FROM THE DEATH OF AUGUSTUS TO THE CLOSE OF THE REIGN OF THEODORIC
(14-526 A.D.).
1. DECLINE OF ROMAN LITERATURE.--With the death of Augustus began the
decline of Roman literature, and a few names only rescue the first years
of this period from the charge of a corrupt and vitiated taste. After a
while, indeed, political circumstances again became more favorable; the
dangers, which paralyzed genius and talent, and prevented their free
exercise under Tiberius and his tyrannical successors, diminished, and a
more liberal system of administration ensued under Vespasian and Titus.
Juvenal and Tacitus then stood forth, as the representatives of the old
Roman independence. Vigor of thought communicated itself to the language;
a taste for the sublime and beautiful, to a certain extent, revived,
although it did not attain to the perfection which shed a lustre over the
Augustan age. Between the ages of Horace and Juvenal, Cicero and Tacitus,
there was a gap of half a century, in which Roman genius was slumbering.
The gradual growth of a spirit of adulation deterred all who were
qualified for the task of the historian from attempting it. Fear, during
the lifetime of Tiberius and Caligula, Claudius and Nero, and hatred,
still fresh after their deaths, rendered all accounts of their reigns
false. And the same causes which silenced the voice of history
extinguished the genius of poetry and oratory. As liberty declined,
natural eloquence decayed; the orator sought only to please the corrupt
taste of his audiences with strange and exaggerated statements; the poet
aimed to win public admiration through a style over-laden with ornament,
and florid and diffuse descriptions. Literature, in order to flourish,
requires the genial sunshine of human sympathy; it needs either the
patronage of the great, or the favor of the people. Immediately after the
death of Augustus, patronage was withdrawn, and there was no public
sympathy to supply its place. In the reign of Nero, literature partially
revived; for, though the bloodiest of tyrants, he had a taste for art and
poetry, and an ambition to excel in refinement.
2. FABLE.--In fable, as in other fields of literature, Rome was an
imitator of Greece, but nevertheless Phaedrus struck out a new line for
himself, and, through his fables, became not only a moral instructor, but
a political satirist. Phaedrus (fl. 16 A.D.), the originator and only
author of Roman fable, though born in the reign of Augustus, wrote when
the Augustan age had passed away. His works are, as it were, isolated; he
had no contemporaries. Nevertheless, his solitary voice was lifted up when
those of the poet, the historian, and the philosopher were silenced. The
moral and political lessons conveyed in his fables were suggested by the
evils of the times in which he lived. Some of them illustrate the danger
of riches and the comparative safety of obscurity and poverty, in an age
when the rich were marked for destruction, in order that the confiscation
of their property might glut the avarice of the emperor and of his
servants; others were suggested by historical events, being nevertheless
satirical strictures on individuals. The style of Phaedrus is pure and
classical, and combines the simple neatness and graceful elegance of the
golden age with the vigor and terseness of the silver one. He has the
facility of Ovid and the brevity of Tacitus. In the construction of his
fables, he displays observation and ingenuity; but he is deficient in
imagination. He makes his animals the vehicles of his wisdom, but he does
not throw himself into them, or identify himself with them; while they
look and act like animals, they talk like human beings. In this consists
the great superiority of Aesop to his Roman imitator; his brutes are a
superior race, but they are still brutes, and it would seem that the
fabulist had lived among them as one of themselves, had adopted their mode
of life, and conversed with them in their own language. In Phaedrus we
have human sentiments translated into the language of beasts, while in
Aesop we have beasts giving utterance to such sentiments as would be
naturally theirs if they were placed in the position of men.
3. SATIRE AND EPIGRAM.--Roman satire, subsequently to Horace, is
represented by Persius and Juvenal. Persius (34-62 A.D.) early attached
himself to the Stoic philosophy. He was pure in mind, and free from the
corrupt taint of an immoral age. Although Lucilius was, to a certain
extent, his model, he does not attack vice with the biting severity of the
old satirist, nor do we find in his writings the enthusiastic indignation
which burns in the verses of Juvenal. His purity of mind and kindliness of
heart disinclined him to portray vice in its hideous and loathsome forms,
and to indulge in that bitterness of invective which the prevalent
enormities of his times deserved. His uprightness and love of virtue are
shown by the uncompromising severity with which he rebukes sins of not so
deep a dye; and the heart which was capable of being moulded by his
example, and influenced by his purity, would have shrunk from the fearful
crimes which deform the pages of Juvenal. The greatest defect in Persius,
as a satirist, is that the Stoic philosophy in which he was educated
rendered him indifferent to the affairs of the world. His contemplative
habits led him to criticise, as his favorite subjects, false taste in
poetry and empty pretensions to philosophy. Horace mingled in the society
of the profligate and considering them as fools, laughed their folly to
scorn. Juvenal looked down upon the corruption of the age from the
eminence of his virtue, and punished it like an avenging deity. Persius,
pure in heart and passionless by education, while he lashes wickedness in
the abstract, almost ignores its existence, and shrinks from probing to
the bottom the vileness of the human heart. His works comprise six
satires, all of which breathe the natural amiability and placid
cheerfulness of his temper.
