The History of Roman Literature From the Earliest Period to the Death of Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Tullius Cicero, [1] the greatest name in Roman literature, was born on his father's estate near Arpinum, 3d Jan. 106 B.C. Arpinum had received the citizenship some time b...

PUBLIUS VIRGILIUS, or more correctly, VERGILIUS [1] MARO, was born in the village or district [2] of Andes, near Mantua, sixteen years after the birth of Catullus, of whom he wa...

As the spiritual life of a people is reflected in their poetry, so their living voice is heard in their oratory. Oratory is the child of freedom. Under the despotisms of the Eas...

We have grouped these three emperors under a single heading because the shortness of the reigns of the two former prevented the formation of any special school of literature. It...

With the extinction of the Claudian dynasty we enter on a new literary epoch. The reigns of Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian produced a series of writers who all show the same cha...

During the second century after Christ we have the remarkable spectacle of the renaissance of Greek literature. The eloquence which had so long been silent now was heard again i...

The poet is usually credited with a genius more independent of external circumstances than any other of nature's favourites. His inspiration is more creative, more unearthly, mo...

It is well known that Cicero felt strongly tempted to write a history of Rome. Considering the stirring events among which he lived, the grandeur of Rome's past, and the exhaust...

The short artificial elegy of Callimachus and Philetas had, as we have seen, found an imitator in Catullus. But that poet, when he addressed to Lesbia the language of true passi...

The death of Domitian was the end of tyranny in Rome. Under Nerva a new régime was inaugurated. Liberty of speech and action was allowed, and authors were not slow to profit by...

There are nations among whom the imagination is so predominant that they seem incapable of regarding things as they are. The literature of such nations will always be cast in a...

As long as the drama was cultivated poetry had not ceased to be popular in its tone. But we have already mentioned that coincidentally with the rise of Sulla dramatic productive...

We now enter on a new and in some respects a very interesting era. From the influence exerted on the last period by the family of Seneca, we might call it the epoch of Spanish L...

If Virgil is the most representative, Horace is the most original poet of Rome. This great and varied genius, whose exquisite taste and deep knowledge of the world have made him...

Before entering upon any criticism of the comic authors, it will be well to make a few remarks on the general characteristics of the Roman theatre. Theatrical structures at Rome...

Of all the imperial writers except Tacitus, Seneca is beyond comparison the most important. His position, talents, and influence make him a perfect representative of the age in...

second, are the sacrifice of Iphigenia, [68] the tribute to Empedocles and Epicurus, [69] the description of himself as a solitary wanderer among trackless haunts of the Muses,...

Public oratory, which had held the first rank among studies under the Republic, was now, as we have said, almost extinct. In the earlier part of Augustus's reign, Pollio and Mes...

The question, Who were the earliest inhabitants of Italy? is one that cannot certainly be answered. That some lower race, analogous to those displaced in other parts of Europe [...

The period embraced by the present book contains the culmination of all kinds of literature, the drama alone excepted. It falls naturally into two divisions, each marked by spec...

Mommsen has truly remarked that the culminating point of Roman development was the period which had no literature. Had the Roman people continued to move in the same lines as th...

As the Italian talent for impromptu buffoonery might perhaps have in time created a genuine native comedy, so the powerful and earnest rhetoric in which the deeper feelings of t...

Augustus was not more unlike his gloomy successor than were the writers who flourished under him to those that now come before us. The history of literature presents no stronger...

The Augustan Age in its strictest sense does not begin until after the battle of Actium, when Augustus, having overthrown his competitor, found himself in undisputed possession...

Great literary activity of all kinds was, after the third Punic war, liable to continual interruption from political struggles or revolutions. But between each two periods of di...

We have dwelt fully on Seneca because he is of all the Claudian writers the one best fitted to appear as a type of the time. There were, however, several others of more or less...

" II. On the proper materials to be used in building, preceded, like several of Pliny's books, by a quasi-philosophical digression on the origin and early history of man--the pr...

We must now retrace our steps, and consider Ennius in the capacity of epic poet. It was in this light that he acquired his chief contemporary renown, that he accredits himself t...

