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B. H. BLACKWELL LTD.
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THE ROMAN POETS OF
THE REPUBLIC
BY
W. Y. SELLAR, M.A., LL.D.
PROFESSOR OF HUMANITY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH
AND FORMERLY FELLOW OF ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD
RE-ISSUE OF THE THIRD EDITION
OXFORD
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
M DCCCC V
4^A
6 0 41
1121
O op. ^
HENRY Flk)WDE, M.A.
PUBLISHER TO THE CNI\'ERSITY OF OXFORD
LONDON, EDINBTIRGH
NEW YORK AND TORONTO
APR 1 7 1968
^S/TV OF -tO*^
[Dedication of the Edition ofi^Zi.']
TO
J. C. SHAIRP, M.A., liTj.D.,
PRINCIPAL OF THE UNITED COLLEGE, ST. ANDREWS,
PROFESSOR OF POETRY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD,
IN ACKNOWLEDGMENT
OF MUCH ACTIVE AND GENEROUS KINDNESS,
AND OF
A LONG AND STEADY FRIENDSHIP,
THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
In preparing a second edition of this volume, which
has been for some years out of print, I have, with the
exception of a few pages added to Chapter IV, retained
the first five chapters substantially unchanged. Chapters
VI and VII, on Roman Comedy, are entirely new. I
have enlarged the account formerly given of Lucilius
in Chapter VIII, and modified the Review of the First
Period, contained in Chapter IX. The short introductory
chapter to the Second Period is new. The four chapters
on Lucretius have been carefully revised, and, in part,
re-written. The chapter on Catullus has been re-written
and enlarged, and the views formerly expressed in it have
been modified.
In the preface to the first edition I acknowledged the
assistance I had derived from the editions of the Frag-
ments of the early writers by Klussman, Vahlen, Ribbeck,
and Gerlach ; from the Histories of Roman Literature
by Bernhardy, Bahr, and Munk, and from the chapters
on Roman Literature in Mommsen's Roman History ;
from a treatise on the origin of Roman Poetry, by Corssen ;
from Sir G. C. Lewis's work on 'The Credibility of Early
Roman History ' ; from the Articles on the Roman Poets
by the late Professor Ramsay, contained in Smith's ' Dic-
tionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology ' ;
and from Articles by Mr. Munro in the 'Journal of Clas-
sical and Sacred Philology.' In addition to these I have.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION, v
in the present edition, to acknowledge my indebtedness
to the History of Roman Literature by W. S. Teuffel,
to Ribbeck's ' Romische Tragodie,' to Ritschl's 'Opuscula,'
to the editions of some of the Plays of Plautus by Brix
and Lorenz, to that of the Fragments of Lucilius by
L. Mliller, to the Thesis of M. G. Boissier, entitled 'Quo-
modo Graecos Poetas Plautus Transtulerit,' to Articles on
Lucilius by Mr. Munro in the ' Journal of Philology,' and
to the edition of Lucretius, and the 'Criticisms and Eluci-
dations of Catullus ' by the same writer, to Schwabe's
'Ouaestiones Catullianae,' to Mr. Ellis's 'Commentary on
Catullus,' to R. Westphal's ' Catull's Gedichte,' and to
M. A. Couat's ' £tude sur CatuUe.' I have more especially
to express my sense of obligation to Mr. Munro's writings
on Lucretius and Catullus. In so far as the chapters
on these poets in this edition may be improved, this
will, in a great measure, be due to the new knowledge
of the subject I have gained from the study of his
works.
I have retained, with some corrections, the translations
of the longer quotations, contained in the first edition, and
have added a literal prose version of some passages quoted
from Plautus and Terence. Instead of offering a prose
version of the longer passages quoted from Catullus, I
have again availed myself of the kind permission for-
merly given me by Sir Theodore Martin to make use of
his translation.
Edinburgh, Dec. 1880.
PREFATORY NOTE TO THE
THIRD EDITION.
In revising this work for a new edition the most
important change I have made is in the account of
Terence, contained in Chapter VII. I have to ac-
knowledge the kind permission of Messrs. A. & C. Black
to make use of the article on Terence which I wrote for
the Encyclopaedia Britannica, in which I first expressed
the modification of my views on that author. I have
added some notes to the Chapter on Catullus, suggested
by the opinions expressed in the Prolegomena to the
Edition of B. Schmidt. In the Chapter on Naevius
I have availed myself of a suggestion contained in a
paper by Prof. A. F. West, ' On a Patriotic Passage in
the Miles Gloriosus of Plautus,' which appeared in the
American Journal of Philology, for my knowledge of
which I am indebted to his courtesy in sending the
article to me. I have introduced various verbal changes
in different parts of the book, implying some slight
modification of the opinions originally expressed.
Several of these were suggested by critics who noticed
the earlier editions of the book, to whom I beg to
express my thanks.
W. Y. S.
January, 1889.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
GENERAL CHARACTER OF ROMAN POETRY.
Recent change in the estimate of Roman Poetry
Want of originality .....
As compared with Greek Poetry
„ ,, with Roman Oratory and History
The most complete literary monument of Rome
Partly imitative, partly original
Imitative in forms ....
,, in metres ....
Imitative element in diction
„ ,, in matter
Original character, partly Roman, partly
National spirit
Imaginative sentiment
Moral feeling .....
Italian element in Roman Poetry .
Love of Nature ....
Passion of Love ....
Personal element in Roman Poetry .
P'our Periods of Roman Poetry
Character of each ....
Conclusion .....
Italian
I
2
2
3
5
6
7
8
9
II
13
14
15
16
^7
17
19
20
23
24
26
CHAPTER n.
VESTIGES OF INDIGENOUS POETRY IN ROME
AND ANCIENT ITALY.
Niebuhr's theory of a Ballad-Poetry 28
The Saturnian metre . . . • ... . . . 29
Ritual Hymns .......... 31
Prophetic verses ....-...•• 33
Fescennine verses .......... 34
Saturae 0^
VIU
CONTENTS.
Gnomic verses
Commemorative verses ....
Inferences as to their character
,, from early state of the language
Xo public recognition of Poetry
Roman story result of tradition and reflection
Inferences from the nature of Roman religion
,, from the character and pursuits of the people
Roman Poetry of Italian rather than Roman origin .
PAGE
37
37
38
39
40
41
43
44
45
FIRST PERIOD.
PROM LIVIUS ANDIlOK"ICUS TO LUCILIUS.
CHAPTER III.
BEGINNING OF ROMAN LITERATURE. LIVIUS ANDRONICUS,
CN. NAEVIUS, 240-202 B.C.
Contact with Greece after capture of Tarentum . . . . - 47^,
First period of Roman literature ....... ^9
Forms of Poetry during this period ....... 50
Livius Andronicus .......... 51
Cn. Naevius, his life 52
Dramas ............ 55
Epic poem 57
Style 59
Conclusion ........... 60
CHAPTER IV.
Q. ENNIUS, 239-170 B.C., LIFE, TIMES, AND PERSONAL TRAITS.
VARIOUS WORKS. GENIUS AND INTELLECT.
Importance of Ennius ......... 62
Notices of his life .......... 63
Influences affecting his career ........ 64
Italian birth-place 64
Greek education .......... 65
Service in Roman army ......... 66
CONTENTS.
IX
Historical importance of his age
Intellectual character of his age
Personal traits
Description of himself in the Annals
Intimacy with Scipio
His enthusiastic temperament .
Religious spirit and convictions
Miscellaneous works
Saturae .....
Dramas .....
Annals .....
Outline of the Poem
Idea by which it is animated .
Artistic defects
Roman character of the work .
Contrast with the Greek Epic
Contrast in its personages
Contrast in supernatural element
Oratory in the Annals
Description and imagery .
Rhythm and diction
Chief literary characteristics of Ennius
Energy of conception
Patriotic and imaginative sentiment
Moral emotion
Practical understanding .
Estimate in ancient times
Disparaging criticism of Niebuhr
68
69
71
72
74
75
77
79
81
83
88
89
92
93
94
96
96
97
98
100
102
106
107
no
112
"3
116
118
CHAPTER V.
EARLY ROMAN TRAGEDY. M. PACUVIUS, 219-129 B.C.
L. ACCIUS, 170-ABOUT 90 B.C.
Popularity of early Roman Tragedy ....
Partial adaptation of Athenian drama ....
Inability to reproduce its pure Hellenic character .
Nearer approach to the spirit of Euripides than of Sophocles
Grounds of popularity of Roman Tragedy
Moral tone and oratorical spirit .....
Causes of its decline .......
M. Pacuvius, notices of his life
120
121
. 123
125
126
129
131
133
X
CONTENTS.
1 spirit
Ancient testimonies .....
His dramas ......
Passages illustrative of his thought .
„ „ of his moral and oratories
Descriptive passages ....
Drama on a Roman subject
Character ...;..
L. Accius, notices of his life .
His various works .....
Fiagments illustrative of his oratorical spirit
„ ,, of his moral fervour
,, ,, of his sense of natural beauty
Conclusion as to character of Roman Tragedy
PAGli
i3y
141
142
142
143
145
147
14S
149
150
CHAPTER VI.
ROMAN COMEDY. T. MACCIUS PLAUTUS, ABOUT
254 TO 184 B.C.
Flourishing era of Roman Comedy . . . . . -153
How far any claim to originality ? 154
Disparaging judgment of later Roman critics ..... 155
Connection with earlier Saturae ....... 156
Naevius and Plautus popular poets . , . . . . .157
Facts in the life of Plaulus . . . . . . . , 15S
Attempt to iill up the outline from his works . . . . .160
Familiarity with town-life . . . . . . . .161
Traces of maritime adventure . . . . . . . .162
Life of the lower and middle classes represented in his plays . . 163
Love of good living ......... 164
Love of money .......... 166
Artistic indifference . . . . . . . . . .166
Knowledge of Greek 167
Influence of the spirit of his age ....... 167
Dramas adaptations of outward conditions of Athenian New Comedy 169
Manner and spirit, Roman and original . . . . . .172
Indications of originality in his language . . . . '173
,, ,, in his Roman allusions and national characteristics 174
Favourite plots of his plays . . . . . . . . 17S
Pseudolus, Bacchides, Miles Gloriosus, Mostellaria . . . .179
Aulularia, Trinummus, Menaechmi, Rudens, Captivi, Amphitryo . 1S2
CONTENTS.
XI
Mode of dealing with his characters
Moral and political indifference of his plays
Value as a poetic artist . . . . .
Power of expression by action, rhythm, diction
PAGE
191
192
200
CHAPTER VII.
TERENCE AND THE COMIC POETS SUBSEQUENT TO
PLAUTUS.
Comedy between the time of Plautus and Terence .... 204
Caecilius Statins .......... 204
Scipionic Circle 206
Complete Hellenising of Roman Comedy ..... 207
Conflicting accounts of life of Terence ..... . 207
Order in which his Plays were produced . . . . . .209
His ' prologues ' as indicative of his individuality . . . .210
' Dimidiatus Menander ' ......... 212
Epicurean ' humanity ' chief characteristic . . . . .213
Sentimental motive of his pieces ....... 214
Minute delineations of character . . . . . . .215
Diction and rhythm . . . . . . . . .217
Influence on the style and sentiment of Horace . . . .218
Modern estimates of Terence . . . . . . . .220
Comoedia Togata, Atellanae, MimiTS 220
CHAPTER VIII.
EARLY ROMAN SATIRE. C. LUCILIUS, DIED 102 b
Independent origin of Roman satire
Essentially Roman in form and spirit
,, ,, in its political and censorial function
Personal and miscellaneous character of early satire
Critical epoch at which Lucilius appeared
Question as to the date of his birth ....
Fragments chiefly preserved by grammarians .
Miscellaneous character and desultory treatment of subjects
Traces of subjects treated in different books .
Impression of the author's personality
Political character of Lucilian satire
Social vices satirised in it
222
224
225
227
229
229
232
233
234
236
238
239
Xll
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Intellectual peculiarities ......... 243
Literary criticism .......... 245
His style 246
Grounds of his popularity ........ 249
CHAPTER IX.
REVIEW OF THE FIRST PERIOD.
Common aspects in the lives of poets in the second century p.c
Popular and national character of their works .
Political condition of the time reflected in its literature
Defects of the poetic literature in form and style
Other forms of literature cultivated in that age
Oratory and history
Familiar letters
Critical and grammatical studies
Summary of character of the first period .
253
256
257
259
260
260
262
263
264
SECOND PERIOD.
THE CLOSE OF THE BEPUBLIC.
CHAPTER X.
TRANSITION FROM LUCILIUS TO LUCRETIUS.
Dearth of poetical works during the next half century . . . 269
Literary taste confined to the upper classes , . . . .271
Great advance in Latin prose writing . . . . . .272
Influence of this on the style of Lucretius and Catullus . . . 273
Closer contact with the mind and art of Greece .... 273
Effects of the political unsettlement on the contemplative life and
thought 275
„ on the life of pleasure, and the art founded on it . . . 277
The two representatives of the thought and art of the time . . 278
CONTENTS.
XIU
CHAPTER XL
LUCRETIUS. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS.
PAGE
Little known of him from external sources ..... 2S0
Examination of Jerome's statement . . . . . . . 2S4
Inferences as to his national and social position . . . . 287
Relation to Memmius 288
Impression of the author to be traced in his poem .... 290
Influence produced by the action of his age ..... 290
Minute familiarity with Nature and country life .... 292
Spirit in which he wrote his work ....... 294
His consciousness of power and delight in his task .... 295
His polemical spirit ......... 298
Reverence for Epicurus . . . . . . . . ,299
Affinity to Empedocles ......... 300
Influence of other Greek writers . . . . . . .302
„ of Ennius .......... 303
His interests speculative, not national 304
His Roman temperament 305
CHAPTER Xn.
THE PHILOSOPHY OF LUCRETIUS.
Three aspects of the poem
General scope of the argument
Analysis of the poem
Question as to its unfinished condition
What is the value of the argument?
Weakness of his science .
Interest of the work as an exposition of ancient physical enqui
„ from its bearing on modern questions
Power of scientific reasoning, observation, and expression
Connecting links between his philosophy and poetry
Idea of law
„ of change ....
„ of the infinite ....
„ of the individual
„ of the subtlety of Nature
„ of Nature as a living power
307
308
308
321
324
329
331
332
335
340
341
344
347
348
349
350
XIV
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE RELIGIOUS ATTITUDE AND MORAL TEACHING
OF LUCRETIUS.
PAGE
General character of Greek epicureanism ..... 356
Prevalence at Rome in the last age of the Republic .... 358
New type of epicureanism in Lucretius ...... 360
Forms of evil against which his teaching was directed . , . 363
Superstition 364
Fear of death 369
Ambition 374
Luxury 375
Passion of love 376
Limitation of his ethical views . 378
His literary power as a moralist 381
CHAPTER XIV.
THE LITERARY ART AND GENIUS OF LUCRETIUS.
Artistic defects of the work 384
,, arising from the nature of the subject . . . 385
„ from inequality in its execution .... 3S7
Intensity of feeling pervading the argument ..... 388
JCumulative force in his rhythm ....... 389
Qualities of his style 390
Freshness and sincerity of expression ...... 392
Imaginative suggestiveness and creativeness ..... 394
Use of analogies 395
Pictorial power .......... 397
Poetical interpretation of Nature ....... 398
Energy of movement in his descriptions 400
Poetic aspect of Nature influenced by his philosophy . . . 402
Poetical interpretation of life .... .... 403
Modern interest of his poem 406
CHAPTER XV.
CATULLUS.
Contrast to the poetry of Lucretius .
The poetry of youth
408
409
Accidental preser\'ation of the poems ...... 410
CONTENTS.
XV
Principle of their arrangement .
Vivid personal revelation afforded by them
Uncertainty as to the date of his birth
Birth-place and social standing
Influences of his native district .
Identity of Lesbia and Clodia .
Poems written between 6i and 57 B.C.
Poems connected with his Bithynian journey
Poems written between 56 and 54 B.C.
Character of his poems, founded on the passion of love
,, „ „ on friendship and affection
His short satirical pieces ....
Other poems expressive of personal feeling
Qualities of style in these poems
,, of rhythm. ....
,, of form .....
The Hymn to Diana ....
His longer and more purely artistic pieces
His Epithalamia .....
His Attis
The Peleus and Thetis ....
The longer elegiac poems
Rank of Catullus among the poets of the world
PACE
412
4»3
414
419
422
425
429
433
436
439
444
450
452
453
454
455
456
457
461
462
469
472
THE ROMAN POETS OF THE
REPUBLIC.
CHAPTER I.
General Character of Roman Poetry.
A great fluctuation of opinion has taken place, among
scholars and critics, in regard to the worth of Latin Poetry.
From the revival of learning till the end of last century, the
poets of ancient Rome, and especially those of the Augustan
age, were esteemed the purest models of literary art, and were
the most familiar exponents of the life and spirit of antiquity.
Their works were the chief instruments of the higher education.
They were studied, imitated, and translated by some of the
greatest poets of modern Europe ; and they supplied their
favourite texts and illustrations to moralists and humourists,
from Montaigne to the famous English essayists who flourished
during the last century. Up to a still later period, their words
were habitually used in political debate to add weight to argu-
ment and point to invective. Perhaps no other writers, during
so long a period, exercised so powerful an influence, not on
literary style and taste only, but on the character and under-
standing, of educated men in the leading nations of the modern
world.
It was natural that this excessive deference to their authority
should be impaired both by the ampler recognition of the
claims of modern poetry, and by a more intimate familiarity
with Greek literature. They have suffered, in the estimation
B
2 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
of literary critics, from the change in poetical taste which com-
menced about the beginning of the present century, and, in
that of scholars, from the superior attractions of the great epic,
dramatic, and lyrical poets of Greece. They were thus, for
some time, the objects of undue disparagement rather than of
undue admiration. The perception of the. large debt which
they owed to their Greek masters, led to some forgetfulness of
their original merits. Their Roman character and Italian
feeling were insufficienily recognised under the foreign forms
and metres in :' 'lich these qualities were expressed. It used to
be said, with some appearance of plausibility, that Roman poetry
is not only much inferior in interest to the poetry of Greece, but
that it is a work of cultivated imitation, not of creative art ; that
other forms of literature were the true expression of the genius
of the Roman people ; that their poets brought nothing new
into the world ; that they enriched the life of after times with
no pure vein of native feeling, nor any impressive record of
national experience.
It is, indeed, impossible to claim for Roman poetry the un-
borrowed glory or the varied inspiration of the earlier art of
Greece. To the genius of Greece alone can the words of the
bard in the Odyssey be applied,
avro'bLZaKTOs 5" ei'/u', Otu^ St jxoi ev ippfalv oifias
iravToias (vt<pvfffv^.
Besides possessing the charm of poetical feeling and artistic
form in unequalled measure, Greek poetry is to modern readers
the immediate revelation of a new world of thought and action,
in all its lights and shadows and moving life. Like their
politics, the poetry of the Greeks sprang from many indepen-
dent centres, and renewed itself in every epoch of the national
civilisation. Roman poetry, on the other hand, has neither the
same novelty nor variety of matter ; nor did it, like the epic,
lyric^ dramatic, and idyllic poetry of Greece, adapt itself to the
changing phases of human life in different generations and
different States. But the poets of Rome have another kind of
^ Horn. Od. xxii. 347.
L] GENERAL CHARACTER OF ROMAN POETRY. 3
value. There is a charm in their language and sentiment
distinct from that which is found in any other Hterature of
the world. Certain deep and abiding impressions are stamped
upon their works, which have penetrated into the cultivated
sentiment of modern times. If, as we read them, the imagin-
ation is not so powerfully stimulated by the revelation of a
new world, yet, in the elevated tones of Roman poetry,
there is felt to be a permanent affinity with the strength
and dignity of man's moral nature ; ana, in the finer and softer
tones, a power to move the heart to sympathy 'th the beauty,
the enjoyment, and the natural sorrows of a bygone life. If
we are no longer moved by the eager hopes and buoyant
fancies of the youthful prime of the ancient world, we seem to
gather up, with a more sober sympathy, the fruits of its mature
experience and mellowed reflexion.
While the literature and civilisation of Greece were still
unknown to them, the Romans had produced certain rude
kinds of metrical composition ; they preserved some know-
ledge of their history in various kinds of chronicles or annals :
they must have been trained to some skill in oratory by the
contests of public life, and by the practice of delivering com-
memorative speeches at the funerals of famous men. But
they cannot be said to have produced spontaneously any works
of literary art. Their oratory, history, poetry, and philosophy
owed their first impulse to their intellectual contact with
Greece. And while the form and expression of all Roman
literature were moulded by the teaching of Greek masters and
the study of Greek writings, the debt incurred by the poetry
and philosophy of Rome was greater than that incurred by her
oratory and history. The two latter assumed a more distinct
type, and adapted themselves more naturally to the genius of the
people and the circumstances of the State. They were the work
of men for the most part eminent in the State ; and they bore
directly on the practical wants of the times in which they were
cultivated. Even the structure of the Latin language testifies
to the oratorical force and ardour by which it was moulded
B 2
4 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
into symmetry ; as the language of Greece betrays the plastic
and harmonising power of her early poetry. There is no im-
probability in the supposition that, if Greek literature had
never existed, or had remained unknown to the Romans, the
political passions and necessities of the Republic would have
called forth a series of powcx-ful orators ; and that the national
instinct, which clung with such strong tenacity to the past,
would, with the advance of power and civilisation, have pro-
duced a type of history, capable of giving adequate expression
to the traditions and continuous annals of the commonwealth.
But their poetry, on the other hand, came to the Romans
after their habits were fully 5"ormed \ as an ornamental ad"
dition to their power, — Kr^niov koI eyKaWania-fxa TrXouT-ov. Unlike
the poetry of Greece, it was not addressed to the popular ear,
nor was it an immediate emanation from the popular heart.
The poets wh(Si?ommemorated the greatness of Rome, or who
sang of the p?>;''ons and pleasures of private life, in the ages
immediately before and after the establishment of the Empire,
were, for the most part, men born in the provinces of Italy,
neither trained in the formal discipline of Rome, nor taking
any active part in practical affairs. Their tastes and feelings
are, in some ways, rather Italian than purely Roman; their
thoughts and convictions are rather of a cosmopolitan type
than moulded on the national traditions. They drew the
materials of their art as much from the stores of Greek poetry
as from the life and action of their own times. Their art
is thus a composite structure, in which old forms are com-
bined with altered conditions ; in which the fancies of earlier
times reappear in a new language, and the spirit of Greece is
seen interpenetrating the grave temperament of Rome, and the
genial nature of Italy.
But, although oratory and history may have been more
essential to the national life of the Romans, and more adapted
^ Cf. Cic. Tusc. Disp. i. 2, 3. Sero igitur a nostris poetae vel cogniti vel
recepti. At contra oratorem celeriter complexi sumus : nee eum primo
cruditum, aptum tamen ad dicendum.
I.] GENERAL CHARACTER OF ROMAN POETRY. 5
to their genius, their poetry still remains their most complete
literary expression. Of the many famous orators of the
Republic one only has left his speeches to modern times.
The works of the two greatest Roman historians have reached
us in a mutilated shape ; and the most important periods in
the later history of the Republic are not represented in what
remains of the works of any Latin writer. Tacitus records
only the sombre and monotonous annals of the early Empire ;
and the extant books of Livy contain the account of times and
events from which he himself was separated by many genera-
tions. Roman poetry, on the other hand, is the contem-
porary witness of several important eras in the history of the
Republic and the Empire. It includes many authentic arid
characteristic fragments from the great times of the Scipios, —
the complete works of the two poets of linest genius, who
flourished in the last days of the Repubhc, — tl asterpieces
of the brilliant Augustan era ; — and, of th. . orks of the
Empire, more than are needed to exemplify the decay of
natural feeling and of poetical inspiration under the deadening
pressure of Imperialism. And, besides illustrating different
eras, the Roman poets throw light on the most various
aspects of Roman life and character. They are the most
authentic witnesses both of the national sentiment and ideas,
and of the feelings and interests of private life. They stamp
on the imagination the ideal of Roman majesty ; and they
bring home to modern sympathies the charm and the pathos
of the old Italian life, and the activities and humours of society
in the great capital of pleasure and business.
Roman poetry was the living heir, not the lifeless repro-
duction of the genius of Greece. If it seems to have been
a highly-trained accomplishment rather than the irrepressible
outpouring of a natural faculty, still this accomplishment was
based upon original gifts of feeling and character, and was
marked by its own peculiar features. The creative energy of
the Greeks died out with Theocritus ; but their learning and
taste, surviving the decay of their political existence, passed
6 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
into the education of a kindred race, endowed, above all other
races of antiquity, with the capacity of receiving and as-
similating alien influences, and of producing, alike in action
and in literature, great results through persistent purpose and
concentrated industry. It was owing to their gifts of appre-
ciation and their capacity for labour, that the Roman poets, in
the era of the transition from the freedom and vigour of the
Republic to the pomp and order of the Empire, succeeded in
producing works which, in point of execution, are not much
inferior to the masterpieces of Greece. It was due to the
spirit of a new race, — speaking a new language, living among
different scenes, acting their own part in the history of the
world, — that the ancient inspiration survived the extinction of
Greek liberty, and reappeared, under altered conditions, in a
fresh succession of powerful works, which owe their long
existence as much to the vivid feeling as to the artistic
perfection by which they are characterised.
From one point of view, therefore, Roman poetry may
be regarded as an imitative reproduction, from another, as
a new revelation of the human spirit. For the form, and
for some part of the substance, of their works, the Roman
poets were indebted to Greece : the spirit and character, and
much also of the substance of their poetry, are native in their
origin. They betray their want of inventiveness chiefly in the
forms of composition and the metres which they employed ;
occasionally also in the cast of their poetic diction, and in
their conventional treatment of foreign materials. But, in
even the least original aspects of their art, they still bear the
impress of their nationality. Although, with the exception of
Satire and the poetic Epistle, they struck out no new forms of
poetic composition, yet those adopted by them assumed some-
thing of a new type, owing to the weight of their contents, the
massive structure of the Roman language, the fervour and
gravity of the Roman temperament, the practical bent and
logical mould of the Roman understanding, the strong vitality
and the emotional susceptibility of the Italian race.
I.] GENERAL CHARACTER OF ROMAN POETRY. 7
They were not equally successful in all the forms which
they attempted to reproduce. They were especially inferior
to their masters in tragedy. They betray the inferiority of
their dramatic genius also in other fields of literature,
especially in epic and idyllic poetry, and in philosophical
dialogues. They express passion and feeling either directly
from their own hearts and experience, or in great rhetorical
passages, attributed to the imaginary personages of their
story — to Ariadne or Dido, to Turnus or Mezentius. But
this occasional utterance of passion and sentiment is not
united in them with a vivid delineation of the complex
characters of men ; and it is only in their comic poetry that
they are quite successful in reproducing the natural and lively
interchange of speech. There is thus, as compared with
Homer and Theocritus, some want of personal interest in
the epic, descriptive, and idyllic poetry of Virgil. The natural
play of characters, acting and reacting upon one another,
enlivens the divinely-appointed action of the Aeneid, only in
such exceptional passages as the episode of Dido ; nor does it
add the charm of human associations to the poet's deep and
quiet pictures of rural beauty, and to his graceful expression of
pensive and tender feeling.
The Romans, as a race, were wanting in speculative
capacity ; and thus their poetry does not rise, or rises only
in Lucretius, to those imaginative heights from which the
great lyrical and dramatic poets of Greece contemplated
the spectacle of human life in all its wonder and solemnity.
Yet both the epic and the lyrical poetry of Rome have a
character and perfection of their own. The Aeneid, with
many resemblances in points of detail to the poems of
Homer, is yet, in design and execution, a true national
monument. The lyrical poetry of Rome, if inferior to the
choral poetry of Greece in range of thought and in ethereal
grace of expression, and, apparently, to the early Iambic and
Melic poetry of Greece in the range of the emotions to which
it appeals, is yet an instrument of varied power, capable of
8 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
investing the more serious or more transient joys and sorrows
of life with an unfading charm, and rising into fuller and more
commanding tones to express the national sentiment and
moral dignity of Rome. Didactic poetry obtained in Lucre-
tius and Virgil ampler volume and profounder meaning than
in their Greek models, Empedocles and Hesiod. It was
by the skill of the two great Latin poets that poetic art was
made to embrace within its province the treatment of a great
philosophical argument, and of a great and ancient form of
human industry. The Satires and Epistles of Horace showed,
for the first time, how the didactic spirit could deal in poetry
with the whole conduct and familiar experience of life. The
elegiac poets of the Augustan age, while borrowing the
metre of their compositions from the early poets of Ionia
and the later writers at the court of Alexandria, have taken the
substance of their poetry to a great extent from their own lives
and interests ; and have treated their materials with a fluent
and varied briUiancy of style, and often with a graceful ten-
derness and sincerity of feeling, unborrowed from any foreign
source. It may thus be generally affirmed that the Roman
poets, although adding little to the great discoveries or in-
ventions in literature, and although not equally successful in
all their adaptations of the inventions of their predecessors,
have yet left the stamp of their own genius and character on
some of the great forms which poetry has assumed.
The metres of Roman poetry are also adaptations to the
Latin language of the metres previously employed in the epic,
lyrical, dramatic and elegiac poetry of Greece. The Italian
race had, in earlier times, struck out a native measure, called
the Saturnian, — of a rapid and irregular movement, — in which
their religious emotions, their festive and satiric raillery, and
their commemorative instincts found a rude expression. But
after this measure had been rejected by Ennius, as unsuited
to the gravity of his greatest work, the Roman poets continued
to imitate the metres of their Greek predecessors. But, in
their nands, these became characterised by a slower, more
I.] GENERAL CHARACTER OF ROMAN POETRY. 9
Stately, and regular movement, not only differing widely from
the ring of the native Saturnian rhythm, but also, with every
improvement in poetic accomplishment, receding further and
further from the freedom and variety of the Greek measures.
The comic and tragic measures, in which alone the Roman
writers observed a less strict rule than their models, never
attained among them to any high metrical excellence. The
rhythm of the Greek poets, owing in a great measure to the
frequency of vowel sounds in their language, is more flowing,
more varied, and more richly musical than that of Roman
poetry. Thus, although their verse is constructed on the same
metrical laws, there is the most marked contrast between the
rapidity and buoyancy of the Iliad or the Odyssey, and the
stately and weighty march of the Aeneid. Notwithstanding
their outward conformity to the canons of a foreign language,
the most powerful and characteristic measures of Roman
poetry, — such as the Lucretian and the Virgilian hexameter,
and the Horatian alcaic,— are distinguished by a grave, or-
derly, and commanding tone, symbolical of the genius and
the majesty of Rome. In such cases, as the Horatian sapphic
and the Ovidian elegiac, where the structure of the verse is too
slight to produce this impressive effect, there is still a re-
markable divergence from the freedom and manifold harmony
of the early Greek poets to a more uniform and monotonous
cadence.
The diction also of Roman poetry betrays many traces of
imitation. Some of the early Latin tragedies were literal
translations from the works of the Athenian dramatists ; and
fragments of the rude Roman copy may still be compared
with the polished expression of the original. Some familiar
passages of the Iliad may be traced among the rough-hewn
fragments of the Annals of Ennius. Even Lucretius, whose
diction, more than that of most poets, produces the impression
of being the immediate creation of his own mind, has described
outward objects, and clothed his thoughts, in language bor-
rowed from Homer, Empedocles, and Euripides. The short
lO THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
volume of Catullus contains translations from Sappho and
Callimachus, and frequent imitations of other Greek poets ;
and, from the extant fragments of Alcaeus, Anacreon, and
others of the Greek lyric poets, it may be seen how frequently
Horace availed himself of some turn of their expression to
invest his own experience with old poetic associations.
Virgil, whose great success is, in no slight measure, due to
the skill and taste with which he used the materials of earlier
Greek and native writers, has reproduced the heroic tones of
Homer in his epic, and the mellow cadences of Theocritus
in his pastoral poems ; and has blended something of the
antique quaintness and oracular sanctity of Hesiod with the
golden perfection of his Georgics.
But besides the direct debt which each Roman poet owed
to the Greek author or authors whom he imitated, it is
difficult to estimate the extent to which the taste of the later
Romans was formed by the familiar study of Greek literature.
The habitual study of any foreign language has an influence
not on style only, but even on the structure of thought and
the development of emotion. The Roman poets first learned,
from the study of Greek poetry, to feel the graceful com-
binations and the musical power of expression, and were
thus stimulated and trained to elicit similar effects from their
native language. It is for this gift, or power over language,
that Lucretius prays in his invocation to the creative power of
Nature, —
Quo magis aetemum da dictis, diva, leporem ;
and those who came after him devoted still greater study to
attain perfection in the diction and rhythm of poetry. But
their success was gained with some loss of direct force and
freshness in the expression of feeling. In Virgil and in
Horace words are combined in a less natural order than in
Homer and the Attic dramatists. Their language does not
strike the mind with the spontaneous force of Greek poetry,
nor does it seem equally capable of gaining and retaining the
ear of a popular audience. Catullus alone among the great
I.] GENERAL CHARACTER OF ROMAN POETRY. II
Roman poets combines in those short poems, which are the
direct expression of his feeling, perfect grace with the happiest
freedom and simphcity. Yet the studied and compact diction
of Latin poetry, if wanting in fluency, ease, and directness,
lays a strong hold upon the mind, by its power of marking
with emphasis what is most essential and prominent in the
ideas and objects presented to the imagination. The thought
and sentiment of Rome have thus been engraved on her
poetical literature, in deep and enduring characters. And,
notwithstanding all manifest traces of imitation, the diction
of the greatest Roman poets attests the presence of genuine
creative power. A strong vital force is recognised in the direct
and vigorous diction of Ennius and Lucretius ; and, though
more latent, it is felt no less really to pervade the stateliness
and chastened splendour of Virgil, and the subtle moderation
of Horace.
Roman poetry owes also a considerable part of its substance
to Greek thought, art, and traditions. This is the chief
explanation of that conventional character which detracts from
the originality of some of the masterpieces of Roman genius.
The old religious belief of Rome and Italy became merged in
the poetical restoration of the Olympian Gods; the story of the
origin of Rome was inseparably connected with the personages
of Greek poetry ; the familiar manners of a late civilisation
appear in unnatural association with the idealised features of
the heroic age. Even the expression of personal feeling,
experience, and convictions is often coloured by light reflected
from earlier representations. Hence a good deal of Latin
poetry appears to fit less closely to the facts of human life,
than the best poetry of Greece and of modern nations. This
imitative and composite workmanship is more apparent in the
later than in the earlier poets. The substance and thought
of Ennius, Lucretius, and Catullus, even when they reproduce
Greek materials, appear to be more vivified by their own
feeling than the substance and thought of the Augustan poets.
The beautiful and stately forms of Greek legend, which lived
12 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
a second life in the young imagination of Catullus, were be-
coming trite and conventional to Virgil : —
Cetera, quae vacuas tenuissent carmine mentes,
Omnia jam vulgata.
The ideal aspect of the golden morning of the world has been
seized with a truer feeling in the Epithalamium of Peleus and
Thetis than in the episode of the ' Pastor Aristaeus ' in the
Georgics. Not only are the main features in the story of the
Aeneid of foreign origin^, but the treatment of the story betrays
some want of vital sympathy with the heterogeneous elements
out of which it is composed. The poem is a religious as well
as a great national work ; but the religious creed which is
expressed in it is a composite result of Greek mythology, of
Roman sentiment, and of ideas derived from an eclectic
philosophy. The manners represented in the poem are a
medley of the Augustan and of the Homeric age, as seen in
vague proportions, through the mists of antiquarian learning.
It must, indeed, be remembered that Greek traditions had
penetrated into the life of the whole civilised world, and that
the belief in the connexion of Rome with Troy had rooted
itself in the Roman mind for two centuries before the time of
Virgil. Still, the tale of the settlement of Aeneas in Latium
as told in the great Roman epics, bears the mark of the
artificial construction of a late and prosaic era, not ot the
spontaneous growth of imaginative legend, in a lively and
creative age. So, also, in another sphere ot poetry, while
there are genuine touches of nature in all the odes of Horace,
yet the reproduction of Greek mythology which plays so large
a part in many of them is a result of his artistic sympathy,
and has not any vital root in his own belief or the beliefs of
his age.
Roman poetry, from this point of view, appears to be the
old Greek art reappearing under new conditions : or rather the
new art of the civilised world, after it had been leavened by
Greek thought, taste, and education. The poetry of Rome
was, however, a living power, after the creative energy of
I.l GENERAL CHARACTER OF ROMAN POETRY. 13
Greece had disappeared, so that, were it nothing more, that
hterature would still be valuable as the fruit of the later
summer of antiquity. As in Homer, the earliest poet of the
ancient world, there is a kind of promise of the great life that
was to be ; so, in the Augustan poets, there is a retrospective
contemplation of the life, the religion, and the art of the past,
— a gathering up of ' the long results of time.' But the Roman
poets had also a strong vein of original character and feeling,
and many phases of national and personal experience to reveal.
They had to give a permanent expression to the idea of Rome,
and to perpetuate the charm of the land and life of Italy.
In their highest tones, they give utterance to the patriotic
spirit, the dignified and commanding attributes, and the moral
strength of the Imperial Republic. But other elements in
their art proclaim their large inheritance of the receptive and
emotional nature which, in ancient as in modern times,
has characterised the Southern nations. As the patrician and
plebeian orders were united in the imperial greatness of the
commonwealth, as the energy of Rome and of the other
Italian communities was welded together to form a mighty
national life, so these apparently antagonistic elements com-
bined to create the majesty and beauty of Roman poetry.
Either of these elements would by itself have been unpro-
ductive and incomplete. The pure Roman temperament was
too austere, too unsympathetic, too restrained and formal, to
create and foster a luxuriant growth of poetry : the genial
nature of the south, when dissociated from the control of
manlier instincts and the elevation of higher ideals, tended to
degenerate into licentious effeminacy, both in life and litera-
ture. The- fragments of the earlier tragic and epic poets
indicate the predominance of the gravity and the masculine
strength inherent in the Roman temper, almost to the
exclusion of the other element. Roman comedy, on the other
hand, gave full play to Italian vivacity and sensuousness with
only slight restraint from the higher instincts inherited from
ancient discipline. In Lucretius, Virgil, and Horace, moral
14 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
energy and dignity of character are most happily combined
with susceptibihty to the charm and the power of Nature.
Catullus and the elegiac poets of the Augustan age abandoned
themselves to the passionate enjoyment of their lives, under
little restraint either from the pride or the virtue of their
forefathers. Their faults and weaknesses are of a type ap-
parently most opposed to the tendencies of the higher Roman
character. Yet even these may be looked upon as a kind
of indirect testimony to the ancient vigour of the race.
Catullus, in his very coarseness, betrays the grain of that
strong nature, out of which the freedom and energy of the
Republic had been developed. Ovid, in his libertinism,
displays his vigorous and ardent vitality. The indifference
of TibuUus and Propertius to the graver duties and interests of
life, looks like a reaction from a standard of manliness too high
to be permanently upheld.
Among the most truly Roman characteristics of Latin
poetry, national and patriotic sentiment is conspicuous.
Among the poets of the Republic, Naevius and Lucilius were
animated by political as well as national feeling. The chief
work of Ennius was devoted to the commemoration of the
ancient traditions, the august institutions, the advancing power,
and the great character of the Roman State. In the works of
the Augustan age, the fine episodes of the Georgics, the
whole plan and many of the details of the Aeneid, show the
spell exercised over the mind of Virgil by the ancient memories
and the great destiny of his country, and bear witness to his
deep love of Italy, and his pride in her natural beauty and her
strong breed of men. Horace rises above his irony and
epicureanism, to celebrate the imperial majesty of Rome,
and to bear witness to the purity of the Sabine households,
and to the virtues exhibited in the best types of Roman
character. The Fasti of Ovid, also, is a national poem,
owing its existence to the renewed interest imparted to the
mythical and early story of Rome by the establishment of the
Empire. The other elegiac poets, though they devote much less
I.] GENERAL CHARACTER OF ROMAN POETRY. 15
of their writings to the subject, yet betray a graver and deeper
feeling in the rare passages in which they appeal to patriotic
memories.
The poets of the latest age of the Republic alone express
little sympathy with national or public interests. The time
in which they flourished was not favourable to the pride of
patriotism or to political enthusiasm. The contemplative genius
of Lucretius separated him from the pursuits of active life ;
and his philosophy taught the lesson that to acquiesce in any
government was better than to engage in the strife of personal
ambition : —
Ut satius multo jam sit parere quietum
Quam regere imperio res vcUe et regna tenere.
Catullus, while eagerly enjoying his life, seems, in regard to
the political turmoil of his time, to ' daff the world aside, and
bid it pass ' : yet there is, as has been well said \ a rough
republican flavour in his careless satire ; and he retained to
the last, and boldly asserted, what was the earliest, as well
as the latest, instinct of ancient liberty — the spirit of resistance
to the arbitrary rule of any single man.
Roman poetry is pervaded also by a peculiar vein of imagin-
ative emotion. There is no feeling so characteristic of the
higher works of Roman genius as the sense of majesty. This
feeling is called forth by the idea or outward manifestation of
strength, stability, vastness, and order ; by whatever impresses
the imagination as the symbol of power and authority, whether
in the aspect of Nature, or in the works, actions, and institu-
tions of man. It is in their most serious and elevated writings,
and chiefly in their epic and didactic poetry, that the Romans
show their peculiar susceptibility to this grave and dignified
emotion. Even the plain and rude diction of Ennius rises
into rugged grandeur when he is moved by the vastness or
massive strength of outward things, by ' the pomp and circum-
stance ' of war, or by the august forms and symbols of govern-
^ Smith's Diet, of Greek and Roman Biograpiiy, art. Catullus.
l6 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
ment. The majestic tones of Lucretius seem to give a voice to
the deep feeHng of the order and immensity of the universe
which possessed him. The sustained dignity of the Aeneid, and
the splendour of some of its finest passages — such for instance
as that which brings before us the solemn and magnificent
spectacle of the fall of Troy — attest how the imagination
of Virgil was moved to sympathy with the attributes of ancient
and powerful sovereignty.
Further, in the fervour and dignity of their moral feeling,
the Roman poets are true exponents of the genius of Rome.
Their spirit is more authoritative, and less speculative than
that of Greek poetry. They speak rather from the will and
conscience than from the wisdom that has searched and under-
stood the ways of life. Greek poetry strengthens the will
or purifies the heart indirectly, by its truthful representation of
the tragic situations in human life ; Roman poetry appeals
directly to the manlier instincts and more magnanimous
impulses of our nature. This glow of moral emotion pervades
not the poetry only, but the oratory, history, and philosophy of
Rome. It has cast a kind of religious solemnity around the
fragments of the early epic, tragic, and satiric poetry : it has
given an intenser fervour to the stern consistency and desperate
fortitude of Lucretius : it has added the element of strength to
the pathos and fine humanity in the Aeneid. It is by his
moral, as well as his national enthusiasm, that Horace reveals
the Roman gravity that tempered his genial nature. The
language of Lucan, Persius, and Juvenal still breathed the
same spirit in the deadening atmosphere of the Empire. Of
the greater poets of Rome, Catullus alone shows little trace of
this grave ardour of feeling, the more usual accompaniment of
the firm temper of manhood than of the prodigal genius of
youth.
There are, however, as was said above, other feelings
expressed in Roman poetry, more akin to modern sympathies.
In no other branch of ancient literature is so much prominence
given to the enjoyment of Nature, the passion of love, and the
I.] GENERAL CHARACTER OF ROMAN POETRY. 17
joys, sorrows, tastes, and pursuits of the individual. The
gravity and austerity of the old Roman life, and the pre-
dominance of public over private interest in the best days of
the Republic, tended to repress, rather than to foster, the birth
of these new modes of emotion. They are like the flower of
that more luxuriant but less stately Italian life which spread
itself abroad under the shadow of Roman institutions, and
came to a rapid maturity after her conquests had brought to
Rome the accumulated treasures of the world, and left to her
more fortunate sons ample leisure to enjoy them.
The love of natural scenery and of country life is cer-
tainly more prominently expressed in Roman than in Greek
poetry. Homer, indeed, among all the poets of antiquity,
presents the most vivid and true description of the out-
ward world ; and the imagination of Pindar and the Attic
dramatists appears to have been strongly, though indirectly,
affected both by the immediate aspect and by the invisible
power of Nature. Thucydides and Aristophanes testify to the
enjoyment which the Athenians found in the ease and
abundance of their country life, and to the affection with
which they clung to the old religious customs and associations
connected with it. The conscious enjoyment of Nature as a
prominent motive of poetry first appears in the Alexandrian
era. The great poets of earlier times were too deeply pene-
trated by the thought of the mystery and the grandeur in
human life, to dwell much on the spectacle of the outward
world. Though their delicate sense of beauty was uncon-
sciously cherished and refined by the air which they breathed,
and the scenes by which they were surrounded, yet they do not,
like the Roman poets, yield to the passive pleasures derived
from contemplating the aspect of the natural world; nor do
they express the happiness of passing out of the tumult of the
city into the peaceful security of the country. The difference
between the two nations in social temper and customs is
connected with this difference in their aesthetic susceptibility.
The spirit in which a Greek enjoyed his leisure, was one phase
c
l8 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
of his sociabilit}', his communicativeness, his constant passion
for hearing and teUing something new, — a disposition which
made the XeVxf? a favourite resort so early as the time of Homer,
and which is seen still characterising the most typical represen-
tatives of the race in the days of St. Paul. The Roman states-
man, on the other hand, prized his otiiim as the healthy repose
after strenuous exertion. The chief relaxation to his proud and
self-dependent temper consisted in being alone, or at ease with
his household and his intimate friends. This desire for rest
and retirement was one great element in the Roman taste for
country life; — a taste which was manifested among the fore-
most public men, such as the Scipios and Laelius, long before
any trace of it is betrayed in Roman poetry. But, as the
practice of spending the unhealthy months of autumn away
from Rome became general among the wealthier classes, and
as new modes of sentiment were fostered by greater leisure and
finer cultivation, a genuine love of Nature, — taking the form
either of attachment to particular places, or of enjoyment in
the life and beautiful spectacle of the outward world, — was
gradually awakened in the more refined spirits of the Italian
race.
The poetry of the Augustan age and of that immediately
preceding it is deeply pervaded by this new sentiment. Each
of the great poets manifests the feeling in his own way.
Lucretius, while contemplating the majesty of Nature's laws,
and the immensity of her range, is at the same time powerfully
moved to sympathy with her ever-varying life. He feels the
charm of simply living in fine weather, and looking on the
common aspects of the world, — such as the sea-shore, fresh
pastures and full-flowing rivers, or the new loveliness of the
early morning. He represents the punishment of the Danaides
as a symbol of the incapacity of the human spirit to enjoy the
natural charm of the recurring seasons of the year. Catullus,
too, although his active social temper did not respond to the
spell which Nature exercised over the contemplative and
pensive spirits of Lucretius and Virgil, has many fine images
I.] GENERAL CHARACTER OF ROMAN POETRY. I9
from the outward world in his poems. He delights in
comparing the grace and the passion of youth with the
bloom of flowers and the stateliness of trees ; he associates
the beauty of Sirmio with his bright picture of the happiness
of home ; he feels the return of the genial breezes of spring
as enhancing his delight in leaving the dull plains of Phrygia,
and in hastening to visit the famous cities of Asia. Virgil's
early art was characterised by his friend and brother poet in
the lines, —
Molle atque facetum
Vergilio annuerunt gaudentes ruie camenae ^.
The love of natural, and especially of Italian, beauty blends
with all his patriotic memories, and with the charm which he
has cast around the common operations of rustic industry.
The freedom and peace of his country life, among the Sabine
hills, kept the heart of Horace fresh and simple, in spite of all
the pleasures and flatteries to which he was exposed; and
enabled him, till the end of his course, to mingle the clear
fountain of native poetry, — 'ingeni benigna vena,' — with the
stiller current of his meditative wisdom.
The passion of love was a favourite theme both of the early
lyrical poets of Greece, and of the courtly writers of Alex-
andria ; but the works of the former have reached us only in
inconsiderable fragments ; and the latter, with the exception of
Theocritus, are much inferior to the Roman poets who made
them their models. It is in Latin literature that we are
brought most near to the power of this passion in the ancient
world. Few among the poets who have recorded their own
experience of love, in any age, have expressed a feeling so
true or so intense as Catullus. He has all the ardent, self-
forgetful devotion, if he wants the chivalry and purity, of
modern sentiment. He has painted the love of others also
with grateful fidelity. He has shown the finest sense in
discerning, and the finest power in delineating the charm of
youthful passion^ when first awakening into life, or first
' Horace, Sat. i. 10. 45.
C 2
20 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
unfolding into true affection. It is by his delineation of the
agony of Dido that Virgil has imparted the chief personal
interest to the story of the Aeneid ; and the love which finds a
voice in his pastoral poems is as ideal as that which has found
its truest voice in some of our great modern poets. Horace
is the poet of the lighter and gayer moods of the passion.
Without ever becoming a slave to it, he experienced enough of
its pains and pleasures to enable him to paint the fascination
or the waywardness of a mistress with the equable feeling of an
epicurean, but, at the same time, with the refined observation
of a poet. The elegiac poets of the Augustan age, making
pleasure the chief pursuit of their lives, have made the more
sensuous phases of this passion the predominant motive of
their poetry. Yet the tenderness of Tibullus is as genuine as
that of Virgil ; there is ardent emotion expressed by Propertius
for his living mistress, and deep feeling in the lines in which
he recalls her memory after death ; the license of Ovid is, if
not redeemed, at least relieved, by his buoyant wit and his
brilliant fancy.
Roman poetry is also interesting as the revelation of per-
sonal experience and character. The biographies of ancient
authors are, for the most part, meagre and untrustworthy ; and
thus it is chiefly through the conscious or unconscious self-
portraiture in their writings that the actual men of antiquity
are brought into close contact with the modern world. Few
men of any age or country are so well known to us as Horace ;
and it is from his own writings, exclusively, that this intimate
knowledge has been obtained. The lines in which he de-
scribes Lucilius are more applicable to himself than to any
extant writer of Greece or Rome, —
Ille velut fidis arcana sodalibiis olim
Credebat libris : neque si male cesserat, unquam
Decunens alio, neque si bene : quo fit, ut omnis
Votiva pateat veluti descripta tabella
Vita senis^
' ' He used from time to time to intrust all his secret thoughts to his books,
I.] GENERAL CHARACTER OF ROMAN POETRY. 21
He has described himself, his tastes and pursuits, his thoughts
and convictions, with perfect frankness and candour, and
without any of the triviahty or affectation of Uterary egotism.
Catullus, although sometimes wanting in proper reticence, and
altogether devoid of that meditative art with which Horace
transmutes his own experience into the common experience of
human nature, is known also as a familiar friend, from the
force of feeling with which he realised, and the transparent
sincerity with which he recorded, all the pain and the pleasure
of his life. The elegiac poets of the Augustan age have
written, neither from so strong a heart as that of Catullus, nor
with the self-restraint and self-respect of Horace ; but yet one
of the chief sources of interest in their poetry, as of that of
Martial in a later age, arises from their strong realisation of
Hfe, their unreserved communicativeness, and the light they
thus throw on one phase of personal and social manners in
ancient times.
Nor are these indications of individual character con-
fined to the poets who profess to communicate their own
feelings, and to record their own fortunes. All the works of
Roman poetry bear emphatically the impress of their authors.
While the finest Greek poetry seems like an almost impersonal
emanation of genius, Roman poetry is, to a much greater
extent, the impression of character. The great Roman writers
manifest that kind of self-consciousness which accompanies
resolute and successful effort ; while the Greeks enjoy that
happy self-forgetfulness which attends the unimpeded exercise
of a natural gift. The epitaphs composed for themselves by
Naevius, Plautus, Ennius, and Pacuvius, and the assertion of
their own originality and of their hopes of fame which occurs
in the poetry of Lucretius, Virgil, and Horace, were dictated
by a strong sense of their own personality, and of the im-
portance of the task on which they were engaged. Catullus,
as to trusty friends; it was to them only he turned in evil fortune or in good ;
and thus it is, that the whole life of the old poet lies before our eyes, as if it
were portrayed on a votive picture,' — Sat. ii. i. 30.
22 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
although he is much preoccupied with, and most frank in
communicating his feehngs and pursuits, has much less
of the consciousness of genius, is much more humble in
his aspirations, and more modest in his estimate of himself.
In this, as in other respects, he approaches nearer to the type
of Greek art than any of his brother-poets of Rome.
It is a common remark that the very greatest poets are
those about whose personal characteristics least is known.
It is impossible in their case to determine how far they have
expressed their real sympathies or convictions. They rise
above the prejudices of their country and the accidents of their
time, and can see the good and evil inseparably mixed in all
human action. No criticism can throw any trustworthy light
on the personal position, the pursuits and aims, the outward
and inward experience of Homer. It cannot even be deter-
mined with certainty how much of the poetry which bears his
name is the creation of one, seemingly, inexhaustible genius ;
and how much is the ' divine voice ' of earlier singers still
' floating around him.' Such inquiries are ever attracting and
ever baffling a high curiosity. They leave the mind perplexed
with the doubt whether it is discerning, in the far distance, the
outline of solid mountain-land, or only the transient shapes of
the clouds. Hesiod, on the other hand, a poet of perhaps
equal antiquity, but of an infinitely lower order of genius, has
left his own likeness graphically delineated on his remains.
There is much to interest a reader in the old didactic poem,
' The Works and Days,' but it is not the interest of studying a
work of art or of creative genius. The charm of the book
consists partly in its power of calling up the ideas of a remote
antiquity and of human life in its most elemental conditions ;
partly in the distinct impression which it bears of a character
of an antique and primitive and yet not unfamiliar type ; — a
character of deep natural piety and righteousness, but with a
quaint intermixture of other qualities ; — homespun sagacity and
worldly wisdom ; genuine thrift, and horror of idleness, of war, of
seafaring enterprise : — sardonic dislike of the airs and vices of
I.] GENERAL CHARACTER OF ROMAN POETRY. 23
women, and a grim discontent with his own condition, and
with the poor soil which it was his lot to till ^ It is through
his want of those gifts of genius which have made Homer im-
mortal as a poet, and a mere name as a man, that Hesiod has
left so distinct a picture of himself to the latest times. In like
manner Roman poetry, while never rising to the heights of purely
creative and impersonal genius, from this very defect, is a truer
revelation of the poets themselves. The Aeneid supplies
ample materials for understanding the affections and con-
victions of Virgil. Lucretius makes his personal presence felt
through the whole march of his argument, and supports every
position of his system not with his logic only, but with the
whole force of his nature. The fragments of Ennius and of
Lucilius afford ample evidence by which we may judge what
kind of men they were.
It thus appears that, over and above their higher and finer
excellences, the Roman poets have this additional source of
interest, that, more than any other authors in the vigorous
times of antiquity, they satisfy the modern curiosity in regard
to personal character and experience. These poets have
themselves left the most trustworthy record of their happiest
hours and most real interests ; of their standard of conduct,
their personal worth, and their strength of affection ; of the
studies and the occupations in which they passed their lives,
and of the spirit in which they awaited the certainty of their
end.
It remains to say a few words in regard to the historical
progress of this branch of literature. The history of Roman
poetry may be divided into four great periods : —
I. The age of Naevius, Ennius, Lucilius, etc., extending
from about B.C. 240 till about B.C. 100 :
II. The age of Lucretius and Catullus, whose active poetical
• The parallel which Mr. Rnskin draws (Modern Painters, vol. iii. p. 194)
between an ancient Greek and 'a good, conscientious, but illiterate Scotch
Presbyterian Border farmer of a century or two back,' becomes intelligible if
we regard Hesiod as a normal type of the Greek mind.
24 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
career belongs to the last age of the Republic, the decennium
before the outbreak of the Civil War between Caesar and
Pompey :
III. The Augustan age :
IV. The whole period of the Empire after the time of
Augustus.
The poetry of each of these periods is distinctly marked in
form, style, and character. There is evidently a great advance
in artistic accomplishment and in poetical feeling, from the
rude Cyclopean remains of the annals of Ennius to the stately
proportions and elaborate workmanship of the Aeneid. Yet
this advance was attended with some loss as well as gain.
With infinitely less accomplishment and less variety, the older
writers show signs of a robuster life and a more vigorous
understanding than some at least of those who adorn the
Augustan era. They endeavoured to work in the spirit of
the great masters, who had made the most heroic passions
and most serious interests of men the subject of their art.
They were men also of the same fibre as the chief actors
on the stage of public affairs, living with them in familiar
friendship, while at the same time maintaining a close sym-
pathy with popular feeling and the national life. Their
fragments are thus, apart from their intrinsic merits, espe-
cially valuable as the contemporary language of that great
time, and as giving some expression to the strength, the
dignity, and the freedom which were stamped upon the old
Republic.
For more than a generation after the death of Accius and
Lucilius, no new poet of any eminence appeared at Rome.
The vivid enjoyment of life and the sense of security which
usually accompany and foster the successful cultivation of art
had been rudely interrupted by the convulsions of the State.
A new birth of Roman poetry took place during the brief lull
between the storms of the first and second civil wars. The
new poets arose independently of the old literature. They
appealed not to popular favour, but to the tastes of the few and
I.] GENERAL CHARACTER OF ROMAN POETRY. 25
the educated; they gave expression not to any pubhc or
national sentiment, but to their individual thought and feeling.
Their works reflect the restless agitation of a time of re-
volution ; but they show also all the vigour and sincerity of
republican freedom. While greatly superior to the fragments
of the older poetry in refinement of style, and in depth and
variety of poetical feeling, they want the simple strength of
moral conviction, and the interest in great practical affairs,
which characterised their predecessors. They are inferior
to the poets of the Augustan age in artistic skill ; but they
show more force of thought, or more intensity of passion,
a stronger and livelier inspiration, a bolder and more inde-
pendent character.
The short interval between the death of Catullus and the
appearance of the Bucohcs of Virgil marks the beginning of
a new era in literature and in history :
Magnus ab integro saeclorum nascitur ordo.
Catullus, dying only a few years before the extinction of
popular freedom, is, in every nerve and fibre, the poet of a
republic. Virgil, even before the final success of Augustus,
proclaimed the advent of the new Empire ; and he became the
sincere admirer and interpreter of its order and magnificence.
Most of the other poets of that age, though born before the
overthrow of the RepubHc, show the influence of their time,
not only by sympathy with or acquiescence in the new order of
things, but by a perceptible lowering in the higher energies of
life. Still, the poetry of the Augustan age, if inferior in natural
force to that of the Republic, is the culmination of all the
previous efforts of Roman art ; and presents at the same time
the most complete and elaborate picture of Roman and
Italian life.
The chief interest of Roman poetry, considered as the work
of men of natural genius and cultivated taste, and as the
expression of great national ideas or of individual thought and
impulse, ceases with the end of the Augustan age. Under the
26 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
continued pressure of the Empire, true poetical inspiration and
pure feeling for art were lost. One certain test of this decay is
the absence of musical power and sweetness from the verse of
the later poets. Yet some of the poets of the Empire have
their own peculiar value. Lucan and Juvenal recall in their
vigorous rhetoric the masculine tone and fervid feeling of the
old Roman character, liberalised by the progress of thought
and education. In the Satires of Persius, there is an atmo-
sphere of purer morality than in any earlier Roman writer, with
the exception of Cicero. There is much vigour, sense, wit^ and
a keen appreciation of life, intermingled with the coarseness of
Martial. Yet it is owing rather to their rhetorical or their
intellectual ability and to their historical interest, than to their
poetical genius, that these writers are still read and admired.
If good taste, culture, and devotion to the Muses could make
a man a poet in an unpoetical age. Statins would be counted
among the great poets of Rome. The artificial epics of Silius
Italicus and Valerius Flaccus may be occasionally read in the
interests of learning : but it is hardly probable that they will,
or desirable that they should, ever be permanently restored
from the neglect and oblivion into which they have long
been sinking.
This review of Roman poetry will bring before us the origin
and progressive growth of a branch of literature, moulded,
indeed, on the forms of a foreign art, but executed with native
energy, and expressive of native character. In this poetry not
the genius only, but the whole nature and sympathies of some
of the more interesting men of antiquity are displayed. It
throws light on the impulses of thought and feeling which
influenced the action of different epochs in Roman history.
The great qualities of Rome are seen to mould and animate
her poetry. These qualities are found in harmonious union
with the spirit of enjoyment and the sense of exuberant life,
fostered by the genial air of Italy ; and with a refinement of
taste drawn from the purest source of human culture which the
world has ever enjoyed. After all deductions have been made
I.] GENERAL CHARACTER OF ROMAN POETRY. 27
for their want of inventiveness, it still remains true, that the
Roman poets of the last days of the Republic and of the
Augustan age have added to the masterpieces of literature
some great works of native feeling as well as of finished
execution.
CHAPTER II.
Vestiges of Early Indigenous Poetry in Rome
AND Ancient Italy.
The Romans themselves traced the origin of their poetry, as
of all their literary culture, to their contact with the mind of
Greece.
Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit, et artes
Intulit agresti Latio.
The first productive literary impulse was communicated to
the Roman mind by the Greek slave, Livius Andronicus, who,
in the year b.c. 240 — one year after the end of the First Punic
War — brought out, before a Roman audience, a drama trans-
lated or imitated from the Greek. From this time Roman
poetry advanced along the various channels which the creative
energy of Greek genius had formed.
But it has been maintained, in recent times, that this was
but the second birth of Roman poetry, and that a golden age
of native minstrelsy had preceded this historical development
of literature. The most distinguished supporters of this theory
were Niebuhr and Macaulay. In the preface to his Lays of
Rome, Macaulay says that ' this early literature abounded with
metrical romances, such as are found in every country where
there is much curiosity and intelligence, but little reading and
writing.' Neibuhr went so far as to assert that the Romans in
early times possessed epic poems, ' which in power and
brilliance of imagination leave everything produced by the
Romans in later times far behind them.' He held that the
flourishing period of this native poetry was the fifth century
after the foundation of the city. He supposed that the early
EARLY INDIGENOUS POETRY. 29
lays were of plebeian origin, strongly animated by plebeian
sentiment, and familiarly known among the mass of the people ;
that they disappeared after the ascendency of the new literature,
chiefly through the influence of Ennius ; and that his im-
mediate predecessor, Naevius, was the last of the genuine
native minstrels. He professed to find clear traces of these
ballads and epic poems in the fine legends of early Roman
history. His theory was supported by arguments founded on
the testimony of ancient writers, on indications of the early
recognition of poetry by the Roman State (as, for instance, the
worship of the Camenae), on the poetical character of early
Roman story, and on the analogy of other nations.
Although there may be no more ground for believing
in a golden age of early Roman poetry than in a golden
age of innocence and happiness, yet the question raised
by Niebuhr deserves attention, not only on account of the
celebrity which it obtained, but also as opening up an
inquiry into the nature and value of the rude germs of
literature which the Latin soil spontaneously produced.
Though there is no substantial evidence of the existence
among the Romans of anything corresponding to the modern
ballad or the early epic of Greece, yet certain kinds of metrical
composition did spring up and flourish among the Italians,
previous to and independent of their knowledge of Greek
literature. It is worth while to ascertain what these kinds of
composition were, as they throw light on some natural
tendencies of the race, which ultimately obtained their adequate
expression, and helped to impart a native and original character
to Latin literature.
It was observed in the former chapter that while the metres
of all the great Roman poets were founded on the earlier
metres of Greece, there was a native Italian metre, called the
Saturnian, which was employed apparently in various kinds of
composition, and was quite different in character from the
heroic and lyric measures adopted by the cultivated poets of
a later age. This metre was used not only in rude extern-
30 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
poraneous effusions, but also in the long poem of Naevius, on
the First Punic War. Horace indicates his sense of the
roughness and barbarism of the metre, in the lines,
Sic horridus ille
Defluxit Humerus Satumius, et grave virus
Munditiae pepulere ^
Ennius speaks contemptuously of the verse of Naevius, as
that employed by the old prophetic bards, before any of
the gifts of poetry had been received or cultivated —
Quum neque musarum scopulos quisquam superarat
Nee dicti studiosus erat.
The irregularity of the metre may be inferred from a saying
of an ancient grammarian, that, in the long epic of Naevius he
could find no single line to serve as a normal specimen of its
structure. From the few Saturnian lines remaining, it may be
inferred that the verse had an irregular trochaic movement;
and it seems first to have come into use as an accompaniment
to the beating of the foot in a primitive rustic dance. The
name, connected with Saturnus, the old Land-God of Italy,
points to the rustic origin of the metre. It was known also by
the name Faunian, derived from another of the Divinities
worshipped in the rural districts of Italy. It seems first to
have been employed in ritual prayers and thanksgiving for
the fruits of the earth, and in the grotesque raillery accom-
panying the merriment and license of the harvest-home. It is
of the Saturnian verse that Virgil speaks in the lines of the
second Georgic —
Nee non Ausoaii, Troja gens missa, coloni
Versibus incomptis ludunt risuque soluto ^.
As the long roll of the hexameter and the stately march of the
alcaic were expressive of the gravity and majesty of the Roman
State, so the ring and flow of the Saturnian verse may be
regarded as indicative of the freedom and genial enjoyment of
life, characterising the old Italian peasantry.
* Epist. ii. I. 157. - Georg. ii. 385.
II.] EARLY INDIGENOUS POETRY. 31
The most important kinds of compositions produced in this
metre, under purely native influences, may be classed as,
1. Hymns or ritual verses.
2. Prophetic verses.
3. Festive and satiric verses, uttered in dialogue or in rude
mimetic drama.
4. Short gnomic or didactic verses.
5. Commemorative odes sung or recited at banquets and
funerals.
I. The earliest extant specimen of the Latin language is
a fragment of the hymn of the Fratres Arvales, a priestly
brotherhood, who offered, on every 15th of May, public
sacrifices for the fertility of the fields. This fragment is
variously written and interpreted, but there can be no doubt
that it is the expression of a prayer for protection against
pestilence, addressed to the Lares and the god Mars, and
that it was uttered with the accompaniment of dancing.
The following is the reading of the fragment, as given by
Mommsen : —
Enos, Lases, juvate.
Ne veluerve, Marmar, sins incurrere in pleores.
Satur fu, fere Mars.
Limen sali.
Sta berber.
Semunis alternis advocapit conctos.
Enos, Marmar, juvato.
Trinmpe, triumpe, triumpe, triumpe, triumpe^.
The address to Mars ' Satur fu,' or, according to another
reading, ' Satur furere,' ' be satisfied or done with raging,'
* It is thus interpreted by the same author : — Nos, lares, juvate. Ne
malam luem, Mamers, sinas incurrere in plures. Satur esto, fere Mars. In
limen insili. Desiste verberare (limen) ! Semones alterni advocate cunctos.
Nos, Mamers, juvato. Tripudia.
' Help us, Lares. Suffer not, Mamers, pestilence to fall on the people. Be
satisfied, fierce Mars. Leap on the threshold. Cease beating it. Call, in
turn, on all the demigods. Help us, Mamers.' — Mommsen, Rom. Geschichte,
vol. i. ch. XV.
32 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
probably refers to the severity of the winter and early spring \
The words have reference to the attributes of the God in the
old Italian religion, in which the powers of Nature were
deified and worshipped long before Mars was identified
with the Greek Ares. The other expressions in the prayer
appear to be, either directions given to the dancers, or the
sounds uttered as the dance proceeded.
Another short fragment has been preserved from the hymn
of the Salii, also an ancient priesthood, supposed to date from
the times of the early kings. The hymn is characterised by
Horace, among other specimens of ancient literature, as
equally unintelligible to himself and to its affected admirers ^
From the extreme antiquity of these ceremonial chants it
may be inferred that metrical expression among the Romans,
as among the Greeks and other ancient nations, owed its origin
to a primitive religious worship. But while the early Greek
hymns or chants in honour of the Gods soon assumed the
forms of pleasant tales of human adventure, or tragic tales of
human suffering, the Roman hymns retained their formal and
ritual character unchanged among all the changes of creed and
language. In the lines just quoted there is no trace of creative
fancy, nor any germ of devotional feeling, which might have
matured into lyrical or contemplative poetry. They sound like
the words of a rude incantation. They are the obscure
memorial of a primitive, agricultural people, living in a blind
sense of dependence on their gods, and restrained by a
superstitious formalism from all activity of thought or fancy.
Such compositions cannot be attributed to the inspiration or
skill of any early poet, but seem to have been copied from the
uncouth and spontaneous shouts of a simple, unsophisticated
priesthood, engaged in a rude ceremonial dance. If these
hymns stand in any relation to Latin literature, they may
perhaps be regarded as springing from the same vein of public
sentiment, as called forth the hymn composed by Livius
* Such is the interpretation of Corssen, Origines Poesis Romanae.
- Epist. ii. I. 86.
II.] EARLY INDIGENOUS POETRY. 33
Andronicus during the Second Punic War, and as rude
precursors of those composed by Catullus and Horace, and
chanted by a chorus of youths and maidens in honour of
the protecting Deities of Rome.
2. The verses of the Fauns and Vates spoken of by Ennius,
with allusion to the poem of Naevius, in the lines,
Scripsere alii rem,
Versibu' quos olim Fauni vatesque canebant,
were probably as far removed from poetry as the ritual chants
of the Salii and the Fratres Arvales. The Fauni were the
woodland gods of Italy, and were, besides their other functions,
supposed to be endowed with prophetic power ^ The word
Vaks, till the Augustan age, meant not a poet but a soothsayer.
The Camenae or Casmenae (another form of which word
appears in Carmenta, the prophetic mother of Evander) were
worshipped, not as the inspirers of poetry, but as the foretellers
of future events ^. Both Greeks and Romans sought to obtain
a knowledge of the future, either through the interpretation of
omens, or through the voice of persons supposed to be divinely
endowed with foresight. But the Greeks, even in the regard
which they paid to auguries and oracles, were influenced, for
the most part, by their lively imagination ; while the Romans,
from the earliest to the latest eras of their history, in all their
relations to the supernatural world, adhered to a scrupulous
and unimaginative ceremonialism. The notices in Latin
literature of the functions of these early Vates — as, for instance,
the counsel of the Etrurian seer to drain the Alban Lake
during the war with Veii, and the prophecy of Marcius uttered
during the Second Punic War,
Amnetn Trojugena Cannam Romane fuge, etc.^,
suggest no more idea of poetical inspiration than the occasional
' Cf. Virg. Aen. vii. 81, 82 :—
At rex sollicitus monstris oracula Fauni,
Fatidici genitoris, adit.
^ Cf. Schwegler, Rom. Gesch. i. 24, note i. ^ Livy xxv. la.
34 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
notices, in Latin authors, of tlie oracles of the Sibylline books.
The language of prophecy naturally assumes a metrical or
rhythmical form, partly as an aid to the memory, partly,
perhaps, as a means of giving to the ^Yords uttered the effect of
a more solemn intonation. In Greece, the oracles of the
Delphian priestess, and the predictions of soothsayers, collected
in books or circulating orally among the people, were expressed
in hexameter verse and in the traditional diction of epic poetry;
but they were never ranked under any form of poetic art. The
verses of the Vates, so far as any inference can be formed as
to their nature, appear to have been products and proofs of
unimaginative superstition or imposture, rather than of any
imaginative inspiration among the early inhabitants of Latium.
3. Another class of metrical compositions, of native origin,
but of a totally opposite character, was known by the name of
the ' Fescennine verses.' These arose out of a very different
class of feelings and circumstances. Horace attributes their
origin to the festive meetings and exuberant mirth of the
harvest-home among a primitive, strong, and cheerful race
of husbandmen. He points out how this rustic raillery
gradually assumed the character of fierce lampoons, and had to
be restrained by law : —
Fescennina per hunc inventa licentia morem
Versibus alteinis opprobria rustica fudit ;
Libertasque recurrentes accepta per annos
Lusit aniabiliter, donee jam saevus apertam
In rabiem coepit verti jocus et per honestas
Ire domos impune minax. Doluere cruento
Dente lacessiti ; fuit intactis quoque cura
Conditione super communi ; quia etiam lex
Poenaque lata, malo quae noUet carmine quemquam
Describi ; vertere modum, formidine fustis
Ad bene dicendum delectandumque redact! '.
^ ' Through this fashion the Fescennine raillery arose and poured forth
rustic banter in responsive verse ; the spirit of freedom, made welcome, as
the season came round, first played its part genially ; but soon the jests grew
cruel, then changed into sheer fur)', and began, with impunity, to threaten
and assail honourable households. Men smarted under the sharp edge of its
cruel tooth : even those who were unassailed felt concern for the common
IL] EARLY INDIGENOUS POETRY. 35
The change in character, here described, from coarse and
good-humoured bantering to libellous scurrility, may be con-
jectured to have taken place when the Fescennine freedom
passed from villages and country districts to the active social
and political life within the city. That this change had taken
place in Rome at an early period, is proved by the fact that
libellous verses were forbidden by the laws of the Twelve
Tables ^ The original Fescennine verse appears, from the
testimony of Horace, to have been in metrical dialogue.
This rude amusement, in which a coarse kind of banter was
interchanged during their festive gatherings, was in early times
characteristic of the rural populations of Greece and Sicily, as
well as Italy, and was one of the original elements out of
which Greek comedy and Greek pastoral poetry were developed.
These verses had a kindred origin with that of the Phallic
Odes among the Greeks. They both appear to have sprung
out of the rudest rites and the grossest symbolism of rustic
paganism. The Fescennine raillery long retained traces of
this original character. Catullus mentions the ' procax Fescen-
nina locutio,' among the accompaniments of marriage festivals;
and the songs of the soldiers, in the extravagant license of the
triumphal procession, betrayed unmistakably this primitive
coarseness.
These rude and inartistic verses, which took their name
either from the town of Fescennia in Etruria or from the word
fascinum^, were the first expression of that aggressive and
weal. A law was passed, and a penalty enforced, forbidding any one to be
lampooned in scurrilous verses. Thus they changed their style, and were
brought back to a kindly and pleasant tone, under fear of a beating.' — Epist.
ii. I. 144-55. •
1 Sei quis ocentasit, casmenue condisit, quod infamiam faxsit flacitiomque
alterei, fuste feritor.
= Teuffel quotes from Festus : Fescennini versus qui canebantur in nuptiis,
ex urbe Fescennina dicuntur allati, sive ideo dicti quia fascinum putabantur
arcere. It seems more natural to connect the name of these verses, which
were especially characteristic of the Latin peasantry, with fascinum (the
phallic symbol) than with any particular town of Etruria, though the name
of that town may perhaps have the same origin.
D 2
36 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
censorious spirit which ultimately animated Roman satire.
But the original satura, which also was familiar to the Romans
before they became acquainted with Greek literature, was
somewhat different both from the Fescennine verses, and from
the lampoons which arose out of them. The more probable
etymology^ of the word satura connects it in origin with the
satura lanx, a plate filled with various kinds of fruit offered to
the gods. If this etymology be the true one, the word meant
originally a medley of various contents, like the Italian farsa ",
and it evidently had not lost this meaning when first employed
in regular literature by Ennius and Lucilius. The original
satura was a kind of dramatic entertainment, accompanied with
music and dancing, differing from the Fescennine verses in
being regularly composed and not extemporaneous, and from
the drama, in being without a connected plot. The origin of
this composition is traced by Livy ^ to the representation of
Etrurian dancers, who were brought to Rome during a
pestilence. The Roman youth, according to his account,
being moved to imitation of these representations, in which
there was neither acting nor speaking, added to them the
accompaniment of verses of a humorous character ; and con-
tinued to represent these jocular medleys, combined with
music {sa/uras i7npletas modis\ even after the introduction
of the regular drama.
These scenic saturae, which, from Livy's notice, appear to
have been accompanied with good-humoured hilarity rather
than with scurrilous raillery, prepared the way for the reception
of the regular drama among the Romans, and will, to some
extent, account for its early popularity among them. The
later Roman satire long retained traces of a connexion with
this primitive and indigenous satura, evinced both by the
miscellaneous character of its topics, and by its frequeut
employment of dramatic dialogue.
' Mommsen's explanation, ' the masque of the full men ' (' saturi '), does
not seem to meet with general acceptance.
^ Cf. Teuffel, vi. 2. ^ vii. 2.
II.] EARLY INDIGENOUS POETRY. 37
4. The didactic tendency which is so conspicuous in the
cultivated literature of Rome manifested itself also in the
indigenous compositions of Italy. The popular maxims and
precepts preserved by the old agricultural writers and after-
wards embodied by Virgil in his Georgics, were handed down
from generation to generation in the Saturnian rhythm. But,
apparently, the first metrical composition committed to writing
was a poem of an ethical or didactic character, written two
generations before the first dramatic representation of Livius
Andronicus, by Appius Claudius Caecus, who is also the
earliest known to us in the long line of Roman orators ^
5. But it was not from any of these sources that Niebuhr
supposed the poetical character of early Roman history to
be derived. Nor is there any analogy between the religious
hymns, or the Fescennine verses of Italy, and the modern
ballad. But there is evidence of the existence, at one time,
of other metrical compositions of which scarcely anything
is definitely ascertained, except that they were sung at
banquets, to the accompaniment of the flute, in celebration
of the praises of great men. There is no direct evidence
of the time when these compositions, some of which were
believed by Niebuhr to have attained the dimensions of
Epic poems, existed, or when they fell into disuse. Cato,
as quoted by Cicero in the Tusculan Disputations, and in
the Brutus^, is our earliest authority on the subject. His
testimony is to the effect that many generations before his
time, the guests at banquets were in the habit of singing,
succession, the praises of great men, to the music of the
flute. Cicero, in the Brutus, expresses a wish that these
songs still existed in his own day ; ' utinam exstarent ilia
carmina, quae multis saeculis ante suam aetatem in epulis
esse cantitata a singulis convivis de clarorum virorum laudibus
in Originibus scriptum reliquit Cato.' Varro again is quoted,
to the effect that boys used to be present at banquets, for the
* Cf. Teuffel, Wagner's Translation, p. 102.
^ Tusc. DisiD. iv. 2 ; Brutus, 19.
38 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch,
purpose of singing ' ancient poems,' celebrating the praises
of their ancestors. Valerius Maximus mentions ' that the
older men used at banquets to celebrate in song the illustrious
deeds of their ancestors, in order to stimulate the youth to
imitate them.' Passages are quoted also from Horace, from
Dionysius, and from Tacitus, implying a belief in the ancient
existence of these compositions.
Besides the odes sung or recited at banquets, there were
certain funeral poems, called Naeniae, originally chanted by
the female relatives of the deceased, but afterwards by hired
women. As the practice of public speaking advanced, these
gradually passed into a mere form, and were superseded by
funeral orations.
The facts ascertained about these commemorative poems
amount to no more than this,— that they were sung at
banquets and the funerals of great men — that they were
of such length as to admit of several being sung in succession,
— and that they fell into disuse some generations before the
age of Cato. The inferences that may fairly be drawn from
these statements are opposed to some of the conclusions of
Niebuhr. The evidence is all in favour of their having been
short lyrical pieces, and not long narrative poems. As they
were sung at great banquets and funerals, it seems probable
that, like the custom of exhibiting the ancestral images on
the same occasions, they owed their origin to the patrician
pride of family, and were not likely to have been animated by
strong plebeian sentiment. If they had been preserved at all,
they were thus more likely to have been preserved by members
of the great houses living within the city walls, than by the
peasantry living among the outlying hills and country districts.
If ever there were any golden age of early Roman poetry,
it had passed away long before the time of Ennius and
Cato.
The fact, however, remains, that the Romans did possess,
in early times, some kind of native minstrelsy, in which they
honoured the memory and the exploits of their great men-
II.] EARLY INDIGENOUS POETRY. 39
And this impulse of hero-worship became in later times an
important factor in their epic poetry. But is there any reason
to suppose that these compositions were of the nature and
importance assigned to them by Niebuhr, and had any value in
respect of invention and execution ? It is difficult to believe
that such a native force of feeling and imagination, pouring
itself forth in stirring ballads and continuous epic poems,
could have been frozen so near its source ; or that a rich,
popular poetry, not scattered through thinly-peopled districts,
but the possession of a great commonwealth — one most
tenacious of every national memorial — could have entirely
disappeared, under any foreign influence, in the course of one
or two generations. But even on the supposition that a great
national poetry might have passed from the memory of men —
as, possibly, the poems existing before the time of Homer may
have been lost or merged in the greater glories of the Iliad
and the Odyssey — this early poetry could not have perished
without leaving permanent influence on the Roman language.
The growth of poetical language necessarily accompanies
the growth of poetical feeling and inspiration. The sensuous,
passionate, and musical force by which a language is first
moulded into poetry is transmitted from one generation of
poets to another. The language ot Homer, by its natural
and musical flow, by its accumulated wealth of meaning,
by the use of traditional epithets and modes of expression,
that penetrate far back into the belief, the feelings, and the
life of an earlier time, implies the existence of a long line
of poets who preceded him. On the other hand, the diction
of the fragments of Ennius, in its strength and in its rude-
ness, is evidently, in great measure, the creation of his own
time and his own mind. He has no true discernment of
the characteristic difference between the language of prose
and of poetry. The materials of his art had not been
smoothed and polished by any long, continuous stream of
national melody, but were rough-hewn and adapted by his
own energy to the rugged structure of his poem.
40 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
While, therefore, it appears that the actual notices of the
early commemorative poems do not imply that they were
the products of imagination or poetical feeling, or that they
excited much popular enthusiasm, and were an important
element in the early State, their entire disappearance among
a people so tenacious of all their gains, and, still more, the
unformed and prosaic condition of the language and rhythm
used by Naevius, Ennius, and the other early poets, lead
to the presumption, that they were not much valued by the
Romans at any time, and that they were not the creations
of poetic genius and art. This presumption is further
strengthened by such indications as there are of the recognition,
or rather the non-recognition, of poets or of the poetic cha-
racter at Rome in early times.
The worship of the Camenae was indeed an old and genuine
part of the Roman or Italian religion ; but, as was said before,
their original function was to predict future events, and to
communicate the knowledge of divination ; not like that of the
Greek Muses, to imagine bright stories of divine and human
adventure, —
Xrjcfioawrjv re uaKuiv a/xnavfia re p.ipixripaaiv.
Even the names by which two of the Camenae were
known — Postvorta and Antevorta — suggest the prosaic and
practical functions which they were supposed to fulfil. The
Romans had no native word equivalent to the Greek word
aoibos, denoting the primary and most essential of all poetical
gifts, the power to awaken the music of language. The word
vafes, as was seen, denoted a prophet. The title of scriba was
applied to Livius Andronicus ; and Naevius, who has by some
been regarded as the last of the old race of Roman bards,
applies to himself the Greek name of poeta, —
Flerent divae Camenae Naevium poetam.
The commemorative odes appear to have been recited
or sung at banquets, not by poets or rhapsodists, but by
boys or guests. There is one notice, indeed, of a class of
II.] EARLY INDIGENOUS POETRY. 41
men who practised the profession of minstrelsy. This passage,
which is quoted by Aulus Gellius from the writings of Cato,
implies the very lowest estimation of the position and character
of the poet, and points more naturally to the composers of the
libellous verses forbidden by the laws of the Twelve Tables,
than to the authors of heroic and national lays : — ' Poetry was
not held in honour ; if anyone devoted himself to it, or went
about to banquets, he was called a vagabond ^'
It appears that, on this ground also, there is no reason for
believing in the existence of any golden age of Roman poetry
before the time of Ennius, or in the theory that the legendary
tales of Roman history were created and shaped by native
minstrels. To what cause, then, can we attribute their origin ?
These tales have a strong human interest, and represent
marked and original types of antique heroism. They have the
elements of true tragic pathos and moral grandeur. They
could neither have arisen nor been preserved except among
a people endowed with strong capacities of feeling and action.
But the strength of the Roman mind consisted more in
retentive capacity than in creative energy. Their art and their
religion, their family and national customs, aimed at preserving
the actual memory of men and of their actions : not like the
arts, ceremonies, and customs of the Greeks, which aimed at
lifting the mind out of reality into an ideal world. As one of
the chief difficulties of the Homeric controversy arises from
our ignorance of the power of the memory during an age when
poetry and song were in the fullest life, but the use of letters
was either unknown, or extremely limited ; so there is a
parallel difficulty in all attempts to explain the origin of early
Roman history, from our ignorance of the power of oral tradi-
tion in a time of long established order, but yet unacquainted
with any of the forms of literature. The indifference of
barbarous tribes to their past history can prove little or nothing
as to the tenacity of the national memory among a people far
^ Noct. Att. xi. 2. A similar character at one time attached to minstrels
in Scotland.
42 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
advanced towards civilisation like the Romans after the esta-
blishment of their Republican form of government. Nor can
the analogy of early Greek traditions be fairly applied to those
of Rome, owing to the great difference in the circumstances
and the genius of the two nations. Many real impressions of
the past might fix themselves indelibly in the grave and solid
temperament of the Romans, which would have been lost amid
the inexhaustible wealth of fancy that had been lavished upon
the Greeks. The strict family life and discipline of the
Romans, the continuity of their religious colleges, the unity of
a single state as the common centre of all their interests, the
slow and steady growth of their institutions, their strong regard
for precedent, were all conditions more favourable to the
preservation of tradition than the lively social life, the numer-
ous centres of political organisation, and the rapid growth and
vicissitudes of the Greek Republics.
It cannot, indeed, be disputed that although the legendary
tales of Roman history may have drawn more of their colour
from hfe than from imagination, yet there is no criterion by
which the amount of fact contained in them can be separated
from the other elements of which they were composed. Oral
tradition among the Romans, as among other nations, was
founded on impressions originally received without any careful
sifting of evidence ; and these first impressions would naturally
be modified in accordance with the feelings and opinions of
each generation, through which they were transmitted. Aetio-
logical myths, or the attempt to explain some institution or
memorial by some concrete fact, and the systematic recon-
struction of forgotten events, have also entered largely into the
composition of Roman history. But these admissions do not
lead to the conclusion that the art or fancy of any class of early
poets was added to the unconscious operation of popular
feeling in moulding the impressive tales of early heroism,
partly out of the memory of real events and personages, partly
out of the ideal of character, latent in the national mind. It
has been remarked by Sir G. C. Lewis that many even of the
II.] EARLY INDIGENOUS POETRY. 43
Greek myths, abounding ' in striking, pathetic, and interesting
events,' existed as prose legends, and were handed down in the
common speech of the people. In like manner, such tales as
those of Lucretia and Virginia, of Horatius and the Fabii, of
Cincinnatus, Coriolanus, and Camillus, which stand out pro-
minently in the twilight of Roman history, may have been
preserved in ihefama vulgaris, or among the family traditions
of the great houses, till they were gathered into the poem of
Ennius and the prose narratives of the early annalists \ In so
far as they are shaped or coloured by imagination, they do not
bear traces of the conscious art of a poet, but rather of an
unconscious conformity to the national ideal of character.
The most impressive of these legendary stories illustrate the
primitive virtues of the Roman character, such as chastity,
frugality, fortitude, and self-devotion ; or the national cha-
racteristics of patrician pride and a stern exercise of parental
authority. There is certainly no internal evidence that any of
them originated in a pure poetic impulse, or gave birth to any
work of poetic art deserving a permanent existence in litera-
ture.
The analogy of other nations might suggest the inference
that a race which in its maturity produced a genuine poetic
literature must, in the early stages of its history, have given
some proof of poetic inspiration. It is natural to associate the
idea of poetry with youth both in nations and individuals.
Yet the evidence of their language, of their religion, and of
their customs, leads to the conclusion that the Romans, while
prematurely great in action and government, were, in the
earlier stages of their national life, little moved by any kind of
poetical imagination. The state of religious feeling or belief
1 Some of these tales may have been originally aetiological, but ihe
human interest even in these was probably drawn originally from actual
incidents and personages of the Early Republic. Some of the aetiological
myths, such as that of Attus Navius the augur, have no human interest,
though they have an historical interest in connexion with early Roman
religion or institutions.
44 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
which gives birth to or co-exists with primitive poetry has left
no trace of itself upon the early Roman annals. It is generally
found that a fanciful mythology, of a bright, gloomy, or grotesque
character, in accordance with the outward circumstances and
latent spirit or humour of the particular race among whom
it originates, precedes and for a time accompanies the poetry
of romantic action. The creative faculty produces strange
forms and conditions of supernatural life out of its own
mysterious sympathy with Nature, before it learns to invent
tales of heroic action and of tragic calamity out of its sympathy
with human energy and passion, and its interest in marking
the course of destiny, and the vicissitudes of life. The develop-
ment of the Roman religion betrays the absence, or at least the
weaker influence of that imaginative power which shaped the
great mythologies of different races out of the primeval worship
of nature. The later element introduced into Roman religion
was due not to imagination but to reflection. The worship of
Fides, Concordia, Pudicitia, and the like, marks a great pro-
gress from the early adoration of the sun, the earth, the vault
of heaven, and the productive power of nature ; but it is a
progress in understanding and moral consciousness, not in
poetical feeling nor imaginative power. It shows that Roman
civilisation advanced without this vivifying influence, — that
the mind of the race early reached the maturity of manhood,
without passing through the dreams of childhood or the
buoyant fancies of youth.
The circumstances of the Romans, in early times, were also
different from those by which the growth of a romantic poetry
has usually been accompanied. Though, like all races born to
a great destiny, they had much latent imaginative ardour of
feeling, this was employed by them, unconsciously, in elevating
and purifying the ideal of the State and the family, as actually
realised in experience. Their orderly organisation, — the early
establishment of their civic forms, — the strict discipline of
family life among them, — the formal and ceremonial character
of their national religion, — and their strong interest in practical
II.] EARLY INDIGENOUS POETRY. 45
affairs, — were not calculated either to kindle the glow of indivi-
dual genius, or to dispose the mass of the people to listen to
the charm of musical verse. The wars of the young Republic,
carried on by a well-trained militia, for the acquisition of new
territory, formed the character to solid strength and steady
discipline, but could not act upon the fancy in the same way
as the distant enterprise, the long struggles for national inde-
pendence, or the daring forays, which have thrown the light of
romance around the warlike youth of other races. The tillage
of the soil, in which the brief intervals between their wars were
passed, was a tame and monotonous pursuit compared with
the maritime adventure which awoke the energies of Greece,
or with the wild and lonely, half-pastoral, half-marauding life,
out of which a true ballad poetry arose in modern times.
Some traces of a wilder life, or some faint memories of their
Sabine forefathers, may be dimly discerned in the earliest
traditions of the Roman people ; but their youth was essen-
tially practical, — great and strong in the virtues of temperance,
gravity, fortitude, reverence for law and the majesty of the
State, combined with a strong love of liberty and sturdy
resistance to wrong. These qualities are the foundations of
a powerful and orderly State, not the root or the sap by which
a great national poetry is nourished ^
If the pure Roman intellect and discipline had spon-
taneously produced any kind of literature, it would have been
more likely to have taken the form of history or oratory than
of national song or ballad. It was from men of the Italian
provinces, and not from her own sons, that Rome received her
poetry. The men of the most genuinely Roman type and
character long resisted all literary progress. The patrons and
friends of the early poets were the more liberal members of the
aristocracy, in whom the austerity of the national character
and narrowness of the national mind had yielded to new ideas
and a wider experience. The art of Greece was communicated
to ' rude Latium,' through the medium of those kindred races
^ Cf. Schwegler, Rom. Gesch. i. i. 24.
4-6 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC.
who had come into earlier contact with the Greek language
and civilisation. With less native strength, but with greater
flexibility, these races were more readily moulded by foreign
influences ; and, leading a life of greater ease and freedom,
they were more susceptible to all the impulses of Nature.
While they were thus more readily prepared to catch the spirit
of Greek culture, they had learned, through long years of war
and subsequent dependence, to understand and respect the
imperial State in which their own nationality had been merged.
It is important to remember that the time in which Roman
literature arose was not only that of the first active intercourse
between Greeks and Romans, but also that in which a great
war, against the most powerful State outside of Italy, had
awakened the sense of an Italian nationality, of which Rome
was the centre. The great Republic derived her education
and literature from the accumulated stores of Greek thought
and feeling ; but these were made available to her through the
willmg service of poets who, though born in other parts of
Italy, looked to Rome as the head and representative of their
common country.
CHAPTER III.
The Beginning of Roman Literature — Livius Andro-
Nicus — Cn. Naevius, B.C. 240-202.
The historical event which first brought the Romans into
famihar contact with the Greeks, was the war with Pyrrhus
and with Tarentum, the most powerful and flourishing among
the famous Greek colonies in lower Italy. In earlier times,
indeed, through their occasional communication with the
Greeks of Cumae, and the other colonies in Italy, they had
obtained a vague knowledge of some of the legends of Greek
poetry. The worship of x-^esculapius was introduced at Rome
from Epidaurus in B.C. 293, and the oracle of Delphi had
been consulted by the Romans in still earlier times. As the
Sibylline verses appear to have been composed in Greek,
their interpreters must have been either Greeks or men
acquainted with that language \ The identification of the
Greek with the Roman mythology had probably commenced
before Greek literature was known to the Romans, although
the works of Naevius and Ennius must have had an influence
in completing this process. Greek civilisation had come,
however, at an earlier period into close relation with the
south of Italy ; and the natives of that district, such as
Ennius and Pacuvius, who first settled at Rome, were spoken
of by the Romans as 'Semi-Graeci.' But, until after the fall
of Tarentum, there appears to have been no familiar inter-
course between the two great representatives of ancient
civilisation. Till the war with Pyrrhus, the knowledge that
1 Cf. Lewis, Credibility of Early Roman History, vol. i. chap. ii. 14.
48 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
the two nations had of one another was shght and vague.
But. immediately after that time, the affairs of Rome began to
attract the attention of Greek historians \ and the Romans,
though very slowly, began to obtain some acquaintance with
the language and literature of Greece.
Tarentum was taken in B.C. 272, but more than thirty years
elapsed before Livius xVndronicus represented his first drama
before a Roman audience. Twenty years of this inter\'ening
period, from B.C. 261 to b. c. 241, were occupied with the First
Punic War ; and it was not till the successful close of that war,
and the commencement of the following years of peace, that
this new kind of recreation and instruction was made familiar
to the Romans.
Senis enim Graecis admovit acumina chartis ;
Et post Punica bella quietus quaerere coepit,
Quid Sophocles et Thespis et Aeschylus utile ferrent-.
Two circumstances, however, must in the meantime have
prepared the minds of the Romans for the reception of the
new literature. Sicily had been the chief battle-field of the
contending powers. In their intercourse with the Sicilian
Greeks, the Romans had great facilities for becoming ac-
quainted with the Greek language, and frequent opportunities
of being present at dramatic representations. There was
a theatre in every important town of Sicily, as may be
seen in the ruins still remaining on the sites of Segesta,
Syracuse, Tauromenium, and Catana; and the enjoyment
of the drama entered largely into the life of the Sicilian, as it
had into that of the Italian Greeks. Many Greeks also had
been brought to Rome as slaves after the capture of Tarentum,
and were employed in educating the young among the higher
classes. Thus many Roman citizens were prepared, by their
circumstances and education, to take interest in the legends
and in the dramatic form of literature introduced from Greece ;
while the previous existence of the saturae, and other scenic
1 Cf. Lewis. Credibility of Early Roman History, vol. i. chap. ii. 14, 15.
- Horace, Epist. ii. i. 161-3.
III.l THE BEGINNING OF ROMAN LITERATURE. 49
exhibitions at Rome, tended to make the new comic drama at
least acceptable to the mass of the population.
The earliest period of Roman poetry extends from the
close of the First Punic War till the beginning of the first
century B.C. During this period of about a century and a
half, in which Roman oratory, history, and comedy, were
also actively cultivated, we hear only of five or six names
as eminent in different kinds of serious poetry. The whole
labour of introducing and of keeping alive, among an un-
lettered people, some taste for the graver forms of literature
thus devolved upon a few men of ardent temperament,
vigorous understanding, and great productive energy, but with
little sense of art, and endowed with faculties seemingly more
adapted to the practical business of life than to the idealising
efforts of genius. They had to struggle against the difficulties
incidental to the first beginnings of art and to the rudeness of
the Latin language. They were exposed, also, to other dis-
advantages, arising from the natural indifference of the mass
of the people to all works of imagination, and from the
preference of the educated class for the more finished works
already existing in Greek literature.
Yet this long period, in which poetry, with so much
difficulty and such scanty resources, struggled into existence at
Rome, is connected with the age of Cicero by an unbroken
line of literary continuity. Naevius, the younger contemporary
of Livius, and the first native poet, was actively engaged in the
composition of his poems till the time of his death ; about
which period his greater successor first appeared at Rome.
For about thirty years, Ennius shone alone in epic and tragic
poetry. The ' poetic successor of Ennius was his nephew,
Pacuvius. He, in the later years of his life, lived in friendly
intercourse with his younger rival Accius, who, again, in his old
age, had frequently conversed with Cicero \ The torch, which
was first lighted by Livius Andronicus from the decaying fires
of Greece, was thus handed down by these few men, through
' Cic. Brutus, ch. 28,
E
5© THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
this long period, until it was extinguished during the stormy
times which fell in the youth of the great orator and prose
writer of the Republic.
The forms of serious poetry, prevailing during this period,
were the tragic drama, the annalistic epic, and satire. Tragedy
was earliest introduced, was received with most favour, and was
cultivated by all the poets of the period, with the exception of
Lucilius and the comic writers. The epic poetry of the age
was the work of Naevius and Ennius. It has greater claims to
originality and national spirit, both in form and substance, and
it exercised a more powerful influence on the later poetry
of Rome, than either the tragedy or comedy of the time. The
invention of satire, the most purely original of the three, is
generally attributed to Lucilius ; but the satiric spirit was
shown earlier in some of the dramas of Naevius ; and the first
modification of the primitive satura to a literary shape was the
work of Ennius, who was followed in the same style by his
nephew Pacuvius.
No complete work of any of these poets has been preserved
to modern times. Our knowledge of the epic, tragic, and
satiric poetry of this long period is derived partly from ancient
testimony, but chiefly from the examination of numerous
fragments. Most of these have been preserved, not by critics
on account of their beauty and worth, but by grammarians on
account of the obsolete words and forms of speech contained
in them, — a fact, which probably leads us to attribute to
the earlier literature a more abnormal and ruder style than that
which really belonged to it. A few of the longest and most
interesting fragments have come down in the works of the
admirers of those ancient poets, especially of Cicero and Aulus
Gellius. The notion that can be formed of the early Roman
literature must thus, of necessity, be incomplete. Yet these
fragments are sufficient to produce a consistent impression
of certain prevailing characteristics of thought and sentiment.
Many of them are valuable from their own intrinsic worth ;
others again from the grave associations connected with their
Ill,] THE BEGINNING OF ROMAN LITERATURE. 51
antiquity, and from the authentic evidence they afford of
the moral and intellectual qualities, the prevailing ideas
and sympathies of the strongest race of the ancient world,
about, or shortly after, the time when they attained the acme
of their moral and political greatness.
The two earliest authors who fill a period of forty years
in the literary history of Rome, extending from the end of the
First to the end of the Second Punic War, are Livius
Andronicus and Cn. Naevius. Of the first very little is known.
The fragments of his works are scanty and unimportant,
and have been preserved by grammarians merely as illustrative
of old forms of the language. The admirers of Naevius and
Ennius, in ancient times, awarded only scanty honours to the
older dramatist. Cicero, for instance, says of his plays 'that
they are not worth reading a second time \' The importance
which attaches to Livius consists in his being the accidental
medium through which Hterary art was first introduced to the
Romans. He was a Greek, and, as is generally supposed,
a native of Tarentum. He educated the sons of his master,
M. Livius Salinator, from whom he afterwards received his
freedom. The last thirty years of his life were devoted to
literature, and chiefly to the reproduction of the Greek drama
in a Latin dress. His tragedies appear all to have been
founded on Greek subjects; most of them, probably, were
translations. Among the titles, we hear of the Aegisfhus, AJax,
Equus Trojanus, Tereus, Hermione, etc. — all of them subjects
which continued to be popular with the later tragedians of
Rome. No fragment is preserved sufficient to give any idea of
his treatment of the subjects, or of his general mode of thought
and feeling. Little can be gathered from the scanty remains
of his works, except some idea of the harshness and inelegance
of his diction.
In addition to his dramas, he translated the Odyssey into
Saturnian verse. This work long retained its place as a
school-book, and is spoken of by Horace as forming part of his
1 Brutus, 18.
E 2
52 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
own early lessons under the rod of Orbilius \ One or two
lines of the translation still remain, and exemplify its rough and
prosaic diction, and the extreme irregularity of the Saturnian
metre. The lines of the Odyssey ^
ov yap eyaiye ri (prjfJ-t icanwrepov dWo Oa\d(XGi]s
dvSpa ye avyxevai, el Kal fidXa Kaprepos e'irj,
are thus rendered : —
Namqne nilum pejus
Macerat hemonem, quamde mare saevom, viris quoi
Sunt magnae, topper confringent importunae undae.
He was appointed also, on one occasion, near the end of the
Second Punic War, to compose a hymn to be sung by ' virgines
ter novenae,' which is described by Livy, the historian, as
rugged and unpolished ^
Livius was the schoolmaster of the Roman people rather
than the father of their literature. To accomplish what he
did required no original genius, but only the industry, know-
ledge, and tastes of an educated man. In spite of the
disadvantage of writing in a foreign language, and of addressing
an unlettered people, he was able to give the direction which
Roman poetry long followed, and to awaken a new interest
in the legends and heroes of his race. It was necessary that
the Romans should be educated before they could either pro-
duce or appreciate an original poet. Livius performed a useful,
if not a brilliant service, by directing those who followed him
to the study and imitation of the great masters who combined,
with an unattainable grace and art, a masculine strength and
heroism of sentiment congenial to the better side of Roman
character.
Cn. Naevius is really the first in the line of Roman
poets, and the first writer in the Latin language whose frag-
ments give indication of original power. It has been supposed
that he was a Campanian by birth, on the authority of Aulus
Gellius, who characterised his famous epitaph as 'plenum
superbiae Campanae.' But the phrase ' Campanian arrogance '
^ Epist. ii. I. 71. - viii. 138. ^ xxvii. 17.
III.] THE BEGINNING OF ROMAN LITERATURE. 53
seems to have been used proverbially for ' gasconade ' ; and as
there was a plebeian Gens Naevia in Rome, it is quite as
probable that he was by birth a Roman citizen. The strong
political partisanship displayed in his plays seems favourable
to this supposition, as is also the active interference of the
tribunes on his behalf. Weight must however be given
to the remark of Mommsen, ' the hypothesis that he was
not a Roman citizen, but possibly a citizen of Cales or of some
other Latin town in Campania, renders the fact that the
Roman police treated him so unscrupulously the more easy
of explanation.' On the other hand it has been observed that
had he been an alien the tribunes could not have interfered on
his behalf. He served either in the Roman army or among
the Socii in the First Punic War, and thus must have reached
manhood before the year 241 B.C. Cicero mentions that he
lived to a good old age, and that he died in exile about the end
of the third century b.c.^ The date of his birth may thus be
fixed with approximate probability about the year 265 b.c.
No particulars of his military service are recorded, but it is
most probable that the scene of his service was the west of
Sicily, on which the struggle was concentrated during the later
years of the war. If we connect the newly developed taste for
the drama with the intercourse of Romans with Sicilian Greeks
during the war, we may connect another important influence
on Roman literature and Roman belief which first appeared in
the epic poem of Naevius with the Phoenician settlements in
the west of Sicily. The origin of the belief in the mythical
connexion of ^neas and his Trojans with the foundation of
Rome may probably be attributed to the Sicilian historian
Timaeus ; but the contact of the Romans and the Carthagi-
nians in the neighbourhood of Mount Eryx, may have sug-
gested that part of the legend which plays so large a part
in the Aeneid, which brings Aeneas from Sicily to Carthage
and back again to the neighbourhood of Mount Eryx. The
actual collision of Roman and Phoenician on the western
^ Brutus 15.
