A History of Roman Literature by Charles Thomas Cruttwell

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A HISTORY OF ROMAN LITERATURE:
FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE DEATH OF MARCUS AURELIUS

BY
CHARLES THOMAS CRUTTWELL, M.A.

TO THE VENERABLE J. A. HESSEY, D.O.L ARCHDEACON OF MIDDLESEX,
THIS WORK IS AFFECTIONATELY INSCRIBED
BY HIS FORMER PUPIL, THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE.

The present work is designed mainly for Students at our Universities and
Public Schools, and for such as are preparing for the Indian Civil Service
or other advanced Examinations. The author hopes, however, that it may
also be acceptable to some of those who, without being professed scholars,
are yet interested in the grand literature of Rome, or who wish to refresh
their memory on a subject that perhaps engrossed their early attention,
but which the many calls of advancing life have made it difficult to
pursue.

All who intend to undertake a thorough study of the subject will turn to
Teuffel's admirable History, without which many chapters in the present
work could not have attained completeness; but the rigid severity of that
exhaustive treatise makes it fitter for a book of reference for scholars
than for general reading even among students. The author, therefore,
trusts he may be pardoned for approaching the History of Roman Literature
from a more purely literary point of view, though at the same time without
sacrificing those minute and accurate details without which criticism
loses half its value. The continual references to Teuffel's work,
excellently translated by Dr. W. Wagner, will bear sufficient testimony to
the estimation in which the author holds it, and the obligations which he
here desires to acknowledge.

He also begs to express his thanks to Mr. John Wordsworth, of B. N. C.,
Oxford, for many kind suggestions, as well as for courteous permission to
make use of his _Fragments and Specimens of Early Latin_; to Mr. H. A.
Redpath, of Queen's College, Oxford, for much valuable assistance in
correction of the proofs, preparation of the index, and collation of
references, and to his brother, Mr. W. H. G. Cruttwell, for verifying
citations from the post-Augustan poets.

To enumerate all the sources to which the present Manual is indebted would
occupy too much space here, but a few of the more important may be
mentioned. Among German writers, Bernhardy and Ritter--among French,
Boissier, Champagny, Diderot, and Nisard--have been chiefly used. Among
English scholars, the works of Dunlop, Conington, Ellis, and Munro, have
been consulted, and also the _History of Roman Literature_, reprinted from
the _Encyclopaedia Metropolitana_, a work to which frequent reference is
made, and which, in fact, suggested the preparation of the present volume.

It is hoped that the Chronological Tables, as well as the list of Editions
recommended for use, and the Series of Test Questions appended, will
materially assist the Student.

OXFORD,
_November_, 1877.

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION.

Roman and Greek Literature have their periods of study--Influence of each
--Exactness of Latin language--Greek origin of Latin literature--Its three
great periods: (1) The Ante-Classical Period; (2) The Golden Age; (3) The
Decline.

BOOK I

FROM LIVIUS ANDRONICUS TO SULLA (240-80 B.C.).

CHAPTER I.

_On the Earliest Remains of the Latin Language._

Early inhabitants of Italy--Italic dialects--Latin--Latin alphabet--Later
innovations--Pronunciation--Spelling--Early Monuments--Song of Fratres
Arvales--Salian Hymn--Law of Romulus--Laws of Twelve Tables--Treaty
between Rome and Carthage--_Columna Rastrata_--Epitaphs of the Scipios--
_Senatus Consultum de Bacchanalibus_--Break-up of the language.

APPENDIX.--Examples of late corrupted dialects

CHAPTER II.

_On the Beginnings of Roman Literature._

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 literature--No early Roman epos--Poets
despised--_Fescenninae_--_Saturae_--_Mime_ or _Planipes_--_Atellanae_-
Saturnian metre--Early interest in politics and law as giving the germs of
oratory and jurisprudence.

CHAPTER III.

_The Introduction of Greek Literature--Livius and Naevius_ (240-204 B.C.).

Introduction of Greek literature to Rome--Its first translators--Livius
Andronicus--His translation of the _Odyssey_, Tragedies, &c.--Cn.
Naevius--Inventor of _Praetextae_--Style--A politician--Writer of the
first national epic poem--His exile and death--Cicero's opinion of him--
His epitaph.

CHAPTER IV.

_Roman Comedy--Plautus to Turpilius_ (254-103 B.C.).

The Roman theatre--Plan of construction--Comedy--Related to Athenian
Middle and New Comedy--Plautus--His plays--Their plots and style--
_Palliatae_ and _Togatae_--His metres--Caecilius--Admires Terence--
Terence--His intimate friends--His style--Use of _contamination_--Lesser
comedians.

