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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1. The sixth and seventh centuries of the city (240-80 B.C.), from Livius
to Sulla.
2. The Golden Age, from Cicero to Ovid (80 B.C.-A.D. 14).
3. The period of the Decline, from the accession of Tiberius to the death
of Marcus Aurelius (14-180 A.D.).
These Periods are distinguished by certain strongly marked
characteristics. The First, which comprises the history of the legitimate
drama, of the early epos and satire, and the beginning of prose
composition, is marked by immaturity of art and language, by a vigorous
but ill-disciplined imitation of Greek poetical models, and in prose by a
dry sententiousness of style, gradually giving way to a clear and fluent
strength, which was characteristic of the speeches of Gracchus and
Antonius. This was the epoch when literature was popular; or at least more
nearly so than at any subsequent period. It saw the rise and fall of
dramatic art: in other respects it merely introduced the forms which were
carried to perfection in the Ciceronian and Augustan ages. The language
did not greatly improve in smoothness, or adaptation to express finished
thought. The ancients, indeed, saw a difference between Ennius, Pacuvius,
and Accius, but it may be questioned whether the advance would be
perceptible by us. Still the _labor limae_ unsparingly employed by
Terence, the rules of good writing laid down by Lucilius, and the labours
of the great grammarians and orators at the close of the period, prepared
the language for that rapid development which it at once assumed in the
masterly hands of Cicero.
The Second Period represents the highest excellence in prose and poetry.
The prose era came first, and is signalised by the names of Cicero,
Sallust, and Caesar. The celebrated writers were now mostly men of action
and high position in the state. The principles of the language had become
fixed; its grammatical construction was thoroughly understood, and its
peculiar genius wisely adapted to those forms of composition in which it
was naturally capable of excelling. The perfection of poetry was not
attained until the time of Augustus. Two poets of the highest renown had
indeed flourished in the republican period; but though endowed with lofty
genius they are greatly inferior to their successors in sustained art,
_e.g._ the constructions of prose still dominate unduly in the domain of
verse, and the intricacies of rhythm are not fully mastered. On the other
hand, prose has, in the Augustan age, lost somewhat of its breadth and
vigour. Even the beautiful style of Livy shows traces of that intrusion of
the poetic element which made such destructive inroads into the manner of
the later prose writers. In this period the writers as a rule are not
public men, but belong to what we should call the literary class. They
wrote not for the public but for the select circle of educated men whose
ranks were gradually narrowing their limits to the great injury of
literature. If we ask which of the two sections of this period marks the
most strictly national development, the answer must be--the Ciceronian;
for while the advancement of any literature is more accurately tested by
its prose writers than by its poets, this is specially the case with the
Romans, whose genius was essentially prosaic. Attention now began to be
bestowed on physical science, and the applied sciences also received
systematic treatment. The rhetorical element, which had hitherto been
overpowered by the oratorical, comes prominently forward; but it does not
as yet predominate to a prejudicial extent.
The Third Period, though of long duration, has its chief characteristics
clearly defined from the beginning. The foremost of these is unreality,
arising from the extinction of freedom and consequent loss of interest in
public life. At the same time, the Romans, being made for political
activity, did not readily content themselves with the less exciting
successes of literary life. The applause of the lecture-room was a poor
substitute for the thunders of the assembly. Hence arose a declamatory
tone, which strove by frigid and almost hysterical exaggeration to make up
for the healthy stimulus afforded by daily contact with affairs. The vein
of artificial rhetoric, antithesis, and epigram, which prevails from Lucan
to Fronto, owes its origin to this forced contentment with an uncongenial
sphere. With the decay of freedom, taste sank, and that so rapidly that
Seneca and Lucan transgress nearly as much against its canons as writers
two generations later. The flowers which had bloomed so delicately in the
wreath of the Augustan poets, short-lived as fragrant, scatter their
sweetness no more in the rank weed-grown garden of their successors.
The character of this and of each epoch will be dwelt on more at length as
it comes before us for special consideration, as well as the social or
religious phenomena which influenced the modes of thought or expression.
The great mingling of nationalities in Rome during the Empire necessarily
produced a corresponding divergence in style, if not in ideas.
Nevertheless, although we can trace the national traits of a Lucan or a
Martial underneath their Roman culture, the fusion of separate elements in
the vast capital was so complete, or her influence so overpowering, that
the general resemblance far outweighs the differences, and it is easy to
discern the common features which signalise unmistakeably the writers of
the Silver Age.
BOOK I.
CHAPTER I.
ON THE EARLIEST REMAINS OF THE LATIN LANGUAGE.