54 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
shores of Sicily, of which Naevius may well have been a witness,
if it did not originate, gave a living interest to the mythical
origin of that antagonism in the relations of Aeneas and Dido.
The earliest drama of Naevius was brought out in b.c. 235,
five years after the first representation of Livius Andronicus.
The number of dramas which he is known to have composed
affords proof of great industry and activity, from that time till
the time of his banishment from Rome. He was more
successful in comedy than in tragedy, and he used the stage,
as it had been used by the writers of the old Attic comedy,
as an arena of popular invective and political warfare. A keen
partisan of the commonalty, he attacked with vehemence some
of the chiefs of the great senatorian party. A line, which had
passed into a proverb in the time of Cicero, is attributed to
him, —
Fato Metelli Romae fiunt consules ;
to which the Metelli are said to have replied in the pithy
Saturnian,
Dabunt malum Metelli Naevio poetae.
In the year 206 b.c. Q. Caecilius Metellus was Consul, his
brother M. Metellus Praetor Urbanus, an office that held out
an almost certain prospect of the Consulship; and it has been
suggested ^ with much probability, that it was against them that
this sneer was directed. The Metelli carried out their threat, as
Naevius was imprisoned, a circumstance to which Plautus" alludes
in one of the few passages in which Latin comedy deviates from
the conventional life of Athenian manners to notice the actual
circumstances of the time. While in prison, he composed two
plays (the Hariolus and Leon), which contained some retracta-
tion of his former attacks, and he was liberated through the
interference of the Tribunes of the Commons. But he was
soon after banished, and took up his residence at Utica, where he
is said by Cicero, on the authority of ancient records, to have
^ By Prof. A. F, West of Princeton College, U.S. ' On a patriotic passage
of the Miles Gloriosns of Plautus.'
- Plautus, Miles Gloriosus, ii. 2. 27.
III.] THE BEGINNING OF ROMAN LITERATURE. 55
died, in b.c. 204 ^ though the same author adds that Varro,
' diligentissimus investigator antiquitatis/ believed that he was
still alive for some time after that date ^ It is inferred, from a
passage in Cicero ^ that his poem on the First Punic War was
composed in his old age. Probably it was written in his exile,
when removed from the sphere of his active literary efforts. As
he served in that war, some time between B.C. 261 and B.C. 241,
he must have been well advanced in years at the time of
his death.
The best known of all the fragments of Naevius, and the
most favourable specimen of his style, is his epitaph : —
Mortales immortales flere si foret fas,
Flerent divae Camenae Naevium poetam,
Itaque postquam est Orcino traditus thesauro,
Obliti sunt Romae loquier Latina lingua.
It has been supposed that this epitaph was written as a dying
protest against the Hellenising influence of Ennius ; but as
Ennius came to Rome for the first time about b.c. 204, it is not
likely, even if the hfe of Naevius was prolonged somewhat
beyond that date, that the fame and influence of his younger
rival could have spread so rapidly as to disturb the peace of the
old poet in his exile. It might as fairly be regarded as pro-
ceeding from a jealousy of the merits of Plautus, as from
hostility to the innovating tendency of Ennius. The words of
the epitaph are simply expressive of the strong self-assertion and
independence which Naevius maintained till the end of his
active and somewhat turbulent career.
He wrote a few tragedies, of which scarcely anything is
known except the titles, — such as the Andromache, Equus
Trojanus, Hector Froficiscens, Lycurgus, — the last founded on
the same subject as the Bacchae of Euripides. The titles of
nearly all these plays, as well as of the plays of Livius, imply the
prevailing interest taken in the Homeric poems, and in all the
1 Brutus, 15.
^ Mommsen remarks that he could not have retired to Utica till after it
fell into the possession of the Romans. ^ De Senectute, 14.
56 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
events connected with the Trojan War. The following passage
from the Lycurgus has some value as containing the germs of
poetical diction : —
Vos. qui regalis corporis custodias
Agitatis, ite actutnm in frundiferos locos,
Ingenio arbusta nbi nata sunt, non obsita^.
He composed a number of comedies, and also some original
plays, founded on events in Roman history, — one of them
called Romi/his, or Alimonia Romuli el Remi. The longest of
the fragments attributed to him is a passage from a comedy,
which has been, with less probability, attributed to Ennius. It
is a description of a coquette, and shows considerable power of
close satiric observation : —
Quasi pila
In choro ludens datatim dat se, et communem facit :
Alii adnutat, alii adnictat, alium amat, alium tenet ;
Alibi manus est occupata, alii percellit pedem ;
Alii spectandum dat annulum ; a labris alium invocat ;
Cum alio cantat, attamen dat alii digito literas^.
The chief characteristic illustrated by the scanty fragments of
his dramas is the political spirit by which they were animated.
Thus Cicero ^ refers to a passage in one of his plays (?// est in
Naevii ludo) where, to the question, ' Who had, within so short
a time, destroyed your great commonwealth ? ' the pregnant
answer is given,
Proveniebant oratores novi, stulti adolescentuli '.
The nobles, whose enmity he provoked, were probably
attacked by him in his comedies. One passage is quoted by
' ' Ye who keep watch over the person of the king, hasten straightway to
the leafy places, where the copsewood is of nature's growth, not planted by
man.'
^ ' Like one playing at ball in a ring, she tosses about from one to another,
and is at home with all. To one she nods, to another winks; she makes
love to one, clasps another. Her hand is busy here, her foot there. To
one she gives a ring to look at, to another blows a kiss ; with one she sings,
\\ ith another corresponds by signs.'
The reading of the passage here adopted is that given by Munk.
^ De Senectute, 6.
III.] THE BEGINNING OF ROMAN LITERATURE. 57
Aulus Gellius, in which a faihng of the great Scipio is exposed '.
Other fragments are found indicative of his freedom of speech
and bold independence of character : —
Quae ego in theatro hie meis probavi plausibus,
Ea nunc audere quemquam regem rumpere ?
Quanto libertatem hanc hie superat servitus'-*?
and this also ^ : —
Semper pluris feci potioremque ego
Libertatem habui multo quam pecuniam.
He is placed in the canon of Volcatius Sedigitus imme-
diately after Plautus in the rank of comic poets. He has more
of the stamp of Lucilius than of his immediate successor
Ennius. By his censorious and aggressive vehemence, by
boldness and freedom of speech, and by his strong political
feeling, Naevius in his dramas represents the spirit of Roman
satire rather than of Roman tragedy. He holds the same place
in Roman literature as the Tribune of the Commons in Roman
politics. He expressed the vigorous independence of spirit
that supported the Commons in their long struggle with the
patricians, while Ennius may be regarded as expressing the
majesty and authority with which the Roman Senate ruled the
world.
But the work on which his fame as a national and original
poet chiefly rested was his epic or historical poem on the First
Punic War. The poem was originally one continuous work,
written in the Saturnian metre ; though, at a later time, it was
divided into seven books. The earlier part of the work dealt
with the mythical origin of Rome and of Carthage, the flight of
Aeneas from Troy, his sojourn at the court of Dido, and his
^ Etiam qiii res magnas manu saepe gessit gloriose,
Cujus facta viva nunc vigent, qui apud gentes solus praestat,
Eum suus pater cum pallio ab arnica abduxit uno.
^ ' What I in the theatre here have made good by the applause given to
me, to think that any of these great people should now dare to interfere
with ! How much better thing is the slavery here ' {i.e. represented in this
play), ' than the liberty we actually enjoy?'
^ ' I have always held liberty to be of more value and a better thing than
money.' The reading is that given by Munk.
58 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
settlement in Latium. The mythical background of the poem
afforded scope for imaginative treatment and invention. Its
main substance, however, appears to have been composed in
the spirit and tone of a contemporary chronicle. The few-
fragments that remain from the longer and later portion of the
work, evidently express a bare and literal adherence to fact,
without any poetical colouring or romantic representation.
Ennius and Virgil are both known to have borrowed much
from this poem of Naevius. There are many passages
in the Aeneid in which Virgil followed, with slight deviations,
the track of the older poet. Naevius (as quoted by Servius)
introduced the wives of Aeneas and of Anchises, leaving Troy
in the night-time, —
Amborum
Uxores noctu Troiade exibant capitibus
Opertis, flentes abeuntes lacrimis cum multis.
He represents Aeneas as having only one ship, built by
Mercury, — a limitation which did not suit Virgil's account
of the scale on which the war was carried on, after the landing
in Italy. The account of the storm in the first Aeneid, of
Aeneas consoling his followers, of Venus complaining to
Jupiter, and of his comforting her with the promise of the
future greatness of Rome (one of the cardinal passages in
Virgil's epic), were all taken from the old Saturnian poem of
Naevius. He speaks also of Anna and Dido, as daughters of
Agenor, though there is no direct evidence that he anticipated
Virgil in telling the tale of Dido's unhappy love. He men-
tioned also the Italian Sibyl and the worship of the Penates —
materials which Virgil fused into his great national and
religious poem. Ennius followed Naevius in representing
Romulus as the grandson of Aeneas. The exigencies of his
chronology compelled Virgil to fill a blank space of three
hundred years with the shadowy forms of a line of Alban kings.
Whatever may have been the origin of the belief in the
connexion of Rome with Troy, it certainly prevailed before
the poem of Naevius was composed, as at the beginning of
the First Punic War the inhabitants of Egesta opened their
III.] THE BEGINNING OF ROMAN LITERATURE. 59
gates to Rome, in acknowledgment of their common descent
from Troy. But the story of the old connexion of Aeneas
and Dido, symbolising the former league and the later enmity
between Romans and Carthaginians, most probably first as-
sumed shape in the time of the Punic Wars. The belief, as
shadowed forth in Naevius, that the triumph of Rome had
been decreed from of old by Jupiter, and promised to the
mythical ancestress of Aeneas, proves that the Romans were
possessed already with the idea of their national destiny.
How much of the tale of Aeneas and Dido is due to the
imagination of Naevius it is impossible to say ; but his treat-
ment of the mythical part of his story, — his introduction of
the storm, the complaint of Venus, etc., — merits the praise of
happy and suggestive invention, and of a real adaptation to his
main subject.
The mythical part of the poem was a prelude to the main
subject, the events of the First Punic War. Naevius and
Ennius, Hke others among the Roman poets of a later date,
allowed the provinces of poetry and of history to run into one
another. They composed poetical chronicles without any
attempt to adhere to the principles and practice of the Greek
epic. The work of Naevius differed from that of Ennius in
this respect, that it treated of one particular portion of Roman
history, and did not profess to unfold the whole annals of the
State. The slight and scanty fragments that remain from the
latter part of the poem, are expressed with all the bareness,
and, apparently, with the fidelity of a chronicle. They have
the merit of being direct and vigorous, but are entirely with-
out poetic grace and ornament. Rapid and graphic conden-
sation is their chief merit. There is a dash of impetuosity in
some of them, suggestive of the bold, impatient, and energetic
temperament of the poet ; as for instance in the lines
Transit Melitam Romanus exercitus, insulam integram
Urit, populatur, vastat, rem hostium concinnat \
^ Mommsen remarks that, in the fragments of this poem, the action is
generally represented in ihe preset li tense.
6o THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
But the fragments of the poem are really too unimportant to
afford ground for a true estimate of its general merit. They
supply some evidence in regard to the irregularity of the metre
in which it was written. The uncertainty which prevails as to
its structure may be inferred from the fact that different
conjectural readings of every fragment are proposed by different
commentators. A saying of an old grammarian, Atilius
Fortunatianus, is quoted to the effect that he could not adduce
from the whole poem of Naevius any single line, as a normal
specimen of the pure Saturnian verse. Cicero bears strong
testimony to the merits of the poem in point of style. He
says in one place, ' the Punic War delights us like a work
of Myron \' In the dialogue ' De Oratore,' he represents
Crassus as comparing the idiomatic purity which distinguished
the conversation of his mother-in-law, Laelia, and other ladies
of rank, with the style of Plautus and Naevius. 'Equidem
quum audio socrum meam Laeliam (facilius enim mulieres
incorruptam antiquitatem conservant, quod, multorum sermonis
expertes, ea tenent semper, quae prima didicerunt) ; sed
earn sic audio, ut Plautum mihi aut Naevium videar audire.
Sono ipso vocis ita recto et simplici est, ut nihil ostentationis
aut imitationis afferre videatur; ex quo sic locutum ejus patrem
judico, sic majores-.' Expressions from his plays were, from
their weight and compact brevity, quoted familiarly in the days
of Cicero, such as ' sero sapiunt Phryges ' and ' laudari a
laudato viro,' which, like so many other pithy Latin sayings, is
still in use to express a distinction that could not be charac-
terised in happier or shorter terms. It is to be remarked also
^ Brutus, 19.
* ' I, for my part, as I listen to my mother-in-law, Laelia (for women
more easily preserve the pure idiom of antiquity, because, from their limited
intercourse with the world, they retain always their earlier impressions), in
listening, I say to her, I fancy that I am listening to Plautus or Naevius.
The very tones of her voice are so natural and simple, that she seems
absolutely free from affectation or imitation ; from this I gather that her
father spoke, and her ancestors all spoke, in the very same way.' — Cicero,
De Oratore iii. 12.
III.] THE BEGINNING OF ROMAN LITERATURE. 6r
that the merit, which he assumes to himself in his epitaph,
is the purity with which he wrote the Latin language.
Our knowledge of Naevius is thus, of necessity, very limited
and fragmentary. F'rom the testimony of later authors it may,
however, be gathered that he was a remarkable and original
man. He represented the boldness, freedom, and energy,
which formed one side of the Roman character. Like some
of our own early dramatists, he had served as a soldier before
becoming an author. He was ardent in his national feeling ;
and, both in his life and in his writings, he manifested a strong
spirit of political partisanship. As an author, he showed great
productive energy, which continued unabated through a long
and vigorous lifetime. His high self-confident spirit and impe-
tuous temper have left their impress on the few fragments
of his dramas and of his epic poem. Probably his most
important service to Roman literature consisted in the vigour
and purity with which he used the Latin language. But the
conception of his epic poem seems to imply some share of the
higher gift of poetical invention. He stands at the head of
the Hne of Roman poets, distinguished by that force of speech
and vehemence of temper, which appeared again in Lucilius,
Catullus, and Juvenal ; distinguished also by that national
spirit which moved Ennius and, after him, Virgil, to employ
their poetical faculty in raising a monument to commemorate
the power and glory of Rome.
I
CHAPTER IV.
Ennius.
The impulse given to Latin literature by Naevius was mainly
in two directions, that of comedy and of a rude epic poetry,
drawing its subjects from Roman traditions and contemporary
history. In comedy the work begun by him was carried on
with great vigour and success by his younger contemporary
Plautus; and, in a strictly chronological history of Roman
literature, his plays would have to be examined next in order.
But it will be more convenient to defer the consideration of
Roman comedy, as a whole, till a later chapter, and for the
present to direct attention to the results produced by the
immediate successor of Naevius in epic poetry, Q. Ennius.
The fragments of Ennius will repay a more minute examina-
tion than those of any author belonging to the first period
of Roman literature. They are of more intrinsic value, and
they throw more light on the spirit of the age in which
they were written. It was to him, not to Naevius or to Plautus,
that the Romans looked as the father of their literature. He
did more than any other man to make the Roman language a
vehicle of elevated feeling, by forcing it to conform to the
metrical conditions of Greek poetry ; and he was the first fully
to elicit the deeper veins of sentiment latent in the national
imagination. The versatility of his powers, his large ac-
quaintance with Greek literature, his sympathy with the
practical interests of his time, the serious purpose and the
intellectual vigour with which he carried out his work, enabled
him to be in letters, what Scipio was in action, the most vital
representative of his epoch. It has happened too that the
ENNIUS. 63
fragments from his writings and the testimonies concerning
him are more expressive and characteristic than in the case of
any other among the early writers. There are none of his
contemporaries, playing their part in war or politics, and not
many among the writers of later times, of whom we can form
so distinct an image.
I. Life, Times, and Personal Traits.
I. He was born at Rudiae, a town of Calabria, in b. c.
239, the year after the first representation of a drama on the
Roman stage. He first entered Rome in b.c. 204, in the train
of Cato, who, when acting as quaestor in Sardinia, found the
poet in that island serving, with the rank of centurion,
in the Roman army. In the poem of Silius Italicus, he is
fancifully represented as distinguishing himself in personal
combat like one of the heroes of the Iliad. After this time
he resided at Rome, 'living,' according to the statement of
Jerome, ' very plainly, on the Aventine ' (the Plebeian quarter
of the city), ' attended only by a single maid-servant V and
supporting himself by teaching Greek and by his writings.
He accompanied M. Fulvius Nobilior in his Aetolian campaign.
Through the influence of his son, he obtained the honour
of Roman citizenship, probably at the time when the colony
of Pisaurum was planted in B.C. 184. This distinction Ennius
has himself recorded in a line of the Annals which indicates
the high value which the Roman allies attached to this
privilege : —
Nos sumu' Romani qui fuvimus ante Rudini.
He lived on terms of intimacy with influential members of
the noblest families in Rome, and became the familiar friend
of the great Scipio. When he died at the age of seventy, his
bust was believed to be placed in the tomb of the Scipios,
between those of the conqueror of Hannibal and of the
conqueror of Antiochus. He died in the year b.c. 169. The
most famous of his works were his Tragedies and the Annals,
'■ Parco admodum sumptu contentus et unius ancillae ministerio.
64 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
a long historical poem written in eighteen books. But, in
addition to these, he composed several miscellaneous works,
of which only very scanty fragments have been preserved.
Among the circumstances which preparea him to be the
principal creator of the national literature, his birthplace and
origin, the kind of education available to him in his early
years, and the experience which awaited him when first entering
on life, had a strong determining influence. His birthplace,
Rudiae, is called by Strabo ' a Greek city ' ; but it was not
a Greek colony, like Tarentum and the other cities of
Magna Graecia, but an old Italian town, (the epithet vetustae is
applied to it by Silius) which had been partially Hellenised,
but still retained its native traditions and the use of the Oscan
language. Ennius is thus spoken of as 'Semi-Graecus.' He
laid claim to be descended from the old Messapian kings,
a claim which Virgil is supposed to acknowledge in the intro-
duction of Messapus leading his followers in the gathering
of the Italian races,
Ibant aequati niimero regemque canebant.
This claim to royal descent indicates that the poet was a
member of the better class of families in his native district;
and the consciousness of old lineage, which prompted the
claim, probably strengthened the high self-confidence by
which he was animated, and helped to determine the strong
aristocratic bias of his sympathies. He bore witness to his
nationality in the saying quoted by Gellius^ that 'in the
possession of the Greek, Oscan, and Latin speech, he pos-
sessed three hearts.' Of these three languages the Oscan,
as the one of least value to acquire for the purposes of litera-
ture or of social intercourse, was most likely to have been
his inherited tongue. Rudiae, from its Italian nationaHty,
from its neighbourhood to the cities of Magna Graecia,
and from its relation of dependence on Rome, must have
been in the time of the boyhood of Ennius a meeting-place,
1 xvii. 17.
IV.] ENNIUS. 65
not only of three different languages, — that of common
life, that of culture and education, that of military service —
but of the three different spirits or tendencies which were
operative in the creation of the new literature. To his
home among the hills overlooking the Grecian seas ^ — referred
to in the expression of Ovid, —
Calabris in montibiis ortiis —
and in the phrase of Silius, —
Hispida tellus
Miserunt Calabri ; Rudiae genuere vetustae,
the poet owed the ' Italian heart,' the virtue of a race
still uncorrupted and unsophisticated, the buoyant energy
and freshness of feeling which enabled him to apprehend
all the novelty and the greatness of the momentous age
through which he lived. The South of Italy afforded, at
this time, means of education, which were denied to Rome
or Latium ; and the peace enjoyed by his native district for
the first twenty years of his life granted to Ennius leisure
to avail himself of these means, which he could not have
enjoyed had he been born a few years later. In the short
account of his life in Jerome's continuation of the Eusebian
Chronicle, it is stated that he was born at Tarentum.
Though this is clearly an error, it seems probable that the
poet may have spent the years of his education there.
Though Tarentum, since its capture by the Romans, had lost
its political importance, it still continued to be a centre
of Greek culture and of social pleasure. Dramatic repre-
sentations had been especially popular among a people who
had drifted far away ' ex Spartana dura ilia et horrida
disciplina - ' of their ancestors. From the knowledge of the
Attic tragedians displayed by Ennius in his later career it
^ The line —
Ad patrios montes et ad incimabula nostra,
which is quoted by Cicero in a letter to Atticus, and which Vahlen
attributed to Ennius, is now generally assigned to Cicero himself.
^ Livy xxxviii. 17.
F
66 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
is likely that he had witnessed representations of their works
on a Greek stage, before he began, in middle life, to direct his
own genius to dramatic composition. The knowledge and
admiration of Homer which stimulated him to the composition
of his greatest work, might have been acquired in any centre of
Greek culture. But the intellectual interests indicated in some
of his miscellaneous writings have a kind of local character,
distinguishing them alike from the older philosophies of
Athens and from the more recent science of Alexandria. His
acceptance of the doctrine of the transmigration of souls and
the physical fancies expressed in some of the fragments of the
Epicharmus probably came to him from the teaching of the
Neo-Pythagoreans, who were widely spread among the Greeks
of Southern Italy. The rationalistic speculations of Euhe-
merus, which appear in strange union with the 'somnia
Pythagorea' of the Annals, were of Sicilian origin. The
gastronomic treatise, which Ennius afterwards translated
into Latin, was the work of Archestratus of Gela. The
class of persons for whom such a work would originally be
written was likely to be found among the luxurious livers
of Sicily and Magna Graecia. Thus while the serious poetry
of Ennius was inspired by the older and nobler works of
Greek genius, the influence of a more vulgar and prosaic class
of teachers, transmitted by him to Roman thought and
literature, was probably derived from the place of his early
education.
His Italian spirit, and the Greek culture acquired by him in
early youth, were two of the conditions out of which the new
literature was destined to arise. The third condition was
his steadfast and ardent Roman patriotism. Born more than
a generation after his native district had ceased to be at war
with Rome, he grew up to manhood during the years of peace
between the first and second Carthaginian wars, when the
supremacy of Rome was loyally accepted. Between early
manhood and middle life he was a witness of and an actor in
the protracted and long doubtful struggle between the two
IV.] ENNIUS. 67
great Imperial States, on the issue of which hung the future
destinies of the world : —
Omnia cum belli trepido concussa tumultu
Horrida contremuere sub altis aetheris oris;
In dubioque fuere utrorum ad regna cadendum
Omnibus humanis esset terraque marique'.
Though during that struggle the loyalty of some of the Italian
communities was shaken, yet the aristocratic party in every
city, and the Greek States generally, were true to the Roman
alliance'^. Thus his political sympathies, as well as his Greek
education, would incline Ennius to identify himself with the
cause of Rome, and his ardent imagination apprehended the
grandeur and majesty with which she played her part in the
contest. It was in the Second Punic War that the ideal
of what was greatest in the character and institutions of Rome
was most fully realised. Her good fortune supplied from
among the contingent furnished to the war by her Messapian
aUies a man of a nature so sympathetic with her own and an
imagination so vivid as to gain for the ideal thus created a
permanent realisation.
Of the share which Ennius had in the war we know only that
he served in Sardinia with the rank of centurion. That he
had become a man of some note in that capacity is suggested
by the fact that he attracted the attention of the Roman
quaestor Cato, and accompanied him to Rome. A certain
dramatic interest attaches to this first meeting of the typical
representative of Roman manners and traditions and great
enemy of foreign innovations, with the man by whom, more
than by any one else, the mind of Rome was enlarged and
liberalised, and many of her most cherished convictions were
most seriously undermined. This actual service in a great war
left its impress on the work done by Ennius. Fragments both
^ ' When the Carthaginians were coming from all sides to the conflict, and
all things, beneath high heaven, confounded by the hurry and tumult of war,
shook with alarm : and men were in doubt to which of the two the empire
of the whole world, by land and sea, should fall.' — Lucret. iii. 834-7.
^ Mommscn, book iii. ch. 5.
F 2
68 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
uf his tragedies and his Annals prove how thoroughly he
understood and appreciated the best qualities of the soldierly
character. This fellowship in hardship and danger fitted him
to become the national poet of a race of soldiers. He has
drawn from his own observation an image of the fortitude and
discipline of the Roman armies, and of the patriotic devotion
and resolution of the men by whom these armies were led.
There is a strong realism in the expression of martial sentiment
in Ennius, marking him out as a man familiar with the life of
the camp and the battle-field, and quite distinct from the ideal-
ising enthusiasm of Livy and Virgil \
Ennius entered on his career as a writer at a time when the
long strain of a great struggle was giving place to the confidence
and security of a great triumph. He lived for thirty-five years
longer, witnessing the rapid advance of Roman conquest in
Greece and Asia, and over the barbarous tribes of the West.
He died one year before the crowning victory of Pydna.
During all his later life his sanguine spirit and patriotic enthu-
siasm were buoyed up by the success of the Roman and Italian
arms abroad ; while his political sympathies were in thorough
accord with the dominant influences in the government of the
State. At no other period of Roman history was the ascen-
dency of the Senate and of the great houses more undisputed,
or, on the whole, more wisely and ably exercised. In the lists
of those who successively fill the great curule magistracies, we
find almost exclusively the names of members of the old
patrician or of the more recent plebeian nobility. At no other
period does the tribunician opposition to the senatorian
direction of affairs and to the authority of the magistrate
appear weaker or more intermittent. It was not till a gener-
ation after the death of Ennius that the moral corruption and
political and social disorganisation — the ultimate results of the
great military successes gained under the absolute ascendency
^ The author of Caesar's Spanish War quotes Ennius in his account of the
critical moment in the Battle of Munda : — ' Hie, ut ait Ennius, " pes pcde
premitur, armis teruntur arma." ' — -Bell. Hisp. xxxi.
IV.] ENNIUS. 69
of the Senate, — became fully manifest. It is difificult to say
how far the aristocratic and antipopular bias of all Roman
literature may have been determined by the political conditions
of the time in which that literature received the most powerful
impulse, and by the personal relations and peculiar stamp of
character of the man by whom that impulse was given.
Along with the military and political activity of the time,
during which Ennius lived in Rome, the stirring of a new
intellectual life was apparent. Even during the war dramatic
representations continued to take place, and the most active
part of the career of Naevius, and a considerable part of that
of Plautus, belong to the years during which Hannibal was
still in Italy. After the cessation of the war, we note in the
pages of Livy that much greater prominence is given to the
celebration of public games, of which at this time dramatic
representations formed the chief part. The regular holidays
for which the Aediles provided these entertainments became
more numerous ; and the art of the dramatist was employed to
enhance the pomp of the spectacle on the occasion of a great
triumph, or of the funeral of an illustrious man. The death of
Livius Andronicus and the banishment of Naevius, which must
have happened about the time that Ennius arrived at Rome,
had deprived the Roman stage of the only writers of any name,
who had attempted to introduce upon it the works of the
Greek tragedians. Ennius had, indeed, rather to create than to
revive the taste for tragedy. The prologue to the Amphitryo ^
shows how much more congenial the reproduction of the ordi-
nary life of the Greeks was to the uneducated audiences of Rome
than the higher effort to familiarise them with the personages
and adventures of the heroic age. The great era of Roman
comedy was coincident with the literary career of Ennius. It
was then that the best extant plays of Plautus were produced,
and that Caecilius Statius, whom ancient critics ranked as his
' Amphit. 52-3 —
Quid contraxistis frontem, quia tragoediam
Dixi futuram iianc ?
70 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
superior, flourished. The quality attributed to the latter in the
line of Horace,
Vincere Caecilins gravitate, Terentins arte,
indicates a closer affinity with the spirit of Ennius, than the
moral and political indifference of the older dramatist. The
aim of Ennius was to raise literature from being a mere popular
recreation, and to bring it into accord with the higher mood of
the nation ; to use it as a medium both of elevation and
enlightenment. In carrying out this aim he appealed to the
temper and to the newly awakened interests of members of
the aristocratic class, who were coming into close contact with
educated Greeks, and were beginning to appreciate the
treasures of art and literature now opened up to them. The
career of Q. Fabius Pictor, the first historian of Rome, and the
first who made a name for himself in painting, who lived at this
time, attests this twofold attraction. The friendly relations
which Roman generals, such as T. Quintius Flamininus, estab-
lished with the famous Greek cities, in which they appeared as
liberators rather than conquerors, were the result of intellectual
enthusiasm as much as of a definite policy. With the wars of
Pyrrhus and the capture of Tarentum, the first stage of the
process described in the lines of Horace began ^ : the end of
the Second Punic War was the second stage in the process.
It is to this period, rather than to the progress of the war, that
the words of the Grammarian, Porcius Licinus, most truly
apply,
Poenico bello secnndo Musa pinnato gradu
Intulit se bellicosam in Romuli gentem feram.
The more frequent and closer contact with the mind of Greece
not only refined the taste and enlarged the intelligence of
those capable of feeling its influence, but produced at the same
time a change in men's deepest convictions. Though the
definite tenets of Stoicism and Epicureanism did not acquire
ascendency till a later time, the dissolving force of Greek
speculative thought and Greek views of life forced its way into
* Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit, etc.
IV,] ENNIUS. 71
Rome through various channels, — especially through the adap-
tations of the tragedies of Euripides and of the comedy of
Menander. All these tendencies of the time acted on Ennius,
stimulating his mental activity in various directions. His na-
tural temperament and his acquired culture brought him into har-
mony with the spirit of his age without raising him too much
above it. A poet of more delicacy of taste and perfection of
execution would have been unintelligible to his contemporaries.
A more systematic thinker would have been out of harmony with
the conditions of life by which he was surrounded. Breadth,
vigour, a spirit clinging to what was most vital in the old
state of things, and yet readily adapting itself to what was new,
were the qualities needed to establish a literature true to the
genius of Rome in the second century B.C., and containing the
promise of the more perfect accomplishment of a later age.
And these qualities belonged to Ennius by natural gifts and
the experience and culture of his earlier years. •
There is no reason to believe that he had obtained any
eminence in literature before he settled in middle age at Rome.
His genius was of that robust order which grows richer
and livelier with advancing years. The Annals was the work
of his old age, — the ripe fruit of a strong and energetic
manhood, prolonged to the last in hopeful activity. Cicero
speaks of * the cheerfulness with which he bore the two evils
of old age and poverty'.' Wherever the poet speaks of
himself, his words reveal a sanguine and contented spirit ; as,
in that fine simile, where he compares himself, at the close of
his active and successful career, to a brave horse which has
often won the prize at the Olympian games, and in old age
obtains his well-deserved repose : —
Siciit fortis equus, spatio qui saepe supremo
Vicit Olimpia, nunc senio confectu' quiescit.
In none of his fragments is there any trace of that melancholy
after-thought which pervades the poetry of his greatest suc-
^ De Senectute, 5.
72 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
cessors, Lucretius and Virgil. From the humorous exaggera-
tion of Horace,
Ennius ipse pater imiiquam, nisi potas, ad arma
Prosiluit dicenda ;
and from the poet's own confession,
Nunquam poetor, nisi si podager,
it may be inferred that he belonged to the class of poets of a
lusty and social nature, of which Dryden is a type in modern
times, who enjoyed the pleasures of wine and good fellowship.
The well-known anecdote, told by Cicero, of the interchange
of visits between Scipio Nasica and Ennius ^, though not a
brilliant specimen of Roman wit, is interesting from the light
which it throws on the easy terms of intimacy in which the poet
lived with the members of the most eminent Roman families.
Such testimonies and traits of personal character make us
think of Ennius as a man of genial and social temper, as well
as of 'an intense and glowing mind.'
It was probably through his position as a teacher of Greek
that Ennius first became known to the leading men of Rome.
If this position was at first one of dependence, similar to that in
which in earlier times the client stood to his patron, it soon
changed into one of mutual esteem and admiration. We can
best understand the relation in which he stood to men eminent
in the state and in the camp, from a passage from the seventh
book of the Annals quoted by Aulus Gellius. In that passage
the poet is stated, on the authority of L. Aelius Stilo- (an
early grammarian, a friend of Lucilius, and one of Cicero's
teachers), to have drawn his own portrait, under an imaginary
description of a confidential friend of the Roman general,
Servilius Geminus. The portrait has the air of being drawn
from the life, with a rapid and forcible hand, and with a
1 De Oratore, ii. 68.
- 'L. Aelium Stilonem dicere solitum ferunt Q. Ennium de semet ipso
haec scripsisse, pictuiaraque istam morum et ingcnii ipsius Q. Ennii lactam
esse.' — Cell. xii. 4.
IV.] ENNIUS. 73
minuteness of detail significant of close personal observa-
tion : —
Haece locutu' vocat quocum bene saepe libenter
Mensam sermonesque suos rerumque suarum
Congeriem partit, magnam cum lassu' diei
Partem fuisset de summis rebi;' regendis
Consilio, indu foro lato sanctoque senatia :
Cui res audacter magnas parvasque jocumque
Eloqueretur, cuncta simul malaque et bona dictu
Evomeiet, si qui vellet, tutoque locaret.
Quocum multa volup ac gaudia clamque palamque!
Ingenium cui nulla malum scntentia suadet
Ut faceret facinus levis aut main', doctu', fidelis,
Suavis homo, facundu', sue contentu', beatus,
Scitu', secunda loquens in tempore, commodu', verbum
Paucum, multa tenens antiqua sepulta, vetustas
Quem fecit mores veteresque novosque tenentem,
Multorum veterum leges divumque hominumque ;
Prudenter qui dicta loquive tacereve possit.
Hunc inter pugnas Servilius sic compellat '.
There are many touches in this picture, which suggest the kind
of intimacy in which Ennius may have lived with Fulvius
Nobilior when accompanying him in his Aetolian campaign, or
his bearing when taking part in the light or serious talk of the
Scipios. The learning and power of speech, the knowledge of
antiquity and of the manners of the day, attributed to this
friend of Servilius, were gifts which we may attribute to the
^ ' He finished : and summons to him one with whom often, and right
gladly, he shared his table, his talk, and the whole weight of his business,
when weary with debate, throughout the day, on high affairs of state, within
the wide Forum and the august Senate,— one to whom he could frankly
speak out serious matters, trifles, and jest ; to whom he could pour forth
and safely confide, if he wanted to confide in any one, all that he cared to
utter, good or bad ; with whom, in private and in public, he had much
entertainment and enjoyment, — a man of that nature which no thought
ever prompts to baseness through levity or malice : a learned, honest,
pleasant man, eloquent, contented, and cheerful, of much tact, speaking
well in season ; courteous and of few words ; with much old buried
lore ; whom length of years had made versed in old and recent ways ;
in the laws of many ancients, divine and human; one who knew when
to speak and when to be silent. Him, during the battle, Servilius thus
addresses.'
74 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
poet both on ancient testimony and on the evidence afforded
by the fragments of his writings. The good sense, tact, and
knowledge of the world, the cheerfulness in life and conversa-
tion, the honour and integrity of character represented in the
same passage, are among the personal qualities which, in all
ages, form a bond of union between men eminent in great
practical affairs and men eminent in literature. Such were the
qualities which, according to his own account, recommended
Horace to the intimate friendship of Maecenas. Many expres-
sive fragments from the lost poetry of Ennius give assurance
that he was a man in whom learning and the ardent tempera-
ment of genius were happily united with the worth and sense
described in this nameless portrait.
By his personal merit he broke through the strongest
barriers ever raised by national and family pride, and made the
name of poet, instead of a reproach, a name of honour with
the ruling class at Rome. The favourable impression which
he produced on the ' primitive virtue ' of Cato, by whom he
was first brought to Rome, was more probably due to his force
of character and social qualities than to his genius and literary
accomplishment, — qualities seemingly little valued by his
earliest patron, who, in one of his speeches, reproached
Fulvius Nobilior with allowing himself to be accompanied by a
poet in his campaign. But the strongest proof of the worth
and the wisdom of Ennius is his intimate friendship with the
greatest Roman of the age, and the conqueror of the greatest
soldier of antiquity. It is honourable to the friendship of
generous natures, that the poet neither sought nor gained
wealth from this intimacy, but continued to live plainly and
contentedly on the Aventine. Yet after death it was believed
that the two friends were not divided ; and the bust of the
provincial poet found a place among the remains of that time-
honoured family, the record of whose grandeur has been
preserved, even to the present day, in the august simplicity of
their monumental inscriptions.
The elder Africanus may have been attracted to Ennius not
TV.] ENNIUS. 75
only by his passion for Greek culture, but by a certain
community of nature. The mystical enthusiasm, the high self-
confidence, the direct simplicity combined with majesty of
character, impressed on the language of the poet were equally
impressed on the action and bearing of the soldier. The
feeling which Ennius in his turn entertained for Scipio was one
of enthusiastic admiration. While paying due honour to the
merits and services of other famous men, even of such as Cato
and Fabius, who were most opposed to his idol, of Scipio
he said that Homer alone could worthily have uttered his
praises K
In addition to the part which he assigned to him in the
Ninth Book of the Annals, he devoted a separate poem to
commemorate his achievements. He has left also two short
inscriptions, written in elegiac verse, in which he proclaims
in words of burning enthusiasm the momentous services
and transcendent superiority of the ' great world's victor's
victor ' —
Hie est ille situs cni nemo civi' neque hostis
Quivit pro factis reddere opis pretium - ;
and this also,
A sole exoriente supra Maeoti' paludes
Nemo est qui factis me aequiperare queat.
Si fas endo plagas caelestium ascendere cuiquam est,
Mi soli caeli maxima porta patet ^.
With many marked differences, which distinguish a man
of active, social, and national sympathies from a student of
Nature and a thinker on human life, there is a certain affinity
of character and genius between Ennius and Lucretius.
Enthusiastic, admiration of personal greatness is one prominent
^ 'SiKiiriojva yap aSajv Kal (irl jxi-ya rbv avSpa e^apai ^oyXofxevos <p7]ai yiovov
av"OfiT]pov (wa^iovs irraivovs elireiy ^kittiwvos. — Aelian, as quoted by Suidas,
vol. i. p. 1258. Ed. Gaisford. Cf. Vahlen.
^ ' Here is he laid, to whom no one, either countryman or enemy, has
been able to pay a due meed for his services.'
^ ' From the utmost east, beyond the Maeotian marsh, there is no one who
in actions can vie with me. If it is lawful for any one to ascend to the
realms of the gods, to me alone the vast gate of heaven is opened ! '
76 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
feature in which they resemble one another. But while Lu-
cretius is the ardent admirer of contemplative and imaginative
greatness, it is greatness in action and character which moves
the admiration of Ennius. They resemble each other also in
their strong consciousness of genius and their high estimate of
its function and value. Cicero mentions that Ennius applied
the epithet sanctus to poets. Lucretius applies the same
epithet to the old philosophic poets, as in the lines of strong
affection and reverence which he dedicates to Empedocles,
Nil tamen hoc habuisse viro praeclarins in se,
Nee sanctum magis, et mirum carumque videtur^.
The inscription which Ennius composed for his own bust
directly expresses his sense of the greatness of his work, and
his confident assurance of fame, and of the lasting sympathy
of his countrymen —
Aspicite, O cives, senis Enni imagini' formam,
Hie vestrum panxit maxima facta patrum.
Nemo me lacrimis decoret nee funera fletu
Faxit. Cur ? Volito vivu' per ora virum ''■.
Two lines from one of his satires —
Enni poeta salve qui mortalibus
Versus propinas flammeos medullitus ^,
indicate in still stronger terms his burning consciousness of
power.
Some of the greatest of modern poets, such as Dante,
Milton, and Wordsworth, have manifested a feeling similar
to that expressed by Ennius and Lucretius. Although ap-
pearing in strange contrast with the self-suppression of the
^ ' Yet nothing more glorious than this man doth it (the island of Sicily)
seem to have contained, nor aught more holy, nor more wonderful and
beloved.'
^ ' Behold, my countrymen, the bust of the old man, Ennius. He penned
the record of your fathers' mighty deeds. Let no one pay to me the meed
of tears, nor weep at my funeral. And why ? because I still live, as I speed
to and fro, through the mouths of men.'
^ 'Hail, poet Ennius, who pledgest to mortals thy fiery verse from thy
inmost marrow.'
IV.] ENNIUS. 77
highest creative art (as seen in Homer, in Sophocles, and in
Shakspeare), this proud self-confidence, ' disdainful of help or
hindrance,' is the usual accompaniment of an intense nature
and of a genius exercised with some serious moral, religious,
or political purpose. The least pleasing side of the feeling,
even in men of generous nature, is the scorn, — not of envy,
but of imperfect sympathy, — which they are apt to entertain
towards rival genius or antagonistic convictions. Something
of this spirit appears in the disparaging allusion of Ennius to
his predecessor Naevius : —
Scripsere alii rem
Versibu', quos olim Fauni vatesque canebant,
Quum neque Musarum scopulos quisquam superarat
Nee dicti studiosus erat^.
The contempt here expressed for the metre employed by the
older poet seems to be the counterpart of his own exultation
in being the first to introduce what he called ' the long verses '
into Latin literature.
Another point in which there is some affinity between
Ennius and Lucretius is their religious temper and con-
victions. There is indeed no trace in Ennius of the rigid
intellectual consistency of Lucretius, nor in Lucretius any
sympathy with those mystic speculations which Ennius de-
rived from the lore attributed to Pythagoras. But in both
deep feelings of awe and reverence are combined with a
scornful disbelief of the superstition of their time. They
both apply the principles of Euhemerism to resolve the bright
creations of the old mythology into their original elements.
Ennius, like Lucretius, seems to deny the providence of the
gods. He makes one of the personages of his dramas give
expression to the thought which perplexed the minds of
Thucydides and Tacitus — the thought, namely, of the ap-
parent disconnexion between prosperity and goodness, as
* ' Others have treated the subject in the verses, which in days of old the
Fauns and bards used to sing, before any one had climbed the cliffs of the
Muses, or gave any care to style.'
78 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
affording proof of the divine indifference to human well-
being —
Ego deum genus esse semper dixi et dicam caelitum,
Sed eos non curare opinor, quid agat humanum genus;
Nam si curent, bene bonis sit, male mails, quod nunc abest ' :
and he exposed, with caustic sense, the false pretences of
augurs, prophets, and aotrologers. His translation of the
Sacred Chronicle of Euhemerus exercised a permanent in-
fluence on the religious convictions of his countrymen. But
while led to these conclusions by the spirit of his age, and
by the study of the later speculations of Greece, he believed
in the soul's independence of the body, and of its continued
existence, under other conditions, after death. He declared
that the spirit of Homer, after many changes, — at one time
having animated a peacock", again, having been incarnate in
the sage of Crotona, — had finally passed into his own body :
and he told how the shade — which he regards as distinct from
the soul or spirit — of his great prototype had appeared to him
from the invisible world, —
Quo neque permaneant animae neque corpora nostra
Sed quaedam simulacra modis pallentia miris,
and explained to him the whole plan of nature. These
dreams of the imagination may not have been without effect
in enabling Ennius to escape from the gloom which ' eclipsed
the brightness of the world ' to Lucretius. The light in which
the world appeared to the older poet was that of common
sense strangely blended with imaginative mysticism. He thus
seems to stand midway between the spiritual aspirations of
Empedocles and the negation of Lucretius. Born in the
vigorous prime of Italian civilisation he came into the in-
1 * I have always said and will say that ^the gods of heaven exist, but I
think that they heed not the conduct of mankind ; for, if they did, it would
be well with the good and ill with the bad ; and it is not so now.'
^ Cor jubet hoc Enni, postquam destertuit esse
Maeuiiides, Quintus pavone ex Pythagoreo.
Periiub, vi. 10 (ed. Jahn).
IV.] ENNIUS. 79
heritance of the bold fancies of the earher Greeks and of the
dull rationalism of their later speculation. His ideas on what
transcends experience appear thus to have been without the
unity arising from an unreflecting acceptance of tradition, or
from the basis of philosophical consistency.
11. His Works. — (i) Miscellaneous Works.
II. (i) In laying the foundations of Roman literature,
Ennius displaj'ed not only the fervent sympathies and active
faculty of genius, but also great energy and industry, and
a many-sided learning. The composition of his tragedies
and of the Annals, while making most demand on his original
gifts, implied also a diligent study of Homer and of the Greek
tragedians, and a large acquaintance with the traditions and
antiquities of Rome. But besides the works on which his
highest poetical faculty was employed, other writings, of a
philosophical, didactic, and miscellaneous character, gave
evidence of the versatility of his powers and interests. It
does not appear that he was the author of any prose writing.
His version of the Sacred Chronicle of Euhemerus was more
probably a poetical adaptation than a literal prose translation
of that work. The work of Euhemerus was conceived in that
spirit of vulgar rationalism, which is condemned by Plato in
the Phaedrus. He explained away the fables of mythology,
by representing them as a supernatural account of historical
events. Several extracts of the work quoted by Lactantius, as
from the translation of Ennius, look as if they had been
reduced from a form originally metrical into the prose of a
later era \ There is thus no evidence, direct or indirect, to
prove that Ennius had any share in forming the style of Latin
prose. But if verse was the sole instrument which he used,
this was certainly not due to the poetical character of all the
topics which he treated, but, more likely, to the fact that his
acquired aptitude, and the state of the Latin language in his
1 Vahlen.
8o THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
time, made metrical writing more natural and easy than prose
composition.
One of his works in verse was a treatise on good living,
called Hedyphagetica, founded on the gastronomic researches
of Archestratus of Gela, — ^a sage who is said to have devoted
his life to the study of everything that contributed to the
pleasures of the table^ and to have recorded his varied ex-
perience and research with the grave dignity of epic verse. A
few lines from this translation or adaptation of Ennius, giving
an account of the coasts on which the best fish are to be found,
have been preserved by Apuleius. The lines are curious as
exemplifying that tone of half-serious enthusiasm, which all
who treat, either in prose or verse, of the pleasures of eating
seem naturally to adopt, as for instance the Catius of Horace
in his discourse on gastronomy \ The language in which the
scarus, a fish unhappily lost to the modern epicure, is described
as ' the brain almost of almighty Jove,' fits all the requirements
of gastronomic rapture : —
Quid turdum, merulam, melanurum umbramque marinam
Praeterii, atque scarum, cerebrum Jovi' paene supremi ?
Nestoris ad patriam hie capitur magnusque bonusque.
He wrote also a philosophical poem in trochaic septenarian
verse, called Epicharmus, founded on writings attributed to
the old Sicilian poet, which appear to have resolved the gods
of the Greek mythology into natural substances'^. A few
slight fragments have been preserved from this poem. They
speak of the four elements or principles of the universe as
' water, earth, air, the sun ' ; of ' the blending of heat with
cold, dryness with moisture ' ; of ' the earth bearing and
supporting all nations and receiving them again back into
' Horace, Sat. ii. 4.
^ ' The poetical philosophy, which the later Pythagoreans had extracted
from the writings of the old Sicilian comedian, Epicharmus of Megara,
or rather had, at least for the most part, circulated under cover of
hii name, regarded the Greek gods as natural substances, Zeus as
the atmosphere, the soul as a particle of Sun-dust, and so forth.' — Mommsen's
Hist, of Rome, Book iii. ch. 15. (Dickson's Translation.)
IV.] ENNIUS. 8 1
herself.' The following is the longest fragment from the
poem : —
Istic est is Jupiter qiiem dico, quem Graeci vocant
Aerem : qui ventus est et nubes ; imber postea
Atque ex imbre frigus : ventus post fit, aer denuo,
Haece propter Jupiter sunt ista quae dico tibi,
Quoniam mortalis atque urbes beluasque omnis juvat '.
These fragments and a passage from the opening lines
of the Annals, where the shade of Homer was introduced as
discoursing to Ennius (like the shade of Anchises to Aeneas),
on ' the nature of things,' are specimens of that vague curiosity
about the facts and laws of Nature, which, in ancient times,
supplied the absence of scientific knowledge. Such physical
speculations possessed a great attraction for the Roman poets.
The spirit of the Epicharmus, as well as of the Sacred
Chronicle of Euhemerus, reappears in the poem of Lucretius.
Ennius was the first among his countrymen who expressed
that curiosity as to the ultimate facts of Nature and that sense
of the mysterious life of the universe, which acted as the most
powerful intellectual impulse on the mind of Lucretius, and
which fascinated the imagination of Virgil.
Another of his miscellaneous works, probably of a moral
and didactic character, was known by the name of Protreptica.
It is possible that all of these works ', as well as the Scipio,
formed part of the Saturae, or Miscellanies, under which title
Ennius composed four, or, according to another authority, six
books. The Romans looked upon Lucilius as the inventor of
satire in the later sense of that word ° ; — he having been the
first to impress upon the satura the character of censorious
criticism, which it has borne since his time. But there was
another kind of satura, of which Ennius and Pacuvius in early
1 ' This is that Jupiter which I speak of, which the Greeks call the air ;
it is first wind and clouds; afterwards rain, and after rain, cold; next
it becomes wind, then air again. All those things which I mention
to you are Jupiter, because it is he who supports mortals and cities and all
animals.'
2 Mommsen. ^ * Inventore minor.' — Horace.
G
82 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
times, and Varro at a somewhat later time, were regarded as
the principal authors. This was really a miscellany treating of
various subjects, in various metres, and, as employed by Varro,
was written partly in prose, partly in verse. This kind of com-
position, as well as the Lucilian satire, arose out of the old
indigenous satura or dramatic medley, familiar to the Romans
before the introduction of Greek literature. When the scenic
element in the original satura was superseded by the new
comedy introduced from Greece, the old name was first applied
to a miscellaneous kind of composition, in which ordinary
topics were treated in a serious but apparently desultory way ;
and even as employed by Lucilius and Horace the satura
retained much of its original character. The satires of Ennius
were written in various metres, iambic, trochaic, and hexa-
meter, and treated of various topics of personal and public
interest. The few passages which ancient authorities quote as
fragments from them are not of much value in themselves, but
when taken in connexion with the testimonies as to their
character, they are of some interest as showing that this kind
of composition was a form intermediate between the old
dramatic satura and the satire of Lucilius and Horace. It is
recorded that in one of these pieces, Ennius introduced a
dialogue between Life and Death; — thus transmitting in the
use of dialogue (which appears very frequently in Horace and
Persius) some vestige of the original scenic medley. Ennius
also appears, hke Lucilius and Horace, to have communicated
in his satires his own personal feelings and experience, as in
the fragment already quoted : —
Nunquam poetor, nisi si podager.
Further satire, in the hands of its chief masters, aimed at
practical moral teaching, not only by precept, ridicule, and
invective, and by portraiture of individuals and of types, but
also by the use of anecdotes and fables. This last mode of
inculcating homely lessons on the conduct of life is common
in Horace. It appears, however, to have been first used by
Ennius. Aulus Gellius mentions that Aesop's fable of the
IV.] ENNIUS. 83
field-lark and the husbandman ' is very skilfully and gracefully
told by Ennius in his satires'; and he quotes the advice
appended to the fable, ' Never to expect your friends to do for
you what you can do for yourself :
Hoc eiit tibi argumentnm semper in promptu situm :
Nequid expectes amicos, quod tute agere possies^.
These miscellaneous works of Ennius were the fruits of
his learning and literary industry, rather than of his genius.
Such works might have been written in prose, if the art of
prose composition had been as familiar as that of verse. It
is in the fragments of his dramas, and still more of the
Annals, that his poetic power is most apparent, and that the
influence which he exercised over the Roman mind and
literature is discerned.
(2) Dramas.
(2) Before the time of Ennius, the Roman drama, both
tragic and comic, had established itself at Rome, in close
imitation of the tragedy and the new comedy of Athens. The
latter had been most successfully cultivated by Naevius and
his younger contemporary, Plautus. The advancement of
tragedy to an equal share of popular favour was due to the
severer genius of Ennius. He appears however to have tried,
though without much success, to adapt himself to the popular
taste in favour of comedy. The names of two of his comedies,
viz. Cupuncula and Pancratiastae, have come down to us ; but
their fragments are too insignificant to justify the formation of
any opinion on their merits. His admirers in ancient times
^ Another passage, ascribed to Ennius, descriptive of the greed of a
parasite, occupies the ground common to Roman comedy and to Roman
satire : —
Quippe sine cura laetus lautus cum advenis
Insertis malis, expedito bracchio
Alacer, celsus, lupino expectans impetu,
Mox cum aherius obligurias bona,
Quid censes domino esse animi ? pro divum fidem !
Ille tristis cibum dum servat, tu ridens voras.
G 2
84 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
nowhere advance in his favour any claim to comic genius.
Volcatius Sedigitus, an early critic, who wrote a work De
Foetis, and who has already been referred to as assigning the
third rank in the list of comic poets to Naevius, mentions
Ennius as tenth and last, solely ' antiquitatis causa.' Any
inference that might be drawn from the character exhibited in
the other fragments of Ennius, would accord both with the
negative and positive evidence of antiquity, as to his deficiency
in comic power. He has nothing in common with that
versatile and dramatic genius, in which occasionally the highest
imagination has been united with the most abundant humour.
The real bent of his mind, as revealed in his higher poetry, is
grave and intense, like that of Lucretius or Milton. Many of
the conceits, strained effects, and play on words, found in his
fragments, imply want of humour as well as an imperfect
poetic taste. Thus, in the following fragment from one of his
satires, the meaning of the passage is more obscured than
pointed by the forced iteration and play upon the word
fnistra : —
Nam qui lepide postiilat alterum frustrari,
Quom frustrast, fruslra ilium dicit frustra esse.
Nam qui se frustrari quern frustra sentit,
Qui frustratur frustrast, si ille non est frustra '.
The love of alliteration and assonance, which is conspicuous
also in Plautus and in the fragments of Pacuvius and Accius,
and which seems to have been the natural accompaniment of
the new formative energy imparted to the Latin language by
the earliest poets and orators, appears in its most exaggerated
form in such lines as the
O Tite tute Tati tibi tanta tiranne tulisti,
quoted from the Annals. Many of his fragments show indeed
that he possessed the caustic spirit of a satirist ; but it was in
the light of common sense, not of humour, that he regarded
the follies of the world.
1 The meaning of the passage amounts to no more than this, that the man
who tries to ' sell ' another, and fails, is himself ' sold.'
IV.] ENNIUS. 85
The general character of Roman tragedy, so far as it can be
ascertained from ancient testimony and the extant fragments
of the early tragedians, will be examined in the following
chapter. It is not possible to determine what dramatic power
Ennius may have displayed in the evolution of his plots or the
delineation of his characters. His peculiar genius is more dis-
tinctly stamped on his epic than on his dramatic fragments.
Still many of the latter, in their boldness of conception and ex-
pression, and in their strong and fervid morality, are expressive
of the original force of the poet, and of the Roman temper of
his mind. Some of them will be brought forward in the
sequel, along with passages from the Annals, as important
contributions to our estimate of the poet's genius and in-
tellect.
It was certainly due to Ennius that Roman tragedy was first
raised to that pitch of popular favour which it enjoyed till the
age of Cicero. While actively employed in many other fields
of literature, he carried on the composition of his tragedies till
the latest period of his life. Cicero records that the Thyestes
was represented at the celebration of the Ludi Apollinares,
shortly before the poet's death'. The titles of about twenty-
five of his tragedies are known, and a few fragments remain
from all of them. About one half of these bear the titles of
the heroes and heroines connected with the Trojan cycle of
events, such as the Achilles, Achilles Aristarchi, AJax, Alex-
ander, A/idrofnache Aeckmalotis, Hectoris Lufra, Hecuba, Iphi-
genia. Phoenix, Telamo. One at least of his tragedies, the
Medea, was literally translated from the Greek of Euripides,
whom he seems to have made his model, in preference to the
older Attic dramatists. Cicero" speaks of it, along with the
Antiope of Pacuvius, as being translated word for word from
the Greek ; and a comparison of the fragments of the Latin
with the passages in the Medea of Euripides shows how closely
Ennius followed his original. In one place he has mistrans-
lated his author, — the passage (Eur. Med. 215),
' Brutus, 20. ^ De Fin. i. 2.
86 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
oJSa yctp iroWovs PpOTWV
affivovs yeyurai, tous fiev 6nfj.dTwv airo
Toiis S' (V Bvpa'iois,
being thus rendered in Latin, —
Multi suam rem bene gessere et publicam patria procul.
The opening lines of the Medea of Ennius may be quoted as
probably a fair specimen of the degree of faithfulness with
which the early Roman tragedians translated from their ori-
ginals. There is some nervous force, but little either of
poetical grace or musical flow in the language : —
Utinam ne in nemore Pelio securibus
Caesa c.ecidisset abiegna ad terram trabes,
Neve inde navis inchoandae exordium
Coepisset, quae nunc nominatur nomine
Argo, quia Argivi in ea dilecti viri
Vecti petebant pellem inauratam arietis
Colchis, imperio regis Peliae, per dolum ;
Nam nunquam era erratis mea domo ecferret pedem
Medea, animo aegra, amore saevo saucia '.
In his Hecuba, also, and probably in his Iphigenia, Ennius
made free use of the dramas founded on the same subjects by
Euripides. But in many of his dramatic fragments the senti-
ment expressed is clearly that of a Roman, not of a Greek
mind^. The subjects of many of his dramas, such as the
Achilles, the Ajax, the Hectoris Lutra, the Telamon, the
Iphigenia, afforded scope for the exhibition of the soldierly
character. Cicero ^ adduces the wounded Eurypylus as an
1 Cf. Eur. Med. i-8 :—
Ei'0' w<pe\' 'Apyovs fxij SianrdaOai a/cacpos
Ku\X'^^ *' aiaf Kvavtas 'SvpnkrjjdSas,
fXTjS' ev I'diraiai TlrjKiov neafiv -non
TfxrjOuaa vevKt], pL-q^'' epfrpiwaai X^P°-^
dySpuiv dpicTTeoJv, oi to vdyxpvffov Sepos
TleX'ta parfjkOov ov yap av hia-rroiv ijx-r]
MrjhfLa nvpyovs yfjs tnXfva' 'luXtcias
(pojTt dvpov iKTrXayila' 'idaovos.
^ Several of these fragments will be examined later.
^ Tusc. Disp. ii. 16.
k
IV.] ENNIUS. 87
example of the kind of fortitude and superiority to pain
produced by the disciph'ne of the Roman armies. The same
author quotes with great admiration scenes from the Alexander
and from the Andromache Aechmalotis, in which pathos is
the predominant sentiment. He adds to his quotations the
comments ' O poema tenerum, et moratum, et molle ' ; and
again, 'O poetam egregium, quamquam ab his cantoribus
Euphorionis contemnitur ! Sentit omnia repentina et neco-
pinata esse graviora . . . praeclarum carmen est enim et rebus
et verbis et modis lugubre \' In the former of these scenes
Cassandra, under the influence of Apollo, reluctant and
ashamed (perhaps in this feeling the hand of a Roman rather
than of a Greek poet may be recognised), yet mastered
by prophetic fury, bursts forth in these wild, agitated tones : —
Adest, adest fax obvoluta sanguine atque incendio:
Multos annos latuit : cives ferte opem et restingnite.
lamque mari magno classis cita
Texitur: exitium examen rapit.
Advenit, et fera velivolantibus
Navibus complevit manus litora ^.
We see in this passage how the passionate character of the
situation is enhanced by the mysterious power attributed
to Cassandra. A similar excitement of feeling, produced
by supernatural terror, appears in a fragment of the Alcmaeon,
quoted also by Cicero, and of another the motive is the
awe associated with the dim and pale realms of the dead ^
^ 'How tender, how true to character, how affecting!' — De Div. i. 31.
' What a great poet, though he is despised by those admirers of Euphorion.
He understands that sudden and unlooked-for calamities are more grievous.
A noble poem, — pathetic in its matter, language, and music' — Tusc.
Disp. iii. 19.
^ ' Here it is ; here, the torch, wrapped in fire and blood. Many years it
hath lain hid ; help, citizens, and extinguish it. For now, on the great sea,
a swift fleet is gathering. It hurries along a host of calamities. They
come : a fierce host lines the shores with sail-winged ships.' Exitium =
exitiorum ; cf. Cic. Orator. 46, Itaque idem poeta, qui inusitatius
contraxerat ' Patris mei meum factum pudet ' pro ' meorum factorum ' et
' Texitur : exitium examen rapit ' pro ' exitiorum.'
^ Acad. ii. 28.
88 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
In these and similar passages we note the power of expressing
the varying moods of passion by varied effects of metre.
Horace characterises his ordinary verse in the line,
In scaenam missos cum magno pondere versus ;
and this slow and weighty movement seems to have been
the general character of his metre in the calmer parts of
his dramas. But in a large number of the fragments of the
dialogue, where there is any excitement of feeling or intensity
of thought, we find him using the more rapid trochaic sep-
tenarian, with quick transitions to the anapaestic dimeter,
or tetrameter, as the passion passes beyond the control of the
speaker.
In two of his dramas, the Sabinae and Ambracia, he
made use of materials supphed by the early legendary history
of Rome, and by a great contemporary event. The first
of these, like the Romulus of Naevius, belonged to the class
of 'fabulae Praetextatae,' and was founded on the intervention
of the Sabine women in the war between Romulus and Tatius.
The second, representing the capture of the town of Ambracia,
in the Aetolian war, may, like the Clastidium of the older
poet (written in celebration of the victory of Marcellus over
the Gauls), have had more of the character of a military
pageant and, in all probability, was composed for representation
at the games celebrated on the triumphal return of M. Fulvius
Nobilior from that war.
(3) The Annals.
(3) But the poem which was the chief result of his life,
and made an epoch in Latin literature, was the Annals.
On the composition of this work he rested his hopes of
popular and permanent fame —
Hie vcstrum panxit maxima facia patrum :
and again, apparently at the opening of the poem, he
wrote, —
Latos per populos terrasque poemata nostra
Clara cluebunt.
IV.] ENNIUS. 89
At its conclusion, he claimed for his old age the repose due to
a brave and triumphant career. He composed the eighteenth
book, the last, in his sixty seventh year, three years before his
deaths The great length to which the poem extended, and
the vast amount of materials which it embraced, imply a
long and steady concentration of his powers on the task.
It was one requiring much learning as well as original con-
ception. The fragments of the poem afford proofs of a
familiarity with Homer, and of acquaintance with the Cyclic
poets ^. It is impossible to say how much of the early Roman
history, as it has come down to modern times, is due to the
diligence of Ennius in collecting, and to his genius in giving
life to the traditions and ancient records of Rome. He
was certainly the earliest writer who gathered them up,
and united them in a continuous narrative. The work
accomplished by him required not only the antiquarian lore of
a man
Multa tenens, antiqua, sepulta,
and the power of imagination to give a new shape to the past,
but an intimate knowledge of the great events and the great
men of his own time, and a strong sympathy with the best
spirit of his age.
The poem was written in eighteen books. Of these books
abou*; six hundred lines have been preserved in fragments,
varying from about twenty lines to half a line in length.
From the minuteness with which comparatively unimportant
matters are described, it is inferred that the separate
books extended to a much greater length than those either of
the Iliad or of the Aeneid. Of the first book there remain
about 120 Hnes, including the dream of Ilia in seventeen lines,
and the auspices of Romulus in twenty lines. In it were
narrated the mythical events from the time
Quum veter occubuit Priamus sub marte Pelasgo,
' Gellius, xvii. 21.
- He speaks of Eurydice as the wife of Aeneas. This statement he is
supposed to have derived from the Cypria.
go THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
to the death and deification of Romulus ;
Romulus in caelo cum dis genitalibus aevum
Degit.
There is no allusion in these fragments to the Carthaginian
adventures of Aeneas, which Naevius had introduced into his
poem on the First Punic War. Aeneas seems at once to have
been brought to Hesperia, a land,
Quara prisci casci populi tenuere Latini.
Ilia is represented as the daughter of Aeneas. The birth and
infancy of Romulus and Remus appear to have been described
at great length. In commenting on Virgil's lines at Aeneid
viii. 630 —
Fecerat et viridi fetam Mavortis in antro
Procubuisse lupam : geminos huic nbeia circum
Ludere pendentes pueros, et lambere matrem
Impavidos ; illam tereti cervice reflexam
Mulcere alternos, et corpora fingere lingua, —
Servius says ' Sane totus hie locus Ennianus est.' The second
and third books contained the history of the remaining Roman
kings. Virgil imitated the description given in these books of
the destruction of Alba (the story of which is told by Livy
also with much poetic power, perhaps reproduced from the
pages of Ennius), in his account of the capture of Troy, at
Aeneid ii. 486 —
At domus interior gemitu miseroqne tumultu, etc.
One short fragment of the third book contains a picturesque
notice of the founding of Ostia —
Ostia munita est ; idem loca navibu' pulchris
Munda facit; nautisque mari quaesentibu' vitam.
This line also
Postquam lumina sis oculis bonus Ancu' reliquit
is familiar from its reappearance in one of the most impressive
passages of Lucretius.
The fourth and iifth books contained the history of the
State from the establishment of the Republic till just before
the beginning of the war with Pyrrhus. One short fragment is
IV.] ENNIUS. 91
taken from the night attack of the Gauls upon the Capitol.
The sixth book was devoted to the war with Pyrrhus ; the
seventh, eighth, and ninth, to the First and Second Punic
Wars. In the fragments of the sixth are found a few lines of
the speeches of Pyrrhus, and of Appius Claudius Caecus. In
the account of the First Punic War, the disparaging allusion to
Naevius occurs —
Scripsere alii rem, etc.
It is mentioned by Cicero that Ennius borrowed much from
the work of Naevius ; and also that he passed over ireiiqidsse)
the First Punic War, as it had been treated by his predecessor.
Several fragments however must certainly refer to this war;
but it is probable that that part of the subject was treated more
cursorily than either the war with Pyrrhus, or the later wars.
The passage in which the poet is supposed to have painted his
own character, under the form of a friend of Servilius Geminus,
occurred in the seventh book. Two well-known passages have
been preserved from the ninth book — viz. that characterising
the ' sweet-speaking ' orator, M. Cornelius Cethegus —
Flos delibatns populi suadaeque medulla,
and the lines in honour of Q. Fabius Maximus,
Unus homo nobis cunctando restituit rem, etc.
The tenth and eleventh books, beginning with a new invocation
to the muse —
Insece Musa manu Romanorum induperator
Quod quisque in hello gessit cum rege Philippe,
treated of the Macedonian war, and of the deeds of T.
Quintius Flamininus. In the later books, Ennius told the
history of the war with Antiochus, of the Aetohan War carried
on by his friend, M. Fulvius Nobilior, of the exploits of L.
Caecilius Denter and his brother (of whom scarcely anything
is known except that the sixteenth book of the Annals was
written in consequence of the poet's especial admiration for
them), and lastly, of the Istrian War. which took place within
a few years of the author's death.
92 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
Neither in general design nor in detail could the Annals
be regarded as a pure epic poem. Like the Aeneid, which
connects the mythical story of Aeneas with the glories of the
Julian line and the great destiny of Rome, the poem of
Ennius treated of fabulous tradition, of historical fact, and
of great contemporary events ; but it did not, like the Aeneid,
unite these varied materials in the representation of the
fortunes of one individual hero. The action of the poem,
instead of being limited to a few days or months, extended
over many generations. Nor could the poem terminate with
any critical catastrophe, as its object was to unfold the
continuous, still advancing progress of the State. From the
name it might be inferred that the Annals must have been
more like a metrical chronicle than like an epic poem ; yet, as
being inspired and pervaded by a grand and vital idea, the
work was elevated above the level of matter of fact into the
region of poetry. The idea of a high destiny, unfolding itself
under the old kingly dynasty and the long line of consuls, —
through the successive wars with the Italian races, with
Pyrrhus and the Carthaginians, — rapidly advancing, though
not fully accomplished in the age when the poem was written,
— gave unity of plan and consistency of form to its rude and
colossal structure. The word Annales, as applied to Roman
story, suggests something more than the mere record of events
in regular annual sequence. It involves also the idea of
unbroken continuity. In the Roman Republic, the unity and
vital action of the State were maintained and manifested by
the delegation of the functions of government on magistrates
appointed from year to year, just as the life of a monarchical
state is maintained and manifested in its line of kings. In the
spirit animating the work, — in the conception of a past history,
stretching back in unbroken grandeur until it is lost in fable,
but yet vitally linked to the interests of the present time, — the
Annals of Ennius may be compared with the dramas in which
Shakspeare has represented the national life of England — in
all its greatness and vicissitudes — with the glory and splendour
IV.] EN NWS. 93
as well as the dark and tragic colours with which that story is
inwoven.
The poem, although laying no claim to the perfection of
epic form, had thus something of the genuine epic inspiration.
While treating both of a mythical past and of real historical
events, it was pervaded by a living and popular idea, — faith in
the destiny of Rome. It was through the power and presence of
that same idea in his own age, that Virgil was able to impart a
vital and enduring meaning to a fabulous tradition, and to
create, out of the imaginary fortunes of a Trojan hero, a poem
most truly representative of his age and country. It is the
absence of any such living idea which renders the artificial
epics of refined and civilised eras, — such poems, for instance,
as the Thebais of Statins, or the Argonatitics of Valerius
Flaccus,— in general so flat and unprofitable. Regarded, on
the other hand, as a historical poem, the Annals was written
under more favourable conditions than the Fharsalia of Lucan,
or the Punic JFars of Silius Italicus — in being the work of an
age to which the past had come down as popular tradition, not
as recorded history. The imagination of the poet employs
itself more happily and legitimately in filling up or modifying a
story that has been shaped by the fancies and feelings of
successive generations, than in venturing to recast the facts
that stand out prominently in the actual march of human
affairs. By treating of contemporary events, the poem must
have receded still further from the pure type of epic poetry ;
yet the later fragments of the work, while written with some-
thing of the minute and literal fidelity of a chronicle, may yet
lay claim to poetic inspiration. They prove that the author
was no unconcerned spectator and reporter of the events going
on around him, but that his imagination was fired and his
sympathies keenly interested by whatever, in speech or action,
was worthy to live in the memory of the world.
There must have been many drawbacks to the popularity of
the poem in a more critical time, when strong enthusiasm and
forcible conception fail to interest, unless they are combined
94 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch,
with the harmonious execution of a work of art. Even from
the extant fragments the rude proportions and the unwieldy
mass of the original work may be inferred. It is still possible
to note the bare, annalistic style of many passages which sink
below the level of dignified prose, the barbarisms of taste
shown by a fondness for alliterative lines and plays upon words,
the more common faults of careless haste and redundance of
expression, and of a rugged and irregular cadence. There must
have been some peculiar excellences or adaptation to the Roman
taste, through which, in spite of these defects, the popularity of
the poem was sustained far into the times of the Empire. This
late popularity may have been due in part to antiquarian zeal
or affectation, but some degree of it, as well as the favour of
the age in which the poem was written, must have been
founded on more substantial grounds. Apart from other
literary interest, this poem first drew forth and established, for
the contemplation of after times, the ideal latent in the
national mind. The patriotic tones of Virgil have the same
kind of ring as these in the older poet —
Audire est operae pretium procedere recte
Qui rem Romanam Latiumque augescere vnltis,
and this other line which Cicero compared to the utterance of
an oracle —
Moribus antiquis stat res Romana virisque.
While in his other works Ennius was the teacher of an alien
culture to his countrymen, in his Annals he represented them.
He set before them an image of what was most real in them-
selves;— an image combining the strength and commanding
features of his own time, with the proud memories and
traditional traits of the past. As it is by sympathy with what
is most vital and of deepest meaning in actual experience that
a great poet forms his ideal of what transcends experience, so
it is by a vivid apprehension of the present that he is able to
re-animate the past. Dante and Milton gained their vision of
other worlds through their intense feeling of the spiritual
meaning of this life ; and, in another sphere of art, Scott was
IV.] ENNIUS. 95
enabled to immortalise the romance and humour of past ages,
partly through the chivalrous and adventurous spirit which he
inherited from them, partly through the strong interest and
enjoyment with which he entered into the actual life and
pursuits of his contemporaries. It is in ages of transition, such
as were the ages of Sophocles, of Shakspeare, and of Scott, in
which the traditions of the past seem to blend with and colour
the activity and enjoyment of a new time of great issues, that
representative works of genius are produced. Living in such
an era, deeply moved by all the memories, the hopes, and the
impulses which acted upon his contemporaries, living his own
life happily and vigorously in the chief centre of the world's
activity, Ennius was enabled to gather the life of centuries
into one representation, and to tell the story of Rome, if
without the accomplished art, yet with something of the native
force and spirit of early Greece ; to fix in language the
patriotic traditions which had hitherto been kept alive by the
statues, monuments, and commemorative ceremonies of
earlier times ; to uphold the standard of national character
with a fervent enthusiasm ; and to address the understanding
of his contemporaries with a practical wisdom like their own,
and a large knowledge both of ' books and men ' : —
Vetustas
Quern fecit mores veteresque uovosque tenentem.
The manifest defects, as well as the peculiar power of the
poem, show how widely it departed from the standard of the
Greek epic which it professed to imitate. Its vast dimensions
and solid structure are proofs of that capacity of long labour
and concentrated interest on one great object, which was the
secret of Roman success in other spheres of action. So large
a mass of materials held in union only by a pervading national
enthusiasm would have been utterly repugnant to Greek taste,
intolerant above all things of monotony, and most exacting in
its demands of artistic unity and completeness. The fragments
of the poem give no idea of careful finish ; they produce the
impression of massiveness and energy, strength and uniformity
96 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
of structure, unaccompanied by beauty, grace, or symmetry.
The creation of an untutored age may be recognised in the rude-
ness of design, — of a Roman mind in the national spirit, the
colossal proportions, and the strong workmanship of the poem.
The originality of the Roman epic will be still more
apparent if we compare the fragments of the Annals, in
some points of detail, with the complete works of the poet,
whom Ennius regarded as his prototype. There was, in
the first place, a marked difference between Homer and the
Roman poet in their modes of representing human life and
character. The personages of the Iliad and of the Odyssey
are living and forcible types of individual character. In
Achilles, in Hector, and in Odysseus,— in Helen, Andro-
mache, and Na^sicaa, we recognise embodiments the most
real, yet the most transcendent, of the grandeur, the heroism,
the courage, and strong affection of manhood, and of the
grace, the gentleness, and the sweet vivacity of woman. The
work of Ennius, on the other hand, instead of presenting
varied types of human nature, appears to have unfolded a
long gallery of national portraits. The fragments of the
poem still afford glimpses of the ' good Ancus ' ; 'of the man
of the great heart, the wise Aelius Sextus ' ; * of the sweet
speaking orator,' Cethegus, ' the marrow of persuasion.' The
stamp of magnanimous fortitude is impressed on the frag-
mentary words of Appius Claudius Caecus ; and sagacity and
resolution are depicted in the lines which have handed down
the fame of Fabius Maximus. This idea of the poem, as
unfolding the heroes of Roman story in regular series, may
be gathered also from the language of Cicero : ' Cato, the
ancestor of our present Cato, is extolled by him to the skies ;
the honour of the Roman people is thereby enhanced : finally
all those Maximi, Fulvii, Marcelli, are celebrated with a glory
in which we all participated' This portraiture of the kings
and heroes of the early time, of the orators, soldiers, and
statesmen of the Republic, could not have exhibited the
' Cicero, Arch. 9.
IV.] ENNIUS. 97
variety, the energy, the passion, and all the complex human
attributes of Homer's personages. The men who stand
prominently out in the annals of Rome were of a more
uniform type. They were men of one common aim,— the
advancement of Rome ; animated with one sentiment, —
devotion to the State. All that was purely personal in them
seems merged in the traditional pictures which express only
the fortitude, dignity, and sagacity of the Republic.
Ennius also followed Homer in introducing the element
of supernatural agency into his poem. The action of the
Annals, as well as of the Iliad, was made partially dependent
on a divine interference with human affairs, though exercised
less directly, and, as it were, from a greater distance. Yet
how great is the difference between the life-li-^e representation
of the eager, capricious, and passionate deities of Homer's
Olympus and that outline which may still be traced in Ennius,
and which is seen filled up in Virgil and Horace, of the gods
assembled, like a grave council of state, to deliberate on
the destiny of Rome. In one fragment, containing the familiar
line, —
Unus erit qnem tii tolles in caerula caeli
Templa, —
they are introduced as debating, ' tectis bipatentibus,' on the
admission of Romulus into heaven. Again, in the account
of the Second Punic War, Jupiter is introduced as promising
to the Romans the destruction of Carthage; and Juno
abandons her resentment against the descendants of the
Trojans, —
Romanis coepit Juno placata favere.
It may be remarked, as a strong proof of the hold which
their mythology had on the minds of the ancients, that
men so sincere as Ennius and Lucretius, while openly ex-
pressing opposition to that system of religious belief, cannot
separate themselves from its influence and associations in
their poetry. But it is not to be supposed that Ennius, in
the passages just referred to, was merely using an artificial
H
98 THE ROMAN POETS OP THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
machinery to which he attached no meaning. In this repre-
sentation of the councils of the gods, he embodies that faith
in the Roman destiny, which was at the root of the most
serious convictions of the Romans, in the most sceptical as
well as the most believing ages of their history. This, too,
is the real belief, which gives meaning to the supernatural
agency in the Aeneid. Aeneas is an instrument in the hands
of Fate ; Jupiter merely foreknows and pronounces its decrees ;
the parts assigned to Juno and Venus, in thwarting and ad-
vancing these decrees, seem to be an artistic addition to
this original conception, suggested perhaps as much by the
experience of female influence and intrigue in the poet's own
age as by the memories of the Iliad.
Homer makes his personages known to us in speech as
well as in action. Among epic poets he alone possessed the
finest dramatic genius. But over and above the natural
dialogue or soliloquy, in which every feeling of his various
personages is revealed, he has invested his heroes with the
charm of fluent and powerful oratory, in the council of chiefs
and before the assembled people. The words of his speakers
pour on, as he says of the words of Odysseus, —
in the rapid vehemence of passion or the subtle fluency of
persuasion. The fragments of Ennius, on the other hand,
scarcely afford sufficient ground for attributing to him a
genuine dramatic faculty. But, as the citizen of a republic
in which action was first matured in council, and living in
the age when public speech first became a recognised power
in the State, it was incumbent on him to embody in ' his
abstract and chronicle of the time' the speech of the orator
no less than the achievement of the soldier. In his estimate
of character this power of speech is honoured as the fitting
accompaniment of the wisdom of the statesman. In the
following lines, for instance, he laments the substitution of
military for civil preponderance in public affairs.
IV.] ENNIUS. 99
Pellitur e medio sapienti.i, vi geritur res :
Spernitur orator bonus, horridn' miles amatur:
Haut doctis dictis certantes, sad maledictis
Miscent inter sese inimicitiam agitantes ;
Non ex jure manu consertum, sed magi' ferro
Rem repetunt, regnumque petunt, vadunt solida vi^.
Many lines of the Annals are evidently fragments of
speeches. The most remarkable of these passages is one
from a speech of Pyrrhus, and is characterised by Cicero as
expressing 'sentiments truly regal and worthy of the race
of the Aeacidae I' This fragment, although evincing nothing
of the fluency, the passion, or the argumentative subtlety
of debate, yet suggests the power of a great orator by
its grave authoritative appeal to the moral dignity of man : —
Nee mi aurum posco, nee mi pretium dederitis :
Non cauponantes bellum, sed belligerantes,
Ferro non auro vitam cernamns utrique.
Vosne velit an me regnare era quidve ferat Fors,
Virtute experiamiir. Et hoc simul accipe dictum :
Quorum virtutei belli fortuna pepercit,
Eorundem libertati me parcere certum est.
Dono ducite, doque volentibu' cum magnis dis^.
Of the same severe and lofty tone is that appeal of Appius
Claudius, blind and in extreme old age, to the Senate,
when wavering in its resolution, and inclined to make peace
with Pyrrhus —
^ * Wisdom is banished from amongst us, violence rules the day : the good
orator is despised, the rough soldier loved; striving, not with words of
learning, but with words of hate, they get embroiled in feuds, and stir up
enmity one with another. They challenge not their adversaries to contend
by forms of law, but claim their riglits by the sword, and aim at sovereign
power, and make their way by sheer force.' '
2 Cic. DeOff. i. 12.
^ ' Neither do I ask gold for myself, nor offer ye to me a ransom. Let us
wage the war, not like hucksters, but like soldiers — with the sword, not
with gold, putting our lives to the issue. Whether our mistress Fortune
wills that you or I should reign, or what her purpose be, let us prove by
valour. And hearken too to this saying, — The brave men, whom the
fortune of battle spares, their liberty I have resolved to spare. Take my
offer, as I grant it, under favour of the great gods.'
H 2
TOO THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
Quo vobis mentes rectae quae stare solebant
Antehac, dementes sese flexere viai^?
As Milton, in his representation of the great debate in
Pandemonium, ideahsed and glorified the stately and serious
speech of his own time, so Ennius, in his graphic delineation
of the age in which he lived, gave expression to that high
magnanimous mood in accordance with which the acts of
Roman statesmen were assailed or vindicated, and the policy
of the State was shaped before Senate and people —
indu foro lato sanctoque senatu.
The great poets of human action and passion are for
the most part to be ranked among the great poets of the
outward world. If they do not seem to have penetrated
with so much personal sympathy into the inner secret of the
life of Nature, as the great contemplative poets of ancient
and modern times, yet they show, in different ways, that their
sense and imagination were powerfully affected both by her
outward beauty and by her manifold energy. Homer, not
so much by direct description of the scenes in which the
action of his poems is laid, as by many indirect touches, by
vivid imagery and picturesque epithets, reveals the openness
of his mind to every impression from the outward world, and
the fresh delight with which his imagination reproduced the
impressions immediately received from the ' world of eye
and ear.' If he has left any personal characteristic stamped
upon his poetry, it is the trace of adventure and keen
enjoyment in the open air, among the most stirring sights
and sounds and forces of Nature. The imagery of Virgil is
of a more peaceful cast. It seems rather to be ' the harvest
of a quiet eye,' gathered in the conscious contemplation of
rural beauty, and stored up for after use along with the
products of his study and meditation. The fragments of
Ennius, on the other hand, afford few indications either of
* ' Whither have your minds, which heretofore were wont to stand firm,
madly swerved from the straight course ? '
IV.] ENNIUS. lOi
active toil and unconscious enjoyment among the solitudes
of Nature, or of the luxurious and pensive susceptibility
to beauty by which the poetry of Virgil is pervaded. He
was the poet, not of the woods and rivers, but, essentially,
of the city and the camp. No sentiment could appear less
appropriate to him than that of Virgil's modest prayer, —
Flumina amem silvasque inglorius.
Yet both in his illustrative imagery and in his narrative, he
occasionally reproduces with lively force, if not with much
poetical ornament, some aspects of the outward world, as well
as many real scenes from the world of action.
His imagery is sometimes borrowed from that of Homer ;
as, for instance, the following simile, which is also imitated by
Virgil : —
Et turn sic ut equus, qui de praesepibu' fartus,
Vincla suis magnis animis abrnpit, et inde
Fert sese campi per caernla laetaque prata
Celso pectore, saepe jubam quassat simul altam,
Spiritus ex anima calida spumas agit albas ^.
Other illustrations are taken from circumstances likely to
have been familiar to the men of his own time, but without
any apparent intention of adding poetical beauty to the
object he is representing. Thus the silent expectation with
^ A comparison with the original passage (Iliad vi. 506) will show that
Ennius, while reproducing much, though not all, of the force and life
of Homer's image, has added also some touches of his own : —
diy 5' ore tis araros IVttos, aKoaTrjaas ivi (parvrj,
Seafiov diropp-q^as Oiir) neSioto /cpoaivcuv,
ilojOws \oiifa6at t'Oppito? -norapLoio,
JivSioaiV tiifiov 5f Kaprj e'xf', afxtpl hi x^^'^^'-
oj/xois ataaovTac 6 8' dyXairjcpt imroiOuis,
pifupa I yovva <pip,(i t-HTo. t' i]6ia Kai vop.bv 'iTnrojv.
Cf. Virgil, Aen. xi. 492 : —
Qualis ubi abruptis fugit praesepia vinclis
Tandem liber equus, campoque potitus aperto
Aut ille in pastus armentaque lendit equarum,
Aut adsuetus aquae perfundi flumine noto
Emicat, arrectisque fremit cervicibus alte
Luxurians, luduntque jubae per colla, per armos.
I02 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
which the assembled people watch the rival auspices of
Romulus and Remus is brought before the mind by an
illustration suggested by, and suggestive of, the passionate
eagerness with which the public games were witnessed by the
Romans of his own age : —
Expectant vel iiti consul cum mittere signum
Volt, omnes avidi spectant ad carceris oras,
Quam mox emittat pictis e faucibu' currus '.
There may be noticed also, in fragments of the narrative,
occasional expressions and descriptive touches implying some
sense of what is sublime or picturesque in the familiar aspects
of the outward world. The sky, with its starry host, is
poetically presented in that expression, which has been
adopted by Virgil, ' stellis ingentibus aptum ' ; and in the
following line,
Vertitur interea caelum cum ingentibu' signis.
In the description of the auspices of Romulus, the scene is
enlivened by this vivid flash, ' simul aureus exoritur Sol,'
following instantaneously upon the appearance of the iirst
bird of omen. A lively sense of natural scenery is implied
in these lines from the dream of Ilia —
Nam me visus homo pulcher per amoena salicta
Et ripas raptare loco?que novos;
in this description of a river, afterwards imitated both by
Lucretius and Virgil —
Quod per amoenam urbem leni fluit agmine flumen ;
and in these lines which recall a familiar passage in the
Aeneid : —
Jupiter hie risit tempestatesque serenae
Riserunt omnes risii Jovis omnipotentis.^
The rhythm and the diction of these fragments suggest
' 'They watch, as when the consul is going to give the signal, all look
eagerly to the barrier, to see how soon he may start the chariots from the
painted entrance.'
'' OUi subridens hominum sator atque dcorum
Voltu, quo caelum tempestatesque serenat. — Aen. i. 254.
IV.] ENNIUS. 103
another point of contrast between the father of Greek and
the father of Roman hterature. For the old Saturnian
verse of the Fauns and Bards, which had been employed
by Livius Andronicus and Naevius, Ennius substituted the
heroic hexameter, which he moulded to the use of Roman
poetry, with little art and grace, but with much energy and
weight. As he imitated the metre of Homer, he has in
several places (as in a simile already quoted, and again
in describing the conduct of a brave tribune in the Istrian
war), attempted to reproduce his language. Nothing, how-
ever, can show more clearly the vast original difference
between the genius of Greece and of Rome than the .con-
trast presented between the rhythm and style of their earliest
epic poets. In regard for law and civil order, in military and
political organisation, in practical power of understanding, and
in the command which that power gave them over the world,
the Romans of the second century B.C. had made a great and
permanent advance beyond the Greeks of the time of Homer.
But the Greeks, when they first become known to us, appear
in possession of a gift to which all later generations have been
unable to attain. The genius of poetry has never, since the
time of Homer, appeared in union with a faculty of expression
so true and spontaneous, so faultless in purity, so inexhaustible
in resources. It is difificult to imagine a greater contrast than
that between the varied and harmonious power of the earliest
Greek epic, and the rugged rhythm and diction of the Annals.
Yet the very rudeness of that work is significant of the energy
of a man who had to accomplish a gigantic task by his own
unaided efforts. His ear had not been passively trained by
the musical echoes transmitted by earlier minstrels ; nor did
he inherit the fluency and richness of expression which a long
line of poets hands on to their successors. While professing
to imitate the structure of the Homeric verse, he was unable
to seize its finer cadences. Nor had he learned the stricter
conditions under which that metre could be adapted to the
powerful and weighty movement of the Latin language. If
I04 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
he did much to establish Latin prosody on principles devi-
ating considerably from those observed by the contemporary
comic poets, yet many points which were regulated unalterably
for Virgil were left quite unsettled by Ennius. There are
found occasionally in these fragments lines without any caesura
before the fifth foot, as the following, in one of the longest and
least imperfect of his remains —
Corde capessere : semita nulla pedem stabilibat.
and this in a passage in which the sound seems intended to
imitate the sense —
Poste recumbite vestraque pectora pellite tonsis.
And though such marked violations of harmony are rare, yet
there is a large proportion of lines in which the laws for the
caesura observed by later poets are violated. Again, while the
final ' s ' is in most cases not sounded before a word beginning
with a consonant (a usage which finally disappears only in the
Augustan poets) the final ' m,' on the other hand, is sometimes
loft without ehsion before a vowel, as in the following line —
Miscent inter sese ininiicitiam agitantes.
The quantity of syllables and the inflexions of words were so
far unsettled, that such lines as the following are read.
Partem fuisset de summis rebu' regendis ;
and this,
Noeniun rumores ponebat ante salutem ;
and
Voltiuus in spinis miserum mandebat homonem.
Among the ruder characteristics of his diction, his use of
prosaic and technical terms is especially to be noticed. The
following lines, for instance, read more like the bare statement
of a chronicle, or of a legal document, than an extract from
a poetical narrative : —
Gives Romani tunc facti sunt Campani ;
and this
Appins indixit Karthaginiensibu' bellum ;
and these lines enumerating the various priesthoods established
by Numa, —
IV.] ENNIUS. 105
Volturnalem Palatualem Furrinalem
Floralemque Falacrem et Pomonalem fecit
Hie idem.
Yet, in spite of these imperfections, both his rhythm and
language produce the impression of power and originahty.
With all the roughness and irregularity of his measure, and
notwithstanding the inharmonious structure of continuous
passages, his lines often have a weighty and impressive effect,
like that produced by some of the great passages in Lucretius
and Virgil. It is said of the rhetorician Aelian that he
excessively admired in Ennius both ' the greatness of his mind
and the grandeur of his metre \' Something of this sonorous
grandeur may be recognised in a fragment descriptive of the
havoc made by woodcutters in a great forest,— a passage in
which the language of Ennius again appears as a connecting
link between that of Homer and of Virgil : —
Incedunt arbusta per alta, securibu' caedunt,
Percellunt magnas quercus, exciditur ilex,
Fraxinu' frangitur, atque abies consternitur alta.
Pinus proceras pervortunt : omne sonabat
Arbustum fremitu siluai frondosai-'.
In the longest consecutive passages, — the dream of Ilia, the
auspices of Romulus, and that from book seventh, already
quoted as illustrative of the poet's character, — there is, not-
withstanding the roughness of the lines, something also of
Homeric rapidity ; — a quality which the Latin hexameter
never afterwards attained in elevated poetry.
The diction also of the Annals is generally fresh and forcible,
sometimes vividly imaginative. But perhaps the most admir-
able quality of its style is a grave simplicity and sincerity of
^ "Evvios 'Pajfiaios TroirjTrjr ov AiXiavos kiraiviLv d^iov (prjm .... dfjXov 5e
us (T(6r]Tr€i rov rroirjTov ttjv fiijaXuvoiav ical twv jXiTpwv to fj.fya\fiov Kai
d^iayacTTov. Suidas, vol. i. p. 1258, ed. Gaisford.
^ Cf. Iliad xxiii. 114-120; and also Virgil, Aen. vi. 179: —
Itur in antiquam silvam, stabula alta ferarum,
Prociimbunt piceae, sonat icta securibus ilex,
Fraxineaeque trabes cuneis et fissile robur
Scinditur, advolvunt ingentis montibus ornos.
lo6 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
tone. Especially is this the case in passages expressing
appreciation of strength and grandeur of character, as in those
fragments from the speeches of Pyrrhus and of Appius Claudius
Caecus, already quoted, and in the famous lines commemorative
of the resolute character and momentous services of Fabius
Maximus : —
Unus homo nobis cunctando restitnit rem :
Noenum rumores ponebat ante salutem :
Ergo plusque magisque viri nunc gloria claret*.
These lines leave on the mind the same impression of antique
majesty, as is produced by the unadorned record of character
and work accomplished inscribed on the tombs of the Scipios.
This truly Roman quality of style, depending on a strong
imaginative sense of reality, is one of the great elements of
power in the language of Lucretius.
III. Chief Characteristics of his Genius
AND Intellect.
III. — From a review of the extant fragments both of the
Tragedies andthe Annals of Ennius, it appears that his prominent
place in Roman literature, and influence over his countrymen,
were due much more to a great productiveness and activity,
and to an original force of mind and character, than to any
artistic skill displayed in the conception or execution of his
works. A consideration of the spirit and purpose of his
greatest works has led to the conclusion that they were, in
a considerable measure, inspired by the genius of Rome, and
were thus rather the starting-point of a new literature than the
mechanical reproduction of the literature of the Greeks. It
remains to consider what inference may be formed from these
fragments as to the character of his genius, of his imaginative
sentiment and moral sympathies, and of his intellectual power.
The force of many single expressions in these fragments,
1 ' One man, by biding his time, restored the commonwealth. He cared
not for what men said of him, as compared with our safety : therefore now
his fame waxeth brighter day by day.'
IV.] ENNIUS. 107
and the power with which various incidents, situations, and
characters, are brought before the mind indicate an active
imagination. A sense of energy and Hfe-like movement is
the prevaiHng impression produced by a study of the language
and the longer passages in these remains. Many single lines
and expressions that have been gathered accidentally, as mere
isolated phrases, disjoined from the context in which they
originally occurred, bear traces of the ardour with which they
were cast into shape. In longer passages, the whole heart,
sense, and understanding of the writer seem to be thrown into
his narrative. He has not the eye of a poetic artist who ob-
serves, as it were, from a distance, and fixes as in a picture,
some phase of passionate feeling or some beautiful aspect of
repose. He suggests rather the idea of a man of practical
energy, who has been present and taken part in the action
described, who enters with living interest into every detail, and
watches it at the same time with a sagacious discernment and
a strong enthusiasm. His power as a narrative poet is the
power of forcibly reproducing the outward movement and the
inward meaning of an action, and of identifying himself with
the hearts and minds of the actors on the scene. Several
passages, wanting altogether in poetical beauty, yet arrest the
attention by this energy and realism of conception ; as, for
example, this short and rugged fragment, descriptive of a
commander in the crisis of a battle (probably that of Cynos-
cephalae), —
Aspectabat viitutem legioni' snai,
Expectans, si inussaret, quae denique pansa
Pugnandi fieret, aut duri fini' laboris^.
Even in the abrupt dislocation from their context these lines
leave on the mind an impression of the calm vigilance of
a general, and of his confidence, not unmixed with anxiety,
in ' the long-enduring hearts ' of his men. The same truth
and energy of conception, with more poetical accompaniment,
' ' He watched the courage of his army, to see if any murmur should arise
for some pause to the long battle, some rest from their weary toil.'
Io8 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
may be recognised in the longer passages, from Book vii. and
Book i., already quoted or referred to.
But the imaginative power which gives poetical meaning to
familiar objects and ideas is revealed by the force of many
single expressions and by the delineation of more passionate
situations. Such expressions as the following, most of which
reappear with an antique lustre in the gold of Virgil's diction,
are indicative of this higher power : —
Musae quae pedibus magnum pulsatis Olympum.
Transnavit cita per teneras caliginis auras.
Postquam discordia taetra
Belli ferratos postes portasque refregit.
Quem super ingens
Porta tonat caeli.
Spiritus austri imbricitor. Naves velivolae, etc. etc.
These and similar phrases, some of which have already been
quoted, imply poetical creativeness. They tend to justify the
estimate of the genius of Ennius, indicated in the language of
high admiration applied to him by Lucretius, —
Ennius ut noster cecinit, qui primus amoeno
Detulit ex Helicone perenni fronde coronam,
Per gentes Italas hominum quae clara clueret ^ ;
and in the signs of the careful study of the Annals which may
be traced in the elaborate workmanship of the Aeneid.
The longest specimen of narrative vivified by poetical
feeling, from the hand of Ennius, is the passage in which the
vestal Ilia relates to her sister the dream that portended her
great and strange destiny : —
Excita cum tremulis anus attulit artubu' lumen, I
Talia commemorat lacrimans, exterrita somno.
Eurudica prognata, pater quam noster amavit,
Vires vitaque corpu' meum nunc deserit omne.
Nam me visus homo pulcher per amoena salicta
Et ripas raptare locosque novos ; ita sola
Postilla, germana soror, errare videbar
1 ' As sang our Ennius, the first who brought down from beautiful Helicon
a chaplet of unfading leaf, the fame of which should be bruited loud through
the nations of Italian men.'
I
IV.] ENNIUS. 109
Tardaqne vestigare et quaerere te neque posse
Corde capessere : semita nulla pedem stabilibat.
Exin compellare pater me voce videtur
His verbis : * O gnata, tibi sunt ante ferendae
Aenimnae, post ex fluvio fortuna resistet.'
Haec ecfatu' pater, germana, repente recessit
Nee sese dedit in conspectum, corde cupitns,
Quanquam mnlta manus ad caeli caerula templa
Tendebam lacrimans et blanda voce vocabam :
Vix aegro cum corde meo me somnu' reliquit'.
Though these lines are rough and inharmonious as compared
with the rhythm of Catullus or Virgil, yet they flow more
smoothly and rapidly than any of the other fragments pre-
served from Ennius. The impression of gentleness and tender
affection produced by the speech of Ilia, implies some dramatic
skill in the conception of character. And there is real imagin-
ative power shown in the sense of hurry and surprise, of vague
awe and helplessness conveyed in the lines —
Nam me visus homo pulcher per amoena salicta, etc.
From this passage Virgil has borrowed one of the finest
touches in his delineation of the passion of Uido, the sense of
horror and desolation haunting the Carthaginian queen in her
dreams —
Agit ipse furentem
In somnis ferus Aeneas : semperque relinqui
^ ' When the old dame had risen, and with trembling limbs had brought
the light, thus she (Ilia), roused in terror from her sleep, with tears tells her
tale : " Daughter of Eurydice, whom our father loved, my strength and life
now fail me through all my frame. For methought that a goodly man was
bearing me off through the pleasant willow-groves, by the river-banks, and
places strange to me. Thereafter, O my sister, I seemed to be wandering all
alone, and with slow steps to track my way, to be seeking thee, and to be
unable to find thee near ; no footpath steadied my step. Afterwards me-
thought I heard my father address me in these words — ' Daughter, trouble
must first be borne by thee ; afterwards thy fortune shall rise up again from
the river." With these words, O sister, he suddenly departed, nor gave
himself to my sight, though my heart yearned to him, though I kept eagerly
stretching my hands to the blue vault of heaven, weeping, and calling
on him with loving tones. With pain and weary heart at last sleep left
no THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
Sola sibi, semper longam incomitata videtnr
Ire viam, et Tyrios deserta quaerere terra.
Another of the most impressive passages in the early books of
the Aeneid — the dream in which Hector appears to Aeneas ' —
was evidently suggested by the description which Ennius gave
of the appearance of the shade of Homer to himself. Some of
his dramatic fragments, also, as for instance the scene between
Hecuba and Cassandra already referred to, show a real power
of conceiving and representing passionate situations.
Among the modes of imaginative sentiment by which the
poetry of Ennius is pervaded, those kindled by patriotic
enthusiasm are most conspicuous. In the manifestation of
his enthusiasm, he shows an atifinity to Virgil in ancient, and
to Scott in modern times. He resembles them in their mingled
feelings of veneration and affection which they entertain to-
wards the national heroes of old times, and the great natural
features of their country, associated with historic memories and
legendary renown. Such feelings are shown by Ennius in the
lines of tender regret and true hero-worship, which express the
sorrow of Senate and people at the death of Romulus —
Pectora . . . tenet desiderium, simul inter
Sese sic memorant, O Romule, Romule die
Qualem te patriae custodem di genuerunt !
O pater, O genitor, O sanguen dis oriundum !
Tu produxisti nos intra luminis oras^.
They appear also in the language applied by him to the sacred
river of Rome, which had preserved the founder of the city
from his untimely fate, and which was thus inseparably
identified with the national destiny —
Teque pater Tiberine tuo cum flumine sancto.
and also in this fragment —
^ Aen. ii. 270.
^ ' Regret and sorrow fill their hearts, while thus they say to one another,
O Romulus, God-like Romulus, how great a guardian of our country did the
gods create in thee ! O father, author of our being, O blood sprung from the
gods ! it is thou that hast brought us forth within the realms of light.'
ENNIUS. 1 1 T
Postquam consistit fluvius qui est omnibu' princeps
Qui sub caeruleo.
The enumeration of the great warhke races in the h'ne
Marsa mauiis, Peligna cohors, Vestina virum vis,
may recall the pride and enthusiasm which are kindled in the
heart of Virgil by the names of the various tribes of Italy, and
of places renowned for their fame in story, or their picturesque
environment '. This fond use of proper names recalling old
associations or the charm of natural scenery is also among the
most familiar characteristics of the poetry of Scott.
It was seen in the introductory chapter that the Roman
mind was peculiarly susceptible of that kind of feeling, which
perhaps may best be described as the sense of majesty. This
vein of poetical emotion is also conspicuous in the fragments
of Ennius. His language shows a deep sense of greatness and
order, both in the material world and in human affairs. Thus
his style appears animated not only by vital force, but by an
impressive solemnity, befitting the grave and dignified emotion
which responds to such ideas. This susceptibility of his genius
appears in such expressions as these —
Magnum pulsatis Olympum. Indu mari magno.
Litora lata sonant.
Latos per populos terrasque.
Magnae gentes opulentae.
Quis potis ingentis oras evolvere belli?
Vertitur interea caelum cum ingentibu' signis ;
and again in the following —
Indu foro lato sanctoque senatu.
Augusto augurio postquam inchita condita Roma est.
Omnibu' cura viris uter esset induperator,
' E. g. passages such as the following : —
Quique altum Praeneste viri, quique arva Gabinae
Junonis gelidumque Anienem et roscida rivis
Hernica saxa colunt, quos dives Anagnia pascit,
Quos, Amasene pater. — Aen. vii, 682-5.
TI2 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Cn.
and in the epithet which Cicero quotes as appHed to cities —
Urbes magnas atque imperiosas.
His imagination appears also to have been impressed by that
sense of outward pomp and magnificence which exercised a
strong spell on the Roman mind in all ages, and obtained its
most complete and permanent realisation in the architecture
of the Empire. A short passage from one of his tragedies, the
Andromache, may be quoted as illustrative of this influence,
even in the writings of Ennius, though naturally it is much
more apparent in the style of those poets who witnessed
the grandeur of Rome in her later era : —
O pater, O patria, O Priami domus,
Saeptum altisono cardine templum !
Vidi ego te, astante ope barbarica,
Tectis caelatis, lacuatis,
Auro ebore instructnm regifice ! ^
A\'hile his peculiar poetical feeling is present chiefly in the
fragments of the Annals, the moral elements of his poetry
may be gathered both from his epic and dramatic remains.
Strength and dignity of character are the qualities with which
his own nature was most in sympathy. Yet in delineating the
agitation of Ilia, the shame of Cassandra, and the sorrow
of Andromache, he reveals also much tenderness of feeling, —
the not unusual accompaniment of the manly genius of Rome.
A similar tenderness is found in union with the grave tones of
Pacuvius and Accius, and in still greater measure with the
fortitude of Lucretius and the majesty of Virgil. The mas-
culine qualities which most stir his enthusiasm are the Roman
virtues of resolution (constantia), sincerity, magnanimity,
capacity for affairs. Thus a latent glow of feeling may be
discerned in the lines which record the brave resolution
of the Roman people during the first hardships of the war
with Pyrrhus —
' 'O father! O fatherland! O house of Priam, palace, closing on high-
sounding hinge, I have seen thee, guarded by a barbaric host, with carved
and deep-fretted roof, with ivory and gold royally adorned.'