CHAPTER V.

_Roman Tragedy: Ennius--Accius_ (233-94 B.C.).

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--His tragedies--Pacuvius--Painter
and tragedian--Cicero's criticism of his _Niptra_--His epitaph--L. Accius
--The last tragic writer--A reformer of spelling.

APPENDIX.--On some fragments of Sueius or Suevius.

CHAPTER VI.

_Epic Poetry: Ennius--Furius_ (200-100 B.C.).

Naevius and Ennius--Olympic deities and heroes of Roman story--Hexameter
of Ennius--Its treatment--Matius--Hostius--Furius.

CHAPTER VII.

_The Early History of Satire: Ennius to Lucilius_ (200-103 B.C.).

Roman satire a native growth--Origin of word "_Saturae_"--It is
didactic--Not necessarily poetical in form--Ennius--Pacuvius--Lucilius--
The objects of his attack--His popularity--His humility--His style and
language.

CHAPTER VIII.

_The Minor Departments of Poetry--The Atellanae (Pomponius and
Novius, circ. 90 B.C.) and the Epigram (Ennius--Callus, 100 B. C.)._

_Atellanae_--Oscan in origin--Novius--Pomponius--Mummius--Epigrammatists--
Catulus--Porcius Licinius--Pompilius--Valerius Aedituus.

CHAPTER IX.

_Prose Literature--History. Fabius Pictor--Macer_ (210-80 B.C.).

Early records--_Annales, Libri Lintei, Commentarii_, &c.--Narrow view of
history--Fabius--Cincius Alimentus--Cato--Creator of Latin prose--His
orations--His _Origines_--His treatise on agriculture--His miscellaneous
writings--_Catonis dicta_--Calpurnius Piso--Sempronius Asellio--Claudius
Quadrigarius Valerius Antias--Licinius Macer.

APPENDIX.--On the _Annales Pontificum_.

CHAPTER X.

_The History of Oratory before Cicero._

Comparison of English, Greek, and Roman oratory--Appius-Cornelius
Cethegus--Cato--Laelius--The younger Scipio--Galba--Carbo--The Gracchi--
Self-praise of ancient orators--Aemilius Scaurus--Rutilius--Catulus--A
violent death often the fate of a Roman orator--M. Antonius--Crassus--The
Roman law-courts--Bribery and corruption prevalent in them--Feelings and
prejudices appealed to--Cotta and Sulpicius--Carbo the younger--
Hortensius--His friendship for Cicero--Asiatic and Attic styles.

CHAPTER XI.

_Other kinds of Prose Literature: Grammar, Rhetoric, and Philosophy_
(147-63 B.C.).

Legal writers--P. Mucius Scaevola--Q. Mucius Scaevola--Rhetoric--
Plotius Gallus--Cornificius--Grammatical science--Aelius Stilo--
Philosophy--Amafinius--Rabirius--Relation of philosophy to
religion.

BOOK II.

THE GOLDEN AGE.
FROM THE CONSULSHIP OF CICERO TO THE DEATH OF AUGUSTUS (63 B.C.-l4 A.D.).

PART I.

_THE REPUBLICAN PERIOD_.

CHAPTER I.

_Varro._

The two Divisions of this culminating period--Classical authors--Varro
--His life, his character, his encyclopaedic mind--His _Menippean
Satires_--_Logistorici_-_Antiquities Divine and Human_--_Imagines_--_De
Lingua Latina_--_De Re Rustica_.

APPENDIX.--Note I. The Menippean Satires of Varro,
" II. The _Logistorici_,
" III. Fragments of Atacinus,
" IV. The Jurists, Critics, and Grammarians of less note.

CHAPTER II.

_Oratory and Philosophy--Cicero_ (106-43 B.C.).

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 oratory--Analysis of _Pro Milone_--His
Philosophy, moral and political--On the existence of God and the human
soul--List of his philosophical works--His rhetorical works--His letters--
His contemporaries and successors.

APPENDIX.--Poetry of M. and Q. Cicero.

CHAPTER III.

_Historical and Biographical Composition--Caesar--Nepos--Sallust._

Roman view of history--Caesar's _Commentaries_--Trustworthiness of his
statements--His style--A. Hirtius--Other writers of commentaries--Caesar's
oratorical and scientific position--Cornelius Nepos--C. Sallustius
Crispus--Tubero.

APPENDIX.--On the _Acta Diurna_ and _Acta Senatus_.

CHAPTER IV.