Juvenal flourished in the reign of Domitian, towards the close of the
first century A.D., a dark period, which saw the utter moral degradation
of the people, and the bloodiest tyranny and oppression on the part of
their rulers. The picture of Roman manners, as painted by his glowing
pencil, is truly appalling. The fabric of society was in ruins, the
popular religion was rejected with scorn, and the creed of natural
religion had not occupied its place. The emperors took part in public
scenes of folly and profligacy, and exposed themselves as charioteers, as
dancers, and as actors. Nothing was respected but wealth, nothing provoked
contempt but poverty. Players and dancers had all honors and offices at
their disposal; the city swarmed with informers, who made the rich their
prey; every man feared his most intimate friend, and the only bond of
friendship was to be an accomplice in crime. The teacher would corrupt his
pupil, and the guardian defraud his ward. Crimes which cannot be named
were common, and the streets of Rome were the constant scene of robbery,
assault, and assassination. The morals of women were as depraved as those
of men, and there was no public amusement so immoral or so cruel as not to
be countenanced by their presence. In this period of moral dearth, the
fountains of genius and literature were dried up. There was criticism,
declamation, panegyric, and verse writing, but no oratory, history, or
poetry. Juvenal, though himself not free from the declamatory affectation
of the day, attacked the false literary taste of his contemporaries as
unsparingly as he did their depraved morality. His sixteen satires exhibit
an enlightened, truthful, and comprehensive view of Roman manners, and of
the inevitable result of such depravity. The two finest of them are those
which Dr. Johnson has thought worthy of imitation.
The historical value of these satires must not be forgotten. Tacitus lived
in the same perilous times as Juvenal, and when they had come to an end
and it was not unsafe to speak, he wrote their public history, which the
poet illustrates by displaying the social and inner life of the Romans.
Their works are parallel, and each forms a commentary upon the other. The
style of Juvenal is vigorous and lucid; his morals were pure in the midst
of a debased age, and his language shines forth in classic elegance, in
the midst of specimens of declining and degenerate taste.
Juvenal closes the list of Roman satirists, properly speaking. The
satirical spirit animates the piquant epigrams of his friend Martial, but
their purpose is not moral or didactic. They sting the individual, and
render him an object of scorn and disgust, but they do not hold up vice
itself to ridicule and detestation.
Martial (43-104 A.D.) was born in Spain. He early emigrated to Rome, where
he became a favorite of Titus and Domitian, and in the reign of the latter
he was appointed to the office of court-poet. During thirty-five years, he
lived at Rome the life of a flatterer and a dependent, and then he
returned to his native town, where his death was hastened by his distaste
for provincial life. Measured by the corrupt standard of morals which
disgraced the age in which he lived, Martial was probably not worse than
most of his contemporaries; for the fearful profligacy, which his powerful
pen describes in such hideous terms, had spread through Rome its loathsome
infection. Had he lived in better times, his talents might have been
devoted to a purer object; as it was, no language is strong enough to
denounce the impurities of his page, and his moral taste must have been
thoroughly depraved not to have turned with disgust from the contemplation
of such subjects. But not all his poems are of this character. Amidst some
obscurity of style and want of finish, many are redolent of Greek
sweetness and elegance. Here and there are pleasing descriptions of the
beauties of nature, and many are kind-hearted and full of varied wit,
poetical imagination, and graceful expression. To the original
characteristics of the Greek epigram, Martial, more than any other poet,
added that which constitutes an epigram in the modern sense of the term:
pointedness either in jest or earnest, and the bitterness of personal
satire.
4. DRAMATIC LITERATURE.--Dramatic literature never flourished in Rome, and
still less under the empire. During this period there were not wanting
some imitators of Greece in this noble branch of poetry, but their
productions were rather literary than dramatic; they were poems composed
in a dramatic form, intended to be read, not acted. They contain noble
philosophical sentiments, lively descriptions, and passages full of
tenderness and pathos, but they are deficient in dramatic effect, and
positively offend against those laws of good taste which regulated the
Athenian stage. In the Augustan age, a few writers attained some
excellence in tragedy, at least in the opinion of ancient critics.
Under the tyrant Nero, dramatic literature reappeared, specimens of which
are extant in the ten tragedies attributed to Seneca. But the genius of
the author never grasps, in their wholeness, the characters which he
attempts to copy; they are distorted images of the Greek originals, and
the shadowy grandeur of the godlike heroes of Aeschylus stands forth in
corporeal vastness, and appears childish and unnatural, like the giants of
a story-book. The Greeks believed in the gods and heroes whose agency and
exploits constituted the machinery of tragedy, but the Romans did not, and
we cannot sympathize with them, because we see that they are insincere.
An awful belief in destiny, and the hopeless yet patient struggle of a
great and good man against this all-ruling power, are the mainspring of
Greek tragedy. This belief the Romans did not transfer into their
imitations, but they supplied its place with the stern fatalism of the
Stoics. The principle of destiny entertained by the Greek poets is a
mythological, even a religious one. It is the irresistible will of God.
God is at the commencement of the chain of causes and effects, by which
the event is brought about which God has ordained; his inspired prophets
have power to foretell, and mortals cannot resist or avoid. It is rather
predestination than destiny. The fatalism of the Stoics, on the other
hand, is the doctrine of practical necessity. It ignores the almighty
power of the Supreme Being, and although it does not deny his existence,
it strips him of his attributes as the moral governor of the universe.
These doctrines, expressed equally in the writings of Seneca the
philosopher, and in the tragedies attributed to him, lead to the
probability, amounting almost to certainty, that he was their author. But
whatever be the case in regard to their authorship, it is certain that,
notwithstanding their false rhetorical taste and the absence of all ideal
and creative genius, they have found many admirers and imitators in modern
times. The French school of tragic poets took them for their model;
Corneille evidently considered them the ideal of tragedy, and Racine
servilely imitated them.
5. EPIC POETRY.--At the head of the epic poets who flourished during the
Silver Age, stands Lucan (39-66 A.D.). He was born at Cordova, in Spain,
and probably came to Rome when very young, where his literary reputation
was soon established. But Nero, who could not bear the idea of a rival,
forbade him to recite his poems, then the common mode of publication.
