I Book T~5 HISTORY ROMAN LITERATURE; Jftttrotmrtorg ©fegertattott THE SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. EDITED BY THE REV. HENRY THOMPSON, M.A. Curate of Wrington, Somerset ; formerly Scholar of St. John's College, Cambridge. SECOND EDITION, REVISED AND ENLARGED, LONDON: PUBLISHED BY JOHN JOSEPH GRIFFIN & CO. 53, BAKER STREET, PORTMAN SQUARE ; AND RICHARD GRIFFIN & CO. GLASGOW. 1852. LONDON : BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. ENCYCLOPEDIA METROPOLITAN! : System of ®nibnsal Bnofckfcrge ON A METHODICAL PLAN PEOJECTED BY SAMUEL TAYLOE COLEEIDGE. SECOND EDITION, KEYISED, £{!iri Mnwkn. lisinnj nut 36ingrnpji^ ROMAN LITERATURE. LONDON: PUBLISHED BY JOHN JOSEPH GEIPEIN & CO. 53, BAKER STREET, PORTJIAN SQUARE ; AND EICHAED GRIFFIN & CO. GLASGOW. 1852. HISTORY OF ROMAN LITERATURE. BY THE EEY. HENEY THOMPSON, M.A. CURATE OF WRINGTON, SOMERSET; FORMERLY SCHOLAR OF ST.JOHN's COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. THE EEV. JOHN MASON NEALE, M.A. WARDEN OF SACKVILLE COLLEGE, EAST GRINSTEAD. JOHN HENEY NEWMAN, B.D. FORMERLY FELLOW OF ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD. THE LATE EEY. EDWAED SMEDLEY, M.A. FORMERLY FELLOW OF SIDNEY SUSSEX COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, THE LATE THOMAS AENOLD, D.D. HEAD MASTER OF RCGJJI SCHOOL; AND THE EEY. J. B. OTTLEY, M.A. LATE FELLOW OF ORIEL COLLEGE, OXFORD. EDITED BY THE EEV. HENKY THOMPSON, M.A. SECOND EDITION, EEVISED AND ENLARGED. PREFACE. In the advertisement to the volume of this Enclycopsedia which contains the History of Greek Literature it has been stated that the plan of that volume would be that of the others. That plan was, in brief, to make the subject complete, so far as an Encyclopaedia could attain completeness, by adding to the articles in the former edition such as should appear necessary for the purpose; and to translate all passages requisite for giving the general reader an intelligible view of the subject. The present editor has endeavoured to achieve this object by considerably enlarging and improving, from sources which have arisen in the interim, the papers on Latin Poetry which he contributed to the first edition ; by adding another on the Latin prose writers, subsequent to the time of the Antonines, writers of whom no mention had been made in that work ; and by prefixing a dissertation on the History of the Latin Language. He has also appended biographical notes to the valuable paper of Dr. Arnold on Eoman History ; added to each article biblio- graphical notices from approved authorities ; and left, he believes, no passage untranslated which it was of importance to render into English. He has, however, assumed that the volume will be chiefly read by those who are not wholly unac- quainted with Latin writers. The articles by Mr. JSTewman and Mr. Ottley have undergone revision and amplification by their authors. One important improvement, for which the editor confidently expects the gratitude of all readers, is the paper contributed by that eminent scholar, Mr. JNeale, on Ecclesiastical Poetry. The time is happily gone by when no genius or excellence could be acknowledged in productions which were not cast in a certain arbitrary mould; when all viii PREFACE. architectural beauty was limited to the " five orders," and all poetry to the writers " melioris sevi et notse." The eccle- siastical poets are now acknowledged to be worthy the study of scholars ; and perhaps there is no individual of our country who has been more instrumental in effecting this happy result than the distinguished author of the article on that subject which enriches this volume. To have treated the Latin prose writers on theology, jurisprudence, or other sciences, great as are the merits of some, and the archaeological value of all, would have extended this volume beyond all proper limits : but the poets of the Church, as the authors of a new literature, having a life and spirit of its own, were entitled to a record in this history. And, although the article on this subject is purely literary, the theological student will find it interesting, as affording a view of the doctrinal purity of the ancient Catholic Church, and the contrasted character of late additions to the Faith. The Illustrations to the present volume will, the editor believes, be deemed an important improvement. A list of them, with the authorities whence they are derived, is appended. A chronology, the result of a careful collation, is also added. The editor, it will be seen, has ventured to continue his scepticism on the existence of such a ballad literature as has been claimed for the Romans by Niebuhr, and by his " popular expositor," Mr. Macaulay, whose magnificent Lays of Ancient Borne have given a world-wide interest to the subject. If the editor were at issue with these eminent scholars on any question of fact, he might well indeed distrust himself. But he has not been guilty of any such presumption. The facts are patent. The opinion he makes bold to entertain is only an inference. It is unquestionable that there did exist a rude narrative Latin minstrelsy : but was it of such an order as a Percy or a Scott would have preserved for its poetical merit ? Mr. Macaulay inclines to the affirmative, on the ground that every other nation has possessed a ballad literature — a fact admitted in this work. 1 But this supposes a certain amount of the imaginative faculty existing in every community. It is matter of fact that, in this faculty, the Romans were altogether 1 Pa-e 11. PREFACE. ix deficient. Had they possessed it, they would surely have welcomed the importation of Greek literature after a very different fashion. The old ballads might have been despised, but an original school would still have succeeded. In England, where there had been a noble ballad literature, the revival of learning, though it operated extensively, produced no such servility as resulted from the first intercourse of Latium with the Greek poets — Spenser and Sidney were kindled, not moulded, by the contact. 1 Moreover, the old ballads never lost their ground till the nation became influenced by France ; and even then, the pulse of the cold and correct Addison quickened at " Chevy Chase," and Percy's " Eelicks " were received with an enthusiasm that broke the chilling spell which French drawing-rooms had laid on the Muse of England. No country has owed more to Greece than G-ermany : and she has richly paid her debt ; but not in Greek coinage. On the con- trary, a more original literature than the German cannot exist ; and the classical student, when he enters on it, seems transported to another world. The Italian literature had a powerful influence on that of Spain ; yet it was but a new cos- tume, not an internal and organic change ; and the native school had its readers and its writers. But had not Homer sung, we should have had no iEneid, nor anything approaching one. "Nsevius," says Mr. Macaulay, " seems to have been the last of the ancient line of poets." If he were so, the ballad literature of Eome has been a serious loss to us. But surely this has not been demonstrated. Nsevius wrote after the Greek literature began to operate on the Roman mind. His dramas appear to have been essentially Greek ; and, if he adopted the Saturnian measure in his epic, it was moulded, rude as it was, on the principles of Greek prosody, not of Latin rhythm, as the Saturnians of the old balladists are said to have been. Naevius was probably as distinct from the balladists as Pompo- nius from the Atellane poets of old time. His great popu- 1 Milton might seem an eminent instance of the originality compatible with a close adherence to classical models. But as he had for his poem sources, and those of the sublimest kind, which the ancients had not, his example is not here insisted on. x PREFACE. larity in the Augustan day is suggestive. Copies, it seems, were unnecessary to preserve what every Roman knew by heart. l If, therefore, Nsevius was but one, though the last, of the balladists, how happened it that he was the only one remembered and cherished by a people so devoted to national renown as the Romans ? As a matter of fact, the Greek lite- rature did not universally induce a contempt of native antiquity. There was, in the most literary period of Rome, a school which almost made antiquity the criterion of excellence ; which held that the Muses themselves had inspired the early documents of the city ; and which praised, on account of their venerable age, verses which few, if any, could understand. Either Naevius did not belong to the balladists, or, if he did, it will not be easy to solve the phenomenon that those who had preserved his poetry in their memories should have allowed that of his fellow-minstrels to perish. For, be it remembered, the philarchaic school was not a growth of the Augustan age : on the contrary, the spirit of that period sought its extinction ; and, in a great measure, effectually. The old ballads then, in all probability, perished from the mind of the people, because they had no inherent poetic vitality ; as Wasvius was treasured by the multitude, because, though rude, he had Greek life and energy. In truth, the poetic element was wanting in the Roman idiosyncrasy. Even the language had no word for the idea — word and idea were equally Greek, for vates properly signified prophet, not poet ; and the latter meaning was secondary, inasmuch as the old prophets gave their predictions in verse. While, then, the editor makes no doubt of the existence of Roman ballads, detailing in some instances narratives which, as Mr. Macaulay has manifested, were capable of high poetic development in the hands of imaginative writers, yet he sees no evidence that such ballads told their story in any other form than the baldest and driest — being metrical only for the con- venience of memory : and he therefore adheres to the view which 1 This seems the most natural reading and interpretation. See p. 17. But take the words how we will, the popularity of Namus is necessarily their burden. PREFACE. x i he expressed in the first edition of this work, long before the publication of Mr. Macaulay's book, of dating the true begin- ning of all Roman literature from intercourse with Greece. Closely connected with the subject of early Roman poetry is that of the metre in which it is supposed to have been written. Much has been said by recent writers on the Saturnian verse ; and the opinions of JNTiebuhr on this subject will be found dis- cussed in the 44th and following pages of this work. The dictum of that great historian, on a question of this kind, would be entitled to an almost reverential regard ; but when he adduces the authorities from which he derives his con- clusion, that conclusion may be examined, without pre- sumption, by scholars of the multitude. The editor will take this opportunity of amplifying a note to page 44, which appears to him to contain a large proportion of the controversy. The term Saturnius, then, like Satura, seems to have possessed two quite distinct applications. In both of these, however, it simply meant " as old as the days of Saturn ;" and, like the Greek 'tiyvyios, was a kind of proverbial expression for something antiquated. Hence, (1.) the rude rhythmical effusions which contained the early Roman story might be called Saturnian, not with reference to their metrical law, but to their antiquity ; and, (2.) the term Saturnius was also applied to a definite measure, on the principles of Greek prosody, though rudely and loosely moulded — the measure employed by Nsevius, which soon became antiquated, when Ennius introduced the hexameter; and which is the metrum Satumiwn recognised by the gram- marians. The editor regrets that it has been only since the preliminary dissertation was written, and since the rest of the volume was printed, that he became acquainted with Dr. Donaldson's learned work, Varronianus. He has, however, revised the dissertation since ; and it will be seen, by references to Dr. Donaldson's work, where that eminent scholar has been consulted. He alludes to it now, however, for the purpose of shewing how vague and unsatisfactory are the attempts, even of the most accomplished scholars, to elicit a rhythmical verse from the old Latin remains. Dr. Donaldson scans all the epitaphs of the Scipios ; and makes the following remarks on them : — xii PREFACE. " The metre in which these inscriptions are composed is deserving of notice. That they are written in Saturnian verse has long been perceived; Niebuhr, indeed, thinks that they ' are nothing else than either complete nenias, or the beginning of them.' (H. !R. i. p. 253.) It is not, however, so generally agreed how we ought to read and divide the verses. For instance, Niebuhr maintains- that patre in «, 2, 1 is, ' beyond doubt, an interpolation ;' to me it appears that it is necessary to the verse. He thinks that there is no ecthlipsis in apice, c. 1 ; 2 I cannot scan the line without it. These are only samples of the many differences of opinion which might arise upon these short inscriptions." 3 " Only samples !" and what samples ! Is it conceivable that the v?OT&patre would have been cut on the stone, if it had been an interpolation ? And what kind of verse can this be, which one critic finds it necessary to abridge by a word of two syllables, before he can scan it, while another cannot scan it unless those two syllables are present ? Could there be " many differences of opinion " on "these short inscriptions," if they were really subject to a metrical law ? Again, in the epitaph on L. Cornelius Scipio the Elder, Dr. Donaldson scans : — Consul, censdr, aidilis | qui fuit apud vos ; while, in that on the Younger Cornelius, he gives us — Conso'l, censor, aidiles | hie fuet apud vos : Surely both cannot be right. Is either ? Dr. Donaldson gives "the old Latin translation of an 1 The epitaph on L. Cornelius Scipio. 2 Epitaph on the Flamen Dialis, P. Scipio. This inscription, it is true, is virtually called Carmen by Cicero (de Senect. xvii) who applies that term to the epitaph of Atilius Calatinus, similar in expression. But that very similarity shews that the word is to be rendered formula, as it frequently signifies. So Livy speaks of Duellius reciting the " Carmen rogationis," the legal formula, which was scarcely in verse. Indeed it is given by the historian, and nothing can appear less metrical. The formal differences between the epitaphs of the Flamen and Atilius are of themselves an argument that the inscriptions are not in verse. 3 Varronianus, vi., 20. PJREFACE. xiii epigram, which was written, probably, by Leoniclas of Tarentum, at tlie dedication of the spoils taken at the battles of Heraclea and Ascnlum (b. c. 2S0, 279) ; and which," he adds, "should be scanned as follows : — Qui antedhac invicti | fuvere vfri | pater dptime Olympi || Hos ego in pugna vici || Vict usque sum ab isdem || He then subjoins : " Xiebuhr suggests (iii. note 341) that the first line is an attempt at an hexameter, and the last two an imitation of the shorter verse ;' and this remark shows the discernment which is always so remarkable in this great scholar. The author of this translation, which was, probably, made soon after the original, could not write in hexameter verse : but he represented the hexameter of the original, by a lengthened form of the Saturnius, and indicated the two penthemimers of the pentameter, by writing their meaning in two truncated Saturnians, — taking care to indicate, by the anacrusis, that there was really a break in the rhythm of the original pentameter, although it might be called a single line, according to the Greek system of metres." The first of these lines is, probably, a corrupted hexameter ; for the removal of one word leaves it a pure one. 2 This word, anted Jure, is, in all probability, an interpolation. It is just what a transcriber, ignorant of the law of the verse, would have interpolated, to make, as he might think, a better sense. "Whether the rest be " two truncated Saturnians " or not, quite certain it is that it is a pure hexameter ! (Hos ego in pugna vici, victusque sum ab isdem) for the absence of the synalcepha is not worth regarding at such an early period, especially with Greek authority in abun- 1 The pentameter. 2 A pure one, because the first syllable of fuvere for fuere is not only long, but, what is most important in the present controversy, the v, the representative of the digamma, is inserted, apparently, for the express pur- pose of making it so. (See Digamma in the volume on Greek Literature, p. 359, and Priscian's observations there quoted.) "Were the line an accen- tual Saturnian, it is manifest that there would be no necessity for departure from the ordinary form, as the accent would not thereby be affected. xiv PREFACE. dance. Surely, it must be evident to every reader unbeset by hypothesis, that, to say the least, if the first line is " an attempt at an hexameter," the last is no less. Dr. Donaldson inclines to press Mr. Macaulay into the controversy ; but clearly on insufficient grounds : for Mr. Macaulay acknowledges no Latin Saturnians which are not prosodiacal. 1 All we possess from the pen of Naevius are plainly so. "While making these observations, the editor would gratefully express his deep respect for the talent and scholarship of Dr. Donaldson, and his high sense of the value of his philological writings. The Varronianus deserves the gratitude of all who are interested in these studies ; and it has been a great satis- faction to the present writer, on revising his dissertation, to find his general views confirmed by so high an authority, especially on the subject of the Etruscan language ; the affinity of which to the Indo- Germanic dialects will, he believes, one day be demonstrated. Mr. Pococke's remarkable work, India in Greece, after allowing for many things which are fan- ciful, — scarcely to be avoided by one who had established so much, — is yet conclusive for a very extensive prevalence of Sanscrit and its dialects on the shores of the Mediterranean ; and the editor regrets that The Early History of Borne, promised by that author, should not have been available for these pages. The editor hopes that the improvements of this portion of the Encyclopedia Metropolitana may not be unworthy the memory of the accomplished scholar, under whose auspices the original work was conducted, the late Rev. Edward Smedley. With this brief mention of one who, in no ordinary degree, blended " true religion " with " useful learning," deep, exten- sive, and varied scholarship with pure and practical Christianity, he commends this volume to the public. H. T. Rectory, Wrington, July 26, 1852. 1 " That it " [the Saturnian] " is the same with a Greek measure used by Archilochus is indisputable." — Preface to "Lays of Ancient Rome," p. 19, ed. 1848. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE LATIN POETEY. Part I.— THE EARLIER POETIC LITERATURE OF THE ROMANS 3 Ballad Poetry . . 4 Satyric Drama 7 Regular Drama . . . 14 Livius Andronicus 14 Comedy 16 Nsevius 16 Plautus 17 New Comedy ' . . .19 Afranius 22 Terence 23 Tragedy . , . . 28 Ennius 28 Pacuvius 29 Attius 29 Satire 32 Ennius 33 Lucilius 35 Varro 39 Epopceia 42 Nsevius 43 Ennius 47 xvi CONTENTS. Page Didactic Poetry 51 Lucretius ......... 51 Cicero 53 Catullus 54 Epigram 57 Catullus 58 MSS., Editions, &c, of the Ante-Augustan Poets . . . 62 Part II.— THE AUGUSTAN AGE OF LATIN POETRY . 65 Biography of Horace . . . . . . . . 65 Writings of Horace 71 Odes 71 Imitations 72 Iambics or Epodes 73 Ethics and Criticism 74 Carmen Sseculare 102 Epistles to Augustus and the Pisos 103 Chronology of his -writings 76 Virgil 78 Eclogues . . 78 Georgics 83 iEneid 91 Minor poems 95 Alpinus 84 Bibaculus 85 Fundanius 85 Pollio 85 Varius 86 Valgius 86 Cassius of Parma 90 Anser 98 Cornificius 98 Tibullus 100 Propertius . . . . . . . . . . 101 Lyric Poetry 102 Dramatic Degeneracy 106 Closet Drama 109 Mimes . Ill Laberius ...... ... 113 Publius 115 CONTENTS. xvii Page Matius 116 General view of Augustan Poetry 117 Ovid's Catalogue of Poets 118 Gratius 119 Manilius 119 Phsedrus 120 Ovid 121 Character of his Poetry . . . - . . . 125 Maecenas 128 His literary character 129 MSS., Editions, &c, of the Augustan Poets .... 131 Part III.— DECLINE OF LATIN" POETRY 135 Causes of the Decline of Latin Poetry 135 Demoralization of the Romans 136 Exhaustion of Greek Literature 137 Germanicus 138 Didactic and Epic Poetry 139 Columella 140 Lucan 140 Polla Argentaria 143 Seneca ....*. 143 Pomponius Secundus 145 Virginius 145 Maternus 146 Memor 146 Varro ........... 146 Seneca's Epigrams 147 Satire 147 Cornutus 149 Persius 150 Pal89mon 150 Caesius Bassus 152 Petronius 153 Sosianus 158 Turnus 159 Lenius 159 Silius 159 Juvenal 159 [r. l.] b i CONTENTS. Page State of Roman Literature 161 Nero 161 Poetry under the Vespasians 164 Salejus Bassus 165 Valerius Flaccus 166 Domitian and his times 167 Sulpicia . , 168 Satire 168 Vopiscus 168 Statius the Elder 169 Statius the Younger 170 Stella . . . % 171 Martial 172 Canius 174 Theophila 174 Decianus 174 Licianus 174 Parthenius 174 Varus 174 Silius Italicus .. 174 Pliny the Younger 175 Voconius ........... 176 PaullAs . 177 Pompeius Saturninus 177 Octavius 177 Arrius 177 Secundus 177 Sentius Augurinus 177 Capito 177 Apollinaris . . 177 Bruttianus 178 Lucius ........... 178 Unicus 178 Vestritius Spurinna 178 Review of the Flavian Age 178 Domitian 178 Nerva 179 Trajan 179 Valerius Pudens . 181 Hadrian 181 CONTENTS. x i x Page ^Elius Verus 183 Verus Antonius 183 Age of the Antonines 183 Paullus 185 Annianus 185 Serenus Sammonicus 185 Clodius Albinus 185 Sammonicus the Younger 186 Septimius 186 Terentian 186 TheGordians 187 Balbinus 187 Gallienus 187 Numerian 187 Aurelius Apollinaris 188 Nemesian 188 Calpurnius ' 189 Tiberian 189 Effects of Christianity on Poetry 190 Cyprian 190 Tertullian 191 Lactantius . . . 192 Fortunatus 192 Symposius 193 Pentadius . . 193 Flavius 193 Porphyry the Less 194 Juvencus 194 Commodian ... ... 195 Victorinus 195 S. Hilary 195 Damasus 195 Callistus 195 Matronianus 195 Severus 195 Ambrosius 195 Avienus 195 Avianus 196 State of the Poetical Mind under the Byzantine Emperors and their Western Colleagues 197 &2 CONTENTS. Page Valentinian 198 Gratian 198 Ausonius 198 Arborius 199 Paullinus 199 Delphidius 201 Proculus 201 Alcimus 201 Alethius 201 Tetradius 201 Crispus 201 Theon 201 Dionysius Cato 201 Claudian 202 Mamercus 204 Prudentius 204 Eutilius 204 Poetry of the Sixth Century 205 Phocas 205 Flavius Merobaudes 205 Priscian 205 Marcianus Capella 205 Prosper Tyro 205 Sidonius Apollinaris 205 MSS., Editions, &c., of the Post-Augustan Poets . . . 207 ECCLESIASTICAL LATIN POETET. First Period.— THE DECOMPOSITION 216 Commodianus 216 Juvencus 217 S. Hilary . . . . > 219 S.Ambrose 220 Prudentius 222 S. Paulinus 228 Sedulius 228 Dracontius 231 CONTENTS. xxi Page Arator 232 S. Gregory the Great 232 Victor 234 Avitus 234 Proba Falconia . . . . 235 Second Period.— THE RESTORATION 236 Fortunatus 236 Venerable Bede 240 Paulus Diaconus 241 Charlemagne 241 S. Theodulph 241 Robert II 242 Hartman 242 S. Peter Damiani 242 S. Fulbert 243 Hildebert 244 Marbodus 244 S. Bernard 245 Bernard de Morley .245 S. Notker Balbulus 246 Adam of S. Victor 246 Thomas of Celano 250 James de Benedictis ......... 251 S. Thomas Aquinas 252 Editions of the Ecclesiastical Latin Poets .... 254 On the Measures Employed by Medleval Poets . . 256 LATIN PEOSE WEITEES. CICERO 271 Character of his Philosophical Writings 283 New Academy 285 Carneades 286 Philo and Antilochus 290 Mixed Philosophy of Cicero 290 Rhetorical Works 295 xxii CONTENTS. Page Moral and Physical Writings 298 Poetical and Historical Works 303 Orations 303 Character of his Style 307- Roman Eloquence 309 Orators before Cicero 310 Ciceronian Age 310 Decline of Roman Oratory 310 MSS., Editions, &c, of Cicero's Works 312 CICERONIANISM 321 THE HISTORIANS OF ROME :— Theopompus 329 Clitarchus 329 Theophrastus 330 Hieronymus 330 Timseus 330 Diodes 330 How much of the Early Roman History is probably of domestic origin 330 Q. Fabius Pictor 332 Cincius Alimentus 332 M. Porcius Cato 334 L. Calpurnius Piso 335 L. Crelius Antipater . . . . . . . . . 335 Other earlier Historians 336 Lucius Sisenna 336 Polybius 337 Exaggerated reputation of Roman Literature . . . 340 Sallust 341 Csesar 343 Livy 345 Speeches of Livy 350 On the reputation of Livy 351 Contrast between the early and later Grecian writers of History 352 Dionysius of Halicarnassus 354 Diodorus Siculus ......... 356 Dion Cassius 357 CONTENTS. xxiii Page Velleius Paterculus 360 Tacitus 361 Cornelius Nepos 364 Plutarch 365 Suetonius 365 Floras 366 Valerius Maxinius 367 • Reflections on the duty of a historian .... 367 MSS., Editions, &c, of the Historians of Rome . . . 370 STATE OF ROMAN LITERATURE IN THE TIME OF THE EMPEROR TRAJAN 377 Reciters 378 Decay of learning . 380 Pliny the Elder 380 Stoic Philosophy 383 Sophists 385 Effects of the Christian Religion ...... 386 Of the government of Trajan 386 Pliny the Younger 388 Editions of the works of Pliny the Elder and of Pliny the Younger 390 LITERATURE OF THE AGE OF THE ANTONINI . . 393 Marcus Aurelius 393 Lucianus 394 Pausanias 401 Julius Pollus 402 Aulus Gellius 403 Galenus 404 Other Medical Writers 406 Lucius Apuleius . . . . . .. . . .406 Athenssus ........... 410 Maxinius Tyrius 411 M. Fabius Quinctilianus 414 Ancient Oratory 416 Editions, &c, of the Works of Roman Authors of the Age of the Antonini 421 xxiv CONTENTS. Page POST-ANTONINIAN PROSE WRITERS 420 History 427 Lost Biographies 428 Historia Augusta 428 iElius Spartianus 429 Vulcatius Gallicanus 429 Trebellius Pollio 429 Flavius Vopiscus 429 Lampridius 429 Capitolinus 430 Septimius 430 Dares 430 Aurelius Victor 430 Eutropius 430 Rufus 431 Ammianus Marcellmus 431 Orosius 432 Sulpicius Severus 432 Oratory 432 Panegyrici Veteres 432 Claudius Mamertinus Major 432 Eumenius 432 Nazarius 433 Mamertinus Minor 433 Drepanius 433 Rhetoricians 433 Letter Writers 435 Symmachus 434 Cassiodorus 435 Philosophy 435 Macrobius 435 Boethius 436 Editions, &c, of the Post-Antoninian prose-writers . . 438 ROMAN LITERARY CHRONOLOGY . ... 449 INDEX 45^ LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Page Vignette. La Musee Royale xxv The Tiber. From a Stateie in the Vatican . .... lxxv Terence. From an antique bust. G. F. Sargent . . .23 Author reading his Plat at a Eoman Entertainment. From a marble cinerarium in the British Museum. G. F. Sargent. 26 Lucius Accius, or Attius. From an antique bust at Rome, engraved by Johannes Antonius 29 Masks. From a Mosaic at Hadrian's Villa 31 Ennius. From a bust found in the tomb of the Scipios, near Porta Capena in Rome 47 Lucretius. From an antique gem, engraved for the Batavian edition of his works in 1725 51 Cicero. Visconti, Iconographie Romaine ..... 53 Catullus. From an antique bust . . . . . . . 55 Musical Entertainment. From a painting at Herculaneum . 63 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Horace. From an antique beryl, in the collection of Lord Grey. Worlidge. Pa K e 65 68 69 70 77 78 87 95 96 100 101 107 Comic Actor in the Mimes. From a marble statue in the British Museum. G. F. Sargent 110 Remains of the Flamixian Circus. Overbeke, Les Restes de l'ancienne Rome 116 Obelisk of Augustus. Overbeke. Les Restes de l'ancienne Rome 120 MiECENAS. From a colossal bust, Visconti, Iconographie Romaine Brundusium Augustus. Visconti, Mus. Pio. Clementino. Tivoli. Temples of Vesta and the Sibyl .... Virgil. From a gem, engraved for the edition of his works edited by Sir H. Justice in 1757 Virgil. Visconti, Iconographie Romaine .... Tomb of Virgil. Bartoli, gli. Ant. Sepolc. . Surrentum Tibullus. From an antique bust Propertius. From an antique bust The Coliseum. Piranesi Ovid. The portrait from a medal in the Rondanini Collection G. F. Sargent Mausoleum of Augustus. Overbeke, Les Restes de l'ancienne Rome Maecenas. From a marble basso-relievo, Visconti, Iconographie Romaine Remains of the Villa of Maecenas Vignette. From a painting at Herculaneum, Antiquites d' Her culaneum, gravees par F. A. David .... Remains of the Palace of the Cesars on Mount Palatine The modern building is the church of S. Maria Liberatrice The three columns are the remains of the Temple of Jupiter Stator. Venuti, Antichita di Roma .... Tiberius Cesar and Livia Augusta. Museum Florentinum 121 126 128 130 133 135 136 Drusus Germanicus. From a medal in the Florentine Museum 139 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. xxvii Page Lucan. From a medal engraved for the Venetian edition of Lis works in 1668 141 Seneca. From an engraving by Vorstermans .... 143 The Tarpeian Rock. Overbeke, Les Restes de l'ancienne Rome 147 Persius. From a basso-relievo in marble . . . . . 150 Juvenal. From an antique bust 159 Nero and Popp^ea. Museum Florentinum .• . . . . 