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ROMAN    LIFE    AND    MANNERS    UNDER 
THE  EARLY  EMPIRE 


A  Supplementary  Volume,  containing 
the  Notes  and  Excursuses  omitted  from 
the  seventh  (popular)  German  edition, 
translated  by  Mr.  J.  H.  Freese,  will  be 
published  in  1910. 


^<' 


ROMAN 
LIFE   AND  MANNERS 

UNJ)ER  THE  EARLY 
EMPIRE 


Br 
LUDWIG  FRIEDLx^NDER 

Authorized    Translation    of    the    Seventh    Enlarged 
and  Revised  Edition  of  the  SittengesdAchte  Roms 

J.  H.  FREESE,  MA.  (Camb.) 

(In  Three  Volxjmes) 
Volume   III 

WITH  AN  INDEX  TO   THE  THREE  VOLUMES 


m 


LONDON 

GEORGE   ROUTLEDGE   &    SONS,   LIMITED 
NEW  YORK:  E.  P.  BUTTON  &  CO. 


CONTENTS 

CHAP.  PAGE 

I     Belles-Lettres :  Poetry  and  Artistic  Prose.  1-83 

Effects  of  the  system  of  education.  Its  chief 
aim  eloquence.  Care  of  the  state  and  communes 
for  instruction  in  eloquence.  The  first  course 
consisted  of  reading  and  elucidation  of  the 
poets.  Greek  and  Roman  poets  read  at 
school ;  in  the  first  century  chiefly  living  poets. 
Reaction  against  modern  literature.  The  old 
poets  introduced  into  the  schools.  Pronto. 
Aulus  Gellius.  Archaic  poetry  in  the  second 
century.  Effects  of  the  study  of  the  poets. 
Teachers  often  themselves  poets.  Precocious 
poets  numerous.  Improvisation.  Rhetorical 
schools.  Pupils'  written  exercises.  Decla- 
mations. Suasoriae.  Controversiae.  Ro- 
mantic themes.  Tyrants  and  pirates  as  sub- 
jects. These  subjects  used  in  the  Gesta 
Romanorum.  Magicians  in  controversiae. 
Greek  rhetorical  schools.  Effects  of  the 
rhetorical  schools.  The  rhetorical  colouring 
of  poetry,  and  the  poetical  colouring  of  prose. 
Decrease  of  school  education  and  decay  of 
language  in  the  second  century.  Attempts  to 
restore  its  purity.  Effects  of  the  classical  poetry 
of  the  Augustan  age.  Its  importance.  Crea- 
tion and  spread  of  a  poetical  language.  Popu- 
larity of  Virgil  and  other  classical  poets. 
Poetical  dilettantism  the  result  of  classical 
poetry.  Effects  of  the  monarchy.  Parallels 
from  the  literature  of  the  early  empire.. 
Imperial  interest  in  poetry  and  literature. 
Augustus.  Maecenas.  Tiberius.  Nero.  Titus. 
Domitian.  Nerva.  Hadrian.  Disappearance 
of  poetical  dilettantism  from  the  court  in  the 
second  century.  Reasons  of  this  phenomenon. 
Results  of  the  revived  importance  of  poetry 
and  hterature.  Rise  of  the  book  trade.  Writ- 
ing and  printing  compared.  Prices  of  books. 
Foundation  of  public  libraries.     Introductioa 

V 


vi  Contents 

CHAP,  PAGB 

I  of  recitations.     Great  increase  in  their  num-  1-83 

ber.  How  the  reciters  presented  themselves. 
Expressions  of  approval.  The  younger  Pliny 
on  recitations.  Emperors  present.  Readings 
in  the  Middle  Ages  and  modern  times.  Crown- 
ing of  poets  (especially  the  Capitoline). 
Quintus  Sulpicius  Maximus.  Poets  crowned 
in  the  Middle  Ages.  Domitian's  Alban 
competition.  Precarious  livelihood  of  poets. 
Juvenal's  description.  Their  dependence  on 
the  generosity  of  the  rich  and  great.  INIutual 
advantages  of  this  state  of  things.  Imperial 
generosity  to  poets.  Augustus.  The  later 
emperors.  Generosity  of  great  men.  Maecenas. 
His  relations  with  Horace.  Later  poets  no 
more  than  '  clients  '  of  their  patrons.  The 
panegyrics  on  Messalla  and  Piso.  Worse 
position  of  poets  in  Nero's  time.  Martial's 
efEorts  to  obtain  patrons  at  court,  amongst  the 
aristocracy,  amongst  the  knights.  Patrons  of 
Statins.  Poverty  of  both  poets.  Martial's 
degraded  attitude.  Poetry  as  a  means  of 
social  amusement.  Statius's  attitude  more 
dignified.  The  higher  occasional  poetry  a 
substitute  for  journalism.  Large  output  of 
occasional  poetry.  Occasional  poems  of 
Martial  and  Statius  on  the  same  subjects. 
Disagreement  between  Statius  and  Martial. 
Their  mutual  envy  and  jealousy.  Over-pro- 
duction of  poetical  literature.  Preponderance 
of  (mythological)  epos.  Influence  of  Virgil. 
Poetical  trifles.  Poetry  mostly  reproduction. 
Imitation  of  Virgil  and  Catullus.  Poetical 
dilettantism  of  the  younger  Pliny.  Poetical 
dilettantism  common  in  the  higher  circles, 
even  at  an  advanced  age.  Revolution  brought 
about  in  Hadrian's  time  by  sophistic.  Greek 
sophistic  and  its  effects  in  the  Greek  and 
Roman  world.  Interest  taken  by  the  emperors 
and  the  Romans  generally  in  the  sophistic  art. 
Influence  of  Greek  sophistic  on  the  Roman 
literature  of  the  second  century.  Apuleius. 
Importance  of  poetry  in  general  education 
after  the  Renascence  period. 


Contents  vii 

CHAP.  PAGE 

II  Religion 84-214 

I.     The  Belief  in  Gods  (Polytheism). 

Difference  between  literary  and  monumental 
authorities.  Literature  hitherto  almost  exclu- 
sively utilized.  Irreligious  tendencies  in  the 
latest  pre-Christian  and  earUest  Christian 
times.  Hatred  of  belief  a  rare  occurrence. 
Lucretius.  Epicureans  and  Sceptics.  Reli- 
gious views  of  educated  Romans  outside  philo- 
sophical circles.  Belief  (Tacitus).  Wavering 
between  polytheism  and  monotheism  (Quinti- 
lian).  Absolute  denial  of  the  gods  (Pliny). 
Reconciliation  of  faith  and  reason  in  Stoic 
theology.  Restoration  of  belief  in  the  second 
century.  Development  and  dogmatic  autho- 
rity of  the  theory  of  demons.  Plutarch.  Apu- 
leius.  Maximus  of  Tyre.  General  impression 
produced  by  Greek  and  Roman  literature  in 
the  second  century.  Lucian.  The  second 
century  emperors.  Characteristic  phenomena 
of  the  newly  awakened  religious  life.  Aelian's 
intolerant  orthodoxy.  Fanaticism  of  Aristides. 
Undiminished  strength  and  permanence  of  the 
popular  belief.  Three  proofs  of  it.  (i)  Its 
power  of  assimilation.  Adoption  of  elements 
from  Oriental  religions.  Theocrasy  a  neces- 
sary effect  of  the  intercourse  of  nations.  The 
idea  of  superstition  relative  and  variable. 
Theocrasy,  only  ridiculed  by  unbelievers,  did 
not  give  offence  to  believers.  Plutarch's 
reverence  for  Greek  and  Egyptian  gods  alike. 
Hellenization  of  oriental  and  barbarian  gods. 
Spread  of  barbarian  cults  by  the  soldiers.  No- 
menclature of  barbarian  divinities  dependent 
upon  the  extent  to  which  individual  countries 
were  romanized.  (2)  Productivity  of  Poly- 
theism. New  divinities.  Annona.  Belief  in 
genii.  The  deification  of  human  beings.  The 
imperial  cult.  The  worship  of  the  dead  and 
living  in  Greece  as  heroes.  Cult  of  kings  under 
the  Diadochi.  Apotheosis  of  Antinous.  (3) 
Power  of  resistance  shown  by  polytheism.  Its 
influence  on  Christians.     Direct  evidence  of 


viii  Contents 

CHAP.  PAGE 

IT  the  undiminished  vitality  of  the  popular  belief.       84-170 

The  belief  in  miracles.  Appearance  of  the  gods 
in  person.  Other  divine  miracles.  The  belief 
in  miracles  strengthened  by  the  struggle  be- 
tween paganism  and  Christianity.  The  same 
miracle  claimed  by  both.  Belief  in  the  an- 
nouncement of  the  future  in  advance  the  com- 
m.onest  form  of  the  belief  in  the  marvellous 
amongst  the  educated.  Prognostics  in  the 
writings  of  the  historians.  Tacitus.  Sueto- 
nius on  Augustus.  Continuance  of  the  belief  in 
traditional  methods  of  prophecy.  Harnspicina. 
Astrology.  Oracles.  Their  temporary  decline 
owing  to  the  preponderating  influence  of 
Italian  methods  of  divination.  Their  revi- 
val and  spread  of  their  reputation  outside 
Greek  countries.  The  oracle  of  Alexander  of 
Abonuteichos.  Widespread  belief  in  the  sig- 
nificance of  dreams.  Its  connexion  with  the 
belief  in  Providence.  The  interpretation  of 
dreams  a  science.  The  dreambook  of  Artemi- 
dorus.  Diseases  cured  by  dreams.  The  votive 
tablets  of  Minerva  '  the  mindful '.  Belief  in 
the  efficacy  of  local  divinities  outside  their 
proper  sphere  of  influence.  Belief  in  the  gods 
as  givers  of  blessings.  Prayer.  Votive  inscrip- 
tions and  other  religious  monuments.  Invo- 
cation of  national  and  local  divinities.  General 
invocation  of  the  gods  of  definite  spheres  of 
influence,  especially  Jupiter.  Lack  of  definite 
information  as  to  the  number  of  unbelievers 
and  indifferentists.  Atheists  a  small  minority. 
Cult  and  its  effects  on  the  maintenance  of  be- 
lief. Maintenance  of  very  old  forms  of  cult 
and  ritual  in  Rome.  The  ritual  of  the  '  field- 
brethren'.  Old  local  cults  in  other  parts  of 
Italy.  Continuance  of  very  old  cults  in  Greece. 
Continuance  of  a  general  participation  in 
religious  worship.  Sacrifices.  Piety  shown 
practically  in  the  building  of  temples  and 
other  endowments  for  cult  purposes  (especially 
the  images  of  the  gods  and  their  adornment 
with  clothes  and  trinkets).  Costly  temple 
presents.     Military  posts  for  their  protection. 


Contents  ix 

CHAP.  PAGE 

II  Provision  for  priests  and  temple  attendants. 
Worship  of  images.  The  image  identified  with 
the  divinity.  Desecration  of  the  divine  images 
a  proof  of  the  strength  of  the  behef  in  the 

power  of  the  gods      .  .  ,  .  .        84-170 

II.     Judaism  and  Christianity. 

Contrast  between  monotheism  and  poly- 
theism. Judaism  and  Christianity  differently 
related  to  polytheism.  Dispersion  of  the  Jews 
in  the  ancient  world.  The  Jewish  emigration 
not  especially  commercial.  Their  settlements 
in  the  East  and  Africa,  in  Rome,  in  the  rest  of 
Italy,  in  the  West  and  North.  Civil  and  social 
position  of  the  Jews.  Hatred  of  the  Jews. 
Attractiveness  of  Judaism.  Religious  free- 
dom up  to  the  time  of  Hadrian.  Christianity. 
Missionary  zeal  of  the  Christians.  Persecu- 
tions after  the  time  of  Trajan.  Comparatively 
?mall  number  of  martyrs.  Chief  causes  of  the 
rapid  spread  of  Christianity.  Impure  elements 
in  the  Christian  communities.  Sects.  Mon- 
tanism.  The  author  of  the  Refutation  of  all 
Heresies.  His  account  of  the  career  of  Callis- 
tus.  Christian  writers  on  the  state  of  affairs 
in  the  Christian  communities.  Spread  of 
Christianity  (especially  in  Rome)  in  the  first 
and  second  centuries.  Relation  of  Christians 
to  the  general  population.  Spread  of  Christi- 
anity amongst  the  upper  classes  dates  from 
the  time  of  Commodus.  Christianity  rarely 
mentioned  and  little  known  up  to  the  third 
century.  Heathen  converts  of  rank  before  the 
reign  of  Commodus.  The  supposed  relations 
between  Seneca  and  the  apostle  Paul.  The 
period  from  Theodosius  to  Justinian.  Chris- 
tianity treated  with  contempt  up  to  the  third 
century.  The  long  death-struggle  of  paganism 
a  proof  of  its  vitality.  Pagan  elements  which 
survived  the  downfall  of  paganism      .  .      170-214 

III  Philosophy  AS  a  Moral  Educator        .         .    215-281 

The    connexion  of  ancient  morality  with 
religion  and  the  supposed  dangerous  effect  of 


Contents 


CHAP. 


PAGE 


III  anthropomorphism.      The  example  of  the  gods     214-281 

alleged  as  an  excuse  for  sin  by  'sophistic'. 
Nature  of  ancient  as  contrasted  with  Christian 
morality.  Relation  to  the  deity  and  mankind. 
Moral  philosophy.  Knowledge  the  founda- 
tion of  happiness.  Happiness.  Resignation. 
Pagan  morality  recognized  by  the  Christians. 
Clement  of  Alexandria.  Spread  of  Greek 
philosophy  in  the  Roman  world.  Opposition 
to  philosophy.  Antipathies  due  to  the  Roman 
national  character.  Philosophy  disliked  by 
the  authorities.  Persecutions  of  philosophers. 
Change  after  the  death  of  Domitian.  Philo- 
sophy in  favour  under  Marcus  Aurelius  and 
Septimius  Severus.  Attempts  to  represent 
philosophy  as  harmless  to  the  government. 
Seneca.  Philosophy  disliked  by  the  masses. 
Most  uneducated  and  many  educated  men 
regarded  it  as  useless.  The  contrast  between 
rhetoricians  and  philosophers.  The  elder 
Seneca.  Quintilian.  Pronto.  Lucian.  Aris- 
tides.  Opponents  of  philosophy  appeal  to  the 
immorality  of  its  professors.  Pseudo-philoso- 
phers in  Rome  and  Greece,  especially  under 
Marcus  Aurelius.  The  Cynics.  Philosophy 
recognized  amongst  the  Romans  as  a  guide  to 
moraUty.  Differences  of  opinion  as  to  the 
amount  of  philosophical  training  required. 
Roman  sympathy  for  philosophy.  The  school 
of  the  Sextii.  Spread  of  Stoicism,  Epicure- 
anism, and  other  systems  amongst  the  Romans. 
Philosophy  usually  begun  in  early  youth. 
Logic  and  Dialectic.  Physics.  Ethics.  The 
teachers'  right  and  obligation  to  supervise 
their  pupils'  manner  of  life.  Teachers  of  philo- 
sophy under  three  aspects,  (i)  As  educators 
and  spiritual  advisers  in  distinguished  families. 
Lucian's  description  of  their  treatment. 
Philosophers  at  court.  (2)  As  heads  of  public 
schools.  Instruction  in  philosophical  schools 
unsatisfactory.  Both  pupils  and  teachers  in 
part  responsible  for  the  failure.  Flowery 
language  and  eagerness  for  applause.  (3) 
Philosophers  as  moral  missionaries  and  popular 


Contents  xi 

CHAP.  PAGE 

III  preachers     (Cynics).     Demetrius.     Demonax. 

Peregrinus.  Points  of  resemblance  between 
Christianity  and  Cynicism.  Standard  of 
moraUty  elevated  by  the  development  of 
philosophy  in  the  early  centuries.  The  assump- 
tion of  a  general  decay  of  morality  during  this 
period  unfounded. 

IV  Belief  in  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul  .  282-313 
Attitude  of  the  educated  towards  the  belief 
in  immortality.  The  elder  Pliny.  Materialis- 
tic epitaphs.  Epicureanism.  Denial  of  im- 
mortality in  other  systems.  Belief  in  and 
proof  of  immortality.  Platonism  and  neo- 
Pythagoreanism.  The  doubters.  Galen. 
Quintilian.  Tacitus.  Cicero  as  the  representa- 
tive of  believers  amongst  the  educated  eclectics. 
The  Stoics.  Seneca.  Figurative  representa- 
tions on  monuments  a  proof  of  the  belief  in 
immortality.  This  belief  held  by  a  vast 
majority  amongst  the  masses.  Popular  ideas 
of  the  underworld.  Belief  in  the  ferryman  of 
the  dead.  Widespread  idea  of  a  more  or  less 
material  existence  after  death.  Belief  in 
apparitions  a  proof  of  the  belief  in  immortality. 
Incantation  of  the  spirits  of  the  dead.  '  Devo- 
tion '.  Difference  between  the  Christian  and 
pagan  belief  in  immortality.  Connexion  be- 
tween the  living  and  the  dead  unbroken  in  the 
Greek  and  Roman  cult  of  the  dead.  Desire 
to  be  remembered  by  posterity.  Christian 
view  of  death,  if  not  followed  by  resurrection. 
Pessimism  of  the  ancients.  Death  the  greatest 
blessing  that  nature  has  given  to  man. 

Index   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  315 


CHAPTER    I 

BELLES-LETTRES 

POETRY  AND  ARTISTIC  PROSE 

In  the  following  investigation  an  attempt  will  be  made  to  show 
that  the  influence  of  poetry  on  education  in  general  in  later 
Roman  times  was  much  more  comprehensive  and  far-reaching 
than  in  modern  days.  For  this  purpose  it  will  be  necessary 
to  obtain  an  idea  of  the  relation  of  the  educated  world  to 
poetry,  the  mission  of  the  latter,  the  resulting  position  of  j 
poets,  and  lastly  the  substitution  of  artistic  prose  for  poetry. 

The  relation  of  the  educated  world  to  poetry  was  in  great 
measure  determined  by  the  instruction  given  to  youth,  the 
aims  and  methods  of  which  were  entirely  different  from  those 
of  to-day.  The  aim  of  the  modern  instruction  of  youth  is  to 
put  him  in  the  way  of  defining  his  attitude  in  regard  to  the 
most  important  branches  of  human  knowledge,  to  facilitate, 
as  far  as  possible,  his  understanding  of  the  manifold  works  of 
science,  and  to  render  him  capable  of  taking  his  part  in  them. 
On  the  other  hand,  in  antiquity  its  task  was  far  simpler,  since 
the  branches  of  learning  now  taught  in  schools  did  not  exist 
at  all  or  only  in  a  rudimentary  condition,  or  were  not  con- 
sidered as  forming  part  of  a  general  education.  The  develop- 
ment of  the  creative  faculties,  not  increased  power  of  receptiv- 
ity, was  the  object  in  view.  Education  was  not  intended  to  ... 
facilitate  the  acquisition  of  comprehensive  knowledge,  but 
of  special  excellences  ;  of  a  perfect  mastery  of  linguistic 
expression  ;  of  the  artistic  employment  of  words  to  set  forth 
ideas  in  a  clear  and  persuasive  manner  ;  of  the  choice  of  the 
most  suitable  and  elegant  phraseology. 

In  republican  times,  when  language,  far  more  than  knowledge 
at  the  present  day,  represented  '  power  '  ;  when,  as  Tacitus 
says,  '  no  one  attained  great  power  without  the  aid  of   elo- 

R.L.M. — III,  1  B 


2  Belles-Lettres 

quence  ',  this  is  easy  to  understand.  But  although  political 
eloquence  was  reduced  to  silence  after  the  downfall  of  the 
republic,  the  lively  susceptibility  of  the  southerners  to  the 
'  living  word  '  and  all  the  habits  of  ancient  life  still  rendered 
necessary  to  a  certain  extent  in  all  cases  public  and  spoken 
utterances  ;  and  even  under  the  empire  the  relation  of  the 
written  to  the  spoken  word,  as  far  as  their  importance  and 
influence  on  each  other  were  concerned,  was  inverse  to  that 
in  which  they  stand  in  the  modern  world.  '  It  is  by  the  power 
of  language  ',  says  Diodorus  ,'  that  the  Greeks  are  superior  to 
the  barbarians,  the  educated  to  the  uneducated  ;  by  this  alone 
one  man  can  be  superior  to  many  '.  '  It  is  easy  ',  says  the 
elder  Seneca,  '  to  pass  from  eloquence  to  all  other  arts  and 
accomplishments  ;  it  equips  even  those,  whom  it  does  not 
train  with  special  reference  to  itself  '. 

Eloquence  was  indispensable  not  only  for  advocates  and 
teachers,  but  also  for  higher  of&cers  or  functionaries,  for  the 
senator  or  statesman,  and,  generally  speaking,  for  all  who 
aspired  to  a  prominent  position  in  life.  The  best  standard  of 
the  value  attached  to  it  in  imperial  times,  the  best  proof  that 
it  was  even  then  regarded  as  the  most  important  element  in 
education  generally,  is  the  fact  that  it  held  the  first  place  in 
the  different  branches  of  instruction,  and  long  remained  the 
only  one  for  the  teaching  of  which  the  state  considered  it  its 
duty  to  provide.  The  first  pubUc  professorships  founded  by 
the  government  in  Rome  and  endowed  with  an  ample  salary 
(100,000  sesterces)  were  those  of  Greek  and  Roman  oratory. 
The  emperor,  who  imposed  this  burden  on  the  treasury  and 
summoned  Quintilian,  '  the  glory  of  the  Roman  tog-a  ','^  to  the 
Roman  chair,  and  made  him  'the  chief  controller  of  the  unsteady 
youth  ',  was  Vespasian,  the  economical  ruler,  the  inveterate 
opponent  of  all  ideal  tendencies,  in  whose  eyes  practical  needs 
were  everything.  Soon,  not  merely  the  large  cities  of  Italy 
(at  least  about  the  middle  of  the  second  century),  but  even 
many  smaller  towns  and  the  provinces  had  their  professors  of 
eloquence  appointed  by  the  communities  ;  the  largest  no 
doubt,  like  Rome,  had  chairs  of  both  Greek  and  Latin. 

An  unremitting  and  exclusive  study  of  poetry  prepared  the 
way  for  the  teaching  of  eloquence.  The  poet  '  formed  the 
stammering  lips  of  the  child  '  ;    reading  and  elucidation  of 

1  Referring  to  his  practice  as  an  advocate,  when  it  was  necessary  to  wear  the  toga. 


Belles-Lettres  3 

the  poets  was  almost  the  only  subject  of  school  instruction  for 
the  rising  generation.  On  the  other  hand,  only  a  trifling  know- 
ledge of  music  and  geometry  was  recognized  as  necessary  or 
desirable  ;  the  former,  instruction  in  which  was  frequently 
limited  to  theory,  seems  to  have  owed  its  admission  into  the 
curriculum  to  its  connexion  with  poetry,  which  was  far  closer 
than  in  our  own  days.  The  youthful  mind  was  also  introduced  by 
poetry  to  some  other  branches  of  learning — geography,  astron- 
omy (which  in  both  Greek  and  Latin  furnished  themes  for 
poetical  descriptions),  philosophy,  the  history  of  literature, 
and  history  proper,  in  which  legend  and  mythology  were  gener- 
ally included.  At  the  same  time  children  were  intended  to 
adopt  and  assimilate  the  doctrines  of  morality  and  worldly 
wisdom  from  the  poets,  whose  maxims  were  probably  col- 
lected for  this  purpose  in  numerous  selections  especially  adapted 
for  school  use. 

Where  a  higher  education  was  aimed  at,  the  instruction  at 
school  of  course  included  Greek  as  well  as  Latin  poets.  It  began 
with  Homer,  a  course  approved  by  Quintilian  ;  '  for  although 
riper  years  were  necessary  for  a  complete  understanding  of  his 
poetry,  every  one  would  read  him  more  than  once  '.  Of 
other  poetical  works  he  mentions  tragedies  and  lyric  poems  ; 
he  would  apparently  only  exclude  those  which  might  offend 
the  scrupulous,  for  example,  elegies  ;  he  especially  recommends 
Menander,  whose  pieces  were  read  in  boys'  and  girls'  schools 
in  Ovid's  time.  Even  in  the  last  days  of  antiquity  Homer  and 
Menander  were  given  to  boys  beginning  Greek.  The  father 
of  the  poet  Statius  kept  a  school  at  Naples,  which,  as  his  son 
assures  us,  was  attended  not  merely  by  boys  from  the  neigh- 
bouring towns,  but  also  from  Lucania  and  Apulia.  At  this 
school  Homer,  Hesiod,  Theocritus,  Pindar,  Ibycus,  Alcman, 
Stesichorus,  Sappho,  Corinna,  Callimachus,  Lycophron, 
Sophron  and  other  poets  were  read.  Certainly,  such  an  ex- 
tended study  of  Greek  poetry  outside  of  Greek  countries  would 
hardly  have  been  possible,  except  in  a  city  like  Naples,  where 
the  Greek  language  and  manners  still  held  their  ground  ;  but 
it  may  fairly  be  assumed  that  every  educated  man,  probablj' 
when  he  left  school,  had  some  acquaintance  with  the  most 
important  Greek  poets.  This  is  shown  by  Seneca's  story  of 
Calvisius  Sabinus,  who,  to  appear  learned,  made  his  slaves  learn 
the  poets  by  heart  from  which  he  was  fond  of  quoting ;    in 


4  Belles-Lettres 

addition  to  Homer  and  Hesiod,  he  mentions  the  nine  lyric 
poets. 

We  know  nothing  further  as  to  the  choice  of  the  Greek  poets 
for  school  instruction,  whether  or  to  what  extent  it  varied 
at  different  periods  ;  but  we  do  know  that  the  Latin  poets 
read  at  school  in  the  second  century  were  not  the  same  as 
those  read  in  the  first ;  a  change  due  to  the  revolution  in  liter- 
ary and  artistic  taste,  which  began  after  the  time  of  Nero  and 
was  complete  at  the  beginning  of  the  second  century. 

In  the  first  century,  Virgil  was  the  first  Latin  poet  put  into 
the  hands  of  the  young ;  and  his  poems  were  the  foundation  and 
the  main  subject  of  the  Latin  course,  as  those  of  Homer  of  the 
Greek.  Next  to  him  probably  Horace  was  most  read  ;  even  at 
the  beginning  of  the  second  century  their  busts  usually  adorned 
the  schoolroom  i.  The  grammarian  Quintus  Caecilius  Epirota, 
a  freedman  of  Cicero's  friend  Atticus,  is  said  to  have  been  the 
first  to  introduce  the  most  modern  poets  as  a  part  of  the  curricu- 
lum in  his  school,  opened  after  the  death  of  his  patron  the  poet 
Cornelius  Gallus  (died  26  B.C.)  In  this  he  read  and  commented 
on  the  poems  of  Virgil  (evidently  before  the  death  of  the  latter 
in  19  B.C.)  and  other  living  poets,  which  gained  him  from 
Martial  the  name  of  '  nurse  of  poets  in  swaddling  clothes  '. 
But  Caecilius  probably  only  established  as  the  rule  what  had 
hitherto  been  the  exception  ;  for  Horace,  in  a  satire  written 
several  years  later,  declares  it  is  folly  for  a  poet  to  desire  the 
applause  of  the  multitude  and  to  feel  flattered  at  his  poems  being 
read  in  second-rate  schools,  where,  to  all  appearance,  after  this 
period  the  works  of  the  most  modern  living  poets  were  read 
by  preference.  We  may  conclude  that  Lucan's  epic  was  read 
at  school  immediately  after  its  publication  from  the  fact  that 
in  Vespasian's  time  poetical  ornament  '  from  the  sanctuary  of 
Virgil,  Horace,  and  Lucan  '  was  required  of  the  orator  ;  this 
is  further  confirmed  by  the  express  statement  of  Suetonius  and 

ithe  extraordinary  care  taken  by  the  booksellers  in  the  get-up 
of  his  works,  the  sale  of  which,  says  Martial,  was  the  best  proof 
that  he  was  a  poet.  Persius  says  it  is  a  fine  thing  for  a  poet  to 
have  his  verses  dictated  to  a  number  of  curly-headed  boys  ; 
and  the  statement  of  the  scholiast,  that  this  refers  to  Nero's 
poems,  which  at  that  time  were  in  general  use  in  schools,  is  in 

1  Juvenal,  vii,  227.  According  to  the  scholiast,  however,  the  reference  is  to  copies  of 
their  works. 


Belles-Lettres  5 

itself  very  probable.      At  the  conclusion  of  his  Thebaid,  Statius 
could  assert  that  this  poem,  the  result  of  twelve  years'  labour, 
was  already  eagerly  studied  by  the  youth  of  Italy.     Martial, 
whose  poems  were  of  course  entirely  unfitted  for  educational 
purposes  owing  to  their  indecencies,  represents  his  sportive 
Muse  as  asking  him  whether  he  felt  inclined  to  put  on  the 
cotJmrnus  of  tragedy  or  celebrate  wars  in  epic,  '  that  a  pompous  1 
schoolmaster  might  read  him  in  a  hoarse  voice,  and  that  he  ' 
might  become  the  aversion  of  growing  girls  and  good  young  ' 
men  '. 

But  at  that  time  it  had  long  been  a  subject  of  dispute  in 
literary  circles,  whether  tlae  preference  should  be  given  to 
ancient  or  modern  literature  and  of  course  the  out-and-out 
supporters  of  the  former  would  not  hear  of  the  latter  in  the 
schools.  As  early  as  the  time  of  Vespasian  there  had  sprung 
up  a  keen  opposition  to  the  extravagances,  unnaturalness  and 
affectation  of  modern  prose.  Quintilian,  whose  authority 
undoubtedly  was  decisive  in  many  quarters,  was  on  the  side 
of  the  opposition.  On  entering  upon  his  professional  duties, 
he  found  Seneca,  the  most  brilliant  of  the  modern  writers,  the 
object  of  the  universal  and  enthusiastic  admiration  of  young 
men,  just  because  of  his  dazzling  and  misleading  errors, 
which  his  imitators  multiplied  and  outdid.  Quintilian  and 
those  who  thought  with  him  strove  for  and  brought  about  a 
regeneration  of  prose  on  the  basis  of  the  Ciceronian  style, 
which,  remodelled  in  conformity  with  the  needs  of  the  time, 
gained  in  mobility,  colour  and  brilliancy. 

But  even  then  some  of  the  archaists  were  greatly  dissatis- 
fied. They  believed  it  was  necessary  to  go  back  about  a 
century,  to  find  the  models  by  which  the  degenerate  taste 
could  be  re-educated  ;  they  extolled  the  elder  Cato,  the  old 
chroniclers,  orators  such  as  Gracchus,  and  the  poets  of  the 
time  of  the  Punic  wars  (Naevius,  Ennius,  Plautus,  Accius, 
Pacuvius,  Lucilius  and  their  contemporaries),  and  of  course 
also  wanted  to  see  them  introduced  into  the  schools.  About 
the  year  90  this  tendency  had  gained  ground  to  such  an  extent 
that  Quintilian  recognized  the  last  demand  as  legitimate. 
He  was  too  moderate  and  liberal-minded,  his  taste  was  too 
fine  for  him  to  take  sides  in  the  dispute,  least  of  all  with  the 
archaists  ;  his  views  were  far  more  modern  ;  he  did  not  share 
their  enthusiasm  for  Plautus  and  Ennius,  and  only  accorded 


6  Belles-Lettres 

the  latter  the  respect  due  to  what  is  consecrated  by  age.  In 
his  review  of  the  standard  authors  he  does  not  even  mention 
Cato  or  Gracchus.  However,  he  admitted  that  it  was  proper 
to  read  the  old  poets  at  school.  According  to  him,  their  works 
were  certainly  well  adapted  to  nourish  and  promote  the 
development  of  a  boy's  mind,  although  their  strength  lay  rather 
in  their  truth  to  nature  than  in  their  art  ;  but  they  were 
especially  calculated  to  increase  the  copia  verborum,  tragedy 
by  its  seriousness  and  dignity,  comedy  by  its  elegance.  Their 
composition  also,  regarded  artistically,  was  more  careful  than 
that  of  most  of  the  moderns,  who  considered  sententious  phrases 
the  chief  beauty  of  poetical  works.  Consequently,  it  is  in  the 
works  of  the  older  writers  that  moral  earnestness  and  internal 
vigour  must  be  looked  for,  since  the  language  of  the  moderns 
has  degenerated  owing  to  its  ultra-refinement  and  affectation. 
Finally,  Quintilian  appeals  to  the  example  of  Cicero  and  other 
great  orators,  who  certainly  knew  what  they  were  about, 
when  they  introduced  into  their  speeches  so  many  passages 
from  Ennius,  Accius,  Pacuvius,  Lucilius,  Terence  and  others. 
To  all  appearance,  it  was  under  Hadrian  that  the  archaists 
gained  the  upper  hand.  The  fact  that  the  Emperor,  who  pre- 
ferred Cato  to  Cicero  and  Ennius  to  Virgil,  gave  them  his  sup- 
port, was  bound  to  ensure  their  supremacy  ;  and  under  the 
two  Antonines  they  appear  to  have  obtained  almost  absolute 
control  over  hterature  and  the  schools,  to  judge  from  the 
reputation  enjoyed  by  such  a  nonentity  as  Fronto,  their  most 
extreme  representative. 

But  even  the  members  of  this  party  held  divergent  opinions  ; 
the  most  exclusive  and  absolute  veneration  for  the  ancients, 
combined  with  equal  contempt  for  the  moderns,  is  to  be  found 
in  Fronto.  In  his  correspondence  with  his  royal  pupils,  Marcus 
Aurelius  and  Lucius  Verus,  which  is  full  of  quotations  from 
ancient  literature,  the  names  of  Virgil  and  Livy  will  be  looked 
for  in  vain  ;  Horace  is  mentioned  once.  Only  after  the  acces- 
sion of  Marcus,  when  begging  permission  to  resume  his  former 
duties  as  teacher,  does  he  mention  Seneca  and  Lucan,  and 
then  only  to  issue  a  most  serious  warning  against  both.  He 
then  expresses,  with  indescribably  comic  apprehension,  his 
serious  anxiety  on  the  subject  of  a  certain  penchant  for  the 
modern  exhibited  by  Marcus  in  one  of  his  speeches.  He  allows 
that  there  are  many  beauties  in  Lucan,  but  '  little  pieces  of 


Belles-Lettres  7 

silver  are  to  be  found  even  in  sewers  ',  if  any  one  likes  to  rum- 
mage for  them.  Tlie  safest  tiring  is  to  abstain  from  reading 
sucli  works  altogetlier,  '  for  on  slippery  ground  there  is  always 
more  danger  of  tripping  '. 

Aulus  Gellius,  on  the  whole,  held  the  same  views  as  Fionto  ; 
he  thought  it  necessary  to  mention  Seneca  once,  in  order  to 
pronounce  strongly  and  decisively  against  him.  He  thinks  it 
will  be  enough  to  quote  the  offensive  criticisms  of  this  '  insipid 
and  insensate  '  fellow  upon  Ennius,  Virgil  and  Cicero  ;  Lucan 
he  never  mentions.  But  Gellius,  although  a  great  pedant, 
was  by  no  means  without  taste  and  was  less  narrow-minded 
than  Pronto  ;  he  admired  Virgil  as  much  as  Ennius.  Certainly, 
he  mentions  no  other  poets  of  the  Augustan  age  except  Horace, 
whom  he  pays  the  honour  of  citing  a  passage  in  support  of  the 
name  of  a  wind. 

Thus,  in  the  course  of  about  a  hundred  years,  a  complete 
revolution  in  literary  taste  had  taken  place  ;    the  prose  and 
verse  writers  who  had  been  admired  and  imitated  in  the  first 
century  were  despised  and  ignored  in  the  second,  and  vice 
versa.      The  number  of  poets  which  the  two  periods  united  in 
admiring,  appears  to  have  been  small  ;   in  addition  to  Virgil, 
whose  greatness  even  the  archaists  never  contested,  a  special 
favourite  was   Catullus,    for   whom   even   the   moderns   had 
an  affection,  and  whom  Martial  imitated  before  all  others. 
Juvenal  is  the  last  of  the  moderns  ;   he  had  a  lively  recollec- 
tion of  how  Statius,  the  celebrated  epic  poet  of  the  party  in 
the  time  of  Domitian,  delighted  all  Rome  by  the  announcement 
that  he  would  read  his  Thebaid  ;  how  all  flocked  to  hear  him 
and  were  enchanted  ;   how  the  seats  collapsed  from  the  fren- 
zied stamping  of  the  audience.     But  a  generation  later,  Statius 
was  completely  forgotten,  and  in  the  time  of  Hadrian  Lucan 
had  long  ceased  to  be  read  in  schools.     Nevertheless,  several 
of  the  moderns  still  had  friends  and  readers  ;    thus,  Aelius 
Verus  was  especially  fond  of  Ovid  and  Martial  (whom  he  called 
his  Virgil) ,  who  was  one  of  the  poets  most  frequently  read  to 
the  last  days  of  antiquity.     But  the  friends  of  this  kind  of 
literature  cannot  have  been  very  numerous  in  the  second 
century.     Ennius,  to  whom  Quintilian  thought  he  had  shown 
suf&cient  respect  by  allowing  him  to  pass  as  a  venerable  reUc  of 
antiquity,  was  now  in  every  one's  mouth.     Reciters  of  Ennius 
[Enneanistae)  toured    Italy,  and  Aulus   Gellius  tells  how  one 


8  Belles-Lettres 

of  them  read  the  Annals  of  Ennius  in  a  theatre  at  Puteoli, 
amidst  the  enthusiastic  applause  of  his  audience.  Grammarians 
(0iAdAoyoi)  had  above  all  to  be  strong  on  Ennius.  In  a 
letter  (written  in  i6i)  to  his  former  pupil,  the  Emperor  Marcus 
Aurelius,  who  had  gone  for  a  few  days  to  Alsium  to  recruit, 
Fronto  pictures  the  emperor  reading  for  amusement  after  his 
siesta,  '  seeking  refinement  from  Plautus,  taking  his  fill  of 
Accius,  enjoying  the  charm  of  Lucretius,  or  firing  his  imagina- 
tion with  Ennius  '. 

It  goes  without  saying  that  the  few  poets  of  talent  whom 
that  age  produced  moved  on  the  lines  of  the  ancient  authors. 
The  poets  Annianus  and  Julius  PauUus,  friends  of  Gellius, 
were  intimately  acquainted  with  the  ancient  language  and 
literature,  the  second  being  one  of  the  most  learned  men  of  his 
day  ;  another  learned  poet,  a  friend  of  Fronto,  was  well  lead 
in  Plautus  and  Ennius.  A  short  but  very  characteristic  speci- 
men of  archaistic  poetry  has  been  preserved  in  the  epitaph  of 
a  certain  Marcus  Pomponius  Bassulus,  chief  municipal  magis- 
trate of  Aeclanum,  written  by  himself  after  the  manner  of 
Plautus  in  elegant  old-fashioned  Latin,  and  in  a  style  com- 
mendably  free  from  exaggeration  ^. 

Naturally  this  radical  revolution  in  taste  brought  about  a 
similar  change  in  the  school  curriculum  ;  the  modern  poets  were 
either  entirely  displaced  by  the  ancient  or  at  most  tolerated 
by  their  side.  In  QuintiUan's  time  the  old  poets  were  probably 
read  in  many  schools  concurrently  with  the  modern  ;  when 
Gellius  went  to  school,  Ennius  was  read  every-where. 

But  there  were  still  poets  who  were  put  into  the  hands  of 
the  young,  read,  explained  and  learnt  by  heart  in  school. 
Poetry  at  that  time  was  not  an  '  extra  ',  an  occupation  for 
spare  hours  ;  it  was  not  looked  upon  as  an  amusement,  but 
as  a  subject  for  serious  study.  It  is  difficult  to 
estimate  the  effects  of  a  system  of  education,  which  regarded 
the  works  of  the  national  poets  and  of  those  of  kindred  peoples 
as  the  most  important  instrument  of  culture,  and  as  almost  the 
only  nourishment  of  the  youthful  intellect.  It  necessarily 
filled  the  memory  with  poetical  turns  and  expressions  ;  roused 
and  elevated  the  activity  of  the  imagination  by  a  wealth  of 

1  See  Corpus  Inscriplio»um  Latinarum,  ix.,  1164.  Mommscn  in  Hermes,  iii.  on  his- 
torical grounds  considers  Bassulus  a  near  contemporary  of  Trajan  ;  Ritsclil,  from  con- 
siderations of  style,  assigns  him  to  the  second  (or  perhaps  the  third)  century. 


Belles-Lettres  •  9 

imagery  ;  early  developed  the  sense  of  beauty  of  form  and 
artistic  representation,  and  made  it  second  nature  for  impres- 
sionable minds.  The  effect  of  these  impressions,  firmly  im- 
printed on  the  mind,  at  a  time  when  it  is  most  susceptible, 
must  have  lasted  a  lifetime. 

In  addition  to  this,  the  professors  sometimes  (perhaps  fre- 
quently) were  poets  themselves,  and  thus  were  able  to  per- 
suade, and  actually  did  persuade,  their  pupils  to  try  their  hand 
at  poetry  and  assisted  them  in  their  attempts.  Learning 
and  poetry  were  not  antagonistic  at  Rome,  any  more  than 
formerly  at  Alexandria  and  subsequently  in  the  age  of  human- 
ism ;  in  both  places  it  was  quite  an  ordinary  thing  for  the  same 
person  to  be  both  savant  and  poet  ;  among  the  philological 
celebrities  of  Alexandria,  Aristarchus,  who  disdained  poetry, 
was  a  prominent  exception.  *  Only  a  mind  rendered  fruitful 
by  a  powerful  stream  of  literature  ',  says  the  poet  in  Petronius. 
'  is  capable  of  conceiving  and  bringing  forth  a  poetical  work  ', 
One  of  the  most  usual  titles  of  honour  bestowed  on  the  poets 
was  '  learned  ',  not  in  our  sense  of  the  word,  but  implying  a 
perfect  knowledge  of  the  forms  and  rules  of  the  art,  acquired 
by  the  study  of  the  best  models.  The  oldest  schoolmasters  of 
Rome,  such  as  Ennius  and  Livius  Andronicus,  were  poets, 
and  this  was  probably  often  the  case  in  later  times.  Valerius 
Cato,  surnamed  '  the  Latin  siren  ',  who  hved  in  the  last  days 
of  the  republic,  was  considered  an  excellent  teacher  for  stu- 
dents of  poetry,  a  man,  '  who  not  merely  expounded,  but 
made  poets  '.  Lucius  Melissus,  appointed  by  Augustus  super- 
intendent of  the  library  in  the  porticus  of  Octavia,  was  also  a 
poet  and  invented  a  new  kind  of  Latin  comedy.  The  father 
of  the  poet  Statius  had  gained  the  prize  in  poetical  contests 
not  only  in  his  native  city  Naples,  but  also  in  Greece  ;  he  had 
sung  of  the  burning  of  the  Capitol  in  the  civil  war  of  69,  and 
intended  to  make  the  eruption  of  Vesuvius  in  79  (which 
destroyed  Herculaneum  and  Pompeii)  the  subject  of  a  poem  ; 
his  son  enjoyed  his  advice  and  guidance  in  the  composition  of 
his  Thehaid. 

But  even  without  direct  encouragement,  lads  possessed  of  a 
certain  taste  and  gift  for  form  were  bound  to  find  in  this 
intensive  appUcation  to  poetry  at  school  a  suflScient  incentive 
to  poetical  attempts  of  their  own  ;  to  all  appearance  precocity 
was  rather  the  rule  than  the  exception.     Catullus  had  already 


10  Belles-Lettres 

written  his  first  love-songs  '  when  first  the  white  robe  (the 
toga  virilis)  was  bestowed  upon  him  '.  Ovid  began  to  com- 
pose still  earlier.  When  a  mere  boy,  the  Muse  secretly  at- 
tracted him,  and  verses  flowed  from  his  pen  long  before  he 
was  of  age  ;  he  read  his  first  poem  in  public,  '  when  his  beard 
was  just  beginning  to  sprout '.  Propci'tius  began  his  attempts 
at  poetry  after  assuming  the  toga  virilis.  Virgil  wrote  his 
Culex  when  he  was  sixteen  ;  Lucan  (a.d.  39-65)  was  only  four- 
teen or  fifteen  when  he  composed  his  Iliacon,  the  subject  of 
which  was  the  same  as  that  of  the  last  three  books  of  the  Iliad. 
It  was  in  existence  till  a  late  period,  as  well  as  another  poem 
{Catachthonion)  on  the  underworld  ;  in  his  twenty-first  year 
he  was  an  unsuccessful  competitor  with  a  panegyric  on  Nero 
for  the  prize  at  the  Agon  founded  by  the  latter,  and  began  the 
Pharsalia  a  year  later.  The  boyish  productions  of  Persius  were 
destroyed  by  his  mother  after  his  death  on  the  advice  of  Cornu- 
tus.  Nero  also  when  a  boy  had  shown  by  his  poems  that  he 
possessed  the  elements  of  a  good  education,  and  Lucius  Verus 
at  the  same  age  was  equally  fond  of  writing  poetry.  The 
poems  written  by  the  first  Gordian  (apparently  before  he 
entered  the  rhetorical  school),  which  included  an  Antoninias 
(the  lives  of  Antoninus  Pius  and  Marcus  AureUus  Antoninus) 
were  still  extant  in  the  time  of  Constantine.  Martial  was  glad 
to  find  the  poetical  trifles  of  his  schoolboy  days,  which  he 
had  almost  forgotten  himself,  for  sale  at  the  book  shops  ;  the 
reputation  of  Serranus,  who  died  young,  was  made  by  his 
boyish  poems  which  caused  great  things  to  be  expected  of  him. 
The  elder  Statins  excited  universal  admiration  by  taking  part 
in  a  poetical  competition  when  a  boy,  and  parents  pointed  him 
out  to  their  children  as  an  example  ;  the  rhetorician  Publius 
Annius  Florus,  when  a  boy,  competed  for  the  Capitoline  wreath 
with  a  poem  on  the  Dacian  triumph,  and  the  eleven  year  old 
Quintus  Sulpicius  Maximus  with  improvised  Greek  hexameters; 
the  thirteen  year  old  Lucius  Valerius  Pudens  of  Histonium 
obtained  it  (in  106)  by  the  unanimous  verdict  of  the  judges. 

In  olden  times  Greek  poets  such  as  Antipater  of  Sidon  and 
Licinius  Archias  of  Antioch  were  famous  for  their  improvi- 
sation, an  accomplishment  which  was  very  common  at  Tarsus 
in  the  time  of  Strabo.  It  was  probably  also  frequently  prac- 
tised in  Rome,  where  it  was  facihtated  by  the  stereotyped 
turns  and  formulas  in  which  the  language  of  poetry  abounded. 


Belles-Lettres  1 1 

and  the  easily  accessible  store  of  metaphors  and  similes, 
common  places,  and  mythological  parallels  ;  again,  it  was 
recommended  as  a  means  of  acquiring  a  complete  mastery 
of  expression  and  metres.  The  mimograph  Publilius  of  Syria 
is  said  to  have  challenged  the  dramatists  to  a  contest  in  im- 
provisation on  subjects  set  by  each  side  ;  by  his  skill  in  the 
art  of  his  native  land  he  defeated  all  his  competitors,  includ- 
ing his  most  important  rival  Laberius.  Quintilian  speaks 
of  improvisation  as  an  art  much  practised  in  his  time.  Lncan 
improvised  an  Orpheus  (in  hexameters) ,  the  subject  apparently 
being  set  to  several  poets  at  the  same  time.  Martial,  who  4^ 
combined  a  ready  facility  in  the  treatment  of  form  with  the 
capacity  of  striking  the  most  varied  notes,  no  doubt  impro- 
vised a  considerable  number  of  his  epigrams,  at  banquets, 
and  on  given  subjects.  The  poems  of  Statius  thrown  off 
on  the  spur  of  the  moment  on  special  occasions,  were  at  least 
improvisations  in  the  wider  sense  of  the  word.  ApoUinaris 
Sidonius  in  addition  to  shorter  improvisations,  also  mentions 
a  longer  one,  in  which  he  competed  with  three  friends  at  a 
banquet  in  the  treatment  of  the  same  theme  in  different  metres. 

Thus  prepared,  lads  and  young  men  passed  into  the  rhetori- 
cal schools,  where,  partly  under  the  guidance  of  the  professors, 
they  studied  prose  instead  of  poetical  models.  Here  also, 
of  course,  the  prevailing  literary  tendency  exercised  the  same 
influence  upon  the  choice  of  authors  as  in  the  boys'  schools. 
For  young  beginners  Quintilian  recommended  Livy  and 
Cicero  (Sallust  for  the  more  advanced),  and  found  it  neces- 
sary to  issue  a  warning  against  putting  Gracchus  and  Cato 
into  the  hands  of  lads.  Fronto,  on  the  other  hand,  recom- 
mended these  authors  and  the  like  to  the  young  Marcus 
Aurelius,  and  the  prince,  who  was  then  in  his  twenty-second 
year,  entirely  shared  his  master's  taste  ;  he  early  gave  up 
the  study  of  Horace  and  devoted  himself  exclusively  to  Cato, 
while  at  the  same  time  he  found  great  edification  in  the 
speeches  of  Gracchus.  Cicero,  however,  although  not  exactly 
an  orator  after  Fronto's  heart,  was  also  recognized  by  the 
archaists  as  a  model,  and  considered  by  many  not  inferior 
to  Gracchus,  to  the  annoyance  of  Aulus  Gellius  ;  even  in  the 
second  century  he  maintained  his  place  in  the  rhetorical 
schools  at  least  as  firmly  as  Virgil  in  the  grammatical. 

Instruction  in  the  rhetorical  schools  consisted   mainly  of 


12  Belles-Lettres 

special  exercises,  gradually  increasing  in  difficulty,  under 
the  teacher's  guidance.  These  exercises,  starting  from  the 
subjects  and  ideas  derived  from  the  works  of  the  poets  in 
the  grammatical  schools,  were  in  a  measure  admirably 
adapted  to  foster  and  develop  the  poetical  inclinations  which 
had  been  already  aroused.  At  first  the  pupils  wrote  on 
given  subjects.  In  narrating  historical  events,  on  which 
I  they  had  to  try  their  hand  first,  they  were  accustomed  to 

'^insert  excessively  detailed  descriptions  of  every  kind  '  in 
imitation  of  poetic  licence  '  ;  however,  intelligent  teachers 
preferred  these  youthful  vagaries,  which  at  least  showed 
ability,  to  meagreness  and  aridity.  The  next  exercises  con- 
sisted of  an  examination  of  the  probabiUty  or  improbability 
of  legends  and  legendary  narratives  :  e.g.  whether  it  was 
credible  that  a  crow  really  perched  on  the  head  of  Valerius 
in  his  duel  with  a  Gaul,  flapped  his  wdngs  in  the  latter's  face 
and  pecked  out  his  eyes  ;  the  nature  of  the  serpent,  which 
is  said  to  have  begotten  Scipio,  or  the  wolf  of  Romulus  and 
Remus  ;  Numa's  Egeria  ;  and  similar  themes  which  ancient 
Greek  history  in  particular  provided  in  abundance. 

Further  :  the  praise  or  censure  of  famous  men  ;  so-called 
commonplaces,  especially  deahng  with  the  f oohsh  and  vicious 
types  of  mankind  (the  adulterer,  the  gambler,  the  debauchee, 
the  pimp,  the  parasite)  or  their  varieties  (the  blind  adulterer, 
the  impoverished  gambler,  the  old  debauchee)  ;  comparisons, 
e.g.  of  town  and  country  life,  of  the  legal  and  miUtary  pro- 
fessions, of  marriage  and  celibacy  ;  investigation  of  the 
origins  of  certain  customs  and  ideas,  e.g.  why  Venus  is  repre- 
sented as  armed  by  the  Lacedaemonians,  why  the  boy  Cupid 
was  conceived  as  having  wings  and  equipped  with  bow, 
arrow  and  torch.  These  things  for  the  most  part  readily 
adapted  themselves  to  poetical  treatment,  the  last  named 
for  instance  being  actually  the  subject  of  one  of  Propertius's 

\  elegies,  while  the  superior  advantages  of  a  country  life  were 
a  favourite  theme  of  the  poets. 

After  these  and  similar  preparations,  the  pupil  began  to 
attempt  oratorical  exercises,  the  so-called  '  declamations  '. 
Beginners  dehvered  monologues  in  the  role  of  some  well- 
known  historical  personage,  in  which  the  reasons  for  and 
against  an  important  and  decisive  resolution  were  set  forth 
(such    monologues    were    called    suasoriae).     The  characters 


Belles-Lettres  13 

and  the  situations  were  sometimes  taken  from  poetry,  e.g. 
Agamemnon  deliberating  whether  he  should  sacrifice  Iphigenia, 
but  in  the  majority  of  cases  from  ancient  Roman  history, 
e.g.  Hannibal  deliberating  whether  he  should  lead  his  troops 
against  Rome,  Sulla  whether  he  should  lay  down  the  dicta- 
torship, Cicero  whether  he  should  apologize  to  Antony  in 
order  to  save  his  hfe.  Persius,  when  a  small  boy,  often 
rubbed  his  eyes  with  oil,  so  as  to  be  able  to  shirk  school  on 
the  plea  of  sore  eyes,  if  he  did  not  feel  incUned  to  learn  the 
pathetic  speech  of  Cato  before  his  suicide — a  speech  in  which 
an  intelUgent  teacher  could  find  nothing  to  praise,  but  which 
the  father  of  the  hopeful  son  invited  his  friends  to  hear  and 
to  which  he  himself  Ustened  '  in  perspiring  ecstasy  '.  Such 
tasks,  which  required  young  people  to  identify  themselves 
with  men  of  the  past  and  to  reproduce  the  emotional  ten- 
sion of  the  crises  of  their  lives  could  only  be  adequately 
performed  by  true  poets  ;  nevertheless,  they  could  not 
fail  to  arouse  the  youthful  imagination  in  various  ways 
and  to  develop  in  it  an  activity  approximating  to  the  poeti- 
cal. 

This,  however,  was  the  case  to  a  far  greater  extent  in  the 
last,  most  difficult  and  most  protracted  exercises  of  the  rhe- 
torical school.  These  were  entirely  dramatic  in  character 
and  were  called  controverstae,  i.e.  disputes  in  which  the  pupils 
took  sides,  as  accusers,  defenders,  or  advocates.  In  early 
times,  cases  of  recent  occurrence  or  known  from  history  were 
selected,  such  as  the  following  mentioned  by  Suetonius. 
Several  young  men,  who  had  gone  on  an  excursion  from  Rome 
to  Ostia,  saw  some  fishermen  on  the  point  of  drawing  in  their 
nets.  They  bought  the  catch  in  advance  for  ready  money. 
After  a  long  wait,  the  net  was  pulled  up,  and  found  to  con- 
tain no  fish,  but  a  basket  of  gold  neatly  tied  up.  Both  parties 
accordingly  laid  claim  to  the  treasure.  In  another  case, 
certain  slave-dealers,  having  put  their  cargo  ashore  at  Brun- 
disium,  in  order  to  cheat  the  custom  house  officers  out  of  the 
duty  for  a  beautiful  and  valuable  slave,  dressed  him  in  a 
purple-embroidered  toga,  and  hung  a  golden  bulla  ^  round 
his  neck.  On  their  arrival  at  Rome,  the  fraud  was  detected 
and   the  freedom  of  the  boy  demanded,   since  his   master, 

1  A  round  or  heart-shaped  box  worn  round  the  neck  by  free-bom  children  ;     those 
of  wealthy  parents  wore  a  golden  bulla,  those  of  poor  parents  one  of  leather. 


H 


Belles-Lettres 


by  dressing  him  in  that  manner,  had  practically  renounced 
the  right  of  ownership. 

But  such  cases  soon  came  to  be  regarded  as  not  sufficiently 
interesting.  Criminal  cases  took  the  place  of  property  dis- 
putes, and  fictitious  cases  were  substituted  for  real  ones  : 
questions  of  civil  law  and  history  form  only  a  very  small 
part  of  the  extant  collections  of  controversiae,  and  even  those 
of  an  historical  character  have  been  garbled  to  produce  a 
greater  effect.  Certainly,  sensible  masters  demanded  that 
fiction  should  resemble  reality  as  far  as  possible  ;  but  to  all 
appearance  their  resistance  to  the  prevailing  taste,  which 
clamoured  for  thrilling  and  piquant  situations,  strong  season- 
ing and  drastic  effects,  was  practically  without  result.  This 
is  shown  by  the  first  collection  of  Controversiae  (that  of  the 
elder  Seneca  in  the  time  of  Augustus)  and  even  more  by 
succeeding  ones,  as  well  as  by  the  repeated  complaints  of  the 
predominance  of  the  nonsensical  in  the  rhetorical  schools. 
According  to  Petronius,  the  fault  lay,  not  with  the  teachers, 
who,  if  they  did  not  wish  to  see  their  classes  empty,  were 
obhged  to  do  as  others  did,  but  in  the  vanity  of  the  parents. 
Quintilian  himself  considered  the  exclusion  of  all  '  incredible 
and  poetical  subjects  in  the  proper  sense  of  the  word  '  too 
severe  and  impracticable  ;  it  was  necessary  to  allow  the 
young  people  some  recreation  and  amusement,  provided 
that  the  subjects  although  emotional  and  full  of  bombast, 
were  not  foolish  and  ridiculous. 

Unfortunately,  the  controversiae  were  often  to  a  great 
extent  both  foolish  and  ridiculous.  For  the  most  part,  even 
if  not  actually  contrary  to  reality,  they  were  far  removed 
from  it  ;  they  made  a  rule  of  what  should  at  most  have  been 
allowed  as  an  exception  ;  they  were  on  the  borderline  of 
possibility,  or  even  overstepped  it.  In  time  the  rhetorical 
school  created  for  itself  a  fantastic  world  ot  its  own,  separated 
from  practical  life  by  a  deep  gulf  which  could  not  be  bridged. 
The  existence  of  imaginary  justice,  of  imaginary,  even  im- 
possible, laws  was  assumed  ;  for  instance,  ingratitude,  or  a 
crime  not  provided  for  by  the  law  was  admitted  as  actionable. 
The  persons  and  circumstances  of  these  fictions  were  purely 
imaginary  ;  it  never  occurred  to  any  one  to  regard  them  as 
pictures  of  real  life.  It  may  appear  strange  that,  during 
the  last  periods   of  imperial  despotism,   when   men's  minds 


Belles-Lettres  15 

bent  beneath  the  yoke  of  the  most  fearful  oppression  and  the 
last  trace  of  freedom  of  speech  had  disappeared,  tyrants  were 
the  stock  characters  in  the  contvoversiae,  and  '  declaimers  ' 
breathed  hatred  of  tyrants  and  extolled  tyrannicide.  But 
these  tyrants,  '  who  issued  edicts,  ordering  sons  to  execute 
their  fathers  ',  were  in  reality  as  harmless  as  marionettes, 
except  to  the  teacher,  '  whose  pupils,  in  a  full  classroom, 
one  after  the  other  put  their  favourite  tyrant  to  death  '. 
If  Caligula  banished  the  rhetorican  Secundus  Carinas  for  such 
a  declamation,  if  Domitian  put  Maternus  to  death  for  the 
same  reason,  it  must  be  remembered  that  Caligula  was  capable 
of  any  extravagance,  and  that  Domitian  welcomed  any  excuse, 
however  trifling,  for  an  act  of  violence  ;  these  two  instances 
are  exceptional,  and  there  is  no  evidence  that  they  in  any  way 
affected  the  choice  of  such  subjects. 

Next  to  fearful  tyrants,  brutal  pirates  were  the  favourite 
subject  in  the  rhetorical  schools,  '  standing  on  the  bank  rat- 
ling chains  '  ;  sometimes  they  had  lovely  daughters,  as  in 
the  following  story.  A  young  man,  who  has  fallen  into  the 
hands  of  the  pirates,  in  vain  beseeches  his  father  in  a  letter 
to  ransom  him.  The  daughter  of  the  pirate  chief  makes  him 
take  an  oath  to  marry  her,  if  he  gains  his  freedom.  He  swears  ; 
she  elopes  with  him,  he  returns  home  and  marries  her.  The 
marriage  of  his  son  with  a  wealthy  orphan  is  proposed  to  the 
father,  who  calls  upon  the  son  to  consent  and  to  repudiate 
the  pirate's  daughter.  The  son  refuses,  and  is  himself  repu- 
diated by  the  father. — As  a  rule,  the  actors  on  both  sides 
were  involved  in  the  most  painful  and  strenuous  conflicts 
between  equally  sacred  obligations,  equally  strong  and  legit- 
imate feelings  and  inclinations. — A  sick  man  asks  his  slave 
to  give  him  poison  ;  he  refuses  ;  in  his  will  he  orders  that  his 
slave  should  be  crucified  ;  the  slave  appeals  to  the  tribunes. 
In  a  civil  war,  the  father  and  brother  of  a  woman  are  on  one 
side,  her  husband  on  the  other  ;  she  follows  the  latter.  He 
is  killed  ;  the  wife  flees  for  refuge  to  her  father,  who  spurns 
her  ;  on  her  asking,  '  How  am  I  to  appease  you  ?  '  he  repUes, 
'  Die  !  '  She  hangs  herself  at  his  door.  Whereupon  the  son 
proposes  that  the  father  should  be  declared  insane. — The 
father  of  three  sons,  having  lost  two  by  death,  becomes  bUnd 
by  excessive  weeping.  He  dreams  that,  if  the  third  son 
dies,  he  will  recover  his  sight.     He  tells  the  dream  to  his  wife, 


1 6  Belles-Lettres 

who  tells  it  to  his  son,  who  immediately  hangs  himself.  The 
father  recovers  his  sight,  but  repudiates  his  wife,  who  dis- 
putes his  right  to  do  so. — A  husband  repudiates  his  wife  for 
adultery  ;  their  son  demands  and  receives  from  his  father  a 
sum  of  money,  ostensibly  for  the  support  of  a  mistress,  but 
really  for  his  starving  mother  ;  the  father  finds  it  out  and 
repudiates  the  son,  who  defends  what  he  has  done. 

The  most  striking  contrasts  were  freely  introduced.  Stock 
figures  were  the  poor  and  the  rich  man,  mutually  hostile 
(for  instance,  the  poor  man's  bees  gather  honey  in  the  rich 
man's  garden,  who  poisons  the  flowers,  and  so  kills  the  bees)  ; 
on  the  other  hand,  their  children'are  often  fond  lovers.  Maidens 
of  noble  birth  are  sold  for  the  brothel,  dishonoured  maidens 
are  given  the  choice  between  the  punishment  of  the  criminal 
or  marriage  with  him  ;  young  men  of  noble  birth  are  com- 
pelled to  enter  the  disgraceful  profession  of  gladiator,  e.g. 
to  obtain  an  advance  of  money  to  bury  a  father.  Terrible 
afflictions  overtake  individuals  and  whole  countries.  The 
plague  especially  was  a  favourite  subject,  which  according 
to  the  oracle  can  only  be  stayed  by  the  sacrifice  of  some  young 
maidens  ;  a  country  is  visited  by  famine  and  the  inhabitants 
are  finally  reduced  to  eating  the  corpses  of  the  victims.  Bodily 
and  mental  afflictions  of  an  exceptional  nature,  such  as  blind- 
ness (and  its  wonderful  cure)  and  insanity  ;  miracles  (a 
woman  brings  forth  a  negro  child  and  is  accused  of  adultery)  ; 
cruel  .punishments  (hurling  from  a  rock)  and  torture  ;  murder 
and  suicide,  especially  by  hanging  and  poison  (the  cutting 
of  the  rope  and  the  pouring  out  of  the  poison  were  stereotyped 
motifs)  ;  horrible  crimes  such  as  parricide  and  the  mutila- 
tion of  children,  trained  to  beg  by  one  who  Uves  on  what 
they  receive  ;  but  especially  family  horrors  of  all  kinds  (of 
course  '  stepmothers,  more  wicked  even  than  in  tragedy ' 
are  frequent  characters) — such  were  the  favourite  ingredients 
for  the  preparation  of  strongly  effective  controversiae,  which 
were  so  greatly  in  demand,  and  which  always  elicited  thunders 
of  applause  in  the  schools. 

It  is  remarkable  and  at  the  same  time  the  clearest  proof 
that  these  fictions  partook  of  the  character  of  novels,  that 
Seneca  was  laid  under  contribution  more  than  any  other 
ancient  authority  in  a  collection  of  novels  and  anecdotes 
widely  circulated  in  the  middle  ages,  the  Gesta  Romanonim. 


Belles-Lettres  17 

The  '  enchanters  ',  who  subsequently  played  an  important 
part  in  these  themes,  were  perhaps  only  introduced  later, 
for  Quintilian  is  the  first  to  complain  of  them,  while  they  are 
not  mentioned  in  Seneca,  Petronius  and  Tacitus  ;  on  the 
other  hand,  in  the  collection  which  bears  the  name  of  Quin- 
tilian, there  is  a  case  of  hatred  excited  by  a  magic  potion, 
an  astrological  prophecy,  and  a  really  excellent  specimen  of 
this  class,  '  the  enchanted  tomb  '.  A  mother,  who  has  lost 
her  son,  is  visited  nightly  by  the  latter  in  a  dream.  She  tells 
her  husband,  who  gets  a  magician  to  cast  a  spell  over  the 
tomb  ;  the  visitations  cease  ;  but  the  wife  then  brings  a  com- 
plaint against  her  husband,  '  on  the  score  of  ill-treatment  '. 
Perhaps  the  Greek  rhetorical  schools  are  the  source  of  the 
stories  of  magic.  The  magician  who  attempts  to  kill  by 
enchantment  another  who  has  seduced  his  wife,  and  being 
unsuccessful  tries  to  commit  suicide,  is  a  common  subject  for 
a  theme  in  Greece  towards  the  end  of  the  second  century. 

In  the  Greek  rhetorical  schools,  the  subjects  of  oratorical 
exercises  differed  essentially  in  character.  Certainly  there 
were  '  declamations  '  of  controversiae  and  to  all  appearance 
on  the  same  themes  ;  the  magician,  the  tyrant,  the  tyrannicide, 
the  debauched  woman,  and  the  poor  man  are  occasionally 
mentioned  as  typical  figures.  But  the  most  difficult  and 
most  profitable  task  for  advanced  pupils  and  the  masters 
themselves  was  clearly  not  controversiae,  but  persuasive  or 
dissuasive  discourses  after  the  manner  of  the  Latin  suasoriae, 
speeches  in  defence  or  accusation,  epideictic,  i.e.  show  speeches, 
which  will  be  spoken  of  later.  This  difference  of  method 
had  its  origin  in  the  totally  different  appreciation  of  eloquence 
by  Greeks  and  Romans.  The  Romans  looked  upon  it  prin- 
cipally as  a  means  to  an  end,  that  of  upholding  one's  own 
interest  against  all  opposing  interests,  especially  in  a  court 
of  justice  ;  whereas  the  Greeks  of  that  age  considered  beauty 
of  form  a  sufficient  end,  and  skill  in  its  manipulation  a  desirable 
and  much  admired  accomplishment. 

In  Rome,  Italy,  and  the  western  countries,  the  great  majority 
of  educated  persons  no  doubt  attended  only  the  Latin  rhetor- 
ical schools,  or  at  least  preferred  them  ;  most  of  the  large  towns, 
however,  also  had  paid  teachers  of  Greek  oratory,  notably 
Rome,  where  the  Athenaeum,  founded  by  Hadrian  and  kept 
up  by  his  successors,  had  a  separate  chair  for  this  subject. 

R.L.M. — III.  C 


r^ 


1 8  Belles-Lettres 

Further,  it  may  be  assumed  that  in  western  countries,  Greek 
rhetoricians  adapted  themselves  to  the  system  that  prevailed 
in  the  Latin  school  ;  thus,  according  to  Seneca,  they  com- 
peted with  one  another  in  the  treatment  of  the  same  themes, 
and  we  know  that  Isaeus,  on  his  first  appearance  in  Rome, 
asked  for  controversial  themes  for  his  improvisations.  Thus, 
this  system,  especially  the  '  declamation  '  of  controversiae, 
ever  exercised  a  most  important  influence  upon  the  character 
of  Roman  education  at  the  time  ;  the  fact  that  in  most  cases 
the  school-course  ended  with  these  studies,  and  that  the 
pupils  passed  at  once  '  from  the  fairy  tales  of  the  poets  and 
the  epilogues  of  the  rhetoricians  '  into  the  realities  of  prac- 
tical life,  there  to  test  the  value  of  what  they  had  acquired  at 
school,  considerably  increased  this  influence. 

Further,  rhetorical  themes  were  also  treated  in  a  poetical 
form.  There  are  extant  examples  of  speeches  in  verse,  most 
commonly  improvised,  delivered  by  persons  in  certain  situa- 
tions {i)6o'!rouai,  ethicae,  an  exercise  for  beginners),  in  fact, 
controversiae  and  suasoriae  in  verse.  To  the  last  da^'s  of 
antiquity  the  systems  and  exercises  remained  the  same  in 
both  Greek  and  Latin  rhetorical  schools  ;  even  themes,  which 
assumed  pagan  belief  and  worship,  were  constantly  handled 
by  Christian  pupils  ;  evidently,  opinions  otherwise  strictly 
tabooed  were  regarded  as  integrant  elements  of  both  rhetorical 
and  grammatical  instruction. 

The  effects  of  this  method  of  instruction,  common  to  all 
educated  persons,  are  clearly  manifest  in  the  Uterature  of  the 
period.     Only   superior   and   specially   keen   intellects   could 
entirely  avoid  the  dangers,  seductions  and  devious  ways  of 
this  method  of  teaching  rhetoric.     In  the  case  of  the  majority 
of  pupils,  the  continuous  striving  after  efiEect,  the  habit  of 
intoxicating  themselves  with  phrases  and  working  themselves 
up  into  a  permanently  emotional  frame  of  mind,  was  bound 
up  to  a  certain  point  to  make  an  essentially[^unreal  eloquence 
a  kind  of  second  nature  ;   the  more  so  as  it  was  just  the  arti- 
ficial  and   affected,    the   dazzling   and   surprising,   the   risky 
and  abnormal,  which  was  assured  of  the  loudest  applause. 
Even  the  greatest  intellects  of  the  time  could  not  entirely 
escape  these  influences,  which  chiefly  affected  the  poetry  of 
the  first  century,  which,  lacking  all  elasticity  of  its  own,  was 
rarely  able  to  rise  above  the  pompous  stiffness  of  rhetoric. 


Belles-Lettres 


19 


Quintilian's  opinion,  that  Lucan,  the  greatest  poetical  genius 
of  his  time,  was  more  deserving  of  imitation  by  orators  than 
by  poets,  was  certainly  justified.  But  while  poetry  has  a 
rhetorical  tinge,  that  of  prose  is  poetical,  an  equally  necessary 
result  of  the  system  of  education.  The  grammatical  school 
made  the  boy  at  home  in  the  world  of  poetry  ;  the  rhetorical 
school  did  not  estrange  him  from  it.  The  themes  set,  with 
their  melodramatic  situations,  highly  romantic  motive  and 
adventurous  characters,  were  bound  to  lend  wings  to  imagina- 
tion, and  to  claim  poetical  handling  ;  like  the  subject,  the 
manner  of  treatment  must  often  have  reached  the  border- 
line of  poetry  or  have  overstepped  it.  The  rhetorician  Arellius 
Fuscus,  one  of  Ovid's  tutors,  was  fond  of  indulging  in  abso- 
lutely poetical  descriptions  (to  judge  from  a  specimen  in 
Seneca)  and  unblushingly  on  occasion  borrowed  straight  from 
Virgil.  Inversely,  Ovid  reproduced  many  sentences  of  another 
of  his  teachers,  the  rhetorician  Porcius  Latro,  almost  word  for 
word.  According  to  Seneca,  Ovid's  own  speeches  in  the  school 
v/here  he  was  considered  an  admirable  '  declaimer  ' '  were 
nothing  but  verse  broken  up  into  prose,  which  was  probably 
the  case  with  many  other  pupils  similarly  trained.  These 
rooted  habits  of  the  school  necessarily  held  their  ground  in 
practical  life.  '  At  the  present  time  ',  says  the  apologist  of 
modernism  in  the  Dialogus  of  Tacitus,  '  poetical  beauty, 
which  must  be  derived  from  the  sanctuary  of  Virgil,  Horace 
and  Lucan,  is  required  of  the  orator  ;  the  speeches  of  the 
present  are  related  to  those  of  the  past  as  the  modern  temples 
glistening  with  gold  and  marble  to  the  old  erections  of  rough 
freestone  and  shapeless  bricks  '.  We  may  believe  with  the 
poet  in  Petronius  that  many  who  had  tried  their  hand  at  the 
bar,  took  refuge  in  poetry  as  a  haven  of  rest,  foolishly  thinking 
that  it  was  easier  to  put  together  a  poem  than  a  controversia 
embellished  with  sparkling  aphorisms.  Poetry  was  akin  to 
eloquence  ;  it  was  reckoned  among  the  forms  of  '  speaking 
well '  in  the  widest  sense  of  the  word,  and  '  eloquent '  (facundus) 
was  an  extremely  common  and  honourable  epithet  of  a  poet. 
As  a  result  of  the  mutual  relations  and  points  of  contact 
between  poetry  and  prose,  the  prose  of  the  most  matter  of 
fact  and  unpoetical  people  in  the  world  ever  assumes  fresh 
poetical  colouring  and  is  proof  in  itself  that  its  intimate  relation 
to  poetry  taught  in  school  was  permanently  maintained.     The 


20  Belles-Lettres 

extremely  poetical  prose  of  Apulcius  shows  that  the  triumph- 
ant reaction  of  the  archaists  might  modify,  but  could  not 
entirely  suppress  these  influences. 

Lastly,  it  must  be  observed  that  a  school  education  was 
more  general  in  the  first  than  in  the  second  century.     By 
degrees  military  merit  and  practical  knowledge  of   business 
opened  the  way  for  the  lowly  born  (and  so  frequently  for  the 
uneducated)  to  high  positions,  formerly  confined  to  the  des- 
cendants of  families  of  the  two  highest  orders.     Thus  provin- 
\    cials,  only  to  a  certain  extent  romanized,  entered  these  orders 
in  ever  increasing  numbers.     For  both  these  reasons  school 
'    education  among  the  upper  classes  ceased  to  be  regarded  as 
\    an  indispensable  requirement,  or  the  lack  of  it  as  disgraceful 
*    or  ridiculous.     Augustus  is  said  to  have  recalled  a  consular 
legate  as  insufficiently  educated  since  he  had  written  a  word 
as  it  was  pronounced  by  the  lower  classes.     Yet,  as  the  num- 
ber of  provincials  in  the  senate  increased,  we  may  assume 
that  fault  was  more  frequently  found  with  persons  of  high 
position  in  Rome  itself  for  bad  pronunciation  and  even  errors 
of  speech.     During  his   quaestorship,   Hadrian  was  laughed 
at  for  his  accent  when  he  was  reading  out  an  imperial  speech. 
When   Marcus   Aurelius   issued   a  command   in  the   field   in 
Latin,  none  of  his  staf[  understood  him,  apparently  because 
his  officers  did   not  know  how  educated   persons  expressed 
themselves  ;    indeed,  Bassaeus  Rufus,  praefect  of  the  Prae- 
torian guard,  a  man  of  no  education,  remarked  to  the  emperor 
that  the  man  addressed  knew  no  Greek.     According  to  Cassius 
Dio,   the   aged   consul   Oclatinius   Adventus   could   not  read 
and  was  so  poor  a  speaker  that  he  pleaded  illness   whenever 
he  had   to  transact  negotiations.     The  statement  in  Philo- 
stratus,  that  the  sophist  Hadrian  was  loudly  applauded  in 
Rome  even  by  the  knights  and  senators,  who  did  not  under- 
stand him,  seems  to  show   that   a   knowledge  of  Greek  had 
become  rare  amongst  the  two  first  classes. 

In  Rome  itself,  about  the  middle  of  the  second  century, 
the  indications  of  the  commencing  decay  of  the  Latin  lan- 
guage were  sufficiently  numerous  and  alarming.  The  form 
and  meaning  of  many  words  was  doubtful  and  disputed  ; 
learned  men  held  different  views  on  the  fundamental  rules 
of  grammar  ;  expressions  in  use  among  the  vulgar  were 
heard  in  the  mouths  of  advocates.     The  barbarisms,  which 


Belles-Lettres  21 

in  the  time  of  Severus  made  their  way  into  public  documents 
and  work  on  stone,  could  already  be  found  in  individual  private 
inscriptions.  The  feeling  of  increasing  linguistic  uncertainty 
and  confusion,  the  effort  to  stem  the  tide  of  advancing  bar- 
barism, the  similar  exertions  of  the  atticists  in  Greece  incited 
the  critics  and  friends  of  language  and  literature  to  zealous 
investigations  in  the  ancient  classics.  The  friends  of  Gellius 
busied  themselves  specially  with  these  researches,  by  the  aid 
of  which  they  hoped  to  regain  a  surer  footing,  and  to  restore 
purity  and  clearness  of  expression.  But  these  well-intended 
efforts  could  at  best  only  affect  a  limited  circle  ;  in  the  face 
of  the  preponderance  of  contrary  influences  at  work  since 
the  third  century  throughout  the  Latin  tongue,  incessantly 
destroying  language  and  intellectual  culture,  they  were 
completely  unimportant.  This  later  period,  however,  is 
beyond  the  scope  of  this  treatise  ;  let  us  return  to  the  con- 
dition of  letters  in  the  first  two  centuries. 

The  fact  that  the  period  with  which  we  are  concerned 
entered  upon  the  heritage  of  the  most  brilliant  epoch  of  Roman 
poetry  (the  Augustan  age),  was  a  second  element  which,  com- 
bined with  the  system  of  youthful  instruction,  gave  poetry 
so  important  an  influence  on  education  generally.  We  need 
only  mention  Virgil,  Horace,  TibuUus,  Propertius  and  Ovid 
(many  other  famous  poets,  such  as  Varius,  are  only  known 
to  us  by  name),  in  order  to  realize  the  brilliancy  and  wealth 
of  poetical  productions  which  matured  side  by  side  within 
the  space  of  a  single  generation.  All  classes  of  poetry  were 
represented — epos,  ode,  tender  or  passionate  elegy  and 
satire — idyll  and  poetical  epistle,  descriptive  and  didactic 
poetry.  Even  drama  was  included,  although  nothing  likely 
to  live  was  produced  in  that  branch  of  literature  ;  the  period 
of  dramatic  writing  was  finally  past,  and  its  plays  are  lost 
to  us  for  ever.  In  all  the  other  departments  of  poetry  the 
results  were  perfect  of  their  kind.  Not  that  any  one  would 
ever  think  of  ranking  them  amongst  the  highest  poetical 
efforts  ;  no  one  can  for  a  moment  entertain  any  delusion  as 
to  their  lack  of  originality  and  real  genius,  notwithstanding 
their  abundant  talent,  their  great  dramatic  power,  their 
perfect  grace,  their  pure  and  unerring  taste,  and  their  lofty 
culture.  As  the  Muse  had  come  from  Greece  to  the  '  rude 
people  of  the  Quirites,  after  they  had  conquered  Hannibal ', 


22  Belles-Lettres 

so  also  the  new  poets  refused  to  walk  in  any  other  path  than 
that  of  the  Greeks  and  loudly  and  clearly  professed  them- 
selves their  followers.  But  in  the  first  place,  they  chose  as 
models,  not  the  old  poets,  but  such  as  were  more  within 
their  reach,  especially  the  Alexandrine  ;  and  in  the  second 
place,  the  understanding  of  Greek  art  had  gained  infinitely 
in  depth  and  refinement.  The  result  was  that  the  contem- 
poraries of  Augustus  reproduced  the  nobility  and  beauty 
of  Greek  form  in  quite  a  different  manner  from  those  of  the 
Scipios  and  even  of  Sulla  and  Cicero,  whose  works  must  have 
appeared  clumsy,  formless  and  rough  by  the  side  of  the  new 
productions.  Noble  forms  were  created  as  standards  in  all 
departments  for  every  mode  of  feeling  and  representation  ; 
the  structure  of  the  line  and  the  art  of  composition  were 
elevated  to  the  height  demanded  by  the  knowledge  of  Greek 
art ;  but,  above  all,  in  the  matter  of  language  they  did  for 
poetry  what  Cicero  had  done  for  prose,  and  this  was  the 
greatest  and  most  lasting  creation  of  that  period. 

As  Cicero  was  the  founder  of  a  prose  adapted  to  increased 
culture,  so  the  Augustan  poets  were  the  creators  of  a  new  poet- 
ical language.  They  developed  the  poetical  power  of  expression 
of  Latin  in  all  directions  in  a  manner  formerly  scarcely 
dreamed  of,  bestowed  upon  it  wealth,  variety  and  fulness, 
beauty  and  grace,  vigour  and  dignity.  They  thus  exercised  an 
immense  influence  not  merely  on  the  prose  and  verse  literature 
of  the  succeeding  centuries  of  antiquity,  but  upon  that  of 
all  later  times,  an  influence  which  they  will  probably  con- 
tinue to  exercise  as  long  as  literature  exists.  These  poets 
were  animated  by  a  true  and  genuine  Roman  patriotism  ; 
they  desired  to  secure  for  their  nation  the  only  possession  for 
which  they  still  envied  Greece.  To  dispute  with  the  Greeks 
for  preeminence  in  the  plastic  arts  or  astronomy  appeared 
unworthy  of  the  great  people  which,  more  than  any  other, 
had  proved  its  skill  in  ruling  others,  in  '  sparing  the  conquered 
and  vanquishing  the  proud  '  ;  but  to  appropriate  their  poetical 
artistic  form  was  a  lofty  aim  and  one  worth  striving  for. 
'  To  secure  the  fame  of  this  achievement  for  the  great  people 
and  its  native  language  was  the  main  object  for  which  the 
poets  of  the  Augustan  age  so  earnestly  strove  '  ;  and  so  far 
as  such  a  thing  was  possible,  they  succeeded. 

In   their  efforts  they  were  assisted  by  the  consciousness 


Belles-Lettres  23 

that  they  were  not  working  for  a  single  country  and  a  single 
people,  but  for  the  human  race  ;  that  their  works  would 
form  part  of  the  literature  of  the  world.  Ennius  had  been 
brought  to  write  poetry  for  the  rulers  of  Italy,  Virgil  and 
his  contemporaries  knew  that  they  were  writing  for  mankind 
in  general ;  and  indeed  the  outlook  upon  an  horizon  so  im- 
mense was  enough  to  make  them  giddy.  The  prophecy 
of  Horace,  that  '  the  most  distant  peoples  would  one  day 
know  his  works  ',  is  well-known.  It  has  been  literally  ful- 
filled, like  that  of  Ovid,  that  the  lamentations  uttered  by  him  in 
exile  on  the  barren  shores  of  the  Euxine  would  one  day  traverse 
all  lands  and  seas,  and  would  be  heard  from  East  to  West. 
They  even  lived  to  see  their  predictions  in  part  fulfilled. 
Ovid  could  boast  that  the  whole  world  read  him  ;  Propertius, 
that  his  reputation  had  penetrated  to  the  inhabitants  of  the 
shores  of  the  wintry  Borysthenes.  In  fact,  the  works  of  the 
hving  poets  were  probably  read  wherever  Roman  teachers 
found  their  way. 

The  most  exalted  idea  of  the  magnificence  of  the  new 
political  organization  of  the  world-wide  empire,  the  immensity 
of  its  resources  and  of  the  all-conquering  influence  of  the 
Roman  language  cannot  prevent  our  astonishment  at  the 
rapidity  with  which  the  Romans  succeeded  in  '  uniting  so 
many  discordant  and  barbarous  tongues  by  the  bonds  of 
intercourse  '.  Scarcely  more  than  twenty  years  had  passed 
since  the  complete  subjugation  of  Pannonia,  when  Velleius 
Paterculus  wrote  his  history  ;  and  already  an  acquaintance 
with  the  Roman  language  and  writing  was  widespread  in 
these  rude,  uncultivated  and  barbarous  countries  (the  eastern 
part  of  Austria,  especially  Hungary).  Roman  literature 
had  made  its  way  into  the  older  provinces  of  the  West,  as  early 
as  the  time  of  Augustus.  Livy  began  one  of  his  later  books 
with  the  declaration  that  he  had  already  gained  sufficient 
reputation  and  only  continued  his  work  to  satisfy  the  demands 
of  his  restless  mind  ;  and  this  reputation  at  that  time  ex- 
tended beyond  Italy,  for  it  is  well  known  that  it  caused  a 
Spaniard  to  travel  to  Rome  on  purpose  to  make  the  acquaint- 
ance of  Livy  ;  when  he  had  achieved  his  purpose,  he  at 
once  returned  home.  Even  then  the  '  remainders  '  of  new 
works  at  Rome  were  sent  to  the  provinces.  Horace  sends 
forth  the  first  book  of  his  Epistles  to  the  world  with  the  pros- 


24  Belles-Lettres 

pect  of  serving  as  food  for  book-worms  unread,  or  of  being 
shipped  off  to  Ilerda  (Lerida)  or  Utica,  when  thumbed  and 
dirty  by  constant  handling.  The  best  books,  which  brought 
most  profit  to  the  retailers,  were  also  sent  over  sea. 

If  then,  the  master-minds  of  literature  in  a  certain  sense 
lived  to  find  themselves  famous  throughout  the  world,  their 
ambition  was  most  completely  satisfied  in  Rome  itself.  There 
i  I  their  poems,  which  in  accordance  with  a  custom  recently 
]>  introduced  were  recited  by  them  before  large  audiences,  were 
at  once  introduced  into  the  schools,  or  sung  at  the  theatres 
to  the  applause  of  thousands  ;  and  finally  a  comprehensive 
and  active  book-trade  promoted  their  sale  and  multiplied 
their  circulation.  Virgil,  who  died  before  the  publication  of 
his  Aeneid,  had  been  so  successful  with  his  earliest  poems 
(the  Eclogues),  that  they  were  frequently  sung  on  the  stage  ; 
the  actress  Cytheris,  frequently  mentioned  in  the  literary 
circles  of  the  period,  the  mistress  of  JNIark  Antony  and  after- 
wards of  the  poet  Cornelius  Gallus  (who  sang  her  charms 
under  the  name  of  Lycoris),  is  said  to  have  sung  the  sixth 
eclogue,  in  which  Virgil  extols  the  poetical  fame  of  his  friend 
Gallus.  When  Virgil  happened  to  be  present  in  the  theatre 
on  such  an  occasion,  the  whole  audience  rose  and  greeted 
the  poet  as  respectfully  as  Augustus  ;  in  fact,  such  a  distinc- 
tion was  as  a  rule  reserved  for  emperors  and  members  of  the 
imperial  household.  When  the  poet  during  his  later  years, 
which  were  mostly  spent  in  southern  Italy  (especially  Naples) , 
occasionally  visited  Rome  and  appeared  in  public,  he  was 
obHged  to  take  refuge  in  a  house  from  the  crowd  which  fol- 
lowed him. 

Certainly,  the  fame  and  popularity  of  Virgil  among  his  con- 
temporaries and  posterity,  and  consequently  the  influence 
of  his  poetry,  were  greater  than  that  of  any  other  Roman 
poet,  and  indeed  unexampled.  His  popularity  may  justly 
be  compared  with  Schiller's.  In  the  case  of  both,  it  is  evi- 
dent that  the  sublime,  the  ideal,  and  the  noble  in  art,  instead 
of  repelhng  or  intimidating,  as  might  have  been  anticipated, 
attracted  the  masses  even  more  than  its  popular  forms.  The 
truth  is,  that  men  feel  more  gratitude,  respect  and  love  for 
the  mind  which  uphfts  them  to  itself  and  impresses  them  with 
the  feeling  that  there  is  in  them  something  akin  to  a  higher 
nature,    than     for     one    which    descends     to    their    level. 


Belles-Lettres  25 

Virgil's  poetry  made  its  way  into  all  educational  circles  and 
into  all  strata  of  society  ;  artisans  and  shopkeepers  had  his 
verses  constantly  on  their  lips  and  used  them  as  mottoes. 
Even  the  most  ignorant  could  quote  scraps  from  the  Aeneid, 
and  at  banquets  where  the  guests  were  entertained  with 
jugglers'  tricks,  imitations  of  animals'  voices  and  farcical  per- 
formances, pieces  from  the  Aeneid  were  recited,  although,  no 
doubt,  atrociously.  Like  the  Bible  in  modern  times,  the 
works  of  Virgil  were  opened  in  times  of  anxiety,  and  the 
first  passage  on  which  the  eye  hghted  was  regarded  as  an 
oracle  of  destiny  ;  this  method  of  divination  was  also  prac- 
tised in  Renascence  times.  In  literary  circles  his  birthday 
(October  15),  was  kept  by  a  number  of  admirers,  and  the  tem- 
ple oracles  (e.g.,  those  of  Praeneste  and  Patavium  as  late  as 
the  third  century)  gave  their  responses  in  the  words  of  Virgil. 

No  other  poet,  as  we  have  remarked,  attained  such  unex- 
ampled popularity  ;  but  the  walls  of  Pompeii  show  that 
Propertius  and  Ovid  also  were  widely  known.  Here,  in  addi- 
tion to  lines  from  Virgil  (some  obviously  written  by  schoolboys) , 
verses  from  these  and  other  poets  have  been  scrawled  with 
the  stylus,  partly  word  for  word,  partly  parodies,  especially 
in  the  Basilica,  which  was  used  as  a  fashionable  promenade. 
Jacob  Grimm's  remark  in  reference  to  Schiller  may  explain 
their  popularity.  '  The  multitude  is  pleased  with  the  poetry 
which  in  style  and  ideas  reaches  the  high  level  of  modern 
education  ;  the  old-fashioned  manner  of  the  past  seems 
strange  to  the  people,  which  desires  to  be  initiated  into  the 
standpoint  of  the  present '.  '  The  multitude,  which  is  affected 
by  a  beautiful  poem,  desires  to  enjoy  it  with  all  modern  ad- 
vantages, and  is  ready  to  renounce  the  old  '. 

Even  in  ancient  times,  the  people  of  Italy  were  probably  as 
impressionable  to  poetry  as  at  the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century, 
when  Tasso's  Jerusalem  so  rapidly  became  popular,  and  Mon- 
taigne was  astonished  to  hear  shepherdesses  singing  Ariosto. 
The  influence  of  the  school,  which  was  practically  non-exist- 
ent in  more  modern  times,  must  have  made  the  poetry  of  the 
Augustan  age  far  more  widely  known  in  the  first  two  centuries. 
The  theatre,  where  probably  poems  were  often  sung,  also 
co-operated  with  the  school  ;  and  their  joint  influence  de- 
pended partly  on  the  dehght  felt  by  southerners  in  euphony 
and  rhythm  ;    although  at  the  present  day  the  rapturous 


26  Belles-Lettres 

delight  even  of  educated  Italians  in  the  national  poetry  is 
tinged  with  sensuality.  But  in  ancient  times  the  feeUng  for 
euphony  and  rhythm  was  far  finer  and  more  developed,  and 
demanded  satisfaction  even  in  prose,  in  a  still  higher  degree 
among  the  Greeks  than  among  the  Romans.  Their  hvely 
sense  of  mere  euphony  is  shown,  e.g.,  by  the  mention  in  Philo- 
stratus  of  the  welcome  given  in  Rome  to  the  Phoenician 
Hadrianus,  professor  of  eloquence  under  Marcus  AureUus  and 
Commodus.  Knights  and  senators  directed  that  they  should 
be  summoned  from  the  theatre  when  he  began  his  lectures,  and 
flocked  to  the  Athenaeum,  even  if  they  did  not  understand 
Greek.  People  admired  his  harmonious  voice,  its  cadence, 
the  modulated  rhythm  of  his  delivery  ;  he  was  listened  to  with 
as  much  delight  as  the  tuneful  nightingale. 

But  apart  from  all  favourable  accessory  circumstances,  the 
effects  of  the  classical  poetry  of  the  Augustan  age  on  the 
educated  world  of  the  period  immediately  succeeding  must 
have  been  enormous.  This  period  was  essentially  unproduc- 
tive, but  possessed  the  delicate  sensitiveness  associated  with 
high  culture.  At  such  a  time,  the  production  of  numerous 
perfect  works  of  art,  the  establishment  of  standard  forms  for 
its  various  departments,  but  above  all,  the  creation  of  a  new 
poetical  language,  full  of  enchanting  beauty  and  dazzUng 
brilliancy,  was  bound  to  call  forth  the  instinct  of  assimilation 
and  imitation  most  strongly  and  in  the  fullest  extent.  '  All 
men  ',  says  Goethe,  '  have  an  inexpressible  taste  for  the  enjoy- 
ment of  works  of  art  ;  but  man  learns  nothing  and  enjoys 
nothing,  without  at  once  desiring  to  produce  something  himself. 
This  is  the  most  deep-seated  peculiarity  of  human  nature  ;  it 
is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that  it  is  human  nature  itself  '. 
Thus,  at  every  period  of  high  culture,  a  wide-spread  dilettant- 
ism is  the  necessary  consequence  of  a  great  and  abundant 
development  of  art.  This  has  been  the  experience  of  Germany, 
especially  in  the  domain  of  poetry.  She  has  enjoyed  a  golden 
age  of  poetry  without  parallel,  which  gave  her  a  poetical  lan- 
guage. But  succeeding  generations  displayed  an  excessive 
eagerness  to  obtain  assured  possession  of  the  precious  heritage, 
by  unceasing  use  and  abuse  of  it,  and  by  continual  reproduc- 
tion. Although  we  have  no  express  testimony,  we  may  assume 
a  similar  state  of  things  for  the  post-Augustan  age.  The 
temptations  due  to  a  cultivated  language  were  as  irresistible 


Belles-Lettres  27 

and  the  illusions  of  the  dilettanti  as  to  the  merits  of  their  pro- 
ductions the  same  as  at  the  present  day,  and  consequently 
forced  the  same  observations  upon  the  impartial  spectators 
of  the  literary  movement.  '  Many  ',  says  Petronius,  '  have 
been  led  astray  by  poetry.  As  soon  as  a  man  has  set  a  verse 
upon  its  legs  and  has  drowned  a  delicate  idea  in  a  flood  of 
words,  he  thinks  he  has  attained  the  summit  of  Helicon  '. 
In  addition  to  this,  dilettantism  was  promoted  by  the  intimate 
connexion  of  poetry  with  the  school,  the  inevitable  result  of 
which  was  that  poetical  exercises  were  more  or  less  generally 
practised, with  or  without  the  prompting  of  the  teacher,  solely 
with  the  object  of  obtaining  more  complete  mastery  over 
form  and  of  acquiring  excellence  in  a  florid  and  lofty  style. 
Even  those  who  did  not  share  the  delusion  of  regarding 
simple  reminiscences,  the  result  of  study  or  imitation,  as  ori- 
ginal or  their  own  property,  could  not  help  being  attracted  by 
the  idea  of  securing  for  themselves  by  constant  practice  the 
cleverness  of  form  that  they  had  been  taught.  But  no  doubt 
delight  in  the  real  or  imaginary  success  of  such  poetical  exer- 
cises (which  by  the  way  were  chiefly  responsible  for  interpo- 
lations in  the  texts  of  the  poets  most  frequently  read)  caused 
many  to  regard  as  an  end  what  should  only  have  been  a  means 
of  study.  Even  the  Odes  of  Horace,  almost  too  severe  a  critic 
of  his  own  works,  contain  many  exercises  whose  only  merit  is 
their  form.  But  if  Horace,  in  Quintilian's  judgment,  was  the 
only  Roman  lyric  poet  worth  reading,  we  may  assume  that  the 
lyric  poetry  of  the  post-Augustan  age  was  above  all  a  poetry 
of  schoolboys  and  dilettanti. 

■i  The  political  conditions  of  the  monarchy,  the  interests  and 
inclinations  of  different  rulers,  courts  and  court-circles,  com- 
bined with  the  influences  of  school  and  the  classical  poetry  of 
the  Augustan  age  to  turn  literary  inclinations,  tastes,  and  occu- 
pations in  the  direction  of  poetry  in  particular.  The  universal 
peace  which  succeeded  the  battle  of  Actium  and  the  decay  of 
political  life  which  came  in  with  the  monarchy,  almost  entirely 
excluded  the  Roman  people  from  the  two  domains  on  which  for 
so  many  centuries  its  intellectual  force  had  displayed  such 
richness  and  vigour.  A  mass  of  talent,  vigour  and  activity, 
driven  out  of  its  natural  path  by  this  revolution,  now  turned 
its  attention  to  literature.  But  even  here  those  portions  of 
the  field,  which  under  the  republic  had  been  most  successfully 


28  Belles-Lettres 

cultivated,  remained  only  partially  open  ;  freedom  of  speech 
was  curtailed,  the  writing  of  history,  up  to  the  time  of  Nerva 
and  Trajan,  who  bestowed  upon  men  '  the  rare  good  fortune 
that  they  might  think  what  they  liked  and  say  what  they 
thought ',  was  full  of  danger,  even  under  the  tolerant  rule  of 
Augustus.  Titus  Labienus,  one  of  the  last  of  the  repubhcans 
and  an  irreconcilable  opponent  of  the  new  order  of  things,  when 
he  publicly  read  his  history  of  modern  times,  omitted  consider- 
able portions  of  it  with  the  words,  '  this  can  be  read  after  my 
death  '.  Nevertheless,  his  work  was  condemned  to  be  burnt, 
a  sentence  hitherto  unheard  of.  Labienus  refused  to  survive 
its  destruction  ;  he  had  himself  buried  alive  in  the  family 
sepulchre.  Eleven  years  after  the  death  of  Augustus,  Cre- 
mutius  Cordus  was  brought  to  trial  for  having  called  Brutus 
and  Cassius  '  the  last  of  the  Romans  '  m  his  Annales  ;  he  anti- 
cipated his  certain  condemnation  by  starving  himself  to  death  ; 
his  works  also  were  burnt.  In  such  times,  poetry  offered  a 
doubly  welcome  refuge  to  peaceful  spirits,  who  sought  an 
ideal  support  for  life  and  an  escape  from  reality.  But  even 
this  refuge  was  not  absolutely  safe  ;  '  the  souls  of  the  mighty  ' 
were  easily  provoked,  sometimes  by  the  mere  choice  of  a  sub- 
ject, and  by  real  or  seeming  allusions  to  the  present.  Thus, 
under  Tiberius,  the  last  representative  of  the  noble  house  of 
the  Scauri  brought  death  upon  himself  by  his  tragedy  A  treus, 
in  which  the  line,  '  The  folly  of  kings  must  be  patiently  en- 
dured '  was  considered  specially  deserving  of  punishment. 
Such  dangers,  however,  rarely  threatened  poets  who  were 
really  careful  to  avoid  them  and  in  no  way  prejudiced  the 
poetical  tendencies  of  the  age.  Tacitus  in  his  Dialogus 
expressly  says  that  the  occupation  of  poetry  is  chiefly  justified 
by  the  fact  that  it  is  less  likely  to  cause  offence  than  oratoiy. 
Thus  poetry  especially  filled  the  great  gap  in  the  life  of  Rome 
caused  by  the  fall  of  the  republic  ;  and  it  was  by  no  means  a  mere 
result  of  human  caprice,  as  set  forth  by  Horace  in  his  epistle 
to  Augustus,  that  the  Roman  people  displayed  a  zeal  for 
authorship  to  which  they  had  hitherto  been  strangers  ;  sons 
and  austere  fathers  wreathed  their  brows,  and  savants  and 
ignoramuses  everywhere  took  to  writing  poetry. 

The  French  literature  of  the  first  empire  offers  many  parallels 
to  the  Roman  Hterature  of  that  time.  Fontanes  and  many 
other  poets  '  exlaausted  their  powers  in  laudations  to  order 


Belles-Lettres 


29 


for  a  fee  '  ;  those  who  did  not  (Hke  DeUsle)  '  carefully  avoided 
political  and  social  problems  and  kept  to  subordinate  or  indiffer- 
ent subjects  ',  which,  as  it  were  by  way  of  compensation, 
they  treated  in  an  agreeable  manner.  The  emperor  bestowed 
especial  attention  upon  the  theatre.  In  1805  two  poets  were 
commissioned  to  '  improve  '  Corneille,  Racine,  and  Voltaire  ; 
yet  the  omission  of  certain  passages  only  increased  their  signifi- 
cance. Napoleon  allowed  no  pieces  to  be  performed,  the  sub- 
jects of  which  were  taken  from  recent  times  ;  the  stage  '  needed 
a  touch  of  antiquity  '  ;  in  his  opinion  the  time  of  Henry  IV 
was  not  remote  enough  to  avoid  exciting  passions.  Even  the 
Tiberius  of  Joseph  Chenier  was  prohibited,  since  certain  pass- 
ages could  be  referred  to  the  present,  and  in  the  Ajax  of  Ugo 
Foscolo  the  Napoleonic  police  in  Milan  (1812)  discovered 
political  allusions,  which  caused  the  author  no  slight  un- 
pleasantness. 

Augustus  never  entertained  the  idea  of  drilling  poetry  to 
such  a  condition  of  uniformity.  He  knew  how  to  make  it 
subservient  to  his  aims  by  frank  recognition.  The  monarch 
had  brought  the  blessing  of  'peace  and  order  ',  so  long  de- 
sired ;  the  next  step  was  to  reconcile  the  educated  classes 
with  Caesarism  by  according  protection  and  encouragement  to 
intellectual  efforts,  so  long  as  they  kept  within  due  bounds  ; 
as  for  the  masses  at  Rome,  the  great  improvement  in  their 
material  condition  and  splendid  shows  and  festivals  were  ample 
compensation  for  the  loss  of  liberty.  The  interest  displayed 
by  Augustus  and  his  circle  (Messalla  and,  above  all,  Maecenas) 
in  this  poetical  revival,  which  was  also  shared  by  the  ladies  of 
the  imperial  household,  has  justly  become  proverbial.  Even 
more  important  than  the  favour  of  this  circle,  to  which  even 
the  captious  Asinius  Pollio  belonged,  was  the  example  of  its 
members.  Augustus  was  the  most  cultivated  man  of  his 
age  ;  his  interest  in  literature  was  sincere,  and  he  showed  it 
not  merely  by  assistance  and  encouragement,  but  by  openly 
displayed  sympathy  with  poets  and  men  of  letters,  whose 
recitals  he  listened  to  '  with  patience  and  good-will '.  To  him 
the  fourth  book  of  the  Odes  of  Horace  owed  its  origin,  the 
Aeneid  of  Virgil  its  preservation  ;  it  was  to  him  that  Horace 
was  allowed  to  address  the  Epistle  containing  a  comparison 
between  the  old  and  the  new  poetry.  Augustus  himself  tried 
his  hand  at  authorship,  mostly  in  pilose  ;    according  to  Sue- 


30 


Belles-Lettres 


tonius,  '  he  only  took  a  superficial  interest  in  poetry  '.  How- 
ever, he  wrote  a  long  hexameter  poem  on  Sicily,  and  a  small 
collection  of  epigrams,  which  he  composed  in  the  bath.  He 
destroyed  a  tragedy  {Ajax)  before  it  was  finished  :  '  his  Ajax  ', 
he  said,  '  had  thrown  himself  on  the  sponge  '  (i.e.,  had  been 
wiped  out) .  This  was  certainly  enough  poetry  for  a  statesman 
on  whom  the  heavy  task  was  imposed  of  re-organizing  the 
world.  Asinius  Pollio,  Messalla,  and  Maecenas  also  wTote 
verses.  The  poems  of  the  last-named,  according  to  what  we 
are  told,  confirm  the  observation,  which  applies  equally  to 
other  branches  of  art, — that  the  purest  taste  and  the  soundest 
judgment  of  the  works  of  others  is  not  always  a  safeguard 
against  bad  taste  and  affectation  in  the  critic's  own  attempts. 
Maecenas's  poetical  trifles,  like  everything  else  of  his,  were 
written  in  a  corrupt  and  bombastic  style  ;  Augustus  ridiculed 
the  '  perfumed  ringlets  '  of  his  '  curled'  style  ^  Seneca  has 
preserved  a  specimen,  in  which  this  remarkable  man  describes 
the  love  of  life  with  a  cynicism  worthy  of  Heine. 

Tiberius,  who  devoted  himself  with  the  greatest  zeal  to  the 
studies  necessary  for  general  education,  was  an  admirer  of  the 
Alexandrian  school ;  he  had  a  special  fondness  for  the  mytholo- 
gical erudition  with  which  they  adorned  their  works.  In  his 
Greek  poems  he  imitated  Euphorion,  Rhianus  and  Parthenius  ; 
he  also  composed  a  lyric  poem  in  Latin,  an  elegy  on  the  death 
of  Lucius  Caesar, — an  event  which  brought  him,  at  the  age 
of  forty-three,  considerably  nearer  the  throne  ;  he  also  wrote 
poems  of  a  frivolous  kind.  A  man  so  gifted  and  ambitious 
as  Tiberius  would  hardly  have  condescended  to  poetical  dilet- 
tantism had  not  his  efforts  to  assimilate  the  culture  of  the 
age  as  thoroughly  as  possible,  almost  forced  him  to  it.  The 
noble  Germanicus  also  during  his  strenuous  life  found  leisure 
for  poetry  ;  amongst  other  works  he  left  some  Greek  comedies. 
His  version  of  the  astronomical  didactic  poem  by  Aratus 
{Phaenomena)  is  still  extant.  Caligula  confined  himself  to 
the  study  of  oratory,  in  which  he  attained  considerable  skill  ; 
Claudius  wrote  several  learned  works,  but  in  prose. 

Nero  was  the  first  and  last  emperor  who  studied  poetry 
not  as  an  exercise  or  amusement  for  idle  hours,  but  as  a  claim- 
ant to  a  prominent  position  in  the  poetical  world.     He  never 

1  The  Latin  words  cincinni  (locks)  and  calamistri  (curling  irons)  are  used  in  the  sense 
of  'ornamental  flourishes '. 


Belles-Lettres  31 

felt  any  interest  in  serious  and  sound  learning,  from  which  his 
own   temperament   and   his   entourage   dissuaded   him.     His 
mother  is  said  to  have  advised  him  not  to  study  philosophy, 
as  prejudicial  to  a  future  ruler  ;    his  tutor  Seneca  prevented 
him  from  reading  ancient  literature,  so  that  the  pupil's  admir- 
ation for  the  works  of  the  master  might  last  the  longer.     Al- 
though both  before  and  after  his  accession,  when  in  his  seven- 
teenth year,  he  delivered  '  declamations  '  in  the  presence  of  large 
audiences,  he  was  obliged  to  have  his  public  speeches  written, 
to  the  general  astonishment  ;    he  was  the  first  emperor  who 
made  use  of  another's  pen.     But  his  lack  of  scientific  education 
proportionately  increased  the  manysidedness  of  his  dilettant- 
ism in  the  fine  arts.     We  have  already  spoken  of  his  fondness 
for  music,  which  he  considered  his  forte  ;   he  dallied  with  the 
chisel  and  modeller's  stick,  and  wrote  poems  as  enthusiastically 
as  he  sang  and  played  musical  instruments.     His   poetical 
efforts,  according  to  Tacitus,  were  intended  to  counterbalance, 
in  public  opinion,  the  bad  effect  of  his  other  less  seemly  artistic 
exercises.     It  is  doubtful  whether  he  possessed  any,  or  how 
much,  real  talent  for  poetry.     Tacitus  denies  it  to  him  alto- 
gether.    According  to  that  historian,  '  he  surrounded  himself 
with  persons  who  possessed  a  certain  facility  in  writing  verses, 
but  had  not  yet  made  a  name  for  themselves.     These  persons 
met,  strung  together  the  verses  they  had  brought  with  them 
or  threw  off  on  the  spot,  and  worked  up  the  emperor's  chance 
utterances  into  a  whole.     This  is  shown  by  the  character  of 
these  poems,  which  possess  neither  vigour  nor  originality,  nor 
uniformity  of  style  '.     It  may  be  confidently  assumed,  that 
this  was  the  origin  of  many  of  the  poems  of  distinguished 
dilettanti  (e.g.,  the  '  little  love-poems  '  dictated  by  them  after 
their  meals  on  couches  of  citrus-wood),  since  in  aU  branches  of 
learning  the  productions  of  clients,  slaves  and  freedmen  were 
regarded  by  persons  of  quality  as  their  own  property,  which 
they  had  a  perfect  right  to  make  use  of.     In  the  poems  of 
Lucius  Verus,  again,  everything  good  was  credited  to  his  gifted 
friends.     It  is  true,  on  the  other  hand,  that  in  this  matter 
Suetonius  defends  Nero,  asserting  that  he  had  no  need  to  deck 
himself  in  borrowed  plumes,  since  verses  flowed  from  him  with 
ease.     Nero's  compositions,  written  by  his  own  hand,  were 
evidently  (if  we  may  believe  Suetonius,  who  had  inspected 
them)  neither  imitations  nor  copies,  but  all  original,  judging  by 


32  Bellcs-Lettres 

the  numerous  erasures,  corrections  and  insertions.  Nero's 
poems  were  numerous  and  of  various  kinds  :  little  trifles  (e.g., 
on  Poppaea's  '  amber-hair  '),  satires,  l^Tics  to  be  sung  to  the 
accompaniment  of  the  cithara  (including  probably  solos  from 
tragedies),  a  long  epic  called  Troica,  in  which  the  chief  hero 
was  Paris,  who,  without  revealing  his  identity,  defeated  all 
comers,  including  Hector  himself,  in  a  wrestling  bout ;  another 
contemplated  epic,  containing  a  complete  history  of  Rome 
from  the  earliest  times,  does  not  appear  to  have  been  finished. 
Martial,  who  as  a  rule  has  nothing  but  abuse  for  Nero,  concedes 
some  merit  to  his  poems.  Some  lines,  accidentally  preserved, 
on  the  course  of  the  River  Tigris,  at  least  show  a  certain 
dexterity  in  versification. 

Musical  contests  formed  the  chief  item  in  the  programme 
of  the  festival  first  instituted  by  Nero  after  a  Greek  model, 
which  was  intended  to  be  held  every  five  years,  but  seems  to 
have  only  taken  place  on  two  occasions  (in  6i  and  65).  Its 
apologists  were  of  opinion  that  the  victories  of  orators  and 
poets  would  stimulate  talent.  But  as  a  matter  of  fact  Nero 
wanted  to  be  the  only  poetical  and  musical  star  in  these  con- 
tests ;  the  participation  in  them  of  persons  of  distinction  at 
his  wish  was  only  intended  to  enhance  his  reputation  ;  it  was 
to  him  that  the  crown  was  awarded.  At  the  second  festival 
he  gave  a  reading  of  the  Troica.  He  allowed  no  poetical  rival 
near  his  throne.  Lucan,  whom  he  had  admitted  into  his  poetical 
circle,  soon  aroused  his  jealousy  ;  when  present  at  a  reading 
by  the  poet,  he  ostentatiously  withdrew  and  apparently  for- 
bade him  to  recite  again  in  public  (end  of  62  or  beginning  of  63). 
Lucan,  carried  away  into  open  hostility  to  the  court,  joined 
Piso  in  his  conspiracy,  and  paid  the  penalty  of  death  on  its 
discovery.  But,  however  dangerous  it  was  in  the  time  of 
Nero  to  claim  any  reputation  as  a  poet,  it  was  advisable — even 
necessary,  for  all  who  had  anything  to  do  with  him,  to  make  a 
show  of  sympathy  and  liking  for  poetry,  and  as  far  as  possible 
to  provide  a  foil  for  Nero's  poetical  efforts  by  their  own. 
No  one  who  knows  the  history  of  that  period,  can  doubt  that 
this  feeling  produced  a  greatly  increased  activity  in  the  domain 
of  poetry.  It  was  one  of  the  reproaches  levelled  against  Seneca 
by  his  enemies,  that  he  wTote  verses  more  frequently  and 
enthusiastically,  from  the  time  that  Nero  showed  a  fondness 
for  the  poetic  art. 


Belles-Lettres  33 

A  complete  change  took  place  under  Vespasian,  who,  although 
no  poet  himself,  liberally  encouraged  talent  of  all  kinds, 
including  poetical.  Titus,  who  had  lived  at  Nero's  court  as 
a  boy,  had  a  facile  gift  for  Latin  and  Greek  poetry,  even  for 
improvisation  ;  amongst  other  things,  he  described  a  comet 
'  in  a  splendid  poem  ',  as  the  elder  Pliny  calls  it ;  he  is  also 
mentioned  as  a  poet  by  the  younger  Pliny.  In  many  respects 
under  Domitian  the  conditions  of  the  time  of  Nero  were  re- 
peated ;  certainly,  men's  minds  felt  the  weight  of  an  even  more, 
terrible  oppression,  but  poetical  efforts  were  honestly  favoured 
and  encouraged,  above  all  by  the  Capitoline  competition 
(founded  in  86)  at  which  genius  was  allowed  free  scope.  On 
the  whole,  this  second  Nero  laid  no  claim,  as  emperor,  to  poet- 
ical fame,  although  during  his  enforced  leisure  when  only  a 
prince  he  had  pretended  a  zealous  devotion  to  poetry.  Of 
course,  at  his  court  his  youthful  poetical  efforts  were  declared 
to  be  unsurpassable.  Quintilian  says  that  the  gods  considered 
it  too  paltry  an  honour  for  him  to  be  merely  the  greatest  poet  ; 
therefore,  they  handed  over  to  him  the  care  of  the  universe, 
in  order  to  divert  his  attention  from  such  an  occupation.  It  is 
doubtful  whether  he  even  began  an  epic  on  the  Jewish  war, 
mentioned  by  Valerius  Flaccus,  but  it  is  certain  that  the  fight 
for  the  Capitol  in  December,  69,  during  which  his  life  was  in 
peril,  was  the  subject  of  a  poem  by  him  ;  Martial  in  Sg  men- 
tions the  '  heavenly  poem  of  the  Capitoline  war  '.  It  would 
seem,  therefore,  that  Domitian  was  by  no  means  averse  from 
being  reminded  of  his  poetical  efforts,  although  he  had  quite 
given  them  up  ;  and  Martial  does  homage  to  him  as  '  the  lord 
of  the  sisters  nine  '. 

Poets  also  claimed  Domitian's  successor  Nerva  as  one  of 
themselves  ;  Pliny  mentions  him  amongst  the  writers  of 
amusing  and  wanton  trifles.  Martial  styles  him  '  the  Tibullus 
of  our  age  ' — an  expression  borrowed  from  a  poem  by  Nero, 
to  whose  circle  Nerva  had  once  belonged  ;  Martial's  epigrams 
on  him,  written  with  all  the  humility  of  a  client,  show  that 
even  during  his  last  days,  Domitian  liked  to  be  considered  a 
poet. 

There  was  no  poetical  fibre  in  Trajan's  soldierly  nature 
he  seems  to  have  been  absolutely  indifferent  to  poetry  ;    Ha- 
drian on  the  other  hand,  the  most  versatile  ^z7i'//fli7/e  who  ever 
occupied  the  Roman  throne,  wrote  verse  (including  indecent 

R.L.M. — III.  D 


34 


Belles-Lettres 


poems)  and  prose  equally  well  ;  some  of  his  trifles  have  been 
preserved.  Even  on  his  deathbed,  whimsical  as  ever,  he 
wrote  the  famous  lines,  which  according  to  his  biographer  are 
an  average  specimen  of  his  poetry — 

'  Soul  of  mine,  pretty  one,  flitting  one, 
Guest  and  partner  of  my  cla}', 
Whither  wilt  thi)U  hie  away, — 
Pallid  one,  rigid  one,  naked  one, — 
Never  to  play  again,  never  to  play  ?  ' 

(C.  Merivale.) 

Hadrian's  example  seems  to  have  made  poetry  the  fashion  at 
his  court.  His  adopted  son,  Aelius  Verus,  was  a  skilled 
versifier  ;  Lucius  Verus,  who  was  adopted  at  his  suggestion 
by  Antoninus  Pius,  also  devoted  himself  to  poetry  in  his 
early  years,  as  already  mentioned.  Marcus  Aurelius  also,  at 
the  age  of  twenty-tAvo,  had  written  hexameters,  of  which  he 
thought  so  highly  that  they  were  not  in  danger,  like  his  other 
attempts,  of  being  committed  to  the  flames. 

Here  this  series  of  imperial  poets,  almost  without  a  parallel 
in  history  and  literature,  comes  to  an  end,  and  poetry  for  a 
long  time  was  an  exile  from  the  court  of  Rome.  The  next 
emperor  who  is  said  to  have  written  verses  (Greek)  was  Alex- 
ander Severus,  whose  education  and  poetical  dilettantism 
(like  that  of  Balbinus,  the  two  elder  Gordians,  Gallienus  and 
Numerian)  show  that  even  in  the  third  century  the  old  liter- 
ary traditions  and  intellectual  sympathies  still  survived  in 
some  of  the  highest  circles,  like  islands  amidst  the  ever-rising 
flood  of  barbarism. 

During  the  period  from  Augustus  to  Hadrian,  the  ruling 
princes,  some  before  and  others  after  their  accession,  were 
nearly  all  poetical  amateurs.  This  very  exceptional  pheno- 
menon is  undoubtedly  no  more  the  result  of  chance  than  the 
fact  that,  from  the  Antonines  to  Alexander  Severus,  we  do  not 
find  a  single  imperial  poet,  although  the  emperors  during  that 
interval  were  for  the  most  part  highly  educated.  A  more 
probable  explanation  is  that  both  the  later  and  the  earlier 
emperors  simply  shared  the  prevailing  tendencies  and  interests 
of  their  time,  and  that  their  attitude  towards  poetry  was 
essentially  the  same  as  that  of  their  educated  contemporaries. 
Hence  we  may  assume  with  certainty  a  very  general  diffusion 
of  poetical  dilettantism  in  the  cultured  circles  of  the  first 


Belles-Lettres  35 

century,  and  an  equally  striking  decline  towards  the  middle  of 
the  second. 

In  fact,  there  is  no  doubt  that  in  the  time  of  Hadrian,  a  new 
intellectual  movement,  which  arrested  the  poetical  tendencies 
of  the  first  century,  obtained  the  upper  hand.     The  history 
of  Roman  poetry  up  to  about  100  a.d.  was  as  rich  in  names  as 
it  was  poor,  if  not  absolutely  barren,  in  later  times.     The 
explanation  of  this  is  not  to  be  looked  for  in  the  decay  of  creat- 
ive power  or  original  genius,  which  Gibbon  regards  as  one  of 
the  characteristic   phenomena  of  the  second   century  ;     the 
poets  of  the  age  immediately  succeeding  the  Augustan  were 
nothing  but  highly  educated  and  gifted  dilettanti  (in  the  best 
sense  of  the  word)  :   and  even  in  later  times  there  was  by  no 
means  a  dearth  of  poets.     Undoubtedly,  the  decline  of  poetical 
aspirations  was  in  a  measure  due  to  the  domination  of  anti-I^ 
quarianism  over  literature,  since  the  study  of  ancient  authors 
could  not  offer  the  same  stimulus  to  original  or  reproductive 
effort  as  that  of  modern  poets.     Consequently  the  influence 
which  the  application  of  the  emperors  to  poetry   (although 
simply  the  result  of  the  prevailing  tendency  of  the  age)  exer- 
cised upon  the  upper  classes  by  force  of  example,  disappeared, 
and  with  it  an  important  inducement  to  poetical  dilettantism. 
But  the  chief  reason  for  the  decline  is  to  be  looked  for  in  the 
great  impression  produced  by  the  highly  artistic  prose  of  the 
sophists,  which  had  its  origin  on  Greek  soil  ;  it  provoked  the 
admiration  of  the  Romans  and  found  many  imitators  amongst 
the  more  impressionable.      Lastly,  it  must  never  be  forgotten 
that,  chiefly  owing  to  the  new  organization  introduced  by  Had- 
rian, the  empire  was  gradually  developed  into  a  military  and 
bureaucratic  state,  which  claimed  greater  powers  and  held  out 
to  its  functionaries  more  brilliant  prospects  in  their  official 
career  ;   the  result  was  that  talent  and  ambition  turned  their 
attention    from    belles-lettres   in    general  to    military  service, 
administration  and  the  study  of  the  law.     Eloquence,  how- 
ever, was  still  generally  cultivated,  but  rather  as  a  means  than 
as  an  end,  and  in  a  different  manner  ;  special  branches  of  learn- 
ing, especially  philology,  which  was  closely  connected  with 
the  now  reviving  jurisprudence,  were  also  eagerly  studied. 

The   new   importance   acquired   by   poetry   and   literature 
generally  on  the  establishment  of  the  monarchy  is  shown 


36 


Belles-Lettres 


chiefly  in  three  things  :  the  development  of  an  extensive  book- 
trade  and  the  foundation  of  pubHc  hbraries  ;  the  institution  of 
public  readings  of  recent  works  [recitationes]  ;  and,  lastly,  the 
establishment  of  an  entirely  new  honour  for  poets — the  crown 
of  gold.  The  last  dates  from  the  reigns  of  Nero  and  Domitian  ; 
the  other  institutions  go  back  as  far  as  Augustus. 

Even  when  Cicero  was  a  young  man,  the  elements  of  a  book- 
trade  must  have  been  in  existence  in  Rome.  His  friend  Atticus, 
the  first  person  who  is  known  to  have  undertaken  the  multi- 
pUcation  and  sale  of  books  on  a  large  scale,  had  numerous  rivals. 
Under  Augustus  at  the  latest,  the  book-trade  in  Rome  was  a 
business  by  itself,  and  soon  after  in  the  provinces.  The  retail 
shops,  situated  in  the  Uveliest  quarters  of  the  capital,  had 
their  pillars  and  entrances  decorated  with  notices  and  copies 
of  books  for  sale,  and  formed,  as  in  modern  Rome,  a  meeting- 
place  for  the  friends  of  literature,  who  came  to  inspect  the  new 
books  or  to  have  a  chat.  Thanks  to  slave  labour,  this  indus- 
try was  able  to  furnish  its  wares  promptly,  cheaply,  and  on  a 
large  scale.  Hundreds  of  scribes,  writing  from  dictation  at 
the  same  time,  did  the  work  of  a  modern  press.  Even  if  they 
did  not  take  much  longer  time,  tlic  result  was  very  unsatis- 
factory ;  incorrectness  was  the  chief  fault  of  ancient  books. 
Since  two  hours  was  enough  for  taking  down  Martial's  second 
book,  a  complete  copy  of  his  epigrams  could  have  been  turned 
out  in  a  little  more  than  seventeen  hours  ;  a  bookseller, 
who  could  employ  fifty  scribes  at  once,  was  consequently 
able  to  produce  an  edition  of  1,000  copies  comfortably  in  a 
month.  The  mention  of  such  an  edition  of  a,  pamplilot  of 
entirely  personal  and  ephemeral  interest,  publislicd  at  the 
writer's  own  expense,  justifies  us  in  assuming  that  big  book- 
sellers must  have  brought  out  much  larger  editions  of  favour- 
ite and  superior  works. 

In  our  days  we  are  too  much  inclined  to  underestimate  the 
productive  power  of  writing,  as  compared  with  that  of  the 
press.  Yet  it  has  been  shown  on  various  occasions,  when  copy 
not  print  was  necessary,  that  the  dif[crence  between  the  two 
is  less  than  is  generally  imagined.  About  2,000  copies  of  Vol- 
taire's La  Pucelle  were  distributed  in  Paris  in  a  month.  Of 
Burgos's  two-sheet  memorandum  to  Ferdinand  VII  (January, 
1826),  5,000  copies  aic  said  to  have  been  circulated  in  Spain. 
On  the  second  day  after  A.  Oppcrmann  had  received  the  first 


Belles-Lettrcs  37 

copy,  thousands  of  copies  of  the  protest  of  the  Gottingen 
Seven  ^  were  in  existence.  Kossuth  successfully  distributed 
throughout  Hungary  his  Reichstagszeitung,  which  he  was  not 
allowed  to  print.  Thanks  to  the  comprehensive  organization, 
the  fruit  of  many  centuries  of  experience,  and  the  employ- 
ment of  slave  labour,  the  multiplication  of  MS.  copies  in  anti- 
quity must  have  been  far  greater.  The  circulation  of  books 
in  distant  lands  soon  followed.  Cicero  says  that  the  deposi- 
tions of  the  witnesses  in  the  CatiUnarian  process  were  copied 
by  all  the  clerks,  circulated  in  Rome,  distributed  throughout 
Italy,  and  sent  to  all  the  provinces,  so  that  there  was  no  place 
in  the  Roman  empire  which  they  had  not  reached.  According 
to  Pliny,  Varro  had  conferred  a  kind  of  omnipresence  on  the  700 
persons,  whose  portraits  were  included  in  his  illustrated  bio- 
graphies, by  sending  the  work  into  all  parts  of  the  world. 
Sulpicius  Severus's  hfe  of  St.  Martinus  of  Tours,  which  Pauhn- 
us,  bishop  of  Treves,  had  brought  to  Rome,  was  at  once  in 
general  request,  and  the  booksellers  were  dehghted  with  the 
good  business  they  did  ;  '  for  nothing  commanded  a  readier 
sale,  or  fetched  a  higher  price  '.  A  friend  of  the  author,  who 
visited  Africa,  found  that  it  had  preceded  him  and  was  being 
read  throughout  Carthage.  Going  on  to  Alexandria,  he  found 
it  in  everybody's  hands  there  as  well,  and  also  all  over 
Egypt,  in  the  Natron  Valley  and  the  Thebaid  ;  he  even  saw  an 
old  man  reading  it  in  the  desert. 