Neither would he allow him to plead as an advocate. Smarting under this
provocation, he joined in a conspiracy against the emperor's life. The
plot failed, but Lucan was pardoned on condition of pointing out his
confederates, and in the vain hope of saving himself from the monster's
vengeance, he actually impeached his mother. This noble woman was
incapable of treason. Tacitus says, "the scourge, the flames, the rage of
the executioners who tortured her the more savagely, lest they should be
scorned by a woman, were powerless to extort a false confession." Lucan
never received the reward which he purchased by treachery. When the
warrant for his death was issued, he caused his veins to be cut asunder,
and expired in the twenty-seventh year of his age.
The only one of his works which survives is the "Pharsalia," an epic poem
on the subject of the civil war between Caesar and Pompey. It bears
evident marks of having been left unfinished; it has great faults and at
the same time great beauties. The sentiments contained in this poem
breathe a love of freedom and an attachment to the old Roman
republicanism. Its subject is a noble one, full of historic interest, and
it is treated with spirit, brilliancy, and animation. The characters of
Caesar and Pompey are masterpieces; but while some passages are scarcely
inferior to any written by the best Latin poets, others have neither the
dignity of prose, nor the melody of poetry. Description forms the
principal feature in the poetry of Lucan; in fact, it constitutes one of
the characteristic features of Roman literature in its decline, because
poetry had become more than ever an art, and the epoch one of erudition.
Silius Italicus (fl. 54 A.D.) was the favorite and intimate of two
emperors, Nero and Vitellius. He left a poem, the "Punica," which contains
the history in heroic verse of the second Punic war. The Aeneid of Virgil
was his model, and the narrative of Livy furnished his materials. It is
considered the dullest and most tedious poem in the Latin language though
its versification is harmonious, and will often, in point of smoothness,
bear comparison with that of Virgil.
Valerius Flaccus flourished in the reign of Vespasian. He is author of the
"Argonautica," an imitation and in some parts a translation of the Greek
poem of Apollonius Rhodius on the same subject. He evidently did not live
to complete his original design. In the Argonautica there are no glaring
faults or blemishes, but there is also no genius, no inspiration. He has
some talents as a descriptive poet; his versification is harmonious and
his style graceful.
P. Statius (61-95 A.D.) was the author of the Silviae, Thebaid, and
Achilleid. The "Silviae" are the rude materials of thought springing up
spontaneously in all their wild luxuriance, from the rich, natural soil of
the imagination of the poet. The subject of the "Thebaid" is the ancient
Greek legend respecting the war of the Seven against Thebes, and the
"Achilleid" was intended to embrace all the exploits of Achilles, but only
two books were completed. The poems of Statius contain many poetical
incidents, which might stand by themselves as perfect fugitive pieces. In
these we see his natural and unaffected elegance, his harmonious ear, and
the truthfulness of his perceptions. But, as an epic poet, he has neither
grasp of mind nor vigor of conception; his imaginary heroes do not inspire
and warm his imagination; and his genius was unable to rise to the highest
departments of art.
6. HISTORY.--For the reasons already stated, Rome for a long period could
boast of no historian; the perilous nature of the times, and the personal
obligations under which learned men frequently were to the emperors,
rendered contemporary history a means of adulation and servility. To this
class of historians belongs Paterculus (fl. 30 A.D.), who wrote a history
of Rome which is partial, prejudiced, and adulatory. He was a man of
lively talents, and his taste was formed after the model of Sallust, of
whom he was an imitator. His style is often overstrained and unnatural.
Under the genial and fostering influence of the Emperor Trajan, the fine
arts, especially architecture, flourished, and literature revived. The
same taste and execution which are visible in the bas-reliefs on the
column of Trajan adorn the literature of his age as illustrated by its two
great lights, Tacitus and the younger Pliny. There is not the rich,
graceful manner which invests with such a charm the writers of the Golden
Age, but the absence of these qualities is amply compensated by dignity,
gravity, and honesty. Truthfulness beams throughout the writings of these
two great contemporaries, and incorruptible virtue is as visible in the
pages of Tacitus as benevolence and tenderness are in the letters of
Pliny. They mutually influenced each other's characters and principles;
their tastes and pursuits were similar; they loved each other dearly,
corresponded regularly, corrected each other's works, and accepted
patiently and gratefully each other's criticism.
Tacitus (60-135 A.D.) was of equestrian rank, and served in several
important offices of the empire. His works now extant are a life of his
father-in-law, Agricola, a tract on the manners and nations of the
Germans, a small portion of a voluminous work entitled "Histories," about
two thirds of another historical work, entitled "Annals," and a dialogue
on the decline of eloquence. The life of Agricola, though a panegyric
rather than a biography, is a beautiful specimen of the vigor and force of
expression with which this greatest painter of antiquity could throw off
any portrait which he attempted. Even if the likeness be somewhat
flattered, the qualities which the writer possessed, his insight into
character, his pathetic power, and his affectionate heart, render this
short piece one of the most attractive biographies extant. The treatise on
the "Geography, Manners, and Nations of Germany," though containing
geographical descriptions often vague and inaccurate, and accounts
evidently founded on mere tales of travelers, bears the impress of truth
in the salient points and characteristic features of the national manners
and institutions of Teutonic nations. The "Histories," his earliest
historical work, of which only four books and a portion of the fifth are
extant, extended from the year 69 to 96 A.D., and it was his intention to
include the reigns of Nero and Trajan. In this work he proposed to
investigate the political state of the commonwealth, the feeling of its
armies, the sentiments of its provinces, the elements of its strength and
weakness, and the causes and reasons for each historical phenomenon. The
principal fault which diminishes the value of his history as a record of
events is his too great readiness to accept evidence unhesitatingly, and
to record popular rumors without taking sufficient pains to examine into
their truth. His incorrect account of the history, constitution, and
manners of the Jewish people is one among the few instances of this fault,
scattered over a vast field of faithful history. The "Annals" consist of
sixteen books; they begin with the death of Augustus, and conclude with
that of Nero (14-68 A.D.). The object of Tacitus was to describe the
influence which the establishment of tyranny on the ruins of liberty
exercised for good or for evil in bringing out the character of the
individual. In the extinction of freedom there still existed in Rome
bright examples of heroism and courage, and instances not less prominent
of corruption and degradation. In the annals of Tacitus these individuals
stand out in bold relief, either singly or in groups upon the stage, while
the emperor forms the principal figure, and the moral sense of the reader
is awakened to admire instances of patient suffering and determined
bravery, or to witness abject slavery and remorseless despotism.
