FOWLE P.
 
 TWENTIETH CENTURY TEXT-- BOOKS 
 
 CLASSICAL SECTION 
 
 EDITED BY 
 
 JOHN HENRY WRIGHT, HARVARD UNIVERSITY 
 BERNADOTTE PERRIN, YALE UNIVERSITY 
 ANDREW FLEMING WEST, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY
 
 AUGUSTUS. 
 Bust in the Museum of Fine Arts. Boston.
 
 TWENTIETH CENTURY TEXT-BOOKS 
 
 A HISTORY OF 
 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 BY 
 
 HAROLD N. FOWLER, PH.D. 
 
 PROFESSOR IN THE COLLEGE FOR WOMEN 
 OF WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY 
 
 NEW YORK AND LONDON 
 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
 
 1909
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1908 
 BY D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 
 
 PRINTED AT THE APPLETON PRESS, 
 NEW YORK, U. 8. A.
 
 SRIF 
 URL 
 
 5143679 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 THIS book is intended primarily for use as a text-book 
 in schools and colleges. I have therefore given more 
 dates and more details about the lives of authors than are 
 in themselves important, because dates are convenient aids 
 to memory, as they enable the learner to connect his new 
 knowledge with historical facts he may have learned be- 
 fore, while biographical details help to endow authors with 
 something of concrete personality, to which the learner 
 can attach what he learns of their literary and intellectual 
 activity. 
 
 Extracts from Latin authors are given, with few excep- 
 tions, in English translation. I considered the advisability 
 of giving them in Latin, but concluded that extracts in 
 Latin would probably not be read by most young readers, 
 and would therefore do less good than even imperfect 
 translations. Moreover, the texts of the most important 
 works are sure to be at hand in the schools, and books of 
 selections, such as Cruttwell and Banton's Specimens of 
 Roman Literature, Tyrrell's Anthology of Latin Poetry, 
 and Gudeman's Latin Literature of the Empire, are readily 
 accessible. I am responsible for all translations not ac- 
 credited to some other translator. In making my trans- 
 lations, I have employed blank verse to represent Latin 
 hexameters ; but the selections from the ^Eneid are given 
 in Conington's rhymed version, and in some other cases I 
 have used translations of hexameters into metres other 
 than blank verse. 
 
 v
 
 VI ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 In writing of the origin of Roman comedy, I have not 
 mentioned the dramatic satura. Prof. George L. Hen- 
 drickson has pointed out (in the American Journal of 
 Philology, vol. xv, pp. 1-30) that the dramatic satura 
 never really existed, but was invented in Roman literary 
 history because Aristotle, whose account of the origin of 
 comedy was closely followed by the Roman writers, found 
 the origin of Greek comedy in the satyr-drama. 
 
 The greater part of the book is naturally taken up 
 with the extant literary works and their authors ; but I 
 have devoted some space to the lives and works of authors 
 whose writings are lost. This I have done, not because I 
 believe that the reader should burden his memory with 
 useless details, but partly in order that this book may be 
 of use as a book of reference, and partly because the men- 
 tion of some of the lost works and their authors may im- 
 press upon the reader the fact that something is known of 
 many writers whose works have survived, if at all, only in 
 detached fragments. Not a few of these writers were im- 
 portant in their day, and exercised no little influence upon 
 the progress of literature. Of the whole mass of Roman 
 literary production only a small part though fortunately 
 in great measure the best part now exists, and it is only 
 by remembering how much has been lost that the modern 
 reader can appreciate the continuity of Roman literature. 
 
 The literature of the third, fourth, and fifth centuries 
 after Christ is treated less fully than that of the earlier 
 times, but its importance to later European civilization 
 has been so great that a summary treatment of it should 
 be included even in a book of such limited scope as this. 
 
 The Bibliography will, I hope, be found useful. It is 
 by no means exhaustive, but may serve as a guide to those 
 who have not access to libraries. The purpose of the 
 Chronological Table is not so much to serve as a finding- 
 list of dates as to show at a glance what authors were liv- 
 ing and working at any given time. In the Index the
 
 PREFACE vii 
 
 names or all Latin writers mentioned in the book are to 
 be found, together with references to numerous topics and 
 to some of the more important historical persons. 
 
 Besides the works of the Roman authors, I have con- 
 sulted the general works mentioned in the Bibliography 
 and numerous other books and special articles. I have 
 made most use of TeuffePs History of Roman Literature, 
 Schanz's Romische Litteraturgeschichte, and Mackail's ad- 
 mirable Latin Literature. 
 
 My thanks are due to my colleague, Prof. Samuel Ball 
 Platner, who read the book in manuscript and made many 
 valuable suggestions, and to Professor Perrin, who read 
 not only the manuscript, but also the proof, and suggested 
 not a few desirable changes. 
 
 HAROLD N. FOWLER. 
 CLEVELAND, OHIO.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. INTRODUCTION EARLY ROMAN LITERATURE TRAGEDY 1 
 
 II. COMEDY 17 
 
 III. EARLY PROSE THE SCIPIONIC CIRCLE LUCILIUS . . 32 
 
 IV. LUCRETIUS 47 
 
 V. CATULLUS MINOR POETS 56 
 
 VI. CICERO 65 
 
 VII. CAESAR SALLUST OTHER PROSE WRITERS ... 83 
 
 VIII. THE PATRONS OF LITERATURE VlRGIL .... 97 
 
 IX. HORACE 114 
 
 X. TIBULLUS PROPERTIUS THE LESSER POETS . . 128 
 
 XL OVID 143 
 
 XII. LIVY OTHER AUGUSTAN PROSE WRITERS . . . 156 
 
 XIII. TIBERIUS TO VESPASIAN 169 
 
 XIV. THE FLAVIAN EMPERORS THE SILVER AGE . . . 194 
 
 XV. NERVA AND TRAJAN 211 
 
 XVI. THE EMPERORS AFTER TRAJAN SUETONIUS OTHER 
 
 WRITERS 226 
 
 XVII. LITERARY INNOVATIONS 235 
 
 XVIII. EARLY CHRISTIAN WRITERS 244 
 
 XIX. PAGAN LITERATURE OF THE THIRD CENTURY . . . 253 
 
 XX. THE FOURTH AND FIFTH CENTURIES .... 259 
 
 XXL CONCLUSION 278 
 
 APPENDIX I. BIBLIOGRAPHY 285 
 
 APPENDIX II. CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 297 
 
 INDEX . 303 
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTKATIONS 
 
 FACING 
 PAGE 
 
 AUGUSTUS, bust in the Museum of Pine Arts, Boston, Frontitpicce 
 CICERO, bust in the Vatican Museum, Rome .... 65 
 
 C.ESAR, bust in the Museum at Naples 83 
 
 VIRGIL AND TWO MUSES, mosaic in the Bardo Museum, Tunis . 113 
 
 iz
 
 BOOK I 
 THE PERIOD OF THE REPUBLIC 
 
 CHAPTEK I 
 
 INTRODUCTION-EARLY ROMAN LITERATURE -TRAGEDY 
 
 Importance of Roman literature The Romans a practical people 
 The Latin language Political purpose of Roman writings 
 Divisions of Roman literature Elements of a native Roman litera- 
 ture Appius Claudius Caecus Imitation of Greek literature L. 
 Livius Andronicus, about 284 to about 204 B. c. Gnaeus Naavius, 
 about 270-199 B. c. Q. Ennius, 239-169 B. c. His Tragedies 
 The Annales M. Pacuvius, 220 to about 130 B. c. L. Accius, 170 to 
 after 100 B. c. The Decay of Tragedy The Roman theatre, actors 
 and costumes. 
 
 ROMAN literature, while it lacks the brilliant originality 
 and the delicate beauty which characterize the works of 
 importance the great Greek writers, is still one of the 
 of Eoman great literatures of the world, and it possesses 
 literature. ftn j m p Or t a nce for us which is even greater 
 than its intrinsic merits (great as they are) would natu- 
 rally give it. In the first place, Roman literature has 
 preserved to us, in Latin translations and adaptations, 
 many important remains of Greek literature which would 
 otherwise have been lost, and in the second place, the 
 political power of the Romans, embracing nearly the whole 
 known world, made the Latin language the most widely 
 spread of all languages, and thus caused Latin literature 
 to be read in all lands and to influence the literary devel- 
 opment of all the peoples of Europe. 
 
 1
 
 2 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 The Romans were a practical race, not gifted with 
 much poetic imagination, but with great ability to organize 
 their state and their army and to accomplish 
 whatever they determined to do. They had 
 come into Italy with a number of related 
 tribes from the north and had settled in a place on the 
 bank of the Tiber, where they were exposed to attacks 
 froih the Etruscans and other neighbors. They were 
 thus forced from the beginning to fortify their city, and 
 live close together within the walls. This made the early 
 development of a form of city government both natural 
 and necessary, and turned the Eoman mind toward polit- 
 Attention to * ca ^ organization. At the same time, the at- 
 political and tacks of external enemies forced the Komans 
 military to pay attention to the organization and sup- 
 
 port of an army. So, from the time of the 
 foundation of their city by the Tiber, the Romans turned 
 their attention primarily to politics and war. The effect 
 upon their language and literature is clearly seen. Their 
 language is akin to Greek, and like Greek is one of the 
 Indo-European family of languages, to which English and 
 the other most important languages of Europe 
 language* belong. It started with the same material as 
 Greek, but while Greek developed constantly 
 more variety, more delicacy, and more flexibility, Latin is 
 fixed and rigid, a language adapted to laws and commands 
 rather than to the lighter and more graceful kinds of 
 utterance. Circumstances, aided no doubt by the natural 
 bent of their minds, tended to make the Romans political, 
 military, and practical, rather than artistic. 
 
 Roman literature, as might be expected after what has 
 just been said, is often not the spontaneous outpouring of 
 literary genius, but the means by which some practical 
 ends or purposes are to be attained. Almost from first to 
 last, the writings of Roman authors have a political pur- 
 pose, and the influence of political events upon the liter-
 
 INTRODUCTION 3 
 
 ature is most marked. Even those kinds of Roman liter- 
 ature which seem at first sight to have the least connec- 
 Political ^ on with political matters have nevertheless 
 purpose of a political purpose. Plays were written to 
 Koman enhance the splendor of public festivals pro- 
 
 vided by office holders who were at the same 
 time office seekers and hoped to win the favor of the peo- 
 ple by successful entertainments ; history was written to 
 teach the proper methods of action for future use or (some- 
 times) to add to the influence of living leaders of the state 
 by calling to mind the great deeds of their ancestors ; epic 
 and lyric poems were composed to glorify important per- 
 sons at Rome, or at least to prove the right of Rome to 
 the foremost place among the nations by giving her a lit- 
 erature worthy to rank with that of the Greeks. 
 
 The development of Roman literature is closely con- 
 nected with political events, and its three great divi- 
 Divisions of sions correspond to the divisions of Roman 
 Eoman political history. The first or Republican 
 
 literature. Period extends from the beginning of Roman 
 literature after the first Punic war (240 B. c.) to the battle 
 of Actium in 31 B. c. The second or Augustan Period, 
 from 31 B. c. to 14 A. D., is the period in which the insti- 
 tutions of the republic were transformed to serve the pur- 
 poses of the monarchy. The " Golden Age " of Roman 
 literature comprises the last part of the Republican 
 Period and the whole Augustan Period, from 81 B. c. to 
 14 A. D. The third or Imperial Period lasts from 14 
 A. D. to the beginning of the Middle Ages. The first 
 part of this period, from 14 to 117 A. D., is called the 
 " Silver Age." In the first period the Romans learn to 
 imitate Greek literature and develop their language 
 until it is capable of fine literary treatment, and in the 
 latter part of this time they produce some of their 
 greatest works, especially in prose. The second period, 
 made illustrious by Horace and Virgil, is the time when
 
 4 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 Roman poetry reaches its greatest height. The third 
 period is a time of decline, sometimes rapid, sometimes 
 retarded for a while, during which Eoman literature 
 shows few great works and many of very slight literary 
 value. Throughout the first and second periods, and even 
 for the most part in the third period, Latin literature is 
 produced almost entirely at Rome, is affected by changes 
 in the city, and reflects the sentiments of the city popula- 
 tion. It is therefore proper to speak of Roman literature, 
 rather than Latin literature, for that which interests us is 
 the literature of the city by the Tiber and of the civiliza- 
 tion with which the city is identified, rather than works 
 written in the Latin language. 
 
 The beginning of a real literature at Rome was made 
 by a foreigner of Greek birth, and naturally took the form 
 Elements of ^ an imitation of Greek works. This would 
 native undoubtedly have been the case, even if 
 
 Eoman th e first professional author had been a native 
 
 era ure. Roman, for the Romans had for some time 
 been in close touch with the Greeks of Italy, and Greek 
 literature presented itself to them as a finished product, 
 calling for their admiration and inciting them to imitate 
 it. Nevertheless there were in existence at Rome in early 
 times materials from which a native literature might have 
 arisen if the Greek influence had not been so strong as to 
 prevent their development. The early Romans sang songs 
 at weddings and at harvest festivals, chanted hymns to 
 the gods, and were familiar with rude popular perform- 
 ances which might have given rise to a native drama. 
 The words of such songs and performances were of course, 
 for the most part at least, rhythmical, but few if any 
 of them were committed to writing until much later 
 times. The art of writing was, however, known to the 
 Romans as early as the sixth century B. c., for the Greek 
 colonies on the coast of Italy must have had trade con- 
 nections with the Romans at a very early time, and wri-
 
 INTRODUCTION 5 
 
 ting was thoroughly familiar to the Greeks by the time 
 Kome was two centuries old. 
 
 From early times the Eomans kept lists of officials, 
 records of prodigies, lists of the dies fasti, i. e., of the 
 days on which it was lawful to conduct public business, 
 and other simple records. The twelve tables of the laws 
 are said to have been written in 451 and 450 B. c., and 
 these had some influence on Koman prose, for they were 
 the first attempt at connected prose in the Latin lan- 
 guage. No doubt other laws and probably also treaties 
 were written in Latin and preserved at an early date. 
 Funeral orations called for some practise in oratory, but 
 probably not for careful preparation, and certainly not 
 for composition in writing in the early days of Rome. 
 The first Roman speech known to have been written out 
 for publication is the speech delivered in 280 B. c., by 
 Appius * ne aged Appius Claudius Caecus, in which 
 
 Claudius he urged the rejection of the terms of peace 
 Csecus. offered by Pyrrhus. This speech was known 
 
 and read at Rome for two centuries after the death of 
 its author. A collection of sayings or proverbs was also 
 current under the name of Claudius, and he was actively 
 interested in adapting more perfectly to the Latin lan- 
 guage the alphabet which the Romans had received from 
 the Greeks, and in fixing the spelling of Latin words. 
 
 All this is, however, not so much literature as the 
 material from which literature might have developed if 
 Rome had been removed from the sphere of Greek influ- 
 ence. Since that was not the case, these first steps toward 
 a national literature led to nothing, though they show 
 that the Romans had some originality, and help us to 
 understand some of the peculiarities of Roman literature 
 as distinguished from its Greek prototype. Still Roman 
 literature is a literature of imitation, and the beginning 
 of it was made by a Greek named Andronicus, who was 
 brought to Rome after the capture of Tarentum in
 
 6 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 272 B. c. when he was still a boy. At Eome he was the 
 slave of M. Livius Salinator, whose children he instructed 
 in Greek and Latin. When set free, he took the name of 
 Lucius Livius Andronicus, and continued to 
 L. Livius teach. As there were no Latin books which 
 
 Andromcus. . 
 
 he could use in teaching, he conceived the 
 idea of translating Homer's Odyssey into Latin, thereby 
 making the beginning of Latin literature. His transla- 
 tion of the Odyssey was rude and imperfect. Andronicus 
 made no attempt to reproduce in Latin the hexameter 
 verse of Homer, but employed the native Saturnian verse 
 (see page 7), probably because it seemed to him better 
 fitted to the Latin language than the more stately hexam- 
 eter. After the first Punic war, at the Ludi Romani 
 in 240 B. c., Andronicus produced and put upon the stage 
 Latin translations of a Greek tragedy and a Greek com- 
 edy. In these and his later dramas he retained the iam- 
 bic and trochaic metres of the originals, and his example 
 was followed by his successors. He also composed hymns 
 for public occasions. Of his works only a few fragments 
 are preserved, hardly more than enough to show that 
 they had little real literary merit. But he had made a 
 beginning, and long before his death, which took place 
 about 204 B. c., his successors were advancing along the 
 lines he had marked out. 
 
 Gnseus Naevius, a freeborn citizen of a Latin city in 
 Campania, was the first native Latin poet of importance. 
 
 He was a soldier in the first Punic war, at 
 n8e the end of which, while still a young man, 
 
 he came to Rome, where he devoted himself 
 to poetry. He was a man of independent spirit, not 
 hesitating to attack in his comedies and other verses the 
 most powerful Romans, especially the great family of the 
 Metelli. For many years he maintained his position, but 
 at last the Metelli brought about his imprisonment and 
 banishment, and he died in exile in 199 B. c., at about
 
 N^EVIUS 7 
 
 seventy years of age. His dramatic works were numer- 
 ous, both tragedies and comedies, for the most part trans- 
 lations and adaptations from the Greek, but alongside of 
 these he produced also plays based upon Eoman legends. 
 These were called fabulce prcetexta or prcetextatw, " plays 
 of the purple stripe," because the characters wore Eo- 
 man costumes. In one of these plays, the Romulus (or 
 in two, if the Lupus or "Wolf" is not the Romulus 
 under another title), he dramatized the story of Komulus 
 and Kemus, and in another, the Clastidium, the defeat 
 (in 222 B. c.) of the Insubrians by M. Claudius Marcellus 
 and On. Cornelius Scipio. In his later years he turned 
 to epic poetry and wrote in Saturnian verse the history of 
 the first Punic war, introduced by an account of the 
 legendary history of Rome from the departure of tineas 
 for Italy after the fall of Troy. This poem was read and 
 admired for many years, and parts of it were imitated by 
 Virgil in the JEneid. Naevius also wrote other poems, 
 called Satires, on various subjects, partly, but not entirely, 
 in Saturnian metre. Of all these works only inconsider- 
 able fragments remain. They show, however, that Nae- 
 vius was a poet of real power, and that with him the 
 Latin language was beginning to develop some fitness 
 for literary use. His epitaph, preserved by Aulus Gellius, 
 will serve not only to show the stiff and monotonous 
 rhythm of the Saturnian verse, but also, since it was 
 probably written by Naevius himself, to exhibit his proud 
 consciousness of superiority : 
 
 Immdrtales mortdles si foret fas JUre 
 Flerent diva& Camenae Naemwm pobtam. 
 Itdque pbstquam eat Orel trdditus ihesati/ro 
 Obhti mnt Romdi loquier lingud Latina. 
 
 If it were right that mortals be wept for by immortals, 
 The goddess Muses would weep for Nsevius the poet. 
 And so since to the treasure of Orcus he's departed, 
 The Romans have forgotten to speak the Latin language. 
 2
 
 8 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 Nsevius had a right to be proud. He had made liter- 
 ature a real force at Rome, able to contend with the great 
 men of the city ; he had invented the drama with Eoman 
 characters, and had written the first national epic poem. 
 In doing all this he had at the same time added to the 
 richness and grace of the still rude Latin language. But 
 great as were the merits of Naevius, he was surpassed in 
 every way by his successor. 
 
 Quintus Ennius, a poet of surprising versatility and 
 
 power, was born at RudiaB, in Calabria, in 239 B. c. 
 
 While he was serving in the Roman army in 
 
 Quintus Sardinia, in 204 B. c., he met with M. Porcius 
 
 Ennius. 
 
 Cato, who took him home to Rome. Here 
 
 Ennius gave lessons in Greek and translated Greek plays 
 for the Roman stage. He became acquainted with several 
 prominent Romans, among them the elder Scipio Africa- 
 nus, went to ^Etolia as a member of the staff of M. Ful- 
 vius Nobilior, and obtained full Roman citizenship in 
 184 B. c. His death was brought on by the gout in 
 169 B. c. 
 
 The works of Ennius were many and various, includ- 
 ing tragedies, comedies, a great epic poem, a metrical 
 Various treatise on natural philosophy, a translation 
 
 works of of the work of Euhemerus, in which he 
 Ennius. explained the nature of the gods and declared 
 
 that they are merely famous men of old times, l a poem 
 on food and cooking, a series of Precepts, epigrams (in 
 which the elegiac distich was used for the first time in 
 Latin), and satires. His most important works were his 
 tragedies and his great epic, the Annales. 
 
 The tragedies were, like those of Naevius, translations 
 of the works of the great Greek tragedians and their less 
 great, but equally popular, successors. The titles and 
 
 1 Even if this work and some treatises on grammar should be 
 ascribed to a later Ennius, which is not proved, the works of the 
 great poet were sufficiently various.
 
 ENNIUS 9 
 
 some fragments of twenty-two of these plays are preserved, 
 from which it is evident that Ennius sometimes trans- 
 Hi s lated exactly and sometimes freely, while he 
 
 dramatic allowed himself at other times to depart 
 works. from his Greek original even to the extent 
 
 of changing the plot more or less. For the most part, 
 however, the invention of the plot, the delineation of 
 character, and the poetic imagery of his plays were due to 
 the Greek dramatists whose works he presented in Latin 
 form. To Ennius himself belong the skillful use of the 
 Latin language, the ability to express in a new language 
 the thoughts rather than the words of the Greek poets, 
 and also such changes as were necessary to make the 
 Greek tragedies appeal more strongly to a Eoman audi- 
 ence. It is impossible to tell from the fragments just 
 what changes were made, but the popularity of the plays, 
 which continued long after the death of Ennius, proves 
 that the changes attained their object and pleased the 
 audience. The titles of two fabulce prcetextce by Ennius 
 are known, the Sabine Women, a dramatic presentation of 
 the legend of the Kape of the Sabines, and Ambracia, a 
 play celebrating the capture of Ambracia by M. Fulvius 
 Nobilior. His comedies seem to have been neither numer- 
 ous nor especially successful. 
 
 The most important work of Ennius is his great epic 
 
 in eighteen books, the Annales, in which he told the 
 
 legendary and actual history of the Romans 
 
 from the arrival of ./Eneas in Italy to his 
 Annales. J 
 
 own time. In this work, as in his tragedies, 
 he may be said to have followed in the way pointed out 
 by Naevius, but the Annales mark an immense advance 
 beyond the Bellum Punicum of Xsevius. The monoto- 
 nous and unpolished Saturnian metre could not, even in 
 the most skillful hands, attain the dignity or the melo- 
 dious cadences appropriate to great epic poems. Ennius 
 therefore gave up the native Italian metre and wrote his
 
 10 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 epic in hexameter verse in imitation of Homer. This was 
 no easy matter, for the laws of the verse as it existed in 
 Greek could not be applied without change to Latin, but 
 Ennius modified them in some particulars and thus fixed 
 the form of the Latin hexameter, at the same time estab- 
 lishing in great part the rules of Latin prosody. Only 
 about six hundred lines of the Annales remain, and many 
 of these are detached from their context, yet from these 
 we can see that Ennius had much poetic imagination, 
 great skill in the use of words, and great dignity of dic- 
 tion. The line At tuba terribili sonitu taratantara dixit 
 shows at once his ability to make the sound of his words 
 imitate the sound he wishes to describe (in this case that 
 of a trumpet) and his liking for alliteration. This last 
 quality is found in many Koman poets, but in none more 
 frequently than Ennius. 
 
 The Annales continued to be read and admired even 
 after the time of Virgil, though the ^Eneid soon took 
 rank as the greatest Roman epic. Some of the lines of 
 Ennius breathe the true Roman spirit of military pride 
 and civic rectitude, as 
 
 Moribua antiquis res stat Romano, virisque, 1 
 or Quern nemoferro potuit superare nee auro, 9 
 
 or Nee cauponantes folium sed folligerentes.* 
 
 Among the existing fragments are several which seem to 
 have suggested to Virgil some of the passages in the 
 jEneid, and there is no doubt that Virgil found Ennius 
 worthy of imitation. 
 
 1 Ancient customs and men cause the Roman republic to prosper. 
 
 * Whom no one with the sword could overcome nor by bribing. 
 
 1 This line occurs in a context which is worth translating. " I 
 do not ask gold for myself, and do not you offer me a ransom : not 
 waging the war like hucksters, but like soldiers, with the sword, not 
 with gold, let us strive for our lives. Let us try by our valor whether 
 our mistress Fortune wishes you or me to rule."
 
 PACUVIUS 11 
 
 We may learn something of the character of Ennius 
 from a passage of the Annales in which he is said, 1 on 
 the authority of the grammarian L. ./Elius Stilo, to be 
 describing himself : " A man of such a nature that no 
 thought ever prompts him to do a bad deed either care- 
 lessly or maliciously ; a learned, faithful, pleasant man, 
 eloquent, contented and happy, witty, speaking fit words 
 in season, courteous, and of few words, possessing much 
 ancient buried lore; a man whom old age made wise in 
 customs old and new and in the laws of many ancients, 
 both gods and men; one who knew when to speak and 
 when to be silent." 
 
 Ennius was the first great epic poet at Rome. After 
 him epic poetry was neglected, until it was taken up 
 _ . again a hundred years later. Tragedy, how- 
 
 production of ever, the other branch of literature in which 
 tragedies, Ennius chiefly excelled, was cultivated with- 
 but not of ou {. interruption, for it had become usual to 
 produce tragedies at the chief festivals of the 
 city and on other public occasions, and new plays were 
 therefore constantly in demand. But as gladiatorial 
 shows grew more frequent and more magnificent, tragedy 
 declined in popularity, though tragedies continued to be 
 written, and even acted. The development of Roman 
 tragedy is, however, contained within a few generations, 
 the professional authors of tragedies about whom we have 
 any information are few, and their works are lost, with 
 the exception of such fragments as have happened to be 
 quoted by later writers. It is therefore best to continue 
 the account of Roman tragedy now, even at the sacrifice 
 of strict chronological order. 
 
 The successor of Ennius as a writer of tragedies was his 
 nephew, Marcus Pacuvius, who was born at Brundusium in 
 220 B. c., but spent most of his life at Rome. As an old 
 
 1 Aulus Gellius, xii, 4.
 
 12 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 man he returned to southern Italy, and died at Tarentum 
 about 130 B. c. He was a painter, as well as a writer of 
 
 tragedies, and it may be due to his activity 
 Marcus . , ,, , , . , ,. ' 
 
 Paouvius as a P am ter that his plays were comparative- 
 ly few. The titles of twelve tragedies are 
 known, in addition to one fabula prcstexta^ the Paulus, 
 written in honor of the victory of L. ^Emilius Paulus over 
 King Perseus in the battle of Pydna (168 B. c.). These 
 plays are all lost, and the existing fragments (about 400 
 lines) are unsatisfactory. Cicero considered Pacuvius 
 the greatest Roman tragic writer, and Horace speaks of 
 him as "learned." Probably this epithet refers to his 
 careful use of language as well as to his knowledge of the 
 less popular legends of Greek mythology. The extant 
 fragments show more ease and grace of style than do those 
 of Ennius, and great richness of vocabulary. Some of 
 the words used are not found elsewhere, and seem to have 
 been invented by Pacuvius himself ; at any rate they did 
 not come into ordinary use. Of the real dramatic ability 
 of Pacuvius we can not judge, but his literary skill is 
 evident even from the poor fragments we have. We may 
 therefore believe that Cicero's favorable judgment of him 
 was in some measure justified. 
 
 The last important writer of tragedies, and probably 
 
 the greatest of all, was Lucius Accius, of Pisaurum, in 
 
 Umbria. He was born in 170 B. c., and one 
 
 ucius o j kj g g rg ^. tragedies was produced in 140 B. c., 
 
 when Pacuvius produced one of his last. 
 
 Accius lived to a great age, but the date of his death is 
 
 not known. Cicero, as a young man, was well acquainted 
 
 with him, and used to listen to his stories of his own early 
 
 years. The shortness of the life of Roman tragedy, and 
 
 the rapidity with which Roman literature developed, may 
 
 be seen by observing that Cicero, the great master of 
 
 Latin prose, knew Accius, whose birth took place only 
 
 thirty-four years after the death of Livius Andronicus.
 
 LUCIUS ACCIUS 13 
 
 Of the plays of Accius somewhat more than 700 lines are 
 preserved, and about fifty titles are known. The frag- 
 ments are for the most part detached lines, but some are 
 long enough to let us see that the poet had a vigorous 
 and graceful style, and a vivid imagination. Like most 
 of his predecessors, Accius wrote various minor poems, 
 and was interested in the development of the Latin 
 language. He proposed a number of innovations, inclu- 
 ding some changes in the alphabet, but these last were not 
 adopted by others. Besides his tragedies translated from 
 the Greek, he wrote at least two fabulce prcetextcB, the 
 Brutus, in which he dramatized the tale of the expulsion 
 of the Tarquins, and the jfflneadce, glorifying the death 
 of Publius Decius Mus at the battle of Sentinum in 295 
 B. c. Even in his regular tragedies he departed occasion- 
 ally from the original Greek so far as to show his own 
 power of invention, though these plays were for the most 
 part mere free translations. One of the longer fragments, 1 
 in which a shepherd, who has never seen a ship before, 
 describes the coming of the Argo, may give some idea of 
 Accius's skill in description : 
 
 So great a mass glides on, roaring from the deep with vast 
 sound and breath, rolls the waves before it, and stirs up the whirl- 
 pools mightily. It rushes gliding forward, scatters and blows back 
 the sea. Now you might think a broken cloud was rolling on, 
 now that a lofty rock, torn off, was being swept along by winds or 
 hurricanes, or that eddying whirlwinds were rising as the waves 
 rush together ; or that the sea was stirring up some confused heaps 
 of earth, or that perhaps Triton with his trident overturning the 
 cavern down below, in the billowy tide, was raising from the deep 
 a rocky mass to heaven. 
 
 With Accius, Eoman tragedy reaches its height. Con- 
 temporary with him were C. Titius and C. Julius Caesar 
 Strabo (died 87 B. c.), both of whom were orators as well 
 
 1 Quoted by Cicero, De Deor. Nat. II, 35, 89.
 
 14: ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 as tragic poets. Of their works only slight traces remain. 
 After this time tragedies were written by literary men as 
 a pastime, or for the entertainment of their 
 tragedy friends, and some of their plays were actu- 
 
 ally performed. The Emperor Augustus be- 
 gan a play entitled Ajax, Ovid wrote a Medea, and Varius 
 (about 74-14 B. c.) was famous for his Thyestes, but none 
 of these works has left more than a mere trace of its ex- 
 istence. The tragedies of Seneca (about 1-65 A. D.) were 
 rather literary exercises than productions for the stage. 
 With the growth of prose literature, especially of oratory, 
 on the one hand, and the increased splendor of the gladi- 
 atorial shows on the other, tragedy ceased to be a living 
 branch of Koman literature. 
 
 Before passing on to the treatment of comedy, it would 
 be well to try to picture to ourselves the Eoman theatre and 
 the manner of producing a play. In the early 
 ^J 8 ^ ^ivius Andronicus there was no per- 
 manent theatre building, and the spectators 
 stood up during the performance, but, as time went on, 
 arrangements for seating the audience were made, and 
 finally, in 55 B. c., a stone theatre was erected. Stone 
 theatres had long been in use in Greece, and in course of 
 time they came to be built in all the large cities of the Ko- 
 man empire. The Roman theatre differed somewhat from 
 the Greek theatre, though resembling it in its general ap- 
 pearance. The Roman stage was about three 
 The stage. * 
 
 or four feet high, and long and wide enough 
 
 to give room for several actors, usually not more than four 
 or five at a time, one or two musicians, a chorus of indefi- 
 nite number, and as many supernumeraries as might be 
 needed. These last were sometimes very numerous, when 
 kings appeared with their body-guards, or generals led their 
 armies or their hosts of prisoners upon the stage. At the 
 back of the stage was a building, usually three stories high, 
 representing a palace. In the middle was a door leading
 
 THE ROMAN THEATRE 15 
 
 into the royal apartments, and two other doors, one at 
 each side, led to the rooms for guests. At each end of 
 the stage was a door, the one at the right leading to the 
 forum, the other to the country or the harbor. Changes 
 of scene were imperfectly made by changing parts of the 
 decoration. In comedies, the background represented not 
 a palace, but a private house or a street of houses. 
 
 In front of the stage was the semicircular orchestra or 
 arena, in which distinguished persons had their seats. 
 The orchestra This semicircle was flat and level. The front 
 and the of the stage formed the diameter. From the 
 
 oavea. curve of the orchestra rose the cavea, consist- 
 
 ing of seats in semicircular rows, rising from the orchestra 
 at an angle sufficient to enable those who sat in any row 
 to see over those who sat in front of them. The theatre 
 had no roof, but in the luxurious times of the empire, and 
 even before the end of the republic, a covering of canvas 
 or silk was stretched like a tent between the spectators 
 and the sun. 
 
 In the early days of the Koman drama, the actors did 
 not wear masks, but before the end of the republic masks 
 were introduced. These were useful in the 
 costumed large theatres of the time, as they added to 
 the volume of the actor's voice, and since the 
 expression of the actor's face could be seen by only a 
 small proportion of the spectators, little was lost by hiding 
 it with a mask. The masks themselves were carefully 
 made, and were appropriate to the different characters. 
 The costumes were conventional, kings wearing long 
 robes and holding sceptres in their left hands, all tragic 
 actors wearing boots with thick soles to raise them above 
 the stature of the chorus, and all comic actors wearing 
 low shoes without heels. The actors were, as a rule at 
 least, slaves, but the profits of the profession were so great 
 that a successful actor can have had but little difficulty 
 in buying his freedom.
 
 16 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 In Roman tragedies, as in their Greek originals, the 
 dialogue was carried on in simple metres, mostly trochaic 
 and iambic, and a chorus of trained singers 
 san & Detween * ne ac * 8 but probably took 
 little part in the action of the play. The 
 songs of the chorus were composed in more elaborate 
 metres than the dialogue, and were sung to the accom- 
 paniment of the flute. In Roman comedy there was no 
 chorus, but parts of the play were sung as solos or duets. 
 These were called cantica, while the dialogue parts of the 
 comedy were called diverbia. 
 
 Plays were performed at Rome on various occasions 
 when the people were to be entertained, and the aediles and 
 Brilliancy of other officials and public men vied with each 
 dramatic per- other in showing their wealth and in court- 
 formanoes. j n g popularity. We must, therefore, imag- 
 ine, that when a play was performed in the latter part of 
 the republican period the actors, chorus, and supernumer- 
 aries were dressed in the richest and most gorgeous 
 costumes, and everything possible was done to add to the 
 spectacular effect of the performance, while the audience, 
 excited by the scene and the action, lost no opportunity 
 of cheering their favorite actors, or hissing those who 
 failed to please.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 COMEDY 
 
 Comedy imported Plautus, about 254 to 184 B. c. Plots of 
 Roman comedies Extant plays of Plautus Degree of originality in 
 Plautus Statius Caecilius, birth unknown, death about 165 B. c. 
 Other comic writers Terence, about 190 to 159 B. c. Plays of 
 Terence Plautus and Terence compared Turpilius, died 103 B.C. 
 Fabula togata Titinius, about 150 B. c. (I) Titus Quinctius Atta, 
 died 77 B. c. Lucius Afranius, born about 150 B. c. Fescennine 
 verses Fabulae Atellanae Pomponius and Novius, about 90 B. c. 
 Mimes Decimus Laberius and Publilius Syrus, about 50 B. c. 
 
 COMEDY, like tragedy, was an imported product, not 
 an original growth, at Rome. There had, to be sure, 
 Comedy an been improvised dialogues of more or less 
 imported dramatic nature even before Livius Androni- 
 produot. cug ^ k u ^. these, about which a few words will 
 be said later, have nothing to do with the origin of 
 Roman comedy, which is an imitation of the new Attic 
 comedy as it existed at Athens after the time of Alex- 
 ander the Great, being at its best from about 320 to about 
 280 B. c. No plays of the new Attic comedy are preserved 
 in the original Greek, but there are fragments which sup- 
 plement the knowledge we derive from the Latin imi- 
 tations. The poets of the new comedy, Menander, Phile- 
 mon, Diphilus, and others, avoided historical and polit- 
 ical subjects and drew their comedies from private life, 
 finding in petty intrigues, interesting situations, and 
 unexpected complications, some compensation for the 
 general meagreness of the plot. This kind of play was 
 
 17
 
 18 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 called at Rome fabula palliata, because the actors wore 
 the pallium, or Greek costume. Another kind of 
 comedy, in which Roman characters and scenes were 
 represented, though even in this kind of plays the plots 
 were derived from Greek originals, was called fabula 
 togata, because the actors wore the Roman toga. Of this 
 latter kind of plays only a few fragments are preserved, 
 and it seems never to have been so popular as the fabula 
 palliata. 
 
 Livius Andronicus, Ennius, and Pacuvius, all pro- 
 duced comedies at Rome, as did other writers of trage- 
 dies, but of these works only scanty fragments remain. 
 Three writers, Plautus, Caecilius, and Terence, devoted 
 themselves exclusively to comedy, and it is from the 
 extant plays of the eldest and the youngest of these, 
 Plautus and Terence, that most of our knowledge of 
 Roman comedy is derived. 
 
 Titus Maccius Plautus (Flatfoot) was born at Sarsina, 
 
 a town of Umbria, about 254 B. c. He went to Rome 
 
 while still a boy, and seems to have earned so 
 
 much as a servant or assistant of actors, that 
 rlautus. 
 
 he was able to leave the city and engage in 
 trade at some other place. His business venture was a 
 failure ; he lost his money, and returned to Rome, where 
 he hired himself out to a miller, in whose service he was 
 when he wrote his first three plays. His first appearance 
 with a play was probably about 224 B. c. Further 
 details of his life are unknown. He died in 184 B. c., 
 at the age of about seventy years. He was, therefore, a 
 younger contemporary of Livius Andronicus and Naevius, 
 but older than Ennius and Pacuvius. 
 
 Of the plays of Plautus twenty are extant, besides 
 extensive fragments of another. His total production is 
 said to have been one hundred and thirty plays, though 
 some of these were probably wrongly ascribed to him. 
 The plots of his plays, as of those of Terence, are usually
 
 PLAUTUS 19 
 
 founded upon a love affair between a young man of good 
 family and a girl of low position and doubtful character. 
 The plots and ^ ne voun g man ^ s aided by his servant or 
 characters of a parasite, but his father is opposed to his 
 Boman having anything to do with the girl. The 
 
 girl's mother or mistress usually aids the lov- 
 ers, but often has to be won over by money, which the 
 young man and his servant have to get from his father. 
 Sometimes the characters mentioned are duplicated, and 
 we have two pairs of lovers, two irate fathers, two 
 cunning slaves, etc. Other typical characters are the 
 procurer, the parasite, the boastful soldier, and a few 
 more, who help to bring about amusing situations, and 
 serve as the butt of many jokes. In the end, the lovers 
 are usually united, and the girl turns out to be of good 
 birth, often the long-lost daughter of one of the older 
 men in the play. Sometimes other plots are chosen, as 
 in the Amphitruo, which is founded on the story that 
 Jupiter, when he visited Alcmene, used to take the form 
 of her husband Amphitryon, and the fun of the play is 
 caused by the confusion between the real husband and the 
 disguised god. In a few plays the plot is less decidedly a 
 love plot, but, as a general rule, the Roman comedies had 
 love stories for their foundation. There is, however, room 
 for considerable variety, as may be seen by a brief sketch 
 of the contents of the extant plays of Plautus. 
 
 The Amphitruo, bringing the "Father of gods and 
 men " into comic confusion with a mortal, and under 
 The extant very suspicious circumstances at that, is a 
 plays of burlesque, full of rather broad fun and amu- 
 
 sing situations, perhaps the most interesting 
 of all Latin comedies. In the Asinaria, the Casino,, and 
 the Mercator, father and son are rivals for the affection 
 of the same girl. Of these three, the Casino, is the worst 
 in its indecency, while the other two lack interest. These 
 plays, however, like all the comedies of Plautus, are full
 
 20 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 of animal spirits, plays on words, and clever dialogue. 
 The Aulularia, or Pot of Gold, has a plot of little inter- 
 est, but is famous for the brilliant and lifelike presenta- 
 tion of the chief character, the old miser Euclio. The 
 Captivi, one of the best of the plays, has for its subject 
 the friendship between a master and his slave. There 
 are no female characters, and the piece is entirely free 
 from the coarseness and immorality which disfigure most 
 of the others. The Trinummus, or Three-penny Piece, 
 has also friendship, not love, as its leading motive, 
 though it ends with a betrothal. This play also is free 
 from coarseness, and gives an attractive picture of the 
 good old days when friend was true to friend. The 
 Curculio is interesting chiefly through the cleverness 
 of the parasite, who succeeds in making the rival of 
 his employer furnish the money needed to obtain the 
 girl. The Epidicus, the Mostellaria, and the Persa, also 
 owe their interest to the tricks and rascalities of the para- 
 site or the valet. The Cistellaria, only part of which 
 is preserved, contains a love affair, but has for its chief 
 interest the recognition between a father and his long- 
 lost daughter. The Vidularia, too, which exists only 
 in fragments, leads up to a recognition, this time be- 
 tween a father and his son. The Miles Gloriosus, a play 
 of very ordinary plot, is distinguished for the some- 
 what exaggerated and farcical portrait of the braggart 
 soldier. So the Pseudolus is a piece of character draw- 
 ing, in which the perjured go-between, Ballio, is the one 
 important figure. In the Bacchides the plot is more 
 intricate and interesting, and the execution more bril- 
 liant, but the life depicted is that of loose women and 
 immoral men. The Stichus has little plot, but several 
 attractive scenes. Two women, whose husbands have 
 disappeared, remain faithful to them, and are rewarded 
 by having them return with great wealth. The Pcenulus 
 is chiefly interesting on account of passages in the Cartha-
 
 PLAUTUS 21 
 
 ginian language, which have for centuries attracted the 
 attention of linguists. In the Truculentus, a country- 
 man comes to the city and changes his rustic manners for 
 city polish. The scenes are witty and effective, but the 
 plot is weak. In the Mencechmi, twin brothers come to 
 the town of Epidamnum, and their likeness to each other 
 causes most laughable confusion. This is the original of 
 Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors and many other modern 
 plays of similar plot. The Hudens, or Cable, has for 
 its subject the restoration of a long-lost daughter to 
 her father and her union with her lover, but is distin- 
 guished from the other plays of Plautus by the evident 
 love of nature and the fresh breath of the sea and open 
 air that breathe through it, making it one of the most 
 attractive of his comedies. 
 
 How much of the plots of these plays can be attributed 
 to Plautus himself it is hard to tell. In some instances 
 Degree of nearly all the details seem to be Greek, and 
 originality probably the plays in which this is the case 
 in Plautus. are s i m piy free translations with just enough 
 changes to make them easily understood at Rome. In 
 other cases, as in the Stichus, the play as we have 
 it seems to be made up of scenes only loosely strung 
 together, arranged apparently rather for a Eoman au- 
 dience which cared chiefly for spectacular effect and stage 
 by-play than for a Greek audience accustomed to weigh 
 and criticize the excellence of the plot. In some instances, 
 too, the Latin play is known to be made up of scenes taken 
 from two Greek plays and put together in order to pro- 
 duce a single piece of more action than either of the orig- 
 inals. The importance of the work of the Latin play- 
 wright varies therefore considerably. There are, however, 
 numerous passages containing references to details of 
 Roman life, which must be in great measure original with 
 the Roman writer ; there are many plays on Latin words 
 which could not be introduced in a mere translation from
 
 22 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 a foreign language ; and in other respects also the come- 
 dies show Roman rather than Greek qualities. We must 
 therefore attribute to Plautus a considerable share of 
 originality, and the metrical form of his plays is naturally 
 due to him alone. 
 
 The following passage, whatever it may owe to the 
 Greek original, doubtless owes part of its unusual liveli- 
 ness to Plautus : * 
 
 Scepamio. But, O Palaemon, holy companion of Neptune, who 
 art said to be a sharer in the labors of Hercules, what's that I see ? 
 Dcemanes. What do you see ? Seep. I see two wom- 
 en folk sitting all alone in a boat. How the poor 
 women things are tossed about ! Ah ! ha ! Bully for that ! 
 
 The current has turned the boat from the rock to 
 the shore. No pilot could have done it better. I think I never 
 saw bigger waves. They are safe, if they have escaped those bil- 
 lows. Now, now's the danger ! Oh ! It has thrown one of them 
 out. But she's in shallow water; she'll swim out easily. Whew! 
 Do you see how the water threw that other one out? She's come 
 up again ; she's coming this way. She's safe ! 
 
 A second passage 2 will give an idea of the style of 
 some of the dialogue of Plautus. The speakers are a boy, 
 Paegnium, and a maid-servant, Sophoclidisca : 
 
 Sophoclidisca. Paegnium, darling boy, good day. How do you 
 do ? How's your health ? Pcegnium. Sophoclidisca, the gods 
 bless me ! Soph. How about me ? Pag. That's 
 as the gods choose ; but if they do as you deserve, 
 they'll hate you and hurt you. Soph. Stop your bad 
 talk. Pag. When I talk as you deserve, my talk is good, not bad. 
 Soph. What are you doing ? Pag- I' m standing opposite and 
 looking at you, a bad woman. Soph. Surely I never knew a worse 
 boy than you. P&g. What do I do that's bad, or to whom do I 
 say anything bad ? Soph. To whomever you get a chance. Paeg. 
 No man ever thought so. Soph. But many know that it is so. 
 Pag- Ah ! Soph. Bah 1 Pceg. You judge other people's charac- 
 ters by your own nature. Soph. I confess I am as a pimp's maid 
 
 1 Rvdens, 160-173. Persa, 204-224
 
 STATIUS C^CILIUS 23 
 
 should be. Pag. I've heard enough. Soph. What about you? 
 Do you confess you're as I say? Pceg. I'd confess if I were so. 
 Soph. Go off now. You're too much for me. Pceg. Then you 
 go off now. Soph. Tell me this : where are you going ? Pceg. 
 Where are you going ? Soph. You tell ; I asked first. Pceg. But 
 you'll find out last. Soph. I'm not going far from here. Pceg. 
 And I'm not going far, either. Soph. Where are you going, then, 
 scamp ? Pceg. Unless I hear first from you, you'll never know 
 what you ask. Soph. I declare you'll never find out to-day, un- 
 less I hear first from you. Pceg. Is that so? Soph. Yes, it is. 
 Pceg. You're bad. Soph. You're a scamp. Pceg. I've a right to 
 be. Soph. And I've just as good a right. Pceg. What's that you 
 say? Have you made up your mind not to tell where you're 
 going, you wretch? Soph. How about you? Have you determined 
 to conceal where you're bound for, you scoundrel ? Pceg. Hang 
 it, you answer like with like. Go away now, since it's settled so. 
 I don't care to know. Good-by. 
 
 Statins Caecilius, an Insubrian by birth, probably came 
 to Rome as a slave that is, a captive at some time not 
 far from 200 B. c. Here he became a writer of comedies, 
 
 was set free by his master, and lived in the 
 Caecilius same house with Ennius. He died about 165 
 
 B. c. The titles of some forty plays by Caecil- 
 ius are known; but the extant fragments are too short 
 to afford much information as to his style, his ability, or 
 the contents of his plays. As many of the titles of his 
 pieces are known also as titles of plays by Menander, it is 
 clear that Caecilius presented plays of the Greek new com- 
 edy in Latin form. He appears to have followed the Greek 
 originals rather more closely than Plautus, and to have 
 cultivated elegance of style rather than brilliant dialogue. 
 Other comic writers of the same time were Trabea, Atilius, 
 
 Aquilius, Licinius Imbrex, and Luscius Lanu- 
 Other writers . . , . . 
 
 of comedies, vinus, of whose works few fragments exist, 
 
 and who are mentioned here merely to show 
 that there were writers of comedies at Rome between 
 Plautus and Terence. No one of them, however, seems to 
 3
 
 24: ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 have possessed the originality and exuberant wit of Plau- 
 tus, or to have attained the elegance and polish of Terence. 
 
 Publius Terentius Afer, called Terence in English, was 
 
 born at Carthage and brought to Eome as a slave. He 
 
 can not have come as a captive to Rome, for 
 
 6 " kis birth took place between the second and 
 
 third Punic wars, at a time when the Ro- 
 mans were waging no war in Africa. He was the slave of 
 the senator Terentius Lucanus, by whom he was carefully 
 educated and soon set free. From him he derived his 
 name Terentius, and he was called Afer on account of his 
 African origin. He became intimate with Scipio Afri- 
 canus the younger, his friend Laelius, and others of the 
 most cultivated and prominent men of Rome. It was 
 even said by some that the plays of Terence were really 
 written by Scipio, while others thought Laelius was their 
 author. This goes to prove that Terence was intimate 
 with Scipio, Laelius, and the rest, and may be regarded as 
 an indication of his age ; for if he was much older than 
 Scipio he would hardly have been charged with passing 
 off Scipio's work as his own. If he was of the same age 
 as Scipio he was born in 185 B. c., and in that case was 
 only nineteen years old when the Andria, his first play, 
 was produced in 166. It is therefore likely that he was a 
 few years older than Scipio, and was born about 190 B. c. 
 After he had produced six comedies he went to Greece in 
 160 B. c. to study, and died in the next year either on his 
 way back to Rome or in Greece. His popularity with 
 the most cultivated men of Rome testifies to his good 
 breeding and agreeable manners. Suetonius tells us that 
 he was of moderate height, slender figure, and dark 
 complexion, that he had a daughter who was afterwards 
 married to a Roman knight, and that he left property 
 amounting to twenty acres. The six plays of Terence are 
 all preserved to us, together with the dates of the first 
 performance of each.
 
 TERENCE 25 
 
 The Andria, produced at the Ludi Megalenses, 166 B. c., 
 is adapted from the Andria of Menander, with additions 
 from his Perinthia. A young man, Pamphilus, is in love 
 
 with a girl from Andros, but his father, Simo, 
 The Andria. 
 
 has arranged a marriage for him with the 
 
 daughter of a neighbor, Chremes. Pamphilus's servant, 
 Davus, succeeds in breaking off the match, and the girl 
 from Andros is finally found to be a daughter of Chremes. 
 Pamphilus and his beloved are united, and a second young 
 man comes forward to marry the other daughter. 
 
 The Hecyra (Mother-in-law), first produced at the Ludi 
 
 Megalenses, 165 B. c., is adapted from the Greek of Apollo- 
 
 dorus. Pamphilus is a young man who has 
 
 recently married Philumena, for whom he 
 
 has no affection. He goes on a journey to attend to some 
 
 property, and Philumena returns to her mother. Upon 
 
 Pamphilus's return, a child born to Philumena in his 
 
 absence is shown to be his, and he and Philumena are 
 
 reconciled. This play was unsuccessful, and deservedly 
 
 so, as it is the least interesting Latin comedy extant. 
 
 The Heauton - Timorumenos (Self-tormentor), after 
 Menander's play of the same title, was produced at the 
 The Heauton- Ludi Megalenses in 163 B. c. Menedemus 
 Timorume- has by his harshness driven his son Clinias, 
 nos - who is in love with Antiphila, to take service 
 
 in a foreign army. He therefore torments himself on 
 account of remorse, and he confides his troubles to 
 his friend Chremes, whose son, Clitipho, is in love with 
 Bacchis. When Clinias comes back from the wars, he 
 and Clitipho get Chremes to receive Antiphila and Bacchis 
 in his house, in the belief that Clinias is in love with 
 Bacchis, and that Antiphila is her servant. Finally Anti- 
 phila is found to be the daughter of Chremes and is be- 
 trothed to Clinias. Clitipho gives up the spendthrift 
 Bacchis. The comic personage of the play is the slave 
 Syrus, who helps the young men to get the money they
 
 26 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 need. The character of Chremes is well drawn, but the 
 action of the play is weak. 
 
 The Eunuchus, produced at the Ludi Megalenses in 
 
 161 B. c., is adapted from the " Eunuch " of Menander, with 
 
 additions from the " Flatterer " of the same 
 
 Tl\ ft 
 
 E . author. The plot is complicated and inter- 
 
 esting, involving a love affair between Thais 
 and Phaedria, who has a soldier as his rival, and a second 
 love affair between Pamphila, who had been brought up 
 as foster sister to Thais, and Phaedria's brother, Chaerea. 
 In order to approach Pamphila, Chaerea disguises himself 
 as a eunuch. In the end Pamphila's brother Chremes 
 appears, proclaims her free birth, and sanctions her mar- 
 riage to Chaerea. The characters are well drawn, Chaerea, 
 perhaps, the best of all, and the action is amusing. 
 
 The Phormio, first performed at the Ludi Romani, in 
 161 B. c., is adapted from the Greek of Apollodorus, Two 
 
 brothers, Chremes and Demipho, have gone 
 The Phormio. * -i i TI T 
 
 on a journey, leaving their two sons, Phaedria 
 
 and Antipho, in charge of a slave, Geta. Antipho marries 
 a poor girl named Phanium, from Lesbos, and Phaedria 
 falls in love with a slave girl, whose owner sells her to 
 some one else, but agrees to give her to Phaedria if he 
 brings the sum of thirty minae in one day. The two fathers 
 return, and the parasite, Phormio, from whom the play 
 takes its name, now has to get the money for Phaedria and 
 to secure the consent of Demipho to the marriage of An- 
 tipho and Phanium. He gets the money from Demipho 
 by telling him that he will himself marry Phanium for 
 thirty minae, but just at the right moment Phanium is 
 found to be the daughter of Chremes, and her marriage 
 with Antipho is accepted by all parties. The plot is well 
 carried out, and the two old men and their sons are well 
 portrayed. 
 
 The Adelphce (Brothers), after Menander's play of 
 the same name, with additions from a play by Diphi-
 
 TERENCE 27 
 
 lus, was first performed at the funeral games of 
 
 ius Paulus, in 160 B. c. Demea had two sons, and gave 
 
 his brother, Micio, one of them, named JEs- 
 Adelphoe chinus, keeping the other, Ctesipho, him- 
 
 self. Micio is a bachelor, and treats ^Eschi- 
 nus with the greatest indulgence, whereas Demea is very 
 strict toward Ctesipho, but the result is about the same. 
 Ctesipho falls in love with a harpist, whom ^Eschinus, 
 to please his brother, carries off from her master. 
 JEschinus himself is engaged in an affair with the 
 daughter of a poor widow. The girl is, however, of 
 good Attic parentage, and ^schinus has promised to 
 marry her. In the end this marriage takes place, Ctesi- 
 pho gets his harpist and Micio is persuaded to marry the 
 widow. 
 
 The plays of Terence are written in a style far more 
 advanced, more refined, and more artistic than those of 
 
 Plautus, but they show much less originality, 
 Terence and w ^ an( j V jg 0r< Plautus wrote at a time 
 compared when Greek culture was already known to 
 
 the Romans, but when it was less thoroughly 
 appreciated than later, and he wrote not for any one class 
 of Eomans, but for the people. The language of Plautus 
 is therefore the language of every-day life as it was spoken 
 by the average Roman; his wit is of the kind that 
 appealed to ordinary men, and his plays have much 
 action, that the common man might enjoy them. Plautus 
 took Greek plays and made them over to suit the average 
 Roman. The position of Terence was different. In his 
 day a cultivated class of Romans existed, who knew Greek 
 literature well, who admired and loved Greek culture, but 
 were none the less patriotic Romans. These men wished 
 to introduce all that was best in Greece into Rome. So 
 far as literature was concerned, they wished to make Latin 
 literature as much like Greek literature as possible, and 
 therefore encouraged imitation rather than originality,
 
 28 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 purity and grace of language rather than vigor of thought 
 or expression. These were the men among whom Terence 
 lived, and whose taste influenced him most. His plays 
 contain few indications that they are written for a 
 Roman audience (except, of course, that they are written 
 in Latin), but are Greek in their refinement of language, 
 gentle humor, and polished excellence of detail. There is 
 less variety of metre than in the plays of Plautus, as, in- 
 deed, there is less variety of any kind, for Terence relies 
 for his effect, not upon variety, but upon finished ele- 
 gance. He is the earliest Latin author who tries to equal 
 the Greeks in stylistic refinement, and few of those who 
 came after him were as successful as he. 
 
 Many of the qualities of the style of Terence are lost 
 in translation ; but something of the air of ease, natural- 
 ness, and good humor that pervades his plays is seen in 
 the short scene in the Phormio, in which Demipho asks 
 Nausistrata, the wife of Chremes, to persuade Phanium to 
 marry Phormio. 1 
 
 Demipho. Come then, Nausistrata, with your usual good nature 
 make her feel kindly toward us, so that she may do of her own 
 accord what must be done. Nausist/rata. I will. De. You'll be 
 aiding me now with your good offices, just as you helped me a 
 while ago with your purse. Na. You're quite welcome ; and upon 
 my word, it's my husband's fault that I can do less than I might 
 well do. De. Why, how is that ? Na. Because he takes wretched 
 care of my father's honest savings ; he used regularly to get two 
 talents from those estates. How much better one man is than 
 another! De. Two talents, do you say? Na. Yes, two talents, 
 and when prices were much lower than now. De. Whew ! Na. 
 What do you think of that? De. Oh, of course Na. I wish 
 I'd been born a man, I'd soon show you De. Oh, yes, I'm sure. 
 Nn. The way De. Pray do save yourself up for her, lest she 
 may wear you out ; she's young, you know. Na. I'll do as you 
 tell me. But there's my husband coming out of your house. 
 
 1 Phormio, 784 ff. Translated by M. H. Morgan.
 
 FABULA TOGATA 29 
 
 The comedies of Plautus and Terence have served as 
 
 the originals for almost countless plays in later times, and 
 
 through them the Greek comedy has survived 
 
 until our own day. There were other Latin 
 
 writers of comedies derived from the Greek after Terence, 
 
 most noted of whom was Turpilius, who died in 103 B. c., 
 
 but of their works, which were unimportant, little remains. 
 
 Of the fabula togata, Roman comedy in Koman dress, little 
 
 need be said. It never attained great popularity, and it 
 
 lasted but a comparatively short time. The first writer of 
 
 comedies of this sort was Titinius. About 
 
 Fabula 
 
 togata. one hundred and eighty lines of fragments 
 
 Titiniua, and fifteen titles of his plays are preserved, 
 Atta, from which we can learn little about the 
 
 quality of his works. He seems to have writ- 
 ten a little later than Terence. Titus Quinctius Atta has 
 left to us the titles of eleven plays and about twenty- 
 five lines of fragments. Little is known of him except 
 the date of his death, 77 B. c. Lucius Afranius, the last 
 and most important writer of this kind of comedies, was 
 born probably not far from 150 B. c. Forty-two titles and 
 more than four hundred lines of fragments now remain to 
 attest his activity. The scenes of the plays are laid in 
 the smaller towns of Italy, and the characters belong for 
 the most part to the lower social classes. In these respects 
 Afranius seems to have differed little from Titinius and 
 Atta, but his plays had apparently less local color than 
 theirs, and thus approached more nearly the character of 
 the fabula palliata as developed by Terence. 
 
 Three other kinds of dramatic composition deserve 
 
 brief mention, though little now remains of them and their 
 
 literary importance was never very great. 
 
 Fescennme rp ne p escenn i ne Verses, named from the town 
 Verses. 
 
 of Fescennium in Etruria, were originally sung 
 
 at rustic festivals and weddings and consisted of jokes and 
 sarcasms directed by the country folk at each other.
 
 30 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 They never became regular stage performances, and gradu- 
 ally lost their dramatic qualities, until they were nothing 
 more than wedding songs. The FabulcB Atellance, named 
 from the Oscan town of Atella, in Campania, 
 
 AteUanse ^ a ^ 80me sor ^ ^ a plt carried out with more 
 or less dramatic unity. The characters were 
 conventional Maccus, the fool, Pappus, the old man, 
 Bucco, the talker and liar, Dossenus, the clever man and 
 boaster, and the like and the whole performance was a 
 popular burlesque comedy, somewhat like our Punch and 
 Judy. This sort of performance was introduced at Rome 
 after the conquest of Campania, in 211 B. c., and Roman 
 youths of good family took the parts for amusement. 
 Somewhat later, the custom arose of performing an 
 Atellan piece at the end of a tragedy. The performers 
 were now regular actors, and presently the Fabulm Atel- 
 lancB became a regular branch of literature, the chief 
 writers of which were Lucius Pomponius, from Bononia, 
 and Novius, both of whom nourished in the time of Sulla, 
 about 90 B. c. Few fragments of their works remain. The 
 Atellan plays continued to be performed even after the 
 beginning of the empire, but the words became less and 
 less important, and the performance became mere panto- 
 mime. Another kind of burlesque perform- 
 ance was the Mime, which was introduced into 
 Rome from the Greek cities of Italy and Sicily. It had 
 less consistent plots than comedy, and was more popular 
 in its character. Though doubtless introduced at Rome 
 as early as comedy itself, it hardly appears as a branch of 
 literature until about the time of Cicero, when mimes 
 serve as afterpieces at tragic performances. In imperial 
 times mimes were performed independently. The chief 
 authors of mimes were Decimus Laberius (105-43 B. c.), 
 a Roman knight, and Publilius Syrus, a slave from Antioch, 
 both belonging to the time of Caesar, about the middle of 
 the first century B. c. No mimes are extant, nor is their
 
 MIMES 31 
 
 loss to be greatly regretted, for their humor was generally 
 coarse, their plots often indecent, and their literary quali- 
 ties of a low order. Some of the fragments of the mimes 
 of Laberius show, however, considerable merit, and in 
 those of Publilius so many sensible precepts and wise 
 utterances were embodied that a collection of his sayings 
 was made, part of which is preserved to us.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 EARLY PROSE-THE SCIPIONIC CIRCLE-LUCILIUS 
 
 Greek influence upon Roman prose Fabius Pictor, 216 B. c. Cin- 
 cius Aliraentus, 210 B. c. Cato, 234-149 B. c. Cato's works Orators 
 Jurists Latin annalists Scipio Africanus the younger, 185-129 
 B. c. The Scipionic circle Lucilius, 180(?)-126 B. c. Satire Satires 
 of Lucilius Literature in the fifty years before Cicero Poetry His- 
 tory Learned works General writers Jurists Oratory Rhetoric 
 addressed to Herennius Great development of prose in this period. 
 
 TRAGEDY and comedy began, reached their full devel- 
 opment, and decayed in the short period of a century and 
 a half between the first play of Livius Andronicus and 
 the death of Accius. It was therefore advisable to give a 
 connected account of dramatic literature at Rome for this 
 entire period, and to reserve for separate treatment the 
 beginnings of prose literature, which, though less rapid 
 in its growth, had a far longer life and was a much truer 
 expression of the national genius. 
 
 The rudiments of a strictly native prose literature, the 
 twelve tables of the laws, the various lists and records, 
 Greek an ^ ^ e 8 P eec hes delivered on public and pri- 
 
 influence vate occasions, mark the lines along which 
 upon Roman Roman prose was destined to advance his- 
 tory, jurisprudence, and eloquence. But 
 Roman prose, like Roman poetry, came under the influ- 
 ence of Greek literature as soon as the Romans began to 
 pay any attention to literary style. It was when the con- 
 quest of southern Italy brought Rome into closer contact 
 than before with the cities of Magna Grsecia that Livius
 
 EARLY PROSE 33 
 
 Andronicus was brought to Kome, and it was in the years 
 immediately after the first Punic war that he produced 
 the first Latin plays in imitation of Greek originals. To 
 about the same or a little later time belong the earliest 
 Koman prose writers. Some of these men, regarding the 
 Latin language as too imperfect for use in prose literature, 
 wrote in Greek, recording the events of Eoman history 
 for the enlightenment of foreigners and of educated 
 Eomans. Such was Quintus Fabius Pictor, a man of 
 
 much distinction at Kome, who was sent by 
 
 * ne s ^ a * e * consult the oracle at Delphi after 
 
 the battle of Cannae in 216 B. c. He wrote in 
 Greek prose a history of Eome from the days of ^Eneas to 
 his own times, selecting the same subject chosen by his 
 contemporary Ennius for his Annales in Latin verse. 
 This work of Fabius Pictor was very soon translated into 
 Latin, and remained one of the chief sources from which 
 later historians, such as Livy, derived their information. 
 
 Lucius Cincius Alimentus, who was praetor in 
 Alimentus command of a Eoman army in the second 
 
 Punic war, wrote Eoman history in Greek 
 prose, as did also Publius Cornelius Scipio, the son of the 
 elder Africanus, Aulus Postumius Albinus, and Gaius 
 Acilius, about the middle of the second century B. c. 
 Their works, being in Greek, had little direct influence 
 on Latin literature, but show how powerful the Greek 
 influence was among the cultivated men at Eome in the 
 years following the second Punic war. This influence 
 was not confined to literature, but affected dress, manners, 
 
 ways of thinking in short, all sides of life 
 influence especially among the upper classes. The 
 
 Greeks of this time were no longer the hardy 
 citizen-soldiers of the old days of Marathon and Ther- 
 mopylae, but were now distinguished for culture, refine- 
 ment, and scholarship, too often accompanied by effemi- 
 nacy, luxury, and dishonesty. Not by any means all the
 
 34 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 Romans were ready to profit by contact with Greek civili- 
 zation, with its mixture of good and bad qualities, and 
 there was naturally a party at Rome which opposed every- 
 thing Greek, and wished to preserve the old Roman 
 simplicity. The most important man of this party was 
 Cato. 
 
 Marcus Porcius Cato was born at Titsculum, in 234 
 B. c., and died in 149 B. c. Throughout his life he was 
 active in public affairs. He was quaestor 
 
 ( 204 B ' c ')' * dlle ( 199 B> c ')' consul < 195 B ' c ')> 
 and censor (184 B. c.), and in all his offices 
 
 showed his honesty, efficiency, singleness of purpose, and 
 sincere, though somewhat narrow-minded, patriotism. He 
 believed that the influence of Greek art, literature, philos- 
 ophy, and ways of life was bad, though in his old age he 
 learned the Greek language, and studied Greek literature. 
 In a letter to his son, he says : " I shall speak about those 
 Greeks in their proper place, son Marcus, and tell what I 
 discovered at Athens, and that it is good to look into 
 their literature, but not to learn it thoroughly. I shall 
 convince you that their race is most worthless and 
 unteachable." 1 
 
 Cato was opposed to the prevailing tendencies in litera- 
 ture the tendencies which were destined to prevail but 
 in spite of that he was one of the most pro- 
 ductive literary men of his time. His active 
 political life gave him many occasions for 
 public speaking, in the senate or before the people, and 
 he spoke often in courts of law, either in suits of his own 
 or as an advocate for others. One hundred and fifty of 
 his speeches existed in Cicero's time, and some, at least, 
 were read and admired long after Cicero. About eighty 
 scattered fragments now exist, some of which belong to 
 political, others to legal speeches. These show vigor 
 
 1 Quoted by Pliny, N. H. xxix, 7, 14.
 
 EARLY PROSE 35 
 
 and terseness of expression, a sort of dry humor, and 
 straightforward freedom of speech, but no elegance of 
 style. 
 
 Cato's most important work was the Origines, in seven 
 books, the first Roman history in Latin prose. In style 
 The Orieines anc ^ metno( i this work was very uneven. 
 Sometimes events were narrated in brief, 
 annalistic fashion, at other times Cato devoted much 
 space to details. One book, from which the whole work 
 derived its name, told of the origins and early history of 
 the various towns of Italy. The work treated of Roman 
 and Italian history from the earliest times to Cato's own 
 day, and in the latter part Cato took pains to give his 
 own actions at least as much prominence as was their due, 
 even inserting in his narrative the speeches he had deliv- 
 ered on various occasions. In the form of letters to his 
 son, Cato composed treatises on agriculture, the care of 
 health, eloquence, and the art of war. He also wrote a 
 series of rules of conduct in verse, and made a collection 
 of wise and witty sayings. 
 
 Of all his works the only one extant is a treatise On 
 Agriculture. Born and brought up in the small town of 
 The treatise Tusculum, and full of admiration for the 
 On Agricul- simple virtues of the early Romans, Cato saw 
 with deep disapproval the tendency of the 
 men of his own day to give up agriculture for commercial 
 and financial occupations. " It would sometimes be better 
 to seek gain by commerce, if it were not so dangerous ; 
 and likewise by money-lending, if it were so honorable. 
 For our ancestors held this matter thus, and put it in the 
 laws in this way, that a thief be punished by a double 
 fine, a money-lender by a fourfold one. From this one 
 can see how much worse citizen they considered a money- 
 lender than a thief. And when they praised a good man, 
 it was a good farmer, a good colonist. They thought that 
 a man was most amply praised who was praised in this
 
 36 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 way. Now I think a merchant is energetic and diligent 
 in seeking gain ; but, as I said above, he is exposed to 
 danger and ruin. But from farmers both the bravest 
 men and most energetic soldiers arise, and the business 
 they follow is most pious and surest, and least exposed to 
 envy ; and those who are occupied in that pursuit are 
 least given to evil thoughts." l In other parts of the book 
 Cato gives in short, simple sentences, practical rules to 
 be followed by the farmer. " Be sure to do everything 
 early. For this is the way with farming : if you do one 
 thing late, you will do all the work late." This style of 
 short, sharp sentences, is characteristic of Cato. He de- 
 spises all appearance of literary polish, as if he wished to 
 show that the arts of elegance cultivated by most other 
 Roman writers were unnecessary and undesirable. 
 
 Cato was one of the most famous orators of his time, 
 but his competitors were many, among them some of the 
 
 most noted men of Rome. Most of these orators 
 Other orators. 
 
 were men of natural ability, whose eloquence 
 was trained in the school of public life and owed its effect 
 in great measure to the weight of the speaker's dignity or 
 the glory of his deeds. Their speeches are lost, and the 
 reputation they had survives only to remind us that dur- 
 ing and after the second Punic war Roman eloquence 
 was growing in power, preparing, as it were, for the bril- 
 liant oratory of the Gracchi in the second half of the 
 second century B. c., and the superb productions of Cicero 
 in the century to follow. Among orators of Cato's time 
 should be mentioned Quintus Fabius Maximus Cunctator, 
 five times consul, censor, and dictator, the conqueror of 
 Hannibal, then Quintus Caecilius Metellus, consul in 206 
 B.C., Marcus Cornelius Cethegus (died in 196 B. c.), Pub- 
 lius Licinius Crassus (died 183 B. c.), and Scipio Africanus 
 the elder (died 183 B. c.). 
 
 1 De Re Rustica, i.
 
 EARLY PROSE 37 
 
 In the field of jurisprudence there was considerable 
 activity in the days of Cato. Publius Julius (consul 201, 
 died 174 B. c.) and his brother Sextus (consul 
 198 B. c.) published the most systematic work 
 on jurisprudence. This work was called Tripertita, and 
 was for centuries regarded with reverence as the beginning 
 from which grew the great system of Roman law. Scipio 
 Nasica (consul 191 B.C.), Lucius Acilius, Quintus Fabius 
 Labeo (consul 183 B. c.), and Cato's son (born about 192, 
 died in 152 B. c.) were all distinguished jurists, whose in- 
 terpretation of the Twelve Tables and whose wisdom in 
 regard to legal matters are mentioned with praise by later 
 writers. Their writings have perished, but the results of 
 their studies were incorporated in the later works on 
 Roman law. 
 
 The annalists who wrote in Greek, such as Fabius 
 Pictor, were followed, soon after the middle of the second 
 century B. c., by several writers whose works 
 annalists differed from theirs chiefly by being written 
 in Latin. They derived their general views 
 and methods, as well as some of their facts, from earlier 
 Greek historians, such as Ephorus and Timaeus. The 
 first of these Latin annalists was Lucius Cassius Hemina, 
 who wrote a history of Rome to his own time. Somewhat 
 more important was Lucius Calpurnius Piso Frugi, who 
 was consul in 133 B. c. His annals covered the same 
 ground as those of Hemina, and are said to have been 
 written in an artless, somewhat rude style. A similar 
 lack of elegance seems to have belonged to the works of 
 the other annalists of this time. Evidently the Romans 
 had not yet learned to write artistic prose. Yet this is the 
 period when, under the guidance of Greek teachers, the 
 Romans were paying more attention than ever before to 
 grammar and rhetoric, purity of language, and nicety of 
 expression. 
 
 The man about whom the best literary life of the city
 
 38 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 centred was Scipio Africanus the younger, who lived from 
 
 185 to 129 B. c. He was the son of the distinguished 
 
 Lucius ^Emilius Paulus, whose victory at 
 
 Scipio J 
 
 Pydna, in 168 B. c., had destroyed the last 
 foreign power capable of making serious resistance to 
 the Roman legions, and he had been adopted by the son 
 of the elder Scipio Africanus. He was himself a distin- 
 guished soldier, for as a simple officer (tribunus militum) 
 he had saved the Roman army in Africa, after which he 
 had been made consul and commander of the army which 
 brought the third Punic war to a close by the capture and 
 destruction of Carthage (146 B. c.). It might have been 
 expected that he would take an active part in the govern- 
 ment, especially as in his time the state needed the help 
 of her best citizens. But Scipio seems to have felt that 
 the internal troubles, which beset the state now that 
 all external dangers were over, were too serious to be 
 cured. He used his influence for good wherever he was 
 able, but made no systematic attempt to correct the 
 abuses of the government, which led at last to the revo- 
 lutionary disorders of the days of the Gracchi (133-121 
 B. c.). Instead of being a party leader, he occupied a posi- 
 tion somewhat apart from the aristocratic and the popular 
 parties, lending his influence and his eloquence to the 
 causes that seemed to him good, and in this way preserv- 
 ing a reputation for independence and good judgment. 
 His patriotism was undoubted, and his influence as great 
 as that of any man in Rome. 
 
