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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It will be seen from the above _resume_ that the poem discusses several
questions of great interest. Rising above the technicalities of the
science, Manilius tries to preach a theory of the universe which shall
displace that given by Lucretius. He is a Stoic combating an Epicurean. A
close study of Lucretius is evidenced by numerous passages, [82] and the
earnestness of his moral conclusions imitates, though it does not approach
in impressiveness, that of the great Epicurean. Occasionally he imitates
Horace, [83] much more often Virgil, and, in the legends, Ovid. [84] His
technical manipulation of the hexameter is good, though tinged with
monotony. Occasionally he indulges in licenses which mark a deficient ear
[85] or an imperfect comprehension of the theory of quantity. [86] He has
few archaisms, [87] few Greek words, considering the exigencies of his
subject, and his vocabulary is greatly superior to his syntax; the
rhetorical colouring which pervades the work shows that he was educated in
the later taste of the schools, and neither could understand nor desired
to reproduce the simplicity of Lucretius or Virgil. [88]
CHAPTER V.
PROSE-WRITERS OF THE AUGUSTAN PERIOD.
Public oratory, which had held the first rank among studies under the
Republic, was now, as we have said, almost extinct. In the earlier part of
Augustus's reign, Pollio and Messala for a time preserved some of the
traditions of freedom, but both found it impossible to maintain their
position. Messala retired into dignified seclusion; Pollio devoted himself
to other kinds of composition. Somewhat later we find MESSALINUS, the son
of Messala, noted for his eloquent pleading; but as he inherited none of
the moral qualities which had made his father dangerous, Augustus
permitted him to exercise his talent. He was an intimate friend of Ovid,
from whom we learn details of his life; but he frittered away his powers
on trifling jests [1] and extempore versifying. The only other name worthy
of mention is Q. HATERIUS, who from an orator became a noted declaimer.
The testimonies to his excellence vary; Seneca, who had often heard him,
speaks of the wonderful volubility, more Greek than Roman, which in him
amounted to a fault. Tacitus gives him higher praise, but admits that his
writings do not answer to his living fame, a persuasive manner and
sonorous voice having been indispensible ingredients in his oratory. [2]
The activity before given to the state was now transferred to the
basilica. But as the full sway of rhetoric was not established until quite
the close of Augustus's reign, we shall reserve our account of it for the
next book, merely noticing the chief rhetoricians who flourished at this
time. The most eminent were PORCIUS LATRO, FUSCUS ARELLIUS, and ALBUCIUS
SILUS, who are frequently quoted by Seneca; RUTILIUS LUPUS, [3] who was
somewhat younger; and SENECA, the father of the celebrated philosopher.
[4] Fuscus was an Asiatic, and seems to have been one of the first who
declaimed in Latin. Foreign professors had previously exercised their own
and their pupils' ingenuity in Greek; Cicero had almost invariably
declaimed in that language, and there can be no doubt that this was a much
less harmful practice; but now the bombast and glitter of the Asiatic
style flaunted itself in the Latin tongue, and found in the increasing
number of provincials from Gaul and Spain a body of admirers who
cultivated it with enthusiasm. CESTIUS PIUS, a native of Smyrna, espoused
the same florid style, and was even preferred by his audience to such men
as Pollio and Messala. To us the extracts from these authors, preserved in
Seneca, present the most wearisome monotony, but contemporary criticism
found in them many grades of excellence. The most celebrated of all was
Porcius Latro, who, like Seneca himself, came from Spain. There is a
special character about the Spanish literary genius which will be more
prominent in the next generation. At present it had not sufficiently
amalgamated with the old Latin culture to shine in the higher branches.
But in the rhetorical schools it gradually leavened taste by its
attractive qualities, and men like Latro must be regarded as wielding
immense influence on Roman style, though somewhat in the background, much
as Antipho influenced the oratory of Athens.
Annaeus Seneca of _Corduba_ (Cordova), [5] the father of Novatus, Seneca,
and Mela the father of Lucan, belonged to the equestrian order, was born
probably about 54 B.C. and lived on until after the death of Tiberius. [6]
The greater part of this long life, longer even than Varro's, was spent in
the profession of eloquence, for which in youth he prepared himself by
studying the manner of the most renowned masters. Cicero alone he was not
fortunate enough to hear, the civil wars having necessitated his
withdrawal to Spain. [7] He does not appear to have visited Rome more than
twice, but he shows a thorough knowledge of the rhetoricians of the
capital, whence we conclude that his residence extended over some time.