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 [1] by the Celts and Teutons, existed
in Italy at a remote period is indeed highly probable; but it has not been
clearly demonstrated. At the dawn of the historic period, we find the
Messapian and Iapygian races inhabiting the extreme south and south-west
of Italy; and assuming, as we must, that their migrations had proceeded by
land across the Apennines, we shall draw the inference that they had been
gradually pushed by stronger immigrants into the furthest corner of the
Peninsula. Thus we conclude with Mommsen that they are to be regarded as
the historical aborigines of Italy. They form no part, however, of the
Italian race. Weak and easily acted upon, they soon ceased to have any
influence on the immigrant tribes, and within a few centuries they had all
but disappeared as a separate nation. The Italian races, properly so
called, who possessed the country at the time of the origin of Rome, are
referable to two main groups, the Latin and the Umbrian. Of these, the
Latin was numerically by far the smaller, and was at first confined within
a narrow and somewhat isolated range of territory. The Umbrian stock,
including the Samnite or Oscan, the Volscian and the Marsian, had a more
extended area. At one time it possessed the district afterwards known as
Etruria, as well as the Sabellian and Umbrian territories. Of the numerous
dialects spoken by this race, two only are in some degree known to us
(chiefly from inscriptions) the Umbrian and the Oscan. These show a close
affinity with one another, and a decided, though more distant,
relationship with the Latin. All three belong to a well-marked division of
the Indo-European speech, to which the name of _Italic_ is given. Its
nearest congener is the Hellenic, the next most distant being the Celtic.
The Hellenic and Italic may thus be called sister languages, the Celtic
standing in the position of cousin to both, though, on the whole, more
akin to the Italic. [2]
The Etruscan language is still a riddle to philologists, and until it is
satisfactorily investigated the ethnological position of the people that
spoke it must be a matter of dispute. The few words and forms which have
been deciphered lend support to the otherwise more probable theory that
they were an Indo-Germanic race only remotely allied to the Italians, in
respect of whom they maintained to quite a late period many distinctive
traits. [3] But though the Romans were long familiar with the literature
and customs of Etruria, and adopted many Etruscan words into their
language, neither of these causes influenced the literary development of
the Romans in any appreciable degree. Italian philology and ethnology have
been much complicated by reference to the Etruscan element. It is best to
regard it, like the Iapygian, as altogether outside the pale of genuine
Italic ethnography.
The main points of correspondence between the Italic dialects as a whole,
by which they are distinguished from the Greek, are as follow:--Firstly,
they all retain the spirants S, J (pronounced Y), and V, _e.g. sub,
vespera, janitrices_, beside _upo, espera, einateres_. Again, the Italian
_u_ is nearer the original sound than the Greek. The Greeks sounded _u_
like _ii_, and expressed the Latin _u_ for the most part by _ou_. On the
other hand the Italians lost the aspirated letters _th, ph, ch_, which
remain in Greek, and frequently omitted the simple aspirate. They lost
also the dual both in nouns and verbs, and all but a few fragmentary forms
of the middle verb. In inflexion they retain the sign of the ablative
(_d_), and, at least in Latin, the dat. plur. in _bus_. They express the
passive by the letter _r_, a weakened form of the reflexive, the principle
of which is reproduced in more than one of the Romance languages.
On the other hand, Latin differs from the other Italian dialects in
numerous points. In pronouns and elsewhere Latin _q_ becomes _p_ in
Umbrian and Oscan _(pis = quis)._ Again, Oscan had two vowels more than
Latin and was much more conservative of diphthongal sounds; it also used
double consonants, which old Latin did not. The Oscan and Umbrian
alphabets were taken from the Etruscan, the Latin from the Greek; hence
the former lacked O Q X, and used [Symbol] or [Symbol] (_san_ or soft _z_)
for _z_ (_zeta = ds_). They possessed the spirant F which they expressed
by [Symbol] and used the symbol [Symbol] to denote V or W. They preserved
the old genitive in _as_ or _ar_ (Lat. _ai, ae_) and the locative, both
which were rarely found in Latin; also the Indo-European future in _so_
(_didest, herest_) and the infin. in _um_ (_e.g. ezum = esse_).
The old Latin alphabet was taken from the Dorian alphabet of Cumae, a
colony from Chaleis, and consisted of twenty-one letters, A B C D E F Z H
I K L M N O P Q R S T V X, to which the original added three more, O or
[Symbol] (_th_), [Symbol] (_ph_), and [Symbol] (_ch_). These were retained
in Latin as numerals though not as letters, [Symbol] in the form of C=100,
[Symbol] or M as 1000, and [Symbol] or L as 50.
