VESTIGES OF EARLY INDIGENOUS POETRY IN ROME AND ANCIENT ITALY.
The Romans themselves traced the origin of their poetry, as of all
their literary culture, to their contact with the mind of Greece.
Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit, et artes
Intulit agresti Latio.
The first productive literary impulse was communicated to the Roman
mind by the Greek slave, Livius Andronicus, who, in the year B.C.
240--one year after the end of the First Punic War--brought out,
before a Roman audience, a drama translated or imitated from the
Greek. From this time Roman poetry advanced along the various channels
which the creative energy of Greek genius had formed.
But it has been maintained, in recent times, that this was but
the second birth of Roman poetry, and that a golden age of native
minstrelsy had preceded this historical development of literature.
The most distinguished supporters of this theory were Niebuhr and
Macaulay. In the preface to his _Lays of Rome_, Macaulay says that
'this early literature abounded with metrical romances, such as are
found in every country where there is much curiosity and intelligence,
but little reading and writing.' Niebuhr went so far as to assert that
the Romans in early times possessed epic poems, 'which in power and
brilliance of imagination leave everything produced by the Romans in
later times far behind them.' He held that the flourishing period of
this native poetry was the fifth century after the foundation of
the city. He supposed that the early lays were of plebeian origin,
strongly animated by plebeian sentiment, and familiarly known among
the mass of the people; that they disappeared after the ascendency of
the new literature, chiefly through the influence of Ennius; and that
his immediate predecessor, Naevius, was the last of the genuine native
minstrels. He professed to find clear traces of these ballads and
epic poems in the fine legends of early Roman history. His theory was
supported by arguments founded on the testimony of ancient writers, on
indications of the early recognition of poetry by the Roman State (as,
for instance, the worship of the Camenae), on the poetical character
of early Roman story, and on the analogy of other nations.
Although there may be no more ground for believing in a golden age of
early Roman poetry than in a golden age of innocence and happiness,
yet the question raised by Niebuhr deserves attention, not only on
account of the celebrity which it obtained, but also as opening up
an inquiry into the nature and value of the rude germs of literature
which the Latin soil spontaneously produced. Though there is no
substantial evidence of the existence among the Romans of anything
corresponding to the modern ballad or the early epic of Greece, yet
certain kinds of metrical composition did spring up and flourish among
the Italians, previous to and independent of their knowledge of
Greek literature. It is worth while to ascertain what these kinds of
composition were, as they throw light on some natural tendencies of
the race, which ultimately obtained their adequate expression, and
helped to impart a native and original character to Latin literature.
It was observed in the former chapter that while the metres of all the
great Roman poets were founded on the earlier metres of Greece, there
was a native Italian metre, called the Saturnian, which was employed
apparently in various kinds of composition, and was quite different in
character from the heroic and lyric measures adopted by the
cultivated poets of a later age. This metre was used not only in rude
extemporaneous effusions, but also in the long poem of Naevius, on
the First Punic War. Horace indicates his sense of the roughness and
barbarism of the metre, in the lines,
Sic horridus ille
Defluxit numerus Saturnius, et grave virus
Munditiae pepulere[1].
Ennius speaks contemptuously of the verse of Naevius, as that employed
by the old prophetic bards, before any of the gifts of poetry had been
received or cultivated--
Quum neque musarum scopulos quisquam superarat
Nec dicti studiosus erat.
The irregularity of the metre may be inferred from a saying of an
ancient grammarian, that, in the long epic of Naevius he could find no
single line to serve as a normal specimen of its structure. From the
few Saturnian lines remaining, it may be inferred that the verse had
an irregular trochaic movement; and it seems first to have come into
use as an accompaniment to the beating of the foot in a primitive
rustic dance. The name, connected with Saturnus, the old Land-God of
Italy, points to the rustic origin of the metre. It was known also by
the name Faunian, derived from another of the Divinities worshipped in
the rural districts of Italy. It seems first to have been employed in
ritual prayers and thanksgiving for the fruits of the earth, and in
the grotesque raillery accompanying the merriment and license of the
harvest-home. It is of the Saturnian verse that Virgil speaks in the
lines of the second Georgic--
Nec non Ausonii, Troja gens missa, coloni
Versibus incomptis ludunt risuque soluto[2].