162 Baths of Nero. Venuti, Antichita di Roma . . . .163 Titus. Museum Florentinum 164 Arch of Titus 165 Vespasian. Museum Florentinum 165 Domitian. Museum Florentinum 167 Martial. From an antique gem 172 Nerva. Visconti, Iconographie Romaine 179 Hadrian. Visconti, Iconographie Romaine 181 Antoninus Augustus Pius. From a coin in the Hunterian Museum 184 Numerian. Visconti, Iconographie Romaine . . . .188 Constantine the Great. Visconti, Iconographie Grecque . . 194 Apollo Belvedere 206 Vase. Bacchanals. Real Museo Borbonico 210 Arch of Constantine. Overbeke, Les Restes de l'ancienne Rome 213 St. Jerom 216 St. Ambrose 220 Gregory the Great 235 The Venerable Bede 236 Charlemagne . 241 Mediaeval Musical Instruments. Gerbertus Martinus de Cantu et Musica Sacra 253 Cicero. Visconti, Iconographie Romaine 271 Temple of Peace. The modern building is the Church of S. Francesca Romana. Venuti, Antichita di Roma . . . 272 Temple of Fortuna Virilis 274 Pompey the Great. Visconti, Iconographie Grecque . . . 277 xxviii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. Page Temple op Minerva. Built by Pompey. Overbeke, Les Restes de l'ancienne Rome 293 Pantheon. A Temple of Agrippa 301 Roman Orators 309 The Forum 311 Vignette. Mural painting at Herculaneum 317 Erasmus 321 Dea Roma. Museum Florentinum 329 Fountain op Egeria. Antonelli's Views in Rome . . .331 Cato the Censor. From a gem in the Ursini collection . . 334 Sallust. From a marble bust in the Farnese Palace . . . 342 Julius Caesar. Visconti, Iconographie Romaine . . . . 342 Livt. From an antique bust 345 Halicarnassus. L'Univers pittoresque 355 Tacitus. From an antique gem 361 Plutarch. From an antique gem engraved for Reiski's German edition of his works 365 Lady writing with a Style. Museo Borbonico . . . 369 Trajan. Visconti, Iconographie Romaine 377 Pliny the Younger. From a marble bust 388 Column op Trajan. Overbeke, Les Restes de l'ancienne Rome . 389 Antoninus Pius. Rossi, Raccolta di Statue .... 393 Marcus Aurelius. From an antique bust. Visconti, Icono- graphie Romaine 394 Lucian. From a marble bust 395 Galen. Visconti, Iconographie Grecque 404 Ruins of Rome 428 Column op Marcus Aurelius. Overbeke, Les Restes de l'ancienne Rome 437 Boy Reading. Panofka, Bilder Antiken Lebens . . . 445 Vignette. Mural Painting, Pompeii 452 A Roman Greeting 453 Jupiter with Statue of Victory. Hope's Costumes of the Ancients .... 462 INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. EEV. HENET THOMPSON, M.A. LATE SCHOLAR OF ST JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE; CURATE OF WRINGTON, SOMERSET. INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION. It would be foreign to the purposes of this work to enter in this volume largely upon ethnological questions ; and those con- nected with Italy are singularly obscure and complicated. The subject has been treated with laborious and erudite research by a multitude of writers, who have come to the most discordant conclusions. It is here adverted to only because the intricacy which belongs to it is necessarily derived to the history of a language which resulted from a confluence of the various races of Italy in that central region termed Latium, or from the prepon- derating influence, within that region, of certain dominant com- munities existing without it. To define with certainty the several tributaries by which the mighty stream of Latin speech was supplied, and to trace with accuracy their several sources and channels, is absolutely impossible ; and were this not evident from the scantiness of documents, it would be so from the extravagance or discordance of the hypotheses which learned men have devised for the solution of the problem. While, therefore, we refer the reader who desires to be acquainted with what has been advanced on the subject, to the principal writers who have treated it, 1 we prefer to wild and idle theorising a simple statement of such phenomena as are either historically ascertained, or reasonably probable. It is quite obvious then that the Latin language consists of two elements at least — the more influential and prevalent being the ^olic dialect of the Greek. The Eev. T. E. J. Yalpy, in his late very curious and interesting work, " Yirgilian Hours," professes to 1 Niebuhr, in his Roman History and Lectures. Lanzi, Saggio di Lingua Etrusca. Arnold, Roman History. Miiller, Etrusker. Dunlop, History of Roman Literature. And Klenze, " zur Geschichte der altitalischen Volkstamme." distribution of Latin words. xxxii INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE derive every word in the /Eneid from a Greek primitive. Few scholars, perhaps, will be convinced of his universal success, though many may be disposed to allow that there is more Greek in Latin than they imagined; and some may think his hypothesis even probable, while all will admire his aeuteness and ingenuity, and gratefully acknowledge the light which he has cast on the principles which govern the more abstruse and secret laws of classic etymology. Could we indeed believe that every word in a long poem like the iEneid was actually of Greek derivation, there would be no difficulty in allowing the same of the whole substance of the language. 1 But without for the present either affirming or disputing this point, it is evident that the Latin language, in literature at least, contained three classes of words. Of these, I. some were simple transplantations Triple from the Greek, apparently after an extensive intercourse subsisted with Magna Grsecia, or even Greece itself : such are Greek proper names, altered only in inflections ; and such substantives as thesaurus, athleta, emblema, pliilosopliia, epldppium, triclinium, &c. ; the coinage of Latin literary currency from Greek bullion being much encouraged and practised. 2 II. Some were obviously Greek, yet such as entered the language naturally, and were part of its essential elements : to these such proper names as Ajax, Ulysses (or TJlixes), JEsculapius, Hercules, &c, may be referred ; together with such words as fama, triumphus, anc/wra, vestis, macJdna, dexter, ago, lego, &c, &c, which form a large proportion of the language. III. But there still remains a class of words, which, if really of Greek origin, are evidently derived by a very different process. The maternal likeness is completely obliterated ; and the inquirer who would establish the relation must content himself with the indication of minute lineaments, in which few will be able to discover the parentage. Such are meta, lorica, clypeus, infula, &c, to which Mr. Yalpy has assigned Greek primitives, but the derivation of which is evidently a very different matter from that of either of the former classes. 1 Mr. Valpy has since published " a Manual of Latin Etymology," in which he has advocated the universal descent of Latin from Greek. 2 " Et nova fictaque nuper habebunt verba fidem, si Grseco fonte cadan t, pared detorta." — Hor. Art. Poet. 52. SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. xxx iii As the Latin literature arose out of the commerce of Latium with Greece, the first class of these words appears even in the earliest literary fragments which have reached us ; no subsequent writers having drawn more unscrupulously on Greek sources than Ennius and Lucilius. But, in investigating the formation of the language, the consideration of this class may be altogether laid aside, as its origin and history are palpable. There will remain only two therefore only the two others for examination. challenge Latium lay between the territories of races which we, in the inquiry - popular phraseology of antiquity, may designate Greeks and barbarians. The countries to the south were principally Greek settlements, though the Oscan language was extensively spoken in that region ; while the northern neighbours were of different descent. It is to these sources respectively, that the second and third classes of words composing the Latin language appear to be traceable. Of the Italian nations dwelling to the north of Latium, the most conspicuous are the Etrurians, Umbrians, and Oscans or Opicans ; the two last of which were related, and are by some writers identified. The Sabines, too, who were early incorporated with the Bomans, were of kindred origin with the Oscan people. Whether the Siculi, Itali, or Yituli, were subdued by the Casci or Prisci, an Oscan tribe, and whether there is any foundation for the well-known legend of JEneas and his Trojans, are investi- gations which belong rather to the history of the country than that of the language. It is sufficient to observe that Latium, situated as it was between the territories of the Greek and barbarian, or semi-barbarian tribes, over-run by both in turn, 1 and at last peopled by different races, 2 naturally acquired a language partaking the idiom of its neighbours. It is evident, also, that peace and its arts were chiefly cultivated by the Greek portion of the people, while the remainder were principally distinguished for military prowess. The terms of husbandry and rural and domestic occupation are mostly Greek : aratrum, bos, ovis, agnus, sus, aper, cquus, canis, sero, age?', sylva, vinum, lac, mel, sal, oleum, &c. 1 " Latium colonis saepe mutatis tenuere alii aliis temporibus, Aborigines, Pelasgi, Arcades, Siculi, Auruuci, Rutuli." — Plin. Hist. Nat. iii. 5. 2 " Quum populus Roman us Etruscos, Latinos, Sabinosque miscuerit, et unum ex omnibus sanguinem ducat, corpus fecit ex membris, et in omnibus unus est."— Flor. iii. [r. l.] c distribution of Latin words. xxxii INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE derive every word in the JEneid from a Greek primitive. Few scholars, perhaps, will be convinced of his universal success, though many may be disposed to allow that there is more Greek in Latin than they imagined; and some may think his hypothesis even probable, while all will admire his acuteness and ingenuity, and gratefully acknowledge the light which he has cast on the principles which govern the more abstruse and secret laws of classic etymology. Could we indeed believe that every word in a long poem like the iEneid was actually of Greek derivation, there would be no difficulty in allowing the same of the whole substance of the language. 1 But without for the present either affirming or disputing this point, it is evident that the Latin language, in literature at least, contained three classes of words. Of these, I. some were simple transplantations Triple from the Greek, apparently after an extensive intercourse subsisted with Magna Graecia, or even Greece itself: such are Greek proper names, altered only in inflections ; and such substantives as thesaurus, atlileta, emblema, philosopliia, ephippium, triclinium, &c. ; the coinage of Latin literary currency from Greek bullion being much encouraged and practised. 2 II. Some were obviously Greek, yet such as entered the language naturally, and were part of its essential elements : to these such proper names as Ajax, Ulysses (or Ulixes), JEsculapius, Hercules, &c, may be referred ; together with such words as fama, triumphus, anchora, vestis, macldna, dexter, ago, lego, &c, &c, which form a large proportion of the language. III. But there still remains a class of words, which, if really of Greek origin, are evidently derived by a very different process. The maternal likeness is completely obliterated ; and the inquirer who would establish the relation must content himself with the indication of minute lineaments, in which few will be able to discover the parentage. Such are meta, lorica, clypeus, infula, &c, to which Mr. Valpy has assigned Greek primitives, but the derivation of which is evidently a very different matter from that of either of the former classes. 1 Mr. Valpy has since published " a Manual of Latin Etymology," in which he has advocated the universal descent of Latin from Greek. 2 " Et nova fictaque nuper habebunt verba fidem, si Grseco fonte cadant, pared detorta." — Hot. Art. Poet. 52. SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. xxxiii As the Latin literature arose out of the commerce of Latium with Greece, the first class of these words appears even in the earliest literary fragments which have reached us ; no subsequent writers having drawn more unscrupulously on Greek sources than Ennius and Lucilius. But, in investigating the formation of the language, the consideration of this class may be altogether laid aside, as its origin and history are palpable. There will remain only two therefore only the two others for examination. challenge Latium lay between the territories of races which we, in the inquir - T - popular phraseology of antiquity, may designate Greeks and barbarians. The countries to the south were principally Greek settlements, though the Oscan language was extensively spoken in that region ; while the northern neighbours were of different descent. It is to these sources respectively, that the second and third classes of words composing the Latin language appear to be traceable. Of the Italian nations dwelling to the north of Latium, the most conspicuous are the Etrurians, Umbrians, and Oscans or Opicans; the two last of which were related, and are by some writers identified. The Sabines, too, who were early incorporated with the .Romans, were of kindred origin with the Oscan people. Whether the Siculi, Itali, or Yituli, were subdued by the Casci or Prisci, an Oscan tribe, and whether there is any foundation for the well-known legend of iEneas and his Trojans, are investi- gations which belong rather to the history of the country than that of the language. It is sufficient to observe that Latium, situated as it was between the territories of the Greek and barbarian, or semi-barbarian tribes, over-run by both in turn, 1 and at last peopled by different races, 2 naturally acquired a language partaking the idiom of its neighbours. It is evident, also, that peace and its arts were chiefly cultivated by the Greek portion of the people, while the remainder were principally distinguished for military prowess. The terms of husbandry and rural and domestic occupation are mostly Greek : aratrum, bos, ovis, agnus, sus, aper, eguus, cauls, sero, ager, sylm, vinum, lac, met, sal, oleum, &c. 1 " Latium colonis saepe mutatis tenuere alii aliis temporibus, Aborigines, Pelasgi, Arcades, Siculi, Aurimci, Rutuli." — Plin. Hist. Nat. iii. 5. 2 " Quum populus Romanus Etruscos, Latinos, Sabinosque miscuerit, et unum ex omnibus sanguinem ducat, corpus fecit ex membris, et in omnibus unus est." — Flor. iii. [r. l.] c xxxiv INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE Those of warfare, on the contrary, cannot be convincingly deduced from the Greek, and possibly are not Greek at all : arma, tela, cassis, ends, hasta, gladius, arcus, sagitta, jaculum, balteus, ocrea, clypeus, &c. Hence it has been concluded, that the wi-Greek element (as the German writers call it) was introduced by victorious invaders. This view also is countenanced by the un- Greek terms, referring to government and laws : as rex, civls, testis, jus, lis, vas, &c. &c. It also appears that the Greek was the primitive constituent of the Latin. The simplest ideas are Greek : as sum, sto, sedeo, cubo, salio, maneo, video, tango, ago,fero, volo, gigno, gnosco, memini, &c. The parts of the body are sometimes, but not always, evidently Greek. 1 This general view is aptly elucidated by the English language, the agricultural and rural terms of which are Saxon, as field, plough, ox, sheep, &c. ; while the legal are mostly Norman, as court, judge, law, parliament, &c. The conquerors, on this theory, did not come by sea, since maritime terms are usually Greek, as navis, prora, remus, &c. It must, however, be admitted, that a portion at least of the Italian population which was not Greek, was yet of Greek connec- tion. In one point of view, Mr. Yalpy's etymologies are strikingly remarkable. That he should have been able to make out, with any degree of plausibility, the entire identity of the Latin language with the Greek, is at least proof that there must be a Greek element in many of the Latin words, which do not belong to what we should call the Greek division of the language. And, indeed, there is no eminent Italian tribe, to which a Greek origin has not been ascribed by some writer or other. The enigmatical Pelasgians were as rife in Italy as on the opposite coast ; and Greek colonies swarmed along the maritime parts, whose influence on their more inland neighbours cannot but have been considerable. Olivieri is even of opinion that at one time the Greek language prevailed through the length and breadth of Italy. 2 If this was ever the case, it must have been such during Lanzi's " second epoch," " the mythological," or period when events belong to history, although 1 Words relating to religion are commonly un-Greek. These may come from the Etruscans. 2 " Essendo l'ltalia da ogni lato piena di Greci, chi mai creder potra che altra lingua si usasse in Italia fuor che la greca?" — Oliv., saggi dell' Accad. di Cort, II. 56 (apud Lanzi, saggio di Lingua Etrusca, I. i. 10), SOURCES AND FORMATION OE THE LATIN LANGUAGE. X xxv mingled with fable : for his first is before any records exist ; in his third, the Italian dialects, as migrations became fewer, and tribes more settled, began to assume the character of languages ; so that in this period the Latin language became distinct, though it was not cultivated ; and in his fourth it attained full development and cultivation, and, in literature at least, absorbed all the others. On the manifestly Greek portion of the Latin language it is unnecessary to dilate. The two languages are sufficiently well known to all persons of literature to need any detailed proof of f^jf^ 11 ^ 1 their substantial identity. The alphabet is essentially the same. J; atl j? with Pliny tells us of a Delphic table of brass, extant in his time in the Palatine, dedicated to Minerva, with the inscription, in Eoman letters, " Nausicrates Tisamenu Athenaios anethece." 1 The primi- tive alphabet of the Romans contained only sixteen letters, ABCDEIKLMNOPQBST. Cwas commonly used for Gr, agreeably to its position, which corresponded with that of f; B stood for V ; P for F. According to Tacitus, Dionysius, and Hyginus, 2 this alphabet was brought from Arcadia by Evander. 3 The declensions of substantives in both languages may be reduced to three ; and their identity is obvious, from the facility with which any word of either language falls into its proper declension in the other. The genders in both are three ; and the three declensions are in both repeated in the adjectives ; the first declension serving to designate the feminine in both, and the second, the masculine and neuter. The third declension in both embraces the three genders. In both, all neuters plural, substantive and adjective, end in a; and all neuters are alike in the nominative, accusative, and vocative. In both, the pronouns are all but identical. Is, ea, id, is 6s, fj (ea), 6; o being constantly Latinised by i, as in the genitive of the third declension, and the d being an old addition, as in Cnaivod for Cnceo. Nos and vos are found 1 Plin. Nat. Hist. vii. 58. The copies have the inscription in Greek letters; but this manifestly renders the passage unmeaning ; the purport of which is to show that Greek was formerly written in what was nearly the Roman character in Pliny's time. 2 Pliny says : " In Latium eas attulerunt Pelasgi." — Hist. Nat. vii. 56. Diony- sius says : Ae-yovrcu ('Ap/caSes) 8e KaX ypafXjxdTcau e\\r]viKa>u XP^ aiv e ' s 'iTaAuw TrpwToi SiUKo/xiaai.— I. 36. See Tac. Ann. ix. 14 ; Hyg. Fab. 277. 3 See the nature of the Roman alphabet discussed by Dr. Donaldson, Yarro- nianus, ch. vii. c2 xxxvi INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE in the Greek duals v£L and acpwi. The irregular formations coincide. Thus in both languages ego gives me; and, although tu (ry, JEol.) gives te, not se, the difference is trifling ; while the t actually goes as far as the dative in the iEolic Greek. The auxiliary verb sum, however apparently differing, is really identical with elpL The prefixed s is a characteristic variety of the language, as in Inep, super; *£, sex; and numerous instances. 1 The u, which letter is peculiar to the Latin, is substi- tuted for all manner of Greek vowels. Thus unus comes from efs (eei/y, whence the German eiri) ; and hence we should have dp\, sumi, or, by aphaeresis, sum ; as lort, est. By applying this principle to the present tense of the verb, the identity is palpable. dpi, sum. flp.es, (iEol.) sumus. ds, es. f'ore, estlS. earl, est. %vri, (iEol.) sunt. Ero is the iEolic form for eaopai (eVo). So the iEolians said noip for nus, whence the Latin puer. The other forms in this verb not derivable from dpi, come from cpvco ; as fui, fueram, &c. The Latin regular verbs resemble the Greek more in their roots than their inflexion ; yet the substantial identity may still be traced. Th^ aphseresis explains many forms ; as legit, Aeyer-cu ; legunt, XeyovT-t (Mo\.) or Xiyowai. So, too, the dialectical insertion of r; as aralr^s, stares ; arrjuai, stare. Stans for aras is no variation, as is evident from the genitive o-tuvtos. The reduplication of the perfect is often found, as pungo, pupugi ; tundo, tutudi ; and although usually dropped, like the Saxon ge in the English, a trace of its existence is perceptible in the lengthened syllable, as in legi from lelegi ; veni from veveni. The prepositions and numerals are almost the same in both languages. But the substantial identity of the two tongues does not merely rest here. Beside the s, which is so commonly prefixed to Greek words, particularly as a substitute for the aspirate, the digamma, which was especially characteristic of the iEolic dialect, greatly influenced Latin words. Thus ovis is from 6ts (Mol. oFis) ; vinum from olvos {Mo\. folvos) ; ver from Zap, rjp (Mol. frjp). Again, as the iEolians changed <% into cprjp, the Latins made it /era; and as 1 Mostly, it is true, in the place of the aspirate ; hut not always ; as in ottos, (ukos, -iEol.), succus. SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. xxxvii the iEolians changed 8 into j3 and X, so from Sis and ddKpvfxa, the Latins made bis and lacruma or lacrhna. H being changed by the iEolians into a, from >\ 01 P 1 E 3^3 R qa<] y ^] S M \z PH X * =i I I CH * l 4 V m >*\vi m B Z ^ 1 Not pure f Etruscan. 1 Dion. Hal. i. 30. 2 Probably contracted forms : as Marcani for Marcanie. The Latin vocative in i, as Antoni, is a contracted form for ie. xliv INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE Etruscan was ti added ; answering to the Latin o, which the Etruscans had language. ° . ..... not. Also si is sometimes apparently a dative termination, like the cf)i of the Greek. We find the accusative puiam {Fvlav, Jiliam, or puellam l ). The ablative is thought to have been formed by the addition of ac, me, or sa. But it is more probable that at least the two latter of these were prepositions affixed, as mecum, tecum, &c. So nomneper in the Umbrian, which termination is also found in the Etruscan naper. The plural nominative ended in ai, like the old Latin ; contracted, perhaps, occasionally, into a ; unless this be an instance of the vowel omitted. So Rasena. The genitive was probably urn. Idibus was in Etruscan Itipes, and on a patera we find chusais, probably a dative plural from cJiusa, a libation. This is as much as can be said with any probability of the Etruscan declensions. Lanzi confuses this part of his subject by mingling with it Umbrian inflexions, which, however, closely resemble the Etruscan, as we shall presently have occasion to observe. The following are some specimens of proper names : a gem, with a figure holding a harpe, or crooked sword, in one hand, and a head in the other, is marked Pherse, manifestly for Perseus ; on another, five chiefs in council have their names circumscribed Tute, Phulnices, Amphtiare, Atresthe, Parthanapae ; who are, no doubt, five of the seven anti-Thebans, Tydeus, Polynices, Amphiaraus, Adrastus, and Parthenopseus. We find Pele for Peleus; Atre for Atreus, Menle for Menelaus ; Achniem for Agamemnon ; ElcJisntre for Alexander (Paris) ; Addle, Achele, and Aciles for Achilles ; Uluxe for Ulysses (where we have the same deviation from the original 'obvaaevs as in Latin) ; Aivas {k'lfas) for Ajax (where the Greek type is retained) ; Theses and These for Theseus. The names of divinities are mostly of Greek or Latin character : Jupiter was Titta (Dis, Ditis), or Tina, probably for Tinia, as sometimes 1 This interpretation is rejected by Miiller, Etrusk. Beileg. zu. B. ii. k. 4. 16. There is little doubt, however, that Lanzi's 191st inscription," Mi Kalairu phuius," is to be rendered " Sum Calairi filii." Dr. Donaldson gives Elfil KaXcupov fui6s.* But the termination us is genitive in Etruscan : besides, in inscriptions of this kind, the genitive seems more commonly used, as Mi Larthias. See infra. Nor is Lanzi's interpretation of thui by filia to be rejected merely because it sometimes 6tands at the beginning of words, as by Miiller, ubi supra. * Varronianus, ch. v. SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. x lv found (Zevs, Zrjvos) ; Yenus, Thalna l (Ta Halna, or, perhaps, Etruscan Halina, the vowel being omitted in writing, fj aXiva), or Turan (Ta Uran, rj olpavid) ; Diana, Thana (Thiana, i omitted as before, or Theana, from &6s, as Diana from Dius) ; Yulcan, Set/dans ; Apollo, Aplu, Epul, Uflicre, or ApuUi; Bacchus, Phupluns ; 2 Minerva, Menerfa, Menirva, or Menerve ; Mercury, Mircurios, 3 or Turms (Tu Herms, 6 "Epfirjs) ; Hercules, Herkle, or Herkole ; Neptune, Nethuns ; Pluto, Mantus ; Proserpine, Mania ; the two last mani- festly Latinised, but exhibiting the same root as Manes ; which is also found in the Etruscan Summanus (sub Manibus), the god of the night. As this treatise is purely philological, we do not enter on those parts of Etruscan divinity which present no comparative etymologies. The terminations al, isa, ena, about which much has been written, but nothing decided, appear to be patronymics, 1 Dr. Donaldson makes Thalna Juno, -whom he also designates, after Strabo, Kupra. Cuprus meant good in the Sabine language,* whence Cupra sbould seem to be Dea bona, as indeed Dr. Donaldson acknowledges ; and therefore Cybele or Proserpine. On a patera f representing the birth of Minerva, the word Thalna is inscribed against a goddess whose symbols are the dove and myrtle-branch. Thana may possibly have been used for Juno, the derivation favouring it. 2 See Donalds. Varron., v. 10. Lanzi makes Bacchus Tinia ; but the juvenile figure with a thunderbolt, which he takes for Bacchus, may be Vejovis. In the patera representing the birth of Bacchus, the word Tinia, which Lanzi there refers to Bacchus, is clearly inscribed over Jupiter, while Bacchus himself has no inscription. The worship of this deity was imported from Greece ; (see Livy, xxxix. 8) and, though extensive, was " superficial " J in Etruria. Vertumnus, the god of the changes of the year, and its productions, consequently of wine, seems to have anciently supplied the place of Bacchus to the Etruscans. The Latinised Etruscan termination tumnus, tumna, we may here observe, may possibly be identical with dominus, domina ; as Vertumnus, vertendi dominus ; Voltumna, volgi dornina. But it is generally supposed that umnus is equivalent to Sfievos, or efMevos. It is remarkable, however, that, in proper names of divinities, the t generally precedes. Another etymology is suggested by the lines of Propertius, — At mihi, quod formas unus vertebar in omnes, Nomen ab eventu patria lingua dedit : as though' the derivation were from verto and unus. If so, umne, or une was probably one. 3 Words containing the o are late, or not pure Etruscan. Varro de Ling. Lat. v. 159. + Lanzi, Taw x. 1. X Oberfl'achlich, Miiller, Etrusk. III. iii. 12. xlvi INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE Etruscan metronymics, or derivatives. Thus as aivil (ad avum per linens) seems to have the same character as juvenilis, senilis, &c, (ad juventutem, senectutem per linens), so Larthal or Larthial (ad Lartem, or Zarlhiam, perlinens) appears to have the form of Martialis (ad Martem per linens). The Latin terms cervical, tribunal have a like substantive reference to other substantives. Isa and ena may correspond to the iaa-a and ivr) of the Greeks in signification, as they undoubtedly do in form — Tarchisa seems the feminine o Tarchun (Tu Archun, 6 apx^v), 1 as PaalXio-aa from fiaaikevs. Of numerals, it seems likely that clan or clen stood for primus ; eter (erepos) is almost certainly alter or secundus ; and other numerals appear to have answered to the Latin words. Festus, on the word Quinquatrus, observes, that the Tusculans called the 3rd, 6th, and 7th days from the Ides, Triatrus, Sexatrus, and Septimatrus, and the Faliscans called the 10th Becimatrus? But the words are, doubtless, Latinised. We have but slight means of ascertaining the character of the Etruscan verb. Under statues, the form mi Larthias, or mi cana Lartliias, is found. ElpA, with the genitive of the person represented, was a common inscription on Greek statues : so that mi Lartliias may be rendered dyX AapBias, sum Lartia. Cana is equivalent to X^vu, interpreted by Hesychius /coV/ino-i? 4 a word synonymous with aydkpa, which is often used by the Greeks for an image. Tece, on the statue of Metellus, appears equivalent to 6^kc (eOrjue, for avi6r)Ke, a form common in Greek votive inscriptions). Turce seems used for donavit, the first portion of the word being equivalent to the Greek Scop, in a language which used t for d, and u for o. 3 1 Tarchon, according to antiquity, was a son or brother of Tyrrhenus, the founder of the Etruscan nation. But it is remarkable that Verrius Flaccus and Caecina call him Archon, in passages -which Miiller corrects into Tarchon.