_The History of Poetry to the Close of the Republic--Rise of
Alexandrinism--Lucretius---Catullus._

The Drama--J. Caesar Strabo--The _Mimae_--D. Laberius--Publilius
Syrus--Matius--Pantomimi--Actors--The poetry of Cicero and Caesar--
Alexandria and its writers--Aratus--Callimachus--Apollonius Rhodius--
Euphorion--Lucretius--His philosophical opinions and style--Bibaculus--
Varro Atacinus--Calvus--Catullus--Lesbia.

APPENDIX.--Note I. On the Use of Alliteration in Latin Poetry,
" II. Some additional details on the History of the _Mimus_,
" III. Fragments of Valerius Soranus.

PART II.

_THE AUGUSTAN EPOCH_ (42 B.C.-l4 A.D.).

CHAPTER I.

_General Characteristics._

Common features of the Augustan authors--Augustus's relation to them
--Maecenas--The Apotheosis of the emperor--Rhetoricians not orators--
Historians--Jurists--Poets--Messala--Varius--Anser--Macer.

CHAPTER II.

_Virgil_ (70-19 B.C.)

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 _Aeneid_--The _Aeneid_ a religious poem
--Its relation to preceding poetry.

APPENDIX.--Note I. Imitations of Virgil in Propertius, Ovid, and
Manilius,
" II. On the shortening of final o in Latin poetry,
" III. On parallelism in Virgil's poetry,
" IV. On the Legends connected with Virgil.

CHAPTER III.

_Horace_ (65-8 B.C.).

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_ and _Epistles_--Horace as a moralist--The _Ars
Poetica_--Horace's literary criticism--Lesser poets.

CHAPTER IV.

_The Elegiac Poets--Gratius--Manilius._

Roman elegy--Cornelius Callus--Domitius Marsus--Tibullus--Propertius--
Ovid--His life--_The Art of Love_--His exile--Doubtful and spurious poems
--Lesser erotic and epic poets--Gratius--Manilius.

CHAPTER V.

_Prose Writers of the Augustan Age._

Oratory Neglected--Declamation takes its place--Porcius Latro--Annaeus
Seneca--History--Livy--Opportune appearance of his work--Criticism of his
method--Pompeius Trogus--Vitruvius--Grammarians--Fenestella--Verrius
Flaccus--Hyginus--Law and philosophy.

APPENDIX.--Note I. A _Suasoria_ translated from Seneca,
" II. Some Observations on the Theory of Rhetoric, from
Quintilian, Book III.

BOOK III.

THE DECLINE.
FROM THE ACCESSION OF TIBERIUS TO THE DEATH OF M. AURELIUS, A.D. 14-180.

CHAPTER I.

_The Age of Tiberius_ (14-37 A.D.).

Sudden collapse of letters--Cause of this--Tiberius--Changed position
of literature--Vellius Paterculus--Valerius Maximus--Celsus--Remmius
Palaemon--Germanicus--Phaedrus--Pomponius Secundus the tragedian.

CHAPTER II.

_The Reigns of Caligula, Claudius, and Nero_ (37-68 A.D.).

1. _Poets._

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 to life--Cornutus--Persius--Lucan
--Criticism of the _Pharsalia_--Eclogues of Calpurnius--The poem on Etna--
Tragedies of Seneca--The _apokolokuntosis_.

CHAPTER III.

_The Reigns of Caligula, Claudius, and Nero._

2. _Prose Writers--Seneca._

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 _teacher_ more than anything else--His
conception of philosophy--Supposed connection with Christianity--Estimate
of his character and style.

CHAPTER IV.

_The Reigns of Caligula, Claudius, and Nero._

3. _Other Prose Writers_.

Domitius Corbulo--Quintus Curtius--Columella--Pomponius Mela--
Valerius Protius--Petronius Arbiter--Account of his extant fragments.

APPENDIX.--Note I. The _Testamentum Porcelli_,
" II. On the MS. of Petronius.

CHAPTER V.

_The Reigns of the Flavian Emperors_ (69-96 A.D.).

1. _Prose Writers_.

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--The _Natural History_--Its character and
value--Quintilian--Account of his book _de Institutione Oratoria_--
Frontinus--A valuable and accurate writer--Grammatical studies.

APPENDIX.--Quintilian's Criticism on the Roman Authors.

CHAPTER VI.

_The Reigns of Vespasian, Titus, and Domitian_ (69-96 A.D.).

2. _Poets_.

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--The elder Statius--Statius--An extempore
poet--His public recitations--The _Silvae_--The _Thebaid_ and _Achilleid_
--His similes--Arruntius Stella--Martial--His death as recounted by Pliny
--The epigram--Other poets.