Of these letters Z fell out of use at an early period, its power being
expressed by S (_Saguntum = Zakunthos_) or SS (_massa = maza_). Its
rejection was followed by the introduction, of G. Plutarch ascribes this
change to Sp. Carvilius about 231 B.C., but it is found on inscriptions
nearly fifty years earlier. [4] In many words C was written for G down to
a late period, _e.g._ CN. was the recognised abbreviation for _Gnaeus_.
In Cicero's time Z was taken into use again as well as the Greek Y, and
the Greek combinations TH, PH, CH, chiefly for purposes of
transliteration. The Emperor Claudius introduced three fresh symbols, two
of which appear more or less frequently on monuments of his time. They are
[Symbol] or [Symbol], the inverted digamma, intended to represent the
consonantal V: [Symbol], or anti-sigma, to represent the Greek _psi_, and
[Symbol] to represent the Greek _upsilon_ with the sound of the French _u_
or German _u_. The second is not found in inscriptions.
Other innovations were the doubling of vowels to denote length, a device
employed by the Oscans and introduced at Rome by the poet Accius, though
Quintilian [5] implies that it was known before his time, and the doubling
of consonants which was adopted from, the Greek by Ennius. In Greek,
however, such doubling generally, though not always, has a philological
justification. [6]
The pronounciation of Latin has recently been the subject of much
discussion. It seems clear that the vowels did not differ greatly, if at
all, from the same as pronounced by the modern Italians. The distinction
between E and I, however, was less clearly marked, at least in the popular
speech. Inscriptions and manuscripts afford abundant instances of their
confusion. _Menerva leber magester_ are mentioned by Quintilian, [7] and
the employment of _ei_ for the _i_ of the dat. pl. of nouns of the second
declension and of _nobis vobis_, and of _e_ and _i_ indifferently for the
acc. pl. of nouns of the third declension, attest the similarity of sound.
That the spirant J was in all cases pronounced as Y there is scarcely room
for doubt. The pronunciation of V is still undetermined, though there is a
great preponderance of evidence in favour of the W sound having been the
original one. After the first century A.D. this semi-vowel began to
develop into the labiodental consonant _v_, the intermediate stage being a
labial _v_, such as one may often hear in South Germany at the present
day, and which to ordinary ears would seem undistinguishable from _w_.
There is little to remark about the other letters, except that S, N, and M
became very weak when final and were often entirely lost. S was
rehabilitated in the literary dialect in the time of Cicero, who speaks of
the omission to reckon it as _subrusticum_; but final M is always elided
before a vowel. An illustration of the way in which final M and N were
weakened may be found in the nasalised pronunciation of them in modern
French (_main, faim_). The gutturals C and G have by some been supposed to
have had from the first a soft sibilant sound before E and I; but from the
silence of all the grammarians on the subject, from the transcriptions of
C in Greek by _kappa_, not _sigma_ or _tau_, and from the inscriptions and
MSS. of the best ages not confusing CI with TI, we conclude that at any
rate until 200 A.D. C and G were sounded hard before all vowels. The
change operated quickly enough afterwards, and to a great extent through
the influence of the Umbrian which had used _d_ or _c_ before E and I for
some time.
In spelling much irregularity prevailed, as must always be the case where
there is no sound etymological theory on which to base it. In the earliest
inscriptions we find many inconsistencies. The case-signs _m_, _d_, are
sometimes retained, sometimes lost. In the second Scipionic epitaph we
have _oino (unum)_ side by side with _Luciom_. In the _Columna Rostrata_
(260 B.C.) we have _c_ for _g_, single instead of double consonants, _et_
for _it_ in _ornavet_, and _o_ for _u_ in terminations, all marks of
ancient spelling, contrasted with _maximos, maxumos; navebos, navebous;
praeda_, and other inconsistent or modern forms. Perhaps a later
restoration may account for these. In the decree of Aemilius, _posedisent_
and _possidere_ are found. In the _Lex Agraria_ we have _pequnia_ and
_pecunia_, in _S. C. de Bacchanalibus, senatuos_ and _nominus_ (gen.
sing.), _consoluerunt_ and _cosoleretur_, &c., showing that even in legal
documents orthography was not fixed. It is the same in the MSS. of ancient
authors. The oldest MSS. of Plautus, Lucretius, and Virgil, are consistent
in a considerable number of forms with themselves and with each other, but
vary in a still larger number. In antiquity, as at present, there was a
conflict between sound and etymology. A word was pronounced in one way;
science suggested that it ought to be written in another. This accounts
for such variations as _inperium, imperium; atque, adque; exspecto,
expecto;_ and the like (cases like _haud, haut; saxum, saxsum;_ are
different). The best writers could not decide between these conflicting
forms. A still greater fluctuation existed in English spelling in the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, [8] but it has since been overcome.
