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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Though born in a high position, he seems to have stood aloof from society.
From first to last his book betrays the close and eager student. He was an
intimate friend of the worthless C. Memmius, whom he extols in a manner
creditable to his heart but not to his judgment. [48] But he was no
flatterer, nor was Memmius a patron. Poet and statesman lived on terms of
perfect equality. Of the date of his work we can so far conjecture that it
was certainly unfinished at his death (55 B.C.), and from its scope and
information must have extended over some years. The allusion [49]--
"Nam neque nos agere hoc patriai tempore iniquo
Possumus aequo animo, nec Memmi clara propago
Talibus in rebus communi desse saluti,"
is considered by Prof. Sellar to point to the praetorship of Memmius (58
B.C.). The work was long thought to have been edited by Cicero after the
poet's death; but though he had read the poem, [50] and admitted its
talent, he would doubtless have mentioned, at least to Atticus, the fact
of the editing, had it occurred. Some critics, arguing from Cicero's
silence and known opposition to the Epicurean tenets, have thought that
Jerome referred to Q. Cicero the orator's brother, but for this there is
no authority. The poem is entitled _De Rerum Natura_, an equivalent for
the Greek _peri physeos_, the usual title of the pre-Socratic
philosophers' works. The form, viz. a poem in heroic hexameters,
containing a carefully reasoned exposition, in which regard was had above
all to the claims of the subject-matter, was borrowed from the Sicilian
thinker Empedocles [51] (460 B.C.). But while Aristotle denies Empedocles
the title of _poet_ [52] on account of his scientific subject, no one
could think of applying the same criticism to Lucretius A general view of
nature, as the Power most near to man, and most capable of deeply moving
his heart, a Power whose beauty, variety, and mystery, were the source of
his most perplexing struggles as well as of his purest joys; a desire to
hold communion with her, and to learn from her lips, opened only to the
ear of faith, those secrets which are hid from the vain world; this was
the grand thought that stirred the depths of Lucretius's mind, and made
him the herald of a new and enduring form of verse. It has been well said
that didactic poetry was that in which the Roman was best fitted to
succeed. It was in harmony with his utilitarian character. [53] To give a
practically useful direction to its labour was almost demanded from the
highest poetry. To say nothing of Horace and Lucilius, Virgil's Aeneid, no
less than his Georgics, has a practical aim, and to an ardent spirit like
Lucretius, poetry would be the natural vehicle for the truths to which he
longed to convert mankind.
In the selection of his models, his choice fell upon the older Greek
writers, such as Empedocles, Aeschylus, Thucydides, men renowned for deep
thought rather than elegant expression; and among the Romans, upon Ennius
and Pacuvius, the giants of a ruder past. Among contemporaries, Cicero
alone seems to have awakened his admiration. Thus he stands altogether
aloof from the fashionable standard of his day, a solitary beacon pointing
to landmarks once well known, but now crumbling into decay. [54]
Lucretius is the only Roman in whom the love of speculative truth [55]
prevails over every other feeling. In his day philosophy had sunk to an
endless series of disputes about words [56] Frivolous quibbles and
captious logical proofs, comprised the highest exercises of the
speculative faculty. [57] The mind of Lucretius harks back to the glorious
period of creative enthusiasm, when Democritus, Empedocles, Anaxagoras,
Plato, Aristotle, Zeno, and Epicurus, successively believed that they had
solved the great questions of being and knowing. Amid the zeal and
confidence of that mighty time his soul is at home. To Epicurus as the
inventor of the true guide of life he pays a tribute of reverential
praise, calling him the pride of Greece, [58] and exalting him to the
position of a god. [59] It is clear to one who studies this deeply
interesting poet that his mind was in the highest degree reverential. No
error could have been more fatal to his enjoyment of that equanimity,
whose absence he deplores, than to select a creed, at once so joyless and
barren in itself, and so unsuited to his ardent temperament.
