabricius
enumerates in the catalogue of the lost works of Pausanias,
geographical treatises respecting Asia, Syria, and Phoenicia,
together with others entitled — 1. /zeAeVai, or Declamations;
2. 7T€p\ (TVUTCl^€COS \ 3. TrpO^X^fJLaTOOV (BifiXiOV \ 4. AtTLKCDU OVOfJLClTOiV
avvayooyr].
The work of Pausanius which has come down to us is divided
into ten books, of which two are devoted to a description of Elis,
and one to each of the following districts — Attica, Corinthia, Laco-
nia, Messenia, Achaia, Arcadia, Boeotia, and Phocis. The painter,
the architect, and the antiquary will find much that is interesting in
the minute and curious details which are given respecting the
ancient relics of Grecian temples, buildings, and statues. These
passages have been selected by Uvedale Price, translated into
English, and published in one octavo volume. The fidelity of the
geographical descriptions of Pausanias is thus acknowledged by a
modern traveller : — " On arriving from Albania, in the Morea, you
quit a region little known at any time, for one which the labours of
ancients and moderns have equally contributed to illustrate ; and,
after wandering in uncertainty, you acknowledge the aid of faithful
guides, who direct every footstep of your journey. Pausanias alone
will enable you to feel at home in Greece. The exact conformity of
present appearances with the minute descriptions of the Itinerary ', is
no less surprising than satisfactory. The temple and the statue,
the theatre, the column, and the marble porch have sunk and dis-
appeared ; but the valleys and the mountains, and some not unfre-
quent fragments of more value than all the rude and costly monu-
ments of barbaric labour; these still remain, and remind the
[r. l.] d d
402 LITERATURE OF THE AGE OF THE ANTONINI.
Pausanias. traveller that he treads the ground once trod by the heroes and
sages of antiquity." »
The historian will find in the fourth book of Pausanias, an account
of the wars between the Messenians and Laconians ; and of those,
moreover, which took place on the death of Alexander, between
Perdiccas, Ptolemy, and Cassander : various observations are intro-
duced throughout the work on ancient games, festivals, offerings,
&c, &c, and many oracles are recorded, with their supposed
accomplishment. Taylor, who has made the whole work of
Pausanias accessible to the English reader, says,2 these " Oracles
may be considered as a treasure of popular evidence for the truth of
his religion : for if it be admitted that they were given, and such
events happened as are here related, it is impossible such a series
of predictions could be true by casual concurrence." Such admis-
sions, however, are to be made with caution ; and when we have
set aside from among the ancient oracles those the date of which is
doubtful, those the terms of which are ambiguous, and those which
had a natural tendency to work their own accomplishment, " this
treasure of popular evidence " will be materially reduced. Some
notion of Taylor's candour may be formed from the following
passage. His notes to Pausanias were added to preserve the
knowledge of the ancient Theology of the later Platonists ; " these,'*
he says, " are considered by verbal critics and sophistical priests
as fanatics, but the discerning reader knows that the former never
read a book but in order to make different readings of the words
in it, and that the latter wilfully pervert the meaning in some
places, and ignorantly in others, of every valuable author, whether
ancient or modern. "
The style of Pausanias is abrupt and intricate, rude and
unpolished : a variety of grammatical anomalies are collected in
the notes of Sylburgius.
.hiiius Julius Pollux, a Lexicographer, was born at Naucratis, in
Egypt, a city situated not far from the Canopic mouth of the Nile,
lie nourished in the reign of Commodus, to whom he addressed a
work in ten Books, called Onomasticon, intended, as he himself tells
us, to be a vocabulary of select synonyms with authorities. He
filled the Pihetorical chair at Athens, and was the author of other
works now lost ; some were entitled SiaXegas-, some /xeAerai : of
these Philostratus criticises the style as inelegant, and Athenodorus
the matter as puerile. Julius Pollux is called by Isaac Casaubon,
" Optimus, utilissimus, eruditissimus." 3 The arrangement of the
Onomasticon is not alphabetical ; this will be evident to any one
who examines the following heads, which form the subjects of the
second Book. 1. Hominum setates et vocabula. 2. Quae sunt
J Hobhouse, Journey through Alhania, &c. 2 Taylor, Preface.
a " Most excellent, useful, and learned.1'
Pollux.
:
AULUS GELLIUS. 403
ante generationem et quae sunt post generationem. 3. Hominum
membra et partes. 4. Partes externa? et interna?. 5. Quae
singulis partibus congruunt nominum frequentissimus usus.
The work of Aulus Gellius remaining to us may be called an Auiu
ancient commonplace-book. It is introduced to the attention of GeUlu-s-
the reader by a preface commencing with this very candid remark,
" Jucundiora alia reperiri queant ; " after which he who continues
his researches without finding entertainment, has no reason to be
discontented with the author. Aulus Gellius goes on to explain
the character of his work, and the intention with which it was com-
posed. He tells us, that it was written to employ those hours of
recreation which business allowed to his children. Whenever, in
the course of his studies, he met with anything either in Greek or
Eoman literature, or amidst the intercourse of society, which seemed
worthy of notice, he transferred it to his tablets, together with his
own remarks, without any system or methodical arrangement :
this habit assisted his memory, and enabled him to recover facts
and opinions, if the books from which they wTere originally derived
lay at any time beyond his reach. The title Nodes Attica, was
suggested by the time and place of the compilation : its simplicity
is consistent with the tone of modesty which runs through the pre-
face, and is contrasted strongly with those pompous titles, which
he says it was customary to annex to works of this description.
The object of this author's work, namely, to employ on innocent
and useful subjects the leisure hours of his children, must be con-
fessed to be excellent, although we may not admire the taste
displayed in the choice of his materials. Unless the children of
Aulus Gellius inherited their father's taste for the studies of a
Grammarian, they would not find much relaxation or pleasure in
great part of his literary labours ; especially since there is little
elegance or felicity of style to relieve the general dryness of the matter.
The book abounds in quotations from old writers, from Ermius,
Attius, Quadrigarius, Nsevius, Caacilius, Menander, and others. It
is divided into twenty Books, the eighth being lost, and these are
again subdivided into short chapters on miscellaneous subjects.
Some contain Literary, Historical, and Biographical Anecdotes ;
others, old Epitaphs, Epigrams, and Proverbs, explanations of legal
and other technical terms, and phrases in familiar use, together
with their probable Etymology, or observations on the quantity of
words, and the correct modes of writing and pronouncing them.
One chapter records a ludicrous disputation between two celebrated
grammarians in Rome, relating to the vocative case of Egregius^
whether it should be egregie or egregi. In connection with gram-
matical and etymological questions, we hear much of Gabius Bassus,
who wrote De Origine Vocabulorum, of Nigidius, of Cornutus, and
Hyginus j it should, however, be added, that when the cavils of
d d 2
404
LITERATURE OF THE AGE OF THE ANTONINI.
Aulus
Gellius.
Galenus.
the two latter are directed against Virgil, Aulus Gellius lias
generally the good taste to defend the poet. His mind certainly
inclined much towards verbal criticism ; he takes delight in vindi-
cating, by the authority of very old writers, phrases which appear
grammatical anomalies, and in reviving the memory of obsolete words,
such as memordi, cecurri, spespondi, and descendidi, instead of the
more classical forms, momordi, cucurri, spospondi, and descendi.
Still there are many chapters which are interesting and curious.
The authenticity of the titles of the several chapters has been
attacked by H. Stevens, and defended by Falster : the student who
desires more information respecting Aulus Gellius may consult writh
advantage a Dissertation prehxed to the Criticce Luc ub rat tones of
Lambecius.
The celebrated Galenus was born at Pergamus : his father Nicon
enjoyed an ample fortune ; and, having cultivated his own mind, and
thus knowing by experience the value
of a superior education, placed his
son under the tuition of the best
masters. Accordingly, Galenus passed
successively through the systems
recommended by the Stoics, Academics,
Peripatetics, and Epicureans ; the
philosophy of the latter he rejected
without hesitation. This extensive
acquaintance with the opinions of
different sects operated advantage-
ously on his mind, by producing a
disinclination to attach himself exclu-
sively to any set of instructors, —
a disposition which he carried to
the studies of his maturer years. His mind being thus preserved
from bigotry, and ready to admit from every quarter sound
principles and just inferences, he did not, after the example of
preceding physicians, follow blindly any of the sects existing in his
day, namely, the Methodic, Dogmatic, or Empiric, but determined
to select and appropriate that which appeared valuable in each.
From a very early age, Galenus had suffered from weakness of
digestion ; and the necessity of habitual attention to various kinds
of diet and their effects, and experience of the symptoms of internal
disorders and their consequences, may have contributed to lead his
mind to pursue the study of medicine at large, and to grasp that
science in a manner more methodical and comprehensive than pre-
ceding writers had done. This might have been one cause of his
determination to physic; a dream of his father is assigned as
another: Galenus certainly was superstitious. On one occasion, he
says, " Being afflicted with a fixed pain in that part where the
Galen.
CAI.UNUS. 406
diaphragm is fastened to the liver, I dreamed that JEsculapius (tetania
advised me to open that artery which lies bet wren the thumb and
second finger of my right hand. I did so, and immediately found
myself well." In another instance, we find him prescribing a
gargle of lettuce juice, in consequence of a similar dream. Galenus,
however, at the age of seventeen, brought to his professional
pursuits two qualities which carry their possessor far in an\ career ;
a zeal in the pursuit of knowledge which bo difficulties alarmed,
and a confidence in his own talents which knew no bounds. He
visited, in pursuit of professional in format ion, Cilicia, Palestine,
Crete, and Cyprus ; and remaining some time at Alexandria, made
himself acquainted with the nature of the nerves, and discovered a
new way of healing injuries of them. On his return to Pergamus
at the age of twenty-eight, he applied his method to wounded
gladiators with great success. At the expiration of four years, in
consequence of some seditious disturbance, he betook himself to
Rome, where his skill secured him some powerful patrons, among
whom were Eudemus, a Peripatetic philosopher, and Severus, after-
wards Emperor ; while, at the same time, it excited the envy and
opposition of rival practitioners. Their machinations, together with
a dread of the plague, drove Galenus again to Pergamus. Scarcely
had he arrived when he was summoned to Aquileia by the Emperors
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus and Lucius Yerus. The latter died, and
Galenus again visited Home. His reputation rising rapidly, and
the Capital offering ample apportunities for the practice of his art
and the prosecution of his studies, he was naturally unwilling to
accompany Aurelius in his expedition against the Marcomanni.
He had the address to excuse himself under the pretence of a dream
from /Esculapius, who, in the visions of the night, forbade his
leaving Home. About this time he composed his celebrated treatise
Be Usit Partium ; in which he proves, against the philosophy of
Epicurus, from the frame of the human body, the wisdom, power,
and goodness of the Creator. Of this tract, which coincides in
its details with one part of Paley's well-known Natural Theology, it
is not too much to say, that, even in the present advanced state
of medical science, it may be read with advantage ; and at a period
when infidelity was fashionable, Galenus deserves praise for having
thrown into the opposite scale the weight of his abilities and science.
The facility with which lie wrote is proved by the great extent
and variety of his works. We learn from Suidas, that some of
these were on Geometry and Grammar; two books he compiled as
a mere catalogue of the rest, recording the time, place, order, and
motive of their composition. Of these works, part were lost in a
fire at the Temple of Peace, but a considerable number are pre-
served. It has been before observed, that Galenus did not so far
addict himself to any sect as to follow its opinions implicitly : in
406
LITERATURE OE THE AGE OF THE ANTOXINI.
Galonus.
Other
medical
writers.
Lucius
Apuleius.
fact, his vanity often betrayed him into intemperate language re-
specting his contemporaries and predecessors. Yet he seems to
have thought very highly of Hippocrates ; * at the same time
assuming to himself the credit of being the first to understand and
explain that great author's system, and supply his defects. Between
Hippocrates and Galenus there is this difference : the works of the
first consist chiefly of facts observed by himself or others ; those of
the latter are Eeasonings and Hypotheses, and therefore have
furnished more matter of dispute. Galenus's system was ingenious :
when he illustrates any part of Hippocrates, we are indebted to his
sagacity and industry ; when he harangues respecting faculties,
spirits, and occult causes, he reasons well from principles false or
precarious, and therefore leaves us in the dark.
Vanity in writing respecting himself, and affectation in dis-
claiming praise, are his chief blemishes ; the superiority of his
talents and the valuable additions he made to the stock of medical
science might safely have been left to be appreciated by the judg-
ment of posterity. Eusebius tells us that the respect paid to his
memory amounted almost to veneration. His successors were
Oribasius, iElius, Alexander, and Trallianus Mysepsus, of whom
Dr. Friend says, " they did not compile so as to have nothing at
all new, and what we may call their own, in their very voluminous
wTorks ; for, though I must confess there are not a great many things
in them in proportion to the bulk of their books, but such as may
be found in Galenus and others, yet some there are, too, in regard
to the real improvement of the art itself/' Of these writers,
Oribasius made large extracts from the works of Galenus, and
Trallianus calls him most divine. Simplicius, moreover, styles him
tiavfjuio-Los kol 7roXi;/xa^ecrraro$' : and Athenseus introduces Galenus
as one of the guests at his banquet. The place and circumstances
of his death are not known with accuracy ; Eabricius conjectures
that he lived till the seventh year of Severus, and the seventieth of
his own life.
Lucius Apuleius was a Platonic philosopher, born at Madaura,
a Roman colony in Africa. The date of his birth is not known
with accuracy, but the names of Lollianus Avitus and Lollius
Urbicus, and the omission of the title Divus, before the name of
Antoninus Pius, enable us to ascertain that he flourished under
this Emperor. His mother's name was Salvia, and he inherited
from his father Theseus respectability of family and a considerable
fortune. The latter, however, was soon exhausted by the expenses
of foreign travel, which his zeal in the pursuit of knowledge in-
duced him to incur ; he tells us, moreover, in his Apology, that
much of it was spent in acts of benevolence and charity. His early
1 Method. Medendi, lib. ix.
LUCIUS APULEIUS, 407
studies were conducted at Carthage, where he imbibed that taste for La
the Platonic philosophy which was confirmed by a residence at Ai)Ulclus-
Athens, At that celebrated seat of learning lie passed through the
schools of grammar and rhetoric, and he gives in the following
metaphorical sentence an account of his subsequent studies : —
" Hactenus a plerisque potatur; ego et alias crateras Ailicnis"1^
bibi, Poeticae oommentam, Geometric limpidam, Musicse dulcem,
Dialectics austerulam, enimvero universal Philosophise inexplebilem
scilicet ncctaream." 1 Engaged in the pursuit of learning, he
spared nor time, nor health, nor fortune ; and his diligence is
attested by the number and variety of the works which he com-
posed. Of these, there remain at present, 1. A Treatise Be Dog mate His works.
Platonis, in three books ; the first on Natural Philosophy, the
second on Moral Philosophy, and the third on the Categorical
Syllogism. 2. A Treatise Be Deo Boer at is, inferior, though not
unlike to one by Maximus Tyrius on the same subject. 3. A
Treatise Be Mundo. After these come eleven books of the Meta-
morplioseon, better known to the literary world under the title of
the Golden Ass. Besides this, we have his Apology, or vindication
of himself from a charge of magic, (the circumstances of which we
shall soon have occasion to mention ;) and, lastly, a composition
called Florida, which seems to consist of passages from speeches
delivered at Carthage, extracted by some of his admirers,2 and put
together without care or connection.
The works of Apuleius which are now lost were numerous, both
in Greek and Latin : he wrote history, dialogues, epistles, orations,
proverbs, various compositions in verse, epigrams,3 satires, together
with lyric and dramatic poetry. He, moreover, turned his mind to
speculations on medicine, politics, arithmetic, and philology ; and,
amidst such numerous and opposite pursuits, still found leisure for
jocose subjects called " Ludicra"4 and for questions adapted to
provoke the ingenuity of convivial5 discussion, called yptyoc or
enigmas.6
After leaving Athens, Apuleius came to Eome, where, by diligent His life.
and unassisted labour, he acquainted himself with the Latin lan-
guage ; he studied also the principles of Eoman jurisprudence, in
which he made such proficiency as to be enabled to support himself
by pleading causes. But before his success at the Bar he had lived
in great poverty ; in Greece he had been initiated into many of the
mysteries of pagan worship, and at Rome, being desirous of
enrolling himself among the votaries of Osiris, we find him driven
1 Florida. " Thus much most people drink. I quaffed other cups at Athens :
the cup of poetry adulterated, that of geometry clear, that of music sweet, of
dialectics somewhat sour, but that of universal philosophy nectar inexhaustible/'
- Joann. Woweri, Prwfatio. 3 Ausonius.
4 Nonius. 5 Macrobius, Sat. 6 Derived from ypiiros, a net.
408 LITER ATURE OF THE AGE OF THE ANTONINI.
Lucius to great extremities to defray the necessary cost.1 But no sacrifice
Apuiems. was t0Q great, if it would facilitate his favourite pursuit ; and,
indeed, in various parts of his works, he speaks with the most
philosophical contempt of wealth as compared with the acquisition
of knowledge.2 His industry and talents, as they met with pro-
fessional success at Borne, so were they rewarded at Carthage, and
at JEa, by marks of public respect ; at Madaura, too, he tells us,
he held the situation of Duumvir, which had been previously
occupied by his father. His fortunes, however, were chiefly ad-
vanced by a marriage with a rich widow, named Pudentilla ; which,
though it appears to have been contracted with the consent, and
even planned at the suggestion, of her son Pontianus, did never-
theless involve Apuleius in a vexatious litigation. iEmilianus, the
brother of Pudentilla's first husband, accused our author of having
gained possession of his wife's affections and fortunes by the arts
of magic, and accordingly a trial of the question took place before
Claudius Maximus, Proconsul of Africa. The speech of Apuleius
on this occasion yet remains, and although it may excite a smile at
the nature of the proofs which were brought to support the charge
of magic, still we must remember that similar absurdities are found
in connection with this imaginary crime at a much later period, and
in an age which the progressive march of knowledge ought to have
rendered wiser. The facts urged against Apuleius were his per-
sonal attractions, his habits of versification, and his having com-
posed a poem on the sons of Scribonius Laetus, his possession of a
mirror, his purchasing a rare fish and dissecting the same, and the
circumstance of a youth having fallen to the ground in his presence.
