we can afford him. He had the advantage at an early age of the
acquaintance of a scholar of high attainments in Greek and Latin
literature, who was well acquainted also with the history of his own
country, from whom he imbibed a love of intellectual pursuits. During
the wars with the pirates (in which he obtained the naval crown) and
with Mithridates, he held a high command, and after supporting Pompey
and the senate during the civil struggles, he was compelled to
surrender to Cæsar (though he was not changed in his opinions), and
passed over to Greece, where he was finally overcome by the dictator,
and owed his subsequent opportunities for study to the clemency of his
conqueror, who gave him pardon after the battle of Pharsalia. All the
rest of his life was passed aloof from the storm that raged around him,
the circumstances of his proscription and pardon being the only
indication of his personal connection with it. He died in the year 28
B.C., after the temple of Janus had been closed the third time, when
Augustus had entered upon the enjoyment of his absolute power.
Of nearly five hundred works that Varro is said to have written, one
only has come down to our time complete, though some portions of
another are also preserved. The first is a laboriously methodical and
thorough treatise on agriculture. The other work (a treatise on Latin
grammar) is of value in its mutilated and imperfect state (it seems
never to have received its author's final revision), because it
preserves many terms and forms that would otherwise have been lost,
besides much curious information concerning ancient civil and religious
usages. In regard to the derivation of words, his principles are sound,
but his practice is often amusingly absurd. We must remember, however,
that the science of language did not advance beyond infancy until after
our own century had opened. The great reputation of Varro was founded
upon a work now lost, entitled "Book of Antiquities," in the first part
of which he discussed the creation and history of man, especially of
man in Italy from the foundation of the city in 753 B.C. (which date he
established), not omitting reference to Æneas, of course, and
presenting details of the manners and social customs of the people
during all their career. In a second part Varro gave his attention to
Divine Antiquities, and as St. Augustine drew largely from it in his
"City of God," we may be said to be familiar with it at second hand. It
was a complete mythology of Italy, minutely describing every thing
relating to the services of religion, the festivals, temples,
offerings, priests, and so on. Probably the loss of the works of Varro
may be accounted for by their lack of popular interest, or by their
infelicities of style, which rendered them little attractive to
readers.
Julius Cæsar must be included among the authors of Rome, though most of
his works are lost, his _Commentaries_ (mentioned on p. 226) being
the only one remaining. This book is written in Latin of great purity,
and shows that the author was master of a clear style, though the
nature of the work did not admit him to exhibit many of the graces of
diction. The Commentaries seem to have been put into form in winter
quarters, though roughly written during the actual campaigns. Cæsar
always took pleasure in literary pursuits and in the society of men of
letters.
Valerius Catullus, a contemporary of the writers just named, was born
when Cinna was Consul (B.C. 87), and died at the age of thirty or
forty, for the dates given as that of his death are quite doubtful. His
father was a man of means and a friend of Cæsar, whom he frequently
entertained. Catullus owned a villa near Tibur, but he took up his
abode at Rome when very young, and mingled freely in the gayest
society, the expensive pleasures of which made great inroads upon his
moderate wealth. Like other Romans, he looked to a career in the
provinces for means of improving his fortune, but was disappointed, and
like our own Chaucer, but more frequently, he pours forth lamentations
to his empty purse. He was evidently a friend of most of the prominent
men of letters of his time, and he entered freely into the debauchery
of the period. Thus his verse gives a representation of the debased
manners of the day in gay society. His style was remarkably felicitous,
and it is said that he adorned all that he touched. Most of his poems
are quite short, and their subjects range from a touching outburst of
genuine grief for a brother's death to a fugitive epigram of the most
voluptuous triviality. His verses display ease and impetuosity,
tumultuous merriment and wild passion, playful grace and slashing
invective, vigorous simplicity and ingenious imitation of the learned
stiffness and affectation of the Alexandrian school. They are strongly
national, despite the author's use of foreign materials, and made
Catullus exceedingly popular among his countrymen.
Lucretius (Titus Lucretius Carus) was a native of Italy, whose birth is
said to have occurred B.C. 95, His death was caused by his own hand, or
by a philtre administered by another, about 50 B.C., and very little is
known about his life. His great work, entitled About the Nature of
Things (_De Rerum Natura_), is a long poem, in which an attempt is
made to present in clear terms the leading principles of the philosophy
of Epicurus, and it is acknowledged to be one of the greatest of the
world's didactic poems. He undertakes to demonstrate that the miseries
of men may be traced to a slavish dread of the gods; and in order to
remove such apprehensions, he would prove that no divinity ever
interposed in the affairs of the earth, either as creator or director.