When Lucretius wrote, belief in the national religion had among the upper
classes become almost extinct. Those who needed conviction as a support
for their life had no resource but Greek philosophy. The speculations of
Plato, except in his more popular works, were not attractive to the
Romans; those of Aristotle, brought to light in Cicero's time by the
transference of Apellicon's library to Rome, [60] were a sealed book to
the majority, though certain works, probably dialogues after the Platonic
manner, gained the admiration of Cicero and Quintilian. The pre-Socratic
thinkers, occupied as they were with physical questions which had little
interest for Romans, were still less likely to be resorted to. The demand
for a supreme moral end made it inevitable that their choice should fall
on one of the two schools which offered such an end, those of the Porch
and the Garden. Which of the two would a man like Lucretius prefer? The
answer is not so obvious as it appears. For Lucretius has in him nothing
of the _Epicurean_ in our sense. His austerity is nearer to that of the
Stoic. It was the speculative basis underlying the ethical system, and not
the ethical system itself, that determined his choice. Epicurus had allied
his theory of pleasure [61] with the atomic theory of Democritus. Stoicism
had espoused the doctrine of Heraclitus, that fire is the primordial
element. Epicurus had denied the indestructibility of the soul and the
divine government of the world; his gods were unconnected with mankind,
and lived at ease in the vacant spaces between the worlds. Stoicism on the
contrary, had incorporated the popular theology, bringing it into
conformity with the philosophic doctrine of a single Deity by means of
allegorical interpretation. Its views of Divine Providence were
reconcilable with, while they elevated, the popular superstition.
Lucretius had a strong hatred for the abuses into which state-craft and
luxury had allowed the popular creed to fall; he was also firmly convinced
of the sufficiency of Democritus's two postulates (_Atoms_ and _the Void_)
to account for all the phenomena of the universe. Hence he gave his
unreserved assent to the Epicurean system, which he expounds, mainly in
its physical outlines, in his work; the ethical tenets being interwoven
with the bursts of enthusiastic poetry which break, or the countless
touches which adorn, the sustained course of his argument.
The defects of the ancient scientific method are not wanting in him.
Generalising from a few superficial instances, reasoning _a priori_,
instead of winning his way by observation and comparison up to the
Universal truth, fancying that it was possible for a single mind to grasp,
and for a system by a few bold hypotheses to explain, the problem of
external nature, of the soul, of the existence of the gods: such are the
obvious defects which Lucretius shares with his masters, and of which the
experience of ages has taught us the danger as well as the charm. But the
atomic system has features which render it specially interesting at the
present day. Its materialism, its attribution to nature of power
sufficient to carry out all her ends, its analysis of matter into ultimate
physical _individua_ incognisable by sense, while yet it insists that the
senses are the fountains of all knowledge, [62] are points which bring it
into correspondence with hypotheses at present predominant. Its theory of
the development of society from the lower to the higher without break and
without divine intervention, and of the survival of the fittest in the
struggle for existence, its denial of design and claim to explain
everything by natural law, are also points of resemblance. Finally, the
lesson he draws from this comfortless creed, not to sit with folded hands
in silent despair, nor to "eat and drink for to-morrow we die," but to
labour steadily for our greater good and to cultivate virtue in accordance
with reason, equally free from ambition and sloth, is strikingly like the
teaching of that scientific school [63] which claims for its system a
motive as potent to inspire self-denial as any that a more spiritual
philosophy can give.
Lucretius, therefore, gains moral elevation by deserting the conclusion of
Epicurus. While he does full justice to the poetical side of pleasure as
an end in itself, [64] he never insists on it as a motive to action. Thus
he retains the conception as a noble ornament of his verse, but reserves
to himself, as every poet must, the liberty to adopt another tone if he
feels it higher or more appropriate. Indeed, logical consistency of view
would be out of place in a poem; and Lucretius is nowhere a truer poet
that when he sins against his own canons. [65] His instinct told him how
difficult it was to combine clear reasoning with a poetical garb,
especially as the Latin language was not yet broken to the purposes of
philosophy. [66] Nevertheless so complete is his mastery of the subject
that there is scarcely a difficulty arising from want of clearness of
expression from beginning to end of the poem. There are occasional
_lacunae_, and several passages out of place, which were either stop-gaps
intended to be replaced by lines more appropriate, or additions made after
the first draft of the work, which, had the author lived, would have been
wrought into the context. The first three books are quite or nearly quite
finished, and from them we can judge his power of presenting an argument.