APPENDIX.--On the Similes of Virgil, Lucan, and Statius.

CHAPTER VII.

_The Reigns of Nerva and Trajan_ (96-117 A.D.).

Pliny the younger--His oratory--His correspondence--Letter to Trajan
--Velius Longus--Hyginus--Balbus--Flaccus--Juvenal--His life--A finished
declaimer--His character--His political views--Style--Tacitus--Dialogue on
eloquence--_Agricola_--_Germania_--_Histories_--Annals_
--Intended work on Augustus's reign--Style.

CHAPTER VIII.

_The Reigns of Hadrian and the Antonines_ (117-180 A.D.).

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--Salvius Julianus and Sextus Pomponius--Fronto--
His relations with Aurelius--List of his works--Gellius--Gaius--Poems of
the period--_Pervigilium Veneris_--Apuleius--_De Magia_--_Metamorphoses_
or Golden Ass--Cupid and Psyche--His philosophical works.

CHAPTER IX.

_State of Philosophical and Religious Thought during the Period of the
Antonines--Conclusion_.

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--Greek now the language of
general literature--Reconciliation of philosophy with religion--The
Platonist school--Apuleius--Doctrine of daemons--Decline of thought--
General review of the main features of Roman literature-Conclusion.

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE

LIST OF EDITIONS RECOMMENDED

QUESTIONS OR SUBJECTS FOR ESSAYS, &c.

INTRODUCTION.

In the latter part of the seventeenth century, and during nearly the whole
of the eighteenth, the literature of Rome exercised an imperial sway over
European taste. Pope thought fit to assume an apologetic tone when he
clothed Homer in an English dress, and reminded the world that, as
compared with Virgil, the Greek poet had at least the merit of coming
first. His own mind was of an emphatically Latin order. The great poets of
his day mostly based their art on the canons recognised by Horace. And
when poetry was thus affected, it was natural that philosophy, history,
and criticism should yield to the same influence. A rhetorical form, a
satirical spirit, and an appeal to common sense as supreme judge, stamp
most of the writers of western Europe as so far pupils of Horace, Cicero,
and Tacitus. At present the tide has turned. We are living in a period of
strong reaction. The nineteenth century not only differs from the
eighteenth, but in all fundamental questions is opposed to it. Its
products have been strikingly original. In art, poetry, science, the
spread of culture, and the investigation of the basis of truth, it yields
to no other epoch of equal length in the history of modern times. If we go
to either of the nations of antiquity to seek for an animating impulse, it
will not be Rome but Greece that will immediately suggest itself to us.
Greek ideas of aesthetic beauty, and Greek freedom of abstract thought,
are being disseminated in the world with unexampled rapidity. Rome, and
her soberer, less original, and less stimulating literature, find no place
for influence. The readiness with which the leading nations drink from the
well of Greek genius points to a special adaptation between the two.
Epochs of upheaval, when thought is rife, progress rapid, and tradition,
political or religious, boldly examined, turn, as if by necessity, to
ancient Greece for inspiration. The Church of the second and third
centuries, when Christian thought claimed and won its place among the
intellectual revolutions of the world, did not disdain the analogies of
Greek philosophy. The Renaissance owed its rise, and the Reformation much
of its fertility, to the study of Greek. And the sea of intellectual
activity which now surges round us moves ceaselessly about questions which
society has not asked itself since Greece started them more than twenty
centuries age. On the other hand, periods of order, when government is
strong and progress restrained, recognise their prototypes in the
civilisation of Rome, and their exponents in her literature. Such was the
time of the Church's greatest power: such was also that of the fully
developed monarchy in France, and of aristocratic ascendancy in England.
Thus the two literatures wield alternate influence; the one on the side of
liberty, the other on the side of government; the one as urging restless
movement towards the ideal, the other as counselling steady acceptance of
the real.

