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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To turn to his artistic side. In this he has been allowed to stand on the
highest pinnacle of excellence. Whether he paints the character of a
nation or an individual; whether he paints it by pausing to reflect on its
elements, as in the beautiful studies of Cato and Cicero, [48] or by
describing it in action, which is the poetical and dramatic mode, or by
making it express itself in speech, which is the method the orator favours
most, he is always great. He was a Venetian, and Niebuhr finds in him the
rich colouring of the Venetian school; he has also the darker shadow which
that colouring necessitates, and the bold delineation of form which
renders it not meretricious but noble. When he makes the old senators
speak, we recognise men with the souls of kings. Manlius regards the claim
of the Latins for equal rights as an outrage and a sacrilege against
Capitoline Jupiter, with a truly Roman arrogance which would be grotesque
were it not so grand. [49] The familiar conception we form in childhood of
the great Roman worthies, where it does not come from Plutarch, is
generally drawn from Livy.
The power of his style is seen sometimes in stately movement, sometimes in
lightning-like flashes. When Hannibal at the foot of the Alps sees his men
dispirited, he cries out, "_You are scaling the walls of Rome!_" When the
patricians shrink in fear from the dreaded tribunate, the consuls declare
that _their emblems of office are a funeral pageant_. [50] All readers
will remember pithy sentences like these: "_Hannibal has grown old in
Campania_;" [51] "_The issue of war will show who is in the right_." [52]
His rhetorical training discovers itself in the elaborate exactness with
which he disposes of all the points in a speech. The most artificial of
all, perhaps, and yet at the same time the most effective, is the pleading
of old Horatius for his son. [53] It might have come from the hands of
Porcius Latro, or Arellius Fuscus. The orator treats truth as a means; the
historian should treat it as an end. Livy wishes us not so much to know as
to admire his heroes.
His language was censured by Pollio as exhibiting a _Patavinitas_, but
what this was we know not. To us he appears as by far the purest writer
subsequent to Cicero. Of the great orator he was a warm admirer. He
imitated his style, and bade his son-in-law read only Cicero and
Demosthenes, or other writers in proportion as they approached these two.
He models his rhythm on the Ciceronian period so far as their different
objects permit. But poetical phrases have crept in, [54] marring its even
fabric; and other indications of too rich a colouring betray the near
advent of the Silver Age.
As the book progresses the style becomes more fixed, until in the third
decade it has reached its highest point; in the later books, as we know
from testimony as well as the few specimens that are extant, it had become
garrulous, like that of an old man. His work was to have consisted of
fifteen decades, but as we have no epitome beyond Book CXLII., it was
probably never finished. Perhaps the loss of the last part is not so
serious as it seems. We have thirty books complete and the greater part of
five others; but no more, except a fragment of the ninety-first book, has
been discovered for several centuries, and in all probability the
remainder is for ever lost. Livy was so much abridged and epitomized that
during the Middle Ages he was scarcely read in any other form. Compilers
like Florus, Orosius, Eutropius, &c. entirely supplied his place.
A word should perhaps be said about POMPEIUS TROGUS, who about Livy's time
wrote a universal history in forty-four books. It was called _Historiae
Philippicae_, and was apparently arranged according to nations; it began
with Ninus, the Nimrod of classical legend, and was brought down to about
9 A.D. We know the work from the epitomes of the books and from Justin's
abridgment, which is similar to that of Florus on Livy. Who Justin was,
and where he lived, are not clearly ascertained. He is thought to have
been a philosopher, but if so, he was anything but a talented one; most
scholars place his _floruit_ under the Antonines. He seems to have been a
faithful abbreviator, at least as far as this, that he has added nothing
of his own. Hence we may form a conception, however imperfect, of the
value of Trogus's labours. Trogus was a scientific man, and seems to have
desired the fame of a _polymath_. In natural science he was a good
authority, [55] but though his history must have embodied immensely
extended researches, it never succeeded in becoming authoritative.
Among the writers on applied science, one of considerable eminence has
descended to us, the architect VITRUVIUS POLLIO. He is very rarely
mentioned, and has been confounded with Vitruvius Cerdo, a freedman who
belongs to a later date, and whose precepts contradict in many particulars
those of the first Vitruvius. His birth-place was Formiae; he served in
the African War (46 B.C.) under Caesar, so that he was born at least as
early as 64 B.C. [56] The date of his work is also uncertain, but it can
be approximately fixed, for in it he mentions the emperor's sister as his
patroness, and as by her he probably means Octavia, who died 11 B.C., the
book must have been written before that year. As, moreover, he speaks of
one stone theatre only as existing in Rome, whereas two others were added
in 13 B.C., the date is further thrown back to at least 14 B.C. As he
expressly tells us it was written in his old age, and he must have been a
young man in 46 B.C., when he served his first campaign, the nearer we
bring its composition to the latest possible date (_i.e._ 14) the more
correct we shall probably be. He was of good birth and had had a liberal
education; but it is clear from the style of his work that he had either
forgotten how to write elegantly, or had advanced his literary studies
only so far as was necessary for a professional man. [57] His language is
certainly far from good.