 Scipio had been carefully educated, and employed his 
 leisure in literary and intellectual pursuits. He was not 
 an author himself, except in so far as he 
 circle* 5 ' P UD ^ 8ne< i n ^ 8 speeches, which were much ad- 
 mired, but he loved to be surrounded by men 
 of letters, to profit by their conversation, and lend them 
 the support of his social position and influence. His 
 somewhat older friend, Gaius Lselius, who was consul in
 
 GAIUS LUCILIUS 39 
 
 140 B. c., shared his literary tastes, though he, too, re- 
 frained from publishing other works than speeches. From 
 167 to 150 B. c. a thousand Greeks of prominent position 
 in their native country were kept as hostages in Italy. 
 Among these was the historian Polybius, who was assigned 
 a residence in Rome, and who became a member of the 
 circle of literary friends who surrounded Scipio and 
 Laelius. The Stoic philosopher Panaetius, who afterward 
 became the head of the Stoic school, was another Greek 
 belonging to the Scipionic circle. The influence of Panae- 
 tius upon Roman philosophy was great, as was that of 
 Polybius upon the writing of Roman history. But 
 Latin writers also gathered about Scipio. Among them 
 were Terence (see page 24), the most polished writer of 
 comedies ; Hemina and Piso, the annalists ; Gaius Fannius, 
 a nephew of Lselius, who was consul in 122 B. c., and 
 achieved distinction as an orator, besides writing a his- 
 tory of Rome ; Sempronius Asellio, whose history of his 
 own times was continued at least to 91 B. c. ; Lucius 
 Furius Philus, consul in 136 B. c., orator and jurist, and 
 many others. Among them all, the most original genius 
 was the father of Roman satire, Gaius Lucilius. 
 
 Lucilius was born, probably in 180 B. c., at Suessa 
 Aurunca, in Campania. He was a member of a wealthy 
 
 equestrian family, and when he went to live 
 Lucilius a ^ R me ne kept himself free from the cares 
 
 of business as well as of politics, devoting 
 himself to social life and to literature. He lived as a 
 wealthy bachelor, not holding himself aloof from the 
 pleasures of the capital, but not indulging in excesses. 
 Most of his life was passed in the city, but in 134 B. c. he 
 followed Scipio to the war in Spain, and in 126 B. c., 
 when all who were not Roman citizens were obliged to 
 leave Rome, he made a journey to Sicily, from which he 
 did not return until 124 B. c. He died at Naples in 
 103 B. c. 
 4
 
 40 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 The name satire (satura) may be derived from the 
 lanx satura, a dish full of all sorts of fruits, and as 
 applied to poems by Ennius (see p. 8), desig- 
 nates poems of mixed contents. Perhaps all 
 the poems of Ennius, except his dramas and his great epic, 
 may have been classed together as satires. At any rate, 
 Lucilius is the first writer who gave to satire the definite 
 character it has possessed ever since his time. He made 
 his poems the vehicle for the expression of sharp and 
 biting attacks upon persons, institutions, and customs of 
 his day, for genial and humorous remarks about the failings 
 of his neighbors, and for much information about him- 
 self. Ever since Lucilius, satire has been at once sharp 
 and humorous, bitter and sweet. This kind of poetry, 
 which takes the form of dialogue, familiar conversation, 
 or letters, is not Greek, but is the invention of him who 
 must be regarded as the most original of all Koman poets. 
 The Satires of Lucilius were contained in thirty 
 books, each book containing several satires. The subjects 
 treated were of all sorts the faults and foi- 
 
 e atires ^ eg Q ^ individuals, the defects of works of 
 of Lucilius. 
 
 literature, the ridiculous imitation of Greek 
 manners and dress, the absurdities of Greek mythology, 
 the folly of expensive dinner parties, the author's journey 
 to Sicily, Latin grammar, the proper spelling of Latin 
 words, and Scipio's journey to Egypt and Asia. The per- 
 sonality of the writer, his mode of life, and his views on 
 all subjects were so clearly brought before his readers 
 that the Satires were a complete autobiography. They 
 were written for the most part in hexameters, the 
 metre which was adopted by all later Eoman satirists, but 
 some of them were in iambic senarii and trochaic septe- 
 narii, others in elegiacs. 1 They were not written at one 
 
 1 A brief description of some of the feet and metres most fre- 
 quently used by Roman poets may be useful. These were, with the 
 exception of the Saturnian verse (see p. 7), borrowed, with certain
 
 GA1US LUCILIUS 41 
 
 time, but their composition was continued at intervals 
 through many years, for Lucilius was not a professional 
 poet, but a man of letters who expressed himself in verse 
 whenever he felt inclined. His form of expression was 
 unconventional, resembling conversation (in fact he called 
 the poems sermones, " conversations "), with free use of 
 dialogue. Careful literary finish was not attempted, and 
 Horace, whose satires are imitations of those of Lucilius, 
 blames the older poet for carelessness. But the easy and 
 
 modifications, from the Greek. The most usual feet are the iambus 
 
 (^), the trochee ( ^), the spondee ( ), the dactyl ( ^^), the 
 
 anapaest (w>^ ), and the choriambus ( ^^ ). The dactylic hex- 
 ameter consists of six feet, each of which is either a dactyl or a spon- 
 dee, though the sixth is always a spondee and the fifth almost always 
 a dactyl. An illustration of this is the line from Lucilius, 
 Maior erat natu ; non omnia possumus omnes, 
 the rhythm of which is retained in this translation : 
 
 He was the elder by birth ; not all of us all things can compass. 
 The iambic senarius consists of six iambics, as 
 
 Hominem inter vivoa quaeritamus mbrtuom. 
 
 (Plautus, Menaechmi, 240.) 
 
 Among the living we do seek a man who's dead. 
 This is a common metre in the dialogue parts of dramas. It is 
 one foot longer than the line in English blank verse. The trochaic 
 seplenarius, also a common metre in the drama, consists of seven 
 trochees and an additional long syllable. The English line 
 
 Do not lift him from the bracken ; leave him lying where he fell 
 gives an idea of the rhythm. 
 
 The elegiac distich consists of an hexameter followed by a 
 so-called pentameter, that is, a line made up of six dactyls or spon- 
 dees, with the omission of the last half of the third and of the sixth 
 feet. This is illustrated and described by Coleridge in the lines, 
 In the hexameter rises the fountain's silvery column. 
 In the pentameter aye falling in melody back. 
 In the iambic and trochaic metres other feet are often substituted 
 for the iambus and the trochee, but without change of rhythm. 
 
 Some of the other metres will be explained or illustrated as they 
 occur.
 
 42 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 natural tone of the poems must have more than made up 
 for any lack of polish. 
 
 The extant fragments amount to more than eleven 
 hundred lines, but are for the most part short and dis- 
 connected. In one, 1 Lucilius seems to accept 
 fragments w ^ n pl easure an invitation to dinner " with 
 good conversation, well cooked and sea- 
 soned " ; in another, 2 he reproves the luxury which leads 
 to greed of gain : " For if that which is enough for a 
 man could be enough, it would be enough. Now, since 
 this is not so, how can we think that any riches can sat- 
 isfy my soul ? " Again, 3 he describes a miser as one who 
 has no cattle nor slaves nor any attendant, but keeps his 
 purse and all the money he has always with him. " He 
 eats, sleeps, and bathes with his purse ; the man's whole 
 hope is in his purse alone. This purse is fastened to his 
 arm." One of the longest fragments 4 is a description of 
 virtus (virtue) : 
 
 Virtue, Albinus, is being able to pay the true price for the 
 things in and by which we live; virtue is knowing to what each 
 thing leads for a man. Virtue is knowing what is right, useful, 
 honorable for a man, what things are good, what bad likewise, 
 what is useless, base, dishonorable ; virtue is knowing the limit 
 and measure in seeking anything; virtue is giving to riches their 
 true value ; virtue is giving to honor what is really due to it ; is 
 being an enemy and opponent of bad men and morals, on the 
 other hand a defender of good men and morals, regarding them 
 as of much importance, wishing them well, living as their friend ; 
 moreover, considering the advantages of one's country first, of 
 one's relatives second, of ourselves third and last. 
 
 Other fragments contain direct attacks upon individuals, 
 but these which have been quoted serve to give an idea 
 of the freedom of speech, good sense, and serious purpose 
 of the first great satirist. 
 
 1 iv, Prg. 8, Miiller. * v, Frg. 33, Muller. 
 
 1 vi, Frg. 16, Muller. 4 libr. incert., Frg. 1, Miiller.
 
 THE TIME BEFORE CICERO 43 
 
 The life of Lucilius fell in a period of many changes. 
 As a boy, he saw the Roman power established in the east, 
 
 before he reached middle life he witnessed the 
 Literature 
 in the fifty destruction of Carthage, then he lived through 
 
 years before th e troublous years before and after the death 
 of Tiberius Gracchus in 133 B. c., and that of 
 his brother Gaius in 121 B. c., and in the year before his 
 death he saw the consulship in the hands of Gaius Marius. 
 It was not until the long struggle between Marius and 
 Sulla was over that any measure of tranquility returned 
 to the Roman state. Then came the Golden Age of 
 Roman literature. But for fifty years before the time of 
 Cicero circumstances at Rome were not favorable to liter- 
 ary production of every kind. Lucilius, Accius, Afranius 
 and a few other poets lived on until about the end of the 
 second century B. c., but there was little new life in poetry. 
 Gnaeus Matius translated the Iliad, and Lsevius Melissus 
 imitated some of the lighter Greek poems. The epic 
 poem of Hostius on the Istrian war and that 
 of Aulus Furius from Antium (Furius Antias) 
 on an unknown subject have left hardly any traces. It is 
 not worth while to mention in detail the occasional love 
 songs and epigrams written by various authors. Aside 
 from Lucilius and the dramatists already mentioned, 
 there are no poets of note in this period. 
 
 In history, the production was greater and more im- 
 portant. Fannius and Asellio were emulated by Ccelius 
 
 Antipater, whose history of the second Punic 
 History. ' 
 
 war was of some importance, and he was fol- 
 lowed by Quintus Claudius Quadrigarius, who wrote a his- 
 tory of Rome in at least twenty-three books, coming down 
 to the year 82 B. c. Another more voluminous but less 
 trustworthy historian was Valerius Antias, who wrote an- 
 nals in at least seventy-five books. His date is uncertain, 
 but he seems to have lived early in the first century B. c. 
 Two other historians of the latter part of this period were
 
 44 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 Lucius Cornelius Sisenna (119-67 B. c.), who wrote a his- 
 tory of his own times in an antiquated style, and Gaius 
 Licinius Macer, whose annals, beginning with the earliest 
 times, were probably continued until near the date of his 
 death (66 B. c.). The dictator Sulla (138-78 B. c.) wrote 
 memoirs, which must have possessed great historical value. 
 Gaius Sempronius Tuditanus (consul in 129 B. c.) was not 
 only an annalist, but also an antiquarian. 1 
 
 Important writers on legal subjects were Publius 
 Mucius Scaevola (consul in 133 B. c.) and his brother 
 
 Publius Licinius Crassus Mucianus (consul 
 Jurists. 
 
 in 131 B. c.), but more important than either 
 
 was Quintus Mucius Scaevola (consul in 95 B. c.), whose 
 systematic treatment of Koman law served as the founda- 
 tion for all later works on, the subject. Quintus Scaevola 
 was also distinguished as an orator. 
 
 Throughout the period from the third Punic war to 
 
 1 Lucius uElius Praeconinus Stilo, of Lanuvium, Stoic philosopher, 
 philologist and rhetorician, was the first to give regular lessons in 
 Latin literature and eloquence and to apply the historical method tc 
 the study of the Latin language. He was born not far from 154 B. c., 
 and lived well into the first century B. c. His contemporary, Quintus 
 Valerius Soranus (from Sora), also wrote on Latin literature, the study 
 of which was, in his case, joined with that of Roman antiquities. 
 Volcacius Sedigitus, of whose personality nothing is known, wrote a 
 didactic poem on the history of Latin literature about 90 B. c. Besides 
 these, numerous works on grammar, philology, antiquities, agriculture, 
 and other subjects were written by various authors, whose names are 
 in many cases lost, but whose works served as quarries from which 
 Varro and other writers derived their treasures of learning. 
 
 Many prominent Romans played some part in the progress of litera- 
 ture. So Publius Rutilius Rufus (born about 158 B. c., consul in 105, 
 died about 75) studied the Stoic philosophy, published speeches, juris- 
 tic writings, and an autobiography in Latin, and wrote a history in 
 Greek, while Quintus Lutatius Catulus (born about 152 B. c., consul 
 in 102, died in 87) published orations and epigrams. Among the 
 letters written and published in this period none were more admired 
 than those of Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi.
 
 THE TIME BEFORE CICERO 45 
 
 the dictatorship of Sulla and, in fact, until the death of 
 Cicero nearly every public man at Rome was an orator, 
 Or and many of them published their speeches. 
 
 In the times of the Gracchi, Rome contained, 
 perhaps, more excellent speakers than at any other period, 
 among whom none equalled in force, brilliancy and ora- 
 torical power the great, though unsuccessful, statesman 
 and patriot Gaius Gracchus (154-121 B. c.), who far sur- 
 passed his elder brother Tiberius (163-133 B. c.) in elo- 
 quence, though he, too, was an orator of distinction. 
 After the Gracchi the most distinguished orators were 
 Marcus Antonius (143-87 B. c.) and Lucius Licinius 
 (140-91 B. c.), the first of whom excelled in vigor and 
 liveliness of delivery, the second in wit, elegance and 
 variety of composition. These orators were not merely 
 men with natural ability to speak, but were carefully 
 trained in accordance with the precepts of Greek 
 rhetoric. 
 
 Of all the works mentioned so far in this chapter, only 
 one Cato's treatise On Agriculture has come down to 
 
 us entire, and only the satires of Lucilius 
 e works are k nown t o ug by numerous fragments. 
 
 The other works and their authors have left 
 little more than their names. There is, however, one 
 work, now usually ascribed to Cornificius, an author of 
 whom nothing is known, which is preserved entire. This 
 
 is the Rhetoric Addressed to Herennius, which 
 B etorioa ad wag p regerv ed because it was falsely included 
 
 Herennium. " . 
 
 among Cicero s works. The treatise goes 
 over much the same ground as Cicero's youthful essay On 
 Invention, which is evidently intended to be little more 
 than a new and improved edition of the earlier work. 
 
 The importance of the period immediately preceding 
 the time of Cicero can not be judged by the extant litera- 
 ture, but must be estimated by the number of works and 
 authors mentioned by later writers and the qualities
 
 46 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 assigned to them. It is at once evident that poetry made 
 little progress, while prose writing of all kinds advanced 
 Great "with rapid strides. It is only natural, there- 
 
 progress fore, that the age of Cicero should be the 
 of prose. most brilliant period of Latin prose, and that 
 
 the highest general development of poetry should be re- 
 served for the Augustan age. Yet, even the Augustan 
 age can only equal, not surpass, the immortal poems of 
 two of Cicero's contemporaries, Lucretius and Catullus.
 
 CHAPTEE IV 
 
 LUCRETIUS 
 
 The Ciceronian period Lucretius, 99 (l)-55 (?) B. c. Philosophy 
 at Rome The poem of Lucretius Its purpose, contents, and style. 
 
 IT was in the dictatorship of Sulla, 81 B. c., that Cicero 
 made his first appearance as an orator, and almost from 
 The age of that time until his death, in 43 B. c., he was 
 Cicero a time the most prominent orator and man of let- 
 of unrest. ters in Eome. It is but right that in the 
 history of literature this period of nearly forty years is 
 called the age of Cicero. In political and external mat- 
 ters this was a time of great unrest. Sulla's dictator- 
 ship, which seemed to put an end to strife, served only to 
 strengthen the power of the senate, not to diminish its 
 abuses ; the increase of the slave population of Italy still 
 continued to drive the freeborn farmers to Rome to swell 
 the number of the city rabble; the slaves themselves 
 broke out into open war ; the provinces were discon- 
 tented on account of the extortions of their governors ; 
 the Cilician pirates became so powerful that their sup- 
 pression was a matter of some difficulty ; Mithridates 
 aroused a war in the east, and was overcome only by 
 great exertion; while in Eome itself the conspiracy of 
 Catiline and the struggle between Pompey and Caesar 
 clearly foreshadowed the end of the republic. 
 
 This period was at the same time one of great mate- 
 rial prosperity at Eome. In spite of disturbing influences, 
 wealth increased, interest in art and literature was wide- 
 
 47
 
 48 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 spread, and there was, alongside of much vulgar extrava- 
 gance and display, a steady growth in culture and refine- 
 , ment. By the beginning of this period the 
 culture. Latin language had become a proper medium 
 
 Progress of of expression in prose and verse, though its 
 literature. natural qualities of rigidity and precision 
 made if always better adapted to the needs of the com- 
 mander, orator, jurist, and historian than to the lighter 
 and more varied uses of the poet. Among the poets of 
 the time, some followed in the footsteps of Ennius, while 
 others imitated the poems of the Alexandrian Greeks, 
 characterized by mythological learning, elegance of exe- 
 cution, and emptiness of contents. Of this latter school 
 Catullus was the only one who rose to greatness, breathing 
 into his verse the fire of poetic genius, while Lucretius 
 stands out as the one great and commanding figure among 
 the poets who continued the technical traditions of Ennius. 
 Of the life of Lucretius little is known. Jerome, 
 under the year 95 B. c., says : " Titus Lucretius, the poet, 
 
 was born, who afterwards was made insane 
 Lucretius ^v a love potion, and, when he had in the 
 
 intervals of his madness written several 
 books, which Cicero corrected, killed himself by his own 
 hand in the forty-fourth year of his age." 1 Donatus, in 
 his Life of Virgil? says that Lucretius died on the day 
 when Virgil was fifteen years old, i. e., October 15, 55 
 B. c. This does not agree with the statement of Jerome. 
 Cicero, in a letter written in February, 54 B. c., 3 mentions 
 the poems of Lucretius, but says nothing about correct- 
 ing or editing them. This is the only contemporary ref- 
 erence to Lucretius or his work. Now the great poem of 
 Lucretius was evidently never entirely finished by its 
 author, who was therefore probably dead when Cicero 
 
 1 Jerome, in Eusebius' Chronicle, year 1922 of Abraham, i. e., 95 B. c. 
 * Vita Vergilii, 2. 8 Ad Quintum Fratrem, II, xi, 4.
 
 LUCRETIUS 49 
 
 wrote this letter. The date (55 B. c.) for his death is thus 
 corroborated. The date of his birth must remain uncer- 
 tain, but it was probably not far from 99 B. c. Jerome's 
 statement that Lucretius was insane and committed sui- 
 cide is not in itself improbable. His work shows him to 
 have been a man of passionate and intense feelings, and 
 gives some ground for the belief that in the course of his 
 life he was subjected to great emotional strain. Of his 
 friends and his daily life we know nothing. His poem is 
 dedicated to Memmius, who is generally supposed to be the 
 Gaius Memmius who was propraetor in Bithynia in 57 B. c. 
 The only work of Lucretius is a didactic poem of six 
 books, in hexameter verse, On the Nature of Things 
 Philosophy (^ e ^rum Naturci), in which he expounds 
 known to the the doctrines of Epicurus. The Komans had 
 Bomans. been for many years acquainted with Greek 
 philosophical teachings, especially with those of the Stoic 
 and Epicurean schools. The Stoic doctrines had been 
 taught by one of the most eminent philosophers of the 
 second century B. c., Panastius, the friend of the younger 
 Scipio Africanus, and were clearly congenial to the 
 Koman temperament ; for the Stoics taught that virtue is 
 the highest good, that nothing else is worth striving for, 
 and that the ordinary pleasures of life are mere interrup- 
 tions of the philosopher's peace. The Epicurean doc- 
 trine, that pleasure is the highest good, was popular only 
 with those who wished to devote themselves to selfish and 
 physical enjoyment, for the higher aspects of the doc- 
 trines of Epicurus were not understood. As early as 161 
 B. c. the senate had passed a vote banishing philosophers 
 and rhetoricians from Rome, and six years later, when 
 three famous philosophers Diogenes the Stoic, Critolaus 
 the Peripatetic, and Carneades of the Academic school- 
 came to Rome, they aroused so much interest that the 
 senate decided to remove them from the city as soon as 
 possible. Greek philosophy was, then, not a new thing at
 
 50 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 Rome, but the poem of Lucretius is the first systematic 
 presentation of the Epicurean doctrines. 
 
 The purpose of the poem is to free men from supersti- 
 tion and the fear of death by teaching the doctrines of 
 The reason Epicurus. This is a most serious purpose, 
 for writing and Lucretius is thoroughly in earnest. If 
 in verse. jje a( j pts the poetic form, it is in order to 
 make his presentation of the doctrines more attractive, 
 in the hope that it will thus have greater influence. 
 This point of view, and at the same time the poet's sense 
 of the difficulty of his theme and his power to cope with 
 it, is clearly expressed in the following passage : 
 
 Come now, and what remaineth learn and hear 
 
 More clearly. Well in my own mind I know 
 
 The doctrine is obscure ; but mighty hope 
 
 Of praise has struck my heart with maddening wand, 
 
 And with the blow implanted in my breast 
 
 The sweet love of the Muses, filled with which 
 
 I wander with fresh mind through pathless tracts 
 
 Of the Pierides, untrod before 
 
 By any mortal's foot. 'Tis sweet to go 
 
 To fountains new and drink ; and sweet it is 
 
 To pluck new flow'rs and seek a garland thence 
 
 For my own head, whence ne'er before a crown 
 
 The Muses twined for any mortal's brow. 
 
 'Tis first because I teach of weighty things 
 
 And guide my course to set the spirit free 
 
 From superstition's closely knotted bonds ; 
 
 And next because concerning matters dark 
 
 I write such lucid verses, touching all 
 
 With th' Muses' grace. Then, too, because it seems 
 
 Not without reason ; but as when men try 
 
 In curing boys to give them bitter herbs, 
 
 They touch the edges round about the cups 
 
 With yellow liquid of the honey sweet, 
 
 That children's careless age may be deceived 
 
 As far as to the lips, and meanwhile drink 
 
 The juice of bitter herb, and though deceived
 
 LUCRETIUS 51 
 
 May not be harmed, but rather in such wise 
 Gain health and strength, so I now, since my theme 
 Seems gloomy for the most part unto those 
 To whom 'tis not familiar, and the crowd 
 Shrinks back from it, have wished to treat; for thee 
 My theme with sweetly speaking poetry's verse 
 And touch it with the Muses' honey sweet. 1 
 
 The arrangement of the poem is as follows : Book i 
 sets forth the atomic theory, invented by Democritus and 
 Arrangement ne ^ by Epicurus, that the world consists of 
 and contents atoms infinitely small particles of matter 
 of the poem. an( j vo id, i. e., empty space. The theories of 
 other Greek philosophers, such as Heraclitus, Empedocles, 
 and Anaxagoras, are refuted. In Book ii it is explained 
 how the atoms combine to form the various things in the 
 world, because as they fall through space they depart 
 from a straight line and come in contact with each other. 
 It is also shown that the atoms, although infinite in num- 
 ber, are limited in variety. In Book iii-the mind and the 
 soul, or principle of life, are shown to be material and to 
 die when the body dies. Keligion and the fear of death, 
 which Lucretius regards as a result of religion, are attacked. 
 Since the soul dies with the body, there is no reason to 
 fear death, because after death we shall feel no lack of 
 anything, shall have no troubles, but shall be as if we had 
 not been born, or as if we lay wrapped in dreamless sleep : 
 
 So death to us is naught, concerns us not, 
 When the soul's nature is as mortal known. 2 
 
 Book iv shows how the impressions made upon our senses 
 are caused by minute images detached from the objects 
 about us. We see, for instance, because minute images 
 of the object seen strike our eyes. Dreams and love are 
 also treated in this book. In Book v the origin of the 
 earth, sun, moon, and stars is described, the beginning of 
 
 1 Book i, 921-947. * iii, 830 f.
 
 52 ROMAN LITERATUEE 
 
 life is explained, and the progress of civilization, from the 
 time when men were savages, is depicted. Some passages 
 in this book anticipate in a measure the modern doctrine 
 of the survival of the fittest. Since our world was not 
 created, but came into being naturally by the combina- 
 tions of atoms, it will also come to an end at some time 
 by the separation of the atoms. In Book vi various 
 striking phenomena are treated, such as thunder, light- 
 ning, earthquakes, tempests, and volcanoes. The book 
 ends with a description of the plague at Athens, derived 
 from the account of Thucydides. 
 
 Since the main purpose of the poem is to free men 
 
 from religion and the fear of death by showing that all 
 
 things, including the soul, came into being 
 
 doctrine ail< ^ are ^ P ass awa y without any action of 
 
 the gods, ethical doctrines are not systematic- 
 ally treated. Lucretius accepts, however, the Epicurean 
 dogma that pleasure is the chief good, "the guide of 
 life," l but the pleasure he has in mind is not the common 
 physical pleasure, but the calm repose of the philosopher : 
 
 Oh wretched minds of men, oh blinded hearts ! 
 Within what shades of life and dangers great 
 Is passed whate'er of age we have ! Dost thou 
 Not see that nature makes demand for naught 
 Save this, that pain be absent from our frame, 
 That she, removed from care at once and fear, 
 May have her pleasure in the joys of mind? " 
 
 Again, in the splendid praise of Epicurus, which opens the 
 fifth book, he says that we may live without grain or wine, 
 
 But well one can not live without pure heart.* 
 
 The only Greek philosophers, besides Epicurus, of 
 whom Lucretius speaks in terms of praise are Democritus, 
 from whom Epicurus borrowed the atomic theory, and 
 
 1 Book ii, 172. ii, 14 ff. v, 18.
 
 LUCRETIUS 53 
 
 Empedocles. Perhaps Lucretius imitates in his work the 
 poem of Empedocles, which bore the same title. At any 
 rate, Empedocles was a man of exalted modes of thought 
 and dignified, poetic expression, qualities which would 
 naturally awaken admiration in the mind of Lucretius. 
 His reading That Lucretius was well acquainted with the 
 observation, great works of Greek literature and with the 
 and love of writings of Nasvius, Ennius, Pacuvius, Lucil- 
 ius, and Accius, is evident from direct refer- 
 ences to them or imitations of them. But he was not 
 merely a student of books. His power of observation and 
 his love of nature are shown in many passages, as where 
 he describes the raging winds and rivers, 1 the life and 
 motion of an army, 2 the striking features of the island of 
 Sicily, 3 the echo in the mountains, 4 or pleasant repose 
 
 under a shady tree on the grass by the river 
 Two famous ^ , 
 passages. 
 
 The poem opens with an invocation to 
 
 Venus, which is justly famous. The first lines are : 
 
 Goddess from whom descends the race of Rome, 
 Venus, of earth and heaven supreme delight, 
 
 Hail, thou that all beneath the starry dome 
 
 Lands rich with grain and seas with navies white 
 
 Blessest and cherishest 1 Where thou dost come 
 Enamelled earth decks her with posies bright 
 
 To meet thy advent ; clouds and tempests flee, 
 
 And joyous light smiles over land and sea.* 
 
 Another famous passage is the beginning of Book ii, 
 which has been translated into English hexameters as 
 follows : 
 
 Sweet, when the great sea's water is stirred to its depth by the 
 
 storm winds, 
 Standing ashore to descry one afar off mightily struggling; 
 
 1 Book i, 271-294. ii, 323-332 and ii, 40-43. i, 716-725. 
 
 4 ii, 573-579. ii, 29-33. i, 1-9, translation by Goldwin Smith.
 
 54 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 Not that a neighbor's sorrow to you yields dulcet enjoyment ; 
 But that the sight hath a sweetness, of ills ourselves are exempt 
 
 from. 
 
 Sweet 'tis too to behold, on a broad plain mustering war-hosts 
 Arm them for some great battle, one's self unscathed by the danger ; 
 Yet still happier this : To possess, impregnably guarded, 
 Those calm heights of the sages which have for an origin Wisdom ; 
 Thence to survey our fellows, observe them this way and that way 
 Wander amid Life's paths, poor stragglers seeking a highway; 
 Watch mind battle with mind, and escutcheon rival escutcheon; 
 Gaze on that untold strife, which is waged 'neath the sun and the 
 
 starlight, 
 Up as they toil on the surface whereon rest Riches and Empire. 1 
 
 Lucretius was perfectly aware that his subject was not 
 an easy one to treat in verse, but was confident of his own 
 power. His work shows that his confidence was justified. 
 Yet even he could not, in explaining the details of the 
 philosophy of Epicurus, move always in the upper realms 
 of poetry. The result is that the poem is un- 
 even. In parts it rises to heights hardly at- 
 tained by any other Latin author, but in other parts long 
 passages are dull and monotonous. Yet even in these 
 parts the verses have a serious, dignified music, the lan- 
 guage is carefully chosen, and the subject is treated with 
 consistency, clearness, and vigor. In the more animated 
 portions of his work, Lucretius speaks almost like an in- 
 spired prophet. His thought hurries his lines along with 
 increasing impetus, until their flow seems almost irresist- 
 ible. Strength, rapidity, and power are the most striking 
 features of his style. Minor elements are frequent asso- 
 nances of various kinds, such as alliteration, repetition, the 
 use of two or more words from one root, and the like, elab- 
 orate similes, and occasionally the form of direct address. 
 With all these, the style is characterized by an austere 
 dignity. 
 
 1 Book ii, 1-13, translated by C. S. Calverley.
 
 LUCRETIUS 55 
 
 In his discussion of the development of the universe, 
 and especially in the part dealing with living creatures, 
 Anticipation man ? an( i th e progress of civilization, Lucretius 
 of modern expresses conclusions not unlike some of those 
 science. reached in our own day by modern science. 
 
 But his processes are not scientific. He reasons, to be 
 sure, from concrete facts to theories and from theories 
 again to concrete facts, but the method of his reasoning 
 is unlike that of modern science. Lucretius, like other 
 philosophers of ancient times, having once accepted a the- 
 ory which explains certain phenomena, makes his theory 
 the rule by which all phenomena are to be measured and in 
 accordance with which they are to be understood. It is 
 interesting to note that Lucretius, following Democritus 
 and Epicurus, anticipates to a certain extent the modern 
 atomic theory, the theories of the evolution of species, of 
 the survival of the fittest, and of the continual progress 
 of mankind from a condition of savagery to civilization, 
 but his conclusions are reached, not by the patient toil of 
 modern scientific research, but by abstract theorizing, to 
 which his poetic imagination gives vividness and almost 
 convincing power. 
 
 The greatness of Lucretius as a poet has always been 
 recognized by critical readers ; but he has never been a 
 popular author. His subject is too abstruse and his style 
 too austere and dignified to appeal to the taste of the 
 masses, which probably accounts for the fact that his poem 
 has come down to us through only one copy, from which 
 all the existing manuscripts are derived.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 CATULLUS-MINOR POETS 
 
 Catullus, about 84-54 B. c. His life The book of poems The 
 longer poems The shorter poems Minor poets Gnaeus Matius 
 Lsevius Sueius Qaius Licinius Calvus, 87-47 B. c. Gaius Helvius 
 Cinna Varro Atacinus, 82 to after 37 B. c. Publius Valerius Cato 
 Marcus Furius Bibaculus Gaius Memmius, propraetor in 57 B. c. 
 Ticidas Quintus Cornificius Cornelius Nepos Marcus Tullius 
 Cicero Quintus Cicero. 
 
 THE greatest lyric poet of the Ciceronian period is 
 Gaius Valerius Catullus. The exact dates of his birth and 
 
 death are uncertain. According to Jerome 
 Catullus ke was Dorn i n 87 B. c., and died in 57 B. c., 
 
 at the age of thirty years. But in one poem * 
 he refers to Pompey's second consulship (55 B. c.), and in 
 two others 2 he mentions Caesar's expedition to Britain (55 
 B. c.). It is therefore evident that his death can not have 
 taken place in 57 B. c. But as his poems contain no refer- 
 ences to any event later than 55 or 54 B. c., it is reason- 
 ably certain that he died not much after the latter date. 
 As he is known to have died young, his birth may be 
 assigned to about 85 B. c., or perhaps a year or two later. 
 His birthplace was Verona, and his family was wealthy 
 and of good position. He went to Rome while still hardly 
 more than a boy, and began to write love poems soon after 
 taking the toga virilis, that is to say, at the age of seven- 
 teen. Rome was then a brilliant capital, in which Greek 
 
 1 c. cxiii, 1. 2. * cc. xi and xxix. 
 
 56
 
 CATULLUS 57 
 
 culture, with all its intellectual vivacity and all its vices, 
 had taken firm root. The family connections of the young 
 Catullus, whose father was a friend of Julius Caesar, intro- 
 duced him to the aristocratic society of the capital, and 
 his personal qualities doubtless contributed to make him 
 a prominent figure among the gay youth of the city. 
 
 About 61 B. c. began his passionate love for the bril- 
 liant but dissolute woman whom he has immortalized in 
 his poems under the name of Lesbia. Her 
 real name was Clodia, and when he met her 
 she was the wife of Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer. For 
 a time she seemed at least to return the love of her young 
 adorer, but almost immediately after her husband's death, 
 which took place in 59 B. c., she is reproached by Catullus 
 for faithlessness. In the spring of 57 B. c., Catullus went 
 to Bithynia as a member of the staff of the propraetor C. 
 Memmius, and by this time his connection with Clodia 
 seems to have been at an end. In the spring of 56 B. c., 
 Catullus returned to Home, after visiting the tomb of his 
 brother, who had died in the Troad. From this time on 
 his poems are still in part poems of love, but they lack the 
 passionate fire of the lines addressed to Lesbia. Most of 
 the poems belonging to the last years of his life, when 
 they contain personal allusions, are inspired rather by the 
 political events of the time than by love. 
 
 The poems of Catullus, as they have been handed 
 
 down to us, form a small book of 2,280 lines. They are 
 
 not arranged chronologically, but rather ac- 
 
 The Book of corc ii u cr to contents and style. The first sixty 
 Poems. . J 
 
 are short poems in various lyric metres, and 
 
 have to do with the poet's love, with his friends and 
 enemies, and with the experiences of his life. These are 
 followed by seven longer poems in imitation of Alex- 
 andrian originals, and the rest of the collection consists of 
 short pieces, all in elegiac verse. This arrangement is 
 doubtless due to some editor, not to Catullus himself, but
 
 58 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 gives the book a certain artistic unity which would be 
 lacking if the poems were arranged in chronological order. 
 A few quotations from Catullus which can not be identified 
 with passages in the extant poems are found in the works 
 of other writers, but they are so few as to indicate that 
 nearly all he ever wrote is contained in the existing book. 
 
 In the longer poems Catullus shows himself a con- 
 summate master of language and versification and a skill- 
 ful imitator of the Alexandrian poetry most 
 ilhalamia PP u l ar among the younger literary men of 
 his time. The first epithalamium, or wedding 
 song, composed for the marriage of Manlius Torquatus 
 and Vinia Arunculeia, is written in lyric metre of short 
 lines. It is supposed to be sung as the bride is escorted 
 to her new home, the first part by a chorus of maidens, 
 the second by youths. Such songs were traditional among 
 the Greeks as well as among the Romans, and there is 
 little originality in the subject or its general treatment, 
 but the brilliant versification and the charming tender 
 passages it contains make this the most attractive of all 
 the longer poems of Catullus. The second epithalamium, 
 in hexameter verse, was apparently composed for no 
 special occasion. A chorus of youths and a chorus of 
 maidens sing responses, calling upon Hymenasus, the god 
 of marriage, and describing by allusion the passage of the 
 bride from maidenhood to wifehood. So the maidens 
 compare her to a flower that has grown in a secluded 
 garden, and the youths compare her to a vine that twines 
 about an elm. 
 
 The third of the longer poems, the sixty-third of the 
 whole collection, is the only existing Latin poem in the 
 difficult and complicated galliambic metre. It describes 
 the madness of the youth Attis, who mutilates himself and 
 gives himself up to the service of the goddess Cybebe. 
 The despair of Attis when he recovers from his madness 
 and yearns for his country, his friends, and his past happi-
 
 CATULLUS 59 
 
 ness, is depicted with admirable power, and the ecstatic 
 worship of Cybebe is most vividly portrayed. The longest 
 poem of all describes in hexameter verse the 
 lon^poems marriage of Peleus with the sea-goddess The- 
 tis. This is not in any sense a lyric poem, 
 but an epyllion, or little epic. It contains passages of 
 great beauty, but offers little opportunity for the display 
 of the peculiarly lyric genius of Catullus, and is, on the 
 whole, the least successful of his poems. This is followed 
 by The Lock of Berenice, a translation of a poem of the 
 same name by the Alexandrian Callimachus. Queen Bere- 
 nice had cut off a lock of her hair in accordance with a 
 vow when her husband returned safe from war. The lock 
 disappeared from the temple in which it had been offered, 
 and the astronomer Conon discovered it as a new constel- 
 lation in the heavens. The lock of hair is supposed to 
 speak and to yearn for its former place upon the forehead 
 of the queen. In the preface to this poem, which is ad- 
 dressed to the orator Hortensius Ilortalus, Catullus speaks 
 in beautiful lines of the death of his brother : 
 
 Oh, is thy voice forever hushed and still ? 
 
 Oh, brother, dearer far than life, shall I 
 Behold thee never ? But in sooth I will 
 
 Forever love thee, as in days gone by : 
 
 And ever through ray songs shall ring a cry 
 Sad with thy death, sad as in thickest shade 
 
 Of intertangled boughs the melody, 
 Which by the woful Daulian bird is made, 
 Sobbing for Itys dead her wail through all the glade. 1 
 
 The Lock of Berenice is followed by a conversation with 
 a door, which hints at several immoral stories. The last 
 of the longer poems is an elegy on the death of the poet's 
 brother, joined with the praises of his friend M'. Allius 
 and of his beloved. This poem is remarkable for the 
 
 1 Translated by Theodore Martin.
 
 60 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 number of digressions it contains, and in this, as in its 
 general tone, it is an imitation of the Alexandrian style. 
 
 The seven poems just described contain many beautiful 
 
 passages, but they show us Catullus chiefly as the learned, 
 
 skillful, and successful imitator of Alexandrian Greek 
 
 models. His real genius appears in the shorter poems, 
 
 which deal with the feelings of his own heart. 
 
 Thft ahnrt 
 
 In these also he is an imitator, so far as his 
 poems. 
 
 metres are concerned, but the feelings are his 
 own, and he expresses them in words that burn. No 
 translation can do justice to the sharp, quick strokes of 
 his invectives or to the passionate outpourings of his love. 
 One of his favorite metres is the " hendecasyllable " or 
 eleven syllable verse, which, by its quick movement, helps 
 to create an impression of great swiftness of thought and 
 flashing outbursts of emotion. At the same time, the 
 numerous diminutive suffixes employed give a light and 
 graceful, almost playful, tone to the verse. Some of the 
 lines directed against those whom Catullus hated or de- 
 spised, are scurrilous and indecent ; but that is the fault 
 of the age rather than of the poet himself. In general 
 the thoughts and emotions expressed range from passion- 
 ate love to violent invective, while through many of the 
 poems there runs a vein of half satirical playfulness. 
 Some of the qualities of Catullus' poetry may be made 
 clear by translations of a few of the short poems. The 
 first shows at once his passionate love for Lesbia, and 
 something of his half -satirical humor : 
 
 My Lesbia, let us live and love, 
 
 Nor let us count it worth above 
 
 A single farthing if the old 
 
 And carping greybeards choose to scold. 
 
 The suns that set and fade away 
 
 May rise again another day. 
 
 When once has set our little light 
 
 We needs must sleep one endless night.
 
 CATULLUS 61 
 
 A thousand kisses give me, then 
 
 A hundred, then a thousand, when 
 
 I bid you give a hundred more ; 
 
 When many thousands o'er and o'er 
 
 We've kissed, we'll mix them, so that we 
 
 Shall lose the count, and none shall be 
 
 Aroused to evil envious hate 
 
 Through knowing that the sum's so great. 1 
 
 A well-known and especially attractive poem is the 
 playful lament for the sparrow : 
 
 Let mourning fill the realms of Love ; 
 Wail, men below and Powers above 1 
 The joy of my beloved has fled, 
 The Sparrow of her heart is dead 
 The Sparrow that she used to prize 
 As dearly as her own bright eyes. 
 As knows a girl her mother well, 
 So knew the pretty bird my belle, 
 And ever hopping, chirping round, 
 Far from her lap was never found. 
 Now wings it to that gloomy bourne 
 From which no travellers return. 
 Accurs'd be thou, infernal lair! 
 Devourer dark of all things fair, 
 The rarest bird to thee is gone ; 
 Take thou once more my malison. 
 How swollen and red with weeping, see, 
 My fair one's eyes, and all through thee. 9 
 
 Like most educated Eomans, Catullus had a great love 
 for the country. His joy in returning to his country seat 
 on the peninsula of Sirmio forms the subject of a charm- 
 ing little poem : 
 
 Gem of all isthmuses and isles that He, 
 
 Fresh or salt water's children, in clear lake 
 
 Or ampler ocean ; with what joy do I 
 
 Approach thee, Sirmio ! Oh ! am I awake, 
 
 J c. v. 2 c. iii. Translated by Goldwin Smith in Bay-Leaves.
 
 (52 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 Or dream that once again mine eye beholds 
 Thee, and has looked its last on Thracian wolds ? 
 
 Sweetest of sweets to me that pastime seems, 
 When the mind drops her burden, when the pain 
 Of travel past our own cot we regain, 
 
 And nestle on the pillow of our dreams! 
 "Pis this one thought that cheers us as we roam. 
 
 Hail, O fair Sirmio ! Joy, thy lord is here ! 
 
 Joy too, ye waters of the Golden Mere ! 
 And ring out, all ye laughter-peals of home ! * 
 
 Of the lesser poets of the Ciceronian period little need 
 be said. Their works are lost, but for scattered frag- 
 ments, except in so far as a few anonymous poems are to 
 be ascribed to this period. The writers of mimes, Deci- 
 mus Laberius and Publilius Syrus, have already been men- 
 Matius tioned (p. 30). Gnaeus Matius, who appears 
 
 Laevius, to belong to this time, wrote mimiambics in 
 
 Sueius. the manner of Herondas and other Alexan- 
 
 drian poets lively reproductions of scenes of ordinary 
 life in choliambic verse, that is, iambic trimetres, the 
 last foot of which is a spondee; Lsevius wrote sportive 
 love-poems (Erotopcegnia) ; and Sueius composed idylls, 
 two of which, the Moretum and the PulU, are known by 
 name, besides a book of annals. Matius also made a free 
 translation of Homer's Iliad. 
 
 More important in their own day were two friends of 
 Catullus, Gaius Licinius Calvus and Gaius Helvius Cinna. 
 Calvus, who lived from 87 to 47 B. c., was a 
 Ginna" distinguished orator and politician, who de- 
 
 voted his leisure hours to poetry. His poems 
 included epithalamia, elegies, epigrams, and at least one 
 mythological epyllion, entitled Jo. Cinna appears to have 
 come, like Catullus, from northern Italy, but of his life 
 little is known beyond the fact that he was with Catullus 
 on the staff of Memmius in Bithynia. His chief work was 
 
 1 c. xxxi. Translated by C. S. Calverley.
 
 MINOR POETS 63 
 
 a poem entitled Smyrna, which, although it was of mod- 
 erate length, occupied him for nine years. The subject 
 was the unnatural love of the maiden Smyrna for her 
 father and the birth of their son Adonis. The poem was 
 so learned and obscure as to be almost incomprehensible, 
 and was similar in this respect to the Alexandra of the 
 Alexandrian Lycophron. The admiration expressed by 
 Catullus for this work shows how highly the younger Ro- 
 man poets esteemed successful imitations of even the worst 
 faults of their Alexandrian models. 
 
 A poet who continued the national traditions of En- 
 
 nius and also imitated the Alexandrians was Publius Te- 
 
 rcntius Varro, called Varro Atacinus. He was 
 
 born at Atax, in Gallia Narbonensis, in 82 
 Atacinus. 
 
 B. c. He wrote a poem in hexameters on Cae- 
 sar's war with the Sequani, and some satires, probably in 
 the manner of Lucilius. In his thirty-fifth year he is 
 said to have turned to the study of the Greek poets, and 
 it is probably about this time that he translated into Latin 
 hexameters the Argonautica of the Alexandrian epic poet 
 Apollonius Rhodius. A geographical poem, probably en- 
 titled Chorographia, and a series of elegiac poems in the 
 Alexandrian manner probably belong to the time after the 
 year 37 B. c. The few fragments of his poems show that 
 he was a poet of more than ordinary gifts. 
 
 The intellectual leader of the school of poets who 
 found their inspiration in the works of the Alexandrians 
 
 was the grammarian and teacher, P. Valerius 
 Valerius c , whom Furius Bibaculus calls "Cato 
 
 Cato. 
 
 the grammarian, the Latin Siren, who alone 
 reads and makes poets." Cato's influence was exerted to 
 lead his followers to imitate their Greek models carefully, 
 to perfect their Latin style, and probably to introduce the 
 new metres into Latin poetry. His own writings were 
 grammatical treatises, poems, and a revision and correc- 
 tion of the works of Lucilius. The poem entitled Dirce,
 
 64 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 which is contained in manuscripts of Virgil, and really 
 consists of two distinct poems, Dirce and Lydia, has been 
 ascribed with some probability to Cato. In the first poem 
 the writer curses a veteran named Lycurgus, who has de- 
 prived him of his property and his beloved Lydia ; in the 
 second he addresses a touching farewell to Lydia, who has 
 remained in the country. Other poets of this period are 
 
 M. Furius Bibaculus, who wrote satirical 
 Other poets. . 
 
 verses, Gams Memmms, the propraetor of 
 
 Bithynia in 57 B. c., Ticidas, Quintus Cornificius, and Cor- 
 nelius Nepos all of whom belonged to the new school 
 and imitated the Alexandrians. Nepos we shall meet 
 again among the prose writers. Others also, whose chief 
 activity was in other fields, wrote poetry occasionally. 
 Among these Cicero and his brother Quintus may be men- 
 tioned. 
 
 The names of these lesser poets are of little impor- 
 tance to us, but it is worth while to mention them to call 
 attention to the fact that poetry was cultivated by many 
 of the younger men in the Ciceronian period. Through 
 their efforts the various styles and metres of the Greek 
 poets, especially those of the Alexandrian period, were 
 made familiar to the Romans, and thus the way was pre- 
 pared for Horace, Virgil, and Ovid in the Augustan age.
 
 CICERO. 
 Bust in the Vatican Museum, liuuie.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 CICERO 
 
 Cicero, 106-43 B. c. His importance His life Periods of his lit- 
 erary activity His works The orations Philosophical works Let- 
 ters His character. 
 
 MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO, orator, statesman, and phi- 
 losopher, is the great commanding figure of the literary 
 period which is designated by his name. With him Latin 
 prose reaches a height never before attained and never 
 afterward surpassed. The cooler and more 
 critical judgment of our northern natures 
 and later age may find his eloquence too ex- 
 uberant, and our scholars, trained in the study of the Greek 
 philosophers, may deny him the title of an original thinker, 
 but no one can fail to appreciate the power of his utter- 
 ance, the clearness of his exposition, or the lucid elegance 
 of his diction. He found the Latin language the chief 
 dialect of Italy, the speech of a great and mighty city ; he 
 made it the language of the world for centuries. 
 
 To write the life of Cicero in all the known details 
 would be to write the history of Rome during the entire 
 period of his manhood. The historian of literature must 
 content himself with a mere sketch. Cicero was born at 
 Education Arpinum, a small town in the hills of eastern 
 and early Latium, on the third of January, 106 B. c. 
 years. The town was also the birthplace of Marius, 
 
 whose fame no doubt fired the imagination of the young 
 Cicero and helped to rouse his ambition. His father de- 
 
 65
 
 66 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 termined to give him the best possible education and sent 
 him to Rome, where he knew the two great orators, M. 
 Autonius and L. Crassus, and also the aged M. Accius and 
 the Greek poet Archias. Since legal knowledge was a 
 necessary part of an orator's education, he studied with the 
 jurist Q. Scaevola (p. 44), and the Augur of the same name. 
 He also paid attention to philosophy, studying with the 
 Epicurean Phaedrus, the Academic philosopher Philo, who 
 was a pupil of Clitomachus, and the Stoic Diodotus. 
 His teacher of rhetoric was Molo, of Rhodes, and he also 
 received instruction from the rhetorician M. Antonius 
 Gnipho and the actors Roscius and ^Esopus. He acquired 
 a great reputation as an advocate by several speeches, 
 especially by his defense of Quinctius (81 B. c.) and Ros- 
 cius of Ameria (80 B.C.) ; but his health failed, and at the 
 same time he wished to perfect his education. He there- 
 fore left Rome and spent two years (79-77 B. c.) in Greece 
 and Asia. At Athens he studied under the Academic 
 Antiochus, the Epicurean Zeno, his old teacher Phaedrus, 
 and the instructor in oratory, Demetrius. In Asia he be- 
 came acquainted with the florid Asian style of eloquence, 
 and at Rhodes he studied again under his former teacher 
 Molo, who exerted himself to chasten the exuberance of 
 his style, which had been encouraged by the Asiatic ora- 
 tors. At Rhodes he also became acquainted with the 
 famous Stoic Posidonius. 
 
 In 77 B.C. he returned to Rome and continued his 
 career as an orator. It was soon after his return that he 
 
 married Terentia, a lady of noble birth, with 
 career/ whom he lived for thirty-two years. In 75 
 
 B. c. he began his official career as quaestor 
 of Lilybaeum in Sicily, an office which he filled with great 
 credit. He was elected aedile in 69 and praetor in 66 B. c. 
 In 63 B. c. he was chosen consul, with Antonius as his col- 
 league, and truthfully claimed that, although he was a 
 novus homo, a man who had no family influence or prestige
 
 CICERO 67 
 
 to aid him, he had obtained each of the important offices 
 of the state at the earliest legally admissible age. In 
 The his consulship the conspiracy of Catiline oc- 
 
 conspiracy curred, which Cicero suppressed with relent- 
 of Catiline. j ess vigor, although it was supposed to be 
 favored by some of the most powerful men in Rome, in- 
 cluding Crassus and Caesar. The conspirators were not 
 sentenced to death by regular legal process, but the sen- 
 ate decreed that the consul should defend the safety of 
 the state, and Cicero gave the order for their execution. 
 To this year belong the four speeches against Catiline. 
 
 In 60 B. c. the first triumvirate was formed. The 
 
 triumvirs found the influence of Cicero unfavorable to 
 
 their plans, and encouraged his enemy, P. 
 
 Cicero's Clodius Pulcher, who had been adopted into 
 
 banishment. ' 
 
 a plebeian family and been elected tribune of 
 
 the people, to propose a bill that any one who had put a Ro- 
 man citizen to death without due process of law be ban- 
 ished. Cicero, finding that he could not defend himself 
 with success, withdrew from Rome, and his banishment was 
 decreed. He remained in exile from April, 58 B. c., until 
 August, 57 B. c., when he was recalled and received with 
 great honors. 
 
 In 53 B. c. he was elected to fill the place in the col- 
 lege of augurs made vacant by the death of the younger 
 Crassus. In 51 and 50 B. c. Cicero was again 
 
 absent from Rome, as proconsul of Cilicia. 
 years. 
 
 On his return he found Caesar and Pompey in 
 
 open strife. Cicero had never been a party man. He was 
 always a sincere patriot, full of pride in the glorious past 
 of his country, and more than ready to do his duty, and 
 now, when he could not fail to see that both parties were 
 ruled by selfish ambition rather than by disinterested pa- 
 triotism, it was hard for him to attach himself to either. 
 After some hesitation, he joined the party of Pompey and 
 the senate, and, in 49 B. c., followed Pompey to Epirus,
 
 68 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 but was not present at the battle of Pharsalus. After 
 Pompey's defeat he waited at Brundusium until Caesar al- 
 lowed him to return to Rome in 47 B. c. Here he lived in 
 retirement, devoting himself to literary pursuits. In 46 
 B. c. he divorced his wife, Terentia, and married his young 
 ward, Publilia, from whom he parted the following year. 
 The year 45 B. c. was saddened by the death of his only 
 daughter, Tullia. The death of Caesar, in 44 B. c., recalled 
 Cicero for a short time to public life, but he seems to have 
 left the city in April and to have spent some months at his 
 various villas. In July he decided to visit Athens, where 
 his son was studying, but after he had reached Sicily he 
 heard that he was needed at Rome, gave up his plan, and 
 returned to the capital. Here he took a leading part in 
 the opposition to Antony, against whom he delivered the 
 fourteen orations known as the Philippics. When the 
 triumvirs came to terms with one another, Cicero was in- 
 cluded by Antony among those whose death he demanded. 
 
 After moving first to Tusculum, and then to 
 His death. . , 
 
 Formiae, he went aboard a ship at Caeta, but 
 
 turned back to land, resolved to die in his native country. 
 On his way between his villa and the sea he was overtaken 
 by a party of Antony's soldiers and killed, on the seventh 
 of December, 43 B. c. His head and hands were cut off 
 and exposed upon the rostra in the Roman forum. 
 
 Cicero's oratorical and literary activity falls naturally 
 into four chronological divisions : his earlier years, to the 
 Periods of beginning of his career as a political orator 
 Cicero's (81-66 B. c.) ; the period of his greatest pow- 
 
 literary er) lasting until just before his banishment 
 (66-59 B. c.); from his return from banish- 
 ment until his departure for Cilicia (57-51 B. c.) ; and 
 from his return from Cilicia until his death (50-43 B. c.). 
 
 To the first period belong several speeches delivered in 
 different kinds of lawsuits, the most remarkable of which 
 are the seven orations in the suit against Verres (70 B. c.)
 
 CICERO 69 
 
 for extortion and misgovernment in Sicily. At the ear- 
 nest request of the Sicilians, Cicero undertook the prose- 
 cution. The first speech, the Divinatio in 
 CcBcilium, was delivered to determine wheth- 
 er Cicero or Q. Csecilius Niger, who had 
 been quaestor under Verres in Sicily, should conduct the 
 prosecution. The first speech in the prosecution itself 
 settled the case. Cicero had prepared all the evidence 
 and summoned the witnesses, and instead of giving the 
 defence an opportunity for delay, brought forward his 
 overwhelming evidence at the beginning, after a mere in- 
 troduction. Hortensius, Verres' advocate, gave up the 
 defence after hearing the evidence, and Verres was ban- 
 ished. The five remaining orations, called the Actio Se- 
 cunda in Verrem, were published by Cicero in order that 
 the facts might be universally known, but were never de- 
 livered in court. They show not only that Cicero was at 
 this time a consummate master of eloquence, but also that 
 his diligence in the collection and preparation of his ma- 
 terial was remarkable. In addition to his speeches, Cicero 
 wrote in this period several translations from the Greek, 
 which are lost, and also a handbook of oratory, the De 
 Invent ione, in two books. This work was written when 
 the author was only twenty years old, and is based upon 
 the treatise addressed to Herennius (p. 46). In it Cicero 
 treats of the various divisions of oratory and their uses. 
 The work is greatly inferior to his later rhetorical writings. 
 The second period opens with the superb oration For 
 the Manilian Law or De Imperio Gncei Pompei (66 B. c.), 
 in which Cicero advocates the appointment 
 eri "a e ^ P m P ev w ith extraordinary powers to carry 
 on the war against Mithridates. The four 
 brilliant and vehement speeches Against Catiline belong 
 to the year of Cicero's consulship, 63 B. c. To the same 
 year belongs the witty and able speech For Murana, in 
 which Cicero defends Mursena against a charge of bribery.
 
 70 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 The delightful speech For the Poet Archias was delivered 
 in 62 B. c. in support of the poet's claim to the Koman 
 citizenship. Throughout this period Cicero's time and 
 energy were so fully occupied with affairs of state and 
 with the suits in which he was engaged as to leave him 
 little leisure for purely literary production. In 60 B. c., 
 however, when the troubles that led to his banishment 
 were thickening about him, he made a metrical version of 
 the astronomical poems of Aratus, portions of which are 
 preserved in his later work On the Nature of the Gods, 
 and wrote a poem in three books On His Consulship, 
 which is lost. 
 
 The speeches of the third period were delivered for 
 the most part in private cases, though one of them, On the 
 
 Consular Provinces (B. c. 56), urging that 
 The third . . , . . , f 
 
 period Caesar retain his proconsulship of Gaul and 
 
 that Gabinius and Piso be recalled from Syria 
 and Macedonia, is political, while political considerations 
 have an important place in several others. In the year 55 
 B. c. the dialogue On the Orator (De Oratore) was written, 
 in which the two great orators of the generation before 
 Cicero, Lucius Crassus and Marcus Antonius, discuss the 
 proper qualities of an orator. The dialogue is supposed 
 to have taken place shortly before the death of Crassus 
 (91 B. c.). The lesser parts are taken by some of the 
 younger statesmen of the day, and in the beginning 
 Cicero's teacher, the augur Scaevola, appears. This 
 is one of the most attractive of Cicero's works. The 
 technical discussions are enlivened by anecdotes and con- 
 versation, and the whole dialogue has a grace and spright- 
 liness not often found in Latin prose. The dialogue On 
 the State (De Re Publica), in six books, was published 
 before 51 B. c. Only about one third of this is preserved 
 in a fragmentary condition, and for many centuries the 
 entire work was lost with the exception of the Dream of 
 Scipio (Somnium Scipionis), from the sixth book. The
 
 CICERO 71 
 
 discussion of the state was followed by a dialogue On Laws 
 (De Legibus), which was begun apparently in 52 B. c., but 
 was never finished. In this period we find Cicero turning 
 his attention to technical works on rhetoric and also to 
 philosophy. 
 
 The last period was for the most part a time of quiet 
 literary work for Cicero. Only after Caesar's death did he 
 return to public life. In 46 B. c. he thanked 
 period" Caesar, in the oration For Marcellus, for al- 
 lowing Marcellus, who had been consul in 
 51 B. c., to return to Rome ; later in the same year he 
 pleaded the case of Quintus Ligarius in the speech For 
 Ligarius, and in 45 B. c. he spoke in behalf of Deiotarus, 
 tetrarch of Galicia, who had been accused of treachery to 
 Caesar (For King Deiotarus), but these are the only speeches 
 of this period except the fourteen Philippics, directed 
 against Antony, all of which belong to the short time 
 between the second of September, 44 B. c., and the 
 twenty-second of April, 43 B. c. In these Cicero shows his 
 old energy and fire, but not quite his earlier power. The 
 name Philippics was given to these speeches almost from 
 the very first, and was in fact authorized by Cicero him- 
 self, who welcomed the parallel between himself, arousing 
 and encouraging the Romans against Antony, and Demos- 
 thenes urging the Athenians to oppose Philip. But these 
 orations were the work of a few months ; by far the greater 
 part of the years after 50 B. c. was occupied with other 
 things. In the three years 46-44 B. c. appeared the rhetor- 
 ical writings Brutus, the Orator, the Divisions of Oratory, 
 the essay On the Best Kind of Orators, and the long series 
 Bhetorioal ^ philosophical dialogues and treatises, the 
 and most important of which are the De Finibus 
 
 philosophical Bonorum et Malorum, a discussion of the dif- 
 ferent theories respecting the highest good, 
 in five books ; the Academics, two books of which are pre- 
 served ; the Tusculan Disputations, in five books, treating 
 6
 
 72 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 of the chief essentials for happiness ; the treatise On the 
 Nature of the Gods, in three books ; and the three books 
 On Duties (De Officiis), to which should be added, on 
 account of their beauty of style and sentiment, the Cato 
 Maior ( On Old Age) and the Lcelius ( On Friendship). 
 
 Cicero's extant works comprise fifty-seven orations and 
 fragments of twenty more, seven rhetorical treatises, thir- 
 teen philosophical treatises, including those On the State 
 and On Laios, and about eight hundred and sixty letters, 
 among which are ninety addressed to him by his corre- 
 spondents. Among the lost works are a few historical 
 writings and several translations from the Greek. 
 
 Cicero's chief ambition was to be a great orator, and he 
 spared no pains to attain his end. Richly endowed by 
 nature, he was not content to employ his 
 orator ** natural gifts without careful cultivation. He 
 studied the orators of earlier times, especially 
 the great masters of Greek eloquence, made many transla- 
 tions from the Greek for the sake of perfecting his style, 
 and was a diligent student of rhetorical theories. His 
 conception of the proper qualities of the orator was high 
 and noble. In the essay De Oratore, he makes Crassus say : 
 
 Wherefore, if one wishes to define and embrace the proper 
 power of an orator in all its extent, that man will be, in my opinion, 
 an orator worthy of this great name, who can speak wisely, in an 
 orderly and polished manner, from memory, and even with 
 some dignity of action, upon whatever subject arises that needs to 
 be set forth in speech. 1 
 
 And again : 
 
 I assert that by the moderation and wisdom of the perfect 
 orator not only his own dignity, but the welfare of very many 
 persons and of the entire commonwealth is preserved.' 
 
 In short, the orator should be, in Cicero's opinion, not 
 only a great and practised speaker, but a man of varied 
 
 1 De Oratore, i, 15, 04. Ibid., i, 8, 34.
 
 CICERO 73 
 
 learning, and at the same time a man of the highest char- 
 acter. This was the ideal he set before himself and strove 
 throughout his life to attain. Certainly it was no low 
 ideal, nor was the man who strove to attain it a character 
 to be despised. 
 
 Cicero's oratorical style is always careful and finished, 
 but is far from that monotonous smoothness which study 
 often gives to the speech of those who are not 
 ky nature gifted orators. In the narrative 
 
 parts of his speeches he is clear, straightfor- 
 ward, and lucid; in his arguments he is logical, in- 
 cisive, and full of force ; in his appeals to the feelings of 
 his hearers he is vivid, quick and powerful, sometimes, 
 according to the demands of the occasion, violent or 
 pathetic. The elaborate periodic structure of his sen- 
 tences is varied by many short questions or exclamations, 
 and the habitual dignity of his utterance is softened and 
 enlivened by frequent touches of wit, humor, 
 and irony. So in his defence of Quintus 
 Ligarius, who had served in the senatorial army in Africa, 
 although he knew that Caesar, before whom the case was 
 argued, was perfectly acquainted with the facts, he began 
 his speech as follows : 
 
 A new charge, Gaius Cfflsar, and one never heard of before this 
 day, my relative, Quintus Tubero, has brought before you: that 
 Quintus Ligarius was in Africa ; and Gaius Pansa, a man of excel- 
 lent character, trusting, perhaps, in his friendship with you, has 
 dared to confess that it is true. Therefore I know not where to turn. 
 For I had come prepared, since you could not know it by yourself, 
 and could not have heard it from any one else, to take advantage 
 of your ignorance for the salvation of the unfortunate man. 1 
 
 After this ironical introduction, which serves to make 
 his opponents seem ridiculous, Cicero appeals to Caesar's 
 well-known clemency before proceeding to his argument. 
 
 1 Pro Ligario, 1
 
 74 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 In his own political life Cicero constantly showed his 
 reverence for the dignity of the Eoman people, the estab- 
 lished forms of government, and the tradi- 
 tions and great deeds of the earlier days of 
 Rome. The same feeling is evident in nearly 
 all his orations. References to the Roman people, the 
 majesty of the Roman people, the Roman empire, the dig- 
 nity of the senate, the customs or institutions of the an- 
 cestors, are found on almost every page. The oration On 
 the Manilian Law is not merely a panegyric of Pompey 
 and an argument for giving him new and greater powers, 
 but at the same time a hymn of praise to the glory of the 
 Roman republic and the virtues of the men of old : 
 
 Our ancestors often engaged in wars because our merchants or 
 ship-owners had been somewhat unjustly treated ; what, pray, 
 should be your feelings when so many thousands of Roman citi- 
 zens have been slaughtered by one edict and at one time ? Be- 
 cause our envoys had been too haughtily addressed it pleased your 
 fathers that Corinth, the light of all Greece, be blotted out ; will 
 you let that king go unpunished who has slain an ex-consul and 
 envoy of the Roman people, after subjecting him to imprisonment, 
 and scourging, and all kinds of torture ? They did not endure it 
 when the liberty of Roman citizens was curtailed; will you be 
 negligent when their lives have been taken ? They followed up 
 the verbal violation of the right of embassies; will you desert the 
 cause of an ambassador slain with all torments ? Be on your guard, 
 lest, just as it was most honorable for them to hand down to you 
 so great and glorious an empire, so it be most disgraceful for you 
 to fail to guard and preserve what you have received. 1 
 
 Here the orator's effort is to arouse his hearers to main- 
 tain the dignity and glory of the republic, whose greatness 
 is brought home to their minds by the references to the 
 deeds of their ancestors. This passage is also a good ex- 
 ample of the effective use of repeated contrasts. 
 
 In the speech For the Manilian Law Cicero addresses 
 
 1 Pro Lege Manilla, 5, 11.
 
 CICERO 75 
 
 the assembled Eoman people on a political question of 
 immediate and great importance. His tone is exalted 
 and earnest, his eloquence stirring and inspiring. The 
 same qualities are found in all the political orations, and 
 in many of the private speeches, delivered in cases in- 
 volving the life of the accused or Cicero's own character. 
 Gentler ^ n speeches dealing with less urgent matters 
 
 and more the tone is more gentle and the effect more 
 graceful graceful. Quotations from the poets are nu- 
 merous, and the rhythmical structure of the 
 sentences is more marked than in the stirring and excited 
 passages of the political harangues. The oration For the 
 Poet Archias is the best example of Cicero's less stirring 
 and more graceful oratory. After establishing by a brief 
 statement the fact that Archias had a valid claim to the 
 citizenship, Cicero devotes the remainder of his speech to 
 the praise of literary pursuits : 
 
 These studies nourish youth, delight old age, adorn prosperity, 
 furnish a refuge and solace in adversity, gladden us at home, are 
 no hindrance abroad, spend the nights with us, are with us in our 
 foreign travels, and at our country seats. 1 
 
 In this oration Cicero appears as the man of letters 
 whose literary interest was not bounded by the career of 
 the politician or the orator, and who, in spite of political 
 successes and disappointments, was to achieve greater 
 fame as an author than any other writer of Latin prose. 
 
 Few passages are more striking or characteristic in 
 the orations of Cicero than those in which he turns to 
 address directly either the opposing party in 
 address ^ e case or ^ 8 advocate. In these passages, 
 
 which vary in length from a brief exclama- 
 tion to an elaborate invective, the stinging words shoot 
 forth with quick and passionate directness. One of the 
 longer passages of this kind, in which additional force is 
 
 1 Pro Archia Poeta, 7, 16.
 
 76 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 lent to the words by the suggestion that they are uttered 
 by the culprit's own father, is the following : 
 
 Here you will even dare to say, "Among the judges, that one 
 is my friend, that one a friend of my father." Is not every one, 
 the more closely he is connected with you in any way, the more 
 ashamed of you for being subject to a charge of this kind ? He is 
 your father's friend. If your father himself were a judge, what, 
 in the name of the immortal gods, could you do when he said to 
 you: "You, the praetor of the Roman people in a province, when 
 you had to carry on a naval war, excused the Mamertines for three 
 years from supplying the ship which they were bound by treaty 
 to supply ; for your private use a freight ship of the largest size 
 was built at public expense by those same Mamertines; you ex- 
 acted money from the cities under the pretext of the fleet ; you dis- 
 missed rowers for bribes ; you, when a pirate vessel had been cap- 
 tured by the quaestor and the lieutenant, removed the leader of 
 the pirates from the sight of all ; you could put under the heads- 
 man's axe men who were said to be Roman citizens, who were 
 known as such by many ; you dared to take pirates to your house, 
 and to bring the pirate captain to the court from your own dwelling ; 
 you, in that splendid province, in the sight of our most faithful 
 allies, of most honorable Roman citizens, lay for days together on 
 the shore at festive banquets at a time when the province was in 
 fear and danger; during those days no one could find you at your 
 house, no one could see you in the forum; you brought to those 
 banquets the wives of allies and friends ; among women of that 
 sort you placed your youthful son, my grandson, that his father's 
 life might offer him examples of wickedness at the age which is 
 especially unsteady and lacking in fixed principles ; you, the prae- 
 tor, were seen in the province in a tunic and purple cloak ; you, for 
 the gratification of your passion and lust, took away the command 
 of the ships from a lieutenant of the Roman people and gave it to 
 a Syracusan ; your soldiers in the province of Sicily were in want of 
 food and grain ; owing to your luxury and avarice a fleet of the 
 Roman people was captured and burned by pirates ; in your prae- 
 torship pirates sailed their ships in that harbor which no enemy 
 had ever entered since the foundation of Syracuse; and these dis- 
 graces of yours, so many and so great, you did not care to hide by 
 concealment on your part, nor by making men forget them and
 
 CICERO 77 
 
 keep silent about them, but you tore away to death and torture even 
 the captains of the ships, without any cause, from the embraces of 
 their parents, your own friends, nor in seeing the grief and tears 
 of those parents did any memory of me soften you; to you the 
 blood of innocent men was not only a pleasure, but even a source 
 of profit. " If your father should say this to you, could you ask 
 pardon from him ? could you entreat him to forgive you ? * 
 
 These few examples, perhaps not the most striking to 
 be found in the great body of his orations, may give some 
 idea of the variety of Cicero's oratory. In his youth the 
 Eoman orators were divided into two parties on the 
 question of style ; the elder men, chief among whom was 
 Hortensius, favored the Asian style, with its wealth of 
 rhetorical adornment, while the younger men, the Atticists, 
 as they called themselves, aimed at extreme simplicity, 
 taking Lysias as their model. Cicero perceived that a 
 middle course was best. His natural tendency was toward 
 exuberance, but he tempered it by careful study. He 
 does not avoid rhetorical adornment, but he seldom uses 
 it to excess. Like Demosthenes, whom he regarded as 
 the greatest of the Greek orators, he varies his style to 
 suit the occasion, and, like him, he stands forth as the 
 greatest orator of his nation. 
 
 In his philosophical writings Cicero's purpose was to 
 be useful to his fellow citizens by making them acquainted 
 with the results of Greek speculative thought. 
 Philosophical AS he himself says: 
 
 works. J 
 
 As I sought and pondered much and long by 
 what means I could be of use to as many men as possible, that I 
 might never cease to care for the welfare of the republic, nothing 
 greater occurred to me than if I should make accessible to my fellow 
 citizens the paths of the noblest learning.* 
 
 With this end in view he wrote his treatises, for the 
 most part in the dialogue form, after the manner of Plato, 
 in which he set forth the doctrines of the Greek philoso- 
 
 1 In Verrem, ii, v, 52. * De Divinatione, ii, 1.
 
 Y8 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 phers on the most important subjects, such as the chief 
 end of life, the means of attaining happiness, duty, the 
 nature of the gods, and the like, laying the chief stress 
 upon what he believed to be true and correct. He lays no 
 claim to great originality of thought, but only to inde- 
 pendence of judgment. In general, he regards himself as 
 a disciple of the Academic school, which did not claim to 
 establish absolute truth, but to show what was most 
 probable. He uses, however, the works of Stoic and even 
 of Epicurean philosophers, whenever they express views 
 in accordance with his own, as well as when he wishes to 
 refute their teachings. He is not entirely consistent in 
 all his writings, but his high moral sense, his belief in the 
 divine government of the world, and his hope of im- 
 mortality are the foundations of his philosophy. His 
 style in these writings is, as befits his subject, dignified 
 and serene, but enlivened by the occasional interruptions 
 incident to the dialogue form. 
 
 To the professional student of ancient philosophy these 
 treatises are of great importance chiefly because of the 
 Importance information they contain concerning the 
 of Cicero's writings and doctrines of Greek philoso- 
 phiiosophicai phers whose works have been lost; to the 
 student of literature they offer admirable 
 examples of learned works in popular form, with all the 
 charm of exquisite literary workmanship; and their in- 
 fluence upon later ages was so great that no one who 
 is interested in the progress of human thought can dis- 
 regard them. St. Augustine, and many other writers of 
 the early Christian Church, acknowledge their indebted- 
 ness to them; they are the foundation of the specula- 
 tive thought of the middle ages ; and it is in great meas- 
 ure due to their influence that the Latin language has 
 remained, almost to our own day, the great medium for 
 the expression of philosophical and scientific speculation. 
 Cicero made " the paths of the noblest learning " acces-
 
 CICERO 79 
 
 sible not only to his Eoman fellow citizens, but to count- 
 less generations of men of all lands. His noble purpose 
 was accomplished more grandly than he ever hoped or 
 dreamed. Let those who will, accuse him of shallowness 
 and superficiality; mankind owes him an immeasurable 
 debt of gratitude. 
 
 Cicero's orations have served as models for many gen- 
 erations of orators, his rhetorical treatises may be re- 
 garded as the foundation of nearly all later theories of 
 style, his philosophical works exerted an influence which 
 permeated the thought of centuries. It remains to speak 
 of his letters. These are in some respects 
 *^ e mos ^ interesting of his writings, because 
 they show the feelings of the man as he 
 disclosed them to his intimate friends, they make us ac- 
 quainted with the personal relations between the promi- 
 nent Eomans of the time, and shed many rays of light 
 upon the dark pages of contemporary history. The first 
 of the extant letters is dated in 68 B. c., the last July 28, 
 43 B. c. The collection was made by Cicero's friends, and 
 edited probably by his freedman, Tiro, and his publisher 
 and most intimate friend, Atticus. They fall into four 
 groups ; sixteen books addressed to various persons (A d 
 Familiar es), three books to Cicero's brother Quintus (Ad 
 Quintum Fratrem), sixteen books to Atticus (Ad Atticum), 
 and two books to Brutus (Ad Brutum). There were 
 originally nine books of letters to Brutus, but only the 
 eighth and the ninth are preserved. 
 
