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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[72] Phars. i. 363.
[73] Ib. viii. 3.
[74] Ib. i. 529.
[75] Phars. v. 479.
[76] Ib. v. 364.
[77] _Metuentia astra_, 51; _Sirius irdex_, 247. Cf. Man. i. 399 _sqq._
[78] The rare form _Ditis = Dis_ occurs in these two writers.
[79] Ep. 34, 2.
[80] Ep. 79, 1, 5, 7.
[81] See v. 208, 216, 304, 315, 334.
[82] Tac. A. xiv. 52, _carmina orebrius factitare_ points to tragedy,
since that was Nero's favourite study. Mart. i. 61, 7, makes no
distinction between Seneca the philosopher and Seneca the tragedian, nor
does Quint. ix. 2, 8, _Medea apud Senecam_, seem to refer to any but the
well-known name. M. Nisard hazards the conjecture that they are a joint
production of the family; the rhetorician, his two sons Seneca and Mela,
and his grandson Lucan having each worked at them!
[83] Aen. iv. 11, _Con._
[84] Hippol. 1124 and Oed. 979, are the finest examples.
CHAPTER III.
[1] Praefectus vigilum.
[2] Plin. N. H. xxii. 23, 47.
[3] Said to have amounted to 300,000,000 sesterces. Tac. An. xiii. 42.
Juvenal calls him _praedives_. Sat. x. 16.
[4] Au. xiv. 53.
[5] The great blot on his character is his having composed a justification
of Nero's matricide on the plea of state necessity.
[6] Ep. 45, 4; cf. 2, 5.
[7] Ep. 110, 18.
[8] He was a scurrilous abuser of the government. Vespasian once said to
him, "You want to provoke me to kill you, but I am not going to order a
dog that barks to execution." Cf. Sen. Ep. 67, 14; De ben. vii. 2.
[9] Ep. 64, 2.
[10] Or at least in a much less degree. Tacitus and Juvenal give instances
of rapacity exercised on the provinces, but it must have been
inconsiderable as compared with what it had been.
[11] Ep. 6, 4.
[12] Ep. 75, 3.
[13] Ep. 75, 1.
[14] Vit. Beat. 17, 3.
[15] Ep. 38, 1. He compares philosophy to sun-light, which shines on all;
Ep. 41, 1. This is different from Plato: _to plaethos adunaton philosophon
einai_.
[16] Martha, _Les Moralistes de l'Empire romain_.
[17] Ep. 45.
[18] Ep. 38, 1; and 94, 1.
[19] Such as Serenus, Lucilius, &c. The old families seem to have eschewed
him.
[20] _Vit. Beat_. 17, 1.
[21] M. Havet, _Boiss. Rel. rom_. vol. ii. 44.
[22] The question is sifted in Aubertin, _Seneque et Saint Paul_; and in
Gaston Boissier, _La Religion romaine_, vol. II. ch. ii.
[23] De Vir. Illust. 12. Tertullian (Ap. ii. 8, 10) had said before,
_Seneca saepe noster_; but this only means that he often talks like a
Christian.
[24] He afterwards repudiated her, and she died in great poverty. Her act
shows a gentle and forgiving spirit.
[25] _Claud._ 25, "_Iudaeos impulsore Chresto assidue tumultuantes
expulit_."
[26] Tac. An. xv. 44.
[27] _Hodie tricesima Sabbata_, S. I. ix.
[28] We have seen how the great orators Crassus and Antonius pretended
that they did not know Greek: the same silly pride made others pretend
they had never heard of the Jews, even while they were practising the
Mosaic rites. And the number of noble names (Cornelii, Pomponii, Caecilii)
inscribed on Christian tombs in the reigns of the Antonines proves that
Christianity had made way even among the exclusive nobility of Rome.
[29] Prol. 13; ii. 45.
[30] 107, 12.
[31] 74, 20.
[32] Frag. 123.
[33] Ep. 110, 10 _parens noster_.
[34] 41, 2.
[35] Ep. 47, 18.
[36] Benef. iv. 12.
[37] _E.g._ In the _Consol. ad Marc._ 19, 5; _ad Polyb._ 9, 3. Even in Ep.
106, 4, he says, _animus corpus est_. Cf. 117, 2.
[38] 57, 7-9; 63, 16.
[39] 86, 1, animum eius in coelum, ex quo erat, redisse persuade mihi.
[40] 102, 26.
[41] Some have thought that if he did not know St Paul (who came to Rome
between 56 and 61 A.D. when Seneca was no longer young) he may have heard
some of the earlier missionaries in Rome.
