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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'The noise of swift-footed steeds strikes my ears,'
he drove the weapon into his throat with the help of his secretary
Epaphroditus, and immediately fell back half-dead. The centurion now
arrived, and, under the pretence of assisting him, put his cloak to
the wound; Nero only replied, 'Too late!' and 'This is your loyalty!'
With these words he died, his eyes being quite glazed, and starting
out in a manner horrible to witness. His continual and earnest
petition had been that no one should have possession of his head, but
that come what would, he might be buried whole. This Talus, Galba's
freedman, granted."
It will be seen that his narrative, though not lofty, is masterly, clear,
and impressive.
Besides Suetonius we have a historian, though a minor one, in P. ANNIUS
FLORUS, [17] who is now generally identified with the rhetorician and poet
mentioned more than once by Pliny, and author of a dialogue, "_Vergilius
Orator an Poeta_," and some lines _De Rosis_ and _De Qualitate Vitae_.
[18] Little is known of his life, except that he was a youth in the time
of Domitian, was vanquished at the Capitoline contest through unjust
partiality, and settled at Tarraco as a professional rhetorician. Under
Hadrian he returned to Rome, and probably did not survive his reign. The
epitome of Livy's history, or rather the wars of it, from the foundation
of Rome to the era of Augustus, in two short books, is a pretentious and
smartly written work. But it shows no independent investigation, and no
power of impartial judgment. Its views of the constitution [19] are even
more superficial than those of Livy. The first book ends with the Gracchi,
after whom, according to the author, the decline began. The frequent moral
declamations were greatly to the taste of the Middle Ages, and throughout
them Florus was a favourite. Abridgments were now the fashion; perhaps
that of Pompeius Trogus by JUSTINUS belongs to this reign. [20] Many
historians wrote in Greek.
Jurisprudence was also actively cultivated. We have the two great names of
SALVIUS JULIANUS and SEX. POMPONIUS, both of whom continued to write under
the Antonines. They were nearly of an age. Pomponius, we infer from his
own words, [22] was born somewhere about 84 A.D., and as he lived to a
great age, it is probable that he survived his brother jurist. Both
enjoyed for several centuries a high and deserved reputation. The rise of
philosophical jurisprudence coincides with the decline of all other
literature. It must be considered to belong to science rather than
letters, and is far too wide a subject to be more than merely noticed
here, Both these authors wrote a digest, as well as numerous other works.
The best-known popular treatise of Pomponius was his _Enchiridion_, or
Manual of the Law of Nations, containing a sketch of the history of Roman
law and jurisprudence until the time of Julian. [23]
The study of grammar and rhetoric was pursued with much industry, but by
persons of inferior mark. ANTONIUS JULIANUS, a Spaniard, some account of
whom is given by Gellius, [24] kept up the older style as against the new
African fashion. His declamations have perished; but those of CALPURNIUS
FLACCUS still remain. The chief rhetoricians seem to have confined
themselves to declaiming in Greek. The celebrated Favorinus, at once
philosopher, rhetorician, and minute grammarian, was one of the most
popular. TERENTIUS SCAURUS wrote a book on Latin grammar, and commentaries
on Plautus and Virgil. We have his treatise _De Orthographia_, which
contains many rare ancient forms. His evident desire to be brief has
caused some obscurity. The author formed his language on the older models;
like Suetonius, following Pliny, and through him, the classical period.
Philosophers abounded in this age, and one at least, Plutarch, has
attained the highest renown. As he, in common with all the rest, wrote in
Greek, no more will be said about them here.
A medical writer of some note, whose two works on acute (_celeres
passiones_) and chronic (_tardae_) diseases have reached us, is CAELIUS
AURELIANUS. His exact date is not known. But as he never alludes to Galen,
it is probable be lived before him. He was born at Sicca in Numidia, and
chiefly followed Soranus.
The reigns of Antoninus Pius and his son, the saintly M. Aurelius, covered
a space of forty-two years, during which good government and consistent
patronage did all they could for letters. But though the emperor could
give the tone to such literature as existed, he could not revive the old
force and spirit, which were gone for ever. The Romans now showed all the
signs of a decaying people. The loss of serious interest in anything, even
in pleasure, argues a reduced mental calibre; and the substitution of
minute learning for original thought always marks an irrecoverable
decadence. The chief writer during the earlier part of this period is M.