The defendant disposed of these several weighty accusations with
considerable wit and humour, ascribing some of the facts to his
good fortune, some to his poetical taste, and others to his well-
known zeal in the pursuits of natural history. He then proceeded
to meet the imputation of having been induced by mercenary
motives to seek the hand of Pudentilla, alleging, first, that the pro-
posal originally came from her son, and was long rejected as being
an impediment to his intentions of foreign travel ; and, secondly,
by asserting that, at his own particular instigation, the property in
question had been given at the time, and was ultimately bequeathed,
to the family with whom he had connected himself, in a greater
degree than they had any reason to expect. This part of the
speech gives us the sentiments of an honest man expressed in a
style which, if it is not remarkably elegant, does not justify the
satirical remark of Melanchthon, that the Latinity of Apuleius was
like the braying of his own ass. This allusion applies to the
Metamorplioseon ; in which the author commences by apologising
1 Me tarn. lib. xi. - Apologia.
LUCIUS APULEIUS. 409
for his defective style, and prepares his reader for a Grecian tale Lucius
after the manner of the Milesian Fabulists. He then proceeds to apu1u1us-
relate what befel him at Hypata, in Thessaly, where he became the
guest of a celebrated Magician ; and, in an unfortunate attempt to
imitate the transformations which he had witnessed, he mixed the
magical ingredients unskilfully, and, instead of assuming the shape
of a bird, he found himself suddenly changed into an ass. Under The Golden
this shape, he passes through a variety of adventures, which are Ass'
put together with little art, and, for the most part, have small pre-
tensions to character, invention, wit, or humour. However, some
of the circumstances (as Dunlop has observed1) have been borrowed
by modern novelists. Two of the stories introduced are to be
found in Boccaccio. The adventure of the wine-skins in Don
Quixote, and that of the Bobber's cavern in Gil Bias, may be, with
some probability, traced to the same source.
Apuleius professes that his Metamorplwseon is a work of amuse-
ment ; tales for the gratification of a thirsty curiosity. " At ego
tibi sermone isto Milesio varias fabulas conseram, auresque tuas
bibulas lepido susurro permulceam." Accordingly, Severus and
Macrobius assigned the work no higher province than to excite the
surprise of the young, or beguile the tedious hours of age ; and
later critics 2 have considered it only as a satirical representation of
the vices of his time. But Bishop Warburton, whose extent and
variety of knowledge might have made him a safer guide if they
had been employed less frequently in supporting paradox, has found
in this composition a store of philosophical wisdom, and has
pressed it with great ingenuity into the service of the Divine Lega-
tion (see Book ii., sec. 4). He characterises the author as " one of
the gravest and most virtuous, as well as one of the most learned
philosophers of his age," and endeavours to show that the object of
the Metamorphoseon was to recommend pagan religion, and parti-
cularly initiation into the mysteries, as " the only cure for all vice
whatsoever." Now the greater part of the incidents are copied
from a tale of Lucian, entitled >; 6W, which Photius tells us was
written to ridicule the pagan religion ; and if this was its popular
character, Apuleius surely would have found a better model on
which he might form his intended vindication. Where the resem-
blance was so great, that one might almost be called a translation
of the other, men would naturally suppose the end proposed could
not be very different. It is true that Apuleius was a great admirer
of the mysteries of heathen superstition, and has casually introduced
some contemptuous allusions to Christianity ; but if his thoughts
had been set on so excellent a design as the discovery of a remedy
for all vice whatsoever, his knowledge and abilities would have
1 History of Fiction, vol. i. - Bavle, Fleuri.
410
LITERATURE OF THE AGE OF THE AXTOXIXI.
Lucius
Apuleius.
Athenoeus.
suggested a more effectual method. Tor a moral which was so
concealed under the veil of allegory, that it remained undiscovered
for several centuries, could not be expected to remedy the mis-
chievous effects of those idle and indecent stories of which the
MetamorphoMon mainly consists.
That part of the work which does Apuleius most credit, namely,
the beautiful fable of Cupid and Psyche, is not taken from Lucian.
Perhaps the materials were borrowed from the stores of Egyptian
mythology,1 but the mode in which they are here put together
shows delicacy of taste and a poetical imagination.2 This " Philo-
sophical Allegory of the progress of Virtue towards perfection," as
it may have been the prototype of some of the fairy tales which
entertain our childhood, so is it well known to the lovers of the fine
arts : for it has furnished to the engraver of antique gems, and to
the ancient sculptors, some of their most beautiful subjects, while
in later days it has employed the pencil of Eaphael and the chisel
of Canova. This fable has also been imitated in an old French
romance, called Tartenopex de Blois, and is well known to the
English reader by Mrs. Tighe's exquisite adaptation of it, and
Mr. Rose's elegant versification of the tale of Fartenopex.
Athen^eus, a celebrated grammarian, was born at Naucratis, in
Egypt, and flourished early in the third century. He was the
author of a very learned work, entitled Aei7n/oo-o(£i(rrut, Eruditl viri
coenantes ; the plan of which, however improbable, was well adapted
to communicate the stores of curious and miscellaneous information,
which various and extensive reading had enabled Athenseus to
collect. Larensius, a rich and literary Eoman, is supposed to
collect at his hospitable table learned men of various professions,
poets, lawyers, grammarians, physicians, rhetoricians, and musicians,
and their conversations are related to Timocrates by our author.
The courses of the banquet suggest the subjects, in connexion with
which are introduced passages from historians, poets, philosophers,
orators, and philologists, on a variety of topics almost infinite :
for example, on fish, vegetables, living things, musical instruments,
cups, and fruits ; on Italian, Greek, and Egyptian wines ; on the
qualities of various kinds of water ; on water-drinkers ; on the diet
of Homer's heroes ; also, on natural history ; on curious inventions ;
on customs and habits of private life, especially among the Greeks.
Interspersed with these subjects are instances of ingenious parody,
and proverbs, which, together with many anecdotes and stories, are
still current in the world. He who borrowed so largely from
others, furnished in his turn materials for later writers ; Macrobius
imitated his plan in the composition of the Saturnalia, parts of
which are evidently taken from the AeiTrvoo-ocfriaTcu*
1 Bryant.
3 Confer, lib.
2 Warburton.
c. 21, with Ath. ii. 474.
ATHENjEUS, — MAXIMUS TYRIls. Ill
Put, in the estimation of the scholar, this vast compilation of Athenvus.
Athenseus derives, perhaps, its chief value from the immense
number o( citations which he has introduced from various authors.
Some of these passages, explanatory of rare and obscure words, are
from works which have not come down to us ; others are useful to
later commentators, in correcting; the errors and supplying the
defects of ancient manuscripts: we owe, moreover, to Athenseus
many oi' the fragments of Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes,
Menander, and Philemon, which have been edited, besides parts of
the Poetarutu Analecta, Philology was certainly a favourite pursuit
of Athenams, and reference is frequently made to him by Eustathius,
Suidas, llesyehius, and others. Hemsterhusius very justly styles
him " subactus si quisquam in libris veterum evolvendis, et idem
diligens singularium vocum captator." 1
The manuscripts of the Acinvoo-ocfiicrTciL arc few and defective :
Casaubon, to whose stores of learning the readers of Athenreus are
indebted for much valuable emendation and illustration, confesses
in a letter to a friend the extreme difficulty of his undertaking,
" Hoc dico tantum, absolvisse me tandem, virtute Dei Optimi
Maximi, molestissimum, dirhcillimum, et tsedii plenissimum opus,
animadversiones in Athenaeum." The first and second books are
known to us only by an epitome. Casaubon knew not by whom,
or at what time, this abridgment was made, but conjectures that it
was done before the days of Eustathius : it is well executed, for
not only are extracts made, but the system of the larger work is
preserved ; the references, however, ought to have been more fully
and distinctly made than they are.
Those who are desirous of more information respecting Athenams
may consult Schweighauser ; this critic had access to two manu-
scripts which were not known in Casaubon's time, one of which,
called the Feneta-Parisiensis, he considers the oldest we have : his
edition of the kenrvoo-ofyicrTai with a preface, notes, and a Tat in
translation, is in repute among the learned. Respecting prior
editions, sec Bayle's Dictionary, Art. Athenee.
We have already made slight mention of MAXIMUS Tver's. Maximns
The title Maximus is common to so many, that much confusion Tyriu*
has arisen from the numerous claimants to it ; but there is
reason to think that the author whose Dissertations have come
down to us is the same whose instructions are mentioned
with respect in the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. These IIis works>
Dissertations are in number forty-one ; Heinsius thinks they
should be divided into ten tetralogies and an introduction. Several
of them seem to have been composed in Greece; in the 37th the
1 " An accurate examiner of old books, and a diligent collector of remarkable
words."
412 LITERATURE OF THE AGE OF THE ANTONINI.
Maximus allusions are Greek,1 and in most others Maximus Tyrius shows a
Tynus. more familiar acquaintance with Grecian than with Eoman customs
and history. The subjects are various, some turning on matters of
practical philosophy, and some on those subtle questions which
have at all times exercised the ingenuity, and baffled the inquiries,
of thoughtful minds. The following are among the number :
1. Utpt rov tls 6 6ebs Kara TlXarcova. 19 and 34. Ti to re\os
(f)i\oo~o<j)ias ; 25. ToO 6eov ra ayaSa koiovvtos, 7r66ep ra kokci ; 26 and
27. Tt to daijjLOvlov "2a)KpaTovs ; 38. Et Beols ayaXfiara Idpvriov ;
40. Tl EOT IV €7TLaTT]p7] \
His style. The style of Maximus Tyrius is elegant and perspicuous, abound-
ing with apt illustrations and metaphors. Casaubon calls him
melUtissimus Platonicorum. Learned without prolixity, argumen-
tative without intemperance, he wins assent rather than extorts it. 2
Plato and Homer seem to have been his favourite authors. It
has been said that, in the 37th dissertation, he writes too arro-
gantly of himself and his philosophy ; but the reward which he
claims so strongly was the practical virtue of his hearers, not their
applause.
His opinions O*1 the subject of prayer, we find in Maximus Tyrius those argu-
on prayer, ments which might be expected from natural reason : they are
expressed with elegance, and urged with ingenuity, not so much
against a habit of prayer in general, as against its prospective
efficacy, and particularly against making temporal advantages the
object of it : his master, Plato, reasons in the same way in the
Second Alcibiades. Socrates is there represented as meeting Alci-
biades on his way to address the Gods for temporal blessings, and
dissuades him from offering such petitions, by showing that he
could not be certain whether the fulfilment of his wishes would be
eventually advantageous or not. Maximus Tyrius argues thus
against the use of prayers for external goods. These, he says, must
come from necessity or chance, which are unassailable by prayer ;
or from art, to which no man prays ; or from Providence. Now
the latter will not derange its purposes on account of our suppli-
cations ; to repent and vary is unsuitable to the character of even a
good man, much more is it unsuitable to God. If we deserve the
desired object, it will come unasked ; if not, no entreaty will obtain
it. Maximus Tyrius acknowledges that the whole life of Socrates
was full of prayer, peo-rbv ehxjrjs : but he did not, as other men do,
vex the Gods with petitions for wealth or power ; his object was
not so much to ask favours, as to hold communion with Heaven ;
and he obtained with the assent of the Gods (fwcmvevovTw eKtlvcov)
intellectual excellence, a life of blameless tranquillity, and a death of
cheerful hope. In the 26th dissertation, he dwells with much pious
1 Davis, Prcefatio. ~ Paccius, Prafatio.
J
MAXDIUS TYIUUS. 413
feeling on man's weakness, liis need of divine help in danger and ifarfmiu
temptations, and lie says, it was on these subjects that Socrates ri>nus-
consulted his Daemon.
The first of two essays devoted to this inquiry, ri to banxoviov
So) parov s ; is thus introduced. Since no one denies or ridicules
the idea of the Gods being present at the various Oracles, and com-
municating future events by means of their priestesses, why might
not Socrates have enjoyed the constant presence of a Deity ? Should
one ask who this Deity was, I must inquire whether he believe in
the existence of daemons? Does not Homer introduce a daemon or
genius, whom he calls Minerva, cheeking the rage of Achilles,
prompting Telemachus, and encouraging Diomede ? Unless you are
willing to deny the existence of these beings, to contradict Homer,
giving up all oracles and dreams, certainly Socrates deserved a par-
ticular protector as much as any one. Surely some men have their
protecting genii, who warn them by auguries, and assist them in
the strife when virtue proves an unequal match for Fortune. These
beings are ministering angels, above mortals and below God : —
Tpls yap /ULvpioi elrrlv i-rrl X®ov^ TTo\vfioT€ipr)
5 AOdvaroi Zr}vbsy (pvAanes Qvt)toov aj/dptibiroov. l
Of these, some cure diseases, or assist the labours of art ; others
communicate information or suggest advice — attendants at home or
abroad, by land or sea, varying in character with the dispositions of
men : but the wicked have no protecting genius.
In the second dissertation the nature of this familiar daemon is
thus described. There is in nature a regular gradation, com-
mencing with God, and terminating with plants ; daemons, men,
and brutes being the intermediate links: by the union of different
qualities in the same being, each rank in existence is connected
wTith one above and one below it ; daemons, men or genii, being
immortal, and yet passive, partake of the divine nature on the one
hand, on the other of the human, and thus connect God with men.
The soul preserves the body as long as it remains in it ; on escaping,
it becomes a daemon, and lives in peace and pleasure : these beings
compassionate their earthly friends, are permitted to assist them,
protecting the good and punishing the wicked : each has its office,
and is peculiarly conversant about such things as it loved on earth.
JSsculapius still promotes the healing art, and Achilles sports in
arms ; the latter is still said to be seen with Thetis and Patroclus
in an island in the Euxine sea : Hector still bounds over the plains
of Troy : and endangered mariners often acknowledge the assistance
of the Dioscuri.
Traces of this fanciful and pleasing theory are familiar to the
1 u On earth there are three myriads of immortals, the guardians of mortal
men."
414
LITEEATUliE OF THE AGE OF THE AXTONINI.
Maximus
Tyrius.
Marcus
Fabius
Quinc-
tilianus.
mind of the scholar who is conversant with the writings of antiquity ;
and the llosicrucians may have borrowed from these sources that
beautiful machinery with which Pope has embellished the Rape of
the Lock. The treatise of Maximus Tyrius is superior in style to
that of Apuleius on the same subject.
Marcus Fabius Quinctilianus died before the accession of
the Antonini to the Imperial power, and therefore cannot in strict-
ness be included in a sketch of the literature of their age ; never-
theless, since there has not appeared any intermediate place after
the reign of Augustus in which this distinguished writer could be
noticed, we may be allowed, without any great breach of chronolo-
gical order, to introduce him here. The days of Quinctilianus wrere
passed in instructing his contemporaries in the principles of the
art of rhetoric, and, latterly, in compiling for the benefit of posterity
the result of his studies, his practice, and his observation. Such
occupations offer little variety of incident, and we know few cir-
cumstances of his life except those which are occasionally mentioned
by himself in connection with his professional pursuits. Notices of
this kind which occur in his works have been carefully examined by
the learned Dodwell, and annexed under the title of Annates
Quinctiliani to Burman's edition of the De Institutione Oratorid.
Ausonius calls our author Hhpanus and Calugurrilanm ; but the
silence of Martial on this point has given rise to an opinion that he
was not a native of Spain ; at all events, he came early to Eome.
According toDodwell's conjectures, Quinctilianus was born a. d. 42,
and at the age of fifteen was placed under the instruction of Domi-
tius Afer, of whose abilities the highest character is given by the
pen of his grateful pupil. " Yidi ego longe omnium quos mihi
cognoscere contigit summum oratorem Domitium Afrum," &c. l
This orator, however, dying in a.d. 59, Quinctilianus was trans-
ferred to the care of Servilius Nonianus. In a.d. 61, he probably
went into Spain with Galba. His employment not being of a
military nature, he might there have begun to teach oratory, and to
lay the foundation of that rhetorical celebrity which Galba after-
wards rewarded by appointing him to the Professor's chair at Ptome ;
this, moreover, would account for the names by which Ausonius
has mentioned him. However, in 68 he returned to Piorne, and
from this period we are to date the commencement of the twenty-
years which he speaks of having spent in tuition. 2 From this
employment, and from professional practice as a speaker, he retired
at the age of forty-six ; partly, perhaps, warned by the example of
Domitius Afer, who continued to appear in public after the day of
his reputation was passed, and partly because, under the reign of
Domitianus, he might wish to escape those disquietudes and
1 Inst. xii. 11.
Sec Martial, ii. 00.
MARCUS FABIUS QUINCTILIANUS. 415
anxieties of an orator's life which are mentioned by Maternus in Quinc-
the dialogue De Oratoribus. l In a.d. 89, Quinctilianns wrote his tlliunu«-
treatise, Be Camis corruptee Moquentice ; and between the years corruptee
92 and 96, he commenced, concluded, and published his celebrated Etoquentte.
work, Be histitutione oratorio,. In the proem of the sixth book, It^nTenstUil'
we find him lamenting in the language of sincere affection the death oratorid.
of his wife, whom he married in a.d. 82, and of two sons, whose
promising abilities and virtues are mentioned with parental fond-
ness. In 94 he married the daughter of Eutilius, and by her he
had a child, whose marriage portion was a present from Pliny 2 in
a.d. 107. How long Quinctilianus survived after this is doubtful.
