historian, was Consul along with Marius in the year 651, and shared with
him in his distinguished triumph over the Cimbrians. Though once united in
the strictest friendship, these old colleagues quarrelled at last, during
the civil war with Sylla; and Catulus, it is said, in order to avoid the
emissaries despatched by the unrelenting Marius, to put him to death, shut
himself up in a room newly plastered, and having kindled a fire, was
suffocated by the noxious vapours. He wrote the history of his own
consulship, and the various public transactions in which he had been
engaged, particularly the war with the Cimbrians. Cicero(163), who has
spoken so disadvantageously of the style of the older annalists, admits
that Catulus wrote very pure Latin, and that his language had some
resemblance to the sweetness of Xenophon.
Q. Claudius Quadrigarius composed Annals of Rome in twenty-four books,
which, though now almost entirely lost, were in existence as late as the
end of the 12th century, being referred to by John of Salisbury in his
book _De Nugis Curialibus_. Some passages, however, are still preserved,
particularly the account of the defiance by the gigantic Gaul, adorned
with a chain, to the whole Roman army, and his combat with Titus Manlius,
afterwards sirnamed Torquatus, from this chain which he took from his
antagonist. “Who the enemy was,” says Au. Gellius, “of how great and
formidable stature, how audacious the challenge, and in what kind of
battle they fought, Q. Claudius has told with much purity and elegance,
and in the simple unadorned sweetness of ancient language(164).”
There is likewise extant from these Annals the story of the Consul Q.
Fabius Maximus making his father, who was then Proconsul, alight from his
horse when he came out to meet him. We have also the letter of the Roman
Consuls, Fabricius and Q. Emilius, to Pyrrhus, informing him of the
treachery of his confident, Nicias, who had offered to the Romans to make
away with his master for a reward. It merits quotation, as a fine example
of ancient dignity and simplicity.—“Nos, pro tuis injuriis, continuo
animo, strenue commoti, inimiciter tecum bellare studemus. Sed communis
exempli et fidei ergo visum est, uti te salvum velimus; ut esset quem
armis vincere possimus. Ad nos venit Nicias familiaris tuus, qui sibi
pretium a nobis peteret, si te clam interfecisset: Id nos negavimus velle;
neve ob eam rem quidquam commodi expectaret: Et simul visum est, ut te
certiorem faceremus, nequid ejusmodi, si accidisset, nostro consilio
putares factum: et, quid nobis non placet, pretio, aut premio, aut dolis
pugnare.”—The Annals of Quadrigarius must at least have brought down the
history to the civil wars of Marius and Sylla, since, in the nineteenth
book, the author details the circumstances of the defence of the Piræus
against Sylla, by Archelaus, the prefect of Mithridates. As to the style
of these annals, Aulus Gellius reports, that they were written in a
conversational manner(165).
Quintus Valerius Antias also left Annals, which must have formed an
immense work, since Priscian cites the seventy-fourth book. They commenced
with the foundation of the city; but their accuracy cannot be relied on,
as the author was much addicted to exaggeration. Livy, mentioning, on the
authority of Antias, a victory gained by the Proconsul Q. Minucius, adds,
while speaking of the number of slain on the part of the enemy, “Little
faith can be given to this author, as no one was ever more intemperate in
such exaggerations;” and Aulus Gellius mentions a circumstance which he
had affirmed, contrary to the records of the Tribunes, and the authors of
the ancient Annals(166). This history also seems to have been stuffed with
the most absurd and superstitious fables. A nonsensical tale is told with
regard to the manner in which Numa procured thunder from Jupiter; and
stories are likewise related about the conflagration of the lake
Thrasimene, before the defeat of the Roman Consul, and the flame which
played round the head of Servius Tullius in his childhood. It also appears
from him, that the Romans had judicial trials, as horrible as those of the
witches which disgraced our criminal record. Q. Nævius, before setting out
for Sardinia, held _Questions_ of incantation through the towns of Italy,
and condemned to death, apparently without much investigation, not less
than two thousand persons. This annalist denies, in another passage, the
well-known story of the continence of Scipio, and alleges that the lady
whom he is generally said to have restored to her lover, was “_in deliciis
amoribusque usurpata_(167).” His opinion of the moral character of Scipio
seems founded on some satirical verses of Nævius, with regard to a low
intrigue in which he was detected in his youth. But whatever his private
amours may have been, it does not follow that he was incapable of a signal
exertion of generosity and continence in the presence of his army, and
with the eyes of two great rival nations fixed upon his conduct.