The  prices  of  books  were  not  high.  The  price  of  the  first 
book  of  Martial  (118  epigrams,  700  lines),  elegantly  got  up,  was 
5  denarii  (about  4s.),  cheaper  editions  6  to  10  sesterces  (about 
15.  2d.  to  2s.)  ;  his  Xenia  (274  lines  under  127  headings)  was 
sold  by  Tryphon  the  bookseller  for  4  sesterces  (about  xod.), 
too  high  a  price  according  to  Martial,  who  maintained  that 
it  could  be  sold  at  half  the  price  for  a  profit*  It  fills  fourteen 
pages  in  the  Teubner  edition,  and  since  the  price  probably 
included  what  answered  to  our  '  binding  ',  the  transcription 
of  the  text  perhaps  did  not  cost  much  more  than  at  the  pres- 
ent day  in  Germany,  where  an  ordinary  sheet  can  be  printed 
for  about  sji.  The  text  of  a  little  book  sent  by  Statius  to 
Plotius  Grypus,  written  by  the  poet  himself,  cost  nothing,  the 
purple  cover,  the  new  paper,  and  the  two  knobs  {umbilici) 

1  Seven  professors  who  were  dismissed  in  1837  for  having  signed  a  protest  against  the 
abolition  of  the  Hcinoverian  constitution. 


38  Belles-Lettrcs 

at  the  end  of  the  stick,  round  which  the  roll  was  wound,  10 
uses  (about  Gd.).  Spoilt  paper  found  its  way  into  the  schools, 
where  the  boys  utilized  the  clean  backs  of  the  sheets  for  their 
exercises,  and  into  the  grocery  and  provision  shops,  where  it 
was  used  for  making  bags  for  pepper  and  incense,  or  for  wrap- 
ping up  salt  fish. 

But  everybody  also  had  free  access  to  collections  of  literary 
works  in  both  Greek  and  Latin.  Julius  Caesar's  plan  of 
founding  public  libraries  in  Rome  was  frustrated  by  his  death  ; 
but  it  was  carried  out  by  Asinius  Pollio,  to  whom  Rome  was  in- 
debted for  its  first  public  library  (Greek  and  Latin) .  Augustus 
added  two  more  (one  on  the  Palatine,  the  other  in  the  portico 
of  Octavia),  and  later  emperors  (especially  Vespasian  and 
Trajan)  continually  increased  the  number,  so  that  in  the  fourth 
century  no  fewer  than  twenty-eight  were  in  existence.  Natur- 
ally, the  libraries  were  also  used  as  meeting  places  for  the  friends 
of  literature.  Asinius  Pollio  was  also  the  first  to  utilize  the 
rooms  for  rendering  homage  to  literary  celebrities  in  a  manner 
before  unknown.  Their  statues,  with  boxes  of  books  at  their 
feet  (such  as  those  we  possess  of  Sophocles  and  others),  or  busts 
crowned  with  ivy,  '  the  reward  of  the  poet  ',  some  of  bronze 
and  others  of  gold  and  silver,  adorned  the  halls  and  porticoes. 
In  Asinius  Pollio's  library  Varro's  was  the  only  likeness  of  a 
living  celebrity  ;  but  the  honour  appears  to  have  soon  become 
very  general.  Sidonius  ApoUinaris  in  the  fifth  century  could 
boast  that  his  statue  was  to  be  seen  among  those  of  other  liter- 
ary men  in  Trajan's  library. 

Nevertheless,  the  general  accessibility  to  standard  (prefer- 
ably older)  works  in  the  public  libraries,  and  the  activity  of  the 
book  trade,  which  did  its  utmost  to  promote  the  circula- 
tion of  the  most  recent  books,  were  not  enough  to  bring  authors 
and  public  together,  at  a  time  when  literary  life  was  extremely 
rich  and  animated,  and  a  general  and  lively  interest  was  taken 
in  literature.  The  public  was  still  so  accustomed  to  viva 
voce  recitation,  that  reading  never  became  so  general  as  in 
modern  times,  since,  without  punctuation  or  the  separation  of 
words,  frequent  abbreviations,  bad  writing  and  incorrect  texts 
nearly  always  made  it  a  trouble  instead  of  a  pleasure.  Poetry 
(especially  lyric)  lost  most  by  not  being  heard  ;  since  it  was 
intended  either  to  be  sung  to  a  musical  accompaniment,  or  at 
least  for  a  musical  recital  or  something  like  it.     Euphony 


Belles-Lettres  39 

and  rhythm  were  its  most  essential  characteristics,  and  were 
most  generally  and  keenly  appreciated  ;   hence  poems,  which 
were  read  instead  of  being  recited,  seemed  to  lack  reality  ; 
even  prose,  when  simply  read,  lost  its  efiect,  though  not  to  the 
same  extent.     When  Juvenal  tells  us  that  the  announcement  \ 
of  a  reading  of  the  Thebaid  of  Statius  by  its  author  drew  crowds  \ 
to  hear  the  pleasant  voice  and  the  favourite  poem,  it  is  clear 
that  the  voice  formed  part  of  the  attraction.     In  the  hellenistic 
period  also,  the  works  of  poets  and  historians  were  intended 
for  public  rather  than  for  private  reading.     Asinius  Pollio, 
by  the  introduction  of  recitations  (i.e.,  readings  of  new  works 
before  large  and  specially  invited   audiences),    undoubtedly 
met    a    generally    felt    want.     The    ever-increasing    public, 
which  took  the  liveliest  interest  in  the  most  recent  productions 
of  literature,  became  acquainted  with  them  at  first  hand  and 
in  an  indisputably  authentic  form,  and  at  the  same  time  satis- 
fied its  natural  curiosity  as  to  the  personality  of  the  author. 
Of  course,  literary  men  and  poets  were  equally  pleased  to  make 
their  bow  to  the  public  in  person,  to  convince  themselves  of 
the  effect  produced  by  their  works,  to  profit  by  the  criticism 
of  the  learned,  but  above  all,  to  be  able  to  enjoy  to  the  fullest 
extent  the  approval  of  their  contemporaries. 

Owing  to  the  crowd  of  idlers,  who  were  delighted  at  every 
fresh  chance  of  filling  up  their  spare  time,  the  number  of  (?z7e^- 
^aM/e  and  poetasters,  who  sought  above  all  the  satisfaction  of 
their  vanity  and  of  course  expected  from  others  the  indulgence 
and  favour  which  dilettantism  lavishes  upon  itself,  the  rapid 
degeneration  of  this  new  institution  was  unavoidable.  '  You 
want  me  to  read  you  my  epigrams,  Celer  ?  '  runs  an  epigram 
of  Martial  ;  '  I  won't.  You  don't  want  to  hear,  but  to  recite  ! 
yourself  '.  While  dilettanti,  such  as  Pliny  the  younger,  even 
during  the  most  beautiful  weather,  never  tired  of  attending 
recitations  every  day  and  lavishing  their  applause,  it  was 
the  real  poets  who  suffered  most  from  this  ever-increasing 
mania  for  reading.  Horace's  greatest  terror  was  the  poet  in 
his  frenzy  ;  '  he  rages  like  a  bear,  who  has  managed  to  break 
the  bars  of  his  cage  ;  the  savage  reciter  puts  the  learned  and 
unlearned  to  flight  ;  when  he  has  caught  a  man,  he  holds  him 
fast  and  puts  him  to  death  with  his  reading,  like  a  leech  which 
will  not  let  go  the  skin  until  it  has  sucked  its  fill  of  blood  '. 
'  The  reciter  ',  says  Seneca,  '  brings  an  enormous  historical 


40 


Bcllcs-Lettrcs 


work,  written  very  snaall,  tightly  folded  together  ;  after  he 
has  read  a  considerable  part  of  it,  he  says,  "  I  will  stop  now, 
if  you  like  ".  Immediately  there  is  a  shout  of  "  Read  ! 
read  !  "  from  his  hearers,  who  would  really  hke  to  see  him 
struck  dumb  on  the  spot  '.  One  of  the  characters  of  the 
Petronian  romance  is  an  old  man,  possessed  by  a  mania  for 
improvising  and  reciting,  who  in  face  of  death  on  a  sinking  ship 
continues  to  bawl  out  verses  and  to  write  them  on  a  huge  sheet 
of  parchment.  In  all  frequented  places — porticoes,  baths, 
theatres — he  at  once  begins  to  recite,  although  everywhere 
pelted  with  stones.  The  poet  with  his  manuscript,  says  Martial, 
is  more  fearful  and  more  feared  than  the  tigress  robbed  of  her 
young,  the  poisonous  snake  or  the  scorpion.  He  holds  his 
victim  fast  in  the  street,  follows  him  into  the  bath,  to  table,  to 
his  study,  and  wakes  him  from  his  sleep.  Wherever  he  shows 
himself,  men  shun  his  luxurious  table  as  the  sungod  turned  away 
in  disgust  from  the  meal  set  before  himby  Thyestes,  and  soh- 
tude  reigns  around  him.  Martial  is  also  of  opinion  that  thc^ 
imperial  spectacles  in  the  amphitheatre  satisfied  the  ears  even 
more  than  the  eyes  of  the  public  ;  for  as  long  as  they  lasted ,  the 
poets  amongst  the  spectators  could  not  recite.  One  of  the 
reasons  whch,  according  to  Juvenal,  drove  his  friend  Umbri-  j 
cius  from  Rome,  in  addition  to  the  continual  fires  and  col- ) 
lapse  of  houses,  was  the  recitations  of  the  poets  in  the  month 
of  August  ;  in  an  outburst  of  comic  despair,  he  describes  how 
he  himself,  to  obtain  revenge  for  this  torture,  decided  for  his  i 
part  not  to  spare  the  paper,  which  others  were  sure  to  spoil,  j^ 
since  the  place  was  swarming  with  poets. 

While  the  vanity  of  poets  led  them  to  test  the  patience  of 
their  hearers  by  frequent  and  lengthy  recitations,  they  only 
too  often  had  recourse  to  all  kinds  of  theatrical  affectation, 
in  the  effort  to  exhibit  themselves  and  their  work  in  the  most 
favourable  Ught.  The  great  importance  attached  to  a  fine 
delivery,  suitable  gesticulation  and  other  externalities  was 
sufficient  to  account  for  this.  Quintihan  gives  detailed  in- 
structions for  the  oratorical  debutant  :  on  the  training  and 
necessary  qualities  of  the  voice,  the  compass  of  which  ought 
to  include  the  whole  scale  of  sounds  ;  how  to  avoid  monotony 
and  the  extremes  of  treble  and  bass  at  the  same  time.  He 
warns  him  against  the  sing-song  deUvcry  which  was  the  great 
fault  of  the  orators  of  the  day,  and  treats  in  equal  detail  of 


Belles-Lettres  41 

gesticulation  and  dumb  show,  dress  and  outward  appearance, 
for  which  he  recommends  instruction  not  only  from  a  musician 
but  also  from  an  actor.  Of  course  all  these  and  similar  rules 
were  equally  applicable  to  the  reciter.  When  the  younger 
Pliny  discovered  that  he  read  poetry  badly,  he  decided  to  have 
his  poems  read  before  an  audience  of  friends  by  one  of  his 
freedmen  ;  he  was  in  doubt,  however,  whether  he  ought  to 
behave  as  a  disinterested  spectator,  or  hke  many  others  express 
his  opinion  by  murmurs,  gesticulation,  or  facial  play  ;  but 
as  he  thought  he  was  as  poor  at  dumb-show  as  at  reading,  he 
begged  Suetonius  to  help  him  out  of  the  difficulty  by  his 
advice.  Persius  describes  the  affectation  of  reciters  who,  in 
a  snowy  white  holiday  toga,  with  well-curled  hair  and  a  huge 
diamond  ring  on  their  finger,  took  their  seat  on  a  high  chair  ; 
then,  with  languishing  looks,  their  neck  rocking  backwards 
and  forwards,  they  began  to  recite  in  melting  tones,  the  result 
of  long  practice  in  solfaing.  Sometimes  they  wore  a  woollen 
neckcloth,  to  spare  their  voice  or  show  thp.t  they  were  hoarse  ; 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  thinks  Martial,  this  only  showed  that 
they  were  as  incapable  of  speech  as  of  silence. 

The  manner  in  which  the  readers  presented  themselves 
before  the  public  and  the  applause  of  their  hearers  were  re- 
miniscent of  the  theatre.  Although  the  majority  of  the  au- 
dience, invited  personally  or  by  letter,  were  friends  or,  at  least, 
too  polite  not  to  be  lavish  of  their  applause,  especially  if  tliey 
were  themselves  authors  and  looked  forward  to  similar  treat- 
ment at  their  own  recitals,  many,  perhaps  most,  readers  were 
careful  to  provide  themselves  with  a  reserve  of  hired  claqueurs. 
In  Trajan's  time,  the  practice  was  common  also  amongst 
advocates  ;  it  is  possible  that  the  pernicious  custom  may  have 
crept  into  the  law-courts  owing  to  the  widespread  influence  of 
the  recitations.  One  of  the  poet's  patrons  lent  him  the  ser- 
vices of  some  loud-voiced  freedmen,  who  posted  themselves 
in  suitable  places,  especially  at  the  ends  of  the  benches,  and 
at  a  sign  from  the  '  leader  of  the  chorus  '  (mesochorus) , 
burst  into  shouts  of  applause.  Sometimes,  persons  in 
the  audience  itself  were  enlisted  for  the  purpose  by  the 
present  of  an  old  cloak,  the  promise  of  a  good  dinner 
(such  were  called  laudiceni,  those  who  gave  their  applause 
in  return  for  a  dinner),  or  the  offer  of  a  sum  of  money, 
which    was    paid    quite    openly    in     the    basiUcas.      Pliny 


42  Belles-Lcttres 

relates  that  two  of  his  youngest  slaves  had  been  thus 
engaged  for  three  denarii  apiece  ;  the  rate  of  pay  no  doubt 
varied  according  to  the  ability  of  the  claqueur,  special  import- 
ance being  attached  to  the  modulation  of  the  voice.  Thus, 
the  recitations  were  accompanied,  on  the  part  of  the  audi- 
ence, by  clapping  of  hands,  acclamations  of  all  kinds,  and 
gestures  of  delight  ;  people  rose  to  express  their  admiration 
of  the  reader,  and  kissed  their  hands  to  him. 

But  not  even  the  liveliest  interest,  the  best  intentions  and 
the  greatest  desire  to  be  civil  could  prevent  the  majority  of 
the  audience  from  showing  annoyance  at  the  continual  round 
of  recitations,  which  often  lasted  whole  days,  even  in  the 
hottest  months  of  the  year  (July  and  August).  Certainly 
Pliny,  whose  enthusiasm  for  literature  and  the  literary  pro- 
fession knew  no  bounds,  never  got  tired  himself  and  rarely 
refused  an  invitation  to  a  reading  ;  but  he  admitted  that 
there  were  disquieting  symptoms.  He  writes  as  follows  : 
'  This  year  (97)  has  produced  a  plentiful  crop  of  poets  ;  during 
the  whole  month  of  April  scarcely  a  day  has  passed  on  which 
we  have  not  been  entertained  with  the  recital  of  some  poem. 
It  is  a  pleasure  to  find  that  a  taste  for  polite  literature  still 
exists,  and  that  men  of  genius  do  come  forward  and  make 
themselves  known,  notwithstanding  the  lazy  attendance  they 
get  for  their  pains.  The  greater  part  of  the  audience  sit  in 
the  lounging-places,  gossip  away  their  time  there  and  are 
perpetually  sending  to  inquire  whether  the  author  has  made 
his  entrance  yet,  whether  he  has  got  through  the  preface,  or 
whether  he  has  almost  finished  the  piece.  Then  at  length 
they  saunter  in  with  an  air  of  the  greatest  indifference,  nor 
do  they  condescend  to  stay  through  the  recital,  but  go  out 
before  it  is  over,  some  slily  and  stealthily,  others  again  with 
perfect  freedom  and  unconcern.  .  .  .  Were  one  to  bespeak 
the  attendance  of  the  idlest  man  living  and  remind  him  of  the 
appointment  ever  so  often,  or  ever  so  long  beforehand,  either 
he  would  not  come  at  all,  or  if  he  did  would  grumble  about 
having  lost  a  day,  for  no  other  reason  but  because  he  had 
not  lost  it.  So  much  the  more  do  those  authors  deserve  our 
encouragement  and  applause,  who  have  resolution  to  persevere 
in  their  studies  and  to  read  out  their  compositions  in  spite  of 
this  apathy  or  arrogance  on  the  part  of  their  audience  '  (Mel- 
moth's  translation). 


Belles-Lettres  43 

On  another  occasion,  Pliny  indignantly  writes  to  a  friend 
that  recently,  while  an  excellent  work  was  being  read,  two  or 
three  of  the  audience  sat  in  their  places  as  if  they  were  deaf 
and  dumb.  What  laziness  !  what  impertinence  !  what 
indecency  !  indeed,  what  madness  to  spend  the  whole  day  in 
insulting  a  man,  and  to  leave  an  enemy  instead  of  a  friend  ! 

Certainly,  Epictetus's  rule,  not  to  accept  invitations  to 
readings  without  due  consideration,  was  by  no  means  unneces- 
sary ;  but  if  one  did  attend,  he  ought  to  maintain  an  attitude 
of  dignity  and  reserve  and  avoid  giving  offence.  Pliny  was 
a  model  of  punctilious  courtesy.  He  relates  how,  after  a 
recitation,  he  went  up  to  the  youthful  poet,  embraced  him, 
heaped  praises  upon  him,  and  encouraged  him  to  persevere 
in  his  profession.  '  The  family — the  mother  and  brother  of 
the  young  man  were  also  present ;  the  brother,  at  first  anxious 
then  joyful,  had  excited  general  attention  by  his  deep  and 
lively  interest  in  the  performance.  Then  Pliny  also  congratu- 
lated them  and,  after  reaching  home,  wrote  one  of  his  elegant 
notes  on  this  trifling  event,  which  spread  abroad  the  news  of 
the  young  poet's  success  '.  Such  a  reading  was  an  event  which 
formed  the  subject  of  conversation  in  literary  circles  during 
the  next  few  days  ;  then  the  poem  was  taken  up  by  the  book- 
sellers, v/ho  pushed  its  circulation. 

Considering  the  great  importance  of  recitations  in  the  liter- 
ary life  of  Rome,  it  may  be  assumed  that  the  emperors  fre- 
i  quently  honoured  them  with  their  presence.  Augustus,  as 
already  mentioned,  set  the  example  ;  Claudius,  alter  his  acces- 
sion, had  a  reader  to  recite  his  numerous  works.  Nero, 
soon  after  he  became  emperor,  recited  his  poems  himself  in 
the  theatre  ;  this  caused  such  delight,  that  a  festival  of  thanks- 
giving was  ordained  and  the  poems,  inscribed  in  letters  of  gold, 
were  dedicated  to  Jupiter  in  his  temple  on  the  Capitol.  Domi- 
tian,  while  prince,  also  recited  in  public.  Dating  from  the 
second  century,  readings  seem  to  have  chiefly  taken  place  in 
the  Athenaeum,  where  a  space  in  the  form  of  an  amphi- 
theatre was  reserved  for  the  purpose.  Pertinax,  on  the  very 
day  of  his  murder,  had  intended  to  be-  present  there  at  a 
poetical  recitation  ;  and  Alexander  Severus  frequently  formed 
one  of  the  audience  at  the  lectures  and  recitations  of  Greek 
rhetoricians  and  poets. 

In  the  middle  ages,  also,  even  after  the  invention  of  print- 


44  Bcllcs-Lettres 

ing,  poets  and  literary  men  often  made  their  works  known  by 
recitations.  Thus  Giraldus  Cambrcnsis  (Girald  de  Barri)  in 
the  year  1200  after  his  return  from  Ireland  publicly  read  his 
Topography  of  the  island  at  Oxford.  The  Rederijkkamers 
(poetical  guilds  of  the  Netherlands)  and  the  Italian  Academies 
of  the  fifteenth,  sixteenth  and  seventeenth  centuries  may  also 
be  compared  with  the  old  Roman  recitations.  Boiardo  read 
Orlando  innamorato  at  the  court  of  Ferrara,  and  Madame  de 
Sevigne  speaks  of  readings  of  Racine  and  other  classical  authors. 
vLastly,  the  introduction  of  the  Greek  custom  of  regularly 
recurring  poetical  competitions  at  Rome  opened  up  to  poets 
the  alluring  prospect  of  being  crowned,  an  honour  never  before 
heard  of,  and  thus  gave  an  entirely  new  stimulus  to  poetical 
ambition.  For  Greek  poetry  there  already  existed  such  a 
competition  in  the  Augustalia  at  Naples,  founded  in  honour 
of  Augustus  (a.d.  2)  and  held  every  four  years,  which  was 
considered  by  the  Greek  world  one  of  the  most  brilliant  and 
famous  festivals  of  its  kind.  Here  Claudius,  who  appeared  in 
Greek  dress  for  the  occasion,  ordered  a  Greek  comedy  to  be 
performed,  written  by  his  brother  Germanicus,  whose  memory 
he  always  honoured  in  every  possible  way.  He  awarded  the 
prize  to  it  in  accordance  with  the  decision  of  the  judges. 
Statins  also  once  received  a  prize  (a  crown  of  ears  of  corn)  at 
Naples.  At  Rome  the  first  poetical  contest  was  that  insti- 
tuted by  Nero,  which,  as  already  remarked,  was  only  intended 
for  his  own  glorification,  and  exercised  little  or  no  influence 
on  Roman  poetry. 
\  The  Capitoline  agon,  instituted  by  Domitian  in  86,  and  held 
every  four  years,  acquired  all  the  more  importance.  The 
competition  for  the  prize  in  Greek  and  Latin  eloquence  (a 
stock  subject  being  the  praise  of  the  Capitoline  Jupiter),  which 
at  first  formed  part  of  the  proceedings,  was  soon  discontinued. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  prize  for  Greek  and  Latin  poetry,  which 
was  unique  of  Its  kind,  continued  to  be  the  highest  aim  of 
poetical  ambition  throughout  the  empire  ;  and  the  hope  of 
receiving  the  wreath  of  oak  leaves,  amidst  the  liveliest  mani- 
festations of  sympathy,  from  the  hand  of  the  emperor  himself, 
after  the  judges  had  delivered  their  verdict,  induced  the  most 
gifted  poets  from  distant  provinces  to  cross  the  seas  to  Rome. 
If  unsuccessful,  they  could  console  themselves  with  the  reflec- 
tion that  no  provincial  was  ever  allowed  to  obtain  prizes  at 


Belles-Lettres  45 

Rome  ;  at  least,  the  African  Publius  Annius  Florus,  who  failed 
in  one  of  the  first  competitions  with  a  poem  on  the  Dacian 
triumph,  assures  us  that  the  audience  had  unanimously  de- 
manded the  prize  for  him,  but  that  the  emperor  had  refused 
it,  to  prevent  the  crown  of  the  great  Jupiter  being  carried  off 
to  Africa.  Of  course  it  was  frequently  discussed  in  literary 
circles  at  Rome,  who  was  going  to  win  the  crown  at  the  next 
competition.  Statins  (probably  in  94)  was  an  unsuccessful 
candidate.  A  certain  Collinus,  to  whom  it  appears  to  have 
been  awarded  in  86,  is  absolutely  unknown  ;  of  the  tragic  poet 
Scaevus  (or  Scaevius)  Memor,  a  brother  of  the  satiric  poet 
Turnus,  who  received  it  under  Domitian,  hardly  anything  is 
known  but  the  name. 

The  grave  of  a  Roman  boy,  apparently  the  son  of  a  freed- 
man,  named  Quintus  Sulpicius  Maximus,  who  died  early  in 
his  twelfth  year,  has  been  discovered  at  Rome.  According 
to  the  inscription  on  his  tomb,  he  competed  for  the  prize  at  the 
Capitoline  agon  in  the  year  94  with  fifty-two  Greek  poets  : 
'  owing  to  the  talent  he  displayed,  the  favour  which  his  tender 
years  aroused  became  admiration  ;  he  came  out  of  the  contest 
with  honour  '.  The  43  Greek  hexameters,  improvised  by  him 
on  the  theme,  '  What  Zeus  said  when  he  reproached  Helios 
for  lending  his  chariot  to  Phaethon  '  (probably  a  common  sub- 
ject in  the  rhetorical  schools),  were  engraved  upon  the  monu- 
ment, '  that  it  might  not  be  thought  that  the  parents  were 
influenced  in  their  judgment  by  their  affection  '  ;  they  give 
evidence  of  a  diligent  study  of  Greek  epic.  Of  two  Greek 
epigrams  in  praise  of  the  deceased,  one  asserts  that  sickness 
and  exhaustion  carried  him  off,  since  he  devoted  himself 
day  and  night  to  the  Muses.  In  no,  the  thirteen  year  old 
Lucius  Valerius  Pudens  of  Histonium,  as  already  noticed,  was 
unanimously  awarded  the  prize.  We  know  nothing  of  later 
coronations  of  poets,  although  they  probably  took  place  regu- 
larly every  fourth  year,  until  the  last  days  of  antiquity. 

Further,  the  externalities  of  the  festival  sufficiently  demon- 
strated its  Greek  character,  at  least  in  the  time  of  Domitian. 
The  emperor  presided,  wearing  a  Greek  purple  cloak  and 
Greek  shoes,  a  golden  crown  on  his  head,  adorned  with  the 
images  of  the  three  Capitoline  divinities — Jupiter,  Juno  and 
Minerva.  The  judges  and  assessors  consisted  of  the  flamen 
dialis  (priest  of  Jupiter)  and  the  priestly  college  of  the  Flavian 


46  Belles-Lettres 

house,  similarly  attired,  except  that  their  crowns,  in  accord- 
ance with  hellenistic  and  Alexandrian  custom,  also  displayed 
the  image  of  the  emperor.  Later,  the  priestly  colleges  took 
it  in  turns  to  direct  the  competitions,  under  the  presidency  of 
the  emperor.  The  brilliancy  and  solemnity  of  this  festal 
gathering,  the  presence  of  the  highest  personages  of  the  court 
and  dignitaries  of  the  empire,  the  bestowal  of  the  crown  by 
the  emperor  himself,  the  world-wide  historical  importance  of 
the  place — all  combined  to  make  the  honour  of  coronation 
something  unique  of  its  kind.  The  memory  of  it  survived  till 
the  middle  ages,  and  the  custom  was  revived  in  the  cities  of 
Italy  from  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century.  At  Padua 
and  Prato,  poets  were  crowned  before  Petrarch,  and  Dante, 
when  in  exile,  hoped  to  receive  the  honour  in  the  chapel  of  St. 
John  at  Florence.  Petrarch,  in  his  retirement  at  Vaucluse, 
when  simultaneously  invited  by  the  university  of  Paris  and 
the  senate  of  Rome  to  receive  the  crown  of  laurel  in  public, 
decided  in  favour  of  Rome,  '  where  the  ashes  of  the  great  poets 
of  antiquity  were  buried  '.  On  Easter  Sunday,  April  8, 
1 34 1,  he  was  solemnly  crowned  on  the  Capitol,  in  the  hall  of 
the  senate,  by  the  senator  Ursus  ;  after  the  conclusion  of  the 
ceremony,  the  poet  went  in  procession  to  St.  Peter's,  where 
he  humbly  deposited  the  laurel  on  the  altar  of  the  chief  of  the 
apostles. 

Besides  the  Capitoline,  Domitian  held  another  competition 
yearly  on  March  19,  a  festival  of  Minerva,  the  object  of  special 
worship  at  his  country  seat  near  Alba.  One  of  the  members 
of  a  college  founded  by  the  emperor,  elected  by  lot  to  preside, 
superintended  the  arrangements  ;  in  addition  to  theatrical 
representations  and  magnificent  combats  of  wild  beasts,  there 
were  oratorical  and  poetical  competitions.  It  was  here  that 
Statins  (before  the  year  94)  received  the  golden  crown  of  olive 
for  his  poems  on  the  German  and  Dacian  campaigns — a  prize 
of  course  not  so  highly  esteemed  as  the  Capitoline  crown  of 
natural  oak  leaves.  No  doubt  the  festival  ceased  with  Domi- 
tian's  death.  Nothing  definite  is  known  of  other  poetical 
competitions  in  the  later  days  of  Rome,  nor  of  the  revival  of 
the  Neronian  agon  by  Gordian  III  and  the  poetical  agones  in 
other  cities  and  the  provinces  ;  but  we  may  assume  that  their 
number  was  considerable.  Eumolpus  in  Petronius  says  he  is 
a  poet  and  no  mean  one,  '  at  least,  if  the  crown  is  worth  any- 


Belles-Lettres  47 

thing,  although  certainly  it  is  sometimes  bestowed  by  favour 
upon  those  who  do  not  deserve  it '.  A  Roman  knight  of 
Beneventum  is  described  in  the  inscription  on  his  grave  as  a 
'  Latin  poet,  crowned  at  the  festival  in  his  native  town '.  As 
late  as  the  end  of  the  fourth  century,  poets,  as  well  as  athletes 
and  musicians,  took  part  in  the  Pythian  agon  at  Carthage,  as 
is  shown  by  Augustine's  mention  of  his  own  coronation  as  a 
poet  by  the  proconsul. 

During  these  two  centuries,  then,  poets  had  ample  opportun- 
ity of  being  heard  and  becoming  famous,  and  obtained  ap- 
plause, honour,  reputation  and  public  sympathy,  to  an  even 
greater  extent  than  at  any  other  time.  On  the  other  hand, 
poetry  did  not  secure  material  advantages,  such  as  an  income, 
since  the  booksellers  of  course  paid  no  fees  or  royalties,  at  a 
time  when  the  idea  of  literary  ownership  was  unknown,  and 
when  neither  they  nor  the  author  were  in  any  way  legally  pro- 
tected. The  exemption  from  public  duties  and  charges,  en- 
joyed by  teachers  and  physicians,  did  not  extend  to  poets 
(according  to  a  rescript  of  the  Emperor  Philip).  A  wealthy 
poet  might  certainly  remain  content  with  fame,  like  Lucan, 
who  rested  on  his  laurels  in  gardens  adorned  with  marble,  or 
the  consul  Silius  Italicus,  who  devoted  only  the  evening  of  his 
life  to  poetry,  in  his  villas  magnificently  decorated  with  numer- 
ous statues  and  busts,  on  the  delightful  coast  of  Campania. 
Otherwise,  it  was  extremely  hazardous  for  a  man  who  had  no 
assured  means  of  existence  to  make  poetry  the  serious  business 
of  his  life.  Nevertheless,  the  number  of  those  whom  confidence 
in  their  talents  (real  or  imaginary)  led  to  adopt  it  as  their  pro- 
fession, was  evidently  very  large  ;  indeed,  it  could  not  be 
otherwise,  considering  the  unusual  number  of  powerful  induce- 
ments and  temptations  to  poetry.  Few,  however,  were  sue 
cessful,  and  those  who  despised  this  art  which  failed  to  provide 
bread  and  cheese,  practical,  matter-of-fact  individuals,  were 
able  to  appeal  to  the  miserable  condition  of  the  majority  of 
poets  and  their  own  complaints.  Ovid  refused  to  give  up 
poetry,  in  spite  of  his  father's  exhortations  to  abandon  an 
occupation  which  was  so  unprofitable  that  even  Homer  left 
no  fortune  ;  but,  although  he  had  enough  to  live  on,  he 
nevertheless  complained  of  the  poet's  lot.  Formerly,  in  the 
good  old  days  of  Ennius,  the  name  of  poet  was  honoured  and 
respected,  and  wealth  was  his  in  abundance  ;    now  poetry  has 


/ 


48  Bellcs-Lcttrcs 

fallen  into  disrepute,  and  the  service  of  the  Muse  is  reviled  as 
idleness. 

If  this  complaint  could  be  made  at  the  most  brilliant  period 
of  Roman  poetry  by  one  of  its  most  celebrated  representatives, 
it  is  evident  that  poetry  and  poets  were  at  all  times  regarded 
with  widespread  contempt  by  Romans  of  the  old  stamp.  In 
the  Dialogus  of  Tacitus,  also,  this  view  of  poetry  is  chiefly 
insisted  upon  ;  little  is  said  in  its  praise.  In  addition  to  the 
fame  that  it  may  bring,  it  is  reckoned  one  of  the  chief  bless- 
ings of  the  poet's  life  that,  far  removed  from  the  cares  and 
stress,  the  crime  and  bustle  of  the  world,  he  can  pass  his  life 
in  seclusion  in  the  midst  of  nature,  in  the  solitude  of  forests  and 
groves,  while  his  mind  can  take  refuge  in  the  haunts  of  purity 
and  innocence,  on  consecrated  ground.  But  this  was  just 
what  a  man  ought  not  to  do,  according  to  Tacitus's  view  of  life, 
although  he  does  not  show  so  pronounced  an  aversion  from 
poetry  as  its  regular  opponent  in  the  dialogue.  The  latter  is 
made  to  say  that  poems  and  verses  confer  no  dignity  upon  their 
author,  nor  any  lasting  advantage  ;  all  that  he  obtains  is  the 
brief  satisfaction  of  idle  and  useless  praise.  Even  if  he  has 
taken  a  whole  year,  working  day  and  night,  to  complete  a 
single  poem,  he  has  further  to  run  about  everywhere,  begging 
people  to  condescend  to  come  and  hear  it.  Nor  can  this  be 
done  without  money.  He  has  to  rent  a  house,  to  prepare  a 
reading-room,  to  hire  benches  and  send  round  invitations. 
Even  if  the  reading  is  successful  beyond  his  expectations,  his 
reward  only  lasts  a  day  or  two  ;  all  that  he  gets  by  it  is  vague 
applause,  empty  words,  and  a  brief,  momentary  pleasure. 
Even  the  fame  of  the  poet  is  worth  little  ;  mediocrities  have 
no  readers,  the  best  but  few.  The  fame  of  a  reading  very 
rarely  extends  throughout  the  city,  to  say  nothing  of  the  pro- 
vinces. Very  few  of  those  who  come  to  Rome  from  distant 
provinces,  such  as  Spain  and  Asia  Minor,  visit  the  most  cele- 
brated poets  in  person  ;  or,  if  they  do,  they  are  satisfied  with 
a  passing  acquaintance.  How  different,  in  all  respects,  is  the 
position  of  an  eminent  orator,  who  acquires  wealth,  honour, 
influence  and  a  world-wide  reputation.  Eumolpus  in  Petronins, 
who  boasts  of  being  a  poet  whose  merits  are  recognized,  when 
asked  why  he  is  so  badly  dressed,  answers  :  '  For  that  very 
reason  !  '  Martial  also  advises  a  friend  to  abandon  Helicon, 
which  has  nothing  to  offer  except  loud  but  empty  applause, 


Belles-Lettres  49 

and  to  turn  his  attention  to  the  forum  :  '  there  is  to  be  heard 
the  chink  of  ready  money  ;  but  round  our  unprofitable  chairs 
and  platforms,  nothing  but  the  sound  of  kisses  thrown  by  the 
audience  '.  If  you  meet  people  in  threadbare  cloaks  in  the 
streets  of  Rome,  you  may  be  sure  that  they  are  the  Ovids 
and  Virgils  of  the  time  ;  the  upright,  the  learned,  and  the 
amiable  walk  about  shivering  in  a  brown  hood,  simply  because 
they  are  guilty  of  the  crime  of  being  poets  ;  if  a  son  writes 
verses,  his  father  makes  haste  to  repudiate  him. 

The  most  detailed  account  of  the  miseries  of  a  poet's  life  is 
to  be  found  in  Juvenal.  Before  the  emperor  (Hadrian)  looked 
favourably  upon  the  sorrowing  Muses,  things  had  reached 
such  a  pitch  at  Rome  that  even  well-known  and  famous  poets 
had  to  try  the  lowest  means  of  getting  a  bare  subsistence,  such 
as  hiring  a  bathroom  at  Gabii,  a  bakery  at  Rome,  or  acting  as 
criers  at  auctions.  The  rich  were  lavish  of  nothing  but  their 
praises.  If  a  poet  went  to  pay  his  respects  to  a  wealthy 
patron,  he  was  told  that  he  was  writing  verses  himself  and 
acknowledged  Homer  alone  as  his  superior  by  reason  of  his 
antiquity.  The  rich  never  wanted  money  for  their  luxuries  ; 
they  always  had  enough  to  feed  a  tame  lion,  but  there  was 
nothing  left  for  the  poet,  as  if  he  had  the  larger  maw.  At 
most  they  would  lend  him  an  empty  house,  long  since  bolted 
and  barred,  with  walls  covered  with  mildew,  to  hold  a  reading 
in,  but  they  would  not  give  him  even  the  money  to  pay  for  the 
erection  of  the  platform  or  the  hire  of  the  seats  and  benches. 
But  what  good  was  a  brilliant  reputation  to  the  poor  poet,  if 
it  meant  nothing  else  ?  Even  the  celebrated  Statins  would 
have  had  nothing  to  eat,  if  he  had  not  disposed  of  his  unacted 
Agave  to  Paris. ^  And  yet  the  pestilent  itch  for  writing  is 
incurable  in  many,  and  lasts  till  old  age,  though  their  heart 
be  sick  with  waiting  ;  poets  still  compose  sublime  verses 
in  their  garret,  by  the  light  of  a  solitary  lamp,  on  the  chance  of 
seeing  their  lean  features  immortalized  in  an  ivy-crowned 
portrait-bust.  But  how  can  the  mind  soar  to  poetic  enthusi- 
asm, while  the  starving  body  calls  aloud  day  and  night  for  the 
satisfaction  of  its  needs  ?  The  mind  of  a  man  who  does  not 
know  how  he  is  to  get  a  blanket  cannot  feel  the  divine  afflatus  ; 
even  Virgil's  imagination  would  have  been  paralyzed,  if  he 

1  A  famous  pantomime  and  dancer.     Agava  'tore  her  son  Pentheus  to  pieces   at  a 
festival  of  Dionysus  on  Mount  Citliaeron,  as  described  in  the  Bacchae  of  Euripides. 
R.L.M. — III.  E 


50  Bcllcs-Lcttrcs 

had  not  had  a  slave  to  wait  on  him  and  tolerable  quarters. 
How  absurd  to  ask  a  Rubrenus  Lappa  to  rise  to  the  level  of 
the  buskin  of  the  ancients,  when  he  has  been  obliged  to  pawn  his 
dishes  and  his  cloak,  before  he  could  write  his  tragedy  Aireus. 
Only  a  mind  free  from  all  earthly  anxieties,  filled  with  longing 
for  the  solitude  of  the  woods,  the  grottoes  and  the  fountains  of 
the  Muses,  can  gain  admission  to  the  ranks  of  true  poets.  Thus 
the  years  that  should  have  been  devoted  to  agriculture  or 
service  in  the  army  or  the  navy,  are  passed  in  fruitless  efforts  ; 
a  needy  and  destitute  old  age  approaches,  and  the  poet  curses 
himself  and  his  profession,  although  men  speak  well  of  him. 
Formerly  it  was  different :  in  the  time  of  the  Maecenases, 
Cottas,  and  Fabii  it  was  an  advantage  to  many  to  look  pale, 
and  to  remain  sober  during  the  Saturnalia.  Then  paleness 
was  regarded  as  an  attribute  as  necessary  to  learned  men, 
especially  poets,  as  his  beard  to  the  philosopher  ;  when 
Oppian  looked  ill,  says  Martial,  he  began  to  wTite  verses, 
i  But  apart  from  the  fact  that  Juvenal  everywhere  exag- 
i  gcrates,  his  description  is  by  no  means  correct,  since  he  repre- 
'  sents  poverty  and  want  as  the  unavoidable  and  exclusive 
lot  of  the  poet,  unless  he  has  private  means  or  is  willing  to 
work  at  a  trade.  Certainly,  in  this  case,  as  at  all  times  when 
literary  production  cannot  be  made  immediately  profitable, 
poets  were  entirely  dependent  upon  the  favour  and  generosity 
of  the  wealthy  and  influential,  which,  however,  they  probably 
then  enjoyed  to  a  greater  extent  than  at  any  other  time. 
For  it  was  the  general  opinion  throughout  the  Greek  and 
Roman  world  that  wealth,  rank  and  position  imposed  great 
obligations,  and  especially  that  the  possession  of  a  large 
fortune  required  not  merely  a  proportionate  expenditure 
in  the  public  service,  but  also  a  generous  distribution  of  suj)er- 
fluous  wealth  amongst  the  poor.  Princely  generosity  was 
especially  expected  from  the  great  men  of  Rome  ;  and  at  a 
time  when  interest  in  poetry  was  so  keen  and  general,  this 
was  bound  to  be  particularly  advantageous  to  the  poet. 
Certainly,  charity  was  not  practised  on  so  large  a  scale  as 
formerly.  Even  the  younger  Pliny  laments  that  the  good 
old  custom  of  rewarding  poets  for  their  eulogies  with  a  sum 
of  money,  had  gradually  fallen  into  disuse  ;  he  himself,  how- 
ever, still  kept  it  up,  and  thought  it  his  duty  to  pay  Martial's 
travelling  expenses  home  in  return  for  a  very  flattering  poem. 


Belles-Lettres  5 1 

Martial  had  a  number  of  other  generous  patrons.  Even 
Juvenal's  complaints  of  the  stinginess  of  the  rich  show  that 
it  was  always  considered  to  a  certain  extent  one  of  their 
duties  to  assist  poets,  and  that  neglect  to  do  so  excited  dis- 
satisfaction in  literary  circles  and  brought  them  into  disrepute. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  was  by  no  means  the  poets  alone 
who  were  benefited  by  this  state  of  things  ;  they  might  even 
return  the  favour  with  interest,  for  honour  and  fame  in  the 
present  and  immortality  in  the  future  were  regarded  as  the 
highest  of  blessings  by  the  men  of  that  age  ;  and  who  was 
better  able  to  bestow  them  than  the  poet  ?  But  even  during 
their  lifetime,  great  men  looked  to  poetry  for  guidance,  as 
elevating  and  glorifying  every  important  event.  The  idea 
that  even  the  most  favoured  existence  lacked  something 
without  the  adornment  of  poetry,  was  widespread  and  never 
entirely  disappeared,  although  it  gradually  became  rare. 
In  this  sense  those  most  highly  placed  felt  the  need  of  the 
poet  and  were  quite  ready,  in  their  own  interest,  to  lay  him 
under  obligations  to  secure  his  devotion.  Naturally,  of  course, 
the  number  of  poets  who  sought  favour  and  generosity  was 
always  incomparably  greater  than  that  of  the  great  men 
who  desired  to  purchase  the  poets'  praise. 

In  this,  too,  the  emperors  set  the  example.  They  of  course 
expected  and  demanded  from  contemporary  poets  the  glorifi- 
cation of  their  rule  and  achievements,  of  their  person  and 
family,  of  their  buildings  and  other  undertakings,  of  their 
festivals  and  shows,  and,  like  Augustus,  directly  called  for  it. 
Certainly,  during  every  reign  there  existed  a  poetical  litera- 
ture exclusively  devoted  to  its  glorification.  Two  years 
after  Trajan's  accession,  we  read  of  '  serious  poems  '  (as 
contrasted  with  the  effeminate  panegyrics  on  Domitian),  in 
which  his  praises  were  sung.  Indeed,  the  glorification  of 
the  emperor  was  so  generally  regarded  as  the  most  natural 
task  of  poetry,  that  prominent  (especially  epic)  poets,  who 
as  a  rule  chose  other  subjects,  chiefly  mythological,  as  least 
compromising,  found  it  necessary  to  make  excuses  or  explan- 
ations :  that  they  were  quite  incapable,  or  not  yet  capable, 
of  so  lofty  a  task  ;  that  they  would  make  the  attempt  when 
they  were  better  equipped.  In  fact,  Statius,  who  expresses 
himself  to  this  effect  at  the  commencement  of  both  his  Thebais 
and  his   Achilleis,   had   already  written   poems,   presumably 


52  Belles-Lettres 

short  ones,  on  Domitian's  German  and  Dacian  wars.  As 
early  as  the  Augustan  age,  poets  felt  bound  to  provide  such 
explanations.  Virgil  in  his  Georgics  declares  his  intention, 
after  he  has  finished  it,  of  girding  himself  to  sing  of  raging 
battles,  and  of  proclaiming  Caesar's  fame  to  posterity.  I 
would  sing  of  the  wars  of  Caesar,  says  Propertius,  of  Mutina, 
Philippi,  the  Perusian,  Sicilian  and  Alexandrian  wars,  and 
the  triumph  at  Actium,  if  I  were  capable  of  it.  And  three 
hundred  years  later,  Nemesianus  at  the  beginning  of  his 
Cynegetica  (a  didactic  poem  on  hunting)  promises  that  he 
will  one  day  sing  of  the  triumphs  of  the  sons  of  Carus  '  with 
a  more  competent  lyre  '.  Again,  Julian  the  Apostate  in  his 
panegyric  on  the  emperor  Constantius  says  that  all  who  have 
anything  to  do  with  literature  extol  him  in  both  verse  and 
prose,  and  that  it  is  especially  easy  for  poets  to  praise  his 
deeds. 

But  apart  from  the  fame  which  they  expected,  the  emperors 
as  a  rule  evidently  recognized  a  certain  obligation  to  show 
their  practical  interest  in  poetry  by  the  payment  of  grants 
and  fees  to  prominent  poets.  They  were  regarded  as  the 
most  natural  and  the  highest  patrons  and  protectors  of  poetry 
and  poets,  who  accordingly  addressed  their  dedications  and 
homage  to  the  emperors  before  all.  In  addition,  it  is  worth 
notice,  that  while  rhetoricians  were  often  elevated  to  lucra- 
tive and  influential  offices,  no  single  instance  is  known  of  a 
poet  being  so  promoted.  It  is  most  probable  that  he  was 
usually  rewarded  by  considerable  gifts  of  money. 

Horace  declares  that  every  one  looked  forward  confidently 
to  a  time  when  a  mere  hint  to  Augustus  that  any  one  was 
devoting  himself  to  poetry  would  be  enough  to  secure  him 
a  livelihood  at  once  and  encouragement  to  continue.  Even 
without  this  assurance,  we  could  form  an  idea  of  the  pre- 
tensions and  expectations  aroused  in  the  poetical  world  at 
that  time  by  the  decided  interest  shown  by  Augustus  in  the 
revival  of  poetry.  An  anecdote  related  by  Macrobius  shows 
the  importunity  and  outspokenness  of  the  poets  who  bom- 
barded him  with  homage  and  dedications.  A  Greek  had 
presented  to  him,  for  several  days  in  succession,  as  he  was 
leaving  the  palace,  some  trifling  flatteries  in  verse  ;  but  Augus- 
tus did  not  seem  to  pay  any  attention.  When  he  saw  that 
the  Greek  was  going  to  repeat  the  attempt,  Augustus  himself 


Belles-Lettres  53 

wrote  down  some  verses,  and  ordered  one  of  his  suite  to  hand 
them  to  him.  The  Greek  read  them,  and  by  his  looks  and 
gesture  expressed  tlie  profoundest  admiration ;  then, 
approaching  the  emperor's  Utter,  he  offered  him  a  few 
denarii,  at  the  same  time  regretting  that  his  means  did  not 
allow  him  to  give  more.  This  happy  thought  brought  him  a 
present  of  100,000  sesterces. 

Horace  praises  Augustus  for  the  keen  and  sound  judgment 
shown  by  him  in  his  gifts  to  poets  ;  his  princely  donations 
to  Virgil  and  Varius  especially  did  him  honour.  Varius 
had  received  1,000,000  sesterces  for  his  Thyestes,  which 
was  performed  at  the  spectacles  in  honour  of  the  victory  of 
Actium  ;  Virgil  was  richly  rewarded,  especially  for  the  sixth 
book  of  the  Aeneid,  which  contained  the  glorification  of  the 
house  of  the  Caesars.  He  is  said  to  have  left  a  fortune  of 
10,000,000  sesterces.  Horace,  whose  chief  desire  was  to 
live  in  modest  retirement,  had  positively  to  refuse  the  offers 
of  Augustus  ;  more  than  any  other  man  he  might  have 
looked  for  wealth  and  honour,  had  he  not  despised  both  ;  at 
his  death,  he  made  Augustus  his  heir. 

There  is  reason  to  believe  that  the  liberality  of  the  later 
emperors  was  as  a  rule  exploited  on  a  large  scale  by  the  poets, 
since  nearly  all  the  poets  of  those  times  forced  themselves 
upon  the  emperor's  attention  by  dedications  or  occasional 
flattering  addresses  or  notices ;  the  panegyrics  in  verse, 
composed  for  festal  and  other  occasions,  of  which  there  was 
an  enormous  number,  even  if  not  directly  intended  for  presen- 
tation to  the  emperor,  were  written  in  view  of  such  a  con- 
tingency. The  Eclogues  of  Calpurnius  Siculus  afford  a  speci- 
men of  the  homage  offered  to  the  emperors  by  needy  poets. 
This  poet  had  certainly  found  a  patron  ('  IMeliboeus  ',  perhaps 
Calpurnius  Piso),  himself  a  poet,  who  had  protected  him 
from  want  and  saved  him  from  the  necessity  of  migrating 
from  Rome  to  a  province  (Baetica) .  But  still  he  is  continually 
complaining  of  his  poverty,  which  obliges  him  to  think  of 
earning  a  livelihood,  and  prevents  him  from  producing  as 
much  good  work  as  he  otherwise  might.  Hence  he  begs 
Meliboeus  to  present  his  poems  to  the  emperor  and  thus 
become  his  Maecenas  ;  since  he  also  has  access  to  the  '  holy 
apartments  '  of  the  emperor,  '  the  Phoebus  of  the  Palatine  ' 
(Nero).     In  the  poem  this  prince,  who  had  just  ascended 


54  Belles-Lettres 

the  throne,  is  praised  by  the  god  Faunus  and  celebrated  in 
the  amoebaeans  of  the  herdsmen.  The  whole  world,  all  peoples 
adore  him,  the  Gods  love  him,  with  his  reign  another  golden 
age  has  commenced,  he  is  a  god  sent  down  from  heaven  in  the 
form  of  man,  and  so  forth.  Another  poem  describes  a  magni- 
ficent spectacle,  given  by  the  '  youthful  god  '  in  the  (wooden) 
amphitheatre   (constructed  in  the  year  57). 

Many  incidental  but  trustworthy  statements  prove  that 
the  emperors  did  not  allow  the  poems  dedicated  to  them  to 
pass  unrewarded.  Tiberius  handsomely  rewarded  the  Knight 
Gains  Lutorius  Priscus  for  a  universally  praised  elegy  on 
the  death  of  Germanicus.  When  Tiberius's  son  Drusus  fell 
ill  in  the  year  21,  the  poet,  in  the  hope  of  a  second  reward 
in  case  this  prince  died,  composed  another  elegy,  which  he 
was  foolish  enough  to  read  before  a  number  of  distinguished 
ladies  ;  he  was  denounced  and  condemned  to  death  by  the 
senate  for  Idse-majeste.  Claudius  also  must  have  been  liberal 
to  poets,  since  the  '  modern  poets  '  lamented  his  death. 
An  epigram  on  a  Greek  poet  living  in  Rome  runs  as  follows  : 
'  Had  not  the  emperor  Nero  given  me  some  ready  money, 
it  would  have  gone  ill  with  me,  O  Muses,  daughters  of  Zeus  !  ' 
Vespasian  was  liberal  in  his  support  of  eminent  poets  ;  the 
needy  Saleius  Bassus  received  a  present  of  500,000  sesterces. 
"Juvenal  greets  the  emperor  Hadrian,  who  had  just  succeeded 
( to  the  throne,  as  the  only  hope  of  the  poets  ;  he  alone  pro- 
tects the  sorrowing  Muses,  at  a  time  when  they  can  expect 
neither  favour  nor  support  from  other  quarters  ;  he  will 
not  suffer  a  poet  to  be  reduced  to  work  for  his  bread  in  the 
future  in  a  manner  unworthy  of  him  ;  may  his  grace  and 
favour,  which  are  on  the  look  out  for  worthy  objects,  act  as  a 
spur  to  youthful  talent !  The  Greek  poet  Oppian  is  said 
to  have  received  a  piece  of  gold  from  the  emperor  Marcus 
Aurelius  for  every  line  of  his  poems  wliich  he  read  in  his 
presence. 

Next  to  the  emperors,  who  with  the  best  intentions  in  the 
world  could  only  satisfy  a  small  part  of  the  petitions  and 
entreaties  addressed  to  them,  it  was  from  the  great  men  of 
Rome  that  poets  expected  and  received  protection  and  assist- 
ance. Of  all  these  patrons  of  poetry  there  was  none  to 
compare  with  Maecenas.  His  importance  as  a  diplomatist, 
statesman  and  co-founder  of  the  new  order  of  things  was 


Belles-Lettres  55 

eclipsed  in  the  next  generation  by  the  glory  of  having  been 
the  noblest  '  protector  of  those  dedicated  to  Mercury  '  [in 
his  capacity  of  patron  god  of  learned  men  and  poets].  The 
fact  that  Maecenas,  at  an  advanced  age,  when,  according  to 
Tacitus,  he  retained  the  appearance  of  the  imperial  confi- 
dence rather  than  any  real  power,  had  more  leisure  after  his 
retirement  from  public  affairs  to  exhibit  his  literary  sym- 
pathies, may  have  further  contributed  to  this  reputation, 
independently  of  the  unanimous  and  enthusiastic  praises  of 
contemporary  poets. 

With  admirable  judgment  he  recognized  genuine  talent, 
sometimes  before  it  revealed  itself,  no  easy  task  at  a  time 
when  poetical  dilettantism  was  rampant,  and  one  rendered 
still  more  difficult  after  it  was  recognized  that  poetical  talent 
was  a  means  of  gaining  the  favour  of  this  great  man.  The 
number  of  those  who,  with  this  end  in  view,  assumed  the 
title  of  poet  with  more  or  less  justification,  must  have  been 
large,  since  even  the  importunate  vulgar  thought  it  necessary 
to  have  recourse  to  this  expedient,  and  men  forced  their 
way  to  him  whose  chief  recommendation  in  their  own  eyes 
was  the  capacity  of  writing  more  verses,  and  more  rapidly, 
than  any  one  else.  Maecenas  chose  his  friends  and  associates 
without  regard  to  birth,  rank  or  external  advantages,  but 
at  the  same  time  he  did  not  consider  talent  and  education 
alone  ;  he  knew  how  to  keep  sordid  and  disturbing  elements 
at  a  distance.  No  house  in  Rome,  says  Horace,  was  purer 
or  more  free  from  intrigue  ;  every  one  had  his  place  and  no 
man  tried  to  oust  another.  Hence  it  was  not  easy  to  gain 
admission.  Horace,  who  after  the  battle  of  Philippi  had 
no  resources  except  his  brains  and  was  emboldened  by  poverty 
to  write  verses,  was  recommended  to  Maecenas  by  Virgil 
and  Varius,  those  honest  souls  whose  friendship  he  valued 
above  all  else.  The  first  audience  was  brief  ;  the  poet,  then 
about  twenty-six  years  old,  was  so  embarrassed  that  he 
could  only  stammer  a  few  words  about  his  affairs ;  Maecenas, 
as  a  rule,  said  very  little.  Horace  thought  himself  already 
forgotten,  when,  nine  months  later,  he  was  invited  to  an  inti- 
macy with  Maecenas,  which  lasted  uninterruptedly  for  more 
than  thirty  years,  till  the  death  of  both  almost  at  the  same 
time.  Maecenas  gave  the  poet  as  much  and  more  than  he 
needed,  a  position  free  from  anxiety  and  a  little  property 


56  Belles-Lettres 

with  garden,  wood  and  fountain,  his  '  delightful  retreat '  in 
the  Sabine  mountains  ;  and  what  he  gave,  he  gave  with 
the  greatest  delicacy.  In  his  later  years  a  chronic  invalid, 
a  martyr  to  insomnia,  and  subject  to  fits  of  despondency, 
Maecenas  was  inclined  to  exact  too  much  from  Horace,  whose 
society  he  found  almost  indispensable.  Nevertheless,  the 
poet's  tact  and  affection  enabled  him  to  decline  frankly  his 
friend's  invitations,  without  rousing  his  anger.  Maecenas, 
in  his  will,  besought  Augustus  to  '  remember  Horatius  Flaccus 
as  myself  !  ' 

Evidently  he  was  more  intimate  with  Horace  than  with 
any  other  poet  of  the  day  ;  but  all  whom  he  gathered  round 
him  were  fascinated  not  merely  by  his  intellect  and  refined 
manners,  and  his  lively  and  stimulating  interest  in  their 
works,  but  almost  as  much  by  his  consummate  skill  in  associat- 
ing on  terms  of  equality  with  men  of  intellect.  The  great 
men  of  Italy  in  modern  times  have  been  equally  distinguished 
in  this  respect  above  those  of  all  other  nations.  Thus  he 
was  exceptionally  fitted  to  be  the  centre  of  a  circle  formed 
by  the  highest  intellectual  aristocracy  of  his  time.  Many 
palaces  may  have  been  open  to  poets  in  later  times,  but  none 
ever  saw  so  brilliant  an  assembly  again,  none  ever  was  so  hos- 
pitable as  the  house  of  Maecenas,  a  lofty  and  imposing  building 
on  the  heights  of  the  Esquiline  in  the  midst  of  a  large  park 
and  gardens,  with  an  extensive  view  of  the  bustling  city, 
the  Campagna  and  the  mountains,  Tibur,  Aesula  and  Tuscu- 
lum  from  its  upper  floors.  Later,  the  mound  that  marked 
the  grave  of  Maecenas  and  that  of  Horace  beside  it  rose  on 
the  spot.  After  the  death  of  Maecenas,  garden  and  palace 
became  the  property  of  the  emperor  (Nero  watched  the  burning 
of  Rome  from  its  windows  in  the  year  64),  and  later  of  Fronto. 

Later,  the  relation  of  poets  to  their  distinguished  pro- 
tectors was  as  a  rule  that  of  client  to  patron.  The  reason  of 
this  was  partly  that,  as  the  brilliancy  of  the  golden  age  of 
Roman  poetry  gradually  faded,  the  noble  appreciation  of 
poetic  genius  in  the  higher  circles  of  society,  which  charac- 
terized it,  also  disappeared.  But  the  poets  themselv^es  were 
also  in  great  measure  to  blame,  since  with  all  their  exaggerated 
self-estimation  they  lacked  the  confident  feeling  of  their  own 
value,  the  self-reliance  of  [men  '  who  had  seen  the  republic  ', 
such  as  distinguished  the  poor  son  of  the  freedman  of  Venusia 


Belles-Lettres  57 

even  in  the  presence  of  his  powerful  benefactor,  the  descend- 
ant of  an  Etruscan  princely  family.  Even  in  Horace's  time, 
mediocre  and  needy  poets  lacked  this  feeling  ;  this  is  clearly 
shown  by  the  anonymous  panegyric  on  Messalla,  a  miserable 
patchwork  of  phrases,  overloaded  with  mythological  and 
other  scholastic  erudition  in  certain  passages,  in  which  the 
want  of  taste  almost  results  in  nonsense.  And  yet  this  pro- 
duction has  been  thought  worthy  of  inclusion  in  the  collection 
of  poems  which  bears  the  name  of  Tibullus.  The  poet  begs 
Messalla  to  take  the  will  for  the  deed  ;  he  is  well  aware  of 
the  feebleness  of  his  powers  and  of  the  defects  of  his  poetry. 
He  has  formerly  been  well-to-do  ;  now,  reduced  to  poverty, 
he  puts  himself  entirely  at  his  patron's  disposal  ;  if  Messalla 
will  only  take  a  little  interest  in  him,  he  will  prize  the  favour 
as  much  as  the  gold  of  Lydia  or  the  reputation  of  Homer. 
Even  if  his  verses  only  rarely  fall  from  the  lips  of  his  honoured 
patron,  destiny  will  never  prevent  him  from  singing  his 
praises  ;  nay,  he  is  ready  to  do  even  more  for  him, — to  brave 
the  dangers  of  the  sea,  face  a  squadron  of  cavalry,  or  trust  his 
body  to  the  flames  of  Aetna. 

About  the  middle  of  the  first  century,  the  most  brilliant 
and  distinguished  of  the  great  families  of  Rome  was  that  of 
Piso,  the  head  of  the  conspiracy  against  Nero,  the  object 
of  which  was  to  set  him  on  the  throne,  but  which  in  reality 
caused  his  death  (in  65).  His  princely  liberality  appears  to 
have  been  chiefly  shown  to  poets.  He  himself  was  a  poet, 
verses  flowed  readily  from  his  pen,  he  played  the  cithara  like 
a  master,  '  his  house  resounded  throughout  with  the  varied 
performances  of  its  inmates ' ;  devotion  to  art  and  science 
was  the  rule.  The  mediocre  poem,  with  which  a  still  youthful 
poet  endeavoured  to  obtain  an  introduction  to  Piso,  is  a  not 
uninteresting  specimen  of  '  clients '  poetry '.  After  cele- 
brating the  renown  of  Piso's  family,  he  speaks  of  the  admir- 
able qualities  of  its  present  representative  (especially  his 
eloquence)  and  the  honour  of  the  consulship  already  bestowed 
upon  him  ;  praises  his  noble  presence,  his  sincerity,  his  gener- 
osity and  affability,  his  education,  his  musical  and  poetical 
talents,  his  skill  in  sword  exercise,  tennis  and  draughts — 
a  description  which  essentially  agrees  with  that  given  by 
Tacitus.  At  the  conclusion  the  poet  declares  that  all  he 
asks  is  that  Piso  will  deign  to  admit  him  into  his  house,  for 


58  Belles-Lettres 

he  is  not  influenced  by  thirst  for  gold,  but  solely  by  the  desire 
of  fame.     He  will  think  himself  happy  if  he  may  pass  his 
life  with  Piso  and  attempt  to  describe  his  virtues  in  verses 
worthy  of  them  ;    if  Piso  will  open  to  him  the  path  of  glory 
and  rescue  him  from  obscurity,  he  will  do  great  things.     Per- 
haps even  Virgil  would  have  remained  unknown  without  a 
Maecenas  to  protect  him  ;    and  Maecenas,  not  content  with 
opening  his    house  to    him  alone,  also  laid    the    foundation 
of  the  fame  of  Varius  and   Horace.     Under  his  protection, 
poets  never  had  to  fear  starvation  in  their  old  age.     If  Piso 
will  listen  to  his  prayers,  the  poet  will  sing  of  him  in  polished 
verse  as  his  Maecenas  ;     since  he  feels  capable  of  handing 
down  a  name  to  posterity,  if  indeed  one  may  promise  any- 
thing of  the  kind.     He  feels  that  he  has  courage  and  strength 
to  do  something  great,  if  only  Piso  will  stretch  out  his  hand 
to  the  swimmer,  and  draw  him  out  of    the  retirement  into 
which  his  humble  birth  and  poverty  have  thrust  him.     His 
powers  are  greater  than  one  might  imagine  from  the  number 
of  his  years,  since  the  first  down  is  only  beginning  to  cover 
his  cheeks  and  he  has  not  yet  passed  his  twentieth  summer. 
After  Nero,   the  position  of  the  aristocracy,   and  with  it 
that  of  the  poets  dependent  upon  it,   underwent  a  change 
for  the  worse.     Many  of  the  great  families  had  ruined  them- 
selves by  luxury  and  extravagance  ;    others  had  fallen  victims 
to  the  suspicion,  hatred  or  cupidity  of  the  imperial  despotism. 
The  reign  of  Vespasian  brought  to  Rome  new  men  from  the 
cities  of  Italy  and  the  provinces,  who  retained  their  old  habits, 
contracted   under   more   restricted   conditions   of   life,   while 
the   emperor   himself  set   the  example  of  economy  ;     under 
Domitian,  distinguished  men  had  to  guard  against  arousing 
suspicion  by  too  lavish  a  display  of  generosity  or  too  numerous 
a  clientele.     Thus,  the  poets  of  that  time  certainly  had  reason 
to  wish  for  the  return  of  the  good  old  days  of  Maecenas,  and 
even  of  Seneca  and  Piso.     When  Martial,  then  a  young  man, 
came  to  Rome  about  the  year  63,  the  hall  of  the  Pisos,  filled 
with  ancestral  busts,  and  the  houses  of  his  countrymen  the 
three  Senecas   (the  philosopher,  Junius  Gallio,  and  Annaeus 
Mela  the  father  of  Lucan)  were  open  to  him.     All  perished 
in  the  years  65  and  66  ;    and  towards  the  end  of  the  century 
the  only  surviving  representative  of  the  great  Seneca  family 
was    Lucan's    wife    Polla    Argcntaria,  Martial's    patroness. 


Belles-Lettres  59 

addressed  by  him  as  '  queen  '  as  late  as  96.  Under  Domitian 
such  patrons  of  literature  as  Piso,  Seneca,  Vibius  Crispus 
and  Mcmmius  Regulus  no  longer  existed  ;  at  least,  the  two 
most  prominent  poets,  Martial  and  Statins,  strove  to  gain 
the  favour  of  a  large  number  of  persons,  without  being  able  to 
obtain  what  had  formerly  been  granted  by  a  single  individual. 

Martial  had  certainly  been  connected  with  the  court  during 
the  reign  of  Titus,  who  had  bestowed  upon  him  the  privileges 
of  a  father  of  three  children  {jus  trium  liberorum),  confirmed 
by  Domitian,  and  perhaps  raised  him  to  the  status  of  a  knight 
by  creating  him  titular  tribune.     His  recommendation  was 
enough  to   procure  the  citizenship   for  several  claimants,  and 
he  was  occasionally  honoured  with  an  invitation  to  the  im- 
perial table  ;    but  the  emperor  refused,  although  not  ungraci- 
ously, a  request  for  a  few  thousand  sesterces.     As  the  poet 
never  returns  thanks  for  gifts  received,  he  does  not  seem  to 
have  been  indebted  to  him  for  any  real  improvement  in  his 
position,    although   he   continually   begged   for   it,    '  without 
timidity  or  embarrassment '  ;    he  was  not  even  permitted  to 
connect  his  country  or  town  house  with  the  Marcian  aqueduct. 
This  is  the  more  striking,  as  Domitian  was  fond  of  reading  his 
poems  ;    had  not  this  been  the  case.  Martial  would  not  have 
ventured  to  make  frequent  references  to  his  approval.     He  is 
also  unwearying  in  his  efforts  to  win  the  favour  of  influential 
freedmen  and  other  persons  at  court,  sometimes  by  the  most 
degrading  flattery  ;   he   praises   them   generally   and   flatters 
them    individually — Parthenius,    the     chamberlain,  Entellus 
master  of  petitions,  Euphemus  the  superintendent  of  the  table, 
Earinus    the    cup-bearer,    Crispinus    the    imperial    favourite, 
the  father  (already  retired)  of  Etruscus,  and  a  certain  Sextus, 
who  appears  to  have  been  the  director  of  the  imperial  studies. 
During  a  twenty  years'  stay  in  Rome,  however.  Martial 
had  been  brought  into  frequent  relations  with  members  of  the 
aristocracy,  which  he  sought  to  keep  up  and  enlarge  by  honour- 
able mention  of  them  in  his  poems,  which  (as  he  himself  says) 
bestowed  upon  them  lasting  fame,  although  he  gained  nothing 
himself  by  such  homage.     His  long-standing  connexion  with 
Seneca  obtained  him  the  friendship  of  Quintus  Ovidius,  who 
had  accompanied  Caesonius  (or  Caesennius)  Maximus,  a  friend 
of  Seneca  the  philosopher,  into  exile  in  Sicily.     The  large  num- 
ber of  men  of  senatorial  rank  to  whom  Martial  offers  homage 


6o  Belles-Lettres 

or  flattery,  whom  he  begs  or  thanks  for  favours  in  his  epi- 
grams (written  during  the  last  twelve  years  of  his  stay  in  Rome 
from  86  to  98,  and  in  Spain  up  to  loi  or  102)  includes  the 
following  names  :  the  poet  Silius  Italicus  (consul  68)  and  his 
sons  ;  Nerva,  afterwards  emperor  ;  the  wealthy  orator  Marcus 
Aquilius  Regulus,  notorious  as  an  accuser  in  cases  of  lese- 
inajesie  ;  the  enormously  rich  brothers  Domitius  Tullus  and 
Domitius  Lucanus  ;  the  poet  Stertinius  Avitus  (consul  92, 
who  in  94  had  the  portrait  of  Martial  set  up  in  his  library)  ; 
the  well-known  author  Sextus  Julius  Frontinus  (consul  for 
the  second  time  98,  for  the  third  time  100)  ;  the  younger  Pliny 
(consul  100)  ;  the  poet  Arruntius  Stella  (consul  10 1)  ;  Lucius 
Norbanus  Appius  Maximus,  conqueror  of  Lucius  Antonius 
Saturninus  (twice  consul)  ;  Licinius  Sura  (consul  102),  Tra- 
jan's most  powerful  friend  ;  Marcus  Antonius  Primtis  of 
Tolosa,  Vespasian's  former  partisan  ;  and  many  others. 
/  Naturally,  Martial  sought  and  found  patrons  amongst  the 
knights.  Amongst  them  may  have  been  the  elegant  Atedius 
Melior,  who  gave  such  excellent  dinners  in  his  beautiful  house 
and  garden  on  the  Mons  Caelius.  One  of  the  friends  whose 
praises  he  most  frequently  sings  is  a  centurion,  Aulus  Pudens, 
who  appears  to  have  reached  the  rank  of  primipilavis,  but 
not  the  summit  of  his  ambition,  admission  to  the  equestrian 
order.  He  also  enjoyed  and  highly  appreciated  the  friend- 
ship of  other  centurions,  to  judge  from  his  honourable  mention 
of  them  in  his  poems. 

Statius  to  some  extent  moved  in  the  same  circles  as  Martial 
and  also  endeavoured  to  win  the  favour  of  the  same  patrons, 
above  all  of  the  emperor  ;  he  never  published  anything  '  with- 
out appealing  to  his  divinity  '.  Yet  his  repeated  and  obsequious 
homage  and  laughably  exaggerated  flatteries  seem  to  have 
gained  him  nothing  from  Domitian  but  an  invitation  to  table 
and  a  supply  of  water  from  a  public  aqueduct  for  his  house 
I  near  Alba.  Like  Martial,  Statius  flattered  the  imperial 
!  freedmen  ;  besides  Etruscus  and  his  father  and  the  youthful 
eunuch  Earinus,  he  especially  sang  the  praises  of  the  imperial 
Secretary  Abascantus.  Some  of  Martial's  patrons  (Lucius 
Arruntius  Stella,  Polla  Argentaria  the  wife  of  Lucan  and 
Atedius  Melior)  were  also  Statius's.  Many  senators,  whose 
names  are  found  in  his  poems,  attended  his  frequent  read- 
ings ;    the  aged  consular  and  city  praefect,  Rutilius  Gallicus, 


Belles-Lettres  6l 

the  young  Vettius  Crispinus  and  Maecius  Celer.  He  also 
enjoyed  the  friendship  of  members  of  the  equestrian  order  (such 
as  Septimius  Severus,  great  grandfather  of  the  emperor  of  that 
name)  and  of  wealthy  friends  of  literature,  whom  he  had  known 
in  his  native  city  Naples. 

Nevertheless,  in  spite  of  their  relations,  so  eagerly  sought 
and  carefully  cultivated,  with  so  many  great  and  wealthy  men, 
and  in  spite  of  the  general  approval  with  which  they  were 
received  in  these  circles,  both  poets  remained  poor.  We 
know  this  of  Statius  from  a  passage  of  Juvenal  already  referred 
to  ;  he  was  not  so  undignified  as  to  be  always  complaining  and 
begging  in  his  poems,  like  Martial.  He  certainly  had  a  small 
estate  near  Alba,  probably  the  gift  of  one  of  his  patrons,  but 
it  was  a  poor  one  and  reared  no  cattle  ;  his  failure  in  the  Capitol- 
ine  agon  can  hardly  have  been  the  only  reason  which  induced 
him  to  return  home  and  end  his  days  in  his  native  city, 
when  at  the  height  of  his  fame  as  a  poet.  Martial  also  pos- 
sessed a  small  vineyard  near  Nomentum,  but  it  was  barren 
and  poorly  wooded,  and  produced  nothing  except  an  inferior 
wine  and  '  apples  like  lead  '.  But  it  must  be  admitted  that 
Martial  was  anything  but  an  agriculturist.  If  his  friend 
Stella  had  not  sent  him  some  tiles  to  repair  the  roof  of  his  house, 
the  rain  would  have  come  in;  the  chief  advantage  of  his  pro- 
perty was  that  he  could  retire  thither  from  the  worries  of 
clientship  and  take  a  rest.  Towards  the  end  of  his  stay  at 
Rome  some  one  had  given  him  a  team  of  mules,  and  he  also 
had  a  small  town  house  on  the  Quirinal,  where  he  had  formerly 
had  a  lodging  on  the  third  storey.  But  he  was  never  inde- 
pendent or  free  from  anxiety,  until,  at  the  age  of  fifty-seven, 
he  decided  to  leave  Rome,  whose  atmosphere  was  life  to  him, 
and  to  end  his  days  in  his  native  Spain.  There,  the  cheap 
living  and  the  liberality  of  native  patrons  (especially  Terentius 
Priscus  and  Marcella),  made  it  possible  for  him  to  idle  and 
enjoy  himself  to  his  heart's  content. 

While  poets  were  thus  dependent  on  a  single  patron,  only 
the  most  lofty  conception  of  the  bond  of  union  could  entirely 
exclude  the  danger  of  the  degradation  of  the  former — a  danger 
which  increased  as  their  position  became  more  precarious  and 
irksome.  The  example  of  Martial  shows  that,  in  the  case  of 
less  noble  natures,  the  position  of  a  client  almost  necessarily 
led  to  the  misuse  of  poetical  talent  and  personal  degradation. 


62  BcUes-Lettres 

Martial  not  only  reminds  his  readers  in  general  and  his  patrons 
in  particular,  that  a  poet  wants  money  above  all  things  ; 
he  is  continually  begging,  even  for  a  toga,  a  cloak  and  the  like. 
He  writes  on  one  occasion  to  Regulus,  that  he  is  so  pressed 
for  money  that  he  will  be  obliged  to  sell  his  presents  ;  will 
Regulus  buy  something  ?  He  even  declares  with  cynical 
frankness,  that  his  poetical  gifts  are  at  the  disposal  of  any 
one  who  likes  to  pay  for  them  :  '  A  man  whom  I  have  praised 
in  one  of  my  poems,  pretends  he  owes  me  nothing  ;  he  has 
taken  me  in  '.  In  one  of  his  epigrams  the  emperor  is  supposed 
to  ask,  what  he  has  gained  from  conferring  immortality  on 
so  many  in  his  poems  ?  his  answer  is  :  nothing,  but  it  amuses 
me.  Probably  all  were  not  of  the  same  opinion  as  the  younger 
Pliny,  who  thought  it  his  duty  to  pay  Martial's  travelling 
expenses  in  return  for  a  poem  of  praise,  since  no  gifts  could  be 
greater  than  those  bestowed  by  the  poet,  '  fame,  praise  and 
immortality  '.  Yet  many  of  those  who  were  praised  by 
Martial  certainly  paid  for  the  honour,  although  not  always 
as  liberally  as  he  expected. 

But  he  mainly  turned  his  talents  to  account  in  intellectual 
and  witty  conversation  in  social  circles,  for  which  indeed  they 
were  best  adapted  ;  and  on  such  occasions  he  degraded  them 
as  much  as  by  his  most  cringing  flatteries.  We  certainly  can- 
not blame  him  for  writing  poems  to  order  or  on  given  sub- 
jects, such  as  the  Xenia,  which  to  all  appearance  were  origin- 
ally written  as  labels  for  Saturnalia  presents  in  wealthy  houses. 
\  But  since  the  jovial  guests  at  the  Saturnalia  carousals  and 
readers  generally  relished  nothing  so  much  as  indeccnc)^ 
Martial  in  this  respect  also  accommodated  himself  to  the  taste 
of  the  public.  The  ideas  of  decency  at  that  time  allowed  the 
poet  any  obscenities,  if  disguised  in  elegant  language  ;  the 
disproportionately  large  number  of  indecent  epigrams  shows 
how  ready  Martial  was  to  satisfy  the  grossest  tastes  of  the  major- 
ity, and  the  manner  of  his  excuses  makes  it  clear  that  he  himself 
was  conscious  of  having  overstepped  the  bounds  of  propriety. 
In  spite  of  his  brilliant  talents,  Martial  with  his  merry 
Saturnalia  poems  reminds  us  somewhat  of  the  strolling  poets 
of  old  times,  who  invited  themselves  to  banquets,  where  they 
were  welcome,  but  were  treated  somewhat  contemptuously. 
Statius  was  saved  from  a  similar  humiliation  by  the  nature  of 
his  talents,  which  always  had  in  view  the  pathetic  and  solemn  ; 


Bclles-Lettres  63 

also  he  had  more  sense  of  his  own  dignity  than  Martial  and  a 
higher  idea  of  poetry.  His  minor  poems  give  us  an  idea  of  the 
origin  of  the  higher  occasional  poetry  of  the  age  and  its  usual 
subjects.  Of  the  three  chief  classes  of  such  poems — on  births, 
marriages  and  deaths — Statius's  forte  was  the  last  ;  the  four 
'  consolatory  poems  '  of  his  collection  are  selected  from  a  large 
number.  He  calls  himself  '  the  gentle  consoler  of  the  afflicted, 
who  has  so  often  soothed  the  pain  of  the  still  bleeding  wounds 
of  fathers  and  mothers,  comforted  affectionate  sons  at  their 
father's  grave,  dried  so  many  tears  and  so  often  made  his  voice 
heard  beside  the  tomb  by  departing  spirits. '  This  clearly  shows 
that  he  had  produced  many  such  poems.  Rich  people  also 
commissioned  poets  to  write  them  for  the  funerals  of  favourite 
slaves  and  freedmen,  and  even  of  animals  ;  Statins  has  in- 
cluded two,  one  on  the  death  of  Atedius  Melior's  green  talking 
parrot,  the  other  on  that  of  a  lion  torn  to  pieces  in  the  arena 
by  another  wild  animal.  As  a  rule,  every  joyful  or  melan- 
choly event  in  distinguished  families  was  celebrated  by  the 
house  and  client  poets.  The  poems  of  Statins  on  the  recovery 
of  Rutilius  Gallicus  from  a  severe  illness,  on  Domitian's  seven- 
teenth consulship,  on  Maecius  Celer's  journey  to  his  garrison 
in  Syria  are  examples  of  the  numerous  and  varied  subjects 
of  occasional  poems.  But  the  services  of  poets  were  especi- 
ally requisitioned  at  the  celebration  of  festivals,  the  inaugura- 
tion of  important  buildings  or  artistic  undertakings.  The  day 
after  the  colossal  equestrian  statue  of  Domitian  was  set  up  in 
the  Forum,  Statius  was  ordered  to  let  the  emperor  have  a 
poem  upon  it. 

At  these  solemnities,  occasional  poetry  supplied  the  place  of 
modern  journalism.  Rich  people  gladly  availed  themselves 
of  it,  to  secure  publicity  for  eulogistic  descriptions  of  their 
beautiful  villas  and  gardens,  baths,  splendid  buildings,  art 
collections  and  valuables,  and  probably  there  was  never  any 
lack  of  poets  ready  to  meet  their  wishes.  '  You  praise  the 
baths  of  Ponticus,  who  gives  such  good  dinners,  in  three  hun- 
dred verses  ',  says  Martial  ;  '  you  don't  really  want  to  bathe, 
but  to  dine  '.  But  even  when  there  was  no  special  reason  for 
it,  the  majority  were  anxious  that  famous  poets  should  sing 
their  praises,  and  frequently  directly  invited  them  to  do  so. 

The  larger  and  more  distinguished  the  family,  the  more 
numerous  probably  were  the  poets  who  were  eager  to  bestow 


64 


Belles-Lettres 


poetical  consecration  on  all  the  most  important  incidents  in 
the  life  of  its  members,  whether  joyful  or  melancholy.  In  her 
passionate  grief  for  her  son  Marcellus  Octavia  refused  to  listen 
to  '  the  poems  composed  to  glorify  his  memory  '.  At  a  mar- 
riage festival  in  the  house  of  the  emperor  Gallienus  all  the 
Greek  and  Latin  poets  recited  nuptial  songs  for  many  days 
together  ;  but  the  emperor  with  a  few  verses  carried  o£E  the 
prize  '  from  a  hundred  poets  '.  Of  course  the  number  loo  is 
not  here  to  be  taken  literally  ;  but  in  modern  times,  less  than 
eight  days  after  the  birth  of  the  King  of  Rome,  more  than 
2,000  odes,  hymns  and  other  poetical  expressions  of  homage 
reached  the  Tuileries,  for  which  Napoleon  paid  100,000  francs 
by  way  of  honoraria.  Although  poets,  of  course,  participated 
most  frequently  in  the  glorification  of  festivals  in  the  imperial 
palace,  they  appear  to  have  done  the  same  in  aristocratic 
houses  generally,  where  in  accordance  with  Roman  taste  people 
amused  themselves  by  listening  to  the  numerous  productions 
offered  to  them.  On  the  occasion  of  the  wedding  of  Stella 
and  Violentilla,  Statins  summons  the  whole  '  troop  '  of  poets, 
especially  the  elegiac  poets,  the  singers  of  love,  '  to  contend 
in  various  modes  ',  each  according  to  his  mastery  of  the  lyre. 
Of  the  certainly  considerable  number  of  poems,  in  which 
the  contemporary  poets  of  Rome,  in  response  to  this  appeal, 
sang  of  the  wedding  of  their  distinguished  colleague,  only 
those  of  Statius  and  Martial  have  been  preserved. 

But  as  in  this  case,  so  on  other  and  quite  different  occasions 
the  two  poets  wrote  pieces  on  the  same  themes  for  the  same 
patrons  and  friends.  Both  lamented  the  death  of  Atedius 
Melior's  favourite  freedman  and  of  the  aged  father  of  Claudius 
Etruscus  ;  both  celebrated  the  sumptuous  bath  constructed 
by  the  latter  and  the  bronze  statuette  by  Lysippus,  belong- 
ing to  Novius  Vindex  ;  both  presented  Lucan's  widow  with 
some  poems  on  the  celebration  of  her  birthday ;  and  when  the 
eunuch  Flavins  Earinus,  Domitian's  cup-bearer,  cut  off  his 
hair  and  sent  it  in  a  box  set  with  precious  stones  together  with 
his  mirror  to  the  temple  of  Aesculapius  at  Pergamus,  Statius 
at  his  desire  composed  a  lengthy  poem  on  the  event  and 
Martial  five  short  ones.  Now,  since  we  find  the  only  two  poets 
of  the  time,  with  whose  occasional  pieces  we  are  acquainted, 
so  often  and  deliberately  dealing  with  the  same  subjects,  we 
may  fairly  assume  that  on  extraordinary  occasions  also  as  a 


Belles-Lettres  65 

rule  a  crowd  of  poets  was  seized  with  inspiration,  and  that 
there  was  a  perfect  downpour  of  poems,  long  and  short,  in  all 
kinds  of  metres. 

Athough  Statius  and  Martial  so  frequently  visited  the  same 
houses,  that  each  must  have  often  been  witness  of  the  other's 
success,  neither  of  them  mentions  the  other,  while  both  are 
lavish  in  praise  of  their  numerous  poetical  colleagues.     Evi- 
dently they  did  not  love  one  another,  as  indeed  was  hardly  to 
be  expected,  considering  the  profound  contrast  of  their  natures ; 
even  if  the  Spanish  poet,  now  growing  old,  had  been  able  to 
refrain  from  vexation  and  jealousy  at  the  fame  of  the  Neapol- 
itan, which  threatened  to  eclipse  his  own.     But  he  frequently 
expressed  a  contemptuous  opinion  of  long  mythological  epo- 
pees, although  he  does  not  mention  the  Thebaid  of  Statius. 
'  Certainly  ',  he  says,  '  every  one  praises  and  admires  them,  but 
my  epigrams  are  read.     Epics  contain  nothing  but  monstrous 
abortions  of  the  imagination  ;  whereas  my  epigrams  touch  real 
life  to  the  quick,  and  must  be  read  by  any  one  who  wishes  to 
understand  himself  or  the  age  in  which  he  lives.     Any  one  who 
regards  epigrams  as  mere  trifles,   mistakes  their  character  ; 
in  reality  the  poet  who  deals  with  fables  and  legends  is  the 
trifler.     The  figures  of  epopees  are  giants,  but  of  clay  ;    my 
figures  are  small,  but  they  live.     My  little  books  are  free  from 
fustian  and  bombast,  my  Muse  never  struts  in  a  ridiculous, 
swelling  dress  with  a  long  train.     Let  those  austere  and  over- 
serious  people,  who  burn  the  midnight  oil,  handle  the  highly 
tragic  and  lofty  themes  of  Greek  mythology  ;    I  will  season 
genuine  Roman  poems  with  wit,  and  be  content  with  the  modest 
shepherd's  flute,  since  its  tones  surpass  the  trumpet  blasts  of 
so  inany  others.'     In  face  of  these  attacks,  made  in  the  years 
in  which  he  read  the  last  books  of  his  Thebais  and  the   first 
of  his  Achilleis  to  the  loud  applause  of  a  large  audience,  Statius 
never  condescended  to  criticize  epigrams  unfavourably.     He 
characterizes  his  own  short  poems,  written  '  as  a  sort  of  epi- 
grams ',  as  insignificant  trifles,  thrown  off  on  the  spur  of  the 
moment  ;   he  had  been  blamed  for  publishing  anything  of  the 
kind,  but  he  was  of  opinion  that  even  badinage  might  be  justi- 
fied.    At  the  conclusion  of  his  Thehaid  he  complains  of  the 
clouds  of  mist,  heaped  up  by  envy  to  obscure  its  brilliancy. 

At  all  times  envy  and  jealousy  amongst  poets  arise  from 
their  easily  wounded   vanity,  their   exaggerated   self-esteem 

R.L.M. — HI,  F 


66  Bcllcs-Lcttres 

and  thirst  for  glory  ;  but  in  the  period  with  which  we  are 
concerned,  their  dependent  position,  their  rival  efforts  to 
win  the  favour  and  approval  of  the  great,  on  whom  their 
very  existence  depended,  were  only  too  likely  to  arouse  the 
ugly  passions  of  ignoble  natures,  and  often  led  to  irritation, 
persecution  and  calumny,  intrigue  and  cabal  of  all  kinds. 
Martial  suffered  much  from  enemies,  envious  and  unfavour- 
able critics  of  various  kinds.  The  criticism  of  the  literary 
circles  of  Rome  was  as  a  rule  anything  but  benevolent.  Many 
(from  envious  motives,  says  Martial)  blamed  the  indecency 
of  his  epigrams  ;  but  the  number  of  those  who  declined  to 
recognize  living  poets  and  praised  only  those  of  the  past, 
was  probably  larger,  as  is  always  the  case.  In  general,  Martial 
regarded  the  censure  of  poets  as  rather  a  proof  of  the  univers- 
ally good  reception  accorded  to  his  works,  and  justly  pre- 
ferred to  see  his  poems  approved  by  the  guests  than  by  the 
cooks.  One  of  those  who  'were  ready  to  burst  with  envy  ' 
because  all  Rome  read  his  poems,  because  he  was  pointed 
out  in  the  streets,  because  many  welcomed  him  as  a  guest, 
because  he  had  secured  a  modest  competence,  was  a  Jewish 
poet,  who  was  always  criticizing  his  poems,  but  all  the  same 
plundered  them.  However,  it  did  not  trouble  Martial  much 
if  plagiarists  gave  out  and  read  his  verses  as  their  own,  since 
the  difference  between  their  productions  was  so  great  that  no 
one  could  help  noticing  the  theft.  He  frequently  complains, 
however,  of  what  was  far  more  prejudicial  to  his  reputation 
as  a  poet  and  his  position  generally ;  anonymous  poets, 
whose  identity  could  not  be  traced,  published  broadcast 
under  his  name  virulent  abuse  and  vulgar  insults  directed 
against  men  and  women  of  rank.  This  treachery  was  all 
the  more  likely  to  injure  him  with  his  patrons,  since  in  any 
case  there  was  always  the  danger  that  persons,  whose  favour 
was  of  great  importance  to  him,  might  think  his  sarcasm 
was  intended  for  themselves  ;  hence  his  repeated  assertion 
that  he  never  has  any  particular  individual  in  view. 

In  addition  to  these  and  similar  glimpses  in  Martial's  poems 
of  the  doings  at  these  meetings  in  the  '  school  of  the  poets  ' 
or  the  portico  of  the  temple  of  Quirinus,  they  furnish  other 
information  concerning  the  literary  interests  and  tendencies 
of  the  time. 

In  particular,  the  epigrams  of  Martial,  the  poems  of  Statius 


i 


Belles-Lettres  d*] 

(90-96)  and  the  letters  of  the  younger  Pliny  (97-108/9), 
which  are  directly  connected  with  both,  acquaint  us  with  the 
relation  of  educated  society  to  poetry  in  the  time  of  Domitian, 
Nerva,  and  the  beginning  of  Trajan's  reign.  Yet  the  pheno- 
mena disclosed,  though  characteristic  of  this  relation  and  of 
literature  in  general,  are  not  exactly  confined  to  this  period 
alone,  but  may  be  considered  essentially  applicable  to  the 
whole  time  from  Augustus  to  Hadrian.  They  also  confirm 
the  observation,  that  poetry  at  that  time  was  of  greater 
importance  and  exercised  a  greater  influence  upon  education 
in  general  than  at  the  present  day. 

The  first  impression  is  that  of  excessive  industry  and  pro- 
ductivity throughout  the  domain  of  poetical  literature,  the 
whole  field  of  which  was  cultivated  by  rival  poets  and  dilettanti. 
Thus  Juvenal,  in  a  despairing  outburst  against  perpetual 
recitations,  mentions  poems  of  the  most  varied  kinds,  which 
one  was  compelled  to  listen  to  daily ;  one  reads  a  Theseis, 
another  Roman  comedies,  a  third  elegies ;  a  Telephus  ^, 
and  a  never-ending  Orestes  take  up  a  whole  day  ;  the  columns 
and  plane-trees  of  a  peristyle  used  by  the  reciters  resound 
unceasingly  with  descriptions  of  the  combats  of  the  Centaurs, 
of  the  judgment  of  the  dead,  of  the  carrying  off  of  the  golden 
fleece.  A  certain  Varro  according  to  Martial  was  equally 
distinguished  as  a  writer  of  tragedies  and  mimes,  lyrics  and 
elegies  ;  Canius  Rufus  of  Gades  appears  to  have  been  no 
less  versatile.  Manilius  Vopiscus  wrote  lyric  and  epic  poems, 
satires  and  epistles  ;  PoUius  Felix  hexameters,  epodes  or 
distichs  and  iambics.  In  addition  to  the  best  known  kinds 
of  poetry,  others  less  common  are  mentioned,  such  as  the 
Aristophanic  comedy  and  the  mimiambus  ;  many  composed  in 
Greek.  Of  course  Martial,  Statius  and  Pliny  only  tell  us  the 
names  of  a  few  contemporary  poets  ;  according  to  Quintilian, 
the  number  of  satirists  and  lyric  poets  was  considerable. 

But  epos,  especially  mythological,  was  probably  the  favour- 
ite ;  long  epic  poems  of  the  period  have  been  preserved, 
all  of  which,  with  the  exception  of  the  Punica  of  Silius  Italicus, 
are  mythological — the  Argonautica  of  Valerius  Flaccus, 
the  Thebais  and  Achilleis  of  Statius.  Juvenal's  remarks  on 
recitations  also  indicate  a  preponderance  of  epos.  Its  sub- 
jects were  the  most  harmless  ;    the  poet  who  set  Aeneas  and 

1  Telephus,  King  of  Mysia,  a  favourite  subject  of  tragedy. 


68  BcUes-Lettres 

Turnus  fighting  miglit  feel  certain  of  never  giving  offence  ; 
nobody  could  complain  of  a  wounded  Achilles  or  a  drowning 
Hylas.  To  this  was  added  the  authority  of  Virgil,  whose 
form  was  thought  the  easiest  to  reproduce.  Accordingly, 
the  school  of  necessity  directed  its  poetical  efforts  to  the  field 
of  Greek  legend.  Its  wealth  of  poetic  material  facilitated 
execution  ;  in  addition  to  Virgil  numerous  (and  especially 
Alexandrine)  models,  ready  to  hand,  supplied  the  want  of 
invention,  and  of  power  to  create  new  poems.  Again, 
epos  ofiered  the  widest  scope  for  the  development  of  all  the 
excellences,  which  even  a  less  gifted  dilettante  might  appro- 
priate, such  as  beauty  of  language,  irreproachable  versifica- 
tion, rhetorical  pathos,  and  above  all,  descriptive  liveliness. 
Horace  speaks  of  descriptions  of  nature,  which  could  be 
used  as  '  purple  patches  '  to  conceal  the  nakedness  of  long 
poems  :  '  a  grove  and  altar  of  Diana,  a  stream  winding  through 
smiling  fields,  the  course  of  the  Rhine,  the  rainbow  '.  Seneca 
mentions  Aetna,  sunrise  and  sunset  among  such  poetical 
commonplaces.  Juvenal  declares  that  every  one  knows  the 
cave  of  Vulcan  and  the  grove  of  Mars  better  than  his  own 
house.  The  author  of  Aetna  declares  that  he  intends  to  strike 
out  a  new  path  ;  the  old  legends  are  too  hackneyed.  Every 
one  knows  the  golden  age  better  than  his  own  world.  Who 
has  not  sung  of  the  expedition  of  the  Argonauts,  the  Trojan 
war,  the  misfortunes  of  Niobe  and  of  the  house  of  Atreus,  the 
adventures  of  Cadmus,  the  desertion  of  Ariadne  ?  Similarly, 
at  the  end  of  the  third  century,  Ncmesianus  in  the  intro- 
duction to  his  Cynegetica  announces  his  intention  of  aban- 
doning the  '  beaten  track  '.  He  enumerates  a  number  of 
mythological  subjects,  adding,  '  a  number  of  great  poets  have 
already  anticipated  all  these  ;  the  old  legends  of  former 
times  are  known  to  all  '.  Further,  we  may  assume  that 
Virgil's  Eclogues  and  Geovgics,  as  well  as  his  Aeneid,  were 
frequently  imitated.  Columella  chose  horticulture  as  the 
subject  of  a  poem,  simply  because  '  the  divine  Maro,  the  poet 
deserving  of  the  highest  reverence  ',  had  expressly  called 
upon  his  successors  to  treat  this  department  of  agriculture 
poetically.  Martial's  friend,  Julius  Cerealis,  besides  a  Gigan- 
iomachia,  composed  some  rural  poems,  '  inferior  only  to  those 
of  the  immortal  Virgil '.  The  Georgica  composed  by  Clodius 
Albinus,  the  rival  of  the  emperor  Severus,  was  also  a  poem. 


Belles-Lettres  69 

But  most  of  the  educated  men,  who  did  not  make  poetry 
their  profession  but,  Uke  Atticus,  were  unwilling  to  deprive 
themselves  of  the  charm  which  it  lent  to  life,  and  whose 
poetical  efforts  were  only  a  recreation,  distraction  or  literary 
exercise,  as  a  rule  had  no  time  for  long-winded  epics.  The 
younger  Pliny  recommends  a  friend,  who  was  training  for 
an  orator,  sometimes  to  write  something  historical  or  a  letter. 
'  You  will  do  quite  right  again  in  refreshing  yourself  with 
poetry  ;  when  I  say  so,  I  do  not  mean  that  species  of  poetry 
which  turns  upon  subjects  of  great  length  and  continuity 
(such  being  suitable  only  for  persons  of  leisure),  but  those 
little  pieces  of  the  sprightly  kind  of  poesy,  which  serve  as 
proper  reliefs  to,  and  are  consistent  with,  employments  of 
every  sort.  They  commonly  go  under  the  name  of  poetical 
amusements  ;  but  these  amusements  have  sometimes  gained 
their  authors  as  much  reputation  as  works  of  a  more  serious 
nature.  In  this  manner  the  greatest  men,  as  well  as  the 
greatest  orators,  used  either  to  exercise  or  amuse  themselves, 
or  rather,  indeed,  did  both.  It  is  surprising  how  much  the 
mind  is  enlivened  and  refreshed  by  these  little  poetical  com- 
positions, as  they  turn  upon  love,  hatred,  satire,  tenderness, 
politeness,  and  everything  in  short  that  concerns  life  and 
the  affairs  of  the  world.  Besides,  the  same  advantage  attends 
these,  as  every  other  sort  of  poems,  that  we  turn  from  them 
to  prose  with  so  much  the  more  pleasure  after  having  experi- 
enced the  difficulty  of  being  constrained  and  fettered  by 
metre  '   (Melmoth's  translation). 

Apart  from  these  poetical  exercises,  amateur  and  even 
professional  poetry  no  doubt  consisted  to  a  great  extent, 
if  not  mainly,  of  reproductions  of  classical  Greek  or  Roman 
models,  and  in  the  former  case  was  often  merely  a  free  trans- 
lation. And  such  reproduction  was  by  no  means  unintentional. 
While  at  the  present  day  even  poetical  amateurs  strive  after 
the  appearance  of  originality  in  inverse  proportion  to  their 
real  capacity,  the  later  Roman  poets  made  no  such  effort, 
since  their  greatest  predecessors  from  time  immemorial  had 
made  it  their  object  to  transplant  the  flower  of  Greek  poetry 
to  Roman  soil.  Throughout  the  entire  domain  of  ancient  art 
respect  for  tradition  was  so  strong  that  forms  once  recognized 
as  models  had  the  binding  force  of  laws,  which  no  artist  dared 
resist   or    alter    at   discretion.     Imitation,    copy   and    repro- 


yo  Belles-Lettres 

duction  were  held  to  be  legitimate  and  allowable,  and  to  a 
certain  extent  industry  and  study  were  considered  an  adequate 
substitute  for  originality.  This  is  especially  true  of  all  post- 
Augustan  poetry,  the  chief  characteristic  of  which  is  the 
unexampled  frequency  of  imitations  and  repetitions,  echoes 
and  reminiscences  of  every  kind.  There  were  even  '  Ovidian  ' 
and  '  Virgilian  '  poets,  who  apparently  employed  only  Ovidian 
and  Virgilian  turns,  phrases  and  verses. 

«.-  The  enormous  influence  of  Virgil  on  later  poetry,  especially 
epos,  has  been  already  mentioned.  As  Ennius  and  Virgil 
had  imitated  Homer,  so  later  epic  poets  wrote  under  the 
spell  which  Virgil  exercised  over  the  whole  period.  Silius 
Italicus  reverenced  his  picture  more  than  that  of  any  other 
great  man,  celebrated  his  birthday  more  conscientiously 
than  his  own,  and  approached  his  tomb  as  if  it  had  been  a 
temple.  Statins,  who  at  the  end  of  his  Thebais  craves  for 
its  immortality,  adds  that  he  is  content  to  follow  the  divine 
Aeneis  at  a  distance  and  to  tread  in  its  footsteps  with  holy 
awe.  In  other  branches,  also,  poets  obtained  the  highest 
praise  for  the  successful  imitation  of  a  great  model.  Passennus 
Paullus,  a  friend  of  the  younger  Pliny,  was  a  zealous  imitator 
of  the  ancients  generally,  whose  poems  he  copied  and  repro- 
duced, especially  those  of  Propertius,  to  whose  family  he 
belonged,  and  whose  most  successful  imitator  he  was  ;  his 
elegies  were  '  written  entirely  in  the  house  of  Propertius  '. 
Later,  he  turned  his  attention  to  lyric  poetry,  and  reproduced 
Horace  with  the  same  fidelity. 

For  most  of  those  who  satisfied  their  aspirations  by  com- 
posing trifles,  epigrams  and  all  kinds  of  poetical  odds  and 
ends,  Catullus,  as  in  the  Augustan  age,  was  the  model 
most  generally  followed  ;  even  the  epigrams  of  a  poet  like 
Martial,  certainly  one  of  the  most  original  of  later  writers, 
are  full  of  reminiscences  of  him.  He  sends  his  little  poems 
to  Silius,  as  the  gentle  Catullus  may  have  ventured  to  send 
his  lament  on  the  death  of  the  sparrow  to  the  great  Virgil, 
This  poem  was  the  inevitable  model  for  all  similar  subjects 
and  appears  to  have  been  imitated  times  without  number. 
Martial  flatters  Stella  by  saying  that  in  his  Columba  (dove) 
he  has  shown  himself  as  far  superior  to  Catullus  as  a  dove 
is  larger  than  a  sparrow.  Unicus  the  Spaniard,  a  relative 
of  Martial,  wrote  love  poems,  such  as  those  of  Catullus  to 


Belles-Lettres  71 

Lesbia  or  of  Ovid  to  Corinna.  Pliny's  friend,  Pompeius 
Saturninus,  a  distinguished  orator  and  historian,  also  wrote 
verses  '  like  Catullus  or  Calvus,  full  of  grace,  sweetness,  bitter- 
ness and  passion  ;  their  tenderness  and  playfulness  was 
tempered  with  a  certain  severity,  this  too  in  the  manner  of 
Catullus  or  Calvus  '.  It  would  be  in  the  highest  degree  un- 
just, adds  Pliny,  to  admire  him  less  because  he  is  still  alive. 
Pliny  also  listened  with  the  greatest  pleasure  and  even  admira- 
tion to  another  friend,  Sentius  Augurinus,  who  had  recited 
his  little  poems  for  three  days  running.  '  There  was  a  good 
deal  of  writing  in  the  light  and  graceful,  the  lofty,  the  gay, 
the  tender,  the  sweet  and  the  satirical  vein.  I  am  of  opinion 
there  has  not  for  these  many  years  appeared  anything  more 
finished  of  the  kind,  if  indeed  my  great  affection  for  him  and 
the  praises  he  bestows  upon  me  do  not  bias  my  judgment '. 
For  he  had  said  '  I  sing  in  modest  verses,  as  formerly  Catullus, 
Calvus,  and  the  poets  of  old.  But  what  need  to  mention 
them  ?  Pliny,  who  also  writes  verslets,  is  more  to  me  than 
all  his  predecessors  '. 

The  example  of  Pliny,  who  did  not  begin  '  to  walk  in  the 
paths  of  Catullus  '    until  he  had  attained  consular  rank  and 
was  more  than  forty  years  of  age,  and  who  relates  in  great  detail 
the  history  of  the  origin  of  this  '  late  spring  of  song  ',  shows 
most  clearly  how  at  that  time  the   keen  interest  in  literature 
necessarily  attracted  even  the  most  matter-of-fact  and  un- 
poetical  natures  to  poetry.     He  had  already  made  several 
attempts  at  verse,  as  was  only  natural  at  a  time  when  culture 
was  so  saturated  with  poetical  elements,  and  since  he  him- 
self had   always   aspired   to  literary  distinction.     He  writes 
as  follows  to  a  friend  :     '  You  have  read,  you  say,  my  hendeca- 
syllables,  and  are  desirous  to  know  what  first  induced  a  man 
of  my  gravity  (as  you  are  pleased  to  call  me,  though  in  truth 
I  am  only  not  a  trifler)  to  write  verses.     To  go  back,  then, 
to  my  earliest  years,  I  had  always  an  inclination  to  poetry, 
insomuch  that  when  I  was  fourteen  years  of  age,  I  composed 
a  tragedy  in  Greek.     What  sort  of  a  one  do  you  ask  ?     I 
really  don't  know  ;    all  I  remember  of  it  is  that  it  was  called 
a  tragedy.     Some  time  after  this,  on  my  return  from  the 
army,  being  detained  in  the   island    of   Icaria   by   contrary 
winds,  I  wrote  some  Latin  elegies  on  the  self-same  island  and 
sea.     I  have  since  made  some  attempts  in  the  heroic  kind  ; 


72  Belles-Lettres 

but  these  are  the  first  hendecasyllabics  I  have  ever  composed  ; 
and  the  following  incident  gave  them  birth.  The  treatise 
of  Asinius  Gallus  was  read  to  me  one  day  at  Laurentum,  in 
which  he  draws  a  comparison  between  his  father  and  Cicero, 
and  cites  an  epigram  of  Tully's  on  his  own  favourite  Tiro. 
Upon  retiring  to  take  my  afternoon's  nap  (for  it  was  summer 
time)  and  not  being  able  to  sleep,  I  began  to  reflect  that 
the  greatest  orators  have  been  fond  of  poetry  and  by  no 
means  despised  it  as  an  art.  I  tried  therefore  what  I  could 
do  in  this  way  ;  and  though  I  had  long  disused  myself  to  do 
things  of  this  sort,  I  wrote  down,  in  a  much  shorter  time 
than  I  could  have  imagined,  the  following  lines  upon  the 
subject  which  gave  me  the  first  hint'  (Melmoth).  The 
hexameters,  in  which  he  explains  how  Cicero's  example 
determined  him  to  abandon  all  restraint,  are  utterly  prosaic 
and  heavy,  his  hendecasyllabics  probably  afi'orded  an  even 
more  terrible  example  of  the  result  '  when  a  pedant  itches 
to  attempt  the  free  and  easy  '.  '  From  this  I  turned  to  elegy  ', 
he  continues,  '  which  I  executed  with  the  same  ease  ;  and 
being  thus  lured  on  by  the  facility  with  which  the  Muses 
yielded  to  me,  I  added  others  to  the  number  of  my  productions 
of  this  kind.  On  my  return  to  Rome  I  showed  my  perform- 
ances to  some  of  my  friends,  who  were  pleased  to  approve 
of  them.  Afterwards,  whenever  I  had  spare  time,  and  par- 
ticularly when  I  travelled,  I  made  several  other  attempts 
in  the  poetical  line.  At  length  I  determined,  after  the  example 
of  many  others,  to  publish  a  separate  volume  of  these  poems, 
and  I  have  no  reason  to  repent  of  my  resolution.  They 
are  much  inquired  after,  and  are  in  everybody's  hands  ;  they 
have  even  tempted  the  Greeks  to  learn  our  language,  who 
sing  them  to  their  harps  and  lyres.  But  why  am  I  boasting 
so  ?  though  poets,  remember,  possess  the  privilege  of  raving. 
Still,  I  am  not  giving  you  my  own  judgment,  but  that  of 
others,  which,  be  it  right  or  wrong,  I  am  exceedingly  pleased 
with  ;  and  have  only  to  wish  that  posterity  too  may  be 
of  the  same  right  or  wrong  way  of  thinking  '  (Melmoth). 
Later,  Pliny  published,  or  at  least  prepared  for  publication, 
a  collection  of  smaller  poems  in  various  metres.  At  the 
request  of  his  hearers,  the  recital  lasted  two  days,  for  Pliny 
did  not,  '  like  others,  omit  a  portion  and  take  credit  for  doing 
so  ;    he  read  everything,  since  he  wanted  to  improve  every- 


Belles-Lettres  73 

thing  ;  and  how  was  he  to  do  this,  if  he  only  submitted  select 
passages  to  the  criticism  of  his  friends  ? '  This  shows  how 
the  dilettanti  of  the  time,  incited  to  poetical  efforts  by  the 
want  of  an  intellectual  occupation  for  their  hours  of  leisure, 
the  spirit  of  imitation,  extensive  reading,  knack  of  verse- 
writing,  the  example  of  others,  and  the  desire  to  be  perfect 
in  everything,  soon  came  to  fancy  themselves  poets,  when 
they  were  as  vain,  as  well-born  and  as  rich  as  Pliny. 

At  that  time  it  was  evidently  nothing  exceptional  for  men 
of  rank  or  position,  whose  time  was  much  occupied,  to  devote 
their  leisure  hours  to  poetry  even  at  an  advanced  age.     In 
reference  to  the  brilliant  success  of  Calpurnius  Piso's  elegiac 
poems  on  the  constellations,  Pliny  observes  that  it  gives  him 
all  the  more  pleasure  to  record  it,  since,  creditable  as  it  was 
to  any  young  man,  it  was  a  rare  achievement  for  one  of  noble 
birth  ;    a  remark  which  shows  that  comparatively  few  of  the 
crowd  of  poets,  who  recited  daily  for  months  together,  belonged 
to  distinguished  families,  and  in  particular  that  the  dilettanti 
of  the  upper  classes  can  have  had  little  time  or  inclination  for 
considerable  poetical  undertakings.     Amongst  the  consulars 
of  that  time,  in  addition  to  Pliny  and  Silius  Italicus,  Stertinius 
Avitus,  Arruntius  Stella  and  the  aged  Arrius  Antoninus  were 
poetical  dilettanti  ;  Rutilius  Gallicus  also,  praefect  of  the  city 
(died    91-92)    was    a    poet.     Vestricius    Spurinna,    who    had 
filled  the  highest  offices  (the  consulship  two  or  three  times) 
and  had  been  honoured   (probably  by  Nerva)  with  a  statue  in 
triumphal    dress,  when  77  years  of   age,  devoted  some  time 
daily  between  his  walk  and  his  bath  to  the  composition  of  lyric 
poems  in  Greek  and  Latin,  which  according  to  Pliny  were 
excellent.     The  knight  Titinius  Capito,  who  filled  the  extremely 
onerous  post  of    imperial  secretary  under    Domitian,  Nerva, 
and  Trajan,  was  also  one  of  the  chief  supporters  of  literature, 
the  patron  of  poets  and  literary  men  ;    he  attended  the  reci- 
tations of  others,  recited  himself,  and  wrote  remarkable  poems 
on  great  men.     The  freedman  Parthenius,   Domitian's  head 
chamberlain,  whose   influence   was    still    considerable    under 
Nerva,  was  according  to  Martial  a  favourite  of  Apollo  and  the 
Muses  ;    '  who  drank  more  freely  from  their  spring  than  he  ?  ' 
Unfortunately,  he  had  not  sufiicient  leisure  for  poetry.     From 
the  examples  of  Pollius  Felix  of  Puteoli,  Pomponius  Bassulus 
of  Aeclanum,  Caninius  Rufus  of  Comum,  we  may  assume  that 


74  Belles-Lettrcs 

poetical  dilettantism  was  general  amongst  the  higher  classes 
in  the  towns  of  Italy.  At  that  time  it  was  not  merely  one 
of  the  symptoms  of  the  intellectual  purification  of  immature 
youth,  or  of  morbid  development ;  poetry  continued  to  be  the 
life-long  companion  of  a  large  number  of  educated  men.  It 
was  practised  not  merely  to  ennoble  and  adorn  the  intellect- 
ual life,  but  also  since  it  was  prized  as  an  essential  element  of 
culture  ;  hence  skill  in  managing  poetical  form  was  also  re- 
garded as  a  proof  of  superior  education.  Since  even  men  of 
the  class  represented  by  Petronius's  Trimalchio  thought  it 
incumbent  on  them  to  produce  poems  of  their  own,  so  as  to 
appear  well  brought  up,  we  can  all  the  more  easily  under- 
stand how  it  was  that  clever  poets,  who  preferred  money  to 
fame,  sometimes  found  purchasers  for  their  verses. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  second  century,  poetry  was  so  im- 
portant a  factor  in  education  that  even  prosaic  natures  like 
Pliny's  could  not  escape  its  influence  ;  the  reign  of  Hadrian  saw 
a  great  and  sudden  change,  whereby  prose  regained  its  former 
ascendancy  to  such  an  extent  that  poetry  gradually  ceased 
to  be  the  chief  field  of  the  literary  efforts  of  dilettanti  and  artists, 
and  even  men  of  poetical  gifts  like  Apuleius  devoted  themselves 
by  preference  to  prose.  The  chief  cause  of  this  change,  as 
already  observed,  was  the  new  Greek  '  sophistic  '. 

This  new  art  of  Greek  elocution,  whose  professors  were  called 
by  the  old  name  of  sophists,  began  to  develop  after  the  end 
of  the  first  century.  The  importance  which  it  acquired,  the 
large  number  of  able  men  whom  it  attracted,  and  the  general, 
passionate  and  almost  incredible  admiiration  which  it  called 
forth  in  the  Greek  world,  prove  that  it  did  not  merely 
correspond  completely  to  the  taste  of  the  age,  but  also  filled 
a  keenly  felt  want  in  intellectual  life  in  a  manner  that  satisfied 
the  majority  of  educated  men.  The  insatiable  craving  for 
some  new  intellectual  amusement  and  an  impressionability  to 
art,  survived  with  undiminished  vigour  in  the  declining 
nation  ;  but  the  sound  and  unadulterated  taste  for  real  art, 
which  during  the  centuries  of  the  intellectual  prime  of  Greece 
was  formed  in  all  departments  by  the  marvellous  abundance  of 
magnificent  creations,  no  longer  existed. 

The  art  of  the  sophists,  so  completely  in  harmony  with  the 
degenerate  taste  of  later  centuries,  and  apparently  in  all  essen- 


Belles-Lettres  75 

tials  a  revival  of  the  Asiatic  mannerism,  was  a  spurious  art.  It 
created  forms  difficult  to  manage,  hard  and  fast  and  trifling 
rules,  even  to  the  least  details,  for  '  every  kind  of  style,  every 
form  of  thought,  construction  and  rhythm  ' ;  great  importance 
was  also  attached  to  correctness  of  expression,  which  it  was 
sought  to  obtain  by  study  and  frequently  perverse  and  pe- 
dantic imitation  of  ancient  models,  especially  Attic.  The  chief 
excellence  of  the  sophists,  like  that  of  the  Meistersingers,  con- 
sisted to  a  great  extent  in  the  apparent  ease  with  which  they 
surmounted  the  technical  difficulties  of  their  art  :  '  when 
Polemo  turned  a  period,  he  uttered  the  last  member  of  it  with 
a  smile,  to  show  how  easy  he  found  it '.  The  knowledge  of 
the  technical  rules  of  the  new  art  of  prose,  gradually  spreading 
amongst  the  educated  public,  sharpened  the  understanding 
and  increased  the  admiration  of  the  audience.  But  the  object 
of  special  admiration  was  the  art  of  improvisation,  which, 
however,  was  not  acquired  by  all  the  sophists  ;  one  of  the 
greatest  of  them,  Herodes  Atticus,  is  said  to  have  prized  it  more 
highly  than  his  consular  rank  and  his  descent  from  a  consular 
family.  In  addition  to  this  there  was  a  studied  declamation, 
which  only  too  often,  like  the  orator's  attitude,  facial  play 
and  gesture,  verged  upon  the  theatrical,  or  closely  resembled 
a  musical  performance. 

But  all  this,  even  combined  with  the  still  insatiable  impres- 
sionability of  the  Greek  ear  to  the  charm  of  oratorical  art,  is 
perhaps  insufficient  to  explain  the  astonishing  success  of  these 
'  show  speeches  ',  whose  pretentious  artificiality  of  form  always 
repels  us  by  the  absence  of  real  meaning,  while  their  mawkish 
affectation,  stilted  unnaturalness,  turgidity  and  bombast  only 
result  in  a  disagreeable  caricature  of  the  magnificent  old-fash- 
ioned eloquence,  which  they  claim  to  revive  and  reproduce.  The 
enthusiasm  for  the  sophists  and  their  works,  which  showed  itself 
in  demonstrations  of  honour  of  every  kind  ;  the  crowding  of 
studious  young  men  to  the  cities,  where  they  settled  down  as 
teachers  ;  the  esteem  in  which  they  were  held,  which  justified 
their  playing  the  part  of  censors,  advisers  and  peacemakers  ; 
their  own  almost  frenzied  idea  of  the  importance  and  effect  of 
their  activity — all  would  have  been  impossible,  at  least  to 
such  an  extent,  had  not  sophistic  offered  the  national  vanity 
of  the  Greeks  a  new  satisfaction  which  they  had  long  been 
without.     The  Greeks  '  still  tried  to  fancy  themselves  the  great 


']()  Bellcs-Lcttres 

nation  ',  and  were  confirmed  in  their  pride  at  having  been  the 
teachers  of  the  Romans  by  the  latter  themselves  ;  Greece  had 
now  produced  a  new  and  brilliant  form  of  culture,  and  once 
again  set  the  fashion  in  the  department  of  literature.  But 
what  especially  won  for  sophistic  the  passionate  sympathy 
of  the  Greek  world,  was  the  fact  that  its  chief  task  was  the 
glorification  of  the  great  past  of  Greece  ;  the  decaying  nation 
knew  no  greater  joy  than  to  see  itself  mirrored  in  these  reminis- 
cences. The  favourite  subjects  for  improvisation  with  both 
sophists  and  their  hearers  were  taken  from  Greek  history. 
'  The  deeds  of  their  forefathers  were  handed  down  by  history, 
and  could  be  celebrated.  But  their  speeches  on  numerous 
occasions  were  not  so  handed  down.  Consequently,  it  was 
possible  to  suggest  what  they  might  have  said,  and  the  answers 
that  might  have  been  made  ;  what  they  would  have  said,  on 
occasions  when  they  did  not  speak  at  all,  if  they  had  spoken. 
Some  of  these  themes  were,  e.g.,  Demosthenes  after  the  battle 
of  Chaeronea  ;  how  did  Demosthenes  defend  himself  against 
the  accusation  of  Dcmades,  that  he  had  been  bribed  by  the 
Persian  King  with  fifty  talents  ?  a  speech  to  the  Greeks  after 
the  end  of  the  Peloponnesian  war,  declaring  that  all  trophies 
must  be  destroyed,  since  it  was  really  a  civil  war  ;  a  consulta- 
tion of  the  Lacedaemonians,  to  decide  whether  the  Sj^artiatae 
who  returned  home  from  Sphacteria  without  their  arms  should 
be  allowed  to  enter  the  country  again  ;  whether  Sparta,  which 
was  intended  by  the  constitution  of  Lycurgus  to  be  without 
walls,  should  be  protected  by  a  wall  on  the  approach  of  the 
Persians.  .  .  .'  Most  of  these  and  similar  themes  were  general 
favourites,  and  produced  keen  competition  amongst  the 
sophists.  But  none  of  them  were  so  highly  thought  of  as  the 
so-called  Median  or  Attic  themes.  In  the  former  Darius  and 
Xerxes  were  introduced,  uttering  their  barbarian  boasts  against 
the  Greeks  ;  in  the  latter  the  deeds  and  heroes  of  Marathon  and 
Salamis  were  celebrated.  This  is  wittily  set  forth  by  Lucian, 
in  the  ironical  advice  given  by  him  to  a  rhetorician.  '  Above 
all  do  not  forget  to  speak  of  Marathon  and  Cynaegirus  i, 
for  this  is  indispensable  ;  of  the  navigation  of  mount  Athos 
and  the  crossing  of  the  Hellespont  ;  of  the  sun  darkened  by 
the  arrows  of  the  Persians  ;   of  Xerxes  in  flight  ;    let  Leonidas 

1  Brother  of  Aeschylus,  distinguished  for  bis  valour  at  the  battle  of  Marathon. 


Belles-Lettres  77 

be  always  praised,  the  words  of  Othryades  ^  always  read  and 
the  names  of  Salamis,  Artemisium  and  Plataea  repeated.* 
In  the  speech  at  the  funeral  of  Proaeresius,  a  famous  sophist 
of  the  fourth  century,  it  was  said,  '  O  Marathon  and  Salamis  ! 
what  a  trumpet  for  your  trophies  and  victories  you  have 
lost  !  ' 

This  new  rhetoric  strove  to  obtain  sole  authority  in  the  do- 
main of  the  arts  of  speech.  It  aimed  at  supplanting  poetry  or 
rather  at  bringing  it  within  its  own  province.  The  mixture 
of  the  prosaic  and  poetical  style  of  speech  and  expression,  the 
poetical  prose,  which  we  discern  in  nearly  all  the  productions 
of  sophistic  at  that  time  and  later,  appears  to  have  its  root 
in  this  tendency.  But  the  rhetoricians  also  believed  they 
could  take  possession  of  the  subjects  of  poetry.  Festal 
speeches  on  gods  and  heroes,  which  were  called  simply  '  hymns  ', 
and  panegyrics  on  celebrated  and  influential  men  of  the  past 
and  present  were  regarded  as  substitutes  for  the  lyrics  of  the 
grand  style  of  the  past.  In  the  class  of  '  Descriptions  '  also 
the  poets  were  followed.  This  attempt  to  create  a  special 
rhetorical  poetry  also  brought  forth  from  the  soil  of  the  new 
sophistic  its  most  characteristic  production — the  Greek  love 
story. 

Although  this  art  owed  its  importance  in  the  Greek  world 
to  its  essentially  national  character,  it  also  exercised  great 
influence  upon  the  Roman  world.  This  was  due  to  the  tradi- 
tional respect  of  the  Romans  for  the  authority  of  the  Greeks 
throughout  the  domain  of  intellectual  (in  particular,  literary) 
life,  to  their  dependence  upon  the  judgment  of  the  Greeks, 
and  to  their  desire,  perhaps  at  that  time  more  eager  than  ever 
before,  to  appi'opriate  the  advantages  of  Greek  education. 
Just  as  they  had  always  gone  to  school  amongst  the  Greeks, 
ever  since  they  had  begun  to  elevate  oratory  to  the  dignity 
of  an  art,  so  at  that  time  they  earnestly  endeavoured  to  profit 
by  the  latest  and  most  perfect  method  adopted  by  the  Greeks 
in  the  art  of  representation.  Many  young  men  journeyed 
from  Italy  and  the  countries  of  the  west  to  Athens  and  other 
Greek  centres  of  instruction,  to  obtain  the  latest  educational 
polish  by  attending  the  lectures  of  the  most  celebrated  teachers. 

1  The  only  Spartan  survivor  of  the  300  who  fought  with  the  same  number  of  Argives 
for  the  possession  of  the  border-town  Thyrea.  He  is  said  to  have  erected  a  trophy  on 
the  field  and  written  a  superscription  with  his  blood. 


yg  Bellcs-Lcttrcs 

The  latter  also  made  professional  tours  to  Rome  and  other 
large  towns  in  the  west,  where  they  sometimes  made  their 
home  for  a  while.  The  chair  of  Greek  oratory  at  Rome  was 
one  of  the  most  coveted  distinctions. 

The  importance  and  reputation  of  these  Greek  professors 
was  enhanced  by  the  notice  taken  of  them  by  the  emperors, 
who  loaded  them  with  distinctions  and  presents  ;  were  eager 
to  secure  their  services  as  tutors  of  the  heirs  presumptive  ; 
promoted  them  to  high  offices  (especially  the  Greek  depart- 
ment of  the  imperial  secretariate)  ;  and  submitted  with 
politeness,  indulgence  and  patience  to  their  ridiculous  and 
even  insolent  pretentiousness.  On  the  other  hand,  also,  the 
entire  attitude  of  the  emperors  towards  the  sophists  justifies 
us  in  assuming  that  their  works  were  highly  and  widely  re- 
spected in  the  educated  circles  of  Rome,  and  that  the  emperors 
shared  this  opinion. 

Hadrian,  the  greatest  admirer  of  the  Greeks  and  the  most 
ardent  literary  dilettante,  was  also  a  particular  friend  of  the 
sophists  ;  he  is  praised  by  the  biographer  Philostratus  as  the 
best  fitted  by  nature  of  all  the  earlier  emperors  to  understand 
and  encourage  distinguished  talent.  Trajan  had  bestowed 
upon  the  celebrated  Polemo  immunity  from  dues  and  taxes 
during  all  his  journeys  by  land  and  sea  ;  Hadrian  extended  the 
privilege  to  his  descendants,  elected  him  to  the  Academy 
(Museum)  of  Alexandria,^  and  voluntarily  paid  a  debt  of  250,000 
denarii  for  him,  if  we  may  believe  Philostratus,  many  of  whose 
statements,  however,  arc  obviously  insipid  inventions  or  ridicu- 
lous exaggerations.  But  it  is  clear,  from  the  childish  way  in 
which  the  sophists  exaggerated  their  importance  and  their 
relation  to  the  emperors,  that  such  stories  were  generally 
credited.  It  is  related  that  Polemo  on  one  occasion  rudely 
ejected  Antoninus  Pius,  Hadrian's  successor,  and  at  that  time 
proconsul  of  Asia,  from  his  house  at  Smyrna.  Hadrian,  to 
protect  Polemo  against  Antoninus's  possible  vengeance,  ex- 
pressly declared  in  his  will  that  it  was  by  Polemo's  advice  that 
he  had  adopted  Antoninus,  who  accordingly,  on  his  accession 
to  the  throne,  bestowed  all  kinds  of  honours  upon  Polemo. 