We know that he rose to distinction and wealth. Flavius Clemens
had married a sister of Domitianus, and Quinctilianus was appointed
to superintend the education of their children : he might owe to
this connection the consular ornaments which Ausonius calls,
" Honestamenta nominis potius quam insignia potestatis." 3 There
is a learned note in Baylc's Dictionary tending to prove that the
pupils of Quinctilianus were grandchildren of Domitianus. Dod-
well conjectures that he might have assisted in the education of
Hadrianus, and have owed his promotion to that Emperor, who
was desirous of patronising literature and the arts. Juvenal
describes it as the gift of fortune deserved by merit : — " Fortunate,
handsome, keen ; fortunate and wise, noble and distinguished, he
has planted his foot in the senatorial shoe" : —
Unde igitur tot
Quinctilianus habct saltus ? exempla novorum
Patorum transi : fclix, et pulcher, et acer ;
Felix, ct sapiens, et nobilis et generosus,
Appositam nigra; lunam subtexit alutsc. — Sat. vii. 138.
The private character of Quinctilianus seems to have commanded
the respect and esteem of his contemporaries : 4 in his works he
appears a severe judge of licentious writings, 5 and speaks of him-
J self with modesty ; yet his flattery of Domitianus is gross and inex-
| disable, and in his lamentations over his domestic sorrows we see
that resignation to the will of Providence was not one of the lessons
he practised.
As a writer, Quinctilianus has great merit in systematic method, His qualities.
yet even here he falls short of Aristotle. Perhaps no scientific
treatise offers so good a specimen of beautiful arrangement as Aris-
totle's Rhetoric. The second book, moreover, displays an intimate
knowledge of human nature, a masterly analysis of the passions, a
development of their sources and their objects ; to which there is
i C 13. 2 Pliny, vi. 32.
3 [" Titular honours rather than signs of power.'" — Editor.']
4 Juv. vi. 75. Martial, ii. 90. 5 x. 1.
416
LITERATURE OF THE AGE OF THE ANTONINI.
Quinc- nothing comparable in Quinctilianus, in respect of depth and origi-
tilianus. na]ity Qf thought,
comparison If w^ compare Quinctilianus with Cicero, we may observe that,
with Cicero. as the object of the latter was to create among the Romans a literary
taste, that of the former was to correct a taste which had taken a
false direction. For this task he was well calculated : sound judg-
ment was one of his chief qualifications. His admiration is never
lavished on ordinary performances ; and though inferior writers
generally come in for a share of approbation proportionate to their
respective merits, yet the attention of the student is always directed
to the contemplation of the best models, so that the first lines of
thought may be correctly drawn. When he applies to Domitianus
this line of Virgil l —
Inter victrices hedcram tibi serpere Lauras,
we must esteem this as the flattery of the courtier, not the judg-
ment of the critic. Cicero's rhetorical works are deficient in
arrangement and method, yet had he left us nothing but these, they
would have stamped him as an eloquent writer. Quinctilianus, on
the other hand, is more copious and more methodical; he knew and
felt what eloquence was ; he delivered rules which would assist the
Roman student to attain it, and he rather teaches us to forge
weapons than, like Cicero, to employ them. Quinctilianus has,
indeed, some beautiful passages, and he writes pathetically respect-
ing his domestic sorrows in the introduction to the sixth book; yet
the details of the work are often minute even to prolixity.
One who was unacquainted with the works of the ancient
orators would learn from Quinctilianus how widely they differed
from the moderns, not only in vehemence of thought and express-
ion, but in the vehemence of action that attends it.2 The aid of
the comedian was called in to regulate, not only the modulation of
the voice, but the gestures of the body. The position of the
orator's person, and the adjustment of his dress, depended on rules
which seem to have been carried to a degree of minuteness almost
ludicrous. " Est et ille verecundre orationi aptissimus, quo
quatuor primis leviter in summum coeuntibus digitis, non procul
ab ore aut pectore fertur ad nos manus, ac deinde prona ac paulu-
lum prolata laxatur. Hoc modo cocpisse Demostheneni credo in
illo pro Ctesiphonte timido summissoque principio : sic formatam
Ciceronis manum quum diceret : ' Si quid est in me ingenii, judices,
quod sentio quam sit exiguum.' " 3
Ancient
Oratory.
1 JEn. x. 1.
dagger in the
House of Commons ; but this
• Burke once exhibited a
rhetorical artifice was a failure,
3 xi. 3. The position most suitable to a modest speech is that in which, the four
fingers slightly touching at the ends, the hand is drawn towards the face or breast of
1
MARCUS FABIUS QUINCTILIANUS. 417
We may observe, also, that the ancient orators, in their attempts Marom
to excite compassion, used means which would now appear ridicu- *$™_
lous ; employing, for instance, in a case of murder, a picture ' tiiianus.
representing the bloody deed, in order to move the judges by the
display of so tragical a spectacle ; or collecting the relations of the
dead, introducing them in squalid attire, and making them at a
signal throw themselves at the feet of the judges to implore justice
with tears and lamentations.2 Quinctilianus, in connection with
this subject, tells a jocose story of an advocate, who, on some such
occasion having introduced into court a young witness, and pro-
ceeding to ask why he wept, received for answer, " ex pa?dagogo se
vellicari," that his pedagogue was pinching him.
The whole work is valuable, as it tells us what were the elements
and the plan of a liberal education at Eome. When religion had
no literature, and philosophy little power apart from eloquence, it
was to be expected that public speaking would enter too much
into the established system of education, as in our times, perhaps,
it enters too little : besides, when imperial power checked or
prevented the free expression of thought, oratory was obliged to
take refuge in the courts of law and the schools of rhetoricians :
and a treatise professing to train for them would meet less of
suspicion and discouragement than if its avowed design were wider.
This may be an excuse for Quinctilianus where he attributes to
the orator many things which do not belong to him as stick. But
where he lays it down as a maxim that none but a good man can
be a good orator, neither the true theory of rhetoric nor the facts
of history will bear out the argument : " potior mihi ratio vivendi
honeste quam vel optime dicendi videretur, sed, mea quidem sen-
tential, juncta ista atque indiscreta sunt : neque enim esse oratorem
nisi bonum virum posse judico, et, fieri etiam si possit, nolo." 3
That a professor of great reputation should magnify his own
office, and a practised writer be enamoured of his own sub-
ject, is very natural ; but how could this opinion, expressed
in the first and second chapters of his work, and defended at
considerable length in the twelfth book, stand the test of his
own historical knowledge ? It was Caius Julius Ca3sar of whom
Plutarch says, " undoubtedly he was the second orator in Rome,
and he might have been the first, had he not rather chosen the
preeminence in arms. " The commendation of Quinctilianus
extends almost as far : " if Caius Csesar had had leisure for the
the speaker, then descends a little in advance, and is expanded. Thus I suppose
Demosthenes began his timid and modest exordium on behalf of Ctesiphon —
thus the hand of Cicero was managed when he said : u If there be any ability in
me, O judges — and how small it is I feel."
1 Quinct. vi. 1 . 2 See Hume, Essay 1 3 : Of Eloquence. 3 i. 2.
[r. l.] e e
418 LITERATURE OF THE AGE OF THE ANTONINI.
Marcus forum, no other would have been named as a match for Cicero :
Quin^ sucn was ms vig°urJ such his keenness and energy, that he seems
tiiianus. to have spoken with the same spirit with which he fought." l
So great an orator was the man in whom, when he was yet
a boy, the prophetic eye of Sylla saw a host of latent Marii :
such was the suspected and denounced partner in the con-
spiracy of Catiline, and the political abettor of Clodius. (Plutarch
in vit. C. Cfesaris.) The example of Mirabeau in modern times
bears on the present subject : he united splendid eloquence to
great depravity : as soon as he obtained a seat in the National
Assembly, he won the leadership of his party by his talents, and
kept it by his power of public speaking : in his character he was
somewhat like Csesar, not only in the influence which his eloquence
obtained, but in the personal audacity and reckless ambition with
which he made war on the existing constitution. Csesar established
an imperial despotism on the ruins of an out-worn republic :
Mirabeau helped to plant a tyrannical blood-thirsty republic on the
ruins of a vicious, proud, and pampered monarchy. If a political
agitator succeeds in crowning his head with a diadem, his enter-
prise is called a revolution ; if the same enterprise crowns the city
walls with his head, the attempt is rebellion, and he is a traitor.
Not, however, that even Pagan morality in sober earnest would
acknowledge this distinction : and we think the career of Caesar
and Mirabeau, and the example of some public men of the present
century, have set widely asunder what Quinctilianus thought insepa-
rable : " juncta ista atque indiscreta sunt ; ratio honeste vivendi et
optime dicendi."
Our author was too wise and too well-informed to advocate a
professional education in any narrow sense of that expression : he
would not train a future lawyer in nursery litigation, feed the mind
of the future sailor only on nautical books, and urge the young
aspirant after military honours to turn his garden into a fortifica-
tion. His work, operating on fit materials, would form a good
citizen of large and liberal knowledge, having his reasoning powers
disciplined by the mathematics, his imagination cultivated by
poetry, his memory stored with historical information, and his
taste exercised by philological and critical questions. It would be
the pupil's fault or misfortune if he had not much of that accuracy,
fullness, and readiness, which Lord Bacon expected from habits of
composition, study, and speaking. Those who write receipts are
privileged to take their materials for granted : accordingly Quinc-
tilianus provides the future orator with parents having a considerable
share of learning, a good voice and lungs, sound constitution,
some personal advantages, and a nurse whose dialect is unexception-
1 Quinct. x. 1.
MARCUS FABITJS QUINCTILIANUS. 419
able. Next in order, as the instrument of education, is the paeda- £Iar.cus
gogus — a sort of nursery-governor who is to communicate some Quinc-
elementary knowledge, as well as to guard the moral character : tlharius-
specially he is to correct any inaccurate or vulgar expressions, and
thus plant and preserve the future orator's purity of language. Greek
is among the earliest pursuits, and Latin, as a systematic study,
not only a conversational habit, is to follow speedily : much stress
is laid on acquiring early the art of writing rapidly and clearly.
Quinctilianus seems to look coldly on those who would mercifully
spare children much discipline till they were seven. Apparently he
would impress on parental minds the ancient proverb : — " Bis dat
qui cito dat " — " a gift is of double value if it is made soon." He
estimates highly the average of youthful ability, considering quick-
ness of thought and aptitude for learning the rule rather than the
exception. The experience which leads to this judgment is probably
rare as well as enviable.
When the Ptedagogus had performed his part, the pupil was
transferred to the Grammaticus, and afterwards to the Ehetor : the
limits of these departments of education were not very accurately
denned ; but we may understand the Grammaticus to be a classical
tutor occupying in his own right a larger space in the cycle of
literature than his name would imply, and often anxious to increase
his range of usefulness by incursions into the territory of his
superiors.1 He carried forward the previous lessons of taste and
criticism; he taught music, and the rhythm of harmonious elo-
quence, a habit of correct reading, and of repeating and explaining
fictitious tales and parts of history. With the Grammaticus were
read iEsop's Fables, Homer and Virgil, Tragic and Lyric poets, and
Menander.
The comparative advantages of public and private education
Quinctilianus decides in favour of the former ;2 the most successful
statesmen and the most eminent authors being, he says, on his
side : the moral difficulty he meets by pointing out a very obvious
but frequently forgotten truth, that the case must be a choice of
evils, and that a great part of those which are attributed to a
public school education (frequentise scholarum) are the effects of
the careless or corrupt system which preceded it at home. The
picture he draws of the social habits of the Romans of his time is
dark and discouraging. As to the discipline of mind and character
he observes, that one " who is to live in the full light of the state
must be accustomed early not to fear publicity, or shrink from
exertion in the shade of retirement : the collision of different
habits, dispositions, and talents is useful; so is that emulation
which can win honour without nourishing pride, and bear failure
1 ii. 1. 2 ii. 2.
E E 2
420 LITERATURE OF THE AGE OF THE ANTONINI.
Marcus without indulging either permanent discouragement or personal
Quhi". animosity towards a successful rival."
tiiianus, "We have thus gathered from the first book of Quinctilianus some
of the principles and some of the instruments which he recommended
for the discipline of the youthful Eoman from the nursery to the
school of the professor of rhetoric. They have proved their
vitality and power — we might add their value too — by the hold
which they still have on the English mind and character of the
nineteenth century. An analysis of the whole work would exceed
our reasonable limits : it has been said in our article on Rhetoric
that the finding of suitable arguments to prove a given point, and
the skilful arrangement of these, may be considered as the imme-
diate and proper province of Rhetoric, and of that alone. Quinc-
tilianus took a wider view, if not correctly, yet fortunately for us :
otherwise we should have lost the short critical sketch of Greek and
Latin authors which is found in the tenth book.
It is not easy to imagine a richer or more tempting subject to
one like Quinctilianus, whose early life had been passed in exten-
sive and various studies, and who found leisure in his later days to
examine, correct, and record his opinions, than a comparison of
Greek and Roman literature. In this discussion, as in the rest of
his work, he shows more of good taste than comprehensive or
commanding intellect. There is nothing like a full statement of
the characteristic differences of the Greek and Roman writers, or a
philosophical inquiry into the causes of this diversity : the praise
awarded might have been more discriminating, and the subject
treated at far greater length : some of the opinions expressed are
undoubtedly liable to objection j1 the commendation, for instance,
bestowed on Apollonius, " sequalis qusedam mediocritas," 2 is so
faint as to amount almost to a sentence of unmerited condemna-
tion : — the partial feelings of a Roman only would place Sallust
and Livy on the same level as historians with Thucydides and
Herodotus. — Terence and Plautus3 are too hastily dismissed with-
out any remarks on their peculiar merits, the true delineation of
nature observable in the former, to which the latter added a richer
vein of invention, and greater variety of character. But while we
regret that this part of the De Institutione Oratorid was not
expanded ; while we confess that to have seen this ample subject
more largely and more critically discussed would have compensated
for the omission of many of the rules and technicalities of the
schools of the rhetoricians ; while we may differ from Quinctilianus
in some of his opinions, we must remember that his judgment in
general has been ratified by posterity.
1 See CoplcstorTs Pi-cTlectiones Academics, Pixel. 10.
- " Equable mediocrity." 8 x. i.
1:21
EDITIONS, fcc., OF THE WOBKS OF AUTHORS OF THE
AGE OF THE ANTONINI.
MARCUS AURELIUS.
Editio Princeps. Xylander. (Gr. et Lat.) Tigur. 155S.
Casaubon, Lond. 1643.
Gataker. (Gr. et Lat.) Camb. 1652. This is an excellent edition of
the original, with ample notes and commentary, parallel passages, and
prolegomena. It was printed at London in 1613.
Stanhope. (Gr. et Lat.) Lond. 1707.
Wolf. (Gr. et Lat.) Lips. 1729.
Scliulz. (Gr. et Lat.) Sclilesw. 1S02. This recension is imperfect, one
volume only having been published.
Translations : — English : Casanbon. Lond. 1631. — Graves. Bath, 1702 ;
and Lond. 1811. — Collier. Lond. 1702. — An English translation
published at Glasgow in 1749 is respectable. French : Dacier. Tar.
1691. — Joly. Par. 1803. German: Schulz. Schlesw. 1799.
Italian : Anon. 1675.
LUCIAXUS.
In Sclioll, iv. 24S, there is a brief analysis of his several pieces, which is
given in Anthon's Lempriere. See also Wetzlare, Do ^Etate, Vita,
Scriptisque Luciani. Macb. 1S32. Gessner, De JEtat. de Auctore
Dialogi, qui PhUopatris inscribitur. Lips. 1730.
Editio Princeps. Folio. Flor. 1496.
Aldus. Folio. Ven. 1503, 1522.
Bourdelot, (Gr. et Lat.) Folio. Par. 1615.
Hemsterhuis. (Gr. et Lat.) 3 vols. 4to. Amst. 1743. To this excellent
edition of the original a fourth volume is added — viz., The Lexicon
Lucianeum, of C. R. Reitz. Ultraj. 1746. Not perfect.
Schinid, 8 vols. Mitau. 1776 — 1780. This is merely a reprint of the
former with the addition of notes. Another reprint (the Bipont ed.)
is in ten volumes, without the Lexicon.
Schmieder. 2 vols. Halle. 1810.
Lehmann. (Gr. etLat.) 9 vols. Lpz. 1S22— 1S31.
Fritzsche. Lpz. 1826.
Dindorf. Par. 1840.
Edit. Selec. Sevbold. Gotha. 17S5.— Wolf. Halle. 1791. — Gehich.
Gotting. 1797.
Gail. Par. 1806. (Dialogues of the Dead.)
Lehmann. Lpz. 1813,1826. (Dialogues of the Dead.)
Lehmann. Lpz. 1815. (Dialogues of the Gods.)
Poppo. Lp:s. 1817. (Dialogues of the Dead.)
422 EDITIONS, ETC., OF ANTONINIAN ROMAN AUTHORS.
Courier. Par. 1818. (Lucius, or the Ass.)
Grauff. Berne. 1836. (The Dream, or the Cock.)
Jacob. Halle. 1825. (Friendship.)
Jacob. Cologn. 1828. (Alexander, or the False Prophet.)
Translations : — English : Blount, Shere, Moyle, and others. Lond. 1711.