IV.] ENNIUS. 113
Ast animo superant atque aspera prima
Volnera belli dispernunt ^ ;
and in this strong and scornful triumph over natural sorrow,
from the Telamon : —
Ego cum genui tum morituros scivi, et ei rei sustuli :
Praeterea ad Tiojam cum misi ob defendendam Graeciam,
Scibam me in mortiferum bellum, non in epulas miltere ^
The generosity and courage of a magnanimous nature are
stamped upon the kingly speech which he puts into the mouth
of Pyrrhus. A frank sincerity of character reveals itself in
such passages as the following : —
Eo ego ingenio natus sum,
Aeque inimicitiam atque amicitiam in frontem promptam gero^.
There is no subtlety nor rhetorical point in the expression of
his serious convictions. The very style of the tragedies, which,
as Cicero says'*, 'does not depart from the natural order of the
words,' is a symbol of frankness and straightforwardness.
He shows also, in his delineations of character, high appre-
ciation of practical wisdom, and of its most powerful instrument
in a free State, the persuasive power of oratory. This appre-
ciation is expressed in the lines so much admired by Cicero and
Aulus Gellius^ though ridiculed by the purism of Seneca : —
Is dictus 'st ollis popularibus dim
Qui tum vivebant homines, atque aevum agitabant,
Flos delibatus populi suadaeque medulla*.
He seems to admire the sterling qualities of character and
intellect rather than the brilliant manifestations of impulse
'■ ' But they rise superior in spirit, and spurn the first sharp wounds of war.'
^ ' When I begat them, I knew that they must die, and to that end I bred
them. Besides, when I sent them to Troy to fight for Greece, I was well
aware that I was sending them, not to a feast, but to a deadly war.'
^ 'Such is my nature. Enmity and friendship equally I bear stamped on
my forehead.'
* ' Ennio delector, ait quispiam, quod non discedit a communi ordine verbo-
rum. ' — Orator, II.
* Cicero, Brutus, 15 ; Aulus Gellius, xii. 2.
•^ ' He was called by those, his fellow-countrymen, who flourished then and
enjoyed their day, the chosen flower of the people, and the marrow of per-
suasion.'
114 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
and genius. He celebrates the heroism of brave endurance
rather than of chivalrous daring ^ : the fortitude that, in the
long run, wins success, and saves the State '^j rather than the
impetuous valour which achieves a barren glory ; the sincerity
and simplicity which are stronger than art, yet that know
when to speak and when to be silent " ; the sagacity which
enables men to understand their circumstances, and to turn
them to the best account *.
]\[any of his fragments, again, show traces of that just and
vigorous understanding of human life, and that shrewdness of
observation, which constitute a great satirist. The didactic
tone of satire appears, for instance, in the following lines —
Otioso in otio animus nescit quid velit ;
Hie itidem est : enim neque domi nunc nos neque militiae sumus,
Imus hue, illuc hinc, cum illuc ventum est, ire illinc lubet;
Incerte errat animus: praeter propter vitam vivitur^, —
a fragment which might be compared with certain passages
in the Epistles of Horace, which give expression to the ennui
e.xperienced as a result of the inaction and luxurious living of
the Augustan age. But a closer parallel will be found in a
passage where Lucretius has assumed something of the caustic
tone of Roman satire —
Exit saepe foras magnis ex aedibus ille
Esse domi quem pertaesum 'st subitoque revertit,
Quippe domi nihilo melius qui sentiat esse, etc.*
^ Compare his account of the Tribune in the Istrian war : —
' Undique conveniunt velut imber, tela tribuno,' etc.
' Cf. ' Unus homo nobis cunctando restituit rem,' etc.
^ Cf. ' Ita sapere opino esse optimum, ut pro viribus
Tacere ac fabulare tute noveris ; ' .
also
*Ea libertas est quae pectus purum et firmum gestitat.'
* ' Egregie cordatus homo catus Aeliu' Sextus.'
* ' In idleness the mind knows not what it wants. This is now our case.
We are neither now at home nor abroad. We go hither, back again to the
j)lace from which we came, — when we have reached it we desire to leave it
again. Our mind is all astray — existence goes on outside of real life.'
' iii. 1059-67.
IV.J ENNIUS. 115
While Ennius, like Lucretius, gives little indication of
humour, yet the folly and superstition of his times provoke
him into tones of contemptuous irony, especially where he
has to expose the arts of false prophets and fortune-tellers.
The men of the manliest temper and the strongest under-
standing in ancient times were most intolerant of this mis-
chievous form of imposture and credulity. Thus Thucydides,
in general so reserved in his expression of personal feeling,
treats, with a manifest irony, all supernatural pretences to
foresee or control the future. The tone in which Ennius
writes of such professions reminds us of Milton's grim con-
tempt for
Eremites and friars
White, black, and grey, with all their trumpery.
Thus, in a fragment of Book xi. of the Annals, the fears ex-
cited by the prophets and diviners at the commencement of
the war with Antiochus are encountered with the pertinent
question —
Satin' vates verant aetate in agenda?
Thus too the pretensions and the ignorance of astrologers are
exposed in a line of one of the dramas —
Quod est ante pedes nemo spectat : caeli scrutantur plagas.
And the following passage may be quoted as applicable to
charlatans of every kind, in every age and country —
Sed superstitiosi vates, impudentesque arioli,
Aut inertes aut insani, aut quibus egestas imperat,
Qui sibi semitam non sapiunt, alteri monstrant viam,
Quibus divitias pollicentur, ab eis drachmam ipsi petunt^.
There are passages of the same spirit to be found among the
fragments of Pacuvius and Accius.
^ ' But your superstitious prophets and impudent fortune-tellers, idle fellows,
or madmen, or the victims of want, who cannot discern the path for them-
selves, yet point the way out to others, and ask a drachma from the very
persons to whom they promise a fortune."
I 2
Il6 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
There is not much indication of speculative thought in any
of these fragments. The blunt sentiment which Ennius puts
into the mouth of Neoptolemus probably expressed his own
mental attitude towards the schools of philosophy —
Philosophari est mihi necesse, at paucis : nam omnino haut jjlacet.
His observations on life are neither of an imaginative, of a
deeply reflective, nor of a purely satiric character. Unlike
the thoughts of the Greek dramatists, they make no attempt to
solve the painful riddle of the world ; they want the universality
and systematic basis of philosophical truths ; they are expressed
neither with the pointed wit nor with the ironical humour
of satire. They are the maxims of a strong common sense
and the dictates of a grave rectitude of will. They are
practical, not speculative. They have their origin in a sense of
duty rather than of consequences. They are in conformity
with the ideal realised in the best types of Roman character ;
and they bear witness to the sterling worth combined with the
ardent enthusiasm, and the practical sense united to the strong
imagination of the poet.
Such appear to be the chief attributes of genius and imagina-
tive sentiment, and the chief moral and intellectual features
indicated in the fragments of Ennius. It is not indeed possible,
from the tenor of single passages, to judge of the composition
of a whole drama or of a continuous book of the Annals. Nc
single scene or speech can afford sufficient grounds for inferring
the amount of creative power with which his characters were
conceived and sustained in all their complex relations. Yet
enough has appeared in diese fragments, which, from the
accidental mode of their preservation, must be regarded as the
ordinary samples and not chosen specimens of his style, to
confirm the ancient belief in his pre-eminence and to determine
the prevailing characteristics of his genius. There is ample
evidence of the great popularity which he enjoyed among his
countrymen, and of the high estimate which many of the best
Roman writers formed of his power. It is recorded that great
IV.] ENNIUS. 117
crowds (' magna freqiientia ') attended the public reading of
the Annals. Virgil was said to have introduced many lines
into the Aeneid, with the view of pleasing a public devoted to
Ennius (' populus Ennianus '). The title of Ennianista was
assumed by a public reader of the Annals in the time of
Hadrian, when there was a strong revival of admiration for the
older literature of Rome ^ Cicero often speaks of the poet as
' noster Ennius/ and quotes him with all the signs of hearty
admiration and affection. The numerous references in his
works to the Annals and the Tragedies imply also a thorough
familiarity with these poems on the part of the readers for
whom his philosophical and rhetorical treatises were written.
The criticism of Quintilian, ' Ennium sicut sacros vetustate
lucos adoremus, in quibus grandia et antiqua robora jam non
tantam habent speciem quantam religionem-,' expresses a
sentiment of traditional reverence as well as of personal
appreciation. Aulus Gellius, a writer of the time of Hadrian,
often quotes and comments upon him with hearty and genial
sympathy. The greatest among the Roman poets also, directly
and indirectly, acknowledge their admiration. The strong
testimony of Lucretius is alone sufficient to establish the fame
of Ennius as a man of remarkable force and genius. The
spirit of the Annals still lives in the antique charm and national
feeling which make the epic poem of Virgil the truest representa-
tion of Roman sentiment which has come down to modern
dmes. By Ovid he is characterised as—
Ennius, ingenio maximus, arte rudis.
1 ' And there it is announced to Julianus that a certain public reader, an
accomplished man, with a very well-trained and musical voice, read the
Annals of Ennius publicly in the theatre. Let us go, says he, to hear this
" Ennianista," whoever he is, — for by that name he chose to be called.' —
Aulus Gellius, xviii. 5.
The following line of Martial (v. 10. 7) implies also his popularity under
the Empire —
'EnniiTS est lectus, salvo tibi, Roma, Marone.'
* ' Let us venerate Ennius like the groves, sacred from their antiquity, in
which the great and ancient oak-trees are invested not so much with beauty
as with sacred associations.' — Inst. Or. x. i. 88.
Il8 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
Horace, although more reluctant and grudging in his admira-
tion, yet allows the ' Calabrian Muse ' to be the best preserver
of the fame of the great Scipio. Even the disparaging
lines —
Ennius et sapiens et fortis et alter Homems,
Ut critici diciint, leviter curare videtur
(~)\\o promissa cadant et somiiia Pythagorea ',
are a strong testimony in favour of the esteem in which the
vigour and sagacity of Ennius were held by those who had all
his works in their hands. As one of the founders of Roman
literature, it was impossible that he could have rivalled the
careful and finished style of the Augustan poets ; but, by
his rude and energetic labours, he laid the strong groundwork
on which later poets built their fame.
He has been exposed to more serious detraction in modern
times, as the corrupter of the pure stream of early Roman
poetry. It is alleged against him by Niebuhr, that through
jealousy he suppressed the ballad and epic poetry of the early
bards. The answer to this charge has already been given.
There is no evidence to prove that any such poems were
in existence in the time of Ennius. By other modern scholars
he is disadvantageously compared with Naevius, who is held up
to admiration as the last of the genuine Roman minstrels.
Naevius appears indeed to have been a remarkable and
original man, yet his very scanty fragments do not afford
sufficient evidence to justify the reversal of the verdict of
antiquity on the relative greatness and importance of the
two poets. The old Roman party, in opposition to whom
Ennius and his friends are supposed to have introduced
the new taste and suppressed the old, never showed any zeal
in favour of poetry of any kind. Cato, their only literary
representative, wrote prose treatises on antiquities and agri-
culture, and in one of his speeches reproached Fulvius
^ ' Ennius, the wise and strong, and the second Homer, as his critics will
have it, seems to care little for the issue of all his promises and Pythagorean
dreams.* — Epist. II. i. 50-2.
IV.] ENNIUS. 119
Nobilior for the consideration which he showed to Ennius.
The evidence of these epic and dramatic fragments which have
just been considered, is all in favour of the high verdict of
antiquity on the importance and pre-eminence of the author of
the Annals. Whatever in the later poets is most truly Roman
in sentiment and morality appears to be conceived in the spirit
of Ennius.
CHAPTER V.
Early Roafan Tragedy — M. Pacuvius, b.c. 219 — 129;
L. ACCIUS, B.C. 170 — ABOUT B.C. 90.
The powerful impulse given to Roman tragedy by Ennius
was sustained till about the beginning of the first century B.C.,
first by his nephew M. Pacuvius and after him by L. Accius.
The popularity of the drama during this period may be estimated
from the fact that, of the early writers of poetry, Lucilius alone
contributed nothing to the Roman stage. The plays of the
three tragedians who have just been mentioned were not only
performed during the lifetime of their authors, but, as appears
from many notices of them in Cicero, they held their place on
the stage with much popular applause, and were read and
admired as literary works till the last days of the Republic.
This popularity implies either some adaptation of Roman
tragedy to the time in which it was produced, or some special
capacity for awakening new interests and ideas in a people
hitherto unacquainted with literature. Yet, on the other hand,
the want of permanence, and the want of any power of
development in the Roman drama, would indicate that it was
less adapted to the genius of the nation than either the epic or
the satiric poetry of this era. If the dramatic art of Pacuvius
and Accius had been as true an expression of the national
mind as either the epic poem of Ennius or the satire of Lucilius,
it might have been expected that it would have flourished
in greater perfection in the eras of finer literary accomplish-
ment. The efforts of Naevius and Ennius were crowned with
the fulfilment of ^'irgil, and the spirit and manner of Lucilius
still live in the satires of Horace and Juvenal; but Roman
EARLY ROMAN TRAGEDY. T2I
tragedy, notwithstanding the attempt to give it a new and
higher artistic development in the Augustan age, dwindled
away till it became a mere literary exercise of educated
men, and remains only in the artificial and rhetorical composi-
tions attributed to the philosopher Seneca.
From the fact that early Roman tragedy left no literary heir,
it is more difificult to discern its original features and character
than those of the epic or satiric poetry of the period. A further
difficulty arises out of the very nature of dramatic fragments.
Isolated passages in a drama afford scanty grounds for judging
of the conduct of the action, or the force and consistency with
which the leading characters are conceived. There is, more-
over, very slight direct evidence bearing on the dramatic genius
of the early tragic poets. Roman critics seem to have paid
little attention to, or had little perception of this kind of
excellence. They quote with admiration the fervid sentiment
and morality — ' the rugged maxims hewn from life ' — expressed
on the Roman stage ; but they have not preserved the memory
of any great typical character, or of any dramatic plot creatively
conceived or powerfully sustained.
The Roman drama was confessedly a reproduction or
adaptation of the drama of Athens. The titles of the great
majority of Roman tragedies indicate that they were translated
or copied from Greek originals, or were at least founded on the
legends of Greek poetry and mythology. The Medea of
Ennius and the Antiope of Pacuvius are known, on the
authority of Cicero, to have been directly translated from
Euripides. Other dramas were more or less close adaptations
from his works, or from those of the other Attic tragedians.
All of the Roman tragic poets indeed produced one or more
plays founded on Roman history or legend : but, with the ex-
ception of the Brutus of Accius, none of these seem to have
been permanently popular. This failure to establish a national
drama seems to imply a want of dramatic invention in the
conduct of a plot and the exhibition of character on the part
of the poets. As their own history was of supreme interest to
122 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
the Romans at all times, it is difficult on any other supposition
to explain the failure of the ' fabula praetextata ' in gaining the
public ear. There is, however, distinct evidence that in their
adaptations from the Greek the Roman poets in some cases
departed considerably from their originals. Something of a
Roman stamp was perhaps unconsciously impressed on the
Greek personages who were represented. Many of the extant
fragments seem to breathe the spirit of Rome more than of
Athens. They are expressed not with the subtlety and
reflective genius of Greece, but in the plain and straightforward
tones of the Roman Republic. The long-continued popu-
larity of Roman tragedy implies also that it was something
more than an inartistic copy of the masterpieces of Athenian
genius. Mere imitations of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and
Euripides might possibly have obtained some favour with a few
men of literary education, but could never have been listened
to with applause, for more than a century and a half, by
miscellaneous audiences.
The following questions suggest themselves as of most
interest in connexion with the general character of early Roman
tragedy : — How far may it have reproduced not the materials
and form only, but the spirit and ideas of the Greek drama ?
What was its bearing on the actual circumstances of Roman
life, and what were the grounds of the favour with which it
was received? What cause can be assigned for the cessation
of this favour with the fall of the Republic?
The materials or substance of Roman tragedy were almost
entirely Greek. The stories and characters represented were,
save in the few exceptional cases referred to above, directly
derived from the Greek tragedians or from Homer and the
cyclic poets. In point of form also and some of the metres
employed, Roman tragedy endeavoured to imitate the models
on which it was founded, with probably as little perception of
the requirements of dramatic art as of refinement in expression
and harmony in rhythm. But while generally conforming to
their models, the early Roman poets departed in some im-
v.] EARLY ROMAN TRAGEDY. 1 23
portant respects from their practice. Thus they banished the
Chorus from the orchestra, assigning to it merely a subsidiary
part in the dialogue. Although some simple lyrical metre,
accompanied with music, continued to be employed in the
more rapid and impassioned parts of the dialogue, there was
no scope, on the Roman stage, for the great lyrical poetry of
the Greek drama, and for the nobler functions of the chorus.
On the other hand, there seems to have been more opportunity
both for action and for oratorical declamation. The acting of
a Roman play must have been more like that on a modern
stage than the stately movement and the statuesque repose of
the Greek theatre. Again, in imitating the iambic and trochaic
metres of the Greek drama, the Roman poets were quite
indifferent to the laws by which their finer harmony is produced.
Any of the feet admissible in an iambic line might occupy any
place in the line, with the exception of the last. There is thus
little metrical harmony in the fragments of Roman tragedy ;
but, on the other hand, it may be remarked that the order of
the words in these fragments appears more natural and direct
than in the more elaborate metres of the later Roman poets.
But it was as impossible for the Roman drama to reproduce
the inner spirit of the noblest type of Greek tragedy as to rival
its artistic excellence. Greek tragedy, in its mature glory, was
not only a purely Greek creation, but was the artistic expression of
a remarkable phase through which the human mind has once
passed ; — a phase in which the vivid fancies and emotions of a
primitive age met and combined with the thought, the art, the
social and political life of the greatest era of ancient civilisation.
The Athenian dramatists, like the great dramatists of other
times, imparted a new and living interest to ancient legends ;
but this was but one part, perhaps not the most important part,
of their functions. They represented before the people the
destiny and sufferings of national heroes and demigods,
sanctified by long association in the feelings of many genera-
tions, still honoured by a vital worship, and appealed to as a
present help in danger. Thus a highly idealised and pro-
124 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
foundly religious character was imparted to the tragic repre-
sentation of human passion and destiny on the Athenian
stage. This view of hfe, represented and contemplated with
solemnity of feeling in the age of Pericles, would have been
altogether unmeaning to a Roman of the age of Ennius. Such
a one would understand the natural heroism of a strong will,
but not the new force and elevation imparted to the will by
reliance on the hidden powers and laws overruling human
affairs. He might be moved to sympathy with the sufferers or
actors on the scene ; but he would be altogether insensible to
the higher consolation which overcomes the natural sorrow for
the mere earthly catastrophe in a great dramatic action. The
inward strength and dignity of a Roman senator might enable
him to appreciate the magnanimity and kingly nature of
Oedipus ; but the deeper interest of the great dramas founded
on the fortunes of the Theban king, especially the interest
arising from his trust in final righteousness, his sense of
communion with higher powers, from the thought of his
elevation out of the lowest earthly state into perpetual sanctity
and honour, was widely remote from the tangible objects of a
Roman's desire, and the direct motives of his conduct. Or
perhaps a Roman would have a fellow-feeling with the proud
and soldierly bearing of Ajax ; but he would be blind to the
inward lesson of self-knowledge and self-mastery, which
Sophocles represents as forced upon the spirit of the Greek
hero through the stern visitation of Athene. Equally remote
from the ordinary experience and emotions of a Roman would
be the feeling of awe, gloom, and mystery, diffused through
the great thoughts and imaginations of Aeschylus. Both in
Aeschylus and in Sophocles the light and the gloom cast over
the human story are not of this world. But in the fragments
of the Roman tragedians, though there is often found the
expression of magnanimous and independent sentiment, and of
a very dignified and manly morality, there is little trace of any
sense of the relation of the individual to a Divine power ; and
there are some indications not only of a scorn for common
v.] EARLY ROMAN TRAGEDY. 1 25
superstition, but also of disbelief in the foundations of personal
religion. The thought of the insecurity of life, of the vicissitudes
of human affairs, and of the impotence of man to control his
fate, which forced the Greek poets and historians of the fifth
century b. c. into deeper speculations on the question of
Divine Providence, was utterly alien to the natural temperament
of Rome, and to the confidence inspired by uniform success
during the long period succeeding the Second Punic War.
The contemplative and religious thought of Greek tragedy
was thus as remote from the practical spirit of the Romans as
the political license and the personal humours of the old
Athenian comedy were from the earnestness of public life and
the dignity of government in the great aristocratic Republic,
x^nd thus it happened that, as the comic poets of Rome
reproduced the new comedy of Athens, which portrayed the
passions of private not of political life, and the manners rather
of a cosmopolitan than of a purely Greek civilisation, so the
tragic poets found the art of Euripides and of his less illustrious
successors more easy to imitate than that of Aeschylus and
Sophocles. The interest of tragedy, as treated by Euripides,
turns upon the catastrophes produced by human passion : the
religious meaning has, in a great measure, passed out of it ; the
characters have dwindled from their heroic stature to the
proportions of ordinary life ; his thought is the result of the
analysis of motives, and the study of familiar experience. He
has more affinity with the ordinary thoughts and moods of men
than either of the older poets. The older and the later Greek
writers have a nearer relation to the spirit of other eras of the
world's history than those who represent Athenian civilisation
in its maturity. It requires a longer familiarity with the mind
and heart of antiquity to realise and enjoy the full meaning of
Sophocles, Thucydides, or Aristophanes, than of Homer,
Euripides, or Theocritus. Homer is indeed one of the truest,
if not the truest, representative of the genius of Greece, — the
representative also of the ancient world in the same sense as
Shakspeare is of the modern world, — but he is, at the same
126 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
time, directly intelligible and interesting to all countries and
times from his being the most natural and powerful exponent
of the elementary feelings and forces of human nature. The
later poets, on the other hand, such as Euripides and the
writers of the new comedy, were not indeed more truly human,
but were less distinctively Greek than their immediate pre-
decessors. They had advanced beyond them in the analytic
knowledge of human nature ; but, with the decay of religious
belief and political feeling, they had lost much of the genius
and sentiment by which the old Athenian life was characterised.
Both their gain and their loss bring them more into harmony
with later modes of thought and feeling. Thus it happened
that, while the influence of Aeschylus and Sophocles, of
Thucydides and Aristophanes, is scarcely perceptible in Roman
literature. Homer and the early lyrical poets who flourished
before Greek civilisation exhibited its most special type, and
Euripides who, though a contemporary of Sophocles and
Aristophanes, yet belonged in spirit and tone to a younger
generation, the writers of the new comedy, and the Alexandrine
poets who flourished when the purely Greek ideas and
character were being merged in a cosmopolitan civilisation,
exercised a direct influence on Roman taste and opinion in
every age of their literature. The early tragic poets of Rome
could not rival or imitate the dramatic art, the pathetic power,
the clear and fluent style, the active and subtle analysis of
Euripides ; but they could approach nearer to him than to any
of his predecessors, by treating the myths and personages of
the heroic time apart from the sacred associations and ideal
majesty of earlier art, and as a vehicle for inculcating the
lessons and the experience of familiar life.
The primary attraction, by means of which the tragic drama
established itself at Rome, must have been the power of scenic
representations to convey a story, and to produce novel
impressions on a people to whom reading was quite unfamiliar.
In Homer, the cyclic poets, and the Attic dramatists, there
existed for the Romans of the second century u.c. a new
v.] EARLY ROMAN TRAGEDY. I27
world of incident and human interest quite different from the
grave story of their own annals. This new world, which was
becoming gradually familiar to their eyes through the works of
plastic and pictorial art, was made more living and intelligible
to them in the representations of their tragic poets. It cannot
be supposed that these poets attempted to reproduce the
antique Hellenic character of the legends on which they
founded their dramas. In this early stage of literary culture,
the harmonious cadences of rhythm, the fine and delicate
shades of expression, the main requirements of dramatic art,
— such as the skilful construction of a plot, the consistent
keeping of a character, the evolution of a tragic catastrophe
through the meeting of passion and outward accident, — would
have been lost upon the unexacting audiences who thronged
the temporary theatres on occasional holidays. The fragments
of the lost dramas indicate that the matter was presented in a
straightforward style, httle differing in sound and meaning
from the tone of serious conversation. Although little can be
known or conjectured as to the general conduct of the action
in a Roman drama, yet there are indications that in some
cases a series of adventures, instead of one complete action,
were represented ^ But while failing, or not attempting to
reproduce the Greek spirit and art of their originals, the
Roman poets seem to have animated the outlines of their
foreign story and of their legendary characters with something
of the spirit of their own time and country. They imparted to
their dramas a didactic purpose and rhetorical character which
directly appealed to Roman tastes. The fragments quoted
from their works, the testimonies of later Roman writers, and
the natural inference to be drawn from the moral and in-
tellectual characteristics of the people, all point to the con-
clusion that the long-sustained popularity of tragedy rested
mainly on the satisfaction which it afforded to the ethical
sympathies, and to the oratorical tastes of the audience.
The evidence for this popularity is chiefly to be found in
^ E. g. the Dulorestes of Pacuvius.
128 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
Cicero ; and it is mainly, though not solely, to the popularity
which the tragic drama enjoyed in his own age that he testifies.
'J'he loss of the earlier writings renders it impossible to adduce
contemporary evidence of the immediate success of this form
of literature. But the activity with which tragedy was culti-
vated for about a century, and the favour with which Ennius,
Pacuvius, and Accius, were regarded by the leading men in
the State, suggest the inference that the popularity of the
drama in the age of Cicero, after the writers themselves had
passed away, and when more exciting spectacles occupied
public attention, was only a continuation of the general favour
which these poets enjoyed in their lifetime. Cicero in many
places mentions the great applause with which the expression
of feeling in different dramas was received, and speaks of the
great crowds {' maximus consessus ' or * magna frequentia '),
including women and children, attending the representation.
Varro states that, in his time, 'the heads of families had
gradually gathered within the walls of the city, having quitted
their ploughs and pruning-hooks, and that they liked to use
their hands in the theatres and circus better than on their
crops and vineyards \' The large fortunes amassed and the
high consideration enjoyed by the actors Aesopus and Roscius
afford further evidence of the favour with which the repre-
sentation of tragedy and comedy was received in the age of
Cicero.
According to his testimony, these lively demonstrations of
popular approbation were chiefly called out by the moral
significance or the political meaning attached to the words,
and by the oratorical fervour and passion with which the actor
enforced them. Thus Laelius is represented, in the treatise De
Amicitia, as testifying to the applause with which the mutual
devotion of Pylades and Orestes, as represented in a play of
Pacuvius, was received by the audience '-' : ' \Vhat shouts of
applause were heard lately through the whole body of the
' De Re Kuslica, Lit), ii. Praef. Quoted also by Columella, Praef. 15.
" Dc Amicitia, 7.
v.] EARLY ROMAN TRAGEDY. 1 29
house, on the representation of a new play of my famih'ar
friend, M. Pacuvius, when, the king being ignorant which of
the two was Orestes, Pylades maintained that it was he, while
Orestes persisted, as was indeed the case, that he was the man !
They stood up and applauded at this imaginary situation.'
Again, in his speech in defence of Sestius \ the same author
says, ' amid a great variety of opinions uttered, there never was
any passage in which anything said by the poet might seem to
bear on our time, which either escaped the notice of the
people, or to which the actor did not give point.' In a letter
to Atticus (ii. 19) he states that the actor Diphilus had applied
to Pompey the phrase ' Miseria nostra tu es magnus,' and that
he was compelled to repeat it a thousand times amid the shouts
of the whole theatre. He mentions further, in the speech in
defence of Sestius " that the actor Aesopus had applied to
Cicero himself a passage from a play of Accius (the Eurysaces),
in which the Greeks are reproached for allowing one who
had done them great public service to be driven into
exile ; and that the same actor, in the Brutus, had referred to
him by name in the words, 'Tullius qui libertatem civibus
stabiliverat ' ; he adds that these words ' were encored over and
over again,' 'millies revocatum est.' These and similar pas-
sages testify primarily to the intense political excitement of
the time at which they were written, but also to the meaning
which was looked for by the audience in the words addressed
to them on the stage, and which was enforced by the emphasis
given to them by the actor.
Besides these and other passages in Cicero, the fragments
themselves of Roman tragedy testify to its moral and didactic
tone, and its occasional appeal to national and political
feeling.
In so far as it served any political end we may infer from
the personal relations of the poets, from the approving testi-
mony of Cicero, and from the personages and the nature of
the situations represented, that, unlike the older comedy
1 Cic. Pro P. Sestio, 65. "^ Chap. 57.
K
130 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
of Naevius and Plautus, it was in sympathy with the spirit
of the dominant aristocracy. The ' boni ' or 'optimates'
regarded themselves as the true guardians of law and liberty,
and it would be to their partisans that the resistance to, and
denunciations of tyrannical rule, expressed in such plays as the
Atreus, the Tereus, and the Brutus of Accius, must have been
most acceptable. Members of the aristocracy, eminent in
public life and accomplished as orators, became themselves
authors of tragedies. Of these two are mentioned by Cicero,
C. Julius Caesar, a contemporary and friend of the orator
Crassus, and C. Titius, a Roman Eques, also distinguished as
an orator \ These instances, and the comments Cicero makes
upon them, indicate the close affinity of Roman tragedy to the
training and accomplishments which fitted men for public life
at Rome.
Passages already referred to, and others which will be
brought forward later, imply also that the audience were easily
moved by the dramatic art and the elocution of the actor.
We hear of the pains which the best actors took to perfect
themselves in their art, and of the success which they attained
in it. Cicero specifies among the accomplishments of an
orator, the ' voice of a tragedian, the gestures and bearing of a
consummate actor.' The stage may be said to have been to
the Romans partly a school of practical life, partly a school of
oratory. Spirited declamation, the expression, by voice and
gesture, of vehement passion, of moral and political feeling,
and of practical wisdom, would gratify the same tastes that were
fostered by the discussions and harangues of the Forum ^.
* Cicero, Brutus, 48,45; De Orat. iii. 8. 30: ' Quid noster hie Caesar
nonne novara quandam rationem attulit orationis et dicendi genus induxit
prope singulare ? Quis unquam res praeter hunc tragicas paene cornice,
tristes remisse, severas hilare, forenses scaenica prope venustate tractavit
atque ita, ut neque iocus magnitudine rerum excluderetur nee gravitas
fixetiis minueretur.'
^.Ct. Cic. De Oiat. iii. 7 : 'Atque id primum in poetis cerni licet quibus
est proxima cognatio cum oratoribus quam sint inter sese Ennius, Pacuvius,
Acciusque dissimiles.'
v.] EARLY ROMAN TRAGEDY. 131
The testimony of later writers points to the conclusion that
the early Roman tragedy, like Roman oratory, was charac-
terised both by great moral weight and dignity, and also by
fervid and impassioned feeling. The latter quality is sug-
gested by the line of Horace,
Nam spirat tiagicum satis et feliciter audet ;
and also by the epithets ' altus ' and ' animosus ' applied by
him and Ovid to the poet Accius. Quintihan describes the
ancient tragedies as superior to those of his own time in the
management of their plots ('oeconomia'), and adds that
'manliness and solemnity of style' (' virilitas et sanctitas'/,
were to be studied in them. He states also that Accius and
Pacuvius were distinguished by ' the earnestness of their
thought, the weight of their language, the commanding bearing
of their personages-.' The fragments of all the tragic poets
bear further evidence to the union of these qualities in their
thought and style.
These considerations may afford some explanation of the
fact, that the early Roman tragedy, although having less claim
to originality, and less capacity of development than any other
branch of Roman literature, yet exercised a more immediate
and more general influence than either the epic, lyrical, or
satiric poetry of the Republic. For more than a century new
tragedies were written and represented at the various public
games, and afforded the sole kind of serious intellectual
stimulus and education to the mass of the people. During the
lifetime of the old dramatists, there was no regular theatre, but
merely structures of wood raised for each occasion. A magni-
ficent ston-e theatre was at last built by Pompey from the spoils
of the Mithridatic War; but this, instead of giving a new
impulse to dramatic art, was fatal to its existence. The
attraction of a gorgeous spectacle superseded that afforded by
^ 'Sanctitas certe, et, ut sic dicam, virilitas, ab lis pctenda est, quando nos
in omnia deliciarum vitia dicendi quoque ratione defluximus.' — Quintil. Inst.
Or. i. 8. 9.
- Inst. Or. X. i. 97.
K 2
132 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
the works of the older dramatists ; and dancers h'ke Bathyllus
soon ohtained the place in popular favour which had been
enjoyed by the 'grave Aesopus and the accomfjjished Roscius.'
The composition of tragedy passed from the hands of popular
poets, and became a kind of literary and rhetorical exercise of
accomplished men. We hear that Quintus Cicero composed
four tragedies in sixteen days, and in the Augustan age Virgil
and Horace eulogise the dramatic talent of their friend and
patron Asinius Pollio. The ' Ars Poetica ' implies that the com-
position of tragedy was the most fashionable form of literary
pursuit among the young aspirants to poetic honour at that
time, and the Thyestes of Varius and the Medea of Ovid
enjoyed a great literary reputation. These were, however,
futile attempts to impart artificial life to a withered branch.
Though praised by literary critics, they obtained no general
favour. Of all forms of poetry the drama is most depen-
dent on popular sympathy and intelligence. With the loss
of contact with public feeling the Roman drama lost its vital
power. One cause of the change in public taste was the
passion for more frivolous and coarser excitement, such as was
afforded by the mimes and by gladiatorial combats and shows
of wild beasts to a soldiery brutal ised by constant wars, and to
the civic masses degraded by idleness and by intermixture
from all quarters of the world. Other causes may have acted
on the poets themselves, such as the exhaustion of the mine of
ancient stories fit for dramatic purposes, and the truer sense,
acquired through culture, of the bent of Roman genius. But
another cause was the loss of mutual sympathy between the
poet and the people, arising from the decay and final extinc-
tion of political life. In ancient, as occasionally also in
modern times, the contests and interests of politics were the
means of affording the highest intellectual stimulus of which
they were capable to the large classes on whom literary
influences act only indirectly. So long as the old republican
sense of citizenship remained, there was a bond of common
feelings, ideas, and sympathies between the body of the people
v.] EARLY ROMAN TRAGEDY. 133
and some of the foremost and most highly educated men in
Rome. There was an immediate sympathy between the
poh'tical orator and his audiences within the Senate or in the
jjubb'c assemblies ; there was a sympathy, more remote, but
still active, between the poet of the Republic, who had the
strong feelings of a Roman citizen, and the great body of his
countrymen. With the overthrow of free government, this
bond of union between the educated and the uneducated
classes was destroyed. The former became more refined and
fastidious, but lost something in breadth and genuine strength
by the want of any popular contact. The latter became more
debased, coarser, and more servile. Poetic works were more
and more addressed to a small circle of men of rank and edu-
cation, sharing the same opinions, tastes, and pleasures. They
thus became more finished as works of art, but had less direct
bearing on the passions and great public interests of their
time.
The origin and the earliest stage of the Roman drama have
been examined in a previous chapter. For about a century
after the close of the Second Punic War new tragedies con-
tinued to be represented at Rome with little interruption, first
by Ennius, afterwards by his nephew Pacuvius and by Accius.
They devoted themselves more exclusively than any of their
predecessors to the composition of tragedy. ^Vhile the fame
of Ennius chiefly rested on his epic poem \ Pacuvius and
Accius are classed together as representatives of the tragic
poetry of the Republic. I'hough in point of age there was
a difference of fifty years between them, yet Cicero mentions,
on the authority of Accius himself, that they had brought out
plays under the same Aediles, when the one was eighty years
of age and the other thirty.
M. Pacuvius, nephew, by the mother's side, of Ennius, was
born at Brundusium, in the south of Italy, about 219 u.c, and
' Cf. Cic. Opt. Gen. Orat. : ' Itaquc licet dicere et Ennium summum
epicum poctain si cui ita videtur, cl Pacuvium tra|^icum, ct Caecilium
fortasse comicum.'
134 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
died at Tarentum about 129 b.c, at the age of ninety. He
obtained some distinction as a painter \ and he is supposed to
have written his tragedies late in hfe. Jerome records of him,
' picturam exercuit et fabulas vendidit.' Cicero represents
Laeh'us as speaking of him as a friend, 'amici et hospitis mei.'
A pleasing anecdote is told by Aulus Gellius ^ of his inter-
course with his younger rivals L. Accius. ' When Pacuvius, at
a great age, and suffering from disease of long standing, had
retired from Rome to Tarentum, Accius, at that time a con-
siderably younger man, on his journey to Asia, arrived at that
town, and stayed with Pacuvius. And being kindly entertained,
and constrained to stay for several days, he read to him, at his
request, his tragedy of Atreus. Then, as the story goes, Pacu-
vius said, that what he had written appeared to him sonorous
and elevated but somewhat harsh and crude. " It is just as
you say," replied Accius ; " and in truth I am not sorry for it,
for I hope that I shall write better in future. For, as they say,
the same law holds good in genius as in fruit. Fruits which
are originally harsh and sour afterwards become mellow and
pleasant ; but those which have a soft and withered look, and
are very juicy at first, become soon rotten without ever be-
coming ripe. It appears, accordingly, that there should be
left something in genius also for the mellowing influence of
years and time."' This anecdote, while giving a pleasing
impression of the friendly relation subsisting between the
older and younger poets, seems to add some corroboration
to the opinion that the Romans valued more the oratorical
style than the dramatic art of their tragedies. It affords
support also to the testimony of Horace and Quintilian in
regard to the distinction which the admirers of the old poetry
drew between the excellence of Pacuvius and Accius : —
Ambigitur quoties uter utro sit prior, aufert
Pacuvius docti famam senis, Accius alti.
Aulus Gellius quotes the epitaph of Pacuvius, written by him-
self to be inscribed on his tombstone, with a tribute of
^ Pliiiy, Hist. Nat. xxxv. 7.
v.] EARLY ROMAN TRAGEDY. 135
admiration to 'its modesty, simplicity, and fine serious
spirit ' — ' Epigramma Pacuvii verecundissimum et purissimum
dignumque ejus elegantissima gravitate.'
Adolescens, tametsi pioperas, te hoc saxnm rogat,
Ut se aspicias, deinde quod scriptum est, legas,
Hie sunt poetae Pacuvi Marci sita
Ossa. Hoc volebam nescius ne esses. Vale '.
With its quiet and modest simplicity of tone this inscription
is still significant of that dignified self-consciousness which
characterised all the early Roman poets, though the feeling
may have been displayed with more prominence by Naevius
and Plautus, by Ennius, Accius, and Lucilius, than by Pa-
cuvius.
Among the testimonies to his literary qualities the best
known is that of Horace, quoted above. Cicero, in speaking
of the age of Laelius as that of the purest Latinity, does not
allow this merit to Pacuvius and to the comic poet Caecilius.
He says of them, 'male locutos esse^.' Pacuvius seems to
have attempted to introduce new forms of words, such as
'temeritudo, ' geminitudo,' 'vanitudo,' ' concorditas,' 'unose';
and also to have carried to a greater length than any of the
older poets the tendency to form such poetical compounds as
' tardigradus,' 'flexanimus,' ' flexidicus,' ' cornifrontis ' — a ten-
dency which the Latin language continued more and more to
repudiate in the hands of its most perfect masters. One line
is quoted in which the tendency probably reached the extremes!
limits it ever did in any Latin author, —
Nerei repandirostrum incurvicervicum pecus.
We find also such inflexions as ' tetinerim,' for ' tenuerim,'
'pegi' for 'pepigi,' 'cluentur' for 'cluent.' These peculiarities
are ridiculed in the fragments of Lucilius, and also in a passage
^ ' Young man, though thou art in haste, this stone entreats thee to regard
it, and then read what is written : — Here are laid the bones of the poet
Marcus Pacuvius. This I desired to be not unknown to thee. Farewell.'
'^ Brutus, 74.
136 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
of Persius. Another author^ contrasts the senientiae of Ennius
with ihe. periodi of Pacuvius, — a distinction probably connected
with the progress of oratory in the interval between the poets.
Persius applies the term ' verrucosa ' (an epithet not inapplic-
able to his own style) to the Antiope of Pacuvius, which, on the
other hand, was much admired by Cicero ^ Lucilius refers to
this harshness of style in the line,
Verum tristis contorto aliqno ex Pacuviano exordio.
Pacuvius is known to have been the author of about twelve
tragedies, founded on Greek subjects ; and of one, Fauh/s,
founded on Roman history. Among these, the Antiope was
perhaps the most famous and most admired. It was, like the
Medea of Ennius, a translation from Euripides. The principal
characters in it were the brothers Zethus and Amphion, the
one devoted to hunting, the other to music. Their dispute as
to the respective advantages of music and philosophy is re-
ferred to by Cicero and Horace, and by other authors. The
Zethus of Pacuvius is described by Cicero ^ as one who made
war on all philosophy ; and the author of the treatise addressed
to Herennius describes their controversy as beginning about
music, and ending about philosophy and the use of virtue.
Two dramas, the Dulorestes and the Chryses, the latter being
a continuation of the first, represented the adventures of
Orestes in his wanderings with his friend Pylades, after the
murder of his mother. The former play, in which Orestes
was represented as on the point of being sacrificed by his
sister Iphigenia, contained the passage already referred to,
in which Pylades and Orestes contend as to which should
suffer for the other. The Chryses was founded on their
subsequent adventures, and the title of the play was apparently
taken from the old Homeric priest of Apollo, Chryses, who
' The writer of the treatise on Rhetoric addressed to C. Herennius.
^ ' Quis enim tarn inimicus paene nomini Romano est, qui Ennii Medeam
aut Antiopam Pacuvii spernat aut rejiciat, quod se eisdem Euripidis fabulis
delectari dicat?' — Cic. De Ein. i. 2.
^ De Oratore, ii. 37.
v.] EARLY ROMAN TRAGEDY. 137
bore a prominent part in it. Another of the plays of Pacuvius,
the Nipira, was founded on, though not translated from, one
of Sophocles ^ ; and the title seems to have been suggested by
the story of the recognition of Ulysses by his nurse, Eurycleia,
told at Odyssey xix. 386, etc. The subjects of his other dramas
may be inferred from their titles : — Armorum Judiciufii, Ata-
lanta, Her/nione, Iliofie, lo, Medus (son of Medea), Pentheus^
Periboea, Teucer.
The fragments of Pacuvius amount to about four hundred
lines. Many of these are single lines, preserved by gram-
marians in illustration of old forms and usages of words, and
thus are of little value in the way of illustrating his poetical or
dramatic power. Several of them, however, are interesting,
from the light which they throw on his mode of thought, his
moral spirit, and his artistic faculty.
A remarkable passage is quoted from the Chryses, showing
the growth of that interest in physical philosophy, which was
first expressed in the Epicharmus of Ennius, and which con-
tinued to have a powerful attraction for many of the Roman
poets : —
Hoc vide, circum supraque quod complexu continet
Terrain
Solisque exortu capessit candorem, occasu nigret,
Id quod nostri caelum memorant, Graii perhibent aethera :
Quidquid est hoc, omnia animat, format, alit, auget, creat,
Sepelit recipitque in sese omnia, omniumque idem est pater,
Indidemque eadem quae oriuntur, de integro aeque eodem incidunt ^•
^ Cic. Tusc. Disp. ii. 21.
" ' Behold this, which around and above encompasseth the earth, and puts
on brightness at the rising of the sun, becomes darlc at his setting; that
which our people call Heaven, and the Greeks Aether. Whatever this is,
it is to all things the source of life, form, nourishment, growth, existence ; it
is the grave and receptacle of all things, and the parent, too, of all things :
all things which arise from it equally lapse into it again.' Compare with
this passage Lucretius, ii. 991 —
' Denique caelesti sumus omnes semine oriundi,' etc.
Both may be traced to a fragment of the Chrysippus of Euripides, quoted by
Ribbeck, Rom. Trag. p. 257 ; and also by Munro, Lucret. p. 455, third
edition.
138 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
The following fragment illustrates the dawning interest in
ethical speculation, which became much more active in the
age of Cicero, under the influence of Greek studies : —
Fortunam insanam esse et caecam et brutam perhibent philosophi
Saxoque instare in globoso praedicant volubili :
Insanam autem esse aiunt, quia atrox, incerta, instabilisque sit :
Caecam ob eam rem esse iterant, quia nil cernat quo sese adplicet :
Brutam quia dignum atque indignum nequeat internoscere.
Simt autem alii philosophi, qui contra fortunam negant
Esse ullam, sed temeritate res regi omnis autumant.
Id magis veri simile esse usus reapse experiundo edocet :
Velut Orestes modo fuit rex, factu'st mendicus modo*.
These lines again from the Chryses show that Pacuvius, like
Ennius, exposed and ridiculed the superstition of his time —
Nam isti qui linguam avium intelliguiit
Plusque ex alieno jecore sapiunt quam ex suo,
Magis audiendum quam auscultandum censeo " ;
and this is to the same effect —
Nam si qui, quae eventura sunt, provideant, aequiparent Jovi.
This tendency to physical and ethical speculation may be the
reason for which Horace applies to Pacuvius the epithet
' doctus.'
The fragments of Pacuvius show not only the cast of under-
standing, but also the grave and dignified tone of morality,
which was found to be one of the most Roman characteristics
of Ennius. They indicate also a similar humanity of feeling-
The moral nobleness of the situation, in which Pylades and
* 'Philosophers say that Fortune is mad, blind, and senseless, and repre-
sent her as set on a round rolling stone. They say that she is mad, because she
is harsh, fickle, untrustworthy; blind, for this reason, that she can see nothing
to which to attach herself; senseless, because she cannot distinguish between
the worthy and unworthy. Other philosophers again deny the existence of
Fortune, but hold that all things are ruled by chance. That this is more
probable, common experience proves, as Orestes was but the other day a king,
and is now a beggar.'
•^ ' For those men who understand the language of birds, and have more
wisdom from examining the liver of other beings than from their own i^i.e.
understanding), I think should be heard rather than listened to.'
v.] EARLY ROMAN TRAGEDY. ,139
Orestes contend which should sacrifice himself for the other,
has already been noticed : ' stantes plaudebant in re ficta.'
Again, in the Tusculan Disputations (ii. 21), Cicero commends
Pacuvius for deviating from Sophocles, who had represented
Ulysses, in the Niptra, as utterly overcome by the power of his
wound ; while, in Pacuvius, those who are supporting him,
' personae gravitatem intuentes,' address this reproof to him,
' leviter gementi ' : —
Tu quoque Ulysses, quanquam graviter
Cernimus ictnm, nimis paene animo es
MoUi, qui consuetu's in armis
Aevom agere ^ !
The strong tones of Roman fortitude are heard in
this grave rebuke ; and the lines in which Ulysses, at
the point of death, reproves the lamentations of those
around him, have the unstudied directness that may be
supposed to have characterised the serious speech of the
time : —
Conqueri fortunam adversam, non lamentari decet :
Id viri est officiiim, fletus muliebri ingenio additus ^.
The following maxim is quoted by Aulus Gellius with
the remark 'that a Macedonian philosopher, a friend of
his, an excellent man, thought it deserving of being written in
front of every temple ' : —
Ego odi homines ignava opera et phiiosopha sententia.
There are other fragments the significance of which is
political rather than ethical, as for instance the following : —
Omnes qui tarn quam nos seveio serviunt
Imperio callent donninum impeiia metuere.
A passage from his writings was sung at games in honour
of Caesar, in order to rouse a feeling of indignation against
^ * Thou, too, Ulysses, although we see thee sore wounded, art yet almost
too much cast down ; thou, who hast been used to pass thy life in arms ! '
^ ' To complain of adverse fortune is well, but not to lament over it. The
one is the act of a man ; it is a woman's part to weep.'
140, THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Crt.
the conspirators. The prominent words of the passage
were, —
Men' servasse nt essent qui me perderent?*
Other passages again appear to be fragments of spirited
dialogue, and well adapted to show the art and the elocution
of the actor. Cicero * quotes from the Teucer of Pacuvius
the reproach of Telamon, couched in much the same terms
as those which Teucer himself anticipates in the Ajax of
Sophocles : —
Segregare abs te ausu's aut sine illo Salamina ingredi,
Neque paternum aspectum es veritus, quom aetate exacta indigem
Liberum lacerasti orbasti extinxti, neque fiatris necis
Neque ejus gnati parvi, qui tibi in tutelam est traditus — ^ ?
In commenting on these lines, Cicero speaks of the passion
displayed by the actor (' so that even out of his mask the eyes
of the actor appeared to me to burn '), and of the sudden
change to pathos in his voice as he proceeded. He adds the
further comment, ' Do we suppose that Pacuvius, in writing
this passage, was in a calm and passionless mood ? '—one
of many proofs that the 'gravity' of the old tragedians
was that of strong and ardent, not of phlegmatic natures,
and that their strength was tempered by a pathos and
humanity of feeling which were gradually gaining ascendency
over the old Roman austerity. The language in such
passages has not only the straightforward directness which
is the general characteristic of the early literature, but a force
and impetuosity added to its gravity, recalling the style of
some fragments of the older orators *.
The fragments of Accius afford the first hint of that
enjoyment of natural beauty which enters largely into the
' Sueton. Caes. 84. ^ De Orat. ii. 46.
^ ' Didst thou venture to let him part from thee, or to enter Salamis with-
out him ; and didst thou not fear to see thy father's face, when in his old age,
bereft of his children, thou hast torn him with anguish, robbed, crushed liim;
nor diust thou feel for thy brother's death, and his child, who was trusted to
thy protection — ? '
* Compare especially the fragments of the speeches of C. Gracchus.
v.] EARLY ROMAN TRAGEDY. 141
poetry of a later age ; but one or two fragments of Pacuvius,
like several passages in Ennius, show the power of observing
and describing the sublime and terrible aspects of Nature.
The description of the storm which overtook the Greek
army after sailing from Troy is perhaps the best specimen in
this style : —
Profectione laeti piscium lasciviam
Intnentur, nee tuendi capere satietas potest.
Interea prope jam occidente sole inhorrescit mare,
Tenebrae condnplicantur, noctisque et nimbum occaecat nigror,
Flamma inter nubes coruscat, caelum tonitru contremit,
Grando mista imbri largifico subita praecipitans cadit,
Undique omnes venti erumpunt, saevi existunt turbines,
Fervit aestu pelagus '.
There are also, in the same style, these rough and graphic
lines, exemplifying the impetuous force which the older Roman
poets impart to their descriptions by the figure of speech
called 'asyndeton,' —
Armamentum stridor, flictus navium,
Strepitus fremitus clamor tonitruum et rudentum sibilus ".
Virgil must have had this passage in his mind when he wrote
the line —
Insequitur clamorque virum, stridorque rudentum.
The effect of alliteration and assonance may be illustrated
by a passage from the ' Niptra,' in which Eurycleia addresses
the disguised Ulysses : —
' ' Glad at their starting, they watch the play of the fish, and are never
weary of watching them. Meanwhile, nearly at sunset, the sea grows rough,
darkness gathers, the blackness of night and of the storm-clouds hides the
world, the lightning flashes between the clouds, the heaven is shaken with
the thunder, hail mixed with torrents of rain dashes down in sudden showers ;
from all quarters all the winds burst forth, the wild whirlwinds arise, the sea
boils with the surging waters.' — Quoted partly from Cic. De Div. i, 14;
partly from De Orat. iii. 39,
^ ' The groaning of the ships' tackling, the dashing together of the ships,
the uproar, the crash, the rattle of the thunder, and the whistling of the
ropes.'
142 THE ROMAN POETS OP THE REPUBLIC. [Cn.
Cedo tamen pedem tuum lymphis flavis flavum ut pulverem
Manibus isdem qiaibus Ulixi saepe permulsi abluam,
Lassitudinemque minuam manuum mollitudine '.
Pacuvius composed one drama on a Roman subject, the
title of which was ' Paulus.' Although the name does not
indicate whether the principal character of the drama was the
Aemilius Paulus who fell at Cannae, whom Horace com-
memorates as one of the national heroes in the words —
Animaeque magnae
Prodigum Paulum, superante Poeno,
or his more fortunate son who conquered the Macedonians
at Pydna, yet it would seem much more probable that the
poet should celebrate a great triumph of his own time,
achieved by one in whom, from his connexion with Scipio, the
nephew of Ennius would feel a special interest, than that
he should recall a great calamity of a past generation, neither
near enough to excite immediate attention, nor sufficiently
remote to justify an imaginative treatment. The Fabulae
Praetextatae, of which this was one, were, as Niebuhr-
has pointed out, historical plays rather than tragedies. Such
a drama would not naturally or necessarily require a tragic
catastrophe, but would represent the traditions of the
earlier annals, or the great events of current history, in
accordance with the dictates of national feeling. No im-
portant fragment of this drama has been preserved, but
the fact of its having been written by Pacuvius is interest-
ing, as affording a parallel to the celebration of the victory of
Marcellus in the Clastidium of Naevius, and of the success of
M. Fulvius Nobilior in the Ambracia of Ennius.
Neither the fragments nor the ancient notices of Pacuvius
' ' Give me your foot, that with the brown waters I may wash away the
brown dust with those hands with which I have often rubbed gently the feet
of Ulysses, and with my hands' softness soothe your weariness.'
* ' It represented the deeds of Roman kings and generals : hence it is
evident that at least it wanted the unity of time of the Greek tragedy ; that
it was a history like Shakspeare's.' — Niebuhr's Roman History, vol. i.
note 1 1 50.
v.] EARLY ROMAN TRAGEDY. I43
produce on a modern reader so distinct an impression of
his peculiar genius and character as may be formed of
Naevius, Ennius, and Lucilius. His remains are chiefly
important as throwing light on the general features of the
Roman tragic drama ; and few critics would attempt to
determine from internal evidence alone whether any particular
passage came from the lost works of Pacuvius or of Accius.
The main points that are known in his life are his provincial
origin, and his relationship to Ennius ; the fact of his support-
ing himself, first by painting, afterwards by the payment
he received from the Aediles for his plays ; his friendship with
Laelius, the centre of the literary circle in Rome during
the latter part of the second century e. c. ; his intimacy with
his younger rival Accius ; the facts also that, like Sophocles,
he preserved his poetical power unabated till a great age,
and that, Hke Shakspeare, he retired to spend his last years in
his native district. The language of his epitaph is suggestive
of a kindly and modest temper, and of the calm and serious
spirit of age ; while that of many of his dramatic fragments
bears evidence of his moral strength and worth, and to
the manly fervour as well as the gentle humanity of his
temperament.
L. Accius (or Attius) was born in the year 170 B.C., of
parentage similar to that of Horace — 'parentibus libertinis.'
He was a native of the Roman colony of Pisaurum in Umbria,
founded in 184 B.C.; and an estate in that district was known
in after times by the name 'fundus Accianus.' Like Pa-
cuvius, he lived to a great age, though the exact date of
his death is uncertain. Cicero, who was born b.c. 106, speaks
of the oratorical and literary accomplishment of D. Junius
Brutus — Consul, along with P. Scipio Nasica, B.C. 138, and
one of the most famous soldiers and chiefs of the senatorian
party in that age — on the authority of what he had himself
often heard from the poet : ' ut ex familiari ejus L. Accio
poeta sum audire solitus ^' The meeting of the old tragic
^ Brutus, 28.
144 "^^^ ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
poet and of the great orator is remarkable, as a link con-
necting the two epochs in literature, which stand so widely
apart in the spirit and style by which they are respectively
characterised. Cicero again, in the speech in defence of
Archias, mentions the intimacy subsisting between D. Brutus
and the poet\ The expressions 'familiari ejus' and 'amicis-
simi sui,' like that of 'hospitis et amici mei,' applied by
Laelius, in Cicero's dialogue, to Pacuvius, indicate that
the relation between the poets (men of humble or provincial
origin) and eminent statesmen and soldiers, was in that
age one of familiar intimacy rather than of patronage and
dependence.
Although Cicero's notice of his own acquaintance with
Accius, which is not likely to have existed before the former
assumed the toga virilis, is a proof of the great age which
the poet attained, it is not certain how long he continued
the practice of his art. Seneca, in quoting from the Atreus of
this poet the well-known tyrant's maxim, 'oderint dum
metuant' — a maxim, according to Suetonius, constantly in
the mouth of Caligula,- — adds the remark that ' any one could
see that it was written in the days of Sulla.' But Aulus
Gellius, on the other hand, states that the Atreus was the play
which had been read by the poet in his youth to Pacuvius
at Tarentum. The termination of the literary career of
Accius must have been soon after the beginning of the first
century B.C., so that nearly half a century elapses between the
last of the works of the older poets and the appearance of
the great poem of Lucretius. The journey of Accius to
Asia shows the beginning of that taste for foreign travel
which became prevalent among the most educated men
in a generation later, and grew more and more easy with
the advance of Roman conquest, and more attractive from
the increased cultivation of Greek literature. Accius is the
' ' Decimus quidem Brutus, summus ille vir et imperator, Accii, amicissimi
sui, carminibus templorum ac monumentorum aditus exornavit suorum.' —
Chap. II.
v.] EARLY ROMAN TRAGEDY. 145
first of the Roman poets who seems to have possessed a
country residence ; and some taste for country life and the
beauties of Nature first betrays itself in one or two of his
fragments. He possessed apparently all the self-esteem and
high spirit of the earlier poets. Pliny mentions that though
a very little man, he placed a colossal statue of himself
in a temple of the Muses '.
Another story is told by Valerius Maximus, that on the
entrance of C. Julius Caesar (the author of a few tragedies, and
a member of one of the great patrician houses), into the place
of meeting of the ' Poets' Guild ' on the Aventine, he refused
to rise up as a mark of deference, thus asserting his own
superiority in literature in opposition to the unquestionable
claims of rank on the part of his younger rival.
He was much the most productive among the early tragic
poets. The titles of his dramas are variously reckoned
from about 37 to about 50 in number. Like Ennius, he
seems to have made great use of the Trojan cycle of events ;
and, in his representation of character and action, to have ap-
pealed largely to the martial sympathies of the Romans. Two
of his dramas, the Brutus, treating of the downfall of the
Tarquinian dynasty, and the Aeneadae, or Decius, founded on
the story of the second Decius, who devoted himself at the
battle of Sentinum, belonged to the class of Fabulae Prae-
textatae. He followed the example of Ennius in composing a
national epic, called Annales, in three books. He was the
author also of what seem to have been works on grammar and
literary criticism and history, written in trochaic and other
metres, and known by the names Didascalica and Pragmatica,
and Parerga. The subjects of these last works, as well as
those of some of the satires of Lucilius, and of the poems of
Porcius Licinus and Volcatius Sedigitus, written in trochaic and
septenarian verse, show the attention which was given about
^ Hist. Nat. xxxiv. 10: 'Notatnm ab auctoribus, et L. Accium poetam in
Camenarum aede maxima forma statuam sibi posuisse, cum brevis admodum
fuisset.'
146 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
this time by Roman authors to the principles of composition.
The Hterary and grammatical studies of the time of Accius must
have prepared the way for the rapid development of style
which characterised the first half of the first century B.C. In
some of the fragments of Accius distinctions in the meaning of
words — e.g. of 'pertinacia' and 'pervicacia' — are prominently
brought out. We note also in his remains, as in those of
Pacuvius, a great access of formative energy in the language,
especially in abstract words in -tas and -tudo, many of which
afterwards dropped out of use. The antagonism manifested
by Lucilius to Accius seems in a great measure to have
arisen from his claims to a kind of literary dictatorship in
questions of criticism and style.
The literary qualities most conspicuous in the fragments of
Accius, and attributed to him by ancient writers, are of the
same kind as those which the dramatic fragments of Ennius
and Pacuvius exhibit. Cicero testifies to his oratorical force,
to his serious spirit, and to the didactic purpose of his writings.
His most important remains illustrate these attributes of his
style, along with the shrew^d sense and vigorous understanding
of the older writers, and afford some traces of a new vein of
poetical emotion, which is scarcely observable in earlier
fragments. Horace applies the epithet 'altus,' Ovid that of
' animosus ' to Accius. Cicero characterises him as ' gravis et
ingeniosus poeta,' and attests the didactic purpose of a
particular passage in the words, ' the earnest and inspired poet
wrote thus with the view of stimulating, not those princes who
no longer existed, but us and our children to energy and
honourable ambition ^' The style of a passage from the
Atreus is described by the same author in the dialogue ^ De
Oratore,^ as ' nervous, impetuous, pressing on with a certain
impassioned gravity of feeling^.' Oratorical fervour and
dignity seem thus to have been the most distinctive charac-
teristic of his style. Virgil, whose genius made as free use of
the diction and sentiment of native as of Greek poets, has
^ Pro Plancio, 24. ^ De Orat. iii. 58.
v.] EARLY ROMAN TRAGEDY. 147
cast the ruder language of the old poet into a new mould in
some of the greatest speeches of the Aeneid, and seems to have
drawn from the same source something of the high spirit and
lofty pathos with which he has animated the personages of his
story. The famous address, for instance —
Disce puer virtutem ex me verumque laborem,
Fortunam ex aliis,
though originally found in the Ajax of Sophocles, was yet
familiar to Virgil in the line of Accius —
Virtnti sis par, dispar fortunis patris.
The address of Latinus to Turnus —
O praestans animi juvenis, quantum ipse feroci
Virtute exsuperas, tanto me impensius aequum est
Consulere atque omnis meti;entem expendere casus,
is quoted by Macrobius as an echo of these lines of the old
tragic poet —
Quanto magis te istius modi esse intelligo,
Tanto, Antigona, magis me par est tibi consulere ac parcere.
The same author quotes two other passages, in which the
sentiment and something of the language of Accius are
reproduced in the speeches of the Aeneid. The lofty and
fervid oratory which is one of the most Roman characteristics
of that great national poem, and is quite unlike the debates,
the outbursts of passion, and the natural interchange of speech
in Homer, recalls the manner of the early tragic poets rather
than the style of the oratorical fragments in the Annals of
Ennius. The following lines may give some idea of the
passionate energy which may be recognised in many other
fragments of Accius : —
Tereus indomito more atque animo barbaro
Conspexit in eam amore vecors flammeo,
Depositus : facinus pessimum ex dementia
Confingit ^.
' ' Tereus, in his wild mood and savage spirit, gazed upon her, maddened
with burning passion, quite desperate in his madness, he resolves a cursed
deed,'
L 2
148 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
He gives expression also to great strength of will and to that
most powerful kind of pathos which arises out of the com-
mingling of compassion for suffering with the admiration for
heroism, as in these fragments of the Astyanax and the
Telephus, —
and-
Abducite intro : nam mihi miseritudine
Commovit animum excelsa aspect! dignitas ' :
Nam huiub demum miseret, cuius nobilitas miserias
Nobilitat -,
He shows a further power of directly seizing the real meaning
of human life, and setting aside false appearances and beliefs.
The following may be quoted as exhibiting something of his
moral strength, humanity, and direct force of understanding :—
Scin' ut quern cuique tribuit fortuna ordinem,
Nunquam uUa humilitas ingenium infirmat boiium*.
Erat istuc virile, ferre advorsam fortunam facul *.
Nam si a me regnum fortuna atque opes
Eripere quivit, at virtutem non quit^.
Nullum est ingenium tantum, neque cor tam ferum,
Quod non labascat lingua, mitiscat malo".
The following, again, like similar passages already quoted from
Ennius and Pacuvius, is expressive of contempt for that form
of superstition which had most practical hold over the minds
of the Roman people : —
^ ' Withdraw him within : for the lofty dignity of his aspect has moved my
mind to compassion.'
^ ' That man indeed we pitj' whose nobleness gives distinction to his
misery.'
^ ' Dost thou not know, that whatever rank fortune has assigned to a man,
no meanness of station ever weakens a fine nature ? '
* ' This was the part of a man, to bear adversity easily.'
' ' Though fortune could strip me of kingdom and wealth, it cannot strip
me of my virtue.'
"^ ' No nature is so strong, no breast so savage, which is not shaken by
words, does not melt at misfortune.'
v.] EARLY ROMAN TRAGEDY. 149
Nil credo augiiribus, qui amis verbis divitant
Alienas, suas ut aiiro locupletent domos *.
Again, the view of common sense in regard to dreams is
expressed by the interpreter to whom Tarquinius applies when
alarmed by a strange vision —
Rex, quae in vita usurpant homines, cogitant, curant, vident,
Quaeque agunt vigilantes agitantque, ea si cui in somno acc'.dunt
Minus mirum est '^.
Besides the characteristics already exemplified, one or two
passages may be appealed to, as implying the more special
gifts of a poet — force of imagination, and some sense of
natural beauty. There is considerable descriptive power in
the following lines, for instance, in which a shepherd, who had
never before seen a ship, announces the first appearance of the
Argo—
Tanta moles labitur
Fremebunda ex alto, ingenti sonitu et spiritu :
Prae se undas volvit, vortices vi suscitat :
Ruit prolapsa, pelagus respergit, reflat ^
There is an imaginative apprehension of the active forces of
nature in this fragment —
Sub axe posita ad Stellas septem, unde horrifer
Aquilonis stridor gelidas molitur nives '.
There is a fresh breath of the early morning in the lines from
the Oenomaus —
Forte ante Auroram, radiorum ardentum indicem,
Cum e somno in segetem agrestis cornutos cient,
* ' I trust not those augurs, who enrich the ears of others with their words,
that they may enrich their own houses with gold.' There is of course a pun
on the fl/zr/j-and aiDV.
^ ' O king, what men usually do in life, what they think about, care about,
see, — their pursuits and occupations, when awake, — if these occur to any one
in sleep, it is not wonderful.'
^ ' So huge a mass is approaching — sounding from the deep with a mighty
rushing noise ; it rolls the waves before it, forces through the eddies, plunges
forward, throws up and dashes back the sea.'— Quoted in Cic. De Nat. Deer.
"• 35-
* ' Lying beneath the pole by the seven stars, whence tlie blustering roar
of the north-wind drives before it the chill snows.'
IfJO THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
Ut rorulentas terras ferro rufidas
Proscindant, glebasque arvo ex moUi exsuscitent '.
This is perhaps the first instance in Latin poetry of a
descriptive passage which gives any hint of the pleasure
derived from contemplating the common aspects of Nature.
Several other short fragments betray the existence of this new
vein of poetic sensibility, as, for instance, the following : —
Saxum id facit angustitatem, et sub eo saxo exuberans
Scatebra fluviae radit ripam ^.
The early expression of this kind of emotion seems to have
been accompanied with some degree of affectation, or un-
natural straining after effect, as in this fragment : —
Hac ubi curvo litore latratu
Unda sub undis labunda sonit.
The following lines, quoted by Cicero (Tusc. Disp. i. 28)
without naming the author, are probably from Accius : —
Caelum nitescere, arbores frondescere,
Vites laetificae pampinis pubescere,
Rami bacarum ubertate incnrvisceie,
Segetes largiri fruges, florere omnia,
Fontes scatere, herbis prata convestirier.
We note also many instances of plays on words, alliteration,
and asyndeton, reminding us of similar modes of conveying
emphasis in Plautus, as in the following : —
Pari dyspari, si impar esses tibi, ego nunc non essem miser..
Pro se quisque cum corona clarum cohonestat caput.
Egredere, exi, ecfer te, elimina urbe.
It remains to sum up the most important results as to the
early tragic drama of Rome, which have been obtained from a
consideration of ancient testimony and of the fossil remains of
1 ' By chance before the dawn, harbinger of burning rays, when the
husbandmen bring forth the oxen from their rest into the fields, that they
may break the red, dew-sprinkled soil with the plough, and turn up the
clods from the soft soil.'
^ ' That rock makes the passage narrow, and from beneath that rock
a spring gushing out sweeps past the river's bank.'
v.] EARLY ROMAN TRAGEDY, 151
this lost literature, as we find them collected and arranged
from the works of ancient critics and grammarians. The
Roman tragedies seem to have borne much the same relation
to the works of the Attic tragedians as Roman comedy to the
new comedy of Athens. The expression of Quintilian, ' in
comoedia maxime claudicamus V following immediately on the
praise which he bestows on Pacuvius and Accius, implies that
in his opinion the earlier writers had been more successful in
tragedy than in comedy. But a comparison between the
fragments of the tragedians and the extant works of Plautus
and Terence, proves that, in style at least, Roman comedy
was much the most successful ; and this superiority is no
doubt one main cause of its partial preservation. The style
of Roman tragedy appears to have been direct and vigorous,
serious, often animated with oratorical passion, but singularly
devoid of harmony, subtlety, poetical refinement and inspi-
ration. There is no testimony in favour of any great dramatic
conceptions or impersonations. The poets appear to have
aimed at expressing some particular passion oratorically, as
Virgil has done so powerfully in his representation of Mezen-
tius and Turnus, but not to have created any of those great
types of human character such as the world owes to Homer,
Sophocles, and Shakspeare. The popularity and the power of
Roman tragedy, during the century preceding the downfall of
the Republic, are to be attributed chiefly to its didactic and
oratorical force, to the Roman bearing of the persons repre-
sented, to the ethical and occasionally the political cast of the
sentiments expressed by them, and to the plain and vigorous
style in which they are enunciated. The works of the tragic
poets aided the development of the Roman language. They
communicated new ideas and experience, and fostered among
the mass of the Roman people the only taste for serious
literature of which they were capable. They may have
exercised a beneficial influence also on the thoughts and lives
of men. They kept the national ideal of duty, the ' manners
' Inst. Or. X. i. 99.
152 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC.
of the olden time,' the 'fas et antiqua castitudo' (to use an
expression of Accius), before the minds of the people : they
inculcated by precept and by representations great lessons of
fortitude and energy : they taught the maxims of common
sense, and touched the minds of their audiences with a
humanity of feeling naturally alien to them. No teaching on
the stage could permanently preserve the old Roman virtue,
simplicity, and loyalty to the Republic, against the corrupting
and disorganising effects of constant wars and conquests, and
of the gross forms of luxury, that suited the temperament of
Rome : but, among the various influences acting on the mind
of the people, none probably was of more unmixed good than
that of the tragic drama of Ennius, Pacuvius, and Accius.
CHAPTER VI.
Roman Comedy. Plautus. About 254 to 184 b. c.
The era in which Roman epic and tragic poetry arose was
also the flourishing era of Roman comedy. A later generation
looked back on the age of Ennius and Plautus as an age of
great poets, who had passed away : —
Ea tempestate flos poetarum fuit
Qui nunc abienmt hinc in commiinem locum '.
And among these poets the writers of comedy were both most
numerous and apparently the most popular in their own time ^
Besides the names of Naevius, Plautus, Caecilius, and Terence,
we know the names of other comic poets of less fame ^ and
from allusions in the extant plays of Plautus* and in the
prologues of Terence we infer that there were other competitors
for public favour whose names were unknown to a later
generation. In the Ciceronian age the works of these for-
gotten playwrights were for the most part attributed to Plautus,
probably with the view of gaining some temporary popularity
for them. In the time of Gellius no fewer than 130 plays
passed under his name; among these, twenty-one were regarded
as undoubtedly his, nineteen more as probably genuine, and
the rest as spurious. They were however all of the class of
* Prologue to Casina, iS, 19.
^ Prologue to Amphitryo, 52.
^ Licinius and Atilius are placed before Terence in the Canon of Volcatius
Sedigitus.
* E. g. Pseudolus, loSi : —
' Nugas theatri : verba quae in comoediis
Solent lenoni dici, quae pueri sciunt.'
Cf. also Captivi, 778.
154 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
pallintae ; and as the fahilae togatae seem, after the time of
Terence, to have been composed in much greater number than
those founded on Greek originals, most of them must have
belonged to the first half of the second century B.C. Plays of
a later date would have clearly shown by their diction that
they were not the work of Plautus.
Although this form of literature has little in common with
the higher Roman mood, and exercised comparatively slight
influence on the style and sentiment of later Roman poetry ^,
yet no review of the creative literature of the Republican period
would be complete without some attempt to estimate the value
of the comedy of Plautus and Terence. The difficulty of doing
so adequately arises from an opposite cause to that which
makes our judgment on the art and genius of the Roman tragic
poets so incomplete. In the latter case we know what was the
character of their Greek models ; but we can only conjecture
from a number of unconnected fragments, how far the copy
deviated in tone and spirit from the original. On the other
hand, while we have between twenty and thirty specimens
of Latin comedy, we have no finished work of Greek art
in the same style, with which to compare them. It makes
a great difference in our opinion, not only of the genius of the
Roman poets, but of the productive force of the Roman mind,
whether we regard Plautus and Terence as facile translators, or
as writers of creative originality who filled up the outlines
which they took from the new comedy of Athens with matter
drawn from their own observation and invention. It makes a
great difference in the literary interest of these works, whether
we regard them as blurred copies of pictures from later Greek
life, or, like so much else in Roman literature, as compositions
which, while Greek in form, are yet in no slight degree Roman
or Italian in substance, character, life, and sentiment. How
1 The influence of Plautus may be traced in the style of Catullus, and
perhaps in the sentiment of the passage in Lucretius, iv. 1 121, etc. ; and that
of Terence also in Catullus, and in the Satires, Epistles, and some of the
Odes of Horace.
VI.] ROMAN COMEDY. PLAUTUS. 155
far can we answer these questions, either by general con-
siderations, or by a special attention to the actual products of
Latin comedy which we possess ?
We have seen that there was a certain aptitude in the graver
Roman spirit for tragedy : —
Nam spiral tragicum satis et feliciter audet.
The rhetorical character of Roman education and the rhetorical
tendencies of the Roman mind secured favour for this kind of
composition till the age of Quintilian. His dictum ' in co-
moedia maxime claudicamus,' on the other hand, implies that
the educated taste of Romans under the Empire did not find
much that was congenial in the works of Plautus, Caecilius, or
Terence. The tone of Horace is more contemptuous towards
Plautus than towards Ennius and the tragic poets. While tragedy
continued to be cultivated by eminent writers in the Augustan
age and early Empire, few original comedies seem to have been
written after the beginning of the first century b.c.^ The higher
efforts of the comic muse were almost, if not entirely, superseded
by the Mimus. These considerations show that comedy was not
congenial to the educated or the uneducated taste of Romans
in the last years of the Republic, and in the early Empire.
But, on the other hand, the popularity enjoyed by the old
comedy between the time of Naevius and of Terence, and even
down to the earlier half of the Ciceronian age, when some of
the great parts in Plautus continued to be performed by the
'accomplished Roscius,' and the admiration expressed for its
authors by grammarians and critics, from Aelius Stilo down to
Varro and Cicero, show its adaptation to an earlier and not
less vigorous, if less refined stage of intellectual development ;
while the actual survival of many Roman comedies can only
be accounted for by a more real adaptation to human nature,
both in style and substance, than was attained by Roman
, ' Fundanius, the friend of Horace, appears to have made an attempt to
produce an artistic revival of the old comedy in the Augustan age, as Pollio,
Varius, Ovid and others did of the old tragic drama, but with no permanent
success.
156 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
tragedy in its straining after a higher ideal of sentiment and
expression.
The task undertaken by Naevius and Plautus was indeed a
much easier one than that accomplished by the early writers of
tragedy. They were not called upon to create a new taste, or
to gratify a taste recently acquired in Sicily and the towns of
Magna Graecia. They had only to give ampler and more
defined form, fuller and more coherent substance, to a kind of
entertainment which was indigenous in Italy. The improvised
' Saturae ' — ' dramatic medleys or farces with musical accom-
paniment ' — had been represented on Roman holidays for
more than a century before the first performance of a regular
play by Livius Andronicus. And these ' Saturae ' had been
themselves developed partly out of the older Fescennine
dialogues — the rustic raillery of the vintage and the harvest-
home, — partly out of mimetic dances imported from Etruria.
Another kind of dramatic entertainment, the 'Oscum ludicrum,'
which was developed into the literary form of the 'fabulae
Atellanae,' with its standing characters of Maccus, Pappus,
Bucco, and Dossennus, had been transferred to the city from
the provinces of southern Italy, and ultimately became so
popular as to be performed, not by professional actors, but by
the free-born youth of Rome. The extant comedies of Plautus
show considerable traces of both of these kinds of enter-
tainment, both in the large place assigned to the ' Cantica,'
which were accompanied by music and gesticulation \ and in
the farcical exaggeration of some of his characters, which
provoked the criticism of Horace, —
Qnantus sit Dossennus edacibus in parasitis.
The mass of Roman citizens, both rural and urban, was thus
prepared by their festive traditions and habits to welcome the
introduction of comedy, just as they were prepared by their
political traditions and aptitudes to welcome the appearance
of a popular orator.
Naevius and Plautus might thus be poets of the people more
' E.g. the dance of Pseiniolus. Pseud. 1246, etc.
VI.] ROMAN COMEDY. PLAUTUS. 157
truly than any later Roman poet could be. The career of
Naevius, and the public and personal elements which he
introduced into his plays, afford evidence of his desire to use
his position as a popular poet for political ends. His im-
prisonment and subsequent banishment equally attest the
determination of the governing class to allow no criticism
on public men or affairs, nor anything derogatory to the
majesty of the State and the dignified forms of Roman life, to
be heard on the stage. Plautus, though prevented either by
his own temperament or the vigilance of state-censorship from
directly acting on the political sympathies of the commons,
maintained the thoroughly popular character of Roman comedy,
and poured a strongly national spirit into the forms which
he adoped from Greece. Between the death of Plautus and
that of Terence there was no cessation in the productiveness of
Roman comedy ; but the little that is known of Caecilius, and
the evidence afforded by the plays of Terence, show that Roman
comedy had now begun to appeal to a different class of
sympathies. The ascendency of Ennius in Roman literature
immensely widened the gulf which always separates an edu-
cated from an uneducated class. One of the great sources of
interest in Plautus is that he flourished before this separation
became marked, while the upper classes were yet comparatively
rude and simple in their requirements, and the mass of the
people were yet hearty and vigorous in their enjoyments.
The popularity of his plays revived again after the death of
Terence, and maintained itself till nearly the end of the
Republic, a proof that his genius was not only in harmony with
his own age, but satisfied a permanent vein of sentiment in his
countrymen, so long as they retained anything of their native
vigour and republican spirit. The fact that Roman comedy
was not congenial to the educated taste of the early Empire
is no proof of its want of originality. It was in harmony with
an earlier stage in the development of the Roman people.
Had that been all, it might have been completely lost, or
preserved only in fragments like those of the Satire of Lucilius.
158 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
But as being the heir of an older popular kind of composition
it enjoyed the advantage, possessed by none of the more
artificial forms of poetry introduced at this period, of a fresh,
copious, popular, and idiomatic diction. The comic poets of
Rome alone inherited, like the epic poets of Greece, a vehicle
of expression formed by the improvised utterance of several
generations. The greater fluency of style and the greater ease
of rhythmical movement, thus enjoyed by the early comedy, is
the most obvious explanation of its permanent hold on the
world. But the mere merits of language would scarcely have
secured permanence to these compositions apart from the
cosmopolitan human interest derived from the Greek originals
on which they were founded, and from the strong vitality which
the earlier Roman poet drew from the great time into which he
was born, and the refined art for which the younger poet was
partly indebted to the circle of high-born, aspiring, and
accomplished youths into which he was admitted.
Our chief authorities for the life of Plautus are a short
statement of Jerome, one or two slight notices in Cicero,
and a somewhat longer passage in Aulus Gellius (iii. 3. 14).
As he died at an advanced age, in the year 184 b.c.^ (during
the censorship of Cato), he must have been born about the
middle of the third century b.c. He was thus a younger
contemporary of Naevius, and somewhat older than Ennius.
His birthplace was Sarsina in Umbria. That this district
must have been thoroughly Latinised in the time of Plautus,
is attested by the idiomatic force and purity of his style ^. He
probably came early to Rome, and was at first engaged 'in
operis artificum scenicorum,' — in some kind of employment
connected with the stage. He saved money in this service,
and lost it all in foreign trade, — what he himself calls
' Cic. Brut. 15. 60; De Senec. 14. 50.
- Cf. Cicero's testimony to the purity of the style of Naevius and Plautus
with his criticism on the style of Caecilius and I'acuvius. Terence was the
only foreigner who attained perfect idiomatic purity of speech, but he must
have been brought to Rome when quite a child.
VI.] ROMAN COMEDY. PLAUTUS. 159
' marituma negotia ' \ Returning to Rome in absolute poverty,
he was reduced to work as a hired servant in a mill ; and
while thus employed he first began to write comedies. The
names of two of these early works, Saturio and Addicfus, have
been preserved by Gellius. From this time till his death he
seems to have been a most rapid and productive writer. We
have no means of determining at what date he began to write.
A passage quoted from Cicero has been thought to imply that
he was writing for the stage during the life-time of P. and Cn.
Scipio, i.e. before 212 b.c. But the earliest allusion to con-
temporary events that we find in any of his extant plays, is
that in the Miles Gloriosus, to ihe imprisonment of Naevius,
probably in 206-5 b.c.'^ 'We have no certainty that any of the
extant plays were written before that date, although the
mention of Hiero in the INIenaechmi, and the use of some
more than usually archaic inflexions in that play, have been
supposed to indicate an earlier date for it. Of the other plays,
the Cistellaria and Stichus were written within a year or two
of the Second Punic War^ The larger number of the extant
comedies belong to the last ten years of the poet's life. His
plays do not seem to have been published as literary works
during his life-time, but to have been left in possession of
the acting companies, by whom passages may have been
interpolated and others omitted, before they were finally
reduced into a literary shape. Most of the prologues to
his plays belong to a later time, probably that of the gene-
ration after his death *. Of the twenty-one plays which Varro
^ ' Puplicisne adfinis fuit an maritnmis negotiis? ' — Trinum. 331.
'^ See the paper by Professor H. F. West, reprinted from the American
Journal of Philology, referred to supra page 54.
^ Cf. the line at the end of the Prologue to the Cistellaria (Act. i. Sc. 3) —
' Ut vobis victi Poeni poenas sufferant.'
The 'Didascalia' to the Stichus is one of the few preserved. From it we
learn that the play was acted P. Sulpicio, C. Aurelio, Cos., i.e. 200 B.C.
*■ This is shown in some cases by reference to seats in the theatre, which
were not introduced till 155 B.C. In the Prologue to the Casina it is said
that only the older men present could remember the first production of that
l6o THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
accepted, on the ground of their intrinsic merits, as certainly
genuine, we possess twenty, and fragments of the remaining
one, the Vidiilaria. The names of some other genuine plays,
such as the Satnrio, Addicties, and Commorietites, are also
known to us.
How far are we able to fill up this meagre outline by
personal indications of the poet left on his works ? In the
case of any dramatist this is always difficult ; and Plautus is
not in form only, but in spirit, essentially dramatic. Nothing
marks the difference between the popular and the aristocratic
tendencies of Roman thought and literature more than the
entire absence of any didactic tendency in his plays. He
does not think of making his hearers better by his represen-
tations, nor does he believe that it is possible to do so \ He
identifies himself as heartily for the time being with his rogues
of both sexes as with his rarer specimens of honest men and
virtuous women. He seldom indulges in reflexions on life.
When he does so it is by the mouth of a slave, who winds up
the unfamiliar process in some such way as Pseudolus, ' sed
iam satis est philosophatum V or in the lyrical self-reproaches
of some prodigal, whose good resolutions vanish on the re-
appearance of his mistress. Among the innumerable terms of
reproach which one slave addresses to another, none is
expressive of more withering contempt than the term ' philoso-
phe ^' But even if we could trace any predominant sympathies
in Plautus, or any special vein of reflexion which might seem
to throw light on his own experience, some doubt would
play in the life-time of the poet. The Prologues to the Aulularia, Tii-
nummus, and Riidens, are probably genuine, and also the speech of Au.xiliuin
in the Cistellaria.
' Cf. Rudens, 1249 ■ —
Spectavi ego pridem comicos ad istum moduin
Sapienter dicta dicere atque is plaudier,
Quom illos sapientis mores monstrabant poplo.
Set quom inde suam quisque ibaiit divorsi domum
Nullus erat illo pacto ut illi iusserant.
' Pseud. 687. '' Kg. Rudens, 986.
VI.l ROMAN COMEDY. PLAUTUS. l6l
always remain as to whether he was not in these passages
reproducing his original. The loss of many of his prologues
deprives us of the kind of knowledge of his circumstances and
position which Terence affords us in his prologues. Even the
' asides ' to the spectators, which often occur in Plautus, may in
many cases be due to the comedians of a later time.
Yet perhaps it is not impossible to enlarge our notion of his
personal circumstances and characteristics by tracing some
hints of them in his extant works.
We find one reference to his birthplace, in the form of
a bad pun altogether devoid of any trace of sentiment or
affection ^ He mentions other districts or towns in Italy in
the tone of half-humorous, half-contemptuous indifference,
which a Londoner of last^ or a Parisian of the present century,
might adopt to the provinces I More than one allusion
indicates that the citizens of Praeneste were especially regarded
as butts by the wits of Rome I The contempt of the town
for the country also appears unmistakeably in the dialogue
between Grumio and Tranio in the ' Mostellaria V and in the
boorish manners of the country lover in the 'Truculentus.'
In the eyes of a town-bred wit the chief use of the country is
to supply elm-rods for the punishment of pert or refractory
slaves. A large number of his illustrations are taken from the
handicrafts of the city, but very few are indicative of familiarity
with rustic occupations. There is no breath of the poetry of
rural nature in Plautus. If he betrays any poetical sensibility
to natural influences at all, it is to be found in passages in
which the aspects of the sea, in calm or storm, are recalled.
Mommsen ' speaks of 'a most remarkable analogy in many
J Quid? Sarsinatis ecquast, si Umbiam noa habes. — Mostel. 757.
2 Post Ephesi sum natus, noenum in Apulis, noenum Aminulae. —
Mil. Glor. 653.
Quid tu per barbaricas urbes iuias ? Erg. Quia enim item asperae
Sunt ut tuum victum autumabas esse. — Captiv. S84-5.
^ Capt. 879 ; Tiinum. 609 ; True. iii. 2. 23 ; Bacch. 24.
* Quid tibi, malum, hie ante aedis clamitatiost ?
An luri censes te esse? apscede ab aedibus. — Most. 6. 7.
M
l62 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Cii.
external points between Plautus and Shakespeare ^' Yet there
is contrast rather than analogy in the impression left upon
their respective works by the associations of their early
homes.
On the other hand we find, in many of his plays, traces of
intimate familiarity with the adventures of a mercantile life.
It is most probable that some of the passages in which these
appear would have been found in his originals had they been
preserved to us. Yet the emotions of thankfulness for a safe
return to harbour, or of curiosity and pleasure in landing at
a strange town-, are expressed so frequently and with such
liveliness as to seem like the reminiscence of personal
experience. We get, somehow, the impression of one who had
travelled widely, had ' seen the cities of many men and learned
their minds,' had marked with humorous observation many
varieties of character, had taken note, but without any special
aesthetic sensibility, of the works of art which were scattered
throughout the Hellenic cities, had shared in the pleasures
which these cities held out freely to their visitors, and had
encountered the dangers of the sea not without some sense of
their sublimity and picturesqueness ^. The God most fre-
quently appealed to in prayer or thanksgiving is Neptune*.
The colloquial use of Greek phrases in many of his plays
seems to imply a familiar habit of employing them, in active
intercourse with Greeks on his maritime adventures. The
day-dream of Gripus, after finding his treasure, might almost
be taken as a humorous comment on the various motives of
curiosity and mercantile enterprise by which he himself was
prompted to become engaged in maritime speculation : —
' Vol. ii. p. 440 ; Eng. Trans.
^ Cf. Trinum. 820, etc.; Menaechmi, 228, etc.; Stichus, 402, etc.
^ Ita iam quasi canes, baud secus circumstabant navem turbine venti,
Imbres, fluctus, atque procellae infensae (fremere) frangere malum,
Ruere antennas, scindere vela, ni pax propitia foret praesto. —
Tiinum. 835-7.
* i^g. Rudens, 906; Trinum. Sao.
VI.] ROMAN COMEDY. PLAUTUS. 163
Navibus magnis mercaturam faciam : aput reges rex perhibebor.
Post animi causa mihi navem faciam atque imitabor Stratonicum,
Oppida circumvectitabor, nbi nobilitas mea erit clara,
Oppidum magnum conmoenibo : ei ego urbi Gripo indam nomen '.
He shows much greater familiarity with the life of the lower
and middle classes than with that of those above them in
station. He is not always happy in his embodiment of the
character of a gentleman. Nothing, for instance, can be
meaner than the conduct of the second Menaechmus, who is
intended to interest us, in his relations to Erotion. And this
failure is equally conspicuous in another of his favourite
characters, Periplecomenus, the 'lepidus senex' of the Glori-
osus. His indecorous geniality is scarcely compatible with the
respectability, not to say the dignity, of age. We recognise in
his characters and illustrations a vigorous and many-sided
contact with life, but no influence derived from association
with members of the governing class. In this respect he stood
in marked contrast to Ennius and Terence, and probably to
Caecilius. The two latter, being freedmen, were naturally
brought into closer association with, and dependence on, their
social superiors. Plautus writes in the spirit of an ' ingenuus,'
in good-humoured sympathy with the mass of the citizens, and
with no feeling of bitterness towards the aristocracy, or indeed
to any human being whatsoever. He is at home with all kinds
of men, except the highest in rank. He takes a good-natured
ironical delight in his slaves, courtesans, parasites, and syco-
phants. He is not shocked by anything they can do or say.
He feels the enjoyment of a man of strong animal spirits
in laughing at and with them. Even the 'leno,' the least
estimable character in the repertory of ancient comedy, he
treats rather as a butt than as an object of detestation. He
does not by a single phrase show any sign of having been
soured or depressed by the misfortunes and vicissitudes of his
> ' I shall trade in big ships : at the courts of princes I shall be styled
a prince. Afterwards for my amusement I shall build a ship and imitate
Stratonicus ; I shall visit towns in my voyages : when I shall have become
famous, I'll build a big town, and call it Gripus.'— Rudens, 931-5.
M 2
164 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
life. We feel, in his dialogues, the presence of irrepressible
animal spirits, and a sense of boundless resource and lively
intelligence in his characters, especially in his slaves. From
no scrape does it seem hopeless for them to find some means
of extrication. Like them, he himself has the buoyancy of one,
'fortunae immersabilis undis.'
From the zest with which he writes of them, we might
infer that he had a keen personal enjoyment in eating and
drinking, and in the coarser forms of conviviality. His favourite
dishes, —
Pernam callum glandium sumen, etc'
find no place in the more fastidious gastronomy of our own
times, but they were capable of giving great satisfaction to
the larger and robuster appetites of the ancient Italians, —
of a people who had been, till the sudden influx of luxury
in his own time, described as 'barbarous porridge-eaters-.'
Horace has criticised the extravagant gusto with which he
makes his parasites dilate on their peculiar pleasures^; and
the important part which the preparation for the ' prandium '
or the 'cena' plays in several of his dramas is perhaps
significant of the attention which he himself bestowed on
them in the days of his prosperity. The early revels of
Philolaches and Callidamates in the Mostellaria, the man-
ner in which Pseudolus celebrates his triumph over Ballio ^
and Sagarinus and Stichus the return of their masters from
abroad ^ the tastes which the poet attributes to the old women
in his pieces, as to Staphyla in the Aulularia, — show that
the Romans had not learned, in his time, the more cultivated
enjoyment of wine, which they brought to perfection in the
days of Horace. The experience to which Plautus bears
^ Pseud. 166.
' Non enim haec pultifagus opufex opera fecit barbarns.—
Mostel. Si,:;.
" Quantus sit Dossennus edacibus in parasitis.
* Pseud. 1229, etc. * Stichus, 682, etc.
VI.] ROMAN COMEDY. PLAUTUS. 165
witness, like that attributed to his contemporaries in the
lines
Ennius ipse pater numquam nisi potus ad arma
Prosiluit dicenda,
and
Narratnr et prisci Catonis
Saepe inero caluisse virtus,
is indicative rather of the convivial ' abandon ' of men of
vigorous constitutions, than of the more deliberate and
fastidious epicureanism of the poets of a later age.
Another criticism of Horace upon Plautus —
Gestit enim nummum in ioculos demittere —
may very probably be true, and is by no means to his
discredit. The same charge has been brought against some
of the most facile and productive creators in modern times,
such as Scott, Dickens, and Balzac, and, to a certain extent,
even Shakspeare. To the poets of Nature, or of the higher
thought and emotions of men, the pure enjoyment of their
art may afford sufficient happiness. In so far as they are
true to their higher genius, they are, or ought to be, more
independent than any other class of men of the pleasures
which money can give. But artists whose power consists
in vividly realising and representing the various activities,
passions, and enjoyments of life, may feel, in their own
experience, some of the craving and of the satisfaction which
they are called on to describe. Nor is it unnatural that they
should take any legitimate means of securing for themselves
some share in the objects of desire, which are the moving
forces of their imaginary world. In the large place which the
details of good living fill in his plays, Plautus exaggerates
a tendency which is discernible in the more decorous fictions
of Scott and Dickens. In the important part which he assigns
to money in many of his dramas, in his business-like mention
of specific sums, in the frequency of his illustrations from the
practice of keeping accounts, he shows a resemblance to Balzac.
The experience of his life must have impressed upon him the
l66 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
value of money. The fact that he saved enough in his early
employment in connexion with the stage to embark on mer-
cantile speculations is a proof of early thrift and prudence and
of a wish to raise himself in the world. In all this he was
merely exhibiting one of the most common characteristics of
the middle class among his countrymen.
Horace adds the further criticism, that so long as he could
make money he was indifferent to the artistic merits of his
pieces,—
Securus cadat an recto stet fabula talo; —
and this criticism is to a great extent true. His object was to
give the largest amount of immediate amusement \ He was
not a careful artist like Terence, studying either finish of style,
perfect consistency in the development of his characters,
or the working out of his plots to a harmonious conclusion.
It was owing to the irrepressible vitality and strong human
nature which he could not help imparting to his careless
execution, that his plays have survived many more elaborate
compositions. Yet he shows a rude kind of conscious-
ness of his art in such passages as that in which he makes
Pseudolus compare himself to the poet who creates out of
nothing —
Set quasi poeta, tabulas quom cepit sibi,
Quaerit quod nusquamst gentium, reperit tamen-;
and he speaks of the pleasure which he took in his play
' Epidicus '•*.' Cicero also testifies to the joy which he derived
from two of the works of his old age, the Pseudolus and
the Truculentus ■*. But his delight was that of a vigorous
creator, not of a painstaking artist.
Many allusions in his plays attest his acquaintance with
works of art, with the stories of Greek mythology or the
subjects of Greek tragedies, and with the names, at least,
^ Cf. Pseud. 720 : —
Horum causa liacc agitur spectatorum fabula,
Hi sciunt qui hie adfuerunt ; vobis post narravero,
* Pseud. 401-2. 3 Bacchid. 214. ■* De Senec. 14.
VI.] ROMAN COMEDY. PLAUTUS. 167
of Greek philosophers. His extraordinary productiveness in
adapting works from the new comedy shows that he had
a complete command of the Greek language. He not only
uses Greek phrases, but has endeavoured to enrich the native
vocabulary with a considerable number of Greek words in
a Latin form \ Yet the knowledge he betrays is that which
a man of versatile intelligence, lively curiosity, and retentive
memory, would pick up in his varied intercourse with his
contemporaries, without any special study of books, except
such as were needed for his immediate purpose. The more
recondite learning of Ennius was probably as strange to him
as that of Ben Jonson was to Shakspeare.
The great movement of his age acted on the mind of
Plautus in a manner different from that in which it affected
Ennius. To the younger poet the triumphant close of the
Second Punic War brought the sense of a mighty future
awaiting the Roman Republic. He appealed to the higher
national aspirations stirring the hearts of the governing class.
Plautus felt the strong rebound of spirits from a long-continued
state of tension, from a time of anxiety and self-sacrifice,
in a less noble manner. He appealed to the craving which
the mass of the citizens felt for a more unrestrained enjoyment
of the pleasures of life. In the spirit which moved him
we seem to recognise the same kind of impulse which prompted
the repeal of the Oppian law, and which led to the great
increase of public amusements of every kind. The newly-
acquired peace and ease awoke in him a sense of the immense
capacities of the individual for enjoyment. In a passage
of one of his later plays he seems to claim this indulgence
as the natural concomitant of victory : —
Postremo in magno populo, in multis hominibus,
Re placida atque otiosa, victis hostibus,
Arnare oportet omnes, qui quod dent habent^.
' E. g. giaphicus, doulice, euscheme, morus, logos, techinae, prothyme,
basilicus, etc., etc.
^ Truculentus, 55-57. Weise condemns the passage as spurious. IJut
l68 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Cii.
With this new sense of freedom and of fullness of life, the
old restraints of religion and of the morality bound up with it
were relaxed. The commons began to exercise less and
less influence in the state. Their political indifference finds
an echo in the slighting allusions which Plautus makes to
the duties of public life^ The increased contact with the
mind and life of the Greeks powerfully stimulated intellectual
curiosity, but at the same time was a great solvent of faith,
manners, and morals. The frequent use of the words con-
graecari, pergraecari, etc., in Plautus, shows that while the
highest Roman minds were learning new lessons of wisdom
and humanity from the great Greek writers of the past, the
ordinary Roman was learning lessons of idleness and dis-
soluteness from the living Greeks of the time. The armies
which returned from the Macedonian wars, and still more from
that with Antiochus, brought with them new fashions and new
appliances of luxury. Plautus shows a large indulgence, not
unmixed with a vein of saturnine humour, for these new ways
on which both young and old were eagerly entering. We see
in him the unchecked exuberance of animal life, but no
sign of the recklessness or the satiety of exhausted passions.
Though there is more decorum, more refined sentiment,
in the life of pleasure as presented by Terence, there is
more often in Plautus an expression of a struggle between the
new temptations and the old Roman ideas of thrift, active
duty, and self-restraint. The conscience, though easily lulled
whether written by Plautus or not it is in the spirit of the Plautine comedy.
In a passage of the Poenulus (Act iii. i. 21) another reference is made to the
sense of security enjoyed since their victory : —
Praesertim in re populi placida, atque interfectis hostibus,
Non decet tumultuari.
' Cp. the remark of the parasite in the Persa, 75, 76: —
Set sumne ego stultus, qui rem euro publicam,
Ubi sint magistratus, quos curare oporteat ?
and that of the parasite in the Captivi, ' that only those who were unable to
])rocure invitations to luncheon should be expected to attend public meetings
and elections' ; and such jokes as ' Plebiscitum non est scitius.'
VI.] ROMAN COMEDY. PLAUTUS. 169
to sleep, is still capable of feeling the sting of the thought
contained in the Lucretian line —
Desidiose agere aetatem lustrisque perire.
Turning now to the particular plays we find that they all
belong to the class of paUiatae. They are adaptations or com-
binations from the works of Menander, Diphilus, Philemon,
and other writers of the new comedy. The action represented
is generally supposed to take place in Athens, sometimes
in other Greek towns, in Epidanmus, Ephesus, Cyrene, etc.
The plays of Plautus, unlike those of Terence and most
of those of Caecilius, have generally Latin titles, but nearly
all his personages have Greek names. One or two of his
parasites (Peniculus, Saturio, Curculio) are exceptions to
this rule : but the absence of all gentile designations among
his richer personages would alone prove that he had no
intention of presenting to his audience the outward conditions
of Roman or Italian life. The social circumstances implied in
all his plays are those of well-to-do citizens engaged in foreign
commerce, or retired from business after having made their
fortunes. The only differences in station among his person-
ages are those of rich and poor, free and slave. There is
no recognition of those great distinctions of birth, privilege,
and political status, which were so pervading a characteristic
of Roman life. Old men are indeed spoken of as ' senati
columen ' ; and it is made a ground of reproach to a young
man that he is not already a candidate for public ofifice, or
making a name for himself by defending cases in the law-
courts. But such passages are probably to be classed among
the frequent Roman allusions to be found in Plautus, which
had no equivalent in his original. The new comedy of
Menander was based on the philosophy of Epicurus, which
taught the lesson of abstention from all public duties \ The
life of the young men is almost entirely a life of pleasure,
' The Comedy of Terence, which represents that of Menander, is com-
pletely non- political.
I70 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
varied perhaps by some participation in their fathers' foreign
business, or occasional service in the army. But the dislike
of a military life among the ' easy livers ' of Athens in the
beginning of the third century B.C. is shown as much by the
indifference of these young men to their honour as soldiers \
as by the ridicule which is heaped upon the 'Captain Bobadils'
who served as mercenaries in the military monarchies of the
successors of Alexander. Even a slave regards enlisting as a
soldier as the last refuge of a ruined man. The other characters
are of Greek origin, though some of them became naturalised
in Rome. The ordinary Roman client on the one hand — such
as the Volteius Mena of Horace, — and the scurra of Roman
satire on the other (Volanerius or Maenius), had a certain
likeness to the Greek parasite ; though the position of the
first was more respectable ^ and the last was a more formidable
element in society than a Gelasimus or an Artotrogus. The
' fallax servus ' of comedy, though a wonderful conception of a
humorous imagination, is a character hardly compatible with
any social conditions ; but it is undoubtedly an exaggeration
of Greek mendacity and intelligence, the very antithesis of
Italian rusticity. The commanding part they play in the
affairs of their masters seems like a grotesque anticipation
of the part played under the empire by Greek freedmen, —
Viscera magnarum domuum dominique fnturi.
The ' meretrix blanda ' of Menander was probably more
refined, but not essentially different from the 'libertina' of
Rome. Among the rare glimpses into social life which Livy
affords behind the stately but somewhat monotonous pageant
^ Cf. Epidicus, 30, etc., and Captivi, 262.
^ The advocati in the Poennlus, who are evidently clients, show a certain
spirit of independence. Cf. Act iii. 6. 13 : —
Et tu vale.
Tniuriam illic insignite postulat :
Nostro sibi servire nos censet cibo.
Verum ita sunt omnes isti nostri divites :
Si quid bene facias, levior pluma est gratia;
Si quid peccatuni est, plumbeas iras gerunt.
VI.] ROMAN COMEDY. PLAUTUS. I? I
of consuls and imperators, armies in the field, senators in
council, and political assemblies of the people, none is more
interesting than that given in the inquiries into the horrors of
the Bacchanalia at Rome \ The relations between P. Aebu-
tius and the freedwoman Hispala Fecenia bring to mind those
existing between the Philematiums, the Phileniums, or Plane-
siums of comedy and their lovers. The ' leno insidiosus ' and
the 'improba lena' are probably much the same in all times
and countries ; but there is a vigorous brutality and inhuman
hardness about Ballio and Cleaereta which seem more true to
Roman than to Greek life. The kind of life which comedy
represents must have had great attractions for a race of
vigorous organisation like the Romans, after continued suc-
cess and prosperity had broken down the old restraints on
conduct and desire, and the accumulated wealth of the world
had become the prize of their energy. Yet their inherited
instincts for industry and frugality must have made it diffi-
cult for them to realise gracefully the hollow life of light-
hearted enjoyment which came easily to a Greek in the
third century B.C. The average Roman learned to exag-
gerate the profligacy without acquiring the refinement of his
teachers.
It might perhaps have been expected that a writer of such
prodigal invention and so popular and national a fibre as
Plautus would have chosen rather to set before his countrymen
a humorous image of themselves, than to transport them
in imagination to Athens and to exhibit to them those well-
used conventional types of Greek life and manners. But,
in the first place, the mere fact that it was more easy for him
to adapt than to create would have been a sufficient motive to
so careless and unconscious an artist. Again, the state-
censorship exercised by the magistrates who exhibited the
games would naturally deter a poet, who did not wish to
encounter the fate of Naevius, from any direct dealing with
* Livy, xxxix. 9, etc.