The  biographies  of  Philostratus  are  full  of  such  stories. 
Wliile  Marcus  Aurelius  was  staying  at  Smyrna,  the  sophist 

1  Where  learned  men  were  supported  at  the  expense  of  the  State. 


Bcllcs-Lcttres 


79 


Aristidcs  waited  for  the  emperor  to  summon  him,  before  pay- 
ing his  respects,  and  made  the  excuse  that  he  did  not  wish  to 
interrupt  his  studies.  When  Smyrna  was  subsequently  des- 
troyed by  an  earthquake,  Aristides'  Lament  over  Smyrna  (still 
extant,  a  mere  string  of  exclamations)  induced  the  emperor 
to  rebuild  the  city.  The  beautiful  passage,  '  The  evening 
winds  blow  only  over  a  wilderness'  is  said  to  have  moved 
Marcus  Aurelius  to  tears.  Although  it  is  impossible  to  decide 
what  is  false  and  what  is  true  in  Philostratus,  how  much  is 
misrepresentation,  exaggeration  or  pure  imagination,  it  is 
impossible  to  doubt  the  extraordinary  affability  of  the  em- 
perors to  the  sophists  during  the  second  (and  part  of  the  third) 
century,  or  the  interest  taken  by  them  in  their  art ;  this  alone 
would  be  sufficient  to  justify  us  in  assuming  that  the  same 
interest  was  shown  by  the  entire  educated  world  of  Rome, 
which  is  confirmed  beyond  suspicion  by  further  evidence. 

One  of  the  founders  of  the  new  art,  the  Assyrian  Isaeus,  made 
his  appearance  in  Rome  shortly  before  the  year  loo.  The 
impression  produced  by  his  powerful  flow  of  language  is  shown 
by  the  description  of  the  younger  Pliny.  '  The  great  fame 
of  Isaeus  had  already  preceded  him  here.  He  possesses  the 
utmost  readiness,  copiousness,  and  abundance  of  language. 
He  always  speaks  extempore,  and  his  lectures  are  as  finished  as 
though  he  had  spent  a  long  time  over  their  written  composi- 
tion. His  style  is  Greek,  or  rather  the  genuine  Attic.  I  lis 
exordiums  are  terse,  elegant,  attractive,  and  occasionally 
impressive  and  majestic.  He  suggests  several  subjects  for 
discussion,  allows  his  audience  their  choice,  sometimes  even 
to  name  which  side  he  shall  take,  rises,  arranges  himself  and 
begins.  At  once  he  has  everything  almost  equally  at  com- 
mand. Recondite  meanings  of  words  arc  suggested  to  you, 
and  words — what  words  they  are,  exquisitely  chosen  and 
polished  I  These  extempore  speeches  of  his  show  the  wideness 
of  his  reading,  and  how  much  practice  he  has  had  in  composi- 
tion. His  preface  is  to  the  point,  his  narrative  lucid,  his 
summing-up  forcible,  his  rhetorical  ornament  imposing.  Tn 
a  word,  he  teaches,  entertains  and  affects  you.  His  reflections 
(cnthymemes)  are  frequent,  his  syllogisms  also  are  frequent, 
condensed  and  carefully  finished.  He  repeats  from  a  long 
way  back  what  he  had  previously  delivered  extempore,  with- 
out missing  a  single  word.     This  marvellous  faculty  he  has 


8o  Belles-Lettres 

acquired  by  dint  of  great  application  and  practice,  for  night 
and  day  he  does  nothing,  hears  nothing,  says  nothing  else. 
He  has  passed  his  sixtieth  year  and  is  still  only  a  rhetorician  ' 
(Melmoth).  After  this  description  we  may  literally  believe 
the  statements  of  Philostratus,  that  the  enmity  of  the  two 
sophists  Favorinus  and  Polemo  was  kept  up  by  the  fact  that 
consuls  and  consuls'  sons  took  sides  in  the  quarrel  ;  that  the 
sophist  Hadrianus  excited  such  admiration  that  knights  and 
senators  crowded  into  the  Athenaeum  to  hear  him,  even  those 
who  knew  no  Greek. 

The  scanty  fragments  of  Roman  literature  in  the  second 
century  after  Hadrian  show  clearly  enough  that  the  great  effects 
of  sophistical  rhetoric,  promoted  energetically  by  the  lectures 
of  the  Greek  professors  at  Rome,  were  not  without  influence 
on  literary  effort  in  the  educated  Roman  world.     Perhaps  the 
very  reason  of  the  scantiness  of  these  fragments  is  that  many 
Romans,  dazzled  by  the  charm  of  the  new  Greek  prose,  were 
led  to  write  in  Greek  instead  of  in  Latin.      Marcus  Aurelius 
undoubtedly  chose  the  first  language  as  the  result  of  his  study 
of  the  works  of  the  Greek  philosophers  in  the  original ;  but  one 
of  the  most  unmistakable  symptoms  of  the  influence  of  the 
Greek  sophists  on  the  literary  circles  of  the  Roman  world  is 
the  fact  that  Favorinus  of  Arelate  (Aries)  and  Claudius  Aelianus 
of  Rome  (or  Praeneste)  equally  desired  to  shine  as  stylists 
not  in  their  mother  tongue  but  in  Greek  ;  and  in  fact  they  are 
included  amongst  the  most  prominent  Greek  sophists.     We  only 
possess  the  works  of  three  Roman  prose  writers  of  this  period. 
One  of  these,  Aulus  Gellius,  who  was  content  to  offer  the  public 
nothing  more  than  a  collection  of  learned  and  amusing  mis- 
cellanea, hardly  deserves  to  be  called  a  literary  man,  although 
his  studied  elegance,  especially  in  narrative,  shows  that  he 
imitated    contemporary    Greek    models.     His    great    friend 
Hcrodes,   '  famous  for  his  graceful  intellect  and   Greek  elo- 
quence ',  had  published  similar  learned  collections.     Fronto, 
the  admirer  of  Polemo,  tried  his  hand  at  several  of  the  forms 
in  which  the  sophists  were  accustomed  to  display  their  art, 
such  as  a  mincing  narrative  style,  and  especially  letters,  some 
written  in  his  own   name,  others  in  the  name  and   character 
of  persons  of  the  most  different  position  and  class.     Some  of 
his  extant  letters  arc  in  Greek.     His  eulogies  of  dust,  smoke 
and  idleness  are  an  attempt  to  discuss  injurious,  contemptible 


Belles-Lettres  8i 

and  useless  things  and  qualities  in  the  paradoxical  manner  of 
the  sophists. 

Lastly,  Apuleius,  who,  as  he  himself  says,  had  thoroughly 
familiarized  himself  with  Greek  culture  at  Athens,  made  it  his 
life's  task  to  do  for  Latin  prose  what  the  sophists  had  done  for 
Greek.  The  combination  of  philosophy  and  eloquence,  to 
which  he  chiefly  owed  his  reputation  among  contemporaries  and 
posterity,  was  not  uncommon  in  the  Greek  sophists.  Like 
them,  he  journeyed  from  place  to  place,  delivering  lectures 
prepared  in  advance  (a  carefully  elaborated  collection  of  bril- 
liant passages  and  introductions  has  been  preserved);  like  them, 
he  made  use  of  his  art  in  the  courts.  Even  his  chief  work,  the 
Melamor phases  or  The  Golden  Ass,  is  nothing  but  a  sophistical 
show-piece  ;  for  the  sophists  also  made  use  of  this  form,  in 
order  to  display  the  advantages  of  the  art  of  treating  various 
subjects  in  prose.  Similarly,  in  the  Metamorphoses,  the  exposi- 
tion of  the  art  was  the  end,  the  subject  was  only  the  means. 
Like  the  Greek  romances,  that  of  Apuleius  consists  only  of  a 
loosely-connected  series  of  scenes  and  adventures  of  all  kinds, 
which  afford  the  author  an  opportunity  of  exhibiting  his  art, 
now  in  comic  or  tragic,  indecent  or  horrible  stories,  now  in 
descriptions  of  scenes  from  nature  and  of  works  of  art,  now  in 
dialogues  and  speeches. 

The  attempt  of  Apuleius  to  transplant  the  art  of  the  Greek 
sophists  into  the  soil  of  Roman  literature  is  the  most  striking 
proof  of  the  extraordinary  influence  exercised  by  the  new  Greek 
art  over  the  educated  western  world  ;  but  at  the  same  time 
all  his  works  show  how  the  ascendancy  of  this  form  lessened 
the  previous  importance  of  poetry.  No  one  will  dispute  that 
Apuleius  possessed  natural  poetical  gifts  to  a  higher  degree 
than  the  majority  of  the  post-Augustan  poets  whose  works 
are  known  to  us.  The  choice  of  a  popular  story  {Cupid  and 
Psyche)  as  a  subject  and  the  affection  with  which  he  handles 
it  show  an  appreciation,  certainly  rare  at  the  time,  of  the  wild 
flowers  of  poetry,  which  the  poetical  horticulturists  and  their 
admirers  in  their  arrogance  pretended  to  ignore.  Certainly, 
Apuleius  also  tried  his  hand  at  poems  of  all  kinds — epics,  lyrics, 
comedies,  tragedies,  satires  and  riddles  ;  but  he  sought  and 
acquired  his  reputation  in  prose  alone.  A  hundred  or  fifty 
years  earlier  he  would  most  probably  have  been  distinguished 
as  a   poet ;    but  as  the   prevailing  tendency  of   former  times 

R.L.M. — III.  G 


82  Belles-Lettres 

had  been  strong  enough  to  entice  even  sober  pedants  Uke  PHny 
into  the  paths  of  poetry,  so  now  it  was  the  art  of  prose  that 
irresistibly  attracted  talent  and  even  succeeded  in  detaching  it 
from  the  sphere  which  suited  it  so  admirably.  Nevertheless, 
Apuleius  showed  himself  unusually  successful  in  maintaining 
the  double  part  of  a  poetical  rhetorician  and  a  rhetorical  poet. 

With  the  renascence  of  ancient  culture,  the  poetry  of  the 
Augustan  and  post-Augustan  age  regained  the  high  esteem 
it  had  enjoyed  in  antiquity.  While  Homer,  Pindar,  Aeschylus, 
Sophocles  and  Theocritus  continued  for  centuries  to  be  little 
known  and  still  less  understood,  Virgil,  Horace,  Ovid  and 
Juvenal  were  generally  reckoned  as  the  highest  models.  But 
the  restoration  of  the  authority  and  influence  of  Roman  poetry 
over  education  in  general  reintroduced  many  phenomena,  the 
result  of  the  attitude  of  the  educated  world  of  later  antiquity 
to  poetry.  At  first  humanism  re-established  the  intimate 
connexion  of  poetry  with  science  and  learning  ;  its  study  was 
regarded  as  an  important,  nay,  an  indispensable  means  of 
education,  and  skill  in  the  management  of  its  forms  and  ex- 
pressions as  the  finest  flower  of  a  noble  education  ;  the  human- 
ists were  with  justice  called  simply  '  poets '  by  both  friends 
and  enemies.  Melanchthon,  in  a  letter  to  Micyllus  (1526), 
says  :  '  No  one  who  has  not  practised  poetry  can  form  a  correct 
judgment  in  any  department  of  science  ;  and  prose  writers, 
who  have  no  flavour  of  the  poetic  art,  are  wanting  in  vigour '. 
The  humanists  considered  poetry  as  an  art  that  could  be  learnt 
and  acquired,  like  any  other,  by  industry  and  practice.  At  the 
same  time  poetry  resumed  its  mission  of  adorning  the  life  of  the 
privileged  and  of  investing  all  its  important  moments  with  a 
greater  solemnity.  Poetry  continued  to  be  a  regular  subject 
of  instruction  at  the  universities,  and  was  frequently  the  life- 
long companion,  a  decorous  amusement  and  recreation,  of 
those  who  had  received  a  superior  education.  Even  occasional 
poetry,  both  official  and  non-official,  maintained  an  importance 
which  is  hardly  intelligible  at  the  present  day.  It  was  not 
till  after  the  middle  of  the  eighteenth  century  that  the  great 
intellectual  revolution  took  place,  which  set  before  poetry  (and 
art  in  general)  as  its  aim  the  release  of  the  human  soul  from  the 
sombre  empire  of  passion.  This  mighty  movement,  which 
caused  so  powerful  a  reaction  from  artificiality  and  conven- 


Bclles-Lettres  83 

tionalism  of  form  has  rendered  us  capable  of  understanding      \ 
the  Greeks,  Shakespeare  and  popular  poetry  ;    it  has  also,  in       \ 
consequence  of  the  complete  change  of  the  attitude  of  the 
educated   world   towards   poetry,   created   a   less   favourable 
estimate  of  the  Roman  poets,  not  so  pronounced,  however , 
amongst  the  Romance  as  amongst  the  Germanic  peoples. 


CHAPTER    II 

RELIGION 

I  THE  BELIEF  IN  GODS  (POLYTHEISM). 

We  possess  two  different  and  in  many  respects  even  contra- 
dictory authorities  for  the  state  of  religion  in  the  ancient 
world  during  the  first  centuries  of  the  Christian  era  :  literature 
and  monuments  (especially  inscriptional  stones).  The  litera- 
ture was  chiefly  the  work  of  unbelievers  or  indifferentists,  or 
of  those  who  strove  to  spiritualize,  purify,  or  transform  the 
popular  beliefs  by  reflection  and  interpretation.  The  monu- 
ments, on  the  other  hand,  to  a  great  extent  at  least,  had  their 
origin  in  those  classes  of  society  which  were  little  affected  by 
literature  and  its  prevailing  tendencies,  and  felt  no  need,  or 
indeed  were  not  capable,  of  expressing  their  convictions  on 
such  matters  ;  thus,  in  the  majority  of  cases,  they  are  wit- 
nesses of  a  positive  belief  in  a  system  of  polytheism,  of  a  faith 
that  is  free  from  doubt  and  subtlety  alike,  naive  and  ill- 
considered.  Should  the  modern  world  ever  perish  like  the 
ancient,  and  should  future  generations  attempt  to  form  an 
idea  of  the  religion  of  our  time  from  remains  of  modern  civiliza- 
tion as  fragmentary  as  those  of  antiquity,  they  would  obtain 
quite  a  different  (and  in  some  respects  contradictory)  im- 
pression from  our  literary  remains  than  from  gravestones, 
votive  tablets,  and  other  ecclesiastical  monuments.  If,  then, 
it  would  only  be  possible  in  our  case  to  arrive  at  an  approxi- 
mately correct  idea  by  utilizing  two  mutually  complementary 
classes  of  evidence,  this  is  equally  true  of  the  period  of  antiquity 
under  consideration.  While  its  heathen  literature  affords  us 
a  glimpse  of  the  activity  of  the  forces  which  were  working  in 
the  heart  of  paganism  itself  for  its  dissolution  and  decom- 
position, the  monuments  breathe  a  spirit  of  belief  which  for 
centuries  was  able  to  resist  all  destructive  influences.     But 

84 


Religion  85 

inasmuch  as  the  literature  of  the  period,  both  Christian  and 
pagan,  has  been  utilized  almost  exclusively,  or  at  least  far  more 
extensively  (especially  by  theological  writers)  than  the  monu- 
ments, the  latter  have  never  received  all  the  attention  they 
deserve. 

Even  literature  has  not  been  made  use  of  impartially  ;  its 
irreligious  side  has  been  chiefly  taken  into  account,  without 
any  adequate  consideration  of  the  extent  to  which  not  only 
belief,  but  also  superstition,  are  needs  of  the  masses  which 
peremptorily  demand  satisfaction.  Even  the  literary  authori- 
ties only  partly  confirm  the  prevalent  idea,  that  paganism  was 
already  in  a  condition  of  utter  decay  and  complete  dissolution, 
at  the  time  of  the  birth  of  Christianity. 

Certainly,  during  the  last  century  before  the  Christian  era, 
many  complaints  (perhaps  not  so  many  as  in  the  nineteenth 
century)  of  a  diminished  fear  of  God,  of  unbelief  and  religious 
indifference,  are  made  by  Greek  and  Roman  writers,  who 
expressly  attributed  the  decay  of  religion  to  the  theories  of  an 
'  insane  creed  ',  propagated  by  the  schools  of  Greek  philosophy. 
In  fact,  the  Roman  literature  of  that  period  and  of  the  first 
century  after  Christ  is  dominated  by  tendencies  partly  deviat- 
ing from  the  old  belief,  and  partly  directly  hostile  to  it.  The 
necessity  for  popular  belief  and  a  state  religion  was  not  only 
readily  admitted  by  the  educated  classes  on  the  ground  of 
expediency  ;  they  themselves  set  the  example  of  respect  for 
religion  and  all  religious  institutions.  Cicero,  in  a  speech 
delivered  in  the  senate  (De  Haruspicum  Responsis) ,  declared 
that,  with  all  his  fondness  for  literary  studies,  he  would  have 
nothing  to  do  with  such  literature  as  alienated  men's  minds 
from  religious  belief ;  we  owe,  says  he,  our  world-wide  victories 
to  piety,  religion,  and  the  knowledge  that  everything  is  di- 
rected by  the  will  of  the  gods.  In  particular  it  was  recognized 
that  the  masses,  by  reason  of  the  crudeness  of  their  morals 
and  Jack  of  education,  were  in  need  of  religion.  It  is  impos- 
sible, says  Strabo,  to  lead  the  mass  of  women  and  the  common 
people  generally  to  piety,  holiness  and  faith  simply  by  philo- 
sophical teaching  ;  the  fear  of  God  is  also  required,  not  omit- 
ting legends  and  miraculous  stories.  The  existence  of  gods 
has  its  uses,  says  Ovid  with  cynical  frankness  ;  since  this  is  so, 
let  us  believe  in  them  and  continue  to  sacrifice  to  them. 
Epictetus  blames  those  who  by  thoughtless  expressions  of 


86  Religion 

doubt  as  to  the  existence  of  the  gods  destroy  the  seeds  of 
virtue  in  youthful  minds  and  rob  many  of  what  has  preserved 
them  from  crime.  Further,  statesmen  under  the  empire  were 
specially  emphatic  in  declaring  that  those  who  despised  the 
gods  were  people  who  respected  no  one  else. 

Such  a  confession  undoubtedly  implied  that  a  large  number 
of  educated  men  thought  there  was  no  need  of  popular  belief 
in  its  traditional  form,  of  which,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  they 
frequently  spoke  with  indifference,  frivolity  or  contempt. 
Certainly,  this  free-thinking  was  often  only  a  mask  ;  mis- 
fortune or  danger  tore  it  from  the  scoffer's  face,  who  then 
turned  eagerly  to  religion  for  assistance.  It  was  also  no 
uncommon  occurrence  for  absolute  unbelievers  to  cling  the 
more  obstinately  to  an  isolated  superstition  ;  e.g.  Sulla,  who 
plundered  the  temple  at  Delphi,  always  carried  about  with 
him  a  little  image  of  Apollo,  which  he  frequently  kissed,  and 
to  which  he  addressed  fervent  prayers  in  moments  of  danger. 
Of  course  many  educated  men  were  believers,  and  Juvenal 
even  expresses  the  opinion  that  in  his  time  there  was  no  man 
who  despised  the  gods. 

Yet  we  also  find  (in  Lucretius)  a  passionate  expression  of 
hatred  of  religion.  To  him  it  appeared  a  gigantic  spectre, 
towering  from  earth  to  heaven,  beneath  whose  heavy  foot 
human  life  lay  prostrate  on  earth,  while  its  hideous  face  looked 
down  threateningly  from  on  high.  But  at  last  a  Greek  (Epi- 
curus) boldly  defied  the  terror.  He  threw  open  the  portals  of 
nature,  penetrated  far  beyond  the  flaming  walls  of  the  universe 
into  the  infinite,  and  as  a  conqueror  brought  back  the  know- 
ledge of  the  causes  of  all  existence  to  mankind.  Thus  he  has 
overthrown  religion,  but  by  his  victory  has  exalted  us  to 
heaven.  Let  it  not  be  thought  that  ttie  acceptance  of  this 
doctrine  leads  to  sin  and  godlessness  ;  on  the  contrary,  it  is 
religion  itself  that  has  more  frequently  given  birth  to  godless 
and  unholy  acts.  The  poet  reminds  us  how  Agamemnon 
sacrificed  his  own  daughter  Iphigenia  to  appease  the  wrath 
of  the  gods,  and  concludes  his  touching  description  of  the 
death  of  the  innocent  maiden  with  the  exclamation  :  '  So  great 
the  evils  to  which  religion  could  prompt !  ' 

But  the  school  of  Epicurus,  to  say  nothing  of  the  philo- 
sophically educated  generally,  was  by  no  means  so  hostile  to 
popular  religion  as  Lucretius.     No  system  taught  atheism. 


I 


Religion  87 

the  advocates  of  which  were  hardly  ever  numerous.  Scepti- 
cism only  disputed  that  the  existence  of  the  divinity  could 
be  proved  ;  Epicureanism  taught  the  existence  of  countless 
and  eternal  gods,  living  in  a  state  of  supreme  felicity,  and  only 
denied  their  solicitude  for  the  world  and  humanity  ;  but  they 
no  more  abstained  from  worship  on  principle  than  the  sceptics. 
The  deity  needs  no  adoration  of  ours,  says  the  Epicurean 
Philodemus,  but  it  is  natural  for  us  to  render  him  this  homage, 
chiefly  by  lofty  ideas,  but  also  by  following  in  every  case  the 
custom  of  our  fathers.  In  accordance  with  custom,  says  the 
sceptic  Sextus,  we  affirm  that  there  are  gods  who  exercise 
supervision  over  human  affairs,  and  we  pay  them  reverence. 
The  majority  of  educated  men,  who  belonged  to  no  definite 
school,  but  were  directly  or  indirectly  affected  by  philosophical 
influences,  were  more  or  less  tolerant  of  the  popular  beliefs, 
although  they  might  themselves  have  held  monotheistic, 
pantheistic  or  fatalistic  opinions,  embraced  a  purified  poly- 
theism, or  abandoned  the  traditional  belief  without  having 
been  able  to  find  another  to  replace  it. 

Outside  philosophical  circles  proper,  the  religious  views 
current  in  the  educated  Roman  world  of  the  first  century  a.d. 
fluctuated  between  belief  in  the  existence  of  the  popular  gods 
and  a  providence  of  which  they  were  the  agents  (although  the 
entire  legendary  tradition  was  rejected)  on  the  one  hand,  and 
an  absolute  negation  of  these  gods  on  the  other.  The  former 
appears  to  have  been  the  point  of  view,  e.g.  of  Tacitus.  In 
discussing  the  Jewish  religion,  he  expresses  the  most  decided 
antipathy  to  all  that  tended  to  neglect  of  the  hereditary  wor- 
ship and  to  contempt  of  the  gods.  He  believed  that  they  not 
only  carried  out  the  unalterable  laws  of  nature,  but  also 
directly  interfered  with  the  course  of  events,  and  announced 
the  future  by  omens.  Quintilian  was  one  of  that  very  numer- 
ous class  which  combined  polytheistic  views,  the  result  of 
habit  and  education,  with  monotheistic,  neither  possessing  the 
energy  to  define  its  convictions  with  clearness  and  precision, 
nor  feeling  the  need  of  so  doing.  In  his  case  the  idea  of  ani- 
mated nature,  of  '  the  god,  who  is  the  father  and  creator  of 
the  world  ',  thrust  belief  in  the  '  immortal  gods  '  into  the  back- 
ground ;  but  he  firmly  believed  in  a  Providence,  and  also 
apparently  in  the  prediction  of  the  future  by  oracles  and  signs. 

The  elder  Pliny  is  the  most  decided  in  his  negation  of  the 


88  Religion 

popular  belief.  Thinking  that  he  ought  not  to  pass  over,  in 
his  description  of  the  Cosmos,  '  the  incessantly  discussed 
question  of  the  essence  of  the  divinity  ',  he  has  recorded  the 
answers  most  commonly  given  at  the  time.  So  far  as  he  him- 
self is  concerned,  God  and  nature  are  inseparable  ;  he  regards 
nature  as  '  the  mother  of  all  things  ',  who  so  often  reveals 
herself  to  man  in  chance,  which  one  might  be  tempted  to 
designate  as  the  deity  to  whom  discoveries  and  progress  are 
chiefly  due.  But  reason  leads  us  to  regard  as  the  real  divinity 
the  '  sacred,  boundless  and  eternal  '  Cosmos,  which  is  at  the 
same  time  '  the  work  of  nature  and  nature  herself  '  ;  the  soul 
and  guiding  principle  of  the  world  being  the  sun.  Conse- 
quently it  is  only  weakness  that  makes  men  inquire  into  the 
image  and  form  of  the  divinity.  Whoever  the  divinity  may 
be  (if  indeed  one  exists  outside  nature) ,  and  wherever  he  may 
dwell,  he  must  be  all  strength,  all  mind.  It  is  even  more 
foolish  to  believe  in  innumerable  gods  and  to  deify  human 
qualities,  such  as  concord,  chastity,  hope,  honour  and  cle- 
mency ;  mankind,  weak  and  weary,  conscious  of  its  own 
infirmity,  has  split  up  the  divinity,  so  that  each  man  may 
worship  that  aspect  of  him  of  which  he  chiefly  stands  in  need. 
Hence  we  find  the  same  gods  worshipped  under  different  names 
among  different  peoples,  and  an  infinite  number  of  gods 
amongst  the  same  peoples,  even  diseases  and  evils,  such  as 
fever  and  orphanage,  being  worshipped  from  fear.  Now 
since  in  addition  there  exists  a  belief  in  tutelary  gods  and 
goddesses  of  all  individual  men  and  women,  there  would  seem 
to  be  more  gods  than  human  beings.  Mythology  is  nothing 
but  childish  drivel  ;  it  is  the  height  of  impudence  to  attribute 
to  the  gods  adultery,  strife  and  hatred,  and  to  believe  in 
divinities  of  theft  and  crime.  Revelation  of  the  divinity  con- 
sists in  man  working  for  humanity,  and  this  is  the  path  of 
eternal  glory  in  which  the  heroes  of  ancient  Rome  formerly 
walked,  and  in  which,  following  in  the  footsteps  of  the  divinity, 
Vespasian  and  his  sons  still  walk,  lending  aid  to  the  exhausted 
world.  It  is  a  very  ancient  custom  to  show  gratitude  to  the 
benefactors  of  humanity  by  elevating  them  to  the  rank  of 
gods.  As  a  rule  the  names  of  the  gods,  like  those  of  the  stars, 
are  borrowed  from  men  ;  for  how  could  there  be  a  list  of 
celestial  names  ?  Can  it  be  believed  that  the  supreme  power, 
whatever  it  be,  takes  thought  for  human  affairs  ?  would  it  not 


Religion  89 

be  degraded  by  so  melancholy  and  complicated  a  task  ?  How 
can  we  decide  whether  it  be  more  profitable  for  the  human 
race  to  hold  this  belief  or  not,  when  we  see  that  some  take  no 
heed  of  the  gods,  while  others  live  in  awe  of  them  or  are  the 
slaves  of  disgraceful  superstition  ?  To  make  the  idea  of  the 
divinity  still  more  uncertain,  mankind  has  invented  a  power 
intermediate  between  two  opposite  conceptions  of  it.  This  is 
Fortune,  the  ever-shifting,  wandering,  inconstant,  uncertain, 
changing,  generally  regarded  as  blind,  the  patroness  of  the 
unworthy ;  consequently,  chance  ^  itself  is  honoured  as  a 
goddess.  Others  reject  even  this  principle,  and  assign  all 
events  to  their  constellations,  and  believe  that  the  decrees 
of  the  divinity  are  issued  irrevocably  once  for  all.  This 
view  has  begun  to  gain  ground,  and  is  eagerly  approved 
of  by  a  large  number  of  persons,  both  learned  and  unlearned. 
Hence  belief  in  countless  portents  embarrasses  mankind,  de- 
prived of  insight  into  the  future,  and  the  only  thing  certain 
is,  that  there  is  nothing  certain,  and  that  no  creature  exists 
that  is  more  arrogant  and  at  the  same  time  more  pitiable  than 
man.  Other  creatures  know  no  wants  but  those  which  kindly 
nature  of  itself  supplies,  and  never  think  of  death.  But  un- 
doubtedly belief  in  the  guidance  of  human  affairs  by  the  gods 
is  beneficial  to  society,  as  also  the  conviction  that  evil  deeds 
are  infallibly  punished,  even  if  tardily,  owing  to  the  numerous 
claims  upon  the  deity  ;  and  that  man  cannot  have  been 
created  next  to  God  in  order  to  be  degraded  to  the  level  of 
the  brutes.  But  even  God  cannot  do  everything  ;  herein  lies 
a  special  comfort  for  man  in  his  imperfect  state.  Even  if  he 
so  desired,  he  cannot  inflict  death  upon  himself,  the  greatest 
blessing  that  nature  has  bestowed  upon  man  amidst  the  many 
evils  of  life  ;  he  cannot  grant  mortals  immortality,  or  recall 
the  dead  to  life  ;  he  cannot  bring  it  to  pass  that  one  who  has 
lived  has  not  lived,  or  that  one  who  has  filled  offices  has  not 
filled  them  ;  he  has  no  power  generally  over  the  past  except 
to  cause  it  to  be  forgotten  ;  and  (to  use  a  less  serious  illustra- 
tion) he  cannot  make  twice  ten  not  twenty,  and  the  like. 
Hence  the  might  of  nature  is  indisputably  proved,  and  is  shown 
to  be  that  which  we  call  God.  Such  are  the  opinions  of  Pliny. 
If  the  negation  of  the  popular  belief  in  most  cases  was  di- 
rectly or  indirectly  an  effect  of  philosophical  influences,  there 

1  Reading  Fors  for  Sors, 


go  Religion 

were  also  philosophical  tendencies  with  which  it  was  not 
merely  completely  reconcilable,  but  which  even  served  to 
support  it.  Stoicism,  which  perhaps  exercised  a  wider  in- 
fluence than  any  other  system  at  that  time,  endeavoured  to 
reconcile  faith  and  philosophy  in  its  theology,  and  to  justify 
the  popular  religion  scientifically  by  distinguishing  the  highest 
God,  the  creator  and  autocrat  of  subordinate  gods,  the 
divine  power  considered  as  a  unity  pervading  the  All,  from  their 
countless  manifestations  and  their  effects,  and  further  assumed 
'  demons  '  as  beings  intermediate  between  gods  and  men. 
Everything,  says  Epictetus,  is  full  of  gods  and  demons.  The 
offensive  aspects  of  legendary  tradition  were  removed  by 
ingenious  allegorical  interpretations.  In  addition.  Stoic  theo- 
logy recognized  continuous  revelations  of  the  divine  powers 
in  the  form  of  oracles,  portents  and  the  like  ;  it  may  therefore 
be  assumed  that  a  large  number  of  the  followers  of  the  Stoa 
adhered  more  or  less  strictly  to  the  traditional  belief,  and  that 
educated  men  like  Marcus  Aurehus,  who  would  not  live  in  a 
world  without  gods,  preferred  this  school  to  all  others,  since  it 
ofl[ered  a  solution  of  the  conflict  between  faith  and  reason. 

Consequently,  even  in  the  first  century,  those  who  had 
received  a  philosophical  education  were  not  altogether  hostile 
to  the  popular  religion.  And  although  the  literature  of  the 
period,  like  that  of  the  eighteenth  century,  is  dominated  by 
tendencies  hostile  to  belief,  they  did  retain  their  influence 
beyond  the  century.  The  tide  of  the  anti-Christian  tendencies 
of  the  eighteenth  century,  after  it  had  risen  to  its  greatest 
height,  sank  rapidly  and  was  succeeded  by  a  powerful  ebb, 
which  irresistibly  carried  along  with  it  a  great  part  of  the 
educated  world.  Similarly,  in  the  Graeco-Roman  world,  we 
find  the  predominating  tendencies  of  the  literature  of  the  first 
century  succeeded  by  a  strong  reaction  in  the  direction  of 
positive  belief,  which  gained  the  upper  hand  and  affected  the 
same  circles  ;  at  the  same  time,  belief  itself  frequently  de- 
generated in  many  respects  into  crass  superstition,  a  yearning 
for  the  miraculous,  pietism  and  fanaticism. 

The  development  of  the  theory  of  '  demons ',  also  adopted 
by  the  Stoics  and  eminently  characteristic  of  the  religious 
tendencies  of  the  period,  by  the  Platonists  after  the  first  cen- 
tury, is  the  most  striking  proof  of  the  need  of  bringing  the 
popular  belief  into  harmony  with  a  purer  theology— a  need 


Religion  91 

more  deeply  and  generally  felt  by  the  educated  classes  than 
ever  before.  The  idea  of  this  '  intermediate  kingdom '  of 
demons,  founded  upon  the  old  Orphico-Pythagorean  tradition, 
was  developed  in  such  a  manner  that  philosophers  who  be- 
lieved '  accepted  the  substitution  of  demons  for  popular  gods, 
in  all  cases  in  which  anything  was  asserted  of  the  latter  which 
was  considered  irreconcilable  with  the  pure  idea  of  God,  while 
not  desirous  of  absolutely  denying  it  on  that  account ' . 

Although  this  offered  the  widest  scope  to  imagination,  the 
Platonists  of  the  second  century  are  completely  in  agreement 
upon  all  the  essential  points  of  demonology,which  they  regarded 
with  marked  favour  ;  evidently  the  theory  had  already  gained 
a  kind  of  dogmatic  authority  amongst  the  believers  of  the 
educated  world.  Plutarch  says  :  Those  who  have  discovered 
the  existence  of  a  race  of  demons,  beings  intermediate  between 
gods  and  men,  who  unite  both  and  keep  up  the  connexion 
between  them,  have  solved  more  and  greater  difficulties  by 
this  doctrine  (whether  it  originates  from  the  school  of  Zoro- 
aster, from  Orpheus,  from  Egypt  or  Phrygia)  than  Plato  by  his 
theory  of  matter.  According  to  Plutarch's  view,  any  of  the 
three  lower  classes  of  intelligent  beings,  in  proportion  as  they 
attain  perfection,  can  rise  to  the  next  higher,  and  finally  to 
the  highest  class  ;  the  souls  of  the  best  men  can  become 
heroes,  the  heroes  demons,  and  individual  demons  (such  as 
Isis  and  Osiris)  gods.  For  in  the  triple  order  of  powers  that 
are  the  agents  of  Providence  the  demons  come  last.  The 
highest  power  is  the  intellect  and  will  of  the  original  divinity, 
creator  and  orderer  of  the  universe  from  the  beginning  ;  next 
to  him,  the  gods  of  heaven,  the  general  directors  of  human 
affairs  ;  and,  lastly,  the  demons,  special  '  guardians  and  over- 
seers '.  Differing  from  other  Platonists,  Plutarch  regards  the 
demons  as  not  necessarily  immortal  ;  he  relates  as  an  un- 
doubted fact,  personally  vouched  for  by  a  trustworthy  autho- 
rity, how  the  news  of  the  death  of  the  great  Pan  was  received 
by  his  fellow-demons  with  loud  lamentations  ;  the  learned 
men  at  the  court  of  Tiberius  interpreted  this  as  referring  to 
Pan,  the  son  of  Hermes  and  Penelope.  The  demons  are 
capable  of  likes  and  dislikes,  and  also  liable  to  be  affected  by 
evil ;  the  traditional  stories  of  abduction,  wandering,  con- 
cealment, banishment  and  menial  service  that  are  told  of  the 
gods,  the  sufferings  of  Isis  and  Osiris  and  the  like,  in  reality 


92  Religion 

do  not  refer  to  the  gods,  but  to  the  demons.  The  latter  are 
called  by  the  name  of  the  gods  with  whom  they  are  associated, 
and  are  thus  confounded  with  them  ;  some,  however,  have 
retained  their  real  name.  The  evil  and  malignant  demons 
rejoice  in  gloomy,  mournful  rites,  and  if  these  are  accorded 
them  they  abstain  from  further  mischief  ;  the  good  and  kindly, 
as  Plato  has  already  taught,  act  as  messengers  and  interpreters, 
who  carry  upwards  to  the  gods  the  prayers  and  wishes  of 
mankind,  and  bring  down  to  earth  oracles  and  divine  blessings. 
Consequently  the  demons  often  descend  from  the  regions  of 
the  moon  to  administer  oracles,  to  take  part  in  the  celebration 
of  the  highest  mysteries,  to  punish  crimes,  to  bring  deliver- 
ance in  war  and  perils  by  sea  ;  if  in  so  doing  they  allow  them- 
selves to  be  influenced  by  anger,  partiality  or  jealousy,  they 
are  punished  by  being  hurled  down  to  earth  again  and  trans- 
ferred to  human  bodies. 

Quite  in  the  same  sense  Apuleius  and  Maximus  of  Tyre 
represent  the  demons  as  mediators  between  the  world  of  gods 
and  men.  According  to  the  former,  their  bodies  are  neither 
earthy  nor  purely  ethereal,  but  something  between  the  two. 
Hence  it  is  only  exceptionally  and  of  their  own  will  that  they 
are  visible  to  men,  like  the  Homeric  Minerva  to  Achilles.  The 
poets  truly  represent  these  demons  as  lovers  and  haters  of 
men,  whom  they  favour  or  injure.  Hence  they  feel  pity, 
indignation,  joy  and  sorrow,  and  are  subject  to  all  human 
emotions  generally,  all  of  which  are  quite  incompatible  with 
the  eternally  unchangeable  tranquillity  of  the  gods  of  heaven, 
Apuleius  also  explains  differences  of  cult  and  sacrifice  by 
differences  of  '  sensual  '  impressionability,  in  accordance 
with  their  nature,  they  delight  in  daily  or  nightly,  public  or 
secret,  cheerful  or  gloomy  sacrifices  and  rites  ;  thus  the 
Egyptian  demons  take  pleasure  in  dirges,  the  Greek  in  dances, 
the  barbarian  in  noisy  music.  Hence  the  great  diversity  in 
the  forms  of  religious  worship  in  different  lands  :  processions, 
mysteries,  sacerdotal  acts,  prayers  of  those  offering  sacrifice, 
images  and  attributes  of  the  gods,  position  and  usages  of 
temples,  blood  and  colour  of  the  victims.  All  these  have  their 
importance  according  to  the  custom  of  each  country,  and  we 
often  learn  by  dreams,  prophecies  and  oracles  that  the  deities 
(i.e.  the  demons)  are  wrath  if  anything  in  their  worship  is 
neglected  through  carelessness  or  arrogance. 


Religion  93 

With  the  exception  of  a  few  downright  atheists,  says  Maxi- 
mus  of  Tyre,  all  mankind  is  united  in  belief  in  one  God.  the 
king  and  father  of  all,  and  in  many  gods,  his  children  and 
fellow-rulers  ;  the  latter  are  not  30,000  in  number,  as  Hesiod 
says,  but  as  numerous  as  the  natures  of  the  stars  in  heaven, 
or  as  the  demoniacal  essences  in  aether.  These  divine  beings, 
some  visible,  others  invisible,  share  the  sovereignty  of  the 
highest  god  ;  those  most  akin  to  him  gather  round  his  gates 
as  domestics  and  companions  of  his  table,  and  serve  him  as 
messengers  ;  others  are  subservient  to  these  ;  others  again 
play  a  still  more  subordinate  part.  Thus  a  continuous  hier- 
archy of  superhuman  beings  keeps  up  the  connexion  between 
the  human  and  the  divine,  and  the  subordinate  gods  (the 
demons)  act  as  interpreters  and  mediators  between  human 
weakness  and  divine  sovereignty.  '  It  is  they  who  appear^to 
men,  speak  to  them,  associate  with  them,  and  render  them 
the  assistance  which  human  nature  always  needs  from  heaven.' 
'  They  heal  sicknesses,  give  advice  in  trouble,  reveal  what  is 
hidden,  give  help  in  work  and  guidance  on  the  road  ;  some 
exercise  their  power  in  the  towns,  others  in  the  country,  some 
on  land,  others  on  sea  ;  others  are  protecting  spirits  of  in- 
dividuals ;  some  are  terrible,  others  benevolent  to  man,  fond 
of  civil  life  or  war  ;  the  natures  of  demons  are  as  numerous 
as  the  natures  of  men  .'  To  these  belong  in  particular  human 
souls  separated  from  the  body,  who  are  unwilling  to  abandon 
their  earthly  desires  and  occupations  even  in  a  higher  exist- 
ence ;  thus  Asclepius  still  practises  the  healing  art,  Heracles 
performs  deeds  of  might,  Dionysus  continues  his  revels,  Am- 
philochus  prophesies,  the  Dioscuri  journey  on  sea,  Minos  ad- 
ministers justice,  Achilles  arms  himself.  Maximus  declares 
that  he  himself  has  seen  the  Dioscuri,  like  shining  stars,  guid- 
ing a  storm-tossed  ship,  and  that  Asclepius  appeared  to  him, 
not  in  a  dream,  but  when  he  was  awake.  This  makes  it  easy 
to  understand  how  opponents  of  Christianity  like  Celsus  re- 
fused to  see  any  difference  between  the  demons  and  angels  of 
Christian  and  Jewish  belief.  Thus  the  theory  of  demons 
enabled  the  pious  to  hold  firmly  by  the  popular  belief  in  its 
widest  extent,  without  coming  into  collision  with  the  demands 
of  reason,  and  even  in  its  literal  sense,  without  having  recourse 
to  the  violent  and  artificially  allegorical  interpretations  of  the 
Stoics,  which  were  regarded  with  suspicion  by  the  strictly 


91  Religion 

orthodox.  In  this  roundabout  way  a  large  number  of  edu- 
cated people  returned  to  the  '  legends  and  marvellous  stories 
which  seemed  to  have  been  finally  disposed  of  by  criticism, 
and,  according  to  Strabo,  were  only  necessary  for  the  masses 
and  the  female  sex.  The  search  for  and  discovery  of  such  a 
compromise  between  the  popular  religion  and  a  more  rational 
theology  presupposes  a  widespread,  indestructible  attachment 
to  the  gods  amongst  the  philosophically  educated,  an  earnest 
longing  to  find  satisfaction  in  the  positive  belief  of  former 
times  which  no  abstraction,  however  sublime,  could  afford. 

This  is  fully  confirmed  by  the  general  impression  produced 
by  Greek  and  Roman  literature  in  the  second  century,  in  which 
the  religious  standpoint  of  the  educated  world  is  reflected. 
Amongst  Roman  writers,  Juvenal  and  the  younger  Pliny  seem 
to  have  followed  the  Stoics  most  closely,  both  in  general  and 
in  their  religious  views  in  particular  ;  Pliny's  strong  belief  in 
dreams  and  prognostics  corroborates  this.  We  also  know  that 
both  took  part  in  religious  worship  ;  Juvenal,  in  fulfilment  of 
a  vow,  offered  a  dedication  to  Ceres  Helvina,  who  was  wor- 
shipped in  his  native  town  Aquinum  ;  Pliny  had  a.  temple 
built.  Tacitus  struggled  against  grievous  doubts,  although 
(as  already  noticed)  he  never  entirely  broke  away  from 
religious  belief.  Suetonius'  childish  faith  in  portents  and 
miracles  leaves  no  doubt  as  to  the  firmness  of  his  belief  in  the 
gods.  In  the  case  of  Gellius,  to  judge  from  his  general  intel- 
lectual tendencies  and  those  of  his  teachers  in  Greece,  it  may 
at  least  be  considered  probable  that  he  strictly  adhered  to 
tradition  in  the  matter  of  belief  ;  Fronto,  who  when  Faustina 
was  ill  prayed  every  morning  to  the  gods  and  asked  and 
received  from  them  in  dreams  suggestions  for  curing  the  gout, 
undoubtedly  did  so.  The  Self-Contemplations  of  Marcus  Aure- 
lius  breathe  a  spirit  of  genuine  piety  ;  the  writings  of  Apuleius 
are  pervaded  by  a  mystic  religious  bliss  ;  Aelian  endeavoured 
by  his  own  works  to  propagate  his  orthodoxy  and  infatuation 
for  miracles,  with  which  was  combined  a  passionate  hatred  of 

unbelief. 

;  But  the  Greek  literature  of  the  second  century,  far  more 
than  the  Roman,  bears  the  stamp  of  a  period  whose  intellectual 
conditions  were  characterized  by  a  newly  awakened  religious 
life.  Amongst  the  Greek  writers  of  this  time,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  Lucian,  only  Galen,  with  his  pantheism  founded  on 


Religion  95 

Stoic  ideas,  stands  aloof  from  the  popular  belief  ;    love,  he 
says  for  example,  is  a  purely  human  affection,  and  is  not 
brought  about  by  a  little  youthful  demon  with  burning  torches. 
Dio  of  Prusa  is  far  nearer  to  the  popular  belief  with  his  un- 
doubting  faith  in  the  divinity  (and  apparently  in  individual 
gods)  and  a  providence  exercised  by  him  ;   he  was  even  con- 
vinced that  those  who  held  reprehensible  opinions  on  divine 
things  were  of  necessity  worthless  and  abandoned  creatures. 
The  pantheism  of  Epictetus  also  accepted  polytheism,  and  his 
pupil  Arrian  appears  to  have  adhered  to  the  popular  religion. 
All  the  other  writers  take  their  stand  on  a  distinctly  positive 
belief  in  the  gods,  however  different  in  form  and  conception  in 
each  individual  case.     Plutarch  did  not  consider  it  advisable 
to  inquire  into  reasons  for  belief  in  the  gods  ;    the  old  belief 
inherited  from  their  fathers  was  a  sufficient  foundation  for 
piety  ;  should  it  be  shaken,  its  stability  would  be  endangered. 
Further,  there  was  hardly  any  limit  to  his  belief  in  miracles, 
although  he  warns  people  against  excessive  credibility,  and 
attempts  a  semi-rationalistic  explanation  of  such  marvels  as 
the  sweating,  sighing  and  bleeding  of  images  of  the  gods,  and 
their  speaking  with  human  voice.     Yet  he  asserts  that  divine 
nature  is  so  entirely  different  from  human,  that  it  is  not  un- 
reasonable to  expect  it  to  perform  what  is  impossible  for  man. 
Pausanias'  simple  and   orthodox  faith,  certainly  sincere,  even 
if  deliberately  adopted  and  artificially  maintained  ;    Artemi- 
dorus'   unshakable  belief  in  miracles  ;     Maximus  of    Tyre's 
crass  supernaturalism  ;  Aristides'  enthusiasm,  almost  amount- 
ing to  religious  fanaticism — all  agree  in  belief  in  a  providence 
wonderfully  exercised  by  numerous  individual  gods.     Only  a 
widespread  blind  belief  and  childish  superstition  could  call 
forth  the  anti-religious  writings  of  Lucian,  whose  indefatigable 
and  repeated  attacks  could  not  be  considered  as  merely  '  a 
fight  with  shadows  ' .     Still  less  does  the  fact  that  Lucian  was 
not  subjected  to  persecution  allow  us  to  infer  a  general  in- 
difference to  the  religion  which  he  ridiculed.     Although  his 
ridicule  no  doubt  deeply  wounded  the  religious  feeling  of  the 
orthodox,  it  could  not  appear  so  deserving  of  condemnation 
to  them  as  the  mockery  of  a  religion  based  upon  revelation 
must  appear  to  those  who  believe  in  it.     In  paganism  there 
were  not  only  no  dogmas,  but  not  even  a  church,  which  might 
have  interfered  to  protect  the  threatened  faith  against  its 


g6  Religion 

aggressors.  Certainly  Parny's  Guerre  des  Dieux,  which  sur- 
passes Lucian's  Dialogues  of  (he  Gods  both  in  wit  and  in  cynical 
mockery  of  all  that  is  most  sacred,  appeared  (1799)  in  France 
before  the  restoration  of  Catholicism,  but  no  attempt  was 
subsequently  made  to  suppress  it ;  its  author  became  a 
member  of  the  Academic  franQaise  in  1803,  and  died  in  1814 
without  having  been  subjected  to  persecution. 

The  emperors  of  the  second  century  also  were  evidently 
under  the  influence  of  the  prevailing  intellectual  tendency, 
and  on  their  part  encouraged  it  by  their  example  and  their 
earnest  solicitude  for  religion.  Pliny  praises  Trajan  because 
he  did  not,  like  Domitian,  claim  to  be  honoured  like  a  god, 
but  only  entered  the  temples  of  the  gods  to  worship  them. 
Hadrian,  even  in  the  opinion  of  a  man  of  such  exaggerated  pre- 
tensions in  this  respect  as  Pausanias,  showed  great  zeal  in  his 
veneration  for  the  gods.  Antoninus  Pius  never  allowed  a 
sacrifice  to  be  performed  by  a  deputy  ;  a  memorial  set  up  in 
his  honour  in  143  by  senate  and  people  is  dedicated  to  him 
'  by  reason  of  his  unusual  and  scrupulous  conscientiousness  in 
regard  to  the  usages  of  the  state  religion'.  Marcus  Aurelius 
strove  in  every  respect  to  follow  the  example  of  his  predecessor, 
especially  his  piety  and  freedom  from  superstition,  that  he 
might  be  able  to  meet  death  with  an  equally  clear  conscience. 
He  himself,  who  did  not  care  to  live  in  a  world  without  gods, 
appears  to  have  recognized  the  gods  of  all  nations  as  equally 
powerful  and  equally  worthy  of  reverence.  When  the  war 
against  the  Marcomanni  broke  out  he  summoned  priests  from 
all  countries  to  Rome  and  ordered  them  to  perform  foreign 
rites  ;  during  the  war,  by  direction  of  an  oracle  of  Alexander 
of  Abonutcichos,  two  lions  were  thrown  alive  into  the  Danube 
by  his  orders.  He  was  so  extravagant  in  offering  sacrifice 
that  a  message  from  the  white  oxen  was  sent  to  him  :  '  If 
thou  shouldst  conquer,  we  are  lost !  ' 

The  nature  of  the  newly  awakened  religious  life  of  the 
second  century  must  here  be  illustrated  by  a  few  specially 
characteristic  phenomena,  which  will  enable  us  to  recognize  to 
what  an  extent  religious  belief  was  strengthened.  Claudius 
Aelianus  of  Praeneste,  about  the  beginning  of  the  third  cen- 
tury, wrote  two  works  in  Greek  on  Providence  and  Divine 
Manifestations,  the  spirit  of  which  may  be  gathered  from 
numerous  fragments.     He  endeavoured  to  prove  '  that  those 


Religion  97 

who  assert  that  the  deity  does  not  exercise  providence  on 
earth  are  more  foolish  than  children  '  by  numerous  stories  of 
miracles,  oracles  and  other  direct  revelations  of  divine  power, 
especially  miraculous  rewards  bestowed  upon  pious  believers, 
or  terrible  and  miraculous  punishments  of  atheists  and  un- 
believers. In  these  narratives  he  frequently  apostrophizes 
those  who  despise  religion :  '  What  do  you  say  to  this,  you 
who  think  that  Providence  gropes  blindly  about,  or  is  nothing 
but  a  myth  ?  '  Philosophers  hostile  to  religion  are  by  turns 
objects  of  pity  and  execration  :  '  O  Xenophanes,  Diagoras, 
Hippo,  Epicurus  and  company,  and  all  other  miserable  wretches 
hated  of  the  gods,  be  ye  accursed  !  ' 

A  few  specimens  will  give  an  idea  how  the  insipid  and 
unctuous  language  affects  the  pious  simplicity  of  the  good 
old  days.  '  Euphronius  was  a  miserable  fellow,  who  delighted 
in  the  gossip  of  Epicurus,  which  taught  him  atheism  and 
wickedness.'  This  man  had  a  severe  attack  of  pneumonia, 
and,  suffering  greatly,  at  first  called  in  the  aid  of  a  physician. 
But  the  art  of  the  physician  could  do  nothing  to  arrest  the 
disease.  When  Euphronius  began  to  fear  the  worst,  his  friends 
removed  him  to  the  temple  of  Asclepius.  After  he  had  fallen 
asleep  there,  it  seemed  to  him  that  one  of  the  priests  told  him 
that  there  was  only  one  way  of  salvation  and  one  remedy  for 
the  ills  which  oppressed  him  ;  he  must  bum  the  writings  of 
Epicurus,  knead  the  ashes  of  these  godless,  sinful  and  effemi- 
nate books  with  m.oist  wax,  smear  his  belly  and  breast  there- 
with, and  tie  bandages  round  them.  He  told  all  that  he  had 
heard  to  his  nearest  relatives,  who  were  full  of  joy,  because  he 
had  not  been  rejected  with  contempt  by  the  god.  Thus  the 
atheist  was  converted  and  was  ever  afterwards  a  model  of 
piety  for  others.  This  book  contained  numerous  instances  of 
wonderful  cures  of  both  pious  and  godless  men,  accompanied 
by  edifying  remarks.  '  Aristarchus  of  Tegea,  the  tragic  poet, 
fell  ill  and  was  cured  by  Asclepius,  who  commanded  him  to 
bring  a  thank-offering.  The  poet  brought  the  god  the  play 
named  after  him.  But  how  can  the  gods  demand  and  accept 
a  reward  for  restoring  a  man  to  health  ?  In  their  love  and 
kindness  they  grant  us  the  greatest  blessings  for  nothing  ; 
they  allow  us  to  see  the  sun  and  to  share  the  all-sufficing 
brightness  of  so  mighty  a  god  without  reward  ;  they  give  us 
the  use  of  water  and  the  countless  productions  and  varied 

R.L.M. III.  H 


98  Religion 

assistance  of  fire  to  aid  us  in  our  work,  and  the  vital  nourish- 
ment of  air.  Consequently  their  only  wish  is  that  we  should 
not  be  unmindful  or  ungrateful  even  in  less  important  matters, 
and  thereby,  in  fact,  they  make  us  better.' 

The  following  story  of  a  game-cock  of  Tanagra,  which  had 
been  injured  in  one  foot,  may  serve  to  show  to  what  childish 
credulity  this  mania  for  miracles  could  lead.  '  The  cock,  in 
my  opinion  impelled  by  Asclepius,  came  hopping  on  one  leg 
to  his  master,  and  in  the  morning  when  a  hymn  of  praise  was 
being  sung  to  the  god  he  took  a  place  in  the  choir  as  if  it  had 
been  assigned  him  by  the  leader,  and  joined  in  the  singing  as 
well  as  he  could,  in  perfect  harmony  with  the  rest.  Standing 
on  one  leg,  he  held  out  the  other,  injured  and  mutilated,  as  if 
to  show  what  he  had  suffered.  Then  he  sang  to  his  saviour 
with  all  his  might  and  begged  him  to  restore  the  use  of  his 
foot.'  Having  been  healed  in  accordance  v/ith  a  revelation 
of  the  god,  '  he  flapped  his  wings,  strutted  about,  lifted  up 
his  head,  shook  his  crest  like  a  proud  warrior,  and  showed 
that  Providence  also  watched  over  the  brute  creation  '.  In 
contrast  with  the  stories  of  salvation  as  the  result  of  faith,  we 
find  examples  of  the  terrible  consequences  of  unbelief  and  sin 
against  the  gods.  A  man,  who  '  with  longing  eyes  '  desired 
to  look  upon  certain  mysteries  without  having  been  initiated, 
climbed  to  the  top  of  a  stone,  fell  down  from  it  and  died. 
Another  unhappy  wretch,  enervated  by  the  doctrines  of 
Epicurus,  forced  his  way  into  the  sanctuary  of  the  temple  at 
Eleusis,  which  no  one  but  the  hierophant  might  enter  ;  as  a 
punishment  he  was  smitten  by  a  fearful  malady,  and  endured 
such  dreadful  torments  that  he  longed  to  tear  his  accursed  soul 
from  his  body.  Sulla,  who  destroyed  the  temple  of  Athena 
at  Alalcomenae,  was  slowly  eaten  by  worms  ('  according  to 
others,  by  lice  ').  Lastly,  a  Sculptor,  '  who  had  eyes  for  gain 
only,  not  for  piety  ',  having  received  a  sum  of  money  to 
execute  the  statue  of  a  god,  produced  a  second-rate  work, 
small  and  unsightly,  in  marble  of  inferior  quality  ;  he  was 
afterwards  punished  in  body,  '  as  an  example  to  all  and  a 
warning  never  to  do  the  like  again  for  the  sake  of  profit '. 

Aelian  was  also  the  author  of  a  History  of  Animals,  in  which 
'  the  unerring  instinct  of  the  lower  animals  as  a  purer  mani- 
festation of  nature  is  held  up  to  mankind  as  a  moral  example  '. 
Elephants  worship  the  sun,  stretching  out  their  trunks  to  it, 


Religion  99 

like  hands,  when  it  rises  ;  but  men  doubt  whether  there  are 
gods,  or,  if  they  exist,  whether  they  have  any  care  for  us. 
The  mice  on  an  island  in  the  Black  Sea  sacred  to  Heracles 
touch  nothing  which  is  dedicated  to  him  ;  when  the  grapes 
intended  for  his  offerings  are  ripe  they  leave  the  island  to 
escape  the  temptation  of  nibbling  them,  and  do  not  return 
till  the  vintage  is  over.  Hippo,  Diagoras,  Herostratus  and 
the  other  enemies  of  religion  would  certainly  no  more  spare 
these  grapes  than  anything  else  which  is  dedicated  to  the  gods. 
In  another  work  Aelian  praises  the  barbarians,  who  have  not 
become  alienated  from  the  faith  by  excessive  education  like 
the  Greeks  ;  amongst  the  Indians,  Celts  and  Egyptians  there 
are  no  atheists  like  Euhemerus,  Epicurus,  and  Diagoras. 

If  the  writings  of  Aelian  acquaint  us  with  the  most  extreme 
and  unbending,   indeed  fanatical,   orthodoxy  of    the  pagan 
world,  the  confessions  of  the  rhetorician  Publius  Aelius  Aris- 
tides  of  Asia  Minor,  a  man  ranked  by  his  contemporaries  and 
posterity  amongst  the  greatest  intellects  of  his  time,  afford 
remarkable  evidence  of  the  intensity  which  religious  exaltation 
could    attain,  when  subject  to  special  influences.     Aristides, 
who  was  born  about  the  year  129,  came  of  a  wealthy  and 
distinguished  family,  and  was  the  son  of  a  priest  of  Zeus  ; 
ailing  from  his  youth,  he  early  devoted  himself  with  passionate 
eagerness  to  study.     The  nervous  irritability  of  his  delicate 
nature  was  fostered  and  heightened  by  excessive  work  and 
the  excitement  inseparable  from  the  profession  of  sophist, 
which  was  more  than  any  other  adapted  to  develop  most 
strongly  his  natural  vanity  and  ambition.     About  152  he  was 
attacked  by  an  illness,  which  lasted  about  twenty  years,  of 
which  he  has  given  a  detailed  account  in  the  Sacred  Orations, 
composed  after  his  recovery  (about  175).     During  this  illness 
he  developed  a  spirit  of  enthusiastic  piety,  which  in  course  of 
time  became  concentrated  upon  a  more  and  more  exclusive 
veneration  for  the  healing  god  Asclepius,  compared  with  whom 
he  regarded  the  rest  of  the  gods  as  insignificant.     Having 
frequented  his  temples  and  the  society  of  his  priests  for  years 
in  the  endeavour  to  find  a  cure  for  his  disease,  he  thought  of 
nothing  else,  whether  awake  or  sleeping  ;    for,  in  accordance 
with  the  general  belief,  the  god  gave  advice  in  dreams  to  those 
who  sought  his  aid  and  passed  the  night  in  his  temple.     From 
that  time  the  centre  of  Aristides'  entire  existence  was  his 


loo  Religion 

dreams,  which  the  god  had  commanded  him  to  set  down  in 
writing.  For  Aris tides  the  fulfilment  of  this  command  was  a 
sacred  duty  ;  when  he  was  too  weak  to  write,  he  dictated  to 
others.  Of  course  he  followed  all  the  instructions,  even  the 
most  absurd,  which  he  believed  to  have  been  given  him  in 
dreams,  whereby  he  probably  only  aggravated  his  complaint  ; 
he  confesses  that  he  grew  weaker  and  weaker.  Sometimes 
he  imagined  himself  neither  asleep  nor  awake,  but  between  the 
two,  in  which  condition  he  was  corporeally  conscious  of  the 
proximity  of  the  god  ;  his  hair  stood  on  end,  his  eyes  filled 
with  tears  of  delight,  and  his  heart  swelled  with  pride — a 
state  of  mind  which  no  one  could  describe,  which  the  initiated 
alone  know  and  understand.  Amongst  other  things,  the  god 
ordered  him  to  bathe  in  the  river  during  the  winter,  in  spite 
of  frost  and  the  north  wind.  After  his  bath  he  felt  a  wonderful 
relief  :  '  his  temperature  was  even  and  natural  ;  a  gentle  warmth 
invigorated  his  entire  body  ;  he  had  an  indescribable  feeling 
of  comfort,  in  which  everything  gave  way  to  the  sensations  of 
the  moment  ;  he  saw  nothing,  although  his  eyes  were  open  ; 
he  was  absolutely  with  God  '.  However  terrible  his  sufferings, 
he  regarded  them  as  nothing  in  comparison  with  the  honour 
of  which  the  god  had  deemed  him  worthy  ;  any  one  who 
rightly  estimated  it  would  consider  that  he  deserved  to  be 
congratulated  rather  than  commiserated. 

Although  the  religious  extravagance  of  Aristides  is  most 
intimately  connected  with  his  exaggerated  pride,  his  state- 
ments remind  us  in  more  than  one  respect  of  the  confessions 
of  Christian  pietists.  We  may  refer  to  his  continual  self- 
contemplation,  his  self-exaltation  and  self-deception,  his  fixed 
idea  that  he  was  the  recipient  of  special  favour  and  that  he 
was  one  of  the  god's  elect,  and  the  spiritual  presumption 
which  was  the  inevitable  result.  In  a  dream  he  saw  the  image 
of  the  god  with  three  heads,  entirely  surrounded  by  a  flame 
of  fire  (the  heads  excepted).  The  god  signed  to  all  the  other 
worshippers  to  withdraw,  but  ordered  him  to  remain.  The 
enraptured  Aristides  exclaimed,  '  O  thou  who  hast  no  like  ', 
meaning  the  god  ;  who  replied  :  '  It  is  thou  that  I  call  !  ' 
'  These  words,  O  lord  Asclepius,  are  better  than  all  human 
life  ;  all  my  sickness,  all  my  gratitude  are  nothing  to  them  ; 
they  give  me  power  to  do  what  I  will.'  In  another  passage 
he  says  :   '  I  also  was  one  of  those  upon  whom  the  grace  of  the 


Religion  loi 

god  bestowed,  not  once  but  many  times,  a  new  life  in  different 
forms,  and  who  therefore  regard  sickness  as  salutary.'  He 
would  not  exchange  what  the  god  had  granted  him  for  all  the 
so-called  happiness  of  mankind. 

Convinced  that  he  was  one  of  the  god's  elect,  he  saw  the 
hand  of  the  divinity  in  everything,  and  special  dispensations 
of  providence  and  miraculous  happenings  in  every-day  events. 
He  believed  that  the  god  accompanied  him  at  every  step, 
summoned,  dispatched  or  detained  him,  gave  him  commands 
and  commissions,  or  forbade  him  to  do  this  or  that.  When 
Smyrna  was  destroyed  by  an  earthquake,  he  writes  to  the 
two  emperors  that  it  was  the  god  that  drove  him  forth  from 
the  city  and  conducted  him  to  a  place  of  safety.  It  was  the 
god  who,  contrary  to  all  expectation,  saved  his  old  nurse 
Philumene,  whom  Aristides  dearly  loved,  on  numerous  occa- 
sions, once  from  a  serious  illness.  After  the  death  of  another 
Philumene,  the  daughter  of  his  foster-sister  Kallityche,  it  was 
revealed  to  him  in  a  dream  that  she  had  sacrificed  body  and 
soul  for  him.  Her  brother  Hermias  also,  the  dearest  of  his 
wards,  '  so  to  speak  nearly  died  for  him  '  ;  he  died,  as  Aristides 
afterwards  learnt,  on  the  very  day  on  which  he  recovered  from 
an  attack  of  the  great  epidemic  (subsequently  communicated 
to  the  west  by  the  soldiers  of  Verus) .  '  Thus  my  life  hitherto 
was  a  gift  from  the  gods,  by  whose  divine  aid  I  afterwards 
received  a  new  life,  as  compensation  for  the  old.'  At  that 
time  '  the  saviour  (Asclepius)  and  lady  Athene  had  visibly 
preserved  him '  ;  the  latter  had  appeared  to  him  in  the  form 
of  the  statue  of  Phidias,  a  sweet  perfume  was  wafted  from  her 
aegis,  he  alone  saw  her,  and  called  out  to  two  friends  and  his 
nurse,  who  were  present ;  they  thought  he  was  mad  until  they 
recognized  the  power  emanating  from  the  goddess  and  heard 
her  words,  as  he  had  done.  Monks  of  the  middle  ages,  who 
read  the  discourses  of  Aristides,  expressed  in  marginal  notes 
their  indignation  at  the  folly,  nay,  the  insanity  of  the  man, 
'  who  had  a  reputation  for  wisdom ' ,  and  yet  could  abandon 
himself  to  such  childish  fancies. 

The  religious  reaction  against  the  influences  of  criticism  and 
philosophy,  the  complete  restoration  of  a  positive  belief  in  the 
gods  in  the  minds  of  the  educated,  is  proved  by  the  pheno- 
mena already  described.  The  fact  itself  shows  that  the  lamen- 
tations over  the  supposed  decay  of  belief  were  only  caused  by 


I02  Religion 

the  superficial  and  strictly  limited  tendencies  of  the  age,  which 
were  driven  back  by  powerful  counter-tendencies.  But  there 
is  nothing  to  show  that  the  tendencies  hostile  to  religion,  even 
when  strongest,  ever  spread  beyond  the  narrow  limits  of  edu- 
cated circles.  To  all  appearance  they  never  made  a  deeper 
impression  on  the  masses  than  the  anti-Christian  literature 
of  the  eighteenth  century  on  the  Christian  belief  of  the  Euro- 
pean peoples  in  general. 

The  monotheistic,  pantheistic  and  atheistic  views  of  the 
world,  so  eloquently  pleaded  by  their  supporters  in  the  litera- 
ture of  the  first  century,  left  the  belief  of  the  people  in  the 
old  gods  firmly  rooted  in  the  spiritual  life  of  millions,  un- 
touched or  at  least  unshaken.  Despite  all  the  alterations  and 
developments,  all  the  losses,  disturbances  and  amplifications 
which  affected  religion,  it  held  its  ground  and  ever  renewed 
itself  in  its  two  main  forms.  The  first,  prevalent  in  eastern 
lands,  had  developed  within  the  Greek  world  ;  the  second, 
that  spread  over  north  and  west  as  far  as  the  influence  of 
Roman  civilization  extended,  had  its  origin  in  a  mixture  and 
fusion  of  Greek  and  Italian  elements  that  it  took  centuries  to 
complete.  In  both  forms  belief  in  the  gods  maintained  itself 
for  nearly  five  hundred  years  against  Christianity,  by  which 
it  was  finally  overwhelmed.  So  protracted  a  resistance  is 
alone  sufiicient  to  prove  the  still  unweakened  vitality  of  the 
old  belief.  This  vitality  is  equally  manifest  in  the  adoption 
and  assimilation  of  numerous  heterogeneous,  even  opposing 
religious  elements,  which,  however,  were  unable  to  alter  its 
character  or  to  bring  about  its  dissolution  or  decomposition. 
Lastly,  by  its  continued  creative  productivity  polytheism 
showed  that  it  was  still  a  living  force. 

Undoubtedly  the  adoption  en  masse  of  heterogeneous  re- 
ligious elements  has  been  generally  regarded  hitherto  as  a 
symptom  and  cause  of  the  decay  of  Graeco-Roman  religion. 
Such  a  view,  however,  would  only  be  justified  if  it  could  be 
proved  that  the  belief  in  the  old  gods  had  been  abolished, 
shaken,  or  essentially  changed  by  the  worship  of  new,  foreign 
deities.  No  such  effect  is  perceptible.  There  is  no  more 
reason  to  maintain  that  the  mere  increase  in  the  number  of 
the  divinities  of  a  polytheistic  system  presupposes  a  decline 
of  faith  or  a  weakening  of  its  intensity,  than  that  the  fresh 
canonizations  of  the  Catholic  Church  were  due  to  a  disappear- 


Religion  103 

ance  of  belief  in  the  old  saints,  or  that  they  were  in  any  way 
prejudicial  to  it.  Certainly  the  contrast  between  Oriental 
and  Graeco-Roman  cults  is  so  profound,  that  a  union  of  the 
two  is  difficult  to  understand.  To  our  way  of  thinking,  the 
former,  as  compared  with  the  latter,  appear  strange  and 
singular,  and  in  some  respects  monstrous  ;  and  the  contrast 
between  the  religious  ideas  on  which  cults  and  usages  are 
founded  in  the  two  cases  seems  even  greater.  Gloomy,  \ 
melancholy  and  mysterious  ceremonies,  extravagant  ecstasy, 
self-renunciation  and  unlimited  devotion  to  the  deity,  self- 
sacrifice  and  expiation  as  conditions  of  purification  and  con- 
secration— all  these  elements  were  originally  as  foreign  to 
Greek  and  Roman  belief  as  they  were  most  deeply  rooted  in 
all  Oriental  religions.  Most  sharply  contrasted  with  this,  and 
characteristic  of  Greek  and  Roman  faith  and  cult,  is  the  fixed 
limitation  of  the  idea  of  God,  the  clear  view  of  the  world  of 
gods,  the  relation  of  believers  to  the  divinity,  free  from  all 
excess,  confidential  and  strictly  regulated,  the  general  accessi- 
bility, unpretentious  simplicity,  and  cheerfulness  of  the  religi- 
ous services.  And  yet  Greek  and  Roman  believers  never 
found  these  profound  contrasts  an  absolute  hindrance  to 
amalgamation.  It  is  well  known  that  Orieiatal  elements 
made  their  way  into  Greek  religion  at  a  very  early  date  ;  into 
Rome  at  least  after  the  second  Punic  war.  If  such  was  the 
result  of  a  superficial  contact  of  nations,  their  intimate  union 
and  fusion  in  the  world-wide  empire  of  Rome  must  of  necessity 
have  resulted  in  a  mixture  of  gods  in  the  widest  extent,  un- 
accompanied, however,  by  any  alteration  in  the  nature  and 
intensity  of  religious  belief.  The  world  of  gods,  from  the  first 
to  the  last  days  of  paganism,  was  and  continued  to  be  a 
domain  only  very  imperfectly  known  to  believers,  since  the 
light  of  revelation  had  never  been  thrown  upon  it ;  the  belief 
that  it  could  contain  the  most  varied  figures  and  manifestations 
was  the  more  natural,  since  one  of  the  essential  attributes  of 
the  deity  was  the  power  of  assuming  any  form  at  will.  With 
this  unlimited  power  of  expansion  in  ancient  polytheism  was 
combined  the  tendency,  already  emphasized  to  a  surprising 
extent  in  Herodotus,  to  recognize  native  gods  in  foreign  ones. 
This  tendency  so  completely  dominated  pious  believers  that 
it  only  allowed  them  to  perceive  what  was  really  or  apparently 
similar  in  the  different  religions,  and  completely  blinded  them 
to  the  sharpest  and  most  glaring  contrasts. 


104  Religion 

It  was  ever  characteristic  of  ancient  polytheism  to  en- 
deavour to  supplement  its  own  imperfect  knowledge  of  God  by 
the  cults  of  foreign  nations  ;  in  Greece,  as  in  Rome,  entirely 
heterogeneous  cults  were  adopted  at  times  when  the  idea  of  a 
diminution  of  the  power  of  religious  belief  cannot  be  enter- 
tained. The  fact  that  this  was  less  frequently  the  case  in 
earlier  antiquity  is  clearly  not  to  be  explained  by  a  stronger 
national  belief  at  that  time,  but  by  the  more  restricted  inter- 
course between  nations.  As  such  intercourse  developed,  the 
exchange  of  cults  proportionately  increased  and  multiplied. 
The  ancient  world  and  its  polytheism  entered  upon  their  last 
phase  with  the  establishment  of  the  universal  empire  of  Rome. 
The  incessant  wanderings  and  movements,  the  continual  ebb 
and  flow  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  enormous  expanse  of  terri- 
tory, brought  about  an  unexampled  and  promiscuous  inter- 
mixture of  races  and  nations  with  their  religions  and  cults. 
From  the  Thames  to  Mount  Atlas,  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Euphrates,  all  the  provinces  contained  worshippers  of  Isis  and 
Osiris,  Baal,  Astarte  and  Mithras,  who  deliberately  or  by  their 
example  spread  the  worship  of  their  gods  ;  and  in  this  manner 
these  and  other  Asiatic  nature  divinities,  under  different  names 
and  with  different  forms  of  ritual,  gained  countless  proselytes. 
Memorials  have  been  found  relating  to  the  cult  of  the  so-called 
Jupiter  of  Doliche  in  Commagene,  a  sun-god  identical  with 
Bel,  worshipped  at  Palmyra,  in  Dacia,  Pannonia,  Noricum 
and  Raetia,  Germany  and  Gaul,  Britain,  Numidia  and  Dal- 
matia  ;  the  largest  number  is  in  Italy  (twenty-nine,  of  which 
twenty-one  were  found  in  Rome,  where  in  the  second  and 
third  century  this  god  had  a  sanctuary  on  the  Aventine  and 
another  on  the  Esquiline).  Throughout  the  Roman  empire 
the  cults  of  Egyptian  divinities  were  most  widely  spread  ;  they 
made  their  way  to  the  East  (where  their  monuments  are  most 
numerous,  especially  in  the  Crimea)  directly  from  Egypt,  to 
the  west  and  north  by  way  of  Italy  (especially  Aquilcia,  where 
a  district  was  called  after  Isis  and  Osiris).  Even  in  the  Rhine 
lands  they  are  frequently  mentioned  on  monuments.  A 
figure  of  Isis  in  Jura  limestone,  most  probably  belonging  to. 
the  first  century,  made  into  a  romanesque  capital  in  the  church 
of  St.  Ursula  at  Cologne,  perhaps  came  from  a  chapel  of  the 
goddess  in  that  city.  Egyptian  monuments  of  all  kinds, 
especially  statuettes  of   Apis,  Ushebtis  (little  models  of   de- 


Religion  105 

ceased  persons  in  the  form  of  mummies),  and  scarabs  found 
there  or  in  the  neighbourhood,  may  have  been  set  up  in  this  or 
other  sanctuaries,  in  order  to  give  them  an  appearance  of 
genuineness,  without  any  real  appreciation  0/  their  actual  A 
significance.  Altars  of  Isis  and  Serapis  have  come  to  light  in 
different  places  ;  the  gravestone  of  an  Egyptian  named  Horus, 
son  of  Pabek,  who  served  in  the  Roman  fleet,  at  Cologne. 
Chnodomar,  King  of  the  Alemanni  (defeated  by  the  Emperor 
Julian  in  357)  gave  his  son  Agenarich  the  name  of  Serapio 
because,  when  detained  as  a  hostage  in  Gaul,  he  had  been 
initiated  into  'Greek  secrets'  (i.e.  the  mysteries  of  Isis). 
These  cults  penetrated  into  the  most  remote  mountain  val- 
leys ;  in  the  Non  valley  in  the  southern  Tirol,  during  the 
festivals  of  Isis  and  Serapis,  the  mourning  of  the  goddess  for 
her  lost  spouse  was  represented. 

If  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  in  many  individual  cases  the 
new  cults  drove  the  old  into  the  background,  such  local  or 
individual  preference  for  certain  divinities  could  no  more  than 
at  any  other  time  effect  any  permanent  alteration  in  religious 
belief  as  a  whole.  Even  individuals  who,  as  a  rule,  did  not 
aspire  to  a  comprehensive  worship  of  the  entire  world  of  gods, 
but  confined  themselves  more  or  less  exclusively  to  certain 
particular  divinities,  could  very  well  combine  the  national  and 
foreign  cults  without  prejudice  to  the  former.  Domitian  was 
a  worshipper  of  Isis  and  Serapis,  to  whom  he  built  temples 
at  Rome  ;  according  to  Pliny,  even  at  his  table  his  guests 
were  struck  by  '  practices  due  to  foreign  superstition  ' .  Never- 
theless he  insisted  that  no  violation  of  the  traditional  worship 
should  go  unpunished  ;  and  Martial  says  that  during  his  reign 
the  honour  of  '  the  ancient  temples  '  was  preserved,  although 
the  emperor  himself  displayed  a  '  superstitious  veneration ' 
for  Minerva  before  all  other  divinities. 

The  constant  change  in  religious  conditions  was  accom- 
panied by  a  similar  change  in  the  idea  of  superstition,  by 
which  was  understood  an  erroneous  belief  chiefly  founded 
upon  an  exaggerated  awe  of  God,  but  especially  idolatry  and 
the  worship  of  foreign  divinities  not  considered  worthy  of 
recognition  by  the  state.  Hence  the  idea  of  superstition  must 
have  been  at  all  times  not  only  relative,  but  infinitely  varied, 
according  to  each  individual  conception  of  it.  The  worship 
of  the  Egyptian  divinities  was  forbidden  by  the  senate  in  58 


lo6  Religion 

B.C.  as  a  '  disgraceful  superstition  ',  and  their  altars  were  des- 
troyed ;  but  the  prohibition  had  no  more  efiEect  than  the 
repeated  interference  (in  53  and  48)  with  the  same  worship, 
which  at  that  time  had  already  made  its  way  to  the  Capital, 
or  the  banishment  of  the  deities  from  Rome  by  Agrippa  in 
21  B.C.  and  the  persecution  of  their  votaries  under  Tiberius 
in  19  A.D.  The  fact  that  they  had  ever  been  considered 
inferior  to  the  Roman  divinities  was  gradually  forgotten. 
Minucius  Felix  speaks  of  their  cult  and  that  of  Serapis  as 
'  a  cult  that  was  formerly  Egyptian,  but  is  now  Roman.' 

Like  the  Egyptian,  many  other  Oriental  cults,  which  had 
been  at  first  generally  despised  as  superstitious,  were  gradually 
accepted  by  increasing  numbers  on  a  footing  of  equality  with 
the  national  cults,  as  handed  down  by  tradition  from  time 
immemorial.  The  time  necessary  for  naturalization  no  doubt 
depended  in  each  individual  case  on  the  most  various,  and 
in  part  incalculable,  influences  ;  but  first  and  foremost  on 
the  intimacy,  continuity,  and  extent  of  the  relations  between 
the  votaries  of  the  two  religions.  The  cult  of  the  Persian 
Mithras,  the  god  of  light,  with  which  the  Romans  first  became 
acquainted  in  the  war  against  the  pirates,  was  already  in 
existence  in  the  reign  of  Tiberius,  but  did  not  come  into  vogue 
until  after  the  time  of  Hadrian  and  the  Antonines.  Thus  it 
probably  took  about  the  same  time  as  the  Egyptian  cults 
(known  to  the  Romans  about  150  years  earlier)  to  obtain  its 
widest  recognition.  Mithras  monuments  have  been  found  in 
large  numbers  from  the  mouth  of  the  Danube  to  the  north  of 
Britain  and  on  the  borders  of  the  Sahara,  the  largest  and  most 
interesting  of  them  in  Germany.  His  cult  may  not  have  en- 
joyed such  esteem  as  that  of  the  Egyptian  divinities,  but 
Origen  certainly  exaggerates  when  he  calls  it  obscure  in  com- 
parison. 

Many  cults  may  have  been  for  a  longer  time  looked  upon  as 
superstitious  because  their  practices  appeared  particularly 
strange  and  singular,  repulsive  or  ridiculous.  Plutarch,  who 
regarded  all  the  peculiarities  of  the  Egyptian  worship  as 
worthy  of  reverence,  despised  a  number  of  Asiatic  religious 
customs  as  superstitious,  especially  rolling  in  mire,  keeping 
the  sabbath,  prostration,  and  other  '  ridiculous  exercises  and 
tortures,  speeches  and  gestures,  the  result  of  fear  of  the  gods, 
juggleries    and    enchantments,    vagabondage,    drum-beating, 


Religion  107 

impure  purifications,  dirty  mortifications,  barbarous  and 
illegal  punishments  and  outrages  in  the  temples ' .  The  fact 
that  long  familiarity  with  the  Egyptian  cults  had  removed 
the  foreign  atmosphere  which  still  surrounded  others,  essen- 
tially contributed  to  this  difference  of  opinion  ;  to  all  appear- 
ance the  conception  of  a  foreign  cult  as  a  contemptible 
superstition  or  a  venerable  religion  depended  upon  the  length 
of  time  it  had  been  known.  According  to  Suetonius,  Augustus 
showed  the  greatest  reverence  for  the  old  and  recognized 
foreign  cults  (such  as  the  Eleusinian  mysteries),  but  treated  the 
rest  with  contempt.  But  if  Suetonius  includes  the  Jewish 
faith  amongst  the  cults  despised  by  him,  he  is  in  error.  Augus- 
tus (so  also  Livia)  not  only  sent  valuable  dedicatory  gifts  for 
the  temple  at  Jerusalem,  but  instituted  the  sacrifice  of  a  daily 
burnt  ofiering  in  his  name,  consisting  of  two  rams  and  a  bull, 
the  discontinuance  of  which  before  the  outbreak  of  the  Jewish 
war  was  the  first  act  of  open  revolt  against  Rome. 

Further,  the  judgment  passed  upon  foreign  cults  may 
have  been  affected  to  a  certain  extent  by  the  relative  impor- 
tance of  the  people  who  professed  them.  Enlightened  Romans, 
at  least,  could  have  had  no  hesitation  in  despising  the  cult  of 
a  remote,  unknown  and  barbarous  people.  A  veteran,  who 
entertained  Augustus  at  Bononia,  was  asked  by  the  prince 
whether  it  was  true  that  the  first  person  who  had  plundered 
the  temple  of  the  goddess  Anaitis  (worshipped  in  Armenia, 
Cappadocia  and  Media)  had  been  struck  blind  and  died  a 
paralytic.  The  veteran  replied  that  he  himself  was  the 
guilty  person,  that  all  his  fortune  came  from  the  plunder  of 
the  temple,  and  that  Augustus  had  just  dined  on  one  of  the 
legs  of  the  goddess.  The  increasing  admixture  of  nationalities 
in  the  Roman  Empire  continually  extended  the  sphere  of 
influence  of  foreign  cults,  and  a  much  smaller  proportion  of 
them  were  regarded  as  mere  superstitions  by  the  orthodox. 
Although  this  admixture  of  gods  did  not  reach  its  height  until 
the  third  century,  it  had  already  made  great  progress  about 
the  middle  of  the  second  century.  Hadrian,  who  showed 
the  greatest  respect  for  Roman  and  Greek  cults,  '  despised 
foreign  cults  '  ;  no  definite  statement  is  made,  but  the  Egyptian 
certainly  cannot  be  included.  During  the  reign  of  Marcus 
Aurelius,  however,  who,  at  the  time  of  the  general  alarm  caused 
by  the  Marcomannic  War,  summoned  priests  from  all  countries 


io8  Religion 

and  ordered  them  to  perform  foreign  rites  and  all  kinds  of 
expiatory  ceremonies  in  the  city  of  Rome,  the  boundary 
line  between  foreign  superstition  and  the  national  religion, 
both  in  Italy  and  Greece,  was  practically  obliterated. 

Certainly  the  ever  increasing  medley  of  the  '  crowd  of  gods  ' 
excited  the  mockery  of  unbelievers  more  and  more.  Lucian 
frequently  makes  the  mixed  society  of  the  world  of  gods  the 
object  of  his  satire.  At  a  meeting  of  the  gods,  Hermes  is 
ordered  by  Zeus  to  arrange  the  gods  according  to  the  artistic 
merit  and  intrinsic  value  of  their  statues.  Thus  Bendis, 
Anubis,  Atys,  Mithras  and  an  Asiatic  moon-god  are  allotted 
the  highest  places,  statues  of  gold  being  preferred  to  those  of 
marble  ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  Atys  and  Sabazius,  '  doubt- 
ful and  alien  gods',  are  placed  at  the  end  of  the  table  at  a 
banquet,  by  the  side  of  Pan  and  the  Corybantes.  On  another 
occasion  the  gods  are  discussing  the  claims  of  a  number  of 
candidates  for  admission  to  their  company.  Momus  comes 
forward  to  speak  and  gives  his  opinion  of  the  oriental  divinities. 
He  declares  that  Mithras,  with  his  Median  caftan  and  tiara, 
has  no  place  in  Olympus,  he  does  not  even  know  Greek  and 
does  not  understand  when  his  health  is  drunk.  Still  less 
ought  the  Egyptians  to  be  tolerated  ;  the  dog-headed,  barking 
Anubis  in  his  linen  garment,  the  oracle-giving  bull  Apis, 
the  ibises,  apes  and  goats.  Momus  accordingly  makes  the 
following  proposal :  Seeing  that  many  unauthorized  strangers, 
both  Greeks  and  barbarians,  have  forced  their  way  into  the 
company  of  the  gods,  that  the  supply  of  ambrosia  and  nectar 
has  begun  to  fail,  that  the  great  demand  for  them  has  sent 
the  price  up  to  a  mina  a  jar,  that  strange  gods  shamelessly 
push  themselves  forward  and  turn  the  old  gods  out  of  their 
places,  let  a  commission  of  seven  fully  authorized  gods  be 
appointed  to  investigate  the  claims  of  each  of  their  colleagues. 
Zeus  does  not  put  the  proposal  to  the  vote,  foreseeing  that 
the  majority  would  be  against  it,  but  at  once  declares  it 
carried,  and  instructs  all  the  gods  to  provide  themselves  with 
the  necessary  certificates  for  the  coming  examination,  such 
as  the  names  of  their  parents,  a  statement  of  their  nationality, 
and  the  manner  in  which  they  have  been  admitted  amongst 
the  gods,  and  so  forth. 

It  is  often  believed  that  the  feeling  which  prompted  this 
satire,  the  feeling  that  the  admixture  of  absolutely  hetero- 


Religion  109 

geneous  cults  was  contradictory  and  even  absurd,  must  have 
been  widespread,  at  least  among  educated  circles,  at  the 
time  ;  but  there  is  no  proof  of  this,  nor  does  the  state  of 
religious  affairs  throughout  the  empire  justify  this  assumption. 
The  impression  made  upon  us  coincides  entirely  with  that  of 
Lucian  and  his  like,  simply  because  their  attitude  towards 
these  phenomena,  like  our  own,  was  one  of  complete  impar- 
tiality ;  they  regarded  Greek  and  barbarian  gods  alike  as 
equally  unreal,  and  they  were  able  to  criticize  these  monstrous 
productions  of  the  domain  of  mythology  with  entire  and  abso- 
lute freedom.  But  this  was  the  feeling  and  judgment  of 
unbelievers  only,  who  to  all  appearance  formed  only  a  minority 
even  amongst  the  educated. 

But  the  clearest  proof  that  even  the  most  highly-educated 
were  little  shaken  in  their  national  belief  by  the  admixture 
of  gods  is  to  be  found  in  the  religious  opinions  of  Plutarch. 
Even  he,  the  priest  of  the  Pythian  Apollo,  was  as  sincere  a  wor- 
shipper of  the  Egyptian  gods  as  of  the  Greek.  In  the  treatise 
On  Isis  and  Osiris,  addressed  to  a  highly-educated  priestess 
of  Isis  at  Delphi,  he  declares  that  the  gods  are  everywhere 
the  same,  ministering  forces  of  a  supreme  world-ruling  power, 
known  by  different  names  and  worshipped  in  different  ways 
by  different  peoples.  Thus,  Isis  and  her  fellow-divinities 
have  been  known  from  time  immemorial  to  all  men,  although 
some  have  only  recently  learnt  to  call  them  by  their  Egyptian 
names  ;  when  Hesiod  names  Eros,  Ge,  and  Tartarus  as  the 
first  things  after  Chaos,  he  appears  to  have  meant  Osiris, 
Isis  and  Typhon.  The  origin  of  the  theory,  that  the  world 
is  ruled  neither  by  blind  chance  nor  by  one  supreme  intelli- 
gence alone,  but  by  many  powers  compounded  of  good  and 
evil,  is  unknown  and  lost  in  obscurity  ;  but  its  high  antiquity 
and  the  similarity  of  the  traditional  account  amongst  philo- 
sophers, poets,  theologians  and  legislators,  in  mysteries  and 
ritual,  among  barbarians  and  Hellenes,  is  a  weighty  testimony 
in  favour  of  its  truth.  Osiris  and  Isis  are  good  powers,  Typhon 
an  evil  one  ;  as  to  this  all  are  agreed,  but  theological  specula- 
tions have  arrived  at  the  most  different  results  in  regard  to 
their  real  and  proper  nature.  Some  explain  Osiris  as  the 
Nile,  others  as  the  principle  of  moisture  generally,  others  as 
Bacchus,  others  again  as  the  lunar  world,  the  kindly,  fructify- 
ing, moist  light.     According  to  Plutarch,  no  one  of  these  inter- 


no  Religion 


& 


pretations  by  itself  is  correct,  but  all  must  be  taken  together 
to  arrive  at  the  truth.  The  enigmas  of  Egyptian  theology, 
which  he  believed  to  be  indicated  by  the  rows  of  sphinxes 
before  the  temples,  did  not  discourage  him,  but  all  the  more 
provoked  him  to  investigate  their  true  meaning  ;  such  investi- 
gation should  be  undertaken  in  a  pious  and  philosophical 
spirit,  since  nothing  is  more  agreeable  to  the  divinity  than 
that  man  should  attain  to  a  correct  knowledge  of  his  nature. 
Thus  he  became  intimately  acquainted  with  the  most  repulsive 
Egyptian  legends  and  the  most  singular  customs  of  the  country, 
especially  animal  worship  ;  he  also  discovered  in  the  Greek 
cult  customs  analogous  to  the  festivals  of  lamentation,  and 
a  profound  symbolism  in  the  form  and  ornaments  of  the 
sistrum  (rattle)  so  generally  used  in  religious  ceremonies  in 
Egypt.  But  though  absorbed  in  the  consideration  of  the 
monstrosities  of  Egyptian  belief  and  cult,  Plutarch's  attitude 
towards  the  national  divinities  was  not  in  the  least  affected  ; 
for  him  they  continued  to  be  not  only  living,  but  the  same  as 
they  had  ever  been.  His  belief  in  them  was  certainly  different 
from  that  of  Herodotus,  but  equally  robust  and  sincere. 

If  educated  men  could  find  room  in  their  conscience  for 
foreign  by  the  side  of  national  gods,  without  injury  or  altera- 
tion of  the  belief  in  the  latter,  this  must  have  been  still  more 
the  case  with  the  masses,  who  were  even  less  conscious  of 
any  absurdity  in  the  simultaneous  worship  of  the  most  hetero- 
geneous divinities.  So  indestructible  was  the  vitality  of  the 
old  Graeco-Roman  gods,  that  their  forms,  however  blended 
or  obscured,  still  remained  the  same,  and  their  personality 
was  in  no  way  affected.  For  this  reason,  belief  in  them  had 
such  firm  hold  on  the  souls  of  men,  since  it  was  attached  by 
so  many  roots  to  the  state  religion,  to  art  and  poetry,  to  school, 
and  to  civilization  generally,  from  which  it  ever  drew  fresh 
nourishment.  Pausanias,  for  instance,  says  that  the  multitude 
believes  what  it  has  heard  from  childhood  in  choruses  and 
tragedies. 

And  further  :  of  all  the  gods  in  the  world  they  were  the 
most  human,  and  the  human  heart  felt  most  irresistibly 
attracted  to  them.  They  were  not  transformed  in  the  imagi- 
nation of  believers  into  barbarian  gods,  but  the  latter  borrowed 
more  or  less  of  the  personality  of  the  Graeco-Roman  gods, 
in  many  instances  even  their  names.     Mithras  and  Elagabalus 


Religion  ill 

of  Emesa  became  Sol  (the  sun-god)  ;  Astarte  of  Carthage 
sometimes  'the  heavenly  virgin',  sometimes  'the  heavenly- 
Juno  '  ;  the  gods  of  Heliopolis  and  Doliche,  Jupiter.  Simi- 
larly, in  Palestine  and  the  neighbouring  districts,  the  gods 
of  Phoenicia,  Philistia  and  other  countries  received  the  name 
and  form  of  Greek  gods  :  Marnas  of  Gaza  (a  god  of  the  heights, 
who  bestowed  rain  and  fertility)  was  identified  by  the  western 
settlers  with  Zeus  ;  Aumu  the  Syrian  with  Helios  ;  Dusaris, 
the  Nabataean  born  of  a  virgin,  with  Dionysus.  The  Roman 
inhabitants  of  the  originally  Phoenician  countries  of  Mauretania 
and  Numidia  worshipped  the  cruel  Moloch  even  in  public, 
apparently  up  to  the  second  century,  and  in  secret  (according 
to  Tertullian)  sacrificed  children  to  him  under  the  name  of 
'  Saturnus,  the  sublime  giver  of  fruits ',  or  '  Saturnus  the 
invincible  god ' . 

If,  then,  Graeco-Roman  polytheism  was  still  vigorous 
enough  to  assimilate  the  ancient  and  venerable  gods  of  the 
old  civilized  countries  of  the  East,  this  assimilation  could 
not  have  presented  the  least  difficulty  when  dealing  with 
the  rude  and  obscure  gods  of  semi-  or  entirely  barbarous 
countries.  Numerous  memorials  in  Britain,  Germany, 
Pannonia,  Gaul,  Spain  and  Africa  show  that  the  Roman 
settlers,  officials,  merchants  or  soldiers  zealously  took  part 
in  the  cults  of  the  local  deities.  Augustus  also,  during  a 
stay  in  Gaul,  vowed  and  built  a  temple  to  the  wind-god 
Circius,  the  lord  and  sender  of  storms,  which,  while  they 
caused  devastation,  also  purified  the  air,  especially  from  the 
mistral  of  Provence.  One  characteristic  example  may  here 
be  mentioned.  A  Roman  governor  of  eastern  Mauretania 
offers  thanks  in  an  inscription  for  the  annihilation  of  a  native 
tribe,  the  carrying  away  of  its  families  into  captivity  and  the 
extensive  plunder,  not  to  a  Graeco-Roman  god,  but  to  '  the 
native  Moorish  gods,  the  preservers'.  These  cults  rarely 
won  recognition  beyond  the  bounds  of  their  province  or  dis- 
trict, although  no  doubt  retained  or  adopted  by  many  indivi- 
duals outside  the  same  ;  thus  Caracalla  prayed  to  Apollo 
Grannus,  in  addition  to  Aesculapius  and  Serapis,  to  restore 
him  to  health. 

If  the  merchants  settled  outside  their  home,  especially 
the  Syrians,  who  were  to  be  found  everywhere  in  such  large 
numbers,  acted  above  all  as  missionaries  of  oriental  cults, 


112  Relieion 


to' 


the  soldiers,  who  everywhere  held  fast  by  the  cults  of  their 
native  lands  in  their  garrisons,  including  the  veterans  in  the 
military   colonies,    chiefly   contributed   to   the   spread   of   all 
cults  foreign  to  the  Greeks  and  Romans.     A  legate  of  Numidia 
and  consul-designate,  a  native  of    Dalmatia,  in  167  erected 
in  the  temple  of  Aesculapius  at  Lambaesis  a  statue  of  his 
native  god   Medavirus    (on  horseback,   brandishing  a  lance). 
A  veteran  in  another  town  of  Numidia  (Thubursicum)  com- 
mends his  son  to  Noreia,  a  native  goddess  of  Noricum,  the 
birthplace  of  the  mother  who  had  pre-deceased  her  son.  .  . 
In   every  garrison    fellow-countrymen  assembled  together  to 
worship  the  gods  of  their  home.     Thus,  in  the  third  century, 
the  Thracians  serving  in  the  imperial  guard  at  Rome  appear 
to  have  had  a  special  chapel  for  their  native  gods.  Heron 
or  Heros,   Asclepius  Zimidrenus,  and  others.     Similarly,   the 
Celtic  guardsmen  in  Rome  continued  to  sacrifice  to  Arduinna 
and  Camulus,  but  especially  to  the  '  mothers  '  and  '  wives  ' 
{maires,   matronae)   of  their  home,  supposed  to  be  three  in 
number,  protecting  goddesses  of  house  and  family,  and  also 
of  whole  communities  and  peoples,  who  bestowed  prosperity, 
abundance  and  fertility.     All  their  memorials  in  Rome,  the 
majority  of  those  in  Britain,  and  a  considerable  number  in 
Germany,   are  due  to  soldiers,   simple  legionary   soldiers  or 
veterans,    rarely    centurions    and    equestrian    ofiicers  ;     the 
'  mothers ' ,  as  is  shown  by  the  inscriptions  of  those  who  were 
not  soldiers,   were  divinities   of  the   common  people.     It  is 
true  that  the  Romans  living  in  the  provinces  were  in  a  measure 
content  to  worship  these  barbarian  gods,  without  troubling 
about  their  name  or  nature  (such  as  the  '  mothers '  and  the 
kindred  Suleviae).     Thus  they  adored  'the  great  god  of  the 
Numidians  '   and   '  the  Moorish  gods '    (amongst  whom  v/ere 
included  princes  of  old  times  worshipped  with  divine  honours)  ; 
or  they  invoked  them  under  the  names  by  which  they  were 
usually  known,  such  as  Auzius,  Bacax,  Aulisua,  whose  names 
appear  on  the  monuments  of  north  Africa,  or  Laburus.  Lato- 
bius,  Harmogius  and  others,  known  from  inscriptional  stones 
of    Noricum    and    Pannonia.     Frequently,    however,    it    was 
thought  that   under   these  barbarous  forms   were  concealed 
native  gods,  whose  names  were  then  used  side  by  side  with 
the    foreign-sounding    names    unpronounceable    by    Roman 
lips,  or  were  simply  substituted  for  them  ;    thus  Caesar  calls 


Religion  1 1 3 

the  chief  Celtic  gods,  Teutates,  Hesus  and  Taranis,  respectively 
Mercury,  Mars  and  Jupiter.  Grannus  of  Alsace  and  the 
Rhine  lands  was  identified  by  the  Romans  with  Apollo  ; 
Belutucader  and  Cocid  of  Cumberland,  Leherennus  and 
Albiorix  of  southern  France,  and  many  other  Celtic  local 
gods,  with  Mars  ;  Ataecina  or  Adaegina  of  Turobriga  in  the 
south  of  Spain,  with  Proserpina ;  Sulis,  worshipped  near 
the  baths  at  Bath,  with  Minerva  ;  Arduinna  of  the  Ardennes 
and  Abnoba  of  the  Black  Forest  with  Diana,  and  so  forth. 
These  Celtic  divinities  could  not  possibly  have  been  identified 
with  Graeco-Roman  equivalents,  if  believers  had  ceased  to 
regard  the  latter  as  real  and  living  personalities. 

The  more  a  province  became  romanized,  the  more  the 
native  gods  were  not  only  driven  out  by  the  Roman  but  also 
transmuted  into  the  latter.  In  Spain  especially  both  these 
phenomena  occurred.  '  In  the  Iberian  district,  which  even 
later  remained  tolerably  free  from  immigration,  in  the  west 
and  north-west  (Lusitania,  Callaecia  or  Gallaecia,  Asturia) 
the  native  gods  with  their  singular  names,  chiefly  ending  in 
ictis-  and  -ecus  (Endovellicus,  Caecus  Vagodamaegus),  main- 
tained their  ground  in  their  old  seats  even  under  the  empire. 
But  throughout  the  south  (Baetica)  not  a  single  votive  stone 
has  been  found,  which  might  not  just  as  well  have  been  set 
up  in  Italy  ;  the  same  holds  good  of  the  east  and  north-east 
(Tarraconensis),  except  that  isolated  traces  of  the  Celtic  gods 
occur  on  the  upper  Douro.'  The  worship  of  non-Roman 
divinities  persisted  in  the  southern  province  of  Gaul  much 
longer  than  in  southern  Spain :  '  in  the  great  commercial 
city  of  Arelate  (Aries)  certainly  the  only  dedications  refer 
to  Italian  gods,  but  at  Frejus,  Aix,  Nimes  and  in  the  coast- 
districts  generally,  the  old  Celtic  divinities  were  worshipped 
in  imperial  times  as  much  as  in  the  interior  of  the  country. 
In  the  Iberian  portion  of  Aquitania,  also,  numerous  traces 
occur  of  the  native  cult,  entirely  different  from  the  Celtic' 
Certainly,  the  barbarian  gods  sometimes  differed  so  greatly 
from  the  Graeco-Roman  that  identification  was  impossible  ; 
such  were  some  of  the  local  Belgian  divinities,  as  Cernunnus 
squatting  with  legs  tucked  under  him,  with  a  stag  growing 
out  of  his  head,  or  the  goddess  of  Compiegne,  with  birds  at 
the  breast,  or  the  three-headed  god  of  Rheims. 

However,  faith  could  not  only  assimilate  strange  divinities 

R.L.M. III.  J 


114  Religion 

but  could  also  create  new  ones,  and  this  creative  power  is 
the  most  unmistakable  proof  of  its  undiminished  energy  and 
vitality.  Not  regarding  the  divine  control  of  which  he  was 
so  deeply  conscious  every  day  and  every  hour  at  every  step, 
as  a  single  united  whole,  but  feeling  the  necessity  of  breaking 
up  the  infinite  divinity  into  an  infinite  number  of  individualities, 
the  believer  elevated  important  phenomena  and  effects,  which 
profoundly  affected  human  life,  into  divine  personalities. 
^  The  belief  in  a  goddess  of  corn  (Annona)  and  her  cult  do 

not  seem  to  go  farther  back  than  the  early  empire,  when  the 
existence  and  safety  of  the  eternal  city  depended  upon  the 
regularity  and  sufficiency  of  the  supplies  of  grain  from  over 
sea.  It  was  felt  that  it  must  be  some  divinity  who  gathered 
together  the  immense  stores  of  Africa  and  Egypt,  conveyed 
them  safely  across  the  sea,  heaped  them  up  mountains  high 
in  the  storehouses  of  Rome,  and,  year  in  year  out,  provided 
daily  bread  for  hundreds  of  thousands.  On  coins  she  first 
appears  as  a  subordinate  of  Ceres,  later  as  a  separate  goddess. 
'  Holy  Annona  '  was  certainly  often  invoked  in  fervent  prayer, 
chiefly  by  those  for  whom  in  Rome  the  administration  of  the 
corn  supply  and  the  industries  connected  with  it,  and  in  the 
provinces  the  corn  trade  itself,  provided  occupation  and  a 
means  of  livelihood.  A  dedication  to  the  holy  Annona  found 
in  Rome  is  the  work  of  a  '  permanent  measurer  to  the  venerable 
corporation  of  wheat-flour  bakers '  ;  according  to  an  inscrip- 
tion found  at  Rusicade  (Philippeville),  an  export  harbour  of 
grain-bearing  Numidia  with  state  storehouses,  intended  for 
supplying  Rome,  a  rich  man  had  two  statues  set  up,  one  '  of 
the  genius  of  our  native  city',  another  'of  Annona  of  the 
holy  city  '    (Rome). 

Above  all,  the  old  Roman  belief  in  genii  involved  a  con- 
tinual and  unlimited  increase  of  divine  beings,  as  is  sufficiently 
shown  by  the  persistent  vitality  of  this  belief,  and  consequently 
of  belief  generally.  The  frame  of  mind  which  formed  the 
basis  of  the  latter  continued  to  fill  nature  and  existence  v/ith 
countless  divine  powers,  whose  mission  it  was  to  control  and 
preserve,  to  generate  and  give  life,  to  help  and  protect ;  these 
were  the  genii,  whose  favourite  form  was  believed  to  be  that 
of  a  snake.  Every  individual,  every  house  and  every  family, 
every  country,  every  city  and  province,  legions,  cohorts, 
centuries,    corporations,    guilds    and    unions — all    had    their 


Religion  115 

genius.  But  the  feeling  of  piety,  which  saw  '  in  everything 
the  trace  of  a  god  '  and  the  hand  of  a  divinity  in  every  benefi- 
cent act  and  dispensation  of  providence,  peopled  every  space 
with  divine  beings — wells,  mountains,  deserts,  markets, 
palaces,  warehouses,  baths,  archives  and  theatres.  Every 
one  who  frequented  these  places  paid  homage  to  the  genius 
or  the  '  guardian  power  {tutela)  whether  god  or  goddess ' . 
The  merchant,  whose  business  took  him  to  remote  frontier 
lands,  sacrificed  there  '  to  the  genius  of  the  Roman  people 
and  trade '  ;  the  traveller  in  unknown  and  inhospitable 
countries  '  to  the  god  who  invented  roads  and  paths  ' .  In 
the  houses  of  Rome  and  other  cities,  as  late  as  the  fifth  century, 
an  image  of  the  patron  divinity,  with  a  lighted  candle  or  ever- 
burning lamp  in  front  of  it,  was  to  be  seen  in  the  vestibule 
behind  the  door  ;  the  cult  of  the  domestic  gods  (Lar,  Genius, 
Penates),  in  spite  of  the  prohibition  issued  against  it,  lasted 
far  on  into  Christian  times,  during  which  angels  soon  took 
the  place  of  genii.  These  miner  divinities  repeatedly  proved 
their  power  to  help  within  a  definite  sphere,  and  thus  received 
special  names  and  a  more  clearly  defined  personality ;  thus 
one  of  Trimalchio's  guests,  all  belonging  to  the  commercial 
class,  swears  by  the  holy  'Holdfast'  {Occiipo),  and  the  Lares 
of  the  master  of  the  house  bear  the  names  '  Profit ' ,  '  Good 
Luck',  'Gain'   {Cerdo,  Felicia,  Lucro). 

A  necessary  result  of  the  change  of  the  republic  into  a 
monarchy  was  that  the  genius  of  the  reigning  emperor  took 
its  place  by  the  side  of  the  genius  of  the  Roman  people,  whose 
worship  dated  from  very  early  times  (at  least  as  early  as  218 
B.C.).  This  appeared  so  natural  and  necessary  that  Augustus 
had  no  hesitation  in  undertaking  the  regulation  of  this  cult 
himself.  It  was  unavoidable  that  the  idea  of  the  imperial 
genius,  worshipped  as  the  tutelary  deity  of  the  people,  should 
be  confounded  in  the  popular  belief  with  the  person  of  the 
emperor,  who  thus  himself  came  to  be  regarded  as  the  tutelary 
and  controlling  god.  But  although  the  belief  in  genii  was  not 
without  influence  on  the  deification  of  the  emperor,  the  real 
home  of  the  belief  in  the  superhuman  nature  of  the  monarch 
was  the  East ;  together  with  the  monarchy,  it  was  trans- 
planted from  the  Greek  states  of  the  East  into  the  West. 

From  time  immemorial  distinguished  men  of  merit  in 
Greece  had  been  venerated  after  their  death  as  heroes  (demi- 


Ii6  Rclicrion 


t>' 


gods), — the  founders  of  towns  and  colonies,  the  heroes  of 
the  Persian  wars,  the  Hberators  of  their  fatherland  (Harmodius 
and  Aristogiton  of  Athens,  Timoleon  of  Syracuse),  also  poets 
(Aeschylus,  Sophocles),  philosophers  (Anaxagoras)  and  victors 
in  the  Olympian  games.  Occasionally,  this  elevation  to 
the  rank  of  heroes  in  course  of  time  led  to  actual  deification  ; 
thus  in  Plutarch's  time  Lycurgus  had  a  sanctuary  in  Sparta, 
in  which  sacrifice  was  offered  to  him  '  as  to  a  god  '.  Under 
Roman  rule  also,  cities  bestowed  the  honours  of  heroes  upon 
prominent  men  after  their  death  ;  thus  Mytilene  honoured 
Theophanes,  who  had  obtained  from  Pompey  the  privileges 
of  a  free  state  for  the  city,  and  Tarsus  Athenodorus  the  meri- 
torious Stoic,  the  teacher  of  Augustus.  If  in  these  and  similar 
cases  the  choice  of  this  manner  of  expressing  gratitude  was 
prompted  by  flattery  and  servility,  there  is  no  doubt  that 
many  (such  as  Apollonius  of  Tyana)  were  venerated  after 
death  owing  to  a  sincere  belief  in  their  superhuman  nature. 
How  common  the  idea  of  the  elevation  of  glorified  spirits  to 
a  divine  or  semi-divine  existence  had  become  amongst  the 
Romans  is  shown  by  Cicero's  intention  to  build  a  temple  to 
his  daughter  Tullia,  who  had  died  at  the  age  of  thirty-two. 
The  Carpocratians,  a  gnostic  sect  of  the  first  half  of  the  second 
century,  who  reverenced  Jesus  together  with  the  Greek 
philosophers  as  a  model  of  supreme  human  purification, 
erected  a  temple  in  Cephalonia  to  Epiphanes,  the  seventeen- 
year-old  son  of  their  founder,  after  his  death. 

After  the  time  of  the  Peloponnesian  War,  however,  living 
persons  also  were  worshipped  as  gods  in  Greece,  the  first 
known  instance  being  Lysander,  to  whom  Greek  cities  in 
Asia  erected  altars,  offered  sacrifice  and  sang  paeans.  Even 
the  basest  flattery  would  not  have  thought  of  this  kind  of 
homage  had  not  the  ancient  Greeks,  who  were  unable  to 
imagine  gods  and  men  separated  by  an  impassable  gulf,  been 
prone  to  see  a  being  of  a  higher  kind  in  every  personality, 
which  apparently  or  in  reality  was  superior  to  the  ordinary 
run  of  humanity.  Nor  was  this  way  of  looking  at  things 
entirely  foreign  to  the  Romans  ;  as  a  general  rule,  at  meals 
libations  were  poured  to  Marius,  the  conqueror  of  the  Cimbri 
and  Tcutones,  as  if  he  had  been  a  god.  The  belief  in  the 
divinity  of  individuals  also  occurs  outside  the  Graeco-Roman 
world.     Amongst  the  Getae  the  prophet  Decaeneus  or  Dicincus, 


Religion  117 

the  adviser  of  King  Boerebistes  (Burvista  ;  60-50  B.C.),  who 
dwelt  in  a  cave  on  a  sacred  mountain,  was  regarded  as  a  god  ; 
Strabo  calls  him  an  impostor.  The  Boian  Mariccus,  who  in 
69  A.D.  undertook  to  liberate  Gaul  from  the  Roman  yoke, 
declared  himself  a  god  and  found  thousands  to  believe  him. 

But  the  cult  of  living  heroes  and  persons  in  authority  was 
not  firmly  established  until  after  the  time  of  Alexander  the 
Great,  whose  personality,  subjected  to  oriental  influences, 
practically  obliterated  the  distinction  between  gods  and 
men,  in  the  princely  houses  which  shared  his  inheritance.  In 
Egypt,  where,  as  in  Persia,  it  had  long  been  held  that  the 
king  was  a  god  or  at  least  the  son  of  a  god,  Ptolemy  Phila- 
delphus  first  introduced  the  cult  of  the  living  ruler  for  state 
reasons  ;  in  the  Seleucid  empire  it  was  of  prime  importance, 
whereas  the  Attalidae  appear  to  have  formally  abandoned  it. 

After  the  Romans  began  to  interfere  with  the  oriental 
elements  in  the  cities  of  Asia  Minor,  the  cult  of  the  goddess 
Roma,  to  whom  the  inhabitants  of  Smyrna  had  erected  a 
temple  as  early  as  195  B.C.,  made  its  appearance  side  by 
side  with  the  cult  of  the  ruling  prince,  which  attained  its 
highest  development  in  the  kingdoms  of  the  Diadochi.  With 
this  cult  of  Roma  were  associated  the  divine  honours  bestowed 
upon  Roman  governors  and  generals,  such  as  Titus  Quintius 
Flamininus,  '  the  liberator  of  Greece  ',  in  whose  time  they 
appeared  a  perfectly  natural  expression  of  enthusiastic  grati- 
tude. In  the  last  days  of  the  republic  the  dedication  of 
temples  (probably  in  common  with  the  goddess  Roma  or 
other  divinities)  had  become  quite  a  usual  manner  of  showing 
homage  for  Roman  proconsuls. 

Consequently,  if  the  Romans  had  been  for  a  long  time 
accustomed  to  regard  apotheosis  as  no  excessive  honour  even 
for  the  living,  the  claim  of  the  new  monarchs  to  it  appeared 
a  matter  of  course  ;  and  if  the  deification  of  the  living  was 
kept  within  certain  limits,  this  was  due  to  the  self-restraint 
of  the  ruler,  not  to  any  want  of  deference  on  the  part  of  his 
subjects.  What  could  have  been  more  in  conformity  with 
the  belief  in  divine  natures  in  human  form  than  to  regard 
the  all-powerful  rulers  of  the  universe,  '  the  vicegerents  of 
the  gods  upon  earth',  so  immeasurably  exalted  above  so 
many  millions,  as  'present  and  corporeal  gods',  and  their 
death  as  an  elevation  to  that  higher  world  to  which  they 


1 1 8  Religion 

belonged  ?  If  the  apotheosis  of  the  emperors  was  as  a  rule 
a  work  of  the  conscious  hypocrisy  of  servility,  it  at  least  corres- 
ponded in  certain  cases  to  the  popular  belief.  The  '  trans- 
lation '  of  Caesar  to  the  gods,  says  Suetonius,  was  not  only 
the  result  of  a  decree  of  the  Senate,  but  in  accordance  with 
the  belief  of  the  multitude  ;  a  comet,  which  was  visible  for 
the  next  seven  days,  was  supposed  to  be  his  soul  taken  up 
into  heaven.  After  the  death  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  all  orders 
and  classes  of  the  people,  irrespective  of  sex  or  age,  paid 
him  divine  honours  ;  any  one  who  did  not  keep  his  image 
in  his  house  was  considered  impious,  and  even  in  Diocletian's 
time  his  statue  frequently  occupied  a  place  between  the 
Penates  ;  many  prophecies,  confirmed  by  the  event,  were 
believed  to  have  been  delivered  by  him  in  visions.  Thus 
there  can  be  no  doubt  that  this  good  and  gentle  and  univer- 
sally beloved  monarch  was  really  regarded  as  a  god  by  the 
people.  In  the  domestic  chapel  of  Alexander  Severus, 
where  a  religious  service  was  held  every  morning,  not  only 
the  souls  of  the  holy  (including  Apollonius  of  Tyana,  Orpheus, 
Abraham  and  Christ),  but  also  the  best  of  the  deified  emperors, 
were  worshipped. 

It  is  easy  to  understand,  however,  that  this  belief  in  a  real 
deification  of  men  was  repugnant  even  to  those  who  in  other 
respects  were  staunchly  orthodox.  Pausanias  says  that  in 
his  time  men  were  no  longer  changed  into  gods,  as  formerly 
Heracles,  the  Dioscuri,  Amphiaraus,  except  in  words,  and 
in  order  to  flatter  power.  He  probably  had  in  mind  the 
apotheosis  of  Antinous,  for  which,  however,  an  oriental  model 
was  not  wanting.  Thus,  at  Alexandria,  Belesticha,  '  a 
foreign  woman  of  the  town ' ,  received  the  honours  of  divinity 
and  a  temple  as  '  Aphrodite  Belesticha '  from  her  royal  lover 
(Ptolemy  II  Philadelphus).  No  doubt,  generally  speaking, 
the  cult  of  Antinous  was  observed  '  in  order  to  flatter  power  '  ; 
but  the  belief  of  the  next  generation  in  the  divinity  of  the 
beautiful,  melancholy  looking  youth  was  sincere  (as  appears 
from  Athcnagoras,  c.  177),  and  lasted  at  least  till  the  third 
century.  Celsus  had  compared  the  worship  of  Christ  with 
that  of  Antinous,  and  Origen,  who  rejects  this  comparison 
as  entirely  inadmissible,  had  no  doubt  that  in  reality  a  demon 
under  the  name  of  Antinous  haunted  his  temple.  '  If  one 
were  to  investigate,  in  a  spirit  of  truth  and  impartiality,  the 


Religion  119 

stories  relating  to  Antinous,  he  would  find  that  it  was  due  to 
the  magical  arts  and  rites  of  the  Egyptians  that  there  was 
even  the  appearance  of  his  performing  anything  in  the  city 
which  bears  his  name,  and  that,  too,  only  after  his  decease— 
an  effect  which  is  said  to  have  been  produced  in  other  temples 
by  the  Egyptians  and  those  who  are  skilled  in  the  arts  which 
they  practise.  For  they  set  up  in  certain  places  demons 
claiming  prophetic  or  healing  power,  which  frequently  torture 
those  who  seem  to  have  committed  any  mistake  about  ordi- 
nary kinds  of  food  or  other  religious  precepts.  Of  this  nature 
is  the  being  that  is  considered  to  be  a  god  in  Antinoopolis 
in  Egypt,  whose  virtues  are  the  lying  inventions  of  some 
who  live  by  the  gain  derived  therefrom  ;  while  others,  deceived 
by  the  demon  placed  there,  and  others  again  convicted  of  a 
weak  conscience,  actually  think  that  they  are  paying  a  divine 
penalty  inflicted  by  Antinous.  Of  such  a  nature  also  are 
the  mysteries  which  they  perform  and  the  seeming  predictions 
which  they  utter.  Far  different  from  such  are  those  of 
Jesus.'  1 

Further,  the  cult  of  the  emperors  was  on  the  whole  nothing 
more  than  the  expression  of  absolute  devotion,  which  the 
despot  could  demand  from  his  subjects,  at  least  so  far  as  the 
recognition  of  a  divine  nature  in  a  human  personality  was 
in  no  way  repugnant  to  religious  belief.  If  Christians  have 
never  committed  the  folly  of  worshipping  a  king  as  a  god, 
the  reason  is  not  that  the  difference  between  ruler  and  ruled 
was  less,  the  feeling  of  self-respect  greater,  or  servility  less 
resourceful  in  inventing  degrading  acts  of  homage  (rather, 
the  contrary  was  the  case  in  the  Byzantine  empire  and  in 
France  under  Louis  XIV  and  Napoleon  I).  Christian  dogma 
forbade  such  an  act  of  folly,  which  pagan  belief  encouraged, 
and  only  allowed  the  ruler  to  be  recognized  as  the  representa- 
tive of  God  upon  earth.  The  Roman  imperial  cult  was  a 
form,  the  essentially  political  importance  of  which  no  thinking 
man  could  mistake,  while  its  external  accomplishment  left 
religious  life  properly  so-called  untouched,  and  was  quite 
incapable  of  shaking  belief.  To  the  believer,  that  which  is 
sacred  does  not  cease  to  be  so  because  he  has  seen  it  misused 
or   desecrated   in   individual   cases  ;     rather,   like   Pausanias, 

1  Origen,  Contra  Celsum,  iii.  36,  Eng.  trans,  by  F.  Crombje  in  Clark's  Ante-Nicene 
Christian  Library,  xxiji.     (Edinburgh:  T.  &  T.  Clark.) 


120  Religion 

he  promptly  holds  up  the  abuse  to  ridicule  and  contempt, 
only  to  cling  the  more  firmly  to  what  is  venerable  and  precious 
in  his  belief. 

The  best  proof,  however,  of  the  strength  and  vitality  of 
polytheism  is  the  fact  that  it  was  able  to  hold  its  ground  for 
centuries  against  Christianity,  and  further,  in  a  certain  sense 
to  compel  Christians  to  recognize  its  truth.  For  it  never 
occurred  to  Christians  in  general  to  deny  the  real  existence 
of  the  pagan  gods  ;  they  did  not  even  dispute  their  super- 
human attributes  nor  the  miracles  performed  by  them.  Of 
course,  it  was  only  natural  that  they  should  look  upon  them 
as  powers  of  darkness,  demons,  fallen  or  lost  angels  and  their 
descendants,  or  sinful  souls,  permitted  by  God  to  injure  and 
lead  men  astray.  Consequently,  even  those  who  carried 
on  the  war  of  extermination  against  polytheism  were  so 
inextricably  mixed  up  with  it  that  they  could  not  bring  them- 
selves to  deny  its  reality.  The  authority  of  this  belief  must 
have  been  general  and  most  firmly  established  in  men's 
conscience,  if  its  most  irreconcilable  opponents  were  unable 
to  withdraw  themselves  completely  from  its  influence. 

But,  seeing  that  so  many  direct  and  incontestable  proofs 
of  the  universality  and  strength  of  polytheism  are  ready  to 
hand,  all  such  indirect  evidence  may  be  dispensed  with. 
The  stronger  a  belief  is,  and  the  more  deeply  it  is  rooted  in 
the  conscience,  the  more  eagerly  does  it  seek  and  the  more 
certainly  does  it  find  throughout  nature  and  life  confirmation 
of  the  existence  and  action  of  the  powers  believed  in  ;  it 
recognizes  the  hand  of  the  divinity  where  unbelief  sees  only 
chance  or  natural  effects  of  natural  causes.  Its  most  passionate 
demand  is  for  facts  and  phenomena,  which  demonstrate 
beyond  doubt  the  divine  power  to  overrule  the  laws  of  nature, 
and  this  demand  of  necessity  always  secures  its  own  satis- 
faction ;  the  miracle  is  the  favourite  child  of  faith.  Now, 
if  the  belief  in  miracles  is  an  infallible  test  of  the  intensity 
of  belief  in  the  higher  power,  which  is  assumed  to  be  the 
author  of  the  miracle,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that,  in  the  first 
centuries  of  the  Christian  era,  a  belief  in  the  gods  of  tradition 
and  cult,  entirely  positive  and  unaffected  by  scepticism,  was 
common  in  all  strata  of  society.  The  strength  of  this  belief 
varied,  being  of  course  strongest  in  least  educated  circles. 
The  old  belief  in  anthropomorphism,  powerfully  supported 


Religion  12 1 

by  the  impression  produced  by  the  everywhere  present  and  life- 
like images  of  the  gods,  made  it  possible  for  the  believer  to 
recognize  the  corporeal  presence  of  the  god  himself  in  the  author 
of  a  miracle  performed  before  his  eyes  ;  and  the  fact  that  such 
was  the  case  at  the  time  of  which  we  are  speaking  is  established 
beyond  all  doubt  by  the  well-known  incident  of  the  apostles 
at  Lystra.  How  certain  must  these  men  have  been  of  the 
existence  and  close  proximity  of  their  gods,  who  saw  in  the 
author  of  the  miraculous  cure  of  the  lame  man  and  in  his 
companion,  not  messengers  from  heaven  but  very  gods,  and 
were  at  once  filled  with  the  conviction  that  the  gods  had 
come  down  to  them  in  the  likeness  of  men.  '  And  they  called 
Barnabas,  Jupiter  ;  and  Paul,  Mercurius,  because  he  was 
the  chief  speaker.  Then  the  priest  of  Jupiter,  which  was 
before  their  city,  brought  oxen  and  garlands  unto  the  gates, 
and  would  have  done  sacrifice  with  the  people ' .  And  the 
apostles  '  scarce  restrained  the  people,  that  they  had  not 
done  sacrifice  unto  them  ' .  Here  then  was  a  faith  still  living, 
as  firm  as  a  rock  and  as  childlike  as  that  of  the  ancient  Athe- 
nians who,  imagining  the  beautiful  woman  clothed  in  complete 
armour,  by  whom  Pisistratus  was  accompanied  on  his  return, 
to  be  Athene  in  person,  worshipped  her  as  a  goddess  ;  Herodotus 
cannot  find  words  to  express  his  amazement  at  such  unheard 
of  simplicity.  A  parallel  is  to  be  found  in  the  faith  which 
in  our  own  days  makes  the  Italian  peasant  recognize  the 
mother  of  God  herself  in  a  young,  beautiful  and  madonna- 
like benefactress. 