As the long roll of the hexameter and the stately march of the alcaic
were expressive of the gravity and majesty of the Roman State, so the
ring and flow of the Saturnian verse may be regarded as indicative
of the freedom and genial enjoyment of life, characterising the old
Italian peasantry.
The most important kinds of compositions produced in this metre, under
purely native influences, may be classed as,
1. Hymns or ritual verses.
2. Prophetic verses.
3. Festive and satiric verses, uttered in dialogue or in rude mimetic
drama.
4. Short gnomic or didactic verses.
5. Commemorative odes sung or recited at banquets and funerals.
1. The earliest extant specimen of the Latin language is a fragment of
the hymn of the Fratres Arvales, a priestly brotherhood, who offered,
on every 15th of May, public sacrifices for the fertility of the
fields. This fragment is variously written and interpreted, but there
can be no doubt that it is the expression of a prayer for protection
against pestilence, addressed to the Lares and the god Mars, and that
it was uttered with the accompaniment of dancing. The following is the
reading of the fragment, as given by Mommsen:--
Enos, Lases, juvate.
Ne veluerve, Marmar, sins incurrere in pleores.
Satur fu, fere Mars.
Limen sali.
Sta berber.
Semunis alternis advocapit conctos.
Enos, Marmar, juvato.
Triumpe, triumpe, triumpe, triumpe, triumpe[3].
The address to Mars 'Satur fu,' or, according to another reading,
'Satur furere,' 'be satisfied or done with raging,' probably refers
to the severity of the winter and early spring[4]. The words have
reference to the attributes of the God in the old Italian religion,
in which the powers of Nature were deified and worshipped long before
Mars was identified with the Greek Ares. The other expressions in the
prayer appear to be, either directions given to the dancers, or the
sounds uttered as the dance proceeded.
Another short fragment has been preserved from the hymn of the Salii,
also an ancient priesthood, supposed to date from the times of
the early kings. The hymn is characterised by Horace, among other
specimens of ancient literature, as equally unintelligible to himself
and to its affected admirers[5].
From the extreme antiquity of these ceremonial chants it may be
inferred that metrical expression among the Romans, as among the
Greeks and other ancient nations, owed its origin to a primitive
religious worship. But while the early Greek hymns or chants in
honour of the Gods soon assumed the forms of pleasant tales of
human adventure, or tragic tales of human suffering, the Roman hymns
retained their formal and ritual character unchanged among all the
changes of creed and language. In the lines just quoted there is no
trace of creative fancy, nor any germ of devotional feeling, which
might have matured into lyrical or contemplative poetry. They sound
like the words of a rude incantation. They are the obscure memorial
of a primitive, agricultural people, living in a blind sense of
dependence on their gods, and restrained by a superstitious formalism
from all activity of thought or fancy. Such compositions cannot be
attributed to the inspiration or skill of any early poet, but seem to
have been copied from the uncouth and spontaneous shouts of a simple,
unsophisticated priesthood, engaged in a rude ceremonial dance.
If these hymns stand in any relation to Latin literature, they
may perhaps be regarded as springing from the same vein of public
sentiment, as called forth the hymn composed by Livius Andronicus
during the Second Punic War, and as rude precursors of those composed
by Catullus and Horace, and chanted by a chorus of youths and maidens
in honour of the protecting Deities of Rome.