Licinius Macer, father of Licin. Calvus, the distinguished poet and orator
formerly mentioned(168), was author of Annals, entitled _Libri Rerum
Romanarum_. In the course of these he frequently quotes the _Libri
Lintei_. He was not considered as a very impartial historian, and, in
particular, he is accused by Livy of inventing stories to throw lustre
over his own family.
L. Cornelius Sisenna was the friend of Macer, and coeval with Antias and
Quadrigarius; but he far excelled his contemporaries, as well as
predecessors, in the art of historical narrative. He was of the same
family as Sylla, the dictator, and was descended from that Sisenna who was
Prætor in 570. In his youth he practised as an orator, and is
characterized by Cicero as a man of learning and wit, but of no great
industry or knowledge in business(169). In more advanced life he was
Prætor of Achaia, and a friend of Atticus. Vossius says his history
commenced after the taking of Rome by the Gauls, and ended with the wars
of Marius and Sylla. Now, it is possible that he may have given some
sketch of Roman affairs from the burning of the city by the Gauls, but it
is evident he had touched slightly on these early portions of the history,
for though his work consisted of twenty, or, according to others, of
twenty-two books, it appears from a fragment of the second, which is still
preserved, that he had there advanced in his narrative as far as the
Social War, which broke out in the year 663. The greater part, therefore,
I suspect, was devoted to the history of the civil wars of Marius; and
indeed Velleius Paterculus calls his work _Opus Belli Civilis
Sullani_(170). The great defect of his history consisted, it is said, in
not being written with sufficient political freedom, at least concerning
the character and conduct of Sylla, which is regretted by Sallust in a
passage bearing ample testimony to the merits of Sisenna in other
particulars.—“L. Sisenna,” says he, “optume et diligentissime omnium, qui
eas res dixere persecutus, parum mihi libero ore locutus videtur(171).”
Cicero, while he admits his superiority over his predecessors, adds, that
he was far from perfection(172), and complains that there was something
puerile in his Annals, as if he had studied none of the Greek historians
but Clitarchus(173). I have quoted these opinions, since we must now
entirely trust to the sentiments of others, in the judgment which we form
of the merits of Sisenna; for although the fragments which remain of his
history are more numerous than those of any other old Latin annalist,
being about 150, they are also shorter and more unconnected. Indeed, there
are scarcely two sentences anywhere joined together.
The great defect, then, imputed to the class of annalists above
enumerated, is the meagerness of their relations, which are stript of all
ornament of style—of all philosophic observation on the springs or
consequences of action—and all characteristic painting of the actors
themselves. That they often perverted the truth of history, to dignify the
name of their country at the expense of its foes, is a fault common to
them with many national historians—that they sometimes exalted one
political faction or chief to depreciate another, was almost unavoidable
amid the anarchy and civil discord of Rome—that they were credulous in the
extreme, in their relations of portents and prodigies, is a blemish from
which their greater successors were not exempted: The easy faith of Livy
is well known. Even the philosophic Tacitus seems to give credit to those
presages, which darkly announced the fate of men and empires; and Julius
Obsequens, a grave writer in the most enlightened age of Rome, collected
in one work all the portents observed from its foundation to the age of
Augustus.
The period in which the ancient annalists flourished, also produced
several biographical works; and these being lives of men distinguished in
the state, may be ranked in the number of histories.
Lucius Emilius Scaurus, who was born in 591, and died in 666, wrote
memoirs of his own life, which Tacitus says were accounted faithful and
impartial. They are unfortunately lost, but their matter may be
conjectured from the well-known incidents of the life of Scaurus. They
embraced a very eventful period, and were written without any flagrant
breach of truth. We learn from Cicero, that these memoirs, however useful
and instructive, were little read, even in his days, though his
contemporaries carefully studied the Cyropædia; a work, as he continues,
no doubt sufficiently elegant, but not so connected with our affairs, nor
in any respect to be preferred to the merits of Scaurus(174).