172 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
the delicate subject of Roman social and family life. The
later writers of the fabulae togatae seem for the most part
to have reproduced the life and personages of the provincial
towns in Italy. The position not only of the magistrate
but even of the citizen at Rome was invested with a kind
of dignity and even sanctity, which it would have been
dangerous to violate in a public spectacle. Further, the very
novelty and unfamiliarity of the ways of Greek life would
be more stimulating to the rude imagination of that age than
a reproduction of the everyday life of Rome. It requires
a more cultivated fancy to recognise incidents, situations and
characters suited for art in actual experience, than to appreciate
the conventional types of older dramatists. It is a noticeable
fact that Shakspeare places the scene of only one of his
comedies in England, and that he too introduces the English
names and characteristics of Bottom, Snug, Peter Quince, etc.,
as Plautus does those of Saturio or Curculio into an imaginary
representation of Athenian life. But whatever were his
motives for doing so, Plautus professes to introduce his hearers
to a representation of Greek manners and morals. His
frequent use of the word barbarus in reference to Italian
or Roman ways, his use of Latinised Greek words and actual
Greek phrases, the Greek names of his personages, the dress
in which they appeared, the invariable reference to Greek
money, perhaps the actual scene presented to the eye, the
frequent mention of ships unexpectedly arriving in harbour,
the names of the foreign towns visited, etc., would all tend to
remind the audience that they were listening to an action and
witnessing a spectacle of Greek life.
But while the outward conditions of his dramas are pro-
fessedly taken from Greek originals, much of the manner and
spirit of his personages is certainly Roman. The language in
which they express themselves in the first place is thoroughly
their own. This is shown by the large number of his puns and
plays on words. These by their spontaneity, sometimes by
their grotesqueness, sometimes by a Latin play on a Greek
VI.] ROMAN COMEDY. PLAUTUS. 1 73
word — such as Archidemides ^ or Epidamnus, — show their
native origin. No writer, again, abounds so much in allitera-
tions, assonances, asyndeta^, which are characteristic of all
early Roman poetry down even to Lucretius, and which have
no parallel in the more refined and natural diction of the
Greek dramatists. Further, we constantly meet with Roman
formulae ^ Roman proverbs*, expressions of courtesy'', and
the like. The very fluency, copiousness, and verve of his
language are impossible to a translator, at least in the early
stages of a literature. Nothing can be more spontaneous and
natural than the dialogue in Plautus. There is, on the other
hand, considerable appearance of effort in the reflective
passages of the ' cantica ' ; and this is exactly what we
should expect in a Roman writer of originality. Reflexion
on life was altogether strange to a Roman in the age of
Plautus; to a Greek it was easy and hackneyed. In the
prolixity and slow beating out of the thought in some of the
^ Quom mi ipsum nomen eius Archidemides
Clamaret dempturum esse si quid crederem. — Baccbid. 285.
Propterea huic urbi nomen Epidamno inditumst
Qnia nemo ferme sine damno hue devortitur. — Menaech. 264.
Cf. also the play on Chrysalus and Crucisalus; and the following may serve
as a specimen of his perpetual puns : —
Non enim es in senticeto, eo non sentis. — Captivi, 857.
* Alliterations and assonances : — Vi veneris vinctus. Cottabi crebri
crepent, Laetus, lubens, laudes ago. Collus coUari caret.
Atque mores hominum moros et morosos efficit, etc., etc.
Asyndeta : —
Laudem, lucrum, ludum, iocum, festivitatem, ferias.
Vorsa, sparsa, tersa, strata, lauta, structaque omnia at sint, etc., etc.
These are not occasional, but constantly recurring characteristics of his
style. The thought and matter they express must, in a great measure, be
due to his own invention.
' Roman formulae :— Quae res bene vortat. Conceptis verbis. Quod
bonum, felix, faustum, fortunatumque sit. Ut gesserit rempublicam ductu,
imperio, auspicio suo, etc., etc.
* Proverbs:— Sarta tecta. Sine sacris haereditas. Inter saxum et
eacra. Vae victis. Ad incitas redactust, etc., etc.
^ Expressions of courtesy :—Tam gratiast. Benigne. Num quid vis?
etc.
174 T-i/^ ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
' cantica ' we note the beginning of a process unfamiliar to the
Roman mind, for which the forms of the Latin language were
not yet adapted. The facility of expressing reflexion appears
much more developed in Terence. If Plautus were repro-
ducing a Greek original in such passages as Mostell. 85-145,
Trinummus 186-273, the thought and the illustration would
have lost much in freshness and naivete but they would have
been expressed with much more point and conciseness.
But it is not only in his language and manner that Plautus
shows his independence of his originals. The poems taken
from Greek life are in a large measure filled up with matter
taken from the life around him. The Greek personages of his
play, without apparently any sense of artistic incongruity, speak
as Romans would do of the places familiar to Romans — towns
in Italy \ streets, markets, gates, in Rome^; of Roman magis-
trates and other officials. Quaestors, Aediles^ Praetors, Tresviri,
Publicani ; they allude to the public business of the senate,
comitia, and law-courts, — to colonies^, praefecturae, and the
provincia of a magistrate, — to public games in honour of the
dead, — to the distinctive dress worn by matrons,— to the forms
of bargaining and purchasing, of summoning an antagonist into
court, of pleading a case at law, — to the times of vacation from
business *, — to the emancipation of slaves, — peculiar to the
Romans. The special characteristics of Roman religion ap-
pear in the number of abstract deities referred to, such as
Salus, Opportunitas, Libentia, etc. A new divinity is invented
in the interests of lovers, under the name of Suavisuaviatio ^
Other better-known objects of Roman worship, such as Jupiter
* E. g. Pistoria, Placentia, Praeneste, Sutrium, Sarsina, etc.
- E.g. Vicus Tusciis, Velabrum, Macellum, Porta Trigemina, Porta
Metia; and compare the long passage in the Ciirculio (462), which directly
refers to Rome.
^ Quid ego cesso Pseudolum
Facere ut det nomen ad Molas coloniam. — Pseud. 1082.
* Mancupio dare, stipulatio, antestatio, sponsio, ubi res prolatae
sunt.'
* Bacchid. 120.
VI.] ROMAN COMEDY. PLAUTUS. 1 75
Capitolinus, Laverna, the Lar Familiaris, are also introduced.
We find also references to recent events in Roman history —
such as the subjugation of the BoiiS the treatment inflicted on
the Campanians after the Second Punic War, the importation
of Syrian slaves after the war with Antiochus-, the introduction
of foreign luxuries at the same time •', the extreme frequency
with which triumphs were granted in the first twenty years of
the second century B.C.* Allusion is made to particular
Roman laws, such as the lex alearia^ probably passed about
this time to resist the progress of Greek demoralisation. The
state of feeling aroused, on both sides, by the repeal of the
Oppian law, and the state of society which led to the original
enactment of that law, are reflected in many passages of the
plays of Plautus. A remark of one of the better class of
matrons —
Non matronarum officium est, sed meretiicium,
Viris alienis, mi vir, subblandirier '' —
may serve as a comment on the arguments with which Cato
opposed the repeal of the law : ' Qui hie mos est in publicum
procurrendi, et obsidendi vias, et viros alienos appellandi ? . . .
An blandiores in publico quam in privato, et alienis quam
vestris estis'^?' The imperiousness of a 'dotata uxor,' and
the spirit of rebellion thereby aroused in the mind of her
husband, are themes treated with grim humour in many of the
dramas. The stale jokes against the happiness of married life
were as applicable to Greek as to Roman life ; and Greek
husbands may have stood in as much dread of their wives'
extravagance in dress, and in as great awe of their surveillance,
as were experienced by the elderly husbands of Latin comedy.
' Captivi, SS8. ^ Trinummus, 545-6.
^ Non omnes possunt olere unguenta exotica. — Mostell. 42.
*■ Cf. Bacch. 1072 : —
Set, spectatores, vos nunc ne miremini
Quod non triumpho : pervolgatumst, nil moror.
Verum tamen accipientur mulso milites.
^ Mil. Glor. 164, 6. Cf. Hor. Od. iii. 24. 58 : Seu malis vetita legibus
alea. ^ Casina, iii. 3. 22. '' Livy, xxiv. 2.
176 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
But the fact that similar criticisms appear in the satirical and
oratorical fragments of the second century B.C. indicates that
such jokes, whether or not originally due to the Greek writer,
came equally home to a Roman audience.
Again, the great fertility of Plautus and his many-sided
contact with life are apparent in the number and variety of
his metaphors and illustrations from, and other references to,
many varieties of human occupation. These have, for the
most part, both a national and a popular origin. The number
of those taken from military operations, and from legal and
business transactions, is a clear indication that they were of
fresh Roman coinage. There is no character which a slave,
who has to conduct some intrigue to a successful issue, is so
fond of assuming as that of the general of an army. In one
passage one of his confederates addresses him as ' Imperator.'
He takes the auspices, he brings his engines to bear on the
citadel of the enemy, he brings up his supports, he lays his
ambush and avoids that laid for him, he leads his army round
by some unknown pass, cuts off the enemy's communications,
keeps open his own, invests and takes the hostile position, and
divides the booty among his allies. The following passage for
instance is freshly coloured with all the recent experience of the
Hannibalian war : —
Viden hostis tibi adesse, tuoque tergo obsidium I Consule,
Arripe opem auxiliumque ad banc rem, propere hoc non placide decet.
Anteveni aliqua aut aliquo saltu circumduce exercitum,
Coge in obsidium perduellis, nostris praesidium para.
Interclnde conmeatum inimicis, tibi moeni viam,
Qua cibatus conmeatusque ad te et legionis tuas
Tuto possit pervenire. Hanc rem age : res subitariast ^.
' ' Do you see that the enemy is close upon you, and that your back will
soon be invested ? Quick ! seize some help and succour : it must be done
speedily, not quietly. Get before them somehow ; lead round your
forces by some pass or other. Invest the enemy ; bring relief to our own
troops ; cut off the enemy's sup])lies ; make a road for yourself, by which
])rovisions or sujiplies may reach yourself or your legions safely : give your
whole heart to the business — it is a sudden emergency.'— Mil. Glor. 219-
22;..
VL] ROMAN COMEDY. PLAUTUS. 1 77
The illustrations from the practice of keeping accounts, from
banking and business operations, and the references to law
forms, such as the mode of pleading a case by sponsio \ would
come home to the experience and habits which were fostered
more in Rome than in any other ancient community^. Though
the Romans never were a mercantile community, like the
Carthaginians or the Greek States in their later days, yet from
the earliest times they understood the uses of the accumulation
and skilful application of capital. Another large class of
metaphors, generally expressive of some form of roguery, and
taken from the trade of various artisans — such as the smith,
carpenter, butcher, weaver, etc. ^—speaks to the popular as
well as the national characteristics of his dramas. If these
metaphorical phrases had been mere translations, they would,
as thus applied, have had no meaning to a Roman audience.
They must have been more or less of slang phrases, formed by
and for the people, and suggested by an intimate familiarity
with many varieties of trickery and swindling on the one hand,
and with the skill and trade of various classes of artisans on
the other.
The exuberant use of terms of endearment and of abuse in
Plautus may be also mentioned as an original and Roman
This is the ' patriotic passage ' which Mr. West discusses in the paper
previously referred to. He holds that 'The passage, keeping steadily within
the limits so rigidly imposed by Roman Stage-censorship, is written from
the stand-point of sympathy with the plebs in favour of .Scipio's assuming
command against Hannibal, and reflects very brightly and completely those
features of the Second Punic War which were prominent and recent in
205 B.C.'
The end of many of the prologues also shows that they were addressed to
a people constantly engaged in war.
* Menaech. 590.
- Cf. such expressions and lines as : — Salva sumes indidem (Mil. Glor.
234); locare argentum ; fenerato.
Mihi quod credideris, sumes ubi posiueris. — Trinum. 145.
Nequaquam argenti ratio comparet tamen. — lb. 418.
Beneigitur ratio accepti atqueexpensi inter nos convenit. — Mostel. 292.
^ For a list of these cp. the edition of the Mostellaria by the late Professor
Ramsay.
N
178 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
characteristic of his genius. His lovers' phrases S though used
by him with a saturnine humour, remind us of the passionate
use of similar phrases in Catullus. The slave or cook of Greek
comedy may probably have indulged freely in the vituperation
of his fellows ; but there is an idiomatic heartiness in the inter-
change of curses and verbal sword-thrusts among the slaves,
panders, and cooks of Plautus, which seems congenial to the
race who enjoyed the spectacles of the amphitheatre. The
inexhaustible fund of merriment supplied by references to or
practical exemplifications of the various modes of punishing
and torturing slaves, tells of a people not especially cruel, but
practically callous either to the infliction or the suffering of
pain. The Greek nature was, when roused to passion, capable
of fiercer and more cowardly cruelty than the Roman, but was
too sensitively organised to enjoy the spectacle or the imagina-
tion of inflictions which form the subject of the stalest jokes in
Plautus. The spirit of the new comedy as it existed in Greece,
was not, on the whole, calculated to elevate, but it certainly
was capable of humanising the Roman character.
We are less able to speak of his originality in the selection
of incidents and dramatic situations, in the general manage-
ment of his plots, and his conception of characters. Though
more varied than Terence in the subjects which he chooses
for dramatic treatment, yet there is great sameness, both of
incident, development, and character, in many of them. His
favourite subject is a scheme by which a slave, in the interests
of his young master, and his mistress, cheats a father, a
mercenary captain, or a 'leno,' who are treated, though in
different degrees, as enemies of the human race and legitimate
objects of spoliation. Some of the best of his plays,— the
Pseudolus, Bacchides, the Mostellaria, and the Miles Glori-
osus^ — turn entirely upon incidents of this kind — ' frustrationes
in comoediis ' as they are called. There is nothing on which
the chief agent in such plots prides himself so much as on his
success 'in shearing,' 'planing away,' or 'wiping the nose' of,
' E.g. Mellitns, ocelle, inea anima, medullitus amare.
VI.] ROMAN COMEDY. PLAUTUS. 1 79
his antagonist in the game : there is no indignity about which
the sense of honour is so sensitive as that of having had 'words
pahned off upon one,' and having thus been made an object
of ridicule. The invariable enlisting of sympathy in favour of
the cheat and against the dupe is a trait more illustrative of the
countrymen of Ulysses than of Fabricius : but the ' Tusci turba
impia vici ' at Rome had, no doubt, their own native aptitude
for cheating and lying.
The ' Pseudolus ' is perhaps the best and the most typical
specimen of a play the interest of which turns on this kind of
intrigue. In it the plot is skilfully worked out, the characters
are conceived with the greatest liveliness, and admirably
sustained and contrasted, and the incidents and motives
on which the personages act are never strained beyond the
limits of probability. A more fastidious age might have
objected to the celebration by Pseudolus of his triumph,
as a grotesque excrescence : but it serves to bring out the
sensual geniality underlying the audacity and roguery of his
character, in contrast to the sensual brutality underlying the
audacity and villainy of Ballio. When we consider the
vigorous life and even the art with which the whole piece is
worked out, we understand why Plautus, with good reason,
took, in his old age, especial pleasure in this play. There is
not much to offend a robust morality in the piece ; for though
the result accomplished cannot be called the triumph of
virtue over vice, it is at least the triumph of a more amiable
over a more detestable form of depravity.
In the ' Bacchides ' the slave Chrysalus plays a part similar
to that of Pseudolus, with perhaps more subtlety but less
vigour and liveliness. The mode in which both the 'pater
attentus ' and the ' senex lepidus ' of the piece (Nicobulus
and Philoxenus) succumb to the blandishments of the two
sisters, and in the end become the rivals of their sons, is still
less edifying than the winding up of the Pseudolus : but the
denouement is brought about not unskilfully or extravagantly.
It is difficult to say whether Plautus, like the author of Gil
N 2
l8o THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
Bias, felt a moral indifference to the characters he brought
on the stage, so long as he could make them amusing ;
or whether, like Balzac, but with more humour and less
cynicism, he had a peculiar delight in following human
corruption into its last retreats. The moral with which the
piece winds up —
Hi senes nisi fuissent nihil! iam inde ab adulescentia,
Non hodie hoc tantum fiagitium facerent canis capitibus,
implies that he recognised the difference between right and
wrong, or at least between good and bad taste in such matters,
but that he did not, perhaps, attach much importance to
it. The ' Asinaria,' which also turns on a scheme by which
a slave defrauds his mistress in behalf of his young master,
winds up with a scene in which a father is enjoying himself
as the rival of his complaisant son, till he is summoned
away by the apparition of his wife, and the wrathful and
scornful reiteration of ' Surge, amator, i domum.' The
moral expressed there by the 'Caterva' imphes less
sympathy with outraged virtue than with the disappointed
delinquent —
Hie senex siquid clam uxorem suo animo fecit volup'
Neque novom neqiie minim fecit nee secus quam alii solent.
There are two or three other plays in which a father appears
as the rival of his son. None of the characters in Plautus,
not even Ballio, or Labrax, or Cleaereta, — the worst of his
'lenones'and 'lenae,'— excite more unmitigated disgust than
Stalino in the ' Casina.'
The 'Miles Gloriosus' and the ' Mostellaria ' are much less
objectionable in point of morality, or at least good taste, than
either the ' Bacchides ' or the ' Asinaria.' They are among
the most popular of the plays of Plautus. There is a great
variety of humorous situations in the ' Miles ' : and, although
the principal character transcends all natural limits in his self-
glorification, his stupid insensibility, and his pusillanimity, the
intrigue is carried out with the greatest vivacity by Palaestrio
VI.] ROMAN COMEDY. PLAUTUS. l8l
and his army of accomplices ; and the humour with which the
fidelity and veracity of the slave Sceledrus are played upon
almost merges into pathos in the despairing tenacity with
which he cannot bring himself to disbelieve the evidence of
his eyes —
Noli minitari : scio crucem futnram mihi sepulchrum :
Ibi mei sunt maiores siti, pater, avos, proavos, abavos.
Non possunt tuis minaciis hisce oculi mi ecfodiri^.
Tranio in the ' Mostellaria ' is, in readiness of resource and
resolute mendacity, a not unworthy member of the fraternity
to which Pseudolus, Chrysalus, and Palaestrio belong. He is,
besides, something of a fop and a fine gentleman, and all his
relations with his young and old master, with Simo and the
Banker, are conducted with perfect urbanity. Yet the ' Mos-
tellaria ' is certainly one of those plays to which the criticism
of Horace —
Securus cadat an recto stet fabula talo, —
is peculiarly applicable. No less suitable ' Deus ex machina '
than the crapulous Callidamates can well be imagined for the
purpose of reconciling a justly incensed father and master of a
household to the profligate extravagance of his son, and the
audacious mystification of his slave.
Several other plays turn upon similar ' frustrationes.' Two
of the best of these are the ' Curculio ' and the ' Epidicus.'
Though there are lively and humorous scenes in nearly all
his plays, and the language is generally sparkling and vigorous,
yet the sameness of situation and character, and the unre-
lieved tone of light-hearted merriment and mendacity with
which this class of play is pervaded soon pall upon the taste.
A few, the ' Cistellaria ' and the ' Poenulus,' for instance, turn
upon the incident of a free-born child being stolen in infancy,
and recognised by her parents before she has fatally committed
^ 'Don't threaten me; I know that the cross will be my tomb : there lie
my ancestors, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, great-great-grand-
father : but your threats can't dig these eyes out of my head.' — Mil. Glor.
372-5-
t82 the ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
herself to the occupation for which she has been destined.
But these are not among the best executed of the Plautine
plays. In the ' Stichus ' we enjoy the unwonted satisfaction
of making acquaintance with two wives who really care for
their husbands : and the parasite Gelasimus in that play is
as amusing as the characters of the same kind in the Captivi,
Curculio, Menaechmi, Persa, etc. But the absence of in-
cident, coherent plot, and adequate denouement, must
prevent this play from being ranked among the more im-
portant compositions of Plautus. A few however still re-
main to be noticed as among the most serious or the most
imaginative efforts of his genius. The ' Aulularia,' ' Tri-
nummus,' 'Menaechmi,' ' Rudens,' 'Captivi,' and 'Am-
phitryo,' are much more varied in their interest than most
of those already mentioned, and each of them has its own
characteristic excellence.
The interest of the ' Aulularia ' turns entirely on the
character of Euclio. Whether or not this embodiment
of the miser owes much to the original creation of Plautus,
it is certainly realised by him with the greatest truth and
vivacity. The whole conception is thoroughly human and
original ; and though nothing can be more complete than
the hypochondriacal possession which his one idea has
over his imagination, the character is not presented in an
odious or despicable light. In this respect it differs from
the frequent presentment of the miserly character in Roman
satire, and in most modern works of fiction. Perhaps, except
Silas Marner and Pere Goriot, there is no other case of a
miser being conceived with any human-hearted sympathy.
His exaggerated sense of the value of the smallest sum of
money is like a hallucination, arising out of the unexpected
discovery of a great treasure after a life of poverty has made
pinching and sparing a second nature to him. But this
hallucination has left him shrewdness, honesty, pluck, a
certain dignity, shown in liis relation to Megadorus, and
abundance of a grim humour ; and it seems to have cleared
VI.] ROMAN COMEDY. PLAUTUS. 183
away, in the denouement of the piece, under the influence of
fatherly affection \ There are none of the baser or more
brutal characters of the Plautine comedies introduced into this
l)lay. Eunomia is a rare specimen of a virtuous woman ;
Megadorus of a worthy and kindly old man, with a didactic
tendency which makes him a little wearisome; the 'young
lover' shows an honourable loyalty in the reparation of his
fault. Though none of these subsidiary characters are con-
ceived with anything like the force and vivacity of Euclio,
yet after reading the humours of ancient life, as exhibited
in the 'Asinaria,' 'Casina,' and ' Truculentus,' we feel a sense
of relief in finding ourselves in such respectable company.
The genius with which the chief character of the play is con-
ceived and executed is sufficiently attested by the fact that
it served as a model to the greatest of purely comic dramatists
of modern times.
The 'Trinummus,' if less amusing than most of the other
plays of Plautus, is one of the most unexceptionable in moral
tendency ; and one at least of the personages in it, Philto, in
his union of shrewd sense and old-fashioned severity with a
sarcastic humour and real humanity of nature is quite a new
type, distinguishable from the hard fathers, the disreputably
genial old men, and the mere worthy citizens, who are among
the stock characters of the Plautine comedy. There is no
play in which the struggle between the stricter morals of an
older time and the new temptations is more clearly exhibited :
and though vice is finally condoned, or at least visited only
with the mild penalty of an unsolicited marriage, the sym-
pathies of the audience are entirely enlisted on the side of
virtue. Lesbonicus is a prodigal of the type of Charles
Surface, whose folly and extravagance are redeemed by good
feeling and a latent sense of honour : and if it is not easy
to acquit Lysiteles of a too conscious virtue, one must re-
' The conclusion of the Aulularia is lost, bnt the play seems to have
ended with the old man's consigning his treasure into the hands of his
son-in-law and daughter.
1 84 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
member how difficult it always is for a comic dramatist to
make the character of a thoroughly respectable young man
lively and entertaining. But the whole piece, from the
prologue, which indicates the way which all prodigals go, to
the end, — the good sense, worth of character, and friendly
confidence exhibited in the relations of Megaronides and
Callicles, —the honourable love of Lysiteles for the dowerless
sister of his friend, — the pious humanity and humility of such
sentiments as these in the mouth of Philto —
Di divites sunt, ckos decent opulentiae
Et factiones: verum nos homnnculi
Scintillula animae, quam quom extemplo emisimus,
Aequo mendicus atque ille opulentissimus
Censetur censu ad Acheruntem mortuos', —
the denunciation by Megaronides of the ' School for Scandal,'
which seems to have flourished in Athens as similar institutions
do in our modern cities, — enable us to believe that the citizen
life of the Greek communities, after the loss of their independ-
ence, may not have been so utterly hollow and disreputable
as some of the representations of ancient comedy would lead
us to suppose.
There is much greater originality of plot, incident, and
character, though, at the same time, a much less unex-
ceptionable moral tendency in the ' Menaechmi,' the model
after which Shakspeare's ' Comedy of Errors ' was composed.
The plot turns upon the likeness of twins, who have been
separated from each other from childhood : and granting
this original supposition, — one perfectly conformable to
experience, — the many lively and humorous situations
arising out of their undistinguishable resemblance to one
another, are natural and lifelike. We feel, in the incidents
which Plautus brings before us, none of that sense of
' ■ The Gods only are rich : great wealth and high connexions are for the
Gods ; but we, poor creatures, are but a tiny spark of life, and so soon as
that is gone, the beggar and the richest man, when dead, are rated alike by
the shores of Acheron.' — Trin. 490-4.
VI.] ROMAN COMEDY. PLAUTUS. 185
unreality which the comph'cation of the two Dromios adds
to the ' Comedy of Errors.' The play is enlivened also by
the element of personal adventure, arising out of the ex-
periences of the second Menaechmus in his search for his
brother over all the coasts of the Mediterranean. The two
brothers (whether or not this was intended by the poet)
are like in character, as well as in outward appearance ;
and they are both, in their hardness and knowledge of the
world, in the unscrupulousness with which they gratify their
love of pleasure, and the superiority which they maintain
over their dependents, entirely distinct from the weak and
vacillating 'amantes ephebi ' of most of the other plays.
The character of the 'parasite' is not very different from
that in some of the other plays, except that in his vin-
dictiveness for the loss of his dejeuner, and his love of
mischief-making, he comes nearer to the type of the ' scurra '
than of the faithful client of the house, who is best represented
by the Ergasilus of the ' Captivi.' But in the fashionable
physician who is called in by the wife and father-in-law
of the first Menaechmus, to examine into and prescribe
for his condition, we are introduced to a new type of character
which certainly seems to be drawn from the life. After
reading the scene in which this personage is introduced,
one might be inclined to fancy that, notwithstanding the
advance of medical science, certain characteristics of manner
and procedure had become long ago stereotyped in the
profession.
These three plays show Plautus at his best in regard to
the delineation of character, to moral tendency, to the
conduct of a story by means of humorous incidents and
situations. The three which still remain to be considered
assert his claim to some share of poetic feeling and genius,
and to at least some sympathy with the more elevated
motives and sentiments which dignify human life. The
' Rudens ' is inferior to several of the other plays in purely
dramatic interest ; but it has all the charm and freshness of
l86 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
a sea-idyll. The outward picture imprinted on the imagin-
ation is that of a bright morning after a storm, of which
the effects are still apparent in the unroofing of the villa of
Daemones, in the wild commotion of the sea^, in the
desolation of the two shipwrecked women wandering about
among the lonely rocks where they have been cast ashore,
in the touching complaint of the poor fishermen deprived
by the storm of their chance of earning their daily bread.
The action, which consists in the rescue of innocence from
villainy, and in the recognition of a lost daughter by her
father, entirely enlists both the moral and the humane
sympathies. There is imaginative as well as humorous
originality in the soliloquies of Gripus, and in his alterca-
tion with Trachalio ; and a sense of sardonic satisfaction
is experienced in contemplating the plight of Labrax (a
weaker and meaner ruffian than Ballio) and his confederate
chattering with cold and bewailing the loss of their illgotten
gains. But the peculiar charm of the play, as compared with
any of those which have been already noticed, is the sentiment
of natural piety — not unlike that expressed in the 'rustica
Phidyle,' of Horace^ — by which the drama is pervaded.
This key-note is struck in the prologue uttered by Arcturus,
whose function it is to shine in the sky during the night, and
during the day to wander over the earth, and report to Jove on
the good and evil deeds of men : —
Quist iniperator divom atqiie hominum luppiter,
Is nos per gentis hie alium alia disparat,
Hominum qui facta, mores, pietatem et fidem
Noscamus, ut quemque adiuvet opulentia*.
Non vidisse undas me maiores censeo. — Rudens, 167.
Atque ut nunc valide fluctuat mare, nulla nobis spes est. — Tb. 303.
Cf. Atque hoc scelesti [illi] in animuni inducunt suum
lovem se j^lacare posse donis, hostiis :
Et operam et sumplum perdunt. id eo fit quia
Nihil ei accemptumst a periuris supplici, etc. — 22-5.
9-12.
VI.] ROMAN COMEDY. PLAUTUS. 187
The affinity of piety to mercy is exhibited in the part played
by the priestess of Venus —
Manus mihi date, exurgite a pedibus ambae,
Misericordior nulla mest feminarum ' ;
and the natural trust of innocence and good faith in divine
protection is exemplified by the confidence with which the
shipwrecked women take refuge at the altar of Venus : —
Tibi auscultamus et, Venus alma, ambae te opsecramus
Aram amplexantes banc tuam lacrumantes, genibus nixae,
In custodelam nos tuam ut recipias et tutere, etc.'^
Even the moral sentiment expressed is of a finer quality than
the maxims of rough good sense and probity which we find,
for instance, in the Trinummus. When Gripus tells his master
that he is poor owing to his scrupulous piety —
Isto tu's pauper, quom nimis sancte piu's —
the answer is in a higher strain than that familiar to ancient
comedy : —
O Gripe Gripe, in aetata hominum plurimae
Fiunt transennae, [illi] ubi decipiuntur dolis.
Atque edepol in eas plerumque esca inponitur,
Quam siquis avidus poscit escam avariter,
Decipitur in transenna avaritia sua.
Ille qui consulte, docte atque astute cavet,
Diutine uti ei bene licet partiim bene.
Mi istaec videtur praeda praedatum irier,
Maiore ut cum dote abeat hinc ([uam adveneiit.
Egone ut quod ad me adlatum esse alienum sciain
Celem ? minume istuc faciet noster Daemones.
Semper cavere hoc sapientes aequissumum'st,
Ne conscii sint ipsi maleficii suis.
Ego nisi quom lusim nil morer uUum lucrum ".
1 280, I. ' 694, etc.
3 ' O Gripus, Gripus ! in the life of man are laid many snares, by" which
they are trapped ; and for the most part a bait is laid on them, and whoso
in his greed greedily craves for it, by reason of his greed he is caught in the
trap. But whoso warily, wisely, craftily takes heed, to him it is given long
to enjoy what has been well earned. That prize of yours, I fancy, will be
so made prize of, as to bring a larger dower in going from us than when it
came to us. To fancy that I should be capable of keeping secret possession
1 88 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
The ' Captlvi ' was pronounced by the greatest critic of last
century to be the best constructed drama in existence-
Though probably few will now be found to assign to it so high
a place, yet, if not the best, it certainly is among the very best
plays of Plautus, in respect both of plot and the dramatic
irony of its situations. But it possesses a still higher claim
to our admiration in the presentment of at least one character
of true nobleness. And the originality of the conception is all
the greater from the fact that this heroism is embodied in the
person of one who has been brought up from childhood as
a slave. There are not many of the plays of Plautus calculated
to raise our ideas of human nature ; but the loyal affection
of Tyndarus for his young master, his self-sacrifice, the
buoyancy, courage, and ready resource with which he first
meets his dangers, and the manly fortitude with which he ac-
cepts his doom —
Dum ne ob malefacta, peream : paivi id aestimo.
Si ego hie peribo, ast ille, ut di.\it, non redit,
At erit mi hoc factum mortuo memorabile,
Me meum erum captum ex servitute atque hoslibus
Reducem fecisse liberum in patriam ad pattern,
Meumque potiiis me caput periculo
Hie praeoptavisse quam is periiet ponere ' —
enable us to feel that some of the glory of the older and
nobler Greek tragedy .still lingered in the Athens of
Menander, and has been reproduced by Plautus with imagi-
native sympathy. Yet perhaps even to this play the criticism
of Horace,
Quam non adstricto percurrat pulpita socco,
of what I know to be another's property ! Far will that be from our friend
Daemones. It is the absolute duty of a wise man to be on his guard against
ever being privy to any wrong done by his own people. I never would
care for any gain, except when I am in the game.' — Rudens, 1235-48.
' ' Provided it be not for wrong done, let me perish, I care not. If I
shall perish here, while he returns not, as he promised, yet even after death
this will be a memorable act, that I restored my master from captivity and
his enemies to his father and his home, and chose rather to emperil my own
life here than that he should perish.' — Captivi, 682-8.
VI.] ROMAN COMEDY. PLAUTUS. 1 89
in part applies. The old slave-tricks of mendacity and
unseasonable joking, which are a legitimate source of
amusement in the 'Pseudolus' and similar plays, jar on
our feelings as inconsistent with the simple dignity of
the character of Tyndarus and the heroic part which he
has to play.
There are none of the plays of Plautus which it is so
difficult to criticise from a modern point of view as the
' Amphitruo.' On the one hand the humour of the scenes
between Mercury and Sosia is not surpassed in any of the
other comedies. There is no passage in any other play
in which such power of imagination is exhibited, as that
in which Bromia tells the tale of the birth of Alcmena's
twins —
Ita erae meae hodie contigit : nam iibi partuis cieos. sibi invocat,
Strepitus, crepitus, sonitiis, tonitrns : subito ut propere, ut valide tonuit.
Ubi quisque institerat, concidit crepitu : ibi nescio quis maxuma
Voce exclamat : * Alcumena, adest auxilium, ne time :
Et tibi et tuis propitius caeli cultor advenit.
Exurgite ' inquit ' qui terrore meo occidistis piae metu.'
Ut iacui, exurgo : ardere censui aedis : ita turn confulgebant ^
Nor is there, perhaps, anywhere in ancient literature a
nobler realisation of the virtue of womanhood than in the
indignant vindication of herself by Alcmena, —
Non ego illam mihi dotem esse duco, quae dos dicitur,
Set pudicitiam et pudorem et sedatum cupidinem,
Deum metum et parentum amorem et cognatum concordiam,
Tibi morigera atque ut munifica sim bonis, prosim probis".
1 ' So it befell my mistress this day : for when she calls the powers of
travail to her aid, lo ! there ensues a rumbhng, rattling noise, loud uproar
and a peal of thunder— all of a sudden how fast, how mightily it thundered !
At the crash each one fell on the spot where he stood. Then some one, I
know not who, exclaims in a loud voice, ''Alcmena, be not afraid; help is
at hand : the dweller in the skies draweth nigh with kindly intent to thee
and thine. Arise ye who from the dread inspired by me have fallen down in
alarm." As I lay, I rose up : methought the house was all on fire, so
brightly did it shine.' — Amphitnio, 1060-67,
^ ' I call not that which is named my dower, my true dower, but chastity
190 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
On the other hand, it is difficult to understand how the part
played by Jupiter, and the comments of Mercury upon that
part, should not have shocked the religious and moral sense
even of the Athenians of the age of Epicurus and of the
Romans in the age when they were first made familiar with the
Sacred Chronicle of Euhemerus. Perhaps the Romans made
a distinction between the Jupiter of Greek mythology and
their own Jupiter Optimus Maximus, and may have thought
that what was derogatory to the first did not apply to
the second. Or, perhaps, some clue to the origin of the Greek
play may be found in a phrase of the Rudens,
Non ventus fuit, verum Alcumena Euripidi '.
AV'as the Greek writer partly parodying, in accordance with
the tradition of the old comedy, partly reproducing a
tragedy of Euripides? and was the representation first
accepted as a recognised burlesque of a familiar piece?
In any case its production both at Athens and Rome
must be regarded partly as a symptom, partly as a cause,
of the rapid dissolution of religious beliefs among both Greeks
and Romans.
As in the case of other productive writers there is no
absolute agreement as to which are the best of the Plautine
plays. Without assigning precedence to any one over
the other, a preference may be indicated for these five, as
combining the most varied elements of interest with the best
execution — Atdularia, Captivi, Afe/iaec/uiii, Pseudolus, Rudens ;
and for these, as second to the former in interest owing
to some inferiority in comic power, artistic execution, or
natural v?-aise;iil>/a?ice, or owing to some element in them
which offends the taste or moral sentiment — Trifium?nus,
Mostellaria, Miles Gloriosus, Bacchides, Amphitruo. These
ten plays alone, without taking the others into account,
and modesty, and passion subdued, fear of the Gods, affection to my parents,
amity with my kinsmen, a will to yield to thee, to be bountiful to the good,
of service to the worthy.' — Amphitruo, 839-42.
' 86
VL] ROMAN COMEDY. PLAUTUS. 19I
show both in their incidents, scenes, and characters, how much
wider Plautus' range of observation was than that of Terence,
Even within the narrow Hmits of the characters most familiar
to ancient comedy — the ' amans ephebus,' the ' meretrix
blanda,' the ' fallax servus,' the ' bragging captain,' the
' parasite,' the ' leno,' the ' old men ' — good, kindly, severe,
genial, sensual and disreputable, — we find great individual
differences. More than Terence, Plautus maintains a dramatic
and ironical superiority over his characters. This is especially
shown in his treatment of his young lovers and the objects of
their despairing affection. The former exhibit various shades
of weakness, from the mere ineffectual struggle between the
grain of conscience left them and the attractions of pleasure, to
the sentimental impulse to end their woes by suicide. The
latter show varying degrees of attraction, from a grace and
vivacity that reminds German critics of the Mariana and
the Philina in ' Wilhelm Meister,' to the hardness and
astuteness of the heroines of the ' Truculentus ' and the
' Miles Gloriosus.' Plautus cannot be said to care much about
any of them except as objects of amusement and of the
study of human nature. Nor, on the other hand, has he any
hatred of his worst characters. He has the true dramatist's
sympathy with the vigorous conception of Ballio— the same
kind of sympathy which made that part a favourite one of the
actor Roscius. His characters are interesting and amusing in
themselves ; they are never used as the mere mouthpieces of
the writer's reflexion, wit, or sentiment. It is, of course,
impossible to determine definitely how far he was an original
creator, how far a merely vigorous imitator. But he is so
perfectly at home with his characters, he makes them speak
and act so naturally, he is so careless about those minutiae of
artistic treatment of which a mere translator would be
scrupulously regardful, that it seems most probable that the life
with which he animates his conventional type is derived from
his own exuberant vitality and his many-sided contact with
humanity.
192 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
In what relation do the plays of Plautus stand to the more
serious interests of life ? Is he to be ranked among philosophic
humourists who had felt deeply the speculative perplexities of
this world, whose imagination vividly realised the incongruity
between the outward mask that men wear and the reality
behind it, and the wide divergence of the actual aims of society
from the purified ideal towards which it tends ? Is there
in him any vein of ironical comment or satirical rebuke?
any latent sympathy with any of the objects which move
the serious passions of moral and social reformers ? Or is he
merely a great humourist, revelling in the mirth, the absurdities,
the ridiculous phases of character, which show themselves on
the surface of life ? It must be admitted that it is difficult to
find in him any traces of the speculative questioning, of
the repressed or baffled enthusiasm, of the rebellion against
the common round of the world which tempers or inspires
some of the greatest humourists of ancient and modern times.
His indifference to the problems of speculative philosophy is
expressed in such phrases as the
Salva res est : philosophatur quoque iam, non mendax modo'st
of Tyndarus in the Captivi ', and in the
Sed iam satis est philosophatum
of Pseudolusl Yet to Tyndarus he attributes a sense of
religious trust befitting both his character and situation —
Est profecto dens, qui quae nos gerimus auditque et videt, etc.^,
while Pseudolus easily finds an opposite doctrine to suit his
ready, self-reliant, and unscrupulous nature —
Centum doctum hominum consilia sola haec devincit dea,
Fortuna, etc.*
Probably the truth is that living in an age of active en-
joyment and energy, he troubled himself very little about
the ' problem of existence ' ; but that he had thought enough
and doubted enough to enable him to animate his more
1 Captivi, 280. 2 Pseud. 666. ^ Captivi, 310. * Pseud. 677.
VI.] ROMAN COMEDY. PLAUTUS. T93
elevated characters with sentiments of natural piety, and to
conceive of the ordinary round of pleasure and intrigue as quite
able to dispense with them. There is rather an indifference to
religious influences or beliefs, than such expressions of
scepticism or antagonism to existing superstitions as we find
in the tragic poets. The political indifference of his plays
has been already noticed. Yet the sentiments attributed
to some of his best characters, such as Philto in the
Trinummus, Megadorus in the Aulularia ^, imply that he
recognised in the growing ascendency of wealth an element of
estrangement between the different classes of the community.
His frequent reference to the extravagance and imperiousness
of the ' dotatae uxores ' seems to imply further his conviction
that the curse of money was a dissolving force, not only
of the social and political but also of the family life of Rome.
The first aspect of many of his plays certainly produces the
impression of their demoralising tendency. But it is perhaps
necessary to be on our guard against judging this tendency too
severely from a merely modern point of view. These plays
were addressed to the people in their holiday mood, and a
certain amount of license was claimed for such a mood (as we
may see by the Fescennine songs in marriage ceremonies and
in triumphal processions), which perhaps was not intended to
have more relation to the ordinary life of work and serious
business than the lies and tricks of slaves in comedy to their
ordinary relations with their masters.
Public festivity in ancient times, which was originally an
outlet of religious emotion, became ultimately a rebound from
the severer duties and routine of daily life. There are frequent
reminders in Plautus that this life of pleasure and intrigue was
' Cf. Aul. iii. 5. 4-8 :—
Nam, meo quidem animo, si idem faciant ceteri,
Opnlentiores pauperiorum filias
Ut indotatas ducant uxores domum,
Et multo fiat civitas concordior,
Et invidia nos minore utamur, quam utimiir.
O
194 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch
not altogether worthy or satisfactory. There are no false hues
of sentiment thrown around it, as there are in Terence, and
still more in the poets of a later age. Nor must we expect in
an ancient poet any sense of moral degradation attaching to a
life of pleasure. So far as that life is condemned it is on the
ground of sloth, weakness, and incompatibility with more
serious aims. The maxims which PaUnurus addresses to
Phaedromus in the Curculio would probably not have shocked
an ancient moralist : —
Nemo hinc prohibet nee vetat
Quin quod palamst venale, si argentumst, emas.
Nemo ire quemquam puplica prohibet via,
Dum ne per fundum saeptum faciat semitam :
Dum ted apstineas nupta vidua virgine
luventute et pueris liberis, ama quod lubet ^.
Something of the same kind is implied in the warning
addressed by his father to the young Horace. Any breach of the
sanctities of family life is invariably reprobated. On the rare
occasions where such breaches occur, — as in the Aulularia —
they are repaired by marriage. Any one aspiring to play the part
of a Lothario — as in the Miles Gloriosus — is made an object
both of punishment and ridicule. In this respect the comedy of
Plautus contrasts favourably with our own comic drama of the
Restoration. There are no scenes in these plays intended or
calculated to stimulate the passions ; and although there are
coarse expressions and allusions in almost all of them, yet the
coarseness of Plautus is not to be compared with that of
I.ucilius, Catullus, Martial, or Juvenal. It is rather in the
absence of any virtuous ideal, than in positive incitements to
vice, that the Plautine comedy might be called immoral.
Although family honour is treated as secure from violation,
there is no pure feeling about family life. Sons are afraid of
their fathers, run into debt without their knowledge, deceive
them in every possible way, occasionally express a wish that
their death might enable them to treat their mistresses more
generously. Husbands fear their wives and speak on all
' Curculio, 33-8.
VI.] ROMAN COMEDY. PLAUTUS. 1 95
occasions bitterly against them. Plautus was evidently more
familiar with the ways of the ' libertinae ' than of Roman
matrons of the better sort ; and thus while we see little of the
latter, what we hear of them is not to their advantage. The
only obligation which young men seem to acknowledge is that
of honour and friendly service to one another. So too slaves,
while they hold it as their first duty to lie and swindle in
behalf of their young masters, feel the duty of absolute
devotion and sacrifice of themselves to their interests. Plautus
shows scarcely any of the Roman feeling of dignity or
seriousness, or any regard for patriotism or public duty.
There is everywhere abundance of good humour and good
sense, but, except in the Captivi and Rudens, we find scarcely
any pathos or elevated feeling. The ideal of character which
satisfies most of his personages might almost be expressed in
the words of Stalagmus in the Captivi —
¥\u ego bellus, lepidus, — bonus vir nunqiiam neque frugi bonae
Ncque ero unquam '.
But the life of careless freedom and strong animal spirits which
Plautus shaped with prodigal power into humorous scenes and
representations for the holiday amusements of the mass of his
fellow-citizens, does not admit of being tried by any moral or
social standard of usefulness. It would be equally unprofitable
to search for any consistent vein of irony in him, or any deep
intuition into the paradoxes of life. He is to be judged and
valued on the grounds put forward in the epitaph, which was
in ancient times attributed to himself, —
Postquam est mortem aptus Plautus, comoedia luget,
Scaena est deserta, dein risus, ludu' iocusque
Et numeri innumeri simul omnes conlacrumarunt.
And this leads us to the last question concerning him —
What is his value as a poetic artist ? The very fact that his
imagination plays so habitually on the surface of life, that he
^ ' I was a line gentleman, a nice fellow— a good or respectable man
I never was nor will be.' — Capt. 95')-7-
O 2
196 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Cir.
has, as compared with tlie greatest humourists of modern
times, so Httle poetry, elevation, or depth, prevents his being
ranked in the very highest class of humorous creators. In
the absence of serious meaning or feeling from his writings he
reminds us of Le Sage or Smollett rather than of Cervantes or
IMoliere. Nor does he compensate for these defects by
careful artistic treatment. The criticisms of Horace on this
subject are perfectly true. If the line—
Plautiis ad exemplar Siculi properare Epicharmi
refers to the rapidity with which he hurries on to the daioue-
ment of his plot, it must be admitted that in some cases this
quality degenerates into haste and impatience \ But, on the
other hand, the careless ease and prodigal productiveness of
his genius entitle him to take certainly a high rank in the
second class of humourists. If he shows little of the idealising
or contemplative faculty of poetic genius, he has at least the
facile power and spontaneous exuberance which distinguish
the great creators of human character.
The power of high and true dramatic invention which he
occasionally puts forth, and the stray gleams of beauty which
light up the coarser and commoner texture of his fancies,
suggest the inference that it was owing more to the demands
of his audiences than to the original limitation of his own
powers, that he did not raise both himself and his countrymen
to the enjoyment of nobler productions. A people accustomed
to the buffoonery of the indigenous mimic dances required
strong and broad effects. Their popular poet, in conforming
to the conditions of Greek art, could not altogether forget the
Dossennus native to Italy.
But the largest endowment of Plautus, the truest note of his
creativeness, is his power of expression by means of action,
rhythm, and language. The phrase ' properare ' may more
probably be explained by the extreme vivacity and rapidity of
gesture, dialogue, declamation, and recitative, by which his
' Cp. the winding up of the Mostellaiia, Casina, Cistellaria.
VI.] • ROMAN COMEDY. PLAUTUS, 197
scenes were characterised, than be taken as an equivalent to
*ad eventum festinare.' Their livehness and mobiHty of
temperament made the Itahans admirable mimics : and the
favour which the plays of Plautus continued to enjoy with the
companies of players, may be in part accounted for by the
scope they afforded to the talent of the actor. How far he was
expected to bring out the meaning of the poet may be
gathered from the lively description given by Periplecomenus
of the outward manifestations which accompanied the inward
machinations of Palaestrio, —
lUuc sis vide
Quern ad modum astilit severo fronte curans, cogitans.
Pectus digitis pultat : cor credo evocaturust foras.
Ecce avortit : nisam laevo in femine habet laevam manuui.
Dextera digitis rationem conputat : fervit femur
iJexterum, ita veheaienter icit : cjuod agat, aegre suppetit.
Concrepuit digitis : laborat, crebro conmr.tat status.
Eccere autem capite nutat : non placet quod repperit.
Quidquid est, incoctum non expromet, bene coctum dabit.
Ecce autem aedificat : columnam mento suffigit suo.
Apage, non placet profecto mihi illaec aedificatio :
Nam OS columnatum poetae esse indaudivi barbaro,
Quoi bini cuslodcs semper totis horis occubant.
Euge, euscheme hercle astitit et didice et comoedice '.
Many other scenes must have lent themselves to this repre-
sentation of feeling by lively gesture, accompanied sometimes
^ ' Look there, if you please, how he has taken up his post, with serious
brow pondering, meditating ; now he taps his breast with his fingers. I
^ancy he is going to summon his heart outside : look, he turns away ; now
his left hand is leaning on his left thigh ; with his right hand he is making
a calculation on his fingers; his right thigh burns, such a violent blow he
has struck it ; his scheme does not come easily to him : — he cracks his
fingers : he is at a loss ; he often changes his position : look, there he nods
his head : he does not like this new idea. Whatever it is, he will not bring
it out till it is ready : he'll serve it up well done. Look again, he is busy
building : he props up his chin with a pillar. Away with it ! I don't like
that kind of building : for I have heard that a foreign poet has his face thus
pillared, beside whom two sentinels are every hour on A\atch. Bravo!
by Hercules, now he is in a fine attitude, like a slave, or a man in a play.
— Mil. Glor. 201-14.
198 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
by some kind of mimic dance : of this kind, for instance, is
the vigorous recitative of Ballio on his first appearance on the
stage, the scene in which Ergasilus tells Hegio of the return of
his son, the appearance of Pseudolus when well drunken after
celebrating his triumph over Ballio, —
Quid hoc? sicine hoc fit? pedes, statin an non ?
An id voltis iit me hinc jacentem aliqui tollat ? etc. '
His temptation was to exaggerate in this, as in other elements
of the dramatist's art; and this is what is probably meant by
the word percurrat in the criticism of Horace, which has been
already quoted. But this tendency to exaggerate is merely the
defect of his superabundant share of the vigorous Italian
ciualities.
It is characteristic of the liveliness of Plautus' temperament,
that the lyrical and recitative parts of his plays occupy a place
altogether out of proportion to that occupied by the unim-
passioned monologue or dialogue expressed in senarian iambics.
The '' Cantica,' or purely lyrical monologues, are much more
frequent and much longer in his comedies than in those of
'J'erence. They were sung to a musical accompaniment, and
were composed chiefly in bacchiac, anapaestic, or cretic metres,
rapidly interchanging with trochaic lines. The bacchiac
metre is employed in passages expressive of some sedate or
laboured thought, as, for instance, the opening part of the
' Canticum ' of Lysiteles in the Trinummus, —
JNIultas res simitu in meo corde vorso,
!Multum in cogitando dolorem indipiscor. ^
Egomet me coquo ct niacero et defatigo.
The anapaestic metre was less suited to Latin, and is rarely
met with either in the comic poets, or in the fragments of the
tragedians. On the other hand, cretic and trochaic metres,
from their affinity to the old Saturnian, came most easily to
the early dramatists, and are largely employed by Plautus to
express lively emotion. As an instance of the first we ma)
' Tseiid. 1246.
VI.] ROMAN COMEDY. PLAUTUS. 199
take the following song of a lover, addressed to the bolts which
barred his mistress's door, —
Pessuli, hens pessuli, vos saluto lubens,
Vos amo vos volo vos peto atque obsecio.
Gerite amanti mihi morem amoenissumi :
File caussa mea ludii barbari,
Sussnlite, obsecro, et mittite istaiic foras,
Quae mihi misero amanti exbibit sanguinem.
Hoc vide ut dormiunt pessuli pessumi
Nee mea gralia conmovent se ocins'.
These early efforts of the Italian lyrical muse do not
approach the smoothness and ease of the Glyconics and
Phalaecians of Catullus, nor the dignity of the Alcaics and
Asclepiadeans of Horace : but they do, in a rude kind of way,
show facility and native power in finding a rhythmical vehicle
for the emotion or sentiment of the moment. In the longer
passages in which they occur, these metres are generally
combined with some form of trochaic verse, which again is
often ex' changed for septenarian or octonarian iambics. Of
the rapid transitions with which Plautus passes from one
metre to another in the expression of strong excitement of
feeling, we have a striking example in the long recitative of
Ballio ', in which trochaics, septenarian, octonarian, and
dimeter, are continually varied by the introduction now of one,
now of several, octonarian or septenarian iambics. He thus
claims much greater freedom than Terence in the combination
of his metres. He exercises also greater license, in substituting
two short for one long syllable (in his cretics and trochaics),
and in deviating from the laws of position and hiatus accepted
by later poets. It is impossible for a modern reader to
reproduce the rhythmical flow of passages which must have
' ' Hear me, ye bolts, ye bolts, gladly I greet you, I love you, I am fond
of you ; I beg you, I beseech you, most amiably now comply with the desire
of me a lover. For my sake become like foreign dancers ; spring up,
1 beseech you, and send her forth, who now is drinking up the life-blood of
me her lover. Mark how these vilest bolts are still asleep, and do not stir
one whit on my account.' — Curculio, 147-154.
- Pseud. 132-238.
200 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
depended a good deal for their effect on the musical accom-
paniment, and on the pronunciation of the actor. Yet even
though it requires some effort to recognise the legitimate beat
of the rhythm ' digito et aure/ it is equally impossible not to
recognise the vigour and vehemence of movement of such
passages as these —
Ilaec, quom ego a foio revoitir, facite ut offendam parata,
Vorsa sparsa tersa strata lauta structaque omnia nt sint.
Nam mi hodiest natalis dies : eum decet omnis vos concelebrare.
Magnifice volo me viros summos accipere, ut rem mi esse reantur '.
Terence has a more artistic mastery than Plautus of the
ordinary metre of comic dialogue : but the latter has the more
original poetic gift of adapting and varying his ' numeri
innumeri ' to the animated moods and lively fancies of his
characters.
But the gift for which Plautus is pre-eminent above all the
earlier, and in which he is not surpassed by any of the later
poets, is the exuberant vigour and spontaneous flow of his
diction. No Roman poet shows more rapidity of conception,
or greater variety of illustration : and words and phrases are
never wanting to body forth and convey with immediate force
and freshness the intuitive discernment of his common sense,
the quick play of his wit, the riotous exaggerations of his
fancy, his vivid observation of facts and of the outward
peculiarities of men, his inexhaustible resources of genial
vituperation and execration, or bantering endearment. The
mannerisms of his style, already mentioned as indicative of the
originality with which he deviates from his Greek models, are
not laboured efforts, but the spontaneous products of a rich
and comparatively neglected soil. His burlesque invention of
proper names, even in its wildest exaggeration, as in the high-
sounding title assumed by Sagaristio in the Persa —
^ 'See that when I return from the Forum, 1 find everything ready,
the door swept, sprinkled, polislicd, the eouchcs covered ; the plate all
clean and arranged : for tliis is my birtliday : this you must all join in
keeping : I want to entertain some great people sumiituously, that they
may think I am well to do.' — Pseud. 159-62.
VI.] ROMAN COMEDY. PLAUTUS. 20I
Vaniloqnidorus, Virginisvendonides,
Nugipalamloquides, Argentumexterebronides,
Tedigniloquides, Nummosexpalponides,
Quodsemelarripides, Nunquampostreddonides —
is a Rabelaisian ebullition, stimulated by the novel contact with
the Greek language, of the formative energy which he displays
more legitimately in the creation of new Latin words and
phrases. In the freedom with which he uses, without vul-
garising, popular modes of speech, in the idiomatic verve of his
Latin, employed in an age when inflexions still retained their
original virtue, and had not been limited by the labours of
grammarians to a fixed standard, he- has no equal among Latin
writers. It is one of the great charms of the Letters to Atticus,
and of the shorter poems of Catullus, that they give us back
the flavour of this homely native idiom, ^Vhere there is
difficulty in interpreting Plautus, this arises either from the
uncertainty of the reading, or from the wealth of his vocabulary.
He saw clearly and realised strongly what he meant to say, and
his words and phrases appeared in rapid, close, and orderly
movement to his summons. He describes his personages, —
Pseudolus for instance,
Rufus quidam, ventriosus, crassis siiris, subniger,
Magno capite, acutis oculis, ore rubicundo, admodum
Magnis pedibiis ' ;
Ballio,
Cum hirquina barba;
Plesidippus, in the Rudens,
Adulescentem strenua facie, rubicnndum, fortem ;
Harpax, in the same play,
Recalvom ac silonem senem, statntiim, ventiiosum
Tortis superciliis, contracta fronte, etc. —
in such a way as to show how real they were to his imagination
in their outward semblance as well as in the inward springs of
their actions. Or he brings before us some peculiarity in the
' ' A red-haired fellow, pot-bellied, with thick legs, darkish, with a big
Iicad, keen eyes, a red face, and enormous feet.'
202 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
dress or manner of his personages by some graphic touch, as
that of the disguised sycophant of the Trinummus, —
Pol hie quidem fungino generest : capite se totum tegit.
Illurica fades videtur hominis : eo ornatu advenit ;
and later —
Mira sunt
Ni illic homost aut doDiiitator aut sector zonarius.
Loca contemplat, circumspectat sese, atque aedis noscitat'.
He tells an imaginary story or adventure, such as that which
Chrysalus invents of the pursuit of his vessel by a piratical
craft — -
Ubi portu eximiis, homines remigio sequi,
Neqne aves neque venti citius, etc. *,
or the account which Curculio gives of his encounter with the
soldier ^ tersely, rapidly, and vividly, as if he were recalling
some scene within his own recent experience. He imitates
the style of tragedy — as in the imaginary speech of the Ghost
in the Mostellaria — in such a manner as to show that he
might have rivalled Ennius in the art of tragic rhythm and
expression, if his genius had allowed him to pass beyond the
province which was peculiarly his own. His plays abound in
pithy sayings which have anticipated popular proverbs, or the
happy hits of popular poets in modern times, such as the
'nudo detrahere vestimenta,' in the Asinaria, and the 'virtute
formae id evenit te ut deceat quidquid habeas*,' in the
Mostellaria. He writes letters with the forms of courtesy, and
with the ease and simplicity characteristic of the best epistles
of a later age. His resources of language are never wanting
' 'By Polhix he is of the mushroom sort: he hides himself with his
head : he looks like an lUyrian : he is got up like one ; ' —
' I should be surprised if he be not either some dreaming fellow (?al.
liouse-breaker) or a cutpurse : he takes a good look of the ground, gazes
about him, takes note of the house.' — Trinuni. 850-862.
^ Bacchid. 289. " Curculio, 33", etc.
' Cp. the proverbial ' taking the breeches off a Highlander,' and the lines
in one of Burns' earliest songs —
' And then tiiere's something in iier gait
Gars ony dress look weel.'
VI.] ROMAN COMEDY. PLAUTUS. 203
for any call which he may make upon them. In a few
descriptive passages he shows a command of the language
of forcible poetic imagination. But he does not often betray
a sense of beauty in action, character, or Nature : and thus if
his style altogether wants the peculiar charm of the later
Latin poets, and the tenderness and urbanity of Terence, the
explanation of this defect is perhaps to be sought rather in the
limited play which he allowed to his finer sensibilities, than in
any inability to avail himself of the full capabilities of his
native language.
Whether the deficiency in the sense of beauty should deny
to him the name of a great poet, is to be answered only when
agreement has been attained as to the definition of a poet.
He was certainly a true and prodigally creative genius. He
is also thoroughly representative of his race — not of the gravity
and dignity superinduced on the natural Italian temperament
by the strict discipline of Roman life, and by the sense of
superiority which arises among the governing men of an
imperial state — but of the strong and healthy vitality which
enabled the Italian to play his part in history, and of the
quick observation and ready resource, the lively emotional and
social temperament, the keen enjoyment of life, which are the
accompaniment of that original endowment.
CHAPTER VII.
Terence and the Comic Poets subsequent
TO Plautus.
The names of five or six comic dramatists are known, who
fill the space of eighteen years between the death of Plautus
and the representation of the earliest play of Terence, the
* Andria.' From one of these, Aquilius, some verses are
(}uoted, which Varro did not hesitate to attribute to Plautus,
and which Gellius characterises as ' Plautinissimi.' They are
the words of a parasite, complaining of the invention of
sun-dials as inconveniently retarding the dinner hour. Among
these writers the most famous was Caecilius Statius, an
Insubrian Gaul, first a slave, and afterwards a freedman of
a member of the Caecilian house. He is said to have lived
on terms of great intimacy with Ennius. His poetic career
very nearly coincides with that of the epic and tragic poet, and
he only survived him by one year. Some Roman critics
ranked him above even Plautus as a comic poet. The line of
Horace —
Vincere Caecilius gravitate, Terentius arte —
probably indicates the ground of their preference. He is
said also to have been careful in the construction of his
plots \ Cicero, who often quotes from him, speaks of him
as having written a bad style ^. He is also mentioned among
those poets who ' powerfully moved the feelings.'
He composed about forty plays. Most of them had Greek
' ■ la arguincuti) Caecilius poscil palniaiii,' iiuotcd tiom Varro.
- E]). ad Attic, vii. 3 ; Brutu.^, 74.
TERENCE, AND THE LATER COMIC POETS. 205
titles, and a considerable number of these arc identical with
the titles of comedies by Menander. Two of the longest
of his fragments express with more bitterness and less humour
the feelings which husbands in Plautus entertain towards their
wives. In one of these passages he has adapted his Greek
original to the coarser Roman taste with even less fastidi-
ousness than Plautus generally shows'. Another passage,
from the Synephebi, is more in the spirit of Terence than of
Plautus. It is one in which a young lover complains that the
' good nature ' (commoditas) of his father made it impossible
to cheat him with an easy conscience. Occasionally we find
specimens of those short maxims which probably led the
Augustan critics to attribute to him the character oi gravitas,
such as the
Serit arboies quae alteri saeclo prosint,
quoted by Cicero in the Tusculan Questions, and this line—
Saepe est etiam sub palliolo sordido sapientia.
He seems to have had nothing of the creative originality of
Plautus, nor ever to have enjoyed the same general popularity.
He prepared the way for Terence by a more careful con-
formity to his Greek models than his predecessor had shown,
and, apparently, by introducing a more serious and senti-
mental vein into his representations of life.
With Terence Roman literature enters on a new stage of its
development. When he appeared, a younger generation had
grown up, who not only inherited the enthusiasm for Greek
art and letters of the older generation, — of men of the stamp
of the eldef Scipio, Aemilius Paulus, T. Quintius Flamininus, —
but who had been carefully educated from their boyhood in
Greek accomplishments. The leading representative of this
younger generation, Scipio Aemilianus, was about the same
age as Terence, and admitted him to his intimacy; thus
showing in his early youth the same enlightened and tolerant
spirit and the same cultivated aspiration which made him
^ Cf. Mommsen, vol. ii. p. 435, English Translation.
206 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
choose Panaetius and Polybius as the associates of his man-
hood, and induced him to Uve in relations of frank unreserve
with LuciUus during the latter years of his life. Among the
members of the Scipionic circle, Laehus and Furius Philo
were also closely associated with Terence ; and he is said to
have enjoyed the favour of older men of distinction and
culture, Sulpicius Gallus, Q. Fabius Labeo, and M. Popillius,
men of consular rank and of literary and poetic accom-
plishment \ In the interval between Plautus and Terence,
the great gap which was never again to be bridged over had
been made between the mass of the people and a small
educated class. While the former became less capable of
intellectual pleasure, and were beginning to prefer the ex-
hibitions of boxers, rope-dancers, and gladiators-, to the
comedies which had delighted their fathers, the latter became
more exacting than the men of a former generation, in their
demands for correctness and elegance. They had acquired
through education the fastidiousness of men of culture, a
quality not easily gained and retained without some sacrifice
of native force and popular sympathies. Recognising the
immense superiority of the Greek originals in literature to tlie
rude Roman copies, they believed that the best way to create
a national Latin literature was to deviate as little as possible,
in spirit, form, and substance, from the works of Greek genius.
But though cosmopolitan, or rather purely Greek, in their
literary tastes, they were thoroughly patriotic in devotion to
their country's interests. They cherished their native language
as the great instrument of social and political life : and they
recognised the influence which a cultivated literature might
have in rendering that instrument finer and more flexible than
natural use had made it. By concentrating attention on form
and style, without aiming at originality .of invention, Latin
literature might become a truer medium of Greek culture, and
' 'Consulari utroque ac poet:..' Life of Terence, by Suetonius,
* Cf. Prologue to the Ilecyra.
VII.] TERENCE, AND THE LATER COMIC POETS. 207
might, at the same time, impart a finer edge and temper to the
rude ore of Latin speech.
The task which awaited Terence was the complete Hel-
lenising of Roman comedy, and the creation of a style which
might combine something of Attic flexibility and delicacy with
the idiomatic purity of the Latin spoken in the best Roman
houses. By birth a Phoenician, by intellectual education
a Greek, by the associations of his daily life a foreigner
living in Rome, he was more in sympathy with the cosmo-
politan mode of thought and feeling which Greek culture was
diffusing over the civilised world, than with the traditions
of Roman austerity or the homely humours of Italian life.
As a dependent and associate of men belonging to the most
select society of Rome, he had neither that contact with the
many sides of life, nor that familiarity with the animated modes
of popular speech, which helped to fashion the style of
Plautus : but by assimilating the literary grace of the Athenian
comedy and the familiar manner of a high-bred, friendly, and
intelligent society, he gave to Latin, what the Greek language
in ancient and the French in modern times have had pre-
eminently, a style which gives dignity and urbanity to con-
versation, and freedom and simplicity to literary expression.
If the oratorical tastes and training of the Romans make the
absence of these last qualities perceptible in much both of
their prose and verse, we feel the charm of their presence in
the Letters of Cicero, the lighter poems of Catullus, the
Epistles of Horace, the Epigrams of Martial : and it was
owing to the social and intellectual position of Terence that
this secret of combining consummate literary grace with
conversational ease and spontaneity was discovered.
Our knowledge of the life of Terence is derived chiefly
from a fragment of the lost work of Suetonius, De viris
ilbistribiis, preserved in the commentary of Donatus. Con-
firmation of some of the statements contained in the life is
obtained from later writers and speakers, and also from the
.prologues to the different plays, which throvv^ light on the
2o8 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Cii.
literary and personal relations of the poet. These prologues
were among the original sources of Suetonius : but he quotes
or refers to the works of various grammarians and anti-
quarians— Porcius Licinus, Volcatius Sedigitus, Santra, Nepos,
Fenestella, Q. Cosconius — as his authorities. The first two
lived within a generation or two after the death of Terence, and
the first of them shows a distinct animus against him and his
patrons. But notwithstanding the abundance of authorities,
there is uncertainty as to both the date of his birth and the
place and manner of his death. The doubt as to the former
arises from the discrepancy of the MSS. His last play, the
Adelphoe, was exhibited in i6o b. c. Shortly after its pro-
duction he went to Greece, being then, according to the best
MSS., in his twenty-fifth ('nondum quintum atque vicesimum
egressus^ annum '), according to inferior INISS., in his thirty-
fifth year. This uncertainty is increased by a discrepancy
between the authorities quoted by Suetonius. Cornelius Nepos
is quoted for the statement that he was about the same age as
Scipio (born 185 B.C.) and Laelius, while P'enestella, an
antiquarian of the later Augustan period, represented him as
older. As the authority of the MSS. coincides with that of
the older record, the year 185 b. c. may be taken as the most
probable date of his birth. In the case of an author drawing
originally from life, it might seem improbable that he should
have written six comedies, so true in their apprehension and
delineation of various phases of human nature, between the
ages of nineteen and twenty-five. But the case of an
imitative artist reproducing impressions derived from literature
is different ; and the circumstances of Terence's Phoenician
origin and early life may well have developed in him a
precocity of talent. His acknowledged intimacy with Scipio
and Laelius, and the general belief that they assisted him
in the composition of his plays, agree better with the statement
that he was about their own age than that he was ten years
^ Ritschl reads ' ingressus,' which would make him a year younger.
VII.] TERENCE, AND THE LATER COMIC POETS. 209
older. The lines at the end of the prologue to the Heauton
Timorumenos —
Exemplnm statuite in me lit adnlesientuli
Vobis placere studeant potius quam sibi,
indicate that he was a very young man when they were written.
Thus Terence may, more even than Catullus or Lucan, be
ranked among ' the inheritors of unfulfilled renown.'
He is said to have been born at Carthage, brought to Rome
as a slave^ and carefully educated in the house of M. Terentius
Lucanus, by whom he was soon emancipated. A difficulty
was felt in ancient times as to how he originally became a slave,
as there was no war between Rome and Carthage between the
Second and Third Punic Wars, and no commercial relations
with Rome and Italy till after the destruction of Carthage.
But there was no doubt as to his Phoenician origin. It has
been suggested that his Carthaginian origin perhaps explains
the interest which the family of the Scipios first took in him.
He was of slender figure and dark complexion. He is said to
have owed the favour of his great friends as much to his
personal gifts and graces as to his literary distinction. In one
of his prologues he declares it to be his ambition, while not
offending the many, to please the ' boni.'
His earliest play was the 'Andria,' exhibited in 166 B.C., when
he could only have been about the age of nineteen. A pretty,
but probably apocryphal, story is told of his having read the
play, before its exhibition, to Caecilius — who however is said to
have died in 168 B.C., the year after the death of Ennius — and
of the generous admiration manifested by Caecilius. The
story probably owes its origin to the same impulse which gave
birth to that of the visit of Accius on his journey to Asia to
the veteran Pacuvius. The next play exhibited by Terence
was the 'Hecyra,' first produced in 165, but withdrawn in con-
sequence of the bad reception which it met with, and afterwards
reproduced in 160. The 'Heauton Timorumenos' appeared in
163, the ' Eunuchus' and ' Phormio' in 161, and the 'Adelphoe'
in 160, at the funeral games of L. Aemilius Paulas.
P
2IO THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
After bringing out tliese plays Terence sailed for Greece,
whether, as it is said, to escape from the suspicion of publishing
the works of others as his own, or, as is more probable, from
the desire to obtain a more intimate knowledge of that Greek
life which had hitherto been known to him only in literature,
and which it was his professed aim to reproduce in his
comedies. From the voyage to Greece Terence never re-
turned. According to one account he was lost at sea, accord-
ing to another he died at Stymphalus in Arcadia, and according
to a third at Leucadia, from grief at the loss by shipwreck of
his baggage, containing a number of new plays which he had
translated from Menander. The old grammarian quoted by
vSuetonius states that he was ruined in fortune through his
intimacy with his noble friends. Another account spoke of
him as having left behind him property consisting of gardens,
to the extent of twenty acres, close to the Appian Way. It is
further stated that his daughter was so well provided for that
she married a Roman knight.
As his art is purely dramatic and also imitative, for any
further knowledge of his character and circumstances we
have to rely on his prologues in which he speaks in his
own person. They give the impression of a man of frank and
ingenuous nature, with a high idea of his art, very sensitive
to criticism, and proud, though not ostentatiously so, of the
favour he enjoyed with the best men of his time. The tone
of all his prologues is apologetic. In this respect, as well as
in his relation to his patrons, he reminds us of the tone of
some of the Satires of Horace. But there is a robuster force
both of defence and of offence in the son of the Venusian
freedman than in the young Phoenician freedman. In nearly
all his prologues he defends himself against the malevolence
and detraction of an old poet, ' malevolus vetus poeta,' whose
name is said to have been Luscius Lavinius, or Lanuvinus.
The chief charge which his detractor brings against him is
that of contamination the combining in one play of scenes out
of different Greek plays. Terence justifies his practice by that
VII.] TERENCE, AND THE LATER COMIC POETS. 211
of the older poets, Naevius, Plautus, Ennius, whose careless
freedom he follows in preference to the dull pedantry of his
detractor \ He recriminates on his adversary as one who, by
his literal adherence to his original, had turned good Greek
plays into bad Latin ones. He justifies himself from the
charge of plagiarising from Plautus and Naevius ". In another
passage he contrasts his own quiet treatment of his subjects
with the sensational extravagance of other play-wrights ^ He
meets the charge of receiving assistance in the composition of
his plays by claiming, as a great honour, the favour which he
enjoyed with those who deservedly were the favourites of the
Roman people ^
He was not a popular poet, in the sense in which Plautus
was popular ; he made no claim to original invention, or even
original treatment of his materials : he was however not a mere
translator but rather an adapter from the Greek ; and his aim was
to give a true picture of Greek life and manners in the purest
Latin style. He stands in much the same relation to Menander
and other writers of the new comedy ^ as that in which a
fine engraver stands to a great painter. He speaks with the
enthusiasm not of a creative genius, but of an imitative artist,
inspired by a strong admiration of his models. And this view
of his aim is confirmed by the result which he attained. He
has none of the purely Roman characteristics of Plautus, in
sentiment, allusion, or style '^ ; none of his extravagance, and
none of his creative exuberance of fancy. The law which
' Prol. Aiidria, 1. 20. '^ Eunnchus, Prologue, 1. 22, etc.
^ Prol. to Phormio, 1. 5, etc. * Prol. Adelph. 15-21.
* The Phormio is taken from Apollodorus.
' We have one or two Latin puns. Such as the play of words in
ainentimn and antantiiini, verba and verhera ; one or two cases of allitera-
tion and asyndeton, e.g. —
Ilic est vietus, vetus, veternosus senex, —
and
Profundat, perdat, pereat, etc. ;
but such mannerisms, which abound in Plautus, are extremely rare in the
younger poet.
P 2
212 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
Terence always imposes on himself is Ihc ' ne quid nimis.'
He aims at correctness and consistency, and rejects nearly
every expression or allusion which might remind his hearers
that they were in Rome and not in Athens. His plots are
tamer and less varied in their interest than those of Plautus,
but they are worked out much more carefully and artistically.
He takes great pains in the opening scenes to make the
situation in which the play begins clear, and he allows the
action to proceed to the denouement through the medium of
the natural play of character and motive. As a painter of life
it is not by striking effects, but by his truth in detail, and his
power of delineating the finer distinctions in varying specimens
of the same type, that he gains the admiration of the reader.
There are no strongly-drawn or vividly conceived personages
in his plays, but they all act and speak in the most natural
manner. Though he has left no trace in any of his plays of
one drawing directly from the life, there is no more truthful,
natural, and delicate delineator of human nature, in its
ordinary and more level moods, within the whole range of
classical literature. Characters, circumstances, motives, etc.,
are all in keeping with a cosmopolitan type of citizen or family
life, courteous and humane, taking the world easily, and out-
wardly decorous in its pleasures, but without serious interests,
or high aspirations.
Terence is, accordingly, in substance and form, a 'dimidiatus
ISIenander,' — a Roman only in his language. The aim of his
art was to be as purely Athenian as it was possible for one
writing in Latin to be. While his great gift to Roman
literature is that he first made it artistic, that he imparted to
rude Latium the sense of elegance, consistency, and modera-
tion, his gift to the world is that, through him, it possesses
a living image of Greek society in the third century u.c. pre-
sented in the purest Latin idiom. The life of Athens after the
loss of her religious belief, her great political activity, and
speculative and artistic energy, — or, rather, one of the phases
of that life, as- it was shaped by Menander for dramatic
VIT.l TERENCE, AND THE LATER COMIC POETS. 213
purposes — supplies the material of all his plays. It is the
embodiment of the lighter side of the philosophy of Epicurus,
without the elevation of the speculative and scientific curiosity
which gave serious interest even to that form of the philosophic
life. There is a charm of friendliness, urbanity, social enjoy-
ment, superficial kindness of heart, in the picture presented :
and it was a necessary stage in the culture of the best Romans
that they should learn to appreciate this charm, and assimilate
its influence in their intercourse with one another. The Greek
comedy of Menander was a lesson to the Romans in manners,
in tolerance, in kindly indulgence to equals and inferiors, and
in the cultivation of pleasant relations with one another. The
often quoted line, —
Homo sum ; hiimani nihil a me aliennm puto,
might be taken as its motto. The idea of ' human nature,'
in its weakness and in its sympathy with weakness, may be
said to be the new element introduced into Roman life by the
comedy of Terence. The qualities of ' humanitas, dementia,
facilitas,' — general amiability and good nature, — are the virtues
which it exemplifies. The indulgence of the old to the follies
or pleasures of the young is often contrasted with the stricter
view of the obligations of life, entertained by an earlier genera-
tion, and always in favour of the former. The plea of the
passionate modern poet —
' To step aside is human.' —
is often urged, but without any feeling that this divergence
needs an apology. The hoUowness of the social conditions
on which this superficial agreeability and humanity rested is
revealed by passages in these plays which prove that the
habitual comfort of a moderately wealthy class was maintained
by the practice of infanticide : and a virtuous wife is repre-
sented as begging the forgiveness of her husband for having
given her child away instead of ordering it to be put to death \
' In the Heauton Timorumenos.
214 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
In its outward amenity, as well as its inward hollowness, tlie
social and family life depicted in the comedies of Terence was
the very antithesis of the old Roman austere and formal
discipline. How far this new view of life contributed to the
subsequent deterioration of Roman character, it is difficult to
say. The writings of Cicero and Horace show that the
receptive Italian intellect was able to extract the elements of
courtesy, tolerance, and social amiability out of such a delinea-
tion without any loss of native manliness and strength of affec-
tion. And thus perhaps, apart from their literary charm, the
permanent gain to the world from the comedies of Terence
and the philosophy which they embody, has been greater than
the immediate loss to the weaker members of the Roman youth
who may have been misled by the view of life presented in
them.
Love, generally in the form of pathetic sentiment rather
than of irregular passion, is the motive of all the pieces. There
is generally a double love-story ; one, an attachment, which,
if not virtuous in the beginning, has become so afterwards, and
which ends in marriage and the discovery that the lady is the
daughter of a citizen, who has been exposed or carried away in
her infancy ; the other, an ordinary intrigue, like those which
form the subject of most of the comedies of Plautus. In his
treatment of love, Terence may be said to be the precursor of
Catullus, Propertius, and Tibullus. He has the serious sense
of its pains and pleasures which they display, though he wants
the passionate intensity of the two first of these. The greatest
attraction of his love passages arises from his tenderness of
feeling. In this he is like Tibullus. Although the origin of the
sentiment, in most of his plays, is nothing deeper than desire,
inspired by outward charms and enhanced by compassion,
yet we recognise in him, or in the model which he followed,
much more than in Plautus, a belief in and appreciation of
constancy and fidelity. In his treatment of his 'amantes
ephebi ' he shows sympathy with, rather than the humorous
superiority to, their weaknesses which we find in Plautus.
VII.] TERENCE, AND THE LATER COMIC POETS. 215
But though there is more grossness in the older poet, yet
there is occasionally more real indelicacy in Terence ; as
in the subject of the 'Eunuchus' and in the acceptance
by Phaedria, at the end of that play, of the suggestion
of Gnatho, which, in its union of mercenary with senti-
mental motives, is almost more repugnant to natural
feeling than the conclusion of the ' Asinaria ' and ' Bac-
chides.'
The characters in Terence, although more consistent and
more true to ordinary life, are more faintly drawn than those
of Plautus. None of them stand out in our memory with the
distinctness and individuality of Euclio, Pseudolus, BalHo, or
Tyndarus. The want of definite personality which they had to
the poet himself is implied in the frequent recurrence of the
same names in his different pieces. They are products of
analysis and reflexion, not of bold invention and creative
sympathy. They are embodiments of the good sense which
keeps a conventional society together, or of the tamer impulses
by which the surface of that society is temporarily ruffled.
The predominant tone in their intercourse with one another is
one of urbanity. We find none of the rollicking vituperation
and execration in which Plautus revels. Delicate irony and
pointed epigram take the place of broad humour. The en-
counter of wits between slaves and fathers is conducted with
the weapons of polished repartee and mutual deference to one
another, Davus, Parmeno, Syrus, Geta, speak in the terse
and epigrammatic language of gentlemen and men of the
world.
While the ' Andria ' has more pathetic situations, and the
' Adelphoe ' is on the whole more true to human nature, the
' Eunuchus ' presents the greatest number of interesting per-
sonages. The Thais of that play is the most favourable
delineation of the Athenian ' Hetaera ' in ancient literature.
She has grace and dignity, a consciousness of her charms
combined with a proud humility, and not only kindliness of
nature, but real goodness of heart. The natural dignity of her
2l6 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
nature, tempered by the sense of her position, appears in her
rebuke to Chaerea, —
Non te dignum, Chaerea,
Fecisti : nam si ego digna hac contumelia
Sum maxume, at tu indignus qui faceres tamen ' ;
and her kindness is equally manifest in her ready admission of
his excuse,
Non adeo inhumane ingenio sum, Chaerea,
Xeque ita imperita, lit quid amor valeat, nesciam-.
Gnatho is a new and more subtly conceived type of the
parasite, and in Thraso the ' Miles Gloriosus ' does not
transcend the limits of credibility. Parmeno and Phaedria
are natural embodiments of the confidential slave and the
weak lover. Their relations to one another are brought out
with more delicate irony and finer psychological analysis,
though with less vigour than those of Pseudolus and Calidorus,
or of Ludus and Pistoclerus in the Pseudolus and Bacchides
of Plautus. The Davus, Geta, and Syrus of the other plays
are tamer and less humorous than the slaves of Plautus ; but
they play their part with wit and liveliness, and the ro/e which
they have to perform is not felt to be incompatible with the
ordinary conditions of life. Aeschinus, in the Adelphoe,
shows a higher spirit and more energy of character than most
of the other lovers in Plautus or Terence. The contrast
between the genial, indulgent, selfish man of the world, and
the harder type of character produced by exclusive devotion to
business, is well brought out in the Micio and Demea of the
Adelphoe, and in the Chremes and Menedemus of the
Heauton Timorumenos. The two brothers in the ' Phormio,'
Demipho and Chremes, are also happily characterised and
distinguished from one another; and Phormio is himself a
' 'This act was not worthy of yon, Chaerea : for even if it is quite fitting
that I should receive such an insult, all the same it was not fitting that
it should come from you.*
'^ ' 1 am not so wanting in natural feeling or so unschooled in its ways as
not to know what love is capable of.'
VII.] TERENCE, AND THE LATER COMIC POETS. 217
type of the parasite, as distinct from Gnatho, as he is from the
Gelasimus or Curculio of Plautus. The character-painting in
Terence is altogether free from the tendency to exaggeration
and caricature which is the besetting fault of some of the
greatest humourists. Yet with all his truth of detail, his
careful avoidance of the extreme forms of villainy, roguery,
and inhuman hardness, it may be doubted whether the life
represented by Terence is not on the whole more purely
conventional than that represented by Plautus. His person-
ages seem to move about in a kind of ' Fools' paradise '
without the knowledge of good or evil. All the sentimental
virtues seem to flourish spontaneously, even in the hearts of
his courtesans : and though he holds up a true ideal of fidelity
in love and loyalty in friendship, yet the chief practical lesson
that seems to be suggested is the necessity of overcoming the
restraints imposed by prudence and conscience on the indul-
gence of natural inclination.
If we consider the form, substance, and spirit of these six
plays, we find that their merit consists in the art with which
the situation is unfolded and the plot developed, the con-
sistency and moderation with which a conventional view of life
and various types of character are set before us, and in the
large part played in them by the tender and sympathetic
emotions. But their great attraction, both to ancient and
modern readers, has been their charm of style. The diction
of Terence, while it wants the creativeness and exuberance of
Plautus, is free from the mannerisms which accompanied
these large endowments of the older poet. The superiority of
his style over that of Lucilius, who wrote a generation after him,
is almost immeasurable. The fine Attic flavour is more
perceptible in his Latin, than in the Greek of his contempo-
raries. He does not attempt to emulate the ' numeri innumeri '
of Plautus, but limits himself almost entirely to those metres
which suit the natural flow of placid or more animated conver-
sation, viz. the iambic (senarian or septenarian) and the
trochaic septenarian. The effect of his metre is to introduce
21 8 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
measure, propriety, grace, and point into ordinary speech
without impairing its ease and spontaneousness. The natural
vivacity and urbanity of his style is equally apparent in
dialogue, or in rapid and picturesque narrative of incidents
and pathetic situations ^ He is full of happy often-quoted
sayings, such as
Hinc illae lacrimae. Amantium irae amoris integratiost.
Quot homines, tot sententiae.
Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto.
Tacent : satis laudant.
Nosse omnia haec salus est adulescentulis.
Cantilenam eandem canis — laterem lavem, — etc. etc.
Many of these — such as ' ne quid nimis,' ' ad restim res redit
mihi,' 'auribus teneo lupum,' etc. — are obviously translations
from Greek proverbial sayings ; and in all his use of language
we may trace the influence of a close observation and
sympathetic enjoyment of Greek subtlety, reserve, delicate
allusiveness, curious felicity in union with direct simplicity.
These qualities of style, reproduced in the purest Latin idiom,
had a great influence on the familiar style of Horace. Ex-
pressions in his Satires and Epistles, and even in his Odes,
show how closely he studied the language of Terence -. It is
from a scene in Terence that Horace takes his example of the
weakness of passion ■■ ; and the mode in which he tells how his
father trained him to correct his own faults by observing other
men must have been suggested by the conversation between
Demea and Syrus in the Adelphoe '' : —
De. Denique
Inspicere tamquam in speculum in vitas omnium
lubeo atque ex aliis sumere exemplum sibi.
' E. g. Andria, 115-136 ; 282-298; Heauton Timorumenos, 273-301.
- The original of such expressions as — Appone lucro ; Dulce est
desipere in loco ; Rimosa quae deponuntur in aure ; Qua parte de-
bacchentur ignes; Cena dubia ; Paucoiuni hominum et mentis bene
sanae; Quam sapere el ringi ; Quid non ebrietas designat ? — and others,
are to be found in Terence.
' Eunuch. A. i. I ; cf. Ilor. Sat. ii. 3, 260, etc, * 414, etc.
VII.] TERENCE, AND THE LATER COMIC POETS. 219
' Hoc facito.' Sf. Recte sane. /)e. ' Hoc fngito.' Sf. Callide.
Be, ' Hoc laudist.' Sj'. ' Istaec res est.' De. ' Hoc vitio datur.' '
Again, the remonstrance of Micio to Demea,
Si esses homo,
Sineres nunc facere, diim per aetatem licet,
expresses the philosophy of many of his love poems and his
drinking songs. The Epicurean sentiment and reflexion
borrowed from Menander were congenial to one side of
Horace's nature, as the manly independence and serious spirit
of Lucilius were to another : and in his own style he has
incorporated the conversational urbanity of the one writer
no less than the intellectual vigour of the other. But Horace
was much richer and more varied in the subjects of his art, as
he was larger and more penetrating in his knowledge of the
world, and more manly and serious in his view of life, than the
comic poet who died so early in his career.
But not Horace only, but some of the best judges and
greatest masters of style both in ancient and modern times
have been among his chief admirers. Cicero frequently
reproduces his expressions, applies passages in his plays to his
own circumstances, and refers to his personages as typical
representatives of character^. Julius Caesar characterises him
as ' puri sermonis amator.' Quintilian applies to his writing
the epithet ' elegantissimus/ and in that connexion refers
to the belief that his plays were the work of Scipio Africanus.
Cicero, on the other hand, speaks of the belief that they were
the work of Laelius, ' cuius fabellae propter elegantiam
sermonis putabantur a C. Laelio scribi^' The imputation in
the poet's own time, which he does not altogether disclaim,
appears to have been that both friends assisted him in his
task.
' ' Then I bid him look into the lives of men as into a mirror, and to
form for himself an example from others.' 'Do this.' .Sj'. 'Quite right.'
De. ' Avoid this.' Sy. ' Cleverly said.' De. ' This is honourable.' .Sj.
' That is it.' De. ' This is discreditable.'
^ Cf. Ep. ad Fam. i. 9. 19 ; Phil. ii. 1 ■;.
^ Ep. ad Att. vii. 3. 10.
220 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Cii.
His works were studied and learned by heart by the great
Latin writers of the Renaissance, such as Erasmus and
Melanchthon : and Casaubon, in his anxiety that his son should
write a pure style, inculcates on him the constant study of
Terence. Montaigne applies to him the phrase of Horace, —
Liquidus puroque simillimus amni.
He speaks of ' his fine expression, elegancy, and quaintness,'
and adds ' he does so possess the soul with his graces that we
forget those of his fable \' It is among the French, the great
masters of the prose of refined conversation, that his merits
have been most appreciated in modern times. Sainte-Beuve, in
his ' Nouveaux Lundis,' devotes to him two papers of delicate
and admiring criticism. He quotes Fenelon and Addison,
'deux esprits polls et doux, de la meme famille litteraire,'
as expressing their admiration for the inimitable beauty and
naturalness of one of his scenes. Fenelon is said to have
preferred him even to Moliere. Sainte-Beuve calls Terence
the bond of union between Roman urbanity and the Atticism
of the Greeks, and adds that it was in the seventeenth century,
when French literature was most truly xA.ttic, that he was most
appreciated. M. Joubert is quoted^ as applying to him the words
' Le miel Attique est sur ses levres ; on croirait aisement qu'il
naquit sur le mont Hymette.'
After the death of Terence the only writer oi palliatae of
any name was Sextus Turpilius, who died about the end of
the second century b. c. No new element seems to have been
contributed by him to the Roman Stage. After the decline of
the Comoedia palliata, the Comoedia togata, which professed
to represent the Roman and Italian life of the middle classes,
first obtained popular favour. The principal writers of this
branch of comedy were T. Quintius Atta and L. Afranius.
The latter was regarded as the Roman Menander : —
Dicitur Afrani toga convenisse Menandro.
' Essays of Montaij^ne, Cot'on's Translation, cli. Ixvii.
" By E. Negrette, in his Ilistoire de la Litterature Latine.
VII.] TERENCE, AND THE LATER COMIC POETS. 221
The admiration which he expressed for Terence, whom he
regarded as the foremost of all the Roman comic poets, is
in keeping with this criticism. From the testimony of Quin-
tilian ' we may infer that the change of scene from Athens
to Rome and the provincial towns of Italy did not improve
the morality of the Roman stage. A further decline both
in intellectual interest and in moral tendency appeared in the
resuscitation in a literary form of the Fabulae Atellanae,
the chief writers of which were L. Pomponius and Novius. A
still further degradation was witnessed in the later days of the
Republic and under the Empire in the rise of the ' Mimus,' as
a recognised branch of dramatic literature. If the influence of
the comic stage, when its chief representatives were Plautus
and Terence, is to be regarded as only of a mixed character, it
is difficult to associate any idea of intellectual pleasure with
the gross buffooneries of the Atellan farce, when it had passed
from the spontaneous hilarity of primitive times into the
conditions of an artistic performance, and still less with the
' mimi,' whic.h were intended to gratify the lowest propensities
of the spectators. The rapid degeneracy of the mass of the
people from the characteristic virtues of the older Republic
is testified as much by the popularity of such spectacles as
by the passionate delight excited by the gladiatorial combats.
* Qnint. x. i, lOo.
CHAPTER VIII.
Early RoiMan Satire — C. Lucilius, Died 102 u.c.
Poetical satire, as a branch of cultivated literature, arose
out of the social and political circumstances, and the moral
and literary conditions of Roman life in the last half of the
second century B.C. The tone by which that form of poetry
has been characterised, in ancient and modern times, is derived
from the genius and temper of a remarkable man, belonging to
that era, and from the spirit in which he regarded the world.
C. Lucilius invented satire, by first imparting a definite purpose
to an inartistic kind of metrical composition, in which mis-
cellaneous topics had been treated in accordance with the
occasional mood or interests of the writer. Although the
satire of Lucilius was rude and unfinished, and evidently
retained much of the vague general character belonging to the
satura of Ennius, yet he was undoubtedly the first Roman
writer who used his materials with the aim and in the manner
which poetical satire has permanently assumed. The indi-
genous satura existing at Rome before the rise of regular
literature had been merged partly in the Latin comedy of
Naevius, Plautus, Caecilius, etc., partly in the metrical mis-
cellanies of Ennius and Pacuvius, which, though not written
for the stage, retained the name of the old scenic medley.
The new satire differed from Latin comedy in form and style,
and in the personal and national aims which it set before itself.
The satire of Lucilius, and even that of Horace, retained many
features in common with the desultory medley which Ennius
had formed out of the older satura. But the latter was the
EARLY SATIRE. LUCILIUS. 223
parent of no permanent form of literary art. The miscellanies
of VarrO; the most famous work produced on this model, were
composed partly in prose and partly in verse, and were never
ranked by the Romans among their poetical works. The
former, on the other hand, was the parent of the satire of
Horace, of Persius, and of Juvenal, and, through that, of
the poetical satire of modern times. The spirit of censorious
criticism, in which Lucilius treated the politics and morals, the
social manners and the literary taste of his age, has become
the essential characteristic of that form of literature which
derived its name from the old Italian satura.
Of all the forms of Roman poetry, satire was least indebted
to the works of the Greeks, Quintilian claims it altogether for
his countrymen — ' satira tota nostra est.' Horace characterises
it as ' Graecis intacti carminis,' ^Vhile the names by which
they are known at once betray the Greek invention of the
other great forms of poetic art, the name of satire alone
indicates a Roman origin. It is true that Lucilius, like
every educated man of his time, was acquainted with the Greek
language and literature. It is true also that the critical spirit
in Greece had found vent for itself in the works of the early
iambic writers, Archilochus, Simonides of Amorgos, and
Hipponax, of the great authors of the old political comedy of
Athens, and apparently in later writings such as the satiric
discourses of Bion of Borysthenes, mentioned in Horace's
line —
Ille Bioneis sermonibus et sale nigro.
But Roman satire sprang up and flourished independently
of any of those kinds of composition. In national spirit and
moral purpose it was unlike the personal lampoons of the
Greek satirists. It was perhaps not less personal, but was
more ethical ; it professed at least to be animated not by
private enmity but by public spirit. It embraced also a much
greater variety of topics, Horace finds a closer parallel to
the satire of Lucilius in the old Athenian comedy. These two
kinds of literature have this in common, that they are the
224 T^HE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
expression of public, not of personal feeling. But though
Lucilius probably, like Horace after him, studied the old
comic poets 'Eupoiis, Cratinus and Aristophanes,' to catch
something of their spirit and manner in his satire, Roman
satire was not an imitation of Greek comedy. Where Roman
literature professes to be an imitation of Greek, it is the
form and the metre much more than the spirit and matter that
are reproduced. Greek comedy and Roman satire were the
independent results of freedom of speech and criticism in dif-
ferent ages and countries. Their difference in form arose out
of fundamental differences in the character as well as in the
genius of the two nations. Although Roman speakers and
writers exercised a license of speech and of personal criticism
equal to that which prevailed in the Athenian democracy,
and beyond what the spirit of personal honour tolerates in
modern times, yet the exposure of public men to ridicule
on the stage was utterly repugnant to the instincts of an
aristocratic republic in which one of the great bonds of union
was respect for outward authority \ The tendency of the
Roman mind to reduce all things to rule and to express
itself in abstract comments on life, rather than to represent
human nature in living forms, also favoured the assumption
by Lucilius of a mode of literature addressing itself to the
understanding of readers, and not to the curiosity of spec-
tators.
The spirit by which satire is animated was native to Italy.
The germ out of which it was developed was the Fescennina
licentia, or, as it is called by Dionysius, the Kfprofios ml aarvpiKi]
TratSta, peculiar to the Italian people. But in assuming a
regular literary form, this native raillery was tempered by
' Bernhardy quotes the following words from Cicero, de Rep. iv. ap.
Augustin. C. D. ii. 9 : —
Etsi eiusmodi cives (scil. Cleonem, Cleophoutein, llypcrbolum) a censore
melius est, quam a poeta notari . . . iudiciis cnim magistratuum, dis-
ceptationibus legitimis propositam vitam, non poetarum ingeniis habere
debemus; nee probrum audire ni-.i ea lege ut respondere liceat et iudicio
dei'endere.
VIII.] EARLY SATIRE. LUCILIUS. 225
the serious spirit and vigorous understanding of Rome, and
liberalised by the tastes and ideas derived from a Greek
education. The age in which satire arose, — the age of the
Gracchi, — was one of social discontent, of political excitement,
of intellectual activity, of moral and religious unsettlement :
and all these conditions exercised a powerful influence on
its character. As addressed not to the imagination but to the
practical understanding, it was in a peculiar manner the
literary product of a people 'rebus natus agendis.' It com-
bined the practical philosophy of the 'abnormis sapiens,'
expressing itself in proverbial sayings, anecdotes, and homely
illustrations ; the keen perceptions, the criticism, and vivacity
of a circle, educated, well-bred, and versed in affairs; the
serious purpose of a moral censor ; and the knowledge of life,
which results from the mixed study of men and books. Their
circumstances, temper, and pursuits, united these various
elements, in different proportions, first in Lucilius, and after
him in Horace. By writing what interested themselves, in
accordance with their own natural bent, they satisfied the
practical and social tastes of their countrymen. While the
higher poetical imagination was a rare and exceptional gift
among Roman authors, and was appreciated only by a limited
class of readers, there was in Roman satire a true popular ring
and a close adaptation to the national character, understanding,
and circumstances. Martial writes in his day —
Nescis hen, nescis dominae fastidia Romae :
Crede mihi nimium Martia turba sapit :
.Maiores nusquam rhonchi; iuvenesque senesque
Et piieri nasum rhinocerotis habent'. — i. 4. 2-6.
As the most genuine product of actual Roman life, satire was,
if not so luxuriant, a more vigorous plant than any other
species of Roman poetry. It is seen growing up in hardy
vigour under the free air of the Republic, attaining to mature
* ' You know not, ah you know not the airs of Imperial Rome: believe me
the people of Mars is too critical : nowhere are there greater sneers ; youn"-
men and old and even boys have the nose of a rhinoceros.'
226 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
perfection amid the rich intellectual life of the Augustan age,
and still fresh and vital in the general intellectual languor and
corruption of the Empire.
The Roman character of satire is attested also by the fact
that other Roman poets and authors, besides those who
professed to follow in the footsteps of Lucilius, have exhibited
the satiric spirit. The caustic sense of Ennius, the generous
scorn of Lucretius, the license of Catullus, attest their affinity,
in some elements of character, to the Roman satirists. There
may be remarked also in the best modern works of poetical
satire, — such as the Absalom and Achitophel, the Prologue to
Pope's Satires, the Vanity of Human Wishes, — a conscious or
unconscious echo of that vigorous sense and nervous speech,
which accompanied the great practical energy of the Romans.
vSatire was not only national in its intellectual and moral
characteristics, but it played a part in public life at Rome.
Even under the Empire, when free speech and comment
on the government were no longer possible, the Roman
satirists claimed to perform an office similar in spirit to that
which the Republic in its best days had devolved on its most
honourable magistracy. But the satire of the Republic,
besides performing this magisterial office, played an active
part in the politics of the day. It combined the freedom of a
tribune with the severity of a censor. It held up to public
criticism the delinquencies of leading politicians, and of the
mass of the people in their elective divisions, —
Primores popiili arripuit populumque tributim.
Nor was it confined to aggressive criticism : it was used also
as an instrument of political partisanship, to paint the virtues
of Scipio as well as the vices of his antagonists. It thus
performed something of the same kind of i^ublic office as the
political pamphlet of an earlier time, and the newspaper of the
present day.
It endeavoured also, by acting on individual character,
to effect objects which the Roman State strove to accomplish
VIII.] EARLY SATIRE. LUCILIUS. 227
by direct legislation. The various sumptuary laws of that age,
and the enactments made to repress the study of Greek
rhetoric and philosophy, emanated from the same spirit which
led Lucilius to denounce the increase of luxury and the
affectation of Greek manners among his contemporaries.
The strong Roman appetites and the novelty of new studies
prevailed alike over the artificial restraints of legislative enact-
ments, and over the contemptuous and the earnest teaching of
satire. But the influence of satire could reach further than
that of censors or sumptuary laws. While it could brand
notorious offenders it was able also to unmask hypocritical
pretences —
Detrahere et pellem, nitidus qua qiiisque per ora
Cederet, introrsum turpis.
It could stimulate to virtue as well as denounce flagrant
offences. It wielded something of the power of the preacher
to produce an inward change in the characters of men. By
its close contact with real experience and its close adherence
to the national standard of virtue, it might educate men for the
duties of citizens more effectually than the teaching of Greek
rhetoric or philosophy.
But while satire in its earlier manifestation, from one side, is
to be regarded as the directest expression of Roman public
life, it was, at the same time, the truest exponent of the
character, pursuits, and interests of the individual writer.
The old definition of it by a Latin grammarian, 'Carmen
maledicum et ad carpenda hominum vitia compositum,' is
quite inapplicable to those familiar writings of Horace, in
which he gives a pleasant account of his habits and mode
of life in town and country, or that in which he humorously
narrates his various adventures on his journey to Brundisium.
The writings of Horace and Lucilius bore a more varied and
miscellaneous character than that of the satire of the Empire
or of modern times. Horace expresses his opinions and
feelings in the form sometimes of a dialogue, sometimes of a
familiar epistle, sometimes of a discourse put into the mouth
Q2
228 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
of another, sometimes of a moral disquisition. He makes
abundant use of fables, anecdotes, personal portraiture, real
and imaginary, autobiography, and self-analysis. The frag-
ments of Lucilius, and the notices about him in ancient
authors, prove that in these respects Horace followed in
his footsteps. The testimony of the lines—
Ille velut fidis arcana sodalibus olim, etc.,
implies that Lucilius used his satire as a natural vehicle
for expressing everything that interested him, in his own life
and in the circumstances of his time. In regard to the
miscellaneous nature of the topics treated by him, and the
frankness of his personal revelations, his truest modern
parallel is Montaigne, — the father of the prose essay, which
has performed the function of the older Roman satire more
completely than even the poetical satire of modern times.
Among the poets of the Republic, whose works have
reached us only in fragments, Lucilius is only second in
importance to Ennius. Roman Satire owes as much in
form, substance, and spirit to him as the Roman epic does to
the older poet. While Ennius represents the highest mood of
Rome, and first gave expression to that imperial idea which
ultimately realised itself in history, Lucilius is the exponent of
her ordinary moods, manifested in the streets and the forum,
and of those internal dissensions and destructive forces by
which her political life was agitated and ultimately overthrown-
His personal characteristics and literary position can be
inferred with nearly as much certainty as those of Ennius.
The most important external evidence from which we form our
idea of him is that of Horace and Cicero. But the numerous
fragments of his writings bear a strong impress of his per-
sonality. From the confirmation which they give to other
testimonies, we may endeavour to recover some of the lines
and colours of that ' votiva tabula ' which the contemporaries
of Horace found in his books, and to realise the nature of the
work performed by him and of the influence which he exer-
cised over his countrymen.
VIII.] EARLY SATIRE. LUCILIUS, 229
The time at which he appeared was one of the most critical
epochs in Roman history, the end of one great era^ — that
of the undisputed ascendency of the Senate, — the beginning
of the century of revolution which ended with the Battle
of Actium. The mind of the nation began then to turn from
the monotonous spectacle of military conquest and to busy
itself with the conditions of internal well-being. A spirit
of discontent with these, similar to that which called
forth the legislation of the Gracchi, opened up a new path for
Latin literature. It began then to concern itself, not with the
national idea of conquest and empire, but with the actual
condition of men. It sought for its material, not in the
representation which had been fashioned by Greek dramatic
art out of the heroic legends of early Greece or the citizen life
of her later days, but out of the every day life of the
Roman streets, law-courts, public assemblies, dinner-tables, and
literary coteries, and out of the baser details of actual
experience by which the magnificent ideal of Roman greatness
was largely qualified. Though there is considerable difficulty
in accepting the dates usually assigned for the birth and death
of Lucilius, there is no reason to doubt that his active literary
career began about the time of the tribunates of Tib. Gracchus,
and continued till nearly the end of the first century b.c. This
period is so important and interesting that such glimpses
of light as are afforded by the fragments of the contemporary
satirist are highly to be prized.
The dates of his birth and death, according to Jerome,
were 148 b.c. and 102 b.c. We are told, on the same authority,
that he died at Naples and received the honour of a public
funeral. The chief difficulty in accepting these dates arises
from the statement of Velleius that Lucilius served as an
' eques ' under Scipio in the Numantine War ^, and from
' Veil. Paterc. ii. 9. The service of Lucilius in Spain seems to be
confirmed by a line in one of his Satires : —
Publiu' Pavu' mihi [ ] quaestor Ilibera
In terra fuit, lucifugus, nebulo, id genu' sane.