 The letters differ greatly in importance, in length, and 
 in interest. Some are mere greetings or brief introduc- 
 tions, while others are carefully composed treatises ; some 
 are expressions of Cicero's inmost feelings to his inti- 
 mate friends, while others are business notes or occasional 
 letters to men with whom he was on a less familiar foot- 
 ing; some are addressed to the great leaders of the po- 
 litical parties, others to comparatively obscure persons;
 
 80 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 some are on literary subjects, others on private business, 
 and still others on matters that pertain to the history of 
 the world. The style and language vary with 
 the contents of the letters, but are in gen- 
 eral less careful than in any of Cicero's other 
 writings. The language is evidently that of common 
 speech rather than of literary composition. In the letters 
 written during his exile Cicero betrays unmanly discour- 
 agement, and breaks out into pitiful lamentation, just as 
 in many of his orations he betrays great vanity, and extols 
 overmuch his own courage and patriotism in the matter of 
 the Catilinarian conspiracy ; but these letters are the con- 
 fidential utterances of momentary feelings, not the delib- 
 erate expressions of the man's character, and we must 
 not forget that Cicero was an Italian, a man of easily 
 aroused emotions, whose vanity might overflow or whose 
 grief might break forth without affecting his real earnest- 
 ness or steadfastness. One of the briefer letters to Atti- 
 cus is the following, written from Thurium, in April, 58 
 B. c., soon after Cicero's banishment began : 
 
 Terentia thanks you frequently and very warmly. That is a 
 great comfort to me. I am the most miserable man alive, and am 
 being worn out with the most poignant sorrow. I don't know 
 what to write to you. For if you are at Rome, it is now too late 
 for me to reach you ; but if you are on the road, we shall discuss 
 together all that needs to be discussed when you have overtaken 
 me. All I ask you is to retain the same affection for me, since it 
 was always myself you loved. For I am still the same man ; my 
 enemies have taken what was mine, they have not taken myself. 
 Take care of your health. 1 
 
 A letter to Marcus Terentius Varro, written in 46 
 B. c., among the troubles of the civil war, shows Cicero 
 consoling himself with literature : 
 
 From a letter of yours, which Atticus read to me, I learnt 
 what you were doing and where you were ; but when we were 
 
 1 Ep. ad Atlicum, iii, 5, Shuckburgh's translation.
 
 CICERO 81 
 
 likely to see you, I could gain no idea at all from the letter. How- 
 ever, I am beginning to hope that your arrival is not far off. I 
 wish it could be any consolation to me ! But the fact is, I am 
 overwhelmed by so many and such grave anxieties, that no one 
 but the most utter fool ought to expect any alleviation ; yet, after 
 all, perhaps you can give me some kind of help, or I you. For 
 allow me to tell you that, since my arrival in the city, I have 
 effected a reconciliation with my old friends I mean my books; 
 though the truth is that I had not abandoned their society because 
 I had fallen out with them, but because I was half ashamed to look 
 them in the face. For I thought, when I plunged into the mael- 
 strom of civil strife, with allies whom I had the worst possible rea- 
 son for trusting, that I had not shown proper respect for their 
 precepts. They pardon me ; they recall me to our old intimacy, 
 and you, they say, have been wiser than I for never having left it. 
 Wherefore, since I find them reconciled, I seem bound to hope, if 
 I once see you, that I shall pass through with ease both what is 
 weighing me down now, and what is threatening. Therefore, in 
 your company, whether you choose it to be in your Tusculan or 
 Cuman villa, or, which I should like least, at Rome, so long only 
 as we are together, I will certainly contrive that both of us shall 
 think it the most agreeable place possible. 1 
 
 Cicero's letters give us a more complete insight into 
 his private character than could be gained from his other 
 
 writings. He was a faithful and affectionate 
 h friend, a genial companion, a good husband 
 
 and father, and a devoted patriot. In his 
 political career he exhibited a lack of that insight which 
 enables the great statesman to foresee inevitable changes, 
 and therefore he strove to preserve the old system of gov- 
 ernment at a time when its usefulness had passed away. 
 He could not sympathize thoroughly with Pompey and 
 his party, still less with the revolutionary policy of Caesar. 
 The result was indecision and apparent fickleness, but his 
 indecision was not so much that of weakness as of the 
 inability to choose between what he must have regarded 
 
 1 Ep. ad Familiares, ix, 1, Shuckburgh's translation.
 
 82 EOMAN LITERATURE 
 
 as two evils. When he saw his duty clearly before him, 
 as in the year of his consulship, he did not flinch, and 
 again, when Antony was arrayed in arms against the state, 
 he stood forth boldly as the defender of the republic. He 
 showed his courage and firmness also when, in 50 B. c., 
 after Pompey's flight from Italy, he exposed himself to 
 Caesar's displeasure by refusing to come to Rome except 
 as an avowed partizan of Pompey. 1 In all the relations 
 of life he was honorable and conscientious, and in the 
 field of literature he stands among the great men of the 
 world. 
 
 1 Ep. ad Atticum, ix, 18.
 
 CAESAR. 
 Bust in the museum at Naples.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 CJSSAR SALLUST-OTHER PROSE WRITERS 
 
 Caesar, 102 (f)-44 B. c. Hirtius, ?-43 B. c. Oppius, died after 44 
 B. c. Continuations of Caesar's Commentaries Sallust, 86-35 B. c. 
 Cornelius Nepos, before 100 B. c. to after 30 B. c. Varro, 116-27 B. c. 
 Atticus, 109-32 B. c. Hortensius, 114-50 B. c. Calidius, died 47 
 B. c. Calvus, 87-47 B. c. Brutus, 78 (f)-42 B. c. Cornificius, t-41 
 B. c. Quintus Cicero, 102-43, B. c. Tiro Nigidius Figulus, died 45 
 B. c. Aurelius Opilius Antonius Gnipho Pompilius Andronicus 
 Santra Servius Sulpicius Rufus. 
 
 WHAT has been said of Cicero applies with at least 
 equal force to Caesar the story of his life belongs to the 
 history of Rome rather than to that of literature. We 
 must therefore content ourselves with a brief sketch. 
 
 Gaius Julius Caesar was born, according to the common 
 account, in 100 B. c., but the real date is probably two 
 
 years earlier. He was of patrician birth, and 
 Caesar's 
 earl life ^ s family claimed descent from Ascanius, or 
 
 lulus, the son of ^Eneas. Marius, his uncle 
 by marriage, made him a priest of Jupiter at the age of 
 not more than fifteen. While still little more than a boy 
 he married Cornelia, the daughter of Cinna, and barely 
 escaped the proscription of Sulla when he refused to 
 divorce her. The young Caesar was thus, in spite of his 
 patrician birth, identified with the popular party. In 67 
 B. c. he was quaestor in Farther Spain, in 65 B. c. he be- 
 came curule aedile, in which office he distinguished him- 
 self by the magnificence of his public games and exhi- 
 bitions, and in 63 B. c. he was elected pontifex max i in us, 
 
 83
 
 84 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 thereby becoming for life the official head of the Roman 
 religion. 
 
 In 62 B. c. he was chosen praetor, and the next year 
 was sent as propraetor to Farther Spain. Up to this time 
 His govern- ne was known chiefly as a dissolute man and 
 mentin an unscrupulous demagogue. His extrava- 
 
 Spain. gance had involved him in debts amounting 
 
 to more than a million dollars. But in the government 
 of his province he distinguished himself by military suc- 
 cesses and excellent civil administration, besides amassing 
 sufficient wealth to pay his debts. 
 
 In 60 B. c. he returned to Eome, and soon formed with 
 Pompey and Crassus the agreement known as the first 
 
 triumvirate, by which he was assured of the 
 triumvirate consulship in 59 B. c., and the government 
 
 of Gaul for the following five years. To 
 strengthen the alliance he married his young and beauti- 
 ful daughter Julia to Pompey. In 56 B. c. he met Pompey 
 and Crassus at Lucca, in the presence of a great concourse 
 of senators and their followers, and an agreement was 
 made that Caesar should continue to hold the province of 
 Gaul through 49 B. c., while Pompey and Crassus were to 
 be consuls in 55 B. c., after which Syria and Spain were to 
 be given to Crassus and Pompey respectively for five 
 years. The agreement was duly carried out, and in 54 B. c. 
 Crassus went to Syria, where he lost his life after the 
 battle of Carrhae, in 53 B. c. In the same year Pompey's 
 wife, Julia, died. Pompey had not gone to Spain to take 
 possession of his province, but remained at Rome, and 
 soon became openly hostile to Caesar. When the Gallic 
 war was ended, the senatorial party, with Pompey at its 
 head, demanded that Caesar disband his army. This he 
 ^ ivil refused to do unless Pompey also gave up his 
 
 military command. Hereupon the civil war 
 broke out, Caesar crossed the Rubicon, the boundary of 
 his province, and Pompey fled to Greece, where he was
 
 CAESAR 85 
 
 defeated in 48 B. c., at Pharsalus, then to Egypt, where 
 he was murdered. In 46 B. c. the senatorial party was 
 finally defeated in the battle of Thapsus, in Africa, and 
 their leader, Cato, committed suicide at Utica. 
 
 Caesar now returned to Rome, where he was made 
 imperator and perpetual dictator, thus uniting in one 
 Caesar's person all the political power of the state, 
 
 dictatorship Henceforth the forms of republican govern- 
 and death. ment were but a thin mask disguising a real 
 monarchy. In the brief period of his power Caesar accom- 
 plished the reform of the calendar, and carried through 
 numerous important changes for the improvement of the 
 government, but nothing could placate the hatred of 
 those who wished to restore the rule of the senate, what- 
 ever its abuses had been. On the Ides of March (March 
 15), 44 B. c., he was murdered in the senate-house by a 
 band of conspirators headed by Brutus. 
 
 Caesar's extant writings are seven books of Commen- 
 taries on the Gallic War, covering the years 58-52 B. c., 
 and three books of Commentaries on the Civil 
 writings War, covering the years 49-48 B. c. He also 
 wrote some poems, a book On the Stars, two 
 books Against Cato, and a few grammatical or rhetorical 
 essays, all of which are lost, as are also his orations, which 
 were greatly admired. Collections of his letters existed 
 in antiquity, but these also have been lost, and the only 
 extant letters of Caesar are a few which are preserved in 
 the correspondence of Cicero. Caesar doubtless intended 
 to publish commentaries on the years between 52 and 49 
 B. c., as well as on his wars in Egypt and elsewhere, but 
 did not carry out his intention. 
 
 Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War were written 
 apparently in the year 51 B. c., when he was still on good 
 terms with Pompey. The energy of this pale, slender, 
 delicate man sufficed not only to make him the conqueror 
 of the warlike tribes of the north, and afterward of the
 
 86 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 trained armies of the republic, but also to gain him an 
 eminent position among the great narrative and descrip- 
 tive writers of the world. The Commentaries were written 
 rapidly, 1 for the double purpose of showing what Caesar had 
 done to increase the glory and power of Home, and to prove 
 to his detractors that his conquest of Gaul had not been an 
 act of unprovoked aggression, but had been forced upon 
 him by circumstances. The facts narrated are drawn, in 
 all probability, from the official army records, supplement- 
 ed from Caesar's own recollections, and perhaps from his 
 private journals. In striking contrast to the transparent 
 vanity which led Cicero to extol his own merits on all 
 possible occasions, Caesar keeps his personality in the 
 background, and writes of himself always in the third 
 person, as if the deeds he narrates were those of another 
 than the writer. This gives his narrative the appearance 
 of great impartiality, but the careful reader can hardly 
 fail to notice that Caesar's conduct is always put in the 
 most favorable light, that his victories are made as impor- 
 tant as possible, and his reverses are more lightly passed 
 over. The Commentaries are not to be regarded as accu- 
 rate history, but rather as a justification of Caesar's actions, 
 presented in historical form. 
 
 Caesar's style is clear, simple, and unaffected, and free 
 from all obtrusive rhetorical adornment, but the narrative 
 of his campaigns is varied and enlivened by 
 **" the insertion of descriptions, speeches, dia- 
 
 logues, and all sorts of interesting details. He 
 frequently takes occasion to signalize the brave deeds of 
 his men. So in his account of the siege of Gergovia, he 
 describes the heroic death of one of his centurions : 
 
 Marcus Petronius, a centurion of the same legion, in trying 
 to break down the gate, was overwhelmed by numbers and de- 
 spaired of his life. When he had already been wounded many 
 
 1 Hirtius, De Bella Gallico, viii, 1.
 
 HIRT1US 87 
 
 times, he said to his comrades, who had followed him: "Since I 
 can not save myself together with you, I will at least provide for 
 your safety, since through my greed for glory I have led you 
 into danger. When an opportunity is given you, do you look out 
 for yourselves." At once he rushed into the midst of the enemy, 
 and after killing two, drove the rest a little away from the gate. 
 When his comrades tried to succour him, "In vain," he said, "do 
 you try to save my life, since my blood and my strength are ebbing 
 away. So go away, while you have the opportunity, and retreat 
 to the legion." Thus fighting he soon fell and saved his com- 
 rades. 
 
 The history of the Gallic war was published under the 
 unassuming title of Commentarii, or " notes " ; but such is 
 the perfection of its simple style that no one ever thought 
 of rewriting it. 
 
 The three books of Commentaries on the Civil War 
 show the same qualities as those On the Gallic War, but in 
 a less admirable degree. In one external 
 War matter they differ from the history of the 
 
 Gallic War, for in the latter each book con- 
 tains the account of a year's campaign, while the story 
 of the first year of the Civil War occupies two books. 
 The historical interest of this work is at least as great 
 as that of the books on the Gallic War, but it does not 
 compete with them in literary merit, and contains some 
 positive misstatements. Probably the work was written in 
 haste and was never revised by its author. This supposi- 
 tion would account for some of its defects. It may have 
 been prepared for publication by one of Caesar's officers, 
 perhaps by one of 'those who undertook to furnish histories 
 of the campaigns which Caesar had left unrecorded. 
 
 Among those who continued Caesar's record of his wars, 
 the best writer is Aulus Hirtius. He was one of Caesar's 
 lieutenants in Gaul, and was sent by him to Eome as a 
 trusted agent. In 49 B. c. he was with Caesar in Rome. 
 What share he had in the civil war is not known, but he 
 himself says that he was not present in the Alexandrian 
 7
 
 88 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 and African wars. He was praetor, on Caesar's nomination, 
 in 46 B. c., and was consul in 43 B. c., when he was killed 
 
 , . in the battle of Mutina, fighting against An- 
 
 Contmua- ., .,, 
 
 tions of tony. The only work ascribed to him with 
 
 Caesar's certainty is the eighth book of the Commenta- 
 
 Commenta- ^ Qn ihe Q a m c jf ar? j n w hich he shows him- 
 self far inferior to Caesar as a writer, but not 
 without some ability. The book is well written, in a style 
 evidently intended to resemble that of Caesar. Whether 
 the book on the Alexandrian War was written by Hirtius 
 or by Gaius Oppius is uncertain. Oppius was a man of 
 equestrian rank, a supporter and agent of Caesar at 
 Rome. After Caesar's death he attached himself to the 
 party of Octavius, and urged Cicero to do the same. He 
 appears not to have lived long after 44 B. c. The Alexan- 
 drian War is written in a style similar to that of the 
 eighth book of the Gallic War. The books on the 
 African War and the Spanish War are by unknown au- 
 thors. The style of the first is tasteless and turgid, while 
 that of the latter is hesitating and crabbed. These books 
 possess a certain literary interest, because they show the 
 immense difference between Caesar's literary ability and 
 that of the average Roman of his day. 
 
 Caesar's inimitable Commentaries are the records of 
 their author's own deeds, written from the point of view of 
 the chief actor in the events narrated. They are not the 
 results of wide historical research, nor do they attempt to 
 give the reader a broad general knowledge of the course 
 of events, with all their causes and consequences. They 
 are not, strictly speaking, history, but a masterly presen- 
 tation of the material from which history is made. The 
 earlier records of the past by Roman writers, such as Va- 
 lerius Antias, Cornelius Sisenna, and others (see page 43), 
 were mere annals, deficient alike in careful research and 
 literary finish. The first real historian of Rome was 
 Sallust.
 
 SALLUST 89 
 
 Gaius Sallustius Crispus was born of a plebeian family, 
 at Amiternum, in the Sabiue country, in 86 B. c. At some 
 
 unknown date he obtained the office of quaes- 
 Sallust. 
 
 tor, and in 52 B. c. he was tribune. In the 
 
 earlier part of his life he was dissolute, and he is said to 
 have brought his father in sorrow to the grave. In 50 B. c. 
 he was expelled from the senate by the censors Appius 
 Claudius and Lucius Piso. In the following year he was 
 reappointed quaestor by Caesar and thus regained his place 
 in the senate. In 48 B. c. he was in command of a legion in 
 Illyria, in the year following he was sent by Caesar to sup- 
 press a mutiny among the soldiers in Campania, and in 46 
 B. c. served as praetor in the African war. At the end of 
 the year he was made proconsul of Numidia, where he 
 enriched himself by plundering the province. He then 
 bought a villa and gardens on the Quirinal, and devoted 
 himself to historical writing until his death in 35 B. c. 
 
 Sallust's works are The Conspiracy of Catiline, The 
 
 Jugurthine War, and the Histories. The first two are 
 
 preserved entire, but of the Histories, which 
 
 works treated of the events from 78 to 67 B. c., 
 
 only fragments are preserved, in addition 
 
 to four speeches and two letters, which were inserted 
 
 in the narrative, but were collected and published for 
 
 use in rhetorical teaching. The two letters to Caesar 
 
 and the speech against Cicero, published under the name 
 
 of Sallust, are spurious. 
 
 In his writings Sallust appears as an opponent of 
 the nobility and a champion of the popular party. He 
 Character of depicts in glaring colors the corruption and 
 Sallust's greed of the senate, and describes in glowing 
 works. terms the successes and virtues of the popu- 
 
 lar hero Marius. At times his political bias leads him 
 even to distort the truth, though the distortion is not so 
 great as to deprive his works of historical value. He is 
 not content to state the bare facts of history, but exerts
 
 90 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 himself to depict the sentiments and motives underlying 
 the actions of the chief persons about whom he writes, 
 and even of mankind in general. He prefaces his nar- 
 rative with introductions of a philosophical nature, some- 
 times not strictly relevant to the subject in hand. His 
 style is rhetorical and piquant, and he uses many archaic 
 words, chosen in great part from Cato's works. He 
 evidently imitates the style of Thucydides, and, like 
 him, he introduces speeches and letters composed to 
 suit the occasion on which they are supposed to have 
 been delivered or written. These peculiarities give his 
 works the interest of individuality, and have caused them 
 to be much admired, and also severely criticised, in an- 
 cient and modern times. Some of the qualities of Sallust's 
 writing may appear in translations of a few brief extracts. 
 The opening words of the Catiline are as follows : 
 
 All men, who desire to excel the other animals, ought to strive 
 with all their power not to pass their lives in silence, like the 
 cattle which nature has made prone and obedient to their appetite. 
 But all our power is situated in the spirit and the body ; our spirit 
 is more for command, our body for obedience ; the one we have in 
 common with the gods, the other with the beasts ; wherefore it 
 seems to me more fitting to seek glory by the resources of the 
 mind than by physical strength, and, since the life which we 
 enjoy is itself brief, to make the memory of us as lasting as 
 possible. 1 
 
 His account of the terror at Home when the greatness 
 of the danger from the conspiracy of Catiline became 
 known, shows his power of vivid description : 
 
 By these things the state was deeply moved and the face of 
 the city was changed. From the greatest gaiety and wantonness, 
 which long peace had brought forth, suddenly utter sadness came 
 in ; people hurried, ran trembling about, had no confidence in any 
 place or man, neither waged war, nor were at peace; each one 
 measured the danger by his own fear.* ^ 
 
 1 Catiline, 1. * Ibid., 31.
 
 CORNELIUS NEPOS 91 
 
 The beginning of the speech of Marius to the Romans 
 exhibits Sallust's rhetorical style, his liking for antitheses 
 and for descriptive epithets : 
 
 I know, Quirites, that not by the same conduct do most men 
 seek power from you and use it after they have obtained it, that 
 at first they are industrious, humble, and moderate, but afterward 
 pass their lives in sloth and haughtiness. But to me the opposite 
 seems right, for by as much as the entire state is more impor- 
 tant than the consulship or the prsetorship, with so much greater 
 care ought the former to be administered than these latter to 
 be sought. Nor am I ignorant how much trouble I am taking 
 upon myself at the same time with the greatest honor from you. 
 To make ready for war, and at the same time spare the treasury, 
 to force to military service those whom one does not wish to 
 offend, to care for everything at home and abroad, and to do this 
 among envious, opposing, seditious men, is harder, Quirites, than 
 you think. 
 
 Artificial though the style of Sallust is, it is interest- 
 ing, lively, often concise and vivid. It had no little influ- 
 ence upon the style of subsequent writers, especially 
 upon that of Tacitus, the greatest of Roman historians. 
 We must remember, too, that the Catiline and the Jugur- 
 iha were of much less importance than the lost Histories. 
 In this greater and more mature work Sallust may have 
 avoided some of the faults of style that appear in the 
 extant treatises. 
 
 A much less interesting writer than Sallust is Corne- 
 lius Nepos. Like Catullus and several other authors of 
 this period, he came to Rome from the north. 
 ^ 8 birthplace was probably Ticinum, on the 
 river Po. Little is known of his life, which 
 appears to have extended from a little before 100 B. c. to 
 a little after 30 B. c. He was a friend of Catullus and of 
 Cicero's friend Atticus, probably also of other literary 
 men at Rome. His works were all, with the exception 
 of some love poems, historical and biographical. The 
 Chronica, in three books, treating of universal history.
 
 92 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 was probably written before 52 B. c. The Exempla, in 
 five books, was a history of Roman manners and customs. 
 Three other works were a Life of Cato (the elder), a Life 
 of Cicero, and a treatise on geography. His latest work, 
 published apparently between 35 and 33 B. c., was a great 
 collection of biographies of distinguished men (De Viris 
 Illustribus), dedicated to Atticus. An addition to the 
 life of Atticus was made between 31 and 27 B. c. This 
 work contained at least sixteen books, and was divided 
 into sections of two books each, so that each section con- 
 tained one book on Romans and one on foreigners. The 
 sections treated of Kings, Generals, Statesmen, Orators, 
 Poets, Philosophers, Historians, and Grammarians. 
 
 Of all the works of Nepos, there remain to us only the 
 book on foreign generals, and from the book on Roman 
 Qualities of historians the lives of Cato the elder and of 
 the works of Atticus, besides fragments of the letters of 
 Nepos. Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi. The book 
 
 on foreign generals contains biographies of twenty Greek 
 generals, a brief sketch of kings who were also gen- 
 erals, and biographies of Hamilcar and Hannibal. Nepos 
 draws his facts from good sources, such as Thucydides, 
 Xenophon, Theopompus, Polybius, and the writings of 
 Hannibal, but is careless and uncritical, and does not 
 employ all the important sources of information on each 
 subject. He makes mistakes in matters of history and 
 geography, arranges his material badly, and gives to 
 trivial anecdotes the space that might better have been 
 devoted to more important matters. His style, though 
 generally clear, is without elegance. The structure of 
 his sentences is simple, and his subject-matter is interest- 
 ing. For these reasons, rather than on account of any 
 literary merit, his Lives have been much used as a text- 
 book for beginners in Latin. 
 
 One of the most productive and learned writers of the 
 age of Cicero was Marcus Terentius Varro, who was born
 
 VARRO 93 
 
 in 116 B. c. at Reate, in the Sabine country. He studied 
 at Rome under Lucius ^Elius Stilo, and at Athens un- 
 
 der Antiochus of Ascalon. In 76 B. c. he 
 
 was in the army in Spain, in 67 B. c. he dis- 
 tinguished himself in the war against the pirates. Per- 
 haps he continued to serve under Pompey in the war 
 with Mithridates. In the civil war he was on the side 
 of Pompey, and was forced to surrender to Caesar the 
 legion under his command. He was afterward in Epirus, 
 at Corcyra, and at Dyrrhachium. After Caesar's victory, 
 Varro accepted the new government and was placed in 
 charge of the public libraries. He was proscribed by 
 Antony after Caesar's death, but his life was saved 
 through the devotion of his friends, and he spent his 
 remaining years in peace, continuing his literary activity 
 until the end. He died in his ninetieth year, 27 B. c. 
 
 Varro's works were many and varied. Some seventy- 
 four titles are known, and the total number of single 
 
 books amounted to about six hundred and 
 works 8 twenty. These included poems, works on 
 
 grammar, history, geography, law, rhetoric, 
 philosophy, mathematics, literary history and education, 
 miscellaneous essays, orations, and letters. Of all these 
 there remain one complete work, On Agriculture (De Re 
 Rusticd), in three books, six (v-x) of the original twenty- 
 five books of the treatise On the Latin Language (De 
 Lingua Latino), numerous short fragments of the Menip- 
 pean Satires (Satura Menippece), and a few fragments of 
 some of the other works. The collection of maxims that 
 passes under Varro's name is probably spurious. 
 Varro'a The Menippean Satires were written in 
 
 extant prose interspersed with verses, in imitation 
 
 works. O f t ne W0r k 8 O f the Cynic Menippus, who 
 
 lived about 300 B. c., and probably belong to Varro's 
 earlier years. They treat of almost all the relations 
 of human life in a satirical vein. The extant verses
 
 94: ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 show some ability in metrical composition and no little 
 humor. It is evident, however, that Varro was not a 
 great poet, and the loss of his other poems is little to be 
 regretted. The three books On Agriculture give, in the 
 form of a dialogue, a systematic treatment of agriculture 
 proper, of stock-raising, and of poultry, game, and fish. 
 The dialogue is stiff, and the arrangement of the different 
 parts of the subject artificial. The work is valuable for 
 the information it contains, but its literary form is unat- 
 tractive. The extant books of the treatise On the Latin 
 Language are chiefly concerned with the derivation of 
 words and with inflections. Syntax was treated in books 
 xiv-xxv. Varro's etymologies are often incorrect, and his 
 ideas concerning inflections unscientific ; but the work 
 contains much that is of value to the student of the Latin 
 language and of Roman antiquities. The style is dry and 
 often d ull. In fact, this is hardly a work of literature, 
 but rather a technical treatise. Varro was a man of great 
 learning and prodigious industry, but not a literary artist. 
 Th Among his lost works the most important 
 
 Antiquitates were probably the Human and Divine Anti- 
 and the quities (Antiquitates Rerum Divinarum Hu- 
 
 Imagines. manarumque), in forty-one books, and the Por- 
 traits (Hebdomades, or Imagines), in fifteen books. The 
 latter work contained brief accounts in prose and verse of 
 seven hundred famous Greeks and Romans, with their 
 portraits. Varro's works were vast treasure-houses of in- 
 formation, but there is no reason to suppose that they 
 possessed any great literary qualities. 
 
 The remaining prose writers of this period may be 
 
 passed over with a brief mention. Many of them are 
 
 little more than names to us, and the works 
 
 of all are lost. One of the most interesting 
 
 is Titus'Pomponius Atticus (109-32 B. c.), whose biography 
 
 was written by Cornelius Nepos. He was a wealthy man, 
 
 who abstained from public life and devoted himself to
 
 MINOR PROSE WRITERS 95 
 
 literature by publishing the works of others and giving 
 friendly aid to literary men as well as by writing. His, 
 friendship with Cicero has already been mentioned. His 
 works were historical, the most important being the 
 Annals (Liber Annalis), a chronological sketch of Roman 
 history from the foundation of the city to the year 49 B. c. 
 His other works were biographies or genealogies, and de- 
 scriptive verses written to accompany portraits of dis- 
 tinguished men. 
 
 The orator Quintus Hortensius Hortalus (114-50 B. c.) 
 is chiefly known through Cicero. He was the advocate 
 of Verres when Cicero conducted the prose- 
 orators cution, he spoke against the Manilian Law, 
 which Cicero supported, and in several suits 
 he was engaged by the same client who secured Cicero's 
 services. Hortensius was the chief representative of the 
 florid and ornamental " Asian " style of oratory at Rome. 
 Among the orators who adopted the simple Attic style, 
 the most important were Marcus Calidius, who was prae- 
 tor in 57 B. c. and died in 47 B. c. ; Gaius Licinius Calvus 
 (87-47 B. c.), who has been mentioned above (page 62) as 
 a poet; Marcus Junius Brutus, the leader of the conspira- 
 tors who murdered Caesar ; and Quintus Cornificius, who 
 was also a poet (see page 64). 
 
 Quintus Tullius Cicero (102-43 B. c.), the brother of 
 
 Marcus, was also a literary man, though far inferior to his 
 
 brother. When he was Caesar's lieutenant in 
 
 Gaul, in 54 B. c., he wrote several tragedies, 
 
 apparently translations from the Greek, and 
 
 he was also the author of annals and of an epic poem on 
 
 Caesar's expedition to Britain. The only writings of 
 
 Quintus Cicero now existing are three letters to Tiro and 
 
 one to Marcus Cicero, besides an Essay on Candidature for 
 
 the Consulship, in the form of a letter to Marcus, written 
 
 when he was a candidate for that office in 64 B. c. This gives 
 
 some interesting information about the methods of Roman
 
 96 KOMAN LITERATURE 
 
 politicians, but has little literary interest. The first of Mar- 
 
 JDUS Cicero's Letters to Quintus is a similar treatise on the 
 
 government of a province, written when Quintus was 
 
 beginning his third year as propraetor of Asia, 59 B.C. 
 
 Another writer closely connected with Cicero 
 
 was his freed man and friend Tiro, who wrote 
 
 Cicero's biography, made editions of his speeches and 
 
 letters, and collected his witticisms, besides writing on 
 
 grammar and inventing a system of shorthand. 
 
 The grammatical, theological, and scientific works of 
 Publius Nigidius Figulus, who was praetor in 58 B. c., and 
 Writers on died i n banishment in 45 B. c., have little 
 special to do with literature, and are lost. Nor is 
 
 subject*. jt necessary to devote even a brief space to 
 the grammatical and rhetorical works of Aurelius Opi- 
 lius, Antonius Gnipho, Marcus Pompilius Andronicus, 
 and others, whose teachings helped to inform some of the 
 great writers and orators of the time, but whose works 
 have not been preserved. A philologist, historian, and 
 poet, whose writings were considered important, was 
 Santra, who seems to have been somewhat younger than 
 Varro, but we are now unable to determine wherein their 
 importance consisted. Among the jurists of this period 
 the most distinguished was Servius Sulpicius Rufus, two 
 letters from whom are preserved in Cicero's correspond- 
 ence (Ad Famitiares, iv, 5, and iv, 12). These give a high 
 idea of his style, but are the only remains of his writings. 
 All branches of knowledge, so far as they existed at that 
 time, were treated by various writers, but a discussion of 
 their lost works has no place in a brief history of literature. 
 The last years of the republic are made illustrious by 
 the great names of Lucretius, Catullus, Cicero, and Caesar. 
 In the Augustan age, poetry attained a still greater height 
 of perfection with Virgil and Horace, but the age of Cicero 
 is the golden age of Latin prose.
 
 BOOK II 
 THE AUGUSTAN PERIOD 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII 
 
 THE PATRONS OF LITERATURE VIRGIL 
 
 Effect of the Empire upon literature Augustus, 63 B. c.-14 A. D. 
 Agrippa, 63-12 B. c. Pollio, 67 B. c.-5 A. D. Messalla, 64 B. c.- 
 8 A. D. Maecenas, 70 (l)-8 B. c. Virgil, 70-19 B.C. His life The 
 Eclogues The Georgics The JEneid. 
 
 WITH the battle of Actium the Koman Eepublic came 
 to an end. Julius Caesar had, to be sure, gathered all the 
 Effect of the power of the state into his own hand, but he 
 Empire upon had held it only a short time ; Octavius 
 literature. a ft er 27 B. c., Augustus held the full power 
 until his death, and left it unimpaired to his successors. 
 The change from a free government, whatever its corrup- 
 tion and decay, to what was really an unlimited monarchy 
 could not fail to have some influence upon literature. 
 Henceforth the great orator might hope to win cases in 
 the courts, but he could no longer change the policy of 
 the nation ; the historian might search the records of the 
 past and describe the deeds of those who were no longer 
 living, but if he wrote of the history of his own times, he 
 must have the fear of the master always before his eyes ; 
 the poet could sing of love and wine and nature without 
 let or hindrance, but poems of national and political im- 
 portance could hardly be written except by those in sym- 
 pathy with the empire. The emperor might exert his 
 
 97
 
 98 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 influence to put down all literary expression not agreeable 
 to him without encouraging literature of any kind, or he 
 might encourage certain kinds of literature and certain 
 writers without treating with severity even those whose 
 works displeased him, or he might at the same time encour- 
 age some and suppress others. Under an imperial master 
 literary expression could not be so free as in the days of 
 the republic, but the degree of restraint at any time de- 
 pended upon the character of the emperor. It is due to 
 the enlightened liberality of Augustus that the period of 
 his rule was the most brilliant epoch of Roman literature. 
 Augustus (63 B. C.-14 A. D.) had received a careful edu- 
 cation in his youth, and had a genuine and intelligent 
 admiration for literature. His own literary 
 productions comprised an epic poem entitled 
 Sicily, some short epigrams, an unfinished tragedy entitled 
 Ajax, orations, memoirs, and letters. Before his death he 
 directed that an account of his deeds (Index Rerum Ges- 
 tarum) should be engraved on bronze tablets and affixed to 
 his tomb. He probably composed this account himself, and 
 the copy of it found inscribed upon the wall of the temple 
 of Augustus and Rome at Ancyra (the Monumentum An- 
 cyranum}) containing in simple and dignified language the 
 record of his life, his political measures, and his military 
 activity, shows the good taste of the first Roman emperor, 
 for he who had become the ruler of the civilized world 
 was not led to praise himself or speak in extravagant 
 terms of any of his deeds, but composed the record of his 
 wonderful life in terms of simplicity so grave and digni- 
 fied as to inspire veneration. It was not, however, through 
 his own compositions but through his influence that 
 Augustus made his name great in the history of literature. 
 He encouraged Virgil, Horace, and other poets, he attended 
 the recitations of authors who wished to bring their new 
 works before an enlightened public, and he surrounded 
 himself with friends who delighted in aiding and honor-
 
 PATRONS OF LITERATURE 99 
 
 ing those whose genius could give glory to their patrons 
 and add lustre to the empire. 
 
 Among these friends of literature was Marcus Vipsa- 
 nius Agrippa (63-12 B. c.), who caused the first map of 
 the world to be set up in the porticus Poise 
 and was himself the author of geographical 
 works. More important was Gaius Asinius Pollio (67 B. c.- 
 5 A. D.), who established the first public library in Rome. 
 His example was followed by Augustus, who 
 established two libraries, one in the porch of 
 Octavia, the other in the temple of the Palatine Apollo, 
 under the care of the learned Varro. Pollio was a soldier, 
 statesman, and orator, but also wrote tragedies and a history 
 of the years 60-42 B. c., in which he criticized boldly the 
 statements of Julius Caesar, the adoptive father of Augus- 
 tus. Pollio was the first to hold and encourage public 
 and private recitations of new literary works. Less closely 
 connected with the emperor was Marcus Valerius Messalla 
 (64 B. c.-8 A. D.), who had originally been a 
 partizan of Brutus, but had made his peace 
 with Augustus. He was, like Pollio, an orator, but occu- 
 pied himself also with antiquarian and grammatical re- 
 searches, and in his earlier years made translations from 
 the Greek and wrote Greek prose and verse. His house 
 was a gathering place for the younger poets of the period. 
 But of all the patrons of literature under Augustus, 
 the most distinguished was Gaius Maecenas, the friend of 
 Augustus, of Virgil, and of Horace. He was 
 born about 70 B. c., and died in 8 B. c. A mem- 
 ber of an ancient and noble Etruscan family, he had been 
 carefully educated, and developed the most refined liter- 
 ary taste. His attractive and winning personality made 
 him of great service to Octavius in his negotiations with 
 Antony and Sextus Pompey, and after the power of Au- 
 gustus was established Maecenas was the close friend and 
 constant adviser of the emperor. In spite of his fine liter-
 
 100 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 ary taste, he was without talent as a writer, and his works, 
 both prose and verse, were severely criticized by his con- 
 temporaries and by later readers. It is little to be regretted 
 that his writings, like those of the other patrons of litera- 
 ture who have been mentioned, are lost. And yet the 
 name of Maecenas will always occupy an honored place in 
 the history of literature, for it was he who made possible 
 the poems of Virgil and Horace. 
 
 The greatest of Eoman poets is Virgil. Publius Ver- 
 gilius Maro was born of humble parents, at Andes, a 
 village in the territory of Mantua, October 
 15, 70 B. c. His parents can not have been 
 poor, for they gave him a good education, first at Cremona, 
 then at Milan, and later at Rome. He was trained chiefly 
 in rhetoric and philosophy, but the only teacher whose in- 
 fluence seems to have been lasting was the Epicurean 
 philosopher Siro. For oratory Virgil developed no taste. 
 After the battle of Philippi (42 B. c.) the triumvirs recom- 
 pensed their veterans by a distribution of farm lands, 
 and Virgil's farm was given to a new owner. At that 
 time Asinius Pollio, who had admired Virgil's poetry and 
 had encouraged him to write the Bucolics or Eclogues, 
 was governor of the region beyond the Po, and through 
 his influence the poet was reinstated in his property. But 
 in the following summer a new distribution of lands was 
 made, and Pollio was no longer governor of the province. 
 Virgil was dispossessed, and had to take refuge at the villa 
 of his teacher Siro. Through the influence of Cornelius 
 Gallus and Maecenas, Augustus was led to recompense the 
 poet for his loss, and from this time Virgil was in close rela- 
 tions to the imperial circle. Hereafter he lived at Rome and 
 on an estate near Naples, which he received from Augustus. 
 In 37 or 36 B. c. and the following years he wrote the 
 Georgics in honor of Maecenas, and the ^Eneid, written at 
 the request of Augustus, was begun in 29 B. c. When the 
 poem was finished and the poet had reached his fifty-
 
 VIRGIL 101 
 
 first year, he went to Athens, intending to devote three 
 years to the final revision of his work, and then to give him- 
 self up to the study of philosophy. But at Athens he met 
 with Augustus, who was on the point of returning to Rome 
 from the East and invited him to join the imperial party. 
 Virgil was already ill from exposure to the heat during a 
 visit to Megara, but accepted the invitation. On the voy- 
 age his illness increased, and a few days after his arrival at 
 Brundusium he died, September 21, 19 B. c. He was buried 
 at Naples, where he had passed most of his later years. 
 
 Virgil's undisputed works are three : the Eclogues, 
 called, on account of their pastoral nature, the Bucolics ; 
 the Georgics ; and the ^Eneid. The Eclogues are a series 
 of ten idylls in imitation of the poems of the Greek poet 
 Theocritus. The Greek word " idyll " means " little pic- 
 ture," and since all Virgil's idylls, except the fourth, and 
 most of those of Theocritus, depict the life of herdsmen 
 in the country, the word is generally applied to pastoral 
 poems. Virgil's Eclogues are little pictures of pastoral 
 
 life, but contain many allusions to the poet's 
 Works 8 own c i rcums tances and to his friends and 
 
 patrons, Pollio, Gallus, Varus, Maecenas, and 
 ^ Augustus. Pastoral poems, written for the 
 
 cultivated circle of an imperial court, are 
 necessarily artificial, and to this rule the Eclogues are no 
 exception. Yet the charm of their diction, the polish of 
 their verse, the genuine love of nature and appreciation of 
 rural life which they display, have given these poems a 
 well-deserved place among the most famous productions 
 of Roman literature. In the Eclogues Virgil is, even more 
 than in his other poems, dependent on Greek originals. 
 Not only scattered lines, but whole passages are almost 
 literal translations from the idylls of Theocritus, and less 
 noticeable adaptations from other poets also occur. Some- 
 times Virgil's version is less beautiful than the original 
 poem from which he borrows, and some of the most
 
 102 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 admired passages are not his own inventions ; but even in 
 the Eclogues, the earliest of his authentic works, written 
 when he was about thirty years of age, amid the distress 
 that accompanied his ejection from his little property, 
 Virgil succeeds in making from his Greek originals new 
 and great poems of genuinely Roman character. From 
 first to last Virgil is a national poet. 
 
 The poem which stands first in the series, but which 
 was not the first in order of composition, has the form of 
 a dialogue between two herdsmen, Melibceus and Tityrus. 
 In it the poet expresses his gratitude to Augustus, whom 
 he calls a god. The poem begins : 
 
 Melibceus. Stretched in the shadow of the broad beech, thou 
 Rehearsest, Tityrus, on the slender pipe 
 Thy woodland music. We our fatherland 
 Are leaving, we must shun the fields we love : 
 While, Tityrus, thou, at ease amid the shade, 
 Bidd'st answering woods call Amaryllis "fair." 
 
 Tityrus. O Meliboeus ! 'tis a god that made 
 For me this holiday : for a god I'll aye 
 Account him ; many a young lamb from my fold 
 Shall stain his altar. Thanks to him, my kine 
 Range as thou seest them : thanks to him, I play 
 What songs I list upon my shepherd's pipe. 1 
 
 In the dialogue that follows, Tityrus, who represents 
 Virgil himself, speaks of his visit to Rome and his meet- 
 ing with Augustus : 
 
 There, Melibreus, I beheld that youth 
 
 For whom each year twelve days my altars smoke. 
 
 Thus answered he my yet unanswered prayer, 
 
 "Feed still, my lads, your kine, and yoke your bulls.'" 
 
 The fourth Eclogue, addressed to Pollio, and written in 
 the year of his consulship (40 B. c.), celebrates in pro- 
 
 1 Ed. i, 1-10. The selections from the Eclogues are given in the 
 translation by C. S. Calverley. * Ibid., 42-45.
 
 VIRGIL 103 
 
 phetic and lofty language the birth of a child. As the 
 child grows the world is to become better, until the golden 
 age of peace and good-will among men shall come again. 
 This poem was, curiously enough, long supposed to be an 
 inspired prophecy of the coming of Christ. "Who the child 
 really was is uncertain, but there is some evidence that 
 Gaius Asinius Gallus, Pollio's son, is meant. The lofty 
 tone is struck with the very opening of the poem : 
 
 Muses of Sicily, a loftier song 
 
 Wake we ! Some tire of shrubs and myrtles low. 
 
 Are woods our theme ? Then princely be the woods. 
 
 Come are those last days that the Sibyl sang; 
 
 The ages' mighty march begins anew. 
 
 Now comes the virgin, Saturn reigns again ; 
 
 Now from high heaven descends a wondrous race. 
 
 Thou on the new-born babe who first shall end 
 
 That age of iron, bid a golden dawn 
 
 Upon the broad world chaste Lucina, smile: 
 
 Now thy Apollo reigns. And Pollio, thou 
 
 Shalt be our Prince, when he that grander age 
 
 Opens, and onward roll the mighty moons : 
 
 Thou, trampling out what prints our crimes have left, 
 
 Shalt free the nations from perpetual fear. 
 
 While he to bliss shall waken ; with the Blest 
 
 See the Brave mingling, and be seen of them, 
 
 Ruling that world o'er which his father's arm shed peace. 1 
 
 But the atmosphere of the Eclogues is generally that 
 of the country, and the form that of dialogue, with com- 
 petitive songs by the herdsmen. The opening lines of the 
 fifth Eclogue may serve as an example. The characters 
 are Menalcas and Mopsus : 
 
 Men. Mopsus, suppose now two good men have met 
 You at flute-blowing, as at verses I 
 We sit down here, where elm and hazel mix. 
 
 1 Eel iv, 1-17.
 
 104 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 Mop. Menalcas, meet it is that I obey 
 Mine elder. Lead, or into shade that shifts 
 At the wind's fancy or (mayhap the best) 
 Into some cave. See, here's a cave, o'er which 
 A wild vine flings her flimsy foliage. 
 
 Men. On these hills one Amyntas vies with you. 
 
 Mop. Suppose he thought to out-sing Phoebus' self ? 
 
 Men. Mopsus, begin. If aught you know of flames 
 That Phyllis kindles, aught of Alcon's worth, 
 Or Codrus' ill-temper, then begin ; 
 Tityrus meanwhile will watch the grazing kids. 
 
 Mop. Ay, I will sing the song which t'other day 
 On a green beech's bark I cut ; and scored 
 The music as I wrote. Hear that, and bid 
 Amyntas vie with me. 
 
 Men. As willow lithe 
 
 Yields to pale olive ; as to crimson beds 
 Of roses yields the lowly lavender, 
 So, to my mind, Amyntas yields to you. 1 
 
 The Eclogues were published not later than 38 B. c. 
 In 29 B. c. the four books of the Georgics were completed. 
 
 One of the most important tasks of the new 
 The Georgios. , . ., . 
 
 government, now that the civil strife was 
 
 ended, was to ensure the continuance of tranquility by 
 settling the veterans in the country and encouraging agri- 
 culture, which had been sadly neglected in Italy for many 
 years. It was therefore with a practical end in view that 
 Maecenas suggested to Virgil the composition of a poem 
 on agriculture. This was a subject which Virgil was espe- 
 cially qualified to treat with success, and the poem, to 
 which he devoted seven years, is the most perfect of his 
 works. It is a very free imitation of the Works and Days 
 of Hesiod, and contains many passages derived from Ara- 
 tus and other Greek poets, but in its composition and its 
 poetic beauty it is independent of all but Virgil's own 
 genius. It is dedicated to Maecenas. The first book treats 
 
 1 Ed. v, 1-18.
 
 VIRGIL 105 
 
 of the tilling of the soil, the beginning of agriculture, the 
 instruments needed by the farmer, the tasks appropriate 
 to the different seasons, and the signs of the weather, end- 
 ing with a splendid passage describing the portents at the 
 time of Caesar's death, and a prayer that Augustus may 
 put an end to the wars and disorders of the times. This 
 passage is closely connected with the preceding lines in 
 which the signs of the weather given by the appearance of 
 the sun are described. It begins : 
 
 And last, what evening brings, and when the wind 
 
 Bears placid clouds, and also with what thoughts 
 
 The wet south wind is moved, of all these things 
 
 The sun will give thee signs. Who dares to say 
 
 The sun is false ? He even warns ofttimes 
 
 That strife unseen and treason are at hand 
 
 And hidden wars are swelling to break forth. 
 
 He even, pitying Rome for Caesar's fall, 
 
 In pitchy darkness veiled his shining head : 
 
 The impious age feared endless night. Yet then 
 
 Earth also and the waters of the sea 
 
 And obscene dogs and evil-omened birds 
 
 Gave signs. How often did we see boil forth 
 
 From bursting furnace of the Cyclopes 
 
 The waves of ^Etna o'er the fertile fields 
 
 And roll her balls of flame and molten rocks ! 
 
 Germania heard through all the sky the sound 
 
 Of arms; the Alps with unused tremblings shook. 
 
 Then, too, by many through the silent groves 
 
 A mighty voice was heard, and pallid forms 
 
 In wondrous wise appeared in dusky night, 
 
 And dumb beasts spake (oh, horror!), and the streams 
 
 Stood still, and earth yawned open, and the snd 
 
 Carved ivory wept within the sacred fanes, 
 
 And sweat poured forth from statues wrought of bronze. 
 
 Eridanus, the king of rivers, rushed 
 
 Whirling the woods along on eddies mad, 
 
 And through the fields bore stables with the herds. 1 
 
 1 Oeorgics, i, 461-488.
 
 106 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 The second book treats of the culture of trees and of 
 the vine, and includes a description of the properties of 
 different kinds of soil. Among its beautiful passages one 
 is the praise of Italy, 1 another the description of the bless- 
 ings of the farmer's life, beginning 
 
 blessed farmers, if they only might 
 
 Their blessings know ! For whom the bounteous earth 
 Herself, afar from strife of clashing arms, 
 Pours forth an easy livelihood. 11 
 
 The third book is devoted to the care of horses and 
 cattle. A beautiful passage, near the beginning of the 
 book, expresses the poet's love for his native Mantua and 
 his homage to Augustus. The first lines of this passage 
 are as follows : 
 
 1 first, if life be granted, coming back, 
 Will lead the Muses from Aonian heights 
 To my own land ; I first will bring to thee, 
 My Mantua, Idumaean palms, and in 
 
 Thy verdant mead will build a marble fane 
 Beside the water, where the mighty stream 
 Of Mincius wanders slow with winding curves 
 And clothes with tender reeds the river banks. 
 There in the midst for me shall Caesar stand 
 And hold the temple. Then to him will I 
 As victor, clad in Tyrian purple garb, 
 Drive to the stream a hundred four-horse cars. 9 
 
 The fourth book treats of the culture of bees. It con- 
 tains several passages of singular beauty, one of the most 
 striking of which is the description of the life of the hive. 4 
 The poem ends with an epic description of the visit of 
 Aristaeus, the mythical founder of bee culture, to his 
 tnother, the sea-nymph Gyrene. This includes an account 
 of the struggle of Aristaeus with the sea-god Proteus and 
 
 1 Georgica, ii, 136 ff. Ibid., ii, 458-460. 
 
 1 Ibid., iii, 9-18. Ibid., iv, 149 ff.
 
 VIRGIL 107 
 
 the death of Eurydice, the wife of Orpheus. A tradition ex- 
 ists that the poem originally ended with a passage in praise 
 of Gallus ; but before its publication Gallus had died in 
 disgrace, and the present ending was substituted. In its 
 ' final form the close of the Georgics shows that Virgil was 
 already tending to become an epic poet. 
 
 At the request of Augustus, Virgil began, in 29 B. c., 
 the composition of his greatest work, the jffineid, in which 
 he tells of the mythical origin of the Koman race and of 
 the greatness and glory of the Borne that was to arise and 
 reach its height under the leadership of the Julian family, 
 which claimed direct descent from ^Eneas. As early as 
 
 the sixth century B. c. the Sicilian poet Stesi- 
 The JEneid. J 
 
 chorus had sung of the coming of ^Eneas to 
 
 Italy. Naevius and Ennius had connected ^Eneas with the 
 origin of Rome, and had fixed some of the details of the 
 story. Upon the foundations thus prepared for him Vir- 
 gil erected the splendid structure of his poem. In the 
 Eclogues he had followed, closely for the most part, in the 
 footsteps of Theocritus ; the Works and Days of Hesiod 
 had served as the prototype of the Georgics^ though here 
 Virgil was so far from slavish imitation that his work 
 surpasses the Works and Days in every respect. In the 
 jffineid the imitation of Homer's Mad and Odyssey is con- 
 stantly evident, and certain passages are clearly derived 
 from Euripides, Sophocles, and Apollonius of Rhodes ; but 
 the jffneid is by no means a mere imitation. In some 
 respects it is far inferior to the Homeric poems. It lacks 
 their simplicity, their rapidity of movement, and their 
 fresh joyousness ; it can not be compared with them in nar- 
 rative power or brilliancy of imagery. In these qualities 
 Homer is unapproachable. But as a national epic, as the 
 expression in prophetic form of the national greatness and 
 of the poet's deep-seated passion for his country's glory 
 the ^Eneid had no prototype, as it has had no successor. 
 Virgil is not Homer ; he is reflective, filled with the deep
 
 108 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 thoughts that centuries of speculation had implanted in 
 the serious minds of his age; and his great poem is more 
 than a mere narrative. In execution the jffineid is un- 
 even. At times it is polished to the highest degree, at 
 other times it falls to a level hardly, if at all, above 
 mediocrity ; some passages breathe a poetic fervor unsur- 
 passed, while others might almost as well be written in 
 prose. So conscious was Virgil himself of the uneven- 
 ness and imperfections of his work that he wished it to be 
 burned after his death, and could hardly be persuaded to 
 leave its fate in the hands of his friends. His death came 
 before he had perfected the poem, and its most perfect 
 parts show what he wished it all to be and what it might 
 have become had his life been spared. Even though it lacks 
 the master's final revision, it remains the greatest poem of 
 Boman times and one of the greatest poems of all ages. 
 
 The jfflneid was to be for the Romans what the Iliad 
 and the Odyssey together were for the Greeks. The first 
 six books are modelled chiefly on the Odyssey. As the 
 Odyssey tells of the wanderings and adven- 
 tures of Odysseus before he reaches his home, 
 so these books of the JEneid tell of the ad- 
 ventures of ^Eneas on his voyage from. Troy to Italy, and 
 more than one passage shows how constantly the Odyssey 
 was in the poet's mind. The last six books tell of the strug- 
 gles of tineas and his followers against the warriors who 
 opposed their settlement in Italy ; and here the combats 
 described in the Iliad are imitated, sometimes even in de- 
 tails. In the final struggle tineas is a second Achilles, and 
 the brave but unfortunate Turnus is an Italian Hector. 
 
 In the first book, after a brief introduction, the poem 
 begins in the midst of the story. The fleet of ^Eneas is 
 off the coast of Sicily, when Juno causes the wind-god, 
 ^Eolus, to rouse a storm. The Trojan vessels are driven 
 on the rocks, and the sea is stirred to its lowest depths. 
 Then Neptune, angered that his waters are thus tossed
 
 VIRGIL 109 
 
 about without his consent, rebukes JEolus, and puts the 
 waves to rest : 
 
 He said, and ere his words were done, 
 Allays the surge, brings back the sun : 
 Triton and swift Cymothoe drag 
 The ships from off the pointed crag : 
 He, trident-armed, each dull weight heaves, 
 Through the vast shoals a passage cleaves, 
 Makes smooth the ruffled wave, and rides 
 Calm o'er the surface of the tides. 
 As when sedition oft has stirred 
 In some great town the vulgar herd, 
 And brands and stones already fly 
 For rage has weapons always nigh 
 Then should some man of worth appear 
 Whose stainless virtue all revere, 
 They hush, they hist : his clear voice rules 
 Their rebel wills, their anger cools : 
 So ocean ceased at once to rave, 
 When, calmly looking o'er the wave, 
 Girt with a range of azure sky, 
 The father bids his chariot fly. 1 
 
 The Trojans reach the African coast, where ./Eneas 
 meets his mother, Venus, and is directed to the city of 
 Carthage, which the Phoenician princess Dido has just 
 founded. ^Eneas and his comrade, the faithful Achates, 
 enter the city wrapped in a cloud, which makes them 
 invisible. When they are revealed to Dido, she receives 
 them kindly, and takes them to her palace. ^Eneas sends 
 to the ships for his son Ascanius, also called lulus, but 
 Venus substitutes for him the god of love, Cupid, who 
 fills Dido's heart with love for ^Eneas. In the second 
 book ^Eneas begins the story of his adventures with a 
 superb account of the fall of Troy, his own valiant but 
 ineffectual struggle against the Greeks, and his final 
 
 , i, 143-156. The selections from the ^Eneid are given in 
 Conington's translation.
 
 110 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 flight. In the third book he continues his story to the 
 time of his arrival at Carthage. The fourth book is 
 devoted to the love and fate of Dido. ^Eneas and Dido, 
 with their followers, go hunting in the forest; a storm 
 arises, and the two, separated from the rest, take refuge 
 in a cave, where only the woodland nymphs witness the 
 union of their loves. Dido looks forward to a joint reign 
 over Trojans and Tyrians alike. But ^Eneas is warned 
 by Mercury, at the command of Jupiter, to fulfil his des- 
 tiny and sail to Italy. Dido overwhelms him with loving 
 reproaches, but in vain ; he remains steadfast in his obedi- 
 ence to the divine will. Then Dido determines to die. 
 She erects a funeral pyre, places upon it the mementoes of 
 her former husband, Sychseus, and mounts it to end her 
 life. But before she dies she calls down curses upon 
 and his race : 
 
 Eye of the world, majestic Sun, 
 
 Who seest whate'er on earth is done, 
 
 Thou, Juno, too, interpreter 
 
 And witness of the heart's fond stir, 
 
 And Hecate, tremendous power, 
 
 In cross-ways howled at midnight hour, 
 
 Avenging fiends, and gods of death 
 
 Who breathe in dying Dido's breath, 
 
 Stoop your great powers to ills that plead 
 
 To heaven, and my petition heed. 
 
 If needs must be that wretch abhorred 
 
 Attain the port and float to land ; 
 If such the fate of heaven's high lord, 
 
 And so the moveless pillars stand; 
 Scourged by a savage enemy, 
 
 An exile from his son's embrace, 
 So let him sue for aid and see 
 
 His people slain before his face ; 
 Nor, when to humbling peace at length 
 
 He stoops, be his or life or land, 
 But let him fall in manhood's strength 
 
 And welter tombless on the sand.
 
 VIRGIL 111 
 
 Such malison to heaven I pour, 
 
 A last libation with my gore. 
 
 And, Tyrians, you through time to come 
 
 His seed with deathless .hatred chase : 
 Be that your gift to Dido's tomb. 
 
 No love, no league 'twixt race and race. 
 Rise from my ashes, scourge of crime, 
 
 Born to pursue the Dardan horde 
 To-day, to-morrow, through all time, 
 
 Oft as our hands can wield the sword, 
 Fight shore with shore, fight sea with sea, 
 Fight all that are or e'er shall be ! l 
 
 These lines are the poetic and mythological justifica- 
 tion for the long and disastrous wars between Home and 
 Carthage. In the fifth book the Trojans reach Sicily, 
 and celebrate at Eryx funeral games in honor of Anchises, 
 the father of J^neas, who had died there the year before. 
 In the sixth book they reach Cumse, in Italy. JEneas 
 descends to Hades to consult with the shade of Anchises. 
 Here he sees the fabled monsters of the lower regions, 
 and the shades of many departed heroes. Then there 
 pass before him the forms of those as yet unborn. This 
 gives the poet an opportunity to praise the great men of 
 Eome, among them Julius Caesar and Augustus. Here 
 he sees the form of the young Marcellus, son of Octavia, 
 the sister of Augustus. When this book was written, 
 Marcellus had recently died in his twentieth year. Virgil 
 read his lines 2 on Marcellus to Augustus and Octavia, and 
 the bereaved mother was so moved that she fainted. Vir- 
 gil's description of the realm of the dead is in some parts 
 unusually beautiful, and is especially interesting, because 
 it stands, not only in date but also in many other respects, 
 midway between the eleventh book of Homer's Odyssey 
 and Dante's Divine Comedy. 
 
 The last six books of the ^Eneid, recounting the 
 
 , iv, 607-629. Ibid., vi, 868-886.
 
 112 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 struggles of the Trojans in Italy, contain many fine 
 passages, but are for the most part less interesting to the 
 modern reader than the earlier books. In 
 The las many parts they are finished with most ex- 
 
 quisite art, even showing that Virgil's tech- 
 nical ability increased as the poem drew toward its close, 
 but many other passages show the lack of the final revi- 
 sion. To the Roman the ancient legends of the origin of 
 the Roman power must have been of surpassing interest, 
 but most modern readers remember, amid the successive 
 scenes of strife, only the heroic Turnus, the lovely Lavinia, 
 the warlike maidens Camilla and Juturna, and the brave 
 and devoted friends, Nisus and Euryalus, who were slain 
 when endeavoring to carry a message in the night through 
 the hostile camp to the absent ^neas : 
 
 Blest pair ! if aught my verse avail, 
 No day shall make your memory fail 
 
 From off the heart of time, 
 While Capitol abides in place, 
 The mansion of the ^Eneian race, 
 And throned upon that moveless base 
 
 Rome's father sits sublime. 1 
 
 The ^Eneid closes with the death of Turnus, the chief 
 opponent of the Trojans in Italy. In spite of its obvious 
 
 imperfections, it is the greatest poem in the 
 es ^atin language; and no later epic poem in 
 
 any language equalled or even approached it 
 in excellence until the appearance of Dante's Divine 
 Comedy. It is not to be wondered at that throughout 
 the Middle Ages Virgil was regarded as the impersona- 
 tion of all that was great in poetry ; nor is it strange that 
 the poet whose verses breathe such an indescribable, sweet 
 sadness, who sings in lofty, inspired language of that 
 Roman greatness which was ever present to the medi- 
 
 , ix, 446-449.
 
 VIRGIL AND TWO MUSES. 
 Mosaic in the Burdo Museum, Tunis.
 
 VIRGIL 113 
 
 geval imagination, who describes the dwellings of the 
 dead, and who was even believed to have foretold the 
 coming of the Messiah, should have become in mediaeval 
 legends the possessor of all wisdom and all magic power. 
 It is natural that Dante chose Virgil as his guide through 
 hell and purgatory, and would gladly have admitted him 
 to paradise had his theology allowed him to do so.
 
 CHAPTEK IX 
 
 HORACE 
 
 Quintus Herat ins Flaccus, 65-8 B.C. Virgil and Horace Life of 
 Horace The first book of Satires The Epodes The second book of 
 Satires The first three books of Odes The first book of Epistles 
 The literary Epistles The Carmen Saeculare The fourth book of 
 Odes Conclusion . 
 
 THROUGHOUT the Middle Ages Virgil was regarded as 
 incomparably the greatest of Koman poets. In modern 
 times his greatness has been called in question, and some 
 scholars have even gone so far as to deny that he was a great 
 poet at all. The difference is due, in great measure, to 
 the fact that in the Middle Ages the poems of Homer, 
 Theocritus, and the other Greek poets whom 
 Virgil imitated, were unknown, and Virgil was 
 regarded as the great epic and pastoral poet 
 of antiquity. That Virgil imitated the Greek poets is 
 evident, but in the last chapter enough has been said to 
 show that his poetry contains qualities not to be found in 
 the works of the Greeks, and that although his poems are 
 in many respects not equal to those of Homer, he must 
 still be regarded as one of the greatest poets of the world. 
 The increase of knowledge which has led to the undue de- 
 preciation of Virgil tended to make the second great poet 
 of the Augustan period more highly appreciated. The odes 
 of Horace, which are the best known and the most popular 
 of his poems, are imitations of the poetry of the Greek 
 lyrists, Alcaeus, Sappho, Anacreon, and their followers, 
 114
 
 HORACE 115 
 
 but the Greek originals are for the most part lost, so that 
 Horace can not suffer by comparison with them. More- 
 over, modern taste is less pleased with epic than with lyric 
 verse, and the delicate, highly finished, and charming odes 
 of Horace appeal strongly to the cultivated modern reader. 
 In his satires and epistles, too, Horace, whatever his in- 
 debtedness to Lucilius and others, displays undoubted 
 originality. It is, therefore, natural that he is sometimes 
 called the greatest of Roman poets. But Virgil wrote of 
 greater themes ; he was the great national poet, who sang 
 in grand, prophetic tones of the greatness of Rome and 
 her destinies, while Horace appealed to a narrower circle 
 of cultured readers. Yet Horace is, in his own field, 
 unsurpassed, and deserves all the admiration that has 
 been accorded him. 
 
 Quintus Horatius Flaccus was born at Venusia, in 
 Apulia, near the border of Lucania, December 8, 65 B. c. 
 His father was a freedman, the owner of a small farm, but 
 he determined to give his son the best education possible. 
 The school at Venusia was unsatisfactory, and Horace's 
 father moved with his family to Rome, where he gained 
 his livelihood as a coactor or collector of the money offered 
 by bidders at auctions. This was a business 
 
 T " f f 
 
 of some importance at Rome, and must have 
 Horace. 
 
 been lucrative, for Horace attended the best 
 schools, where he came in contact with the sons of wealthy 
 and noble parents. His father exercised personal super- 
 vision over the boy's education, accompanying him to the 
 school, and calling his attention to what went on about 
 him, pointing out the evil effects of bad conduct, and 
 giving him practical advice. In school, under a strict 
 master, Orbilius, who did not spare the rod, Horace read 
 the translation of the Odyssey by Livius Andronicus, and 
 also the Iliad, the latter, perhaps, in the original Greek. 
 From Rome he went to Athens to study philosophy, and 
 was there when Brutus arrived in 44 B. c., after the death
 
 116 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 of Caesar. Like many another patriotic young Roman, he 
 joined the army of Brutus, in which he was given the rank 
 of tribunus militum. He took part in the battle of 
 Philippi and the flight that followed it. In the distribu- 
 tion of lands among the soldiers of the victorious armies, 
 Horace's farm was confiscated, and the young man, whose 
 father had died during his absence, returned to Rome, 
 where he obtained, perhaps with the last remnants of his 
 father's savings, a small position as a clerk of the 
 quaestors. 
 
 This position gave him a livelihood and some leisure 
 for poetry. Poverty, he says, 1 drove him to write verses, 
 and certainly his poems brought him prosperity, for they 
 led Virgil and Varius to introduce him to Maecenas in the 
 spring of 38 B. c., and in the following winter Maecenas 
 admitted him to the circle of his familiar friends. Horace, 
 with his short, rotund figure, his witty, genial conversation, 
 and his poetic genius, became socially very intimate with 
 Maecenas, without, however, being his confidant in political 
 matters. When Maecenas went to Brundusium to nego- 
 tiate an agreement between Augustus and Antony, Horace, 
 with Virgil, Varius, Plotius, and the Greek rhetorician 
 Heliodorus, was in his train. 2 In 34 or 33 B. c. Maecenas 
 gave him a country seat in the Sabine hills not far from 
 Tibur (Tivoli), so large that it contained five farmhouses. 
 Here the poet spent a great part of his remaining years. 
 Maecenas also introduced him to Augustus, who wished to 
 make him his private secretary, but Horace refused the 
 honor, probably because he preferred to retain his free- 
 dom. The emperor was not offended by the refusal, but 
 continued to regard him as a friend. Honored by Augustus 
 and his circle, Horace lived in comfort and peace. He died 
 November 27, 8 B. c., and was buried near the tomb of 
 Maecenas, on the Esquiline. He made Augustus his heir. 
 
 1 Epist. II, ii, 51. Sat. I. v.
 
 HORACE 117 
 
 Upon his return to Kome after the battle of Philippi, 
 Horace employed his leisure in writing verse. To this 
 period belong the Epodes and the first book of the Satires. 
 These poems were originally not intended for publication, 
 but were read to the author's friends. About 35 B. c. 
 ten Satires were collected and published. Horace him- 
 self calls these poems not Satires, but Sermones or 
 " Talks." He even disclaims the title of poet, though 
 his " Talks " are in hexameters. The first Satire is ad- 
 dressed to Maecenas, and serves to dedicate the entire 
 collection to the poet's chief patron, though its subject 
 The first i g the general discontent of every man with 
 book of his own lot and the foolishness of heaping 
 
 Satires. U p wea ith. In general, the Satires are not, 
 
 as were those of Lucilius, attacks upon individuals, 
 but rather criticisms of the follies and foibles of the 
 times. In the second Satire the dangers to which adul- 
 terers expose themselves are set forth ; in the third, 
 those who carp at and criticize their neighbors are held 
 up to ridicule ; the fourth praises the wit, but criti- 
 cizes sharply the style of Lucilius, the defects of which 
 are attributed to the rapidity with which Lucilius wrote 
 great quantities of verse. In the same Satire Horace de- 
 fends himself against the charge of malice, maintaining 
 that his verse is far less malicious than private gossip, 
 and describes the way his father took to train him in 
 his youth : 
 
 But if I still seem personal and bold, 
 Perhaps you'll pardon when my story's told. 
 When my good father taught me to be good, 
 Scarecrows he took of living flesh and blood. 
 Thus, if he warned me not to spend, but spare 
 The moderate means I owe to his wise care, 
 'Twas, " See the life that son of Albius leads! 
 Observe that Barrus, vilest of ill weeds I 
 Plain beacons these for heedless youth, whose taste 
 Might lead them else a fair estate to waste " :
 
 118 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 If lawless love were what he bade me shun, 
 "Avoid Scatanius' slough," his words would run: 
 " Wise men," he'd add, "the reason will explain 
 Why you should follow this, from that refrain : 
 For me, if I can train you in the ways 
 Trod by the worthy folks of earlier days, 
 And, while you need direction, keep your name 
 And life unspotted, I've attained my aim : 
 When riper years have seasoned brain and limb, 
 You'll drop your corks, and like a Triton swim." * 
 
 The fifth Satire is an account of the journey to Brun- 
 dusium in the train of Maecenas with Virgil, Varius, and 
 others ; the sixth, again addressed to Maecenas, tells us 
 how the poet became acquainted with the great man, re- 
 verts to his father's attentive care, and declares that 
 Horace has no reason to be ashamed of his origin or dis- 
 contented with his lot. The seventh tells of a joke in a 
 lawsuit between Publius Eupilius Rex and a banker, Per- 
 sius ; the eighth, of some interrupted magic rites before a 
 statue of the god Priapus ; and the ninth, of the poet's in- 
 effectual efforts to get rid of a bore, who stuck to him until 
 he was dragged off to the court by a plaintiff. In the 
 tenth Satire, which serves as an epilogue to the collection, 
 Horace returns to his criticism of Lucilius, maintaining 
 that what he had said in the fourth Satire was really not 
 too severe, and at the same time he expresses his opinion 
 of some of the other Roman poets and of his own ability : 
 
 No hand can match Fund an us at a piece 
 
 Where slave and mistress clip an old man's fleece; 
 
 Pollio in buskins chants the deeds of kings; 
 
 Varius outsoars us all on Homer's wings; 
 
 The Muse that loves the woodland and the farm 
 
 To Virgil lends her gayest, tenderest charm. 
 
 For me, this walk of satire, vainly tried 
 
 By Atacinus and some few beside, 
 
 1 Sat. I, iv, 103-120, freely translated by Conington.
 
 HORACE 119 
 
 Best suits my gait ; yet readily I yield 
 To him who first set footstep on that field, 
 Nor meanly seek to rob him of the bay 
 That shows so comely on his locks of gray. 1 
 
 The Epodes were written in the same period as the 
 first book of Satires, and, like them, are on various sub- 
 jects. About 31 B. c. Horace yielded to the 
 persuasions of Maecenas and published a col- 
 lection of seventeen pieces which he had written at vari- 
 ous times since 40 B. c. The first ten are in the epodic 
 metre, that is, an iambic trimeter followed by an iambic 
 dimeter, as in the lines : 
 
 Beatus ille, qui procul negotiis 
 
 Ut prisca gens mortalium, 
 Paterna rura bobus exercet suis t 
 
 Solutu* omni fenore^ 
 
 the following translation of which shows approximately 
 the rhythm of the original : 
 
 Oh blest is he, who far from troubles, fears and cares, 
 
 As did the early mortal race, 
 With oxen of his own through fields ancestral fares, 
 
 And knows not usury's disgrace. 
 
 The shorter line is called an epode, or appendix, to the 
 longer, and it is from this that the collection of poems 
 gets its name. The last seven poems of the collection 
 are in various metres, though most of these are in alter- 
 nating long and short lines. Horace himself calls these 
 poems Iambics simply. In them he imitates the Greek 
 poet Archilochus, but though several of the poems are 
 somewhat aggressive, they all lack the intense and violent 
 tone of invective attributed by the ancients to Archi- 
 lochus, of which, however, the extant fragments of 
 
 1 Sat. I, x, 40-49. freely translated by Conington. 
 9 Epode ii, 1-4. 
 9
 
 120 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 Archilochus show few traces. In one of his Epistles 1 
 Horace claims to be the first who introduced the iambics 
 of Archilochus into Latin literature, but this is not 
 strictly true, for Catullus and his contemporaries had 
 written invectives in iambics. Horace did, however, intro- 
 duce the epodic metre, and he is also the first to employ 
 his iambics to castigate the follies of his time rather than 
 individuals. In subject the Epodes range from the praise 
 of rural life (ii) and encouragement to live a life of ease 
 and pleasure (xiii) to invectives against a rich upstart 
 (iv) or a woman who deals in poisons (v, xvii), and a 
 rebuke of the Romans who are eager to stir up a civil 
 war (xvi). The last Epode (xvii) has the form of a dia- 
 logue between the poet and the poisoner Canidia, but the 
 others are the simple expressions of the poet's senti- 
 ments, often in the form of a letter or address to a friend. 
 In this they differ from the Satires, which have some- 
 thing of the dialogue form, either between two persons 
 mentioned by name or between the poet and some 
 indefinite person, perhaps the reader. 
 
 The second book of Satires, finished about 30 B. c., 
 contains eight pieces, most of which are in the form of a 
 The second dialogue between the poet and one other 
 book of person. The most amusing is the fifth, a 
 
 Satires. dialogue between Ulysses and Tiresias, in 
 
 which Tiresias tells Ulysses how he can repair his for- 
 tunes by paying court to rich men and getting them to 
 mention him in their wills. This Satire is directed 
 against a class of men only too numerous in Rome. 
 Others treat of various subjects, such as the serious study 
 bestowed upon dinners (viii, iv), certain Stoic doctrines 
 (iii, vii), the criticisms of the earlier Satires (i), or the 
 joys of the farmer's simple life (ii). In almost every 
 case, the thoughts and theories expressed are put into the 
 
 1 Epist. I, xix, 33.
 
 HORACE 121 
 
 mouth of some one other than the poet, whereas in the first 
 book of Satires the poet expressed the opinions himself. 
 Horace's Satires differ from those of Lucilius in being less 
 bitter and less political, more carefully composed and writ- 
 ten, and far more genial. The kindly, gentlemanly spirit 
 of the man is everywhere visible. His " talks " are the 
 witty, amusing conversation of a man of the world, often 
 dealing with serious subjects, but always in a light and easy 
 way. They are full of sententious remarks, which have 
 been frequently quoted from Horace's time to our own. 
 
 Catullus and his contemporaries had imitated almost 
 exclusively the poems of the Alexandrians, of the Greek 
 
 poets, that is to say, who flourished after 
 The Odes. J ' 
 
 Greece had lost her independence. Horace 
 
 in his Epodes went farther back and imitated Archilochus, 
 and in his Odes, without altogether neglecting the Alex- 
 andrians, he follows for the most part in the footsteps of 
 Alcaeus, Sappho, and Anacreon. Among his odes are 
 several which are in part translations of extant fragments 
 of these poets, and it is certain that if the poems of the 
 early Greek lyrists were not almost entirely lost, we could 
 recognize many of them in Latin version in the Odes of 
 Horace. The Odes contain also lines that remind one of 
 similar passages in the poems of Euripides, Bacchylides, 
 and other Greek poets, but in form as well as in contents 
 they are for the most part imitations of the three great 
 early lyrists. Most of the Odes are divided into stanzas 
 of four lines each, and in all such a division is possible, 
 with perhaps one exception. The first three books of 
 the Odes were published in 23 B. c., but their composition 
 belongs in part as early as 30 B. c. The first book con- 
 tains thirty-eight poems, the second twenty, the third 
 thirty. The first ode of Book I serves as a dedication to 
 Maecenas, and in the odes immediately following nearly 
 all the metres employed in the three books are used one 
 after the other. Throughout the three books variety of
 
 122 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 metre governs the arrangement. The second book opens 
 with an ode addressed to Pollio, and at the beginning of 
 the third book are six odes celebrating in various tones 
 the Eoman glory. The last ode of 'Book III, beginning 
 
 Exegi monumentum are perenniw, 
 
 I've reared a monument than bronze more lasting, 
 
 serves as an epilogue to the finished collection. 
 
 The subjects of the odes are so various as to touch 
 upon almost every circumstance of human life and every 
 mood of human feeling. Friendship, love, the gods, 
 patriotism, conviviality, the pleasures of country life, 
 events of the day, and philosophical thoughts, all find 
 their place. In tone the odes are grave and gay, lively 
 and serene, sometimes fantastic, more often thoughtful 
 or at least reasonable. More than once the thought that 
 life is short and we should pluck its blossoms ere they 
 fade occurs in one form or another. The workmanship 
 of the odes is wonderful in its perfection. Horace is not 
 one of those who believe that perfect poetry comes purely 
 by inspiration, without labor. He writes no word without 
 being sure that it is the best word in its place. His 
 metres are adapted to the thought he wishes to express, 
 and the perfection of the metre makes even simple or 
 common thoughts beautiful. The odes are not the ardent 
 outpourings of a passionate spirit, as are some of the 
 poems of Catullus, but they are the carefully elaborated 
 expressions of the thoughts and sentiments of a gentle, 
 kindly, thoughtful, but gay and humorous man of the 
 world. They do not stir our blood, but they arouse our 
 admiration, satisfy our taste, and please us by their tone 
 of cultured and refined sentiment. The variety of their 
 contents can not be presented in selections, nor can all 
 the qualities of any ode be adequately rendered in a trans- 
 lation. One of the shortest but not the least attractive 
 odes is the following, addressed to his cup-bearer :
 
 HORACE 123 
 
 Persia's pomp, my boy, I hate; 
 
 No coronals of flowerets rare 
 For me on bark of linden plait, 
 
 Nor seek thou to discover where 
 The lush rose lingers late. 
 