He began life as a military engineer, but soon found that his personal
defects prevented him from succeeding in his career. [58] He therefore
seems to have solaced himself by setting forward in a systematic form the
principles of his art, and by finding fault with the great body of his
professional brethren. [59] The dedication to Augustus implies that he had
a practical object, viz. to furnish him with sound rules to be applied in
building future edifices and, if necessary, for correcting those already
built. He is a patient student of Greek authors, and adopts Greek
principles unreservedly; in fact his work is little more than a compendium
of Greek authorities. [60] His style is affectedly terse, and so much so
as to be frequently obscure. The contents of his book are very briefly as
follows:--
Book I. General description of the science--education of the
architect--best choice of site for a city-disposition of its
plan, fortifications, public buildings, &c.
" II. On the proper materials to be used in building, preceded,
like several of Pliny's books, by a quasi-philosophical
digression on the origin and early history of man--the
progress of art--Vitruvius gives his views on the nature of
matter.
" III. IV. On temples--an account of the four orders, Doric, Ionic,
Corinthian, and Composite.
" V. On other public buildings.
" VI. On the arrangement and plan of private houses.
" VII. On the internal decoration of houses.
" VIII. On water supply--the different properties of different
waters--the way to find them, test them, and convey them
into the city.
" IX. On sun dials and other modes of measuring time.
" X. On machines of all kinds, civil and military.
As will be seen from this analysis, the work is both comprehensive and
systematic; it was of great service in the Middle Ages, when it was used
in an abridged form (sufficiently ancient, however,) which we still
possess.
Antiquarian research was carried on during this period with much zeal.
Many illustrious scholars are mentioned, none of whose works have come
down to us, except in extremely imperfect abridgments. FENESTELLA (52
B.C.-22 A.D.) wrote on various legal and religious questions, on
miscellaneous topics, as literary history, the art of good living, various
points in natural history, &c. for which he is quoted as an authority by
Pliny. His greatest work seems to have been _Annales_, which were used by
Plutarch. It is probable, however, that in these he showed his special
aptitude for archaeological research, and passed over the history in a
rapid sketch. Special grammatical studies were carried on by VERRIUS
FLACCUS, a freedman, whose great work, _De Verborum Significatu_, the
first Latin lexicon conducted on an extensive scale, we possess in an
abridgment by Festus. Its size may be conjectured from the fact that the
letter A occupied four books, P five, and so on; and that Festus's
abridgment consisted of twenty large volumes. [61] It was a rich
storehouse of knowledge, the loss of which is much to be lamented. Another
freedman, C. JULIUS HYGINUS (64 B.C.-16 A.D.?), who was also keeper of
Augustus's library on the Palatine, manifested an activity scarcely less
encyclopaedic than that of Varro. Of his multifarious works we possess two
short treatises which pass under his name, the first on mythology, called
_Fabulae_, a series of extracts from his _Genealogiae_, which we have in
an abridgment; the second on astronomy, extending, though this is also in
an abridged form, to four books. A few details of his life are given by
Suetonius. He was a Spaniard by birth, though some believed him to be an
Alexandrian, since Caesar brought him to Rome after the Alexandrine War;
he attended at Rome the lectures of the grammarian Cornelius Alexander,
surnamed Polyhistor. He was an intimate acquaintance of Ovid, [62] and is
said to have died in great poverty. It is doubtful whether the works we
possess were written by him in his youth, or are the production of an
imperfectly educated abbreviator. Bursian, quoted by Teuffel, [63] thinks
it probable that in the second half of the second century of the Christian
era, a grammarian made a very brief abridgment of Hyginus's work entitled
_Genealogiae_, and to this added a treatise on the whole mythology so far
as it concerned poetical literature, compiled from good sources. This
mythology, which retained the name of Hyginus and the title of
_Genealogiae_, came to be generally used in the schools of the
grammarians.