2. The verses of the Fauns and Vates spoken of by Ennius, with
allusion to the poem of Naevius, in the lines,
Scripsere alii rem,
Versibu' quos olim Fauni vatesque canebant,
were probably as far removed from poetry as the ritual chants of the
Salii and the Fratres Arvales. The Fauni were the woodland gods of
Italy, and were, besides their other functions, supposed to be endowed
with prophetic power[6]. The word _Vates_, till the Augustan age,
meant not a poet but a soothsayer. The Camenae or Casmenae (another
form of which word appears in Carmenta, the prophetic mother of
Evander) were worshipped, not as the inspirers of poetry, but as the
foretellers of future events[7]. Both Greeks and Romans sought to
obtain a knowledge of the future, either through the interpretation of
omens, or through the voice of persons supposed to be divinely endowed
with foresight. But the Greeks, even in the regard which they paid
to auguries and oracles, were influenced, for the most part, by their
lively imagination; while the Romans, from the earliest to the latest
eras of their history, in all their relations to the supernatural
world, adhered to a scrupulous and unimaginative ceremonialism. The
notices in Latin literature of the functions of these early Vates--as,
for instance, the counsel of the Etrurian seer to drain the Alban Lake
during the war with Veii, and the prophecy of Marcius uttered during
the Second Punic War,
Amnem Trojugena Cannam Romane fuge, etc.[8],
suggest no more idea of poetical inspiration than the occasional
notices, in Latin authors, of the oracles of the Sibylline books. The
language of prophecy naturally assumes a metrical or rhythmical form,
partly as an aid to the memory, partly, perhaps, as a means of giving
to the words uttered the effect of a more solemn intonation. In
Greece, the oracles of the Delphian priestess, and the predictions
of soothsayers, collected in books or circulating orally among the
people, were expressed in hexameter verse and in the traditional
diction of epic poetry; but they were never ranked under any form of
poetic art. The verses of the Vates, so far as any inference can be
formed as to their nature, appear to have been products and proofs
of unimaginative superstition or imposture, rather than of any
imaginative inspiration among the early inhabitants of Latium.
3. Another class of metrical compositions, of native origin, but of a
totally opposite character, was known by the name of the 'Fescennine
verses.' These arose out of a very different class of feelings and
circumstances. Horace attributes their origin to the festive meetings
and exuberant mirth of the harvest-home among a primitive, strong, and
cheerful race of husbandmen. He points out how this rustic raillery
gradually assumed the character of fierce lampoons, and had to be
restrained by law:--
Fescennina per hunc inventa licentia morem
Versibus alternis opprobria rustica fudit;
Libertasque recurrentes accepta per annos
Lusit amabiliter, donec jam saevus apertam
In rabiem coepit verti jocus et per honestas
Ire domos impune minax. Doluere cruento
Dente lacessiti; fuit intactis quoque cura
Conditione super communi; quin etiam lex
Poenaque lata, malo quae nollet carmine quemquam
Describi; vertere modum, formidine fustis
Ad bene dicendum delectandumque redacti[9].
The change in character, here described, from coarse and good-humoured
bantering to libellous scurrility, may be conjectured to have taken
place when the Fescennine freedom passed from villages and country
districts to the active social and political life within the city.
That this change had taken place in Rome at an early period, is proved
by the fact that libellous verses were forbidden by the laws of the
Twelve Tables[10]. The original Fescennine verse appears, from the
testimony of Horace, to have been in metrical dialogue. This rude
amusement, in which a coarse kind of banter was interchanged during
their festive gatherings, was in early times characteristic of the
rural populations of Greece and Sicily, as well as Italy, and was one
of the original elements out of which Greek comedy and Greek pastoral
poetry were developed. These verses had a kindred origin with that of
the Phallic Odes among the Greeks. They both appear to have sprung out
of the rudest rites and the grossest symbolism of rustic paganism. The
Fescennine raillery long retained traces of this original character.
Catullus mentions the 'procax Fescennina locutio,' among the
accompaniments of marriage festivals; and the songs of the soldiers,
in the extravagant license of the triumphal procession, betrayed
unmistakably this primitive coarseness.
