Chapter 8

Brundusium and conquers Afranius in Spain. " II. " 49. Caesar takes Massilia. Submission of Varro in Further Spain. Defeat and death of Curio before Utica.

" III. " 48. Caesar follows Pompeius into Illyria. The lines of Dyrrachium and the Battle of Pharsalus. The beginning of the Alexandrine War.

(3) +OTHER WORKS.+--All Caesar's other writings (Speeches, Poems, &c.) have been lost, with the exception of a few brief Letters to Cicero.

3. Style.

Remarkable for brevity, directness, and simplicity. The simplest facts told in the simplest way. _Ars est celare artem._

'Caesar's Commentaries are worthy of all praise; they are unadorned, straightforward, and elegant, every ornament being stripped off as if it were a garment.' --CICERO.

MARCUS PORCIUS CATO, 234-149 B.C.

1. Life.

[Sidenote: CATO.]

For his military and political career, his Consulship (195 B.C.), his famous Censorship (184 B.C.), and his social reforms, see some good history, e.g. Mommsen, vol, iii.

2. Works.

His chief works are:--

(1) His treatise +De Re Rustica+ or +De Agri Cultura+ (his only extant work).--A series of terse and pointed directions following one on another, somewhat in the manner of Hesiod, and interesting 'as showing the practical Latin style, and as giving the prose groundwork of Vergil's stately and beautiful embroidery in the _Georgics_.' --Mackail.

(2) +The Origines.+--'The oldest historical work written in Latin, and the first important prose work in Roman literature.' --Mommsen. Nepos, _Cato_, 3, summarises the contents of the seven books.

Cato struggled all his life against Greek influence in literature and in manners, which he felt would be fatal to his ideal of a Roman citizen. In a letter to his son Marcus he says _Quandoque ista gens suas litteras dabit, omnia corrumpet_. He was famous for his homely wisdom, which gained him the title of _Sapiens_, e.g. _Rem tene: verba sequentur_--'Take care of the sense: the words will take care of themselves.'

GAIUS VALERIUS CATULLUS, circ. 84-54 B.C.

1. Life.

[Sidenote: CATULLUS.]

Born at Verona, of a family of wealth and position, as is seen from his having estates at Sirmio:--

_Salve, O venusta Sirmio, atque ero gaude_ (C. 31)

and near Tibur: _O funde noster seu Sabine seu Tiburs_ (C. 44). His father was an intimate friend of Caesar. He went to Rome early, where he spent the greater part of his short life,

_Romae vivimus: illa domus, Illa mihi sedes, illic mea carpitur aetas_ (C. 68),

with the exception of an official journey to Bithynia, 57 B.C. to better his fortunes: cf. _Iam ver egelidos refert tepores ... Linquantur Phrygii, Catulle, campi_ (C. 46). After a life of poetic culture and free social enjoyment he died at the early age of thirty, 'the young Catullus,' _hedera iuvenilia tempora cinctus_ (Ovid, _Am._ III. ix. 61).

2. Works.

116 poems written in various metres and on various subjects, Lyric, Elegiac, Epic.

'The event which first revealed the full power of his genius, and which made both the supreme happiness and supreme misery of his life, was his love for Lesbia (Clodia).'--Sellar.

'Catullus is one of the great poets of the world, not so much through vividness of imagination as through his singleness of nature, his vivid impressibility, and his keen perception. He received the gifts of the passing hour so happily that to produce pure and lasting poetry it was enough for him to utter in natural words something of the fulness of his heart. He says on every occasion exactly what he wanted to say, in clear, forcible, spontaneous language.' --Sellar.

'The most attractive feature in the character of Catullus is the warmth of his affection. If to love warmly, constantly, and unselfishly be the best title to the love of others, few poets in any age or country deserve a kindlier place in the hearts of men than "the young Catullus."'--Sellar.

MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO, 106-43 B.C.

1. Important Events in Cicero's Life, and chief Works.

[Sidenote: CICERO.]