His chief object he states to be not the discovery, but the exposition of
truth, for the purpose of freeing men's minds from religious terrors. This
he announces immediately after the invocation to Venus, "Mother of the
Aeneadae," with which the poem opens. He then addresses himself to
Memmius, whom he intreats not to be deterred from reading him by the
reproach of "rationalism." [67] He next states his first principle, which
is the denial of creation:
"Nullam rem e nilo gigni divinitus unquam,"
and asks, What then is the original substance out of which existing things
have arisen? The answer is, "Atoms and the Void, and beside them nothing
else:" these two principles are solid, self-existent, indestructible, and
invisible. He next investigates and refutes the first principles of other
philosophers, notably Heraclitus, Empedocles, and Anaxagoras; and the book
ends with a short proof that the atoms are infinite in number and space
infinite in extent. The Second Book opens with a digression on the folly
of ambition; but, returning to the atoms, treats of the combination which
enables them to form and perpetuate the present variety of things. All
change is ultimately due to the primordial motion of the atoms. This
motion, naturally in a straight line, is occasionally deflected; and this
deflection accounts for the many variations from exact law. Moreover,
atoms differ in form, some being rough, others smooth, some round, others
square, &c. They are combined in infinite ways, which combinations give
rise to the so-called secondary properties of matter, colour, heat, smell,
&c. Innumerable other worlds besides our own exist; this one will probably
soon pass away; atoms and the void alone are eternal. In the Third Book
the poet attacks what he considers the stronghold of superstition. The
soul, mind, or vital principle is carefully discussed, and declared to be
material, being composed, indeed, of the finest atoms, as is shown by its
rapid movement, and the fact that it does not add to the weight of the
body, but in no wise _sui generis_, or differing in kind from other
matter. It is united with the body as the perfume with the incense, nor
can they be severed without destruction to both. They are born together,
grow together, and perish together. Death therefore is the end of being,
and life beyond the grave is not only impossible but inconceivable. Book
IV. treats of the images or idols cast off from the surface of bodies,
borne continually through space, and sometimes seen by sleepers in dreams,
or by sick people or others in waking visions. They are not illusions of
the senses; the illusion arises from the wrong interpretation we put upon
them. To these images the passion of love is traced; and with a brilliant
satire on the effects of yielding to it the book closes. The Fifth Book
examines the origin and formation of the solar system, which it treats not
as eternal after the manner of the Stoics, but as having had a definite
beginning, and as being destined to a natural and inevitable decay. He
applies his principle of "Fortuitous Concurrence" to this part of his
subject with signal power, but the faultiness of his method interferes
with the effect of his argument. The finest part of the book, and perhaps
of the whole poem, is his account of the "origin of species," and the
progress of human society. His views read like a hazy forecast of the
evolution doctrine. He applies his principle with great strictness; no
break occurs; experience alone has been the guide of life. If we ask,
however, whether he had any idea of _progress_ as we understand it, we
must answer no. He did not believe in the perfectibility of man, or in the
ultimate prevalence of virtue in the world. The last Book tries to show
the natural origin of the rarer and more gigantic physical phenomena,
thunderstorms, volcanoes, earthquakes, pestilence, &c. and terminates with
a long description of the plague of Athens, in which we trace many
imitations of Thucydides. This book is obviously unfinished; but the aim
of the work may be said to be so far complete that nowhere is the central
object lost sight of, viz., to expel the belief in divine interventions,
and to save mankind from all fear of the supernatural.
The value of the poem to us consists not in its contributions to science
but in its intensity of poetic feeling. None but a student will read
through the disquisitions on atoms and void. All who love poetry will feel
the charm of the digressions and introductions. These, which are
sufficiently numerous, are either resting-places in the process of proof,
when the writer pauses to reflect, or bursts of eloquent appeal which his
earnestness cannot repress. Of the first kind are the account of spring in
Book I. and the enumeration of female attractions in Book IV.; of the
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, [70] the attack on ambition and luxury,
[71] the pathetic description of the cow bereft of her calf, [72] the
indignant remonstrance with the man who fears to die. [73] In these, as in
innumerable single touches, the poet of original genius is revealed.
Virgil often works by allusion: Lucretius never does. All his effects are
gained by the direct presentation of a distinct image. He has in a high
degree the "seeing eye," which needs only a steady hand to body forth its
visions. Take the picture of Mars in love, yielding to Venus's prayer for
peace. [74] What can be more truly statuesque?
"Belli fera moenera Mavors
Armipotens regit, in gremium qui saepe tuum se
Reiicit aeterno devictus volnere amoris:
Atque ita suspiciens tereti cervice reposta
Pascit amore avidos inhians in te, dea, visus,
Eque tuo pendet resupini spiritus ore.
Hunc tu diva tuo recubantem corpore sancto
Circumfusa super suavis ex ore loquellas
Funde petens placidam Romanis, incluta, pacem."
