A History of Roman Literature by Charles Thomas Cruttwell
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Charles Thomas Cruttwell >> A History of Roman Literature
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There are few things pleasanter in the history of literature than the
friendship of these two great men, untinctured, at least on Hortensius's
part, by any drop of jealousy; and on Cicero's, though now and then
overcast by unworthy suspicions, yet asserted afterwards with a warm
generosity and manly confession of his weakness which left nothing to be
desired. Though there were but eight years between them, Hortensius must
be held to belong to the older period, since Cicero's advent constitutes
an era.
The chief events in the life of Hortensius are as follows. He served two
campaigns in the Social War (91 B.C.), but soon after gave up military
life, and took no part in the civil struggles that followed. His
ascendancy in the courts dates from 83 B.C. and continued till 70 B.C.
when Cicero dethroned him by the prosecution of Verres. Hortensius was
consul the following year, and afterwards we find him appearing as
advocate on the senatorial side against the self-styled champions of the
people, whose cause at that time Cicero espoused (_e.g._ in the Gabinian
and Manilian laws). When Cicero, after his consulship (63 B.C.), went over
to the aristocratic party, he and Hortensius appeared regularly on the
same side, Hortensius conceding to him the privilege of speaking last,
thus confessing his own inferiority. The party character of great criminal
trials has already been alluded to, and is an important element in the
consideration of them. A master of eloquence speaking for a senatorial
defendant before a jury of equites, might hope, but hardly expect, an
acquittal; and a senatorial orator, pleading before jurymen of his own
order needed not to exercise the highest art in order to secure a
favourable hearing. It has been suggested [45] that his fame is in part
due to the circumstance, fortunate for him, that he had to address the
courts as reorganised by Sulla. The coalition of Pompey, Caesar, and
Crassus (60 B.C.), sometimes called the _first Triumvirate_, showed
plainly that the state was near collapse; and Hortensius, despairing of
its restitution, retired from public life, confining himself to the duties
of an advocate, and more and more addicting himself to refined pleasures.
The only blot on his character is his unscrupulousness in dealing with the
judges. Cicero accuses him [46] of bribing them on one occasion, and the
fact that he was not contradicted, though his rival was present, makes the
accusation more than probable. The fame of Hortensius waned not only
through Cicero's superior lustre, but also because of his own lack of
sustained effort. The peculiar style of his oratory is from this point of
view so ably criticised by Cicero that, having no remains of Hortensius to
judge by, we translate some of his remarks. [47]
"If we inquire why Hortensius obtained more celebrity in his youth than in
his mature age, we shall find there are two good reasons. First because
his style of oratory was the Asiatic, which is more becoming to youth than
to age. Of this style there are two divisions; the one sententious and
witty, the sentiments neatly turned and graceful rather than grave or
sedate: an example of this in history is Timaeus; in oratory during my own
boyhood there was Hierocles of Alabanda, and still more his brother
Menecles, both whose speeches are, considering their style, worthy of the
highest praise. The other division does not aim at a frequent use of pithy
sentiment, but at rapidity and rush of expression; this now prevails
throughout Asia, and is characterised not only by a stream of eloquence
but by a graceful and ornate vocabulary: Aeschylus of Cnidos, and my own
contemporary Aeschines the Milesian, are examples of it. They possess a
fine flow of speech, but they lack precision and grace of sentiment. Both
these classes of oratory suit young men well, but in older persons they
show a want of dignity. Hence Hortensius, who excelled in both, obtained
as a young man the most tumultuous applause. For he possessed that strong
leaning for polished and condensed maxims which Menecles displayed; as
with whom, so with Hortensius, some of these maxims were more remarkable
for sweetness and grace than for aptness and indispensable use; and so his
speech, though highly strung and impassioned without losing finish or
smoothness, was nevertheless not approved by the older critics. I have
seen Philippus hide a smile, or at other times look angry or annoyed; but
the youths were lost in admiration, and the multitude was deeply moved. At
that time he was in popular estimation almost perfect, and held the first
place without dispute. For though his oratory lacked authority, it was
thought suitable to his age; but when his position as a consular and a
senator demanded a weightier style, he still adhered to the same; and
having given up his former unremitting study and practice, retained only
the neat concise sentiments, but lost the rich adornment with which in old
times he had been wont to clothe his thoughts."