CORNELIUS FRONTO (90-168 A.D.), a native of Cirta, in Numidia, who had
been held under Hadrian to be the first pleader of the day; and now rose
to even greater influence from being intrusted with the education of the
two young Caesars, M. Aurelius and L. Verus. Fronto suffered acutely from
the gout, and the tender solicitude displayed by Aurelius for his
preceptor's ailments is pleasant to see, though the tone of condolence is
sometimes a little mawkish. Fronto was a thorough pedant, and of corrupt
taste. He had all the clumsy affectation of his school. Aurelius adopted
his teacher's love of archaisms with such zest that even Fronto was
obliged to advise a more popular style. When Aurelius left off rhetoric
for the serious study of philosophy, Fronto tried his best to dissuade him
from such apostasy. In his eyes eloquence, as he understood it, was the
only pursuit worthy of a great man. In later life Aurelius arrived at
better canons of judgment; in his _Meditations_ he praises Fronto's
goodness, [25] but says not a word about his eloquence. His contemporaries
were less reserved. They extolled him to the skies, and made him their
oracle of all wisdom. Eumenius [26] says, "he is the second and equal
glory of Roman eloquence;" and Macrobius [27] says, "There are four styles
of speech; the copious, of which Cicero is chief; the terse, in which
Sallust holds sway; the dry, [28] which is assigned to Fronto; the florid,
in which Pliny luxuriates." With testimonies like these before them, and
the knowledge that he had been raised to the consulship (143) and to the
confidential friendship of two emperors, scholars had formed a high
estimate of his genius. But the discovery of his letters by Mai (1815)
undeceived them. Independently of their false taste, which cannot fail to
strike the reader, they show a feeble mind, together with a lack of
independence and self-reliance. He has, however, a good _naturel_, and a
genial self-conceit, which attracts us to him, and we are not surprised at
the affection of his pupil, though we suspect it has led him to exaggerate
his master's influence.
Until these came to light, scarcely anything was known of Fronto's works.
Five discussions on the signification of words had been preserved in
Gellius, and a passage in which he violently attacks the Christians in
Minucius Felix. But the letters give an excellent idea of his mind, _i.e._
they are well stocked with words, and supply as little as possible of
solid information. Family matters, mutual condolences, pieces of advice,
interspersed with discussions on eloquence, form their staple. The
collection consisted of ten books, five written to Aurelius as heir-
apparent, and five to him as emperor. But we have lost the greater part of
the latter series. Of Fronto's numerous other writings only scattered
fragments remain. They are as follows:--(1) Panegyric speeches addressed
to Hadrian [29] and Antoninus (among which was the celebrated one on his
British victories 140 A.D.). (2) A speech returning thanks to the senate
on behalf of the Carthaginians. (3) Speeches for the Bithynians and
Ptolomacenses. (4) Speeches for and against individuals. (5) The speech
against the Christians quoted by Minucius. (6) Appended to the letters are
also some Greek epistles to members of the imperial household, a
consolation from Aurelius to Fronto on the death of his grandson, and his
reply, which is a mixture of desponding pessimism and philological
pedantry. [30] (7) Trifles like the _erotikos_, a study based on Plato's
theory of love, the story of Arion, the _feriae alsienses_, in which he
humorously advises the prince to take a holiday, the _laudes fumi et
pulveris_, a rhetorical exercise, [31] show that he was quite at home in a
less ambitious vein.
The best example of his style and habits of thought is found in the
letters _De Eloquentia_ on p. 139 _sqq._ of Naber's edition.
His life was soured by suffering and bereavement. His wife and all his
children but one died before him, and he himself was a victim to various
diseases. His interest for us is due to his relations with Aurelius and
the general dearth at that period of first-rate writers. He died probably
before the year 169. With Fronto's letters are found a considerable number
of those of Aurelius, but they do not call for any remark. The writings
that have brought him the purest and loftiest fame are not in Latin but in
Greek. It would therefore be out of place to dwell on them here.