It  may  be  admitted  that  belief  was  perhaps  blindest  and 
the  propensity  to  self-deception  most  common  in  the  heart 
of  anterior  Asia,  as  is  expressly  attested  by  Lucian  in  the 
case  of  Paphlagonia.  Undoubtedly  superstitious  beliefs  and 
prejudices  were  always  stronger  in  the  East  than  in  the 
West.  But  if  the  believer  was  only  rarely  convinced  of  the 
actual  presence  of  the  divinity,  he  saw  everywhere  the  wonders 
worked  by  him,  his  enthusiasm  was  continually  re-kindled, 
and  even  sceptics  were  carried  away  by  the  sincere  and  uni- 
versal belief  in  miracles.  The  miracles  wrought  in  the  year 
71  at  Alexandria,  '  indicating  the  favour  of  heaven  and  an 
undoubted  affection  of  the  gods  for  Vespasian '  are  described 
by  Tacitus  and  other  historians  in  perfect  good  faith.  A 
blind  man  and  a  paralytic,  having  been  inspired  by  Serapis 


122  Religion 

in  a  dream,  implored  Vespasian  to  touch  them  and  so  restore 
the  use  of  their  Hmbs.  Vespasian  finally  decided  to  do  as 
they  asked  publicly  before  the  people.  '  The  hand  immediately 
resumed  its  functions,  and  the  light  of  day  again  shone  upon 
the  blind  man.  These  two  facts  are  attested  by  eye-witnesses 
at  the  present  day,  when  there  is  no  longer  any  advantage 
to  be  gained  by  falsehood '.  Vespasian  afterwards  went 
unattended  to  the  temple  of  Serapis  to  learn  what  the  future 
had  in  store  for  him.  There  he  saw  a  man  named  Basilides, 
although  it  was  subsequently  ascertained  that  he  was  many 
miles  away  at  that  moment.  Vespasian  recognized  in  his 
name  an  omen  of  his  impending  greatness.  No  one  who 
believed  these  miracles  could  doubt  the  power  and  greatness 
of  the  god,  to  whom  they  were  attributed  by  the  voice  of 
the  people. 

This  miracle  belongs  to  a  period  when  the  idea  of  appealing 
to  miracles  as  great  and  convincing  as  the  Christian  certainly 
cannot  be  attributed  to  the  heathen.  But  when  the  struggle 
of  the  two  religions  for  the  empire  of  humanity  had  begun, 
the  mania  for  miracles  necessarily  became  greater  on  both 
sides  the  longer  the  conflict  lasted  and  the  more  furious  it 
became.  We  may  assume  that,  about  the  end  of  the  second 
century,  the  need  was  already  felt  of  setting  up  a  rival  to  the 
founder  of  Christianity  in  the  person  of  a  prophet  of  the  old 
gods,  equally  superhuman  and  equally  capable  of  working 
miracles.  This  was  probably  the  purpose  of  Philostratus' 
romance  of  Apollonius  of  Tyana,  composed  at  the  command 
of  the  empress  Julia  Domna.  The  birth  of  Apollonius  is  as 
marvellous  as  his  end  and  his  reappearance  on  earth,  to 
convince  a  young  man  who  disbelieved  in  immortality. 
Among  the  miracles  performed  by  him  are  the  casting  out 
of  demons  and  the  raising  of  a  man  from  the  dead.  His 
knowledge  of  the  future  and  of  hidden  secrets  borders  on 
omniscience.  The  emperor  Alexander  Severus  (as  already 
observed)  worshipped  him  in  his  domestic  chapel  together 
with  Christ.  The  anti-Christian  neo-Platonist  Hierocles 
(under  Diocletian)  put  him  above  Christ,  whose  acts  he 
declared  had  been  embellished  by  the  fictions  of  the  apostles, 
whereas  those  of  Apollonius  were  attested  by  unimpeachable 
witnesses.  Apollonius'  reputation  was  great,  not  only  among 
pagans,  but  also  among  Christians  of  the  succeeding  centuries. 


Religion  123 

In  a  Christian  collection  of  '  oracular  responses  of  Hellenic 
gods',  composed  about  474-91,  it  is  declared  that  only 
Moses,  Hermes  Trismegistus  and  Apollonius  were  like  God. 
The  pious  Jansenist  Tillemont  (died  1698)  believed  that  the 
devil,  fearing  the  destruction  of  his  kingdom,  had  caused 
Apollonius  to  be  born  about  the  same  time  as  Jesus  ;  Bayle 
in  his  lexicon  (1741)  calls  him  '  the  ape  of  the  son  of  God  '. 

Not  only  did  heathens  and  Christians  meet  miracles  with 
miracles,  but  they  must  frequently  have  laid  claim  to  the 
same  miracle,  although  only  one  instance  is  reported.  During 
the  war  against  the  Quadi  (173-4)  in  the  reign  of  Marcus 
Aurelius,  the  Roman  army,  overcome  by  the  heat  of  the 
blazing  sun,  found  itself  surrounded  by  a  superior  force,  and 
threatened  with  annihilation.  Then  suddenly  thick  clouds 
gathered  together,  rain  fell  in  torrents,  and  a  fearful  storm 
wrought  havoc  and  confusion  in  the  ranks  of  the  enemy  ; 
the  Romans  were  saved  and  gained  the  victory.  The  effect 
of  this  event  was  overwhelming  ;  according  to  the  custom 
of  the  time  it  was  immortalized  by  pictorial  representation, 
was  generally  regarded  as  a  miracle,  the  memory  of  which 
lasted  till  the  last  days  of  antiquity,  and  for  centuries  after- 
wards was  appealed  to  by  both  Christians  and  pagans  as  a 
proof  of  the  truth  of  their  respective  faiths.  A  picture,  which 
Themistius  had  seen,  represented  the  emperor  himself  appeal- 
ing to  Jupiter  for  aid  with  uplifted  hands,  while  the  soldiers 
caught  the  rain  in  their  helmets  ;  the  scene  on  the  column 
of  Marcus  Aurelius,  which  has  hitherto  been  generally  regarded 
as  a  representation  of  this  event,  cannot  possibly  be  meant. 
The  marvellous  deliverance  of  the  army  appears  to  have  been 
generally  attributed  to  the  emperor's  prayer  to  Jupiter  ; 
others,  however,  asserted  that  it  was  really  due  to  the  art 
of  an  Egyptian  magician  Arnuphis,  a  member  of  his  suite, 
who  had  drawn  down  rain  from  heaven  by  calling  upon  the 
gods,  especially  Hermes.  But  according  to  the  account  of 
a  Christian  contemporary,  the  miracle  had  been  wrought  by 
the  prayers  of  the  Christian  soldiers  of  the  twelfth  legion. 
Tertullian  also  (197)  refers  to  the  Christian  version  as  well 
known,  and  appeals  to  a  letter  of  Marcus  Aurelius  in  support 
of  it. 

Amongst  the  miracles,  which  the  Platonist  Celsus  in  his 
work  against  Christianity  adduces  as  a  proof  of  the  existence 


1 24  Religion 


of  the  gods,  he  gives  special  prominence  to  oracles,  prognostics 
and  portents,  by  which  they  announced  the  future  or  issued 
warnings  and  exhortations,  and  which  convinced  the  faitliful 
not  only  of  the  existence  of  the  gods,  but  also  of  their  solici- 
tude for  mankind.  '  What  need  is  there  to  collect  all  the 
oracular  responses,  which  have  been  delivered  with  a  divine 
voice  by  priests  and  priestesses,  as  well  as  by  others,  whether 
men  or  women,  who  were  under  a  divine  influence  ?  all  the 
wonderful  things  that  have  been  heard  issuing  from  the  inner 
sanctuary  ?  all  the  revelations  that  have  been  made  to  those 
who  consulted  the  sacrificial  victims  ?  and  all  the  knowledge 
that  has  been  conveyed  to  men  by  other  signs  and  prodigies  ? 
To  some  the  gods  have  appeared  in  visible  forms.  The  world 
is  full  of  such  instances.  How  many  cities  have  been  built 
in  obedience  to  commands  received  from  oracles  :  how  often, 
in  the  same  way,  delivered  from  disease  and  famine  !  Or  again, 
how  many  cities,  from  disregard  or  forgetfulness  of  these 
oracles,  have  perished  miserably  !  How  many  colonies  have 
been  established  and  made  to  flourish  by  following  their  orders  ! 
How  many  princes  and  private  persons  have,  from  this  cause, 
had  prosperity  or  adversity  !  How  many,  who  mourned  over 
their  childlessness,  have  obtained  the  blessing  they  asked  for  ! 
How  many  have  turned  away  from  themselves  the  anger  of 
demons  !  How  many,  who  were  maimed  in  their  limbs,'  have 
had  them  restored  !  And  again,  how  many  have  met  with 
summary  punishment  for  showing  want  of  reverence  to  the 
temples — some  being  instantly  seized  with  madness,  others 
openly  confessing  their  crimes,  others  having  put  an  end  to 
their  lives,  and  others  having  become  the  victims  of  incurable 
maladies  !  Yea,  some  have  been  slain  by  a  terrible  voice 
issuing  from  the  inner  sanctuary  '  (Origen,  Contra  Celsum, 
viii.  45,  Crombie's  trans.  Edinburgh  :   T,  &  T.  Clark.) 

The  belief  in  wonderful  signs  and  announcements  of  the 
future,  of  which  at  that  time  '  the  whole  world  was  full  ',  to  all 
appearance  was  the  most  general  form  of  belief  in  miracles, 
at  least  in  the  last  days  of  antiquity.  Many  philosophers  and 
others  who  had  received  a  philosophical  education  also  pro- 
fessed it.  Certainly  it  was  rejected  by  Epicureans,  Cynics 
and  Aristotelians  and  controverted  by  Academicians  ;  but 
Platonists,  Pythagoreans  and  Stoics  only  clung  to  it  the  more 
firmly,  and  this  belief  formed  part  and  parcel  of  the  theology 


Religion  125 

of  the  last-named  in  particular.  '  The  belief  in  an  extraordi- 
nary care  of  God  for  individual  man  was  too  comforting  an  idea 
for  them  to  renounce  ;  they  not  only  appealed  to  divination 
as  the  strongest  proof  of  the  existence  of  gods  and  the  govern- 
ment of  providence,  but  they  also  drew  the  converse  conclusion, 
that,  if  there  be  gods,  there  must  also  be  divination,  since  the 
benevolence  of  the  gods  would  not  allow  them  to  refuse  to 
mankind  so  inestimable  a  gift '  (Zeller,  Stoics,  Epicureans  and 
Sceptics,  Eng.  trans.,  p.  372).  This  belief  then,  which  in  fact 
necessarily  presupposed  a  belief  in  the  gods  and  providence, 
with  which  it  stood  or  fell,  was  extremely  common  amongst 
the  educated  at  that  time. 

It  is  true  that  Livy  declares  that  prodigies  were  neither 
publicly  made  known  nor  recorded  in  historical  works  owing 
to  the  indifference  which  caused  the  general  disbelief  of  his 
time  in  marvellous  presages  sent  by  the  gods.  But  this  indif-  ( 
ference  cannot  have  lasted  long,  for  all  the  historians  of  the 
imperial  period  without  exception  record  such  wonders  ;  in 
time  prodigies  even  became  an  object  of  special  interest  to 
believers,  which  explains  the  origin  of  the  collection  of  all  the 
signs  and  wonders  observed  in  Italy,  compiled  from  Livy  by  a 
certain  Julius  Obsequens  (of  uncertain  date). 

Tacitus,  who  maintained  a  critical  attitude  towards  the 
belief  in  signs  and  wonders,  and  expressly  guarded  against  the 
common  superstition,  which  saw  an  omen  in  every  uncommon 
event,  undoubtedly  did  not  recognize  the  genuineness  of  a 
number  of  reputed  prodigies  ;  nevertheless,  he  did  not  doubt 
that  they  did  occur,  and  in  the  later  books  of  his  great  history 
of  his  time  he  has  recorded  all  those  subsequent  to  the  year  51. 
Consequently,  it  seems  that  in  his  case  the  belief  in  such  things, 
although  probably  always  entertained  by  him,  had  increased 
with  years.  In  the  second  book  of  the  Histories  (ch.  50),  he 
relates  that,  on  the  day  of  the  battle  of  Bedriacum,  a  bird,  the 
like  of  which  had  never  been  seen,  alighted  on  the  ground  near 
Regium  Lepidum,  and,  undaunted  by  the  throng  of  men  and 
other  birds  that  circled  round  it,  would  not  move  until  Otho 
had  killed  himself  ;  then  it  disappeared.  When  men  came 
to  calculate  the  time,  it  was  found  that  the  beginning  and  end 
of  the  prodigy  exactly  coincided  with  Otho's  death.  Tacitus 
expressly  adds  that,  although  he  considered  it  beneath  his 
dignity  to  embellish  a  serious  work  with  fables,  he  could  not  in 


126  Religion 

this  instance  refuse  to  believe  what  was  universally  reported. 

The  regular  mention,  in  Suetonius,  Cassius  Dio,  Herodian 
and  the  later  imperial  biographers,  of  presages,  especially 
those  which  announced  to  a  private  individual  his  future 
accession  to  the  throne,  or  the  death  of  the  emperor,  leaves  no 
doubt  as  to  the  persistence  of  this  belief,  with  which  the  writers 
must  certainly  have  credited  the  majority  of  their  readers  ; 
and  the  narrative  frequently  shows  to  what  extent  it  was  held 
by  the  most  prominent  men  of  the  time.  Augustus,  says 
Suetonius,  paid  great  attention  to  certain  omens,  as  to  the 
meaning  of  which  he  had  no  doubt.  If  he  put  a  shoe  on  the 
wrong  foot,  it  was  a  bad  sign  ;  if  dew  fell  when  he  was  starting 
on  a  long  journey,  it  was  a  good  sign.  Wonderful  events  also 
always  made  a  great  impression  on  him  ;  as,  for  instance, 
when  a  palm  tree  sprouted  from  the  cracks  between  the  stones 
in  front  of  his  house,  and  on  his  arrival  at  Capri  the  drooping 
branches  of  an  old  holm-oak  revived.  Had  Livy  read  in 
Suetonius  the  list  (culled  by  him  from  books  and  traditions 
with  all  the  industry  of  a  bee)  of  all  the  omens  which 
announced  the  future  greatness  of  Augustus,  his  victories  and 
his  death,  perhaps  he  would  have  recalled  his  complaint  of  the 
indifference  of  his  contemporaries  to  such  things.  To  a  faith 
as  robust  as  this,  every  event  was  full  of  significance  ;  no 
marvel  was  too  great  or  too  ridiculous  for  it.  Suetonius 
seriously  relates  that  Augustus,  when  a  child  just  beginning  to 
speak,  once  ordered  some  frogs  on  a  family  estate  to  cease 
croaking,  which,   it  was  asserted,   they  immediately  did. 

Of  course  different  kinds  of  portents  were  differently  appre- 
ciated by  believers,  and  the  various  methods  of  divination 
did  not  always  enjoy  the  same  esteem,  but  sometimes  one, 
sometimes  another,  found  the  greatest  favour.  But  not  one 
of  the  recognized  kinds  of  divination  ever  fell  entirely  into 
disuse  for  want  of  belief.  Cicero's  crushing  ridicule  of  the 
art  of  the  haruspex  ^  and  the  inspection  of  entrails  might  sug- 
gest the  mistaken  view,  that  this  method  of  divination  was 
too  deeply  discredited  ever  to  recover  its  popularity,  whereas 
nothing  could  be  further  from  the  truth.  Cicero  quotes  Cato's 
remark,  that  he  wondered  how  one  haruspex  could  look  at 
another  without  laughing,  and  Hannibal's  question  to  King 

1  The  haruspex  foretold  the  future  from  the  inspection  of  the  entrails  of  sacrificial 
victims. 


Religion  127 

Prusias  (who  refused  to  give  battle  '  because  the  entrails 
forbade  it '),  whether  he  had  more  faith  in  a  slice  of  veal  than 
in  an  old  general ;  he  further  recalls  the  fact  that  in  the  last 
civil  war  the  exact  opposite  of  what  had  been  foretold  nearly 
always  happened.  But  the  mockery  of  unbelievers  no  more 
disturbed  the  faith  of  believers  than  the  facts  which  gave  the 
lie  to  their  belief.  As  always  happens  in  such  cases,  they  only 
remembered  prophecies,  which  were,  or  were  supposed  to  have 
been,  fulfilled  ;  and  ample  testimony  from  succeeding  cen- 
turies confirms  the  persistence  of  the  belief  in  the  inspection 
of  entrails,  and  its  diffusion  even  amongst  the  educated  classes. 
The  fact  that  Tiberius  prohibited  the  consultation  of  harus- 
pices  in  secret  and  without  the  presence  of  witnesses  assumes 
a  very  general  use  of  this  form  of  divination.  Claudius' 
apprehension  (in  47)  that  the  oldest  science  in  Italy  might 
become  extinct  through  neglect,  can  only  have  referred  to  the 
decay  of  the  Etruscan  haruspicina,  not  to  a  general  diminu- 
tion of  its  employment.  The  older  Pliny  also  says  expressly 
that  large  numbers  of  people  firmly  believe  that  animals 
warn  us  of  danger  by  their  muscular  fibres  and  entrails.  On 
the  morning  of  the  day  on  which  the  emperor  Galba  was  mur- 
dered (January  15,  69),  the  haruspex  Umbricius  informed 
him  that  the  entrails  of  the  victim  pointed  to  a  dangerous  plot 
and  an  enemy  in  the  house  ;  Otho,  who  was  standing  by, 
took  this  as  an  omen  favourable  to  his  undertaking.  Epic- 
tetus,  who  in  accordance  with  the  doctrines  of  his  school  re- 
cognized divine  revelations  and  thoroughly  believed  in  the  art 
which  interpreted  them,  only  advises  that  man  should  be 
influenced  in  his  actions  not  only  by  divina.tion,  but  before  all 
by  a  sense  of  duty.  There  would  have  been  no  occasion  for 
this  advice,  had  not  divination  been  very  generally  recognized. 
It  is  only  fear  of  the  future,  he  says,  that  so  often  drives 
men  to  the  soothsayers.  Trembling  with  excitement,  they 
approach  them  with  prayers  and  flattery,  as  if  they  could  fulfil 
our  wishes  :  '  Lord,  shall  I  be  my  father's  heir  ?  Lord,  have 
pity  on  me,  restore  me  to  health  !  But  the  augur  or  haruspex 
can  only  foresee  impending  events,  death,  danger,  sickness 
or  the  like.  He  does  not  know  whether  they  are  really  bene- 
ficial or  injurious  to  the  person  concerned  '.  Herodian  says 
that  the  brave  resistance  offered  by  the  city  of  Aquileia  to 
Maximin  was  mainly  due  to  the  prophecies  of  its  harusptces  : 


128  Religion 

'  for  the  inhabitants  of  Italy  have  most  confidence  in  this  kind 
of  divination  '.  The  estimation  in  which  it  was  held  outside 
Italy  also  is  shown  not  only  by  the  remarks  of  Epictetus, 
but  also  by  the  recognition  accorded  it  by  the  dream-interpreter 
Artemidorus,  who  admitted  only  a  few  methods  of  divination 
besides  his  own  :  astrology,  the  inspection  of  victims'  liver  (i.e. 
entrails),  and  the  flight  of  birds.  Further,  accidental  state- 
ments of  different  dates  allow  us  to  conclude  that  the  art  of 
the  havuspex  never  lacked  supporters  amongst  the  educated. 
Regulus,  notorious  during  the  period  from  Nero  to  Domitian 
as  an  orator  and  accuser  in  cases  of  lese-majesie,  was  accustomed 
in  every  case  to  question  the  haruspices  as  to  the  result  of  the 
trial.  According  to  Juvenal,  they  had  to  answer  so  many 
questions  about  the  favourite  musical  virtuosi  and  actors  of 
distinguished  women,  that  they  got  varicose  veins  from  stand- 
ing so  long  on  their  feet.  The  emperor  Gordian  I  was  greatly 
skilled  in  this  art,  in  which  Diocletian  also  had  great  confidence. 
Constantine  allowed  it  to  be  practised  in  public,  but  forbade 
it  inside  the  house  on  pain  of  death  ;  in  cases  of  injury  by 
lightning  he  ordered  it  himself  (321)  for  state  reasons.  Accord- 
ing to  Ammianus  Marcellinus,  one  of  the  means  for  reading 
the  future  which  providence  has  bestowed  upon  mankind 
is  the  inspection  of  entrails  ;  he  says  that  Julian,  while  still  a 
professing  Christian,  was  devoted  to  the  art  of  the  haruspex 
and  the  augur,  '  and  everything  else  practised  by  the  worship- 
pers of  the  gods  from  time  immemorial '.  Such  incidental 
proofs  of  the  lasting  and  widespread  belief  in  the  art  of  the 
haruspex,  which  could  be  multiplied,  justify  us  in  assuming 
the  same  in  the  case  of  all  the  other  traditional  methods  of 
divination. 

Among  the  methods  of  inquiring  into  the  future,  astrology, 
the  favourite  science  of  that  age,  which  enjoyed  the  highest 
favour,  especially  amongst  the  upper  classes,  did  not  necessarily 
presuppose  belief  in  the  gods  and  a  providence  exercised  by 
them,  although,  on  the  other  hand,  it  by  no  means  excluded 
it.  Of  the  older  members  of  the  Stoic  school,  which  believed 
in  Providence,  Panaetius  was  the  only  one  who  rejected  it ; 
he  contested  the  efficacy  of  prognostics  and  divination  in 
general.  Yet  it  was  only  natural  that  the  widespread  belief 
in  an  inevitable  fate,  which  more  than  anything  else  encour- 
aged astrology,  should  tend  to  the  abandonment  of  polytheism. 


Religion  129 


The  belief  '  which  referred  all  events  to  their  constellations 
by  the  laws  of  nativity  ',  equally  approved  of  by  the  educated 
and  ignorant  and  shared  by  Seneca,  according  to  which  what 
had  been  once  decided  was  irrevocably  fixed  for  all  time, 
definitively  superannuated  the  divinity.  According  to  Sue- 
tonius, Tiberius  showed  little  interest  in  the  gods  and  their 
cult,  because  he  was  entirely  devoted  to  astrology,  and 
thoroughly  convinced  that  everything  happened  in  accord- 
ance with  the  decrees  of  fate. 

But  oracular  predictions  also,  in  which  the  gods,  as  it  were, 
in  person  revealed  the  future  to  mankind,  since  they  assumed 
the  direct  inspiration  of  the  divinity,  were  bound  more  than 
anything  else  to  strengthen  and  foster  the  belief  in  the  latter. 
In  the  first  centuries  of  the  Christian  era  these  predictions 
enjoyed  a  reputation  almost  as  great  as  in  any  earlier  period  ; 
and  the  fact  that  they  not  only  held  their  ground,  but,  after  a 
temporary  decline,  underwent  a  complete  restoration,  is  a 
still  more  indubitable  proof  of  the  strength  of  polytheism. 
Strabo,  who  expressly  attests  the  decay  and  neglect  of  the 
Greek  oracles  in  the  time  of  Augustus,  was  certainly  influenced 
in  his  statements  by  the  recollection  of  the  splendour  of  Delphi, 
which  had  been  extinct  for  centuries.  None  the  less,  to  all 
appearance  he  gives  the  correct  explanation  of  the  pheno- 
menon— that  the  Romans  were  satisfied  with  the  predictions 
of  the  Sibylline  books  and  the  Etruscan  methods  of  divination 
(observation  of  the  entrails,  the  flight  of  birds,  and  the  heavenly 
signs).  It  was  a  natural  result  of  universal  empire,  that  the 
non-Roman  should  everywhere  be  kept  down  by  the  Roman 
element  ;  and  it  was  just  at  that  time  that  the  overpowering 
impression  of  Roman  might  and  greatness  had  reached  its 
height  in  the  Greek  world.  But  although  this  impression 
was  strong  enough  to  divert  man's  religious  needs  into  new 
channels,  it  was  by  no  means  strong  enough  to  control  them 
permanently.  The  old  belief  was  completely  restored  ;  the 
famous  oracular  temples  were  again  filled  with  pilgrims. 
There  '  prophets,  full  of  the  god  and  identified  with  him, 
foretold  the  future,  warded  off  dangers,  healed  the  sick,  com- 
forted the  sorrowful,  helped  the  unhappy,  gave  consolation 
in  suffering  and  relief  in  distress  '.  Christian  writers  declare 
that  with  the  coming  of  the  Redeemer  into  the  world  the  power 
of  the  false  gods  had  been  broken,  that  the  charm  by  means  of 

R.L.M. — III.  K 


130  Religion 

which  they  had  so  long  given  speech  to  images  of  wood  and 
stone  had  lost  its  power,  and  that  their  oracles  were  dumb, 
but  even  they  were  obliged  to  confess  that  the  demons  in  the 
temples  again  issued  true  prophecies  and  salutary  warnings 
and  performed  cures.  Their  object,  of  course,  was  to  do  all  the 
more  injury  to  those  whom  they  turned  aside  from  the  search 
after  the  true  God,  by  insinuating  into  their  minds  ideas  of  the 
false  one.  The  foreknowledge  of  the  future  possessed  by  the 
demons  was  explained  by  their  being  former  servants  of  God 
who  were  thus  acquainted  with  his  intentions.  Even  Petrarch, 
in  other  respects  remarkably  free  from  superstition,  believed 
in  the  heathen  oracles  as  given  by  demons. 

The  greatness  of  the  Roman  empire  and  the  incessant  mutual 
intercourse  of  all  its  component  parts,  highly  developed  by  its 
admirable  means  of  communication,  enormously  enlarged  the 
area  over  which  the  influence  of  the  more  respected  oracles 
extended.  Pilgrims  journeyed  from  remote  barbarian  lands 
to  the  Greek  temples  in  search  of  help  and  counsel,  and  the 
responses  of  the  Greek  gods  were  received  with  awe  in  countries 
to  which  their  names  had  never  penetrated  before  Rome  ruled 
the  world.  Apparently  in  the  time  of  Hadrian,  a  cohort  of 
Tungri  in  its  fixed  quarters  at  Borcovicus  (Housesteads  in 
Northumberland)  in  Britain  offered  an  ex-voto  '  to  the  gods 
and  goddesses  in  accordance  with  the  interpretation  of  the 
oracle  of  Apollo  of  Claros  '  (near  Colophon),  and  similarly 
dedicated  inscriptions  at  Obrovazzo  in  the  north  of  Dalmatia 
and  at  Cuicul  in  Numidia  refer  to  the  response  of  the  same 
oracle  ;  in  these  cases  we  may  perhaps  assume  a  joint  con- 
sultation of  this  god  by  troops  of  different  provinces.  Any- 
how, there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  most  famous  oracles  in  all 
the  provinces  were  consulted  in  imperial  times,  a  fact  confirmed 
by  numerous  incidental  statements  in  ancient  authorities. 
To  mention  only  a  few  instances,  Germanicus  consulted  the 
oracle  of  the  bull  Apis  at  Memphis  in  addition  to  that  of  Apollo 
at  Claros,  Tiberius  the  '  lot '  oracle  of  Geryones  near  Pata- 
vium,  Caligula  that  of  '  the  Fortunes  '  at  Antium,  Nero  that 
of  Delphi,  Vespasian  that  of  mount  Carmel,  Titus  that  of 
Venus  at  Paphos  in  Cyprus,  Caracalla  that  of  Serapis  at  Alex- 
andria and  all  the  other  oracles  of  repute.  Amongst  believers, 
proofs  of  the  omniscience  of  the  oracles  were  brought  forward, 
stronger  even  than  the  answers  of  the  Delphian  oracle  to  the 


Religion  13 1 

inquiries  of  Croesus,  as  recorded  by  Herodotus.  Plutarch's 
friend,  the  learned  Demetrius  of  Tarsus,  gives  an  account  of 
an  event  of  which  he  was  an  eye-witness — the  conversion  of 
an  unbelieving  governor  of  Cilicia  by  an  oracular  response. 
At  the  suggestion  of  certain  Epicurean  scoffers  at  religion  in 
his  suite,  he  sent  a  frcedraan  with  a  sealed  tablet,  containing 
the  question  to  which  he  desired  an  answer,  to  the  dream- 
oracle  of  the  demi-god  Mopsus.  The  messenger,  who  accord- 
ing to  custom  spent  a  night  in  the  temple,  dreamed  that  a 
handsome  man  approached  him  and  said  '  a  black  one  ',  and 
then  retired.  When  he  informed  the  governor,  he  was  terrified, 
fell  on  his  knees,  opened  the  tablet,  and  showed  the  question 
to  those  who  were  present :  '  Shall  I  sacrifice  a  black  or  a  white 
bull  ?  '  Even  the  Epicureans  were  disconcerted  ;  the  governor 
offered  the  sacrifice,  and  ever  afterwards  worshipped  Mopsus. 

Nothing,  however,  so  clearly  shows  the  extent  to  which 
the  believer  in  miracles  was  capable  of  self-deception,  and  how 
readily  oracles  found  admission  and  acceptance  in  countries 
where  they  had  been  previously  unknown,  as  Lucian's  account 
of  the  pretended  oracle  of  Apollo  and  Aesculapius  set  up  by 
the  false. prophet  Alexander  in  his  native  town  of  Abonuteichos 
in  Paphlagonia. 

Alexander  (c.  105-c.  175),  who  when  a  boy  was  remarkable 
for  his  beauty,  had  been  instructed  in  the  art  of  magic  by  a 
physician  (a  countryman  of  Apollonius  of  Tyana),  to  whom 
he  acted  as  assistant.  Having  travelled  with  a  single  com- 
panion through  Bithynia  and  Macedonia  in  the  character  of  a 
magician  and  soothsayer,  he  decided  to  found  an  oracle  of  his 
own  in  his  native  place,  which  appeared  specially  adapted 
for  the  purpose,  owing  to  the  wealth  and  crass  superstition 
of  its  inhabitants.  Tablets  of  bronze,  buried  by  Alexander 
in  the  temple  of  Apollo  at  Chalcedon  and  conveniently  dis- 
covered again,  announced  that  Apollo  and  his  son  Asclepius 
were  coming  to  Abonuteichos.  The  inhabitants,  highly  de- 
lighted, at  once  set  about  building  a  temple  to  Asclepius. 
After  a  Sibylline  oracle  had  been  circulated  to  the  effect  that 
Alexander,  a  descendant  of  Perseus  and  Asclepius,  would  make 
his  appearance  as  a  prophet,  he  entered  the  town,  an  imposing 
and  attractive  personality,  magnificently  clad  in  a  white  and 
purple  tunic,  carrying  a  sickle  in  his  hand  after  the  manner  of 
Perseus.     The  god  Asclepius  was  said  to  have  revealed  him- 


132  Religion 

self  in  the  form  of  a  snake.  Prompted  by  Alexander,  his 
fellow  townsmen  found  an  empty  goose's  egg,  containing  a 
little  snake,  in  a  pool  of  water  which  had  collected  where  the 
foundations  of  the  temple  had  been  dug.  Soon  afterwards 
he  exhibited  a  large  tame  snake  which  had  long  been  kept  in 
readiness,  the  rapid  growth  of  the  god  being  looked  upon  as 
a  matter  of  course.  Appearing  with  the  snake  round  his  neck 
in  a  dimly-lighted  room,  he  thrust  out  from  his  robe  a  snake's 
head  made  of  painted  linen,  somewhat  resembling  a  human 
face,  the  mouth  of  which  could  be  opened  or  shut  by  means 
of  a  horsehair  attachment  inside.  Subsequently  pipes  (a 
number  of  cranes'  windpipes  fastened  together)  were  fixed 
in  the  head,  through  which  an  assistant  could  make  the  god 
speak  ;  but  these  '  autophonic  '  ^  oracles  were  only  given 
exceptionally  and  for  a  high  fee.  As  a  rule  questions  were 
handed  in  sealed  and  given  back  in  the  same  condition  ;  when 
opened,  the  answer  of  the  god  was  found  written  inside.  The 
name  of  the  god  was  Glycon. 

The  fame  of  the  oracle  spread  rapidly  throughout  Asia  Minor 
and  Thrace,  and  during  the  whole  time  of  its  existence  (more 
than  twenty  years)  it  was  visited  by  such  crowds,  that  food 
ran  short  at  Abonuteichos.  Lucian  estimates  the  annual 
income  of  the  prophet  at  about  ;^3,ooo  (the  fee  for  the  oracle 
being  about  is.),  out  of  which  he  had  to  pay  a  number  of 
assistants  of  all  kinds  ;  on  the  other  hand,  two  interpreters  of 
obscure  oracular  utterances  had  each  to  pay  him  £2^0  yearly 
out  of  their  takings.  The  god  frequently  promised  that  the 
wishes  of  those  who  consulted  him  would  be  fulfilled,  if  the 
prophet  interceded  for  them.  It  was  no  uncommon  thing  for 
questions  to  be  asked  in  foreign  languages,  such  as  Syrian  and 
Celtic  (the  language  in  general  use  in  Galatia),  and  it  was  not 
always  easy  to  find  persons  who  understood  them.  Occasional 
blunders  in  the  answers  did  not  injure  the  prestige  of 
the  oracle  ;  it  was  dangerous  to  deny  its  divine  nature,  for 
Alexander  knew  how  to  rouse  the  crowd  of  believers  to  frenzy 
against  its  enemies  (especially  the  Epicureans)  with  the  cry  of 
'  atheists  and  Christians  '.  He  gained  the  friendship  of  the 
priests  of  the  most  famous  oracles  of  Asia  Minor  by  sending 
on  his  own  visitors  to  them. 

1  I.e.  oracles  delivered  by  the  god  himself.    The  word  '  autophonic  '  does  not  seem  to 
be  in  use  in  English,  but  is  adopted  for  brevity  (the  Greek  is  avTdifiui<os). 


Religion  133 

Alexander  also  sent  emissaries  into  other  provinces  to  spread 
the  worship  of  his  god,  and  soon  found  numerous  adherents  in 
Italy  and  Rome  itself.  Many  of  the  most  highly  placed  and 
influential  personages  put  themselves  into  communication 
with  him.  Insidious  questions  (i.e.  such  as  referred  to  the 
emperor  or  affairs  of  state)  were  kept  back  by  Alexander  ; 
he  thus  had  the  questioners  in  his  power,  and  they  were  obliged 
to  pay  a  high  price  for  his  silence.  The  god-fearing  and  super- 
stitious Publius  Mummius  Siscnna  Rutilianus  {consul  suffectus 
about  157)  believed  in  him  so  blindly,  that  at  the  command 
of  the  god  Glycon,  when  sixty  years  of  age,  he  married  Alex- 
ander's daughter,  whose  mother  was  supposed  to  be  the  moon- 
goddess.  It  was  Rutilianus  who  persuaded  the  emperor 
Marcus  Aurelius  to  have  two  lions  thrown  into  the  Danube  as 
an  offering  certain  to  ensure  victory  ;  the  result  was  that  the 
Romans  suffered  a  severe  defeat  (under  Furius  Victorinus, 
167-9).  When  Lucian  wanted  to  prosecute  Alexander  for 
an  attempt  upon  his  life,  and  lodged  a  complaint  before  Lol- 
lianus  Avitus,  the  governor  of  Bithynia,  the  latter  besought 
him  to  abandon  the  idea,  since  he  could  not  prosecute  the 
father-in-law  of  Rutilianus.  At  that  time  the  terrors  of  war, 
combined  with  the  ravages  of  a  widespread  epidemic,  every- 
where increased  the  need  of  religion  and  strengthened  belief. 
On  the  door  of  every  house  an  oracular  response  could  be  read, 
supposed  to  be  a  certain  preventive  of  the  disease,  and  circu- 
lated by  Alexander's  messengers,  who  had  recommended  his 
assistance  against  pestilence,  fires  and  earthquakes. 

When  Alexander  died  at  the  age  of  seventy,  his  honour, 
wealth  and  influence  were  still  undiminished  ;  even  after  his 
death,  it  was  believed  that  his  statue  in  the  market-place  of 
Parium  in  Mysia  delivered  oracles.  Lucian's  account,  which 
might  be  considered  exaggerated,  is  fully  confirmed  by  coins 
of  Abonuteichos  with  the  heads  of  the  emperors  Antoninus 
Pius  and  Marcus  Aurelius,  exhibiting  on  the  reverse  a  snake 
with  a  human  head,  some  of  them  inscribed  Glycon. 
The  legends  of  these  coins  further  confirm  the  statement 
of  Lucian  that  Alexander  persuaded  Lucius  Verus  during  his 
stay  in  Asia  (163-6),  to  change  the  name  of  his  native  place 
to  '  lonopolis  ',  which  entirely  supplanted  Abonuteichos  and 
is  still  preserved  in  the  slightly  altered  form  Incboli.  The 
above  type  of  coin  occurs  there  till  the  time  of  Callus  Tre- 


134  Religion 

bonianus  (251-3),  tmd  under  Caracalla  and  Gordian  III 
also  in  Nicomedia,  whither  the  cult  of  Glycon  must  likewise 
have  penetrated.  Further  evidences  of  its  extension  have  been 
found  in  Dacia  (chiefly  colonized  from  Asia  Minor),  and  upper 
Moesia ;  perhaps  also  in  Africa.  Two  inscriptions  that  have 
come  to  light  in  Dacia  (at  Carlsburg  in  Transylvania)  are 
dedicated  to  the  god  Glycon,  '  by  his  command  ',  one  in  Moesia 
(at  Uskub  in  Turkish  Macedonia)  '  to  Jupiter  and  Juno,  to  the 
serpent  and  the  serpent's  wife  and  Alexander  ',  according  to 
which  Alexander  appears  to  have  had  a  female  counterpart, 
in  addition  to  the  snake  mentioned  by  Lucian. 

The  fact  that  so  gross  an  imposture  could  be  practised  so 
long  with  such  enormous  success  and  without  serious  opposi- 
tion, naturally  implies  an  even  stronger  belief  in  the  recognized 
oracles,  and  enables  us  to  estimate  their  influence.  Several 
of  these  were  dream-oracles,  as  those  of  Mopsus  and  Amphilo- 
chus  at  Mallus  in  Cilicia,  which  announced  to  Sextus  Quintilius 
Condianus  his  own  and  his  brother's  murder  by  Commodus  in 
a  dream  (of  Hercules,  as  a  child,  strangling  the  two  serpents). 
But  the  belief  that  dreams  predicted  the  future,  not  only  in 
these  sanctuaries  but  everywhere,  was  the  most  general  of  all 
forms  of  belief  in  portents,  which  was  not  even  contested  by- 
some  of  those  who  in  other  respects  utterly  refused  to  believe 
in  prophecy.  Aristotle  and  Democritus  admitted  the  occur- 
rence of  prophetic  dreams,  not,  however,  as  sent  by  the  gods, 
but  as  the  natural  effects  of  natural  causes  ;  the  elder  Pliny, 
also,  who  denied  all  supernatural  revelation  of  the  future, 
was  inclined  to  the  belief  in  significant  dreams.  In  one  of  his 
earlier  books  he  leaves  the  question  undecided,  but  in  a  later 
one  he  states  as  an  undoubted  fact  that  one  of  the  imperial 
guard  in  Rome,  who  had  been  attacked  by  hydrophobia  as  the 
result  of  the  bite  of  a  mad  dog,  was  saved  by  a  remedy  revealed 
in  a  dream  to  his  mother  in  Spain.  Having  no  idea  of  his 
misfortune,  she  had  communicated  the  purport  of  the  dream 
to  him  in  a  letter,  which  reached  him  just  in  time  to  save  him, 
when  his  life  was  despaired  of.  When  Pliny  says  that  this 
hitherto  unknown  remedy,  which  always  proved  successful 
in  other  cases,  had  been  revealed  by  '  God  ',  he  is  referring  to 
the  mysterious  working  of  nature,  also  manifested  in  the 
sympathies  and  antipathies  of  its  forces,  certainly  not  to  the 
providence  of  a  personal  divinity. 


Religion  135 

Now,  although  the  belief  in  prophetic  dreams  docs  not  neces- 
sarily suppose  the  belief  in  the  gods  and  Providence,  it  may 
safely  be  asserted  that  the  one  was  rarely  unaccompanied  by 
the  other  ;  in  the  majority  of  cases  belief  and  unbelief  were 
accorded  simultaneously  to  both.  To  all  appearance  the 
theory  of  Democritus  found  little  favour  even  amongst  the 
Epicureans,  who,  generally  speaking,  not  only  denied  the 
working  of  Providence,  but  also  divination,  whether  by  dreams 
or  in  any  other  form.  On  the  other  hand,  says  Origen,  all 
who  accepted  the  doctrine  of  Providence  regarded  it  as  certain 
that  manifestations  and  phenomena  were  brought  before  men's 
minds  in  dreams,  some  of  which  were  of  a  nature  entirely 
divine,  while  others  revealed  the  future,  sometimes  clearly, 
sometimes  in  riddles.  In  sleep,  says  the  spokesman  of  hea- 
thenism in  the  dialogue  of  Minucius  Felix,  we  see,  hear  and 
recognize  the  divinity,  whom  by  day  we  impiously  deny,  treat 
with  contempt,  and  insult  by  perjury.  The  Stoics,  especially, 
attached  the  greatest  value  to  this  '  special  form  of  consolation 
derived  from  a  natural  oracle  ',  bestowed  by  Providence  upon 
mankind  ;  even  Christians  believed  that  dreams  that  came 
true  were  sent  not  only  by  God,  but  also  by  demons,  certainly 
with  the  evil  intention  mentioned  above,  and  with  the  reser- 
vation that  those  sent  by  the  latter  were  more  frequently 
deceptive  and  impure.  We  shall  not  be  far  wrong,  then,  if  we 
infer  a  universal  and  firm  belief  in  the  gods  and  Providence 
from  the  universal  and  firm  belief  in  dreams. 

The  most  superficial  acquaintance  with  the  literature  (es- 
pecially historical)  of  the  first  centuries  of  the  Christian  era  is 
sufficient  to  establish  beyond  a  doubt  the  universality  of  the 
belief  in  dreams.  An  important  event  is  rarely  described, 
without  one  dream  at  least  being  mentioned  in  which  it  was 
predicted.  The  most  eminent  men  were  greatly  influenced 
in  their  actions  by  dreams,  and  prompted  to  all  kinds  of  under- 
takings ;  it  was  in  consequence  of  a  dream  that  Galen  wrote 
his  treatises  on  mathematics,  and  Pliny  the  elder  his  history 
of  the  Roman  wars  in  Germany.  Dreams  often  determined 
the  choice  of  a  man's  career  ;  thus,  Galen's  father,  in  conse- 
quence of  a  dream,  decided  to  educate  him  for  the  medical 
profession.  Galen  himself  was  frequently  guided  by  dreams 
in  the  treatment  of  his  patients,  as  a  rule  with  the  happiest 
results.     Thus,  on  one  occasion,  acting  on  the  inspiration  of 


136  Religion 

two  unmistakably  clear  dreams,  he  made  an  incision  in  the 
veins  between  the  index  and  middle  finger  of  the  right  hand, 
and  let  the  blood  flow  till  it  stopped  of  itself.  His  behef  in 
the  art  of  divination  by  the  flight  of  birds  was  equally  strong. 
Suetonius  begged  the  younger  Pliny  to  procure  the  adjourn- 
ment of  a  case  in  which  he  was  defendant,  since  a  dream  had 
foretold  that  the  verdict  would  be  against  him.  Pliny  advised 
him  to  think  over  the  matter  again,  since  the  question  was 
whether  Suetonius'  dreams  signified  impending  events  or  the 
contrary,  as  in  the  case  of  a  dream  of  his  own. 

Augustus,  who  paid  careful  attention  not  only  to  his  own 
dreams,  but  to  those  of  others  which  had  reference  to  him, 
was  persuaded  by  a  dream  to  take  his  stand  once  every  year 
on  a  certain  day  in  a  certain  place,  to  hold  out  his  hand  Hke  a 
beggar  to  passers-by,  and  to  accept  the  copper  coins  offered 
to  him.  Marcus  Aurelius  offered  thanks  to  the  gods  for  having 
communicated  to  him  in  a  dream  a  prescription  for  dizziness 
and  blood-spitting.  Cassius  Dio  wrote  a  book  on  the  dreams 
and  prognostics  which  foretold  the  accession  of  Septimius 
Severus  ;  the  latter,  who  attached  such  importance  to  his 
dreams  that  he  had  one  of  them  represented  in  bronze,  accepted 
it  very  graciously.  In  one  of  these  dreams,  he  saw  himself 
conducted  to  a  lofty  watch-tower,  from  which  he  had  an  ex- 
tensive view  over  land  and  sea  ;  he  moved  his  hands  as  if  he 
were  playing  the  lute,  and  harmonious  sounds  reached  his  ear. 
Dio  also  began  his  great  Roman  history  '  at  the  command  of 
the  divinity  in  a  dream  ',  and  found  courage  and  strength  to 
continue  and  complete  it  in  fresh  dreams,  in  which  Tyche 
(Fortune),  to  whom  he  had  devoted  himself  as  the  tutelary 
deity  of  his  fife,  promised  him  immortahty. 

The  only  dream-book  that  has  survived  out  of  a  very  ex- 
tensive, chiefly  Greek,  literature  of  the  subject,  is  especially 
interesting  as  a  proof  how  generally  the  interpretation  of 
dreams  was  recognized  as  a  science,  whose  representatives 
endeavoured  to  develop  as  rigorous  and  exact  a  method  of 
interpretation  as  possible,  based  upon  the  most  comprehensive 
and  trustworthy  material  available.  The  author  of  this 
treatise,  Artemidorus  of  Daldis  (as  he  preferred  to  call  himself 
rather  than  from  his  native  city  Ephesus,  in  order  that  his 
mother's  obscure  birthplace  might  have  the  glory  of  having 
produced  a  famous  man),  lived  towards  the  end  of  the  second 


Religion  137 

century.  He  wrote  in  obedience  to  the  repeated  command 
of  Apollo,  who  had  appeared  to  him  in  a  dream  in  visible  form, 
and  at  the  instigation  of  Cassius  Maximus,  a  man  of  senatorial 
rank  and  African  descent,  who  was  also  on  friendly  terms  with 
Aristides.  Artemidorus,  who  also  wrote  on  the  observation 
of  birds  and  palmistry,  regarded  the  dreams  which  the  gods 
'  send  to  the  naturally  prophetic  soul  of  man  '  as  a  practical 
proof  of  divine  Providence.  His  chief  opponents  he  considered 
to  be  those  who  believed  neither  in  Providence  nor  in  any  kind 
of  divination.  His  profound  respect  for  the  action  of  the 
divinity  is  shown  by  the  warning  that,  when  a  man  begs  the 
gods  to  send  him  dreams,  he  should  neither  inquire  after  what 
is  useless  nor  pray  as  if  he  were  addressing  instructions  to 
them,  and  after  the  dream  he  should  offer  a  sacrifice  and  a 
prayer  of  thanksgiving.  He  regarded  his  mission  of  inter- 
preting the  manifestations  of  the  divinity  as  a  priestly  office, 
and  his  '  science  '  as  sacred.  To  its  investigation  he  had 
devoted  his  whole  life,  studied  night  and  day,  bought  all  the 
dream-books  he  could  find,  and  during  his  journeys  in  Asia 
Minor.Greece,  Italy,  and  the  islands  had  made  the  acquaintance 
of  as  many  professional  confrdres  as  possible,  and  had  endea- 
voured to  increase  his  knowledge  by  experience.  His  lofty 
idea  of  the  truth  and  dignity  of  his  science  caused  him  to 
disdain  all  quackery  and  artifice.  He  had  never  endeavoured 
to  produce  an  effect  upon  the  general  public  or  to  win  the 
approval  of  professional  rhetoricians  ;  otherwise  it  would  have 
been  as  easy  for  him  as  for  others  to  use  dazzling  and  striking 
language.  He  always  insists  upon  simple  and  intelligible 
explanations  of  dreams,  and  rejects  all  the  subtleties  and  arti- 
ficialities which  impress  the  vulgar  ;  he  even  considers  them 
blasphemous,  since  to  a  certain  extent  the  intention  to  deceive 
is  thereby  attributed  to  the  gods  who  send  the  dreams.  The 
only  thing  he  was  proud  of  was  the  rigorous  accuracy  of  his 
interpretation.  His  book  contains  numerous  proofs  of  his 
sincerity  and  veracity  ;  he  also  had  the  satisfaction  of  knowing 
that,  although  malevolent  and  pedantic  critics  might  censure 
its  incompleteness  and  insufficient  details,  no  one  ventured 
to  assert  that  it  departed  from  the  truth  even  in  the  slightest 
degree.  The  fewer  the  traces  of  anything  that  can  properly 
be  called  mystical  or  fantastical  in  this  book,  whose  production 
and  circulation  is  inconceivable  without  an  educated  circle 


138  Religion 

of  readers  of  similar  views,  and  the  more  consistent,  rational 
and  methodical  its  treatment  of  the  subject — the  more  striking 
proof  does  this  afford  of  the  fact  that  at  this  period  even  sobriety 
of  judgment  and  a  certain  element  of  rationalism  by  no  means 
excluded  belief  in  a  divine  Providence,  which  continually 
manifested  itself  in  miracles. 

Of  these  miracles  the  most  palpable  and  the  most  convincing 
were  the  cures  of  diseases  by  means  suggested  in  dreams  ; 
that  is  to  say,  those  which  faith  most  readily  and  most  fre- 
quently created  as  continually  affording  it  fresh  support. 
These  miracles,  of  course,  took  place  by  preference  on  the  holy 
ground  of  the  temples  of  the  healing  gods  Aesculapius,  Isis 
and  Serapis,  who  also  wrought  other  marvels  in  their  sanctu- 
aries. Thus  Aristidcs  declares  of  the  inexhaustible  '  sacred 
well '  in  the  temple  of  Aesculapius  at  Pergamus,  that  by  bath- 
ing in  it  many  recovered  their  eyesight,  and  were  cured  of 
chest  complaints,  asthma,  deformity  of  the  feet ;  a  dumb  man 
who  drank  of  its  water  was  able  to  speak  ;  and  in  several  cases 
merely  drawing  water  from  the  well  effected  a  cure.  It  was 
by  no  means  uncommon  for  the  god  to  appear  in  person  to 
believers.  Origen  complains  because  Celsus,  who  calls  the 
Christians  simple  for  believing  in  the  miracles  of  Jesus,  expects 
them  to  believe  '  that  a  vast  number  of  Hellenes  and  barbarians 
(according  to  their  own  assertion)  have  seen  and  still  see 
Aesculapius,  not  in  a  vision,  but  in  person,  perform  cures, 
distribute  blessings,  and  predict  the  future'.  Against  these 
assertions  Origen  appeals  to  the  innumerable  witnesses  to  the 
miracles  of  Christ,  adding  that  he  himself  had  seen  men  de- 
livered from  grievous  diseases  (demoniacal  possession,  mad- 
ness), and  other  evils,  '  which  neither  men  nor  demons  could 
heal',  simply  by  calling  upon  the  name  of  God  and  Jesus. 
The  two  semi-divine  sons  of  Aesculapius  also  appeared  to  many 
at  Epidaurus  and  other  places.  In  a  dedicatory  inscription 
(preserved  at  Rome)  to  Pan,  giving  thanks  for  recovery  from 
severe  illness,  it  is  said  that  the  god  appeared  visibly  to  the 
patient,  not  in  a  dream,  but  in  broad  daylight. 

But  of  course  the  greater  marvel,  the  descent  of  the  healing 
gods  in  person  to  those  who  sought  their  aid,  was  also  of  less 
frequent  occurrence  ;  as  a  rule  cures  were  wrought  by  dreams, 
not  limited  to  those  who  had  passed  the  night  in  temples. 
In  a  special  section  on  '  Prescriptions '  Artemidorus  has  at- 


Religion  139 

tempted  to  reduce  this  marvel  to  its  true  proportions,  by 
divesting  it  of  the  embelHshments  whereby  the  Hvcly  imagina- 
tion of  believers  thought  to  magnify  its  importance,  but  which 
in  his  opinion  were  unworthy  of  the  subHme  nature  of  the 
gods.  As  to  prescriptions,  that  is,  treatment  of  maladies 
prescribed  in  a  dream  by  the  gods  to  men,  he  says  that  it  is 
useless  to  question  their  efficacy.  For  many  have  been  healed 
at  Pergamus,  Alexandria,  and  other  places  by  prescriptions, 
and  several  believe  that  they  are  the  source  of  medical  science. 
But,  on  the  other  hand,  absurd  and  ridiculous  prescriptions 
are  recorded,  which  have  never  been  given  in  dreams,  but  are 
mere  inventions.  Thus,  '  biting  negroes  '  are  said  to  have 
been  prescribed  to  a  sick  man  in  a  dream  (meaning  pepper- 
corns, which  are  black  and  pungent)  ;  to  another  '  maidens' 
milk  '  and  '  stars'  blood  '  (meaning  dew) .  Those  who  imagine 
such  things  show  that  they  do  not  understand  the  love  of  the 
gods  for  men.  The  prescriptions  really  given  by  the  gods  in 
dreams  are  clear  and  simple  ;  they  prescribe  salves  and  fric- 
tions, drinks  and  foods,  called  by  the  names  we  use  ourselves  ; 
if  ever  they  clothe  a  prescription  in  ambiguous  language,  the 
riddle  is  always  easy  of  solution.  For  instance,  a  woman  suf- 
fering from  inflammation  of  the  breast  dreamt  that  she  was 
suckling  a  sheep  ;  she  applied  the  herb  called  '  sheep's  tongue  ', 
and  was  cured.  Thus,  it  will  always  be  found  that  the  cures 
prescribed  contain  absolutely  nothing  contradictory  to  rational 
medicine  ;  and  consequently,  that  divine  revelations  arc  in 
perfect  agreement  with  the  certain  results  of  science.  For 
instance,  the  well-known  writer  Fronto,  who  suffered  greatly 
from  the  gout,  prayed  the  gods  to  tell  him  how  he  might  be 
cured  ;  he  dreamt  that  he  was  walking  outside  the  city  ;  and 
as  a  matter  of  fact  he  obtained  considerable  relief  by  taking 
regular  walks.  Aristides  was  specially  directed  by  Aescula- 
pius, in  a  dream,  to  compose  (in  prose  and  verse)  and  to  deliver 
speeches.  As  the  god  in  a  dream  instructed  a  boxer,  who 
passed  the  night  in  the  temple,  in  the  devices  by  which  he 
overthrew  a  famous  opponent,  so,  says  Aristides,  '  he  has 
taught  me  knowledge  and  songs  and  subjects  for  speeches, 
and  even  the  ideas  and  manner  of  expression,  as  masters  teach 
boys  their  letters  '.  Galen  mentions  that  Aesculapius  had 
prescribed  the  writing  of  odes,  songs  and  farces  to  many  who 
were  suffering  from  violent  mental  excitement ;    others  were 


140  Religion 

told  to  ride,  hunt,  and  practise  military  exercises,  definite 
instructions  being  given  in  what  cases  the  remedies  were  to  be 
used.  The  patients  who  had  put  themselves  into  the  hands 
of  the  god  at  Pergamus,  submitted  to  the  severest  regulations, 
which  they  would  never  have  obeyed  on  the  advice  of  a  physi- 
cian (e.g.  to  abstain  from  drink  of  any  kind  for  a  fortnight). 
Galen  was  indebted  to  Aesculapius  for  the  cure  of  a  danger  us 
ulcer  ;  and  Marcus  Aurelius,  when  setting  out  against  the 
Marcomanni,  left  him  behind,  since  the  god  (presumably  in  a 
dream)  had  pronounced  against  his  accompanying  the  em- 
peror. The  custom  of  passing  the  night  in  the  temple  (ey/coi/Ai7o-t9, 
incubatio),  still  practised  in  southern  Italy  and  Greece  in  cases 
of  illness,  was  adopted  by  the  Christian  Church  from  paganism  ; 
the  Madonna,  the  archangel  Michael,  and  different  saints  and 
martyrs  took  the  place  of  the  gods  and  heroes  who  gave  direc- 
tions in  dreams. 

During  the  excavations  in  the  temple  of  Aesculapius  at 
Epidaurus  in  1883-4  two  of  the  six  tablets  have  been  found, 
on  which  the  marvellous  cures  (of  the  sick  who  passed  the 
night  in  his  temple)  accomplished  by  the  god  are  recorded. 
These  records  are  adapted  to  the  rudest  belief  in  miracles. 
In  addition  to  cures  of  the  lame,  the  blind  and  the  dumb,  we 
find  the  recovery  of  a  woman  after  being  five  years  pregnant 
with  a  boy,  who  immediately  he  was  born  washed  himself 
and  walked  about  with  his  mother.  There  are  also  numerous 
instances  of  the  conversion  of  those  who  denied  or  doubted  the 
god,  and  of  the  punishment  of  sinners,  and  of  such  as  did  not 
pay  the  fee.  Besides  these  marvellous  stories  written  by  the 
priests,  which  belong  to  the  pre-Roman  period,  an  account 
given  by  an  educated  man  of  the  second  century  a.d.  of  his 
restoration  to  health  has  also  been  found.  This  person,  Marcus 
Julius  Apellas,  of  Mylasa  in  Caria,  who  had  been  very  ill  (es- 
pecially from  indigestion)  had  been  told  by  the  god  in  a  dream 
to  repair  to  Epidaurus.  On  his  journey,  he  was  advised  (at 
Aegina)  not  to  worry  so  much  :  in  the  sanctuary  itself  he  re- 
ceived numerous  instructions  as  to  the  external  and  internal 
remedies  to  be  used,  a  special  diet,  and  the  gymnastic  exer- 
cises to  be  practised,  amongst  which  swinging  was  included  ; 
although  he  was  to  bathe  without  the  assistance  of  the  bath- 
attendant,  the  god  did  not  forget  to  add  that  he  ought  to  give 
him  a  drachma  as  a  tip.     Wlien  he  had  prayed  the  god  to  cure 


Religion  141 

him  more  speedily,  it  seemed  to  him  that  he  left  the  temple 
with  mustard  and  salt  rubbed  all  over  his  body,  a  little  boy 
walked  in  front  of  him  with  a  smoking  censer,  and  the  priest 
said,  '  You  are  now  cured,  but  you  must  pay  the  fee  '.  Later 
he  was  given  a  prescription  of  aniseed  and  oil  for  headache. 
But  the  patient  had  no  headache.  In  consequence,  however, 
of  studying  too  hard  the  blood  flew  to  his  head,  and  he  was 
cured  by  the  prescribed  means.  '  He  ordered  me  also  to 
write  down  the  remedy.  Thankful  and  restored  to  health  I 
departed  '.  Of  four  tablets  found  on  the  site  of  the  temple  of 
Aesculapius  at  Rome,  two  contain  accounts  of  cures  of  blind- 
ness by  dream-oracles,  two  of  diseases  of  the  breast  which  had 
been  given  up  as  incurable. 

Many  thanksgivings  for  recovery  of  health  on  Roman 
inscriptional  stones  evidently  refer  to  prescriptions  given 
in  dreams.  Near  Velleia  and  Placentia  there  was  a  sanctuary 
of  Minerva,  who  was  called  the  '  mindful '  or  the  '  physician  ' 
(of  Cabardiacus) ,  since  she  rendered  help  in  sickness.  Of 
course  she  was  especially  appealed  to  by  the  sick  of  the  imme- 
diate neighbourhood,  several  of  whose  dedications  and  votive 
inscriptions  have  been  preserved  ;  one  of  them  is  from  the 
praefect  of  a  cohort  in  Britain,  probably  a  native  of  Cabar- 
diacus. A  woman  thanks  the  goddess  '  for  having  cured  her 
of  a  grievous  infirmity  by  a  gracious  gift  of  medicine  '  ;  another 
fulfils  a  vow,  because  her  hair  had  grown  again  ;  a  man 
offers  the  goddess  '  silver  ears  ',  after  recovery  from  an  affec- 
tion of  the  ear.  The  same  goddess  had  a  temple  in  Rome, 
the  site  of  which  (in  the  fifth  quarter)  has  recently  been 
determined  by  numerous  representations  of  human  limbs 
in  clay  (likewise  offerings  from  patients  who  had  been  cured) 
found   in   a  subterranean  vault  attached   to  it. 

Not  only  the  healing  gods,  but  the  gods  generally,  could 
render  aid  in  sickness,  by  the  sending  of  dreams  or  in  other 
ways.  Thus,  according  to  an  inscription  in  bad  Latin,  a 
slave  of  the  pontifices  at  Rome  brings  an  offering  of  a  white 
cow  to  '  the  good  goddess  '  {Bona  Dea)  for  the  recovery  of 
his  eyesight,  having  been  cured,  after  he  had  been  given  up 
by  the  physicians,  in  ten  months  by  the  grace  of  the  lady  '. 
For  although  tradition  and  belief  attributed  to  each  god  a 
special  sphere  of  activity  and  benevolence,  suited  to  his 
nature  and  character,  the  power  of  the  gods  was  regarded 


142  Religion 

as  boundless,  and  capable  of  being  exercised  outside  its  proper 
limits,  wherever  the  god  pleased  ;  every  god  was  looked 
upon  as  '  always  having  the  power  to  render  aid  of  every 
kind,  and  was  applied  to  for  assistance,  where  he  was  near, 
where  he  was  beneficent,  where  he  was  worshipped  '. 

In  all  cases  in  which  the  believer  recognized  the  action 
of  a  higher  power,  he  most  naturally  and  instinctively  attri- 
buted it  to  the  particular  god  to  whom  he  had  been  in  the 
habit  of  praying  from  early  youth,  whose  sanctity,  authority 
and  reputation  were  greatest  in  his  own  city  or  country, 
and  whose  power  he  believed  he  had  already  experienced. 
Thus  Aristides  had  heard  many  persons  say  that  the  god 
Asclepius  had  saved  them  during  a  storm  at  sea  by  stretching 
out  his  hand  to  them.  Asclepius  was  the  patron  deity  not 
only  of  all  those  who  repaired  to  his  temple,  but  of  all  the 
inhabitants  of  the  country  round  about  Pergamus,  and  of 
other  localities  famous  for  his  cult ;  such  was  the  great  Diana 
for  Ephesus,  Serapis  for  Alexandria,  Pan  for  Panias,  Leto 
for  the  whole  of  Lycia,  the  '  heavenly  goddess  '  of  Carthage 
for  North  Africa,  and  so  forth.  Generally  speaking,  the  god, 
whether  of  the  highest  or  inferior  rank,  who  was  chiefly 
worshipped  in  each  country,  was  its  most  natural  helper 
in  time  of  need.  Pausanias  (viii.  37,  8)  speaking  of  a  temple 
of  Pan  not  far  from  Megalopolis  in  Arcadia,  says  :  '  This  Pan, 
equally  with  the  most  powerful  of  the  gods,  possesses  the 
power  of  accomplishing  men's  prayers  and  requiting  the  wicked 
as  they  deserve '  (Frazer's  translation).  At  Stratonicea 
the  divinity  chiefly  worshipped  next  to  Zeus  (Panameros  or 
Panemerios)  was  Hecate.  Both  had  saved  the  town  from  the 
greatest  dangers  in  ancient  times  ;  hence  (according  to  a 
document  still  extant)  the  town  council  resolved  that  every 
day  thirty  boys  of  good  family,  clad  in  white  and  crowned 
with  wreaths  of  olive,  should  sing  a  hymn  of  praise  to  the 
accompaniment  of  the  cithara  in  the  council-house,  where 
their  statues  had  been  erected.  Beside  the  gods,  heroes 
were  worshipped  in  all  Greek  countries,  as  has  been  already 
observed  ;  each  district  probably  had  its  special  protector 
and  helper  in  time  of  need,  whose  sphere  of  activity,  being 
confined  to  a  small  area,  was  all  the  more  put  to  the  proof 
and  recognized  within  those  limits.  However  doubtful  the 
claims   of   these   heroes   to   reverence   might  originally   have 


Religion  143 

been,  if  their  cults  had  once  gained  a  footing,  they  maintained 
it  with  remarkable  tenacity  ;  as  is  shown  in  the  case  of  Anti- 
nous.  We  do  not  know  whether  the  worship  at  Athens 
(in  the  second  century  a.d.)  of  the  physician  Aristomachus 
as  the  '  physician  hero  '  existed  at  a  later  period.  In  Lucian's 
time,  sacrifice  was  still  offered  to  the  Scythian  Toxaris,  who  was 
supposed  to  have  saved  Athens  from  a  severe  epidemic, 
and  his  gravestone  cured  those  suffering  from  fever.  At 
Chalcis  in  Euboea,  in  Plutarch's  time,  a  priest  was  appointed 
for  Titus  Quinctius  Flamininus,  sacrifice  was  offered  to  the 
latter,  and  a  panegyric  in  verse  sung  in  his  honour.  There 
were  temples  and  priests  of  Alexander  the  Great  not  only 
in  Alexandria,  but  in  many  other  places.  As  late  as  the 
sixth  century  the  inhabitants  of  the  oasis  of  Augila  in 
the  interior  of  Marmarica  offered  sacrifice  to  him,  and  a 
large  number  of  temple  slaves  was  devoted  to  his  service  ; 
Justinian  converted  them,  and  built  a  church  of  the  Virgin 
Mary  for  them.  In  the  time  of  Pausanias,  not  only  was 
sacrifice  offered  to  the  Olympian  victor  Theagenes  as  a  god 
in  Thasos,  but  in  other  places  in  Greek  and  barbarian  lands  his 
statues  were  revered  and  healed  sicknesses.  Reverence 
often  attached  to  a  special  statue  of  the  hero,  which  was  said 
to  have  proved  its  miraculous  power.  At  Alexandria  in  the 
Troad  there  were  several  statues  of  the  '  hero  Neryllinus  ' 
(probably  Marcus  Suillius  NeruUinus,  consul  in  50,  who 
administered  the  province  of  Asia  as  proconsul  about  67-70)  ; 
one  of  these  was  supposed  to  heal  sicknesses  and  deliver 
oracles  ;  sacrifice  was  offered  to  it,  and  it  was  covered  with 
gold  and  crowned  with  garlands.  Sometimes  the  belief  in 
the  miraculous  power  of  a  statue  was  limited  to  the  inmates 
of  the  house  where  it  stood  ;  small  coins  and  plates  of  silver, 
sometimes  fastened  with  wax  to  its  legs,  were  thankofferings 
from  those  who  had  been  cured  of  fever  by  its  aid  ;  impious 
slaves,  who  attempted  to  steal  these  pious  gifts,  were  most 
cruelly  put  to  death. 

A  belief  which  never  doubted  the  repeated  and  super- 
natural revelations  of  the  divine  power  and  goodness  was 
of  course  all  the  more  ready  to  recognize  the  ruling  hand 
of  Providence  in  all  the  events  of  life  which  appeared  quite 
natural  or  accidental  to  the  sober-minded.  The  miracle, 
properly  so  called,  was  also  nothing  but  one  of  the  manifes- 


t^^,,^^^^ 


144  Religion 

tations  of  this  power  which  incessantly  interfered  with  the 
course  of  life  and  nature,  although  no  doubt  the  most  striking 
and  convincing  of  them.  It  marked,  as  it  were,  the  culmi- 
nating point  attained  by  a  hundred-fold  gradations  of  imper- 
ceptible transitions  ;  thus,  there  was  nothing  fixed  about 
the  idea  of  a  miracle,  its  recognition  was  subjective,  condi- 
tioned by  the  feelings  of  those  who  believed  in  it,  and  there- 
fore infinitely  varied.  Since  the  gods  alone  could  perform 
miracles,  it  was  from  them  alone  that  blessings  could  come, 
whether  great  or  small.  Epictetus,  rebuking  the  Academi- 
cians, who  questioned  the  existence  of  the  gods,  says  :  '  Grate- 
ful indeed  are  men  and  modest,  who,  if  they  do  nothing  else, 
are  daily  eating  bread  and  yet  are  shameless  enough  to  say, 
we  do  not  know  if  there  is  a  Demeter  or  her  daughter  Perse- 
phone or  a  Pluto  (the  corn  deities)  ;  not  to  mention  that  they 
are  enjoying  the  night  and  the  day,  the  seasons  of  the  year, 
and  the  stars,  and  the  sea  and  the  land,  and  the  co-operation 
of  mankind,  and  yet  they  are  not  moved  in  any  degree  by 
these  things  ;  and  do  not  trouble  themselves  about  the  disas- 
trous influence  that  their  doubts  may  have  on  the  morality 
of  other  men  '  {Discourses,  ii.  20,  32  ;  chiefly  from  Long's 
translation) . 

Certainly  many  of  the  Stoics  denied  the  efificacy  of  prayer, 
or,  like  Marcus  Aurelius,  advised  men  to  leave  themselves 
in  the  hands  of  the  gods  and  only  to  pray  for  what  was  really 
good.  Similarly  Juvenal  :  The  gods  love  man  more  than 
he  loves  himself  ;  they  know,  when  in  our  blindness  we  pray 
for  a  wife  or  the  birth  of  a  son,  what  will  be  the  consequence 
for  us  if  our  prayer  be  granted  ;  if  you  must  ask  for  some- 
thing, let  it  be  for  a  sound  mind  in  a  sound  body.  The  j^ounger 
Pliny  says  that  the  gods  rejoice  more  in  the  innocence  of 
worshippers  than  in  elaborate  prayers  ;  the  man  who  enters 
their  temples  with  a  pure  heart  is  more  agreeable  to  them 
than  one  who  recites  a  carefully  prepared  litany. 

But  such  admonitions  only  confirm  the  general  use  of 
prayer,  and  no  one  can  doubt  that  the  majority  of  believers 
not  only  addressed  themselves  to  the  gods  in  all  their  anxieties 
and  undertakings,  but  also  paid  them  reverence  and  thanks  in 
regular  prayers,  and  commended  themselves  and  others  to 
their  protection.  Seneca  even  combined  a  belief  in  Fate 
with  a  belief  in  prayers  being  granted.     The  voices  of  those 


Religion  145 

offering  prayers  and  vows  would  not  be  heard  everywhere, 
if  it  was  not  known  that  the  gods  not  only  bestowed  benefits 
of  their  own  free  will,  but  also  in  answer  to  prayers.  They 
have  left  so  many  things  uncertain  that  the  use  of  prayers 
and  vows  may  prove  beneficial.  Persius,  like  Juvenal,  has 
made  the  foolish  prayers  of  the  majority  the  subject  of  a 
satire.  It  is  not  the  sculptor,  says  Martial,  but  the  man 
who  prays  that  shows  the  gods  as  they  really  are  (kind  and 
merciful).  Plutarch  thought  it  his  special  duty  to  warn 
men  not  to  believe  that  the  prayer  alone  is  everything  ;  it 
will  not  be  heard,  nor  can  the  help  of  the  gods  be  expected, 
unless  men  help  themselves.  When  the  Jews  besieged  in 
Jerusalem  gave  no  sign  of  movement  on  the  Sabbath,  even 
when  the  Romans  were  setting  up  ladders  to  storm  the  walls, 
they  were  paralysed  by  the  bonds  of  superstition.  God  is 
the  hope  of  courage  and  strength,  not  an  excuse  for  cowar- 
dice. The  pilot  on  a  stormy  sea  no  doubt  prays  that  he  may 
escape,  and  calls  upon  the  saviour  god,  but  at  the  same  time 
he  guides  the  helm,  lets  down  the  yards,  and  shortens  sail. 
The  immense  number  of  monuments  and  inscriptional 
stones  of  a  religious  character,  scattered  throughout  the  vast 
Roman  empire,  would  alone  be  sufficient  to  prove,  beyond 
all  possible  doubt,  that  during  this  period  the  gods  were 
always  regarded  as  the  source  of  all  blessings  and  the  averters 
of  all  evils  and  dangers.  These  monuments  attest  most 
emphatically  that  the  belief  in  an  omnipresent  Providence, 
directing  the  course  of  the  world  and  human  destinies,  exer- 
cised by  the  gods  who  had  been  worshipped  from  time  imme- 
morial, as  well  as  by  those  who  had  only  become  known  in  modern 
or  more  recent  times,  continued  to  flourish  in  the  minds  of 
the  various  populations  and  afforded  consolation  and  hope 
in  times  of  need  and  affliction  of  every  kind  to  high  and  low, 
to  learned  and  simple  alike.  A  considerable  part  of  these 
prayers,  vows,  thanksgivings  and  offerings  of  homage  and 
adoration  may  certainly  owe  its  origin  to  the  outward  obser- 
vance of  the  forms  of  the  prevailing  cults,  to  the  unreflecting 
force  of  habit  or  to  conscious  hypocrisy,  but  in  most  cases 
these  stones  afford  just  as  many  proofs  beyond  suspicion 
of  a  sincere,  naive  and  deep-seated  belief.  A  few  examples 
will  be  sufficient  to  give  a  clear  idea  of  the  nature  of  this 
belief. 

R.L.M. — III,  I, 


«i«M^^«iB^^HaaM^^ 


146  Religion 

In  accordance  with  the  essence  of  polytheism,  reverence, 
prayers  and  thanks  were  as  a  rule  addressed  not  to  the  whole 
body  of  divine  powers,  but  only  (as  in  the  cult  of  the  saints) 
to  individual  divinities,  chosen  partly  with  reference  to 
their  sphere  of  influence  and  the  special  efiElcacy  and  gifts 
attributed  to  them,  partly  for  local  and  individual  reasons. 
The  last  cannot,  of  course,  always  be  indicated  with  certainty. 
When  a  contractor  for  imperial  and  state  buildings  offers 
thanks  to  the  '  sacred,  heavenly  good  goddess  '  {Bona  Dea), 
for  that  with  her  assistance  he  has  successfully  carried  an 
arm  of  the  Claudian  aqueduct  underground,  and  at  the  same 
time  shows  his  gratitude  by  restoring  an  old  and  ruined 
chapel,  the  '  good  goddess  '  in  this  case,  as  frequently,  is 
regarded  as  the  protectress  of  the  locality  or  building.  On 
a  stone  near  Coblenz,  belonging  at  the  latest  to  the  age  of 
the  Antonines,  a  certain  person  thanks  Mars  for  deliver- 
ance from  frightful  mental  and  bodily  tortures  ;  the  reference 
here   is   certainly   to   a   national   Celtic   divinity. 

As  a  matter  of  course,  thanks  and  prayers  were  addressed 
times  without  number  to  the  national  and  local  divinities, 
rather  than  to  those  whose  sphere  of  influence  embraced 
the  favour  solicited.  Thus,  at  Smyrna,  on  one  occasion 
thanks  were  offered  for  deliverance  from  an  epidemic,  not  to 
the  healing  gods  but  to  the  river  god  Meles.  A  certain 
person  set  up  a  statue  or  a  sanctuary  at  a  cost  of  8,000  ses- 
terces (about  £jo)  to  the  genius  of  a  town  in  Numidia,  on  the 
spot  '  where  he  had  experienced  the  aid  of  his  divine  power  '. 
Of  course,  not  only  natives  but  also  strangers  worshipped 
the  divinity  within  whose  sphere  of  influence  they  sojourned, 
and  commended  themselves  to  his  or  her  protection.  A 
Roman  merchant,  who  traded  in  delicate  pottery  with  Britain, 
fulfils  a  vow  on  the  island  of  Walcheren  to  the  local  goddess 
Nehalennia  '  for  the  preservation  of  his  wares  in  good  con- 
dition '.  Titus  Pomponius  Victor,  an  official  of  the  imperial 
household,  who  was  stationed  as  procurator  of  the  imperial 
domains  at  Axima  in  the  Graian  Alps  (on  the  road  from 
Lemens  to  Aosta)  and  probably  had  to  take  numerous  jour- 
neys in  connexion  with  his  duties,  addresses  an  elegant  thanks- 
giving prayer  in  verse  to  the  forest  god  Silvanus  (whose 
image  was  enclosed  in  the  hollow  of  a  sacred  oak  as  a  natural 
forest   chapel)    for  the  protection  hitherto  afforded  to  him  ; 


Religion  147 

at  the  same  time  he  promises  to  dedicate  a  thousand  large 
trees  to  him,  if  he  brings  him  back  safe  and  sound  to  Rome 
with  his  family. 

We  have  already  mentioned  the  worship  of  the  non-Roman 
native  divinities  in  the  northern  and  western  provinces  by 
Roman  settlers  or  traders.  Of  the  Celtic  gods  one  of  the 
greatest  was  Belenus,  identified  with  Apollo  ;  he  was  wor- 
shipped in  all  Celtic  districts  and  even  beyond  amongst  the 
Romans,  as  is  shown  by  votive  inscriptions  found  at  Autun, 
Vienne,  Venice  and  Aquileia.  When  the  emperor  Maximin 
(in  238)  was  besieging  Aquileia  with  all  his  forces,  the  courage 
of  the  defenders  was  sustained  by  confidence  in  the  aid  of 
the  native  god  Belenus  ;  the  besiegers  also  often  saw  his 
form  hovering  over  the  city.  Herodian  leaves  it  in  doubt, 
whether  he  actually  appeared  to  them  or  whether  it  was 
only  an  attempt  to  palliate  the  shame  of  their  defeat  by 
the  fiction  of  his  miraculous  assistance.  Yet  he  adds,  '  the 
unexpected  result  makes  anything  credible  '  ;  and  even  a 
conscious  fabrication  in  such  a  case  shows  the  extent  of  the 
belief  in  the  visible  assistance  of  the  gods,  otherwise  it  would 
have  had  no  meaning. 

Travellers  and  wanderers  in  a  foreign  land  also  prayed 
to  the  local  gods  and  performed  their  devotions  at  every 
place  that  was  sacred  to  them.  Pious  wanderers,  says  Apu- 
leius,  lingered  on  their  journey  wherever  they  found  a  sacred 
grove  or  an  altar  crowned  with  flowers,  a  cave  shaded  by 
foliage,  an  oak  hung  with  horns  of  sacrificial  victims,  a  beech 
adorned  with  their  skins,  an  enclosed  hillock,  a  stump  of  a 
tree  carved  with  an  axe  in  the  form  of  a  statue,  a  plot  of  grass 
smoking  with  sacrificial  libations,  a  stone  moistened  with 
fragrant  essences.  If  the  stranger  performed  his  devotions 
at  these  centres  of  a  simply  local  cult,  the  divine  power  which 
showed  its  authority  in  great  natural  phenomena  the  more 
irresistibly  called  for  adoration.  A  Roman  volunteer  at 
Remagen  fulfilled  his  vow  '  to  Jupiter  mightiest  and  best, 
to  the  genius  of  the  place,  and  to  the  Rhine  ',  according  to 
a  stone  set  up  in  the  year  190  (not  the  only  one  of  this  kind). 
But  everywhere  in  a  foreign  country  those  who  were  exposed 
to  the  dangers  and  vicissitudes  of  the  journey  were  doubly 
'  mindful  of  the  gods  ',  certainly  including  the  native  ones. 
A  stone  at  Urbisaglia  has  preserved  the  memory  of  a  present, 


■Ah* 


148  Religion 

which  an  imperial  freedman,  Titus  Flavius  Maximus,  sent 
from  the  east  '  to  the  gods  and  goddesses  of  Urbssalvia  '. 
On  the  other  hand,  at  Nemausus  (Nimes)  a  primipilus,  a 
native  of  Berytus,  fulfils  his  vow  to  the  god  of  his  native 
place,  the  Jupiter  of  Heliopolis,  but  also  to  the  god  Nemausus. 
For  a  man  always  felt  most  directly  called  upon  to  worship 
the  gods  in  whose  neighbourhood  he  found  himself  ;  hence 
the  inscriptions  of  travellers,  commending  themselves  to  the 
protection  and  favour  of  the  native  divinities,  are  numerous. 
The  primeval,  colossal  sanctuaries  of  Egypt  appear  to  have 
produced  the  most  overwhelming  effect  upon  the  religious 
feelings  of  foreign  visitors,  as  is  shown  by  rock-hewn  in- 
scriptions on  temples,  obelisks,  pylones  (gateways),  etc.,  in 
most  places  on  either  side  of  the  Nile.  At  Talmis  (Kalabsheh) 
in  Nubia  a  number  of  Roman  centurions  and  soldiers  posted 
there  offer  homage  to  the  sun-god  Mandulis  worshipped  in 
that  district,  in  an  inscription  (year  84)  in  the  forecourt  of 
his  temple. 

But  the  gods  were,  of  course,  frequently  called  upon  as 
gods  of  a  special  activity,  because,  and  in  so  far  as  they  mani- 
fested it  in  a  certain  place.  Thus,  for  example,  at  Alba 
Julia  (Carlsburg  on  the  Marosch)  a  Roman  veteran  fulfils 
his  vow  '  after  a  vision  ',  also  in  the  name  of  his  wife  and 
daughter  '  to  Aesculapius  and  Hygiea  and  the  other  healing 
gods  and  goddesses'  of  this  place  ',  in  gratitude  for  the  res- 
toration of  his  eyesight.  In  many  cases  the  efficiency  of  the 
god  was  limited  to  a  definite  locality.  Thus,  the  thanks  of 
patients  cured  in  a  bath  are  naturally  addressed  to  the  nymphs 
of  the  spring  ;  in  many  baths  votive  tablets  of  Roman  visitors 
have  been  found,  at  Ischia  for  Apollo  and  '  the  nymphs  of 
the  nitre-springs '.  Other  healing  springs,  near  which  in- 
scriptions to  the  nymphs  have  been  found,  are  e.g.  those  of 
Les  Fumades  (dept.  du  Card),  Varasdin-Teplitz,  Tiifiers 
near  Cilli,  Bagneres  de  Bigorre,  Lopresti  haspol,  and  others. 
A  votive  tablet  found  near  the  hot  springs  at  Vif  is  dedicated 
to  '  the  spirits  of  the  eternal  fire  '.  At  the  baths  of  Hercules 
(as  they  are  still  called)  in  Transylvania,  thanks  are  offered 
to  the  '  health-bringing  Hercules  ',  as  the  god  who  on  his 
wanderings  through  the  world  discovered  all  the  hot  springs, 
A  hunter,  who  had  been  cured  of  a  swelling  in  the  joints 
(the  result  of  a  bite  from  an  Etruscan  wild  boar)  by  the  baths 


Religion  149 

01  Solfatara  near  Tivoli,  to  show  his  gratitude  for  being  able 
to  mount  his  horse  again,  set  up  an  equestrian  statue  of  him- 
self in  marble  to  the  goddess  of  the  spring  (Lymfa).  The 
nymphs  were  also  thanked  for  the  discovery  of  new  springs 
(or  their  divinities  were  worshipped  as  '  the  new  '  or  '  newly 
discovered  '  nymphs),  or  for  the  reappearance  of  a  dried-up 
spring.  A  magistrate  of  Lambaesis  in  Numidia  dedicated 
an  altar  in  token  of  special  rejoicing,  because  in  the  year 
he  held  office  the  nymph  '  had  given  our  city  Lambaesis  an 
abundant  supply  of  water '.  An  inscription  at  Auzia  in 
Mauretania  announces  the  offering  of  a  sacrificial  gift  to  the 
mountain  spirit,  '  who  wards  off  the  violence  of  the  storms 
from  our  native  town  '.  Near  the  old  marble  quarries  of 
Martignac  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Pyrenees  a  votive  tab- 
let records  the  thanks  of  two  Roman  contractors  or  proprietors 
'  who  first  quarried  and  carried  out  from  them  columns  20 
feet  long  ',  '  to  Silvanus  and  the  spirits  of  the  Numidian  moun- 
tains '.  A  cavalry  officer  serving  in  Britain,  who  fulfilled 
his  vow  to  Silvanus,  because  he  had  aided  him  to  catch  a 
mighty  wild  boar,  which  had  escaped  all  his  predecessors, 
certainly  imagined  that  the  forest  god  had  his  home  in  this 
particular  wood.  Wood-sawyers  and  timber-merchants  also 
worshipped  him.  About  the  time  of  Trajan  a  legate  of  the 
seventh  legion  set  up  in  its  standing  quarters  (?  Leon  in 
Asturia  or  Gallicia)  a  temple  to  Diana,  '  in  order  that  he 
might  be  able  to  hit  with  the  javelin  the  flying  deer,  the 
stag,  the  bristly  boar,  and  the  breed  of  forest  horses  ',  and 
offered  her  from  the  spoils  of  the  chase  boars'  teeth,  stags' 
horns  and  a  bear's  skin.  Inscriptions  in  various  places 
in  Spain  offer  thanks  to  the  goddess  of  Turobriga  for  recovery 
of  health,  some  one  in  Emerita  in  Lusitania  also  appeals 
to  her  to  punish  the  thief  who  has  stolen  six  tunics,  two  linen 
overcoats,  a  shirt,  etc.  Some  one  who  has  lost  a  ring  promises 
half  of  it  as  a  present  to  the  god  Nodon  (in  the  south-west 
of  Britain),  if  he  recovers  it.  In  a  very  ungrammatical  sen- 
tence he  adds  :  '  If  amongst  those  who  now  have  the  ring 
there  is  any  one  named  Senecianus,  do  not  permit  him  to 
enjoy  health,  until  he  brings  the  ring  to  thy  temple  '. 

Although  the  number  of  the  gods,  who  were  invoked  either 
in  all  cases  or  at  least  by  preference  in  definite  places  was 
exceedingly   large,   since    it   was   at  least  equivalent  to    the 


150  Religion 

number  of  the  more  respected  sanctuaries  and  centres  of 
worship,  yet  on  the  other  hand  every  god  was  everywhere 
solicited  for  the  assistance  or  the  gift,  which  he  above  all 
other  gods  was  believed  to  be  able  to  grant.  This  holds 
good  not  only  of  the  greater  gods,  but  also  of  the  inferior 
and  the  least  important.  Even  the  cult  of  those  countless 
protecting  and  auxiliary  powers  of  the  old  Roman  religion, 
whose  action  was  restricted  to  definite  cases  or  to  certain 
spheres,  and  whose  functions,  according  to  the  Christian 
belief,  were  performed  by  angels,  continued  to  hold  its  ground 
under  numerous  forms.  Of  course,  we  cannot  expect  to 
find  a  great  amount  of  evidence  for  the  worship  of  these 
very  subordinate  protecting  spirits,  who  only  act  at  intervals. 
Yet,  as  TertuUian  assures  us  that  the  day  on  which  the  child 
was  able  to  stand  on  its  legs  for  the  first  time  was  always 
sacred  to  the  goddess  Statina,  we  may  assume  that  others 
of  those  divinities,  who  watched  over  the  most  critical  moments 
of  human  life,  still  lived  on  in  the  popular  belief.  Waggoners 
and  muleteers  still  swore  by  the  (originally  Celtic)  goddess 
of  horses,  Epona,  whose  little  chapel  was  usually  in  a  niche 
of  the  main  girder  which  supported  the  roof  of  the  stable. 
There  her  image  was  crowned  on  feast  days  with  roses  and 
other  flowers  ;  images  representing  her,  for  use  in  stables, 
are  still  in  existence.  In  places  where  foul  or  suffocating 
vapours  ascended  from  the  ground  (Beneventum,  Cremona) 
worship  was  offered  to  the  goddess  Mefitis. 

But,  however  firmly  the  people  clung  to  these  countless 
ministering  divinities,  since  their  less  important  but  clearly 
defined  activity  brought  them  nearer  to  a  section  of  the 
faithful,  whose  longing  for  intercourse  with  the  supernatural 
world  they  were  better  able  to  satisfy  than  the  superior 
gods,  whose  omnipotence  and  majesty  rather  kept  the  human 
heart  at  a  respectful  distance  ;  yet  the  latter,  as  most  power- 
ful governors  of  the  world  and  special  agents  of  Providence, 
still  continued  to  be  the  most  ardently  worshipped  and  the 
most  universally  invoked.  Everywhere  the  soldier  prayed 
to  father  Mars,  the  mariner  to  Neptune,  the  merchant,  the 
tradesman  and  the  careful  householder  to  Mercury,  '  the 
dispenser  and  preserver  of  profits  ',  the  artist  and  artisan 
to  Minerva,  the  countryman  to  Ceres,  women  with  child 
to  Diana  and  Lucina  ;    parted  lovers  (in  Greece  at  least)  to 


Religion  151 

the  god  of  love  ;  in  one  of  Plutarch's  dialogues  one  of  the 
speakers  tells  how  his  parents,  soon  after  their  marriage, 
which  had  been  long  delayed  in  consequence  of  a  family- 
quarrel,  made  a  pilgrimage  to  Thespiae,  in  accordance  with  a 
vow  each  had  made  to  sacrifice  to  Eros.  The  more  extended 
their  sphere  of  influence  and  the  more  general  their  worship, 
the  more  frequently  the  gods  were  appealed  to.  In  the  East, 
the  aid  of  Heracles,  the  invincible,  who  overcame  all  terrors 
and  dangers,  was  invoked  in  all  perils  by  land  and  sea,  and 
in  sickness. 

Undoubtedly,  however,  prayers  were  most  commonly 
addressed  to  the  supreme  god,  as  the  thunderer,  the  lightning 
hurler,  the  lord  of  storms  and  of  the  clear  sky  ;  in  times  of 
drought,  processions  of  women,  barefooted  and  with  dishevelled 
hair,  ascended  a  hill  and  prayed  to  him  for  rain.  On  the 
mountain  heights  where  he  was  worshipped,  as  Jupiter  of 
Vesuvius,  of  the  Apennines,  etc.,  he  was  felt  to  be  less  remote 
from  man.  At  the  top  of  the  Great  St.  Bernard  pass,  a  district 
whose  inhabitants  (the  Celtic  Veragri)  in  Hannibal's  time 
worshipped  the  god  Poeninus,  up  to  the  eleventh  century 
there  stood,  between  the  hospice  (dedicated  to  St.  Bernard 
in  926)  and  the  lake  (frozen  during  eight  months  of  the  year), 
in  which  numerous  offerings  and  coins  have  been  found, 
the  recently  discovered  temple  of  Jupiter,  from  which  the 
mountain  was  formerly  called  Mont  Joux  (mons  Jovis). 
There,  '  where  the  terrors  of  the  mountains  confront  the 
wanderer  to  a  far  greater  extent  than  on  the  other  passes  ', 
in  addition  to  1,600  coins  and  numerous  other  offerings,  fifty 
bronze  votive  tablets  have  been  found  presented  by  soldiers 
and  other  Roman  travellers,  who  fulfilled  their  vows  to  Jupiter 
Poeninus,  mightiest  and  best,  for  their  safe  journey  and 
return.  But  his  almighty  will  not  only  controlled  nature  ; 
he  was  the  '  controller  of  things  human  and  divine  and  lord 
of  destinies  ',  and  in  that  capacity  guardian,  preserver,  victor, 
god  of  battles  and  bringer  of  peace,  consummator  of  every 
enterprise,  saviour  in  all  times  of  need  and  danger.  Every 
interest,  great  or  small,  public  or  private,  was  commended 
to  him  ;  his  omnipotence  was  revealed  in  every  event.  A 
high  official  of  senatorial  rank  fulfils  his  vow  to  Jupiter  in 
Campania,  '  because  in  this  place  he  has  been  preserved 
from   imminent   danger  and   has   recovered  his  health  '  ;     a 


152  Religion 

steward  of  the  distinguished  family  of  the  Roscii  performs 
a  vow  to  him  as  the  preserver  of  the  property  of  this  family 
(in  the  neighbourhood  of  Brescia).  At  Apollonia  in  Phrygia 
a  Galatian  dedicated  an  altar  to  him,  with  two  oxen  in  relief, 
because  he  had  preserved  the  life  of  men  and  cattle  in  time 
of  famine,  led  him  back  in  safety  to  his  native  land,  and 
bestowed  fame  upon  his  son  amongst  the  Trocmi.  An  inhabi- 
tant of  Apulum  (Carlsburg  on  the  Marosch)  fulfilled  his  vow 
'  in  return  for  his  own  safety  and  that  of  his  relatives  ',  because 
he  had  been  delivered  from  the  violence  of  the  Carpi,  who 
in  the  third  century  frequently  invaded  the  province  of  Dacia. 

In  the  Etruscan  town  of  Tuder  '  an  infamous  slave  of  the 
commune  with  frightful  cunning '  had  buried  a  tablet  with 
the  names  of  all  the  decuriones  (town  councillors),  in  order 
to  '  devote  '  them  to  the  powers  of  the  tmder-world.  But 
the  supreme  god  had  revealed  the  crime,  handed  over  the 
perpetrator  to  punishment,  and  delivered  the  town  and 
citizens  from  the  fear  of  the  danger  that  threatened.  In 
return  for  this,  a  freedman  specially  distinguished  by  the 
town  made  a  vow  for  the  prosperity  of  the  town,  the  town 
council  and  the  people  of  Tuder,  '  to  Jupiter  greatest  and 
best,  guardian  and  preserver  '. 

It  would  be  superfluous  to  multiply  examples  taken  from 
Roman  inscriptional  stones  ;  those  already  given  will  suf6.ce 
to  make  clear  the  nature  of  the  belief  in  a  Providence  exer- 
cised by  the  gods.  The  number  and  variety  of  these  stones, 
found  throughout  all  parts  of  the  Roman  world,  justify  the 
assumption  that  the  belief  to  which  they  bear  witness  ex- 
tended over  an  equally  large  area.  Even  supposing  that  a 
considerable  number  of  these  memorials  may  be  the  work 
of  unbelievers  or  indiffcrentists,  who  desired  to  support  the 
prevailing  forms  of  cult  by  recognizing  them  or  at  least  not 
opposing  them,  on  the  other  hand  such  concessions  or 
compromises  could  only  have  been  possible  in  the  face  of 
a  belief  whose  predominance  was  undisputed.  Against  the 
fact  of  this  predominance  there  is  no  scintilla  of  evidence 
in  the  entire  Greek  and  Roman  literature  of  the  period, 
but  much  that  expressly  and  irrefutably  confirms  it.  In 
view  of  the  great  progress  of  Epicureanism,  it  is  certainly 
credible  that  the  number  of  those  who  disbelieved  in  a  Provi- 
dence was  considerable,   but  it  was  no  more  possible  then 


Religion  153 

than  at  any  other  time  even  for  the  most  careful  and  far- 
seeing  observers  to  define  even  approximately  the  numbers 
of  unbelievers  and  believers  respectively.  The  vague  expres- 
sions of  authors,  who  in  a  general  way  discuss  contemporary 
religious  affairs,  add  nothing  to  our  knowledge.  Statements 
such  as  that  of  Pliny,  that  some  men  take  no  account  of 
the  gods  and  that  blind  chance  is  reverenced  as  a  divinity  ; 
or  of  Juvenal,  that  in  the  opinion  of  many  everything  depends 
upon  chance,  no  one  rules  the  world,  but  nature  herself  orders 
the  course  of  events  ;  or  of  Philo  the  Jew,  that  many  believe 
that  everything  in  the  world  moves  without  superior  guidance 
by  virtue  of  its  innate  force,  and  that  the  laws  and  customs, 
the  rights  and  duties  of  men  have  been  established  solely 
by  human  intelligence — such  statements  are  only  an  inaccu- 
rate paraphrase  of  the  Epicurean  doctrine,  which,  as  endorsing 
the  opinion  that  chance  prevails  in  human  affairs,  Tacitus 
also  sets  against  the  Stoic  belief  in  Providence.  The  wide- 
spread belief  in  an  unalterable  Fatum,  attested  by  him  as 
well  as  by  Pliny,  by  no  means  excludes  the  belief  in  Provi- 
dence ;  the  Stoic  school  also,  as  is  well-known,  succeeded 
in  combining  the  two.  In  Plutarch,  also,  who  (in  his  De 
Superstitione)  treated  superstition  and  unbelief  as  aberrations 
in  opposite  directions  from  true  piety,  by  atheists  are  chiefly 
to  be  understood  Epicureans.  There  is  no  indication  of  the 
numerical  relation  between  them  and  believers,  but  if  Plu- 
tarch, whose  religious  tendencies  were  so  closely  akin  to 
superstition,  nevertheless  declares  atheism  to  be  the  less 
harmful  error,  we  can  hardly  believe  that  he  feared  any  peril 
to  religion  from  its  diffusion.  Had  the  spread  of  the  materi- 
alistic view  of  the  world  been  calculated  to  arouse  anxiety 
and  offend  the  pious,  Plutarch  would  hardly  have  recognized 
it  as  a  natural  reaction  against  excessive  superstition  and 
handled  it  so  tenderly. 

That  belief  in  the  gods  was  general  and  unbelievers  few 
and  far  between,  is  asserted  not  only  by  Maximus  of  Tyre 
but  also  by  Apuleius  :  '  the  ignorant  masses,  uninitiated  into 
philosophy,  void  of  holiness  and  true  knowledge,  destitute 
of  piety,  without  a  share  in  truth,  treat  the  gods  without 
respect,  partly  with  over-anxious  reverence,  partly  with 
insolent  disdain,  some  through  superstition,  others  through 
unbelief,  some  full  of  fear,   others  full  of  self-complacency. 


154  Religion 

For  most  people  worship  the  whole  company  of  gods,  dwelling 
high  up  in  aether,  far  removed  from  contact  with  men,  but 
not  in  the  right  way  ;  all  people  fear  them,  but  through  ignor- 
ance ;  few  deny  their  existence,  and  these  from  godlessness  '. 
According  to  this,  at  that  time  at  least  the  number  of  atheists 
and  materialists,  although  in  itself  considerable,  only  formed 
a  small  minority  as  compared  with  the  large  number  of  be- 
lievers. This  view  is  in  the  main  confirmed  by  Lucian, 
whose  evidence  in  this  case  carries  all  the  more  weight,  since 
he  would  undoubtedly  have  preferred  to  be  able  to  state  the 
contrary.  The  gods,  uneasy  about  the  future  of  their  cult, 
are  present  at  a  public  debate  between  an  Epicurean  who 
denies,  and  a  Stoic  who  defends  the  belief  in  Providence. 
The  latter  is  disgracefully  worsted  in  argument.  Then  says 
Mercury  :  '  But  what  is  the  harm  if  a  few  return  home  with 
this  conviction  ?  For  the  number  of  those  who  hold  the 
opposite  opinion  is  great — the  majority  of  the  Hellenes,  the 
mass  of  the  people,  and  all  barbarians  '. 

However  greatly  the  number  of  the  gods  of  the  ancient 
world  may  have  been  increased  by  the  admission  en  masse 
of  oriental  and  barbarian  divinities,  no  alteration  took  place 
in  the  relation  of  believers  to  the  divinity.  The  increase 
and  multiplication  of  divine  personalities  had  rather  faci- 
litated than  impeded  intercourse  with  the  higher  world  for 
weak  and  helpless  humanity,  which,  as  Pliny  correctly  ob- 
serves, could  only  grasp  the  idea  of  the  divinity  by  breaking 
it  up  into  an  infinite  number  of  individuals.  Not  only  did 
the  belief  in  a  Providence  exercised  by  the  gods  continue 
to  be  indispensable  to  the  vast  majority  of  mankind,  but 
without  cessation  it  demanded  and  created  the  miracle  ; 
and  it  was  not  women  and  the  multitude  alone,  as  the  en- 
lightened Strabo  thought,  who  felt  the  need  of  '  legends  and 
miraculous  tales  '.  It  is  to  be  hoped  tliat  our  investigations 
have  sufficiently  shown  that,  throughout  the  domain  of 
Graeco-Roman  civilization,  the  world  of  gods,  the  result  of 
the  fusion  of  the  tW'O  religions,  on  the  whole  maintained  its 
sway,  notwithstanding  the  reputation  acquired  by  new  impor- 
tations, and,  in  spite  of  all  admixture,  re-established  its 
authority  over  the  minds  of  men. 

In  conclusion,  we  have  still  to  consider  the  question  of 
cult,  the    influence    of   which    in    continually  strengthening 


Religion  155 

and  reviving  belief  must  be  rated  very  highly.  Even  a 
complete  inundation  of  the  West  by  the  religions  of  the  East 
would  never  have  eradicated  the  belief  in  the  old  gods,  so 
long  as  their  cults,  which,  most  intimately  connected  with 
public  and  private  life,  consecrated  and  added  solemnity 
to  the  most  important  crises  in  both,  ever  claiming  attention 
and  captivating  the  rhind,  the  soul  and  the  imagination  in 
various  ways,  continued  to  exist  everywhere  in  the  traditional 
forms.  So  long  as  the  temples  '  dignified  by  the  personal 
presence  of  the  divinities  inhabiting  them  rather  than  dis- 
tinguished by  ornament  and  enriched  by  gifts ',  invited 
men  to  prayer  ;  so  long  as  numerous  solemnities,  festivities, 
and  religious  ceremonies  of  all  kinds  (sacrifices,  processions, 
and  spectacles)  continually  and  most  emphatically  recalled 
the  power,  greatness  and  glory  of  the  gods  and  their  relation 
to  mankind  ;  so  long  was  it  impossible  for  human  belief  to 
turn  aside  from  the  paths  prescribed  for  it  by  the  venerable 
tradition  of  so  many  centuries  and  approved  by  countless 
generations  as  leading  to  truth. 

Not  only  is  the  persistence  in  late  antiquity  of  all  Greek 
and  Roman  cults  of  importance  an  undisputed  fact,  but  also 
the  retention  of  obscure  and  local  cults,  ceremonies,  usages 
and  forms  which  were  no  longer  intelligible  is  amply  attested 
in  the  case  of  so  many  different  lands  that,  considering  this 
extremely  tenacious  vitality  of  religious  tradition,  any  great 
or  essential  diminution  of  it  in  the  course  of  centuries  appears 
on  the  whole  inconceivable. 

The  Roman  ritual  was  preserved,  at  least  in  great  measure, 
down  to  the  last  days  of  antiquity,  in  forms  which  owed 
their  origin  to  a  period  anterior  to  the  beginnings  of  Roman 
history,  and  are  based  upon  those  very  ancient  ideas  of  the 
world  of  gods  prevalent  in  Latium  long  before  the  Roman 
religion  was  inundated  by  the  Greek.  The  liturgical  hynlns, 
in  part  unintelligible  even  to  the  priests  who  year  by  year 
chanted  them  according  to  instructions,  contained  the  in- 
vocations of  the  gods  under  the  names  given  to  them  by 
the  oldest  settlers  on  the  hills  on  the  bank  of  the  Tiber,  now 
long  since  obsolete  ;  year  in,  year  out,  a  religious  ceremony, 
of  equally  high  antiquity,  was  performed  by  the  priests  with 
the  same  punctilious  accuracy.  The  stations  {mansiones) 
for  the  procession  of  the  priests  called  Salii,  in  which  the 


156  Religion 

ancilia  (sacred  shields)  were  deposited  for  one  night,  were 
probably  restored  after'  382.  The  calendar  of  Philocalus 
(compiled  in  354  from  official  sources)  still  specifies  a  con- 
siderable number  of  the  religious  festivals  supposed  to  have 
been  instituted  by  Numa  (i.e.  in  existence  from  time  imme- 
morial), as  state  festivals  celebrated  in  Rome  at  that  time. 
The  oldest  cults  were  just  those  which  survived  the  longest, 
'  when  the  more  spiritual  worships  of  historic  times  had 
long  since  fallen  victims  to  the  religion  of  the  cross  '  ;  for 
instance,  the  procession  on  March  16  and  17  to  the  twenty- 
four  chapels  of  the  Argei  (puppets  of  rushes  or  straw),  which 
were  hurled  into  the  Tiber  on  May  13  (customs  undoubtedly 
referring  to  the  incoming  and  death  of  the  spirit  of  spring)  ; 
and  the  sacrifice  of  a  horse  {October  equus)  crowned  with 
loaves  (for  whose  head  two  of  the  oldest  regions  of  the  city 
contended)  which  took  place  at  the  harvest  thanksgiving 
(October  15)  on  the  Campus  Martins.  The  equally  ancient 
festival  of  Lupercalia  lasted  till  494,  the  day  of  its  celebration 
(February  15)  being  changed  by  Pope  Gelasius  I  into  the 
festival  of  the  purification  of  Mar3^ 

But  the  continuance  for  a  thousand  years  of  forms  of  cult, 
unaltered  and  as  it  were  fossilized,  is  most  clearly  shown  by 
the  minutes  of  the  fvatres  Arvales  (the  field-brethren),  the 
only  surviving  acts  of  a  religious  association.  This  brother- 
hood, usually  composed  in  imperial  times  of  men  of  the  high- 
est rank  and  the  emperors  themselves,  celebrated  in  INIay  a 
three  days'  festival  in  honour  of  the  '  divine  goddess  '  {Dea 
Dia,  a  very  old  name  for  the  maternal  earth-goddess,  dis- 
penser of  the  blessing  of  corn)  to  secure  the  growth  of  the  seed 
then  beginning  to  sprout,  in  her  sacred  grove  of  primeval 
trees  as  yet  untouched  by  the  axe,  situated  five  miles  from 
Rome  on  the  road  to  Campania.  Whenever  an  iron  axe  was 
used  within  the  precincts  of  the  grove  ;  when  a  tree  was 
blown  down,  or  fell  from  decay  or  was  struck  by  lightning  ; 
whenever,  in  fact,  any  iron  implement  was  brought  into  it, 
a  propitiatory  offering  was  necessary  ;  the  prohibition  of  the 
use  of  iron  is  to  be  explained  by  the  fact  that  at  the  time  to 
which  these  ritual  laws  go  back,  the  metal  was  unknown. 
Among  the  solemnities  of  the  second  day  of  the  festival,  the 
priests  shut  themselves  up  in  the  temple  and  touched  certain 
pots,  with  fervent  prayers  and  adjurations.     The  most  recent 


Religion  157 

discoveries  in  the  grove  of  the  Arvales  have  brought  to  light 
potsherds  of  rudest  manufacture,  fashioned  by  hand  without 
the  aid  of  the  potter's  wheel,  which  are  only  found  else- 
where in  Latium  under  the  peperin  (i.e.  the  lava  of  the  long- 
extinct  volcanoes  of  the  Alban  mountain  range) .  '  They  were 
evidently  the  pots  for  boiling  the  grain,  at  a  time  when  corn, 
instead  of  being  made  into  bread,  was  beaten  to  a  pulp  '. 
Later  in  the  day,  the  priests,  after  all  who  were  not  members 
of  the  college  had  left  the  temple,  shut  themselves  up  in  the 
sanctuary,  tucked  up  their  tunics  for  the  dance,  and  sang  or 
recited  a  prayer  to  Mars  and  the  Lares  (or  Lases)  to  avert 
destruction  '  in  Latin  which  must  have  been  obsolete  400 
years  before  Cicero,  and  was  as  unintelligible  to  them  as  the 
Kyrie  Eleison  to  the  sacristan  ;  for  which  reason  the  service- 
book  was  handed  to  each  priest  beforehand  by  the  attend- 
ants '.  The  text  of  this  litany,  contained  in  a  protocol 
drawn  up  in  218  during  the  reign  of  Heliogabalus  (Elagaba- 
lus)  is  the  oldest  known  document  in  the  Latin  language. 
At  that  time  perhaps  a  thousand  years  had  passed  since  the 
'  field-brethren  '  had  invoked  Dea  Dia  for  the  first  time.  In 
the  course  of  these  thousand  years,  the  face  of  the  inhabited 
world  was  almost  entirely  changed.  The  city  on  the  Tiber, 
once  a  country  village,  had  become  the  centre  of  a  world- 
empire  ;  its  morning  and  noon  had  passed,  its  evening  was  at 
hand.  The  occupant  of  the  throne  set  up  bj^  Augustus  was  a 
priest  of  the  sun  from  Syria,  a  thoroughly  despised  and  fre- 
quently humiliated  country.  And  yet  still  could  be  heard  the 
ancient  chant,  the  words  of  which  the  kings  of  Rome  had  once 
listened  to  with  reverence — 

Help  us,  O  Lases  ! 

O  Mars,  ]\Iars,  let  not  death  and  destruction  overtake  so  many  ! 

Be  sated,  O  cruel  Mars  ! 

In  the  rest  of  Italy,  also,  very  ancient  local  cults  held  their 
ground  with  the  same  tenacity  against  all  destructive  influ- 
ences ;  in  upper  Italy  Celtic,  in  the  district  of  Verona  Rae- 
tian,  in  Toscana  Etruscan,  especially  the  cult  of  Nortia,  the 
goddess  of  destiny,  at  Volsinii  (Bolsena).  Juvenal  speaks  of 
Nortia  as  the  patron  goddess  of  Sejanus,  who  was  a  native  of 
Volsinii,  and  as  late  as  the  fourth  century  the  Volsinian 
Rufius  Festus  Avienus  (proconsul  of  Africa  366,  of  Achaia 


158  Religion 

372,  and  a  poet  of  repute)  calls  himself  a  worshipper  of  Nortia. 
Similarly,  other  families  from  Italian  towns  who  had  settled 
in  Rome  clung  to  their  native  cults,  the  Turpiliani  to  that  of 
Feronia,  chiefly  worshipped  at  Terracina  and  Soracte,  but 
also  at  many  other  places  in  Italy.  The  goddess  Vacuna,  by 
whose  ruined  temple  in  the  neighbourhood  of  his  Sabine  farm 
Horace  dictated  the  epistle  to  his  friend  Aristius  Fuscus,  was 
worshipped  at  several  places  in  Sabine  territory  ;  her  most 
famous  sanctuary  was  a  grove  in  the  plain  of  Rieti,  where  the 
Vclino  flows  into  the  Veline  lake.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
reputation  of  other  local  divinities,  like  that  of  the  aldermen 
of  small  towns,  as  TertuUian  scofflngly  remarks,  did  not  ex- 
tend beyond  the  outskirts  ;  thus  the  cult  of  Delvcntinus  was 
limited  to  Casinum,  of  Numiternus  to  Atina,  of  Visidianus 
to  Narnia,  of  Ancharia  to  Asculum,  of  Valentia  to  Ocricu- 
lum,  of  Hostia  to  Sutrium.  A  temple  of  the  goddess  Cupra 
in  the  town  of  the  same  name  on  the  coast  of  Picenum  was 
restored  by  Hadrian.  Curious  festivals,  attended  by  crowds 
of  pilgrims  and  sightseers  from  all  quarters,  and  singular 
usages  continued  in  existence  in  different  places.  As  late  as 
the  time  of  Marcus  Aurelius  the  priesthood  of  Diana  of  Nemi 
was  bestowed  upon  the  man  who,  after  he  had  broken  off  a 
branch  from  a  certain  tree  in  her  grove,  slew  the  holder  of  the 
office  for  the  time  being  in  a  duel  ;  at  that  time  the  candidates 
for  this  reward  of  blood  were  runaway  slaves. 

The  astonishingly  numerous  and  manifold  local  cults,  in 
great  part  also  dating  from  remote  antiquity,  often  singular, 
sometimes  barbarous  and  even  horrible,  which  continued 
to  exist  in  Greece,  are  known  to  us  chiefly  from  Plutarch, 
Pausanias,  and  inscriptional  monuments.  Some  character- 
istic examples  will  be  sufficient  to  sho\^'  the  superabundance 
and  manysidedness  of  the  Greek  cults,  and  the  amazing  ten- 
acity with  which  immemorial  traditions  held  their  ground. 
At  Patrae,  the  festival  of  Artemis  Laphria  was  celebrated  in 
the  following  manner.  Round  the  large  sacrificial  altar  green 
trunks  of  trees,  each  sixteen  ells  long,  were  planted  in  a  circle 
within  which  piles  of  the  driest  wood  were  heaped  up.  On  the 
first  day  a  magnificent  procession  took  place,  in  which  the 
maiden  priestess  of  Artemis,  on  a  car  drawn  by  stags,  brought 
up  the  rear.  On  the  second  day  the  sacrifice  took  place,  to 
which  both  the  township  and  individuals  vied  with  each  other 


Religion  159 

in  contributing.  All  the  victims  were  thrown  alive  on  the 
altar,  consisting  of  edible  birds,  wild  boars,  deer,  roe,  wolves 
and  bears  and  their  cubs  ;  then  the  fire  was  lighted.  If  a 
bear  or  other  animal  succeeeded  in  getting  loose  and  escaping, 
it  was  at  once  dragged  back  again,  yet  no  one  was  ever  injured 
by  any  of  these  animals. 

In  the  same  town,  an  image  of  Dionysus  Aesymnetes 
('  president ')  was  worshipped  ;  it  was  enclosed  in  a  chest 
which,  according  to  the  legend,  had  been  carried  away  from 
Troy  at  the  time  of  its  capture.  Nine  men,  chosen  by  the 
people  from  the  most  distinguished  inhabitants,  and  the  same 
number  of  women,  conducted  the  service.  On  a  fixed  night 
during  the  festival,  the  priest  carried  the  chest  out  of  the 
temple.  Then  all  the  children  went  out  of  the  city  to  the 
river  Meilichus,  their  heads  crowned  with  ears  of  corn. 
According  to  the  legend,  it  was  in  this  manner  that  the  children 
who  were  sacrificed  to  Artemis  were  crowned  in  olden  times. 
They  deposited  the  crowns  at  the  feet  of  Artemis,  bathed  in 
the  river,  wreathed  their  heads  with  ivy,  and  then  repaired 
to  the  temple  of  Dionysus.  Near  the  river  Crathis  there 
was  a  sanctuary  of  '  the  broad-bosomed  earth-goddess ' 
with  a  very  old  image  of  wood.  The  priestesses  were  obliged 
to  live  a  chaste  life,  and  those  appointed  to  the  office  must 
have  known  only  one  man.  The  truth  of  their  declara- 
tion was  proved  by  a  draught  of  bull's  blood  ;  those  who 
failed  to  stand  the  ordeal  were  instantly  punished.  When 
several  candidates  were  equally  qualified,  the  selection  was 
decided  by  lot.  At  Titane  in  Sicyonia  there  was  a  temple  of 
Asclepius,  much  frequented  by  sick  persons  who  lived  in  the 
neighbourhood  ;  inside  the  temple  precincts  stood  some  old 
cypress  trees.  Only  the  head,  hands  and  feet  of  the  image  were 
to  be  seen  ;  the  rest  of  the  body  was  wrapped  in  a  woollen 
shirt  and  cloak.  A  statue  of  Hygiea  (Health)  by  its  side  was 
completely  covered  with  women's  hair,  cut  off  in  honour  of 
the  goddess,  and  with  strips  of  Babylonian  raiment.  Hard 
by  was  an  altar  of  the  winds,  to  which  the  priest  offered  sacri- 
fice one  night  in  every  year,  at  the  same  time  secretly  throwing 
victims  into  four  pits  to  assuage  the  fury  of  the  winds  ;  he 
also  sang  incantations,  composed,  it  was  said,  by  the  old 
enchantress  Medea.  At  Troezen,  near  the  temple  of  the 
Muses,  there  was  an  altar  of  Sleep,  to  whom  sacrifice  was 


i6o  Religion 

offered  as  well  as  to  the  Muses,  since  this  god  was  said  to  be 
their  greatest  favourite.  But  the  chief  object  of  worship  at 
Troezen  was  Hippolytus,  the  son  of  Theseus,  to  whom  a 
magnificent  temple  was  erected.  The  inhabitants  denied  that 
he  had  met  his  death  by  being  dragged  along  by  his  horses  ; 
they  asserted  that  he  had  been  carried  up  to  heaven,  where  he 
was  to  be  seen  in  the  constellation  Auriga  (Charioteer).  His 
priest  held  office  for  life,  and  a  yearly  festival  was  celebrated  in 
his  honour  ;  every  maiden  cut  off  a  lock  of  her  hair  before 
marriage  and  deposited  it  in  his  temple.  At  the  festivals  of 
Dionysus  the  outward  signs  of  religious  frenzy,  the  eating  of 
raw  meat,  the  strangling  and  tearing  to  pieces  of  snakes  by 
the  Bacchantes  still  continued.  The  shedding  of  human  blood, 
obligatory  in  certain  cults,  was  a  survival  of  human  sacrifice. 
According  to  the  legend  credited  by  Pausanias,  the  image  of 
Artemis  Orthia  at  Sparta  was  the  very  one  that  Orestes  had 
carried  off  from  the  temple  at  Tauri  ;  the  goddess  still  required 
her  altar  to  be  sprinkled  with  human  blood,  for  which  purpose 
youths  were  still  flogged  at  her  altar  till  they  bled.  The 
priestess  held  the  little  wooden  image  of  the  goddess  in  her 
arm  ;  if  the  scourgers  flogged  a  boy  lightly  owing  to  his 
beauty  or  rank,  it  grew  so  heavy  that  she  could  not  carry  it. 
Plutarch  says  that  even  in  his  time  many  died  under  the  blows  ; 
those  who  bore  the  flogging  most  unflinchingly  were  distin- 
guished for  life  by  the  title  of  '  conquerors  at  the  altar.'  At 
Alea  in  Arcadia,  during  a  festival  of  Dionysus,  women  were 
flogged  in  obedience  to  an  utterance  of  the  Delphic  oracle. 
At  Orchomenus  in  Boeotia,  at  the  Agrionia,  the  priest  of 
Dionysus,  sword  in  hand,  every  year  pursued  the  supposed 
female  descendants  of  the  curse-laden  daughters  of  Minyas  ; 
he  was  at  liberty  to  kill  the  woman  whom  he  caught,  as  the 
priest  Zoilus  actually  did  in  Plutarch's  time.  But  this  pious 
frenzy  brought  down  the  wrath  of  the  gods  not  only  upon 
Zoilus,  who  died  of  a  horrible  disease,  but  also  upon  the  city, 
which  was  grievously  afflicted  ;  the  inhabitants  deprived  the 
family  of  Zoilus  of  the  priesthood,  which  was  subsequently 
conferred  by  election.  According  to  Lactantius,  human 
sacrifices  were  offered  to  Zeus  in  Cyprus,  until  Hadrian  for- 
bade them  ;  even  under  Marcus  Aurelius  it  was  believed  that 
they  were  secretly  offered  to  Zeus  Lycaeus  in  Arcadia.  In 
Rhodes,  also,  a  human  victim  is  said  to  have  been  offered  to 


Religion  i6i 

Cronus  every  year,  usually  a  criminal  deserving  of  death  (as 
at  the  festival  of  Jupiter  Latiaris  in  Rome). 

Our  knowledge  of  the  state  of  religion  in  Greece,  down  to  the 
end  of  the  second  century  and  even  later,  as  already  observed, 
gives  us  the  impression  that  the  intrusion  of  new  foreign  cults 
no  more  affected  or  changed  the  essential  character  of  the 
native  cults  than  the  introduction  of  the  worship  of  Adonis, 
Cybele  and  Ammon  in  earlier  times.  And  yet  the  rites  of  the 
Egyptian  divinities,  Isis,  Osiris  and  Serapis  (introduced  at 
least  as  early  as  the  fourth  century  b.c.)  enjoyed  a  great  popu- 
larity and  reputation  on  the  Greek  continent  as  well  as  the 
islands.  About  the  time  of  the  birth  of  Christ,  the  worship  of 
the  Syrian  Aphrodite  and  of  the  Syrian  Adad  and  Atergatis 
(sun-god  and  earth-goddess)  were  associated  with  these  in 
Delos  ;  traces  of  Mithras  worship  have  been  found  in  Athens 
and  Thera  ;  and  Lucian's  jokes  about  the  motley  crowd  of 
gods  makes  it  probable  that  many  other  eastern  gods  had 
found  a  home  in  Greece.  Bendis,  Anubis,  Mithras  and  others 
are  present  at  the  discussion  concerning  Providence.  In 
much-frequented  harbours  at  least,  such  as  Corinth  and 
Rhodes,  foreign  cults  must  have  been  numerous,  while  in  the 
desolate  and  unvisited  interior  the  old  cults  probably  main- 
tained a  more  or  less  exclusive  ascendancy.  If  it  is  certain 
that  countless  old  Roman  and  Greek  cults  continued  to  exist 
in  the  times  of  the  theocrasy,  it  is  no  less  certain  that  regular 
participation  in  religious  worship  was  everywhere  so  general, 
that  entire  omission  of  the  usual  sacred  rites  gave  offence  or 
attracted  attention  as  exceptional.  The  philosopher  Demo- 
nax  was  even  accused  at  Athens,  since  no  one  ever  saw  him  offer 
sacrifice  and  he  alone  had  not  been  initiated  into  the  Eleusinian 
mysteries  ;  yet  he  knew  how  to  calm  the  storm  that  threat- 
ened him  in  the  assembly,  where  many  had  stones  ready  to  hurl 
at  him.  Sicinius  Aemilianus  of  Oea,  the  accuser  of  Apuleius, 
was  called  Mezentius  (the  name  of  the  well-known  '  despiser 
of  the  gods  '  in  Virgil)  for  his  notorious  impiety.  He  had  never 
prayed  to  a  god,  never  entered  a  temple  ;  when  he  passed  a 
sanctuary,  he  never  so  much  as  showed  his  respect  by  kissing 
his  hand.  He  never  even  offered  a  portion  of  the  harvest  nor 
the  firstlings  of  the  flock  to  the  gods  of  the  country,  who  clothed 
and  nourished  him  ;  his  property  contained  no  sanctuary,  no 
grove,  nor  consecrated  ground.     Those  who  had  visited  it 

R.L.M. — III .  M 


1 62  Religion 

declared  that  not  even  a  stone  was  to  be  seen  sprinkled  with 
fragrant  essences  nor  a  branch  of  a  tree  hung  with  garlands. 
Martial  commended  the  sanctuaries  on  his  little  property  at 
Nomentum  to  the  care  of  a  certain  Marius,  to  whom  he  had 
transferred  it ;  the  pines  and  holm-oaks  dedicated  to  the  Fauns, 
the  altars  of  Jupiter  and  Silvanus  ('  often  stained  with  the 
blood  of  a  lamb  or  a  goat  ')  erected  by  the  inexperienced  hand 
of  the  bailiff ;  further,  chapels  or  temples  of  Diana  and  Mars  and 
a  laurel-grove  sacred  to  Flora.  He  hoped  that  Marius,  when 
offering  sacrifice,  would  also  commend  him  to  the  care  of  the 
gods  and  beg  them  to  grant  both  what  one  of  them  might  wish. 
From  youth  upwards  familiarity  with  an  enormous  number  of 
forms  of  ritual  exercised  an  irresistible  influence  on  Roman 
life.  Children  of  tender  years,  says  Prudentius  (end  of  the 
fourth  century)  tasted  the  sacrificial  meal,  saw  the  smoke- 
begrimed  images  of  the  Lares  sprinkled  with  fragrant  essences, 
their  mothers  praying  anxiously  before  the  statue  of  the  god- 
dess of  destiny  with  the  cornu  copies  (horn  of  plenty),  and, 
while  still  in  their  nurses'  arms,  kissed  the  images  of  the  gods 
and  addressed  them  in  childish  prayers. 

The  universal  practice  of  sacrificing  on  all  joyful  occasions 
is  amply  attested  for  all  classes  of  society.  Persius  ridicules 
property  owners  who  pray  to  Mercury  for  the  increase  of  their 
live  stock,  and  at  the  same  time  diminish  it  by  the  frequent 
sacrifice  of  heifers.  Whenever  a  senator  was  promoted  to 
consular  rank,  '  the  fore-court  of  the  palace  smoked  with  the 
blood  of  young  steers  '.  During  the  absence  of  Augustus  from 
Rome  a  senator  named  Rufus,  in  a  moment  of  intoxication, 
let  slip  the  joke  that  all  the  bulls  and  calves  prayed  that  he 
might  never  return.  A  similar  jest  concerning  the  prayers  of 
the  white  cows  during  the  campaigns  of  Marcus  Aurelius  has 
already  been  mentioned.  Juvenal  offered  sacrifice  for  the 
deliverance  of  his  friend  Catullus  from  the  perils  of  the  sea  to 
the  three  Capitoline  divinities — two  lambs  and  a  young  ox  ; 
had  he  been  rich,  he  would  have  substituted  a  fat  steer  of  noble 
breed  for  the  ox.  The  fees  paid  by  the  faithful  for  admission 
to  the  temples,  for  the  offering  of  the  sacrifice,  and  the  throw- 
ing in  of  the  gift,  often  made  the  office  of  priest  a  very  lucrative 
one  ;  hence  they  were  farmed  on  account  of  the  state  or 
community,  and  even  sold  by  auction  in  some  towns  of  Asia 
Minor  (in  Egypt  this  was  done  on  account  of  the  emperors  as 


Religion  163 

successors  of  the  Ptolemies).  A  tariff  of  the  sacrificial  fees 
is  still  in  existence.  One  of  the  most  remarkable  results  of 
the  spread  of  Christianity  in  the  province  of  Pontus  (accord- 
ing to  Pliny  in  his  well-known  letter  to  Trajan  in  the  year  112) 
was  that  the  temples,  no  doubt  those  of  Amisus  and  the  neigh- 
bouring localities  in  the  first  place,  were  almost  deserted,  the 
sacred  festivals  were  not  celebrated,  and  there  was  scarcely 
any  demand  for  sacrificial  victims.  However,  this  state  of 
affairs,  which  both  surprised  and  disquieted  Pliny,  was  some- 
what improved  by  the  measures  taken  by  him  against  the 
Christians.  We  may  form  some  idea  of  the  enormous  extent 
to  which  animals  were  used  for  sacrificial  purposes  from  the 
statement  of  Suetonius,  that  as  a  result  of  the  general  rejoic- 
ings at  the  accession  of  Caligula  more  than  160,000  victims 
were  sacrificed  in  Rome  alone  in  less  than  three  months.  Even 
in  the  time  of  Prudentius,  the  Sacred  Way  resounded  with  the 
bellowing  of  oxen  driven  to  the  Capitol  for  sacrifice. 