The _Asiatic_ style to which Cicero here alludes, was affected, as its
name implies, by the rhetoricians of Asia Minor, and is generally
distinguished from the _Attic_ by its greater profusion of verbal
ornament, its more liberal use of tropes, antithesis, figures, &c. and,
generally, by its inanity of thought. Rhodes, which had been so well able
to appreciate the eloquence of Aeschines and Demosthenes, first opened a
crusade against this false taste, and Cicero (who himself studied at
Rhodes as well as Athens) brought about a similar return to purer models
at Rome. The Asiatic style represents a permanent type of oratorical
effort, the desire to use word-painting instead of life-painting,
turgidity instead of vigour, allusiveness instead of directness, point
instead of wit, frigid inflation instead of real passion. It borrows
poetical effects, and heightens the colour without deepening the shade. In
Greece Aeschines shows some traces of an Asiatic tendency as contrasted
with the soberer self-restraint of Demosthenes. In Rome Hortensius, as
contrasted with Cicero, and even Cicero himself, according to some
critics, as contrasted with Brutus and Calvus,--though this charge is
hardly well-founded,--in France Bossuet, in England Burke, have leaned
towards the same fault.
We have now traced the history of Roman Oratory to the time of Cicero, and
we have seen that it produces names of real eminence, not merely in the
history of Rome, but in that of humanity. The loss to us of the speeches
of such orators as Cato, Gracchus, Antonius, and Crassus is incalculable;
did we possess them we should be able form a truer estimate of Roman
genius than if we possessed the entire works of Ennius, Pacuvius, or
Attius. For the great men who wielded this tremendous weapon were all
burgesses of Rome, they had all the good and all the bad qualities which
that name suggests, many of them in an extraordinary degree. They are all
the precursors, models, or rivals of Cicero, the greatest of Roman
orators; and in them the true structure of the language as well as the
mind of Rome would have been fully, though unconsciously, revealed. If the
literature of a country be taken as the expression in the field of thought
of the national character as pourtrayed in action, this group of orators
would be considered the most genuine representative of Roman literature.
The permanent contributions to human thought would indeed have been few:
neither in eloquence nor in any other domain did Rome prove herself
creative, but in eloquence she at least showed herself beyond expression
masculine and vigorous. The supreme interest of her history, the massive
characters of the men that wrought it, would here have shown themselves in
the working; men whose natures are a riddle to us, would have stood out,
judged by their own testimony, clear as statues; and we should not have
had so often to pin our faith on the biassed views of party, or the
uncritical panegyrics of school-bred professors or courtly rhetoricians.
The next period shows us the culmination, the short bloom, and the sudden
fall of national eloquence, when with the death of Cicero the "Latin
tongue was silent," [48] and as he himself says, _clamatores_ not
_oratores_ were left to succeed him.
CHAPTER XI.
OTHER KINDS OF PROSE LITERATURE, GRAMMAR, RHETORIC, AND PHILOSOPHY
(147-63 B.C.).
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 disturbance there was generally an
interval in which philosophy, law, and rhetoric were carefully studied.
As, however, no work of this period has come down to us except the
treatise to Herennius, our notice of it will be proportionately general
and brief. We shall touch on the principal studies in order. First in time
as in importance comes Law, the earliest great representative of which is
P. MUCIUS SCAEVOLA, consul in 133 B.C. but better known as Pontifex
Maximus. In this latter office, which he held for several years, Mucius
did good service to literature. He united a high technical training with a
liberal mind, and superintended the publication of the _Annales
Pontificum_ from the earliest period to his own date. This was a great
boon to historians. He gave another to jurists. His _responsa_ were
celebrated for their insight into the principles of Law, and for the
minute knowledge they displayed. He was conscientious enough to study the
law of every case before he undertook to plead it, a practice which,
however commendable, was rare even with advocates of the highest fame, as,
for example, M. Antonius.
The jurisconsult of this period used to offer his services without payment
to any who chose to consult him. At first he appeared in the forum, but as
his fame and the number of applicants increased, he remained at home and
received all day. His replies were always oral, but when written down were
considered as authoritative, and often quoted by the orators. In return
for this laborious occupation, he expected the support of his clients in
his candidature for the offices of state. An anecdote is preserved of C.