* The correction, however, was not needed. The reading results from the omission of the Etruscan article. It is, however, right to state that Tarchun, according to Miiller, is the Etruscan form of Tvpprjvos. Yet in Flaccus and Csecina the two names are distinguished. 2 Fest. in voc. See Varro de L. L. vi. 14. 3 Niebuhr would have Turce to mean Tuscus ; a good derivation as to analogy, but scarcely applicable to the context. * Etrusker. Einleit. ii. SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. xlvii The following Etruscan words, gleaned from ancient authors, gems, Etruscan paterse, funeral monuments, &c, will sufficiently show how far the authority of Dionysius is to be respected in regard to the " barbarism " of the language : and serve to qualify the bold assertion of Niebuhr, that this authority is " but too strongly con- firmed by all our inscriptions, in the words of which no analogy with the Greek language, or with the kindred branch of the Latin, can be detected, even by the most violent etymological artifices ; " 1 and elsewhere: c: Wemaysay with certainty that the Etruscan has not the slightest resemblance to Latin or Greek, nay, not to any one of the languages known to us, as was justly remarked by Dionysius." 2 True indeed it is that the Etruscan, as viewed in the gross, appears to bear little relation to other languages ; but wherever it has been possible to detect its meaning, its connection with Latin and Greek is commonly apparent. Aecse — equus, (itacos). Agalletor — puer, (dydWoficu). Andas — Boreas. Antar — aquila, (cie-ros). Aracos — accipiter, (lepal-, Upaitos). Arimoi — simiae. Arse — ignem, (ardeo). Ateson — arbustum. Atentu — habeto, (teneto). Aukelos — aurora. 3 Cana — decus, imago, (xdva). Canthce — deposuit, (Karidrjice). Capra — capra. Capys — falco, (KafiTrrcc). Carescara — x a P L(TT VP ia - Cehen, probably eveicev. Cfer — puer. (p and q are constantly interchanged; cf is the Etruscan q. So Cfenle — Quinlius. The derivation may be from nHpos; or from ic6'ip for ir&ip, iEol. for irais.) Chausais — inferiis, (x6acus, iEol.) Esar — Deus ; and N/esar. Eter — secundus, alter, (erepos). Eth, etfe— ivi. Falandum — ccelum. Februu m — puri fi catio. Fis, fia — filius, filia. Gapos — currus. Buster — histrio, (IcrToop), Ituo — divide Itus — idus. Lanista — carnifex, (lanio). Lar — Dominus. Leine, line. (An inscription on sepulchres, possibly leniter, sc. ingredere, or it may be loculus : Xrjvos). Lupu — loculus, (Aoirds). Lusna— luna. Mantisa — additamentum. Mi — sum, (ii/j-i). Nanos— erro. Nepos — prodigus, (nepos). Peithesa — fides, {iteiQia, whence too fido). 1 Rom. Hist., Tuscans or Etruscans. 2 Lectures on Rom. Hist. v. 3 This word is evidently Grecised. The authority is Hesychius. xlviii INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE Etruscan language. Ofecan language. Phanu — fanum. p, , r Votum. (No satisfac- t,, ,,, J tory Gr. or Lat. etymo- Phlfres i , T ., „ J . Phlexr gy ' Zl S °$ Kri■ ccarripiov. Suthur J IP Tapi — sepultura, (racprj). Tece — posuit, (e^/ce). Tunur — honori, (Tu unur, t# honori). Turses— mcenia, (turris). Tuthines — quicunque, (o'l [roi] rives). Threce — redeine. Thui, or thuia — filia, (Ovia, 7/ [to] via). Thupitaisece — vttot46cik€. Verse — verte. (Propertius, who gives a long account of Vertumnus (iv. ii.) and the various occasions from which his name was popu- larly derived, makes no doubt of the etymology a vertendo, or of the root being Etruscan.) The Opican or Oscan language was extensively spoken over the middle and southern portions of Italy ; Latium itself was included in Opica by Aristotle. 1 It was the language of the Samnites, Campanians, Lucanians, Bruttians : it was spoken by the Mamer- tines of Messana ; and the Sabine language, though not the same, had mingled with it : 2 and the Samnites, who were of Sabine 1 Tbv tottou' tovtov TTJs 'Oirt/fTjs, ts /faAeiTot Aarwv. — Aristot. apud Dionys. Halic. Rom. Antiq. i. 72. 2 " Sabina usque radices in Oscam linguam egit." The following Sabine words, collected from various authorities, will show the affinity of the language to the Latin, and (partially) to the Greek : — Alpus albus. Hern a saxa. Ausum aurum. Idus idus. Cascus antiquus. Lepesta vas vinarium. Catus acutus. Lixula circulus. Ciprus (or cuprus) bonus. Nar sulfur. Creperus dubius. Salus salus. Cumba lectica. Scesna ccena. Cupencus sacerdos. Strena sanitas. Curis hasta. Tebae colles. Embratur (a Latin imperator Terenus (r4pr]v) tener. word corrupted). Tesqua locasentibus repleta, Fasena arena. Trabea trabea. Februum purgamentum. Trafo traho. Fcedus hcedus. Vefo veho. Fircus hircus. Verna verna. From the above examples it is evident that an h for an/, or an r for an 8, would often convert a Sabine word into Latin, and the forms and character of the words suggest a dialectical Latin. SOURCES AND FORMATION OP THE LATIN LANGUAGE. xlix descent, spoke it. 1 It was thus brought into immediate contact Oscan with Home. The Atellane plays, of which notice will be found in anguaf our chapters on Latin poetry, were acted in this language ; and, being intended for popular amusement, could scarcely have been very unintelligible at Eome. Some German scholars, as Munk 2 and Klenze, 3 have contended that the Atellane plays were always in Latin ; contrary to the express testimony of Strabo, who, as Ave shall see when we come to that part of our subject, speaks of Oscan plays acted in his time periodically at Eome. To this competent witness it is not sufficient to reply, as Munk has done, that the Oscan language was unintelligible at Kome in the time of Augustus, on the ground that, as Horace and Quinctilian 4 attest, even the learned were unable to interpret the old Latin; and that the Bantine table contains a Latin translation of the Oscan, for the use of the Eomans, who did not understand the latter. True enough it may be that the Oscan language was unintelligible to the learned of the Augustan day ; but this is anything but an a fortiori argument for its unintelligibility to the vulgar. The literary and conversational Latin was quite an artificial language, and probably differed more from the Latin of the common people than did the Oscan itself. As to the Bantine table, the argument from that altogether fails, as the Latin and Oscan are not antigraphs, as is shown by Klenze himself. The main difference between the Oscan and the Latin was dialectical ; a difference, however, progressively enlarged by the great opposition in the habits of the races by whom they were respectively spoken. The Oscan language comprises the larger portion of the un-Greek element, as it is called, of the Latin ; and, whether this term be just or otherwise, certain it is that the Oscan receded considerably from the Greek. This was natural in a people whose minds and occupations appear to have been as opposite as possible, even to a proverb, to the intellectual character of the Greeks ; for the term Ojpicus was used emphatically for ignorance of Greek, and antipathy to it. 5 The Oscans were dull, 1 Liv. x. 20. = De Fabb. Atell. 3 Zur Geschichte der Altitalischen Volkstamme. 4 Hor. Epist. II. i. 56. Quinct. I. vi. 40. 5 Aul. Gell. xi. 16; xiii. 9. So Juv. iii. 206 :— Jamque vetus Grcecos servabat cista libcllos, Et divina Opici rodebant carmina mures. [R.L.] d 1 INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE Osean sensual, and, emphatically, barbarous. Indeed the word Opicus in Latin implies something more than barbarus. "Nos quoque Grasci barbaros, et spurcius nos quam alios, Opicos [al. Opicorum] appellatione fcedant" says Cato. 1 Festus derives the name of the nation ab oris fceditate; a ludicrous etymology, but exhibiting the common idea of contempt and disgust with which the Oscans were regarded by educated Romans. With such sentiments, and with the profoundest veneration for Greek taste and litera- ture, which the Oscans did not care to understand, the Romans, as matter of refinement, continually receded further from Oscan forms. The principal monuments of this language now remaining to us are, some vases from Nola in the museum at Berlin ; an inscription found at Messana, in Greek letters ; another found in Campania ; several at Herculaneum and Pompeii ; a stone table in the ruins of Abella, in Oscan letters ; and one of brass at Oppidum, in Latin letters. This last is the most important, and is commonly known by the name of the Bantine table. The Oscan alphabet did not materially differ from the Etruscan in form, nor from the Latin in amplitude, when the Latin alphabet was employed, as was often the case, in writing this language. 2 But, in the latter instance, the Q, was wanting. Vowels, as in Etruscan, were sometimes omitted ; but the writing, when in Latin or Greek Letters, was commonly from left to right ; and the orthography, if we may apply the term, was coarser and more careless than the Etruscan ; as might be expected from an illiterate 1 Ap. Plin. N. H. xxix. 27. 2 The principal differences were as follow: — Lat. Osc. Lat. Osc. an p n PH % 6 R fll TH rj z x I r 1 N V\ language. SOURCES AND FORMATION OP THE LATIN LANGUAGE. nation. The words were even strangely run into each other, as Oscan is frequent in the writings of uneducated people : hence arise difficulties in the interpretation. Nevertheless, by the light of the Latin, some idea may be formed of the language. The Bantine table is, perhaps, the least unintelligible of the Oscan documents. As a specimen, we give a part of the 3rd chapter, as it is called by Grotefend, with his version : those of other scholars, as Klenze and Dr. Donaldson, differ, as might be expected. Some of these variations we shall notice. Pr. svse profucus, 1 pod post exac Bansse fust, svse pis Porro si prsetexuerit, quod posthac Bantise fuerit, si quis op eizois com atrud[iac]ud acum herest, avti pru ob hsec cum fraudulento homine 2 agere volet, atque pro medicatud manimasepum eizazune egmazum, pas exaiscen compensato mancipium idem exquirere, cujus ex istis ligis scriftas set, nep him pruhipid mais zicolois X. 3 legis scriptse sit, neque eum repetat magis (quam) judiciis X. nesimois. Svse pis contrud exeic pruhipust, molto etanio continuatis. Si quis contra in isto repetierit, multa justa estudn. Q) in svse pis ionc meddis moltaum herest, licitud; esto n. M. et si quis eum magistratus multare volet, liceto ; ampert mistreis 4 alteis eituas moltas moltaum licitud. una cum magistris altis serarii multae multare liceto. Prom this passage it will be seen that there is considerable obscurity in the remains of the Oscan tongue which antiquity has spared to us. The principles of this language, so far as they are known, we shall consider in conjunction with those of the Umbrian, to which it bears a close affinity. A vocabulary would almost 1 Klenze renders Prcetor sive prcsfectus. Grotefend takes prcefucus for prcefucust, prcetexuerit, from fuco, to disguise. 2 tL Comatrudiacud should perhaps he rendered fraudulenter ; so com preivahtd, privatim; hut Dr. Donaldson gives atrud ud, and renders atro . . . . o, concluding, apparently, that a whole word is lost. The letters iac are less distinct, indeed, but seem quite unmistakable. 3 Klenze renders ne quern prohibeat magis siculis decern. 4 Klenze renders ampert mistreis by per minisiros. d 2 lii INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE oscan require the transcription of the Oscan remains ; a task equally unsuited to our objects and our dimensions. Umbrian " langunge. One of the most ancient and genuine races of Italy was the Umbrian. 1 Their city Ameria dates 381 years before Rome. Their territory extended at one time over a part of Etruria. Their language, therefore, must be regarded as one of the constituents of the Latin. We have larger means of investigating the nature of this tongue than we possess in regard to the Etruscan and Oscan. In the year 1444, nine brazen tables were discovered in a subterranean vault in the neighbourhood of the ancient theatre at Gubbio, the ancient Eugubium or Iguvium. Two of these were conveyed, in the year 1540, to Venice, and have never been recovered ; the remaining seven are still in existence. Of this number, two are in Latin characters ; the remainder in Umbrian, which do not differ im- portantly from the Etruscan alphabet. These last are earlier than the others, and are referred by Lepsius to about the end of the fourth century u.c. ; the others he places about the middle of the sixth century. In this period the language had undergone alteration, owing, doubtless, in part, to the advancing influence of the Latin ; we may, therefore, consider it under the designation of Old and New Umbrian. The declensions of substantives and adjectives are tolerably weil ascertained. The Eirst contains the feminine nouns, and is as follows : 1 " Umbrorum gens antiquissima Italise existimatur, ut quos Ombrios a Graecis putent dictos, quod inundatione terrarum imbribus superfuisseiit. Trecenta eorum oppida Tusci debellasse reperiuntur." — Plin. Nat. Hist. iii. 19. SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. liii Umbrian language. £ $ $ S a ^ O © <3 £ O ft 5 S § d d -*= --h O o O p jr-s o H? O M W o J ^ j o 9 q o * fe P3 ^ h- 1 pq s 9 11 g P CO n a 1?" ■+3 ~ 5 c3 O S3 M C 1? pi o "> *«-3 - ■8 o> e8 c3 O V - <1> c3 S3 - S S3 S = Ed I - 2 3 o a a d d -+3 •— * d o o o cs ^3 o & |> O ft ■ puplus PLURAL. poplor 1 J" us, m. (Abellanus) I u, n. (teremenniu) Gen. Dat. Abl. puplum > puples poplom um (Abellanum) reis (mistreis) , . . uis (Abellanuis), or popl-er, -lr, -eir •! . \ '' ] ois (in more modern Ace. pupluf poplof"? v. forms) J* uf (tribarakkiuf. Qro- 1 tefend) The cnaracteristic termination of the Third declension is i ; but there are many rules which dispense with it, unnecessary to introduce here, when we are merely investigating the sources of the Latin language. This declension comprehends all the genders : the neuter nominative, accusative, and vocative are alike, as in Greek and Latin. The other nouns are thus declined : Nom Voc? s.{ Gen. Dat. Ace. Abl. ocar UMBRIAN. Old. New. SINGULAR, ukar (for ukri), a hill. The Lat. arx, Gr. aKpa ukres ocrer ukre ocre ukrem ocrem ukri ocr-i, -e, -ei. >] OSCAN". Terminations. eis ei im id Nom, Voc. Gen. Dat. Abl. Ace. ukref /. ukres arvia, arviu . "1 m 1 J n - V ukres, -is PLURAL. ocrer arvio term, om (peracniom) ocres, -is, -eis is (ligis, legibus?) ocr-ef, -if, -eif eis The Fourth Umbrian declension corresponds to the fourth of the Latin. It contains the three genders. The nominative ends in u* There is no example of this case, however, in the word here selected. Manu (?) signifies hand. INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION ON THE Umbrian language. UMBRIAN Old. New. Norn. SINGULAR. Gen. manus manor Dat. manu mano Ace. marram manom Abl. mani mani There are two other forms, manve and man/, the reference of which is uncertain ; but they are probably dative and accusative. plural. OSCAN. )■ term, us, as berus Feihoss. Qrotef. Abl. J Ace. m. „ uf, as kastruvuf n. „ a, as berva ; term, o, as pequo. The following, in the form of the Fifth and last Umbrian declen- sion, embraces all the genders : — UMBRIAN. OSCAN. Old. New. SINGULAR. Nom. 1 t , / , > . kvaistur, medix, med- Y kvestur (qucestor) questur , ' ' Voc. ] J dix, meddiss (magistratus) Terminations. Gen. kvestures questurer eis (medikeis) Dat. kvesture questure ei (medikei) Ace. kvesturu questuru im (medicim, N. 0.) Abl. kvesture questure id (prcesentid, N. 0.) PLURAL. (We are here obliged to collect examples from different nouns.) Nom. tuderor (from tuder) Gen. fratrum fratrom (from frater) a ' i- fratrus fratrus Abl. J Beside these forms, there are, in Umbrian, two locative cases, as they are called, which are the same in all declensions : but they rather seem to have affinity with the Greek postfixes 6i or at, as SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. lvii ovpav60L, 'fkiodi, 'Adqvrjat, ; and be Or £e, as o'Uovbe, Mapa8a>va8e, X°H- a £ e > SlSge. A6yva(;e : so tutemem Ijovinemem, " in the whole of the Eugubian territory," or, "in the city of Eugubium," as before; tutamem Ijovina- mem, "to," or "into," &c. The termination /m is used in the plural, and in the sense of rest only. The m is sometimes rejected ; but the laws of its rejection are unimportant here. The numerals, as far as known, are unu, one; dur, two; thus declined : Masc. Fern. Neut Nom. dur (K U.) tuva 1 ? Dat. duir „ tuves ] Ace. duf „ tuf tuva Abi. tuve tuves Tri. three, thus declined : Masc. and Fern. Neut. Norn. tri trija ? Ace. tref, tre, trif, treif trija Abl. tris Four is petur (neropes for reaaapes, iEol. 1 ) ; six, se ; nine, nurpier; ten, desen? Of the personal pronouns (Umbrian and Oscan), we have meJie (N. U.), mihi; Horn, or tio (N. U.), tiu (0. U.), te; tefe, tibi; seso, sese ; titer, tuus ; vestra, vestra. The demonstrative pronouns are erek, ere (0. U.), erec, ere, eront (N. XL), idik (0. 0.), izic (N. 0.), answering to the Latin is; esto, to iste ; eso (N. U.), eznm (N. 0.), to hie; ero, to ille ; eno and Jio, only found in conjunctional and adverbial forms ; poe, poi, or poei (N. U.), qui ; the p, both in Umbrian and Oscan, answering to the Latin q ; (so plsipumpe, quicunque). In the Greek dialects, in like manner, it and < are interchanged : so 71-77, ttoctos, iroios, ku, Koaos, ko7os. Hence, too, \vkos, lupus, o-kvXov, spolium, &c. In this respect the Oscan was often nearer than the Latin to the Greek. The auxiliary verb es (esse, thai) is thus conjugated, as far as we have examples : 1 Hence petonitum. 2 Hence, Dsen, Zen, Zehn, Germ. lviii INTRODUCTORY DISSERTATION. Umbrian language UMBRIAN". Old. New. Pres. Ind. Zrd. sing, est 3rd. sing, est Zrd. pi. sent, sont, isunt Pees. Pot. Zrd. sing, si 2nd. sing, sir, si, sei Zrd. pi. sins Inf. eru erom The auxiliary yerbfu (fuisse, cfrvvai) is thus found : Pres. Pot. Zrd. sing, fuia Fut. Ind. Zrd. sing, fuiest (Lanzi refers to this tense the forms eront, eriJtont, erahwnt, erefont, erarunt, ererunt. The German philologists regard them as pronouns.) Fut. Perf. Ind. Zrd. sing, fust fust, fus Zrd. pi. furent 2nd. sing, futu Imp. Zrd. sing, futu 2nd. pi. fututu The following fragments of verbs give some, though an imperfect, idea of their conjugation. They are arranged according to the analogous conjugations in Latin. The active and passive are distinguished by the corresponding Latin affixed : © © 00 © © m 6 -3 eh * H H If M O © o o © S-i 5h h o o So § £ 13 6 | B -P* ca m «2 s a © © .Q .Q -to CO > oo 5h O 5° ^ t) I £ 1 EH 8 icatio 5 i— i H ,Q CH go h c3 ps cc s ^3 ^3 -F 03 O Pm *"• 75 1 p >4 H ^ — •* H3 £? £ "S « .s £ lO 4) * m 8 << ^ 1 I 1 £,-=* C3 ^ 43 fl en £ o £ J3.s d "6" ■ft ^3 o •s g AS ^ i-H N M t— I *-*— » 3 (1 d £ 02 '2 a o u 03 o -2 02 fi 2 2 43 a -t3 i a 43 43 o 'S "'S 03 03 'o' I o -1-3 -1-3 a 43 t) id d C3 a a Oh g o Jo t3 o o Eh ft HP 00 03 02 "3 02 Fh 03 gH d § eg oT "3 • t-l -4-3 5-H c3 03 1 h S Id d i 8h IS a ■4 f id 3 d^ 1 m Ph «3 02 -u 05 EH m j l < Ph 15 Ph -^ 03 03 Eh ft 1 ■a So a i a fi P3 "a " a '3 w 03 ft 3 3 a a Ph P3 o -4-3 /->. -4J en r^ Ph ! 8 1 d ft H Ph S 1— 1 e ►fii i ft 8 8 eg -*3 'o a Ph 13 1 .5 i o ft CO SOURCES AND FORMATION OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE. lxi The Umbrian prepositions (which the Oscan closely resemble) are, Umbrian with their Latin exponents, as follows : O is old Umbrian ; N, new. anguas Ar (0.), ad Ehe, eh, eso, sese, tefe (N.), e, ex Eine, eno, in Eis, ejs Hiitra (0.), hondra (N.), infra Karu (0.), coram Kum,ku(0.) | Com, co (N.) J Per, pro. (Generally post-fixed, as pupluper, pro popido.) Perse, persei, persi (N".), irepll Pune (0.), ponne, poui (N.), pone ? ) )post Post (NT.) Pustin, pusti (0.), posti (N\), jp*o Pre, ante, pro (prce in composition) Sei (IS".), a& (the se of composition, as in segrego) Subra (N.), surur, supra Sopa, sub Tra (0.), traf, trahaf, traha (NT.), trans Tu (0.), to (N\), ab. (It seems the word which enters peniato, divi- mtus, ccelitm, &c, which words are compounded quite after the Umbrian fashion.) Upetu, ob, propter The compositional prepositions are an (0.), dva or in; «»z3, amp?' (0.), aj»#r (N.), ainbi, d/zc/u ; all (0.), a, aZ:580. TERENCE U.C.J pacuvius lived u.c. 534 — 624. ATTIUS .... FLOURISHED ABOUT U.C. 600. lucilius u.c. 630. LUCRETIUS 670. CATULLUS U.C.I U.C.J LATIX POETRY. PAET I THE EAELIEE POETIC LTTEEATUEE OP THE KOMANS. The history of Latin Poetry presents a phenomenon in literature wholly without parallel. The Romans were, from their origin, a people :: : utivity and intelligence, of strong passions, and romantic patriotism ; and their history and early fictions are so crowded with poetical incident, that some writers have not scrupled to assert that the great historian who records them assumed heroic ballads for the basis of his history. Tet, unlike many nations less favourably circumstanced, they remained for five centuries without a poet of emi- nence. Even when the Muse of Greece had unveiled to them her awful and dazzling beauties, they seemed less to catch thejiame of poetry than to learn the art, and to consider their compositions excellent, only in proportion as they were excellent imitations. In their admiration of the beautiful picture which the Grecian genius had produced, they lost sight of the great original, Mature ; and their compositions, accordingly, present, in general, correctness and pre- cision, but are destitute of that life, light, and colouring which the presence ;: 'Ratine alone can awaken on the canvas. The most original of all their poets himself recommends, as indispensable to the poet, the unremitted study of the Greek writers, as of perfect and infallible models ; l and his own practice abundantly evinces the sincerity of his respect for the precept. Overlooking the real peculiarities of his own original genius, Horace himself entertained no higher idea of originality than to make it consist in the importation of a new form of poetry from Greece : and affected on this ground to despise, as a servile herd of imitators, those who only copied for the second or third time. 2 Indeed, an imitator, as 1 Hor. De Art. Pee:. 268. - 1 Ep. six. 19, seqq. v. •■> 4 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. the Romans understood the word, only implied one who imitated Latin authors ; the imitation of Greek in no way detracting, in their ideas, from the originality of a composition, but rather being, in some respect at least, implied in its excellence. The history of Latin Poetry, accordingly, is the history of the action of the Greek mind on the Roman : every production anterior to that contact having been either lost, or evidencing the poetical incapability of Eoman intellect unkindled by the torch of Greece. The beginnings of the Roman State were unfavourable to literary pursuits of any kind. Plutarch 1 and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, 2 indeed, tell us that Romulus was educated at Gabii in Greek literature and science ; but, even allowing this prince a historical existence, most certain it is that nothing resembling the effects of education in a sovereign appears either in his own conduct or in the character of his subjects. On the contrary, we learn from Dionysius 3 that he committed the cultivation of sedentary and (what he called) illiberal arts to slaves and foreigners; and " such employments," adds the historian, " were long held in contempt by the Romans, whose only occupations were agriculture and war." Yet a specimen of the poetry, if it deserve the name, attributed to his day, has descended to us in the hymn of the Hymn of the Fratres Arvales ; of which, and of the Salian hymn which suc- ArvSes. ceeded it, we have already spoken : and of both which productions it is only necessary to observe in this place that, so far as they can be comprehended, they appear meagre in the extreme, other The triumphal songs, of which frequent mention is made by Hymns. Livy, 4 appear to have been merely the rude, extemporaneous effusions of military licence amidst the hilarity of a triumph, and never to have been considered in the light of compositions ; the examples of them given by Suetonius, 5 at a time when the lan- guage was highly cultivated, give us no reason to regret the loss of earlier specimens ; and, even in these, Dionysius of Halicarnassus discovers a resemblance to Grecian practices; 6 and the style and nature of the sacred hymns may be sufficiently gathered from what has just been said concerning those of Romulus and Numa. 7 Cicero informs us, 8 out of Cato's " Origines," that it was the custom of the Romans, many ages before the time even of that philosopher, to commemorate the valiant or virtuous achievements of their 1 In Romulo. 2 Antiq. Rom. i. 84. 3 Antiq. Rom. ii. 28. 4 Liv. iii. 29 ; iv. 20, 53 ; v. 49 ; vi. 10. 5 Suet. Jul. 49, 51. These rude carols not infrequently rather reflected on the triumphant general than celebrated the triumph, as in this reference. 6 Antiq. Rom. vii. 72. 7 See infra, Livy's description of a hymn by Livius Andronicus, sung to Juno five hundred years later. 8 Tusc. Quaest. i. 2, and iv. 2. Cf. Val. Max. ii. 1, 60 ; Cic. Brut. 19.; Yarro apud. Non. Marcell. ii. 70 ; Hor. iv. od. 15. BALLAD POETRY. countrymen in songs, accompanied on the flute, in their entertain- ments : and on one occasion he regrets the loss of these ballads. 1 Ballads. But how far there was any real cause of regret, we may tolerably well estimate from what is actually known of the state of Eoman Poetry when it first had any sensible existence, and when it was sufficiently bald, though formed on the perfect models of Greece. So little groundwork is there for the theory of Niebuhr, 2 that the exploits of the Eoman worthies were contained in a series of rhapsodies, and much less that they formed, as he conjectures, the subject of a regular Epic poem. The "Lays of Ancient Kome" represent with great exactness what the primitive poetry of Rome would have been, had she possessed a Macaulay. But there is no evidence that the sentiment of her early ballads was better than their mechanism ; though the subjects, taken from a rude and unformed state of society, doubtless possessed that character of wild poetry which belongs to such a period, and which we recognise in the early books of Livy. It was, most probably, a rude kind of ballad, sung at harvest homes and other rustic festivals, which gave rise to that law of the twelve tables, to which Cicero alludes in order to show that the early ages of Eome were not so totally destitute of cultivation as was generally believed : 3 "Si quis pipulo occentasit, carmenve condisit t quod infamiam faxit flagitiumve alteri, fuste feritor." The follow- ing is Horace's account of the rise and progress of this species of poetry : 4 Agricolse prisci, fortes, parvoque beati, Condita post frumenta, levantes tempore festo Corpus, et ipsum animum spe finis dura ferentem, Cum sociis operum, pueris, et conjuge fid&, Tellurem porco, Sylvanum lacte piabant, Floribus et vino Genium memorem brevis sevi. Fescennina per bunc inventa licentia morem Fescenmne Versibus alternis opprobria rustica fudit ; Libertasque recurrentes accepta per annos Lusit amabiliter, donee jam saevus apertam In rabiem verti coepit jocus, et per honestas Ire domos, impune minax : doluere cruento Dente lacessiti ; fuit intactis quoque cura 1 Brut. 19. These were tbe " laudationes," as the "nsenise 1 " (poems of a similar character, and sometimes, perhaps, perpetuated as " laudationes '') were the lays sung at the funerals of eminent men. Niebuhr supposes the epitaphs of the Scipios to belong to this class. That these inscriptions are metrical, he argues from the inequality of the lines. Yet he presently observes, when it suits his purpose to alter the arrangement, " Stone-cutters are inaccurate in everything, but most of all in dividing their lines." There is nothing resembling metre in the inscriptions themselves. We shall, however, return to this subject presently. 2 Nieb. RSmisch. Gesch. i. pp. 178— 354, &c. ' 3 Tusc. Qusest. iv. 2. Of. Hor. ii. sat. i. 82. 4 Ep. ad Aug. 139. Cf. Virg. Georg. ii. 385, seqq. ; Tibull. I. vii. 35—40 ; II. i. 55, seqq. ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. Conditione super communi : quinetiam lex Poenaque lata, malo quae nollet carmine quenquam Describi. Vertere modum, formidine fustis Ad bene dicendum delectandumque redacti. "With little rich and blest, our hardy hinds Refresbed their toilworn frames and patient minds At harvest bomes ; and witb tbeir consorts true, Their children, and their mates in order due, Offered to Sylvan milk, to Earth a swine, To life's indulgent Genius flowers and wine. Hence born, Fescennine liberty exprest Inverse alternate coarse and rustic jest : For many a circling year the rugged sport Play'd harmlessly ; at length the hard retort Began with furious and unbridled rage War with illustrious families to wage: Then writhed the bitten 'neatli the bloody fang : Then winced the unhurt who feared the impending pang Then law and penalty forbad to claim Poetic licence with a neighbour's fame. Awed by the rod, they grew to change their tone, Content to rally and amuse alone. Ludi Scenici. Derivation of Satura. In the three hundred and ninety-second year of the city, and in the consulship of C. Sulpitius Peticus and C. Licinius Stolo, a pestilence raged in Home. 1 The Senate, after exhausting their whole ritual of superstitions without success, had recourse to that nation from which they obtained almost all their sacred rites, and all their arts of divination; — Etruria. It was then that scenic entertainments (ludi scenici), for dramatic they could not be called, were first exhibited in Eome. Poetry had so little connexion with these, that they did not so much as embrace dumb show, but con- sisted merely of dances to the flute. The Koman youth were pleased with these exhibitions, and imitated them, accompanying the action with raillery. The Fescennine carols (so called from Fescennium, a town of Etruria 2 ), which were, for the most part, as scurrilous and obscene as they were rude and inharmonious, and which seem to have borne great analogy to the Greek phallics, sank into disrepute, or were only retained as part of nuptial ceremonies, on which they long remained faithful attendants. Frequent repeti- tion advanced the scenic exercises of the Eomans to their first essay towards a regular production, which was called a Satura, and was accompanied with appropriate music. The derivation of this word has been a point of controversy with the learned. Not to mention any other authors who have treated 1 Liv. vii. 2. 2 Of the Faliscans, says Niebuhr, not the Etruscans : he appeals to Virg. JEn. vii. 695, where, however, the Faliscans are distinctly classed among the Etruscan people. SATYEIC DRA3IA. 7 it, the Scaligers are divided on it. The word is written variously in MSS. of authority: Satura, satyra,satira. Some derive it from the " lanx satura" a dish of various kinds of fruit, and suppose it to mean an oho ; and in proof of their etymology they adduce the " leges satura" l which treated on several subjects ; satira, as they say, being only a more modern orthography of satura, as " maxi- au.s" for the more ancient form "maxumus." 2 Others, who contend that the true orthography is satyra, derive it from adrvpos, and make it somewhat analogous to the early satyric drama of Greece. If this be the right etymology, the early form would still have been, most probably, satura, which orthography we shall accordingly adopt. "Whatever be the derivation of the name, the analogy of the tiling to the Greek satyrics does not admit of doubt. We are ready to allow, with the great critics who have treated this subject at more extended length than we can do, that its resemblance to such a drama as the " Cyclops " of Euripides must have been very slender : but it seems to have borne a close analogy to the satyric exhibitions of Thespis, and a still nearer to the comic aarvpos of the Greeks. According to Livy, the satura were dances mingled with raillery, which only differed from the old Fescennine carols in being determinate in respect both of music and verse. Let us compare with this account what Horace says of the satyri of Thespis : 3 Carmine qui tragico vilem certavit ob hircum Mox etiain agrestes satyros nudayit, et asper, Incolumi gravitate jocum tentavit, eo quod Illecebris erat et grata novitate morandus Spectator, functusque sacris, et potus, et exlex. He who in tragic contests wont to try For a poor goat, next to the public eye Exposed the rustic satyrs, and retain'd, Jesting, his tragic dignity unstain'd. Fresh from the feast, and by the wine-cup fired, His lawless audience such new charms required. The old scholiast certainly considered these satyri to be the same as the satura; for, in explaining this passage, he observes : " Ostendit Saturam natam esse e Tragoediis." One distinction between the satyri and satura is particularly insisted on ; that, in the latter, Satyrs were never introduced ; but this has not been proved ; while we have the testimony of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, that dances of Satyrs were at least common in the Roman processions. 4 Neither is 1 Harris, Philosophical Arrangements, ch. 18. 2 " Medius est quidam U et I litteras somas." — Quinct. i. iv. 3 De Art. Poet. v. 220. 4 Antiq. Rom. vii. 72. 8 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. the point of much consequence, as Satyrs were not always intro- duced in the Greek satyri ; the resemblance between which and the Koman satura is acknowledged by Eichstadt, although that author denies their connection, misled by the testimonies of Horace and Quinctilian, 1 which refer to a poetry altogether different, the satire ; while Dionysius speaks of the identity of the Roman and Greek satyric choruses as an acknowledged fact, which it would be wasting words to prove. 2 It is true that he is treating of what can scarcely be called dramatic ; yet his language is general. The "satyrick comedies" written by Sylla 3 were, in all probability, only the early satura in a more artificial form. After the introduction of the regular drama by Livius Andronicus, the Eoman youth, leaving the newly discovered art to its professors, continued their saturce> connected with the Atellane plays, under the Exodn. name of exodia. 'Egodiov or egodos was the name given by the Greeks to the part which followed the last fxeXos of a tragedy ; 4 whence these satura were named exodia, from their being brought on the stage after the play. A most striking point of resemblance existed between the exodia and the Greek satyric drama. Dacier, 5 who contends against their identity, observes that the actors performed in the same masks and dresses as in the play, and continued their characters ; and cites, in proof, the following passage from Juvenal : Urbicus exodio risum movct Atellanae Gestibus Autonoes. Where it is evident that a serious character was burlesqued. Similarly, when Suetonius says of Domitian, 6 " Occidit et Elvidium jilium, quod quasi scenico exodio sub persona Faridis et (Enones divortium suum cum uxore tractdsset," (or, taxdsset.) he evidently refers, by Dacier's admission, to a serious play, in the exodium of which the satire alluded to appeared. Now this was precisely the case with the Greek satyric. Even after tragedy had attained its zenith, it was customary for the poet to complete his rerpaXoyla with a satyric drama, in which the characters of the previous play were preserved. To this custom Horace alludes in his precepts to the satyric poet : 1 Hor. I. sat. x. 66. Quinct. x. 1. 2 a 0ri Se ovre Aiyvow, ovt 'OfifipiKwv, ovt &\\s Mevdvdpov tov KcopuKov. 3 Tiraboschi and Dunlop make Stephanus a tragedian on the authority of Suidas ; but the lexicographer adds, eV^e Se vlbv Srecpavov, ml avrbv khmikon. Xenocritus of Locris wrote dithyrambs. Theano, of the same place, composed lyric poetry ; and ISTossis, also of Locris, wrote epigrams. The conquest of Magna Grcecia was succeeded by an event which Sicily. contributed in a still greater degree to advance the cause of literature among the Eomans. Two years only after the capture of Tarentum, arose the first Punic war. The scene of this contest was not, like that of earlier struggles, in the neighbourhood of their own territory ; and this circumstance gave them leisure to contemplate the charms of the Grecian Muse at home, while they were every day unveiling new beauties in the theatre of the war, Sicily. In that country the 1 e. g. Odysseus, Ulixes ; Aias, Ajax ; Ganymedes, Catamitus ; &c. See Niebuhr, iii. p. 310, iv. lect. xix. 2 Hist, of Rom. Lit. i. p. 63. 3 Suid. voc. A\e|is. u ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. Early Draina. Livius Andronicus. flowers of Grecian poesy had blossomed with much greater luxuriance than even on the neighbouring continent, and here was the cradle of the pastoral and comic Muses. It was here that Stesi- chorus is supposed to have invented Bucolic Poetry, and certainly did reduce lyrical compositions to the regular division of strophe, antistrophe, and epode. It was here that Empedocles " married to immortal verse " the " illustrious discoveries " of his " divine mind ;" l that Epicharmus invented Comedy, which was cultivated by Philemon, Apollodorus, Carcinus, Sophron, and various others : and that Tragedy found successful votaries in Empedocles, Sosicles, and Achseus. It was in Sicily that the Mime was invented, or, at least, perfected ; Pindar, iEschylus, and Simonides, had resided at the court of Hiero I., and Theognis of Megara committed his precepts to elegiacs in Sicily. The Dionysii also were authors, as well as patrons of literary men. At the time when the Eomans were in Sicily, it is not improbable that Theocritus was living. On the conclusion of the peace with Carthage, in the year of the city 512, 2 a part of Sicily was ceded by treaty to the Eomans, who had now leisure and tranquillity to enable them to inquire Quid Sophocles, et Thespis, et iEschylus utile ferrent. Many of the inhabitants of the conquered provinces came to reside at Eome, and imported their arts and cultivation ; and from this period the history of Eoman poetry assumes a regular and connected form. In the consulship of C. Claudius Cento, and M. Sempronius Tuditanus, the 514th year of Rome, 3 Livius Andronicus first advanced the dramatic art from the satura to a regular plot. His surname evidently proves that he was a Greek ; but whether of Greece Proper, Italy, or Sicily, is not known. His Eoman name seems also to intimate that he was the freedman of a certain Livius; it being the custom of freed men at Eome, to assume, on liberation, the name of their former master. It is most probable that he fell into the hands of the Eomans in their wars in Magna Grcecia or Sicily, as the Eomans, at that time, had no regular intercourse with Greece. He is generally asserted to have been the slave of Livius Salinator, but Tiraboschi can find no better authority for this statement than the Chronicle of Eusebius ; and as Salinator was not consul until u. c. 534, he concludes that the master of Andro- nicus was another of the same family. Attius, the annalist, according 1 See Lucret. i. 733, 734. 2 Punico hello secundo Musa pennato gradu Intulit se bellicosam Romuli in gentem feram. Porcius Licinius ap. Aul. Gell. xvii. 21. 3 Cic. Brut, xviii. Cf. ejusd. Tusc. Disp. i. 1 ; De Senect. xiv. ; Aul. Gell. xvii. 21. LIVII'S AXDEOXICUS. 15 to Cicero. 1 said that Livius was made captive at Tarentum, thirty years after the date usually assigned to his first play; but Cicero treats this as a gross error. The account which Livy gives of the introduction of the Drama is curious. 2 " Livius," says he, " being, as was then the case with all, the actor of his own productions, and having weakened his voice by being frequently recalled on the stage, is said to have obtained leave to introduce a boy to sing his part before the flute -player, and was thus enabled to perform his compositions with more spirited action, because he was no longer impeded by the use of his voice. From this circumstance," adds the historian, " arose the custom of actors performing to the singing of others, and only employing their voices in dialogue." The works of Andronicus have perished, except a few disjointed fragments ; but if we are to judge by the opinions of Cicero and Horace, Time might have been more injurious to us. Cicero says his plays were not worth a second perusal ; 3 and Horace, in whose time the poems of Livius were regularly taught in the schools, reproves the midiscriminating antiquaries of his day, who exalted them above the refined productions of a more polished age ; — * Non equidem insector, delendaque carrnina Livi Esse reor, memini qua? plagosuni mihi parvo Orbiliurn dictare : sed emendata videri, Pulchraque, et exactis minimum distantia, miror. Inter quse verburn emicuit si forte decorum, et Si versus paulo concinnior turns et alter, Injuste totum ducit venditque poema. I would not Livius' poetry destroy, Which sharp Oibifius, when I was a boy, Flogged into me ; but why men call it fine, Exquisite, perfect, ne'er could I divine. If here and there a happy phrase and terse. Or now and then, perhaps, a well-turned verse Occur, forthwith the critic puffs the whole. The names of the plays ascribed to Andronicus are Achilles, Aclon, Sgistlius, Ajax, Andromeda, Antiopa, Cenfauri, Equus Trojanus, Gladiolus* Helena, Hennione, Ino, Lydius, b Protesi- laodamia, (forte Protesilaus el Laoclamia) Seranus, Tereus, Tev.cer, Teutkras, Fin/o. 5 Beside his dramatic works, he made a transla- tion of the Odyssey in Saturnian metre ; and Livy tells us that a hymn composed by him in honour of Juno was sung through the city by twenty-seven virgins in the year 545 (a.C. 207), of which the historian gives no very favourable account: "Ilia tempestate forsitau laudabile rudibus ingeniis, nunc abliorrens et inconditmn, si 1 Brut, xviii. - Liv. vii. 2. 3 Brut, xviii. 4 Epist. ad Aug. 69, seqq. s These were comedies. 16 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. Comedy. Naavius. referatur" l Some, on the authority of Diomedes, 2 the Gram- marian, make Livius the first Latin epic poet ; but for " Livius " we should read " Mmius," or "is" as is found in the best editions. Livius, according to Suetonius, 3 taught Greek at Eome ; that is, translated Greek words and authors for such as were desirous to obtain a knowledge of the language ; for the art of grammar was then unknown to the Eomans. He lived till Cato was a " youth;"* that is, till he had reached his seventeenth year ; and therefore could not have died before u.c. 535. But it is evident that there is no certainty of his having lived until 545 ; as the hymn sung in that year might have been composed on some previous occasion. Such were the beginnings of the first epoch of Roman poetry. We shall now proceed to discuss, separately, the progress of its different departments during that period, which lasted about two centuries, and was succeeded by the splendid sera of Augustus. Cnseus Naevius, a Campanian, or, as some rather suppose, a native of Eome, six years after the representation of Livius' first play, 5 became a candidate for dramatic fame, and wrote, as well as Livius, comedies and tragedies. The names of the former preserved to us are, Acontizomenos, Agitatoria, Agrypnuntes, Apella, Assitogiola, Carbonaria, Clastidium, Colax, Corollaria, Cosmetria, Demetrius, Diobolarii, Figulus, Glaruma, Gymnasticus, Hariolus, Leon, Lupus, Nautce, Pacilius, Pellex, Philemporm, Projectus, Pulli, Quadri- gemini, Sanniones, Stalagmus, Stigmatius, Tarentilla, Testicvlaria, Tripliallus, Tunicularia. His tragedies were entitled, JEgisthus, Alcestis, Danae, D/dorestes, Equus Trojanus, Hesiona, Hector, Iphi- genia, Lycurgus, P/ioenissce, Protesilaodamia, Teleplws, and Tereus. His comic humour seems to have partaken much of the old satyric spirit, and, like that of the early comic poets of Greece, to have been fearlessly and liberally directed against the leading characters of the state. The following lines, preserved to us by Aulus Gellius, 6 were applied, by common scandal, to the elder Africanus: — Etiam qui res magnas saepe gessit gloriose, Cujus facta viva nunc vigeut, qui apud gentes solus Prasstatj eum suus pater, cum pallio uno, ab arnica abduxit ! He had also, in a comprehensive line, insinuated that the family of the Metelli did not enjoy the consulship on account of their own deserts, but in consequence of the evil destiny of Eome : — Fato Metelli Romse fiunt Consules 1 Liv. xxvii. 37. 4 Cic. Cato Maj. xiv. 2 Diom. Gram. iii. 5 Aul. Gell. xvii. 21. 3 De Illustr. Gram. i. 1. 6 Noct. Att. vi. 18. N^VIUS. PLAUTUS. 17 This the Metelli retaliated with a threat, which was afterwards Naevius. executed on the poet : Dabunt malum Metelli Naevio Poetae. Nsevius was imprisoned, and composed in confinement two of his comedies, the Hariolus and the Leo7i ; l and, for the sake of these, which were a sort of recantation of his former lampoons, he was set at liberty by the tribunes of the commons. Gellius, in the passage from whence this information is taken, tells us that the satire of Naevius resembled that of the Greek poets; and Horace informs us that the popularity of the poet was so great, and that his works were so well known, that copies of them were neglected, as useless to perpetuate what was in every man's memory : — Naevius in manibus non est ; at mentibus haeret Paene recens. 2 The readings and interpretations, however, of this passage are various. Naevius died at Utica, whither he had been banished for Nsevius' . . • 1 -r» • epitaph. continuing his invectives against the Koman aristocracy, about u.c. 550. 3 He wrote his own epitaph, haughty and defiant as his life:— Mortales immortales flere si foret fas, Flerent Divae Camcenae Naevium poetam ; Itaque, postquam est Orcino traditus thesauro, Obliti sunt Romae loquier Latina lingua. If e'er o'er beings mortal might sorrow tbose divine, Then o'er the poet Naevius would weep tbe beavenly Nine ; For since the bard was treasured old Orcus' stores among, At Rome they have forgotten to speak the Latin tongue. The lawless and unsparing satire of the Old Comedy, intolerable even in the licentious democracy of Athens, was little likely to maintain a permanent ascendency at Home. The example of Naevius had not been lost ; and his successor, Marcus Attius (or Maccius) Plautus, carefully evaded the misfortunes which it ap- piautus. peared would too surely attend ridiculing the public characters of the day. Some of his productions seem imitated from the later plays of Aristophanes, or what is generally called the Middle Comedy of the Greeks ; and in these, probably, public characters were covertly satirized. Others, again, are formed on the model of Philemon, Diphilus, and Menander, or the New Comedy. 1 Aul. Gell. i. 24. 2 g p> a( j Aug. 53 3 His consulibus (M. Corn. Cethego et P. Sempronio Tuditano, u. c. 550) ut in veteribus commentariis scriptum est, Naevius est mortuus ; quanquam Varro noster, diligentissimus investigator antiquitatis, putat in hoc erratum, vitamque Naevii producit longius. — Cic. Brut. xv. The Eusebian Chronicle places the event u. c. 553. [R. l.] c 18 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. Piautus. Plautus, as we learn from Horace, 1 was an imitator of Epicharmus; but we have no means of ascertaining the merits or success of his model. There is, however, a Roman freshness about his plays, which, notwithstanding their Grecian garb and origin, convinces the reader that they are, to a great extent, original. And, in- deed, they are highly valuable as illustrative of the private and public life of the Boman people. When we read the plays of Plautus, and learn from all antiquity how highly they were admired, we cannot but feel surprise at finding Horace treating them as works agreeable indeed to their rustic forefathers, 2 but perfectly antiquated in his own more polite and fastidious age. Perhaps, however, this is more than ought, in fairness, to be deduced from the words of the poet : — At nostri proavi Plautinos et numeros et Laudavere sales ; nimiiim patienter utrumque, Ne dicam, stulte, mirati ; si modo ego et vos Scimus inurbanum lepido seponere dictum, Legitimumque sonum digitis callemus, et aure. Our forefathers old Plautus' wit would praise, And the rude measures of his scenic lays; Too tolerant in their favours : if the word Be pardon' d me, I ev'n would say, absurd : At least, if you and I know dull from bright, And count and hear poetic tones aright. This criticism, although it is generally understood to imply the most unqualified censure on Plautus, in reality only charges his metres with ruggedness, and his jests with coarseness ; the truth of which charges will hardly be denied by his most devoted admirers. And yet the great critic-poet, in this instance, as in some others, may have been too contemptuous. The rudeness of Plautus's versification is not merely the result of an uncultivated period ; it is the effect of intention and art, as is evident from the epitaph com- posed by the poet for himself : — Postquam morte datu' st Piautus, Comcedia luget, Scena est deserta ; dein Risus, Ludu', Jocusque, Et numeri innumeri simul omnes collacrumarunt. 3 Since Plautus died, Thalia beats her breast : The stage is empty : Laughter, Sport, and Jest, And all the timeless measures, weep distrest. Plautus was probably acquainted with the niceties of the senarius, as Horace doubtless was with those of the heroic hexameter ; both poets adopted an artificial negligence, as best suited to the objects they contemplated. The comedies of Plautus are written 1 Ep. ad Aug. 58. 2 De Art. Poet. 270, seqq. 3 Aul. Gell. i. 24. PLAUTUS. COMIC VERSE. 19 in a style much too unfettered by the Aristotelian rules of composi- Piautus. tion, to command the entire approbation of critics of that school ; but though he is greatly inferior to Terence in felicity of expression and purity of language, his dramatic nights, not unfrequently, surpass the loftiest of that most elegant writer. At the same time it is necessary to observe that the plays of Piautus have apparently been much corrupted, not only in frequent transcription, but by actors' readings, and other causes. We have reason to believe that we possess them all, except the Viclularia ; although great numbers of others have been attributed to him. His " elegance " is highly commended by Gellius, 1 and iElius Stilo said that the Muses, if they spoke Latin, would speak the style of Piautus. 2 Of his life few particulars are known. He was born at Sarsina, in Umbria, about u.c. 500, and died at Eome, u.c. 569, a.c. 184. His origin was humble. His love of the drama led him to labour as a servant to the actors, in which occupation he obtained some wealth, which he afterwards lost by speculations. In consequence, he was obliged to work in a mill at Eome for his daily bread. In this situation, according to Yarro, and most others, 3 he composed the Saturio, the Aditus, and another play. The story is confirmed by Eusebius, 4 but is rendered suspicious by the names of the plays, and is discredited by Niebuhr. It is possible that Piautus may have been confounded in this, as in other instances, with another comic poet named Plautius. 5 The New Comedy of the Eomans was not, in all respects, a copy of Greek and the Greek; the scene was generally laid at Athens, and the characters comedyf eW were of the middle station of life, as in Menander ; but the artifice of a double plot was added, and the Latin Muse, in all other com- positions severer than her sister of Greece, in the drama allowed herself much greater licences, and those in Comedy were almost unbounded. It was doubted in the time of Horace whether Comedy was a poem; 6 inasmuch as its subject and style are prosaic, and it only differs from prose in being metrical. Even in this latter respect, however, the difference is not very sensible, and the fol- lowing passage of Cicero will show that the harmony of the comic verse was not so very perceptible, even in his time : " Comicorum comic senarii, propter similitudinem sermonis, sic scepe stmt abjecti, ut non- Metre - nunquam vix in his numerus et versus intelligi possit ; " 7 and among the moderns, Erasmus, Scaliger, Bentley, and Eaber, who have endeavoured to reduce the metres of Terence to rule, have been obliged to admit great numbers of exceptions to their theories. The Latin comic measure, like its model the Greek, consists for the most part of iambic trimeters acatalectic, and trochaic tetrameters 1 Aul. Gell. vii. 17. 2 Quinct. x. 1. 3 Yarro et plerique alii. — Aul. Gell. iii. 3. 4 n. 1810. 5 See Aul. Gell, ubi supra. 6 1. Sat. iv. 45. ' Orat. lv. c 2 20 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETItY. catalectic, although these are much less restricted than the corre- sponding metres of the Greek stage. Thus the iambic verse admits in every place, except the last, wherein the characteristic foot is always preserved, the dactyl, anapaest, spondee, tribrach, pyrrhic, and proceleusma. The same feet are allowed in the trochaic verse. The only distinction is that the iambus is never admitted into the trochaic verse, nor the trochee into the iambic. A principal diffi- culty, however, arises from many words being scanned in comedy, as, doubtless, they were pronounced in conversation, in order to bring this species of composition still nearer the forms of ordinary life. We shall give some instances from Terence : Elision of v. Libert \ its vfen \ difuit | jjotes | tas n'dn \ te"a. \ Iamb. Triinb. vfendi for vivendi, and fuit for fuit. Elision of I. Hubet ad \ das et i | las quds \ hdbct \ rede \ feras. Iamb. Trimb. Tlas for illas. Elision of d. Qu'' inter | est hoc \ a. deo' ex \ hac re | verut \ In men | tern — ml | hi. Troch. Tetr. Cat. Qu' inter, Qui' inter, for Quid inter. But even these rules will not explain every verse. Terence is more remiss in the construction of his verses than Plautus; and the traces of early rusticity which were said by Horace to exist even in his days in the literature of his country are no where more conspicuous than in the versification of the comic poets of Latium. Praetextae The Eoman drama did not strictly confine itself to Greek subjects. Togatee. Horace commends those authors who had patriotically ventured to desert the beaten path, and celebrate national topics : — Nee minimum meruere decus, vestigia Graeca Ausi deserere, et celebrare domestica facta, Vel qui Praetextas, vel qui doeuere Togatas. 1 These plays were tragedies and comedies respectively, of which the characters were Eoman. Patrick, indeed, in the life of Terence pre- fixed to his edition of that poet, contends that the Fratexta? were only comedies of a more serious kind. This idea is very common, and is advocated by Gyraldus and J. C. Scaliger. 2 But, whatever they may have been called, it is certain that they had not the nature of Comedy. Gyraldus distinguishes thus between Tragedy and what he is pleased to call the Prcetextate Comedy. " Prcstexta verb in hoc a Tragcedid differt, quod in Tragcedid heroes introducuntur, in Prcetextatd Romance personce, ut Brutus, Decius." According to this account, the Pratextce were tragedies on Eoman subjects. Probably they differed not greatly from the historical plays of Shakspeare ; 1 De Art. Poet. 286. Gyrald. de Comoedid. — Seal, de Corn, et Trey. cap. iii. VRMTEX.TM AND TOGAT.E. 21 and, not being limited by the unities, may have thus come to be considered a distinct kind of composition from Tragedy. 