[8] The stern discipline of Caesar's wars had taught the Spaniards
something of Roman severity, and Seneca seems to have adopted with a good
will the maxims of Roman life. [9] He possessed that _elan_ with which
young races often carry all before them when, they give the fresh vigour
of their understanding to master an existing system; his memory, as he
himself tells us, was so prodigious that he could recite 2000 names
correctly after once hearing them; [10] and, with the taste for showy
ornament which his race has always evinced, he must have launched himself
without misgiving into the competition of the schools. Nevertheless, in
his old age, when he came to look back on his life, he felt half ashamed
of its results. His sons had asked him to write a critical account of the
greatest rhetoricians he had known; he gladly acceded to their wish, and
has embodied in his work vast numbers of extracts, drawn either from
memory or rough notes, specifying the manner in which each professor
treated his theme; he then adds his own judgment on their merits, often
interspersing the more tedious discussions with _bon-mots_ or literary
anecdotes. The most readable portions are the prefaces, where he writes in
his own person in the unaffected epistolary style. We learn from them many
particulars about the lives of the great _rhetores_ and the state of taste
and literary education. But in the preface to the tenth book (the last of
the series) he expresses an utter weariness of a subject which not even
the reminiscences of happier days could invest with serious interest.
There are no indications that Seneca rose to the first eminence. His
extraordinary memory, diligence, and virtuous habits gained him respect
from his pupils and the intimacy of the great. But there is nothing in his
writings to show a man of more than average capacity, who, having been
thrown all his life in an artificial and narrowing profession, has lost
the power of taking a vigorous interest in things, and acquired the habit
of looking at questions from what we might call _the examiner's point of
view_. We have remains of two sets of compositions by him;
_Controversiae_, or legal questions discussed by way of practice for
actual cases, divided into ten books, of which about half are preserved;
and _Suasoriae_, or imaginary themes, such as those ridiculed by Juvenal:
"Consilium dedimus Sullae, privatus ut altum
Dormiret."
These last are printed first in our editions, because, being abstract in
character and not calling for any special knowledge, they were better
suited for beginners. The style of the book varies. In the prefaces it is
not inelegant, and shows few traces of the decline, but in the excerpts
from Latro and Fuscus, (which are perhaps nearly in their own words) we
observe the silver Latinity already predominant. Much is written in a very
compressed manner, reading like notes of a lecture or a table of contents.
There is, however, a geniality about the old man which renders him, even
when uninteresting, not altogether unpleasing.
We pass from rhetoric to history, and here we meet with one of the great
names of Roman letters, the most eloquent of all historians, TITUS LIVIUS
PATAVINUS. The exact date of his birth is disputed, but may be referred to
59 or 57 B.C. at _Pataviam_ (Padua), a populous and important town, no
less renowned for its strict morals than for its opulence. [11] Little is
known of his life, but he seems to have been of noble birth; his relative,
C. Cornelius, took the auspices at Pharsalia, and the aristocratic tinge
which pervades his work would lead to the same inference. Padua was a
bustling place, where public-speaking was rife, and aptitude for affairs
common; thus Livy was nursed in eloquence and in scenes of human activity.
Nothing tended to turn his mind to the contemplation of nature--at least
we see no signs of it in his work,--his conceptions of national
development were uncomplicated by reference to the share that physical
conditions have in moulding it; man alone, and man as in all respects
self-determining, has interest for him. His gifts are pre-eminently those
of an orator; the talent for developing an idea, for explaining events as
an orderly sequence, for establishing conclusions, for moving the
feelings, for throwing himself into a cause, for clothing his arguments in
noble language, shine conspicuous in his work, while he has the good
faith, sincerity, and patriotism which mark off the orator from the mere
advocate. For some years he remained at Padua studying philosophy [12] and
practising as a teacher of rhetoric, declaiming after the manner of Seneca
and his contemporaries. Reference is made to these declamations by Seneca
and Quintilian, and no doubt they were worth preserving as a grade in his
intellectual progress and as having helped to produce the artistic
elaborateness of his speeches. In 31 B.C. or thereabouts, he came to Rome,
where he speedily rose into favour. But though a courtier, he was no
flatterer. He praised Brutus and Cassius, [13] he debated whether Caesar
was useful to the state, [14] his whole history is a praise of the old
Republic, his preface states that Rome can neither bear her evils, nor the
remedy that has been applied to them (by which it is probable he means the
Empire), and we know that Augustus called him a Pompeian, though, at the
same time, he cannot have been an imprudent one, otherwise he could hardly
have retained the emperor's friendship. As regards the date of his work,
Professor Seeley decides that the first decade was written between 27 and
20 B.C., the very time during which the _Aeneid_ was in process of
composition. The later decades were thrown off from time to time until his
death at Patavium in 17 A.D. Indications exist to show that they were not
revised by him after publication, _e.g._, the errors into which he had
been led by trusting to Valerius Antias were not erased; but he was
careful not to rely on his authority afterwards. That he enjoyed a high
reputation is clear from the fact recorded by Pliny the younger, that a
man journeyed to Rome from Cadiz for the express purpose of seeing him,
and, having succeeded, returned at once. [15] The elder Pliny [16] draws a
picture of him at an advanced age studying with undiminished zeal at his
great work. The "old man eloquent" used to say that he had written enough
for glory, and had now earned rest; but his restless mind fed on labour
and would not lie idle. When completed, his book at once became the
authoritative history of Rome, after which nothing was left but to abridge
or comment upon it.