The Romans were not, as we have had occasion to observe, inclined to
philosophic pursuits, and Lucretius certainly labored with all the
force of an extraordinary genius to lead them into such studies. He
brought to bear upon his task the power of sublime and graceful verse,
and it has been said that but for him "we could never have formed an
adequate idea of the strength of the Latin language. We might have
dwelt with pleasure upon the softness, flexibility, richness, and
musical tone of that vehicle of thought which could represent with full
effect the melancholy tenderness of Tibullus, [Footnote: Albius
Tibullus was a poet of singular gentleness and amiability, who wrote
verses of exquisite finish, gracefully telling the story of his worldly
misfortunes and expressing the fluctuations that marked his indulgence
in the tender passion, in which his experience was extensive and his
record real. He was a warm friend of Horace.] the exquisite ingenuity
of Ovid, [Footnote: Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) was born March 20, B.C.
43, and did not compose his first work, The Art of Love (Ars Amatoria),
until he was more than fifty years of age. He wrote subsequently The
Metamorphoses, in fifteen books; The Fasti, containing accounts of the
Roman festivals; and the Elegies, composed during his banishment to a
town on the Euxine, near the mouth of the Danube, where he died, A.D.
18. Niebuhr places him after Catullus the most poetical among the Roman
poets, and ranks him first for facility. He did not direct his genius
by a sound judgment, and has the unenviable fame of having been the
first to depart from the canons of correct Greek taste.] the inimitable
felicity and taste of Horace, the gentleness and high spirit of Virgil,
and the vehement declamation of Juvenal, but, had the verses of
Lucretius perished, we should never have known that it could give
utterance to the grandest conceptions with all that sustained majesty
and harmonious swell in which the Grecian Muse rolls forth her loftiest
outpourings."
Caius Sallustius Crispus (Sallust) was born the year that Marius died
(B.C. 86) of a plebeian family, and during the civil wars was a
partisan of Cæsar, whom he accompanied to Africa, after having brought
to him the news of the mutiny of his troops in Campania (B.C.
46). [Footnote: See page 245.] Left as governor, Sallust seems to have
pursued the methods common to that class, for he became immensely rich.
Upon his return from Africa, he retired to an extensive estate on the
Quirinal Hill, and lived through the direful days which followed the
death of Cæsar. He died in the year 34 B.C., his last years being
devoted to diligent pursuits of literature. His two works are
_Catilina_, a history of the suppression of the conspiracy of
Catiline, and _Jugurtha_, a history of the war against Jugurtha,
in both of which he took great pains with his style. As he witnessed
many of the events he described, his books have a great value to the
student of the periods. Roman writers asserted that he imitated the
style of Thucydides, but there is an air of artificiality about his
work which he did not have the skill to conceal. He has the honor of
being the first Roman to write history, as distinguished from mere
annals.
Livy (Titus Livius) was born in the year of Cæsar's first consulship
(B.C. 59), at Patavium (Padua), and died A.D. 17. His writings, like
those of Ovid, come therefore rather into the period of the empire. His
great work is the History of Rome, which he modestly called simply
_Annales_. Little is known of his life, but he was of very high
repute as a writer in his own day, for it is said by Pliny that a
Spaniard travelled all the way from his distant home merely to see him,
and as soon as his desire had been accomplished, returned. Livy's
history comprised one hundred and forty-two books, of which thirty-five
only are extant, though with the exception of two of the missing books
valuable epitomes are preserved. Though wanting many of the traits of
the historian, and though he was of course incapable of looking at
history with the modern philosophic spirit, Livy was honest and candid,
and possessed a wonderful command of his native language. His work
enjoyed an unbounded popularity, not entirely to be accounted for by
the fascinations of his theme, He realized his desire to present a
clear and probable narrative, and no history of Rome can now be written
without constant reference to his pages.
Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) was born on the river Aufidus, in the
year 65 B.C., and was son of a freeman who seems to have been a
publican or collector of taxes. At about the age of twelve, after
having attended the local school at Venusia, to which the children of
the rural aristocracy resorted, he was taken to Rome, where he enjoyed
the advantages of the best means of education. He studied Livius
Andronicus, and Homer, and was flogged with care by at least one of his
masters. He was accompanied at the capital by his father, of whom he
always speaks with great respect, and because he mingled with boys of
high rank, was well dressed and attended by slaves. The gentle
watchfulness of the father guarded Horace from all the temptations of
city life, and at the age of eighteen he went to Athens, as most well-
educated Romans were obliged to, and studied in the academic groves,
though for a while he was swept away by the youthful desire to acquire
military renown under Brutus, who came there after the murder of Cæsar.