230 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
the fact, attested by Horace and other authorities, of his great
intimacy with both Scipio and Laelius \ Horace also mentions
that he celebrated in his writings the justice and valour of
Scipio, —
Attamen el iustiim poteras et sciibere fortein
Scipiadem ut sapiens Lucilius — ;
and the parallel there suggested between the relation of
Lucilius to the great soldier and statesman of his age,
and of Horace to Augustus, would be inappropriate unless
the praises there spoken of had been bestowed on Scipio
in his life-time. Fragments from one book of the Satires
appear to be parts of a letter written by Lucilius to con-
gratulate his friend on the capture of Numantia ^. One line of
Book xxvi, —
Percrepa pugnam Popilli, facta Cornell cane,
contrasts the defeat of M. Popillius Laenas in 138 n.c. with
the subsequent successes of Scipio. In another fragment
Lucilius charges Scipio with affectation for pronouncing
the word ' pertaesum ' as if it were ' pertisum ^' He is also
mentioned as one of those whose criticism Lucilius dreaded ^
These and other passages must have been written -in the
life-time of Scipio — i.e. before 129 b.c. Thus, if the date
assigned for the birth of Lucilius is correct, he must have
served in the Numantine War at the age of fourteen or
fifteen, he must have been admitted into the most intimate
familiarity with the greatest man of the age, and must have
composed some books of his Satires, and thus introduced
a new form of literature, before the age of nineteen. L.
Miiller in his edition of the Fragments adduces other
considerations for rejecting the dates given by Jerome,
* Hor. Sat. ii. i. 71-5.
= Cf. L. Miiller's edition of the Fragments.
* Quo facetior videare et scire plus qnam caeteri
Pertisum hominem, non pertaesum dices.
The comment of Festus shows that these words were addressed by Lucilius
to Scipio.
* Cic. de Fin. i. 3.
VIII.] EARLY SATIRE. LUCILIUS. 231
such as the allusions to the career of Lupus (whom he
supposes to be the same as the Censor of 147 c. c.) and to the
war with Viriathus. He holds also that the words of Horace —
Quo fit ut omnis
Votiva pateat veluti descripta tabella
Vila sfin's —
lose their point, unless se///s is to be understood in its
usual sense. He supposes that the mistake of Jerome arose
from a similarity in the names of the Consuls of 148 b. c.
and 180 B.C., and would therefore throw the date of the poet's
birth more than thirty years further back than that commonly
received.
Whatever strength there may be in the other objections
urged against accepting the date 148 B.C. as that of the birth
of Lucilius, it is difficult to believe that Lucilius should have
taken part in the Numantine War, and been admitted to
apparently equal intimacy with Scipio before he had attained
the age of fifteen. It is still more difficult to suppose that the
earliest book or books of his Satires, composed before the death
of Scipio, should be the work of a boy under nineteen years of
age. But with these admissions it is not necessary to throw
back the date of the poet's birth so far as is done by Miiller.
A more probable explanation of the error in the date was
suggested by Mr. Munro in the Journal of Philology. He
supposes that Jerome in copying the words of Suetonius
referring to the death and funeral of Lucilius substituted the
'anno aetatis xlvi. for Ixiv. or Ixvi., and then adapted the year
of birth to the annus Abrahae which would correspond to this
false reading.' Mr. Munro adds, ' Everything would now run
smooth. Lucilius when he went with Scipio to Spain would
be in the prime of manhood, thirty-two or thirty-four years of
age. Soon after that time he would be writing and publishing
his earliest Books, xxvi.-xxix., and then xxx. Some of these at
all events would be published before the death of Scipio, when
the poet would be thirty-seven or thirty-nine ^' It may be
' Journal of Philology, vol. viii. 16.
232 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
added against the supposition that LuciHus was born in
the year i8o B.C., that, in that case, we should have expected
to have found in his numerous fragments allusions to events
even earlier than the Censorship of P. Cornelius Lupus or the
wars with Viriathus. Moreover the notices of his relation to
Scipio and Laelius, as in the ' discincti ludere ' of Horace, and
in the story told by the Scholiast on that passage, of Laelius
coming on them, when the poet was chasing Scipio round the
table with a napkin, seem to indicate the familiar footing of a
much younger to older men.
His birth-place was Suessa Aurunca in Campania. Juvenal
calls him 'Auruncae magnus alumnus.' He belonged to the
equestrian order, a fact indicated in the passage in which
Horace speaks of himself as ' infra Lucili censum.' The
Scholiast on that passage mentions that he was on the mother's
side grand-uncle to Pompey — a relationship confirmed by a
passage in Velleius, who mentions that the mother of Pompey
was named Lucilia.
His satires were written in thirty Books. The remaining
fragments amount to about iioo lines. Most of these
are single lines, preserved by grammarians as illustrative
of the use of words. The amount and variety of these, if they
had no other value, would at least be suggestive of the
industry with which grammatical and philological research into
their own language was carried on by Roman writers. Some
fragments are found in ancient commentaries on the Satires
and Epistles of Horace. The longer passages are quoted by
Cicero, Gellius, Lactantius, and others. The Books from i. to
XX. were written in hexameters; Book xxii., apparently,
in elegiacs, a metre which had hitherto been employed only in
short epigrams. Of the intervening Books between xxii. and
xxvi. there remains only one line\ Books xxvi. and xxix.,
from which a large number of lines have been preserved, were
written in trochaics and iambics. The last Book (xxx.) was
^ lucundasque puer qui lamberat ore placentas.
One of many lines imitated and almost reproduced by Horace.
VIII.] EARLY SATIRE. LUCILIUS. 233
written in hexameters. From the fact that the trochaic
and iambic metres had been chiefly employed by the
older writers of saturae, it seems probable that Lucilius made
his first attempts in these metres, that he afterwards adopted
the hexameter, and that in one or two of his latest books
he attempted to write continuously in elegiacs. The allusions
in Book xxvi. to the Spanish wars and to the ' exploits
of Cornelius,' and the statement of his reasons for coming
forward as an author, render it not improbable that this
Book was the earliest in order of composition. It was
in this Book that he appeared most conspicuously as
the censor and critic of the older writers, a position not
unlikely to have been assumed, at the very outset of his
career, by one who claimed to initiate a change in Roman
literature.
The first impression produced by reading these fragments,
as they have been arranged by Miiller or Lachmann, is one of
extreme desultoriness and discursiveness of treatment. The
words applied by Horace to Lucilius, —
Garrulus atque piger scribendi feire laborem,
characterise not his style only but his whole mode of com-
position. Subjects most widely removed from one another
seem to have been introduced into the same book. We have
no means of determining whether the separate books consisted
of one or several miscellaneous pieces. He seems to start off
on some new chase on the slightest suggestion, verbal or other-
wise, as in the opening of Book v. —
Quo. me habeam pacto, tametsi non quaeri', docebo,
Quando in eo numero mansti, quo in maxima nunc est
Pars hominum,
Ut periise velis quern visere nolueris, cum
Debueris. Hoc nolueris at debueris te
Si minu' delectat, quod rex^'^ov Isocratium est,
Ar]p(i)5isq\xe simul totum ac crvfiixeipaKiu/Sts,
Non operam perdo ',
' ' I will tell you how I am, though you don't ask me, since you are of the
fashion of most men now, and would rather that the man whom you did not
234 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
We cannot accordingly expect to trace in them anything
of the unity of purpose, the formal discourse and illustration
of a set topic, which characterise the Satires of Persius and
Juvenal, nor yet, of the apparently artless, but carefully
meditated ease with which Horace, in his Satires, reproduces
the manner of cultivated conversation. Lucilius adopts many
modes of bringing himself into relations with his reader.
Sometimes he speaks of himself by name, and appears to be
communing with himself on his own fortunes or feelings.
Sometimes he carries on a controversy in the form of dialogue;
at other times he addresses the reader directly ; or again,
he puts a discourse in the mouth of another, as that on
the luxury of the table in the mouth of Laelius. He makes
frequent use of the epistolary form — a form which in prose and
verse became one of the happiest products of Roman literature.
He employs fables, quotations, and parodies, to illustrate
his subject. He gives a narrative of his travels, and describes
scenes and incidents at which he was present, such as a fight
between two gladiators, a rustic feast, and a storm which
he encountered in his voyage to Sicily. In other places
he plays the part of a moralist, and discourses to a friend
on the nature of virtue. More frequently he takes on himself
the special office of a censor, and assails the vices of the day
by direct denunciation and living examples. In other places
he appears as a literary critic and a dictator on questions of
grammar and orthography.
In Book i., dedicated to Aelius Stilo the grammarian,
a council of the gods was introduced, debating how the
Roman State was still to be preserved ; and some of the
most notorious ^men of the time were exposed by name to
public reprobation. Book iii. contained an account of the
choose to visit, when you ought, had died. If you don't like this "nolueris"
and " debueris," because it is the trick of Isocrates, and altogether non-
sensical and puerile, I don't waste my time on the matter.' This passage
illustrates two characteristics of Lucilius— his habit of mixing Greek with
Latin words, and the attention he bestowed on technical rules of style.
VIII.] EARLY SATIRE. LUCILIUS. 235
author's journey from Rome to the Sicilian Strait, and has
been imitated by Horace in his journey to Brundisium. From
the line—
Mantica cantheri costas gravitate premebat' —
it appears that some part of the journey was made on horse-
back, but other lines " show that the latter part was made by
water, and that a severe storm was encountered on the voyage.
In Book iv., imitated by Horace (Sat. ii. 2), and by Persius in
his third satire, was included the discourse of Laelius against
gluttony. In this book mention was made of the sturgeon
which gained notoriety for Gallonius^ Book v. contained
a letter to a friend of the poet, who had neglected to visit him
when ill. Book ix. was composed of a dissertation on ques-
tions of grammar, orthography, and criticism. Book xi. treated
of the wars in Spain and Transalpine Gaul, and contained
criticisms and anecdotes of various public men. Book xvi.
was named ' Collyra,' in honour of the poet's mistress. In
other books the castigation of particular vices formed a promi-
nent topic, and some of the latest (probably the earliest in the
order of composition^ were largely filled with personal ex-
planations and with criticisms of the older poets. But the
desultory, discursive, self-communing character seems to have
been common to all of them ; and it would be contrary to our
evidence to speak of any single book as composed on a definite
plan, or as treating of a special topic.
The fragments however, when read collectively, bring out
' Imitated by Horace in the lines : —
Nunc mihi curto
Ire licet mulo, vel, si libet, usque Tarentum,
Mantica cui lumbos onere nlceret, atque eques armos.
^ Promontorium remis superamu' Minervae. —
Hinc media remis Palinurum pervenio nox. —
Tertius liic mali superat decumanis fluctibus — carchesia summa.
^ Hor. Sat. ii. 2. 46 :—
Hand ita pridem
. Galloni praeconis erat acipensere mensa
Infamis.
236 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
the main sources of interest which the Romans found in the
writings of Lucilius ; first, the interest of a self-portraiture and
close personal relation established with the reader^: second,
the interest of a censorious criticism on politics, morals, and
literature ".
Among the personal indications of the author we note the
great freedom and independence of his life and character. In
his mode of expressing this freedom and independence he
reminds us of Horace, who seems to have imitated him in his
view of life as well as in his writings. Thus, Lucilius declares
his indifference to public employment, and his unwillingness
to change his own position for the business of the Publicani of
Asia, just as Horace declares that he would not exchange his
leisure for all the wealth of Arabia\ Like Horace, he speaks
of the joy of escaping from the storms of life into a quiet haven
of repose ^ or inculcates contentment with one's own lot^ and
immunity from envy", and the superiority of plain living to
luxury". Like Horace, while holding to his independence of
life, he .put a high value on friendship, and strove to fulfil its
^ Quo fit lit omnis
Votiva pateat veluti desciipta tabella
Vita senis.
^ Secuit Lucilius urbem —
Primores populi arripuit populumque tributim —
Non ridet versus Eiini gravitate miiiores — ?
* Mihi quidem non persuadetur publiceis mutem meos.
Publicanu' vero ut Asiae fiam scriptuarius
Pro Lucilio, id ego nolo, et uno hoc non mute omnia.
Cf. Hor. Ep. i. 7. 36 : —
Nee
Otia divitiis Arabum liberrima muto.
* Quodque te in tranquillum ex saevis transfers tempestatibus.
* Nam si quod satis est homini, id satis esse potisset,
Hoc sat erat ; nam cum hoc non est, qui credimu' porro
Divitias ullas animum mi explere potisse.
* NuUi me invidere : non strabonem fieri saepius
Deliciis me istorum.
'' O lapathe, ut iactare nee es sati cognitu' qui sis —
Quod sumptum atque epulas victu praeponis honesto.
VIIL] EARLY SATIRE. LUCILIUS. 237
duties '. Like him, while condemning excess and weakness,
he did not conform to any austerer standard of morals than
that of the world around him. Like Horace, too, in his later
years, he seems to have been something of a valetudinarian ",
and to have had much of the self-consciousness which accom-
panies that condition. On the whole the impression we get of
him is that of an independent, self-reliant character, — of a
man living in strong contact with reality, taking all the rubs
of life cheerfully^, — enjoying society, travelling*, the ex-
ercise of his art ^, — a warm friend and partisan, and a bold
and uncompromising enemy, — not professing any austerity
of life, but knowing and following the course which gave
his own nature most satisfaction '"', while, at the same time,
upholding a high standard of public duty and personal
honour''.
This establishment of a personal relation with his readers
was one of the most original elements in the Lucilian satire.
He was the first of Roman, and one of the first among all,
writers, who took the public into his confidence, and gained
their ear, without exposing himself to contempt, by making
a frank and unreserved display of his inmost and most
^ Munitici comesque amicis nostris videamiar viri —
Sic amici quaerunt animum, rem parasiti ac ditias.
Among the friends of Lucilius, besides Scipio and Laelius, were Aelius
Stilo, Albinus, and Granius, whom Cicero quotes for his wit.
2 Querquera consequilur capitisque dolores
Infesti mihi. —
Si tarn corpu' loco validiim ac regione maneret.
Scriploris quam vera manet sententia cordi.
^ Verum haec ludus ibi susqiie omnia deque fuerunt,
Susque et deque fuere, inquam, omnia ludu' iocusque.
*■ Et saepe quod ante
Optasti, freta Mcssanae, Regina videbis
Moenia.
^ Quantum haurire animus Musarum ec fontibu' gestit.
^ Cum sciam nil esse in vita proprium mortali datum
lam qua tempestate vivo chresin ad me recipio.
Cf. Vitaque mancipio nulli datur, omnibus usu.
'' Cf. Virtus, Albine, etc. Infra, p. 240.
238 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
personal thoughts and feeUngs. Had his works reached us
entire, we should probably have found the same kind of
attraction in them, from the sense of familiar intimacy with
a man of interesting character and intelligence, which we find
in the Epistles of Cicero and the Satires and Epistles of
Horace.
His independent social position, and the character of the
times in which he lived, enabled him to perform the office of
a political satirist with more freedom than any other Roman
writer. He belonged to the middle party between the extreme
partisans of the aristocracy and of the democracy, the party of
Scipio and Laelius, and that to which Cicero, in a later age,
naturally inclined. He directed his satire against the cor-
ruption, incapacity, and arrogance ^ of the nobles by whom the
wars abroad and affairs at .home were mismanaged. His
service under Scipio, and his admiration of his generalship,
made him keenly sensitive to the disgrace incurred by the
Roman arms under 'the limping Hostilius and Manius V and
in the war against Viriathus. Among those assailed by him on
political grounds, L. Hostilius Tubulus, notorious for openly
receiving bribes while presiding at a trial for murder, and C.
Papirius Carbo, the friend of Tib. Gracchus and the suspected
murderer of Scipio, were conspicuous. The more reputable
names of Q. Caecilius Metellus Macedonicus and Mucius
Scaevola are also mentioned among the objects of his satire *.
' Peccare impune rati sunt
Posse et nobilitate procul propellere iniquos.
* Hostiliu' contra
Pestem permitiemque catax quam et Maniu' nobis.
* Cf. Cic. De Or. i. 16: Sed iit solebat C. Lucilius saepe dicere, homo
tibi (i.e. Scaevolae) subiratus, mihi propter earn causam minus quam volebat
familiaris, sed tamen et doctus et perurbanus.
Hor, Sat. ii. i. 67 :—
Aut laeso doluere Metello
Famosisque Lupo cooperto versibus?
Pars. i. 1 15 : —
Secuit Lucilius urbem,
Te Lupe, te Muci, et genuinum fregit in illis.
VIII.] EARLY SATIRE. LUCILIUS. 239
Personal motives — and especially his devotion to Scipio '—
may have stimulated these animosities ; but there were in-
stances enough of incapacity in war, profligacy and extortion
in the government of the provinces, corruption and favouritism
in the administration of justice, of venality and ignorance in the
electoral bodies, to justify the bold exposure by Lucilius of 'the
leading men of the State and of the mass of the people in their
tribes.' The personality of his attacks probably made him many
enemies ; and thus we hear that he was assailed by name on
the stage, and was unable to obtain redress, while a writer who
had taken a similar liberty with the tragic poet Accius was con-
demned. But the honour of a public funeral awarded to him
at his death would indicate that the final verdict of his con-
temporaries was that in assuming the censorial function of
attaching marks of infamy against the names of eminent men
he was actuated, in the main, by worthy motives, and had done
good service to the State.
The chief social vices which Lucilius attacks are those
which reappear in the pages of the later satirists. They are
the two extremes to which the Roman temperament was most
prone, rapacity and meanness in gaining money, vulgar osten-
tation and coarse sensuality in using it^ These were opposite
results of a sudden influx of wealth among a people trained
through many generations to habits of thrift and self-restraint,
and, through this accumulated vital force, unaccompanied, as
it was, with much capacity for refined enjoyment, animated by
a strong craving for the coarser enjoyments of life. The
intensity and concentrativeness of the Roman temperament
also tended to produce those one-sided types of character,
which are the favourite objects of satiric portraiture. The
parasites and spendthrifts, the misers and money-makers
of Horace's Satires and Epistles, Maenius and Avidienus for
' Fuit autem inter P. Africanum et Q. Metellum sine acerbitate dis-
sen si o.
^ Cf. Diversisque duobus vitiis, avaritia et luxuria civitatem laborare. —
Livy, xxxiv. 4.
240 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
instance, are among the most strongly marked of his personal
sketches. Lucilius witnessed the same tendencies in his time
and exposed them with greater freedom. The names which
are typical of certain characters in Horace, such as Nomen-
tanus, Pantolabus (probably a nickname) Maenius and Gallo-
nius, had first been taken by Lucilius from the streets and
dinner-tables of Rome. This indifference to the claims of
personal feeling, in which Lucilius emulates the license of the
old Greek comedy, although sanctioned by the approval of
Horace in a poet of an earlier age, would probably have been
forbidden by the greater urbanity and decorum of the Augustan
age.
The excesses of his contemporaries in the way of good
living, against which numerous sumptuary laws (the Lex
Fannia and Lex Licinia for instance), enacted in that age,
vainly contended, were largely satirised by Lucilius. Such
passages as these —
O Publi, O gnrges Galloni, es homo miser, inquit,
Cenasti in vita numquam bene, quom omnia in ista
Consumis sqnilla atque acipensere quum decumano.
Hoc fit item in cena, dabis ostrea millibu' nummum
Empta.
Occiduiit, Lupe, saperdae te et iura siluri.
Vivite lurcones, comedones, vivite ventres.
Ilium sumina ducebant atque altilium lanx
Hunc pontes Tiberinu' duo inter captu' catillo.
Purpureo tersit tunc latas gausape mensas, etc'
^ ' O Publius Gallonius, thou whirlpool of excess ; thou art a miser-
able man, says he; never in thy life hast thou supped well, since thou
spendest all thy substance in that lobster of thine and that monstrous
sturgeon.'
' This too is the case at dinner, you will give oysters, bought at a
thousand sesterces.'
■ Sardines and fish-sauce are your death, O Lupus.'
' Long live, ye gluttons, gourmands, belly-gods.'
' One was attracted by sow-teats and a dish of fatted fowls ; another by a
gourmandising pike caught betwee.i the two bridges.'
' Then he wiped the ample table with a purple cloth.'
VIII.l EARLY SATIRE. LUCILIUS.
241
show the proportions already assumed by a form of sensuah'ty
the beginnings of which may be traced in Plautus and in the
pubhcation of the Hedyphagetica of Ennius, but of which the
final culmination is to be sought in the ideal of life realised
under the Empire, by Apicius, Vitellius, Elagabalus, and
many men of less note.
The other extreme of unceasing activity in getting, and
sordid meanness in hoarding money, and the discontent
produced among all classes by the restless passion to grow
rich, which fills so large a place in the Satires and Epistles of
Horace, appears also frequently in the fragments of Lucilius ;
as, for instance, in the following :—
Milia dum centum frumenti tolli medimnum,
Vini mille cadum. —
Denique uti stulto nihil est satis, omnia cum sint. —
Rugosi passique senes eadem omnia quaerunt —
Mordicus petere aurum e flamma expediat, e caeno cibum. —
Aquam te in animo habere intercutem '.
The following description of a miser seems to have suggested
the beginning of one of Catullus' lampoons-: —
Cui neque iumentumst nee servos nee comes ullus,
Bulgam et quidquid habet nummum secum habet ipse,
Cum bulga cenat, dormit, lavit ; omnis in unast
Spes homini bulga. Biilga haec devincta lacertost^.
In other passages he inculcates the lessons of good sense and
moderation in the use of money, or urges, in the person of an
The two last passages are reproduced by Horace in the lines : —
Unde datum sentis, lupus hie Tiberinus, an alto
Captus hiet, pontesne inter iactatus, an amnis
Ostia sub Tusci? — Sat. ii. 2, 31.
And
s
Gausape purpureo mensam pertersit. — lb. ii. 8. 11.
* Cf. Crescit indulgens sibi dirus hydrops, etc.
Furei cui neque serv'us est neque area, etc.
2
^ 'Who has neither beast, nor slave, nor attendant; he carries about
him his purse and all his money ; with his purse he sleeps, dines,
bathes— his whole hopes centre in his purse; this purse is fastened to his
arm.'
R
242 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
objector, that a man is regarded in proportion to the estimate
of his means. In his enumeration of the various constituents
of virtue, one on which he dwells with emphasis, is the right
estimation of the value of money. In all his thoughts and
expressions on this subject it is easy to see how closely Horace
follows on his traces.
The extravagance, airs, and vices of women, are another
theme of his satire. But he deals with these topics rather
in the spirit of raillery adopted by Plautus, than in that of
Juvenal. In one fragment he compares, in terms neither
delicate nor complimentary, the pretensions to beauty of the
Roman ladies of his time with those of the Homeric heroines.
In another he contrasts the care which they take in adorning
themselves when expecting the visits of strangers with their
indifference as to their appearance when alone with their
husbands, —
Cum tecum'st, quidvis satis est: visuri alieni
Sint homines, spiras, pallam, redimicula promit '.
Another fragment —
Homines ipsi hanc sibi molestiam ultro atque acrumnam offernnt,
Ducunt uxores, producunt qnibus haec faciant liberos, —
indicates the same repugnance to marriage, which is expressed
in a fragment of contemporary oratory, quoted by A. Gellius :
' If, Quirites, we could get on at all without wives, we should
all keep clear of that nuisance ; but since, in the way of nature,
life cannot go on comfortably with them, nor at all without
them, we ought rather to provide for the continued well-being
of the world than for our temporary comfort.' The dislike to
incur the responsibilities of family life, which appears so
conspicuously among the cultivated classes in the later times
of the Republic, was probably, if we are to judge from the tes-
timony and examples of Lucilius and Horace, as much the
^ Cp. the speech of Cato (Livy, xxxiv. 4'; in support of the Oppian
law : ' An blandiores in publico quam in privato, et alienis quam vestris
estis ? '
VIII.] EARLY SATIRE. LUCILIUS. 243
result of the license allowed to men, as of the extravagant
habits or jealous imperiousness of women.
The intellectual, as well as the moral and social peculiarities
of the age were noted by Lucilius. One fragment is directed
against the terrors of superstition, and shows that Lucilius, like
all the older poets, was endowed with that strong secular sense
which enabled the educated Romans, notwithstanding the
forms and ceremonies of religion encompassing every private
and public act, to escape, in all their ordinary relations, from
supernatural influences. This passage affords a fair specimen
of the continuous style of the author : — •
Teniculas Lamias, Fauni quas Pompiliique
Instituere Numae, tremit has, hie omnia ponit ;
Ut pueri infantes ciedunt signa omnia ahena
Vivere, et esse homines ; et sic isti omnia ficta
Vera putant, credunt signis cor inesse in ahenis ;
Pergula pictorum, veri nihil, omnia ficta '.
His attitude to philosophy, like his attitude to superstitious
terrors, was not unlike that of Horace. We find mention
in his fragments of the ' Socratici charti,' of the ' eidola atque
atomus Epicuri ' of the four orotxan of Empedocles, of the
'mutatus Polemon,' spoken of in Horace (Sat. ii. 3, 253),
of Aristippus, and of Carneades ; but his own wisdom was that
of the world and not of the schools. In these lines, —
and —
Paenula, si quaeris, canterii;', servu'. segestre,
Utilior mihi, quam sapiens ;
Nondum etiam, qui haec omnia habebit,
Formosus, dives, liber, rex solu' feretur,
we find an anticipation of the tones in which Horace satirised
' ' These bugbears and goblins from the days of the Fauni and Numa
Pompilius fill him with terror ; he believes anything of them. As children
suppose that statues of brass are real and living men, so they fancy all these
delusions to be real : they believe that there is understanding in brazen
images : mere painter's blocks, no reality, all a delusion.' Cf. Horace, Ep.
ii. 2. 208: —
Somnia, terrores magicos, miracula, sagas,
Nocturnos lemures portentaque Thessala rides?
R 2
244 'THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Cn.
the professors of Stoicism in his own time. The affectation of
Greek manners and tastes is ridiculed in the person of Titus
Albutius, ill a passage which Cicero describes as written ' with
much grace and pungent wit ' ' : —
Giaecum te, Albuci, quam Romamim atque Sabinuni,
Municipem Ponti, Tr'tanni, Centurionum,
Praeclarorum hominum ac primorum signiferumque,
Maluisti did. Graece ergo praetor Athenis,
Id quod maluisti, te, cum ad me accedi*, saluto :
Chaere, inquam, Tite. Lictores turma omni' cohorsque
Ciiaere, Tite. Hinc hostis mi, Albucius, hinc inimicus ^
We learn from Cicero's account of the orators antecedent
to, and contemporary with himself, that this denationalising
fastidiousness was a not uncommon result of the new studies.
The practice of Lucilius of mixing Greek words and
phrases with his Latin style might, at first sight, expose
him to a similar criticism. But this mannerism of style,
which is condemned by the good sense of Horace, is
merely superficial, and does not impair the vigorous na-
tionality of the sentiment expressed by the Roman satirist.
Like the similar practice in the Letters of Cicero, it was
probably in accordance with the familiar conversational style
of men powerfully attracted by the interest and novelty
of the new learning, but yet strong enough in their national
self-esteem to adhere to Roman standards in all the greater
matters of action and sentiment. Lucilius seems however to
recognise a deeper mischief than that of mere literary
affectation in the general insincerity of character produced
by the rhetorical and sophistical arts fostered by the new
studies, and finding their sphere of action in the Roman law-
courts.
^ De Fin. i. 3.
^ ' You preferred, Albucins, to be called a Greek, rather than a Roman
or Sabine, a fellow-countryman of the Centurions, Pontius, Tritannius,
excellent, first-rate men, and our standard-bearers. Accordingly, I, as
praetor of Athens, when you approach me, greet you, as you wished to be
greeted. "Chaere," I say, Titus; my lictors, escort, staff, address you with
"Chaere." Hence you are to me a public and private enemy.'
VIII. EARLY SATIRE. LUCILIUS. 245
The satire of Lucilius, besides its political, moral, and
social function, assumed the part of a literary critic and censor.
The testimony of Horace on this point, —
Nil comis tragici mutat Lucilius Acci ?
Non ridet versus Enni gravitate minores,
Cum de se loquitur non ut maiore reprensis ?
confirmed by that of Gellius \ is amply borne out by
extant fragments. These criticisms formed a large part
of tlie twenty-sixth book, which Miiller supposes to have
been the earliest of the compositions of Lucilius. Several
lines preserved from that book are either quotations or
parodies from the old tragedies'-. We observe in these
and other quotations the peculiarities of style, noticed in
the two tragic poets, such as their tendencies to alliteration
and the use of asyndeta, the strained word-formations of
Pacuvius, and the occasional inflation of Accius ^ We
trace the influence of these criticisms in the sneer of
Persius, —
Est nunc Briseis quern venosus liber Acci,
Sunt quos Pacuviusque et verrucosa moretur
Antiopa, aerummis cor luctificabile fulta.
^ Et Pacuvius, et Pacuvio iam sene Accius, clariorque tunc in poematis
eorum obtrectandis Lucilius fuit.
- E.g. Ego enim contemnificus fieri et fastidire .^gamemnona. —
Di monerint meliora, amentiam avenuncassint tuam. —
Plic cruciatnr fame,
Frigore, inluvie, iaperfundie, inbalnite, incuvia. —
Nunc ignobilitas his mirum, taetrum, ac monstrificabile —
Dividant, differant, dissipent. distrahant.
" In the same spirit is the following line :^
Verum tristis contorto aliquo ex Pacuviano exordio.
And this from another book of Satires : —
Ransuro tragicns qui carmina pcrdit Oreste.
Among the phrases of Ennius at which Lucilius carped was one which
Virgil did not disdain to adojit. The passage of the old poet, —
Hastis longis campus splendet et horret, —
parodied by the Satirist in the form ' horret et alget,' was justified by being
reproduced in the Virgilian phrase,
Turn late ferreus hastis
Horret ager.
246 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Crt.
The antagonism displayed by Lucilius to the more ambitious
style of the tragic and epic poets was perhaps as much due to
his own deficiency in poetical imagination, as to his keen critical
discernment, the 'stili nasus' or 'emunctae nares' attributed to
him by Pliny and Horace.
The criticism of Lucilius was not only aggressive, but
also directly didactic. In the ninth book he discussed, at
considerable length, disputed questions of orthography; and
a passage is quoted from the same book, in which a distinction
is drawn out between ' poenia ' and 'poesis.' Under the first
he ranks —
Epigrammation, vel
Distichum, epistula item quaevis non magna;
under the second, whole poems, such as the Iliad, or the Annals
of Ennius. The only interest attaching to these fragments is
that, like the didactic works of Accius, they testify to the crude
critical effort that accompanied the creative activity Df the
earlier Roman poets.
As specimens of his continuous style the two following
passages may be given. The first exemplifies the serious
moral spirit with which ancient satire was animated; the second
vividly represents and rebukes one of the most prevalent
pursuits of the age — -
Virtus, Albine, est pretinm persolvere varum,
Queis in versamur, queis vivimu' rebu', potesse :
Virtus est hominis, scire id quod quaeque habeat res.
Virtus scire homini rectum, utile, quid sit honestum ;
Quae bona, quae mala item, quid inutile, turpe, inhonestum ;
Virtus quaerendae rei finem scire modumque :
Virtus divitiis pretium persolvere posse :
Virtus id dare quod re ipsa debetur honori :
Hostem esse atque inimicum hominum morumque malorum,
Contra defensorem hominum morumque bonorum,
Hos magnifacere, his bene velle, his vivere amicum ;
Commoda practerea patriae sibi prima putare,
Deinde parentum, tertia jam postremaque nostra ^
^ 'Virtue, Albinus, consists in being able to give their true worth
to the thing? on which we are engaged, among which we live. The
VIII.] EARLY SATIRE. LUCILIUS. 247
If there is no great originality of thought nor rhetorical
grace of expression in this passage, it proves that Lucilius
judged of questions of right and wrong from his own point of
view. To him, as to Ennius, common sense and a just
estimate of hfe were large ingredients in virtue. To be
a good hater as well as a staunch friend, and to choose
one's friends and enemies according to their characters,
is another quality of his virtuous man. With him, as with
the best Romans of every age, love of country, family,
and friends, were the primary motives to right action. The
next passage, written in language equally plain and forcible,
gives a graphic picture of the growing taste for forensic
oratory —
Nunc vero a mane ad noctem, festo atqne profesto,
Toto itidem pariterque die, populusqne patresque
lactare indu foro se omnes, decedere niisquam,
Uni se atque eidem studio omnes dedere et arti,
Verba dare ut caute possint, pugnare dolose,
Blanditia certare, bonum simulare vinim se
Insidias facere, ut si hostes sint omnibus omnes ^.
These passages are probably not unfavourable specimens
of the author's continuous style. At its best that style
appears to be sincere, serious, rapid, and full of vital force,
but careless, redundant, and devoid of all rhetorical point and
virtue of a man is to understand the real meaning of each thing : to
understand what is right, useful, honourable for him; what things are
good, what bad, what is unprofitable, base, dishonourable; to know
the due limit and measure in making money; to give its proper worth
to wealth ; to assign what is really due to office ; to be a foe and
enemy of bad men and bad principles ; to stand by good men and
good principles; to extol the good, to wish them well, to be their friend
through life. Lastly, it is true worth to look on our country's weal as the
chief good ; next to that, the weal of our parents ; third and last, our own
weal.'
' ' But now from morning till night, on holiday and work-day, the whole
day alike, common people and senators are bustling about within the Forum,
never quitting it — all devoting themselves to the same practice and trick of
wary word-fencing, fighting craftily, vying with each other in politeness,
assuming airs of virtue, plotting against each other as if all were enemies.'
248 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
subtle suggestiveness. Even to these passages the censure of
Horace applies, —
At dixi fluere hnnc lutulentum.
If we regard these passages as on the ordinary level of
his style we cannot hesitate to recognise his immense
inferiority to Terence in elegance and finish \ and to
Plautus in rich and humorous exuberance of expression.
There is scarcely a trace of imaginative power, or of sus-
ceptibility to the grandeur and pathos of human life, or to
the beauty and sublimity of Nature in the thousand lines
of his remains. We find a few vivid touches, as in this
half-line —
Terra abit in nimbos imbresque,
but we fail to recognise not only the 'disjecti membra poetae,'
but even the elements of the rhetorician, or of the ironical
humourist —
Parcentis viribus atque
Extenuantis eas consulto.
Thus it is difficult to understand what Cicero means when he
s[)eaks of the 'Romani vetcres atque urbani sales' as being
' salsiores ' than those of the true masters of Attic wit, such as
were Aristophanes, Plato, and Menander.
But these passages are simple, direct, and clear, compared
with. many of the single lines or longer passages, already quoted
in illustration of the substance of his satire. These leave an
impression not only of a total want of the ' liniae labor,' but of
an abnormal harshness and difficulty, beyond what we find in
the fragments of Pacuvius, Accius, or Ennius. The fragments
of his Irochaics and iambics are much simpler, ' much less
depart from the natural order of the words,' than those
of his hexameters : a fact which reminds us of the great
advance made by Horace in adapting the heroic measure
to the familiar experience of life. Lucilius is moreover
a great offender against not only the graces but the decencies
of language. Lines are found in his fragments as coarse as the
' Cp. Mr, Monro's criticism in the Journal of Philology.
VIII.] EARLY SATIRE. LUCILWS. 249
coarsest in Catullus or Juvenal : nor could he urge the ex-
tenuating plea of having forgotten the respect due to his
readers from the necessity of relieving his wounded feelings or
of vindicating morality.
Yet it is undoubted that, notwithstanding the most glaring
faults and defects in form and style, he was one of the
most popular among the Roman poets. The testimony of
Cicero, Persius, Juvenal, Quintilian, Tacitus, and Gellius,
confirms on this point the more ample testimony of Horace.
If, as Mr. Munro thinks, Horace may have expressed, in
deference to the prevaihng taste of his time, a less qualified
admiration for him than he really felt, this only shows how
strong a hold his writings had over the reading public in the
Augustan age. But Horace shows by no vjieans the same
deference to the admirers of Plautus and Ennius. To Lucilius
he pays also the sincerer tribute of frequent imitation. He
made him his model, in regard both to form and substance, in
his satires ; and even in his epistles he still acknowledges the
guidance of his earliest master. In reading both the Satires
and Epistles we are continually coming upon the vestiges of
Lucilius, in some turn of expression, some personal or
illustrative allusion. Similar vestiges are found, imbedded in
the harsh and jagged diction of Persius, and though not to the
same extent, in the polished rhetoric of Juvenal. Nor was his
literary influence confined to Roman satirists. Lucretius,
Catullus, and even Virgil, have not disdained to adopt his
thoughts or imitate his manner'.
' Passages of Lucilius apparently imitated by Lucretius : —
(i) Quantum haurire animus Musarum ec fontibu' gestit.
(2) Cum sciam nil esse in vita proprium mortali datura
lam qua tempestate vivo, chresin ad me recipio.
(3) Ut pueri infantes credunt signa omnia ahena
Vivere et esse homines, sic istic omnia ficta
Vera putant.
Virgil's ' rex ipse Phanaeus ' is said by Servius to be imitated from the
xrds T6 hwaaT-qi of Lucilius. Other imitations are pointed out in Macrobius
and in Servius. An apparent imitation by Catullus has been already noticed.
250 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
But if we cannot altogether account for, we may yet par-
tially understand the admiration which his countrymen felt
for Lucilius. In every great literature, while there are some
works which appeal to the imagination of the whole world,
there are others which seem to hit some particular mood of
the nation to which their author belongs, and are all the
more valued from the prominence they give to this idio-
syncracy. Every nation which has had a literature seems
to have valued itself on some peculiar humour or vein
of observation and feeling, which it regards as specially
allotted to itself, over and above its common inheritance of
the sense of the ludicrous, which it shares with other races.
Those writers who have this last in unusual measure be-
come the favourite humourists of the world. But their own
countrymen often prefer those endowed with the narrower
domestic type ; and of this type Lucilius seems to have
been a true representative. The 'antiqua et vernacula
festivitas,' attributed to him, seems to have been more
combative and aggressive than genial and sympathetic.
The * Italum acetum ' was employed by the Romans as
a weapon of controversy with the view of damaging an
adversary and making either himself or the cause he repre-
sented appear ridiculous and contemptible. The dictum
of a modern humourist, that to laugh at a man properly yon
must first love him, would have seemed to an ancient Roman
a contradiction in terms. When Horace writes —
Ridiculum acri
Fortiiis et melius magnas plerumque secat res,
he means that men are more likely to be made better by the
fear of contempt than of moral reprobation.
But Lucilius had much more than this power of personal
raillery, exercised with the force supplied and under the
restraints imposed by an energetic social and political life.
He is spoken of not only as ' comis et urbanus,' but also as
' dcctus ' and ' sapiens.' Even his fragments indicate that
he was a man of large knowledge of ' books and men.'
Vm.] EARLY SATIRE. LUCILIUS. 251
Horace testifies to the use which he made of the old comic
poets of Athens : —
Hinc omnis pendet Lucilius, hosce secutus.
His fragments show famiharity with Homer, with the works of
the Greek physical and ethical philosophers, with the systems
of the rhetoricians, and some acquaintance with the writings
of Plato, Archilochus, Euripides, and Aesop. His habit of
building up his Latin lines with the help of Greek phrases
illustrates the first powerful infiuence of the new learning
before the Roman mind was able thoroughly to assimilate it,
but when it was in the highest degree stimulated and fas-
cinated by it. The mind of Lucilius was susceptible to the
novelty of the new thoughts and new impressions, but like
that of his contemporaries was insensible to the grace and
symmetry of Greek art. Terence is the only writer in the
ante-Ciceronian period who had the sense of artistic form.
But all this foreign learning was, in the mind of Lucilius,
subsidiary to the freshest observation and most discerning
criticism of his own age. He was a spectator of life more
than an actor in it, but he yet had been present at one of the
most important military events of the time, and he had lived
in the closest intimacy with the greatest soldier and most
prudent statesman of his age. His satire had thus none of
the limitation and unreality which attaches to the work of a
student and recluse, such as Persius was. 'Po the writings
of Lucilius more perhaps than to those of any other Roman
would the words of Martial apply —
Hominem pagina nostra sapit.
It is his Strong realistic tendency both in expression and
thought that seems to explain his antagonism to the older
poets who treated of Greek heroes and heroines in language
widely removed from that employed either in the forum or
in the social meetings of educated men. The popularity
of Lucilius among the Romans may thus be explained on
much the same grounds as that of Archilochus among the
252 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC.
Greeks. He first introduced the literature of the understand-
ing as distinct from that either of the graver emotions or
of humorous and sentimental representation. And, while
writing with the breadth of view and wealth of illustration
derived from learning, he did not, like the poets of later
times, write for an exclusive circle of critical readers, but
rather, as he himself said, 'for Tarentines, Consentini, and
Sicilians ^' There was nothing about him of the fastidious-
ness and shyness of a too refined culture. Every line almost
of his fragments attests his possession of that quality which,
more than any other, secures a wide, if not always a lasting,
popularity, great vitality and its natural accompaniment,
boldness and confidence of spirit. While he saw clearly,
felt keenly, and judged wisely the political and social action
of his time, he reproduced it vividly in his pages. Whatever
other quality his style may want, it is always alive. And the
life with which it is animated is thoroughly healthy. There is
a singular sincerity in the ring of his words, the earnest of a
mind, absolutely free from cant and pretence, not lashing
itself into fierce indignation as a stimulant to rhetorical effect,
nor forcing itself to conform to any impracticable scheme of
life, but glowing with a hearty scorn for baseness, and never
shrinking from its exposure in whatever rank and under
whatever disguise he detected it", and ever courageously
' upholding the cause of virtue and of those who were on the
side of virtue ' —
Scilicet iini aequus virtuti atijiie eius amicis.
It was by the rectitude and manliness of his character, as
much as by his learning, his quick and true discernment,
his keen raillery and vivid portraiture, that he became the
favourite of his time and country, and, alone among Roman
writers, succeeded in introducing a new form of literature
into the world.
' Cic. De Fin. i. 3.
-' Detrahere et pellem nitidus qua quisque per ora
Cederet, introrsum turpis
CHAPTER IX.
Review of the First Period.
The poetic literature reviewed in the last five chapters
is the product of the second century B.C. The latest writers
of any importance belonging to the earlier period of the
poetry of the Republic were Lucilius and Afranius. Half
a century from the death of Lucilius elapsed before the
appearance of the poems of Lucretius and Catullus, which
come next to be considered. But before passing on to
this more familiar ground, a few pages may be devoted to
a retrospect of some general characteristics marking the
earlier period, and to a consideration of the social and intel-
lectual conditions under which literature first established itself
at Rome.
With striking individual varieties of character, the poets
whose works have been considered present something of
a common aspect, distinct from that of the literary men
of later times. They were placed in different circumstances,
and lived in a different manner from either the poets who
adorned the last days of the Republic or those who flourished
in the Augustan age. The spirit animating their works was
the result of the forces acting on the national life, and the
form and style in which they were composed were deter-
mined by the stage of culture which the national mind
had reached, and the stage of growth through which the
Latin language was passing under the stimulus of that
culture.
Like nearly all the literary men of later times, these poets
254 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
were of provincial or foreign birth and origin. They were
thus born under circumstances more favourable to, or at
least less likely to repress, the expansion of individual genius,
than the public life and private discipline of Rome. Their
minds were thus more open to the reception of new in-
fluences; and their position as aliens, by cutting them off
from an active public career, served to turn their energies
to literature. Their provincial birth and Greek education
did not, however, check their Roman sympathies, or prevent
them from stamping on their writings the impress of a Roman
character.
While, like many of the later poets, they came originally as
strangers to Rome, unlike them, they seem to have in later
years resided habitually within the city. The taste for
country life prevailing in the days of Cicero and of Horace
was not developed to any great extent in the times of Ennius
or Lucilius. The great Scipio, indeed, retired to spend the
last years of his life at Liternum ; and Cicero mentions the
boyish delight of Laelius and the younger Africanus in
escaping from the public business and the crowded streets
of Rome to the pleasant sea-shore of Caieta \ Accius seems
to have possessed a country farm, and Lucilius showed some-
thing of a wandering disposition, and possessed the means to
gratify it. But most of these writers were men of moderate
means ; nor had it then become the practice of the patrons of
literature to bestow farms or country-houses on their friends.
By their circumstances, as well as the general taste of their
time, they were thus brought almost exclusively into contact
with the life and business of the city ; and their works
were consequently more distinguished by their strong sense
and understanding than by the passionate or contemplative
susceptibility which characterises the great eras of Latin
literature.
It is remarkable that nearly all the early poets lived to
a great age, and maintained their intellectual vigour un-
1 De Orat. ii. 6.
IX.] REVIEJV OF THE FIRST PERIOD. 255
abated to their latest years ; while of their successors none
reached the natural term of human life, and some among
them, like many great modern poets, were cut off prematurely
before their promise was fulfilled. The finer sensibility and
more passionate agitation of the poetic temperament appear,
in some cases, to exhaust prematurely the springs of life ;
while, in natures more happily balanced, or formed by more
favourable circumstances, the gifts of genius are accompanied
by stronger powers of life, and thus maintain the freshness of
youth unimpaired till the last. The length of time during
which Naevius, Plautus, Ennius, Pacuvius, Accius, and
probably Lucilius, exercised their art suggests the inference,
either that they were men of firmer fibre than their successors,
or that they were braced to a more enduring strength by the
action of their age. As the work of men writing in the fulness
of their years, the serious poetry of the time appealed to the
mature sympathies of manhood; and even the comic poetry
of Plautus deals with the follies of youth in a genial spirit of
indulgence, tempered by the sense of their absurdity, such
as might naturally be entertained by one who had outlived
them.
But perhaps the most important condition determining the
original scope of Roman poetry was the predominance in that
era of public over personal interests. Like Virgil and Horace,
most of the early poets were men born in comparatively a
humble station ; yet by their force of intellect and character
they became the familiar friends of the foremost men in the
State. But while the poets of the Augustan age owed the
charm of their existence to the patronage of the great, the
earlier poets depended for their success mainly on popular
favour. The intimacy subsisting between the leaders of action
and of literature during the second century b.c. arose from the
mutual attraction of greatness in different spheres. The chief
men in the Republic obtained their position by their services
to the State, and thus the personal attachment subsisting
between them and men of letters was a bond connecting the
256 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
latter with the public interest. The early poetry of the
Republic is not the expression of an educated minority keeping
aloof from public life. If it is animated by a strong aristo-
cratic spirit, the reason is that the aristocratic spirit was pre-
dominant in the public life of Rome during that century.
In this era, more than in any later age, the poetry of Rome,
like that of Greece in its greatest eras, addressed itself to
popular and national, not to individual tastes. The crowds
that witnessed and applauded the representations of tragedy as
well as comedy, afford a sufficient proof that the reproduction
of Greek subjects and personages could be appreciated without
the accomplishment of a Greek education. The popularity of
the poem of Ennius is attested by his own language, as well as
by the evidence of later writers. The honour of a public
funeral awarded to Lucilius, implies the general appreciation
with which his contemporaries enjoyed the verve, sense, and
moral strength which secured for his satire the favour of a more
refined and critical age.
This general popularity is an argument in favour of the
original spirit animating this early literature. It implies the
power of embodying some sentiment or idea of national or
public interest. Thus Roman tragedy appears to have been
received with favour, chiefly in consequence of the grave
Roman tone of its maxims, and the Roman bearing of its
personages. The epic poetry of the age did not, like the
Odyssey, relate a story of personal adventure, but unfolded the
annals of the State in continuous order, and appealed to the
pride which men felt, as Romans, in their history and destiny.
The satire of Lucilius was not intended merely to afford
amusement by ridiculing the follies of social life, but played a
part in public affairs by political partisanship and antagonism,
and maintained the traditional standard of manners and
opinions against the inroads of foreign influences. Latin
comedy, indeed, was a more purely cosmopolitan product.
The plays of Terence especially would affect those who
listened to them simply as men and not as Roman citizens.
IX.] REVIEW OF THE FIRST PERIOD. 257
But the comedy of Plautus abounded in the humour congenial
to the ItaHan race, and owed much of its popularity to the
strong Roman colouring spread over the Greek outlines of his
representations.
The national character of this poetry is attested also by the
spirit and character which pervades it. Among all the authors
who have been reviewed, Ennius alone possessed in a large
measure that peculiar vein of imaginative feeling which is the
most impressive element in the great poets of a later age. The
susceptibility of his mind to the sentiment that moulded the
institutions and inspired the policy of the Imperial Republic,
entitles him to rank as the truest representative of the genius
of his country, notwithstanding his apparent inferiority to
Plautus in creative originality. The glow of moral passion,
which is another great characteristic of Latin literature, as it
was of the best types of the Latin race, reveals itself in the
remains of all the serious writers of the age. The struggle
between the old Roman self-respect and the new modes of
temptation, is exemplified in the antagonistic influence ex-
ercised by the tragic, epic, and satiric poetry on the one hand,
and the comedy of Plautus and Terence on the other. The
more general popularity of comedy was a symptom of the
facility with which the severer standard of life yielded to the
new attractions. The graver writers, equally with the writers
of comedy, shared in the sceptical spirit, or the religious
indifference, which was one of the dissolving forces of social and
political life during this age. The strong common sense which
characterised all the writers of the time, could not fail to bring
them into collision with the irrational formalism of the national
religion ; while the distaste for speculative philosophy which
Ennius and Plautus equally express, and the strong hold which
they all have on the immediate interests of life^ explain the
absence of any, except the most superficial, reflections on the
more mysterious influences which in the belief of the great
Greek poets moulded human destiny.
The political condition of Rome in the second century b.c.
s
258 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
is reflected in the changes through which her literature passed.
For nearly two-thirds of that century, Roman history seems to
go through a stage of political quiescence, as compared at
least with the vigorous life and stormy passions of its earlier
and later phases. But under the surface a great change was
taking place, both in the government and the social condition
of the people, the effects of which made themselves sufficiently
manifest during the last century of the existence of the
Republic. The outbreak of the long gathering forces of
discontent and disorder is as distinctly marked in Roman
history, as the outbreak of the revolutionary forces in modern
Europe. The year 133 B.C., the date of the first tribunate of
Tiberius Gracchus, has the same kind of significance as the
year 1789 a. d. Nor is it a mere coincidence that about the
same time a great change takes place in the spirit of Roman
literature. The comedies of Plautus, written in the first years
of the century, while they reflect the political indifl'erence of
the mass of the people, are yet indicative of their general spirit
of contentment, and their hearty enjoyment of life. The epic
of Ennius, written a little later, proclaims the undisputed as-
cendency of an aristocracy, still moulded by its best traditions,
and claiming to lead a united people. The remains of Roman
tragedy breathe the high spirit of the governing class, and
attest the severer virtue still animating its best representatives.
The comedies of Terence seem addressed to the taste of a
younger generation of greater refinement, but of a laxer moral
fibre than their fathers, and of a class becoming separated by
more elaborate culture from ordinary Roman citizens. Ex-
pressions in his prologues ', however, show that there was as
yet no division between classes arising from political discontent.
But in the satire of Lucilius we read the protest of the better
• Adelplii, 18-21 : —
Quom illis placet,
Qui vobis univorsis et populo placent,
Quorum opera in bello, in otio, in negotio
Suo quisque tempore usust sine superbia.
IX.] REVIEW OF THE FIRST PERIOD. 259
Roman spirit against the lawless arrogance of the nobles, their
incapacity in war, their corrupt administration of justice,
their iniquitous government of the provinces; against the
ostentatious luxury of the rich ; the avarice of the middle
classes ; the venality of the mob, and the profligacy of their
leaders ; and against the insincerity and animosities fostered
among the educated classes by the contests of the forum and
the law-courts.
In passing from the substance and spirit of this early
literature to its form and style, we can see by the rudeness
of the more original ventures which the Roman spirit made,
how slowly it was educated by imitative effort to high literary
accomplishment. The only writer who aimed at perfection of
form was Terence, and his success was due to his close ad-
herence to his originals. But as some compensation for their
artistic defects, these early writers display much greater pro-
ductiveness than their literary successors. They were like the
settlers in a new country, who are spared the pains of exact
cultivation owing to the absence of previous occupation of the
soil, and the large extent of ground thus open to their industry.
The contrast between the standard aimed at, and the results
attained by the sincerest Hterary force in two different eras of
Roman literature, is brought home to the mind by contrasting
the rude fragments of the lost works of Ennius, embodying the
results of a long, hearty, active, and useful life, with the small
volume which still preserves the flower of a few passionate
years, as fresh as when the young poet sent it forth : —
Arido modo pumice expolitum.
The Style of the early poets was marked by haste, harshness,
and redundance, occasionally by verbal conceits and similar
errors of taste. That of the writers of comedy, on the other
hand, is easy, natural, and elegant. The Latin language seems
thus to have adapted itself to the needs of ordinary social life
more readily than to the expression of elevated feeling.
Though many phrases in the fragments which have been
s 2
26o THE ROMAN POETS OE THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
reviewed are boldly and vigorously conceived, few passages
are written with continuous ease and smoothness, and the
language constantly halts, as if inadequate to the meaning
which labours under it. The style has, in general, the merits
of directness and sincerity, often of freshness and vigour, but
wants altogether the depth and richness of colour, as well as
the finish and moderation which we expect in the literature of
a people to whom poetry and art are naturally congenial, and
associated with many old memories and feelings. Their merits
of style, such as the simple force with which they go directly
to the heart of a matter, and the grave earnestness of their
tone, are qualities characteristic rather of oratory than of poetry.
But this colouring of their style is very different from the
artificial rhetoric of the literature of the Empire. The ora-
torical style of the early poets was the natural result of
a sympathy with the most practical intellectual instrument
of their age. The rhetoric of the Empire was the expression
of an artificial life, in which literature was cultivated to beguile
the tedium of compulsory inaction, and the highest form of
public speaking had sunk from its proud ofifice as the organ of
political freedom into a mere exercise of pedants and school-
boys \
The same impulse in this age which gave birth to the forms
of serious poetry, stimulated also the growth of oratory and
history. While these different modes of mental accomplish-
ment all acted and reacted on one another, oratory appears to
have exercised the most influence on the others. Roman
literature is altogether more pervaded by oratorical feeling than
that of any other nation, ancient or modern. From the natural
deficiency of the Romans in the higher dramatic and specula-
tive genius, the rhetorical element entered largely into their
poetry, their history, and their ethical discussions. Cicero
identifies the faculties of the orator with those of the historian
and the philosopher. His treatise De Claris Oratoribus bears
' Cf. Juv. X. 167:—
Ut pueris placeas et declamatio fias.
IX.] REVIEIV OF THE FIRST PERIOD. 261
witness to the energy with which this art was cultivated for
more than a century before his own time ; and the remains of
Ennius and Lucilius confirm this testimony. It was from the
impassioned and dignified speech of the forum and senate-
house that the Roman language first acquired its capacity of
expressing great emotions. All the serious poetry of the age
bears traces of this influence. Roman tragedy shows its
affinity to oratory in its grave and didactic tone. This
affinity is further implied in the political meaning which the
audience attached to the sentiments expressed, and which the
actor enforced by his voice and manner. It is also attested by
the fact that in the time of Cicero, famous actors were employed
in teaching the external graces of public speaking. The theatre
was a school of elocution as much as a place of dramatic
entertainment. Cicero specifies among the qualifications of
a speaker, ' Vox tragoedorum, gestus paene summorum ac-
torum.' Although the epic poetry of the time mainly appealed
to a different class of sympathies, yet the fragments of speeches
in Ennius indicate that kind of rhetorical power which moves
an audience by the weight and authority of the speaker.
Roman satire could wield other weapons of oratory, such as
the fierce invective, the lashing ridicule, the vehement indigna-
tion which have often proved the most powerful instruments of
debate in modern as well as ancient times.
Historical composition also took its rise at Rome at this
period. Although the earliest Roman annalists composed
their works in the Greek language, it was not from the desire
of imitating- the historic art of Greece that this art was first
cultivated at Rome. The origin of Roman history may be
referred rather to the same impulse which gave birth to the
epic poems of Naevius and Ennius. The early annalists were
men of action and eminent station, who desired to record the
important events in which they themselves had taken part, and
to fix them for ever in the annals of their country. History
originated at Rome in the impulse to keep alive the record of
national life, not, as among the Greeks, in the spell which
262 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
human story and the wonder of distant lands exercised over
the imagination. Its office was not to teach lessons of political
wisdom, but to commemorate the services of great men, and
to satisfy a Roman's pride in the past, and his trust in the
future of his country. Tlie word amiales suggests a different
idea of history from that entertained and exemplified by
Herodotus and Thucydides. The purpose of building up the
record of unbroken national life was present to, though
probably not realised by, the earliest annalists who pre-
served the line of magistrates, and kept account of the
religious observances in the State : in the time of the ex-
pansion of Roman power, this purpose directed the attention
of men of action to the composition of prose annals, and
stimulated the productive genius of Naevius and Ennius : and
when, in the Augustan age, the national destiny seemed to be
fulfilled, the same purpose inspired the great epic of Virgil, and
the ' colossal masterwork of Livy.'
Another form of literature, in which Rome became pre-
eminent, first began in this era, — the writing of familiar letters.
It was natural that a correspondence should be maintained
among intimate friends and members of an active social circle,
separated for years from one another by military service, or
employment in the provinces ; and the new taste for literature
would induce the writers to give form and finish to these com-
positions, so that they might be interesting not only to the
persons addressed, but to all the members of the same circle.
The earliest compositions of this kind of which we read, are
the familiar letters in verse (' Epistolas versiculis facetis ad
familiares missas ' Cicero calls them) written to his friends by
the brother of Mummius, during the siege of Corinth ^ That
these had some literary value may be inferred from the fact
that they survived down to the age of Cicero, and are spoken
of in the letters to Atticus, as having often been quoted to him
by a member of the family of Mummii. One of the earliest
satires of Lucilius appears to have Ijeen a letter written to
^ Referred to by Mommsen.
IX.] REVIEW OF THE FIRST PERIOD. 263
Scipio after the capture of Numantia ; and several of his other
satires were written in an epistolary form. How happily the
later Romans employed this form in prose and verse is
sulificiently proved by the letters of Cicero and Pliny, and
the metrical Epistles of Horace.
This era also saw the beginning of the critical and gram-
matical studies which flourished through every period of
Roman literature, and continued long after the cessation of all
productive originality. This critical effort was a necessary
condition of the cultivation of art by the Romans. The
perfection of form attained by the great Roman poets of a
later time was no exercise of a natural gift, but the result of
many previous efforts and failures, and of much reflection on
the conditions which had been, with no apparent effort, fulfilled
by their Greek masters. Neither did their language acquire
the symmetry, precision, and harmony, which make it so
effective a vehicle in prose and verse, except as the result
of assiduous labour. The natural tendency of the spoken
language was to rapid decomposition. This was first arrested
by P^nnius, who cast the literary language of Rome into forms
which became permanent after his time. Among his poetic
successors in this era Accius and Lucilius made critical and
grammatical studies the subjects of some of their works.
Lucilius was a contemporary and friend of the most famous of
the early grammarians, Aelius Stilo, the critic to whom is
attributed the saying that 'if the muses were to speak in Latin,
they would speak in the language of Plautus.' Critical works
in trochaic verse were written by Porcius Licinus, and
\^olcatius Sedigitus, who appear to have been the chief
authorities from whom later writers derived their information
as to the lives of the early poets. It is characteristic of the
want of spontaneousness in Latin literature, as compared with
the fresh and varied impulses which the Greek genius obeyed
in every stage of its literary development, that reflection on the
principles of composition, efforts to form the language into
a more certain and uniform vehicle, and comment on living
264 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
writers, were carried on concurrently with the creative efforts
of the more original minds.
The existing works of the two great writers of Roman
comedy have an acknowledged value of their own, but even the
fragments of this early literature, originally scattered through
the works of many later authors, and collected together and
arranged by the industry of modern scholars, are found to
possess a peculiar interest. They recall the features of the
remarkable men by whom the foundations of Roman literature
were laid, and the Latin language was first shaped into a
powerful and symmetric organ. They present the Roman
mind in its earliest contact with the genius of Greece ; and
they are almost the sole contemporary witnesses of national
character and public feeling in the most vigorous and in-
teresting age of the Republic. They throw also much light on
the national sources of inspiration in the later Roman
literature. The early poets are seen to be men living the life
of citizens in a Republic, appealing rather to popular taste
than to the sympathies of a refined and limited society ; men
of mature years and understanding, animated by a serious
purpose and with a strong interest in the affairs of their time ;
rude and negligent but direct and vigorous in speech, — more
remarkable for energy, industry, and common sense, than for
the finer gifts and susceptibility of genius. Their poetry
springing from their sympathy with national and political life,
and from the impulses of the will and the manlier energies,
was less rich, varied, and refined than that which flows out of
the religious spirit of man, out of his passions and affections,
or of his imaginative sense of the life and grandeur of Nature.
But in these respects the early poetry was essentially Roman
in spirit, in harmony with the strength and sagacity, the
sobriety and grave dignity of Rome.
The accomplished art of the last age of the Republic and of
the Augustan age owed much of its national and moral
flourishment to the vigorous life of this early literature. The
earnest enthusiasm of Ennius was inherited by Lucretius, — his
IX.] REVIEW OF THE FIRST PERIOD. 265
patriotic tones were repeated by Virgil. The lofty oratory of
the Aeneid sometimes sounds like an echo of the grave and
ardent style of early tragedy. The strong sense and knowledge
of the world, the frank communicativeness and lively por-
traiture of Lucilius reappeared in the familiar writings of
Horace, while his fierce vehemence and bold invective were
reproduced by the vigorous satirist of the Empire.
SECOND PERIOD.
THE CLOSE OF THE REPUBLIC.
LUCRETIUS AND CATULLUS.
CHAPTER X.
TRANSITION FROM LUCILIUS TO LUCRETIUS AND
CATULLUS.
An interval of nearly half a century elapsed between the
death of Lucilius and the appearance of the poem of Lucretius.
During this period no poetical works of any value were
produced at Rome. The only successors of the older
tragedians, C. Julius Caesar (Consul b.c. 88) and C. Titius,
never obtained a success on the stage approaching to that still
accorded to the older dramas. No rival appeared to dispute
the popularity enjoyed by Plautus, Caecilius, and Terence, as
authors of the Comoedia Palliata ; but the literary activity of
Afranius and of T. Quintius Atta, the most eminent among the
authors of the Fabulae togatae, extended into the early years
of the first century b. c. It was during this period also that the
Fabula Atellana was raised by L. Pomponius of Bononia and
Novius into the rank of regular literature. The tendency to
depart more and more from the Greek type of comedy, and
to revert to the scenic entertainment native to Italy, is seen in
the attempt of Laberius, in the last years of the Republic, to
raise the Mimus into the sphere of recognised literary art.
The Annalistic epic of Hostius on the Istrian war, and the
Annales of Furius, of Antium, a friend of the elder Catulus,
perpetuated the traditional influence of Ennius, during the
interval between Lucilius and Lucretius. The first attempts to
introduce the erotic poetry of Alexandria, in the form of
epigrams and short lyrical poems, also belong to this period.
The writers of this new kind of poetry, — -Valerius Aedituus,
270 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
Q. Lutatius Catulus (the Colleague of Marius in his consulship of
the year 102 b. c), and Laevius, the author of Erotopaegnia,
have significance only as indicating the direction which Roman
poetry followed in the succeeding generation. Cicero in his
youth cultivated verse-making, both as a translator of the poem
of Aratus, and as the author of an original poem on his
townsman Marius. His hexameters show considerable ad-
vance in rhythmical smoothness and exactness beyond the
previous condition of that metre, as exemplified in the fragments
of Ennius and Lucilius : and his translation of Aratus marks a
stage in the history of Latin poetry as affording a native model,
which Lucretius did not altogether disregard in the structure of
his verse and diction^ But Cicero is not to be ranked among
the poets of Rome. He merely practised verse-making as part
of his general literary training. He retained the accomplish-
ment till his latest years, and shows his facility by translating
passages from the Greek tragedians in his philosophical works.
That he had no true poetical faculty is shown by the apparent
indifference with which he regarded the works of the two great
poets of his time. This indifference is the more marked from his
generous recognition of the oratorical promise and accomplish-
ment of the men of a younger generation. The tragedies of
Q. Cicero were mere literary exercises and made no impression
on his generation. Though several of the multifarious works of
Varro were written in verse, yet the whole cast of his mind
was thoroughly prosaic. His tastes and abilities were those of
an antiquarian scholar, not of a man of poetic genius and
accomplishment.
The period of nearly half a century, from 102 till about 60
B.C., must thus be regarded as altogether barren in genuine
poetical result. During this long interval there appeared no
successor to carry on the work of developing the poetical side
of a national literature, begun by Plautus, Ennius, and Lucilius.
^ Mr. Munro, in his Introduction to Part II of his Commentary on
Lucretius, illustrates this relation of the work of the poet to this youthful
production of Cicero.
X.] TRANSITION TO LUCRETIUS. 271
The only metrical compositions of this time were either
inferior reproductions of the old forms or immature antici-
pations of the products of a later age. The political
disturbance of the times between the tribunate of Tib.
Gracchus and the first consulship of Crassus and Pompey
(b. c. 70) was unfavourable to the cultivation of that poetry
which is expressive of national feeling : and the Roman
genius for art was as yet too immature to produce the poetry
of individual reflection or personal passion. The state of
feeling throughout Italy, before and immediately subsequent to
the Social War, alienated from Rome the sympathetic genius
of the kindred races from whom her most illustrious authors
were drawn in later times. It was in the years of comparative
peace, between the horrors of the first civil war and the alarm
preceding the outbreak of the second, that a new poet grew
apparently unnoticed to maturity, and the silence was at last
broken after the long repression of Italian genius by a voice
at once stronger in native vitality and richer in acquired culture
than any which had preceded it.
But there is one thing significant in the literary character of
this period, otherwise so barren in works of taste and imagi-
nation. Those by whom the art of verse was practised are no
longer ' Semi-Graeci ' or humble provincials, but Romans of
political or social distinction. The chief authors in the
interval between the first and second era of Roman poetry are
either members of the aristocracy or men of old family
belonging to the equestrian order. And this connexion
between literature and social rank continues till the close of
the Republic. The poets of the Ciceronian age, — Hortensius,
Memmius, Lucretius, Catullus, Calvus, Cinna, &c. — either
themselves belonged to the governing class, or were men of
leisure and independent means, living as equals with the
members of that class. This circumstance explains much of
the difference in tone between the literature of that age and
both the earlier and later literature. The separation in taste
and sympathy between the higher classes and the mass of the
272 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC, [Ch.
people which had begun in the days of Terence, grew wider
and wider with the growth of culture and with the increasing
bitterness of political dissensions. It was only among the rich
and educated that poetry could now expect to find an
audience ; and the poetry written for them appealed, for the
most part, to the convictions, tastes, pleasures, and ani-
mosities which they shared as members of a class, not, like
the best Augustan poetry, to the higher sympathies which they
might share as the depositaries of great national traditions.
But if this poetry was too exclusively addressed to a class — a
class too, though refined by culture, yet living for the most
part the life of fashion and pleasure — it had the merit of being
the sincere expression of men writing to please themselves and
their equals. It was not called upon to make any sacrifice of
individual conviction or public sentiment to satisfy popular
taste or the requirements of an Imperial master.
But though barren in poetry this interval was far from being
barren in other intellectual results. This was the era of the
great Roman orators, the successors of Laelius, Carbo, the
Gracchi, etc., and the immediate predecessors and contem-
poraries of Cicero. It was through the care with which public
speaking was cultivated that Latin prose was formed into that
clear, exact, dignified, and commanding instrument, which
served through so many centuries as the universal organ of
history, law, philosophy, learning, and religion, — of public
discussion and private correspondence. While Latin poetry is,
both in spirit and manner, quite as much Italian as Roman,
Latin prose bears the stamp of the political genius of Rome.
It was the deliberate expression of the mind of men practised
in affairs, exercised in the deliberations of the Senate, the
harangues of the public assemblies, the pleadings of the courts,
— of men accustomed to determine and explain questions of
law and to draw up edicts binding on all subjects of the State,
— trained, moreover, to a sense of literary form by the study of
Greek rhetoric, and naturally guided to clearness and dignity of
expression by the orderly understanding, the strong hold on
X.] TRANSITION TO LUCRETIUS. 273
reality, and the authoritative bearing which were their birth-
right as Romans. The effort which obtained its crowning
success in the prose style of Cicero left its mark on other
forms of literature. History continued to be written by
members of the great governing families to serve both as a
record of events and a weapon of party warfare. The large
and varied correspondence of Cicero shows how general the
accomplishment of style had become among educated men.
And if this result was, in the main, due to the fervour of mind
and temper elicited by the contests of public life, the sys-
tematic teaching of grammarians and rhetoricians acted as a
corrective of the natural exuberance or carelessness of the
rhetorical faculty.
Perfection of style attained in one of the two great branches
of a national literature cannot fail to react on the other. It
was the peculiarity of Latin literature that this perfection or
high accomplishment was reached in prose sooner than in
poetry. The contemporaries of Cicero and Caesar, whose genius
impelled them to awaken into new life the long silent Muses
of Italy, were conscious that the great effort demanded of them
was to raise Latin verse to a similar perfection of form, diction,
and musical cadence. What Cicero did for Latin prose,
in revealing the fertility of its resources, in giving to it more
ample volume, and eliciting its capabilities of sonorous rhyth-
mical movement, Lucretius aspires to do for Latin verse.
Although Catullus in forming his more elaborate style worked
carefully after the manner of his Greek models, yet we may
attribute something of the terseness, the idiomatic verve,
the studied simplicity of expression in his lighter pieces to the
literary taste which he shared with the younger race of orators,
who claimed to have substituted Attic elegance for Asiatic
exuberance of ornament.
During all this interval, in which native poetry was neglected,
the art and thought of Greece were penetrating more deeply
into Italy. Cicero, in his defence of Archias, attests the
eagerness with which Greek studies were cultivated during the
T
274 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
early years of the century ; ' Erat Italia tunc plena Graecarum
artium ac disciplinarum, studiaque haec et in Latio vehcmen-
tius turn colebantur quam nunc iisdeni in oppidis, et hie
Romae propter tranquillitatem reipublicae non neglegebantur.'
With the reviving tranquillity of the Republic these studies
also revived. Learned Greeks continued to flock to Rome
and to attach themselves to members of the great houses,— the
LucuUi, the Metelli, Pompey, etc. ; and it became more and
more the custom for young men of birth and wealth to travel
or spend some years of study among the famous cities of
Greece and Asia. This new and closer contact of the Greek
with the Roman mind came about, not as the earlier one
through dramatic representations, but, in a great measure,
through the medium of books, which began now to be accumu-
lated at Rome both in public and private libraries. Probably no
other cause produces so great a change in national character
and intellect as the awakening of the taste and the creating of
facilities for reading. By the diffusion of books, as well as by
the instruction of living teachers, the Romans of this gene-
ration came under the influence of a new class of writers,
whose spirit was more in harmony with the modern world than
the old epic and dramatic poets, viz. the exponents of the
different philosophic systems and the learned poets of Alex-
andria. These new influences helped to denationalise Roman
thought and literature, to make the individual more conscious
of himself, and to stimulate the passions and pleasures of
l)rivate life. While the endeavour to regulate life in ac-
cordance with a system of philosophy tended to isolate men
from their fellows, the study of the Alexandrine poets, the
cultivation of art for its own sake, the exclusive admiration of
a particular manner of writing fostered the spirit of literary
coteries as distinct from the spirit of a national literature. But
making allowance for all these drawbacks, it is to the .\lexan-
drine culture that the education of the Roman sense of literary
beauty is primarily due. Along with this culture, indeed, the
taste for other forms of art, which was rapidly developed and
X.l TRANSITION TO LUCRETIUS. 275
largely fed in the last age of the Republic, powerfully co-
operated. Lucretius specifies among the ' deliciae vitae '
Carmina, picturas, et daedala signa^;
and, in more than one place, he writes, with sympathetic
admiration, of the charm of instrumental music,
Musaea mele per chordas organici quae
Mobilibus digitis expergefacta figurant^.
The delicate appreciation of the paintings, statues, gems,
vases, etc., either brought to Rome as the spoils of conquest,
or seen in their original home by educated Romans, travelling
for pleasure or employed in the public service, was not
without effect in calling forth the ideal of literary form,
realised in some of the master-pieces of Catullus. We may
suppose too that the cultivation of music had some share
in eliciting the lyrical movement in Latin verse from the fact
mentioned by Horace, that the songs of Catullus and Calvus
were ever in the mouths of the fashionable professors of that
art in a later age. If the life of the generation which witnessed
the overthrow of the Republic was one of alarm and vicissitude,
of political unsettlement and moral unrestraint, it was, at the
same time, very rich in its capabilities of sensuous and intel-
lectual enjoyment. The appetite for pleasure was still too
fresh to produce that deadening of energy and of feeling,
which is most fatal to literary creativeness. The passionate
life led by Catullus and his friends may have shortened the
days of some of them, and tended to limit the range and
to lower the aims of their genius, but it did not dull their vivid
sense of beauty, chill their enjoyment of their art, or impair the
mastery over its technical details, for which they strove.
As the bent given to philosophical and literary studies
developed the inner life and personal tastes of the individual,
' V. 145 1.
^ ii. 412 ; cf. also ii. 505-6 : —
Et cycnea mele Phoebeaque daedala chordis
Carmina consimili ratione oppressa silerent.
These lines point to the union of music and lyrical poetry,
T 2
276 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
the polilical disorganisation of the age tended to stimulate new
modes of thought and Hfe, which had not, in any former
generation, been congenial to the Roman mind. While the
work of political destruction was being carried on along with
the most strenuous gratification of their passions by one set
among the leading men at Rome — such as Catiline and his
associates, and, somewhat later, Clodius, Curio, Caelius,
Antony, etc. — among men of more sensitive and refined
natures the pleasures of the contemplative life began to
exercise a novel fascination. The comparative seclusion in
which men like LucuUus and Hortensius lived in their later
years may, perhaps, be accounted for by other reasons than the
mere love of ease and pleasure. It was a symptom of that
despair of the Republic which is so often expressed in Cicero's
letters, and of the consequent diversion of thought from
practical affairs to the questions and interests which concern
the individual. In the same way the unsettlement and after-
wards the loss of political life at Athens gave a great impulse
both to the various philosophical sects on the one hand, and to
the literature of the new comedy, which deals exclusively with
private life, on the other. In Rome this alienation from
politics naturally allied itself, among members of the aris-
tocracy, with the acceptance of the Epicurean philosophy.
The slow dissolution of religious belief which had been going
on since the first contact of the Roman mind with that of
Greece, awoke in Rome, as it had done in Greece, a deeper
interest in the ultimate questions of the existence and nature
of the gods and of the origin and destiny of the human soul.
We see how the contemplation of these questions consoled
Cicero when no longer able to exercise his energy and vivid
intelligence on public affairs. He discusses them with candour
and seriousness of spirit and with a strong leaning to the more
hopeful side of the controversy, but scarcely from the point of
view which regards their settlement as of supreme importance
to human well-being. But they are raised from much greater
depths of feeling and inward experience by Lucretius, to whom
X.l TRANSITION TO LUCRETIUS. 277
the life of political warfare and personal ambition was utterly
repugnant, and who had dedicated himself, with all the intensity
of his passionate and poetical temperament, to the discovery
and the teaching of the true meaning of life. The happiest
results of his recluse and contemplative life were the revelation
of a new delight open to the human spirit through sympathy
with the spirit of Nature, and the deepening beyond anything
which had yet found expression in literature of the fellow-feeling
which unites man not only to humanity but to all sentient
existence. The taste, so congenial to the Italian, for country life
found in him its first and most powerful poetical interpreter :
while the humanity of sentiment, first instilled through the
teaching of comedy, and fostered by later literary and ethical
study, was enforced with a greatness of heart and imagination
which has seldom been equalled in ancient or modern times.
The dissolution of traditional beliefs and of the old loyalty
to the State produced very different results on the art and life
of the younger poets of that generation. The pursuit of
pleasure, and the cultivation, purely for its own sake, of art
which drew its chief materials from the life of pleasure, became
the chief end and aim of their existence. In so far as they
turned their thoughts from the passionate pleasures of their
own lives and the contemplation of passionate incidents and
situations in art, it was to give expression to the personal
animosities which they entertained to the leaders of the revo-
lutionary movement. Nor did this animosity spring so much
from public spirit as from a repugnance of taste towards the
coarser partisans of the popular cause, and from the instinctive
sense that the privileges enjoyed by their own caste were not
likely to survive any great convulsion of the State. The inten-
sity of their personal feelings of love and hatred, and the limita-
tion of their range of view to the things which gave the most
vivid and immediate pleasure to themselves and to others like
them, were the sources of both their strength and weakness.
Of the poetry which arose out of these conditions of life and
culture, two representatives only are known to us in their
278 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
works, Lucretius and Catullus. From the testimony of their
contemporaries we know them to have been recognised as the
greatest of the poets of that age. Lucretius in his own province
held an unquestioned pre-eminence. Yet that other minds
were occupied with the topics which he alone treated with
a masterly hand is proved by the existence of a work, of
a somewhat earlier date, by one Egnatius, bearing the title
' De Rerum Natura,' and also by Cicero's notice, in connexion
with his mention of Lucretius, of the 'Empedoclea' of Sallustius,
Varro also is mentioned by ancient writers, in connexion with
Empedocles and Lucretius, as the author of a metrical work
' De Rerum Natura \' More satisfactory evidence is afforded
by the discussions in the ' De Natura Deorum,' the ' Tusculan
Questions,' and the ' De Finibus,' of the interest taken by
educated men in the class of questions which Lucretius
professed to answer. Vet neither the antecedent nor the later
attention devoted to these subjects explains the powerful
attraction which they had for Lucretius. In him, more than in
any other Roman, we recognise a fresh and deep source of poetic
thought and feeling appearing in the world. The culture of
his age may have suggested or rendered possible the channel
which his genius followed, but cannot account for the power
and intensity with which it poured itself into that channel.
He cannot be said either to sum up the art and thought
contemporary with himself, or, like Virgil, to complete that of
preceding times. The work done by him, and the influence
exercised by him on the poetry of Rome and on the world,
are to be explained only by his original and individual force.
Catullus, on the other hand, was the most successful among
a band of rival poets with most of whom he lived in intimacy.
Among the men older than himself, Hortensius, the orator, and
Memmius were known as writers of amatory poetry. His
name as a lyric poet is most usually coupled with that of his
friend Calvus ; and a well-known passage of Tacitus'- brings
' Cp. the passages quoted from Qiiintilian, Lactantius, etc. by W. S. Teuffel,
Wagner's Translation, p. 239. - Annals, iv. 34.
X.] TRANSITION TO LUCRETIUS. 279
together his lampoons and those of Bibaculus as being ' referta
contumeliis Caesarum.' Among others to whom he was
bound by the ties of friendship and common tastes were C.
Helvius Cinna, author of an Alexandrine epic, called Zmyrna,
and Caecilius, author of a poem on Cybele. Ticidas and
Anser, mentioned by Ovid among his own precursors in
amatory poetry, also belong to this generation. Among the
swarms of poetasters —
Saecli incommoda, pessimi poetae, —
a countryman of his own, Volusius', the author of a long
Annalistic epic, is held up by Catullus to especial obloquy.
While so much of the literature of that age has perished, we
are fortunate in possessing the works of the greatest authors in
prose and verse. The poems of Lucretius and Catullus enable
us, better perhaps than any other extant Latin works, to
appreciate the most opposite capacities and tendencies of the
Roman genius. In their force and individuality, they are alike
valuable as the last poetic voices of the Republic, and as,
perhaps, the most free and sincere voices of Rome. The first
is one of the truest representatives of the national strength,
majesty, seriousness of spirit, massive constructive energy; the
second is the most typical example of the strong vitality
and passionate ardour of the Italian temperament and of
its vivid susceptibility to the varied beauties of Greek art.
' Tanusius Geminus, who has generally been identified with Volusiiis
from the passage in Seneca, Ep. 93. 1 1 , ' Annales Tanusii scis qiiam ponderosi
sint et quid vocentur,' is supposed, on the evidence of Suetonius, to have been
tlie author of a prose history, which he, Plutarch, and Strabo used as
nn authority for the times. Seneca certainly must have identified them. He
may have written both in prose and verse, or perhaps the Annals in verse may
have been the historical authority appealed to. There is, however, this further
difficulty in identifying them, that there is no apparent reason why Catullus
should in his case have deviated from his invariable practice of speaking of
the objects of his satire by their own names. Cf. Schmidt, Catullus, Pro-
legomena, p. xlvi.
CHAPTER XI.
Lucretius. — Personal Characteristics.
It is in keeping with the isolated and independent position
which Lucretius occupies in literature, that so little is known
of his life. The two kinds of information available for literary
biography, — that afforded by the author himself, and that
derived from contemporaries, or from later writers who had
access to contemporary testimony, — almost entirely fail us in
his case. The form of poetry adopted by him prevented his
speaking of himself and telling his own history, as Catullus,
Horace, Ovid, etc.^ have done in their lyrical, elegiac, and
familiar writings. His work appears to have been first
published after his death : nor is there any reason to believe
that he attracted the attention of the world in his lifetime. To
judge from the silence of his contemporaries, and from the
attitude of mind indicated in his poem, the words ' moriens
natusque fefeUit' might almost be written as his epitaph.
Had he been prominent in the social or literary circles
of Rome during the years in which he was engaged on
the composition of his poem, some traces of him must
have been found in the correspondence of Cicero or in the
poems of Catullus, which bring the personal life of those
years so close to modern readers. It is thus impossible
to ascertain on what original authority the sole traditional
account of him preserved in the Chronicle of Jerome was based.
That account, like similar notices of other Roman writers, came
to Jerome in all probability from the lost work of Suetonius,
' de viris illustribus.' But as to the channels through which it
passed to Suetonius, we have no information.
The well-known statement of Jerome is to this effect, — 'The
poet Lucretius was born in the year 94 b.c. He became mad
from the administration of a love-philtre, and after composing.
LUCRETIUS. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 281
in his lucid intervals, several books which were afterwards
corrected by Cicero, he died by his own hand in his forty-
fourth year.' The date of his death would thus be 50 b.c.
But this date is contradicted by the statement of Donatus in
his life of Virgil, that Lucretius died (he says nothing of his
supposed suicide) on the day on which Virgil assumed the
'toga virilis,' viz. October 15, 55 B.C. And this date derives
confirmation from the fact that the first notice of the poem
appears in a letter of Cicero to his brother, written in the
beginning of 54 B.C. As the condition in which the poem has
reached us confirms the statement that it was left by the
author in an unfinished state, it must have been given to the
world by some other hand after the poet's death ; and,
as Mr. Munro observes, we should expect to find that it
first attracted notice- some three or four months after that
event. We must accordingly conclude that here, as in many
other cases, Jerome has been careless in his dates, and that
Lucretius was either born some years before 94 b.c, or that
he died before his forty-fourth year. His most recent Editors,
accordingly, assign his birth to the end of the year 99 b.c.
or the beginning of 98 b.c. He would thus be some seven or
eight years younger than Cicero, three or four years younger
than Julius Caesar', about the same age as Memmius to whom
the poem is dedicated, and from about twelve to fifteen years
older than Catullus and the younger poets of that generation ^.
' According to Mommsen's opinion that Julius Caesar was born in 102 B.C.
^ Woltier in Phil. Jahrb. cxxix, referred to in Schmidt's Catullus, attempts
to show by an examination of the dates assigned for the birth of Lucretius, that
he was born in 97 B.C. and died in 53 B.C. But the most definite statement
we have is that he died on the day in which Virgil assumed the toga virilis,
and that was in the second consulship of Pompey and Crassus, i.e. 55 B.C.
Besides both tradition and internal evidence lead to the conclusion that his
poem was not given to the world till after his death, and it certainly had
been read by both the Ciceros early in 54 B.C. F. Marx in the Rheinisches
Museum, ' de aetate Lucretii,' holds that he was born in 97 B. c, and died
in his 42nd year, B.C. 55. He makes a more important contribution to the
controversy in tlie remark ' acceptissima vero Enniana Lucretii poesis fuisse
putanda est Ciceroni.' Whether Lucretius died in his 44th or 42nd year
282 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
But is this story of the poet's hability to fits of derangement,
of the cause assigned for these, of his suicide, and of
the correction of his poem by Cicero, to be accepted as
a meagre and, perhaps, distorted account of certain facts in
his history transmitted through some trustworthy channels,
or is it to be rejected as an idle fiction which may have
assumed shape before the time of Suetonius, and been accepted
by him on no other evidence than that of a vague tradition ?
Though no certain answer can be given to this question, yet
some reasons may be assigned for according a hesitating
acceptance to the main outlines of the story, or at least for not
rejecting it as a transparent fiction.
It may indeed be urged that if this strange and tragical
history had been known to the Augustan poets, who, in
greater or less degree, acknowledge the spell exercised upon
them by the genius of Lucretius, some sympathetic allusion to
it would probably have been found in their writings, such as
that in Ovid to the early death of Catullus and Calvus. It
would seem remarkable that in the only personal reference
which Virgil, who had studied his poem profoundly, seems
to make to his predecessor, he characterises him merely as
' fortunate in his triumph over supernatural terrors.' But, not
to press an argument based on the silence of those who
lived near the poet's time, and who, from their recognition
of his genius might have been expected to be interested in his
fate, the sensational character of the story justifies some
suspicion of its authenticity. The mysterious efficacy at-
tributed to a love-philtre is more in accordance with vulgar
credulity than with experience. The supposition that the
poem, or any considerable portion of it, was written in the
lucid intervals of derangement seems hardly consistent with the
evidence of the supreme control of reason through all its pro-
cesses of thought. The impression both of impiety and melan-
choly which the poem was likely to produce on ordinary minds,
cannot be of much consequence to ."nybody; and, in the general uncertainty
of Jerome's dates, it seems impossible to determine it one way or other.
XI.] LUCRETIUS. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 283
especially after the religious reaction of the Augustan age, might
easily have suggested this tale of madness and suicide as a
natural consequence of, or fitting retribution for, such absolute
separation from the common hopes and fears of mankind \
Yet indications in the poem itself have been pointed out
which might incline us to accept the story rather as a meagre
tradition of some tragic circumstances in the poet's history,
than as the idle invention of an uncritical age. The unrelieved
intensity of thought and feeling, by which more almost than
any other work of literature it is characterised, seems indicative
of an overstrain of power, which may well have caused the loss
or eclipse of what to the poet was the sustaining light and joy
of his life ". Under such a calamity it would have been quite
in accordance with the principles of his philosophy to seek
refuge in self-destruction, and to imitate an example which he
notes in the case of another speculative thinker, on becoming
conscious of failing intellectual power ^ But this general
sense of overstrained tension of thought and feeling is, as
was first pointed out by his English Editor, much intensified
by references in the poem (as at i. 32 ; iv. 2,2,, etc.), to the
horror produced on the mind by apparitions seen in dreams
and waking visions*. 'The emphatic repetition,' says Mr.
Munro, ' of these horrid visions seen in sickness might seem to
confirm what is related of the poet being subject to fits of
delirium or disorderina; sickness of some sort.' He further
'&
' Professor Wallace in his interesting account of ' Epicureanism ' writes,
in reference to the way in which Epicurus himself was regarded in a later
age, ' And the maladies of Epicurus are treated as an anticipatory judgment
of Heaven upon him for his alleged impieties.' — Epicureanism, p. 46.
- This consideration is urged by De Quincey in one of his essays.
^ iii. 1039, etc.
* iv. 3.^-38 :—
Atque eadem nobis vigilantibus obvia mentes
Terrificant atque in somnis, cum saepe figuras
Contuimur miras simulacraque luce carentum,
Quae nos horrifice languentis saepe sopore
Excierunt, ne forte animas Acherunte reamur
Effugere aut umbras inter vivos volitare.
284 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
shows by quotation from Suetonius' ' Life of Caligula/ that such
mental conditions were attributed to the administration of a
love-philtre. The coincidence in these recorded cases may imply
nothing more than the credulity of Suetonius, or of the authorities
whom he followed : but it is conceivable that Lucretius may
have himself attributed what was either a disorder of his own
constitution, or the result of a prolonged overstrain of mind, to
the effects of some powerful drug taken by him in ignorance '.
Thus, while the statement of Jerome admits neither of
verification nor refutation, it may be admitted that there
are indications in the poem of a great tension of mind,
of an extreme vividness of sensibility, of an indifference
to life, and, in the later books, of some failure in the power
of organising his materials, which incline us rather to accept
the story as a meagre and distorted record of tragical events
in the poet's life, than as a literary myth which took shape
out of the feelings excited by the poem in a later age. Yet
this qualified acquiescence in the tradition does not involve the
belief that any considerable portion of the poem was written
' per intervalla insaniae,' or that the disorder from which the
poet suffered was actually the effect of a love-philtre.
The statement involved in the Avords ' quos Cicero emen-
davit,' has also been the subject of much criticism. No one
can read the poem without recognising the truth of the
conclusion established by Lachmann, and accepted by the
most competent Editors of the poem since his time, that the
work must have been left by the author in an unfinished state
and given to the world by some friend or some person to
whom the task of editing it had been entrusted. But there
' An article in the Fortnightly Review of September, 187S, on ' Hallucina-
tion of the Senses,' suggests a possible explanation of the mental condition
of Lucretius, during the composition of some part of his work. The writer
speaks of the power of calling these hallucinations up as being quite
consistent with perfect sanity of mind, but as sometimes inducing madness.
He goes on, ' Or, if the person does not go out of his mind, he may be so
distressed by the persistence of the apparition which he ha-; created, as to
fall iato melancholy and despair, and even to commit suicide.'
XL] LUCRETIUS. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 285
is some difficulty in accepting the statement that this editor
was Cicero. His silence on the subject of his editorial
labours, when contrasted with the frank communicativeness
of his Epistles in regard to anything which for the time
interested him, and the slight esteem with which he regarded
the philosophy which is embodied in the poem, justify some
hesitation in accepting the authority of Jerome on this point
also. He only once mentions the poem in a letter to his
brother Quintus\ and in passages of his philosophical works
in which he seems to allude to it he expresses himself slight-
ingly and somewhat contemptuously ^. In the disparaging
references to the Latin writers on Greek philosophy before
the appearance of his own Tusculan Questions and Aca-
demics, he makes no exception in favour of Lucretius. The
words in his letter to his brother Quintus are these, * Lucretii
poemata, ut scribis, ita sunt, multis luminibus ingenii, multae
tamen artis : sed cum veneris, virum te putabo, si Sallustii
1 The theory of Lachmann and others that Q. Cicero was the editor may
possibly be true. He dabbled in poetry himself, and he was more nearly of
the same age as Lucretius, and tlius perhaps more likely to have been a
friend of his. The fact that Cicero's remark is in answer to one of his might
suggest the opinion that the poem had been read by him before it became
known to the older brotlier, and perhaps been sent by him to Cicero.
But if Q. Cicero was the editor, Jerome must here also have copied
his authorities carelessly. In the time of Jerome the familiar name of
Cicero must have been understood as applying to the great orator and
philosophic writer, not to his comparatively obscure brother. The only
certain inference which can be drawn from this mention of the poem is that
it had been read, shortly after its appearance, in the beginning of the year
54 B.C., by both brothers. Yet the consideration of the whole case does not
lead to the rejection of the statement that M, Cicero was the editor as
incredible, or even as highly improbable. If it was he, he must have per-
formed his task very perfunctorily. Possibly, as Mr. ?tIunro suggests, all
that he may have been asked to do was to introduce the work to the public
by the use of his name. The actual revision and arrangement of the poem
may have been made by one of the ' librarii ' of Atticus.
^ L. g. Tusc. Disp. i. 21, especially the sentence — ' Quae quidem cogitans
soleo saepe admirari non nullorum insolentiam philosophorum qui naturae
cognitionem admirantur, eiusque inventori et principi gratias e.xultantes
agunt eumque venerantur ut deum.'
286 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
Empedoclea legeris, hominem non putabo.' Professor Tyrrell
in his ' Correspondence of Cicero,' remarks on this passage
(vol. II. page io6) : 'The criticism of Quintus, with which
Cicero expresses his accord, was that Lucretius had not only
much of the genius of Ennius and Attius, but also much of the
ari of the poets of the new school, among them even Catullus,
who are fashioning themselves on the model of the Alexan-
drine poets, especially Callimachus and Euphorion of Chalcis.
This new school Cicero refers to as the pewrepoi (Att. VII. 2. i)
and as /// cantores Euphorio)iis (Tusc. III. 45). Their ars
seemed to Cicero almost incompatible with the ingenium of
the old school. This criticism on Lucretius is not only quite
just from Cicero's point of view, but it is most pointed. Yet
the editors from Victorius to Klotz will not let Cicero say
what he thought. They insert a twn either before multis or
before nni/tae, and thus deny him either ingenium or ars.
The point of the judgment is that Lucretius shows the
genius of the old school and (what might seem to be
incompatible with it) the art of the new ^' Thus if his notice
of the poem is slight, it is not deficient in appreciation.
Mr. Munro succeeds in explaining Cicero's silence on
the subject in his other correspondence. It is in his
Letters to his oldest and most intimate correspondent, the
Epicurean Atticus, that we should expect to find notices of
his editorial labours. It was a task on which Atticus might
have given most valuable help from his large employment
of educated slaves in the copying of manuscripts. Cicero's
silence on the subject in the Letters to Atticus is fully
explained by the fact that they were both in Rome during
the greater part of the time between the death of Lucretius
and the publication of his poem. Again, Cicero's strong
opposition to the Epicurean doctrines was not incompatible
with the closest friendship with many who professed them ;
' The use of taincn in the sen^e of ' all the same ' is not uncommon in
the colloquial language of Terence, which the language of Cicero's familiar
letters closely resembles.
XL] LUCRETIUS. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 287
and this opposition was not conspicuously declared till some
years after this time. Lucretius would have sympathised with
Cicero's political attitude, as he appears to commend Memmius
for adopting a similar attitude in his Praetorship, and he must
have known that Cicero was the man of widest literary culture
then living. There is thus no great difficulty in supposing
that the work of even so uncompromising a partisan as
Lucretius should have been placed, either by his own request
or by the wish of his friends, in the hands of one who was not
attracted to it either by strong poetical or philosophical sym-
pathy. The energetic kindliness of Cicero's nature, and his
active interest in literature, would have prompted him not to
decline the service if he were asked to render it. Thus, al-
though on this point too our judgment may well be suspended,
we may think with pleasure of the good-will and kindly offices
of the most humane and energetic among Roman writers, as
exercised in behalf of Lucretius after his untimely death.
This is all the direct external evidence available for the
personal history of Lucretius. It is remarkable, when com-
pared with the information given in his other notices, that
the record of Jerome does not even mention the poet's
birth-place. This may be explained on the supposition
either that the authorities followed by Jerome knew very
little about him, or that, if he were born at Rome, there
would not be the same motive for giving prominence to
the place of his birth, as in the case of poets and men of
letters who brought honour to the less famous districts of
Italy. While Lucretius applies the word patria to the Roman
State ('patriai tempore iniquo'), and the adjective patriiis to
the Latin language, these words are used by other Roman
poets, — Ennius and Virgil for instance,- — in reference to their
own provincial homes. The Gentile name Lucretius was one
eminently Roman, nor is there ground for believing that, like
the equally ancient and noble name borne by the other great
poet of the age, it had become common in other parts of Italy.
The name suggests the inference that Lucretius was descended
288 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
from one of the most ancient patrician houses of Rome, but
one, as is pointed out by Mr. Munro, more famous in the
legendary than in the later annals of the Republic. Some
members of the same house are mentioned in the letters of
Cicero among the partisans of Pompey : and possibly the
Lucretius Ofella, who was one of the victims of Sulla's
tyranny, may have been connected with the poet. As the
position indicated by the whole tone of the poem is that of
a man living in easy circumstances, and of one, who, though
repelled by it, was yet familiar with the life of pleasure and
luxury, he must have belonged either to a senatorian family,
or to one of the richer equestrian families, the members of
which, if not engaged in financial and commercial affairs,
often lived the life of country gentlemen on their estates and
employed their leisure in the cultivation of literature. The
tone of the dedication to Memmius, a member of a noble
plebeian house, and of the occasional addresses to him in the
body of the poem, is not that of a client to a patron, but of an
equal to an equal : —
Sed tua me virtus tamen et speiata voluptas
Suavis amicitiae — .
While Lucretius pays the tribute of admiration to the literary
accomplishment of his friend, and to the active part which he
played in politics, he yet addresses him with the authority of
a master. In a society constituted as that of Rome was in
the last age of the Republic this tone could only be assumed
to a member of the governing class by a social equal. Mem-
mius combined the pursuits of a politician, a man of letters,
and a man of pleasure ; and in none of these capacities does
he seem to have been worthy of the affection and admiration
of Lucretius. But as he filled the office of Praetor in the year
58 B.c.^ it may be inferred that he and the poet were about
the same age, and thus the original bond between them may
probably have been that of early education and literary
' At that lime he would be about forty-one years of age — the same age
as Lucretius, if, as is most probable, he was born in 99 e.g.
XI.j LUCRETIUS. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 289
sympathies. That Memmius retained a taste for poetry amid
the pursuits and pleasures of his profligate career is shown by
the fact that he was the author of a volume of amatory poems,
and also by his taking with him, in the year 57 B.C., the poets
Helvius Cinna and Catullus, on his staff to Bithynia. The
keen discernment of the younger poet, sharpened by personal
animosity, formed a truer estimate of his chief, than that
expressed by the philosophic enthusiast. But at the time in
which the words — •
Ncc Memmi clara propago
Talibus in rebus communi deesse saluti —
were written, even Cicero regarded him as one of the bulwarks
of the senatorian cause against Clodius and his influential
supporters. And neither the scandal of his private nor of his
public life prevented his being in later years among the orator's
correspondents.
This relation to Memmius is the only additional fact which
an examination of the poem brings into light. Nothing is
learned from it of the poet's parentage, his education, his
favourite places of residence, of his career, of his good or evil
fortune. There were eminent Epicurean teachers at Athens
and Rome (Patro, Phaedrus, Philodemus, etc.) during his
youth and manhood, but it is useless to ask what influence
of teachers or personal experience induced him to become
so passionate a devotee of the doctrines of Epicurus. Yet
though no direct reference to his circumstances is found in his
writings, we may yet mark indirect traces of the impression
produced upon him by the age in which his youth and
manhood were passed ; we seem to catch some glimpses of his
habitual pursuits and tastes, to gain some real insight into his
being, to apprehend the attitude in which he stood to the great
teachers of the past, and to know the man by knowing the
objects in life which most deeply interested him. Nothing, we
may well believe, was further from his wish or intention than
to leave behind him any record of himself. No Roman poet
has so entirely sunk himself and the remembrance of his own
U
290 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
fortunes in absorption in his subject. But his strong personal
force and individuality have penetrated deeply into all his
representation, his reasoning, and his exhortation. From the
beginning to the end of the poem we feel that we are listening
to a living voice speaking to us with the direct impressiveness
of personal experience and conviction. No writer ever used
words more clearly or more sincerely : no one shows a greater
scorn for the rhetorical artifices which disguise the lack of
meaning or insinuate a false conclusion by fine-sounding
phrases : —
Quae belle tangere possunt
Auris et lepido quae sunt fucata sonore '.
The union of an original and independent personality with
the utmost sincerity of thought and speech is a characteristic
in which Lucretius resembles Thucydides. It is this which
gives to the works of both, notwithstanding their studied
self-suppression, the vivid interest of a direct personal
revelation.
The tone of many passages in the poem clearly indicates
that Lucretius, though taking no personal part in the active
politics of his age, was profoundly moved by the effects which
they produced on human happiness and character. Thus the
lines at iii. 70-74 —
Sanguine civili rem conflant, etc. —
recall the thought and spectacle of crime and bloodshed vividly
presented to him in the impressible years of his youth ^ Other
passages are an immediate reflexion of the disturbance and
alarm of the times in which the poem was written. Thus the
opening lines of the second book, which contrast the security
of the contemplative life with the strife of political and military
^ i. 643-4 ; cf. 0VT6 wi \oyoypa(pot ^vviOeaav tnl to -irpoaayuyorcpov t^
dupoaaei t] a.\r]6far(pov. — Thuc. i. 21.
- The lines (v. 999) —
At non multa virum sub signis milia ducta
Una dies dabat exitio, etc. —
might well be a reminiscence of the great massacre at the Colline gate.
XL] LUCRETIUS. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 291
ambition, seem to be suggested by the action of what is some-
times called the first triumvirate. The lines —
Si noil forte tuas legiones per loca camiDi, etc. —
have been noted ^ as a probable allusion to the position actually
taken up by Julius Caesar outside of Rome in the opening
months of the year 58 b. c. Some earlier lines of the same
passage —
Ceitare ingenio, contendere nobilitate,
Noctes atque dies niti praestante labore
Ad summas emergere opes rerumque potiri, —
have a resemblance to words directly applied by Cicero to
Caesar ^, and are certainly more applicable to him than to any
other of the poet's contemporaries. The political reflexions in
the poem, as for instance that at v. 11 23, seem, in almost
all cases, to be forced from him by the memory of the first
civil war, or the vague dread of that which was impending.
It is not from any effeminate recoil from danger, but rather
from horror of the turbulence, disorder, and crimes against the
sanctities of human life, involved in the strife of ambition, that
Lucretius preaches the lessons of political quietism. And
while his humanity of feeling makes him shrink from the
prospect of evil days, like those which he well remembered,
again awaiting his country, his capacity for pure and simple
pleasures makes him equally shrink from the spectacle of
prodigal luxury which Rome then presented in a degree never
before witnessed in the world.
Thus the first general impression of Lucretius which we form
from his poem is that of one who, from a strong distaste to the
life of action and social pleasure, deliberately chose the life of
contemplation, — the 'fallentis semita vitae.' Some illustrations
of his argument — as, for instance, a description of the state of
mental tension produced by witnessing public games and
* Cp. Munro, Note II, p. 413. Third Edition.
* ' Si jam violentior aliqua in re C. Caesar fuisset, si eum magnitudo con-
tentionis, studium gloriae, praestans animus, excellens nobilitas aliquo im-
pulisset.' — In Vatinium 6.
U 2
292 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
spectacles for many days in succession \ of the reflexion of the
colours cast on the stage by the awnings of the theatre ^, of the
works of art adorning the houses of the great', etc. — imply
that he had not always been a stranger to the enjoyments
of city life, and that they attracted him by a certain fascination
of pomp and novelty. His pictures of the follies of the
'jeunesse doree' (at iv. 1121, etc.), and of sated luxury (at iii.
1060, etc.), show that he had been a witness of the conditions
of life out of which they were engendered. At iv. 784, in
speaking of the power of the mind to call up images, he
specifies ' conventus hominum, pompam, convivia, pugnas.'
But such illustrations are rare when compared with those
which speak of a life passed in the open air, and of intimate
familiarity with many aspects of Nature. The vivid minuteness
with which outward things are described, as well as the occa-
sional use of such words as vidi*, show that though a few
of the sights observed by him may have been drawn from the
physics of Epicurus ^, the great mass of them had either been
originally observed by himself or at least had been verified
in his own experience. He was endowed not only with the
poet's susceptibility to the beauty and movement of the out-
ward world, but also with the observing faculty and curiosity
of a naturalist : and by both impulses he was more attracted to
the solitudes of Nature than to the haunts of men. Many bright
illustrations of his argument tell of hours spent by the sea
shore. Thus he notes minutely the effect of the exhalations
from the salt water in wearing away rocks and walls (i. 336 ; iv.
220), of the invisible influence of the sea-air in producing
moisture in clothes (i. 305 ; vi. 472), or a salt taste in the
mouth (iv. 222), of the varied forms of shells paving the shore
(ii. 374), of the sudden change of colour when the winds raise
the white crest of the waves (ii. 765), of the appearance of sky
and water produced by a black storm-cloud passing over the
^ iv. 973, etc. ^ iv. 75, etc. " ii. 24, etc.