Rutilius Rufus, who was Consul in the year 649, also wrote memoirs of his
own life. He was a man of very different character from Scaurus, being of
distinguished probity in every part of his conduct, and possessing, as we
are informed by Cicero, something almost of sanctity in his demeanour. All
this did not save him from an unjust exile, to which he was condemned, and
which he passed in tranquillity at Smyrna. These biographical memoirs
being lost, we know their merits only from the commendations of Livy(175),
Plutarch(176), Velleius Paterculus(177), and Valerius Maximus(178). As the
author served under Scipio in Spain—under Scævola in Asia, and under
Metellus in his campaign against Jugurtha, the loss of this work is
severely to be regretted.
But the want of Sylla’s Memoirs of his own Life, and of the affairs in
which he had himself been engaged, is still more deeply to be lamented
than the loss of those of Scaurus or Rutilius Rufus. These memoirs were
meant to have been dedicated to Lucullus, on condition that he should
arrange and correct them(179). Sylla was employed on them the evening
before his death, and concluded them by relating, that on the preceding
night he had seen in a dream one of his children, who had died a short
while before, and who, stretching out his hand, showed to him his mother
Metella, and exhorted him forthwith to leave the cares of life, and hasten
to enjoy repose along with them in the bosom of eternal rest. “Thus,” adds
the author, who accounted nothing so certain as what was signified to him
in dreams, “I finish my days, as was predicted to me by the Chaldeans, who
announced that I should surmount envy itself by my glory, and should have
the good fortune to fall in the full blossom of my prosperity(180).” These
memoirs were sent by Epicadus, the freedman of Sylla, to Lucullus, in
order that he might put to them the finishing hand. If preserved, they
would have thrown much light on the most important affairs of Roman
history, as they proceeded from the person who must, of all others, have
been the best informed concerning them. They are quoted by Plutarch as
authority for many curious facts, as—that in the great battle by which the
Cimbrian invasion was repelled, the chief execution was done in that
quarter where Sylla was stationed; the main body, under Marius, having
been misled by a cloud of dust, and having in consequence wandered about
for a long time without finding the enemy(181). Plutarch also mentions
that, in these Commentaries, the author contradicted the current story of
his seeking refuge during a tumult at the commencement of the civil wars
with Marius, in the house of his rival, who, it had been reported,
sheltered and dismissed him in safety. Besides their importance for the
history of events, the Memoirs of Sylla must have been highly interesting,
as developing, in some degree, the most curious character in Roman
history. “In the loss of his Memoirs,” says Blackwell, in his usual
inflated style, “the strongest draught of human passions, in the highest
wheels of fortune and sallies of power, is for ever vanished(182).” The
character of Cæsar, though greater, was less incomprehensible than that of
Sylla; and the mind of Augustus, though unfathomable to his
contemporaries, has been sounded by the long line of posterity; but it is
difficult to analyse the disposition which inspired the inconsistent
conduct of Sylla. Gorged with power, and blood, and vengeance, he seems to
have retired from what he chiefly coveted, as if surfeited; but neither
this retreat, nor old age, could mollify his heart; nor could disease, or
the approach of death, or the remembrance of his past life, disturb his
tranquillity. No part of his existence was more strange than its
termination; and nothing can be more singular than that he, who, on the
day of his decease, caused in mere wantonness a provincial magistrate to
be strangled in his presence, should, the night before, have enjoyed a
dream so elevated and tender. It is probable that the Memoirs were well
written, in point of style, as Sylla loved the arts and sciences, and was
even a man of some learning, though Cæsar is reported to have said, on
hearing his literary acquirements extolled, that he must have been but an
indifferent scholar who had resigned a dictatorship.
The characteristic of most of the annals and memoirs which I have hitherto
mentioned, was extreme conciseness. Satisfied with collecting a mass of
facts, their authors adopted a style which, in the later ages of Rome,
became proverbially meagre and jejune. Cicero includes Claudius
Quadrigarius and Asellio in the same censure which he passes on their
predecessors, Fabius Pictor, Piso, and Fannius. But though, perhaps,
equally barren in style, much greater trust and reliance may be placed on
the annalists of the time of Marius and Sylla than of the second Punic
war.