But  above  all,  it  is  clear  from  the  numerous  inscriptional 
stones  that  have  been  preserved,  that  pious  believers  continued 
to  show  their  zeal  and  activity  on  behalf  of  their  faith  by 
building  temples  and  keeping  them  in  repair,  by  adorning  them 
with  images  of  the  gods,  and  by  gifts,  offerings  and  benefactions 
of  every  kind.  Even  at  the  time  when  religion  is  usually  sup- 
posed to  have  been  at  its  lowest  ebb,  Lucretius  wrote  :  '  that 
awe  is  still  deep-rooted  in  the  minds  of  men,  which  has  called 
forth  religious  belief  and  the  adoration  of  the  gods  ;  which 
causes  new  temples  of  the  gods  to  be  erected  over  the  whole 
earth,  and  fills  them  on  festal  days  with  crowds  of  visitors'. 
Certainly,  it  is  no  proof  of  a  general  decline  of  belief  that,  dur- 
ing a  period  of  uninterrupted  and  fearful  political  convulsions, 
some  of  the  very  numerous  temples  and  sanctuaries  in  Rome 
were  destroyed  and  their  sites  illegally  appropriated  even  by 
private  individuals.  If  the  number  of  those  which  needed 
restoration  and  were  actually  restored  by  Augustus  in  28  B.C. 
was  really  eighty-two,  it  is  a  question  whether  this  number 
should  be  considered  large  or  small,  in  view  of  the  total  num- 
ber of  such  buildings. 

The  number  of  buildings,  donations  and  benefactions  given 
by  private  individuals  for  religious  purposes  was  enormous, 
as  is  shown  by  inscriptions  from  Italy  and  all  the  provinces. 
Some  of  these,  no  doubt,  owe  their  origin  to  other  than  religi- 


164  Religion 

ous  motives  ;   but  it  is  equally  certain  that  in  most  cases  these 
pious  offerings  and  gifts  were  presented  to  earn  or  retain  the 
favour  of  the  gods  or  to  quiet  an  uneasy  conscience  ;    many, 
according  to  the  inscriptions,  were  given  '  after  a  vision  '  or 
'  by  command  '  or  '  admonition  '  of  the  divinity  in  a  dream. 
According  to  this  evidence,  we  may  assume  that  a  considerable 
number  of  the  temples  throughout  the  empire  were  built  by 
private  individuals  at  their  own  expense,  who  sometimes  in 
addition  assigned  a  capital  sum  for  the  upkeep  of  the  building. 
In  Italy  especially — where  in  Appian's  time  (i.e.  under  Anto- 
ninus Pius)  the  wealthiest  temples,  next  to  that  of  Jupiter  on  the 
Capitol,  were  those  at  Antium  and  Lanuvium,  that  of  Hercules  at 
Tibur,  and  that  of  Diana  at  Aricia — thewell-to-do  inhabitants  of 
municipal  towns  vied  with  their  countrymen  who  had  attained 
high  rank  at  Rome,  and  with  the  patrons  and  other  protectors 
of  their  towns,  in  showing  their  munificence  and  attachment 
to  their  native  place ;   above  all,  by  providing  it  with  worthy 
dwellings  for  the  gods.     For  example,  a  certain  Publius  Lucilius 
Gamala  (who  lived  from  about  117  to  180)  built  or  restored 
seven  temples   at  Ostia— of  Vulcan,   of  Castor  and  Pollux, 
of  Venus,  of  Spes  (Hope),  of  Fortune,  of  Ceres  and  of  father 
Tiberinus  (the  deified  personification  of  the  Tiber) .     Martial's 
friend  Caesius  Sabinus  built  a  temple  for  the  nymph  of  a  lake 
at  Sassina.     A  husband  and  wife  at  Assisi  built  a  temple, 
apparently  of  Castor  and  Pollux,  and  in  addition  provided  the 
statues.     In  Malta  a  private  individual  spent  1 10,792  J  sesterces 
(about  £1,110)  on  the  erection  of  a  marble  temple  of  Apollo. 
Great  landowners  also  looked  after  the  country  temples  on 
their  property  ;   thus,  Pliny  repaired  a  ruined  temple  of  Ceres 
on  one  of  his  estates.     In  addition  to  entirely  new  buildings 
and  the  restoration  and  completion  of  dilapidated  sanctuaries, 
offerings,  repairs  of  individual  parts,  and  special  buildings  of 
all  kinds  (altars,  sacrificial  kitchens,  pillars  and  capitals,  pedi- 
ments, floors,   ornaments,  etc.),  donations  and  benefactions 
for  religious  purposes  are  very  frequently  mentioned  on  the 
inscriptional  stones. 

Images  of  the  gods,  some  of  them  very  costly,  were  especi- 
ally common  in  temples.  Thus,  a  priestess  of  Aeclanum 
presented  a  silver  statue  of  Felicitas  ;  a  cavalry  officer  at 
Formiae  bequeathed  100,000  sesterces  (about  ;^i,ooo)  for  a 
silver  processional  car  of   Minerva  weighing  100  lb.  with  all 


Religion  165 

accessories  ;  probably  the  temple  statue  of  the  goddess  was 
also  of  precious  metal.  A  woman  left  directions  in  her  will 
for  the  erection  of  the  statue  of  a  god,  weighing  100  lb.,  in  a 
certain  temple  in  her  native  town,  with  her  name  subscribed  ; 
the  question  then  arose,  whether  her  heirs  might  provide  one 
of  bronze  or  whether  they  would  be  compelled  to  make  one  of 
silver  or  gold.  The  famous  jurist  Cervidius  Scaevola  (tutor  of 
Septimius  Severus),  in  view  of  the  fact  that  all  the  offerings  in 
the  temple  were  of  silver  or  bronze,  decided  that  the  statue 
must  be  of  silver.  A  silver  statuette  of  Mercury  at  Lambaesis 
cost  14,000  sesterces  (about  £i^o),  a  silver  statue  at  Hippo 
Regius  more  than  51,000,  a  similar  one  at  Vienne  100,000. 
Pious  believers  who  were  unable  to  offer  such  expensive  gifts, 
had  the  images  of  divinities  at  least  gilded,  entirely  or  in  part, 
e.g.  the  feet,  but  especially  the  face  or  beard.  Thus  at  Cor- 
finium  '  a  servant  (female)  of  the  great  mother  had  the  great 
mother  repaired  and  gilded,  the  hair  of  Attis  gilded  and  Bel- 
lona  repaired  ' ;  at  the  same  time  the  priest  of  Attis  had  an 
altar  and  silver  moon  made  for  him. 

Further,  the  images  of  the  gods  were  provided  with  articles 
of  clothing,  attributes,  ornaments  and  valuables  according 
to  the  means  of  the  worshipper.  In  his  youth  the  emperor 
Galba  dreamed  that  Fortuna  stood  before  his  door,  seeking 
admission  ;  on  awaking  he  found  a  bronze  statue  of  the  god- 
dess on  the  threshold,  which  he  personally  removed  to  his 
estate  at  Tusculum,  and  all  his  life  showed  his  reverence  for  it 
by  monthly  supplications  and  a  yearly  vigil.  Shortly  before 
his  death  he  kept  ready  a  carefully  selected  necklace  of  pearls 
and  precious  stones  to  adorn  the  statue,  but  finally  resolved 
to  offer  it  to  Venus  on  the  Capitol ;  whereupon  Fortuna  ap- 
peared to  him  in  a  dream  and  threatened  to  take  back  her  gifts. 
As  a  rule  such  pious  gifts  were,  of  course,  intended  for  temple 
statues.  For  instance,  in  a  temple  at  Puteoli  a  certain  person, 
prompted  by  a  dream,  had  a  snake  (probably  that  of  Aescu- 
lapius) made  at  his  own  expense.  An  augustalis  ^  of  Arimi- 
num  left  instructions  in  his  will  for  the  erection  of  a  statue, 
apparently  of  a  Bacchant  (in  a  temple  of  Bacchus)  with  a 
golden  necklace,  a  thyrsus,  and  a  silver  goblet  2  J  lb.  in  weight. 
At  Reii  (Riez  in  the  south  of  France)  a  man  and  his  wife,  in 

^  The  augustales  were  a  religious  assoeiation  at  Rome,  which  kept  up  the  worship  of 
the  deified  emperors. 


1 66  Religion 

fulfilment  of  a  vow,  offered  to  Aesculapius,  '  to  show  their  grati- 
tude for  the  surprising  effect  of  the  power  of  the  god  which 
they  had  themselves  experienced,'  a  bronze  statue  of  the  god  of 
sleep  (they  had  perhaps  been  cured  of  sleeplessness)  and  some 
valuables — a  gold  chain  of  little  snakes  and  a  silver  writing 
tablet.  At  Acci  in  Hispania  Tarraconensis  a  grandmother, 
in  honour  of  her  granddaughter,  offered  Isis  a  statue  or  some 
other  offering,  weighing  ii2|-  lb.  of  silver,  besides  a  set  of 
pearls,  emeralds  and  other  precious  stones  for  the  head,  neck 
and  other  parts  of  the  body,  including,  according  to  the  list, 
two  emeralds  and  two  pearls  for  the  ears  ;  two  diamond  rings 
for  the  little  finger  ;  a  ring  with  emeralds,  various  stones  and  a 
pearl  for  the  next  finger  ;  an  emerald  ring  for  the  midle  finger  ; 
eight  precious  stones  cut  in  the  form  of  a  cylinder,  for  the  shoes. 
Frequently  (as  at  Riez)  statues  of  other  gods  than  those  to 
which  they  were  consecrated  were  presented  to  the  temples  ; 
and  donations  were  given,  which  had  no  reference  to  the  cult, 
but  were  intended  to  enhance  the  beauty  and  magnificence  of 
the  temples,  and  to  increase  their  stock  of  treasures.  Thus, 
a  citizen  of  Rhegium  bequeathed  to  the  temple  of  Apollo  in 
his  native  place  a  small  parchment  book  with  ivory  covers,  an 
ivory  case,  and  nineteen  pictures. 

The  fact  that  gold  and  silver  votive  offerings  (some  of  them 
very  valuable)  even  in  second-rate  towns  of  both  east  and  west 
(such  as  Ostia)  are  frequently  mentioned  ;  that  the  gifts  of 
Augustus  to  five  temples  in  Rome  (those  of  Jupiter  Capitolinus, 
Divus  Julius,  Apollo,  Vesta,  and  IMars  the  Avenger)  from  the 
spoils  of  war,  reached  a  total  value  of  about  100,000,000  ses- 
terces (about  ;/^i,ooo,ooo)  ;  that  old  and  damaged  temple 
gifts,  used  by  Hadrian  for  the  construction  of  a  statue  at 
Lanuvium,  amounted  to  3  lb.  of  gold  and  206  lb.  of  silver  ; 
these  and  similar  considerations  would  justify  the  assumption 
that  the  Roman  empire  probably  contained  not  a  few  temples 
whose  votive  offerings  were  not  inferior  in  number  and  value  to 
those  of  the  former  treasure-chapel  of  the  Casa  Santa  (Holy- 
House)  at  Loreto.  Such  treasures,  in  addition  to  the  moneys 
and  valuables  frequently  deposited  in  consecrated  buildings, 
needed  protection,  for  which  purpose  the  military  posts  already 
mentioned  were  established  near  the  temples.  Those  temples, 
whose  divinities,  in  accordance  with  resolutions  of  the  senate 
or  imperial  decrees,  could  be  appointed  heirs,  were  probably 


Religion  167    . 

the  wealthiest  :  such  were  those  of  Jupiter  on  the  Capitol,  of 
Apollo  at  Miletus,  of  Mars  in  Gaul  (?),  of  Minerva  at  Ilium, 
of  Hercules  at  Gades,  of  Diana  at  Ephesus,  of  the  Mother  of 
the  Gods  from  Sipylus  at  Smyrna,  and  of  the  '  heavenly 
(moon)  goddess  '  at  Carthage. 

Nor  were  the  priests  and  temple  attendants  forgotten.  In 
reference  to  the  clause  in  a  lady's  will,  desiring  her  heirs  to 
pay  the  sum  of  10  denarii  '  to  the  priest,  the  caretaker  and  the 
other  freedmen  '  of  a  certain  temple, '  on  the  day  of  the  yearly 
market  instituted  by  her  in  the  neighbourhood,'  Scaevola 
decided  that  the  payment  must  be  made  annually. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  worship  of  images,  the  contem- 
plation of  the  divinity  present  in  the  image,  which  irresistibly 
influenced  even  rebellious  and  wavering  souls,  and  the  possi- 
bility of  adoring  the  divinity  in  person  and  in  some  sort 
holding  communication  with  him  face  to  face,  more  than  any- 
thing else  in  the  cult  tended  to  maintain  and  strengthen  belief. 
Although  some  philosophers,  like  Seneca,  rejected  the  worship 
of  images,  others,  like  Maximus  of  Tyre,  insisted,  with  much 
reason,  that  the  weakness  of  human  nature,  which  is  as  far 
removed  from  God  as  earth  is  from  heaven,  needed  signs  per- 
ceptible by  the  senses  in  order  to  grasp  the  idea  of  the  divinity, 
and  that  few  could  dispense  with  them.  He  added  that  the 
most  worthy  of  all  the  different  symbols  of  the  divine  beings  in 
use  amongst  different  peoples  was  the  human  form,  as  bearing 
the  greatest  likeness  to  God. 

We  need  no  evidence  to  show  that  the  naive  belief  of  the  ] 
masses  instinctively  and  unconsciously  transformed  the 
image  into  the  god  himself,  and  that  each  god  was  split  up  into 
as  many  personalities  as  there  were  famous  images  of  him. 
Similarly,  the  modern  Italian  believes  in  different  Madonnas, 
the  modern  Greek  in  different  Panagias.  Even  at  the  present 
day  in  Greece  and  the  south  of  Italy  ancient  images  of  the  gods 
are  worshipped  as  local  patron  saints  ;  e.g.  a  mutilated  Ariadne 
at  Monteleone  as  Santa  Venere,  who  is  especially  invoked  in 
diseases  of  women.  The  removal  of  a  colossal  statue  of  Deme- 
ter  from  Eleusis  in  1801  (now  at  Cambridge),  to  whose  benefi- 
cence the  blessings  of  the  harvest  were  attributed,  called  forth 
as  loud  laments  as  the  removal  of  Ceres  from  Enna  by  Verres, 
an  outrage  which  was  regarded  throughout  Sicily  as  the  cause 
of  the  ruin  of  agriculture.     In  ancient  times  the  lips,  hands 


1 68  Religion 

and  feet  of  the  images  of  the  gods  were  perceptibly  worn  by  the 
frequent  osculations  of  the  devout.  Suppliants  begged  the 
attendant  to  put  them  as  close  to  the  ear  of  the  image  as  pos- 
sible, that  they  might  obtain  a  better  hearing  ;  they  whispered 
into  it  prayers  and  vows  which  they  wished  to  keep  secret  ; 
they  attached  waxen  tablets  on  which  their  vows  were  recorded 
to  the  knees  of  the  image,  that  the  god  might  not  forget  the 
object  of  their  desires.  But  if  their  prayers  were  not  granted, 
they  cursed  and  threatened  the  gods,  as  the  Christians  in  late 
times  the  saints.  Paulinus  of  Nola,  quite  in  accordance  with 
reality,  tells  how  a  peasant  rudely  informs  St.  Felix  that  he 
expects  him  to  recover  his  two  oxen  that  had  been  stolen  ; 
*  the  martyr  was  greatly  amused  at  the  peasant's  uncouthness, 
and  he  and  the  Lord  laughed  at  his  abuse  '.  Similarly,  accord- 
ing to  Epictetus,  farmers,  when  the  weather  was  bad,  and 
sailors  when  there  was  a  storm,  hurled  curses  at  Jupiter. 

But  disappointed  suppliants,  whether  in  ancient  or  modern 
times,  were  not  content  with  simple  curses.  Wherever,  and 
in  whatever  form,  image  worship  has  existed  or  still  exists, 
believers  have  at  all  times  vented  their  wrath  upon  the  images 
of  their  gods  or  saints,  when  their  prayers  are  unheard  and 
their  hopes  of  assistance  unfulfilled.  The  old  Arcadians 
thrashed  their  god  Pan,  when  they  returned  from  the  chase 
empty-handed  ;  the  Ostiak  and  the  Laplander  maltreat  their 
idols  and  break  them  to  pieces,  should  misfortune  overtake 
them  ;  the  lazzarone  of  Naples  kicks  the  saints  with  whom  he  is 
dissatisfied  ;  the  Spaniard  throws  his  virgen  (image  of  the  Virgin) 
into  the  water  ;  the  Bavarian  peasant  flings  the  wooden  image 
of  the  Lord  on  the  dung-heap  if  the  hailstorm  does  not  cease. 
In  the  south  of  Italy  and  Sicily,  saints  who  do  not  send  the 
longed-for  rain  in  time  of  drought  are  frequently  bound 
with  cords  and  thrown  into  the  water.  During  the  Napoleonic 
campaigns,  an  old  Bavarian  battalion  made  St.  Peter  run  the 
gauntlet,  since  he  had  refused  them  an  easy  march.  An  old 
Spanish  lady  of  high  descent  (in  1871)  flogged  St.  Martialis 
(field-marshal  of  the  Spanish  army)  with  her  riding  whip  on 
the  day  when  the  Carlists  were  obliged  to  lay  down  their  arms. 
These  examples  show  that  such  excesses  are  the  necessary 
accompaniments  of  image  worship  ;  and  it  can  only  be  an 
accident  that  only  a  single  instance  is  recorded  of  such  an 
outbreak  of  rage  in  later  antiquity.     The  manner  in  which  it 


Religion  1 69 

is  described  by  Suetonius  makes  it  clear  that  he  saw  nothing 
remarkable  in  it.  When  the  disquieting  reports  of  the  illness 
of  Germanicus  were  followed  by  the  rumour  of  his  recovery, 
all  the  inhabitants,  in  spite  of  the  lateness  of  the  hour,  flocked 
to  the  Capitol  with  lights  and  sacrificial  victims  ;  the  gates  of 
the  temple  were  almost  burst  open,  since  the  people  thought 
they  could  not  fulfil  their  vows  quickly  enough  ;  on  the  day  of 
his  death,  on  the  other  hand,  stones  were  hurled  at  the  temples, 
altars  of  the  gods  thrown  down,  the  domestic  Lares  flung  into 
the  streets.  In  this  case,  also,  we  see  that  the  belief  in  the  exist- 
ence as  well  as  in  the  power  of  the  gods  was  such  that  nothing 
could  shake  it. 

The  extent  to  which  the  popular  belief,  unreflecting  and 
unhesitating,  was  able  to  carry  out  and  maintain  the  identifi- 
cation of  the  image  with  the  divinity  can  hardly  be  determined. 
What  so  excited  Seneca's  indignation,  on  a  chance  visit  to  the 
Capitol,  was  partly  the  antiquated  ritual,  and  partly  the  child- 
ish belief,  incomprehensible  to  him,  which  saw  the  divinity 
himself  in  the  image.  And  yet  the  expressions  of  this  belief 
were  hardly  more  singular  or  ridiculous  than  those  already 
mentioned.  According  to  the  ancient  religious  usage,  the 
Capitoline  deities  were  waited  upon  by  different  persons  ; 
Jupiter  had  his  lictor,  a  servant  to  tell  the  hours  of  the  day, 
and  another  to  anoint  him.  Just  as  the  latter,  by  waving  his 
arms  in  the  air,  represented  the  operation  in  dumb  show,  so 
the  temple  attendants  of  Juno  and  Minerva  moved  their  hands, 
as  if  dressing  the  goddesses'  hair,  while  others  held  a  mirror  in 
front  of  them.  On  the  other  hand,  those  '  who  called  upon  the 
gods  to  assist  them  in  court,  submitted  their  petitions  and  laid 
their  case  before  them  ',  were  evidently  suppliants.  Seneca 
also  saw  women  sitting  on  the  Capitol,  who  (probably  in  conse- 
quence of  dreams)  believed  themselves  beloved  of  Jupiter  and 
awaited  his  pleasure.  These  and  similar  practices,  such  as  the 
bestowal  of  offices  upon  the  gods,  the  clothing  of  their  images 
in  the  garb  of  senators  and  high  officials,  the  march  of  the  lictors 
before  them  with  bundles  of  rods  in  processions,  are  not  more 
surprising  than  their  modern  parallels.  Thus,  in  Spain,  the 
highest  orders  are  bestowed  upon  Madonnas  ;  at  Lisbon,  on 
Corpus  Christi  day,  St.  George  of  Cappadocia  marches  at  the 
head  of  the  Portuguese  army  accompanied  by  pages  and 
equerries  with  led  horses  ;  in  Mexico,  the  holy  virgin  of  Guada- 


170  Religion 

loupe  was  appointed  field-marshal  (with  a  salary  which  was  paid 
for  fourteen  years)  of  the  insurgent  army  fighting  against  the 
Spaniards  by  its  leader  Hidalgo  ;  the  holy  Virgin  dos  Dolores 
was  raised  by  Don  Carlos  to  the  same  rank  (in  1834).  Thus, 
like  all  image  worship  in  its  lowest  form,  that  of  the  period 
with  which  we  are  concerned  had  assumed  the  character  of 
gross  idolatry.  A  ceremony,  which  down  to  1864  took  place 
annually  in  the  church  of  Santa  Maria  del  Carmine  in  the 
Mercato  at  Naples  was  even  more  singular  than  the  toilettes  of 
the  CapitoUne  goddesses  alluded  to  by  Seneca.  On  the  second 
day  of  the  Christmas  festivities,  in  presence  of  the  authorities 
and  a  great  crowd  of  people,  the  hair  and  beard  of  a  figure  of 
the  Saviour  was  solemnly  cut  ;  this  was  called  far  la  barha  di 
Gesu. 

Thus,  polytheism  was  still  sufficient  for  the  religious  needs 
of  mankind  in  ancient  times,  while,  in  order  to  satisfy  the 
infinite  variety  of  its  tendencies,  it  split  up  into  a  number  of 
forms  corresponding  to  the  countless  stages  of  development  of 
the  spiritual  conscience.  However  great  the  contrast  between 
the  faith  of  a  Plutarch  and  a  Marcus  Aurelius  and  that  of  the 
sailors  and  peasants  who  cursed  Jupiter  during  bad  weather, 
all  had  an  equally  firm  belief  in  the  same  gods,  in  their  power 
and  solicitude  for  mankind.  The  difference  between  the  most 
divergent  forms  of  belief  at  that  time  was  no  greater  than  that 
which  existed  in  Christianity  between  the  highest  and  lowest 
conception  of  the  divine. 


II.  JUDAISM  AND  CHRISTIANITY 

The  expansive  power  of  Polytheism  found  its  limits  in  the 
strict  and  intolerant  exclusiveness  of  the  monotheistic  religions, 
with  which  agreement  was  impossible.  What  polytheists 
regarded  as  the  highest  and  holiest  was  condemned  by  both 
Judaism  and  Christianity  as  horrible,  accursed  and  soul- 
destroying.  All  that  is  holy  am.ongst  us,  says  Tacitus,  is 
unholy  amongst  the  Jews  ;  what  we  consider  impure  is  lawful 
with  them.  He  calls  them  a  people  given  to  superstition, 
averse  from  religion.  Both  Jews  and  Christians  looked  upon 
the  gods  to  whom  the  heathen  prayed  as  dead  idols  or  evil 
demons.     Greeks  and   Romans,    '  who  conceived  the   divine 


Religion  171 

fulness  of  life  as  a  totality,  a  world,  of  gods  ',  were  incapable  of 
understanding  the  belief  which  removes  the  divinity,  solitary 
and  almost  incomprehensibly  sublime,  to  an  inaccessible  dis- 
tance, and  separates  him  from  adoring  humanity  by  an  im- 
mense gulf  that  can  never  be  bridged.  The  heaven  of  Judaism 
and  Christianity  affected  them  like  '  a  cold  wilderness  '  ;  the 
belief  in  one  god  was  to  them  the  negation  of  all  that  was  divine 
— ungodliness  ;  Christians  and  atheists  were  equally  hated  by 
the  polytheistic  heathens  and  often  coupled  together  as  enemies 
of  religion  ;  both  Christians  and  Jews  were  reproached  with 
hatred  of  the  human  race. 

We  are  here  only  concerned  with  Judaism  and  Christianity 
as  contrasted  with  paganism,  and  in  so  far  as  they  acted  and 
reacted  upon  one  another.  In  the  endeavour  to  obtain  a 
general  view  of  the  state  of  religion  under  the  early  empire  it 
is  indispensable  to  indicate  their  position  within  the  world- 
wide empire  of  Rome,  and  the  circumstances  which  essentially 
favoured  or  hindered  the  progress  of  their  doctrines,  although 
only  the  most  salient  points  can  here  be  touched  upon. 

The  relation  of  the  two  monotheistic  religions  to  polytheism 
was  very  different.  Although  both  condemned  paganism 
absolutely  and  without  restriction,  yet  only  Christianity  was 
really  hostile  to  it.  Judaism,  a  religion  '  admirably  fitted  for 
defence,  but  never  designed  for  conquest '  (Gibbon),  preferred 
isolation  to  an  attempt  to  propagate  its  doctrines  at  the 
expense  of  paganism.  The  Jewish  communities,  dispersed 
throughout  the  empire  and  yet  closely  united,  certainly  had  a 
certain  attraction  for  paganism,  but  never  injured  it  to  such 
an  extent  as  to  imperil  its  existence  ;  and  in  spite  of  occasional 
friction  and  conflicts  the  relations  between  Judaism  and  pagan- 
ism were  in  the  main  peaceful. 

The  spread  of  Christianity  was  from  the  outset  most  effec- 
tively promoted  by  the  dispersion  of  the  Jews  throughout  the 
ancient  world.  This  dispersion  had  begun  earlj^  and  even  in 
pre-Christian  times  had  made  great  progress.  In  a  Sibylline 
oracle  (composed  towards  the  end  of  the  second  century  b.c.) 
it  is  asserted  that  every  land  and  every  sea  was  full  of  the 
Jewish  people.  Strabo  says  that  '  even  in  Sulla's  time  a  Jew- 
ish element  had  penetrated  into  every  city,  and  there  is  hardly 
a  place  in  the  world  which  has  not  admitted  this  people  and 
is  not  possessed  by  it  '  ;    according  to  Josephus,  there  was  no 


172  Religion 

people  on  earth  without  a  Jewish  element.  The  Acts  of  the 
Apostles  mentions  as  Jews  and  akin  to  Jews,  people  '  out  of 
every  nation  under  heaven  ',  who  heard  the  apostles  speaking 
with  tongues  in  Jerusalem  :  Parthians,  Medes,  Elamites, 
dwellers  in  Mesopotamia,  Cappadocia,  Pontus,  Asia,  Phrygia, 
Pamphylia,  Egypt,  Cyrene,  Rome,  Crete  and  Arabia.  King 
Herod  Agrippa,  in  a  letter  to  Caligula,  enumerates  the  coun- 
tries in  which  there  were  Jewish  colonies  :  Egypt,  Phoenicia, 
Syria,  Coele-Syria,  Pamphylia,  Cilicia,  most  of  Asia  as  far  as 
Bithynia,  and  the  coasts  of  the  inmost  bays  of  the  Black  Sea  ; 
in  Europe,  Thessaly,  Boeotia,  Macedonia,  Aetolia,  Attica, 
Argos,  Corinth,  most  of  the  countries  (and  those  the  best)  of 
Peloponnesus  ;  of  the  islands,  Euboea,  Cyprus,  Crete  ;  lastly, 
the  countries  beyond  the  Euphrates,  and  Libya. 

But  there  is  no  direct  evidence  that  the  Jewish  emigration 
was  especially  or  to  any  great  extent  prompted  by  commer- 
cial motives  ;  there  is  nothing  to  support  this  idea,  but  much 
to  contradict  it.  The  fact  that  the  towns  in  which  Jews 
are  known  to  have  settled  were  for  the  most  part  com- 
mercial centres  proves  nothing,  since  they  offered  the  most 
favourable  and  varied  opportunities  for  every  occupation, 
especially  industrial.  Further,  there  is  no  trace  in  ancient 
times  of  a  preference  amongst  the  Jews  for  the  trade  which 
lives  on  the  sale  of  the  work  of  others  ;  in  the  sixty-three 
tractates  of  the  Talmud,  which  accords  an  honourable  recog- 
nition to  manual  labour  and  occupation,  there  is  not  a  word 
in  honour  of  trade,  but  many  allusions  to  the  dangers  of  money- 
making  and  a  wandering  life.  '  The  Jews  were  always  an 
industrious  people.  As  long  as  they  formed  a  state  agricul- 
ture, horticulture  and  handicraft  were  their  chief  occupa- 
tions. Even  in  the  early  centuries  of  the  Christian  era  and 
after  their  dispersion  they  remained  faithful  to  their  old 
habits  ;  at  the  beginning  of  the  second  centurj'  Josephus 
praises  the  industry  of  his  compatriots  in  handicraft  and 
agriculture '.  'In  Roman  literature  and  the  laws  of  the 
emperors  there  are  no  indications  that  the  Jews  had  given 
themselves  up  to  petty  retail  trade,  or  had  become  a  mercan- 
tile people  at  all.  Their  miserable  condition  in  Rome  and 
the  great  revolts  in  Egypt,  Cyrene  and  the  Greek  islands  are 
arguments  to  the  contrary  :  a  population  engaged  in  trade 
does   no  t  generally   have   recourse   to  arms  '.     How   far  the 


Religion  173 

charges   (certainly  to  be  received  with  caution)   of  avarice, 
cheating,  mahce  and  perfidy,  so  commonly  brought  by  Chris- 
tian writers  of  the  fourth  and  fifth  centuries  against  the  Jews, 
justify  us  in  concluding  that  they  then  engaged  in  commerce 
to  a  greater  extent  than  in  earlier  times,  cannot  be  decided. 
Outside  the  Roman  empire,  the  kingdom  of  Parthia  con- 
tained the  largest  Jewish  element.     In  its  Greek  towns,  of 
which  Seleucia  on  the  Tigris,  said  to  contain  500,000  inhabi- 
tants, was  the  most  important  commercial  centre  beyond  the 
Roman  frontiers,  there  were  frequent  conflicts  between  the 
three   nations    (Greeks,   Syrians   and   Jews)   which  made   up 
their  populations  ;  for  example,  in  the  reign  of  Caligula  the 
Jews  were  expelled  from  Seleucia  and  other  cities  under  the 
eyes  of  the  Parthian  government.     They  were  reckoned  by 
millions  in  Mesopotamia,  Media  and  Babylonia  ;    Nisibis  and 
Nehardea  on  the  Euphrates  were  their  chief  seats,  and  after 
the  suppression  of  the  last  national  efforts  in  Palestine  Baby- 
lonia became  the  centre  of  a  new  Jewish  life,  which  spread 
over  all  parts  of  the  Persian  empire.     In  Palmyra  also  there 
were  Jews,  probably  in  large  numbers  ;   the  community  which 
is  known  to  have   existed   there   in  the   third   century   a.d. 
appears  to  have  survived  till  the  middle  ages,  since  Benjamin 
of  Tudela  in  the  twelfth  century  attests  its  existence  ;    some 
pillars  and  architraves  with  the  inscription  '  Hear,  O  Israel ' 
have  been  found  there.     Zenobia  and    her    son    Baballath 
Athenodorus   were  not    ill-disposed  to  the  Jews,  as  is  shown 
by  their  confirmation  of  the  right  of  asylum  in  a  synagogue 
in  lower  Egypt  (granted  by    Ptolemy  Euergetes  I    [247-221] 
or  II   [146-117]).     In  Arabia,   also,   according  to  the  state- 
ments of  Jewish,  Byzantine  and  Arabian  authorities,  there 
are  many  traces  of  extensive  ramifications  of  the  Jewish  move- 
ment.    The  last  king  of  the  Jewish  Homerites  (Himyarites) 
in  south-western  Arabia  (whose  kingdom  lasted  from  465  to 
525  A.D.),  Dimnus  (Dhu  Nowas),  was  a    zealous  defender  of 
the  faith.     Thence  Judaism  spread  to  the  Aethiopians  and 
Axumites.     The  formerly  independent  Jews,  who  inhabited 
the  island  of  lotaba  in  the  Arabian  gulf,  were  subdued  by 
Justinian.     The  Jewish  settlements  in  Abyssinia  appear  to 
be  of  great  antiquity.     When  Frumentius  introduced  Chris- 
tianity there  in  315,  they  are  said  to  have  formed  half  the 
population. 


174  Religion 

Within  the  limits  of  the  Roman  empire  (Palestine  excepted) 
the  Jewish  population  appears  to  have  been  largest  in  Asia 
Minor,  Phoenicia  and  Syria.  Of  the  population  of  Antioch, 
especially,  the  Jewish  colony  settled  there  by  Seleucus  Nicator 
formed  a  very  important  contingent,  and  its  chief  synagogue 
is  described  by  Josephus  as  of  remarkable  magnificence.  As 
in  Alexandria,  they  enjoyed  a  certain  amount  of  independence 
and  a  privileged  position,  and  the  fact  that  both  cities  were 
centres  of  the  Jewish  Diaspora  was  an  important  element 
in  their  development.  As  late  as  the  end  of  the  fourth  cen- 
tur>%  as  is  proved  by  the  homilies  of  John  Chr^'sostom  against 
the  Jews,  their  community  possessed  dangerous  powers  of 
attraction  for  the  Christian  church.  Here  they  were  also 
visited  as  physicians.  In  Damascus  10,000  or  18,000  Jews  are 
said  to  have  been  massacred  in  the  Jewish  war. 

King  Antiochus  the  Great  had  already  transplanted  2,000 
Jewish  families  from  Mesopotamia  to  Asia  Minor,  which  in 
olden  times  had  been  one  of  the  chief  seats  of  the  Diaspora, 
to  form  the  nucleus  of  a  brave  and  trustworthy  population 
for  Lydia  and  Phrygia.  One  or  two  of  the  synagogues  of 
foreign  communities  in  Jerusalem  belonged  to  the  Jews  from 
Asia  and  Cilicia.  In  Ionia,  Ephesus  in  early  times  had  a 
numerous  Jewish  community,  which  about  the  middle  of  the 
first  century  B.C.  managed  to  secure  various  privileges.  In- 
scriptions attest  the  existence  of  synagogal  communities  in 
Smyrna  and  Phocaea  ;  the  latter  honoured  the  builder 
(female)  of  the  oratory  and  surrounding  wall  of  the  court  of 
the  synagogue  with  a  golden  crown  and  a  place  of  honour. 
There  were  also  Jewish  communities  in  Caesar's  time  in  Sardes 
(where  they  had  their  own  court  of  justice),  in  Miletus  and 
Halicarnassus.  At  Hierapolis  in  Phrj-gia  payments  of  fines  to 
the  Jewish  community  for  the  desecration  of  graves  were 
instituted,  and  a  certain  Publius  Aelius  Glycon  left  sums  of 
money  to  two  artisan  guilds  for  the  decoration  of  his  grave 
at  Passover  and  Pentecost.  Coins  of  the  reigns  of  Septimius 
Severus,  Macrinus  and  Philip,  on  which  Noah  is  represented 
in  the  ark  w-ith  the  raven  and  the  dove  with  the  olive  branch, 
attest  the  influence  of  the  Jewish  community  in  Apamea 
(Ki/?coT3s).  In  62  B.C.  the  praetor,  Gnaeus  Flaccus,  in  accor- 
dance with  his  prohibition  of  the  export  of  gold,  publicly 
sequestered  nearly  100  pounds  of  gold  from  the  tax  intended 


Religion  175 

for  the  temple  at  Jerusalem  ;  and  this  can  hardly  have  been 
the  whole  sum.  Smaller  sums  of  the  same  kind  were 
confiscated  in  Laodicea,  Adramyttium  and  Pergomus.  At 
Acmonia  in  Phrygia  the  Jewish  community  in  the  time  of 
Nero  honoured  different  persons  who  had  rendered  service  in 
building  the  synagogue — amongst  them  Julia  Severa,  a  chief 
priestess  of  the  imperial  cult.  About  the  end  of  the  first 
century,  a  certain  Ptolemaeus  erected  a  burial  ground  for  the 
Jews  at  Tlos  in  Lycia,  as  a  thankoffering  for  his  son  having 
been  raised  to  the  dignity  of  archon  in  the  community.  Paul 
preached  in  the  Jewish  schools  at  Antioch  in  Pisidia  and  Icon- 
ium  in  Lycaonia.  The  Jews  were  numerous  in  Cilicia,  whose 
chief  town,  Tarsus,  was  the  birthplace  of  the  apostle  Paul ; 
also  in  Armenia.  In  the  second  century  a.d.  they  are  said 
to  have  immigrated  (from  Persia)  to  China  :  Mohammedan 
travellers  speak  of  Jews  living  there  in  the  ninth  century  ; 
Marco  Polo  refers  to  their  influence  in  China  in  1286.  Accord- 
ing to  the  statement  of  a  Jesuit  in  the  previous  century  their 
descendants  remained  '  true  to  their  religion,  character  and 
customs  '  ;  and  even  at  the  present  day  they  are  not  extinct. 
Of  the  Greek  islands  Crete  and  Melos  (where  catacombs  of 
a  Christian  community  of  the  third  century  have  been  found) 
are  mentioned  as  the  residences  of  well-to-do  Jewish  popu- 
lations, who,  under  Augustus,  liberally  supported  a  pretender, 
who  gave  himself  out  to  be  Alexander,  who  had  been  murdered 
by  Herod  ;  the  second  wife  of  Josephus  was  a  Jewess  from 
Crete  '  of  very  noble  family,  whose  parents  were  highly 
respected  in  the  island  '.  Caesar  permitted  religious  unions  of 
Jews  in  Delos  and  elsewhere  ;  Jews  also  lived  in  Cos  and  Paros. 
Euboea  and  Cyprus  are  mentioned  in  the  letter  of  Agrippa  ; 
in  the  latter  island  (where  the  community  of  Salamis,  in  parti- 
cular, is  known  from  the  Acts)  the  Jews  were  numerous,  down 
to  the  year  116;  but  after  the  atrocities  committed  during 
the  insurrection,  they  were  forbidden  to  enter  the  island  again. 
In  Greece  and  Macedonia,  the  communities  of  Athens,  Corinth, 
Thessalonica,  Beroea  and  Philippi  are  also  known  from  the 
Ads.  Two  edicts  of  Arcadius  (397)  and  the  younger  Theo- 
dosius  (412),  addressed  to  the  prefect  of  lUyricum  (Dacia 
and  Macedonia),  ordered  that  the  Jews  in  the  country  should 
not  be  disturbed  nor  their  synagogues  injured.  Before  Theo- 
dosius  II.,   who  banished  them  from  Constantinople,   their 


I ']()  Religion 

synagogue  was  in  the  place  called  Chalcoprateia  ('  copper-ware 
market  '),  so  called  from  their  workshops.  They  also  spread 
over  the  northern  shores  of  the  Black  Sea  at  an  early  date. 
In  the  Crimea,  two  Jewish  communities  are  known  from  in- 
scriptions :  at  Panticapaeum  (Kertch)  about  8i  a.d.,  and  at 
Gorgippia  (Anapa)  about  41  a.d.  ;  in  the  slave  emancipation 
acts  of  these  districts  (written  in  Greek)  it  is  made  a  condition 
that  those  emancipated  should  remain  true  to  Judaism. 

According  to  Philo,  the  Jewish  population  of  Egypt  amounted 
to  1,000,000,  or  more  than  an  eighth  of  the  entire  population. 
They  were  spread  over  the  whole  country  as  far  as  the  frontier 
of  Aethiopia.  Alexander  the  Great  had  already  settled  Jews 
in  Alexandria  and  bestowed  the  citizenship  upon  them. 
After  his  death  they  immigrated  in  large  numbers.  They  were 
well  treated  by  most  of  the  Ptolemies.  In  Philo's  time  they 
chiefly  resided  in  two  of  the  five  regions  of  Alexandria  (in  the 
east  of  the  city),  but  many  lived  scattered  in  the  other  three  ; 
in  all  parts  of  the  city  their  synagogues,  surrounded  by  trees, 
were  to  be  seen  ;  they  also  had  their  own  synagogue  at  Jeru- 
salem. The  chief  synagogue  in  Alexandria,  in  the  form  of  a 
basilica  with  double  peristyle,  was  so  large  that  an  attendant 
had  to  give  the  signal  with  a  flag  when  the  congregation  had 
to  respond  '  Amen  '  during  the  prayers  and  reading  of  the 
Scriptures.  The  Alexandrian  Jews  were  chiefly  engaged  in 
commerce  and  navigation  ;  some,  however,  in  the  mechanical 
trades.  The  administration  of  the  system  of  the  Nile  dues 
[potamophylacia)  was  entrusted  to  them  by  the  Ptolemies 
and  also  by  the  Roman  emperors  (at  least  during  the  first 
century.  A  Jewish  community  at  Athribis  in  the  Delta  is 
known  from  an  inscription  of  the  time  of  the  Ptolemies. 
According  to  a  papyrus  document,  belonging  to  the  time  of 
the  earlier  Ptolemies,  found  in  the  nome  of  Arsinoe,  the  modern 
Fayyum,  in  the  village  of  Phenyris  a  tax  had  to  be  paid  '  by 
the  Jews  and  Hellenes  ',  who  formed  special  groups  by  the 
side  of  the  natives.  In  post-Christian  times  there  was  a  Jewish 
street  in  Oxyrhynchus.  In  the  Thebaid  receipts  for  taxes 
(second  century  B.C.)  have  been  found,  bearing  the  names  of 
Jewish  tax-farmers.  The  religious  centre  of  the  Egyptian 
Jews  was  the  temple  of  Onias  (160  B.C.)  about  40  kilometres 
from  Memphis  ;  the  whole  district  formed  (till  73  a.d.)  a  small 
hierarchy. 


Religion  177 

In  the  district  of  Cyrene  also,  where  Ptolemy,  son  of  Lagus, 
had  aheady  established  a  Jewish  settlement,  there  was  a 
numerous  Jewish  population,  to  which  one  of  the  five  syna- 
gogues at  Jerusalem  belonged.  A  disturbance  was  put  down 
by  Lucullus.  Two  thousand  of  them  took  part  in  the 
attempted  revolt  under  Jonathas  in  70  a.d.  The  community 
of  Berenice,  according  to  an  extant  decree  of  honour  for  a 
certain  ]\Iarcus  Titius,  appears  to  have  had  nine  chiefs  {arch- 
ontes)  in  the  year  13  B.C.  During  the  fearful  and  widespread 
revolt  of  the  Jews,  which  broke  out  in  116  in  Cyrene  and 
Egypt,  and  at  the  same  time  in  Cyprus  and  Mesopotamia, 
220,000  are  said  to  have  lost  their  lives  in  the  first  two,  and 
240,000  in  the  last  two  countries.  The  coast-town  Boreum 
on  the  great  Syrtis  (Syrtis  Major)  was  for  the  most  part  in- 
habited by  Jews  ;  it  contained  a  temple,  supposed  to  have 
been  built  by  King  Solomon  and  regarded  as  specially  sacred, 
which  was  converted  by  Justinian  into  a  church  after  they 
had  embraced  Christianity.  In  the  province  of  Africa,  where 
the  Jewish  community  of  Carthage  seems  to  have  been  the 
largest,  the  mosaic  floor  of  the  synagogue  of  a  town  called 
Naron  has  recently  been  discovered,  together  with  Latin 
inscriptions  (of  a  later  period)  of  those  who  had  it  laid  down. 
In  west  Africa  traces  of  a  Jewish  community  at  Sitifi  in  Maure- 
tania,  and  of  Jewish  inhabitants  elsewhere  (especially  at  Cirta) 
are  preserved. 

The  statement  of  Valerius  Maximus  that  in  139  the  praetor, 
Gnaeus  Cornelius  Hispallus,  expelled  from  Rome  and  Italy 
not  only  the  Chaldaeans  but  also  the  Jews,'  who  had  attempted 
to  taiftt  Roman  usages  with  the  rites  of  Jupiter  Sabazius  ', 
probably  refers  to  the  retinue  of  the  ambassadors  sent  (140- 
139)  by  Judas  Maccabaeus  to  Rome.  At  that  time  there  were 
clearly  no  Jews  settled  in  Italy  ;  the  identification  of  the  god 
of  the  Jews  with  Sabazius  is  to  be  explained  by  the  fact  that 
the  Greek  Jews  pronounced  the  name  Zebaoth  as  Sabaoth. 
Eighty  or  ninety  years  later,  they  formed  a  considerable 
element  of  the  population.  This  was  due  partly  to  their 
removal,  after  the  wars  of  Pompey  and  Lucullus,  as  prisoners 
en  masse  to  Rome,  where  they  were  soon  set  at  liberty  ;  partly 
to  the  development  of  more  intimate  and  varied  relations 
between  east  and  west.  The  accusers  of  the  praetor  Flaccus 
(in  59  B.C.)  hoped  that  their  numbers,  their  perfect  union  and 

R.L.M. — III.  N 


178  Religion 

their  influence  would  make  them  valuable  allies.     The  whole 
region  beyond  the  Tiber  was  chiefly  inhabited  by  them  ;    pro- 
bably there  was  also  a  synagogue  there.     The  ambassadors 
of  Herod,  King  of  the  Jews,  to  Augustus  were  supposed  to  have 
been  accompanied  by  8,000  of  their  co-religionists  settled  in 
Rome,  and  in  19  a.d.  4,000  freedmen  of  an  age  to  bear  arms, 
*  who  were  infected  by  Jewish  and  Egyptian  superstition  ', 
were  condemned  to  be  deported  to  Sardinia.     Nevertheless, 
in  the  year  40  Philo  speaks  of  a  community  of  Jews  in  Rome, 
and  in  the  reign  of  Claudius  their  numbers  had  so  increased 
that  their  expulsion,  which  was  considered  advisable  owing 
to  the  disturbances    that  broke   out   amongst    them,   could 
only  be  carried  out  to  a  verj^  limited  extent ;    at  all  events, 
the  apostle  Paul  found  a  community  of  them  in  Rome.     The 
Roman  Jews  also  had  a  synagogue  in  Jerusalem.     It  is  clear 
from  inscriptions  that  they  formed  a  considerable   number 
(at  least  seven)   of  individual,  independently  organized  com- 
munities.    Each  had  its  own  synagogue  and  council  of  elders, 
at  the  head  of  which  was  a  president  (gerusiarch),  its  manag- 
ing officials  (archons)  being  elected  partly  for  life,  partly  for 
a  fixed  term  ;   even  minors  were  eligible  for  this  office.     Divine 
service  was  under  the   control   of    chiefs    or    rulers    of    the 
synagogue    (ap;^to-i;i'aycoyot) ,  assisted    by  a  servant    {v-n"f)peTr]<;, 
hazzan),  the  '  father  '    and    '  mother  of  the  synagogue  '  held 
honorary  positions ;  the  scribes  (ypa/x,/AaT€ts)  were  not   regular 
officials,  and  children  were  eligible  for  the  post.     The  differ- 
ent communities  in  Rome  had  burial  grounds  in  common,  five 
of  which  are  known.     The  inscriptions  are  mainly  in  Greek, 
some  written  in  an  almost  unintelligible  jargon  ;    some  are 
in  Latin,  none  in  Hebrew.     The  use  of  Hebrew  during  these 
centuries  was  confined  to  church  matters  ;    the  general  lan- 
guage of  the  Jewish  diaspora  was  Greek,  except  in    Syria, 
where  Aramaic  was  spoken.     The  Roman  Jews  are  occasionally 
mentioned  as  miserable  vagabonds,  beggars  and  soothsayers. 
The  graves  and  the  general  condition  of  the  cemetery  dis- 
covered by  Bosio  in  1602  (but  since  lost  sight  of)  were  rude 
and  poor  ;   no  fragments  of  marble  or  painted  work  were  found 
except  the  coarsely  painted  seven-branched  chandelier.     On 
the  other  hand,  in  a  burial  ground  on  the  Appian  Way  paint- 
ings  (including  even  figures  from  heathen  mythology)  have 
been  found  ;    their  meaning,  which  is  still  unsolved,  is  pro- 


Religion  1 79 

bably  symbolical.  There  are  also  traces  of  an  early  Jewish 
settlement  in  Portus,  probably  the  birthplace  of  the  Peitan 
(poeta)  Eleazar  (beginning  of  the  eighth  century),  the  reputed 
author  of  liturgical  hymns  which  are  still  in  use  at  great 
festivals  in  Germany,  France  and  Italy. 

In  the  rest  of  Italy  Puteoli  seems  to  have  been  a  chief  seat 
of  the  Jews,  whence  they  spread  over  the  cities  of  Campania. 
The  contents  of  an  earthenware  vessel  at  Pompeii  is  indicated 
as  gar{um)    cas/(imoniale),  i.e.    Kosher    fish-sauce    (made    of 
fish  without  scales,  in  accordance  with  '  the  superstition  of  the 
Jews  ',  says  Pliny).     A  wall  inscription  in  a  triclinium  (din- 
ing-room),  SODOMA  I  GOMORA   can  only  have    originated 
with  a  Jew  or  a  Christian  ;    a  caricature  of  the  judgment  of 
Solomon  (perhaps  of  Alexandrine  origin)  presupposes  acquain- 
tance with  Jewish  traditions  ;    the  names  Maria  (in  a  list  of 
slaves)  and  Martha  occur  in  wall  inscriptions.     The  existence 
of  a  community  at  Capua  is  proved  by  the  epitaph  of  a  chief  of 
the  synagogue  ;    at  Venusia  by  the  discovery  of  Jewish  cata- 
combs (of  the  sixth  century),  containing  the  epitaph  of  a  chief 
physician  {archiater) .     During  the  siege  of  Naples  by  Belisarius 
the  Jews  offered  to  supply  the  city  with  provisions,  and  at 
its  capture  offered  an  obstinate  and  unexpected  resistance. 
Jewish  epitaphs  have  also  been  found  at  Tarentum  and  Fundi. 
In  Apulia  and  Calabria  (the  coast  formation  of  which  is  specially 
alluded  to  in  a  mz^j-as/t),  the  Jews  in  the  fourth  century  formed 
so  large  a  part  of  the  inhabitants,  that,  according  to  an  imperial 
decree  of  the  year  398,  the  communal  offices  in  many  towns 
could  not  be  filled,  since  the  Jews  maintained  that  they  were 
not  bound  to  undertake  them.     In  central  and  northern  Italy, 
where  their  settlements  are  probably  as  old  as  in  the  south, 
traces  of  them  do  not  occur  till  late.     In  Brixia  (Brescia)  the 
epitaph  of  a  '  mother  of  a  synagogue  '  is  proof  of  the  existence 
of  a  Jewish  community.     Theodoric  permitted  the  Jews  in 
Genoa  to  restore,  but  not  to  enlarge  their  synagogue  ;   he  con- 
firmed the  rights  of  the  synagogue  in  Milan,  so  far  as  the  church 
was   not    prejudiced  thereby.     While  he  was  in  Ravenna,    a 
disturbance   broke   out   between   Jews   and   Christians  ;     the 
latter  set  fire  to  the  synagogues,  but  were  compelled  by  the 
king  to  restore  them.     In  Bononia    (Bologna)    the    martyrs 
Agricola  and  Vitalis  were  buried  in  a  piece  of  ground  belonging 
to  the  Jews  amongst  their  graves  ;   Ambrose  had  their  remains 


1 80  Religion 

removed.  In  Pola  also  a  Jewish  epitaph  has  been  preserved  ; 
a  Roman  epitaph  mentions  Aquileia  as  the  birthplace  of  a 
gerusiarch.  Gregory  the  Great  (who  in  his  letters  also  men- 
tions the  synagogue  at  Terracina)  writes  to  the  bishop  of  Luna 
(in  Etruria)  not  to  allow  any  Jew  on  his  property  to  own 
Christian  slaves.  It  is  also  probable  that  in  early  times  there 
were  large  numbers  of  Jews  in  Sicily.  The  rhetorician  Caeci- 
lius  of  Calacte  (in  the  reign  of  Augustus)  was  probably  a  freed- 
man  of  Jewish  origin.  They  are  frequently  mentioned  in  the 
rescripts  of  the  popes  referring  to  the  administration  of  the 
estates  of  the  church,  which  extended  over  the  two  Sicilies 
and  Sardinia.  According  to  the  letters  of  Gregory  the  Great, 
there  were  Jewish  communities  in  Palermo,  Messina  and 
Agrigentum  ;  in  594  he  had  a  list  drawn  up  of  all  the  estates 
on  which  Jews  resided,  so  that  in  the  case  of  those  who  em- 
braced Christianity  he  might  remit  a  third  of  the  taxes.  The 
deportation  under  Tiberius  led  to  the  establishment  of  a  per- 
manent Jewish  colony  in  Sardinia  ;  in  Cagliari,  at  least,  a 
Jewish  community  existed  for  centuries. 

Paul  '  intended  to  visit  Spain  ',  which  is  mentioned  in  the 
Mishna  and  the  Talmud,  and  appears  to  have  carried  out 
his  intention  ;  hence  it  is  probable  that  Jews  lived  there  at 
that  time.  Herodes  Antipas,  who  with  his  wife,  Herodias, 
was  banished  to  Lugdunum  by  Caligula  in  39,  was  subse- 
quently removed  to  Spain,  where  part  of  his  suite  may  have 
settled.  With  this  exception,  previous  to  the  council  of  Illi- 
beris  (Elvira  ;  probably  held  between  300  and  309),  which 
definitely  mentions  the  Jews,  there  is  only  a  single  trace  of 
them  :  an  epitaph  on  a  Jewish  child  in  Abdera  (Adra)  in 
Baetica,  which  from  the  form  of  the  letters  appears  to  belong 
to  the  beginning  of  the  third  centuiy.  About  417  there  was  a 
considerable  Jewish  community  in  Minorca.  Sisebut  (612-20) 
was  the  first  to  carry  out  the  extremely  severe  legislation  of 
the  Visigoths  against  the  Jews. 

From  early  times,  the  Jews  are  also  said  to  have  been  con- 
nected with  Gaul.  Archelaus,  son  of  Herod,  was  banished 
by  Augustus  to  Vienna  (Vienne).  Amongst  the  countries 
said  to  have  been  visited  by  Rabbi  Akiba,  in  order  to  induce 
the  Jews  to  take  part  in  the  rising  of  Bar-cocheba,  mention 
is  made  of  Gaul.  Hilary  of  Poitiers  (died  366)  avoided  the 
greetings  of  Jews  and  heretics  in  the  street.     In  331,  Constan- 


Religion  1 8 1 

tine  issued  orders  to  the  decuriones  (members  of  the  senate 
in  municipal  towns  and  colonies)  of  Cologne,  that  the  Jews, 
with  two  or  three  exceptions  (the  clergy  and  officials  of  the 
community),  should  be  compelled  to  undertake  the  de- 
curionate.  The  community  of  Cologne,  whose  synagogue  is 
first  mentioned  in  lo  1 2,  must  consequently  have  been  a  fairly 
large  one  and  of  some  antiquity.  Gratian,  Valentinian  and 
Theodosius  again  deprived  the  Jews  of  exemption  from  the 
decurionate  in  383.  They  do  not  seem  to  be  mentioned  again 
by  Greek  and  Roman  authorities  before  Apollinaris  Sidonius. 
In  the  seventh  century  King  Wamba  expelled  the  Jews  from 
Narbo  ;  yet  in  the  ninth  they  seem  to  have  formed  a  very 
wealthy  community,  which  owned  the  town  mills  and  much 
land,  employed  Christian  workmen  to  cultivate  the  vine,  and 
carried  on  trade  (chiefly  with  the  Arabs  in  Spain) .  It  is  clear 
from  Gregory  of  Tours'  history  of  the  Franks  that  they  were 
very  numerous  throughout  Gaul  in  the  sixth  century,  which 
justifies  the  conclusion  that  their  settlements  there  were  of 
high  antiquity.  When,  for  instance,  in  the  year  576  the  people 
of  Clermont  destroyed  their  synagogue  and  Bishop  Avitus 
gave  them  the  choice  of  emigrating  or  being  baptized,  more 
than  500  embraced  Christianity  ;  the  rest  removed  to  Mar- 
seilles. In  582  King  Chilperic  caused  a  number  of  Jews  to 
be  baptized  at  Paris.  When  King  Guntram  entered  Orleans  in 
585,  the  language  of  the  Jews  was  heard  amongst  the  acclama- 
tions of  the  throng  that  welcomed  him.  The  only  Jewish 
inscriptions  in  the  Danube  countries  are  two  in  lower  Pannonia. 
In  England  the  Jews  appear  to  have  been  very  numerous 
during  the  archiepiscopate  of  Theodore  of  Canterbury  (669- 
6gi)  ;  hence  they  must  have  been  settled  there  at  latest  after 
the  middle  of  the  seventh  century,  probably  earlier.  For 
lack  of  information  is  no  proof  of  the  absence  of  a  Jewish 
population,  but  rather  (after  the  early  middle  ages)  of  its 
undisturbed  existence.  Jerome  says  that  they  dwelt  '  from 
sea  to  sea,  from  the  British  to  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  from  west 
to  south,  from  north  to  east,  all  over  the  world  '.  They  be- 
lieved that,  should  the  Messiah  lead  them  back  to  Jerusalem, 
those  of  them  who  were  of  senatorial  or  other  high  rank  would 
come  in  carriages  from  Britain,  Spain  and  Gaul,  even  from 
its  uttermost  limits,  from  the  country  of  the  Morini,  from 
the  banks  of  the  Rhine. 


r 


1 82  Religion 

After  the  great  Jewish  war  the  tax  of  two  drachmae,  for- 
merly paid  to  the  temple  at  Jerusalem,  had  to  be  given  to  the 
temple  of  Jupiter  Capitolinus  ;  this  led  to  vexatious  oppres- 
sion, especially  under  Domitian  ;  Nerva  treated  them  more 
leniently,  but  did  not  remit  the  tax.  With  this  exception, 
the  civil  condition  of  the  Jews  as  such  in  the  Roman  empire 
was  not  only  free  from  restrictions,  but  they  even  enjoyed 
important  privileges.  While  confirming  their  fitness  to  hold 
offices  of  state  (which  at  that  time  was  certainly  no  advan- 
tage) Severus  and  Caracalla  expressly  exempted  them  from 
those  which  were  repugnant  to  their  '  superstition  '.  Caesar 
had  granted  them  exemption  from  military  service,  a  privilege 
which  they  must  also  have  enjoyed  later.  They  must  have 
been  at  least  tacitly  relieved  from  participation  in  the  worship 
of  the  emperors  ;  if  in  this  and  other  respects  they  had  the 
advantage  of  the  Christians,  the  reason  is  that  they  were  still 
looked  upon  as  a  nation,  the  Christians  only  as  a  sect.  Augus- 
tus, who  in  the  main  carried  on  Caesar's  policy  of  friendliness 
to  the  Jews,  had  ordered  that  they  should  not  be  compelled 
to  appear  in  a  court  of  law  on  the  Sabbath  ;  that  when  dis- 
tributions of  money  and  corn  in  Rome  fell  on  a  Sabbath, 
their  share  should  be  distributed  to  them  on  the  following 
day  ;  that  instead  of  the  oil  furnished  by  the  provinces,  which 
they  were  forbidden  to  use,  a  money  equivalent  should  be 
given  to  them,  a  right  confirmed  to  the  Jews  of  Antioch  by 
Vespasian's  friend,  Mucianus.  In  addition  to  the  free  exer- 
cise of  their  religion,  the  Jewish  communities  had  the  right  of 
administering  their  own  funds,  and,  to  a  certain  extent  at 
least,  jurisdiction  over  their  own  members.  '  The  Jewish 
ethnarch  or  patriarch  in  Palestine,  who  after  the  destruction 
of  the  Jewish  state  became  the  chief  of  the  nation,  must  have 
possessed  very  great  authority  ;  the  of&ce  was  hereditary 
in  the  family  of  Hillel.  All  the  Jewish  communities  of  the 
dispersion  appear  to  have  submitted  voluntarily  to  his  juris- 
diction. And  his  powers  were  so  extensive  that  the  fathers 
of  the  church  were  obliged  to  make  serious  efforts  to  show 
that  at  the  time  of  Christ  the  sceptre  had  already  been  taken 
from  Judah  '.  For  the  Jews  he  was  the  chief  of  the  state  ; 
and  thus,  in  spite  of  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  they  were 
in  a  certain  sense  reconstituted  a  nation. 

If,  in  spite  of  all  the  rights  and  privileges  conceded  to  them. 


Religion  183 

we  read  in  Philo  that  the  Jews  had  to  be  content  with  not 
being  treated  worse  than  others,  the  remark  is  to  be  taken  as 
referring  to  their  social  position,  which  certainly  on  the  whole 
was  very  unfavourable.     This,  of  course,  was  chiefly  the  case 
in  countries  where  a  strong  national  hatred  of  them  existed  ;  or 
it  was  the  direct  result  of  wars  and  revolts,  in  which  they  had 
shed  streams  of  blood.     Thus,  the  hatred  of  the  Jew  expressed 
by  Pliny  the  elder,  Quintilian  and  Tacitus  is  to  be  attributed 
to  the  feelings  engendered  by  the  Jewish  war.     But,  apart 
from  the  wild  fanaticism  which  raged  during  these  despairing 
struggles,  their  haughty  contempt  for  all  other  nations,  civili- 
zations and  religions,  their  avoidance  of  the  society  of  their 
neighbours,  and  the  manner  in  which  they  persistently  kept 
to  themselves,  were  sufficient  to  make  them  '  repugnant  to 
all  mankind  '  (I  Thessalonians,  ii,  15,  '  contrary  to  all  men  ', 
A. v.),  and  to  create  the  impression  that  they  were  a  people 
filled  with  hatred  of  humanity.     The  accusations,  exaggera- 
tions and  fabrications  of  anti-Jewish  writers,  chiefly  of  Egyp- 
tian origin,  assisted  in  keeping  up  the  hatred  of  the  Jews, 
which    showed    itself   in    frequent    outbursts.     According    to 
Tacitus,   they  taught  their  proselytes   above   all   to   despise 
the  gods,  to  renounce  their  fatherland,  to  disregard  parents, 
children,  brothers  and  sisters.     According  to  Juvenal,  Moses 
taught  the  Jews  not  to  show  any  one  the  way,  nor  to  guide 
the  thirsty  traveller   to    the    spring,    except  he  were  a  Jew. 
Apion  declares  that,  in  the  reign  of  Antiochus  Epiphanes,  the 
Jews  every  year  fattened  a  Greek,  and  having  solemnly  offered 
him  up  as  a  sacrifice  on  a  fixed  day  in  a  certain  forest,  ate  his 
entrails   and   swore   eternal   hostility   to   the   Greeks.     With 
hatred  of  the  Jews  was  associated  contempt  for  their  miserable 
condition,    their    disgusting    uncleanliness,    their    punctilious 
observance  (ridiculed  as  superstitious)  of  so  many  apparently 
senseless,   absurd  and  singular  laws  and  customs.     Next  to 
circumcision,  derision  was  chiefly  aroused  by  their  abstinence 
from  pigs'  flesh,  which  the  tumultuous  rabble  attempted  to 
force  them  to  eat  (as  in  the  Jew-baiting  at  Alexandria  described 
by  Philo) ,  by  their  scrupulous  observance  of  the  Sabbath  as  a 
day  of  rest,  whereby,  says  Seneca,  they  lost   a  seventh  part 
of  their  life  ;    and  by  the  minuteness  of  the  arrangements  for 
avoiding  any  kind  of  work  on  that  day.     Juvenal  mentions 
the  baskets  filled  with  hay,  in  which  the  food  prepared  tha 


1B4  Religion 

day  before  was  kept  warm,  as  indispensable  articles  of  furni- 
ture even  in  the  poorest  Jewish  households.  Rabbi  Abahu 
lamented  that  jokes  about  the  Jews,  however  feeble,  never 
failed  to  cause  shouts  of  laughter  in  the  theatres. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Jews  gained  friends,  partly  by  the  vir- 
tues recognized  even  by  their  enemies  and  praised  by  Josephus 
\in  his  defence  of  them  written  during  the  reign  of  Trajan. 
These  were  an  unchangeable  piety,  strict  obedience  to  the  law, 
their  few  wants,  charitableness,  perfect  harmony  amongst 
themselves,  contempt  of  death  in  war,  diligence  in  the  me- 
chanical occupations  and  in  agriculture  in  time  of  peace,  an 
unshakable  confidence  in  God.  Thus  Judaism,  as  a  truly 
enlightened  religion,  attracted  many  of  those  who  were  striv- 
ing to  attain  a  purer  knowledge  of  God  ;  the  rejection  of  the 
Greek  and  Egyptian  image  worship  caused  Strabo  to  regard 
the  Jewish  legislator  as  a  true  Stoic  philosopher.  Yet  it  may 
be  assumed  that  the  number  of  those  was  far  greater,  whose 
need  of  belief  found  fullest  satisfaction  in  Judaism  as  the  only 
profession  of  faith  which,  before  the  birth  and  spread  of 
Christianity,  offered  a  dogma  depending  upon  revelation  and 
consequently  removed  from  all  doubt ;  how  often  was  the 
unshakable  conviction  that  it  was  the  only  true  religion 
heroically  attested  by  its  professors.  All  authorities,  whether 
friendly  or  hostile  to  the  Jews,  are  agreed  that  in  all  lands 
there  were  very  many  who  partly  or  entirely  obeyed  the  IMosaic 
law  ;  the  women  especially  showed  themselves  '  guiding  stars 
to  faith  *.  '  The  customs  of  this  most  infamous  people  ', 
says  Seneca,  '  have  already  gained  such  influence  that  they 
have  been  introduced  into  all  countries  ;  they,  the  conquered, 
have  given  laws  to  their  conquerors  '.  Horace,  Ovid,  Per- 
sius  and  Juvenal  testify  that  at  Rome  many  abstained  from 
any  kind  of  business  on  the  Sabbath  and  on  the  day  of  the 
new  moon  ;  that  on  the  former  they  never  travelled,  but 
prayed,  lighted  up  lamps  and  hung  up  garlands ;  others 
studied  the  Mosaic  law,  attended  the  synagogues  and  sent  the 
temple-tax  to  Jerusalem.  '  The  great  mass  of  mankind  has 
now  for  a  long  time  endeavoured  to  emulate  our  piety  ', 
says  Josephus  ;  '  there  is  no  state  nor  province,  Greek  or 
barbarian,  to  which  our  custom  of  resting  on  the  Sabbath 
has  not  penetrated,  and  where  our  fasts  and  the  lighting  up 
of  lamps  and  abstinence  from  forbidden  food  are  not  observed. 


Religion  185 

They  also  attempt  to  imitate  the  harmony  that  prevails 
amongst  us,  the  charitable  distribution  of  our  goods,  our  dili- 
gence in  our  trades  and  fortitude  in  enduring  suffering  for 
the  sake  of  the  law.  But  the  most  wonderful  thing  of  all  is, 
that  without  the  bait  of  pleasure  the  law  has  shown  itself 
strong  in  itself,  and  has  pervaded  all  peoples,  as  God  himself 
has  traversed  the  world  '.  '  All  men  ',  says  Philo,  '  are  in 
subjection  to  it ;  it  exhorts  them  to  virtue — barbarians,  Hel- 
lenes, dwellers  on  the  mainland  and  on  the  islands,  the 
nations  of  both  east  and  west,  Europeans,  Asiatics,  the 
peoples  of  the  whole  earth  '.  The  Alexandrian  philosopher 
thought  he  might  venture  to  hope  that  one  day  Judaism 
would  become  the  religion  of  the  world. 

With  the  exception  of  the  brief  period  of  persecution  under 
Tiberius,  conversion  to  Judaism  met  with  no  legalized  oppo- 
sition till  the  time  of  Hadrian  ;  and,  except  for  some  tem- 
porary attempts  at  suppression,  the  Jews  continued  to  enjoy 
without  interference  the  complete  religious  freedom  guaran- 
teed by  Caesar  and  Augustus.  In  42,  Claudius  issued  an  edict, 
'  that  the  Jews  throughout  the  empire  should  be  allowed  to 
observe  their  ancient  customs  unhindered.  He  also  warned 
them  not  to  abuse  his  kindness,  nor  to  show  contempt  for  the 
superstitions  of  other  nations,  but  to  be  content  with  the 
observance  of  their  own  laws  '.  This  edict  remained  in  force 
till  later  times.  Horace  attests  that  the  Jews,  on  their  part, 
made  attempts  to  convert  those  who  held  a  different  belief  ; 
it  is  well  known  that  the  Pharisees  in  particular  '  compassed  sea 
and  land  to  make  one  proselyte  '  [Matt,  xxiii.  15).  Yet, 
after  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem,  the  development  of  an 
unbending  Rabbinism  continually  widened  the  gulf  between 
Judaism  and  paganism  ;  the  Babylonian  Talmud  calls  the 
proselytes  a  leprosy  for  Israel.  Antoninus  Pius,  while  allow- 
ing the  Jews  to  resume  the  circumcision  of  their  children, 
which  had  been  forbidden  by  Hadrian,  most  strictly  forbade 
the  practice  in  the  case  of  those  who  were  not  Jews  ;  since 
this  edict  remained  in  force,  the  result  was  that  (with  few 
exceptions)  no  formal  conversions  to  Judaism  took  place. 
The  proselytes  of  this  later  period  were  no  longer  '  proselytes 
of  justice  '  but  only  the  so-called  'fearers  of  God  '  (^o/3ov'/x,evot 
or  aefSofjievot  tov  Oiov),  who  especially  observed  the  Sabbath 
and  abstained  from  forbidden  food.     To  the  latter  class  the 


1 86  Religion 

majority  of  the  converts  from  paganism  to  Judaism,  even  in 
the  times  anterior  to  Hadrian,  probably  belonged.  Further, 
the  influence  of  Judaism  extended  beyond  the  limits  of  its 
own  followers  and  led  to  the  formation  of  semi- Jewish  semi- 
pagan  sects.  Such  were  the  '  worshippers  of  the  most  high 
god  '  {<Te(36fievoL  6eov  vxI/lcttov)  in  Tanais  in  the  empire  of 
the  Bosporus  at  the  beginning  of  the  third  century,  and  pro- 
bably the  Hypsistarii  in  Asia  Minor,  a  sect  attacked  by  the 
Fathers  of  the  Church  in  the  fourth  century. 

If  the  very  nature  of  Judaism,  as  the  religion  of  a  chosen 
people,  set  limits  to  its  propagation  at  the  expense  of  pagan- 
ism, Christianity,  on  the  other  hand,  had  both  the  inclination 
and  the  strength  to  break  through  all  the  obstacles  that 
barred  its  extension  throughout  the  world.  While  the  Jews 
regarded  the  conversion  of  unbelievers  as  at  the  most  a  meri- 
torious work,  for  the  Christians  the  spread  of  the  doctrine 
of  salvation  was  the  highest  and  most  sacred  duty.  The 
example  of  the  first  apostles  continually  inspired  an  ever- 
increasing  number  of  imitators,  who,  in  accordance  with  the 
teaching  of  the  gospel,  distributed  what  they  had  amongst 
the  poor,  and  set  out  to  carry  the  word  of  God  from  one  people 
to  another,  and  whose  zeal  never  wearied  nor  abated  even  in 
the  midst  of  the  greatest  dangers  and  difficulties.  '  The 
Christians  ',  says  Origen,  '  were  eager  to  sow  the  word  broad- 
cast throughout  the  world  '.  The  messengers  of  the  new 
doctrine  visited  not  only  towns,  but  also  villages  and  farms  ; 
they  did  not  even  shrink  from  making  their  way  into  the 
bosom  of  the  family  and  interposing  between  blood-relations. 
Christian  slaves  were  reproached  by  pagans  with  converting 
their  masters'  wives  and  children  ;  the  more  zealous  even 
incited  children  to  disobey  their  fathers  and  teachers  in  order 
to  obtain  salvation.  Thus,  as  always  happens  when  some 
great  movement  shakes  the  world  and  fashions  it  anew,  the 
ties  of  nature  were  only  too  often  torn  asunder,  hearts  were 
broken,  and  '  love  and  loyalty  uprooted  like  an  evil  weed  '. 

The  toleration  exceptionally  accorded  to  the  Jewish  nation 
as  such,  which  resulted  in  a  tacit  release  from  all  obligations 
that  conflicted  with  their  superstition,  including  the  worship 
of  the  gods  and  of  the  emperors,  could  not,  in  the  opinion  of 
the  Romans,  be  granted  to  a  sect  which  had  fallen  away  from 


Religion  1 87 

the  faith  of  its  fathers,  least  of  all  to  the  Christian.     The  atti-  1 
tude  of  the  Roman  state  towards  Christianity  was  one  of  self-  j 
defence.     Since  the  detachment  of  the  new  faith  from  Juda-  ) 
ism,  which  was  materially  assisted  by  the  destruction  of  Jeru- 
salem, its  tendency,  namely,  the  complete  and  uncompromising 
destruction  of  the  state  religion,  must  have  become  widely 
known. 

The  refusal  to  worship  the  emperor,  which  was  one  of  the 
fundamental  institutions  of  the  empire,  was  an  earlier  and 
more  frequent  cause  of  the  persecutions  of  the  Christians 
than  the  refusal  to  worship  the  gods.  The  first  which  we 
hear  of  took  place  in  the  province  of  Asia,  in  several  cities  of 
which  (Pergamus,  Smyrna,  Ephesus)  there  were  temples 
for  this  cult,  where  the  yearly  gatherings  of  the  festal  associa- 
tions devoted  to  it  took  place.  '  It  appears  that  the  decision 
as  to  the  attitude  which  the  state  subsequently  took  up  in 
regard  to  Christianity,  was  made  under  Domitian,  even  if 
tradition  does  not  allow  us  to  state  definitely  in  what  form 
this  decision,  which  was  really  authoritative,  was  embodied  ' 
(C.  J.  Neumann).  The  Revelation  of  John  (a  revision  in  the 
reign  of  Domitian  of  an  older  Jewish  apocalypse)  speaks  of 
the  death  of  the  '  faithful  martyr  '  Antipas  and  other  Chris- 
tians in  Pergamus,  '  where  Satan  dwelleth  ',  '  that  were  be- 
headed for  the  witness  of  Jesus  and  for  the  word  of  God,  and 
which  had  not  worshipped  the  beast  neither  his  image  '  (xx. 

4)- 

In  accordance  with  the  conception  of  majestas  (high  treason) , 
refusal  to  pay  homage  not  only  to  the  emperor  as  god  but  also 
to  the  national  divinities  being  regarded  as  an  offence  against 
the  state,  rendered  Christians  liable  to  punishment  by  the 
criminal  law.  But  only  a  few  emperors  and  governors  until 
the  middle  of  the  third  century  acted  in  accordance  with  this 
idea.  More  commonly  the  extraordinary  powers  conferred 
upon  the  higher  authorities  (especially  provincial  governors) 
for  dealing  with  religious  offences,  were  brought  into  opera- 
tion against  both  proselytes  and  proselytizers,  in  order  to 
prevent  or  at  least  to  check  the  apostasy  of  citizens  from  the 
national  belief.  This  method  of  procedure,  not  forming  part 
of  the  regular  administration  of  justice  and  therefore  of  neces- 
sity arbitrary,  was  in  its  nature  '  dependent  upon  the  individu- 
ality of  the  of&cial  and  upon  the  varying  mood  of  the  people  ; 


1 88  Religion 

hence  the  prevalence  of  '  an  instability,  such  as  is  in  no  way 
perceptible  in  other  respects  in  the  administration  of  justice 
even  during  this  period  of  decay  '. 

But  the  state  of  public  feeling  was  from  the  outset  hostile 
to  the  Christians,  and  became  more  so  as  time  went  on.     They 
were  despised  by  the  educated  classes  for  their  humiUty,  their 
ignorance,  their  contempt  for  art  and  science  and  everything 
which  refined  and  adorned  life,   for  their  lack  of  patriotism 
and  their  indifference  to  the  most  vital  interests   of  state. 
The  masses  hated  them.     Their  aloofness  from  the  society  of 
those  who  were  not  Christians,  the  steadfastness  with  which 
they  clung  together,  their  aversion  from  all  festivities  which 
had  anything  to  do  with  the  cults  of  paganism,  the  strictness 
of  their  life,  which  implied  censure  of  any  kind  of  laxity,  their 
threats  of  eternal  damnation  for  unbelievers,  and,  generally 
speaking,  everything  which  served  to  accentuate  the  opposition 
of  Christianity  to  the  world — these  were  alone  sufficient  to 
bring  upon  them  the  reproach  of  '  hatred  of  the  human  race  '. 
But  their  '  atheism  '   made  them  hated  to  an  even  greater 
degree  ;    their  hostility  to  the  national  religion,  their  mockery 
of  what  millions  held  sacred,  their  abuse  of  the  gods,  who  for 
centuries  had  protected  the  Roman  state  and  raised  it  to  such 
greatness,  to  whose  favour  every  man  was  indebted  for  every- 
thing that  made  life  worth  living.     As  time  went  on  the  ad- 
herents of  the  ancient  faith  showed  an  increasing  inclination 
to  attribute  all  public  and  general  misfortune  to  the  wrath  of 
the  gods  at  the  decline  of  their  worship,  and  to  hold  Chris- 
tianity and  its  professors  responsible  for  this  wrath.     '  Most 
of  the  sentences  of  death  pronounced  upon  martyrs  before  the 
reign  of  Decius,  as  in  the  case  of  the  founder  of  the  religion, 
were  due  to  the  blind  fanaticism  of  the  masses  and  the  weak- 
ness of  the  governors  '.     'If  the  Tiber  has  left  its  bed  ',  says 
a  Christian  author,  '  if  the  Nile  has  not  poured  its  waters  over 
the  fields,  if  the  sky  gives  no  rain,  if  there  is  an  earthquake, 
if  famine  or  pestilence  threatens,  the  cry  immediately  arises, 
To  the  lions  with  the  Christians  !  '     The  aged  bishop  Pothinus 
ended  his  life  as  a  martyr  at  Lyons  in  the  year  177,  brutally 
treated  by  the  mob.     '  All  thought  it  would  be  a  grievous 
crime  and  an  act  of  impiety  not  to  take  part  in  this  wanton 
violence,  for  which  their  gods  would  punish  them  '.     In  course 
of  time  the  idea  gained  ground  that  the  entrance  of  Chris- 


Religion  '  189 

tianity  into  the  world  was  the  beginning  of  a  general  decay  of 
the  human  race. 

The  general  and  persistent  belief  in  the  horrible  crimes  falsely 
imputed  to  the  Christians,  held  not  only  by  the  masses  but 
also  by  the  most  highly  educated,  is  the  surest  symptom  of 
the  intense  and  passionate  hatred  with  which  the  Christians 
were  regarded.  No  doubt  the  secrecy  of  their  worship  also 
contributed  to  this  belief.  From  time  immemorial  secret 
religious  meetings  have  aroused  the  suspicion  amongst  out- 
siders, that  things  take  place  under  the  cloak  of  religion  which 
cannot  bear  the  light.  In  the  old  Roman  world  the  impres- 
sion caused  by  the  great  Bacchanalia  process  (185  B.C.)  lasted 
for  centuries.  At  that  time  a  secret  worship  of  Bacchus  that 
had  made  its  way  into  Rome  through  Etruria  was  used  as  a 
cloak  for  the  most  outrageous  excesses  and  the  most  abomin- 
able crimes  ;  the  result  of  the  investigation  instituted  by  the 
senate  was  the  punishment  (chiefly  by  death)  of  thousands 
who  had  taken  part  in  these  orgies.  The  charges  of  '  Oedi- 
podean  connexions  and  Thyestean  banquets  '  (i.e.  unnatural 
excesses  and  ritual  murder)  were  revived  against  the  Christians. 
Appeal  was  made  to  confessions  wrung  from  slaves,  women 
and  children  under  torture,  and  also  to  the  mutual  accusations 
of  Christian  parties  and  sects,  who,  as  a  pagan  writer  observes, 
accused  each  other  of  the  most  shameful  and  unmentionable 
crimes.  It  may  be  mentioned  that  Hippolytus,  who  claimed 
the  papacy  in  opposition  to  Callistus  (215-22),^  in  his  Refuta- 
tion of  all  Heresies,  reproaches  the  latter  with  having  taught 
adultery  and  murder.  Thus  belief  in  the  disgraceful  orgies 
and  ritual  murders  of  the  Christians  continually  received  fresh 
support ;  Tacitus  had  both  in  mind  when  he  wrote  (at  the 
beginning  of  the  reign  of  Hadrian)  that  the  pernicious  super- 
stition of  the  Christians,  which  was  suppressed  by  the  cruci- 
fixion of  their  founder  in  Judaea,  had  broken  out  anew  in 
Rome,  '  the  meeting-place  of  all  that  is  horrible  and  shameful 
{cuncia  atrocia  aut  pudenda),  which  finds  ready  acceptance 
there  '.  That  Pliny  also  conducted  his  inquiry  in  a  similar 
spirit  is  clear  from  the  declaration  of  the  Christians  (reported 
by  him  to  Trajan),  that  they  had  met  together  for  a  '  harmless  ' 
meal.     As  late  as  the  year  200  it  was  affirmed  and  believed 

^  Hippolytus  is  said  to  have  been  the  'anti-pope  ',  as  such  claimants  were  called. 


190  Religion 

that  at  their  initiatory  ceremonies  a  child  was  sacrificed  and 
eaten  with  bread  dipped  in  its  blood  ;  that  dogs  were  tied  to 
the  candlesticks,  which  they  pulled  down  when  something  to 
eat  was  thrown  to  them  ;  and  that  the  most  disgraceful  acts 
were  then  committed  under  cover  of  the  darkness. 

This  mob-frenzy  was  the  chief  cause  of  the  so-called  perse- 
cution of  the  Christians  under  Nero.  To  divert  from  himself 
the  suspicion  of  having  been  the  originator  of  the  great  fire 
(July,  64),  Nero  abandoned  '  the  Christians,  hated  for  their 
deeds  of  shame  ',  to  the  fury  of  the  people,  which  clamoured 
for  victims.  Those  who  avowed  themselves  Christians  were 
seized  first  ^  ;  then,  on  their  information,  an  immense  number 
of  others.  If  not  convicted  of  incendiarism,  they  were  put 
to  death  on  the  charge  of  '  their  general  hatred  of  the  human 
race  '  with  such  fearful  tortures  that  they  aroused  compas- 
sion, '  although  they  were  guilty  and  deserved  the  severest 
punishment '  (Tacitus).  Wrapped  in  the  skins  of  wild  beasts, 
they  were  torn  to  pieces  by  dogs  or  nailed  to  the  cross  ;  others 
were  set  on  fire,  that  the  flames  might  serve  to  light  up  the 
night. ^  The  imperial  gardens  in  which  '  Nero's  torches  ' 
illumined  the  darkness  were  in  the  neighbourhood  of  St. 
Peter's  Church. 

The  first  general  instructions  known  to  us  for  dealing  with 
the  Christian  question  were  drawn  up  by  Trajan  in  his  rescript 
to  the  younger  Pliny.  The  latter,  when  governor  of  Bithynia 
and  Pontus  about  the  year  112,  alarmed  at  the  spread  of  the 
new  '  superstition  ',  asked  for  advice,  since  he  had  never  been 
present  at  any  judicial  proceedings  against  the  Christians. 
Trajan  decided  that  all  who  were  accused  and  convicted  of 
being  Christians  should  be  punished  ;  but  that  any  one  who 
recanted  and  confirmed  his  renunciation  by  offering  sacrifice 
to  the  gods  should  be  pardoned  without  regard  to  the  past. 
They  were  not  to  be  hunted  out ;  the  emperor  also  disap- 
proved of  any  notice  being  taken  of  anonymous  denunciations. 
Hadrian  was  the  only  emperor  who  allowed  the  Christians  to 
practise  their  religion  ;  he  issued  orders  in  a  decree  to  the 
governor  of  Asia  that  the  Christians  might  only  be  called  to 
account  if  charged  with  a  non-religious  crime,  and  that  in 

1  Rather  '  were  first  brought  to  trial '. 

*  Their  bodies  were  smeared  with  some  combustible  material,  which  made  them  bum 
ke  torches. 


Religion  191 

such  a  case  no  mercy  should  be  shown  to  the  false  accuser. 
In  general,  however,  the  emperors  held  to  the  policy  of  inter- 
vention on  information  received,  and  punished  when  it  was 
unavoidable.  The  legal  position  of  the  Christians  was  thus 
always  uncertain. 

Under  Marcus  Aurelius  their  condition  became  worse.  A 
rescript  issued  by  him  about  177,  ordering  the  punishment  of 
such  as  helped  '  to  disturb  the  easily  excited  minds  of  the 
masses  by  false  belief  ',  was  taken  to  refer  to  the  Christians. 
In  different  provinces  the  wrath  of  the  population  of  the 
towns  burst  out  against  them.  We  possess  the  highly  in- 
teresting report  of  the  communities  of  Vienne  and  Lyons  to 
the  brethren  in  Asia  and  Phrygia  on  the  persecution  in  the 
latter  town  (of  which  Pothinus  the  bishop  was  one  of  the 
victims).  In  Lyons  the  condemned  Christians  who  were 
citizens  were  beheaded,  non-citizens  were  thrown  to  the  wild 
beasts.  Contrary  to  Trajan's  decree,  the  governors  had  the 
Christians  hunted  out,  and  according  to  a  contemporary  this 
was  a  general  or  at  least  a  frequent  practice. 

It  is  easy  to  understand  the  reason  for  a  fanatical  hatred  of 
the  Christians  at  that  time.  Never  before  had  the  empire 
been  visited  by  so  many  dire  misfortunes.  In  166  German 
tribes,  driven  on  by  the  pressure  of  the  nations  behind  them, 
had  crossed  the  Danube,  overran  and  devastated  the  north- 
east frontier  provinces  from  east  Switzerland  as  far  as  Hun- 
gary and  Transylvania,  and  carried  away  hundreds  of  thousands 
of  prisoners  ;  some  of  their  hordes  had  even  penetrated  to 
Italy  and  Greece.  For  the  first  time  the  empire  was  out  of 
joint.  The  severe  and  costly  wars,  in  which  the  Romans 
strained  every  nerve,  lasted  nine  years  before  the  enemy  was 
finally  overpowered.  At  the  same  time,  since  162  a  fearful 
epidemic,  brought  in  from  the  east,  had  penetrated  as  far  as 
the  Rhine  and  Gaul,  devastated  the  camps  of  the  legions  and 
changed  whole  tracts  of  land  into  deserts.  In  addition,  bad 
harvests  and  famine  aggravated  the  sufferings  of  the  people 
to  the  utmost.  Then,  if  ever,  it  seemed  reasonable  to  believe 
that  the  gods  had  withdrawn  their  favour  from  the  empire 
they  had  so  long  visibly  protected  ;  and  what  more  likely  to 
have  caused  their  wrath  than  the  increasing  apostasy  from  the 
national  faith,  brought  about  by  the  false  doctrines  of  the 
'  atheists  ',  who  shunned  the  light  and  were  filled  with  hatred 


192  Religion 

of  mankind  ?  Marcus  Aurelius  himself  must  have  shared 
this  opinion  to  some  extent.  He  was  not  only  very  devout, 
but  a  man  of  strong  faith.  He  declared  that  he  would  not 
care  to  live  in  a  world  without  gods,  and  he  seems  to  have 
regarded  the  gods  of  all  nations  as  equally  powerful  and 
equally  deserving  of  reverence. 

Finally,  it  must  be  remembered  that  at  that  time  amongst 
the  Christians  themselves  a  visionary  tendency  had  appeared, 
which  obstinately  challenged  and  resisted  the  state  authority. 
It  was  most  pronounced  in  the  sect  called  Montanists,  whose 
founder  IMontanus  in  Asia  Minor  (about  156)  claimed  to  be 
the  paraclete.  The  Montanists,  whose  views  also  spread  to 
the  western  church,  demanded  the  strictest  asceticism  and 
unconditional  renunciation  of  everything  earthly,  announced 
the  imminence  of  the  end  of  the  world  and  of  the  establishment 
of  the  millennium,  attached  excessive  value  to  martyrdom 
and  encouraged  men  to  suffer  for  their  belief.  This  longing 
for  a  martyr's  death,  disapproved  of  by  moderate-minded 
Christians,  only  aroused  the  scorn  and  ridicule  of  the  heathen, 
who  advised  them  to  kill  themselves  to  save  other  people  the 
trouble.  When  the  proconsul  Gains  Arrius  Antoninus 
(184-5)  vehemently  persecuted  the  Christians  in  his  province 
of  Asia,  they  crowded  before  his  tribunal  (at  least  in  Ephesus) 
and  voluntarily  offered  their  lives.  Some  of  them  he  ordered 
to  be  led  away  to  execution,  but  dismissed  the  rest  with  the 
words  :  '  Miserable  creatures,  if  you  want  to  die  there  are 
ropes  and  precipices  !  '  The  courage  shown  by  the  Christian 
martyrs  in  face  of  death  impressed  Marcus  Aurelius  with  the 
idea  that  it  was  the  result  of  pride  and  obstinacy,  not  of 
reasoned  conviction. 

The  persecution  of  that  date  also  demanded  victims  in 
Africa,  where  hitherto  no  Christian  blood  had  been  shed.  We 
possess  the  protocol  of  the  proceedings  taken  against  three 
Christian  men  and  women  of  Scili  in  Numidia  by  the  pro- 
consul of  Africa  (July  17,  180).  Notwithstanding  his  obvious 
efforts  to  facilitate  their  return  to  paganism,  the  accused  per- 
sisted in  their  profession  of  faith,  refused  to  swear  by  the 
Genius  of  the  emperor  and  to  offer  sacrifice  for  his  safety 
(although  this  did  not  even  involve  a  recognition  of  his  divin- 
ity), and  declined  the  offer  of  thirty  days  for  consideration. 
They  were  beheaded  on  the  same  day  ;    a  basilica  was  sub- 


Religion  193 


sequently  erected  over  their  grave.  In  Rome  itself  at  that 
time  or  a  little  later  the  Christians  were  condemned  to  forced 
labour  in  the  Sardinian  mines  ;  they  owed  their  liberation 
(about  the  year  igo)  to  Marcia,  the  mistress  of  Commodus. 
Work  in  the  mines  was  the  severest  punishment  next  to  the 
death  penalty  ;  those  condemned  to  it  were  thereby  degraded 
to  the  rank  of  slaves,  one  side  of  their  head  was  shaven,  they 
worked  in  chains,  and  were  liable  to  corporal  chastisement. 

Although  during  the  years  immediately  after  the  death  of 
Marcus  Aurelius  the  persecution  of  the  Christians  still  went  on, 
their  lot  was  a  happier  one,  chiefly  owing  to  the  influence  of 
Marcia.  For  nearly  seventy  years  they  remained  unmolested 
except  during  the  persecutions  under  Septimius  Severus  and  the 
Thracian  Maximin.  The  stories  of  ritual  murders  and  shame- 
less orgies  gradually  died  out,  as  Christianity  emerged  more 
boldly  from  its  retirement  and  Christians  and  pagans  came 
into  contact  (even  through  marriage  and  family  relations). 
A  proof  of  the  diminishing  hatred  of  the  Christians  is  that 
the  millenary  secular  festival  of  the  city  of  Rome,  which  was 
celebrated  (in  248)  with  the  greatest  solemnity  for  three  days 
and  nights  and  undoubtedly  called  forth  a  great  increase  of 
religious  feeling,  concluded  without  any  hostile  demonstrations 
against  the  Christians. 

If  the  number  of  martyrs  up  to  this  time  was  by  no  means 
inconsiderable  in  itself,  it  cannot  be  considered  large  in  pro- 
portion to  the  size  of  the  empire  and  the  period  of  two  hun- 
dred years  during  which  they  met  their  death  (not  reckoning 
the  victims  of  the  Neronian  persecution,  who  cannot  properly 
be  called  martyrs).  This  is  expressly  confirmed  by  Origen, 
the  most  learned  Christian  writer  of  the  period  before  Con- 
stantine,  in  a  treatise  written  in  248.  He  says  :  '  Only  a  few, 
whose  numbers  can  easily  be  counted,  have  suffered  death 
from  time  to  time  for  the  sake  of  the  faith,  and  to  encourage 
the  rest '.  His  evidence  is  the  more  weighty,  since  his  per- 
sonal experiences  might  rather  have  led  him  to  exaggerate 
the  extent  and  terrible  nature  of  the  persecutions.  He  himself 
had  survived  two  of  them,  and  in  the  first  had  suffered  most 
cruel  treatment.  His  father,  Leonidas,  had  been  condemned 
(in  202)  in  Alexandria  to  death  by  the  sword  as  a  Christian  ; 
he  himself,  before  he  was  seventeen  years  of  age,  longed  so 
violently  for  a  martyr's  death  that  his  mother  was  obliged  to 

R.L.M. — in.  o 


194  Religion 

hide  his  clothes  to  prevent  him  leaving  the  house.  When 
his  father  was  in  prison  he  wrote  him  an  impressive  letter  on 
martyrdom,  in  which  he  exhorted  him  not  to  consider  his 
family :  '  See  to  it  that  thou  dost  not  change  thy  opinion  for 
our  sakes !  ' 

During  the  persecution  under  Maximin  the  Thracian  he 
issued  an  Exhortation  to  Martyrdom,  in  which  he  most  earnestly 
exhorts  them  not  to  sully  themselves  by  a  single  word,  even 
under  threats  of  death  or  on  the  rack.  The  evidence  of 
Origen  as  to  the  small  number  of  martyrs  down  to  the  middle 
of  the  third  century  is  confirmed  (if  confirmation  were  needed) 
in  the  passionate  De  Mortibus  Persecutoriim  ('  On  the  Deaths 
of  the  Persecutors  '),  written  by  Lactantius  in  313-4.  In  this 
essay  Decius  (249-51)  is  made  to  follow  directly  upon  Nero 
and  Domitian.  Lactantius  states  that  the  good  emperors 
who  succeeded  Domitian  had  not  shown  themselves  hostile  to 
the  church,  and  the  fact  that  he  passes  over  in  silence  the 
sufferings  and  oppressions  of  the  Christians  during  the  period 
between  Domitian  and  Decius  shows  that  they  cannot  have 
left  a  very  deep  impression.  But  even  the  persecution  of 
Diocletian  cannot  be  compared  with  the  deeds  of  the  Duke 
of  Alva  in  the  Netherlands,  where  the  number  of  those  who 
suffered  death  under  Charles  V  for  the  sake  of  their  faith  is 
estimated  by  Fra  Paolo  at  50,000,  by  Hugo  Grotius  at  100,000. 

Further,  it  is  well  known  that  the  religious  and  missionary 
zeal  of  the  Christians  was  rather  inflamed  than  quenched  by 
the  persecutions.  '  The  spread  of  our  doctrine  ',  says  Clement 
of  Alexandria,  '  since  its  first  proclamation  has  been  hindered 
by  kings  and  rulers,  by  governors  and  administrators  of  pro- 
vinces, who  all  oppose  us  with  all  their  hired  soldiers  and  a 
vast  multitude  of  others,  seeking  as  far  as  possible  to  exter- 
minate us.  And  yet  it  flourishes  more  and  more.  It  does 
not  perish  like  a  doctrine  invented  by  man  ;  it  does  not  wither 
like  a  fragile  gift,  for  no  gift  that  comes  from  God  is  fragile. 
It  abides  and  cannot  be  hindered  in  its  progress,  although  it 
is  prophesied  that  it  shall  be  persecuted  to  the  end  '. 

Yet  in  spite  of  the  most  glowing  missionary  zeal,  the  sub- 
lime doctrine  of  the  gospel,  too  sublime  for  a  great,  if  not  the 
greatest,  part  of  the  heathen  world,  could  never  have  made 
such  relatively  speedy  progress  without  the  co-operation  of 
other  causes,  which  had  their  origin  partly  in  the  needs  and 


Religion  195 

weaknesses  of  human  nature  in  general,  partly  in  the  social 
conditions  of  the  age. 

The  new  doctrine  appealed  to  all  mankind  ;  the  promise  of 
salvation  was  open  to  all,  even  the  lowest  and  the  most  des- 
pised. Naturally  it  found  the  most  favourable  soil  in  the  vast 
multitude  of  '  the  weary  and  heavy-laden  ',  the  poor  and  un- 
fortunate. It  brought  the  most  joyful  message  for  slaves  ; 
it  announced  to  them  their  elevation  from  lowliness,  con- 
tempt and  a  position  outside  the  pale  of  the  law  to  an  equality 
with  those  who  were  free.  It  must  have  spread  with  the 
greatest  rapidity  amongst  this  class,  and  certainly  penetrated 
often  enough  from  the  cell  of  the  slave  to  the  house  of  the 
master.  But  above  all  it  afforded  unexpected  consolation  to 
the  despairing  and  faint-hearted  ;  it  opened  a  prospect  of 
forgiveness  even  to  the  guiltiest.  The  heathen  scoffed  at  the 
idea  that,  while  only  those  who  felt  themselves  free  from  guilt 
were  invited  to  other  ceremonies  of  consecration,  the  Christians 
promised  that  the  Kingdom  of  God  would  admit  both  sinners 
and  fools — in  other  words,  the  unfortunate.  In  these  circum- 
stances the  language  in  which  the  gospel  was  proclaimed  could 
only  be  that  of  the  lower  classes.  Neither  the  Greek  in  which 
the  books  of  the  New  Testament  are  written,  nor  the  Latin 
in  which  it  first  became  known  to  the  West,  is  the  written  or 
learned  language,  but  '  the  everyday  language  of  the  home 
and  family,  of  the  market  and  the  streets,  of  the  workshops, 
of  the  country,  of  the  camp  '. 

The  fact  that  women  were  very  impressionable  to  the  new 
doctrine  also  exercised  a  very  considerable  influence  upon  its 
propagation.  Christianity  elevated  women  in  the  Greek 
countries,  where  they  held  a  very  inferior  position,  to  the  equals 
and  companions  of  man  ;  it  bestowed  upon  marriage  a  new 
consecration  through  the  more  intimate  spiritual  communion 
of  one  and  the  same  belief  and  hope ;  upon  virginity  a  new 
sanctity  ;  upon  the  whole  life  of  woman  a  higher  social  value. 
Women,  however,  did  not  always  keep  within  the  limits  of 
their  position  as  defined  for  them  in  the  Christian  community. 
Paul  had  to  censure  them  for  praying  and  prophesying  in' 
Corinth  with  head  uncovered  ;  he  was  obliged  to  admonish 
them  to  keep  silence  in  the  churches,  and  to  submit  themselves 
to  their  husbands  in  accordance  with  tlio  law. 

But  what  gained  the  greatest  number  of  converts  to  Chris- 


196  Religion 

tianity  was  the  very  same  thing  that  made  Judaism,  with  all 
its  exclusiveness,  so  attractive  :  the  satisfaction  of  the  re- 
quirements of  belief,  sought  in  vain  within  the  limits  of  pagan- 
ism, which  only  a  dogma  depending  upon  revelation  and  thus 
completely  beyond  the  reach  of  scepticism  could  afford.  And 
further,  the  mysterious  nature  of  this  dogma  corresponded  in 
the  highest  degree  '  to  the  propensity  of  the  human  mind, 
most  readily  to  believe  what  is  secret '  (Tacitus) .  But  perhaps 
nothing  so  irresistibly  impressed  men's  minds  as  the  promise, 
never  before  proclaimed  with  such  unassailable  conviction,  of 
a  better  life  beyond  the  grave,  of  eternal  bliss.  In  conjunction 
with  this  hope  of  happiness,  the  fear  of  the  eternal  punish- 
ments which  threatened  unbelievers  exercised  an  even  more 
powerful  effect,  since  a  belief  in  the  imminence  of  the  millen- 
nium was  very  general  amongst  the  Christians  until  the  middle 
of  the  second  century. 

'  Signs  and  wonders  '  also,  after  which  believers  hankered 
no  less  than  sceptics  and  waverers,  were  of  frequent  occurrence, 
and  served  to  confirm  both  the  Christian  and  the  pagan  faith. 
In  the  name  of  Jesus,  says  Irenaeus  (Bishop  of  Lyons  177- 
202),  his  disciples,  who  have  received  the  gift  from  him,  cast 
out  devils  ;  others  have  foreknowledge  of  and  predict  the 
future  ;  others  heal  the  sick  by  laying  on  of  hands,  and  bring 
back  the  dead  to  life.  It  is  impossible  to  number  the  gifts 
which  the  church  has  received  from  God  for  the  whole  world, 
and  in  the  name  of  Jesus  Christ  crucified  under  Pontius  Pilate 
exercises  for  the  benefit  of  the  nations,  neither  deceiving  any 
nor  accepting  payment ;  for  as  she  hath  freely  received  of  God, 
so  also  she  freely  ministers  (partly  from  Kcble's  translation). 
Arnobius,  who  (like  most  people)  regarded  the  miracles  per- 
formed by  Christ  as  a  proof  of  his  divine  nature,  in  repudiating 
the  assertion  of  pagans  that  he  was  a  magician,  laid  special 
stress  on  the  fact  that  he  was  able  to  heal  the  sick  and  bring 
back  the  dead  to  life  by  his  word  alone  and  by  the  laying  on 
of  hands  ;  whereas  the  heathen  gods  only  prescribed  remedies, 
like  physicians,  and  in  thousands  of  cases  were  utterly  unable 
to  assist  the  sick.  Similarly,  Origcn  asserts  that  he  has  seen 
sick  men,  '  whom  neither  men  nor  demons  were  able  to  heal ', 
freed  from  their  sufferings  by  the  simple  invocation  of  God 
and  Jesus.  Augustine  relates  numerous  miracles  which  he 
had  seen  himself,  including  no  less  than  five  cases  of  raising 


Religion  197 

the  dead,  and  especially  many  wonderful  cures  which  had 
taken  place  near  the  sepulchral  chapels  of  St.  Stephen  at 
Calama  and  Hippo  Regius  ;  there  were  no  less  than  seventy 
written  accounts  of  the  miracles  wrought  near  the  latter 
building,  which  had  not  yet  been  built  two  years.  As  was 
later  the  case  in  the  Germanic  north,  countless  adherents  were 
gained  for  the  new  faith  by  the  conviction  '  that  the  god  of 
the  Christians  was  more  willing  to  help  than  the  gods  of  the 
heathen,  and  above  all  had  greater  power  '.  At  a  horse  race 
in  Gaza,  in  which  the  horses  of  a  zealous  Christian  and  a 
zealous  heathen  took  part,  '  Christus  beat  Marnas  '  ;  the  result 
was  that  many  of  the  heathen  were  baptized.  A  poem  by 
the  rhetorician  Endelechius  (fourth  or  fifth  century)  most 
naively  admits  that  conversion  to  Christianity  commended 
itself  by  the  advantages  which  the  god  of  the  Christians  be- 
stows upon  those  who  profess  it.  Bucolus  has  lost  his  flocks 
by  a  cattle  plague,  while  those  of  Tityrus  have  been  spared. 
'  What  god  ',  asks  the  former,  '  has  preserved  you  from  this 
misfortune  ?  '  and  Tityrus  replies,  '  The  sign  of  the  cross, 
painted  on  the  animals'  foreheads,  has  kept  them  safe  ;  if 
you  wish  to  obtain  the  assistance  of  the  true  god,  it  is  suffi- 
cient to  believe  '.  'If  this  is  really  so  ',  says  Bucolus,  '  I  will 
hasten  to  adopt  the  true  faith  and  to  flee  from  error  '.  Aegon, 
who  is  present  during  the  dialogue,  is  ready  to  do  the  same, 
'  for  why  should  I  doubt  that  the  same  sign  that  overcomes 
sickness  will  also  be  ever  beneficial  to  men  ?  '  Augustine's 
account  of  the  conversion  of  the  chief  physician  {archiater) 
Dioscorus  gives  a  specimen  of  the  marvellous  punishments 
inflicted  upon  those  who  obstinately  refused  to  be  converted. 
Dioscorus,  who  had  been  in  the  habit  of  scoffing  at  the  Chris- 
tians, during  his  daughter's  illness  implored  the  mercy  of 
Christ,  and  vowed  to  become  a  Christian  if  she  recovered. 
His  daughter  was  restored  to  health,  but  Dioscorus,  who 
hesitated  to  fulfil  his  vow,  became  blind  ;  on  his  repeating  it, 
his  sight  was  restored  ;  when  he  again  hesitated  to  make 
confession  of  Christianity  all  his  limbs  became  paralysed,  and 
in  addition  he  was  struck  dumb.  When  at  last  he  expressed 
his  willingness  to  declare  himself  a  Christian,  the  visitation 
ceased. 

Then  the  faitli  of  the  Christians,  firm  as  a  rock  and  so  often 
heroically  attested,  filled  men's  minds  with  respect  for  a  re- 


198  Religion 

ligion  which  had  such  followers.  '  The  more  wo  are  mown 
down ',  says  TertuUian,  '  the  more  our  number  increases. 
The  blood  of  the  Christians  is  seed.  That  stubborn  obstinacy 
with  which  you  reproach  us  becomes  a  source  of  instruction. 
For  who  is  not  profoundly  affected  by  the  contemplation  of 
it,  and  incited  to  inquire  what  is  really  at  the  bottom  of  it  ? 
Who  docs  not  embrace  our  religion  when  he  has  finished  his 
inquiry  ?  and  who,  when  he  has  embraced  it,  does  not  desire 
to  suffer  himself  ?  '  The  morality  of  the  Christians  extorted 
the  admiration  even  of  their  opponents.  On  the  occasion  of 
the  inquiry,  which  in  his  capacity  as  governor  of  Bithynia 
he  felt  himself  obliged  to  hold  in  regard  to  the  Christians 
(especially  in  Amisus),  Pliny  shared  the  general  prejudice, 
which  accused  them  of  shameful  deeds  at  their  secret  meet- 
ings ;  but  after  a  strict  investigation,  at  which  two  female 
slaves  were  tortured,  he  could  find  nothing  to  accuse  them 
of,  except  a  '  perverse  and  extravagant  superstition  '.  The 
accused  declared  to  him  that  their  sole  offence  or  error  consisted 
in  the  fact  that  they  were  in  the  habit  of  assembling  before 
sunrise  on  a  certain  day,  and  offering  up  prayer  to  Christ  as 
to  a  god  ;  and  that  they  vowed  never  to  be  guilty  of  theft, 
robbery  or  adultery,  never  to  break  their  word,  never  to  deny 
that  a  deposit  had  been  entrusted  to  them.  After  this  they 
separated  and  assembled  together  again  at  a  harmless  meal. 
Galen  was  of  opinion  that  the  faith  of  the  Christians  taught 
them  to  act  in  accordance  with  the  precepts  of  true  philo- 
sophy ;  he  especially  recognized  their  contempt  of  death, 
their  chaste,  modest,  abstemious,  and  strictly  moral  life  ;  and 
held  that  some  of  them  were  not  inferior  to  true  philosophers 
in  their  self-control  and  earnest  endeavour  to  attain  virtue. 
But  the  Christian  communities  certainly  contained  some 
impure  elements  ;  not  all  the  sinners,  whom  they  admitted  in 
the  hope  of  reformation,  were  really  reformed.  This  is  proved 
by  the  reproaches  addressed  by  Paul  and  an  author  speaking 
in  his  name  to  the  communities  at  Corinth  and  Crete,  as  well 
as  by  the  fact  that  '  James  found  himself  obliged  to  censure 
the  moral  abuse  of  the  Pauline  doctrine  relative  to  the  power 
of  faith,  as  that  which  alone  brings  salvation,  and  that  the 
Revelation  had  to  denounce  certain  tempters  in  Pergamus  (the 
Nicolaitans) ,  who  not  only  did  not  observe  the  regulations  as 
to  food  enjoined  upon  gentile  Christians,  but  even  paid  no 


\ 


Religion  199 

regard  to  the  prohibition  of  lewdness  '.  In  fact,  it  was  just 
this  active  charity  and  compassion,  shown  by  the  Christians 
to  one  another,  that  was  abused  by  hypocrites,  who  joined 
the  new  community  in  the  hope  of  assistance  and  other  ad- 
vantages, especially  as  in  course  of  time  exaggerated  rumours 
of  the  wealth  of  the  Christian  communities  penetrated  the 
heathen  world.  It  was  declared  that  '  the  brethren  '  sold 
their  goods  and  offered  the  proceeds  to  the  church  ;  that  they 
regarded  it  as  the  height  of  piety  to  strip  their  own  children 
in  order  to  enrich  the  church.  Already  Paul  speaks  of  wan- 
dering Christians,  who  live  upon  ('  devour  ')  the  foreign  com- 
munities and  rob  them  of  their  property,  and  he  himself  was 
obliged  to  vindicate  himself  before  the  Corinthians  from  the 
reproach  of  intentional  fraud.  In  the  Teaching  of  the  Apostles, 
written  about  the  time  of  Hadrian,  travelling  missionaries  are 
instructed  not  to  remain  more  than  two  days  at  most  in  the 
same  place  :  '  but  if  he  abide  three  days,  he  is  a  false  prophet. 
And  when  he  departeth  let  the  apostle  receive  nothing  save 
bread,  until  he  findeth  shelter  ;  but  if  he  ask  money,  he  is  a 
false  prophet.  .  .  .  Yet  not  every  one  that  speaketh  in  the 
spirit  is  a  prophet,  but  only  if  he  have  the  ways  of  the  Lord  ' 
(Lightfoot's  translation) .  From  an  anti-Christian  standpoint, 
Lucian  has  described  the  sympathy  shown  to  the  philosopher 
Peregrinus  Proteus  by  the  Christians  of  Palestine,  when  he 
was  cast  into  prison  for  having  declared  his  conversion  to 
their  faith.  After  they  had  done  their  utmost  (but  in  vain) 
to  secure  his  release,  they  sought  in  every  way  to  alleviate 
the  hardships  of  his  imprisonment.  At  daybreak  old  women, 
widows  and  orphans  gathered  round  the  prison  gates.  The 
heads  of  the  community,  by  bribing  the  guards,  even  obtained 
permission  to  pass  the  night  in  the  prison.  Food  in  abundance 
was  taken  in,  and  prayers  were  offered  up  at  meals.  Envoys 
arrived  even  from  the  communities  of  Asia  Minor,  to  offer 
consolation,  advice  and  assistance  ;  for  in  such  cases,  says 
Lucian,  they  show  themselves  incredibly  generous,  and  give 
all  they  possess  without  hesitation.  In  this  manner  Pere- 
grinus secured  much  money,  and  his  imprisonment  was  the 
source  of  a  considerable  income  to  him.  For  the  unfortunate, 
Lucian  proceeds,  imagine  that  an  eternal  life  will  be  theirs  ; 
hence  they  attach  little  importance  to  life  on  earth  and  the 
good  things  of  this  world  ;    further,  their  first  lawgiver  has 


200  Religion 

taught  them  that  they  arc  all  brothers  one  of  another,  from 
the  moment  when  they  have  rejected  the  Hellenic  gods  and 
begin  to  worship  their  crucified  sage  and  to  live  in  accordance 
with  his  laws.  Wherefore  they  despise  all  earthly  blessings 
alike  and  regard  them  as  common  to  all,  having  adopted  these 
theories  without  any  sort  of  warranty.  If  a  clever  impostor 
worms  his  way  into  their  confidence  it  is  easy  for  him  to  make 
fools  of  these  simple  people,  and  to  amass  wealth  in  a  very 
short  time.  Tertullian  also  censures  the  excessive  attention  of 
the  communities  to  the  bodily  necessities  of  those  imprisoned 
for  the  faith,  and  Ambrose  seriously  warns  the  priests  against 
lavishing  their  gifts  upon  unworthy  persons,  who  solicit  their 
assistance  under  various  false  pretences. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  false  prophets  of  every  kind,  im- 
postors as  well  as  enthusiasts  and  fanatics,  found  a  specially 
favourable  soil  in  the  Christian  communities  for  the  propaga- 
tion of  their  false  doctrines,  and  thereby  acquired  influence 
and  reputation.  It  is  equally  certain  that  ambitious  men, 
whose  humble  position  or  other  disadvantages  prevented 
them  from  attaining  their  aims,  attempted  to  play  a  part  in 
this  society  which  was  denied  them  in  political  life.  From 
the  beginning  sectarianism  was  rife  amongst  the  Christian 
communities  ;  the  church  persecuted  the  sects,  and  the  sects 
each  other,  with  bitter  hatred  and  passionate  accusations, 
hardly  surpassed  in  violence  by  the  charges  brought  against 
the  Christians  generally  by  the  heathen.  Celsus  affirmed  that 
the  Christians  were  so  split  up  that  they  had  scarcely  any- 
thing in  common  except  the  name. 

The  Refidaiion  of  all  Heresies  (see  p.  189)  composed  not 
long  before  235  by  Hippolytus,  a  man  with  strong  leanings 
towards  the  rigourism  of  the  Montanists,  gives  an  extremely 
interesting  summary  of  the  divisions  and  antagonisms  in  the 
bosom  of  the  Christian  communities,  chiefly  due  to  differences 
of  opinion  in  regard  to  doctrine,  and  also  of  the  difficulties 
and  discomforts  which  sometimes  resulted  from  the  contact  of 
the  Christian  with  the  pagan  world.  Hippolytus'  attack  on 
the  head  of  the  Christian  community  at  Rome  shows  only  too 
clearly  what  ugly  passions  were  aroused  and  fostered  at  that 
time  by  religious  controversies  in  the  Christian  world.  His 
account,  wliich  is  in  many  respects  characteristic,  is  in  the 
main  as  follows. 


Religion  201 

Callistus  was  a  Christian  slave  belonging  to  a  freedman 
named  Carpophorus,  an  official  in  the  palace  of  the  Emperor 
Commodus,  who  was  also  a  Christian.  Carpophorus  entrusted 
a  considerable  sum  to  Calhstus,  with  which  he  was  to  found 
a  banking  business,  the  profits  of  which  were  to  be  his,  although 
it  was  carried  on  under  his  master's  name.  Many  widows 
and  brethren  deposited  their  money  in  it.  But  Calhstus, 
whose  mismanagement  had  brought  him  to  the  verge  of  bank- 
ruptcy, in  order  to  escape  rendering  an  account,  fled  to  the 
harbour  of  Portus  and  took  refuge  on  board  a  ship  just  ready 
to  sail.  Carpophorus  followed  him.  When  Callistus  saw  his 
master  in  the  port  he  sprang  into  the  sea,  but  was  pulled  out, 
taken  back  to  Rome,  and  sent  by  Carpophorus  to  the  tread- 
mill (a  common  punishment  of  slaves) .  However,  Carpophorus 
was  persuaded  to  release  him,  when  several  of  the  brethren 
who  were  interested  in  the  bank  represented  to  him,  with  tears 
in  their  eyes,  that  their  confidence  in  him  had  induced  them 
to  entrust  their  money  to  Callistus,  and  that  the  latter  had 
assured  them  that  he  still  had  a  certain  sum  safely  invested. 
But  Callistus,  finding  himself  still  unable  to  meet  his  engage- 
ments, attempted  to  put  an  end  to  his  life  and  at  the  same 
time  to  win  the  glory  of  martyrdom.  Under  pretence  of 
collecting  a  debt,  he  made  his  way  into  a  synagogue  on  the 
Sabbath  and  disturbed  the  service.  The  Jews  fell  upon  him 
and  dragged  him  before  the  tribunal  of  the  city  praefect  Fus- 
cianus,  who  ordered  him  to  be  flogged  and  condemned  him 
to  hard  labour  in  the  Sardinian  mines  (the  lead  mines  near 
Las  Antas  in  the  south-west  of  the  island),  where  there  were 
many  other  Christians  who  had  been  condemned  on  account 
of  their  faith.  But  Marcia,  Commodus'  mistress,  desirous  of 
performing  a  good  work,  ordered  bishop  Victor  (198-9)  to 
give  her  a  list  of  the  martyrs  in  the  island,  and  secured  their 
release.  Callistus,  whose  name  Victor  had  purposely  omitted, 
persuaded  the  eunuch  Hyacinthus,  the  bearer  of  the  letter  of 
emancipation,  who  was  Marcia's  foster-father  and  at  that 
time  a  presbyter  in  the  community,  to  procure  his  release 
from  the  governor  of  Sardinia.  Victor  was  greatly  displeased, 
but  confined  himself  to  ordering  Callistus  to  take  up  his  abode 
at  Antium,  and  settled  on  him  a  monthly  allowance  for  food. 
These  events  took  place  between  186  and  190. 

Zephyrinus  (199-217),  the  successor  of  Victor,  was  accord- 


202  Religion 

ing  to  Hippolytus  a  simple,  ignorant  man,  who  knew  nothing 
of    theological    doctrines,    but    was    avaricious    and    open    to 
bribes.     Callistus  so  ingratiated  himself  with  him  that  Zeph- 
yrinus  summoned  him  to  Rome,  and  appointed  him  overseer 
of  the  great  cemetery  recently  founded  by  him.     Callistus 
succeeded  in  making  each  of  the  rival  parties  in  the  com- 
munity believe  that  he  was  on  its  side,  and  in  this  manner 
got  himself  elected  bishop.     In  this  capacity  he  came  forward 
with  a  false  and  pernicious  doctrine  :  he  asserted  the  unity  of 
the  Father  and   the  Son,  founded  a  school  of  theology,  and 
promised  forgiveness  of  sins  to  all  who  should  join  it.     Many, 
whose  conscience  smote  them,  including  those  whom  Hippo- 
lytus had  expelled  from  the  community  in  accordance  with 
the    condemnatory    sentence,    joined    this    school.     Calhstus 
taught  that  a  bishop  ought  not  to  be  deposed  even  for  a  deadly 
sin  ;    he  appointed    bishops,   priests  and   deacons  who  had 
been  twice  and  thrice  married  ;    and  allowed  married  clergy 
to  continue  in  holy  orders.     The  saying,  '  Suffer  the  tares  to 
grow  together  with  the  wheat ',  he  interpreted  to  mean  that 
sinners  should  be  allowed  to  remain  in  the  church,   whose 
symbol  was  the  ark  of  Noah,  which  contained  clean  and  un- 
clean animals.     He  showed  himself  culpably  indulgent,  especi- 
ally to  women  of  rank,  whom  he  permitted  to  live  with  slaves 
or  men  of  inferior  status,  with  whom  they  could  not  contract 
a  valid  marriage  without  losing  their  rank.     Their  repugnance 
to  rearing  the  children  of  such  marriages  led  these  women  to 
fresh  crimes.     Thus  this  impious  wretch  taught  both  adultery 
and  murder.     During  his  episcopate  also,  for  the  first  time, 
second  baptism  was  attempted  by  his  fohowers. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  substantial  truth  of  the  facts 
here  alleged,  but  it  is  equally  clear  that  they  are  collected, 
explained,  and  commented  upon  in  a  most  hostile  manner. 
We  shall  not  discuss  how  far  the  doctrine  of  Callistus,  his 
exercise  of  spiritual  discipline  and  his  '  legitimization  of 
average  morality  ',  admit  of  a  more  favourable  judgment. 
But  the  account  given  by  Hippolytus  makes  it  incompre- 
hensible how  he  could  have  been  chosen  as  its  head  by  the 
community  which  knew  him  as  a  common  criminal.  Nothing 
is  said  of  his  entry  into  orders,  and  probably  many  other 
things  are  omitted  which  might  possibly  make  such  an  ele- 
vation  intelligible,   after  such  a  past.     Callistus  appears  to 


Religion  203 

have  become  deacon  of  Pope  Zephyrinus  ;  as  such  he  ad- 
ministered the  funds  of  the  community,  paid  the  salaries  of 
the  ministers  of  the  church,  and  distributed  alms  to  widows 
and  orphans.  In  such  a  position  it  must  have  been  difificult 
for  him  to  avoid  causing  dissatisfaction  ;  but  he  would  hardly 
have  been  elected  bishop  had  not  his  (eighteen  years)  ad- 
ministration been  in  the  main  beyond  reproach. 

A  venerable  foundation,  of  great  importance  for  the  history 
of  the  primitive  Christian  church,  and  at  the  same  time  the 
subject  of  one  of  the  most  brilliant  archaeological  discoveries, 
is  inseparably  connected  with  the  name  of  Callistus.  The 
burial  place  laid  out  by  him  near  the  Appian  way  on  the  pro- 
perty of  the  Caecilii  was  to  all  appearance  the  first  cemetery 
of  the  Christian  community  at  Rome  recognized  by  the  state  ; 
hitherto  burials  had  taken  place  on  land  belonging  to  in- 
dividual members,  upon  whose  title  of  possession  the  pre- 
servation of  these  burying  places  depended.  This  cemetery, 
ever  since  called  the  Cemetery  of  Callistus,  which  was  the 
last  resting-place  of  the  popes  down  to  Miltiades  (died  314) 
was  re-discovered  during  the  nineteenth  century  by  the  in- 
defatigable genius  and  successful  exploration  of  De  Rossi. 

The  narrative  of  Hippolytus  reminds  us  of  what  is  some- 
times forgotten  :  that  the  Christian  communities  could  not 
possibly  separate  themselves  entirely  from  the  world,  but 
that,  on  the  contrary,  they  were  continually  called  upon  to 
bear  their  share  of  the  evils  and  inconveniences  of  the  civiliza- 
tion of  the  period.  It  is,  of  course,  only  natural  that  the 
apologists  of  the  new  faith  should  see  only  love  and  harmony 
in  the  one,  and  hatred  and  mutual  persecution  in  the  other. 
Compare,  says  Origen,  the  Christian  communities  of  Athens, 
Corinth  and  Alexandria  with  the  pagan  communities  of  the 
same  cities  ;  the  former  are  meek  and  peaceful,  since  their 
desire  is  to  please  God  ;  the  latter,  who  in  no  way  resemble 
them,  are  given  to  sedition.  Even  the  heads  and  elders  of 
the  communities  of  God,  even  the  more  indolent  and  less 
perfect  among  them,  will  be  found  to  have  made  more  progress 
towards  virtue  than  the  heads  and  councillors  in  the  various 
cities.  Yet  we  can  hardly  believe  that  the  congregation  of 
Corinth  had  completely  changed  since  the  time  when  Paul 
spoke  so  ill  of  it.  At  that  time  '  debates,  envyings,  wraths, 
strifes,  backbitings,  whisperings,  swellings,  tumults  '   (2  Cor. 


204  Religion 

xii.  20) — in  short,  irregularities  of  every  kind — were  rife  in 
their  assembhes  ;  and  the  object  of  the  letter  of  the  so-called 
Clement  of  Rome,  written  towards  the  end  of  the  first  century, 
is  to  heal  a  schism  that  had  arisen  amongst  them.  The 
writer  declares  that  it  is  a  disgrace  to  this  old  and  trustworthy 
community,  to  resist  their  elders  for  the  sake  of  one  or  two 
persons.  According  to  the  Shepherd  of  Hernias  (composed 
about  the  middle  of  the  second  century),  the  Roman  com- 
munity at  that  time  also  suffered  from  various  moral  evils 
and  infirmities.  There  was  no  lack  of  quarrels  and  enmities, 
and  the  writer  utters  a  warning  against  ambition,  arrogance, 
avarice,  adultery,  drunkenness  and  so  forth.  Bishop  Cyprian 
of  Carthage,  who  suffered  martyrdom  in  257,  says  that  the 
persecution  (under  Decius,  which  he  had  escaped  by  flight) 
was  rather  a  test  instituted  by  God  ;  the  Christians  had 
deserved  to  suffer  more  on  account  of  their  sins  ;  the  long 
days  of  peace  had  undermined  moral  discipline.  Amongst 
the  priests  there  was  no  piety,  amongst  the  ministers  no 
sincere  faith,  no  mercy  in  their  works,  no  moral  discipline. 
Men  disfigured  their  beards  by  art,  women  rouged  their 
faces,  painted  their  eyes,  dyed  their  hair.  He  further  com- 
plains of  insatiable  avarice,  of  cunning  frauds  to  deceive  the 
simple,  of  snares  to  dupe  the  brethren,  of  marriages  with 
unbelievers,  of  oaths  rashly  taken  and  of  perjury,  of  haughty 
contempt  of  those  set  over  them,  of  envenomed  insults,  of 
quarrels  and  obstinate  hatred  of  one  another.  Many  bishops, 
neglecting  their  sacred  office,  became  agents  (procurators) 
of  secular  masters,  abandoned  their  communities,  and  wan- 
dered over  foreign  provinces  in  search  of  gain.  While  brethren 
in  the  community  were  starving,  they  went  in  pursuit  of 
money,  seized  estates  by  fraud,  and  increased  their  incomes 
by  usury.  John  Chrysostom  says  that,  since  miracles  no 
longer  happen,  the  heathen  can  only  be  converted  by  the 
example  of  Christian  life  ;  but  this  is  utterly  corrupt,  and 
there  is  not  even  a  trace  of  love  to  be  found  amongst  them. 
In  Augustine,  the  heathen  replies  to  the  Christian  who  attempts 
to  convert  him  :  '  How  can  you  exhort  me  to  become  a 
Christian  ?  A  Christian  cheated  me,  and  I  have  never  acted 
so  ;  a  Christian  has  sworn  falsely  to  me,  and  I  have  never 
acted  so  '.  Extreme  outbreaks  of  dissent  were  certainly 
repressed  during  the  early  centuries  by  the  persecutions  that 


Religion  205 

weighed  heavily  on  the  whole  Christian  world  ;  later  (367), 
when  ecclesiastical  disputes  at  Rome  were  settled  by  blood- 
shed, a  kindly  and  intelligent  heathen  could  express  the 
opinion  that  no  wild  animal  was  as  hostile  and  destructive 
to  man  as  most  of  the  Christians  to  one  another. 