* In places where he is not drawing from his own observation, he uses
such expressions as memorant; e.g. iii. 642. ^ E.g. iv. 353, etc.
XL] LUCRETIUS. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 293
sea (vi, 256). Other passages show his familiarity with inland
scenes,— with the violent rush of rivers in flood (i. 2S0, etc.),
or their stately flow through fresh meadows (ii. 362), or their
ceaseless unperceived action in eating away their banks (v.
256); — or again, with all the processes of husbandry, the
growth of plants and trees, the ways of flocks and herds in
their pastures, and the sounds and sights of the pathless
woods. While he anticipates Virgil in his Italian love of
peaceful landscape, he shows some foretaste of the modern
passion for the mountains, — as (at ii. 331) where he speaks of
'some spot among the lofty hills,' commanding a distant view
of a wide expanse of plain, and (at iv. 575) where he recalls
the memory of wanderings among mountain solitudes —
Palantis comites cum montis inter opacos
Qiiaerimus et magna disperses voce ciemus, —
and (at vi. 469) where he notices the more powerful action of
the wind on the movements of the clouds at high altitudes —
Nam loca declarat sursum ventosa patere
Res ipsa et sensus, montis cum ascendimus altos.
Even some of the metaphorical phrases in which he figures
forth the pursuit of truth seem to be taken from mountain
adventured The mention of companionship in some of these
wanderings, and in other scenes in which the charm of Nature
is represented as enhancing the enjoyment of a simple meal —
Propter aquae rivum sub ramis arboris altae, —
enables us to think of him as, although isolated in his thoughts
from other men, yet not separated from them in the daily inter-
course of life by any unsocial austerity. Such separation would
have been quite opposed both to the teaching and the example
of his master. Some remembrance of active adventure is sug-
gested by illustrations of his philosophy drawn from the ex-
perience of a sea-voyage (iv. 387, etc., 432), of riding through
a rapid stream (iv. 420), of watching the action of dogs
* E.g. Ardua dum metuunt amittunt vera viai
and Avia Pieridum peragro loca.
294 ^^^ ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
tracking their game through woods and over mountains
(i. 404), or renewing the memories of the chase in their dreams
(v. 991, etc.). The lines (at ii. 40, etc., and 323, etc.) show
that his imagination had been moved by witnessing the evolu-
tions of armies, not indeed in actual warfare, but in the pomp
and pageantry of martial spectacles, — ' belli simulacra cientes.'
These and many other indirect indications afford some glimpses
of his habitual manner of life and of the pursuits that gave him
most lively pleasure : but they do not give us any special know-
ledge of the particular districts of Italy in which he lived, or of
the scenes in foreign lands which he may have visited. The
poem tells us nothing immediately of the trials or passions of
his life, though of both he seems to bear the scars. But as
passages in which he reveals the deep secrets of human passion
and suffering prove him to have been a man of strong, ardent,
and vividly susceptible temperament, so the numerous illustra-
tions drawn from the repertory of his personal observation tell
of an eye trained to take delight in the outward face of Nature
as well as of a mind unwearied in its search into her hidden
laws. One great charm of his work is that it breathes of the
open air more than of the library. If, in dealing with the
problems of human life, his strain —
' Is fraught too deep with pain,'
yet to him too might be applied the lines written of one who,
though not comparable to him in intellectual and imaginative
power, yet, in his spiritual isolation from the world, seems
almost like his modern counterpart —
' And thou hast pleasures too to share
With those who come to thee,
Bahns floating on thy mountain air
And healing sights to see '.'
But we may trust with even more confidence to the indica-
tions of his inner than of his outward life. The spirit and
purpose which impelled Lucretius to expound his philosophy
can be understood without any collateral knowledge of his
^ Obermann, by M. Arnold.
XL] LUCRETIUS. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 295
history. The dominant impulse of his being is the ardent
desire to emancipate human hfe from the fears and passions
by which it is marred and degraded. He has more of the
zeal of a religious reformer than any other ancient thinker,
except one who in all his ways of life was most unlike him,
the Athenian Socrates. The speculative enthusiasm which
bears him along through his argument is altogether subsidiary
to the furtherance of his practical purpose. Even the poetical
power to which the work owes its immortality was valued
chiefly as a pleasing means of instilling the unpalatable
medicine of his philosophy^ into the minds and hearts of
unwilling hearers. It is the constant presence of this prac-
tical purpose, and the profound sense which he has of the
actual misery and degradation of human life, and of the peace
and dignity which are attainable by man, that impart to his
words the peculiar tone of impassioned earnestness to which
there is no parallel in ancient literature.
Among his personal characteristics none is more prominent
than his consciousness both of the greatness of the work on
which he was engaged, and of his own power to cope with it.
The passage in which his high self-confidence is most powerfully
proclaimed {i. 920, etc.) has been imitated both by Virgil and
Milton. The sense of novelty, adventure, and high aspiration
expressed in the lines —
Avia Pieiidum peragro loca nullius ante
Tiita solo —
moved Virgil less powerfully in speaking of his humbler
theme —
Sed me Parnassi deserta per ardua dulcis
Raptat amor ;
and inspired the English poet in his great invocation : —
' I tlience
Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song,
That with no middle flight intends to soar
Above the Aonian mount, while it pursues
Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.
' i- 935-50-
296 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [C'H.
The sense of difficulty and the joy of overcoming it meet us
with a keen bracing effect in many passages of the poem. He
speaks disdainfully of those enquirers who fall into error by
shrinking from the more adventurous paths that lead to truth —
Ardua dum metiuint amittunt vera viai.
Without disowning the passion for fame, — ' laudis spes magna,'
so powerful an incentive to the Roman temperament, — he is
more inspired and supported in his arduous task by ' the
sweet love of the Muses.' The delight in the exercise of his
art and the joyful energy sustained through the long processes
of gathering and arranging his materials appear in such
passages as iii. 419-20 : —
Conqnisita diu duljique reperta labore
Digna tua pergam disponere carmina cura :
and again at ii. 730 —
Nunc age dicta meo dulci qnaesita labore
Percipe.
The thoroughness and devotion of a student tell their own tale
in such expressions as the ' studio disposta fideli,' and the
' noctes vigilare serenas' in the dedication to Memmius, and in
the more enthusiastic acknowledgment of the source from
which he drew his philosophy at iii. 29, etc. —
Tnisque ex, inclute, chartis,
Floriferis ut apes in saltibus omnia libant.
Omnia nos itidem depascimur aurea dicta.
The absorbing interest with which he carried on the work of
enquiry and of composition appears in illustrations of his
argument drawn from his own pursuits ; as where (ii. 979) in
arguing that, if the atoms have the properties of sense, those
of which man is compounded must have the intellectual
attributes of man, he says, —
]\Iiiltaque dc rerum mixtura dicerc callent
lit sibi proporro quae sint priniordia quaernnt ' ;
' ' And can discourse much on the combination of tilings, and enquire
moreover, what arc their own first elements.'
XL] LUCRETIUS. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 297
and, again (at iv. 969), in explaining how men in their dreams
seem to carry on the pursuits to which they are most devoted,
how lawyers seem to plead their causes, generals to fight their
battles over again, sailors to contend with the elements, he
adds these lines : — -
Nos ngere hoc autem ct naluram qiiaerere reium
Semper et inventam patriis exponere chartist
His frequent use of the sacrificial phrase ' Hoc age,' affords
evidence of the religious earnestness with which he had
devoted himself to his task.
The feeling animating him through all his great adventure, —
through the wastest flats as well as the most commanding
heights over which it leads him, — is something different from
the delight of a poet in his art, of a scholar in his books, of a
philosopher in his thought, of a naturalist in his observation.
All of these modes of feeling are combined with the passion of
his whole moral and intellectual being, aroused by the
contemplation of the greatest of all themes—' maiestas cognita
rerum'— and concentrated on the greatest of practical ends,
the emancipation and elevation of human life. The life of
contemplation which he alone among the Romans deliberately
chose and realised he carried out with Roman energy and
fortitude. It was with him no life of indolent musing, but one
of thought and study, varied and braced by original observa-
tion. It was a life, also, of strenuous literary effort employed in
giving clearness to obscure materials, and in eliciting poetical
charm from a language to which the musical cadences of verse
had been hitherto almost unknown. Above all, it was the life
of one who, while feeling the spell of Nature more profoundly
than any poet who had gone before him, did not in that new
rapture forget
' The human heart by which we live.'
' ' \Vhile I seem ever to be plying tliis task earnestly, to be enquiring into
Nature, and explaining my discoveries in writings in my native tongue.'
This is one of those passages wliich seem to indicate an unhealthy over-
strain which may have been the precursor of the final disturbance of ' his
power to shape.'
298 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
His high intellectual confidence, based on his firm trust in
his master, shows itself in a spirit of intolerance towards the
school which was the chief antagonist of Epicureanism at
Rome. His argument is a vigorous protest against philo-
sophical error and scepticism, as well as against popular
ignorance and superstition. His polemical attitude is seen in
the frequent use of such expressions as ' vinco,' ' dede manus,
etc., addressed to an imaginary opponent. Discussion of topics,
not apparently necessary to his main argument, is raised with
the object of carrying the war into the enemy's camp. Such
frequently recurring expressions as ' ut quidam fingunt,' ' per-
delirum esse videtur,' etc., are invariably aimed at the Stoics \
Of other early philosophers, even when dissenting from their
opinions, he speaks in terms of admiration and reverence : but
Heraclitus, whose physical explanation of the universe was
adopted by the Stoics, is described in terms of disparagement,
levelled as much against his later followers as against himself,
as —
Clarus ob obscuram linguam magis inter inanis
Quamde gravis inter Graios qui vera requirunt.
The traditional opposition between Democritus and Heraclitus
lived after them. Adherence to the doctrine of 'atoms and
the void,' and to that of ' the pure fiery element,' became the
symbol of a radical divergence in the whole view of human
life.
While there is frequent allusion to the Stoics in the poem,
there is no direct mention either of them or of their chief
teachers, Zeno, Chrysippus, or Cleanthes. Neither do the
greater names of Socrates, Plato, or Aristotle appear in it,
though one or two passages clearly imply some familiarity with
the writings of Plato-. But among the moral teachers of
* Cp. Munro's notes on the passages where these expressions occur.
^ E.g. ii. 77, etc. Augescunt aliac genles, etc., suggested by a passage in
the Laws : — "^ivvuivrai t( koi iHTpifpouTas naidas, KaOdirtp Kafiirdba rbv Piov
rrapaScSovTa? aKXois «f d'AAwi/— and the lines which recur several times, etc.
• Nam vehiti pueri trepidant,' which Mr. I\Iunro aptly compares with
XL] LUCRETIUS. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 299
antiquity he acknowledges Epicurus only. The whole en-
thusiasm of his temperament breaks out in admiration of him.
He alone is the true interpreter of Nature and conqueror of
superstition (i. 75)5 the reformer 'who has made pure the
human heart' (vi. 24); the 'guide out of the storms and
darkness of life into calm and light' (iii. i ; v. 11, 12); the
' sun who at his rising extinguished all the lesser stars ' (iii.
1044). He is to be ranked even as a God on account of his
great services to man, in teaching him the mastery over his
fears and passions : —
Deus ille fuit, deus, inclute Memmi^.
He speaks of his master throughout not only with the
affection of a disciple, but with an emotion akin to religious
ecstasy"-. His admiration for him springs from a deeper
source of spiritual sentiment than that of Ennius for Scipio, or
of Virgil for Augustus. Though Epicurus inspired much
affection in his lifetime, and though other great writers after
Lucretius, — such as Seneca, Juvenal, and Lucian, — vindicate
his name from the dishonour which the perversion of his
doctrines brought upon it, yet even the most favourable
criticism of his life and teaching must find it difficult to
sympathise with the idolatry of Lucretius. Yet his error, if it
be one, springs from a generous source. He attributes his own
imaginative interest in Nature to a philosopher who examined
the phenomena of the outward world merely to find a basis for
the destruction of all religious belief. He saturates with his
own deep human feeling a moral system which professes to
secure human happiness by emptying life of its most sacred
associations, most passionate longings, and profoundest
affections.
There was a truer affinity of nature between Lucretius and
the words in the Phaedo (77)) ''^'"s eVt tu koI Iv r/jxTi/ ttjis, outis to. roiavra
(popeirai.
1 V. 8.
* Cf. Ilis ibi me rebus quaedam divina voluptas
Percipit adque honor.
300 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
another philosopher whom he names with the warmest feehngs
of love and veneration — Empedocles of Agrigentum — the most
famous of the early physiological poets of Greece. He
flourished during the fifth century B.C., and was the author of
a didactic poem on Nature, of which some fragments still
remain, sufficient to indicate the nature of the work and the
character of the man. These fragments prove that Lucretius
had carefully studied the older poem, and adopted it as his
model in using a poetical form and diction to expound his
philosophical system. He declares, indeed, his opposition to
the doctrine of Empedocles, which traced the origin of all
things to four original elements ; but he adopted into his own
system many both of his expressions and of his philosophical
ideas. The line in which the Roman poet enunciates his first
principle, —
Nullam rem e nilo gigni divinitus unquam,
was obviously taken from the lines of the old poem ntpX
«« rod yap fifj euvros durjxavuu eart ytviaOai
ro T kbv i^uWvadat avqwaTov Koi dirp-qKTOV.
Speaking of Sicily as a rich and wonderful land, Lucretius
pays his tribute of love and admiration to his illustrious
predecessor in these lines, —
Nil tamen hoc habnisse \iro praeclarins in se
Nee sanctum magis et mirum carumque videtur.
Carmina quia etiam divini pectoris eius
Vociferantur et exponunt praeclara reperta,
Ut vix humana videatur stirpe creatus^.
There is a close agreement between the two poetical philo-
sophers in their imaginative mode of conceiving Nature. They
both represented the principle of beauty and life in the
universe under the symbol of the Goddess of Love — ^Kvnpi
^ ' But nought greater tlian this man does it seem to liave possessed, nor
aught more holy, more wonderful, or more beloved. Yea, too, strains of
divine genius proclaim aloud and make known his great discoveries, so tliat
he seems scarcely to be of mortal laee.' — i. 729-3<!.
XL] LUCRETIUS. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 301
^aaiXeia'; 'alma Venus, genetrlx,' They both explain the
unceasing process of decay and renovation in the world by an
image drawn from the most impressive spectacle of human life
— a mighty battle, waged through all time between opposing
forces. The burden and the mystery of life seem to weigh
heavily on both, and to mould their very language to a deep,
monotonous solemnity of tone. But along with this affinity of
temperament there is also a marked difference in their modes
of thought and feeling. The view of Nature in the philosophy of
Empedocles appears to be just emerging out of the anthropo-
morphic fancies of an earlier time : the first rays of knowledge
are seen trying to pierce through the clouds of the dawn of
enquiry : the dreams and sorrows of religious mysticism
accompany the awakened energies of the reason. His mournful
tone is the voice of the intellectual spirit lamenting its former
home, and baffled in its eager desire to comprehend 'the
whole.' Lucretius, on the other hand, saw the outward world
as it looks in the light of day, neither glorified by the mystic
colours of religion, nor concealed by the shadows of mythology.
He was moved neither by the passionate longing of the soul,
nor by the ' divine despair ' of the intellect : but he felt pro-
foundly the sorrows of the heart, and was weighed down by the
ever-present consciousness of the misery and wretchedness in
the world. The complaint of the first is one which has been
uttered from time to time by some solitary thinker in modern
as in ancient days : — ■
■navpov Se C'^V^ d^iov /xtpos dOpTjaavres
diKv'ixopoi, Kanvoio SIktjv dpOivTa dirfnTav,
avTO piuvov TreiadevTts, orw irpoffeKvpaev iKaaros,
■ndvroa kXavvup-ivof ro 5' ov\ov (irevxtrai (vpiTv
avTOJS. ovT fviSfpKrd rdS' dvSpaaiv oijT iiraKovaTa
ovre vucp nepiXfjina *.
1 ' When they have gazed for a few years of a life that is indeed no life,
speedily fulfilling their doom, they vanish away like a smoke, convinced of
that only which each hath met in his own experience, as they were buffeted
about to and fro. Vainly doth each boast to have discovered the whole.
The eye cannot behold it, nor the ear hear it, nor the mind of man com-
prehend it.'
302 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
The other gives a real and expressive utterance to that 'thought
of inexhaustible melancholy,' which has weighed on every
human heart : — •
Miscetur funere vagor
Quem pueri toUunt visentis luminis oras :
Nee nox ulla diem neque noctem aurora secutast
Quae non audierit mixtos vagitibus aegris
Ploratus mortis comites et funeris atri'.
Besides Epicurus and Empedocles Lucretius mentions
Democritus and Anaxagoras, and speaks even of those whom
he confutes as ' making many happy discoveries by divine
inspiration,' and as 'uttering their responses from the shrine of
their own hearts with more holiness and truth than the Pythia
from the tripod and laurel of Apollo.' The reverence which
other men felt in presence of the ceremonies of religion he feels
in presence of the majesty of Nature ; and to the interpreters
of her meaning he ascribes the holiness claimed by the
ministers of religion. Thus, to a doctrine of Democritus
he applies the words 'sancta viri sententia.' The divinest
faculty in man is that by which truth is discovered. The
highest office of poetry is to clothe the discoveries of thought
with the charm of graceful expression and musical verse ^.
Of other Greek authors. Homer and Euripides are those of
whom we find most traces in the poem. To the first he awards
a high pre-eminence above all other poets, —
Adde repertores doctrinarum atque leporum,
Adde Heliconiadum comites ; quorum unus Homerns
Sceptra potitus eadem aliis sopitu' quietest^.
The passages in which Lucretius imitates him show how
clearly he recognised his exact vision of outward things, and
his true appreciation of the moral strength and dignity of
^ ' With death there is ever blending the wail of infants newly born into
the light. And no night hath ever followed day, no morning dawned
on night, but hath heard the mingled sounds of feeble infant wailings
and of lamentations that follow the dead and the black funeral train.' — ii.
576-80.
^ i. 943-50. = iii. 1036-38.
XI.l LUCRETIUS. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 303
man. The frequent imitations of Euripides^ show that while
he felt the spell of his pathos, he was also attracted by the
poetic mould into which the tragic poet has cast the physical
speculations of Anaxagoras. Allusion is made in tones of
indifference or disparagement to other poets of Greece, as
having, in common with the painters of former times, given
shape and substance to the superstitious fancies of mankind.
It is characteristic of his powerful and independent genius,
that, unlike the younger poets of his generation, he adheres to
the older writers of the great days of Greece, and acknowledges
no debt to the Alexandrine School. Although amply furnished
with the knowledge necessary for the performance of his task,
he is a poet of original genius much more than of learning and
culture : and he is thus more drawn to those who acted on
him by a kindred power, than to those who might have
served him as models of poetic form or repertories of poetic
illustration. The strength of his understanding attracted him
to some of the great prose-writers of Greece, by whom that
quality is most conspicuously displayed; notably to Thucy-
dides, whom he has closely followed in his account of the
\Plague at Athens,' and, as has been shown by Mr, Munro, to
Hippocrates. The kind of attraction which the last of these
has for him coiifirms the criticism of Goethe, that Lucretius
shows the observing faculty of a physician, as well as of a poet.
The diction and rhythm of the poem, as well as the more
direct tribute of personal acknowledgment^, prove that he
was an admiring student of his own countryman Ennius, to
whom in some qualities of his temperament and genius he
bore a certain resemblance. Many lines, phrases, and archaic
words in Lucretius, such as —
Per gentis Italas hominum quae clara clueret, —
Lumina sis ocnlis etiam bonus Ancu' reliquit, —
inde super terras fluit agmine dulci, —
multa munita virura vi ; caerula caeli Templa ; Acherusia templa ; luminis
oras; famul infimus ; induperator; Graius homo, etc. —
^ Cf. notes ii. of Mr. Munro's edition. ^ i. 117, etc.
304 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Cii.
have a clear ring of the old poet. The few allusions to Roman
history in the poem, as, for instance, the line —
Scipiadas, belli fulmen, Carthaginis horror, —
the specification at iii. 833 of the second Punic War as
a momentous crisis in human affairs, — the description at
V. 1226 of a great naval disaster, such as happened in the first
Punic War — the introduction there of elephants into the
picture of the pomp and circumstance of war, — suggest the
inference that, just as events and personages of the earlier
history of England live in the imaginations of many English
readers from their representation in the historical plays of
Shakspeare, so the past history of his country lived for
Lucretius in the representation of Ennius. But of the national
pride by which the older poet was animated, the work ot
Lucretius bears only scanty traces. The feeling which moved
him to identify the puissant energy pervading the universe
with ' the mother of the Aeneadae,' and the motive of his
prayer for peace addressed to that Power, —
Nam neque nos agere hoc patriai tempore iniquo, —
seem indeed to spring from sources of patriotic affection,
perhaps all the deeper because not too loudly proclaimed.
But in the body of the poem his illustrations are taken as
frequently from Greek as from Roman story, from the strange-
ness of foreign lands as from the beauty of Italian scenes.
The Georgics of Virgil, in the whole conception of Nature
as a living power, and in many special features, owe much to
the imaginative thought of Lucretius ; but nothing can be more
unlike the spirit of the older poet than the episodes in which
Virgil pours forth all his Roman feeling and his love of Italy.
The height from which Lucretius contemplates all human
history, as ' a procession of the nations handing on the torch or
life from one to another,' is wide apart from that from which
Virgil beholds all the nations of the world doing homage to the
majesty of Rome. The poem of Lucretius breathes the spirit
XL] LUCRETIUS. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. 305
of a man, apparently indifferent to the ordinary sources of
pleasure and of pride among his countrymen. Living in an
era, the most momentous in its action on the future history of
the world, he was only repelled by its turbulent activity.
The contemplation of the infinite and eternal mass and order
of Nature made the issues of that age and the imperial
greatness of his country appear to him as transient as the
events of the old Trojan and Theban wars. To him, as to the
modern poet, whose imagination most nearly resembles his, the
thought of more enduring things had
' Power to make
Our noisy years seem moments in the being
Of the eternal silence.'
But while by his silence on the subject of national glory and
his ardent speculative enthusiasm Lucretius seems to be more
of a Greek than of a Roman, yet no Roman writer possessed
in larger measure the moral temper of the great Republic.
He is a truer type of the strong character and commanding
genius of his country than Virgil or Horace. He has the
Roman conquering energy, the Roman reverence for the
majesty of law, the Roman gift for introducing order into a
confused world, the Roman power of impressing his authority
on the minds of men. In his fortitude, his superiority to
human weakness, his seriousness of spirit, his dignity of
bearing, he seems to embody the great Roman qualities
' constantia ' and ' gravitas.' If in the force and sincerity of
his own nature he reminds us of the earliest Roman writer of
genius, in these last qualities, the acquired and inherited
virtues of his race, he reminds us of the last representative
writer, whose tone is worthy of the 'Senatus populusque
Romanus.' But Lucretius is much more than a type of the
strong Roman qualities. He combines a poetic freshness of
feeling, a love of simple living, an independence of the world,
with a tenderness and breadth of sympathy, and a power of
sounding into the depths of human sorrow, such as only
a very few among the ancients — Homer, Sophocles, Virgil, — ■
X
3C6 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC.
and not many among the poets or thinkers of the modern
world have displayed. In no quality does he rise further
above the standard of his age than in his absolute sincerity and
his unswerving devotion to truths He combines in himself
some of the rarest elements in the Greek and the Roman
temperament, — the Greek ardour of speculation, the Roman's
firm hold on reality. A poet of the age of Julius Caesar, he is
animated by the spirit of an early Greek enquirer. He unites
the speculative passion of the dawn of ancient science with the
minute observation of its meridian ; and he applies the
imaginative conceptions formed in the first application of
abstract thought to the universe to interpret the living beauty
of the world.
^ Mr. Fronde, in his ' Julius Caesar,' says, ' The age was saturated with
cant.' Perhaps, to that condition of the age we, in part, owe one of the
sinceiest protests against cant, and unreality of every kind, ever written.
Both speculatively and practically Cicero appears at a great disadvantage
when compared with Lucretius in these respects.
CHAPTER XII.
The Philosophy of Lucretius.
The peculiarity of the poem of Lucretius, that which makes
it unique in literature, is the fact that it is a long sustained
argument in verse. The prosaic title of the poem, ' De rerum
natura,' — a translation of the Greek irepi ^vo-ewr, — indicates
that the method of exposition was adopted, not primarily with
the view of affecting the imagination, but with that of
communicating truth in a reasoned system. In the lines,
in which the poet most confidently asserts his genius, he pro-
fesses to fulfil the three distinct offices of a philosophical
teacher, a moral reformer, and a poet, —
Primum quod magnis doceo de rebus et artis
Religionum animum nodis exsolvere pergo,
Deinde quod obscura de re tam lucida pango
Carmina, musaeo contingens cuncta lepore^.
We have, accordingly, to examine the poem in three different
aspects : —
I. as the exposition of a system of speculative philo-
sophy.
II. as an attempt to emancipate and reform human life.
III. as a work of poetical art and genius.
But these three aspects, though they may be considered
separately, are not really independent of one another. The
speculative ideas on which the system of philosophy is
ultimately based impart confidence and elevation to the moral
^ ' First, by reason of the greatness of ray argument, and because I set the
mind free from the close-drawn bonds of superstition ; and next because, on
so dark a theme, I compose such lucid verse, touching every ])oint with the
grace of poesy.' — i. 931-34.
X 2
3o8 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
teaching, and new meaning and imaginative grandeur to the
interpretation of Nature and of human Hfe, on which the
permanent value of the poem depends. Thus, although the
philosophical argument, which forms as it were the skeleton of
the work, is in many places barren and uninteresting, yet it is
necessary to master it before we can form a true estimate of the
personality of the poet, of the main passion and labour of his
life, of the full meaning of his thought, and the full compass of
his poetic genius. Moreover, the study of the argument
is interesting on its own account. In no other work are the
strength and the weakness of ancient physical philosophy so
apparent. If the poem of Lucretius adds nothing to the
knowledge of scientific facts, it throws a powerful light on one
phase of the ancient mind. It is a witness of the eager
imagination and of the searching thought of that early time,
which endeavoured, by the force of individual thinkers and
the intuitions of genius, to solve a problem which is perhaps
beyond the reach of the human faculties, and to explain, at a
single glance, secrets of Nature which have only slowly been
revealed to the patient labours and combined investigations of
many generations of enquirers.
I. — Examination of the Argument.
I. The philosophical system expounded in the poem is the
atomic theory of Democritus^, in the form in which it was
accepted by Epicurus, and made the basis of his moral
and religious doctrines. Lucretius lays no claim to original
discovery as a philosopher : he professes only to explain, in his
native language, ' Graiorum obscura reperta.' His originality
consists, not in any expansion or modification of the Epicurean
doctrine, but in the new life which he has imparted to its
exposition, and in the poetical power with which he has applied
it to reveal the secret of the life of Nature and of man's
true position in the world. After enunciating the first
* Of Leucippus, with whose name the theory is also associated, very little
is known.
XII.] THE PHILOSOPHY OF LUCRETIUS. 309
principles of the atomic philosophy, he discusses in the last
four books of the poem some special applications of that
doctrine, which formed part of the physical system of Epicurus.
But the extent to which he carries these discussions is limited
by the practical purpose which he has in view. The impelling
motive of all his labour is the impulse to purify human life,
and, especially, to emancipate it from the terrors of super-
stition. The source of these terrors is traced to the general
ignorance of certain facts in Nature, — ignorance, namely,
of the constitution and condition of our souls and bodies,
of the means by which the world came into existence and is
still maintained, and lastly, of the causes of many natural
phenomena, which are attributed to the direct agency of
the gods. With the view of establishing knowledge in the
room of ignorance on these questions, it is necessary, in the
first place, to give a full account of the original principles of
being : and to this enquiry the two first books of the poem are
devoted. Had his purpose been merely speculative, the
subject of the fifth book, — viz. the origin of the world, of life,
and of human society, — would naturally have been treated
immediately after the exposition of these first principles.
But the order of treatment is determined by the immediate
object of attacking the chief stronghold of superstition : and,
accordingly, the third and fourth books contain an examination
of the nature of the soul, a proof of its non-existence after
death, and an explanation of the origin of the belief in
a future state. In the fifth and sixth books an attempt is made
to show that the creation and preservation of the world,
the origin and progress of human society, and the phenomena
of thunder, tempests, volcanoes, and the like, are the results
of natural laws, without Divine intervention. Although he
sometimes carries his argument into greater detail than is
necessary for his purpose, and addresses himself to the
reform of other evils to which the human heart is liable,
yet his whole treatment of his subject is determined by
the thought of the irreconcilable opposition between the
3IO THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Cn.
truths of Nature and the falsehood of the ancient rehgions.
The key-note to the argument is contained in the hues, which
recur as a kind of prelude to the successive stages on which it
enters, in the first, second, third, and sixth books : —
Hnnc igitur terro'em animi tenebrasque necessest
Non radii solis neqne lucida tela diei
Discutiant, sed naturae species ratioque^.
The action of the poem might be described as the gradual
defeat of the ancient dominion of superstition by the new
knowledge of Nature. This meaning seems to be symbolised
in its magnificent introduction, where the genial, all-pervading
Power — the source of order, beauty, and delight in the world
and in the heart of man, — and the grim phantom of super-
stition—
Horribili super aspectu mortalibns instans, —
the cause of ignorance, degradation, and misery, — are vividly
personified and presented in close contrast with one another.
The thought, thus symbolised, pervades the poem. The
processes of Nature are explained not chiefly for the purpose
of satisfying the love of knowledge (although this end is
incidentally attained), but as the means of establishing light
in the room of darkness, peace in the room of terror, faith in
the laws and the facts of the universe in the room of a base
dependence on capricious and tyrannical Powers.
What then was this philosophy which supplied to Lucretius
an answer to the perplexities of existence ? The object con-
templated by all the early systems of ontology was the dis-
covery of the original substance or substances out of which
all existing things were created, and which alone remained
permanent amid the changing aspects of the visible world.
Various systems, of a semi-physical, semi-metaphysical character,
were founded on the answers given by the earliest enquirers
to this question. In the first book of the poem several of
' 'This terror of the soul, therefore, and this darkness must be dispelled,
not by the rays of the sun or the bright shafts of day, but by the outward
aspect and harmonious plan of nature.' — i. 146-48.
XII.] THE PHILOSOPHY OF LUCRETIUS. 31I
these theories are discussed. Lucretius, following Epicurus,
adopts the answer given by Democritus to this question, that
the original substances were the ' atoms and the void '— "ro/na
Kui Kevov. After the invocation and the address to Memmius,
and the representation of the universal tyranny exercised by
superstition until its power was overcome by Epicurus, and
after a summary of the various topics to be treated in order
to banish this influence from the world, he lays down this
principle as the starting-point of his argument, — that no
existing thing is formed out of nothing by divine agency —
Nullam rem e nilo gigni divinitus unquam.
The apprehension of this principle — a principle common to all
the ontological systems of antiquity — is the first step in the
enquiry, as to what are the original substances out of which
all creation comes into being and is maintained. The proof
of this principle is the manifest order and causation recog-
nisable in the world. If things could arise out of nothing, all
existence would be confused and capricious. The regularity
of Nature subsists —
Materies quia rebus reddita certast
Gignundis e qua constat quid possit oriri.
The complement of this first principle is the proposition that
nothing is annihilated, but all existences are resolved into
their ultimate elements. As the first is a necessary inference
from the existence of universal order, the second is proved by
the perpetuity of creation and the observed transformation of
things into one another.
The original substances out of which all thmgs are
produced, and into which they are ultimately resolved, are
found to be certain primordial particles of matter or atoms,
which are called by various names — 'materies,' '^ genitalia
corpora,' ' semina rerum,' ' corpora prima.' Some of these
names, it may be observed, are expressive not only of their
primordial character, but also of a germinative or productive
power. The objection that these atoms are invisible to our
312 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Cii.
senses is met by showing that there are many invisible forces
acting in Nature, the effects of which prove that they must be
bodies, —
Corporibus caecis igitur natura gerit res.
In addition to bodily substance there must also be vacuum
or space ; otherwise there could be no motion in the
universe, and without motion nothing could come into
being. The existence of matter is proved by our senses,
of vacuum by the necessity of there being space for matter
to move in, and also by the varying density of bodies.
But besides body and vacuum there is no other absolute
substance —
Ergo praeter inane et corpora tertia per se
Nulla potest reriim in numero natnra relinqui'.
All material bodies are either elemental substances or com-
pounded out of a union of these substances. The elemental
substances are indestructible and indivisible. This is proved
by the necessities of thought (i. 498, etc.) and of Nature. If
there were no ultimate limit to the divisibility of these
substances, if there were not something immutable underlying
all phenomena, there could be no law or order in the world.
The existence and ultimate constitution of the atoms is thus
enunciated —
Sunt igitur solida primordia simplicitate
Quae minimis stipata cohaerent partibus arte,
Non ex illanlm conventu conciliata,
Sed nlSgis aeterna pollentia simplicitate,
Unde neque avelli quicquam neque deminui iam
Concedit natura reservans semina rebus ^.
At this stage in the argument, from line 635 to 920 of Book I,
the first principles of other philosophies, and particularly of
» i. 445-56-
^ • The original atoms are, therefore, of solid singleness, composed of the
smallest particles in close and compact union, not kept together by any
meeting of these particles, but rather powerful by their eternal singleness,
from which nature allows no loss by violence or decay, storing them as the
seeds of all things.' — i. 609-14.
XII.] THE PHILOSOPHY OF LUCRETIUS. 3x3
the systems of Heraclitus, Empedocles, and Anaxagoras, are
discussed at considerable length, and shown to be inconsistent
with the actual appearance of things and with the principles
already established.
The argument starts anew at line 920, and it is shown that
the atoms must be infinite in number, and space infinite in
extent; — the contrary supposition being both inconceivable
and incompatible with the origin, preservation, and renewal
of all existing things. It is shown also that the existing order
of things has not come into being through design, but by
infinite experiments through infinite time. The doctrine that
all things tend to a centre is denied, and the book concludes
with the imaginative presentation of the thought that, if matter
were not infinite, the whole visible fabric of the world would
perish in a moment, ' and leave not a rack behind.'
The second book opens with an impressive passage, in
which the security and charm of the contemplative life is
contrasted with the restless anxieties and alarms of the life
of worldly ambition. The argument then proceeds to explain
the process by which these atoms, primordial, indestructible,
and infinite in number, combine together in infinite space,
so as to carry on the birth, growth, and decay of all things.
While the sum of things always remains the same, there is
constant change in all phenomena. This is explicable only
on the supposition of the original elements being in eternal
motion. The atoms are borne through space, either by their
own weight, or by contact with one another, with a rapidity of
motion far beyond that of any visible bodies. All motion is
naturally in a downward direction and in parallel lines, but to
account for the contact of the atoms with one another it must
be supposed that in their movements they make a slight
declension from the straight line at uncertain intervals. This
liability to declension is the sole thing to break the chain of
necessity — 'quod fati foedera rumpat.' It is through this
liability in the primal elements that volition in living beings
becomes possible.
314 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Cii.
As the sum of matter in the universe is constant, so the
motions of the atoms always have been and always will be
the same\ All things are in ceaseless motion, although
they may present to our senses the appearance of perfect
rest.
It is necessary further to assume the existence of other
properties in the atoms, in order to account for the variety in
Nature, and the individuality of existing things. They have
original differences in form ; some are smooth, others round,
others rough, others hooked, &c. These varieties in form are
not infinite, but limited in number.
As the diversity in the world depends on the diversity of
these forms, the order and regularity of Nature imply that
there is a limit to these varieties. But while they are limited,
the individuals of each kind are infinite, otherwise the pri-
mordial atoms would be finite in number, and there could be
no cohesion among atoms of the same kind, in the vast and
chaotic sea of matter —
Unde ubi qna vi et quo pacto congressa coibunt
Materiae tant© in pelago turbaque aliena"?
The motions which tend to the support and the destruction
of created things are balanced by one another : there must be
an equilibrium in these opposing forces —
Sic aequo geritur certamine principiorum
Ex infinito contractum tempore bellum'.
Death and birth succeed one another, as now the vitalising,
now the destructive forces gain the upper hand.
Further, the great diversity in Nature is to be accounted for
by diversity, not only in the original forms of matter, but also
in their modes of combination. No existing thing is com-
posed solely of one kind of atoms. The greater the variety of
forces and powers which anything displays, the greater is the
variety of the elements out of which it was originally com-
posed. Of all visible objects the earth contains the greatest
' ". 297-302. -^ ii. 549. 3 ii _;;-5_y6.
XII.] THE PHILOSOPHY OF LUCRETIUS. 315
number of elements ; therefore it has justly obtained the name
of the universal mother. There is however a limit to the
modes in which atoms can combine with one another : each
nature appropriates elements suitable to its being and rejects
those unsuitable. All existing things differ from one another
in consequence of the difference in their elements and in their
modes of combination. The different modes of combination
give rise to many of the secondary properties of matter, which
are not in the original elements. Colour, for instance, is not
one of the original properties of atoms : for all colour is
changeable, and all change implies the death of what pre-
viously existed. Moreover, colour depends on light, and
the atoms never come forth into the light. The atoms
are also devoid of heat and cold, of sound, taste, and smell.
All these properties must be kept distinct from the original
elements — •
Immortalia si volumus subiungere rebus
Fundamenta quibus nitatur summa salutis ;
Ne tibi res redeant ad nilum fimditus omnes'.
Further, although they are the origin of all living and
sentient things, the atoms themselves are devoid of sense and
life, otherwise they would be liable to death. All living things
are merely results of the constant changes in the primordial
elements contained in the heavens and the earth. Hence the
heaven is addressed as the father, the earth as the mother, of
all things that have life.
Finally, from the infinity of space and matter, it may be
inferred that there are infinite other worlds and systems beside
our own. Many elements were added from the infinite uni-
verse to our system before it reached maturity : and many
indications prove that the period of growth is now past, and
that we are living in the old age of the world.
' ' If we are to suppose the existence of an eternal substance, at the basis
of all things, on which the safety of the whole universe rests, lest you find
creation resolved into nonentity.' — ii. S62-64.
3l6 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
The sum of the first two books, in which the principles of
the atomic philosophy are methodically unfolded and illus-
trated, is, accordingly, to this effect : — that all things have
their origin in, and are sustained by, the various combinations
and motions of solid elemental atoms, infinite in number,
various in form, but not infinite in the variety of their forms,
— not perceptible to our senses, and themselves devoid of
sense, of colour, and of all the secondary properties of matter.
These atoms, by virtue of their ultimate conditions, are capable
only of certain combinations with one another. These com-
binations have been brought about by perpetual motion,
through infinite space and through all eternity. As the order
of things now existing has come into being, so it must one day
perish. Only the atoms will permanently remain, moving un-
ceasingly through space, and forming new combinations with
one another.
These first principles being established, the way is made
clear for the true explanation, according to natural laws, of
those phenomena which give rise to and maintain the terrors
of superstition.
The third book treats of the nature of the mind, and of the
vital principle. As it is by the fear of death, and of eternal
torment after death, that human life is most disturbed, it
is necessary to explain the nature of the soul, and to show
that it perishes in death along with the body.
The mind and the vital principle are parts of the man as much
as the hands, feet, or any other members. The mind is the
directing principle, seated in the centre of the breast. The
vital principle is diffused over the whole body, obedient to and
in close sympathy with the mind. The power which the mind
has in moving the body proves its own corporeal nature, as
motion cannot take place without touch, nor touch without
the presence of a bodily substance.
The soul (including both the mind and vital principle) is,
therefore, material, formed of the finest or minutest atoms,
as is proved by the extreme rapidity of its movement, and
XII.] THE PHILOSOPHY OF LUCRETIUS.
317
by the fact that there is nothing lost in appearance or weight
immediately after death : — ■
Quod simul atque hominem leti secura qnies est
Indepta atque animi natura animaeque recessit,
Nil ibi libalum de toto corpore cernas
Ad speciem, nil ad pondus : mors omnia praestat
Vitalem praeter sensum calidumque vaporem ^
Four distinct elements enter into the composition of the
soul — heat, wind, calm air, and a finer essence 'quasi anima
animai.' The variety of disposition in men and animals de-
pends on the proportion in which these elements are mixed.
The soul is the guardian of the body, inseparably united
with it, as the odour is with frankincense ; nor can the soul
be disconnected from the body without its own destruction.
This intimate union of soul and body is proved by many facts.
They are born, they grow, and they decay together. The
mind is liable to disease, like the body. Its affections are
often dependent on bodily conditions. The difificulties of
imagining the state of the soul as existing independently of
the body are next urged ; and the book concludes with a long
passage of sustained elevation of feeling, in which the folly and
the weakness of fearing death are passionately insisted upon.
The fourth book, which treats of the images which all
objects cast off from themselves, and, in connexion with that
subject, of the senses generally, and of the passion of love,
is intimately connected with the preceding book. If there
is no life after death, what is the origin of the universal belief
in the existence of the souls of the departed ? Images cast off
from the surface of bodies, and borne incessantly through
space without force or feeling, appearing to the living some-
times in sleep and sometimes in waking visions, have suggested
the belief in the ghosts of the dead, and in many of the portents
' * So soon as the deep rest of death hath fallen upon a man, and the
mind and the life have departed from him, there is no loss in his whole
frame to be perceived, either in appearance or in weight. Death still
presents everything that was before, except the vital sense and the warm
heat.' — iii. 211-1=;.
3l8 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
of ancient mythology. The rapid formation and motion of
these images and their great number are explained by various
analogies. Some apparent deceptions of the senses are next
mentioned and explained. These deceptions are shown to
be not in the senses, but in our minds not rightly interpreting
their intimations. There is no error in the action of the senses.
They are our ' prima fides ' — the foundation of all knowledge
and of all conduct —
Non modo enim ratio mat omnis, vita quoqne ipsa
Concidat extemplo, nisi credere scnsibus ausis^.
Images that are too fine to act on the senses sometimes
directly affect the soul itself. Discordant images unite together
in the air, and present the appearance of Centaurs, Scyllas,
and the like. In sleep, images of the dead —
Morte obita quorum tellus amplectitur ossa-, —
appear, and give rise to the belief in the existence of ghosts.
The mind sees in dreams the objects in which it is most
interested, because, although all kinds of images are present,
it can discern only those of which it is expectant.
Several other questions are discussed in connexion with the
doctrine of the 'simulacra.' The final cause of the senses and
the appetites is denied, and, by implication, the argument from
design founded on the belief in final causes. The use of
everything is discovered through experience. We do not
receive the sense of sight in order that we may see, but
having got the sense of sight, we use it —
Nil ideo quoniam natumst in corpore ut uti
Possemus, sed quod natumst id procreat usum'.
There follows an account of sleep, and of the condition
of the mind during that state ; and the book concludes with a
^ ' For, not only would all reason .'come to nought, even life itself would
immediately be overthrown, unless you dare to trust the senses.' — iv. 507-8.
^ ' Since nothing in our body has been produced in order that we might
be able to put it to use, but what ha:- been produced creates its own use.' —
iv. 834-55.
XII.] THE PHILOSOPHY OF LUCRETIUS. 319
physical account of the passion of love, which is dependent
on the action of the simulacra on the mind. Love is shown
also to arise from natural causes, and not to be engendered
by divine influence. The fatal consequences of yielding to
the passion are then enforced with much poetical and satiric
power.
The object of the fifth book is to explain the formation
of our system— of earth, sea, sky, sun, and moon, — the origin
of life upon the earth, and the advance of human nature from
a savage state to the arts and usages of civilisation. The
purpose of these discussions is to show that all our system
was produced and is maintained by natural agency, that it is
neither itself divine nor created by divine power, and that,
as it has come into existence, so it must one day perish.
As the parts of our system, — earth, water, air, and heat,
— are perishable, and constantly passing through processes
of decay and renovation, the system must have had a be-
ginning, and will have an end. There must at last be an
end of the long war between the contending elements.
The world came into existence as the result not of design,
but of every variety of combination in the elemental atoms
throughout infinite time. Originally all. were confused to-
gether. Gradually those that had mutual affinities combined
and separated themselves from the rest. The earthy particles
sank to the centre. The elemental particles of the empyrean
(aether ignifer) formed the ' moenia mundi.' The sun and
moon were formed out of the particles that were neither heavy
enough to combine with the earth, nor light enough to ascend
to the highest heaven. Finally, the liquid particles separated
from the earth and formed the sea. Highest above all is the
empyrean, entirely separated from the storms of the lower air,
and moving round with its stars by its own impetus. The
earth is at rest in the centre of our system, supported by the
air, as our body is by the vital principle. The movements
of the stars and of the sun and moon through the heavens
are next explained ; then the origin of vegetable and animal
320 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
life on the earth, and the beginning and progress of human
society.
First plants and trees, afterwards men and animals, were
produced from the earth in the early and vigorous prime of the
world. Many of the animals originally produced afterwards
became extinct. Those only were capable of continuation
which had either some faculty of self-preservation against
others, or were useful to man, and so shared his protection.
The existence of monsters such as Scylla, the Centaurs, the
Chimaera, is shown to be impossible according to the natural
laws of production.
The earliest condition of man was one of savage vigour and
power of endurance, but liable to danger and destruction from
many causes. The first humanising influence is traced to
domestic union and the affection inspired by children —
Et Venns inminiiit viris puerique parentum
Blanditiis facile ingenium fregeie superbum*.
The origin of language is next explained, then that of civil
society, of religion, and of the arts, — the general conclusion
being that all progress is the result of natural experience, not
of divine guidance.
The last source of superstition is our ignorance of the
causes of natural phenomena —
Praesertim rebus in illis
Quae supera caput aetheriis cernuntur in oris -.
Hence the sixth book is devoted to the explanation of thunder-
storms, tempests, volcanoes, earthquakes, and the like, —
phenomena which are generally attributed to the direct agency
of the gods. The whole work terminates with an account
of the Plague at Athens, closely following that given by
Thucydides.
The first question which arises after a review of the whole
* 'And love impaired their strength, and children, by their coaxing ways,
easily broke down the proud tempej of their fathers.' — v. 1017-1S.
^ vi. 6o-i.
Xll.] THE PHILOSOPHY OF LUCRETIUS. 32I
argument is that suggested by the statement of Jerome, and
brought into prominence since the publication of Lachmann's
edition of Lucretius, viz. whether there is good reason for
believing that the poem was left by the author in an unfinished
state. In answering this question, it is to be observed, on the
one hand, that there is no incompleteness in the fulfilment of
the original plan of the work, unless from one or two hints' we
conclude that the poet intended giving a fuller account of the
blessed state of the Gods than that given at iii. 17-24. He
announces at i. 54, etc., and again at i. 127, etc., the design of
the poem as embracing the first principles of natural philosophy,
and the application of these principles to certain special sub-
jects, viz. the nature of soul and body, the origin of the belief
in ghosts, the natural causes of creation, and the meaning of
certain celestial phenomena.
The practical purpose of the poem — the overthrow of
superstition — limits the argument to these subjects of dis-
cussion. They are severally mentioned where the argument is
resumed in Books iii, iv, v, and vi, as those matters which require
a clear explanation from the poet. All the topics enunciated
in the opening statement are discussed with the utmost fulness.
The great strongholds of superstition are attacked and over-
thrown in regular succession. In the introduction to the sixth
book, the lines (91-95)
Til mihi supremae praescribta ad Candida calcis, etc.
clearly show that the poet considered himself approaching the
end of his task.
But, on the other hand, an examination of the poem in
detail leads to the conclusion that it did not receive its author's
final touch. The continuity of the argument is occasionally
broken in all the books except the first. In the fourth,
fifth, and sixth, especially, these breaks are very frequent,
and there are more frequent instances in them of repetition
and careless workmanship. They extend also to a greater
1 E. g. i. 54; V. 154.
Y
322 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
length than the earHer books, which would naturally be the
case if they had not received the authors final revision. The
poem throughout gives the impression of great fulness of
matter —
Usqne adeo largos haustus e fontibu' magnis
Lingua meo siisns diti de pectore fundet ; —
and in the composition of these later books, new suggestions
seem to have been constantly occurring to the poet as new
materials were added to his stores of knowledge : and the first
draft of his argument has not been recast so as to incorporate
and harmonise them with it. The passages containing these
new materials appear to have been fitted into the place which
they now occupy in the work, not always very judiciously,
either by Cicero or some other editor.
It was also part of the author's design to enunciate his
deepest thoughts on the Gods, on Nature, and on human life
in more highly finished digressions from the main argument.
Such passages are, in general, introduced at the beginning and
the end of the different books. They seem to bring out the
more catholic interest which underlies the special subject of the
poem. Some of these passages are highly finished, and were
evidently fixed by the poet in the places which he designed
them to occupy. Such are, especially, the introductions to the
first, second, and third books, and the concluding passages of
the second and third. But the repetition of a passage of the
first book as the introduction to the fourth, the long break in
the continuity of the introduction to the fifth, the unfinished
style of that to the sixth, and the abrupt and episodical conclusion
to the whole poem (when contrasted with its elaborately
artistic introduction), show that the same cause which marred
the symmetry of his argument deprived it of the finished
execution of a work of art. Vet these books — especially the
fifth — are as rich in poetical feeling and substance as the
earlier ones. The eye and hand of the master are as powerful
as in the first enthusiasm with which he dedicated himself to
his task, but they are less certain in their action. ^Vhether his
XII.] THE PHILOSOPHY OF LUCPETIUS. 323
powers became intermittent owing to the attacks of illness, or
whether his habit was to work roughly in the first instance and
to perfect his work by subsequent revision, which in the case
of his latest labours was prevented by death, must remain
uncertain. It is a noticeable result of the vastness of the tasks
which Roman genius set before itself, that two such works as
the didactic poem of Lucretius and the Aeneid of Virgil were
left unfinished by their authors, and given to the world in a
more or less imperfect condition by other hands.
The poem, though incomplete in regard to the arrangement
of its materials and artistic finish, presents a full and clear view
of the philosophy accepted and expounded by Lucretius.
What, then, is the intellectual interest and value of the work,
considered as a great argument, in which the plan of Nature is
explained, and the position of man in relation to that plan is
determined? Is it true, as an illustrious modern critic^ has
said, that 'the greatest didactic poem in any language was
written in defence of the silliest and meanest of all systems of
natural and moral philosophy ' ? Is this work a mere maze of
ingeniously woven error, enriched with a few brilliant colours
which have not yet faded with the lapse of time? or is it a
great monument of the ancient mind, marking indeed its
limitations, but at the same time perpetuating the memory of
its native strength and energy ? Has all the meaning of this
controversy between science in its infancy and the pagan
mythology in its decrepitude passed away, as from the vantage-
ground of nineteen centuries the blindness and the ignorance
of both combatants are apparent ? Or, may we not rather
discern that amid all the confusion of this dim vvKTOfxaxla a
great cause was at issue ; that truths the most vital to human
wellbeing were involved on both sides ; and that some
positions were then gained which are not now abandoned ?
In estimating the strength and the weakness of the system
expounded by Lucretius, it is necessary to distinguish between
the exposition of the principles of the atomic philosophy,
' Macaulay.
V 2
324 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE nEPtJBLlC. [Ch.
contained in the first two books, and the explanation of
natural phenomena contained in the remaining books. The
first, notwithstanding some arbitrary and unverifiable assump-
tions, represents a real and important stage in the progress of
enquiry ; the second, although containing many striking
observations and immediate inferences from the facts and pro-
cesses of Nature, is, from the point of view of modern science,
to be regarded mainly, as a curious page in the records of
human error. Whatever may be said of the Epicurean
additions to the system, it seems to be admitted that the
original hypothesis of Democritus has been more pregnant in
results, and has more affinity with the most advanced physical
speculations of modern times, than the doctrines of all the
other philosophers of antiquity. But even amid the mass of
unwarranted assumptions and erroneous explanations contained
in the later books, the topics discussed — such as the relation
of the mind to the body, the mode by which sensible impres-
sions are conveyed to the mind, the processes by which our
globe assumed its present form, the origin (ff life, the evolution
of humanity from its lowest to its higher stages of development,
the origin of spiritual beliefs, of the humaner sentiments, of
language, etc. — possess the interest of being kindred to those
on which speculative activity is most employed in the present
day. If the study of Lucretius forces upon our minds the
arbitrary assumptions, the inadequate method, and the false
conclusions of ancient science, it enables us to appreciate the
disinterested greatness of its aims, and the enlightened curiosity
which sought to solve the vastest problems.
It might be said, generally, that the argument of Lucretius
was an attempt to give a philosophical description of Nature
before the advent of physical science. But, as a means of
throwing light on the inadequacy of such speculations, it may
be well tc; consider in detail some of those points where the
argument most obviously fails in premises, method, and results.
The ancient as well as the modern encjuirer into the truth of
things was confronted with the question of the origin of all our
XTT.l THE PHILDSOPny OF LUCRETIUS. 325
knowledge. Is knowledge obtained originally through the
exercise of the reason or the senses, or through their combined
and inseparable action ? To this question Lucretius distinctly
answers, that the senses are the foundation of all our know-
ledge '. They are our ' prima fides ' ; the basis not only of all
sound inference, but of all human conduct. The very con-
ception of the meaning of true and false is derived from the
senses : —
Invenies primis ab sensibus esse cieatam
Nolitiam veri ncque sensus jiossc refelli'-.
But besides the direct action of outward things on the
senses, he admits the power of certain images to make them-
selves immediately present to the mind (iv. 722-822), and also
a certain immediate apprehension or intuition of the mind
(iniectus animi) into things beyond the cognisance of sense'.
Thus there is no actual inconsistency with his principles in
claiming the power of understanding the properties and
configuration of the atoms, which are represented as lying
below the reach of our senses —
Oninis ciiim longe nostris ab sensibus infra
Primorum natura iacet.
Hut of the mode of operation of this ' intuition of the mind '
there is no criterion. The doctrine of the properties, shapes,
motions, etc. of the atoms is a creation of the imagination,
suggested by certain analogies from sensible things, but in-
capable of being verified by the senses, which he regards as
the only sure foundations of knowledge.
But even on the supposition that the existence and properties
of the atoms had been satisfactorily estal)lished, no adequate
explanation is offered of their relation to the facts of existence.
'I'he same difficulty is encountered at the outset of this as of
all other ancient systems of ontology, viz. how to pass from the
eternal and immutable forms of the atoms to the variety and
' E. g. i. 694. 2 i^, 47S-79.
" In quae corpora si nuUus libi forte videtur
Posse aninii iniectus fieri, procul avius erras. — ii. 739-40.
326 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
transitory nature of sensible objects. This is the very difificulty
which Lucretius himself urges against the system of Hera-
clitus, —
Nam cur tam variae res possint esse require,
Ex uno si sunt igni puroque creatae.
The order of Nature now subsisting is declared to be the result
of the manifold combination of the atoms through infinite time
and space, but the intermediate stages by which this process
was effected are assumed rather than investigated. We seem
to pass ' per saltum ' from the chaos of lifeless elements to the
perfect order and manifold life of our system. This wide
chasm seems as little capable of being bridged by the help of
the atoms of Dernocritus, as by the watery element of Thales
or the fiery element of Heraclitus. But in Lucretius this
difficulty is partially concealed, by a poetical element in his
conception, really inconsistent with the mechanical materialism
on which his philosophy professes to be based. — It is to be
observed that while the Greek word aro^a implies merely the
notion of individual existences, the words used by Lucretius,
' semina,' ' genitalia corpora,' really indicate a creative capacity
in these existences. In conceiving their power of carrying on
and sustaining the order of Nature, his imagination is thus
aided by the analogy of the growth of plants and living beings.
A secret faculty in the atoms, distinct from their other proper-
ties, is assumed. Thus he says —
At primordia gignundis in rebus oportet
Natiiram clandestinam caecamque adhibere^
In his statement of the doctrine of the Clinamen, or slight
declension in the motion of the atoms, so as 'to break the
chain of fate,' he attributes to them a power analogous to
volition in living beings. This doctrine is suggested by the
necessity of explaining contingency in Nature and freedom in
the movements of sentient beings. We are, as in all attempts
' ' But it is necessary that the atoms, in the act of creation, should
exercise some secret, invisible faculty.' — i. 778-79.
XII.] THE PHILOSOPHY OF LUCRETIUS. 327
to account for creation, forced back on the thought of an
ultimate .unexplained power in virtue of which things have been
created and are maintained in being.
The Lucretian hypothesis of the atoms, ■ even if it were
accepted as the most reasonable explanation of the original
constitution of matter, is, by itself, altogether inadequate as a
key to the secret of Nature. It cannot be shown either how
these atoms succeeded in arranging themselves in order, or how
from their negative properties all positive life has been pro-
duced. The explanation of physical phenomena given in the
four last books, as to the nature of our bodies and souls, — as to
the action of outward things on the senses, — the origin and
existence of the sun and moon, the earth and the hving beings
upon it, etc., although professedly deduced from the principles
established in the first two books, are really reached inde-
pendently. They are either immediate inferences from the
obvious intimations of sense, or they are the suggestions of
analogy.
The weakness as well as the strength of ancient science lay
in its perception of analogies. The mind of Lucretius was
both under the influence of earlier analogical conceptions, and
also shows great boldness and originality in the logical and
poetical apprehension of 'those same footsteps of Nature,
treading on diverse subjects or matters.' But, in common
with the earlier enquirers of Greece, he trusts too implicitly
to their guidance through all his daring adventure. He seems
to believe that the hidden properties of things are as open to
discovery through this ' lux sublustris ' of the imagination, as
through the ' lucida tela ' of the reason.
To take one prominent instance of this influence, it is
remarkable how, in his explanation of our mundane system,
he is both consciously and unconsciously guided by the
analogy of the human body. Even Lucretius, living in the
very meridian of ancient science, cannot in imagination
absolutely emancipate himself from the associations of
mythology. He is indeed conscious of the inconsistency
328 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Cm.
of attributing life and sense to the earth : yet not only
does he speak poetically of Earth being the creative
mother, Aether the fructifying father of all things, but his
whole conception of the creation of the world is derived
from a supposed likeness between the properties of our ter-
restrial and celestial systems, and those of living beings.
Thus we read —
Undique quandoquidem per caulas aetheris omnis
Et quasi per magni circum spiracula mnndi
Exitus introitnsqne elementis redditus extat'.
Of the growth of plants and herbage it is said —
Ut pluma atque pili primum saetaeque creantur
Quadripedum membris et corpore pennipotentiim,
Sic nova turn tellns herbas virgultaque primum
Sustulit, inde loci mortalia saecla creavit -.
From V. 535 to 563 the power of the air in supporting the
earth 'in media mundi regione' is compared with the power
which the delicate vital principle has in supporting the human
body. Again, the gathering together of the waters of the sea
is thus represented —
Tarn magis expressus salsus de corpore sudor
Augebat mare manando camposque natantis".
And finally, though it would be easy to multiply such quota-
tions, the striking account, at the end of the second book, of
the growth and the decay of our world is drawn directly from
the obvious appearances of the growth and decay of the human
body; e.g.—
^ 'Since on all sides, through all the pores of aether, and, as it were, all
round through the breathing-places of the mighty world, a free exit and
entrance is given to the atoms.' — vi. 492-94.
^ ' As feathers, and hair, and bristles are first formed on the limbs
of beasts and the bodies of birds, so the young earth then first bore
herbs and plants, afterwards gave birth to the generations of living things.'
—V. 788-91.
' ' So more and more, the sweat oczing from the salt body, increased the
sea and the moving watery plains by its flow.' — v. 487-88.
XII.] THE PHILOSOPHY OF LUCRETIUS. 329
Quoniam nee venae perpetiuntur
Qnod satis est neque quantum opus est natura ministral '.
As a necessary result of a system of natural philosophy
based on assumptions, largely illustrated indeed, but not
corroborated by the observation of phenomena, with no
verification of experiment or ascertainment of special laws,
there is throughout the poem the utmost hardihood of
assertion and inference on many points, on which modern
science clearly proves this system to have been as much in
error as it was possible to be. It is strange to note how
inadequate an idea Lucretius had of the vastness and com-
plexity of the problem which he professed to solve. He has
no real conception of the progressive advance of knowledge,
and of the necessity of patiently building on humble found-
ations. The striking lines —
Namque alid ex alio clarescet nee tibi eaeca
Nox iter eripiet quin ultima naturai
Pervideas : ita res aecendent lumina rebus ^,
look rather like an unconscious prophecy of the future progress
of science than an account of the process of enquiry exhibited
in the book.
A few out of many erroneous assertions about physical facts,
in regard to some of which the opinions of Lucretius are
behind the science even of his own time, may be noticed.
Thus, at i. 1025, the existence of the Antipodes is denied. Again,
in Book iii. the mind is stated to be a material substance,
seated in the centre of the breast, composed of very minute
particles, the relative proportions of which determine the cha-
racters both of men and animals. Lucretius shows a close and
subtle observation of facts that establish the interdependence
* ' Sinee neither its veins ean support adequate nourishment, nor does
Nature supply what is needful.' — ii. 1 141-42.
^ ' For one thing will grow clear after another : nor shall the darkness
of night make thee lose thy way, before thou seest, to the full, the furthest
seerets of Nature : so shall all things throw light one on the other.' — i.
1115-17.
33° THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
of mind and body, but no suspicion of that interdependence
being connected with the functions of the brain and nervous
system. His whole account of the vmjidus, of the earth at rest
in the centre, and of the roHing vault of heaven, with its sun
and moon and stars — 'trembling fires in the vault' — all no
larger than they appear to our eyes, is given without any
notion of the inadequacy of his data to bear out his con-
clusions. The science which satisfied Epicurus was on astro-
nomical and meteorological questions behind that attained
by the mathematicians of Alexandria : and thus some of
the conclusions enunciated by Virgil in the Georgics are
nearer the truth than those accepted by Lucretius, ^^'hile
enlarging on the variety and subtlety in the combinations of
his imaginary atoms, he has no adequate idea of the variety
and subtlety in the real forces of Nature. His observation of
the outward and visible appearances of things is accurate and
vivid : there is often great ingenuity as well as a true appre-
hension of logical conditions in his processes of reasoning both
from ideas and from phenomena : yet most of his conclusions
as to the facts of Nature, which are not immediately per-
ceptible to the senses, are mere fanciful explanations, in-
dicating, indeed, a lively curiosity, but no real understanding
of the true conditions of the enquiry. The root of his error
lies in his not feeling how little can be known of the processes
and facts of Nature by ordinary observation, without the
resources of experiment and of scientific method built upon
experiment.
The weak points of this philosophy, the mistaken aim
and incomplete method of enquiry, the real ignorance of facts
disguised under an appearance of systematic treatment, the
unproductiveness of the results for any practical accession to
man's power over Nature, are quite obvious to any modern
reader, who, without any special study of physical science,
cannot help being familiar with information which is now
universally diffused, but which was beyond the reach of the
most ardent enquirers and original thinkers of antiquity. But
XII.] THE PHILOSOPHY OF LUCRETIUS. 33 1
the amount of information possessed by different ages, or by
different men, is no criterion of their relative intellectual
power. The mental force of a strong and adventurous thinker
may be recognised struggling even through these mists of
error. The weakness of the system, interpreted by Lucretius,
is the necessary weakness of the childhood of knowledge.
But along with the weakness and the ignorance there are
also the keen feeling, the clear eye, and the buoyant fancies
of early years, — the germs and the promise of a strong
maturity.
The full light in which ancient poetry, history, and mental
philosophy can still be read, makes us apt to forget that a
great part even of the intellectual life of antiquity has left
scarcely any record of itself. Of one aspect of this intel-
lectual life Lucretius is the most complete exponent. The
genius of Plato and Aristotle has been estimated, perhaps,- as
justly in modern as in ancient times. But the great intel-
lectual life of such men as Democritus, Empedocles, or
Anaxagoras, escapes our notice in the more familiar studies of
classical literature. The work of Lucretius reminds us of the
intensity of thought and feeling, the clearness and minuteness
of observation, with which the earliest enquiries into Nature
were carried on. In some respects the general ignorance
of the times enhances our sense of the greatness of in-
dividual philosophers. Each new attempt to understand the
world was an original act of creative power. The intellectual
strength and enthusiasm displayed by the poet himself may be
regarded as some measure of the strength of the masters, who
filled his mind with affection and astonishment.
The history of the physical science of the ancients cannot,
indeed, be regarded as so interesting or important as that of
their metaphysical philosophy. And this is so, not only
on account of the comparative scantiness of their real acquisi-
tions in the one as compared with the ideas and method
which they have contributed to the other, and with the master-
pieces which they have added to its literature ; but still more
332 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
on this account, that in physical knowledge new discovery
supplants the place of previous error or ignorance, and can be
understood without reference to what has been supplanted ;
whereas the power and meaning of philosophical ideas is
unintelligible, apart from the knowledge of their origin and
development. The history of physical science in ancient
times affords satisfaction to a natural curiosity, but is not
an indispensable branch of scientific study. The history of
ancient mental philosophy, on the other hand, — the source not
only of most of our metaphysical ideas and terms, but of many
of the most familiar thoughts and words in daily use, — is the
basis of all speculative study. Yet among the various kinds
of interest which this poem has for different classes of modern
readers this is not to be forgotten, that it enables a student of
science to estimate the actual discoveries, and, still more, the
prognostications of discovery attained by the irregular methods
of early enquiry. The school of philosophy to which Lucretius
belonged was distinguished above other schools for the
attention which it gave to the facts of Nature. Though he
himself makes no claim to original discovery, he yet shows a
philosophical grasp of the whole system which he adopted,
and a rigorous study of its details. He does not, like Virgil,
merely reproduce some general results of ancient physics,
to enhance the poetical conception of Nature : as he is
not satisfied with those general results about human life
and the origin of man, which amused a meditative poet
and practical epicurean like Horace. He was a real student
both of the plan of Nature and of man's relation to it. Out of
the stores of his abundant information the modern reader may
best learn not only the errors but also the happy guesses and
pregnant suggestions of ancient science.
To the general reader there is another aspect, in which it is
interesting to compare these germs of physical knowledge with
some tendencies of scientific enquiry in modern times. The
questions, vitally affecting the position of man in the world,
which are discussed or raised by Lucretius in the course of his
^1\.] THE PHILOSOPHY OF LVcPETtUS. 333
argument, are parallel to certain questions which have risen
into prominence in connexion with the increasing study of
Nature. Most conspicuous among these is the relation of
physical enquiry to religious belief. Expressions such as this,
Impia te rationis inire elementa viamque
Indugredi sceleris,
show that scientific enquiry had to encounter the same
prejudice in ancient as in modern times. The insufficiency
and audacity of human reason were reprobated by the antago-
nists of Lucretius as they often are in the present day.
Ancient religion denounced those who investigated the origin
of sun, earth, and sky, as
Immortalia mortali sermone notantes '.
The views of Lucretius as to the natural origin of life, and the
progressive advance of man from the rudest condition by
the exercise of his senses and accumulated experience, — his
denial of final causes universally, and specially in the human
faculties, — his resolution of our knowledge into the intimations
of sense, — his materialism and consequent denial of im-
mortality,— and his utilitarianism in morals, — all present
striking parallels to the opinions of one of the great schools of
modern thought. At v. 875 there is a passage concerning the
preservation and destruction of species, originally suggested by
Empedocles, — which shows that the idea of the struggle for
existence and of the survival of those species best fitted for the
conditions of that struggle was familiar to ancient thinkers. It
is there observed that those species alone have escaped
destruction which possess some natural weapon of defence, or
which are useful to man. Of others that could neither live tt^
themselves nor were maintained by human ^|)rG'tection, it is
said —
Scilicet haec aliis praedae lucroque iacebant
Indupedita suis fatalibus omnia vinclis,
Donee ad interitum genns id natura redegit^.
' ' Dishonouring; immortal things by mortal words.' —v. 121.
'•' ' They, doubtless, became the prey and the gain ol others, unable to break
334 Tt^P- ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
The attempt to trace the origin of all supernatural belief to the
impressions made by dreams, the explanation given of the
first manifestation of the humaner sentiments, of the beginning
of language, and of the whole condition of ' primitive man,'
are in conformity with the teaching of the most popular
exponent of the doctrine of evolution in the present day.
But altogether apart from the truth and falsehood, the right
and wrong tendencies of his system of philosophy, our feeling
of personal interest in the poet is strengthened by noting
the power of reasoning, observation, and expression put forth
by him through the whole course of his argument. The
pervading characteristic of Lucretius is the Wivida vis animi.'
The freshness of feeling and vividness of apprehension denoted
by the words,
Mente vigenti
Avia Pieridum peragro loca,
are as remarkable in the processes of his intellect as of his
imagination.
The passionate intensity of his nature has left its impress on
the enunciation of his physical as well as of his moral
doctrines. He has a thoroughly logical grasp of his subject
as a whole. He shows the capacity of unfolding it and
marshalling all his arguments in symmetrical order, and
of arranging in due subordination vast masses of details.
Vigour in acquiring and tenacity in retaining the knowledge
of facts are combined with a high organising faculty. He has
also, beyond any other Roman writer, a power of analysing
and comprehending abstract ideas, such as that of the infinite,
of space aiid time, of causation and the like, and of keeping
the consequences involved in these ideas present to his mind
through long-sustained processes of reasoning. He alone
through the bonds of fate by which they were confined, until Nature caused
that species to disappear.' — v. 875-77.
Piofessor Wallace (Epicureanism, p. 114) in commenting on this passage
adds, ' Of course in this there is no implication of the peculiarly Darwinian
doctrine of descent, or development of kind from kind, with structure
modified and complicated to meet changing circumstances.'
XII.] THE PHILOSOPHY OF LUCRETIUS. 335
among his countrymen possessed, if not the faculty of origmal
speculation, the genuine philosophic impulse, and the powers
of mind demanded for abstruse and systematic thinking.
This vigour of understanding is displayed in many processes
of deductive reasoning, in the power of seizing some general
principle ujiderlying di^^rsejjhenomena, in the use of analogies_^
by which he illustrates the argument and advances from known
to unknown causes and from things within the cognisance,- ''
our senses to those beyond their range, anrl_''Tn the clearness
and variety of his observatipon.
His system cannot Me called either purely inductive or
purely deductive, thoj^Jgh it is more of the former than of the
latter. He argup-s with great force both from a large and
varied mass of-.- facts to general laws and from general principles
to facts inv 'olved in them. The best examples of his power of
foUowinn^ abstract ideas into their consequences may be found
in th''*^ first two books, where he establishes the existence of
vacj:iJum, the infinity of space and of the atoms, the limitations
c''K the form of the atoms and the like. The reasoning at
'A. 298-328 where the existence of invisible bodies is established
affords a good instance of his power of recognising a common
principle involved in a great number and variety of phenomena.
The vigour with which he reasons from known to unknown
facts and causes may be judged most fairly by his arguments
on the progress of society, where he is more on an equality
with modern speculation. He discards, altogether, as might
be expected, the fancies concerning a heroic or a golden age,
and assumes as his data the facts of human nature as observed
in his own day. The grounds from which he starts, his
method of reasoning, and the nature of his conclusions remind
a reader of the positive tendencies of Thucydides, as they are
displayed in the introduction to his history. The importance
of personal qualities, such as beauty, strength, and power of
mind, in the earliest stage of civil society^ the influence
of accumulated wealth at a later period, the causes of the
establishment and overthrow of tyrannies and of the rise
336 THE ROMAN POETS OE THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
of commonwealths in their room, are all set forth with a
degree of strong sense and historical sagacity, such as no
other Roman writer has shown in similar investigations.
The inferiority even of Tacitus in his occasional digressions
into the philosophy of history is very marked. On such topics,
where the data were accessible to the natural faculties of
observation and inference, and where conclusions were sought
v.'hich, without aiming at definite certainty, should yet be true
in the main, the reader of Lucretius has no sense of that
wasted ingenuity which he oftcr. feels in following the in-
vestigations into some of the primary conditions of the atoms,
the component elements of the soul, the process by which
the world was formed, or the causes of t'.^ctric or volcanic
phenomena.
Lucretius makes a copious, and often a very h.ppy use, of
analogies, both in the illustration of his philosophy, and
in passages of the highest poetical power. / Some cf the
most striking of the former kind have already been noti-ed
as sources of error, or at least of disguising ignorance, in h's
reasoning, viz. those founded on the supposed parallel between
the world and the human body ; others again are employed
with force and ingenuity in support of various positions
in his argument. Among these may be mentioned his
comparison of the effect of various combinations of the same
letters in forming different words, with that of the various
combinations of similar atoms in forming different objects in
nature. So too the ceaseless motion of the atoms is brought
vijsibly before the imagination by the analogy of the motes
dancing in the sunbeam. There is something striking
in the comparison of the human body immediately after
death to wine 'cum Bacchi flos evanuit,' and again, in that of
the relation of body and soul to the relation of frankincense and
its odour —
E thuris glaebis evellere odorem
Ilaud facile est quin intereat natuia quoqiie eius'.
' iii. 327-38.
XII.] THE PHILOSOPHY OF LUCRETIUS. 337
But this faculty of his understanding is in general so united
with the imaginative feeling through which he discerns
the vital identity of the most diverse manifestations of
some common principle, that it can best be illustrated in
connexion with the poetical, as distinct from the logical, merits
of the work.
So also it is difficult to separate his faculty of clear, exact, v
and vivid observation from his poetical perception of the \
life and beauty of Nature. His powers of observation were, yr
however, stimulated and directed by scientific as well as
poetic interest in phenomena. From the wide scope of
his philosophy he was led to examine the greatest variety of
facts, physical as well as moral. His sense of the immensity
of the universe led him to contemplate the largest and widest
operations of Nature, — such as the movements of the heavenly
bodies, the recurrence of the seasons, the forces of great
storms, volcanoes, etc. ; while, again, the theory of the
invisible atoms drew his attention to the minutest processes of
Nature, in so far as they can be perceived or inferred without
the appliances of modern science. Thus, for instance, in a
long passage beginning —
Denique fluctifrago snspensae in litore vestes*
he shows by an accumulation of instances that there are many
invisible bodies, the existence of which is inferred from
visible effects. In other places he draws attention to the
class of facts which have been the basis of the modern science
of geology, — such as the mark of rivers slowly wearing away
their banks, — of walls on the sea-shore mouldering from
the long-continued effects of the exhalations from the sea, — of
the fall of great rocks from the mountains under the wear and
tear of ages.
^ Again, the argument is frequently illustrated by obser-
vation of the habits of various animals. In these passages
Lucretius shows the curiosity of a naturalist, as well as the
* i- 305-
338 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
sympathetic feeling and insight of a poet. How graphic, for
instance, is his description of dogs following up the scent of
their game —
Errant saepe canes itaqne et vestigia quaenint^
How happily their characteristics are struck off in the line —
At levisomna crnum fido cum pectoie corda-.
The various cries and habits of birds are often observed and
described, as —
Et validis cycni torrentibus ex Heliconis
Cum liquidam toUunt lugubri voce querellam •' ;
and again —
Parvus ut est cycni melior canor ille gruum quam
Clamor in aetheriis dispersus nubibus austriS
The description of sea-birds,
Mergique marinis
Fluctibus in salso victum vitamque petentes'',
recalls the vivid and natural life of those that haunted the isle
of Calypso —
Tavvy\cij(X(joi t( Kopwvai
dvaXiai rficriv t( OaXaaaia fpya ixe/xrjXev *.
His lively personal observation and active interest in the casual
objects presented to his eyes in the course of his walks are seen
in such passages as —
Cum lubrica serpens
Exuit in spinis vestem ; nam saepe videmus
Illoium spoliis vepres volitantibus auctas".
There is also much truth and liveliness of observation in
his notices of psychological and physiological facts ; as in those
' iv. 705.
^ 'Dogs, lightly sleeping, with faithful heart,' — v. 864.
' ' When from the strong torrents of Helicon the swans raise their liquid
wailing with doleful voice.'— iv. 547-48.
* ' As the low note of the swan is sweeter than the cry of the cranes, far-
scalteied among the south-wind's skiey clouds.' — iv. 181-82.
^ ' And gulls among the sea-waves, seeking their food and pastime in the
brine.' — v. 1079-80. * Od. v. 66.
■^ ' And likewise, when the lithe serpent casts its skin among the thorns ;
for often we notice the briers, with their light airy spoils hanging to them.'
— iv. 60-2.
XII.] THE PHILOSOPHY OF LUCRETIUS. 339
passages where he establishes the connexion between mind
and body, and in his account of the senses. With what a
graphic touch does he paint the outward effects of death \ the
decay of the faculties with age, and the madness that overtakes
the mind—
Adde furorem animi proprium atque oblivia rerum,
Adde quod in nigras lethargi mergitur undas";
the bodily waste, produced by long-continuous speaking —
Perpetuus sermo nigral noctis ad umbram
Aurorae perductus ab exoriente nitore^;
the reflex action of the senses, produced by the nervous strain
of witnessing games and spectacles for many days in succession ;
the insensibility to the pain of the severest wounds in the
excitement of battle ! In his account of the plague of Athens,
in which he enters into much greater detail than Thucydides,
he displays the minute observation of a physician, as well as the
profound thought of a moralist.
The ' vivida vis ' of his understanding is apparent also in the
clearness and consecutiveness of his philosophical style.
His complaint of ' the poverty of his native tongue ' is directed
against the capacities of the Latin language for scientific, not
for poetical expression —
Nunc et Anaxagorae scrutemur Homoeomerian
Quam Grai memorant nee nostra dicere lingua
Concedit nobis patrii sermonis egestas *.
That language, which gives admirable expression to the dictates
of common sense and to the dignified emotions which inspire
the conduct of great affairs, is ill adapted both for the
» iii. 213-15.
^ ' Consider, too, the special madness of the mind, and forgetfulness of
things; consider its sinking into the black waves of lethargy.' — iii.
828-29.
^ ' Unbroken speech prolonged from the first light of dawn till the
shadows of the dark night.' — iv. 537-38.
* ' Now, too, let us examine the " Homoeomeria " of Anaxagoras, as the
Greeks call it, though the poverty of our native speech does not admit of
its being named in our Language.' — i. 830-33.
Z 2
340 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBUC. [Ch.
expression of abstract ideas and for maintaining a long process
of connected argument. Lucretius has occasionally to meet
the first difficulty by the adoption of Graecisms, and the
second by some sacrifice of artistic elegance. Thus he uses
omne for to nav (ii. 1108), esse, again, for to fhai, and the like.
Something of a formal and technical character appears in the
links by which his argument is kept together, as in the
constantly recurring use of certain connecting particles, such as
the 'etenim,' 'quippe ubi,' 'quod genus,' 'amplius hoc,'
' hue accedit,' and the like. Virgil has retained some of the
most striking of these connecting formulae, such as ' contem-
plator item,' 'nonne vides,' etc.; but, as was natural in a poem
setting forth precepts and not proofs, he uses them much more
sparingly and with more careful selection. As used by
Lucretius, they add to our sense of the vividness of the book,
of the constant personal address of the author, and of his
ardent polemical tone. They also keep the framework of the
argument more compact and distinct : but they bring into
greater prominence the artistic mistake of conducting an
abstract discussion in verse. The very merits of the work
considered as an argument,— its clearness, fullness, and
consecutiveness, — detract from the pleasure which a work
of art naturally produces. But the style cannot be too highly
praised for its logical coherence and lucid illustration. The
meaning of Lucretius can never be mistaken from any ambiguity
in his language. There are difficulties arising from the un-
certainty of the text, difficulties also from our unfamiliarity with
his method and principles, or with the objects he describes, but
none from confusion in his ideas or his ..reasoning, or from a
vague or unreal use of words.
IL — The Speculative Ideas in Lucretius.
But it is in his grasp of speculative ideas, and in his
application of them to interpret the living world, that the
greatness of Lucretius as an imaginative thinker is most
apparent. The substantial truth of all the ancient philosophies
XII.] THE PHILOSOPHY OF LUCRETIUS. 34 1
lay in the ideas which they attempted to express and embody,
not in the symbols by which these ideas were successively
represented. Lucretius has a place among the few adventurous
thinkers of antiquity who attained to high eminences of
contemplation, which were hidden from the mass of their
contemporaries, and which, in the breadth of view afforded by
them, are not far below the higher levels of our modern
conceptions of Nature and human life. And there came to
him, as to the earlier race of thinkers, that which comes
so rarely to modern enquiry, the fresh and poetical sense
of surprise and keen curiosity, as at the first discovery of a new
country, or the first unfolding of some illimitable prospect.
(i) In the philosophy of Lucretius the world is conceived as
absolutely under the government of law. The starting-point
of his system —
Nullam rem e nilo gigni divinitus unquam,
is an inference from the recognition of this condition. There
is no need to prove its truth : it is openly revealed in all the
processes of Nature. This fact of universal order is indeed
supposed to result from the eternal and immutable properties
of the atoms and from the original limitation in their varieties :
but the idea of law is prior to, and the condition of, all the
principles enunciated in the first two books, in regard to the
natufe and properties of matter. In no ancient writer do we
find the certainty and universality of law more emphatically
and unmistakably expressed than in Lucretius. This is the
final appeal in all controversy. The superiority of Epicurus
is proclaimed on the ground of his having discovered the fixed
and certain limitations of all existence —
Unde refert nobis victor quid possit oriri,
Quid nequeat, finita potestas denique cuiquc
Quanam sit ratione atqne alte terminus haeiens'.
' ' Whence returning victorious he brings back to us tidings of what may
and what may not come into existence: on what principle, in fine, the
power of each thing is dttermined and the deeply-fixed limit of its being.' —
'• 75-77-
342 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
Following on his steps the poet himself professes to teach —
Quo qimeque creata
Foedere sint, in eo quam sit durare necessum,
Nee validas valeant aevi rescindere leges '.
In another place he says —
Et quid quaeque queant per foedera natural
Quid porro nequeant, sancitum quandoquidem exlat^.
All knowledge and speculative confidence are declared to rest
on this truth —
Certutr. ac dispositumst ubi quicquit crescat et insit '.
Superstition, the great enemy of truth, is said to be the result
of ignorance of 'what may be and what may not be.' This is
the thought which underlies and gives cogency to the whole
argument. The subject of the poem is ' maiestas cognita
rerum,' — the revelation of the majesty and order of the universe.
The doctrine proclaimed by Lucretius was, that creation was
no result of a capricious or benevolent exercise of power, but
of certain processes extending through infinite time, by means
of which the atoms have at length been able to combine and
work together in accordance with their ultimate conditions.
The conception of these ultimate conditions and of their
relations to one another involves some more vital agency than
that of blind chance or an iron fatalism *. The ' foedera
natural ' are opposed to the ' foedera fati.' The idea of law
in Nature, as understood by Lucretius, is not, necessarily,
inconsistent with that of a creative will determining the original
conditions of the elemental substances. Though the ultimate
principles of Lucretius are incompatible with a belief in
the popular religions of antiquity, his mode of conceiving
' 'According to what condition all things have been created, what
necessity there is that they abide by it, and how they may not annul
the mighty laws of the ages.' — v. 56-5S.
^ 'Since it is absolutely decreed, what each thing can and what it cannot
do by the conditions of nature.' — i. 586.
^ * It is fixed and ordered where each thing may grow and exist.' —
iii. 78;. ' ii. .;54-
XIT.l THE PHILOSOPHY OF LUCRETIUS. 343
the operation of law in the universe is not irreconcileable
with the conceptions of modern Theism.
The idea of law not only supports the whole fabric of his
physical philosophy, but moulds his convictions on human life
and imparts to his poetry that contemplative elevation by
which it is pervaded. It is from this ground that he makes
his most powerful assault on the strongholds of superstition.
Nature is thus declared to be free from the arbitrary and
capricious agency of the gods : —
Libera continuo dominis privata snperbis'.
Man also is under the same law, and is made free by his
knowledge and acceptance of this condition. A sense of
security is thus gained for human life ; a sense of elevation
above its weakness and passions, and the courage to bear
its inevitable evils'. This absolute reliance on law does not
act upon his mind with the depressing influence of fatalism.
Although the fortunes of life and the phases of individual
character are said to be the results of the infinite combinations
of blind atoms, yet man is made free by knowledge and the
use of his reason. Notwithstanding the original constitution
of his nature, arising out of influences over which there
is no control, he still has it in his power to live a life worthy of
the gods : —
Illnd in his rebns videor firmare potesse,
Usque adeo natiirarum vestigia linqui
Parvola, quae nequeat ratio depellere nobis
Ut nil inpediat dignam dis degere vitam '.
From these high places of his philosophy, — 'the "templa
serena " well-bulwarked by the learning of the wise ' * he
derives not only a sense of certainty in thought and security
in life, but also his wide contemplative view, and his profound
' ii. 1091. ^ vi. 32.
' ' This, in these circumstances, I think T can establish, that such faint
traces of our native elements are left beyond the powers of our reason to
dispel, that nothing prevents us from leading a life worthy of the gods.' —
iii. 311J-22. * ii. S.
344 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
feeling of the majesty of the iiniverse. The idea of universal
law enables him to apprehend in all the processes of Nature
a presence which awakens reverence and enforces obedience.
This idea imparts unity of tone to the whole poem, informs
its language, and seems to mould the very rhythm of its
verse.
(2) But a closer view brings another aspect of the world
into light ; viz. the interdependence of all things on one another.
There is not only fixed order, but there is also infinite
mobility in Nature. The sum of all things remains unchanged,
though all individual existences decay and perish. So too the
sum of force remains the same \ There is no rest anywhere ;
all things are continually changing and passing into one
another ; decay and renovation form the very life and being of
all things. Nothing is ever lost. ' Nature repairs one thing
from another, and allows of no birth except through the death
of something else' : —
Hand igitur penitus pereunt qnaecuinque videntur,
Quando alid ex alio reficit natura nee ullam
Rem gigni patitnr nisi morte adiuta aliena^?
As the 'ever-during peace' at the heart of all things is
supposed to result from the eternal and immutable properties
of the atoms, this ' endless agitation ' arises out of their
unceasing motion through infinite space. There are two
kinds of motion, — the one tendmg to the renewal, — the other,
to the destruction of things as they now exist. The main-
tenance of our whole system depends on the equilibrium of
these opposing forces —
Sic aequo geritnr certamine principiornm
Ex infinite contractum tempore bellum'.
There is thus seen to be not only absolute order, but
also infinite change in the processes of Nature. Decay and
renovation, death and life, support the existing creation in
unceasing harmony. The imagination represents this process
under the impressive symbol of an endless battle, in which
' ii- 297-99- ' i- 262-64. '■ ii. 5r3-74-
XII.] THE PHILOSOPHY OF LUCRETIUS. 345
now one side now the other gains some position, but neither,
as yet, can become master of the field —
Nunc hinc nunc illic superant vitalia rerum,
Et superantur item '.
This symbol is the poetical form of the old philosophical
distinction of av^qa-n and (ptiopd. It is another form of the
ffjis and (ptXia which to the imagination of Empedocles
appeared to pervade the universe. The idea of a constant
battle imparts to the infinite and all-pervading movement
of Nature the interest and the life of human passion on the
grandest and widest sphere of action. The greatness of the
thought makes each particular object in Nature pregnant with
a deeper meaning, associates trivial and ordinary phenomena
with a sense of imaginative wonder, and throws an august
solemnity around the familiar aspects of human life. The
passage in which this principle is most powerfully announced
^t ii- 575, etc., swells into deeper and grander tones, as the
real human pathos involved in this strife of elements is made
manifest. This struggle of life and decay is no mere war of
abstractions : it is the daily and hourly process of existence.
Birth and death are the fulfilment of this law. 'The old order
changeth, yielding place to new ' —
Cedit enim rerum novitate extrusa vetustas^.
' New nations wax strong, while the old are waning away ; the
generations of living things are changed within a brief space,
and, like the runners in a race, pass on the torch of life ' —
Augescunt aliae gentes, aliae minuuntur,
■ Inque brevi spatio mutantur saecla animantum
Et quasi cursores vitai lampada tradunt-\
Man also must resign himself to the universal law, and accept
his life not as a thing to be possessed for ever, but only to be
used for a time —
Sic alid ex alio numquam desistet oriri
Vitaque mancipio nulli datur, omnibus usu *.
' ii- 575-76- ' iii- 964- ' ii- 77-79-
' * So one thing shall never cease being born from another, and life is
given to no man as a possession, to all for use,' — iii. 970-71.
346 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
Under this law of universal decay and restoration, we see the
rains of heaven lost in the earth, but passing into new life
in the fruits from which all living things are supported —
Hinc alitur porro nostrum genus atque ferarum,
Hinc laetas urbes pueris florere videmus,
Frondi erasque novis avibus canere undique silvas^
Or we see the waters of a river lost in the sea and returning
through the earth to their original source, and again flowing in
a fresh stream along the channel first formed for them —
Inde super terras fluit agmine dulci
Qua via secta semel liquido pede detulit undas'.
Under the same law the earth is seen to be the parent of all
things and their tomb (v. 259); the sea, which loses its
substance through evaporation and the subsidence of its
waters, is found to be ever renewed by its native sources
and the abundant tribute of rivers (v. 267 ; i. 231 ; vi. 608);
the air is ever giving away and receiving back its substance ;
the sun (' liquidi fons luminis '), moon, and stars, are ever
losing and ever renewing their light. The day on which
the ' long-sustained mass and fabric of the world ' will pass
away, leaving only void space and the viewless atoms, is
destined to come suddenly through the termination of this
long balanced warfare : —
Denique tantopere inter se cum maxima mundi
Pugnent membra, pio nequaquam concita bello,
Nonne vides aliquam longi certaminis ollis
Posse dari finem? vel cum sol at vapor omnis
Omnibus epotis umoribus exsuperarint ;
Quod face.e intendunt, neque adhuc conata patrantur".
' ' Hence, moreover, the race of man and the beasts of the forest are fed ;
hence we see cities glad with the flower of their children, and the leafy woods
on all sides loud with the song of young birds.'— i. 254-56.
= V. 271-72.
■'• ' Finally, since the vast members of tiie world, engaged in no holy
warfare, so mightily contend with one another, see'st thou not that some end
may be assigned to their long conflict, either when the sun and every mode
of heat, having drunk up all the moisture, shall have gained the day, which
they are ever tending to do but do not yet accomplish ? ' etc. — v. 3S0-S5.
XII.] THE PHILOSOPHY OF LUCRETIUS. 347
(3) It is to be observed, also, how vividly Lucretius realises
and how steadfastly he keeps before his mind the ideas of the
eternity and infinity of the primordial atoms and of space.
These conceptions support him in his antagonism to the
popular religion, and deepen the feeling with which he
contemplates human life and Nature. Our world of earth,
sea, and sky is only one among infinite other systems. It
stands to the universe in much the same proportion as any
single man to the whole earth —
Et videas caelum summai totius unum
Quam sit parvnla pars et qnam multesima constet
Xec tota pars, homo terrai quota totius umis'.
It was the glory of Epicurus that he first passed beyond the
empyrean that bounds our world —
Atque omne immensum peragravit mente animoque-.
The immensity of the universe is incompatible with the con-
stant agency and interference of the gods, —
Quis regere immensi summam, quis habere profundi
Indu mami validas potis est moderanter habenas''.
This negative idea is, at least, a step in advance towards a
higher conception of the attributes of Deity. The infinity
and complexity of the universe protest against the limited
and divided powers, as the natural feelings of human nature
protest against the moral qualities attributed to the gods of
the Pagan mythology.
The power of these conceptions is also seen in the poet's
deep sense of the littleness of human life. Such pathetic
expressions of the shortness and triviality of each man's
mortal span, as that, —
Degitur hoc aevi quodcumquest *,
' ' And that you may see how very small a part one firmament is of the
whole sum of things, how small a fraction it is, not even so much in proportion
as a single man is to the whole earth.' — vi. 650-52.
^ ' And traversed the whole boundless region of space, in mind and
spirit.' — i. 74.
" M\'ho can order the infinite mass? who can hold with a guiding hand
the mit;hty reins of immensity ? " — ii. 1095-96. ' ii. 16.
348 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Cw.
are called forth by the ever-present thought of the Infinite and
the Eternal. But this thought, if associated with a feeling of
the pathos of human life does not lead Lucretius into cynicism
or despair. It rather elevates him and fortifies him to suppress
all personal complaint in the presence of ideas so stupendous.
His imagination expands in contemplating the objects either
of thought or of sight, which produce the impression of
immensity, — such as the vast expanse of earth, sea and
sky, — or of great duration, — such as the 'aeterni sidera
mundi' or the 'validas aevi vires.' Thus, as much of the
majesty of his poetry may be connected with his contemplative
sense of law, much of its pervading life with his sense of the
mobility of Nature, so the sublimity of many passages may be
resolved into the influence of the ideas of immensity, both of
time and space, on his imagination.
(4) Another aspect of things vividly realised by Lucretius
is that of their individuality. It was in the atomic philosophy,
that the thought of ' the individual ' first rose into prominence.
The meaning of the word ' atom ' is simply ' individual.' The
sense of each separate existence is not merged in the con-
ception of law, of change, or of the immensity of the universe.
The atoms are not only infinite in number, they are also
varied in kind and powerful in solid singleness, — ' solida
pollentia simplicitate.' From their variety and individuality
the variety and individuality in Nature emerge. No two
classes and no two single objects are exactly alike. Between
any two of the birds that gladden the sea-shore, the river
banks, or the woods, theie is some difference in outward
appearance —
Invenies tamen inter se differre figuris*.
Each individual of a flock is different from every other, and
by this difference only can the mother recognise her offspring,
This sense of individuality intensifies the pathos of many
passages in the poem. By regarding each being as having
- >■ a. 34S.
/
XII.] THE PHILOSOPHY OF LUCRETIUS. 349
an existence of its own, the poet enters with sympathy into
, the feehngs of all sentient existence, — of dumb animals as
well as of human creatures. The freshness and distinctness
, of all his pictures from Nature are the result of an eye trained
^ by his philosophy to see each thing not only as part of the
universal life, but as existing in and for itself.
(5) The thought, also, of the infinite subtlety of combina-
tion in the elements and forces of the world acts powerfully
on his imagination. The individuality of things depends on
the fact that no two are composed of exactly the same
elements, combined in the same way. The infinity of the
elements, the immensity of the spaces in which they meet,
and the infinite possibilities in their modes of combination
result in the endless variety of beauty and wonder which
the world presents to the eye. The epithet 'daedala,' by
which this subtlety is expressed is applied not only to
Nature, but to the earth as the sphere in which the ele-
ments are most largely mixed, and the creative forces most
powerfully active. The varied loveliness of the world, — the
'varii lepores,' by which the eye is gratified and relieved,—
are the result of the variety in the elements and the infinite
subtlety in their modes of combination. Their invisibility and
inscrutable action enhance the imaginative sense of the power
and beauty resulting from these causes.
(6) The abstract properties of the atoms, discussed in the
first two books, so far from being arbitrary assumptions,
without any relation to actual existence, are thus found
to be the . conditions which explain the order, life, im-
mensity, individuality, and subtlety manifested in the uni-
verse. These conceptions, which bridge the chasm between
the particles of lifeless matter and the living world, unite in
the more general conception of Nature. What then is
involved in this conception — the dominant conception of
the poem in its philosophical as well as its imaginative
aspects? Something more than the subsidiary conceptions
mentioned above. There is, in the first place, all that is
35° THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
involved in the unity of an organic whole. But to this whole
the imagination of the poet seems, in some passages, to attach
attributes scarcely reconcileable with the mechanical prirl-
ciples of his philosophy. In emancipating himself from the
religious traditions of antiquity, Lucretius did not altogether
escape from the power of an idea, so deeply rooted in the
thought of past ages, as to seem to be an integral element
of human consciousness. It is against the limitations which
the ancient mythology imposed on the idea of Divine agency,
rather than against the idea itself, as it is understood in modern
times, that his philosophy protests. To Nature his imagination
attributes not only life, but creative and regulative power.
There would be more truth in calling this conception pan-
theistic than atheistic. But the sense of will, freedom,
individual life, is so strong in Lucretius, that we think of the
' natura daedala rerum ' rather as a personal power, with
attributes in some respects analogous to those of man, than
as a being in whose existence all other life is merged.
Though this figurative attribution of personal qualities to
great natural forces cannot be pressed as evidence of philo-
sophical belief, yet as it shows, on the one hand, an uncon-
scious survival of the state of mind which gave birth to mytho-
logy, so it seems to be the unconscious awakening of a spiritual
conception of a creative and sustaining power in the universe.
This new and more vital conception which supersedes the
old mythological modes of thought is not altogether inde-
pendent of them. Lucretius still interprets the world by
analogies and illustrations which attach personal attributes to
different phases and forces of Nature. Thus he speaks of
Aether as the fructifying father, of Earth as the great mother of
all living things. But the survival of the mythological con-
ception of the universe, blended indeed with other modes of
imaginative thought, appears most conspicuously in the famous
invocation to the poem, —
Aeneadum genetrix, hominum divomque voluptas,
Alma Venus.
XIT.] THE PHILOSOPHY OF LUCRETIUS. 35 T
The mysterious power there addressed is identified with the
Ahna Venus of Itah'an worship, — the abstract conception of the
hfe-giving impulse, the operations of which are most visible in
the new birth of the early spring, — and with the Aphrodite of
Greek art and poetry, — -the concrete and passionate conception
of the beauty and charm which most fascinate the senses.
But if nothing more was meant in the opening lines of the
poem than a fanciful appeal to one of the Deities of the popular
belief; it might with justice be said that some of the finest
poetry in Lucretius directly contradicted his sincerest con-
victions. But the language in which she is addressed clearly
proves that the ' Alma Venus ' of the invocation is not an inde-
pendent capricious power, separate from the orderly action of
Nature. She is emphatically addressed as a Power, present
through all the world, —
Caeli subter labentia signa
Quae mare navigerum quae terras frugiferentis
Concelebras.
She is not only omnipresent, but all-creative, —
Per te quoniam genus omne animantum
Concipitur, —
and all-regulative—
Quae quoniam remm naturam sola gubernas, etc.
Thus under the name, and with some of the attributes of the
Goddess of Mythology, the genial force of Nature, — 'Natura
Naturans ' as distinct from the ' rerum summa,' or ' Natura
Naturata,' — is apprehended as a living, all-pervading energy,
the cause of all life, joy, beauty, and order in the world, the
cause too of all grace and accomplishment in man. To this
mysterious Power, from which all joy and loveliness are silently
emanating, the poet, (remembering at the same time that the
friend to whom he dedicates his poem claims especially to be
under the protection of that Goddess with whom she is
identified), prays for inspiration, —
Quo magis aeternura da dictis, diva, leporem *.
1 i. 28.
352 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
Here, as in earlier invocations of the Muse, there is a
recognition of the truth that the feeling, the imagery, and the
words of the poet come to him in a way which he does not
understand, —
and by the gift of a Power which he cannot command.
Like Goethe, Lucretius seems to feel that his thoughts
and feelings pass into form and musical expression under the
influence of the same vital movement which in early spring
fills the world with new life and beauty. But still true to
his philosophy, and remembering the Empedoclean thought ',
which recurs with impressive solemnity in his argument,
that this life-giving energy is inseparably united with a
destructive energy, and seeing at the same time before his
imagination the figures and colouring of some grea"t master-
piece of Greek art, he embodies his conception in a passionately
wrought picture of the loves of Aphrodite and Ares, and con-
cludes with a prayer that the gracious Power whom he invokes
would prevail on the fierce God of War to grant a time of peace
to his country.
If to regard this passage as merely an artistic ornament
of the poem would be unjust to the sincerity of Lucretius as a
thinker, to regard it merely as a piece of elaborate symbolism
would be still more unjust to his genius as a poet. It
is a truth both of thought and of imaginative feeling that
there is a pervading and puissant energy in the world, mani-
festing itself most powerfully in animate and inanimate creation,
when the deadness of winter gives place to the genial warmth
of spring, —
Tibi rident aequora ponti
Placatumque nitet diffuse lumine caelum ; —
* Lucretius, in other places where he introduces pictures or stories from
the ancient mythology, as at ii. 600, etc., iii. 97S, etc., iv. 584, etc.,
treats them as symbolising some facts of Nature or human life. Occasionally,
as at V. 14, etc., he deals with them in the spirit of Euhemerism. He never
uses them, as Virgil, Horace, and Ovid do, merely as materials for artistic
representation.
XII.] THE PHILOSOPHY OF LUCRETIUS. 353
manifesting itself also in the human spirit in the form of genius,
calling into life new feelings and fancies of the poet, and shaping
them into forms of imperishable beauty. Whether consistently
or inconsistently with the ultimate tenets of his philosophy, the
poet, in this invocation, seems to recognise, behind these mani-
festations of unconscious energy, the presence of a conscious
Being with which his own spirit can hold communion, and from
which it draws inspiration. With similar inconsistency or
consistency a modern physicist speaks of ' the impression of joy
given in the unfolding of leaf and the spreading of plant as irre-
sistibly suggesting the thought of a great Being conscious of
this joy.'
But this puissant and joy-giving energy, personified in the
'Alma Venus genetrix,' is only one of the aspects which the
' Natura daedala rerum ' of Lucretius presents to man. ' She
seems to stand to him rather in the position of a task-mistress
than of a beneficent Being, ministering to his wants. The Gods
receive all things from her bounty, —
Omnia suppeditat porro Natura,' —
and the lower animals who 'wage no foolish strife with her' have
their wants also abundantly satisfied : —
Quando omnibus omnia large
Tellus ipsa parit Naturaque daedala rerum^.
But to man she is the cause of evil as well as of good ; of ship-
wrecks, earthquakes, pestilence, and untimely death, as well as
of all beauty and delight. Sometimes he seems to hear her
speaking to him in the tones of stern reproof, —
Denique si vocem rerum Natura repente, etc.^
Again he sees her rising up before him like the old Nemesis of
Greek religion, and trampling with secret irony on the pride
and pomp of human affairs, —
Usque adeo res humanas vis abdita quaedam
Opterit et pulchros fascis saevasque secures
Proculcare ac ludibrio sibi habere videtur*.
1 iii. 23. - V. 233-4. ' ii. 931, etc. ■* v. 1233-5.
A a
I
354 T^^^ ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC [Ch.
It is this large conception of Nature which seems to bring the
abstract doctrines of Lucretius into harmony with his poetical
feelings and his human sensibilities. The poetry of the living
world is thus breathed into the dry bones of the Atomic system
of Democritus. The unity which the mind strains to grasp in
contemplating the universe is thus made compatible with the
perception of individual life in everything. The pathos and
dignity of human life are enhanced by the recognition of our
dependence on this great Power above and around us. The
contemplation of this Power affects the imagination with
a sense of awe, wonder, and majesty. But with this con-
templative emotion a still deeper feeling seems to mingle.
Throughout the poem there is heard a deep undertone of
solemnity as from one awakening to the apprehension of
a great invisible Power, — 'a concealed omnipotence,' — in the
world. As the imagination of Lucretius is immeasurably more
poetical, so is his spirit immeasurably more reverential than that
of Epicurus. If by the analysis of his understanding he seems
to take all mystery and sanctity out of the universe, he restores
them again by the synthesis of his imagination. If his work
seems in some places to ' teach a truth he could not learn,'
this is to be explained partly by the fact that he sometimes
leaves the beaten road of Epicureanism for the higher and less
defined tracts, — 'avia loca,' — along which the mystic enthusiasm
of Empedocles had borne him. But partly it may be explained
by the fact that the poetic imagination, which was in him the
predominant faculty, asserts its right to be heard after the
logical understanding has said its last word. The imagination
which recognises infinite life and order in the world un-
consciously assumes the existence of a creative and governing
Power, behind the visible framework of things. Even the germ
of such a thought was more elevating than the popular /
idolatry and superstition. The recognition of the majesty
of Nature enables Lucretius to contemplate life with a sense
both of solemnity and security, while it imparts a more
elevated feeling to his enjoyment of the beauty of the world.