— Franklin, Dr., 2 vols. 4to. Lond. 1780. — Carr. 5 vols. 8vo. LoncL
1773— 1798.— Tooke. 2 vols. 4to. Lond. 1820. Containing the
Commentaries of Wieland and others. Besides these there are trans-
lations by F. Hickes, about 1654 ; by Dr. Mayne, in 1664 ; and by
Spence, in 1684. French: D'Ablancourt. 2 vols. 4to. Par. 1654.
— Belin de Ballu. 6 vols. Par. 1788. The latter is the better
translation of the two versions named. German : Wieland. 6 vols.
Lpz. 1788.
Works illustrative of Lucian's writings include : — Jortin's Remarks. Tracts.
1790. — Porson. Tracts by Kidd. Lond. 1815. — Tiemann. Versuch
iiber Lucians, &c. Zerbst. 1804. — Krebsius. Vide Opuscula Aca-
demica. Lips. 1778.
PAUSANIAS.
Editio Princeps. Aldus. (Itinerary. Ed. M. Musurus.) Fol. Ven. 1516.
Xylander et Sylburgius (with Notes). Fol. Frankf. 1583. This edition
contains a Latin Version by Romolo Amaseo.
Kiihnius. (Gr. et Lat.) Fol. Lpz. 1696. An excellent edition.
Facius. (Gr. et Lat.) 4 vols. Lpz. 1794—1797.
Bekker. 2 vols. Berl. 1826.
Siebelis. (Gr. et. Lat.) 5 vols. Lpz. 1822-^1828.
Schubert et Walz. (Gr. et Lat. Text, critical.) 3 vols. Lips. 1839.
Translations : — English : Taylor. 3 vols, (with maps and views). Lond.
1793. French: Clavier (and others). 6 vols. Par. 1814—1820.
German: Goldhagen. 5 vols. Berl. 1798. — Wiedasch. 4 vols.
Mun. 1826—1829.
JULIUS POLLUX.
Editio Princeps. Aldus. Fol. Ven. 1502.
Junta. Fol. Flor. 1520.
Seber. Francf. 1608. This edition contains the Latin version of Walther.
Lederlin et Hemsterhuis. 2 vols, folio. Amst. 1706. This is a fine
edition, cum notis variorum. See Fabricius's Bibl. Grcec.
Translation : — Latin. Walther. Bas. 1541.
AULUS GELLIUS.
Editio Princeps. Sweynheym et Pannartz (printers). Ed. J. Andreas,
Aleriensis. Fol. Rom. 1469. Reprinted in 1472, at same place.
Jenson. Fol. Ven. 1472.
Stephens. With notes, emendations, and two dissertations. Par. 1585.
Elzevir, L. Amst. 1651.
Elzevir, D. Amst. 1665.
Gronovius. Lugd. Bat. 1666, 1687, et 1706.
EDITIONS, ETC., OF ANTOXINIAN ROMAN AUTHORS. 423
Conradi. 2 vols. Lpz. 1762. This edition, the Bipont, and that of
Longolius, are reprints of Gronovius's.
Lion. 2 vols. Gott. 1824. Esteemed the best.
Translations : — English : Beloe. Illustrated with notes. 3 vols. LoncL
Oct. 1795. French: Verteuil. 3 vols. Par. 1789. German:
Wallenstern. Lemgo. 1785.
CLAUDIUS GALENUS.
Editt. Prince. Aldus. (Ed. Andre d'Asola.) 5 vols. fol. 1525.— Cratander,
Printer. (Ed. Gemusams.) 5 vols. fol. Bas. 1538. These two
editions contain the Greek text alone. The latter edition is more
correct than the former one.
Chartier. (Gr. et Lat.) 13 vols. fol. Par. 1679. The first volume of
Chartier's edition appeared in 1639. He died in 1654, when only nine
volumes had appeared. His son-in-law published the remaining four,
the last of which bears date 1679. This edition comprehends Hippo-
crates also.
Kiihn. (Gr. et.Lat.) 20 vols. Par. 1816.
Translations : — German : Noldecke. Oldb. 1805. The first volume has
only been published. Latin : Frobenius. Bas. 1541 et 1562. The
latter edition contains a Preface well written by Conradus Gesnerus.
LUCIUS APULEIUS.
There is a Delphin edition of Apuleius ; one on a smaller scale, with notes
on the Metamorphoseon by Beroaldus; and one without notes, but
containing a prefatory dissertation and emendations of the text by
Wower. Casaubon has published notes on the Apologia, and Josias
Mercer on the Treatise De Deo Socratis.
Editio Princeps. Sweynheym et Pannartz. (Ed J. Andrea.) Rom. 1469.
Floridus. (Fleury.) 2 vols. Par. 1688.
Oudendorp et Boscha. 3 vols. Leyd. 1786—1823.
The Bipont edition in 2 vols. 1788.
Hildebrand. Lips. 1842. Hildebrand commenced this edition, and
completed the first volume.
Translations : — English : Monde. Lond. 1724. — Taylor. Lond. 1795.- —
Anonymous. (Cupid and Psyche, in verse.) Lond. 1799. — Taylor.
(The Golden Ass.) Lond. 1822. French : Abbe* Compain de St
Martin (retouchee par Bastien). Par. 1787. — Blanvillain. (Psyche.)
Par. 1796. German: Rode. (Ass.) 2 vols. Berl. 1690.—
Linker. (Psyche, in verse.) Jen. 1805.
ATHEIOSUS.
Editio Princeps. Aldus. (Musurus, assistant ed.) Fol. Ven. 1514.
Bedrotus et Herlinus. Fol. Bas. 1535.
Delacampius. (Lat. 1st vol.) Lug. 1583. The second volume was not
printed till 1600, to which Casaubon's commentary was added.
Casaubon. (Gr. et Lat., with a commentary.) 2 vols. fol. Gen. 1597 —
1600.
424 EDITIONS, ETC., OF ANTOtflNIAN ROMAN AUTHORS.
Schweighauser. (Gr. et Lat.) 14 vols. Argent. 1801—1807. The
commentary to this edition is exceedingly valuable.
Dindorf. 3 vols. Lips. 1827.
Translations: — French: Marolles. Par. 1680. — Villebrune. 5 vols.
Par. 1789.
MAXIMUS TYRIUS.
Edd. Prince. Paccius, Petrus. (Lat. ed. Cosmus Paccius.) Fol. Rom.
1517, et Basil. 1519.
Stephanus. (Gr. et Lat.) 2 vols. Par. 1557.
Heinsius. (Gr. et Lat.) Leyd. 1607 et 1614.
Davis. Camb. 1703. This edition, revised by Dr. "Ward, and illustrated
with notes by Markland, was reprinted in 4 to, in London, 1740.
MARCUS FABIUS QUINCTILIANUS.
The manuscript of Quinctilianus was found in the bottom of a tower of
the monastery of St. Gal, by Poggius, as appears by one of his letters
dated 1417, written from Constance.
Edd. Prince. Burmann. (De Inst. Orat.) 2 vols. Lugd. Bat. 1720.
The same author has also edited the Declamationes Quinctiliani ; but
since the critics have decided that neither these nor the treatise called
Dialogus de Oratoribus are the work of Quinctilianus, it is needless to
make particular mention of them here. — Capperomus. (De Inst.
Or.) Fol. Par. 1725.— Rollin. (De Inst. Orat.) 2 vols. Par. 1734.
— Gessner. Gott. 1738.
Schulze. (De Causis corr. Eloq.) Lpz. 1788. Other editions have also
appeared.
Spalding. (De Inst. Orat.) 4 vols. Lpz. 1798 — 1816. Zumpt has pub-
lished an additional volume, viz. — V., Notes and Index ; and Bonnelli
has added a sixth — VI., Lexicon Quinctilianium.
Lilnemann. 2 vols. Han. 1826.
Translations : — English : Warr. (Declamations.) Lond. 1686. — Guthrie.
(De Inst. Orat.) 2 vols. Lond. 1756.— Patsall. (Ditto.) Lond. 1774.
— Melmoth. (On Eloquence.) Lond. 1754. — Murphy. (Ditto.)
In his translation of Tacitus. 4 vols. Lond. 1793. French :
Abbe Gedoyn. (De Inst. Orat.) Par. 1718. Also in 4 vols. 12mo,
in 1803. German : Hen eke. (De Inst. Orat.) 3 vols. Helmst.
1775.— Nast. (De Causis, &c.) Halle. 1787.
POST-ANTONINIAN PROSE WRITERS.
EEV. HENET THOMPSON, M.A.
1ATE SCHOLAR OF SI. JOH>'.S COLLEGE, CAMUBIDGE ; CUHATE OF WkHTOTOlT, SOMERSET.
POST-ANTONINIAN PROSE WKITEES.
SPARTIANUS
VULCATIUS
TREBELLIUS POLLIO
VOPISCUS .
LAMPRIDIU3
JULIUS CAPITOLINUS
MAMERTINUS MAJOR
EUMENIUS
NAZARIUS
MAMERTINUS MINOR
DREPANIUS
: Historic Augustse Scriptores."
" Panegyrici Veteres.
FLOURISHED
ABOUT
A.D. 300.
A.D.
A.D.
360.
390.
AURELIUS VICTOR A.D. 370.
EUTROPIUS DIED ABOUT A.D. 370.
SYMMACHUS FLOURISHED ABOUT A.D. 390.
AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS A.D. 400.
OROSIUS DIED A D. 417.
CASSIODORUS .... LIVED FROM A.D. 463 TO ABOUT 563.
BOETHIUS FLOURISHED ABOUT A.D. 510.
Ruins of Rome.
POST-ANTONINIAN PROSE WRITERS.
In our last chapter on Latin Poetry we have adverted to the Fail of Latin
causes which accelerated the fall of the entire literature after its 1>rose
culmination in the reign of Augustus. These causes must have
left enduring results, even had they ceased to operate ; but not
only did they continue active, — they increased in intensity.
Christianity, indeed, in some degree checked their operation ; but
its effects were, as might be expected, less considerable on prose
than on poetry. The language had become essentially corrupt, and
the invasions of barbarians destroyed at once the means and oppor-
tunities of literary culture. Under these circumstances, it is only
wonderful that there should be so many names of literary note to
be recorded under the Lower Empire. But, though authors were
numerous, style and matter had materially deteriorated.
The most extensive field of post-Antoninian literature, especially uistory.
if we include lost writers as well as extant, is History. But the
circumstances of the times, whether we regard language, fidelity, or
428 POST-ANTONINIAN PROSE WRITERS.
History. interest, were singularly unfavourable to this province of literature.
"Fear, hypocrisy, disregard of truth, were the natural characteristics
of the historian ; the rather, because he generally chose his subject
from his own times, or nearly so, and wrote what was actually
or virtually biographical. Investigation was too dangerous to be
attempted.
The most celebrated work of this kind and time is the collec-
tion now extant, under the title Historic Augusta Scriptores.
Lost But before these biographers flourished, a cloud of writers, of whom
Biographies. we know little more than the names, are recorded ; some of whom
were the sources drawn on by the Augustan biographers. The
Emperor Severus wrote the history of his own time, and under him
lived the historian iElius Maurus ; Lollius Urbicus flourished under
Macrinus and Heliogabalus ; Aurelius Philippus was preceptor and
biographer of Alexander Severus ; the latter office was also that of
Encolpius ; these were succeeded by Gargilius Martialis and
Marius Maximus ; the latter wrote the life of Trajan and his
successors, as far as Heliogabalus ; Junius (or iElius) Cordus wrote
lives of some of the Caesars; Fabius Marcellinus composed a
biography of Trajan and others ; iElius Sabinus flourished under
Maximian ; Vulcatius Terentius wrote a biography of the Emperor
Gordian ; and Curius Eortunatianus, one of Maximus ; Mceonius
Astyanax, Palfurnius Sura, Ccelestinus, and Acholius wrote under
Gallienus and his successors ; Julius Aterianus, and Gallus Anti-
pater, under the Thirty Tyrants; Aurelius Eestivus under Aurelian;
Suetonius Optatianus, and Gellius Fuscus, under Tacitus ; One-
simus under Probus ; Fabius Cerilianus, Aurelius Apollinaris, and
Fulvius Asprianus, under Cams and his sons ; Asclepiodotus, and
Claudius Eusthenius, under Diocletian. The latter of these two wrote
the lives of several emperors ; the former, that of Diocletian only,
iiistoria From some of these authors, whose names the method of our work,
Augusta. rather than any substantive advantage to be derived from recording
them, induces us to set down, was, in great measure, produced the
collection to which we have before adverted. It consists of a
series of imperial biographies, by six several writers, ranging from
Hadrian to Carus and his sons, both ways inclusive, and comprising
a period exceeding 160 years. The absence of Nerva and Trajan
from this collection is attributed to the imperfection of MSS., to
which cause, also, may be referred the want of the Philips, the
Decii, and a part of Valerian. The Histories Augusta Scriptores
were collected in their present form and order very early ; and,
probably, at Constantinople. The book is, apparently, a selection
from a great mass of similar materials ; and, therefore, bids fair to
be a good specimen of its class. At the same time, as we neither
know the editor, nor his principle of selection, we cannot be sure
that he has preserved the most authentic materials to his hand ;
POST-ANTONINIAN PROSE WRITERS. 429
while, if such be really the ease, no better evidence could be needed Historia
of the degradation of historical composition under the Lower Au-usla-
Empire, whether we regard the Latinity, or the authorities with
which these writers were avowedly contented. With all their
faults, however, they are of great absolute value, affording informa-
tion which we can obtain from no other sources.
jElii's Spakti axis, the first of these writers, flourished under ^Jg
Diocletian. He designed to write the lives of all the Caesars and 'lul
their families, from Julius downwards;1 those, however, attributed
to his pen are Hadrian, JFJius Yerus, Didius Julianas, Septimius
Severus, Pesoennius Niger, Caracalla, and Geta. The two first of
these are of undisputed genuineness, and their authority is regarded
as superior to that of the rest. The lives of Didius Julianas and
Septimus Severus are attributed by Dodwell to Lampridius ; and
the rest to Julius Capitolinus ; to whom Musgrave also attributes
the life of Geta — a composition which Casaubon and Heyne had
already inferred, from dissimilarity of style, to be spurious.
Some MSS., however, attribute to this author the lives ascribed to
Lampridius ;- and, further, those of the Antonines, Yerus, Macrinus,
Pertinax, and Albums, commonly attributed to Capitolinus ; and
the life of Avidius Cassius, generally regarded as the work of the
second writer of the Augustan history, Yulcatius GALLicANrs,vuicatius
contemporary of Spartianus, and who was no less ambitious in his Galllcanus-
historical plans ; but who, if this piece be not his, has left us nothing.
The third of the Augustan historians, Teebellius Pollio, Trebeffiua
flourished under Diocletian and Constantine the Great, or his father, 1>olll°'
Constantius, only. He wrote the lives of the emperors from Philip
to Divus Claudius, and his son, Quinctillus ; but we possess those
only of the Valerians, the Gallieni, the Thirty Tyrants, and Divus
Claudius. The last two were revised on account of the accusations
which were made against him by his contemporaries.
Flavius VoPISCUS, fourth of the Augustan historians, flourished Flavins
under Constantine the Great. He was a Syraeusan, and his family v°inscus-
bad been on terms of intimacy with Diocletian. His life of Aurelian
vvas written at the desire of Junius Tiberianus, prsefect of Home,
vho assisted him with oilieial materials. Afterwards he wrote the
ives of Tacitus, Florian, Probus, Firmus, Saturninus, Proculus,
Bonosus, Cams, Numerian, Carinus. He contemplated a life of
Apollonius of Tyana,3 which, however, he does not appear to have
xecuted. His work, in method, arrangement, and historical aim,
s superior to those of his fellow biographers.
^Elius Lampuidius, though placed after Yopiscus in the collec- Lampridius.
ion, wrote before him, and was one of those writers whom he
1 JELVcrus, 1.
- Hence, by Salmasius anil others, these authors are identified under the name
f iElius Lampridius Spartianus. 3 Aurelian, 24.
430
POST-ANTOXINIAN PROSE WRITERS.
Dares.
Aurelius
Victor.
Lampridius. assumed as a model. By some, as we have seen, he is identified
with Spartianus. His works are the lives of Commodus, Diadu-
menus, Heliogabalus, and Alexander Severus.
Capitoiinus. Julius Capitolinus flourished under Diocletian and Constantine
the Great. He wrote the lives of the Antonines, Yerus, Pertinax,
Albinus, Macrinus, two Maximins, three Gordians, Maxim us, and
Balbinus. Some of these, as we have seen, have been attributed to
Spartianus. His other works are lost.
Contemporary with these writers, if his dedication be genuine,
Septimius. which is doubtful, was Q. Septimius, whom we mention among
the historians for convenience only. His theme is the Trojan war ;
and his work professes to be a translation from a MS. found in the
sepulchre of Dictys, the companion of Idomeneus. The title is Be
Bello Trojano, or Ephemeris Belli Trojani. The work is in six
books. This history, together with another of uncertain date,
probably much later, the Historia Excidii Trojce, professedly trans-
lated from the Greek of Dares, the Phrygian, was, like the so-
called Pindar us Thebanus,1 one of the sources whence the writers oi
the middle ages drew materials for their favourite subject, the wars
of Troy.
Sextus Aurelius Victor, an African of humble parentage,
who was raised by the Emperor Julian to the dignity of Governor
of Pannonia Secunda, and by Theodosius the Great afterwards
elevated to that of Prefect of Eome, is the reputed author of the
following works : — 1. Origo Gentis Romance, of which we possess
a small portion only, containing an account of the foundation o!
the city. This work has been also attributed to AscoNiue
Pedianus, and by some regarded as a production of the oth oi
6th, and even as a forgery of the 15th century. II. Be Viru
Illiistribns Romce. A biographical series, from the time of the
Kings, attributed sometimes to Cornelius Nepos, to Suetonius, anc
to the younger Pliny. III. Be Ccesaribus Historice abbreviates Pan
altera. A compendious history extending from the conclusion o:
Livy's work to the 10th consulship of Constantius and Julian
1Y. Be Vita et Moribus Tmperatorum Roman or urn. This worl
embraces the biography of the emperors from Augustus to Theo-
dosius. It is not properly the production of Victor, thougt
modelled on a work of his by a writer of the 5th century, namec
Victor Junior or Victorinus.