A younger contemporary and admirer of Fronto is AULUS GELLIUS (l25?-175
A.D.), author of the _Noctes Atticae_, in twenty books, a pleasant,
gossiping work, written to occupy the leisure of his sons, and containing
a vast amount of interesting details on literature and religious or
antiquarian lore. Gellius is a man of small mind, but makes up by zeal for
lack of power. He was trained in philosophy under Favorinus, in rhetoric
under Antonius Julianus and, perhaps, Fronto, but his style and taste are,
on the whole, purer than those of his preceptors. The title _Noctes
Atticae_ was chosen, primarily, because the book was written at Athens and
during the lucubrations of the night; but its modesty was also a
recommendation in his eyes. The subjects are very various, but grammar or
topics connected with it preponderate. A large space is devoted to
anecdotes, literary and historical, and among these are found both the
most interesting and the best written passages. Another element of
importance is found in the quotations, which are very numerous, from
ancient authors. The reader will appreciate the value of these from the
continual references to Gellius which have been made in this work. [32]
The style of Gellius abounds with archaisms and rare words, _e.g.,
edulcare, recentari, aeruscator, adulescentes frugis, elegans verborum_,
and shows an unnecessary predilection for frequentatives. [33] It is
obvious that in his day men had ceased to feel the full meaning of the
words they used. As a depraved bodily condition requires larger and
stronger doses of physic to affect it, so Gellius, when his subject is
most trivial, strives most for overcharged vigour of language. [34] But
these defects are less conspicuous in the later books, where his thought
also rises not unfrequently into a higher region. The man's nature is
amiable and social; he enlisted the help of his friends in the preparation
of his little essays, [35] and seems to have been on kindly terms with
most of the chief writers of the day. Among the ancients his admiration
was chiefly bestowed on Virgil and Cicero as representatives of
literature, on Varro and Nigidius Figulus, [36] as representatives of
science. His power of criticism is narrowed by pedantry and small
passions, but when these are absent he can use his judgment well. [37] He
preserves many interesting points of etymology [38] and grammar, [39] and
is a mine of archaic quotation. Among contemporary philosophers he admires
most Plutarch, Favorinus, and Herodes Atticus the rival of Fronto. He
smiles at the enthusiasm with which some regard all that is obsolete, and
mentions the _Ennianistae_ [40] with half-disapproval. But his own bias
inclines the same way, only he brings more taste to it than they. On the
whole he is a very interesting writer, and the last that can be called in
anyway classical. He is well spoken of by Augustine; [41] and Macrobius,
though he scarcely mentions him, pillages his works without reserve. His
eighth book is lost, but the table of contents is fortunately preserved.
A great genius belonging to this time is the jurist GAIUS (110-180 A.D.).
His _nomen_ is not known; whence some have supposed that he never came to
Rome. But this is both extremely unlikely in itself, and contradicted by
at least one passage of his works. He was a professor of jurisprudence for
many years, and from the style of his extant works Teuffel conjectures
that they originated from oral lectures. It is astonishing how clear even
the later Latin language becomes when it touches on congenial subjects,
such as agriculture or law. The ancient legal phraseology had been
seriously complained of as being so technical as to baffle all but experts
in deciphering its meaning. Horace ridicules the cunning of the trained
legal intellect in more than one place. But this reproach was no longer
just. The series of able and thoughtful writers who had carried out a
successive and systematic treatment of law since the Augustan age had
brought into it such matchless clearness, that they have formed the model
for all subsequent philosophic jurists. The amalgamation of the great
Stoic principles of natural right, the equality of man, and the _jus
gentium_, which last was gradually expanding into the conception of
international law, contributed to make jurisprudence a complete exponent
of the essential character of the Empire as the "polity of the human
race." The works of Gaius included seven books _Rerum Cotidianarum_,
which, like the work of Apuleius, were styled _Aurei_; and an introduction
to the science of law, called _Institutiones_, or _Instituta_, in four
books. These were published 161 A.D., and at once established themselves
as the most popular exposition of the subject. Gaius was a native of the
east, but of what country is uncertain. The names of several other jurists
are preserved. They were divided into two classes, [42] the practicians,
who pleaded or responded, and the regularly endowed professors of
jurisprudence. Of the former class SEX. JULIUS AFRICANUS was the most
celebrated for his acute intellect and the extreme difficulty of his
definitions; ULPIUS MARCELLUS for his deep learning and the prudence of
his decisions. He was an adviser of the emperor Aurelius. A third writer,
one of whose treatises--that on the divisions of money, weights, and
measures,--is still extant, was L. VOLUSIUS MAECIANUS. The reader is
referred for information on this subject to Teuffel's work, and Poste's
edition of the _Institutes of Gaius_.