Figulus, a jurisconsult, who, not having been successful for the
consulship, addressed his _consultores_ thus, "You know how to _consult_
me, but not (it seems) how to make me _consul_." [1] In addition to the
parties in a suit, advocates in other causes often came to a great
jurisconsult to be _coached_ in the law of their case. For instance,
Antonius, who, though a ready speaker, had no knowledge of jurisprudence,
often went to Scaevola for this purpose. Moreover there were always one or
two regular pupils who accompanied the jurisconsult, attended carefully to
his words, and committed them assiduously to memory or writing. Cicero
himself did this for the younger Scaevola, and thus laid the foundation of
that clear grasp on the civil law which was so great a help to him in his
more difficult speeches. It was not necessary that the pupil should
himself intend to become a _consultus_; it was enough that he desired to
acquire the knowledge for public purposes, although, of course, it
required great interest to procure for a young man so high a privilege.
Cicero was introduced to Scaevola by the orator Crassus. The family of the
Mucii, as noticed by Cicero, were traditionally distinguished by their
legal knowledge, as that of the Appii Claudii were by eloquence. The Augur
Q. MUCIUS SCAEVOLA who comes midway between Publius and his son Quintus
was somewhat less celebrated than either, but he was nevertheless a man of
eminence. He died probably in 87 B.C., and Cicero mentions that it was in
consequence of this event that he himself became a pupil of his nephew.
[2]
The great importance of Religious Law must not be forgotten in estimating
the acquirements of these men. Though to us the _Jus Augurale_ and _Jus
Pontificium_ are of small interest compared with the _Jus Civile_; yet to
the Romans of 120 B.C., and especially to an old and strictly aristocratic
family, they had all the attraction of exclusiveness and immemorial
authority. In all countries religious law exercises at first a sway far in
excess of its proper province, and Rome was no exception to the rule. The
publication of civil law is an era in civilization. Just as the
chancellorship and primacy of England were often in the hands of one
person and that an ecclesiastic, so in Rome the pontifices had at first
the making of almost all law. What a canonist was to Mediaeval Europe, a
pontifex was to senatorial Rome. In the time of which we are now speaking
(133-63 B.C.), the secular law had fully asserted its supremacy on its own
ground, and it was the dignity and influence, not the power of the post,
that made the pontificate so great an object of ambition, and so
inaccessible to upstart candidates. Even for Cicero to obtain a seat in
the college of augurs was no easy task, although he had already won his
way to the consulship and been hailed as the saviour of his country.
The younger Scaevola (Q. MUCIUS SCAEVOLA), who had been his father's
pupil, [3] and was the most eloquent of the three, was born about 135
B.C., was consul 95 with Licinius Crassus for his colleague, and
afterwards Pontifex Maximus. He was an accomplished Greek scholar, a man
of commanding eloquence, deeply versed in the Stoic philosophy, and of the
highest nobility of character. As Long well says, "He is one of those
illustrious men whose fame is not preserved by his writings, but in the
more enduring monument of the memory of all nations to whom the language
of Rome is known." His chief work, which was long extant, and is highly
praised by Cicero, was a digest of the civil law. Rudorff says of it, [4]
"For the first time we meet here with a comprehensive, uniform, and
methodical system, in the place of the old interpretation of laws and
casuistry, of legal opinions and prejudices." Immediately on its
publication it acquired great authority, and was commented upon within a
few years of the death of its author. It is quoted in the Digest, and is
the earliest work to which reference is there made. [5] He was especially
clear in definitions and distinctions, [6] and the grace with which he
invested a dry subject made him deservedly popular. Though so profound a
lawyer, he was quite free from the offensive stamp of the mere
professional man. His urbanity, unstained integrity, and high position,
fitted him to exercise a widespread influence. He had among his hearers
Cicero, as we have already seen, and among jurists proper, Aquillius
Gallus, Balbus Lucilius, and others, who all attained to eminence. His
virtue was such that his name became proverbial for probity as for legal
eminence. In Horace he is coupled with Gracchus as the ideal of a lawyer,
as the other of an orator.