I
XII.] THE PHILOSOPHY OF LUCRETIUS. 355
The belief which he taught and by which he Hved is neither
atheistic nor pantheistic; it is not definite enough to be
theistic. It was like the twilight between the beliefs that
were passing away, and that which rose on the world after
his time, —
■qixos 5' out' op TTcu riiis, iTi 5' afMptXvKT] vv^.
A a 2
CHAPTER XIII.
The Religious Attitude and Moral Teaching of
Lucretius.
Lucretius does not enforce his moral teaching on the
systematic plan on which his physical philosophy is discussed.
His view of human life is sometimes presented as it arises in
the regular course of the argument, at other times in highly
finished digressions, interspersed throughout the work with the
view apparently of breaking its severe monotony. These
passages might be compared to the lyrical odes in a Greek
drama. They afford relief to the strained attention, and
suggest the close and permanent human interest involved
in what is apparently special, abstract, and remote. There
is no necessary connexion between the atomic theory of
philosophy, and that view of the end and objects of life which
Lucretius derived from Epicurus. Although the moral attitude
of Epicurus was, in some respects, anticipated by Democritus,
Epicureanism really started from independent sources, viz.
from the later development of the ethical teaching of Socrates,
and from the personal circumstances and disposition of
Epicurus. By the ordinary Epicurean his philosophy was
valued chiefly as affording a basis for the denial of the
doctrines of Divine Providence and of the immortality of the
soul. But there is a wide difference between ordinary
Epicureanism and that solemn view of human life which was
revealed to the world in the poem of Lucretius. The power
which his speculative philosophy exercised over his mind was
one cause of this difference. Although there is no necessary
connexion between his philosophical convictions and his
THE MORAL TEACHING OF LUCRETIUS. 357
ethical doctrines, yet the elevation of feeling which he has
imparted to the least elevated of all the moral systems
of antiquity may be in part accounted for by the influence of
ideas derived from the philosophy of Democritus.
Epicureanism, in its original form, was the expression of a
character as unlike as possible to that of Lucretius. It arose
in a state of society and under circumstances widely different
from the social and political condition of the last phase of the
Roman Republic. It was a doctrine suited to the easy social
life which succeeded to the great political career, the energetic
ambition, and the creative genius which ennobled the great
age of Athenian liberty. It was essentially the philosophy of
the piia (loovrei, who found in refined and regulated pleasure,
in friendliness and sociability, a compensation for the loss of
political existence, and of the sacred associations and ideal
glories of their ancestral religion. Human life, stripped of its
solemn meaning and high practical interest, was supposed to
be understood and realised, and brought under the control of
a comfortable and intelligible philosophy. Pleasure was the
obvious end of existence ; the highest aim of knowledge was
to ascertain the conditions under which most enjoyment could
be secured ; the triumph of the will was to conform to these
conditions. All violent emotion, all care and anxiety, what-
ever impaired the capacity of enjoyment or fostered artificial
desire, was to be controlled or resisted, as inimical to the
tranquillity of the soul. The philosophers of the garden taught
and acted on the practical truth, that pleasure depended
on the mind more than on external things ; that a simple
life tended more to happiness than luxury'; that excess of
every kind was followed by reaction. They inculcated
political quiescence as well as the abnegation of personal
ambition. As death was 'the end of all,' life was to be
temperately enjoyed while it lasted, and resigned when ne-
cessary, with cheerful composure.
^ Cf. Juv. xiv. 319: —
Quantum Epicure tibi parvis suffecit in liortis.
358 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
Such a philosophy would sccarcely be thought capable of
having given birth to any form of serious and elevated poetry.
Its natural fruit was the refined, cheerful, and witty new
comedy of Athens. Yet the genius of Lucretius and of
Horace expressed these doctrines in tones of dignity and
beauty, which have been denied to more ennobling truths.
The philosophy of pleasure thus makes its appeal to the
poetical susceptibility, as well as to the ordinary temperament
of men. It might have been thought also that no philosophy
would have been less attractive to the dignity of the nobler
type, or to the coarser texture of the common type of Roman
character. Yet among the Romans of the last age of the
Republic, Epicureanism was a formidable rival to the more
congenial system of Stoicism, and was professed by men of
pure character and intellectual tastes as well as by men like
the Piso Caesoninus, of whom both Cicero and Catullus have
left so unflattering a portrait. These two systems, although
antagonistic in their view and aim, yet had this common
adaptation to the Roman character, that they held out a
definite plan of life, and laid down precepts by which that
life might be attained. The strength of will and singleness
of aim, characteristic of the Romans, their love of rule and
impatience of speculative suspense, inclined and enabled
them to embrace the teaching of those schools whose tenets
were, most definite and most readily applicable to human
conduct. To a Greek philosopher the interest of conforming
his life to any system arose in a great measure from the
freedom and exercise thereby afforded to his intellect. Thus
Epicurus, in denying the power of luxury to give happiness,
says, — 'These are not the things which form the life of
pleasure/ — ' aWa vrjCpiov XoyiajMos Koi ras ahlas f^(pevv<bv 7rdar]s
aipfcreas koI (fivyrjs, Koi ras do^as f^eXavvatp^ d(f) S}v TrXftorof ras
yvxas KaraXufji^avd dopv^os'^.' To a Roman, on the other hand,
' 'But the sober exercise of reason, investigating the causes why we choose
or avoid anything, and banishing those o]iinions wliich cause the greatest
tiouble in the soul.'
XIII.] THE MORAL TEACHING OF LUCRETIUS. 359
such a scheme of Hfe was recommended by the new power
which was thus imparted to the will. Greek philosophy has
sometimes been reproached as the cause of the corruption of
Roman character and the decay of Roman religion. But it
would be more true to say that, to the higher natures at least,
philosophy supplied the place of the ancient principles of duty,
which had long since decayed with the decay of patriotism
and religion. The idea of regulating life by an ideal standard
afforded a broader aim and a more humane and liberal sphere
of action to that self-control and constancy of will, out of
which, in combination with absolute devotion to the State,
the ancient Roman virtue had been formed. But still it is
true that the principles of Epicureanism were difficult to
reconcile with some of the conditions, both good and bad,
of Roman character. While fostering the humaner feelings
and more social tastes, and so softening the primitive rude-
ness and austerity, these doctrines tended to discourage
national and political spirit, by withdrawing the energies of
the will from outward activity to the regulation of the inner
life. The attitude both of Stoicism and Epicureanism was
one of resistance on the part of the will to outward influences ;
— the one system striving to attain entire independence of
circumstances, the other to regulate life in accordance with
them, so as to secure the utmost positive enjoyment, and
the utmost exemption from pain. The political passions of
the last age of the Republic inclined men of thought and
leisure to that philosophy which seemed best fitted to meet
and satisfy—
' The longing for confirmed tranquillity
Inward and outward.'
But while Epicureanism was a natural refuge from the passions
of a revolutionary era. Stoicism was a fortress of inward strength
to the few who, at the fall of the Republic, resisted the mani-
fest tendency of things, and, in a later age, to those who strove
to maintain the dignity of Roman citizens under the degrada-
tion of the early Empire.
360 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
But the profession of Epicureanism, in the last age of the
Republic, was not confined to men like Atticus and Lucretius
who stood aloof from public life. The existence of Cassius,
who acted and suffered for the same cause as the Stoic Cato,
shows that political apathy, although theoretically required by
this philosophy, was not essential to a Roman Epicurean.
Lucretius, though animated by an ardent spirit of proselytism,
does not desire that Memmius should forget his duties as a
citizen and statesman. The denial of the Divine interference
in human affairs and of the doctrine of a future state was the
essential bond of agreement among the adherents of Epicu-
reanism. The religious unsettlement of the age assumed in
them a positive form. They were the Sadducees of Rome,
who escaped from the perplexity as well as from the most
elevating influences of life, by moulding their feelings and
conduct on the firm conviction, that while man was master of
his happiness in this world, he had nothing either to hope or
fear after death.
It seems a strange result of the moral confusion of that time
to find the enthusiasm of Lucretius springing from this denial
of what from the days of Plato have been regarded as the
highest hopes of mankind. No writer of antiquity was more
profoundly impressed by the serious import and mystery of
life. Yet he appears as the unhesitating advocate of all the
tenets of this philosophy, and denies the foundations of
religious belief with a zeal more like religious earnestness
than the spirit of any other writer of antiquity. Without
conscious deviation from the teaching of his master, he re-
produces the calm unimpassioned doctrines of Epicurus, in
a new type, — earnest, austere, and ennobled ; enforcing them
not for the sake of ease or for the love of pleasure, but in the
cause of truth and human dignity. Pleasure is indeed re-
cognised by him as the universal law or condition of existence
— 'dux vitae dia voluptas,' — the great instrument of Nature
through which all life is created and maintained. But the
real object of his teaching is to obtain not active pleasure,
XIII.] THE MORAL TEACHING OF LUCRETIUS. 361
but peace and a 'pure heart.' 'For life,' he says, 'may go
on without corn or wine, but not without a pure heart —
At bene non poterat sine puro pectore vivi.
All that Nature craves is that the body should be free
from actual pain, and that the mind, undisturbed by fear
and anxiety, should be open to the influence of natural
enjoyment — '
Nonne videre
Nil aliud sibi naturam latrare, nisi ut, cui
Corpore seiunctus dolor absit, mente fruatur
lucundo sensu cura semotu' metuque^?
Although in different places he indicates a genuine appre-
ciation of the charms of art, — in the form of music, paintings,
statues, etc., — yet he expresses or implies an independence
of all the adventitious stimulants to enjoyment. The only
needful pleasure is that which Nature herself bestows on a
mind free from care, passion, violent emotion, restless discon-
tent, and slothful apathy.
Although no new principle or maxim of conduct appears
in his teaching, the view of human life presented by Lucre-
tius was really something new in the world. A strong and
deep flood of serious thought and feeling was for the first
time poured into the shallow channel of Epicureanism. The
spirit in which Lucretius contemplated the world was different
from that of any other man of antiquity ; especially different
from that of his master in philosophy. To the one human
life was a pleasant sojourn, which should be temperately
enjoyed and gracefully terminated at the appointed time :
to the other it was the more sombre and tragic side of
the august spectacle which all Nature presents to the con-
templative mind. Moderation in enjoyment was the prac-
tical lesson of the one : fortitude and renunciation were the
demands which the other made of all who would live
worthily.
This difference in the spirit, rather than the letter, of their
' ii. 16-19.
362 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
philosophy is to be attributed in some degree to this, that
Lucretius was a Roman of the antique type of Ennius,
born with the passionate heart of a poet, and inheriting the
resolute endurance of the great patrician families. Partly
too, as was said before, the effect of the speculative philo-
sophy which he embraced was to deepen and strengthen
that mood of imaginative contemplation, which he shares,
not with any of his countrymen, but with a few great
thinkers of the world. It is his philosophical enthusiasm
which distinguishes the teaching of Lucretius from the
meditative and practical wisdom which has made Horace
the favourite Epicurean teacher and companion of modern
times. Partly too, as was said in a former chapter, this new
aspect of Epicureanism in Lucretius may be attributed to the
reaction of his nature from the confusion of the times in which
he lived.
It is not indeed possible to learn whether the passions of
his age first drove him to Epicureanism, or whether the
doctrines of that philosophy, adopted on speculative grounds,
may not rather have led him to regard his age in the spirit of
contemplative isolation, which he has described in the well-
known passage —
Suave, mari magno turbantibus aequora ventis, etc.
His philosophy may have been forced on him by personal
experience, or the intimations of experience may have assumed
their form and colour from the nature of his philosophy. But
the memories of his youth and the experience of things
witnessed in his manhood did undoubtedly colour all his
thoughts and feelings on human life. Some of the forms of
evil against which he contends had never been so prominently
displayed before. Yet all these considerations afford only a
partial explanation of the character of his practical philosophy.
There were other Roman Epicureans, contemporary with him
and later, and none are known to have been in any way like
him. Although his nature was made of the strong Roman
XIII.] THE MORAL TEACHING OF LUCRETIUS. 363
fibre ; although his mind had been deeply imbued with
the spirit of Greek philosophy ; although his view of life
was necessarily coloured by the action of his times ; yet
all these considerations go but a little way to explain his
attitude of mind and the work which he accomplished in
the world. Over all these considerations this predominates,
that he was a man of great original and individual force,
and one who in power and sincerity of thought and feeling
rose higher than any other above the level of his age and
country.
The moral teaching of the poem was rather an active
protest against various forms of evil than the proclamation
of a positive good. The happiness which the philosophic life
promised is described in vague outline, like • the delineation
given of the calm and passionless existence of the Gods.
Epicureanism appears here in antagonism to the prejudice and
ignorance, the weakness and the passions of human nature,
rather than in its hold of any positive good. Hence it is that
the tones of Lucretius might in many places be mistaken
for those of a Stoic rather than an Epicurean. In their
resistance to the common forms of evil these systems were
at one. Perhaps, too, in the positive good at which he aimed,
the spirit of Lucretius was more that of a Stoic than he imagined.
His sense of human dignity was much more powerful than his
regard for human enjoyment. Yet his philosophy enabled him,
along with the strength of Stoicism, to cherish humaner sym-
pathies. While his earnest temper, his scorn of weakness, his
superiority to pleasure were in harmony with the militant rather
than the quiescent attitude of each of these philosophies, his
humanity and tenderness of feeling and the enjoyment which
he derived from Nature and art were more in harmony with
the better side of Epicureanism than with the formal teaching
of the Porch.
The evils of life, for the cure of which Lucretius considers
his philosophy available, appeared to him to spring not out of
man's relation to Nature, but out of the weakness of his reason
364 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
and the corruption of his heart. The great service of Epicurus
consisted not only in revealing the laws of Nature, but in laying
his finger on the secret cause of man's unhappiness. Observing
the insufficiency of all external goods to bestow peace and con-
tentment, he saw that the evil lay in the vessel into which these
blessings were poured : —
Intellegit ibi vitium vas efficere ipsum
Omniaque illius vitio corrumpier intus,
Quae conlata foris et commoda cumque venirent;
Partim quod fluxum pertusumque esse videbat,
Ut nuila posset ratione explerier umquam ;
Partim quod taetro quasi conspurcare sapore
Omnia cemebat, quaecumque leceperat, intus ^.
The evils which vitiate our happiness are the cowardice which
dares not accept the blessings of life, the weakness which repines
at what is inevitable, the restless desires which cannot enjoy
the present and crave for what is beyond their reach, the apathy
and insensibility to natural enjoyment, which are the necessary
consequence of luxurious indulgence. Thus the aim of his
moral teaching was to purify the heart from superstition, from
the fear of death, from the passions of ambition and of love,
from all artificial pleasures and desires.
The greatest of these evils and the mainspring of all human
misery is superstition. It is this which surrounds life with the
gloom of death —
Omnia suffundens mortis nigrore^.
Against the arbitrary and cruel power, supposed to be exercised
by the Gods, Lucretius proclaimed internecine war. The fear
of this power is denounced, not as a restraint on natural inclina-
tion, but as a base and intolerable burden, degrading life, con-
founding all genuine feeling, corrupting our ideas of what is
' ' Thereupon he perceived that the vessel itself caused the evil, and that
all external gains and blessings whatsoever were vitiated within through its
fault, partly because he saw that it was so unsound and leaky that it could
never be filled in any way, partly because he discerned that it tainted
inwardly everything which it had received as it were with a nauseous flavour.'
— vi. 17-23. '' iii. 39-
XIII.l THE MORAL TEACHING OF LUCRETIUS. 365
holiest and most divine. The pathetic story of the sacrifice of
Iphigenia is told to enforce the antagonism between the exac-
tions of religious belief and the most sacred human affections.
Every line of the poem is indirectly a protest against the
religious errors of antiquity. At occasional intervals this
protest is directly uttered, sometimes with indignant irony,
at other limes with the profoundest pathos. The first feeling
breaks forth in the passage at vi. 380, etc., where he argues
against the fancies which attribute thunder to the capricious
anger of the Gods. ' Why is it,' he asks, ' that the bolts
pass over the guilty and often strike the innocent? Why are
they idly spent on desert places? Is this done by the Gods
merely in the way of practice and exercise for their arms ?
Why is it that Jupiter never hurls his bolts in a clear sky ?
Does he descend into the clouds in order that his aim may be
surer? Why does he cast his bolts into the sea? What
charge has he against the waves and the waste of waters ?
Quid undas
Arguit et liquid am molem camposque natantis'?
Why is it that he often destroys and disfigures his own temples
and images ? '
Elsewhere, however, he is moved by a feeling deeper than
scorn, — a feeling of true reverence, springing from a high ideal
of the attitude which it became man to maintain in presence of
a superior nature. There is no passage in the poem in which
he speaks more from the depths of his heart than in the lines —
O genus infelix humanum, talia divis
Cum tribuit facta atque iras adiunxit acerbas !
Quantos tum gemitus ipsi sibi, quantaque nobis
Volnera, quas lacrimas peperere minoribu' nostris !
Nee pietas ullast velatum saepe videri
Vertier ad lapidem atque omnis accedere ad aras
Nee procumbere humi prostratum et pandere palmas
Ante deum delubra nee aras sanguine multo
Spargere quadrupedum nee votis nectere vota,
Sed mage paeata posse omnia mente tueri^
• vi. 404-5.
^ ' O miserable race of man when they imputed to the Gods such acts as
366 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
The terrors of the popular mythology are denounced as a
violation of the majesty of the Gods, as well as the cause
of infinite evil to ourselves, — not indeed because any thought
or act of ours has the power to rouse the Divine anger, but
from the effect that these feelings have on our own minds.
' No longer can we approach the temples of the Gods with
a quiet heart, nor receive into our minds the intimations of
the Divine nature in peace ' —
Nee delubra deum placido cum pectore adibis,
Nee de eorpore quae sancto simulacra feruntur
In mentes homimim divinae nuntia formae
Suscipere haec animi tranquilla pace valebis*.
This passage and others in the poem imply that Lucretius both
believed in the existence of Gods, and conceived of them
as revealing themselves through direct impressions to the
mind of man, and filling it with solemn awe and peace.
But the account which he gives of their eternal existence is
vague and poetical, and might almost be regarded as a sym-
bolical expression of what seemed to him most holy and
divine in man. The highest aim of man is to 'lead a life
worthy of the Gods ' : the essential attribute of the divine life
is * peace.' The Gods are said to consist of the finest and
purest essence, to be exempt from death, decay, and wast-
ing passions, to be supplied with all things by the liberal
bounty of Nature, and to dwell for ever in untroubled serenity
above the darkness and the storms of our world. Their abode
in the spaces betwixt different worlds — (the ' intermundia ' as
they are called by Cicero), — is described in words almost
these, and ascribed to them also angry passions. What sorrow did they then
prepare for themselves, what deep wounds for us, what tears for our
descendants. For there is no holiness in being often seen, turning round
with head veiled, in presence of a stone, and in drawing nigh to every altar ;
nor in lying prostrate in the dust, and uplifting the hands before the temples
of the Gods : nor in sprinkling altars with the blood of beasts, and in ever
fastening up new votive offerings, but rather in being able to look at all
things with a mind at peace.' — v. 1 194-1203.
• vi. 75-78.
XIIT.] THE MORAL TEACHING OF LUCRETIUS. 367
literally translated from the description of the Heaven of
the Odyssey —
Apparet divutn numen sedesque quietae
Quas neque concutiunt venti nee nubila nimbis
Aspergunt neque nix acri concreta pruina
Cana cadens violat semperque innubilus aether
Integit, et large diffnso lumine rident '.
They reveal themselves to man in dreams and waking visions
by images of ampler size and more august aspect than that
of our mortal condition. Fear and ignorance have assigned
to these unchanging forms the functions of creating and
governing the world, and out of this fear have arisen all
over the earth temples and altars, along with the festivals
and the solemn rites of superstition. But the Gods are
neither the arbitrary tyrants nor the beneficent guardians
of the world. Why should they have done anything for
the benefit of man ? How can he add to or detract from
their eternal happiness? Shall we suppose them weary
of their existence, and infected with a human passion for
change ? —
At, credo, in tenebris vita ac maerore iacebat,
Donee diluxit reriim genitalis origo.
Whence could they have obtained the idea of creation,
whence gathered the secret powers of matter —
Si non ipsa dedit specimen natura creandi?
Against the old argument from final causes he opposes that
drawn from the imperfections of the world, such as the waste
of Nature's resources on vast tracts of mountain and forest,
on desolate marshes, rocks, and seas, — the enmity to man
of other occupants of the earth, — the malign influences of
climate and the seasons, — the feebleness of infancy, — the
devastations of disease, — the untimeliness of early death ^
' ' The holy presence of the Gods is revealed, and their peaceful dwelling-
places, which neither the winds beat upon, nor the clouds bedew with rain ;
nor does snow, gathered in flakes by keen frost, and falling white, invade
them ; ever the cloudless ether enfolds tliem, and they are radiant with far-
spread light.' — iii. 18-22. - V. 145-225.
368 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
While his belief in the Gods is thus expressed in vague
outline and poetical symbolism, yet it is clear that as he
recognised a secret, orderly, and omnipotent power in Nature,
so also he recognised the ideal of a purer and serener life than
that of earthly existence. These two elements in all true
religion, a reverential acknowledgment of a universal power
and order, and a sense of a diviner life with which man
may have communion, were part of the being of Lucretius.
His denial of supernatural beliefs extended not only to all the
fables and false conceptions of ancient mythology, but to
the doctrine of a Divine Providence recompensing men,
here or hereafter, according to their actions. The intensity
of his nature led him to identify all religion with the cruel
or childish fables of the popular faith. The certainty with
which he grasped the truth of the laws and order of Nature
was incompatible with the only conception he could form of a
Divine action on the world. His deep sense of human rights
and deep sympathy with human feeling rebelled against a
belief in Powers exercising a capricious tyranny over the world,
and exacting human sacrifice as a propitiation of their offended
majesty. His reverence for truth and his sense of the power
and mystery of Nature led him to scorn the virtue attributed to
an idolatrous and formal worship. This attitude of religious
isolation, not more from his own time than from the subsequent
course of thought, in a man of unusual sincerity and earnest-
ness of feeling, is certainly among the most impressive pheno-
mena of ancient literature. The spirit in which he denies the
beliefs of the world is far from resembHng the triumph of
a cold philosophy over the religious associations of mankind.
He is moved even to a kind of poetical sympathy with some of
the ceremonies and symbols of Paganism. A sense of religious
awe, — a sympathetic recognition of the power of religious
emotion over the hearts of men, — is expressed, for instance, in
the lines which describe the procession of Cybele through the
great cities and nations of the world. While guarding himself
against the pollution of a base idolatry, he yet acknowledges
XIII.] THE MORAL TEACHING OF LUCRETIUS. 369
not only the power of religious associations to entwine them-
selves with human affections, but the intrinsic power of the
truths symbolised in that worship ; viz. the truth of the
majesty of Nature, and of the duties arising from the ele-
mental affections to parents and country. In regard to all his
religious impressions his intensity of feeling and imagination
seems to place him on a solitary height, nearly as far apart
from the followers of his own school as from their adversaries ^
The same strength of heart and mind characterises that
passage of sustained and impassioned feeling, in which
Lucretius encounters the thought of eternal death. The vast
spiritual difference between the Roman poet and the Greek
philosopher is apparent when we contrast the cold, unsympa-
thetic language of the epistle to Menoeceus with the fervent
and profoundly human tones of the third book of the poem of
Lucretius. Epicurus escapes from the fear of death through a
placid indifference of feeling, an easy contentment with the
comforts of this life, a sense of relief in getting rid of 'the
longing for immortality ' [t6v t^s aBavaalas tv66ov). Lucretius,
while realising the full pathos and solemnity of the thought
of death, preaches submission to the inexorable decree of
Nature with a stern consistency and a proud fortitude com-
bating the suggestions of human weakness.
^ The feelings with which Lucretius contemplates the solemn procession
of Cybele may be illustrated by the following passage, quoted by Mr. Morley
in his Life of Diderot, vol. ii. p. 65 : 'Absurd rigorists do not know the
effect of external ceremonies on the people : they can never have seen the
enthusiasm of the multitude at the procession of the Fete Dieu, an enthusiasm
that sometimes even gains me. I have never seen that long file of priests in
their vestments, those young acolytes clad in their white robes, with broad
blue sashes engirdling their waists, and casting flowers on the ground before
the Holy Sacrament, the crowd, as it goes before and follows after them,
hushed in religious silence, and so many with their faces bent reverently to
the ground : I have never heard the grave and pathetic chant, as it is led by
the priests and fervently responded to by an infinity of voices of men, of
women, of girls, of little children, without my inmost heart being stirred, and
tears coming into my eyes. There is in it something, I know not what, that
is grand, solemn, sombre, and mournful.'
Bb
370 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
The whole of the third book is devoted to this part of his
subject, and the argument of the fourth is to a great extent
supplementary to that of the third book. The physical doc-
trine enunciated and illustrated in the first half of the third
book is the materiality of the soul and its indissoluble
connexion with the body. The practical consequence of this
doctrine^ viz. that death is nothing to us, is there enforced in a
long passage^ of sustained power and solemnity of feeling.
First, we are made to realise the entire unconsciousness in
death throughout all eternity. 'As it was before we were
born, so shall it be hereafter. As we felt no trouble in the
past at the clash of conflict between Roman and Carthaginian,
when all the world shook with alarm, so nothing can touch us
or move us then —
Non si terra mari miscebitur et mare caelo ^.
It is but the trick of our fancy which suggests the thought
of any kind of suffering after all consciousness has ceased —
Nee radicitus e vita se toUit et eicit
Sed facit esse sui quiddam super inscins ipse '.
Men feel that the sadness of death lies in the separation
from wife, and children, and home ; in the extinction which a
single day has brought to all the blessings and the gains of
a lifetime. But they forget that along with these blessings
is extinguished all desire and longing for them. So, too, men
" spice their fair banquets with the dust of death." They say,
" our joy is but for a season ; it will soon b*e past, nor ever
again be recalled," — as if forsooth any want or any desire can
haunt that sleep from which there is no awaking —
Nee quisquam expergitus exstat,
Frigida quern semel est vitai pausa secuta*.
Nature herself might utter this reproof to all weak complaining :
" Thou fool, if thy life hatli given thee joy, and all its blessings
have not been poured into a leaky vessel, why dost thou
1 From S30 till the end. ^ iii. 842.
^ iii. 877-8. * iii. 929-30.
Xltl.] THE MORAL TEACHING OF LUCRETIUS. 37 1
not leave the feast like a satisfied guest, and take thy rest
contentedly? But if all has hitherto been to thee vanity
and vexation of spirit, why seek to add to thy trouble ? I can
devise or frame no new pleasure for thee. " There is no new
thing under the sun " — " eadem sunt omnia semper." ' To the
weak complaint of age, Nature would speak with sterner voice :
' Away hence with thy tears and thy complainings. It is
because, unable to enjoy the present, thou art ever weakly
longing for what is absent, that death has come on thee
unsatisfied.' 'This would be, indeed, a just charge and
reproof. For the old order is ever yielding place to new ; and
life is given to no man in possession, to all men for use. The
time before we were born is a mirror to us of what the future
shall be. Is there any gloom or horror there ? Is there not a
deeper rest than any sleep ? '
'The terrors of the unseen world are but the hell which
fools make for themselves out of their passions '. The tor-
ments of Tantalus, of Tityus, of Sisyphus, and the Danaides,
are but symbols of the blind cowardice and superstition, of the
craving passions, of the ever-foiled and ever-renewed ambition,
of the thankless discontent with the natural joy and beauty of
the world, which curse and degrade our mortal existence.
The stories of Cerberus and the Furies, and of the tortures
of the damned are creations of a guilty conscience, or the
projections into futurity of the experiences of earthly punish-
ment.'
Other consolations are suggested by the thoughts of those
who have . gone before us. Echoing the stern irony of
Achilles —
aWa, (plKos, 9ave /cat crv' tit] 6\o(pvp(ai ovtus ;
Kardave Kot IlaTpoKXos, onep aio -noXKov dfiuvojv * —
he reminds us that better and greater men than we have died,
— kings and soldiers, poets and philosophers, the mightiest
equally with the humblest. In the spirit, and partly too in the
'■ Hie Acherusia fit stultorum denique vita.
* Iliad xxi. 106-7.
B b 2
372 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
words of Ennius, he enforces the thought that 'Scipio, the
thunderbolt of war, the terror of Carthage, gave his bones to
the earth as if he were the meanest slave.' ' Why, then,
should one whose life is half a sleep, who is the prey of weak
fears and restless discontent, complain that he too is subject to
the common law? What is this wretched love of life, which
makes us tremble at every danger ? Death cannot be avoided ;
no new pleasure can be forged out by longer living. This evil
of our lot is not inflicted by Nature, but by our own craving
hearts, which cannot enjoy, and are yet ever thirsting for
longer life^'
The power of the whole of this passage depends partly
on the vividness of feeling and conception with which the
thought is realised, partly on the august and solemn asso-
ciations with which it is surrounded. Such graphic touches as
these —
Frigida quem semel est vital pausa secuta*; —
Cum summo gelidi cubat aequore saxP; —
Urgerive superne obtritum pondere terrae*, —
and again, the life, truth, and tenderness of the picture
presented in the lines —
lam iam non domns accipiet te laeta, neqiie uxor
Optima nee dulces occurrent oscula iiati
Praeripere et tacita pectus dulcedine tangent ^
bring home to the mind, in startling distinctness, the old
familiar contrast between the ' cold obstruction ' of the grave
and 'the warm precincts of the cheerful day.' But the
horror and pain of the thought of death are lost in a feeling of
august resignation to the universal law. Though the fact
is made present to our minds in its sternest reality, yet it is
' iii. S30-1094. ^ iii. 930.
^ iii. 892. * iii. S93.
^ ' Soon shall thy home receive tiiec no more witli glad a\ elcome, nor thy
true wife, nor thy dear children lun to snatch the lirst kiss, touching thy heart
with silent gladness.' — iii. 894-96.
XIII.] THE MORAL TEACHING OF LUCRETIUS, 373
encompassed with the pomp and majesty of great associations.
It suggests the thought of the most momentous crisis in
history —
Ad confligendum venientibus undique Poenis',
of the regal state of kings and mighty potentates —
Inde alii multi reges renimque potentes
Occiderunt, magnis qui gentibus imperitaiunt -,
of the simpler and more impressive grandeur of the great men
of old, such as the ' good Ancus,' the mighty Scipio, Homer,
'peerless among poets,' the sage Democritus, Epicurus, 'the
sun among all the lesser luminaries.' Lastly, we are reminded
of the universal law of Nature, that the death of the old is the
condition of the life of the new —
Sic alid ex alio nunqiiam desistet oriri '.
Even if the spirit of the poet cannot be said to rise
buoyantly above the depressing and paralysing influence of
this conviction, yet he draws a higher lesson from it than
the maxim of 'Eat and drink, for to-morrow we die.' He
understands the epicurean precept of ' carpe diem ' in a sense
more befitting to human dignity. The lesson which he
teaches is the need of conquering all weakness, sloth, and irre-
solution in life. This life is all that we have through eternity ;
let it not be wasted in unsatisfied desires, insensibility to
present and regrets for absent good, or restless disquiet for the
future; let us understand ourselves and our position here,
bear and enjoy whatever is allotted to us during our few years
of existence. We are masters of ourselves and of our fortunes,
so far at least as to rise clearly above the degradation of ignor-
ance and misery.
The practical use of the study of Nature, according to
Lucretius, is, first, to inspire confidence in the room of an
ignorant and superstitious fear of supernatural power; and,
secondly, to show what man really needs, and so to clear
* iii. 833. ^ iii. 1027-S. ^ ill. 970.
374 T'/ZE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
the heart from all artificial desires and passions. All that
is wanted for happiness in this world is a mind free from error,
and a heart neither incapable of natural enjoyment (fluxum
pertusumque) nor vitiated by false appetite ^ Of the errors
to which man is liable superstition and the fear of death are
the most deeply seated. Of the artificial desires and passions,
on the other hand, the most destructive are the love of power
and of riches, and the sensual appetite for pleasure. In
the opening lines of the second book the strife of ambi-
tion, the rivalries of rank and intellect in the warfare of
politics are contrasted with the serene life of philosophy,
as darkness, error, and danger with light, certainty, and
peace —
Sed nil dulcius est, bene quam munita tenere
Edita doctrina sapientum templa serena,
Despicere unde queas alios passimque videre
Errare atque viam palantis quaerere vitae,
Certare ingenio, contendere nobilitate,
Noctes atque dies niti praestante labore
Ad summas emergere opes rerumque potiri^
Yet to be the master of armies and of navies, or to be clothed
in gold and purple, gives not that exemption from the real
terrors and anxieties of life which the power of reason only can
bestow —
Quod si ridicula haec ludibriaque esse videmus,
Re veraqne metus hominum curaeque sequaces
Nee metuunt sonitus armomm nee fera tela,
Audacterque inter reges renimqne potentis
Versantur neque fulgorem reverentur ab anro
Nee alarum vestis splendorem pnrpureai,
Quid dubitas quin omni' sit haec rationi' potestas?
Omnis cum in tenebris praesertim vita laboret'.
^ Compare the metaphorical expressions at vi. 20-4.
^ ' But there is no greater joy than to hold high aloft the tranquil abodes,
well bulwarked by the learning of the wise, whence thou mayest look down
on other men, and see them wandering every way, and lost in error, seeking
the road of life ; mayest mark the strife of genius, the rivalries of rank, the
struggle night and day with surpassing effort to reach the highest place, and
be master of the State.' — ii. 48-5.-,..
' • But if we see that all this is but folly and a mockery, and, in real truth,
XIII.] THE MORAL TEACHING OF LUCRETIUS. 375
The desire of power and station leads to the shame and
misery of bafifled hopes, of which the toil of Sisyphus is
the type, and also to the guilt which deluges the world in
blood, and violates the most sacred ties of Nature ^ While
failure in the struggle is degradation, success is often only the
prelude to the most sudden downfall. Weary with bloodshed,
and with forcing their way up the hostile and narrow road of
ambition ^, men reach the summit of their hopes only to be
hurled down by envy as by a thunderbolt '. They are slaves
to ambition, merely because they cannot distinguish the true
from the false, because they cannot judge of things as they
really are, apart from the estimate which the world puts upon
them —
Quandoquidem sapiunt alieno ex ore petuntque
Res ex auditis potius qiiam sensibus ipsis.*
The love of riches and of luxurious living, which had begun
to corrupt the Roman character in the age of Lucilius, had
increased to gigantic dimensions in the last age of the Re-
pubhc. By no aspect of his age was Lucretius more repelled
than by this. No doctrine is enforced in the poem with more
sincerity of conviction than that of the happiness and dignity
of plain and natural living, the vanity of all the appliances
of wealth, and their inability to give real enjoyment either to
body or mind. In a well-known passage at the beginning of
the second book he adapts an ideal description from Homer's
account of the palace of Alcinous to the costly magnificence
and splendour of Roman banquets, with which he contrasts
the fears of men and their dogging cares dread not the clash of arms nor the
fierce weapons of warfare, and boldly mix with kings and potentates, nor
fear the splendour of gold or the bright glare of purple robes, canst thou
doubt that it is the force of reason on which all this depends, especially since
all our life is in darkness and tribulation ? ' — ii. 48-55.
* iii. 70. " V. 1131. " V. 1125.
* ' Since they take their wisdom from the lips of others, and pursue their
object in accordance rather with what they hear than with what they really
feel.'— V. 1 133-4.
376 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
the pleasure of gratifying simple tastes, in fine weather, among
the beauties of Nature —
Praesertim cum tempestas adridet et anni
Tempora conspergunt viridantis floribns herbas^.
With fervid sincerity he announces the truth that ' to the
man who would govern his life by reason plain living and
a contented spirit are great riches' —
Qnod siquis vera vitam ratione gubernet,
Divitiae grandes homini sunt vivere parce
Aequo animo".
Moderation, independence, and self-control are the virtues
which Horace derives from his philosophy. He knew how to
enjoy both the luxury of the city and the simple fare of
the country. Lucretius is more alive to the dangers of
pampering the body and enervating the mind. He is more
active in his resistance to the common forms of indulgence :
he shows more truly simple tastes, stronger capacity of natural
enjoyment. He is vividly sensible of the apathy and efnii/i
produced by the luxury and inaction of his age. Others
among the Roman poets, with more or less sincerity and
consistency, appear to long for a return to more natural ways,
and paint their ideals of the purity and simplicity of country
life. But no writer of antiquity is less of an idealist than
Lucretius : there is no writer, ancient or modern, whose words
are more truthful and unvarnished. There is no romance or
self-deception in what he longs for. There may be some
anticipation of the spirit of Rousseau in Virgil, and still more
in Tibullus, but none whatever in Lucretius. The privations
and rude misery of savage life are painted in as sombre colours
as the satiety and discontent of his own age. It would be
difficult to name any writer, ancient or modern, by whom the
lesson of 'plain living and high thinking' was more worthily
inculcated.
The passion of love, which, in its more violent phases, was
^ ii. .^3. ^ V. I II 7-19.
XIII.] THE MORAL TEACHING OF LUCRETIUS. 377
seen to be a prominent motive in the comedy of Plautus,
became a very powerful influence in actual life during the last
years of the Republic and the early years of the Empire.
Extreme license in the pursuit of pleasure was common among
men and women of the highest rank : but, over and above
this, the poetry of Catullus and of the elegiac poets of the
Augustan age shows that in the case of young men of fashion
and literary accomplishment (and these were often combined)
intrigue and temporary liaisons had become the absorbing
interest and occupation of life. With these claims of passion
and sentiment, apparently so alien to the ancient strength and
dignity of the Roman character, Lucretius felt no sympathy.
No writer has shown a profounder reverence for human
affection. In his eyes the crowning guilt of superstition is the
cruel violation of natural ties exacted by it : the chief bitter-
ness of death is the thought of eternal separation from wife
and children : the first civilising influence acting on the world
is traced to the power of the blandishments of children over
the savage pride of strength. The pathos of the famous
passage, at Book ii. 350, attests his sympathy with the sorrow
caused by the disruption of natural ties, even in the lower
animals. Other casual expressions, as in that line of profound
feeling —
Aeternumque daret matri sub pectore volnus ^ ; —
or such pictures, as that at iii. 469, of friends and relatives sur-
rounding the bed of one who has sunk into a deep lethargy —
Ad vitam qui revocantes
Circumstant lacrimis rorantes ora genasque^ —
show how strong and real was his regard for the great elemen-
tal affections of human nature. But, on the other hand, he is
austerely indifferent to the follies and the idealising fancies of
lovers. With satirical and not fastidious realism he strips
passion of all romance, and exhibits it as a bondage fatal alike
to character and independence, to peace of mind and to self-
respect. But it is the weakness, not the immorality of
' ii. 638. 2 iii. 46S-9.
378 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
licentious passion which he condemns. And it would be
altogether an anachronism to attribute to a writer of that age
sentiments on this subject in harmony either with the austere
virtue of the primitive Romans, or with the moral standard of
modern times. It is not the indulgence of inclination, but its
excess and perversion, by which the happiness and dignity
of life are placed in another's power, which he condemns.
In order to perceive the limitation of the view of the evils
of human life and of their remedy presented by Lucretius,
it is not necessary to contrast it with the higher aspects of
moral and religious thought in modern times. It is clear that
owing to some idiosyncrasy, the result perhaps of some
accident of his early years, and fostered by seclusion in
later years from the common ways of life, he greatly exagger-
ates the influence of the terrors of the ancient religion over
the world. There is little trace, either in the literature ^ or in
the sepulchral inscriptions of the Romans, of that ' fear of
Acheron ' —
Funditus humanam qui vitam turbat ab imo
Omnia sufFendens mortis nigrore neque ullam
Esse voluptatem liquidam puramque reliquit.
^ A passage in the Captivi of Platitus (995-7), shows that these
terrors did appeal to the imagination in ancient times, and thus might
powerfully affect the happiness of persons of specially impressible natures,
although they do not seem to have often interfered with the actual en-
joyment of life, —
Vidi ego multa saepe picta quae Acherunti fierent
Cruciamenta : verum enimvero nulla adaequest Acheruns
Atque ubi ego fui in lapicidinis.
Professor Wallace in his ' Epicureanism ' (p. 109) writes, ' Whatever
may have been the case in earlier ages of Greece, there is no doubt
that in the age of Epicunis, the doctrine of a judgment to come, and
of a hell where sinners were punished for their crimes, made a large
part of the vulgar creed. . . . Orphic and other religious sects had en-
hanced the terrors of the world below,' etc Cicero, however, is a
better witness than Lucretius of the actual state of opinion among
his educated contemporaries. The exaggerated sense entertained by
Lucretius of the influence of such terrors among the class for whom
his poem was written is a confirmation of his having acted on the maxim
A.dSs (3iwcras.'
XIII.] THE MORAL TEACHING OF LUCRETIUS. 379
The answer of Cicero to the exaggerated pretensions of
Epicureanism seems to express the common sense of his age,
' Where can you iind an old woman fatuous enough to believe
what you forsooth would have believed, if you had not studied
physical science ^ ? ' The passionate protest of Lucretius seems
more applicable to times of religious persecution, and to extreme
forms of fanaticism in modern times, than to the tolerant spirit
and the not unkindly superstition of the Greek and Roman
world, as they are known in its literature. But if the experi-
ence of the modern world gives a still more startling significance
to the words —
Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum, —
that experience also enables us better to understand the blind-
ness of Lucretius to the purifying and consoling power which
even ancient religion was capable of exercising. Though not
insensible to the poetical charm of some of the old mytho-
logical fancies, and to the solemnising effect of impressive
ceremonials, he can see only the baser influences of fear in
man's whole attitude to a supernatural Power. His ordinary
acuteness of mind seems to desert him in that passage ^ where
he resolves the passions of ambition and avarice into the fear
of death, and that again into the dread of eternal punish-
ment.
The limitation of his philosophy is also apparent in
his want of sympathy with the active duties and pursuits
of life. He can see only different modes of evil in the
busy interests of the world. War, politics, commerce,
appeared to him a mere struggle of personal passion with
a view to personal aggrandisement. A life of peace, not
of energetic action, was his ideal. In eternal peace he placed
the supreme happiness of the Gods : a state of peaceful con-
templation—
Sed mage pacata posse omnia mente tueri —
he regards as the only true religion for man : the ' mute and
* Tusc. Disp. i. 21. ^ iii. 59, etc.
380 THE .ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
uncomplaining' peace of the grave reconciles him to the
thought of everlasting death. The inadequacy of his philo-
sophy may thus be traced partly to his vivid impressibility
of imagination, which made him too exclusively sensible of
the awe produced on man's spirit by the mystery of the
universe, partly to his defective sympathy with the active
interests and duties of life. Partly, too, the bent of his mind
towards material observation and enquiry had some share
in determining his convictions. In dwelling on the outward
appearances of decay and death, he seems to have shut his
eyes to those inward conditions of the human spirit which
to Plato, Cicero, and Virgil appeared the witnesses of immor-
tality. The inability to form the definite conception of a God
without human limitations, as well as his strong sense of
the imperfection of the world, forced upon him the absolute
denial of any Divine providence over human affairs.
Yet a modern reader, without accepting the conclusions
of his philosophy, may sympathise with much of his spirit. In
his firm faith in the laws which govern the universe, he
will recognise a great position established, as essential to
the progress of religious as of scientific thought. He will see,
in the earnest intensity of his feeling and the sincerity of
his expression, a spirit akin to the purer kinds of religious
fervour in modern times. In no other writer, ancient or
modern, will he find a profounder sense of human dignity,
of the supreme claims of affection, of the superiority of a
natural to a conventional life. From the direct exhortation
and the indirect teaching of Lucretius, he may learn such
lessons as these, — that it is man's first business to know
and obey the laws of his being,— that the sphere of his
happiest activity is to be found in contemplation rather than
in action, — that his well-being consists in valuing rightly
the real blessings of life rather than in following the illusions
of fancy or of custom, — in reverencing the sanctity of family
life, — and in cherishing a kindly sympathy with all living
things. If there was nothing especially new in the views
XIII.] THE MORAL TEACHING OF LUCRETIUS. 38 1
which he enunciated, the power of realising the common
conditions of Ufe, the passionate effort not only to rise himself
above human weakness, but to redeem the whole race of man
from the curse of ignorance, and the force of imaginative
sympathy with which he executed this part of his task were,
perhaps, something altogether new in the world.
The same ' vivida vis ' with which he observes natural
phenomena characterises his insight into human character and
passion. He penetrates below the surface of life with the
searching insight of a great satirist, and sees more clearly into
the hearts of men, and has a more subtle perception of the
secret springs of their unhappiness, than any of his countrymen.
The aim of his satire is not to make men seem objects of
ridicule or scorn, but to restore them to the dignity which they
had forfeited through weakness and ignorance. The observa-
tion of Horace is wider and more varied, but it ranges much
more over the surface of life. He has neither the same sense
of the mystery of our being, nor the same sympathy with the
common conditions of mankind.
The power of truthful moral painting which Lucretius
exercises is seen in that passage in which he reveals the
secret of the 'amari aliquit,' 'amid the very flowers of
love,' —
Aut cum conscius ipse animus se forte remordet
Desidiose agere aetatem lustrisque perire,
Aut quod in ambiguo verbum iaculata reliquit
Quod cupido adfixum cordi vivescit ut ignis,
Aut nimium iactare oculos aliumve tueri
Quod putat in voltuque videt vestigia risus ' :
and in that in which he describes the satiety and restlessness
^ ' Either when his mind is stung with the consciousness that he is
wasting his life in sloth, and ruining himself in wantonness ; or because
from the shafts of her wit she has left in him some word of double
meaning, which seizes on his passionate heart and burns there like a
fire ; or because he fancies that she casts about her eyes too much or
gazes at another, and marks the traces of a smile on her countenance.' - iv.
1135-40.
382 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
which is the avenging nemesis of an opulent and luxurious
society, —
Exit saepe foras magnis ex aedibus ille,
Esse domi quein pertaesumst, subitoque revertit,
Quippe foris nilo melius qui sentiat esse.
Currit agens mannos ad villain praecipitanter,
Auxilium tectis quasi ferre ardentibus instans ;
Oscitat extemplo, tetigit cum limina villae,
Aut abit in somnum gravis atque oblivia quaerit,
Aut etiam properans urbem petit atque revisit '.
There is always poetry and pathos in the satire of Lucretius.
There is no trace in him of the malice or the love of detraction
which is seldom wholly absent from satiric writing. The
futility of human effort is the burden of his complaint ^ : and
this (as has been pointed out by M. Martha) is the explanation
of the pathetic recurrence of the word ' nequicquam ' in so
many passages of his poem. His scorn and indignation
are shown only in exposing the impostures which men mistake
for truths. There is thus infinite compassion for the common
lot of man blended with the irony of the passage in which he
represents the aged husbandman complaining of the general
decay of piety as the cause of the failure of the earth to respond
to his labours. His direct and realistic power of expression
enhances his power as a moral painter and teacher. Though
the writings of Horace supply many more quotations applicable
to various situations in life, and expressed in equally apposite
' ' Oft-times, weary of home, the lord of some spacious mansion issues
forth abroad, and suddenly returns, feeling that it is no better with him
abroad. Driving his horses, he speeds in hot haste to his country house, as
if his house were on fire and he was hurrying to bring assistance.
Straightway he begins to yawn, so soon as he has reached his threshold, or
sinks heavily into sleep and seeks forgetfulness, or even with all haste
returns to the city.' — iii. 1060-67.
- E.g. v. 1430-34:—
Ergo hominum genus incassum frustraquc laborat
Semper et in curis consumit inanibus aevom,
Nimirum quia non cognovit quae sit habendi
Finis et omnino quoad crescat vera voluptas.
XIIL] THE MORAL TEACHING OF LUCRETlUS. 383
language, yet such lines as these in the older poet seem to
come from the heart of one ever ' sounding a deeper and more
perilous way ' over the sea of human life, than suited the more
worldly wisdom of Horace, —
Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum'. —
Cur non ut plenus vitae conviva recedis^? —
Vitaque mancipio nuUi datur omnibus usu''. —
Surgit amari aliquit quod in ipsis floribus angat '. —
Nam verae voces turn demum pectore ab imo
Eiciuntur et eripitur persona, manet res^. —
Divitiae grandes homini sunt vivere parce
Aequo animo'''.
Many other lines and expressions of similar force will occur to
every reader familiar with Lucretius. As his ordinary style
brings the outward aspects of the world vividly before the mind,
so the language in which his moral teaching is enforced, or the
result of his moral observation is expressed, stamps powerfully
on the mind important and permanent truths of human nature.
His thoughts are uttered sometimes with the impressive dignity
of Roman oratory, sometimes with the nervous energy, not
without flashes of the vigorous wit, of Roman satire. There
are occasionally to be heard also higher and deeper tones than
those familiar to classical poetry. His burning zeal and indig-
nation against idolatry, and the scorn with which he exposes the
impotence of false gods —
Cur etiam loca sola petunt frustraque laborant?
An turn bracchia consuescimt firmantque lacertos''? —
show some affinity of spirit to the prophets of another race and
an earlier time. The ' grandeur of desolation ' uttered in the
reproof of Nature, —
Nam tibi praeterea quod machiner inveniamque,
Quod placeat, nil est: eadem sunt omnia semper ^—
recalls the old words of the Preacher — ' The thing that hath
been, it is that which shall be ; and that which is done, is that
which shall be done : and there is no new thing under the sun.'
1 i. loi. ^ iii. 938. '' iii. 971. * iv. 1134. * iii. 57-8.
« V. 1 1 16. '' vi. 396-7. ' iii. 944-5-
CHAPTER XIV.
The Literary Art and Genius of Lucretius.
It remains to consider the poem of Lucretius as a work
of literary art and genius. Much indeed of what may be
said on the subject of his genius has necessarily been anti-
cipated in the chapters devoted to the consideration of his
personal characteristics, his speculative philosophy, and his
moral teaching. The ' multa lumina ingenii ' are most
conspicuous in those passages of his poem which best
illustrate the range and distinctness of his observation, the
grandeur and truth of his philosophical conceptions, the
passionate sympathy with which he strove to elevate and
purify human life. But, at the same time, the most mani-
fest defects of the poem, considered as a work of art,
spring from the same source as its greatness considered
as a work of genius, viz. the diversity and conflicting aims
of the faculties employed on its production. Although,
perhaps, from a Roman point of view, the practical purpose
which reduces the mass of miscellaneous details to unity,
and the success with which he encounters the difficulties
both of matter and language, might entitle the poem to
be regarded as a work 'multae artis,' yet, when tested by
the canons either of Greek or of modern taste, it fails
in the most essential conditions of art, — the choice of subject
and the form of construction. The title of the poem is
indeed taken from a Greek model, the poem of Empedocles,
' TTtpl (pvaeoii ' : and the form, of a personal address to
XIV.] THE ART AND GENIUS OF LUCRETIUS. 385
Memmius, in which Lucretius has embodied his teaching,
was suggested by the personal address of the older poet to
the ' son of Anchytus.' But although Aristotle acknowledges
the poetical genius of Empedocles by applying to him the
epithet 'Ofir]piK<k, he denies to his composition the title of
a poem. The work of Empedocles and the kindred works
of Xenophanes and Parmenides are inspired not by the
passion of art but by the enthusiasm of discovery. They
are to be regarded rather as philosophical rhapsodies than
as purely didactic poems, like either the ' Works and Days '
of Hesiod or the writings of the Alexandrine School. They
were written in hexameter verse partly because that was
the most familiar vehicle of expression in the first half of
the fifth century B.C., and partly because it was the vehicle
most suited to the imaginative conceptions of Nature which
arose out of the old mythologies. But in the time of Lucretius
a prose vehicle was more suited than any form pf verse
for the communication of knowledge in a systematic form.
The conception of Nature was no longer mystical or purely
imaginative as it had been in the age of Empedocles. Thus
the task which Lucretius had to perform was both vaster
and more complex than that of the early (pvaioXoyoi. He had
to combine in one whole the prosaic results of later scientific
observation and analysis with the imaginative fancies of the
dawn of ancient enquiry. He professes to make both
conducive to the practical purpose of emancipating and
• elevating human life ; but a great part of his argument is as
remote from all human interest as it is from the ascertained
truths of science.
All life and Nature were to his spirit full of imaginative
wonder, but they were believed also to be susceptible of
a rationalistic explanation. And the greater part of the
work is devoted to give this explanation. This large in-
fusion of a prosaic content necessarily detracts from the
artistic excellence and the sustained interest of the poem.
Lucretius speaks of the difficulty which he had to en-
c c
386 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
counter in gaining the ear of his countrymen, in the
lines, —
Quoniam haec ratio plerumque videtur
Tristior esse quibus non est tractata, retroque
Volgus abhorret ab hac'.
And the unattractiveness of much of his theme is not
diminished when the reai discoveries of science have shown
how illusory are his processes of investigation, and how
false are many of his conclusions. He has made his poetry
ancillary to his science, instead of compelling, as Virgil,
Dante, and Milton have done, a subject, susceptible of
purely artistic treatment, to assimilate the stores of his
knowledge. His theme — 'maiestas cognita rerum,' — is too
vast and complex to be brought within the compass and
proportions of a single work of art. The processes of minute
observation and reasoning employed in establishing his
conclusions are alien from the movement of the imagination.
The connecting links of the argument are suggestive of the
labour of the workman, not of the finished perfection of
the work. And while some of the ideas of science may
be so applied to the interpretation of the outward world,
as to act on the imaginative emotions with greater power
than any mere description of the forms and colours of
external things, yet the pleasure with which processes of
investigation are pursued is quite distinct from the pleasure
derived from poetic intuition into the secret life of Nature and
man. If it be the condition of a great poem to produce the
purest and noblest pleasure by its whole conception and
execution, the poem of Lucretius fails to satisfy this condition.
It is in spite of its design and proportions, - in spite of
the fact that long parts of the work neither interest the feelings
nor satisfy the reason, that the poem still speaks with impressive
power to the modern world.
And while the whole conception of the work, as regards
both matter and method of treatment, necessarily involves
1 i. 94.V45.
XIV.] THE ART AND GENIUS OF LUCRETIUS 387
a large interfusion of prosaic materials with the finer pro-
duct of his genius, it must be added that there is con-
siderable inequality of execution even in its more inspired
passages. A few consecutive passages show indeed the
finest sense of harmony, and are finished in a style not much
inferior to that of Virgil. Such, for instance, are the opening
lines : —
Aeneadum genetrix, hominum divomque voluptas, etc. ; —
and again the lines in the introduction to Book iii : —
Appaiet divum nnmen sedesque quietae, etc.
But long passages seem rather to revert to the roughness
of Ennius than to approach the smooth and varied cadences of
Virgil. Though the imaginative effect of single expressions is
generally more forcible than in any Latin poet, yet the com-
position of long paragraphs is apt to overflow into prosaic
detail, or to display the qualities of logical consecutiveness or
close adherence to fact rather than those of skilled accomplish-
ment and conformity with the principles of beauty. In
common with the older race of Roman poets he exhibits that
straining after verbal effects by means of alliteration, assonances,
asyndeta, etc., which marks the ruder stages of literary
development. The Latin language, although beginning to
feel the quickening of a new life, had not yet been formed
into its more exquisite modulations, nor learned the power
of suggesting delicate shades of meaning and the new strength
derivable from the reserved use of its resources. All these
causes, — the vast and miscellaneous range, and the abstruse
character of his subject, the dryness and futility of much
of the argument, the frequent subordination of poetry to
science, the inadequacy of the Latin language as a vehicle
of thought and its imperfect development as an organ of
poetry, — prevented the poem from ever obtaining great
popularity in ancient times, and have denied to it in modern
times anything like the large influence which has been
enjoyed in different ages and countries by Virgil, Horace,
c c 2
?88 THE ROMAN POETS OP THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
^>
and Ovid. Even the more ardent admirers of the poem
are tempted to pass from one to another of the higher ranges
and more commanding summits, which swell gradually or
rise abrupth- out of the general level over which he leads
them, rather than to follow him through all the windings of his
argument.
Yet it is only after the poem has been mastered in its
details that we reah'se its full effect on the imagination.
It is only then that we understand the complete greatness
of the man, as a thinker, a teacher, and a poet. The most
familiar beauties reveal a deeper meaning when they are seen
to be not mere resting places in the toilsome march of his
argument, but rather commanding positions, successively
reached, from which the widest contemplative views of the
realms of Nature and human hfe are laid open to us. As we
follow closely in his footsteps, through all his processes
of observation, analysis, and reasoning, we feel, that he
too, like the older Greeks, is borne along by a strong
enthusiasm, — the philosophical epas of Plato, — different from,
but akin to, the impulses of poetry. That marvellous intensity
of feeling in conjunction with the operations of the intellect,
which the Greeks regarded as a kind of divine possession, and
which Lucretius, by the use of such phrases as 'divinitus
invenientes,' ascribes to the earliest enquirers, animates all his
interpretation of the facts and laws of Nature. The speculative
passion imparts life to the argumentative processes which
are addressed to the understanding, while it adds a fresher
glory or more impressive solemnity to those aspects of
the subject by which the imagination is most powerfully
moved.
Again, although his rhythm, even at its best, falls far short
of the intricate harmony and variety of Virgil, and, in its more
level passages, scarcely aims at pleasing the ear at all, yet there
is a kind of grandeur*and dignity even in its monotony, varied,
as that is, by deeper and more majestic tones whenever
his spirit is stirred by impulses of awe, wonder, and delight.
XIV.] THE ART AND GENIUS OF LUCRETIUS. 389
There is always a sense of life and onward movement in the
flow of his verse. Often there is a kind of cumulative force
revealing a more powerful emotion of heart and imagination as
his thoughts and images press on one another in close and
ordered sequence. Thus, for instance, the effect of the lines
describing the religious impressions produced on the early
inhabitants of the world by the grand and awful aspects of
Nature, depends, not on any harmonious variation of sounds,
but on the swelling and culminating power with which the
whole passage breaks on the ear, —
In caeloque deum sedes et templa locarunt,
Per caelum vohi quia nox et luna videtur,
Luna dies et nox et noctis signa severa
Xoctivagaeque faces caeli flammaeque volantes,
Xubila sol imbres nix venti fulmina grando
Et rapidi frenoitus et murmura magna minarum^.
In many passages it may be noticed how much is added to the
rhythmical effect by the force or weight of the concluding line,
as at iii. 870-893, by the rugged grandeur of the line, —
Urgerive supeme obtritum pondere terrae, —
at ii. 569-580, by the sad and solemn movement of the
close, —
Ploratus mortis comites et funeiis atri, —
and at i. loi, by the line of cardinal significance, which ends
a passage of most iinished power and beauty, —
Tantum religio potuit suadere malorum.
The music of Lucretius is altogether his own. As he was the
first among his countrymen who contemplated in a reverential
spirit the majesty of Nature and the more solemn meaning of
^ ' And they placed the dwelling-places and mansions of the gods in the
heavens, because it is through the heavens that the night and the moon are
seen to sweep — the moon, the day, and night, and the stern constellations
of night, the torches of heaven wandering through the night, and flying
meteors, the clouds, the sun, the raius, the snow, the winds, lightning,
hail, the rapid rattle, the threatening peals and murmurs of the thunder." —
V. X18S-93.
39° THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
life, so he was the first to call out the full rhythmical majesty
and deep organ-tones of the Latin language, to embody in
sound the spiritual emotions stirred by that contemplation.
The poetical style of Lucretius is, like his rhythm, a true
and powerful symbol of his genius. Though his diction is
much less studied than that of Virgil, yet his large use of
alliterations, assonances, asyndeta \ etc., shows that he con-
sciously aimed at producing certain effects by recognised
rhetorical means. The attraction which the artifices of rhe-
toric had for his mind is as noticeable in his style as a similar
attraction is in the speeches of Thucydides. But neither
Lucretius nor Thucydides can be called the slave of rhetorical
forms. In both writers recourse is had to them for the
legitimate purpose of emphasising thought, not for that of
disguising its insufficiency. The use of such phrases, for
instance, as ' sed casta inceste,' ' immortalia mortali sermone
notantes,' ' mors immortalis,' etc., is no mere play of words, but
rather the tersest phrase in which an impressive antithesis
of thought can be presented. The mannerisms of his style, if
they show that he was not altogether emancipated from archaic
rudeness, afford evidence also of the prolific fertility of his
genius. The amplitude and unchecked volume of his diction
flow out of the mental conditions, described in the lines, —
Usque adeo largos haustus e fontibu' magnis
Lingua meo suavis diti de pectore fundet.
And he had not only the ' suavis lingua diti de pectore ' ;
he had also the ' daedala lingua,' — the formative energy which
shapes words into new forms and combinations. The frequent
oTral Xeyo/n6m in his poem and his abundant use of compound
words, such Vi^fliictifragus, monlivagiis, altitoiia/is, etc., most of
which fell into disuse in the Augustan age, were products of
the same creative force which enabled Plautus and Ennius to
add largely to the resources of the Latin tongue. In him,
more than in any Latin poet before or after him, we meet with
^ Cf. Mumo, Introduction, ii. pp. 311, etc.
XIV.] THE ART AND GENIUS OF LUCRETIUS. 39I
phrases too full of imaginative life to be in perfect keeping with
the more sober tones and tamer spirit of the national literature.
Thus his language never became trite and hackneyed, and, as
we read him, no medium of after-associations is interposed
between his mind and our own.
But it is not in individual phrases, however fresh and power-
ful, but in continuous passages, that the power of his style
is best seen. The processes of his mind are characterised
by continuity, consistency, and a kind of gathering intensity of
movement. The periods of Virgil delight us by their intricate
harmony ; those of Lucretius impress us by their continuous
and hurrying impetus. The long drawn out charm of the one
is indicative of the deep love which induced him to linger over
every detail of his subject : the force and grandeur of the other
are the outward signs of the inward wonder and enthusiasm by
which his spirit was borne rapidly along. Virgil's movement
displays the majesty of grace and serenity ; that of Lucretius
the majesty of power, and largeness of mind.
Thus although the poetical style of Lucretius shows the
traces of labour and premeditation, and of occasional imitation
both of foreign and native models, it is more than that of any
other Latin poet, the immediate creation of his own genius.
The ' ingenuei fontis,' by which his imagination was so abun-
dantly fed, found many spontaneous outlets, and were not
checked in their speed or stained in their purity by the
artificial channels in which he sometimes forced them to flow.
If the loving labour, so prodigally bestowed upon the task
of finding words and rhythm ^ adequate to his great theme,
explains some peculiarities of his diction, the qualities which
have made the work immortal are due to his noble singleness
of heart and sincerity of nature, and to the openness and
sensibility with which his imagination received impressions,
^ Ci. Quacrentcm dictis quibus et quo carmine demum
Clara luae possim jjraepandcre limiina menti
Res quibus occultas peiiitus convisere pussis.
i- 143-6-
392 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
the penetrative force with which it saw into the heart of things,
and the creative energy with which it shaped what it received
and discerned into vivid pictures and symbols.
He has, in the first place, the freshness of feeling, the living
sense of the wonder of the world, which is a great charm in the
older poets of all great literatures, — in Homer, Dante, Chaucer ;
— and this sense he communicates by words used in their
simplest and directest meaning. The life which animates and
gladdens the familiar face of earth, sea, and sky, — -of river,
wood, field, and hill-side, — is vividly and immediately re-
produced in such lines as these : —
Caeli subter labentia signa
Quae mare navigernm quae terras frugiferentis
Concelebras'.
Denique per maria ac montis fluviosque rapacis
Frondiferasque domos avium camposque virentis".
Frondiferasque novis avibus canere undique silvas^.
Nam saepe in colli tondentes pabula laeta
Lanigerae reptant pecudes quo quamque vocantes
Invitant herbae gemmantes rore recenti *.
Nee tenerae salices atque herbae rore vigentis
Fluminaque ilia queunt summis labentia ripis''.
So, too, he makes us realise, with a quickening and expanding
emotion, which seems to bring us nearer to the core of Nature,
the majesty of the sea breaking on a great expanse of shore, —
the solemn stillness of midnight^ — the invisible agency by
which the clouds form the pageantry of the sky, — the active
noiseless energy by which rivers wear away their banks, — by
the use of words that seem exactly equivalent to the thing
which they describe, —
(^)uam fluitans circum magnis anfractibus aequor
Ionium glaucis aspargit vims ab undis".
Severa silentia noctis
Undique cum constent''.
' i. 2-4. - i. 17-1S. ^' i. 256. ■*ii. 317-19.
•■' ii. 2,^)Z-(^T,. " i. 7JS-19. ^ iv. 400-61.
XIV.] THE ART AND GENIUS OF LUCRETIUS. 393
Ut niibes facile interdum concrescere in alto
Cemiimis et mundi speciem violare serenam
Aera mulcentes motu ^
Pars etiam glebarum ad diluviem revocatur
Imbribus et ripas radentia flumina rodunt-.
The changing face of Nature is to his spirit so full of power
and wonder, that it needs no poetical adornment, but is left to
tell its own tale in the plainest language. If words are a true
index of feeling, it would be difficult to name any poet by
whom the living presence and full being of Nature were more
immediately apprehended, nor has any one caught with more
fidelity the intimations of her hidden life, as they betray them-
selves in her outward features and motions.
With similar fidelity and directness of language he com-
municates to his reader the spell of awe and wonder by which
his own spirit is possessed in presence of the impressive facts
of human life. No subtlety of reflexion nor grandeur of
illustrative imagery could enhance the effect of the thought of
the dead produced by the austere plainness of the words, —
Morte obita quorum tellus amplectitur ossa,
and,
Ossa dedit terrae proinde ac famul infuiuis esset.
By no pomp of description could a deeper sense of religious
solemnity be created than by the lines describing the silent
influence of the procession of Cybele on the minds of her
devotees, —
Ergo cum primum magiias invecta per urbis
Munificat tacita mortalis muta salute ■'.
The undying pain of a great sorrow, — the paralysis of all human
effort in the face of new and terrible agencies of death, — the
blessedness and pathos of the purest human affections, — the
ecstatic delight derived from the revelation of great truths^
imprint themselves permanently on the imagination through
the august simplicity of the phrases, —
' iv. i^ri-.^S. - V. J.np-.^fi. ■ ii. 6J4-2.:;.
394 ^^-^ ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
Aetemumque daret matri sub pectore volnus', —
tacito mussabat medicina timore ^, —
tacita pectus dulcedine tangent ^ —
His ibi me rebus quaedam divina voluptas
Percipit adque horror*. —
His language has the further power of producing a vague
sense of sublimity, where the cause of the feeling is too vast or
undefined to be distinctly conceived or visibly presented to
the mind. The very sound of his words seems sometimes
to be a kind of echo of the voices by which Nature produces
a strange awe upon the imagination. Such, for instance, are
these lines and phrases —
Altitonans Volturnus et auster fulinine pollens'.
Nee fulniina nee minitanti
Murmure eompressit eaelum ''.
Murmura magna minarum "', ete.
The sublimity of vagueness and vastness is present in the
language of these lines —
Impendent atrae formidinis ora superne *.
Sustentata ruet moles et machina mundi',
Aut ceeidisse urbis magno vexamine mundi"^'.
Non si terra mari miscebitur et mare eaelo^'.
While no other ancient poet brings before the mind more
forcibly and immediately the living presence of the outward
world and the solemn meaning of familiar things, there is none
whose language seems to respond so sensitively to the vague
suggestions of an invisible and awful Power omnipresent in
the universe.
The creative power of imagination which gives new life
to words and thoughts is also present in many vivid and
picturesque expressions, either scattered through the main
argument, or shining in brilliant combinations in the more
' ii. 639.
' vi. 1179.
■' iii. S96.
* iii. 28-30.
' V. 745.
« i. 68-9.
' V. 1193.
' vi. 254.
' V. 96.
" V. ,^40.
" iii. S42.
XIV.] THE ART AND GENIUS OF LUCRETIUS. 395
elaborate parts of the work. By this more imaginative use of
language, the poet can illustrate his ideas by subtle analogies,
or embody them in visible symbols, or endow the objects he
describes with the personal attributes of will and energy.
Thus, for instance, the penetrating subtlety of the mind in
exploring the secrets of Nature becomes a visible force in the
curious felicity of the expression (i. 408), 'caecasque latebras
insinuare omnis.' The freedom and boundless range of the
imagination is suggested with picturesque effect in the familiar
expression — ■
Avia Pieridum peragro loca nullius ante
Trita solo ^ ;
while the calm serenity of the contemplative mind is sym-
bolised in such figurative expressions as 'sapientum templa
Serena ' ; ' humanum in pectus templaque mentis ' ; and the
stormy tumult of the passions and the perilous errors of
life become vividly present to the imagination by means of the
analogies pictured in the lines—
Volvere curarum tristis in pectore flnctns^,
and
Errare atque viam palantis quaerere vitae^.
What life and energy again are imparted to external things and
abstract conceptions by such expressions as these : — ' flammai
flore coorto'; 'avido complexu quern tenet aether'; 'caeli tegit
impetus ingens'; 'circum tremere aethera signis'; 'semina quae
magnum iaculando contulit omne'; 'vagos imbris tempestates-
que volantes ' ; ' concussaeque cadunt urbes dubiaeque mi-
nantur ' ; ' simulacraque fessa fatisci ' ; 'sol lumine conserit
arva ' ; ' lucida tela diei ' ; ' placidi pellacia ponti ' ; ' vivant
labentes aetheris ignes ' ; ' leti sub dentibus ipsis ' ; ' leti
praeclusa est ianua caelo,' etc.
A similar power of imagination is shown in his more
elaborate use of analogies, in his symbolical representation
of ideas, and in his power of painting scenes from Nature and
' i. 926-27. - vi. 34. * ii. 10.
396 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
from human life. Few great poets have been more sparing in
the use of mere poetical ornament. The grandest imagery
which he strikes out, and the finest pictures which he paints
are immediately suggested by his subject. The earnestness of
his speculative and practical purpose restrains all exuberance
of fancy. Thus his imaginative analogies are more often latent
in single expressions than drawn out at length. But the few
which he has elaborated, 'stand out with the soUdity of the
finest sculpture V to embody some deep or powerful thought
for all time. They are suggested not by outward resemblance,
but by an identity which the imagination discerns in the inner-
most meaning of the objects compared with one another.
The strong emotion attending on the presence of some great
thought calls up before the inward eye some scene or action,
which, if actually witnessed, would produce a similar effect
upon the mind. Thus the thought of the chaotic confusion
which the universe would present, on the supposition that the
original atoms were limited in number, calls up the image
of the most impressive and awful devastation, wrought by
Nature upon the works of man.
Sed quasi naufiagiis magnis multisque coortis
Disiectare solet magnum mare transtra guberaa
Antemnas proram malos tonsasque natantis,
Per terrarum omnis oras fluitantia aplustra
Ut videantur et indicium mortalibus edant,
Infidi maris insidias virisque dolumque
Ut vitare velint, neve uUo tempore credant,
SuVjdola cum ridet placidi pellacia ponti,
Sic tibi si finita semel primordia quaedam
Constitues, aevom debebunt sparsa per omnem
Disiectare aestus diversi materiari,
Numquam in concilium ut possint compulsa coire
Nee remorari in concilio nee crescere adaucta".
' Provost Paradol, N^ouveaux Essais de Politique et de Littiratnre.
■ ' But as when there have been at the same time many and mighty ship-
wrecks, the mighty sea is wont to drive in all directions the rowers' benclies,
rudders, sailyards, prows, masts, and floating oars, so that along all tlic
coasts of land there may be seen the tossing flag-posts of ships, to warn
XIV.] THE ART AND GENIUS OF LUCRETIUS. 397
It is through the penetrating intuition of his imagination into
the deepest meaning of the two phenomena, and his sensibiHty
to the pathos and the strangeness involved in each of them,
that he sees the birth of every child into the world under the
well-known image of the shipwrecked sailor — ' saevis proiectus
ab undis.' Other analogies, suggested rather than elaborately
drawn out, express an inward or spiritual, not an outward
or bodily resemblance. Or rather the thing illustrated is
a thought or a mental act, the illustration a scene or action,
visible to the eye, suggestive of the same power in Nature, and
calculated to rouse the same emotions in the mind. Thus he
compares the life transmitted in succession through the nations
of the world to the torch passed on by the runners in the torch-
race ; or he illustrates his calm contemplation of the struggles
of life from the heights of his Epicurean philosophy, by the
vision of the dangers of the sea, as seen from some command-
ing position on the land.
Although few of his descriptions from Nature are capable
of being transferred to canvas, yet he shows in his treatment
of mythological subjects, and in his personification of great
natural phenomena, that purely pictorial faculty, in virtue
of which Catullus and Ovid have inspired the imagination
and directed the hand of some of the great painters of
modern times. Such, for instance, is the representation of
the sacrifice of Iphigenia, suggested indeed, in some of its
features, by an earlier poet, but executed with original power.
Such too are the pictures of Venus and Mars in the invocation
to the poem," and that of Pan —
Pinea semiferi capitis velamina quassans '.
mortals that they shun the wiles, and force, and craft of the faithless sea,
nor ever trust the treacherous alluring smile of the calm ocean ; so if once
you will suppose any finite number of elements, you will find that the many
surging forces of matter must disperse and drive them apart through all
time, so that they never can meet and gather into union, nor stay in union
and wax in increase.'- — ii. 552-64.
^ iv. 587-
398 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
By this power of vision he presents that superstition against
which all the weight of his argument is directed, not as an
abstraction, but as a real palpably existing Power of evil —
Quae caput a caeli regionibus ostendebat
Horribili super aspectu mortalibus instans '.
So, too, in his vivid account of the orderly procession of the
seasons, he invests the freshness and the beauty of spring with
the charm of personal and human attributes in the lines —
It ver et Venus, et veris praenuntius ante
Pennatus graditur zephyrus, vestigia propter
Flora quibus mater praespargens ante viai
Cuncta coloribus egregiis et odoribus opplet^.
But it is in describing actual scenes and actual aspects
of human life that Lucretius chiefly employs his power of
poetical conception and expression. He looks upon the world
with an eye which discerns beneath the outward appearances
of things the presence of Nature in her attributes both of
majesty and of genial all-penetrating life, — as at once the
' Magna mater ' and the ' alma mater ' of all living things ^.
She appears to his imagination not as an abstraction, or a vast
aggregate of forces and laws, but as a living Power, whose
processes are on an infinitely grander scale, but are yet
analogous to the active and moral energies of man. He shows
the same sympathy with this life of Nature, the same vivid
sense of wonder and delight in her familiar aspects, the same
' i. 64-5.
^ ' Then comes forth the Spring and Venus, and the harbinger of Spring
steps on before them, the winged Zephyr ; and near their footsteps. Mother
Flora, scattering her treasures before her, fills all the way with glorious
colours and fragrance.' — v. 737-40.
^ Cp. ' Keats has, above all, a sense of what is pleasurable and open in
the life of Nature ; for him she is the Ahna Parens: his expression has,
therefore, more than Guerin's, something genial, outward, and sensuous.
Guerin has above all a sense of what there is adorable and secret in the life
of Nature; for him she is the Magna ranns; his expression has, therefore,
mo'-e than Keats', something mystic, inward, and profound.' Essays in
Criticism, liy M. Arnold, p. 130. Third Edition.
XIV.] THE ART AND GENIUS OE LUCRETIUS. 399
imaginative perception of her secret agency, which led the
early Greek mind to people the world with the living forms of
the old mythology, and which have been felt anew by the
great poets of the present century. All natural life is thus en-
dowed with a poetical interest, as being a new manifestation of
the creative energy, which is the fountain of all beauty and
delight in the world.
The luinutest phenomena and the most gigantic forces, the
changes of decay and renovation in all outward things, the
growth of plants and trees, the habits of beasts rioting in a
wild liberty over the mountains, —
Qnod in magnis bacchatur montibu' passim', —
or tended by the care and ministering to the wants of man ;
the life and enjoyment of the birds that gladden the early
morning with their song by woods and river-banks, or that seek
their food and pastime among the sea-waves ; — these, and
numberless other phenomena, are all contemplated and de-
scribed by an eye quickened by the poetical sense of manifold
and inexhaustible energy in the world.
It is not so much the beauty of form and colour, as the
appearance of force and life which he reproduces. He has
not, like Catullus, the pure delight of an artist in painting
outward scenes. He does not express, like Virgil, the charm
of old associations attaching to famous places. It is the
association of great laws, not of great memories, which moves
him in contemplating the outward world. Neither has he
invested any particular place with the attraction which Horace
has given to his Sabine home, and Catullus to Sirmio. But
no ancient or modern poet has expressed more happily the
natural enjoyment of beholding the changing life and familiar
face of the world. No other writer makes us feel with more
reality the quickening of the spirit, produced by the sunrise or
the advent of spring, by living in fine weather or looking on
fair and peaceful landscapes. The freshness of the feeling
1 V. 842.
400 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. \Cn.
with which outward scenes inspire him is one of the great
charms of the poem, especially as a relief to the pervading
gravity of his thought. More than any poet, except Words-
worth, he seems to derive a pure and healthy joy from the
common sights and sounds of animate and inanimate Nature.
No distempered fancies or regrets, no vague longings for some
unattainable rapture, coloured the natural aspect which the
world presented to his eyes and mind.
In the descriptions of Lucretius, as in those of Homer,
there is always some active movement and change represented
as passing before the eye. What power and energy there are,
for instance, in that of a river -flood, — (like one of equal force
and truth in Burns's ' Brigs of Ayr,') —
Nee validi possnnt pontes venientis aquai
Vim subitam tolerare : ita magno turbidus imbri
Molibiis incurrit validis cnin viribus amnis*.
How naturally is the pure and sparkling life of brooks and
springs brought before the mind in the passage at v. 269 ",
already quoted, — and again, in these lines —
Denique iiota vagi silvestria templa tenebant
Nympharum, qnibus e scibant umori' fluenta
Lubrica proluvie larga lavere umida saxa,
Umida saxa, super viridi stillantia musco,
Et partim piano scatere atque erumpere canipo ^.
In this representation of the sea-shore —
Concharumque genus parili ratione videmus
Pingere telluiis gremium, qua mollibus undis
Litoris incurvi bioulam pavit aequor harenam^ —
' ' Nor can the strong bridges endure the sudden force of the rushing
water : in such wise, swollen by heavy rain, the stream with mighty force
dashes upon the piers.' — i. 285-87.
- * Percolatur enim virus,' etc.
'■ ' Finally, in their wandering they made their dwelling in the familiar
woodland grottoes of the nymphs, from which they marked the rills of
water laving the dripping rocks, made slippery with their abundant flow, —
dripping rocks, with drops oozing out above the green moss, — and gushing
forth and forcing their way over the level plain.' — v. 944-52.
' 'And in like manner we see shells paint the lap of the earth, where
XIV.l THE ART AND GENIUS OF LUCRETIUS. 401
there is the same suggestion of quiet ceaseless movement,
as in a line of the Odyssey representing the same phase of
Nature —
Aat'y-yas ttoti xipaov dironAvveane Oakaaaa.
There is the same sense of active life in all his pictures of
the early morning ; as, for instance, —
Primnm aurora novo cum spargit lumine terras ■
Et variae volucres nemora avia pervolitantes
Aera per tenerum liquidis loca vocibus opplent,
Quam subito soleat sol ortus tempore tali
Convestire sua perfundens omnia luce,
Omnibus in promptu manifestumque esse videmus'.
And again, —
Aurea cum primum gemmantis rore per herbas
Matutina rubent radiati lumina solis
Exhalantque lacus nebulam fluviique perennes,
Ipsaque ut interdum tellus fumare videtur;
Omnia quae sursum cum conciliantur, in alto
Corpore concreto subtexunt nubila caelum -.
Two Other passages (at iv. 136 and vi. 190), in which the
movements and shifting pageantry of the clouds are described,
may be compared with a more elaborate passage in the Excursion,
in which Wordsworth has represented a similar spectacle ^
wrought by ' earthly Nature,' —
' Upon the dark materials of the storm.'
with its soft waves the sea beats on the porous sand of the winding shore.' —
ii. 374-76.
1 'When the dawn first sheds its new light over the earth, and birds of
every kind, flying over the pathless woods through the delicate air, fill all
the land with their clear notes, the suddenness with which the risen sun
then clothes and steeps the world in his light, is clear and evident to all
men.' — ii. 144-49.
* 'Just as when first the morning beams of the bright sun glow all
"olden through the grass gemmed with dew, and a mist arises from meres
and flowing streams ; and as even the earth itself is sometimes seen to
steam ; then all these vapours gather together above, and taking shape, as
clouds on high, weave a canopy beneath the sky.'— v. 460-66.
' Excursion, Book ii : —
' The appearance, instantaneously disclosed,' etc.
Dd
402 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
Nowhere does he present pictures of pure repose. The
philosophical idea of ceaseless motion and change animates to
his eye every aspect of the world. Every separate description
in the poem possesses the charm of freshness and faithfulness,
and of relevance to the great ideas of his philosophy.
His living enjoyment in the outward world, and his sympathy
with all existence, both fed and were fed by his trust in
speculative ideas. The poetical descriptions which adorn and
illustrate his argument are like the sublime and beautiful
scenes which refresh and reward the adventurous discoverer of
distant lands.
Some passages, illustrative of philosophical principles, blend
the movements of animal and human life with descriptions of
natural scenery. The lines at ii. 352-366, describing the cow
searching for her calf, which has been sacrificed at the altar,
combine many characteristics of the poetical style of Lucretius.
There is the literal — almost too minute faithfulness of repro-
duction— as in the line—
Noscit humi pedibus vestigia pressa bisulcis ' ; —
the active life of the whole representation, too full of movement
for a picture, yet flashing the objects on the inward eye with
graphic pictorial power ; the ever fresh charm of some familiar
scene, called up by the lines already referred to, —
Nee tenerae salices atque herbae rore vigentes
Huminaque ilia queunt summis labentia ripis; —
the pathos and respect for every mode of natural feeling
denoted in such expressions as ' desiderio perfixa iuvenci ' ;
and, lastly, the power of investing the most common things
with the majesty of the laws which they express and illustrate.
This passage is adduced as a proof and illustration of the
varieties in form of the primordial atoms. In a passage,
immediately preceding, the perpetual motion of the atoms,
going on beneath an appearance of absolute rest, is illustrated
' ii. 356,
XIV.] THE ART AND GENIUS OF LUCRETIUS. 403
by two pictures, one taken from the jubilant life of the animal
creation —
Nam saepe in colli tondentes pabula laeta ', etc. ;
the other taken from the pomp of human affairs, and the gay
pageantry of armies —
I'laeterea magnae legiones cum loca cursu
Camporum complent belli simulacra cientes,
Fulgor ibi ad caelum se tollit totaque circum
Acre renidescit tellus supterque virum vi
Excitur pedibus sonitus clamoreque monies
Icti reiectant voces ad sidera mundi
Et circumvolitant equites mediosque repente
Tramittunt valido quatientes impete campos^.
The truth and fulness of life in this passage are immediately
perceived, but the element of sublimity is added by the thought
in the two lines with which the passage concludes, which reduces
the whole of this moving and sounding pageant to stillness and
silence —
Et tamen est quidam locus altis montibus unde
Stare videntur et in campis consistere fulgor^
As Lucretius was the first poet who revealed the majesty
and wonder of the Natural world, so he restored the sense
of awe and mystery, felt by the earlier Greek poets, to the
contemplation of human life. In dealing with the problem of
human destiny, he has sounded deeper than any of the other
ancient poets of Italy : but others have sympathised with a
greater variety of the moods of life, and have allowed its
1 ii. 317- '
- ' Besides when mighty legions fill the plains with their rapid movement,
lais^ing the pageantry of warfare, the splendour rises up to heaven, and all
the land around is bright with the glitter of brass, and beneath from the
mighty host of men the sound of their tramp arises, and the mountains,
struck by their shouting, re-echo their voices to the stars of heaven,
and the horsemen hurry to and fro on cither flank, and suddenly charge
across the plains, shaking them with their impetuous onset.' — ii. 323-30.
^ 'And yet there is some place in the lofty mountains whence they
appear to be all still, and to rest as a bright gleam upon the plains.'— ii.
331-3-
L> d 2
404 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
lights and shadows to play more easily over their poetry. The
thought both of the dignity and the littleness of our mortal
state is ever present to the mind of Lucretius. His imagination
is involuntarily moved by the pomp and grandeur of affairs,
while his strong sense of reality keeps ever before him the con-
viction of the vanity of outward state, the weariness of
luxurious living, and the miseries of ambition. Thus his
imaginative recognition of the pomp and circumstance of war
brings out by the force of contrast his deeper conviction of
the littleness and impotence of man in the presence of the
great forces of Nature—
Summa etiam cum \as violenti per mare venti
Induperatorem classis super aequora verrit
Cum validis pariter legionibus atque elephantis,
Non divom pacem votis adit ac prece quaesit
Ventorum pavidus paces animasque secundas, etc'
If his reason acknowledges only inward strength as the attribute
of human dignity, yet his imagination feels the outward spell
that swayed the Roman genius, through the symbols of power
and authority, through great spectacles, and in impressive
ceremonials.
But it is with more heart-felt sympathy, and with not less
imaginative emotion, that he recognises the deep wonder and
the infinite pathos of human life. There is perhaps no
passage in any poet which reveals more truthfully that union
of feelings in meditating on the strangeness and sadness of our
mortal destiny than the well-known passage describing the
■ birth of every infant into the world —
Tum porro puer, ut saevis proiectus ab undis
Navita, nudus humi iacet, infans, indigus omni
Vitali auxilio, cum primum in luminis oras
Nixibus ex alvo matris natura profudit,
' ' When, too, the utmost force of a violent gale is sweeping the admiral
of some fleet over the seas, along with his mighty legions and elephants,
does he not court the protectiou of the Gods with vows, and in his
terror pray for a calm to the storm, and for favouring gales?' — v. 1326-30.
XIV.] THE ART AND GENIUS OF LUCRETIUS. 405
Vagituque locum lugubri complet, ut aecumst
Cui tantum in vita restet transire malorum*.
With what truth and naivete is the complaint of the
husbandman over his ineffectual labour and scanty returns
echoed ! —
lamque caput quassans grandis suspirat arator
Crebrius incassum manuum cecidisse labores,
Et cum tempora temporibus praesentia confert
Praeteritis, laudat fortunas saepe parentis
Et crepat, anticum genus ut pietate repletum
Perfacile angustis tolerarit finibus aevom,
Cum minor esset agri multo modus ante viritim^.
His feeling is profoundly solemn, as well as infinitely tender.
Above all the tumult of life, he hears incessantly the funeral
dirge over some one departed, and the infant wail of a new-
comer into the troubles of the world,
mixtos vagitibus aegris
Ploratus mortis comites et funeris atri ".
His tone can, indeed, be stern and indignant, as well as
tender and melancholy : it is never morbid or effeminate.
His tenderness is that of a thoroughly masculine nature.
Some signs of the same mood may be discovered in the
fragments of Ennius ; but the feeling of Lucretius springs
from a more sympathetic heart and a more contemplative
imagination.
His imagination, which depicts so forcibly the intimations of
^ ' Moreover," the babe, like a sailor cast ashore by the cruel waves, lies
naked on the ground, speechless, in need of every aid to life, when first
nature has cast him forth by great throes from his mother's womb; and
he fills the air with his piteous wail, as befits one whose doom it is to pass
through so much misery in life.' — v. 222-27.
" ' And now, shaking his head, the aged peasant laments, with a sigh,
that the toil of his hands has often come to naught ; and, as he compares
the present with the past time, he extols the fortune of his father, and harps
on this theme, how the good old race, full of piety, bore the burden of their
life very easily within narrow bounds, when the portion of land for each
man was far less than now.' — ii. 1 164-70.
3 ii. 569-70.
406 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
experience, is able to bear him beyond the known and familiar
regions of life. As it enables him to pass —
extra flammantia moenia mundi —
and to behold the dawn of creation, and even the blank
desolation which will follow on the overthrow of our system, so
it has enabled him to realise with vivid feeling the primeval
condition of man upon the world. Yet even in these daring
enterprises of his fancy he adheres strictly to the conclusions
of his philosophical system, and shows that sincerity and truth-
ful adherence to fact are as inseparable from the operations of
his creative faculty as of his understanding and moral nature.
His excellences are so different from those of Virgil that
the question need not be entertained, whether the rank of the
greatest of Roman poets is or is not to be awarded to him.
If each nation must be considered the best judge of its own
poets, it will be admitted that Lucretius would have found few
Roman voices to support his claim to the first or even the
second place. The strongest support which he could have
received would have been A^irgil's willing acknowledgment of
the powerful spell which the genius of his predecessor had
exercised over him. Both the artistic defects and the profound
feeling and imaginative originality of his work were calculated
to alienate both popular favour and critical opinion in the
Rome of the Empire. The poem has a much deeper signi-
ficance for modern than it had for ancient times. Lucretius
stands alone as the great contemplative poet of antiquity. He
has proclaimed with more power than any other the majesty of
Nature's laws, and has interpreted with a truer and deeper
insight the meaning of her manifold life. Few, if any among
his countrymen, felt so strongly the mystery of man's being, or
have indicated so passionate a sympathy with the real sorrows
of life, and so ardent a desire to raise man to his proper
dignity, and to support him in bearing his inevitable burden.
If he has, in large measure, the antique simplicity and grandeur
of character, he has much also in common with the spirit and
XIV.] THE ART AND GENIUS OF LUCRETIUS. 407
genius of modern times. He contemplates human life with a
profound feeling, like that of Pascal, and with a speculative
elevation like that of Spinoza. The loftier tones of his poetry
and the sustained effort of mind which bears him through his
long argument remind us of Milton. His sympathy with
Nature, at once fresh and large, is more in harmony with the
feeling of the great poets of the present century than with the
general sentiment of ancient poetry. In the union of poetical
feeling with scientiiic passion he has anticipated the most
elevated mode of the study of Nature, of which the world has
as yet seen only a few great examples. His powers of observa-
tion, thought, feeling, and imagination, are characterised by a
remarkable vitality and sincerity. His strong intellectual and
poetical faculty is united with some of the rarest moral qualities,
— fortitude, seriousness of spirit, love of truth, manly tender-
ness of heart. And if it seems that his great powers of heart,
understanding, and genius led him to accept and to teach
a philosophy, paralysing to the highest human hope and
energy, it is to be remembered that he lived at a time when
the truest minds may well have despaired of the Divine govern-
ment of the world, and must have honestly felt that it was well
to be rid, at any cost, of the burden of Pagan superstition.
CHAPTER XV.
Catullus.
Lucretius and Catullus were regarded by their contempo-
raries as the greatest poets of the last age of the Republic \
They alone represent the poetry of that time to the modern
world. Although born into the same social rank, and acted
upon by the dissolving influences, the intellectual stimulus, and
the political agitation of the same time, no poets could be
named of a more distinct type of genius and character. The
first has left behind him only the record of his impersonal
contemplation. His life was passed more in communion with
Nature than in contact with the world : his experiences of
happiness or sorrow entered into his art solely as affording
materials for his abstract thought. The second has stamped
upon his pages the lasting impression of the deepest joy and
pain of his life, as well as of the lightest cares and fancies that
occupied the passing hour. Intensely social in his temper and
tastes, he lived habitually the life of the great city and the
provincial town, observing and sharing in all their pleasures,
distractions, and animosities, and only escaping, from time to
time, for a brief interval to his country houses on the Lago di
Garda and in the neighbourhood of Tivoli. He seems to
have had no other aim in life than that of passionately enjoy-
ing his youth in the pleasures of love, in friendly intercourse
with men of his own rank and age, in the practice of his art,
and the study of the older poets, by whom that art was
1 Cf. ' L. lulium Calidum, quern post Lucretii CatuUique mortem miilto
elegantissimum poetam nostram tulisse aetatem vere videor posse con-
tsndere.' — Corn. Nep. Vit. Att. 12.
CATULLUS. 409
nourished. All his poems, with the exception of three or four
works of creative fancy and one or two translations, have for
their subject some personal incident, feeling, or character.
Nearly all have some immediate relation to himself, and give
expression to his love or hatred, his admiration or scorn, his
happiness or misery. There is nearly as little in them of
reflexion on human life as of meditative communion with
Nature; but, as individual men and women excited in him
intense affection or passion, so certain beautiful places and
beautiful objects in Nature charmed his fancy and sank into
his heart. He shows himself, spiritually and intellectually, the ,
child of his age in his ardent vitality, in the license of his life 1
and satire, in the fierceness of his antipathies ; and also in his j
eager reception of the spirit of Greek art, his delight in the
poets of Greece and the tales of the Greek mythology, in his
striving after form and grace in composition, and in the
enthusiasm with which he anticipates the joy of travelling
among 'the famous cities of Asia.' In all our thoughts of him
he is present to our imagination as the ' young Catullus ' —
hedeva invenalia vinctiis
Tempora.
More than any great ancient, and than any great modern
poet, with the exception, perhaps, of Keats, he affords the
measure of what youth can do, and what it fails to do, in
poetry. Although the exact age at which he died is disputed,
yet the evidence of his poems shows that he did not outlive the
boyish heart. In character he was even younger than in
actual age. Nearly all his work was done between the years
61 and 54 B.C. ; and most of it, apparently, with little effort.
Born with the keenest capacities of pleasure and of pain,
he never learned to regulate them : nor were they, seemingly,
united with such enduring vital power as to carry him past the
perilous stage of his career, so as to enable him with maturer
power and more concentrated industry to employ his genius
and accomplishment on works of larger scope, more capable of
43 0 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
withstanding the shocks and chances of time, than the small
volume which, by a fortunate accident, has preserved the
flower and bloom of his life, and the record of all the
'sweet and bitter' w-hich he experienced at the hands of that
Power —
Quae dulcem curis miscet amaritiem.
The ultimate preservation of his poems depended on a
single copy, which, after being lost to the world for four
centuries, was re-discovered in Verona, the poet's birthplace,
during the fourteenth century. As that copy was again lost,
the text has to be determined from the conflicting testimony of
later copies, only two of which are considered by the latest
critics to be of independent value. There is thus much more
uncertainty, and much greater latitude for conjecture, as to the
actual words of Catullus, than in the case of almost any other
Roman poet. As lines not found in this volume are attributed
to him by ancient authors, and as he appears to allude to the
composition of love poems in his first youth ^ which must have
been written before the earliest of the Lesbia-poems, it may be
inferred that we do not possess all that he wrote. It has been
generally assumed that the dedicatory lines to Cornelius
Nepos, with which the volume opens, were prefixed by the
poet to the collected edition of his poems which we now
possess ; but Mr. Ellis, following Bruner, has shown that that
poem may more probably have been prefixed to a smaller and
earlier collection. The lines —
Namque tu solebas
Meas esse aliquid putare nugas, etc. —
imply that earlier poems of Catullus were well known for some
time before the writing of this dedication ; and allusions in
^ ' Mnlta satis lusi.' — Ixviii*. 17. The context shows that the Musi,' —
like Horace's ' lusit Anacreon,' — refers to the composition of amatory poetry
founded on his own experience. It was for this kind of poetry that Manlius
had applied to him, and he pleads his grief as an excuse for his inability to
write any at that time, although he had written much in his earliest youth.
XV.] CATULLUS. 411
more than one of the poems ^ prove that the poems of an
earlier date must have been in circulation before those in
which these allusions occur were written. In the time of
Martial, a small volume, probably chiefly consisting of the
Lesbia-poems, was known as the 'Passer Catulli^.' It may be
inferred that, as he wrote his poems from his earliest youth
till his death, he gave them to the world at various stages
of his career. He may have combined in these libelli some of
the elegiac epigrams with his iambics and phalaecians, just as
Martial, who regarded him as his master, did afterwards.
Even some of the longer poems, such as the Janua or the
Epithalamia, may have formed part of these collections. The
attention which he attracted from men eminent in social rank
and literature, — such as Hortensius, Manlius Torquatus, Mem-
mius, etc., — shows that his genius was soon recognised : and
his eager craving for sympathy and appreciation would naturally
prompt him to bring his various writings immediately before
the eyes of his contemporaries. It seems likely, therefore,
that this final collection from several shorter collections
already in circulation was made some time after the poet's
death ^ ; that some poems were omitted which were not thought
worthy of preservation, and, possibly, that some may have then
been added which had not previously been given to the world.
It would be difficult to believe that poems expressive of the
most passionate love and the bitterest scorn of the same person
could have appeared for the first time in the same collection.
This collection consists of about 116 poems*, written in
' E. g, xvi. 12 ; liv. 6.
^ Martial iv. 14, —
Sic forsan tener ausus est Catullus
Magno mittere passerem Maroni.
Ibid. xi. 6. 16, —
Donabo tibi passerem Catulli.
^ B. Schmidt conjectures that the collection as we now have it was made
after books were generally written in parchment. His whole collected
poems would thus be more easily enclosed in a single vohime, than when
written on the old papyrus rolls.
* Three poems formerly attributed to Catullus, — those between xvii and
412 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
various metres, and varying in length from epigrams of only
two lines to an ' epyllion ' which extends to 408 lines. The
poems numbered from i to Ix, are short lyrical or satiric
pieces, written in the phalaecian, glyconic, or iambic metres,
and devoted almost entirely to subjects of personal interest.
The middle of the volume is occupied by the longer poems —
numbered Ixi to Ixviii^J — of a more purely artistic and mostly
an impersonal character, written in the glyconic, galliambic,
hexameter, and elegiac metres. The latter part of the volume
is entirely occupied by epigrammatic or other short pieces in
elegiac metre, varying in length from two to twenty-six lines.
Many of the epigrams refer to the persons who are the sub-
ject of the short lyric and iambic pieces. There is no attempt
to arrange the poems in anything like chronological order.
Thus, among the first twelve poems, ii, iii, v, vii, ix, xii, are
probably to be assigned to the years 61 and 60 b.c, while iv,
x, xi, certainly belong to the last three years of the poet's life.
It is difficult to imagine on what principle the juxtaposition of
certain poems was determined. Probably, in some cases, it
may have been on the mere mechanical one of filling up the
pages symmetrically by poems of suitable length. Sometimes
we find poems of the same character, or referring to the same
person, grouped together, and yet varied by the insertion of
one or two pieces related to the larger group by contrast rather
than similarity of tone. Thus the passionate exaltation of the
earlier Lesbia-poems is first relieved by a poem (iv) written in
another metre, and appealing to a much calmer class of
feelings, and next varied by one (vi) written in the same
metre, and suggested by a friend's amour, which in its mean-
ness and obscurity serves as a foil to the glory and brightness
of the good-fortune enjoyed by the poet. Yet this clue does
not carry us far in determining the principle, if indeed there
was any principle, on which either the short lyrical poems or
xxi, — are now omitted from all edit.ons. On the other hand, one poem,
Ixviii, must, in all probability, be divided into two, and possibly some lines
now attached to others are parts of separate poems.
XV.] CATULLUS. 413
the elegiac epigrams were arranged. These various poems
were written under the influence of every mood to which he
was liable; and, like other passionate lyrical poets, he was
susceptible of the most opposite moods. The most trivial
incident might give rise to them equally with the greatest joy or
the greatest sorrow of his life. As he felt a strong need to
express, and had a happy facility in expressing his purest and
brightest feelings, so he felt no shame in indulging, and knew
no restraint in expressing, his coarsest propensities and bitterest
resentments : and he evidently regarded his worst moods no
less than his best as legitimate material for his art. Thus
pieces more coarse than almost anything in literature are
interspersed among others of the sunniest brightness and
purity. The feelings with which we linger over the exquisite
beauty of the 'Sirmio,' and are stirred by the noble inspiration
of the ' Hymn to Diana/ receive a rude shock from the two
intervening poems, characterised by a want of reticence and
reserve not often paralleled in the literature or the speech of
civilised nations. In a poet of modern times a similar collo-
cation might be supposed indicative of a cynical bitterness of
spirit — of a mind mocking its own purest impulses. But
Catullus is too genuine and sincere a man, too natural in his
enjoyments, and too healthy in all his moods, to be taken as
an example of this distempered type of genius. It seems
more likely, as is conjectured by recent commentators \ that
the present collection was made (perhaps at Verona) in a
comparatively late age, when the knowledge of the circum-
stances of Catullus and the intelligent appreciation of his
poems was lost.
These poems, whether good or bad, serious or trivial, are all
written with such transparent sincerity that they bring the poet
before us almost as if he were our contemporary. They make
him known to us in many different moods, — in joy and grief,
in the ecstasy and the despair of love, in the frank outpouring
of affection and the enjoyment of social intercourse, in the
' Cf..B. Schmidt, quoting Bruner, Prolegomena, p. xcviii.
414 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
bitterness of his scorn and animosity, in the Hcense of his
coarser indulgences. They enable us to start with him on
his travels ; to enjoy with him the beauty of his home on
the Italian lakes ; to pass with him from the life of letters
and idle pleasure and the brilliant intellectual society of
Rome to the more homely but not more virtuous ways and
the more commonplace people of his native province ; to join
with him in ridiculing some affectation of an acquaintance, or
to feel the contagion of his admiration for genius or wit in
man, grace in woman, or beauty in Nature. In the glimpses
of him which we get in the familiar round of his daily life, we
seem to catch the very turn of his conversation ', to hear his
laugh at some absurd incident '^, to see his face brighten as he
.welcomes a friend from a distant land"*, to mark the quick
ebullition of anger at some slight or rudeness*, or to be
witnesses of his passionate tears as something recalls to him
the memory of his lost happiness, or makes him feel his
present desolation ^. His impressible nature realises with
extraordinary vividness of pleasure and pain experiences
which by most people are scarcely noticed. To be rightly
appreciated, his poems must be read with immediate reference 1
to the circumstances and situations which gave rise to them. !
We must take them up with our feelings attuned to the mood
in which they were written. Hence, before attempting to
criticise them, we must try, by the help of internal and any
available external evidence, to determine the successive stages
of his personal and literary career, and so to get some idea of
the social relations and the state of feeling of which they were
the expression.
There is some uncertainty as to the exact date of his birth
and death. The statement of Jerome is that he was born at
Verona in the year 87 b.c, and that he died at Rome, at the
age of thirty, in the year 57 B.C. But this last date is con-
' >;. 6. ^ xvii. 7; liii. 1 ; Ivi. 1. - i.\.
* .\xv, .\1, xlii, etc. ' Cf. via, xxxviii, Ixv, clc.
XV.] CATULLUS. 415
tradicted by allusions in the poems to events and circum-
stances, such as the expeditions of Caesar across the Rhine
and into Britain, the second Consulship of Pompey, the
preparations for the Eastern expedition of Crassus, which
belong to a later date. The latest incident which Catullus
mentions is the speech of his friend Culvus, delivered in
August 54 B.C. against Vatinius \ A line in the poem,
immediately preceding that containing the allusion to the
speech of Calvus, —
Per consulatum perierut Vatinius, —
was, till the appearance of Schwabe's "^Quaestiones Catullianae,'
accepted as a proof that Catullus had actually witnessed the
Consulship of Vatinius in 47 B.C. But it has been satisfac-
torily shown that that line refers to the boasts in which
Vatinius used to indulge after the conference at Luca, or
after his own election to the Praetorship, and not to their
actual fulfilment at a later time. There is thus no evidence
that Catullus survived the year 54 b. c. ; and some expressions
in some of his later poems, as, for instance, —
Malest Cornifici tuo CatuUo, —
and —
Quid est Catulle ? quid moraris emori ?
are thought to indicate the anticipation of approaching death.