[42] He could not have been occupied for years in governing the world,
and, with his desire for virtue, not have risen to nobler conceptions than
those with which he began.
[43] De. Ira, iii. 28, 1; cf. id. i. 14, 3.
[44] De. Clem. ii. 6, 2.
[45] Ep. 59, 14; 31, 3.
[46] 53, 11; cf. Prov. 66.
[47] This is the more cogent, because we find that the philosophers who
were converted to Christianity all turned at once to its _principles_,
often calling it a _philosophia_. Its _practice_ they admired also; but
this was not the first object of their attention.
[48] Ep. 95, 52.
[49] Ep. 95, 30.
[50] Ep. 96, 33, _homo sacra res homini_.
[51] Ben. iii. 28, 2.
[52] Ep. 47, _humiles amici_.
[53] In the treatise _De Superstitione_, of which several fragments
remain. It is, however, probable that Seneca would have equally disliked
any positive religion. He regards the sage as his own temple.
[54] Ep. 88, 37. There is a celebrated passage in one of his tragedies
(Med. 370) where he speaks of our limited knowledge, and thinks it
probable that a great New World will be discovered: "_Venient annis secula
seris Quibus Oceanus vincula rerum Laxet, et ingens pateat tellus,
Tethysque novos detegat orbes Nec sit terris ultima Thule_," an
announcement almost prophetic.
[55] Ep. 48, 11. He did not advise, but he allowed, _suicide_, as a remedy
for misfortune or disgrace. It is the one thing that makes the wise man
even superior to the gods, that at any moment he chooses he can cease to
be!
CHAPTER IV.
[1] Tac. An. xv. 16.
[2] For a full list of all the arguments for and against these dates the
reader is referred to Teuffel, R. L. S 287.
[3] The exact date is uncertain. He speaks of Seneca as living, probably
between 62 and 65 A.D. But he never mentions Pliny, who, on the contrary,
frequently refers to him. He must, therefore, have finished his work
before Pliny became celebrated.
[4] Perhaps the treatise _Adversus Astrologos_ was written with the object
of recommending the worship of the rural deities (xii. 1, 31). In one
place (ii. 225) he says he intends to treat of _lustrationes ceteraque
sacrifitia_.
[5] G. iv. 148.
[6] On the _pro Milone, pro Scauro, pro Cornelia, in Pisonem, in toga
candida_.
[7] _Scholia Bobbiensia_.
[8] It is identical with the second book of Sacerdos, who lived at the
close of the third century.
[9] Ann. xvi. 18.
CHAPTER V.
[1] Suetonius calls him _Novocomensis_. He himself speaks of Catullus as
his own _conterraneus_, from which it has been inferred by some that he
was born at Verona (N. H. Praef.). His full name is C. Plinius Secundus.
[2] _Dubii Sermonis_, sometimes named _De Difficilibus Linguae Latinae_.
[3] _De Iaculatione Equestri_.
[4] Ep. vi. 16.
[5] Plin. vi. 20.
[6] Ib. iii. 5.
[7] Plin. N. H. ii. 1.
[8] Some have supposed that he lived much later, till 118 A.D., but this
is improbable.
[9] Referred to in the proemium to Book VI. Some have thought it the work
we possess, and which is usually ascribed to Tacitus, but without reason.
[10] _De Institutione Oratoria_.
[11] See Appendix.
[12] Plin. vi. 32.
[13] Juv. iv. 75.
[14] Juv. vii. 186. Pliny gave him L400 towards his daughter's dowry, a
proof that, though he might be well off, he could not be considered rich.
[15] Mr. Parker told the writer that it was impossible to overrate the
accuracy of Frontinus, and his extraordinary clearness of description,
which he had found an invaluable guide in many laborious and minute
investigations on the water-supply of ancient Rome.
[16] He is named by St Aug. _De Util. Cred._ 17.
CHAPTER VI.
[1] In the single ancient codex of the Vatican, at the end of the second
book we read _C. Val. Fl. Balbi explicit_, Lib. II.; at the end of the
fourth book, _C, Val. Fl. Setini_, Lib. IV. _explicit;_ at the end of the
seventh, _C. Val. Fl. Setini Argonauticon_, Lib. VII. _explicit._ The
obscurity of these names has caused some critics to doubt whether they
really belonged to the poet.
[2] Mart. I. 61-4.
[3] I. 5.
[4] X. i. 90.
[5] So Dodwell, _Annal Quintil._
[6] i. 7, _sqq._
[7] _E.g._, of Titus storming Jerusalem (i. 13),
"Solymo nigrantem pulvere fratem
Spargentemque faces, et in omni turre furentem."