B.C. 106. Born at Arpinum. Birth of Pompeius. " 102. Birth of Quintus Cicero, and of Caesar. " 91. Assumes the _toga virilis_. Q. Mucius Scaevola the augur becomes his tutor in civil law. Writes an heroic poem in praise of Marius. " 89. Serves his first and only campaign under Pompeius Strabo. " 87. Studies Rhetoric at Rome under Apollonius Molo of Rhodes. " 81. Delivers his first speech (_causa privata_) +Pro P. Quinctio+. " 80. Delivers his first speech (_causa publica_) +Pro S. Roscio Amerino+. " 79-7. Studies at Athens and Rhodes. Marries Terentia. " 75-4. Quaestor at Lilybaeum in Sicily. " 70. The six speeches +In C. Verrem+. " 69. Curule Aedile. The +Pro Caecina+. " 68. Date of the earliest extant letter. " 67. Praetor. The Lex Gabinia. " 66. The De Imperio Cn. Pompeii (+Pro Lege Manilia+). " 64. Birth of his son Marcus. Marriage of Tullia to C. Piso Frugi. " 63. Consul. The four speeches +In Catilinam+. The +Pro Murena+. " 62. Cicero hailed 'pater patriae.' The +Pro Sulla+ and +Pro Archia+. " 60. Poem 'De consulatu meo.' " 59. The First Triumvirate (Caesar, Pompeius, and Crassus). The +Pro Valerio Flacco+. " 58-7. Cicero in Exile. The four speeches +Post Reditum+. " 56. The +Pro Sestio+ and +De Provinciis Consularibus+ (his recantation). " 55. The +De Oratore+ and +De temporibus meis+. " 52. The +Pro Milone+. The +De Legibus+: the +De Republica+. " 51-50. Proconsul of Cilicia. Is granted a _supplicatio_. " 49. Joins Pompeius at Dyrrachium. " 47. Becomes reconciled to Caesar. " 46. The +Brutus+ and +Orator+. " 45. Death of Tullia. The +De Finibus+ and +Academics+. " 44. The +Tusculanae Disputationes+: the +De Natura Deorum+: +De Divinatione+: +De Amicitia+: +De Senectute+: +De Officiis+. +Philippics i-iv.+ " 43. +Philippics v-xiv.+ The Second Triumvirate (Antonius, Octavianus, and Lepidus). Murder of Cicero.

2. Works.

(1) +Speeches.+--We possess 57 speeches, and fragments of about 20 more, and we know of 33 others delivered by Cicero.

'As a speaker and orator Cicero succeeded in gaining a place beside Demosthenes. His strongest point is his style; there he is clear, concise and apt, perspicuous, elegant and brilliant. He commands all moods, from playful jest to tragic pathos, but is most successful in the imitation of conviction and feeling, to which he gave increased impression by his fiery delivery.' --Teuffel. Quintilian says of him that his eloquence combined the power of Demosthenes, the copiousness of Plato, and the sweetness of Isocrates.

(2) +Philosophical Works.+--The chief are the _De Republica_ (closed by the _Sommium Sciponis_): the _De Legibus_: the _De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum_: the _Academics_: _Tusculan Disputations_ with the _De Divinatione_: the _De Senectute_ and _De Amicitia_: _De natura Deorum_, and the _De Officiis_.

As a philosopher Cicero had no pretensions to originality. He found the materials for most of these works in the writings of the Greek philosophers. 'I have to supply little but the words,' he writes, 'and for these I am never at a loss.' It was however no small achievement to mould the Latin tongue to be a vehicle for Greek philosophic thought, and thus to render the conclusions of Greek thinkers accessible to his own countrymen.

(3) +Rhetorical treatises.+--The chief are the _De Oratore_ (in 3 Books), perhaps the most finished example of the Ciceronian style: the _Brutus_ or _De Claris Oratoribus_, and the _Orator_ (or _De optime Genere Dicendi_).

(4) +Letters.+--Besides 774 letters written by Cicero, we have 90 addressed to him by friends. The two largest collections of his Letters are the _Epistulae ad Atticum_ (68-43 B.C.) and the _Epistulae ad Familiares_ (62-43 B.C.).

These letters are of supreme importance for the history of Cicero's time. 'The quality which makes them most valuable is that they were not (like the letters of Pliny, and Seneca, and Madame de Sévigné) written to be published. We see in them Cicero as he was. We behold him in his strength and in his weakness--the bold advocate, and yet timid and vacillating statesman, the fond husband, the affectionate father, the kind master, the warm-hearted friend.' --Tyrrell.

The style of the Letters is colloquial but thoroughly accurate. 'The art of letter-writing suddenly rose in Cicero's hands to its full perfection.' --Mackail.

(5) +Poems.+--The fragments we possess show that verse-writing came easily to him, but he never could have been a great poet, for he had not the _divinus afflatus_, so finely expressed by Ovid in the line _Est Deus in nobis, agitante calescimus illo_.

'Cicero stands in prose like Vergil in poetry, as the bridge between the ancient and the modern world. Before his time Latin prose was, from a wide point of view, but one among many local ancient dialects. As it left his hands it had become a universal language, one which had definitely superseded all others, Greek included, as the type of civilised expression.' --Mackail.

CLAUDIUS CLAUDIANUS, flor. 400 A.D.

1. Life.

[Sidenote: CLAUDIAN.]

Born probably at Alexandria, where he lived until, in the year of the death of Theodosius 395 A.D., he acquired the patronage of Stilicho, the great Vandal general, who, as guardian of the young Emperor Honorius, was practically ruler of the Western Empire. He remained attached to the Court at Milan, Rome and Ravenna, and died soon after the downfall of his patron Stilicho, 408 A.D.