The state of letters at Rome, while unfavourable to strictly political
history, was ripe for the production of a work like Livy's. Augustus,
Agrippa, and Pollio, had founded public libraries in which the older works
were accessible. The emperor took a keen interest in all studies; he
encouraged not merely poets but philologians and scientific writers, and
he was not indisposed to protect historical study, if only it were treated
in the way he approved. Rabirius, Pedo Albinovanus, and Cornelius Severus
had written poems on the late wars, Ovid and Propertius on the legends
embodied in the calendar; the rival jurists Labeo and Capito had wrought
the _Juris Responsa_ into a body of legal doctrine; Strabo was giving the
world the result of his travels in a universal geography; Pompeius Trogus,
Labienus, Pollio, and the Greeks Dionysius, Dion, and Timagenes, had all
treated Roman history; Augustus had published a volume of his own _Gesta_;
all things seem to demand a comprehensive dramatic account of the growth
of the Roman state, which should trace the process by which the world
became Roman, and Rome became united in the hands of Caesar.
Hitherto Roman history had been imperfectly treated. It is unfortunate
that such crude conceptions of its nature prevailed. Even Cicero says,
_opus hoc unum maxime oratorium_. [17] It had been either a register of
events kept by aristocratic pontiffs from pride of race, or a series of
pictures for the display of eloquence. Neither the flexible imagination,
nor the patient sagacity, nor the disinterested view of life necessary for
a great historian, was to be found among the Romans. There was no true
criticism. For instance, while Juvenal depicts the first inhabitants of
the city, according to tradition, as rude marauders, [18] Cicero commends
their virtues and extols the wisdom of the early kings as the Athenian
orators do that of Solon; and in his _Cato Maior_ makes of the harsh
censor a refined country gentleman and a student of Plato! Varro had
amassed a vast collection of facts, a formidable array of authorities;
Dionysius had spent twenty years in studying the monuments of Rome, and
yet had so little intelligence of her past that he made Romulus a
philosopher of the Sophistic type! Caesar and Sallust gave true narratives
of that which they had themselves known, but they did little more. No
ancient writer, unless perhaps Thucydides, has grasped the truth that
history is an indivisible whole, and that humanity marches according to
fixed law towards a determinate end. The world is in their eyes a stage on
which is played for ever the same drama of life and death, whose fate
moves in a circle bounded by the catastrophes of cities mortal as their
inhabitants, without man's becoming by progress of time either better or
more powerful. In estimating, then, the value of Livy's work, we must ask,
How far did he possess the qualifications necessary for success? We turn
to his preface and find there the moralist, the patriot, and the stylist;
and we infer that his fullest idea of history is of a book in which he who
runs can read the lesson of virtue; and, if he be a lawgiver, can model
his legislation upon its high precedents, and, if he be a citizen, can
follow its salutary precepts of conduct. An idea, which, however noble, is
certainly not exhaustive. It may entitle its possessor to be called a
lofty writer, but not a great historian. This is his radical defect. He
treats history too little as a record, too little as a science, too much
as a series of texts for edification.