[8] iv. 508; cf. iv. 210.
[9] Ep. III. 7.
[10] Ren. i. 535.
[11] ix. 491.
[12] See Silv. V. iii. _passim_. This poem is a good instance of an
_epicedion_.
[13] Ib. II. ii. 6.
[14] Ib. III. v. 52.
[15] Ib. III. v. 28; cf. IV. ii 65.
[16] Quint. III. vii. 4.
[17] Ib. III. v. 31.
[18] Silv. IV. ii. 65.
[19] For a brilliant and interesting essay on the two Statii, the reader
is referred to Nisard, _Poetes de la Decadence_, vol. I. p. 303.
[20] The fifth book is unfinished. Probably he did not care to recur to it
after leaving Rome.
[21] Silv. I. ii. 95.
[22] Book II. part II. ch. i.
[23] Sat. I. iv. 73.
[24] Pont. IV. ii. 34; Trist. III. xiv. 39.
[25] Laetam fecit cum Statius Urbem Promisitque diem, Juv. vii. 86.
[26] Esurit intactam Paridi nisi vendit Agaven, Juv. ib.
[27] _Bis senos vigilata per annos_, Theb. xii. 811.
[28] Theb. vii. 435, quoted by Nisard.
[29] "The land on the other side."
[30] The reader is referred to an article on the later Roman epos by
Conington, _Posthumous Works_, vol. i. p. 348.
[31] Aen. vi. 413.
[32] Phars. i. 56.
[33] Theb. i. 17; Ach. i. 19.
[34] Theb. xii. 815.
[35] As i. 49, 3; iv. 55, 11, &c.
[36] In x. 24, 4, he tells us he is fifty-six; in x. 104, 9, written at
Rome, he says he has been away from Bilbilis 34 years. In xii. 31. 7, he
says his entire absence lasted 35 years. Now this was written in 100 A.D.
[37] iii. 94.
[38] v. 13.
[39] Nisard, p. 337.
[40] vii. 36.
[41] i. 77, &c.
[42] vii. 34.
[43] vii. 21.
[44] iv. 22.
[45] xi. 104.
[46] ii. 92, 3.
[47] So it is inferred from xii. 31.
[48] xii. 21.
[49] iii. 21.
[50] They will be found in Epig. x. 19.
[51] v. 37.
[52] See esp. ix. 48, as compared with Juv. ii. 1-30.
[53] x. 2.
[54] Mart. xi. 10.
[55] Mart. ix. 9.
[56] Ep. ix. 19, 1.
[57] Ep. iii. 1.
[58] x. 35, 1.
[59] _E.g._ The description of Domitian: qui res Romanas imperat inter,
_Non trabe sed tergo prolapsus_ et ingluvie albus. The underlined
expression is an imitation of Aristophanes' Nub. 1275, _ouk apo dokou all'
ap' onou_, _i.e. apo nou_, "He fell not from a beam, but from a donkey."
[60] Juv. i. 2.
[61] Ib. 3, _recitaverit_ ille togatas, &c.
CHAPTER VII.
[1] Como.
[2] Juv. i. 49.
[3] The correspondence dates from 97 to 108 A.D.
[4] x. 96 (97).
[5] This refers to the malicious charges of acts of cruelty performed at
the common meal, often brought against the early believers.
[6] Probably deaconesses.
[7] Ep. II. 13, 4.
[8] Ep. II. 11, 19.
[9] Ep. V. 5, 1.
[10] Ep. VII, 31, 5.
[11] Ep. VI. 15.
[12] An exhaustive list of these minor authors will be found in Teuffel, S
336-339.
[13] iii. 3l9.
[14] It runs: Cereri sacrum D. Junius Juvenalis tribunus cohortis I.
Delmatarum, II. vir quinquennalis flamen Divi Vespasiani vovit
dedicavitque sua pecunia. See Teuffel, S 326.
[15] Perhaps vii. 90.
[16] xv. 45.
[17] So, at least, says the author of the statement. But the cohort of
which Juvenal was prefect was in Britain A.D. 124 under Hadrian. See
Teuffel.
[18] _Nuper_ console Junco, xv. 27. Others read _Junio_.
[19] Coleridge's definition of poetry as "the best words in their right
places" may be fitly alluded to here. It occurs in the _Table Talk_.
[20] iv. 128; viii. 6, 7; xv. 75.
[21] Except in his poorer satires; certainly never in i. ii. iii. iv. vi.
vii. viii.
[22] The close intimacy between Juvenal and Martial is no great testimony
in favour of Juvenal. See Mart. vii. 24.