Like the others of the republican army, he fled from the field of
Philippi, and found his military ardor thoroughly cooled. He
thenceforth devoted himself to letters. Returning to Rome, he attracted
notice by his verses, and became a friend of Mæcenas and Virgil, the
former of whom bestowed upon him a farm sufficient to sustain him. His
life thereafter was passed in frequent interchange of town and country
residence, a circumstance which is reflected with charming grace in his
verses. His rural home is described in his epistles. It was not
extensive, but was pleasant, and he enjoyed it to the utmost. His
poetry is deficient in the highest properties of verse, but as the
fresh utterances of a man of the world who was possessed of quick
observation and strong common-sense, and who was honest and bold, they
have always charmed their readers. The Odes of Horace are unrivalled
for their grace and felicitous language, but express no great depth of
feeling. His Satires do not originate from moral indignation, but the
writer playfully shoots folly as it flies, and exhibits a wonderful
keenness of observation of the ways of men in the world. His Epistles
are his most perfect work, and are, indeed, among the most original and
polished forms of Roman verse. His Art of Poetry is not a complete
theory of poetic art, and is supposed to have been written simply to
suggest the difficulties to be met on the way to perfection by a
versifier destitute of the poetic genius. The works of Horace were
immediately popular, and in the next generation became text-books in
the schools.
Cornelius Nepos was a historical writer of whose life almost no
particulars have come down to us, except that he was a friend of
Cicero, Catullus, and probably of other men of letters who lived at the
end of the republic. The works that he is known to have written are all
lost, and that which goes under his name, The Biographies of
Distinguished Commanders (_Excellentium Imperatorum Vitæ_), seems
to be an abridgment made some centuries after his death, and tedious
discussions have been had regarding its authorship. The lives are,
however, valuable for their pure Latinity, and interesting for the
lofty tone in which the greatness of the Roman people is celebrated.
The life of Atticus, the friend and correspondent of Cicero, is the one
of the biographies regarding which the doubts have been least. The work
is still a favorite school-book and has been published in innumerable
editions.
This brief list of celebrated writers whose works were in the hands of
the reading public of Rome during the time of the republic, must be
closed with reference to Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro), the writer
who stands at the head of the literature of Rome, sharing his pre-
eminence only with his younger friend, Horace. Born on his father's
small estate near Mantua, Virgil studied Greek at Naples, and other
branches, probably, at Rome, where in time he became the friend of the
munificent patron of letters, Mæcenas, with whom we have already seen
him on the noted journey to Brundusium. It was at the instigation of
Mæcenas that Virgil wrote his most finished work, the agricultural poem
entitled _Georgica_, which was completed after the battle of Actium
(B.C. 31), when Augustus was in the East. It had been preceded by ten
brief poems called Bucolics (_Bucolica_, Greek, _boukolos_, a cowherd),
noteworthy for their smooth versification and many natural touches,
though they have only the form and coloring of the true pastoral poem.
The Æneid, which was begun about 30 B.C., occupied eleven years in
composition, and yet lacked the finishing touches when the poet was on
his death-bed. His death occurred September 22, B.C. 19, at Brundusium,
to which place he had come from Greece, where he had been in company
with Augustus, and he was buried between the first and second
milestones on the road from Naples to Puteoli, where a monument is
still shown as his.
Though always a sufferer from poor health, and therefore debarred from
entering upon an oratorical or a military career, Virgil was
exceptionally fortunate in his friendships and enjoyed extraordinary
patronage which enabled him to cultivate literature to the greatest
advantage. He was fortunate, too, in his fame, for he was a favorite
when he lived no less than after his death. Before the end of his own
generation his works were introduced as text-books into Roman schools;
during the Middle Age he was the great poet whom it was heresy not to
admire; Dante owned him as a master and a model; and the people finally
embalmed him in their folk-lore as a mysterious conjurer and
necromancer. His _Æneid_, written in imitation of the great Greek
poem on the fall of Troy, is a patriotic epic, tracing the wanderings,
the struggles, and the death of Æneas, and vaunting the glories of Rome
and the greatness of the royal house of the emperor.
Thus, through long ages the Roman wrote, and thus he was furnished with
books to read. For centuries he had no literature excepting those rude
ballads in which the books of all countries have begun, and all trace
of them has passed away. When at last, after the conquest of the Greek
cities in Southern Italy, the Tarentine Andronicus began to imitate the
epics of his native language in that of his adoption, the progress was
still quite slow among a people who argued with the sword and saw
little to interest them in the fruit of the brain. As the republic
totters to its fall, however, the cultivators of this field increase,
and we must suppose that readers also were multiplied. At that time and
during the early years of the empire, a Mæcenas surrounded himself with
authors and stimulated them to put forth all their vigor in the effort
to create a native literature.
On the Esquiline Hill there was a spot of ground that had been a place
of burial for the lower orders. This the hypochondriacal invalid
Mæcenas bought, and there he laid out a garden and erected a lofty
house surmounted by a tower commanding a view of the city and vicinity.