1 The word Togata is used genetically to express a Eoman play, in oppo- sition to Po.lliata, a Greek play; the Prcetexta being but the Toga 1 The reader may obtain some idea of their character from the following passage of Attius's Brutus, preserved by Cicero (De Divia. i. 22). The interlocutors are Tarquin the Proud and his diviners. Quum jam quieti corpus nocturno impetu Dedi, sopore placans artus languidos ; Visa' est in somnis pastor ad me appellere ; * * * * * Duos consanguineos arietes inde eligi, Pecus lanigerum eximia pulchritudine ; Prseclarioremque alteram immolare me : Deinde ejusgermanum cornibus connitier In me arietare, eoque ictu me ad casum dari ; Exin prostratum terra graviter saucium, Resupinum ; in coelo contueri maximum Ac mirificum facinns ; dextrorsiim orbem flammeum Radiatum solis liquier cursu novo. COKJECTORES. Rex, quee in vita usurpant homines, cogitant, curant, vident, Quseque aiunt vigilantes, agitantque, ea si cui in somno accidunt, Minus mirum est; sed in re tanta haud tern ere improvisd offerunt. Proin vide, ne quern tu esse hebetem deputes, a?que ac pecus, Is sapientia munitum pectus egregia gerat, Teque regno expellat. Xam id quod de so 1 ^ ostentum est tibi, Populo commutationem rerum portendit fore. Perpropinqua haec bene verruncent populo ! nam quod ad dexteram Caepit c'ursum ab laeva signum prsepotens ; pulcerrime Auguratum est, rem Romanam publicam summam fore. TARQUIN. When, urged by weary night, I gave my frame To rest, vrith sleep calming my languid limbs, A shepherd seem'd in slumber to accost me. * * * * * Two kindred rams were chosen from the flock, A fleecy treasure of unwonted beauty : Whereof I slew the fairer on an altar. Then 'gan his fellow with his horns essay To butt me, and overthrew me on the ground ; "Where as I lay sore wounded in the dust, I gaz'd on heaven, and there beheld a vast And wondrous sign : the fiery ray-girt sun Passed back in strange disorder to his right. Good my liege, it is no marvel if the forms of waking thought, Care, and sight, and deed, and converse, all revisit us in sleep : 22 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. of the nobler Bomans, and only differing from the ordinary Toga in being bordered with purple : Toga Piletexta purpura. When, however, the term Togata is used specifically, it denotes the Tabula Tabernaria, or Koman Comedy; or, a higher class of comedy than the Tabernaria, but still purely Roman. The severity of the Eoman character imparted a gravity to the higher class of the Togata, which made it, according to Seneca, 1 a middle ground between Tragedy and Comedy. There was also a species of Dramatic play called RhintJwnica {fabula,) from its inventor, Rhinthon, of terms. Tarentum. Of this the AmjjJdtruo of Plautus may afford the best idea. It was a kind of tragi-comedy, 2 in which heroes and divini- ties were introduced, after a burlesque fashion, and mingled with comic personages. Beside these terms, there were others referring to the internal economy of plays. A comedy which con- tained much bustle and action was called Motoria ; the reverse of this was called Stata?ia; and where the two were combined, the composition was called Mixta. The principal writers of the Comcedia Togata were Trabea, Lamia, Pomponius, Atta, Titinius, Afranius. and Afranius. The loss of the writings of the last-mentioned poet, which were committed to the flames by the misdirected zeal of Gregory I., is an irreparable calamity to literature. Prom the character which he possessed among his countrymen, and which has been so beautifully given in one line by Horace, 3 Dicitur Afrani toga convenisse Menandro, there is reason to believe that his dramas were, at once, excellent and original ; notwithstanding his admission that he not only adapted Menander, but occasionally even a Latin poet also ; 4 and it But we may not pass regardless sight so unforedeemed as this. Wherefore see lest oue thou thinkest stupid as the flocks that graze Bear a heart with choicest wisdom purified and fortified, And expel thee from thy kingdom. For the portent of the sun Shows there is a change impending o'er the people of thy sway. May the gods avert the omen ! it is near! the mighty star From his left to right returning, shows thee clearly as his light That the Roman people's greatness shall hecome supreme at last. This specimen may lead us to regret that nothing more considerable should have remained of the prsetextate plays. Yet they were few. The names of those of an earlier date are but five, and one of these is questionable, the Marcellus, attributed to Attius ; of the others we shall make mention presently. 1 Ep. viii. 2 Faciam ut commixta sit tragicocomcedia ; Nam me perpetuo facere ut sit comcedia Reges quo veniant et Dii, non par arbitror. Quid igitur? quoniam hie servus quoque parteis habet, Faciam sit, proinde ut dixi, tragicocomcedia. — Plant. Prolog, in Amphitr. 3 Ep. ad Aug. 57. Macr. Sat. v. 1. COMIC POETEY. 23 must have been curious to see what the vigorous mind of a Roman Afranius. dramatist could have produced, when, drawing from the great model, Nature, he continually corrected and refined his copy from the elegant proportions of the Attic Thalia. Quinctilian objects to the morals of his dramas, which, therefore, considering those of ancient Comedy generally, must have been very bad. Stephens has collected a few scattered fragments of this author; and though little judgment of the poet can be formed from them, some of them evince great delicacy and elegance. We have scanty means of tracing the progress of Comedy between the times of Plautus and those of Publius Terentius. All the works Terence. of the numerous comedians who flourished during that period, exclusive of a few fragments, have perished. Their names, and the titles of their plays, may be found in Fabricius's Bibliotheca Latina, lib. iv. c. 1. Licinius Imbrex, Turpilius, and Atilius, may be mentioned as distin- guished. Luscius Lavinius is known to us as the " vetus poeta" whom Terence chastises in his prologues. Fabius Dos- sennus, considered by some scholars an Atellane writer, is very satisfactorily shown by Munk l to have been a writer of the Comoedia Palliata. Csecilius Statius, like Terence, a slave and a foreigner, being of Gallic origin, is the most celebrated of the minor comic poets ; Yarro gives his plots the palm; 2 Cicero doubts whether he is not the best comic poet; 3 and Quine- tilian and Horace bear testimony to his great popularity. 4 Cicero, however, in other passages, con- demns his Latinity. 5 But the best idea to be formed of Csecilius is from certain passages of his Plocium, an imitation of the UXokiov, or Necklace, of Menander, which Aulus Terence. 1 De Fab. Atell. p. 121, seqq. 3 De Opt. Gen. Orat. i. 5 Ep. ad Att. vii. 3. Brut, lxxiv. In Parmeno. ap. Non. in voc. Poscere. Quinct. x. 1. Hor. Ep. ad Aug. 59. 24 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. Terence. Gellius has cited, together with the originals, for the purpose of showing the inferiority of this poet, and Latin poets in general, to the Greek masters. 1 If we are to take these passages of Csecilius as a specimen of the method of imitation of the comic poets, we shall find it greatly to have resembled Virgil's copies of Homer or of Theocritus. Whatever may have been the general style or character of the comedies written during the interval now in question, it is scarcely possible to believe that Terence could, at once, have raised this species of composition to the perfection in which he left it ; several grades probably intervened. Indeed, the very nature of Comedy had, during this period, undergone alteration; seeking no longer to please by the mere ridiculous, the Comic Muse had applied herself to the more worthy and philosophical task of delineating ordinary life as it is, with its pathetic, no less than its amusing character. This appears from the following judg- ment of Varro : 2 " rj6rj nulli alii servare convenit quam Titinio, Terentio, Atlce ; nadr) Trabea, et Atilius et Cacilius facile moverunt." The latter is the style of Comedy in which Terence has chosen to excel ; although in pathos he was held inferior to those poets. There is, indeed, no violent excitement of the passions in Terence ; but, while the writings of Plautus are studiously filled with jests and witticisms, it is seldom that Terence indulges in anything of this kind, but is content to raise a laugh naturally from his subject; employing sometimes a grave and sententious discourse, which would have been quite incompatible with the Middle Comedy. The absence of the comic power in Terence is regretted in some verses attributed to Julius Caesar, from which it would appear that Menander was not deficient in this respect, and that consequently Terence was only entitled to half the honour of having reproduced him in Latin. But these verses concur with all antiquity in praising the purity of the Terentian style. 3 Some lines, attributed to Cicero, in like manner commend the elegance of Terence's language, and notice, though without censure, the sober garb in which he had invested the livelier sentiments of the Greek comedian. 4 1 Aul. Gell. ii. 23. 2 Ap. Sosip. Charis. ii. 3 Tu qnoque, tu, in summis, 6 dimidiate Menander, Poneris, et merito, puri sermonis amator. Lenibus atque utinam scriptis adjuncta foret vis Comical ut sequato virtus polleret honore Cum Grsecis, neque in hac despectus parte jaceres. Unum hoc maceror et doleo tibi deesse, Terenti. Jul. Cces. ap. Sueton. Tu quoque, qui solus lee to sermone, Terenti, Conversum expressumque Latina voce Menandrum In medio populi sedatis vocibus effers, Quidquid come loquens, et omnia dulcia dicens. TERENCE. 25 The comedies of Terence are altogether translated or adapted Tereilce - from Menander, Apollodoms, and Diphilus; and while the poet keenly resents the charge of borrowing from Eoman sources, he no less boastfully avows his Greek authorities ; an obligation which he seems to consider, as Latin writers generally did, indispensable to excellence, and therefore not detrimental to originality. The unities, somewhat loosely observed by comedians of the old school, have never been violated by Terence, except, perhaps, in the Heautontimorumenos ; and to this rule he has, apparently, made important sacrifices. The artifice of a double plot, occasionally found in Plautus, was carried to its perfection by Terence, whose skill in its management is in the highest degree admirable. Such, however, was the state of society at Athens (the scene of a large pro- portion of the Latin comedies), and such the severity of the laws which, both there and at Rome, guarded every avenue of satire, that the comedies remaining to us, those of Terence especially, present little novelty of character or plot. A parasite and a soldier, a courtezan, a gentleman, and a slave, are the usual ingredients of the drama ; the interest of which usually turns on the dexterity of the last, and the catastrophe on one of the characters turning out to be a free woman of Athens. It could scarcely be otherwise in the state of Athenian society, where citizen and slave were the only prominent distinctions, and where no consideration was allowed to women. Some writers affected one of these characters more than another ; Dossennus, of whom we know very little, was very partial to the parasite. A life of Terence is extant which is referred by some critics to Donatus, and by others to Suetonius. This uncertainty is of no small importance to the credit of the narrative. If it was written by the author of the life of Virgil, he was so careless and so credulous, that its historical authority is contemptible. We fear, however, that the internal evidence, as far as style is concerned, would fix the work upon him, There is an anecdote in this biography truly Donatian. Terence, we are told, on presenting his Jndria to the sediles for representation, was by those respectable magistrates referred to the judgment of Csecilius. The youthful dramatist found the veteran at the principal Eoman meal. Terence was not, it seems, attired in a costume sufficiently impressive to prepossess his critic ; and he was accordingly ordered to accommodate himself with a stool at the foot of the festal couch, where the stately favourite of the people was reclining. After reciting a few verses, however, he was invited by Csecilius to share the pleasures of his table, and the recitation of the Andria was concluded with great applause. The Eusebian Chronicle gives the substance of this story ; l most probably, after this author ; but it can scarcely be 1 Olymp. 155, 3. 26 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. Terence. true, from chronological considerations, if Csecilius the poet be meant j * but some copies have Cserius. Of like value is the relation cv^Sijet^L^ie J t iafr^=f Jr •!«-■ -^-=^"^-i A ' 7 il Y jlrp^fe*^* -^4^;vS^r ^^=af! /=nHi :p^I=-^&ir~ — — zyu*-^— jggp — v g= ^ — 1 ^ **ftrj*. of Consetius, quoted by the same author, that he perished on his return from Greece with one hundred and eight comedies, which he had translated from Menander; when it is most probable that Menander wrote only one hundred and nine, and it is not certain that he wrote so many ; and Terence had already imitated four of them. Part of the work is certainly the production of Suetonius ; but whether this is only a short quotation, or the bulk of the history, is uncertain ; Terence, however, is generally admitted to have been a Carthaginian, and to have been a slave at Eome, where he was early liberated. He was intimate with Scipio Africanus the younger, and the younger Lselius, 2 and Furius Publius, who are accused, with no slight colour of probability, of having assisted him in the composition of his comedies. It is extremely improbable that the exquisite purity and elegance of the Terentian Latinity should be the unassisted production of a Carthaginian slave ; and Terence himself admits, in the Prologue to his Adelplii, that he received the assistance of persons who were eminently useful in the state : — Nam, quod isti dicunt malevoli, homines nobiles Eum adjutare, assidueque una scribere ; Quod illi maledictum vehemens esse existumant, Earn laudem hie ducit maxumam, quum illis placet Qui vobis universis et populo placent ; Quorum opera in bello, in otio, in negotio, Suo quisque tempore usus est sine superbia. 1 The A ndria was first acted 588 ; Csecilius died u.c. 586. 2 The elder in both cases, according to Schlegel ; but this will not stand with chronology. TEAGEDY. 27 As to what these malicious folks object, Terence. That noble men assist him, and write with him ; What they conceive to be a foul reproach He deems the highest praise ; since those applaud him Whom all of you applaud, and all the people ; Whose aid in war, in leisure, and in labour, Each man has used as suited his occasion. Similar is the passage in the prologue to the Heauto?itimoru- menos : — Turn, quod malevolus vetus poeta dictitat, Repente ad studium hunc se applicasse musicum, Amicum ingenio fretum, hand natura sua ; Arbitrium vostrum, vostra existimatio Valebit. Then, as to what a sour old poet says, That he, our bard, has lately learnt his art, Taught by the genius of his friends, not nature : Your judgment, your good graces, shall avail For his defence. His biographer tells us that Terence was less solicitous to defend himself against this charge, because he knew that the reputation of being the authors of his comedies was by no means unacceptable to his patrons. From the same writer we learn that the critic Santra rather thought him indebted to C. Sulpitius Gallus, a man of learning ; or to Q. Fabius Labeo, and M. Popilius Lenas, who were themselves poets. He was born, according to the same authority, after the second Punic war, and died at Stymphalus, or Leucadia, in Arcadia, in the consulship of Cn. Cornelius Dolabella and M. Fulvius Nobilior, and, consequently, u. c. 594. He was probably about 34 years of age. Even his personal appearance is noticed by his biographer : middle height, slender figure, dark complexion. We have thus traced Latin Comedy to its meridian : the causes of Latin its decline subsequently we shall more conveniently notice when we ^^^ e advance to the poetry of the Augustan age ; we will merely observe for the present, that the great Eoman critic, with all his literary patriotism, could only sum the subject by saying, " In Comcedia maxime claudicamus." l The verdict is strange : but even Terence did not reach that Attic perfection which Soman criticism justly denies to any other section of the Greeks themselves. His licentious versification qualified his elegance in the correct and disciplined ear of Uuinctilian. 2 The genius of the Koman people was earnest and stern ; the language, hard and inflexible ; cir- cumstances in which they differed widely from the airy and lively Athenians. It is very probable, therefore, notwithstanding the positive excellence attained by Eoman poets in this department, 1 Quinct. x. 1. 2 Ibid. 28 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. Tragedy. Ervrrius. that tlieir relative success in imitating the Greek models was less in Comedy than in other walks of literature. While Thalia had been improving the first essays of Eoman genius into regular Comedy, Melpomene was not without her votaries. As no regular tragic production anterior to the Augustan age has reached us, we must be content to take our estimate of the excellence of Roman Tragedy from the opinion of Eoman critics ; the fragments extant not being in any instance sufficiently numerous or connected to enable us to judge of the merits of whole compo- sitions. Many of them, indeed, breathe a spirit of the purest poetry; but the diction is, as might be expected from the age, harsh and unmodulated. As in Comedy, so in this branch of the drama, early excellence was followed by premature decay. The best tragedies, for the most part, had been written before the language had attained vigorous maturity, and there were causes to discourage Tragedy subsequently, which we shall hereafter discuss. Horace accuses the Roman tragedians of carelessness and inaccuracy, 1 while he admits their tragic spirit and the success of their sallies. Quinctilian speaks highly of Attius and Pacuvius ; 2 and yet allows that their writings were deficient in the last polish, which, however, he considers rather the fault of their age than of their talents. The Thyestes of Varius, according to this author, was comparable to any of the Greek tragedies ; and the Medea of Ovid he considers a remarkable evidence of w 7 hat that poet could effect, when he pre- ferred the regulation to the indulgence of his genius. 3 A similar eulogy on these productions is passed by the author of the Dialogue " de Oratoribus : " " Nee ullns Asinii aut Messalce liber tarn illustris est quam Medea Ovidii, aut Varii Thyestes.'" Atilius, whom we have already noticed as a comedian, translated, or, as Weichert conjectures, 4 travestied, the Electro, of Sophocles, in a hard, dry style. 5 C. Titius is mentioned as a tragedian by Cicero, but as more of an orator, even in his tragedies ; 6 he had, however, the honour to be imitated by Afranius. C. Julius Caesar Strabo wrote tragedies intituled Teuthras and Adrastus. Other names will occur in the course of this memoir. The favourite tragedian of Quinctilian, however, was Pomponius Secundus, whose claims to priority, while his learning and eloquence were admitted, were yet, it seems, disputed at that time. 7 We have already seen that Livius Andronicus and Nsevius were tragedians as well as comedians. Ennius, of whom we shall presently have occasion to make more particular mention, com- 1 Ep. ad Aug. 164—167; De Art. Poet. 239—291. 2 Quinct.x.l. 3 Ibid. 4 The conjecture is rightly reprobated by B'ahr. (Gescb. der R. L. § 45, anm. 3.) Cicero calls the play " male conversa ;" an expression inapplicable to a burlesque. 6 Cic. de Fin. I. 2. Ep. ad Att. xiv. 20. Suet. Cses. 84 (where a reading is Attius). 6 Brut. 45. 7 Quinct. x. 1. PACUYITJ8 AXD ATTIUS. 29 posed tragedies, and one comedy, the Pancratiastes ; two others, Ennius. Anipliitliraso and Ambracia, are attributed to him ; he obtained, however, his highest dramatic reputation from his tragedies. But it does not appear that they were in any respect more original than the Eoman Comedy. The titles which have reached us of his tragedies are: — Achilles, Ajax, Alcestis, Alexander, Alcmceon, Andromache, Andromeda, Athamas, Cresphon, Cressce, Dulorestes, Erechtheus, Pumenides, Hectoris Lutra, Hecuba, Ilione, Ijphigenia, Medea, Melanippa, Nemea, Phoenix, Poly dor us, Telamon, Telephus, TJiyestes. These names, and those of almost all the Eoman tragedies, preserved by Pabricius, {Biblioth. Lat. lib. iv. c. 1,) prove that they were commonly translations or imitations from the Greek, perpetually Presenting Thebes, and Pelops' line, And the tale of Troy divine. In their tragic metres the Romans were much severer than in their comic. They seem, indeed, to have admitted the same number of feet in both ; but the iambus occurs much oftener in tragedy, and the whole verse is modulated in a manner which makes it always perceptible, and sometimes even harmonious. The difference which is thus produced between the tragic and comic senarii is even greater than that which exists between the hexameters of Virgil and those of the satirists. As far as we learn, the highest favours of the Tragic Muse were F^Stius reserved for Marcus Pacuvius and Lucius Attius. 1 Pacuvius, sister's or Actius. ' son to Ennius, was born at Brundusium, u. c. 534, and died at Tarentum, u. c. 624, He was celebrated as a painter as well as a poet. The names of his plays on Greek subjects are : — Amphion, Anchises, Antiope, Armorum Judicium, Atalanta, Chryses, Dulo- restes, Hermiona, Iliona, Medea, Niptra, Orestes, Peribcea, Teucer. Comedies, inti- tuled Mercator, Pseudo, Parent ilia, Tunicu- laria, have also been attributed to him. Attius was the son of a freedman, born u. c. 594, and died about 670. The names of his tragedies on Greek subjects are : — Achilles, JEgisthus, Agamemnonidce, Alcestis, AlcmcBon, Alphesibosa, Amphitruo, Andro- meda, Antigona, Antenorida, Argonautce, Armorum Judicium, Astyanax, Athamas, Atreus, Bacchce, Chrysippus, Clytemnestra, Deiphobus, Biomedes, 1 The Greek writers give "Kttiqs ; hence most modern scholars have adopted this orthography. But there is authority in MSS. and inscriptions for both forms. L. Attius. 30 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. Epigoni, Epinausimache, Erigona, Eriphyla, Eurysaces, Ilione, Hecala, Hellenes, Medea, Meleager, Melanippa, Myrmidones, Neop- tolemus, Nyctegresia, (Enomaus, Paris, Pelopida, Philoctetes, Phinida, Phoenissce, Prometheus, Telephus, Tereus, Trachinice} The opinion of the critics of Horace's day, 2 — Ambigitur quoties uter utro sit prior, aufert Pacuvius docti fainam senis, Attius alti, is just that of Quinctilian : 3 " virium plus Attio tribuitur ; Pacu- vium videri doctioeem qui esse docti affectant volunt." Correctness and eloquence seem to have been the great merits of Pacuvius, and in these he probably surpassed all other tragedians of his country. One interesting circumstance is connected with this poet ; his tragedy of Paulus was the first in Latin on a Roman subject. Who, however, was the hero of this play, is not apparent. Attius also composed tragedies, the subjects of which were Brutus and the younger Decius ; a tragedy called Marcellus is also, as we have seen, attributed to him. 4 Pacuvius and Attius were patronised severally by the celebrated Lselius and Decimus Brutus. Attius appears to have been intimate with, and almost a pupil of, Pacuvius. His first tragedy was performed under the same aediles as the last of his master. 5 He seems to have imitated iEschylus in the lofti- ness of his style and subjects. He is called by Ovid " animosi Attius oris," 6 and Paterculus attributes to him "more spirit than the Greeks possessed ! " 7 " In illis lima, in hoc pene plus videtur fuisse sanguinis." A similar expression occurs in Persius concerning this writer, which, though it is not meant in commendation, seems yet to imply that his fault was turgidity : " venosus liber Atti" s Two plays are ascribed to him, Mercator, and Nuptice, which, apparently, were comedies. We shall conclude our observations on Eoman Tragedy with two extracts from its most celebrated authors, in which the reader will readily discover the seeds of many well known passages of modern poets. The first is from Attius, of whose poetry we have already given a specimen, and is preserved by Cicero in the second Book of his Treatise on the Nature of the Gods. It describes the astonishment of a shepherd who beheld ' ' the first bold vessel " from the summit of a mountain ; and is written in iambics : — ■ tanta moles labitur Fremebunda ex alto, ingenti sonitu et spiritu : Prae se undas volvit ; vortices vi suscitat ; Ruit prolapsa ; pelagus respergit ; profluit. 1 Among tbe works attributed to Attius are Didascalia (perbaps Dramatic precepts), Pragmatica, Parerga, and Annales, tbe nature of which can only be conjectured from their titles. Ep. ad Aug. 55. Quinct. x. 1. 4 Dion. Gram. iii. p. 487, Putsch. 5 Cic. Brut, lxiii. 6 Amor. i. 15. ' Lib. ii. 9. s i. 75. TRAGEDY. 31 Ita, dum interruptum credas nimbum volvier, Attius. Dum quod sublime ventis expulsum rapi Saxum, aut procellis, vel globosos turbines Existere ictos undis concursantibus ; Nisi quas terrestres Pontus strages conciet ; Aut, forte, Triton, fuscina evertens specus, Subter radices penitus undanti in freto Molem ex profundo saxeam ad ccelum eruit. The monster bulk sweeps on Loud from tbe deep, with mighty roar and panting. It hurls the waves before ; it stirs up whirlpools ; On, on it bounds : it dashes back the spray. Awhile, it seems a bursting tempest-cloud ; Awhile, a rock uprooted by the winds, And whirled aloft by hurricanes ; or masses Beaten by concourse of the crashing waves : The sea seems battering o'er the wrecks of land ; Or Triton, from their roots the caves beneath Upturning with his trident, flings to heaven A rocky mass from out the billowy deep. The next is from Pacuvius, and describes the storm which assailed Pacuvius. the Greek army on its departure from Troy. It is in trochaics : l Interea prope jam occidente sole inhorrescit mare ; Tenebrae conduplicantur, noctisque et nimbum occaecat nigror ; Flamma inter nubes coruscat, ccelum tonitru contremit, Grando, mixta imbri largifiuo, subita turbine prsecipitans cadit ; Undique omnes venti erumpunt, saevi existunt turbines, Fervet sestu pelagus. Now the crested billows whiten as the sun is hasting down ; Twofold darkness falls around us, night and storm-clouds blind the sight ; 'Mid the clouds the levin blazes ; trembles heaven beneath the crash ; Hail, with torrent rain commingling, bursts in headlong whirlwind down ; All the winds rush forth about us ; sweeps the wild tornado round ; Boils the sea with glowing fury. — 1 Cic. de Div. i. 14. Cf. ejusd. Be. Orat. iii. 39. 32 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. Horace's Summary. Satire. Having concluded, for the present, our remarks on the Eoman drama, which had now attained its perfection, and declined as other poetry advanced, 1 it may not be deemed impertinent to subjoin the review of popular opinion on its writers which Horace has transmitted : NaBvius in manibus non est, at mentibus baeret Psene recens ; aded sanctum est vetus omne poema : Ambigitur quoties uter utro sit prior, aufert Pacuvius docti famam senis, Attius alti ; Dicitur Afrani toga convenisse Menandro ; Plautus ad exemplar Siculi properare Epicharmi ; Vincere Csecilius gravitate ; Terentius arte. 2 Satirical compositions have always existed in every nation ; human excellences and infirmities are alike engaged in promoting their popularity. The philosopher and the moralist cannot review the follies and vices which degrade and pollute their species, without yielding to the expression of virtuous and philanthropic indignation; and the malignant passions are gladdened at the exposure of another's faults. We have already seen that, in a period of the Eoman history when every species of regular poetry was unknown, the " malum carmen" or libellous verse, was pro- hibited by a statute. The scenic entertainments were the chief vehicles of these offensive compositions, as being the most public ; and when these were improved into sakira, the " mala carmina were so far from being universally discontinued, that they were rather more systematically pursued. The introduction of the legitimate drama turned them into another channel ; and thus we find Naevius adapting the satirical vein of the old Greek comedy to the domestic occurrences of his day. The signal example which the Csecilian family made of this poet, checked, but could not long arrest the current; it soon flowed with redoubled strength and impetuosity in another direction; and, while it retained the old name of satura, with which, from long association, it seemed identified, it so entirely changed its form as to give rise to those expressions of Horace and Quinctilian, which have led so many critic? to suppose that the old satura was a Eoman invention. As the English word Satire is generally applied to this poem, we shall, in future, employ it, to distinguish this composition from the satura, from which it differed materially in form and excellence, though possessing the same name. 1 " In Attio circaque eum Romana tragcedia est." — Veil. Pat. i. 17. 2 Ep. ad Aug. 53, seqq. This testimony will be esteemed of more critical value than that of Volcatius Sedigitus (Ap. Aul. Gell. xv. 24), in whose pompous and dictatorial verses the comic poets rank as follows : Caecilius, Plautus, Naevius- Licinius, Atilius, Terence, Turpilius, Trabea, Luscius. Ennius is added " anti, quitatis causa " only. SATIRE. 