CHAPTER XXXVIII. SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF ROMAN LITERATURE, FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE DEATH OF AUGUSTUS. For many centuries after the foundation of the city the Romans can hardly be said to have had any literature at all. There may have existed, at an early period, some songs or ballads, recounting, in rude strains, CN. NÆVIUS, the second Roman poet, was a Campanian by birth. He served in the First Punic War, and, like Livius, wrote dramas borrowed from the Greek. His first play was performed in B.C. 235. He was attached to the Plebeian party; and, with the license of the old Attic comedy, he made the stage a vehicle for assailing the aristocracy. In consequence of his attacks upon the Metelli he was thrown into prison. He obtained his release through the Tribunes, but was soon compelled to expiate a new offense by exile. He retired to Utica, where he died about B.C. 202. In his exile he wrote, in the Saturnian metre, an epic poem on the First Punic War, in which he introduced the celebrated legends connected with the foundation of Rome. This poem was extensively copied both by Ennius and Virgil. Q. ENNIUS, however, may be regarded as the real founder of Roman literature. Like Livius, he was a native of Magna GrÆcia. He was born at RudiÆ, in Calabria, B.C. 239. Cato found him in Sardinia in B.C. 204, and brought him in his train to Rome. He dwelt in a humble house on the Aventine, and maintained himself by acting as preceptor to the youths of the Roman nobles. He lived on terms of the closest intimacy with the elder Scipio Africanus. He died B.C. 169, at the age of 70. He was buried in the sepulchre of the Scipios, and his bust was allowed a place among the effigies of that noble house. His most important work was an epic poem, entitled the "Annals of Rome," in 18 books, written in dactylic hexameters, which, through his example, supplanted the old Saturnian metre. This poem commenced with the loves of Mars and Rhea, and came down to the age of Ennius. Virgil borrowed largely from it; and, down to his time, it was regarded as the great epic poem of the Latin language. He also wrote numerous tragedies, a few comedies, and several other works, such as SatirÆ, composed in a great variety of metres, from which circumstance they probably received their name. The comic drama of Rome, though it continued to be more or less a translation or an imitation of the Greek, was cultivated with distinguished success by two writers of genius, several of whose plays are still extant. T. MACCIUS PLAUTUS was a native of Sarsina, a small village in Umbria, and was born about B.C. 254. He probably came to Rome at an early age, and was first employed in the service of the actors. With the money he had saved in this inferior station he left Rome, and set up in business; but his speculations failed: he returned to Rome, and his necessities obliged him to enter the service of a P. TERENTIUS AFER, usually called TERENCE, was born at Carthage, B.C. 195. By birth or purchase he became the slave of P. Terentius, a Roman senator, who afforded him the best education of the age, and finally gave him his freedom. The Andria, which was the first play of Terence acted (B.C. 166), was the means of introducing him to the most refined and intellectual circles of Rome. His chief patrons were LÆlius and the younger Scipio, both of whom treated him as an equal, and are said even to have assisted him in the composition of his plays. He died in the 36th year of his age, in B.C. 159. Six comedies are all that remain to us. The ancient critics are unanimous in ascribing to Terence immaculate purity and elegance of language. Although a foreigner and a freedman, he divides with Cicero and CÆsar the palm of pure Latinity. There were two other comic poets, whose works are lost, but who enjoyed a great reputation among the Romans. Q. CÆCILIUS was a native of Milan, and, like Terence, came to Rome as a slave. He was the immediate predecessor of Terence, and died B.C. 108, two years before the representation of the Andria. L. AFRANIUS flourished B.C. 100, and wrote comedies describing Roman scenes and manners, called ComoediÆ TogatÆ, to distinguish them from those depicting Grecian life, which were termed PalliatÆ, from pallium, the national dress of the Greeks. There were two tragic poets contemporary with Terence, who also Though the Roman Drama, properly so called, was derived from the Greeks, there were some kinds of dramatic exhibitions which were of Italian origin. The first of these were the AtellanÆ FabulÆ, or Atellane Plays, which took their name from Atella, a town in Campania. They were composed in the Oscan dialect, and were at first rude extemporaneous farces, but were