Some of these more modern annalists wrote the History of Rome from the
commencement of the state; others took up the relation from the burning of
Rome by the Gauls, or confined themselves to events which had occurred in
their own time. Their narratives of all that passed before the incursion
of the Gauls, were indeed as little authentic as the relations of Fabius
Pictor, since they implicitly followed that writer, and made no new
researches into the mouldering monuments of their country. But their
accounts of what happened subsequently to the rebuilding of Rome, are not
liable to the same suspicion and uncertainty; the public monuments and
records having, from that period, been duly preserved, and having been in
greater abundance than those of almost any other nation in the history of
the world. The Roman authors possessed all the auxiliaries which aid
historical compilation—decrees of the senate, chiefly pronounced in
affairs of state—leagues with friendly nations—terms of the surrender of
cities—tables of triumphs, and treaties, which were carefully preserved in
the treasury or in temples. There were even rolls kept of the senators and
knights, as also of the number of the legions and ships employed in each
war; but the public despatches addressed to the Senate by commanders of
armies, of which we have specimens in Cicero’s Epistles, were the
documents which must have chiefly aided historical composition. These were
probably accurate, as the Senate, and people in general, were too well
versed in military affairs to have been easily deluded, and legates were
often commissioned by them to ascertain the truth of the relations. The
immense multitude of such documents is evinced by the fact, that
Vespasian, when restoring the Capitol, found in its ruins not fewer than
3000 brazen tablets, containing decrees of the Senate and people,
concerning leagues, associations, and immunities to whomsoever granted,
from an early period of the state, and which Suetonius justly styles,
_instrumentum imperii pulcherrimum ac vetustissimum_(183). Accordingly,
when the later annalists came to write of the affairs of their own time,
they found historical documents more full and satisfactory than those of
almost any other country. But, in addition to these copious sources of
information, it will be remarked, that the annalists themselves had often
personal knowledge of the facts they related. It is true, indeed, that
historians contemporary with the events which they record, are not always
best qualified to place them in an instructive light, since, though they
may understand how they spring out of prior incidents, they cannot foresee
their influence on future occurrences. Of some things, the importance is
overrated, and of others undervalued, till time, which has the same effect
on events as distance on external objects, obscures all that is minute,
while it renders the outlines of what is vast more distinct and
perceptible. But though the reach of a contemporary historian’s mind may
not extend to the issue of the drama which passes before him, he is no
doubt best aware of the detached incidents of each separate scene and act,
and most fitted to detail those particulars which posterity may combine
into a mass, exhibiting at one view the grandeur and interest of the
whole. Now, it will have been remarked from the preceding pages, that all
the Roman annalists, from the time of Fabius Pictor to Sylla, were Consuls
and Prætors, commanders of armies, or heads of political parties, and
consequently the principal sharers in the events which they recorded. In
Greece, there was an earlier separation than at Rome, between an active
and a speculative life. Many of the Greek historians had little part in
those transactions, the remembrance of which they have transmitted. They
wrote at a distance, as it were, from the scene of affairs, so that they
contemplated the wars and dissensions of their countrymen with the
unprejudiced eye of a foreigner, or of posterity. This naturally diffuses
a calm philosophic spirit over the page of the historian, and gives
abundant scope for conjecture concerning the motives and springs of
action. The Roman annalists, on the other hand, wrote from perfect
knowledge and remembrance; they were the persons who had planned and
executed every project; they had fought the battles they described, or
excited the war, the vicissitudes of which they recorded. Hence the facts
which their pages disclosed, might have borne the genuine stamp of truth,
and the analysis of the motives and causes of actions might have been
absolute revelations. Yet, under these, the most favourable circumstances
for historic composition, prejudices from which the Greek historians were
exempt, would unconsciously creep in: Writers like Sylla or Æmilius
Scaurus, had much to extenuate, and strong temptations to set down much in
malice(184).
Nor is it always sufficient to have witnessed a great event in order to
record it well, and with that fulness which converts it into a lesson in
legislation, ethics, or politics. Now, the Roman annals had hitherto been
chiefly a dry register of facts, what Lord Bolingbroke calls the _Nuntia
Vetustatis_, or Gazette of Antiquity. A history properly so termed, and
when considered as opposed to such productions, forms a complete series of
transactions, accompanied by a deduction of their immediate and remote
causes, and of the consequences by which they were attended,—all related,
in their full extent, with such detail of circumstances as transports us
back to the very time, makes us parties to the counsels, and actors, as it
were, in the whole scene of affairs. It is then alone that history becomes
the _magistra vitæ_; and in this sense
SALLUST