[23] iii. 61; cf. vi. 186, _sqq._
[24] Cum perimit saevos classis numerosa tyrannos, vii. 151.
[25] Sat. iv.
[26] Ib. vii. 1-24.
[27] Experiar quid concedatur in illos Quorum Flaminia tegitur cinis atque
Latina, i. 170.
[28] x. 66.
[29] viii. 147.
[30] x. 147, _sqq._
[31] iii. 61, 87, 7.
[32] vii. pass.
[33] i. 32, 158.
[34] vii. 16.
[35] iii. 77-104.
[36] vi. 562, et al.
[37] See especially iii. 30-44.
[38] References, allusions, and imitations of Virgil occur in most of the
Satires. For reminiscences of Lucan, cf. Juv. i. 18, 89; xii. 97, 8; with
Phars. i. 457; viii. 543; ix. 781, 2.
[39] His praenomen is uncertain; some think it was _Publius_.
[40] N. H. vii. 17.
[41] Hist. i. 1.
[42] Agr. 45.
[43] A. iv. 20.
[44] A. xiv. 12.
[45] De Or. 2.
[46] Ep. vii. 20, 4.
[47] Ep. ii. 1, 6.
[48] Ch. 29 especially, seems an echo of Quintilian.
[49] _E.g._ Pallentem Famam, ch. 13. The expression--Augustus eloquentiam
sient cetera _pacaverat_; and that so admirably paraphrased by Pitt (ch.
36), Magna eloquentia, sicat flamma, materia alitur et motibus excitatur
et urendo clarescit.
[50] Ch. 3.
[51] Esp. ch. 10, 11.
[52] Notably the history of the Jews. Hist. v.
[53] Ann. iv. 32.
[54] De Bury, _Les Femmes de l'Empire_.
CHAPTER VIII.
[1] For an excellent account of this inconstant prince see his biography
by Aelius Spartianus, who preserves other poems of his.
[2] Cf. Dom. 12, Interfuisse me _adolescentulum_ memini cum inspiceretur
senex (a Domitiano). From Gram. 4, Ner. 57, as compared with this, we
should infer that he was about fifteen in the year 90.
[3] Ep. i. 18.
[4] Ep. iii. 8.
[5] Paneg. Traj. 95.
[6] Ep. i. 24.
[7] _E.g._ Fronto writing under Antoninus mentions him as still living.
[8] Hist. Var. 6, 874-896 (Roth).
[9] De Spect. 5.
[10] _Ad Aen._ 7, 612: Tria suntgenera trabearum; nuum diis sacratum, quod
est tantum de purpura; aliud regum, quod est purpureum, habet tanem album
aliquid; tertium augurale de purpura et cocco. The other passage (_Ad
Aen._ 2, 683) describes the different priestly caps, the _apex_, the
_tubulus_, and the _galerus_.
[11] Etym. 18, 2, 3.
[12] Perhaps the word _Stemma_ should be supplied before _syngenikon_.
[13] In one MS. is appended to Suetonius's works a list of grammatical
observations called _Differentiae sermonum Remmi Palaemonis ex libro
Suetoni Tranquilli qui inscribitur Pratum_. Roth prints these, but does
not believe them genuine.
[14] It will be found _Ner._ 47-49.
[15] Qualis artifex pereo.
[16] Many of these ejaculations are in Greek. On this see note i. p. 37.
[17] Usually (from the Cod. Bamberg.) Julius Florus; but Mommsen considers
this a corruption.
[18] Riese, _Anthol. Lat._ p. 168-70; ib. No. 87, p. 101. Some have
ascribed the _Pervigilium Veneris_ to him.
[19] ii. 1.
[20] See back page 331.
[22] Dio. xl. 5, 20.
[23] For these writers, see Teuff. S 345.
[24] i. 4, 1.
[25] He speaks of having learnt from him _to epistasthai oti hae
turannikae baskania kai poikilia kai hypokrisis kai oti os epipan oi
kaloumenoi outoi par aemin Eupatridai astorgoteroi pos eisin_.
[26] Paneg. Constant. 14.
[27] Sat. V. 1.
[28] _Siccum_. This shows more acumen than we should have expected from
Macrobius.
[29] Ep. ad M. Caes ii. 1.
[30] In complaining of fate, he suddenly breaks off with the words: _Fata
a fando appellata aiunt; hoccine est recte fari?_ S 7.
[31] On this see a fuller account, pp. 478, 474.