These rude and inartistic verses, which took their name either from
the town of Fescennia in Etruria or from the word fascinum[11], were
the first expression of that aggressive and censorious spirit which
ultimately animated Roman satire. But the original satura, which also
was familiar to the Romans before they became acquainted with Greek
literature, was somewhat different both from the Fescennine verses,
and from the lampoons which arose out of them. The more probable
etymology[12] of the word _satura_ connects it in origin with the
_satura lanx_, a plate filled with various kinds of fruit offered to
the gods. If this etymology be the true one, the word meant originally
a medley of various contents, like the Italian _farsa_[13], and it
evidently had not lost this meaning when first employed in regular
literature by Ennius and Lucilius. The original satura was a kind of
dramatic entertainment, accompanied with music and dancing, differing
from the Fescennine verses in being regularly composed and not
extemporaneous, and from the drama, in being without a connected
plot. The origin of this composition is traced by Livy[14] to the
representation of Etrurian dancers, who were brought to Rome during a
pestilence. The Roman youth, according to his account, being moved to
imitation of these representations, in which there was neither acting
nor speaking, added to them the accompaniment of verses of a humorous
character; and continued to represent these jocular medleys, combined
with music (_saturas impletas modis_), even after the introduction of
the regular drama.
These scenic saturae, which, from Livy's notice, appear to have been
accompanied with good-humoured hilarity rather than with scurrilous
raillery, prepared the way for the reception of the regular drama
among the Romans, and will, to some extent, account for its early
popularity among them. The later Roman satire long retained traces of
a connexion with this primitive and indigenous satura, evinced both
by the miscellaneous character of its topics, and by its frequent
employment of dramatic dialogue.
4. The didactic tendency which is so conspicuous in the cultivated
literature of Rome manifested itself also in the indigenous
compositions of Italy. The popular maxims and precepts preserved by
the old agricultural writers and afterwards embodied by Virgil in
his Georgics, were handed down from generation to generation in the
Saturnian rhythm. But, apparently, the first metrical composition
committed to writing was a poem of an ethical or didactic character,
written two generations before the first dramatic representation of
Livius Andronicus, by Appius Claudius Caecus, who is also the earliest
known to us in the long line of Roman orators[15].
5. But it was not from any of these sources that Niebuhr supposed the
poetical character of early Roman history to be derived. Nor is there
any analogy between the religious hymns, or the Fescennine verses of
Italy, and the modern ballad. But there is evidence of the existence,
at one time, of other metrical compositions of which scarcely anything
is definitely ascertained, except that they were sung at banquets, to
the accompaniment of the flute, in celebration of the praises of great
men. There is no direct evidence of the time when these compositions,
some of which were believed by Niebuhr to have attained the dimensions
of Epic poems, existed, or when they fell into disuse. Cato, as quoted
by Cicero in the Tusculan Disputations, and in the Brutus[16], is our
earliest authority on the subject. His testimony is to the effect that
many generations before his time, the guests at banquets were in the
habit of singing, in succession, the praises of great men, to the
music of the flute. Cicero, in the Brutus, expresses a wish that these
songs still existed in his own day; 'utinam exstarent illa carmina,
quae multis saeculis ante suam aetatem in epulis esse cantitata a
singulis convivis de clarorum virorum laudibus in Originibus scriptum
reliquit Cato.' Varro again is quoted, to the effect that boys used
to be present at banquets, for the purpose of singing 'ancient poems,'
celebrating the praises of their ancestors. Valerius Maximus mentions
'that the older men used at banquets to celebrate in song the
illustrious deeds of their ancestors, in order to stimulate the
youth to imitate them.' Passages are quoted also from Horace,
from Dionysius, and from Tacitus, implying a belief in the ancient
existence of these compositions.
Besides the odes sung or recited at banquets, there were certain
funeral poems, called _Naeniae_, originally chanted by the female
relatives of the deceased, but afterwards by hired women. As the
practice of public speaking advanced, these gradually passed into a
mere form, and were superseded by funeral orations.
The facts ascertained about these commemorative poems amount to no
more than this,--that they were sung at banquets and the funerals of
great men--that they were of such length as to admit of several being
sung in succession,--and that they fell into disuse some generations
before the age of Cato. The inferences that may fairly be drawn from
these statements are opposed to some of the conclusions of Niebuhr.