Full of sagacious observation and descriptive power, Tacitus engages the
most serious attention of the reader by the gravity of his condensed and
comprehensive style, as he does by the wisdom and dignity of his
reflections. Living amidst the influences of a corrupt age, he was
uncontaminated. By his virtue and integrity, and his chastened political
liberality, he commands our admiration as a man, while his love of truth
is reflected in his character as a historian. In his style, the form is
always subordinate to the matter; his sentences are suggestive of far more
than they express, and his brevity is enlivened by copiousness, variety,
and poetry; his language is highly figurative; his descriptions of scenery
and incidents are eminently picturesque, his characters dramatic, and the
expression of his own sentiments almost lyrical.
Suetonius was born about 69 A.D. His principal extant works are the "Lives
of the Twelve Caesars," "Notices of Illustrious Grammarians and
Rhetoricians," and the Lives of the Poets Terence, Horace, Persius, Lucan,
and Juvenal. The use which he makes of historical documents proves that he
was a man of diligent research, and, as a biographer, industrious and
careful. He indulges neither in ornament of style nor in romantic
exaggeration. The pictures which he draws of some of the Caesars are
indeed terrible, but they are fully supported by the contemporary
authority of Juvenal and Tacitus. As a historian, Suetonius had not that
comprehensive and philosophical mind which would qualify him for taking an
enlarged view of his subject; he has no definite plan or method, and
wanders at will from one subject to another just as the idea seizes him.
Curtius is considered by some writers as belonging to the Silver Age, and
by others to a later period. His biography of Alexander the Great is
deeply interesting. It is a romance rather than a history. He never loses
an opportunity, by the coloring which he gives to historical facts, of
elevating the Macedonian conqueror to a super-human standard. His florid
and ornamented style is suitable to the imaginary orations which are
introduced in the narrative, and which constitute the most striking
portions of the work.
Valerius Maximus flourished during the reign of Tiberius. His work is a
collection of anecdotes entitled "Memorable Sayings and Deeds," the object
of which was to illustrate by examples the beauty of virtue and the
deformity of vice. The style is prolix and declamatory, and characterized
by awkward affectation and involved obscurity.
7. RHETORIC AND ELOQUENCE.--Under the empire, schools of rhetoric were
multiplied, as harmless as tyranny could desire. In these the Roman youth
learned the means by which the absence of natural endowments could be
compensated. The students composed their speeches according to the rules
of rhetoric; they were then corrected, committed to memory, and recited,
partly with a view to practice, partly in order to amuse an admiring
audience. Nor were these declamations confined to mere students. Public
recitations had, since the days of Juvenal, been one of the crying
nuisances of the times. Seneca, the father of the philosopher of the same
name, a famous rhetorician himself, left two works containing a series of
exercises in oratory, which show the hollow and artificial system of those
schools. He was born in Cordova in Spain (61 A.D.), and as a professional
rhetorician amassed a considerable fortune.
Quintilian (40-118 A.D.) was the most distinguished teacher of rhetoric of
this age. He attempted to restore a purer and more classical taste, but,
although to a certain extent he was successful, the effect which he
produced was only temporary. For the instruction of his elder son he wrote
his great work, "Institutes of Oratory," a complete system of instruction
in the art of oratory; and in it he shows himself far superior to Cicero
as a teacher, though he was inferior to him as an orator.
His work is divided into twelve books, in which he traces the progress of
the orator from the very cradle until he arrives at perfection. In this
monument of his taste and genius he fully and completely exhausted the
subject, and left a text-book of the science and art of nations, as well
as a masterly sketch of the eloquence of antiquity.
The disposition of Quintilian was as affectionate and tender as his genius
was brilliant and his taste pure; few passages throughout the whole range
of Latin literature can be compared to that in which he mourns the loss of
his wife and children. It is the touching eloquence of one who could not
write otherwise than gracefully.