 With unpretending myrtle twine, 
 Naught else ! It fits your brows 
 
 Attending me ; it graces mine 
 As I in happy ease carouse 
 
 Beneath the thick-leaved vine. 1 
 
 The following ode offers more variety, and is perhaps 
 more representative : 
 
 One dazzling mass of solid snow, 
 Soracte stands ; the bent woods fret 
 Beneath their load, and, sharpest set 
 
 With frost, the streams have ceased to flow. 
 
 Pile on great fagots and break up 
 The ice ; let influence more benign 
 Enter with four-years-treasured wine, 
 
 Fetched in the ponderous Sabine cup; 
 
 Leave to the gods all else. When they 
 Have once bid rest the winds that war 
 Over the passionate seas, no more 
 
 Gray ash and cypress rock and sway. 
 
 Ask not what future suns shall bring; 
 Count to-day gain, whate'er it chance 
 To be ; nor, young man, scorn the dance, 
 
 Nor deem sweet Love an idle thing, 
 
 Ere Time thy April youth have changed 
 To sourness. Park and public walk 
 Attract thee now, and whispered talk 
 
 At twilight meetings prearranged. 
 
 1 Od. I, xxxviii, translated by Sir Theodore Martin.
 
 124 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 Hear now the pretty laugh that tells 
 
 In what dim corner lurks thy love, 
 
 And snatch a bracelet or a glove 
 From wrist or hand that scarce rebels. 1 
 
 After the three books of Odes were published in 23 B. c., 
 Horace returned to his previous manner of composition in 
 hexameters, but gave to the collection of twenty poems 
 which he published in 20 B. c., the form of 
 liters or Jfyistles. These are sometimes real 
 letters to his friends, sometimes satires or 
 "talks "in the form of letters. The subjects of these 
 poems are as various as those of the Satires, but it is 
 evident that the poet is turning more toward philosophy. 
 He. ad vises his friends to take things as they find them, 
 without allowing themselves to be troubled or excited 
 (vi), he teaches the Stoic doctrine that virtue suffices to 
 make men happy (xvi), he advocates calmness and the 
 avoidance of care, and urges Tibullus (iv, 13) to live as if 
 each day were to be his last. But he also sings the praise of 
 wine (v, 16 ff.) and of the quiet life in the country (x, 
 xiv). In two epistles he gives practical advice concern- 
 ing intercourse with persons of high station, and various 
 practical suggestions are found scattered through the 
 other poems. In a letter to Maecenas (xix) he ridicules 
 his imitators and mocks at his critics. The twentieth 
 poem is an address to his book as he sends it into the 
 world. In it he foretells the various fortunes of the book, 
 and at the end he gives his age, saying that he has seen 
 four times eleven Decembers in the year of the consulship 
 of Lepidus and Lollius. In these letters Horace reveals 
 his character more fully and with a more delicate touch 
 than in any of his other works. The Odes are the works by 
 which he will always be best known, and to which he owes 
 his great fame as a poet, but nowhere so fully as in the 
 
 1 Od. I, ix, Calverley's version.
 
 HORACE 125 
 
 Epistles does he disclose his kindly and genial, yet serious 
 views of life as they ripened with his advancing years. 
 
 In the seventh Epistle of the first book Horace refuses, 
 at least for the present, an invitation of Maecenas, on 
 the ground that his health is poor and that he needs the 
 repose of the country and the seashore. At the same 
 time he explains the manner in which he wishes his 
 relation to his patron to be understood. He is not a para- 
 site, and openly says that he must retain his freedom, 
 and can not be at the beck and call even of Maecenas. 
 In the first Epistle (lines 4 and 10) he refuses to write 
 more odes, because he is no longer young and is turn- 
 ing toward philosophy. The same attitude is disclosed 
 The second i n ^ ne second Epistle of the second book 
 book of (lines 25 and 141 ff.). The poet wished to 
 
 Epistles. retire and pursue the study of philosophy; 
 but he had gained much experience in literary matters, 
 and in three letters, written probably between 19 and 
 14 B. c., he records the results of this experience. The 
 first letter is addressed to Augustus, the second to Julius 
 Florus. These two form the second book of the Epistles. 
 The third letter, addressed to the Pisos, father and two 
 sons, was originally published with the others, but was 
 
 soon separated from them, and is known as 
 Poetic" the Ars Poetica. This is not a systematic 
 
 treatise on poetry, but Horace's views, derived 
 in part from his own experience, in part from his reading, 
 are set forth in the easy style of a letter or talk. He in- 
 
 / / 
 
 sists that each poem must have a consistent fundamental 
 idea or plot, that the characters of a drama must speak as 
 befits their age and station, and must be drawn from life, 
 he advises care in the choice of a subject, points out that 
 nobody cares for mediocre poets, and that what is once 
 published can not be recalled. Throughout the letter or 
 treatise he constantly impresses upon his readers his con- 
 viction that good poetry is the result of hard work. Many
 
 126 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 critical and historical remarks are scattered through the 
 Ars Poetica as well as through the two other letters. 
 
 In spite of his desire to give up the writing of poetry 
 and to devote himself to philosophy, Horace did not finish 
 his career as a lyric poet with the completion of three 
 books of odes. In 17 B. c. it was decided that the Sibyl- 
 line books required the celebration of the ludi sceculares, 
 which were supposed to recur at the end of every sceculum, 
 or period of one hundred and ten years. An important 
 part of the celebration was the singing of a hymn in honor 
 of Apollo and Diana. This was to be sung by a chorus of 
 boys and girls of pure Koman birth, both of whose parents 
 were living, and whose mothers had married only once. 
 Horace was asked by Augustus to compose this hymn, and 
 could not refuse the honor, which distinguished him as 
 the official poet laureate of the Eoman Empire. The 
 hymn, called the Carmen Sceculare, is a some- 
 what formal poem, as is fitting for the solemn 
 occasion at which it was first sung, but it 
 shows real religious feeling, mingled with pride and con- 
 fidence in the Koman greatness. It is the work of a mas- 
 terly artist and an inspired poet. 
 
 In addition to appointing him to write the Carmen 
 Sceculare, Augustus demanded of Horace a song, or songs, 
 in honor of his stepsons, Tiberius and Drusus. Horace 
 could not refuse, and composed odes in honor of the vic- 
 tories of Drusus (IV, iv) and Tiberius (IV, xiv), to which 
 he added thirteen other poems, making a 
 book of Odes f ur ^ book of fifteen odes, written appar- 
 ently in the years 17-13 B.C. The fourth 
 book of Odes is in no way inferior to its predecessors in 
 variety of form or perfection of workmanship, and it 
 contains a larger proportion of exalted, patriotic poems. 
 The sixth ode, addressed to Apollo, seems to be a pro- 
 oamium to the Carmen Sceculare, or at any rate to have 
 some connection with the ludi sceculares. The fifth ode, to
 
 HORACE 127 
 
 Augustus, urging his return to Rome, and the fifteenth, 
 also to Augustus, on the restoration of peace, celebrate 
 the greatness of Eome as well as its ruler. Horace, as 
 well as Virgil, though in a different way, was a poet of the 
 Roman Empire. 
 
 As we look back upon the literary activity of Hor- 
 ace, we find that he turned at first to satires in hex- 
 The literary ameters and epodes in the simple epodic me- 
 activity of tre. Then he enriched Roman literature by 
 Horace. o( j es j n imitation of the early Greek lyrists, 
 
 to return afterward to his original style in the more re- 
 fined form of epistles. It was only at the command of 
 Augustus that he once more composed elaborate lyrics. 
 His lyric poems are not natural outpourings of sentiment, 
 but deliberate attempts to add to the beauty of Roman 
 literature and thereby to the glory of the Roman Empire. 
 And it is chiefly to these poems that he owes his fame. 
 They are not equal in merit, but they are the most per- 
 fect productions of Roman lyric poetry. As such they were 
 recognized in Horace's own lifetime, and as such they 
 have been admired and loved through the succeeding 
 ages, never more than in recent times. Countless schol- 
 ars, poets, and men of letters have read them with delight, 
 and many have been the attempts to render their inimita- 
 ble charm in translations. But their subtle beauty defies 
 the translator's art. None but Horace himself has been 
 able to express his delicate feeling and poetic fancy in 
 such perfect form. The Satires and the Epistles are full 
 of brilliant and witty sayings, of critical and historical 
 remarks; they throw much light upon the social and 
 literary life of the period, and make us acquainted with 
 the character of the poet ; but the Odes are " a monument 
 more enduring than bronze," testifying to the genius, the 
 industry, the good taste, and, in some cases, to the patri- 
 otic spirit of the most perfect of Roman lyric poets.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 TIBULIiUS-PBOPERTIUS-THE LESSER POETS 
 
 Roman society The amorous elegy Cornelius Gallus, 70-27 B. c. 
 Gaius Valgius Rufus, consul 12 B. c. Albius Tibullus, about 54 to 
 about 19 B.C. Lygdamus, born 43 B.C. Sulpicia Sextus Proper- 
 tius, about 50 to about 15 B.C. Domitius Marsus, about 54 to about 
 4 B. c. Albinovanus Pedo Ponticus Macer Grattius Rabirius 
 Cornelius Severus Gaius Melissus and the Fabula Trabeata Ma- 
 nilius The Priapea Poems ascribed to Virgil and Ovid. 
 
 DURING the last century of the republic Rome had 
 grown from a powerful Italian city to be the mistress of 
 the world, and this growth of power had been accompanied 
 by many changes. The wealth of the governing classes 
 had increased enormously. Greek art and Greek literature 
 had become familiar in the form of original works and of 
 Roman imitations, and with the increase of wealth and 
 luxury the growth of immorality went hand in hand. The 
 early profligacy of Caesar and Sallust, and the love of 
 Catullus for a married woman have already been men- 
 tioned. These were not isolated cases, but merely examples 
 of what was only too common. In fact, the man whose 
 life was pure was an exception in the latter days of the 
 republic. Nor were the women of the wealthier classes 
 
 better than the men. The Roman matron, 
 f so TV 10 * w ^ was betrothed at twelve and married at 
 
 fourteen years of age, naturally found herself 
 in many instances united to a man with whom she had no 
 sympathy, and whose distasteful society she gladly ex- 
 changed for that of a clandestine lover. Divorces were 
 128
 
 ROMAN ELEGY 129 
 
 numerous, and were accompanied with little disgrace. 
 When Augustus established his power, he brought about 
 many reforms in the government of the city and the 
 provinces and caused laws to be passed to ensure the sanc- 
 tity of marriage and of family life, but his success in stem- 
 ming the tide of immorality was slight. To be sure, the life 
 of his chosen friends and of the court circle in general 
 was pure, and even perhaps puritanical ; but the spirit of 
 the times was so corrupt that even his own family did not 
 escape. The immorality of his daughter Julia became at 
 last so notorious that she was banished from Kome and 
 ended her life in exile. Her daughter Julia resembled 
 her in character and met with a similar fate. In the 
 later years of Augustus banishments for moral reasons 
 were numerous, but it was impossible to bring order into 
 the life of a society in which immorality had ceased to be 
 disgraceful. 
 
 It was in and for this society that the Roman elegists 
 composed their poems. Elegiac verse had been employed 
 in the seventh and sixth centuries B. c. by Mimnermus, 
 Tyrtseus, Solon, and others, for the expression of all sorts 
 of personal sentiments, as well as for political purposes ; 
 but in the Alexandrian period it had been appropriated 
 almost exclusively to poems of love. This Alexandrian 
 
 elegiac poetry had been introduced at Rome 
 The eletry. 
 
 by some of the contemporaries of Catullus, 
 
 and in the Augustan period it attained a remarkable 
 development. The Roman elegists imitate the Alexan- 
 drians, and, like them, insert in their love poems count- 
 less mythological allusions and even mythological stories. 
 The fashion demanded that the elegist be learned in Greek 
 mythology. Cornelius Gallus received from the Greek 
 Parthenius a compendium of mythological tales to aid 
 him in selecting proper allusions to the myths. The 
 poet's beloved is compared to Juno, Minerva, or Venus, 
 Antiope or Helen ; the lover gazes upon his mistress as
 
 130 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 Argus gazed upoii lo ; faithful wives are compared with 
 Penelope or Alcestis, faithless lovers with Ulysses who de- 
 serted Calypso, and Jason who left Medea for another 
 wife. These and similar allusions are mingled with 
 figures drawn from rustic life or from war. The god 
 Amor and his mother Venus play important parts in the 
 poems. Amor transfixes the poet's heart with his arrows, 
 plants his foot upon the poet's neck, makes him his slave. 
 The poet sings of the beauty of his mistress, designating 
 her by a fictitious name, but one which has the same 
 length of syllables as the real name of the woman to 
 whom the poems are addressed. The poet is usually poor, 
 but offers his songs as the most valuable of offerings, and 
 is filled with indignation if his mistress seems to care for 
 wealth or jewels. No adornments are necessary for the beau- 
 tiful woman, and love of wealth is disgraceful. The woes of 
 lovers, false promises, faithlessness, the troubles of the lover 
 who spends whole nights waiting at the door, the torments 
 which love inflicts upon the heart, all these are repeated 
 over and over again. So much of all this is conventional 
 that it is hard to tell what part of the contents of these 
 poems has any truth. Occasionally a line is evidently in- 
 tended to give information about the writer, and in gen- 
 eral it is certain that the poems were really addressed to 
 some particular person, but how much of the feeling ex- 
 pressed is genuine, and how much mere affectation, it is 
 impossible to determine. The details the nights spent 
 in wind and rain before the door, the quarrels or recon- 
 ciliations, the voyages and returns may or may not be 
 founded upon real events in the poet's life. Whether 
 they are to be regarded as historical or not depends upon 
 their context; but it is evident that many details are 
 purely imaginary. 
 
 The three chief elegists are Tibullus, Propertius, and 
 Ovid. Of Ovid, the youngest and most voluminous, and 
 one of the most gifted among the Augustan poets, it will
 
 ROMAN ELEGY 131 
 
 be better to treat in a separate chapter. Somewhat older 
 than Tibullus and Propertius was Cornelius Gallus, whose 
 elegies were greatly admired by his contem- 
 poraries, but of which hardly a trace remains. 
 Gallus was born at Forum Julii (Fr6jus), in 70 
 B. c. He was a schoolmate of Augustus, commanded some 
 troops in the war against Antony, and held the town of 
 Paraetonium when Antony attacked it. He was afterwards 
 prefect of Egypt, but indulged in offensive remarks about 
 Augustus, and showed his pride by setting up statues of 
 himself in various places in Egypt, and having his name 
 carved upon the pyramids. When he was recalled in dis- 
 grace by Augustus his creditors brought suits against him, 
 he was condemned to exile, and his property was confis- 
 cated. Unable to bear his troubles, he committed suicide 
 at the age of 43 years. His greatest claim to remembrance 
 is his friendship for Virgil, who expressed his gratitude to 
 him in the sixth and tenth Eclogues, and, perhaps, in the 
 original ending of the Georgics. The elegies of Gallus, in 
 four books, were addressed to Lycoris, an actress of low 
 birth and loose morals, whose stage name was Cytheris. 
 In addition to his elegies, Gallus wrote translations from 
 the Greek of Euphorion. Another writer of elegies was 
 Gaius Valgius Eufus, a friend of Horace, who 
 
 Valerius. 
 
 was consul suffectus in 12 B. c. Of his elegies 
 
 on a boy named Mystes little remains, but they are spoken 
 of by Horace and admired by the author of a panegyric on 
 Messalla. Valgius also wrote some learned works, among 
 them a treatise on medicine and a translation of the rhet- 
 oric of Apollodorus. 
 
 Albius Tibullus was born near Pedum, in Latium, 
 probably about 54 B. c., and was, if the " Life of Tibul- 
 lus," contained in the best manuscripts of his 
 Tibullus. , , : " , 
 
 works, is to be trusted, of equestrian rank. 
 
 He inherited a large property, but lost the greater part of 
 it, perhaps in the confiscations of 41 B. c. Apparently
 
 132 EOMAN LITERATURE 
 
 it was restored to him by Messalla, of whom he speaks 
 with great affection. He followed Messalla to the East 
 soon after the battle of Actium, but was detained by ill- 
 ness at Corcyra. He also accompanied Messalla in his 
 campaign in Aquitania. Nothing further is known of his 
 life, except his love for Delia, who appears to have been a 
 married woman of low birth (libertina), and for Nemesis, 
 who is apparently identical with the Glycera mentioned 
 by Horace (Od. I, xxxiii, 2). Tibullus died about 19 B.C. 
 He was a friend of Horace and was admired by Ovid, 
 but there is no evidence that he and Propertius knew one 
 another. 
 
 Four books of elegies are ascribed to Tibullus, but not 
 all of these are really his work. Apparently the collection 
 was made in the literary circle of Messalla, and poems by 
 less noted members of the circle were added to those of 
 Elegies to Tibullus. The ten elegies of the first book, ad- 
 Delia and dressed to Delia and to a youth named Mara- 
 Nemesis. thus, are undoubtedly by Tibullus, and were 
 published during his lifetime. The six elegies of Book II, 
 addressed to Nemesis, seem to have been written several 
 years later. They were left unfinished by Tibullus, and 
 were published after his death. The six elegies published 
 as Book III are by a poet who calls himself Lygdamus. No 
 poet of that name is known, and probably this 
 is a pseudonym. Whoever the author of these 
 poems was, he was a member of the circle of Messalla, was 
 born in 43 B. c., and was familiar with the poems of Tibul- 
 lus, Horace, Propertius, and Ovid. These elegies are ad- 
 dressed to Neaera, who was probably the poet's cousin, and 
 either married or betrothed to him. They are greatly in- 
 ferior to those of Tibullus. They lack variety and imag- 
 ination, and in technical execution they want the graceful 
 charm for which the genuine poems of Tibnllus are dis- 
 tinguished. The remaining poems ascribed to Tibullus 
 are printed in most editions as Book IV, though in the
 
 TIBULLUS 133 
 
 manuscripts they form a part of Book III. The first of 
 these is a Panegyric on Messalla, written in honor of his 
 consulship, 31 B. c. This poem, which is written in hexam- 
 eters, shows a lack of taste and a love of rhetorical ex- 
 aggeration entirely foreign to Tibullus. Lygdamus can 
 not be its author, for he was only twelve years old at the 
 time of Messalla's consulship. It was doubtless written 
 by some member of Messalla's circle, and included in the 
 collection with the poems of Tibullus on account of its 
 subject. The other poems of Book IV have for their sub- 
 ject the love of Messalla's niece Sulpicia for a young 
 Greek named Cerinthus. The five elegies 
 numbered viii-xii are by Sulpicia to Cerin- 
 thus. These are very short poems none having more 
 than eight lines but they express genuine feeling in 
 beautiful form, though without delicacy or reserve. The 
 seventh elegy of ten lines seems rather to be by Tibul- 
 lus than Sulpicia. Elegies ii-vi and xiii are apparently by 
 Tibullus, and the epigram of four lines, with which the 
 book closes, is of doubtful authorship. 
 
 The elegies of Tibullus are less learned than those 
 of his contemporaries. They contain many mythological 
 allusions, but these are simply expressed and do not form 
 too large a part of the poems. The sentiments expressed 
 are not virile or powerful, but gentle and pensive. Tibul- 
 lus loves the life of the country and hates war ; he feels 
 deeply the woes that oppress the lover; the thought of 
 death weighs upon him ; but love is ever in his heart. 
 His poems are masterpieces of expression and versification, 
 though they lack the fire of passionate emotion. Two 
 brief selections * from the third elegy of Book I may give 
 at least some idea of the quality of his sentiment : 
 
 While you, Messalla, plough th' ^Egean sea, 
 O sometimes kindly deign to think of me ; 
 
 1 1, iii, 1-9, 53-56, translated by James Grainger.
 
 134 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 Me, hapless me, Pheeacian shores detain, 
 Unknown, unpitied, and oppressed with pain. 
 Yet spare me, Death, ah, spare me and retire ; 
 No weeping mother's here to light my pyre ; 
 Here is no sister, with a sister's woe, 
 Rich Syrian odors on the pile to throw ; 
 But chief, my soul's soft partner is not here, 
 Her locks to loose, and sorrow o'er my bier. 
 
 So the poem begins. The poet laments his enforced 
 delay at Corcyra, where he is detained by illness. There 
 follows a list of the bad omens that warned Tibullus not 
 to set out from Kome, then a prayer to Isis for aid. A 
 brief description of the Golden Age is introduced, and the 
 poet prays that Jove may grant him life : 
 
 But, if the Sisters have pronounced my doom, 
 Inscribed be these upon my humble tomb: 
 " Lo ! here inurn'd a youthful poet lies, 
 Far from his Delia and his native skies, 
 Far from the lov'd Messalla, whom to please 
 Tibullus followed over land and seas." 
 
 The remainder of the poem consists of a description of 
 the lower world and an appeal to Delia. Xo translation 
 can render exactly the qualities of expression which make 
 Tibullus one of the greatest among the lesser Koman 
 poets. It is only after repeated reading of his poems that 
 one learns to appreciate the lightness of touch and the 
 technical perfection of this sweet singer of soft themes. 
 
 Sextus Propertius was born in Umbria, probably at 
 Asisium (Assisi), about 50 B. c., for he was younger than 
 Tibullus and older than Ovid, whose birth was in 43 B. c. 
 His family was of some importance and must have been 
 wealthy, for although Propertius, whose father was al- 
 ready dead, lost part of his property in the 
 confiscations of 41 B. c., enough remained to 
 support him and give him a good education. His mother 
 took him to Rome, where he studied law for a short time,
 
 PROPERTIUS 135 
 
 but abandoned it for the pursuit of poetry. After the 
 publication of the first book of his elegies, Propertius was 
 introduced to Maecenas, to whom he afterward addressed 
 two poems (II, i ; and III, ix). He appears, however, to 
 have been less intimate with him than were Horace and 
 Virgil. Propertius nowhere mentions Horace, and if 
 Horace refers to him at all it is without mentioning his 
 name. He was a warm admirer of Virgil and a friend of 
 Ovid. Little is known of his life, and it is only because 
 his poems contain no allusions to events later than 16 B.C. 
 that his death is supposed to have taken place about 15 
 B.C. From two passages in the letters of the younger 
 Pliny, in which a certain Passenus Paullus is said to be 
 descended from Propertius, it appears that the poet mar- 
 ried and left at least one child. 
 
 Propertius is a poet of love, who expresses as few poets 
 have done the tender emotions of the heart. His poems 
 
 are passionate and sensual, without the pen- 
 Pro ^rthis ' 8 * ve me l ancn ly of Tibullus or the frivolity of 
 
 Ovid. The object of his love is Cynthia, 
 whose real name was Hostia. She was a courtesan, but 
 educated and refined in taste, beautiful and attractive. 
 She it was who inspired his first poems, and only in the 
 last book does she cease to be the chief theme of his 
 verses. The poems are handed down to us in four books, 
 the second of which is, however, made up of two incom- 
 plete books. The appearance of the first book made Pro- 
 pertius famous and introduced him to the circle of Mae- 
 cenas. Naturally Maecenas wished him to sing the praises 
 of Augustus and the Roman Empire, and from this time 
 Cynthia is no longer the exclusive subject of his poems. 
 In the fourth book (the fifth in many editions) there are 
 four poems on Roman antiquities, in imitation of the A?na 
 ( Causes) of Callimachus. Love is, however, throughout the 
 subject to which Propertius naturally turns. His poems 
 are full of learned mythological allusions, and the situn- 
 10
 
 136 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 tions described or depicted are doubtless for the most 
 part imaginary, yet the passionate nature of the poet's 
 love is manifest through all his learning and his invention. 
 Even though he did not pass through all the hopes and 
 fears, the changes of love and hate, the joy and sorrow, 
 the jealousy and the reconciliations which the poems de- 
 pict with such wealth of illustration and such beauty of 
 language, he knew as few have known them the varying 
 passions of the lover's heart. For the modern reader his 
 passion is too sensuous and his erudition too obtrusive ; 
 but the genuine feeling expressed makes his poems beau- 
 tiful in spite of occasional coarseness and constant display 
 of mythological learning. Propertius is remarkable for 
 the sonorous richness of his lines, and in the technical 
 execution of his verse he is careful and accurate. His 
 earlier poems admit words of three and four syllables 
 at the end of the pentameter without scruple, but in 
 the later poems the pentameter usually ends with a word 
 of two syllables, showing that Propertius was disposed 
 to follow Ovid's rule in this particular. Like other 
 Roman poets, Propertius is professedly an imitator of 
 the Greeks. Those whom he claims to imitate especially 
 are Callimachus and Philetas, both poets of the Alexan- 
 drian period. 
 
 One of the shortest of his poems, free alike from 
 coarseness and display of learning, is the following, on 
 Cynthia's absence : 
 
 Why ceaselessly my fancied sloth upbraid, 
 As still at conscious Rome by love delay'd? 
 Wide as the Po from Hypanis is spread 
 The distance that divides her from my bed. 
 No more with fondling arms she folds me round, 
 Nor in my ear her dulcet whispers sound. 
 Once I was dear; nor e'er could lover burn 
 With such a tender and a true return. 
 Yes I was envied hath some god above 
 Crush'd me? or magic herb that severs love,
 
 LESSER AUGUSTAN POETS 137 
 
 Gather'd on Caucasus, bewitch'd my flame ? 
 
 Nymphs change by distance ; I'm no more the same. 
 
 Oh, what a love has fleeted like the wind, 
 
 And left no vestige of its trace behind ! 
 
 Now sad I count the ling'ring nights alone ; 
 
 And my own ears are startled by my groan. 
 
 Happy ! the youth who weeps, his mistress nigh ; 
 
 Love with such tears has mingled ecstasy : 
 
 Blest, who, when scorned, can change his passing heat; 
 
 The pleasures of translated bonds are sweet. 
 
 I can no other love ; nor hence depart ; 
 
 For Cynthia, first and last, is mistress of my heart. 1 
 
 In an age of great poets many lesser poets are sure to 
 be found. Ovid, in one of his letters, 8 mentions twenty- 
 Lesser three poets of the Augustan age, and his list 
 Augustan is not exhaustive. Little is known of these 
 poets. lesser writers, and few of their works are pre- 
 served, even in fragments. Domitius Marsus, who lived 
 from about 54 to about 4 B. c., and belonged to the circle 
 of Maecenas, wrote a series of epigrams, entitled Cicuta 
 (poisonous hemlock), which enjoyed considerable reputa- 
 tion, some elegies on Melaenis, an epic poem on the Ama- 
 zons, and a treatise De Urbanitate (on refinement of ex- 
 pression). Albinovanus Pedo was also an author of epi- 
 grams and an epic poet. One of his epics, the Theseis, 
 narrated the deeds of Theseus, another gave an account 
 of a voyage to the ocean, probably the voyage of German- 
 icus, in 16 B. c. A fragment of twenty-three lines con- 
 tains a vivid description of the stranding of some vessels 
 in the night, which shows that the author was a poet of 
 some ability. Of a poem on hunting (Cynegetica] by 
 Grattius, five hundred and forty-one hexameters are pre- 
 served, which show little poetic merit. Only a few brief 
 fragments remain of a poem on the Egyptian war of 
 
 1 1, xii. Elton's translation. * Ex Ponto, IV, xvi.
 
 138 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 Augustus, by Rabirius. Cornelius Severus Wrote a poem 
 on Eoman history (Res Romance), and perhaps other 
 epics. The longest extant fragment consists of twenty- 
 five lines on the death of Cicero, and shows rhetorical 
 rather than poetic ability. Ovid's friends, Ponticus and 
 Macer, and several others, wrote mythological epics. 
 Iambic verses were composed by Bassus, and other poets 
 gained more or less reputation for various kinds of 
 poetry. 
 
 Gaius Melissus, a freedman of Augustus, from Spo- 
 letum, was by profession a librarian. He was the origina- 
 tor of the fdbula trabeata, named from the 
 trdbea, the distinctive costume of the eques- 
 trian rank. This was a national comedy, dif- 
 fering from the fabula togata of Titinius and Atta (see 
 page 29) in the rank of the persons represented, for the 
 fabula togata had chosen its characters from the lower 
 classes, while the fabula trabeata was a comedy of high 
 life. Its popularity was brief, and it disappeared, leaving 
 hardly a trace of its existence. Melissus also made a col- 
 lection of humorous tales (Ineptice) in one hundred and 
 fifty books, and appears to have been the author of some 
 learned treatises. 
 
 A poem on astronomy and astrology (Astronomicd), 
 ascribed in some of the manuscripts to an otherwise 
 unknown Marcus or Gaius Manilius, is a di- 
 dactic poem of unusual merit. As preserved 
 it consists of five books, the last of which is incomplete. 
 If, as is probable, a sixth book once existed, the whole 
 work contained about five thousand lines. Even in its 
 present condition it is the longest didactic Latin poem 
 except the De Rerum Natura of Lucretius. The poem is, 
 as a whole, rather uninteresting, but contains passages of 
 great vigor, showing independence of thought and re- 
 markable power of expression. The author has an easy 
 mastery of hexameter verse, in which he is superior to
 
 LESSER AUGUSTAN POETS 139 
 
 Lucretius ; but with all his skill in versification, his ear- 
 nestness, his learning, and his originality, he can not en- 
 tirely overcome the prosaic nature of his subject. The 
 poem is uneven, at times prosaic, sometimes rhetorical, 
 not often, if ever, rising to Idfty heights of poetic fancy, 
 but serious and thoughtful. A large part of it is occupied 
 with astrology, and other portions describe the heavenly 
 bodies. In the introductions to the several books, and in 
 digressions, theories concerning the origin of the world, 
 the nature of man, and the power of fate are introduced, 
 showing that the author accepts in the main the Stoic 
 doctrines as opposed to the Epicurean teachings of Lucre- 
 tius. So he maintains that the world is not the product 
 of blind forces but of a divine will : 
 
 Who can believe that masses of such size 
 
 Were formed from particles without God's aid, 
 
 And that the world did blindly come to pass ? 
 
 If mere Chance gave it us, let mere Chance rule. 
 
 But why do we perceive in stated turn 
 
 The constellations rise and, as it were 
 
 By order giv'n, run through their course prescribed, 
 
 Nor any hastening leave the rest behind ? 
 
 Why do the selfsame stars adorn the nights 
 
 Of summer ever, and the selfsame stars 
 
 The winter nights 7 And why does every day 
 
 Return the world its form and leave it fixed ? ' 
 
 Various mythological tales are inserted with a view 
 to enlivening the poem, but the author lacks narrative 
 skill. The most elaborate of these episodes, in which the 
 story of Perseus and Andromeda is told, 8 shows, how- 
 ever, good descriptive ability and lively rhetoric. Ma- 
 nilius is not a great poet, but he treats, not without suc- 
 cess, a subject new to Roman poetry, and shows him- 
 
 1 Book i, 499-507. The same subject is continued through line 
 530. 
 
 2 Book v, 540-615.
 
 140 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 self to be a man of original power of mind and of serious 
 purpose. With all its defects, the Astronomica has also 
 great merits. 
 
 Many Augustan poets are known by name whose works 
 have perished. On the other hand, some poems by un- 
 known authors are preserved. A curious col- 
 lection of eighty short poems in elegiac and 
 lyric metres, all addressed to the god Priapus, or at least 
 written with reference to him, belongs for the most part 
 to this period. Statues of Priapus, the god of gardens 
 and of fruitfulness of all sorts, were set up in public parks, 
 in orchards, and other places, and most of the Priapea, as 
 these short poems are called, are supposed to have been 
 inscribed upon or affixed to such statues. Many of the 
 poems are extremely indecent, but many are well written 
 and witty. 
 
 Far more interesting than the Priapea are the poems 
 falsely ascribed to Virgil, and contained in manuscripts 
 of his works. Three of these are " epyllia," 
 or short epics, composed, like Virgil's genuine 
 works, in hexameter verse. The first, entitled Culex, 
 " The Gnat," tells in four hundred and fourteen lines 
 how a herdsman, lying asleep in the noonday heat, was 
 on the point of being killed by a poisonous serpent, when 
 a gnat stung him, and, by arousing him to his danger, 
 saved his life. As he awoke, the herdsman killed the 
 gnat, whose soul afterward appears to him in a dream 
 and reproaches him. Finally the herdsman erects a 
 funeral mound in honor of the gnat. The poem is a 
 mock epic, intended to be humorous, but is not very suc- 
 cessful. In versification it shows great similarity to the 
 genuine works of Virgil, but also in some respects to 
 those of Ovid. A poem entitled Culex is ascribed to 
 Virgil's youthful days by Martial and Statius, but the 
 metrical qualities of the existing poem show that it can 
 not have been written until a later date. Either, there-
 
 POEMS ASCRIBED TO VIRGIL 141 
 
 fore, Martial and Statins were mistaken, or this is not 
 the poem to which they refer. 
 
 The second piece, entitled (7ms, is a little longer than 
 the Culex. This poem, evidently written by some mem- 
 .. . ber of the circle of Messalla, tells the story of 
 
 Scylla, who caused the death of her father, 
 Nisus, and betrayed her native town, on account of her 
 love for Minos, the leader of an invading army. She was 
 dragged through the water at the stern of a vessel, but 
 the gods pitied her and changed her into a seabird called 
 ciris. Her father was restored to life and made a sea 
 eagle. The third poem, the Moretum (the word denotes 
 a sort of salad eaten by the peasants), con- 
 tains only one hundred and twenty-four lines. 
 It is a slight poem, idyllic in character, and admirably 
 written. It describes how a poor peasant and his slave, a 
 negress, make the moretum in the early morning. This 
 poem is said to be an imitation of a Greek original by 
 Parthenius. It is possible, though not probable, that it is 
 by Virgil. The fourth poem is the Copa 
 (barmaid), consisting of only thirty-eight lines 
 of elegiac verse. It has to do with the barmaid of a way- 
 side tavern, and is clever and interesting, but has none of 
 the qualities of Virgil's poems. It belongs, however, 
 without doubt, to the Augustan period. The Dirce, which 
 is also included in the manuscripts of Virgil, belongs, as 
 has been said (page 63), to an earlier time, and the ^Etna 
 belongs to the subsequent period. This con- 
 sists of six hundred and forty-six hexameters, 
 describing volcanic eruptions, and attempting to account 
 for them. It has little poetic merit, but shows that even 
 an indifferent poet could write good hexameters. The 
 remaining short poems ascribed to Virgil are of little 
 interest or importance, though one of them a comic ode 
 in honor of an old muleteer is an excellent parody of 
 the poem of Catullus addressed to his old yacht.
 
 142 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 The elegy entitled Nux (nut tree), and the Consolatio 
 ad Liviam (Consolation to Livia), both ascribed to Ovid, 
 Nux are imitations by writers of a slightly later 
 
 Consolatio time, and have little merit. The Nux is the 
 ad Liviam. complaint of a tree on account of the bad 
 treatment it receives from passers-by. The Consolatio ad 
 Liviam purports to be addressed to Livia, wife of Augus- 
 tus, on the death of her son Drusus, in 9 B. c.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 OVID 
 
 Ovid, 43 B. C.-18 A. D. His life Poems of love Fasti Metamor- 
 phoses Poems written after his banishment His qualities and in- 
 fluence. 
 
 PTJBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO was born at Sulmo, in the 
 country of the Paeligni, in 43 B. c., on the 20th of March. 
 He belonged to a wealthy equestrian fam- 
 ily and received, along with his elder brother, 
 a good education at Rome, practising rhetoric under 
 Arellius Fuscus and Porcius Latro. He also studied at 
 Athens, and at some time traveled with the poet Macer in 
 Asia and Sicily. After assuming the toga virilis he held 
 two of the minor offices incidental to the beginning of 
 the senatorial career, and was employed as arbitrator in 
 private cases. But in spite of his father's remonstrances, 
 he withdrew from public life and devoted himself to poet- 
 ry. This decision was, according to his own statement, 
 due in part to his delicate physique, but the chief reason 
 was probably his love of poetry and pleasure, and his aver- 
 sion to serious affairs. His social position was excellent. 
 He was intimate with Messalla and his circle, and had 
 many friends among the literary men of the capital. Vir- 
 gil, he says, he only saw, but he was intimate with Tibul- 
 lus, Propertius, Ponticus, and Bassus. He was married 
 three times. His first wife, whom he married in his early 
 youth, was " neither worthy nor useful," * and he was soon 
 separated from the second also, though he charges her with 
 
 1 Trutia, IV, x, 69. 
 
 U3
 
 144 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 no fault. His third wife, of the Fabian family, remained 
 faithful to him, and he to her. He had one daughter, 
 who in turn had two children. His life of ease and social 
 pleasure at Eome was brought to a sudden close in 8 A. D. 
 by an imperial edict banishing him to Tomi, on the shore 
 of the Pontus (Black Sea). " Two charges," he writes, 
 " wrought my ruin, a poem and an error, but I must be 
 silent about the fault of one of these acts. I am not im- 
 portant enough to renew thy wounds, Caesar, since it is 
 more than enough that thou hast suffered once. The 
 other part remains, in which, as author of a vile poem, I 
 am charged with being a teacher of obscene adultery." 1 
 The poem referred to can be no other than the Ars Ama- 
 toria ; but this was published ten years before the poet's 
 banishment. The real cause of his sentence must be 
 sought in the charge about which he keeps silence through 
 fear of wounding Augustus. Perhaps he was privy to an 
 intrigue between Julia, the granddaughter of Augustus, 
 and Decimus Silanus. Ovid remained in banishment at 
 Tomi until his death, in 18 A. D. 
 
 Ovid's poems fall into three divisions : poems of love, 
 in elegiac metre, the works of his earlier years ; antiqua- 
 rian and mythological poems (the Fasti* in ele- 
 Ovid'g poems. . f v . 
 
 giacs, and the Metamorphoses, in hexameters), 
 
 written before his banishment ; and the poems written, in 
 elegiac verse, at Tomi. The exact chronological order of 
 the love poems is hard to fix, as the first series of elegies, the 
 Amores, appeared in two editions, at first in five books, 
 later in three. The later edition is preserved. Most of these 
 elegies were probably written between 22 and 15 B. c. The 
 Heroides, letters from mythical heroines to their absent 
 husbands or lovers, were written soon after the Amores, 
 then followed the poem On the Care of the Face (De Medi- 
 camine Faciei), then the Ars Amatoria (The Art of Love) 
 
 1 Tristia, II, 107 fl.
 
 OVID 145 
 
 and the Remedia Amoris (Cures for Love). The last two 
 seem to have been published between the beginning of 1 
 B. c. and the end of 1 A. D., but need not have been entirely 
 written in the space of those two years. 
 
 The three books of the Amores contain forty-nine 
 elegies, nearly all of which are love poems. Among the 
 
 comparatively small number on other sub- 
 The Amores. . .->> \ , >.,. 
 
 jects the best known and most interesting 
 
 are the elegy on the death of Tibullus (III, ix) and the 
 description of a festival of Juno (III, xiii). The love 
 poems are in great part addressed to Corinna, who seems 
 to be a mere figment of the poet's imagination, not, like 
 the Lesbia of Catullus, the Delia of Tibullus, and the Cyn- 
 thia of Propertius, a real person under a fictitious name. 
 Ovid's love poems are not expressions of his own feelings 
 for any individual, but the means by which he exhibits his 
 astonishing facility in versification and his lively imagina- 
 tion. From beginning to end the poems show an utter 
 lack of serious purpose. All the vicissitudes of a long 
 love affair are treated with equal lightness and grace. 
 Corinna is ill, she goes away, she receives a letter, to 
 which she replies unfavorably, her parrot dies, and her 
 lover laments it in an elegy ; but nowhere does any real 
 feeling make itself manifest. The poet seems to wish to 
 give a complete series of pictures of the feelings and con- 
 duct of a lover under all possible circumstances, and his 
 lively imagination plays lightly with all the varying phases 
 of passion, but it is all play. Some of the poems are based 
 upon Greek originals, many contain mythological allu- 
 sions, a few are heavy with Alexandrian learning, some 
 are harmlessly sportive, others extremely indecent, but all 
 alike are masterly in technical execution, and empty of real 
 sentiment. In these, his earliest poems, Ovid is already 
 the most brilliant of Roman elegists. The easy flow of 
 his verse is admirable. The rules that each distich must 
 form a complete sentence, or at least express an independ-
 
 14:6 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 ent thought, and that each pentameter must end with a 
 word of two syllables, give great uniformity to the cadence 
 of the verses, but in spite of this the variety of expression 
 and the clever rhetoric employed preserve the poems from 
 monotony. Only the sameness of subject and the lack of 
 real feeling make the A mores tedious to the modern 
 reader. 
 
 The subject of the Amoves is continued in the Heroi- 
 des, but in a different form. Here the elegies are supposed 
 
 ^ ., to be letters from fifteen famous women of 
 The Heroides. . .. 
 
 antiquity Penelope, Briseis, Phaedra, and 
 
 others to their absent lovers or husbands. The form 
 of poetic love-letter was known to the Alexandrians and 
 had been employed once (IV, iii) by Propertius, but was 
 first made popular at Home by Ovid, who was also, appar- 
 ently, the first to write in the character of mythological 
 persons. Soon after the publication of Ovid's letters from 
 heroines, replies to some, at least, were written by Sabi- 
 nus. 1 These replies are lost, but at the end of the Hero- 
 ides we now have three pairs of letters. Paris, Leander, 
 and Acontius write respectively to Helen, Hero, and 
 Cydippe, and each woman writes a reply. These six let- 
 ters are so nearly in the style of Ovid that only careful 
 study has led the best critics to the opinion that they are 
 not his work, but clever imitations by some unknown con- 
 temporary. In the Heroides, as in the six letters just 
 mentioned, the fact that the writers are well-known 
 mythological persons lends an interest and a dramatic 
 quality to the poems, which is wanting in the Amores, but 
 the general character of the work remains the same. 
 
 The book On the Care of the Face is imperfectly pre- 
 served, for it breaks off after one hundred lines. The 
 introduction compares the highly developed culture of 
 the Augustan period with the rough simplicity of earlier 
 
 1 Ovid, Amores II, xviii, 27 ff.
 
 OVID 147 
 
 times. The maids and matrons of old may not have 
 bestowed any care upon their personal beauty, but the 
 
 Koman girls of the present must act differ- 
 On the Care , i , v ^ 
 of th F en tly> since even the men are no longer care- 
 less of their persons. To be sure, the charac- 
 ter is more important than personal beauty, for character 
 remains while beauty is fleeting. Up to this point the 
 poem is attractive, but the remainder, consisting of reci- 
 pes for cosmetics, with accurate directions concerning 
 weights and measures of the various ingredients, is so un- 
 interesting that the loss of the latter part of the poem is 
 hardly to be regretted. 
 
 The Art of Love is one of the most immoral poems in 
 existence. The first book gives instruction to young men 
 to aid them in finding and seducing desirable 
 mistresses, the second tells them how to keep 
 the girls' affection, and the third instructs 
 girls in the art of gaining lovers. The love of which Ovid 
 writes is mere sensual passion, not the union of souls, and 
 his three books of systematic instruction in the arts of 
 seduction would be utterly tedious were they not enli- 
 vened by some striking descriptive passages and myths, as 
 well as by sententious lines of worldly wisdom. A remark- 
 able passage in the first book 1 celebrates the praise of 
 Roman greatness and of Augustus, in order to lead up to 
 the mention of a triumphal procession ; and this is men- 
 tioned, because in the crowd of spectators the young man 
 may scrape acquaintance with a girl. Of the Roman 
 women at the theatre, Ovid says : 
 
 Spectatum veniunt, veniunt spectentur ut ipsce, 
 They come to see, and to be seen themselves, 
 
 and many other lines show keen observation, knowledge 
 of humanity, and no little humor ; but, in spite of these 
 
 1 Lines 177 fl.
 
 148 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 beauties of detail, the poem is, as a whole, so uninteresting 
 that its immorality has probably done little harm. 
 
 The Cure of Love offers various means for freeing one- 
 self from the bonds of passion. Activity and travel are 
 recommended ; the lover who longs for free- 
 
 1 ure dom is advised to consider the faults of his 
 Love. 
 
 mistress, and the expense she causes him ; he 
 is told to make her show her faults ; is urged to fall in 
 love with another, to avoid reminders of the beloved when 
 she is absent, and to shun poetry, music, and the dance. 
 All this is uninteresting enough ; but this poem, like the 
 ATS Amatoria, contains many fine details. The Remedia 
 Amoris is the last of Ovid's poems on the subject of love. 
 From beginning to end his love poems show the greatest 
 ease and fluency of expression, superb mastery of tech- 
 nique, much imagination, wit, and humor, but an almost 
 absolute lack of real feeling and serious purpose. 
 
 With the Fasti, or calendar of Roman festivals, Ovid's 
 poetry becomes more serious. When this work was begun 
 
 F f can no * ^ e Determined, but it probably occu- 
 pied part of the poet's time for several years. 
 The description of the festival of Juno in the Amoves 
 (III, xiii) shows an interest in religious ritual, and it may 
 be that Ovid conceived the idea of writing the Fasti even 
 before the Ars Amatoria was published. However that 
 may be, the Fasti never reached completion. The poem 
 as planned was to consist of twelve books, one for each 
 month of the year, and was dedicated to Augustus ; but, 
 when six books had been written, the work was interrupted 
 by Ovid's banishment. After the death of Augustus, 
 Ovid began a revision of the poem, and prefixed to it a 
 dedication to Germanicus; but the revision progressed 
 no further than the first book. As this book contains 
 references to events as late as 17 A. D., the entire work 
 as we possess it must have been published after Ovid's 
 death.
 
 OVID 149 
 
 Poetic descriptions of festivals, with accounts of their 
 origin, had been written by the Alexandrians, notably by 
 Callimachus, and four elegies of Propertius (see p. 135) had 
 introduced such subjects into Roman poetry. Ovid under- 
 took to treat systematically all the Eoman festivals, arran- 
 ging them according to the days on which they occurred. 
 This arrangement often causes related myths to be widely 
 separated, and the same myth to be treated in several 
 places, thus destroying the poetic unity of the work. The 
 poet is also obliged by his subject to regard the astronom- 
 ical as well as the antiquarian aspects of the calendar, and 
 this double interest destroys the harmony of the poem. 
 Ovid was not a careful student of astronomy, and the 
 astronomical parts of his work contain some serious mis- 
 takes ; but they are interesting on account of their clear 
 descriptions, their variety of expression, and the myths 
 connected with the stars which are introduced. The days 
 that mark important events in Roman history are treated 
 with especial fulness, and the poet takes every opportu- 
 nity for the expression of patriotic sentiments, and for the 
 praise of Augustus and the Julian family. The descrip- 
 tions of festivals are lively 8nd beautiful pictures of 
 Roman life. Events of the poet's own times, or of the 
 early, mythical period, are described with great variety, 
 sometimes in elaborate detail, sometimes more briefly, but 
 always with easy and attractive grace. The causes or 
 origins of festivals and customs are introduced in various 
 ways ; sometimes a god appears and reveals them, some- 
 times they are narrated by a friend or contemporary of 
 the poet, or again the poet tells them without adducing 
 any authority. The Greek myths narrated are derived 
 from some of the many collections of such material 
 familiar to the Romans of Ovid's day ; and even in the 
 matter of Roman legends Ovid probably made no original 
 researches. The grammarian Verrius Flaccus had com- 
 piled a prose calendar, with explanations of the established
 
 150 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 customs pertaining to each day, and it is probably from 
 this that Ovid derived much of his antiquarian lore. The 
 books from which Ovid derived his information are lost, 
 and his work is now one of the chief sources from which 
 we can gain knowledge of Eoman ritual, belief, religious 
 antiquities, and even topography, for Ovid frequently 
 mentions the relative positions of temples and other 
 buildings. To the student of Roman life the six books 
 of the Fasti are therefore of great importance. And 
 their importance is not less to the student of Roman 
 poetry, for they teem with beautiful and lively descrip- 
 tions and interesting stories, and the patriotic sentiments 
 eloquently expressed in several passages show that Ovid 
 was something more than the careless, frivolous writer of 
 corrupt love poems. In beauty of workmanship, vivid- 
 ness of description, and fluent grace of narrative, many 
 portions of the Fasti are equal to any works of Roman 
 literature, not even excepting the Metamorphoses of Ovid 
 himself. 
 
 The fifteen books of the Metamorphoses are Ovid's 
 greatest achievement. When he began the work we do 
 
 not know, but, according to his own state- 
 morphoses inent, 1 he had finished it at the time of his 
 
 banishment, though he had not revised and 
 perfected it to his own satisfaction. In his grief he put 
 the manuscript in the fire and burned it, but several 
 copies must have been made, so the work survived. The 
 opening lines of the poem explain its purpose : 
 
 Of forms transmuted into bodies new 
 
 My spirit moves to tell. Ye gods (for ye 
 
 Did change them), lend my task your favoring breath, 
 
 And to my times continuous lead the song. 
 
 This great collection of myths became almost imme- 
 diately, and has remained ever since, the chief source of 
 
 1 Tristia, I, vii, 13 ff.
 
 OVID 151 
 
 popular knowledge of mythology. Poets and artists alike 
 have drawn their conceptions of the ancient gods and 
 heroes from Ovid even more than from Homer. The 
 myths selected are those in which a metamorphosis, or 
 change of form, takes place. Collections of the same 
 sort had been made by several Alexandrian writers ; but 
 Ovid was apparently the first to arrange these stories in 
 continuous order from the beginning of the world to his 
 own time. The astonishing skill with which the transi- 
 tion from one tale to the next is accomplished, the rapid- 
 ity and fluency of the narrative, the abundance of charm- 
 ing descriptive passages, and the never-failing variety of 
 expression, make this one of the most remarkable of 
 poems. The number of stories told is so great that a 
 list of them would be tedious, but a brief mention and 
 characterization of some of the more important among 
 them will serve to show the scope and variety of the 
 work. 
 
 After describing the creation, Ovid gives an account 
 of the four ages (of gold, silver, bronze, and iron) of 
 Contents of mankind's deterioration and of the flood, 
 the Metamor- from which onily Deucalion and Pyrrha sur- 
 phoses. vived. The story of Phaethon's attempt to 
 
 drive the chariot of the Sun is told with great animation, 
 though the poet's display of geographical knowledge is 
 somewhat out of place. The tale of the founding of 
 Thebes by Cadmus is a striking example of narrative 
 skill. More tragical in subject, and more dramatic in 
 composition, are the stories of Pentheus, torn in pieces 
 by the maddened worshipers of Bacchus, led by his own 
 mother and sisters, and of Athamas, who is driven mad 
 by Juno and kills his eldest son, while his wife Ino casts 
 herself, with her son Melicerta, into the sea. Between 
 these two stories are several less dramatic tales, among 
 them the sentimental idyll of Pyramus and Thisbe, which 
 is burlesqued in Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. 
 11
 
 152 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 The deeds of Perseus, his rescue of Andromeda from the 
 sea-monster, their wedding, with the quarrel that arose, 
 and the turning into stone of Perseus's enemies by means 
 of the terrible Gorgon's head, are narrated with vivid 
 detail. The story of Proserpine, carried off by Pluto and 
 sought all over the world by her mother Ceres, is enriched 
 and retarded by the insertion of all manner of geograph- 
 ical, antiquarian, and mythological details. The tale of 
 the pride and grief of JSTiobe is told with tragic pathos. 
 In telling of Medea's love for Jason, Ovid imitates to 
 some extent the portrayal of her mental torments given 
 by Apollonius of Eh odes, 1 and at the same time displays 
 his own liking for rhetorical argument. The adventures 
 of Cephalus and Procris, Nisus and Scylla, Daedalus and 
 Icarus, and others, are more simply told. The story of 
 the Calydonian boar-hunt and the death of Meleager, 
 enables Ovid to show his ability in description, narrative, 
 and psychological analysis. The charming idyll of the 
 pious and hospitable rustics, Philemon and Baucis, rests 
 the mind of the reader after the preceding tales of vio- 
 lence. The deeds of Hercules follow, then the story of 
 Orpheus, in which are inserted numerous tales, as if told 
 by Orpheus himself. The account of the terrible death 
 of Orpheus is followed by the story of Midas, who turned 
 all things to gold by his touch, and whose ears were 
 changed into those of an ass because he declared Pan to 
 be a better musician than Apollo. The transformation 
 of Ceyx and Alcyone into sea-gulls gives the poet an 
 opportunity to tell of and praise conjugal fidelity. The 
 combat of the centaurs and Lapithae is told at some 
 length, with too many names and too little unity. Many 
 tales are told in connection with the Trojan war. Among 
 these, the strife of Ajax and Ulysses for the armor of 
 
 1 Argonautica, III, 750 ff. Virgil, ^Sneid, IV, 522 ff., imitates 
 Apollonius more closely.
 
 OVID 153 
 
 Achilles occupies a prominent position, and Ovid shows 
 his rhetorical tendency by introducing set speeches by 
 the two rivals in support of their claims. With the fall 
 of Troy and the escape of ^Eneas, the poem begins to deal 
 with Roman rather than Greek subjects. The earlier 
 adventures of ^Eneas and others after the fall of Troy 
 are, to be sure, still derived from Greek sources, but the 
 stories of the combats in Italy and of the founding of 
 Rome are no longer Greek. Near the end of the poem 
 the Pythagorean doctrine of the transmigration of souls 
 is set forth in considerable detail. Several Roman stories 
 follow, and at last comes the account of Julius Caesar's 
 ascent to the gods, and a prophecy of a similar fortune 
 for Augustus. Then the poem ends with the lines : 
 
 And now my work is done ; which not Jove's wrath, 
 Nor fire, nor sword, nor all-consuming age 
 Can e'er destroy. Let when it will that day, 
 Which only o'er this body's frame has power, 
 Make ending of my life's uncertain space ; 
 Yet shall the better part of me be borne 
 Above the lofty stars through countless years, 
 And ever undestroyed shall be my name. 
 Where'er the Roman power o'er conquered lands 
 Extends, shall I be read by many tongues, 
 And through all ages, if there's aught of truth 
 In prophecies of bards, my fame shall live. 
 
 Certainly Ovid had written a most remarkable poem. 
 At times the lack of earnestness so noticeable in his earlier 
 works appears also in the Metamorphoses, but frequently 
 he is carried along by his subject to utterances of real 
 power and pathos. His hexameters have not the swelling 
 grandeur of Virgil's, but they have a fluent rapidity and 
 easy grace that no other Latin writer ever attained. Nor 
 does any other Roman poet equal Ovid in the art of tell- 
 ing a story. He is a master of direct, simple narrative 
 and of clear, vivid description, and he excels also in
 
 154 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 dramatic presentation and in the analysis of human 
 thoughts and feelings. 
 
 In the Metamorphoses Ovid's power is at its height. His 
 later poems, written after his banishment, show a constant 
 deterioration in every respect, even in technique. The 
 long series of laments over his exile is tedious and weari- 
 some. The five books entitled Tristia consist of elegies 
 addressed for the most part to no one person, while the 
 four books of Letters from the Pontus (Ex Ponto) have 
 the form of real letters to the poet's friends. The second 
 book of the Tristia is one long letter of appeal to Augus- 
 tus. The short poem entitled Ibis is an elaborate heap- 
 ing up of curses and maledictions against an enemy to 
 whom the fictitious name of Ibis is given, and the Halieu- 
 tica is a fragment (134 lines) of a poem on fishes. Among 
 all these poems those in which Ovid refers to his own cir- 
 cumstances are the most interesting. It is from these 1 
 that most of our information about his life is derived. In 
 some of these elegies the tone of genuine feeling, which is 
 wanting in the earlier poems, is evident : 
 
 When in my mind of that night the sorrowful vision arises, 
 
 Which was the end of my life spent in the city of Rome, 
 
 When I remember the night when I parted from all that was 
 
 dearest, 
 Sadly a piteous tear falls even now from my eyes. 1 
 
 So Ovid sings of his departure from Eome. His letters 
 to his wife 3 and the letter to his daughter Perilla* are 
 among the most attractive of these poems of bitter exile 
 and grief. But even upon these the bitterness of the 
 exile's lot casts its shadow. A greater poet, or a poet of 
 greater character, might have soared above his grief and 
 
 1 Especially Tristia, IV, x. Ibid., I, iii, 1-4. 
 
 Ibid., I, vi, III, iii, IV, iii, V, ii, 1-44, xi, xiv, Ex Ponto, I, iv, 
 III, i. 
 
 * Triatia, III, vii.
 
 OVID 155 
 
 disappointment ; but Ovid wearies us with his continued 
 complaints. 
 
 Several works by Ovid have been lost. The most 
 important was probably his tragedy Medea, which was 
 regarded as one of the greatest of Roman tragedies. Only 
 two fragments of this play remain, from one of which we 
 learn that Ovid represented Medea in a state of excite- 
 ment bordering upon madness. Of a work in hexameters 
 on the constellations, entitled Phenomena, and a series 
 of epigrams, a few brief fragments remain. Not even 
 fragments are preserved of a bridal song (Epithalamium) 
 for Fabius Maximus, an elegy on the death of Messalla, a 
 poem on the triumph of Tiberius (January 16, 13 A. D.), a 
 poem on the death of Augustus, a medley on bad poets, 
 made up of lines from Macer's Tetrasticha, and a poem in 
 the Getic language in honor of the imperial family. 
 
 Ovid's one defect as a poet is his lack of character. No 
 other Roman wrote more polished verse, no other em- 
 ployed the Latin language more effectively for his pur- 
 poses ; but the want of moral earnestness and power makes 
 Ovid, with all his genius, the least among the great 
 Roman poets. His weakness is most noticeable in his 
 earlier and later works, and the Metamorphoses and the 
 Fasti are therefore the most admirable of his poems. 
 Ovid was read throughout the Middle Ages, and the myth- 
 ological allusions in writings of the Renaissance period 
 and modern times are, for the most part, traceable to him. 
 He was one of Milton's favorite authors, and several pas- 
 sages in Paradise Lost show his influence. Shakespeare, 
 too, was acquainted, directly or indirectly, with the 
 Metamorphoses, and numerous echoes of Ovid's poems are 
 heard in the strains of other English poets.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 LIVY-OTHER AUGUSTAN PROSE WRITERS 
 
 Livy, 59 B. C.-17 A. D. His qualities as historian and writer Pom- 
 peius Trogus, about 20 B.C. Justin, second or third century after 
 Christ Fenestella, 52 B. C.-19 A. D. Oratory Seneca the elder, about 
 55 B. c. to about 40 A. D. Verrius Flaccus, about 1 A. D. Pestus, third 
 or fourth century after Christ Hyginus, about 64 B. c. to about 17 
 A. D. Extant works under the name of Hyginus Labeo and Capito 
 Vitruvius, about 70 B. c. to after 16 B. c. 
 
 THE Augustan period is the golden age of Latin 
 poetry. Prose reached its greatest height in the age of 
 Cicero and began to deteriorate soon after 
 inferior to hi g death. One reason for this is the great 
 poetry of this development of poetry, which led to the in- 
 period, troduction of poetic words and phrases into 
 prose ; another is the fashionable rhetoric of the day, 
 which aimed not at simplicity and clearness, nor dignity 
 and grandeur, but at novel or striking expressions, artifi- 
 cial arrangement, and subtlety of thought. The influence 
 of the rhetorical schools is seen in some of the poetry of 
 Ovid and Manilius,but is much more evident in the prose 
 of this period and the succeeding times. 
 
 The only great prose writer of the Augustan period is 
 
 Livy. Titus Livius was born at Patavium (Padua) in 
 
 59 B. c., and died in his native place in 17 
 
 A. D. Little is known of his life, but the tone 
 
 of his writing indicates that he was not poor and belonged 
 
 to a family of some position. He is said to have written 
 
 philosophical works, probably popular treatises in the 
 
 form of dialogues, and a treatise on rhetoric in the form 
 
 156
 
 LIVY 157 
 
 of a letter to his son. These works are lost, and can 
 never have possessed much importance in comparison with 
 the great history to which Livy devoted more than forty 
 years of his life. About 30 B. c. Livy moved to Eome, 
 where he lived the greater part of the time until his 
 death. Probably he visited his native Padua more than 
 once, and he travelled also to other places in Italy. He 
 was a republican in principle, but accepted the rule of 
 Augustus without reserve. In fact, he was a personal 
 friend of Augustus, who called him in jest a Pompeian, 
 on account of his criticisms of Julius Caesar and his admi- 
 ration for the old republic. Livy appears in his work as 
 a man of conservative tendencies, content to live under 
 whatever government happened to exist, provided it was 
 not too oppressive, willing to accept the state religion, 
 with all its beliefs in signs and omens, while recognizing 
 that some, at least, of the omens reported were inventions. 
 His one great enthusiasm was for the greatness of Kome. 
 This sentiment it was which led him to devote his life to 
 the composition of a great history of Kome from the 
 earliest times to his own day. 
 
 The title of Livy's history was Libri ab Urbe Condita 
 
 (Books from the Foundation of the City). It consisted of 
 
 142 books, the first of which was written be- 
 
 ^. vy ' 8 tween 29 and 25 B. c., while the last twenty- 
 
 History. 
 
 two were published after the death of Au- 
 gustus. The last book ended with the death of Drusus, in 
 9 A. D. Whether Livy intended to carry his work still 
 further is unknown. The division into books is Livy's 
 own, but the division into decades, or groups of ten 
 books, was made later, though it may perhaps have 
 been suggested by the original publication of some of 
 the books in groups. For the earlier parts of the work 
 comparatively little material was available; consequent- 
 ly the history of the early years of Rome is less de- 
 tailed than that of later periods. Fifteen books carry the
 
 158 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 narrative from the foundation of the city to the begin- 
 ning of the Punic wars, a period of nearly five hundred 
 years, while the war with Hannibal occupies ten books, 
 and ten books are devoted to the eight years from the 
 death of Marius to the death of Sulla (86-78 B. c.). 
 
 Of this immense work only thirty-five books are ex- 
 tant : Books I-X, from the beginning into the third 
 Samnite War (753-293 B. c.), and XXI-XLV, from the 
 second Punic War to the Macedonian triumph of Lucius 
 ^Emilius Paulus (218-167 B. c.). In Books XXI-XLV nu- 
 merous gaps occur. The contents of the remaining books 
 are known to us through a series of abstracts made not 
 directly from Livy, but from an epitome. Such an epit- 
 ome existed as early as the time of Martial, not many 
 years after Livy's death. 
 
 Livy derived his material from earlier historians, such 
 as Fabius Pictor, Valerius Antias, Licinius Macer, Clau- 
 dius Quadrigarius, and Polybius, following sometimes 
 one and sometimes another, but seldom trying to recon- 
 Qualities of c ^ e conflicting statements of his authorities. 
 Livy's When they did not agree, he usually accepted 
 
 History. fa e statement that seemed to him most prob- 
 able. He did not try to discover new truths by the study 
 of original sources, such as inscriptions and other monu- 
 ments, nor did he make careful studies of battlefields, 
 routes of march, or the like. He did not, as most mod- 
 ern historians do, try to establish facts by independ- 
 ent research, but he worked over the accounts of his pred- 
 ecessors with the intention of presenting the whole of 
 Koman history in an attractive literary form. In this he 
 was so successful that his history soon became the one 
 source from which all subsequent writers drew their infor- 
 mation. His lack of military knowledge makes his de- 
 scription of battles and other military matters somewhat 
 untrustworthy, and the early part of his work suffers from 
 his inability to understand the gradual growth of Eoman
 
 LIVY 159 
 
 civilization, but such defects are more than compensated 
 for by the admirable literary qualities of his history. He is, 
 moreover, truthful, so far as he knows the truth, and any 
 incorrect statements are due rather to insufficient knowl- 
 edge than to any desire to conceal or pervert the truth. 
 In his accounts of the dealings of the Eomans with other 
 peoples he is partial to the Romans, but that is because 
 his sincere admiration for the Eoman greatness leads him 
 to believe that the Romans were in the right and acted 
 rightly, and his partiality to the Scipios is to be accounted 
 for in a similar way. 
 
 It is evident from what has been said above that Livy 
 is far from being a perfect historian ; yet his history is 
 true in the main, and is based upon broad knowledge and 
 insight into the underlying principles of human charac- 
 ter and human actions. He is less interested in accuracy 
 of detail than in broader and more general truth and 
 dramatic presentation. So in the speeches 
 Livy's w j^ ujjj^ h e enlivens his work, he does not 
 
 speeches. 
 
 pretend to repeat what the speakers actually 
 
 said, nor even in every instance to put in their mouths 
 words that express their individual characters, but rather 
 to say in good rhetorical form what the circumstances 
 seem to him to demand. In this he follows Thucydides, 
 and his speeches, like those of Thucydides, serve not 
 merely to give variety to the narrative, but also to bring 
 vividly before us and to explain the circumstances and 
 motives that led up to the actions narrated. These 
 speeches are the most brilliant parts of his work. In them 
 he shows the fruit of his training in the rhetorical schools 
 and of careful study of Demosthenes and Cicero ; but his 
 rhetoric does not end in mere declamation. The speeches 
 are not written merely to exhibit his rhetorical training, 
 but to explain and enlighten. 
 
 Throughout his work Livy appears as the enemy of 
 extremes. His admiration for Pompey does not lead him
 
 160 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 to become hostile to the ruling family; he is opposed 
 alike to royalty and to unbridled democracy. At the 
 same time he treats his subject with sympathy and 
 warmth of feeling, and makes the ethical side of history 
 prominent, seeking to present in a strong light such ac- 
 tions as may serve as models for conduct, not merely to 
 give a record of events. 
 
 Livy is unrivalled as a narrator and a painter in words. 
 His style is clear and straightforward, although his periods 
 are often long and sometimes made complicated by the in- 
 sertion in the sentence of numerous subordinate ideas, often 
 
 , expressed in the form of participles. As is 
 
 natural for one who wrote when Eoman poetry 
 was at its height, he introduces poetical words which are 
 foreign to the prose of Cicero and Caesar, and some of his 
 phrases show poetic coloring. But his Latin is pure, and 
 it is difficult to see what Asinius Pollio meant by accu- 
 sing him of " Patavinitas " or Paduanism. In later prose 
 writers the striving for poetic effect becomes a disagree- 
 able mannerism, but such traces of poetry as are found in 
 Livy are not the result of conscious effort, but of the lit- 
 erary atmosphere of the time. His style is not every- 
 where of uniform excellence ; for it is inevitable that in 
 such a long historical work the different qualities of the 
 subject and the advancing age of the writer affect the 
 mode of presentation, but there is no part of the work in 
 which the style is dull or without charm. It is perhaps 
 at its best in the books dealing with the Punic wars. 
 
 Livy's work was even in his lifetime regarded as the 
 most perfect example of historical writing. The younger 
 Pliny tells us that a citizen of Cadiz travelled all the way 
 to Rome merely to see Livy, and when he had seen him 
 returned at once to Cadiz, feeling that the other sights of 
 Rome were of no further interest. Livy's influence upon 
 later Roman writers was of the utmost importance, and 
 his work has served as a model for more than one histo-
 
 LIVY 161 
 
 rian in more recent times. His enthusiasm for what is 
 good and noble, his admiration for the great men of Kome, 
 and his worship of Rome itself, give to his work some- 
 thing of the exalted character that belongs to a hymn 
 of praise or a panegyric. His great history served, like 
 Virgil's jffineid, to give permanent literary expression to 
 the greatness of the past days of the Koman common- 
 wealth. 
 
 It would occupy too much space to try to give speci- 
 mens of all the varieties of Livy's style and composition. 
 His descriptions of battles, among which that of the de- 
 feat of Antiochus at Magnesia 1 deserves special mention, 
 are masterpieces of painting in words, even when they 
 betray his lack of military knowledge, and his summaries 
 of the characters of important persons are admirable. The 
 introduction to the history of the war with Hannibal, with 
 the description of the siege of Saguntum, the hesitation 
 at Rome, and the scene in the Carthaginian senate, is un- 
 surpassed. The speech of Hanno, who alone 
 among the Carthaginian senators wished to 
 preserve peace by relinquishing Saguntum 
 and delivering Hannibal into the hands of the Romans, is 
 one of the most remarkable of the many striking passages 
 in this wonderful history : s 
 
 You have sent to the army, adding, as it were, fuel to the fire, a 
 youth who burns with the desire of ruling, and who sees only one 
 way to his end, if he lives girt with arms and legions, sowing 
 from wars the seed of wars. You have therefore nourished this fire 
 with which you are now burning. Your armies are now surround- 
 ing Saguntum, which the treaty forbids them to approach ; pres- 
 ently the Roman legions will surround Carthage under the leader- 
 ship of those same gods by whom in the last war the broken 
 treaties were avenged. Do you not know the enemy, or yourselves, 
 or the fortune of the two peoples ? Your good general refused to 
 admit to his camp envoys who came from allies in behalf of allies ; 
 
 1 xxxvii, 39 ff. xxi, 10.
 
 162 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 they, nevertheless, though refused admittance where even the en- 
 voys of enemies are not forbidden to enter, have come to us ; they 
 demand restitution in accordance with the treaty ; that there may 
 be no deceit on the part of the state, they ask that the author of 
 the wrong and the accused person be delivered up. The more 
 gently they act, the more slowly they begin, the more persistently, 
 I fear, they will rage when once they have begun. Place before 
 your eyes the Agates islands and Eryx and what you suffered by 
 land and sea for twenty -four years. And that leader was no boy, but 
 his father Hamilcar himself, a second Mars, as his partisans will 
 have it. But we had not kept our hands off from Tarentum, that is 
 from Italy, in obedience to the treaty, as now we are not keeping 
 them off from Saguntum. Therefore the gods overcame men, and 
 in the question at issue, which people had broken the treaty, the 
 event of war, like a just judge, gave the victory to that side on 
 which right stood. It is against Carthage that Hannibal is now 
 moving up his screens and towers; he is shaking the walls of 
 Carthage with his battering-ram. The ruins of Saguntum (may I 
 prove a false prophet 1) will fall upon our heads, and the war be- 
 gun against the Saguntines must be carried on against the Romans. 
 "Shall we then give up Hannibal?" some one will say. I know 
 that in his case my influence has little weight on account of my 
 enmity to his father; but I have been glad that Hamilcar is dead, 
 because if he were living we should already be at war with the 
 Romans, and I hate and detest this youth as the fury and fire- 
 brand of this war, as one who ought not only to be given up as an 
 expiation for the broken treaty, but if no one demanded him, 
 should be carried away to the uttermost shores of sea and land, 
 removed to such a distance that his name and fame could not 
 reach to us nor he disturb the condition of our quiet state. I make 
 this motion : That ambassadors be sent at once to Rome, to give 
 satisfaction to the senate ; other envoys to announce to Hannibal 
 that he withdraw his army from Saguntum, and to hand Hannibal 
 himself over to the Romans in pursuance of the treaty ; I move a 
 third embassy to restore their property to the Saguntines. 
 
 This speech, composed with powerful rhetoric and 
 placed in a dramatic setting, serves not only to bring 
 before our eyes the fruitless errand of the Eoman envoys 
 at Carthage, but to emphasize the justice of the Roman
 
 LIVY 1C3 
 
 cause and to predict the ultimate success of the Eomans, 
 on whose side the gods that watch over treaties were 
 enlisted. It is an example of Livy's oratorical composi- 
 tion, of his dramatic power, of his desire to show that 
 historical events are the result of moral causes, and of his 
 conviction that the Koman power was founded upon right 
 and justice. 
 
 Livy's great work was the first complete history of 
 Home composed in fine literary form. The time was 
 ripe for such a work. The Roman people had spread its 
 power over the whole civilized world, and the peace and 
 order established by Augustus made it natural that men 
 should wish to read the history of the long struggles of 
 the republic that led up to the present peace of the 
 empire. Livy's history, therefore, appealed directly to a 
 large circle of readers. But in extending its power over 
 the world, the Roman people had come in contact with 
 various nations, and it was natural that the history of 
 those nations should be of interest to the Romans. The 
 task of writing this history was undertaken by Pompeius 
 Trogus. By descent he was a Vocontian, of the prov- 
 ince of Gallia Narbonensis, but his grandfather had 
 received the Roman citizenship from Pompey, and his 
 
 father had served under Caesar in Gaul. 
 Trogus. Pompeius Trogus himself is mentioned as a 
 
 writer on zoology, but his most important 
 work was his universal history entitled Histories Philip- 
 piece, in forty-four books. Trogus began with the history 
 of the Oriental empires, Assyria, Media, and Persia, pasc- 
 ing from the Persians to the Scythians and the Greeks. 
 The greater part of his work was taken up with the 
 account of the Macedonian Empire founded by Philip, 
 and of the kingdoms that arose from it after the death of 
 Alexander the Great. The history of each of these king- 
 doms is continued to its absorption in the Roman Empire. 
 It is from this part of the work (Books VII-XL) that the
 
 164 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 whole received its title. The forty-first and forty-second 
 books contained the history of the Parthians, the forty- 
 third told of the beginnings of Rome and treated of 
 affairs in Gaul, and the forty-fourth book contained the 
 history of Spain, ending with the victory of Augustus 
 over the Spaniards. 
 
 The history of Trogus is not preserved in its original 
 form, but only in a brief summary made in the second or 
 third century after Christ by an otherwise 
 summary. unknown Marcus Junianus Justinus. It is 
 evident that Trogus was not an original in- 
 vestigator, and his work was probably little more than 
 a translation of a Greek original, perhaps by Timagenes 
 of Alexandria, who came to Rome in the time of the civil 
 wars. Nevertheless, the work was important, as it was 
 based on good authorities. It never became so popular as 
 Livy's history, but it was evidently much used by later 
 writers, and Justin's summary was much read in the 
 Middle Ages. Of the style of Trogus it is difficult to 
 judge, but so far as it can be appreciated in Justin's 
 abridgment, it was clear and lively, with a good deal of 
 rhetorical adornment. Even the abridgment is a valu- 
 able work on account of the importance of its contents. 
 