However   numerous    the   causes    that   contributed    to   the 
spread  of  the  Gospel,  it  is  certain  that  before  the  middle  or 
end  of  the  second  century  it  had  only  a  few  isolated  followers 
amongst  the  upper  classes.     Not  only  did  their  philosophical 
training,  and  a  general  education  intimately  connected  with 
polytheism,   offer  the  strongest  resistance,   but,   in  addition, 
the  Christian  profession  of  faith  led  to  the  most  dangerous 
conflicts  with  the  existing  order  of  things  ;    and  lastly,  the 
renunciation    of    all    earthly    interests    was    naturally    most 
difficult  for  those  who  possessed  honour,  wealth  and  influence. 
The  poor  and  lowly,  says  Lactantius,  are  more  ready  to  believe 
than  the  rich,  whose  hostility  was  no  doubt  in  many  ways 
aroused    against    the    socialistic    tendencies    of    Christianity. 
On  the  other  hand,  in  the  lower  strata  of  society  the  spread 
of  Christianity,  assisted  to  a  remarkable  extent  by  the  dis- 
persion of  the  Jews,  must  have  been  very  rapid,  especially 
in  Rome  ;    as  early  as  the  year  64  the  number  of  Christians 
there    was    considerable.     The    architectural    arrangements 
and  the  style  of  the  artistic  decoration  of  some  of  the  Christian 
catacombs  in  Rome  seem  to  show  that  they  belong  to  the 
first  century. 

In  the  second  century  Christianity  made  far  greater  progress. 
The  general  defection  from  the  popular  religion  in  Bithynia, 
which  emptied  the  temples  and  alarmed  the  younger  Pliny, 
can  have  been  no  isolated  phenomenon,  at  least  in  the  eastern 
provinces.     The  existence  of  Christian  communities,  founded 
from  Asia  Minor,  in  Vienne  and  Lyons  in  the  reign  of  Marcus 
Aurelius,  justifies  the  assumption  that  the  seed  of  Christianity 
had   sprung  up  comparatively  early  also   in  the   centres  of 
civilization  in  the  West.     In  the  second  half  of  this  century 
Christian    writers    already  spoke  in  very  boastful  terms  of 
the  spread  of  Christianity.     There  is  no  race  of  men,  says 
Justin  (died  166),  barbarians,  Greeks  or  whatever  they  may 
be  called,  whether  they  lead  a  wandering   life  in  wagons  or 
in  tents  without  any  fixed  habitation,  which  does  not  offer 
prayer  and  thanks  to  the  father  and  creator  of  the  universe 


2o6  Religion 

in  the  name  of  the  crucified  Jesus.  Irenaeus  (bishop  of 
Lyons  177-202)  speaks  of  Christian  communities  in  Germany, 
Iberia,  Gaul,  in  the  East,  Egypt  and  Libya,  and  in  the  centre 
of  the  world  (Rome).  The  author  of  a  treatise  ascribed  to 
TertuUian  uses  still  more  high-flown  and  even  threatening 
langimge.  Addressing  the  Jews,  he  asks,  '  For  in  whom  do 
all  the  peoples  believe,  if  not  in  the  anointed,  who  has  already 
come  ?  '  In  addition  to  the  countries  in  which,  according 
to  the  Acts,  there  were  Jewish  inhabitants,  he  mentions 
Gaetulia,  Mauretania,  Spain, '  the  districts  of  Britain  untrodden 
by  the  Romans,  but  subject  to  Christ ',  Sarmatia,  Germany, 
and  '  many  other  distant  and  unknown  lands,  provinces  and 
islands  '.  He  declares  that  Christians  nearly  everywhere 
already  formed  the  larger  half  of  the  population.  '  Should 
we  lack  numbers  and  resources  ',  asks  TertuUian  (about 
199),  '  if  we  chose  to  display  open  hostility,  instead  of  merely 
cherishing  revenge  in  secret  ?  Are  the  Moors,  the  Marcomanni, 
and  even  the  Parthians,  and  the  greatest  peoples,  who  yet 
are  limited  to  a  single  country  and  their  own  district,  more 
numerous  than  the  population  of  the  entire  earth  ?  We 
are  of  yesterday  ;  yet  we  have  already  filled  your  whole 
dominion,  cities,  islands,  fortresses,  municipal  towns,  public 
places,  even  the  camps,  the  tribes,  the  decuries,  the  palace, 
the  senate,  the  forum  ', 

In  this  language  there  is  no  doubt  great  exaggeration,  far 
more  perhaps  than  would  be  the  case  if  it  were  employed  at 
the  present  day  in  reference  to  the  proportion  of  Christians 
in  all  the  populations  of  the  world.  It  is  also  in  direct  con- 
tradiction to  the  statement  of  Origen  (several  decades  later), 
who,  exaggerating  in  the  other  direction,  declares  that  the 
Christians  were  only  '  very  few  '  in  proportion  to  the  entire 
population  of  the  Roman  empire.  Statements  quite  acci- 
dentally preserved  show  that  up  to  98  some  42,  up  to  180 
some  74,  up  to  325  more  than  550,  places  contained  Christian 
communities. 

But  in  the  Roman  empire  the  Christians  not  only  formed 
a  small  minority  as  late  as  the  third  century,  but  this  minority, 
at  least  up  to  the  beginning  of  the  century,  was  drawn  almost 
exclusively  from  the  lowest  classes  of  society.  It  was  a 
joke  amongst  the  heathen  that  the  Christians  could  only 
convert  the  simple-minded,  only  slaves,  women  and  children  ; 


Religion  207 


that  they  were  rude,  uneducated  and  boorish ;  that  the 
members  of  their  communities  were  chiefly  people  of  no  account, 
artisans  and  old  women.  The  Christians  themselves  did 
not  dispute  this.  Jerome  says  :  the  community  of  Christ 
is  recruited,  not  from  the  Lyceum  and  the  Academy,  but 
from  the  lowest  rabble  {de  vili  plebecula).  It  is  expressly 
attested  by  Christian  writers  that,  even  up  to  the  middle  of 
the  third  century,  the  new  faith  counted  only  few  adherents 
amongst  the  higher  classes.  Eusebius  says  that  the  peace 
which  the  Church  enjoyed  under  Commodus,  contributed 
greatly  to  its  propagation,  '  so  that  several  persons  in  Rome, 
distinguished  for  their  birth  and  wealth,  turned  to  salvation 
with  their  entire  household  and  family  '.  Origen  (in  the 
reign  of  Alexander  Severus)  says  that  '  at  the  present  day 
rich  men  and  many  high  dignitaries,  as  well  as  delicate  and 
nobly  born  ladies,  receive  the  Christian  messengers  of  the 
word  '  ;  that  is  to  say,  Christianity  then  obtained  successes 
of  which  it  had  not  previously  been  able  to  boast.  According 
to  Tertullian,  Severus  took  under  his  protection  men  and 
women  of  senatorial  rank,  who  openly  professed  Christianity  ; 
and,  as  already  observed,  the  indulgence  shov/n  by  Callistus 
to  distinguished  female  proselytes  excited  indignation  in  the 
Roman  community.  In  258,  the  emperor  Valerian  addressed 
a  rescript  to  the  senate,  to  the  effect  that  Christians  of 
senatorial  and  equestrian  rank  should  be  deprived  of  their 
possessions  ;  if  they  persisted  in  their  belief,  they  should  be 
punished  with  death  ;  Christian  members  of  the  imperial 
household  and  court  should  be  condemned  to  forced  labour 
in  chains  on  the  imperial  domains.  Consequently,  from 
the  time  of  Commodus  onwards,  the  spread  of  Christianity 
amongst  the  upper  classes  is  variously  and  expressly  attested, 
whereas  the  reverse  is  the  case  in  regard  to  the  preceding  period. 
In  complete  agreement  with  this  is  the  fact  that,  till  about 
the  end  of  the  second  century,  Christians  and  Christianity 
are  very  rarely  mentioned  in  classical  literature,  and  then 
only  casually,  and  in  terms  of  indifference  and  contempt. 
The  expressions  of  Tacitus  and  the  younger  Pliny  show  that, 
in  the  time  of  Trajan,  the  upper  circles  in  Rome  were  not 
sufficiently  interested  in  the  new  sect  to  take  the  trouble  to 
obtain  accurate  information  concerning  it.  Epictetus  and 
Marcus  Aurelius  only  mention  the   courage  witli  which  the 


2o8  Religion 

Christians   went   to   their  death.     Both   of  them,   however, 
consider    this    courage    to   be    the   result    of    obstinacy  and 
familiarity  with  death,  not  of  inteUigent  conviction  ;    Marcus 
AureUus  also  declared  that  it  lacked  dignity,  and  that  there 
was    even    something    theatrical    about    it.     It   has    already 
been  mentioned  that  Lucian  saw  nothing  in  the  faith  of  the 
Christians   but   folly   and    infatuation.     Galen,    while   recog- 
nizing the  virtue  of  the  Christians,  felt  nothing  but  astonish- 
ment and  contempt  for  the  complete  belief  of  the  followers 
of  Moses  and  Christ  in  doctrines  that  were  not  proved,  since 
he,  like  all  the  heathen,  had  absolutely  no  idea  of  a  religious 
dogma.     In   the   diffuse   and   extremely   detailed   history   of 
Rome,  carried  down  by  Cassius  Dio  to  his  own  days  in  the 
reign  of   Alexander  Severus,   no  mention  is  expressly  made 
of  the  Christians  ;   according  to  him,  the  Christians  persecuted 
under  Domitian  were  accused  of  '  atheism  and  Jewish  prac- 
tices '  ;    that  is,  he  held  the  Christians  to  be   a  Jewish  sect. 
Herodian  does  not  mention  them  ;    and  even  the  compilers 
of  the  imperial  biographies  (called  Scriptores  historiae  augustae) , 
some  of  whom  wrote  as  early  as  the  reign  of  Constantine, 
only   notice   them   very   seldom   and    casually.     It   was   not 
till  the  middle  of  the  second  century  that  heathen  writers 
began    to    attack    Christianity.     Fronto    repeated    the    most 
ridiculous  fabrications  of  the  mob  ;    and  even  the  Platonist 
Celsus,  who  had  been  carefully  informed  by  a  Jew  concerning 
the  object  of  the  Christian  doctrine,  in  his  lengthy  treatise 
against  it  expressed  himself  to  the  effect  that  the  dispute 
between  Jews  and  Christians,  which  according  to  him  turned 
entirely  upon  the  question  whether  the  prophesied  saviour 
had   already   appeared   or   not,    was   nothing   but   a   dispute 
'  about  an  ass's  shadow  '.^ 

The  only  persons  of  rank  in  the  time  before  Commodus, 
whose  conversion  to  Christianity  seems  probable,  are  the 
consul  Flavins  Clemens,  executed  in  95,  and  his  wife  (or  sister) 
Flavia  Domitilla,  who  was  banished  to  Pontia.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  far  from  clear  excerpt  from  Dio  in  no  way  proves 
that  the  execution  of  Acilius  Glabrio  (consul  gi)  about  the 
same  time  was  due  to  his  profession  of  Christianity  ;  accord- 
ing to  Suetonius,  he  was  condemned  for  supposed  revolu- 
tionary plans. 

*  A  proverbial  expression  —  '  about  nothing  at  all '. 


Religion  209 

The  old  tradition  of  personal  relations  between  the  philo- 
sopher Seneca  and  the  apostle  Paul  has  not  as  yet  been  found 
to  have  any  foundation  in  fact,  although  it  is  very  easy  to 
understand  how  it  may  have  arisen.  It  was  very  natural 
to  attribute  the  many  points  of  agreement  with  Christian 
opinions  and  doctrines  in  the  writings  of  Seneca  to  the  influence 
of  the  apostle,  whose  two  years'  captivity  in  Rome  might 
easily  have  brought  him  into  contact  with  the  philosopher, 
especially  as  the  proconsul  Junius  Gallic  (who  acquitted 
Paul  when  he  was  brought  before  his  tribunal  by  the  Jews) 
was  Seneca's  brother.  Tertullian,  Lactantius,  and  Augustine 
make  no  mention  of  the  tradition.  Lactantius  speaks  of 
Seneca  as  '  ignorant  of  the  true  faith  '  ;  Augustine  con- 
siders that  his  freedom  from  the  superstitions  of  the  heathen, 
which  as  a  Roman  senator  he  could  not  publicly  announce, 
was  the  result  of  his  philosophical  studies  ;  that  he  was 
astonished  at  the  spread  of  Judaism  (which  he  hated),  because 
he  was  ignorant  of  the  purpose  of  God  ;  that  he  never  men- 
tioned the  Christians,  to  avoid  praising  them  in  defiance  of 
the  national  opinion,  or  blaming  them,  perhaps  against  his 
own  feelings.  Jerome  had  read  certain  letters  (some  of  which 
are  still  extant),  said  to  have  been  exchanged  between  the 
apostle  and  the  philosopher  ;  but  they  are  in  reality  one  of 
the  numerous  literary  forgeries  which  were  called  into  exis- 
tence by  the  religious  zeal  of  the  Christians.  An  inscription 
(end  of  the  third  or  beginning  of  the  fourth  century)  shows 
that  in  a  Christian  family,  which  traced  back  its  origin  to 
or  at  least  derived  its  name  from  that  of  the  Annaei  Senecae, 
the  tradition  was  highly  prized.  An  epitaph  on  a  tomb  at 
Ostia,  set  up  by  a  certain  Marcus  Annaeus  Paulus,  preserves  the 
memory  of  his  son  Marcus  Annaeus  Paulus  Petrus.  The  names 
of  the  apostles  were  very  popular  amongst  the  Christians  ; 
the  use  of  the  second  name  and  of  the  two  together  was  unheard 
of  amongst  the  heathen.  There  can  be  little  doubt,  there- 
fore, that  the  two  Annaei  were  both  Christians. 

Finally,  if  the  possibility  of  personal  relations  between 
the  apostle  and  the  philosopher  cannot  be  absolutely  denied, 
all  previous  attempts  to  make  this  possibility  a  certainty 
must  be  considered  to  have  completely  failed.  The  agree- 
ment (often  almost  word  for  word)  of  the  expressions  used  by 
Seneca  with  those  of  Paul  concerning  the  general  sinfulness 

R.L.M. — in.  p 


210  Religion 

of  mankind,  must  have  been  due  to  the  similar  circumstances, 
experiences  and  dispositions  of  both,  like  everything  else 
in  Seneca's  writings  which  approximates  to  the  Christian 
point  of  view.  But  this  agreement  may  also  be  completely 
explained  by  the  particular  form  in  which  the  Stoic  philosophy 
developed,  a  form  which  had  its  foundation  in  the  nature  of 
Stoicism  itself,  and  in  the  milder  representatives  of  the  school 
(Seneca,  Epictetus  and  Marcus  Aurelius)  very  naturally 
assumed  a  character  sympathetic  with  Christianity,  although 
no  tradition  has  ever  asserted  that  the  two  last  named  borrowed 
from  Christian  sources. 

Consequently,  judging  from  all  that  we  know  of  the  first 
centuries  of  the  Christian  era,  it  can  hardly  be  imagined  that 
the  pagan  world  before  the  time  of  Septimius  (emperor  193- 
211)  and  Alexander  Severus  (emiperor  222-35),  had  the  least 
anticipation  of  the  future  historical  importance  of  the  new 
religion,  then  so  little  regarded  and  so  contemptuously  criti- 
cized. What  could  this  crowd  of  ignorant  recluses,  men 
of  no  importance,  avail  against  the  established  order  of 
things  in  an  empire  whose  dominion  of  the  world  appeared 
destined  to  last  for  ever  ?  '  Do  not  the  Romans,  without  the 
assistance  of  your  god,  rule  the  whole  world,  including  your- 
selves ?  '  '  Your  God  ',  says  Celsus,  '  has  promised  his 
assistance  to  those  who  profess  their  belief  in  him,  and  even 
greater  blessings,  as  you  assert.  And  now,  see  for  your- 
selves, what  he  has  done  for  them  (the  Romans)  and  what 
he  has  done  for  you.  Instead  of  being  rulers  of  the  whole 
earth,  you  have  not  even  a  clod  of  earth  or  a  home  that  you 
can  call  your  own  ;  if  you  are  found  wandering  about  in 
secret,  you  are  hunted  down  and  punished  with  death  '.  In 
an  empire  in  which  so  many  religions  existed  side  by  side, 
the  idea  of  a  universal  religion  inust  have  appeared  absolutely 
incomprehensible.  '  If  it  were  only  possible  ',  says  the  same 
author,  '  that  all  the  Greeks  and  barbarians  in  Asia,  Europe 
and  Africa  to  the  ends  of  the  earth  could  recognize  one  law  ! 
But  any  one  who  thinks  it  possible  is  utterly  devoid  of 
understanding  !  ' 

The  victory  of  Christianity  was  decided  by  the  complete 
religious  freedom  guaranteed  by  Constantine.  The  victorious 
faith  then  immediately  began  to  exercise  its  power  in  the 
suppression  of  paganism,  at  a  time  when  the  old  belief  had 


Religion  211 

not  only  ceased  to  offer  any  advantages,  but  entailed  increasing 
annoyance  and  persecution  upon  its  adherents.  Had  paganism 
really  been  for  centuries  in  a  state  of  decay  and  dissolution, 
its  complete  overthrow  and  the  absolute  supremacy  of  Chris- 
tianity must  have  followed  within  a  very  short  space  of 
time.  But,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  its  death  struggle,  carried 
on  under  the  greatest  disadvantages,  was  prolonged  for  two 
centuries  ;  and  polytheism,  utterly  powerless  and  defenceless 
as  it  was,  still  survived,  although  Christianity  ever  more 
and  more  indefatigably  and  relentlessly  endeavoured  to 
stifle  everything  in  the  old  faith  that  still  gave  signs  of  life, 
by  the  aid  of  compulsion,  robbery,  destruction  and  persecu- 
tion. This  alone  is  sufficient  to  prove  the  great  vitality  of 
paganism  even  in  its  old  age.  After  Constantine's  edicts 
of  toleration  Christianity  enjoyed  the  favour  and  encourage- 
ment of  the  secular  authority  for  a  period  of  seventy  years 
(except  for  a  brief  reaction  under  Julian)  ;  and  yet,  as  already 
observed,  it  can  scarcely  have  v/on  over  half  the  population 
of  the  empire.  Nearly  all  the  Roman  nobles  in  the  time 
of  Julian  were  devoted  to  the  old  religion,  and  in  the  time  of 
Theodosius  about  half  the  senators,  although  at  that  time 
and  subsequently  Christianity  had  made  far  greater  progress 
in  the  towns  than  in  the  country.  In  the  course  of  the  fourth 
century  the  word  paganus  (countryman)  came  to  mean 
'  heathen  ',  and  Endelechius  in  the  poem  quoted  above  (p. 
197)  calls  Christ  the  god  who  is  worshipped  in  the  great 
cities  as  the  only  one.  Judaism  also  in  the  Diaspora  was 
chiefly,  although  not  exclusively,  a  town  religion. 

But  even  during  the  persecution  started  by  Theodosius 
in  380,  which  after  the  fall  of  the  pretender  Eugenius,  who 
had  been  induced  to  put  himself  forward  by  Nicomachus 
Flavianus,  the  champion  of  paganism,  was  carried  on  with 
renewed  vigour,  the  old  belief  showed  remarkable  powers  of 
resistance.  First  in  the  East,  then  in  the  West,  temples, 
chapels  and  seats  of  the  ancient  cults  were  laid  low  and  reduced 
to  ashes  by  fire  and  sword.  But  if  the  rural  populations, 
scattered  and  defenceless  as  they  were,  were  unable,  in  spite 
of  their  bitter  complaints,  to  prevent  the  destruction  of  their 
sanctuaries,  '  on  which  they  placed  all  their  hopes,  for  men, 
women  and  children,  for  their  cattle,  crops,  and  plantations, 
and  the  loss  of  which  deprived  them  of  all  the  joys  of  life  ' 


212  Religion 

(Libanius),  in  the  towns  bloody  combats  only  too  often  took 
place  between  the  populace  and  the  furious  clergy  and  monks. 
With  the  exception  of  direct  compulsory  conversion,  every 
kind  of  violence  was  employed  for  the  suppression  of  paganism. 
All  sacrifices,  ritual  observances,  and  attendance  in  the 
temples  were  forbidden  under  threat  of  the  severest  penalties  ; 
the  priests  were  deprived  of  their  privileges  and  banished  from 
the  towns  ;  the  temple  possessions  were  confiscated.  Yet  the 
repeated  insistence  upon  these  regulations  and  penalties  during 
the  fifth  and  even  the  sixth  century,  shows  how  extremely 
slow  was  the  process  of  extirpation,  even  when  the  ancient 
faith  seemed  to  have  been  deprived  of  all  means  of  existence. 
That  crime  and  rapacity  combined  with  draconian  legislative 
severity  in  the  persecution  of  defenceless  paganism,  is  proved 
by  the  repeated  exhortations  of  Augustine,  not  to  plunder 
the  heathen  under  the  cloak  of  religion,  and  by  an  imperial 
rescript  of  the  year  423.  Paganism  also  at  that  time  had 
its  martyrs,  and  the  abominable  murder  of  the  beautiful 
and  virtuous  Hypatia  at  Alexandria  in  the  year  415,  shows 
to  what  deeds  of  horror  the  spirit  of  fanaticism  could  drive 
the  Christian  mob. 

This  systematic  war  of  extermination  waged  against  pagan- 
ism had  lasted  for  a  hundred  and  fifty  years,  and  yet  the  life 
of  the  ancient  belief  was  not  completely  extinct.  In  528 
Justinian  felt  impelled  to  order  a  rigorous  persecution  of  the 
so-called  '  Hellenes '.  In  Constantinople  itself  numerous 
adherents  of  paganism  were  discovered  and  arrested  amongst 
patricians,  learned  men  and  physicians  ;  one  of  them  took 
his  own  life,  the  rest  embraced  Christianity.  In  532,  Bishop 
John  of  Asia,  by  imperial  command,  made  a  tour  of  the 
provinces  of  Caria,  Lydia  and  Phrygia,  where  he  converted 
and  baptized  70,000  souls.  Any  one  found  offering  sacrifice  to 
idols  was  to  be  punished  with  death.  In  the  West,  the  advanc- 
ing flood  of  barbarism,  which  swept  away  at  the  same  time 
the  foundations  of  paganism  and  ancient  civilization  generalh% 
hastened  the  destruction  of  the  former.  Yet  it  was  not  until 
the  year  529,  when  the  country  population  of  the  neighbour- 
hood was  still  in  the  main  pagan,  that  the  last  temple  of 
Apollo  on  Monte  Casino  was  converted  into  a  cloister  by 
St.  Benedict.  In  the  same  year  the  seven  last  vVthcnian 
philosophers,   expelled  by  an  edict  of  Justinian,   emigrated 


Religion  213 

and  sought  refuge  in  Persia  with  King  Chosroes.  Gregory 
the  Great  (pope  590-604)  learnt  to  his  sorrow  that  all  the 
peasants  in  Sardinia  were  idolaters,  and  sent  bishop  Victor 
to  convert  them  ;  he  directed  the  bishop  of  Caralis  to  proceed 
against  idolaters,  haruspices  and  soothsayers,  who  refused 
to  be  converted  by  his  preaching  ;  slaves  were  to  receive 
corporal  punishment,  free  citizens  were  to  be  '  brought  to 
repentance  '  by  close  confinement.  The  worship  of  the  old 
images  of  the  gods  was  secretly  practised  (especially  in  Greece) 
not  only  during  the  middle  ages,  but  in  some  cases  even  down 
to  our  own  days.  Under  Alexius  Comnenus  the  image  of 
Artemis  in  Patmos  was  destroyed  by  monks  ;  Michael  Apos- 
tolius,  the  follower  of  Gemistius  Pletho,  about  1465  found  in 
Crete  statues  of  the  gods,  to  which  he  could  address  his  prayers. 
But  even  so  the  annihilation  of  paganism  could  not  be 
complete.  It  contained  elements  which  defied  all  efforts 
to  destroy  them,  since  they  were  based  upon  certain  impera- 
tive necessities  of  a  great  portion  of  mankind  ;  and  these 
elements,  under  new  forms,  have  found  a  place  in  the  heait 
of  Christianity  itself  and  thus  survived  the  downfall  of  the 
ancient  belief.  It  was  not  merely  the  heathen  love  of  festivals 
which  demanded  satisfaction  also  from  the  new  religion  and 
caused  the  church  to  allow  carousals  and  merry-makings 
at  the  graves  of  the  martyrs,  and  to  compensate  the  people 
for  the  abolition  of  the  pagan  festivals  by  fixing  the  celebra- 
tion of  Christian  festivals  on  the  same  days.  Above  all,  it  was 
the  profound  desire  to  fill  the  infinite  gulf  between  humanity 
and  divinity  with  intermediate  beings  that  re-peopled  heaven, 
now  deprived  of  its  gods,  with  a  band  of  heavenly  figures, 
to  whose  number  there  was  no  limit.  Although  Augustine 
rejects  the  comparison  of  the  worship  of  saints  and  martyrs 
with  polytheism,  other  ecclesiastical  writers,  such  as  Basil, 
assign  them  exactly  the  same  place  in  the  order  of  the  universe 
as  the  later  Platonists  assigned  to  demons  and  heroes,  or, 
like  Theodoret,  institute  comparisons  between  the  two  cults, 
in  order  to  prove  that  '  the  truly  divine  has  been  substituted 
for  the  false  and  erroneous  '.  In  Sicily  '  the  worship  of  the 
saints  exhibits  so  complete  a  survival  of  polytheism,  that  it 
is  easy  to  understand  why  educated  Sicilians  even  at  the 
present  day  in  all  seriousness  prefer  the  monotheism  of  Islam 
to  Christianity  '.     But  the  old  gods  and  heroes  have  not  in 


214  Religion 

all  cases  been  replaced  by  holy  personalities  of  the  new  faith  ; 
here  and  there  they  have  maintained  their  ground,  like  Demeter 
worshipped  at  Eleusis,  and  Santa  Venere  invoked  in  southern 
Italy  and  Sicily  ;  or  they  have  been  changed  into  the  new 
personalities,  and  their  myths  into  Christian  legends.  Thus, 
apparently,  here  and  there  in  Gaul  the  '  mothers  '  of  Celtic 
popular  beUef  have  become  the  three  holy  Maries  ;  Helios- 
Aumu,  the  driver  of  the  chariot  of  the  sun  worshipped  in 
the  country  east  of  the  Jordan,  has  been  transformed  into 
the  prophet  Elijah  ascending  to  heaven  in  a  chariot  drawn 
by  fiery  horses  ;  and  Hippolytus,  who  probably  came  by  a 
martyr's  death  in  the  mines  of  Sardinia,  according  to  the 
tradition  was  torn  to  pieces  by  horses — the  fate  which  befcl 
his  namesake,  the  son  of  Theseus  king  of  Attica. 

'  Least  of  all ',  said  Theodoret,  '  ought  the  Greeks  to  be 
offended  at  what  takes  place  at  the  graves  of  the  martyrs, 
for  it  is  with  them  that  the  libations,  expiatoiy  sacrifices, 
the  heroes,  the  demi-gods,  the  deified  men  have  originated. 
Heracles,  Asclcpius,  Dionysus  and  many  others  were  raised 
to  the  rank  of  gods  ;  how  then  can  the  Christians  be  reproached 
for  honouring  the  martyrs  as  witnesses  and  servants  of  God, 
without  making  gods  of  them  ?  Who  deserves  it  better 
than  they,  the  champions  of  mankind,  their  helpers  and 
protectors,  from  whom  they  avert  evil  and  drive  away  the 
afflictions  with  which  they  are  threatened  by  the  demons  ? 
Childless  and  barren  women  pray  to  them  that  they  may 
become  mothers  ;  he  who  has  received  a  gift,  implores  them 
to  preserve  it ;  those  who  are  starting  on  a  journey,  beg 
them  to  attend  them  on  the  way,  those  who  return  safely 
render  to  them  their  thanks  ;  the  votive  offerings  presented 
to  them,  gold  and  silver  models  of  eyes,  feet  and  hands,  are 
evidence  of  vows  fulfilled.  The  temples  of  the  gods  are 
destroyed,  for  the  lord  of  all  has  introduced  his  own  dead 
in  their  place,  has  driven  them  out  and  bestowed  their  honours 
upon  his  own  children.  In  place  of  the  Pandia,  Diasia, 
Dionysia  and  other  festivals,  those  of  Peter,  Paul,  Thomas, 
Sergius,  Marcellus  and  other  martyrs  are  celebrated  '.  The 
assertion  of  Theodoret,  that  these  celebrations  are  accom- 
panied by  Christian  sobriety  and  modesty,  not  by  pagan 
ostentation  and  sensuality,  must  be  accepted  with  considerable 
reserve,  as  is  shown  by  the  evidence  of  Christian  writers. 


CHAPTER    III 
PHILOSOPHY  AS  A  MORAL  EDUCATOR 

No  one  who  has  even  a  superficial  acquaintance  with  classical 
literature  needs  to  be  reminded  that,  in  antiquity,  morality 
as  a  whole  is  most  intimately  connected  with  religion  ;  that 
the  gods,  as  directors  of  the  moral  order  of  the  world  and 
executors  of  its  laws,  require  from  men  the  fulfilment  of  moral 
obligations,  reward  the  good  and  punish  the  evil.  It  has 
been  shown  that  polytheism  continued  to  exist  unchanged 
amongst  the  masses  do^vn  to  a  late  period  of  antiquity  ;  it 
remains  to  refute  the  idea  that  the  anthropomorphism  of 
the  Greek  religion,  which  had  infected  the  national  faith  of 
the  Romans,  exercised  a  demoralizing  influence  by  attributing 
to  the  gods  human  weaknesses  and  passions  and  representing 
them  as  transgressors  of  the  moral  laws.  Of  course,  this 
was  a  favourite  argument  of  the  Christians  in  their  struggle 
with  paganism.  The  heathen  cannot  possibly  be  virtuous, 
says  Lactantius,  even  if  they  are  naturally  good,  since  the 
example  of  their  gods  trains  them  to  vice — Jupiter  to  adultery. 
Mars  to  bloodshed,  Mercury  to  fraud,  and  so  forth.  Augustine 
even  held  the  opinion  that  the  evil  spirits  worshipped  by  the 
heathen  allowed  themselves  to  be  accused  of  disgraceful 
deeds  which  they  had  never  committed,  in  order  to  ensnare 
the  minds  of  men  and  to  drag  them  to  destruction  with  them- 
selves. But  even  amongst  the  adherents  of  polytheism  many 
looked  with  suspicion  on  those  '  stories,  which  taught  men 
to  sin  '.  Dionysius  of  Halicarnassus  preferred  Roman  theology 
to  Greek,  since  the  legends  in  the  latter  were  of  little  use  and 
only  serviceable  to  the  few  who  understood  their  real  mean- 
ing, while,  on  the  other  hand,  they  taught  the  great  mass  of 
mankind,  untrained  in  philosophy,  to  despise  the  gods,  or  to 
regard  as  lawful  the  infamies  and  crimes  attributed  to  them, 

215 


21 6  Pliilosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator 

This  assertion  of  Dionysius,  in  his  attack  upon  the  absurdity 
of  the  popular  bcHef,  is  the  more  easy  to  understand,  since 
it  may  be  assumed  that  sophistic,  which  deUghted  in  showing 
its  skill  in  defence  and  even  in  praise  of  what  was  reprehensible, 
did  not  disdain  to  borrow  arguments  from  legend  ;  thus,  in 
the  Clouds  of  Aristophanes,  the  'Unjust  Argument'  raises 
the  question  why,  if  justice  exists,  Zeus  was  not  punished 
for  having  bound  his  father  with  chains.  In  the  Homilies 
of  the  so-called  Clement  of  Rome  a  virtuous  woman  is  said 
to  have  been  seduced  by  an  '  encomium  of  adultery  '  ;  per- 
haps this  was  a  subject  in  the  rhetorical  schools,  for  practice 
in  the  art  of  making  the  bad  appear  good  and  the  wrong 
right.  The  defence  of  adultery,  which  chiefly  relies  upon 
the  amours  of  Jupiter  and  the  other  gods  (and  also  the  teach- 
ings of  the  philosophers)  is  followed  by  a  refutation,  perhaps 
also  a  subject  for  rhetorical  exercises.  If  we  should  imitate 
the  gods  in  their  amours,  why  not  in  their  meals  ?  Cronus 
devoured  his  children,  Zeus  swallowed  jNIetis,  Pelops  was 
set  on  table  as  a  dish  before  the  assembled  gods.  In  fact, 
it  is  inconceivable  that  the  acts  attributed  by  legend  to  the 
gods  could  ever  have  really  misled,  even  in  ancient  times, 
the  moral  consciousness  of  men  of  ordinary  intellect  and 
moral  responsibility  ;  that  adulterers,  murderers  and  thieves 
could  ever  have  seriously  attempted  to  justify  their  crimes, 
to  themselves  and  others,  by  the  examples  of  Jupiter,  Mercury 
and  other  gods.  Amongst  the  proofs  adduced  by  Ovid  in 
support  of  the  proposition  that  there  is  nothing  which  cannot 
do  harm,  if  misused,  he  says  that  women  who  are  ingenious 
in  discovering  excuses  for  sin,  might  be  led  into  it  by  the 
traditional  immoralities  of  the  goddesses  :  '  Corrupt  minds 
can  be  led  astray  by  anything  '.  On  this  point  Seneca  expresses 
himself  as  if  he  had  no  fear  whatever  of  the  possibility  of  a 
belief  in  the  legends  so  absolute  as  to  remove  all  fear  of  sin 
from  men's  minds  ;  and  no  doubt  he  is  right.  For  if  the 
unbelieving  rejected  the  popular  belief  just  because  of  these 
fables,  the  rationalists,  as  always,  explained  the  contradictions 
between  tradition  and  the  demands  of  reason  by  artificial 
(euhemeristic  or  allegorical)  interpretations,  or  by  the  assump- 
tion that  the  immoral  acts  attributed  to  the  gods  were  really 
committed  by  the  merely  semi-divine  demons  ;  while  naive 
and  unreflecting  believers  were  content  in  such  cases  to  recog- 


Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator  217 

nize  mysteries  too  deep  for  human  understanding,  from  which 
no  rules  for  human  action  could  be  derived. 

Greek  and  Roman  literature  furnishes  abundant  evidence 
of  the  existence  of  the  belief  in  a  moral  order  of  the  universe, 
based  upon  and  maintained  by  the  will  of  the  gods.  Against 
this  evidence,  appeal  is  made  to  certain  frivolous  jests  in 
comedies  and  erotic  poems,  in  which  amorous  swains  excuse 
their  cunning  devices,  their  lapses  from  morality  and  even 
deeds  of  shame,  by  the  example  of  Jupiter  and  the  other 
gods.  They  even  quote  the  monologue  of  Byblis  (in  the 
Metamorphosis  of  Ovid),  who  attempts  to  justify  her  unnatural 
passion  for  her  brother  by  the  marriages  of  the  gods  with 
their  sisters  !  With  equal  or  even  more  reason  it  might 
be  asserted,  as  was  often  done  to  the  embarrassment  of  the 
ancient  Christian  apologists,  that  the  sins  of  the  patriarchs 
and  other  men  after  God's  own  heart  in  the  Old  Testament 
have  exercised  a  demoralizing  influence  ;  and  an  attempt 
might  be  made  to  support  the  assertion  by  jokes  or  coarse 
expressions  of  a  similar  character  in  modern  literature,  in 
which  '  the  devil  appeals  to  Scripture  '  ;  we  may  mention 
one  of  Biirger's  poetical  trifles,  Frau  Schnips.  It  is  hardly 
necessary  to  remind  the  reader  that  not  only  were  such  offences 
everywhere  severely  punished  by  civil  legislation,  but  that 
the  gods  were  worshipped  and  invoked  as  protectors  of  the 
same  laws  which,  according  to  the  legend,  they  had  broken. 
In  particular,  was  not  the  Greek  Zeus,  like  the  Roman  Jupiter, 
a  god  of  marriage  ? 

In  every  religion  a  mistaken  idea  of  the  nature  and  will 
of  the  deity  may  be  found.  Benjamin  Constant,  whose 
remarks  upon  polytheism  generally  are  also  applicable  to 
the  polytheism  of  our  period,  very  rightly  observes  that 
the  general  spirit  of  religious  creeds  is  often  in  contradiction 
to  their  moral  commandments,  and  that  the  passions  aroused 
by  the  former  hinder  the  fulfilment  of  the  latter  ;  that  murders 
are  frequently  committed  in  all  good  faith,  in  order  to  please 
a  god,  one  of  whose  commandments  is,  '  Thou  shalt  not 
kill '  !  '  The  fables  consecrated  by  a  religion  are  the  object 
of  a  faith  in  certain  respects  mechanical  ;  they  sometimes 
appear  to  establish  themselves  permanently  in  a  special  com- 
partment of  the  human  brain.  Rome  traced  back  its  origin 
to  an  amour  of  Mars  with  Rhea  Silvia  ;     none  the  less,  any 


21 8  Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator 

vestal  who  allowed  herself  to  be  seduced  suffered  a  fearful 
punishment '. 

The  undoubtedly  correct  view,  that  the  licence  which 
the  gods  in  legend  permit  themselves  in  reference  to  the 
moral  law  by  no  means  indicates  their  indifference  to  it,  is 
illustrated  by  Constant  by  the  example  of  kings,  whose 
private  excesses  do  not  affect  the  laws  against  excesses  com- 
mitted by  their  subjects.  '  In  the  Macedonian  camp  the 
soldier  accused  of  murder  was  condemned  by  Alexander, 
although  he  himself  was  the  murderer  of  Clitus.  The  gods, 
like  the  great  ones  of  the  world,  have  a  public  and  a  private 
character.  In  the  former  they  are  the  upholders  of  moraHty, 
in  the  latter  they  follow  only  their  own  inclinations  ;  but  only 
in  their  public  character  have  they  anything  to  do  with 
men  '. 

'  The  gods  are  not  the  originators,  but  the  guarantors  of  the 
moral  law.  They  protect  it,  but  do  not  alter  it ;  they  do  not 
issue  its  commandments,  but  keep  them  in  force.  They  re- 
ward good  and  punish  evil,  but  their  will  does  not  decide  what 
is  good  and  evil ;  human  actions  are  meritorious  or  the  reverse 
in  themselves." 

But,  although  belief  in  the  government  of  divine  powers, 
respect  for  their  will,  hope  of  their  favour  and  fear  of  their 
wrath  were  always  reckoned  among  the  most  essential  sup- 
ports of  morality  throughout  antiquity  and  (as  already  ob- 
served) were  recognized  as  such,  they  were  not,  properly 
speaking,  the  foundations  of  morality.  The  duties  of  man  to 
the  divinity,  to  humanity  and  to  himself  were  not  proclaimed 
by  the  revelations  of  a  higher  will,  nor  by  the  teaching  of  a 
divine  prophet ;  the  heathen  had  not  received  the  law  from 
without ;  as  the  apostle  says,  they  were  a  law  unto  themselves  ; 
and  had  to  depend  not  only  upon  their  own  knowledge  of  their 
duties,  but  also  upon  their  own  strength.  They  had  no  idea 
of  an  absolute  truth,  founded  upon  supernatural  revelation, 
and  could  not  understand  that  faith,  and,  above  all,  the  sub- 
ordination of  reason  to  faith,  could  be  meritorious  and  possess 
a  redeeming  and  sanctifying  virtue.  In  their  opinion  the 
highest  task  of  the  thinking  mind  was  the  search  after  truth, 
to  which  in  the  conviction  of  Christians  revelation  had  set  a 
limit  for  ever,  so  that  henceforth  it  was  not  only  superfluous, 
but  even  unlawful.     The  heathen,  says  TertuUian,  are  ever 


Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator  219 

seeking  truth,  but  never  find  it ;  we  have  no  need  of  curious 
questioning  now  that  we  have  Christ  Jesus,  nor  of  inquiry  now 
that  we  have  the  Gospel.  If  we  beheve  this,  we  desire  to  be- 
lieve nothing  besides.  Thou  shalt  believe  !  This,  according 
to  Julian  the  apostate,  was  the  final  conclusion  of 
Christian  wisdom  ;  and  Galen  the  physician,  who  had  a  high 
opinion  of  the  morality  of  the  Christians,  could  not  under- 
stand their  absolute  belief  (like  that  of  the  Jews)  in 
doctrines  which  had  not  been  proved  true.  While  the 
messengers  of  Christianity  promised  redemption  by  faith, 
heathen  philosophy  proclaimed  salvation  by  knowledge.  The 
knowledge  of  good  and  evil,  promised  (according  to  Genesis) 
by  the  tempter,  was  for  it  the  attainable  object  of  all  human 
aspirations,  the  foundation  to  be  laid  by  man's  own  efforts,  on 
which  alone  morality  could  be  based.  According  to  Socrates, 
knowledge  is  the  root  of  all  moral  action,  ignorance  that  of 
all  errors  ;  knowledge  can  no  more  exist  without  virtue  than 
virtue  without  knowledge.  In  the  same  way  the  Stoics  de- 
fined virtue  as  knowledge,  vice  as  ignorance.  Consequently, 
virtue  and  with  it  happiness  in  this  life  were  attainable  by 
knowledge,  which  enabled  man  to  subject  his  lower  impulses 
to  the  divine  element  in  his  nature.  For  paganism  knew 
nothing  of  human  nature  being  thoroughly  bad,  of  the 
doctrine  of  original  sin ;  even  according  to  the  Orphic 
doctrine  it  contained  the  good  derived  from  Dionysus  as 
well  as  the  bad  derived  from  the  Titans.  Hence,  also,  the 
idea  of  the  need  of  redemption  by  supernatural  grace  was 
foreign  to  the  spirit  of  the  ancients  and  only  found 
acceptance  as  their  intellect  decayed  and  lost  its  vigour. 
No  greater  contrast  can  be  imagined  than  that  between  the 
self-control  of  the  philosopher  unaffected  by  mysticism,  his 
proud  consciousness  of  his  ability  to  subdue  all  passions  and 
desires,  and  the  Christian's  feeling  of  dependence,  his  need  of 
redemption  and  his  absolute  subjection  to  the  will  of  God. 
Among  the  cardinal  virtues  of  paganism  there  was  as  little 
room  for  humility  as  for  the  patience  which  after  a  blow  on  one 
cheek  turns  the  other  to  the  smiter. 

For  him  who  knows  (i.e.  the  wise  man)  the  evils  which 
torment  humanity  have  no  existence  ;  or  at  least  they  are 
unable  to  disturb  his  happiness,  which  is  self-sufficient  and  self- 
contained.     Yet,  as  Socrates  said,  the  whole  life  of  the  philoso- 


220  Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator 

pher  is  a  preparation  for  death,  which  had  less  terror  for 
him  than  for  any  other  man.  By  knowledge  man  is  raised 
above  the  level  of  human  weakness,  withdrawn  from  the  in- 
fluences of  the  outer  world,  and  is  invulnerable  to  its  attacks. 
But  this  happiness  consisted  not  in  possession  but  in  renuncia- 
tion, in  the  absence  of  all  needs  (for  which  cynicism  quite  con- 
sistently strove),  in  the  abandonment  not  only  of  external 
possessions  but  also  of  the  most  important  interests,  of  the 
innate  feelings  and  inclinations  of  human  nature  which  con- 
tribute most  to  happiness.  The  motto  of  Epictetus,  '  Suffer 
and  renounce  !  '  in  a  certain  sense  sums  up  the  practical 
philosophy,  and  consequently  the  theory  of  happiness,  of  all 
philosophical  systems.  The  aim  of  all  knowledge,  says  Seneca, 
is  to  teach  us  to  despise  life  ;  only  he  who  is  free  is  happy, 
says  Demonax,  and  only  he  is  free  who  hopes  for  nothing  and 
fears  nothing.  Epicureanism  and  Stoicism  are  at  one  with 
Christianity  in  their  seclusion  from  political  life  ;  like  the 
apostle  Paul,  Epicurus  and  also  Epictetus  placed  celibacy 
above  marriage  ;  scepticism  based  happiness  upon  the  know- 
ledge of  the  impossibility  of  knowledge,  consequently,  in 
reality,   upon  a  renunciation  of  knowledge. 

Ancient  philosophy,  therefore,  overcame  the  terrors  of 
death  not  by  the  hope  of  celestial  happiness,  but  by  the  know- 
ledge of  the  small  value  of  earthly  existence.  The  Christian 
belief  and  hope,  the  love  which  springs  from  respect  for  that 
which  is  beneath  us,  were  equally  unknown  to  paganism.  It 
was  Christianity  that  first  taught  mankind,  '  to  recognize 
humility  and  poverty,  mockery  and  contempt,  outrage  and 
misery,  suffering  and  death  as  divine,  and  to  honour  and  love 
even  sin  and  crime  as  not  hindering,  but  promoting  holiness  ' 
(Goethe).  Such  an  idea  was  foreign  to  the  ancient  world, 
although  traces  of  the  feeling  occur  now  and  again.  Plato 
and  Aristotle  proposed  that  sickly  and  mutilated  children 
should  be  put  to  death  in  the  ideal  state.  Seneca  thinks  no 
more  of  drowning  crippled  and  misshapen  children  than  of 
drowning  mad  dogs  and  unhealthy  cattle,  which  might  infect 
the  whole  herd.  In  his  opinion,  only  men  of  no  intelligence 
can  consider  the  wise  man  too  harsh  if,  in  accordance  with  the 
Stoic  doctrines,  he  neither  feels  compassion  nor  forgives.  The 
wise  man  must  not  allow  his  serenity  of  mind  to  be  disturbed 
by  sympathy  or  other  emotions,  for  this  is  a  weakness  of  feeble 


Philosoph}^  as  a  Moral  Educator  221 

minds,  especially  women  ;  he  may  dry  the  tears  of  those  who 
weep,  but  not  weep  with  them  ;  he  may  help  them,  but  not 
pity  them.  In  like  manner,  he  may  allow  gentleness  and 
mercy  to  prevail,  but  may  not  forgive  ;  for  forgiveness  is  the 
remission  of  merited  punishment. 

In  ancient  times,  man  did  not  feel  himself  separated  from 
the  divinity  by  an  impassable  gulf,  since  his  relation  to  it  was 
not  that  of  a  creature  to  its  creator  ;   and  this  difference  in  his 
relation  to  the  divinity  carried  with  it  also  a  different  relation 
to  humanity.     The  fundamental  Christian  idea,  that  all  men 
are  created  by  one  creator,  children  of  one  father,  and  con- 
sequently united  by  the  bond  of  brotherhood,  possessing  equal 
rights   and  equally  bound   to   perform   the  same  charitable 
duties,  is  a  view  that  was  first  developed  in  antiquity  outside 
the  domain  of  Christianity  in  the  time  of  the  Roman  univer- 
sal empire  ;   but  it  never  became  general.     In  contrast  to  this 
absolute  equality  of  all  creatures  before  God,  the  ancient  Greeks 
and  Romans  recognized,  as  founded  on  justice,  the  numerous 
gradations  of  human  existence,  the  result  of  political,  social 
and  national  developments  ;    and  no  divine  prohibition  nor 
moral  law  hindered  the  privileged  from  asserting  his  better 
claims  in  their  full  extent  against  one  whose  claims  were 
inferior.     In  the  eyes  of  his  fellow,  the  life  of  man  was  not  so 
sacred  and  inviolable  as  it  was  bound  to  be  in  the  presence  of 
a  divinity  with  whom  all  life  originates,  and  who  has  not  only 
not  allowed  but  expressly  forbidden  his  creatures  to  take  each 
other's  lives,  a  right  which  belongs  to  him  alone.     The  posi- 
tion assigned  to  man  by  the  ancient  conception  of  the  order 
of  the  imiverse  allowed  him,  together  with  greater  freedom 
and  independence,  far  more  latitude  in  the  disposal  of  his  own 
existence  or  of  that  of  those  who  were  under  his  protection  or 
authority.     Not  only  had  the  master  the  power  of  life  and 
death  over  his  slaves  ;   the  father  had  the  same  power  over  his 
children,  and  it  was  not  till  late  that  it  was  made  a  punishable 
offence  to  expose  them.     Opinions  were  divided  as  to  whether 
suicide  was  morally  permissible.     Plato,  who  in  this  respect 
also  shows  an  approximation  to  Christianity,  denied  that  it  was 
(following  the  Pythagoreans)  ;    man,  as  the  property  of  the 
divinity,  must  not  leave  the  place  assigned  to  him  on  his 
own  initiative  ;    Plotinus,  however,   considered  it    justifiable 
in  certain    circumstances.     The    Stoics  and  Cynics   not  only 


222  Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator 

declared  that  it'was  permissible,  but  saw  in  it  the  highest  prac- 
tical proof  of  moral  freedom. 

As  for  the  attitude  of  the  Christians  in  the  early  centuries 
towards  the  heathen  system  of  ethics,  they  failed,  at  least  to 
a  o^reat  extent,  to  perceive  the  sharp  and  fundamental  contrast 
between '  virtue  from  justice  and  virtue  from  mercy  ' .  Clement 
of  Alexandria,  like  all  Christians  who  at  that  time  were  in- 
debted in  the  main  to  Greek  philosophy  in  their  education, 
had  no  doubt  that  it  also  contained  truth,  whether  this  truth 
was  borrowed  by  the  philosophers  from  the  Old  Testament  or 
brought  to  them  by  inferior  angels  ;  what  was  false  in  it  was 
the  result  of  misunderstandings  or  was  foisted  in  by  false  pro- 
phets sent  by  the  devil.  The  relation  of  philosophy  to  Chris- 
tianity was  that  of  the  derived  to  the  original,  of  fragments 
and  parts  to  the  single  whole  ;  it  was  a  forerunner  of  Christ, 
which  trained  men  for  the  perfection  that  was  to  be  embodied 
in  him  ;  as  the  law  was  given  to  the  Jews,  so  philosophy  was 
given  to  the  heathen.  Thus,  some  Jews  and  heathen  were  just 
before  God  ;  above  all  Plato  and  his  teacher  Socrates  (who  in 
Luther's  eyes  were  godless  pagans)  spoke  in  accordance  with 
the  spirit  of  God.  Even  for  Christians  philosophy  was  valu- 
able, nay,  indispensable  ;  the  Christian  writers  who  disdained 
it  were  afraid  of  it,  as  children  of  ghosts,  and  had  formed  no 
opinion  of  it. 

From  the  middle  of  the  second  century  B.C.,  Greek  philo- 
sophy (as  already  observed)  had  begun  to  make  its  way  to 
Rome  and  the  West,  and,  in  spite  of  all  attempts  to  check  it, 
had  made  constant  progress.  The  multiplication  of  relations 
with  Greece,  the  ever-increasing  immigration  of  Greek  savants 
to  Rome,  the  more  and  more  frequent  journeys  of  Romans  to 
Greece,  where  they  frequently  stayed  for  a  considerable  time, 
gave  a  powerful  impetus  to  the  introduction  of  Greek  art  and 
science,  and  of  philosophy  in  particular.  When  Cicero  em- 
ployed the  enforced  leisure  of  his  last  years  (45-43)  in  rendering 
accessible  to  Roman  readers  in  a  popular  form  the  most  im- 
portant results  of  the  post-Aristotelian  philosophy,  he  evi- 
dently supplied  a  general  v.'ant  that  was  keenly  felt  by  his 
educated  countrymen.  His  philosophical  works,  which  have 
done  so  much  to  introduce  the  knowledge  of  Greek  philosophy 
to  all  succeeding  ages,   formed  the  nucleus  of  the  new  philo- 


Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator  223 

sophical  literature  of  Rome.  Amongst  its  best  read  writers 
Quintilian  reckons  (Lucretius  excepted)  the  Stoics  Brutus 
Plautus  and  Seneca,  Cornelius  Celsus  (the  follower  of  the  Sextii, 
who  were  closely  akin  to  the  Stoics),  and  the  Epicurean  Catius, 
the  only  addition  to  whose  numbers  in  the  second  century  a.d., 
is  the  Platonist  Apuleius. 

Now,  although  after  the  fall  of  the  Republic  the  influences 
favourable  to  the  spread  of  Greek  philosophy  in  the  Roman 
world  increased  in  number  and  strength,  the  old  Roman  dis- 
like of  it,  based  in  the  main  on  the  opposition  between  the 
practical  and  the  theoretical,  between  realism  and  idealism, 
continued  to  exist.  The  view  expressed  by  one  of  the  char- 
acters in  Ennius,  that  it  was  good  to  '  take  a  sip  of  '  philosophy, 
but  not  to  become  absorbed  in  it,  was  also  that  of  Tacitus  and 
all  like-minded  Roman  statesmen  and  patriots,  who  were 
bound  to  oppose  a  speculative  system,  which  led  to  indifference 
to  the  State  and  its  most  important  interests.  Although  an 
acquaintance  with  the  doctrines  of  philosophy,  '  that  noble 
science  ',  was  regarded  as  worthy  of  commendation  ;  although 
a  salutary  influence  '  that  moderated  the  passions  '  was  con- 
ceded to  it ;  yet,  among  these  circles,  over-zealous  study  of 
its  doctrines  was  considered  reprehensible  in  a  Roman  and 
a  senator.  Helvidius  Priscus,  who  studied  Stoicism  '  in  order 
that  he  might  take  part  in  state  affairs  better  equipped  against 
the  blows  of  fortune',  and  in  all  relations  of  life  satisfied  the 
highest  claims  of  morality,  was  according  to  Tacitus  an  excep- 
tion, since  the  majority  only  affected  '  the  higher  studies  in 
order  to  conceal  an  indolent  inactivity  under  a  high-sounding 
name  '.  In  Tacitus  the  highly  respected  Musonius  Rufus 
plays  the  part  of  a  ridiculous  pedant,  who  parades  his  know- 
ledge on  the  most  unsuitable  occasions  ;  in  the  year  70  he 
attempted  to  influence  the  legions  of  Antonius  before  the  gates 
of  Rome  by  addressing  them  on  the  blessings  of  peace  and  the 
evils  of  war,  and  with  difficulty  escaped  ill-treatment  at 
the  hands  of  the  soldiers.  Quintilian  also  contrasts  the  '  true 
citizen  and  truly  wise  man,  who  devotes  himself  not  to  idle 
discussions  but  to  the  administration  of  the  state ',  with  the 
philosophers  who  hold  theimselves  as  far  aloof  as  possible 
from  all  the  duties  of  a  citizen  in  general.  '  What  philo- 
sopher', he  asks, '  has  ever  been  prominent  as  a  judge  or  orator  ? 
What  philosopher  has  ever  interested  himself  in  the  manage- 


224  Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator 

ment  of  state  affairs,  for  which,  however,  the  majority  of 
them  are  fond  of  laying  down  rules  ?  '  The  younger  Pliny 
praises  Titius  Aristo  as  a  man  inferior  in  purity,  piety,  justice, 
and  strength  of  mind  to  none  of  those  who  make  an  outward 
show  of  philosophy.  '  Yet  he  does  not  frequent  gymnasia 
and  porticoes,  nor  spend  his  time  and  that  of  others  in  idle 
and  lengthy  discussions,  but  he  always  wears  the  toga  and  is 
always  busy  '.  Men  of  this  practical  turn  of  mind  must  have 
regarded  a  regular  study  of  philosophy  as  intolerable  in  the 
case  of  a  ruler.  Some  expressions  of  the  pretender  Avidius 
Cassius  afford  a  specimen  of  the  manner  in  which  the  philo- 
sophical studies  of  Marcus  Aurelius  were  criticized  by  the  op- 
ponents of  philosophy.  He  calls  the  emperor  '  the  disputant ', 
'  the  philosophical  old  wom.an  ',  'he  institutes  researches  into 
the  nature  of  the  elements,  of  m.en's  souls,  of  virtue  and  justice, 
and  has  no  heart  for  affairs  of  state.  You  have  heard  that 
our  philosopher's  praefect  of  the  praetorian  guard,  who  was 
as  poor  as  a  beggar  three  days  before  his  appointment,  has 
suddenly  become  rich  '.  When  Alexander  Severus,  on  the 
advice  of  his  mother  Mammaea,  gave  up  the  study  of  music 
and  philosophy,  he  was  strengthened  in  his  resolution  by  the 
Virgilian  verses,  quoted  to  him  in  place  of  an  oracle,  in  which 
it  was  declared  that  the  Romans  were  called  upon  to  rule 
the  world,  while  others  might  be  allowed  to  carry  off  the  prize 
in  the  arts  and  sciences. 

In  like  manner  Nero's  mother  dissuaded  her  son  from  the 
study  of  philosophy,  to  which  he  had  been  introduced  first  by 
the  Stoic  Chaeremon  and  then  by  Seneca,  on  the  ground  that 
it  was  '  injurious  to  one  who  was  destined  to  rule  '.  In  the 
circles  which  took  a  lively  interest  in  the  maintenance  of  the 
established  order  of  things,  above  all  in  governmental  and 
court  circles,  philosophy  was  not  so  much  despised  as  feared. 
Caesarism,  not  without  reason,  saw  in  '  ideology  '  a  danger  to 
itself.  The  speech  in  Cassius  Dio,  in  which  Maecenas  unfolds 
the  principles  of  imperial  policy  in  presence  of  Augustus,  also 
contains  a  warning  to  the  emperor  to  be  on  his  guard  against 
philosophers,  who  propagated  revolutionary  ideas.  He  must 
not  believe  that  all  real  or  pretended  philosophers  were  worthy 
and  honest  men,  since  Areus  and  Athenodorus  had  proved 
themselves  such  ;  many  wear  this  mask,  in  order  that  they 
may  work  incalculable  mischief    to    states  and    individuals. 


Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator  225 

In  fact,  like  the  murderers  of  Julius  Caesar,  many  critics  of  the 
government,  and  especially  the  most  prominent  leaders  of  the 
opposition  in  the  senate  in  the  first  century,  professed  the 
doctrines  of  the  Stoic  school.  Amongst  them  were  republicans, 
such  as  Paetus  Thrasea  and  Helvidius  Priscus,  whose  aim  was 
political  martyrdom,  and  of  those  who  took  part  in  the  Pisonian 
conspiracy  (65)  against  Nero  at  least  Lucan  and  Seneca. 
Besides,  the  emperors  in  general  were  only  too  ready  to  listen 
to  insinuations  against  Stoicism  and  philosophy.  In  62 
Rubellius  Plautus  had  been  put  to  death  while  in  exile,  a  man 
who,  as  Tigellinus  represented  to  Nero,  '  made  a  show  of  imi- 
tating the  ancient  Romans,  and  had  adopted  the  arrogance  of 
the  Stoic  school,  which  formed  and  produced  turbulent  spirits 
ever  seeking  danger  [negotiorum)  '.  ^  Nero  was  instigated  to 
persecute  Thrasea  (in  66)  by  Capito  Cossutianus,  who  repre- 
sented to  him  Thrasea's  abstention  from  the  deliberations  of 
the  senate  as  an  act  of  rebellion,  and  Thrasea  himself  as  the 
head  of  a  faction.  He  declared  that  he  had  partisans,  or 
rather  satellites,  who,  although  they  did  not  yet  venture  to 
imitate  the  audacity  of  his  language,  reproduced  his  demeanour 
and  manner  ;  stern  and  morose,  as  if  constantly  reproaching 
the  emperor  for  his  excesses.  Either  their  principles  must  be 
adopted,  so  far  as  they  are  preferable,  or  the  leaders  and  insti- 
gators of  these  innovators  must  be  removed.  It  is  this  sect 
that  has  produced  the  Tuberos  and  the  Favoniuses,  names 
hateful  even  to  the  old  republic.  In  order  to  overthrow  the 
monarchy,  they  make  use  of  liberty  as  a  pretext ;  when  they 
have  overthrown  it,  they  proceed  to  attack  liberty.  Helvidius 
Priscus,  Thrasea's  son-in-law,  who  was  reported  to  be  in  the 
habit  of  celebrating,  together  with  his  father-in-law,  the  birth- 
days of  Brutus  and  Cassius,  was  banished  (for  the  second  time) 
under  Vespasian  and  put  to  death  in  exile.  Priscus,  who  was 
subsequently  reckoned  among  the  celebrated  ideal  figures  of 
the  Stoic  school  and  is  mentioned  with  respect  by  the  younger 
Pliny  and  even  by  Tacitus  (in  spite  of  his  prejudice  against 
political  martyrdom),  was  condemned  by  conservative  mon- 
archists, like  Suetonius  and  Cassius  Dio,  who  throw  the  res- 
ponsibility for  his  downfall  upon  himself.  According  to 
Suetonius,  Vespasian  endured  Priscus'  defiant  obstinacy  with 

1  i.e.  political  martyrdom.     Others  translate  'eager  to  take  part  in  public  affairs'. 
R.L.M. — in,  Q 


226  Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator 

extreme  patience,  tried  to  prevent  his  death  when  it  was  un- 
fortunately too  late,  and  restrained  his  wrath,  until  he  had 
submitted  to  numerous  impertinent  remarks,  delivered  in  the 
manner  of  a  reprimand  '.  Only  fragments  and  excerpts  from 
Dio's  account  have  been  preserved.  He  certainly  attempts 
to  fix  the  odium  of  the  proceedings  against  Helvidius  and 
the  philosophers  upon  Vespasian's  powerful  friend  Mucianus, 
but  at  the  same  time  declares  that  Helvidius  was  seditious 
and  a  friend  of  the  mob,  that  he  had  always  abused  the  mon- 
archy and  praised  democracy,  acted  accordingly  and  incited 
others  to  do  the  same  ;  as  if  it  were  the  task  of  philosophy  to 
throw  mud  at  the  government,  to  stir  up  the  masses,  to  over- 
throw the  existing  order  of  things  and  to  bring  about  a  revo- 
lution. Helvidius  imitated  Thrasea,  but  was  greatly  his 
inferior.  Thrasea's  opposition  was  directed  against  a  Nero, 
but  his  words  and  actions  were  always  temperate  ;  he  con- 
fined himself  to  passive  resistance.  Helvidius,  on  the  other 
hand,  was  dissatisfied  with  a  Vespasian  and  opposed  him  in 
public  and  in  private  ;  he  sought  death  and  thereby  paid  the 
penalty  of  numerous  offences.  According  to  Dio,  other  Stoics, 
as  well  as  the  Cynic  Demetrius  (for  whom  Seneca  expresses  his 
admiration),  publicly  expressed  views  incompatible  with  the 
existing  order  of  things.  The  result  was  that  (between  the 
years  71  and  75)  all  the  philosophers  were  expelled  from  Rome, 
with  the  single  exception  of  Musonius  Rufus  (who  had  been 
banished  by  Nero)  ;  Demetrius  and  a  certain  Hostilius  were 
deported  to  islands.  In  93,  the  philosophers  were  again 
banished  by  Domitian,  in  connexion  with  the  trial  of  the  Stoic 
Junius  Arulenus  Rusticus,  who  in  a  paneg\'ric  on  Thrasea 
had  called  him  a  holy  man,  and  of  other  senators  who  held 
the  same  views  :  '  this  prosecution  was  directed  entirely 
against  the  political  opposition,  wherever  it  manifested  itself 
in  literature  and  the  lecturer's  chair,  and  while  the  most  famous 
writers  were  criminally  punished,  the  government  expelled 
the  others  en  masse  from  the  capital  '. 

But  after  the  death  of  Domitian  the  whole  system  of  govern- 
ment was  changed,  and  with  it  the  attitude  of  the  emperors 
towards  philosophy,  which  not  only  ceased  to  be  regarded  as 
hostile  to  the  government,  but  was  soon  encouraged  in  every 
way.  In  a  letter  written  immediately  after  Domitian's  death 
(96  or  97)  Pliny  expresses  his  delight  at  the  glorious  revival  of 


Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator  227 

intellectual  life  in  Rome,  as  attested  by  numerous  and  glorious 
examples,  of  which  it  would  be  sufficient  to  mention  one,  the 
lectures  of  the  Stoic  philosopher  Euphrates.  Pliny  also  praises 
Trajan  for  taking  special  interest  in  the  education  of  youth, 
and  for  highly  honouring  teachers  of  rhetoric  and  philosophy. 
'  Studies,  which  had  been  punished  with  exile  by  a  prince,  who, 
conscious  of  his  vices,  proscribed,  from  fear  rather  than  hatred, 
everything  that  was  opposed  to  vice,  are  now  fostered  and 
made  much  of  by  Trajan.  They  are  full  of  life  and  vigour, 
and  have  recovered  their  native  land  ';  Dio  of  Prusa,  who 
under  Domitian  had  lived  in  (voluntary)  exile,  returned  after 
his  death.  The  reign  of  his  former  friend  Nerva  was  too  short 
for  him  to  enjoy  the  benefit  of  his  favour  ;  Trajan,  however, 
is  said  to  have  purposely  distinguished  him,  and  Dio,  in  one 
of  his  hortatory  speeches  on  the  government,  declares  that  the 
emperor  took  pleasure  in  truth  and  frankness  alone,  not  in 
flattery  and  lies.  Hadrian,  who  sought  the  society  of  philo- 
sophers and  of  all  men  of  learning,  was  perhaps  the  first  who  ap- 
pointed public  teachers  of  philosophy  in  Rome.  Antoninus  Pius 
appointed  them  in  all  the  provinces,  and  according  to  his  letter 
to  the  diet  of  the  province  of  Asia  the  immunity  from  taxation, 
which  in  the  case  of  other  teachers  was  limited  to  a  certain 
number,  fixed  in  accordance  with  the  size  of  the  towns,  was  to 
be  unrestricted  in  the  case  of  philosophers,  since  there  were 
so  few  of  them.  The  salaries  of  the  learned  men  summoned  to 
the  museum,  including  the  philosophers,  continued  to  be  paid 
to  them  ;  at  Athens  public  teachers  were  appointed  by  Marcus 
Aurelius  from  the  four  most  important  schools. 

Under  this  philosopher  on  the  throne  philosophy  became  the 
fashion,  even  amongst  the  women  ;  Stoicism,  formerly  so  per- 
secuted, was  now  considered  a  recommendation,  and  those  who 
wished  to  get  on  pretended  to  adopt  it  or  made  a  show  of  it. 
Among  the  emperor's  philosophical  tutors  the  Stoic  Junius 
Rusticus  and  the  Peripatetic  Gnaeus  Claudius  Severus  were 
influential  and  highly  honoured.  The  former,  a  son  or  grand- 
son of  the  Junius  Rusticus  executed  by  Domitian,  was  the 
adviser  of  Marcus  Aurelius  in  all  public  and  private  affairs, 
and  his  words  had  great  weight,  in  time  of  peace  as  well  as  war  ; 
the  emperor  always  embraced  him  before  going  on  to  the  prae- 
fects  of  the  praetorian  guard,  twice  nominated  him  consul  and 
after  his  death  ordered  the  senate  to  erect  statues  in  his  honour. 


228  Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator 

Gnaeus  Claudius  Severus,  a  distinguished  citizen,  had  already 
been  consul  in  146  ;  Marcus  Aurelius  made  his  son  of  the  same 
name  (consul  163  and  173)  his  son-in-law.  Of  the  later 
emperors  Septimius  Severus,  following  the  example  of  Marcus 
Aurelius,  showed  especial  interest  in  philosophy,  and  accord- 
ing to  Tertullian  allowed  philosophers  great  liberty  of  speech  ; 
in  spite  of  their  attacks  upon  the  emperors  they  received  salaries 
and  the  honour  of  statues.  Severus's  wife,  Julia  Domna, 
also  turned  her  attention  to  philosophy,  after  she  had  quarrelled 
with  him  as  the  result  of  the  intrigues  of  the  favourite  Plau- 
tianus,  and  surrounded  herself  with  philosophers. 

Further,  at  the  time  when  philosophy  was  suspected  and 
persecuted,  there  was  no  lack  of  philosophers  who  zealously 
strove  to  represent  themselves  and  their  learning  as  entirely 
harmless  to  the  government.  Martial's  friend  and  countryman, 
the  advocate  Decianus  of  Emerita,  professed  himself  a  follower 
of  Thrasea  and  Cato  ;  in  other  words,  he  was  a  Stoic,  but 
shrewd  enough  not  '  to  run  with  bare  breast  against  drawn 
swords  ',  for  which  he  is  commended  by  Martial.  The  poet 
declares  he  does  not  want  a  man  who  purchases  fame  by  his 
blood,  rashly  shed,  but  one  who  deserves  praise  without 
martyrdom.  Seneca  in  his  letters  has  repeatedly  defended 
philosophy  against  the  reproach  of  hostility  to  the  govern- 
ment. In  a  letter,  which  may  have  been  written  about  the 
time  when  philosophy  began  to  be  looked  upon  with  suspicion, 
he  speaks  as  if  it  were  quite  inconceivable  that  it  could  ever 
be  so  suspected,  although  his  defence  itself  shows  that  it  had 
already  been  attacked  on  this  ground.  One  must  flee  from 
the  dangers  of  the  world  and  find  a  sure  refuge  in  philosophy, 
the  science  which  affords  protection  not  only  amongst  the 
good  but  also  amongst  those  who  are  not  utterly  bad,  like 
the  priest's  fillet,  which  even  the  worst  respect.  Never  will 
worthlessness  be  so  powerful,  never  will  there  be  such  a  con- 
spiracy against  virtue,  that  the  name  of  philosophy  will  not 
continue  to  be  holy  and  venerable.  Further,  the  philosopher 
must  behave  quietly  and  modestly.  If  it  is  asked  whether 
Cato  acted  in  this  way,  Seneca  replies  that  he  expressly  dis- 
approves of  his  participation  not  only  in  the  civil  war  but  also 
in  the  party  quarrels  that  preceded  it,  as  quite  useless.  He 
points  to  the  example  of  the  Stoics,  who,  retiring  from  politi- 
cal life,  in  their  seclusion  exert  themselves  for  the  ennoblement 


PKilosopKy  as  a  Moral  Educator  229 

of  life  and  the  establishment  of  the  universal  rights  of  man, 
'  without  offence  to  one  who  is  more  powerful  '.  The  wise 
man  will  not  try  to  disturb  universally  adopted  customs  by  his 
example,  nor  to  attract  the  attention  of  the  people  by  the 
novelty  of  his  manner  of  life.  Certainly,  even  he  cannot  be 
sure  of  absolute  security.  In  a  later  letter,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  charges  against  philosophy  are  refuted  as  if  they  had 
already  been  brought.  '  They  appear  to  me  to  be  wrong,  who 
think  that  the  true  followers  of  philosophy  are  obstinate  and 
refractory,  despisers  of  the  authorities,  kings  and  state  ad- 
ministrators '.  On  the  contrary,  no  one  is  more  grateful  to 
the  latter  than  the  philosphers,  who  have  the  greatest  need  of 
order  and  quietness  in  order  to  pursue  their  higher  aims  in  life 
and  reverence  him  who  protects  them  like  a  father,  far  more 
than  those  restless  and  ambitious  spirits,  who  have  much  to 
thank  princes  for,  but  also  set  a  high  value  on  their  own 
services  and  are  never  satisfied  with  their  reward.  But  the 
sincere  and  upright  man,  who  has  renounced  the  curia,  the 
forum  and  political  life,  in  order  to  occupy  himself  with  higher 
things,  loves  those  who  make  it  possible  for  him  to  do  this  in 
safety  ;  he  alone  bears  witness  on  their  behalf  without  being 
bribed,  and  is  greatly  indebted  to  them  without  their  knowing 
it.  As  he  reverences  and  esteems  his  teachers,  thanks  to  whose 
kindness  he  has  escaped  the  paths  of  error,  so  also  he  honours 
those  under  whose  protection  he  is  enabled  to  devote  himself 
to  noble  pursuits.  The  benefits  of  universal  peace  are  shared 
to  a  greater  extent  by  those  who  make  a  right  use  of  them. 
Again,  in  a  later  letter,' he  says  :  One  must  not  make  a  boast  of 
philosophy,  for  it  has  proved  a  source  of  danger  to  many  who 
have  practised  it  with  arrogance  and  disdain  :  '  it  is  intended 
to  eradicate  your  own  faults,  not  to  reproach  others  with  theirs. 
It  must  not  hold  aloof  from  general  custom,  nor  appear  to 
condemn  that  which  it  avoids.  It  is  possible  to  be  wise  with- 
out display  or  making  oneself  odious  '.  The  appeal  to  philo- 
sophers to  avoid  anything  out  of  the  way,  is  often  repeated  ; 
the  very  name  of  philosophy  is  already  hated,  even  if  it  is 
practised  with  modesty  ;  the  more  so  if  any  one  by  making  a 
show  of  exaggerated  asceticism  and  contempt  for  the  world 
violates  traditional  custom  ;  in  that  case  what  is  intended  to 
excite  admiration  easily  becomes  hateful  and  ridiculous. 
Philosophy  ought  not  to  be  used  as  a  sign-board,  a  man  should 


230  Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator 

even  conceal  his    retirement,   to  prevent    its  becoming  the 
subject  of  conversation  and  attracting  attention. 

It  thus  appears  that  Seneca  by  no  means  attempted  only 
to  represent  as  baseless  the  apprehensions  and  charges  brought 
against  philosophy  by  the  representatives  and  uncompromising 
supporters  of  the  existing  political  system,  the  latter  of  whom 
must  have  been  very  numerous  in  all  circles,  since  they  reck- 
oned amongst  them  all  who  desired  peace  and  order  at  any 
price  as  the  basis  of  all  material  progress.  To  the  mass  of 
the  people  philosophy,  with  its  high  moral  claims,  its  severe 
condemnation  of  laxity  of  morals,  its  homilies  and  admonitions, 
which  unceasingly  attempted  to  rouse  them  from  their  self- 
complacent  indolence,  must  have  been  exceedingly  annoying  ; 
and  further,  the  claim  of  philosophers,  that  they  were  better 
and  stood  on  a  higher  level  than  other  men,  was  the  more 
offensive  the  more  strikingly  it  manifested  itself  in  dress  and 
appearance,  manner  of  life  and  other  externalities.  This  is 
the  tenor  of  the  complaint  against  Stoicism  addressed  by 
Mucianus  to  Vespasian  according  to  Cassius  Dio.  The  Stoics, 
he  says,  are  full  of  vanity  and  arrogance.  A  long  beard,  up- 
lifted eyebroAvs,  a  coarse  cloak  and  bare  feet,  are  thought  to 
entitle  a  man  to  pass  himself  off  as  wise,  manly  and  just,  and 
to  give  himself  airs,  even  though  he  is  ignorant  of  the  rudi- 
ments of  knowledge.  They  look  down  upon  all  other  men  with 
contempt,  reproach  the  handsome  man  with  lack  of  control, 
the  wealthy  with  avarice,  the  poor  with  servility  and  so  forth. 
Dio  of  Prusa  gives  the  same  rea.son  for  the  general  unpopu- 
larity of  philosophy  in  Greece.  The  philosopher's  attire,  his 
cloak  without  a  tunic,  his  long  hair  and  beard,  expose  the 
wearer  to  sneers,  scorn  and  derision,  and  even  ill-treatment  ; 
for  most  men  suspect  philosophers  of  despising  all  who  are  not 
philosophers,  of  condemning  and  secretly  ridiculing  them 
because  of  their  ignorance  of  what  really  benefits  mankind, 
especially  the  rich,  who  are  the  objects  of  general  envy.  Hence 
most  people  think  it  their  duty  to  anticipate  the  philosophers' 
ridicule  and  contempt,  to  represent  them  as  fools  and  madmen 
whenever  possible,  and  thereby  at  the  same  time  to  show  that 
they  have  reason  on  their  side.  In  short,  the  dress  which 
marks  every  one  who  wears  it  as  a  relentless  monitor,  a  censor 
and  a  moralist,  is  as  universally  disliked  as  the  schoolmaster's 
dress  by  childreni 


Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator  231 

In  addition  to  these  antipathies,  the  half-educated  and  un- 
educated masses  had  a  very  cogent  reason  to  despise  and  ridi- 
cule the  laborious  studies  on  which  so  high  a  value  was  placed. 
They  were  completely  useless,  they  brought  neither  promo- 
tion nor  reputation,  nor  as  a  rule  money.  Persius,  who  repre- 
sents the  inflated  provincials  as  despising  all  higher  (Greek) 
culture,  introduces  the  centurions  (who  appear  to  have  been 
the  leaders  of  fashion  in  other  respects  in  the  Italian  towns, 
and  everywhere  enjoyed  amongst  the  middle  and  lower  classes 
of  society  no  less  authority  than  they  claimed  by  their  conse- 
quential and  overbearing  manner),  as  expressing  their  contempt 
for  philosophy  as  a  profession  whereby  it  is  impossible  to 
earn  one's  bread.  If  any  one  ventures  to  praise  the  freedom 
enjoyed  by  the  wise  man  in  the  presence  of  those  men  with 
swollen  legs,  a  gigantic  Fulfennius  immediately  breaks  into  a 
horse-laugh  and  offers  a  worn-out  loo-as  piece  for  a  hundred 
Greeks.  '  I,'  says  another  of  this  unsavoury  crew,  '  I  know 
all  I  have  any  need  to  know.  I  don't  care  to  be  like  your 
Arcesilases  and  self-tormenting  Solons,  stooping  their  heads, 
fixing  their  eyes  on  the  ground,  as  they  stand  grumbling  to 
themselves  or  silently  move  their  lips  like  madmen,  and  with 
lower  lip  put  forward  seem  to  be  weighing  their  words  in  the 
balance,  deeply  pondering  over  the  dreams  of  some  sick 
dotard,  such  as.  Nothing  can  come  out  of  nothing,  nothing  can 
return  to  nothing.  Is  it  for  this  that  j^ou  look  so  pale  ?  is  it 
for  this  that  you  go  without  your  dinner  ?  The  people  are 
amused  at  them,  and  muscular  youths  burst  into  a  horse- 
laugh again  and  again,  enough  to  twist  their  nostrils.'  Capita- 
lists and  business  men  also  naturally  had  a  profound  contempt 
for  philosophers.  Trimalchio  leaves  directions  that  on  his 
tombstone  should  be  inscribed  :  '  He  began  in  a  small  way 
and  became  great ;  he  has  left  30,000,000  sesterces  (about 
^300,000)  and  has  never  listened  to  a  philosopher  '. 

The  learned  world  also  reproached  philosophy  with  being  a 
completely  useless  and  superfluous  science,  in  the  name  and 
on  the  part  of  a  healthy  common  sense,  which  then,  as  at  all 
times,  claimed  to  have  long  since  attained  the  same  end  and  the 
same  results  which  speculation  endeavoured  to  reach  by 
painfully  circuitous  paths,  and  accordingly  denied  that  it 
had  anything  to  learn  from  philosophy.  What,  in  particular, 
was  the  use  of  the  numerous  artificial  systems  of  moral  phil- 


232  Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator 

osophy,  as  compared  with  the  simple  and  incontestable  law  of 
morality  which  is  implanted  in  all  men's  hearts  ?  Further, 
which  philosophy  could  be  said  to  teach  the  truth,  since  each 
school  declared  the  doctrines  of  all  other  schools  to  be  false  ? 

From  this  point  of  view  philosophy  was  attacked  especially 
by  those  who  regarded  eloquence  as  the  aim  of  all  educational 
efforts,  who  probably  in  the  later  days  of  antiquity  formed  the 
majority  of  the  educated  classes.  This  quite  natural  jealousy 
between  rhetoricians  and  philosophers,  '  the  artists  of  the  pure 
form  of  speech  and  the  investigators  of  the  inmost  nature  of 
things  ',  which  was  based  upon  internal  antagonism  and  was 
continually  fostered  by  external  causes,  led  to  incessant  and 
frequently  embittered  disputes  as  to  the  relative  value  of  the 
two  sciences.  Pupils  were  already  trained  to  take  part  in 
these  struggles.  Amongst  the  '  controversial '  themes  which 
were  the  subject  of  declamation  in  the  rhetorical  schools  was 
the  following  :  A  father  leaves  three  sons,  an  orator,  a  philo- 
sopher and  a  physician  ;  by  his  will  he  appoints  as  his  sole 
or  favoured  heir  the  one  who  is  able  to  show  that  he  renders 
most  service  to  the  state.  Speeches  are  then  delivered  in 
favour  of  each  of  the  three  sciences  and  against  the  other  two. 
The  complete  uselessness  of  philosophy  is  shown  by  its  fruits. 
The  question  so  often  asked,  whether  virtue  can  be  taught,  is 
answered  in  the  negative.  The  best  men,  the  Fabricii,  the 
Decii,  became  what  they  were  without  philosophy  ;  on  the 
other  hand,  the  greatest  criminals  had  been  produced  by  the 
philosophical  schools,  as  tyrants  and  enemies  of  their  country 
by  that  of  Socrates.  But,  even  granting  that  wisdom  can  be 
acquired  by  instruction,  the  method  to  be  adopted  will  always 
be  uncertain,  for  all  the  schools  contradict  each  other.  Besides,, 
many  philosophers  confess  that,  in  spite  of  all  efforts,  a  truly 
wise  man  has  never  existed.  What,  therefore,  is  the  use  of 
philosophy  ?  Would  it  be  of  service  in  war  or  in  civil  employ- 
ment ?  Nothing  is  to  be  found  in  its  votaries  but  hypocrisy, 
idleness,  and  arrogance,  by  which  they  manage  to  acquire  a 
certain  influence.  Their  assertion,  that  they  contribute  to 
the  diminution  of  vice,  is  contradicted  by  evidence. 

That  the  teachers  of  eloquence  were  bound  to  be,  at  least  in 
great  measure,  opponents  of  philosophy  on  principle,  is  obvious. 
A  treatise  attributed  to  Plutarch  is  directed  against  them. 
The   elder   Seneca's    son    declares    that    his    father    hated 


Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator  233 

philosophy  and  prevented  his  wife  from  studying  it  seriously. 
Quintilian,  who  strongly  maintained  the  elder  Cato's  idea,  that 
the  orator  was  '  a  morally  good  man,  skilled  in  speech  ', 
affirmed  that  ethics  was  properly  a  branch  of  oratory  ;  that 
it  had  only  been  separated  from  it  through  the  fault  of  the 
orators  who  had  neglected  it,  and  had  been  taken  possession 
of  by  '  feebler  minds  '  and  made  a  speciality  by  them  ;  the 
orators  must  reclaim  this  branch  of  oratory  as  their  own. 
Since  the  true  philosopher  can  be  nothing  else  but  a  morally 
good  man,  that  is,  the  same  as  the  true  orator,  a  special  science 
of  philosophy  is  superfluous.  Quintilian  uses  every  oppor- 
tunity of  expressing  his  irritation  with  philosophers,  of  lashing 
their  servilely  painful  adherence  to  the  doctrines  and  expres- 
sions of  the  school,  their  endless  and  sophistical  investigations, 
their  complicated  methods  of  framing  the  simplest  proposi- 
tions, their  arrogance  and  hypocrisy,  their  idleness  and  avoid- 
ance of  the  world  so  detrimental  to  the  interests  of  the  state, 
and  at  the  same  time  takes  delight  in  exposing  the  weaknesses 
of  individual  schools.  Dio  of  Prusa  also,  when  a  rhetorician, 
had  passionately  attacked  philosophy,  to  which  he  subse- 
quently devoted  himself. 

Fronto  expresses  his  rage  in  truly  comic  fashion  against 
philosophy,  which  had  caused  his  imperial  pupil  Marcus 
Aurelius  to  desert  the  study  of  eloquence.  This  was  all  the 
more  to  be  regretted,  as  Marcus,  as  Fronto  writes  to  him,  had 
already  distinguished  himself  as  a  boy  by  nobility  of  spirit  and 
dignity  of  ideas,  which  only  lacked  brilliancy  of  expression  ; 
the  preparations  and  efforts  necessary  to  secure  the  latter 
had  been  too  laborious  for  him  ;  he  had  consequently  aban- 
doned the  study  of  eloquence  and  had  suddenly  jumped  off  to 
philosophy,  in  which  there  was  '  no  introduction  to  be  care- 
fully elaborated,  no  narrative  to  be  constructed  concisely, 
clearly  and  skilfully,  no  arguments  to  be  sought  for,  in  fact 
nothing  of  special  importance  '.  Of  course,  he  found  matters 
easier  with  his  teachers  of  philosophy.  He  only  had  to  listen 
to  their  explanations  and  nod  his  head  in  token  that  he  under- 
stood ;  while  others  read,  he  could  generally  go  to  sleep  ;  he  was 
obliged  to  hear  frequently  and  at  length  that  '  firstly,  it  was 
thus,  and  secondly,  it  was  thus  ',  and  to  have  it  laboriously 
proved  to  him,  that  it  is  clear,  when  it  is  day,  while  the  sun  was 
shining  through  the  window.    Then  he  could  go  quietly  home, 


234  Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator 

with  nothing  to  think  about  or  to  write  out  in  the  evening, 
nothing  to  read  to  his  teacher,  nothing  to  repeat  from  memor)^ ; 
no  expressions  to  be  searched  for,  no  synonyms  to  be  employed 
as  an  ornament,  no  translation  from  Greek  into  Latin.  What 
could  be  gained  by  a  course  of  study  such  as  that  ?  '  But,  as 
Fronto  says,  IMarcus  would  rather  converse  than  be  eloquent, 
and  preferred  to  express  himself  in  whispers  and  murmurs 
than  in  distinct  utterances. 

Lucian  also,  in  spite  of  all  his  ill-humour  with  the  degenerate 
rhetoric  of  his  time  ;  in  spite  of  his  letter  of  renunciation 
addressed  to  it  in  his  Bis  Accusatiis  ('  Tv/ice  Accused  '),  written 
when  he  was  nearly  forty  years  of  age  ;  in  spite  of  his  pre- 
tended conversion  to  philosophy,  remained  at  heart  a  genuine 
rhetorician,  and,  like  Quintilian,  denies  the  claims  of  specu- 
lation from  the  standpoint  of  sound  common  sense. 

According  to  him,  also,  philosophy  consisted  of  the  prac- 
tical worldly  wisdom,  which  was  not  only  tied  to  no  system, 
but  was  attainable  by  every  thinking  man,  even  if  not  a 
philosopher.  In  general,  philosophers  were  hateful  to  him, 
although  he  made  some  exceptions  (belonging  to  the  most 
different  schools)  ;  and  not  only  by  reason  of  the  contrast 
between  their  doctrine  and  their  manner  of  life.  The  vanit}^ 
folly,  unreality  and  absurdity  of  all  philosophical  studies 
form  the  subject  of  the  dialogue  Hermotimus.  Hermotimus, 
who  has  been  absorbed  for  the  last  twenty  years  in  the  study 
of  Stoicism,  never  misses  a  lecture,  pores  over  his  books  day 
and  night,  has  no  enjoyments,  looks  pale  and  thin,  hopes 
in  another  twenty  years  to  reach  his  goal  !  But  he  is  finally 
obliged  to  admit  that,  in  order  to  be  able  to  assert  that  any 
one  system  of  philosophy  is  the  only  one  that  can  bestow 
happiness,  it  would  be  necessary  first  to  examine  all  existing 
systems,  which  would  take  two  hundred  or  at  least  a  hundred 
years.  And  what  certainty  is  there  that  truth  is  really 
contained  in  any  one  system  ?  And  even  if  one  succeeded 
in  discovering  the  only  true  philosophy,  how  could  one  be 
sure  of  finding  the  right  person  to  teach  it  ?  And,  after  all, 
the  efforts  of  those  who  study  philosophy  are  not  even  directed 
towards  its  proper  aim,  the  practical  demonstration  of  know- 
ledge in  actions,  but  rather  towards  miserable  'phrasicles  ',  * 

1  Liddell  and  Scott,  s.v.    prttidTiov, 


Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator  235 

syllogisms,  false  conclusions,  and  puzzling  questions  ;  their 
masters'  cleverness  in  confounding  others  with  sophisms  is 
the  object  of  their  profound  admiration.  Instead  of  striving 
after  the  fruit,  they  work  themselves  to  death  for  the  rind 
and  throw  the  leaves  in  each  other's  faces. 

Lastly,  Aristides  evidently  thought  that  he  was  fulfilling 
a  sacred  duty,  imposed  upon  him  by  his  position  in  the  literary 
world,  when  in  the  struggle  between  rhetoric  and  philosophy 
he  threw  the  whole  weight  of  his  authority  on  the  side  of 
the  former.  In  two  lengthy  discourses  On  Rhetoric  he  defends 
it  against  the  accusations  of  the  Platonic  Socrates  (in  the 
Gorgias).  Rhetoric  is  not  only  (what  is  there  denied)  an  art, 
but  is  indissolubly  connected  with  all  the  cardinal  virtues  ; 
it  has  been  invented  by  wisdom  for  the  sake  of  justice,  and 
is  protected  by  bravery  and  virtue  ;  he  who  knows  how  a 
man  should  speak,  also  knows  how  he  should  act ;  in  short, 
the  art  of  oratory  is  the  foundation  and  summary  of  all  moral 
and  intellectual  education.  Certainly,  Aristides  declares 
that  he  has  no  intention  of  attacking  philosophy  itself  ;  he 
has  associated  with  the  best  and  greatest  philosophers  of 
his  time  and  looks  upon  them  as  his  instructors.  But,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  these  conventional  commendations  conceal  a 
strong  dislike,  even  a  certain  hatred,  of  philosophy.  Aristides 
also  defends  the  four  great  Athenian  statesmen,  Miltiades, 
Themistocles,  Cimon  and  Pericles  against  the  accusations 
of  Platonic  idealism  in  an  excessively  long  discourse,  in  which 
he  empties  all  the  vials  of  his  wrath  upon  the  philosophers 
of  the  time.  Even  if  one  can  put  up  with  such  unjust  accu- 
sations from  the  great  Plato,  it  is  intolerable  that  utterly 
worthless  individuals  should  have  the  audacity  to  imitate 
him  and  even  to  insult  a  Demosthenes.  Who  would  endure 
such  men's  abuse  even  of  the  living,  '  men  whose  grammatical 
faults  outnumber  their  words,  who  look  down  upon  others 
with  the  contempt  which  they  merit  themselves,  who  test 
others  but  never  themselves,  who  praise  virtue  but  do  not 
practise  it  '  ?  They  have  never,  like  the  rhetoricians,  deli- 
vered, imagined  or  composed  a  profitable  speech,  have  never 
contributed  to  the  brilliancy  of  festivals,  have  never  paid 
honour  to  the  gods,  have  never  given  counsel  to  cities,  have 
never  consoled  the  afflicted,  have  never  reconciled  those 
at  variance,  have  never  admonished  the  young  or  any  one 


236  Philosophy  as  a  Moral    Educator 

else,  have  never  thought  of  embelhshing  their  speeches. 
But,  creeping  into  their  holes,  they  excogitate  their  glorious 
wisdom,  '  ranting  to  some  creature  of  their  brain  '  ^,  reaping 
ears  of  corn,^  tying  ropes  of  sand  ',  and  undoing  I  know  not 
what  web  ;  for  the  more  they  gain  in  wisdom,  the  more  they 
lose  ;  highly  pleased  with  themselves  if  they  speak  evil  of 
rhetoric  ;  somewhat  after  the  manner  of  slaves,  especially 
those  who  are  always  being  flogged,  they  curse  their  masters 
between  their  teeth,  or  like  a  satyr  on  the  stage,  who  curses 
Heracles  and  hides  himself  at  his  approach.  However, 
it  is  quite  natural  that  they  should  speak  ill  of  everybody, 
for  they  have  enough  bad  language  and  to  spare  ;  and  even 
if  they  do  not  specially  mention  any  one,  they  none  the  less 
speak  evil,  when  they  do  speak  ;  in  so  doing  they  are  only 
giving  of  their  own  superfluity.  If  they  were  deprived  of 
the  power  of  lying  and  acting  maliciously,  their  occupation 
would  be  gone.  And  with  it  all,  they  hold  before  the  world 
the  glorious  name  of  philosophy  as  a  show-piece  ;  as  if  the 
name  meant  anything,  as  if  Thersites  could  be  beautiful  if 
he  were  called  Hyacinthus  or  Narcissus,  or  as  if  the  name 
of  Nestor  could  make  a  Margites  wise  ? 

For  the  reasons  above  indicated  a  large  number  of  people, 
belonging  to  different  classes  of  society,  took  up  an  attitude 
of  dislike  or  positive  hostility  to  philosophy  ;  Roman  patriots, 
conservatives  by  conviction,  instinct  or  interestedness  ;  men 
of  the  ordinary  kind,  who  were  uncomfortably  affected  by 
everything  that  rose  above  mediocrity  ;  those  who  detested 
pretentiousness ;  selfish  utilitarians  ;  those  who  opposed 
and  despised  every  kind  of  speculation ;  representatives 
of  non-philosophical  education,  all  strove  to  defend  their 
own  interests  and  property.  It  appeared  to  all  of  these  that 
they  could  not  more  effectually  support  their  opinion  of 
philosophy  as  superfluous,  valueless  or  even  injurious,  than 
by  appealing  to  experience,  which  taught,  so  at  least  they 
asserted,  that  the  standard  of  morality  as  a  rule  was  no  higher 
among  philosophers,  if  indeed  it  was  not  lower,  than  amongst 
the  majority  of  average  men. 


1  Sophocles,  Ajax,  302  (Jebb's  tr.). 

'  i.e.  attempting  impossibilities.  'AvBepiKov  {'  blade  '  or  '  ear  '  of  com)  is  used  in 
later  Greek  for  the  stalks  of  the  asphodel  plant,  and  this  may  be  the  meaning  here,  in 
reference  to  a  plant  that  cannot  be  reaped. 


Philosophy  as  a  Moral    Educator  237 

Hence  the  name  of  philosopher  subjected  every  one  who 
assumed  it  to  a  keen,  unsparing  and  jealous  observation 
from  various  critics,  who  eagerly  strove  to  discover  his  offences, 
weaknesses,  and  absurdities,  that  they  might  triumphantly 
denounce  them.  Epictetus  says  :  When  people  see  a  man 
with  long  hair  and  a  coarse  cloak  behaving  in  an  unseemly 
manner,  they  shout,  '  Look  at  the  philosopher  '  ;  whereas 
his  behaviour  should  rather  convince  them  that  he  is  no 
philosopher.  When  Gellius  was  crossing  from  Cassiope  to 
Brundisium,  a  fearful  storm  endangered  the  safety  of  the 
ship.  While  every  one  was  wailing  and  lamenting,  Gellius 
looked  round  at  a  famous  Stoic  philosopher  who  happened 
to  be  on  board,  to  get  an  idea  of  his  state  of  mind  from  his 
demeanour.  The  philosopher,  it  is  true,  uttered  no  com- 
plaint, but  betrayed  his  alarm  by  his  paleness  and  the  ex- 
pression of  his  features.  When  the  storm  had  subsided,  a 
wealthy  Asiatic  Greek,  who  was  travelling  with  a  large  suite 
and  a  luxurious  equipment,  immediately  went  up  to  the 
Stoic  and  ridiculed  him  for  having  turned  pale  in  the  hour  of 
danger.  The  philosopher  met  this  impertinence  admirabl}^  ; 
he  removed  Gellius'  modestly  expressed  doubt  on  the  same 
point  by  quoting  a  passage  in  Epictetus,  according  to  which 
even  the  wise  man  was  allowed  to  turn  pale. 

It  may  be  conjectured  that  philosophers  most  frequently 
had  to  justify  themselves  against  the  charge  of  being  fond 
of  money.  Ulpian,  in  discussing  processes  for  fees  owing 
for  lessons  or  other  services  rendered  by  learned  men,  says 
that,  in  his  opinion,  philosophers  could  not  legally  prosecute 
claims  for  fees  ;  they  had  above  all  to  declare  that  they 
disdained  all  '  salaried  employment '.  On  the  other  hand, 
Seneca,  in  a  lengthy  treatise,  attempted  to  prove  that  there 
was  no  law  against  philosophers  being  wealthy.  Certainly 
he  does  not  expect  to  convince  those,  who  cannot  admit 
that  any  one  Is  morally  good,  since  they  regard  another 
man's  virtue  as  a  reproach  to  themselves,  and  who  hate  the 
very  name  of  virtue  and  every  one  who  practises  it ;  according 
to  them,  even  the  Cynic  Demetrius  is  not  poor  enough. 
No  doubt  philosophers  as  a  rule  are  far  from  attaining  their 
ideals,  which  are  beyond  human  powers  ;  but  is  it  not  praise- 
worthy ever  to  have  their  mind  fixed  upon  them  and  to  strive 
to  reach  the  goal  ?     He  himself  lays  no  claim  to  the  name 


238  Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator 

of  a  wise  man  ;  he  is  only  an  earnest  inquirer  after  truth, 
not  to  be  compared  with  the  best,  but  better  than  the  bad, 
and  content  to  walk  steadily  in  the  way  of  moral  perfection. 
Wealth  is  one  of  the  '  indifferent '  things  (aSta^opa,  media, 
indifferentia),  which  are  not  entirely  without  value  ;  the 
philosopher,  although  he  does  not  love  it,  yet  prefers  it  to 
poverty,  since  it  enables  him  to  develop  a  number  of  good 
qualities,  such  as  moderation,  generosity,  carefulness,  order- 
liness, magnanimity.  Even  Cato  of  Utica,  who  praised  the 
poverty  of  the  good  old  days,  had  a  fortune  of  4,000,000 
sesterces  (about  ;^40,ooo)  ;  Seneca  himself  one  of  300,000,000 
(^3,000,000).  It  is  obvious  that  such  apologies  for  contra- 
dictions between  theory  and  practice,  between  the  ideal 
and  the  real,  could  make  but  little  impression  on  those  who 
opposed  philosophy  on  principle,  especially  as  philosophers 
only  too  often  were  guilty  of  worse  offences.  Seneca  confesses 
that  some  of  them  might  be  charged  with  gluttony,  keeping 
mistresses  and  accepting  presents.  Such  men  could  be 
found  living  in  adultery,  haunting  the  taverns  and  hanging 
about  at  court.  And  every  unworthy  or  shameful  act  com- 
mitted by  one  was  a  slur  upon  his  school  as  a  whole.  The 
treacherous  conduct  of  the  Stoic  Publius  Egnatius  Celer 
towards  his  patron  Barea  Soranus  in  the  year  66,  was  fresh 
in  men's  memory  a  generation  later,  and  was  quoted  as  an 
example  of  the  '  shameful  deeds  of  the  great  cloak  '.^ 

But  if  philosophers  of  means  were  reproached  for  their 
wealth,  it  was  said  of  the  poor  that  their  lofty  ideas  cost 
them  little.  The  Stoic  Chaeremon,  says  Martial,  claims  to 
be  admired  for  his  contempt  of  death.  What  gives  him 
this  fortitude  is  his  utter  poverty  ;  he  has  nothing  he  can 
call  his  own  save  a  broken  pitcher,  a  hearth  without  a  lire, 
a  mattress,  a  bug,  a  bare  pallet,  and  a  short  toga,  which  serves 
him  as  a  covering  by  night.  What  a  great  man  he  is,  to 
have  the  courage  to  give  up  sour  wine,  black  bread  and  a  litter 
of  straw  !  If  only  he  were  living  in  the  enjoyment  of  wealth 
and  luxury,  he  would  want  to  live  three  times  as  long  as 
Nestor  and  to  enjoy  every  moment  of  his  life.  It  is  easy 
enough  to  despise  life  when  poor  ;    the  man  who  knows  how 

*  Juvenal,  iii.  115.  The  phrase,  f acinus  majoris  abollae,  seems  to  mean  '  a  greater 
crime  ',  although  the  explanation  is  doubtful.  Abolla  was  a  thick  cloak  worn  by  philo- 
sophers, and  may  be  used  to  represent  the  class. 


Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator  239 

to  endure  unhappiness  is  really  courageous.  Appian  says 
that  whenever  philosophers  have  attained  to  power,  they 
have  exercised  it  more  harshly  than  uneducated  tyrants, 
and  thereby  aroused  suspicion  and  doubts  of  other  philosophers, 
whether  they  have  embraced  philosophy  for  the  sake  of  virtue 
or  only  as  a  consolation  for  poverty  and  indolence.  Even 
at  the  present  day,  he  says,  there  are  many,  poor  and  with 
nothing  to  do,  who,  wrapping  themselves  in  the  cloak  of 
the  wisdom  of  necessity,  bitterly  assail  the  rich  or  highly 
placed  ;  but,  instead  of  gaining  a  reputation  for  contempt  of 
wealth  and  power,  they  are  looked  upon  as  envious  of  both. 
Those  who  are  abused  would  do  well  to  ignore  them. 

As  the  number  of  philosophers  increased  and  their  society 
consequently  became  more  mixed,  the  feehng  of  dislike  for 
them  became  more  pronounced  and  attacks  upon  them 
more  frequent.  It  is  one  of  the  symptoms  of  the  continual 
progress  of  philosophy  in  Rome  in  the  second  half  of  the 
first  century  that,  from  the  time  of  Domitian  at  least,  hypo- 
crites frequently  used  it  as  a  mask,  under  the  shelter  of  which 
they  hoped  to  be  able  to  sin  with  impunity.  On  several 
occasions  Quintilian  inveighs  bitterly  against  those  humbugs 
who,  having  attended  philosophical  lectures  for  a  certain 
time,  with  their  hypocritical  airs  and  long  beards  and  by 
their  professed  contempt  for  others  manage  to  obtain  a  great 
reputation  ;  in  public  they  appear  stern  and  gloomy,  while 
at  home  they  indulge  in  gross  excesses.  It  is  men  such  as 
these  who  make  the  name  of  philosophy  hated,  which  in  his 
time  was  used  as  a  cloak  for  the  greatest  vices  and  the  worst 
infamies.  Thus  the  highly  gifted,  but  morally  weak  Palfurius 
Sura  (who  carried  on  the  profession  of  an  informer  under 
Domitian  and  was  condemned  to  death  on  that  account 
immediately  after  Nerva's  accession)  joined  the  Stoic  school 
after  he  had  been  expelled  from  the  senate  by  Vespasian. 
Needy  Stoics  and  Cynics  with  huge  dusty  beards  were  com- 
mon sights  in  Rome  at  that  time  ;  during  the  reigns  of  Domi- 
tian and  Trajan  every  district  of  the  city  swarmed  with 
sulky-looking  profligates,  who  pretended  to  be  Curii  but 
whose  life  as  a  matter  of  fact  was  a  succession  of  orgies. 
These  men  also  excited  the  dislike  of  honourable  people 
by  their  ignorance,  in  spite  of  the  numerous  plaster  busts 
of  Chrysippus  and  other  philosophers  with  which  they  adorned 


240  Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator 

their  book  shelves.  For  all  they  said,  they  might  have  been 
dumb  ;  they  wore  their  hair  even  shorter  than  their  eye- 
brows ;  yet  more  than  one  of  these  Stoics,  who  like  fresh 
Catos  declaimed  against  the  decadence  of  morality  in  their 
time,  betrayed  their  luxurious  habits  by  the  exquisite  per- 
fumes with  which  they  rubbed  their  scrubby  necks. 

'  The  number  of  philosophers  and  pseudo-philosophers 
in  the  capital  of  the  world  was  already  so  great,  and  even 
amidst  the  motley,  ever  seething  crowd  their  behaviour  so 
conspicuous,  that  they  attracted  general  attention  and  criticism. 
How  much  more  must  this  have  been  the  case  in  the  quiet- 
ness of  provincial  life,  so  favourable  to  contemplation,  in  a 
country  like  Greece,  which  then,  as  formerly,  was  the  true 
home  of  philosophy  and  philosophers,  and  remained  so  till 
the  end  of  ancient  civilization.  Dio  of  Prusa  (in  the  passages 
above  cited)  declares  that  the  philosopher's  cloak  is  to  be 
seen  everywhere  ;  that  the  number  of  those  who  wear  it  is 
almost  greater  than  that  of  the  shoemakers  or  fullers  or 
jesters  or  the  followers  of  any  other  profession ;  but,  he 
adds,  even  though  we  wear  the  dress  of  Socrates  or  Diogenes 
we  still  remain  far  behind  them  in  wisdom.  But  even  if 
philosophy  occupied  so  large  a  space  in  the  civilized  life  of 
Greece  at  that  time,  the  number  of  true  philosophers  re- 
mained small ;  the  majority,  as  Epictetus  says,  were  philoso- 
phers in  words  only,  not  in  reality  ;  but  its  opponents  still 
continued  to  point  to  the  conduct  of  these  philosophers, 
philosophers  only  by  virtue  of  their  beard  and  cloak,  in  order 
to  represent  the  uselessness  of  philosophy  as  an  aid  to  moral 
perfection. 

Pseudo-philosophy,  together  with  philosophy,  obtained 
the  widest  recognition  under  Marcus  Aurelius.  At  Rome 
true  philosophers,  such  as  Macedo  the  friend  of  Gellius,  com- 
plained that  idlers  with  beards  and  cloaks  explained  away 
the  content  of  philosophy  in  sophistic  language  and  delivered 
eloquent  sermons  against  vices,  with  which  they  inwardly 
reeked  themselves.  In  Africa  Apuleius  (under  Antoninus  Pius) 
expressed  the  hope  that  every  one  would  not  be  permitted 
to  assume  the  mask  of  philosophy,  so  that  uncouth,  dirt>% 
uneducated  men  might  not  be  able  to  sully  the  royal  science, 
which  taught  noble  speaking  and  noble  living,  by  their  evil 
words   and   equally   evil   manner   of   life.     The   prominence 


Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator  241 

he  gives  to  impudent  abuse  and  vulgarity  in  manners  and 
outward  appearance  as  the  chief  characteristics  of  these 
spurious  philosophers,  clearly  shows  that  he  was  thinking 
particularly  or  exclusively  of  the  Cynics,  who  in  his  opinion 
were  far  inferior  to  the  Platonists.  In  Greece,  especially, 
according  to  Lucian,  in  all  the  streets  and  public  places  were 
to  be  seen  long  beards,  book-rolls,  worn-out  cloaks,  and 
enormous  sticks  in  abundance  ;  shoemakers  and  carpenters 
left  their  workshops,  to  carry  on  an  idle  beggar's  life  as  Cynics. 
The  degradation  of  philosophy  by  the  gang  of  false  disciples, 
the  abuse  of  its  name  which  especially  embittered  those 
who  were  not  philosophers,  naturally  strengthened  the  ranks 
of  its  opponents  and  played  into  their  hands.  Lucian  made 
it  his  special  task  to  hold  up  the  ways  of  these  men  to  the 
scorn  of  his  contemporaries.  They,  the  men  who  taught 
contempt  for  money  and  fame  and  dispassionateness,  who 
praised  virtue  as  the  only  good,  taught  for  money,  grovelled 
before  the  rich,  were  more  passionate  than  snarling  dogs, 
more  cowardly  than  hares,  more  fawning  than  apes,  more 
brutal  than  asses,  more  thievish  than  weasels,  more  quarrel- 
some than  cocks.  Added  to  this,  every  school  abused  the 
other.  The  Stoics  called  the  Epicureans  voluptuaries,  the 
Peripatetics  quarrelsome  and  avaricious,  the  Platonists  arro- 
gant and  ambitious,  being  in  turn  reproached  with  usury, 
contentiousness  and  other  vices.  When  the  followers  of 
the  different  schools  quarrelled  there  was  no  infamy  of  which 
they  did  not  accuse  one  another.  When  some  of  them  ap- 
pealed to  the  old  philosophers  in  extenuation  of  their  vices, 
as  the  Platonists  justified  adultery  by  Plato's  Republic  and 
drunkenness  by  his  Laws,  it  was  no  wonder  that  many  declared 
outright  that  the  exclusive  and  absorbing  study  of  philoso- 
phical books  only  led  men  astray  from  intelligent  thinking. 

Aristides  also,  in  the  discourse  already  quoted,  passing 
from  the  defence  to  the  attack,  represented  philosophers 
as  a  class  of  men  destitute  of  all  virtue  and  affected  with 
all  vices.  They  declare  themselves  not  inferior  to  Zeus, 
but  cannot  resist  '  the  obol  '.  They  abuse  others  out  of 
pure  envy  ;  but  if  one  were  to  offer  them,  in  the  middle  of 
their  lectures  on  abstinence,  a  piece  of  cake  or  pastry,  they 
would  let  their  tongue  drop,  like  Menelaus  his  sword,  when  he 
first  saw  Helen.     But  if  they  were  to  see  Helen,  or  only  a 

R.L.M. — in.  T? 


242  Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator 

servant   like   the    Phrygian   handmaiden   in   Menander,    the 
behaviour  of  the  satyrs  in  Sophocles  would  seem  a  harmless 
joke  in  comparison.     In  order  to  understand  their  untrust- 
worthiness   and   greed,   it   is   not   necessary   to  entrust  any- 
thing to  their  care  ;    for  they  everywhere  lay  hands  upon 
everything  they  can.     They  call  robber^'  division  of  property, 
envy   a  philosophical  frame   of  mind,   poverty  contempt  of 
money.     They     pride     themselves     on     their     philanthropy, 
but  have  never  yet  done  any  one  a  service  ;    on  the  contrary, 
they  injure  those  who  have  anything  to  do  with  them.     While 
they  pretend  not  to  see  people,  even  when  they  meet  them, 
they  travel  to  foreign  parts  in  search  of  the  rich,  like  the 
Phrygians  after  the  olive  crop  ;    they  scent  their  approach 
at  once,  seize  hold  of  them  at  once,  and  promise  to  impart 
virtue   to   them.     They    hardly    give    a   civil    answer,    when 
spoken  to  by  other  people  ;    but  they  salute  from  a  distance 
the  cooks,   bakers  and  other  servants  of  the  wealthy  even 
before  they  have  recognized  them,  as  if  they  had  got  out  of 
bed  for  that  purpose.     They  crowd  before  the  doors  of  wealthy 
houses  and  mix  with  the  porters  more  than  with  their  masters, 
bolstering    up    their    servility    with    effrontery.     When    any 
one   sees    them  for  the  first  time,  they  show  less  scruple  in 
demanding  what  is   not  their   due  than  others  in  claiming 
what  is  theirs  by  right.     For  they  are  the  people  who  call 
effrontery   frankness,   malignity   sincerity,   spoliation  philan- 
thropy.    Certainly   they   do   not   ask   for   money,    but   the)?- 
know  how  to  take  it.     If  any  one  sends  them  too  little,  they 
stick  to  their  principles  ;    but  if  they  catch  sight  of  a  well- 
filled  purse,   then  Perseus   has   overcome   the   Gorgon ;     the 
excuse  is  very  artful  :    '  the  wife  and  the  little  ones  '.     Their 
definition  of  greatness  of  soul  is,  in  fact,  quite  new  ;    that 
it  does  not  consist  in  giving  much,  but  in  not  accepting  little. 
Some  have  already  made  it  a  rule  never  to  refuse  a  gift,  and 
to  abuse  the  giver  after  they  have  received  it.     While  they 
play  the  hypocrite  like  the  parasites  and  ape  the  insolence 
of  their  superiors,  they  exhibit,  like  the  atheists  in  Palestine, 
two    most    opposite    faults,    humility    and    arrogance.     Like 
the  atheists,   they  are  far  inferior  to  the  Greeks   (at  least, 
those  of  the  better  class),  and  in  everything  else  are  as  mute 
as  their  own  shadow  ;    except  that  if  it  is  a  question  of  abuse 
and  calumny,  one  would  be  inclined  to  compare  them,  not 


Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator  243 

with  the  gong  at  Dodona  but  with  flies  buzzing  in  the  dark. 
No  one  is  so  incapable  of  co-operating  in  anything  that  is 
needful ;  on  the  other  hand,  they  understand  better  than 
any  one  else  how  to  play  the  spy  on  a  household  and  to  bring 
confusion  into  it,  how  to  set  the  inmates  against  each  other, 
and  how  to  declare  that  they  themselves  could  manage  things 
much  better. 

The  name  of  philosophy  was  chiefly  brought  into  con- 
tempt by  the  gang  of  Cynics,  whose  name  and  school,  after 
long  suspension,  revived  at  the  beginning  of  the  Christian 
era.  Even  amongst  them  there  were  some  noble  figures  ; 
but,  in  the  second  century  especially,  Cynicism  became  more 
and  more  a  '  sign-board,  which  concealed  a  host  of  impure 
elements  ',  and  the  majority  of  these  '  mendicant  friars  '  of 
antiquity  a  veritable  pest,  at  least  in  Greece,  through  their 
vulgarity,  repulsiveness,  and  effrontery.  A  caricature  of 
Diogenes  and  Antisthenes  in  outward  appearance,  dress, 
manner  of  life  and  conduct, — this  was  the  only  manifestation 
of  a  moral  freedom  based  upon  absence  of  wants,  renuncia- 
tion of  the  world  and  superiority  to  all  human  weaknesses, 
which  found  favour  with  only  too  many,  who  might  be  recog- 
nized as  Cynics  by  the  tattered  cloak  or  simple  bearskin, 
unkempt  hair  and  beard,  staff  (occasionally  even  a  pestle) 
and  wallet.  Their  cosmopolitanism,  without  a  home,  de- 
generated into  vagrancy,  their  return  to  a  state  of  nature 
into  disgusting  obscenity,  which  Epictetus  thought  it  his  duty 
to  prove,  in  a  special  essay,  was  no  necessity  for  a  philosopher. 
Their  lack  of  means  was  bound  to  be  used  as  a  pretext  for 
impudent  mendicancy  and  low  toadyism  ;  their  self-appointed 
mission  as  educators  of  backward  humanity  and  physicians 
of  its  infirmities  as  a  justification  for  importunity  and  char- 
latanry ;  their  coarse  vulgarity,  which  took  the  place  of 
robust  humour,  as  a  seasoning  for  the  sermons  of  these  ancient 
capuchins. 

This  repulsive  portrait,  drawn  in  detail  by  Lucian,  is  also 
found  in  other  authors.  Petronius  says  that  even  those 
who  spend  their  time  with  the  Cynic  wallet,  sometimes  sell 
the  truth  for  money.  Epictetus  contrasts  the  ideal  Cynic 
with  '  those  of  the  present  day,  the  dogs  round  the  master's 
table  ',  who  imitated  Diogenes  only  in  his  most  unmannerly 
unceremoniousness,  whose  only  claim  to  Cynicism  was  their 


244  Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator 

staff  and  wallet,  lanthorn  jaws,  their  pilfering  and  pocketing, 
vulgar  abuse  and  exhibition  of  their  broad  shoulders.  On 
one  occasion,  when  Gellius  was  with  Herodes  Atticus,  one 
of  these  beggars,  with  long  hair  and  a  beard  hanging  below 
his  navel,  approached  him  and  held  out  his  hand  with  a  request 
for  money  '  to  buy  bread  '.  When  asked  who  he  was,  he 
rudely  replied,  '  a  philosopher,  as  any  one  could  tell  by  looking 
at  me  '.  One  of  the  companions  of  Herodes  remarked  that 
he  was  a  vagrant  and  a  ne'er-do-well,  who  went  the  round 
of  dirty  taverns,  and  insulted  those  who  did  not  give  him 
anything.  Herodes,  however,  ordered  money  enough  to 
buy  bread  for  a  month  to  be  given  him.  Nor  is  there  any 
reason,  consequently,  to  doubt  the  statement  of  Lucian  that 
runaway  slaves  and  ne'er-do-wells,  who  found  it  too  much 
trouble  to  earn  a  livelihood  in  a  respectable  trade,  chose 
this  convenient  and  lucrative  beggar's  life,  which  at  the 
same  time  made  it  possible  for  them  to  indulge  their  bestial 
inclinations  under  the  philosopher's  mask.  Everywhere 
they  levied  contributions  or,  in  their  words,  sheared  the 
sheep  with  complete  success,  for  most  people  gave  out  of 
respect  for  their  venerable  dress  or  from  fear  of  their  abuse  ; 
and  Lucian  asserts  that  not  only  were  gold  pieces,  mirrors, 
perfumes  and  dice  sometimes  found  in  their  wallets,  but 
that  many  made  enough  by  begging  to  buy  land  and  houses 
and  live  in  luxury. 

Consequently,  although  antipathies  of  all  kinds  existed, 
well-founded  or  not,  partly  against  philosophy  itself  and 
partly  against  philosophers,  in  the  most  different  social  and 
educational  circles  in  both  the  Greek  and  the  Roman  world, 
yet  obviously  the  great  majority  of  educated  persons  in 
Rome  and  the  western  countries  were  thoroughly  convinced 
that  philosophy  was  the  best  guide  to  the  highest  morality. 
Indeed,  the  opposition  hitherto  described,  many  sided  and 
vigorous,  even  violent,  is  inconceivable  unless  this  opinion 
was  widely  held  ;  rather  it  assumes  it.  Cicero  may  be  re- 
garded as  the  representative  of  the  view  which  in  later  Roman 
antiquity  reckoned  the  greatest  number  of  supporters.  Accor- 
ding to  him,  there  would  be  no  need  of  philosophy  at  all, 
if  the  germs  of  virtue  implanted  in  us  by  nature  were  able 
to  develop  themselves  undisturbed.  But  since  we  are  under 
the  influence  of  false  and  perverted  ideas  from  our  birth. 


Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator  245 

imbibe  them  with  our  mother's  milk,  and  are  increasingly- 
infected  with  errors  by  parents,  teachers,  poets,  and  finally 
by  the  people  amongst  whom  we  live,  we  need  a  cure  for 
our  ailing  and  ill-trained  souls  ;  and  this  cure,  the  restoration 
of  our  natural  health,  we  can  obtain  by  means  of  philosophy 
alone. 

The  weight  of  the  universally  recognized  authority  of 
Cicero,  who  in  his  Hortensius  appears  as  an  advocate  of 
philosophy  against  rhetoric,  could  least  of  all  be  denied  by 
those  who  recognized  in  eloquence  the  aim  and  sum-total  of 
all  education.  Even  Quintilian,  the  enemy  of  philosophers, 
who  is  inclined  to  treat  philosophy  as  the  handmaid  of  elo- 
quence, recognizes  that  no  one  can  be  morally  good  without 
the  teaching  of  virtue  and  justice.  Hie  assertion  that  virtue 
can  be  acquired  without  teaching,  he  hardly  thinks  worth 
refutation.  His  ideal  orator,  after  the  completion  of  a 
comprehensive  technical  education,  should  go  through  an 
equally  comprehensive  course  of  instruction  in  philosophy' — 
physics  (natural  philosophy),  dialectics  and  ethics.  His 
remark  that  he  should  be  a  philosopher,  who  will  have  to 
prove  himself  a  truly  good  citizen,  not  by  school  disputations, 
but  by  acts  and  positive  evidence  of  purpose,  reminds  us  that 
the  greatest  differences  of  opinion  prevailed  in  the  Roman 
world,  even  amongst  those  who  recognized  the  necessity 
or  utility  of  philosophy,  not  only  as  to  its  aims,  but  also  as 
to  the  amount  of  philosophical  instruction  that  was  desirable. 
Tacitus  voices  the  unbending  attitude  of  the  Romans  in  regard 
to  the  study  of  philosophy  as  taught  by  the  Greek  schools, 
that  it  should  be  limited  to  a  minimum.  On  the  other  hand, 
it  is  sufficient  to  mention  names  like  Seneca,  Persius,  Musonius 
Rufus  and  Marcus  Aurelius,  to  prove  that  the  demand  for 
entire  devotion  to  philosophy  had  its  representatives  also 
in  the  educated  Roman  world.  Philosophy,  says  Seneca, 
cannot  be  treated  as  an  extra.  It  is  an  exacting  mistress, 
who  refuses  to  accept  a  man's  leisure  time,  and  claims  to 
decide  how  much  leisure  he  shall  have.  But  if  a  man  devotes 
all  his  time  to  it,  concentrates  all  his  thoughts  upon  it,  and 
refuses  to  attend  to  anything  else,  he  will  far  outstrip  all 
other  men  and  will  not  be  far  inferior  to  the  gods.  Philosophy 
is  not  intended  to  be  an  agreeable  recreation  during  the 
day,  a  means  of  dissipating  the  ennui  of  the  idler  ;    it  culti- 


246  Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator 

vates  and  forms  the  mind,  regulates  life,  directs  our 
actions,  shows  what  should  be  done  and  what  left  undone, 
sits  at  the  helm  and  steers  safely  through  the  waves.  With- 
out philosophy  no  one  can  be  free  from  fear,  no  one  can  live 
without  anxiety  ;  events  without  number  occur  every  hour 
which  demand  advice,  which  must  be  sought  from  philosophy. 
In  two  very  lengthy  essays  Seneca  discusses  the  question 
(often  debated),  whether  the  paraenetic  section  of  moral 
philosophy,  i.e.  a  practical  teaching  of  duty,  containing  pre- 
cepts for  all  important  contingencies,  is  sufficient  for  life  ; 
or  whether  such  teaching  must  be  based  upon  a  theoretical 
system  of  principles  or  dogmas,  which  prescribe  the  rule 
of  action  in  all  particular  cases.  While  some  declared  the 
paraenetic,  others  the  dogmatic  section  to  be  superfluous, 
Seneca  endeavours  to  show  that  a  complete  and  true  moral 
education  can  only  be  obtained  by  the  combination  of  both. 
A  conviction  founded  on  principles  must  be  the  basis  and 
source  of  all  thoughts  and  actions,  which  must  be  directed 
towards  a  fixed  goal,  the  highest  good,  as  far  as  it  is  possible 
to  reach  it,  as  the  course  of  ships  is  guided  by  a  star.  With- 
out such  conviction  founded  upon  dogmatic  principles, 
an  invariable  constancy  in  thought  and  action  is  impossible  ; 
it  is  also  the  soil,  on  which  alone  the  maxims  of  moral  philo- 
sophy take  root,  from  which  alone  they  can  draw  renewed 
vitality.  But,  in  addition  to  the  general  principles  of  the 
one,  the  special  rules  of  the  other  are  equally  indispensable. 
Surrounded  by  perverted  ideas,  by  errors  of  every  kind, 
by  lies  and  pretence,  we  require  to  be  incessantly  reminded 
of  even  well-known  truths ;  amidst  the  tumult  of  false- 
hood we  need  the  warning  voice  of  admonition,  amidst  the 
roar  of  cities  a  prompter  by  our  side,  to  teach  us,  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  panegyrists  of  wealth,  power  and  favour,  to 
appreciate  peaceful  devotion  to  study  and  the  return  of  the 
mind  from  the  external  world  to  itself.  Philosophy  alone 
can  give  us  a  healthy  mind  ;  it  is  the  only  teacher  of  the 
highest  art,  the  art  of  living,  and  not  only  the  best,  but  the 
only  guide  to  morality.  There  is  no  virtue  without  philo- 
sophy, no  philosophy  without  virtue. 

One  who  required  such  complete  devotion  to  philosophy 
as  Seneca  was  naturally  difficult  to  satisfy  in  the  matter 
of  the  zeal  and  number  of  its  disciples.     About  the  year  64, 


Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator  247 

he  complains  that  no  one  troubles  himself  about  philosophy, 
except  when  the  games  are  put  off  or  on  a  rainy  day,  when 
he  wants  to  kill  time  ;    the  philosophical  schools,   like  the 
rhetorical,   are    empty.     Yet    these    complaints    of  a  writer 
who  is  always  given  to  exaggeration  prove  at  the  most  that   / 
his  ideal  remained  unrealized.     The  banishment  of  Musonius  ( 
Rufus  in  65,  who,  as  Tacitus  says,  owed  his  exile  to  his  repu- 
tation, since  he  exercised  great  influence  on  the  education  . 
of   the   young   by   introducing   them   to   philosophy,    shows  | 
that,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  philosophy  at  that  time  had  many  1 
zealous   disciples   amongst   the  youth  of  the   upper   classes. 
Naturally,   the   number   of  pupils   of  that   class  must  have 
been  large,  to  have  aroused  the  attention  and  suspicion  of 
the  Neronian  regime. 