[32] Some of the more interesting chapters in his work may be referred
to:--On religion, i. 7; iv. 9; iv. 11; v. 12; vi. 1. On law, iv. 3; iv. 4;
iv. 5; v. 19; vii. 15; x. 20. On Virgil, i. 23; ii. 3; ii. 4; v. 8; vi. 6;
vii. 12; vii. 20; ix. 9; x. 16; xiii. 1; xiii. 20. On Sallust, i. 15; ii.
27; iii. 1; iv. 15; x. 20. On Ennius, iv. 7; vii. 2; xi. 4; xviii. 5.
[33] And those often rare ones, as _solitavisse_.
[34] _E.g._ in vii. 17, where he poses a grammarian as to the
signification of _obnoxius_. Compare also xiv. 5, on the vocative of
_egregius_.
[35] See xiv. 6.
[36] See iv. 9.
[37] See esp. xix. 9.
[38] _E.g._ iv. 1.
[39] Especially iv. 7; v. 21; vii. 7, 9, 11; xvi. 14; xviii. 8, 9.
[40] xviii. 5.
[41] Civ. Dei. ix. 4.
[42] Teuffel, S 356.
[43] Note 1, p. 466.
[44] xix. 11.
[45] The personal taste of the emperors now greatly helped to form style.
This should not be forgotten in criticising the works of this period.
[46] Such is Teuffel's opinion, following Buchelor, L. L. S 358.
[47] P. 1414.
[48] This date is adopted by Charpentier. Teuffel (L. L. S 362, 2)
inclines to a later date, 125 A.D.
[49] Apol. 23.
[50] Sometimes called _De Magia_.
[51] The word _paupertas_ must be used in a limited sense, as it is by
Horace, _pauperemque dives me petit_; or else we must suppose that
Apuleius had squandered his fortune in his travels.
[52] The case was tried before the Proconsul Claudius Maximus.
[53] It will be found Metam. iv. 28--vi. 24.
[54] Apuleius himself (i. 1) calls it a _Milesian tale_ (see App. to ch.
3). These are very generally condemned by the classical writers. But there
is no doubt they were very largely read _sub rosa_. When Crassus was
defeated in Parthia, the king Surenas is reported to have been greatly
struck with the licentious novels which the Roman officers read during the
campaign.
[55] St Augustine fully believed that he and Apollonius of Tyana were
workers of (demoniacal) miracles.
CHAPTER IX.
[1] The reader is referred to Champagny, _Les Cesars_, vols. iii. and iv;
Martha, _Les Moralistes romaines_; Gaston Boissier, _Les Antonins_;
Charpentier, _Ecrivains latins sous l'Empire_.
[2] The declaimers of _Suaseriae_ in praise of the heroes of old were
contemptuously styled _Marathonouachos_.
[3] Delivered by Fronto.
[4] One, irritated that the Emperor Antoninus did not bow to him in the
theatre, called out, "Caesar! do you not see me?"
[5] Inst. Div. iii. 23.
[6] Dio. xvii. p. 464.
[7] Id. xii. p. 397.
[8] Epictetus (Dissert. iii. 26) uses the very word--_theoi diakonoi ko
martyres_. Christianity hallowed this term, as it did so many others.
[9] See Juvenal: Gallia causidicos docuit facunda Britannos De conducende
loquitur iam rhetore Thule, xv. 1112.
[10] Dissert. i. 9.
[11] Tac. Hist. iii. 81.
[12] Plut. _De Defect. Orac._ p. 410.
[13] Vit. Apol. iv. 40.
[14] Jampridem Syrus in Tiberim defluxit Orontes, Juv. iii. 52.
[15] Decernat quodcunque volet de corpore nostro Isis, Id. xiii. 93.
[16] Herm. 24.
[17] De deo Socr. 3.
[18] _E.g._ Those of Greece are cheerful for the most part, those of Egypt
gloomy.
[19] He was an African, it will be remembered.
APPENDICES
[1] From the _Romische Zeittafeln_ of Dr E. W. Fischer, and from Clinton,
_Fasti Hellenici_ and _Romani_. Only those dates which are tolerably
certain are given.
[2] Clinton places his birth in 193; but see Teuff. S 97, 6.
[3] Others place this event in 109 B.C.
[4] Others place this event in 55 B.C.
[5] Or, perhaps, in 24 B.C.
[6] Jerome places it in 13 A.D.
[7] The most convenient and accessible are here recommended, not the most
complete or exhaustive. For these the reader is referred to Teuffel's
work, from which several of those here mentioned are taken.
[8] Some of these questions are taken from University Examinations, some
also from Mr. Gantillon's Classical Examination Papers.
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