Among the pupils of Quintilian, Pliny the younger took the highest place
in the literature of his age. He was born in Como, 61 A.D., and adopted
and educated by his maternal uncle, the elder Pliny. He attained great
celebrity as a pleader, and stood high in favor with the emperor. His
works consist of a panegyric on Trajan, and a collection of letters in ten
books. The panegyric is a piece of courtly flattery in accordance with the
cringing and fawning manners of the times. The letters are very valuable,
not only for the insight which they give into his own character, but also
into the manners and modes of thought of his illustrious contemporaries,
as well as the politics of the day. For liveliness, descriptive power,
elegance, and simplicity of style, they are scarcely inferior to those of
Cicero, whom he evidently took for his model. These letters show how
accurate and judicious was the mind of Pliny, how prudent his
administration in the high offices which he filled under the reign of
Trajan, and how refined his taste for the beautiful. The tenth book, which
consists of the letters to Trajan, together with the emperor's rescripts,
will be read with the greatest interest. The following passages from his
dispatch respecting the Christians, written while he was procurator of the
province of Bithynia, and the emperor's answer, are worthy of being
transcribed, both because reference is so often made to them, and because
they throw light upon the marvelous and rapid propagation of the gospel,
the manners of the early Christians, the treatment to which their
constancy exposed them, and the severe jealousy with which they were
regarded:--
"It is my constant practice, sire, to refer to you all subjects on which I
entertain doubt. For who is better able to direct my hesitation, or to
instruct my ignorance? I have never been present at the trials of
Christians, and, therefore, I do not know in what way, or to what extent
it is usual to question or to punish them. I have also felt no small
difficulty in deciding whether age should make any difference, or whether
those of the tenderest and those of mature years should be treated alike;
whether pardon should be accorded to repentance, or whether, where a man
has once been a Christian, recantation should profit him; whether, if the
name of Christian does not imply criminality, still the crimes peculiarly
belonging to the name should be punished. Meanwhile, in the case of those
against whom informations have been laid before me, I have pursued the
following line of conduct: I have put to them, personally, the question
whether they were Christians. If they confessed, I interrogated them a
second and third time, and threatened them with punishment. If they still
persevered, I ordered their commitment; for I had no doubt whatever, that
whatever they confessed, at any rate, dogged and inflexible obstinacy
deserved to be punished. There were others who displayed similar madness;
but, as they were Roman citizens, I ordered them to be sent back to the
city. Soon, persecution itself, as is generally the case, caused the crime
to spread, and it appeared in new forms. An anonymous information was laid
against a large number of persons, but they deny that they are, or ever
have been, Christians. As they invoked the gods, repeating the form after
me, and offered prayer with incense and wine, to your image, which I had
ordered to be brought together with those of the deities, and besides,
cursed Christ, while those who are true Christians, it is said, cannot be
compelled to do any one of these things, I thought it right to set them at
liberty. Others, when accused by an informer, confessed that they were
Christians, and soon after denied the fact. They said they had been, but
had ceased to be, some three, some more, not a few even twenty years
previously. All these worshiped your image and those of the gods, and
cursed Christ. But they affirmed that the sum-total of their fault, or
their error, was that they were accustomed to assemble on a fixed day,
before dawn, and sing an antiphonal hymn to Christ as God; that they bound
themselves by an oath, not to the commission of any wickedness, but to
abstain from theft, robbery, and adultery; never to break a promise, or to
deny a deposit, when it was demanded back. When these ceremonies were
concluded, it was their custom to depart, and again assemble together to
take food harmlessly and in common. That after my proclamation, in which,
in obedience to your command, I had forbidden associations, they had
desisted from this practice. For these reasons, I the more thought it
necessary to investigate the real truth, by putting to the torture two
maidens who were called deaconesses; but I discovered nothing, but a
perverse and excessive superstition. I have, therefore, deferred taking
cognizance of the matter until I had consulted you; for it seemed to me a
case requiring advice, especially on account of the number of those in
peril. For many of every age, sex, and rank are, and will continue to be
called in question. The infection, in fact, has spread not only through
the cities, but also through the villages and open country; but it seems
that its progress can be arrested. At any rate, it is clear that the
temples, which were almost deserted, begin to be frequented; and solemn
sacrifices, which had been long intermitted, are again performed, and
victims are being sold everywhere, for which, up to this time, a purchaser
could rarely be found. It is, therefore, easy to conceive that crowds
might be reclaimed, if an opportunity for repentance were given."
Trajan to Pliny: "In sifting the cases of those who have been indicted on
the charge of Christianity, you have adopted, my dear Secundus, the right
course of proceeding; for no certain rule can be laid down which will meet
all cases. They must not be sought after, but if they are informed
against, and convicted, they must be punished; with this proviso, however,
that if any deny that he is a Christian, and proves the point by offering
prayers to our deities, notwithstanding the suspicions under which he has
labored, he shall be pardoned on his repentance. On no account should any
anonymous charges be attended to, for it would be the worst possible
precedent, and is inconsistent with the habits of our time."
8. PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE.--Philosophy, and particularly moral philosophy,
became a necessary study at this time, when the popular religion had lost
its influence. In the general ruin of public and private morals, virtuous
men found in this science a guide in the dangers by which they were
continually threatened, and a consolation in all their sorrows. The Stoic
among the other schools met with most favor from this class of men, for it
offered better security against the evils of life, and taught men how to
take shelter from baseness and profligacy under the influence of virtue
and courage. The doctrines of the Stoics suited the rigid sternness of the
Roman character. They embodied that spirit of self-devotion and self-
denial with which the Roman patriot, in the old times of simple republican
virtue, threw himself into his public duties, and they enabled him to meet
death with a courageous spirit in this degenerate age, in which many of
the best and noblest willingly died by their own hands, at the imperial
mandate, in order to save their name from infamy, and their inheritance
from confiscation.
Seneca, (12-69 A.D.), a native of Cordova in Spain, was the greatest
philosopher of this age. He early displayed great talent as a pleader, but
in the reign of Claudius he was banished to Corsica, where he solaced his
exile with the study of the Stoic philosophy; and though its severe
precepts exercised no moral influence on his conduct, he not only
professed himself a Stoic, but imagined that he was one. A few years
after, he was recalled by Agrippina, to become tutor to her son Nero. He
was too unscrupulous a man of the world to attempt the correction of the
vicious propensities of his pupil, or to instill into him high principles.
After the accession of Nero, he endeavored to arrest his depraved career,
but it was too late. Seneca had, by usury and legacy-hunting, amassed one
of those large fortunes of which so many instances are met with in Roman
history; feeling the dangers of wealth, he offered his property to Nero,
who refused it, but resolved to rid himself of his former tutor, and
easily found a pretext for his destruction. In adversity the character of
Seneca shone with brighter lustre. Though he had lived ill, he could die
well. He met the messengers of death without trembling. His noble wife,
Paulina, determined to die with him. The veins of both were opened at the
same time, but the little blood which remained in his emaciated frame
refused to flow. He suffered excruciating agony. A warm bath was tried,
but in vain; and a draught of poison was equally ineffectual. At last he
was suffocated by the vapor of a stove.