Amongst  the  philosophers  who  taught  in  Rome  and  other 
cities  of  the  West  (especially  Massilia,  one  of  the  chief  seats 
of  such  studies  even  in  Strabo's  time),  Greeks  certainly  formed 
the  majority.  That  philosophy  was  regarded  as  a  Greek 
science  is  also  shown  by  the  fact  that  many  philosophers  who 
were  not  Greeks,  such  as  the  two  Sextii,  Cornutus,  Musonius 
Rufus,  Favorinus,  Marcus  Aurelius,  and  to  some  extent 
Apuleius,  wrote  in  Greek.  The  extent  to  which  it  had  be- 
come naturalized  in  Rome  as  early  as  the  last  century  B.C. 
is  shown  not  only  by  the  large  number  of  followers,  admirers 
and  patrons,  which  it  secured  in  the  educated  society  of 
Rome,  and  by  the  rise  of  a  Roman  philosophical  literature, 
but  above  all  by  the  formation  of  the  philosophical  school 
of  the  Sextii.  It  was  certainly  only  a  form  of  Stoicism, 
as  it  took  shape  in  the  Roman  consciousness,  especially 
in  the  sense  that  it  was  distinctly  limited  to  moral  philosophy, 
with  a  dash  of  asceticism  borrowed  from  Pythagoreanism 
(such  as  abstention  from  animal  food).  Since,  therefore, 
it  coincided  in  the  main  with  the  Stoicism  and  Cynicism 
of  the  first  century,  it  lacked  the  fundamental  condition 
of  an  independent  existence  ;  it  was  soon  dissolved,  and  its 
pupils,  like  Seneca,  returned  to  the  great  Stoic  community 
from  which  the  Sextii  had  separated.  During  its  existence, 
however,  the  school  had  important  representatives,  and 
exercised  considerable  influence.  Its  founder  was  Quintus 
Sextius,  a  man  of  good  family,  who  contemptuously  declined 
the   offer  of  Julius  Caesar  to  raise  him  to  senatorial   rank 


248  Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator 

and  launch  him  on  an  official  career,  in  order  to  devote  him- 
self entirely  to  philosophy.  Other  important  members  of 
the  school  were  the  son  of  the  founder,  the  prolific  writer 
Cornelius  Celsus,  the  learned  grammarian  Lucius  Crassitius 
of  Tarentum,  who  sacrificed  his  important  teaching  con- 
nexion to  join  the  school,  and  Papirius  Fabianus,  whom 
Seneca,  when  a  young  man,  had  heard  and  highly  appre- 
ciated. He  calls  him  a  true  philosopher  of  the  old  style, 
not  one  of  the  modern  professors,  although  at  the  same  time 
he  praises  his  public  lectures.  One  felt  elevated  by  his  exhor- 
tations and  incited  to  emulation,  without  losing  the  hope 
of  even  surpassing  him  ;  and  although  as  a  rule  his  hearers 
preserved  a  modest  silence,  they  were  now  and  again  carried 
away  to  enthusiastic  applause  by  the  nobility  of  his  senti- 
ments. 

Of  all  the  systems  of  Greek  moral  philosophy  Stoicism 
was  undoubtedly  best  suited  to  the  Roman  national  char- 
acter, and  for  this  reason  always  had  the  greatest  number 
of  followers  amongst  those  Romans  who  seriously  aspired 
to  moral  perfection.  The  long  list  of  prominent  personali- 
ties in  Roman  history,  whom  we  know  as  Stoics,  contains 
the  noblest  figures  of  that  time,  and  not  a  few  who  by  their 
life  and  death  have  proved  the  earnestness  and  sincerity 
of  the  convictions  they  had  acquired  from  the  Stoic  system 
of  philosophy.  The  philosophical  works  of  the  Roman 
writers  of  this  period  that  have  been  preserved  also  belong 
almost  exclusively  to  this  school.  Next  to  Stoicism,  Epicu- 
reanism probably  at  all  times  reckoned  the  greatest  number 
of  adherents,  although  there  is  no  positive  evidence  of  its 
spread  in  the  Roman  world  under  the  empire.  That  the 
Epicureans  did  not  make  themselves  prominent  in  public 
life  was  due  to  the  nature  of  their  school,  which  purposely 
sought  concealment ;  and  there  was  the  less  need  for  them 
to  assert  the  claims  of  their  system  in  writing,  since  these  were 
sufficiently  set  forth  in  earlier  works. 

The  remaining  philosophical  schools  had  undoubtedly 
made  less  progress  amongst  the  Romans,  but  probably  none 
of  them  was  without  its  representatives  ;  and  it  was  a  natural 
result  of  the  eclectic  tendency  of  the  Romans  that  each 
aroused  interest  and  proved  attractive  even  outside  the 
circle  of  its  own  followers.     The  lectures  delivered  in  Rome 


Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator  249 

by  the  Platonist  Plutarch  during  the  reign  of  Domitian  were 
attended  by  the  most  important  men  in  the  city,  several  of 
whom   became   firm   friends    of    the    venerable    philosopher. 
Such  were  Mestrius  Floras  (already  a  consular  in  69)  ;  Sossius 
Senecio   (consul  98,  99,    102),  to  whom    Plutarch  dedicated 
his  Lives  ;    Fundanus,  a  pupil  of  Musonius  (probably  iden- 
tical with  Minucius  Fundanus,  consul  107)  ;   Terentius  Priscus 
(perhaps  the  same  as  Martial's  patron),  and  others.     Gellius, 
who  regularly  attended  the  lectures  of  the  famous  Platonist 
Calvisius  Taurus  at  Athens,  was  one  of  a  large  number  of 
Romans  who  studied  in  that  city,  who  all  attended  the  same 
lectures.     We  shall  speak  later  of  the  position  of  the  Cynic 
Demetrius  at  Rome  during  the  period  from  Nero  to  Ves- 
pasian.    The  Cynic  Crescens,  whose  slanders  on  the  Christians 
were    publicly    refuted    by    Justin    at    Rome,     is    said    to 
have  brought  about  the  persecution  and  execution  of  the 
latter.     The  Cynic  Theagenes,   a  zealous  adherent  of  Pere- 
grinus  Proteus,  who  according  to  Galen  died  in  consequence 
of  being  wrongly  treated  by  the  physician  Attains  (a  pupil 
of  Soranus),  '  an  ass  of  the  sect  of  Thessalus  ',  was  a  very 
well-known  figure  at   Rome,  where   he  daily  held   discussions 
in  the  thermae  of  Trajan.     A  large   number  of  the  friends 
of  Theagenes  accompanied  Attains,  who  desired  to  convince 
them  of  his  convalescence,   to  the  philosopher's  house  ;   on 
their  arrival,  they  found  some  Cynics  and  other  philosophers 
engaged  in  washing  the  body  of  the  deceased,  who,  according 
to  the   principles   of   his  school,  had  neither   household  nor 
servants.     Galen   laid   the   foundation   of   his   reputation   at 
Rome  in  the  year  162,  by  restoring  the  sixty-three  year  old 
Peripatetic  Eudemus  to  health.     During  his  illness,  Eudemus 
was  visited  by  '  nearly  all  those  distinguished  by  birth  and 
education ',    especially    Sergius    Paullus    (consul    about    150 
and  168),  also  city  praefect,  '  a  man  distinguished  by  philo- 
sophical education  and  behaviour  ',  and  the  consular  Flavins 
Boethus,  a  zealous  student  of  Aristotelian  philosophy.     The 
latter,  as  well  as  Civica  Barbaras  (consul  157),  uncle  of  Lucius 
Verus,   and  Severus   (consul   162,   also   an  Aristotelian)   had 
Galen  to  lecture  to  them  on  anatomy.     These  lectures  were 
attended  by  a  number  of  philosophers,   amongst  them  the 
Peripatetic  Alexander   of  Damascus,  more   of  an  Aristotelian 
than  a  Platonist,  in  162  teacher  of  Boethus,  and  about  175 


250  Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator 

a  public  teacher  in  Athens  ;  and  by  Demetrius  of  Alexandria, 
a  friend  of  Favorinus,  who  every  day  spoke  in  public  on  given 
subjects  after  the  manner  of  his  teacher.  Favorinus  him- 
self, who  was  a  sceptic,  was  in  great  favour  with  Hadrian, 
under  whom  and  his  successor  he  gathered  round  him  a  large 
number  of  pupils  and  admirers,  some  of  high  rank.  Gellius, 
who  was  one  of  his  chief  adherents,  mentions  as  his  friends 
a  Peripatetic  and  a  Stoic,  '  both  distinguished  philosophers 
at  Rome ' ;  a  Peripatetic,  a  diligent  student  of  Aristotle, 
was  also  a  member  of  a  learned  society,  with  which  Gellius 
once  spent  the  hottest  part  of  the  summer  at  Tibur.  Fronto 
recommends  the  Platonist  Julius  Aquilinus,  whose  lectures 
were  the  most  crowded  in  Rome  and  attended  by  many 
of  senatorial  rank,  to  Quintus  Aegrilius  Plarianus  (legate  of 
Africa  under  Antoninus  Pius)  as  a  friend  and  student  of 
philosophy.  Apuleius  (about  158)  praises  Claudius  Maximus, 
proconsul  of  Africa,  as  acquainted  with  the  works  of  Plato 
in  the  original.  Alexander  of  Aphrodisias  (between  198 
and  211)  in  the  dedication  of  a  treatise  expresses  his  thanks  to 
the  emperors  Severus  and  Caracalla  for  his  nomination  or 
appointment  as  teacher  of  the  philosophy  of  Aristotle  in 
Rome,  and  declares  that  they  truly  honoured  and  encouraged 
philosophy.  The  first  Gordian,  according  to  his  biographer, 
spent  all  his  life  in  the  society  of  the  ancients,  Plato  and 
Aristotle,  Cicero  and  Virgil. 

These  references  to  philosophical  studies  in  Rome,  numerous 
in  comparison  with  our  scanty  knowledge  of  the  intellectual 
conditions  of  the  time,  and  other  incidental  statements  (for 
example,  that  in  Trajan's  time  the  dialogues  of  Plato  were 
represented  at  meals  to  amuse  the  guests),  justify  the  assump- 
tion that,  from  the  end  of  the  first  century,  a  lively  and  com- 
prehensive interest  in  philosophy  was  common  amongst 
the  upper  classes.  Further,  Porphyry's  account  of  the 
success  of  Plotinus  in  Rome  shows  that  this  interest  still 
continued   as  late   as  the   end   of  the   third   century. 

As  a  rule,  a  young  man  did  not  begin  the  philosophical 
course  until  he  had  completed  his  grammatical  and  rhetorical 
studies.  Gellius,  who  spent  an  vmusually  long  time  on  the 
latter,  did  not  turn  his  attention  to  philosophy  until  his  twenty- 
fifth  year  ;  on  the  other  hand,  Marcus  Aurelius  began  philo- 
sophy unusually  early,  at  the  age  of  twelve.     The  majority  of 


Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator  251 

young  men  probably  entered  the  school,  which  was  to  bring 
about  the  moral  emancipation  of  its  pupils  and  make  them  men 
in  the  highest  sense  of  the  word,  at  the  time  of  the  assumption 
of  the  toga  virilis  (i.e.  when  they  came  to  man's  estate).  Per- 
sius,  who  laid  aside  the  bulla  ^  and  dress  of  a  boy  at  the  age 
of  sixteen,  now  that  the  white  toga  ^  allowed  him  to  cast  his 
eyes  freely  around  amidst  the  distracting  turmoil  of  Rome, 
keenly  felt  the  need  of  a  trusty  guide,  to  choose  for  him  the 
right  way  in  the  mazes  of  the  labyrinth  of  life  ;  accordingly 
he  attached  himself  most  closely  to  Cornutus.  Seneca  also 
was  little  more  than  a  boy  when  he  attended  the  school  of 
Sotion  of  Alexandria,  who  belonged  to  the  sect  of  the  Sextii. 
Plutarch  sent  his  essay  De  Audiendo  (On  the  Art  of  Hearing) 
to  a  young  friend,  with  the  reminder  that  when  he  assumed 
the  toga  virilis  he  had  passed  out  of  the  care  of  his  former  paid 
teachers  and  had  come  under  the  divine  guidance  of  reason  ; 
that  philosophy  alone  was  able  to  bestow  the  true  and  perfect 
ornament  of  man  upon  a  youth. 

In  all  probability  the  majority  of  young  men  continued 
regularly  to  attend  philosophical  lectures  until  they  had  homes 
of  their  own,  although  Plutarch  refused  to  recognize  the 
worries  and  occupations  of  housekeeping  as  a  sufficient  excuse 
for  neglecting  what  was  of  far  greater  importance.  In  fact, 
it  was  by  no  means  unusual  for  older  and  married  men  to 
attend  a  philosophical  school ;  Seneca  was  sixty  years  of  age 
when  he  heard  the  philosopher  Metronax  in  Naples.  He 
writes  to  Lucilius  that  he  has  now  been  attending  the  school 
for  five  days,  to  hear  Metronax  at  midday.  Age,  he  says, 
is  no  bar  to  attendance  ;  why  should  I  be  ashamed  of  listening 
to  a  philosopher  ?  Certainly  the  school  is  not  well  patronized, 
whereas  the  theatre,  where  musical  contests  take  place  at  the 
same  time,  is  crowded,  and  the  pupils  of  Metronax  are  laughed 
at  as  fools  and  idlers. 

Philosophical  instruction  was  confined  to  the  three  divisions 
of  philosophy  recognized  by  all  the  schools — logic,  physic,  and 
ethics.  Only  the  Platonists  at  that  time  as  a  rule  appear  to 
have  also  included  the  study  of  mathematics.  In  their  studies 
were  to  be  seen  tablets  with  geometrical  figures  drawn  upon 

^  See  note  on  p.  13. 

2  "the  colour  of  the  toga  worn  by  men  (virilis)  was  generally  white  {Candida). 


252  Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator 

them,  globes,  etc.;  in  their  lecture-rooms  the  pupils  showed 
their  desire  for  knowledge  by  putting  difficult  mathematical 
questions.  In  the  Stoic  school  of  the  time,  as  to  which  we 
have  most  information,  the  course  as  a  rule  began  with  logic 
(and  dialectic),  although  the  Stoic  authorities  are  not  agreed 
as  to  the  order  of  subjects.  Seneca  calls  logic  the  '  elementary- 
school  '  of  philosophers.  Stoicism  and  philosophy  at  that 
time  generally  made  ethics  the  chief  subject  and  aim  of  in- 
struction, so  that  the  two  other  divisions  were  not  only  subor- 
dinate to  it,  but  were  to  some  extent  regarded  as  superfluous. 
Nevertheless,  men  like  Musonius  Rufus  and  Epictetus,  although 
they  may  have  considered  moral  education  to  be  the  one  and 
only  aim  of  philosophy,  and  took  little  interest  in  logical  and 
dialectical  discussions,  still  held  logic  to  be  indispensable  as  a 
foundation  for  the  study  of  philosophy.  Those  who  devoted 
themselves  to  oratory  were  of  course  still  more  convinced 
that  it  was  necessary  and  useful  for  a  general  scientific  edu- 
cation. 

This  subject,  in  spite  of  its  dryness,  was  the  more  attractive 
to  men  of  keen  intellect,  especially  if  they  were  given  to  quib- 
bling, since  it  was  easy  to  obtain  a  brilliant  reputation  by  a 
skilful  use  of  logical  forms  in  discussions  and  on  other  occasions. 
When  a  man  has  once  taken  up  this  science,  so  repulsive  at 
first,  its  usefulness  soon  becomes  more  and  more  apparent ; 
there  arises  an  insatiable  desire  for  learning,  which  must  be 
checked,  other^vise  a  man  would  be  in  danger  of  spending  his 
life  in  the  labyrinthine  mazes  of  dialectic,  which  is  as  fatal  as 
the  islands  of  the  Sirens.  The  worst  thing  about  sophisms, 
says  Seneca,  is  that  they  exercise  a  certain  charm  and  arrest 
and  fascinate  the  mind,  which  is  seduced  by  the  appearance 
of  acuteness,  while  a  number  of  more  important  things  calls 
for  our  attention.  A  lifetime  is  hardly  long  enough  to  learn 
the  one  thing  which  is  the  aim  of  philosophy — ho^v  to  despise 
life.  Such  fancies  and  aspirations  were  freely  encouraged 
by  a  voluminous  literature,  to  which  the  older  Stoics,  who 
specially  cultivated  this  field,  had  contributed.  There  were 
special  treatises  devoted  to  individual  captious  syllogisms, 
the  only  object  of  which  was  to  confuse  ;  such  were  the  sorites 
(how  many  grains  of  corn  make  a  heap  ?  ),  the  Cornutus  (have 
you  lost  your  horns  :  if  not,  you  still  have  them  ;  if  you  have, 
you  once  had  them),  and  the  like.     Such  witticisms,  worthy 


Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator  253 

of  the  Talmud,  were  frequently  taken  seriously,  and  the  young 
especially  spent  much  time  over  them.  All  beginners  in 
philosophy,  says  Plutarch,  devote  themselves  by  preference 
to  what  brings  reputation  ;  some,  heedless  and  ambitious, 
soar  like  birds  to  the  brilliant  heights  of  the  speculations  of 
natural  philosophy  ;  others  devote  their  attention  to  dis- 
cussions, embarrassing  questions  and  sophisms,  just  as  (to 
use  Plato's  expression)  puppies  take  delight  in  pulling  some- 
thing to  pieces  and  dragging  it  about ;  the  majority,  however, 
are  absorbed  in  dialectic,  to  provide  themselves  with  the  neces- 
sary equipment  for  sophistic.  The  teachers,  as  Seneca  says, 
'  who  teach  us  the  art  of  arguing  instead  of  the  art  of  living  ', 
unfortunately  are  only  too  ready  to  encourage  these  erroneous 
tendencies  of  their  pupils,  who  want  to  form  their  mind,  not 
their  character.  Thus  philosophy  has  become  a  science  of 
words  (philology).  As  the  result  of  adopting  what  is  super- 
fluous in  philosophy  and  mathematics,  philosophy  understands 
the  art  of  speaking  better  than  the  art  of  living.  Philosophers 
and  non-philosophers  were  united  in  the  complaint  that  too 
much  time  and  trouble  were  spent  on  logic  and  dialectic,  which 
were  only  the  outworks  of  wisdom,  and  that  ethics  suffered 
thereby.  Epictetus,  for  example,  says  :  At  the  present  time 
the  greatest  industry  is  successfully  expended  on  the  reduction 
of  syllogisms  ;  whereas  formerly  it  was  expended  on  keeping 
the  best  part  of  the  mind  in  its  natural  condition,  and  with 
equal  success. 

In  the  Stoic  school,  especially,  the  efforts  of  many  students 
were  directed  more  or  less  exclusively  to  the  acquirement  of 
a  superior  knowledge  of  the  technicalities  of  dialectic  and  a 
thorough  acquaintance  with  the  literature  of  the  subject. 
The  pedants  who  still  attended  or  had  only  just  left  school, 
who  wanted  to  teach  to-day  what  they  had  learnt  yesterday, 
and  '  vomited  undigested  morsels  ',  pretended  to  know  every- 
thing better  than  anyone  else,  and  copied  their  teachers  chiefly 
in  their  cocksureness  and  love  of  finding  fault,  frequently 
appear  in  the  writings  of  the  second  century  as  the  undesirable 
disturbers  of  conversation  in  Greek  society.  As  Epictetus 
says,  there  were  people  who  attended  philosophical  lectures 
and  studied  text-books  with  the  sole  object  of  exciting  the 
admiration  of  a  senator,  who  happened  to  sit  next  them  at 
table,  or  of  astonishing  the  guests  by  enumerating  all  the 


254  Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator 

authors  who  had  written  on  a  certain  form  of  logical  conclusion. 
When  visiting  Herodes  Atticus  in  his  villa  on  the  Cephissus, 
Gellius  met  a  very  youthful,  loquacious  and  noisy  Stoic,  who 
usually  monopolized  the  conversation  after  dinner  and  de- 
livered lengthy  and  insipid  lectures  on  philosophy,  about 
which  he  declared  that  he  knew  more  than  all  other  Greeks 
and  Romans.  He  made  free  use  of  strange  expressions, 
syllogisms  and  captious  conclusions,  and  boasted  that  no 
one  could  equal  him  in  solving  dialectical  problems  ;  that  no 
one  was  as  perfectly  at  home  with  moral  philosophy  as  he 
was  ;  that  he  felt  so  thoroughly  confident  that  he  possessed 
the  true  wisdom  which  guaranteed  eternal  happiness,  that 
he  declared  that  no  pain  or  grief  could  so  much  as  bring  a 
cloud  upon  the  face  of  a  Stoic.  To  take  the  conceit  out  of  him 
Herodes  thereupon  ordered  a  passage  to  be  read  from  Epic- 
tetus,  in  which  that  venerable  old  man  rebukes  the  young, 
who  call  themselves  Stoics,  but  are  in  no  way  distinguished 
by  moral  excellence  or  capacity  ;  on  the  contrary,  they  have 
always  on  their  lips  puerile  maxims,  such  as  are  to  be  found 
in  elementary  school-books,  and  misuse  the  name  of  that  lofty 
doctrine  by  raising  a  cloud  of  words  and  subtleties  before  the 
eyes  of  their  hearers. 

Natural  philosophy  (physics)  was  too  intimately  connected 
with  ethics  not  to  be  taken  into  consideration  with  it,  at  least 
to  a  certain  extent.  It  was  felt  that  the  question  of  Provi- 
dence could  only  be  really  solved  together  with  the  question 
of  the  origin  of  things  and  the  order  of  the  universe.  The 
more  attention  was  concentrated,  onesidedly  and  exclusively, 
upon  the  moral  task  of  philosophy,  the  less  could  physics  be 
considered  ;  and  the  opinion  of  Socrates,  that  the  examination 
of  the  last  elements  and  first  principles  of  things  was  beyond 
our  powers  and  in  any  case  had  no  practical  value,  was  pro- 
bably widely  held,  and  was  defended  by  so  high  an  authority 
as  Epictetus.  Seneca  also,  who  was  fond  of  and  interested 
in  the  speculations  of  natural  science,  would  only  allow  their 
importance  in  so  far  as  they  contributed  to  moral  perfection. 
The  mind,  in  order  to  refresh  itself,  requires  to  contemplate 
nature,  who  enables  it  to  appreciate  the  loftiness  of  the  objects 
with  which  it  is  concerned.  '  In  the  contemplation  of  the 
universe  and  its  creator  a  man  rises  superior  to  the  burden 
of  the  body  ;    he  becomes  conscious  of  his  higher  origin  and 


Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator  255 

destination  ;  and  learns  to  attach  little  value  to  the  body  and 
the  corporeal,  and  to  free  himself  from  its  trammels.  Cer- 
tainly, however,  there  is  the  danger  that  the  mind  may  come 
to  think  more  of  self-gratification  than  of  health,  and  may 
treat  philosophy  as  a  simple  amusement,  whereas  in  reality 
it  is  a  means  of  health  '.  Plutarch  also  hints  (in  the  passage 
above  cited),  that  it  was  natural  philosophy,  so  stimulating 
to  the  imagination,  that  attracted  dilettanti,  who  were  only 
half  in  earnest  about  a  philosophical  education.  Propertius 
proposed  to  devote  himself  to  it,  when  he  was  too  old  for  love 
affairs.  Then,  he  says,  he  will  endeavour  to  understand  the 
laws  of  nature,  and  the  causes  of  the  phases  of  the  moon,  of 
atmospheric  variations,  of  rain,  of  the  rainbow,  of  earthquakes, 
of  eclipses  of  the  sun,  of  the  phenomena  of  the  starry  heaven 
and  of  the  sea,  and  of  the  seasons  ;  what  god  skilfully  governs 
this  universe,  whether  a  day  of  destruction  menaces  the  world, 
whether  there  is  a  world  below  and  infernal  punishment,  or 
whether  death  is  the  end  of  existence. 

But  logic  and  physics  were  always  so  completely  subordi- 
nated to  ethics,  that  the  latter  was  regarded  as  the  essential, 
if  not  the  only,  object  of  philosophy  ;  it  is  called  simply  the 
art,  the  science,  the  rule  of  life.  Although,  after  all  that  has 
been  said,  this  hardly  needs  to  be  proved,  perhaps  it  will  not 
be  superfluous  to  show  how  the  moral  training  of  the  young 
was  expected  from  philosophy  alone.  In  his  treatise  On  the 
Edtication  of  Boys,  Plutarch  says,  that  as  gymnastics  and  the 
healing  art  secure  bodily  health  and  strength,  so  philosophy 
alone  can  heal  the  infirmities  and  diseases  of  the  mind.  By 
the  aid  of  and  in  company  with  philosophy  we  learn  what  is 
noble,  what  is  shameful,  what  is  just,  what  is  unjust,  in  short, 
what  is  to  be  aimed  at  and  what  is  to  be  avoided  ;  what  is  to 
be  our  attitude  towards  the  gods,  our  parents,  old  age,  the 
laws,  foreigners,  rulers,  friends,  women,  children  and  slaves  ; 
we  learn  that  we  ought  to  fear  the  gods,  honour  our  parents, 
respect  old  age,  obey  the  laws,  submit  to  our  rulers,  love  our 
friends,  behave  with  decency  towards  women,  treat  children 
with  affection,  and  slaves  without  arrogance  ;  but,  above  all, 
that  we  should  neither  be  too  exultant  in  prosperity  nor  cast 
down  in  adversity  ;  that  we  should  neither  allow  ourselves 
to  be  overcome  by  desire  nor  show  ourselves  passionate  and 
brutal  in  wrath.     These  are  the  most  to  be  desired  of  all  the 


256  Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator 

blessings  which  we  obtain  through  philosophy.  Foolish 
parents,  it  is  said  in  another  passage,  who  have  neglected  to 
give  their  children  a  good  education,  do  not  as  a  rule  regret 
this  omission  until  their  sons,  when  grown  up,  instead  of 
leading  a  regular  and  sensible  life,  plunge  into  debauchery 
and  low  pleasures  ;  surround  themselves  with  parasites  and 
other  corrupters  of  youth,  keep  women,  squander  their  fortunes 
in  gambling,  drinking,  and  carousing ;  commit  adultery 
and  other  excesses,  in  which  they  risk  their  life  for  the  sake  of 
pleasure.  Had  they  enjoyed  the  advantage  of  being  taught 
by  a  philosopher,  they  would  not  have  given  them^selves  up  to 
such  a  mode  of  life.  As  the  husbandman  or  gardener  roots 
out  the  tares  from  the  field,  so  the  philosopher  roots  out  from 
the  youthful  soul  the  evil  promptings  of  envy,  avarice,  and 
pleasure,  even  though  he  has  to  cut  deeply  and  leave  a  scar  ; 
in  other  cases,  he  proceeds  with  caution,  like  the  vintager 
when  he  prunes  the  vine,  so  as  not  to  destroy  noble  and  vicious 
impulses  at  the  same  time. 

Wherever  this  conception  of  philosophical  instruction  pre- 
vailed, wherever  the  philosopher  was  regarded  not  only  as  the 
teacher,  but  chiefly  as  the  trainer,  in  fact  as  the  spiritual 
director  of  his  pupils,  it  was  necessarily  considered  his  duty 
in  every  way  to  promote  their  moral  well-being,  even  beyond 
the  limits  of  instruction  properly  so  called,  and  consequently 
his  right  to  exercise  entire  supervision  over  their  manner  of 
life,  and  to  put  them  on  the  right  road  by  advice  and  exhorta- 
tion, warning  and  reproof,  mildness  and  severity.  To  all 
appearance,  at  that  time  a  large  number  of  prominent  men, 
conscious  of  the  high  importance  of  their  office,  and  equipped 
with  such  authority,  exercised  the  greatest  moral  influence 
upon  entire  generations,  the  more  so  as  pupils  flocked  even 
from  far  distant  lands  to  the  most  famous  teachers  (especially 
at  Athens  and  Rome),  who,  like  Musonius,  '  attracted  young 
men  from  all  parts,  as  the  magnet  attracts  iron  '.  Some  of 
these  young  men  became  intimiate  with  their  teachers,  and 
the  friendship  often  far  outlasted  the  years  of  apprenticeship, 
sometimes,  indeed,  continued  through  life.  Thus  Persius, 
from  his  seventeenth  year,  was  united  by  the  ties  of  an  indis- 
soluble friendship  to  Cornutus,  with  whose  pupils  he  became 
acquainted.  Amongst  these  were  the  poet  Lucan  and  two 
Greeks,  the  physician  Claudius  Agathemerus  of  Sparta  and 


Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator  257 

Petronius  Aristocrates    of    Magnesia,   both    highly  educated 
and  pure-minded  men,  whom  Persius  took  as  his  models.     Cor- 
nutus   also    advised  him    in    his    poetical    efforts,    and    was 
mentioned  in  his  will  for  a  considerable  legacy.     Persius  has 
expressed,  in  words  full  of  deep  feeling,  his  gratitude  to  his 
beloved  master,  '  to  whom  so  large  a  part  of  his  inmost  being 
entirely  belonged  '.     He  believed  himself  united  for  ever  by 
the  destiny  of  the  stars  with  the  man  who  cherished  him  in 
tender  years  with  the  affection  of  a  Socrates  and  moulded  his 
still  flexible  spirit  as  the  artist  the  soft  clay  ;    he  delighted  to 
recall  days  spent  together  in  work  and  recreation,  and  the 
modest  repasts,   prolonged  till  night-fall,   which  interrupted 
serious  studies.     The  younger  Pliny,  when  military  tribune 
in  Syria,  became  devotedly  attached  to  the  Stoic  Artemidorus 
(who  afterwards  married  a  daughter  of  Musonius  Rufus),  and 
protected  him   in  time   of  danger.     When  the   philosophers 
were  expelled  from  Rome  in  the  year  93  he  lent  Artemidorus 
a  considerable  sum  free  of  interest  to  pay  certain  honourable 
debts.     Even  when  he  attained  the  rank  of  consular  he  looked 
up  to  his  revered  teacher  as  a  pattern.     Amongst  all  those  who 
now  call    themselves  philosophers,  writes  Pliny  in  the  year 
10 1,  you  will  hardly  find  another  so  true  and  genuine.     His 
endurance  of  heat  and  cold,  his   devotion  to  work,  his  limi- 
tation   of  sensual    enjoyment  to  what  is  strictly  necessary, 
his  severe  self-discipline — all  these  are  trifles,  compared  with 
his  other  virtues,  which  induced  a  Musonius  to  choose  him 
as  a  son-in-law  out  of  a  number  of  pupils  of  all  classes  of 
society. 

Gellius  has  drawn  an  attractive  picture  of  the  relation  of  the 
Platonist  philosopher  Taurus  to  his  pupils.  Taurus  not  only 
allowed  them  to  put  frequent  questions  to  him  after  the  daily 
lesson,  but  invited  those  who  were  more  particularly  devoted 
to  him  to  a  frugal  meal,  at  which  a  dish  of  Egyptian  lentils 
and  chopped  pumpkin  prepared  with  oil  usually  formed  the 
chief  dish.  On  these  occasions  the  pupils  were  obliged  to 
propound  questions  and  problems,  as  a  sort  of  dessert,  especi- 
ally witticisms  suited  to  those  enlivened  by  wine  ;  e.g.  at 
what  moment  a  dying  man  really  dies,  when  a  man  who  stands 
up  is  no  longer  sitting  down,  when  a  learner  begins  to  under- 
stand his  profession.  Such  questions  ought  not  to  be  des- 
pised, says  Taurus,  since  the  greatest  philosophers  had  seri- 

R.L.M. III.  S 


258  Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator 

ously   considered   them.     When  his   pupils   were   ill,    Taurus 
used  to  visit  them.     According  to  circumstances,  he  expressed 
his  disapproval  of  all  that  displeased  him  in  their  mode  of  life 
or  study  in  a  tone  of  friendliness  or  severity.     In  order  to 
induce  a  wealthy  young  man  to  abandon  the  society  of  flute 
players  and  tragic  actors,  he  sent  him  a  copy  of  a  passage  from 
Aristotle  on  the  general  moral  worthlessness  of  such  artists, 
which  he  recommended  him  to  read  every  day.     He  severely 
rebuked  another  young  man,  who  had  suddenly  left  off  the 
study  of  rhetoric  for  that  of  philosophy,  and  became  exceed- 
ingly angry  when  he  attempted  to  justify  his  conduct  by  the 
example   of   others.     Taurus    also   took   the    opportunity   of 
quoting  a  very  beautiful  passage  of  Demosthenes  suitable  to 
the  occasion.     Thus,  says  Gellius,  Taurus  made  use  of  every 
kind  of  warning  and  exhortation,  to  put  his  disciples  on  the 
way  of  goodness  and  uprightness.     The  educative  power  of  his 
example  no  doubt  had  an  equal  effect.     In  his  account  of  a 
visit  paid  by  the  governor  of  Crete  and  his  son  to  the  famous 
philosopher,  Gellius  shows  that  Taurus  knew  how  to  preserve 
his  dignity  in   distinguished  society  without  offending  pro- 
priety.    The  Stoic  Attains,  who  had  a  school  at  Rome  which 
was  attended  by  Seneca,  who  was  always  the  first  to  come  and 
the  last  to  go,  was  fond  of  answering  his  pupils'  questions 
during  a  walk.     Any  one  who  visited  a  philosopher  (he  said) 
should   always   take   something   good    home   with   him  ;    for 
philosophy  has  the  power  of  assisting  not  only  those  who  are 
devoted  to  the  study  of  it,  but  also  those  who  are  brought 
into  association  with  it.     Plutarch  delivered  lectures  on  the 
most  varied  subjects,  selected  at  will,  to  the  young  men  who 
were  sent  from  far  and  near  to  Chaeronea  to  be  educated  by 
him,  and  answered  the  questions  they  put  to  him.     Some  of 
his  later  treatises  which  are  preserved  to  us  show  that  the 
subjects  were  taken  not  only  from  the  entire  field  of  morality, 
but  also  from  practical  philosophy  in  its  widest  extent  :  e.g.  On 
Studying  Poetry,  On  the  Art  of  Hearing,  Rules  of  Health, 
and  so  forth. 

If  philosophers  thought  it  their  duty  to  regulate  the  life  of 
their  pupils  even  to  the  minutest  details,  and  to  give  them 
instructions  even  in  regard  to  trivial  and  apparently  indifferent 
matters  (if  in  any  way  connected  with  moral  principles),  their 
right  to  do  so  was  e\-idently  quite  generally  recognized.     Grown 


Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator  259 

up  men,  and  especially  younger  men,  frequently  entrusted 
themselves  to  their  guidance  and  rendered  them  unqualified 
obedience.  As  a  rule  teachers  exercised  greater  authority 
over  grown-up  pupils  than  at  the  present  day.  Thus  Gellius 
relates  that  the  rhetorician  Titus  Castricius  rebuked  some 
senators  who  attended  his  school,  because  they  had  appeared 
in  public  on  a  feast-day  in  a  dress  unsuitable  to  their  rank. 
Of  course,  philosophers  were  allowed  the  widest  latitude  in 
giving  instructions  on  all  and  everything.  Attains  recom- 
mended his  pupils  to  sleep  on  a  hard  bed,  such  as  Seneca  used 
even  in  his  old  age,  on  which  the  body  made  no  impression. 
Epictetus  exhorted  his  hearers  to  let  their  beard  grow,  not 
only  as  a  beautiful  and  dignified  adornment,  but  also  as  a 
sign  intended  by  Providence  to  distinguish  the  sexes,  which 
we  ought  not  to  reject.  A  young  man,  who  came  to  the  school, 
foppishly  dressed,  with  his  hair  nicely  curled,  was  treated  to  a 
long  lecture  on  the  subject.  The  possibility  that  he  might 
take  offence  and  not  come  again  nor  follow  his  advice,  did 
not  deter  the  philosopher  from  performing  a  duty,  for  the 
neglect  of  which  he  might  afterwards  have  been  justly  re- 
proached by  the  pupil.  Epictetus  objected  to  dirtiness  and 
slovenliness  even  more  than  to  too  much  finery.  He  would 
have  them  always  neat,  that  their  company  might  be  agreeable 
to  their  fellow-pupils,  and  he  did  not  disdain  to  enter  into  the 
details  of  the  care  of  the  body — that  they  ought  to  blow  their 
nose,  wash  their  feet,  wipe  off  perspiration,  and  clean  their 
teeth  :  '  why  ?  that  you  may  be  a  human  being,  not  an  animal, 
not  a  pig  !  '  This  solicitude  for  the  bodily  and  mental  welfare 
which  ranged  from  the  most  important  to  the  most  trifling 
details  and  even  interfered  with  a  man's  private  life,  was 
extended  to  the  members  of  the  pupils'  household  by  philo- 
sophers, without  its  being  considered  obtrusive  on  their 
part. 

For  example  :  Favorinus  was  informed  that  the  wife  of  one 
of  his  hearers,  a  man  of  distinguished  family  and  of  senatorial 
rank,  had  just  been  delivered  of  a  son  ;  he  immediately  repaired 
with  all  the  pupils  present  to  the  house  of  the  young  father, 
congratulated  him  and  then  expressed  the  hope  that  the  wife 
would  rear  the  child  herself.  When  the  mother  objected  to 
this,  Favorinus  immediately  delivered  a  long  speech  on  the 
subject,  which  Gellius  took  down  and  afterwards  incorporated 


26o  Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator 

in  his  Nodes  Atticae.  Naturally,  the  advice  of  philosophers 
was  sought  by  their  pupils  in  all  cases  of  difficulty  and  con- 
scientious scruples.  When  Gellius,  who  had  been  appointed 
a  judge  at  a  very  early  age  (not,  however,  before  he  was  twenty- 
five),  was  unable  to  decide  a  certain  case,  he  adjourned  the 
court,  went  straight  off  to  Favorinus,  to  whom  he  was  greatly 
attached,  and  begged  him  to  give  him  his  opinion  of  the  parti- 
cular case  and  some  general  rules  on  the  duties  of  a  judge. 
To  all  appearance,  philosophers  had  reason  to  complain  that 
their  advice  was  asked  too  often  rather  than  too  seldom.  As 
Epictetus  says,  they  were  expected  to  supply  rules  of  conduct 
in  practical  affairs,  as  a  shoemaker  or  blacksmith  supplies 
his  wares  ;  while  those  who  desired  advice  made  no  effort  on 
their  own  part  to  assimilate  those  moral  principles,  from  which 
the  decision  in  all  individual  cases  must  be  derived. 

As  a  rule  philosophers  (apart  from  occasional  interference 
in  particular  cases)  exercised  a  practical  activity  and  thereby 
I  a  direct  effect  on  the  moral  education  of  their  contemporaries 
)  under  three  characters  :  as  educators  and  permanent  advisers  of 
/  individuals,  as  teachers  of  morality  in  public  schools ;  lastly, 
\  as  missionaries  and  popular  preachers  ;  the  last  field,  which 
the  Cynics  had  chosen,  was  almost  entirely  abandoned  to 
them.  All  the  forms  of  professional  philosophical  activity 
are  mentioned  often  enough  by  philosophers  and  non-philoso- 
phers, so  that  it  is  possible  to  obtain  an  idea  of  them,  at  least 
to  a  certain  extent.  Certainly,  it  is  chiefly  the  shady  and  bad 
side,  the  defects  and  weaknesses,  the  ill-success  and  inadequacy 
of  philosophical  effort  and  performance,  that  are  made  the 
subject  of  discussion,  and  upon  which  the  numerous  opponents 
of  philosophy  on  principle  especially  delight  to  dwell.  But 
even  these  criticisms  and  attacks  are  a  proof  of  the  lofty  claims 
put  forward  on  behalf  of  philosophy  as  the  moral  elevator 
of  the  contemporary  world,  and  even  if  such  claims  were  only 
imperfectly  justified  in  the  case  of  the  majority,  yet  it  is  ad- 
mitted, tacitly  or  expressly,  that  the  best  and  purest  teachers 
made  them  good  in  the  highest  degree  and  exercised  an  enor- 
mous effect. 

While  the  great  majority  were  obliged  to  content  themselves, 
for  their  moral  education,  with  a  brief  course  of  philosophical 
instruction,  people  of  larger  means  very  frequently  sought  to 
secure  the  entire  services  of  a  philosopher  in  their  household, 


Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator  261 

not  only  to  educate  their  children,  but  also  to  secure  for  the 
rest  of  their  life  a  trustworthy  and  permanent  counsellor, 
guide  and  spiritual  adviser.  Under  the  monarchy,  as  in  the 
last  days  of  the  republic,  it  seems  to  have  been  especially  in 
the  great  Roman  families  that  Greek  philosophers  frequently 
assumed  this  position.  Such,  apparently,  was  the  relation  of 
the  Stoic  Publius  Egnatius  Celer  to  Barea  Soranus,  whose 
teacher,  client  and  friend  he  is  called,  and  whose  condemnation 
(in  66)  he  brought  about  by  the  false  testimony  which  Barea's 
accusers  had  bribed  him  to  give.  A  monument  found  near 
Bonn  is  erected  by  his  wife  to  the  philosopher  Quintus  Aegri- 
lius  Euaretus,  '  the  friend  of  Salvius  Julianus  '  (consul  in  175 
and  legate  of  Upper  Germany  in  179)  ;  from  this  it  appears  that 
Julianus  could  not  do  without  the  society  of  Euaretus  even 
in  his  province.  But  these  house-philosophers,  like  philoso- 
phers in  general,  especially  play  the  part  of  companions  and 
comforters  before  death  ;  no  doubt  the  decision  whether  a 
man  should  take  his  own  life  was  often  left  to  them.  Thus 
TuUius  Marcellinus,  an  acquaintance  of  Seneca,  a  young  man 
who  had  suffered  from  a  wearisome  and  painful  illness,  was 
persuaded  by  a  Stoic  to  starve  himself  to  death.  Tacitus 
relates  of  Titus  Petronius  as  something  unusual,  that,  while 
he  delayed  death  by  binding  up  his  arteries,  he  asked  that 
frivolous  poems  might  be  recited  to  him,  but  nothing  about 
the  immortality  of  the  soul  and  the  doctrines  of  philosophers. 
When  Julius  Canus,  condemned  to  death  by  Caligula,  set  out 
for  the  hill,  where,  to  use  the  expression  of  Seneca,  '  victims 
were  daily  offered  to  our  Caesar  ',  he  was  accompanied  by 
'  his  philosopher  ',  with  whom  he  conversed  about  his  thoughts 
at  the  time,  and  the  condition  of  his  soul.  RubeUius  Plautus, 
who  awaited  the  emissaries  of  Nero  without  attempting  flight, 
was  reported  to  have  been  confirmed  by  the  philosophers 
Musonius  Rufus  and  Coeranus  in  his  resolution  to  prefer  death 
to  a  life  of  anxiety  and  uncertainty.  The  messenger  who 
brought  the  expected  death-warrant  to  Thrasea,  found  him 
absorbed  in  conversation  with  the  Cynic  Demetrius  :  '  from 
their  earnest  looks  and  some  words  uttered  more  loudly  than 
the  rest,  it  could  be  inferred  that  they  were  discussing  the 
nature  of  the  soul  and  the  separation  of  mind  and  body  '. 
The  emperor  Juhan  also,  when  fatally  wounded,  entered  upon 
an  abstruse  discussion  of  the  sublime  nature  of  the  human  soul 


262  Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator 

with  the  philosophers  Maximus  and  Priscus,  and  carried  it  on 
till  he  expired. 

The  position  which  Greek  philosophers  accepted  in  great 
Roman  families  for  a  certain  length  of  time,  could  only  be 
maintained  on  a  level  worthy  of  the  dignity  of  philosophy  if 
both  parties  regarded  it  from  the  highest  point  of  view.  In 
such  cases,  the  philosophers  themselves  were  only  too  often 
incapable  of  securing  the  esteem  of  those  to  whom  they  should 
above  all  have  set  a  good  example.  On  the  other  hand,  dis- 
tinguished Romans  seldom  entirely  forgot  that  these  '  teachers 
of  wisdom  '  were  in  reality  only  their  dependants  or  paid  em- 
ployees. The  shady  side  of  the  picture  has  been  represented 
at  considerable  length  and  in  strong  language  by  Lucian  in  his 
usual  style,  in  a  treatise  specially  written  to  warn  a  certain 
philosopher  named  Timocrates,  who  wanted  to  obtain  a  post 
in  an  aristocratic  family.  This  shady  side  was  no  doubt  un- 
pleasantly in  evidence  with  special  frequency,  after  Marcus 
Aurclius  had  made  philosophy  the  fashion.  Many  who  were 
unable  either  to  understand  or  respect  it,  thought  it  their  duty 
to  go  into  raptures  over  the  lofty  idealism  of  Plato,  and  desired, 
if  possible, to  have  a  Greek  philosopher  in  their  train,  who  might 
be  at  once  recognized  as  such  by  his  venerable  appearance, 
his  long  beard  and  the  dignity  with  which  he  wore  his  cloak. 
The  prospect  of  obtaining  an  honourable  and  influential  posi- 
tion in  a  great  and  wealthy  family  was  highly  attractive  to 
many,  who  did  not  shrink  from  the  annoyances  incidental 
to  their  application  for  the  post.  They  were  even  ready  to 
submit  to  a  test  of  their  qualifications,  at  which  they  had  to 
give  proofs  of  their  knowledge  and  ability,  to  imdergo  an 
inquiry  into  their  past,  and  sometimes  had  to  compete  with 
most  unworthy  candidates,  many  of  whom  only  used  the 
philosophers'  mask  as  a  recommendation  for  exorcism,  magic 
and  similar  practices.  If  this  examination  was  successfully 
passed,  after  an  invitation  to  a  big  dinner,  at  which  the  bril- 
liancy of  the  establishment  was  calculated  to  dazzle  and  inti- 
midate the  novice,  the  question  of  terms  was  discussed  and 
settled.  The  master  of  the  house  declared  his  readiness  to 
share  everything  with  his  new  house-companion ;  '  for  it 
would  be  ridiculous  not  to  treat  a  man,  to  whom  one  has  con- 
fided one's  most  precious  possession,  one's  own  soul  or  that  of 
one's  children,  as  joint  owner  of  everything  else  '.     Neverthe- 


Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator  263 

less,  a  yearly  salary  was  fixed,  which  was  certainly  surprisingly 
small,  but  was  considered  to  be  made  up  for  by  the  friendly 
and  honourable  treatment  promised,  by  the  frequent  presents 
on  feast-days  ;    above  all,  an  appeal  was  made  to  the  lofty 
ideas   of   philosophers    on   the    question   of  money.     In  this 
manner  philosophers  advanced  in  years,  forgetting  the  praises 
of  liberty  sung  by  Plato,  Chrysippus  and  Aristotle,  sold  them- 
selves into  base  and  ignominious  servitude  ;  like  the  rest  of  the 
crowd  of  domestics,  from  whom  they  were  only  distinguished 
by  their  coarse  cloak  and  their  bad  Latin,  they  were  summoned 
by  the  clock  every  morning  to  their  duty  as  supernumeraries, 
which  lasted  till  a  late  hour  and  entailed  unpleasantnesses  and 
degradation  of  all  kinds,  inflicted  only  too  frequently  upon  the 
patient  Greeks,  who  were  not  expected  to  complain.     When 
they  were  used  up  or  their  company  was  no  longer  required, 
they  were  quietly  turned  out  of  the  house  on  a  foggy  night  on 
some  utterly  unfounded  charge,  helpless  and  utterly  destitute. 
The  position  of  the  representatives  of  philosophy  at  court 
was  far  more  precarious  than  in  the  great  houses,  and  far  less 
consistent  with  the  ideals  of  the  science  ;  indeed,  in  the  opinion 
of  many  a  philosopher  was  as  much  out  of  place  at  court  as 
in  a  tavern.     Plutarch  has  endeavoured  to  prove  in  a  special 
treatise  that,  in  spite  of  all  dangers  and  difficulties,  the  wise 
man  cannot  in  certain  circumstances  refuse  such  a  position, 
since  he  has  the  opportunity  of  doing  incomparably  more  good 
in  it  than  in  any  other.     The  philosopher  will  be  all  the  more 
ready  to  undertake  the  care  of  a  soul,  whose  activity,  wisdom 
and  justice  affects  the  lot  of  many  ;   for  in  this  manner  he  will 
benefit  the  many  through  the  individual,  like  Anaxagoras  the 
friend  of  Pericles,  Plato  of  Dio,  Pythagoras  of  the  statesmen 
of  Italy.     Philosophers  who  devote  themselves  to  the   moral 
education  of  private  persons  liberate  individuals  only  from 
their  weaknesses   and   passions  ;     but  he  who  ennobles  the 
character  of  a  ruler  thereby  promotes  the  interests  of    and 
improves  the  condition  of  the  whole  state.     For  the  sake  of 
such  advantages  one  must  submit  to  become  a  courtier  and 
to  be  abused  like  a  servant.     If  even  the  philosopher  who 
refrains  from  all  practical  activity  on  principle  does  not  shun 
the  society  of  educated  princes  of  noble  character,  one  who 
takes  an  interest  in  political  Hfe  will  also  take  an  interest  in 
them,   unobtrusively  and  without  annoying  them  with  un- 


264  Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator 

timely  and  sophistical  advice,  while  at  the  same  time  he  will 
be  always  ready  to  meet  their  request  for  his  advice  and  assist- 
ance. 

From  the  incidental  mention  of  philosophers  as  resident 
at  the  courts  of  Augustus,  Nero,  Trajan,  Hadrian,  Julia  Domna 
and  Elagabalus  (the  '  sham  philosophers' ),  it  would  seem  that, 
like  other  learned  men,  the  teachers  of  philosophy  very  fre- 
quently, if  not  as  a  rule,  had  their  place  in  the  imper,ial  en- 
tourage (as  cru/A/3tcoTat') .  These  positions  also  were  to  some 
extent  salaried.  Lucian  says  that  one  of  the  most  distinguished 
philosophers  of  the  time  was  paid  by  the  emperor  for  his 
society,  but  was  compelled,  in  spite  of  his  age,  to  accompany 
him  on  his  travels,  like  an  Indian  or  Scythian  hireling.  It 
naturally  depended  on  the  personality  of  the  emperors  and 
the  tone  of  the  court,  whether  the  position  of  the  philosopher 
was  worthy  or  unworthy  of  him.  Seneca  reminds  Marcia, 
in  his  letter  of  consolation,  how  Augustus'  wife  Julia,  whose 
intimate  friend  she  was,  after  the  death  of  Drusus  sought  and 
found  consolation  in  the  pious  exhortation  of  Arcus,  '  her 
husband's  philosopher  '  ;  according  to  Seneca,  Areus  in  ad- 
dressing Julia  calls  himself  '  the  constant  companion  of  your 
husband,  one  who  knows  not  only  what  is  public  property, 
but  all  the  more  secret  impulses  of  both  your  minds  '.  Au- 
gustus, after  the  conquest  of  Alexandria,  had  honoured  Areus 
by  declaring  that  he  would  spare  the  city,  since  it  was  his 
birthplace.  Nero,  on  the  other  hand,  made  his  philosophers  a 
source  of  amusement,  by  inviting  representatives  of  different 
schools  to  dinner  and  setting  them  on  to  wrangle. 

But  undoubtedly  philosophers,  especially  those  who  were 
conscious  of  their  value,  for  the  most  part  preferred  a  public 
sphere  of  activity  to  the  most  brilliant  position  at  court  or  in  a. 
distinguished  family.  The  Stoic  ApoUonius,  when  summoned 
by  Antoninus  Pius  to  undertake  the  tuition  of  the  young 
Marcus  Aurelius,  left  Chalcis  with  a  number  of  his  pupils  and 
settled  in  Rome,  but  refused  to  take  up  his  quarters  in  the 
palace  of  Tiberius,  where  Marcus  Aurelius  lived.  He  declared 
that  it  was  the  duty  of  the  pupil  to  go  to  the  teacher,  which 
the  heir  to  the  throne  actually  did.  The  opening  of  a  public 
school  not  only  held  out  the  prospect  of  a  worthier  life,  of  an 
important  and,  in  certain  conditions,  even  splendid  activity, 
which  might  extend  in  centres  like  Athens  and  Rome  to  the 


Philosophy  as  a  Moral    Educator  265 

pick  of  the  young  men  from  various  provinces,  but  also  of  a 
magnificent  income.  For  to  all  appearance  only  the  minority 
held  such  strict  views  as  the  Platonist  Nigrinus,  who  called 
the  schools  of  the  philosophers  who  taught  for  money  stalls 
and  shops  where  virtue  was  offered  for  sale  Hke  any  other 
wares. 

But,  apart  from  this,  the  conduct  of  philosophers  who  taught 
in  public,  and  especially  their  lectures  and  method  of  instruc- 
tion, gave  cause  for  various  criticisms.  And  this  censure  is 
expressed  so  freely  and  emphatically  and  so  constantly  re- 
peated by  the  philosophical  writers  of  the  time,  that  we  might 
easily  be  inclined  to  form  too  unfavourable  an  opinion  of 
the  philosophers'  schools  at  that  time.  But  it  must  never  be 
forgotten  that  men  Hke  Musonius,  Plutarch,  Epictetus,  Taurus 
and  Demonax  were,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  bound  to  insist  upon 
the  same  high  standard  of  excellence  in  others,  up  to  which  they 
themselves  acted,  and  that  they  had  incessantly  to  remind 
teachers  and  pupils  hov/  far  they  were  still  removed  from  the 
true  aim  of  philosophy,  in  order  to  bring  them  nearer  to  it. 
Thus  in  their  writings  they  constantly  refer  to  the  weaknesses, 
trivialities  and  defects  which  hampered  philosophical  instruc- 
tion and  could  only  be  acutely  felt  when  contrasted  with  the 
numerous  examples  of  noble  and  splendid  work  and  effort 
which  the  age  could  show. 

The  effects  of  philosophical  instruction  were  in  any  case 
without  doubt  only  too  often  hindered  through  the  fault  of 
teachers  and  pupils  alike.  Vanity,  thirst  for  fame,  and  pro- 
bably greed  of  gain  often  led  teachers  to  think  more  of  the 
applause  than  of  the  real  welfare  of  their  hearers,  many  of 
whom  preferred  agreeable  conversation,  the  exercise  of  acute- 
ness,  and  the  acquisition  of  a  knowledge  adapted  for  show, 
to  serious  study  and  a  difiticult  and  painful  struggle  for  moral 
ennoblement.  Hence  many  who  had  attended  philosophical 
lectures  for  years  with  unwearying  industry  did  not  even 
carry  away  from  them  a  smattering  of  philosophical  culture. 
Many,  says  Seneca,  came  only  to  hear,  not  to  learn,  just  for 
recreation,  as  one  goes  to  the  theatre  ;  for  a  great  part  of  the 
pupils  the  school  is  a  place  of  amusement.  Their  object  is 
not  to  throw  off  vice  and  adopt  a  new  rule  of  life,  but  to  find 
something  to  tickle  their  ears.  Others  came  with  writing 
tablets,  to  get  hold  of  the  words,  not  their  meaning  ;    words 


266  Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator 

which  they  repeat  to  others  with  as  little  profit  as  they  listen 
to  them  themselves.  Lofty  passages  in  the  lectures  make  an 
impression  upon  some,  which  is  reflected  in  their  faces,  but, 
like  the  nervous  excitement  produced  by  music,  is  not  per- 
manent ;  only  a  few  are  capable  of  retaining  the  substance 
of  what  they  have  taken  down.  Consequently,  the  majority 
of  pupils  were  not  in  the  frame  of  mind  which  Musonius  re- 
garded as  indispensable,  if  instruction  was  to  prove  successful. 
A  hearer  who  is  not  quite  lost,  he  said,  ought  to  shiver  while 
the  philosopher  is  speaking  ;  to  feel  ashamed,  repentant, 
joyful  and  astonished  by  turns  ;  the  expression  of  his  features 
should  change  according  as  the  philosopher's  treatment  of  the 
diseased  or  healthy  parts  of  his  soul  variously  affects  him  and 
his  conscience.  In  fact  Epictetus,  who  had  heard  Musonius, 
attests  that  his  language  was  so  forcible,  that  he  gave  such 
prominence  to  moral  infirmities,  that  every  one  of  his  hearers, 
applying  his  words  to  himself,  believed  that  some  one  had 
been  speaking  against  him  to  the  philosopher.  But  it  was 
just  this  (as  Plutarch  also  complains)  that  was  too  much  for 
the  majority  of  those  who  listened  to  a  philosopher's  lecture 
as  if  he  had  been  a  tragedian  or  orator.  As  long  as  he  kept 
to  generalities,  they  willingly  followed  him,  but  as  soon  as  he 
began  to  deliver  frank  and  emphatic  warnings,  they  took  it 
ill  as  a  piece  of  officiousness  ;  and  many  were  weak-minded 
enough  to  stay  away  from  the  school  after  a  speech  that 
touched  them  on  the  raw,  like  patients  who,  after  the  surgeon 
has  used  the  knife,  run  away  without  waiting  for  the  ban- 
dages. Beginners  also  allowed  themselves  to  be  frightened 
by  the  difficulties  of  the  study  or  the  lecture,  or  were  too  shy 
to  ask  for  explanations,  or  pretended  that  everything  was 
clear  to  them  even  when  they  understood  nothing.  Many 
even  had  the  assurance  to  attempt  to  teach  the  teacher  how 
he  ought  to  teach.  '  One  ',  says  the  Platonist  Taurus,  '  comes 
and  says,  "  Teach  me  this  first,"  another,  "  I  want  to  learn 
this,  not  that  "  ;  one  wants  to  begin  with  tlie  Symposium  of 
Plato  because  it  speaks  of  the  nocturnal  revels  of  Alcibiades  ; 
another  with  the  Phcedrus  for  the  sake  of  the  speech  of  Lysias. 
There  are  really  some  who  want  to  read  Plato,  not  to  ennoble 
their  life  but  to  refine  their  manner  of  expressing  themselves, 
not  to  become  more  moral  but  to  become  more  agreeable 
members  of  society  '.     The  complaint  of  Taurus  that  many 


Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator  267 

teachers,  even  without  being  invited,  hastened  to  the  doors  of 
wealthy  young  men  where  they  patiently  waited  till  midday, 
till  their  pupils  had  slept  off  their  last  night's  debauch,  is  a 
proof  that  there  were  teachers  who  were  ready  to  accommo- 
date themselves  to  the  most  unjustifiable  requests  of  their 
pupils.  Epictetus  recommends  his  pupils,  when  they  hear 
any  one  speaking  in  a  manner  which  shows  that  he  has  not  the 
vaguest  idea  of  the  first  principles  of  morality,  to  ask  them- 
selves seriously  :  Am  I  a  man  of  this  sort  ?  '  Am  I  conscious 
that  I  know  nothing,  as  a  man  should  be  who  really  knows 
nothing  ?  Do  I  approach  the  teacher  as  if  he  were  an  oracle, 
prepared  to  render  implicit  obedience  ?  Or  do  I  enter  the 
school,  like  a  driveUing  idiot,  only  in  order  to  learn  the  ex- 
ternal accessories  of  philosophy,  and  to  understand  books  which 
I  did  not  understand  before,  and  to  be  able  to  explain  them 
to  others,  as  occasion  serves  ?  '  The  pupils,  he  continues,  cer- 
tainly v/ear  the  garb  of  the  philosopher,  but  their  soul  is  not 
at  peace  and  free  from  the  anxieties  and  excitements  of  the 
external  world.  Perhaps  one  of  them  has  had  a  fight  at  home 
with  a  slave,  which  caused  an  uproar  amongst  his  neighbours  ; 
or  a  foreign  student  is  greatly  annoyed  because  he  has  not 
received  a  remittance  from  home,  or  is  thinking  of  what 
people  say  of  him  there,  that  he  is  certainly  making  pro- 
gress and  will  return  omniscient.  '  I  should  certainly  like 
that ',  he  says  to  himself  ;  '  but  one  has  to  work  so  hard,  and 
nobody  sends  me  anything  from  home  ;  the  baths  at  Nico- 
polis  are  wretched,  it  is  as  miserable  here  as  at  home  '.  '  And 
then  they  say  :  nobody  gets  any  good  from  the  school.  But 
who  attends  it  in  order  to  be  cured  of  his  errors  and  to  purge 
his  opinions,  to  discover  what  he  needs  ?  What  you  go  to 
school  to  look  for,  that  you  will  carry  away  with  you.  You 
want  to  chatter  about  principles.  Do  not  they  provide  you 
with  ample  material  for  boasting  of  your  pretended  know- 
ledge ?  Do  you  not  reduce  syllogisms,  do  you  not  understand 
how  to  manage  sophisms  and  fallacies  ?  ' 

But  it  was  not  the  fault  of  the  pupils  alone  that  philosophical 
instruction  did  not  produce  the  desired  result.  Often  enough 
the  responsibility  lay  with  the  teachers,  eager  for  applause, 
fame  and  money,  who,  knowing  that  people  were  mostly 
influenced  by  externalities,  and  above  all  by  a  brilliant  style, 
neglected   matter  for   form.     The   orator's   grey   hairs,   says 


268  Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator 

Plutarch,  the  modulation  of  his  voice,  his  gravity  and  self- 
conscious  assurance,  but,  above  all,  the  sound  of  applause, 
carry  away  young  and  inexperienced  hearers  ;  the  expres- 
sion also  has  something  deceptive  about  it,  if  it  is  graceful 
and  copious,  weighty  and  well-prepared  for  the  occasion. 
Pliny's  eulogy  of  the  highly  respected  Stoic  Euphrates  shows 
how  essential  were  the  personal  appearance  and  oratorical  skill 
of  the  philosopher  even  in  the  judgment  of  educated  hearers. 
'  He  disputes  with  subtlety,  solidity  and  elegance  ;  often  he 
goes  so  far  as  to  reproduce  the  well-known  sublimity  and 
copiousness  of  Plato.  His  language  is  rich  and  varied,  and 
particularly  agreeable,  so  as  to  lead  on  and  impel  those  even 
who  fight  against  it.  Add  to  this  that  he  is  tall  of  stature,  of 
noble  countenance,  with  flowing  locks  and  a  huge  white 
beard  ;  all  of  which  may  be  thought  mere  accidents  of  no 
account,  yet  they  add  greatly  to  the  veneration  which  he 
inspires.  There  is  no  squalor  in  his  attire,  nothing  of  morose- 
ness  about  him,  but  much  grave  earnestness  :  his  approach  is 
productive  of  respect,  not  awe.  His  sanctity  of  life  is  remark- 
able, and  no  less  so  is  his  affability.  Pie  inveighs  against  vices, 
not  individuals  ;  sinners  he  reclaims  rather  than  chides.  You 
follow  his  admonitions  attentively,  hanging  on  his  lips,  and 
longing  to  be  convinced  even  after  he  has  succeeded  in  con- 
vincing you '  {Epistles,  i.  lo,  J.  D.  Lewis's  translation). 
Naturally,  rhetoricians  as  a  rule  only  paid  attention  to  form. 
One  of  them  expresses  himself  as  follows  in  Epictetus  :  '  Let 
us  call  on  Epictetus  as  we  pass  and  hear  what  he  has  to  say 
before  we  charter  a  ship  '  ;  then,  when  leaving  the  philosopher's 
house,  '  There  was  nothing  in  Epictetus  ;  he  makes  blunders 
in  construction  and  etymology  '.  Your  only  reason  for  coming 
to  school  is  to  criticize  mistakes  of  that  kind,  is  the  philoso- 
pher's rejoinder. 

Epictetus,  who  by  no  means  denied  the  effect  of  eloquence 
in  a  philosophical  discourse,  would  scarcely  have  made  pom- 
pous, flowery  language  and  eagerness  for  applause  the  subject 
of  a  lengthy  dissertation,  if  they  had  not  been  common  faults 
of  the  '  professional  philosophers '  of  the  age.  The  little 
scenes  from  life  with  which  his  exhortations  are  interlarded 
afford  admirable  illustrations  of  the  self-complacent  vanity 
of  this  class  of  teachers  and  of  their  general  behaviour.  Wher- 
ever they  showed  themselves,  their  desire  was  to  hear  people 


Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator  269 

shout,  '  Oh  the  great  philosopher  !  '  and  they  walked  along 
as  if  they  had  swallowed  a  spear .^  If  his  audience  was  scanty 
and  their  applause  small,  the  professor  went  away  downcast ; 
if  the  applause  was  great,  he  went  round  and  asked  each  one, 
What  did  you  think  of  me  ? — Admirable,  sir,  as  I  hope  to  be 
saved  !  ^ — How  did  I  deliver  that  passage  ? — Which  passage  ? 
— The  one  in  which  I  described  Pan  and  the  Nymphs. — Mar- 
vellously.— Why  then,  continues  Epictetus  in  his  attack  on 
these  philosophical  rhetoricians,  did  you  praise  that  senator  ? 
— Because  he  is  a  talented  and  industrious  young  man. — How 
so  ? — He  admires  me. — That's  proof  enough  ! — But,  he  con- 
tinues, after  having  been  your  pupil  so  long,  after  having  heard 
your  disputations  and  lectures,  has  he  become  more  modest  ? 
does  he  examine  himself  ?  does  he  know  how  parlous  is  his 
condition  ?  has  he  thrown  off  his  conceit  ?  does  he  desire 
instruction  ?  You  say  yes  ;  well  then,  does  he  desire  to  be 
taught  how  to  live  ?  no,  you  fool,  but  how  to  talk  ;  it  is  for  this 
that  he  admires  you  ;  Hsten  to  what  he  says,  '  this  man  really 
writes  most  artistically,  far  more  elegantly  than  Dio  !  '  ^ 
So  then  do  you,  whose  state  of  mind  is  so  deplorable,  you 
who  are  so  greedy  of  applause  and  count  the  number  of  your 
audience,  do  you  pretend  to  teach  others  ? — Well,  I  had  a 
very  large  audience  to-day. — Yes,  very  numerous  ;  there 
may  have  been  five  hundred  altogether. — That's  not  nearly 
enough,  more  likely  a  thousand  ;  Dio  never  had  so  many  to 
listen  to  him. — How  should  he  ? — And  they  show  a  fine 
appreciation  of  lectures.  What  is  beautiful,  sir,  can  move 
even  a  stone. — There  you  have  the  words  of  a  philosopher, 
there  you  have  the  state  of  mind  of  one  who  thinks  to  benefit 
mankind,  there  you  have  a  man  who  has  heard  a  lecture  I 
Did  Socrates  ever  say,  when  in  the  company  of  his  pupils, 
Come  and  listen  to  the  discourse  which  I  am  going  to  deliver 
in  the  house  of  Quadratus  ?  Why  should  I  listen  to  you  ? 
do  you  want  to  show  me  how  admirably  you  can  arrange 
words  ?  Granted  :  but  what  good  is  it  to  you  ? — Well,  you 
ought  to  applaud  me. — How? — Say,  Oh  !  and.  Excellent  ! — 
So  then  it  is  for  this  that  young  men  are  to  quit  their  country, 
leave    parents,    friends,    kinsmen    and    all    that    belongs    to 

1  We  should  say,  '  a  poker ',    The  Greek  word  (o/3eAtV(cos)  also  means  '  a  spit '. 

2  '  I  swear  by  all  that  is  dear  to  me  '  (Long's  trans.). 

3  Dio  Chrysostom  of  Prusa  in  Bjthynia,  not  Die  Cassjus  the  historian. 


270  Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator 

them,  that  they  may  applaud  your  fine  concluding  periods  ? 
Did  Socrates,  Zeno  and  Cleanthes  do  this  ?  But  it  may  be 
objected,  says  Epictetus  ;  is  there  not  a  special  stjde  for  hor- 
tatory speeches  ?  Certainly,  just  as  there  is  a  style  for  refu- 
tation and  a  didactic  style.  But  who  has  ever  mentioned 
a  fourth  in  addition  to  these,  the  epideictic  (display)  style  ? 
In  what  does  the  hortatory  style  really  consist  ?  In  the 
ability  to  make  clear  to  one  person  or  several  the  nature  of 
the  struggle  in  which  they  are  involved,  and  to  convince  them 
that  they  think  of  everything  else  but  what  they  really  desire. 
They  really  desire  what  leads  to  happiness,  but  seek  it  in  the 
wrong  direction.  To  attain  this,  is  it  necessary  to  provide 
thousands  of  seats  and  invite  thousands  of  hearers,  to  mount 
the  platform  in  elegant  attire  or  in  a  shabby  philosopher's 
cloak  and  describe  the  death  of  Achilles  ?  I  implore  you  by 
the  gods  to  give  up  spoiling  noble  words  and  subjects.  Who 
that  has  heard  your  lectures  and  disputations  has  ever  felt 
anxiety  for  his  own  salvation  or  communed  with  himself  ? 
Who  of  them  has  ever  said  on  leaving  :  The  philosopher  touched 
me  to  the  quick  !  I  must  not  do  these  things  any  more  ! 
Does  he  not  rather  say  to  some  one  else,  even  if  you  have 
been  loudly  applauded,  What  he  said  about  Xerxes  was  very 
fine  ?  to  which  another  rejoins.  No  ;  but  about  the  battle 
of  Thermopylae.  And  this,  forsooth,  is  what  one  hears  from  a 
philosopher  ! 

The  philosophers  resembled  the  sophists  in  their  style  of 
lecturing,  their  hearers  also  applauded  as  if  expressing  their 
approval  of  a  brilliantly  executed  piece  of  music  rather  than 
of  the  serious  exhortations  of  a  professor  of  morality.  When 
the  philosopher,  says  Musonius,  exhorts,  warns,  advises, 
reprimands  or  instructs  in  any  other  way,  and  his  hearers 
indulge  in  unconsidered  and  hackneyed  words  of  praise, 
shout  and  gesticulate,  are  roused  and  excited  by  elegances  of 
expression,  by  the  rhythmical  cadence  of  words,  then  you  may 
feel  sure  that  both  speaker  and  hearers  are  alike  worthless, 
that  it  is  not  a  philosopher  who  is  speaking,  but  some  one  play- 
ing the  flute.  Similarly  Plutarch  says  that  the  noisy  ap- 
plause in  the  philosophers'  schools  would  lead  any  one  out- 
side to  believe  that  a  dancer  or  musical  virtuoso  was  being 
encored.  He  also  criticizes  the  expressions  of  approval,  which 
were  then  in  fashion.     As  if  the  old-fashioned  exclamations, 


Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator  271 

Good  !  Wise  !  True  !  were  no  longer  sufficient,  people  now  cried, 
Divine  !  Inspired  !  Inimitable  !  and  confirmed  their  words  by  an 
oath.  Agreement  with  a  philosopher  was  expressed  by  Clever  ! 
with  an  old  man  by  Witty  !  or  Brilliant !  But  certainly,  in  Plu- 
tarch's opinion,  the  hearer  ought  not,  on  the  other  hand,  to  sit 
mum  and  listless,  as  if  he  thought  that  he  had  only,  as  it  were, 
to  take  his  seat  at  dinner,  while  others  worked  their  hardest. 
But  even  at  lectures  at  which  applause  was  not  the  rule,  the 
audience  generally  sat  upright  in  their  places,  not  in  a  careless 
or  supercilious  attitude,  kept  their  eyes  on  the  speaker,  showed 
a  lively  interest  and  wore  a  cheerful,  kindly  expression,  not  only 
free  from  ill-humour,  but  from  all  distracting  thoughts  that 
had  nothing  to  do  with  the  lecture.  Not  only  a  gloomy  brow, 
wandering  looks,  a  stooping  attitude,  legs  crossed  in  an  un- 
seemly manner,  but  also  nodding  and  whispering  to  a  neigh- 
bour, smiling,  yawning,  an  air  of  depression  and  the  like — 
all  these  were  to  be  sedulously    avoided. 

The  almost  minute  precision  of  the  rules  by  which  men  of 
such  great  and  recognized  importance  as  Plutarch,  Epictetus 
and  others  thought  it  their  duty  to  assist  in  maintaining  the 
dignity  of  philosophical  instruction  is  in  itself  by  no  means 
the  least  convincing  proof  how  deep  and  widespread  must 
have  been  the  interest  taken  in  philosophical  lectures  and 
schools.  And,  similarly,  the  claims  put  forward  by  the  most 
important  writers  as  to  the  efficiency  of  these  schools,  show 
that,  notwithstanding  all  the  weaknesses,  aberrations  and 
ill-success  of  many  teachers,  they  were  still  regarded  as  the 
real  centres  of  moral  education,  and  to  some  extent  justly, 
as  is  attested  by  the  works  of  the  numerous  philosophical 
writers  of  the  age. 

While  the  directors  of  public  schools  confined  their  activity 
to  a  limited  (although  extensive)  circle  of  pupils  and  followers, 
there  was  another  class  of  philosophers,  who,  representing 
themselves  as  the  real  missionaries  of  morality,  devoted  their 
attention  to  all  mankind.  These  were  the  Cynics.  Even 
if  the  majority  of  these  '  mendicant  friars  of  antiquity  ',  as 
above  described,  deserved  their  bad  name,  yet  the  truly  noble 
personalities  in  their  ranks,  who  for  the  sake  of  their  lofty 
mission  renounced  all  worldly  goods,  were  the  objects  of  an 
equally  general  admiration  and  respect.  Dio  and  Epictetus, 
the  most  esteemed    teachers  of    the    second    century,  were 


272  Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator 

inclined  to  Cynicism,  and  ranked  Diogenes  next  to  Socrates. 
Epictetus  in  particular  has  the  highest  idea  of  the  mission 
of  the  true  Cynics  :  that  no  one  should  adopt  it  unless  he  is 
conscious  of  being  chosen  for  it  by  the  divine  will.  The  Cynic 
must  free  himself  from  all  passions  and  desires.  Other  men 
can  hide  themselves  behind  the  walls  of  their  houses  ;  the 
only  protection  of  the  Cynic,  who  has  no  home  and  lives  under 
the  open  sky,  is  modesty  ;  he  must  have  nothing  to  conceal, 
for  where  and  how  could  he  conceal  it  ?  He,  '  the  general 
teacher  and  instructor  ',  should  have  nothing  to  fear ;  other- 
wise, how  could  he  '  uphold  the  dignity  of  the  office  of  super- 
intendent of  the  rest  of  mankind  ?  ' 

But  it  is  not  sufficient  that  he  should  acquire  knowledge 
and  freedom  for  himself  ;  he  must  also  know  that  he  has  been 
sent  by  Zeus  as  a  messenger  to  men,  to  instruct  them  on  good 
and  evil,  to  warn  them  that  they  have  gone  astray  and  are 
seeking  the  substance  of  good  and  evil  where  it  is  not ;  but 
where  it  is  they  never  think.  Then  he  makes  his  Cynic  preach 
to  the  people.  '  O  ye  men,  whither  are  ye  being  hurried  ? 
What  are  ye  doing,  O  unhappy  wretches  ?  Ye  seek  happiness 
where  it  is  not.  Why  do  ye  seek  it  outside  yourselves  ?  It 
is  not  in  the  body,  in  riches,  in  power,  or  in  sovereignty.  Con- 
sider the  strong,  the  wealthy,  the  powerful,  listen  to  their 
sighs  and  lamentations,  look  on  Nero  and  Sardanapalus,  or 
Agamemnon  !  '  Having  with  dramatic  vividness  set  all  this 
before  his  hearers,  especially  the  constant  anxiety  and  dis- 
tress of  the  latter,  he  makes  them  ask  in  the  manner  of  a 
sermon  :  '  Where  then  is  the  good,  if  not  in  all  this  ?  Tell  us, 
sir,  our  messenger  and  guardian !  '  '  Where  you  neither 
think  it  is  nor  seek  it.  Had  you  so  desired,  you  would  already 
have  discovered  it  in  yourselves,  and  would  not  be  seeking 
what  is  another's  as  if  it  were  your  own.     Seek  it  in  yourselves, 

0  unhappy  wretches  !  There  you  must  cultivate  it,  there 
cherish  and  preserve  it.  How  is  it  possible  to  live  happily, 
without  goods  and  chattels,  without  house  and  home,  desti- 
tute, uncared  for,  without  a  servant,  without  a  country  ? 
Look  you,  God  has  sent  you  the  man  who  can  show  you  in 
practice  that  it  is  possible  !    Look  at  me  :  I  sleep  on  the  ground, 

1  have  no  wife,  no  children,  no  estate,  nothing  but  earth  and 
sky  and  a  single  coarse  cloak.  And  yet  what  do  I  lack  ? 
Am  I  not  without  anxiety  and  fear  ?  am  I  not  free  ?     How  do 


Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator  273 

I  treat  those  whom  you  admire  and  honour  ?  is  it  not  like 
slaves  ?  do  not  all,  when  they  see  me,  think  they  see  their 
own  lord  and  king  ?  '  Epictetus  then  reiterates  that  the  Cynic 
must  serve  the  deity  with  his  whole  heart  and  without  hind- 
rance and  assist  his  fellow-men  ;  that  he  must  not  be  tied  down 
by  private  obligations  or  other  engagements,  the  violation 
of  which  would  mean  the  transgression  of  the  moral  law,  the 
observation  of  them  the  abandonment  of  the  mission  of 
'  messenger,  guardian  and  herald  of  the  gods  '  ;  a  special 
instance  of  such  engagements  is  marriage.  Where  in  this 
case  would  that  king  be  who  devotes  himself  to  the  general 
welfare,  '  to  whose  protection  the  people  are  entrusted,  and 
upon  whom  so  many  cares  devolve  '  ;  whose  duty  it  is  to  super- 
intend others,  husbands  and  fathers — to  see  who  treats  his 
wife  ill  or  well,  who  deserves  punishment,  whose  house  is  well 
ordered,  whose  the  reverse  ;  just  like  a  physician  who  goes 
round  and  feels  the  pulses  of  his  patients  ?  You  have  fever, 
you  a  headache,  you  the  gout ;  you  must  fast,  you  must  take 
food,  you  must  not  have  a  bath,  you  require  the  knife,  you 
must  be  cauterized.  How  can  a  man  have  leisure  for  all  this 
if  he  is  hampered  by  private  duties  ?  If  we  truly  understand 
the  greatness  of  the  true  Cynic,  we  shall  not  wonder  why  he 
takes  no  wife,  why  he  begets  no  children.  He  is  the  father  of 
all  mankind,  all  men  are  his  sons,  all  women  his  daughters  ; 
he  cares  for  them,  chides  them  as  a  father,  as  a  brother,  as  a 
servant  of  our  common  father  Zeus. 

In  fact,  at  that  time  there  were  men  in  Rome  who  at  least 
approximately  realized  this  ideal.  Two  of  them  are  known 
to  us,  Demetrius,  who  Hved  at  Rome  in  the  first  century,  and 
Demonax,  who  lived  at  Athens  in  the  second.  The  former 
literally  carried  out  in  practice  the  principles  of  self-suffi- 
ciency and  a  return  to  a  state  of  nature  amidst  the  splendour, 
luxury  and  excessive  culture  of  golden  Rome,  the  metropolis 
of  the  world,  and  obtained  for  Cynicism,  which  Cicero  had 
uncompromisingly  rejected  as  '  the  enemy  of  modesty  ',  the 
respect  of  the  Romans.  The  ragged  beggar,  who  rejected 
with  scorn  a  gift  of  200,000  sesterces  (about  ;^2,ooo)  from  CaH- 
gula,  who  despised  Nero's  threats,  called  forth  Vespasian's 
displeasure  by  his  ostentatious  disdain,  and  expressed  his  con- 
tempt for  those  who  disagreed  with  him  with  unceremonious 
bluntness,  was  greatly  in  request  amongst  his  most  distin- 

R.L.M. — III.  X 


274  Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator 

guished  and  most  highly  placed  contemporaries,  by  whom 
he  was  treated  with  the  greatest  respect.  Thrasea  devoted 
his  last  hours  to  a  conversation  with  him  on  the  subject  of 
immortality  and  the  next  world.  Seneca's  respect  for  his  in- 
flexible strength  of  mind  was  the  more  sincere,  since  he  was 
conscious  of  his  own  weakness  in  comparison  ;  in  his  judg- 
ment, Demetrius  was  a  great  man  even  when  compared  with 
the  greatest.  Seneca  abandoned  the  society  of  those  who  were 
clothed  in  purple,  in  order  to  be  able  constantly  to  enjoy 
the  conversation  of  this  noble  man,  whom  he  so  greatly  ad- 
mired. And  how  could  he  help  admiring  him  ?  In  fact  he 
lacked  nothing  ;  he  lived  not  as  if  he  despised  everything,  but 
as  if  he  had  left  it  for  others.  Upon  those  who  heard  him 
speaking  as  he  lay  naked  on  his  straw  pallet  he  produced  the 
double  impression  that  he  was  not  only  a  teacher,  but  a  witness 
of  truth.  According  to  Seneca,  '  Nature  has  created  him  in 
our  time  in  order  to  show  that  neither  can  he  be  corrupted  by 
us  nor  we  improved  by  him.  He  is  a  man  of  perfect  wisdom, 
although  he  himself  disclaims  it,  and  of  unshakable  resolution 
in  carrying  out  his  principles,  while  his  eloquence  is  equal  to 
the  loftiest  themes  ;  it  is  neither  skilfully  arranged  nor  troubled 
about  words,  but  pursues  its  subject  with  powerful  flight, 
as  inspiration  urges  it.  I  have  no  doubt  that  Providence 
has  endowed  him  with  such  lofty  morality  and  power  of  lan- 
guage that  our  age  might  not  be  without  an  example  and 
a  living  reproach  '. 

A  treatise  generally  attributed  to  Lucian,  and  in  any  case 
the  work  of  a  contemporary,  gives  a  description  of  a  man  who 
was  '  an  example  and  a  living  reproach  '  to  his  age,  as  it  were 
a  personification  of  the  ever  warning  conscience  of  his  fellow- 
citizens.  This  was  Demonax,  who  spent  the  best  part  of  his 
life  in  Athens  and  starved  himself  to  death  when  nearly  a 
hundred  years  of  age.  Demonax  was  opposed  to  Demetrius 
and  those  like  him,  but  in  agreement  with  Epictetus,  with 
whom  he  was  on  friendly  terms.  He  endeavoured  to  smooth 
the  roughnesses  of  the  Cynic  mode  of  thought,  and  especially 
to  rob  his  admonitions  and  reproofs  of  their  forbidding  harsh- 
ness b}'-  the  aid  of  wit  and  intellectual  grace  ;  his  entire  philo- 
sophy was  characterized  by  mildness,  kindliness,  and  cheerful- 
ness. He  regarded  all  men  as  his  kinsmen.  He  rendered 
practical  assistance  to  his  friends,  so  far  as  it  was  permissible  ; 


Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator  275 

warned  the  fortunate  of  the  transitory  nature  of  the  blessings 
of  fortune,  and  consoled  those  who  complained  of  poverty, 
banishment,  old  age  or  sickness.  He  strove  to  reconcile 
brothers  who  had  quarrelled,  to  make  peace  between  husbands 
and  wives,  and  frequently  acted  as  mediator  in  political 
dissensions,  and  generally  with  success.  In  this  manner 
he  lived  a  healthy  and  peaceful  life  of  nearly  a  hundred 
years  ;  he  was  never  a  burden  to  any  man,  never  accused 
any  man  ;  he  helped  his  friends  and  never  had  an  enemy  ; 
and  was  generally  beloved  and  respected  throughout  Greece. 
Whenever  he  appeared,  ever}'  one  stood  up,  even  the  highest 
officials,  and  all  were  silent.  Towards  the  end  of  his  long 
life,  he  used  to  enter  the  first  house  he  came  to  without 
invitation  and  eat  and  sleep  there  ;  the  inmates  regarded  it 
as  the  visit  of  a  god  or  good  spirit.  There  was  a  keen  rivalry 
amongst  the  women  who  sold  bread  to  be  the  first  to  serve 
him  ;  every  one  from  whom  he  received  a  loaf  believed  that 
he  would  bring  her  luck  ;  the  children  offered  him  fruits  and 
called  him  father.  When  a  party  quarrel  had  broken  out  in 
Athens,  his  mere  appearance  in  the  assembly  was  enough 
to  restore  quiet ;  when  he  had  convinced  himself  of  this, 
he  went  away  without  saying  a  word.  The  Athenians 
gave  him  a  magnificent  funeral  at  the  expense  of  the  city,  and 
mourned  him  for  a  long  time  ;  the  stone  seat  on  which  he 
used  to  rest  was  held  sacred  and  crowned  with  garlands  in  his 
honour.  His  funeral  was  largely  attended  ;  all  the  philo- 
sophers were  present  and  carried  his  body  to  the  grave. 

The  portrait  of  Peregrinus,  later  called  Proteus,  is  not  so 
clear,  since  we  only  know  him  from  the  description  of  Lucian, 
in  which  he  appears  as  much  a  fool  as  a  knave.  But  it  is  clear 
that  this  description  cannot  possibly  correspond  to  the  reality, 
not  only  from  the  unimpeachable  testimony  of  another  con- 
temporary, but  partly  from  Lucian's  own  statements.  We 
can  hardly  be  mistaken  in.  regarding  the  sordid  or  shameful 
motives  which  Lucian  attributes  to  Peregrinus  in  all  that  he 
did,  as  the  malicious  assumptions  and  fabrications  of  pas- 
sionate opponents,  who  were  absolutely  incapable  of  under- 
standing the  nature  of  a  fanatic  such  as  Peregrinus. 

Peregrinus  was  the  son  of  a  well-to-do  citizen  of  Parium  on 
the  Hellespont.  In  the  course  of  his  travels,  extending  over 
several   years,    he   visited    Palestine,    where   he   joined    the 


276         Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator 

Christians  and   so  zealously  advocated   their  doctrines  in  his 
writings,  that  he  was  appointed  president  of  the  community. 
Thrown  into  prison  in  consequence  of  his  conversion,  he  is 
said  to  have  begged  to  be  put  to  death,  but  the  governor  of 
Syria,  not  considering  him  of  sufficient  importance  to  deserve 
martyrdom,     discharged    him.     Returning    to    Parium,     he 
presented  to  it  what  was  left  of  his  property,  which  had  been 
plundered  during  his  absence  and  was  supposed  by  his  fol- 
lowers to  be  very  large  (according  to  Lucian  it  amounted  to 
the  considerable  sum  of  fifteen  talents,  ;£3,536  9s.),  and  then 
recommenced   his   wandering   life.     Having   quarrelled   with 
the   Christians,   he  adopted   Cynicism  in  Egypt,  and  crossed 
over  to  Rome,  where  he  criticized  the  existing  order  so  out- 
spokenly that  he  was  expelled  by  the  city  praefect.     He  is 
then  said  foolishly  to  have  attempted  to  stir  up  a  revolt  against 
the  Romans  in  Greece.     In  165  he  put  an  end  to  his  life  at 
Olympia,  after  the  games  were  over,  by  carrying  out  his  long- 
announced  intention  of  burning  himself  to  death  ;   on  a  bright 
moonlight  night,  in  the  presence  of  a  crowd  of  Cynics,  calling 
upon  the  spirits  of  his  parents,  he  threw  himself  upon  a  funeral 
pyre  erected  in  a  ditch  and  disappeared  in  the  grave  of  fire. 
The  conversion  of   Peregrinus  to  Christianity,  his  defection 
and  adoption  of  Cynicism,  are  quite  intelligible.     '  It  was  just 
a  nature  like  his  that,  in  the  restless  search  for  truth  and 
internal  satisfaction,   could  be  as  easily  attracted  to  Chris- 
tianity  as  it  was  subsequently  estranged  from  it,  when  sub- 
ordination to  ecclesiastical  dogma  and  ecclesiastical  customs 
was  required  of  it '.     But  Christianity  and  Cynicism  were  not 
only  in  perfect  agreement  in  the  absolute  contrast  which  both 
presented  with  polytheism,  but  the  Cynic  abandonment  of 
all  earthly  ties  and  contempt  for  the  world  was  closely  akin 
to  that  element  of  Christianity,   which  subsequently  found 
complete  expression  in  the  life  of  the  hermit  and  the  monk. 
Nor  did  this  af&nity  pass  unnoticed  in  ancient  times.     Celsus 
had  compared  the  preachers  of  the  doctrines  of  Christianity 
with  mountebanks,  since  they  addressed  themselves   by  pre- 
ference to  the  uneducated  masses,  to  which  Origen  replies 
that  the  Cynic  popular  preachers  did  exactly  the  same.     Julian 
the  Apostate  found  a  great  similarity  between   '  those  who 
renounced  the  world,  as  the  impious  Galilaeans  called  them'. 
and  the  Cynics  ;    the  difference  was  that  the  latter  did  not 


Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator  277 

make  such  a  good  thing  out  of  it  as  the  former,  who  '  by 
renouncing  a  Httle  scraped  together  a  great  deal,  or  rather 
everything  ',  since  the  duty  of  charity  supplied  them  with  a 
decent  excuse  for  raising  tribute.  The  Cynics  had  no  such 
excuse,  and  besides  even  the  heathen  were  more  intelligent 
than  '  those  fools  '.  In  everything  else  there  was  no  difference 
between  the  two.  Both  accepted  honour  and  homage  for 
their  pretended  renunciation  ;  both  abandoned  their  country, 
wandered  all  over  the  world,  and  made  themselves  a  nuisance 
in  camp,  the  Cynics  being  even  more  impertinent  and  obtru- 
sive than  the  monks.  In  view  of  these  and  similar  com- 
parisons between  Cynicism  and  Christianity,  John  Chrysostom 
and  Gregory  of  Nazianzus  thought  it  necessary  to  point  out 
emphatically  how  far  inferior  the  former  was  to  the  latter. 

That  the  gloomy,  harsh  and  rugged  aspect  of  Cynicism 
was  especially  prominent  in  Peregrinus  is  shown  by  the  re- 
joinder of  Demonax  (whose  cheerfulness  made  Peregrinus 
refuse  to  acknowledge  him  as  a  Cynic),  '  And  you  are  no  man  !' 
Gellius,  however,  who  often  visited  him  in  his  hut  near  Athens 
not  long  before  his  end,  speaks  of  him  with  great  respect. 
He  had  heard  many  excellent  and  salutary  words  from  this 
'  worthy  and  strong-minded  man  ',  who,  amongst  other  things, 
asserted  that  the  wise  man  would  do  nothing  wrong,  even 
though  gods  and  men  should  not  know  that  he  had  done  wrong. 
For  one  ought  to  avoid  sin,  not  from  fear  of  punishment  or 
disgrace,  but  from  love  of  the  good.  But  in  the  case  of  those 
who  lack  this  higher  moral  strength,  the  thought  that  no  wrong 
can  remain  hidden,  but  that  time  will  finally  bring  all  things 
to  light,   is   a  very  effectual  motive  for   avoiding  ill-doing. 

Lastly,  his  self-destruction  was  intended  to  crown  a  life 
in  which  he  had  striven  to  imitate  Heracles,  the  great  model 
of  the  Cynics,  with  an  end  like  that  of  the  hero  ;  to  teach 
men  contempt  of  death  and  at  the  same  time  to  prove  to  the 
world  that  a  Cynic  also  was  capable  of  the  much  admired 
resolution  of  the  Indian  sage  Calanus.  The  postponement 
of  his  suicide  till  the  Olympian  games  were  over,  the  choice 
of  night  time  for  carrying  it  out,  the  admission  of  only  a  few 
spectators  of  similar  opinions,  do  not  prove  that  Peregrinus 
sought  his  greatest  triumph  in  theatrical  effect.  Certainly 
he  was  a  fanatic,  but  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  the  earnest- 
ness and  sincerity  of  his  convictions,  and,  with  the  exception 


278  Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator 

of  Lucian's  account,  there  is  no  evidence  that,  at  that  time  or 
later,  they  were  ever  doubted.  About  twelve  years  after  his 
death  Athenagoras  saw  his  statue  in  Parium,  and  Ammianus 
Marcellinus,  in  mentioning  his  suicide  (also  referred  to  by  the 
chroniclers)  calls  him  a  famous  philosopher. 

The  Cynic  school  continued  to  exist  till  the  end  of  antiquity. 
In  addition  to  the  discourses  of  Julian,  there  is  no  lack  of  evi- 
dence w^hich  permits  us  to  trace  its  continuance,  and  as  late  as 
the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century  its  adherents  were  evidently 
very  numerous. 

It  is  only  natural  that  the  literature  of  the  time  should 
tell  us  far  more  of  the  attempts  to  elevate  the  standard  of 
morality  through  philosophy  than  of  its  effects.  Neverthe- 
less, all  that  we  are  told  goes  to  show  that  as  a  matter  of  fact 
philosophy  was  then  regarded  by  the  educated  world  as  the 
true  and  highest  moral  educator  of  humanit)%  and  even  the 
opposition  to  it  only  confirms  the  universality  of  this  con- 
viction. That  the  zealous  and  comprehensive  efforts  hitherto 
described  really  produced  important  results,  is  clear  from  the 
simple  fact  that  so  large  a  number  of  the  noblest  men  of  these 
centuries,  on  their  own  information  or  according  to  the  state- 
ment of  others,  w-ere  indebted  to  philosophy  for  the  formation 
of  their  character  ;  and  further,  from  the  high  respect  which 
was  paid  to  distinguished  philosophers  by  their  contemporaries 
and  posterity.  In  a  world  which  refused  slaves  the  rights  of 
men,  the  former  slave  Epictetus  was  one  of  the  most  generally 
respected  personalities,  and  Hadrian,  the  ruler  of  this  world, 
is  said  to  have  sought  his  friendship.  The  most  important 
teachers  and  writers  of  these  centuries,  the  freedman  Epic- 
tetus, the  knight  Musonius  Rufus,  Seneca  the  consular  and 
the  emperor  Marcus  Aurelius,  belonged  to  the  most  different 
classes  and  ranks  of  life.  The  effect  of  philosophy  extended 
to  all  strata  of  society,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest. 
Philosophy,  says  Seneca,  does  not  look  at  a  man's  pedigree  ; 
the  equestrian  order,  the  senate,  and  military  service  are 
closed  to  many  ;  but  knowledge  is  open  to  all,  and  all  are  of 
noble  birth  as  far  as  its  attainment  is  concerned.  A  great 
soul  can  reside  in  the  body  of  a  slave  or  freedman  as  w-ell  as 
in  that  of  a  Roman  knight. 

But   not  only   did   philosophy  break  through  the  barriers 
and    limitations    of    the    orders    and    classes    of    society ;    it 


Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator  279 

also  to  a  great  extent  weakened  the  exclusiveness  of 
national  consciousness,  and  by  its  partial  subjection  of 
this  feehng,  so  strongly  developed  in  all  ancient  peoples 
(and  especially  in  the  Romans)  and  so  harshly  asserted,  it 
proved  itself  to  be  one  of  the  most  real  and  transforming 
influences  of  the  period  of  civilization  which  is  here  described. 
Cynicism  and  Stoicism,  in  particular,  developed  their  original 
leaning  towards  cosmopolitanism  and  a  brotherly  love  that 
included  all  mankind,  on  the  highly  favom'able  soil  of  the 
Roman  world-empire,  in  such  a  manner  that  their  theories 
of  the  relation  of  the  individual  to  mankind  breathe  a  Chris- 
tian spirit  to  the  same  extent  as  they  attest  a  most  decided 
rupture  with  the  specifically  ancient  views  of  the  world. 
It  was  thought  by  many  that  this  development  of  philosophy 
could  only  be  explained  by  direct  Christian  influences  ;  but 
in  the  case  of  Seneca  no  such  explanation  of  this  phenomenon 
was  needed,  and  the  repugnance  to  '  the  Galilaeans  '  expressed 
by  Epictetus  and  Marcus  Aurelius  excludes  the  assumption 
of  Christian  influences.  The  Christians  of  that  period,  indeed 
(as  already  observed),  themselves  recognized  an  independent 
morality  of  the  heathen,  which  they  attempted  to  account 
for  partly  by  their  acquaintance  with  the  sacred  writings  of 
the  Jews,  partly  by  the  intervention  of  '  demons  '  working 
against  Christianity.  They  would  certainly  not  have  had 
recourse  to  such  singular  explanations  had  they  believed  that 
the  virtues  of  the  heathen  could  be  attributed  to  Christian 
influences.  In  fact,  the  result  of  an  unprejudiced  investiga- 
tion must  be  that  Stoicism  and  Cynicism  raised  themselves 
by  their  own  efforts  to  a  moral  conception  of  men's  rights 
and  duties  higher  and  purer  than  any  in  earlier  antiquity. 
The  Stoic  principle  of  the  homogeneousness  of  all  men,  who, 
as  Epictetus  expresses  it,  all  have  God  for  their  father,  and 
consequently  are  all  brothers,  was  first  followed  out  by  the 
Stoics  of  this  age  in  its  widest  extent  and  to  its  ultimate  re- 
sults. They  taught,  expressly  and  repeatedly,  love  of  one's 
enemy,  patience  and  indulgence  not  only  towards  the  erring, 
but  forgiveness  of  evil  done  to  us  and  its  requital  with  benefits. 
A  comparison  of  the  views  of  that  age  with  those  of  the  older 
philosophers  in  regard  to  slavery  affords  the  most  infallible 
criterion  of  the  progress  made  in  the  idea  of  the  relation  of 
the  individual  to  humanity.     Plato  found  nothing  offensive 


2  8o  Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator 

in  this  '  cancerous  affection  of  the  ancient  world  ',  and  never 
conceived  the  idea  of  a  complete  abolition  of  slavery  in  the 
future  ;  while  Aristotle  even  endeavoured  to  prove  that  it  is 
a  natural  institution,  and  regarded  slaves  as  '  living  chattels  ' 
and  barbarians  as  born  slaves  of  the  Hellenes.  Seneca,  on 
the  other  hand,  insists  that  we  should  regard  slaves  above 
all  as  human  beings,  as  humble  friends,  and,  in  so  far  as  they 
are  subject  to  the  same  authority  as  ourselves,  as  fellow- 
slaves.  And  there  is  no  doubt  that  these  theories  did  in  reality 
contribute  essentially  to  the  improvement  of  the  position  of 
slaves.  The  effects  of  the  philosophy  of  that  age  lasted  far 
beyond  its  own  days  ;  the  third  century  affords  us  the  remark- 
able evidence  of  Origen,  which  is  beyond  suspicion,  that  while 
few  still  read  Plato,  Epictetus  was  read  '  by  all  '. 

An  age  which  raised  itself  by  its  own  efforts  to  higher  and 
purer  views  of  morality  than  all  the  ages  which  preceded  it, 
which  not  only  produced  a  Musonius,  Epictetus  and  Marcus 
Aurelius,  but  in  which  these  preachers  of  a  gentle,  truly  human 
system  of  ethics  were  generally  admired  and  their  doctrines 
generally  adopted,  cannot  have  been  an  age  of  utter  moral 
decay,  as  it  has  been  so  often  called.  If  there  is  no  graduated 
scale  of  the  morality  of  a  period  so  well  known,  least  of  all 
is  there  one  for  these  centuries,  in  regard  to  which  we  possess 
only  isolated  statements,  partly  limited  to  definite  spheres, 
partly  exaggerated  or  one-sided.  To  the  latter  belong  the 
rhetorical  declamations  of  the  elder  Pliny  and  Seneca  ;  to 
the  former  the  description  of  the  horrors  of  the  imperial  house, 
the  awful  consequences  of  an  absolute  despotism,  the  fearful 
suppression  of  the  aristocracy  by  Caesarism,  in  Tacitus  and  the 
other  historians,  and  the  accounts  of  the  corruption,  filth, 
and  immorality  which  Rome,  like  every  great  city,  fostered 
in  abundance,  in  the  satirists  and  in  Martial.  It  would  be 
inadmissible  to  draw  general  conclusions  from  these  sources 
alone  as  to  the  morality  of  the  whole  period,  even  if  they 
did  not  offer,  amidst  much  that  is  repulsive,hateful  and  horrify- 
ing, many  agreeable  and  sublime  impressions,  which  even 
decidedly  predominate  in  other  authorities,  such  as  the  letters 
of  the  younger  Pliny,  and  the  works  of  Quintilian,  Plutarch 
and  Gellius.  And  if  we  leave  out  of  consideration  those  de- 
clamations about  the  disappearance  of  the  '  good  old  times  ', 
it  will  be  dif&cult  to  find  any  evidence  in  the  literatvue  of  the 


i 


Philosophy  as  a  Moral  Educator  281 

age  that  men  thought  they  were  living  in  a  period  of  general 
decay,  but  rather  the  reverse.  Even  Seneca  concludes  a 
striking  picture  of  the  prevailing  immorality  with  the  declara- 
tion that  he  does  not  wish  to  fasten  the  responsibility  upon 
his  own  age.  '  Our  forefathers  complained,  we  complain, 
and  our  descendants  will  complain,  that  morals  are  corrupt, 
that  wickedness  holds  sway,  that  men  are  sinking  deeper  and 
deeper  in  sinfulness,  that  the  condition  of  mankind  is  going 
from  bad  to  worse.  But  in  reality  they  remain  where  they 
were,  and  will  still  remain  so,  save  for  trifling  movements  in 
one  direction  or  the  other,  like  waves  carried  backwards 
and  forwards  by  the  ebb  and  flow.  .  .  .  Vices  belong  to  no 
particular  age,  but  to  all  mankind.  No  age  has  been  free 
from  guilt '.  Tacitus  was  convinced  that  everything  was 
not  better  in  earlier  times,  but  that  his  age  also  had  produced 
much  that  was  worthy  of  imitation  by  posterity  ;  perhaps 
there  is  a  cycle  of  morahty,  as  of  events.  And  Marcus  Aurelius, 
whose  view  of  the  world  was  principally  determined  by  the 
Stoic  doctrine  of  the  eternal  cycle  of  events,  who  saw  in  history 
only  an  eternal  repetition,  was  bound  to  regard  human  wicked- 
ness as  something  that  ever  remained  the  same.  '  What  is 
wickedness  ?  '  he  asks.  '  That  which  you  have  often  seen. 
Ancient,  medieval  and  modern  history  will  be  found  full  of  the 
same  things  as  houses  and  cities  at  the  present  time.  Nothing 
is  new  '.  But  he  was  far  from  seeing  nothing  but  wickedness 
in  the  present.  Nothing  delighted  him  more  than  to  think 
of  the  good  qualities  of  his  contemporaries,  and  his  greatest 
pleasure  was  to  survey  as  a  whole  the  examples  of  the  virtues 
exhibited  in  the  character  of  each. 


CHAPTER    IV 

BELIEF  IN   THE  IMMORTALITY  OF  THE  SOUL 

Wherever  and  whenever  the  belief  in  immortaUty  has  not 
been  firmly  established  by  belief  in  revelation,  doubt,  unbelief 
and  denial  of  immortality  have  been  associated  with  the 
different  forms  which  such  belief  has  assumed.  It  is  probable 
that  not  only  have  there  always  been  men  to  whom  the 
eternal  existence  of  an  individual  appeared  unintelligible, 
but  also  others  for  whom  life  was  only  endurable  as  ending 
with  death,  and  who  were  filled  with  horror  at  the  idea  of 
its  lasting  for  ever.  It  is  remarkable  that  it  is  one  of  the 
most  energetic  natures  of  the  later  Roman  world,  the  elder 
Pliny,  who  rejects,  almost  passionately,  the  belief  in  immor- 
tality. He  was  a  man  whose  lot  was  a  favoured  one,  who 
with  untiring  perseverance  strove  to  make  every  minute  of 
his  life  serviceable  to  the  state,  to  humanity,  to  the  knowledge 
of  truth,  and  in  the  pursuit  of  this  object  found  a  noble  end 
that  was  worthy  of  his  life. 

'  Every  man's  last  hour  brings  about  exactly  the  same 
state  of  things  that  existed  before  his  first  hour.  Souls  and 
bodies  no  more  have  feelings  and  consciousness  after  death 
than  they  had  before  birth.  But  human  vanit>^  imagines  a 
prolongation  of  existence  into  the  future,  and  invents  a  life 
beyond  the  grave,  attributing  sometimes  immortaUty,  some- 
times change  of  form  to  the  soul,  and  sometimes  consciousness 
to  those  below  the  earth  ;  it  worships  departed  spirits  and 
makes  those  gods,  who  have  ceased  to  be  even  men  ;  as  if 
our  breath  in  any  way  differed  from  that  of  all  other  creatures, 
or  as  if  other  things  in  nature  did  not  last  much  longer  than 
man,  for  which  no  one  has  foretold  immortality.  But  what 
sort  of  body  could  the  soul  have  after  its  emancipation  ? 
What   substance  ?     what   power    of    thought  ?     How    could 

882 


Belief  in  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul     283 

it  see,  hear,  and  taste  ?  What  use  could  it  make  of  these 
gifts,  or  what  good  would  it  be  without  them  ?  Where  is 
its  place  of  abode,  and  how  great  is  the  number  of  shadowy- 
souls  after  so  many  centuries  ?  All  such  ideas  are  only  fit 
to  pacify  children,  idle  dreams  of  a  state  of  mortality,  which 
is  anxious  to  last  for  ever  !  What  absurd  folly,  to  think  that 
life  can  be  renewed  by  death  I  And  where  would  there  ever 
be  rest  for  the  created,  if  the  consciousness  of  the  soul  continued 
in  heaven,  and  the  shades  of  the  dead  in  the  underworld  ? 
In  reality  this  pretended  sweet  consolation  and  this  happy 
faith  robs  death,  the  chief  blessing  of  nature,  of  its  virtue, 
and  doubles  the  pain  of  a  dying  man  by  holding  out  the 
prospect  of  a  life  beyond.  For  if  it  is  sweet  to  live,  to  whom 
can  it  be  sweet  to  have  lived  ?  But  how  much  easier  and 
more  certain  would  it  be  for  every  one  to  trust  in  himself 
and  accept  his  experience  of  the  time  before  birth  as  a  certain 
proof  of  what  will  happen  in  the  future  !  ' 

This  expression  of  a  longing  for  annihilation,  which  bears 
some  resemblance  to  the  Buddhist  view  of  life,  stands  by 
itself.  But  the  materialistic  conception  of  the  soul  and  the 
denial  of  immortality  based  upon  it  were  at  least  as  common 
as  the  Epicureanism,  by  which  Pliny's  view  was  no  doubt 
directly  or  indirectly  determined,  and  with  which  his  material- 
ism also  agrees  in  the  idea  of  a  heavenly  origin  of  the  soul 
and  its  '  kinship  with  the  stars  '.  For  the  convinced  adherents 
of  this  doctrine  the  prospect  of  an  end  of  existence  was  not 
a  melancholy  one.  It  was  for  them  a  consoling  thought, 
to  reach  a  harbour,  where  they  would  be  for  ever  removed 
from  disappointments  and  the  caprices  of  destiny.  Their 
fancy  was  taken  by  the  idea  of  rising  calmly  from  the  table 
of  life,  like  guests  who  had  had  their  fill,  in  order  to  abandon 
themselves  to  a  dreamless  sleep.  The  memorial  of  Gains 
Matrinius  Valentius  is  dedicated  by  his  wife,  who  survived 
him, '  to  eternal  sleep  '.  Other  funeral  monuments  of  similar 
character,  and  others  dedicated  '  to  eternal  rest '  {securitati), 
indicate  the  denial  of  immortality,  although  not  always 
expressed  so  unequivocally  as  in  the  self-composed  epitaph 
of  a  certain  Nicomedes  of  Cos,  who  was  apparently  a  strolling 
singer  of  the  Homeric  poems  :  '  After  having  ridiculed  absur- 
dities, I  lie  here  in  a  sleep  from  which  there  is  no  awaking  '. 
A  Latin  inscription  runs  :     '  I  have  lived  and  believed  in 


284     Belief  in  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul 

nothing  beyond  the  grave  '  ;   a  Greek  one  :    '  There  is  no  boat 
in  Hades,  no  Charon,  no  Aeacus  who  holds  the  keys,  no  Cer- 
berus.    All  of  us  whom  death  has  carried  away  are  rotten 
bones  and  ashes,  nothing  else  ';    in  another  it  is  said  of  the 
dead  man  that,  after  having  finished  his  course,  he  has  become 
a  tomb,  a  stone,  an  image.     '  The  elements  out  of  which  he 
was  formed  take  possession  of  their  own  again  ;    Hfe  was  only 
lent  to  the  man,  in  death  he  restores  it,  he  cannot  keep  it 
for  ever.     By  his   death  he  pays  his   debt  to  nature  '.     A 
favourite  distich  runs  :    '  I  was  not,  but  I  became  ;    I  was 
and  am  no  longer  ;    thus  much  is  true.     Whoever  says  other- 
wise, lies  ;    for  I  shall  no  longer  be  '.     It  is  frequently  added 
that  death  is  no  evil,  since  consciousness  ceases  with  life. 
A  certain  Lucius  Maecius  Marcus,  who  in  his  lifetime  built 
an  '  eternal  house  '  for  himself  and  his,  says  in  the  inscription 
(as  if  he  were  still  alive)  :    '  I  once  was  not  and  now  am  ;   one 
day  I  shall  no  longer  be  ;    I  do  not  regret  it '.     On  a  grave- 
stone the  following  words  are  put  into  the  mouth  of  a  dead 
woman  :    '  I  once  was  not  and  am  no  longer.     I  know  nothing 
of  it ;    it  does  not  matter  to  me  '.     '  Death  ',  it  is  said  on 
another   stone,    '  is   the   last   and   most   beneficial   remedy '. 
This    was    also    expressed    jestingly.     A    freedman    named 
Ancarenus  Nothus  says  in   his  epitaph  that  he  is  no  longer 
afraid  of  having  to  go  hungry  ;    that  he  is  free  from  gout 
and  need  not  pay  for  his  lodging,  since  he  is  Uving  in  per- 
manent free  quarters.     With  the  denial  of  its  continuance 
is  also  combined  the  invitation  to  enjoy  this  transitory  life  : 
'  I  was  nothing,  I  am  nothing.     Do  you  who  are  still  alive, 
eat,  drink,  enjoy  yourselves,  come  '  !     'Do  you,  O  comrade, 
who  read  this,  enjoy  your  life  ;   for  after  death  there  is  neither 
pain  nor  laughter,  nor  joy  of  any  kind  '.     A  sepulchral  m.onu- 
ment,  which  was  found  in  1626  under  the  confessional  of  St. 
Peter's  church,  a  recumbent  statue  of  a  man  with  a  drinking- 
cup  in  his  hand,  excited  such  disgust  by  the  atrocious  nature 
of  the  inscription,  that  the  statue  was  hidden  or  thrown  into 
the  Tiber.     The  inscription  was  erased  with  lime,  but  a  copy 
has    been    preserved.     The    deceased,     notwithstanding    his 
gross  materialism,   appears  to  have  led  an  orderly,   decent 
life  as  a  citizen.     He  came  from  Tibur  ;   his  name  was  Flavius 
Agricola,  and  he  had  had  himself  represented  in  the  attitude 
in  which  he  was  fond  of  emptying   the    bottle    dining   his 


Belief  in  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul      285 

lifetime.  He  had  lived  most  agreeably  with  his  wife  Flavia 
Primitiva  for  thirty  years  ;  she,  a  modest,  industrious,  beauti- 
ful woman,  had  been  a  worshipper  of  Isis.  After  her  death 
his  son  Aurelius  Primitivus  had  consoled  him  by  his  affection 
and  received  him  into  his  house.  In  conclusion,  he  advises 
his  readers  in  some  verses,  (which  evidently  were  frequently 
employed,  but  in  varied  form),  to  enjoy  the  pleasures  of  wine 
and  love,  since  after  death  everything  else  is  destroyed  by 
earth  and  fire. 

It  is  highly  probable  that  the  most  outspoken  materialism 
was  the  most  convincing  to  unbelievers  in  the  educational 
sphere  to  which  the  composers  of  these  epitaphs  belonged, 
who  naturally  also  were  fond  of  displaying  their  enlightened 
ideas  and  superiority  to  those  who  were  less  advanced  by  a 
vigorously  worded  profession  of  faith,  which  neither  custom 
nor  dogma  prohibited  them  from  recording  upon  tomb- 
stones. On  the  contrary,  this  appeared  a  specially  suitable 
opportunity  for  summing  up  their  life's  experiences  ;  so  that 
we  need  not  be  surprised  to  find  the  lowest  and  most  degenerate 
form  of  Epicureanism,  which  sought  the  only  true  good  in 
the  grossest  sensual  enjoyment,  openly  flaunting  itself  in 
this  manner.  Allusion  is  frequently  made  to  an  epitaph  in 
this  style  on  King  Sardanapalus,  or  a  variation  of  it  :  e.g. 
What  I  have  eaten  and  drunk,  I  have  taken  with  me  ;  what 
I  have  left  behind,  I  have  lost.  We  must  interpret  in  the 
same  sense  those  epitaphs  in  which  baths,  wine,  and  love, 
moderately  enjoyed,  are  extolled  as  the  source  of  true  pleasure 
in  life,  and  the  dead  man  is  made  to  say  that  he  has  taken 
everything  with  him  into  the  grave,  i.e.  every  real  blessing 
which  life  can  offer  has  passed  into  his  possession  and  thereby, 
as  it  were,  become  part  of  himself. 

As  compared  with  the  thousands  which  betray  no  doubt 
in  a  life  after  death,  the  number  of  materialistic  epitaphs 
is  exceedingly  small,  although  (as  observed)  no  obstacle 
existed  which  could  prevent  even  the  most  reckless  materialist 
from  expressing  his  unbelief  in  this  manner.  The  feelings 
of  the  ancient  world  in  regard  to  death  and  burial  were  in 
many  respects  essentially  different  from  those  of  the  moderns  ; 
to  the  former  even  jesting  did  not  seem  incompatible  with 
the  seriousness  of  the  grave.  But  we  should  be  bound  to 
assume  that  materialism  had  made  great  strides,  even  if  we 


286     Belief  in  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul 

did  not  possess  definite  evidence  of  the  spread  of  Epicureanism, 
especially  amongst  the  uneducated,  and  (to  judge  from 
modern  analogies)  perhaps  even  more  amongst  the  half- 
educated.  Certainly,  it  is  quite  impossible  to  define,  at  any 
particular  period,  the  proportion  of  materialists  to  believers 
In  immortality  ;  but  there  Is  reason  to  believe  that,  in  spite 
of  their  relatively  large  number,  they  formed  only  a  small 
minority  even  in  the  later  days  of  antiquity. 

If,  further,  the  denial  of  immortality  was  a  capital  and 
fundamental  principle  in  the  materialistic  philosophy  of 
Epicurus,  the  finite  nature  of  the  soul  was  also  assumed  in 
other  philosophical  systems.  Certainly,  the  Stoic  belief 
in  a  limited,  but  indeterminate  continuance  of  life  after  death 
in  its  practical  application  had  essentially  the  same  value 
and  effect  as  the  belief  in  immortality-  Yet  Panaetius,  who 
lived  about  the  middle  of  the  second  century  B.C.  in  the  Scipionic 
circle  at  Rome  and  later  at  Athens,  always  enjoyed  a  great 
reputation  and  exercised  great  influence,  especially  on  the 
Romans  who  were  inclined  to  Stoicism,  diverged  in  this,  as 
in  other  points,  from  the  tradition  of  the  school.  He  abso- 
lutely denied  life  after  death,  and  Cornutus,  the  teacher  of 
Persius,  expressed  an  equally  decided  opinion  that  the 
individual  soul  died  and  perished  with  its  body,  while  Marcus 
Aurelius  wavered  between  the  ideas  of  an  extinction  of  the 
soul  at  death  and  a  passage  into  another  existence.  Amongst 
the  Peripatetics,  to  whom  Panaetius  attached  himself  by 
preference,  Dicaearchus,  who  was  taught  by  Aristotle  himself, 
also  denied  the  continued  existence  of  the  soul,  which  he 
regarded  as  the  result  of  the  mixture  of  the  corporeal  sub- 
stances, dependent  for  its  very  existence  upon  the  body,  and 
pervading  all  its  parts.  Aristotle  himself  certainly  taught 
the  continued  existence  of  the  thinking  spirit,  but  not  of  the 
person  or  individual ;  and  he  expressly  rejected  the  idea  that 
the  dead  (called  '  the  blessed  ',  ol  /xa/captTai,  by  the  people 
of  Greece)  could  be  happy.  Of  the  later  Peripatetics  Strato 
of  Lampsacus,  the  pupil  of  Theophrastus,  to  all  appearance 
entirely  abandoned  the  belief  in  immortality  ;  and  Alexander 
of  Aphrodisias  (time  of  the  Scveri),  who  has  been  honoured 
with  the  name  of  a  second  Aristotle,  has  attempted  to  show 
that  Aristotle  also  denied  immortality. 

But  there  was  also  a  philosophy    wliich  affirmed  immor- 


Belief  in  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul     287 

tality  as  emphatically  as  Epicureanism  denied  it.  This 
was  Platonism,  the  only  philosophy  which  undertook  to 
prove  it  scientifically,  since  to  the  Pythagoreans  the  theory 
of  the  immortality  and  transmigration  of  souls  was  rather 
a  dogma  than  a  philosophical  principle.  As  Platonism  in 
general  irresistibly  attracted  those  whose  minds  were  set 
on  things  above  the  earth,  its  theory  of  the  soul  in  particular 
was  a  comfort  and  consolation  to  all  who  needed,  in  addition 
to  a  belief  in  immortality,  a  philosophical  proof  of  their  con- 
victions. Cato  of  Utica,  also,  the  '  perfect  Stoic  ',  as  Cicero 
calls  him,  whose  death  made  him  an  ideal  figure  in  later 
Stoicism,  read  the  Phaedo  of  Plato  before  committing  suicide. 
Certainly  Plato's  proof  of  immortality  could  convince  no  one 
who  was  not  already  convinced,  and  Strato's  criticism  had 
shown  it  to  be  inconclusive  ;  but  the  name  and  reputation 
of  Plato  were  a  guarantee  of  the  truth  of  his  doctrine,  that 
satisfied  Cicero  and  certainly  most  people,  who  preferred  to 
err  with  him  than  to  recognize  the  truth  with  his  opponents. 
'  It  is  impossible  to  estimate  how  much  his  dialogues  have 
done  to  strengthen,  spread  and  develop  the  belief  in  immor- 
tality, with  varying  success  in  the  course  of  centuries,  but 
without  interruption  down  to  our  own  days  '.  '  Posterity 
has  correctly  judged  him  as  the  type  of  the  priest  and  sage, 
who  with  warning  hand  points  the  way  upwards  to  the  immortal 
human  spirit,  from  this  poor  earth  to  the  eternal  light. 

In  his  belief  that  he  could  scientifically  prove  the  imperish- 
ability of  the  soul,  Plato  allowed  himself  to  be  increasingly 
influenced  in  his  ideas  of  its  destiny  before  and  after  its  life  in 
the  body  by  the  mystical  theories  of  the  Orphico-Pythagorean 
sects.  The  Orphic  communities  worshipped  above  other 
gods  the  Thracian  Bacchus  (Dionysus),  and  his  ecstatic 
cult  contained  the  deeply  rooted  conviction  '  that  a  god 
lived  in  the  human  form,  and  could  only  be  set  free  by  the 
bursting  asunder  of  the  chains  of  the  body  '.  In  connexion 
with  this  conviction  was  developed  the  effort  to  detach  one- 
self from  the  earthly  and  perishable  by  means  of  asceticism 
(the  so-called  Orphic  life),  which  determined  the  direction 
of  the  belief  and  mental  attitude  of  these  mystic  separatists. 
The  belief  in  a  compensating  justice  in  the  next  world  is 
also  indebted  to  them  for  its  elaboration  and  confirmation. 
These  theories,  which  travelled  from  Thrace  by  way  of  Greece 


288      Belief  In  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul 

to  lower  Italy  and  Sicily,  blended  with  those  of  the  Pythagorean 
communities,  and  in  that  form,  which  continued  unaltered 
for  centuries,  were  widely  adopted  throughout  the  Greek 
world.  The  most  important  of  the  Orphico-Pythagorean 
dogmas  was  the  theory  of  the  transmigration  of  souls,  the 
cycle  of  continual  new  birth  which  the  soul  must  traverse, 
in  order  to  do  penance  for  its  falling  away  to  the  corporeal 
and  to  regain  its  divine  nature.  Consequently  it  is  not 
death,  but  life,  which  is  held  to  be  the  wages  of  sin.  After 
its  earthly  life  the  soul  awaits  judgment  in  Hades,  in  accor- 
dance with  which  the  pious  look  forward  to  a  blessed  existence 
in  company  with  the  gods  of  the  underworld,  sinners  to 
punishments  in  Tartarus,  which  in  the  eschatological  poems 
of  the  Orphists  are  described  in  all  their  horror,  '  with  the 
object  of  terrifying,  converting,  and  awakening  mankind  '. 
Plato  appropriated  both  the  doctrine  of  the  transmigration 
of  souls  and  their  punishments,  which  were  regarded  partly 
as  purificatory  (especially  by  means  of  fire,  a  theory  also 
adopted  by  Origen  and  elevated  by  Gregory  I.  to  a 
dogma)  and  partly  as  eternal,  and  attached  great  value  to 
an  emphatic  announcement  of  them. 

Virgil  also  was  indebted  to  Orphism  for  the  main  features 
of  his  portrait  of  the  underworld,  especially  the  descriptions 
of  Elysium,  Tartarus  and  the  valley  of  Lethe  (where  the  souls 
that  are  to  enter  new  bodies  first  drink  forgetfulness  of  the 
old).  Similarly  Plutarch  in  his  description  of  the  other 
world,  has  drawn  upon  Orphic  literature  ;  after  the  example 
of  Plato,  he  gives  it  in  the  form  of  a  vision  of  a  dead  man 
restored  to  life,  whose  soul  has  preserved  the  recollection  of 
its  impressions  while  separated  from  the  body.  The  abode 
of  the  blessed  is  like  a  grotto  of  Bacchus,  decked  with  verdure 
and  flowers  of  every  kind,  which  exhales  a  gentle  fragrance 
that  intoxicates  the  soul  like  wine,  and  is  full  of  Bacchic 
pleasure,  laughter,  jest  and  song.  At  the  place  of  torture 
the  punishments  for  offences  are  of  three  classes.  The  mildest 
are  for  those  who  have  akeady  done  penance  on  earth.  But 
he  who  arrives  from  his  life  on  earth  unpunished  and  unpuri- 
fied,  is  tormented  until  every  passion  is  eradicated  by  pains 
and  tortures,  which  surpass  those  of  the  flesh  in  violence 
and  severity  as  much  as  the  reality  surpasses  the  dream  in 
clearness.     The  scars  and  weals  of  the  passions  remain  in 


Belief    in  the  Immortality  of    the  Soul    289 

some  cases  longer  than  in  others  ;  hence  the  colours  of  the 
souls  are  varied  and  manifold.  A  blood-red  colour  shows 
cruelty  ;  a  bluish,  that  sensuality  has  been  eradicated,  and 
so  on.  The  colour  indicates  the  end  of  purification  and 
punishment ;  after  it  has  disappeared  the  soul  becomes 
bright  and  of  one  colour.  At  the  place  of  the  severest  punish- 
ments is  heard  the  sound  of  the  mournful  wailing  of  souls, 
which  are  enduring  the  most  cruel  tortures.  The  narrator 
sees  the  soul  of  his  father,  full  of  marks  and  scars,  coming 
forth  from  a  chasm  and  stretching  out  his  hands  to  him, 
while  it  is  being  dragged  away  by  its  tormentors  to  fresh 
penances  (he  had  poisoned  certain  persons  without  having 
been  found  out  during  his  lifetime).  He  sees  a  number  of 
souls  in  coils  of  two,  three  or  more  like  snakes,  and  devouring 
each  other.  Further,  there  are  three  lakes,  of  boiling  gold, 
cold  lead,  and  rough  iron,  in  which  demons,  like  smiths, 
dip  the  souls  of  the  avaricious,  and  pull  them  out  again  with 
their  implements.  Having  been  made  red-hot  and  trans- 
parent in  the  lake  of  gold,  they  become  as  hard  as  hailstones 
in  the  lake  of  lead,  and  black  and  brittle  in  the  lake  of  iron, 
so  that,  when  broken  and  crushed,  they  assume  new  forms, 
and  are  thrown  again  into  the  lake  of  gold,  suffering  inde- 
scribable torments  during  these  changes.  Many,  who  thought 
their  punishment  was  ended,  were  carried  away  to  fresh 
tortures,  at  the  instance  of  the  souls  of  their  descendants, 
who  had  been  obliged  to  do  penance  for  their  ancestors' 
crimes  during  their  lifetime.  Finally,  he  sees  the  souls  of 
those  who,  that  they  may  be  born  again  in  the  bodies  of 
animals,  are  violently  transformed  by  their  tormentors  with 
various  instruments.  Amongst  them  is  the  soul  of  Nero, 
which  in  addition  to  other  tortures  is  pierced  with  red-hot 
nails.  It  was  intended  for  the  body  of  a  viper,  but  at  the 
bidding  of  a  loud  voice,  which  suddenly  issued  from  a  blaze 
of  light,  the  body  of  some  tame  animal,  which  sings  and 
lives  by  marshes  and  lakes  (perhaps  a  toad),  was  assigned 
to  it  as  a  habitation  :  '  for  the  gods  owed  Nero  a  reward, 
for  having  bestowed  freedom  upon  the  Hellenes,  the  best 
and   most   god-favoured   people   of   all   his   subjects '. 

