Chapter 20

_Sic Nemesis longum, sic Delia nomen habebunt; Altera cura recens, altera primus amor._

And to Messalla, e.g. _El._ I. vii. 55-6:

_At tibi succrescat proles, quae facta parentis Augeat et circa stet veneranda senem._

3. Style.

'Tibullus is pre-eminently Roman in his genius and poetry. He is the natural poet of warm, tender, and simple feeling. Neither Greek mythology nor Alexandrine learning had any attractions for his purely Italian genius. His language may be limited in range and variety, but it is terse, clear, simple, and popular. His constructions are plain and direct.' --North Pinder.

'To Tibullus belongs the distinction of having given artistic perfection to the Roman elegy.' --Sellar.

_Elegia quoque Graecos provocamus, cuius mihi tersus atque elegans maxime videtur auctor Tibullus._

'_In elegy also we rival the Greeks, of which Tibullus appears to me the purest and finest representative._' --Quint. _Inst. Or._ X. i. 93.

'Tibullus might be succinctly and perhaps not unjustly described as a Vergil without the genius.' --Mackail.

'Tibullus and Vergil are alike in their human affection and their piety, in their capacity of tender and self-forgetful love, in their delight in the labours of the field and their sympathy with the herdsman and the objects of his care.' --Sellar.

_Quid voveat dulci nutricula maius alumno, Qui sapere et fari possit quae sentiat, et cui Gratia, fama valetudo contingat abunde, Et mundus victus, non deficiente crumena!_

Horace to Tibullus, _Epist._ I. iv. 8-11.

_Si tamen e nobis aliquid nisi nomen et umbra Restat, in Elysia valle Tibullus erit._ . . . . . _Ossa quieta, precor, tuta requiescite in urna, Et sit humus cineri non onerosa tuo._

Ovid, _Am._ III. ix. 59-60, 67-8.

C. VALERIUS FLACCUS, fl. 70 A.D.

1. Life.

[Sidenote: VALERIUS FLACCUS.]

He lived in the reign of Vespasian (70-78 A.D.), to whom he dedicated his poem, in which he refers to Vespasian's exploits in Britain and to the capture of Jerusalem by Titus, 70 A.D. There are also references to the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 A.D. Quintilian is the only Roman writer who mentions him (X. i. 90): _Multum in Valerio Flacco nuper amisimus_, which shows that he must have died _circ._ 90 A.D.

2. Works.

+The Argonautica+, an Hexameter poem in eight Books, apparently unfinished. The poem is in part a translation, in part a free imitation of the Alexandrine epic of Apollonius Rhodius (222-181 B.C.) 'His descriptive power, particularly shown in touches of natural scenery, his pure diction and correct style have inclined some critics to set Valerius Flaccus above his Greek model.' --North Pinder. The rhetorical treatment of the subject, so characteristic of the period of the decline, is, however, too prominent throughout his work. Both his rhythm and language are closely modelled on Vergil.

VALERIUS MAXIMUS, fl. 26 A.D.

1. Life.

[Sidenote: VALERIUS MAXIMUS.]

All that we know of him is that he visited Asia in company with Sextus Pompeius (the friend of Ovid and of Germanicus), _circ._ 27-30 A.D.

2. Works.

+Facta et Dicta Memorabilia+, in nine Books. Each Book is divided into chapters on separate subjects (e.g. _De Severitate_, _De Verecundia_, _De Constantia_), under each of which he gives illustrations from Roman history and from the history of other nations, in order to show the native superiority (as he thinks) of Romans to foreigners, and especially to Greeks. As an historian he is most untrustworthy, but there are many gaps in Roman history (e.g. owing to the lost books of Livy) which he helps to supply. His style shows all the faults of his age and rhetorical training; his work was probably intended to be a commonplace-book for students and teachers of rhetoric.

M. TERENTIUS VARRO, 116-27 B.C.

1. Life.

[Sidenote: VARRO.]

Born at Reate, in the Sabine territory, which was the nurse of all manly virtues, Varro was brought up in the good old-fashioned way. 'For me when a boy,' he says, 'there sufficed a single rough coat and a single under-garment, shoes without stockings, a horse without a saddle.' Bold, frank, and sarcastic, he had all the qualities of the country gentleman of the best days of the Republic. On account of his personal valour he obtained in the war with the Pirates, 67 B.C., where he commanded a division of the fleet, the naval crown. In politics he belonged, as was natural, to the constitutional party, and bore an honourable and energetic part in its doings and sufferings. On the outbreak of the Civil War he served as the legatus of Pompeius in command of Further Spain, but was compelled to surrender his forces to Caesar, 69 B.C. When the cause of the Republic was lost Caesar, who knew Varro's worth, employed him in superintending the collection and arrangement of the great library at Rome designed for public use. After Caesar's death Varro was exposed to the persecution of Antonius, whose drunken revels and excesses at Varro's villa at Casinum are vividly described by Cicero (_Phil._ ii. 103 sqq.) Through the influence of his many friends Varro obtained the protection of Octavianus, and was enabled to live at Rome in peace until his death, 27 B.C., in his ninetieth year.