Among minor authors we may mention C. SULPICIUS APOLLINARIS, a
Carthaginian, who became a teacher of rhetoric and grammar, and numbered
among his pupils Aulus Gellius. He and ARRUNTIUS CELSUS devoted their
talents for the most part to subjects of archaic interest. Erudition of a
certain kind had now become universal, and was discussed with all the
formality and exuberance of public debate. The disputations of the
mediaeval universities seem to have found their germ in these animated
discussions on trivial subjects, such as are described in chapters of
Gellius to which the reader has already been referred. [43]
Historical research flagged; epitomizers had possession of the field. We
have the names of L. AMPELIUS, the author of an abridged "book of useful
information on various subjects," history predominating, called _Liber
Memorialis_, which still remains; and of GRANIUS LICINIANUS, short
fragments of whose Roman history in forty books are left to us.
Poetry was even more meagrely represented. Aulus Gellius [44] has
preserved a translation of one of Plato's epigrams, which he calls _ouk
amousos_, by a contemporary author, whose name he does not give. It is
written in dimeter iambics, an easier measure than the hexameter, and
therefore more within the reduced capacity of the time. The loose metrical
treatment proceeds not so much from ignorance of the laws of quantity as
from imitation of Hadrian's lax style, [45] and perhaps from a tendency,
now no longer possible to resist, to adopt the plebeian methods of speech
and rhythm into the domain of recognised literature. As the fragment may
interest our readers, we quote it:
"Dum semibiulco savio
Meum puellum savior,
Dulcemque florem spiritus
Duco ex aperto tramite;
Animula aegra et saucia
Cucurrit ad labias mihi,
Rictumque in oris pervium
Et labra pueri mollia,
Rimata itineri transitus
Ut transiliret, nititur.
Tum si morae quid plusculae
Fuisset in coetu osculi
Amoris igni percita
Transisset, et me linqueret:
Et mira prorsum res foret,
Ut ad me fierem mortuus,
Ad puerum intus viverem."
In the fifth and last lines we see a reversion to the ante-classical
irregularities of scansion. The reader should refer to the remarks on this
subject on page 20.
Perhaps the much-disputed poem called _Pervigilium Veneris_ belongs to
this epoch. [46] It is printed in Weber's _Corpus Poetarum_, [47] and is
well worth reading from the melancholy despondency that breathes through
its quiet inspiration. The metre is the trochaic tetrameter, which is
always well suited to the Latin language, and which here appears treated
with Greek strictness, except that in lines 55, 62, 91, a spondee is used
in the fifth foot instead of a trochee. The refrain--
"Cras amet qui nunquam amavit, quique amavit, eras amet,"
may be called the "last word" of expiring epicureanism.
The last writer that comes before us is the rhetorician and pseudo-
philosopher, L. APULEIUS. He was born at Madaura, in Africa, 114 A.D. [48]
and calls himself Seminumida et Semigaetula. [49] His parents were in easy
circumstances, and sent him to school at Carthage, which was fast rising
to the highest place among the seminaries of rhetoric. By his father's
death he came into a considerable fortune, and in order to finish his
education spent some time at Athens, and travelled through many parts of
the East hunting up all the information he could find on magic and
necromancy, and getting himself initiated into all the different
mysteries. About 136 he came to Rome, where he practised at the bar for
about two years. He then returned to Madaura; but soon growing
discontented determined to indulge his restless craving for travel and
acquiring knowledge. He therefore set out for Egypt, the nurse of all
occult wisdom, and the centre of attraction for all curious spirits. On
his way he fell ill and was detained at Oea, where he met a rich widow
named Pudentilla, whom in course of time he married. Her two sons had not
been averse to the match, indeed Apuleius says they strongly urged it
forward. But very soon they found their step-father an inconvenience, and
through their uncle Aemilianus instituted a suit against him on the ground
of his having bewitched their mother into marrying him. This serious
charge, which was based principally on the disparity of years, Pudentilla
being sixty (though her husband maintains she is only forty), Apuleius
refutes in his _Apologia_, [50] a valuable relic of the time, which well
deserves to be read. The accusation had been divided into three parts, to
each of which the orator replies. The first part or preamble had tried to
excite odium against him by alleging his effeminacy in using dentifrice,
in possessing a mirror, and in writing lascivious poems, and also by
alluding to his former poverty. His reply to this is ready enough; he
admits that nature has favoured him with a handsome person of which he is
not ashamed of trying to make the best; besides, how do they know his
mirror is not used for optical experiments? As to poverty, if he _had_
been poor, he gloried in the fact; [51] many great and virtuous men had
been so too, and some thought poverty an essential part of virtue. The
preamble disposed of, he proceeds to the more serious charge of magic. He
has, so the indictment says, fascinated a child; he has bought poisons; he
keeps something uncanny in his handkerchief, probably some token of
sorcery: he offers nocturnal sacrifices, vestiges of which of a suspicious
character have been found; and he worships a little skeleton he has made
and which he always carries about with him. His answer to these charges is
as follows:--the child was epileptic and died without his aid; the poisons
he has bought for purposes of natural science; the image he carries in his
handkerchief is that of Plato's _monarch_ (_vous Basileus_), devotion to
which is only natural in a professed Platonist; and as for the sacrifices,
they are pious prayers, offered outside the town solely in order to profit
by the peaceful inspirations which the country awakens. The third part of
the indictment concerned his marriage. He has forced the lady's
affections; he has used occult arts as her own letters show, to gain an
influence over her; love-letters have passed between them, which is a
suspicious thing when the lady is sixty years of age; the marriage was
celebrated out of Oea; and last but not least, he has got possession of
her very considerable fortune. His answers are equally to the point here.