The evidence is all in favour of their having been short lyrical
pieces, and not long narrative poems. As they were sung at great
banquets and funerals, it seems probable that, like the custom of
exhibiting the ancestral images on the same occasions, they owed their
origin to the patrician pride of family, and were not likely to have
been animated by strong plebeian sentiment. If they had been preserved
at all, they were thus more likely to have been preserved by members
of the great houses living within the city walls, than by the
peasantry living among the outlying hills and country districts. If
ever there were any golden age of early Roman poetry, it had passed
away long before the time of Ennius and Cato.
The fact, however, remains, that the Romans did possess, in early
times, some kind of native minstrelsy, in which they honoured the
memory and the exploits of their great men. And this impulse of
hero-worship became in later times an important factor in their epic
poetry. But is there any reason to suppose that these compositions
were of the nature and importance assigned to them by Niebuhr, and had
any value in respect of invention and execution? It is difficult to
believe that such a native force of feeling and imagination, pouring
itself forth in stirring ballads and continuous epic poems, could have
been frozen so near its source; or that a rich, popular poetry, not
scattered through thinly-peopled districts, but the possession of
a great commonwealth--one most tenacious of every national
memorial--could have entirely disappeared, under any foreign
influence, in the course of one or two generations. But even on the
supposition that a great national poetry might have passed from the
memory of men--as, possibly, the poems existing before the time of
Homer may have been lost or merged in the greater glories of the Iliad
and the Odyssey--this early poetry could not have perished without
leaving permanent influence on the Roman language. The growth of
poetical language necessarily accompanies the growth of poetical
feeling and inspiration. The sensuous, passionate, and musical force
by which a language is first moulded into poetry is transmitted from
one generation of poets to another. The language of Homer, by its
natural and musical flow, by its accumulated wealth of meaning, by the
use of traditional epithets and modes of expression, that penetrate
far back into the belief, the feelings, and the life of an earlier
time, implies the existence of a long line of poets who preceded him.
On the other hand, the diction of the fragments of Ennius, in its
strength and in its rudeness, is evidently, in great measure, the
creation of his own time and his own mind. He has no true discernment
of the characteristic difference between the language of prose and of
poetry. The materials of his art had not been smoothed and polished
by any long, continuous stream of national melody, but were rough-hewn
and adapted by his own energy to the rugged structure of his poem.
While, therefore, it appears that the actual notices of the early
commemorative poems do not imply that they were the products of
imagination or poetical feeling, or that they excited much popular
enthusiasm, and were an important element in the early State, their
entire disappearance among a people so tenacious of all their gains,
and, still more, the unformed and prosaic condition of the language
and rhythm used by Naevius, Ennius, and the other early poets, lead to
the presumption, that they were not much valued by the Romans at any
time, and that they were not the creations of poetic genius and art.
This presumption is further strengthened by such indications as there
are of the recognition, or rather the non-recognition, of poets or of
the poetic character at Rome in early times.
The worship of the Camenae was indeed an old and genuine part of the
Roman or Italian religion; but, as was said before, their original
function was to predict future events, and to communicate the
knowledge of divination; not like that of the Greek Muses, to imagine
bright stories of divine and human adventure,--
[Greek: lesmosynen te kakon ampauma te mermeraon.]
Even the names by which two of the Camenae were known--Postvorta and
Antevorta--suggest the prosaic and practical functions which they were
supposed to fulfil. The Romans had no native word equivalent to the
Greek word [Greek: aoidos], denoting the primary and most essential
of all poetical gifts, the power to awaken the music of language. The
word _vates_, as was seen, denoted a prophet. The title of _scriba_
was applied to Livius Andronicus; and Naevius, who has by some been
regarded as the last of the old race of Roman bards, applies to
himself the Greek name of _poeta_,--
Flerent divae Camenae Naevium poetam.
The commemorative odes appear to have been recited or sung at
banquets, not by poets or rhapsodists, but by boys or guests. There is
one notice, indeed, of a class of men who practised the profession of
minstrelsy. This passage, which is quoted by Aulus Gellius from the
writings of Cato, implies the very lowest estimation of the position
and character of the poet, and points more naturally to the composers
of the libellous verses forbidden by the laws of the Twelve Tables,
than to the authors of heroic and national lays:--'Poetry was not held
in honour; if anyone devoted himself to it, or went about to banquets,
he was called a vagabond[17].'