Traces  of  the  widespread  acceptance  of  the  Orphic  doc- 
trine are  also  to  be  found  in  epitaphs.  Such  is  the  prayer 
addressed  to  the  god  of  the  underworld,  Aidoneus  or  Osiris, 

R.L.M. — HI,  U 


290      Belief  in  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul 

the  Egyptian  lord  of  the  soul,  that  he  would  bestow  cold 
water  upon  the  deceased,  by  which  is  meant  the  water  of 
life.  The  gold  leaves  (which  the  dead  appear  to  have  held 
in  their  hands),  found  in  graves  at  Thurii  and  Petelia  (about 
the  third  century  B.C.)  and  at  Eleutherae  in  Crete  (about 
the  second  century  a.d.),  show  that  the  formulae,  which 
the  consecrated  one  was  obliged  to  be  familiar  with  on  his 
entry  into  Hades,  in  order  to  obtain  the  water  of  life,  were 
always  put  into  the  grave  with  him,  for  many  centuries  in 
the  same  manner.  The  Christians  also  retained  the  idea, 
but  not  in  its  original  significance.  '  Cooling  '  {refrigerium) 
is  with  them  a  typical  designation  for  the  state  of  the  blessed 
after  death,  and  the  prayer  for  this  cooling  is  addressed 
not  only  to  Christ,  but  also  to  martyrs. 

Also  the  idea  of  an  elevation  of  the  soul  into  aether,  to 
the  stars,  to  the  neighbourhood  of  the  gods,  which  had  its 
origin  '  in  religious  presentiments  as  much  as  in  philosophical 
speculations  ',  was  compatible  with  Orphico-Pythagorean 
doctrines.  It  appears  gradually  to  have  ousted  the  idea  of 
a  place  under  the  earth  for  the  pious,  and  under  the  influence 
of  Stoic  views  to  have  found  the  widest  acceptance  in  later 
times.  Statins  leaves  it  undecided  whether  his  father's 
soul  has  soared  to  the  heights  above  and,  sojourning  in  the 
regions  of  light,  is  following  the  paths  of  the  stars,  or  whether 
he  is  dwelling  in  the  fields  of  Lethe  amongst  the  heroes  of 
the  past  and  the  shades  of  the  departed.  Yet  in  some  epitaphs 
the  latter  idea  is  expressly  rejected  :  the  soul  of  the  dead 
is  not  in  the  underworld  amongst  the  shades  of  the  departed, 
but  has  risen  to  the  stars.  To  the  same  effect  the  younger 
Pliny  says  of  the  Emperor  Trajan's  dead  father  :  his  abode 
is  either  amongst  the  stars  or  near  them,  whence  he  looks 
down  upon  his  son  and  rejoices  in  his  fame  and  glory. 

In  the  first  centuries  of  the  Christian  era  the  majority 
of  the  educated  classes  of  the  Roman  world  were  probably 
as  little  affected  by  the  mystical  doctrines  of  religious  sects 
as  by  those  of  the  different  philosophical  schools.  They 
adhered  to  no  single  philosophical  system,  but  according 
to  their  individual  needs  formed  their  opinion  of  the  world 
by  means  of  eclecticism,  and  were  only  indirectly  or  to  a  small 
extent  influenced  by  philosophy  in  general.  Some  did  not 
even  feel  the  need  of  being  firmly  convinced  on  the  subject 


Belief  in  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul     291 

of  immortality,  while  others  had  abandoned  the  idea  in  de- 
spair. The  diametrically  opposite  results  at  which  the  different 
philosophical  tendencies  had  arrived,  the  assault  upon  the 
principles  supported  by  the  most  reputed  teachers  deHvered 
by  others  of  equal  repute,  were  bound  to  lead  the  sceptically 
minded  in  particular  to  the  conclusion  that  the  scientific 
investigation  of  this  subject  was  a  task  beyond  human  powers. 
This  was  the  view  held  even  by  a  man  like  Socrates,  although 
he  was  naturally  inclined  to  believe  in  a  life  after  death.  It 
was  very  natural  that  those  inquirers,  who  made  the  body 
the  subject  of  their  investigation,  should  feel  the  gravest 
doubts  as  to  the  immateriality  of  the  soul.  The  physician 
Galen,  although  anything  but  a  materialist  and  a  declared 
opponent  of  Epicurus,  regarded  the  Platonic  idea  of  the 
immateriahty  of  the  soul  with  great  suspicion.  How  should 
incorporeal  substances  be  distinguished  from  one  another  ? 
he  asks  ;  how  can  an  incorporeal  nature  pervade  the  body  ? 
how  can  it  be  so  affected  by  the  body,  as  happens  in  regard 
to  the  soul  in  cases  of  madness,  drunkenness  and  similar 
circumstances  ?  '  He  does  not  presume  to  decide  this  point, 
any  more  than  he  intends  to  affirm  or  deny  immortality  '. 

Quintilian  also  considers  the  question,  whether  the  soul 
when  released  from  the  body  is  immortal  or  at  least  con- 
tinues to  exist  for  a  certain  time,  as  one  that  has  not  been 
decided.  Tacitus  was  equally  unconvinced  at  the  time 
when,  in  his  mature  years,  he  wrote  the  life  of  Agricola. 
He  concludes  with  the  wish  that  the  deceased  may  rest  in 
peace,  '  if  there  is  a  place  for  the  spirits  of  the  pious  ;  if,  as 
the  wise  believe,  great  souls  are  not  annihilated  with  the 
body  '.  In  these  last  words  he  alludes  to  the  doctrine  of 
Chrysippus,  that  only  the  souls  of  the  wise  will  endure  till 
the  conflagration  of  the  world.  Even  Cicero,  who  attached 
such  high  importance  to  the  belief  in  immortahty,  did  not 
consider  it  superfluous  to  allay  men's  fears  of  death,  in  the 
event  of  the  soul  perishing  with  the  body. 

But  although  Cicero  recognized  that  doubt  was  justifiable, 
he  was  himself  firmly  convinced  that  the  soul  was  immortal. 
His  reasons  were  probably  exactly  the  same  as  those  of  the 
majority  of  believers  among  the  educated  classes ;  they 
were  based,  not  so  much  upon  dogmas  or  scientific  proofs, 
as  upon  instincts,   needs  and  feelings,   partly  characteristic 


292      Belief  in  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul 

of  human  nature  in  general,  and  partly  developed  by  the 
special  influences  of  Roman  civilization.  For,  although 
Cicero  reproduces  in  detail  the  Platonic  proof  of  immortality, 
he  expressly  states  (as  already  observed)  that  he  considers 
the  conviction  of  a  Plato  enough  for  him,  even  unsupported 
by  argument,  and  to  all  appearance  he  adduces  this  proof 
more  for  the  satisfaction  of  others  than  for  his  own.  His 
belief,  like  that  of  all  kindred  natures,  was  based  above  all 
upon  a  lofty  conception  of  the  greatness  and  dignity  of  the 
human  intellect,  upon  admiration  and  reverence  for  its  powers 
and  performances.  He  was  convinced  that  the  intellect, 
which  had  invented  language  and  writing,  associated  man 
with  man,  measured  the  orbits  of  the  stars,  created  civiliza- 
tion, the  arts,  poetry  and  philosophy,  could  not  possibly 
be  of  an  earthly  and  perishable  nature.  Its  power,  wisdom, 
inventiveness  and  memory  appeared  to  him  divine  ;  its 
origin  could  not  be  an  earthly  one,  it  must  be  derived  from 
heaven,  and  therefore  divine.  In  this  conviction  he  was 
confirmed  by  the  agreement  of  all  peoples,  which  on  this 
point  was  as  complete  as  on  the  belief  in  divinities  ;  further, 
by  the  belief  of  the  greatest  intellects  of  his  own  nation  and 
by  the  recognition  of  immortality  in  the  religious  cult  of 
the  dead,  observed  without  alteration  for  so  many  centuries. 
Further  proofs,  according  to  him,  were  to  be  found  in  the 
anxiety  of  men  as  to  what  would  become  of  them  after  death, 
the  sacrifice  of  the  best  amongst  them  for  posterity,  and 
the  general  and  natural  desire  for  recognition  by  posterity 
and  for  posthumous  renown.  Everywhere  and  at  all  times 
it  was  just  the  men  who  were  most  distinguished  in  character 
and  intellect  who  had  acted  as  men  would  only  act  with 
the  prospect  of  immortality  before  them  ;  and  it  is  in  the 
belief  held  by  the  noblest  and  best  that  we  are  most  likely 
to  discover  a  knowledge  of  the  truth.  Cicero  has  expressed 
his  belief  in  personal  immortality  almost  poetically  in  the 
Dream  of  Scipio,  in  which  he  describes  the  blessedness  enjoyed 
by  the  mighty  dead  of  the  past  in  celestial  spheres,  after 
they  have  been  uplifted  from  the  prison  of  the  body  to  the 
true  and  eternal  life. 

But  certainly  all  the  hopes  of  a  life  beyond  the  grave  which 
were  not  founded  upon  religious  convictions  were  persistently 
vague.     This  is  shown  in  particular  by  the  example  of  Seneca, 


Belief  in  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul      293 

who  nevertheless  professed  his  adherence  to  a  Stoicism  that 
taught  the  doctrine  of  immortahty,  and  who  in  addition 
was  greatly  in  favour  of  the  Platonic  views  of  the  question. 
There  was  a  time  in  his  life  when  immortality  appeared  as 
inconceivable  and  undesirable  to  him  as  to  Epicurus,  of 
whom  he  held  the  highest  opinion.  In  one  of  his  tragedies 
he  says  :  '  He  who  has  set  foot  on  the  waters  of  the  river  of 
the  dead,  exists  no  more.  As  the  dirty  smoke  from  the 
kindled  fires  ascends  and  vanishes  after  its  brief  journey, 
and  as  the  fury  of  arctic  Boreas  drives  before  it  and  dissipates 
the  clouds  heavily  charged  with  rain,  so  the  spirit,  which 
animates  our  bodies  and  regulates  the  term  of  existence,  will 
pass  away  ;  after  death  there  is  nothing — death  itself  is  nothing, 
only  the  most  recent  arrival  or  goal  reached,  in  the  velocity 
of  space.  Let  the  avaricious  discard  their  hopes  and  let 
the  anxious  set  aside  their  fears.  Dost  thou  betray  any 
curiosity  to  know  where  thou  shalt  rest  after  death  ?  Where 
those  rest  who  have  not  come  into  existence  at  all.  Repa- 
cious  time  swallows  us  up,  and  we  merge  into  Chaos.  Death 
is  the  inseparable  bugbear  of  the  body,  nor  does  it  spare 
the  soul  any  more  than  it  does  the  body.  Taenarum — and 
the  kingdom  under  that  relentless  ruler,  and  the  dog  Cerberus 
which  blocks  the  way  and  guards  the  difficult  approach — 
all  this  is  empty  talk  and  idle  words,  like  the  terrors  revealed 
during  a  frightful  nightmare'  {Troades,  392-411,  trans. 
W.  Bradshaw).  Although  Seneca  perhaps  did  not  long 
adhere  to  this  uncompromising  attitude  of  denial,  he  never 
attained  a  firm  and  undoubting  belief  in  immortality.  He 
writes  to  his  friend  Lucilius  the  Epicurean,  whose  last  letter 
had  awakened  him  from  a  pleasant  dream,  that  he  was  on 
the  point  of  accepting  the  consoling  belief  in  the  immortality 
of  the  soul  and  of  adopting  the  opinions  of  great  men,  which 
certainly  promised  more  than  they  proved  ;  on  the  receipt 
of  Lucilius'  letter  he  awoke,  the  beautiful  dream  vanished, 
and  yet  he  would  like  it  to  return.  In  fact,  in  the  conclusion 
of  his  letter  he  looks  forward  to  a  longer  and  better  life  to 
which  the  earthly  life  is  only  a  prelude.  Then  will  the  secrets 
of  nature  be  revealed  to  us,  the  heavens,  which  the  soul  chained 
to  the  body  can  only  endure  from  a  distance,  will  be  lighted 
up  on  all  sides  alike,  night  will  no  longer  succeed  day,  and 
we  shall  recognize  that  we  lived  in  darkness,  as  long  as  the 


294     Belief  in  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul 

divine  light  only  penetrated  to  us  through  the  narrow  medium 
of  the  eyes.  If  we  compare  the  conclusion  with  the  beginning 
of  the  letter,  we  can  hardly  doubt  that  the  confidence  which 
he  here  displays  was  assumed.  In  fact,  he  declares  often 
enough  in  his  latest  writings  that  it  is  doubtful  whether 
there  is  another  life,  whether  the  soul  continues  to  exist, 
whether  death  is  only  a  transition  or  the  end.  We  could 
only  be  certain  of  its  nature  and  effect,  if  a  man  were  to  rise 
from  the  dead.  But  Seneca  knew  of  no  man  who  had  so 
risen. 

Philosophical  speculation  could  only  give  an  assurance 
of  continued  existence  in  combination  with  religious  belief, 
as  in  the  case  of  Pythagoreanism  and  Platonism.  Certainly 
a  considerable  number  of  educated  men  entirely  abandoned 
a  philosophical  proof  of  immortality,  and  sought  and  found 
consolation  and  peace  of  mind  in  regard  to  the  other  life 
in  religion  alone.  Vast  numbers  of  people,  such  as  Plutarch's 
wife  Timoxena,  derived  their  firm  belief  in  immortality 
from  the  Orphico-Dionysiac  mysteries,  which  were  widely 
diffused  throughout  the  entire  Greek  world  and  were  especially 
in  vogue  in  the  second  century  a.d.  But  of  all  the  Greek 
mysteries  the  Eleusinian  maintained  the  reputation  of  being 
the  most  sacred  festival  of  grace,  and  the  celebration  of  the 
sacred  night  was  perhaps  most  thronged  in  the  last  days  of 
antiquity.  Throughout  the  Roman  empire  foreign  (Thracian, 
Phrygian,  Egyptian,  Syrian,  Persian)  secret  cults  became 
more  and  more  attractive,  owing  to  the  charm  exercised  by 
the  mysterious,  especially  if  unfamiliar  ;  certainly  all  of 
them  promised  immortal  happiness  to  their  votaries.  Those 
who  were  consecrated  to  the  service  of  Isis  and  Mithras  were 
called  '  born  again  ',  '  born  again  to  eternity  '.  The  essence 
of  the  worship  of  Mithras  was  perhaps  the  old  Persian  belief 
in  a  resurrection  of  the  dead. 

Amongst  the  evidences  of  the  belief  in  immortality  and 
the  hope  of  a  higher  existence  must  be  reckoned  numerous 
figurative  representations  on  funeral  urns  and  altars,  sarco- 
phagi, and  other  monuments,  of  which  the  most  artistically 
adorned  could  only  have  been  within  the  reach  of  the  well- 
to-do,  that  is,  generally  speaking,  the  better  educated.  Cer- 
tainly the  language  of  these  images  and  figures  is  not  always 
intelligible  ;    the  artistic  production  of  the  age,  which  as  a 


Belief  in  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul      295 

rule  endeavoured  to  satisfy  the  new  requirements  of  art  by 
borrowing  from  the  immense  stock  of  existing  creations,  in 
this  case  also  frequently  employed  older  representations 
with  a  new  meaning.  The  great  mass  of  mythological  scenes, 
so  rich  in  figures,  with  which  the  front  sides  of  the  sarcophagi 
are  adorned,  belongs  to  these  ancient  creations  ;  the  majority 
of  them  date  from  the  period  from  the  second  to  the  fourth 
century,  and  in  many  cases  (perhaps  as  a  rule)  were  not  made 
to  order,  but  were  executed  for  buyers  to  choose  from,  in 
accordance  with  the  prevailing  demand.  If  the  connexion 
of  the  myths  represented  with  death,  immortality  and  the 
other  world  cannot  always  be  proved  with  certainty,  and 
perhaps  sometimes  the  only  object  was  to  fill  up  the  empty 
spaces  with  favourite  representations,  yet  in  the  majority  of 
cases  there  can  be  no  doubt  of  the  idea  with  which  they  were 
selected  for  this  purpose.  The  figures  of  the  myths  are,  as  it 
were,  poetical  t}-pes  for  the  symbolical  expression  of  abstract 
ideas  ;  and  even  here  the  prevailing  tendency  of  Greek  art  and 
poetry  to  transfigure  human  existence  by  elevating  it  into  the 
regions  of  the  ideal,  is  manifest.  Only  rarely  (as  in  the  fable 
of  Prometheus)  is  the  union  and  separation  of  soul  and  body 
represented  ;  usually  the  transition  to  another  life  and  its 
happiness  or  misery  is  symVjolized  by  the  destinies  of  the 
gods  and  heroes.  The  rape  of  Proserpine  to  the  shades  and 
her  return  to  the  world  of  light,  the  death  of  Adonis  succeeded 
by  his  resurrection,  were  favourite  subjects  ;  perhaps  the 
carrying  off  of  the  daughters  of  Leucippus  by  the  Dioscuri 
to  a  higher  existence  had  a  similar  significance.  The  stories  of 
Admetus  and  Alcestis,  of  Protesilails  and  Laodamia,  indicate 
the  hope  of  a  meeting  again  after  death  and  the  continuance 
of  conjugal  love  beyond  the  grave.  Hercules,  the  hero  who 
after  incessant  struggles  frees  himself  from  the  infirmities 
of  mortality  and  proves  victorious  even  over  the  powers  of 
the  underworld,  appears  in  his  combats  and  labours  as  a  real 
victor  over  death.  Achilles  in  Scyros,  who  preferred  a  brief 
and  glorious  life  to  a  long  and  inglorious  one,  and  was  rewarded 
for  his  choice  by  removal  to  Elysium,  is  apparently  intended 
to  be  a  guarantee  of  the  reward  which  awaits  virtue  ;  the  stories 
of  Actaeon,  Marsyas,  Clytaemnestra,  and  the  battle  of  the 
giants,  are  perhaps  warnings  of  the  punishments  which  over- 
take sinners.     The  delights  of  the  blessed  are  indicated  by  the 


296      Belief  in  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul 

joyous  meetings,  dances,  and  festivities  of  the  crowd  which 
forms  the  retinue  of  Bacchus,  the  motley  tlarong  of  Bacchants, 
Maenads,  Satyrs,  Pans  and  Centaurs,  whose  exuberance  of 
life,  on  sarcophagi  and  urns,  gets  the  better  of  death  :  '  the 
ashes  appear  still  to  be  enjoying  life  in  their  peaceful  abode  ' 
(Goethe).  The  god  himself  by  his  resurrection,  according  to 
the  Orphic  doctrine,  guaranteed  immortality  to  those  who 
had  been  initiated  into  his  mysteries  ;  Ariadne,  raised  by 
him  to  heaven,  was  regarded  as  an  example  of  the  soul  freed 
from  mortality  and  removed  to  a  higher  world.  The  com- 
panies and  bands  of  the  Nereids  and  marine  divinities,  rock- 
ing themselves  on  the  waves  of  the  sea,  and  the  sports  of  the 
love-gods  ("EpcoTcs,  Cupidines)  appear  to  represent  the  con- 
dition of  the  blessed.  In  1857  and  1858  two  stately,  two- 
storied  mausoleums  (constructed  in  the  second  half  of  the 
second  century  a.d.)  were  discovered  facing  one  another  on 
opposite  sides  of  the  Via  Latina  at  Rome.  The  arched  roof 
of  the  chief  chamber  in  the  lower  story  of  one,  which  contains 
three  sarcophagi,  is  richly  ornamented  with  stucco  reliefs  ; 
a  medallion  in  the  centre  represents  the  soul  of  the  deceased 
as  a  veiled  figure  carried  by  a  grififin,  and  is  surrounded  by 
twenty-four  other  medallions  with  Bacchants,  Nereids  and 
love-gods  in  small  square  fields.  In  a  Latin  poem,  found  near 
Philippi,  on  the  death  of  a  boy  it  is  said  that  the  women 
dedicated  to  Bacchus  would  now  take  him  into  their  company 
as  a  satyr  in  a  flowery  meadow,  or  the  nymphs  in  their  torch- 
light dances. 

Whether  the  belief  in  immortality  found  more  opponents 
than  supporters  even  amongst  the  small  minority  of  edu- 
cated persons,  cannot  be  determined  ;  but  there  can  be  no  ques- 
tion that  at  all  times  a  vast  majority  amongst  the  masses  in 
the  main  held  firmly  to  the  ideas  of  the  immortality  of  the 
soul,  propagated  from  primitive  times  through  successive 
centuries,  notwithstanding  all  the  modifications  which  had 
been  introduced  in  the  course  of  time.  The  belief  of  man  in 
his  continued  existence  is  one  of  the  strongest  and  commonest 
instincts  and  needs  of  the  human  soul.  This  is  confirmed 
generally  by  the  study  of  the  customs  of  primitive  peoples 
and  of  the  oldest  civilized  peoples,  although  exceptions  are 
not  wanting  ;  amongst  the  Indo-Germanic  nations,  in  par- 
ticular, this  belief  goes  back  far  beyond  the  beginnings  of 


Belief  in  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul      297 

tradition.  Belief  in  immortality  is  as  much  in  keeping  with 
human  nature  as  belief  in  the  rule  of  higher  beings  ;  it  springs 
from  the  dread  of  annihilation  ;  the  impulse  of  self-preserva- 
tion in  this  case  instinctively  extends  beyond  the  grave. 
Man,  awakened  to  consciousness,  seeks  in  the  next  world  the 
solution  of  the  enigmas  of  life,  consolation  for  his  sufferings 
and  disappointments,  '  at  the  grave  he  plants  the  seed  of 
hope  '.  Only  a  minority  is  capable  of  reflection,  which  leads 
to  doubt  and  denial.  The  longing  for  annihilation,  with 
which  for  so  many  centuries  millions  in  Asia  have  been  filled, 
springs  from  fear,  not  of  immortality  in  itself,  but  of  the 
torture  of  endless  re-births. 

Certainly,  as  in  all  ages,  currents  of  materialism  reached 
the  masses  in  later  Graeco-Roman  antiquity  ;  but  neither  the 
analogy  of  similar  experiences  in  modern  times  nor  the  com- 
paratively small  number  of  materialistic  or  sceptical  epitaphs 
of  persons  of  the  lower  classes  justifies  the  assumption  that 
they  ever  made  much  progress  or  injured  positive  belief  to 
any  considerable  extent.  In  contrast  to  such  epitaphs,  others 
express  a  firm  confidence  in  immortality  and  reunion  after 
death  ;  for  example,  the  inscription  on  the  common  grave 
of  a  married  couple,  of  whom  the  wife  had  died  first :  '  I  am 
waiting  for  my  husband  '.  But,  in  particular,  there  is  abun- 
dant and  absolutely  trustworthy  evidence  that  the  popular 
belief  on  the  whole,  so  far  as  Graeco-Roman  culture  extended, 
was  still  determined  by  the  original  Roman  and  Greek  ideas  of 
the  other  world,  which  in  the  course  of  centuries  had  variously 
amalgamated. 

Certainly,  Roman  writers  have  asserted  at  different  times, 
that  no  one  believed  in  the  old  popular  fables  of  the  under- 
world. No  old  woman,  says  Cicero,  is  so  weak-minded  as  to 
be  afraid  of  '  the  Acherontian  depths  of  Orcus,  the  pale  realm 
of  death  wrapped  in  darkness  '.  No  one,  says  Seneca,  is  so 
childish  as  to  fear  Cerberus  and  the  darkness  and  the  ghostly 
figures  of  the  skeletons  of  the  dead.  Only  quite  young  chil- 
dren, who  as  yet  pay  no  entrance  money  to  the  baths,  believe 
that  there  are  departed  spirits,  and  subterranean  realms,  a 
Cocytus  and  black  frogs  in  the  Stygian  abyss,  and  that  so 
many  thousands  cross  the  river  in  a  bark.  In  any  case  it  is 
true  that  the  Greek  ideas,  to  which  these  passages  chiefly 
refer,  were  less  generally  accepted  in  Italy  and  the  western 


298      Belief  in  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul 

lands,  although  there  also  the  reading  of  poetry  in  all  the 
schools,  theatrical  performances  and  the  plastic  art,  must 
have  favoured  their  propagation,  which  was  undoubtedly- 
underestimated  by  the  authors  cited.  Yet  Lucretius  could 
say  that  the  fear  of  Acheron  troubles  man's  life  from  its  inmost 
depths,  throws  the  dark  shadow  of  death  over  all  and  allows 
no  pleasure  to  be  pure  and  unalloyed  ;  certainly  in  his  pictures 
of  the  universally  dreaded  tortures  and  '  eternal  punishments  ' 
in  Tartarus  the  Orphic  descriptions  of  the  underworld  may 
have  been  before  his  mind. 

Juvenal  could  hardly  have  been  serious  in  denying  the 
persistence  of  the  Roman  popular  belief  in  the  spirits  of  the 
departed  ;  his  idea  seems  to  have  been  to  represent  only  its 
coarser  elements  as  entirely  abandoned,  and  even  in  this  he 
is  certainly  wrong.  Like  all  enlightened  intellects,  he  is  only 
too  ready  to  assume  the  opinions  that  prevailed  in  his  own 
circles  to  be  the  only  ones  that  are  reasonably  possible  and 
consequently  universally  admitted.  But  least  of  all  was 
Juvenal  in  a  position  to  deny  the  general  belief  in  immor- 
tality. No  one  will  dispute  that  he  must  at  least  have  known 
as  much  about  the  views  of  his  educated  contemporaries  as 
ourselves. 

In  regard  to  one  at  least  of  the  Greek  fables  ridiculed  by 
Juvenal  we  know  that  it  was  widely  believed  in,  even  in  the 
west.  This  is  the  fable  of  the  '  grim  ferryman  of  the  muddy 
pool  ',  as  Juvenal  calls  him,  to  whom  the  dead  man  is  obliged 
to  present  his  obol  in  his  mouth  as  passage  money.  That  the 
people  in  Greek  countries  generally  believed  in  the  existence 
of  the  ferryman  of  the  dead  is  expressly  attested  by  Lucian  : 
'  the  mass  is  so  preoccupied  with  this  idea  that,  when  a  man 
dies,  his  relatives  hasten  to  put  an  obol  into  his  mouth  to  pay 
the  ferryman  for  his  passage  across  the  Styx,  without  first 
finding  out  what  money  is  current  in  the  underworld  ',  and 
so  on.  Even  at  the  present  day  this  custom  exists  in  Greece, 
and  Charon  still  survives,  although  in  altered  form,  in  the 
popular  belief  and  songs  under  the  name  of  Charontas  or 
Charos,  a  god  of  death  and  the  underworld  generally.  Some- 
times he  appears  as  an  archer,  sometimes  as  a  reaper,  some- 
times as  a  monstrous  ghostly  horseman  escorting  the  hosts  of 
the  dead,  sometimes  as  an  eagle  swooping  down  upon  its  prey, 
and  sometimes  (but  rarely)  as  the  ferryman  of  the  dead      How 


Belief  in  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul     299 

general  and  deeply  rooted  must  that  belief  have  been,  which 
has  given  proof  of  such  indestructible  vitaUty,  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that,  for  fifteen  hundred  years,  all  the  conditions  necessary 
for  its  continuance  were  lacking  !  Originally,  to  all  appear- 
ance, the  piece  of  money  given  to  the  dead  man  to  take  with 
him  was  a  symbol  of  the  purchase  of  his  entire  property,  which 
he  was  supposed  to  take  with  him  intact.  This  obviously  ancient 
custom,  which  persisted  with  remarkable  tenacity  in  many 
countries  of  the  Roman  empire  to  a  late  period,  indeed, 
through  the  middle  ages  and  down  to  our  own  times,  was 
brought  into  connexion  with  the  idea  of  the  ferryman  of  the 
dead,  and  this  explanation  (of  the  obol  as  passage-money) 
became  a  popular  belief. 

If,  therefore,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  a  thing  which, 
according  to  Juvenal,  only  little  children  believed,  was  in 
reality  believed  by  thousands  and  thousands  in  the  Roman 
empire,  we  have  as  little  right  to  doubt  the  persistence  and 
propagation  of  the  other  popular  ideas  of  the  underworld. 
Cicero's,  Seneca's  and  Juvenal's  assurances  to  the  contrary 
may  be  confronted  with  the  equally  positive  assurance  of 
Lucian.  He  says  that  the  great  mass  of  the  common  people 
imagined  the  other  world  exactly  as  the  poets  had  described 
it.  It  was  a  monstrous,  gloomy  kingdom  of  the  dead,  ruled 
by  Pluto  and  Proserpine,  with  Cocytus  and  Pyriphlegethon, 
the  Acherusian  lake,  the  adamantine  gate  guarded  by  Aeacus 
and  Cerberus,  the  asphodel  meadow  with  the  river  of  Lethe, 
the  judges  of  the  dead,  who  send  the  good  into  Elysium  and 
hand  over  the  wicked  to  the  tortures  of  the  Furies,  while 
those  who  were  neither  good  nor  wicked  wander  as  shades 
over  the  asphodel  meadow,  living  upon  the  gifts  and  sacrifices 
offered  to  the  dead.  Plutarch  says  that  those  who  feared 
the  teeth  of  Cerberus  and  the  cask  of  the  daughters  of  Danaus, 
sought  protection  against  them  in  consecrations  and  purifica- 
tions, whereby  they  thought  to  obtain  a  guarantee  that  they 
would  continue  to  live  in  Hades  in  a  clear  spot  and  pure  air, 
in  the  midst  of  jest  and  dance.  He  certainly  was  of  opinion 
that  '  not  many  '  believed  these  '  old  wives'  fables  '  ;  but 
of  course  his  estimate  was  subjective  and  determined  by  acci- 
dental impressions,  like  that  of  Lucian,  to  whom  the  number 
of  believers  appeared  to  be  very  large.  Thus  the  statements 
of  both  are  equally  unreliable.     But  we  can  hardly  suppose 


300      Belief  in  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul 

that  the  ideas  of  the  great  multitude  in  regard  to  life  after 
death  were  more  enlightened  than  those  of  a  man  like  Aris- 
tides,  who  nevertheless  appears  to  have  believed  that  those 
who  had  not  been  initiated  into  the  Eleusinian  mysteries 
would  lie  in  the  underworld  surrounded  by  mud  and  darkness. 
In  his  essay  On  Superstition,  Plutarch  enumerates  amongst 
its  hallucinations  the  ideas  of  the  deep  gates  of  Hades,  of  the 
streams  of  fire  and  steep  precipices  of  the  Styx,  of  a  darkness 
full  of  ghosts,  where  frightful  forms  appear  and  piteous  cries 
are  to  be  heard,  of  judges  and  executioners,  of  gulfs  and 
abj^sses,  that  conceal  a  thousand  torments  ;  and  the  fact  that 
he  himself  regarded  superstition  as  a  widespread  evil,  is  the 
result  (as  already  observed)  of  the  eagerness  with  which  he 
combats  it. 

We  may  suppose  that  many,  if  not  most.  Greek  ideas  passed 
into  the  popular  belief  of  the  West,  especially  when  we  consider 
the  effect  exercised  by  the  Roman  poets  through  the  schools. 
From  the  time  of  Ennius,  detailed  descriptions  of  the  under- 
world were  a  favourite  subject  with  epic  (perhaps  also  tragic) 
poets,  and  that  of  Virgil  before  all  others  probably  influenced, 
both  directly  and  indirectly,  the  ideas  of  a  vast  multitude. 

No  proofs  are  needed  to  show  that  the  ideas  of  a  more  or 
less  material  existence  of  the  departed,  such  as  is  assumed 
in  the  old  fables  handed  down  from  time  immemorial,  were 
as  widespread  amongst  the  masses  as  the  fables  themselves. 
The  vast  majority  of  mankind  at  that  time  were  even  less 
capable  than  they  are  now  of  exercising  the  faculty  of  abstrac- 
tion, which  the  idea  of  a  purely  spiritual  existence  requires. 
In  every  attempt  to  portray  the  unknown  life  the  imagination 
left  to  itself  was,  and  still  is,  obliged  to  work,  involuntarily 
and  unconsciously,  with  colours  and  forms  borrowed  from 
the  life  with  which  it  is  acquainted,  and  its  most  refined  and 
most  ethereal  images  are  no  more  immaterial  than  the  rudest 
and  grossest.  It  was  in  the  nature  of  things  that  the  latter 
should  be  the  only  ones  which  the  great  multitude  could 
comprehend  and  retain.  All  the  less  reason,  therefore,  is 
there  to  doubt  the  assertion  of  Lucian,  that  many  believed 
that  the  dead  really  lived  on  the  gifts,  sacrifices  and  meals 
offered  them  by  those  who  survived  them  ;  that  manj^  ordered 
their  belongings,  clothes  and  jewellery  to  be  burnt  or  buried 
with  tlaem,  in  the  belief  that  they  would  need  them  in  the 


Belief  in  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul      301 

next  world  or  would  be  able  to  derive  some  benefit  from 
them.     In  fact,  a  great  part  of  the  articles  of  domestic  life 
preserved  in  our  museums  comes  from  graves,  in  which  were 
deposited    the   soldier's   weapons,  the   artist's   and    artisan's 
tools,  the  women's  toilette  articles,  and  the  child's  playthings. 
The  orator  Regulus  ordered  his  fourteen-year-old  son's  numer- 
ous teams  of  driving  ponies,  his  riding  ponies,  his  large  and 
small  dogs,   his   nightingales,   parrots  and   blackbirds  to  be 
burnt  on  his  funeral  pyre.     In  liucian's  Philopseudes  a  husband 
tells  how  he  has  shown  his  love  for  his  deceased  wife  not 
only  during  her  life  but  also  at  her  death  by  burning  all  her 
clothes  and   jewellery  with  her  ;     yet  on  the  seventh  day, 
while   he   was    reading    Plato's    Phaedo,    she   appeared,    and 
complained   that  one   of  her   gilded   sandals   had   not  been 
burnt  with  her.     She  indicated  the  spot  under  a  chest  where 
it  was  ;    when  found,  it  was  burnt  in  accordance  with  her 
desire.     The  objects  to  be  buried  with  the  dead  were  fre- 
quently defined  by  will.     The  will  (first  century)  of  a  wealthy 
Roman  in  the  district  of  the  modern  Langres  gives  instruc- 
tions (perhaps  in  accordance  with  old  Celtic  usage)  that  all 
his  hunting  and  fowling  appliances  are  to  be  burnt  with  him — 
lances,    swords,    knives,    nets,    snares,    lime-twigs,    bird-lime, 
hunting  tents,  etc.,  litters  and  sedan-chairs,  a  boat  made  of 
reeds,    all   his   variegated   and   embroidered   clothes   and   all 
the  chairs  ( ?)  of  elk's  horns.     The  same  will  orders  the  planting 
of  orchards  near  the  grave,  which  are  to  be  continually  tended 
by  three  gardeners  and  their  apprentices  ;  gardens,  vineyards, 
and  parks  were  very   frequently  laid   out  near  graves,    '  in 
order  that  the  departed  souls  might  enjoy  the  beauties  of 
nature  '.     An    inscription   at   Cirta   says  :    On   my    tumulus 
bees  shall  sip  the  thyme  blossoms,  the  birds  shall  sing  plea- 
santly  to  me   in  verdant  grottoes  ;    there  buds   the  laurel, 
and  golden  bunches  of  grapes  hang  on  the  vines.     We  may 
well  believe  that  many  of  the  extant  testamentary  dispositions 
which  refer  to  the  adornment  and  cult  of  the  graves  were 
made  in  the  belief  that  the  departed  were  able  to  take  an 
interest  in  the  joys  and  pleasures  of  this  world,  and  certainly 
very  often  in  the  belief    that    they    continued    to    lead    a 
material  existence,  especially  in  the  vicinity  of  their  graves. 
After  all  that  has  been  said,   no  further  proof  is  needed 
of  the  widespread  belief  in  immortality  even  in  the  later  days 


302      Belief  in  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul 

of  antiquity.     Besides,  it  is  sufficiently  shown  by  a  single  fact 
which  has  hitherto  not  been  taken  into  consideration  :    the 
equally  widespread  belief  in  apparitions,  and  consequently  in 
the  possibility  of  the  return  of  the  dead,  in  a  general  intimate 
connexion  of  the  world  of  spirits  with  the  world  of  the  living, 
in  a  constant  influence  of  the  former  upon  the  latter.     This 
was  a  very  ancient  belief  among  both  Greeks  and  Romans  ; 
but  our  knowledge  of  its  development  and  of  the  forms  which 
it   assumed    amongst   the   two   peoples   is   incomplete.     The 
idea  that  the  good  spirits  of  the  departed  acted  as  protecting 
spirits  of  the  living,   crops  up  in  the  oldest  Greek  poetry. 
For  instance,  Hesiod  says  that  the  souls  of  the  men  of  the 
golden  age,  after  its   close,  became  good  spirits  ('  demons  ') 
who,  wrapped   in  mist,  wander  over  the  earth  as  guardians 
of  mortal  men,  keep  watch  over  justice  and   injustice,  and 
distribute  wealth  ;    but  nothing  more  is  heard   of  this  idea 
until   the   time   when   the   later   Platonism   amalgamated   it 
with  its  theory  of  demons.     The  corrpesonding  belief  in  the 
spirits  of  the  wicked  as  larvae  and  lemnres,  '  tormented  them- 
selves and  tormenting  others  ',  can,  on  the  other  hand,  only 
be   shown  to  have  been  general   and   firmly    held   amongst 
the   Romans.     But   in   other   respects   the   two   peoples   are 
commonly  in  agreement  as  to  the  belief  in  spirits.     Among 
both   the   belief   was   chiefly   connected   with   the   spirits   of 
those  who  had  died  a  violent  death,  whose  implacable  wrath 
pursues  and  destroys  even  the  innocent,  and  of  those  who 
remained  unburied.     Even  if,  in  later  times,  the  Greek  and 
Roman  belief  in  spirits,   in  consequence   of  an  interchange 
of  ideas,  tended  to  approximate  more  and  more,  the  former 
lacks  the  firm  support,  the  definite  form  and  direction,  which 
the  latter  received  from  a  public  cult.     The  idea  of  an  unin- 
terrupted mutual  intercourse  between  the  upper  and  lower 
worlds  was  supported  and  strengthened  in  Roman  popular 
belief  especially  by  the  opening  of  the  mundus  (i.e.  the  deep 
circular  pit,  which  in  every  city  was  consecrated  to  the  gods 
and  spirits  of  the  lower  world,  also  regarded  as  gods  of  sowing) 
on  three  days  in  the  year  (August  24,  Octobers,  Novembers), 
when  the  hosts  of  '  the  silent  ones  '    could  go  in  and  come 
out  unhindered  ;   then  the  festival  of  All  Souls  on  February 
21    [Feralia)  and  the  Parenialia  in  the  preceding   week  (13- 
20),  the  neglect  of  which,  according  to  the   legend,  was  fol- 


Belief  in  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul      303 

lowed  by  a  terrible  mortality  ;  lastly,  the  usages  whereby  it 
was  attempted  to  appease  and  conciliate  the  ghostly  visitants 
during  the  three  nights  of  the  Lemnria  (9,  11,   and   13  May). 

The  intimate  and  mutual  connexion  of  belief  in  immor- 
tality with  the  belief  in  ghosts,  the  eagerness  to  accept  the 
latter  in  support  and  confirmation  of  the  former,  and  the 
fact  that  sceptics  were  convinced,  or  ready  to  be  convinced, 
by  apparitions,  need  no  explanation.  The  author  of  the 
Homilies  of  the  so-called  Clement  of  Rome  relates  that,  when 
tormented  by  doubts  as  to  immortality,  he  desired  to  be 
incontestably  convinced  by  the  actual  sight  of  a  departed 
soul.  He  thought  of  journeying  to  Egypt  and  persuading 
a  magician  to  conjure  up  a  dead  man  ;  but  on  being  reminded 
by  a  philosopher  that  this  was  not  only  forbidden  by  law, 
but  was  an  act  hateful  to  God,  he  abandoned  his  intention. 
A  monument  erected  by  a  certain  Tiberius  Claudius  Panoptes 
and  his  wife  Charmosyne  to  their  two  daughters  '  after  a 
vision  ',  bears  the  inscription  :  '  Thou  who  readest  this 
and  doubtest  whether  there  are  Manes,  make  a  wager  with 
us,  and  thou  wilt  soon  learn  the  truth  '.  But  even  in  edu- 
cated circles  belief  in  ghosts  and  in  immortality  often  went 
hand  in  hand.  It  is  true,  however,  that  not  only  all  those 
who  held  or  were  inclined  to  Epicurean  or  materialistic  views, 
ridiculed  the  nightly  wanderings  of  the  Lemures,  dreams, 
miracles,  witches  and  magic,  and  declared  that  only  women, 
children  and  delirious  invalids  saw  ghosts,  but  a  large  number 
of  those  who  believed  in  immortality  (e.g.  Seneca)  doubted 
or  rejected  the  idea  of  the  appearance  of  ghosts. 

But  whether  they  formed  the  majority  even  in  philosophi- 
cally educated  circles  (especially  after  the  second  century), 
is  by  no  means  certain.  The  company  of  Eucrates  described 
by  Lucian  in  the  Philopseudes  have  not  the  slightest  doubt 
that  there  are  '  demons  and  ghosts,  and  that  the  souls  of 
the  dead  wander  about  on  the  earth  and  appear  to  as  many 
as  they  please  '.  This  company  consisted  of  a  physician, 
a  Peripatetic,  a  Stoic,  a  Platonist  and  a  holy  Pythagorean  ; 
Eucrates  himself  was  a  man  who  had  thoroughly  studied 
philosophy.  The  neo-Pythagoreans  and  Pythagorizing  Plato- 
nists,  who  found  in  apparitions  a  guarantee  of  the  truth 
not  only  of  their  belief  in  immortality  but  also  of  their  demo- 
nology,  were  the  firmest  believers  in  ghosts.     The  philoso- 


304     Belief  in  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul 

phizing  rhetorician  Maximus  of  Tyre,  whose  views  are  founded 
entirely  upon  a  Platonism  already  inclining  to  neo-Platonism, 
like  all  those  who  shared  his  opinions,  regards  the  demons 
(including    departed    souls)    as    the    real   bond    between    the 
sensual  and  super-sensual  world.     The  souls  that  have  become 
demons,  he  says,   are  grieved  at  their  past  and  happy  in 
their  present  life  ;    they  are  also  distressed  at  the  lot  of  kin- 
dred souls,  who  still  linger  on  earth,  and  in  their  love  of  man- 
kind desire  to  associate  with  them  and  to    hold  them  up 
when  they  slip.     And  they  are  commissioned  by  the  divinity 
to  visit  the  earth  and  to  take  an  interest  in  every  human 
birth,  in  the  destinies,  thoughts  and  actions  of  men,  to  help 
the  good,  to  assist  those  who  suffer  wrong,  and  to  punish 
those  who  do  evil.     He  relates,  without  expressing  the  least 
doubt,  that  the  inhabitants  of  Ilium  often  saw  Hector  with 
glittering  arms  bounding  at  full  speed  over  the  plain,  and 
that  Achilles  often  appeared  to  mariners  on  the  httle  island 
in  the  Black  Sea  before  the  mouth  of  the  Danube,  where  as  a 
glorified  hero  he  had  a  sanctuary  :    some  beheld  him  advanc- 
ing in  the  form  of    a  young  man  with  fair  hair    in  golden 
armour,  others  heard  him  singing  a  battle  song,  while  others 
both  heard  and  saw  him.     Achilles  himself  had  awakened 
a  sailor  who  had  fallen  asleep  on  the  island,  led  him  to  his 
tent  and  given  him  hospitality  ;    Patroclus  poured  out  the 
wine,   Achilles    played  the  cithara.   and  Thetis  and    a  band 
of  demons  were  present.     Apuleius  has  handled  the  theory 
of   demons   with   special    affection.     The   human    soul    also 
is  included  amongst  the  demons  in  their  capacity  of  mediators 
between  the  earthly  and  the  higher  world  ;    the  souls  of  the 
good  and  just  after  death  act  as  protecting  spirits  on  earth  ; 
those  of  the  bad  are  condemned  to  perpetual  wandering  as 
larvae,    '  harmless   bugbears   to   good    men,    but   destructive 
to   bad  '.     In  his   defence   against  the  charge   of  magic   he 
utters    the    following    imprecation    against    his    accuser,    by 
whom  he  had  been  falsely  accused  of  using  the  figure  of  a 
skeleton   for   magical   purposes  :     '  May   the   God    (Mercury) 
who  wanders  backwards  and   forwards  betAveen  the  upper 
and  the  lower  worlds,  bring  upon  you  the  displeasure  of  the 
gods  of  both  in  requital  for  this  lie  ;    may  you  ever  see  before 
you  the  figures  of  the  dead,   and   all  the  shades,   Lemures, 
Manes,  and  Larvae  that  there  are,  all  the  nocturnal  apparitions, 


Belief  in  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul      305 

all  the  ghosts  of  the  tombs,  all  the  terrors  of  the  places  where 
the  dead  have  been  burnt '.  An  inscription  at  Puteoli  con- 
cludes with  the  words  :  '  May  the  wrath  of  the  shades  of 
those  who  lie  buried  here  visit  him  who  moves  this  stone 
from  its  place  '.  Plutarch,  in  his  dedication  of  the  biographies 
of  Dio  and  Brutus  to  Sossius  Senecio,  in  order  to  refute 
those  who  disbelieved  in  apparitions,  appealed  to  the  autho- 
rity of  those  who  foretold  the  end  of  these  two  men,  so  strong- 
minded  and  philosophical,  as  they  themselves  admitted. 
He  quotes  the  statement  of  others  (apparently  without  dis- 
believing it)  that  a  ghost  had  haunted,  and  continued  to 
haunt,  a  bath  at  Chaeronea,  where  in  Lucullus's  time  a 
murder  had  been  committed.  But  the  belief  in  spirits  and 
demons  was  also  compatible  with  other  philosophical  opinions 
than  those  of  Platonism.  The  Cynic  Peregrinus  Proteus, 
who  according  to  Lucian  threw  himself  into  the  flames  with 
the  cry,  '  O  demons  of  my  mother  and  father,  receive  me 
graciously  !  '  had  spread  the  report  that  after  his  death  he 
was  destined  to  become  a  demon  who  afforded  protection 
by  night ;  and  there  could  be  no  doubt  that  a  number  of 
people  would  be  simple  enough  to  declare  that  they  had  met 
him  at  night  or  that  they  had  been  cured  of  fever  by  him.  The 
younger  Pliny,  whose  views  were  chiefly  determined  by  Stoicism 
(he  had  been  intimate  with  the  Stoics  Euphrates  and  Artemi- 
dorus),  begs  his  friend  Licinius  Sura  (consul  102)  to  give 
him  his  opinion  as  to  whether  there  were  such  things  as 
ghosts  and  whether  they  had  a  form  of  their  own  and  a  super- 
human nature  {numen),  or  whether  they  were  merely  idle 
fancies,  which  received  their  shape  from  our  own  fears.  He 
believed  the  former,  and  amongst  other  proofs  told  a  ghost 
story,  which  is  very  like  that  of  the  Pythagorean  Arignotus 
in  Lucian's  Philopseudes.  A  large  house  at  Athens  was  ren- 
dered uninhabitable  by  a  ghost  that  haunted  it  every  night ; 
the  spirit  appeared  in  the  form  of  an  emaciated  old  man 
with  a  long  beard  and  chains  on  his  hands  and  feet,  which 
rattled  terribly.  At  last  a  philosopher  named  Athenodorus 
had  the  courage  to  face  the  ghost,  which  beckoned  to  him 
till  he  took  a  light  and  followed  it  ;  in  the  court  it  suddenly 
disappeared.  On  the  following  day  the  spot  was  dug  up  and 
a  skeleton  in  chains  was  found  ;  after  it  had  been  duly  buried 
the  ghost  was  never  seen  again.     Pliny  believes  this  story, 

R.L.M. — III.  X 


3o6      Belief  in  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul 

he  says,  on  the  assurance  of  others,  and  narrates  another, 
even  still  more  childish,  as  an  undoubted  fact  which 
occurred  during  his  own  lifetime.  Pliny's  friend  Suetonius 
says  that  before  Caligula's  interment  it  was  well-known 
that  the  keepers  of  the  Lamian  gardens,  whither  his  body  had 
been  brought,  were  alarmed  by  ghosts,  and  that  the  house 
in  which  he  died  was  regularly  haunted  by  night  until  it  was 
burnt  down.  The  writings  of  Pausanias  provide  further 
examples  of  a  strong  belief  in  spirits  amongst  educated  men 
in  the  second  century  ;  and  yet  his  belief  is,  if  possible,  sur- 
passed by  the  ghost-mania  of  Philostratus  and  Cassius  Dio. 
What  the  former  tells  us  of  the  appearances  and  exhibitions 
of  power  by  the  heroes  of  the  Trojan  war  may  be  regarded 
as  having  been  essentially  borrowed  from  popular  tradition. 
According  to  him  the  figures  of  the  Homeric  heroes  appeared 
to  the  herdsman  of  the  Trojan  plain,  as  big  as  giants,  in  warlike 
array,  especially  Hector,  who  performed  marvels,  and  Pro- 
tesilaus  among  the  Greek  heroes,  who  was  still  alive.  He 
was  now  in  Hades,  now  in  his  home  Phylace  in  Phthia  (where 
he  also  imparted  oracles),  now  in  Troas  ;  he  appeared  at 
midday,  healed  the  sick,  and  gave  aid  in  the  torments  of  love  ; 
he  blinded  an  adversary  by  his  appearance.  Cassius  Dio 
repeatedly  reports  quite  seriously  that  on  great  occasions 
the  dead  rose  en  masse  from  their  graves,  e.g.  at  the  battle 
of  Actium  and  Nero's  attempt  to  dig  a  channel  through  the 
isthmus  of  Corinth.  He  relates  that  in  the  year  220  a  spirit, 
which  called  itself  that  of  Alexander  the  Great,  exactly  resem- 
bled him  in  form  and  features  and  wore  a  similar  dress,  marched 
with  a  retinue  of  400  men  dressed  as  Bacchants  from  the 
Danube  to  the  Bosporus,  where  it  disappeared  ;  no  official 
ventured  to  stop  it,  but  on  the  contrar\^  lodging  and  food 
were  everywhere  provided  for  it  at  the  public  expense. 

A  widespread  and  absolute  belief  in  ghosts  in  higher  and 
educated  circles  may  also  be  inferred  from  the  frequent  men- 
tion of  spells  to  call  up  the  spirits  of  the  dead.  These  incanta- 
tions seem  very  frequently  to  have  been  the  cause  of  horrible 
crimes,  since  enchantment  was  supposed  chiefly  to  have 
power  over  the  souls  of  those  who  had  died  a  violent  death, 
especially  if  premature ;  hence,  murders,  particularly  of 
children,  were  only  too  often  committed  with  this  object. 
Amongst    the    Roman    Emperors    Nero,    Caracalla,    Didius 


Belief  in  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul     307 

Julianus  and  Elagabalus   (Heliogabalus)   practised  this  kind 
of  magic.     Dio   expressly   states   that  the   two   last    caused 
children  to  be  put  to  death.     Caracalla,  who  tried  every  kind 
of  magic  and  divination,  in  order  to  get  rid  of  the  apparitions 
of  his  father  and  his  murdered   brother,   by  which  he  was 
continually  pursued,   endeavoured  to  call  up  the  spirits  of 
the  former  and  Commodus,  but  in  vain  ;    it  was  whispered 
in  Rome  that  the  shade  of  Geta  appeared  with  that  of  Severus. 
For  the  same  reason  Nero  called  up  the  spirit  of  his  mother 
Agrippina.     He  was  most  passionately  addicted  to  the  incan- 
tation of  spirits,  and  since  '  his  dearest  wish  was  to  slaughter 
human  beings  ',  he  may  well  have  offered  more  sacrifices  to 
his  mania  than  any  one  else.       Tiridates,  the  Parthian  king 
who  came  to  Rome  in  66  with  a  retinue  of  magi,  initiated  him 
into   the   '  magic  meals  '    and  all  the  secrets  of  magic,  with 
which,  however,  Nero  must  already  have  had  some  acquaint- 
ance.      For  Lucan   (died   65)   has  inserted   in  his  Pharsalia 
an  episode  of  the  incantation  of  the  dead,  described  in  luxuri- 
antly horrible  language,   obviously  with  no  other  intention 
than  to  emphasize  his  condemnation  of  this  mania  of  the 
Emperor,  whose  avowed  enemy  he  had  been  since  64.     It 
is  Sextus,   '  the  unworthy  son  of  the  great  Pompey  ',   who 
endeavours  to  learn  the  future  by  calling  up  the  dead  ;    dis- 
daining the  aid  of  sacred  prophecy  and  legitimate  means,   he 
had  recourse  to  the  '  horrible  mysteries  of   the  magi,  those 
enemies  of  the  gods  '  and  to  the  terrors  of  the  underworld  ; 
'  the  gods  of  heaven  were  not  omniscient  enough  for  the 
wretch  !  '     The   sorceress   Erichtho,    who   complies   with   his 
wish,    is   an  unnatural   creature,    who   establishes   her  claim 
to  be  listened  to  by  the  gods  of  the  underworld  by  numerous 
cruel  and  monstrous  crimes,  amongst  which  the  murder  of 
children    is    expressly    mentioned.     The    description    of    the 
ceremony  itself  does  not  produce  the  impression  that  it  is 
a  mere  picture  of  the  imagination.   Its  details  are  substantiated 
in  almost  every  essential  part  by  other  similar  descriptions. 
It  is  almost  indispensable  in  such  cases  that  the  ghost  should 
only  answer  questions,  and  not  speak  without  being  spoken 
to  ;  and  the  choice  of  a  dead  body,  whose  lungs  are  uninjured, 
can    hardly    be    a    poetical    invention,    but    appears   to   be 
a    practice    of    those    who    called    up    spirits,  which    was 
certainly  greatly  favoured  by  believers.     It  is  also  easy  to 


3o8     Belief  in  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul 

understand  the  assertion  that  it  would  be  easiest  to  revive 
the  bodies  of  those  who  had  recently  died.  Conjurations  of 
the  spirits  of  those  who  had  long  been  dead  probably  succeeded 
best  without  witnesses.  Thus  the  Alexandrian  savant  Apion 
summons  the  shade  of  Homer,  in  order  to  ask  him  in  which 
of  the  seven  cities  which  claimed  the  honour  of  his  birthplace 
he  was  really  born.  Unfortunately,  the  spirit  did  not  allow 
him  to  communicate  the  answer,  perhaps  for  the  same  reason 
as  the  spirit  of  Protesilaus  in  Philostratua  ;  since  the  zeal 
of  the  other  cities  in  the  worship  of  Homer  would  be  abated. 

Further,  magicians  made  use  of  the  spirits  called  forth, 
as  well  as  of  other  demons,  to  torture  their  enemies  with 
apparitions,  to  inflict  pain  and  sickness  upon  them,  to  tie 
their  tongues,  and  so  on.  Similar  magical  arts  were  also 
practised  by  means  of  incantations  written  on  tablets  of  lead 
and  laid  in  the  graves  ;  a  number  of  these  have  been  preserved. 
This  practice  is  a  species  of  the  so-called  '  devotion  ',  whereby 
living  persons  were  consecrated  to  the  powers  of  the  under- 
world. It  is  founded  on  the  old  and  widespread  belief  that 
these  powers  exercise  authority  over  life,  which  they  endeavour 
to  draw  down  beneath  the  earth  ;  the  spirits  of  the  dead 
included  amongst  them,  who,  in  order  to  appease  them,  were 
called  the  good  or  the  friendly  {Dei  Manes)  and  had  to  be 
conciliated  with  sacrifices,  are  also  invoked  in  the  old  formula 
of  '  devotion  ',  whereby  the  Roman  general  dedicated  the 
army  of  the  enemy  to  death.  In  an  epitaph  erected  by  a 
husband  to  his  dead  wife,  he  declares  that  he  honours  her 
remains  with  as  much  awe  as  a  divinity.  '  O  dearest, 
spare  thy  husband  ;  I  implore  thee,  spare  himi,  that  for  many 
years  longer  he  may  continually  bring  thee  sacrifices  and 
garlands,  and  fill  the  lamp  with  fragrant  oil  '.  An  address 
to  a  dead  '  mistress  or  patroness  '  runs  :  '  As  long  as  I  live, 
I  will  honour  thee  ;  what  will  happen  after  my  death,  I  know 
not.  Spare  thy  mother  and  thy  father  and  thy  sister  Marina, 
that  she  may  be  able  to  pay  thee  honour  when  I  am  gone  !  ' 
With  the  same  idea  the  dead  are  called  upon  to  preserve  their 
relatives  or  to  pray    for  them  to  the  gods  of  the  underworld. 

Even  if  we  are  only  acquainted  with  the  dark  and  sinister 
aspect  of  the  belief  in  spirits  at  that  time,  it  is  enough  to 
prove  that  the  tendency  to  plunge  into  the  mysteries  of  the 
next  world  and  the  world  of  spirits  was  widespread  and  irresis- 


Belief  in  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul      309 

tible  ;  and  even  i  f  the  horrible  may  have  constantly  exercised 
a  most  irresistible  attraction  upon  the  imagination,  the  latter 
assuredly  must  also  have  busied  itself  in  portraying  the  peace 
and  rapture  enjoyed  by  the  blessed  in  contrast  to  the  tortures 
and  restlessness  of  the  unhappy. 

But  certainly  the  consolation,  which  the  belief  in  immor- 
tality afforded  to  that  age  and  to  antiquity  generally,  was 
very  different  from  that  offered  to  believers  by  the  Christian 
hope  of  eternal  happiness.  The  ancient  belief  in  immortality 
not  only  lacked  the  incontestable  security  and  certainty  of  a 
belief  based  upon  revelation  and  consequently  the  firm  support 
afforded  by  the  latter  to  the  imagination  in  its  portrayal  of 
the  other  life  ;  in  addition,  it  was  by  no  means  so  exclusively 
directed  towards  eternity  as  the  Christian  belief,  but  quite 
as  much,  if  not  to  a  greater  extent,  towards  the  life  on  earth. 
According  to  the  Roman  popular  belief  and  the  Platonic 
demonology,  the  reward  of  the  good  chiefly  consisted  not  in 
being  carried  away  to  a  super-terrestrial  and  blessed  existence, 
but  in  taking  part  in  the  joys  and  sufferings  of  those  who  came 
after  them,  as  guides,  helpers,  and  protectors.  Cicero  could 
find  no  other  explanation  of  the  fact  that,  at  all  times  and 
amongst  all  peoples,  the  best  are  ready  to  sacrifice  themselves, 
than  that  they  will  be  able  to  be  witnesses  even  after  death  of 
the  consequences  of  their  acts  and  of  the  glory  obtained  by  them. 

The  tendency  oi  the  Greek  and  Roman  cult  of  the  dead 
was  to  preserve  unbroken  the  connexion  between  the  living 
and  the  dead.  The  abodes  of  the  dead  were  not  secluded, 
peaceful  and  rarely  visited  resting  places,  like  our  cemeteries, 
but  were  situated  before  the  gates  of  cities,  on  both  sides  of 
the  main  road,  where  the  stream  of  living  traffic  that  flowed 
past  was  at  its  full.  As  Varro  says,  they  were  intended 
both  as  a  constant  warning  to  passers-by,  that  they  them- 
selves would  one  day  reach  this  haven,  and  also  as  an  inces- 
sant reminder,  not  only  to  relatives  and  descendants,  but 
to  all  posterity,  to  keep  alive  the  memory  of  the  departed. 
On  gravestones  this  reminder  often  took  the  following  form  : 
'  O  weary  wanderer,  who  passest  me  by,  after  long  wandering, 
here  thou  shalt  come  at  last '. 

In  inscriptions  a  prayer  is  frequently  offered  for  a  friendly 
recollection  of  the  dead  :  e.g.  '  Titus  Lollius  Musculus  lies 
here  by  the  wayside,  that  passers-by  may  say  :    Greeting  to 


3IO      Belief  in  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul 

Titus  Lollius  '.  Similarly,  wanderers  are  requested  not  to 
begrudge  an  honourable  and  friendly  greeting  to  the  dead, 
who  in  return  blesses  them  for  the  attention  :  '  Mayest  thou 
who  readest  these  lines,  enjoy  a  healthy  life,  love  and  be 
loved,  until  thine  hour  comes  !  '  Sometimes  even  a  reply 
is  put  into  the  mouth  of  the  dead,  so  that  a  kind  of  dialogue 
between  him  and  the  passer-by  could  be  read  by  the  latter 
on  the  gravestone. 

It  was  commonly  believed  that  the  dead  always  found 
pleasure  in  such  indications  of  sympathy  on  the  part  of  all 
the  living  without  distinction,  and  also  that  the  sacrifices, 
gifts  and  meals  offered  at  their  graves,  the  floral  decorations 
of  the  memorials  on  '  rose  and  violet  days  ',  the  light  of  the 
freshly-filled  grave-lamp  and  the  smell  of  its  fragrant  oil, 
would  be  equally  agreeable  to  them,  if  only  as  proofs  that 
they  were  not  forgotten,  by  posterity.  All  such  offerings 
were  made  under  the  idea  that  it  was  the  desire  of  the  departed 
as  it  were  to  continue  to  live  amongst  future  generations. 
The  same  is  the  meaning  of  the  scenes  from  the  past  life  of 
the  dead  represented  on  Greek  funeral  monuments  :  '  their 
existence  is  as  it  were  continued  and  stereotyped  '.  The 
sight  of  these  simple  and  touching  representations,  which 
excites  our  sympathy  in  the  highest  degree,  most  agreeably 
affected  the  spirit  of  Goethe,  which  in  this  respect  also  was 
akin  to  that  of  the  ancients.  It  specially  pleased  him  that 
the  men  represented  on  these  gravestones  did  not  fold  their 
hands  or  look  up  to  heaven,  but  stood  side  by  side  as  they 
had  stood  side  by  side  in  life,  as  they  had  loved  one  another  : 
*  the  wind,  which  blows  to  us  from  the  graves  of  the  ancients, 
comes  with  sweet  perfumes  over  a  group  of  rose  trees  '.  And 
even  those  who  rejected  or  did  not  need  the  belief  in  a  personal 
immortality  have  at  all  times  throughout  antiquity  attached 
great  value  to  being  held  in  remembrance  by  posterit}\ 
Even  Epicurus,  in  whose  theory  of  happiness  the  principle 
that  existence  and  consciousness  ceases  with  death  forms  the 
real  keystone,  ordered  in  his  will  that  his  birthday  and  the 
2oth  of  every  month  should  be  kept  as  a  festival  in  memory 
of  himself  and  his  friend  Metrodorus  ;  and  the  custom  was 
observed  by  his  followers  even  for  centuries  after  his  death. 

But    although    those    who    believed    in    immortality    held 
firmly  to  the  idea  of  a  continued  personal  existence,  higher, 


Belief  in  the  Immortalitv  of  the  Soul      31 1 

purer,  and  consequently  happier,  they  by  no  means  admitted 
such  a  difference  between  the  Hfe  beyond  the  grave  and  the 
hfe  on  earth  as  the  followers  of  Christ.  Consequently,  they 
were  not  so  keenly  opposed  to  unbelief  and  doubt.  When 
the  Greeks  in  popular  language  called  the  dead  '  blessed  ', 
it  meant  that  they  were  delivered  from  the  troubles,  sufferings 
and  disappointments  of  life.  Death,  which  brought  this 
deliverance,  did  not  therefore  appear  an  evil,  even  if  it  was 
the  end  of  existence.  The  words  put  by  Plato  (in  the  Apology) 
into  the  mouth  of  Socrates,  addressed  to  his  judges  after  his 
condemnation,  perhaps  best  express  the  contrast  between 
the  Christian  and  the  pagan  view  of  the  matter  :  Death  is 
either  an  eternal  sleep  or  the  passage  to  a  new  life,  but  in 
neither  case  is  it  an  evil.  Both  views,  consequently,  are 
consolatory,  but  one  more  so  than  the  other. 

The  Christian  belief  regards  death,  not  followed  by  resurrec- 
tion to  a  life  of  happiness,  as  the  most  unhappy  lot  imaginable. 
It  considers  the  next  life  as  the  true  one,  from  which  earthly 
existence  receives  its  light,  and  without  whose  beams  it  would 
be  completely  dark.  Happiness  will  not  fall  to  the  lot  of 
man,  says  Lactantius,  in  the  way  philosophers  have  imagined. 
No  man  can  be  happy  so  long  as  he  lives  in  the  body,  which 
must  necessarily  be  dissolved  by  decay,  but  only  when  he 
lives  in  the  spirit  alone,  after  the  soul  has  been  freed  from 
the  companionship  of  the  body.  One  thing  alone  can  make  us 
happy  in  this  life,  to  however  small  an  extent ;  we  must  flee 
from  the  seductions  of  pleasures  and  serve  virtue  alone  in  all 
our  troubles  and  sorrows,  which  are  exercises  and  confirmation 
in  virtue  ;  we  must  keep  in  the  rough  and  difficult  path 
which  is  left  open  to  us,  leading  to  happiness.  Consequently, 
the  greatest  good,  the  possession  of  which  bestows  happiness, 
can  only  be  found  in  religion  and  doctrine,  which  include  the 
hope  of  immortality'.  Augustine  calls  eternal  life  the  greatest 
good  and  eternal  death  the  greatest  evil.  Only  that  man 
can  be  called  happy  here  below,  whose  whole  being  is  directed 
to  that  end,  and  who  keeps  it  stedfastly  in  view  in  glowing 
affection  and  loyal  hope  ;  even  then  he  is  happier  in  hope 
than  in  reality.  Without  this  hope  there  is  only  a  false 
happiness,  only  misery  and  sorrow. 

It  is  a  view  very  commonly  held,  that  the  ancients  set  a 
higher  value  on  this  life,  since  their  hopes  of  the  life  beyond 


312      Belief  in  the  Immortality  of  the  Soul 

the  grave  could  neither  be  so  firmly  established  nor  so  clearly 
set  forth  as  those  of  the  Christians.  But  the  general  impres- 
sion derived  from  Greek  and  Roman  literature  by  no  means 
confirms  this.  The  innate  love  of  existence,  nourished  on 
the  ever  fresh  splendours  of  the  world  and  on  the  greatness 
and  beauty  of  human  life,  is  certainly  an  essential  clement 
in  the  ancient  view  of  life.  But  it  is  only  one  of  its  two  poles, 
the  second  and  opposite  being  a  feeling  of  resignation  arising 
from  a  deep  consciousness  of  human  misery  and  helplessness, 
whose  painful  and  submissive  expressions  pervade  all  ancient 
literature.  Even  Homer,  to  whom  the  idea  of  the  other 
world  afforded  absolutely  no  consolation,  makes  the  supreme 
god  say  :  Of  all  things  that  breathe  and  creep  upon  the  earth, 
nothing  is  more  miserable  than  man.  And  even  if  he  believed 
that  in  the  hell  of  Zeus  there  stand  two  casks,  the  one  full  of 
good,  the  other  of  bad,  gifts,  later  writers  imagine  two  casks 
for  the  bad  and  only  one  for  the  good  ;  and  Simonides  thought 
human  life  so  full  of  evils,  that  there  was  no  room  for  the  air 
to  penetrate  between  one  suffering  and  another.  When  the 
mother  of  Cleobis  and  Biton  asked  the  goddess  to  grant  her 
sons  what  would  be  the  best  thing  a  man  could  obtain,  the 
goddess  gave  them  death,  and,  according  to  Herodotus, 
declared  that  death  was  better  for  man  than  life.  This  was 
confirmed  on  several  occasions  by  the  revelations  of  other 
divinities.  It  is  during  the  period  of  the  youthful  and  manly 
vigour  of  the  Greek  intellect  that  the  idea  already  expressed 
by  Theognis  and  amongst  others  by  Sophocles,  and  put  into 
the  mouth  of  Heracles  by  Bacchylides,  is  repeated  in  various 
forms  :  the  best  fortune  is  not  to  be  born  at  all ;  the  next 
best  to  go  whence  one  came  as  soon  as  possible  after  birth. 
Hence  (in  the  oft-quoted  words  of  Euripides)  we  ought  to 
pity  those  who  are  born,  and  to  bury  the  dead  with  joy  and 
congratulations.  Even  if  death  is  a  dreamless  sleep,  says 
Socrates  in  Plato's  Apology,  it  is  preferable  to  life  ;  for  every 
one,  even  the  Great  King,  when  he  reflects  upon  his  life, 
will  find  that  the  daj^s  and  nights,  which  he  has  spent  better 
and  more  happily  as  a  dreamless  night,  can  very  easily  be 
numbered.  Menander,  the  wittiest  poet  of  the  Alexandrine 
period,  whose  fragments  give  forth  the  dull  tones  of  resigna- 
tion, says,  '  Whom  the  gods  love,  die  young  '  :  to  him  sadness 
appeared  tlie  '  twin  sister  of  human  life  ',  and  that  man  the 


Belief   in    the    Immortality    of   the    Soul       313 

happiest,  '  who  without  sorrow  has  looked  upon  the  grandeur 
of  the  world,  and  then  returned  in  haste  to  the  place  whence 
he  came  '. 

Even  Roman  literature  supplies  expressions  of  a  similar 
kind.     Thus  Cicero  concluded  his  Horiensius  with  a  discus- 
sion  of   the   vanity   and   unhappiness   of   men.     The   errors 
and  hardships  of  life,  it  is  said,  appear  to  justify  that  ancient 
sage,  according  to  whom  we  are  born  to  atone  for  sins  com- 
mitted in  an  earlier  life,  and  also  Aristotle,  who  recognized 
that  the  combination  of  soul  and  body  was  a  torture,  such 
as  the  Etruscan   pirates  are  said  to   have  practised  on  their 
captives,  whom  they  bound  face  to  face  with  corpses  and  let 
them  die.     It  has  already  been  mentioned  that  in  the  case 
of  Pliny,  in  whose  opinion  no  mortal  was  happy  and  shortness 
of  life  was  the  greatest  boon  nature  had  granted  to  man, 
the  feeling  of  unhappiness  increased   to  a  positive  longing 
for  annihilation,  and  that  death  appeared  to  him  the  best 
gift  of  nature.     Seneca  also,  who  delights  in  describing  the 
wretchedness  of  life  in  ever  varying  aspects,  praises  death 
as  the  greatest  benefit.     Life  is  absolutely  lamentable  ;     it 
resembles  a  city  taken  by  assault ;    it  is  a  stormy  sea,  which 
surrounds  us  and  often  hurls  us  on  the  rocks,  and  its  only 
harbour  is  death  ;    it  is  slavery,  when  the  strength  to  die 
fails  ;    the  '  cruel  stress  of  life  '  is  the  chain  which  fetters  us  ; 
death  alone  prevents  the  fact  of  our  birth  from  being  our 
greatest  punishment.     And  even  if  a  Marcus  Aurelius  regarded 
the  evils  of  life  as  unreal,  yet  its  blessings  were  '  vain,  transi- 
tory and  trifling  '  ;  life  itself  was  '  a  struggle  and  a  passing 
guest ',  its  duration  a  mere  point,  before  and  behind  us  an 
endless  abyss  that  engulfs  all.     And  yet,  amidst  the  eternally 
flowing  current  of  the  past,  man  should,  and  could,  stand  fast 
as  a  rock  in  the  sea  ;   if  completely  untroubled    about    the 
world    outside,    in   respectful   submission   to   fate   he   retires 
into  the  stillness  of  his  own  reflections,  as  into  a  strong  citadel  ; 
if  he  remains  loyal  to  the  god  who  dwells  there,  if  he  fulfills 
the  demands  of  nature,  conscious  of  being  only  a  small  part 
of  the  great  whole.     If  with  cheerful  calmness  he  awaits  the 
end,  which  may  come  at  any  moment,  whether  annihilation 
or  transformation,  he  gently  parts  from  life,  like  the  ripe  fruit, 
which  in  its  fall  utters  the  praise  of  nature  as  its  creator  and 
gives  thanks  to  the  tree  which  bore  it. 


INDEX  TO  THE  COMPLETE  WORK 


A  cubicuh,  I.  35 

A  libelUs,  I.  52 

A  raiionibus,  I.  51 

Ab  admissione  sive  admissionales,  I.  89 

Abascantus,  I.  53  ;  II.  212 

Ab  epistoHs,  I.  53 

Abnormal  scenery,  I.  384 

Abraham  worshipped,  III.  118 

Abonuteichos,  II.  299 

Abstemiousness,  II.  141 

Accompaniment,    not    always    following 

song,  II.  340 
Acilius  Buta,  I.  124 
Acilius  Glabrio,  III.  208 
Acme,  I.  61 

Acta  diurna,  I.  154,  219  ;  II.  23 
Acte,  I.  62 
Actors,  II.  H2  ;    limitation  of  fees,  II. 

113  ;  earnings,  II.  113 
Adleciw,  I.  127 

Adoration  of  emperors,  II.  27S 
Advocati,  I.  162 
'Aegyptizing',  I.  37 
Aelian,  III.  96 
Aelian,  III.  98 
Aemilia  Lepida,  I.  109 
Aemilius  Paullus'   triumph  depicted,  II. 

272 
Aesculapius,  cures  by.  III.  97 
Aesop,  the  tragedian,  II.  140 
Aether  as  abode  of  blessed,  III.  290 
Afranius,  comoediatogata Incendium,  II.  95 
Africa,  well  watered,  II.  225 
African  cities,  II.  237  ;    Central  African 

travel,  I.  325 
Afterworld,  Ideas  of,  III.  297  ;  Lucian  and 

Plutarch  on  popular  belief  in,  III.  299 
Agon,  Capitoline,  II.  120,  124,  352  ;    III. 

44  ;  of  Minerva,  II.  121  ;    cf.  Stadium 
Agones,    of    Provincial   centres,    I.    318 ; 

musical,  III.  32 
Agriculture,  I.  188 
Agrippa,    great    constructions,    II.    261  ; 

King  of  Palestine,  II.  306 
Aken,  I.  321 
Alabaster,  II.  189 
Alba,  Duke  of,  II.  207 
Alcantara,   II.   250  ;    bridge   at,   II.   231 
Aleatorum  conventicula,  I.  219 
Alexander    of    Abonuteichos,    III.    131  ; 

of  Cotyacum,     I.     67 ;      Severus,     his 

simplicity  of  life,  II.  149. 


Alexandria,   I.   355  ;     pilgrimages    to,    I. 

361 
Alexandrian  period  model  for  Roman  art 

II.  316  ;  products,  I.  314 
Almonds,  II.  167 
Altinum,  I.  335 
Alupka,  II.  199 
Amber  necklaces,  II.  183 
Ambubaiae,  II.  345 
Atnoenitas,  I.  391 
Amphithearte,  Flavian,  II.  72  ff 
Amygdalum,  II.  167 
Androclus,  II.  47 

Ancient  art,  II.  266  ;    music,   II.  337  S 
Animals,  rare,  source  of,  II.  66  ;  at  games, 

hunted,  fought  or  exhibited,  II.  69-70 

140 
Anio,  the,  lined  with  viUas,  I.  335 
An-si,  I.  308 
An-ti,  King,  I.  308 
Antistia  Priscilla,  I.  54 
Antium,  I.  331 

Anthropomorphism,  III.  120,  ff 
Antinous,  worship  of.  III.  118 
Antioch,  II.  239 
Antipater  of  Sidon,  III.  10 
Antoninus  Pius,  III.  96 
Antonio  del  Pollojuolo,  II.  176 
Apelles,  the.  Tragedian,  II.  114 
Apamea,  II.  239,  242 
Aphrodisias,  II.  242 
Apollinaris  Sidonius,  II.  235 
ApoUodorus  of  Damascus,  II.  324 
Apollonius,  Stoic  tutor  of  Marcus  Atirelius, 

I.  67 
Apollonius,  III.  264 

Apollonius  of  Tyana  worshipped.  III.  118 
Apollonius  of  Tyana,  I.  41  ;    III.  122 
Apparitores,  I.  190 
Apuleius,  III.  81,^  92,  153,  240 
Aqueducts  in  Africa,  II.  225 
Aquileia,  II.  234,  335 
Archaism  in  antiquity,  III.  5 
Archiatri,  I.  169 

Architecture,  I.  155;    II.  186;    234,  324 
Ardeliones,  I.  212 
Arelate,  II.  235 
Aristides,  I.  4  ;     II.  233  ;    at  Athens,  I. 

341  ;   opinions,  II.  292,   338  ;    III.  79» 

99.  235.  241 
Aristobulus,  II.  134 
Armatura,  II.  56 


315 


3i6 


Index 


Axruntius,  I.  68 

Arruntius  Stella,  III.  60,  73 

Arsinoe,  II.  239 

Art  in  statuary,  II.  302 

Artemidorus,  I.  185  ;  III.  136  S 

Artemidorus,  III.  95 

Artichokes,  II.  170 

Artistes,  whence  drawn,  I.  319 

Artistic  relics,  I.  378  ff  ;   feehng,  II.  325 

Artists,  largely  slaves,  II.  318  ;   profession 

despised,  II.  321  ;  tours,  I.  318 
Ashbridge  Park,  II.  198 
Asiatic  music,  II.  345 
Asiaticus,  I.  41  ;  II.  47 
Asinius  Pollio,  III.  29,  30 
Asinius  Pollio,  III.  38 
Asparagus,  II.  442 
Aspendus,  II.  244 
Assi/oranea,  II.  53 
Astrology,  I.  185 
Atellanae,  II.  48,  90  ff 
Athenodorus  of  Tarsus,  I.  83 
Athens,  I.  391 ;  II.  246  ;  rejuvenated  by 

Hadrian,  II.  258  ;  afterflush,  1.  34 
Athletes,  II.  126  fi 
Attalus,  III.  249 
AttUa,  II.  268 
Auciorati,  II.  53 
Augustalcs,  II.  296 
Augustus,  III.  29,  136 
Augustan  literature,  III.  21  S,  82 
Aulus  Pudens,  III.  60 
Aurelius  Charmus,  I.  319 
AurcUi  Symmachi,  I.  113,  329 
AureUus  Zoticus,  I.  45 
Avignon,  II.  235 

Babylonian  bagpipe,  11.  345 

Bacchanalic  process,  the,  III.  i8g 

Baden,  I.  321 

Baiae,  I.  336  ff 

Balconies  forbidden,  I.  6 

Baltic  commerce,  I.  309 

Barbarous  religions  despised,  III.  107,  lii 

Barbel  for  5,000  sesterces,  II.  152 

Barth,  Heinrich,  II.  217 

Bartolommeo  Scuppi,  II.  158 

Bath,  II.  247 

Baths   and   bathing-resorts,    I.   45,    321  ; 

II.  226  ff 
BathyUus   the  actor,   II.    100,   116,   355 
Belgrade,  II.  248 
Betel  nut  oil,  price  of,  II.  179 
Benedetto  Salutati,  II.  156,  176 
Bestiarii,  II.  56,  63 
Biblical  rites,  I.  378 
Bignonia  Catalpa,  II.  20i 
Birds,  taming  of,  I.  154  ;    II.  70 
Birthday   ceremonies,    I.    211  ;     III.    310 
Bithj-nian  cities,   II.  250 
Boar-Larding,  Sir,  I.  159 
Bologna,  great  fire  at,  II.  255 
Bona  dea.  III.  141,  146 
Book-trade  and  prices,  III.  36-37 
Bordeaux,  II.  236 
Bostra,  II.  240 
Brigandage,  I.  294  ff 
Birtannicus,  II.  358 


Brotherhood  of  man  a  Christian  idea,  III 

221 

Bulla,  as  token  of  liberty,  HI.  13 
Bull-fights,  II.  51,  71,  80 
Burdigala,  II.  236 
Byssus,  II.  173 
Byzantium,  II.  245 

Caecilius  Claudius  Isidorus,  II.  213 

Caclatura,  II.  206 

Caenis,  I.  62 

Callistus,  I.  44,  45  ;  II.  135  ;  III.  207 

Calpumius  Siculus,  III.  53 

Calvisius  Sabinus,  III.  3 

Calvisius  Taurus,  III.  249,  257 

Cambaceres,  II.  153 

Canius  Rufus,  III.  67 

Cannebae,  II.  233 

Canticae,  II.  338  ff 

Canus,  II.  342,  357 

Canopus,  I.  361 

Capitolinus,  I.  85 

Capri,  I.  334 

Capucinades,  II.  143 

Cftracalla's  improvements  of  Rome,  I.  8 

Carbasus,  II.  173 

Cardui,  II.  170 

Carinus,  I.  61 

Carnations,  II.  201 

Camuntum,  II.  247 

Carruca  dormitoria,  I.  2S8 

Cartagena  mines,  II.  206 

Carthage,  II.  238 

Cassius  Dio,  II.  199,  293  ;    III.  136,  224 

Cato,  II.  167 

Catullus'  influence  on  style.  III.  70  ff 

Celebrative  Art,  II.  272 

Celsus,  I.  91  ;  III.  123 

Cenae  publicae,  II.  296 

CentumceUae,  I.  330 

Centurioies  primipilares,  I.  139 

Cetronius'  building  mania,  II.  199 

Chaeremon,  III.  238 

Charicles,  I.  68,  84 

Chariot-races,  II.  21,  37  g 

Charon  and  obol,  III.  298 

Cherries,  Chestnuts,  II.  167 

Chigi,  Agostino,  11.  157 

Children's  games,  etc.,  I.  229 

Choricius,  II.  93 

Choruses,  II.  359 

Christian  churches,  opinions  and  converts, 

I.  307  ;   II.  120,  171,  198,  311  ;  III.  118, 

T98,  200  ff 
Christianity,  III.  205,  211,  220 
Christianity  and  women,  I.  257  ;   III.  195 
Christians,  hostiUty  to,  III.  188  ff 
Christina  of  Sweden,  II.  177 
Chrysogonus,  II.  349 
Cicero  as  proconsul,  II.  287  ;    his  villas, 

I.    329  ;     on    musicians,    II.    358  ;     as 

purchaser  of  statuary,  II.  263 
Cinerary  urns,  II.  212 
Cinnamon,  price  of,  II.  129 
Circus,  the,  II.  19  ff 
Cirta,  statuary  at,  II.  263 
Cisiarii,  I.  279 
Cithara,  III.  iii  ;  II.  341  ff 


Index 


317 


Citharists,  fees  of,  I.  155  ;   popularity  of, 

n.  351 
Citharoedus,  II.  362 
Cities  out  of  camps,  II.  232 
Cities,  number  of,  II.  234  fl 
Citrons,  II.  168 
Civic  oisligations,  II.  229-30 
Civica  Barbarus,  III.  249 
Claque,  II.  115,  337,  363  ;  HI.  41  ff 
Clarissimi,  I.  109 
Claudius  Asathemerus,  III.  256 
Cleander,  II.  254 
Client ela,  I.  195  ff 
Clothing,  luxurious,  II.  173 
Coacior  Argentarius,  I.  155 
Coarmio,  II.  56 
Cohors  amicorum,  I.  75 
Coin,  legal,  I.  304 
Colchester,  II.  246,  307 
Colonies,  microcosms  of  Rome,  II.  240 
Colours  in  the  Circus,  II.  28  ff 
Columella,  I.  131,  188  ;  II.  168 
Comedy,  II.  95  ff 
Comites,  as  title,  I.  74 
Commodus  and  gladiators,  II.  50 
Commerce,  Chinese,  I.  307,  309  ;  Roman, 

I.  305.  312 
Concerts,  II.  347 
Connoisseurs  of  pictures,  II.  331 
ConsiUarii  Augusti,  1.  71 
Consulate,  length  of,  I.  127 
Controversiae,  III.  13  ff 
Conventus  Matronarum,  I.  239 
Convidores,  I.  82  ;  II.  56  ;  III.  264 
Convivia  Publica,  I.  93 
Cookery,  II.  153  ff 
Coponius  the  sculptor,  II.  322 
Corinth,  I.  342  ;  II.  246 
Comutus,  III.  286 
Cornelius  Gallus,  I.  79 
Cornelius  Rufus,  I.  207 
Costunius  Rufinus,  II.  325 
Cotyaeum,  II.  253 

Craftsmen,  immunity  from  rates,  II.  268 
Cremona,  II.  234 
Crescens  the  charioteer,  II.  23,  51  ;    III. 

247 
Crinagoras  of  Mitzlene,  I.  25 
Crispinus  and  scents,  II.  184 
Crito,  I.  68 
Crocuses,  II.  167 
Curator  Statuarum,  II.  301 
Curatores  operum,  II.  249 
Curia  Athletarum,  II.  126 
Currency,  I.  304,  307,  316 
Cydamus,  I.  325 
Cynics,  III.  343,  271  ff 
Cyprian,   Bishop  of  Carthage,  III.  204  ; 

on  agones,  II.  121 
Cyprus,  I.  349 
Cythesis,  III.  24 
Cytisus,  II.  167 

Dacian  cities,  II.  248 
Damascus,  II.  240 
Dea  Dia,  III.  156 
Declamations,  III.  12 
Pecorative  art,  II.  260  8 


Dei  Manes,  III.  308 

Delatores,  I.  221 

Delos,  I.  344 

Delphi,  III.  129 

Demetrius,  I.  68  ;  III.  273 

Demonax,  III.  273-4,  277 

Demons,  belief  in,  III.  go  ff,  302 

Dialogues,  Greek-Latin,  I.  149 

Didius  Julianus,  I.  65 

Didymus  Areus,  I.  82 

Dilettanti  in  literature,  III.  26-27 

Dinner-topics,  I.  224 

Dio  of  Prusa,  II.  252,  336  ;    III.  240 

Diodes  the  charioteer,  II.  22,  37 

Diocletian's  tariff,  I.  315 

Dionysius  of  Halicamassus,  II.  332  ;  III. 

215 
Dioscorus,  III.  197 
Diredoire  dress,  I.  249 
Domina,  title  of,  I.  240 
Domini  factionum,  II.  27 
Domitian,  III.  43  ;  as  patron  of  literature, 

III.  33  ;  banishes  philosophers,  III.  226; 

his  statues  demolished,  II.  280 
Domitius  Tullus'    park   of    statuary,   II. 

264-5 
Doryphorus,  I.  44 
Dramatic  companies,  I.  319 
Dream-oracles,  III.  134  ff,  164 
Dress,  I.  249  ;  II.  174 
Drusus  Libo,  I.  94 

Eclectus,  I.  59 
Edi tores,  II.  53 
Education,    ancient    object    of.    III.    i  ; 

spread  of.  III.  20 
Egregius,  I.  141 

Egypt,  trade  with,  etc.,  I.  349  fl 
Egyptian  Conservatism,  II.  304  ;    corn  at 

Rome,  I.  25  ff  ;  deities  worshipped.  III. 

104  ff 
Elagabalus,  II.  361  ;   anecdote  of,  II.  139 
Elba,  ironworks  at,  I.  315 
Eleusis,  the,  at  Conopus,  I.  361 
Embassies,  I.  299 
Emetics,  II.  153 
Eminentissimus,  I.  141 
Emperors  as  patrons,  III.  43 
Emperor's  portraits,  II.  276,  283-4 
Emperor  worship,  III.  117,  119,  187 
Empire  united  by  roads,  I.  268  ff 
Empresses'  rank,  I.  87  ff 
Ems,  I.  34 

Ennius  in  fashion.  III.  7 
Engineering  works,  II.  256  ff 
English  estates,  II.  197 
Entrance-fee  to  city  honours,  II.  230  ff 
Epaphroditus,  I.  40,  44,  65,  82 
Ephesus,  II.  242 
Epictetus,  III.  95,  127,  144,  207,  220,  237, 

243.  253.  268,  274 
Epicureanism,  III.  87,  97,  220,  286 
Epidaurus,  I.  343 
Epidemics  at  Rome,  I.  27 
Eprius  Mercellus,  I.  122 
Espionage,  I.  221  ff 
Ethicae,  III.  18 
Ethics  the  end  of  Philosophy,  III.  255 


3i8 


Index 


Etna  ascended,  I.  393 

Etruscus,  I.  45,  51 

Eucrates,  III.  303 

Eudemus,  III.  249 

Euphrates,  III.  227,  268 

Euphrates  the  freedman,  I.  51 

Eurhythmus,  I.  42 

Eusebius,  I.  35 

Eutropius,  I.  35 

Exploration  slight   in  antiquity,   I.   323 

Fabullus,  II.  323 

Factions,  growth  of,  11.  28  ff 

Factories  of  statues,  II.  307 

Fashion  at  Rome,  I.  30  fi 

Favorinus,   I.   84;    III.   80,   249,   259 

Feasts  and  Festivals,   I.   320;    II.   121, 

149 
Feralia,  III.  302 
Figs  acclimatized,  II.  167 
Fires  in  provinces,  II.  255 
Firmicus  Matemus,   I.   185-6,  237,   339  ; 

II.  122 
Fiume,  II.  235 
Flavia  Domitilla,  I.  63 
Flowers  in  ancient  Rome,  II.  201 
Flutes,  II.  341,  344 

Foods  acclimatized,  II.  165 

Forks,  II.  143 

Foucquet,  II.  152 

Frater  as  title,  I.  74 

Fratres  Arvales,  III.  156 

Freaks,  I.  367  ft 

Freedmen,  I.  37,  47  ff,  202  ff 

Freedom  of  speech,  III.  28  ff 

French  cookery,  II.  159  S 

French  estates,  II.  197 

Fronto,  I.  68  ;    II.  294,  361  ;    III.  7,  56, 

80,  139,  233 
Fumi,  I.  44 
Funeral  guilds,  I.  151 
Funerals,  II.  210,  213,  217 
Fundanus,  III.  249 
Furniture,  II.  269 

Gabba,  I.  85 

Gaius  Lutorius  Priscus,  III.  54 

Gains  Thoranius,  I.  99 

Gaius  Stertinius,  I.  69 

Galba,  dream  of,  III.  165 

Galen,  I.  68,  78,  170,  173  ;    II.  125,  171  ; 

III.  135,  208,  219,  249,  291  ;  his  cor- 
respondence, I.  303 ;  his  philosophy, 
III.  95  ;  on  athletes,  II.  127 

Games,  II.  i  ff,  121 

Gardens,  I.  418  ff 

Gellius,   III.  7,  21,  80,  94,  237,  249-50, 

257-9 
Genii,  belief  in.  III.  114 
Gerasa,  II.  241 
German  cookery,  II.  161  S 
Germanicus,  I.  345  ff,  III,  30 
Gesta  Romanorum,  III.  16  ff 
Ghosts,  belief  in.  III  ;  306  ff 
Ghouls-in-waiting,  I.  215 
Gifts  at  banquets,  II.  151  ;    for  disasters 

to  cities,  H,  255  ff 


Gladiators,  II.  17,  41  ff,  52-3,  57,  59  ff 
as  soldiers,  II.  58  ;  combats  at  funerals, 
II.  214  ;  prospects  of,  II.  49  ;  women  as, 

II.  50 

Glass,  how  used,  II.  191 

Gnaeus  Claudius  Severus,  III.  227 

God's  acres,  II.  215 

Gods  not  originators  of  moral  law,  III. 

215  ;  offerings  to.  III.  165 
Gold-plate,  II.  205  ff 
Gordian  I.  III.  250 
Grammarians'  fees,  I.  160 
Greece  decadent,    I.    340  ;     disapproved 

venationes,  II.  84 
Greek    Anti-Semitism,    III.    183 ;     cities 

plundered,  II.     261  ;      enthusiasm     for 

plastic  art,  II.  335  fl ;   philosophy.  III. 

222   ff. ;    pre-eminence  in  rhetoric,  III. 

77-8  ;  statuary  abundant,  II.  262 
Gregarii,  II.  53 
Grottoes  visited,  I.  381,  383 
Guilds  of  tradesfolk,  I.  146  ff 
Gulliver  on  tea,  II.  147 
Gymnasia,  II.  123  ff 

Hadrian,  admirer  of  sophists,  III.  78  ; 
architectural  works,  II.  257  ff ;  Mauso- 
leum, II.  218;    piety.  III.  96;    verse, 

III.  34  ;  villa,  II.  196,  265 
Hadrianopolis,  II.  257 
Hadrianotherae,  II.  257 
Hamilton,  Lady,  II.  103 
Hanno's  voyages,  I.  324 
Haruspices,  1.  187;  III.  126  ff 
Haunted  house,  III.  305 
Helicon,  I.  57 

Helius,  I.  40 

Helvidius  Priscus,  III.  223  ff 

Henry  II  of  England,  anecdote  of,  II.  140 

Herculaneum,  Villa  at,  II.  264 

Hermogenes,  I.  68 

Herodes  Atticus,  I.  67-8  ;    II.  253,  259, 

296  :  III.  75,  80 
Herod's  games  in  honour  of  Augustus,  III. 

9 
Heroes,  Relics  of  the,  I.  372 
Hero  worship.  III.  115  ff,  142  ff 
Hippolytus,  III.  199  ff 
Historical  rehcs,  I.  371,  375 
Histrio,  II.  109 
Holinshed  on  stoves,  II.  144 
Hordearii,  II.  56 
Hormus,  I.  41 
Hortensius  Hortalus,  I.  123 
Hospiiium  adventorium,  I.  291 
House-decorators'  wages,  II.  267  ff 
Human  sacrifices  to  clay  ghosts.  III.  306 
Hylas  flogged,  II.  11 1 
Hymnologi,  II.  350 

Iced  food  invented,  II.  142 

Icelus,  I.  41,  47 

I  gel  monument  of  Secundinii,  II.  216 

Ilion,  I.  346 

Illumination,  II.  13 

Images  of  gods.  III.  164  ff  ;    worship  of, 

167-70 
Immortality  of  soul,  III.  283  ff 


Ind 


ex 


319 


Imperial  household,  I.  66  ;  license  for  new 
buildings,  II.  249  ff ;    palaces,  II.  191  ; 
panegyrics.  III.  51  ff 
Incantation  of  dead,  III.  307-9 
Incense,  kinds  of,  II.  211 
Indian  commercial  relations,  I.  306 
Inns,   absence  of,   I.   289  ;    as  places  of 
ill-resort ;    I.  293  ;    signs  of,  I.  291  ff 
Insignia,  I.  127  ff 
Irenaeus,  III.  206 
Isaeus  the  sophist,  III.  79 
Isthmus  cut  by  Hadrian,  II.  258 
Italian  coast  with  its  vUlas,  I.  390 

Jewellery  extravagance  in,  II.  180  ff 

Jews'  aversion  to  Statuary,  II,  305 
dispersion  of.  III.  171  ff  ;  in  Alexandria, 
III.  176;  in  England,  III.  181;  in 
Gaul,  III.  180;  in  Italy,  III.  178; 
revolts  of.  III.  177  ;  Roman  strictures 
on,  III.  184  ;  Treatment  by  Emperors, 
III.  182  ff 

Joachim  I  of  Brandenburg,  II.  140 

Josephus  on  scenery,  I.  389 

Journeys,  I.  287  ff,  311 

Judaism    among    the    women,    I.    287 ; 
neutral;  III.  171 

Julian  on  Pantomimes,  II.  106 

JuUus  Csesar,  II.  152  ;  gamee,  II.  41 

Julius  Canus,  III.  261 

Jumentarii,  I.  279 

Junius  Mauricus,  I.  81 

Junius  Rusticus,  II.  294  ;   III.  227 

Jurisconsulti,  I.  165 

Jurists  under  Empire,  I.  122 

Juvenal's  description  of  a  garret-home, 
II.  269 

Knighthood,  offices  incident  to,  I.  137  ff 
Knights,  I.  134  ff  ;  wealth  of,  I.  143 
Kostolacz,  II.  248 
Kublai  Khan,  II.  174 

Laberii,  villa  of,  II.  259 

Lactantius,  III.  194,  215,  311 

Lambessa,  II.  232  ;  III.  112 

Lanistae,  II.  53 

Lanuvium,  II.  251 

Laodicoa,  II.  242  ;  industries  of,  I.  315 

Larcius  Macedo,  I.  99 

Largess  at  ludi,  II.  14  ff 

Larvae,  III.  302,  304 

Lateranus,  I.  47 

Latin,  decay  of,  III.  20  ;   rapid  spread  of 

language  and  literature.  III.  23 
Laudiceni,  III.  41 
Legacies  for  games,  II.  10 
Lemures,  III.  302 
Leo  X,  Pope,  II.  157 
Licinius  Archias,  III.  10 
Licinius  Sura,  III.  305 
Lilies,  II.  167 

Literary  popularities,  changes  in,  III.  7  ff 
Local  cults.  III.  146  ff;    of  Greece,  III. 

158  ff  ;   of  Italy,  HI.  157  ff 
Lolha  Paulina,  II.  182 
Longianus,  II.  290 
Lorenzo  de  Medici,  H,  176 


Lotus,  II.  168 

Lucan,  III.  10,  32  ;    Orpheus,  III.  11 
out  of  fashion,  III.  7  ;   read  at  school, 
III.  4 

Lucian's  Dream,  II.  310  ;  jibes  at  poly- 
theism, III.  108  ;  in  Pantomime,  II. 
104,  107  ;  on  philosophers.  III.  234  ; 
his  Philopseudes,  III.  301  ff 

Lucius  Afranius,  II.  no 

Lucius  Arruntius,  I.  2r3 

Lucius  Crassus,  house  of,  II.  185 

Lucius  Seianus,  II.  13 

Lucius  Valerius  Proculus,  I.  138  ff 

Lucius  Verus,  II.  145 

Lucretius  and  Epicurean  school,  III.  86 

Lucrezia  Borgia,  II.  176 

LucuUus,  II.  151 

Ludi,  II.  I  ff;  reUgious  ceremony,  II. 
36  ;  times  of,  II.  11  ;  when  held,  II.  9 

Luxury,  II.  131  ;  affected  by  cUmate,  II. 
r4i  ;  as  progress,  II.  143  ;  domestic, 
II.  202  ;  in  dress  in  Germany,  II.  177  ; 
in  Germany,  II.  133  ;  in  scents,  II.  184  ; 
of  a  Nero  abnormal,  II.  132  ;  of  Spanish 
grandees,  II.  144  ;  since  1850  increased, 
II.  131  ;  under  Khalifs,  II.  155 

Lyons,   II.  235  ;    great  fire  at,   II.  255 

Lyre,  II.  341 

Maecenas,  III.  30,  224:    as  Patron,  III. 

55 

Madeira  discovered,  I.  324 

Magic,  belief  in,  I.  260  ;   tales  of.  III.  17 

Maiestas,  III.  187 

Makaritai,  III.  286 

Manilius,  his  Astrology,  I.  211  ;  on  Panto- 
mimes, II.  103,  no 

Manilius  Comutus,  I.  172 

Mansiones  Saliorutn,  III.  155 

Marble,  whence  drawn,  II.  190  ff 

Marcelli  statues  of  in  Sicily,  II.  287 

Marcus  Aemilius  Lepidus,  obsequies  of, 
II.  41 

Marcus  AemUius  Scaunis'  theatre,  II.  133 

Marcus  AquUius  Regulus,  III.  60 

Marcus  Aurelius  Musaeus,  II.  353 

Marcus  Aurelius,  III.  96,  107,  136,  140, 
207,  233  ;    and  philosophers.  III.  240 

Marcus  Fulvius  Nobilior,  II.  62,  117 

Marcus  Lollius,  II.  182 

Marcus  Scaurus,  II.  118 

Marine,  the,  I.  189 

Marriage,  I.  228  ff  ;  an  emancipation,  I. 
236  ;  betrothals  by  parents,  I.  234  ; 
bridal  ceremonies,  I.  235  ;  remarriages 
of  women,  I.  243  ;  sumptuary  laws  in 
marriage,  I.  235 

Martial,  I.  58  ff,  99,  145  ;  III.  62 

Marius  Celsus,  I.  81 

Martyrs,  numbers  of.  III.  193 

Matemus  the  brigand,  I.  296 

Mausolea,  II.  215 

Mavortius  LoUianus,  I.  186 

Maxims  of  Tyre,  III.  95,  153  ;  his  philo- 
sophy, III.  93 

Medica,  II.  167 

Medical  quacks,  I.  183  ;  superstition,  I. 
1 80,  184  ;   wealth,  I.  68 


320 


Index 


Meeting-places  in  streets  replaced  news- 
paper, I.  209,  217  fl 

Melitene,  II.  243 

Melones,  II.  168 

Mtlopepones,  II.  168 

Memnon,  statue  of,  I.  304 

Memphis,  I.  362 

Menageries,  imperial,  II.  68 

Menecles,  II.  353 

Menecrates,  II.  355 

Merchants,  Roman,  their  origin,  I.  313 

Merida,  bridge  at,  II.  231 

Mesochorus,  III.  41 

Mesoalina,  I.  59,  62,  94 

Messalla,  III.  29  ff,  59;  picture  of  his 
victory,  II.  271 

Meursius  in  luxury,  II.  131 

Milan,  I.  273  ;  II.  234 

Militia  equestris,  I.  136 

Mimes,  II.  90  fi 

Miracles,  Pagan,  III.  97  fit ;  the  King's 
touch.  III.  122  ff ;  of  Aesculapius,  III, 
138  ff  ;  of  Christianity,  III.  iq6 

Missionary  enterprise  of  Christianity,  III. 
186 

Mitylene,  I.  344 

Mnester,  I.  59  ;  II.  114 

Moesian  cities,  II.  248 

Montagu,  Lady  VVortley,  II.  161 

Montanists,  HI.  192 

Mont  Toux,  III.  151 

Monumental  Art,  II.  271 

Morality  of  music,  II.  348 

Moschus,  I.  41 

Mountain  scenery  disliked,  I.  391  ff 

Mucianus,  III.  225,  230 

Muliones  perpetuarii,  I.  288 

Mundus,  opening  of  the,  III.  302 

Municipal  patriotism,  II.  251 

Murrha,  II.  202,  203 

Music,  II.  337 ;  at  banquets,  II.  350 ; 
attempted  to  depict  action,  II.  343  ; 
ecclesiastical,  II.  364  ;  fees,  II.  354  ff  ; 
male  and  female  instruments,  II.  342  ; 
no  distinction  between  sacred  and  pro- 
fane, II.  350  ;  orchestral,  II.  345  ;  part- 
einging  unknown,  II.  340  ;  St.  Jerome 
on  secular  and  Christian,  II.  364,  ff  ; 
schools,  II.  357  ;  spread  of  among 
Romans,  II.  361-2 

Musonius  Rufus,  III.  223,  243,  247,  256, 
261  270,  278,  280 

Mythology  and  religion.  III.  215  ff 

Naples,  I.  333  ;  before  eruption  of  Vesu- 
vius, I.  334 

Napoleon,  busts  of,  II.  284 

Narcissus,  I.  47  ;  II.  135 

Narcissus  the  Athlete,  11.  125 

Native  cults.  III.  112  ;  146  ff 

Nature,  ancient  feehng  for,  I.  421,  424 

Nature,   the   Romantic  in,   I.  395   ff 

Naumachiae,  the,  II.  74  ff 

Nemausus,  II.  235 

Nero,  as  professional  musician,  II.  362  ; 
as  rhetor  and  poet.  III.  31  ;  as  trage- 
dian, his  favourite  parts,  II.  99 

Nerva,  III.  60  ;  as  poet,  III.  33 


Nicanor,  I.  83 

Nicetes  of  Smyrna,  11.  252 

Nicopolis,  II.  246 

Nicon,  II.  144 

Nile,  source  of  the,  I.  326 

Nomenclatores,  II.  220 

Noricum,  II.  247 

Novels  anticipated  by  controversiae,  III. 

16 
Nux  Caloa,  II.  167 

October  Equus,  III.  156 

Offerings  to  gods,  III.  165  ff 

Officials  travelling  billeted,  I.  290 

Officinae,  II.  308 

Ohves  acclimatized,  II.  167  ;    spread  of, 

II.  171 
Omens,  III.  126 
Oracles,  III.  129 
Orange,  II.  235 

Oriental  cults,  effect  of  admission  of,  III. 

102-103 
Origen,  III.  193-4,  203,  288 
Original  sin,  III.  219 
Orpheus  worshipped,  III.  118 
Orphic  mysteries  and  doctrines.  III.  287  ff, 

294 
Ostia,  I.  331 
Otho,  I.  108 

Outspokenness  at  ludi,  etc.,  11.  6-7 
Oyster-beds,  II.  165 

Paganism,  its  persecution  and  survival, 

III.  210  ff 
Pagi,  II.  232 

Painting,  Italian  artists,  II.  322  ;    more 

honoured  than  statuary,  II.  323 
Palanquins,  I.  288 
Palfurius  Sura,  III.  239 
Pallas,  I.  44,  47,  51  ;  II.  135 
Palmyra,  II.  240 
Pammenes,  I.  185 
Pamphyhan  cities,  II.  243 
Panaetius,  III.  286 
Pannonia  settled,  II.  247 
Panthea  of  Smyrna,  I.  63 
Pantomimes,  11.  60,  345  ;    and    infamy, 

II.  Ill  ;    Hylas,  II.  105  ;    morality  of, 

II.  106  ;    owned  by  families,  II.  107  ; 

restrictions  on,  II.  117  ;    themes  of,  II. 

loi,  103 
Paper  of  Alexandria,  I.  314 
Paradoxonicae,  II.  128 
Parentalia,  III.  302 
Parenzo,  II.  235 

Paris,  the  Pantomime,  II.  114  ff  ;   III.  49 
Parthenius,    I.    41,    47  ;    III.    73  ;    and 

Sigerus,  I.  57 
Parthian  Commerce,  I.  308 
Patronage  of  poets,  III.  56  3 
Pausilypon,  I.  333 
Peach-almonds,  II.  168 
Peacocks  acclimatized,  II.  165 
Pearls,  II.  181  ;    in  modern  Europe,  II. 

182  ff 
Periegetai,  I.  373 
Peregrinus  Proteus,  III.  275  ff 
Perfectissimus,  I.  141 


Index 


321 


Perga,  11.  243 

Pergamus,  II.  242  ;  temple  at,  II.  325 

Persecutions  of  Christians,  III.  190  3 

Pessimism,  Greek  and  Roman,  III.  312-3 

Petrus  de  Crescentiis  on  Gardens,  I.  424 

Pharos,  I.  352 

Phihppopojjs,  II.  241 

Philosophi,  II.  308 

Philosophers  and  pupils.  III.  256,  258  ft ; 
as  consolers,  III.  261  ;  attached  to  a 
family,  III.  262  ;  attached  to  court, 
III.  263  ;  lectures  at  Rome,  III.  249  ; 
mostly  Greeks,  III.  247  ;  quarrels.  III. 
241  ;  wealth,  III.  235 

Philosophy,  advocates  of,  III.  245  ;  as 
unpractical.  III.  223  ff ;  breaking 
barriers.  III.  279  ff ;  course  of  study  in, 
III.  250  ff  ;  in  vogue.  III.  227  fi 

PhilostOTgia  not  Roman,  I.  225 

Phonaskos,  II.  353 

Phrygia  thinly  populated,  11.  243 

Physicians,  I.  168  ff 

Physics,  III.  254 

Pictorial  begging-letters,  II.  273 

Picture  galleries,  II.  329 

Pictures  as  legal  evidence,  II.  273  ;  of  old 
masters,  II.  330  ff  ;  of  tyrants  destroyed, 

n. 275  ff 

Pilgrimages,  I.  321  ;  III.  130 

Pisidian  cities,  II.  243 

Piso  as  lyrist,  II.  361  ;   as  patron,  III.  57 

Piso  Caesoninus  and  aedile  games,  II.  44 

Plague  under  Tiberius,  I.  168 

Plastic  art,  II.  267 

Plate,  gold  and  silver,  II.  205  ff 

Platonism  and  immortality,  III.  287  ff 

Pliny  the  Elder,  I.  139  ;  against  popular 
belief,  III.  88  ;  on  actors,  II.  113  ;  on 
gluttony,  II.  165  ;  on  snow  as  refriger- 
ator, II.  142-3;  on  Trajan's  accession, 
III.  227  ;    on  the  protesters.  III.  42  ff 

Pliny  the  Younger,  I.  30,  31,  42,  72,  89,  95, 
115,  199,  209,  232,  235  ;  II.  44, 128,  214, 
249,  252,  281,  324  ;  III.  71,  224,  257, 
305  ;  and  Como,  II.  252  ;  his  properties, 

II.  193  ;    his  villa,  1.  331  ;    on  Isaeus, 

III.  79  ;    on  plundering  of  provinces, 

I.  121. 
Plums,  II.  167 

Plutarch  on  applause  in  a  philosopher's 
school.  III.  270  ;  on  art,  II.  334  ;  on 
artists,  II.  321  ;  on  demons.  III.  91  ; 
on  polytheism.  III.  109 

Poetical  improvisation.  III.  10  ;  prose, 
III.  19 

Poetry  always  sung,  II.  338  ;  decline  of, 
III.  34  ;  Greek  and  Latin  competitions, 

II.  120  ;  much  read,  III.  25  ff  ;  in  edu- 
cation, III.  I  ;  introduction  to  elo- 
quence, III.  2 ;  not  profitable.  III. 
47 

Poets'  first  attempts.  III.  10  ;  life,  ac- 
counts of.  III.  48-49  ;  not  immune 
like  teachers.  III.  47  ;    read  in  schools, 

III.  3 

Polemo,  III.  78  ;   his  pomp  in  travelling, 

I.  288 
PoUius  Fehx,  III.  67,  73 

R.L.M. — III 


Polycletus,  I.  40,  42 

Polyphthongon,  II.  342 

Polytheism,  III.  104 

Pomegranates,  II.  167 

Pompey's  villas,  I.  329 

Pompilius  Vopiscus,  I.  loi 

Pons  Aelius,  II.  257 

Pont  du  Gard,  II.  231 

Poppaea's  funeral,  11.  212  ;  retiune,  I.  288 

Portions  Xysti,  I.  169 

Portraits,  Authors',  II.  277 

Posides,  I.  45 

Potamophylacia  of  Nice,  III.  176 

Potteries  of  Greek  Islands,  I.  315 

Praecones,  I.  154,  191-2 

Praefectus  arcendis  latronibus,  I.  294 

Praetorian  regiment,  I.  193 

Prayer,  efficacy  of.  III.  444  ff 

Ptolemy's  Geography,  I.  307 

Ptolemy  Mennaeus,  II.  134 

Pragmatici,  I.  162,  166-7 

Priesthood,  I.  141 

Procurators  for  married  women,   I.   237 

Procuratores  castrenses,  I.  50 

Proceres,  I.  71 

Proletariate  of  Rome,  II.  2 

Propertius  Celer,  I.  123 

Provincials  and  Roman  honours,  I.  100  ff 

Prunus  avium,  II.  167 

Public  libraries.  III.  38 

Publius  Decimius  Eros  Merula,  I.  173 

Publius  Egnatius  Celer,  I.  201 

Publilius  of  Syria,  III.  11 

Publius  Servilius  Rullus,  II.  153 

Publius  Sulpicius  Quirinius,  I.  109 

Pueri  eminentes,  I.  82 

Purple  wool,  cost  of,  II.  175 

Puteoli,  I.  333 

Pylades,  I.  59  ;  II.  100  ff,  346 

Pyres,  II.  212 

Pyrrhic  dance,  II.  108 

Quadratarii,  II.  308 

Quaestorship,  I.  126 

Quintilian,  I.  158,  161,  251  ;  III.  291  ; 
on  false  philosophers.  III.  237 ;  on 
oratorical  debutant,  III.  40  ;  on  rhetorr- 
cal  courses.  III.  11  ;  on  the  philosophie, 
III.  223  ;    his  religion.  III.  87. 

Quintus  Catulus,  II.  185 

Quintus  Haterius,  I.  213 

Quintus  Metellus  Macedonicus,  I.  i 

Quintus  Metellus  Pius,  II.  151 

Quintus  Pedius,  II.  323 

Quintus  Servilius  Caepio,  II.  134 

Quintus  Sextius,  III.  247 

Quintus  Sextius  Niger,  I.  142 

Quintus  Stertinius,  I.  68 

Rabirius,  11.  324 
Race-horses,  where  bred,  II.  25 
Ravenna,  II.  234 
Reading,  III.  38 
Receptions,  I.  207  ff 
Recitationes,  III.  36,  39  ff,  48,  67 
Redae,  I.  279 

Rederijkerskamers,  III.  44 
Refrigerium  of  saints,  III.  290 


322 


Index 


Regulus,  I.  122 ;  his  properties,  II. 
193 

Religion,  evidence  of.  III.  84  ;  in  second 
century,  HI-  94  ;  stability  of,  III.  lor 
ft  ;   utiHty  of,  III.  85 

Religious  art,  II.  298  S 

Relligio  loci,  I.  383 

Remainders  of  books  sent  to  provinces,  III. 
24 

Rents  at  Rome,  II.  185 

Resurrection,  ideas  of.  III.  294  ft 

Reversionary  speculators,  I.  212 

Rheims,  II.  232 

Rhetoric,  effect  on  style.  III.  18  ;  exer- 
cises in.  III.  12  ;  importance  of.  III.  2  ; 
in  poetical  form.  III.  18  ;  professor- 
ships of,  III.  2 

Rhetorician's  travels,  I.  317;  fees,  I. 
157,  161  ff ;   periodeutai,  I.  318 

Rhodes,  I.  345  ;  II.  362 

Richard  II  of  England,  II.  156 

Rimini,  bridge  at,  II.  231 

Roads,  African,  I.  275  ;  Alpine,  I.  273  ; 
Stephen  Heinrich  on  Roman,  I.  268  ; 
system  of  Roman,  I.  271 

Roma  as  goddess.  III.  117 

Roman  colonies,  scheme  of,  II.  247 ; 
copying  of  Greek  works,  II.  326  ;  in- 
terest in  art,  II.  328,  333  fl  ;  love  of 
rusticity,  I.  384  ;  music  eclipsed  by 
Greek,  II.  337 ;  nabobs,  II.  134 ; 
nobles  and  their  estates,  II.  200  ;  ritual, 
III.  155-7  ;  simphcity  of  Uving,  II.  146  ; 
spread  of  luxury,  II.  147  ;  world  poorer, 
II.  221  fE 

Rome,  her  garrison,  I.  19 ;  her  police 
force,  I.  20 ;  her  water-supply,  I. 
II 

Roses  acclimatized,  II.  167 

Rothschild,  II.  170,  198 

Rubellius  Plautus,  III.  261 

Russian  cookery,  II.  162 

Sacrifices  as  Thanksgivings,  III.  162  ff 

St.  Augustine,  II.  79  ;  III.  311 

St.  Chrysostom  on  music,  II.  363 

St.  Remy  mausoleum,  II.  216 

Sallust  on   luxurious  vUlas,    II.  194  ;   on 

music,  II.  359 
Saluiatio  publica  sive  promiscua,  I.  87 
Salvidienus  Rufus,  I.  29,  107 
Sambuca,  II.  342,  345 
Sta  Maria  in  Capitole  at  Cologne,  II.  249 
Saoteros,  I.  58 
Sarcophagi,  costly,  II.  212 
Sarmentus,  I.  85,  143 
Sasema,  II.  171 
Scabellum,  II.  346 

Scents,   II.  184  ff ;    at  funerals,  II.  211 
Scepticism,  III.  87 
Scorpus  the  charioteer,  II.  22 
Scribonius  Largus,  I.  168,  178 
Sculptors  mostly  Greeks,  II.  322 
Sculptuary  in  the  Quarries,  II.  307-8 
Sculpture,  II.  311  fl 
Scyllacium,  I.  335 
Secretariate,  the,  I.  53 
Selge,  II.  244 


Semi-circular  sofas,  I.  211 

Senators  as  money-lenders,  I.  rig  ;  wealth 

of,  I.  113,  122  ff  ;   families,  fate  of,  I. 

109  ff 
Senatorship,  degradation  from,  I.  133 
Seneca,  I.  83,  119,  208;    III.  5,  32,  144, 

216,  220,  264  ;    and  St.  Paul,  III.  209  ; 

making  a  poor  man's  journey,  I.  287  ; 

on  artists,  II.  321  ;  on  astrology,  I.  69  ; 

on  Claudius,  I.  39  ;   on  ostentation,  IL 

152-3  ;     on    philosophy.    III.    245-6 ; 

on  politics,  III.  228  ;  on  ill-built  houses* 

I.  21  ;  on  travelling,  I.  381,  383 
Sensual  music,  II.  349 

Sergius  Julius  Frontinus,  I.  332 

Seven  Wonders,  the,  I.  367 

Seviri,  I.  350 

Sextus  Vistilius,  I.  80 

Shalots,  II.  168 

Sicily,  I.  339  ff 

Sidon,  II.  240 

Sierra  Leone,  I.  324 

Sigerus,  I.  41 

Sigilla,  II.  270 

Sihus  Halicus,  I.  333  ;  III.  60,  67 

Silk,  value  of,  II.  179 

Sillyon,  II.  244 

Silver-plate,  II.  205  ;    as  capital,  II.  208  ; 

extensively  used,  II.  210 
Sirmium,  II.  248 
Site  values,  II.  193 
Slaves,  II.  218  ff  ;    as  memory- guarders, 

III.  3 
Smvma,  I.  348  ;  11.  242,  252 
Soldiers,  I.  301-2 
Sophistic  influences.  III.  74,  76 
Spartacus,  II.  55 
Staberius,  II.  214 
Stadium,  II.  117  ff 
State-port,  I.  278,  280 
Stationes,  I.  291 

Statius,  I.  61  ;  II.  194  ;  III.  60  ff 
Statuary,    ancient    wealth    in,    II.    300  ; 

of  divine  figures,  II.  299  ;    to  the  dead, 

II.  296 

Statues  as  honours,  II.  289  ff  ;  as  marks 
of  gratitude,  II.  295  ;  io  Rome,  II.  301, 
307  ;  of  celebrated  men,  II.  286,  290  ; 
price  of,  II.  319 

Ships,  great  size  of,  I.  351 

Stoicism,  III.  90,  220,  230  ;  doctrine  of 
immortality  of  soul.  III.  286  ;  popu- 
lar at  Rome,  III.  248 

Stoics  suspected.  III.  225 

Strabo,  I.  327  ;  II.  66 

Stratonicea,  II.  242 

Strenae,  I.  87 

Stucco  relief,  II.  266 

Styles  in  statuary,  II.  303 

Suasoriae,  III.  12,  17 

Suicide,  III.  221 

Syllogisms,  captious.  III.  252 

Symmachus,  II.  33,  59 

Symphoniaci,  II.  345 

Synthesis,  II.  175 

Syrians  as  bankers,  I.  313  ;  as  merchants, 

III.  Ill  ;  at  Rome,  I.  36 
Syringe,  II.  201 


Index 


323 


Tacitus,  II.  150  ;   III.  223  ;   his  reUgion, 
III.  87  ;  on  art,  II.  334  ;  on  luxury,  II. 

145 
Talleyrand,  II.  163 
Tarraco,  II.  237 

Tarragona  funeral  monument,  II.  217 
Ta-Tsin,  I.  308  ;  II.  179 
Tempe,  Vale  of,  I.  387 
Temple  at  Tolosa,  II.  134 
Temples,   building  of,  III.  161  ;  visited, 

I.  368  ff 
Terentius  Prisaus,  III.  249 
Tertullian,  III.  218 
Thallus  the  charioteer,  II.  24 
Theagenes,  III.  249 
Theatre,  severance  of  song  and  dance,  II. 

98 
Theatrical  music,  II.  347,  331 
Thebes,  I.  363 
Theodoras  of  Gadara,  I.  67 
Theodoretus,  III.  214 
Thessalonica,  II.  245 
Thrasea,  II.  359  ;  III.  225,  261 
Thrasyllus,  I.  84 
Tiberius,  III.  30 

Tiberius  Optatus  EUpertius,  II,  165 
Tigellius,  I.  83  ;  II.  333.  356 
Timotheus  the  citharist,  II.  343 
Titinius  Capito,  I.  53 
Titus,  II.  358  ;  III.  33 
Titus  Castricius,  III.  258 
Titus  Flaminius,  II.  41 
Titus  Labienus,  III.  28 
Titus  Petronius,  III.  261 
Toga  as  sign  of  advocate,  I.  163 
Tokharistan,  I.  308 
ToU-keepers,  I.  293 
Tomb-stones,  decoration  of,  II.  270-1 
Touring,  Roman  interest  in,  I.  368 
Tragedy,  II.  97  ;    and  comedy,  II.  338  ; 

costumes,  II.  99 
Tragoedi,  II.  35 r 
Trajan  no  poet,  III.  33  ;  not  honoured  as 

a  god.  III.  96;  the  Forum  of,  II.  261 
Transformation  of  statues  in  subject,  II. 

313 
Travel  for  culture,  I.  316 
Travelling  inside  Empire,  I.  328 
Travertine  stone,  II.  185 
Trebizond  (Trapezus),  II.  243 
Trees  venerated,  I.  382 
Trieste,  II.  235 
Trigonon,  II.  343 
Trimalchio,  II.  332,  361  ;    III.  115  ;    bis 

tomb,  II.  274 
Troy,  I.  346  ff 
Tubae,  II.  342 
Tulips,  II.  201 
Tullus  and  Lucanus  as  tile  manufacturers , 

I.  120 
Tunica  molesta,  II.  73 
Twelve  Tables,  the,  on  Funeral  Pomp,  II . 

210 
Tjae,  II.  240 

Ulpian  on  philosopher's  fees.  III.  237 
Umbonius  Silio,  I.  133 
Ummidia  Quadjatilla,  I.  106 


Ummilius  Quadratus,  I.  64 
Unctores,  II.  56 

Valerius  Asiaticus,  I.  lor 
Valerius  Homullus,  I.  77 
Varro,  I.  229;  II.  167;    on  art,  II.  327: 

on  luxury,  II.  147  fi  ;   on  music,  II.  358 
Vedius  Pollio,  I.  99,  103,  143,  333 
Velleius  Paterculus,  III.  23 
Venationes,  II.  62  ;   decline  and  spread  of, 

II.  81  ff ;   sumptuary  laws  against,  II. 

82 
Venetian  luxury,  II.  196 
Verecunda,  II.  232,  251 
Verginius  Flavus,  I.  161 
Verginius  Rufus,  I.  209,  330 
Verrius  Flaccus,  I.  67,  81 
Verulamium  (St.  Alban's),  II.  246 
Vespasian  as  patron  of  Uterature,  III.  33 
Vestal  Virgins  allowed  in  stadium,  II.  119 
Vestricius  Spuriana,  III.  73 
Via  Aemilia,  I.  273 
Via  Appia,  I.  270 
Via  Egnatia,  I.  271 
Via  Flaminia,  I.  272 
Vibius  Crispus,  I.  122 
Vienne,  II.  235 
Vigiles,  I.  169 
Vigintiviratus,  I.  126 
Villeggiature  in  Italy,  I.  329  fE 
Villas  in  provinces,  II.  259-60 
Vindobona  (Vienna),  II.  247 
Vines,  II.  166,  171 
Virgil   as   book   of   divination.    III.    25 ; 

Eclogues,  success  of.  III.  24  ;  influence 

on  style.  III.  69  fi  ;  read  at  school,  II. 

4  ;    reward  for  sixth  book  of    Aeneid, 

in.  53 

Viroconium  (Wroxeter),  II.  246 

ViteUius  as  gourmet,  II.  148 

Vitruvius,  II.  324  ;    on  architecture,  II. 

187  ;  on  quarries  near  Tarquinii,  II.  262 
Vocal  music,  II.  347 
Vopiscuo,  II.  22,  195,  329  ;  III.  67 
Votive  tablets,  II.  299 
Voyages  for  health,  I.  321  ;  how  made  and 

length  of,  I.  283  fi 

Walcheren,  III.  146 

Walnuts  acclimatized,  II.  167 

Wall-paintings,  II.  267 

Wealth,  deterrent  causes  of,  II.  139;  in 
modem  Europe,  II.  136 ;  obligations 
of,  II.  228  ;  of  antiquity,  II.  135  ;  under 
KhaUfs,  II.  135 

William  of  Malmesbury,  II.  144 

Windisch,  II.  237 

Wobum  Abbey,  II.  197 

Women,  ambitions  of,  I.  230  fi  ;  as  artists, 
II.  323  ff ;  as  gladiators,  II.  50  ff ; 
as  musicians,  II.  339  ;  cruelty  of,  to 
slaves,  I.  244  ;  education  of,  I.  230  fi  ; 
emancipated,  I.  249  ;  in  nursery,  I.  228  ; 
morality  of,  1. 241  ;  passion  for  theatre, 
1. 243-6  ;  superstitions,  1. 235  ff  ;  virtues 
of,  I.  261  ;  mistresses  in  their  own 
homes,  I.  236 


324 

Wrecking,  practice  of,  I.  282 
Wroxeter  v.  Viroconium,  II.  246 
Wiirtemberg,  II.  247 

Xanten,  II.  233 
Xystarchus,  II.  126 


Index 


Yorkshire,  inscription  in,  I.  146 


Zabulon,  II.  240 
Zenodorus,  II.  315,  320 
Zosimus  on  Pantomimes,  II.  107 


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