 Several other historians of the Augustan period are 
 known by name, but their works are lost and have left 
 
 few traces. The most important of these 
 Fenestella. 
 
 writers was probably Fenestella, who lived 
 
 from 52 B. c. to 19 A. D. He wrote Annals in at least 
 twenty-two books, and probably also a variety of works on 
 antiquarian subjects. 
 
 The oratory of this period was far inferior to that of 
 the age of Cicero. It was for the most part without 
 Or t r serious purpose, and the productions of the 
 
 orators were little more than school exercises 
 to show their skill and serve as models for their pupils. 
 Messalla, Pollio, and some others continued the earlier
 
 SENECA THE ELDER 165 
 
 style of oratory in the Augustan age, but they found few 
 imitators or successors. Among other early Augustan 
 orators was Titus Labienus, who wrote a history as well 
 as speeches. He was so bitterly opposed to the rule of 
 Augustus that his works were burned by decree of the 
 senate. Cassius Severus made in his speeches and wri- 
 tings such violent attacks upon the aristocracy that he 
 was banished by Augustus, and his property was con- 
 fiscated under Tiberius. He died in great poverty at 
 Seriphus in 32 A. D. Other orators, whose speeches were 
 almost exclusively school exercises, were Marcus Porcius 
 Latro, Gaius Albucius Silus, Quintus Haterius, Lucius 
 Junius Gallic, and the two Asiatic Greeks, Arellius 
 Fuscus and Lucius Cestius Pius. Little or nothing is 
 known about any of these men except what is derived 
 from the works of Annaeus Seneca, the father of the 
 s n th philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca and 
 elder. grandfather of the epic poet Lucan. Of 
 
 the life of the elder Seneca little is known. 
 He was born at Corduba, in Spain, probably as early as 
 55 B. c., and spent part of his life in Eome. He lived to 
 a great age, for his only extant work was written as late 
 as 37 A. D. This is a series of recollections of famous 
 orators and rhetoricians, written at the request of the 
 author's sons, Novatus, Seneca, and Mela. It originally 
 contained ten books of Controversies, or arguments, and 
 one book of Suasorice, or speeches advising some par- 
 ticular course of conduct. The most important parts 
 of the work are the introductions, which contain much 
 information on the history of oratory. The ten books of 
 Controversies treated of seventy-four subjects, the book of 
 Suasorice of seven. The beginning of the Suasorice is 
 now lost, and of the Controversies only thirty-five are pre- 
 served. The subject-matter is throughout insipid and 
 dull. Such things are discussed as this: "A man and 
 his wife swore that if anything happened to one of them
 
 1C6 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 the other would die. The man went on a journey and 
 sent a message to his wife that he was dead. The wife 
 threw herself down from a high place. She was brought 
 to herself again, and her father ordered her to leave her 
 husband. She refused." The utterances of the masters 
 of rhetoric on such matters as this are given by Seneca, 
 whose prodigious memory made him able to repeat them 
 almost, if not quite, in the original words. The most 
 interesting single theme is the sixth Suasoria, in which 
 the question is answered whether Cicero should beg 
 Antony to spare his life. The answers given contain sev- 
 eral judgments on Cicero, among them those of Asinius 
 Pollio and Livy. But the folly and emptiness of the 
 sort of oratorical study with which Seneca makes us 
 acquainted can not fail to impress every reader. Seneca 
 himself expresses his disgust. His remarkable memory 
 enabled him to hand down to later ages specimens of the 
 oratorical teaching which, even in the Augustan age, 
 began to corrupt Latin style. Seneca's own style is not 
 far removed from that of Cicero's time, and Seneca, 
 though he wrote under Caligula, probably acquired his 
 style in the early part of the Augustan period. The 
 specimens he has preserved show, however, that the 
 influential teachers of his early days had far less taste 
 than he. 
 
 Among the learned writers on special subjects one of 
 the most important was Verrius Flaccus, of whose life 
 
 little is known, except that he was chosen by 
 Verrius . . J 
 
 Flaccus. Augustus to educate his grandsons Gaius 
 
 and Lucius, and that he died in old age 
 during the reign of Tiberius. Of his numerous works on 
 grammatical and antiquarian subjects one only, On the 
 Meaning of Words (De Verborum Significatu], is partially 
 preserved in an abridgment by Pompeius Festus, who 
 seems to have lived in the third or fourth century after 
 Christ. Only part of this abridgment remains, but this
 
 VITRUVIUS 167 
 
 is important for the information it contains concerning 
 Roman antiquities and early Latin words. A further 
 abridgment of Festus was made in the eighth century 
 by Paulus, and even this is of value, though it is a 
 mere skeleton of the original work of Verrius Flaccus. 
 Another scholar was Gaius Julius Hyginus, a freedman 
 of Augustus and librarian of the Palatine library. His 
 life extended from about 64 B. c. to about 17 
 A. D. He composed works on agriculture, 
 history, geography, and antiquities, besides commentaries 
 on Virgil and on Cinna's poem to Asinius Pollio. Of all 
 these works nothing remains ; but two works under the 
 name of Hyginus are extant. One of these is a treatise 
 on astronomy, including myths relating to the stars, 
 the other a mythological handbook entitled Falula, to 
 which a series of genealogies is appended. The hand- 
 book is valuable chiefly because the myths told in it are 
 taken from Greek tragedies for the most part, and 
 through them we learn the plots of many lost works of 
 Greek authors. These extant works are, however, not by 
 the librarian Hyginus, but by a later writer, who lived 
 probably in the second century after Christ. Of the 
 
 legal writings of Marcus Antistius Labeo 
 Labeoand & . 
 
 Capito. an< * G ams Ateius Capito nothing remains. 
 
 Each was the head of a school of writers 
 and teachers on legal subjects. Labeo tried to explain 
 changes and growth in legal matters, as well as in 
 grammar, by the principle of analogy or likeness, while 
 Capito regarded anomaly or difference as more impor- 
 tant. 
 
 A work of no literary excellence, but of great value 
 on account of the information it contains, is the treatise 
 
 On Architecture (De Architectural, in ten 
 Vitruvius. 
 
 books, by Vitruvius Pollio. Vitruvius was a 
 
 practical architect, who built a basilica at Colonia Fanes- 
 tris and had charge of the construction of machines of 
 12
 
 168 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 war under Augustus. 1 His books appear to have been 
 written between 16 and 13 B. c., and dedicated to Augus- 
 tus. They form the only systematic treatise on architec- 
 ture preserved to us from antiquity, and are for that 
 reason of the greatest importance to architects and 
 archaeologists. The style is, however, inelegant and 
 obscure, though its obscurity is due in part to the neces- 
 sary employment of technical expressions. Vitruvius was 
 evidently a man of no great literary education or ability, 
 however able he may have been as an architect. 
 
 The age of Augustus is marked by the highest devel- 
 opment of Roman poetry. Virgil, Horace, Tibullus, Pro- 
 pertius and Ovid are, each in his own way, the greatest of 
 the Roman poets. Only Catullus and Lucretius can be 
 compared with any one of them. The only great prose 
 writer of the period is Livy. His style is still pure, and 
 is certainly very charming ; but even Livy departs some- 
 what from the dignity and beauty of the sermo urbanus, 
 the Latin of Cicero and Caesar. The extracts preserved 
 by Seneca show that the rhetorical teaching of the time 
 was artificial and tasteless, and was leading the way to 
 decline, to the so-called silver Latin of the imperial 
 epoch. 
 
 1 This is the generally accepted date, but it is possible that Vitru- 
 vius may have lived somewhat later.
 
 BOOK HI 
 THE EMPIRE AFTER AUGUSTUS 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 TIBERIUS TO VESPASIAN 
 
 The emperors (Tiberius, 14-37 A. D. ; Caligula, 37-41 A. D. ; Claudius, 
 41-54 A. D. ; Nero, 54-68 A. D.) Phsedrus, about 40 A. D. Germani- 
 cus, 15 B. C.-19 A. D. Velleius Paterculus, 30 A. D. Valerius Maxi- 
 inus, about 47 B. c. to about 30 A. D. Celsus about 35 A. D. Votienus 
 Montanus, died 27 A. D. Asinius Gallus, 40 B. c.-33 A. D. Mamercus 
 Scaurus, died 34 A. D. Publius Vitellius, died 31 A. D. Doraitius 
 Afer, 14 B. C.-59 A. D. Cremutius Cordus, died 25 A. D. Aufidius Bas- 
 sus Retnmius Palaemon Julius Atticus Julius Gracchinus Marcus 
 Apicius Philosophers Lucius Annaeus Seneca, about 1 A. D. to 65 
 A. D. Persius, 34-62 A. D. Lucan, 39-65 A. D. Calpurnius, about 60 
 A. D. Pomponius Secundus, about 50 A. D. Petronius, died 66 A.D. 
 Quintus Curtius, about 50 (f) A. D. Columella, about 40 A. D. Mela, 
 about 40 A. D. Other writers. 
 
 WITH the death of Augustus the greatest period of 
 Roman literature comes to an end. From this time its 
 Literature history is a record of decay, not regularly 
 after progressive, to be sure, and not always mani- 
 
 Augustui. fested in the same way, but almost constant, 
 and hardly interrupted even by the appearance of a few 
 writers of genuine ability. With the establishment of 
 peace throughout the Roman Empire, and with the ease 
 and security of travel from province to province, men 
 from all parts of the empire came to Rome for a time and 
 returned to their homes, after, perhaps, imbibing some- 
 
 169
 
 170 , ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 thing of the culture of the capital, while others took up 
 their residence permanently in the imperial city. Some 
 men of each class devoted themselves to literature. The 
 elder Seneca belongs to one of these classes, the younger 
 Seneca certainly to the latter. The influence of the pro- 
 vincials upon Roman literature could not fail to be great. 
 In the hands of Spaniards like the Senecas, Latin could 
 hardly remain the city speech, sermo urbanus, of the time 
 of Cicero. The evil influence of even the best rhetorical 
 teaching of the time of Augustus has already been men- 
 tioned, and as time went on the rhetorical teaching be- 
 came constantly worse. Moreover, the circumstances of 
 the empire, and especially of the city of Rome, were not 
 favorable to the growth of literature. The peace that 
 followed the unrest of the civil wars had led in the time 
 of Augustus to great literary activity, but the continued 
 peace in the subsequent years, when men's minds were no 
 longer moved by the remembrance of stirring events, 
 tended to deaden the imagination and to dry up the 
 springs of literary life. In the early part of the first cen- 
 tury after Christ there are few important writers either 
 in Greek or Latin. In the city itself the character of the 
 emperor had a powerful effect upon literature. 
 
 Tiberius (14-37 A. D.) was a pupil of the Greek rhetor- 
 ician, Theodorus of Gadara, and was familiar with Greek 
 
 . , .. and Latin literature. He wrote Greek verses 
 The relations 
 
 of the m the learned Alexandrian manner, a Latin 
 
 emperors to poem on the death of Lucius Caesar, and au- 
 tobiographical memoirs in prose ; but his own 
 literary interest did not make him a patron of literature. 
 His suspicious nature caused him to seek out and punish 
 all real or imaginary allusions to himself in the works of 
 contemporary authors, with the natural result that author- 
 ship became a pursuit too dangerous to be popular. 
 Caligula (37-41 A. D.) had some ability as a speaker, and 
 wished to be considered an orator, but his insanity led
 
 TIBERIUS TO VESPASIAN 171 
 
 him to wish to destroy the works of Homer, and to re- 
 move the works and the busts of Virgil and Livy from 
 the public libraries, on the ground that one of them was 
 without genius or learning and the other was diffuse and 
 careless. Although he did not systematically repress 
 literature, his brief reign was certainly not favorable to 
 its cultivation. Claudius (41-54 A. D.), who came to the 
 throne at the age of fifty years, was a dull and learned 
 pedant. He began to write a history from the death of 
 Csesar, but stopped at the end of the second book, owing 
 to the objections of his mother and grandmother. He 
 then wrote a history in forty-one books, probably begin- 
 ning with the bestowal of the title of Augustus upon 
 Octavian (27 B. c.), and continuing for forty-one years. 
 He also wrote a history of the Etruscans in twenty 
 books, and a history of Carthage in eight books. Of all 
 these works nothing remains. Some idea of his style 
 may be derived from two inscriptions found at Lyons 
 and Trent. The first is a speech delivered in the sen- 
 ate in 48 A. D., advocating the extension to the Gallic 
 nobility of the ius honorum, or right to hold offices, the 
 second a decree renewing the grant of citizenship to the 
 inhabitants of the regions in the Rhaetian Alps about 
 Trent, and regulating their affairs. In both cases the 
 style is confused and entirely without elegance or merit. 
 Claudius also wrote a defense of Cicero against Asinius 
 Gallus, the son of Asinius Pollio, who had maintained 
 that Pollio was the greater orator. The addition by 
 Claudius of three letters to the Latin alphabet shows his 
 interest in linguistic matters, but was without permanent 
 effect. Under this ruler literature revived somewhat 
 after the persecutions under Tiberius. Nero (5468 A. D.), 
 the pupil of Seneca, wrote various short poems and an epic, 
 entitled Troica, on the Trojan War. His jealousy caused 
 him to be the enemy of other poets, but he paid little 
 attention to literary attacks upon himself. On the whole,
 
 172 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 literature was not repressed during his reign, though 
 after the discovery of the conspiracy of Piso, in 65 A. D., 
 his wrath fell upon philosophers and men of letters. 
 
 The literature of the times of Tiberius and Caligula is 
 less important than that of the following years. The 
 only poet of importance is Phaedrus, a f reed- 
 man of Augustus, who wrote fables in iambic 
 verse. These are for the most part not original with 
 Phaedrus, but are the so-called fables of ^Esop, tales of 
 Oriental origin, which migrated in writing or in oral form 
 to Europe. The Greeks thought them the inventions of 
 ^Esop, but modern investigations have proved that they 
 belong to the migratory folk-lore of India. After the 
 first book of his fables, Phaedrus introduces fables and 
 tales of his own among those ascribed to ^Esop. The 
 whole collection now consists of ninety-three fables, 
 divided into five books ; but it originally contained a 
 greater number, especially in Books II and V. The fables 
 are still, many of them, at least, familiar to most children. 
 Such are the stories of the Wolf and the Lamb, the Frog 
 who tried to be as big as an Ox, the Fox and the Crane, 
 and many others. Phasdrus tells the fables in well-com- 
 posed verses, but sometimes overdoes his love of brevity 
 so as to be obscure. He also points out the moral of his 
 tales too plainly, leaving nothing to the imagination of 
 his readers. His language is the simple and easy Latin 
 of the early Augustan period, without the rhetorical 
 nourishes popular in the following years. Yet it is evi- 
 dent from references in the prologue to the third book 
 that, although Sejanus was powerful after the appearance 
 of the first two books, the third was written after 
 his fall, that is to say, after 31 A. D. Probably Phae- 
 drus wrote at least as late as 40 A. D. Of his per- 
 sonal history little is known. He was born in Pieria, 
 in Macedonia, but went to Italy and probably to Rome, 
 at an early age. Something in the first two books of
 
 VELLEIUS PATERCULUS 173 
 
 fables brought down upon the poet the wrath of Sejanus, 
 but how serious its effects were is not known. The Euty- 
 chus to whom the third book is addressed is probably the 
 charioteer who was an important personage in the last 
 years of Caligula. Particulo and Philetes, whom Phae- 
 drus addresses in the epilogue and the last fable of the 
 fifth book, are unknown. The Fables of Phaedrus have 
 been much used as a text-book, because they are interest- 
 ing to young readers and are written in simple, classical 
 Latin. 
 
 A poem belonging to the first years after the death of 
 Augustus is the Aratea, by Germanicus, the son of Drusus 
 
 (15 B. C.-19 A. D.). This is a translation and 
 us< adaptation of the Phenomena of Aratus, and 
 shows that the author was not only a talented writer of 
 hexameters, but also a well-educated astronomer. This 
 poem contains 725 lines. Of a poem on the stars and 
 constellations in their relation to the weather and the 
 like, entitled Prognostica, only a few fragments remain. 
 Besides these astronomical poems of Germanicus, the last 
 book of Manilius (see p. 138) belongs to this period. So 
 also do some of the poems wrongly ascribed to Virgil and 
 Ovid, and for that matter, the later poems of Ovid himself. 
 The only prose writers of the years before Claudius 
 whose works are extant are Velleius Paterculus, Valerius 
 
 Maximus, and Celsus. Gaius Velleius Pater- 
 PateVouius cu l us was an officer who had served under 
 
 Tiberius ; he was tribunus miUtum in 1 A. D. 
 and praetor-elect in 14 A. D. The latest date mentioned 
 in his Roman History is the consulship of Vinicius, 30 A. D. 
 The dates of his birth and death are unknown. The Ro- 
 man History consists of two books, the first of which is 
 imperfectly preserved. Velleius does not confine himself 
 strictly to Roman affairs, but begins his work with a brief 
 sketch of the foundation of the Greek cities in Italy. 
 The early part of the work is a mere summary, but more
 
 174 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 details are introduced as the narrative approaches the 
 author's own times ; yet it is, even in the latter part, by 
 no means an exhaustive history. Throughout the work 
 Velleius introduces his own opinions and is governed by 
 his own prejudices; his history is therefore not especially 
 trustworthy. His praise of Tiberius is so excessive that 
 it can not be excused even as the enthusiasm of a veteran 
 for his old general, and the almost equally exaggerated 
 praise of Sejanus is without the shadow of excuse. A 
 noteworthy peculiarity is that Velleius pays attention to 
 the history of Greek and Roman literature, which would 
 hardly be expected in so short a work. The style is clumsy, 
 but shows a desire for rhetorical effect. The vocabulary 
 is that of the Augustan age, but the pretentious rhetoric 
 and the evident striving for variety are characteristic of 
 the later time. The chief interest of Velleius is in the 
 character of the persons of whom he writes, and his whole 
 work has something personal about it which distinguishes 
 it from a mere record of events. In the early part of the 
 work he follows good authorities, though he often dis- 
 agrees with Livy, perhaps on account of Livy's republican 
 sympathies. In the latter part of the history he is un- 
 trustworthy, owing to his servile partiality for Tiberius 
 and those connected with him. . 
 
 The nine books of Memorable Doings and Sayings 
 
 (Facta et Dicta Memorabilia), by Valerius Maximus, were 
 
 written not far from 30 A. D., and dedicated 
 
 Valerius to Tiberius. Of the writer little is known 
 
 Maximus. . ., _. 
 
 except that he accompanied Sextus Pompems 
 to Asia, about 27 B. c. He was, then, born probably as 
 early as 47 B. c., and can hardly have lived long after the 
 completion of his books. Many of the anecdotes contained 
 in his work are interesting, but the style is artificial, pom- 
 pous, and dull. The most servile flattery is given to 
 Tiberius, Julius Caesar, and Augustus. The anecdotes 
 cover a wide range of subjects religion, ancient customs,
 
 OTHER PROSE WRITERS 175 
 
 all varieties of character, fortune, old age, remarkable 
 deaths, and many more. Naturally, the work contains 
 some valuable information, but this is thinly distributed 
 through the nine books. The work was, however, popular 
 in the Middle Ages, and is preserved in many manuscripts. 
 A book on words, especially names (De Prcenominibus, etc.), 
 contained in the manuscripts of Valerius Maximus, is by 
 some unknown author and is of little value. 
 
 Aulus Cornelius Celsus wrote an encyclopedia, which 
 contained treatises on agriculture, medicine, the art of 
 
 war, oratory, jurisprudence, and philosophy. 
 
 Part, at least, of this great work was written 
 under Tiberius, but other parts may have been written 
 later, for there is no definite indication of the date of the 
 author's birth or death. Only the treatise on medicine 
 (Books VI-XIII of the entire work) is preserved. This 
 shows that Celsus was well versed in the medical science 
 of his day, and that medical science had at that time 
 reached a high degree of perfection. Celsus writes in a 
 simple, straightforward style, without the artificial rhet- 
 oric or the poetic phraseology common among post- 
 Augustan prose writers. His work was deservedly popular 
 among those who wished for scientific knowledge in the 
 Middle Ages, was one of the first books printed after the 
 invention of the printing-press, and was used as a text- 
 book for medical students until recent times. Whether 
 the other parts of the encyclopedia were as good as the 
 treatise on medicine can not now be determined. The 
 treatise on agriculture is mentioned with respect by Co- 
 lumella, but Quintilian speaks slightingly of Celsus, per- 
 haps on account of defects in the rhetorical parts of his 
 work. 
 
 The names of several orators of this period are handed 
 down, chiefly in the reminiscences of the elder Seneca. 
 The most noteworthy are, perhaps, Votienus Montanus, 
 who was banished by Tiberius and died in 27 A. D. ;
 
 176 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 Asinius Gallus (40 B. C.-33 A. D.) the son of Asinius Pol- 
 lio ; Mamercus Scaurus, who was forced by Tiberius to 
 Prose writers commit suicide in 34 A. D. ; Publius Vitellius, 
 whose works who brought about the condemnation of Piso 
 are lost. f or the mur d e r of Germanicus in 19 A. D., and 
 
 who died in 31 A. D. ; and Domitius Afer, from Nemausus 
 (14 B.C.-59 A.D.), who held important offices under Tiberius, 
 Caligula, and Nero. Among these orators, Domitius Afer 
 was most prominent as a speaker in court, while Mon- 
 tanus was a teacher of oratory and a declaimer. Histo- 
 rians whose works are lost were Aulus Cremutius Cordus 
 and Aufidius Bassus. The former published under Au- 
 gustus a historical work in which he praised Brutus and 
 spoke of Cassius as " the last of the Eomans." For this 
 his books were burned by decree of the senate in 25 A. D., 
 and he committed suicide by starving himself. Bassus 
 wrote a contemporary history in rhetorical style, probably 
 embracing the reigns of Augustus and Tiberius, and pos- 
 sibly the end of the republic. Among the grammarians 
 of this time, the most important was Quintus Kemmius 
 Palaemon, whose grammar (Ars Grammatica) was much 
 used by the later writer Charisius. There were also several 
 writers on special subjects, such as Caepio and Antonius 
 Castor, who wrote on botany, Julius Atticus and Julius 
 Gracchinus, who wrote on vine culture, and Marcus Api- 
 cius, who wrote on cookery, though the extant cook-book 
 ascribed to him is a work of the third century. These 
 names show that even under Tiberius prose writing, al- 
 though not so important as at other times, was not en- 
 tirely neglected. 
 
 Philosophy was much cultivated at Rome in this time, 
 
 as it had been for at least a century, but the philosoph- 
 
 ical teachers under Tiberius and Caligula 
 
 wrote for the most part, when they wrote at 
 
 all, in Greek. Among them were the Sextii and Sotion, 
 
 whose activity was in the later years of Augustus and the
 
 SENECA 177 
 
 earlier years of Tiberius, Lucius Annaeus Cornutus, and 
 Gaius Musonius Kufus, both of whom were banished by 
 Nero in 65 A. D. These men, and others of less note, 
 whose doctrines were chiefly Stoic, exercised great influ- 
 ence upon Roman thought, but as their teachings were 
 chiefly oral and their written works were in Greek, they 
 must be passed over with a brief mention by no means 
 commensurate with their real importance. Sotion was 
 one of the teachers of the younger Seneca, the most im- 
 portant writer of the time of Nero, while Cornutus was 
 the teacher of the satirist Persius, and Musonius of the 
 powerful ethical preacher Epictetus. 
 
 Lucius Annaeus Seneca, the son of the rhetor Seneca, 
 
 whose work on the oratorical teachers of the period of 
 
 Augustus and the subsequent years has al- 
 
 uoius n- rea( jy b eeil mentioned, was born at Corduba, in 
 
 naeus Seneca. > 
 
 Spain, about the beginning of the Christian 
 era, but was educated in Rome, where he studied under 
 Sotion, the Stoic Attalus, and a follower of the Sextii, 
 Papirius Fabianus, besides attending schools of rhetoric. 
 His mother, Helvia, was a lady of noble birth, whose sis- 
 ter married Vitrasius Pollio, who was for some years gov- 
 ernor of Egypt. Seneca appears to have spent some time 
 in Egypt with his aunt, through whose influence he 
 obtained the quaestorship after his return to Rome, at 
 some time between 42 and 37 A. D. A speech which he 
 delivered in the senate nearly caused his death by arous- 
 ing the jealousy of Caligula in 39 A. D. In 41 A. D. he 
 was banished to Corsica through the influence of Messa- 
 lina, on the charge of too great intimacy with Julia Li- 
 villa, Caligula's younger sister. Such stories were circu- 
 lated about all the members of the imperial family, and 
 we have now no means of knowing whether there was 
 any truth in the charge against Seneca and Livilla. 
 Probably the real reason for Seneca's banishment was his 
 connection with the faction of Agrippina. At any rate,
 
 178 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 Agrippina recalled him from Corsica eight years later, 
 after the execution of Messalina, obtained for him the 
 praatorship, and made him tutor to her son Domitius 
 Nero. His influence over his young pupil was so great 
 that when Nero came to the throne, Seneca, with the aid 
 of his friend Afranius Burrus, commander of the prae- 
 torian guards, directed the imperial government. He 
 restrained the ferocity of Nero and checked the ambition 
 and vengefulness of Agrippina. Owing to his influence 
 the early years of Nero's reign were long remembered as 
 a period of rest and peace at Rome. But Seneca ob- 
 tained and held his influence in great measure by yield- 
 ing consent to Nero's wishes, even when they were 
 opposed to his better judgment or his conscience. He 
 was probably privy to the murder of Claudius, by which 
 Nero became emperor, there is no indication that he 
 opposed the murder of Germanicus in 55 A. D., and he 
 probably had some connection with the murder of Agrip- 
 pina in 59 A. D. It is natural that in spite of his remark- 
 able intellectual and social gifts, he was unable to main- 
 tain his moral ascendency over the emperor. With the 
 death of Burrus, in 62 A. D., Seneca's power was broken. 
 He recognized the fact, withdrew so far as he could from 
 the life of the court, and in 64 A. D. offered to give up his 
 great wealth. But his retirement did not save him from 
 Nero's cruelty, and in 65 A. D. he was accused of sharing 
 in the conspiracy of Piso and compelled to commit 
 suicide. 
 
 Seneca's philosophy did not forbid him to have a 
 share of worldly wealth and honors. At the height of 
 his prosperity he was immensely wealthy, possessing 
 estates in Italy and abroad, and having money out at 
 interest as far away as Britain. His total wealth was 
 estimated at more than $15,000,000. He held all the 
 regular offices, attaining the consulship in 57 A. D. Of 
 his private life little is known. He was twice married.
 
 SENECA 179 
 
 His first wife bore him at least two sons, one of whom 
 died shortly before his father's banishment. His second 
 wife, Pompeia Paulina, whom he married in 57 A. D., 
 wished to commit suicide at the time of her husband's 
 death, but was prevented by Nero. 
 
 Seneca was an extremely voluminous writer, and 
 
 though many of his works are lost, those that remain still 
 
 exceed in bulk the extant works of almost any other 
 
 ancient writer. They comprise tragedies, 
 
 Seneca's philosophical treatises, a satire on the death 
 tragedies. r r . 
 
 of Claudius, and a few epigrams. The exact 
 
 dates of individual works can be established only in com- 
 paratively few instances, and no attempt will be made 
 here to treat them in chronological order. Since, how- 
 ever, it is probable that the tragedies are works of his 
 earlier years, they may be mentioned first. Nine of these 
 are extant. 1 The subjects are all derived from Greek 
 mythology, and had all been used as the subjects of trage- 
 dies by Greek dramatists. No originality of plot is there- 
 fore to be expected in Seneca's tragedies. Nor is there 
 any great originality of treatment. Seneca imitates 
 Euripides and some of the later Greek tragic poets, not 
 simply translating their work, yet inventing few if any 
 new situations, a'nd differing from the Greek dramatists 
 chiefly in his greater realism and his declamatory rhet- 
 oric. In fact, his tragedies are a succession of speeches, 
 hardly interrupted by choral songs, which differ from the 
 speeches of the actors chiefly in metre. In themselves 
 these tragedies are feeble imitations and perversions of 
 their Greek prototypes, though in them, as in his other 
 works, Seneca shows great mastery of language and vigor 
 of expression ; but their real importance to the modern 
 
 1 Hercules Furens, Troades (or Hecuba), Phoenissae (or Thebats, 
 two disconnected scenes from Theban myths), Medea, Phiedra (or 
 Hippolytus), CEdipus, Agamemnon, Thyestes, and Hercules (Kta-ns. 
 The Fabula Prcetexta entitled Octavia is not by Seneca.
 
 180 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 reader is due to their great influence upon the English 
 dramatists of the sixteenth century and upon the whole 
 course of the French classical drama. At a time when 
 Latin was far more familiar than Greek these tragedies 
 were regarded as the highest expression of ancient dra- 
 matic art, and were studied and imitated by the drama- 
 tists of the modern nations. 
 
 The best known among them is, perhaps, the Medea. 
 In this play, as in the Medea of Euripides, the part of 
 ^ the myth is treated in which Jason deserts 
 
 his wife Medea to marry Creiisa, daughter of 
 Creon, king of Corinth. Medea sends her two sons to 
 Creiisa to give her a poisoned robe, which causes her 
 death and that of her father Creon. Then Medea, in 
 order to pain Jason, kills the two children. The follow- 
 ing passage is taken from Medea's reply to her nurse, who 
 urges her to flee when the news is brought that Creon and 
 Creiisa have been killed by the poisoned robe she had sent : 
 
 Shall I fly ? I ? Were I already gone 
 
 I would return for this, that I might see 
 
 These new betrothals. Dost thou pause, my soul ? 
 
 This joy's but the beginning of revenge. 
 
 Thou dost but love if thou art satisfied 
 
 To widow Jason. Seek new penalties; 
 
 Honor is gone and maiden modesty 
 
 It were a light revenge pure hands could yield. 
 
 Strengthen thy drooping spirit, stir up wrath, 
 
 Drain from thy heart its all of ancient force, 
 
 Thy deeds till now call honor ; wake, and act, 
 
 That they may see how light, how little worth, 
 
 All former crime the prelude of revenge ! 
 
 What was there great my novice hands could dare ? 
 
 What was the madness of my girlhood days ? 
 
 I am Medea now, through sorrow strong. 
 
 Rejoice, because through thee thy brother died ; 
 
 Rejoice, because through thee his limbs were torn, 
 
 Through thee thy father lost the golden fleece ; 
 
 Rejoice, that armed by thee his daughters slew
 
 SENECA 181 
 
 Old Pelias 1 Seek revenge ! No novice hand 
 
 Thou bring'st to crime ; what wilt thou do ; what dart 
 
 Let fly against thy hated enemy ? 
 
 I know not what my maddened spirit plots, 
 
 Nor yet dare I confess it to myself ! 
 
 In folly I made haste would that my foe 
 
 Had children by this other ! Mine are his. 
 
 We'll say Creilsa bore them 1 'Tis enough ; 
 
 Through them my heart at last finds full revenge. 
 
 My soul must be prepared for this last crime. 
 
 Ye who were once my children, mine no more, 
 
 Ye pay the forfeit for your father's crimes. 
 
 Awe strikes my spirit and benumbs my hand ; 
 
 My heart beats wildly ; mother-love drives out 
 
 Hate of my husband ; shall I shed their blood 
 
 My children's blood? Demented one, rage not, 
 
 Be far from thee this crime ! What guilt is theirs? 
 
 Is Jason not their father? guilt enough! 
 
 And worse, Medea claims them as her sons. 
 
 They are not sons of mine, so let them die! 
 
 Nay, rather let them perish since they are ! 
 
 But they are innocent my brother was! 
 
 Fear'st thou ? Do tears already mar thy cheek ? 
 
 Do wrath and love like adverse tides impel 
 
 Now here, now there ? As when the winds wage war, 
 
 And the wild waves against each other smite, 
 
 My heart is beaten ; duty drives out fear, 
 
 As wrath drives duty. Anger dies in love. 1 
 
 Seneca's philosophical writings fall naturally into 
 three divisions : the formal treatises on ethical subjects, 
 Seneca's ^he twenty books of Ethical Letters (Epis- 
 phiiosophioal tulce Morales), addressed to Lucilius, 8 and 
 writings. the Studies of Nature (Qucestiones Natura- 
 les), in seven books. The last-mentioned .work, addressed 
 to Lucilius, and written between 57 and 64 A. D., is by no 
 
 1 Lines 893-944! Translated by Ella Isabel Harris. 
 * This Lucilius has been supposed, though without sufficient 
 reason, to be the author of the ^Etna (see p. 141).
 
 182 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 means a complete treatise on nature. Two books treat 
 of astronomy, two of physical geography, and four of 
 meteorology ; for Book IV should properly be divided into 
 two books, one on physical geography, the other on 
 meteorology. These subjects are treated from the point 
 of view of the Stoics, without any original investigation 
 by Seneca, who derives his information entirely from 
 books. The work was very popular in the Middle Ages, 
 but is of no scientific value. Seneca's chief interest was 
 in ethics, and he uses the phenomena of nature as texts 
 for his ethical views. The formal treatises on ethics dis- 
 cuss such subjects as Anger (De Ira, in three books), 
 The Shortness of Life (De Brevitate Vita), Clemency (De 
 dementia), The Happy Life (De Vita Beata), Consola- 
 tion (De Consolatione, three independent treatises ad- 
 dressed to different persons), and The Giving and Receiv- 
 ing of Favors (De Beneficiis, an elaborate treatise in 
 seven books). The Letters treat of similar subjects in a 
 somewhat less formal way. These works show that 
 Seneca had studied with great diligence the works of 
 previous writers on such subjects, especially those of the 
 Stoics, though the writings of Epicureans had been by 
 no means neglected. The moral teaching is, in the main, 
 sound and wise, but there is little originality of thought. 
 The style is vigorous and effective, though artificial and 
 rhetorical ; but these latter qualities were so natural to 
 Seneca, in common with other writers of his day, that 
 they do not detract from the sincerity of the sentiments 
 expressed. Seneca is the most complete exponent of the 
 Stoic philosophy as it developed at Rome. He is not so 
 much a speculative thinker as a giver of practical advice 
 for the conduct of life. Like most, if not all, the Eoman 
 Stoics, he is a preacher and teacher ; and as such he is of 
 the highest interest and importance. His works were 
 much read in his own time and in the years immediately 
 following, though Quintilian and others who wished to
 
 PERSIUS 183 
 
 revive the Latin of Cicero found fault with their style. 
 Their popularity continued unabated for centuries, and 
 their high moral tone led to the belief that Seneca was a 
 Christian. This belief was strengthened by the composi- 
 tion, at a comparatively early date, of a series of fourteen 
 letters supposed to have been exchanged between Seneca 
 and the Apostle Paul. These letters are, however, obvi- 
 ously forgeries, and possess no literary merit. Seneca's 
 influence did not die with the death of the ancient civil- 
 ization, but has continued even to our own times, and is 
 very marked in the writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson. 
 
 In the Apocolocyntosis Seneca appears as a political 
 satirist. The title may be translated Pumpkinification, 
 for the word is made from the Greek apo- 
 ^ eos ^ w ^h tne worc * f r "pumpkin" sub- 
 stituted for the word meaning " god." This 
 joke does not, however, appear in the pamphlet itself. 
 The Emperor Claudius, who had just died, is supposed to 
 arrive at Olympus and claim admittance among the gods. 
 The gods hold a meeting, at which Augustus speaks 
 against the admission of Claudius, who is finally sent off 
 to Hades, where he is met by those whom he has unjustly 
 put to death. This is the only extant specimen of a com- 
 plete Menippean Satire, a work written in prose for the 
 most part, but containing also metrical portions. For 
 that reason it has a certain interest, but its literary merit 
 is slight. Nor are Seneca's epigrams of any great impor- 
 tance. They are merely such verses as any cultivated 
 man of letters like Seneca can write when the occasion 
 offers. 
 
 The age of Seneca produced no great poets, and few 
 
 whose works have survived. The earliest of these is 
 
 Aulus Persius Flaccus, who was born at 
 
 Volaterrse, December 4, 34 A. D., and died at 
 
 the age of twenty-eight, November 24, 62 A.D. At the 
 
 age of twelve, Persius left his native town for Rome, 
 
 13
 
 184: ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 where he attended various schools, among them that of 
 the grammarian Kemmius Palaemon. At the age of six- 
 teen he attached himself to the Stoic Cornutus and 
 became an enthusiastic adherent of the Stoic school. He 
 was acquainted with many of the distinguished men 
 of the time, among them Seneca and the epic poet 
 Lucan. He was related to Arria, the wife of Paetus 
 Thrasea, and his intimacy with Thrasea and his family 
 doubtless strengthened his interest in the Stoic philoso- 
 phy; for Thrasea was one of the many noble Romans 
 who found in the Stoic doctrines some moral support 
 amid the vice and corruption of their degenerate times. 
 Persius belonged to a family of equestrian rank, and at 
 his death left a large property. His library he left to 
 Cornutus, who edited his poems, consisting of six Satires. 
 Persius had written some notes of travel and a tragedy 
 of the kind called prcetexta, but these were not published. 
 In the first satire he attacks the literary production of 
 the time, and the prevailing love of notoriety. This is a 
 real satire, in imitation of those of Lucilius or, rather, of 
 Horace. In the remaining poems Persius discourses on 
 subjects drawn from the doctrines of the Stoics. The 
 second satire treats of prayer, the third of the contra- 
 diction between our conduct and what we know is right, 
 the fourth of self-knowledge ; in the fifth Persius grate- 
 fully praises Cornutus, who had trained him in Stoic 
 philosophy, and passes on to describe true freedom, which 
 delivers men from the tyranny of the passions; in the 
 sixth he addresses his friend, the poet Caesius Bassus, 
 speaks of his own pleasant life in retirement at Luna, and 
 discusses the true use of this world's goods. 
 
 The poems of Persius were much admired by his con- 
 temporaries, and later generations, even throughout the 
 Middle Ages, read them and wrote commentaries upon 
 them. This admiration was due to the moral and ethical 
 contents of the poems, though the style also no doubt
 
 LUCAN 185 
 
 pleased the perverted taste of the poet's own times. But 
 neither the contents nor the style merits admiration. 
 Quality of Persius was a young man of little originality, 
 the poems who expressed in his poems only what he 
 of Persius. h a( j learned from his teachers. The Stoic 
 doctrines he teaches are trite, even the examples he 
 cites being derived from books, not from his own experi- 
 ence ; and the style has all the faults of the period. Per- 
 sius had studied Horace with diligence, and his poems 
 are full of Horatian words and phrases, but they have 
 nothing of the grace and charm of Horace. Persius aims 
 at striking expressions and novelty of form. He there- 
 fore avoids as much as possible all that is natural, 
 employs unusual words in unnatural order, and succeeds 
 in being obscure without being profound. Few authors 
 have so undeservedly gained long-enduring reputation. 
 
 A far abler poet was Marcus Annseus Lucanus, the 
 nephew of Seneca. He was born at Corduba in 39 A. D., 
 but was taken to Eome when only eight 
 months old. There he was well educated, 
 especially in rhetoric, and acquired a reputation as a 
 declaimer in Greek and Latin. One of his teachers was 
 the philosopher Cornutus, and among his friends was 
 Persius, whom he admired greatly. He went to Athens 
 to complete his education, and was called back to Rome 
 by Nero, who made him one of his circle of friends. In 
 60 A. D. he wrote a poem in praise of Nero, which led to 
 his political advancement. But Nero's favor was short- 
 lived, either because Lucan was guilty of some impolite- 
 ness in public declaiming, or because Nero was jealous of 
 his reputation as a poet, and forbade him to write or 
 recite. Lucan joined the conspiracy of Piso, and was 
 forced to commit suicide, April 30, 65 A. D. 
 
 Lucan wrote several works, chiefly in verse, but the 
 only one extant is an epic poem in ten books, entitled 
 De Bella Civili (On the Civil War), ordinarily called
 
 186 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 Pharsalia, in which he tells the story of the civil war 
 to the time when Caesar was besieged at Alexandria. 
 The narrative is prosaic and somewhat dull, 
 Pharsalia ^ u * ^ e tedium is relieved by vivid descrip- 
 tions and really eloquent speeches. The 
 chief historical source is Livy, though other writers seem 
 to have been consulted. Some inaccuracies detract from 
 the historical value of the poem. The diction is in the 
 main Virgilian, though it is evident that Lucan had 
 studied Horace and Ovid. Geographical and mytholog- 
 ical lore is sometimes needlessly displayed, and the au- 
 thor's rhetorical training and ability are too evident. In 
 Books I-III Lucan is still friendly to Nero, whom he flat- 
 ters in Book I, 33-66, though throughout the entire woik 
 Caesar, the founder of the empire, is the constant object 
 of the poet's hostility. In the first three books Pompej' 
 is the hero, and Cato and Brutus are spoken of with 
 admiration. The opposition to Caesar does not, however, 
 in Lucan's case, indicate hostility to the empire and & 
 desire to return to the republican form of government ; 
 in fact, Lucan's participation in the conspiracy of Piso, 
 which had for its purpose the overthrow of Nero and the 
 substitution of a good emperor in his place, shows that 
 he accepted the imperial form of government as the only 
 one possible. As a specimen of Lucan's spirit, and of the 
 speeches which lend brilliancy to his pages, we may take 
 the address of Cato to the Roman soldiers of Ponpjey's 
 army in Egypt after Pompey's death, when the army was 
 on the point of joining Caesar : 
 
 So for no higher cause you waged your wars? 
 
 You, too, youths, fought for masters, and you were 
 
 No Roman force, but only Pompey's band? 
 
 Since not for royalty you're toiling now, 
 
 Since for yourselves, not for your leaders' gain 
 
 You live and die, since not for any man 
 
 You seek to gain the world, since now for you
 
 MINOR POETS 187 
 
 "Tis safe to conquer, you shrink back from wars, 
 And seek a yoke to press your empty necks, 
 And know not how to live without a king ! 
 Yet now you have a cause worth risk for men. 
 Your blood could be for Pompey shed in streams, 
 And do you now refuse your country's call 
 For lives and swords when liberty is nigh? 
 Of three lords Fortune now has left but one. 
 O shame ! The royal palace of the Nile 
 And Parthian soldier's bow have more than you 
 Upheld the Roman laws. Go now, despise 
 The merit Ptolemy by arms has won ! 
 Degenerate soldiers ! Who will think that e'er 
 Your hands were red with any battle's blood? 
 He will believe you quickly turned your backs 
 In flight before him; he will think that you 
 Fled first from dire Philippi's Thracian field. 
 So go in safety ! You have saved your lives, 
 In Caesar's judgment, not subdued by arms, 
 Nor yet by siege. O base, unmanly slaves I 
 Your former master dead, go to his heir! 
 Why will you not earn more than life and more 
 Than pardon? Let great Pompey's wretched wife 
 And let Metellus' offspring o'er the waves 
 Be borne in chains; take captive Pompey's sons; 
 Let Ptolemy's deserts be less than yours ! 
 My own head, too, whoever brings and gives 
 The hateful tyrant, reaps no mean reward. 
 Those men will know by my head's price that they 
 Served no mean standard when they followed mine. 
 Then come, and by great slaughter gain deserts. 
 Mere flight is a base crime. 1 
 
 Lucan is certainly the chief poet of the time of Nero. 
 Less important is Titus Calpurnius Siculus, the author 
 c l urni ^ seven ^ c ^ogues in imitation of Virgil and 
 Theocritus. Formerly eleven eclogues were 
 attributed to him, but it is now evident that he was the 
 author of only seven, the remainder being probably the 
 
 ' Pharsaha, ix, 256-283.
 
 188 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 work of Nemesianus, who lived in the first half of the 
 third century. The Eclogues of Calpurnius are close imi- 
 tations of those of Virgil, but are far inferior to their pro- 
 totypes. They are attractive, but so much less attractive 
 than Virgil's Eclogues that they are little read. A poem 
 In Praise of Piso (De Laude Pisonis) is attributed with 
 great probability to Calpurnius. The Piso whose praise 
 is sung is without doubt Calpurnius Piso, the rich and in- 
 fluential man who headed the conspiracy against Nero and 
 committed suicide in 65 A. D. This poem is full of imi- 
 tations of Virgil, Ovid, and Horace. The poem entitled 
 
 _.. jfltna (see p. 141) and many of the anony- 
 
 Other poems. / j j 
 
 mous poems preserved in manuscripts, some 
 of which are not without merit, are to be ascribed to this 
 period. The prcetexta entitled Octavia, preserved among 
 Seneca's tragedies, undoubtedly belongs to a slightly later 
 time, as Seneca and Nero appear in it. So far as its style 
 is concerned, it might almost be by Seneca, though the 
 rhetoric displayed is somewhat less effective than that of 
 Seneca's tragedies. The play is interesting, chiefly be- 
 cause it is the only extant play of its class. Only a few 
 unimportant fragments remain of the tragedies by the 
 distinguished general, Publius Pomponius Secundus. 
 
 A work of unique interest is the novel by Petronius. 
 This author is without much doubt identical with the 
 Gaius Petronius, who was proconsul of Bithynia and after- 
 wards consul, whom Nero admitted to his friendship and 
 regarded as the arbiter elegantice, or judge 
 of good taste, but who was accused by Tigel- 
 linus in 66 A. D., and committed suicide to avoid execu- 
 tion. The novel, known as Satires, originally consisted 
 of some twenty books, and contained an account of the 
 adventures of a Greek freedman, Encolpius, as told by 
 himself. The adventures were strung together with no 
 plot, except as the wrath of the god Priapus (a parody of 
 the wrath of Poseidon in Homer's Odyssey) may have
 
 PETRONIUS 189 
 
 served as a plot to some extent. The extant parts are 
 from the fifteenth and sixteenth books. The form is that 
 of a Menippean Satire, prose and verse in combination, 
 but the longer parts are exclusively in prose. 
 
 The chief of these is the (Jena Trimalchionis (Trimal- 
 chio's Banquet), the description of an elaborate entertain- 
 ment given by a rich and purse-proud freed- 
 
 man ' Trimalchio - The scene f the banquet 
 is laid at Cumae, or Puteoli. The house is 
 large and full of costly things, but shows utter lack of 
 taste. Trimalchio himself is a fat old fellow, who comes 
 to the dinner after all the guests have been seated for 
 some time. He informs them that it was inconvenient 
 for him to come, but that he did not wish to disappoint 
 them. At first he plays checkers with an attendant, but 
 presently takes part in the feast and the conversation. 
 The first course brought in is a wooden fowl sitting on 
 eggs, which prove to be made of paste, and to contain 
 finely seasoned birds. When a silver dish falls on the 
 floor, Trimalchio orders it to be swept up with the rub- 
 bish. Another course consists of a great boar, out of 
 which, when it is cut open by a slave in hunting costume, 
 fly live thrushes. Again a roast pig is cut open, and sau- 
 sages of all kinds fall out. The entertainment has other 
 than gastronomical surprises, for a troupe of Homeric 
 actors appear and perform scenes of the Trojan War, 
 speaking in Greek. At the end of their performance a 
 boiled calf is brought in, and the actor who takes the 
 part of Ajax hacks it with his sword in imitation of the 
 attack made by Ajax in his madness upon the cattle at 
 Troy, and offers the astonished guests pieces of meat on 
 his sword point. Acrobats also come in, and when one 
 of them falls from a ladder upon Trimalchio, he is at once 
 freed from slavery, lest it be said that so great a man as 
 Trimalchio was injured by a slave. Presently the ceiling 
 rolls apart, and a great hoop is let down, upon which are
 
 190 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 jars of perfumes as keepsakes for the guests. All these 
 astonishing performances are made more amusing by the 
 nai've pride of Trimalchio, who prates much of his great 
 wealth, and exhibits his ignorance by trying to make a 
 show of learning. One of the guests tells a ghost story 
 and another a tale of an adventure with a werewolf. 
 Further excitement is caused by a fight between a fat 
 little dog brought by Trimalchio's friend, the stone-cutter 
 Habinnas, and a large dog belonging to Trimalchio. The 
 slaves then take part in the banquet, Trimalchio has his 
 will read, and all weep. After a bath, the company passes 
 to a second dining-room. Here Trimalchio has a furious 
 quarrel with his wife, who is jealous of a favorite slave 
 boy. Trimalchio finally has his grave-clothes brought 
 in, and lies down as if dead, ordering his horn-blowers to 
 play funereal music. The noise is so great that the po- 
 lice, thinking something is the matter, break into the 
 house, whereupon the guests escape. All this, with many 
 more details of the lavish and tasteless expenditure, the 
 pride of the vulgar Trimalchio, and the absurd features 
 of the banquet, is described with much satirical humor. 
 The language of the narrative is refined, evidently that 
 of a highly cultivated man. Trimalchio, however, and 
 some of the other characters speak the popular dialect of 
 southern Italy, which contains many words strange to lit- 
 erary Latin. Their speech is not without mistakes in gram- 
 mar, and is full of proverbs, like the speech of Sancho 
 Panza in Don Quixote. 
 
 Among the poems contained in the novel, the longest, 
 entitled De Bello Civili (On the Civil War), consists of 
 two hundred and ninety-five hexameters, in imitation of 
 Lucan, with touches of parody ; the next in length is the 
 Troia Halosis (Capture of Troy), in sixty-five senarii, 
 probably a parody of Nero's poem of the same title. The 
 novel of Petronius is, in some places, extremely indecent, 
 but is interesting on account of the specimens of popular
 
 MINOR PROSE WRITERS 191 
 
 speech it contains, and still more, as the only known 
 example of the satirical novel in Latin. It is, moreover, 
 full of wit and humor, and shows keen observation and 
 much knowledge of human nature as well as of literature. 
 The loss of the greater part of the work is greatly to be 
 regretted. 
 
 The only extant historical work of this period is the 
 History of Alexander the Great (De Gestis Alexandra 
 Magni], by Quintus Curtius Rufus, of whose 
 personality nothing is known, but who seems 
 
 to have written under Claudius. The work 
 originally consisted of ten books, the first two of which 
 are lost. The style is modelled upon that of Livy, and is 
 clear and simple for the most part, though not entirely 
 free from the affectation of elegance customary at the 
 time. Some of the descriptions and speeches are excep- 
 tionally fine. Curtius is not a critical historian, and fol- 
 lows Greek authorities selected without much attention 
 to their accuracy. Of the other historical works of this 
 
 period nothing remains. The memoirs corn- 
 Memoirs. . & 
 
 posed by various more or less important per- 
 
 sons are also lost. Among them may be mentioned those 
 of the Empress Agrippina and of the generals Gnaeus 
 Domitius Corbulo, who was consul suffestus in 39 A. D., 
 and was put to doath by Nero in 86 A. D., and Suetonius 
 Paulinus, who was twice consul, once soon after 42, and 
 again in 66 A. D. 
 
 Many scientific treatises were written at this time, as 
 in the previous period, but two only are extant : the trea- 
 c tise On Agriculture (De Re Rustica], by Lu- 
 
 cius Junius Moderatus Columella, and the 
 Geography (Chorographia], by Pomponius Mela. Colu- 
 mella was born at Gades (Cadiz), and served in the army 
 in Syria. He possessed land in Italy, and in his work he 
 has the agriculture of Italy chiefly in mind. The work is 
 divided into twelve books, and is the most complete ancient
 
 192 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 treatise on agriculture extant more complete than those 
 of Cato and Varro. It is written in a simple and dignified 
 style, more like the prose of the Augustan period than 
 the artificial rhetoric of most contemporary writings. In 
 this repect Columella is a precursor of the classical revival 
 under the Flavian emperors. The tenth book, on gar- 
 dening, is written in hexameters, to serve as a fifth book of 
 Virgil's Georgics, because Virgil had hardly touched upon 
 this branch of his subject. 1 The entire work is dedicated 
 to Publius Silvinus, and it was due to a suggestion from 
 him and another friend that the tenth book was written 
 in verse. Columella's verse is simple and classical, but 
 is greatly inferior to that of Virgil, and less admirable 
 than his prose. Mela, like Columella, was a 
 Spaniard. His native place was Tingentera. 
 His three books on geography were written soon after 40 
 A. D., and form the earliest systematic treatise on the 
 subject extant. The style is far inferior to that of Colu- 
 mella, for Mela writes in the affected manner of his 
 times. The work is enlivened by descriptions of peoples, 
 places, and customs, and is valuable as a source of in- 
 formation, since it is based upon good authorities. 
 
 Historical explanations of five orations of Cicero by 
 Quintus Asconius Pedianus (about 3-88 A. D.) are pre- 
 served in a fragmentary condition. They 
 show great care and diligence, and are writ- 
 ten in simple classical style. Of other 
 works by Asconius some fragments are preserved in the 
 commentary of Servius on Virgil. The works of the ora- 
 tors of this period are all lost, as are the legal writings of 
 Proculus and Gains Cassius Longinus (consul in 30 A. D.), 
 who continued the schools of Labeo and Capito. The 
 most important grammarian of this time was Marcus 
 
 1 Verum Juec ipse equidem apatiis exclusus iniquis 
 Prcetereo atque aliis post me memoranda relinquo. 
 
 Virgil, Oeorgics, ;v, 147 f.
 
 MINOR PROSE WRITERS 193 
 
 Valerius Probus, of Berytus, to whom Jerome assigns the 
 date 56 A. D. He prepared and published editions of 
 
 Terence, Lucretius, Virgil, Horace, and Per- 
 Probus. . . . . ,. 
 
 sius, paying attention to various readings, 
 
 punctuation, and the like, and commenting upon the 
 text. He also wrote grammatical treatises, though the 
 grammar preserved under his name is not his work. His 
 only extant works are a list of abbreviations and parts of 
 the commentaries on Virgil.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE FLAVIAN EMPERORS-THE SILVER AGE 
 
 Vespasian, 69-79 A. D. Titus, 79-81 A. D. Domitian, 81-96 A. D. 
 Valerius Placcus, died about 90 A. D. Silius Italicus, 25-101 A. D. 
 Statius, about 40 to about 95 A. D. The father of Statius, about 15- 
 80 A. D. Saleius Bassus, about 70 A. D. Curiatius Maternus, about 70 
 A. D. Martial, about 40 to about 104 A. D. Pliny the elder, 23-79 A. D. 
 Frontinus, praetor 70 A. D. Quintilian, about 35 to about 100 A. D. 
 
 THE death of Nero was followed by a year of disorder, 
 in which Galba, Otho, and Vitellius were successively 
 raised to the highest power, overthrown, and 
 
 killed ' But the tem)r which had brooded 
 over Rome in the latter years of Nero's rule 
 
 passed away with the coming of the Flavian emperors. 
 Vespasian (69-79 A. D.) and Titus (79-81 A. D.) were firm 
 but gentle rulers. Both were chiefly known as brave 
 soldiers and able generals, but neither was uncultured or 
 without literary interests. Vespasian wrote memoirs and 
 Titus composed in 76 A. D. a poem on a comet. Their in- 
 terest in literature and intellectual pursuits was, however, 
 exhibited less by their own productions than in other 
 ways. Vespasian was liberal to poets and artists ; he paid 
 attention to dramatic performances ; he caused the three 
 thousand bronze tablets destroyed in the burning of the 
 capitol to be replaced by copies ; and provided for the 
 payment of rhetors, or instructors in oratory, by the state, 
 being thus the first to establish a system of public educa- 
 tion. The banishment of philosophers and astrologers 
 during his reign was due to the reactionary politics of the 
 philosophers, not to any opposition to philosophy on his 
 194
 
 THE FLAVIAN EMPERORS 195 
 
 part. Domitian (81-9G A. D.) was a very different charac- 
 ter. Before his accession to the imperial power he ex- 
 hibited a taste for poetry which led the writers of the day 
 to natter him as if he were one of ,the greatest of poets ; 
 but when he became emperor he relinquished all literary 
 pursuits. No works by him are mentioned except a poem 
 on the battle that took place at the capitol in 69 A. D. and 
 a treatise on the care of the hair, a subject in which he 
 was interested on account of his baldness. Nevertheless 
 he restored the libraries which had been burned, and in- 
 stituted public games in which dramatists, poets, and 
 orators took part. But his jealousy and cruelty were 
 greater than his literary interests. Twice, in 89 and 93 
 A. D., the philosophers and astrologers were banished from 
 Borne, and though these acts may be excused on the 
 ground of political expediency, no such excuse can be 
 found for the cruelty which led him to persecute authors 
 and put them to death on the flimsiest pretexts. The 
 last years of his reign were a period of terror for men of 
 letters even more than for his other subjects. 
 
 Under Vespasian, the mad terror of the reign of Nero 
 was succeeded by a period of calm. In literature also 
 greater dignity and better taste succeeds to the exagger- 
 ated rhetoric of the preceding years. The writers of the 
 Flavian period the so-called Silver Age of Koman litera- 
 ture revert to the manner of the great Augustan writers. 
 Tacitus alone develops a style of marked originality, and 
 Tacitus is the only really great writer of this period. 
 The others, foremost among whom are Quintilian, Statins, 
 and the elder Pliny, show learning and judgment, but not 
 genius. 
 
 The earliest poet of the Flavian epoch is Gaius Va- 
 lerius Flaccus, whose only known work is an epic poem 
 entitled Argonautica, on the adventures of Jason and 
 his comrades in quest of the golden fleece. A reference 
 to the capture of Jerusalem by Titus shows that the
 
 196 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 earlier part of the poem was written not long after 70 A. D., 
 and the mention of the eruption of Vesuvius proves that 
 
 it was not completed until after 79 A. D. The 
 Fiaccus. P oe * died shortly before 90 A. D. Further 
 
 than this nothing is known of his life. The 
 story of the Argonautic expedition was told in the 
 Argonautica of the Greek poet Apollonius Ehodius in 
 the third century B.C., and Valerius Fiaccus imitates 
 Apollonius in his general treatment of the subject, some- 
 times even translating his words; but he amplifies some 
 scenes which Apollonius had treated briefly and adds 
 some new elements to the tale, while on the other hand 
 he omits much of the superfluous learning displayed 
 by Apollonius and narrates briefly parts of the story 
 which the Greek poet had told at greater length. In 
 general, when Valerius changes the treatment of Apol- 
 lonius the change is for the better. For instance, in the 
 Latin poem, when Jason reaches Colchis, he finds ^etes 
 hard pressed by a hostile army, and receives from him 
 the promise of the golden fleece in return for his assist- 
 ance in the war. When the enemy is defeated JEetes 
 breaks his promise, and Jason is thus justified in accept- 
 ing the aid of Medea and her magic arts. Nothing of 
 all this is to be found in Apollonius, and the Eoman 
 poet has made a decided addition to the plot of the 
 story. Valerius pays more attention to character paint- 
 ing than Apollonius, and is especially successful in 
 making the characters of ^Eetes and Jason stand out in 
 strong relief. His description of the mental struggles 
 of Medea, torn between her love for Jason and her duty 
 to her father and her country, is far more effective than 
 that of Apollonius or even than Virgil's description of 
 Dido's love for ^Eneas, which is founded upon Apollonius. 
 In diction Valerius imitates Virgil, though his style is 
 far less simple and clear than Virgil's, and in the treat- 
 ment of many episodes of the poem he copies Virgil's
 
 SILIUS 1TALICUS 197 
 
 treatment of similar themes; the work shows also the 
 influence of Ovid and of Seneca's tragedies. In its pres- 
 ent condition the Argonautica breaks off in the eighth 
 book, leaving the tale incomplete ; but whether the 
 remainder of the poem is lost or was never written can not 
 be determined. 
 
 Silius Italicus, whose whole name was Tiberius Cattius 
 Silius Italicus, chose for the subject of his epic a Roman 
 
 theme, the second Punic War. He was born 
 Italious. i n 25 A. D. and starved himself to death on 
 
 account of an incurable disease in 101 A. n. 
 He is said to have been an informer (delator) under Nero, 
 but rose to the consulship in 68 A. D., and was afterwards 
 governor of Asia under Vespasian. The latter part of 
 his life was spent in honorable retirement in Campania. 
 Here he devoted himself to literature and wrote the 
 seventeen books of the Punica, in which he tells the 
 story of the second Punic War to the decisive battle of 
 Zama, in 202 B. c. His historical information is derived 
 from Livy, and is therefore correct in all essential 
 matters. The events of the war are described in chrono- 
 logical order. The style is an imitation of Homer and 
 Virgil, and the imitation extends to more than mere 
 style, for the traditional epic machinery of gods, prophe- 
 cies, heroes, and the like, is employed as freely as if the 
 second Punic War were as mythical as the adventures of 
 ^Eneas. So Juno strives to give Hannibal the victory, 
 while Venus aids the Romans. The sea-god Proteus fore- 
 tells the course of the war to a Carthaginian fleet, and 
 Hannibal, with his crested helmet, his sword, and his 
 spear "fatal to thousands," rages about the walls of 
 Saguntum like Achilles at the siege of Troy. In short, 
 Silius, having no poetic inspiration or imagination of his 
 own, uses in his account of the Punic War the methods 
 which had been appropriately applied to the myths of 
 earlier days by Homer and Virgil. As a result, the
 
 198 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 Punica, though written in good hexameters, is hopelessly 
 dull and uninteresting. The so-called Homerus Latinus, 
 or llias Latina, an epitome of the Iliad in one thousand 
 and seventy hexameters, is attributed to the earlier years 
 of Silius Italicus. It attained considerable popularity, 
 but is a work of little merit. 
 
 The most eminent poet of this period was Publius 
 Papinius Statius. He was born at Naples, probably about 
 40 A. D., but spent most of his life at Rome, 
 though he returned to Naples, probably in 
 94 A. D. The last date to which reference is made in his 
 poems is 95 A. D. His father was of a distinguished but 
 not wealthy family, and attained some distinction as a 
 poet and teacher, first at Naples, and later at Rome, 
 where Domitian was among his pupils. He had intended 
 to write a poem on the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A. D., 
 but was prevented by death, which must therefore have 
 come upon him about 80 A. D. From him Statius 
 received his early education and his first impulse toward 
 poetry. Statius won prizes for poetry at the Augustalia 
 at Naples, and at Alba, but failed to win a prize at the 
 Capitolia in Rome. This was probably in 94 A. D., and 
 his retirement to Naples may have been due to his dis- 
 appointment. He was married to a widow named Claudia, 
 who had a daughter by her former husband ; but Statius 
 had no children of his own. Domitian regarded him 
 with favor, gave him a supply of running water for his 
 country house at Alba, and invited him to his table. 
 These few details of his life are derived from his poems, 
 chiefly from a poem in honor of his father's memory, 
 which is published as the third in the fifth book of the 
 
 The chief work of Statius is the Thebais, an epic 
 poem in twelve books, the subject of which is the strife 
 between the two sons of (Edipus, Eteocles and Polynices, 
 and the legendary history of Thebes to the death of
 
 STATIUS 199 
 
 Creon. This work occupied the poet for twelve years, 
 probably about 80-92 A. D. His other extant works are 
 
 the Silvce. a collection of shorter poems on 
 Works of . . ,. ., , . r , , 
 
 statins, various subjects, divided into five books, 
 
 and the Achitteis. None of the poems con- 
 tained in the SilvcB appears to have been written before 
 91 or 92 A. D., and the fifth book, which has no preface 
 and which contains some incomplete poems, was prob- 
 ably published after the poet's death. The Acliilleis 
 was to be an account of the life of Achilles, embracing 
 the story of the Trojan War, but it breaks off in the 
 second book, before Achilles reaches Troy. The only 
 lost works of Statius to which any reference exists are 
 a pantomime entitled Agave, and an epic on Domitian's 
 German war ; but the latter work was probably never 
 completed. 
 
 Statius was an ardent admirer of Virgil, and the 
 Thebais is an elaborate imitation of the ^neid. Not 
 Th ' on ^ Virgil's language is imitated, but the 
 
 division of the poem into twelve books, the 
 general chronological sequence of events, the arrange- 
 ment by which the scenes of combat begin with the 
 seventh book, and the treatment of many individual 
 scenes are adopted from the ^Eneid. The subject of the 
 Thebais had been treated by many previous poets, and 
 Statius could find the story in various mythological hand- 
 books. It is therefore not certain, though not improb- 
 able, that he followed the version given by Antimachus 
 in his Thebais, written in the fifth century B.C. Statius 
 is not a great epic poet. He lacks the sense of propor- 
 tion and has little dramatic power, in spite of the fact 
 that he evidently aims at dramatic effect. He excels in 
 descriptions and similes, but devotes far too much space 
 to each ; his similes especially become wearisome. The 
 entire poem lacks the charm of true poetic inspiration. 
 It is learned and correct, but artificial, imitative, and 
 14
 
 200 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 tedious. One of the briefest of the powerful descriptions 
 in the TJiebais, and one which shows Statius's liking for 
 what is horrible and painful, is that of CEdipus, when he 
 hears of the death of his sons and conies forth to lament 
 over their bodies : 
 
 But when their father heard the tale of crime, 
 He rushed from the deep shadows where he dwelt, 
 And on the cruel threshold brought to view 
 His half-dead form ; his hoary locks unkempt 
 Were vile with ancient filth, and stiff with gore 
 The hair that veiled his Fury-driven head ; 
 His mouth and cheeks were sunken deep, and clots 
 Of blood were remnants of his torn-out eyes. 1 
 
 The Achilleis has much the same good and bad quali- 
 ties as the Thebais, and is less wearisome only because it 
 The Achilleis * s ^ ess l n g- ^ n the SilvcB Statius shows to 
 and the better advantage. These occasional poems 
 
 Silvse. were evidently written for the most part in 
 
 haste. In fact Statius says in his preface to the first book 
 that none of the poems contained in it occupied him 
 more than two days, and one of these poems contains 277 
 lines. The poems were written chiefly to please some 
 noble or wealthy patron, and the subjects are in many 
 cases trivial, such as a parrot, a fine bath-house, or a 
 beautiful tree belonging to the person addressed. Such 
 works call for little poetic fervor, but merely for skill in 
 writing verses, and that Statius possessed in remarkable 
 measure. Nearly all the poems are in hexameters, only 
 six, among them one in celebration of Lucan's birthday, 
 being in other metres. There is more or less padding in 
 the poems ; invocations of the Muses or of gods take up 
 considerable space, and mythological allusions are need- 
 lessly multiplied ; but these things are excusable in a 
 poet who writes to order to please a patron. Of all the 
 poems of Statius the most pleasing is one of only nine- 
 
 1 Thebais, xi, 580-585.
 
 MARTIAL 201 
 
 teen lines addressed to Sleep, the "youth, most gentle 
 of the gods." The wakeful poet begs Sleep to come, but 
 does not ask him to spread all his wings over his eyes, but 
 merely to touch him with his wand, or pass lightly over 
 him. The Thebais and the Achilleis attained immediate 
 popularity, and continued to be much read and admired 
 in the Middle Ages ; but modern times have reversed the 
 former judgment, and such admiration as is still accorded 
 to Statius is given him on account of the Silvce. 
 
 The epics of Saleius Bassus and of Statius's father, both 
 of whom wrote under Vespasian, have disappeared, as 
 
 have the tragedies and orations of Curiatius 
 Other poets. 
 
 Maternus, who lived at the same time. The 
 
 lyric poet, Arruntius Stella, and the poetess, Sulpicia, 
 wrote under Domitian, but their works also are lost, for the 
 extant short poem attributed to Sulpicia is a product of 
 a later time. The only Flavian poet, besides Valerius 
 Flaccus, Silius Italicus, and Statius, whose works remain, 
 is Martial. 
 
 Marcus Valerius Martialis was born at Bilbilis, in the 
 northeastern part of Spain, on the first of March, about 
 
 40 A.D. His parents, Fronto and Flacilla, 
 Martial. 
 
 gave him the usual grammatical and rhetori- 
 cal education at Bilbilis, or some neighboring town, and in 
 64 A. D. he went to Rome, where he became a client or 
 hanger-on of the family of Seneca and some other impor- 
 tant families. He may have practised law for a time, but 
 lived chiefly from the bounty of his patrons. The ius 
 trium liberorum granted him by Titus, was ratified by 
 Domitian. He received the title of tribune, which carried 
 with it equestrian rank. He owned a small country 
 estate near Nomentum, perhaps a gift from Argentaria 
 Polla, Lucan's widow ; and at one time he had a house 
 of his own at Rome and kept some slaves. Still he 
 can never have been rich, for he complains constantly 
 of poverty. In 98 A. D. he returned to Spain, and died in
 
 202 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 his native place not later than 104 A. D., for the younger 
 Pliny, in a letter written about that date, speaks of his re- 
 cent death. 
 
 Martial's poems comprise fourteen hooks of epigrams, 
 the last two books of which, consisting of lines intended 
 to accompany xenia and apophoreta, gifts which it was 
 customary to present to friends at the Saturnalia, were not 
 published as books by their author. One book of Spec- 
 tacula celebrates the theatrical performances and other 
 shows in which the Eomans delighted ; the remaining 
 books are Epigrammata, each book revised and published 
 with an introduction by the author. The longest poem 
 contains fifty-one lines, the shortest consists of one hex- 
 ameter. Most of the poems are in elegiac verse, but many 
 are in hendecasyllables, and a few other metres occur. 
 Martial is the master of epigram. His verses are senten- 
 tious and to the point, often bitter, not infrequently inde- 
 cent, but never stilted, dull, or unnatural. In an age of 
 many imitative poets, Martial was original. This does not 
 mean that no traces of imitation are to be found in his 
 poems, for his obligations to Catullus are evident and 
 frankly acknowledged, while the influence of Virgil, Ovid, 
 and Juvenal is plainly to be seen ; but his pointed wit, his 
 candor, and his sententious brevity are his own. He has 
 no lofty poetic inspiration, and exhibits no greater height 
 of character than what is needed to let him see and ac- 
 knowledge his own limitations. In spite of the bitterness 
 of many of his verses, he seems to have been a man of 
 genial nature. He was a friend of Silius Italicus, Quintil- 
 ian, the younger Pliny, and Juvenal, but does not mention 
 Statius by name, though his sneers at epic poets are prob- 
 ably directed against him. The younger Pliny says of 
 him : " He was a talented, acute, and spirited man, whose 
 writings are full of wit and gall, and not less candor." ' 
 
 1 Pliny, Ep. Ill, xxi.
 
 MARTIAL 203 
 
 Martial is not to be ranked among great poets, but his 
 ability to express well-defined thoughts in brief, senten- 
 tious, pointed words, has made his epigrams the models 
 for all later times. The following lines commemorate 
 the death of Arria, who, when her husband Paetus was 
 ordered to kill himself, showed him the way : 
 
 The poniard, with her life-blood dyed, 
 
 When Arria to her Peetus gave, 
 " 'Twere painless, my beloved," she cried, 
 
 " If but my death thy life could save." 1 
 
 Another brief epigram is on some fishes, supposed to 
 be the work of the great sculptor Phidias : 
 
 These fishes Phidias wrought ; with life by him 
 They are endowed; add water and they swim.* 
 
 These lines also refer to a work of art : 
 
 That lizard on the goblet makes thee start. 
 Fear not; it lives only by Mentor's art. 8 
 
 The daily life of Eome is described in the following 
 lines : 
 
 Visits consume the first, the second hour ; 
 
 When comes the third, hoarse pleaders show their power; 
 
 At four to business Rome herself betakes; 
 
 At six she goes to sleep, by seven she wakes; 
 
 By nine well breathed from exercise we rest, 
 
 And in the banquet hall the couch is pressed. 
 
 Now, when thy skill, greatest of cooks, has spread 
 
 The ambrosial feast, let Martial's rhymes be read, 
 
 With mighty hand while Caesar holds the bowl, 
 
 When drafts of nectar have relaxed his soul. 
 
 Now trifles pass. My giddy Muse would fear 
 
 Jove to approach in morning mood severe. 4 
 
 
 
 1 I, xiii. These selections are translated by Qoldwin Smith in 
 Bay Leaves. 
 
 III, xixv. III, xli. * IV, viiL
 
 204 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 Among the many learned writers of this period the 
 most important is the elder Pliny. Gaius Plinius Secun- 
 dus was born at Novum Comum, in northern 
 
 the Italv ' in 23 A< D< At an early age he went to 
 
 Rome, where he came under the influence of 
 Pomponius Secundus, whose example may have led him 
 to combine public service with diligent study and author- 
 ship. Pliny's life was passed in the service of the state. 
 He was an officer in the cavalry, serving in Germany and 
 perhaps also in Syria ; he was a trusted counsellor and 
 agent of Vespasian, and held at different times the im- 
 portant post of procurator or governor in several prov- 
 inces. His nephew mentions especially his procuratorship 
 in Spain. These various and important official duties 
 did not, however, withdraw Pliny's mind from his studies. 
 When he was carried in the litter through the streets in 
 the evening, after his official duties were performed, 
 while he was bathing, and at his meals, he read or was 
 read to constantly. He believed that no book was so poor 
 as not to contain something worth recording, and there- 
 fore he took notes of all he read. At his death he left 
 one hundred and sixty rolls of manuscript notes, closely 
 written on both sides. With all this reading Pliny was 
 not a mere bookworm, but a practical man of affairs and 
 an interested observer of men and things about him. His 
 zeal for knowledge cost him his life ; for when the great 
 eruption of Vesuvius took place, in 79 A. D., Pliny, who 
 was in command of the fleet at Misenum, went in a war 
 galley to the neighborhood of the volcano to investigate 
 the strange phenomenon and to aid those in peril, landed, 
 and finally succumbed to the ashes and noxious gases. 
 The description of this event is the most interesting of 
 the letters of his nephew, the younger Pliny. 
 
 The result of Pliny's diligence is seen in his great 
 encyclopaedic work, the Natural History, in thirty-seven 
 books. In this he undertakes to describe the whole realm
 
 PLINY THE ELDER 205 
 
 of nature in a systematic way. The first book consists 
 of a table of contents with a list of the authors con- 
 sulted. Then follow in order the general 
 Histor* UI mathematical and physical description of 
 the universe, geography and ethnology, an- 
 thropology, zoology, botany, and mineralogy. Under min- 
 eralogy the uses of metals and stones are described, and 
 this leads to a valuable history of painting and sculp- 
 ture. The Natural History is written for the most part 
 in a simple, straightforward style, though with occasional 
 lapses from good taste, but it is not a great work of liter- 
 ature. Its importance lies in the information it contains. 
 In the first book, Pliny mentions nearly five hundred 
 authors from whom his information is derived, but as he 
 also speaks of one hundred chosen ones whose works he 
 consulted, it is evident that his authorities fall into two 
 classes. Apparently he really consulted about one hun- 
 dred, but recorded in the first book the names of other 
 writers to whom his real authorities referred. Pliny is 
 almost the only ancient writer who tries to give much 
 information about the sources of his knowledge, but it is 
 often difficult, if not impossible, even in his case to be 
 sure from what source a particular statement is derived. 
 In general, it is clear that Pliny was a careful worker, 
 and his statements can, as a rule, be accepted as true. 
 The great work was ready for publication in 77 A. D. and 
 was sent to Titus with an interesting preface. But even 
 after this, Pliny continued to add the results of further 
 reading or observation. His death came upon him in the 
 midst of his work. Pliny was also the author of several 
 other works, the most important of which were the 
 History of the German Wars, in twenty 
 books, and a history From the End of the 
 History of Aufidius Bassus, in thirty-one 
 books. Just what period this work embraced is not cer- 
 tain, but the suggestion that each book treated of one
 
 206 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 year and that the whole was a history of the years 41-71 
 A. D. is not improbable. These works, as well as Pliny's 
 lesser writings, are lost, but they served at least to supply 
 material to Tacitus, who cites the German Wars, and 
 to other historians. 
 