The demand for school-books was now rapidly increasing; and as the great
classical authors published their works, an abundant supply of material
was given to the ingenious and learned. The _grammaticae tribus_, whom
Horace mentions with such disdain, [64] were already asserting their right
to dispense literary fame. They were not as yet so compact or popular a
body as the rhetoricians, but they had begun to cramp, as the others had
begun to corrupt, literature. Dependence on the opinion of a clique is the
most hurtful state possible, even though the clique be learned; and Horace
showed wisdom as well as spirit in resisting it. The endeavour to please
the leading men of the world, which Horace professed to be his object, is
far less narrowing; such men, though unable to appraise scientific merit,
are the best judges of general literature.
The careful methods of exact inquiry, were, as we have said, directed also
to law, in which Labeo remained the highest authority. Capito abated
principle in favour of the imperial prerogative. They did not, however,
affect philosophy, which retained its original colouring as an _ars
vivendi_. Many of Horace's friends, as we learn from the _Odes_, gave
their minds to speculative inquiry, but, like the poet himself, they seem
to have soon deserted it. At least we hear of no original investigations.
Neither a metaphysic nor a psychology arose; only a loose rhetorical
treatment of physical questions, and a careful collection of ethical
maxims for the most part eclectically obtained.
SEXTIUS PYTHAGOREUS--there were two born of this name, father and son--
wrote in Greek, reproducing the oracular style of Heraclitus. The
_gnuomai_, which were translated and christianised by Rufinus, were
stamped with a strongly theistic character. A few inferior thinkers are
mentioned by Quintilian and Seneca, as PAPIRIUS FABIANUS, SERGIUS FLAVIUS,
and PLOTIUS CRISPINUS. Of these, Papirius treated some of the
classificatory sciences, which now first began to attract interest in
Rome. Botany and zoology were the favourites. Mineralogy excited more
interest on its commercial side with regard to the value and history of
jewels; it was also treated in a mystic or imaginative way.
From this rapid summary it will be seen that real learning still
flourished in Rome. Despotism had not crushed intellectual energy, nor
enforced silence on all but flatterers. The emperor had nevertheless grown
suspicious in his old age, and given indications of that tyranny which was
soon to be the rule of government; he had interdicted Timagenes from his
palace, banished Ovid, burnt the works of Labienus, exiled Severus, and
shown such severity towards Albucius Silo that he anticipated further
disgrace by a voluntary death. His reign closed in 14 A.D., and with it
ceases for near a century the appearance of the highest genius in Rome.
APPENDIX
NOTE I.--_A fragment translated from Seneca's Suasoriae, showing the style
of expression cultivated in the schools._
The subject (Suas. 2) debated is whether the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae,
seeing themselves deserted by the army, shall remain or flee. The
different rhetors declaim as follows, making Leonidas the speaker:--
_Arellius Fuscus_.--What! are our picked ranks made up of raw recruits, or
spirits likely to be cowed, or hands likely to shrink from the
unaccustomed steel, or bodies enfeebled by wounds or decay? How shall I
speak of us as the flower of Greece? Shall I bestow that name on Spartans
or Eleans? or shall I rehearse the countless battles of our ancestors, the
cities they sacked, the nations they spoiled? and do men now dare to boast
that our temples need no walls to guard them? Ashamed am I of our conduct
ashamed to have entertained even the idea of flight. But then, you say,
Xerxes comes with an innumerable host. O Spartans! and Spartans matched
against barbarians, have you no reverence for your deeds, your grandsires,
your sires, from whose example your souls from infancy gather lofty
thoughts? I scorn to offer Spartans such exhortations as these. Look! we
are protected by our position. Though he bring with him the whole East,
and parade his useless numbers before our craven eyes, this sea which
spreads its vast expanse before us is pressed into a narrow compass, is
beset by treacherous straits which scarce admit the passage of a single
row-boat, and then by their chopping swell make rowing impossible; it is
beset by unseen shallows, wedged between deeper bottoms, rough with sharp
rocks, and everything that mocks the sailor's prayer. I am ashamed (I
repeat it) that Spartans, and Spartans armed, should even stop to ask how
it is they are safe. Shall I not carry home the spoil of the Persians?
Then at least I will fall naked upon it. They shall know that we have yet
three hundred men who thus scorn to flee, who thus mean to fall. Think of
this: we can perhaps conquer; with all our effort we cannot be conquered.
I do not say you are doomed to death--you to whom I address these words;
but if you are, and yet think that death is be feared, you greatly err. To
no living thing has nature given unending life; on the day of birth the
day of death is fixed. For heaven has wrought us out of a weak material;
our bodies yield to the slightest stroke, we are snatched away unwarned by
fate. Childhood and youth lie beneath the same inexorable law. Most of us
even long for death, so perfect a rest does it offer from the struggle of
life. But glory has no limits, and they who fall like us rise nearest to
the gods. Even women often choose the path of death which leads to glory.