"Gracchus ut hic illi foret, huic ut Mucius ille." [7]
The great oratorical activity of this age produced a corresponding
interest in the theory of eloquence. We have seen that many of the orators
received lessons from Greek rhetoricians. We have seen also the deep
attraction which rhetoric possessed over the Roman mind. It was, so to
speak, the form of thought in which their intellectual creations were
almost all cast. Such a maxim as that attributed to Scaevola, _Fiat
iustitia: ruat caelum_, is not legal but rhetorical. The plays of Attius
owed much of their success to the ability with which statement was pitted
against counter-statement, plea against plea. The philosophic works of
Cicero are coloured with rhetoric. Cases are advanced, refuted, or summed
up, with a view to presentability (_veri simile_), not abstract truth. The
history of Livy, the epic of Virgil, are eminently rhetorical. A Roman
when not fighting was pleading. It was, then, important that he should he
well grounded in the art. Greek rhetoricians, in spite of Cato's
opposition, had been steadily making way, and increasing the number of
their pupils; but it was not until about 93 B.C. that PLOTIUS GALLUS
taught the principles of Rhetoric in Latin. Quintilian says, [8] "_Latinos
dicendi praeceptores extremis L. Crassi temporibus coepisse Cicero auctor
est: quorum insignis maxime Plotius fuit._" He was the first of that long
list of writers who expended wit, learning, and industry, in giving
precepts of a mechanical character to produce what is unproduceable,
namely, a successful style of speaking. Their treatises are interesting,
for they show on the one hand the severe technical application which the
Romans were always willing to bestow in order to imitate the Greeks; and
on the other, the complex demands of Latin rhetoric as contrasted with the
simpler and more natural style of modern times.
The most important work on the subject is the treatise dedicated to
Herennius (80 B.C.), written probably in the time of Sulla, and for a long
time reckoned among Cicero's works. The reason for this confusion is
twofold. First, the anonymous character of the work; and, secondly, the
frequent imitations of it by Cicero in his _De Inventione_, an incomplete
essay written when he was a young man. Who the author was is not agreed;
the balance of probability is in favour of CORNIFICIUS. Kayser [9] points
out several coincidences between Cornificius's views, as quoted by
Quintilian, and the rhetorical treatise to Herennius. The author, whoever
he may be, was an accomplished man, and, while a warm admirer of Greek
eloquence, by no means disposed to concede the inferiority of his own
countrymen. His criticism upon the _inanitas_ [10] of the Greek manuals is
thoroughly just. They were simply guides to an elegant accomplishment, and
had no bearing on real life. It was quite different with the Roman
manuals. These were intended to fit the reader for forensic contests, and,
we cannot doubt, did materially help towards this result. It was only in
the imperial epoch that empty ingenuity took the place of activity, and
rhetoric sunk to the level of that of Greece. There is nothing calling for
special remark in the contents of the book, though all is good. The chief
points of interest in this subject will be discussed in a later chapter.
The style is pure and copious, the Latin that finished idiom which is the
finest vehicle for Roman thought, that spoken by the highest circles at
the best period of the language.
The science of Grammar was now exciting much attention. The Stoic writers
had formulated its main principles, and had assigned it a place in their
system of general philosophy. It remained for the Roman students to apply
the Greek treatment to their own language. Apparently, the earliest
labours were of a desultory kind. The poet Lucilius treated many points of
orthography, pronunciation, and the like; and he criticised inaccuracies
of syntax or metre in the poets who had gone before him. A little later we
find the same mine further worked. Quintilian observes that grammar began
at Rome by the exegesis of classical authors. Octavius Lampadio led the
van with a critical commentary on the _Punica_ of Naevius, and Q.
Vargunteius soon after performed the same office for the annals of Ennius.
The first scientific grammarian, was AELIUS STILO, a Roman knight (144-70
B.C.). His name was L. Aelius Praeconinus; he received the additional
cognomen _Stilo_ from the facility with which he used his pen, especially
in writing speeches for others to deliver. At the same time he was no
orator, and Cicero implies that better men often used his compositions
through mere laziness, and allowed them to pass as their own. [11] Cicero
mentions in more than one place that he himself had been an admiring pupil
of Aelius. And Lucilius addressed some of his satires to him, probably
those on grammar,
"Has res ad te scriptas Luci misimus Aeli;"
so that he is a bond of connection between the two epochs. His learning
was profound and varied. He dedicated his investigations to Varro, who
speaks warmly of him, but mentions that his etymologies are often
incorrect. He appears to have bestowed special care on Plautus, in which
department he was followed by Varro, some of the results of whose
criticism have been already given.