From a more restricted point of view, the utility of Latin literature may
be sought in the practical standard of its thought, and in the almost
faultless correctness of its composition. On the former there is no need
to enlarge, for it has always been amply recognised. The latter excellence
fits it above all for an educational use. There is probably no language
which in this respect comes near to it. The Romans have been called with
justice a nation of grammarians. The greatest commanders and statesmen did
not disdain to analyse the syntax and fix the spelling of their language.
From the outset of Roman literature a knowledge of scientific grammar
prevailed. Hence the act of composition and the knowledge of its theory
went hand in hand. The result is that among Roman classical authors scarce
a sentence can be detected which offends against logical accuracy, or
defies critical analysis. In this Latin stands alone. The powerful
intellect of an Aeschylus or Thucydides did not prevent them from
transgressing laws which in their day were undiscovered, and which their
own writing helped to form. Nor in modern times could we find a single
language in which the idioms of the best writers could be reduced to
conformity with strict rule. French, which at first sight appears to offer
such an instance, is seen on a closer view to be fuller of illogical
idioms than any other language; its symmetrical exactness arises from
clear combination and restriction of single forms to a single use.
English, at least in its older form, abounds in special idioms, and German
is still less likely to be adduced. As long, therefore, as a penetrating
insight into syntactical structure is considered desirable, so long will
Latin offer the best field for obtaining it. In gaining accuracy, however,
classical Latin suffered a grievous loss. It became a cultivated as
distinct from a natural language. It was at first separated from the
dialect of the people, and afterwards carefully preserved from all
contamination by it. Only a restricted number of words were admitted into
its select vocabulary. We learn from Servius that Virgil was censured for
admitting _avunculus_ into epic verse; and Quintilian says that the
prestige of ancient use alone permits the appearance in literature of
words like _balare_, _hinnire_, and all imitative sounds. [1] Spontaneity,
therefore, became impossible, and soon invention also ceased; and the
imperial writers limit their choice to such words as had the authority of
classical usage. In a certain sense, therefore, Latin was studied as a
dead language, while it was still a living one. Classical composition,
even in the time of Juvenal, must have been a labour analogous to, though,
of course, much less than, that of the Italian scholars of the sixteenth
century. It was inevitable that when the repositaries of the literary
idiom were dispersed, it should at once fall into irrecoverable disuse;
and though never properly a dead language, should have remained as it
began, an artificially cultivated one. [2] An important claim on our
attention put forward by Roman literature is founded upon its actual
historical position. Imitative it certainly is. [3] But it is not the only
one that is imitative. All modern literature is so too, in so far as it
makes a conscious effort after an external standard. Rome may seem to be
more of a copyist than any of her successors; but then they have among
other models Rome herself to follow. The way in which Roman taste,
thought, and expression have found their way into the modern world, makes
them peculiarly worthy of study; and the deliberate method of undertaking
literary composition practised by the great writers and clearly traceable
in their productions, affords the best possible study of the laws and
conditions under which literary excellence is attainable. Rules for
composition would be hard to draw from Greek examples, and would need a
Greek critic to formulate them. But the conscious workmanship of the
Romans shows us technical method as separable from the complex aesthetic
result, and therefore is an excellent guide in the art.

The traditional account of the origin of literature at Rome, accepted by
the Romans themselves, is that it was entirely due to contact with Greece.
Many scholars, however, have advanced the opinion that, at an earlier
epoch, Etruria exercised an important influence, and that much of that
artistic, philosophical, and literary impulse, which we commonly ascribe
to Greece, was in its elements, at least, really due to her. Mommsen's
researches have re-established on a firmer basis the superior claims of
Greece. He shows that Etruscan civilisation was itself modelled in its
best features on the Hellenic, that it was essentially weak and
unprogressive and, except in religion (where it held great sway) and in
the sphere of public amusements, unable permanently to impress itself upon
Rome. [4] Thus the literary epoch dates from the conquest of Magna
Graecia. After the fall of Tarentum the Romans were suddenly familiarised
with the chief products of the Hellenic mind; and the first Punic war
which followed, unlike all previous wars, was favourable to the effects of
this introduction. For it was waged far from Roman soil, and so relieved
the people from those daily alarms which are fatal to the calm demanded by
study. Moreover it opened Sicily to their arms, where, more than in any
part of Europe except Greece itself, the treasures of Greek genius were
enshrined. A systematic treatment of Latin literature cannot therefore
begin before Livius Andronicus. The preceding ages, barren as they were of
literary effort, afford little to notice except the progress of the
language. To this subject a short essay has been devoted, as well as to
the elements of literary development which existed in Rome before the
regular literature. There are many signs in tradition and early history of
relations between Greece and Rome; as the decemviral legislation, the
various consultations of the Delphic Oracle, the legends of Pythagoras and
Numa, of Lake Regillus, and, indeed, the whole story of the Tarquins; the
importation of a Greek alphabet, and of several names familiar to Greek
legend--_Ulysses, Poenus, Catamitus_, &c.--all antecedent to the Pyrrhic
war. But these are neither numerous enough nor certain enough to afford a
sound basis for generalisation. They have therefore been merely touched on
in the introductory essays, which simply aim at a compendious registration
of the main points; all fuller information belonging rather to the
antiquarian department of history and to philology than to a sketch of the
written literature. The divisions of the subject will be those naturally
suggested by the history of the language, and recently adopted by Teuffel,
_i.e._--