What need to mention Lycurgus, those heroes handed down by history, whom
no peril could appal? to awake the spirit of Othryades alone, would be to
give example enough, and more than enough, for us three hundred men!
_Triarius_.--Are not Spartans ashamed to be conquered, not by blows but by
rumours? 'Tis a great thing to be born a scion of valour and a Spartan.
For certain victory all would wait; for certain death none but Spartans.
Sparta is girt with no walls, her walls are where her men are. Better to
call back the army than to follow them. What if the Persian bores through
mountains, makes the sea invisible? Such proud felicity never yet stood
sure; the loftiest exaltation is struck to earth through its forgetfulness
of the instability of all things human. You may be sure that power which
has given rise to envy has not seen its last phase. It has changed seas,
lands, nature itself; let us three hundred die, if only that it may here
find something it cannot change. If such madmen's counsel was to be
accepted, why did we not flee with the crowd?
_Porcius Latro_.--This then is what we have waited for, to collect a band
of runaways. You flee from a rumour; let us at least know of what sort it
is. Our dishonour can hardly be wiped out even by victory; bravely as we
may fight, successful as we may be, much of our renown is already lost;
for Spartans have debated whether or not to flee. O that we may die! For
myself, after this discussion, the only thing I fear is to return home.
Old women's tales have shaken the arms out of our hands. Now, now, let us
fight, among the thirty thousand our valour might have lain hid. The rest
have fled. If you ask my opinion, which I utter for the honour of
ourselves and Greece, I say they have not deserted us, they have chosen us
as their champions.
_Marillus_.--This was our reason for remaining, that we might not be
hidden among the crowd of fugitives. The army has a good excuse to offer
for its conduct: "We knew Thermopylae would be safe since we left Spartans
to guard it."
_Cestius Pius_.--You have shown, Spartans, how base it were to fly by so
long remaining still. All have their privilege. The glory of Athens is
speech, of Thebes religion, of Sparta arms. 'Tis for this Eurotas flows
round our state that its stream may inure our boys to the hardships of
future war; 'tis for this we have our peaks of Taygetus inaccessible but
to Spartans; 'tis for this we boast of a Hercules who has won heaven by
merit; 'tis for this that arms are our only walls. O deep disgrace to our
ancestral valour! Spartans are counting their numbers, not their manhood.
Let us see how long the list is, that Sparta may have, if not brave
soldiers, at least true messengers. Can it be that we are vanquished, not
by war, but by reports? that man, i' faith, has a right to despise
everything at whose very name Spartans are afraid. If we may not conquer
Xerxes, let us at least be allowed to see him; I would know what it is I
flee from. As yet I am in no way like an Athenian, either in seeking
culture, or in dwelling behind a wall; the last Athenian quality that I
shall imitate will be cowardice.
_Pompeius Silo_.--Xerxes leads many with him, Thermopylae can hold but
few. We shall be the most timid of the brave, the slowest of cowards. No
matter how great nations the East has poured into our hemisphere, how many
peoples Xerxes brings with him; as many as this place will hold, with
those is our concern.
_Cornelius Hispanus_.--We have come for Sparta; let us stay for Greece;
let us vanquish the foe as we have already vanquished our friends; let
this arrogant barbarian learn that nothing is so difficult as to cut an
armed Spartan down. For my part, I am glad the rest have gone; they have
left Thermopylae for us; there will now be nothing to mingle or compare
itself with our valour; no Spartan will be hidden in the crowd; wherever
Xerxes looks he will see none but Spartans.
_Blandus_.--Shall I remind you of your mother's command--"Either with your
shield or on it?" and yet to return without arms is far less base than to
flee under arms. Shall I remind you of the words of the captive?--"Kill
me, I am no slave!" To such a man to escape would not have been to avoid
capture. Describe the Persian terrors! We heard all that when we were
first sent out. Let Xerxes see the three hundred, and learn at what rate
the war is valued, what number of men the place is calculated to hold. We
will not return even as messengers except after the fight is over. Who has
fled I know not; these men Sparta has given me for comrades. I am thankful
that the host has fled; they had made the pass of Thermopylae too narrow
for me to move in.
S _On the other side_.
_Cornelius Hispanus_.--I hold it a great disgrace to our state if Xerxes
see no Greeks before he sees the Spartans. We shall not even have a
witness of our valour; the enemy's account of us will be believed. You
have my counsel, it is the same as that of all Greece. If any one advise
differently, he wishes you to be not brave men but ruined men.
_Claudius Marcellus_.--They will not conquer us; they will overwhelm us.