Greek eloquence revives in the Sophists--Itinerant rhetors--Cynic preachers of virtue--The better class of popular philosophers--Dio Chrysostom--Union of philosophy and rhetoric...

Books II.-VII. First Part.--On the imposition of names. Thus subdivided-- _a_ ii-iv. On etymology. ii. What can be said against it. iii. What can be said for it. iv. About its f...

Satire, as every one knows, is the one branch of literature claimed by the Romans as their own. [1] It is, at any rate, the branch in which their excellence is most characterist...

[1] The actors in the _Atellanae_ not only wore masks but had the privilege of refusing to take them off if they acted badly, which was the penalty exacted from those actors in...

It is not easy for us to realise the effect produced on the Romans by their first acquaintance with Greek civilisation. The debt incurred by English theology, philosophy, and mu...

The last class of dramatic poets whom we shall mention in the first period are the writers of _Atellanae_. These entertainments originated at the little town of Atella, now St A...

[1] _E.g._ In the first 100 lines of the _Remedium Amoris_, a long continuous treatise, there is only one couplet where the syntax is carried continuously through, v. 57, 8, _Ne...

[18] _Iubesque esse in amicorum numero_.--Ib. This expression is important, since many scholars have found a difficulty in Horace's accompanying Maecenas so soon after his acces...

[37] Said to have been uttered by Cicero on hearing the Eclogues read; the _rima spes Romae_ being of course the orator himself. But the story, however pretty, cannot be true, a...

[1] Cicero went so far as to write some short commentarii on his consulship in Greek, and perhaps in Latin also; but they were not edited until after his death, and do not deser...

[4] Seneca and Quintilian quote numerous other names, as _Passienus, Pompeius, Silo, Papirius Flavianus, Alfius Flavus_, &c. The reader should consult Teuffel, where all that is...

[6] Contrast the way in which he speaks of poetical studies, G. iv. 564, _me dulcis alebat Parthenope studiis florentem ignobilis oti_, with the language of his letter to August...

[3] The early laws were called "carmina," a term applied to any set form of words, Liv. i. 25, _Lex horrendi carminis_. The theory that all laws were in the Saturnian rhythm is...

[6] Nero had asked Cornutus's advice on a projected poem on Roman history in 400 books. Cornutus replied, "No one, Sire, would read so long a work." Nero reminded him that Chrys...

[8] He was a scurrilous abuser of the government. Vespasian once said to him, "You want to provoke me to kill you, but I am not going to order a dog that barks to execution." Cf...

[2] Cf. Dom. 12, Interfuisse me _adolescentulum_ memini cum inspiceretur senex (a Domitiano). From Gram. 4, Ner. 57, as compared with this, we should infer that he was about fif...

[2] The most celebrated was that erected by Scaurus in his aedileship 58 B.C., an almost incredible description of which is given by Pliny, N.H. xxxvi. 12. See Dict. Ant. _Theat...

[1] Caes. B. C. ii. 16-20. From i. 36, we learn that all further Spain had been intrusted to him. Varro was in truth no partisan; so long as he believed Pompey to represent the...

[49] It will be remembered that Milo and Clodius had encountered each other on the Appian Road, and in the scuffle that ensued, the latter had been killed. Cicero tries to prove...

[1] In the single ancient codex of the Vatican, at the end of the second book we read _C. Val. Fl. Balbi explicit_, Lib. II.; at the end of the fourth book, _C, Val. Fl. Setini_...

[1] The evil results of a judicial system like that of Rome are shown by the lax views of so good a man as Quintilian, who compares deceiving the judges to a painter producing i...

[16] _Tac. Ann_. i. 2, Ubi militem donis, populum annona, cunctos dulcedine otii pellexit, insurgere paulatim, munia senatus magistratuum legum in se trahere, nullo adversante,...

[4] It is probable that there were two kinds of Greek _drama satyrikon_; the tragic, of which we have an example in the _Cyclops_ of Euripides, which represented the gods in a l...

[38] References, allusions, and imitations of Virgil occur in most of the Satires. For reminiscences of Lucan, cf. Juv. i. 18, 89; xii. 97, 8; with Phars. i. 457; viii. 543; ix....