It appears that, on this ground also, there is no reason for believing
in the existence of any golden age of Roman poetry before the time
of Ennius, or in the theory that the legendary tales of Roman history
were created and shaped by native minstrels. To what cause, then, can
we attribute their origin? These tales have a strong human interest,
and represent marked and original types of antique heroism. They have
the elements of true tragic pathos and moral grandeur. They could
neither have arisen nor been preserved except among a people endowed
with strong capacities of feeling and action. But the strength of
the Roman mind consisted more in retentive capacity than in creative
energy. Their art and their religion, their family and national
customs, aimed at preserving the actual memory of men and of their
actions: not like the arts, ceremonies, and customs of the Greeks,
which aimed at lifting the mind out of reality into an ideal world. As
one of the chief difficulties of the Homeric controversy arises from
our ignorance of the power of the memory during an age when poetry
and song were in the fullest life, but the use of letters was either
unknown, or extremely limited; so there is a parallel difficulty in
all attempts to explain the origin of early Roman history, from our
ignorance of the power of oral tradition in a time of long established
order, but yet unacquainted with any of the forms of literature.
The indifference of barbarous tribes to their past history can prove
little or nothing as to the tenacity of the national memory among a
people far advanced towards civilisation like the Romans after the
establishment of their Republican form of government. Nor can the
analogy of early Greek traditions be fairly applied to those of Rome,
owing to the great difference in the circumstances and the genius
of the two nations. Many real impressions of the past might fix
themselves indelibly in the grave and solid temperament of the Romans,
which would have been lost amid the inexhaustible wealth of fancy
that had been lavished upon the Greeks. The strict family life and
discipline of the Romans, the continuity of their religious colleges,
the unity of a single state as the common centre of all their
interests, the slow and steady growth of their institutions, their
strong regard for precedent, were all conditions more favourable
to the preservation of tradition than the lively social life, the
numerous centres of political organisation, and the rapid growth and
vicissitudes of the Greek Republics.
It cannot, indeed, be disputed that although the legendary tales of
Roman history may have drawn more of their colour from life than from
imagination, yet there is no criterion by which the amount of fact
contained in them can be separated from the other elements of which
they were composed. Oral tradition among the Romans, as among other
nations, was founded on impressions originally received without
any careful sifting of evidence; and these first impressions would
naturally be modified in accordance with the feelings and opinions
of each generation, through which they were transmitted. Aetiological
myths, or the attempt to explain some institution or memorial by some
concrete fact, and the systematic reconstruction of forgotten events,
have also entered largely into the composition of Roman history. But
these admissions do not lead to the conclusion that the art or fancy
of any class of early poets was added to the unconscious operation
of popular feeling in moulding the impressive tales of early heroism,
partly out of the memory of real events and personages, partly out
of the ideal of character, latent in the national mind. It has
been remarked by Sir G. C. Lewis that many even of the Greek myths,
abounding 'in striking, pathetic, and interesting events,' existed
as prose legends, and were handed down in the common speech of the
people. In like manner, such tales as those of Lucretia and Virginia,
of Horatius and the Fabii, of Cincinnatus, Coriolanus, and Camillus,
which stand out prominently in the twilight of Roman history, may have
been preserved in _fama vulgaris_, or among the family traditions of
the great houses, till they were gathered into the poem of Ennius and
the prose narratives of the early annalists[18]. In so far as they
are shaped or coloured by imagination, they do not bear traces of the
conscious art of a poet, but rather of an unconscious conformity
to the national ideal of character. The most impressive of these
legendary stories illustrate the primitive virtues of the Roman
character, such as chastity, frugality, fortitude, and self-devotion;
or the national characteristics of patrician pride and a stern
exercise of parental authority. There is certainly no internal
evidence that any of them originated in a pure poetic impulse, or gave
birth to any work of poetic art deserving a permanent existence in
literature.