Or, again, of nature's freedom:
"Libera continuo dominis privata superbis."
Who can fail in this to catch the tones of the Republic? Again, take his
description of the transmission of existence,
"Et quasi cursores vitai; lampada tradunt;"
or of the helplessness of medicine in time of plague,
"Mussabat tacito medicina timore."
These are a few examples of a power present throughout, filling his
reasonings with a vivid reality far removed from the conventional rhetoric
of most philosopher poets. [75] His language is Thucydidean in its
chiselled outline, its quarried strength, its living expressiveness. Nor
is his moral earnestness inferior. The end of life is indeed nominally
pleasure, [76] "_dux vitae dia voluptas_;" but really it is a pure heart,
"_At bene non poterat sine puro pectore vivi_." [77] He who first showed
the way to this was the true deity. [78] The contemplation of eternal law
will produce, not as the strict Epicureans say, _indifference_, [79] but
resignation. [80] This happiness is in our own power, and neither gods nor
men can take it away. The ties of family life are depicted with
enthusiasm, and though the active duties of a citizen are not recommended,
they are certainly not discouraged. But the knowledge of nature alone can
satisfy man's spirit, or enable him to lead a life worthy of the
immortals, and see with his mind's eye their mansions of eternal rest.
[81] Nothing can be further from the light treatment of deep problems
current among Epicureans than the solemn earnestness of Lucretius. He
cannot leave the world to its vanity and enjoy himself. He seeks to bring
men to his views, but at the same time he sees how hopeless is the task.
He becomes a pessimist: in Roman language, _he despairs of the Republic_.
He is a lonely spirit, religious even in his anti-religionism, full of
reverence, but ignorant what to worship; a splendid poet, feeding his
spirit on the husks of mechanical causation.
With regard to his language, there can be but one opinion. It is at times
harsh, at times redundant, at times prosaic; but at a time when "Greek,
and often debased Greek, had made fatal inroads into the national idiom,"
his Latin has the purity of that of Cicero or Terence. Like Lucilius, he
introduces single Greek words, [82] a practice which Horace wisely
rejects, [83] but which is revived in the poetry of the Empire. [84] His
poetical ornaments are those of the older writers. Archaism, [85]
alliteration, [86] and assonance abound in his pages. These would not have
been regarded as defects by critics like Cicero or Varro; they are
instances of his determination to give way in nothing to the fashion of
the day.
His style [87] is fresh, strong, and impetuous, but frequently and
intentionally rugged. Repetitions occasionally wearisome, and prosaic
constructions, occur. Poetry is sacrificed to logic in the innumerable
particles of transition, [88] and in the painful precision which at times
leaves nothing to the imagination of the reader. But his vocabulary is not
prosaic; it is poetical to a degree exceeding that of all other Latin
writers. It is to be regretted that he did not oftener allow himself to be
carried away by the stroke of the thyrsus, which impelled him to strive
for the meed of praise. [89]
He is not often mentioned in later literature. Quintilian characterises
him as elegant but difficult; [90] Ovid and Statius warmly praise him;
[91] Horace alludes to him as his own teacher in philosophy; [92] Virgil,
though he never mentions his name, refers to him in a celebrated passage,
and shows in all his works traces of a profound study of, and admiration
for, his poetry. [93] Ovid draws largely from him in the _Metamorphoses_,
and Manilius had evidently adopted him as a model. The writer of _Etna_
echoes his language and sentiments, and Tacitus, in a later generation,
speaks of critics who even preferred him to Virgil. The irreligious
tendency of his work seems to have brought his name under a cloud; and
those who copied him may have thought it wiser not to acknowledge their
debt. The later Empire and the Middle Ages remained indifferent to a poem
which sought to disturb belief; it was when the scepticism of the
eighteenth century broke forth that Lucretius's power was first fully
felt. Since the time of Boyle he has commanded from some minds an almost
enthusiastic admiration. His spirit lives in Shelley, though he has not
yet found a poet of kindred genius to translate him. But his great name
and the force with which he strikes chords to which every soul at times
vibrates must, now that he is once known, secure for him a high place
among the masters of thoughtful song.