Effeminate and addicted to every sort of luxury, Mæcenas calmed his
sometimes excited nerves by the sweet sound of distant symphonies,
gratified himself by comforting baths, adorned his clothing with
expensive gems, tickled his palate with dainty confections of the cook,
and regaled himself with the loftier delights afforded by the
companionship of the wits and virtuosi of the capital. Magnificent was
the patronage that he dispensed among the men of letters; and that he
was no mean critic, his choice of authors seems to prove. They were the
greatest geniuses and most learned men of the day. At his table sat
Virgil, Horace, and Propertius, besides many others, and his name has
ever since been proverbial for the patron of letters. No wealthy public
man has since arisen who could rival him in this respect.
XX.
THE ROMAN REPUBLICANS SERIOUS AND GAY.
It is easier to think of the old Roman republicans as serious than gay,
when we remember that they considered that their very commonwealth was
established upon the will of the gods, and that no acts--at least no
public acts--could properly be performed without consulting those
spiritual beings, which their imagination pictured as presiding over
the hearth, the farm, the forum--as swarming throughout every
department of nature. The first stone was not laid at the foundation of
the city until Romulus and Remus had gazed up into the heavens, so
mysterious and so beautiful, and had obtained, as they thought, some
indication of the fittest place where they might dig and build. The
she-wolf that nurtured the twins was elevated into a divinity with the
name Lupa, or Luperca (_lupus_, a wolf), and was made the wife of
a god who was called Lupercus, and worshipped as the protector of sheep
against their enemies, and as the god of fertility. On the fifteenth of
February, when in that warm clime spring was beginning to open the
buds, the shepherds celebrated a feast in honor of Lupercus. Its
ceremonies, in some part symbolic of purification, were rude and almost
savage, proving that they originated in remote antiquity, but they
continued at least down to the end of the period we have considered,
and the powerful Marc Antony did not disdain to clothe himself in a
wolfskin and run almost naked through the crowded streets of the
capital the month before his friend Julius Cæsar was murdered.
[Footnote: see page 248*] It was a fitting festival for the month of
which the name was derived from that of the god of purification
(_februare_, to purify).
It was at the foot of a fig-tree that Romulus and Remus were fabled to
have been found by Faustulus, and that tree was always looked upon with
special veneration, though whenever the Roman walked through the woods
he felt that he was surrounded by the world of gods, and that such a
leafy shade was a proper place to consecrate as a temple. A temple was
not an edifice in those simple days, but merely a place separated and
set apart to religious uses by a solemn act of dedication. When the
augur moved his wand aloft and designated the portion of the heavens in
which he was to make his observations, he called the circumscribed area
of the ethereal blue a temple, and when the mediæval astrologer did the
same, he named the space a "house." On the Roman temple an altar was
set up, and there, perhaps beneath the spreading branches of a royal
oak, sacred to Jupiter, the king of the gods, or of an olive, sacred to
Minerva, the maiden goddess, impersonation of ideas, who shared with
him and his queen the highest place among the Capitoline deities,
prayers and praises and sacrifices were offered.
When the year opened, the Roman celebrated the fact by solemnizing in
its first month, March, the festivity of the father of the Roman people
by Rhea Silvia, the god who stood next to Jupiter; who, as Mars
Silvanus, watched over the fields and the cattle, and, as Mars Gradivus
(marching), delighted in bloody war, and was a fitting divinity to be
appealed to by Romulus as he laid the foundation of the city.
[Footnote: See page 19.] As spring progressed, sacrifices were offered
to Tellus, the nourishing earth; to Ceres, the Greek goddess Demeter,
introduced from Sicily B.C. 496, to avert a famine, whose character did
not, however, differ much from that of Tellus; and to Pales, a god of
the flocks. At the same inspiring season another feast was observed in
honor of the vines and vats, when the wine of the previous season was
opened and tasted. [Footnote: This was the ,_Vinalia urbana_ (_urbs_, a
city), but there was another festival celebrated August 19th, when the
vintage began, known as the _Vinalia rustica_ when lambs were
sacrificed to Jupiter. While the flesh was still on the altar, the
priest broke a cluster of grapes from a vine, and thus actually opened
the wine harvest.]
In like manner after the harvest, there were festivals in honor of Ops,
goddess of plenty, wife of that old king of the golden age, Saturnus,
introducer of social order and god of sowing, source of wealth and
plenty. The festival of Saturnus himself occurred on December 17th, and
was a barbarous and joyous harvest-home, a time of absolute relaxation
and unrestrained merriment, when distinctions of rank were forgotten,
and crowds thronged the streets crying, _Io Saturnalia!_ even slaves
wearing the _pileus_ or skullcap, emblem of liberty, and all throwing
off the dignified toga for the easy and comfortable _synthesis_,
perhaps a sort of tunic.