|
| CHAPTER I. |
| GENERAL CHARACTER OF ROMAN POETRY. |
| PAGE |
| Recent change in the estimate of Roman Poetry | 1 |
| Want of originality | 2 |
| As compared with Greek Poetry | 3 |
| ""with Roman Oratory and History | 4 |
| The most complete literary monument of Rome | 5 |
| Partly imitative, partly original | 6 |
| Imitative in forms | 7 |
| "in metres | 8 |
| Imitative element in diction | 9 |
| ""in matter | 11 |
| Original character, partly Roman, partly Italian | 13 |
| National spirit | 14 |
| Imaginative sentiment | 15 |
| Moral feeling | 16 |
| Italian element in Roman Poetry | 17 |
| Love of Nature | 17 |
| Passion of Love | 19 |
| Personal element in Roman Poetry | 20 |
| Four Periods of Roman Poetry | 24 |
| Character of each | 24 |
| Conclusion | 26 |
| CHAPTER II. |
| VESTIGES OF INDIGENOUS POETRY IN ROME AND ANCIENT ITALY. |
| Niebuhr's theory of a Ballad-Poetry | 28 |
| The Saturnian metre | 29 |
| Ritual Hymns | 31 |
| Prophetic verses | 33 |
| Fescennine verses | 34 |
| Saturae | 35 |
| Gnomic verses | 36 |
| Commemorative verses | 37 |
| Inferences as to their character | 38 |
| From early state of the language | 39 |
| No public recognition of Poetry | 40 |
| Roman story result of tradition and reflection | 41 |
| Inferences from the nature of Roman religion | 43 |
| From the character and pursuits of the people | 44 |
| Roman Poetry of Italian rather than Roman origin | 45 |
| FIRST PERIOD. |
| FROM LIVIUS ANDRONICUS TO LUCILIUS. |
| CHAPTER III. |
| BEGINNING OF ROMAN LITERATURE. LIVIUS ANDRONICUS. CN. NAEVIUS, 240-202 B.C. |
| Contact with Greece after capture of Tarentum | 47 |
| First period of Roman literature | 49 |
| Forms of Poetry during this period | 50 |
| Livius Andronicus | 51 |
| Cn. Naevius, his life | 229 |
| Impression of the author's personality | 230 |
| Political character of Lucilian satire | 232 |
| Social vices satirised in it | 233 |
| Intellectual peculiarities | 236 |
| Literary criticism | 238 |
| His style | 240 |
| Grounds of his popularity | 243 |
| CHAPTER IX. |
| REVIEW OF THE FIRST PERIOD. |
| Common aspects in the lives of poets in the second century B.C. | 247 |
| Popular and national character of their works | 250 |
| Political condition of the time reflected in its literature | 251 |
| Defects of the poetic literature in form and style | 253 |
| Other forms of literature cultivated in that age | 254 |
| Oratory and history | 255 |
| Familiar letters | 256 |
| Critical and grammatical studies | 257 |
| Summary of character of the first period | 258 |
| SECOND PERIOD. |
| THE CLOSE OF THE REPUBLIC. |
| CHAPTER X. |
| TRANSITION FROM LUCILIUS TO LUCRETIUS. |
| Dearth of poetical works during the next half century | 263 |
| Literary taste confined to the upper classes | 265 |
| Great advance in Latin prose writing | 266 |
| Influence of this on the style of Lucretius and Catullus | 267 |
| Closer contact with the mind and art of Greece | 268 |
| Effects of the political unsettlement on the contemplative life and thought | 270 |
| "on the life of pleasure, and the art founded on it | 271 |
| The two representatives of the thought and art of the time | 272 |
| CHAPTER XI. |
| LUCRETIUS. PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS. |
| Little known of him from external sources | 274 |
| Examination of Jerome's statement | 275 |
| Inferences as to his national and social position | 281 |
| Relation to Memmius | 282 |
| Impression of the author to be traced in his poem | 283 |
| Influence produced by the action of his age | 284 |
| Minute familiarity with Nature and country life | 286 |
| Spirit in which he wrote his work | 288 |
| His consciousness of power and delight in his task | 289 |
| His polemical spirit | 291 |
| Reverence for Epicurus | 292 |
| Affinity to Empedocles | 293 |
| Influence of other Greek writers | 295 |
| "of Ennius | 297 |