Great writers sometimes introduced spellings of their own. Caesar wrote
_Pompeiii_ (gen. sing.) for _Pompeii_, after the Oscan manner. He also
brought the superlative _simus_ into use. Augustus, following in his
steps, paid great attention to orthography. His inscriptions are a
valuable source of evidence for ascertaining the correctest spelling of
the time. During and after the time of Claudius affected archaisms crept
in, and the value both of inscriptions and MSS. is impaired, on the one
hand, by the pedantic endeavour to bring spelling into accord with archaic
use or etymology, and, on the other, by the increasing frequency of
debased and provincial forms, which find place even in authoritative
documents. In spite of the obscurity of the subject several principles of
orthography have been definitely established, especially with regard to
the older Latin, which will guide future editors. And the labours of
Ritschl, Corssen, and many others, cannot fail to bring to light the most
important laws of variability which have affected the spelling of Latin
words, so far as the variation has not depended on mere caprice. [9]
With these preliminary remarks we may turn to the chief monuments of the
old language, the difficulties and uncertainties of which have been
greatly diminished by recent research. They are partly inscriptions (for
the oldest period exclusively so), and partly public documents, preserved
in the pages of antiquarians. Much may be learnt from the study of coins,
which, though less ancient than some of the written literature, are often
more archaic in their forms. The earliest of the existing remains is the
song of the Arval Brothers, an old rustic priesthood (_qui sacra publica
faciunt propterea ut fruges ferant arva_), [10] dating from the times of
the kings. This fragment was discovered at Rome in 1778, on a tablet
containing the acts of the sacred college, and was supposed to be as
ancient as Romulus. The priesthood was a highly honourable office, its
members were chosen for life, and emperors are mentioned among them. The
yearly festival took place in May, when the fruits were ripe, and
consisted in a kind of blessing of the first-fruits. The minute and
primitive ritual was evidently preserved from very ancient times, and the
hymn, though it has suffered in transliteration, is a good specimen of
early Roman worship, the rubrical directions to the brethren being
inseparably united with the invocation to the Lares and Mars. According to
Mommsen's division of the lines, the words are--
ENOS, LASES, IUVATE, (_ter_)
NEVE LUE RUE, MARMAR, SINS (V. SERS) INCURRERE IN PLEORES. (_ter_)
SATUR FU, FERE MARS. LIMEN SALI. STA. BERBER. (_ter_)
SEMUNIS ALTERNEI ADVOCAPIT CONCTOS. (_ter_)
ENOS, MARMOR, IUVATO. (_ter_)
TRIUMPE. (_Quinquies_)
The great difference between this rude dialect and classical Latin is
easily seen, and we can well imagine that this and the Salian hymn of Numa
were all but unintelligible to those who recited them. [11] The most
probable rendering is as follows:--"Help us, O Lares! and thou, Marmar,
suffer not plague and ruin to attack our folk. Be satiate, O fierce Mars!
Leap over the threshold. Halt! Now beat the ground. Call in alternate
strain upon all the heroes. Help us, Marmor. Bound high in solemn
measure." Each line was repeated thrice, the last word five times.
As regards the separate words, _enos_, which should perhaps be written _e
nos_, contains the interjectional _e_, which elsewhere coalesces with
vocatives. [12] _Lases_ is the older form of _Lares_. _Lue rue = luem
ruem_, the last an old word for _ruinam_, with the case-ending lost, as
frequently, and the copula omitted, as in _Patres Conscripti_, &c.
_Marmar, Marmor_, or _Mamor_, is the reduplicated form of _Mars_, seen in
the Sabine _Mamers_. _Sins_ is for _sines_, as _advocapit_ for
_advocabitis_. [13] _Pleores_ is an ancient form of _plures_, answering to
the Greek _pleionas_ in form, and to _tous pollous_, "the mass of the
people" in meaning. _Fu_ is a shortened imperative. [14] _Berber_ is for
_verbere_, imper. of the old _verbero, is_, as _triumpe_ from _triumpere_
= _triumphare_. _Semunes_ from _semo_ (_se-homo_ "apart from man") an
inferior deity, as we see from the Sabine _Semo Sancus_ (= _Dius Fidius_).