Eutropius. Plavius Eutropius wrote a history intituled Breviariun
Historic? Romance, in ten books, from the building of Eome to th<
reign of Valens. Little is known of his life, and even his praenomei
is not certain. He was, however, private secretary to Constantint
the Great ; he accompanied Julian into Persia, and was living ii
the reign of Valens. He died, probably, about the year 370
1 Seep. 197.
POST-ANTONINIAN PROSE WRITER-. 431
His work was composed at the instance of the last emperor. It Eutoptas.
is derived from authoritative sources, or from materials to which
we have no other access. His free, calm, and moderate estimate
of contemporary men and events, especially in such a period,
speaks well for his credibility ; and his style, though not unblemished
by the faults of his time, is free from affected embellishments, and
flowrs clear and simple ; so that even to the present day his work
has always been in great request, as a text-book for schools ; a
circumstance which, at an early period, produced two Greek trans-
lations of it, by Capito Lycius and Pceanius respectively.
Contemporary with Eutropius was Sextus Rufus, or Eestus Rufus.
Rufus, or Sextus Rufus Festus. Of him we only know that he
wrote, at the instance of Valens, a Breviarium Berum gestarum
Populi Remain : a title which, however, is varied in some MSS. :
and also a topographical sketch of the principal buildings and
monuments of Rome, intituled Be Regionibus Urbis Ron/re. The
latter is commonly found in company with a work of like subject
and title by Publius Victor, and an anonymous Libellus Provinc-
iarum Romanorum of the age of Theodosius. The genuineness of
the writings attributed to Rufus and Victor is, however, disputed.
Ammianus Marcellinus, a Greek by extraction, and a native, Ammiamu
apparently, of the Eastern empire, wrrote in the reigns of Valens, Marcellinus.
Valentinian, and Theodosius. In his youth he had devoted himself
to scientific studies ; afterwards he entered the army under Con-
stantius, accompanied Julian on his Persian expedition, and took
an active part in the wTars which the subsequent emperors wraged in
Germany, Gaul, and the East. In later life he retired to Kome to
devote himself to the study and composition of history. His
w7ork was intituled Berum Gestarum Libri XXXI. ; and comprised the
history of the empire from Nerva to Valens, both inclusive. The
first thirteen books, which brought events down to the year 352,
are lost ; but the more important portion, because that which
contains the facts of which he was himself a wdtness, have been
fortunately preserved. Still the loss of his early history is much
to be regretted, as we have every reason to believe it would have
been a far better continuation of Tacitus than that which is supplied
by all the intermediate historians. The language of this writer is
not only marked by the impurities of his time; it is manifestly
foreign, and rendered less intelligible by rhetorical artifice, and
affectation of the style of Tacitus : but the matter is singularly
valuable ; the historian is evidently a man of integrity, impartiality,
intelligence, observation, and reflection : and, had he lived in a
happier literary period, would have enjoyed the reputation to
which his diligence and perspicacity entitle him. To many editions
of this writer are appended Excerpta vetera cle Constantino C/rforo,
Constantino magno, et aliis Imperatoribus : also, Excerpta ex Libris
432 POST-ANTONINIAN PROSE WRITERS.
Chronicorum de Odoacre et Tkeodorico, Regibus Italics. The author-
ship of these pieces is uncertain.
Orosius. Paulus Orosius, of Tarragona, was a Christian priest, and
took active part in the polemics of his day. In the year 4] 3 he
visited S. Augustin, in Africa, and was by him sent forward to
S. Jerom, in Palestine, but afterwards returned to Africa, and was
eventually buried at Eome. By the advice of S. Augustin, who
was anxious to confute the heathen objection that the calamities of
the empire were owing to the prevalence of Christianity, and to the
consequent displeasure of the neglected and dishonoured gods, he
wrote his Historiarum Libri VII. adversus Paganos.1 This work,
which records the history of the world from the creation to
a.d. 417, is supplied from all sources which came to the author's
hand, especially from Holy Scripture, and Justin's abbreviation,
and digested according to the chronology of Eusebius. The object
is steadily kept in view ; and this, together with the fidelity of the
history, and the clearness, considering the period, of the style,
obtained for Orosius great popularity and extension during the
middle ages : our own great Alfred not having disdained to translate
Suipicius tlris author into Anglo-Saxon. About the same period Sulpicius
sevens. Severe s, a priest and recluse of Aquitain, wrote his Sacred History,
or Narrative of Jewish and Christian Events, his Life of S. Martin,
his Dialogues, and some Letters.
Oratory. While history was degenerating virtually and essentially into
panegyric, oratory was becoming such literally and formally. We
possess a collection of twelve of these panegyrics, dating about
200 years later than that of Pliny, commonly known by the general
title of Panegyrici Veteres. The first two of these are by
Claudius Claudius Mamertinus, a Gallic orator. Of these two the first
Maj£r.rtinus was pronounced at Treves on the 21st April, a.d. 298, and is
occupied with the praises of Maximian and his colleague Diocle-
tian; the second was pronounced in the year 291 or 292 on the
birthday of the same emperor. The four next orations are the
Eumenius. work of Eumexius, of Autun, a rhetorician of Greek descent. Of
these the first is intituled Pro instaurendis ScJwlis Augustodunensibus,
pronounced in the year 296, a sort of inaugural lecture on his
assumption of his function of teacher at Autun, and the subject of
education. The title of the second is Panegyricus Constantino
Ccesari receptd Britannia dictus, dating about 297 ; a congratulatory
address on the part of the city to the emperor on his conquests in
liritain. The third is a birthday congratulation to Constantine,
1 In some MSS. an extraordinary title of this work occurs : — De Orchestra
Mundi, or Ormestd, or Hormestd. All kinds of corrections have been suggested.
The first of these readings is most probably the true. The history represents the
world as the theatre on which man's vice and folly, and the sole remedial power of
Christianity, are exhibited.
POST-ANTONINIAN PROSE WRITERS. 433
spoken at Treves about a.d. 310. The last, which dates a.d. 311, Eumenius.
is designated Gratiarum Actio Constantino Augusto Flaviensium
nomine. It expresses the gratitude of the people of Autun for
various favours received from Constantine, and was pronounced at
Treves, whither Eumenius was especially delegated for the purpose.
Eumenius is the least laudatory of these writers, and his speeches,
though no models of eloquence, are not destitute of historical
value. Two of the orations in this collection are of uncertain
authorship : the Panegyricus Maximiano et Constantino dictus,
on the marriage of Constantine with Eausta, the daughter of
Maximian, which appears to have been pronounced at Treves about
a.d. 307 ; and the Panegyricus Constantino Augusto dictus, spoken
at Treves a.d. 313, after the defeat of Maxentius. The latter,
from its description of the war, has some historical value.
Nazarius, teacher of rhetoric at Bourdeaux, is the author of a Nazarius.
panegyric addressed to Constantine at Rome in the year 321, more
moderate in its laudations, and more expressive in its language,
than most specimens of this collection. The tenth oration in the col-
lection bears the name of Mamertinus ; who is not, however, to be Mamertinu*
confounded with the first panegyrist of that name, as their works date Minor-
seventy years apart. This oration was delivered in the year 362,
and is intituled Pro Consulatu Gratiarum Actio Juliano Augusto.
The eleventh is by Latinus Pacatus Drepanitjs, of Bourdeaux Drepanius.
or Agen, the poetical friend of Atjsonius, and contains a congratu-
lation to the emperor Theodosius on the overthrow of. Maximus,
spoken at Rome a.d. 391. It is composed after the best models,
and is valuable intrinsically, and still more so historically. The
twelfth of these panegyrics is in verse, by the poet Elavitjs
Cresconius Corippus, to whom we have adverted in the close of Corippus.
our account of the classical Latin poetry.
Beside this collection, Ausonitjs has left us a panegyric on Ausonius.
Gratian, in the shape of a speech of thanks on receiving the
consulship, delivered about a.d. 380; and we have another from
the pen of Magnus Eelix Ennodius, bishop of Pavia, on the Ennodius.
exploits of Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, spoken about
a.d. 507. Of Symmachus we shall speak under the letter-writers.
Rhetoricians, under the Lower Empire, were numerous. Aquila Rhetoric.
Romantjs, who lived between the times of Hadrian and Con- Romanus.
stantine, wrote Be Figuris Sententiarum et Mocutionis, — a title
which was afterwards adopted by Julius Rufinianus, as it had been
borrowed by Aquila from Rutilius Lupus, the Augustan rhetorician.
Aquila's work appears to have been modelled on the Greek treatise
of Numenius. Under Alexander Severus flourished Julius Erontinus,
Basvius Macrinus, Julius Gratianus. In the year 360, C. Marius
Victorinus, the preceptor of S. Jerom, came from Africa to Rome,
where he embraced Christianity. We are indebted to Angelo Mai
[r. l.] f f
431
POST-ANTONIXIAN PllOSE WRITERS.
Rhetoric . for the discovery of several writings of this author. He was a
philosopher as well as a rhetorician, and defended his religion
against the objections of the heathen philosophers. His rhetorical
work is a commentary on Cicero's Be Inventione ; in two books,
which Boethius, in his commentary on the Topica, accuses of
prolixity and tediousness ; faults from which himself is not free.
To the labours of Mai we are further indebted for the discovery of
a MS. of C. Julius Victor, a Gallic rhetorician, intituled Ars
Rlietorica, Ilermagorm, Ciceronis, Quinctiliani, Marcomanni, Tatiani,
Feliciter ; and for the Speculatio de Rhetorics Cognatione and
Locorum Rhetoricorum Distinctio, of Boethius. Other rhetorical
writers will be found in the collections of Pithceus and Capperonner.
Letters. The later ages of Roman literature furnish us with some letter-
writers, who modelled their correspondence on that of purer times,
with a view, apparently, to publication. One of the most famous of
symmachus. these was Q. Aurelius Symmachus, son of Lucius Aurelius Avianus
Symmachus. He was carefully educated by his father, who was
senator and prafectus urbi. In a.d. 373 he was appointed pro-
consul of Africa; he was praefectus urbi in 384, consul in 391. He
died in the beginning of the Vth century. He was a man of great
acquirements and severe patriotism, which led him to persecute the
Christians, as enemies of the empire. He was distinguished as an
orator ; and Angelo Mai has discovered fragments of eight orations,
which, nevertheless, are of more historical and political than literary
value. His principal works, however, are letters, which have been
collected into ten books. These are less to be considered as specimens
of contemporary Latinity than as elaborate studies after classical
originals, especially Pliny ; but their chief value consists in the infor-
mation they afford on legal and political matters, on the relations of
Christianity to heathenism, and the internal dissensions of both
parties. His Xth book contains his official correspondence with his
imperial masters. The fifty-fourth letter of this book, recommending
the re-erection of the altar of Victory, called forth the protest of
S. Ambrose, and Prudentius's poem, Contra Symmachum.
Meropius Pontius Anicius Paulintjs, Bishop of Nola,
already mentioned in our poetical department, left, at his death in
431, a collection of fifty-one letters. Part of the letters of his
friend Ausonius are in prose ; and C. Sollius Apollinaris Modestus
Sidonius, adverted to in the poetical division of our work, has left a
collection of letters, in nine books. He was a distinguished person
in literature and in the Church ; born in the year 428, and
consecrated Bishop of Clermont in 473, in which dignity he died
about the year 484. His letters, manifesting more of the decline
of the language than those of his predecessors, are valuable for the
information which they afford us respecting contemporary events
and society, especially among the higher orders in Gaul. He is
8. Paulinus.
Sidonius
Apollinaris.
POST-ANTONINIAN PItOSE WRITERS. 435
succeeded as a letter-writer by Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus, or Caniodoras.
Cassiodorius, born at Scyllacium, in Bruttia, about a.i>. 468, of
an ancient Eoman family. His father and grandfather were
eminent as statesmen in war and peace ; and his talents and varied
education soon raised him to distinction in the court of Theodoric,
whose private secretary, or prime minister, he became. Under the
successors of that prince he continued to conduct the affairs of the
Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy, with consummate wisdom and skill.
In the year 538, he retired from public life into a cloister, where he
died at an advanced age, not far from 100. Here he composed
various historical, grammatical, and theological works. His letters,
however, were written while in the activity of business. The ten
first of the twelve books are in the name of the reigning prince ; the
two last in his own. They form, of course, an important element
of Ostrogothic history, and attest the continual decline, notwith-
standing the erudition of their writer, of the literary Latin.
No study had more deteriorated under the Lower Empire than Philosophy.
that of Philosophy. To this result two causes manifestly con-
tributed— the decay of literature itself, at once cause and effect of
an intellectual torpidity, incompatible with philosophical specu-
lation ; and the spread of Christianity, which, by substituting
certainty for scepticism, and authority for conjecture, superseded,
in the minds of the learned and reflective, the old philosophical
theories. The Eastern Church continued to philosophise, while
acknowledging the supremacy of the Gospel ; but the Western
Christians, less imaginative and metaphysical, regarded philosophy,
for the most part, as a guide which had done its work, and handed
over its function to faith. Arnobius, Lactantius, and S. Augustine,
are numbered among the Latin philosophers ; but their philosophy
was altogether a very different thing from the speculations of the
Alexandrian school. It was avowedly and distinctly Christian, and
in manifest antagonism to everything heathen. The philosophical
authority, however, of the last of these illustrious men has always
been of high consideration in the Church, and, in the middle ages, was
almost supreme ; and opinions, which he was the first to promulgate,
or, at least, to systematise, have had their influence, greater or less, in
almost every Christian community.
One name, referred, perhaps properly, to the class of gram-
marians, may, however, yet deserve notice in this place — that of
Aurelius Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius, a writer of the Ma^robiu-
time of Theodosius the Younger, concerning whom nothing further
| is known with certainty. His commentary on Cicero's Somnium
Scipionis, and his seven books of Saturnalia> are highly valuable.
The first of these works may be regarded as an illustration of the
philosophy of the New Platonists, besides containing much curious
and important matter on ancient cosmography and philosophy. The
ff2
436
POST-ANTONINIAN PROSE WRITERS.
Philosophy.
Booth ius.
Saturnalia are more within the province of the grammarian,
resembling the work of Aulus Gellius, and affording ns valuable
information with regard to lost writers, especially, as we have seen,
to the extensive plagiarisms of Virgil. Macrobius, also, has left a
treatise on the relations of the Greek verb to the Latin. But the
only name, perhaps, worthy of distinct notice in this place, as a
purely philosophical writer, is that of Anicius Manlius Tor-
auATUS Severus Boethitjs, or Boetius. He was born about
a.d. 470, and descended from a distinguished family. Though he
lost his father early, it appears that he was carefully educated, and
deeply versed in Greek literature, especially the philosophical
writers, of which number he translated into Latin, Plato, Aristotle,
Euclid, Ptolemy, and others ; besides writing commentaries on
other philosophers. He was raised by Theodoric, in the year
510, to the dignity of consul; and the prosperity and tranquillity
which Italy enjoyed under his government testified honourably to
his prudence and diligence. During his absence from Kome,
however, on one occasion, his enemies contrived, on various
groundless and even absurd charges, to bring him under the
displeasure of the Gothic king. On these accusations he was by
the senate condemned to death ; but the king mitigated the sentence
to imprisonment at Pavia. Ultimately, however, he was executed.
In his captivity he composed his renowned treatise Be Consolation?
Philosophic, which not only proved, as he intended it, a comfort to
himself, but has been a refreshment to many lonely sufferers ; and
is, in particular, interesting to Englishmen, as the bosom book of
their Alfred in his most trying vicissitudes, and the study of Elizabeth
in her prison, and translated by both these sovereigns into the
vernacular of their day. Although a large proportion is in verse
(larger, indeed, than appears to have been the case in the Yarronian
satire), and we have, therefore, adverted to Boethius among the
poets, his treatise is in no sense a poem ; the metrical parts having
been, apparently, written with the view of relieving the monotony
of his task, which, under the circumstances, must have acquired
every alleviation.
Boethius was the last, although by no means the least, of Koman
literary writers ; indeed, his times and opportunities considered, he
is entitled to a very high position among them. We have works
after his time, chiefly grammatical ; but we refer our readers for
the titles of these, as well as for those of the Lower Empire
generally, to our list of editions ; as, in a work of this nature, they
could only be mentioned. The revival of classical studies in the
time of Charlemagne no more belongs to this history than the more
extensive similar phenomenon of the XVth century. The writers on
jurisprudence are to be classed rather with their science than with
general literature ; and the Ecclesiastical Fathers belong rather to
POST-ANTONINIAN PEOSB WEITEES.
437
theology than to composition, notwithstanding the high literary BoWhiut.
claims of some of their number ; for there is not in prose writers,
as in poets, a new living school of literary Latin in the Church.
The language, in some degree, even to our day, is that of the
clergy, of the tribunals, of learned corporations and individuals ;
but it is not in this view that it is regarded in these pages. With
the exceptions noticed, and that of Church poetry, which had a life
of its own, the Latin writers after Boethius have no claim to special
notice in a compendious history of Roman literature.
438
EDITIONS, &c., OF THE POST-ANTONINIAN
PEOSE WEITEES.
HISTORIC AUGUSTS SCRIPTORES.
Edit. Princ. Mediol. 1475.
Aldus. Venet. 1516.