The analogy of other nations might suggest the inference that a race
which in its maturity produced a genuine poetic literature must,
in the early stages of its history, have given some proof of poetic
inspiration. It is natural to associate the idea of poetry with youth
both in nations and individuals. Yet the evidence of their language,
of their religion, and of their customs, leads to the conclusion that
the Romans, while prematurely great in action and government, were, in
the earlier stages of their national life, little moved by any kind of
poetical imagination. The state of religious feeling or belief which
gives birth to or co-exists with primitive poetry has left no trace
of itself upon the early Roman annals. It is generally found that a
fanciful mythology, of a bright, gloomy, or grotesque character, in
accordance with the outward circumstances and latent spirit or humour
of the particular race among whom it originates, precedes and for a
time accompanies the poetry of romantic action. The creative faculty
produces strange forms and conditions of supernatural life out of its
own mysterious sympathy with Nature, before it learns to invent tales
of heroic action and of tragic calamity out of its sympathy with human
energy and passion, and its interest in marking the course of destiny,
and the vicissitudes of life. The development of the Roman religion
betrays the absence, or at least the weaker influence of that
imaginative power which shaped the great mythologies of different
races out of the primeval worship of nature. The later element
introduced into Roman religion was due not to imagination but to
reflection. The worship of Fides, Concordia, Pudicitia, and the like,
marks a great progress from the early adoration of the sun, the earth,
the vault of heaven, and the productive power of nature; but it is
a progress in understanding and moral consciousness, not in poetical
feeling nor imaginative power. It shows that Roman civilisation
advanced without this vivifying influence,--that the mind of the race
early reached the maturity of manhood, without passing through the
dreams of childhood or the buoyant fancies of youth.
The circumstances of the Romans, in early times, were also different
from those by which the growth of a romantic poetry has usually been
accompanied. Though, like all races born to a great destiny, they had
much latent imaginative ardour of feeling, this was employed by them,
unconsciously, in elevating and purifying the ideal of the State
and the family, as actually realised in experience. Their orderly
organisation,--the early establishment of their civic forms,--the
strict discipline of family life among them,--the formal and
ceremonial character of their national religion,--and their strong
interest in practical affairs,--were not calculated either to kindle
the glow of individual genius, or to dispose the mass of the people to
listen to the charm of musical verse. The wars of the young Republic,
carried on by a well-trained militia, for the acquisition of
new territory, formed the character to solid strength and steady
discipline, but could not act upon the fancy in the same way as the
distant enterprise, the long struggles for national independence, or
the daring forays, which have thrown the light of romance around the
warlike youth of other races. The tillage of the soil, in which
the brief intervals between their wars were passed, was a tame and
monotonous pursuit compared with the maritime adventure which awoke
the energies of Greece, or with the wild and lonely, half-pastoral,
half-marauding life, out of which a true ballad poetry arose in modern
times. Some traces of a wilder life, or some faint memories of their
Sabine forefathers, may be dimly discerned in the earliest traditions
of the Roman people; but their youth was essentially practical,--great
and strong in the virtues of temperance, gravity, fortitude, reverence
for law and the majesty of the State, combined with a strong love
of liberty and sturdy resistance to wrong. These qualities are the
foundations of a powerful and orderly State, not the root or the sap
by which a great national poetry is nourished[19].
If the pure Roman intellect and discipline had spontaneously produced
any kind of literature, it would have been more likely to have taken
the form of history or oratory than of national song or ballad. It
was from men of the Italian provinces, and not from her own sons, that
Rome received her poetry. The men of the most genuinely Roman type and
character long resisted all literary progress. The patrons and friends
of the early poets were the more liberal members of the aristocracy,
in whom the austerity of the national character and narrowness of the
national mind had yielded to new ideas and a wider experience. The
art of Greece was communicated to 'rude Latium,' through the medium of
those kindred races who had come into earlier contact with the Greek
language and civilisation. With less native strength, but with
greater flexibility, these races were more readily moulded by foreign
influences; and, leading a life of greater ease and freedom, they were
more susceptible to all the impulses of Nature. While they were thus
more readily prepared to catch the spirit of Greek culture, they
had learned, through long years of war and subsequent dependence,
to understand and respect the imperial State in which their own
nationality had been merged. It is important to remember that the time
in which Roman literature arose was not only that of the first active
intercourse between Greeks and Romans, but also that in which a great
war, against the most powerful State outside of Italy, had awakened
the sense of an Italian nationality, of which Rome was the centre.