Seneca lived in a perilous atmosphere. He had not firmness to act up to
the high moral standard which he proposed to himself. He was avaricious,
but avarice was the great sin of his times. The education of one who was a
brute rather than a man was a task to which no one would have been equal;
he therefore retained the influence which he had not the uprightness to
command, by miserable and sinful expedients. He had great abilities, and
some of the noble qualities of the old Romans; and had he lived in the
days of the republic, he would have been a great man.
Seneca was the author of twelve ethical treatises, the best of which are
entitled, "On Providence," "On Consolation," and "On the Perseverance of
Wise Men." He cared little for abstract speculation, and delighted to
inculcate precepts rather than to investigate principles. He was always a
favorite with Christian writers, and some of his sentiments are truly
Christian. There is even a tradition that he was acquainted with St. Paul.
He may unconsciously have imbibed some of the principles of Christianity.
The gospel had already made great and rapid strides over the civilized
world, and thoughtful minds may have been enlightened by some of the rays
of divine truth dispersed by the moral atmosphere, just as we are
benefited by the light of the sun, even when its disk is obscured by
clouds. His epistles, of which there are one hundred and twenty-four, are
moral essays, and are the most delightful of his works. They are evidently
written for the public eye; they are rich in varied thought, and their
reflections flow naturally, and without effort. They contain a free and
unconstrained picture of his mind, and we see in them how he despised
verbal subtleties, the external badges of a sect or creed, and insisted
that the great end of science is to learn how to live and how to die. The
style of Seneca is too elaborate to please. It is affected, often florid,
and bombastic; there is too much sparkle and glitter, too little repose
and simplicity.
Pliny the elder (A.D. 23-79) was born probably at Como, the family
residence. He was educated at Rome, where he practiced at the bar, and
filled different civil offices. He perished a martyr to the cause of
science, in the eruption of Vesuvius, which took place in the reign of
Titus, the first of which there is any record in history. The
circumstances of his death are described by his nephew, Pliny the younger,
in two letters to Tacitus. He was at Misenum, in command of the fleet,
when, observing the first indications of the eruption, and wishing to
investigate it more closely, he fitted out a light galley, and sailed
towards the villa of a friend at Stabiae. He found his friend in great
alarm, but Pliny remained tranquil and retired to rest. Meanwhile, broad
flames burst forth from the volcano, the blaze was reflected from the sky,
and the brightness was enhanced by the darkness of the night. Repeated
shocks of an earthquake made the houses rock to and fro, while in the air
the fall of half burnt pumice-stones menaced danger. He was awakened, and
he and his friend, with their attendants, tied cushions over their heads
to protect them from the falling stones, and walked out to see if they
might venture on the water. It was now day, but the darkness was denser
than the darkest night, the sea was a waste of stormy waters, and when at
last the flames and the sulphureous smell could no longer be endured,
Pliny fell dead, suffocated by the dense vapor.
The natural history of Pliny is an unequaled monument of studious
diligence and persevering industry. It consists of thirty-seven books, and
contains 20,000 facts (as he believed them to be) connected with nature
and art, the result not of original research, but, as he honestly
confessed, culled from the labors of other men.
Owing to the extent of his reading, his love of the marvelous, and his
want of judgment in comparing and selecting, he does not present us with a
correct view of the science of his own age. He reproduces errors evidently
obsolete and inconsistent with facts and theories which had afterwards
replaced them. With him, mythological traditions appeared to have almost
the same authority as modern discoveries; the earth teems with monsters,
not exceptions to the regular order of nature, but specimens of her
ingenuity. His peculiar pantheistic belief prepared him to consider
nothing incredible, and his temper inclined him to admit all that was
credible as true.
He tells us of men whose feet were turned backwards, of others whose feet
were so large as to shade them when they lay in the sun; others without
mouths, who fed on the fragrance of fruits and flowers. Among the lower
animals, he enumerates horned horses furnished with wings; the mantichora,
with the face of a man, three rows of teeth, a lion's body, and a
scorpion's tail; the basilisk, whose very glance is fatal; and an insect
which cannot live except in the midst of the flames. But notwithstanding
his credulity and his want of judgment, this elaborate work contains many
valuable truths and much entertaining information. The prevailing
character of his philosophical belief, though tinctured with the stoicism
of the day, is querulous and melancholy. Believing that nature is an all-
powerful principle, and the universe instinct with deity, he saw more of
evil than of good in the divine dispensation, and the result was a gloomy
and discontented pantheism.
Celsus probably lived in the reign of Tiberius. He was the author of many
works, on various subjects, of which one, in eight books, on medicine, is
now extant. The independence of his views, the practical, as well as the
scientific nature of his instructions, and above all, his knowledge of
surgery, and his clear exposition of surgical operations, have given his
work great authority; the highest testimony is borne to its merits by the
fact of its being used as a text-book, even in the present advanced state
of medical science. The taste of the age in which he lived turned his
attention also to polite literature, and to that may be ascribed the
Augustan purity of his style.
Pomponius Mela lived in the reign of Claudius. He is considered as the
representative of the Roman geographers. Though his book, "The Place of
the World," is but an epitome of former treatises, it is interesting for
the simplicity of its style and the purity of its language.
Columella flourished in the reigns of Claudius and Nero. He is author of
an agricultural work, "De Re Rustica," in which he gives, in smooth and
fluent, though somewhat too diffuse a style, the fullest and completest
information on practical agriculture among the Romans in the first century
of the Christian era.