33 To the Satire the Latin writers constantly assign a Eoman origin : — *" Satura tota nostra est." 1 — "here, at least, we have drawn from our own resources." Yet when we come to examine the merits of this solitary pretension to originality, we find them admitting that the same sentiments and modes of thinking had been common among the Greeks, but then, — they had never expressed them in hexameter verse ! Such is the proud title to originality which the Romans acquired by altering the versifica- tion of the old Greek comedy ! The severity of historical justice itself might relent in favour of a claim so rarely made, and so weakly supported. Yet this compels us to assert that the origin- ality of the Eoman Satire rests on a very slender foundation. It may be traced to the aiXkos of the Greeks. Nay, Lucilius himself, if we may trust Johannes Lydus, borrowed his form of the Satire, hexameters and all, from a Greek writer, Ehindon, " ivho first wrote comedy in hexameters." ' 2 Lucilius is asserted by Horace to have been the founder of the New Satire ; and, accordingly, he acknowledges the earlier poet to be his master and model in this species of com- position. But, although Lucilius was the first Eoman who composed a regular metrical essay on a satiric subject, the transition from the dramatic to this almost didactic form did not take place imme- diately. The Satires of Ennius and Pacuvius have not reached us ; Ennian those of the latter, indeed, are only mentioned by Diomedes, the Satire - grammarian : but the accounts which ancient authors have left us of the Ennian Satire, prove that it was the rude, but natural, result of the arbitrary proceedings of the Aristocracy, which drove Satire from the stage. " Carmen" says Diomedes, 3 " quod ex variis poematibus constabat, Satura vocabatur ; quale scripserunt Pacuvius et Ennius" By " varia poemata " Diomedes does not mean, as Mr. Dunlop understands him, 4 a cento, or mixture of extracts from various authors ; but a miscellany of subjects, and a mixture of various kinds of metre, wherein dactylic, iambic and trochaic verses were promiscuously confounded, after the manner of the Mapyirrjs of Homer. This interpretation is warranted by the few fragments which remain to us of the Satires of Ennius. They are not, indeed, sufficiently numerous to enable us to judge of the nature of the poems whence they are taken ; but we learn from 1 Quinct. x. 1. So Ennius is styled by Horace (I Sat. x. 66.) " Grcecis intacti carminis auctor" — language which has been supposed to apply to Lucilius ; a con- struction, however, which the context will not admit. Ennius and Lucilius were both " auctores," being indeed the founders of different kinds of poetry bearing the same appellation, as we shall see immediately. TOP 'PivSowa, t>s e|a,U6Tpo(s eypa\pe irpwros KoojxwhiaV e£ ov irparos Aaj8Tepai' tu sis. Another instance is not less remarkable : l Nunc censes KaAAnrA6nafj.ov KaXXiacpvpov ill.im Compernam aut varam fuisse Amphitrvonis anoiriv Alcmenam, atque alias, Ledam ipsam denique nolo Dicere, tute vide, atque SiavWafioy elige quodvis Tyro eupatereiam 2 aliquam rem insignem habuisse, Verrucam, naevum pictuin, den tern eminulum unum. This style has been occasionally imitated by Juvenal, the professed follower of Lucilius. The last mentioned fault of Lucilius has been thus illustrated and ridiculed by Ausonius : 3 Villa Lucani- mox potieris -aca. [for Lucaniaca] Rescisso discas componere nomine versum ; Lucili vates sic imitator eris. Lucilius, however, with these and all his other faults, was a great genius and a noble writer, if we can rely on the authority of anti- quity. Yarro, according to the testimony of Aulus Gellius, 4 com- mends his gracilitas, which expression is explained as conveying 1 Dous. Rel. Luc. xvii. 1. 2 Or, Tvpcb evTrarepsiam, as some give it, still mere strangely. 3 Ep. v. ad Theon. 4 vii. 1 4. LUCILIUS. 37 the complex idea of venustas and suhtilitas ; a criticism suited, Lucilius, perhaps, to the time; but, when viewed from a later point of literary history, when the Latin language had developed its capa- bilities of refinement, palpably inapplicable. Quinctilian, 1 while he studiously expresses his dissent from those who would place Lucilius on the summit of the Latian Parnassus, (as some even then did not hesitate to do) no less decidedly disclaims the censorious sentiments of Horace, and praises the learning, freedom, sarcasm, and wit of the elder satirist. Pliny and Cicero extol his " urbanitas " and " styli nasus" 2 expressions equivalent to those of Horace : ■ qudd SALE MULTO Urbem defricuit — and, " Emimcta naris ." and Aulus Gellius calls him " vir apprime lingua Latins sciens" 3 The animated description of this poet which has been left us by one who, indisputably, had a right to criticise him, is in the memory of every scholar : Ense velut stricto quoties Lucilius ardens Infremuit, rubet auditor, cui frigida mens est Criminibus : tacita sudant prsecordia culpa. 4 Oft as Lucilius waves his ruthless sword, Guilt-frozen minds glow forth in crimson faces ; The labouring heart sweats with the secret sin. • The notice of Lucilius by Persius, who, it is said, was excited by his tenth book to satirical composition, though less solemn, is not less in character : Secuit Lucilius urbem ; Te Lupe, te Muti : et genuinum fregit in illis. 5 Lucilius slashed the town ; And broke his teeth on Lupus and on Mutius. His acquaintance with the Greek comedians furnished him with the means of polishing while it sharpened his weapon ; and the pro- tection which the friendship of Scipio and Laslius afforded him, enabled him to unmask hypocrisy, and to attack with impunity vice and folly, however well sheltered in the folds of the Prcetexta. Yet was he no less the enemy of plebeian vice : Primores populi arripuit, populumque tributim, Scilicet uni aequus Virtuti, atque ejus amicis. What he considered virtue we learn from a passage preserved to us by Lactantius, 6 for the purpose of cavilling at its particulars, although it is indeed a noble monument of heathen morality, and the source, as this father admits, from which Cicero derived the 1 Lib. x. 1. 2 Cic de Orat. ii. ; Plin. prsef. Hist. Nat. 3 Noct. Att. xviii. 5. 4 Juv. Sat. i. 165. 5 i. 114. 6 Inst. Div. vi. 5, 6. 3S ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. Luciius. substance of his Officio,. Horace himself might not have blushed to own it : Virtus, Albine, est pretium persolvere verum, Queis in versamur, queis vivimu' rcbu', potesse : Virtus est homini, scire id, quod quaeque habeat res. Virtus, scire bomini rectum, utile quid sit, bonestum : Quae bona, quae mala item, quid inutile, turpe, inhoncstum ; Virtus, quasrendse rei finem scire modumque ; Virtus, divitiis pretium persolvere posse ; Virtus, id dare, quod re ipsa debetur honori ; Hostem esse atque inimicum hominum morumque maloruiu, Contra defensorem hominum morumque bonorum ; Magnificare hos, his bene velle, his vivere amicum ; Commoda prseterea patriae sibi prima putare ; Deinde parentum ; tertia jam postremaque, nostra. Virtue, Albinus, is the power to give Their due to objects amid which we live ; What each possesses, faithfully to scan ; To know the right, the good, the true for man ; Again, to know the wrong, the base, the ill ; What we should seek, and how we should fulfil ; Honour and wealth at their true worth to prize ; 111 men and deeds repudiate, hate, despise ; Good men and deeds uphold, promote, defend, Exalt them, seek their welfare, live their friend ; To place our country's interests first alone ; Our parents' next ; the third, and last, our own. It would be scarcely expected that we should give here anything like an analysis of the numerous fragments of Lucilius which remain to us. Most of them are disjointed and corrupt ; but some are written in the finest spirit of satire : in them the private life and public religion of the Eomans, especially their idolatry and polytheism, are ridiculed and exposed with the keenest sarcasm. Lucilius was essentially the writer of human nature and the people ; though a man of learning, he wrote neither for scholars nor for the wholly uneducated; 1 his language was exuberant and unpo- lished, but free, undisguised, intelligible ; for the present obscu- rity of his fragments is no proof of his obscurity in his own day, but rather the contrary. The unusual words (where not corrupted) are such, because belonging to popular rather than literary lan- guage. No writer of obscurities could have attained the popularity (as distinguished from the celebrity) of Lucilius. Politics and public morals, public and private character, literature, oratory, and the drama, were treated by him with a breadth, liveliness, and pun- gency, which, while they disarmed the severity of the accurate and learned, made him the darling of the general mind. Picturesque 1 Lucilius, homo doctus et perurbanus, dicere solebat ea quae scriberet neque ah indoctissimis se neque a doctissimis legi velle. — Cic. de Orat. ii. 6 ; see De Fin. i. 37. VARRO. 39 descriptions, apologues, and adaptations, artfully introduced, con- Lucmus. tributed their colour and effect : and though the sentiments, like the language, were not always refined, neither was the age, nor the audience ; and the indignation of heathen virtue was wont to be plain-spoken. The loss of Lucilius's satirical writings is more than a literary misfortune. They would have been all-important for the illustration of contemporary social life; and while their spirit was that of the old Greek comedy, their value as pictures of society must have equalled, perhaps surpassed, that of the new. Besides his satires, Lucilius wrote a comedy called Nummidaria, to other works which, according to Porphyrion, the old scholiast on Horace, that of Lucillus - poet alluded in the line Pythias, emuncto lucrata Simone talentum. He wrote also Epode Hymns, and a poem called Serranus. All these works have perished. Horace tells us that the theme of some of his poems was his friend, the younger Africanus, whose intimacy he cultivated when serving under him at the siege of Numantia. 1 Of his life few particulars are known, though his poetry was, perhaps, even more than that of Horace, an autobio- graphy. He was a Eoman knight, and was born, according to the Eusebian Chronicle, at Suessa, in the territory of Auruncum, u. c. 606, and died u. c. 651. 2 Marcus Terentius Yarro, born at Eeate u.c. 638, is admitted, by the common consent of antiquity, to have been the most learned of all the Eomans : and the titles preserved to us of his works prove the extent of his information. The doctrines of moral philosophy, varroni though personally important to all, were too intimately involved atue * with the abstractions of the philosophic schools to reach the generality of readers. Yarro, whose profound acquaintance with the writings of the philosophers and whose extensive general reading peculiarly qualified him for the task, undertook to array in a plain, attractive, and popular dress those wise precepts for the conduct of life, which before had lain concealed under the cumbrous attire of dogmatic philosophy. Such are the motives which Cicero makes him assign for the publication of his Menippean, or cynical, 3 Satires ; * adding however his own opinion, that, although the work was diversified, and perfectly elegant, it could only be said to have 1 See Veil. Pat. Hist. ii. 9. 2 01. 158, 2. See references for difference on this chronology in Baehr, Geschichte der Rom. Litt. ii. 122 ; note 2. The question is also discussed by Gerlach (Prolegomena in Lucilii Relliquias), who defends the established com- putation. Clinton inclines to amplify the life of Lucilius both ways. 3 Quas alii cynicas, ipse (Varro) appellat Menippeas. — Aid. Gell. xi. 18. 4 Acad. i. 2, 3. See the passage, somewhat obscure, treated by Oehler, Com. in Varr. iv. : note 3. 40 ANTE-AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. varro. entered on philosophy ; and, though it had done much towards in- citing to philosophical study, it had effected little towards instruction. Much the same opinion, as regards the latter part of it, is expressed by Diogenes Laertius of Varro's prototype Menippus. 1 As the works of both writers are now lost, we must content ourselves with Yarro's own assertion in Cicero, that he imitated Menippus without translating him : the probability, however, is in favour of the superiority of Varro. Menippus indeed, in common with the Sillo- graphers, seems to have introduced much more parody than even the earliest Roman satirists, if his works did not wholly consist of it. In the absence of better information, the " Meuurnos, rj v€eA xxi- l# Cf Epo(L xiij# 8 et i Ep xx . 27. 3 See Clinton, Fasti Hellenici, A. c. 65. 4 1. Sat. vi. 86. Suet, in Vita. Or, a collector of payments at auctions, if the reading in Suetonius be exauctionum, not exactimium. This writer also mentions a prevalent opinion that Horace's father was a drysalter. But the testimony of Horace himself is quite express for his having been a collector in some way ; and the passage itself appears interpolated. 5 Some contend that he became " coactor" after his removal to Rome. See Obbarius, Einleit. zu Horaz. Anm. 6. [R. L.] F Horace. 66 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. His education. Battle of Philippi. Horace. strayed, lie tells us, in a playful ramble to Mount Vultur, where, overpowered with fatigue, he fell asleep. Here the wood- pigeons protected him from the gaze of wild beasts under a heap of laurel and myrtle, which they accumulated over him. 1 When he was, probably, about twelve years of age, his father removed him to Eome, and there gave him a liberal education under Orbilius Pupillus of Beneventum. 2 By him he was instructed in Greek literature, and had perused the Iliad, as he himself informs us, 3 before he went to Athens, which had long been a place of fashionable literary resort for the Eoman youth, to complete his education. During his abode there the assassination of Caesar, and the consequent troubles, took place ; and Brutus, on his march to Macedonia, took with him, among many other young Romans of similar pursuits, Horace, who was then in his twenty-third year, and gave him the rank of Military Tribune : 4 in this office he sustained some hard service, 5 and possibly crossed into Asia. He freely confesses his cowardice at the battle of Philippi, where he left his shield, 6 a circumstance which the ancients considered particularly ignominious. It is possible, however, that Horace has himself overcharged the picture, wishing, by this stroke of apparent candour and simplicity, to persuade Augustus that his connexion with the adverse party was less the result of political conviction than of the natural activity and restlessness of a youthful mind, ardent for adventure, and only brave while thoughtless of danger. That Augustus could totally forget the circumstances in which Horace had placed himself was not to be expected ; it might, therefore, have been politic in the poet to set them in a less unpleasant light ; and with the mention of the event he has not forgotten to notice the scattering of the brave, and the prostration of the threatening, before the irresistible arm of Caesar. About this time, a youth of like age and similar pursuits with Horace was about to be united with him in the bonds of a life- long friendship, through the sympathies of a common fate, and common tastes and studies. Publius Virgilius 7 Maro was born Virgil. at Andes, near Mantua, on the 15th October, u. c. 684. His father, Virgilius Maro, was an opulent farmer : who, being, like the father of Horace, an intelligent person, gave his son a liberal Greek and Latin education at Cremona and Milan, which was completed under the poet Parthenius, and the Epicurean Syron. Prom his father, Virgil inherited the family estate at Mantua. But before the Triumvirate undertook their expedition against Brutus and Cassius, they had agreed at Mutina, in order 1 3 Od. iv. 9. 2 Ep. ad Aug. 69. 3 2 Ep. ii. 41. 4 1 Sat. vi. 48. 5 2 Od. vii. 1. e 2 Od. vii. 3. 7 Vergilius in the oldest Medicean MSS., and in the Vatican MS. HOEACE. THE CONFISCATION. G7 to retain their soldiers in allegiance, to give them, in the event of Horace, success, eighteen principal towns of Italy, which had adhered to the opposite faction ; and among these were Yenusium and Cremona. Thus, in the distribution which followed the consum- Confiscation mation of the war, the paternal estate of Horace at the former ^^f ony of place was confiscated, * and the neighbourhood of Mantua to the Horace, devoted Cremona ensured it a fate scarcely less deplorable from the Propertius, lawless soldiery. Virgil was consequently placed in the same andTibuiius. circumstances with Horace. Tibullus and Propertius shared a similar fortune; at least, Propertius certainly bore part in this extensive calamity. Tibullus deplores a sudden deprivation of his property, 2 w T hich is supposed to refer to this circumstance. That he had competent resources after this loss, appears from Horace's address to him, " Di tibi divitias dederunt ;" although some read " dederant ;" 3 but it is not to be supposed that Horace would have taunted his friend with the possession of riches which he had lost. It was this competency which enabled Tibullus to live without dependence on court patronage ; for in no part of his works has he celebrated Augustus or Maecenas, while he is profuse in his commendations of his patron Messala, who had served in the army of Cassius. By whose intercession Virgil regained his patri- mony, authors are not agreed. Asinius Pollio, and Maecenas, the celebrated patron of literature, have the best authorities in their favour. Pollio, having charge of that district, probably recom- mended his case to Maecenas ; who was little likely to have been otherwise acquainted with the son of obscure rustics, as all Virgil's biographers represent his parents to have been. On this event his 1st Eclogue was, most certainly, composed. The character of Tityrus in this poem may not have been intended for Yirgil himself, although some of the ancients so understood it, and the poet elsewhere appropriates the name: 4 it is, however, a lively picture of the surprise and gratitude of an outcast, who finds himself suddenly restored to his domestic comforts, and contrasts strikingly with the desperate melancholy of the house- less wanderer Meliboeus, taking his last survey of the desolated hearth, with which all his dearest affections were associated. The removal of Pollio was attended with disastrous conse- quences to Yirgil. His estate was again seized by the rapa- cious military, and himself compelled to seek his safety by flight to Home. The story of his second expulsion is treated in the IXth Eclogue. He succeeded in again recovering his patrimony, apparently through the interest of one Yarus, of whom he speaks in 1 2 Ep. ii. 51. M Eleg L 19—23. Cf. iv. 1. 183—190. 3 1 Ep. iv. 7. The short penultima of the 3rd pi. perf. ind. act., though rare, is not unexampled. See Virg. Eel. iv. 60. yEn. iii. 681. Prop. 3 Eleg. xxiv. ult. 4 Eel. vi. 4. 6$ AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. Horace. Horace introduced to the highest strain of commendation in the Vlth and IXth Eclogues ; who this Varus was, cannot now be determined. 1 Perhaps he was Quinctilius Varus, whose death Horace deplores in the XXIVth Ode of the 1st Book, and of whom he there speaks as the especial friend of Virgil. Horace made no solicitations to Augustus. Thrown on his own resources, his habits and pursuits allowed him no other subsistence than literature. Poverty, whose chilling influence on the fire of Poetry the great Satirist has so pathetically lamented, 2 was his bold and stimulating Muse. 3 What were the productions of her inspiration, or whether any are now extant, is not known ; the situation of public affairs, however, renders it possible that the XlVth Ode of the 1st Book, in which he addresses the Eoman State under the allegory of a weather-beaten vessel, was written under these circumstances. This Ode, however, is by Canon Tate referred to Horace's 39th year, when the project of restoring the republic followed the triumph of Augustus over Antony. Whatever were the merits of his early compositions, Horace was soon known to Virgil, the similarity of whose situation almost necessarily interested him in the fate of his brother bard ; and by him was recommended to Maecenas. He had, however, the advantage of a still more powerful friend : Varius, " the lofty bird of Homeric song," as he termed him in his poetical raptures, 4 and, in his prosaic moments, "the unrivalled Epic," 5 and whose tragic excellence has been already noticed, became interested in his favour, and also mentioned him to Maecenas. Horace has left us a pleasing and natural account of his introduction to the literary courtier. 6 In few and broken words he candidly ex-, plained his simple history ; he received a brief answer, and, in nine months after his introduction, that lordly monarch of wits called him to the number of his subjects. His earliest composition after this event is, probably, that which stands first in his works; at least, he informs us that his first poem was composed in honour of Maecenas; 7 and this Ode has the appearance of being written under such circumstances. It describes the various pursuits of mankind briefly, but comprehensively ; it touches on the addic- tion of each individual to his own ; and it concludes with an Maecenas. 1 C©nf. Heyne, Excurs. ii. ad Bucolica. 2 Juv. Sat. vii. " 8 2 Ep. ii. 51. 4 1 Od. vi. 2. 5 1 Sat. x. 44. 6 1 Sat. vi. 54. seqq. ~* 1 Ep. i. I. HORACE. JOURNEY TO BRTJNDUSITJM. 69 animated eulogy on Poetry, describing the author's exclusive Horace, devotion to its cultivation, and expressing a hope that Maecenas would class him among the lyric bards. His patron assented; and the consequent cessation of jealous malevolence is gratefully and exultingly celebrated by Horace, in the Illrd Ode of his IYth Book. Though Maecenas was slow in the formation of our poet's Journey to acquaintance, he showed himself forward in its cultivation after- Bruadusium wards ; and very shortly after Horace had been thus noticed, he accompanied the Minister on his journey to Brundusium, whither he was sent by Augustus to treat with Antony, who was then menacing Italy with a renewal of the civil wars. This event must have taken place at so early a period of Horace's acquaintance with Maecenas, that some writers have supposed that the poet celebrated in his Journey to Brundusium a subsequent expedition Brundusram. of a similar nature, which Maecenas undertook two years after, when Antony landed at Tarentum ; but the name of Coccejus Nerva, which occurs in the Satire, restricts the subject to the earlier event, as that person attended only on the former expedition. On this occasion Horace had an opportunity of enjoying the society of his friends Virgil, Yarius, and Plotius. The enthusiasm of his admiration for these illustrious men, and the warmth of his attachment, so exquisitely expressed in his Satire on the occasion, are among the many proofs that rivalry in ingenuous studies is far from being necessarily connected with disingenuous passions ; 70 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. Horace. Intercourse with Maecenas. and that the friendships which result from literary, and especially poetical, sympathy, are ordinarily the most exalted and permanent of any. But although Maecenas took every opportunity of conversing with Horace, his caution and reserve were still main- tained : for that at the end of seven years they had not attained a strictly confidential familiarity, is the least that can be inferred from what Horace himself then says of the state of their acquaint- ance; 1 although it must be admitted that the description is designedly exaggerated. He appears at this time to have been, what Suetonius tells us he was, a Quaestor's secretary : since he mentions the desire of the secretaries to see him on a matter affecting their common interest : — De re commv/ni scribse magna, atque nova te Orabant hodie meminisses, Quinte, reverti. 2 The frankness and warmth of the poet, however, at length prevailed over the caution and formality of the courtier, who afterwards returned the fidelity of Horace with conduct less resembling the patron than the friend. He presented him with an estate in the Sabine territory, which has been commonly thought to be the same with the Tiburtian villa, 3 to which the poet frequently alludes. The whole history of Maecenas indeed exhibits aversion to hasty decision, and steadiness of action where he had once decided. Augustus. to^AuiStus -By Maecenas Horace was recommended to Augustus, with whom, 1 2 Sat. vi. 40. 2 2 Sat. vi. 37. 3 The reasons for distinguishing these places will he found at length in Tate's Horatius Restitutus, Prel. Diss. Part II. They are plausible, but scarcely demonstrative. See on Horace's Villa a list of authorities in Obbarius (Einleitung zu Horaz, Anm. 27), who inclines to think the Tiburtian villa a residence of Maecenas (Anm. 28). HORACE. HIS CHARACTER. 71 according to Suetonius, or the writer of the life ascribed to that Horace, historian, he lived on terms of the closest familiarity. How far His he was qualified for the intimacy of princes, he has not left us character, in doubt. That wonderful versatility, which, in the genius of Horace, produced such diversified poetical excellence, seems to have extended to his inclinations. He appears to have enjoyed, with equal intensity, the tranquillity of literary rural seclusion, and the social refinements of the court and city. He could pass, even with delight, from the luxurious table of Maecenas, and the intellectual conversation of Pollio, Varius, and Virgil, to his rustic beans and bacon, and the old wives' tales of his country neighbour Cervius. * So sensible indeed was he of inconsistency in this respect, that he has put a severe censure of himself, on this very account, into the mouth of one of his own slaves. 2 And yet he has, perhaps, accused himself rashly. There is no inconsistency in admiring Raphael and Teniers ; and the true poetic mind finds elements of beauty, and matter of pleasing contemplation, in every phase of human and inanimate nature. The country, in truth, was the home of Horace's heart : the city having no further attractions for him than such as friendship and literature presented ; and when he could enjoy these by his rural hearth, the proud mistress of the world had parted with all her charms. On his conduct at the court of Augustus, his epistles to Scseva and Lollius form an admirable commentary. Even in the former of these he admits that a life of obscurity is no misfortune, although he prefers an honourable intercourse with the great. From the precepts which he affords for the conduct of every part of life, and from his known familiarity with Augustus, we may conclude, that, in all his transactions with that prince, he was neither importunate nor servile ; that, while loaded with honours, he made no degrading compromise — no unseasonable solicitation : but either complied with freedom, or dissented with modesty and respect. An analysis of the several productions of Horace is foreign to His writings. the nature of this work ; we shall notice therefore such only as bear on his biography and the literary history of the time. But, before this is done, it will be convenient to premise a few words on the departments of poetry which he especially cultivated. We have already offered a conjecture in explanation of his repeated claim to the importation of lyric poetry from Greece. To this we may add the undisguised contempt which he entertained for Catullus, and the consciousness of his own great superiority. Indeed, Quinctilian, with an enthusiasm which his subject amply odes, justifies, designates him "lyricorum fere solus legi digitus." But Horace, as we observed in the first part of this memoir, had much 1 1 Sat. vi. 89, seqq. - Ibid. ii. 7. 72 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. Horace. His imitations. more substantial claims to originality than those which he so osten- tatiously put forth ; his metres, the introduction of which he so proudly vaunts, are Greek, and, as far as may be conjectured from extant Greek fragments, considerably restricted; but his subjects breathe all the freshness of original conception. Nor can it be objected that the loss of their models allows us no criterion of their excellence ; since many are purely Eoman in sentiment and allusion, while others are totally unlike what ancient authors lead us to conclude respecting the strains of the Lesbian lyre. The elegant negligence of Anacreon, the daring and magnificent sublimity of Pindar, and the plaintive melancholy of Simonides, alternate in the odes of Horace ; but it is the spirit alone of these writers that we recognise; and it is probable that his imitations of Alcseus and Sappho were of the same nature. At most, they seem to have been that kind of happy adaptation, which is not to be found in the Eclogues of Yirgil, and which gives the beauties of an original to an acknowledged imitation. As an illustration of what we mean, we will here adduce a fragment of Alcseus, manifestly corrupt, but which Horace certainly had before his mind when he wrote the IXth Ode of his 1st Book : Yet fxhv 6 28ei/s, e'/c 8' opavoo fizyas Xeifxwu, ireirdyaaiv 0' vdaTwu (>oai. Ka/3y6aAAe top x 6 '/^"'? ^ l^ v Tt0els Tlvp, 4v 5e Kipvais olvov acpeib'tws MtXixp6v aiirap a^(p\ K6paa MaAdaKov afATriTiQei yvatyaKhov Yet every Eoman must have felt the originality and domestic senti- ment of Horace's picture, as strongly as we participate in the social cheerfulness of Cowper's snug and curtained fireside. The XXXVIIth Ode of the same Book has been partially imitated from an Ode of Alcseus, beginning : Nw XPV fiedvo-Ketv, Kai riva Trpbs fiiav l Yliveiv, iireib'r) Kardave MvpaiAos' But the whole spirit of the composition is essentially Eoman, and the magnificent description of Cleopatra stamps it original. The XVIIIth Ode of the same 1st Book is, probably, one of the closest 1 If the reading be, as some give it, X^ova irpbs (itav Uaieiv, the imitation is yet closer. But the term libero marks the occasion, and the Roman spirit of indignant liberty spurning the riven chain. HORACE. — EPODES. 