How far is he faithful to his authorities? In truth, he never deserts
them, never (or almost never) advances an assertion without them. [19] His
fidelity may be inferred from the fact that when he follows Polybius
alone, he adds absolutely nothing, he merely throws life into his
predecessor's dead periods. Moreover, he writes, after the method of the
old annalists, of events year by year; he rarely conjectures their causes
or traces their connexion, he is willing to efface himself in the capacity
of exponent of what is handed down. Whole passages we cannot doubt,
especially in the early books, are inserted from Fabius and the other
ancients, only just enough changed to make them polished instead of rude;
and it is astonishing how slight the changes need be when the hand that
makes them is a skilful one. So far as we can judge he never alters the
testimony of a witness, or colours it by interested presentation. His
chief authorities for the early history are Licinius Macer, Claudius
Quadrigarius, Gn. Gellius, [20] Sempronius Tuditanus, Aelius Tubero,
Cassius Hemina, Calpurnius Piso, Valerius Antias, Acilius Glabrio, [21]
Porcius Cato, Cincius, and Pictor. [22] These writers, or at least the
most ancient of them, Cato and Pictor, founded their investigations on
such, records as treaties, public documents--_e.g._ the annals, censors'
and pontiffs' commentaries, augural books, books relating to civil
procedure kept by the pontiffs, &c.; [23] laws, lists of magistrates, [24]
_Libri Lintei_ kept in the temple of Juno Moneta; all under the
reservation noticed before, that the majority perished in the Gallic
conflagration. [25] These Professor Seeley classes as _pure_ sources. The
rest, which he calls _corrupt_, are the funeral orations, inscriptions in
private houses placed under the _Imagines_, [26] poems of various kinds,
both _gentile_ and popular, in all of which, there was more or less of
intentional misrepresentation. For the history after the first decade new
authorities appear. The chief are Polybius, Silenus the Sicilian a friend
of Hannibal, Caelius Antipater, Sisenna, Caecilius, Rutilius, and the
Fasti, which are now almost or quite continuous; and still further on he
followed Posidonius, and perhaps for the Civil Wars Asinius Pollio,
Theophanes, and others. There is evidence that these were carefully
digested, but by instalments. For instance, he did not read Polybius until
he came to write the Punic wars. Hence he missed several antiquarian
notices (_e.g._ the treaty with Carthage) which would have helped him in
the first decade. Still he uses the authors he quotes with moderation and
fidelity. When the _Fasti_ omit or confuse the names of the consuls, he
tells us so; [27] when authorities differ as to whether the victory lay
with the Romans or Samnites, [28] he notes the fact. In the early history
he is reticent, where Dionysius is minute; he is content with the broad
legendary outline, where Dionysius constructs a whole edifice of probable
but utterly uncertified particulars. In the important task of sifting
authorities Livy follows the plan of selecting the most ancient, and those
who from their position had best access to facts. In complicated cases of
divergence he trusts the majority, [29] the earliest, [30] or the most
accredited, [31] particularly Fabius and Piso. [32] He does not analyse
for us his method of arriving at a conclusion. "Erudition is for him a
mine from which the historian should draw forth the pure gold, leaving the
mud where he found it." Many of his conclusions are reached by a sort of
instinct, which by practice divines truth, or rather verisimilitude, which
is but too often its only available substitute.
So far as enthusiasm serves (and without it criticism, though it may
succeed in destroying, is helpless to construct), Livy penetrates to the
spirit of ancient times. He says himself, in a very celebrated passage
where he bewails the prevailing scepticism, [33] "Non sum nescius ab eadem
neglegentia qua nihil portendere deos volgo nunc credunt neque nuntiari
admodum ulla prodigia in publicum neque in annales referri. Ceterum et
mihi vetustas res scribenti nescio quo pacto antiquus fit animus et
quaedam religio tenet, quae illi prudentissimi viri publice suscipienda
curarint, ea pro indignis habere quae in meos annales referam." This
"antiquity of soul" is not criticism, but it is an important factor in it.
In the history of the kings he is a poet. If we read the majestic sentence
in which the end of Romulus is described, [34] we must admit that if the
event is told at all this is the way in which it should be told. We meet,
however, here and there, with genuine insertions from antiquity which
spoil the beauty of the picture. Take, _e.g._, the law of treason, [35]
terrible in its stern accents, "Duumviri perduellionem iudicent: si a
duumviris provocarit, provocatione certato: si vincent, caput obnubito:
infelici arbori reste suspendito: verberato vel intra pomoerium vel extra
pomoerium," where, as the historian remarks, the law scarcely hints at the
possibility of an acquittal. In the struggles of the young Republic one
traces the risings of political passion, not of individuals as yet, but of
parties in the state. After the Punic wars have begun individual features
predominate, and what has been a rich canvass becomes a speaking portrait.