Erasmus. Basil. 1518.
Gruter. Hanov. 1611.
Casaubon. Paris. 1620.
Schrevelius (cum nott. Varr.) Lugd. Bat. 1661.
Cum nott. Casauboni, Salmasii, Gruteri, ex offic. Hackiana. Lugd. Bat.
1671.
Obrecht. Argent. 1677.
Piittmann. Lips. 1774.
Julii Capitolini Geta (cum nott. Varr.) Edente Musgrave. Isca?. 1716.
Subsidia : —
Dodwell, Praolect. Proemial. Oxon. 1692.
Hevne, Censura VI. Scriptt. Hist. Aug. in Opuscc. Acadd. Gotting.
1803.
Dirksen, Die " Scriptores Historian Augusta?," Andeutungen zur
Texteskritik und Auslegung derselben. Leipz. 1842.
SEPTIMIUS.
Ed. Princ. (With Dares.) Colon. 1470 or 1475.
„ Mediol. 1477.
Mercerus. Paris. 1618.
Idem. Amstel. 1630.
Anna, Tanaquilli Fabri filia. In visum Del ph. Paris. 1680.
Obrecht (cum nott. Varr.) Argent orat. 1691.
Smids (cum interpr. Anna? Daceriae). Amstel. 1702.
Dederich. Bonn. 1832.
AURELIUS VICTOR.
Collected Works.
Schott. Antv. 1579.
Sylburg. T. I.
Gruter. T. II.
Boxhorn. T. I.
Cum nott. Varr. Lugd. Bat. 1670.
Cum nott. Varr. et Annae Tanaq. Fabri fil. In us. Delph. Paris. 1681.
EDITIONS, ETC., OF POST-ANTONINIAN PROSE WRITERS. 439
Pitiscus. Traj. ad Rhcn. 1696.
Arntzen. Amst. et Traj. ad Khen. 1733.
Gruner. Coburg. 1757.
Harless. Erlang. 1787.
SchrSter. Lips. 1829—1831.
De Viris Illustribus.
J Ed. Princ Ricsinger. Neapol. About 1470.
|Ripoli. Florentise. 1478.
Schott. Francof. 1609.
Brohm (school edition). Berolin. 1832.
EPITOM/E.
Argent orat. 1505.
Aldus. Venet. 1516.
Froben. Basil. 1518.
EUTROPIUS.
Ed. Princ. Rom. 1471.
,, Mediolan. 1475. (With Suetonius and the Hist. Aug. Scriptt.)
Egnatius (apud Aldum). Venet. (with Suetonius). 1516.
Schontrovius. Basil. 1546, 1552.
Vinetus. Pictav. 1553.
Glareanus et Vinetus. Basil. 1581.
Sylburg. (cum Hist. Aug. Scriptt.) Francof. 1590.
Cellarius. Ciz. 1678. Jen. 1755.
Anna, Tanaq. Fabri fil. In us. Delph. Paris. 1683.
Hearne. Oxon. 1703.
Havercamp. Lugd. Bat. 1792.
Verheyk (cum nott. Varr.) Lugd. Bat. 1793.
Tzschucke (cum nott. Varr.) Lips. 1796, 1804.
Grosse. Halse. 1813.
Hermann (a critical edition). Lubeck. 1818.
Ramshorn. Leipz. 1837.
Subsidium : —
Moller, Diss, de Eutropio. Altorf. 1685.
RUFUS.
Edit. Princ. Breviarii. Riesinger. Neap. 1470. Romas. 1491.
Cellarius. Ciz. 1673. Halae. 1698.
Havercamp & Verheyk (with Eutrop.) Lugd. Bat. 1792, 1793.
Tzschucke. Lips. 1793. (School edition.)
Munnich. Hanov. 1815.
Mecenate. Romae. 1829. (New collation of MSS.)
440 EDITIONS, ETC., OF POST-ANTONINIAN PROSE WRITERS.
AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS.
Ed. Princ. Sabinus. Rom. 1474.
Castellio. Bonon. 1517.
Erasmus (in Scriptt. Hist. Aug.) apud Froben. Basil. 1518.
Gelenius. Basil. 1533.
Accursius. August. Vindel. 1532.
R. Stepbauus. Paris. 1534.
Lindenbrog. Hamb. 1609.
Gruter (in Scriptt. Hist. Aug.) Hanov. 1611.
Boxhorn Zuerius. Lugd. Bat. 1632. (4tb vol. of Hist. Aug. Scriptt.
Latt. minn.)
Henr. Valesius. Paris. 1636.
Hadr. Valesius. Paris. 1681.
Gronovius (cum nott. Varr.) Lugd. Bat. 1693.
Ernesti. Lips. 1772.
Wagner & Erfurdt. Lips. 1808.
OROSIUS.
Ed. Princ. Jo. Scliiissler. August. Vindel. 1471.
(Another edition about 1475.)
Bolsuinge. Colon. 1526.
Fabricius. Colon. 1561, 1574, 1582, &c.
Haver camp (cum nott. Varr.) Lugd. Bat. 1738, 1767.
In Bibl. Patrum. Lugd. 1677. Tom. VI.
In Gallandi Bibl. Patr. Venent. 17S8. Tom. IX.
Subsidia : —
Moller, Diss, de Paulo Orosio. Altorf. 1689.
Beck, Diss, de Orosii fontibb. et auctorit. Goth. 1834.
PANEGYRICI VETERES.
Ed. Princ. Puteolanus. 1482.
Cuspiniani. Vienna?. 1499.
Rheuanus. Basil. 1520.
Livinejus. Antverp. 1599.
Gruter. Francof. 1607.
Delabaune. (Delphin.) Paris. 1676.
Cellarius. Hala3. 1703.
Patarol. Venet. 1708—1719.
Jiiger. Nuremberg. 1779.
Arntzen. Traj. ad Rhen. 1790.
SYMMACHUS.
Scholtus. Argentorat. 1510. Basil. 1549.
Jurctus. Paris. 1580, 1604.
Lectins. Geneva). 1587, 1598.
Scioppius. Mogunt. 1608.
Parei. Nemet. 1617.
EDITIONS, ETC., OF POST- ANTON I MAX PROSE WRITERS, ill
S. PAULINUS.
Paris. 1516.
Graving Colon. 1560.
Lebrun de Marettes. Paris. 1685.
Muratorius. Veron. 1736.
SIDONIUS APOLLINARIS.
Yinetus. Lugd. 1552.
Wower et Colvius. Paris et Lugd. 159S.
Sa varus. Paris. 1599, 1609.
Elmeuliorst. Hanov. lol7.
Sirmondus. Paris. 1614.
Labbe. Paris. 1652.
Bibl. Patr. Max. Lugd. 1677. Tom. VI.
Gallandi Bibl. Patr. Vonet. 1788. Tom. X.
Gregoire et Collombet. Lugd. 1836.
CASSIODORUS.
Fomerius. Paris. 15S4.
Garetius. Rotliomag. 1679. Yenet. 1729.
MACROBIUS.
Ed. Princ. Jeuson. Veuet. 1472.
De Bouinis. Brix. 1483.
Aug. Britanuicus. Brix. 1501.
Rivius. Veuet. 1513.
Augelius. Florent. 1515.
Aruold Vesalieusis. Colou. 1521, 1526.
Camerarius. Basil. 1535.
Potanus. Lugd. 1597.
Meursius. Lugd. 162S.
Gronovius (cum uott. Yarr.) Lugd. Bat. 1670. Loud. 1694.
Zeunius. Lips. 1774.
Bipout edition, 1788.
Subsidia : —
Ludovici Jani Symbola ad Macrobii libros Saturualiorum emendandos
Suevoiurti. 1843.
Mahul, Dissertation but la Yie et Ouvrages do Macrobe. Class. Journ.
Yol. XX., No. XXXIX.
BOETHIUS.
Opera.
Venet. 1491, 1492, cum commentt. S. Thoma?.
Ibid. 1497 or 1499.
Glareanus. Basil. 1546, 1570.
4i2 EDITIONS, ETC., OF POST-ANTONINIAN PROSE WRITEES.
De Consolatione Philosophise.
Coburger. Norimberg. 1473.
Cuni comm. S. Thomse. Ibid. 1476.
Bernartius. Antverp. 1607.
Sitzmann. Hanov. 1607.
Bertius. Lugd. Bat. 1623.
Renatus Vallinus. Lugd. Bat. 1656.
Cumnott. Varr. et praef. Bertii. Lugd Bat. 1671.
In usum Delph. Lutet. 1680.
Vulpius. Patav. 1721, 1744. Glasg. 1751.
Eremita (Debure). Paris. 1783.
Helfrecht. Cur. Regn. 1797.
Obbarius. Jenae. 1843.
COMMENTARIA IN ClCERONIS TOPICA.
R. Stephanus. Paris. 1540, 1554.
Subsidia : —
Heyne, Censura Boethii de Cons. Phil. Gotting. 1805.
Grubbe, circa libros Boethii de Cons. Observationes. Upsal. 1836.
Translations : —
King Alfred's Anglo-Saxon version of Boethius de Consol. Phil., by
J. S. Cardale. London. 1829.
Boethius' Metres, King Alfred's Anglo-Saxon version, with English
Translation and Notes, by Fox. London. 1835.
SOME MISCELLANEOUS WEITEES.
WITH SHORT BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTICES WHERE IMPORTANT.
JULIUS FIRMICUS MATERNUS. Circ. a.d. 340.
De Errore profanarum Religionum.
Matheseos Libri VIII.
NONIUS MARCELLUS. Period uncertain.
De compendiosa Doctrina per Litteras.
Latest edition. Gerlach & Roth. Basil. 1842.
CENSORINUS. a.d. 238.
De Die natali.
Text and transl. by Mangeart. Paris. Panckoucke. 1843.
EDITIONS, ETC., OF POST-ANTONINIAN PROSE WAITERS.
jELIUS DONATUS. CiBC. a.d. 360.
Editio prima, de Litteri.-;, Syllabis, Pedibus, et Tonis.
E Lit io secunda, de octo Partibus Orationis.
IV r.arbarismo, Solcecisrao, Schematibus, et Tropis.
Commentaries on Terence and Virgil are attributed to this Donatus. with
several small works.
C. MARIUS VICTORINUS. Circ. a.d. 360.
De Orthographic et Ratione Metrorum.
FLAVIUS MALLIUS THEODORUS. Cons. a.d. 399.
His work De Metris edited from a MS. at Wolfenbuttel by J. F. Hensinger.
From the same MS. Lindemann edited —
POMPEIUS.
Commentum Artis Donati, and —
SERVIUS MAURUS HONORATUS. Circ. a.d. 400.
Ars Graramatica super Partes minores.
Beside Servius's commentary on Virgil, we possess from his pen —
In secundam Donati Editionem Interpretatio.
De Ratione ultimarum Syllabarum, liber ad Aquilinum.
Ars de Pedibus Versuum, seu centum Metris.
De Accentibus (doubtful).
Some other grammatical works are attributed to him, and, by some critics,
to Marius Sergius. Some consider Servius and Sergius the same
person.
FLAVIUS SOSIPATER CHARISIUS. a. d. 400.
Institutionum Grainniaticae Libri V.
The first and last books alone extant. Of the treatise de metro Saturnio
see p. 44, seqq. of this volume.
DIOMEDES.
De Oratione, Partibus Orationis, et vario Rhetorum Genere, Libri III.,
ad Athanasium.
MARCIANUS MINEUS FELIX CAPELLA. Circ. a.d. 470.
Satira. A work composed on the model of the Varronian Satire, on the
seven liberal arts, and on poetry. It had great influence in the middle
ages. The Edit. Princ. is Vicent. 1499, cura Franc. Vidalis Bodiaui.
The completest edition is that of Kopp, Frankf., 1836.
414 EDITIONS, ETC., OF POST-ANTONINIAN PROSE WRITERS.
P. CONSENTIUS. About the middle of the fifth century.
De duabus Orationis Partibus, Nomine et Verbo.
Ars, seu de Barbarismis et Metaplasmis.
RUFINUS. About the same.
Commentarius in Metra Terentiani.
PHOCAS.
Ars, de Nomine et Verbo.
De Aspiratione.
PRISCIANUS OESARIENSIS. a.d. 468—562.
Commentariorum Grammaticorum Libri XVIII., ad Julianum.
Partitiones Versuum XII. principalium.
De Accentibus.
De Declinatione Nominum.
De Versibus comicis.
De Pr?eexercitameiitis rhetoricse.
De Figuris et Nominibus Nuinerorum, et de Nummis et Ponderibus, ad
Symmachum liber.
Of the poetry of this illustrious grammarian, whose works were not only of
the greatest influence in the middle ages, but will ever be of inestimable
value, we have already spoken, p. 205.
The works have been edited by Krehl, Leipz., 1819. The " Opera minora "
by Lindemann, Ley den, 1818.
ATILIUS FORTUNATIANUS.
Ars, et de Metris Horatianis.
FABIUS PLANCIADES FULGENTIUS. a.d. 500.
Mythologicon Libri III. ad Catum presbyterum.
Expositio Sermonum antiquorum, ad Chalcidium grammaticum.
De Expositione Virgilianse Continentia3.
ISIDORUS HISPALENSIS. Circ. 600.
Originum sive Etymologiarum Libri XX.
De Differentiis seu Proprietate Verborum.
Liber Glossarum.
The Origines of Isidore of Seville are of high value. They present us
with the state of philosophy, logic, arithmetic, music, astronomy,
medicine, jurisprudence, chronology, history, theology, philology,
at the beginning of the seventh century. It was a work much valued
in the middle ages, and ever will be serviceable, especially in matters
of literary antiquity.
EDITIONS, ETC., OF POST-ANTONIXIAN PEOSE VYKl l[.l:s. 4-15
The editions are —
De la Eigne. Park 1580.
Percy and Grial. Madriti. 1590.
DuBreul. Paris. 1601. Colon.
Aivvali. Rom. 1797.
Works.
1617
August. Vindel. 1472
Vulcanius. Basil. If
Origines only.
(With Marcianus Capclla.)
The grammatical writers, with others who have not been thought worthy
to be here particularized, may be found in the following works : —
Auctores Lingua? Latinse, cum nott. D. Gothofredi. Genev. 1622.
Grammatics) Latinaa Auctores Antiqui. Opera et studio H. Putschii.
Hanov. 1605.
Corpus Grammaticorum Latt. rec. F. Lindemannus. Lips. 1 Sol.
Grammatici Illustres XII. Parisiis. In offic. Asccns. 1516.
Veterum Grammaticorum Opera. Lugd. Bat. 1600.
Scriptores Latini Rei Metrical Refinxit Th. Gaisford Oxon. 1837.
ROMAN LITERARY CHRONOLOGY.
u. c.
. 1—244
245
303—304
365
390
450—500
494
753—510
509
451—450
389
364
304—254
260
Government of the Kings : Axamenta.
Acta Fratrum Arvalium. Carmen Saliare.
Leges regiic. Libri lintei. Annales Ponti-
ficum.
Consuls. Treaty with Carthage.
Laws of the Twelve Tables.
Partial Loss of Historical Documents through
the burning of Rome by the Gauls.
Etruscan Drama at Rome.
Pruclentes : Appius Claudius Ctecus, Ti. Co-
runcanius, P. Sempronius Sophus.
Naval Victory of Duilius ; Columna rostrate
Duilii ; Monumenta Scipionum.
FIRST PERIOD OF LITERATURE.
End of the First Punic War.
Livius Andronicus introduces the Drama.
Cato born, according to Cicero ; according to
Livy, four years earlier.
Ennius born.
Nsevius's first Dramatic Exhibitions.
Archagathius, C. Fabius Pictor. Pacuviua
born.
Second Punic War.
Capture of Syracuse. Greek Works of Art
brought to Rome.
Death of Naevius, according to Cicero.
Terence born.
Sctum de Bacchanalibus.
Catonis orationes censoriac. Death of Plautus,
according to Cicero. Csecilius Statius.
Expulsion of the Greek Philosophers.
Attius born.
Death of Ennius.
Death of Ceecilius.
Terence's Andria.
Terence's Hecyra.
Terence's //( autontimorwnenos.
Sctum de Rhetoribus. Terence's Eunuch us
and Phormio.
u.c.
A.O.
513
241
514
240
518
236
519
235
535
219
536
218
542
212
550
204
559
195
568
186
570
184
580
174
584
170
585
169
586
168
588
166
589
165
591
163
593
161
448
ROMAN LITERARY CHRONOLOGY.
u.c.
A.C
594
160
595
159
599
155
603
151
605
149
606
148
608
146
612
142
614
140
620
134
625
129
631
123
638
116
639
115
640
114
645
109
648
106
651
103
654
100
659
95
663
667
85
668
86
672
82
676
76
684
70
689
65
695
59
699
55
703
51
709
45
91
Terence's A ddph i.
Death of Terence.
Sctum de theatre- perpetuo.
Embassy of the three Attic Philosophers.
L. A f ranius.
A. Postumius Albinus, the Historian, Consul.
Serv. Sulpicius Galba. Death of M. Porcius
Cato.
L. Calpurnius Piso Frugi, Historian.
Birth of Lucilius.
Cassius Hemina, C. Fannius, Historians.
Antonius the Orator born.
Crassus the Orator born.
Sempronius Asellio, Historian.
Death of Scipio Africanus the Younger.
Tribuneship of C. Sempronius Gracchus.
Ca}lius Antipater, Historian.
C. Lucilius, S. Turpilius.
Varro born.
M. JEmilius Scaurus.
Hortensius born.
Atticus born.
Cicero born.
Deaths of Turpilius and Lucilius.
Birth of Julius Crcsar.
Birth of Lucretius.