73 imitations of Alcseus in the whole volume : the first line of it is a Horace. strict translation from a passage of Alcaeus preserved in Athenseus : Mrjdev 6.W0 cpvrevarjs irp6Tepov devdpeov ajxiriXbi' But the "solum Tiburis" and the "mcenia Catili" domesticate this poem with peculiar felicity. There is another species of poetry of which Horace claims the iambics, introduction ; the Iambic. The word " iambi" separately taken, E P° des - conveyed a very different idea to the ancients from that of the mere iambic measure ; an idea which the Epodes of Horace express more clearly than any definition. The Iambographia formed a distinct department of poetry; approaching indeed to the lyric, and yet distinguished from it by Horace himself. 1 The object of Horace in writing his iambics, as declared by himself, was to express the spirit of Archilochus without his malignity : 2 Parios ego primus lam bos Ostendi Latio : numeros animosque sequutus Archilochi ; non res, et agentia verba Lycamben. Yet the bitterness of Archilochus, we may observe in passing, does, notwithstanding, occasionally prevail ; and Lycambes was not, perhaps, more keenly assailed than Menas, Msevius, and Canidia ; to the last of whom, and her daughter, the poet is thought to apologise in the XYIth Ode of his 1st Book. Cassius Severus is even warned to beware of the fate of Lycambes : Cave, cave ! namque in malos asperrimus Parata tollo cornua, Qualis Lycambce spretus infido gener. 3 Catullus and Bibaculus wrote iambics ; still, as Quinctilian informs us, 4 they were not professed iambographers, and perhaps Horace did not consider their works of this nature sufficiently perfect to entitle them to notice. But the more probable ground of Horace's assumption is that he first introduced the epode ; for we learn from Quinctilian that it did not appear in the iambics of Catullus or Bibaculus. 5 It is true that the Epode Hymns of Lucilius are men- tioned ; but these were, in all probability, compositions widely removed from the Horatian Epode ; perhaps written in the Pindaric measures. 6 The " Parii iambi " are, therefore, those forms of the 1 2 Ep. ii. 59. 2 Art. Poet. 259. 3 Epod. vi. 11. 4 Inst. Orat. x. 1. 5 Such appears to be the meaning of the sentence : " Iambus non sane a Romanis celebratum est ut proprium opus: a quibusdam interpositus : cujus acerbitas in Catullo, Bibaculo, Horatio ; quanquam illi epodos intervenire reperiatur." The word illi seems more applicable to " Horatio " than to " iainbo." There is no epode poem in the works of Catullus, as now extant. 6 'Encoded and 'EircpSol are very different. The former are stanzas added to 74 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. Horace. Ethics and Criticism. iambic measure which the book of Epodes exhibits. Gesner quotes a passage from the Enchiridion of Hephsestion which places this matter beyond a doubt. 1 EtVt fie eu reus Trou^ao-i ku\ oi dpprjvUais ovtco Kakovfjievoi £7rv." Constantine, in his " Aoyos ro> Ta>v ayicou avXXoyco " gives a very elaborate interpretation of the Pollio, with a Greek translation of the greater part of it, and asserts that the oracle, whence it was taken, was translated by Cicero into Latin verse, and annexed to his poems. We have now no trace of this translation, if it ever existed : but it is a curious circumstance, that Cicero informs us that the Sibylline oracles did predict a King, and were written in acrostichs. 4 If any name were mentioned in them, it must have been Cornelius ; as we find from Cicero, 6 Sallust, 6 Plutarch, 7 and Appian, that the pretence which Lentulus adduced for his connexion with Catiline was a Sibylline prophecy, por- tending that the Empire of Eome was to be given to three Cornelii ; that Cinna and Sylla were the two former, and the third was to be himself. It is by no means improbable that, among the prophecies copied from the Jewish Scriptures, or gleaned from Jewish tradition, which were, in all probability, found among the Sibylline writings, the great subject of prediction was called bx pp, the power of God, s which would, assuredly, have been translated Cornelius by the Eomans. 1 Tac. V. Hist. ix. Suet. Vespas. iv. 3 Antiq. Rom. iv. 62. 2 Var. Hist. xii. 35. 4 De Div. ii. 54. Cf. etiam Quinct. v. 10. 5 3 Cat. iv. 6 Bell. Cat. ' Vit. Cic. 8 Christ is called " the power of God " in 1 Cor. i. 24 ; and tcepas f|Tjy (xwrripias in St. Luke, i. 69. The number three, thus applied, may have been derived from some Old Testament intimations of the Holy Trinity. [k. l.] g 82 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. tirgil. The author of the ingenious and elaborate Observations, who conceives that Virgil meant to refer the Sibyl's prediction to Augustus, imagines the whole poem to be a metrical horoscope, and discovers a clear explanation of every expression and allusion contained in it, by a reference to the phraseology of astrological art. How far this author is bigoted to hypothesis, may be conjectured from his application of the following lines to the sign Aries : Ipse sed in pratis Aries jam suave rubenti Murice, jam croceo mutabit vellera luto. Two lines before occurs the verse Robustus quoque jam Tauris juga solvet arator; and there can be no doubt that the same ingenuity, had this line followed those above cited, would have given an equally convincing interpretation of tauris. Any mind unsophisticated by hypothesis cannot fail to perceive that the poet is describing a time of universal opulence and rest, when agriculture and commerce should be alike unnecessary : and when the ram in the meadows (not in the skies,) should wear his fleece, without the dyer's labour, attired in the most costly and splendid colours. 1 Daphnis. That the Daphnis was composed, like Milton's lycidas, to commemorate the death ' of some real person, is scarcely to be doubted. That Menalcas represents Virgil is evident from the conclusion, wherein he states himself to be the author of two of Virgil's Eclogues. Mopsus, according to Servius, is iEmilius Macer of Verona, who wrote a poetical history of serpents, plants, and birds, in imitation of Nicander, and a supplement to the Iliad, called ArdeJiomerica and Posthomerica. Bernhardy, Bahr, and others, after Wernsdorf, attribute, however, the epic and didactic poems to different writers of the same name. 2 If Daphnis be a personification, Julius Csesar is the only person whom the character can pourtray, as Heyne justly observes : although he believes the poem to be merely a commemoration of the celebrated Sicilian shepherd. Servius and Donatus make Daphnis the poet's brother Flaccus. An uncertain epigrammatist has the following distich : Tristia fata tui dum fles in " Daphnide " Flacci, Docte Maro, fratrem Dis imniortalibus sequas. Gaiius. Virgil concluded his Bucolics with an elegant compliment to 1 The reader desirous of prosecuting the subject of Virgil's Pollio is referred to the following works : Heyne's Virgil ; Cudworth's Intellectual System, book i. c. iv. sec. 16 ; Martyn's Virgil ; and Blondel, De Sibyllis. 2 Bernhardy, Grundriss der Rom. Lit. Anm. 434 ; Aeussere Geschichte, 83. Bahr, Geschichte der Rom. Lit. § 83 ; Wernsdorf, Poett. Latt. Minn. torn. iv. p. 579. HORACE. VIHGIl/s ECLOGUES. GALLTJS. 83 Cornelius Gallus, a celebrated contemporary poet, born at Forum Virgil. Julii, in Gaul, about Virgil's own age, and his fellow pupil under Syron, consoling him for the loss of his Lycoris, whom the old commentators assert to have been an actress, whose real name was Cytheris. She was the freed-woman of Volumnius Eutrapelus, and took the name of Yolumnia. As she was familiar with Antony, the old commentators have supposed that she deserted Gallus to accompany Antony on his Gallic expedition. Heyne, however, in his argument of the Gallus, has shown, from chronological considerations, that this could not be the case. The genuine poems of Gallus, with the exception of a few fragments, are lost. They consisted of four books of elegies, called Amoves or Lycoris, and a translation of EupJiorion, as we learn from Servius. A pretended edition of the works of Gallus was published by Pomponio Gaurico, at the beginning of the sixteenth century ; but the fraud was soon detected in Italy, and Tiraboschi attributes these poems, * according to common report, to a certain Maximinian, who flourished in the time of Boetius. As an elegiac poet, Gallus ranked very high in public opinion. Ovid speaks of his fame as universal ; Propertius and Martial have borne testimony to his excellence ; and Virgil, in his beautiful and extraordinary Vlth Eclogue, has panegyrised his EupJiorion in the noblest strains of mythological eulogy. Virgil had also, according to Servius, celebrated his praises in the conclusion of his Georgics. Gallus was no less distinguished as a warrior than as a poet ; he was of great service to Augustus in the Egyptian war, and assisted in securing the person of Cleopatra. He was, in consequence, constituted the first prefect of Egypt. Here he appears to have conducted himself with arrogance and insolence. He was afterwards condemned to banishment by the command of Augustus, on suspicion of having conspired against him ; a sentence which, however, the poet anticipated by a voluntary death, tj. c. 728; and Virgil, at the instance of the emperor, substituted for his eulogy on Gallus the fable of Aristmis. The publication of Virgil's Bucolics created a powerful sensa- tion in literary Kome. The grammarians tell us that they were recited on the stage; 2 and that, on one occasion, when Cicero was present in the theatre, and heard some verses of the Silenus recited by Cytheris, he called for the whole eclogue, and, when he had heard it through, exclaimed, " Magna spes altera JRomce" This cannot be true, for Cicero was then dead : but we have better authority for the truth of the honours publicly lavished on Virgil. Prom the author of the Dialogue de Oratoribus' 6 we learn that, when some verses of Virgil were recited on the stage, and the poet 1 Storia, part. iii. lib. iii. sec. 27. 2 Donat. in Vit. Virg. ; Serv. in Eel. vi. 11. 3 Dial, de Orat. xiii. G 2 84 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. Horace and happened to be present, all the spectators rose, and paid him the Virgil. same marks of respect which they would have shown to Augustus. Propertius l has celebrated the conclusion and publication of the Bucolics, and Ovid 2 has foretold their immortality. Following the chronology of Bentley, which we have in the main adopted, we must refer the publication of Horace's 1st Book of Satires to nearly the same date with that of Virgil's Bucolics. We shall presently have to notice a different opinion. In the Xth Satire of that Book, Horace gives the following sketch of the poetical proceedings of the day : Turgidus Alpinus jugulat dum Memnona, dumque Diffingit Rheni luteum caput, haec ego ludo : * * * ' * * * * * Arguta meretrice potes, Davoque Chremeta Eludente senem, comis garrire libellos, Unus vivorum, Fundani. Pollio regura Facta canit pede ter percusso. Forte epos acer Ut nemo, Varius ducit : molle atque facetum Virgilio annuerunt gaudentes rure Caincenae. If Bentley's chronology be correct, there can be no foundation for the remark with which Heyne opens his preface to the Georgics : " Ad Georgica facetum Mud ac molle, quod peculiar i aliquo Musarum munere Virgilio concessum esse Horatius memorat, propria quodam modo spectare videtur." It may not be irrelevant to estimate the force of this eulogy on Yirgil, by reference to the exposition of duinctilian. "Facetum" says the critic, "non tantum circa ridicula opinor consistere. Nee enimdiceret Horatius, facetum carminis genus naturd concessum esse Virgilio. Decoris Tianc magis et excultce cujusdam elegantice appellationem puto. Ideoque in Epistolis Cicero hoc Bruti verba refert : nee Mi sunt pedes faceti, ac deliciis ingre- dienti molles. Quod convenit cum illo Horatiano, molle atque facetum Virgilio" 8fc. 3 Some light may be thrown on the poetical history of the period, by an examination of this concise review. This, therefore, we shall take, before we proceed with what more immediately relates to the subject of our biography. Alpinus. Who "Alpinus" was, is a question as yet undecided. Priscian 4 mentions an Alpinus who wrote a poem on the exploits of Pompey. Dacier and Torrentius suppose him to be Aulus Cornelius Alpinus, who wrote a tragedy, intituled Memnon, in imitation of one bearing the same name by iEschylus, and that he is here sarcastically said to have murdered the hero, and anticipated the stroke of Achilles. The Scholiast says that the Memnon was an hexameter poem. The word Alpinus, however, is generally considered, by commentators, 1 ii. 34. 2 1 Am. 12. 3 Quinct. vi. 3. 4 vii. 5. HORACE. — CONTEMPORARY POETS. 85 to be the designation of the poet's Qountry, the Alps, and, taken Horace and in this sense, it is applicable to many. Cruquius, without the Virg shadow of an argument, refers it to Cornelius Gallus. Acron inter- prets the appellation of Yivalius, which Bentley and Sanadon conjecture to be a corruption of Bibaculus, of whom they suppose Alpinus a nickname. M. Eurius Bibaculus, to whom we have Bibaculus. before alluded as the writer of many small pieces, was also the author of a poem on the Gallic wars, l a verse of which has been preserved by Horace and Quinctilian ; the former of whom has noticed the bombastic character of his style : pingui tentus omaso Furius " hybernas canst nive conspuit Alpes : " the epithet here applied corresponds to " turgidus ; " and from the line Jupiter hybernas cantl nive conspuit Alpes it is probable that he derived his appellation Alpinus. He was born at Cremona. The subject of his poem might, very naturally, lead him to a description of the Ehine. Of Eundanius we know Fundanius. nothing beyond what is here recorded ; but we shall have occasion to notice this passage of Horace presently, which we shall find to throw some light on the Augustan drama. C. Asinius Pollio, poiiio. here mentioned as a tragedian, was illustrious no less in his political than his literary character. We have already noticed the conjecture that he recommended Yirgil to Msecenas ; and the old biographer of that poet tells us that the Bucolics were completed at his desire. Yirgil speaks of him in terms of high commendation: 2 Pollio amat nostram, quamvis est rustica, Musam : * * * * Pollio et ipse facit nova carmina ! where the word " nova" seems to imply unprecedentedly beautiful. And to Pollio is supposed to be addressed the YIHth Eclogue, in which the following apostrophe occurs : En erit, ut liceat totum mihi ferre per orbem Sola Sophocleo tua carmina digna cothumo / His dramas seem only to have been intended for the closet. 3 An anecdote, preserved by M. Seneca, 4 is characteristic of the man and of his pretensions. Sextilius Haena (or Eta as in some copies), a poet of more talent than learning, unequal in his compositions, 1 Bernhardy, however, attributes this poem to Aulus Furius of Antium. Grundriss der Rom. Lit. Anm. 366 and 430. , 2 Eel. iii. 84. 3 Weichert de Vario. 148. 4 Suas. vi. *m S6 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. Horace and and not free from the heavy and foreign character attributed to Virgil. ^ p 0e ^ s f Corduba, invited Pollio, among others, to hear his recitation of a poem on the proscription of Cicero. The place of meeting was the house of Messala Corvinus ; and no sooner had the poet commenced Deflendus Cicero est, Latiseque silentia linguae, than Pollio, turning to Messala, said, " You can do as you please, Messala, in your own house ; but I shall not stay to listen to one who considers me silent ;" and, with these words, left the room abruptly. Although he doubtless referred to his forensic talents, it is probable that his estimate of his poetical capabilities was not inferior. Horace, no less than Virgil, was intimate with Pollio, and dedicated to him the 1st Ode of the lid Book, wherein he recommends him to resume the composition of Tragedies, which his History of the Civil Wars had interrupted. Varius. The high eulogium here passed on Lucius Varius Rufus, and the appellation " Maonii carminis ales," bestowed on him by Horace in the Vlth Ode of the 1st Book, have been before alluded to, as well as his tragedy of Thyedes. But the loss of his works is, perhaps, a less calamity than the literary world ordinarily suppose. His excellence in the drama, where this branch of poetry was, in general, so unsuccessfully cultivated, might be comparatively great, and yet absolutely moderate : and as he was the earliest epic of any tolerable eminence in the new school, he might easily be unrivalled where there was no emulation. Antonius lulus, the author of the Diomedea, had not arisen ; and if it be said that Yarius was not strictly unrivalled, because there was his contem- porary, C. Valgius Bums, who has received from Tibullus the exag- gerated panegyric, " ceterno propior non alter ffomero," the answer would be easy, even on the supposition that the IYth Book of Tibullus is genuine, which, as we shall see, there is every reason to doubt. The judgment of Horace on this subject is infinitely more valuable than that of Tibullus. Yarius and Yalgius were both friends of Horace : and he acknowledges the value of their approbation : but he never, for a moment, admits a competition of poetical excellence. The elegies of Yalgius might influence the partialities of Tibullus towards a poet of a similar cast with himself; and private friendship might extort and excuse an hyper- bole which his own judgment, and that of an unbiassed public, could not sanction. A similar observation may be made on the equally extravagant panegyric which Propertius has passed on Ponticus, the author of the Thebaid. 1 Yarius, therefore, at this time seems to have been undisputed master of the epic, and that, Incidental notice of Valgius. 1 Eleg. vii. HORACE. CONTEMPORARY POETS. 87 because the honour was by no means warmly contested. Macrobius, Horace and in the second chapter of the YIth Book of the Saturnalia, cites some Vir & il - verses of Yarius, " de Morte" (sc. Julii Caesaris). The following are the most complete, as a specimen of his style : Ceu canis umbrosam lustrans Gortynia vallem, Si veteris potuit cervse comprendere lustra, Ssevit in absentem, et, circum vestigia lustrans, ' iEthera per nitidum tenues sectatur odores : Non amnes illam inedii, non ardua tardant, Perdita nee serse meminit decedere nocti. As hound Gortynian, through the umbrageous vale That scents the wild-deer's covert on the gale, Prone on the track that speeds with faithful aim, And tears in fancy the far-distant game : Nor streams, nor heights, impede : e'en when astray, Still through the lonesome night she snuffs the tainted way. He composed a panegyric on Augustus, from which, if we are to Varius. believe the Scholiast on Horace, that poet took the following lines, which he inserted in the XYIth Epistle of his 1st Book : Tene magis salvum populus velit, an populum tu, Servet in ambiguo, qui consulit et tibi et urbi, Jupiter ! These passages, although far too brief and scanty to enable us to form any clear conception of the genius of Yarius, are yet "Virgil. promiscuously selected, and contain nothing in favour of the felicity of his epithets, or the melody of his versification. The poetical power which the Bucolics discovered, induced 00 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. Virgil. Maecenas, almost as soon as they were finished (about u. c. 717), to request Virgil to undertake the Georgics. The neglected state of agriculture, in consequence of the civil wars, might be the reason why Maecenas chose this subject for Virgil's Muse : and indeed this condition of the country is graphically described by the poet himself: 1 Ubi fas versa atque nefas ; tot bella per orbem, Tarn multae scelerum facies : non ullus aratro Dignus honos : squalent abductis arva colonis, Et curvse rigidum falces conflantur in ensem. But we must not suppose the statesman to have conceived that the military settlers could be moved by an exquisite poem to the cul- tivation of their estates. The fact was, that a more effectual and more delicate expedient for calling the attention of Augustus to this important subject could not be imagined ; and in his power lay a great portion of the remedy. Georgics. Of the character of the Georgics it is unnecessary to speak, because no reader of this memoir can be ignorant that this poem is the most elaborate and extraordinary instance of the power of genius in embellishing a most barren subject, which human wit has ever afforded. The commonest precepts of farming are delivered with an elegance which could scarcely be attained by a poet who should endeavour to clothe in verse the sublimest maxims of philosophy. Indeed, one consideration alone is sufficient to show us the excellence of Virgil in this particular — the uniform failure of his imitators. It is, however, much to be regretted that he was not free to choose his own subject, as, in all probability, he would have selected a theme better suited to his muse. It is said that the poet, while employed on this immortal work, com- posed many verses every morning ; but, by the evening, reduced them to a very few ; so that he used to compare himself to a bear which licks her shapeless offspring into form. 2 According to the computation of Donatus, or the writer of the Life of Virgil ascribed to him, the poet must have been at Naples, after six years' attention to the Georgics, when Augustus under- took the expedition against Antony, which ended in the decisive victory of Actium. It was on this occasion that Horace is supposed to have written his magnificent Ode ad Romanos (Epod. xvi.). His friendship and gratitude towards Maecenas had now obtained their zenith, when the statesman was suddenly called to attend his master on his perilous expedition, which bade fair to decide the possession of the Eoman world. In the 1st Epode, Horace expresses his fixed resolution to accompany his patron whither- 1 Georg. i. 162. 8 Donat. in Vit. Virg. ix. ; Quinct. Lib. x. 3 ; Aul. Gell. xvii. 10. HORACE. PEDO. 89 soever his fortune might lead him : not that he could hope to Horace and contribute to his security, but to escape the anxieties of absence. VirglL Whatever may have been the reason, there is good cause to believe that Maecenas never left Italy. Dio, l Tacitus, 2 and Yelleius Paterculus, 3 all assert that at that time the care of the city was intrusted to him by Augustus. Yirgil has given a most elaborate Battle of poetical picture of the battle of Actium, without making any mention Actlum - of the exploits of Maecenas; an omission of which he could scarcely have been guilty, had his patron borne a part in so conspi- cuous a scene; and this negative argument derives additional strength from another of the same kind, drawn from the silence of Horace respecting Maecenas in his triumphant Ode on the same occasion (Lib. i. Od. xxxvii.). That Maecenas took part in the battle of Actium has been attempted to be proved from an elegy on his death ascribed to Celsus Pedo Albinovanus, which expressly asserts the fact ; but the meagreness of the composition, and its historical inaccuracy, have caused it to be rejected by most scholars, as the production of a later period. Three elegies are remaining to us, which have been ascribed to this Pedo ; that just men- tioned ; another, which seems to be a continuation of it, called Mcecenas Moribundus ; and the Consolatio ad Liviam, which, however, is also attributed to Ovid. Prom the latter author, whose friend Pedo was, we learn that he wrote a poem on the exploits of Theseus. 4 He is coupled by Quinctilian 5 with Eabirius, as not unworthy of perusal ; and Seneca 6 quotes from him some verses on the voyage of Grermanicus, as a favourable contrast to the marine pictures of other Latin poets; but really as inferior to Virgil and Ovid as to the bolder strains of Attius and Ennius. Prom Martial's testimony he appears to have been an epigram- matist. 7 If he were the same as Celsus (Hor. i. Ep. iii. 15), which seems doubtful, he was, according to the account of Horace, an enormous plagiarist. Dacier lays great stress on the following verses of Propertius, as supporting the hypothesis that Maecenas was at Actium : 8 Quod mini si tantum, Maecenas, fata dedissent, Ut possem heroas ducere in arma manus, * * * * Bellaque, resque tui memorarem Caesaris ; et tu Caesare sub magno cura secunda fores. Nam quoties Mutinam, et civilia busta Philippos, Aut canerem Siculae classica bella fugae, 1 Lib. li. 2 Ann. vi. 11. » ii. 4 Ep. ex Pont. iv. 10. 5 x. 1. 6 Suasor. 1. 7 v. 5. s 2 Eleg. i. 90 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. Horace and Virgil. Cassius of Parma. Aut regum auratis circumdata colla catenis, Actiaque in sacrd currere rostra via, Te mea Musa illis semper contexeret armis, Et sumta. et posita pace, fidele caput. But this would equally prove that Maecenas took part in the battle of Philippi. The IXth Epode has been thought by some to favour the opinion that Maecenas accompanied Augustus ; and Desprez, in his notes on that poem, deliberately tells the reader that it was addressed to Maecenas in his absence on that occasion. The student, by consulting the poem itself, will find nothing, however, positive about the situation of Maecenas at that time. To this poem, to the very elaborate analysis given by Masson, in his Life of Horace, and to the answer of Dacier, prefixed to his edition of the poet, the reader desirous of more precise information on this subject is referred. Horace was, at this time, about thirty-six years of age ; so that, if Bentley's chronology of his works be true, the 1st Book of his Satires had seen the light eight years. Masson, however, refers the Xth Satire of that Book to this date, relying, principally, on his account of the death of Cassius of Parma, who was reported, according to this passage, to have been burned with his books. Cassius of Parma was put to death at this time at Athens, by the direction of Augustus, for having espoused the cause of Antony. We should rather be disposed, as scholars now generally are, to refer what Horace here says to another Cassius, than disturb the chronology of Bentley. Whoever he was, it is nothing wonderful that his books should supply him with a funeral pile, when it is considered that he was in the habit of composing four hundred verses every day. Of Cassius of Parma Horace speaks expressly in his epistle to Tibullus : Quid nunc te dicam facere in regione Pedana ? Scribere quod Cassi Parmensis opuscula vincat? These verses are understood seriously and ironically by different critics. The word " opuscula," however, is sufficiently descriptive of his poems, which were chiefly elegies or epigrams. The Scholiasts on Horace attribute to him tragedies also, and relate that Varus, who was sent to execute on Cassius the orders of Augustus, embezzled his papers, and from them produced the tragedy of Thyestes. This is the celebrated work which has been before mentioned, as the production of Yarius, of whom we have had occasion to speak, and who has here been confounded, as in other places, with Varus. The grammarians, however, as if determined to deprive Varius of the credit of this tragedy, have attributed it to Virgil. ! A poem called Orpheus, consisting of nineteen lines, Donat. Vit. Virg. xx. ; Serv. in Eel. iii. HORACE. VIRGIL. GEORGICS AND .ENELD. 91 and which, if genuine, must have been only a fragment of a larger Virgil. composition, was given to the world by Achilles Statius, as the work of Cassius of Parma, discovered among the Bruttii. But as Statius did not condescend to enter minutely on the evidences of its genuineness, there is every reason to believe that it was a forgery. 