We have been true to our renown, we have waited till the last. Nature
herself has yielded before we.
The above _Suasoria_ is by no means one of the most brilliant; on the
contrary, it is a decidedly a tame one, but it is a good instance of an
ordinary declamation of the better sort, and gives passages from most of
the rhetoricians to whom reference is made in the text.
NOTE II.--_A few Observations on the Treatment of Rhetorical Questions,
taken from the Third Book of Quintilian._
"The division of the departments of rhetoric, or to use a more correct
term, the classification of causes, is three-fold: They are either
laudatory, deliberative, or judicial. This is a division according to the
subject matter, not according to the artistic treatment. Correspondingly,
there are three requisites for pleading well, nature, art, and practice;
and three objects which the orator must set before him, to teach, to move,
and to delight. Every question turns either on things or on words; or as
it may be expressed in other language, is either indefinite or definite.
The _indefinite_ is in the form of a universal proposition (_Oesis_) which
Cicero calls _propositum_, others _quaestio universalis civilis_, others
_quaestio philosopho conveniens_, and Athenaeus _pars causae_. This again
is divided under the heads of knowledge and action respectively; of
knowledge, _e.g. Is the world ruled by Providence?_ of action, _e.g., Is
political activity a duty?_ The _definite_ question regards things,
persons, times, circumstances: it is called _upothesis_ in Greek, _causa_
in Latin. It always depends on an indefinite question, _e.g., Ought Cato
to marry?_ depends on the wider one, _is marriage desirable?_ Hence it may
be a _suasoria_. And this is true even of cases in which no person is
specially mentioned, _e.g._, the question, _Ought a man to hold office
under a tyranny?_ depends on the wider one, _Ought a man to hold office at
all?_ And this question refers of necessity to some special tyrant, though
it may not mention him by name. This is the same division as that into
_general_ and _special_ questions. Thus every special includes a general.
It is true that generals often bear only remotely on practice, and
sometimes are altogether neutralised by peculiar circumstances, _e.g._,
the question, _Is political activity a duty?_ becomes inapplicable to a
chronic invalid. Still, all are not of this kind, _e.g., Is virtue the end
of man?_ is equally applicable to every human being, whatever his
capacity. Cicero in his earlier treatises disapproved of these questions
being discussed by the orator; he wished to leave them to the philosopher;
but as he grew in experience he changed his mind.
"A cause is defined by Valgius, after Apollodorus, as _negotium omnibus
suis partibus spectans ad quaestionem_, or as _negotium cuius finis est
controversia_. The _negotium_ (or business in hand) is thus defined,
_congregatio personarum locorum temporum causarum modorum casuum factorum
instrumentorum sermonum scriptorum et non scriptorum_. The cause,
therefore, corresponds to the Greek _upostasis_ (subject), the _negotium_
to _peristasis_ (surroundings). These are of course closely connected; and
many have defined the cause as though it were identical with its
surroundings or conditions.
"In every discussion three things are the objects of inquiry, _an sit_, Is
it so? _quid sit_, If so, what is it? _quale sit_, of what kind is it? For
first, there must _be_ something, about which the discussion has arisen.
Till this is made clear no discussion as to what it is can arise; far less
can we determine what its qualities are, until this second point is
ascertained. These three objects of inquiry are exhaustive; on them every
question, whether definite or indefinite, depends. The accuser will try to
establish, first, the occurrence of the act in dispute, then its
character; and, lastly, its criminality. The advocate will, if possible,
deny the fact; if he cannot do that he will prove that it is not what the
accuser states it to be; or, thirdly, he may contend--and this is the most
honourable kind of defence--that it was rightly done. As a fourth
alternative, he may take exception to the legality of the prosecution. All
these, and every other conceivable division of questions, come under the
two general heads (_status_) of _rational_ and _legal_. The rational is
simple enough, depending only on the contemplation of nature; thus it is
content with exhibiting conjecture, definition, and quality. The legal is
extremely complex, laws being infinite in number and character. Sometimes
the letter is to be observed, sometimes the spirit. Sometimes we get at
its meaning by comparison, or induction; sometimes its meaning is open to
the most contradictory interpretations. Hence there is room for a far
greater display of diverse kinds of excellence in the _legal_ than in the
_rational_ department. Thus the declamatory exercises called _suasoriae_,
which are confined to _rational_ considerations, are fittest for young
students whose reasoning powers are acute, but who have not the knowledge
of law necessary for enabling them to treat _controversiae_ which hinge on
legal questions. These last are intended as a preparation for the pleading
of actual causes in court, and should be regularly practised even by the
most accomplished pleader during the spare moments that his profession
allows him."
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