" L. Pomponius Bononiensis, Atellanarum
scriptor,clarushabetur." — llieron. hi Eu.sc b.
Chron.
The Italian Allies admitted to the Freedom
of the City.
Birth of Catullus.
Birth of Sallust.
Terentius Varro and C. Licinius Calvus born.
Death of Atta.
Birth of Virgil.
Birth of Horace.
Birth of Livy.
Death of Lucretius, according to Donatus ;
according to Jerom, three years later.
Propertius probably born.
Laberius acts in his Mimes. His death took
place two years after.
SECOND, OE AUGUSTAN PEEIOD OE LITEEATUEE.
u.c.
A.C.
710
44
711
43
712
42
714
40
720
34
721
33
Deatli of Julius Cffisar.
Death of Cicero, and birth of Ovid.
Battle of Philippi
" Cornelius Nepos, scriptor historicus, clarus
habetur." — llieron. in Euscb. Chron.
Death of Sallust.
Bibliothcca Oetaviana.
ROMAN LITKRARY CHRONOLOGY.
441
a.o.
723
726
735
737
745
746
757
762
767
32
31
28
19
17
7
8
p. c.
4
9
14
Death of Atticus.
Pattle of Actiiim.
Bibliotheca Palatina.
Death of Varro.
Death of Virgil. Tibullus died soon after;
and to this period belongs Ovid's acquaint-
ance with Macer, Propertius, Ponticus,
Bassus, Horace.
Tlie Carmen Sa)cularc.
Birth of Seneca.
Fasti Capitoliniet Praonestini. Death of Horace.
Death ofPollio.
Banishment of Ovid.
Death of Augustus. Monumentum Ancyranum.
THIRD PERIOD OF LITERATURE.
u. c.
768—790
p.e.
15-
771
18
778
24
786
33
787
34
790
37
794
41
796
43
807
54
814
61
815
62
818
65
822
69
828
75
830
77
832
79
834
81
842
89
843
90
Tiberius Claudius Nero, Emperor.
Deaths of Ovid and Livy.
C. Plinius the Elder boj n.
I >eaths of Cassius Severus and Asinius Oallus.
Birth of Persius.
Caligula, Emperor.
Tiberius Claudius Caosar, Emperor.
Martial born.
Nero Claudius CVesar.
Birth of C. Plinius Csecilius Sccundus.
Death of A. Persius Flaccus.
Deaths of Seneca and Lucan.
f Ser. Sulpieius Galba, M. Otho, Vitellius.
\ Titus Flavius Vespasianus.
Dialogus de Oratoribus.
Dedication of Pliny's Natural History.
Death of the elder Pliny. Titus Caesar Ves-
pasianus, Emperor.
T. Flavius Domitianus, Emperor.
Quinctilian teaching at Rome.
Expulsion of the Philosophers.
FOURTH PERIOD OF LITERATURE.
u. c.
P. c
849
96
851
98
853
100
870—891
117-
871
118
885
132
[R. L.]
-138
Caosar Nerva Trajanus, Emperor.
M. Ulpius Trajanus.
I Mi nii Panegyricus.
iElius Hadrianus, Emperor.
Juvenal flourished.
Edictum perpetuum.
g a
450
ROMAN LITERARY CHRONOLOGY.
u.c.
891—914
914
PC.
138
161
iElius Antoninus Pius (Divus Pius), Emperor.
M. Aurelius Antonius Philosophus (Divus
Marcus), Emperor.
M. Cornelius Fronto, L. Apuleius.
M. Marullus.
M. Minucius Felix, L. Septimius Florens.
Tertullianus.
1058
1059
1083
1090
1093
1101
FIFTH PEEIOD OF LITERATUEE.
L. Aurelius Commodus, Emperor.
Pertinax, Emperor.
Severus, Emperor.
iEmilius Papinianus, Domitius Ulpianus.
Julius Paullus, Herennius Modestinus.
Gargilius Marti alis, Serenus Sammonicus.
Constitutio Antonini.
Caracalla, Emperor.
Macrinus, Emperor.
Heliogabalus, Emperor.
Aurelius Alexander Severus, Emperor.
Titianus.
Maximin, Emperor.
Gordian, Emperor. Censorinus.
Marius Maximus, Curius Fortunatianus.
Philip, Emperor.
Csecilius Cyprianus.
Decius, Emperor.
Gallus, Emperor.
Valerian and Gallienus, Emperors.
Valerian captured by Sapor.
Claudius, Emperor.
Aurelian, Emperor.
Tacitus, Emperor.
Probus, Emperor.
Caius, Emperor.
Numerian, Emperor. Diocletian, Emperor.
M. Aurelius Olympius Nemesianus, T. Julius.
Calpurnius.
Arnobius.
Julius Capitolinus.
Constantius and Galerius, Emperors.
C. Flavius Valerius Constantinus, Emperor.
CI. Mamertinus Major, Eumenius.
Nazarius, Julius Rufinianus, Fl. Vopiscus.
Trebcllius Pollio.
L. Ccelius, Lactantius Firmianus, C. Aquilinus.
Vettius Juvencus, Publilius Optatianus.
Codices Gregorianus et Hermogamianus.
Constantine II., Constantius II., Constans,
Emperors.
Death of Constantine II.
Julius Fermicus Maternus.
Prudentius born.
u.c.
P.C.
933
180
945
192
946
193
953—983
200—230
964
211
970
217
971
218
975—988
222—235
988
235
991
238
997
244
1000
247
1002
249
1004
251
1006
254
1013
260
1021
268
1023
270
1028
275
1029
276
1035
282
1037
284
305
306
330
337
340
348
ROMAN LITERARY CHRONOLOGY.
451
350
360
3G1
363
364
368
370
375
378
379
383
392
395
408
410
423
425
438
443
450
455
457
475
Death of Constans.
Flavius Julianus.
iElius Donatus Fabrius, Marius Victorinus,
S. Aurelius Victor, Claudius Mamertinus
Minor.
FL Eutropius, S. Rufus.
Julian, Emperor.
Jovian, Emperor.
Valentiniau and Valens, Emperors.
Valentinian, Valens, Gratian, Emperors.
Constitutio Valentiniani etValentis deStudiis.
Hieronymus Ambrosius, Rufus Festus
Avienus.
D. Magnus Ausonius, Ammianus Marcellinus.
Latinus Pacatus Drepanius, Fl. Vegetius
Renatus
Theodoras Priscianus, Marcellus Empiricus.
Falconia Proba.
Death of Valentiniau I. Valentinian II.,
Valens, Gratian, Emperors.
Death of Valens.
Gratian, Valentinian II., Theodosius, Em-
perors.
Death of Gratian.
Death of Valentinian.
Arcadius and Honorius, Emperors.
L. Aurelius Symmachus, Claudius Clau-
dianus.
Fl. Mallius Theodoras, S. Pompeius, Festus
Servius.
Maurus Honoratus, iEinilius Probus.
Paulinus of Xola, Aurelius Augustinus.
Aurelius Prudentius Clemens, Sulpicius
Severus.
Probably about this time the beginnings of
the " Tabula Peutingerana " and " Notitia
dignitatum."
Death of Arcadius. Honorius and Theo-
dosius II., Emperors.
Aurelius Macrobius Ambrosius Theodosius.
Claudius Rutilius Numatianus.
Paulus Orosius, Ccelius Scantius, Dracontius.
Death of Honorius.
Tiieodosius II. and Valentinian III., Emperors.
Theodosianus Codex.
Merobaudes.
Death of Theodosius II. Valentinian III.
and Martian, Emperors.
Salnanus, C. Sollius Apollinaris.
Modestus Sidonius, Claudianus Mamercus.
Martianua Felix Capella. P. Cosontius.
liufinus.
Julius Severianus.
Death of Valentinian III.
Leo, Emperor.
Zeno, Emperor.
452
ROMAN LITERARY CHRONOLOGY.
u.c.
1244
1253
491
500
1271
518
1280
527
1281
528
1286
533
1318
565
1319
566
1359
600
Anastasius, Emperor.
Aoicius Manlius Torquatus Severinus
Boethius.
Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus.
Priscianus.
Alcimus Avitus, Magnus Felix Ennodius.
Arator. Fulgentius.
Justin, Emperor.
Justinian, Emperor.
Justinianus Codex.
Digesta Triboniani.
Justin II., Emperor.
Fl. Cresconius Corippus.
Isidorus Hispalensis
m
INDEX.
A.
A cademy, the New, its doctrines,
^ 285.
a school of rhetoric, 289.
Accius, or Attius, 29—31.
Acholius, 428.
Adam of S. Victor, 247.
Aecse, an Etruscan word, process of
its derivation, xl, xli.
^Edituus, 58.
^Elius, 406.
^Elius Cordus, 428.
iElius Lampridius, 429.
iElius Maurus, 428.
^Elius Sabinus, 428.
Mliua Spartiamis, 429.
iElius Verus (Commodus), 183.
Afranius, 22, 23.
African writers, lxxii.
Albmovanus, Celsus Pedo, 89, 128.
Albinus, Clodius, 185.
Alcimus Alethius, 201.
Alcimus Avitus, 234.
Alethius, Alcimus, 201.
[R. L.]
Alexander, the emperor, 185, 186.
Alexander, the physician, 406.
Alexis, Virgil's, 79.
Alimentus, L. Cincius, 332, 333.
Alpinus, 84.
Ambrose, S., 195, 220—222.
Ammianus Marcellinus, 431, 432.
editions, &c, 440.
Andromachus, 164.
Andronicus, Livius, 10, 14 — 16.
Annianus, 185.
Anser, 98.
Antiochus, 290.
Antipater, L. Crclius, 335.
Antistias Sosianus, 158.
Antonines, Age of, influence on
poetry, 184, 185.
■ its literature, 393.
Antoninus, Arrius, 177.
Antonius, 310.
Apollinaris, 177.
Apollinaris, Aurelius, 188.
Apollinaris, Sidonius, 205, 434.
editions, &c, 441.
Appian, 356, 357.
454
INDEX.
Appius Claudius, the blind, 11.
Apuleius, 406 — 410.
editions, &c, 423.
Aquila Romanus, 433.
Arator, 232.
editions of, 254.
Arborius, 199.
Arcesilas, his philosophy, 285 — 290.
Argentaria, Polla, 143.
Arrius Antoninus, 177.
Aruntius Stella, 171.
Arvales, Fratres, Hymn of, lxiii, 4.
Asclepiodotus, 428.
Atellanas Fabula?, xlix, 9, 10, 111.
Athenseus, 410, 411.
editions, &c., 423.
Atilius, 23, 28.
Atilius Fortunatianus, 444.
Atta, 22.
Attilius, 195.
Attius, or Accius, 29 — 31.
Augurinus, Sentius, 177.
Augustan Age, literary chronology
of, 448.
its poetical character, 117.
Augustan Poetry, 65 — 133.
Augustus Ca3sar. Horace introduced
to him, 70.
offers Horace the post of
private secretary, 93.
Aulus Gellius, 403, 404.
editions, &c, 422.
Aurelius Apollinaris, 428.
Aurelius Festivus, 428.
Aurelius, M., the emperor, 393.
editions, &c, 421.
Aurelius Philippus, 428.
Aurelius Victor, 430.
editions, &c, 438.
Aurunca, fertile in satirists, 159.
Ausonius, 198, 199, 433, 434.
editions of, 209.
Avianus, 196.
Avienus, 195, 197.
editions of, 209.
B.
Bacchanal ibus, Senatus Consultum
de, lxix.
Ba3vius Macrinus, 433.
Balbinus, 187.
Balbulus, S. Notker, 245.
Ballads, viii. — xi, 5.
Balzac, whether the author of the
verses ascribed to Turnus, 157.
Bantine table (Oscan), li; (Latin),
lxxi.
Bassus, 146.
Bassus, Csesius, 152, 153.
Bassus, Sal ejus, 165.
Bavius, 98, 129.
Bede, the Venerable, 240, 241.
Benedictis, James de, 251.
Bernard de Morley, 245.
Bernard, S., 245.
Bibaculus, 58, 73, 85.
Biographers, Roman, 364 — 366.
Boethius, 206, 436.
editions, &c, 441.
Books, scarce in the literary ages of
Rome, 378.
Bruttianus, Lustricus, 178.
Brutus, 310.
Brutus, Attius's, 21, note.
Byzantine Emperors, state of poetry
under, 197.
C.
CaBcilius Severus, 195.
Caecilius Statius, 23.
Caelius, 310.
CaBlius Antipater, L., 335.
Caesar, Julius, 61, 310, 343—345.
editions, &c, 370.
Caesius Bassus, 152, 153.
Calcagnini, the Ciceronian, 323.
Callidius, 310.
Callistus, 195.
Calpurnius, 189, 190.
editions of, 209.
Calpurnius Piso, L., 335.
Calvus, 58, 310.
Camus Rufus, 174.
Capella, Marcianus, 205, 443.
Capito, Titinius, 177.
Capitolinus, Julius, 430.
Carbo, 310.
Carinus, 187.
Carneades, his teaching, 286.
Cams, 118, 187.
Cassiodorus, 435.
Cassius, Dion, 357—360.
Cassius of Parma, 90.
Cassius Severus, 311.
Cato, Dionysius, 201, 202.
Cato the elder, 310, 334, 335.
INDEX.
455
Cato, Valerius, 42.
Catullus, 54—61, 73.
editions, &c, 63.
Catulus, 58.
Celano, Thomas of, 250.
Celsus Pedo Albinovanus, 89, 128.
Censorinus, 442.
Cento, 98, note.
Charisius, 45, 443.
his supposed treatise de
versu Satwmio, 42 — 46.
Charlemagne, author of the Veni,
Creator Spiritus, 241.
Christian poets, 191.
Christianity, its effects on Latin
poetry, 190, 191, 213
—215.
its effects on society, 386.
Chronology, 447 — 454.
Church, the, created a new school
of poetry, 214, 215.
Cicero, M. Tullius, his poetry, 53,
54, 303.
biography and times, 271
—311.
philosophy, 281—295.
rhetorical writings, 295 —
298.
philosophical writings, 298
—303.
letters, 303.
orations, 303.
MSS., editions, &c, 312—
317.
Cicero, Q. Tullius, 54.
Ciceronianism, 321 — 325.
Cincius Ahmentus, L , 332, 333.
Cinna, C. Helvius, 58.
Classical Latin poetry, its decline,
135.
causes of decline, 135 —
138.
extent of decline, 190.
Claudian, 202—204.
editions of, 209.
Claudianus Mamercus, 204.
Claudius, Appius, the blind, 11.
Claudius Ca3sar, satirized by Seneca,
148, 149.
Claudius Eusthenius, 428.
Clitarchus, 329.
Clodius Albums, 185.
Closet drama, 109, 110.
Ccelestinus, 428.
Columella, 140.
Columella, editions of, 207.
Comedy, 16—27.
Cominius, 147.
Commodian, 195, 216, 217.
editions of, 254.
Commodus, 183.
Consentius, 444.
Corippus, 206, 433.
Cornelius Nepcs, 364.
bibliography, 371.
Cornificius, 58, 98.
Cornutus, 149.
Cortesi, Paolo, the Ciceronian, 321.
Corvinus, 311.
Cotta, 310.
Crassus, 310.
Crispus, 201.
Curio, 310.
Curius Fortunatianus, 428.
D.
Damasus, 195.
Damiani, S. Peter, 242, 243.
Daphnis, Virgil's, 82.
Day, the Old Man's, described by
Pliny, 178.
Decianus, 174.
De la Motte, his judgment on
Horace, 75.
Delphidius, 201.
Didactic poetry, 139.
Diodes, 330.
Diodorus Siculus, 356.
Diomedes, 443.
Dion Cassius, 357—360.
Dionysius Cato, 201.202.
Dionysius of Halicarnassus, 354 —
356.
Disticha de Mwibus, authorship of,
201, 202.
Domitian, 167— 169.
Domitius Marsus, 118, 152.
Donaldson, Dr., his Varronianus,
and opinions expressed therein,
xi — xiv.
Donatus, /Elius, 443.
Dossennus, 23.
Dracontius, 231, 232.
editions of, 254.
Drama, 14—32, 103—116, 145,
146.
closet, 109, 110, 145.
Drepanius, 433.
Duillius, column of, lxv, lxvii.
H H 2
456
INDEX.
K.
Ecclesiastical Poetry, 211—266.
a new language, 211, 212.
its decomposition period,
216—235.
its restoration period, 236.
Eloquence, Roman, 309.
Encolpius, 428.
Ennius, his plays, 28, 29.
his satires, 33, 34.
his epic, 47.
his epitaph, 48.
■ his style, 48, 50.
■ his popularity, 49, 50.
■ his minor works, 51.
his translation of Epi-
charmus, 51.
■ editions, &c, 62.
Ennodius, 433.
Epigrammatists, 57 — 60.
Epodes, 73, 74.
Epopceia, the, 42—51, 139.
Erasmus on Ciceronianism, 323, 324.
Etruria, its influence on Rome,
xxxvii, 6, 12.
Etruscan literature, 1 2.
Etruscan alphabet, xliii.
Etruscan language, xxxvii — xlviii.
. allied to Greek and Latin,
xxxix — xlviii.
Etruscan vocabulary, xlvii.
Eugubian tables, lii, lxi, lxii.
Eumenius, 432, 433.
Eutropius, 430, 431.
editions, &c, 439.
Evodus, 163.
Exodia, 8.
Fabius Cerilianus, 428.
Fabius Marcellinus, 428.
Fabius Pictor, Q., 332.
Facts, study of them important, 379.
Falconia, Proba, 235.
Faliscan measure, 187.
Favorinus, his reply to Hadrian, 182.
Fescennine carols, 5, 6.
Firmicus Maternus, 442.
Flaccus, Valerius, 166.