The impulse given by Stilo was rapidly extended. Grammar became a
favourite study with the Romans, as indeed it was one for which they were
eminently fitted. The perfection to which they carried the analysis of
sentences and the practical rules for correct speech as well as the
systematization of the accidence, has made their grammars a model for all
modern school-works. It is only recently that a deeper scientific
knowledge has reorganised the entire treatment, and substituted for
superficial analogy the true basis of a common structure, not only between
Greek and Latin, but among all the languages of the Indo-European class.
Nevertheless, the Roman grammarians deserve great praise for their
elaborate results in the sphere of correct writing. No defects of syntax
perplex the reader of the classical authors. Imperfect and unpliable the
language is, but never inexact. And though the meaning is often hard to
settle, this is owing rather to the inadequacy of the material than the
carelessness of the writer.
Side by side with rhetoric and grammar, Philosophy made its appearance at
Rome. There was no importation from Greece to which a more determined
resistance was made from the first by the national party. In the
consulship of Strabo and Messala (162 B.C.) a decree was passed banishing
philosophers and rhetoricians from Rome. Seven years later took place the
embassy of the three leaders of the most celebrated schools of thought,
Diogenes the Stoic, Critolaus the Peripatetic, and Carneades the New
Academician. The subtilty and eloquence of these disputants rekindled the
interest in philosophy which had been smothered, not quenched, by the
vigorous measures of the senate. There were two reasons why an interest in
these studies was dreaded. First, they tended to spread disbelief in the
state religion, by which the ascendency of the oligarchy was in great
measure maintained; secondly, they distracted men's minds, and diverted
them from that exclusive devotion to public life which the old _regime_
demanded. Nevertheless, some of the greatest nobles ardently espoused the
cause of free thought. After the war with Perseus, and the detention of
the Achaean hostages in Rome, many learned Greeks well versed in
philosophical inquiries were brought into contact with their conquerors in
a manner well calculated to promote mutual confidence. The most eminent of
these was Polybius, who lived for years on terms of intimacy with Scipio
and Laelius, and imparted to them his own wide views and varied knowledge.
From them may be dated the real study of Philosophy at Rome. They both
attained the highest renown in their lifetime and after their death for
their philosophical eminence, [12] but apparently they left no
philosophical writings. The spirit, however, in which they approached
philosophy is eminently characteristic of their nation, and determined the
lines in which philosophic activity afterwards moved.
In no department of thought is the difference between the Greek and Roman
mind more clearly seen; in none was the form more completely borrowed, and
the spirit more completely missed. The object of Greek philosophy had been
the attainment of absolute truth. The long line of thinkers from Thales to
Aristotle had approached philosophy in the belief that they could by it be
enabled to understand the cause of all that is. This lofty anticipation
pervades all their theories, and by its fruitful influence engenders that
wondrous grasp and fertility of thought [13] which gives their
speculations an undying value. It is true that in the later systems this
consciousness is less strongly present. It struggles to maintain itself in
stoicism and epicureanism against the rising claims of human happiness to
be considered as the goal of philosophy. In the New Academy (which in the
third century before Christ was converted to scepticism) and in the
sceptical school, we see the first confession of incapacity to discover
truth. Instead of certainties they offer probabilities sufficient to guide
us through life; the only axiom which they assert as incontrovertible
being the fact that we know nothing. Thus instead of proposing as the
highest activity of man a life of speculative thought, they came to
consider inactivity and impassibility [13] the chief attainable good.
Their method of proof was a dialectic which strove to show the
inconsistency or uncertainty of their opponent's positions, but which did
not and could not arrive at any constructive result. Philosophy (to use an
ancient phrase) had fallen from the sphere of _knowledge_ to that of
_opinion_. [15]
Of these _opinions_ there were three which from their definiteness were
well calculated to lay hold on the Roman mind. The first was that of the
Stoics, that virtue is the only good; the second that of the Epicureans,
that pleasure is the end of man; the third that of the Academy, that
nothing can be known. [16] These were by no means the only, far less the
exclusive characteristics of each school; for in many ways they all
strongly resembled each other, particularly stoicism and the New Academy;
and in their definition of what should be the practical result of their
principles all were substantially agreed. [17]
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