2. Works.

Of all the works of Varro, embracing almost all branches of knowledge and literature, only two have come down to us:

(1) The +De Re Rustica+, in three Books, in the form of a dialogue, written in his eightieth year. It was a subject of which he had a thorough practical knowledge, and is the most important of all the treatises upon ancient agriculture now extant. Book I treats of agriculture; Book II of stock-raising; Book III of poultry, game, and fish.

(2) +De Lingua Latina+, in twenty-five Books, of which only V-X have been preserved. These contain much valuable information not found elsewhere, but Varro's notions of etymology are extremely crude.

Of his other works, we have much cause to regret the loss of his +Antiquities of Things Human and Divine+, the standard work on the religious and secular antiquities of Rome down to the time of Augustus, and his +Imagines+, biographical sketches, with portraits, of seven hundred famous Greeks and Romans, the first instance in history of the publication of an illustrated book.

'Varro belongs to the genuine type of old Roman, improved but not altered by Greek learning, with his heart fixed in the past, deeply conservative of everything national, and even in his style of speech protesting against the innovations of the day.' --Cruttwell.

_Omnium facile acutissimus, et sine ulla dubitatione doctissimus._ --Cicero.

_Studiosum rerum tantum docet, quantum studiosum verborum Cicero delectat._ --St. Augustine.

VELLEIUS PATERCULUS, circ. 19 B.C.-31 A.D.

1. Life.

[Sidenote: VELLEIUS PATERCULUS.]

All we know of him is derived from his own pages. He descended from a distinguished family in Campania, and his father was a Praefectus equitum. He accompanied C. Caesar, the grandson of Augustus, on his mission to the East, and was present at the interview with the Parthian king. Two years afterwards, 4 A.D., he served under Tiberius in Germany as Praefectus equitum. For the next eight years Paterculus served under Tiberius in Pannonia and Dalmatia. Tiberius' sterling qualities as a soldier gained him the friendship of many of his officers, and Velleius by his energy and ability secured that of Tiberius in return. The last circumstance of his life that he records is the election to the praetorship of his brother and himself as candidates of Caesar (Tiberius) in 14 A.D.

2. Works.

The +Historia Romana+ in two Books. The beginning of Book I is lost; chapters 1-8 in our text are occupied with a rapid survey of universal history, especially of the East and of Greece. Chapter 8 breaks off at the rape of the Sabine women, and there is a great gap in the text before we reach in c. 9 the defeat of Perseus at Pydna in 168 B.C. Chapters 9-13 carry the narrative down to the destruction of Carthage and Corinth in 146 B.C. Book II continues the history and ends at the death of Livia 27 A.D.

'The pretentiousness of his style is partly due to the declining taste of the period, partly to an idea of his own that he could write in the manner of Sallust. It alternates between a sort of laboured sprightliness and a careless, conversational manner full of endless parentheses. Yet Velleius has two real merits: the eye of a trained soldier for character, and an unaffected, if not a very intelligent, interest in literature.' --Mackail.

P. VERGILIUS MARO, 70-19 B.C.

1. Important Events in Vergil's Life, and Chief Works.

[Sidenote: VERGIL.]

B.C. 70. Born at Andes, near Mantua. " 65. Birth of Horace. " 55. Assumes the _Toga Virilis_ at Cremona. Death of Lucretius. " 53. Studies philosophy at Rome under the Epicurean Siron. " 42. +Eclogues II, III, V+, and perhaps +VI+, written. " 41. Suffers confiscation of his estate. Takes refuge in _Siron's_ villa. Estates restored by Octavianus through Pollio. +Eclogue I+. " 40. Vergil evicted a second time. +Eclogues IV, VI, IX+. Becomes a member of the literary circle of Maecenas. " 39. +Eclogues VIII+ and +X+. " 38. Introduces Horace to Maecenas. " 37. Begins the +Georgics+ at the suggestion of Maecenas. " 29. +Completed Georgics+ read to Octavianus. +Aeneid+ begun. " 27. Augustus Emperor. " 26. Banishment and death of his friend Gallus. " 25. Marriage of Marcellus to Julia, daughter of Augustus. " 23. Death of Marcellus: +Aeneid, Book VI+, read to the Imperial family. " 19. Journey of Vergil to Greece: is taken ill, dies at Brundusium, and is buried at Naples:

_Mantua me genuit, Calabri rapuere, tenet nunc Parthenope: cecini pascua, rura, duces._

2. Works.

(1) +Bucolica+ (Pastoral Poems), ten +Eclogues+ (selected pieces), written 42-39 B.C. These are closely modelled on Theocritus, and have all the weaknesses of imitative poetry. 'The Eclogues of Vergil have less of consistency but more of purpose than the Idylls of Theocritus. They are an advocacy of the charm of scenery and the pleasures of the country addressed to a luxurious and artificial society of dwellers in a town.' --Myers.

(2) +Georgica+, in four Books, written 37-30 B.C., at the suggestion of Maecenas, 'the Home Minister of Augustus, and public patron of art and letters in the interest of the new government.' --Mackail. 'The details of his subject Vergil draws mainly from his Greek predecessors, Hesiod, Xenophon, Aratus, and Nicander, but it is to Lucretius he is chiefly indebted. The language of Lucretius, so bold, so genial, so powerful, and in its way so perfect, is echoed a thousand times in the Georgics.' --Nettleship.