2. Works.

In his historical epics he derived his subjects from his own age, praising his patrons Stilicho (_On the Consulate of Stilicho_) and Honorius (_on the Consulate of Honorius_), and inveighing against Rufinus and Eutropius, the rivals of Stilicho. Of poems on other subjects, 'his three books of the unfinished Rape of Proserpine are among the finest examples of the purely literary epic.' --Mackail.

'Claudian is the last of the Latin poets, forming the transitional link between the Classic and the Gothic mode of thought.' --Coleridge.

3. Style.

'His faults belong almost as much to the age as to the writer. In description he is too copious and detailed: his poems abound with long speeches: his parade of varied learning, his partiality for abstruse mythology, are just the natural defects of a lettered but uninspired epoch.' --North Pinder.

QUINTUS ENNIUS, 239-169 B.C.

1. Life.

[Sidenote: ENNIUS.]

He was born at Rudiae in Calabria (about 19 miles S. of Brundisium), a meeting-place of three different languages, that of common life (Oscan, cf. _Opici_), that of culture and education (Greek), that of military service (Latin). Here he lived for some twenty years, availing himself of those means of education which at this time were denied to Rome or Latium. We next hear of him serving as centurion in Sardinia, where he attracted the attention of Cato, then quaestor, and accompanied him to Rome, 204 B.C. Here for some fifteen years he lived plainly, supporting himself by teaching Greek, and making translations of Greek plays for the Roman stage, and so won the friendship of the elder Scipio. In 189 B.C. M. Fulvius Nobilior took Ennius with him in his campaign against the Aetolians, as a witness and herald of his deeds. His son obtained for Ennius the Roman citizenship (184 B.C.) by giving him a grant of land at Potentia in Picenum. _Nos sumus Romani, qui fuimus ante Rudini._ The rest of his life was spent mainly at Rome in cheerful simplicity and active literary work.

2. Works.

The chief are:--

(1) +Tragedies.+--Mainly translations, especially from Euripides. A few fragments only remain. 'It was certainly due to Ennius that Roman Tragedy was first raised to that pitch of popular favour which it enjoyed till the age of Cicero.' --Sellar.

(2) +Annales.+--An Epic Hexameter poem, in 18 books, which dealt with the History of Rome from the landing of Aeneas in Italy down to the Third Macedonian War (Pydna, 168 B.C.). About 600 lines are extant.

'In his Annals he unfolds a long gallery of national portraits. His heroes are men of one common aim--the advancement of Rome; animated with one sentiment, devotion to the State. All that was purely personal in them seems merged in the traditional pictures which express only the fortitude, dignity and sagacity of the Republic.' --Sellar.

3. Style.

For the first time Ennius succeeded in moulding the Latin language to the movement of the Greek hexameter. In spite of imperfections and roughness, his _Annals_ remained the foremost and representative Roman poem till Vergil wrote the _Aeneid_. Lucretius, whom he influenced, and to whom Vergil owes so much, says of him:

_Ennius ut noster cecinit, qui primus amoeno Detulit ex Helicone perenni fronde coronam, Per gentes Italas honinum quae clara clueret;_

'As sang our Ennius, the first who brought down from pleasant Helicon a chaplet of unfading leaf, the fame of which should ring out clear through the nations of Italy.'

And later, Quintilian, X. i. 88: 'Ennium sicut sacros vetustate lucos adoremus, in quibus grandia et antiqua robora iam non tantam habent speciem quantam religionem: Let us venerate Ennius like the groves, sacred from their antiquity, in which the great and ancient oak-trees are invested, not so much with beauty, as with sacred associations.' --Sellar.

FLAVIUS EUTROPIUS, fl. 375 A.D.

1. Life.

[Sidenote: EUTROPIUS.]

Very little is known of his life. He is said to have held the office of a secretary under Contanstine the Great (_ob._ 337 A.D.), and to have served under the Emperor Julian in his ill-fated expedition against the Persians, 363 A.D.

2. Works.

His only extant work is his

+Breviarium Historiae Romanae.+--A brief compendium of Roman History in ten books from the foundation of the city to the accession of Valens, 364 A.D., to whom it is inscribed.

3. Style.

His work is a compilation made from the best authorities, with good judgment and impartiality, and in a simple style. Its brevity and practical arrangement made it very popular.

FLORUS, circ. 120 (or 140?) A.D. (temp. Hadrian).

1. Life.

[Sidenote: FLORUS.]

L. Julius (or Annaeus) Florus lived at Rome in the time of Trajan or Hadrian. Little else is known of his life.

2. Works.

An Epitome of the Wars of Livy, in two Books:--