afterward divided into acts like a regular drama. They seem to have been the origin of the Policinello of modern Italy. The Oscan dialect was preserved even when they were introduced at Rome. The Mimes were another species of comedy, of which only the name seems to have been derived from the Greek. They were a species of low comedy of an indecent description, in which the dialogue was subordinate to mimicry and gesture. The Dictator Sulla was very fond of these performances. The two most distinguished writers of Mimes were DEC. LABERIUS, a knight, and P. SYRUS, a freedman, and originally a Syrian slave, both of whom were contemporaries of Julius CÆsar. At CÆsar's triumphal games in October, B.C. 45, P. Syrus challenged all his craft to a trial of wit in extemporaneous farce, and CÆsar offered Laberius 500,000 sesterces to appear on the stage. Laberius was 60 years old, and the profession of a mimus was infamous, but the wish of the Dictator was equivalent to a command, and he reluctantly complied. He had, however, revenge in his power, and took it. His prologue awakened compassion, and perhaps indignation; and during the performance he adroitly availed himself of his various characters to point his wit at CÆsar. In the person of a beaten Syrian slave he cried out, "Marry! Quirites, but we lose our freedom," and all eyes were turned upon the Dictator; and in another mime he uttered the pregnant maxim, "Needs must he fear who makes all else The Fescennine Songs were the origin of the Satire, the only important species of literature not derived from the Greeks, and altogether peculiar to Italy. These Fescennine Songs were rude dialogues, in which the country people assailed and ridiculed one another in extempore verses, and which were introduced as an amusement in various festivals. They were formed into the Satire Between Lucilius and the poets of the Augustan age lived Lucretius and Catullus, two of the greatest—perhaps the greatest—of all the Roman poets. T. LUCRETIUS CARUS was born B.C. 95, and died about B.C. 51. He is said to have been driven mad by a love-potion, and to have perished by his own hand. The work which has immortalized his name is a philosophical didactic poem, in heroic hexameters, entitled De Rerum Natura, divided into six books, and addressed to C. Memmius Gemellus, who was prÆtor in B.C. 58. Its object is to state clearly the leading principles of the Epicurean philosophy in such a form as might render the study attractive to his countrymen. He attempts to show that there is nothing in the history or actual condition of the world which does not admit of explanation without having recourse to the active interposition of divine beings. The work has been admitted by all modern critics to be the greatest of didactic poems. The most abstruse speculations are clearly explained in majestic verse, while the subject, which in itself is dry and dull, is enlivened by digressions of matchless power and beauty. VALERIUS CATULLUS was born at Verona or in its immediate vicinity, B.C. 87. He inherited considerable property from his father, who was the friend of Julius CÆsar; but he squandered a great part of it by indulging freely in the pleasures of the metropolis. In order to better his fortunes, he went to Bithynia in the Among the poets of the Augustan age Virgil and Horace stand forth pre-eminent. P. VIRGILIUS (more properly VERGILIUS) MARO was born B.C. 70, at Andes, a small village near Mantua, in Cisalpine Gaul. His father left him a small estate, which he cultivated. After the battle of Philippi (B.C. 42) his property was among the lands assigned by Octavian to the soldiers. Through the advice of Asinius Pollio, who was then governor of Cisalpine Gaul, and was himself a poet, Virgil applied to Octavian at Rome for the restitution of his land, and obtained his request. The first Eclogue commemorates his gratitude. Virgil lived on intimate terms with MÆcenas, whom he accompanied in the journey from Rome to Brundusium, which forms the subject of one of the Satires of Horace. His most finished work, the Georgics, was undertaken at the suggestion of MÆcenas. Q. HORATIUS FLACCUS, usually called HORACE, was born at Venusia, in Apulia, B.C. 65. His father was a freedman. He had received his manumission before the birth of the poet, who was of ingenuous birth, but who did not altogether escape the taunt which adhered to persons even of remote servile origin. His father's occupation was that of a collector (coactor) of taxes. With the profits of his office he had purchased a small farm in the neighborhood of Venusia. Though by no means rich, he declined to send the young Horace to the common school, kept in Venusia by one Flavius, to which the children of the rural aristocracy resorted. Probably