Frontinus (fl. 78 A.D.) left two valuable works, one on military tactics,
the other a descriptive architectural treatise on those wonderful
monuments of Roman art, the aqueducts. Besides these, there are extant
fragments of other works on surveying, and on the laws and customs
relating to landed property, which assign Frontinus an important place in
the estimation of the students of Roman history.
9. ROMAN LITERATURE FROM HADRIAN TO THEODORIC (138-526 A.D.).--From the
death of Augustus, Roman literature had gradually declined, and though it
shone forth for a time with classic radiance in the writings of Persius,
Juvenal, Quintilian, Tacitus, and the Plinies, with the death of freedom,
the extinction of patriotism, and the decay of the national spirit,
nothing could avert its fall. Poetry had become declamation; history had
degenerated either into fulsome panegyric or the fleshless skeletons of
epitomes; and at length the Romans seemed to disdain the use of their
native tongue, and wrote again in Greek, as they had in the infancy of the
national literature. The Emperor Hadrian resided long at Athens, and
became imbued with a taste and admiration for Greek; and thus the
literature of Rome became Hellenized. From this epoch the term classical
can no longer be applied to it, for it no longer retained its purity. To
Greek influence succeeded the still more corrupting one of foreign
nations. With the death of Nerva, the uninterrupted succession of emperors
of Roman or Italian birth ceased. Trajan himself was a Spaniard, and after
him not only foreigners of every European race, but even Orientals and
Africans were invested with the imperial purple, and the huge empire over
which they ruled was one unwieldy mass of heterogeneous materials. The
literary influence of the capital was not felt in the interior portions of
the Roman dominions. Schools were established in the very heart of nations
just emerging from barbarism; and though the blessings of civilization and
intellectual culture were thus distributed far and wide, still literary
taste, as it flowed through the minds of foreigners, became corrupted, and
the language of the imperial city, exposed to the infecting contact of
barbarous idioms, lost its purity.
The Latin authors of this age were numerous, but few had taste to
appreciate and imitate the literature of the Augustan age. They may be
classified according to their departments of poetry, history, grammar and
oratory, philosophy and science.
The brightest star of the poetry of this period was Claudian (365-404
A.D.), in whom the graceful imagination of classical antiquity seems to
have revived. He enjoyed the patronage of Stilicho, the guardian and
minister of Honorius, and in the praise and honor of him and of his pupil,
he wrote "The Rape of Proserpine," the "War of the Giants," and several
other poems.
His descriptions indicate a rich and powerful imagination, but, neglecting
substance for form, his style is often declamatory and affected. Among the
earliest authors of Christian hymns were Hilarius and Prudentius, Those of
the former were expressly designed to be sung, and are said to have been
set to music by the author himself. Prudentius (fl. 348 A.D.) wrote many
hymns and poems in defense of the Christian faith, more distinguished for
their pious and devotional character than for their lyric sublimity or
parity of language. To this age belong also the hymns of Damasus and of
Ambrose.
Among the historians are Flavius Eutropius, who lived in the fourth
century, and by the direction of the Emperor Valens composed an "Epitome
of Roman History," which was a favorite book in the Middle Ages. Ammianus
Marcellinus, his contemporary, wrote a Roman history in continuation of
Tacitus and Suetonius. Though his style is affected and often rough and
inaccurate, his work is interesting for its digressions and observations.
Severus Sulpicius wrote the history of the Hebrews, and of the four
centuries of the church. His "Sacred History," for its language and style,
is one of the best works of that age.
In the department of oratory may be mentioned Cornelius Fronto, who
flourished under Domitian and Nerva, and was endowed with a rich
imagination and a mind stored with vast erudition in Greek and Latin
literature, Symmachus, distinguished for his opposition to Christianity,
and Cassiodorus, minister and secretary of the Emperor Theodoric.
In the decline of Roman, as of Greek literature, grammarians took the
place of poets and of historians; they commented on and interpreted the
ancient classics, and transmitted to us valuable information concerning
the Augustan writers. Among the most important works of this kind are the
"Attic Nights" of Gellius, who was born in Rome, and lived under Hadrian
and the Antonines. In this work are preserved many valuable passages of
the classics which would otherwise have been lost. Macrobius, who
flourished in the middle of the fifth century, was the author of different
works in which the doctrines of the Neo-Platonic school are expounded. His
style, however, is very defective.
A striking characteristic of the writings, both in Greek and Latin, of the
last ages of the empire, is the prevalence of principles and opinions
imported from the East. The Neo-Platonic school, imbued with Oriental
mysticism, had diffused the belief in spirits and magic, and the
philosophy of this age was a mixture of ancient wisdom with new
superstitions belonging to the ages of transition between the decadence of
the ancient faith and the development of a new religion. The best
representative of the philosophy of this age is Apuleius, born in Africa
in the reign of Hadrian. After having received his education in Carthage
and Athens, he came to Rome, where he acquired great reputation as a
literary man, and as the possessor of extraordinary supernatural powers.
To this extensive philosophical knowledge and immense erudition he united
great polish of manner and remarkable beauty of person. He wrote much on
philosophy; but his most important work is a romance known as
"Metamorphoses, or the Golden Ass," containing his philosophical and
mystic doctrines. In this book, the object of which is to encourage the
belief in mysticism, the writer describes the transformation of a young
man into an ass, who is allowed to take his primitive human form only
through a knowledge of the mysteries of Isis. The story is well told, and
the romance is full of interest and sprightliness; but its style is
incorrect, florid, and bombastic.