Much of this interpretation is conjectural, and other views have been
advanced with regard to nearly every word, but the above given is the most
probable.
The next fragment is from the Salian hymn, quoted by Varro. [15] It
appears to be incomplete. The words are:
"Cozeulodoizeso. Omnia vero adpatula coemisse iamcusianes duo
misceruses dun ianusve vet pos melios eum recum...," and a little
further on, "divum empta cante, divum deo supplicante."
The most probable transcription is:
"Chorauloedus ero; Omnia vero adpatula concepere Iani curiones. Bonus
creator es. Bonus Janus vivit, quo meliorem regum [terra Saturnia
vidit nullum]"; and of the second, "Deorum impetu canite, deorum deum
suppliciter canite."
Here we observe the ancient letter _z_ standing for _s_ and that for _r_,
also the word _cerus_ masc. of _ceres_, connected with the root _creare_.
_Adpatula_ seems = _clara_. Other quotations from the Salian hymns occur
in Festus and other late writers, but they are not considerable enough to
justify our dwelling upon them. All of them will be found in Wordsworth's
_Fragments and Specimens of early Latin_.
There are several fragments of laws said to belong to the regal period,
but they have been so modernised as to be of but slight value for the
purpose of philological illustration. One or two primitive forms, however,
remain. In a law of Romulus, we read _Si nurus ... plorassit ... sacra
divis parendum estod_, where the full form of the imperative occurs, the
only instance in the whole range of the language. [16] A somewhat similar
law, attributed to Numa, contains some interesting forms:
"Si parentem puer verberit asi ole plorasit, puer divis parentum
verberat? ille ploraverit diis
sacer esto."
Much more interesting are the scanty remains of the Laws of the Twelve
Tables (451, 450 B.C.). It is true we do not possess the text in its
original form. The great destruction of monuments by the Gauls probably
extended to these important witnesses of national progress. Livy, indeed,
tells us that they were recovered, but it was probably a copy that was
found, and not the original brass tables, since we never hear of these
latter being subsequently exhibited in the sight of the people. Their
style is bold and often obscure, owing to the omission of distinctive
pronouns, though doubtless this obscurity would be greatly lessened if we
had the entire text. Connecting particles are also frequently omitted, and
the interdependence of the moods is less developed than in any extant
literary Latin. For instance, the imperative mood is used in all cases,
permissive as well as jussive, _Si nolet arceram ne sternito_, "If he does
not choose, he need not procure a covered car." The subjunctive is never
used even in conditionals, but only in final clauses. Those which seem to
be subjunctives are either present indicatives (_e.g. escit, vindicit_) or
second futures (_e.g. faxit, rupsit_.). The ablative absolute, so strongly
characteristic of classical Latin, is never found, or only in one doubtful
instance. The word _igitur_ occurs frequently in the sense of "after
that," "in that case," a meaning which it has almost lost in the literary
dialect. Some portion of each Table is extant. We subjoin an extract from
the first.
"1. Si in ius vocat, ito. Ni it, antestamino: igitur em capito. Si calvitur
antestetur postea eum frustratur
pedemve struit, manum endo iacito
iniicito
2. Rem ubi pacunt orato. Ni pacunt, in comitio aut in foro ante
pagunt (cf. pacisci)
meridiem caussam coiciunto. Com peroranto ambo praesentes.
Una
Post meridiem praesenti litem addicito. Si ambo praesentes, Sol occasus
suprema tempestas esto."
The difference between these fragments and the Latin of Plautus is really
inconsiderable. But we have the testimony of Polybius [17] with regard to
a treaty between Rome and Carthage formed soon after the Regifugium (509
B.C.), and therefore not much anterior to the Decemvirs, that the most
learned Romans could scarcely understand it. We should infer from this
that the language of the Twelve Tables, from being continually quoted to
meet the exigencies of public life, was unconsciously moulded into a form
intelligible to educated men; and that this process continued until the
time when literary activity commenced. After that it remained untouched;
and, in fact, the main portion of the laws as now preserved shows a strong
resemblance to the Latin of the age of Livius, who introduced the written
literature.
The next specimen will be the _Columna Rostrata_, or Column of Duillius.
The original monument was erected to commemorate his naval victory over
the Carthaginians, 260 B.C., but that which at present exists is a
restoration of the time of Claudius. It has, however, been somewhat
carelessly done, for several modernisms have crept into the language. But
these are not sufficient to disprove its claim to be a true restoration of
an ancient monument. To consider it a forgery is to disregard entirely the
judgment of Quintilian, [18] who takes its genuineness for granted. It is
in places imperfect--
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