about his twelfth year his father carried him to Rome to receive the usual education of a knight's or senator's son. He fre Three celebrated Elegiac poets—Tibullus, Propertius, and Ovid—also belong to the Augustan age. ALBIUS TIBULLUS was of equestrian family, and possessed an hereditary estate between Tibur and PrÆneste. His great patron was Messala, whom he accompanied in B.C. 31 into Aquitania, whither Messala had been sent by Augustus to suppress a formidable insurrection which had broken out in this province. In the following year (B.C. 30) Messala, having pacified Gaul, was sent into the East. Tibullus set out in his company, but was taken ill, and obliged to remain in Corcyra, from whence he returned to Rome. So ceased the active life of Tibullus. He died at an early age soon after Virgil. The poetry of his contemporaries shows Tibullus as a gentle and singularly amiable man. To Horace especially he was an object of warm attachment. His Elegies, which are exquisite small poems, celebrate the beauty and cruelty of his mistresses. SEXTUS AURELIUS PROPERTIUS was a native of Umbria, and was born about B.C. 51. He was deprived of his paternal estate by an agrarian division, probably that in B.C. 33, after the Sicilian War. P. OVIDIUS NASO, usually culled OVID, was born at Sulmo, in the country of the Peligni, on the 20th of March, B.C. 43. He was descended from an ancient equestrian family, and was destined to be a pleader; but the bent of his genius showed itself very early. The hours which should have been spent in the study of jurisprudence were employed in cultivating his poetical talent. It is a disputed point whether he ever actually practiced as an advocate after his return to Rome. The picture Ovid himself draws of his weak constitution and indolent temper prevents us from thinking that he ever followed his profession with perseverance, if, indeed, at all. He became, however, one of the Triumviri Capitules; and he was subsequently made one of the Centumviri, or judges who tried testamentary, and even criminal causes. Till his 50th year he continued to reside at Rome, where he had a house near the Capitol, occasionally taking a trip to his Pelignian farm. He not only enjoyed the friendship of a large circle of distinguished men, but the regard and favor of Augustus and the imperial family; notwithstanding, in A.D. 9, he was suddenly commanded by an imperial edict to transport himself to Tomi, a town on the Euxine, near the mouths of the Danube, on the very border of the empire. He underwent no trial, and the sole reason for his banishment stated in the edict was his having published his poem on the Art of Love (Ars Amatoria). The real cause of his banishment is unknown, for the publication of the Art of Love was certainly a mere pretext. Ovid draws an affecting picture of the miseries to which he was exposed in his place of exile. He complains of the inhospitable soil, of the severity of the climate, and of the perils to which he was exposed, when the barbarians plundered the surrounding country, and insulted the very walls of Tomi. In the midst of all his misfortunes he sought some relief in the exercise of his poetical talents. We now turn to the history of prose literature among the Romans. The earliest prose works were Annals, containing a meagre account of the principal events in Roman history, arranged under their respective years. The earliest Annalists who obtained reputation were Q. FABIUS PICTOR and L. CINCIUS ALIMENTUS, both of whom served in the Second Punic War, and drew up an account of it, but they wrote in the Greek language. The first prose writer in the Latin language, of whom any considerable fragments have been preserved, is the celebrated Censor, M. Porcius Cato, who died B.C. 149, and of whose life an account has been already given. He wrote an important historical work entitled Origines. The first book contained the history of the Roman kings; the second and third treated of the origin of the Italian towns, and from these two books the whole work derived its title; the fourth book treated of the First Punic War, the fifth book of the Second Punic War, and the sixth and seventh continued the narrative to the year of Cato's death. There is still extant a work on agriculture (De Re Rustica) bearing the name of Cato, which is probably substantially his, though it is certainly not exactly in the form in which it proceeded from his pen. There were many other annalists, of whom we know little more than the names, and whose works were used by Livy in compiling his Roman history. Oratory was always cultivated by the Romans as one of the chief avenues to political distinction. Cicero, in his work entitled Brutus, has given a long list of distinguished Orators whose