[7] The most convenient and accessible are here recommended, not the most complete or exhaustive. For these the reader is referred to Teuffel's work, from which several of those...

[6] In Cicero's time the semi-vowel _j_ in the middle of words was often denoted by _ii_; and the long vowel _i_ represented by the prolongation of the letter above and sometime...

[1] Scipio quoted Homer when he saw the flames of Carthage rising. He is described as having been profoundly moved. And according to one report Caesar's last words, when he saw...

[70] Particularly that after the third foot, which is a feature in his style (Phars. vii. 464), _Facturi qui monstra ferunt_. This mode of closing a period occurs ten times more...

[1] The Empire is here regarded solely in its influence on literature and the classes that monopolised it. If the poor or the provincials had written its history it would have b...

[17] We give the reader an example of this feature of Pacuvius's style. In the _Antiopa_, Amphion gives a description of the tortoise: "_Quadrupes tardigrada agrestis humilis as...

[5] "Amnem, Troiugena, Cannam Romane fuge hospes," is the best known of these lines. Many others have been collected, and have been arranged with less probability, in Saturnian...

[1] Suetonius calls him _Novocomensis_. He himself speaks of Catullus as his own _conterraneus_, from which it has been inferred by some that he was born at Verona (N. H. Praef....

[3] The exact date is uncertain. He speaks of Seneca as living, probably between 62 and 65 A.D. But he never mentions Pliny, who, on the contrary, frequently refers to him. He m...

[7] The names are Aleones, Prostibulum, Pannuceatae, Nuptiae, Privignus, Piscatores, Ergastulum, Patruus, Asinaria, Rusticus, Dotata, Decuma Fullonis, Praeco, Bucco, Macci gemin...

Virgil--His earliest verses--His life and character--The minor poems --The _Eclogues_--The _Georgics_--Virgil's love of Nature--His aptitude for epic poetry--The scope of the _A...

Reduced scope of poetry--Poetry the most dependent on external conditions of any form of written literature--Valerius Flaccus--Silius--His death as described by Pliny--His poem-...

Comparison of English, Greek, and Roman oratory--Appius—Cornelius Cethegus--Cato--Laelius--The younger Scipio--Galba--Carbo--The Gracchi-- Self-praise of ancient orators--Aemili...

A new literary epoch--Marked by common characteristics--Decay of national genius--Pliny the elder--Account of his death translated from the younger Pliny--His studious habits--T...

Era of African Latinity--Differs from the Silver Age--Hadrian's poetry --Suetonius--His life--List of writings--Lives of the Caesars--His account of Nero's death--Florus--Salviu...

Contrast between Greek and Roman tragedy--Oratorical form of Latin tragedy--Ennius--The father of Roman poetry--His _humamitas_--Relations with Scipio--A follower of Pythagoras-...

Cicero--His life--_Pro Roscio_--_In Verrem_--_Pro Cluentio_--_Pro lege Manilia_--_Pro Rabirio_--Cicero and Clodius--His exile--_Pro Milone_--His _Philippics_--Criticism of his o...

The Latin character--Romans a practical people--Their religion unromantic --Primitive culture of Latium--Germs of drama and epos--No early historians--Early speeches--Ballad lit...

His importance--Life and writings--Influence of his exile--Relations with Nero--His death--Is he a Stoic?--Gradual convergence of the different schools of thought--Seneca a _tea...

Early inhabitants of Italy--Italic dialects--Latin--Latin alphabet--Later innovations--Pronunciation--Spelling--Early Monuments--Song of Fratres Arvales--Salian Hymn--Law of Rom...

The Neronian period an epoch--Peculiar characteristics of its writers --Literary pretensions of Caligula--of Claudius--of Nero--Poem on Calpurnius Piso--Relation of philosophy t...

Introduction of Greek literature to Rome--Its first translators--Livius Andronicus--His translation of the _Odyssey_, Tragedies, &c.--Cn. Naevius--Inventor of _Praetextae_--Styl...

Horace--His life--The dates of his works--Two aspects: a lyric poet and a man of the world--His _Odes_ and _Epodes_--His patriotic odes--Excellences of the odes--The _Satires_ a...