Transpadane Gaul was at this time fertile in poets. Besides two of the
first order it produced several of the second rank Among these M. FURIUS
BIBACULUS (103-29? B.C.) must be noticed. His exact date is uncertain, but
he is known to have lampooned both Julius and Augustus Caesar, [94] and
perhaps lived to find himself the sole representative of the earlier race
of poets. [95] He is one of the few men of the period who attained to old
age. Some have supposed that the line of Horace [96]--
"Turgidus Alpinus jugulat dum Memnona,"
refers to him, the nickname of Alpinus having been given him on account of
his ludicrous description of Jove "spitting snow upon the Alps." Others
have assigned the eight spurious lines on Lucilius in the tenth satire of
Horace to him. Macrobius preserves several verses from his _Bellum
Gallicum_, which Virgil has not disdained to imitate, _e.g._
"Interea Oceani linquens Aurora cubile."
"Rumoresque serunt varios et multa requirunt."
"Confimat dictis simul atque exsuscitat acres
Ad bellandum animos reficitque ad praelia mentes." [97]
Many of the critics of this period also wrote poems. Among these was
VALERIUS CATO, sometimes called CATO GRAMMATICUS, whose love elegies were
known to Ovid. He also amused himself with short mythological pieces, none
of which have come down to us. Two short poems called _Dirae_ and _Lydia_,
which used to be printed among Virgil's _Catalecta_, bear his name, but
are now generally regarded as spurious. They contain the bitter complaints
of one who was turned out of his estate by an intruding soldier, and his
resolution to find solace for all ills in the love of his faithful
mistress.
The absorbing interest of the war between Caesar and Pompey compelled all
classes to share its troubles; even the poets did not escape. They were
now very numerous. Already the vain desire to write had become universal
among the _jeunesse_ of the capital. The seductive methods by which
Alexandrinism had made it equally easy to enshrine in verse his morning
reading or his evening's amour, proved too great an attraction for the
young Roman votary of the muses. Rome already teemed with the class so
pitilessly satirized by Horace and Juvenal, the
"Saecli incommoda, pessimi poetae."
The first name of any celebrity is that of VARRO ATACINUS, a native of
Gallia Narbonensis. He was a varied and prolific writer, who cultivated
with some success at least three domains of poetry. In his younger days he
wrote satires, but without any aptitude for the work. [98] These he
deserted for the epos, in which he gained some credit by his poem on the
Sequanian War. This was a national epic after the manner of Ennius, but
from the silence of later poets we may conjecture that it did not retain
its popularity. At the age of thirty-five he began to study with diligence
the Alexandrine models, and gained much credit by his translation of the
_Argonautica_ of Apollonius. Ovid often mentions this poem with
admiration; he calls Varro the poet of the sail-tossing sea, says no age
will be ignorant of his fame, and even thinks the ocean gods may have
helped him to compose his song. [99] Quintilian with better judgment [100]
notes his deficiency both in originality and copiousness, but allows him
the merit of a careful translator. We gather from a passage of Ovid [101]
that he wrote love poems, and from other sources that he translated Greek
works on topography and meteorology, both strictly copied from the
Alexandrines.
Besides Varro, we hear of TICIDAS, of MEMMIUS the friend of Lucretius, of
C. HELVIUS CINNA, and C. LICINIUS CALVUS, as writers of erotic poetry. The
last two were also eminent in other branches. Cinna (50 B.C.), who is
mentioned by Virgil as a poet superior to himself, [102] gained renown by
his _Smyrna_, an epic based on the unnatural love of Myrrha for her father
Cinyras, [103] on which revolting subject he bestowed nine years [104] of
elaboration, tricking it out with every arid device that pedantry's long
list could supply. Its learning, however, prevented it from being
neglected. Until the _Aeneid_ appeared, it was considered the fullest
repository of choice mythological lore. It was perhaps the nearest
approach ever made in Rome to an original Alexandrine poem. Calvus (82-47
B.C.), who is generally coupled with Catullus, was a distinguished orator
as well as poet. Cicero pays him the compliment of honourable mention in
the _Brutus_, [105] praising his parts and lamenting his early death. He
thinks his success would have been greater had he forgotten himself more.
This egotism was probably not wanting to his poetry, but much may be
excused him on account of his youth. It is difficult to form an opinion of
his style; the epithets, _gravis, vehemens, exilis_ (which apply rather to
his oratory than to his poetry), seem contradictory; the last strikes us
as the most discriminating. Besides short elegies like those of Catullus,
he wrote an epic called _Io_, as well as lampoons against Pompey and other
leading men. We possess none of his fragments.
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