But if 54 B.C. is to be accepted as the year of his death, one
of Jerome's two other statements, viz. that he was born in the
year 87 B.C. and that he died at the age of thirty, must be
wrong. Most critics and commentators hold that the first
date is right, and that the mistake lies in the words 'xxx.
aetatis anno.' Mr. Munro, with more probability, believes
the error to lie in the 87 b.c, and that Jerome, 'as .so often
happens with him, has blundered somewhat in transferring to
his complicated era the Consulships by which Suetonius would
have dated.' He argues further, that the phrase ' iuvenalia
tempora,' in the passage quoted above from Ovid and written
4l6 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
by him at the age of twenty-five, is more appHcable to one
who died at the age of thirty than of thirty-three. A further
argument for beUeving that the * xxx. aetatis anno ' is right,
and the date 87 b.c. consequently wrong, is that the age at
which a person died was more easily ascertained than the
date at which he was born, owing to the common practice of
recording the former in sepulchral inscriptions. It is easy
to see how a mistake might have occurred in substituting
the first of the four successive Consulships of Cinna (87 B.C.)
for the last in 84 B.C.; but it is not so obvious how the
substitution of xxx. for xxxiii. could have taken place. The
only ground for assuming that the date of 87 B.C. is more
likely to be right, is that thereby the disparity of age between
Catullus and his mistress Clodia, who must have been born in
95 or 94 B.C., is somewhat lessened. But when we remember
that she was actually twelve years older than M. Caelius Rufus,
who succeeded Catullus as her lover, and that Cicero in his
defence of Caelius speaks of her as supporting from her
own means the extravagance of her youthful ('adulescentis')
lovers \ there is no more difficulty in supposing that she was
ten than that she was seven years older than Catullus. More-
over, the brotherly friendship in which Catullus lived with
Calvus, and his earlier intimate relations with Caelius and
Gellius, who were all born in or about the year 82 b.c, seem
to indicate that he was nearer to them in age than he would
have been if born in 87 b.c Between the age of twenty and
thirty a difference of five years is not frequent among ver^'
intimate associates, who live together on a footing of perfect
freedom. Again, the expression of the feelings both of love
and friendship in the earlier poems of Catullus — written about
the year 61 or 60 B.C.— seems more like that of a youth of
twenty-three or four, than of twenty-six or seven, especially
' Cf. ' quae etiam aleret adulescentis et parsimoniam patrum suis sumpti-
bus sustentarel.' Cic. Pro M. Caelio, 16, 38. Gellius, another of her lovers,
was probably about the same age, or a year or two younger than Caelius.'
Cf. Schwabe, p. 112, etc.
XV.] CATULLUS. 417
when we remember that, by his own confession, he had
entered at a precociously early age on his career both of
pleasure and of poetry. The date 84 b.c. accordingly seems
to fit the recorded facts of his life and the peculiar character
of his poetry better than that of 87 b.c. ; and there seems to
be more opening for a mistake in assigning the particular date
of the poet's birth and death, than in recording the number of
years which he lived \
It seems, therefore, most probable that he was born in the
year 84 b.c, and that he died at the age of thirty, either late
i-n 54 B.C. or early in 53 B.C. The much less important, but
still more disputed question as to his ' praenomen,' appears
now to be conclusively settled, in accordance with the evi-
dence of Jerome and Apuleius, in favour of Gaius, and against
Quintus. In the large number of places in which he speaks
of himself, he invariably calls himself ' Catullus ' ; and in the
best MSS. his book is called ' Catulli Veronensis liber.' His
Gentile name Valerius is confirmed by Suetonius in his life of
Julius Caesar; and the evidence of inscriptions shows that
^ B. Schmidt supposes that he did not die till 52 B.C., and that he must have
been born in 82 B. c. The reasons he assigns for this belief are not convincing.
He thinks that it was unlikely that Catullus should have been reconciled to
Julius Caesar in the winter of 55-54 B.C., so soon after the offence was
committed, which must have been after the first invasion of Britain by Julius
Caesar in the summer and autumn of 55. He shows that the reconciliation
could not have taken place in the winter of 54-3, as Caesar was absent
in Transalpine Gaul. He supposes therefore that it must have taken place
in the winter of 53-2. He thinks it probable that Catullus' reconciliation
must have taken place about the same time or subsequently to that of Calvus,
who was likely to have influenced Catullus' political action, and that Calvus
could not have desired to be reconciled till after the autumn of 54, when
he prosecuted Vatinius. It seems quite arbitrary to suppose that a consider-
able time must have elapsed between the offence and the apology of Catullus.
If Catullus was in Verona in the winter of 55-4, and in his father's house, and
Julius Caesar was then, as was his habit, living on intimate terms with and
enjoying the hospitality of the father of Catullus, that of itself affords an
explanation of their meeting and reconciliation. If Catullus required to be
induced by any one to make an apology, it is more likely that his father's
influence moved him to do so than the example and influence of Calvus.
E e
4l8 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
that name was not uncommon in the district near Verona.
How it happened that this Roman patrician name had spread
into Cisalpine Gaul we do not know; but that the family of
Catullus was one of high consideration in his native district,
and maintained relations with the great families of Rome, is
indicated by the intimate footing on which Julius Caesar lived
with his father, and also by the fact that the poet was received
as a friend into the best houses of Rome, — such as that of Hor-
tensius, Manlius Torquatus, Metellus Celer, — shortly after his
arrival there. It is quite possible that the last of these, who
was Proconsul in Cisalpine Gaul in 62 B.C., and to whom
Cicero writes when governor of that province, may have lived
on the same footing as Julius Caesar did with Catullus' father
at Verona, and that, in that way, Catullus obtained his first
introduction to his wife Clodia, the Lesbia of the poems.
Although some humorous complaints of money difficulties —
the natural consequences of his fashionable pleasures — occur
in his poems \ yet from the fact of his possessing, in his father's
lifetime, a country house on lake Benacus and a farm on the
tiorders of the Sabine and the Tiburtine territories, and of his
having bought and manned a yacht in which he made the
voyage from Bithynia to the mouth of the Po, it may be
inferred that he belonged to a wealthy senatorian or equestrian
family. One or two expressions, such as 'se atque suos
omnes,' and again, 'te cum tota gente, Catulle, tua',' seem to
speak of a large connexion of kinsmen : but we only know of
one other member of his own family, his brother, whose early
death in the Troad is mentioned with very genuine feeling in
several of his poems. The statement of Jerome that he was
born at Verona is confirmed by Ovid and Martial, and by the
poet himself. He speaks of the ' Transpadani ' as his own
people (' ut meos quoque attingam ') ; he addresses Brixia (the
modern Brescia), as —
Veronae mater amata irieae ;
^ Cf. .\, xiii, x.wi, xli, ciii. - Iviii. 3; Ixxix. 2.
XV.] CATULLUS. 419
he speaks of one of his fellow-townsmen, as —
Quendam mnnicipem meum.
Besides spending his early youth there, we find him, on three
different occasions, retiring thither from Rome, and making a
considerable stay there ; first, at the time of his brother's
death, apparently at the very height of his liaison with Clodia ;
next, immediately after his return from Bithynia ; and again
in the winter of 55-54 b. c, when it is probable that his
interview and reconciliation with Julius Caesar took place.
We find him inviting his friend, the poet Caecilius, to come
and visit him from the newly established colony of Como.
He had his friends and confidants among the youth of
Verona, and he records his intrigues both with the married
women and courtesans of the place '. He took a lively
interest in the humorous scandals of the Province, and
he has made them the subjects of several of his poems, —
e. g. xvii and Ixvii. Although his life was too full of social
excitement and human interests to make him dwell much
on natural beauty, yet the pure feeling expressed in the
Sirmio —
Salve, o venusta Sirmio, atqne ero gaude ;
Gaudete vosque o vividae' lacus undae —
shows that he derived keen enjoyment from the familiar
loveliness of that 'ocellus' of 'all isles and capes ' : and in the
illustrative imagery of his more artistic poems we seem to find
traces of the impression made unconsciously on his imagination
by the mountain scenery of Northern Italy ^
His native district afforded scope for the culture, which was
the serious charm of his life, as well as for the pleasures which
formed a large part of it. It was in the youth of Catullus that
"• Cf. ex, xli. ^ Reading suggested by Munro.
^ E.g. Ixiv. 240-41 : —
Ceu pulsac ventoruni flamine nubes,
Aerium nivei montis liquere cacumen.
And this most characteristic feature of Alpine scenery, — Ixviii''. 17, etc.: —
Qualis in aerii perlucens vertice montis
Rivos muscoso prosilit e lapide etc.
E e 2
420 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
the power of Greek studies was first felt by the impressionable
race, half-Italian, half-Celtic, of Cisalpine Gaul, which still
remained outside of Italy, and is called by him ' Provincia.'
Among the men of letters belonging to the last age of the
Republic, — Cato, the grammarian and poet, the great teacher
of the poets of the new generation ^, described in lines quoted
by Suetonius as
Latina Siren
Qui solus legit ac facit poetas, —
Cornelius Nepos, the friend who early recognised the
genius of Catullus and to whom one of his ' libelli ' was
dedicated in the lines now prefixed to the collection, —
Quintilius Varus, probably the Varus of poems x and
xxii, and the friend whose death Horace laments in an
Ode to Virgil, and whose candour as a critic he commends in
the Ars Poetica, — Furius Bibaculus, Cornificius, and Caecilius,
most of whom were among the intimate friends of Catullus,
came from, or resided in, the North of Italy ". In the poem
already mentioned he speaks of the mistress of Caecilius as
being —
Sapphica puella
Musa doctior, —
an indication that, not only in Rome but even in the northern
province, the finest literary taste and culture was shared by
women. Catullus shows in the earlier stage of his poetic
career his familiarity both with the ' Muse of Sappho,' and
with the more laboured art of Callimachus. His special
literary butt, ' Volusius,' whose poems are ridiculed under the
title of ' Annales Volusi,' was also his ' Conterraneus,' being a
native of the ancient ' Padua,' a town at the mouth of the Po^
The strength of the impulse first given to literary study in
this age is marked also by the eminent names from the North
' For his influence on the art of the veurepoi cf. Schmidt, rrolegomena,
p. Ixii.
^ Schmidt believes that Cinna was a native of Brescia; Prol. Ixiii ; but he
Joes not there give his reason for hib belief.
» Cf. xcv. 7 :
At Volusi Annales Paduam inorientur ad ipsam.
XV.] CATULLUS. 42 1
of Italy, which belong to the next generation, those of Virgil,
Cornelius Gallus, Aemilius Macer, Livy, etc. There is no
proof that Catullus left his native district in order to complete
his education, though it is not improbable that he may have done
so and come under the instruction of the ' Latina Siren,' with
whom he was later on terms of familiar intimacy (Ivi) ; nor
have we any sure sign of his presence at Rome before the
year 61 b.c.^ He tells us that he began his career both
as an amatory poet and as a man of pleasure in his earliest
youth, —
Tempore quo primum vestis mihi tradita pura'st,
lucundum cum aetas florida ver ageret,
Multa satis Insi : non est dea nescia nostri,
Quae dulcem curis miscet aniaritiem -.
One or two of the poems which we still possess may have
been written before Catullus settled in Rome, and before liis
genius was fully awakened by his passion for Lesbia : but
the great majority belong to a later date; and if he did
write many love poems before leaving Verona, ' in the pleasant
spring-time of his life,' nearly all, if not all, of them were
omitted from the final collection. Even the 'Aufilena poems,'
which are based on an intrigue carried on at Verona, are
shown, by the lines in c : —
Cni faveam potius ? Caeli, tibi, nam tua nobis
Per facta exhibita'st unica amicitia,
Cum vesana meas torreret flamma medullas,
to be subsequent to the liaison with Clodia. This last line
can only refer to the one all-absorbing passion of the poet's
life. His own relations to Aufilena, in whose affections
^ The epigram on Cominius (cviii) was probably written at Rome, as he
was not of sufficient importance to have made an impression on the people
of Verona. The accusation of C. Cornelius, which excited odium against
him, was made in 65 B.C. But it does not follow that the poem was written
by Catullus at that time. He may have become acquainted with him later,
and avenged some private pique by reference to the unpopularity formerly
excited by him. There is no direct reference to the trial of Comelins in
the poem, which appears among others referring to a much later date.
'^ Ixviii. i:;-iS.
422 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
he seems to have tried to supplant his friend Quintius,
were subsequent to the composition of that poem. It is
possible, as Westphal suggests, that the Veronese bride,
'viridissimo nupta flore puella ' of the 17th poem, in whom
Catullus evidently took a hvely interest, may have been this
Aufilena, at an earlier stage of her career.
The event which first revealed the full power of his genius,
and which brought the greatest happiness and the greatest
misery into his hfe, was his passion for ' Lesbia.' After the
elaborate discussions of the question by Schwabe, Munro,
Ellis and others, it can no longer be doubted that the lady
addressed under that name was the notorious Clodia, the
/3oa)7n? who appears so prominently in the second book of
Cicero's Letters to Atticus, and the ' Medea Palatina ' whose
crimes, fascination, and profligacy stand out so distinctly in
the defence of Caelius. We learn first from Ovid that ' Lesbia '
was a feigned name ; and the application of that name is easily
intelligible from the admiration which Catullus felt, and which
his mistress probably shared, for the ' Lesbian poetess,' whose
passionate words he addressed to his mistress when he was first
dazzled by her. exceeding charm and beauty. Apuleius tells us
further that the real name of ' Lesbia ' was Clodia ; and the truth
of his statement is confirmed by his mention in the same place
of other Roman ladies, who were celebrated by their poet-
lovers, — Ticidas, TibuUus, and Propertius, — under disguised
names. The statement made there that the real name of the
Cynthia of Propertius was Hostia, is confirmed by the line in
one of his elegies,
Splendidaque a docto fama refulget avo \
The fact that this Clodia was the sister of P. Clodius Pulcher
is also indicated in the 79th poem of Catullus,
Lesbius est pulcher : quidni ? quern Lesbia inalit
Quam te cum tota gente, Catulle, tua.
' In the 'docto avo' we have an allusion to the author of the ' Istrian
War.'
XV.] CATULLUS. 423
The play on the word puJcher might be illustrated by many
parallel allusions in Cicero's Letters to Atticus. The gratitude
expressed by Catullus to Allius ', a man of rank and position,
for having made arrangements to enable him to meet his
mistress in secret, clearly shows that she could not have
belonged to the class of Hl>erii?iae, in whose case no such pre-
cautions could have been necessary : and the language of
Catullus in the first period of his liaison —
lUe mi par esse deo videtur ;
and again,
Quo mea se molll Candida diva pedem
Intnlit,
is like the rapture of a lover acknowledging the gracious
condescension of a superior, as well as the delight of passion
returned. Of the two kinds of lovers, those who ' allow
themselves to be loved' and are flattered by this tribute to
their superiority, and those who are carried out of themselves
by their idealising admiration of the object of their love,
Catullus, in his earlier and happier time, unquestionably
belonged to the latter. Such a feeling, on the part of a young
provincial poet, although primarily inspired by charms of
person and manner, would naturally be enhanced by the
thought that the lady whom he loved belonged to one of
the oldest and highest patrician houses, and was the wife of one
of the greatest nobles of Rome, who was either actual Consul,
or Consul designate, at the time when she first returned
the poet's passion. The subsequent course of their liaison
affords further corroboration of her identity with the famous
Clodia. The rival against whom the poet's anger is most
fierce and bitter, is addressed by him as Rufus^, — the cogno-
1 lxviii\
- The Caelius addressed in some of the poems is not M, Caelius Rufus,
but a Veronese friend and confidant of Catullus —
' Flos Veronensum . . . iuvenum.'
Caesar, Bell. Civ. i. 2, mentions M. Caelius Rufus simply as M. Rufus,
Cicero in his epistles addresses him as ' mi Rufe.'
424 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
men of M. Caelius, who became the lover of Clodia in the
latter part of the year 59, and was defended by Cicero
in a prosecution instigated by her in the early part of 56 B.C.
The speech of Cicero amply confirms the charges of Catullus
as to the multiplicity of her later lovers. As, therefore, there
seems no reason to doubt, and the strongest reason to accept
the statement of Apuleius that the real name of Lesbia was
Clodia ; as the Lesbia of Catullus was, like her, evidently a
lady of rank and of great accomplishment ' ; as there was no
other Clodia of the family of Clodius Pulcher at Rome, except
the wife of Metellus Celer, to whom the statements made in
the poems of Catullus could apply ; and as these statements
closely agree with all that Cicero says of her, — there is no
reasonable ground for doubting their identity. If it is urged.
on the other side, that a lady of the rank and station of Clodia
cannot have sunk so low, as some of the later poems of
Catullus imply, it may be said that all that Catullus in his
jealous wrath imputed to her need not have been true, and also
that other Roman ladies of as high rank and position, both in
the last age of the Republic and in the early Empire, did sink
as low '.
That the intrigue was carried on and had even reached its
' Among other indications the vow of Lesbia (xxxvi) throws light on her
literary taste and accomplishment.
2 On the whole question compare Mr. Munro's Criticisms and Elucida-
tions, etc., pp. 194-202.
It has been argued on the other side that public opinion would not have
tolerated the publicity given to an adulterous intrigue, especially one with
a Roman matron so high in rank as the wife of Metellus Celer. But the
state of public opinion in the last years of the Republic is not to be gauged
either by that of an earlier time, or by that existing during the stricter
censorship of the Augustan regime. Catullus himself (cxiii) testifies to what
is known from other sources, the extreme laxity with which the marriage tie
was regarded in the interval between ' the fust and second consulships of
Pompey.' Perhaps, however, if Metellus Celer had survived Catullus, the
Lesbia-poems might never have been publicly given to the world. After his
death Clodia by her manner of life forfeited all claim to the immunities of
a P.oman matron.
XV.] CATULLUS.
425
second stage— that of the ' amantlum irae ' — in the h'fe-time of
Metellus, appears from the 83rd poem,
Lesbia mi praesente viro mala plurima dicit, etc.
Metellus was governor of the Province of Gallia Cisalpina in 62
B.C., and he must have returned to Rome early in 61 to stand
for the Consulship. Catullus may have become known to
Clodia in his absence, and the earliest poem addressed to her,
the translation from Sappho, which is expressive of passionate
and even distant admiration rather than of secure possession,
may belong to the time of her husband's absence. But in the
68th poem, which recalls most vividly the early days of their
love, when they met in secret at the house provided by AUius,
the lines, in which the poet excuses her faithlessness to
himself —
Sed furtiva dedit mira mimuscula nocte,
Ipsius ex ipso dempta viri gremio ' —
clearly imply that these meetings occurred after the return
of Metellus to Rome. The earlier love poems to Lesbia —
those on her pet sparrow, the ' Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque
amemus,' and the ' Quaeris quot mihi basiationes,' — in all
of which the feeling expressed is one at once of passionate
admiration and of perfect security, — belong probably to the
year 60, or to the latter part of the year 61 B.C. To this
period may, in all probability, be assigned some of the poet's
brightest and happiest efforts, — the Epithalamium in honour
of the marriage of Manlius and Vinia Aurunculeia ^, and the
' Ixviii''. 105-6.
■^ The poem Ixviii —
Quod mihi fortuna casuque oppressus acerbo —
was addressed to Manlius just after Catullus had heard of his brother's death,
i. e. probably late in the year 60, or early in the year 59 B.C. Manlius was
himself suffering then from a great and sudden sorrow. The expressions in
lines I, 5, 6, ' casu acerbo,' 'sancta Venus,' 'desertum in lecto caelibe,' make it
at least highly probable that this sorrow was the premature death of his
young bride. If this generally accepted opinion is true, the Epithalamium
must have been written some time before 59 B.C.
426 THE ROMAN POETS OE THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
poems ix, xii, xiii, commemorative of his friendship with
Veranius and Fabullus. The words in the last of these —
Nam iinguentum dabo, quod meae puellae
Donarunt Veneres Cupidinesque —
seem to admit of no other explanation than that they were
written in the heyday of his passion. The lines in the poem,
welcoming A^eranius, —
Visam te incolumem audiamque Hiberum
Narrantem loca, facta, nationes —
seem to speak of ^ome adventures encountered in Spain : and
from the fact that three years later the two friends, who are
always coupled together as inseparable by Catullus, went
together on the staff of Calpurnius Piso, the father-in-law
of Caesar, to his Province of Macedonia, it seems a not
unwarranted conjecture^ that they were similarly engaged
at this earlier time, and had gone to Spain in the train of
Julius Caesar, and had returned with him to Rome in the
middle of the year 60 b.c.^ The twelfth poem, which is
^ That of Westphal.
- Schmidt supposes that poems ix, xii, xiii belong to a later date, 56 B. c. ,
when he thinks that Veranius and Fabullus were with some otherwise un-
known Piso in the Province of Hispania Citerior, and that the poems
xxviii,
Pisonis comites, cohors inanis,
and xlvii,
Porci et Socration, duae sinistrae
Pisones, etc.,
belong to the same period.
But not to speak of the fact that the character imputed to Piso, in the
phrase 'duae sinistrae,' and in the words 'vappa,' 'verpa,' 'verpus,' applied
to him, are in exact accordance with that ascribed to him in the virulent
invective of Cicero (In L. Calpurnium Pisonem Oratio), it is difficult to see
how the words in xxviii,
Satisne cum isto
Vappa frigoraque et famem tulistis ?
could apply to either the climate or the condition of Hispania Citerior at
that time. But they closely coincide with the words of Cicero applied to
the government by Piso of his province of Macedonia (i 7-40), ' An exercitus
XV.] CATULLUS. 427
interesting as a testimony to the honour and good taste
of Asinius Pollio, then a boy of sixteen, was written some-
what earlier, while Veranius and Fabullus were still in
Spain.
The first hint of any rift in the loves of Catullus and Clodia
is contained in the 68th poem, written in the form of a letter to
Manlius^ —
Qnare, quod scribis Veronae turpe CatuUo, etc.
Catullus had retired to Verona on hearing of the death of his
brother, and he was for a time so overwhelmed with grief as to
become indifferent both to poetry and love. He is as sincere
and unreserved in the expression of his grief as of his former
happiness, and as completely absorbed by it. He writes
to Hortensius, enclosing, in fulfilment of an old promise,
a translation of the ' Coma Berenices ' of Callimachus, but at
the same time expressing his loss of all interest in poetry owing
to his recent affliction, —
Etsi me adsiduo confectnm cura dolore
Sevocat a doctis, Ortale, virginibus, etc.
nostri interitns ferro, fame, frig07-e, pestilentia ? ' On the other hand, the
words in ix,
Visam te incohimem audiamque Hiberum
Narrantem loca, facta, nationes,
would be applicable to the adventures and dangers of Julius Caesar in further
Spain in 61 b. c. There is no difficulty in supposing that the two young friends
went together on two different occasions on the staffof two different provincial
governors. The tone of the two different sets of poems is so differeftt, the
one set so bright and happy, the other so savage and bitter, that it is almost
inconceivable that they belong to the same time and the same cir-
cumstances.
* Schmidt supposes that the person to whom this letter is written is the
same as the AUius of Ixviii'' ; that the lines beginning
Non possum reticere
are a continuation of what used to be thought a separate poem.
Quod mihi fortuna, etc.,
that Manlius was the praenomen of Allius, and that he is addressed in the
first part of the poem by the praenomen, in the latter by the gentile name.
But the letter to Manlius clearly indicates the recent loss of his bride, or some
distress connected with his marriage (lines i, 5, 6), whereas at the end of the
letter to Allius he says, * Sitis felices et tu simul et tua vita;' Ixviii. 155.
428 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
In his letter to Manlius, in which he excuses himself on
the same ground for not sending any poetry of his own,
and for not complying with his request to send him some
volumes of Greek poetry, on the ground that his collection of
books was at Rome, he notices, with a feeling almost of
hopeless indifference, a hint conveyed to him by Manlius,
of his mistress' faithlessness \ In the poem written somewhat
later to Allius, —
Non possum reticere deae qua me Allius in re, etc. —
in which his grief is still fresh but more subdued, and in which
the full tide of his old passion, as well as his old delight in his
art, returns to him, he speaks lightly of her occasional
infidelities, —
Quae tamen etsi uiio non est contenta Catullo
Rara verecundae furta feremus erae.
If he can no longer be her only lover, he still hopes to be
the most favoured. But he soon finds even this privilege
denied to him. His love-poetry henceforth assumes a different
sound. For a time, indeed, his reproaches are uttered
in a tone of sadness not unmixed with tenderness. After-
wards, even though his passion from time to time revives with
its old vehemence, and he again becomes the slave of Lesbia's
caprice, his tone becomes angry, hard, and scornful. Finally,
the evidence of her shameless life and innumerable infidelities
with Caelius, Gellius, Egnatius, and ' three hundred others,'
enables him utterly to renounce her. The earlier of the
poems, both of anger and reconciliation, may probably have
been written in the life-time of Metellus, i. e. in 60 or in the
beginning of 59 B.C. But later in that year Metellus died,
' There is some uncertainty both as to the reading and interpretation of
the lines (Ixviii. 15-19). The most generally accepted view is that Manlius
had written to let Catullus know that several fashionable rivals were
supplanting him in his absence. Mr. Munro supposes that the letter was
written from Baiae, and that the hie is so to be explained. Another view of
the passage is that Manlius had, without any reference to Clodia, merely
rallied Catullus on leading a dull and lonely life at Verona, a place quite
unsuitable for the pleasures of a man of fashion.
XV.] CATULLUS. 429
suspected of being poisoned by his wife, who, on the ground of
that suspicion, was named by CaeHus Rufus, after his passion
had merged in a hatred equal to that of Catullus, by the
terrible oxymoron of ' Clytemnestra quadrantaria.' Her widow-
hood gained for her absolute license in the indulgence of her
propensities, and the first use she made of her liberty
was to receive Caelius Rufus into her house on the Palatine.
What her ultimate fate was we do not know, but the language
of Cicero, Caelius, and Catullus show that she could inspire as
deadly hatred as passionate admiration, and that the 'Juno-like'
charm of her beauty, the grace and fascination of her presence,
the intellectual accomplishment which made poets and orators
for a time her slaves, did not save her from sinking into the
lowest degradation.
The poems representing the second and third stage — that in
which passion and scorn strive with one another — of the
relations to ' Lesbia,' and containing the savage attacks on his
rivals, belong to the years 59 and 58 B.C. : nor do there appear
to be any other poems of importance referable to this latter
date. One or two poems, in which his final renunciation
is made with much scornful emphasis, belong to a later
date after his return from Bithynia. He went there early in the
year 57 B.C., on the staff of the Propraetor Memmius, and
remained till the spring of the following year. The immediate
motive for this step may have been his wish to escape
from his fatal entanglement, but the chances of bettering
his fortunes, the congenial society of his friend the poet
Helvius Cinna and other members of the staff, and the
attraction of visiting the famous seats of the old Greek
civilization, were also powerful inducements to a man who
combined a strong social and pleasure-loving nature with
the enthusiasm of a poet and a scholar. His severance
from his recent associations and from the animosities they
engendered was favourable to his happiness and his
poetry. He did not indeed improve his fortunes, owing,
as he says, to the poverty of the province and the
430 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
meanness of his chief. He detested Memmius, and has
recorded his detestation in the hearty terms of abuse of which
he was a master ; and he expresses his joy in quitting,
in the following spring, the dull monotony of the Phrygian
plains and the hot climate of Nicaea. But he had great
enjoyment in his association with his comrades on the Praetor's
staff—
O dulces comitum valete coetus. —
He was attracted to one of them, Helvius Cinna, by warm
admiration for his poetic accomplishment, as well as by
friendship ^ ; and the time spent by them together was probably
lightened by the practice of their art, and the study of
the Alexandrine poets. Although the fame of Cinna did not
become so great as that of Catullus or Calvus, he seems
to have been regarded by the poets of that school in the light
of a master^; and it is probably owing to the example
of his Zmyrna, so highly lauded in the 95th poem of Catullus,
that Catullus composed his Epithalamium of Peleus and
Thetis, Calvus composed his lo, and Cornificius his Glaucus.
A still more remarkable poem of Catullus, the Attis, the
subject of which, so remote not only from Roman but even
Greek life, is identified with the Phrygian highlands and the
seats of the worship of Cybele, probably owes its inspiration as
well as its local colouring to the poet's sojourn in this district.
It is not unlikely that it was during the leisure of the time
spent in Bithynia that these poems were commenced, as
it was during his retirement to Verona after his brother's death
that his longer Elegiac poems were written. The mention of
the ' Catagraphi Thyni ' in a later poem is suggestive of
the interest which he took in the novel aspects of Eastern
life opened up to him in the province. But it is in the
poems whicli are written in the year 56 B.C., that we chiefly
note the happy effect of the poet's absence from Rome, and of
' Cf. poems X. 30, etc., and xcv.
* Cf. Munio's Criticisms and Elucidations of Catullus, p. 214.
XV.] CATULLUS. 43 1
his emancipation from liis passion. Some of these poems, —
more especially xlvi, ci, xxxi, and iv, — are among the happiest
and purest products of his genius. They bring him before us
eagerly preparing to start on his journey ' among the famous
cities of Asia,' — making his pious pilgrimage to his brother's
tomb in the Troad, — greeting his beloved Sirmio and the
bright waters of the Lago di Garda on his first return home,
and recalling sometime later to his guests by the shores of the
lake the memories of the places visited, and of the gallant
bearing of his pinnace, ' through so many wild seas,' on
his homeward voyage. Some of the poems written from
Verona — those referring to his intrigue or perhaps his dis-
appointment with Aufilena, and the invitation to Caecilius
(xxxv), were probably composed about this time, before his
return to Rome. The ' Aufilena ' poems belong certainly to a
time later than his passion for Lesbia ; and during a still later
visit to Verona — probably that during which he met and
was reconciled to Julius Caesar— Catullus is found engaged in
love-affairs in which Mamurra was his rival. As the invitation
to Caecilius was written after the foundation of Como (b.c. 59),
it could not have been sent by Catullus during his earlier
sojourns at Verona : and ' the ideas ' which he wished to
interchange with the poet who was then engaged in writing a
poem on Cybele — ' Dindymi domina,' — to which Catullus
pointedly refers, may well have been those suggested by
his Eastern sojourn, and embodied in the Attis. But soon
afterwards .we find him back in Rome, and the lively and most
natural comedy, dramatically put before us in x —
Varus me meus ad suos amores
Visum duxerat e foro otiosum —
bears the freshest impress of his recent Bithynian experiences.
Poems xxviii and xlviii, inspired by his hatred of Memmius
and his sympathy with the treatment, like to that which he had
himself experienced, which his friends Veranius and Fabullus
had met with at the hands of their chief Piso, probably belong
to a later time, after the return of Piso from his province in
432 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
55 B.C. Some critics have found the motive of the famous lines
addressed to Cicero —
Disertissime Romuli nepotum
Qnot sunt quotqne fuere, Marce Tulli —
in the speech delivered in the early part of 56 b.c, in defence
of Caelius, of which, from the prominence given in it to the
vices of Clodia, Catullus must have heard soon after his
return to Rome. But the words of the poem hardly justify this
inference. Catullus was not interested in the vindication of
Caelius, who had proved false to him as a friend, and sup-
planted him as a rival. And he was himself so perfect a
master of vituperation that he did not need to thank Cicero
for his having done that office for him in regard to Clodia.
Yet the reference to Cicero's eloquence, and to his supremacy
in the law courts — ,
Tanto pessimus omnium poeta
Quanto tn optimus omnium patronus —
seems to point to some exercise of Cicero's special talent
as an advocate, for which Catullus was grateful. The great
orator and the great poet, who speaks so modestly of himself
in the contrast he draws between them, may have been brought
together in many ways. They had common friends and
acquaintances — Hortensius, Manlius Torquatus, Sestius, Li-
cinius Calvus, Memmius, etc. ; and they heartily hated the
same persons, Clodia, Vatinius, Piso, and others. The in-
timate associates of Catullus shared the political views and
sympathies which the orator had professed at least up to the
year 55 b.c. Cicero, too, was naturally attracted to young
men of promise and genius, — if they did not belong too
prominently to the 'grex Catilinae ' ; — and, like Dr. Johnson in
his relations to Beauclerk and Boswell, he may have valued
their society more for their intellectual vivacity than their
moral virtues ^.
' An entirely different interpretation has recently been given to this poem
(Schmidt, Prolegomena, xxxix, etc.). It is supposed not to be complimentary,
XV.] CATULLUS. 433
The poems written in the last two years of the poet's Hfe do
not indicate any emancipation from the coarser passions and
the fierce animosities of the period immediately preceding
the Bithynian journey. To this later time may be assigned
the famous lampoons on Julius Caesar and Mamurra, the poems
referring to some of his Veronese amours, those addressed
to Juventius, and the reckless, half-bantering, half-savage assaults
on ' Furius and Aurelius,' who were both the butts of his wit
and the sharers of his least reputable pleasures. They seem
but bilteily sarcastic. It is said that Catullus could not, except in irony,
have described himself as
' pessimus omnium poeta ; '
and if those words applied to himself as a poet are irony, so must the words
applied in strong contrast to Cicero as nn advocate (tanto — qunnto) be
equally ironical. In that case the ODiiiiinii in the last line must not
be taken in connexion with optimus, but with patronus. Cicero's readiness
to be 'omnium patronus' is sarcastically commented on with immediate
reference to his defence of Vatinius, which startled some of his best friends
among the constitutional party. The formal address ' Marce Tulli ' is also
ironical. (If that is so, probably also the ' Komuli nepotum ' is used
in mock heroic irony, like the ' Remi nepotum ' in Iviii.) What then
is the favour for which Catullus writes these ironically complimentary
thanks? .Schmidt supposes that Cicero had expressed either publicly
or privately a very poor opinion of Catullus' poems, and that Catullus
revenges himself by professing to agree with him, to be most grateful
for the criticism (gratias tibi maximas Catullus agit), and to repay it
by heaping ironical coals on his head.
It is just possible that the poem might have been so understood in the set
to which Catullus belonged, if we were certain that it was written at
the time when Cicero defended Vatinius. But the general public could
hardly have understood it so, and it is not surprising that it never occurred
to any one to understand it in that sense till within the last year or two.
It is not in keeping with Catullus' straightforward, outspoken vituperation,
nor with the manners of the time (as shown in Cicero's speeches^, to write
an epigram which would leave the object of it in doubt whether it was
written in earnest or derision. No doubt Catullus did not seriously think
himself ' the worst of living poets,' worse for instance than Volusius. But
there is an irony of modest self-depreciation, as that of Virgil when he
applies to himself the words ' argutos inter strepere anser olores,' as well as
of insulting banter. The change in the construction of the ' omnium '
in the two consecutive lines would be at least startling. That Catullus, a
young man, not intimate with Cicero, should address him as Marce Tulli is
F f
434 T-Z/^- ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
to have been needy men, though of some social standing \
probably of the class of ' Scurrae,' who preyed on his purse
and made loud professions of devotion to him, while they
abused his confidence and his character behind his back-
Some of the poems of his last years, however, are indicative
of a more genial frame of mind and of happier relations with
the world. It was at this time that he enjoyed the intimate
friendship of Licinius Calvus^, to whom he was united by
similarity of taste and of genius, as well as by sympathy in
their personal and political dislikes. Four poems — one cer-
tainly among the very last written by Catullus — are inspired
by this friendship, and all clearly prove that at least this source
of happiness was unalloyed by any taint of bitterness. Two
other poems, the final repudiation of Lesbia, and the bright
picture of the loves of Acme and Septimius, which, by their
not perhaps more remarkable than that a young poet of the present day
should in writing to a man of great eminence, twenty years his senior,
address him as Mr, . Cicero writes banteringly and good-naturedly to
one of his correspondents, Volumnius, probably a much younger man
(Fam. vii. 32) : ' Quod sine praenomine familiariter, ut debebas, ad me
epistolam misisti, primum addubitavi, num a Volumnio senatore esset,
quorum mihi est magnus usus.' There is no reason for supposing that
Cicero ever passed any criticism favourable or unfavourable on Catullus,
though in his letters he twice uses his phrases ; and if he did, it was not in
Catullus' way to retaliate without making it perfectly clear what he
was retaliating for. Cicero was constantly in the way of doing kindnesses
lo all sorts of people, in the law-courts or by recommending them to some
of his influential friends. He especial!) says that he had always done what
he could to foster the genius of poets. He was attracted to young men like
Catullus (he was not of the 'grex Catilinae'); and of his friend Calvus
he writes with genuine appreciation. It is more natural as well as more
pleasant to think of these two men of genius, in so far as they came in
contact, having agreeable relations with one another, than to believe that the
poet wrote these apparently straightforward, kindly appreciative lines in
revenge for some real or fancied disparagement of his verses.
' Cf. xxiv. 7 : —
Qui ? non est homo bellus ? inquies. Est.
* Two of the four poems connected with Calvus allude to his antagonism
to Vatinius, which went on actively between the years 56 and 54 B.C. In
none of them is there any allusion to Lesbia, who was never out of Catullus,
thoughts or his verse till after his Bithynian journey.
XV.] CATULLUS. 435
allusions to the invasion of Britain and to the excitement
preceding the Parthian expedition of Crassus and the Egyptian
expedition of Gabinius, show unmistakeably that they belong
to the last year of his hfe, afford conclusive evidence that
neither the exhausting passions, the rancorous feuds, nor the
deeper sorrows of his life had in any way impaired the vigour
of his imagination or his sense of beauty. Perhaps the latest
verses addressed by Catullus to any of his friends are those
lines of tender complaint to Cornificius, in which he begs
of him some little word of consolation —
Maestius lacrimis Simonideis.
The lines —
Malest, me hercule, et est laboriose,
Et magis magis in dies et horas —
might well have been drawn from him by the rapid advance of
his fatal illness, and the phrase ' lacrimis Simonideis ' is sug-
gestive of the anticipation of death rather than of the misery of
unfortunate love ^
The length as well as the diction, rhythm, and structure
of the 64th poem—
Peliaco quondam prognatae, etc. —
shows that it was a work of much greater labour and thought
than any of those which sprang spontaneously out of the passion
or sentiment of the moment. Probably in the composition
of this, which he must have regarded as the most serious
and ambitious effort of his Muse, Catullus may have acted
on the principle which he commends so warmly in his lines
on the Zmyrna of Cinna —
Zmyrna mei Cinnae nonam post deniqiie messem
Quam coepta'st nonamque edita post hiemem, —
and have kept it by him for years, elaborating the unfamiliar
poetic diction in which it is expressed, and enlarging its
original plan by the insertion of the long Ariadne episode.
' Horace contrasts the 'dirge of Simonides ' ^_'Ceae retractes munera
neniae') with the lighter poetry of love.
Ff 2
436 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
It is the only poem of Catullus which produces the impression
of the slow and reflective processes of art as distinct from
the rapidly shaping power of immediate inspiration. P'rom
this circumstance alone we should regard it as a work on which
his maturest faculty was employed. But it has been shown ^
that throughout the poem, and more especially in the episode
of Ariadne, there are clear indications that Catullus had read
and imitated the poem of Lucretius, which appeared about
the end of 55 or the beginning of 54 b.c. We may therefore
conclude that in the year 54 b. c- — the last of his life —
Catullus was still engaged either in the original composition
of his longest poem, or in giving to it the finishing touches.
The concluding lines of the poem —
Sed postquam tellus scelere est imbnta nefando, etc. —
which are written in a more serious spirit, and with a graver
judgment on human life than anything else he has left, perhaps
indicate the path which his maturer genius might have struck
out for itself, if he had ever risen from the careless freedom of
early youth to the reflective habits and steady labour of riper
years.
But although longer life might have brought to Catullus
a still higher rank among the poets of the world, the chief
charm of the poems actually written by him arises from the
strength and depth of his personal feelings, and the force,
freshness, and grace with which he has expressed them.
Other Roman poets have produced works of more elaborate
composition, and have shown themselves greater interpreters
of Nature and of human life : none have expressed so directly
and truthfully the great elemental aft'ections, or have uttered
with such vital sincerity the happiness or the pain of the
passing hour. He presents his own simple experience and
emotions, uncoloured by idealising fancy or reflexion, and
the world accepts this as among the truest of all records
of human feeling. The ' spirat adhuc amor ' is especially
' Cf. Miinro's Lucretius, p. 46S, third edition.
XV.] CATULLUS. 437
true of all the poems inspired by his love for Lesbia. It
is by the union of the utmost fire of passion with a heart
capable of the utmost constancy of feeling that he transcends
all other poets of love. We pass with him through every
stage of his passion, from the first rapture of admiration
and the first happiness of possession to the biting words or
scorn in which he announces to Lesbia his final renunciation
of her. We witness the whole 'pageant of his bleeding heart,'
from the fresh pain of the wound on first fully realising her
unworthiness, through the various stages of superficial re-
concilement,— the 'amoris integratio' following on the 'aman-
lium iraeV — on to the state of torture described by him in
the words ' Odi et amo V till at last he obtains his eman-
cipation by the growth of a savage rancour and loathing in
the place of the passionate love which had tried so long to
sustain itself ' like a wild flower at the edge of the meadow '.'
Among the many poems, written through nearly the whole
of his poetical career, and called forth by this, the most
vital experience of his life, those of most charm and power
are the two on the 'Sparrow of Lesbia' (ii and iii) written
in tones of playful tenderness, not without some touch of
the luxury of melancholy which accompanies and enhances
passion ; — the two, v and vii,
Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atqiie amemus,
and
Quaeris, quot mihi basiationes, etc., —
written in the very height of his short-lived happiness, in
the wildest tumult and most reckless abandonment of passion,
when the immediate joy is felt as the only thing of any
moment in life; the 8th poem —
Miser, Catulle, desinas ineptiie —
' Ixxii. 5-8 : —
Nunc te cognovi : quare etsi impensius nror,
Multo mi tamen es vilior el levior.
Qui potis est ? iiiquis. Quia amantem iniuria talis
Cogit amare magis, set bene vellc minus.
- Ixxxv. I. ^ xl. 23.
438 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
in which he recalls the bright days of the past —
Fnlsere quondam candidi tibi soles, —
and steels his heart against useless regret : — and another
poem written in a different metre, in the same mood, and
apparently after the wounds, which had been partially healed,
had broken out afresh, —
Si qua recordanti benefacta priora volnptas, etc' ;
in which he prays for a deliverance from his passion as from
a foul disease, or a kind of madness ; — and lastly, the final
renunciation (xi), —
Fnri et Anreli comites Catullo, —
in which scornful irony is combined with an imaginative
power and creative force of expression which he has only
equalled or surpassed in one or two other of his greatest
works, — such as the ' Attis ' and the Epithalamium of Man"
lius. Other tales of love told by poets have been more
beautiful in their course, or more pathetic in their issue ;
none have been told with more truthful realism, or more
desperate intensity of feeling.
The fame of Catullus, as alone among ancient poets of
love rivalling the traditional glory of Sappho, does not rest
only on those poems which record the varying vicissitudes
of his own experience. His longer and more artistic poems
are all concerned with some phase of this passion, either in
its more beautiful and pathetic aspects, or in its perversion
and corruption. Thus he not only selects from Greek
legends the story of the desertion of Ariadne, of the brief
union of Protesilaus and Laodamia, of the glory and blessed-
ness of Peleus and Thetis, but he makes the tragic deed of
Attis, instigated by the fanatical hatred of love, — ' Veneris
nimio odio,' — the subject of his art. Others of his poems are
inspired by sympathy with the happiness of his friends in the
enjoyment of their love, and with their sorrow when that love
' Ixxvi.
XV.] CATULLUS. 439
is interrupted by death. The most charming of all his longer
poems is the Epithalamium which celebrates the union of
Manlius with his bride. No truer picture of the passionate
devotion of lovers has ever been painted than that presented
in the few playful and tender but burning lines of the ' Acme
and Septimius.' His own experience did not teach him the
lessons of cynicism. At the close as at the beginning of his
career, he finds in the union of passion with truth and
constancy the most real source of happiness. The elegiac
lines in which he comforts his friend Calvus for the loss of
Quintilia bear witness to the strength and delicacy of his
friendship, and, along with others of his poems, make us feel
that the life of pleasure in that age was not only brightened by
genius and culture, but also elevated by pure affection and
sympathy, —
Si qiiicquam mutis gratum acceptumque sepulchris
Accidere a nostro Calve dolore potest,
Quo desiderio veteres renovamus amores
Atque olim missas flemus amicitias
Certe non tanto mors immatura dolori est
Quintiliae, quantum gaudet amore tuo '.
The most attractive feature in the character of Catullus
is the warmth of his affection. No ancient poet has left so
pleasant a record of the genial intercourse of friends, or has
given such proof of his own dependence on human attachment
and of his readiness to meet all the claims which others have
on such attachment. In his gayest hours and his greatest
sorrow, amid his pleasures and his studies, he shows his
thoughtful consideration for others, his grateful recollection
of past kindness, and his own extreme need of sympathy.
' ' Calvus, if those now silent in the tomb
Can feel the touch of pleasure in our tears
For those we loved, wlio perished in their bloom,
And the departed friends of former years :
Oh then, full surely thy Quintilia's woe,
For the untimely fate that bade ye part,
Will fade before the bliss she feels to know
How very dear she is unto thy heart.' — Martin.
440 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
Perhaps he expects too much from friendship, and, in ad-
dressing his comrades, is too ready to assume that whatever
gives momentary pleasure or pain to ' their own Catullus ' must
be of equal importance to them. No poet makes such use of
terms of endearment and affectionate diminutives in writing
both to and of his friends, and of himself in his relation to
them. But if he expected much from the sympathy of his as-
sociates, he possessed in no ordinary measure the capacity of
feeling with and of heartily loving and admiring them. He
often expresses honest and delicate appreciation of the works,
or of the wit, taste, and genius of his friends. The dedication
of his volume to Cornelius Nepos, the lines addressed to Cicero,
the invitation to Caecilius —
Poetae teneio, meo sodali
Velim Caecilio papyre dicas, —
the poem in which he recalls to Licinius Calvus a day passed
together in witty talk and the interchange of verses over their
wine, the contrast which he draws between the doom of speedy
oblivion which he pronounces on the 'Annals of Volusius,' and
the immortality which he confidently anticipates for the 'Zmyrna '
of Cinna, — all show that, though fastidious in his judgments,
he was without a single touch of literary jealousy, and that he
felt a generous pride in the fame and accomplishments of men
of established reputation as well as of his own younger compeers.
Nor was his affection limited by literary sympathy. Of none
of his associates does he write more heartily than of Veranius
and Fabullus, young men, apparently enjoying their youth, and
trying to better their fortunes by serving on the staff of some
J'raetor or Proconsul in his province. The language of
affection could not be uttered with more cordiality, simplicity,
and grace than in the poem of ten or eleven lines welcoming
Veranius on his return from Spain, —
Venistine domum ad tuos Penates
Fratresque unanimos anumque matrem ?
Venisti. O mihi mmtii beati.
There is not a word in the poem wasted ; nut one that does
XV.] CATULLUS. 44I
not come straight and strong from the heart. The ' Invitation
to FabuUus ' is in a Hghter strain, and is written with the
freedom and humour which he could use to add a charm to
his friendly intercourse \ and a sting to his less congenial
relations. Yet through the playful banter of this poem his
delicate and kindly nature betrays itself in the words ' venuste
noster,' and in those lines of true feeling, —
Sed contra accipies meros amores
Seu quid siiavius elegantiusve.
His affection for both comes out incidentally in his remon-
strance with Marrucinus Asinius" for having filched after
dinner, ' in ioco atque vino,' one of his napkins, which he
valued as memorials of the friends who had sent them to him,
and which he endows with some share of the love he felt for
them,—
Haec amem necessest
Ut Veianiolum meum et Fabulluin.
The lampoons on Piso and his favourites, Porcius and
Socration, show that those who wronged his friends could
rouse in him as generous indignation as those who wTonged
himself.
Other poems express the pain and disappointment of
a very sensitive nature, which expects more active and dis-
interested sympathy from others than ordinary men care
either to give or to receive. Of this sort are his complaint
to Cornificius", —
Malest, Cornifici, tuo Catnllo —
and the affectionate reproach which he addresses to Alphenus
(xxx) : —
Certe tute iubebas animam tradere, inique, me
Indncens in amoreni, quasi tuta omnia mi forent.
Inde nunc retrahis te ac tua dicta omnia factaque
Ventos irrita terre ao nebulas aerias sinis.
' Compare also his humorous notice of" the compliment which he heard
ill the crowd paid to the speech of Calvus against Vatinius —
Dii magni, salaputium disertum.
^ xii. ■ ' xxxviii.
442 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
These, and other poems, show that Catullus was quick to
feel any coldness or neglect on the part of his friends, and
exceedingly dependent for his happiness on their sympathy.
But the tone of these poems is quite different from the
resentment which he feels and expresses against those from
whom he had experienced malice or treachery. It does
great injustice to his noblest qualities, to think of him as
one who wantonly attacked or lightly turned against his
friends. No instance of such levity of feeling can be ad-
duced from his writings. It has been conclusively shown '
that in the third line of the 95th poem there can be no
reference to Hortensius, who, under the name of Hortalus,
is addressed by Catullus in his 65th poem with courteous
consideration : and if ' Furius and Aurelius ' are to be re-
garded, on the strength of the opening lines of the nth poem,
as having ever ranked among his devoted friends, then the
poem, instead of being a magnificent outburst of scornful
irony, becomes a mere specimen of bathos. Nothing, on the
other hand, can be more in keeping with the feeling of con-
temptuous tolerance which Catullus expresses in his other
poems relating to them, than the pointed contrast between
their hollow professions of enthusiasm and the degrading office
which he assigns to them, —
Pauca inintiate meae puellae
Non bona dicta.
Catullus could pass from friendship or love to a state of
permanent enmity and hatred, when he believed that those in
whom he had trusted had acted falsely and heartlessly towards
him : and then he did not spare them. But the duties of
loyal friendship and affection are to him a kind of religion.
Perfidy and falsehood are regarded by him not only as the
worst offences against honour in man, but as sins against the
1 Mr. Mnnro, in his Elucidations {\>\>. 209, etc.), sliows that tlie whole
point of the poem consists in the contrast drawn between the ' Zmyrna '
of Cinna and the 'Annals of Volusiiis.' Baehrens admits the reading
■Hortensius' into the text, but adds in a note on the word, vox (orrnpla est.
XV.] CATULLUS. 443
Gods. He lays claim to a good " conscience and to the
character of piety, on the ground that he had neither failed in
acts of kindness nor violated his word or his oath in any of his
human dealings : —
Si qua lecordanti benefacta priora voluptas
Est homini, cum se cogitat esse pium,
Nee sanctam violasse fidem, nee foedere in ullo
Divum ad fallendos numine abusum homines, etc.'
That he possessed no ordinary share of ' piety,' in the
Roman sense of the word, appears from the poems which
express his grief for his brother's death. He died in the
Troad ; and we have seen how, some years after the event,
Catullus turned aside from his pleasant voyage among the Isles
of Greece and coasts of Asia, to visit his tomb and to offer
upon it the customary funeral gifts. His words in reference to
this great sorrow, in all the poems in which he speaks of it, are
full of deep and simple human feeling. He does not venture
to comfort himself with the hope which he suggests to Calvus,
in the lines on the death of Quintilia, of a conscious existence
after death ; but he resolves that his love shall still endure
even after the eternal separation from its object. Yet while
yielding to the first shock of this affliction, so as to become for
the time indifferent to the passion which had swayed his life,
and to the delight which he had taken in the works of ancient
poets and the exercise of his art, he does not allow himself to
forget what was due to living friends. It is characteristic of
his frank affectionate nature, that, while dead to his old
interests in life and literature, he finds his chief comfort in un-
burthening his heart to his friends and in writing to them
words of delicate consideration. He cannot bear that, even in
a trifling matter, Hortalus should find him forgetful of a
promise : and he longs to lighten the sorrow of his friend
Manlius, who had written to him in some sudden affliction, —
probably the loss of the bride in whose honour Catullus had.
a short time previously, composed his great Nuptial Ode.
^ Ix.xvi. 1-4.
444 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Cir.
Though all other feelings were dead, and neither love could
distract nor poetry heal his grief, his heart was alive to the
memory of former kindness ^, to the natural craving for sym-
pathy, and to the duty of thinking of others.
Another, and less admirable, side of the nature of Catullus
is reflected in his short satirical poems. These have nothing
in common with the ethical and reflective satire of Lucilius and
Horace : and although the objects of some of them are the
most prominent personages in the State, yet their motive
cannot, in any case, be called purely political. They are like
the lampoons of Archilochus and the early Greek Iambic
writers, purely personal in their object. They are either
the virulent expression of his antipathies, jealousies, and
rancours, or they are inspired by his lively sense of the
ridiculous and by his extreme fastidiousness of taste. The
most famous, most incisive, and least justifiable of these
lampoons are the attacks on Julius Caesar, especially that
contained in the 29th poem, —
Quis hoc potest videre, quis potest pati,
Nisi impudicus et vorax et aleo, etc. —
and in the less vigorous but much more offensive 57th poem.
Catullus in these poems expresses the animosity which the
' boni ' generally entertained towards the chiefs of the popular
party : and his intimacy at this time with Calvus, who was
a member of the Senatorian party, and who lampooned Caesar
and Pompey in the same spirit, may have given some political
edge to his Satire. He was moved also by a feeling of disgust
towards the habits and manners of some of Caesar's instru-
ments and creatures, — such as Vatinius, Libo, Mamurra, etc.
But the chief motive both of the 29th and the 57th, — the two
poems which Suetonius regarded as attaching an 'everlasting
stigma' to the name of Caesar — is the jealousy of Mamurra, —
the object also of many separate satires, — who. through the
' Cf. Ixviii. 12 : —
Ncu me odissc putcs hospitis officiuin.
XV.] CATULLUS. 445
favour of the Proconsul and the fortune which he thereby
acquired, was a successful rival of Catullus in his provincial
love affairs. The indignation of Cicero w^as roused against the
riches of Mamurra on political grounds ' : that of Catullus on
the ground that they gave their possessor an unfair advantage
in the race of pleasure : —
Et ille nunc superbus et superfluens
Perambulabit omnium cubilia, etc.
.Suetonius tells the story, confirmed by the lines in a later poem
of Catullus —
Irascere iterum meis iambis
Inmerentibus, imice imperator, —
that Caesar, while staying at his father's house at Verona,
accepted the poet's apology for his libellous verses, and
admitted him the same day to his dinner-table. Had he
attached the meaning to the imputations contained in them,
which Suetonius did two hundred years afterwards, even his
magnanimous clemency could not well have tolerated them.
But, as Cicefo tells us in his defence of Caelius, such charges
were in those days regarded as a mere ' fac^on de parler,' which
if made coarsely were regarded as ' rudeness ' (' petulantia '), if
done wittily, as 'polite banter' ('urbanitas'). Caesar must
have looked upon the imputations of the 57th poem as a mere
angry ebullition of boyish petulance : and he showed the same
disregard for imputations made by Calvus, which, though
as unfounded, were not so absolutely incredible and unmean-
ing. His clemency to Catullus met with a return similar
to that which it met with at a later time from other recipients
of his generosity. Catullus, though the ' truest friend,' was
certainly not the ' noblest foe.' The coarseness of his attack
may be partly palliated by the manners of the age : but the
spirit in which he returns to the attack in the 54th poem leaves
a more serious stain on his character. He was too completely
' Att. vii. 7. 6: 'Placet igitur etiam me expulsum et agrum Campanum
perisse et adoptatum patricium a plebeio, Gaditanum a Mytilenaeo, et
Labieni divitiae et Mamurrae placent et Balbi horti et Tusculanum.'
446 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
in the wrong to be able frankly to forgive Caesar for his
gracious and magnanimous treatment.
Many of his personal satires are directed against the
licentiousness of the men and women with whom he quarrelled.
Notwithstanding the evidence of his own frequent confessions,
he lays a claim to purity of life in the phrase, ' si vitam puriter
egiVand in his strange apology for the freedom of his verses, —
Nam castum esse decet pium poetam
Ipsum, versiculos nihil necesse est ^.
He is absolutely unrestrained both in regard to the imputations
which he makes, and to the choice of the language in which he
conveys them ; and in these imputations he spares neither rank
nor sex. It is one of the strangest paradoxes to find a poet
like Catullus, endowed with the purest sense of beauty, and
yet capable of turning all his vigorous force of expression to the
vilest uses. He is coarser in his language than any of the
older poets, and than any of those of the Augustan age. In
the time of the former the traditional severity of the old
Roman life, — ' tetrica ac tristis disciplina Sabinorum,' — had
not altogether lost its influence. In the Augustan age, if
there was as much immorality as in the age preceding it, there
was more outward decorum. The licentiousness of that age
expresses itself in tones of refinement ; it associates itself
with sentimentalism in literature; it was reduced to system
and carried out as the serious business of life. The coarseness
of Catullus is symptomatic rather of more recklessness than of
greater corruption in society. Impurity is less destructive to
human nature when it vents itself in bantering or virulent
abuse, than when it clings to the imagination, associates itself
with the sense of beauty, and expresses itself in the language of
passion. Though, in his nobler poetry, Catullus is ardent and
impassioned, he is much more free from this taint than Ovid or
Propertius. The errors of his life did not deaden his sensi-
bility, harden his heart, or corrupt his imagination. It is only ■\
' Ixxvi. 19. - xvi. 5-6.
XV.] CATULLUS. 447
in his careless moods, when he looks on life in the spirit of a
humorist, or in moods of bitterness when his antipathies are
roused, or in fits "of savage indignation against some violation
of natural feeling or some prosperous villainy, that he dis-
regards the restraints imposed by the better instincts of men on
the use of language.
Many of his Satires, however, are written in a more genial
vein, and are not much disfigured by coarseness or indelicacy
of expression. As he especially valued good taste and courtesy,
wit, and liveliness of mind in his associates, so he is intolerant
of all mean ,and sordid ways of living, of all stupidity,
affectation, and pedantry. The pieces in which these charac-
teristics are exposed are marked by keen observation, a lively
sense of absurdity, and sometimes by a boisterous spirit of fun.
They are expressed with vigour and directness ; but they want
the subtle irony which pervades the Satires, Epistles, and Odes
of Horace. Among the best of his lighter satires is the poem
numbered xvii : —
O Colonia, quae cupis ponte ludere magno, —
which has some touches of graceful poetry as well as of
humorous extravagance. It is directed against the dulness
and stolid indifference of one of his fellow-townsmen, who,
being married to a young and beautiful girl,—
Quoi cum sit viridissimo nupla flore puella
(Et puella tenellulo delicatior haedo,
Asservanda nigerrimis diligentius u^^s), —
was utterly careless of her, and insensible to the perils to which
she was exposed. To rouse him from his sloth and stupor,
Catullus asks to have him thrown head over heels—
Munus hoc mihi maximi da, Colonia, risus —
from a rickety old bridge into the deepest and dirtiest part of
the quagmire over which it was built. In another piece
Catullus laughs at the affectation of one of his rivals, Egnatius,
— a black-bearded fop from the Celtiberian wilds, — who had a
trick of perpetually smiling in order to show the whiteness of
448 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
his teeth; — a trick which did not desert him at a criminal trial,
during the most pathetic part of the speech for the defence, or
when he stood beside a weeping mother at the funeral pyre of
her only son. In another of his elegiac pieces he gives
expression to the relief felt on the departure for the East of a
bore who afflicted the ears of the polite world by a superfluous
use of his aspirates —
Chommoda dicebat, si quando commoda vellet
Dicere, et insidias Arrins hinsidias, etc.*
Just as the ears of men had recovered from this infliction —
Subito affertur nuntius horribilis,
lonios fluctus, postquam illuc Arrius isset,
lam non lonios esse, sed Hionios.
Like fastidious and irritable poets of other times (Horace,
Pope, Byron, etc.), Catullus waged internecine war against
pedants, literary pretenders, and poetasters. He remonstrates
in a vein of humorous exaggeration with his friend Licinius
Calvus, for palming off on him as a gift on the Saturnalia
(corresponding to our Christmas presents) a collection of the
works of these 'miscreants' ('impiorum'), originally sent to him
by some pedantic grammarian, in acknowledgment of his
services as an advocate —
Dii magni, horribilem ac sacrum libellum.
In the 36th poem he represents Lesbia as offering a holocaust
to Venus of the work of ' the worst of all poets,' ' The Annals
of Volusius,' in quittance of a vow on her reconcilement with
Catullus. In another (xxii\ addressed to Varus, probably the
' Ixxxiv. Cicero also was afflicted by a bore of the same name, who
stayed away from Rome in order ' that he might pass whole days discussing
philosophy with Cicero at Formiae.' The Arrius of this poem is supposed
to be Q. Arrius, Praetor in 73 B.C., whom Cicero speaks of as having been
in the habit of acting as a kind of Junior Counsel along with Crassus (' qui
fuit M. Crassi quasi secundarum'), and having, though a man of the lowest
origin and without either culture or natural ability, got into a considerable
practice. The words ' Hoc misso in Syriam ' are supposed to imply that he
was sent as a legatus to join Crassus in his Syrian province. The poem
would thus be written about the end of 55 E.G. Schmidt.
XV.] CATULLUS. 449
fastidious critic whom Horace quotes in the ' Ars Poetica V 'it^
exposes the absurdity of one of their friends, who, though
in other respects a man of sense, wit, and agreeable manners,
entertained the delusion that he was a poet, and was never so
happy as when he had surrounded himself with the newest
and finest literary materials, and was plying his uncongenial
occupation. In another he records the nemesis, in the form of
a severe cough, which overtook him for allowing himself to be
seduced by the hopes of a good dinner to read (or perhaps
listen to the reading of) a speech of Cicero's friend and client
Sestius, —
Plenam vcnenl et pestilentiae.
About one half of the shorter poems, and more than half of
the epigrams, are to be classed among his personal lampoons
or light satiric pieces. Many of these show Catullus to us on
that side of his character, which it is least pleasant or profitable
to dwell on. He could not indeed write anything which did
not bear the stamp of the vital force and sincerity of his
nature : but even his vigour of expression does not compensate
for the survival in literature of the feelings and relations which
are most ignoble in actual life. Yet some of these satiric
pieces have an interest which amply justifies their preservation.
The greatest of all his lampoons, the 29th, has an historical as
well as a literary value. Tacitus, as well as Suetonius, refers to
it. It is not only a masterpiece of terse invective, but, like the
nth, it is a powerful specimen of imaginative irony. The mo-
mentous events of a most momentous era — the Eastern conquests
of Pompey, the first Spanish campaign of Caesar, the subjuga-
' Hor. A. p. 437-38 :—
Quinlilio si quitl recitaies, Corrige, sodes,
Hoc aiebat et hoc.
Schmidt supposes him to be the Alphcnus Varus, the Jurist, to whom the
30tli poem, written in a tone of tender reproacli, is addressed. Catulhis does
not seem to address the same person by different names, unless Manius and
Allius are the same. Tiuis M. Caclius Rufus is addressed as Rufus, the
Caclius addressed in other poems beiny a native of \'erona. As both Alphcnus
Varus and Quinlilius Varus were natives of Cremona, Catullus was lii<ely lo
have known botli.
45° THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
tion of Gaul, the invasion of Britain, the revolutionary measures
of 'father-in-law and son-in-law,' — are all made to look as
if they had had no other object or result than that of pamper-
ing the appetites of a worthless favourite. Other lampoons,
such as those against Memmius and Piso, have also an histor-
ical interest. They testify to the republican freedom of speech,
the open expression of which was soon to be silenced for ever.
They enable us to understand how strong a social and political
weapon the power of epigram was in ancient Rome, — a power
which continued to be exercised, though no longer with
republican freedom, under the Empire. The pen of the poet
was employed in the warfare of parties as fiercely as the tongue
of the orator ; and although Catullus did not spare partisans of
the Senate, such as Memmius, yet all his associations and
tastes combined to turn his hostility chiefly against the popular
leaders and their tools. The more genial satiric pieces, again,
are chiefly interesting as throwing light on the social and
literary life of Rome and the provincial towns of Italy. They
give us an idea of the lighter talk, the criticism, and merriment
of the younger men in the world of letters and fashion during
the last age of the Republic. If they are not master-pieces of
humour, they are full of gaiety, animal spirits, shrewd obser-
vation, and not very unkindly comment on men and manners.
Besides the poems which show Catullus in various relations
of love, affection, animosity, and humorous criticism, there are
still a few of the shorter pieces which have a personal interest.
He had the purest capacity of enjoying simple pleasures ; and
some of his most delightful poems are vivid records of happy
experiences procured to him by this youthful freshness of
feeling. Three of these are especially beautiful, — the dedica-
tion of his yacht to Castor and Pollux, — the lines written imme-
diately before quitting Bithynia, —
lam ver egelidos refert tcpores, —
and the famous lines on Sirmio. They all belong to the same
period of his life, and all show how happy and serene his spirit
XV.] CATULLUS. 45 1
became, when it was untroubled by the passions and rancours
of city life. The lines on his yacht —
Phaselus ille quern videtis, hospites, —
express with much vivacity the feelings of affectionate pride
which a strong and kindly nature lavishes not only on living
friends, but on inanimate objects, associated with the memory
of past happiness and adventure. His fancy endows it with
a kind of life from the earliest time when, under the form
of a clump of trees, it 'rustled its leaves' on Cytorus, till
it obtained its rest in a peaceful age on the fair waters of
Benacus. The 46th poem is inspired by the new sense of life
which comes to early youth with the first approach of spring,
and by the eager flutter of anticipation —
lam mens praetrepidans avet vagari,
lam laeti studio pedes vigescunt —
with which a cultivated mind forecasts the pleasure of travelling
among famous and beautiful scenes. But perhaps the most
perfect of his smaller pieces is that in which the love of home
and of Nature, the sense of rest and security after toil and
danger, the glee of a boy and the strong happiness of a man
unite to form the charm of the lines on Sirmio, of which it is as
impossible to analyse the secret as it is to reproduce in another
tongue the language in which it is expressed.
Catullus is one of the great poets of the world, not so much
through gifts of imagination — though with these he was well
endowed — as through his singleness of nature, his vivid
impressibility, and his keen perception. He received the gifts
of the passing hour so happily, that, to produce pure and
lasting poetry, it was enough for him to utter in natural words
something of the fulness of his heart. His interests, though
limited in range, were all genuine and human. His poems
inspired by personal feeling seem to come from him without
any effort. He says, on every occasion, exactly what he
wanted to say, in clear, forcible, direct language. There
Gg2
452 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
are, indeed, even in his simplest poems, a few strokes of imagi-
native expression, as, for instance, —
Aut quam sidera miilta, cum tacet nox,
Furtivos hominum vident amores ^, —
and this, written with the feeling and with the application which
Burns makes of the same image, —
Velut prati
Ultimi flos, praetereiinte postquam
Tactiis aratro est-; —
and these two touches of tenderness and beauty, which appear
in a poem otherwise characterised by a tone of careless
drollery, —
and —
Nee sapit pueri inslar
Bimuli, tremula patris dormientis in ulna,-
Et puella tenellulo delicatior haedo,
Adservanda nigerrimis diligentius uvis ^.
But the great charm of the style in these shorter poems is its
simple directness, and its popular idiomatic ring. It largely
employs, especially in the poems which express his coarser
feelings, common, often archaic and provincial words, forms,
and idioms. There is nothing, apparently, studied about it, no
ornament or involution, no otiose epithets, no subtle allusive-
ness. Yet in the poems expressive of his finer feelings it
shows the happiest selection, not only of the most appropri-
ate, but of the most exquisite words. To no style, in prose or
verse, in any language, could the words ' simplex munditiis ' be
with more propriety applied. It has all the ease of refined and
vigorous conversation, combined with the grace of consummate
art. Though this perfection of expression could not have been
attained without study and labour, yet it bears no trace of
them.
In these smaller poems he shows himself as great a master
of metre as of language. The more sustained power which
' vii, 7-8. ^ .\i. 22-24. ^ •^^"- i-~i5 ^'^'i 15-16.
XV.] CATULLUS. 453
he has over the flow of his verse, is best exemphfied by
the skylark ring of his great Nuptial Ode, by the hurrying
agitation of the Attis, and the stately calm of the Peleus
and Thetis, giving place to a more impassioned movement
in the 'Ariadne' episode. But in his shorter poems, also,
he shows the true gift of the «oiSos — the power of using
musical language as a symbol of the changing impulses of
feeling. Thus the delicate playfulness and tenderness of his
phalaecians, — the lingering long-drawn-out sweetness, and the
calm subdued sadness of the scazon, as exemplified in the
' Sirmio,' and the
Miser CatuUe desinas ineptire, —
the 'bright speed' of the pure iambic, so happily answering
to the subject of the 'phaselus,' and its bold impetus as it
is employed in the attack on Julius Caesar — the irregular
but sonorous grandeur of his Sapphic ', - the majesty which in
the Hymn to Diana blends with the buoyant movement of
the glyconic, — all attest that the words and melody of the
poems were born together with the feeling and meaning
animating them. Although his elegiac poems are not written
with the smoothness and fluency which was attained by the
Augustan poets, yet those among them which record his graver
and sadder moods have a plaintive force and natural pathos,
which their roughness seems to enhance. If his epigram-
matic pieces, written in that metre, want the polish and point
to which his brilliant disciple attained under the Empire,
we may believe that Catullus experienced the difficulty which
Lucilius found, and which Horace at last successfully over-
came, of adapting a metre originally framed for the expression
of serious feeling to the commoner interests and experiences
of life.
The language of Catullus in these shorter poems is his own,
or, where not his own, is drawn from such wells of Latin
^ E. g. Litus ut longe resonante Eoa
Tunditur unda.
454 T^^ ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
undefiled as Plautus and Terence. His metres are happy
applications of those invented or largely used by the earlier
lyric poets of Greece, — Sappho, Anacreon, Archilochus, — and
the later Phalaecus. For the form of some of his longer
poems he has taken, and not with the happiest result, the
Alexandrine poets for his models. But in these shorter
poems, so far as he has had any models, he has tried to
emulate the perfection attained in the older and purer era
of Greek inspiration. But it is not through imitation that he
has attained a perfection of form like to theirs. It is owing to
the singleness and strength of his feeling and impression,
that these poems are so exquisite in their unity and simplicity.
Catullus does not care to present the gem of his own thought
in an alien setting, as Horace, in his earlier Odes at least, has
often done. It is one of the surest notes of his lyrical genius
that, while more modest in his general self- estimate than any
of the great Roman poets, he trusts more implicitly than any of
them to his own judgment and inspiration to find the most
fitting and telling medium for the communication of his
thought. Thus he presents only what is essential, unencum-
bered with any associations from older poetry. The form
is indeed so perfect that we scarcely think of it. We feel only
that nothing mars or interrupts the revelation of the poet's
heart and soul. We apprehend, as perhaps we never appre-
hended before, some one single feeling of great potency and
great human influence in a poem of some ten or twenty lines,
every word of which adds something to the whole impression.
Thus for instance, in the poems —
Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atqiie amemus, —
Acmen Septimius suos amoies, —
Verani, omnibus e meis amicis, —
lara ver egelidos refert tepores, —
Paene insularum Siimio insularumqne, —
Miser Catulle, desinas ineptire, —
we apprehend through a perfectly pure medium, and by a
single intuition, the highest pitch of the passionate love of
XV.] CATULLUS. 455
man and woman, the perfect beauty and joy of self-forgetful
friendship, the eager enthusiasm for travel and adventure, the
deep delight of returning to a beautiful and well-loved home,
the 'sorrow's crown of sorrows' in ' remembering happier things.'
We may see, too, in a totally different sphere of experience, how
Catullus instinctively seizes the moment of supreme intensity
of emotion, and utters what is vitally characteristic of it. He
is not, in any sense, one of the Anacreontic singers of the
pleasures of wine, of whom Horace is the typical example
in ancient times. Neither was he one, who, like Burns,
habitually forgot, in the excitement of good fellowship, the
perils of Bacchanalian merriment. Yet even the drinking
songs of the Scottish poet scarcely realise with more vivacity
the moment of mad elevation when a revel is at its height,
than Catullus has done in the song of seven short lines —
Minister vetuli puer Falerni
Inger mi calices amariores, etc.
The ' Hymn to Diana ' occupies an intermediate place
between the poems founded on personal feelings and the
longer and more purely artistic pieces. Like the, first it seems
unconsciously, or at least without leaving any trace of con-
scious purpose, to have conformed to the conditions of the
purest art. It is, like them, a perfect whole, one of those,
to quote Mr. Munro, ' " cunningest patterns " of excellence,
such as Latium never saw before or after, Alcaeus, Sappho,
and the rest then and only then having met their match ' '. It
resembles some of the longer poems in being a creation of
sympathetic imagination, not an immediate expression of per-
sonal feeling. It must have been written for some public
occasion ; and the selection of Catullus to compose it would
imply that he was recognised as the greatest lyrical poet in
his lifetime, and that it was written after his reputation was
established. It is a poem not only of pure artistic excellence,
but of imaginative conception, like that exemplified in the
' 'Criticisms and Elncidations,' etc. p. 73.
456 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
' Attis ' and the ' PZpithalamium of Peleus and Thetis,' The
' Diana ' of Catullus is not a vague abstraction or conventional
figure, as the Gods and Goddesses in the Odes of Horace
are apt to be. The mythology of Greece received a new
life from his imagination. In this poem he shows too, what
he hardly indicates elsewhere \ that he could identify himself
in sympathy with the national feeling and religion of Rome.
The Goddess addressed is a living Power, blending in her
countenance the human and picturesque aspects of the Greek
Artemis with the more spiritual and beneficent attributes
of the Roman Diana. Yet no confusion or incongruity arises
from the union into one concrete representation of these
originally diverse elements. She lives to the imagination
as a Power who, in the fresh morning of the world, had
roamed in freedom over the mountains, the woods, the
secret dells, and the river-banks of earth ^, — and now from
a far away sphere watched over women in travail, increased
the store of the husbandman, and was the especial guardian
of the descendants of Romulus.
This poem, affords a natural transition to the longer and
more purely artistic pieces in the centre of the volume. Yet
with some even of these a personal element is interfused.
The hymn in honour of the nuptials of Manlius, is, like
the short poem on the loves of Acme and Septimius, inspired
by the poet's sympathy with the happiness of a friend. The
68th poem attempts to weave into one texture his own love
of Lesbia, and the romance of Laodamia and Protesilaus.
But in general these poems bring before us a new side of
the art of Catullus. In one way indeed they add to our
^ The pride of Roman nationality is, perhaps, unconsciously betrayed in
such phrases as ' Romuli nepotum,' in the lines addressed to Cicero.
^ xxxiv. 7-12 : —
Quam mater prope Deliam
Deposivit olivam,
Montium domina ut fores
Silvarumque virentium
Saltuumque reconditorum
Amniumque sonantum.
XV.] CATULLUS. 457
knowledge of his personal tastes. The larger place given in
them to ornament and illustration lets us know what objects
in Nature afforded him most delight. His life was too full
of human interest to allow him to devote his art to the cele-
bration of Nature : yet he could not have been the poet he was
if he had not been susceptible to her influence. And this
susceptibility, indicated in occasional touches in the shorter
poems, finds greater scope in the poems of impersonal art
which still remain to be considered.
Among the more purely artistic pieces none is more beau-
tiful than the Nuptial Ode in celebration of the marriage of
his friend Manlius, a member of the great house of the Tor-
quati, and one of the most accomplished men of his time, with
Vinia Aurunculeia. In this poem Catullus pours forth the
fulness of his heart
' In profuse strains of unpremeditated art.'
It is marked by the excellence of his shorter pieces and by
poetical beauty of another order. Resembling his shorter
poems in being called forth by an event within his own
experience, it breathes the same spirit of affection and of
sympathy with beauty and passion. It is written with the
same gaiety of heart, blending indeed with a graver sense
of happiness. The feeling of the hour does not merely
express itself in graceful language : it awakens the active
power of imagination, clothes itself in radiant imagery, and
rises into the completeness and sustained melody of the
highest lyrical art. The tone of the whole poem is one of
joy, changing from the rapture of expectation in the opening
lines to the more tranquil happiness of the close. The pas-
sion is ardent, but, on the whole, free from grossness or effe-
minate sentiment. Even where, in accordance with the Roman
marriage customs, he abandons himself for a few stanzas to the
spirit of raillery and banter —
Ne diu taceat procax
Fescennina locutio* —
* Ixi. 122-46.
458 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
he remembers the respect due to the innocence of the bride.
Thoughts of her are associated with the purest objects in
Nature, — with ivy cHnging round a tree, or branches of
myrtle, — ■
Quos Hamadryades deae
Liidicram sibi roscido
Nulriunt humore, —
or with a hyacinth growing in some rich man's garden. Like
the eager lover of beauty among our own poets, he sees in
other flowers —
Alba parthenice velut
Luteumve papaver —
the symbol of maidens — ■
'\Vhom youth makes so fair and passion so pale.'
The grace of trees and the bloom of flowers were prized
by him among the fairest things in Nature. The charm in
woman \^-hich most moves his imagination is virgin innocence
unfolding into love, or passion ennobled by truth and con-
stancy of afiection. So too, in the Epithalamium of Peleus
and Thetis, he compares Ariadne in her maidenhood to the
myrtle trees growing on the banks of Eurotas, and to the
bloom of vernal flowers : —
Quales Eurotae progignunt flumina myrtos
Aurave distinctos educit verna colores'.
In this Ode he expresses not merely, as in the Acme
and Septimius, his sympathy with the joy of the hour. He
recognises in marriage a greater good than in the love for
a mistress. He associates it with thoughts of the power and
security of the household, of the pure happiness of parental
love, of the continuance of a time-honoured name, and of the
birth of new defenders of the State.
The charm of the poem does not arise from its tone of
feeling and its clear ringing melody alone. The bright spirit
of the day awakens the inward eye which creates pictures
and images of beauty in harmony with itself. The poet
^ Ixiv. 89-90.
XV.] CATULLUS. 459
sees Hymenaeus coming from the distant rocks of Helicon,
robed in saffron, and wreathed with fragrant amaracus, in
radiant power and glory, chanting the song with his ringing
voice, beating the ground with his foot, shaking the pine-torch
in his hand. As the doors of the house are opened, and
the bride is expected by the singers outside, by one vivid
flash of imagination he reveals all their eager excitement —
Viden ut faces
Splendidas quatiunt comas ?
The two pictures, further on in the poem, of a peaceful old
age prolonged to the utmost limit of human life —
Usque dum tremulum movens
Cana tempus anilitas
Omnia omnibus anmiit, —
and of infancy, awakening into consciousness and affection, —
Torquatus volo parvulus
Matris e gremio suae
Porrigens teneras manus,
Dulce rideat ad patrem
Semihiante labello ;
Sit sue similis patri
Manlio et facile insciis
Noscitetur ah omnibus,
Et pudicitiam suae
Matris indicet ore ^ :
are drawn with the truest and most delicate hand.
1 ' Soon my eyes shall see, mayhap,
Young Torquatus on the lap
Of his mother, as he stands
Stretching out his tiny hands,
And his little lips the while
Half open on his father's smile.
' And oh ! may he in all be like
Manlius his sire, and strike
Strangers when the boy they meet
As his father's counterfeit,
And his face the index be
Of his mother's chastity.' — Martin.
460 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
The whole conception and execution of this poem, as also
of the Attis and of the Epithalamium of Peleus and Thetis,
leave no doubt that Catullus was richly endowed with the
vision and the faculty of genius, as well as with impassioned
feeling and the gift of musical expression.
The poem which immediately follows is also an Epitha-
lamium, intended to be sung by young men and maidens,
in alternate parts. It is written in hexameter verse, and
in rhythm, thought^ and feeling resembles some of the
golden fragments from the Epithalamia of Sappho. The
whole poem sounds like a song in a rich idyll. Its charm
consists in its calm and mellow tone, in the dramatic truth
with which the feelings and thoughts natural to the young
men and maidens are alternately expressed, and especially
in the beauty of its two famous similes. In the first of
these a flower is again the symbol of the bloom and in-
nocence of maidenhood, growing up apart and safe from
all rude contact. The idea in the concluding lines of the
simile —
Idem cum tenui carptns defloruit imgui,
Nulli ilium pueri, inillae optavere puellae, —
may probably have been suggested by a passage in Sappho,
of which these two lines remain,
o'lav Tav vaKLvOov tv wpiai ■noi^.uvfs avSpes
In the second simile, which is supposed to be spoken by
the young men, the vine growing upon a bare field, scarcely
rising above the ground, unheeded and untended, is compared
to the maid who
' Grows, lives, and dies in single blessedness ; '
while the same vine, when wedded to the elm, is regarded
as the symbol of the usefulness, dignity, and happiness which
await the bride.
The absence of all personal allusion in this poem, and
its resemblance in tone and rhythm to some fragments of
XV.l CATULLUS. 46 1
the Lesbian poetess, might suggest the idea that it was trans-
lated, or at least imitated, from the Greek. But, on the other
hand, from its harmony with the kind of subject and imagery
in which Catullus most delights, and from the close obser-
vation of Italian Nature, shown in such lines as this —
lam iam contingit summum radice flngellum, —
it seems more probable that it was an adaptation of the
style of his great model to some occasion within his own
experience, than that it was a mere exercise in translation,
like his ' Coma Berenices.'
The ' Attis ' is the most original of all his poems. As a work
of pure imagination, it is the most remarkable poetical creation
in the Latin language. In this poem Catullus throws himself,
with marvellous power, into a character and situation utterly
alien to common experience, and pours an intense flood of
human feeling and passion into a legend of strange Oriental
fanaticism. The effect of the piece is, in a great measure,
produced by the startling vividness of its language and imagery,
and by the impetuous rush of its metre. Though the poem
may have been partly founded on Greek materials^ yet Catullus
has treated the subject in a thoroughly original manner. It is
difficult to believe that any translation could produce that
impression of genuine creative power, which is forced upon
every reader of the Attis. There is nothing at all like the
spirit of this poem in extant Greek literature. No other writer
has presented so life-like an image of the frantic exultation
and fierce self-sacrificing spirit of an inhuman fanaticism ; and
of the horror and sense of desolation which the natural man,
more especially a Greek or Roman, would feel in the midst of
the wild and strange scenes described in the poem, when first
awaking to the consciousness of his voluntary bondage, and of
the forfeiture of his country and parents, and the free social
life of former days. A few touches in the poem — as, for
instance, the expressions, 'niveis manibus,' 'roseis labellis,' and
* Ego gymnasii fui flos,' — all introduced incidentally, — force
upon the mind the contrast between the tender youth and
462 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
beauty of Attis and the fierce power of the passion that
possesses him. The false excitement and noisy tumult of the
evening deepen the sense of the terrible reality and blank
despair of the morning.
The effect of the whole drama of human passion and agony
is intensified by the vividness of all its pictorial environment ;
— by the vision of the wild surging seas, through which the
swift ship and its mad crew were borne, and of the gloom and
horror of the woods that hid the sounding rites of the goddess,
and the tall columns of her temple. With what a powerful and
rapid touch he paints the aspect of sky, earth, and sea in the
early morning —
Sed ubi oris aurei Sol radiantibus oculis
Lustravit aethera album, sola dura, mare ferum,
Pepulitque noctis umbras vegetis sonipedibus.
Everything is seen in those sharply-defined forms, which
imprint themselves on the brain in moments of intense excite-
ment or agony.
These three poems are composed with the unity and sim-
plicity of the purest art. Like the shorter poems they have
taken shape under the influence of one powerful motive ; and
the feeling with which they were conceived is sustained at its
height through the whole composition. It is more difficult to
find any single motive which combines into unity the original
nucleus of the Epithalamium of Peleus and Thetis with the
long episode of the desertion of Ariadne, which interrupts the
continuity of the 64th poem. The form of art to which it
belongs is the ' Epyllion ' or heroic idyll, of which several
specimens are found among the poems of Theocritus. This
form was due to the invention of the Alexandrians; and
Catullus in the selection of his subject and in his manner
of treating it takes up the position of an imitator. But there is
no reason to suppose that he is reproducing, still less trans-
lating, any particular work of these poets, or that his contempo-
raries— Cinna, Calvus, and Cornificius, — merely reproduced
some Alexandrine original in their Zmyrna, lo, and Glaucus.
XV.] CATULLUS. 463
A comparison of the imagery of this poem with that of the
earlier Epithalamia, and a consideration of the passionate
beauty with which the subject of love and marriage is treated,
favour the conclusion that the style and substance of the poem
are the workmanship of Catullus. It may be doubted whether
any Alexandrine poet, except perhaps Apollonius, whom
Catullus in this poem ' often imitates, but does not translate,
had sufficient imagination to produce the original which
Catullus is supposed to have copied. But the plan of the
poem may have been suggested by some Alexandrine model.
The more complicated structure of the 68th poem is fashioned
after a particular style of Greek art : and on entering upon
a new and larger adventure, Catullus may have trusted to the
guidance of those whom he regarded as his masters. The
Alexandrians studied pictorial representation of outward scenes
and of passionate situations, and works of tapestry on which
such representations were wrought were common among their
'deliciae vitael' Thus, the mode in which the story of
Ariadne is told is one likely to have occurred to an Alexandrine
poet. It would be also in keeping with the over-subtlety of a
class of poets who owed more to learning than to inspiration, to
combine apparently incongruous parts into one whole by some
obscure link of connexion. Thus Catullus may have intended,
in imitation of Callimachus or some other Alexandrian, to
paint two pictures of the love of an immortal for a mortal, — the
love of Thetis for Peleus, and of Bacchus for Ariadne, — and to
heighten the effect of each by the contrast presented in the
pendent picture. The original good fortune and the unbroken
happiness of Peleus are more vividly realised by the contrast
* Cf. Mr. Ellis's notes on the poem.
2 Cf. Plant. Pseud. 147:--
Neqne Alexandrina beluata conchyliata tapelia.
Mr. Ellis, in his Commentary on Catullus, p. 226, mentions that both the
marriage of Peleus and Thetis, and the legend of Ariadne, were common
subjects of ancient art. He points out also that the idea of the quilt
on which the Ariadne story was represented was borrowed from Apollonius,
i. 730-66.
464 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
presented to the imagination in the betrayal and passionate
agitation of Ariadne. The thought of the crowds of mortals
and immortals who come together to celebrate the marriage of
the Thessalian prince brings into greater relief the utter loneli-
ness of Ariadne, when first discovered by 'Bacchus and his
crew,' Or the original unifying motive of both pictures might
be sought in the concluding lines, written in a graver tone
than anything else in Catullus ; and it might be supposed that
he intended by the two pictures of divine favour granted to
mortals (in one of which retribution is exacted for what he
regards as the greatest sin in actual life — a violation of good
faith) to enforce the lesson that it is owing to the sins of the
latter time that the Gods have withdrawn their gracious presence
from the earth. The thought contained in the lines
Sed postquam tellus scelerest imbuta nefando, etc.,
is pure and noble, and purely and nobly expressed. These
lines reveal a genuine and unexpected vein of reverence in the
nature of Catullus. The sins which he specifies as alienating
the Gods from men are those most rife in his own time, with
which he has dealt in a more realistic fashion in his satiric
epigrams. All this may, perhaps, be said. But on the other
hand, Catullus is the least didactic of poets. He is also the
least abstract and reflective. We cannot suppose (in the
case of such a writer) all the concrete passionate life of the
poem taking shape in his imagination in order to embody
any idea however noble. The idea was the afterthought, not
the creative germ. Nor can we think that the conception of
the whole poem existed in his mind before, or independently
of, the separate conception of its parts. He was attracted to
both subjects by the charm which the Greek mythology and
the bright spectacle of the heroic age had for his imagina-
tion, by their harmony with the feelings and passions with
which he had most sympathy in real life, and by the scope
which they afforded to his peculiar power as a pictorial artist.
The device of the tapestry, by which the tale of Ariadne
is told, was especially favourable to the exercise of this gilt.
XV.] CATULLUS. 465
He looked back upon an ideal vision of the golden morning
of the world, when men were so stately and noble, and women
so fair and true, that even the blessed Gods and Goddesses
deigned to visit them, and to unite with them in marriage. The
original motive of the two poems appears to be purely
imaginative. If there was any intention to give artificial unity
to the poem, by pointing the contrast between a love calm and
happy from the beginning, and one at first passionate and
afterwards betrayed, or between the holiness and nobleness of
an ideal past, and the sin and baseness of the actual present,
that intention was probably not present to the mind of
the poet when he first contemplated his subject, but came to
him in the course of its development.
It may be said, therefore, that if any principle of unity
is aimed at in the poem, it is one so artificial as rather
to detract from the artistic merit of the composition. There is
a similar want of unity in the ' Pastor Aristaeus ' of Virgil,
which was also composed in the manner of the Alexandrine
Epyllion. The Alexandrians seem to have aimed rather at a
combination of diverse effects than at a composition ' simplex
et unum.' They cared much for the elaboration of details,
little for the consistency of the whole. And the same
tendency appears in their imitators. Neither can the poem be
called a successful specimen of narrative. There is scarcely
any story to tell in connexion with the marriage of Peleus.
It is a succession of pictures, not a tale of passion or adventure.
The romance of Theseus and Ariadne is told much less
distinctly and simply than the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice
in Virgil. There is dramatic power in the soliloquy of Ariadne,
as in that of Attis, but the dramatic faculty in Catullus is
rather a phase of his special lyrical gift, which enables him to
identify himself with some single passionate situation, than the
power of giving life to various types of character. The
imaginative excellence of the poem is idyllic rather than epic
or dramatic. There is a wonderful harmony of tone in
his whole conception of the heroic age. He does not attempt
Hh
466 THE ROMAN POETS OE THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
to reproduce the picturesque life represented by Homer, nor
the majestic passions imagined by the Attic tragedians, but he
has his own vision of the stately and beautiful figures belonging
to an ideal foretime, —
O nimis optato saeclornm tempore nati
Heroes, saluete, deum genus.
There is a sense of the freshness and brightness of the
early morning in his conception of the time when the first ship,
manned by the flower of Greek warriors, ' broke the silence of
the seas '
(Ilia rudem cursu prima imbuit Amphitriten),
and when the Gods and Goddesses of Olympus, the mysterious
Powers over-ruling mortal destiny, and the other beings, half-
human, half-divine, whom Greek imagination so lavishly
created, appeared in their bodily presence to do honour to the
union of a mortal with an immortal. The poem abounds
in pictures, or suggestions of pictures, taken from the world of
divine and human life, and of outward Nature. Such are those
of the Nereids gazing on the Argo —
Emersere feri candenti e gurgite \aaltus
Aeqnoreae monstnim Nereides admirantes, —
of Ariadne watching with pale and anxious face the perilous
encounter of Theseus with the Minotaur —
Quam turn saepe magis fulgore expalluit anri, —
and again, looking on the distant fleet —
Saxea ut effigies bacchantis, —
of the advent of Bacchus —
Cnm thiaso Satyrorum et Nysigenis Silenis, —
a passage which has inspired one of the masterpieces of
modern art, — of Prometheus —
Extenuata gerens veteris vestigia poenae —
of the aged Parcae —
infirmo quatientes corpora motu —
XV.] CATULLUS. 467
spinning the thread of human destiny, as with clear-ringing
voice they poured forth their truthful prophecy. So too
the eye of an artist is shown in the description of the scenes in
which the action takes place, and in the illustrative imagery
with which the subject is adorned, — as in the pictures from
mountain and sea scenery at lines 240 and 269 ; and in that
image of a waste expanse of sea called up in the lines —
Idomencosne petam montes? a gurgite lato
Disceinens ponti truculentum iibi dividit aeqiior ?
A genuine love of Nature, which his more personal poems
only faintly suggest, appears in the lines describing, the
gifts which Chiron brought with him from the plains and
vast mountain chains and river-banks of Thessaly —
Nam quoscumque ferunt campi, qiios Thessala magnis
Montibus ora creat, quos propter fluminis iindas
Aura parit flores tepidi fecunda Favoni,
Hos indistinctis plexos tulit ipse corollis,
Quo permulsa domns iucundo risit odore ' ;
and in the enumeration of the various trees which Peneus,
quitting Tempe^ —
Tempe quae silvae cingunt super inpendentes, —
planted before the vestibule of the palace.
The diction and rhythm of the poem are characterised
by excellences of a quite different sort from those of his
other pieces. Both produce the impression of very careful
study and labour. In no previous work of Latin genius
was so. much use made of an artificial poetical diction.
Though this diction has not the tidivete or charm of his
simpler pieces, yet it is very effective in its own way. It
' ' Whate'er of loveliest decks the plain, whate'er
The giant mountains of Thessalia bear,
Whate'er beneath the west's warm breezes blow,
Where crystal streams by flowery margents flow,
These in festoons or coronals inwrought
Of undistinguishable blooms he brought,
Whose blending odours crept from room to room,
Till all the house was gladdened with perfume.' — Martin.
H h 2
468 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
reveals new and unsuspected wealth in the ore of the
Latin language. The old rhetorical artifices of alliteration,
assonance, etc. are used more sparingly than in Lucretius,
yet they do appear, as in the lines —
Peliaco quondam prognatae vertice pinus, —
Aut tereti tenues tinnitus acre ciebant, —
Putridaque infirmis variabant pectora palmis, — etc., etc.
As in the Attis we find such word-formations as sonipedibus,
silvicultrix, nemorwag?/s, so in this poem we have fiiiefifi-
sono, rai/cisonos, darisona, flexai/ihw, etc. We recognise his
old partiahty for diminutives, as in the
Frigidulos udo singultus ore cientem,
and
Luaguidnlosque paret tecum coniungere somnos.
But there are many peculiarities of style which are scarcely,
if at all, observable in his other poems. New artifices, such as
those familiar to the Greek idyll, of the recurring chime of
the same or similar words, are frequent, as in the lines —
Vos ego saepe men vos carmine compellabo ; —
Cui lupiter ipse
Ipse SUDS divom genitor concessit am ores ; —
Sicine me patriis avectam, perfide, ab oris,
Perfide, deserto liquisti in litore Theseu ?
Sicine discedens neglecto numine divom ; —
Nulla fugae ratio, nulla spes; omnia muta
Omnia sunt deserta, ostentant omnia mortem, etc.^
The phrases are to a much greater extent cast in a Greek
moulds The words follow one another in a less natural
order. Ornamental epithets, metaphorical phrases, and the
substitution of abstract for concrete words, occur much more
frequently. Latin poetry creates for itself an artificial diction
by assimilating, to a much greater extent than in any earlier
' E. g. ' Argivae robora pubis' — ' decus innuptanim ' — ' funera nee funera,'
etc., etc. Mr. Ellis's commentary largely illustrates the influence exercised
by the phraseology of the Greek poets, — especially Homer, Euripides,
Apollonius — on the poetical diction of Catullus in this poem.
XV.] CATULLUS. 469
work of genius, the long-accumulated wealth of Greek poetry.
This was a gain to its resources, opening up and giving
expression to a new range of emotions, but a gain against
which must be set off a considerable loss of freshness and
7idivete.
The rhythm also is elaborately constructed after a Greek
model, — the model, not of Homer, but of the later poets
who wrote in his metre. It is much more carefully and
correctly finished than the rhythm of Lucretius. Each
separate line has a smoother cadence. The whole movement
is more regular, more calm, and more stately. But with
all the occasional roughness of Lucretius there is much more
life and force in his general movement. It is much more
capable of presenting a continuous thought or action to the
mind. The lines of Catullus seem intended to be dwelt
on separately, and each to bring out some point of detail.
There is generally a pause in the sense at the end of each
line, and thus the lines, when read continuously, produce
an impression of monotony ^, which is increased by the frequent
use of spondaic lines. The uniformity of his pauses, and
the sameness of structure in a large number of his hexameters,
enable us to appreciate the great improvement in rhythmical
art which appeared some ten years later in the Bucolics
of Virgil. Yet if Catullus does not, in this his most elaborate
work, equal the natural force of language and rhythm dis-
played in his simpler pieces, the poem, as a whole, has a
noble and stately movement, in unison with the noble and
stately pictures of an ideal fore-time which it brings before the
imagination.
The four longer elegiac pieces which follow add little to
our impression of the art of Catullus. In the ' Epistle to
Manlius ' — perhaps owing to the trouble by which his mind
was darkened at the time of its composition— he does not
' This monotony, as is pointed out by Mr. Ellis, is, in a great degree, the
result of the coincidence of the accent and rhythmical ictus in the last three
feet of the line.
470 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
use the elegiac metre, as a vehicle of his personal feelings,
with much force or clearness. There is much more than
in his phalaecians and iambics the appearance of effort, and
there is much greater uncertainty as to his meaning. The
67 th poem keeps alive with some vivacity a scandalous story
of his native province which might well have been allowed
to sink into oblivion. In the ' Coma Berenices,' and the
poem addressed to Allius, he again writes under the influence
of his Alexandrian masters. He seems to have regarded
the ' Carmina Battiadae ' with the admiration which youthful
genius, not yet sure of its own powers, entertains for culture
and established reputation, — the kind of admiration which
led Burns to imagine that his own early inspiration might
be of less value to the world than ' Shenstone's art.' Like
Burns, too, Catullus is least happy when he gives up his
own language, which he wields easily and powerfully, and
the forms of art which came naturally to him, in deference
to the standard of poetic taste recognised in his day. His
selection of the ' Coma Berenices ' as a task in translation,
illustrates the attraction which the union of beauty and passion
with truth and constancy of affection had for his imagination.
The poem to Allius is the most artificially constructed of
all his pieces. He endeavours to unite in it three distinct
threads of interest, — that of his passion for Lesbia, that of the
romance of Laodamia and Protesilaus, and that of his brother's
death in the Troad. Although this triple combination is
accomplished with much mechanical ingenuity', yet the effect
of the poem as a whole is disappointing, and its motive, —
gratitude for a service which no honourable man, according
to our modern ideas of honour, would have rendered, —
does not make amends for the want of simplicity in its
structure. Yet as written in the heyday of his passion for
Lesbia, and largely inspired by that passion, it has, along
' Westphal, pp. 73-83, has given an elaborate explanation of the principle
on which the various parts of the poem are arranged and connected with one
another.
XV.] CATULLUS. 47 1
with an Alexandrian superfluity of ornament and illustration,
many beauties of expression and feeling. The passionate
devotion of Laodamia for Frotesilaus is conceived with sym-
pathetic power, —
Quo tibi turn casii pulcherrima Laudamia,
Ereptutn est vita dulcius atque anima
Coniugium '.
There is an exquisite picture of his own stolen meetings
with his ' Candida diva ' ; and depth and sincerity of affec-
tion are purely and simply expressed in the last two
lines —
Et longe ante omnes mihi quae me carior ipso'st,
Lux mea qua viva vivere dulce mihi'st.
In this poem too, although the application of the image is an
incongruous adaptation of an old Homeric simile, we meet
with a descriptive passage which, more perhaps than any
other in his poems, shows that Catullus was a true lover and
close observer of Nature, —
Qualis in aerii perlucens vertice montis
Rivos muscoso prosilit e lapide
Qui cum de prona praeceps est valle volutus
Per medium sensim transit iter populi,
Dulce viatoii lasso in sudore levamen,
Cum gravis exustos aestus hiulcat agros^.
The perfection attained by Catullus in his best lyrical
poetry, and the power displayed in his longer pieces, are
so high and genuine that w-e are hardly surprised at the
enthusiasm of those who have ranked him, in respect both of
' The lines immediately following these are in the worst stj'le of learned
Alexandrinism.
* ' As some clear stream, from mossy stone that leaps,
Far up among the hills, and, wimpling down
By wood and vale, its onward current keeps
To lonely hamlet and to stirring town.
Cheering the wayworn traveller as it flows
When all the fields with drought are parched and bare.' —
Martin.
472 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC. [Ch.
art and genius, foremost among Roman poets. If the
pure essence of poetry could be separated from the whole
spiritual and intellectual being of the poet, much might
be said in favour of that estimate. Others, who think that the
work accomplished by Lucretius, Virgil, and Horace is, both in
quantity and quality, of more lasting value to the world?
cannot forget that had they died at the same early age
as Catullus, their names would have been unknown, or perhaps
remembered as those of Cinna and Cornificius are now.
From the exquisite skill with which Catullus has treated light
and playful themes, he has been sometimes compared to
modern poets who have no other claim to recognition than a
similar facility. But if he is to be compared with any, it
is not with the minor poets, ancient or modern, but with the
greater, that he is to be ranked. The two eminent English
scholars who have made a special study of this poet, and have
done more than almost any others in recent times to elucidate
his meaning and gain for him his just recognition, look upon
him as the equal of Sappho and Alcaeus. Among modern
poets he has been compared to one, most unlike him in all the
outward conditions of his life, and in many of the conditions of
his art, — the poet Burns ^ In general intellectual power, in the
breadth of his human sympathies, the modern poet is much
the greater. He is, in all ways, the larger man. But in some
endowments of heart and genius the ancient poet is far from
being the inferior. He was more fortunate in his nearness to
the greatest source of poetic culture, and in the use of a
medium of expression, not of a local and limited influence, but
one which brings him into immediate relation with educated
men of all ages and countries. But in the passionate ardour of
their temperament, and the robustness, too closely allied with
coarseness, of their fibre ; in their susceptibility to beautiful
and tender emotions, and the mobility of nature with which
' This parallel was first pointed oat by the writer of an excellent article on
(JaluUus in the North British Review, referred to by Mr. Munro in his 'Criti-
cisms and Elucidations,' p. 234.
XV.] CATULLUS. 473
they yielded to impulses the most opposite to these ; in their
large capacity of love and scorn, of pleasure and pain ; in their
genuine sincerity and firm hold on real life ; in the keenness of
their satire, and their shrewd observation of the world around
them ; — in their simple and direct force of feeling and ex-
pression ; in the freshness of their love for the fairer objects in
Nature with which they were most familiar, — they have much
in common. The resemblance of the concluding lines of the
' Final renunciation of Lesbia ' to the sentiment of the ' Daisy '
has been already noticed. The scornful advice, conveyed in
the words 'pete nobiles amicos,' finds many an echo in the
tones of the modern poet. The art of both is so insepar-
ably associated with their lives, that our admiration of it can
hardly help being enhanced or qualified by personal sympathy
with, or dislike of their characters. In the case of Catullus
it must be allowed that if a careless pursuit of pleasure, an
apparent absence of all high aims in life, the too frequent
indulgence in the coarsest language and the vilest imputations,
could alienate our affections from a great poet, his art would
be judged at a disadvantage. But his own frank revelations,
from which we learn his faults, must equally be taken as the
unintended evidence of his nobler and more generous nature.
If his passions led him too far astray, he himself, so far as now
appears, alone suffered from them. There is no trace in him
of the selfish calculation, or the baser falsehood, which renders
'the life of pleasure,' as led by many men, detestable. There
was in his case no ' hardening of all within ' as its effect. The
small volume bequeathed by him to the world is in itself a
sufficient result of his few years. If he is in a great degree
unreflective, if he does not consciously realise what are the ends
of life, yet he does not look on life in a spirit of cynicism
or frivolity. Whatever vein of reflection appears in him is not
devoid of reverence and seriousness. His too frequent coarse-
ness is to be explained by the manners of his age and race ;
and the imputations which he makes on his enemies were, in
all probability, never meant to be taken seriously. Although
474 THE ROMAN POETS OF THE REPUBLIC.
unfortunate in his love, he has shown a capacity of ardent, self-
forgetful, and constant devotion, that deserved a better object.
He could care for another more than for his own life and
happiness. And he had, in a degree rarely equalled, a virtue
which devoted lovers often want, the truest, kindliest, most
considerate and appreciative affection for many friends. His
very dependence on their sympathy in all his joy and sorrow is
a claim on the sympathy of the world. If to love warmly,
constantly, and unselfishly be the best title to the love of
others, few poets, in any age or country, deserve a kindlier
place in the hearts of men than ' the young Catullus.'
THE END.
OXFORD
PRINTED AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
BY HORACE HART, M.A.
PRINTER TO THE l-NIVERSITV
i11
4
PA Seller, V.'illiara Young
60A7 The Roman poets of the
S56 Republic 3d ed,, rev.
1889
cop. 6
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