 Of the technical writings of this period only two now 
 exist : the Stratagems (Strategemata) and the treatise on 
 Frontinus. the Roman aqueducts (De Aquis Urbis Romm 
 Various Libri 77), by Sextius Julius Frontinus, a 
 
 writers. man o f some distinction, who was praetor in 
 
 70 A. D., consul several times, and was appointed Curator 
 Aquarum, or overseer of the water supply of Rome, in 97 
 A. D. His writings belong rather to the history of tech- 
 nical studies than to that of literature. The names of 
 several authors of memoirs of travels, legal treatises, 
 speeches, histories, and technical writings of various 
 kinds are known to us, but their works are lost or only 
 partially preserved as unsatisfactory fragments. The 
 schools of grammar and rhetoric continued to exist, and 
 many teachers of these subjects enjoyed considerable rep- 
 utation. The greatest among them, and the only one 
 whose work has survived to modern times, is Quintilian, 
 the last, and in some respects the greatest, of the Span- 
 ish writers of Rome. 
 
 Marcus Fabius Quintilianus was born at Calagurris, 
 in Spain, about 35 A. D. He was educated at Rome under 
 the most distinguished teachers of the time, and when his 
 education was completed returned to his native place. But 
 in 68 A. D., Qalba, who had been governor in Spain before he 
 
 became emperor, called Quintilian to Home. 
 Qnmtihan. ^ . 
 
 Here he became a teacher of rhetoric, and 
 
 received a salary from the imperial treasury. At the 
 same time he was a prominent barrister, but published 
 only one speech, though others were published without 
 his authority from shorthand reports. He was a man 
 of great influence, and was even raised to the consul-
 
 QUINTILIAN 207 
 
 ship by Domitian, who had appointed him tutor of his 
 grandnephews. After teaching for twenty years he gave 
 up his school and devoted himself to the composition of 
 his great work, the Institutio Oratorio,. This was pub- 
 lished about 93 A. D. An earlier work, On the Reasons for 
 the Decay of Oratory (De Causis Corrupt Eloquentice), 
 is lost. Quintilian's private life was not free from trouble. 
 He married at an advanced age, but his wife died when 
 only eighteen years old, his younger son soon after at the 
 age of five, and his elder son after a brief interval at the 
 age of nine. When Quintilian died is not known, but he 
 can hardly have lived long after 100 A. D. 
 
 The title Institutio Oratoria, given by Quintilian to 
 his work, designates it as a text-book of oratory. But it 
 is no mere technical treatise on the art of 
 speaking. Quintilian was an enthusiastic 
 lover of his profession, and believed that ora- 
 tory was the highest expression of human thought and 
 human life. Like Cato, he demanded that the orator be 
 not merely a good speaker, but also, and first of all, a 
 good man. He must also have a general literary educa- 
 tion before proceeding to the technical study of oratory. 
 Owing to this large conception of the qualities of the 
 orator, Quintilian's great work became a general and very 
 important treatise on education. Its arrangement is as 
 follows : the first book treats of the elements of education 
 and contains many interesting observations upon family 
 life ; the fundamental principles of rhetoric are treated 
 in the second book, which carries on the discussion of 
 the purposes and methods of education ; the next five 
 books (III-VII) deal exhaustively with the matter of 
 oratory under the main heads of invention and disposition 
 or arrangement, and are for the most part strictly tech- 
 nical ; four books (VIII-XI) treat of expression and all 
 that is included in the word style, with a discussion of 
 memorizing and delivery; and the last book (XII), now
 
 208 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 that the theory of oratory is expounded, reverts to the 
 orator himself, and discusses the moral qualities and the 
 continuous self-discipline which alone can make the ora- 
 tor great. 
 
 The technical part of the Institutio Oratorio, is now, 
 since the study of formal rhetoric is no longer an impor- 
 tant part of a liberal education, of little interest except 
 to those who make a special study of Eoman style and 
 educational theories. Yet even in these books are many 
 wise utterances of permanent value, such as " the price 
 of a laugh is too high when it is purchased at the expense 
 of virtue " ; * or, " a joke at the expense of the wretched is 
 inhuman " ; 8 or, " it is the spirit and the force of mind that 
 make men eloquent." 3 Such remarks, admirably ex- 
 pressed and inserted in fitting places, make the more 
 technical books of Quintilian's work even now well worth 
 reading. But the chief interest for the modern reader 
 lies in those parts of the work which have less to do with 
 the special training of the orator, and are more general in 
 their scope the discussion of elementary education in 
 the first book, the treatise on the larger and broader edu- 
 cation of mature life in the last book, and the brief crit- 
 ical survey of Greek and Latin literature in the first chap- 
 ter of the tenth book. 
 
 The theory of education as presented by Quintilian is 
 the result of serious thought. It shows a breadth of 
 view, a reasonableness, and at the same time 
 f education a l ^ 11688 ^ conception that give its author 
 at once an important position among educa- 
 tional writers. The ethical or moral element in educa- 
 tion is especially emphasized. Quintilian, like many 
 others in his day, felt that the standard of morals, of lit- 
 erature, and of oratory was lower than in the days of the 
 republic. But instead of mourning over the decay of 
 
 1 Jnst. Oral., vi, 3, 5. 2 Ibid., vi, 3, 5. 3 Ibid., vii, 7, 2.
 
 QUINTILIAN 209 
 
 Eoman virtue and taste, Quintilian, seeing that the 
 only cure lay in right education, undertook to show the 
 way to a restoration of the ancient excellence. Tacitus, 
 in his essay on oratory, mentions carelessness of parents 
 and bad education as the chief reason for the decay of 
 eloquence ; the same ground had apparently been taken 
 by Quintilian himself in his lost essay on the Decay of 
 Oratory, and in the Institutio Oratorio, the attempt is 
 made to show how deterioration may be stopped and the 
 old virtue restored. That others besides Quintilian were 
 seriously interested in reform there is no doubt, and if 
 their efforts met with little success, it is probably in part 
 because they tried to restore the excellence of a time that 
 was past and were unable to regulate the active forces of 
 the present. 
 
 As a literary critic Quintilian exhibits the same sanity 
 that characterizes his educational theory. Since a knowl- 
 edge of the best literature is necessary for the 
 
 Literary orator, Quintilian passes in review the chief 
 criticism. r . . 
 
 Greek and Latin writers, and it is interesting 
 
 to observe that he regards the latter as the equals of the 
 Greeks. He has decided preferences, and gives to Cicero, 
 whom he regards as the equal of Demosthenes, the fore- 
 most place among the Eomans. Yet he recognizes the 
 merits even of those authors, such as Seneca, whose style 
 he least admires. In brief and admirably expressive 
 words he characterizes the style of the chief writers of 
 Greece and Eome, and his judgment has, in almost every 
 case, remained the judgment of later ages. It is inter- 
 esting also to note that the works of nearly all those 
 writers whom he mentions as the best have been preserved 
 to our own time, which is an additional proof that the 
 extant works have been preserved for the most part not 
 by mere chance but on account of their intrinsic merit. 
 Quintilian's admiration for Cicero is evident in his own 
 style. Statius had reverted to the style of Virgil, and
 
 210 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 Quintilian goes back to Cicero, discarding the rhetorical 
 excrescences of Seneca and his school. His Latin is clas- 
 sical and beautiful, sometimes equal to that 
 of Cicero himself. He is the foremost rep- 
 resentative of the classical reaction of his time. But 
 the reversion to an earlier style, whether in literature or 
 art, has never been permanent, and Quintilian's influence, 
 great as it undoubtedly was, could not stop the course of 
 that change and decay which was in the end destined to 
 transform the Latin language and bring into being the 
 Eomance tongues of modern times.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 NERVA AND TRAJAN 
 
 Nerva, 96-98 A. D. Trajan, 98-117 A. D. Tacitus, about 55 to 
 about 118 A. D. Juvenal, 55 (I) to about 135 A. D. Pliny the younger, 
 61 or 62 to 112 or 113 A. D. Other writers. 
 
 UNDER Nerva (96-98 A. D.) and Trajan (98-117 A. D.) 
 freedom of speech and literary utterance, which had been 
 banished under the tyranny of Domitian, were restored. 
 Nerva and Trajan were educated men. Noth- 
 : ing remains of Nerva's poems, which led 
 
 Martial to call him "the Tibullus of our 
 times," and Trajan's history of the Dacian War is 
 also, unfortunately, lost. Trajan's replies to the letters 
 of the younger Pliny show that he could write in a clear, 
 concise, and business-like manner, but exhibit no further 
 literary qualities. He paid attention to the education of 
 the young and founded the Ulpian library, but was not a 
 man of marked literary tastes. Under Nerva and Trajan 
 literature was allowed to take its own course without 
 hindrance and also without that imperial patronage which 
 sometimes stifles free utterance quite as effectually as 
 severity or intimidation. Nevertheless there was little 
 literary production of any importance. There were many 
 writers, but most of them have left not even their names 
 to posterity. The only authors of literary importance 
 under these emperors are Tacitus, Juvenal, and the 
 younger Pliny. 
 
 Cornelius Tacitus l was born, according to such evi- 
 
 1 The prcenomen is uncertain. The best manuscript (Mediceus I) 
 gives it as Publius, later manuscripts and Sidonius Apollinaris as Gains. 
 
 211
 
 212 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 dence as exists, in 55 or 56 A. D. The place of his birth 
 is not recorded, and nothing certain is known of his 
 family ; but his education, his career, and his 
 marriage to the daughter of Agricola all com- 
 bine to indicate that he belonged to a family of some im- 
 portance. His marriage took place in 78 A. D , one year 
 after the consulship of Agricola. Tacitus began his offi- 
 cial career under Vespasian, continued it under Titus, and 
 reached the rank of praetor under Domitian, in 88 A. D. 
 Under Trajan, in 97 A. D., he was appointed consul suf- 
 fectus, and about 112-116 A. D. he was proconsul of Asia. 
 His death took place probably not long after 117 A. D. 
 He had a great reputation as a public speaker, as is evi- 
 dent from the fact that in 97 or 98 A. D. he delivered the 
 funeral oration over Verginius Euf us, and it was probably 
 due in great measure to his eloquence that in 100 A. D. he 
 and Pliny accomplished the conviction of Marius Prisons, 
 proconsul of Africa, for extortion. It was not without 
 knowledge of public affairs that Tacitus turned to the 
 writing of history, nor was it without practical knowledge 
 of oratory that he wrote the dialogue De Oratoribus. 
 
 The works of Tacitus in the order of composition are 
 the Dialogue on Orators (Dialogus de Oratoribus), the 
 
 _. , , dramatic date of which is 75 A. D., while the 
 
 Works of . . 
 
 Tacitus. a&te * composition is uncertain ; the Ger- 
 
 The mania, published in 98 A. D. ; the Agricola, 
 
 Dialogus. written early in the reign of Trajan, probably 
 in 98 A. D. ; the Histories, written under Trajan, and 
 apparently not completed much before 110 A. D. ; and the 
 A nnals, published between 115 and 117 A. D. The Dia- 
 logue on Orators is an inquiry into the causes of the de- 
 cay of oratory. In form it is an imitation of Cicero's 
 famous dialogue De Or at ore, and the style also imitates 
 that of Cicero. In this respect the dialogue is so unlike 
 the later works of Tacitus that his authorship has been 
 denied by many scholars. It must, however, be remem-
 
 TACITUS 213 
 
 bered that this is his earliest work, and that the Ciceronian 
 style was taught in the school of Quintilian and no doubt 
 in other schools at Rome, so that an imitation of Cicero 
 was a natural beginning for a young author. Moreover, 
 there are in the dialogue traces of the later style of Taci- 
 tus, which is distinguished for its epigrammatic utterances 
 and its frequent use of innuendo. The work may therefore 
 be unhesitatingly ascribed to Tacitus. It is an interesting 
 and attractive dialogue, in which the quiet life of the poet 
 is contrasted with the more active career of the orator 
 before the real subject the reasons for the decay of ora- 
 tory is discussed. The conclusion is reached that ora- 
 tory has declined partly on account of the faulty rhetor- 
 ical education in vogue, but still more because the orator 
 no longer has under the imperial government the influ- 
 ence and power that belonged to his predecessors in the 
 days of the republic. 
 
 The Agricola (De Vita et Moribus Julii Agricolce) is 
 a biography and panegyric of Gna?us Julius Agricola, 
 Tacitus's father-in-law. In the introduction 
 Tacitus gives his reasons for having written 
 nothing during the reign of Domitian. The passage de- 
 serves to be quoted, not only as a specimen of Tacitus's 
 style, but because it places in a clear light his view of the 
 imperial government in the first century. Throughout 
 the Histories and the Annals his attitude is the same, 
 and his genius has imposed his view upon all later times. 
 Under Domitian two eminent Stoics, Arulenus Eusticus 
 and Herennius Priscus, had been put to death and their 
 works publicly burned. Tacitus mentions this and then 
 expresses himself as follows : 
 
 They thought forsooth that in that fire the voice of the Roman 
 people and the freedom of the senate and the conscience of the 
 human race were being consumed, especially since the teachers of 
 philosophy had been banished and every good profession driven 
 into exile, that nothing honorable might offend them. We have
 
 214 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 indeed given a great proof of our patience ; and just as the ancient 
 time saw the utmost limit of liberty, so we have seen the utmost 
 limit of servitude, when even the intercourse of speech and hear- 
 ing was taken away by the inquisitions. And with our speech we 
 should have lost even our very memory, if we had been as 
 able to forget as to keep silent. Now at last our courage has re- 
 turned, but although . . . Trajan is daily adding to the blessed- 
 ness of the times, . . . and the state has gained confidence and 
 strength, nevertheless by the nature of human weakness remedies 
 are slower than diseases; and just as our bodies grow slowly, but 
 are quickly destroyed, so you can oppress genius and learning more 
 quickly than you can revive them. For the charm of sloth also 
 comes over us, and the inactivity we hated at first grows dear at 
 last. Throughout fifteen years, a great part of the life of man, 
 many have fallen through chance mishaps, and all the most ener- 
 getic ones by the cruelty of the emperor, and a few of us are 
 left, so to speak, as survivors not only of the others, but even of 
 ourselves, since there have been taken out of our lives so many 
 years, in which we who were youths have passed to old age and 
 as old men have almost reached the limit of life itself without a 
 word. 1 
 
 Agricola was not a great man either in intellect or in 
 force of character. Moreover, he had lived through the 
 reign of Domitian in safety by not opposing the will of 
 the tyrant. Naturally it was hard to write a panegyric on 
 such a man which should interest and please the public. 
 But Tacitus, by laying the chief stress upon Agricola's 
 successful administration in Britain, which is prefaced by 
 an account of the country and of the previous Koman ex- 
 peditions thither, made of his panegyric a genuine bit of 
 history with Agricola, the most prominent person in it. 
 Thus the reader's interest is kept alive and the writer's 
 purpose accomplished. The work closes with an eloquent 
 and beautiful apostrophe to Agricola. 
 
 When he wrote the Agricola, Tacitus was already plan- 
 ning a great history of his own times, for which he had 
 
 1 Agricola, 2.
 
 TACITUS 215 
 
 at least begun to accumulate materials. In the Germania 
 
 (Ue Origine Situ Moribus ac Populis Germanics) the 
 
 material collected to serve as introductory to 
 
 Til a 
 
 the account of the wars in Germany is pub- 
 Germania. 
 
 lished as a separate work. The little treatise 
 
 is interesting as the earliest extant connected account of 
 the country and inhabitants of northern Europe. A few 
 of the statements contained in it are manifestly incor- 
 rect, but for the most part, what Tacitus tells us agrees 
 with and supplements what we know from other sources. 
 The essay is a compilation from various earlier works, 
 among which Pliny's History of the German Wars was 
 no doubt the most important, though Tacitus probably 
 consulted the works of Caesar, Velleius Paterculus, and 
 others, besides obtaining information from some of the 
 many Romans who had served in the army in Germany. 
 There is no indication that Tacitus was ever in Germany 
 himself. As a literary production the Germania is far in- 
 ferior to the Agricola, though written at about the same 
 time. In the Agricola Tacitus expresses his own feel- 
 ings for his father-in-law, whom he evidently loved and 
 respected, while in the Germania there is little room for 
 feeling of any sort, and none for emotion. Yet, with all 
 the difference in literary merit, the two works show the 
 style of Tacitus at the same stage. There are still some 
 remnants of Ciceronian smoothness, but these are evi- 
 dently survivals. The tendency to use concise, even abbre- 
 viated phrases, to add point to expressions by verbal an- 
 tithesis or by inversion of order, and to make his sentences 
 imply more than the words actually express, is character- 
 istic of Tacitus's mature style and is evident, though not 
 yet fully developed, in the Agricola and the Germania alike. 
 At least as early as 98 A. D. Tacitus planned to write a 
 history of his own times. His original purpose was to be- 
 gin with the accession of Galba arid continue in chrono- 
 logical order. But after completing the history of the 
 15
 
 216 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 period from Galba to the death of Domitian (68-96 A. D.) 
 he went back to the death of Augustus, and wrote the 
 history of the time to the accession of Galba 
 ( 14 ~68 A. D.). He intended to write the his- 
 tory of the reigns of Nerva and Trajan, but 
 never did so. The part of the work first completed, treat- 
 ing of the events of the author's own lifetime, is entitled 
 Histories (Histories) ; the part written later, but treating of 
 the earlier period, is usually called the Annals (Annales), 
 though its proper title is Ab Excessu Divi Augusti, in imi- 
 tation of the title of Livy's history, Ab Urbe Condita. The 
 two together consisted of thirty books, of which fourteen 
 belong to the Histories and sixteen to the Annals. Of the 
 Annals, the following parts are preserved : Books I-IV 
 and the beginning of Book V, from the death of Au- 
 gustus to the year 29 A. D., Book VI, with the exception 
 of the beginning, carrying on the story to the death of 
 Tiberius, and Books XI-XVI, from 47-66 A. D., though 
 this long fragment is mutilated at the beginning and the 
 end. The account of the reign of Caligula is lost, as is 
 that of the first seven years of the reign of Claudius, and 
 of somewhat more than two years at the end of the reign 
 of Nero. Of the Histories only the first four books and 
 part of the fifth remain, and this important fragment is 
 preserved in only one manuscript. It contains the his- 
 tory of little more than one year, the memorable year 
 68-69 A. D., in which Galba, Otho, and Vitellius, in quick 
 succession, gained the imperial power and lost their lives, 
 to be followed by Vespasian. 
 
 In the Annals, dealing with a period before his own 
 
 recollection, Tacitus treats the history of Rome and the 
 
 empire as if it were directed by the wishes, 
 
 ie na s. ^ e ^i^ an( j ca p r i ce s of a few individuals. 
 
 He depicts the character of Tiberius and the court of 
 
 Nero in vivid and lurid colors. The court intrigues, the 
 
 judicial and private murders, the licentiousness and cor-
 
 TACITUS 217 
 
 ruption of the capital are spread before us with all the 
 power of his brilliant and incisive style. These things 
 appear as the most important matters in the history of 
 the time. Modern scholars have, with the aid of inscrip- 
 tions, found that the Roman empire was, throughout this 
 period, ably and peaceably administered by permanent 
 officials, and was little affected by the terror that reigned 
 in the capital. But for Tacitus, Rome was the empire. 
 The provinces were in the dim distance and had in his 
 eyes little historical importance. That his view of history 
 is narrow and distorted is clear ; yet his genius has made 
 it for centuries the only accepted view of Roman history 
 under the early emperors. In the Histories, dealing with 
 his own times, he sees things more clearly. The uprising 
 of the Batavians under Civilis and the war in Palestine are 
 treated with as much detail as the sanguinary struggles in 
 Rome, though here also the influence of the characters 
 and acts of individuals upon the irresistible course of 
 history is overrated. This view of history, which makes 
 events depend too much upon individuals, joined with a 
 pessimism which sees hidden motives behind even inno- 
 cent or indifferent acts, is the great defect of Tacitus 
 as an historian. His information is carefully collected, 
 though, as a rule, he neglects all mention of his authorities. 
 In preparing his account of the Jews in the fifth book of 
 the Histories he relied apparently upon hearsay and upon 
 other untrustworthy sources of information, without re- 
 ferring to the Septuagint or to Josephus, but similar care- 
 lessness can not be proved in other parts of his work. 
 
 His style is impregnated with the words and phrases 
 of the classical writers, especially of Virgil, and with the 
 rhetorical teaching of the Silver Age, and yet 
 ^ * 8 th orou ghty individual. It is concise, 
 sharp, and cutting, but often grandly poetic 
 in its eloquence ; it is apparently straightforward, yet 
 somehow often reveals a half-hidden meaning ; it is care-
 
 218 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 fully elaborated, yet it affects the reader with rugged 
 earnestness. Such a style is almost inimitable, whether 
 by writers of Latin or by translators. It has been compared 
 to that of Carlyle, and the comparison is worth mention- 
 ing, though it should not be pushed too far. Few proso 
 works contain more epigrammatic sentences than those 
 of Tacitus. Examples are : " Traitors are hated, even by 
 those whom they advance " ; 1 " None grieve more osten- 
 tatiously than those who are most delighted in their 
 hearts"; 8 "Princes are mortal, the state eternal"; 3 
 " When the state was most corrupt the laws were most 
 numerous " ; * " New men rather than new measures " ; 6 
 "Vices will exist as long as men"; 6 "Fame does not 
 always err ; sometimes it chooses." 7 Endowed, as he was, 
 with striking stylistic ability, writing, in fact, in a style 
 which could not fail to arouse the interest and hold the 
 attention of his readers, it is no wonder that Tacitus suc- 
 ceeded in imposing upon the world his views of history, 
 which can be only partially corrected by the careful study 
 and interpretation of fragmentary records. 
 
 Juvenal can hardly be separated from Tacitus. Both 
 depict the life of Eome in the same lurid light, and the 
 picture presented by each agrees with that of 
 the other. Juvenal's diatribes seem to illus- 
 trate the statements of Tacitus, and Tacitus shows that 
 Juvenal's violence is justified by the facts. Of Juvenal's 
 life little is known. His full name is given in some manu- 
 scripts as Decimus lunius luvenalis. One vita or life 
 gives the date of his birth as 55 A. D., which may be cor- 
 rect, though there is no especial reason to regard it as ex- 
 act. He was born at Aquinum, a town of the Volscians, 
 where he held the offices of duumvir quinquennalis and 
 of flamen Divi Vespasiani. He was also at one time a 
 military tribune, serving with the first Dalmatian cohort, 
 
 1 Annals, i, 58. 8 Ann., ii, 77. 8 Ann., iii, 6. * Ann., iii, 27. 
 Hiat., ii, 95. " Hist., iv, 74. 7 Agric., 9.
 
 JUVENAL 219 
 
 perhaps in Britain. This military service probably be- 
 longs to his youth, and the local offices to his later life. 
 He evidently received ^ good education, and he appears to 
 have practised oratory for some years. Martial, who men- 
 tions him. several times, speaks of him as eloquent, not as 
 poetic or satirical. The lives agree in stating that he was 
 banished, but not in regard to the time or place of his . 
 banishment. He came to Rome about 90 A. D., was still 
 there in 101 A. D., and probably spent part of some of the 
 later years in the capital. At Rome he lived in the Su- 
 bura, the plebeian quarter, but had access to the houses 
 of rich nobles. His satires were written between 100 and 
 127 A. D., and he died about 135 A. D. 
 
 Juvenal is the harshest and most violent of the four 
 great Roman satirists. Lucilius was outspoken and some- 
 times bitter, but aimed to correct while he 
 rebuked the follies of his time ; Horace soon 
 lost all bitterness and expressed good-humored raillery; 
 Persius derived his themes from books and preached 
 Stoic doctrines; but Juvenal attacks Roman society in 
 fierce and biting verses, shrinking from no gruesome 
 or indecent detail, showing no humor save of the grim- 
 mest and harshest sort, and with no hope of correcting 
 the evils he depicts. He has all the variety of phrase 
 of the accomplished rhetorician, and his lines have a 
 rolling grandeur almost Virgilian. He shows, indeed, 
 the influence of Virgil more than of any other previous 
 writer, though traces of Homer, Herodotus, Plato, nearly 
 all the Roman poets, and among Roman prose writers 
 Cicero, Valerius Maximus, and Seneca are found in his 
 satires. The violence of his satires is, however, not 
 directed against his contemporaries. He seems to have 
 in mind rather the Rome of Domitian than that of Tra- 
 jan or Hadrian, under whose rule he wrote. The six- 
 teen satires are divided into five books. Book I (Satires 
 i-vi) was written not earlier than 100 A. D., and Book II
 
 220 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 (Satire vii) not before 116 A. D. These are the most 
 powerful, most violent, and least agreeable books. Book 
 III (Satires vii-ix) was written about 120, Book . IV 
 (Satires x-xii) about 125, and Book V (Satires xiii-xvi) 
 in 127 A. D. In these three books there is less viru- 
 lence, but also less power than in the first two. Old 
 age brought with it a loss at once of fierceness and of 
 strength. 
 
 In the first satire, Juvenal gives his reasons for writ- 
 ing as he does. He is tired of listening to endless epics, 
 
 and the corruptions of the time are such that 
 Contents of it ig difficult not to ^^ gatire," 1 and 
 the Satires. 
 
 " indignation makes verse. * The evils to be 
 
 attacked are enumerated in a series of rapidly sketched 
 pictures, and the poet declares that "all that men do, 
 their hope, fear, wrath, pleasure, joys, and gaddings make 
 up the medley of my book." 3 And in the following 
 satires the faults of men, the dangers of the city, the 
 court of Domitian, the pride of wealth, the crimes of 
 women, the lack of honor paid to intellect, the worthless- 
 ness of noble birth without virtue, unnatural lust, the 
 shortsightedness of human wishes, the wrong of setting 
 children a bad example, and other striking features of 
 the life of Home are vividly presented and ruthlessly 
 attacked. One of the most interesting satires is the 
 third, in which the dangers of the city are described. A 
 man who is leaving Rome for a small country town gives 
 reasons for his departure : 
 
 What should I do at Rome ? I can not lie ; 
 I can not praise a book that's bad and beg 
 A copy of it ; I am ignorant 
 Of the motions of the stars ; I neither will 
 Nor can make promise of a father's death. 4 
 
 1 Sat. i, 30. * Sat. i, 79. 8 Sat. i, 85 f. 
 
 4 Sat. iii, 41 ff.
 
 JUVENAL 221 
 
 The dirty streets, the water dripping from the aque- 
 duct, the risk from falling tiles or household vessels, the 
 drunken brawls in the streets, the rich man escorted 
 home by clients and slaves with flaming torches, the dan- 
 ger from robbers these and many other details of the 
 ill regulated capital are set before us. This satire is 
 imitated by Johnson in his London, which has rightly 
 been called one of the finest modern imitations of an 
 ancient poem, and the same author's poem on The Vanity 
 of Human Wishes is a less accurate, though not less 
 admirable, imitation of Juvenal's tenth satire. The clos- 
 ing passage of the tenth satire, in which the poet tells 
 what are the proper objects of prayer, is a lofty utterance 
 of human wisdom. The most savage of all the satires is, 
 on the other hand, the sixth, in which the crimes of 
 women are held up to execration. 
 
 It is not easy for the modern reader to enjoy Juvenal. 
 His satires are full of allusions to unknown persons and 
 things at Eome ; they abound also in mythological refer- 
 ences and literary reminiscences, and finally the savage 
 tone of the earlier books is disagreeable. Yet the power 
 of invective, the clearness and vividness of description, 
 the variety of diction, and the beauty of versification 
 have combined to make Juvenal a much read author. 
 That he is also much quoted is due to the epigrammatic 
 and pointed form of many of his phrases. Mens sana in 
 corpore sano, 1 Rara avis,* Panem et circenses,* Hoc volo, 
 sic iubeo,* Quis custodiet ipsos citstodes? 6 are among the 
 most familiar Latin quotations, and many other almost 
 equally familiar expressions are derived from Juvenal. 
 Some of these are distinguished for their significance 
 quite as much as for their form. Such are, for instance : 
 "And for the sake of life give up life's only end" 6 and 
 
 ' Sat. x, 356. Hit. vi, 1(55. Sat. x, 81. 
 
 4 Sat. vi, 233. 5 Sat. vi, 347. Sat. viii, 84.
 
 222 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 " The greatest reverence is due a child" l It is not with- 
 out reason that Juvenal has exerted great influence on 
 human thought. 
 
 Tacitus and Juvenal resemble each other in their 
 originality and vigor of thought and expression, their 
 severe judgment of men and manners, and 
 their pessimism. The younger Pliny con- 
 trasts with them in all these respects, and 
 his letters give us an idea of Roman life very different 
 from that which we derive from them. Gaius Plinius 
 Caecilius Secundus was the son of Lucius Caecilius Gilo, 
 a wealthy nobleman of Comum, but was adopted by will 
 by his uncle, the elder Pliny. He therefore changed his 
 name, which was originally Publius Caecilius Secundus, 
 and took that of his uncle, retaining his original family 
 name, Caecilius, only for legal and formal use. He was 
 born in 61 or 62 A. D., for he was in his eighteenth year 
 when the eruption of Vesuvius took place, August 24, 
 79 A. D. Gilo had died when Pliny was young, and the 
 boy had become the ward of Verginius Rufus, which fact 
 did not, however, diminish the paternal interest of his 
 uncle, with whom he was at the time of the eruption. 
 Pliny began his career as an advocate in 80 or 81 A. D. 
 He held various offices, was military tribune, quaestor in 
 89-90 A. D., tribune of the people in 90-91 A. D., praetor 
 in 93 A. D., was one of the prefects in charge of the war 
 treasury and also of the general treasury, became consul 
 in 100 A. D., and succeeded Sextus Julius Frontinus in 
 the college of augurs in 103 or 104 A. D. He was gov- 
 ernor of Pontus and Bithynia either in 111-112 or 112- 
 113 A. D., and died before 114 A. D., either in his province 
 or soon after his return to Italy. His life was passed 
 chiefly in the service of the government, and for the most 
 part at Rome. He was married three times, but had no 
 
 1 Sat. xiv, 47.
 
 PLINY THE YOUNGER 223 
 
 children. He was an orator of some importance, deliver- 
 ing most of his speeches in inheritance cases, though he 
 was employed five times in important criminal suits. He 
 recited his speeches before delivering them in public, 
 and after delivery he published them, sometimes with 
 corrections. He was interested in poetry, and wrote 
 poems of various kinds, but these, as well as his speeches, 
 with the exception of his panegyric on Trajan, are lost. 
 
 Pliny's extant works consist of nine books of letters 
 to various persons, written between 97 and 109 A. D., a 
 panegyric on the Emperor Trajan, delivered 
 in 100 A. D. when Pliny was made consul, 
 and seventy-two letters to Trajan, written 
 between 98 and 106, and from September, 111, to Janu- 
 ary, 113 A. D. Trajan's replies to fifty-one of these letters 
 are published, which exhibit his firm judgment and prac- 
 tical common sense in striking contrast to Pliny's inde- 
 cision and lack of independence. Pliny's other letters 
 are more interesting. He describes the scenes in the 
 Koman courts, the gatherings where the audience was 
 bored by authors who recited their works, he gives 
 detailed descriptions of his Laurentine 1 and Tuscan* 
 villas, in two letters 3 to Tacitus ho gives an account of 
 the eruption of Vesuvius, his uncle's death, and his own 
 feelings. Incidentally he throws much light upon the 
 social and family life of the time. His own character is 
 also clearly portrayed. What a young prig he must have 
 been who refused his uncle's invitation to accompany 
 him to see, from a nearer point of view, the great erup- 
 tion, preferring to spend his time over his books, and 
 who even continued to make extracts when awakened by 
 the terrible quaking of the earth and this at seventeen 
 years of age! His vanity is beautifully exhibited in 
 another letter to Tacitus, 4 in which he tells a story to 
 his own credit, and hopes that Tacitus will insert it in 
 
 ., II, xvii. Ibid., V, vi. Ibid., VI, xvi, xx. * Ibid., VII, xxxiii.
 
 224 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 the Histories, and in still another, 1 where he says to the 
 most original and inimitable of all Roman writers since 
 the Augustan times, " You, such is the similarity of our 
 natures, always seemed to me most easy to imitate and 
 most to be imitated. Wherefore I am the more pleased 
 that, if there is any talk about literature, we are men- 
 tioned together, that I occur at once to those who are 
 speaking of you." Other qualities appear no less clearly. 
 Vain he was and fond of praise, but at the same time 
 kind to his slaves, affectionate to his friends, gentle, and 
 conscientious. He seldom speaks unkindly of any one; 
 and when he utters a sharp criticism, he almost always 
 avoids mentioning the name of the person criticized. 
 The love of nature was fashionable at Rome, and Pliny 
 may be only following the fashion when he writes of 
 natural scenery, but it is quite as probable that he 
 really felt its charms. He had a great admiration for 
 Cicero, and it was doubtless owing, in part, at least, to 
 this admiration that Pliny, like Cicero, published his 
 letters. There is, however, a great difference between 
 the two collections. Cicero's letters were collected and 
 published by others, whereas Pliny's were from the begin- 
 ning intended for publication and were published at 
 various times by Pliny himself. They are therefore not 
 unpremeditated utterances, but carefully prepared writ- 
 ings for the perusal of the public. Nevertheless the 
 epistolary style is well preserved, though not without 
 some pedantic elegance, and the letters give us the same 
 insight into Roman life under Trajan as do those of 
 Cicero into the life of the last years of the republic. 
 
 The Panegyric on Trajan was delivered as the official 
 expression of thanks on the part of Pliny and his col- 
 league Cornutus Tertullus for their elevation to the con- 
 sulate. After the speech was delivered it was revised and 
 enlarged. It is therefore in its extant form neither a 
 
 1 Ep., VII, xx.
 
 PLINY THE YOUNGER 225 
 
 speech nor an historical essay, but a mixture of the two. 
 
 After an introduction, Trajan's acts before his entrance 
 
 into Home are recounted, then his entrance 
 
 Panegyric. into tne citv ' and his man y political, munic- 
 ipal, and financial measures for the good of 
 the state. Trajan's personal qualities are praised in the 
 most fulsome manner and those of Domitian set forth in 
 the most hateful light. Then comes an account of Trajan's 
 second and third consulships, his care for the provinces, 
 and his judicial acts, with traits of his private life. The 
 speech or treatise ends with the expression of thanks from 
 Pliny and his colleague. The Panegyric is not an attrac- 
 tive production, but it is the chief source of information 
 concerning the history of the earlier years of Trajan's rule. 
 Though not a great man nor a great writer, Pliny 
 was a cultivated gentleman and a useful citizen. His 
 letters make us acquainted with Koman life 
 writers from a side that Tacitus and Juvenal leave 
 
 practically untouched. They are therefore 
 not only interesting, but, as historical documents, of great 
 importance. Besides Tacitus, Juvenal, and Pliny, there 
 are no writers of the time of Trajan who deserve more 
 than passing mention. The names of numerous poets 
 are preserved, chiefly in Pliny's letters, but their works 
 are lost, and we have no reason to believe that they 
 merited preservation. Orators, jurists, and grammarians 
 continued speaking and writing, and some among them 
 attained eminence, but their works are lost for the most 
 part, and the technical treatises on grammar which are 
 preserved possess little interest for the student of litera- 
 ture. The same remark applies to the treatises on sur- 
 veying and on the fortification of camps by Hyginus, on 
 geometry by Balbus, and on surveying by Siculus Flaccus. 
 The literature of the period between the death of Domi- 
 tian and the accession of Hadrian is contained in the 
 works of Tacitus, Juvenal, and Pliny.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE EMPERORS AFTER TRAJAN SUETONIUS OTHER 
 WRITERS 
 
 Hadrian, 117-138 A. D. Antoninus Pius, 138-161 A. D. Marcus 
 Aurelius, 161-180 A. D. Commodus, 180-192 A. D. Septimius Sev- 
 erus, 193-211 A. D. Alexander Severus, 222-235 A. D. Gordian I, 
 238 A. D. Gallienus, 260-268 A. a Aurelian, 270-275 A. D. Tacitus, 
 275 A. D. Suetonius, about 70 or 75 to about 150 A. D. Florus, time 
 of Hadrian Justin, time of Hadrian (!) Licinianus, time of An- 
 toninus Pius Ampelius, time of Antoninus Pius (!) Salvius Juli- 
 anus, time of Hadrian Sextus Pomponius, time of Antoninus Pius 
 Gaius, about 110-180 A. D. Quintus Cervidius Scsevola, time of 
 Antoninus and M. Aurelius Papinianus, time of Commodus and 
 Septimius Severus Terentius Scaurus, time of Hadrian Terenti- 
 anus Maurus and Juba, before 200 A. D. Aero, about 200 A. D. 
 Porphyrio, about 200 A. D. Festus, early in the third century. 
 
 IT was not until the fourth century after Christ that a 
 new capital of the Roman empire was founded at Con- 
 Latin stantinople ; but long before that time the 
 literature rea i centre of gravity of the empire was shift- 
 after Trajan. ing toward the east In Agia? Egypt, and 
 
 Africa, were the great sources of wealth and the great 
 masses of population. While Rome was growing from 
 the position of a small Italian town to that of the ruler 
 of the world, and even for some time after the establish- 
 ment of the empire, the Romans had possessed a strong 
 national feeling, and Roman literature, although it began 
 with imitation of the works of the Greeks, had been a 
 national literature. But with the second century a 
 change, which had been in preparation since the days of 
 Augustus, became apparent. Rome was no longer the 
 226
 
 LITERATURE AFTER TRAJAN 227 
 
 centre of the world in all things, though still the seat of 
 government. Men of distinction spent at least a great 
 part of their time in the smaller towns of Italy, and 
 the leaders of thought and creators of literature no 
 longer found it necessary to take up their residence at 
 Rome. Then, too, the progress of Christianity brought 
 with it a new literature which was not national, but 
 Christian. These causes, with others less obvious, but 
 perhaps no less potent, led to the rapid decay of the 
 national literature. It is our task from this point to 
 trace the progress of this decay, and at the same time to 
 record the rise of Christian literature in the Latin 
 language. Works of great literary importance are few in 
 this period, and the history of literature can be treated in 
 less detail than heretofore. 
 
 The Emperor Hadrian (117-138 A. D.) was a man 
 of singular versatility. He delivered and published 
 . speeches and wrote an autobiography, works 
 
 on grammar, and even poems. He was 
 equally familiar with Greek and Latin, and it is probably 
 in part due to this fact that the literary revival during his 
 rule was less Latin than Greek. He spent a great part of 
 his time away from Rome, and wherever he went his 
 path was marked by the erection of buildings for use 
 and ornament. He lived for three years at Athens, where 
 he added a new quarter to the ancient city. Greek, 
 which had for centuries been familiar to the literary men 
 of Rome, became now, more than ever before, the literary 
 language of the empire. It is hardly to be wondered at 
 that Latin literature has under Hadrian no greater 
 representative than Suetonius. 
 
 Hadrian's successor, Antoninus Pius (138-161 A. D.), 
 was no writer, but showed his interest in literary and 
 intellectual matters by granting salaries and privileges 
 to philosophers and rhetors. Marcus Aurelius (161-180 
 A. D.) was carefully instructed by Greek and Roman teach-
 
 228 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 ers. While still a mere boy he was greatly interested in 
 the Stoic philosophy ; but the famous orator and teacher 
 
 Fronto (see page 235) obtained such great in- 
 The Anto- 
 nines. fluence over him, that for a number of years 
 
 he devoted himself to rhetoric. The cor- 
 respondence of Fronto with Marcus Aurelius shows how 
 great was the affection that existed between teacher 
 and pupil, and also how petty were the rhetorical teach- 
 ings and investigations in which Fronto passed his life 
 and to which he hoped his pupil would devote his intel- 
 lect. Fronto was, however, doomed to disappointment, 
 for when Marcus Aurelius was in his twenty-fifth year 
 he turned again to philosophy. The correspondence 
 with Fronto is conducted in Latin similar to Fronto's 
 own, plentifully adorned with obsolete expressions taken 
 from writers of the republican period. The Thoughts of 
 Marcus Aurelius, those ethical maxims and moral reflec- 
 tions which make the Stoic doctrines seem so much like 
 Christianity, are written in Greek. That Marcus Aurelius 
 regarded Greek as the proper language of culture, or at 
 least of philosophy, is shown by the fact that he estab- 
 lished the schools of philosophy at Athens with regularly 
 salaried professors. Lucius Verus, the colleague of Mar- 
 cus Aurelius until 169 A. D., was also a pupil of Fronto, 
 and in his letters to his teacher shows the same faults of 
 style exhibited by Marcus Aurelius. He had no influence 
 upon Latin literature, and Commodus (180-192 A. D.) had 
 no interest in literature of any sort. 
 
 Pertinax had literary tastes, but his brief reign gave 
 
 him no opportunity to influence the course of the national 
 
 literature, while his successor Didius Juli- 
 
 anus, who bought the empire from the prae- 
 
 emperors, * 
 
 torian guards, found after sixty-six days of 
 nominal power that his purchase brought him ruin and 
 death. Septimius Severus (193-211 A. D.), although his 
 native tongue was probably Punic, was well educated in
 
 SUETONIUS 229 
 
 Greek and Latin and wrote an autobiography, but there is 
 no indication that he exercised any marked influence 
 upon Roman literature. Among the later emperors were 
 few whose literary interests were strong, and still fewer 
 who appear as authors. In the third century Alexander 
 Severus (222-235 A. D.) was seriously interested in Greek 
 and Latin literature and encouraged literary production 
 by all the means in his power ; Gordian I (238 A. D.) wrote 
 a metrical history of the Antonines in thirty books, besides 
 various other works in prose and verse, but these are lost, 
 and his brief reign did not enable him to give imperial en- 
 couragement to literature; the poems and speeches of 
 Gallienus (260-268 A. D.) and the historical writings of 
 Aurelian (270-275 A. D.) were of little importance. The 
 Emperor Tacitus (275 A. D.) exerted himself to spread 
 abroad the works of his ancestor the historian, and it may 
 be due to him that those works are in part preserved. 
 Those among the still later emperors who had literary 
 interests made their influence felt rather upon Greek than 
 Latin literature. 
 
 The most important writer in the reign of Hadrian is 
 Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus. He was born apparently 
 between 70 and 75 A. D. He was a friend of 
 the younger Pliny, who mentions him in his 
 letters. Pliny obtained for him a military tribuneship, 
 which he passed on to a relative. Pliny also assisted him 
 in the purchase of a small estate and encouraged him to 
 publish some of his writings. Under Hadrian he held a 
 position as secretary, from which he was dismissed in 121 
 A. D. Of his later life nothing is known, but he probably 
 devoted himself to his literary labors, and as his works 
 were numerous, we may assume that he lived to an ad- 
 vanced age. 
 
 Only two works of Suetonius are preserved, the first 
 entire, but for a small part at the beginning, and of the 
 second only a part, and that much mutilated. The
 
 230 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 Lives of the Twelve Caesars (De Vita Ccesarum), in eight 
 books, contains the lives of Julius Caesar (Book I), Au- 
 gustus (Book II), Tiberius (Book III), Cu- 
 
 H S ula ( Book IV )' Claudius ( Book V), Nero 
 
 (Book VI), Galba, Otho, Vitellius (Book VII), 
 Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian (Book VIII). The work is 
 dedicated to Septicius Clarus, to whom Pliny the younger 
 dedicated his letters, and was published between 119 and 
 121 A. D., for Clarus is addressed as prcefectus prcetorio, an 
 office which he held only during those years. The begin- 
 ning is lost, for the life of Caesar begins at the point when 
 Caesar was sixteen years old. Suetonius is a careful and 
 conscientious writer and makes use of various sources of 
 information, not only published histories and biographies, 
 but also public documents, autograph letters of the em- 
 perors, and apparently oral tradition. He lacks, however, 
 the critical insight necessary for a good historian and the 
 understanding of character needed by a good biographer. 
 He collected his material with impartiality, avoiding 
 neither what was friendly nor what was hostile to the em- 
 perors whose lives he records, and arranged this material 
 as best he could, with no apparent endeavor to trace the 
 development of character, or even to determine in all 
 cases the chronological sequence of events. Dates are 
 seldom given, and the work as a whole presents rather the 
 material for history than real history. But this material 
 is interesting, and the style is simple, straightforward, and 
 clear. Although he wrote at a time when affectations of 
 style were fashionable, Suetonius had the good taste to 
 keep himself free from them. 
 
 The second work of Suetonius, entitled De Viris Illus- 
 
 tribus (On Illustrious Men), was a series of 
 niustribuB biographies of Latin poets, orators, historians, 
 
 philosophers, grammarians, and rhetoricians. 
 The section on orators began with Cicero, that on histo- 
 rians with Sallust. The greater part of the section on
 
 OTHER PROSE WRITERS 231 
 
 grammarians and rhetoricians is extant, as are the lives of 
 Terence, Horace, and Lucan from the section on poets, 
 and that of Pliny the elder from the section on historians. 
 Extracts from other parts of the work are preserved by 
 Jerome and in the scholia on various writers. Each sec- 
 tion contained a list of the authors discussed, a brief 
 account of their branch of literature, and short lives of 
 the authors arranged chronologically. In this work also 
 the style is simple and clear, but brevity is sought at the 
 expense of literary excellence. 
 
 Other works by Suetonius, some of which were much 
 used by later writers as sources of information, were on 
 Greek Games, Eoman Games, the Roman 
 k8 ' Year, Critical Marks in Books, Cicero's Re- 
 public, Dress, Imprecations, and Roman Laws and Customs. 
 Some of these were doubtless included in a work entitled 
 Praia, a sort of encyclopaedia in ten books, which dealt 
 also with philology and natural science. The works on 
 Greek Games and on Imprecations were apparently written 
 in Greek, the rest in Latin. Suetonius was not a great 
 writer, but was a diligent compiler of interesting informa- 
 tion. His extant works are valuable as sources of in- 
 formation rather than as literary productions, though 
 their freedom from the affectations of the age entitles 
 their author to some praise even from a literary point of 
 view. 
 
 To the time of Hadrian belongs a brief history of 
 
 Rome by Annius or Annaeus Florus. This is not a mere 
 
 epitome of Livy, as it is entitled in one of the 
 
 manuscripts, but rather a panegyric on the 
 
 Roman people. Florus personifies the Roman people, 
 
 speaks of its childhood under the rule of the kings, its 
 
 youth while Rome was conquering Italy, its manhood 
 
 from the conquest of Italy to the time of Augustus, and 
 
 then instead of going on to tell of its old age, he says the 
 
 emperor restored it to youth. Florus writes in a flowery, 
 
 16
 
 232 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 rhetorical style, and pays little attention to any part of 
 history except wars and battles. For these reasons, and 
 also because of its brevity, the work was a popular text- 
 book in the Middle Ages. This Florus is probably iden- 
 tical with a poet who is reported to have joked with 
 Hadrian, and who has left two rather attractive specimens 
 of verse, one of five lines on spring, the other of twenty- 
 six lines on the quality of life. A fragment of a discus- 
 sion of the question whether Virgil was greater as a poet 
 or as an orator is also preserved under the name of Florus. 
 If this Florus is still the same person, we learn from the 
 fragment that he was unsuccessful in competing for a 
 prize in poetry at Home, traveled about in many parts of 
 the empire, and finally settled as a teacher in a provincial 
 town, probably Tarraco (Tarragona), in the northeast part 
 of Spain. 
 
 Historical writing was at a low ebb. Suetonius is far 
 the most important historian of the second century, and 
 he is made important rather by the dearth 
 historical ^ g& historians than by his own merits, 
 writings of Florus hardly deserves the name of historian, 
 the second Justin's epitome of Trogus (see page 164) 
 belongs, perhaps, to the time of Hadrian, and 
 is important because it has preserved much of the sub- 
 stance of the work of Trogus, but is in no sense an 
 original history. Under Antoninus Pius a history of 
 Rome was written by Granius Licinianus, but the extant 
 fragments show that this was little more than an epitome 
 of Livy. The Liber Memorialis, by Lucius Ampelius, 
 written at about the same time, is a little handbook of 
 useful knowledge, containing general information about 
 the earth, the stars, and the winds, followed by a brief 
 sketch of the history of various nations. It is a mere com- 
 pilation, possessing neither historical nor literary value. 
 
 The study of law was, on the other hand, pursued by 
 many jurists of ability, whose works were much used by
 
 OTHER PROSE WRITERS 233 
 
 those who gave to Koman law its final form in the reign 
 of Justinian. Under Hadrian the edicts of the praetors 
 and other magistrates were collected and 
 codified by Salvius Julianus, a distinguished 
 jurist of African birth, who attained the position of 
 prcefectus urbi and was twice consul. The Edictum Per- 
 petuum, as his work is called, became henceforth the 
 basis of Roman law. Julianus was also the author of in- 
 dependent juristic works. Sextus Pomponius, a younger 
 contemporary of Julianus, wrote among other things a 
 brief history of Roman jurisprudence, which is incorpo- 
 rated in the digests. Among the many jurists of the reign 
 of Antoninus Pius, the most important is Gaius (about 110- 
 180 A. D.), whose introduction to the study of law (Insti- 
 tutiones), clearly written in good and simple language, is 
 for the most part preserved in the digests, and served as 
 the foundation of the similar work written at the com- 
 mand of Justinian. The works of Quint us Cervidius Scae- 
 vola, who lived under Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius, 
 were also much used by the writers of the pandects. One of 
 the most distinguished jurists under Commodus and Sep- 
 timius Severus was Papinianus, who was put to death 
 under Caracalla (212 A. D.) because he was faithful to that 
 emperor's brother Geta. 
 
 The study of grammar was diligently pursued in the 
 second century, and with it went the writing of commen- 
 taries on the classical authors. Under Ha- 
 
 urammar, 
 
 literature, drian, Terentius Scaurus wrote a Latin gram- 
 
 and mar, part of which is preserved in an abbre- 
 
 phiiosophy. yiated form, as well as commentaries on 
 Plautus, Virgil, and Horace, fragments of which are 
 found in the works of later commentators. Under the 
 Antonines, rhetoricians and grammarians were numerous, 
 and discussions of literary and grammatical questions 
 formed a considerable part of polite conversation. Metrical 
 handbooks were written by Terentianus Maurus and
 
 234 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 Juba, Helvius Aero wrote commentaries on Terence, 
 Horace, and Persius about the end of the second century, 
 and Pomponius Porphyrio, a grammarian of distinction, 
 whose scholia on Horace still exist, though not in their 
 original form, wrote probably at the end of the second or 
 the beginning of the third century. Festus, who made 
 an epitome of Verrius Flaccus (see page 166) probably 
 lived but little after this time. Some of the rhetoricians 
 of this period probably continued to teach as they had 
 themselves been taught, but the most important among 
 them developed a new school, which will form the subject 
 of our next chapter. Philosophy had in the second cen- 
 tury still many followers, but there was little literary pro- 
 duction in Latin. Dio Chrysostom, Plutarch, Marcus 
 Aurelius, and Sextus Empiricus wrote in Greek.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 LITERARY INNOVATIONS 
 
 Pronto, about 100 to about 175 A. D. Gellius, born about 125 
 A. D. Apuleius, about 125 to about 200 A. D. Innovations in poetry 
 The Pervigilium Veneris. 
 
 AN important figure in the literature of the second 
 century was Marcus Cornelius Fronto, of Cirta, in Nu- 
 midia. He was born about 100 A. D., studied under the best 
 teachers, and was distinguished as an orator and teacher 
 even under Hadrian, though his greatest influ- 
 ence was exerted under the Antonines. He 
 became a member of the senate under Hadrian, and his 
 speech against the Christians may have been delivered be- 
 fore that body. In 143 A. D. he was consul, and was to 
 have been proconsul entrusted with the government of 
 Asia, but relinquished that office on account of ill health. 
 He was the teacher of Marcus Antoninus and Lucius Verus, 
 both of whom were much attached to him, and as was 
 natural under such circumstances, he was greatly honored 
 and became very wealthy. Of his family life we know 
 only that he was married, that his daughter Gratia mar- 
 ried Gaius Aufidius Victorinus, and that five daughters 
 were removed by death. The date of his death is un- 
 known, but it was probably shortly after 175 A. D. Parts 
 of Fronto's correspondence were discovered in 1815, and 
 from his letters we get an idea of his style and his teach- 
 ing. The correspondence is with Marcus Aurelius, Lucius 
 Verus, Antoninus Pius, and others, and several essays are 
 included, which were probably sent with the letters to 
 
 235
 
 236 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 Fronto's correspondents. One of these essays, the Prin- 
 cipia Historice, compares the Parthian campaigns of Verus 
 and Trajan to the advantage of Verus. This essay was in- 
 tended to serve as an introduction to a history of the deeds 
 of Verus in the Parthian War, but the history was never 
 written. What gives Fronto's letters their chief interest is 
 his teaching in regard to oratory and style. He considers 
 rhetoric the noblest possible study, and warns Marcus 
 Aurelius against surrendering to the charms of philoso- 
 phy, but the chief end of the study of rhetoric is to acquire 
 new and striking words and phrases. Fronto apparently 
 despaired of acquiring new ideas or new ,points of view, 
 and he saw that Latin literature could not go on for- 
 ever merely imitating the writers of the Golden Age, or 
 even those of the Silver Age. He was too much of a 
 scholar to think of drawing from the living spring of 
 common every-day speech, and therefore hit upon the ex- 
 pedient of reverting to the early writers, such as Ennius, 
 Plautus, Accius, Cato, Sallust, and Gracchus. His language 
 is therefore full of old-fashioned expressions used without 
 the simplicity that belongs to the early times. That such 
 a writer as Fronto was highly respected and exerted a 
 powerful influence upon his contemporaries is a sign of 
 the depth to which Eoman literature had sunk. 
 
 A much younger man than Fronto, but like him, a man 
 
 of books and an admirer of archaic phraseology, was Aulus 
 
 Gellius, who was born probably about 125 
 
 ^ u , 1 A. D., studied under various masters at Rome 
 
 Gellius. 
 
 and at Athens, and held some judicial posi- 
 tion at Rome. His extant work, entitled Nodes Atticce 
 (Attic Nights), received its title from the fact that it 
 contains the results of the writer's labors begun at Athens, 
 when he used to read various authors and make extracts 
 from them in the night. These extracts, with a variety 
 of notes and comments, are arranged in twenty books, all 
 of which are preserved except the eighth, of which we
 
 GELLIUS 237 
 
 have only the table of contents, and the end of the twen- 
 tieth. The subjects treated are language and literature, 
 law, philosophy, and natural history. Gellius quotes no 
 contemporary authors, but introduces them as speakers, 
 for parts of his work have the form of dialogues. There 
 is no order in the arrangement of subjects, but things 
 are put down as Gellius happened to find them in the 
 works he read. No critical faculty is exhibited, nor has 
 Gellius any marked literary skill. He is simply a diligent 
 compiler, whose work is interesting and valuable to us 
 merely because it preserves fragments of earlier works 
 now lost and information about a variety of subjects. 
 
 The Latin of the Golden Age was a more or less artifi- 
 cial language developed by the genius of the great writers 
 from the common language of every-day life. 
 
 The Latin of the Silver A e was a devel P- 
 ment from the literary Latin of the Golden 
 
 Age, not directly from the popular speech. While liter- 
 ary Latin was thus passing through various phases, the 
 popular speech was also developing along its own lines, 
 and by the second century after Christ was very different 
 from the literary Latin of the time as well as from any 
 Latin, whether spoken or written, of the Ciceronian or 
 earlier times. It had already entered upon the course of 
 change which was in the end to lead to the birth of the 
 Romance languages. Fronto, in his desire to infuse new 
 life into the worn-out literary Latin of his day, went back 
 to the writers before Cicero and adopted their words and 
 phrases, at the same time exerting himself to arrange 
 words in unusual order with the intention of giving 
 piquancy to his expression. His precepts and example 
 were followed by others, as, for instance, Gellius, and still 
 more clearly, Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus as they 
 appear in their letters to their teacher. But Fronto, al- 
 though he had great influence for a time, could not turn 
 the stream of progress backward. If literary Latin was to
 
 238 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 develop anything new, it must be by adopting something 
 from the living speech of the people. This course was 
 followed, in a measure, at least, by Apuleius. 
 
 Apuleius (the prcenomen Lucius is doubtful) was, like 
 Fronto, an African, though he may have been of Roman 
 descent. He was born probably about 125 
 A. D., at Madaura, on the borders of Numidia 
 and Gaetulia. He was educated at Madaura, Carthage, 
 and Athens, travelled extensively, and was for a time in 
 Rome, where he was employed as an advocate. He mar- 
 ried ^Emilia Pudentilla, a wealthy widow of Oea, in Africa, 
 and was accused by her relatives of having led her into 
 the marriage by means of magic arts. His defense against 
 this charge is the extant book De Magia (On Magic), also 
 called the Apologia. In its present form the book is a 
 revised and enlarged edition of the speech in court. Apu- 
 leius was evidently acquitted, and he became a man of 
 great influence and reputation. He prided himself on his 
 versatility, wrote and spoke both Greek and Latin, and 
 confined himself to no one branch of literature, but was 
 orator, poet, scientist, philosopher, and novelist, without, 
 however, displaying any great originality in any direction. 
 He preferred to call himself a Platonic philosopher, but 
 his chief activity was that of a travelling orator, or sophist, 
 who went from place to place giving public exhibitions of 
 his skill in composing and delivering interesting speeches 
 on all sorts of subjects. He seems to have spent most of 
 his life in Africa, and he held the office of priest of the 
 province (sacerdos provincicB) at Carthage. He was initi- 
 ated into the mysteries of Isis and seems to have been 
 one of those who sought in the mystic worship of foreign 
 deities the satisfaction of their religious yearnings which 
 the Roman state religion did not give. He seems to 
 have been opposed to Christianity, though he nowhere 
 mentions it directly. His great reputation and the 
 number of works ascribed to him would seem to indi-
 
 APULEIUS 239 
 
 cate that he lived to a good age, but the date of his 
 death is unknown. 
 
 The extant works of Apuleius are the Metamorphoses, a 
 novel in eleven books, the Apologia, a book on spirits, espe- 
 cially the familiar spirit of Socrates, De Deo So- 
 Works of cratis, two books on the doctrines of Plato, 
 
 Apuleius, 
 
 De Dogmate Platonis, and a collection of ex- 
 tracts from his speeches entitled Florida. The dialogue 
 Asclepius, the treatise On the World (De Mundo), and the 
 treatise published as the third book on Plato's teachings, 
 are not by Apuleius. Of these works the most interesting 
 is the novel entitled Metamorphoses, in which are narrated 
 the adventures of a certain Lucius of Corinth, who was 
 changed by magic into an ass, and in that form passed 
 through many vicissitudes and saw and heard many 
 strange things, until he was finally restored to human form 
 by the aid of the goddess Isis, to whose service he afterwards 
 devoted himself. This story is derived from a Greek 
 original which appears in abbreviated form among the 
 writings falsely ascribed to Lucian, under the title Lucius 
 or The Ass. Apuleius amplified his Greek original by in- 
 serting nearly twenty stories that have no connection 
 with the plot. These are usually introduced in an un- 
 skillful way, interrupting the narrative and destroying 
 the unity of the work, but they are in themselves the 
 most interesting parts of the whole novel. The longest 
 and most famous among them is the charming story of 
 Cupid and Psyche, beautifully rendered by William Morris 
 in his Earthly Paradise. This mystic love tale was derived, 
 like the other tales inserted in the story of Lucius, from 
 a Greek original. It is not an invention of Apuleius, but 
 he inserted it in his novel, and thus preserved it to later 
 times. 
 
 The style of Apuleius is not the same in his different 
 works. Everywhere, to be sure, he aims at striking effect 
 by means of unusual words arranged in peculiar order,
 
 240 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 and of sentences curiously broken up into short rhyth- 
 mical members, very different in effect from the dignified, 
 
 sonorous periods of Cicero and other clas- 
 The style of g - ca j wr i^ erg< g u ^ j n fo e Metamorphoses he 
 Apuleius. J 
 
 adopts many expressions from the common 
 
 speech of the people, whereas in his oratorical and philo- 
 sophical works he reverts, like Fronto, to the early 
 writers. Apuleius and Eronto, both Africans, are the 
 chief representatives of the elocutio novella, the new 
 rhetoric, which broke with the continuous tradition of 
 classical Latin and tried to infuse new life into Latin lit- 
 erature. Neither Fronto nor Apuleius was a man of 
 great inventive genius. Both imitated the Greek sophists 
 of their time, such as Maximus of Tyre and ^Elius Aristi- 
 des, not only in the subject matter of their discourses, but 
 to some extent in their style ; yet the fact that they 
 wrote and spoke in Latin and tried to influence the course 
 of Latin literature gives them an importance not pos- 
 sessed by any of the later Greek sophists except Dio 
 Chrysostom and Lucian. Apuleius was apparently more 
 gifted by nature than Fronto, and his works show a sur- 
 prising ability in the use of language, which makes up .in 
 a measure for the lack of originality in thought. Of his 
 extant works the Metamorphoses is the most important. 
 It not only shows the qualities of the elocutio novella 
 more completely than any other work, but it gives a 
 picture of the life of the times, with its superstitions, 
 loose morals, robberies, friendships, hospitalities, and 
 social amenities. Moreover, it has preserved to us many 
 interesting tales, among them the story of Cupid and 
 Psyche. Owing probably to the supernatural elements 
 in the Metamorphoses and to the fact that he had 
 been accused of magical arts, Apuleius came soon after 
 his death to be regarded as a mighty sorcerer, and as 
 a sorcerer he was associated with Virgil in mediaeval 
 times.
 
 PERVIG1LIUM VENERIS 241 
 
 While Fronto, Apuleius, and others were practising the 
 
 elocutio novella in prose, attempts were made to introduce 
 
 innovations in poetry. Terentiaims Maurus, 
 
 Innovations wno wro ^ e j n verse a handbook on letters, 
 
 in poetry. 
 
 syllables, and metres toward the end of the 
 
 second century, mentions poetce novelli, and Diomedes, a 
 grammarian of the latter part of the fourth century, 
 speaks of poetce neoterici, to whom he ascribes a variety of 
 innovations. The names of several of these poets are 
 mentioned, but too little is known of them to awaken any 
 interest in their personalities. Their innovations seem to 
 have consisted largely of verbal juggling, a remarkable 
 example of which is seen in these lines : 
 
 Nereides freta sic verrentes caerula tranant, 
 Flamine confidents ut Notus Icarium. 
 
 Icarium Notus ui confidens flamine, tranant 
 Caerula verrentes sic freta Nereides. 
 
 Here lines three and four are lines one and two read 
 backward. Other examples are less elaborate, but show 
 the same spirit, the same foolish playing with words. 
 From such things as this no new life could be infused 
 into poetry, and most of the verses preserved to us from 
 the second and even the third centuries after Christ are 
 little more than feeble echoes of the distant music of 
 Virgil. Nevertheless there are already indications of 
 the new mediaeval spirit, which was not to find its full 
 development until the days of the minnesinger and 
 the troubadours. Whether the Pervigilium Veneris 
 The (Night-watch of Venus) belongs to the second 
 
 Pervigilium century or the third is not certain. At any 
 Veneris. ra ^ e ft j g tne mos t striking early example of 
 
 the romantic sentiment peculiar to mediaeval and modern 
 times. The poem is written for the spring festival of 
 Venus Genetrix, whose worship was revived and encour- 
 aged by Hadrian. It is therefore probable that it belongs
 
 242 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 to the second century. It consists of ninety-three tro- 
 chaic septenarii (the rhythm of Tennyson's Locksley 
 Hall), a verse freely used by the early Latin poets, but 
 hardly to be found in the first century after Christ. At 
 irregular intervals the refrain : 
 
 Cras amet qui nunquam amavit, quique amavit eras 
 amet* 
 
 is repeated. In the beginning of the poem, 
 
 Ver novum ; ver iam canorum ; vere natus est lovis ; 
 Vere concordant amoresj vere nubunt allies, 2 
 
 may well have suggested to Tennyson the lines : 
 
 In the Spring a fuller crimson comes upon the robin's breast; 
 In the Spring the wanton lapwing gets himself another crest ; 
 In the Spring a livelier iris changes on the burnish 'd dove ; 
 In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts 
 of love. 
 
 At the end of the poem the lines : 
 
 Ilia cantat, nos tacemus. Quando ver venit meum ? 
 Quandofiam ut clielidon et tacere desinam? 
 Perdidi Musam tacendo nee me Apollo respicit, 3 
 
 sound like the wail of the old literature, which no spring 
 was to awaken to new song. Indeed, the Pervigilium 
 Veneris is almost as much mediaeval as classical. Its 
 quantitative rhythm coincides with the natural accent of 
 
 1 To-morrow he shall love who ne'er has loved, and he who has 
 
 loved to-morrow shall love. 
 4 It is new spring ; spring already harmonious ; in spring Jove 
 
 was born. 
 
 In the spring loves join together ; in the spring the birds wed. 
 a She (the swallow) is singing, we are silent. When will my spring 
 
 cornel 
 
 When shall I become like the swallow and cease to be silent ? 
 I have lost the Muse by keeping silent, and Apollo cares not 
 for me.
 
 PERVIGILIUM VENERIS 243 
 
 the words, it is full of assonances that suggest both allit- 
 eration and rhyme, its spirit is almost modern in its senti- 
 ment ; and even in its grammatical structure, especially 
 in the use of the preposition de, it points forward to the 
 great changes to come. 
 
 In prose and verse alike, the second century after 
 Christ was a period of innovations. The new methods of 
 Eronto and Apuleius did not hold their own for any 
 great length of time, but they serve as symptoms of the 
 decay of Latin speech, and may even have hastened that 
 decay by turning men away from the continued imitation 
 of the classic writers. The history of classical Koman 
 literature may be said to end with Suetonius. But some- 
 thing of the old spirit survived even into the period of 
 the Middle Ages and affected strongly the literature of 
 the Christian church. For this reason it is well to give a 
 brief sketch of early Christian literature in Latin, and of 
 the surviving remnants of pagan literary activity in the 
 third and fourth centuries.
 
 CHAPTEE XVIII 
 
 EARLY CHRISTIAN WRITERS 
 
 Minucius Felix, about 160 A. D. Tertullian, about 160 to about 
 230 A. D. St. Cyprian, about 200-258 A. D. Commodianus 249 A. D. 
 Arnobius, about 290 A. D. Lactantius, about 300 A. D. 
 
 THE Christians are mentioned by Tacitus, the younger 
 Pliny, and Suetonius, but in such a way as to show that 
 The begin- their religion was misunderstood and their 
 ning of Chris- growing importance little appreciated. But 
 tian litera- as time went on, Christianity and the Chris- 
 n atm. b ecame more and more important. 
 
 Yarious means were tried to suppress them, for their 
 belief and their practises were opposed to the state 
 religion and seemed inimical to the state itself. Yet the 
 new religion continued to gain in the number and influ- 
 ence of its converts, and in the second century Christian 
 writings begin to appear in Latin. The new religion had 
 been founded in the eastern part of the empire, and its 
 first literary productions were in Greek, a language which 
 continued for many years to be the chief medium of 
 expression for Christian thought. No sketch of the 
 development of Christianity, even in the western part of 
 the empire, could be given without more than a mere 
 mention of the early Greek Christian writings ; but the 
 development of Christianity is a subject quite outside of 
 the scope of this book, which is concerned with Christian 
 literature only in so far as it was written in Latin. Nor 
 is it possible in a book of this kind to do more than men- 
 tion briefly the chief Christian writers and their works, 
 244
 
 MINUCIUS FELIX 245 
 
 leaving all discussion of their doctrines to the historians 
 of the church. 
 
 The first Christian writer of Latin is Marcus Minucius 
 Felix, of whose life nothing is known except that he was 
 
 a barrister (causidicus) at Rome, that he was 
 Minuoius IT* j xu i. \. i. 
 
 Felix. a P a g an in early life, and that he became a 
 
 Christian. His only extant work is a defense 
 of Christianity entitled Octavius, which was written 
 probably not far from 160 A. D. The introduction tells 
 how Minucius, with his two friends Octavius and 
 Caecilius, was walking by the seashore at Ostia. Cascilius 
 saluted a statue of Serapis which they happened to pass, 
 whereupon Octavius rebuked Minucius for letting his 
 friend remain in ignorance of the true religion. They 
 continue their walk, but Csecilius can not let the rebuke 
 of Octavius pass. At last the three friends sit down, 
 Caecilius undertakes the defense of the old religion, 
 Octavius that of the new, and Minucius is to be judge of 
 their arguments. Caecilius argues that it is absurd for 
 persons of little education, such as are most Christians, 
 to think that they can settle questions which have 
 puzzled the wisest philosophers. The Roman religion 
 should therefore be retained, especially as the power of 
 the gods has often been shown. An attack upon the 
 lives and ceremonies of the Christians follows, which is 
 interesting as a proof of the ignorance that prevailed in 
 pagan circles. Caecilius then attacks the Christian belief 
 in a future life, and ends with a recommendation of 
 skepticism. His speech is vigorous and even vehement, 
 showing marked rhetorical training. Octavius in his 
 reply takes up the various points raised by Caecilius and 
 replies to them in order. He lays the chief stress upon 
 the unity of God and the absurdities of pagan polytheism 
 and philosophy. There is no argument based upon the 
 crucifixion or the resurrection of Christ, no argument 
 that is strictly Christian. There is no appeal to faith or
 
 246 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 to love, but only to reason, and the arguments are not 
 drawn from the Bible, but from the works of pagan 
 philosophers, especially Cicero's De Natura Deorum and 
 Seneca's writings, or from the experiences of human life. 
 When Octavius has finished, Caecilius declares that he is 
 convinced and the friends separate. 
 
 The Octavius is different from other early writings in 
 defense of Christianity, inasmuch as it bases no argument 
 upon the Bible and makes no appeal to the emotions. 
 These peculiarities are most easily explained by the theory 
 that Minucius wrote his treatise as a reply to a speech of 
 Pronto against Christianity, that he put the substance of 
 Fronto's speech into the mouth of Caecilius, and then, in 
 the person of Octavius, refuted it point for point. In 
 style Minucius attains at times an almost classic elegance 
 and simplicity, though he shows the influence of the rhe- 
 torical schools of the Silver Age and is sometimes need- 
 lessly emphatic. He continues the tradition of the clas- 
 sical school, with no trace of the affectations or innovations 
 of Pronto or Apuleius. Apart from its interest as the ear- 
 liest specimen of Christian writing in Latin, the Octavius 
 deserves to be read as the most attractive Latin prose 
 after the time of Trajan. 
 
 Minucius Felix is known to us by only one short work, 
 in which he displays conservative literary taste, cultivated 
 imagination, and ability to conduct an argument calmly 
 and dispassionately. Tertullian, a much more important 
 figure than Minucius in the history of the church, is 
 known by a great body of writings, in which 
 the qualities he shows are almost the opposite 
 of those we admire in Minucius. Yet Tertullian is an 
 interesting and powerful figure in the history of literature 
 as well as in that of the church. Quintus Septimius 
 Florens Tertullianus was born at Carthage, probably about 
 160 A. D., and may have died about 230 A. n. At any rate, 
 the period of his chief activity was in the reigns of Septim-
 
 TERTULLIAN 247 
 
 iuj Severus and Caracalla. In early life he was a pagan, 
 but was converted to Christianity, possibly through his 
 wife, who was a Christian. He attained the position of 
 presbyter in the church. In middle life he became a 
 Montanist that is, a follower of Montanus, an enthusiast 
 of Ardaba, in Mysia, who declared himself the Comforter 
 promised by Christ, claimed prophetic powers, declared 
 that the end of the world was at hand, and promulgated 
 a variety of strict doctrines and rules for conduct. The 
 writings of Tertullian are from beginning to end contro- 
 versial. Some of them are in defense of Christianity 
 against the heathen, while others are directed against 
 those Christian beliefs and practises which he does not 
 approve. To the second class belong the writings in sup- 
 port of Montanism, for Tertullian was of such a passionate 
 nature that an argument in support of any doctrine neces- 
 sarily becomes an attack upon those who hold any other 
 views. As the chief advocate of Montanism in the west, 
 Tertullian softened some of its more obviously absurd 
 doctrines, but could not modify them so far as to make 
 them acceptable to the church at large. He was there- 
 fore in constant opposition to the church during the 
 latter part of his life, and at a later time his writings 
 came to be regarded as heretical. Nevertheless, his works 
 were much read, and his Apologeticus was even translated 
 into Greek. 
 
 Tertullian exercised the greatest influence upon the 
 Latin of the church, for up to his time most speculative 
 Christian writing had been in Greek, and he was therefore 
 obliged to invent or adapt the suitable means for the ex- 
 pression of those thoughts and ideas which were unknown 
 
 to the pagan writers. He is justly regarded 
 Style of J J 
 
 Tertullian. as *' ne * oun der of western, as opposed to 
 
 eastern or Greek, theology. His style is 
 harsh, inelegant, and sometimes obscure, but vigorous and 
 animated. His eloquence is that of intense earnestness 
 17
 
 24:8 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 rather than of careful training. His vocabulary is not 
 strictly classic, but contains expressions taken from the 
 popular speech and from Greek, as well as others which 
 he seems to have formed for himself. He has been called 
 the Cicero of the church, but whatever the greatness of 
 his eloquence, it has little resemblance in quality to that 
 of Cicero. Only in a few orations does Cicero approach 
 the enthusiastic earnestness of Tertullian, and the pol- 
 ished beauty of Cicero's periods is utterly lacking to Ter- 
 tullian's rugged utterance. His style has more resem- 
 blance in detail to that of his fellow-African Apuleius, but 
 shows no evidence of conscious imitation. He uses short 
 sentences, as a rule, and even his long sentences have no 
 periodic structure ; he strives for effect by means of un- 
 natural expressions; he delights in antitheses, plays on 
 words, and even rhymes. His Latin is hard to read, but 
 his originality of thought and his passionate earnestness 
 of purpose compensate fully for his defects of style. With 
 Minucius Felix Christian writing in Italy appears as an 
 attempt to express Christian thoughts, or at least to de- 
 fend the Christian religion, with all the elegance of 
 classical Latinity. Tertullian writes with vigor and en- 
 thusiasm, hampered by no classical traditions. The rela- 
 tive importance of the Italian and African schools maybe 
 judged in a measure by the difference in extent between 
 the brief treatise of Minucius and Tertullian's voluminous 
 writings. For nearly two centuries the style of Tertullian 
 predominates, being only gradually assimilated to the 
 classical norm, until St. Augustine fixes the Latin of the 
 church by forming a style in which the African elements 
 are subordinate. 
 