Constitutional questions, in which Livy is singularly ill informed, are
hinted at, [36] but generally in so cursory and unintelligent a way, that
it needs a Niebuhr to elicit their meaning. And Livy is throughout led
into fallacious views by his confusion of the mob (_faex Romuli_, as
Cicero calls it) which represented the sovereign people in his day, with
the sturdy and virtuous plebs, whose obstinate insistance on their right
forms the leading thread of Roman constitutional development. Conformably
with his promise at the outset he traces with much more effect the
gradually increasing moral decadence. It is when Rome comes into contact
with Asia that her virtue, already tried, collapses almost without a
struggle. The army, once so steady in its discipline, riots in revelry,
and marches against Antiochus with as much recklessness as if it were
going to butcher a flock of sheep. [37] The soldiers even disobey orders
in pillaging Phocaea; they become cowards, _e.g._, the Illyrian garrison
surrenders to Perseus; and before long the abominable and detested
oriental orgies gain a permanent footing in Rome. Meanwhile, the senate
falls from its old standard, it ceases to keep faith, its generals boast
of perfidy, [38] and the corrupted fathers have not the face to check
them. [39] The epic of decadence proceeds to its _denouement_, and if we
possessed the lost books the decline would be much more evident. It must
be admitted that in this department of his subject Livy paints with a
master's hand. But nothing can atone for his signal deficiency in
antiquarian and constitutional knowledge. He had (it has been said) a
taste for truth, but not a passion for it. Had he gone into the _Aedes
Nympharum_, he might have read on brass the so-called royal and
tribunician laws; he might have read the treaties with the Sabines, with
Gabii and Carthage; the Senatus Consulta and the Plebi Scita. Augustus
found in the ruined temple of Jupiter Fucinus [40] the _spolia opima_ of
Cossus, who was there declared to have been consul when he won them. All
the authorities represented him as military tribune. Livy, it seems, never
took the trouble to examine it. When he professes to cite an ancient
document, it is not the document itself he cites but its copy in Fabius.
He seems to think the style of history too ornate to admit such rugged
interpositions, [41] and when he inserts them he offers a half apology for
his boldness. This _dilettante_ way of regarding his sources deserves all
the censure Niebuhr has cast on it. If it were not for the fidelity with
which he has incorporated without altering his better-informed
predecessors, the investigations of Niebuhr and his successors would have
been hopelessly unverifiable. The student who wishes to learn the value of
Livy for the history of the constitution should read the celebrated
Lectures (VII. and VIII.) of Niebuhr's history. Their publication
dethroned him, nor has he yet been reinstated. But it must be remembered
that this censure does not attach to him in other aspects, for instance as
a chronicler of Rome's wars, or a biographer of her worthies. As a
geographer, however, he is untrustworthy; his description of Hannibal's
march is obscure, and many battles are extremely involved. It is evident
he was a clear thinker only on certain points; his preface, _e.g._, is
intricate both in matter and manner.
It remains to consider him shortly as a philosophic and as an artistic
historian. On these points some excellent remarks are made by M. Taine.
[42] When we read or write a history of Rome we ask, Why was it that Rome
conquered the Samnites, the Carthaginians, the Etruscans? How was it that
the plebeians gained equal rights with the patricians? The answer to such
questions satisfies the intelligent man of the world who desires only a
clear and consistent view. But philosophy asks a yet further _why?_ Why
was Rome a conquering state? why these never-ceasing wars? why was her
cult of abstract deities a worship of the letter which never rose to a
spiritual idea? In the resolution of problems like these lies the true
delight of science; the former is but information; this is knowledge. Has
Livy this knowledge? It does not follow that the philosophic historian
should deduce with mathematical precision; he merely narrates the events
in their proper order, or chooses from the events those that are
representative; he groups facts under their special laws, and these again
under universal laws, by a skilful arrangement or selection, or else by
flashes of imaginative insight. Livy is no more a philosopher than a
critic; he discovers laws, as he verifies facts, imperfectly. The
treatment of history known to the ancients did not admit of separate
discussions summing up the results of previous narrative; for philosophic
views we are as a rule driven to consult the inserted speeches. Livy's
speeches often reveal considerable insight; Manlius's account of the Gauls
in Asia, [43] and Camillus's sarcastic description of their behaviour
round Rome, [44] go to the root of their national character and lay bare
its weakness. The Samnites are criticised by Decius in terms which show
that Livy had analysed the causes of their fall before Rome. [45] Hannibal
arraigns the narrow policy of his country as his true vanquisher. These
and the like are as effectual means of inculcating a general truth as a
set discussion. To these numerous and perhaps more striking passages
bearing on the internal history might be added. [46] But a historian
should have his whole subject under command. It is not enough to
illuminate it by flashes. The speeches, besides being in the highest
degree unnatural and unhistoric, are far too eloquent, moving the feelings
instead of the judgment. [47] "For an annalist," to quote Niebuhr, "a
clear survey is not necessary; but in a work like Livy's, it is of the
highest importance, and no great author has this deficiency to such an
extent as he. He neither knew what he had written nor what he was going to
write, but wrote at hap-hazard." To put all facts on an equal footing is
to be like a child threading beads. To know how to select representative
facts, to arrange according to representative principles is an
indispensable requisite, as its absence is an irremediable defect in a
writer who aspires to instruct the world.
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