So far from being unwilling to espouse him or needing any compulsion, the
good lady with difficulty waited till her sons came of age, and then
brooked no further delay; moreover he had not pressed his suit, though her
sons themselves had strongly wished him to do so; as regards the
correspondence, a son who reads his mother's private letters is hardly a
witness to command confidence; as regards her age she is forty, not sixty;
as regards the place of her marriage both of them preferred the country to
the town; and as regards the fortune, which he denies to be a rich one,
the will provides that on her death it shall revert to her sons. Having
now completed his argument he lets loose the flood-gates of his satire;
and with a violence, an indecency, and a dragging to light of home
secrets, scarcely to be paralleled except in some recent trials, he flays
the reputation of uncle and nephews, and triumphantly appeals to the judge
to give a verdict in his favour. [52]
We next find him at Carthage where he gave public lectures on rhetoric. He
had enough real ability joined with his affectation of wisdom to ensure
his success in this sphere. Accordingly we find that he attained not only
all the civil honours that the city had to bestow, but also the
pontificate of Aesculapius, a position even more gratifying to his tastes.
During his career as a rhetorician he wrote the _Florida_, which consists
for the most part of selected passages from his public discourses. It is
now divided into four books, but apparently at first had no such division.
It embraces specimens of eloquence on all kinds of subjects, in a middle
style between the comparatively natural one of his _Apologia_ and the
congeries of styles of all periods which his latest works present. In
these _morceaux_, some of which are designed as themes for improvisation,
he pretends to an acquaintance with the whole field of knowledge. As a
consequence, it is obvious that his knowledge is nowhere very deep. He was
equally fluent in Greek and Latin, and frequently passed from one language
to the other at a moment's notice.
He now cultivated that peculiar style which we see fully matured in his
_Metamorphoses_. It is a mixture of poetical and prose diction, of
archaisms and modernisms, of rare native and foreign terms, of solecisms,
conceits, and quotations, which render it repulsive to the reader and
betray the chaotic state of its creator's canons of taste. The story is
copied from Lucian's _Aoukios ae Onos_, but it is on a larger scale, and
many insertions occur, such as adventures with bandits or magicians;
accounts of jugglers, priests of Cybele, and other vagrants; details on
the arts; a description of an opera; licentious stories; and, above all,
the pretty tale of Cupid and Psyche, [53] which came originally from the
East, but in its present form seems rather to be modelled on a Greek
redaction. "The golden ass of Apuleius," as the eleven books of
Metamorphoses are called by their admirers, was by no means thought so
well of in antiquity as it is now. Macrobius expresses his wonder that a
serious philosopher should have spent time on such trifles. St Augustine
seems to think it possible the story may be a true one: "aut indicavit aut
finxit." It is a fictitious autobiography, narrating the adventures of the
author's youth; how he was tried for the murder of three leather-bottles
and condemned; how he was vivified by an enchantress with whom he was in
love; how he wished to follow her through the air as a bird, but owing to
a mistake of her maids was transformed into an ass; how he met many
strange adventures in his search for the rose-leaves which alone could
restore his lost human form. The change of shape gave him many chances of
observing men and women: among other incidents he is treated with disdain
by his own horse and mule, and severely beaten by his groom. He hears his
character openly defamed; his resentment at this, and the frequent
attempts he makes to assert his rationality, are among the most ludicrous
parts of the book; finally, after many adventures, he is restored to human
shape by some priests of Isis or Osiris, to whose service he devotes
himself for the rest of his life.
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