 The beginning of this change is seen even in the wri- 
 tings of Tertullian's admirer, St. Cyprian. Thascius Cae- 
 cilius Cyprianus was born of pagan parents about 200 A. D. 
 The place of his birth is unknown, but we are informed 
 that he was an African. He received a good education
 
 CYPRIAN 249 
 
 and became a teacher of rhetoric. After his conversion 
 he became a presbyter, and in 248 or 249 A. D. was chosen 
 Cyprian. bishop of Carthage, not without opposition. 
 From January 21, 250 A. D., until the begin- 
 ning of March in the following year, he lived in conceal- 
 ment to escape the persecution of the Christians under 
 Deems. His avoidance of martyrdom at this time was se- 
 verely criticized, but he defended it on the ground that 
 his life was necessary to the welfare of the church. In 
 257 A. D. a new persecution was instituted by the Emperor 
 Valerian, and Cyprian was banished to Curubis, but after- 
 wards recalled to Carthage and confined to his gardens. 
 When ordered to appear before the proconsul at Utica he 
 fled, but returned to his gardens when the proconsul came 
 to Carthage. He was arrested September 13, 258 A. D., and 
 on the following day was tried, condemned, and executed. 
 Cyprian's writings comprise thirteen treatises and eighty- 
 one letters, among which are several letters manifestly by 
 other authors. Some of the treatises or tracts are ad- 
 dressed to individuals, and some of the letters are to all 
 intents and purposes tracts, so that the division into two 
 classes is not easy to carry out consistently. His writings 
 are partly in defense of Christianity against paganism, 
 partly for the encouragement of the Christians in perse- 
 cution, and partly on various points of church discipline. 
 His letters are especially valuable for the light they throw 
 upon church history. His doctrines are orthodox, and his 
 writings were therefore not open to the objections urged 
 against those of Tertullian. He was, however, an ardent 
 admirer of Tertullian, and shows the constant influence 
 of his teachings. His style is easier and simpler than 
 Tertullian's, always clear, and often attractive. Although 
 he lacks Tertullian's originality, he excels him in ability 
 to express his thoughts so as to appeal to the reader. 
 
 The earliest Christian poet is Commodianus. Of his 
 life little is known, and the statement that he was born
 
 250 KOMAN LITERATURE 
 
 at Gaza, in Syria, is based upon a somewhat doubtful 
 
 interpretation of the title of one of his poems. 1 In 
 
 early life he was a pagan, but was converted, 
 
 and became a bishop. His works consist of 
 anus. 
 
 a long poem in defense of Christianity ( Car- 
 men Apologeticum) and a collection of eighty short 
 poems called Instructions (Instructiones per Litteras Ver. 
 suum Primas) so composed that the initial letters of the 
 lines spell the titles of the poems. The Carmen Apologet- 
 icum contains references which fix its date in 249 A. D. 
 The poems are remarkable for the earnestness of their 
 Christian feeling and still more for their metrical peculi- 
 arities. The hexameters are divided into halves, and at 
 the end of each half the rules for quantity are observed, 
 while in the rest of the verse those rules are disregarded. 
 The lines are not merely faulty hexameters, but a new and 
 original combination of quantitative verse and prose. In 
 the Carmen Apologeticum the lines are arranged in pairs, 
 so that each pair forms a distich. The most remarkable 
 part of the Carmen Apologeticum is the fantastic descrip- 
 tion of the end of the world with which the poem closes. 
 The Instructiones are divided into two books, the first 
 warning the heathen and the Jews to lay aside their 
 errors, the second containing advice for the various classes 
 of Christians. In spite of the dryness of his style Com- 
 modianus is interesting as the earliest Christian poet, and 
 the student of language finds in his poems many words and 
 constructions taken from the common speech of the people. 
 Much less interest attaches to the seven books Adver- 
 sus Nationes (Against the Gentiles) by Arnobius, who 
 wrote under Diocletian (284-305 A. D.). Jerome says 
 that Arnobius was a distinguished rhetor at Sicca in 
 
 1 The poem is the last of the Instructiones. The title reads : 
 Nomen Oasei and the initial letters of the lines read from the last 
 to the first from the words : Commodianus mendicus Christi. From 
 this it is inferred that Commodian was Gasceus, i. e., from Qaza.
 
 COM MODI ANUS 251 
 
 Africa, who opposed Christianity for a long time. When 
 he became converted the bishop demanded a proof of his 
 
 faith, whereupon he wrote a work against the 
 Arnobius. . . 
 
 heathen and was received into the church. 
 
 Whether this report is accurate or not, a work is extant 
 under the name of Arnobius, entitled Adversus Nationes, 
 which shows by its style that the author had been trained 
 in the practise of rhetoric. The first two books defend the 
 Christians against the accusations of their enemies, especial- 
 ly the charge that the misfortunes of the world were due 
 to the progress of Christianity and the neglect of the old 
 gods. The five remaining books proceed to show the ab- 
 surdities of polytheism and the foolishness of the pagan 
 forms of worship. Arnobius has little knowledge of the 
 Christian religion and little originality of thought. The 
 only doctrine peculiar to him is his theory that the soul is 
 not immortal by nature, but may become immortal through 
 the grace of God. His style is disfigured by its excessive 
 vehemence and artificial rhetoric, which shows, however, 
 that the author was carefully educated. This appears also 
 in his discussion of pagan philosophy and religion, and in- 
 deed the chief interest attaching to the books Adversus Na- 
 tiones is their testimony to the manner in which an educated 
 pagan employed his education in the service of Christianity. 
 Lactantius (Lucius Caecilius Firmianus Lactantius) 
 was a pupil of Arnobius, according to Jerome's statement, 
 
 and was called by Diocletian with the gram- 
 Laotantius. . . , T . 
 
 marian rlavius to teach Latin rhetoric at 
 
 Nicomedia, in Bithynia, a Greek city in which teachers of 
 Latin found few patrons. Lactantius was therefore poor 
 and had leisure for writing. When he was converted to 
 Christianity is not known, but it can not have been before 
 he reached middle life. In his old age he was called by 
 the Emperor Constantino to be the tutor of his son Cris- 
 pus. Nothing remains of writings by Lactantius before 
 his conversion, but his later works, both prose and verse,
 
 252 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 are numerous. The most important are the seven books 
 entitled Institutiones Divines (Divine Institutions, an 
 exhaustive philosophical work in support of Christianity 
 against paganism), after which should be mentioned the 
 treatises De Opificio Dei (On the Work of God, & discus- 
 sion of creation and the nature of man), De Ira Dei (On 
 the Wrath of God, dealing with the current theories of 
 Providence), a fanatical work on the deaths of the persecu- 
 tors from Nero to Galerius ( DeMortibus Persecutor urn), and 
 a curious poem On the Phcenix. The treatise De Opificio 
 Dei is Christian only in its general tendency, and con- 
 tains no direct reference to Christianity. This is prob- 
 ably because it was written at the time of the persecution 
 under Diocletian (303 A. D.). The poem On the Phoenix 
 (that fabulous bird that builds a nest, burns itself up, re- 
 appears among the ashes as a worm, grows to an egg, is 
 hatched, and flies away to renewed life) shows many 
 traces of Christianity but contains no direct reference to 
 the new religion. Lactantius was well educated in the 
 learning of the pagans, and when he became a Christian 
 did not forget what he had learned before. His style is 
 purer than that of his Christian predecessors, being 
 modelled upon that of Cicero. For this reason the name 
 " Christian Cicero " has been applied more appropriately 
 to him than to Tertullian, though in power of eloquence 
 Tertullian, with all his harshness of style, is the greater. 
 
 The second century, which saw the birth of Christian 
 literature in Latin, produced, as we have seen, several 
 writers of real power, and as the third century opened, 
 Christian literature gained, in the person of Lactantius, a 
 writer who possessed at the same time elegance of style. 
 With Lactantius the African school of Christian writing 
 approaches the classical style of Minucius Felix, and the 
 path is made straight for the writings of St. Jerome and St. 
 Augustine. From this time on, the real life of Latin litera- 
 ture is seen in Christian rather than in pagan writings.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 PAGAN .LITERATURE OF THE THIRD CENTURY 
 
 Terentianus, about 200 A. D. QuintusSerenusSammonicus, about 
 200 A. D. Nemesianus, 283 A. D Reposianus, toward 300 A. D. Vespa, 
 late in the third century Hosidius Geta, early in the third century 
 Disticha Catonis Marius Maxiraus, about 165-230 A. D. ^Elius Julius 
 Cordus, about 250 A. D. The Historia Augusta Domitius Ulpianus, 
 killed 228 A. D. Julius Paulus, first half of third century Cornelius 
 Labeo Quintus Gargilius Martialis Censorinus, 238 A. D. Gains 
 Julius Solinus Gaius Julius Romanus, early third century Marius 
 Plotius Sacerdos, latter part of third century Aquila Romanus 
 -<Elius Festus Aphthonius, end of third century The panegyrists: 
 Eumenius, Nazarius, Mamertinus, Drepanius. 
 
 WHILE Christian literature was developing in the 
 third century the pagan literature dragged on its senile 
 Pagan poetry existence. There was little poetry that de- 
 of the third served the name, though skill in versification 
 century. wag no uncommon. Terentianus wrote in 
 
 verse his handbook of metres about the beginning of 
 the century, and not far from the same time Quintus 
 Serenus Sammonicus composed a medical handbook con- 
 taining sixty-three recipes in 1,107 hexameters. He does 
 not pretend to be a physician, but derives his wisdom, 
 such as it is, from Pliny and other writers. The recipes 
 are of various kinds, some recommending the use of 
 herbs in a simple and sensible way, while others pre- 
 scribe more or less disgusting compounds of animal mat- 
 ter, and a few are nothing more nor less than magic 
 charms. So fevers are to be cured by wearing tied to 
 one's neck a bone found within the enclosure of a house, 
 
 253
 
 254 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 and a cure for another fever is found in a piece of paper 
 inscribed in the proper manner with the inagic formula 
 abracadabra, which is to be worn round the neck of the 
 patient. To the credit of Sammonicus it should be said 
 that his knowledge of metre is greater than his knowl- 
 edge of medicine ; but even that does not raise his hand- 
 book to the level of poetry. A writer of much better 
 quality, who even deserves to be called a poet, is Marcus 
 Aurelius Olympius Nemesianus, who wrote, in the year 
 283 A. D., a poem On Hunting ( Cynegetica), 325 lines of 
 which are preserved, and who is also the author of four 
 eclogues formerly attributed to Calpurnius (see page 188). 
 The discussion of dogs, horses, hunting-nets, and the like 
 in the Cynegetica can hardly be called poetry, but the 
 eclogues, though written in close imitation of Calpurnius, 
 who was himself an imitator of Virgil, show some genu- 
 ine poetic spirit. There is also some poetic beauty in the 
 poem on the love of Mars and Venus, by Keposianus, writ- 
 ten toward the end of the third century, but not so much 
 can be said in praise of Vespa's metrical argument between 
 a baker and a cook {Indicium Cod et Pistoris ludice 
 Vulcano) as to the relative merits of their callings, or of 
 the epigrams and " echo verses " of Pentadius. These 
 last consist of elegiac distichs so written that the first 
 words of the hexameter are repeated or " echoed " at the 
 end of the pentameter. Such verse has little relation to 
 poetry, but shows that there was still an interest felt in the 
 technique of metrical writing. That the study of the classic 
 writers, especially of Virgil, was diligently cultivated, is 
 shown by the existence of poems composed entirely of Vir- 
 gilian lines and fragments of lines. A remarkable extant 
 specimen of such work is the short tragedy Medea, prob- 
 ably written by Hosidius Geta, near the beginning of the 
 third century. Several anonymous poems add little to 
 our admiration for the poets of the third century, but the 
 so-called Disticha Catonis should be mentioned because
 
 PAGAN PROSE IN THE THIRD CENTURY 255 
 
 they gained great and long-continued popularity. They 
 are maxims of every-day wisdom expressed in distichs of 
 two hexameters. Such maxims are : " Regard it as the 
 first virtue to hold your tongue ; he is nearest God who 
 knows how to keep a wise silence " ; or, " Be sure to tell 
 many of another's kindness, but keep silence about the 
 kindnesses you have done to others." These distichs 
 were soon imitated, and similar maxims in one line mono- 
 stichs were also written. They are hardly poetry, but 
 have some interest because of their popular nature. 
 
 The prose of the third century possesses even less in- 
 terest than the verse. The only historians worthy of the 
 Pagan prose name Dio Cassius and Herodian wrote in 
 in the third Greek. Marius Maximus (about 165-230 
 century. A D ) continued Suetonius's lives of the 
 
 emperors from Nerva to Heliogabalus, and about the 
 middle of the century ^Elius Julius Cordus wrote lives of 
 the more obscure emperors. These works are lost, but, 
 like those of several other writers of this period, were 
 used by the authors of the so-called Historia Augusta, a 
 collection of lives of the emperors from Hadrian to Xu- 
 merianus (117-284 A. D.). These lives were written by six 
 authors, four of whom, ^Elius Spartianus, Julius Capi- 
 tolinus, Vulcacius Gallicanus, and Trebellius Pollio, wrote 
 under Diocletian (284305 A. D.), while the remaining two, 
 ^Elius Lampridius and Flavius Vopiscus, belong to the 
 early part of the fourth century. They are all alike in 
 the poverty of their style and their liking for petty per- 
 sonal details. The books on the Prcetorian Edict by 
 Domitius Ulpianus, who was killed in 228 A. D., and by 
 his younger contemporary, Julius Paulus, as well as other 
 juristic works of the third century, were important con- 
 tributions to the development of Roman law, and the at- 
 tempt made by Cornelius Labeo in his lost work on the 
 Roman religion to explain the pagan cult would probably, 
 if it were preserved, be interesting as an attempt to de-
 
 256 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 fend the old religion against skepticism and Christianity. 
 The extant parts of the work of Quintus Gargilius Mar- 
 tialis on agriculture, veterinary medicine, the use of heal- 
 ing herbs, and the like, show that the whole was a com- 
 pilation from the works of Pliny the elder and other 
 writers by a man who had sense and judgment; the 
 treatise On Birthdays (De Die Natali), written in a lively 
 and easy style by a grammarian Censorinus in 238 A. D., is 
 a compilation from Suetonius, Varro, and others, of in- 
 formation concerning the birth and life of a man, astrol- 
 ogy, music, and some other matters ; and the Collection of 
 Things Worth Remembering (Collectanea Rerum Memora- 
 bilium), by Gaius Julius Solinus, contains valuable infor- 
 mation about early Koman history (to Augustus) and the 
 geography of the ancient world, with especial attention to 
 oddities and peculiarities, whether of the countries or their 
 inhabitants ; but none of these works is of independent 
 literary importance. The grammatical writings of Gaius 
 Julius Komanus, who lived in the first years of the third 
 century, were much used by Charisius somewhat more 
 than a century later. A grammar (Ars Grammatica) in 
 three books by Marius Plotius Sacerdos, written in the 
 latter part of the century, is extant, as is also a brief 
 rhetorical treatise by Aquila Eomanus. The four books 
 On Metres by ^Elius Festus Aphthonius, written under 
 Diocletian, are lost, but their contents are in part pre- 
 served by Marius Victorinus. These grammatical works 
 are of importance chiefly for their references to earlier 
 literature. 
 
 None of the prose works just mentioned exhibits any 
 creative talent or testifies to any new literary develop- 
 ment. The only new literary phenomenon of the period 
 is the rise of a school of oratory in Gaul, which produced, 
 to be sure, nothing of great importance, but which shows 
 by its very existence how far removed from Rome were 
 now the centres of intellectual life, when the great Chris-
 
 THE PANEGYRISTS 257 
 
 tian writers were Africans and the pagan orators were 
 Gauls. The Gallic orators avoided the harshness and ob- 
 scurity of the African school, and wrote in smooth Cicero- 
 nian Latin, with a plentiful flow of words and a poor sup- 
 ply of ideas. A collection of twelve panegyrics has been 
 
 preserved, the first of which is Pliny's address 
 3 . . in honor of Trajan, delivered in 100 A. D., 
 
 while the remaining eleven are dated at dif- 
 ferent times from 291 to 389 A. D. One of these was deliv- 
 ered in 297 A. D. by Eumenius, a teacher of Greek descent, 
 but Gallic birth, for the benefit of the schools in his 
 native town of Augustodunum (Autun), and three (per- 
 haps four) of the others are probably by the same author. 
 Three of the remaining speeches are assigned to known 
 authors and dates. They are by Nazarius, in honor of 
 Constantine (321 A. D.) ; by Mamertinus, in honor of Julian 
 (362 A. D.) ; and by Latinus Drepanius Pacatus, in honor 
 of Theodosius (389 A. D.). Two of these orators belong to 
 the second half of the fourth century, but their speeches 
 resemble the others in the collection, all of which are 
 full of most exaggerated praise of the emperors. These 
 speeches contain many references to the history of the 
 times, but must be used with great care by the historian, 
 since their purpose is to praise the emperors, and not even 
 historical facts must be allowed to cast a shadow upon the 
 imperial glory. The Gallic school of oratory was evident- 
 ly flourishing in the later years of the third century and 
 the greater part at least of the fourth. It was a learned 
 school, based upon imitation of the ancient classics, and 
 standing in no close relation to the living language of the 
 times. The extant speeches show how thoroughly the 
 study of the classics was carried on in Gaul, and at the 
 same time how ready the orators were to flatter emperors 
 who were pleased to listen to their obsequious praise. 
 
 Now that the chief centres of Latin literature are found 
 to be in Gaul and Africa, not in Rome or even Italy, the
 
 258 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 history of Roman literature has apparently reached its 
 end ; and yet throughout the fourth century, yes, even into 
 the sixth century, the stream of old Roman tradition can 
 be traced, and in the poems of Ausonius and Claudian and 
 the De Consolatione Philosophies of Boethius classical litera- 
 ture still survives. It is hard to fix a date for the begin- 
 ning of the Middle Ages, and even harder to assign a 
 definite time for the end of classical Roman literature. 
 The first great independent and original Christian writings 
 in Latin those of Tertullian may be regarded as the be- 
 ginning of mediaeval literature ; but classical Latinity was 
 by no means yet dead. In fact, in the fourth century, after 
 Constantino had recognized Christianity as a state religion 
 on an equal footing with the ancient belief, there was a 
 revival of literature. Christian writers wrote in the an- 
 cient Roman manner, and secular writings by Christians 
 are not to be distinguished from those of the adherents of 
 the old religion. The religious writings of the leaders of 
 Christian thought St. Hilary, bishop of Poitiers, St. Am- 
 brose, bishop of Milan, St. Jerome and St. Augustine 
 belong to the history of the church rather than to that of 
 Roman literature, and can be mentioned here only in 
 passing, while the writings of many lesser lights of the 
 church must be altogether neglected. There still remain, 
 however, many works in which something of the old Ro- 
 man literary spirit survives, even after Rome herself has 
 ceased to be the seat of empire.
 
 CHAPTEE XX 
 
 THE FOURTH AND FIFTH CENTURIES 
 
 Nonius, early in the fourth century Macrobius, 410 (?) A. D. 
 Martianus Capella, about 400 A. D. Firraicus Maternus, 354 (?) A. D. 
 Marius Victorinus, about 350 A. D. ^Elius Donatus, about 350 A. D. 
 Charisius, about 350 A. D. Diomedes, about 350 A. D. Priscian, 
 about 500 A. D. Servius, latter part of the fourth century Itinera- 
 ries Notitia, 354 A. D. Peutinger Tablet Palladius, about 350 A. D. 
 Vegetius, about 400 A. D. Aurelius Victor, 360 A. D. Eutropius, 
 365 A. D. Festus, 369 A. D. Julius Obsequens, about 360 A. D. St. 
 Jerome, 331-420 A. D. Ammianus Marcellinus, about 330-400 A. D. 
 Sulpicius Severus, early in the fifth century Orosius, 417 A. D. 
 Gregorianus, about 300 A. D. Hermogenianus, about 330 A. D. Codex 
 Theodosianus, 438 A. D. The Code of Justinian, 529 A. D. The Pan- 
 dects and Institutes, 533 A. D. Symmachus, about 345-405 A. D. 
 Dictys (L. Septimius), second half of the fourth century Dares, fifth 
 century Hilarius, about 315 to 367 A.D. Ambrose, about 340-397 
 A. D. Jerome, 331-420 A. D. Augustine, 354-430 A.D. Optatianus, 
 early in the fourth century Juvencus, early in the fourth century 
 Avienus, 370 A. n. The Querolus, about 370 A.D. Ausonius, about 
 310 to about 395 A. D. Prudentius 348 to about 410 A.D. Claudian, 
 400 A. D. Namatianus, 416 A.D. Avianus, about 400 A.D. Sedulius, 
 about 450 A. D. Dracontius, end of the fifth century. 
 
 THE prose writings of the fourth century are, with the 
 exception of theological treatises, almost all mere compi- 
 lations or abbreviations of earlier works. In the early 
 years of the century Nonius Marcellus, a Peripatetic phi- 
 losopher of Thubursicum, in Numidia, wrote for his son 
 a work in twenty books, De Compendiosa fioctrina, in 
 which he discusses many questions pertaining for the most 
 part to early Latin literature. This work is modelled on 
 the Nodes Atticce of Gellius, to which it is vastly inferior. 
 It is nevertheless of value as our only authority for the 
 
 259
 
 260 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 titles of some lost works and even for extracts from them. 
 For similar reasons the Saturnalia, in seven books, by 
 Nonius Ambrosius Theodosius Macrobius, is of some 
 
 Macrobius. importance. Macrobius, who was probably, 
 Martianus }ik e Nonius, an African, appears to be iden- 
 tical with the Macrobius who was proconsul 
 of Africa in 410 A.D. The imaginary conversations of 
 which his Saturnalia consists treat of Koman litera- 
 ture and antiquities, especially of the poetry of Virgil. 
 Like Gellius and Nonius, Macrobius uses the works of ear- 
 lier critics and commentators, and gives many quotations 
 from Greek and Roman authors. Macrobius also wrote a 
 commentary on Cicero's Dream of Scipio, in which he 
 quotes many authors, especially Greeks, but displays little 
 or no originality. The encyclopaedia, in nine books, writ- 
 ten about the end of the fourth century by a third Afri- 
 can, Martianus Capella, is of less value than the compila- 
 tions of Nonius and Macrobius, though it, too, goes back 
 to good authorities, such as Varro. 
 
 The chief seat of philosophy in the fourth century 
 was Athens, and philosophical writings were 
 Grammar y almost all in Greek. For the most part they 
 expounded the mystical doctrines of Neopla- 
 tonism. 1 The grammarian ^Elius Donatus, who flour- 
 ished at Rome about 350 A. D. and was one of the teachers 
 
 1 The chief Latin writer on philosophy was Firmicus Maternus, 
 whose eight books, Matheseos (Of Learning), published about 354 
 A. D., are occupied with Neoplatonic astrology. He is to be distin- 
 guished from his Christian contemporary and namesake, who wrote 
 of the Error of the Pagan Religions. Gaius Marius Victorinus, who 
 also lived about the middle of the century, was an African by birth, 
 but taught rhetoric at Rome. He was the author of philosophical 
 works, chiefly translations and adaptations from the Greek, but is 
 best known by his extant work on metres in four books, and by some 
 other extant grammatical treatises. In his later life he became a 
 Christian, and wrote commentaries on St. Paul's epistles, besides some 
 controversial tracts.
 
 THE FOURTH AND FIFTH CENTURIES 261 
 
 of St. Jerome, wrote commentaries on Terence and Virgil 
 to which he prefixed the lives of the two poets from the 
 lost work of Suetonius. The work on Virgil is lost, and 
 the commentary on Terence contains in its present form 
 many later additions. The extant grammars (Ars Gram- 
 matica) of Charisius and Diomedes, which have preserved 
 much of the learning of earlier grammarians, belong to a 
 very slightly later time. The last and most complete an- 
 cient grammar was written under the Emperor Anastasius 
 (491-518 A. D.) at Constantinople in the Latin language 
 by Priscian, from Csesarea, in Mauretania. This work, in 
 eighteen books, is entitled Institutiones Grammaticce, and 
 contains a vast quantity of material from the earlier lit- 
 erature. Much of the grammatical terminology, even of 
 the present time, is derived from Priscian. The impor- 
 tant commentary on Virgil by Servius was written in the 
 latter part of the fourth century, and is preserved in two 
 forms, in one of which numerous additions have been 
 made to the original work. 1 
 
 In 360 A. D., Aurelius Victor wrote a short history of 
 the emperors ( Ccesares) from the time of Augustus to the 
 tenth consulship of Constantius and Julian, i. e., to the 
 
 1 These grammatical works have little literary value of their own, 
 and owe their importance to the fact that they contain information 
 which is not elsewhere preserved. The same is true of several hand- 
 books of various kinds compiled in the fourth century. Such are the 
 Itineraries, giving the distances and routes between the towns along 
 the Roman roads, the Notitia, describing the regions of the city of 
 Rome, and a historical handbook of Rome for the year 354 A. D. pre- 
 served most fully in a manuscript in Vienna. A few maps of this 
 period also exist, the most famous of which is the Peutinger Tablet 
 (Tabula Peutingeriana), now in Vienna. A handbook of Agriculture 
 (De Re Rustica) by Palladius, and the Epitome of Military Science 
 (Epitoma Rei Militaris) by Flavius Vegetius Renatus, who also wrote 
 an extant treatise on Veterinary Medicine (Mulomedicina), may 
 properly be mentioned here, and these works possess also some slight 
 literary interest.
 
 202 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 date of his writing. He makes free use of Suetonius, 
 and his style is sometimes an imitation of that of Sallust. 
 A second entirely distinct work attributed 
 to the same author is a brief epitome of the 
 history of the emperors to the death of Theodosius I (395 
 A. D.). Under Valens (364-378 A. D.) Eutropius wrote a 
 Breviarium ab Urbe Condita, a short sketch of Koman 
 history from the beginning to the year 365 A. D., which is 
 distinguished for its simple, easy style and pure Latinity, 
 but has no independent value as an historical work. 1 
 
 Much more important is the Chronicle of St. Jerome 
 (331-420 A. D.), a translation from the Greek of Eusebius 
 with important additions. The Chronicle begins with the 
 first year of Abraham (2016 B. c.). From this point to the 
 Trojan War, Jerome merely translates Eusebius, from the 
 Trojan War to 325 A. D. he translates Eusebius and adds 
 much information concerning Roman history and litera- 
 ture, and from 325 to 378 A. D. the work is entirely his 
 own. His information concerning the history of Roman 
 literature is derived chiefly from Suetonius (De Viris II- 
 lustribus) and is of the utmost importance, though the 
 dates given are sometimes wrong, which is not surprising 
 when one remembers the carelessness in respect to dates 
 exhibited by Suetonius in his extant Lives of the Ccesars. 
 Jerome's Chronicle was continued in the fifth century by 
 Prosper of Aquitania to the year 455 A. D., and further ad- 
 ditions were made after that time. The Chronicle is of 
 great importance to the historian, but is itself merely the 
 dry bones of history. The only real history that the last 
 centuries of Roman literature produced, the only serious 
 and original historical work after Tacitus, is that of 
 
 1 In 369 A. D. Pestus wrote a handbook similar to that of Eutro- 
 pius, but of less merit. The list of prodigies that took place from 
 249 to 12 B. c., compiled by Julius Obsequens from an abridgment of 
 Livy, probably belongs to about the same time. Since a large part of 
 Livy's history is lost, such works as these are of some value.
 
 THE FOURTH AND FIFTH CENTURIES 263 
 
 Ammianus Marcellinus ; for the summary of universal 
 history (Chronicorum Librill) written by the Aquita- 
 nian Sulpicius Severus in the early years of the fifth 
 century, and the more pretentious but no more original 
 history of the world (Historiarum Adversus Paganos 
 Libri VII) by Orosius of Spain, compiled soon after 417 
 A. D., are even less important than the handbook of 
 Eutropius. 
 
 Ammianus Marcellinus (about 330-400 A. D.) was a 
 Greek of Antioch, who became a soldier in the Roman 
 army, served in Asia, in Gaul, and in the Per- 
 s ^ an cam P a ig n f the Emperor Julian, and was 
 at some time in Egypt, but finally settled at 
 Rome, where he wrote in Latin a continuation of Tacitus 
 from Nerva to the death of Valens (96-378 A. D.). The 
 entire work consisted of thirty-one books, thirteen of 
 which are lost ; but the extant books (XIV-XXXI), treat- 
 ing of the time from 353 to 378 A. D., and dealing with 
 events in which the author took part, are especially 
 valuable. Ammianus is an honest soldier, who, to use 
 his own expression, never knowingly corrupts the truth 
 by silence or falsehood, who has no liking and not much 
 understanding for court intrigues, but is intent upon 
 giving his readers a fair and unbiased account of events. 
 His Latin is hard to understand, partly because he writes 
 it as a foreigner, but still more because he wishes to 
 write an ornate style and embellishes his work with many 
 references to the Roman classics, sometimes quoting their 
 exact words, oftener changing them a little, as if to show 
 his perfect familiarity with the earlier literature. The 
 geographical digressions introduced are not original de- 
 scriptions of what Ammianus had himself seen, but are 
 taken from Greek or Latin books. Although himself a 
 pagan, Ammianus shows no hostility to Christianity, but 
 his paganism is not very serious. He seems to believe 
 that not all men think alike, and that on the whole it 
 18
 
 21)4 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 is well for each to believe as he can. His pictures of 
 the life of the times are admirable, and bring before us 
 in a clear light the corruption and degeneration of the 
 age. Yet he does not seem to feel righteous indigna- 
 tion nor to understand that the greatness of the Roman 
 empire is rapidly passing away. His history ends with 
 the disastrous defeat of the Eomans by the Goths at Ha- 
 drianople and the death of the Emperor Valens ; but so 
 accustomed was the world to the power of the Roman em- 
 pire that even this terrible reverse was not recognized as 
 portending the end of the ancient order of things. For a 
 little while Theodosius was able to maintain the integrity 
 of the empire, but the end was at hand. It is not un- 
 fitting that the last Roman historian, himself a Greek by 
 birth, ends his work at a moment when more than ever 
 before the Greek city of Constantinople was becoming the 
 refuge of what remained of the old Roman civilization. 
 
 The study of law, which had for centuries been among 
 the most important pursuits of Roman thinkers, was not 
 
 neglected in the last centuries of Roman life. 
 
 Under Diocletian (284-305 A. D.) the imperial 
 edicts were codified by Gregorianus, and in the reign of 
 Constantine (323-337 A. D.) Hermogenianus continued the 
 codification to his own time. In 438 A. D., under Theo- 
 dosius II, the Codex Theodosianus was compiled by a com- 
 mission of jurists, and in the reign of Justinian a com- 
 mission headed by the distinguished jurist, scholar, and 
 man of affairs Tribonian, gave to Roman law its final form 
 in three great works : the Code, published in 529 A. D., the 
 Pandects or Digests, and the Institutes, published in 533 
 A. D., which have served as the basis for all later juris- 
 prudence. 
 
 Oratory found its chief field of activity in the Chris- 
 tian pulpit from the time of Constantine, but was not con- 
 fined to the exposition of Christian doctrine. The Gallic 
 school of oratory continued to flourish, and indeed Gaul
 
 THE FOURTH AND FIFTH CENTURIES 265 
 
 was prominent in literature of all kinds during the fourth 
 and fifth centuries. Among other orators the most im- 
 portant was Quintus Aurelius Symmachus, a 
 Koman of noble family and honorable char- 
 acter, whose life extended from about 345 to 405 A. D. 
 His panegyrics on Valentinian I and Gratianus resemble 
 the other panegyrics of the period, and the fragmentary 
 remains of later speeches delivered in the senate show no 
 greater ability. More interesting are his letters, in which 
 he appears as an imitator of the younger Pliny, and his 
 official reports as prefect of the city. 
 
 A curious prose version of the story of the Trojan War 
 
 was written by Lucius Septimius, apparently in the second 
 
 half of the fourth century. This purports to 
 
 Diotys and ^ a translation of an ancient Greek manu- 
 Dares. 
 
 script in Phoenician letters found in the 
 
 tomb of a certain Dictys, in Crete. The story of the dis- 
 covery of the manuscript is undoubtedly an invention, 
 but the Latin account may be a translation of a lost 
 Greek original. The style is artificial and full of anti- 
 quated expressions. The author most persistently imi- 
 tated is Sallust. A somewhat similar little work belong- 
 ing to the fifth century pretends to be a translation by 
 Cornelius Nepos of a Greek account of the Trojan War 
 given by a Phrygian Dares, who fought among the Trojans. 
 The style is dry and unattractive, but the little book was 
 much read in the Middle Ages. These two works serve 
 to give us some idea of the kind of literature which, 
 alongside of the Greek novels, amused the leisure hours 
 of cultivated persons. 
 
 The contents of the works of the leaders of the church 
 
 in the fourth and fifth centuries can hardly be considered 
 
 in a history of Roman literature, but inas- 
 
 Huarius. * 
 
 much as their writings show the continued 
 influence of classical Latin, their style and choice of words 
 should be briefly mentioned. The bitter controversy be-
 
 266 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 tween the Arians and the Athanasians produced in the 
 fourth century a great number of controversial writings, 
 among which those of Hilarius (St. Hilary), Bishop of 
 Poitiers, are remarkable for depth of philosophical thought 
 and care in expression. Hilarius was born between 310 
 and 320 A. D., and was trained in the Gallic school of elo- 
 quence. After his conversion to Christianity he soon 
 became bishop of his native Poitiers. His opposition to 
 Arianism, which Constantius favored, led to his banish- 
 ment, but he was recalled after three years, in 358 A. D. 
 His death took place in 367 A. D. Besides his controver- 
 sial writings he was the author of commentaries on sev- 
 eral books of the Old and New Testaments, and perhaps 
 also of hymns. His style shows in some passages his 
 early training in the school of wordy and ornate Gallic 
 oratory, but is chiefly distinguished for its vigor and 
 passion. Hilarius carried on the work of adapting Latin 
 to the expression of Christian abstract thought, which 
 had been begun in Africa by Tertullian. 
 
 Ambrosius (St. Ambrose), who lived from about 340 
 to 397 A. D., was probably born in Gaul, where his father 
 was prefect, but was of Eoman, not Gallic 
 blood. After a careful education he became 
 a barrister, and was soon raised to the consular rank and 
 made governor of the provinces of Liguria and ^Emilia. 
 Thus he came to Milan, where he was chosen bishop in 
 374 A. D. He was a man of great tact as well as firmness, 
 who dared to exclude the Emperor Theodosius from the 
 church, until he had shown repentance for the massacre 
 at Thessalonica, and to refuse the request of the Empress 
 Justina that one of the churches at Milan be set aside for 
 the Arians, but who succeeded in avoiding any breach 
 with the emperor in spite of his independence. It was in 
 great part due to St. Ambrose that Italy was kept from 
 adopting the Arian heresy. His writings comprise letters, 
 dogmatic treatises, practical treatises on the conduct of
 
 THE FOURTH AND FIFTH CENTURIES 267 
 
 life, commentaries on the Scriptures, funeral orations on 
 Valentinian II and Theodosius, and hymns. He is also 
 the probable author of a translation of Josephus into 
 Latin. In his mystic, allegorical interpretations of Scrip- 
 ture St. Ambrose follows the Jewish-Stoic philosopher 
 Philo, who lived about the time of Christ, and in his trea- 
 tise On Duties he imitates Cicero's work of the same title. 
 His intimate acquaintance with other works of the clas- 
 sical period is made evident both by the general quality of 
 his style, which is purer than that of most of his contem- 
 poraries, and by many special references. His hymns have 
 had great influence upon church poetry and music. 
 
 St. Jerome (Hieronymus) was born about 331 A. D., at 
 Stridon, a town on the borders of Dalmatia and Pannonia, 
 studied at Rome under Donatus, then spent 
 erome ^ Q years at Tre ves, was afterwards at Aquileia 
 
 for some time, then sailed to Syria. Here he 
 was ill for a time, and solaced himself by reading the clas- 
 sics, until he was warned by a dream to give up profane lit- 
 erature. He retreated into the wilderness of Chalcis, where 
 he remained five years. In 362 A. D. he returned to Rome, 
 where he had great influence for many years, but in 386 
 he retired to a monastery at Bethlehem. There he re- 
 mained until his death, in 420 A. D. As a controversial 
 writer St. Jerome had great influence in settling the doc- 
 trines of the Catholic church ; he also wrote commentaries 
 on various books of the Bible, and numerous letters deal- 
 ing with religious questions. His translation of the Bible 
 was a masterly performance, and is the basis of the Latin 
 Vulgate, still in use in the Roman Catholic church. He 
 compiled a brief work, De Viris Illustrious, in which he 
 gave sketches of the lives of Christian writers, as Sue- 
 tonius, in his work of the same title, had given the lives 
 of the old Roman authors. The sketches given by Jerome 
 are, however, much briefer than were those of Suetonius. 
 The translation and continuation of the Chronicle of
 
 268 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 Eusebius has already been mentioned (see page 262). St. 
 Jerome is one of the ablest writers of the early Christian 
 church, and certainly the most learned Christian writer 
 of his time. His style is not exempt from the faults of 
 exaggeration and verbal quibbling common in the wri- 
 tings of the age, but possesses much life and earnestness, 
 and is free from the affectation of classicism, though it 
 shows the effect of his prolonged study of the classics. 
 
 St. Augustine (Aurelius Augustinus) was born in 354 
 A. D. at Tagaste, in Africa. His father was a pagan, his 
 
 mother a Christian, and in his early years 
 Augustine. 
 
 Augustine himself accepted the doctrine of 
 Manicheeism, a sort of mystical materialism, which denied 
 all authority, and claimed to rest entirely upon reason. 
 He was a successful teacher of rhetoric in Africa, at Rome, 
 and at Milan, where he came under the influence of St. 
 Ambrose and was converted. In 388 A. D. he returned to 
 Africa, became presbyter at Hippo in 392, and bishop in 
 395 A. D. His death took place in 430 A. D. His nature 
 was many sided, and composed of apparently contradictory 
 elements. He was a mystic speculator, a sharp reasoner, 
 at one time harsh and uncompromising, at another full of 
 tenderness, an original thinker yet a believer in authority, 
 dreamer, poet, philosopher, rhetorician, and quibbler in 
 one. His writings are in part speculations on theology, 
 in part ponderings on the soul, its nature and its relations 
 to God, and in part controversial treatises, sermons, com- 
 mentaries, and letters. The best known among them are 
 the Confessions, in which Augustine gives many details of 
 his life, and records the doubts that perplexed him, 
 and the City of God (De Civitate Dei], a work of his old 
 age, in which he contrasts the city (or better, the state) 
 of this world with the ideal city of God. This work was 
 written in reply to the pagans, who claimed that the sack 
 of Rome by Alaric was due to the neglect of the ancient 
 worship. It consists of twenty-two books, in the first ten
 
 THE FOURTH AND FIFTH CENTURIES 269 
 
 of which the "vain opinions adverse to the Christian 
 religion " are refuted, while the twelve remaining are de- 
 voted to a presentation of Christian truth, though each 
 division contains many digressions, and in each the part 
 of the subject properly belonging to the other is treated 
 as occasion demands. In many parts of this great work 
 reference is made to Cicero's De Re Publica and other 
 philosophical writings, and Augustine's dialogue Contra 
 Academicos is an evident imitation of Cicero's Academics. 
 Yet it can not be said that Augustine's style is modelled 
 upon that of Cicero. It is rather a style which had gradu- 
 ally developed among Christian writers, in which the 
 periodic structure of the Ciceronian age is abandoned for 
 the most part, many words unknown to strictly classical 
 Latin have been introduced, partly from the popular 
 speech and partly by new formation to express abstract 
 ideas, not a few Biblical phrases are employed, and some 
 slight changes in syntax are noticeable. This is the Latin 
 of the church, which has remained nearly as St. Augustine 
 left it, except in so far as the strictly classical element 
 grew less in the centuries preceding the Eenaissance. 
 For St. Augustine the " state " of this world still means 
 the Eoman empire, though the eternal city had been 
 sacked by the Goths, but the time seems to him not far 
 distant when the state of God shall rest in the " stability 
 of its eternal seat." So his language is still Latin ; but his 
 thoughts and sentiments are Christian, not Roman. The 
 ancient world was still visible about him, but the life of 
 the Middle Ages had begun. 
 
 The fourth century produced a considerable number 
 of poets who possessed no mean skill in versification, but 
 whose works have for the most part disappeared. Opta- 
 tianus (Publilius Optatianus Porphyrius) com- 
 posed a poem in praise of Constantino in which 
 he shows his ingenuity by writing lines that take the 
 shape of an altar or an organ, contriving to make fifteen
 
 270 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 successive hexameters each one letter shorter than its 
 predecessor, making nineteen stanzas of four lines each 
 from the same twenty words, and inventing the most com- 
 plicated and elaborate acrostics and the like. Such work 
 is not poetry, but it shows skill in the manipulation of 
 words. It is interesting to know that Constantino was so 
 pleased that he recalled the ingenious author from banish- 
 ment. About the same time Juvencus (Gaius 
 
 Juvencus. 
 
 Vettius Aquilinus Juvencus) made a version 
 of the Gospel story in hexameters after the manner of 
 Virgil. He shows intelligent appreciation of the dignity 
 and beauty of his model, and writes skillfully and easily. 
 This Latin poem is the prototype of the " Gospel Harmo- 
 nies" of the Middle Ages. Avienus (Rufus Festus Avie- 
 
 . . nus), of Vulsinii, in Etruria, was a descendant 
 
 Avienus. 
 
 of the Stoic philosopher Musonius Rufus (see 
 page 177), and was twice proconsul in Africa in 366 and 
 in Greece in 371 A. D. He translated the Phenomena of 
 Aratus into Latin verse, and tried to improve upon the 
 translations by Cicero and Germanicus (see pages 70 and 
 173), made a similar translation with variations from the 
 Periegesis of Dionysius, described the coasts of the Black 
 Sea, the Caspian, and the Mediterranean in iambic trime- 
 ters, and made abridgments of Livy and Virgil in the 
 same metre. These last are lost, as is a large part of the 
 description of the coasts. Avienus was also the author of 
 several short poems. He has no little ability as a maker 
 of verses, and has the good taste to imitate Virgil, but ex- 
 hibits no poetic originality. His language is for the most 
 part strictly classic. To about the same time as Avienus 
 belongs also a curious comedy entitled Quero- 
 lus (The Discontented Man), a free imitation 
 of the Aulularia of Plautus, composed in a remarkable 
 mixture of prose and verse. 
 
 The only really interesting poet of the fourth century 
 is, however, Ausonius, whose life extends through nearly
 
 THE FOURTH AND FIFTH CENTURIES 271 
 
 the entire century. Decimus Magnus Ausonius was born 
 at Bordigala (Bordeaux) about 310 A. D. He became a 
 
 teacher of rhetoric and oratory, and was ap- 
 Ausonius. 
 
 pointed tutor to Gratian, the son of the Em- 
 peror Valens. When Gratian became emperor he rewarded 
 his teacher with public offices, and raised him in 379 A. D. 
 to the consulate. After Gratian's death (383 A. D.) Auso- 
 nius retired from public life and devoted himself to liter- 
 ary pursuits at his native Bordeaux until his death, which 
 took place not far from 395 A. D. Nearly all his extant 
 writings belong to this period. The only considerable 
 specimen of his prose extant is the oration in which he 
 expressed his thanks to Gratian for the consulship. In 
 this the style, though somewhat flowery, is not without 
 dignity, and the vocabulary is pretty strictly classic. The 
 extant poems are of various kinds and in various metres. 
 They include epigrams, idylls, letters, a series of short 
 poems called Parentalia, devoted to the poet's relatives, a 
 Commemoratio Professorum Burdigalensium, describing 
 his colleagues at Bordeaux, verses on the Roman emperors, 
 on famous cities, and a variety of other subjects. Some 
 of these show cleverness in the use of language, but no 
 higher quality. Such are the letters written partly in 
 Greek and partly in Latin, and the idylls so composed 
 that the last word of each line is a monosyllable ; but 
 among the poems are some of considerable interest even 
 though their poetic qualities are not of the highest. So 
 the Parentalia and the verses on the Bordeaux professors 
 give the reader some insight into the life of an important 
 provincial city. It is interesting, too, to observe that of 
 the seventeen cities mentioned in the List of Famous 
 Cities five are in Gaul. To be sure, Ausonius was himself 
 a Gaul, and may have made his native region unduly 
 prominent, but other evidence, including the remains of 
 ancient buildings, supports his estimate of the importance 
 of the Gallic cities. His lines on Bordeaux, famous for
 
 272 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 its wine, its culture, its fertile soil, great rivers, copious 
 water supply, and fine buildings, show his patriotism and 
 his skill in descriptive writing. The latter quality is con- 
 spicuous in the most famous of his idylls, the one entitled 
 Mosella, in which Ausonius describes the stream and the 
 valley of the Moselle, which he had visited on some busi- 
 ness not further specified. The vine-clad hills and grassy 
 meadow lands, the roofs of villas that stand upon the 
 banks, the broad, clear river, calm and placid as a lake, 
 are all brought before our eyes with clear, well-chosen 
 words and a masterly lightness of touch. At the same 
 time the poet's love of nature and her beauties is as 
 plainly manifest as in any poem of Wordsworth or Whit- 
 tier. Unfortunately, Ausonius proceeds to mention all 
 the different kinds of fish in the Moselle, and the remark- 
 able productivity of the river does not add to the attrac- 
 tiveness of the poem. Yet the poem is deservedly famous 
 for its beauty of expression and its enthusiastic love of 
 nature. It is also remarkably modern in its tone. Satyrs 
 and Naiads are mentioned, but only as a modern poet might 
 mention them. Ausonius is a Christian, and for him the 
 pagan deities of the woods are only beings which he 
 "might imagine." This poem shows as clearly as the 
 Pervigilium Veneris, though in a different way, that the 
 spirit of the Middle Ages was awake. 
 
 Ausonius was a Christian, but his poems have no spe- 
 cifically Christian contents. The most important specific- 
 ally Christian poet of the fourth century is 
 
 Prude ntius. J r J 
 
 Aurelius Prudentius Clemens, who was born 
 in Spain, at or near Saragossa, in 348 A. D., studied and 
 practised oratory, and held important offices. His life 
 was apparently passed for the most part in Spain, but at 
 one time he held a position at the imperial court of Theo- 
 dosius. The date of his death is probably about 410 A. D. 
 Prudentius, like Ausonius, employs hexameters and vari- 
 ous other classic metres, in which he departs occasionally,
 
 THE FOURTH AND FIFTH CENTURIES 273 
 
 but not often, from the rules of quantitative verse. His 
 poems, both epic and lyric, are religious and inspired by 
 earnest faith and genuine enthusiasm. He excels in nar- 
 rative and description, in wealth and brilliancy of lan- 
 guage, but lacks the virtue of simplicity. His poetry was 
 intended to appeal to educated readers, not to the people, 
 and the cultured classes of the time were only too thor- 
 oughly accustomed to an artificial style. Yet, in spite of 
 his faults of style, Prudentius is the most important Chris- 
 tian poet of the fourth century, and among the other 
 poets of the time none equal him except Ausonius and 
 Claudian. 
 
 Claudius Claudianus, the last important Eoman poet, 
 was, like Livius Andronicus, with whom Eoman poetry 
 Claudian began, a Greek by birth. He was born in 
 Asia Minor, but lived so long at Alexandria 
 that he called that centre of learning his fatherland 
 (patria). In 395 A. D. he went to Rome, where he was 
 attached to the court of Honorius, from whom he received 
 the rank of patrician and the honor of a statue in the 
 Forum of Trajan. He remained at Rome, or rather at 
 Milan, until 404 A. D., but about that time returned to 
 Alexandria, and married a noble woman of the place, 
 being aided in his suit by Serena, niece and adopted 
 daughter of the Emperor Theodosius and wife of Stilicho. 
 Claudian's poems all appear to have been written from 
 395 to 404 A. D., and throughout this period he is the 
 faithful follower and enthusiastic admirer of Stilicho. 
 Whether Stilicho's death in 408 A. D. relegated Claudian 
 to obscurity, or the poet himself died at about the same 
 time as his patron, can not now be determined. Clau- 
 dian's works comprise epic poems on the important events 
 of his times, such as the Gothic war and the war against 
 Gildo, mythological epics, and shorter miscellaneous poems. 
 Among the historical epics are included poems in praise 
 of Honorius and other patrons of the poet, as well as met-
 
 274: ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 rical attacks upon Rufinus and Eutropius. The only 
 remains of his mythological epics are three books of a poem 
 on the Rape of Proserpine, and somewhat more than one 
 hundred lines of a Gigantomachia. In these poems Clau- 
 dian shows the mythological and antiquarian learning 
 which had for centuries been characteristic of the Alex- 
 andrian school of poetry. That school was already old 
 when it was imitated by Catullus and his contempora- 
 ries in the early days of Roman poetry, and now, when Ro- 
 man literature was dying, Alexandria continued to train 
 learned poets. Had Claudian not gone to Italy, he would 
 doubtless have continued to write in his native Greek, 
 and might, as a Greek poet, have rivalled his contempo- 
 rary Nonnus. In his historical and miscellaneous poems 
 also Claudian exhibits much Alexandrian learning, and at 
 the same time shows an intimate acquaintance with the 
 earlier Roman poets, which is somewhat surprising in one 
 who was educated in the Greek-speaking provinces of the 
 east. It is equally surprising that Claudian uses the Latin 
 language with an ease and grace not attained by any of 
 his contemporaries. His verse is correct, dignified, and 
 harmonious, his diction pure and classical. In these re- 
 spects, as well as in wealth of imagery, brilliancy of narra- 
 tive, and skill in composition, he is unequalled by any 
 Roman poet after Statius. His historical poems must be 
 used with caution by historians, for, although facts are 
 not invented, they are presented in a strong light, or left 
 in obscurity, according to the effect they might have upon 
 the reputation of the poet's friends or enemies. In the 
 exuberance of his praise, Claudian equals the contempo- 
 rary prose panegyrists, and surpasses the early Alexandrian 
 and most of the later Roman poets. Among his miscel- 
 laneous poems none is so well known in modern times, or 
 so modern in tone, as the brief elegy of only twenty-two 
 lines, on an old man of Verona, who never left his suburb, 
 who pressed his staff upon the same sand in which he had
 
 THE FOURTH AND FIFTH CENTURIES 275 
 
 crept, counted his years by the changes of crops, not by 
 consuls, and saw the trees grow old which he had seen as 
 little sprouts. The advantages of a quiet, humble life 
 have seldom been more charmingly set forth than in this 
 poem. 
 
 With all his learning, skill, and genuine poetic inspira- 
 tion, Claudian is still the belated singer of a worn-out 
 empire and a dying civilization. Rome was no longer the 
 mighty and unquestioned ruler of the world. The poet 
 whose chief task it was to sing the praises of Stilicho, and 
 spread the glory of his victories, must needs shut his eyes, 
 so far as possible, to the evident decay, but he could not 
 simulate utter blindness. In the beginning of his poem 
 on the war with Gildo, Claudian shows that the feebleness 
 and old age of Rome were not hidden from him. He 
 describes the personified city, the goddess Roma, as she 
 approaches Olympus to beg for aid against Gildo, whose 
 revolt, involving the loss of the African grain supply, 
 threatened to expose the city to famine : 
 
 Her voice is weak, and slow her steps ; her eyes 
 Deep sunk within ; her cheeks are gone ; her arms 
 Are shrivelled up with wasting leanness. On 
 Her feeble shoulders hardly can she bear 
 Her tarnished shield ; she shows from loosened helm 
 Her hoary locks, and drags a rusty spear. 1 
 
 Even the poet who sang of Rome's victories could 
 
 portray her in such terms as these. Yet the tradition of 
 
 Roman greatness still survived. In the year 
 
 416, Rutilius Claudius Namatianus, a Gaul 
 
 who had risen to the position of prcefectutt urbi at Rome, 
 
 was obliged to return to Gaul to attend to his property, 
 
 which had been laid waste by the Goths. The journey 
 
 was the occasion of a poem in two books, most of which 
 
 1 De Bello Qildonico, i, 21-25.
 
 276 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 is preserved. It is written in elegiacs, with much skill 
 and feeling. Many episodes and descriptions are inserted 
 in the narrative, but no passage is so striking as that in 
 which the traveller, passing out from the Ostian gate, 
 addresses the imperial city : 
 
 Wide as the ambient ocean is thy sway, 
 And broad thy empire as the realms of day ; 
 Still on thy bounds the sun's great march attends, 
 With thee his course begins, with thee it ends. 
 Thy strong advance nor Afric's burning sand, 
 Nor frozen horrors of the Pole withstand ; 
 Thy valor, far as kindly Nature's bound 
 Is fixed for man, its dauntless way has found. 
 All nations own in thee their common land, 
 And e'en the guilty bless thy conquering hand ; 
 One right for weak, for strong, thy laws create, 
 And bind the wide world in a world-wide State. 1 
 
 The history of Eoman poetry is virtually at an end with 
 Claudian. Other poets there were, but none whose works 
 Avianus. are living and breathing exponents of the 
 Seduiius. ancient Koman life. About 400 A. D. Avianus 
 Dracontius. published forty-two fables of ^Esop in elegiac 
 verse ; about the middle of the fifth century the presbyter 
 Seduiius wrote several religious poems, in which he shows 
 acquaintance not with Biblical literature alone, but also 
 with the Latin classics ; and at the end of the century the 
 African poet Blossius .^Emilius Dracontius wrote a didac- 
 tic poem On the Praise of God, in three books, a number 
 of short epics, chiefly mythological, and several other 
 poems. Dracontius is not unskillful in his versification 
 and his use of language, and his poems prove that rhetor- 
 ical training was still to be found in Africa. Moreover, 
 his knowledge of the Roman classics is as evident as his 
 knowledge of the Bible. But neither Dracontius nor the 
 
 1 De Reditu Suo, i, 55-66. Translated by A. J. Church.
 
 THE FOURTH AND FIFTH CENTURIES 277 
 
 other poets whose works are preserved to us from the 
 fifth century could do more than help to pass on to the 
 Middle Ages something of the ancient feeling for beauty 
 of form in literature. And even that had ceased to be 
 understood by the people.
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 The end of the ancient civilization Boethius, about 480-524 A. D. 
 Later literature no longer Roman Practical character of Roman 
 literature The first period The Augustan period The period of 
 the empire Our debt to the Romans. 
 
 LONG before the end of the fifth century the power 
 of Eome was broken, and the centre of what had been 
 the Roman empire was at Constantinople. The western 
 provinces were in the hands of barbarians, Angles and 
 Saxons ruled in Britain, Franks in northern Gaul, Visi- 
 goths in southern Gaul and Spain, and Vandals in Africa. 
 The end Italy itself had been repeatedly overrun by 
 
 of the old hardy warriors from the north, and Rome had 
 civilization, twice been sacked, by the Goths under Alaric 
 in 410 and by the Vandals under Genseric in 455 A. D. 
 With the establishment by Theodoric, in 493 A. D., of the 
 Gothic kingdom with its seat at Ravenna, the last vestige 
 of the Roman empire of the West passed away. Hence- 
 forth western Europe is the scene of strife and disorder, 
 through which men were to struggle onward to the new 
 order of modern life. In the empire of the East much of 
 the old civilization survived, and throughout the Middle 
 Ages the ancient culture still shed some rays of light from 
 Constantinople to the darkened west ; but in western Eu- 
 rope there was little culture, and learning was for the 
 most part shut up in the walls of monasteries. 
 
 The last writer who seems to belong to the old civili- 
 zation is Boethius. Anicius Manlius Torquatus Severinus 
 278
 
 CONCLUSION 279 
 
 Boethius was a Roman of noble birth and exalted station. 
 He was born about 480 A. D., and after his father's death 
 
 was adopted by the patrician Symmachus, 
 BoetMus. J , ,f 
 
 whose daughter he afterwards married. In 
 
 500 A. D. he delivered in the senate a speech in honor of 
 Theodoric, who made frequent use of his learning and 
 literary skill. He held important offices at Rome, received 
 the title of patrician, and in 510 A. D. became consul with- 
 out a colleague. In 522 A. D. his two sons were made 
 consuls, and the joyful father delivered an oration in 
 praise of the Gothic king to whose favor they owed their 
 elevation. But that favor was destined SOOH to pass from 
 Boethius. The emperor of the East, Justin, tried to stir 
 up the Catholic Italians to revolt against the Arian Theo- 
 doric. Boethius was suspected, arrested, and put to death 
 with tortures in 524 A. D. The servile senate decreed his 
 death without even the formality of a trial. 
 
 Boethius was a prolific writer. He translated from 
 the Greek various philosophical and mathematical trea- 
 tises, to some of which he added commentaries, and the 
 importance of the Aristotelian logic during the Middle 
 Ages is in great measure due to him ; he also wrote a 
 bucolic poem, which is lost, and several treatises on points 
 of Christian doctrine ; but the work by which he is now 
 best known, and to which he owes his reputation as the 
 The Conso- ^ as ^ Roman author, is the treatise On the Con- 
 lation of solution of Philosophy (De Consolatione Phil- 
 Phiiosophy. osophice), which he wrote in prison while 
 waiting for his condemnation. This work consists of five 
 books, and has the literary form of a satura that is, the 
 prose is interrupted and varied by the insertion of passages 
 in verse. These metrical passages, although their rhythms 
 and diction are excellent, do not show the same depth of 
 thought as the prose portions. This is explained by the 
 fact that the prose portions of the treatise are derived in 
 great measure from the Protrepticus of Aristotle, while 
 19
 
 280 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 the verses are more entirely the work of Boethius himself. 
 It is not likely that Boethius employed the Protrepticus 
 directly, but he probably had before him some work in 
 which Aristotle's teachings had been modified by the 
 eclecticism of the later Platonists. Everywhere noble 
 sentiments are expressed, but without the slightest indi- 
 cation of Christianity, or of any specific religion. The 
 names of the pagan deities are used, but-Boethius believes 
 in them no more than did Milton or the numerous writers 
 of the eighteenth century in whose works their names 
 occur. The attitude of Boethius is throughout that of a 
 cultivated and intellectual man who seeks for consolation 
 when in trouble not in faith, but in reason. In the begin- 
 ning of the work he laments his hard fate, when Philos- 
 ophy appears before him in the form of a woman, and a 
 dialogue ensues, in which the unimportance of what is 
 ordinarily termed good or bad fortune, the nature of 
 Providence, the divine order of the world, chance, free 
 will, and similar subjects, are discussed. The style is the 
 artificial, ornate style of the time, held in check by the 
 logical sequence of the argument. Boethius was a Chris- 
 tian, but in his adversity he turned to philosophy for 
 consolation, and his philosophy is no more Christian than 
 is that of Cicero. Yet his teachings, though not belong- 
 ing to any one religion, are essentially religious. It is not 
 wonderful that the Consolation was much read in the 
 Middle Ages, and has continued to find many readers in 
 later times. 
 
 There were still, in the sixth century, men who, like 
 Boethius, could find, amid the disorders of the times, the 
 Later litera- l e i sure an< l the taste for study ; and the only 
 ture no kind of study possible was that of the ancient 
 
 longer literature. But Boethius is the last in whom 
 
 the ancient thoughts and feelings appear clad 
 in literary form. Throughout the Middle Ages some of 
 the classical writers, especially Virgil, were read and copied
 
 CONCLUSION 281 
 
 in monasteries, and those laymen who received a clerkly 
 education learned Latin as the only language (except the 
 more distant and difficult Greek) in which a literature 
 existed ; but Latin was then, as now, a language of the 
 past, even though it was still used for literary purposes, 
 and the ancient civilization was far less understood than 
 now. Writings in Latin after Boethius belong not to 
 Human literature, but to the literature of the church and 
 to that of the various nations of Europe. 
 
 The date of the beginning of Roman literature can be 
 fixed almost to a year, for there was no Roman literature 
 before Livius Andronicus. At that time Latin imitations 
 of Greek works were introduced to add to the attractions 
 of public entertainments and to make the young ac- 
 The first pe- quainted with the history of the past. As 
 riodofBoman the republic grew in power, literature, still in 
 literature. imitation of the Greek, but expressing more 
 and more completely the Roman character, developed in 
 all directions, but especially in prose. The orators culti- 
 vated perfection in speech that they might move the 
 judges, the senate, or the people ; historians hoped that 
 the records of the past would have a practical effect upon 
 the deeds of the future, or they aimed, like Caesar in his 
 Commentaries, to further their own immediate ends ; and 
 Cicero adapted Greek philosophy to Roman readers in 
 order that the republic might have wise and good citizens. 
 The practical purpose of the lyric poetry of Catullus and 
 his contemporary poets is less evident, though even lyric 
 verse may serve political ends, and yet there seems to 
 have been in the careful imitation of learned Alexandrian 
 works a deliberate educational purpose. Certainly in all 
 branches of literature except lyric poetry throughout the 
 republican period a practical purpose, and usually a polit- 
 ical purpose, is almost invariably to be found. Literature 
 as developed by the Greeks seemed to the Romans to pos- 
 sess practical utility, and the great works of the repub-
 
 282 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 lican period were created by practical men to aid in the 
 attainment of their ends. 
 
 In the Augustan period the practical purpose of litera- 
 ture is even more evident than in the earlier years. In 
 the transition from the republic to the monarchy it was 
 
 desirable that the minds of men should not 
 The Augustan . 
 
 period. " e * 00 mucn occupied with politics, and liter- 
 
 ature was naturally encouraged by Augustus 
 as an outlet for intellectual energy which might other- 
 wise have turned to political matters. It was also desir- 
 able that the Julian family be connected as closely as pos- 
 sible with the beginnings of Home, and how could that be 
 done better than by such a poem as the JEneid ? The im- 
 mediate practical purpose of Virgil's Georgics is evident. 
 The poems of Horace, too, are in part openly intended to 
 increase the popular prestige of the imperial house, and 
 the mere fact that the poet was known to be the friend 
 of the emperor would add as much to the glory of the one 
 as of the other. The greatness of poetry in this period is 
 due directly to the encouragement of Augustus, and his 
 encouragement had a practical purpose. That prose, espe- 
 cially oratory, declined at this time is due to the fact that 
 the orator was no longer the great power in the state. 
 
 Under the empire the influence of literature upon poli- 
 tics disappeared. Oratory no longer led to the highest 
 power, poetry must, under some emperors at least, be care- 
 ful not to overstep prescribed limits, and history could 
 not safely record all facts with their causes and results. 
 Even philosophical speculation was not safe if it led to 
 practical conclusions adverse to the government. It was 
 precisely those branches of literature which 
 
 rpi II* 
 
 might be used for political purposes that the 
 imperial government could hardly fail to dis- 
 courage directly or indirectly, and those were the branches 
 in which the practical Romans naturally excelled. There 
 were, to be sure, emperors who encouraged literature, but
 
 CONCLUSION 283 
 
 their encouragement, leading to flattery and artificial elo- 
 quence, was little likely to raise the quality, even though 
 it increased the quantity, of literary production. With 
 its practical importance Roman literature loses its vigor. 
 Aside from Tacitus and Juvenal, hardly a single powerful 
 and vigorous author appears in the imperial period until, 
 with the growth of Christianity, literature again acquires 
 practical importance. That literature maintained for so 
 many years a relatively high degree of excellence is due 
 to the constant influence of Greece, which counteracted 
 to some extent the forces that tended to destroy all liter- 
 ary life. Thus Roman literature lingered on until after 
 the breaking up of the Roman empire. 
 
 Only a small part of the great bulk of Roman litera- 
 ture is preserved to us, but that part includes the greatest 
 works of the best period. Those are worthy subjects of 
 study for their beauty of form, their clearness of thought, 
 their power, their vigor, and their ethical qualities. The 
 productions of the imperial period are inferior in quality 
 to those of the republican and the Augustan times, though 
 their quantity is proportionate to the duration of the em- 
 pire ; but these works also are proper subjects of study, 
 for they also express the character of the Romans. 
 
 Three ancient peoples have impressed themselves 
 strongly upon the nations of Europe and America the 
 Hebrews, the Greeks, and the Romans. To the first we 
 owe the foundations of our religion, to the second the be- 
 ginnings of all arts and sciences, to the Romans we are 
 indebted for the adaptation of the arts and sciences, of 
 
 philosophy, and even of religion to civilized 
 Our debt to rj mu * -n 
 
 the Romans ' names of our months are Roman, 
 
 and our calendar is, with slight necessary 
 changes, that established by Julius Caesar. The laws of 
 continental Europe and, though to a less degree, of Eng- 
 land and the United States, are based upon Roman law as 
 finally established under Justinian. The so-called Gothic
 
 284 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 architecture, which arose in France in the Middle Ages and 
 which is still the prevailing style of our churches, can be 
 traced back step by step to Eoman buildings, and though 
 Eoman architecture was dependent upon that of Greece, 
 it was through Eome that western Europe learned to use 
 the column, the arch, and the vault. The beautiful archi- 
 tecture of the Eenaissance is a conscious imitation of that 
 of Eome. The Eomans, too, in the early centuries of the 
 Christian church, did their full share to systematize Chris- 
 tian belief, to reconcile it with philosophy, and to estab- 
 lish a reasonable form of church government. The results 
 of their labors are inherited directly by the Eoman Catho- 
 lic church, and indirectly or partially by Protestants. 
 There is hardly a side of modern life which is not more 
 or less affected by ancient Eome ; while the dignity, the 
 sturdy manhood, the stoical disregard of fortune, the 
 patriotism, and the vigorous earnestness expressed in Eo- 
 man literature have a powerful influence in developing 
 what is best in modern manhood. Eoman literature will 
 continue to be an important object of study as long as 
 men still feel their obligations to the past, or are capable 
 of learning from the example and precepts of other ages.
 
 APPENDIX I 
 BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 [This is not intended to be an exhaustive bibliography, but is merely an 
 attempt to refer the student to some of the best and most available sources of 
 information. Books in foreign languages, and editions with notes in foreign 
 languages, are mentioned only in exceptional cases and for special reasons. 
 Further bibliographical information is to be found in the larger histories of 
 Roman literature, in Engelmann's Bibliotheca Scriptorum Classicorum, the 
 monthly lists in the Classical Review, and the Guide to the Choice of Clas- 
 sical Books, by J. B. Mayor, London, 1879, D. Nutt; with its New Supple- 
 ment, 1896.] 
 
 GENERAL WORKS 
 
 C. T. Cruttwell. History of Roman Literature, London, 1877, 
 
 Griffin. 
 J. W. Mackail. Latin Literature, London, 1895, Murray; 
 
 New York, Scribner's. 
 G. A. Simcox. History of Latin Literature, London and New 
 
 York, 1883, Longmans, 2 vols. 
 G. Middleton and T. E. Mills. Handbook to Latin Authors, 
 
 London and New York, 1896, Macmillan. 
 W. Y. Scllar. The Roman Poets of the Republic, Oxford, 2d 
 
 ed. 1889 ; Poets of the Augustan Age (Virgil), Oxford, 1891 ; 
 
 Horace and the Elegiac Poets, Oxford, 1892. 
 E. Y. Tyrrell. Latin Poetry, Boston, 1895, Hough ton & 
 
 Mifflin. 
 G. F. Aly. Geschichte der romischen Litteratur, Berlin, 1894, 
 
 R. Gaertner. 
 G. Bernhardy Grundriss der romischen Litteratur, 5th ed. 
 
 Halle, 1872. 
 W. S. Teuffel. Geschichte der romischen Litteratur, 5th ed. 
 
 revised by L. Schwabe, Leipzig, 1890, Teubner ; translated 
 
 by G. C. W. Warr, 2 vols., London, 1891, Bell. [Especially 
 
 good for bibliography.] 
 
 285
 
 286 EOMAN LITERATURE 
 
 M. Schanz. Romische Litteraturgeschichte, Munich, 2d ed. 
 1898-1901, Beck. 3 vols. (to Constantino) ; vol. iv (to 
 Justinian) in preparation. 
 
 0. Ribbeck. Geschichte der romischen Dichtung. 3 vols. 
 Stuttgart, 1887-'92. 
 
 C. Lamarre. Histoire de la Litterature latine depuis la Fon- 
 dation de Rome jusqu'a la Fin du Gouvernement Repub- 
 licain ; Paris, 1901, Delagrave. 4 vols. [Vol. iv contains 
 selections from Latin literature in the original and in 
 French translation. The literature of the imperial period 
 is to be treated in subsequent volumes.] 
 
 G. Michaut. Le Genie latin. Paris, 1900, Fontemoing. [In- 
 teresting and suggestive.] 
 
 A useful series of books called " Ancient Classics for English 
 Readers " contains Caesar, by Anthony Trollope Catullus, 
 Tibullus, and Propertius, by James Dames; Cicero, by 
 W. L. Collins ; Horace, by Theodore Martin ; Juvenal, by 
 E. Walford ; Livy, by W. L. Collins ; Lucretius, by Mai- 
 lock ; Ovid, by A. Church ; Plautus and Terence, by W. 
 L. Collins ; Pliny, by A. Church and W. J. Brodribb ; 
 Tacitus, by W. B. Donne ; and Virgil, by W. L. Collins. 
 These are not translations, but essays illustrated by ex- 
 tracts. Published in America by the J. B. Lippincott Co. 
 
 COLLECTIONS 
 
 [This list contains the titles of collections referred to below. Many other 
 collections exist, the titles of which are to.be found in larger bibliographies.] 
 
 Poetae Latini Minores, ed. Baehrens. 5 vols. Leipzig, 1879- 
 '83, Teubner series. 
 
 Fragmenta Poetanun Romanorum, ed. Baehrens, Leipzig, 
 1886, Teubner series. 
 
 Corpus Poetarum Latinorum, ed. J. P. Postgate ; parts i, ii, 
 (vol. i), and iii. London, 1893-1900, Bell. 
 
 Patrologia Latina, ed. Migne, Paris. [221 vols. containing 
 the works of ecclesiastical writers of Latin from the Apos- 
 tolic times to those of Pope Innocent III.] 
 
 Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum. [A series of 
 ecclesiastical writings, published by the Imperial Academy 
 at Vienna, begun in 1866 and not yet completed.]
 
 APPENDIX I 287 
 
 Scaenicae Romanorum Poesis Fragmenta, ed. O. Ribbeck. 2 
 vols. Leipzig, 1897-'98, Teubner series. [Vol. i, Tragi- 
 corum Romanorum Fragmenta ; vol. ii, Comicorum Ro- 
 manorum Fragmenta.] 
 
 Grammatici Latini, ed. H. Keil, Leipzig, 1857-'80, Teubner, 
 7 vols. 
 
 Historiconun Romanorum Relliquiae, ed. H. Peter, vol. i, 
 Leipzig, 1870, Teubner. 
 
 Historicorum Romanorum Fragmenta, ed. H. Peter, Leipzig, 
 1883, Teubner series. 
 
 Scriptores Historiae August ae. ed. H. Peter, Leipzig. 2 vols. 
 Teubner series. 
 
 Anthologia Latina, ed. F. Biicheler and A. Riese, Leipzig, 
 1870-'97. 2 vols. Teubner series. 
 
 XII Panegyric! Latini, ed. Baehrens. Leipzig, 1874, Teubner 
 series. 
 
 Oratorum Romanorum Fragmenta, ed. Meyer. Paris, 1837. 
 
 EDITIONS AND TRANSLATIONS 
 Accius. Text in Fragm. Poet. Rom., vol. i, and Scaen. Rom. 
 
 Poes. Fragm., vol. i. 
 J&TNA. Text in Corp. Poet. Lett., part iii, and Poet. Lat. 
 
 Min., vol. ii. Text with notes and translation by Robinson 
 
 Ellis, Oxford, 1901. 
 AMBROSIUS (St. Ambrose). Text, Patrologia Latina, vols. 
 
 xiv-xvii. 
 AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS. Text. Gardthausen, Leipzig. 3 
 
 vols. Teubner series. 
 AMPELIUS. Text. Wdlfflin in Halm's Florus, Leipzig, 1854, 
 
 Teubner series. 
 ANDRONICUS. See LIVIUS. 
 APHTHONIUS. Text in Grammat. Lat., vol. vi. 
 APULEIUS. Text with Latin notes. Hildebrand, Leipzig, 
 
 1842. 2 vols. 
 
 Translation. Sir George Head, London, 1851 ; anony- 
 mous, in Bohn's Library. 
 ARNOBIUS. Text. Reifferscheid, vol. iv of Corp. Script. 
 
 Eccl. Lat. Also in Patrol. Lat., vol. v. 
 ATTA. Text in Scaen. Rom. Poesis Fragm., vol. ii. 
 ATTICUS. Text in Hist. Rom. Fr.
 
 288 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 AUGUSTINUS (St. Augustine). Text. Patrol. Lai., vols. xxxii- 
 xlvii; De Civitate Dei, Dombart, Leipzig, 1877, 2 vols., 
 Teubner series ; Confessiones, Raumer, Gutersloh, 1876, 
 Bertelsmann. 
 
 AUGUSTUS. Monumentum Ancyranum, Mommsen, 2d ed. 
 Berlin, 1883, Weidmann ; W. Fairley (with English trans- 
 lation), Philadelphia, 1898, the University of Philadel- 
 phia. 
 
 Fragments, Weichart, Grimma, 1845. 
 
 AURELIUS (Marcus Aurelius). See FRONTO. 
 
 AUSONIUS. Text. Peiper, Leipzig, 1886, Teubner series. 
 
 AVIANUS. Text. Poet. Led. Min. vol. v ; critical text and 
 notes. R. Ellis, Oxford, 1887. 
 