Flavian age reviewed, 178, 179.
Flavin.-, the grammarian, 193.
Florus, 366.
editions, &c, 373.
Florus, his attack on Hadrian, and
the emperor's reply, 182.
Fortunatianus, Atilius, 444.
Fortunatus, Venantius Honorius,
192, 206, 236-239.
Fratres Arvales, Hymn of, lxiii, 4.
Frontinus, Julius, 433.
Fulbert, S., 243, 244.
Fulgentius, Fabius Planciades, 444.
Fulvius Asprianus, 428.
Fundanius, 83, 84, 109, 110.
G.
Galen, 404—406.
editions, &c, 423.
Gallienus, 187.
Gallio, 311.
Gallus, 83.
Gallus Antipater, 428.
Gallus, Virgil's, 82.
Gargilius Martialis, 428.
Gellius, Aulus, 403, 404.
editions, &c, 422.
Gellius, Cnseus, 336.
Gellius Fuscus, 428.
Germanicus, 138.
Geta, 185.
Gordians, the, 187.
Gracchi, the, 310.
Graecia, Magna, 13.
Grammaticus, the, his office, 419.
Gratian, 198.
Gratianus, Julius, 433.
Gratius Faliscus, 119.
editions, &c, 133.
Greek and Latin languages com-
pared, 307.
Greek historians, contrast between
the earlier and later, 352 — 354.
Greek language, thought by Olivieri
to have been spoken
throughout Italy, xxxiv.
essentially identical with
the Latin, xxxv — xxxvii.
Greek literature, 12, 137, 186.
Gregory, S., 233, 234.
H.
Hadrian, his character, writings, and
influence of his reign on litera-
ture, 181—183.
Hartman, 242.
INDEX.
457
Hieronymus of Cardia, 330.
Bilary, a, 195, 219, 220.
Bildebert, 244.
Historia Augusta, 428—430.
editions, &c, 438.
Historian, duty of a, 367—369.
Historians, Greek, contrast between
earlier and later, 352 — 354.
Historians, post-Antoninian, 425 —
432.
History, Roman, 329.
Horace, his idea of originality, 3 ;
his account of early Roman
poetry, 5.
his review of dramatists, 32.
■ life and writings, 65 —
133.
odes, 71—73.
epodes, 73, 74.
ethical and critical writings,
74—76, 103—105.
Carmen Sceculcure, 102.
• chronology of his works,
76,77.
his sketch of poetical mat-
ters, 84.
• his philosophy, 126, 127.
his death, 128, 129.
his person, 129,
immense materials arising
from his literary life, 130.
MSS., editions, &c, 131.
Hortensius, 310.
Hymnologies, 255.
I.
Iambics, 73 — 74.
Iliad, the, Epitome of, 197.
Illustrations, list of, xxv — xxviii.
Imbrex, Licinius, 23.
Isidore of Seville, 444, 445.
Jacopone, 251.
James de Benedictis, 251.
Judicial terms in Latin, un-Greek,
xxxiv.
Julius Aterianus, 428.
Julius Capitolinus, 430.
Julius Pollux, 402, 403.
« editions, &c, 422.
Junius Cordus, 428.
Justin, 367.
editions. &c, 373.
Juvenal, 159—161.
the state of Roman litera-
ture illustrated from his
Vllth satire, 161—165.
editions, &c, 208.
Juvencus, 194, 217—219,
editions, 254.
Laberius, 113—115.
Lactantius, 192.
Leelius, 310.
Lsevius, 45 — 46.
Lamia, 22.
Lampridius, ^Elius, 429.
Latin, corrupted, lxxiii — lxxv.
Latin and Greek languages com-
pared, 307.
Latin language, its sources and
formation, xxxi — lxxv.
contains three classes of
words, xxxii.
its substantial identity with
Greek, xxxv — xxxvii.
Latin poetry, classical, its decline,
135.
causes of decline, 135 —
138.
extent of decline, 190.
Latin literature, causes of its de-
cline, 380.
Latin prose, its fall, 425.
Latium, its position and language,
xxxiii.
Laurea Tullius, 58.
Lavinius, Luscius, 23.
Lena3us, 42.
Lentulus, Cn. Cornelius, Gaetulicus,
139.
Letter-writers, 434, 435.
Lewis, king of Germany, his oath,
lxxiv.
Licianus, 174.
Licinius Imbrex, 23.
Licinius, Porcius, 58.
Lingua Romana, lxxiii.
Literature, Roman, causes of its
decline, 380.
Livius Andronicus, 10, 14 — 16.
editions, &c, 62.
Livy, 345—352.
MSS., editions, &c, 370.
458
INDEX.
Lollius Urbicus, 428.
Longueil, the Ciceronian, 322.
Lucan, 140—143.
his admiration of Persius,
151.
editions of, 207.
Lucian, 394—401.
editions, &c., 421.
Lucilius, 35—39, 73.
editions, &c, 62.
inspired Persius, 149.
Lucius, 178.
Lucretius, 51, 52.
editions, &c., 63.
Ludi Scenici, 6.
Lustricus Bruttianus, 178.
Lutorius, C, Priscus, 139.
Luxorius, 206.
Lyric poetry, 102, 103.
M.
Macaulay, Mr., his Lays of Ancient
Rome, viii — xi, xiv, 5.
Macer, C. Licinius, 336.
Macrobius, 435, 436.
editions, &c, 441.
Maecenas, Horace introduced to
him, 68.
■ Horace, Virgil, Varius,
Plotius, attend him to
Brundusium, 69.
— presents Horace with an
estate, 70.
— introduces him to Au-
gustus, 70.
was he at Actium ? 89.
death of, 128.
character of, 128, 129—
311.
Moeonius Astyanax, 428.
Msevius, 98, 129.
Majorajius, the Ciceronian, 323.
Mamercus, Claudianus, 204.
Mamertinus the elder, 432.
Mamertinus the younger, 433.
Mamurius, legend of, lxiii, lxiv.
Manilius, 119.
editions, &c, 133.
Manutius, Paulus, the Ciceronian,
322.
Marbodus, 244, 245.
Marcel lus, Nonius, 442.
Marcianus Capella, 205, 443.
Marius Maximus, 428.
Marsus, Domitius, 118, 152.
Martial, 172—174.
editions, &c, 208.
did he write tragedies?
146.
Maternus, 146.
Maternus, Firmicus, 442.
Matius, 116.
Matronianus, 195.
Maximus Tyrius, 411 — 414.
editions, &c, 424.
Medea, Ovid's, 28, 98.
Mediaeval poets, measures employed
by, 256—266.
Melissus, 119.
Memmius, 111.
Memor, 146.
Merobaudes, 205.
Military terms in Latin, un-Greek,
xxxiv.
Milman, Dean, on Horace's epistles,
75.
Mimes, 110—116.
Mimiambics, 116, 145.
Mixta (fabula), 22.
Morley, Bernard de, 245.
Motoria (fabula), 22.
Muretus, the trick played by him
on the Ciceronians, 322.
N.
Naevius, whether a balladist, ix, x.
his plays, 16, 17.
his epic, 42—47.
editions, &c, 62.
Napoleon Buonaparte, his Memoirs
compared with Caesar's Com*
mentaries, 345.
Navagiero, the Ciceronian, 323.
Nazarius, 433.
Nemesian, 187, 189.
editions of, 209.
Nepos, Cornelius, 364.
Nero, influence of his reign on
literature, 161, 162.
his poetry, 162, 163.
Nerva, 179.
Nicanor, 42.
Niebuhr, his theory of the old
Roman ballads, 5.
his opinion of the Satur-
nian verse, xii, xiii, 42
— 46 ; of the Etruscan
language, xxxix, xl, xlvii.
INDEX.
459
Nonius Marcellus, 442.
Notker, S., Balbulus, 246.
Novius, 111.
Numatianufl RutiliuS, 159, 204.
Numerian, 1ST.
0.
Octavius, 177.
Onesimus, 428.
Orators. Etonian, 310, 311.
Oratory, ancient, 416.
Quinctilian's view ot% it,
417, 418.
Oratory, Etonian, its degeneracy,
482.
Oribasius, 406.
Orosius, 432.
editions. &C., 440.
Osean alphabet, 1.
Oscan or Opican language, xlviii —
liii.
Oscan monuments, 1.
Oscans, or Opicans, character of,
xlix, L
Ovid, 28, 121—126,
decline of his genius, 137.
editions, &c, 132.
P.
Paconianus, 147.
Pacuyius, 29 — 81.
Ptedagogus, the, his office, 419.
Palsemon, 150, 151.
Palfurnius Sura. 428.
" Panegyrici Veteres," 482.
editions, &c, 440.
Parthenius. 174.
Passienus Paullus, 177.
Paterculus, Vclleius. 360, 361.
Paullinus, S., 199, 200. 228. 434.
editions, Arc, 441.
Paullus, Julius, 185.
Paullus. Passienus, 177.
Paulus Diaconus, 241.
Pausanias, 401, 402.
editions, &c, 422.
Pedo, Celsus, Albinovanus, SO, 128.
Pentadius, 193.
Persius, 150—153.
« his judgment on Horace
75.
Persius, editions o\\ 207.
Pertinax, 185.
Perugian inscription, txxviii
Petricus. 104.
Petronius, 153—157.
bibliography, 208.
Phajdrus, 120.
editions. &c, 133.
Philo, 200.
Philopatrta, the, whether Lucians,
400, 401.
Philosophy of the ancients, unprac-
tical, 231 282.
Philosophy, (-reek introduced at
Rome. 282.
late Roman, 435.
Phocas, 444.
Pictor, Q, FabiuB, 882,
Piso, L. Calpurnius, 335.
Planciades Fulgentius, 444.
Planipedaria (fabula), 113.
Planipes (mimus), 113.
Plautus, 17, 18.
editions, &c., 62.
Pliny the elder, 381.
■ ■ editions, &c, 300.
Pliny the younger, 175, 387 —
389.
Ins literary friends, 170 —
178.
editions, Sec, 390.
Plutarch, 865.
Pococke, Mr., his India in Onccc.
xiv.
Poetry, Latin, classical, its decline,
135.
causes of decline, 135
138.
extent of decline, 190.
Poets, low condition of, 101 — 105.
Politian's reply to Cortesi the Cice-
ronian, 321.
Polla Argentaria, 143.
Pollio, 85.
Pollio, Trebellius. 420.
Pollio, Virgil's, 80, 81.
Pollux, Julius, 402, 403.
editions, &c, 422.
Polybius, 336—340.
Pompeius, 443.
Pompeius Saturninus, 177.
Pomponius, 22.
Pomponius, the Atellane writer,
111.
Pomponius Secundus, 145.
Pope, his judgment on Horace, 75.
460
INDEX.
Porphyry the less (Publilius Opta-
tianus Porphyrius), 194.
Post-Antoninian prose writers, 425
—445.
Pratextse (fabulse), 20.
Priscian, 205, 444.
Proba Falconia, 235.
Proculus, 201.
Propertius, 67, 101, 122.
editions, &c, 132.
Prosper Tyro, 205.
Prudentius, 204, 222—228.
■ editions, 254.
Publius Syrus, 115, 116.
Pudens, Lucius Valerius, a boy,
victor in the poetical contest,
181.
Puppius, 110.
Q.
Quadrigarius, Q. Claudius, 336.
Quinctilian, 414—420.
■ compared with Cicero,
416.
editions, &c, 424.
R.
Rabirius, 89, 118.
Rhetor, the, his office, 419.
Rhetoricians, post-Antoninian, 433.
Rhinthonica (fabula), 22.
Rhyme, its introduction into Latin
poetry, 236.
double, introduced, 239.
Riciniata (fabula), 113.
Robert II. of France, author of the
Veni, Sancte Spiritus.
Roman literature, its reputation ex-
aggerated, 340, 341, 378.
Romans, the, unimaginative, viii —
x, 3, 4, 11.
Royal laws, lxiv, lxv.
Rutinus, 444.
Rufus, 431.
editions of, &c, 439.
Rufus, Antonius, 103.
Rufus, Canius, 174.
Rural terms, Latin, of Greek deri-
vation, xxxiii.
Rutilius Numatianus or Namati-
anus, 159, 204.
Sabellus, a person attacked by Mar-
tial— probably the poet Statius,
172.
Sabinus, 118.
Sal ejus Bassus, 165.
Salian hymn, lxv.
Sallust, 341—343.
editions, &c, 370.
Sammonicus, Serenus, the elder, 185.
Sammonicus, Serenus, the younger,
186, 187.
Sanscrit language, akin to the old
Italian dialects, lxii.
Satire, 32—42.
Ennian, 33, 34.
Lucilian, 34—39.
Varronian, or Menippean,
39—42.
under the first emperors,
147, 148.
Satura, 6—9.
Saturnian measure, xi — xiii, 43 — 46.
Saturninus, iElius, 147.
Saturninus, Pompeius, 177.
Satyri, 7—9.
Scaliger, the elder, his attack on
Erasmus, 325.
Scipios, epitaphs of the, xi, xii,
lxvii — lxix, 5, 44.
Secundus, 177.
Secundus, Pomponius, 145.
Sedulius, 228—231.
editions of, 254.
Seneca, L. Annaeus, tragedies, 143 —
145.
epigrams, 147.
'Aitoko\okvvt(a)(TIS, 147, 148,
149.
Sentius Augurinus, 177.
Septimius, 186, 430.
editions, &c, 438.
Serenus Sammonicus, the elder,
185.
Serenus Sammonicus, the younger,
186, 187.
Servius, 443.
Severus, 118.
Severus, Cassius, 311.
Severus, Csecilius, 195.
Severus, the emperor, 428.
Sicily, its influence on the Romans,
13.
Sidonius Apollinaris, 205, 434.
editions, &c, 441.
INDIA.
461
Silius Italicus, 174. 175.
editions of, 208.
Sisenna, L., 886.
Sosianus, Antistius, 158.
Spartianus. zElius, 429.
Spurinna. 1 ftj.
Stataria (fabula), 22.
Statins. Cavil ius, 23.
edition of, 62.
Statins the elder, 169, 170.
Statins the younger, 170, 171.
editions of, 209.
Stella, Arnntins, 171.
Stoic philosophy, 383, 384.
Suetonius, 365, 366.
editions, &c., 372.
Suetonius Optatianus, 428.
Snlpicia, 168.
Snlpicius, 310.
Sulpicius Severus, 432.
Symmachus, 434.
editions, &c, 440.
Symposius, 192, 193.
Sylla, wrote u satyric comedies," 8.
T.
Tabernaria (fabnla), 22.
Tables, the Twelve, lxv.
Tacitus, 361, 364.
editions, &c, 372.
Terence, 23—27.
editions, &c, 62.
Terentian, 186.
Terentius Varro, 118.
Tetradius, 201.
Theodorus, 443.
Theodulph, S., of Orleans, 241.
Theon, 201.
Theophila, 174.
Theophrastns, 329.
Theopompus, 329.
Thomas of Celano, 250.
Thomas, S., Aquinas, 252.
Thyestes, Varius', 28, 90.
Tiberian, 189.
Tiberius Caesar, 136.
Tibullus, 67, 100, 101.
editions, &c, 132.
Tiburtines, Senatus Consultum con-
cerning the, lxvi.
Ticida, 58.
Timrous, 330.
Titinius, 22.
Titinius Capito, 177.
Titius, Septimius, 108, 110.
Titus, the emperor, his poetry,
164.
Togata (fitbuto), 20.
Trabea, 22,
Trajan, his patronage of litei
179, 180.
literature of his time, 377
— 390.
his government, 386.
Tragedy, 28—32.
TrallianuB, 406.
Trebelliua Pollio, 429.
Triumphal songs, 4.
Tubero, L. iElius, 336.
Tucca, 146.
Tuditanus, C. Sempronius, 336.
Turnus, 159.
Turpilius, 23.
Tutieanus, 118.
Tyro, Prosper, 205.
U.
Umbrian language, Hi — lxii.
Un-Greek clement of Latin, xxxii.
virtually contained in the
Etruscan, Oscan, and Um-
brian languages, xxwii.
Unicus, 178.
Valentinian, 198.
Valerius Antias, Q., 336.
Valerius Cato, 42.
Valerius Flaccus, 166.
■ editions of, 208.
Valerius Maximus, 367.
■ editions, &c, 373.
Valgius, 86.
Valpy, Rev. F. E. J., his theory of
the Latin language, xxxi, xxxii.
xxxiv, lxxv.
Varius, 28, 86, 87.
Varro, 146.
Varro of Atax, 118.
Varro, M. Terentius, his satires,
39—42.
Varro, P. Terentius, Ataeinus, 42.
Varus, a contemporary of Martial,
174.
Velleius Paterculus, 350, 361.
MS., editions, &c, 371.
462
i
INDEX.
Venantius Honorius Fortunatus,
192, 206, 236—239.
Verus, iElius, (Coinmodus,) 183.
Verus, the emperor, 183.
Vestilius, 147.
Vestritius Spurinna, 178.
Victor, 234.
Victor, Aurelius, 430.
editions, &c, 438.
Victor, C. Julius, 434.
Victor, S., Adam of, 247.
Victorinus, C. Marius, 195, 433,
434.
editions of, 443. '
Virgil, biography of, 66, 67, 78—83.
Eclogues, 73— 83.
Virgil, Georgics, 88; continued by
Columella, 140.
^Eneid, 91—93.
minor poems, 95 — 98.
death, 94.
influence of his writings,
98, 99.
person, 100.
his plagiarisms, 43, 49, 92,
MBS., editions, &c, 132.
Virginius, 145.
Voconius Romanus, 176, 177.
Voconius Victor, 177.
Vopiscus, 168, 429.
Vulcatius Gallicanus, 429.
Vulcatius Terentius, 428.
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