1 The poem may be found, with numerous illustrative references, in the second volume of Wernsdorf's comprehensive and accurate edition of the Latin minor poets. To the year following the battle of Actium, the completion of the Georgics is commonly assigned. At what time the JEheid The mmid. was first projected, is uncertain; but Virgil, like our Milton, appears from a very early period to have had a strong desire of composing an epic poem, and, like him also, to have been long undecided on his subject. That he had attempted something of the kind, before the eclogues were finished, is evident from these verses in his Silenus : Quum canerem reges etprcelia, Cynthius aurem Vellit, et admonuit, — and his ambition to produce some work of distinguished excellence is attested by the ardent exclamation in the opening of the Illrd Georgic : Tentanda via e6t, qu& me quoque possim Tollere humo, victorque virum \olitare per ora. Even in his Culex, which he is said to have written at fifteen years of age, he gives promise of higher things : Posterius graviore sono tibi Musa loquetur Nostra, dabunt quurn securos mihi tempora fructus Ut tibi digna tuo poliantur carmina sensu. He is said to have begun a metrical chronicle of the Alban kings, but afterwards to have desisted in consequence of the harshness of the names. 2 After the completion of the Georgics, or, perhaps, some short time before, he laid down the plan of a regular epic on the wanderings of iEneas, and the Roman destinies ; to form a sort of continuation of the Iliad to the Eoman times, The riiad and to combine the features of that poem and the Odyssey. The and 0dyiteym idea was sufficiently noble, and the poem, long before its publication, or even conclusion, had obtained the very highest reputation. While Virgil was employed on the JEmeid, " quo nullum Latlo clarius exstat opus," Propertius wrote with generous admiration : Cedite, Romani scriptores ! cedite, Graii ! Nescio quid majus nascitur Iliade ! 1 Bernhardy attributes it to Antonio Telesio tbe Neapolitan. (Grundriss der Rom. Lit. Anm. 320.) 2 Donat. Vit. Virg. viii. ; Serv. in Eel. vi. 92 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. Virgil. Augustus, while absent on his Cantabrian campaign, wrote repeatedly to Virgil for extracts from his poem in progress ; but the poet declined, on the ground that his work was unworthy the perusal of the prince. The correspondence is recorded by Macrobius, in the 1st Book of the Saturnalia; but its genuineness is very questionable. It would be palpably superfluous, in a work of this nature, to attempt an elaborate criticism on this great poem, familiar from their childhood to all persons of education. Most scholars are agreed that it wants the natural freshness and freedom of Homer, while it exhibits a degree of art, elegance, and majesty never attempted in any poem, save the Georgics of its author. It may, however, be pertinent to remark, that, smooth and uniform as its surface seems, it is really, in great measure, mosaic. That Virgil should have translated whole passages out of Homer, or even the Alexandrine writers, is no matter of censure : he and his contem- poraries would have thought the absence of such " purpurei panni" a defect ; and the high authorities of Dante, Ariosto, Tasso, Spenser, Camoens, and Milton ratify their opinion. But the same cannot be said of plagiarisms from Latin authors. How unscrupulously he appropriated whole verses of Ennius, of Lucretius, of Lucilius, of even his friend Varius, and of others, the curious reader may find in the Vlth Book of Macrobius's Saturnalia, which will abundantly repay his perusal. It may be right to add that the JEneid is a most conspicuous evidence of the learning, diligence, and antiquarian research of its illustrious author. [* Availing himself of the pride and superstition of the Eoman people, which never abounded more than during the Augustan age, the poet traces the origin and establishment of the " eternal city " to those heroes and actions which had enough in them of what was human and ordinary to excite the sympathy of his countrymen ; intermingled with persons and circumstances of an extraordinary and superhuman character, to awaken their admiration and their awe. No subject could have been more happily chosen. It has been admired too for its perfect unity of action ; for while the episodes command the richest variety of description, they are always subordinated to the main object of the poem, which is to impress the divine authority under which iEneas first settled in Italy. The wrath of Juno, upon which the whole fate of iEneas seems at first suspended, is at once that of a woman and a goddess : the passion of Dido, and her general character, bring us nearer the present world ; but the poet is continually introducing higher 1 The portion bracketed is taken, with slight alterations, from the article uEneid, formerly printed in the lexicographical part of the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana. The writer is unknown to the present editor. HORACE. VIRGIl/s ^NEID. 93 and more effectual influences, until, by the intervention of the Virgil, father of gods and men, the Trojan name is to be continued in the Roman, and thus heaven and earth are appeased. Hinc genus, Ausonio mixtum quod sanguine surget, Supra homines, supra ire Deos pietate videbis ; Nee gens ulla tuos aeque celebrabit honores. Annuit his Juno, et mentem lsetata retorsit. jEneid, xii. 841. The style, for sweetness and for beauty, occasionally, and in the author's finished passages, surpasses almost every other production of antiquity. "I see no foundation," says Dr. Blair, "for the opinion entertained by some critics that the Mneid is to be considered as an allegorical poem, which carries a constant reference to the character and reign of Augustus Csesar ; or that Virgil's main design' in composing the Mneid, was to reconcile the Romans to the government of that prince, who is supposed to be shadowed out under the character of iEneas He had sufficient motives, as a poet, to determine him to the choice of his subject, from its being in itself both great and pleasing ; from its being suited to his genius, and its being attended with peculiar advantages for the full display of poetical talents. " l The first six books of the Mneid are the most elaborate part of the poem. The imperfections of the Mneid are alleged to be want of originality in some of the principal scenes, and defectiveness in the exhibition of character. That of Dido is by far the most decided and complete. But Voltaire has justly observed upon the strange confusion of interest excited by the story of the wars in Italy, in which one is continually tempted to espouse the cause of Turnus rather than that of iEneas ; and to which the exquisite scenes for displaying the tenderness of the poet in narrating the story of Lavinia, seem to have been his only temptation.] On his return from the Cantabrian expedition, debilitated by exertion and disease, it is probable that Augustus wrote to Maecenas the letter mentioned by Suetonius in his Life of Horace, in which he offered the poet the office of his private secretary. "Ante" says he, "ipse sufficiebam scribendis epistolis amicorum : nunc occupatissimus et infirmus Horatium nostrum te cupio adducere. Veniat igitur ab istd parasitica mensd ad Jianc regiam, et nos in scribendis epistolis jitvabit." Horace declined the offer : and the emperor, so far from discovering the least resentment, continued towards him his friendship and familiarity. In the letters which he afterwards addressed to him, he entreated him to assume the liberties of an intimate associate, and, with a felicity which only the Greek expression can attempt, courted his acquaintance : " neauesi 1 Lectures on Rhetoric, vol. iii. 94 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. VirgflL ut superbus amicitiam nostram sprevisti, idea nos quoque uvQvn-fp- (f)pOVOVfl€V. >n For five years after trie return of Augustus, Horace continued to enjoy an uninterrupted tranquillity, in the most perfect conceiv- able independence, although mingling with the utmost intimacy among the great and powerful, who sought his society even to obsequiousness. At the end of this period an event occurred which forms a prominent feature both in the biography of the poet, and in the poetical history of the time. Virgil, who had just revised and altered the Bucolics and Georgics, with a view to giving the ultimate polish to the JEneid, which he had now com- pleted, projected a tour in Greece and Asia. With a dread almost prophetic, and an ardour not disproportionate, Horace addressed the ship whicn bore his departing friend : Sic te Diva potens Cypri, Sic fratres Helens, lucida sidera, Ventorumque regat pater, Obstrictis aliis, praeter Iapyga, Navis, quae tibi creditum Debes Virgilium, fiuibus Atticis Reddas incolumem, precor, Et serves animse dimidium meae ! 2 So speed tbee Cyprus' goddess brigbt, So Helen's brethren, those twin lords of light ; So the great sire of every wind, None, save the soft North-west, for thee unbind — O bark, I thee implore, Thy charge, my Virgil, to the Attick shore In safety waft across the wave, And thus the half of my existence save ! At Athens Virgil met with Augustus, who was returning from Samos, where he had wintered after his Syrian expedition, to Eome. Changing his former intention, Virgil determined to accompany his patron. On a visit to Megara he was seized with a sudden indisposition, which his voyage increased, and he died a few days after his arrival at Brundusium, in his fifty-second year. On his Death of death-bed he earnestly desired that his JEneid might be burned, ^ nsi1 ' and even left in his will an injunction to that effect. Being, however, informed by the celebrated Varius and Plotius Tucca, (the same who is mentioned by Horace, in his journey to Brun- dusium,) that Augustus would not permit the destruction of his poem, he left it to them to publish, on condition that they would make no additions to the text, even for the purpose of supplying an unfinished verse. How far his executors were faithful to their 1 Or av9vTrepr)(pavovfj.€v, as some read ; which is perhaps better. 2 Lib. i. Od. iii. HOE ACE. -DEATH OE TIEGIL. 95 trust, must now be uncertain ; several unfinished verses are Virgil. extant in the JEneid ; but the terminations of some complete lines render it not improbable that they have been supplied by another pen. The biography and the writings of Yirgil have, unfortunately, fallen into the hands of ignorant grammarians and monastics, who Tomb of Virgil. have most miserably corrupted both. It is not the object of this memoir to relate all the absurd legends with which his biographers have disfigured his history : the curious reader, however, may derive amusement from the perusal of the article Virgile, in Bayle's Dictionary, in which several anecdotes concerning the magical powers of the poet are selected, which probably arose out of his well-known attachment to the study of natural philosophy. The corruptions of his writings are chiefly to be found in his minor poems. Donatus mentions, as his acknowledged works, the Virgil's Catalecta, the Moretum, the Priape'ia, the Epigrams, the Dira, and JJJ,^. the Culex ; and notices a poem called JEhia, the genuineness of which he considers doubtful. This poem is to be found, illustrated with copious dissertations, and notices of the authors to whom it has been ascribed, in the fourth volume of Wernsdorf's Poetce Minores, where it is attributed to Lucilius Junior, a writer of the time of Xero. To these, Servius adds the Oirina, which is the same with the Ciris, before noticed as ascribed to Catullus, and the Copa. The Catalecta are miscellaneous little poems, mostly in the style of Catullus. One Epigram, intituled Votiun pro susceptd jEneide, will not be ungrateful to the reader : 96 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. Virgil. Si milii susceptum fuerit decurrere munus, O Paphon, 6 sedes quae colis Idalias ! Troius JEneas Romana per oppida digno Jam tandem ut tecum carmine vectus eat : Non ego thure modo, aut picta tua templa tabella Ornabo, et puris serta feram manibus : Corniger hos aries humiles et maxima taurus Victima sacratos tinget honore focos ; Marmoreusque tibi, Dea, versicoloribus alis, In morem picta stabit Amor pharetra. Adsis, 6 Cytherea ! tuus te Caesar Olympo, Et Surrentini litoris ora vocant. Dweller of Papbos and bright Idaly ! If thou shalt grant ray toils auspicious end, And Troy's iEneas, guided on by thee, Through Latian towns in worthy strain shall wend : Not limner's art alone, or fragrant cloud, Or flowers from holy hands shall grace thy fane; The horned ram, the bull (thank-offering proud !) With generous stream thy hallowed hearth shall stain Of marble mould, with wings of many a dye, And painted quiver, Love shall stand for thee : Then haste ! thy Caesar calls thee from thy sky : Surrentum calls thee by the glittering sea. Surxentum. It is scarcely necessary to distinguish the Catalecta from the Epigrammata. The nature of the Priape'ia, it is obviously unne- cessary to investigate. The work now extant under that title is, substantially, Augustan, but the character of Virgil forbids us to 97 suppose that his pen has contributed to it in any important Virgil. degree. The Dins is a poem attributed, as we have already seen, to Valerius Cato. The Moretum is a piece oJL very peculiar beauty ; and approaches nearer to Theocritus in spirit than any of the Bucolics. It bears also a remarkable resemblance to Bloomfield's Farmer's Boy. It is a lively description of a rustic's day, and takes its name from a kind of salad, called Moretum, the making of which is described in it. The Cojpa is a Bacchanalian invitation in the person of a Copa, or Syrian woman, who attended, as a dancer or singer, on houses of public entertainment — " Ambu- baiarum collegia" Of all the minor poems, however, ascribed to Virgil, the Culex Cuhx. is, for many reasons, the best deserving notice. Whatever doubts may be thrown on the genuineness of the others, there seems to be every reason for believing that this poem, allowing for all its gross and manifold corruptions, is the work of Virgil. That Virgil wrote a poem bearing this name cannot be questioned ; for, besides the testimony of Donatus and Servius, we have the more respectable evidences of Martial, 1 Statius, 2 and Lucan, 3 for the fact. Donatus quotes two verses from the poem, and Nonius Marcellus one, which are found in the extant copies. The poem, however, seems to have suffered much from alterations and interpolations. Allowing for these, it must have been a very beautiful production, and by far the most original effort of Virgil's muse. It opens with a dedication to Octavius ; who this Octavius was is a matter of uncertainty. In the Catalecta mention is made of a certain Octavius who died in a paroxysm of anger occasioned by drinking ; if this person be, as some commentators suppose, the same to whom the Culex is addressed, he cannot be the Octavius of whose opinion Horace speaks so highly in the Xth Satire of his 1st Book, since the Catalecta were, according to Donatus's account, completed when Virgil was fifteen years of age. 4 From the dedication, the poet proceeds to a most glowing description of sunrise, and a goatherd driving his flock afield : and thence takes occasion to indulge in a long digression on the happiness of rural life, which, though less polished, is more winning and pathetic than the corresponding passage in the Georgics. He has not, indeed, surpassed in intensity of relish for the country his great model Lucretius ; but he has amplified him with great taste and independence, and this passage, taken all in all, is one of the most vivid and delicious in the whole range of Latin Poetry. Prom this, Virgil returns to his short narrative. The noon approaches, and his rustic hero seeks the shelter of a grove to enjoy his siesta. While he is sleeping, a 1 viii. 56. and xiv. 185. 2 2 Sylv. vii. 74. Id. Prsef. Sylv. lib. i. 3 Suet. Vit. Lucani. 4 Some, however correct, twenty-five. [R. L.] H 98 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. Virgil. serpent is on the point of destroying him, when a gnat, perceiving his danger, gives notice to him by a timely sting. Enraged with the insect, of whose benevolent intention he is ignorant, he instantly crushes him. At night, however, the shade of the gnat appears to him, and, after a poetical but tedious description of the regions of the departed, reproaches him for his ingratitude. In this passage the reader may trace the sketches from which Virgil afterwards drew his finished pictures of the appearance of Hector, and the descents of Orpheus and zEneas. The goatherd, on awaking, as the only compensation in his power, erects a monument to his benefactor, with an inscription, which concludes the poem : Parve Culex, pecudum custos tibi tale merenti Funeris officium vitse pro munere reddit. Virgil, by his amiable and conciliatory life, had established himself in the esteem of all the most eminent of his literary contemporaries. Anser. From Donatus, however, we learn that Anser declined his acquain- tance from party considerations, being himself attached to Antony, in whose praise he composed a poem. This Anser is called by Ovid " Cinnd procacior ." 1 Yet the splendour of Virgil's success attracted many to perish in the blaze which they sought to extin- guish. On the appearance of his Bucolics, an anonymous author published a dull parody, called Antibucolica ; and one Carvilius Pictor, in imitation of his worthy prototype Zoilus, composed an JEne'idomastix. Bavius and Msevius, proverbial names for the impersonation of united dullness, envy, and calumny, attacked Comifidus. Virgil ; and Cornificius, also, appears to have written against him. The works of this poet are compared by Ovid to those of Valerius Cato : 2 they were, therefore, probably, satirical productions in the style of the Dirce, or amatory pieces, which Cato is said to have written, and traces of which are to be found, as we have seen, in the Lira, as now extant, itself. Virgil is said to have retaliated on Cornificius under the name of Amyntas, in his Alexis and Dap/mis. 3 But the most triumphant refutation of his adversaries has been the judgment of posterity. No writer, probably, ever exercised so wide an influence either in time or space. His works became forthwith, and still remain, textbooks and schoolbooks; they were even translated into Greek ; they were commented on by a cloud of grammarians ; they were the subject of innumerable epi- grams ; they were formed into centos ; 4 they were used for the 1 ii. Trist. 435. 2 lb. 436. 3 SerV- in Ecl> iL and v# 4 CENTO, Gr. nivrpuv, originally a needle, and in a secondary sense a garment of patchwork (sewed together by needles) ; hence the word is metaphorically applied to a poem composed of verses or parts of verses taken and put together from other authors. Tertullian (de Prcescript. 39) seems to imply that the Medea, the lost tragedy of Ovid, was a cento from Virgil. The nuptial Idyl of Ausonius (which deserves another epithet than that of "pleasant," bestowed upon HOEACE. — YIEGIL. 99 purposes of divination. Virgil was the model of the Carlovingian virgii. poets ; the " Magnus Apollo " of the chivalrous Yon Valdeck ; Dante it by Mr. Cambridge, and copied from bim by Mr. D'Israeli) is the next in antiquity which is extant. The poet, in his introduction to this " literary folly," frivolum et nullius pretii opusculum, -which he appears to have put together at the command of the Emperor Yalentinian, has given some rules by which similar compositions may be regulated. After describing it antithetically as de inconnexis continuum, de dirersis unum, de seriis ludicrum, de alieno nostrum, he proceeds to state that a Cento is formed by taking lines from various places, and applying them in a new sense. A line may be taken entire or divided, but two lines must never be taken together. It is observable, however, that Ausonius himself has not adhered to his own rules. A Cento from Homer on the life of our Saviour has been ascribed to the learned Athenai's, better known as the Empress Eudocia. It has been repeatedly printed, but the silence of Photius, and of many authors besides, who have mentioned other -works of Eudocia, have induced most critics to deny her claim to this insipid performance (Fabric. Bibl. Gr. i. 357), and it is more generally attributed to Pelagius, who lived under Zeno in the fifth century. That of Proba Falconia (the wife of Anicius Probus, a Prsetorian Prsefect under the Emperor Gratian) on the same subject, from Virgil, is believed to be more genuine. It may be found in the Bibl. Patrum. In the sixteenth century the Capilupi of Mantua, Laelius and Julius his nephew, were celebrated artizans in this species of trifling. The best known performance of the first is Cento Yirgilianns de vita Monachorum quos fratres appellant. It was printed at Basle, in 1556, in an octavo volume entitled Yaria doctor um piorumque vir or um de corrupto Ecclesice statu Poemata. To these writers may be added Heinsius, who has made various attempts of this kind, Spera de Pomerico, and Alexander Ross in his Yirgilius Evangelizans. In our own days the achievements of the heroic Nelson have furnished a distinguished scholar with a theme, which, under the title Brontes, he has managed with considerable ingenuity, and parts of which may be accepted as specimens of this sort of composition in general. In allusion to Lord Nelson serving under Lord St. Vincent in the Agamemnon, the poet has the following lines : ( Proposuit nobis exemplar 1 maximus Heros, 2 Res Agamemnonias, victriciaque arma secutus 3 Ejus qui 4 claruni Vincendo nomen habebat. 5 Again, on his commanding the Elephant, at the battle of Copenhagen, quid illo Cive tulisset Natura in terris aut Roma beatius unquam, Si circumducto captivorum agmine et omni Bellorum pompa, animam exhalasset opimam, 6 Cum Gsetula ducem" — nomen quoque monstra dedere s Roboribus textis 9 — portaret bellua luscum : l Atque indignantes in jura redegerit Arctos. 2 Buonaparte is thus described : Unns homo tantas 3 quern misit Corsica 4 strages Ediderit. 5 1 Hor. 1 Ep. ii. 18. 2 JEn. vi. 192. 3 JEn. iii. 54. 4 Hor. 4 Od. via. 18. 5 Ovid. Met. v. 425. 6 Juv. x. 278. " Juv. x. 158. s Ovid. Met. ii. 675. 9 JEn. ii. 186. 1 Juv. x. 158. 2 Claud, de iv. Cons. Hon. 336. 3 JEn. ix. 783. 4 Juv. v. 92. 5 JEn. ix. 783. H 2 100 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. Virgil. exulted in his guidance ; and the later poetry of all Europeans has done homage to his supremacy. In person, according to Donatus, Virgil was tall; his complexion was dark, his expression rustic, his manners shy, and of almost feminine modesty. These particulars may very well be traditional. Death and The death of Virgil was shortly succeeded by an event scarcely less afflicting to Horace and to literary Rome : notice of Tibullus, Te quoque Virgilio comitem non sequa, Tibulle, Mors juvenem catnpos misit ad Elysios, Ne foret aut elegis molles qui fleret amores, Aut caneret forti regia bella pede. 1 Albius Tibullus had been associated with Horace, if not by the bonds of intimate friendship, yet by the sympathies of liberal pursuits ; to his candour and discrimina- tion Horace submitted his ethical writings, and from Horace he received counsel and consolation in the sufferings of disap- pointed love. 2 If the Vth Elegy of the Illrd Book be genuine, he was born u. c. 711, the same year as Ovid. But this is very unlikely, as on this calculation he must have died at the age of twenty-four. In consequence, some critics carry the birth of Tibullus twenty years back from this date. He was of an equestrian family, and served under M. Valerius Messala Corvinus Tibullus. i n the Gallic wars. The real name of his Delia, as we learn from Apuleius, 3 was Plania; and it is probable that Glycera was disguised under that of Nemesis. On his return from And, lastly, his vain -wish to invade Britain is given as follows : Eia age 6 sollicitos Galli dicamus amores ! 7 Toto namque fremunt condensee litore puppes. 8 Uritur interea ripse ulterioris amore. 9 Fata obstant, tristique palus inamabilis unda. 1 [This note is reprinted from the lexicographical part of the former edition of the Encyclopaedia Metropolitana. The author is unknown to the present editor, who only remarks that the Cento of Ausonius, if we are to believe its compiler, was certainly written at the desire of Valentinian ; and that the evangelical Cento from Homer seems rather hardly dealt with, when its extraordinary ingenuity is considered.] 1 Domitii Marsi Epigramma. 2 1 Ep. iv. and 1 Od. xxxiii. 3 Apolog. 106. 6 ffin. iv. 569. 7 Eel. x. 6. ^n. viii. 497. 9 JEn. vi. 314. 1 JEn. vi. 438. HORACE. TIBULLTJS. — PROPERTIUS. 101 his third military expedition with his patron Messala, he retired to Tibuiius. his seat near Pedum, between Preeneste and Tibur, to enjoy, appa- rently, after a life devoted to the cares and excitements of passion, the advantages of that true philosophy, which, teaching him to regard every morning as his last, made each completed day wear the welcome appearance of an unexpected friend. It was here that he polished those beautiful prod actions, which have immortalized his name ; which breathe, in the refined language of his period, though martin" cially, the spirit of unambitious domestic enjoyment, the pure love of nature and country life, the delights of peace, retire- ment, affection, and friendship (subjectively, however, rather than graphically) ; and (as Bernhardy has criticised with no less truth than beauty) " the quiet peacefulness of an almost childlike dispo- sition." x It was here that he lived in the society of the most eminent contemporary poets, and that he died u. c. 735 or 736, bewailed by the Muse of Ovid. It is tolerably clear, both from external and internal considerations, that not all the poetry we possess under the name of Tibuiius is genuine. The two first books of elegies are un- disputed ; but the third is doubtful, 2 and the fourth almost undoubtedly spurious ; especially the panegyric on Messala. In elegy, which he had wrought to the highest degree of excellence, as most modern readers will agree with Quinctilian, 3 Tibuiius was succeeded by S. Aurelius Propertius, who was born about u. c. 700, at Mevania, in Umbria. 4 He lost his father early, and was educated for the bar. But, driven from his country possessions, as has been already mentioned, Propertius. he came to Pome, where he associated with Maecenas, and the chief literary men of his time. Pew particulars are known of his life. The real name of his " Cynthia " was Hostia, as we learn 1 M Die Tibullische Muse athmet den stillen Frieden eines fast kindlichen Geruiiths." — Granclr. cler Rom. Lit. § 94. 2 Ovid knew only two mistresses of Tibuiius, Delia and Nemesis, (3 Am. ix.) ; but the heroine of the third book is Nesera. Moreover, the author calls himself Lygdamus ; an assumed name, probably ; but Tibuiius, in all likelihood, would have assumed a name prosodiacally correspondent to bis own. The author may have been Cassius of Parma, as Oebecke conjectures. 3 " Elegia quoque Graecos provocamus ; cujus mihi tersus atque elegans maxime videtur auctor Tibuiius ; sunt qui Propertium malint." — Quinct. x. 1. 4 4 Eleg. i. 125. Notwithstanding the direct testimony of the poet himself, Ameria, Hispellum, and Assisium have been assigned by different critics. Propertius. ^ 102 AUGUSTAN LATIN POETRY. Horace. Carmen Sceculan Lyric Poetry. from Apuleius. 1 She was a poetess, 2 and was probably descended from the poet Hostius, 3 of whom mention has been already- made. Propertius, though an amatory poet, was permitted to be read by the Fathers of Trent : a distinction probably granted to his learning and stiffness, which disfigure his pathos, while they mitigate his lubricitas. His obscurity, in this point of view, may also have weighed in his favour. He was the avowed imitator and rival of Callimachus and Philetas ; and, therefore, is far less original and at- tractive than Tibullus : though the reputation of his four books of elegies has been deservedly high, from their first appearance till the present day. He meditated an epic ; but he felt himself unequal to the task, and acted on the principle of the sound Horatian maxim. 4 He appears to have died under forty years of age. Horace was now approaching his fiftieth year, and the loss of two friends, with whom he had been so long associated, threw back on his heart a tide of generous affection, which soon flowed towards his early and benevolent patrons Augustus and Maecenas. The former, at once to prove his friendship for the poet and his admiration of his genius, selected him to compose the hymn to be sung in honour of Apollo and Diana at the Saccular games. This poem is, in all respects, extremely valuable; for not only is it a composition of high intrinsic excellence, but it is the only consider- able extant specimen of the lyrical part of the Roman worship. The hymn of Catullus cannot endure any comparison with it, although probably written for a similar occasion. The Carmen S