 AVIENUS. Grit. text. Holder, Innsbruck, 1887, Wagner. 
 
 BOETHIUS. Text. Peiper, Leipzig, 1871, Teubner series. 
 
 Translation. H. R. James, London, 1897, Elliot Stock ; 
 Fox, in Bonn's Library. 
 
 CAESAR. Text. Kiibler, Leipzig, 1893-1897, Teubner series. 
 3 vols. 
 
 Translation. W. A. McDevitte, Bohn's Library. Text 
 and notes. The Gallic War, Allen & Greenough, Boston, 
 Ginn & Co. ; The Civil War, Perrin, New York, Univer- 
 sity Publishing Co. Many other school editions exist. 
 
 CALPURNIUS. Text. Poet. Lat. Min., vol. iii ; with NEMESI- 
 ANUS, Text and Latin notes, Schenkl, Leipzig and Prague, 
 1885. 
 
 CAPELLA. See MARTIANUS. 
 
 CATO. De Agricultura. Text and Latin notes, Keil, Leipzig, 
 1884-'94, Teubner. [Two vols. with VARRO, Res Rusticae.] 
 Other works. Text and Latin notes. Jordan, Leipzig, 
 1860, Teubner. 
 
 CATONIS DISTICHA. Poet. Lat. Min., vol. iii. 
 
 CATULLUS. Text. Mueller, Leipzig, 1885, Teubner series. 
 [With TIBULLUS, PROPERTIUS, the fragments of LAEVIUS, 
 CALVUS, CINNA, and others, and the PRIAPEA ] ; crit. text 
 with appendices, R. Ellis, 2d ed., Oxford, 1878. 
 
 Annotated edition. Merrill, Boston, 1893, Ginn & Co. 
 Commentary. R. Ellis, 2d ed., Oxford, 1889. 
 Translation (verse). Theodore Martin, Edinburgh and 
 London, 1875, Blackwood.
 
 APPENDIX I 289 
 
 CELSUS. Text. Daremberg, Leipzig, 1859, Teubner series. 
 Translation. J. Grieve, London, 1756. 
 
 CENSORINUS. Text. Hultsch, Leipzig, 1867, Teubner series ; 
 crit. text, J. Cholodniak, St. Petersburg, 1889. 
 
 CHARISIUS. Text in Gram. Lat., vol. i. 
 
 CICERO. Text. Baiter and Kayser, Leipzig, 1860-'69, B. 
 Tauchnitz, 11 vols. ; Miiller, Klotz, and others, Leipzig, 
 Teubner series, 10 vols. [Editions of separate works and 
 selections are numerous.] 
 
 Correspondence, arranged according to its chronological 
 order, with commentary and introductory essays. R. Y. 
 Tyrrell and L. C. Purser, Dublin and London, 1855-1901. 
 7 vols [vol. i in 2d ed.] 
 
 Translation. Orations, C. D. Yonge, 4 vols. ; On Ora- 
 tory and Orators, with Letters to Quintus and Brutus, J. S. 
 Watson ; On the Nature of the Gods, Divination, Fate, 
 Laws, a Republic, and Consulship, C. D. Yonge and F. 
 Barham ; Academics, De Finibus, and Tusculan Questions, 
 C. D. Yonge; Offices, or Moral Duties, Cato Major, an 
 Essay on Old Age, Laelius, an Essay on Friendship, Scip- 
 io's Dream, Paradoxes, Letter to Quintus on Magistrates, 
 C. R. Edmonds ; Letters, E. Shuckburgh, 4 vols. Bohn's 
 Library. 
 
 Life. W. Forsyth, London, 1863, Murray ; New York, 
 Scribner's. 
 
 CINCIUS ALIMENTUS. Text in Hist. Rom. Rell. 
 
 CIRIS. Text in Poet. Lat. Min., vol. ii. 
 
 CLAUDIAN. Text. Koch, Leipzig, 1893, Teubner series. 
 Translation. Hawkins, London, 1817, 2 vols. 
 
 COLUMELLA. Text in Scriptores Rei Rusticae, ed. Schneider, 
 Leipzig, 1794-'97 ; De Arboribus, text, Lundstrb'm, Upsala, 
 1897. 
 
 Translation. Anonymous, London, 1745. 
 
 COMMODIANUS. Text. Ludwig, Leipzig, 1877-78, 2 vols. 
 Teubner series. 
 
 CONSOLATIO AD LiviAM. Text in Poet. Lat. Min., vol. i. 
 
 CORNIFICIUS (See Cicero ad Herennium). Text. Marx, 
 Leipzig, 1894, Teubner. 
 
 CULEX. Text in Poet. Lat. Min., vol. ii. 
 
 CURTIUS RUFUS. Text. Vogel, Leipzig, 1881, Teubner series.
 
 290 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 CURTIUS RUFUS. Translation. John Digby, 3d ed. corr. by 
 Young, London, 1747. 
 
 CYPRIAN. Text. Hartel, Vienna, 1868-71, 4 vols. in Corp. 
 Script. Eccl. Lat. 
 
 DARES. Text. Meister, Leipzig, 1873, Teubner series. 
 
 DICTYS. Text. Meister, Leipzig, 1872, Teubner series. 
 
 DIOMKDES. Text in Gram. Lat. 
 
 DIOSCORIDES. Text in Gram. Lat. 
 
 DIRM. Text in Poet. Lat. Min., vol. ii. 
 
 DONATUS. Text in Gram. Lat. and in the introductions to 
 early editions of Terence. 
 
 ENNIUS. Text in Fragm. Poet. Rom. and Corp. Poet. Lat., 
 vol. i. 
 
 EUTROPIUS. Text. Ruhl, Leipzig, 1887, Teubner series. 
 Translation. See JUSTIN. 
 
 FENESTELLA. Text in Hist. Rom. Fragm. 
 
 FESTUS (RuFius). Text. Wagner, Prague, 1886. 
 
 FESTUS (SEXTUS POMPEIUS). Text. Thewrewk, Budapest, 
 1889. 
 
 FIRMICUS MATERNUS. Text, Halm, Vienna, 1867, in Corp. 
 Script. Eccl. Lat., vol. ii ; Baehrens, Leipzig, 1886, Teub- 
 ner series. 
 
 FLORUS. Text. Halm, Leipzig, 1854, Teubner series. 
 
 FRONTINUS. Strategemata. Text. Gundermann, Leipzig, 1888, 
 Teubner series. 
 
 Translation. R. Scott, London, 1811. 
 De Aquis Urbis Romae. Text. Biicheler, Leipzig, 1858, 
 Teubnei. 
 
 Text with translation and discussion. C. Herschel, 
 Boston, 1899, Dana, Estes & Co. 
 
 FRONTO. Text. Naber, Leipzig, 1867, Teubner. 
 
 GAIUS. Text with translation and notes. Poste, 3d ed., Ox- 
 ford, 1890. 
 
 GELLIUS. Text. Hertz, Leipzig, 1887, Teubner series, 2 vols. 
 Crit. Text. Hertz, Leipzig, 1894, Teubner, 2 vols. 
 Translation. Beloe, London. 1795, 3 vols. 
 
 GERMANICUS. Text in Poet. Lat. Min., vol. i. 
 
 GRATIUS. Text in Poet. Lat. Min., vol. i ; Corp. Poet. Lat., 
 part iii. 
 
 HIERONYMUS. See JEROME.
 
 APPENDIX I 291 
 
 HILARIUS (St. Hilary). Text. Patrol. Lat., vols. ix and x. 
 
 HIRTIUS. Text in complete editions of Caesar. 
 
 HORACE. Text in Corp. Poet. Lat., vol. i ; Kellar and Hduss- 
 
 ner, 2d ed. Prague, 1892. Annotated editions are numerous. 
 Translation (verse). Theodore Martin, Edinburgh and 
 
 London, 1881, Blackwood, 2 vols. Odes and Epodes, 
 
 Lord Lytton, Edinburgh and London, 1869, New York, 
 
 1870. 
 
 HYGINUS. Text. M. Schmidt, Jena, 1872. 
 HYQINUS GROMATICUS. Text. Domaszewski, Leipzig, 1887. 
 JEROME. Text. Patrol. Lat., vols. xxii-xxx. De Viris Illus- 
 
 tribus, Herding, Leipzig, 1879, Teubner series. 
 JULIUS. See CAESAR. 
 
 JULIUS CAESAR STRABO. Text in Oral. Rom. Fragm. 
 JULIUS VICTOR. Text in Orelli's Cicero, vol. v, p. 195, and 
 
 in Halm's Rhetores Minores, p. 371. 
 JUSTIN. Text. Jeep, Leipzig, 1859, Teubner series ; Hallberg, 
 
 Paris, 1875. 
 
 Translation. Watson, London, 1853, Bohn's Library, 
 
 [with CORNELIUS NEPOS and EUTROPIUS]. 
 JUVENAL. Text. Bucheler, Berlin, 2d ed. 1886, Weidmann 
 
 [with PERSIUS and SULPICIA]. 
 
 Annotated edition. Pearson & Strong, Oxford, 1892. 
 Translation. (Prose) Leeper, London, 1891, 2d ed. Mac- 
 
 millan [see also LUCILIUS] ; (verse) Dryden, in Dryden's 
 
 works. 
 LACTANTIUS. Text. Patrol Lat., vols. vi and vii. [Some of 
 
 his works have appeared in Corp. Script. Eccl. Lat. The 
 
 Poem on the Phoenix is in Poet. Lat. Min., vol. ii.j 
 LAMPRIDIUS. Text in Scriptores Historiae A ugustae. 
 LIVIUS ANDRONICUS. Text in Fragm. Poet. Rom. and Scaen. 
 
 Rom. Poesis Fragm., vols. i and ii. 
 
 LIVY. Text. Weissenborn, Leipzig, 1878, Teubner series, 6 vols. 
 Crit. Text. Madvig and Ussing, Copenhagen, 4th ed. 
 
 1886 and later. 4 vols. 
 
 Translation. Spillan, Edmunds, and McDevitte, Lon- 
 don, Bohn's Library. 4 vols. 
 LUCAN. Text in Corp. Poet. Lat., part iii ; Hosius, Leipzig, 
 
 1892. Teubner series. 
 
 Translation (verse). N. Rowe, London, 1807. 3 vols.
 
 292 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 LUCILIUS. Text in Fragm. Poet. Rom. 
 
 Translation. Evans, London, Bonn's Library. [ JU- 
 VENAL, PERSIUS, SULPICIA, and LUCILIUS.] 
 LUCRETIUS. Text. Munro, London, Bell ; also in Harper's 
 
 Classical Texts. 
 
 Grit. Text. Lachmann, Berlin, 1866. 2 vols. 
 
 Text and notes. Munro, London, 4th ed. 1891-'93, 
 
 Bell. 3 vols., the third of which is a prose translation. 
 MACROBIUS. Text. Eyssenhardt, Leipzig, 1868, 2d ed. Teub- 
 
 ner series. 
 
 M^CENAS. Text in Fragm. Poet. Rom. 
 MANILIUS. Text in Corp. Poet. Lat., part iii. 
 
 Translation. Creech, London, 1700. [Appended to LU- 
 CRETIUS.] 
 
 MANLIUS. See VOPISCUS. 
 MARCELLINUS. See AMMIANUS. 
 MARIUS VICTORINUS. Text in Gram. Lat., vol. vi, Orelli's 
 
 Cicero, vol. v, Halm's Rhetores Minores, and Patrol. 
 
 Lat., vol. viii. 
 MARTIAL. Text. Gilbert, Leipzig, 1886, Teubner series. 
 
 Translation (prose). Edited by H. G. Bohn, London, 
 
 1897. [Contains also metrical translations from various 
 
 sources.] 
 MARTIANUS CAPELLA. Text. Eyssenhardt, Leipzig, 1866, 
 
 Teubner series. 
 
 MELA. Text. Frick, Leipzig, 1880, Teubner series. 
 MINUCIUS FELIX. Text. Baehrens, Leipzig, 1886, Teubner 
 
 series. 
 
 MORETUM. Text in Poet. Lat. Min., vol. ii. 
 N.-EVIUS. Text in Fragm. Poet. Rom., Scaen. Rom. Poesis 
 
 Fragm., vols. i and ii. 
 NAMATIANUS. See EUTILIUS. 
 NEMESIANUS. Text in Poet. Lat. Min., vol. iii. 
 NEPOS. Text. Halm-Fleckeisen, Leipzig, 10th ed. 1889, 
 
 Teubner series. 
 
 Translation. See JUSTIN. 
 NIGIDIUS FIGULUS. Text of fragments with Latin notes. 
 
 Stroboda, Vienna, 1889. 
 NONIUS MARCELLUS. Crit. text with comment. Mutter, 
 
 Leipzig, 1888, Teubner. 2 vols. Onions, Oxford, 1895.
 
 APPENDIX I 293 
 
 OCTAVIUS. See AUGUSTUS. 
 
 OROSIUS. Zangemeister, Corp. Script. Eccl. Lat., vol. v, and 
 
 Leipzig, 1889, Teubner series. 
 
 OVID. Text in Corp. Poet. Lat., vol. i ; Merkel-Ewald, Leip- 
 zig, 3d ed. begun 1888, Teubner series. 
 
 Annotated editions of separate works and of selections 
 are numerous. 
 
 Translation (prose). Bohn's Library. Metrical trans- 
 lations by Dryden and others are contained in Chalmers' 
 English Poets. 
 
 PACUVIUS. Text in Scaen. Rom. Poesis Fragm., vol. i. 
 PALLADIUS. Text in Scriptores Rei Rusticae, ed. Schneider, 
 
 Jena, 1794-'97. 
 
 PERSIUS. Text in Corp. Poet. Lat., vol. i ; Biicheler. See 
 JUVENAL ; with translation and commentary, Conington 
 and Nettleship, Oxford, 1893. 
 
 Translation (prose). See LUCILIUS and JUVENAL ; (verse) 
 Dryden, in his complete works and Chalmers' English 
 Poets. 
 
 PERVIQILIUM VENERIS. Text in Poet. Lat. Min., vol. iv. 
 PETRONIUS. Text. Biicheler, Berlin, 3d ed. 1895, Weidmann. 
 [With the satires of VARRO and SENECA.] 
 
 Translation. (Trimalchio's Dinner). H. T. Peck, New 
 York, 1898, Harper's. 
 
 PHJEDRUS. Text in Corp. Poet. Lat., part iii ; Riese, Leipzig, 
 1885, B. Tauchnitz. 
 
 Translation. Smart, London, 1831. [Also appended 
 to Riley's version of Terence and Phaedrus in Bohn's 
 Library.] 
 
 PLAUTUS. Text. Goetz and Schoell, Leipzig, 1892-'95, 
 Teubner series, 7 parts. 
 
 Critical edition. Ritschl (2d ed. by Goetz, Loewe, and 
 Schoell), Leipzig, 1878-'93, Teubner, 20 parts. 
 
 Many annotated editions of separate plays exist. 
 Translation (prose). Riley, London, Bohn's Library; 
 (verse) Thornton and Warner, London, 1767-72. 
 PLINY THE ELDER. Text. Jan and Mayhoff, Leipzig, 2 ed. 
 Teubner series. 6 vols. 
 
 Translation. With Notes, Boatock and Riley, London, 
 Bell. 6 vols.
 
 294: ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 PLINY THE YOUNGER. Text. Keil, Leipzig, 1873, Teubner 
 series. 
 
 Translation. Melmoth, revised by Bosanquet, London, 
 1877, Bell ; Lewis, London, 1879, Triibner. 
 
 PLOTIUS. See SACERDOS. 
 
 POMPEIUS TROGUS. See JUSTIN. 
 
 POMPONIUS. See MELA. 
 
 POMPONIUS (Lucius). Text in Fragm. Poet. Rom. 
 
 PRIAPEA. Text in Poet. Lat. Min., vol. i, cf. vol. ii. 
 
 PRISCIAN. Text in Gram. Lat., vols. ii and iii. 
 
 PROBUS (VALERIUS). Text in Gram. Lat., vol. iv. 
 
 PROPERTIUS. Text in Corp. Poet. Lat., vol. i ; Mueller, Leip- 
 zig, 1880, Teubner series. See CATULLUS. 
 Ed. Grit. Postgate, London, 1880, Bell. 
 Translation (prose). Gantillon, with metrical versions 
 of select elegies by Nott and Elton, London, Bonn's 
 Library. 
 
 PRUDENTIUS. Text. Patrol. Lat., vols. lix and Ix. 
 
 PUBLILIUS SYRUS. Text. BicTcf or d- Smith, Cambridge, 1885 ; 
 O. Friedrich, Berlin, 1880, Grieben [with notes]. 
 
 QUINTILIAN. Text. Institutiones Oratoriae, Meister, Leipzig, 
 1886-'87, Freytag. 
 
 Declamationes. Ritter, Leipzig, 1884, Teubner series. 
 Translation. Institutes of Oratory, J. S. Watson, Lon- 
 don, Bohn's Library. 2 vols. 
 
 REPOSIANUS. Text in Poet. Lat. Min., vol. iv. 
 
 RUTILIUS NAMATIANUS. Text in Poet. Lat. Min., vol. v. 
 
 SACERDOS. Text in Gram. Lat., vol. vi. 
 
 SALLUST. Text. Eussner, Leipzig, 1888, Teubner series. 
 [School editions of the Catiline and the Jugurtha are 
 numerous.] 
 
 Translation. Pollard, London, 1882, Macmillan. 
 
 SAMMONICUS SERENUS. Text in Poet. Lat. Min., vol. iii. 
 
 SEDULIUS. Text in Patrol. Lat., vol. ix, and Corp. Script. 
 Eccl. Lat., vol. x. 
 
 SENECA (the father). Text. Muller, Leipzig, 1888, Freytag; 
 Kiessling, Leipzig, 1872, Teubner series. 
 
 SENECA (the son). Text. Philosophical works. Haase, Leip- 
 zig, 1852 sqq., Teubner series. 
 
 Tragedies, Leo, Berlin, 1879, Weidmann, 2 vols.
 
 APPENDIX I 295 
 
 SENECA (the son). Translation. On Benefits, Minor Essays, 
 
 and On Clemency. A. Stewart, London, Bohn's Library. 
 
 2 vols. Two Tragedies (Medea and Daughters of Troy), 
 
 E. I. Harris, Boston, 1899, Houghton & Mifflin. 
 
 SERVIUS. Text with Latin notes. Thilo and Hagen, 1878- 
 
 1902, Teubner. 4 vols. 
 
 SIDONIUS APOLLINARIS. Text in Patrol. Lat., vol. Iviii ; Lu- 
 johann, Berlin, 1887 (Monum. German. Hist. Auct. An- 
 tiquiss., vol. viii). 
 
 SILIUS ITALICUS. Text. Bauer, Leipzig, 1890-'92, Teubner 
 series. 2 vols. 
 
 Translation (verse). Tytler, Calcutta, 1828. 2 vols. 
 SISENNA. Text in Hist. Rom. Rell. 
 
 SOLINUS. CritText. Mommsen, Berlin, 2ded. 1895, Weidmann. 
 STATIUS. Text. Kohlmann, Leipzig, 1879-'84, Teubner 
 series. 2 vols. 
 
 Translation (verse). Thebaid. Lewis, in Chalmers' 
 English Poets, vol. xx ; Coleridge, in his collected poems ; 
 Achilleis, Sir Robert Howard, in his poems. 
 SUEIUS. Text in Fragm. Poet. Rom. 
 SUETONIUS. Text. Roth, Leipzig, 1875, Teubner series. 
 
 Translation. Thomson, revised by Forester, in Bohn's 
 Library. 
 
 SULPICIA. See JUVENAL. 
 SYMMACHUS. Text. Seeclc, Berlin, 1883 (Monum. Germ. Hist. 
 
 Auct. Antiquiss., vol. vi, 1). 
 
 TACITUS. Text. Nipperdey, Berlin, 187 1-76, Weidmann. 4vols. 
 [Annotated, editions of separate works are many.] 
 Translation. Church and Brodribb, London, 1868- 
 '77, Macmillan. 3 vols. 
 
 TERENCE. Text. Dziatzko, Leipzig, 1884, B. Tauchnitz. 
 Ed. Grit. Umpfenbach, Leipzig, 1871, Teubner. 
 Annotated ed. Wagner, London, 1869, Bell. [Anno- 
 tated editions of separate plays are numerous.] 
 
 Translation (verse). Colman, London, 1810 ; (prose) 
 Riley, in Bohn's Library [with PH^EDRUS]. 
 TERENTIANUS MAURUS. Text in Gram. Lat., vol. vi. 
 TERTULLIAN. Text. Patrol Lat., vols. i and ii; Reiffer- 
 scheid and Wissowa, Corp. Script. Eccl. Lat., vol. xx 
 [only vol. i of Tertulliau]. 
 20
 
 290 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 TIBULLUS. Text in Corp. Poet. Lett., vol. i; see also CA- 
 TULLUS. 
 
 Translation. Cranstoun, Edinburgh and London, 1872, 
 Blackwood. [English verse with notes.] 
 TROGUS. See JUSTIN. 
 VARIUS. Text in Fragm. Poet. Rom. 
 VARRO ATACINUS. Text in Fragm. Poet. Rom. 
 VARRO (MARCUS). Text. De Lingua Latina, Muller, Leipzig, 
 1833 ; Spengel, Berlin, 1885. De Re Eustica, Keil, Leipzig, 
 1889, Teubner series [commentary, 1891]. Fragments of 
 Varro's Menippean Satires are contained in Biicheler's 
 PETRONIUS, of the lost grammatical works in Wilmanns, 
 De Varronis Libris Grammaticis, Berlin, 1864, Weidmann, 
 of the Antiquitates in MerclceVs edition of OVID'S Fasti, 
 Berlin, 1841, and poetical fragments in Fragm. Poet. Rom. 
 VEGETIUS KENATUS. Text. Epitoma Rei Militaris, Lang, 
 Leipzig, 3d ed. 1885, Teubner series. 
 
 Mulomedicina. In Schneider's Scriptores Rei Rusticae, 
 Jena, 1794-'97. 
 
 VELLEIUS PATERCULUS. Text. Halm, Leipzig, 1876, Teubner 
 series. 
 
 Translation. J. S. Watson, Bonn's and Harper's Li- 
 braries. [SALLUST, FLORUS, and VELLEIUS PATERCULUS, 
 with notes.] 
 VIRGIL. Text. Ribbeclc, Leipzig, 2d ed., Teubner series. 
 
 Crit. Text. Ribbeck, Leipzig, 2d ed., Teubner. 4 vols. 
 Annotated editions. Conington and Nettleship, Lon- 
 don, 1865-71, Bell, 3 vols.; Greenough, Boston, 1895, 
 Ginn & Co. [School editions of parts of Virgil's works 
 are numerous.] 
 
 Translation (verse). Dryden, in his complete works. 
 ^Eneid. Conington, London, 1870, Longmans; J. D. 
 Long, Boston, 1879, Lockwood, Brooks & Co. 
 
 Eclogues. C. S. Calverley, in his collected works, Lon- 
 don, 1901, Bell. 
 
 Georgics. H. W. Preston, Boston, 1881, Osgood & Co. 
 VITRUVIUS. Crit. Text. Rose, Leipzig, 1899, Teubner series. 
 
 Translation. Gwilt, London, new ed. 1860, Weale. 
 VOLCACIUS SEDIGITUS. Text in Fragm. Poet. Rom. 
 VOPISCUS. Text in Script. Hist. Aug.
 
 APPENDIX II 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 
 
 [When two dates are given they designate the birth and death of the 
 author or authors named in the same line. The dates given opposite the 
 names of emperors, which are printed in italics, refer, however, to their 
 reigns, not to their lives. When one date is given it designates a time when 
 the activity of the author or authors was probably at its height. Interroga- 
 tion points denote uncertainty.] 
 
 B.C. 
 280. 
 
 Before 270-about 204. 
 About 269-199. 
 About 254-184. 
 239-169. 
 234-149. 
 About 230. 
 
 220-about 130. 
 
 216. 
 
 211. 
 
 210. 
 
 206. 
 
 Before 200-about 165. 
 
 198. 
 
 About 192-152. 
 
 191. 
 
 About 190-159. 
 
 18.5-129. 
 
 183. 
 
 (0-183. 
 
 About 180. 
 
 180 (?}-126. 
 
 (0-174. 
 
 170-at least 100. 
 
 163-133. 
 
 About 158-about 75. 
 
 154-121. 
 
 About 154-after 100. 
 
 About 152-87. 
 
 Appius Claudius Caecus (orator). 
 
 Livius Andronicus. 
 
 Gmeus Naevius. 
 
 Titus Maccius Plautus. 
 
 Quintus Ennius. 
 
 Marcus Porcius Cato. 
 
 Quintus Fabius Maximus Cunctator (or- 
 ator). 
 
 Marcus Pacuvius. 
 
 Quintus Pabius Pictor. 
 
 Pabulje Atellanaj introduced. 
 
 Lucius Cincius Aliinentus. 
 
 Quintus Crecilius Metellus (orator). 
 
 Statins Ciccilius (comic poet). 
 
 Sextus ^Elius (jurist). 
 
 Marcus Cornelius Cethegus (orator). 
 
 Cato's son (jurist). 
 
 Scipio Nasica (jurist). 
 
 Publius Terentius Afer (Terence). 
 
 Scipio African us the younger. 
 
 Quintus Pabius Labeo (jurist). 
 
 Publius Licinius Crassus (orator), Scipio 
 Africanus the elder. 
 
 Lucius Acilius (jurist). 
 
 Gains Lucilius. 
 
 Publius JElius (jurist). 
 
 Lucius Accius. 
 
 Tiberius Gracchus (orator). 
 
 Publius Rutilius Hufus. 
 
 (ijiius (imcchus (orator). 
 
 Ijiicins ^llius Pni'coninus Stilo. 
 
 Quintus Lutatius Catulus. 
 
 297
 
 298 
 
 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 B.C. 
 About 150. 
 
 143-87. 
 About 140. 
 140-91. 
 186. 
 133. 
 
 131. 
 
 About 130. 
 122. 
 119-67. 
 116-27. 
 114-50. 
 109-32. 
 106-43. 
 105-43. 
 (KH03. 
 102 (?)-44. 
 102-43. 
 
 Latter part of the second 
 century. 
 
 Before 100-after 30. 
 About 99-55 (f). 
 (f)-at least 91. 
 95. 
 About 90. 
 
 87-47. 
 86-35. 
 
 Early in the first century. 
 First half of the first cen- 
 tury. 
 
 About 84-about 54. 
 
 (?)-at least 82. 
 
 82-after 37. 
 
 78 (l)-42. 
 
 (f)-77. 
 
 70-27. 
 
 70 (?)-8. 
 
 70-19. 
 
 About 70-after 16. 
 
 67-5 A. D. 
 
 65-8. 
 
 About 64-about 17 A. D. 
 
 Lucius Afranius, Titinius (comic poets), 
 Publius Cornelius Scipio, Aulus Postu- 
 mius Albinus, Gaius Acilius. 
 
 Marcus Antouius (orator). 
 
 Lucius Cassius llemina, Gaius Laelius. 
 
 Lucius Licinius Crassus (orator). 
 
 Lucius Furius Philus (orator and jurist). 
 
 Publius Mucius Scaevola, Lucius Calpur- 
 uius Piso Frugi. 
 
 Publius Licinius Crassus Mucianus (ju- 
 rist). 
 
 Gaius Titius. 
 
 Gaius Fannius (orator and historian). 
 
 Lucius Cornelius Sisenna. 
 
 Marcus Terentius Varro. 
 
 Hortensius (orator). 
 
 Titus Pomponius Atticus. 
 
 Marcus Tullius Cicero. 
 
 Decirnus Laberius. 
 
 Turpilius (comic poet). 
 
 Gaius Julius Caesar. 
 
 Quintus Cicero. 
 
 Gnaeus Matins, Laevius Melissus, Hostius, 
 Aulus Furius, Ccelius Antipater, Quin- 
 tus Valerius Soranus. 
 
 Cornelius Nepos. 
 
 Titus Lucretius Carus. 
 
 Sempronius Asellio (historian). 
 
 Quintus Mucius Scaevola (jurist). 
 
 Lucius Pomponius, Novius (writers of Fab- 
 ul(K Alellance), Volcacius Sedigitus. 
 
 Gaius Julius Cfesar Strabo (tragedian). 
 
 Gaius Licinius Calvus. 
 
 Gaius Sallustius Crispus. 
 
 Valerius Antias, Quintus Cornificius. 
 
 Sueius, Gaius Helvius Cinna, Publius 
 Valerius Cato, Gaius Memmius. Ticidas, 
 Aurelius Opilius, Antonius Gniplio, 
 Marcus Pompilius Andronicus, Santra, 
 Servius Sulpicius Rufus. 
 
 Gaius Valerius Catullus. 
 
 Quintus Claudius Quadrigarius (historian). 
 
 Varro Atacinus. 
 
 Marcus Junius Brutus. 
 
 Titus Quinctius Atta. 
 
 Cornelius Gallus. 
 
 Gaius Maecenas. 
 
 Publius Vergilius Maro (Virgil). 
 
 Vitruvius Pollio. 
 
 Gaius Asinius Pollio. 
 
 Quintus Horatius Flaccus (Horace). 
 
 Gaius Julius Hyginus.
 
 APPENDIX II 
 
 299 
 
 B.C. 
 
 64-8 A. D. 
 63-14 A. D. 
 
 63-12 A. D. 
 
 59-17 A. D. 
 
 About 55-about 40 A. D. 
 
 About 54-about 19. 
 
 About 54-about 4. 
 
 52-19 A. D. 
 
 About 50. 
 
 About 50-about 15. 
 
 47-about 30 A. D. 
 
 (i)-af ter 44. 
 (1H3. 
 
 (l)-after 43. 
 
 43-18 A. D. 
 40-33 A. D. 
 About 20. 
 15-19 A. D. 
 14-59 A. D. 
 12. 
 
 Second half of 
 century. 
 
 the first 
 
 A. D. 
 
 First half of 
 tury. 
 
 the first cen- 
 
 About 1. 
 
 About 1-65. 
 
 About 3-88. 
 
 14-37. 
 
 About 15-80. 
 
 16-59. 
 
 23-79. 
 
 (f)-25. 
 
 25-101. 
 
 (l)-27. 
 
 30. 
 
 Marcus Valerius Messalla. 
 
 Gaius Octavius (Csesar Octavianus Au- 
 gustus). 
 
 Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa. 
 
 Titus Livius (Livy). 
 
 Seneca (the father). 
 
 Albius Tibullus. 
 
 Doraitius Marsus. 
 
 Decimus Fenestella. 
 
 Publilius Syrus (writer of mimes). 
 
 Sextus Propertius. 
 
 Marcus Calidius. 
 
 Decimus Valerius Maximus. 
 
 Nigidius Figulus. 
 
 Gaius Oppius. 
 
 Aulus Hirtius. 
 
 Marcus Tullius Tiro. 
 
 Lygdamus. 
 
 Publius Ovidius Naso (Ovid). 
 
 Asinius Gallus. 
 
 Pompeius Trogus. 
 
 Claudius Caesar Germanicus. 
 
 Domitius Afer. 
 
 Gaius Valgius Rufus. 
 
 Sulpicia, Albinovanus Pedo, Ponticus, 
 Macer, Grattius, Rabirius, Cornelius 
 Severus, Gaius Melissus, the Priapea, 
 the Consolatio ad Liviam, Titus Labie- 
 nus, Marcus Porcius Latro, Gains Al- 
 bucius Silus, Quintus Haterius, Lucius 
 Junius Gallic, Arellius Fuscus, Lucius 
 Cestius Pius, Marcus Antistius Labeo, 
 Gaius Ateius Capito. 
 
 Manilius, the ^Etna, Aufidius Bassus, 
 Quintus Remrnius Patemon, Caepio, An- 
 tonius Castor, Julius Atticus, Lucius 
 Gracchinus, Marcus Apicius, Lucius 
 Annams Cornutus, the Sextii, Gains 
 Musonius Rufus. 
 
 Verrius Flaccus. 
 
 Lucius Annaeus Seneca (the son). 
 
 Asconius Pedianns. 
 
 Tiberius. 
 
 The father of Statius. 
 
 Agripnina, 
 
 Gains Plinius Secundus (Pliny the elder). 
 
 Cremutius Cordus. 
 
 Silius Italfcus. 
 
 Votienus Montanus. 
 
 Velleius Paterculus.
 
 300 
 
 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 A. D. 
 
 (0-32. 
 
 (0-34. 
 
 34-62. 
 
 About 35-about 100. 
 
 About 35. 
 
 37-41. 
 
 39-65. 
 
 About 40. 
 
 About 40-about 95. 
 
 About 40-about 104. 
 
 41-54. 
 
 About 45. 
 
 About 50. 
 
 54-68. 
 
 About 55-about 118. 
 
 55 (?)-about 135. 
 
 56 
 
 About 60. 
 
 61 or 62-112 or 113. 
 
 (0-86. 
 $-67. 
 69-79. 
 About 70. 
 
 About 70 or 75 to about 
 
 150. 
 79-81. 
 81-96. 
 
 (?)-about 90. 
 96-98. 
 Time of Nerva and Tra- 
 
 jan. 
 98-117. 
 
 About 100-175. 
 About 110-180. 
 117-138. 
 Time of Hadrian. 
 
 About 125-(l). 
 About 125-about 200. 
 1 -18-161. 
 Time of Antoninus. 
 
 Time of Antoninus 
 
 M. Aurelius. 
 About 160. 
 About 160-about 230. 
 
 and 
 
 Publius Vitellius. 
 
 Cassius Severus. 
 
 Mamercus Scaurus. 
 
 Aulus Persius Flaccus (Persius). 
 
 Marcus Fabius Quintilianus (Quintilian). 
 
 Aulus Cornelius Celsus. 
 
 Caligula. 
 
 Marcus Aunseus Lucanus (Lucan). 
 
 Phjedrus, Columella, Pomponius Mela. 
 
 Publius Papinius Statius. 
 
 Marcus Valerius Martialis (Martial). 
 
 Claudius. 
 
 Gaius Cassius Longinus, Proculus. 
 
 Pomponius Secundus, Quintus Curtius 
 
 Rufus, Suetonius Paulinus. 
 Nero. 
 
 Cornelius Tacitus. 
 
 Decimus Junius Juvenalis (Juvenal). 
 Marcus Valerius Probus. 
 Titus Calpurnius Siculus. 
 Gaius Plinius Caecilius Secundus (Pliny 
 
 the younger). 
 Petronius Arbiter. 
 GnaBus Domitius Corbulo. 
 Vespasian. 
 Saleius Bassus, Curiatius Maternus, Sex- 
 
 tus Julius Frontinus. 
 Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus. 
 
 Titus. 
 
 Domitian. 
 
 Gaius Valerius Flaccus. 
 
 Nerva. 
 
 Hyginus, Balbus, Siculus Flaccus, several 
 
 grammarians, etc. 
 Trajan. 
 
 Marcus Cornelius Frouto. 
 Gaius. 
 Hadrian. 
 Lucius Annaeus (?) Florus, Marcus Juni- 
 
 anus Justinus (Justin), Salvius Julianus, 
 
 Quintus Terentius Scaurus. 
 Aulus Gellius. 
 Apuleius. 
 Antoninus Pius. 
 Granius Licinianus, Lucius Ampelius,Sex- 
 
 tus Pomponius. 
 Quintus Cervidius Screvola. 
 
 Marcus Minucius Felix. 
 Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus 
 (Tertullian).
 
 APPENDIX II 
 
 301 
 
 A. D. 
 161-180. 
 About 165-230. 
 180-192. 
 (l)-212. 
 Before 200 
 193-211. 
 
 Second or third century. 
 About 200. 
 
 Early in the third century. 
 Third century. 
 
 About 200-258. 
 
 222-235. 
 
 (f)-228. 
 
 238. 
 
 238. 
 
 249. 
 
 About 250. 
 
 260-268. 
 
 270-275. 
 
 275. 
 
 283. 
 
 284-305. 
 
 Time of Diocletian. 
 
 About 290. 
 
 297. 
 
 Latter part of the third 
 
 century. 
 
 End of the third century. 
 About 300. 
 
 Early part of the fourth 
 
 century. 
 Fourth century. 
 About 310-about 395. 
 About 315-367. 
 321. 
 
 About 330. 
 330-400. 
 331-420. 
 About 340-397. 
 About 345-405. 
 348 to about 410. 
 About 350. 
 
 354 (1). 
 
 354. 
 
 354-430. 
 
 Marcus Aurelius. 
 
 Marius Maxiinus. 
 
 Commodus. 
 
 yEmilius Papinianus. 
 
 Terentianus Maurus, Juba. 
 
 Septimius Severus. 
 
 The Pervigilium Ve.ne.ris. 
 
 Helenius Aero, Pomponius Porphyrio, 
 
 Quintus Sainmonicus Serenus. 
 Hosidius Geta, Gaius Julius Roman us, 
 
 Julius Paulus. 
 The Disticha Catonis, Cornelius Labeo, 
 
 Quintus Gargilius Martialis, Aquila Ro- 
 
 manus, Gaius Julius Solinus. 
 St. Cyprian (Thascius Caecilius Cyprianus). 
 Alexander Severus. 
 Domitius Ulpianus. 
 Qordian I. 
 Censorinus. 
 Commodianus. 
 ^Elius Julius Cordus. 
 Gfallienus. 
 Aurelian. 
 Tacitus. 
 
 Marcus Aurelius Olympius Nemesianus. 
 Diocletian. 
 ^Elius Spartianus, Julius Capitolinus, Vul- 
 
 cacius Gallicanus, Trebellius Pollio. 
 Arnobius. 
 
 Eumenius (panegyrist). 
 Vespa, Marius Plotius Sacerdos. 
 
 Festus Aphthonius. 
 Lactantius Firmianus, Reposianus, Gre- 
 
 gorianus. 
 ^Elius Lampridius, Flavins Vopiscus, No- 
 
 nius, Macrobius, Optatianus, Juvencus. 
 Itineraries, Peutinger Tablet. 
 Ausonius. 
 St. Hilary. 
 
 Nazarius (panegyrist). 
 Herraogenianus. 
 Ammianus Marcellinus. 
 St. Jerome. 
 St. Ambrose. 
 Symmachus. 
 Prudentius. 
 Marius VMctorinus, ^51ius Donatus, Cha- 
 
 risius, Diomedes, Palladius. 
 Firmicus Maternus. 
 The Not Hia. 
 St. Augustine.
 
 302 
 
 A. D. 
 
 About 360. 
 
 360. 
 
 362. 
 
 365. 
 
 Second half of fourth cen- 
 tury. 
 
 Latter part of the fourth 
 century. 
 
 369. 
 
 370. 
 
 About 370. 
 
 389. 
 
 About 400. 
 
 Early in the fifth century. 
 
 Fifth century. 
 
 416. 
 
 417. 
 
 438. 
 
 About 450. 
 
 End of the fifth century. 
 
 About 500. 
 
 529. 
 
 533. 
 
 Julius Obsequens. 
 
 Aurelius Victor. 
 
 Mamertinus (panegyrist). 
 
 Eutropius. 
 
 Dictys Cretensis (L. Septimius). 
 
 Servius. 
 
 Rufius Pestus. 
 
 (Rufius Pestus) Avienus. 
 
 The Querolus. 
 
 Drepanius (panegyrist). 
 
 Claudian (Claudius Claudianus), Marti- 
 
 anus Capella, Vegetius, Avianus. 
 Sulpicius Serenus. 
 Dares. 
 
 Naraatianus. 
 Orosius. 
 
 Codex Theodosianus. 
 Sedulius. 
 Dracontius. 
 Priscian. 
 
 Code of Justinian. 
 Pandects and Institutes.
 
 INDEX 
 
 [This index contains the names of all Latin authors mentioned in this book, 
 and in addition the names of some historical personages. Reference is also 
 made to a number of special topics. When several references are given, the 
 chief reference to any author stands first. The titles of works are in Italics.] 
 
 Accius (Lucius), 12; 13; 32; 43; 53 ; 
 
 23fi. 
 
 Acilius (Gaius), 33; (Lucius), 37. 
 Aero (Helvius), grammarian, 234. 
 jElius Aristidcs, Greek sophist, 240. 
 JSHus Julius Cordus. 255. 
 J31ius(P.), jurist, 37 ; (Sextus), jurist, 
 
 37. 
 
 , 172 ; 276. 
 
 s, actor, 66. 
 stna, ascribed to Virgil, 141 ; 181 ; 
 
 188. 
 
 Afranius, comic poet, 29 ; 43. 
 African school of literature, 248; 257. 
 Agrippa (M. Vipsanius), 99. 
 Agrippina, 191 ; 177; 178. 
 AlbinovanuH Pedo, 137. 
 Albucius Silus (CY), 105. 
 Alcseus, 114; 121. 
 Alexander Sevcrus, emperor, 229. 
 Alexandrian literature, 48 ; 57 ; 58 ; 60; 
 
 62; 64; 121; 129; 136; 274; 281. 
 Ambrose (St.), 26fi f. ; 258 ; 268. 
 Ammiaiius Marcellinus, 263 f. 
 Ampelius (L.), 232. 
 Anacreon, 114 ; 121. 
 Anastasius, emperor, 261. 
 Anaxagoras, Greek pliilosopher, 51. 
 AndrontcusfL. Livius), 5; 6; 12; 14; 
 
 17; 18; 32; ;};}; 115; 273; 281. 
 
 Andronicus (M. Pompilius). See 
 
 Pompilius. 
 Aritimachus, 199. 
 
 Antiochus, Academic philosopher, 66. 
 Antonines, 227 ; 235. 
 Antoninus Pius, emperor, 227; 232; 
 
 233 ; 235. 
 
 Antonius Castor, 176. 
 Antonius (M.), orator, 45 ; 66 ; 70. 
 Antonius (M.), triumvir, 68; 71 ; 82; 
 
 93; 519; 131. 
 
 Aphthonius (^Elius Festus), 256. 
 Apollodorus, Greek comic poet, 25; 
 
 26 ; Greek rhetorician, 135. 
 Apollonius of Rhodes, 63; 107 ; 152; 
 
 196. 
 
 Appius Claudius Crocus, 5. 
 Apulcius, 237-240; 241; 243; 246; 
 
 248. 
 
 Aquila Roman us, 256. 
 Aquilius, comic poet, 23. 
 Aratus, Greek poet on astronomy, 70 ; 
 
 173; 270. 
 
 Ardiias, poet, 66; 70; 75. 
 Archilochus, Greek poet, 119; 120. 
 ArelliuH Fuscus, 143; 165. 
 Aristotle, 279; 280. 
 Arnobius, 250. 
 
 Arria, wife of Pietus, 184; 208. 
 Arulenus Rusticus, Stoic, 218.
 
 304 
 
 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 252; 
 
 101; 
 
 111; 
 135; 
 153; 
 169; 
 177; 
 
 Asconius Pedianus (Q.), 192. 
 
 Asellio (Sempronius), 39; 43. 
 
 Atellan plays, 30. 
 
 Atilius, comic poet, 23. 
 
 Atta, 29 ; 138. 
 
 Attalus, Stoic, 177. 
 
 Atticus (Julius), 176. 
 
 Atticus (T. Pomponius), 94 f. ; 79 
 
 91 ; 92. 
 Augustine (St.), 268 f. ; 73 ; 248 ; 
 
 258. 
 Augustus, 98 ; 14 ; 97 ; 99 ; 100 ; 
 
 102; 103; 104; 105; 106; 107; 
 
 116; 125; 126; 127; 129; 131; 
 
 138; 142; 144; 147; 148; 149; 
 
 154; 155; 157; 163; 165; 168; 
 
 170; 171; 172; 173; 174; 176; 
 
 183 ; 216 ; 281 ; 261 ; 282. 
 Aurelian, emperor, 229. 
 Aurelius Victor, 261. 
 Ausonius, 270-272 ; 258; 273. 
 Avianus, 276. 
 Avienus, 270. 
 
 Bacchylides, Greek poet, 121. 
 Balbus, writer on geometry, 225. 
 Bassus ( Aufldius), historian, 176 ; 205. 
 Bassus, poet, 138 ; 143. 
 Bassus (Csesius), poet, 184. 
 Bassus (Saleius), poet, 201. 
 BoSthius, 278-280 ; 258 ; 281. 
 Brutus (M. Junius), 95; 116; 176; 
 
 186. 
 Burrus (Afranius), 178. 
 
 Csecilius (Q. Metellus), 36. 
 
 Csecilius (Statius), 23 ; 18. 
 
 Csesar (C. Julius), 83-87 ; 47 ; 56 ; 57 ; 
 
 67 ; 68 ; 71 ; 73 ; 81 ; 82 , 88 ; 89 ; 93 ; 
 
 95; 96; 97; 99; 105; 111 ; 116; 128; 
 
 153; 157; 160; 163; 165; 168; 174; 
 
 186 ; 215 ; 281 ; 283. 
 Caesars, Twelve, lives by Suetonius, 
 
 230. 
 
 Calidius (M.), 95. 
 Caligula, 170; 166; 172; 173; 176; 
 
 177 ; 216. 
 
 Callimachus, Alexandrian poet, 59; 
 
 135 ; 136 ; 149. 
 
 Calpurnius Piso Frugi (L.), 37 ; 39. 
 Calpurnius Siculus (T.), 187 f.; 254. 
 Calvus (Gaius Licinius), 62; 95. 
 Cantica, 16. 
 
 Capella (Martianus), 260. 
 Capito (C. Ateius), 167 ; 192. 
 Capitolinus (Julius), 255. 
 Caracalla, emperor, 233 ; 247. 
 Carlyle, compared with Tacitus, 217. 
 Carneades, Academic philosopher, 49. 
 Oassius Longinus (C.), jurist, 192. 
 Cassius Severus, 165. 
 Castor (Antonius), 176. 
 Catiline, 47 ; 67 ; 89 ; 90. 
 Cato (M. Porcius), 34-36; 8; 45; 90; 
 
 92 ; 192 ; 207 ; 236 ; his son, 37. 
 Cato (P. Valerius), 63 f. 
 Cato (Uticensis), 186. 
 Catonis disticha, 254 f. 
 Catullus, 56-62 ; 46 ; 48 ; 91 ; 96 ; 120 ; 
 
 121; 122; 128; 129; 141; 145; 168; 
 
 202; 281. 
 
 Catulus (Q. Lutatius), 44. 
 Celsus (A. Cornelius), 175; 173. 
 Censorious, 256. 
 Cestius Pius (L.), 165. 
 Cethegus (M. Cornelius), 36. 
 Charisius, grammarian, 261 ; 176. 
 Christian literature, 227 ; 243 ; 244- 
 . 252 ; 258 ; 265-269 ; 270 ; 272 f. ; 
 
 276. 
 Cicero (M. Tullius), 65-82; 12; 30; 
 
 36 ; 45 ; 46 ; 47 ; 48 ; 64 ; 83 ; 85 ; 86 ; 
 
 89 ; 91 ; 92 ; 95 ; 96 ; 138 ; 156 ; 159; 
 
 160 ; 164 ; 166 ; 168 ; 170 ; 171 ; 183 ; 
 
 192; 209; 210; 212; 213; 215; 219; 
 
 224 , 230 ; 237 ; 240 ; 246 ; 248 ; 252 ; 
 
 257 ; 260 ; 267 ; 269 ; 270 ; 280 ; 281. 
 Cicero (Q. ), 95 f. ; 64; 79. 
 Cincius Alimentus, 33. 
 Cinna (C. Helvius), 62; 167. 
 Ciris, ascribed to Virgil, 141. 
 Claudian, 273-275 ; 258 ; 276. 
 Claudius, emperor, 171 \ 173; 178; 
 
 179; 183; 191; 216,
 
 INDEX 
 
 305 
 
 Clitomachus, philosopher, 66. 
 
 Code of Justinian, 264. 
 
 Ccelius Antipater, 43. 
 
 Columella, 191 f. 
 
 Comedy, 17-31 ; 6 ; 1 8 ; 14 ; 15 ; 16 ; 
 
 32; its plots and characters, 19. 
 Commodianus, Christian poet, 249 f. 
 Commodus, emperor, 228, 233. 
 Constantino, emperor, 251 ; 257 ; 258 ; 
 
 264 ; 270 ; 271. 
 
 Constantinople, 226 ; 261 ; 278. 
 Coustantius, emperor, 261 ; 266. 
 Copa, ascribed to Virgil, 191. 
 Corbulo (Gnanis Domitius), 191. 
 Cordus. See .Klin* Julius. 
 Corinna, addressed in Ovid's poems, 
 
 145. 
 Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi, 44 ; 
 
 92. 
 
 Cornelius Nepos. See Nepos. 
 Cornificius, 45 ; 64 ; 95. 
 Cornutus (L. Annseus), 177 ; 184 ; 185. 
 Costumes, theatrical, 15. 
 Crassus (L.), 66 ; 70 ; 72. 
 Crassus (P. Licinius), 36. 
 Cremutius Cordus, historian, 176. 
 Critolaus, Peripatetic philosopher, 49. 
 Culex, ascribed to Virgil, 140 ; 141. 
 Curtius Kufus (Q.), 191. 
 Cynthia, beloved of Propertius, 135; 
 
 136; 145. 
 Cyprian (St.), 248 f. 
 
 Dante, 111; 112; 113. 
 
 Dares, 265. 
 
 Decius, emperor, persecuted Chris- 
 tians, 249. 
 
 Delia, beloved of Tibullus, 132; 134; 
 145. 
 
 Demetrius, teacher of oratory, 66. 
 
 Democritus, Greek philosopher, 51 ; 
 52; 55. 
 
 Demosthenes, 71 ; 77 ; 159 ; 209. 
 
 Dictys, 265. 
 
 1 > i>l ins .hi I'm n us, emperor, 228. 
 
 Digetts, 264. 
 
 Dio CassiuB, 255. 
 
 Dio Chrysostom, 234 ; 240. 
 Diocletian, emperor, 250 ; 251 ; 252 ; 
 
 255 ; 256 ; 264. 
 
 Diodotus, Stoic philosopher, 66. 
 Diogenes, Stoic philosopher, 49. 
 Diomedes, grammarian, 261 ; 241. 
 Dionysius, Greek writer, 270. 
 Diphilus, Greek comic poet, 17 ; 26. 
 Dirce, poem ascribed to Virgil, 63 f. ; 
 
 141. 
 
 Disticha Catonis, 254 f. 
 Diverbia, 16. 
 Domitian, emperor, 195; 198; 199; 
 
 201; 207; 211; 212; 213; 214; 
 
 216 ; 219 ; 225. 
 Domitius Afer, orator, 176. 
 Domitius Marsus, 137. 
 Domitius Ulpianus, 255. 
 Donatus, 260 ; 48 ; 267. 
 Dracontius, late poet, 276. 
 Drepanius, panegyrist, 257. 
 
 Elegy, 128-137. 
 
 Elocutio novella, 240 ; 241. 
 
 Emerson (K. W.), 183. 
 
 Empedocles, Greek philosopher, 51; 
 52 ; 53. 
 
 Emperors, their influence upon litera- 
 ture, 170 f. ; 194 f. ; 227-229. 
 
 Ennius (Quintus), 8-10; 11; 12; 18; 
 83; 40; 48; 53; 107; 236. 
 
 Ephorus, Greek historian, 87. 
 
 Epictetus, ethical preacher, 177. 
 
 Epicurean doctrines, 49-55 ; 78 ; 182. 
 
 Epicurus, 49 ; 50 ; 51 ; 52 ; 54 ; 55. 
 
 Eumenius, panegyrist, 257. 
 
 Euphorion, 181. 
 
 Euripides, 107 ; 121 ; 179 ; 180. 
 
 Eusebius, 48 ; 262 ; 268. 
 
 Eutropius, 282. 
 
 Fabianus (Papirius), 177. 
 
 Fabius (Q. Labeo), 87. 
 
 Fabius Pictor, 38 ; 87 ; 158. 
 Fabius Maximus Cunctator, 86. 
 Fabulae Atellanse, 80. 
 Fabulffi palliates, 18 ; 29.
 
 306 
 
 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 Fabulaa praetextse, 7 ; 9 ; 12 ; 13 ; 179 ; 
 
 184; 188. 
 
 Fabulse togatse, 18 ; 29 : 138. 
 Fabulae trabeatae, 138. 
 Fannius (G.), 39; 43. 
 Fenestella, historian, 164. 
 Fescennine verses, 29. 
 Firmicus Maternus, 260. 
 Festus, wrote a hand-book of history, 
 
 262. 
 
 Festus (Pompeius), 166 ; 167; 234. 
 Flavius, grammarian, 251. 
 Floras, 231. 
 
 Frontinus (Sextus Julius), 206. 
 Fronto, 235 f. ; 228 ; 237 ; 238 ; 240 ; 
 
 241 ; 243, 246. 
 Fundanus, 118. 
 Furius. See Philus. 
 Furius Antias, 43. 
 Furius Bibaculus, 64; 63. 
 
 Gaius, jurist, 233. 
 
 Galba, emperor, 194 ; 206 ; 215 ; 216. 
 
 Galerius, 252. 
 
 Gallic oratory, 256 f. ; 264 f. 
 
 Gallicanus (Vulcacius), 255. 
 
 Gallienus, emperor, 229. 
 
 Gallic (L. Junius), 165. 
 
 Gallus (Cornelius), 131; 100; 101; 
 
 107 ; 129. 
 
 Gallus (C. Asinius), 103 ; 171 ; 176. 
 Gargilius Martialis (Q.), 256. 
 Gellius (Aulus), 236 f. ; 7; 259; 
 
 260. 
 
 Germanicus, 173 ; 176 ; 178 ; 270. 
 Geta (Hosidius), 254. 
 Gnipho (M. Antonius), 66; 96. 
 Gordian I, emperor, 229. 
 Gracchi, 36 ; 43 ; 44 ; 45. 
 Gracchinus (Julius), 176. 
 Gracchus (Gaius), 45; 43; 236. 
 Gracchus (Tiberius), 45; 43. 
 Grammar, 93; 96; 166; 176; 225; 
 
 233 f. ; 256 : 260 f. 
 Granius Licinianus, 232. 
 Gratian, emperor, 265 ; 271. 
 Grattius, 137. 
 
 Greek influence in Roman literature, 
 1; 4; 5; 17; 21; 27; 32; 37; 48; 
 128 f. ; 179 ; 180 ; 226 ; 283 ; in Ro- 
 man manners, 33 ; 128 f. 
 
 Gregorianus, 264. 
 
 Hadrian, emperor, 219 ; 225 ; 227 ; 229 ; 
 
 231 ; 232; 233; 235; 241; 255. 
 Haterius (Q.)i 165 - 
 Heliogabalus, emperor, 255. 
 Hemina (L. Cassius), 37 ; 39. 
 Heraclitus, Greek philosopher, 51. 
 Herenniu* Priscus, Stoic, 213. 
 Herennius, treatise addressed to, 45 ; 
 
 69. 
 
 Hermogenianus, jurist, 264. 
 Herodian, 255. 
 Herodotus, 219. 
 Herondas, Greek poet, 62. 
 Hesiod, 107. 
 
 Hieronymus. See Jerome. 
 Hilary (St.), 265 f.; 258. 
 Hirtius (A.), 87 f. 
 Historia Augusta, 255. 
 History, 33 ; 43 ; 88 ; 163 f. ; 173 ; 176 ; 
 
 191 ; 232 ; 255 ; 261 fl'. 
 Homer, 6 ; 62 ; 107 ; 108 ; 109 ; 114 ; 
 
 118; 149; 171; 187; 197; 219. 
 Honorius, emperor, 273. 
 Horace, 114^127 ; 12 ; 41 ; 64; 96 ; 98 ; 
 
 99; 100; 139; 168; 185; 186; 188; 
 
 193; 219; 231; 233; 234; 282. 
 Hortensius Hortalus, 95 ; 59 ; 69 ; 77. 
 Hosidius Geta, 254. 
 Hostius, 43. 
 
 Hyginus (C. Julius), 167. 
 Hyginus, writer on surveying, 225. 
 
 Institutes of Justinian, 264. 
 Itineraries, 261. 
 
 Jerome (St.), 267 f. ; 48 ; 49 ; 56 ; 193 ; 
 231 ; 250 ; 251 ; 252 ; 258 ; 261 ; 262. 
 Johnson, Samuel, 221. 
 Josephus, Greek historian, 217 ; 267. 
 Juba, grammarian, 234. 
 Julian, emperor, 257, 261, 263.
 
 INDEX 
 
 307 
 
 Julianus (Salvius), jurist, 233. 
 
 Julius Obsuquuiis, 20*2. 
 
 Julius Paul us, jurist, 255. 
 
 Jurists, 37; 44; 96; 167; 192; 225; 
 
 233 ; 255 ; 264. 
 Justin (M. Junianus Justinus), 164; 
 
 232. 
 
 Justin, emperor, 279. 
 Justinian, emperor, 233 ; 264 ; 283. 
 Juvenal, 218-222; 202; 211; 225; 
 
 283. 
 Juvencus, 270. 
 
 Lubeo, see Fabius. 
 
 Labeo (M. Antistius), 167 ; 192. 
 
 Labeo (Cornelius), 255. 
 
 Laberius (Decimus), 30 f.; 62. 
 
 Labienus (T.), 165. 
 
 Lactantius, 251 f. 
 
 Lffilius (C.), 39 ; 24 ; 38. 
 
 Lampridius (^Elius), 255. 
 
 Laevius, 62. 
 
 Latin language, 2 ; changes in, 237. 
 
 Latro (M. Porcius), 165. 
 
 Lesbia, 57 ; 60 ; 61 ; 145. 
 
 Licinianus (Grauius), 232. 
 
 Licinius Imbrex, comic poet, 23. 
 
 Licinius (L.), orator, 45. 
 
 Livius Andronicus. See Andronicus. 
 
 Livy (T. Livius), 156-163; 166; 168; 
 
 171; 186; 191; 197; 216; 231 ; 232 ; 
 
 262 ; 270. 
 Lucan (M. Annaeus Lucanus), 185- 
 
 187; 165; 184; 190; 201; 231. 
 Lucian, Greek writer, 240. 
 Lucilius (Gaius), 39-42 ; 43 ; 45 ; 115 ; 
 
 117; 118; 121; 219. 
 Lucilius, Seneca's writings addressed 
 
 to, 181. 
 Lucretius (T.), 47-55; 46; 96; 188; 
 
 139; 168; 198. 
 
 Luscius Lanuvinus, comic poet, 23. 
 Lycophron, Alexandrian poet, 68. 
 Lygdamus, poet, 182 f. 
 
 Macer (Gaius Licinius), 44; 158. 
 Macer, epic poet, 138 ; 148 ; 155. 
 
 Macrobius, 260. 
 
 Mtecenas (Gaius), 99; 100; 101 ; 104; 
 
 116; 118; 119; 121; 124; 135; 137. 
 Mamertinus, panegyrist, 257. 
 Manilius, 138 f. ; 15(i ; 173. 
 Marcus Aurelius, emperor, 227 f. ; 
 
 233 ; 234 ; 235 ; 236 ; 287. 
 Marius (Gaius), 43; 83; 91; 158. 
 Marius Maximus, 255. 
 Marius Victorinus, 256. 
 Martial, 201-203 ; 140 ; 141 ; 158 ; 211 ; 
 
 219. 
 
 Martialis (Q. Gargilius), 256. 
 Martianus Capella, 260. 
 Masks, theatrical, 15. 
 Maternus (Curiatius), 201 ; (Firmi- 
 
 cus), 260. 
 
 Matius (Gnseus), 43 ; 62. 
 Maximus of Tyre, 240. 
 Mela (Pomponius), 192; 191. 
 Melissus (Lsevius), 43. 
 Memrnius (Gaius), 64 ; 49 ; 57. 
 Menander, Greek comic poet, 17 ; 25 ; 
 
 26. 
 
 Menippean satires, 93; 183; 189. 
 Menippus, Greek Cynic, 98. 
 Messalla (M. Valerius), 99 ; 131 ; 132 ; 
 
 133; 134; 141; 155. 
 Metres, 40 f. ; 6 ; 7 ; 28; 121 ; 122; 124; 
 
 129; 136; 140; 144; 153. 
 Middle Ages, 112; 243; 272; 281. 
 Milton, 155 ; 280. 
 Mimes, 30 f. 
 
 Mimnermus, Greek poet, 129. 
 Minucius Felix, 245 f. ; 248 ; 252. 
 Molo, Cicero's teacher, 66. 
 Montanus, 247. 
 Montimus. See Votienus. 
 Monument um Ancyranum, 98. 
 Moretum, ascribed to Virgil, 141. 
 Morris (William), the Earthly Para- 
 dise, 239. 
 
 Mucianus (P. Licinius Crassus), 44. 
 Musonius Rufus (C.), 177 ; 270. 
 
 Naevius (Gnteus), 6 ; 7 ; 8 ; 9 ; 18 ; 58 ; 
 107.
 
 308 
 
 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 Namatianus (Rutilius Claudius), 275. 
 Nazarius, panegyrist, 257. 
 Nemesianus, 254 ; 188. 
 Nepos (Cornelius), 91 f.; 64; 94 ; 265. 
 Nero, emperor, 171 ; 176 ; 177 ; 178 ; 
 
 179; 185; 186; 188; 191, 194; 195; 
 
 197; 216; 252. 
 
 Nerva, emperor, 211, 216; 255; 263. 
 Nigidius Figulus (P.), 96. 
 Nonius, 259 ; 260. 
 Nonnus, Greek poet, 274. 
 Notitia, 261. 
 Novius, 80. 
 Numerianus, emperor, 255. 
 
 Obsequens (Julius), 262. 
 
 Opilius (Aurelius), 96. 
 
 Oppius (Gaius), 88. 
 
 Optatianus, 269 f. 
 
 Orators,5; 34; 45; 95; 164f.;175f.; 
 
 225 ; 256 f. ; 264. 
 Orosius, 263. 
 Otho, emperor, 194; 216. 
 Ovid, 143-155; 14; 64; 130; 182; 
 
 134 ; 135 ; 136 ; 137 ; 138 ; 140 ; 142 ; 
 
 156; 168; 173; 186; 188; 197; 202; 
 
 poems ascribed to, 142. 
 
 Pacuvius, 11 ; 12 ; 18 ; 53. 
 
 Paetus Thrasea, 184; 203. 
 
 Palladius, 261. 
 
 Panaetius, Stoic philosopher, 39 ; 49. 
 
 Pandects, 264. 
 
 Panegyrists, 257. 
 
 Papinianus, jurist, 233. 
 
 Papirius Fabianus, 177. 
 
 Parthenius, 129. 
 
 Paul (St.), alleged correspondence 
 
 with Seneca, 183. 
 Paulus (Julius), 255. 
 Pentudius, 254. 
 Perilla, Ovid's daughter, 154. 
 Periods of Koman literature, 3 ; 281 ff. 
 Persius (A. Flaccus), 183-185 ; 
 
 177; 193; 219; 234. 
 Pertinax, emperor, 228. 
 Pervigilium Veneris, 241-243 ; 272. 
 
 Petronius (C. Arbiter), 188-191. 
 
 Peutinger Tablet, 261. 
 Phsedrus, Epicurean, 66. 
 Phtedrus, poet of fables, 172 f. 
 Philemon, Greek comic poet, 17. 
 Philo, Jewish-Greek philosopher, 66; 
 
 267. 
 Philosophy, 49 ; 78 ; 176 f. ; 181 f. ; 
 
 260. 
 
 Philus (L. Furius), 89. 
 Piso (L. Calpurnius Frugi), 37 ; 
 
 39. 
 Piso (Calpurnius), conspired against 
 
 Nero, 172; 178; 185; 186; 188. 
 Plato, 219; 239. 
 Plautus, 18-23 ; 27 ; 28 ; 29 ; 233 ; 236 ; 
 
 270. 
 Pliny the elder, 204-206; 195; 215; 
 
 222 ; 231 ; 253 ; 256. 
 Pliny the younger, 222-225; 160; 
 
 202 ; 204 ; 211 ; 229 ; 230 ; 244 ; 257 ; 
 
 265. 
 Plotius, 116; Plotius Sacerdos. See 
 
 Sacerdos. 
 Plutarch, 234. 
 Pollio (Gaius Asinius), 99 ; 100; 101 ; 
 
 102; 103; 118; 122; 160; 166; 167; 
 
 171 ; 176 ; (Trebellius), 255. 
 Polybius, Greek historian, 39; 92; 
 
 158. 
 
 Pompeius Trogus. See Trogus. 
 Pompey, 47 ; 56 ; 67 ; 68 ; 69 ; 81 ; 82 ; 
 
 84; 93; 158; 163; 186; 187. 
 Pompilius Andronicus (M.), 96. 
 Pomponius (L.), 30. 
 Pomponius Secundus (P.), 188; 204. 
 Pompouius (Sextus), 233. 
 Ponticus, poet, 138 ; 143. 
 Porcius Latro, 143. 
 Porphyrio (Pomponius), grammarian, 
 
 234. 
 
 Posidonius, Stoic, 66. 
 Postumius Albinus, 83. 
 Priapea, 140. 
 Priscian, 261. 
 Probus (M. Valerius), 198. 
 Proculus, jurist, 192.
 
 INDEX 
 
 309 
 
 Propertius, 184-137 ; 130 ; 131 ; 132 ; 
 
 143 ; 145 ; 146 ; 149 ; 168. 
 Prose, Greek influence upon, 82 ; 
 
 progress in, 46 ; 156. 
 Prosper of Aquitania, 262. 
 Prudentius, Christian poet, 272 f. 
 Publilia, Cicero's wife, 68. 
 Publilius Syrus, 30 f. ; 62. 
 Punic war ; first, 6 ; 33 ; 158 ; second, 
 
 33 ; 36 ; 158 ; third, 38 ; 44. 
 Pythagoras, doctrine, 153. 
 
 Quadrigarius (Q. Claudius), 43; 158. 
 Quintilian, 206-210; 175; 182; 195; 
 
 202; 213. 
 Quintus Curtius Rufus, 191. 
 
 Rabirius, 138. 
 
 Remmius Palaemon (Q.), 176 ; 184. 
 
 Renatus (Flavius Vegetius), 261. 
 
 Reposianus, 254. 
 
 Roman literature ; its importance, 1 ; 
 284 ; its practical purpose, 2 f. ; 
 211 f.; its divisions, 3; 281 ft'.; na- 
 tive elements, 4; its progress, 48; 
 its decay, 169; 226 f.; 283; Greek 
 influence, 1 ; 4 ; 5 ; 17 ; 21 ; 27 ; 32 ; 
 48; 128f. ; 226; 283; effect of the 
 empire, 97. 
 
 Roman society, 47 f. ; 128 f. 
 
 Romance languages, 210 ; 237. 
 
 Romans practical, 2. 
 
 Romans, our debt to, 288. 
 
 Rornanus (C. Julius), 256; (Aquila), 
 256. 
 
 Roscius, actor, 66. 
 
 liiit.iliiis Claudius Namatianus, 275. 
 
 Rutilius Rufus (P.), 44. 
 
 Sabinus, poet, 146. 
 Sacerdos (Marius Plotius), 256. 
 Sallust, 89-91 ; 88 ; 128 ; 230 ; 236 ; 265. 
 Sammonicus (Serenus), 253 f. 
 Santra, 96. 
 Sappho, 114; 121. 
 
 Satire, 39; 40; 41; 42; 98; 117 f. 
 179; 183; 184; 188 f. ; 219 f. 
 
 Saturnian verse, 7 ; 6 ; 9. 
 
 Scaevola (P.), 44; (Mucius), 44; (Q. 
 
 Mucius), 44 ; 66 ; (the augur), 6 ; 
 
 70; (Q. Cervidius), jurist, 233. 
 Scaurus (Terentius), 233. 
 Scipio (Cn. Cornelius), 1 ; Africanus 
 
 the elder, 36 ; 38 ; Arricanus the 
 
 younger, 24; 38; 39; 49; P. Cor- 
 nelius, 83 ; Nasica, 37. 
 Sedigitus (Volcacius), 44. 
 Sedulius, 276. 
 
 Sempronius ( Gai us T uditanus ), 44. 
 
 Seneca, the elder, 165 f.; 168, 170; 
 
 175; 177. 
 Seneca, the younger, 177-183; 14; 
 
 165 ; 170 ; 171 ; 184 ; 185 ; 188 ; 197 ; 
 
 201 ; 209 ; 210 ; 219. 
 Septimius (L.), 265. 
 Septimius Severus, emperor, 228 ; 233 ; 
 
 247. 
 
 Septuagint, 217. 
 Servius Sulpicius Rufus, 96. 
 Servius, commentary on Virgil, 261; 
 
 192. 
 
 Severus (Cornelius), poet, 138. 
 Sextii, philosophers, 176 ; 177. 
 Sextus Empiricus, 234. 
 Shakespeare, 21 ; 151 ; 155. 
 Siculus Flaccus, 225. 
 Silius Italicus, 197f.; 202. 
 Sisenna (L. Cornelius), 44 ; 88. 
 Socrates, 239. 
 Solinus, 256. 
 Solon, 129. 
 Sophocles, 107. 
 Soranus (Q. Valerius), 44. 
 Sotiou, philosopher, 176 f. 
 S partial i us i .KliiiM, 255. 
 Statius, 198-201 ; 140 ; 141 ; 195 ; 202 ; 
 
 209 ; 274 ; his father, 198 ; 201. 
 Stella (Arruntius), 201. 
 Stesichorus, Greek poet, 107. 
 Stilicho, general, 278 ; 275. 
 Stilo (L. JSlius Prfflconinus), 44 ; 11 ; 
 
 98. 
 Stoic philosophy, 49; 78; 120; 124; 
 
 177; 182; 228.
 
 310 
 
 ROMAN LITERATURE 
 
 Strabo (0. Julius Caesar), 13. 
 
 Sueius, 62. 
 
 Suetonius Paulinus, 191. 
 
 Suetonius Trauquillus (C.), 229-231; 
 
 24; 227; 243; 244; 255; 256; 261; 
 
 262; 267. 
 
 Sulla, 44 ; 47 ; 158. 
 Sulpicia, poetess of elegies, 133. 
 Sulpicia, poetess, 201. 
 Sulpicius Severus, 263. 
 Symmachus (Q. Aurelius), 265 ; 279. 
 
 Tacitus, 211-218; 91; 195; 206; 209; 
 
 222; 223; 225 f. ; 244; 262; 263; 
 
 283. 
 
 Tacitus, emperor, 229. 
 Tennyson, 242. 
 
 Terentia, Cicero's wife, 66 ; 68. 
 Terentianus Maurus, 233 ; 241 ; 253. 
 Terentius Scaurus, 233. 
 Tertullian, 246-248; 249; 252; 258; 
 
 266. 
 
 Theatre, 14-16. 
 Theocritus, Greek poet, 101 ; 107 ; 
 
 114; 187. 
 
 Theodoric, 278 ; 279. 
 Theodorus, emperor, 257; 266; 267; 
 
 272; 273. 
 
 Theodorus, of Gadara, 170. 
 Theopompus, Greek writer, 92. 
 Thrasea. See Paetus. 
 Tiberius, emperor, 170; 124; 155; 
 
 165 ; 166 ; 170 ; 171 ; 172 ; 173 ; 174 ; 
 
 175 ; 176 ; 177 ; 216. 
 Tibullus, 131-134 ; 124 ; 130 ; 135 ; 145 ; 
 
 146; 168; 211. 
 Ticidas, poet, 64. 
 Timaeus, Greek historian, 37. 
 Tiro, 96 ; 79. 
 Titinius, 29 ; 188. 
 Titius, 13. 
 
 Titus, emperor, 194; 195; 201 ; 205. 
 Trabea, comic poet, 23. 
 Tragedy, 11; 6; 7; 8; 12; 14; 17; 
 
 32. 
 Trajan, emperor, 211 ; 212 ; 214 ; 216 ; 
 
 219; 223; 224; 225; 236; 246; 257. 
 
 Trebellius Pollio, 255. 
 Triboniun, jurist, 264. 
 Trimulchio, in Petrouius's novel, 189; 
 
 180. 
 
 Triumvirate ; first, 67 ; 84. 
 Trogus, 163 f. ; 232. 
 Tullia, Cicero's daughter, 68. 
 Turpilius, comic poet, 29. 
 Twelve tables, 5 ; 37. 
 Tyrtaeus, 129. 
 
 Ulpian, 255. 
 
 Valens, emperor, 262; 263; 264; 
 
 271. 
 
 Valentinian I, 265. 
 Valentinian II, 267. 
 Valerian, emperor, persecuted Chris- 
 tians, 249. 
 
 Valerius Antias, 43 ; 88 ; 158. 
 Valerius Flaccus (C.), 195-197. 
 Valerius Maximus, 174 f. ; 173 ; 
 
 219. 
 
 Valgius Rufus, 181. 
 Varius, 14; 116; 118. 
 Varro Atacinus, 63 ; 118. 
 Varro (M. Terentius), 92-94; 44; 96; 
 
 99; 192; 256; 260. 
 Varus,101. 
 Vegetius, 261. 
 
 Velleius Paterculus, 173 f. ; 215. 
 Verrius Flaccus, grammarian, 166; 
 
 149; 167; 234. 
 
 Verus (L.), 228 ; 235 ; 236 ; 237. 
 Vespa, 254. 
 Vespasian, emperor, 194; 195; 197; 
 
 201; 204; 212; 216. 
 Victorinus (C. Marius), 256; 260. 
 Virgil, 100-113; 64; 96; 98; 99; 114; 
 
 115; 116; 118; 127; 131: 135; 140; 
 
 141 ; 143 ; 153 ; 161 ; 167 ; 168 ; 171 ; 
 
 173 ; 187 ; 188 ; 192 ; 193 ; 196 ; 197 ! 
 
 202 ; 209 ; 217 ; 219 : 232 ; 233 ; 240 ; 
 
 241 ; 254 ; 260 ; 261 ; 270 ; 280 ; 282 ; 
 
 poems ascribed to, 140 ; 141. 
 Vitellius (P.), orator, 176. 
 Vitellius, emperor, 194 ; 216.
 
 INDEX 
 
 311 
 
 Vitruvius, 167 f. 
 
 Volcacius. See Sedigitus and Galli- 
 
 canua. 
 
 Vopiseus (Flavius), 266. 
 Votieuus Moiitantm, orator, 175. 
 Vulcacius. See Volcacius. 
 
 Whittier, 272. 
 Wordsworth, 272. 
 
 Xenophon, Greek writer, 92. 
 Zeno, Epicurean. 66. 
 
 (3) 
 
 THE END 
 
 21
 
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