Boethius (470-524), the last of the Roman philosophers, was the descendant
of an illustrious family. He made Greek philosophy the principal object of
his meditations. He was raised to the highest honors and offices in the
empire by Theodoric, but finally, through the artifices of enemies who
envied his reputation, he lost the favor of his patron, was imprisoned,
and at length beheaded. Of his numerous works, founded on the peripatetic
philosophy, that which has gained him the greatest celebrity is entitled
"On the Consolations of Philosophy," composed while he was in prison. It
is in the form of a dialogue, in which philosophy appears to console him
with the idea of Divine Providence. The poetical part of the book is
written with elegance and grace, and his prose, though not pure, is fluent
and full of tranquil dignity. The work of Boethius, which is known in all
modern languages, was translated into Anglo-Saxon by King Alfred, 900 A.D.
The fathers of the church followed more particularly the philosophy of
Plato, which was united and adapted to Christianity. St. Augustine is the
most illustrious among the Christian Platonists.
The most eloquent orators and writers of this period were found among the
advocates of Christianity; and among the most celebrated of these Latin
fathers of the Christian church we may mention the following names.
Tertullian (160-285), in his apology for the Christians, gives much
information on the manners and conduct of the early Christians; his style
is concise and figurative, but harsh, unpolished, and obscure. St. Cyprian
(200-258), beheaded at Carthage for preaching the gospel contrary to the
orders of the government, wrote an explanation of the Lord's Prayer, which
affords a valuable illustration of the ecclesiastical history of the time.
Arnobius (fl. 300) refuted the objections of the heathen against
Christianity with spirit and learning, in his "Disputes with the
Gentiles," a work rich in materials for the understanding of Greek and
Roman mythology. Lactantius (d. 335), on account of his fine and eloquent
language, is frequently called the Christian Cicero; his "Divine
Institutes" are particularly celebrated. St. Ambrose (340-397) obtained
great honor by his conduct as Bishop of Milan, and his writings bear the
stamp of his high Christian character. St. Augustine (360-430) was one of
the most renowned of all the Latin fathers. Though others may have been
more learned or masters of a purer style, none more powerfully touched and
warmed the heart towards religion. His "City of God" is one of the great
monuments of human genius. St. Jerome (330-420) wrote many epistles full
of energy and affection, as well as of religious zeal. He made a Latin
version of the Old Testament, which was the foundation of the Vulgate, and
which gave a new impulse to the study of the Holy Scriptures. Leo the
Great (fl. 440) is the first pope whose writings have been preserved. They
consist of sermons and letters. His style is finished and rhetorical.
10. ROMAN JURISPRUDENCE.--In the period which followed, from the death of
Augustus to the time of the Antonines, Roman civilians and legal writers
continued to be numerous, and as a professional body they seem to have
enjoyed high consideration until the close of the reign of Alexander
Severus, 385* A.D. After that time they were held in much less estimation,
as the science fell into the hands of freedmen and plebeians, who
practiced it as a sordid and pernicious trade. With the reign of
Constantine, the credit of the profession revived, and the youth of the
empire were stimulated to pursue the study of the law by the hope of being
ultimately rewarded by honorable and lucrative offices, the magistrates
being almost wholly taken from the class of lawyers. Two jurists of this
reign, Gregorianus and Hermogenianus, are particularly distinguished as
authors of codes which are known by their names, and which were recognized
as standard authorities in courts of justice. The "Code of Theodosius" was
a collection of laws reduced by that emperor, and promulgated in both
empires 438 A.D. It retained its authority in the western empire until its
final overthrow, 476 A.D., and even after this, though modified by the
institutions of the conquerors. In the eastern empire, it was only
superseded by the code of Justinian. This emperor undertook the task of
reducing to order and system the great confusion and perplexity in which
the whole subject of Roman jurisprudence was involved. For this purpose he
employed the most eminent lawyers, with the celebrated Tribonian at their
head, to whom he intrusted the work of forming and publishing a complete
collection of the preceding laws and edicts, and who devoted several years
of unwearied labor and research to this object. They first collected and
reduced the imperial constitutions from the time of Hadrian downwards,
which was promulgated as the "Justinian Code." Their next labor was to
reduce the writings of the jurisconsults of the preceding ages, especially
those who had lived under the empire, and whose works are said to have
amounted to two thousand volumes. This work was published 533 A.D., under
the title of "Pandects," or "Digest," the former title referring to their
completeness as comprehending the whole of Roman jurisprudence, and the
latter to their methodical arrangement. At the same time, a work prepared
by Tribonian was published by the order of the emperor, on the elements or
first principles of Roman law, entitled "Institutes," and another
collection consisting of constitutions and edicts, under the title of
"Novels," chiefly written in Greek, but known to the moderns by a Latin
translation. These four works, the Code, the Pandects, the Institutes, and
the Novels, constituted what is now called the Body of Roman Law.
The system of jurisprudence established by Justinian remained in force in
the eastern empire until the taking of Constantinople, 1453 A.D. After the
fall of the western empire, these laws had little sway until the twelfth
century, when Irnerius, a German lawyer who had studied at Constantinople,
opened a school at Bologna, and thus revived and propagated in the West a
knowledge of Roman civil law. Students flocked to this school from all
parts, and by them Roman jurisprudence, as embodied in the system of
Justinian, was transmitted to most of the countries of Europe.
During the fourth and fifth centuries, the process of the debasement of
the Roman tongue went on with great rapidity. The influence of the
provincials began what the irruptions of the northern tribes consummated.
In many scattered parts of the empire it is probable that separate Latin
dialects arose, and the strain upon the whole structure of the tongue was
prodigious, when the Goths poured into Italy, established themselves in
the capital, and began to speak and write in a language previously foreign
to them. With the close of the reign of Theodoric the curtain falls upon
ancient literature.