speeches he had read, but he himself surpassed all his predecessors and contemporaries. In his works the Latin language appears in the highest perfection. Besides his numerous orations he also wrote several treatises on Rhetoric, of which the most perfect is a systematic treatise on the art of Oratory (De Oratore), in three books. The most learned Roman under the Republic was M. TERENTIUS VARRO, a contemporary and friend of Cicero. He served as Pompey's lieutenant in Spain in the Civil Wars, but was pardoned by CÆsar after the battle of Pharsalia, and was employed by him in superintending the collection and arrangement of the great library designed for public use. Upon the formation of the second Triumvirate, Varro's name appeared upon the list of the proscribed; but he succeeded in making his escape, and, after having remained for some time in concealment, he obtained the protection of Octavian. His death took place B.C. 28, when he was in his 80th year. Not only was Varro the most learned of Roman scholars, but he was likewise the most voluminous of Roman authors. We have his own authority for the assertion that he had composed no less than 490 books, but of these only two have come down to us, and one of them in a mutilated form: 1. De Re Rustica, a work on Agriculture, in three books, written when the author was 80 years old; 2. De Lingua Latina, a grammatical treatise which extended to 24 books, but six only have been preserved, and these are in a mutilated condition. The remains of this treatise are particularly valuable. They have preserved many terms and forms which would otherwise have been altogether lost, and much curious information connected with the ancient usages, both civil and religious, of the Romans. C. JULIUS CÆSAR, the great Dictator, was also distinguished as an author, and wrote several works, of which the Commentaries alone have come down to us. They relate the history of the first seven years of the Gallic War in seven books, and the history of the Civil War down to the commencement of the Alexandrine in three books. Neither of these works completes the history of the Gallic and Civil Wars. The history of the former was completed in an 8th book, which is usually ascribed to Hirtius. The history C. SALLUSTIUS CRISPUS, a contemporary of CÆsar, and one of his supporters, was also distinguished as a historian. He was born B.C. 86 at Amiternum, in the country of the Sabines, and died in B.C. 34. After the African War (B.C. 46) he was left by CÆsar as governor of Numidia, where he acquired great riches by his oppression of the people. Two of his works have come down to us, the Catilina, the history of the suppression of Catiline's conspiracy, and the Jugurtha, the history of the war against Jugurtha. Sallust made Thucydides his model, and took great pains with his style. CORNELIUS NEPOS, the contemporary and friend of Cicero and Atticus, was the author of numerous works, all of which are lost, with the exception of the well-known Lives of Distinguished Commanders (VitÆ Excellentium Imperatorum). But even these Lives, with the exception of that of Atticus, are probably an abridgment of the original work of Nepos, made in the fourth century of the Christian era. Of the prose writers of the Augustan age the most distinguished was the historian TITUS LIVIUS, usually called LIVY. He was born at Patavium (Padua), B.C. 59. The greater part of his life appears to have been spent in Rome, but he returned to his native town before his death, which happened at the age of 76, in the fourth year of Tiberius, A.D. 17. His literary talents secured the patronage and friendship of Augustus; and his reputation became so widely diffused, that a Spaniard traveled from Cadiz to Rome solely for the purpose of beholding him; and, having gratified his curiosity in this one particular, he immediately returned home. Livy's "History of Rome" extended from the foundation of the city to the death of Drusus, B.C. 9, and was comprised in 142 books. Of these 35 have descended to us. The whole work has been divided into decades, containing 10 books each. The First decade (bks. i.-x.) is entire. It embraces the period from the foundation of the city to the year B.C. 294, when the subjugation of the Samnites may be said to have been completed. The Second decade (bks. xi.-xx.) is altogether lost. It included the period from B.C. 294 to B.C. 219, comprising an account, among other matters, of the invasion of Pyrrhus and of the First Punic War. The Third decade (bks. xxi.-xxx.) is entire. It embraces the period from B.C. 219 to B.C. 201, comprehending the whole of the Second Punic War. The Fourth decade (bks. xxxi.-xl.) is entire, and also one half of the Fifth (bks. xli.-xlv.). These 15 books continue the |