The great Republic derived her education and literature from the
accumulated stores of Greek thought and feeling; but these were made
available to her through the willing service of poets who, though born
in other parts of Italy, looked to Rome as the head and representative
of their common country.
[Footnote 1: Epist. ii. 1. 157.]
[Footnote 2: Georg. ii. 385.]
[Footnote 3: It is thus interpreted by the same author:--Nos, lares,
juvate. Ne malam luem, Mamers, sinas incurrere in plures. Satur esto,
fere Mars. In limen insili. Desiste verberare (limen)! Semones
alterni advocate cunctos. Nos, Mamers, juvato. Tripudia.
'Help us, Lares. Suffer not, Mamers, pestilence to fall on
the people. Be satisfied, fierce Mars. Leap on the threshold.
Cease beating it. Call, in turn, on all the demigods. Help us,
Mamers.'--Mommsen, Roem. Geschichte, vol. i. ch. xv.]
[Footnote 4: Such is the interpretation of Corssen, Origines
Poesis Romanae.]
[Footnote 5: Epist. ii. 1. 86.]
[Footnote 6: Cf. Virg. Aen. vii. 81, 82:--
At rex sollicitus monstris oracula Fauni,
Fatidici genitoris, adit.]
[Footnote 7: Cf. Schwegler, Roem. Gesch. i. 24, note 1.]
[Footnote 8: Livy xxv. 12.]
[Footnote 9: 'Through this fashion the Fescennine raillery
arose and poured forth rustic banter in responsive verse; the
spirit of freedom, made welcome, as the season came round,
first played its part genially; but soon the jests grew cruel,
then changed into sheer fury, and began, with impunity, to
threaten and assail honourable households. Men smarted
under the sharp edge of its cruel tooth: even those who were
unassailed felt concern for the common weal. A law was passed,
and a penalty enforced, forbidding any one to be lampooned
in scurrilous verses. Thus they changed their style, and were
brought back to a kindly and pleasant tone, under fear of a
beating.'--Epist. ii. 1. 144-55.]
[Footnote 10: Sei quis ocentasit, casmenue condisit, quod
infamiam faxsit flacitiomque alterei, fuste feritor.]
[Footnote 11: Teuffel quotes from Festus: Fescennini versus
qui canebantur in nuptiis, ex urbe Fescennina dicuntur allati,
sive ideo dicti quia fascinum putabantur arcere. It seems
more natural to connect the name of these verses, which
were especially characteristic of the Latin peasantry, with
fascinum (the phallic symbol) than with any particular town
of Etruria, though the name of that town may perhaps have the
same origin.]
[Footnote 12: Mommsen's explanation, 'the masque of the
full men' ('saturi'), does not seem to meet with general
acceptance.]
[Footnote 13: Cf. Teuffel, vi. 2.]
[Footnote 14: vii. 2.]
[Footnote 15: Cf. Teuffel, Wagner's Translation, p. 102.]
[Footnote 16: Tusc. Disp. iv. 2; Brutus, 19.]
[Footnote 17: Noct. Att. xi. 2. A similar character at one
time attached to minstrels in Scotland.]
[Footnote 18: Some of these tales may have been originally
aetiological, but the human interest even in these was
probably drawn originally from actual incidents and personages
of the Early Republic. Some of the aetiological myths, such as
that of Attus Navius the augur, have no human interest, though
they have an historical interest in connexion with early Roman
religion or institutions.]
[Footnote 19: Cf. Schwegler, Roem. Gesch. i. 1. 24.]